Archive for » 2009 «

23
Nov 2009

It’s only Monday and I’m already exhausted.

By becky

Of course, that may just have a *tiny* bit to do with the fact that I’ve been up since 4am. When the boy woke up this morning, I just decided to stay up since I had so much to do. And the good news is, I’m ahead on my work for tomorrow. Which means I might get some progress on my own to do list.

Because there’s a lot to do before Thursday. And this is the first time we’ll be hosting at our (tiny) home. There will be 6 adults & 1 kid. Woah. I still have to clean house. And rearrange things. And, and… ugh. You get the picture.

What gets done, gets done. Those who are coming over don’t care whether our house is sparkling. I’m not aiming for sparkling. I just want to get rid of some of the clutter. And have a good meal with family. And enjoy the day.

I hope that you don’t let the stress get to you too much. And that you manage to enjoy the day. :)

Category: babbling  Tags:  2 Comments
22
Nov 2009

Two years – so far, so good

By becky

Today is my son’s second birthday. Originally I wanted to write a beautiful tribute to everything he means to me (us).

Instead, I spent time just watching and enjoying him today.

Mid-morning, just before his nap, he sat on his little foam couch next to the toy box, his feet up in the air and resting on the side of the box. He grabbed a piece from his toy garage that is somewhat like a straw and was blowing into it, making noises. He’d pause every so often, throw his head back in glee and just laugh.

If I close my eyes, I can still picture the joy in his face. That big smile with the gapped teeth and dimples. Bright eyes, half closed in the middle of laughter.

That? Is the best part of my day every day. I am so grateful for every minute of the last two years. And I wouldn’t change a thing. Happy birthday, boobah. May you continue to bring joy to those around you.

Category: family, parenting, spawn  Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,  Comments off
21
Nov 2009

I almost broke my posting streak

By becky

by forgetting to post today. Still have a lot on my mind. We picked up our Thanksgiving food box today from a local co-op (which I really want to tell you more about soon). (Seems like I’ve been saying a lot of “more on that later.” Sorry.)

Tomorrow is my son’s 2nd birthday and I’m a little preoccupied with that. How fast time has gone. How incredibly fun he is. I should have prepared a post for him ahead of time, but I didn’t. So hopefully I can write some more about him tomorrow. He’s an amazing kid. So freaking funny. He really takes after his dad with his sense of humor.

Category: babbling  Tags:  Comments off
20
Nov 2009

Blocked!

By becky

Having trouble tonight, thinking of something to say. I’m a bit preoccupied with things. We have some friends coming into town, only it’s not a happy occasion due to a death in their family. Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching. As is our son’s second birthday. I’m mostly enjoying writing every single day, although I obviously can’t be brilliant every day (hey, I would take being brilliant once every couple of weeks, thank you).

I could do a bunch of freewriting and eventually come up with something, but that would bore you (& probably me) to tears.

I’m frustrated. What’s new? My dad and his brothers were all storytellers. And hysterically funny. Why am I not able to do that, too?

I’m mad at myself for being so dissatisfied with me and what I have. I see other writers succeeding and I am happy for them. But then I turn a critical eye to myself and wonder why I’m not finding opportunities like that. Why I’m not a better writer. Why I don’t have more traffic and can’t build up an audience. I’m so busy beating myself up that I can’t see a way out of it – a way to improve what I’m doing.

I get so jealous of moms who get to stay home without working. Oh, the things I could do with my son if I didn’t have to sit in a chair 5-7 hours a day and work my tail off to barely get by. But I knew this going in. I knew this when I quit my job to work from home. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I knew we’d have a tight budget. I just wanted to spend the time with my son.

Here’s the thing though. I’m not really sure how quality that time is. And I wonder if he’d be better off in daycare. With other kids to interact with and a structured schedule. And someone besides mommy all day. He has no other kids to play with.

So I either need to buck up and find some better paying work (writing gigs that pay better than the ones I’ve been getting) or suck it up and get a job. Not something I want to be thinking about right now.

Category: babbling, me, me, me  Tags: , , , ,  2 Comments
19
Nov 2009

Therapy

By becky

Please note: Names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Me: [had a problem that required some expertise well above my abilities] i may be calling for backup.

Her: np

Her: happy to help if needed

Me: thanks. i figured i could call the calvary if needed.

Her: note to self: get horse

Me: hahahaha – you just reminded me of a “Bones” episode we saw last night [rerun] that involved role playing w/ men pretending to be horses. it was STRANGE.

Her: the longer i go without watching television, the more it confuses me

Me: dude. they were dressed up in fetish gear pretending to be horses. and the women were “trainers” or something. i’d never seen that episode before.

Her: i didn’t need to know any of that

Me: sometimes, in order to help with healing, you have to share these things.

Her: good save

Category: me, me, me, you might think i'm crazy  Tags: ,  Comments off
18
Nov 2009

I think I’m slowly becoming a foodie

By becky

We’ve been watching Top Chef tonight. I’ve learned a lot about food, cooking, and a variety of techniques by watching it. I’m not sure I could duplicate any of them, but it has definitely showed me what’s out there.

