When It's Been A Good Ride

Every once in awhile you just need to spend the afternoon in bed watching Sex In The City reruns on E! and ponder your next Big Move.

Today I hung up my homeschooling mom's hat. My baby has completed 8th grade and is headed off to our local high school next year. He's definitely not a baby by any standards, so I never even think of him that way. And most certainly wouldn't say it aloud. He is, however, our only home grown kid who has never attended a typical public school. So there's that. I think he'll be just fine though and make his own way.

No, I'm not sad, it's been a good 11 years...interesting, challenging, fun, hard, easy, boring and exciting...but I am wondering what I'll do next. The Man is hoping it won't be another Big Project, at least not until football season is over next December, because these last six months of doing both has been no cake walk. Things are in disarray, vaguely chaotic and rushed. Two weeks ago I accidentally triple booked myself. As fabulous and amazing as I am, I can still only be in one place at a time. It's time to breathe and make a new routine.

So for now, I'm looking forward to being home. Putting things back in order. Stoking the home fires and bossing my family around.

I imagine they'll be over that by summer's end.

xoxo,

~S

 

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All's Quiet on the Western Front.

2/20/14 UPDATE...
I wrote this a long, long time ago.  When exactly and what was happening exactly, I have no idea now.  Which just goes to show you how many shenanigans my 3 kids can get into in any set or unset period of time.  I'm quite sure whatever the doozy was that prompted the unposted blog, has been followed up by both bigger and smaller shenanigans.  But since it sat unpublished for at least a year, I can assume it was a world tilter.  Or not.  Hard to know actually because nobody went to prison and nobody died.  In other words, the lunatics are, indeed, still running this asylum.

But the pertinent thing is that good advice remains constant.  And the good advice I received from a friend back then has been tested time and again here in The Household, repeatedly proving itself to be a true sanity saver in a FUBAR type situation...


Hello, Hey There, Hi All, What's Up?, Boo!

I have come to appreciate the fact that, living in the moment, does truly mean relishing the easy, joyful, pleasantly fabulous, good times.  Because while there used to be a time when occasionally the other proverbial foot would drop (and frankly, it was often a doozy), that with kids, the other foot is generally in step with its partner. It's not if, it's when and what size.  And I would Flip Out.

A friend of mine shared a pearl of wisdom with me a few weeks back.  And really I need to thank her husband who, done thunk it up, as they say.

One fine day my friends received one of those killer phone calls, and the jig was up for one of her children.  A teenager.  Of course.  It was a Big Deal.  No joking matter.  While she was hyperventilating, her husband calmly dealt with the phone call, the next step, and the one after that.

HOW do you do that?  My friend really wanted to know, so she asked her man.  This is what he said...

I pretend it's not my kid and do what I would advise my friend to do if it were HIS kid.

Oh.

It's like following the advice you just gave someone right after you said...of course it's easier to say/do/believe that because it's not my kid but what if you just...fill in the blank.  That's it.  Just that simple.


And it's what I'm doing today.

~Sherri

2012 Election

Don't worry this isn't yet another political post.  I'm not a fan of discussing and debating politics with people.  My friends are too diverse and so are my views so they don't fit into anyone's preconceived box and this doesn't bother me.  I have found that it does bother some people a whole lot.  So I refrain from entering a debate nobody is going to win.  I delete the hysterical emails I get trashing either party without reading them.  I record most anything I'm going to watch on TV so I skip the political ads too.  Facebook has proved to be a bit more problematic, but I just scroll on by ignoring whatever political views my friends decide to post.

I am, however, a HUGE fan of voting.  You are entitled to your opinion, as I am mine.  Let your voice be heard.  It's important.

Of course, I couldn't have been brought up in the family I was without some part of me conceding that it's very possible that it's all an illusion.  That our votes don't actually count and it has all been predetermined by the powerful, moneyed few who actually run our country.  That our elections, elected officials etc. are all kept in place to keep the masses happy and in line.  I don't know.  I don't think I'll ever know for sure.

So I vote.  And so should you.

~S

P.S.  Do you watch the election coverage?  Make a party of the evening?  We do.  What are you serving and drinking?  I have no idea what I'm doing because I have a cold and everything tastes weird.  But I know there will be something to nosh on while we sit on our sofa and watch the states go blue and red.

