Write My Life

Today’s blog entry features places I have been this year that have a significant amount of green. These include the following: Vermont, soccer fields, baseball park, Chinatown and Daybreak Camp.

A few of my favorite things – Yellow version…

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The girls had been counting down to the last day of school. They had been anxious, ready for summer. Ready to relax at home and travel for fun. But when the last day of school arrived, Jennifer was not so ready.

No, Jennifer wasn’t going to miss the “mean” teacher, the homework or the students she didn’t like so much. But she was going to miss her favorite teacher and her friends.

When I picked her up from school, she was crying. She said, “I’ve hugged Mrs. Wallace 5 times and every time I hug her I start crying.” Mrs. Wallace has been a blessing for Jennifer and we have been so grateful to have this calm, patient and understanding teacher for Jennifer while she transitioned to her new school.

She also cried about not seeing her friends over the summer. I told her we would have time for play dates but she wasn’t immediately assured. Although I hated to see her crying I was glad she had made some positive friends at her new school. I had hoped and prayed for that and now I could see through the tears that our prayers had been answered.

What happened to May? It just seemed to disappear. I think this happens in May often between school events and birthday parties. A look at the calendar will reveal part of the story:

May 1-3: My trip to Pepperdine University Bible lectures in Malibu.

May 4: Mike’s 75 mile supported bike ride.
May 6: School prayer group, groceries and laundry.
May 8: Jury Duty. Thankfully I got excused for being a mom with children in my daily care.
May 9-10: Birthday parties. It was the ultimate weekend for birthday parties with Jackie attending 2 and Jennifer 1. Jackie had to decline on one other party because we just couldn’t swing the logistics. The first was an overnighter, of which I think she got 4-5 hours of sleep.
May 10 evening: Eating out early for Mother’s Day at Outback Steakhouse
May 11: Mother’s Day. Grilling in the backyard with friends. I made carrot cake.
May 12: Finish Scrapjazz article. Brownie Girl Scout meeting to plan and prepare for Camporee.
May 13: Groceries and laundry.
May 14: 3rd grade walking field trip to the San Mateo Historical Museum for a program on immigrants. Pretty hot for a walking field trip.
May 15: 7th grade Renaissance Day, serving and eating at the lunch feast. Brownie Girl Scouts at my house for skit rehearsal.
May 16: I’m sick. I lay around the house and endure the 95+ degree heat.
May 17-18: A little sick but take the Brownie Girl Scouts to Camporee. Stay overnight and leave about 10 a.m. the next morning.
May 19: Sleep all day long to recover!
May 20: School prayer group, groceries and laundry.
May 21: Cook and provide dinner for our church group of about 15. I served BBQ beef sandwiches, Spring Radish Salad, Strawberry Spinach Salad, Cauliflower Gratin and Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cheesecake bars.
May 22: North Star Academy dinner and open house. Glad to not be cooking!
May 24-25: Cadette Girl Scout trip kayaking at Elkhorn Slough and staying overnight at the Santa Cruz hostel with Jackie’s troop.
May 25: Mike leaves for Japan. One of Jackie’s friends from church sleeps overnight with us. We eat out at Chili’s restaurant.
May 26: Memorial Day and no school. To entertain the girls, we hit the mall for a few hours then come home and make Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips cookies.
May 27: Our wedding anniversary. Mike isn’t here but I create a digital layout in celebration.
May 28: 3rd grade International feast. I brought Irish Soda bread, which I made for the first time ever the day beforehand. Luckily, Jennifer liked it!
May 28-29: 7th grade San Francisco Zoo overnight trip for Jackie. Jennifer and I enjoy the evening together. She takes a disposable camera, but doesn’t take any pictures!
May 30: Finally, a hike! This is usually a weekly event but it has kinda fallen by the wayside. So we hike Windy Hill for 5 or 6 miles. A good hike but I can tell I haven’t been hiking – I am so tired! Mike returns from Japan. Overnight birthday party for Jackie.

