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Jack of All Trades….Master of None

The other day I was feeling pretty proud of  myself because I cleaned out our linen closet, the guest room closet and both bathroom drains that had been giving us drainage problems. I even wrapped more presents. Maggie helped throughout it all, enjoying being part of the process. I jokingly told Barry that I’d have to charge him for the plumbing problem and that we (Maggie and I as a team) don’t come cheap. At one point she was chewing on a granola bar loudly in my ear while yelling “YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!!”

We fixed the problem(s) and I can safely say that it’ll probably happen again in a few months unless I shave my head and Barry stops shaving his face and that ain’t happening, people! But really, I found myself thinking about this whole stay at home gig and how much I love it. I really love it, but it isn’t full of sipping on tea and reading books together all day. There is a whole other side to it (grocery store trips, horrible naps, spilled everything, laundry, etc.) that makes it challenging to find authentic time between it all sometimes.

For the most part, I think we do a pretty good job of it….the authentic part, I mean. Sometimes other things fall to the wayside. Like last week we went to visit my grandparents and abandoned our house that was practically in shambles. We brought lunch of left over chili and cookie dough to bake. I had visions of Maggie pressing the cookie cutter into sugar cookie dough on my grandma’s kitchen table. That SO did not happen. The dough that I’d made turned out not to be great so I scratched that idea and made snicker doodles instead. Sugar cookies can wait until next year, we’ll stick to play dough for now.

But the magic of the trip over to my grandparents was everything else that was going on. Cora and Izak were there helping to set up Christmas. My grandparents love Christmas and their house transforms each year with each nook and cranny full of little vignettes. Maggie was in heaven listening to the annoying songs of my grandpa’s prized toys and petting the beards of the santas on the little bench. Seeing Izak put some more lights around the pond only reinforced everything that she thinks she knows about Uncle Izak and Christmas lights.  She also got to help Cora string lights (and listen to my grandparents each state their case for blinking or non-blinking lights) around the tree.

After spending a few hours we returned to our home (still in shambles, but who cares sometimes, right?) with a gifted snow globe and a Sugar-doodle cookie for Papa. That evening after we changed into our jammies, and picked up the shambles from previous activities, we took the snow globe out of the box to see if it was as beautiful as it was back at 3G’s.

It was.

But then we did some puzzles and the state of our shamble-like house returned.

But since I wear the hats of mama, plumber, professional organizer, and chef, why can’t I wear the hat of a wrecking crew too?

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Dig, Dig, Dig

I’ve been in a bit of a writing rut since the first of the month. It seemed I was so excited when December arrived and things have just taken off from there, but I just haven’t been able to catch my breathe and capture my thoughts without sounding like I’m full of it or complaining. So I’ve just decided to let it go….

I really like having a blog and writing, but sometimes I find myself second guessing my words because they might give too much away or be over-sharing. But then I read stories written by other women that I admire and see images that inspire me to take more photos in my own life, and I let it go. Because when we started this blog (way back in 2005!) when Barry and I went to Australia for a number of months, I never thought that I’d still be using it as an outlet in 2011 and I certainly never thought that there were so many other women out there like me….telling stories of their own.

I’m gathering myself up and finding my words again, they seem to have escaped…perhaps with the golden glow of our Carmel trip? I’m thriving on the glow of our Christmas lights and all the preparations that come with the season. We wrapped gifts last night and Maggie hauled them from the den to the living room with her handy, dandy Radio Flyer cart. She hasn’t quite figured out that the presents are for opening and she’s content to haul them from here to there now.

Last weekend we escaped to Kirkland and only left our hotel to walk around town and meet up with Greg and Linda for Snowflake Lane.  We watched the boat parade on Lake Washington and listened to the booming Christmas music coming from the floating line.  We ordered hot chocolates and walked the streets, talking of our Christmas tree back home and shared interest in finding good sushi. We did indeed find sushi and Maggie slept through the whole lunch, it was scrumptious and being able to talk with Barry uninterrupted was an added bonus.

In the lobby of our hotel were piles of newspapers for the guests and you better believe that I scooped one of each up. We poured over the paper each day that we were there and traded tit for tat on different articles. I passed him the business section and he passed me the comics….not sure what that says about our relationship.

