Saturday, April 23, 2011

Update:

The poison ivy is sprouting on my lower lip.

Note to self: stop chewing on the plants.

But I have chocolate, and I'm not afraid to eat it. All will be well.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Not My Best Day


Actually, the day was fine. The evening? Not so good, so far.

Fin ate my favorite shoes while I was out today, then peed all over the house to apologize, then got out of the yard b/c somebody's been coming in and leaving the gate open. He ran in front of two cars, scaring me half to death, before finally running back into the yard because it was starting to rain and he's a weenie about that.

But not before he got covered in mud, which he tracked on the pee spattered floors.

The neighbors have been mowing my lawn and trimming bushes, clearing debris and weeds, and generally being awesome lately, but it makes me feel like crap that I can't take care of more myself. So the past week I've really pushed to get the outside spruced up, but it means inside everything's gone to shit.

So now the house, a mess already, is just awful, and to top it off I can't find my mop bucket or the spray cleaner for the wood floors.

Elliot's hungry, and we just got home from the grocery store so at least there's food options, but I can't stand how messy everything is, and I'm kinda losing my cool here, so I'm taking a little blog break.

You know, for sanity. Regain my calm in the middle of the storm.

Anybody want a dog?

Did I mention the poison ivy covering my right forearm and half my chin?

AAARRRGH!

(Mommy? Can you see me poopyin'? says a little voice in the background. Thank god it's coming from the bathroom.)

Dean and Rove

Went to see Karl Rove and Howard Dean last night. One of the most interesting things about the whole affair was that, as we were leaving, not only could Dad and I not agree on which of the two was being more inflammatory and/or evasive, we couldn't even agree on what questions were asked.

Interesting to see how strong the lean, and how selective the hearing, of even two self proclaimed moderates can be.

As for Dean and Rove, yeah, it was just what you would expect... hyperbole, ego, and completely contradictory "facts" and numbers. I imagine both of them believed they were telling the truth at least three quarters of the time, and perhaps they actually were half the time.

It did showcase the polarized audience too, in that every statement one or the other made caused exactly half the audience to burst into applause, and the other half to boo and hiss, or at least roll their eyes.

I do love the Speaker Series, and I'll miss it while we're on summer hiatus.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Milestones

Tonight seemed like the culmination of a few weeks of back and forth with Elliot about bedtime. He'd been fighting bedtime, and the routines around it, for a while, and I finally put my foot down a little last week. We had two nights of knock down, drag out, no holds barred fighting.

Earlier this week, one night as it was getting dark he said, "Soon it will be bedtime." that night he slid easily into his routine and went to bed pretty easily. The next night he fought again, but I held my ground.

Last night he was at Grandma's, so I can't really say how he was, except that he's been suffering allergies and not the most agreeable. But tonight, for the first time in recent memory, he went to bed in his own bed without me present. I read his story and sang a song or two, then left the room.

20 minutes later, he was asleep.

I'm not holding my breath that this will happen every night, but it's so nice to know that it can happen, and my expectations of him are not completely unreasonable.

Now if only I could get myself to sleep so easily....

Sunday, April 3, 2011

If you wanted to know...

I'm reading Two Kisses for Maddy, Matt Logelin's new book detailing his own experiences with marriage, widowhood, and single parenting. I've got a lot of opinions about it so far, and plan to elaborate once i finish the book. Everybody deals with grief in different ways, and sometimes I find myself agreeing, other times not, with his perceptions... But for now I will say this - he painted a very honest picture of the moments, weeks, and months after her death, and anybody trying to understand what a loved one (i.e. me?) is going through upon losing a spouse should probably read it.

More about that later.

We spent the day enjoying the weather, and I'm pretty sure I have sunburn, but we flew kites and had a picnic in the park and life is good. Hello, spring.