A Case of Wine

This afternoon I bought a case of wine and was reminded that I am my grandfather's granddaughter.  My appreciation for classical music is to his credit as well.  We lost him a year ago and I miss him all the time.  (The fact that I purchased the case at Bev Mo! during their 5 cent sale reminds me I am my grandmother's granddaughter.  She was very smart with their finances and it paid off in world travel and a life next to the shore.  She's been gone 15 years and I miss her every single day.)

In the last 4 weeks my husband and I have both lost fathers.  My biological dad, Joe, is not a man I knew much at all, but his biggest wish, I've learned, was that his 3 children would be close.  In his death, we 3 have drawn together and gotten to know each other a little more. It was precious time I got to spend with them and their spouses and I think we all look forward to more.

My father in law, Ron, was quite a man.  The minute you laid eyes on him you knew he was his own man and played by his own code of ethics and rules.  He loved his home among the woods, his children and his grandchildren.  Even from afar he won the hearts of my 3 kids and we will all miss him dearly.  Of the many things he gave my husband one was a love of country music, and I must admit that it has been passed along to me too.  Without Ron there would be no melodious twang on my kitchen radio.

We miss the ones who go before us, but in each of us a bit of them lives on.  It's that which becomes their legacy.

Striving to make them proud,
~S

IT's....midnight?!

Around 2 and a half hours ago I had the sensible thought that I should get off this box and go to bed. 

Clearly the sensible, likes pain free mornings, half of me is not in charge.  Because it's 12:02 A-freaking-M!  It's really going to suck in about 6 hours when I have to get up.

I wish I could say I did something useful.

But I didn't. 

Just please let there be bionic coffee brewing when I get up...

ZZZZZZZZZZZ

~Sherri

Olives and itches.

Hello blog fam...I'm trying to do this from my handy iPhone. Because I don't yet own a laptop. You see my technology MO is one of total and complete rejection. All up until I Can Not Live without whatever the thing is. So I desperately absolutely completely need a laptop. In the same way I woke up one morning and HAD to have an flatscreen tv. But I digress.

Last night I smelled like a pasta dish. And I itched. Well to be exact, my arms itched. Nope they aren't in casts. I HAVE A RASH. Who, at 44, gets a rash?! Well, if you have recently tried a new body gel oil, which is what I'm squarely placing the rash blame on, and only your arm skin has a reaction to, you might just get a rash. So you might also be desperate enough to google home rash remedies because it's 11pm and You Are Desperate. And you will find several websites that tout the magical skin healing properties of olive oil. So you'll raid the kitchen pantry, slather olive oil on your rashy arms...and wait for relief.

But you'll wait in vain and just get hungry because it turns out that olive oil is not magical on your particular rash. So here I am, still itchy, wishing something would make it go away!

Love you to the moon and back,
~S

Black Swan and Watermelons

Whew,  we started off last week with a Monday morning trip to the ER and all of a sudden it's a week and half later.  It goes like that around here sometimes.  I try to surrender to the chaos.   It feels good to be in the middle of next week. 

Hallucinations.  Ever had one?  Me?  Nope.  At least not that they're telling me about.  


Spoiler Alert:  If you have not watched Black Swan, as I hadn't 24 hours ago, and it really bugs you when you know anything at all about a movie, then skip on down to the yummy eating part below.  I don't usually mind a spoiler...and really, for Country Strong, I would have greatly appreciated one.  Even though I saw the ending coming.  I kept holding out hope.  Ugh.

I have, however, had courtside seats while somebody else hallucinated, and I can assure you, that person's hallucination is very real to them.  And pretty freaky for the guy sitting next to them.   So this morning, I had about 47 THOUSAND loads of laundry to do and I finally popped in the Black Swan DVD that Netflix is probably about to thank me for keeping it and charging me $60 because that's how long I've had it.

Why the delay?  Partly because I knew it was dark.  Partly because I'm not a huge Natalie Portman fan.  Partly because school started a month ago too early, and I've been busy signing school forms and buying endless school supplies.  Partly because my husband had no desire to watch it with me.  And it was on Blu Ray so I had to watch in the living room, when the prims were otherwise occupied.  Partly because I'm not eagerly awaiting anything else from Netlix.  It's an extensive list.

But this morning I ran out of reasons, and was completely, utterly, mesmerized.  The layers with Swan Lake, the ballet, the descent into madness, the wondering if something was indeed real or a hallucination, and yeah, they leave you hanging on a couple.  Which usually I detest, but not this time.  Nat deserved her Oscar, and you should watch this film, even if she kind of bugs you too.