It actually makes me want to learn more, too. I’m more particular about my food. I want good, flavorful food. We don’t have a big budget to eat out a lot, so we’re trying to eat more at home. With our budget, we’re not going to be able to eat at places like The Godfather (one of my favorite restaurants – I usually request that we go there for my birthday, but didn’t this year) all the time.

Face it, when you have an Applebee’s or Island’s budget, you’re not going to get blow-your-mind food. You can occasionally get decent food, but it’s nothing that makes you melt into your seat with the incredible flavors. And I want GOOD food. So we eat at home. Admittedly, I’m not in the mood to cook amazing food every night. But at least here at home we have spices and actually use them.

I’m trying to slowly document my food experiments more. Occasionally, I might like to recreate some of my dishes. But I never write anything down. So I am changing that. And really enjoying the process of playing with my food. I’m not into presentation at all (yet), but more into good, solid, simple food. I have a long way to go. It’s fun to enjoy the process though. (Even if I still don’t enjoy doing the dishes.)

Category: babbling, me, me, me  Tags: , , ,  Comments off
17
Nov 2009

Sickness ohoy!

By becky

Not feeling up to posting much of anything tonight. I’m pretty sure this is only a cold (crossing my fingers). Had a really hard time getting work done today. For some reason, my right eye keeps watering, feeling like it’s irritated. And light sensitive. So I took a nap and plan to go to bed early, too. Hoping to kick this to the curb – it is really sapping my energy. Parenting when you’re the one sick is hard, but the boy has been really good. Glad he’s not feeling as miserable as I do.

Category: babbling  Tags:  4 Comments
16
Nov 2009

Stoopid sinuses

By becky

Since last month, I have been fighting with my sinuses. Every October, my allergies flare up. Which means my sinuses are constantly plugged. And that tends to lead to sinus infections. I’ve been lucky to avoid the major infections so far. But I’m still dealing with a lot of sinus headaches. Stuffiness. And when my allergies really flare up, I am so miserable that it’s hard to concentrate on much of anything.

I’ve decided to break down and get a neti pot. Although, I found a squirt bottle that does the same thing as a neti pot and includes the packets with salt and baking soda in them. I tried it once. I know I need to do it more than that, but I’m having a really hard time getting over the feeling of water in my sinus cavity. It just freaks me out.

I’m working on that. If you have any other tips on how I can reduce inflammation (once they’re irritated, your sinuses tend to inflame easier) and clear things out, I’m all ears. Or nostrils.

Category: babbling  Tags:  2 Comments
15
Nov 2009

Thanks, I needed that

By becky

Had a really fantastic day today.

Slept in just a little. When the boy woke up, I pulled him into bed with me and snuggled for a while. Then, I got him breakfast and tossed a bunch of stuff in the crock pot. I had prepped everything last night, so all I had to do was put the ingredients in and turn it on. Left it on high for a couple of hours, then turned it to low.

Midday we went a wee bit north to see a demo and watch a movie. (Will be providing more details on that shortly, but I need to write about it on my review site.)

By the way, if you haven’t seen A Christmas Carol, I highly recommend it. I wasn’t planning on seeing it, but we went ahead and did so. You know what? It was great. We loved it. The boy behaved very well and we had a terrific time.

On our way home, we took our time and headed to the coast. We live so close and I just don’t take the time to enjoy it. But I did today. It was so nice.

And then, we went to Wally World and grabbed a copy of Up, which we had been looking forward to getting. I can’t remember where I saw it, but I got a coupon online for $10 off the blu-ray combo pack.

Then we came home to open the door and find an amazing smell greet us at the door. Our pork roast was ready. Mmmmm, pork roast. So we sat down to an awesome dinner and our movie. What a great ending to the day.

It’s so nice to have a relaxing weekend. How was yours?

(Disclosure: we saw A Christmas Carol at an event we attended, but I was not asked in any way to write about it. I just enjoyed the movie a lot. I will be telling more about the event soon.)

Category: miscellany  Tags: ,  Comments off
14
Nov 2009

Oz: oldie but goodie

By becky

Tonight as we were flipping channels, we stumbled across The Wizard of Oz right after Dorothy lands in munchkin land. I haven’t watched that movie in a really long time. But we stopped for a little bit and just listened. To the dialogue. The music.

I remember watching this movie when I was a kid. It came on just once a year and it was a BIG DEAL when it came on. And for the longest time, I didn’t understand that it all stemmed from a bump to the head. I well and truly thought that Dorothy went on a crazy adventure in her house.

That’s the magic of childhood, isn’t it?

Remember the first time you saw it and the movie went from black and white to color? Wasn’t that incredible? It didn’t matter if you already had color television. The move to color added such magic to Oz. Color! Interestingness! Adventure!

And then the wicked witch came out. She scared me every time. So did the flying monkeys.

But now? I just look back at what an amazing movie it really is. (And wonder if anyone will ever attempt to big-budget remake it – I kinda hope not.)

It makes me want to see Wicked again, too. This time without the migraine headache.

Was The Wizard of Oz a big part of your childhood? Do you still enjoy watching it?

Category: babbling  Tags: ,  Comments off
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