jennanddave.com

Last December I signed on for a gig with a local organization. I officially started in January and have really enjoyed it. In theory I'm going to be getting paid, however, nothing's really come of anything to that end, and I have to confess, I don't particularly care. Dave's going to kick me in the butt for that last bit because he's still laboring under the misapprehension that I'm going to be the one who earns us millions of dollars by writing the Great American Novel*, whereas my attitude is: F. Scott Fitzgerald's already done it, so why bother? Meanwhile, it's nice to be using my brain for something other than remembering to wash diapers, or feed the kids, or get out of bed.

Although it's not a full-time job, there's enough backing and forthing through email about organization-related stuff, that I've found myself back in full-time work mode, where once five o'clock roles around, I'm done. In this case that means, I'm done checking email, because I don't want to know. Whatever happens after five will still be there tomorrow morning. This is a very good thing. I had previously gotten into the habit of not checking my email after nine or so, because once it's that late, there's really nothing to be done about anything that might come up, other than staying up late, losing sleep, and fretting. Five is an even better cut-off time. I generally think the problem with email is we're always at work, even when we're at home, so even though we think we're having some quality down-time, we're really not. There's a lot to be said for cutting that particular cord, because it's just not worth the anxiety. You should see Dave try to give up email when we go on vacation. It's pretty funny.

* Speaking of the Great American Novel, I've been reading "Infinite Jest" since Thanksgiving. I'm now about 30% of the way through. It's good. It's also very, very long. Some of the footnotes are like short stories. My dad takes great pleasure in asking me how it's going and then laughing when I tell him how much farther I've gotten. So although my Kindle list makes it look like I've stalled out on reading, I really haven't. My new goal is to finish this book before next Thanksgiving. I think I can do it. I think.

Posted by Jenn at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Monday's are my busiest day of the week at home. In order to keep the house looking some semblance of clean, I have to maintain a schedule of things to do on a given day during the week. If I don't, everything goes to pot. Fast. So on Mondays I do all of the laundry, including the sheets, and I vacuum and mop. By "mop" I mean wet Swiffer. It's kind of a nightmare to get all of it done, but I don't like doing a load of laundry here or there because then I feel like I'm doing it all of the time, and if there's one thing I don't love, it's laundry. Actually, that's not true. I don't mind doing the laundry. I don't like folding the clothes and putting them away. Also, since I'm talking about it, I don't mind loading and running the dishwasher, but I hate putting the clean dishes away. I've been known to hand wash the dinner dishes in order to avoid emptying the dishwasher. Once I even did it without realizing Dave had already put everything away. Oh, the laughing. You know what makes killing yourself on a Monday to get the house looking decent for the week really satisfying? A five year old who takes great exception to being asked to put a random toy or two back up in his room. "Why do you make me do EVERYTHING?!?!" Hah! Yeah, right kid. Which is pretty much what I told him. I offered to let him vacuum, the novelty of which wore off many moons ago, for both of us. He declined.

Yesterday Henry told me he loves me as much as an electron. That's pretty small. Happily, it's better than the "not even a little bit" it used to be though, so, progress!

Posted by Jenn at 07:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

First of all, today's retronaut is brilliant. I was laughing out loud by the end.

It's gorgeous outside. After Henry was safely on the bus to school, Holly and I walked Dave to work. We took a long circuitous route home and while we were passing the playground, we saw another little girl there who, as it turns out, is two weeks younger than Holly, so we stopped and played for a while. Little kids this age are hilarious around each other. Lots of staring and following and playing next to each other. It was so nice to be outside and making new friends. We came home for a quick snack and change of muddy, wet clothes, then met some old friends at a different, far less wet park. Holly is very intrepid at the park. She knows what she's capable of and will do something over and over again until she's got it figured out. She spent a lot of time going back and forth over a wobbly bridge, then went up stairs and down a slide many times. She's totally different from Henry who was/is extremely cautious at the park and insists vehemently that he can't do any of it while gingerly trying anyway, sometimes carrying through, and sometimes giving up from fear of death and doom. They're going to be great balances for each other.

