Juggling Life

Work it

The afternoon activity for Christmas day was painting Social Butterfly’s room—as part of her main present, a room makeover. Mr. Fix-it, MVP and Social Butterfly were hard at work. Danger Boy was playing with his new iHome alarm clock.

Jenn: Why don’t you go help them paint? Give your Dad another Christmas present.

Danger Boy: They asked me to do something and I did it. If they ask me to do something else I’ll do it. But offer to do work? I think we both know that’s just not me.

And you can blog that.

Put Down the Computer . . .

and hang out with your family. Unless you’re reading this from a brand-new laptop—in which case you have my full blessing to play on the computer all day long!

No Snowy Woods Here

I happened to have my camera with me as I was leaving the mall after finishing up some Christmas shopping Friday night.

Happy Holidays from My Blog to Yours!

The Jugglings

2009

Social Butterfly: Finished cheer then took up water polo, was a party-hostess extraordinaire (100 plus for her 15^th birthday) and worked some on her snowboarding skills last winter. She occasionally complains about how hard it is to find jeans to fit her 5’9 frame. She gets no sympathy from her short mother.

Danger Boy: Helped his club team rock the Water Polo Junior Olympics this summer and his high school team go undefeated in their division this fall, got his driver’s license (and his brother’s old Honda) and grew several inches since the Xmas photo was taken.

MVP: Finished his freshman year of college in Colorado, backpacked in both Yosemite and Yellowstone, moved into a house for sophomore year, got a used Four-Runner and got a dog. He works at a hot dog place called, “King Weenie” (it’s okay if you laugh; we do). Lots of hiking, snowboarding and studying (probably in that order!).

Grownup Girl: Newly single, living in Chicago and attending Pharmacy School; she recently learned how to drive in a whiteout! Loving life in (the suburbs of) the Windy City surrounded by fellow science geeks and as a Kappa Psi “brother.”

Jenn: Graduated from college and earned her teaching credential (after student-teaching first and fifth grades). Quit her CVS job of 27 years in order to focus on the next chapter in her life—getting a job as a teacher! Drove about 3,500 miles in a period of 6 weeks this summer and only needed 20 Vicodin and 30 Flexeril to recover.

Mr. Fix-it: Continued to love his job with ________, earned loads of much-appreciated and quickly-used frequent flyer miles and threw Jenn a great party to celebrate her graduation. He continues to accumulate miles on his nifty Garmin running watch.

Highlights of the year were: the annual family trip to Mammoth (lots of kayaking, fly fishing and our new favorite game--Mexican Train Dominoes), Jenn, Danger Boy, Social Butterfly and various friends and teammates at the Junior Olympics in San Jose, Grownup Girl and Jenn’s cross-country trek to Chicago, the aforementioned Graduation Celebration with family and friends from both near and far, and having the whole family together over the summer, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We hope your 2009 was wonderful and that 2010 is even better! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours.

Christmas Specialty Number One

First off, I have to apologize for not picking a winner for the Sunday in Kyoto book. Blogging fail. Congrats to randomly drawn winner #3, Steph. I will put it in the mail the minute I get your address!

My own little music man would love this!

Posted by: steph | December 11, 2009 at 10:35 AM

Next, Jen and Jj were asking for my specialties and recipes from yesterday’s post. I am happy to oblige—especially since I was making one of them today.

This very simple and extremely popular recipe is from my mother-in-law. Homemade peanut clusters. They are very rich and oh-so-delicious. And easy as easier than pie. A lot of years Danger Boy does these for us.

Ingredients:

Chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and party peanuts—in equal parts.

Procedure:

Dump the chips in and microwave a minute at time, stirring each minute.

Keep this up until the chocolate and butterscotch are melt-y and smooth. I was doing a triple batch (36 oz. of each ingredient) and it took about 6 minutes.

Add the nuts and stir away.

Cover your countertop with wax paper and drop dollops of the mixture onto the paper. I find it’s best to solicit help from another party (in tonight’s case Mr. Fix-it) so that this part doesn’t become too tedious.

Don’t be put off by the fact that they look a little, ummm, digestively-related at this point. After they harden sufficiently you will put them in the freezer, then later transfer them to a pretty plate or tin, distribute them and get ready to accept two things: compliments and that you will need to make them yearly.

Warning: Give most of them away. You really don’t want too many of these in the house if you have a sweet tooth.

Christmas is for the Children

I have been reading a lot lately about all the stress that Christmas brings. I don’t know if you read Full Confession Friday over at the Women’s Colony, but it is apparent from last week’s comments that there are quite a few women that are overwhelmed by the work and underwhelmed by the reward.

I had a conversation last week with someone who said she kept herself on an even keel by reminding herself of what someone told her a long time ago. “Christmas is for the children.” And it is true—if you think of yourself as a maker of magic all the work is so much more palatable and manageable.

Of course, the beauty of that is also that when the children get older, as mine have, they are able to realize that magic can be hard work and they can be magicians too.

