Forever My Child

I didn't post a Ten Things of Thankful last weekend, because I didn't want to take a single moment away from a magnificent weekend. It was practically perfect, and I am more thankful than I can convey. Here is why:

My son and his wife moved to Washington, DC, last summer for my DIL's fellowship in pediatric infectious disease. We did get to see them briefly at the end of September when they flew back for a wedding, but that was simply AGES ago. My son is a hospitalist at a DC hospital, working the night shift, and his schedule is 7 days on, 7 days off. I asked him if there was a chance he could come home for a visit during one of his off weeks, and the answer was YES.

I'm extremely thankful for Lillian, my DIL, for booking the flights and for letting us have him for five whole days! We missed you and will see you next time!

He flew into the airport in Northwest Arkansas that largely services all the corporate travel for Walmart, and I'm thankful for GPS on my phone for getting us there! It is in the middle of NOWHERE, down winding, two-laned highways, through tiny towns, then right through a series of brand new subdivisions (with names like Oakwood and The Pines, apparently each named after the trees that were bulldozed to make room for the houses, as there wasn't a tree in sight within each raw, new neighborhood). 

It had just turned dark as we pulled up to the terminal (which is under construction). There were barricades (and construction equipment and no pavement) in front of the building, so cars parked in the left lane to wait for their weary travelers to come out of the building, wind their way around barricades, cross the street, and walk down a dark sidewalk, looking for their ride. I watched every shadow cross the street and either walk to a car or disappear into a parking garage, but there was no mistaking the shadow that was my son as he walked down the sidewalk. I felt like Melanie in Gone With the Wind when Ashley returned to Tara after being held in a northern prison camp and she saw him walking up the drive (IYKYK). My (29 year old) baby boy was HOME.

XNA airport pick up line.

I'm thankful to Nikki and Ceason for getting coverage for me in my classroom, so I could take three days off to be with my family. 

Our cats warmed right up to Kyle when we got home, and I don't think one of them hissed at him (this pissed off my daughter, because they always hiss at her, but in fairness, she brings HER cat when she comes home, and he walks in like he owns the place). Okay, Finn probably did, but since he hides most of the time, who would know?

Kyle, Lewis, and Nora

We spent a good part of Thursday with my husband's parents, where we played a not-so-fun game of Where's Grandad's Phone (answer: in Nana's purse, where it had been hiding for two days). My husband gets the thankful for finding it (he was motivated by not wanting to go phone shopping with his parents).

With Nana and Grandpa

Friday, we drove to Branson to spend the weekend with my dad. Up until Wednesday evening, we weren't sure the weekend trip was going to happen, as there had been many delays in getting new flooring put into my dad's house, but it was completed in the nick of time! Our daughter drove down on Saturday morning to spend the rest of the weekend with us, and we had an absolutely delightful family weekend. My kids shared a bedroom, like they always did at the lake house while growing up, and they didn't get into one fight! There were times when they were younger that I never thought I would see that day!

My kids and their Papa

Our boy

They crack themselves up

All too soon, it was Monday, and we had to return our boy to his grown-up life. We had five days of eating at all his favorite places and cooking his favorite meals, laughing, talking, hugging, crying, and planning future times together. Saying goodbye never gets easier. I love my children so much that it sometimes hurts, but they are both smart and accomplished and happy, and what more could a mama want?

Remember that little airport in Northwest Arkansas? When checking their website Monday afternoon, I discovered it was possible to park the car, accompany your loved one inside the airport, AND GO ALL THE WAY TO THE GATE WITH THEM. Have you heard of such a thing since 9/11?! You have to register when you get there, and you still have to go through TSA, but instead of dropping him off on the curb a few hours before his flight and driving home, we were able to stay with him until the moment he boarded, and we watched out the window until we saw his plane take off. 

My heart was both full and empty at the same time.

Parenting is hard.

And I wouldn't trade it for anything.

It's not too late to join the TToT! We are live until Monday night.

An Eclectic List of Thankfuls

We went from temps that were below zero last week to several days of 70-80 degree weather. Now THAT'S the way to start out a thankful list!

