I'm sitting at home alone. M has taken the boys to the park to give me a little free time. A mother's day gift, so to speak. What to do? I know! I'll dig in the front yard and put in those flowers we bought yesterday. Dig, dig, dig. Plant, plant, plant. (Why am I not resting? Why am I not napping? Why?) I have dirt under my fingernails, an unidentified food stain on my shorts left by a child's sticky hand (or maybe my own), my knees are a little itchy from kneeling in the grass and now, I finally have a moment to myself to take a breath. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
OK. That was good.
I hear the garage door opening and I know that they are home. Once more into the breach. Yippee! This is the life.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Life is Good
...when you wake up in the morning to the smiling face of your almost-three-year-old son about three inches away from your own.
...when you make strawberry pancakes for breakfast and your almost-seven-year-old son declares that "These are the best pancakes I've ever had!"
...when a good friend of yours babysits your kids so that you and your husband can spend a day together on your own.
...when you drive off leaving the kids with your friend and they're all happily waving good-bye, not a tear in sight.
...when you get to run together with your husband for the first time in 12 years.
...when you spend 45 minutes waiting for a table at a nice restaurant at 3 pm and you're not stressed because you don't have to worry about the kids going nuts.
...when you get back home and the kids are happy to see you and you hear that they've been well-behaved in your absence.
...when your friend offers to babysit them again, anytime.
...when you realize how lucky you are to have such a wonderful family and such a generous friend and you hug them all tightly in gratitude.
...when you make strawberry pancakes for breakfast and your almost-seven-year-old son declares that "These are the best pancakes I've ever had!"
...when a good friend of yours babysits your kids so that you and your husband can spend a day together on your own.
...when you drive off leaving the kids with your friend and they're all happily waving good-bye, not a tear in sight.
...when you get to run together with your husband for the first time in 12 years.
...when you spend 45 minutes waiting for a table at a nice restaurant at 3 pm and you're not stressed because you don't have to worry about the kids going nuts.
...when you get back home and the kids are happy to see you and you hear that they've been well-behaved in your absence.
...when your friend offers to babysit them again, anytime.
...when you realize how lucky you are to have such a wonderful family and such a generous friend and you hug them all tightly in gratitude.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Seven Random Things About Me
Whee! I've been tagged by bonggamom for my very first meme. Hers and her tagger's revelations are juicier because they reflect takes on the Seven Deadly Sins. Mine's a little more low key. I'm not ready for sensationalism just yet. :) So, without further ado, here are they are, random but true:
1. I love to read and I read very quickly, especially when it's a gripping story. I've been known to barrel through an average-length novel in 2 hours.
2. I refuse to watch horror movies, even the really cheesy kind, whether they're on TV or in the theater. Why tempt the possibility of nightmares?
3. I don't swear out loud. Ever.
4. I earned a first degree black belt in ryukyu kempo karate, testing just over a year after my older son was born. That was six years ago. I wish I remembered more.
5. I've been a fashion model and a biochemistry lab instructor, though not at the same time.
6. I find cooking therapeutic. This dates back to my grad school days when experiments failed without fail. Cooking was a sure fire way to get a desired positive result.
7. When I moved to the US, I didn't know how to operate a gasoline pump. It's really no excuse but, where I grew up, all the stations are full-service. I have since figured it out.
I know I'm supposed to tag seven other people but, I don't know that many other bloggers! Guess the buck will stop here.
1. I love to read and I read very quickly, especially when it's a gripping story. I've been known to barrel through an average-length novel in 2 hours.
2. I refuse to watch horror movies, even the really cheesy kind, whether they're on TV or in the theater. Why tempt the possibility of nightmares?
3. I don't swear out loud. Ever.
4. I earned a first degree black belt in ryukyu kempo karate, testing just over a year after my older son was born. That was six years ago. I wish I remembered more.
5. I've been a fashion model and a biochemistry lab instructor, though not at the same time.
6. I find cooking therapeutic. This dates back to my grad school days when experiments failed without fail. Cooking was a sure fire way to get a desired positive result.
