Summer has come and passed...

I love today's reading from Daily Affirmations For Parents by Tian Dayton.  I'm pretty sure this book was written just for me. 

August 31st...

Life's Turnings

Today I accept my life as a long road with ups and downs. I have had all sorts of experiences, some painful, some joyous; a myriad of subtle changes woven together to make my life. My child's life is the same. She already has seen much of living and each thread is woven to the others to create what is and will be her life.  We are on a continuum together.  Beginning and ending seem almost an illusion when I let this awareness of the vicissitudes of time wash over me.  Events seem like part of an overall picture or pattern.  It's nice to feel a part of something continuing.

I accept life as a pattern.

"What is more enthralling to the human mind than this splendid, boundless, colored mutability! Life in the making?" David Grayson

Manic Monday: Phase 1 of the From The Compound Fall Schedule starts today.

Here's the breakdown:

5:45-6: Julie & Trevor Wake up

6-6:30: Showered & dressed (to shoes), bed made 

6:30-6:40: Julie wakes kids and start a load of laundry

6:30-6:40: Trevor downstairs starts breakfast & makes coffee

6:40-7: Kids showered, dressed (to shoes), & hair combed

7-7:20: Breakfast & teeth brushed

7:20-7:35: Grab backpacks, coats, iPod and WALK to grandma's or bus with Mom & Dad. 

Dad goes to work...SUCKER

7:20-7:35: Drop kids at bus or grandma's and go for walk/jog (Long Merry Christmas Loop) 

8:30-9: Shower, dress to shoes, little makeup, and leave for UWEX.

This schedule will change in 4 weeks from today, when I get rid of that pesky little thing called a job.

Have a great week.

Narrowing my focus.

This morning, in an effort to save money ('cause you know I never spend frivolously, she writes from her new iPad) I decided to NOT just throw out my bitchy, annoying, finicky coffee maker, but I decided to clean it.  Before you say-"Duh, you were going to throw it out before you cleaned it?" No, I have cleaned it a bunch of times.

But this morning, I decided to REALLY clean it...like 2.5 gallons of vinegar, a scouring pad, and a whole lot of elbow grease - clean.  It took a couple of hours between making pancakes for breakfast, helping Owen write a couple of thank you notes, polishing Sophia's toenails, and contacting photo clients about upcoming sessions.  I rinsed, scrubbed, and burned my fingers.  I dumped, refilled and dumped again. I washed, wiped and dried piece by piece, and guess what? COFFEE!  Yes, hot and with the right consistency.  It worked! My hard work, time and energy paid off. (Just in time too...I was seriously jonesing for some caffeine and the shakes were about to start.)

As I sip my hot french vanilla coffee with splenda & cream, I'm reminded of last weekend's Bloggy Boot Camp in Chicago and SITS Girl & blogging guru Tiffany Romero's wise words. She said "pick 3 things you want to do and focus on them. You can't do it all, so focusing on everything is a waste of your time & energy."  I totally related to her self-defecating humor "if I spent more time focusing on P90X, and not so much time focusing on cupcakes I'd probably look different."  Yeah, me too sister.

I've been giving my BIG 3 a lot of thought, and I'm slowly figuring out what parts of my life need to be prioritized differently to make this new adventure (of Freelance Badassing or Insult Consulting) successful and sustainable.  Today I chose to focus some of my time on a coffee maker, and something amazing happened...I drank a cup of delicious coffee just before lunch. I'm not sure if it's the surge of caffeine into my system or Tiffany's words, but I'm more convinced than ever that I'm going to be happy and content in this next chapter of my life, because if nothing else...I have coffee.

Cricket Symphony debuting tonight in The Compound...

The summer schedule in The Compound is a lot different then the rest of the year. All 3 households have more flexible schedules once school is out so bedtimes are pretty much nonexistent. Summer is a wonderful blend of pond swimming, bike riding and snake catching all day, followed by ghosts in the graveyard, dance parties and fire pit smores into the night. The days & nights are filled with the sounds of kids laughing, squealing and singing as they play with one another. Playing outside until well after dark is fine during June and July but now, about 2 weeks before school starts, we all start to get serious about the school year routine. 

Baths are taken and teeth are brushed at the same time baseball games were in the 1st inning a month ago. Bedtime arrives during what was dinnertime a week ago. Shampoo smelling school agers are reading bedtimes stories while The Compound is still illuminated by a setting sun. Tonight as I type this post the air is filled with crickets chirping, dogs barking and cars passing. These sounds usually compete with the laughs, songs and squeals of young Compoundians enjoying in the delights of summertime, but tonight the crickets are stealing the show.  

Happy New Year...

Flat out, hands down - fall is my favorite time of year.  I love the weather, the colors...the socks.  I totally adore summer, but I love "indian" summer more than anything.

Fall is like the beginning of the year for me.  Probably because of all the years my work was on the same schedule as the school calendar.  September 1st is like New Years Day...sans the snow, the cold and the miserable Spotted Cow hangover.  This time every year as the days get shorter and the air gets cooler, I start amping up to make changes.  I get psyched up about eating better, exercising more and spending wisely. I usually lose weight in the fall.  I usually save money in the fall.  But like most resolutions, I usually go back to my old shitty habits within a couple of months, and the cycle continues.

My yearly cycle is as regular as an old man's morning dump.  Seriously...it's the same routine every year that's pretty much triggered by the same events.  Normally, I get this itch at the end of summer and I get my shit together. I get feeling balanced, energized and motivated, and I do great until late October.  The downward slide usually starts by eating too much Halloween candy, which sets off a carb binge until March. Probably because the nights are long and the short days are spent work, work, working at a job (or jobs) that almost never fullfil me. Then after my kids' March birthdays, as the weather gets nice and the days get longer, I shake myself awake from my depressive, sugar-induced coma. Typically, I have a couple stable months of discipline until the month of 12 birthdays (June) when I eat enough cake and rhubarb pie to kill a horse and drink enough vodka slush to kill every brain cell in this measly little mind of mine.  Rock bottom generally comes right around my BFF Jamie's birthday in August...when I drink way too much and call some nurse anesthetist a tool or douche bag six or maybe, seven thousand times.

Are you a visual learner like me?  Maybe this chart will be easier to follow...

With the last few night's temperatures and the back to school flyers in the mail, I'm starting to feel the itch.  I want to workout and hang new photos.  I want to take classes and organize my pantry.  I want to give up sugar and soak up the late summer sun.  I want to start fresh!

Wanna know the best part of this "new year"?  I get to start completely fresh.  I won't have anyone at the office depending on me or a child at home needing to be nurtured. The only person who can muddle up my plans or goof up my goals is...me.

Wow! With that revelation...I think I need a brownie.

Who the hell needs Tony Robbins?!

"Little bit scary, but lots of fun."

This is what we once told Owen when he was little to describe tall slides, big pushes on the swings and any type of carnival, fair or waterpark rides.  This little jingle helped him remember that everything was going to be OK.  He sang it to himself as he pumped harder and higher on the swings, and he sang it to himself as he climbed up the steps of the really high slides.

He was a very cautious kid.  Luckily, he wasn't completely frozen by his fear, and he trusted us.  He knew we weren't going to put him in any kind of danger, so with a little coaxing he began to try one thing after another as he felt ready.  He just needed that reminder jingle to help him through.  Slowly over time, he realized the scary stuff was usually a total blast, and he began to need less and less coaxing.  The jingle was put up on the shelf, set aside for really big things like the high dive and the Black Anaconda.

My heart and soul are completely sure that I'm ready for this next part of my life...The part where I use my talents & gifts how I see fit.  The part of my life when I'm not just working for insurance or a paycheck, but working to actually live!  The part of my life when I choose love, contentment, and happiness with every new paragraph I write and every photograph I take.  The part of my life when I choose to help others reach their potential, not because I'm paid by some organization, but because it's what I want to do!

Yes, my heart and soul are convinced, but sometimes my head isn't. For the last few weeks, my head was stuck in TOO SCARY & TOO RISKY mode, and I was having a hard time moving out of it....until yesterday, when Owen says to me as he is getting ready for swimming lessons, "I can't wait to go off the high dive, I like the nervous feeling when I'm on the board and falling toward the water, and when I come up I feel totally awesome. I love it!"  My once jingle-needing little boy stopped me dead in my tracks.  As he finished the sentence, I had tears in my eyes and I shouted..."Yes Owen! Exactly, that's what life should be like - scary & awesome. That's where the good stuff is!"