I continue to be on the puzzle struggle bus, but I've got about 25% of the it completed now. Why, why, WHY did I buy a 1500 piece puzzle? 

The great horned owl that has taken up residence in the neighbor's tree is still keeping me company at night when I can't sleep. Is he bored? Looking for a wife? Is he even a HE? I sure enjoy hearing him hoot, whatever the reason.

I drank a diet coke in a restaurant this week, and it didn't make me crave more! After two months drinking only water, the bubbles kind of stung in a rather unpleasant way. I've lost a few more pounds and am still content with my no-ultra processed food life.

Next week, we are expecting severe storms with a pretty good possibility of tornadoes, so I felt it was okay to take the snowflakes off my walls in my pre-k classroom. I may well have jinxed spring by doing this so soon, but it was worth the chance of getting one more winter storm (and some snow days!).

I know it LOOKS like I've killed Flora the Peace Lily, but I have not. She is very dramatic and throws herself down when she thinks she hasn't been watered enough, but when I (or more likely, one of my students) notices she's got the droopies, a big drink of water perks her right back up again! She has faked death a number of times, and each time, she pops right back (so far, anyway). 

I used to amuse myself by taking (stealth mode) pictures of butt cracks, and I had a pretty good collections of them. Most were taken when my daughter played sports in high school, because sitting in bleachers all day at a volleyball tournament will give you plenty of opportunity to see someone lean forward and flash that crack. I haven't taken a butt crack picture in YEARS; that is, until this weekend. I couldn't resist and it made me happy:

I guess I'm thankful I have a zit, because that means I still have dewy skin and not dried-out, wrinkled, and leathery old lady skin. I'll take that as a win.

The flooring people finally made it to my dad's late this week, and the work has begun! It's going to look SOOOOOO pretty! Pictures when it's completed.

My son is coming home for a visit this week! He and his wife moved to Washington, DC, last summer, and we've only seen them once since then, when they came back for a wedding. We are beyond excited to spend some time with him. 

Find your thankfuls and join us at the Ten Things of Thankful weekly blog hop! 

Snow Days, Vacuums, and More

I said I wasn't going to let someone else steal my happy, yet I did.

No. More.

I've got Ten Things of Thankful:

My dad is getting new flooring throughout his house, and all the "stuff" everywhere had to be packed up and moved to the garage and basement (large furniture will be moved by the workers). Let me tell you, there is a lot of "stuff" (kindly called "senior clutter" by the contractor), but after working three weekends non-stop, we (my husband and I) got it all packed up and out of the house and cleaned the basement and set it up for my dad to live down there during the installation. 

Okay, so the flooring didn't get put on the truck for delivery in time to do the floors this week, but that turned out to be all right, since the weather was too bad for workers to get there anyway. The flooring has now arrived. The snow is gone. The workers should be there this week. Fingers crossed.

We got THREE SNOW DAYS this week! Snow days are a GIFT (and a necessity). We were supposed to get 9-13" of snow, but instead of big ol' wet snowflakes, we got tiny dry flakes and that cut our amount down considerably. But 5"+ is still a lot of snow for us, and coupled with temps below zero, the whole area pretty much shut down. 

I am thankful for my cheap but amazing snow boots. I bought them at Walmart probably seven or eight years ago. We don't get much snow, so I probably haven't worn them much more than a dozen times, but they are incredibly warm and have great traction.

I started a jigsaw puzzle on the second snow day. I found it in a cabinet and have zero recollection of buying it. It's a lovely picture of needlework, including pins and scissors and different projects and even has a cup of tea in it. It also has 1500 pieces. 1500. I worked two days solid on it and many hours since, and I STILL don't have the outer edge completed (still missing two pieces). But I have completed maybe 20-25% of it, in spite of every effort from Lewis to thwart me with a sweep of his magnificent tail.

I'm still on my healthful eating track, avoiding all ultra processed foods, as well as flour, sugar, and caffeine. I've lost about 15 pounds and feel terrific!

We have annual on-line trainings at work that must be completed by every employee. The links are usually released in August or so and we have until June 30 to complete them. Every year, I do them on June 29th. THIS year? February 19th! 

