Jackson is making rhubarb pie--from something that might be considered scratch.
Hard Things
11 years ago
Monday, April 13, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Beans
Beans have been a topic of conversation around here lately.
A couple of weeks ago at dinner time, Jackson was picking the few black beans I left unpulverized in the tacos and pronouncing, "Beans! Yumm!" (I questioned his parentage, that was definintely not a phrase anyone ever heard me say, enthusiastically or otherwise.)
And this evening, as he and Jason recounted the days events, Jason recalled, "and Mama gave you jelly beans."
Jackson replied, "Beans! [then, hugging jason] Ohhh Mamaam!"
I live for the hug and the "Ohhh Mamaam!"
A couple of weeks ago at dinner time, Jackson was picking the few black beans I left unpulverized in the tacos and pronouncing, "Beans! Yumm!" (I questioned his parentage, that was definintely not a phrase anyone ever heard me say, enthusiastically or otherwise.)
And this evening, as he and Jason recounted the days events, Jason recalled, "and Mama gave you jelly beans."
Jackson replied, "Beans! [then, hugging jason] Ohhh Mamaam!"
I live for the hug and the "Ohhh Mamaam!"
Friday, April 3, 2009
Venting
Katie got me started. I apologize in advance for the whiney tone.
This is what one day in the life of this working mother is like:
My son slept all last evening instead of all night. He was up for good before 5am. I had to change an extra gooey diaper when I should've been running out the door, packing a large laptop, purse, and lunch (no longer trusting the cafeteria after 2 recent and icky salad bar experiences)
I have a TON of real work to do. Instead, I spent 2 hours on the phone with the help [less] desk doing a software install for something I requested in early January. At my biweekly meeting with my boss, we discussed my upcoming review and lack of design support. He said, "Not much I can do about it now, you should've mentioned it a couple of weeks ago." I said, "I did". He said, "Not loudly enough." Then he said my husband better be taking me out on dates, I could ignore the rest of the religion, but weekly dates were a commandment from God.
After this, I headed across the street to visit the coffee guy that comes in Fridays for a knock-off frapuccino. It's a poor imitation, but he's a nice guy and it saved me the hassle of driving one town over. Also saved me $2.
At lunch, I read a NYT article by a Judith Warner who proclaimed the heresy that breastfeeding had no measurable benefits and wouldn't it be great if breast pumps were oneday banned!? The point was supposed to be that there's too much pressure on working mothers and we should all lighten up and band together to get more family leave. It also stated that her husband curled up his nose when he saw the bags of milk in the freezer and didn't want to have sex with her [ever again] because the pumping stretched her nipples out so far. Yes, there's too much pressure and we should get more family leave. However, the scientific verdict is pretty much out in favor of breastfeeding (several IQ points, superior nutrition, bonding, weight loss, less asthma, better immunity, and extremely low risk of melamine contamination) and despite its drawbacks, I am grateful for my pump. I also point out that a little nipple stretching is nothing compared to the stretching of labor and delivery. Here's the real rub in this article--we all spend 12 months panicky about how we're going to squeeze in multiple daily trips to the milking station, fulfill our workplace obligations and get home in time to see our child awake. Now there's an article from a journalist who is supposed to be on our side and instead throws another guilt trip on women for having gone to soo much effort to do it all when we could've been happily shaking up manufactured milkshakes for our babes.
In the afternoon, I returned a bunch of phone calls. One of these was answered by a lovely computerized female voice who asked me to type in the name of the person I was calling. My first attempt, I tried to use the keypad like I was texting (repeating the 6 three times to get to the n)--gibberish in, gibberish out. Second try I spelled Jensen with and "o", and the computerized voice offered me 2 people I wasn't interested in speaking to. Third time, I am sure I spelled it correctly, and I was offered nothing.
I spent the next couple of hours investigating who had totally blown my project budget, finding the person (who I have never even met) and getting incredibly unsatisfying responses to my questioning of just who was he, and what had he done for the 3.5 weeks he charged my program exclusively. About this point, someone commented on how I remained calm and collected all the time (Thanks, Betsy).
