Tuesday, April 29
Monday, April 28
Two left feet....
This is how our morning started: with two left shoes. Two right shoes are somewhere, but not to be found this morning.
Fortunately I always buy the next size up (as these were), so I was able to pull out the next pair, albeit it a little big, there were a left and a right...in the same style shoe.
Ran errands and came home to find the mates to these, only to realize I had left my phone at Lowe's.
And no, this isn't an age issues, it's just life.
Friday, April 25
Confession time....I'm 50.
Yep, you read that right. I'm 50. Years old.
I told you my birthday was significant and special, right? It was, with zeros and all.
I've been blogging for many years. First was my family blog, which made it easier to share boy pictures with the family since I could never remember to print and mail the real copies. Plus that adds to clutter, which goes against my nature. I kept up with that until I started this blog in 20XX.
At first I didn't want to share my age. I'm an "older mom", the one with the big red "AMA" sticker on her OB file (advanced maternal age). Bloggers I was reading were way (waaayy) younger than I was, and I pictured myself at a blogger conference in a room with people all able to be my children. So that didn't (and won't) happen, but I still never shared my age. It's odd you know, when you get to be the age of those people that you knew were old when you heard it: like can they still walk at that age?
But now here I am. And I survived it, and even more, have embraced it.
I'm 50...and Fabulous.
That's right: fabulous. I'm thankful to be here, be healthy, have friends and family that love me and more. It's time to focus on the blessings I have, not mourning something that can't be changed.
Because it can't, and because I honestly don't want it to. And I'm embracing it!
I told you my birthday was significant and special, right? It was, with zeros and all.
I've been blogging for many years. First was my family blog, which made it easier to share boy pictures with the family since I could never remember to print and mail the real copies. Plus that adds to clutter, which goes against my nature. I kept up with that until I started this blog in 20XX.
At first I didn't want to share my age. I'm an "older mom", the one with the big red "AMA" sticker on her OB file (advanced maternal age). Bloggers I was reading were way (waaayy) younger than I was, and I pictured myself at a blogger conference in a room with people all able to be my children. So that didn't (and won't) happen, but I still never shared my age. It's odd you know, when you get to be the age of those people that you knew were old when you heard it: like can they still walk at that age?
But now here I am. And I survived it, and even more, have embraced it.
I'm 50...and Fabulous.
That's right: fabulous. I'm thankful to be here, be healthy, have friends and family that love me and more. It's time to focus on the blessings I have, not mourning something that can't be changed.
Because it can't, and because I honestly don't want it to. And I'm embracing it!
Naval but not quite right: My chemisty with Sherwin Williams
Ages ago I decided that something needed to be done to spruce up my old but beloved upright piano. It just looked old and beat up, and not loved liked it should.
After googling "Painted pianos" for months, I realized I just didn't want a painted piano. I tried lightly sanding down the real wood laminate, but it was so old and dry. I couldn't get a coat of stain to stay nice looking long enough to seal it and make it shiny like I had pictured.
So I went back mentally to the painted piano idea. The classiest pianos I've ever seen were glossy black and so beautiful. But I didn't want a huge black piano in my new room. Once I bought and hung the new JCPenney curtains in there, I realized how much I loved the deep blue and wanted to accent that color.
Voila: the blue piano concept was born.
This is where Sherwin Williams and my chemistry story starts. OK, maybe it isn't high level chemical engineering even a little, but it was been fun, and I've learned so much!
I pulled out my paint card and went to the deepest blue I could find: Naval. It was the deepest blue I could find, but I felt like it wasn't quite right. The guy at SW was awesome: he took an interest in my project, and really has come on board (haha...get it?) with me. He said if the color wasn't right, bring the sample pot back, and we could tweak it: add a little black, a little blue, not as much white.
I took it home and did some test coats on a piece of scrap, and it actually wasn't quite what I was going for, so I went back, and fortunately Terry was there to help me out again. We added 20% more of all the colors except white (black, blue and magenta), and then added 15% more of the black and blue again after that.
Magic. I knew they would help you with colors, and I've always had good customer service there like the time they called the Baltimore store to find out which orange was "Orioles" orange. This was great though...I felt like a chemist stirring potions in a pot to get the right result. And yes, you can tell I was never close to being a good chemistry major if this has me feeling like a chemist, I get that.
So a few more test swatches and I have the color I want.
Now: Am I brave enough to pull out the gray primer and actually paint my beloved piano?
After googling "Painted pianos" for months, I realized I just didn't want a painted piano. I tried lightly sanding down the real wood laminate, but it was so old and dry. I couldn't get a coat of stain to stay nice looking long enough to seal it and make it shiny like I had pictured.
So I went back mentally to the painted piano idea. The classiest pianos I've ever seen were glossy black and so beautiful. But I didn't want a huge black piano in my new room. Once I bought and hung the new JCPenney curtains in there, I realized how much I loved the deep blue and wanted to accent that color.
Voila: the blue piano concept was born.
This is where Sherwin Williams and my chemistry story starts. OK, maybe it isn't high level chemical engineering even a little, but it was been fun, and I've learned so much!
