What I saw today ...

A very full creek ...

Stupid humidity fogging up my stupid eyeglasses ...

... And this guy. He's our favorite cat in the neighborhood. Well, except for our own. 

Back in the saddle ...

So it's been a few days - hard to get back in the swing of things after being on vacation, then having an atypical holiday week. And yes I know those are flimsy excuses. I'm choosing to focus on the fact that although I did not want to get up early today and walk, I did it. 

Yesterday, Bobby got up and walked. I'm a fairly light sleeper and usually hear his alarm go off, or him getting dressed, or something that wakes me up. Yesterday ... nothing! Guess I needed the sleep. I told myself that I'd walk later in the day (too hot) or that I'd ride my exercise bike (too boring) and before I knew it I was cleaning up from dinner and hadn't done a thing. I'm discovering that it's definitely better for me to get this daily walk thing out of the way as early as possible. 

What I saw:

Moon-shaped (sort of) mushroom formation. 

Little snail that I almost stepped on while stretching. 

Unusual mist blanketing the nearby hillside. (Unusual in the sense that we don't often have mist there ... not that there's anything paranormal about the mist itself.)

And today's summary:

I actually incorporated three short jogs ...

not really sure I'm cut out for jogging but I'm trying to work it in when I can. Not represented here is a 1/3-mile cool down with a very slow dog. :)

Until tomorrow!

What I saw yesterday!

We got rained on during yesterday's family walk, and once I came home, showered, and ate dinner, I didn't feel like posting a blog entry. So here are some of yesterday's sights:

A happy girl on a scooter ...

A just-bathed dog in the creek ...

And blackberries ripening on the vine!

What I saw today ...

Ha ha - this is a shot from today's exercise time ... and it's not a walk! I decided to sleep in, and I didn't want to be walking in the heat, so I rode our stationary bike while watching Rick Steves' Europe, one of my favorite travel shows. While Rick was walking the stairs  up the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral, my legs were burning too!

Here's a screen shot of the time I rode. 

I rode for as long as I walk, but I think I was sweating a lot more! 

Walkin' and trash diggin'

Today's walk took place later in the morning - my hubby is off work today, so we slept in a bit, got Mag off to day camp, and then walked together. It's a lot hotter and sunnier than what we're used to ... but I lathered on the sunscreen and hopefully won't feel it later! 

What did we see? 

The creek near the entrance to our neighborhood. 

Then on the way back, I scored this find from someone's junk pile that was at the curb awaiting pickup. Amidst a pile of old lawn furniture and mangled metal I found this gem:

I think it's part of a bigger trellis, but it's the perfect size for me to use in a large pot - I'm thinking clematis would climb nicely up this baby. 

Here's today's walk summary ... with a slower pace today due to the heat!

Daily walk

What I saw on my daily walk:

Blurry rabbits, since they don't like being photographed. 

Beautiful hydrangeas - I've got to plant some of these!

I also remembered I have an app that tracks running and walking. You just fire it up and it tracks time, speed, elevation, distance, and calories burned. It's a little disconcerting to see such a low number when it comes to calories burned, but I'm reminding myself that, at least for now, the important thing is that I'm getting out there and doing something!

Um, no, i didn't run. This was before I figured out how to change the exercise type. This also doesn't include an addition quarter-mile cool down during which I came home and got the dog. He drags my pace down considerably!

Pinterest fail

I've been on Pinterest for about a year now, and like most people, I LOVE it. (I'd link to my boards, but I'm blogging from my phone now and don't know how to insert links.) Anyway, I'm proud of myself that I've actually attempted several of the things I've pinned. Most of the time they work out great, albeit considerably less attractive than the original pin. 

Today I attempted homemade bubble mix - a concoction that's supposed to result in sturdy, even stackable, giant bubbles. The recipe called for six cups of water, one cup of corn syrup, and two cups of Joy dishwashing liquid. I halved it. I also made a few substitutions ... well, pretty much everything but the water. (As a side note, I do this a lot in my cooking too. It's a big joke to my friend Deborah, who calls it the Leeler Substitution Method of cooking. And like Pinterest, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.)