Then I got called into a stupid meeting to discuss an issue that had been resolved 3 months ago. I ended by saying, "I'll resend the email you received 12/18 from the person who has been managing that particular issue for 15 years so that you can copy it into the documentation. Oh, how many people would you like me to cc: and ask to reply all that they concur", hanging up, and muttering, "Jackass". I have several similar meetings each week with this same person.
In short this was a totally wasted workday.
I came home and Jackson threw open the front door and said, "Hi-ee!" Then he gave me a big hug and said, "Ahh mahmahm." I watched him (a delight after a 4 hour nap this afternoon) eat a whole watermelon. Well, actually, 2 macaronis off the floor (ewww, dropped them at lunch, mental note to invite the beagle in the scavange the floors more frequently), 3/4 banana, 25 mini mozzarella balls, bowl of sunchips, 1/2 cup (yes 1/2 cup) of peanut butter, 1/2 cup fruit cocktail, and nibbles from my soft taco. I'm sure I'll pay the penalty tomorrow morning. At least I didn't give him any raisins or prunes.
He took a brief pretend nap on the second stair with ducky who tickles his nose. Then he climbed the heaters to get to the window sills and look out. I changed a diaper (with raisins), helped him brush his 11 teeth (at 20 teeth, will he be chewing up the dried fruit? How about 16? The last month of poorly slept nights indicates we may have 16 soon). Jackson bounced on the giant exercise ball while I read about Harry the Dirty Dog and hoped the ball was wedged sufficiently into the corner so as not to topple over. Then I read Goodnight Moon (mostly from memory so Jack could turn several pages at a time back and forth) followed by Eyore, Be Happy. Then Jackson didn't want to go to bed, so I told him to call me back in when he was ready to sleep and turned out the light. Suddenly, he was ready for bed. I kissed him and 3 stuffed animals goodnight, then took my leave. Jackson followed and spent the next 1/2 hour with his chin leaning on the gate shouting, "Mamahmahhhm" After a while I started shouting back, "Jack Jahck Jaaaahck". I think he's sleeping now, but I hesitate to check incase he's not.
It rained today and is set to rain all weekend and all next weekend.
After posting this, I'm off to spend "datenight" doing the work I needed to do in the office today.
This is what one day in the life of this working mother is like:
My son slept all last evening instead of all night. He was up for good before 5am. I had to change an extra gooey diaper when I should've been running out the door, packing a large laptop, purse, and lunch (no longer trusting the cafeteria after 2 recent and icky salad bar experiences)
I have a TON of real work to do. Instead, I spent 2 hours on the phone with the help [less] desk doing a software install for something I requested in early January. At my biweekly meeting with my boss, we discussed my upcoming review and lack of design support. He said, "Not much I can do about it now, you should've mentioned it a couple of weeks ago." I said, "I did". He said, "Not loudly enough." Then he said my husband better be taking me out on dates, I could ignore the rest of the religion, but weekly dates were a commandment from God.
After this, I headed across the street to visit the coffee guy that comes in Fridays for a knock-off frapuccino. It's a poor imitation, but he's a nice guy and it saved me the hassle of driving one town over. Also saved me $2.
At lunch, I read a NYT article by a Judith Warner who proclaimed the heresy that breastfeeding had no measurable benefits and wouldn't it be great if breast pumps were oneday banned!? The point was supposed to be that there's too much pressure on working mothers and we should all lighten up and band together to get more family leave. It also stated that her husband curled up his nose when he saw the bags of milk in the freezer and didn't want to have sex with her [ever again] because the pumping stretched her nipples out so far. Yes, there's too much pressure and we should get more family leave. However, the scientific verdict is pretty much out in favor of breastfeeding (several IQ points, superior nutrition, bonding, weight loss, less asthma, better immunity, and extremely low risk of melamine contamination) and despite its drawbacks, I am grateful for my pump. I also point out that a little nipple stretching is nothing compared to the stretching of labor and delivery. Here's the real rub in this article--we all spend 12 months panicky about how we're going to squeeze in multiple daily trips to the milking station, fulfill our workplace obligations and get home in time to see our child awake. Now there's an article from a journalist who is supposed to be on our side and instead throws another guilt trip on women for having gone to soo much effort to do it all when we could've been happily shaking up manufactured milkshakes for our babes.