I also like to keep in mind why I do certain things. I send out 80 Christmas cards each year because I absolutely LOVE to get lots of cards. I want to see your kids grow up—and I like it even more if you are in the photo as well. I don’t use labels, I hand address, but that’s because with every name I write out I am thinking of you and how we know each other. Plus, how often do we get to write cursive with a flourish these days?

I bake because I enjoy chatting with my neighbors as we exchange our treats. I mean, I guess we could all just bake for ourselves, but this means that at least once a year (and sometimes it may be ONLY once a  year) we check in and say, “Hi,” and hear what changes there have been with each other. And if you don’t like to bake, but buy me a bottle of wine or a box of candy, I appreciate that gesture (and the treats themselves).

I also love that people exclaim over my specialties and look forward to them. If you’re young and starting out on the Christmas deal, that would be my advice—find one treat you make well and stick with that. It’s so much less work. I have three, but then I could never take my own advice!

Some years I throw a party, some years I don’t. Some years I attend a lot of gatherings, some years I don’t. And either way is okay. My husband’s company does the big, fancy party thing and for me getting a great deal on the dress (thank you, Ross) makes me a much-happier party-goer.

I will say that for me the most stress-relieving thing has been to quit mailing gifts. It’s either gift cards or Amazon.com direct ship or chipping in on a big gift bought by someone that lives in the same city as the recipient.

I’m a little ramble-y (maybe because I’ve been in the kitchen all day!), but my point, if I have one, would be that if you’re putting forth all the effort that Christmas entails, I hope you get some joy out of it. It sure would be a shame not to.

Awww, Shucks!

One student’s message in the Farewell book they made for me.

“You always brought pizazz!”

Who wouldn’t want to be a pizazz-bringer?!

Timing is Everything

Today, Friday, marks the conclusion of a journey for me. The journey to become a teacher. It was six years ago that I started thinking, “It’s time for me to decide what I’m going to do once this stay-at-home-mom gig is over.”

It was five years ago that I concluded that I really did want to become a teacher and started doing the legwork to figure out what this whole getting a degree and credential thing would mean.

It was four-and-a-half years ago that I got my feet wet with a couple of classes at the local community college.

It was three years ago that I transferred to Cal State San Marcos to attend school full-time.

It was six months ago that I earned my degree.

It is today that my credential is finished.

In two weeks—or so—I start another journey. A journey to find a job in the worst budget climate for schools since the time I considered and then disregarded becoming a teacher because it was a terrible economic climate for teachers.

Did I mention the big local news story tonight was the possibility of 500 teacher jobs being eliminated in the district in which I was planning teaching?

Timing is everything.

A Large Order of Holiday Togetherness, Hold the Guilt

Originally published at The Women’s Colony—along with a lot of other cool stuff!

 

                       Hiking with MVP, December 2008

Ever since I can remember I have been making mental notes on how I plan to treat my children once they are no longer children. Note number one is that  while of course they’ll always be my children, they won’t be always be children. Don’t we all bristle when our mothers treat us like kids when we’re in our twenties thirties forties?!

A lot of my mental notes are related to two things: holidays and guilt. My mother-in-law (a lovely woman in many ways) had a very difficult time letting go of “the way things have always been.” This was especially difficult for her at the holidays. The tactic she employed to try to keep things “the way things have always been” was guilt. And lots of it. Big heaping piles of guilt, served right alongside her famous homemade peanut clusters.

As a tactic for making your children and their spouses want to spend time with you I really can’t recommend it.

My goal is to be the anti-guilt mother-in-law.  I’m practicing by being the anti-guilt mom. I have two high-schoolers still at home, but I also have a college sophomore and a grad student who both go to school out-of-state.

When they come home to visit I always assume they’ll want to see their friends the first night. I prepare a big pot of chili or something else that can be eaten whenever—they always arrive home ravenous for home-cooked, free food—and then after we’ve had a chance to catch up I encourage them to head out and hook up with friends or have some friends over.

Honestly, it’s not that much of a sacrifice as it’s usually getting close to my bedtime anyways, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

We always have at least one night where we stay up talking until way past my bedtime, but I let it evolve organically; I never demand it. I try to plan, at their convenience, one thing for us to do that is what they love to do. With my son that means a hike. With my daughter it’s lunch at our favorite Greek restaurant and some shopping or a walk.

So far the result of my “if you love something set it free” policy has been that they spend far more time at home than I would have at their ages. And the time is pleasant. I’m thinking the system works pretty darn well.

We’ll see if I manage to stick to my “most awesome and non-guilt tripping future mother-in-law in the world” plan when one of them decides not to not come home for a holiday in order to spend it with a significant other. That will be the true test.

You’ll be the first to know whether I pass or fail.

Tell me, what is it you vow to do or never do someday?

Move Along . . .

If I were to post today it would be about the scratchy throat, swollen-feeling head and dripping nose I have—the same symptoms that several of my students are exhibiting. It’s a little disconcerting to be doing your best to feign robust health and then look out at several small people who look just like you feel--heads drooping, shoulders stooped, dark circles under eyes and Kleenex pulled from pockets frequently. I think we’re all just hanging on until Friday.

Instead of my mildly sad, but cliched story, go read this. I guarantee you will laugh. In fact, I offer you a money-back guarantee!