I didn't have corn syrup, so I used honey instead. It's a thick, sticky liquid, so it's basically the same thing, no? And I didn't have Joy brand of dish liquid. I normally use Eco-friendly brands - Mrs. Meyer's lemon verbena is my current fave ... omgosh it smells SO good - but there's no way I was paying $6 or more a bottle for this crafty experiment. So I bought the $1 bottle of Great Value soap just for this project. 

Big time fail. 

The liquid was way too runny, so I added more soap. And more soap. And finally the entire bottle. Maggie and her friends couldn't even produce a single bubble, let alone the stackable giants we'd been promised.  

The finished product - 3 cups of water, 1/2 cup of honey, and a whole lotta cheap-ass dish soap. 

The kids were happily undaunted by the failed bubble mix. (Well, all but my daughter, who by this time was on the porch milking a wasp sting.) They stirred it and splashed it and had a grand time until one boy poured the bowlful onto the head of another. Onto the head and into the eyes. 

Nothing puts a halt to summer fun like an entire bottle of Great Value dish soap in the eye. Running through the sprinklers, anyone?

Testing, testing ... Is this thing on?

This will probably be of zero interest to anyone other than my mother, but I've decided to dust off the old blog and start her up again. Part of my reasoning is that I want to do a better job chronicling our life - mostly Maggie's. Part of it is that I miss writing, even though it usually feels like a task I'm way too busy for. And part of it is to hold myself accountable. 

See, I'm trying to start exercising regularly. It's nothing major, just walking, but it's something I've never been able to stick with. Today was my first day. I figure if I can document my walk here each day, I'll be more likely to keep at it. Someone I follow has a blog called "What I saw on my walk today," where she posts a picture from her daily walks along Florida's Amelia Island. I think I may do the same. My walks won't be as interesting as Theresa's - she has a beautiful island at her doorstep, while I'm limited (mostly) to rushing through a small neighborhood - but I'm hoping to find uniqueness and beauty in this most ordinary of places. 

Today I didn't take any pictures, as I was still deciding along the way whether to even start this. But I did tally a few observations. Things I saw on my walk today: three rabbits, two robins wrestling over a worm, one fat gray cat, and one shaggy black dog who impeded my pace by stopping to, ahem, "mark his territory" every 30 seconds. Maybe I'll leave him at home tomorrow. 

Until then, welcome back! 

Why I Love Maggie's School, reason #976

Maggie is in an after-school art class, and after last week's class I found myself having the following conversation with her:

Maggie: "Is Santa real, or is it just the parents who put the gifts under the tree? Because Maddi Gribbs said it's just the parents, and she's a fifth-grader. I think she would know."
Mommy, cursing under breath for promising to tell the truth whenever asked: "Well, what do you think?"
Maggie: "I just don't know."
Mommy: "I think that as long as you believe in Santa, then he's real. When people stop believing, he stops bringing their gifts, and that's probably why Maddie's parents are the ones giving her gifts."

Mom, thinks "Nice save" as she imagines patting herself on back.

Two days before this conversation, we attended our church's annual Breakfast with Santa, where Maggie asked Santa for a microscope. Two days after this conversation, Santa visited Maggie's school. The morning of the school visit, Maggie declared she'd figured out a way to see if Santa was real: "I'll tell Santa today that I want a puppy. If he remembers that I asked him for a microscope on Saturday, then I'll know he's real!"

Cursing under my breath for wanting an intelligent child (ok, j/k on that ...), I wondered if there could - maybe, possibly, just maybe - be a way to get a message to School Santa. Could I give him a description of Maggie and ask him to play along? Could I invent reasons to stay at the school until Maggie's class came through? I eventally decided my scheme was too hard, too complicated, and not really fair to School Santa, so I let the matter drop. That is, until a friend and I, who were working on teacher gifts in the lunchroom, glimpsed School Santa walk in.

And let me just tell you that this guy looked. like. Santa. In blue jeans. The real guy ... but in jeans. Weird.