I am thankful for my vacuum cleaner. It's a Shark Navigator Lift-away, it's purple, and it is the only vacuum cleaner I have ever loved. I have two, one for each floor (they are not expensive), and I have put them both through the paces this weekend, doing some major housecleaning. 

I'm thankful for cheese.

And I'm thankful that I have this platform. It saves my sanity.

The Ten Things of Thankful is a weekly blog hop. Want to join? Hop on in!

Make Good Trouble

You know what I finally figured out? No one can steal your happy. If someone takes your happy away, it's only because you handed it over to them. 

Pity Party over. It's time to resist and make good trouble....

Now let's get to those thankfuls:

1. I'm thankful for Heather Cox Richardson and her insight as a historian into current events.

2. I'm thankful for writer Kate Bowler, professor of religious history at Duke University, for reminding me that it is a terrible, beautiful world in which everything happens. Her devotionals always hit hard.

3. The bitterly cold weather has retreated and we are having seasonable weather now. I can deal with seasonal.

4. There's been an owl hanging out near my house for the past month or so. I used the Merlin Bird ID app to record him and found he is a Great Horned Owl. There are woods behind my house, and I couldn't narrow down where, exactly, the sound was coming from, but one night this week, I got home from work right at dusk, and he was hooty-hooing on a pretty regular basis. I walked towards the sound, just past my next door neighbor's house, and I heard him clearly. Looked up, and saw his profile way up on a limb of a tree about 20 feet away. He's sneaky! I sure enjoy hearing him at night. It's a very soothing sound.

Can you see him? 

5.-8. After cleaning out our refrigerator one Saturday right after our big (for us) snow, I noticed some water that appeared to be coming out from under the baseboard between the fridge and the hallway to our living room. Weird. Checked the basement below it and found water POURING out of the ceiling from the vicinity of the water found in the kitchen. I yelled for my husband, and we grabbed buckets and towels and rubbermaid tubs. Water was pouring in streams from a doorway and also from the ceiling in several places, including over and around a light bulb. Chaos ensued, and our first thought was it was an ice dam on the roof caused by melting snow and an old roof (there was no visible leaking on the second floor). My husband kept saying "there's a finite amount of snow up there, so it should stop soon." It did not. Then on a whim, I turned off our water where it enters the house, and within ten seconds, the water slowed to a trickle. Now instead of needing a roofer, we needed a plumber. Dreading that the plumber was going to tell us our 100 year old pipes had fallen apart somewhere in the area between the basement ceiling and the first floor and wondering how many possible tens of thousands of dollars the damage could end up being, the plumber said it was coming from the little hose that leads to the refrigerator for the ice maker THAT WE DON'T EVEN HAVE. When we were cleaning out the fridge, we pulled it away from the wall a little, and in pushing it back, we ran over the line. Soooo, it was self-inflicted. It has to dry out now, and we will need a little patching of the basement ceiling, but good news that it wasn't worse! And that our basement is just a basement and isn't a finished room. And that our ancient (as in at least 40 years old and probably older) chest deep freeze that once belonged to my grandma did not suffer, as it was under the stream of water. fyi at least 20 gallons of water poured through the ceiling, not counting what missed the buckets.

9. I'm thankful for my school family. I have the sweetest class! They can be a handful, but they are loving and funny and inquisitive, and we are having a great year!

10. A month ago today, I gave up ultra processed foods, as well as caffeine, flour, sugar, and, well, pretty much everything except lean meat, some dairy, fruits, and vegetables. I listened to a podcast of NPR On Point about UPFs right before Christmas and it stuck with me. What also stuck with me was all the cookies and candy and snackies and cheese that I had consumed from Halloween until Christmas, so I made a change. I told myself I'd do it for a month and see how it goes. It's been a month and I'm going to continue. I feel better. I've lost a few pounds. I'm saving money by not eating out. Yay, me!

Oh, and a bonus thankful:

HOW 'BOUT THOSE CHIEEEEEEEEEFS???