I also sneaked in quite a bit of gardening this month. What I didn’t so is bring the camera along much. Not much of this has been photographed. 🙁

I see all this and wonder how I scrapped so many pages this month! I guess I took advantage of any relaxing times to work on those pages.

My wonderful friend Jill tagged me.

Here are the directions:

You must post the rules before you give your answers.
You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name.
Each fact must begin with that letter.
If you don’t have a middle name, just use your maiden name.
After you’ve been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers.
At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they’ve been tagged and need to read your blog for details).

Loves scrapbooking, hiking and cooking
Yearns to travel more and more
Never watches broadcast TV anymore
Needs a creative outlet or just might go crazy!

Now I tag…

Sherry

Steph

Mellie

Becky

The last 4 days have been incredibly warm here reaching up to 70 degrees. It’s only early February! I had been dreading more of the cold and rain, but the sun broke through just in time to brighten me. I opened the windows and doors and just let all the fresh air into the house. To top it all off, I went outside and found some of my bulbs blooming. That was beauty.

I planned to bathe the dogs yesterday but I flung it aside for some Vitamin D therapy.

I met with my wonderful hiking group yesterday and we climbed the hills of Redwood City in search of the physical location of the large white cross. With all the recent mud, we decided to stay off the trails and hike on the streets. Redwood City has hills, though, so we were able to get some exercise. Afterwards we returned to one of the ladies’ house. It was 65 and beautiful. We all needed our vitamin D so we sat in her backyard and soaked up the sun. She even served us lunch! Ahhhh…. Then, last night I noticed I had a slight burn from sitting in the sun. Jackie said, “First burn of the year…in February!”

Ah, gotta love California.

create your own personalized map of the USA

As you may be aware, Mike has been to all 50 states. I used this map to track where I have been also. I may have been to New Mexico’s NE corner getting from Oklahoma to Colorado but I don’t know. I also drove from IL to FL as a child but I have no idea what route we took. So, this shows all the states where I know I’ve been and I remember.

Every December we roll out the dough and make a mess of the kitchen. But something is wrong this year. Twice I’ve attempted to have a holiday baking day.

Twice the baking did not go as planned. Each time only 1 out of the 3 recipes came out as planned. Two were total disasters, which couldn’t be eaten. What’s the matter? I wondered. I hit the end of my rope when I was making a new recipe, which called for separating the eggs. When I should just add the yolks, I added the whites instead. I knew my mistake almost immediately but it was unsalvageable. I ranted about how stupid I was to make that mistake. Jennifer comforted me but I couldn’t get over it. I stomped all around the kitchen.

Finally I just plopped on the couch. I had a moment to think. My thoughts came back to this holiday baking disaster. It may be a baking disaster but its not really the focus of Christmas. I turned off the lights, except those on the Christmas tree. I popped in a CD of Christmas songs and sang away. All the anxiety melted away as I remembered what God did and the amazing story of Jesus’ birth.

Are you far away from home
This dark and lonely night
Tell me what best would help
To ease your mind
Someone to give
Direction for this unfamiliar road
Or one who says, “follow me and I
Will lead you home”

Most days are just a bit of this and a bit of that…an errand in the morning and shuttling the girls to some activity afterschool. Then some days are crazy days. Yesterday was one of those days. I spent a total of 45 minutes at home in a 12 hour period. It went like this:

8:00 Drop Jenny off at school

8:20 Run errands – Kinko’s copies, Long’s Drug and post office

9:20 Hike with my buddies

11: 30 Quick trip home for a quick shower and quick lunch

12:15 Library Committee Meeting

1:30 Library Aide

3:00 Gymnastics

4:45 Soccer practice

5:45 Home to make a phone call about Girl Scouts

6:00 Church for dinner and Bible class

8:20 Home…WHEW!!!

It did have some fun activities (hiking and library work) and it did have some good stuff (church) but being away from home so much can be draining. I’m glad most days are NOT like this!!!