Right now Holly's upstairs sleeping off all of that adventure. I'm heading in that direction myself, I think. Thank goodness for the February warmup, no matter how brief it is.

Posted by Jenn at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Holly had her 18 month checkup this morning at 8am. You know what else was going on at 8am? That's when Henry's bus arrives at the bus stop to whisk him away to school. And for one day only, that was also the time a plumber we hired to connect the gas to our new fireplace insert was due to come. Talk about piling it on. It was a slight strategic nightmare because there are only two of us and we technically needed to be in three places all at once. It worked out, but we really do need to start paying attention to the things that we already have written down on our calendar before we tack on other things.

Anyway, Holly's no fool. As soon as we get to the exam room now she starts getting misty-eyed. As soon as she finds herself on the actual exam table, she loses it completely. All in all though, she handled herself pretty well and still managed to charm everyone through her tears. She's shot up to the 90th percentile in height and is at 50th percentile for weight (~24 pounds) so she's long and lean. She's been solidly in the 50th percentile since she was born, but about a week ago it just sort of suddenly occurred to me when I was looking at her that she seemed a lot less like a baby. It's weird how kids seem to change overnight at various times during the year between 1 and 2 years old.

To add salt to the wound of having to go to the doctor's in the first place, she also happens to have a cold. We got a prescription for antibiotics which I thought was kind of jumping the gun since she doesn't have any ear infections and that although she was a big mucus-y mess, it was the first big day of being sick and who isn't a big mucus-y mess at that point? The dr. who examined her was convinced that we'd be back within a week so we've got the prescription which we can fill if Holly gets worse. Which I still feel weird about. But anyway.

Last night I ate too much chocolate before bedtime and was up until 2 or 3 tossing and turning and buzzing. It may have been worth it.

Posted by Jenn at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This has been a very busy week. Holly and I have been on the move in the mornings, then tired and restless in the afternoons. It's felt like we've had three things on our plate every day, which is a lot when usually the most I try to count on accomplishing is "clean one bathroom", which is often followed by "at least the bits people can see". (Our poor shower curtain conceals the truth.) As long as I don't have to leave the house to get something done, there's a decent chance of it happening. Anyway, this is all a lead-in to what has been keeping us all giggling and in generally good spirits this week: the way Holly says "butterfly". I got her on video saying it so we can remember it always. I have a feeling this movie in particular is going to make both grandmothers jump into the nearest car and head straight to Pennsylvania to get in lots of smooches and hugs. I apologize in advance.

Posted by Jenn at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

There's something about this time of year. Cabin fever sets in. The house starts to feel really small, as opposed to just its usual, unembellished "small". (Or "cozy", if I were a realtor.) Everywhere we look there's stuff, which in the summer doesn't weigh us down when we're spending most of our days outside, but which in the winter starts to crowd around us. So, inevitably, the purging begins.

Unfortunately for the kids, because life is super unfair, I'm starting with their rooms. The pile of junk that had amassed on top of Henry's dresser has been giving me eye tics whenever I've looked at it. Also, he clings to stuff that he hasn't ever really played with, so it's best to clear out his room and spirit his toys away to Goodwill when he's at school. Holly could care less, so she's easy.

I'm currently in the frame of mind where if we haven't used it in the past six months, it would probably serve someone else better. This is a good frame of mind for me to be in, as far as Dave's concerned. He's decided that we have traded hoarding tendencies, he being the reformed hoarder and me being the new bearer of that particular trait. I tend to disagree with him. I think a lot of our stale mates come down to the conundrum of "To yard sale or not to yard sale". I'm firmly in the camp of get it out of the house as fast as possible, but Dave would like to see some green for our purging efforts, so we often stop after we've filled one big box that languishes in the garage until Dave gets grumpy about it and then we talk about the whole yard sale issue again, as in "We *have* to have one," followed by "We will. Definitely. How about two weeks from now?"

We're both Libras. Sometime's it really shows.