In the afternoon, I returned a bunch of phone calls. One of these was answered by a lovely computerized female voice who asked me to type in the name of the person I was calling. My first attempt, I tried to use the keypad like I was texting (repeating the 6 three times to get to the n)--gibberish in, gibberish out. Second try I spelled Jensen with and "o", and the computerized voice offered me 2 people I wasn't interested in speaking to. Third time, I am sure I spelled it correctly, and I was offered nothing.
I spent the next couple of hours investigating who had totally blown my project budget, finding the person (who I have never even met) and getting incredibly unsatisfying responses to my questioning of just who was he, and what had he done for the 3.5 weeks he charged my program exclusively. About this point, someone commented on how I remained calm and collected all the time (Thanks, Betsy).
Then I got called into a stupid meeting to discuss an issue that had been resolved 3 months ago. I ended by saying, "I'll resend the email you received 12/18 from the person who has been managing that particular issue for 15 years so that you can copy it into the documentation. Oh, how many people would you like me to cc: and ask to reply all that they concur", hanging up, and muttering, "Jackass". I have several similar meetings each week with this same person.
In short this was a totally wasted workday.
I came home and Jackson threw open the front door and said, "Hi-ee!" Then he gave me a big hug and said, "Ahh mahmahm." I watched him (a delight after a 4 hour nap this afternoon) eat a whole watermelon. Well, actually, 2 macaronis off the floor (ewww, dropped them at lunch, mental note to invite the beagle in the scavange the floors more frequently), 3/4 banana, 25 mini mozzarella balls, bowl of sunchips, 1/2 cup (yes 1/2 cup) of peanut butter, 1/2 cup fruit cocktail, and nibbles from my soft taco. I'm sure I'll pay the penalty tomorrow morning. At least I didn't give him any raisins or prunes.
He took a brief pretend nap on the second stair with ducky who tickles his nose. Then he climbed the heaters to get to the window sills and look out. I changed a diaper (with raisins), helped him brush his 11 teeth (at 20 teeth, will he be chewing up the dried fruit? How about 16? The last month of poorly slept nights indicates we may have 16 soon). Jackson bounced on the giant exercise ball while I read about Harry the Dirty Dog and hoped the ball was wedged sufficiently into the corner so as not to topple over. Then I read Goodnight Moon (mostly from memory so Jack could turn several pages at a time back and forth) followed by Eyore, Be Happy. Then Jackson didn't want to go to bed, so I told him to call me back in when he was ready to sleep and turned out the light. Suddenly, he was ready for bed. I kissed him and 3 stuffed animals goodnight, then took my leave. Jackson followed and spent the next 1/2 hour with his chin leaning on the gate shouting, "Mamahmahhhm" After a while I started shouting back, "Jack Jahck Jaaaahck". I think he's sleeping now, but I hesitate to check incase he's not.
It rained today and is set to rain all weekend and all next weekend.
After posting this, I'm off to spend "datenight" doing the work I needed to do in the office today.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Pearly Whites.
Maybe this is a mundane topic, but I'm going to share anyway.
Today, we went for Jackson first dental cleaning. He was amazing!!
Mostly, he sat on my legs and watched the hygienist work on my teeth. Every once in a while he got up to explore. The fish did have to be moved to a higher shelf. And Jackson fiddled a bit with the suction tool. Mostly though, he sat in my lap and considered drinking the mouthwash.
Then it was Jackson's turn to sit in the chair. He sat, he opened, he had his teeth counted, scraped, polished, and flouridated!!! Then, he had a little drink and made spitting noises into the bowl.
At the end, the dentist came in to look at my teeth. Jackson got up again, and managed to briefly get the suction tool stuck to his nose.
There was no running away, no crying, and no wreckage! Yeah for Jackson.
(Jason thinks this is a sign that we should stick to just 1 child. With our family history, another is bound to be a terror!)
Today, we went for Jackson first dental cleaning. He was amazing!!
Mostly, he sat on my legs and watched the hygienist work on my teeth. Every once in a while he got up to explore. The fish did have to be moved to a higher shelf. And Jackson fiddled a bit with the suction tool. Mostly though, he sat in my lap and considered drinking the mouthwash.
