The Friday Five (3)

 1. I'm 47 years old and there's still little as glorious as waking up to a snow day. I didn't get out of bed until almost 9 a.m. this morning.

2. I have not had a full day of school all week. Monday was a day off, Tuesday and Wednesday were delayed due to sub-zero temps, Thursday morning I was at the children's ER with Michael, and today we're off for snow. Michael will be fine, by the way, but he injured his foot and was uncomfortable enough that x-rays were in order. Thank goodness for today's day off because navigating the high school again today (he did it w/ a boot on yesterday) might have been too much. He can rest it this weekend.

3. Today's snow day feels like an extra gift because my entire long weekend last weekend was spent at a volleyball tournament in Fort Wayne, IN, and then driving Harper back to school in St. Louis. It was all good, especially hanging out with our friends in St. Louis on Sunday night, but it was not relaxing. This weekend I will watch sports (Flyers! Packers!) and take down the Christmas decorations. 

4. Might I recommend a bookish podcast? My friends Amy and Carrie have a wonderful weekly podcast in which they talk to bookish people (librarians, authors, booksellers, etc.) and discuss what they're reading. It is always such a delight to hear these two chat; it really feels like sitting down with good friends. Check out The Perks of Being a Booklover! If you have never listened to them it means you have nine (!) seasons of episodes to enjoy for the first time.

5. I made Christmas cookies today because I never made any over the break. My mother-in-law, and my mom, made cookies that we all love and it felt redundant to make more. Plus Matt had been wanting the ones with the Hershey Kiss in the middle, which I make with Biscoff spread instead of peanut butter, but Harper can no longer stand the smell of Biscoff (story for another day?) so I didn't want to bake them when she was still home from school. There's really no reason these have to be Christmas cookies and not year-round cookies, but I rarely bake outside the holidays. We are more often ice cream people than homemade cookie people. 

The Friday Five (Oops! On Saturday) (2)

 1. For quite some time I have been following Your Local Epidemiologist. I love the no-nonsense way she describes public health matters, specifically her clear communication on COVID-19. This week she posted, among other things, about a study that linked COVID-19 vaccination to a reduced risk of long COVID. Long COVID is one of those lingering things I still feel concerned about so I found this reassuring. 

2. I pay fairly close attention to politics and if there was a universe in which I could just learn about things full time, instead of needing to work for a paycheck (and insurance, etc.), I think I would enjoy the classes that would lead to a political science degree. (Incidentally, being a librarian feels about as close as one can get to learning for a living.) I often forget that not everyone pays as close attention to politics as I do and it messes with my head, but I think remembering this fact would help me understand some people, and their offhanded comments, better.

3. A groovy little independent bookstore near me has started hosting a monthly "silent book club." Basically people get together to read and have snacks in a communal setting but there's no pressure to read anything other than what you want and no pressure to speak with anyone. I am perfectly comfortable in a traditional book club, but I really love this idea and I'm happy it exists for people who want to be part of the bookish community and are shy or introverted or just don't want to be told what to read.

4. Are you using Goodreads? While I know it isn't a perfect platform by any means, I enjoy Goodreads as a place to keep track of what I read and books I want to remember. I also like seeing what other people are reading, though I'm not necessarily in need of recommendations. Occasionally I win one of their book giveaways. I am motivated by the yearly reading challenge - last year I ended up reading 90 books. That feels like an accomplishment, but I also feel like my total should come with an asterisk because I read middle grade and young adult, as well as adult books, and I have started counting picture books and early readers when I have to review them for a local group I'm a part of. I spend a much longer time with a picture book if I'm trying to review it than the few minutes it would take me to read it just once. And I'm really only keeping track on Goodreads for myself, there's no prize involved, so I'm not sure why it feels like cheating? 

5. Speaking of book reviews... about a year ago I joined a local book review group made up of public and school librarians and a couple of teachers as well. Publishers send books to the group for us to read and review. We meet every other month. Each of us takes a stack of books home from the meeting and reads and reviews them for the next meeting. We use a form to send the reviews to the publishers and then we give an oral review for the other group members at the meeting. It has been an awesome way to learn about different books and we get to keep the books we review so it has also been a great way to add books to the library or share them with family members and friends. 