I pulled out my paint card and went to the deepest blue I could find: Naval. It was the deepest blue I could find, but I felt like it wasn't quite right. The guy at SW was awesome: he took an interest in my project, and really has come on board (haha...get it?) with me. He said if the color wasn't right, bring the sample pot back, and we could tweak it: add a little black, a little blue, not as much white.
I took it home and did some test coats on a piece of scrap, and it actually wasn't quite what I was going for, so I went back, and fortunately Terry was there to help me out again. We added 20% more of all the colors except white (black, blue and magenta), and then added 15% more of the black and blue again after that.
Magic. I knew they would help you with colors, and I've always had good customer service there like the time they called the Baltimore store to find out which orange was "Orioles" orange. This was great though...I felt like a chemist stirring potions in a pot to get the right result. And yes, you can tell I was never close to being a good chemistry major if this has me feeling like a chemist, I get that.
So a few more test swatches and I have the color I want.
Now: Am I brave enough to pull out the gray primer and actually paint my beloved piano?
Sunday, April 20
Minecraft Cake: the verdict
Perfect? No. But the boy's reaction to it was great.
His face lit up, he smiled big, and he said "whoa".
Perfect.
Friday, April 18
A Sweet sweet gift
My sweet birthday gift from my sweet boy was yes, a pile of Reese's cups. But that's not the sweetest part. On each one, he (with his cousin's help) wrote something that I have done for him that he is thankful for: making is birthday cake, waking him up in the morning, taking him to baseball practice. She helped with some of the writing, but they were all his ideas and words. And there aren't just a few of these people: there are a whole pile of them. Because I am a whole pile of years old now. More on that in a few days!
Because speaking of things he is thankful for, I have always made his birthday cakes. And he challenges me each year too! These few things from the store are to become a Minecraft cake this afternoon.
Whether this ends up in the "win" column or becomes one of my "DIY Fails" posts is still to be determined.
Stay tuned.
Wednesday, April 16
SO not Pinterest worthy
Birthdays around here are fun. Like treasure hunts and balloons in the washer kind of fun.
Cards that say exactly what is most important.
And cakes with sprinkles.
I won't be pinning anything, but boy are we going to have fun!
De-stress, forget about making it pin-able, blog-able or gorgeous-photo-able.
Have fun.
Tuesday, April 15
"We are the world's charity cases!" and other conversations
I enjoyed many conversations on our cruise from people from so many other countries. Part of the fun of travelling is being exposed to different ideas and expanding your horizons, right? Mostly, these conversations just made me laugh!
Louise, from Ireland, who gave me an awesome haircut while on board, had me giggling for days after she cut my hair. She took about 4 inches off my whole head, and told me "You'll just feel a stone lightah, you will, with all this hair gone" in her beautiful Irish tongue! Carter says I didn't sound Irish at all trying to repeat it, and they got tired of me saying it day after day. It still cracks me up.
Our hostess one night, a very, very dark skinned gentleman from Africa, who as always, asked how my day was. I said it was great, but that I would pay for the sun tomorrow, and explained that as hard as I tried to prevent it, I still got too much sun. With a puzzled expression on his face, he said "But you're still SO white!" We had a good laugh over that one!
And the only other Irish gal on the ship (Louise told me there were only two), whom I happened to meet a few days later, whose name I wish I could remember. She was having a slow day in the jewelry store, and let me try on $3,000 earrings and $6,000 rings, and we had the best conversation about all the nationalities on board the ship. There are over 70 countries represented in the 1,000 person crew, and I was saying how all of their English was so amazing, and we (Americans) are generally so lazy at having a second language, and just expect people to talk English. She said "Yes...you and us both....we're like the world's charity cases!"
I also talked to many of the crew about life on board ship as well as life at home. They work on the ship for 7 months, every day (EVERY day) and then go home for 2.5 months. Some enjoy the work; our waiter Sandip from India said some people get addicted to ship life; others work it for a while then go home to have a family. Most, our waitress Inina said, have families at home, and this is just the way they have to support them. When wage at home is $7 a day, this is an option for them to support their families that isn't there for them at home. Inina said she does plan to go home to Ukraine one day to have a family, because well, home is...home.
Our room steward Canon from Jamaica said while he doesn't necessarily love his work (which didn't show in the way he cared for us for our 8 day trip), he does it for his three kids. His oldest, who is 11, wants to be a doctor. He said he would do whatever he has to to make that a reality for him.
I told him with a role model like him, I was sure he would do just fine.
Louise, from Ireland, who gave me an awesome haircut while on board, had me giggling for days after she cut my hair. She took about 4 inches off my whole head, and told me "You'll just feel a stone lightah, you will, with all this hair gone" in her beautiful Irish tongue! Carter says I didn't sound Irish at all trying to repeat it, and they got tired of me saying it day after day. It still cracks me up.
Our hostess one night, a very, very dark skinned gentleman from Africa, who as always, asked how my day was. I said it was great, but that I would pay for the sun tomorrow, and explained that as hard as I tried to prevent it, I still got too much sun. With a puzzled expression on his face, he said "But you're still SO white!" We had a good laugh over that one!
