Tchotchkes and other stuff.

Just stopping in long enough to say that on this Tuesday in January, I took Pete for a walk wearing shorts and a tank top. That is, I was wearing the shorts and tank top. Pete was not. Anyway, it was a balmy 74 degrees according to my thermometer, which may have been rendered inaccurate five days ago when it was 5.9 degrees, but I'm going to take the nice weather, whatever the official statistics were.

Then I came home and submitted my discussion board thingy (that's a technical term) for the week, and also wrote a 7-page paper that I will submit tomorrow.

Also, I was witness to the use of the word tchotchke in two separate instances today, and for whatever reason, it struck me as odd. I can't even remember the last time I heard or saw that word, and then—BAM—twice in one day. Isn't that strange?

No?

Maybe it's because of all the work and not enough rest.

Be thankful ~

Friday.

Remember everything I said yesterday I was going to do today? I did it all.

Pete made it through his semiannual exam and vaccinations, but only after sitting in the waiting area crying like a little girl and then lying down and refusing to budge when the vet tech tried to lead him to the exam room. It was a little embarrassing.

Also, we did not get the snow they forecast for today, and I'm quite happy with that. I'm not a snow fan. We woke up to a little bit Thursday morning,

but that was it. Yay! Time for spring now.

Leah, Abbey, and Mansquared came home this weekend to celebrate Abbey's 23rd birthday. She got a set of pots and pans. I can't decide if that's really lame or a great gift, but she needed them and she's happy. She requested red velvet cupcakes, so I found the recipe from Georgetown Cupcake. Yum-o.

Going to bed now.

Be thankful ~

Thursday update.

Today I finished my assignments for this week and read three of the four chapters for next week. I also started formulating a plan for next week's interview assignment, which I'll probably elaborate on after I actually do it. Made dinner, did laundry, and now I'm making cupcakes for tomorrow night's children's program at the missions conference. It really only made 22. Do you think they'll believe me?

I have photographic proof of 22 cupcakes hot out of the oven, but my fancy 4G phone can't manage to send the photo to my email address, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Tomorrow Pete has a vet appointment. I have to go to the commissary and read that last chapter, do some sweeping up of the hair and make sure the kids' bathroom is clean (three of them are coming home this weekend for Abbey's birthday), and plan a suitable amount of food since Mansquared will be here. Abbey has requested a red velvet cake, and since I don't know how to make one, I'm using the recipe from Georgetown Cupcake and making cupcakes instead. I don't think she'll complain. And somewhere in there I have to buy wrapping paper and wrap her presents before she gets home. The box is so big there's no place for me to hide it.

Also, I got an anonymous comment on yesterday's post that said, "Proud of you mom!" and I can't tell which of  my children that was. So I went to StatCounter to research who might have visited the blog last night, and while I never figured out which kid it was, I did make the startling discovery that most of my viewers are in Lynchburg, Virginia! I laughed right out loud! *high five to everyone in Lynchburg* Thanks, guys!

And that's the end of today.

Be thankful ~

In case you were wondering.

Blogging does not happen when you try to juggle one class, three clients, two children away at college, a gym schedule, and keeping dog food in the house.

That's what I've been doing. A large part of the class issue has been remembering to attach things to my assignments in Blackboard.

Blackboard? It's the virtual classroom. It's where you interact with your professor and classmates, find out about upcoming assignments, and turn those assignments in.

Last time I went to college, I was the cool kid who had an electric typewriter. We learned BASIC, one of the first computer languages, in which you wrote a program that would draw a simple diagram and the computer would print it on this long folding card. Then you turned in the card (by actually handing it to your professor who was a human), and he fed it into a little card reader on the side of the computer to find out if your program worked. And grades were written by hand on report cards. And you went through the dining hall line and gave your number—VERBALLY—to the lady at the end of the line.

So I'm a little out of my element here. So far I've turned in my first two papers without attaching the articles they were written about. Go, me. But my professor is a child who is very understanding with the OLDEST person in the class. She has her doctorate at the same age I was having my first baby, who is now a grown man.

So there's not much time to blog.

Be thankful ~

Time to blog.

Today I got this anonymous comment:

Time to blog.

Indeed. It's been six days since I've written here, but I've been keeping myself quite busy. I've edited a book and finished the first week's assignments in my first master's level course, Advanced Educational Psychology. I was a nervous nut-bag about the class work, so as soon as I got up Monday morning, I dove in with a vengeance. I was finished with all of it, including the first paper, by Tuesday afternoon. Now that I know I really can get it all done, I'll probably turn into a slacker.

Or not. I've already done half the reading for next week and spent yesterday evening finding the three articles I have to review for the next paper, due in week two. This afternoon I'll try to finish the reading and then start on the articles.

And what else? It's been raining since Monday, and even though it's 42° right now, they're predicting snow tonight. A little freeze will be good though. It might make it easier to get the truck out of the bottom of the backyard, where it sits in six or eight inches of mud. Next time we move, I want a level piece of land.

I've spoken to Mansquared once this week, and things seem to be going well for him. When he was getting ready to go and we were making his packing lists, I mentioned he should have an umbrella. The students affectionately call it "Drenchburg." He declined. So yesterday Abbey went to Walmart and got him an umbrella and took it to him. She assured him it was okay by saying, "It's black. That's manly." He replied, "I would take it if it was pink." He's been introduced to Drenchburg.

Tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday are all supposed to be sunny. I'm ready for it!

Be thankful ~

Mansquared goes to college.