Ready Or Not

I have had a real problem with Thanksgiving coming so late this year and shortening the Christmas season (meaning time to shop for it). Could I have started shopping BEFORE Thanksgiving? Yes, yes, I could. DID I start shopping before Thanksgiving? I don't believe I need to answer that. But seriously, THREE WEEKS is not enough time to do all the planning, baking, and shopping, or in my case, do any of it, and I am now scrambling like eggs in a hot skillet of bacon grease to make Christmas magic happen. Smoke and mirrors, baby, smoke and mirrors.

Here are my Ten Things of Thankful:

1. Christmas vacation has officially begun. I don't go back to work until January 3, and children don't return until the 6th. 

2. While I have done minimal decorating this year, the tree is up, the garland is hung over all the doorways, and the candles are in the windows, and it's warm and Christmasy.

3. The cats have pretty much stayed out of the tree since it has been decorated.

4. Lewis has kept ornament theft to a minimum this year. I have only found about five of them around the house, and they are cat-friendly ones I hung low in hopes he would take the easy route to de-ornamenting the tree.

5. Christmas goodies. I have eaten so many of them that the true Christmas miracle is that I still fit into my clothes (barely). I will deal with that AFTER the new year.

6. The days are getting longer as of today!

7. I did my (now) annual showing of the Jingle Bell Rock scene from Mean Girls to my class. They thought it was HILARIOUS. Shortly after, my friend (and boss) Nikki handed me a gift, and inside was... PERFECTION:

8. My brother and sister in law took us to the Kansas City Symphony Christmas Festival at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. It was a spectacular event! 

With my brother

With my husband and daughter

9. The KC Chiefs are 14-1 and have cliched the AFC West. I think I hold a lot of the responsibility for this record by leaning hard the direction the ball is being carried, thereby getting them more yards with each play. I hope they appreciate the little extra effort.

10. Sunday evening and no Sunday Scaries! 

It's going to be a busy week: baking, candy making, traveling, celebrating the birth of Christ with family and friends. My thankfuls will grow like my waistband!

Bad Pennies Always Turn Up, a/k/a I'm Back. Again.

Wow. Not a single post since October 27. When I closed my laptop after that post, I had so much hope for the future of our country, and that hope was crushed a week later. Outwardly, I have been going through the motions of being okay, but inside, I am terrified. 

But I am also resilient. 

I started this blog almost thirteen years ago because I was scared, and writing became my personal therapy, and I'll be damned if I am going to allow a felon and his minions to take this happy place from me. Time to make some good trouble.

And now for the thankfuls.

Five. More. Days. Of. School. Until. Christmas. Break.

The college students who have worked with me as teacher assistants, both past and present. 

Butter on sale for $3.50 a pound. 

Johnny Mathis special on PBS.

Awesome finds at thrift stores.

Once a Bear, always a Bear

Getting the daily Wordle in three or less tries.

My friend Linda's memes that she posts on my Wordle results regardless of how many tries it takes me to get the answer.

My personal cheerleader! Linda, not the dog.

Aloe vera for kitchen burns (but to the person whose tooth I saved by fishing the old maid out of the pan of caramel corn with my bare finger, you're welcome!)

Cheese.

My daddy, He celebrated his 90th birthday this week!

I Just Want To Wear A Sweater

Last week was hot, and I wasn't thankful for that return to summer AGAIN. It was crazy at school because of picture days. I'm tired of my summer clothes and want to wear sweaters and boots and I can't because summer WON'T FREAKING GO AWAY. I'm terrified of the potential outcome for the election next week and I can't listen to one more polling result or political ad or interview. Seems like a good time to push all that aside and look for the thankfuls!

This week, I'm thankful for:

1. That sweet angle of the sun on fall afternoons that make trees look like they are on fire.

Up the street from my house.

2. Walking every evening with my husband for Walktober.

3. Taking my almost 90 year old dad to vote.

4. Homemade pumpkin cookies.

5. Hugs and I love yous from preschoolers.

6. The Chiefs are 7-0 and working on a three-peat!

7. Preschool art that makes me giggle like a 13 year old boy.

Photo cred to Robin

8. Target white tea and peach melatonin gummies that are tasty AND help me sleep.

9. Cool cheese graters that make the process a snap.

Homemade mac & cheese coming up!

10. Freshly popped popcorn, done the right way, on the stove top and with lots of butter.

I did it! Ten things of thankful. Done.