Then it was Jackson's turn to sit in the chair. He sat, he opened, he had his teeth counted, scraped, polished, and flouridated!!! Then, he had a little drink and made spitting noises into the bowl.
At the end, the dentist came in to look at my teeth. Jackson got up again, and managed to briefly get the suction tool stuck to his nose.
There was no running away, no crying, and no wreckage! Yeah for Jackson.
(Jason thinks this is a sign that we should stick to just 1 child. With our family history, another is bound to be a terror!)
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Five things I love...
I saw a post on another blog today titled "Five things I love" and thought it might be a good idea to list mine.
First---my boy. I LOVE this kid. He's friendly, intelligent, inquisitive, and FUNNY! I've heard it said that we love our children because we see something of ourselves in them. I love Jack because he is the opposite of me in a lot of ways. He loves people (recent shyness notwithstanding). It is a daily joy to see him learn new things and just enjoy life's little thrills so much. And just LOOK at him!
Second---my woman! Sheree is the perfect wife for a odd duck like me. She is kind, generous, an awesome mother, and she puts up with a lot from both of her boys. I would probably never have taken on challenges like building a house or moving across the country without her influence. To top it all off she's cute too!
Third---(grudgingly), my job. It's some kind of codependent relationship I'm sure, but I like what I do. It seems weird that someone who doesn't like people would enjoy working in retail management, but I really really do. I like that I can help people in the unenviable task of home repairs. I think it is at least partly because I have been there and know what it's like, but also because I like to swoop in and save their day. Try it, it's like crack after a while!
Fourth---My house in the woods. As previously mentioned, I'm an unwilling people person. The hermit life is obviously for me. Not being able to hear or see my neighbors (most of the time) is just plain good for my soul. Being able to hunt in my own yard is awesome too! Mostly, just having clean, wild, space around me is what keeps me from finding something tall and jumping though.
Fifth---Friends/family. I still don't fully understand it, but there are a whole lot of people out there who care about me. People who ask how I'm doing, and really care. That's a pretty big deal. Clarence the angel wrote in George's book "No man is a failure who has friends." Sometimes that's all that gets me out of bed in the morning. I love you all!
So...there it is. The challenge to all reading this is to complete the same exercise. If you blog, write your own "Five Things" post. If not, think it out. It will make you feel good. I promise.
First---my boy. I LOVE this kid. He's friendly, intelligent, inquisitive, and FUNNY! I've heard it said that we love our children because we see something of ourselves in them. I love Jack because he is the opposite of me in a lot of ways. He loves people (recent shyness notwithstanding). It is a daily joy to see him learn new things and just enjoy life's little thrills so much. And just LOOK at him!
Second---my woman! Sheree is the perfect wife for a odd duck like me. She is kind, generous, an awesome mother, and she puts up with a lot from both of her boys. I would probably never have taken on challenges like building a house or moving across the country without her influence. To top it all off she's cute too!
Third---(grudgingly), my job. It's some kind of codependent relationship I'm sure, but I like what I do. It seems weird that someone who doesn't like people would enjoy working in retail management, but I really really do. I like that I can help people in the unenviable task of home repairs. I think it is at least partly because I have been there and know what it's like, but also because I like to swoop in and save their day. Try it, it's like crack after a while!
Fourth---My house in the woods. As previously mentioned, I'm an unwilling people person. The hermit life is obviously for me. Not being able to hear or see my neighbors (most of the time) is just plain good for my soul. Being able to hunt in my own yard is awesome too! Mostly, just having clean, wild, space around me is what keeps me from finding something tall and jumping though.
Fifth---Friends/family. I still don't fully understand it, but there are a whole lot of people out there who care about me. People who ask how I'm doing, and really care. That's a pretty big deal. Clarence the angel wrote in George's book "No man is a failure who has friends." Sometimes that's all that gets me out of bed in the morning. I love you all!
So...there it is. The challenge to all reading this is to complete the same exercise. If you blog, write your own "Five Things" post. If not, think it out. It will make you feel good. I promise.
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