I have to make a confession. I find book reviewing to be so difficult! I don't know why. I've always found it difficult to summarize things (succinctness has never been a gift of mine). For a person who has spent 10 years talking about books with people for a living, you think I'd be better at it. But no, it feels hard every time and I feel awkward and self-conscious talking at the meetings. I'm pretty sure my face turns red whenever it is my turn to share. I suppose I will just press on and hope it gets easier over time. Or they'll eventually kick me out for being terrible. 

The Friday Five (1)

1. Let's try something new! I'm blatantly stealing this idea from Sarah Dessen, an author I have long followed and admired. Not long ago she started posting a Friday Five on Substack (via Substack?). I love getting the weekly news/reflections, especially as a person who has missed her old blogging updates. Clearly I'm still not ready to let this blog go, and a Friday Five seems like a reasonable goal for 2024 so we're just going to see where this thing goes.

2. I finished rereading This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel because that was our book club selection for this month's meeting. I love a lot of the things I read but this is the book that comes to mind when someone asks what my favorite book is. It sounds cheesy but this novel really opened my mind and my heart and it was just as beautiful/powerful upon rereading as it was the first time I encountered it. My favorite passage goes like this:

You never know. You only guess. This is how it always is. You have to make these huge decisions on behalf of your kid, this tiny human whose fate and future is entirely in your hands, who trusts you to know what's good and right and then to be able to make that happen. You never have enough information. You don't get to see the future. And if you screw up, if with your incomplete, contradictory information you make the wrong call, well, nothing less than your child's entire future and happiness is at stake. It's impossible. It's heartbreaking. It's maddening. But there's no alternative.

Read it.

3. I've been sick, with a cold, since just after Christmas. It's not strep, it's not the flu, it's not COVID, I'm not even feverish, but MAN has it been miserable. I have had the odd bit of congestion or scratchy throat here or there, but I don't think I've had a full blown, can't breathe through my nose, sinuses so full my teeth hurt cold since pre-COVID times. Thank goodness I'm still off school this week because I haven't been sleeping well and I have no idea how I would make it through a whole work day under these conditions.

4. Matt and I visited a restaurant new to at least one of us each week in 2023. Yes, there are a TON of places to eat out in and around our town. It was great to have a designated date night every week, although it was occasionally challenging to fit it in our schedule. After independently ranking our top seven places, we came up with a top five and will revisit those the first five weeks of 2024. I highly recommend this experiment.

5.  I got a couple of new CDs for Christmas. Yes, you read that right, CDs. I still like to own music from my favorite artists. Streaming is great, but I don't always want to have to use my phone or a computer to listen to music. My two newest CDs are 1988 by Lori McKenna and A Great Wild Mercy by Carrie Newcomer. I've listened to both of these artists since the late 1990s and they are still producing incredible music. 

Connections

I recently had the pleasure of attending a lunch with an interesting assortment of friends and to explain all the connections at the table I would need some photos, a corkboard, pushpins, and some red string. At the table were two librarians, three novelists, and two book podcasters. Of course we're all more than those things, but that is the simplest way to distill it. One of the people I'd met in a playgroup when our now 18-year-olds were babies, one of the people at the table I'd known since I was 18 myself, one I'm not positive I'd met before that lunch, and one I don't remember when I first met, but our paths keep crossing and we know many of the same people. (This does not cover all the people.)

Many of the connections with people around that table were initially formed or enhanced back in the days when several of us had regularly-updated mommy blogs. From pen pals to blog posts, writing has been a way for me to connect throughout my life.

As I've certainly said before - I am interested in this still being a place to reflect and connect. It's clear, looking at my old posts, that I've struggled to do that as my children have gotten older and it's felt less appropriate to share their stories in this space. So if anyone is still checking here occasionally, I am still here. And updates will continue to be sporadic, but I'm not ready to completely let go just yet.

Special Delivery

I'm wondering how you use your mailbox...

Two Postcrossing postcards waiting for the mail carrier this morning.

I place outgoing mail in ours at least once a week. I mail birthday cards, actual letters to faraway friends, notes of encouragement, etc. I still love putting a pen (or marker!) to paper and take care in choosing cards, paper, stickers, stamps. It is all meaningful to me, even if some of that meaning is lost on the recipient. 

In the last few months I have joined Postcrossing which is a way to send and receive postcards from all around the world. I've had it in the back of my mind ever since Swistle blogged about it years ago and finally decided it would be a great way to use some of the postcards I've collected over the last twenty years. 

Not long ago a coworker thanked me for something I'd sent her in the mail and commented that she didn't get it right away because they aren't good about checking their mailbox. That was a completely absurd notion to me because I still look forward to the mail every day. Most days it's just junk/bills and, in the last couple of years, random college mail; but sometimes there's a letter or a postcard with my name on it and that is no less thrilling than it was when I was twelve years old. 

It would be difficult to ignore the mail in our current home because it drops directly into the living room:

So I'm curious, are you still mailing things?

Yellowstone

Last summer Matt, the children, and I embarked on a nearly 5,000 mile, three week, road trip "out west". Exactly a year ago today we were spending the last of four days exploring Yellowstone National Park.

The picture below was taken in the morning while driving through Hayden Valley. We'll always remember this as the day that Michael and I hiked up a small but steep grassy hill and were surprised by a bison standing way too close for comfort just on the other side of the crest. This is a hilarious memory for Michael because I responded to the bison's proximity with an expletive. I will always remember it as the moment I realized I'd be on my own in a zombie apocalypse - Michael was down the hill and back in the car almost faster than I could turn around. 

In the second picture you can see two of our silhouettes standing on a bridge, taking in the visual and auditory spectacle of Dragon's Mouth Spring - it really did sound like there was a beast behind that steam. 

We are heartbroken, seeing the images coming out of Yellowstone this week. Our time there, while brief, was truly amazing. I often felt like I was on a different planet. I'm so sorry for the people who live and work in that area, folks who are having the trip of a lifetime cancelled or cut short, and everyone who is impacted by the current flooding in any way. 

I can't help but wonder how many devastating natural disasters it is going to take before we wake up and take the necessary steps to mitigate climate change. There are choices we make as a family (though I know there's always more we could do) to try to help, but we need change on a much bigger scale. 

 

Time to Move On

Nearly six years ago I agreed to take a leap out of my comfort zone and join my friend Christina as a Profiles Editor for Literary Mama. I felt like Bambi on ice as I started to learn the ropes. I'm still not entirely sure what made the powers that be willing to take a chance on me at that point (most likely Christina's generous recommendation) but, eventually, I found my feet as an editor. Over time I was able to take on more responsibility and, as Christina moved on to a Senior Editor position, I even got to welcome a new editor to the profiles department and made a wonderful friend in Susan. I am proud of the work that I've done at Literary Mama in the past few years and proud to have been a small part of a truly remarkable group of women who work on this labor of love from all over the world. 

Month after month I got to work with writers interviewing writers and broaden my perspectives on motherhood and creativity. I learned from the feedback given by the Senior Editors. I had the opportunity to collaborate with women from many different backgrounds. I made connections with incredibly talented writers and I'm grateful. Without a doubt I gained much more than I gave in my time with Literary Mama. 

March/April 2022 was the last issue of Literary Mama that I worked on as a profiles editor, after choosing not to renew my contract. Working full-time and keeping up with a busy family, I found that the time I spent on profiles was keeping me from spending as much energy as I'd like on my own creative pursuits. For the first time in a long time, I'm not seeing the flurry of emails that indicate a new issue will be coming soon. Fortunately I don't have to sever ties with my Literary Mama family completely. My profile of Jamie Sumner was published last September, and I'm looking forward to sharing the profile I will have in the May/June 2022 issue. 

If you haven't yet taken time to read the gorgeous, thought-provoking, mother-affirming writing that Literary Mama publishes, please take time to look at it soon, you won't be sorry.

Week Who Knows What Day or Time It Is

We're far enough into the global pandemic that it's too fuzzy to count the weeks any longer. I mean, I could count them, but I would have to look at a calendar.

___

Apparently I began this post in May of 2020. Yes, over a year ago. It must have been right around the time that staying home because of Covid went from feeling like a brief moment of sacrifice we were going to make for the greater good to something larger and even scarier. 

We left school for spring break in 2020 and never went back into our school buildings. In our district most students didn't return until late January of 2021. We've been back in school for the year since mid-August. Things are normal-ish, but of course nothing is really normal at all. 

I've been thinking about the things we get used to. People are adaptable. Think of every time an app or online service you use has updated, slightly changing its look. The first couple of days are jarring, annoying every time you open that app, and then you stop noticing the change. I work in an old building and the blowers for the heat/air are relatively loud. There's almost always significant background noise from them, but I don't hear it any longer, it is simply a part of my auditory landscape. I only think about it when someone else mentions they're bothered by the sound.

Here are some other things, for better or worse, I've gotten used to in the last 18 months or so:

• wearing masks and seeing others with masks on
• daily news updates about the Covid numbers in our state
• near-daily emails home about the Covid cases in our school
• making plans and putting a mental asterisk next to them, just in case Covid changes things
• checking attendance requirements for places I want to go (masks? proof of vaccination?)
• random shortages/bare spots on store shelves
• guessing whether mail I send domestically will arrive somewhere in two days or two weeks

I'm hoping there's a day when most of these become unusual again, I have no idea how long it will take to get there. 

Three Weeks In

That first, productive, week off of school, during our actual spring break, was a bit of a fluke. Once I was back to working, albeit from home, things were slightly less peaceful. The first week I was back at work the children still did not have school work. This was fine for Harper, who has been fairly content to binge watch and check in with her friends, but was less fine for Michael. While Michael is also a fan of electronic diversions, he is not as skilled at self-entertaining and spent a week being really bothered by the fact that no one was able to pay much attention to him during the day.

Last week, when there was actual school work for the children do to, was marginally better. However, as is expected, we're all getting on each others' nerves a bit. I know how fortunate we are, given these circumstances. There's plenty of space in our home, plenty to do, plenty to eat. Still, we're all feeling the sting of the things that we aren't able to do, the people we aren't able to be with, etc.

We're under "stay at home" orders until May 1st; however, I can't imagine that it won't extend beyond that. What kind of amazes me is how quickly my mindset has shifted. At first, it seemed kind of wild that our spring break was going to turn into two weeks of online learning. Now we're almost certainly not going back to school this school year. I find myself mentally working through scenarios in which none of our summer plans are happening, and accepting that there's a possibility we might not return to school on time in August. (That has not been stated as a possibility by our district or by our state leadership.) Basically I'm not taking for granted anything that was supposed to happen within the next six months. The idea that it may be months before we are "back to normal" is both horrible and fine. We're getting by. Is there any other way to take this than to get through one day at a time?

I'm also trying to keep in mind what a privilege it is to be able to stay at home to this degree. No one living in our home has to leave home to work. We have the technology to meet our work/school/entertainment needs. We have the access and means to keep our pantry/freezer/fridge stocked with minimal interactions with the outside world. We have a safe neighborhood for walking in. We are even able to worship with our church online. It is not lost on me how absolutely fortunate we are.

One Week In

So! In our part of Ohio we've basically been on relative lock down for ten days. The children and I were on spring break this past week so things have been very loosey-goosey at home, in a way that is probably not sustainable if we want to hold on to any shred of normalcy. I "go back to work" tomorrow, as we prepare for the students to begin e-learning the following week. Of course every teacher I know has been preparing already, but it is still nice that there is a cushion of time before everything has to be rolled out.

I'm trying to figure out how to do some recording of this time, without just making a list of what we've done to keep from going insane.

Something that has helped me has been getting up, showering, making the bed, and putting on pants without an elastic waistband. I have not forced this onto my children, but I can see the slippery slope that ends with me staying in bed until noon every day. And really, that wouldn't hurt anything, but it's also not how I want to spend the next however many weeks.