Although, I shouted his name I think I meant to shout "Yes, Julie!!!!" Owen's wise words were all I needed to jerk my head out of panic mode and shove it right into BRING IT ON mode.  I trust my instincts, and I'm not frozen by fear, and occasionally I may need to sing that little jingle when my head decides to dive back in TOO SCARY & TOO RISKY mode.

How about you sing it with me "Little bit scary, but lots of fun!"

I'm quite sure, I've learned as much from this cautious dude, as he's learned from me.

This little girl defies the word caution. She goes balls out and never looks back!

I could not have better life coaches.

Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday....

Happy Friday,  and I ♥ Stephen Colbert...that is all.

The secrets that we keep...

About a month ago Sophia lost her first tooth.  Which was a pretty big deal because she was well over 6 years old and almost all of her friends had already lost at least one tooth months before.  We were in Chicago when the tooth finally decided to fall out - which made the tooth fairy experience kind of fun.  Sophia wrote a note that said "Sophia's Tooth" and put the tooth in one of the hotel's complimentary plastic cups.  We put the cup with the tooth and the note, in the night stand drawer next to the Bible...because God and the tooth fairy are tight...you know being myths and all.

Anyway, I told her the tooth would be safe there until the tooth fairy could find it.  As we left for the day, Owen, Trevor & Sophia went out the door 2 seconds ahead of me so I quickly dropped the 4 quarters from you-know-who and stuck her first little baby tooth in my purse.  When we got back from the Brookfield Zoo she was totally tickled that the tooth fairy had come while we were away. That was that.

You'd think that this new child loosing teeth thing and the Chicago tooth fairy business, would have been fresh in my head, but then 2 weeks ago, Owen looses two teeth, on the same day, at summer school.  We took photos when he got home, because he was so excited about it!

After the photos, I told him to put his teeth under his pillow and that, my friends, is the last time I thought about those disgusting little suckers until 3 days later when Owen comes sulking out of his room one morning.  I asked what was wrong and he said all melancholy, "My teeth are still under my pillow." Now the truth is, I told Owen a while back about the tooth fairy, because his cousin had kind of mentioned the actual truth, and I thought he was old enough to handle it.  However, I also said that the tooth fairy would still come to both of our kids as long as one still believed.  Well folks, that was a lie.  I completely forgot about Owen's teeth for 3 days, and if he wouldn't have mentioned them it would have been another 3 months until I made his bed and stumbled upon them.

Yeah, that's right...I don't make beds, and I don't care who knows it.

Without a word, I walk over to the pottery vase that I throw my spare change into and pull out $2.50 worth of quarters and hand them over.  I apologized for forgetting and explained the extra 50 cents was for being patient.  He seem satisfied.  I took the teeth and threw them away.  That was that.













Early this morning, before Sophia was even awake, he lost another molar.  He showed me the tooth, I said "Cool, go flush it in the toilet." He looked at me with a strange face as I walked over to the change jar and found 4 quarters.  He grabbed the quarters on the way to the bathroom.  He came back jumped up in bed with me and asked if he could watch the TIVOed Brewer game from last night,  just like he'd do any other morning.  As I laid there snuggling with my little boy, I realized some of the magic of little kidness was now completely gone from his life.  It didn't make me sad, remorseful or regretful for ending such a silly tradition.  It made me happy to have raised a kid who is cool with life. A kid who knows some things are just fine without the sugar coating.  A kid that doesn't need dramatics.  A kid who was probably, instead of watching the Brewer's extra innings, multiplying all of his teeth by a dollar trying to figure out how much his smile is worth, but I already know...it's priceless.   

Goodnight sweet summertime...

My kids reading habit, although awesome, is going to be a big problem in about 4 weeks when these two night owls need to get up and on the bus.

Owen wraps his book light around his neck, and reads until he can't keep his eyes open anymore.  He's been reading Harry Potter this summer.  For a long time, he didn't want to read the series, stating that he was "more into Greek gods than wizards."  Not so much anymore!

Sophia just grabs whatever book is nearby and "reads" to her babies until I come in and shut the light off for her.  Such a good mommy, reading to her kiddos.  I wonder if she get so tired that she ends up reading them gibberish, like I occasionally do?

Only one month left of the loosely enforced bedtime routine.  Then we get down to business!  It makes me sad to see summer come to an end. It's bittersweet that so soon, my little readers will spend most of their days away from me and The Compound.