Yesterday was the big day. We loaded up the truck with bags and Rubbermaid containers and pillows and blankets and a huge pile of hanging clothes, and made the trek to Lynchburg again, this time to move Mansquared into his dorm at Liberty University.

I might have cried a little.

Okay, I sobbed.

We began the day by driving the first two miles from home with the tailgate down before Mansquared asked if anyone had shut it. When we all claimed it was HIS responsibility, he denied it and we argued, and finally he said, "I'm pretty sure we've established that I'm 19 and I know everything." After securing the tailgate and ensuring we hadn't lost anything, we were on our way. Mansquared was doing all the driving.

We got there and got him moved it, then headed over to campus to pick up his ID card and books. Then we had lunch with Abbey and Cesia (my little Latina baby) and went back to campus for a meeting with an advisor, which lasted about an hour.

By that time, I could tell by looking at him that Mansquared was suffering from information overload—no more available RAM, download has stalled.

That meant it was time for a trip to Walmart. Because what 19-year-old doesn't love to shop?

This one. But there were things he wasn't going to live without (a foam mattress topper and a microwave. Hello? Popcorn?) so we persevered. By the time we got back to his dorm and got all the stuff put away and the bed made, it was 3:30 and I needed to get going. I still had to stop by Abbey's house and drop off some food I had brought from home for her.

I stood near Mansquared and said, "I can't leave without the keys."

He reluctantly handed them over and we hugged. Commence sobbing. This is, after all, my baby. I assured him that if we weren't absolutely sure he could handle this, we wouldn't leave him. We talked about the semi-annual first-week-of-classes freak-out that is typical, and he promised he wouldn't call me crying. :) After one last hug, I left.

And continued sobbing all the way to Abbey's house. She, however, was ready for me. She made me a cup of tea and patted my hand and told me he would be fine. Which I already knew, but it was hard anyway.

All I ever wanted to be was a mom who stayed at home and raised my children. And just like that, it's over. I'm stunned at how quickly it all went.

Finally, I got in the truck for the 3-hour drive home. I fretted and prayed about how Mansquared would do. Would he make the right friends? Handle the work? Get along with his roommate? Part of my worry had to do with the fact that there are very few people on campus right now. These first few days are just for the new transfer students to get acclimated. I knew he had a welcome session at 6:30, so I figured I would find out later how it went.

At 9:30 last night I texted him, "So how was the welcome thingie?"

He replied, "I won the push up contest in front of 300 people, made a ton of new friends, and ate a cookie. I'm good."

I laughed and cried all over again. Our God is so good. He gives us exactly what we need, when we need it. Mansquared is going to be fine.

Be thankful ~

What did you do today?

For those of you who don't know me on facebook, we got the happy call yesterday that our son Mike is back safely in the States. He came in through Bangor, Maine, where a big group of people hang out at the airport (with their dogs even) and greet returning service members. They take photos of them, and then you go to their website to see a photo of your loved one, who invariably looks like he/she has spent the last 20 hours on several airplanes. Mike definitely looked tired, but it was great to see his smile. He was talking to me in this photo:

Someday when I'm old and gray(er), maybe I'll do that too. And rock crack babies in the hospital.

Today I functioned at a high level. I started out by reading 11 chapters in Genesis. When I get to the story of Joseph, I just can't stop in the middle so I keep going. Then checked email, made a pot of spaghetti sauce and cleaned up the kitchen, started laundry; vacuumed, swept, and mopped the wood floors, and vacuumed the rugs. Locked Pete in his box. Then I laid out Mansquared's quilt layers, pinned and stitched, turned it all right-side out, pinned and stitched again, and as I was snipping the last thread, my phone alarm rang to remind me of the tele-meeting I have on Tuesday afternoons. Spent an hour and fifteen minutes brainstorming and laughing uproariously with my co-workers, then hung up and wrote next week's blast for a half hour. Ben came home, I made dinner, cleaned up, and read through the syllabus for my class.

And that brings us to now, which is about twenty minutes before I turn into a pumpkin. Last Sunday, our pastor preached about redeeming the time. I think I did okay today.

Mansquared has one more day at home. Pete is already moping.

Be thankful ~

January 5.

Well it's a good thing I didn't resolve to write on the blog every day.

I am still here, still busy (aren't we all?), still organizing my life with wads of sticky notes strewn around my desk.

We successfully got Abbey back to Lynchburg yesterday and we are in full get-Mansquared-ready-to-leave mode, and in the midst of the cooking-shopping-laundry-packing-oh-dang-I-forgot (fill in the blank) frenzy, I continue to edit my current project while inserting snippets of marketing copy here and there for a different client. And getting all the bills paid. I am Wonder Woman.

(Just took a short break to be introduced to Duck Dynasty. It might be the funniest show ever.) 

January 6.

And with that, I hit the wall. If you've never been a distance runner, you may not know what "the wall" is, so I will explain. When you set out to train for a half marathon—13.1 miles—you are supposed to run successively longer runs each weekend in preparation. Your longest training run should be something MORE than 13.1. This is because when distance running, when you get to the length of your longest run, you feel like you've hit a wall and it's very hard to push through it. Almost impossible, in fact. My longest training run last year was 12 miles, and it was ten days before the race. So on race day, when I got to the 12-mile mark, I literally could not make myself run. I probably walked half of the last mile, stunned the whole time that I really, honestly COULD NOT run. I managed to pick my feet up enough to shuffle across the finish line, but that was it. When my foot hit the line, I stopped.

So that's what happened last night. I hit my wall, shut the computer down, and went to bed. And now I've crammed two boring days into one post.

Be thankful ~