Saturday night we bundled up and hustled to meet up with Greg and Linda for dinner before heading to Snowflake Lane in Bellevue. Aside from getting lost, we had an enjoyable time. Since we were late and had already eaten plenty of Trader Joe’s dunkers, Barry and I decided to share a plate.  I ordered Camarones  Rancheros knowing that it typically is a delicious shrimp platter with tortillas and other tasty sides. Well. It was that and certainly more because I somehow missed the part of the description that mentioned that the shrimp would be wrapped in bacon.

It was delicious, but I wasn’t expecting to see bacon on my plate! Snowflake Lane did not disappoint and both Barry and I were glad for it because Maggie was a CRAB POT before and after the extravaganza. Thankfully the dancing penguin was fascinating enough to distract her along with the drumming and guy on stilts.

Anticipating the start felt a bit like waiting for a big parade, with people angling for the best spot but nobody really knows where the entertainment will come from. Greg and Linda scored a great spot and we ended up having tons of  characters stop by and high-five Mags or pass her candy. We also were in full view of a couple drummers; however, the BEST drummer was directly across the street from us. He was bustin’ a MOVE!

We were those people with a screaming child walking back to our car. We were also those people that thought we had a tired child, but really she just wanted to play a bit.  So we ran up and down the hall and organized the sugar packets and coasters before conking out.

There you have it. Last weekend….and me working myself out of a writers rut.

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Work Party

Gracious. What a whirl-wind of a weekend. It all started last week when my dad mentioned that he had a bit of time open up in his schedule to come down and build us a small rock wall where part of our pond once was.  It just so happened that I was scheduled to work on Thursday, the day that he and Izak were set to arrive. I didn’t exactly get minute by minute updates as to what was going on, but the time I got home I had a pretty good idea.

When I walked through our backdoor into our yard, I discovered that there was a HUGE bonfire where our pond once was and concrete had been poured where we once had an odd collection of rocks. The work party had all but commenced without me and Maggie was having the time of her life making sure that all was right in her Construction Sal hat.

Friday morning brought the smell of coffee wafting from our kitchen, and my mom’s early arrival at our front door with work gloves spilling out of her pockets.  Eventually we were all out in the yard, digging, mixing and making a ruckus. I was informed that my rain gear wasn’t up to snuff and when the rain really started to fall, I retreated inside with the rest of the girls.

I called my grandparents to make sure that they stopped by because there is something that my grandpa loves about construction and he couldn’t miss this chance to see his own son creating something beautiful. Plus, my grandparents never, ever turn down a chance to see Maggie. Look at my grandpa’s face in the photo below. That is one proud chicken.

Work, work, work. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again: working outside digging, lifting, hauling, bending, chopping and everything else is hard and extremely rewarding.  My dad and Izak didn’t complain once about the horrible weather or my endless chatter when I was ‘helping.’ My dad especially was a machine….a miracle worker, if you will.

Towards the end of Saturday night and daylight was all but gone, Barry and I started to haul gravel to cover the nearly finished pit.  I had been fussing earlier over his inability  to use power tools and ability to haul a large load of rocks.  I think he was ready for me to stop hover-mothering him because he threatened to do a blog post titled ‘My Wife Thinks I’m a [Wimp].’  Personally, I think it’d be a funny blog post to read, but I don’t think he’s going to write it. Don’t hold your breath.

Cora and Chaya stopped by too, but we were too busy eating lunch to take any photos.  I also convinced Barry and my dad to help me hack down some branches that have been bothering me and I was informed that I am for sure ‘my mother’s daughter,’ a badge that I’m proud to wear. My mom and Maggie spent time both inside and out and those of us still outside could often see her curly top perched next to the window babbling orders to my mom or through the open window to us.

Technically we’re not supposed to sit on the wall until Tuesday, but some of us got a chance to test it out earlier….you know, just want to make sure it can hold us and all. Last time my dad came and built us a wall, Kurt and Debbie literally walked in as we were putting the tools away. Today Joe beat them to the punch line and strolled into our backyard just as we were lighting the fire to test out our new digs. He invited Barry to the Seahawks game and Barry changed out of his dirty clothes and they hit the road.  [Side note: Kurt and Debbie ended up coming over for dinner (Thanks, Deb!) so they weren’t too far off with their timing!)

A short time later my mom and dad pulled out of our driveway, with Maggie ‘beep beeping’ to the dump truck and blowing kisses to my mom.  With just Maggie and I now at the house, we went back up to the fire pit and got the digger-thing and practiced moving rocks from here to there. We also dug out some dry wood and built a heavy-duty fire…..I don’t think that either of us were ready for the work party to be over.