Then you should, because you purchased ANOTHER ho-hum watermelon and it's Mexico hot and humid outside, make this Watermelon Granita.  It's from Pioneer Woman, and if you haven't yet checked out her blog/website, and all her recipes, you should.  We've pretty much liked all of them we've tried.  And we've tried a LOT of them.  But back to the Watermelon Granita,

You need about 8 cups cubed watermelon (that's about 1/2 a largish one), 2 whole limes-juiced, and 1/3 cup sugar.  Put half of each ingredient in your blender and blend until smooth (it really can make something besides smoothies and margaritas).  Pour into a 9 x 13 dish.  Do the other half - we don't want it to feel left out.  Put it in the freezer and go watch Black Swan for 2 or 3 hours.  Scrape the top, frozen layer with a fork.  Keep doing this until it's all frozen and is pretty much a dry slushy.

Sneak off to your bedroom, with the whole dish and a spoon and eat all of it while you watch Nat dance into crazy town one more time.  Or share it with your family.  I'm not sure how it's going to go down here.

XOXO

~S

1. It feels like Wednesday.

2.  I'm having the skinny woman's breakfast of coffee and low-fat cottage cheese.  If this was the 70's I'd be smoking cigarettes too.  I really miss the 70's.  Just because my family really didn't participate the first time around.  The 60's lived on until the 80's in our household.

3.  My beagle is unable to take a walk without producing something I'm required to pick up.  No matter how many times he has been to the backyard before our walk.  Why, Charlie, why???

4.  I love the hot mess that is the Nancy Botwin character on Weeds. 

5.  You have to love a man who brings his own crazy to the table and it just so happens to compliment yours.  Namely, your crazy didn't scare him away.

6.  I painted my nails black two days ago, and it's still summer, so it's all wrong, but I've been too lazy to remove it.

7.  Last night I made Cuppa Cuppa Cuppa Cake.  Yes, Truvi's recipe from Steel Magnolias.  All the sugar hounds in the household pounced on it.  Me...there's no chocolate involved so that's a problem.  You can find it on PW's website if you're so inclined.

8.  No, I haven't been drinking this morning, why do you ask?

9.  I really need a haircut.

xxoo,
~S

Stick 'em in or take 'em out?

This is my favorite rescue hat that the hubby put in the Goodwill bag because it was his to get rid of causing me to say to him in horror..."What?!  You can't get rid of that!  I wear it ALL the time!"  Then I snatched it right out of the Goodwill bag and put it in the closet on my side.  But what I can never decide is this -

Ears IN or OUT???

Yes, these are exactly the kind of things that keep me up at  night.  So, how do you wear yours?

Pondering life's really small issues today,

~S

The News, Jersey Shore's Situation and I

What's your favorite part of the newspaper? 

Mine, hands down, is The Back Page.  It's where a cool photo is surrounded by paragraph long news stories.  I can find out nobody likes Casey Anthony, that the miners were freed from the collapsed mine and that Heather Locklear is now engaged to Jack Wagner.  That's enough for me.  I'm not so much interested in the latest shooting in LA, which politician is embroiled in a scandalous twitter photos or anything that's happened very far away from me.  Yes, world news is important and affects us all, but that stuff leaks in whether I want it to or not, so I don't really need to seek it out in my morning paper.

But what I LOVE are the stories of idiot criminals featured almost exclusively on The Back Page.  You know....the guys who broke into a police van to take gag photos of themselves being arrested.  And then managed to lock themselves in.  Since their other idiot friend who came to rescue them couldn't break into the van despite their previously successful instructions as to how, had to call 911.  Uh huh, as soon as they were rescued by the responding officers, they were officially arrested.  Guess they didn't need those gag photos after all.

If it happens to be a Sunday when I come across a little laugh out loud gem like that, and Bill and I are sitting on the back porch having our coffee and reading the paper together, I absolutely interupt whatever important article he's reading to subject him to a read aloud of the story.  I don't think he always loves this, but I figure it's good for him to gain a little perspective.  If we have idiots here, so do the bad guys over there.  Of course theirs usually have a bomb strapped to their chests.

My favorite news story today...Abercrombie and Fitch offering The Situation of Jersey Shore fame thousands of dollars to stop wearing their clothes because it's bad for the company's image.  BA HA HA HA HA!
Awww who wouldn't want that associated with their product?!  Hey Bill, listen to this one...

Have a fab day everyone!
~S