I have tried to do something productive every day. Early last week I washed some sheets and then, reader, I ironed them. I think about ironing the sheets every time I take them out of the wash, but there's normally not time for that nonsense so I fold them and hope for the best. Here's some photographic/video evidence of my deeds:

For the record, it takes a very, VERY long time to iron a king size sheet when working it inch by inch along a standard sized ironing board.

This is a time-lapse video of ironing a pillowcase. Yes, it has come to this.

The other satisfying thing that happened this week is that Michael, with minimal assistance from me, cleaned out and organized his room. Here are the after pictures:

He seems pleased with the end result, which I (likely, foolishly) hope will help keep him motivated to maintain its current state. Time will tell.

Harper has mostly retreated to her room with her phone and computer. I did force her to wash her sheets. Michael is loving the family time this situation has left us with, Harper, not so much. We'll just keep taking it one day at a time.

Well Hello There

I started this blog when I was a stay-at-home mom in the fall of 2005. At the time it was a way to remain connected to the "outside world" when I was home with baby Harper. I was looking for an outlet and, ultimately, a form of social connection. It was a way to flex a creative muscle and feel less isolated.

Our governor just issued an order to close schools for the next three weeks and most of my children's activities have been indefinitely suspended or cancelled outright. It's too early to know whether I'll need to report to my school when our week of official spring break is over so we'll just take it one day at a time.

I know some of you have been blogging all along. Others of you who used to be part of the blog world have let if fall off a bit (or completely) as I have now that my kids are older. Perhaps social distancing measures will bring about a blogging renaissance? If so, let me know where you're writing so I can follow along.

I'm aware that it's a poor idea to start writing without a purpose. I suppose my purpose is just to wave into the void a bit. Hello.

NaNo Again

I've decided to give National Novel Writing Month a try again this year. I completed the challenge successfully in 2016, but haven't gotten very far in the years since then. This year I have gone in with some pre-writing done, which I hope will give me a better chance of seeing it through.

The local NaNoWriMo community is wonderful, although November is such a busy month for us that I've never been able to attend any of the in-person events. For those of you who don't know anything about National Novel Writing Month, you can check it out by clicking here. It isn't too late to join!

October was kind of a stinker of a month for our household, so I'm happy to kick it to the curb. November means birthday celebrations for Harper and I, as well as a delightful week off of school for Thanksgiving. I'm already thankful for the break!

Wish me luck with the NaNoWriMo challenge. I may post occasional updates here, just to help me feel accountable. Is anyone else I know participating this year? Send me a message if you'd like to be official "buddies" on the website.

Something I Never Thought About in 6th Grade

Well we're all back to school in these parts and I just saw a headline about the new locking systems that are being installed on our interior school doors over the next month and a half to provide another layer of protection against mass casualties.

It reminded me of a brief conversation I had with Michael on the way home from school today. He was telling me about learning about his teachers. One of them used to be in the military and he said he's so glad she's in our school because she knows what to do with a gun. I mentioned that she didn't keep a gun in her classroom and his reply was, "But if she could get it away from someone trying to hurt us she would know how to use it." The most horrifyingly sad part of this exchange was how matter-of-factly he mentioned it and was on to the next thing.

Our children think of someone coming in and shooting at them in their schools as a thing that could possibly happen. We have to do better for them. 

Mary Oliver and My 6th Grade Teacher

I've been participating in a challenge this month to walk one extra mile a day. I realize that isn't much of a challenge for many people, but it has been a test of time and commitment for me. I'm pleased to say that I've walked that mile 8 days out of 8 so far, we'll see how the rest of April goes.

Even a nice, gentle walk (or any activity) can feel torturous if I'm watching some kind of clock or distance count down. In order to peacefully walk on my treadmill, which is where most of my extra miles have taken place, I set the time/distance/speed and then promptly cover the digital display with my Kindle and read as I walk.

The last couple of days I have been reading Mary Oliver's Upstream. In one of the early essays in the book, Oliver was describing various birds and mentioned loons. Just reading the word, "loon," nearly took my breath away as I was instantly flooded with memories of a favorite teacher. Mrs. Freiburger was my 6th grade teacher and my 7th grade science teacher and she absolutely loved loons.

