Oh No You DIDN'T!

Oh yes we did.

Congratulations, Mr. President.

Congratulations, Everyone.

Woot!!

ETA: Did Aretha Franklin's performance remind anyone of this poem? Moving.

Perking Up

There is light at the end of the tunnel. It's faint, but visible. Little bro gets out of the hospital tomorrow (after nearly 3 weeks there). My little dude seems to be on the mend. Its the Friday before a 3 day weekend. My Husband has actually been sleeping. We had a wonderful visit with my mom and youngest brother. Our New President is sworn in on Tuesday.

The stars are realigning.

So, in the spirit of optimism, here, finally, are my goals for the new year. I don't say resolutions because, I dunno... that word is just so certain, so final. If you mess up you feel like a loser who might as well just quit right now and go work at burger king, stop washing your hair and have chili cheese fries for every meal. Goals are just that...goals. There's a little flex room built in. And if you simply make progress towards a goal, it still counts. Or at least that's what I tell myself.

1. Continue to improve my fitness- my goal here is to be able to competently run a 5K this summer. The treadmill I got for Xmas should help with this and when the warm(er) weather returns, the pavement and I will get reacquainted. I'll keep doing the 30 Day Shred like I have been and now that I no longer nurse Little O at lunch, that opens up that time to walking home for lunch on nice days.

2. Write more. Try to write every day. Even if its just "Today was." in my journal. I'd like to have another essay published in a zine* this year...who knows?

3. Learn new music on the piano. I'm currently looking for a new piano book to learn but I also want to teach myself some things by ear...possibly beginning with this song. I love it.

4. Get better at knitting socks.

5. Relax. Live. Laugh. Enjoy my kid. Love my husband. Chill with friends more often. Appreciate the small things and realize how incredibly fucking lucky I am to have such a kick ass family, steady employment, beautiful place to live and all that. Take time to smell the cookies. (Because, hello, cookies way better than roses IMHO).

*Oh, I didn't tell you guys about that? Yeah, I had an essay published in a very small zine. It was kinda cool. And gave me a taste for bigger and better things...

SuperCRAPifragilisticexpialidocious

So things are perfectly craptacular at the mo'- little brother still in hospital (but on a slow road to recovery), shitty weather, my own mild case of something resembling seasonal affective disorder...all compounded by the fact that NO ONE IN OUR HOUSE IS SLEEPING. Not sure if its teething or the cold we have all been fighting, but Little O was up with fever and screaming and DID I MENTION THE SCREAMING for a long time last night. This on top of my husband's apparent (and oh so vexing) insomnia which turns him into a bear, and me, consequently into a shrew.

Oh. Just talked to daycare and I need to go get the little dude at lunch. Having a bad morning, fever is back. Now I feel bad for taking him at all. But he honestly seemed fine this morning. Poor little guy.

Anyway. Time for a list of my favorite things to help pull me out of the craptastic doldrums:

1. Decaf Green Tea. With honey, even. Yum.

2. Smartwool socks. Love them for me and for the little dude. Pricey but worth it.

3. The Southern Vampire Mysteries series. Yeah, that's right. I'm continuing my year of cheesy vampire lit. This is the one that HBO's True Blood is based on. And pretty gawl darned entertaining, y'all.

4. Our new Sunday dinner ritual. Frequenters of this blog will know that we are not religious folk. But the husband and I were both raised attending church and kind of miss the family-ness that such an activity provided. Oila! Sunday Dinner is born! Each Sunday we have been choosing a new recipe (from The Best Recipe, natch) and cooking it together. Even Little O helps by standing on a chair and beating measuring cups together. Its really quite adorable. So far, we've made pot roast, spaghetti and meatballs, and meatloaf. All delicious.

5. The returning light. I love it that there is now some light left when I get off work, trudge to my car and make my way home (with a slight detour to pick up the dude from daycare.) It will only get better from here.

Well that made me feel better...how 'bout you?

So, yeah. I am a sentimental fool.

I'm working on a post about my goals for the new year, but I'm having a hard time with it because so far this year TOTALLY SUCKS. Yeah, we're only a week into it but- it has been a SHITTY week.

So in the meantime, please enjoy this video. It made me tear up. No really, it did. I'd better not be pregnant again...**



**HAHA! Of course, I'm not. Thank you, Mirena.

With a Bang

Hi! Miss me? Well dry your weeping eyes because I'm back. Yay!

And a little the worse for wear, I'm afraid. The holiday break started out nicely...time at the in-laws eating, opening presents, and generally making merry. Then it was back home, one lovely day with just the 3 of us, and then a stolen day for just the Husband and I...

But then. A phone call. My little brother had a skiing accident and was in the hospital in Denver. As the closest relatives, Little O and I hopped in the car and headed down to the big city to see what we could do.

There were insurance questions and surgery related decisions to be made and, get this, he didn't want our parents to know. Gah! I finally convinced him to tell them and my mom arrived a couple days later.

After major back surgery, he is going to recover but it will be a long, hard road and require a major life-style change, i.e., no more skiing off 30 ft. cliffs. Um...duh.

So yeah. That was my holiday break. Now, I'm on to thinking about New Year's goals and trying to get the hang of being back at work. How are you?

When the Dog Bites, When the Bee Stings...

My Favorite Things Today:

*Now that the Solstice is behind us, I love looking for that extra few minutes of light every day. Its nice.

*Also. Today is my last day of work...for 12 days! That's almost 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS WITHOUT WORKING, PEOPLE! This makes me glow almost more than sex. Or even chocolate. I kid you not.

*Snow. Lots of it. Very holiday-like. Not sure how our roads will be for the holiday traveling tomorrow but I'm enjoying the picturesque views out my window.


Speaking of traveling, I have a lot to do tonight, before we leave tomorrow. We'll only be gone for a couple days, but any of you parents know that when you're traveling with a kid (one in diapers, no less), you always need more stuff than you think you will. So I'll be packing up tonight- putting presents in boxes, diapers in bags, cookies in tins, survival kit in the trunk (you know, just in case)...

It will be nice to see family but the thing I'm looking forward to most of all is the after part- the part where we are hanging out at home, doing our thing, spending time together. I plan on knitting, reading, playing with my kid and generally enjoying myself immensely.


Wishing all of you a very happy holiday, full of YOUR favorite things!!

Give Peace a Chance

Like most of us, I am many things to many different people: Daughter, Wife, Sister, Mother, Friend, Employee...I am a Reader, a Writer, a Knitter, a Cook...And, one of the titles I've identified with a great deal during my life has been Musician.

I began playing the piano as a toddler, played woodwinds in school (clarinet, flute, saxophone), took voice lessons, guitar lessons...I've always loved music. And now, in my busy adult life, while I don't have as much time for playing music as I would like, I still listen to music every day and sing to my son whenever I get the chance. And some nights, when the house is dark and the little boy has finally succumbed to sleep, you can find me playing the works of Beethoven, Tori Amos, and the Righteous Brothers softly on my piano before bed.

Maybe that's the reason this clip had me reaching for the tissue box. In the spirit of the season and all of our wishes for Peace, enjoy: