Juggling Life

Time Warp Tuesday: Glory Days

Saturday (in a game I am bummed to have missed, but I was busy doing something really important and also sort of top-secret, so such is life) the Scripps Ranch High School Water Polo Team won the CIF Division II Championship. For the second time in four years. Ahem.

Danger Boy in the run-up to CIF DII Championship his senior year.

I would have to say the thing I miss most about parenting teenagers is water polo. The game, the camaraderie among the kids and parents and the fact that for us it was very much a family thing. Oh, and the winning. I do miss the winning. Also? Out-of-town tournaments with our peeps.

I remember blogging about what a special group we had--I've been part of many teams over the years, so I know special when I see it. I'm pleased that all of us moms felt the same;  we've kept our group together--Happy Hours, Ballast Point nights with husbands, Starbucks coffee dates and a newly-formed book group, as well as Facebook have us solidly in touch. 

I am really looking forward to flying back East next fall to see Danger Boy play one more time before he hangs up his Speedo--though, he could join a Master's League . . . and who knows, maybe one day there will be another #2 in the family.

Be sure to visit the other Time Warp posters this week--Heidi and Susan.

 

Time Warp Tuesday: The Holidays? Already?

Middle-aged couple in the midst of holy-crap-the-holidays-are-here cleaning.

Posting this photo is a biggie for me. No makeup, no sunglasses, no cap. Just me and hubs in the middle of a much-needed marathon cleaning session. I never edit to remove wrinkles, etc., but then again I don't often deliberately display myself not at my . . . I was going to say best, but what I really mean is prettiest.

Not that I'm going to start posting no-makeup selfies all the time, but this seemed like a personal growth thing to do.

Kids and grandkids--this is what 50ish looks like without plastic surgery or Botox or hair transplants. It's what people who (praise the universe) have more important things to spend money on than trying to hold on to the look of youth (except for the hair color, I totally think that's an important thing to spend money on. I know. I contradict myself.) look like.

The busyness is sometimes dizzying right now, but it is many good things. I will report in greater detail later, but one of them has something to do with a story that may be the book that I've thought I might have in me . . .

                                                 Jenny and the PITA Moms:
a story of love, friendship, perseverance, hope and (just the right amount of) craziness


This is a story that has a beginning and end, and even a title, but the middle is waiting to be written.

I know it’s unusual to begin with the end, even more so when the end hasn’t actually happened, but this journey is so unlikely already that I think that’s how I must start; with a vision of where we will go, of a dream that drove reality. Even so, this end is not the finale—this is one of those tales that will continue after the last page has been turned and maybe even after the principal players have left this Earth. 

It is October in Clearwater Beach, Florida and we look out over an ocean that started at the shoreline a crystalline aqua then deepened to a blue so like that of the sky that the horizon line is almost imperceptible. The Florida breeze, famous for its silky warmth, tousles our hair and adds to the sense of wonder and magic palpable to even passers-by. The iPod playlist invites dancing and so we do—to Abba’s Super Trooper, to Sara Bareilles’ Brave and to Katy Perry’s Roar; a coterie of middle-aged women and the girl who brought us together-on this night of answered prayers we dance ourselves dizzy; we are sated with joy.

 

Be sure to visit Brightside Susan  and Spokalulu for more traditional Time Warp Tuesday posts. 

 

 

It's Eleanor Day

The Eleanor Project is an amazing idea and I'm thrilled to be profiled there today--especially because it is with my baby girl youngest daughter. Jen on the Edge, who is one of the site's founders, is also a favorite blog friend--I hope to meet her in person one day as San Diego has something her girls would really love to see--Koalafornia! Go read!

Happy Birthday to the No-More-Babies Baby

 

Those eyes, that smile and, most of all, that sparkle.

Today is Social Butterfly's 19th birthday. She will celebrate with her roommates at their favorite breakfast place--Martanne's Burrito Palace. (The most gratifying part may be that SB has a favorite breakfast place.) And no school for her--she has educated more than one person to the fact that Veteran's Day is 11/11--and not some second Friday of November nonsense.

This will be our first birthday apart as last year she was home wedding dress shopping on her birthday weekend. We had a pancake dinner because she's clearly a liker of breakfast foods. It's likely we will miss one another--I will certainly miss my baby. And then there's the fact that every time the baby meets a milestone, it's the last time that particular thing will happen in a family. In 365 days, I will no longer be the mother of any teenagers. I'm not saying that's a bad thing!

I am so proud of the young woman she has become. It's such a crazy phenomenom that there are times in life when something terrible happens to you and it makes you a better person--I know that is true for all of us in this family, but especially SB. I would bet that when you've beaten a life-threatening illness before you've left your teens, there are not going to be many things that you consider "too hard."

She has an amazing career goal--which I am not going to tell you about, but you will read on Thursday when I link to our The Eleanor Project feature--we are both so excited to be profiled. Word of advice-have a tissue ready because my daughter (the one that used to say she couldn't write) is a writer. Good sigh.

So to my snuggle-bunny, the baby whose first word was "mine!" (in reference to me), the girl that put the "born" in stubborn 19 years ago today--Happy Birthday! 

Because it's always, always been about the personality with this girl . . . 

 

On, or about, the occasion of her 3rd birthday--one of my all-time favorites of her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time Warp Tuesday: Day before Day before Yesterday

My friend, and former student, Michele

Kayaking is my number two choice for self-care. Kayaking with a friend is my number one. It's no surprise that a woman described by a co-worker as freakishly efficient has managed to kill two birds with one stone--I can do for myself and my friends at the same time.

Michele had put off kayaking with me for some time because she knows it's something her kids would enjoy as well and in the way of most mothers felt bad about treating herself to something that would leave the kids disappointed. And then one day she didn't feel bad about it all (ah, sibling rivalry) and off we went. She's hooked. Saturday was an almost magical day on the lake with a temperature, breeze and sky that could best be described as "perfect."

Sunday, my friend Heidi had Michele's seat. And girlfriend was in dire need of self-care as her adult daughter has had to have multiple surgeries after being hit by a truck in Ecuador in late June and was once more in the hospital. It is at once crazytown and at the same time it is simply doing what needs to be done.

What else?

Grandkitties! Salsa and Chile (brother and sister and belonging to the Drs. Grownup)

And in news so positive it makes my heart swell several sizes, Team Jenny (formed by a group of like-minded women who couldn't stand by and watch someone who wanted help not get it) seems to be making headway in getting Jenny some real help. In the meantime, we have discovered the joys of Skype mealsand the power of love as healing. We'll keep taking prayers and good juju if you are so inclined.