And the only other Irish gal on the ship (Louise told me there were only two), whom I happened to meet a few days later, whose name I wish I could remember. She was having a slow day in the jewelry store, and let me try on $3,000 earrings and $6,000 rings, and we had the best conversation about all the nationalities on board the ship. There are over 70 countries represented in the 1,000 person crew, and I was saying how all of their English was so amazing, and we (Americans) are generally so lazy at having a second language, and just expect people to talk English. She said "Yes...you and us both....we're like the world's charity cases!"
I also talked to many of the crew about life on board ship as well as life at home. They work on the ship for 7 months, every day (EVERY day) and then go home for 2.5 months. Some enjoy the work; our waiter Sandip from India said some people get addicted to ship life; others work it for a while then go home to have a family. Most, our waitress Inina said, have families at home, and this is just the way they have to support them. When wage at home is $7 a day, this is an option for them to support their families that isn't there for them at home. Inina said she does plan to go home to Ukraine one day to have a family, because well, home is...home.
Our room steward Canon from Jamaica said while he doesn't necessarily love his work (which didn't show in the way he cared for us for our 8 day trip), he does it for his three kids. His oldest, who is 11, wants to be a doctor. He said he would do whatever he has to to make that a reality for him.
I told him with a role model like him, I was sure he would do just fine.
Tuesday, April 8
Are we too wired?
I love Kate's weekend reading list at her blog CentsationalGirl, and this link jumped out at me today (catching up after vacation!).
"Does Facebook make us unhappy?"
How interesting and timely.
I came home from vacation, 8 glorious days of being unplugged (yes, phone, internet, ipad...all of it) and guess what? I didn't miss it. Yes it was odd not being in touch with family, but they knew how to contact us if there was an emergency. Otherwise, we were engaged, entertained, together and in the moment, not each with our "electronic devices" to our faces as can happen at home. I do love my internet surfing, and am in no way giving it up, but I am going to use it with more awareness. It's great when I can't sleep at night, or want to catch up with family or read something interesting or answer a question we have, but mindless surfing has to go. I'll see how I do.
(Yes, I am surfing today, but I have a good excuse! I'm taking care of my niece who had 3 wisdom teeth extracted just this morning, so I'm hanging close by!)
The question in the article is does Facebook makes us happier, or unhappier? For an introvert like me, being able to keep up with friends and family that are far away is really a bonus. I know what is going on in my cousins' lives that I would never be able to keep up with if it was up to me to pick up a phone and chat for an hour...oh how I hate the phone! But there have been times that I've learned something on Facebook that I wish had been a little more personal.
And this line is what concerns me with raising a pre-teen:
In ongoing research, the psychologist Timothy Wilson has learned, as he put it to me, that college students start going “crazy” after just a few minutes in a room without their phones or a computer. “One would think we could spend the time mentally entertaining ourselves,” he said. “But we can’t. We’ve forgotten how.”
I don't want him to forget how to entertain himself without a phone to his face.
And it's up to me to teach him how to do that.
"Does Facebook make us unhappy?"
How interesting and timely.
I came home from vacation, 8 glorious days of being unplugged (yes, phone, internet, ipad...all of it) and guess what? I didn't miss it. Yes it was odd not being in touch with family, but they knew how to contact us if there was an emergency. Otherwise, we were engaged, entertained, together and in the moment, not each with our "electronic devices" to our faces as can happen at home. I do love my internet surfing, and am in no way giving it up, but I am going to use it with more awareness. It's great when I can't sleep at night, or want to catch up with family or read something interesting or answer a question we have, but mindless surfing has to go. I'll see how I do.
(Yes, I am surfing today, but I have a good excuse! I'm taking care of my niece who had 3 wisdom teeth extracted just this morning, so I'm hanging close by!)
The question in the article is does Facebook makes us happier, or unhappier? For an introvert like me, being able to keep up with friends and family that are far away is really a bonus. I know what is going on in my cousins' lives that I would never be able to keep up with if it was up to me to pick up a phone and chat for an hour...oh how I hate the phone! But there have been times that I've learned something on Facebook that I wish had been a little more personal.
And this line is what concerns me with raising a pre-teen:
In ongoing research, the psychologist Timothy Wilson has learned, as he put it to me, that college students start going “crazy” after just a few minutes in a room without their phones or a computer. “One would think we could spend the time mentally entertaining ourselves,” he said. “But we can’t. We’ve forgotten how.”
I don't want him to forget how to entertain himself without a phone to his face.
And it's up to me to teach him how to do that.
Monday, April 7
We're back, and where we're headed....
We're back from a beautiful 8 day cruise in the Caribbean with many memories and laughs, a little sunburn
, a LOT of dirty laundry, and many reminders to be thankful for our home, our jobs and family and friends readily around us. Every vacation is fun, and we enjoy the quality time together and the experiences we get to put in our memories together, but home is always home, and we're glad to be back.
But yes, this was a great view to wake up to every morning!
I have a lot of thoughts to share, and stories from crew we met on board that became like family to us our short time there (compared to their time on board).
I also will be sharing a bit of a blog change I've had in mind for a little while now, since this month holds a lot of excitement in our house and includes a bit of a milestone for this mom with nails.
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