Aside from the loons, here is what I remember about Mrs. Freiburger as a teacher: she read us great books, we did lots of creative writing in her class, her last name was one of our spelling words early in the school year, and she loved science. Twice I got in "trouble" in her class and I still remember her reprimanding me because I cared so much about her opinion and I was upset I had disappointed her. What impresses me most, all these years after middle school? When I think of Mrs. Freiburger I feel happy. The memory of being in her class just makes me smile. Her passion for her job and care for her students still feels like a gift to me 30 years after being in her class.

I have no idea where Mrs. Freiburger is now, but I would drop everything in a heartbeat to have lunch with her. Wherever she is I hope she is enjoying her retirement and has endless opportunities to observe her beloved loons.

Transformation

The children went back to school on Wednesday and I'm in a big feelings place right now. People who know me in real life may laugh at that - wondering if I'm ever NOT in a big feelings place. Harper began her last year of middle school and Michael began his last year of elementary school. This year I seem to be viewing everything through a lens tinted with a hint of "last". I will be sappy and lovey and tearful all year; you've been warned.

On the way to the bus stop this morning Michael said to me, "I don't really feel like a 5th grader."

I thought for a minute, then I said, "Well, that's because you don't become something new overnight. Do you think a seed feels like a flower as soon as it begins to sprout?"

"That's a good point."

I know many children would not accept that level of cheesiness in an answer. Fortunately it suited my tender-hearted Michael just fine.

Double Digits

Dear Michael,

Today you are 10 years old. I have to admit, this birthday caught me a little by surprise. It wasn't that I didn't remember it was your birthday, we've been planning for it for months, but I didn't think much about the number until we celebrated last week. Then I saw those "10" candles blazing away on your cake...

The problem is that you simply aren't a baby any more. You haven't been a baby for a long time. But, of course, you'll always be my baby.

You're my baby, but your feet have been bigger than mine for over a year.

You're my baby, but you're nearly five feet tall.

You're my baby, but you're using a protractor and manipulating fractions in math class.

You're my baby, but you can spell and use words like monolith.

You're my baby, but you have more compassion and empathy than many adults I know.

You are, and always have been, a gentle soul in a less-than-gentle world. Sometimes I think about your premature birth and difficult entry into this world and I wonder if it was God's way of letting me know that you would need just a little more from me. More tenderness, more patience, more prompting, and (someday) more willingness to let you find your own way in the world. (Unlike the story you are telling me now, I doubt you'll live here forever.)

It is difficult not to want to make life easier for you - many days you do so much to make it harder for yourself. We are still waiting for your heart and your head to catch up with your rapidly growing body. Much of the time you seem to navigate the world like Bambi walking on ice - a bit fearful, a bit awkward, with so much left to learn. I will keep doing my best to support you. I will try to remember that it is better for you if I leave a few bumps in your road, allowing you to find your own strength and your own way. I'm working on it.

As you start another year of your life there are so many things I wish for you. Mostly I hope you know how very well you are loved.

Happy birthday, sweet boy. I love you.

Love,
Mom

Growing Pains

We moved.

Are moving?

We have lived our new house, just up the street (1.7 miles to be exact), for almost three weeks now.

We are STILL cleaning stuff out of the old house. And no, we haven't listed it yet...

This last month has been rough. And 90% un-fun. It has been majorly un-fun for the children, which compounds the un-fun for the adults. We were all ready to be finished with the moving process about three weeks ago. AND school started - which just means less time to tackle the slowly diminishing mountain of stuff to sort through.

Tonight, after a particularly un-fun time trying again to finish cleaning out the basement, Michael said to me, "You know what I wish? I wish this was all a bad dream and I would wake up and we wouldn't be moving and I would be in our old house. This house does not feel like my home."

Ouch. That was a bit of an emotional sucker-punch for me. As an adult I can rationalize that three weeks is not very long and I know that we will make many happy memories here and it will feel like (and be) our home. For Michael this past three weeks has been an eternity.

There's no bigger message here tonight - just a reminder to myself that the things that feel overwhelming/uncomfortable/un-fun to me, feel the same way multiplied by about 1,000 to my children.