7. When I moved to the US, I didn't know how to operate a gasoline pump. It's really no excuse but, where I grew up, all the stations are full-service. I have since figured it out.
I know I'm supposed to tag seven other people but, I don't know that many other bloggers! Guess the buck will stop here.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Swimming Stories
I learned to swim in my aunt's pool in Germany. She and my uncle have the most awesome house. Pool and sauna in the basement, huge backyard, lovely big fireplace, welcoming and warm dining room. I must have been five or six when I first got into the deep, deep water. Little water wings kept me afloat while my dad hovered nearby. They lived about a 45 minute drive from our townhouse in Hamburg so after a long weekend day visiting them and my cousins, my parents would bundle my brother and me up in our jammies, stick us in the car and head home. We'd be out cold by the time we hit the Autobahn. Years later, when I returned to visit them, I was so surprised at the size and depth of the pool. Somehow, it had shrunk and gotten shallower. But the water was still lovely.
Since those early days in Germany, I've always loved the water. Living in the Philippines, I fell in love with the ocean. The sound of it, the salty smell and taste, the certain heaviness that gets in the air on a hot, humid day, the cooling sensation of diving beneath the surface and the sting that you get when you open your eyes underwater just to see what's down there. Snorkeling has always been fun, drifting with the current, spying on the fish and the corals. Maybe someday I'll still get around to learning how to scuba dive. The couple of times that I've been on intro dives have been awesome. None of the claustrophobia that could have come but, instead, this elation at entering a formely forbidden and foreboding world. I don't think that I'll ever travel into outer space but I can imagine diving into the ocean and having a look around.
I haven't been swimming in the ocean in three and a half years. The Pacific Ocean here in Northern CA is just too cold! I guess I'm spoiled. But today, I got in a swimming pool and swam laps. It was a scorching day - 94 degrees outside. Getting into the cool of the pool at noon was absolutely delightful. Of course, I headed for the slowest lane out there and still found myself gasping for breath. Twenty minutes and I was done for. Everyone else in the pool was still busily churning away, steady as metronomes, lap after lap after lap. But that was just fine by me. I'd gotten some exercise, reassured myself that I did, after all, still know a couple of strokes and wallowed just a little bit in the feeling of buoyancy that you get in the water.
Next time, I'll need to figure out how to keep from bumping into the lane divider.
Since those early days in Germany, I've always loved the water. Living in the Philippines, I fell in love with the ocean. The sound of it, the salty smell and taste, the certain heaviness that gets in the air on a hot, humid day, the cooling sensation of diving beneath the surface and the sting that you get when you open your eyes underwater just to see what's down there. Snorkeling has always been fun, drifting with the current, spying on the fish and the corals. Maybe someday I'll still get around to learning how to scuba dive. The couple of times that I've been on intro dives have been awesome. None of the claustrophobia that could have come but, instead, this elation at entering a formely forbidden and foreboding world. I don't think that I'll ever travel into outer space but I can imagine diving into the ocean and having a look around.
I haven't been swimming in the ocean in three and a half years. The Pacific Ocean here in Northern CA is just too cold! I guess I'm spoiled. But today, I got in a swimming pool and swam laps. It was a scorching day - 94 degrees outside. Getting into the cool of the pool at noon was absolutely delightful. Of course, I headed for the slowest lane out there and still found myself gasping for breath. Twenty minutes and I was done for. Everyone else in the pool was still busily churning away, steady as metronomes, lap after lap after lap. But that was just fine by me. I'd gotten some exercise, reassured myself that I did, after all, still know a couple of strokes and wallowed just a little bit in the feeling of buoyancy that you get in the water.
Next time, I'll need to figure out how to keep from bumping into the lane divider.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
A Quote for Today
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
-Buddha
Best and Worst of the Day
Best buy of the day: D's new 20" bicycle with 7 gears, handbrakes and kickstand!
