So where was I for the last few months? Mostly trying to soak up the last bit of summer, surviving the first few weeks of school, and coping with the occasional round of insomnia. I think we’re back in a good routine now, so I thought I’d dip my toe back into blogging with a fluffy post and by joining up with Kelly (really late because these are not worth reading) for a few quick takes about the random things I learned while not blogging. Here they are, in no particular order:
~1~
My email thinks almost 40 is one step away from the grave. I used to get lots of spam for products to enhance various body parts and offers from women to cheat on my husband (my spam also thinks I'm male). After my last birthday, those emails have stopped. Now I get at least 2 a day offering me life and/or burial insurance and weekly emails from a website called "Senior Soulmates" and from the people who make those walk-in tubs for for the elderly. I think I can do without the insurance and I don't have a use for a soulmate twenty years older than me, but those tubs are starting to look good....
~2~
Children have low cake expectations. Jocie’s birthday was at the beginning of September. She wanted a baking-themed party. That’s not true. She wanted a Frozen party, but I said no princess parties and tossed out a few ideas. She liked the baking idea. My cake decorating skills are not good, but I usually try to come up with something that relates to the party theme. The only suggestions Google and Pinterest had for me this time involved lots of fondant and multi-tiered cakes. I do not have the skill to mess with either of those for birthday cakes. Since I was still trying to adjust to our new school year schedule, I decided to go easy on myself and decorate a 6 inch round cake like this, in a color of Jocie’s choosing. Looks pretty simple right? It probably would have been had my kitchen not been 1000 degrees when I attempted to frost it with frosting that had been out of the fridge too long. After I had the first two layers of “roses” on I could tell this was not going well. Frosting was melting down the side of the cake and I’d almost run out of frosting. The remainder of the roses looked a little better as it was a different batch of frosting, but it still wasn’t great and I had barely enough frosting to finish. Jon wandered through the kitchen. He’s used to my cake disasters and usually has something nice to say. When I mentioned how badly this “easy-to make” cake had turned out, all he could muster up this time was “Well, it’s not TOO bad….”
There was nothing I could do about the cake so I put it in the fridge and went to bed. The next morning, Jocie woke up and ran out to see what her cake looked like. I braced myself for her disappointment, but she just smiled and said, “It’s soooooo pretty!”
Yes, I know this take was not quick, but I need this story in print so I can read it again before I stress out about the next cake failure.
~3~
I don’t understand Spotify’s Discover Weekly. For two weeks in August I listened to nothing but religious and classical music on Spotify. Then I clicked on that new Discover Weekly feature to see what songs they suggested for me. The entire playlist consisted of current pop songs and oldies music (I still hate to call 80s music “oldies”, but I suppose it is). Two songs were related very loosely to the type of music I had been selecting: 1) Get me to the Church on Time by Frank Sinatra was the closest they came to church hymns and 2) If You Leave by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark which I guess alludes to the classical music as it has the word Orchestral in the artist’s name.
~4~
Guilt is a powerful motivator. I hurt my back wrangling a four year old who is too old to need wrangling at Mass last Sunday. On Tuesday morning, I threw my back out reaching down to pick up a shoe. It's still not back to normal yet.....and neither is the four year old. She knows that her behavior is largely the cause of my pain (well, that and the extra 30 pounds hanging around my tummy and hips). She feels guilty about that and has been an angel all week long. I'm hoping to milk that long enough to turn her good behavior into a habit.
~5~
Hot flashes can curb early morning bickering. My daughters wake up early most mornings, but they are not morning people until they’ve had their breakfast. Nearly every day begins with a fight. A few weeks ago, I was lying in bed on a Saturday morning sweating out my just-because-I woke-up hot-flash when I heard one of them slam the bathroom door and the other one cry and yell for her sister to open the door and let her in. I wiped my forehead, paused in front of the fan that was turned on its highest setting, and headed to the hallway to intervene. Normally I might try to help one or both of them find a way to resolve the problem with minimal intervention from me. I did not have the patience for that this particular morning. Instead, I just said," You quit overreacting, and you open the door and let her in so I can go back to bed and finish my hot flash in peace and quiet!" The over-reactor quieted down and the other one opened the door and let her sister in. I returned to bed. The only sound that could be heard was that of my husband choking on his laughter.
~6~
Sometimes a hot flash is not a hot flash. Last week, I was irritated that I was having hot flashes all day long. Then Jon came home and looked at the thermostat. It was 86 degrees in the house. We turned the air conditioner on and the "hot flash" magically disappeared.
~7~
Putting sheets and quilts on bunk beds is a humiliating way to find out just how overweight and out of shape you are. Enough said.
October is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month and is also the one year anniversary of my first miscarriage. I am hopeful I will be able to carve out some time to write a few posts this week related to these topics.