I guess seeing how real he looked sort of rekindled my desire to pull off the stunt. My friend suggested I write the Santa message on my photo order, so I raced across the gym to catch the staff member who had the order forms. Unfortunately, she said that neither Santa nor the photographer would see the forms. I thought I was back to square one, when she offered to keep a look out. Rose's office overlooks the gym area where the photos were being taken, and she said she'd try her best to watch for Maggie's class to come through.

And it all played out perfectly! She told me later that she saw Maggie's class come in, so she talked to Santa first. Maggie sat on his lap and had her picture taken, then before she could say anything to him, he leaned in to her and said, "Now ... if I'm not mistaken, you're the little girl who told me on Saturday that she'd like a microscope for Christmas. Is that still right?" Rose told me she wished she had a video camera to catch it -- she said Maggie's eyes got huge, and her head whipped around so fast Rose thought she'd get whiplash!

Here's Maggie with Santa, just before her shocking discovery:

(It's a cell phone picture of a picture, so it's really bad, but I had to include it. And try telling me that guy doesn't look like the real Santa.)

Oh, and the puppy? Santa vetoed that.

He really is real!

Christmas Card

Here's a peek at our 2011 Christmas card!!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Camp Joe Joe

This summer, Maggie spent three days at Camp Joe Joe, and it was seriously one of the coolest camps I've ever seen. Joe Jumper, aka "Joe Joe," owns The Clay Pot, an eclectic shop in the Riverview area, and he calls CJJ a "cool camp for creative kids." After Maggie's first experience there, I agree!

Initially, I thought the $125 price tag was a little steep, but lots of Maggie's school friends were going, and I knew she would enjoy it. And after seeing everything the kids did, I think it was well worth it! Here are a few pictures, thanks to Joe and facebook ... (he takes about 100 pictures each day of camp and then uploads them to facebook ... so fun to see everything they did!).

Because camp took place just a couple of months after the royal wedding, the kids learned about British fascinators and made their own!

They also got to tie-dye t-shirts ...

learn the famous Joe Joe Jump ...

make beautiful paper flowers ...

enjoy an impromptu dance party on top of a craft table ...

and make fun snacks like these apple-grape-marshmallow-chocolate monsters.

Daily playtime at Riverview Park, one block away, gave campers time to burn off their sweet snacks!

They also made canvas art, decorated a glass water bottle, jeweled flip-flops, and beautiful fresh flower arrangements with sunflowers, yellow roses, and gerbera daisies (my favorite!). I think Maggie's favorite thing was standing up on the tables during their spontaneous dance party - she couldn't stop talking about it! Just a few weeks ago, Joe Joe invited all campers to an end-of-summer party where they got CJJ tattoos, lots of neat snacks, and more arts and crafts.

We can't wait until Joe Joe's Ho-Ho Camp this December!!



Are you there, blog? It's me, Margaret ...

OK, it's not Margaret ... it's her mommy! I have taken perhaps the longest blogging hiatus ever, but I'm hoping to become more regular.

No, really. Stop laughing.

Since I haven't blogged here since April, I thought I'd give a quick update. Maggie finished kindergarten in May. She loved school and was actually not happy about having 2 1/2 months off!
At the end of the school year, her class (as well as K4 and K3) held a promotion ceremony. Maggie's teacher usually does an end-of-the-year photo slideshow, and I offered to do it this year. I have the special software, so I reasoned it would be a quick little weekend project. And it would have, if I hadn't had major technical difficulties the day before. The slideshow was finished - finished!! - and I could not for the life of me get it to burn correctly to a DVD. Long story short, I never did get THAT part of it working properly. I had to save it to a flash drive in a different format and pray that the church's computer would be able to read it. (It did, but only after much tweaking and cajoling and praying.) It did get rave reviews, and if I can ever figure out how to burn it correctly, I'll make copies for other parents.

I cried throughout the promotion ceremony. We're not talking dainty little tears here, we're talking heaving sobs that leave red splotches all over your face. I still don't know whether I was truly overcome with emotion or if I was bleary from sleeplessness. Yes, I got NO. SLEEP. the night before the ceremony. None. Haven't done that since college, and even back then I never could handle it well. After the ceremony, I left Maggie at school, came straight home, and took the deepest nap ever. (I never nap, but I don't think I had a choice this time. My body was sleeping whether I liked it or not.)