Worst smell of the day: skunk on the way back from the grocery store
Best sound of the day: the kids splashing in the water in the garden, having the time of their lives
Worst encounter of the day: top of my head against the partially closed garage door at full walking speed
Best feeling of the day: sitting in my backyard with my family, enjoying the beautiful 96 degree weather (!), sipping a nice cold glass of water
Worst smell of the day: skunk on the way back from the grocery store
Best sound of the day: the kids splashing in the water in the garden, having the time of their lives
Worst encounter of the day: top of my head against the partially closed garage door at full walking speed
Best feeling of the day: sitting in my backyard with my family, enjoying the beautiful 96 degree weather (!), sipping a nice cold glass of water
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Twisty Turns
Life can really throw you for a loop sometimes. Why on earth we think that we know what we want to do for the rest of our lives at 16, I don't know. Yet, there we are, starting college, picking majors that narrow our choices for the future. Pointing us down the path of no return. Sounds rather ominous now that I read that. It is not. I have a few friends who have proven this to be WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.
First, there's Sarge. We met in high school. He was writing poetry back then. (who wasn't?) We went to the same college. He majored in Biology, started medical school after that. All the time he was writing. That was his love. Then, he decided that he didn't really want to be a doctor and quit. This was a Very Big Deal. Worked for an ad firm. Still kept writing. Attended writers' workshops and, then, it happened. His first book of short stories won the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award. He's now the literary editor for a national magazine in the Philippines. His second book was published in 2006 and is nominated for the National Book Award.
Then, there's Tris. Engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Worked with my dad for a bit. Interned with a restaurant in the kitchen. Started his own catering business. Folded that. MBA from Columbia. Worked for a big-name financial firm spending a year or two in three Asian countries. Dropped the financial firm but kept going with the yoga he picked up in Thailand. Got certified as a Bikram Yoga instructor. He now owns a couple of yoga studios in Manila and teaches everyday. He's in the best shape of his life.
Finally, there's Cris. My college buddy who shared practically every class I took. Lab partner, partner in crime. Headed for the States after graduation. Took a lab tech position. Went back home. Went to medical school. Back to the States for residency. Decided that being a doctor was not really for him. No more seeing patients. He now works for a company that designs computer software for doctors. He's married and has a one year old daughter.
There and back again. They've ended up snug as bugs in niches of their own design. Content at last in the knowledge that the choices they've made along the way led them there.
I really like my job right now, but, when I wonder about what might come next, I think of them and am inspired to think that ANYTHING is possible.
First, there's Sarge. We met in high school. He was writing poetry back then. (who wasn't?) We went to the same college. He majored in Biology, started medical school after that. All the time he was writing. That was his love. Then, he decided that he didn't really want to be a doctor and quit. This was a Very Big Deal. Worked for an ad firm. Still kept writing. Attended writers' workshops and, then, it happened. His first book of short stories won the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award. He's now the literary editor for a national magazine in the Philippines. His second book was published in 2006 and is nominated for the National Book Award.
Then, there's Tris. Engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Worked with my dad for a bit. Interned with a restaurant in the kitchen. Started his own catering business. Folded that. MBA from Columbia. Worked for a big-name financial firm spending a year or two in three Asian countries. Dropped the financial firm but kept going with the yoga he picked up in Thailand. Got certified as a Bikram Yoga instructor. He now owns a couple of yoga studios in Manila and teaches everyday. He's in the best shape of his life.
Finally, there's Cris. My college buddy who shared practically every class I took. Lab partner, partner in crime. Headed for the States after graduation. Took a lab tech position. Went back home. Went to medical school. Back to the States for residency. Decided that being a doctor was not really for him. No more seeing patients. He now works for a company that designs computer software for doctors. He's married and has a one year old daughter.
There and back again. They've ended up snug as bugs in niches of their own design. Content at last in the knowledge that the choices they've made along the way led them there.
I really like my job right now, but, when I wonder about what might come next, I think of them and am inspired to think that ANYTHING is possible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)