Posted by Jenn at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last week on Thursday I signed Henry up for a circle of music class that meets Monday nights. Then on Friday he came home and after much thought and consideration told me he'd like to take a "Silly Science" class that meets after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So, just like that, three out of our five school-week evenings have become a little nuts. I don't handle nuts very well, but while I've been tearing my hair out trying to teach Henry manners and to be respectful of adults and to not be so gosh-darned obsessive/compulsive, he's been teaching me to go with the flow. More like forcing me, but whatever. So here we go again.

He's very excited about this science class because they're going to be learning about magnetism and electricity. He's REALLY looking forward to learning about electricity. The last time we went to my parents house, he rearranged extension cords when no one was looking. His obsession with our future Christmas light display has grown to include how all of the lights are going to be connected to the garage outlet via a complex web of splitters and cords. All of his drawings of what our house is going to look like now include big black wires all leading down to power strips. It's very weird. He gets it from Dave. Sadly, yesterday's class was all about magnetism, and he glumly informed me that they must have run out of time because they didn't talk about electricity at all. After being reassured that there would be classes coming up that will be devoted exclusively to electricity, just as yesterdays was devoted to magnets, he perked right up and told me all of the cool stuff they did. He's looking forward to going again, so I'd say it's a rousing success. You just never know how these things are going to go.

Posted by Jenn at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The current state of things, in the always inspiring list format (Featuring a colon! And dashes!):

- Last night Henry opted not to have a book read to him before bed. Instead he focused on very diligently writing out Valentine's for his classmates. The first one he wrote out was to his teacher. The second one was to a girl who, at the end of last school year, he said looks just like Tinkerbell. Take from that what you will.

- Whenever Holly sees a picture of a man with gray hair, she says "Paw-paw!". When she sees a boy with brown hair, she says "Hen-y!" When she sees a boy with light blond hair, she says "We-oh!"

- Last night while Henry was working on his Valentines, I worked on a sweater I'm making for myself. It's pretty bulky yarn so it works up fast. Later, around 10:30, I realized I had misread the pattern directions and had to rip out about five inches, leaving only the inch of ribbing I did for the neck (it's a top-down pattern). This was demoralizing. I'm six rows away from being back where I was, except this time with added paranoia!

- Henry is signed up for an after-school science class that doesn't get out until 4:45. I don't have a problem with this. Really. I'm fine.

My baby!

Posted by Jenn at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dave has a very exciting spring ahead of him. He's going to start keeping bees at our friend's family's orchard. This is something he's been interested in doing and has talked about off and on since we moved into a single family house with a yard. I, however, have had no desire to share my backyard space with a bunch of bees; the squirrels and stray cats are bad enough. (Btw, for future reference, don't make the mistake of googling "bee's nest". It'll give you the heebie-jeebies for life. Unless you're Dave, who probably won't be bothered in the least, but to whom I can at least say "SEE? SEE? ARGH!" because they would totally forgo the nice, wood hive for, say, our attic. Or our bedroom, most likely settling in next to my side of the bed.) (I have a problem with bees, especially large groups of them.)

Today he placed an order for two sets of package bees, which will be ready to be picked up in May. He used a gift card he got for Christmas from my Grandma for part of the payment. He told me it really took the sting out of the cost. Ba-dum-bum-ching!

And just like that, the onslaught of bad bee jokes begins.

Posted by Jenn at 02:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We're having a snow day,
a freezing cold snow day,
the temperatures fallin',
the kid's are not bawlin',
it's not as bad as I thought it would be!

I'll be here all week...

There's a strong possibility that school will also be cancelled tomorrow. This morning we had an impromptu, necessarily-within-walking-distance playdate, after which we came home and had lunch, made a tissue-paper "stained glass" thingy (for lack of a better descriptive word) to hang in a window, then Dave took Henry off to the park for some sledding, which is where they are now. I'm thinking about trying to make some cinnamon buns. Or not. Maybe I'll sit and stare into space for a while. That can be a pretty rewarding activity. Meanwhile, I'm stockpiling things to fill up our time tomorrow in case school is cancelled and, worst case scenario, the power goes out due to all of the ice we're supposed to get hit with.

Despite the weather, I'm really glad it's February.

Posted by Jenn at 03:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)