The day after promotion day was Maggie's last day of kindergarten. As I helped her get ready in the morning, I said to her, "This is the last day you'll be a kindergartner! After today, you'll be a first-grader." She humphed at me and responded, "I don't want to be in first grade. There aren't as many toys in there, and you have to do a lot more work." And I realized she was right! First grade is going to be a whole different ball game. Sigh.

At the end of the year, Maggie won an award for most AR points in kindergarten and also got a certificate for participating in the drama class.

Since Maggie was a bit bored over Christmas break, I planned more activities this summer than in years past. She did a week of cheer camp at The Little Gym, two weeks of camp at her school - more on that in a minute - and a super fun three-day camp called "Camp Joe Joe." CJJ was so seriously cool that it deserves its own post, so I'll do that later, or tomorrow.

She participated in the local library's summer reading program, which held its finale party this past weekend. To successfully complete the program, students had to read just 10 books. But because the reading log had spaces for 45 books, Maggie thought she had to read 45! I let her think that; she didn't quite make it, but she managed to read 39 before the party and has read another two since then. This summer she's gravitated toward easier picture books, and I haven't pushed her since it's summer. I figure as long as she's reading ...

Then, last night, I went out with a friend. When I came home - at nearly 10 p.m.! - she was still awake. Bobby had let her stay up as long as she was in her bed, reading. By the time I got home, she had finished four chapters in her new Magic Tree House book! What a genius idea! This may be a new summer rule, and maybe on Fridays during the school year. I'm finding that as reading becomes "old hat" to her, she is less motivated to do it herself. (She still loves for me to read to her, so we continue to do lots of that.)

In June, we went to Orlando with our best friends, who own a couple of timeshares down there. It was a really fun trip; we went to Discovery Cove and Islands of Adventure, and Bobby took Maggie to SeaWorld one day. The rest of the time was spent hanging out at our resort, swimming, and just hanging out and relaxing. Such a nice time. Discovery Cove also deserves its own past. Note to self...

On this trip, my good camera got dropped and the lens broke. I haven't replaced it yet, so this has been a relatively picture-less summer! What I've taken has all been taken on my phone camera; those aren't great, but I'll try to upload some anyway, just so you can see some of what we've done this summer.

Later!

Planning for the future

If you ask Maggie what she wants to be when she grows up, you'll get one of three answers - a doctor, a veterinarian, or a scientist. Or sometimes all three. Recently she gave me a list of items she would need in order to get started in these careers. She dictated the list to me, and after a while it became so interesting and diverse that I had to start writing them down.

Here, in no particular order, are the things Maggie thinks she'll need in order to achieve her career goals:

• band-aids (three boxes)
• magnifying glass
• alcohol swabs
• a CPR dummy
• gluten-free graham crackers
• cotton balls
• three drinking cups - one red, one blue, and one red and blue
• a sink
• shots and a finger "pricker"
• a bigger room

This little pig ...

This little pig looked cute ...

This little pig smiled big.

This little pig marched so silly ...

This little pig danced a jig.

 And this little pig cried "ha, ha, ha," all the way home.

The play's the thing ...

This past January, Maggie started an after-school drama class; she and three other kindergartners had their own group, called "No Small Parts." Last night, parents and other special guests were treated to their first performance of The 3 Little Pigs. The two drama teachers wrote a special script for the kids, in rhyme so it would be easier for them to remember their lines. There was also a surprise at the end of this "new" version!

Here are some photos from Monday night's dress rehearsal:

The three pigs, plus Mama Pig, before the show.

Mama Pig tells her three daughters that they must move out. They look surprisingly happy, having just been kicked out of their home!

Maggie extols the virtues of a brick house:

"I want my house to be strong and sturdy. Straw is too flimsy and sticks are too dirty."

Other scenes from the play.

The twist at the end? After burning his tail in the boiling pot of stew, our wolf decides to move to California and become a vegetarian.