I also wanted to get these words down so, in the future, when we are all happy in this home, I might be able to remind Michael about how difficult this transition was for him. Maybe remembering/being reminded of that, when everything has turned out just fine, will help him face other difficult transitions.

Two Weeks Later

Summer camp, in particular Camp Minikani in Hubertus, WI, played a huge role in my childhood/young adulthood. Outside of my family, camp was the primary influence in my adolescent years. It is no exaggeration to say that attending (and eventually working at) camp was life-changing for me. Attending summer camp has always been a gift I have been eager to give my children.

This year marked Harper's third summer at the camp of my childhood. When she was 10 she attended a week of day camp. Last year, at 11, she attended one week of overnight camp. This year she went overnight for two full weeks. We pick her up tomorrow and I am jumping out of my skin.

Outside her two-week summer home.

I am 99% not worried about Harper at camp. My 1% of concern comes from the fact that it is not a completely nut-free environment, though it's as close as just about any other public place she frequents; and a little from the fact that girls can be mean. Since we drive from Ohio for Harper to attend camp in Wisconsin, she does not attend with any of her friends from school or dance. Now you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who is more of a friendship-building expert than a well-trained camp counselor, which Minikani has in abundance. Yet I also know that, despite the best efforts of caring counselors, there are sometimes kids who just don't connect with other kids. Harper is not usually that child, but you never know. 

Two weeks is a long time to not know what your child is doing or how she/he is feeling. Matt received two brief notes from Harper. In the second note she said she cried when the one-week campers left (including a girl she became friends with last summer) and that she missed us, but was excited for the next week of camp. She's probably fine. She's probably better than fine. But, ugh, the line about crying when her friends left made my heart hurt for her. I really hope she's also made some friends in her cabin - all of them are staying for both weeks. 

Tomorrow morning Michael and I will pick her up and I'll get to hear all about it. Maybe camp won't turn out to be the magical place for her that it was for me and that will be ok. But I can't help but hope that she's had a great two weeks and has been too busy having fun to write and tell me about it.

Perhaps You've Seen It?

I saw an image on Facebook the other day that I want to share, but now, of course, I cannot find it. I can find things which are close to it, but not enough to satisfy me. At any rate I'm going to attempt to recreate the wording for you...

Motherhood:

❒ clean house

❒ happy kids

❒ exercise

❒ strong marriage

❒ strong friendships

❒ well-rested

❒ healthy/homemade meals

❒ sanity

(pick two)

If I were personalizing the list for myself I would add time to write, time to read, and promptly answering texts/emails to the list and still only be able to pick two. Sure, it's a bit of an exaggeration, but it is the best way I've seen recently to describe what life feels like right now. 

Internet Things That Have Made Me Smile

This is a fairly random assortment of items, but here we go:

• I stumbled upon a "kitchen hack" that I have found particularly useful. I make several chicken dishes that require me to either chop up or shred cooked chicken breast. Now shredding chicken is not that difficult, but I read that you could use a hand mixer to shred chicken and it works! No more burning my fingers trying to do it with my hands or messing around with forks. (Ok, that sounded like a bad infomercial, but I truly disliked the job of shredding chicken, and I do it often.) I like the pieces of shredded chicken to be small and the hand mixer does that very well. There are usually one or two chunks that I end up pulling apart as I'm emptying the bowl but overall it is very easy. And it's been a fun way to psych out the kids who think I'm baking and then realize the mixing bowl is full of chicken. 

• When I was a child, one of the best parts of being home sick from school was getting to watch game shows. I still kind of love them and I get all choked up when people win. It seriously makes me cry, happy tears of course. One of my current favorites is Celebrity Name Game - locally it's on in the morning so I only catch it when we have time off school. If you are in a bad mood, I suggest getting online and watching clips of people winning this show. Instant mood lift.

• If you are looking to punish the back/knees of someone you know who has small children in his/her life, have I got a product for you! You will think this is a joke, but it is not... you can procure a saddle designed to be strapped to an adult, making it easier for a child to ride said adult like a pony. Don't believe me? Check out the Pony Up Daddy, because who wouldn't love a daddy saddle?