Boring Life Stuff

Nothing makes you want to read a blog post more than when it’s got the word “boring” in the title! But life’s been boring, which gives me time to blog, which brings us to this post.

1. I got my first Covid vaccine! My second one is tomorrow, and I’m kind of dreading the aftermath…except for this part of me that is looking forward to not feeling guilty about lying in bed for a day. (That part of me is about 48 hours away from big regrets.)

2. I’m dreaming of all the places I want to travel to once I’m vaccinated, and Kevin says I can actually book something now. Go for it!! Then I think through all the logistics and details of it and realize I really don’t want to go to those places after all, or at least not on my own—I just like the idea of going.

3. Leo had his first day back at school, and any doubts I had about sending him back vanished when he got in the car afterwards with the biggest smile on his face. “That was the best day of school ever!”

4. The cloffice remodel is 95% finished!  Oddly, I’m kind of going to miss the roughing-it  feel  of my temporary office.

5. My kids continue to resist any form of physical activity. I tell them to walk around the block a couple times. Instead, Leo starts spontaneously doing high knees next to me.
Leo: How long do I have to do this for it to count?
Me: Okay Google, set timer for 30 minutes.
Leo: MOOOMM!

6. I’m looking into GI specialists to help with this whole Tourette’s-squawking thing. My search slowed considerably when I read that most likely I’ll be given either an endoscopy or a colonoscopy. It’s really not SQUAAWWWK  that bad!

7. I’ve put the novel to the side for a bit. I can’t remember how much I’ve blogged about it, but there’s a chance it’s just not my book to write and I’ll have to walk away from it. [Insert a month of grief and mourning.]  In the meantime, I’m writing little stories about a cast of woodland creatures in  winter. They are cute and cheesy and nauseating…and I love writing them. Who knew my creativity had such a dark side?

9. Vincenzo made flan for Spanish class. Remember when we had to do that?

10. My sister tapped our maple trees.

We didn’t get a single drop of sap. Of course we didn’t, because that would be interesting and exciting, and like I said, life has been boring lately.

But it’s been sweet and good, and that’s the important thing.

Now I’m off to write the cheesiest story yet about Hedgehog giving the gift of nothing (and everything) to his friends for Christmas. The smell of a raspberry, the sound of a river, feel of a sunny day, the taste of April rain…

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Penne with meat sauce
Parmesan broccoli
Chocolate pudding cake

A Conversation

Rocco, after looking through Lego magazine: When is Mother’s Day?
Me: Tomorrow. I hope you got me something!
Rocco: No, really when is Mother’s Day?
Me: Sunday. You have one day to get me something.
(At which point Rocco went to the computer to find out the answer himself.)
Rocco: Oh no! We missed it!

It took a long time to sort it out after that. I kept laughing about the whole “we missed it” thing, Rocco kept feeling badly that he missed it and wondering how it could have happened. “You missed it by ten months!” I said. He seemed confused. I explained to him the cyclical pattern of seasons, months, and days, and how Mother’s Day happens every year, not once in a lifetime. He’s actually two months early for Mother’s Day. And finally the reason for his confusion surfaced.

Rocco: Ohhhh. I thought we were in May.
Kevin: Ah yes, March and May are both months that start with “m.” Like Manuary.
Me: Every month is Manuary.

Then Rocco pulled Kevin into a different room to show him the perfect thing I absolutely must have for Mother’s Day. From a Lego magazine.

The ironic thing is that, after all this, there’s still a good chance he’ll forget Mother’s Day.

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Apricot chicken tagine
Edamame

Barely Even a Blog Post

Sorry guys, no time to blog lately! It’s not that I don’t want to, just that life is busy. For example, our cloffice looked like this when we woke up:

And now it looks like this.

Also, my bedroom looked like this in the morning (minus the fan—it’s an old picture)

And now it looks like this:

Between all that plus  cooking, cleaning, exercising, writing, scrapbooking, gardening, and general momming, my to-do list is long—but hey, at least I can cross “blogging” off it!

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Sesame noodles with chicken
Edamame
Mango
Florida lemon bars

Check-in and a Short Play

Oh hi! You’re still here? Me too! I’ve been doing well lately. As a writer, I’m in recovery mode, like I had an injury and need to recuperate. After spending a couple weeks fighting the concepts of rest and recuperation, now I’m enjoying them both. Mostly. (I am genetically incapable of enjoying them 100%.)

I’ve been writing stories about woodland creatures making snow cone stands and trying to find enough scarves to outfit all the snowmen and following a set of mysterious tracks in the snow. They’re the kind of stories I always thought were too cheesy for my taste, only turns out I really like writing them. I’m also filling my time with an on-line class for my teaching certificate and subbing here and there. I’m gorging on middle grade books, reading the good ones as slowly as I want and skimming (sometimes ditching) the bad ones as fast as I can. I’m keeping the writing small. I’m letting the bread baking, the book reading, the dinner cooking, and the kid wrangling be big.

In short, I am recovering by putting writing back in its place, as one thing about me instead of the only thing about me.  I understand that this struggle to keep writing the right size is a chronic condition that will need to be treated more than once over the years. Maybe I will get better at embracing the recovery process because once I do, it’s an awfully fun place to be. It gives me time to write the fun stuff, like this little play I whipped out for today’s blog.

A Dinner Conversation
A one-act play

VINCENZO, ROCCO, LEO, and DAD sit at the dinner table. MOM walks by to take her seat.

DAD: Woah—did you just crop dust me?
MOM (insulted): What? No!
DAD AND MOM (turning to face children): Boys?
[LEO shrugs. ROCCO throws hands up in air]
VINCENZO: Well, he who smelt it, dealt it.
[Family resumes eating, ignoring the smell as best they can. 60 seconds later, ROCCO hops up from his seat.]
ROCCO: Be right back!
[He runs to the bathroom and closes the door. The lock clicks. Family pauses, realization dawning.]
MOM (calling down the hallway): Rocco! We figured it out!
ROCCO (from bathroom): Oh! Who was it?!
[Remaining family members: look out at audience, throw their hands up in air.]
END SCENE

WHAT’S COOKIN’ 2NITE:
Crunchy melba pork chops
Hasselhoff potatoes
Broccoli
Peanut butter cookie ice cream sandwiches