High Five for Friday (5.13.16)

1. On Mothers' Day my family made and brought me breakfast in bed for the first time in 10 years. It hit the spot in my stomach, just like their sweet gifts hit the spot in my heart.

2. STAAR testing is done! Teachers, students, and parents everywhere can now take a much-needed and well-deserved deep breath and relax. Oh wait, none of us can't relax yet - we still have two and a half CRAZY weeks before the end of the school year. We can do it, right? Right!

3. This meme describes me perfectly:

I wear my Fitbit 24/7 with the goal of reaching at least 10,000 steps daily. (I reach 10,000 steps on Saturdays and Sundays, but aim to go beyond that - to an average of 14,000 steps - on weekdays.) Cutting down on my walking, running, elliptical training, and step-based classes has meant a decrease in steps, but last week I discovered that I can still count at least some of the movement my legs make on the bike if I move my Fitbit to the cuff of my pants. High Five!

4. On a related note, in an effort to prepare Hallie for the family bike rides we'd like to take this year, we pulled out her tow-behind bike and hooked it up to Tom's bike. In the first picture, Hallie is crying hysterically as she and Tom pull out of the driveway. In the second picture, taken just an hour later, she's all smiles. I see a lot of (foot pain-free) biking in our future!

5. Happiness Highlights:

The last picture taken of my Clementine.

A sweet friend - who shares my love of coffee
and need for mascara on my blond eyelashes - sent
this to me. It made me smile, and miss her lots.

Hallie's Mother's Day poem. Note the third
line, middle word...girl knows her mama.

Each time I walk past this bush - at least three times a day,
as it's on my route to school - its flowers make me smile.

Just because.

This week's family game night: Clue! The new version of this
game - in particular, the game board - is so much more fun and
interesting than the old version. Hallie treats it like a doll house,
and pays very little attention to the game...which Will loves.

Happy Friday, friends!

My Darling Clementine

As newlyweds, Tom and I lived in Cedar Rapids, IA, where I worked for the Grant Wood Area Chapter of the American Red Cross and Tom worked for John Deere. One morning a coworker of mine mentioned that she thought her cat might be pregnant. A few hours later, when she ran home to grab lunch, she found her cat holed up in the closet of her bedroom...surrounded by five kittens. Surprise, surprise!

Tom and I adopted two of the kittens: a white one, who Tom named Duke, and the smallest, feistiest dark brown tiger-striped one, who I named Clementine.

Fast forward six years, two apartments, one house, and two kids, all with Duke and Clemmy making the ride that much crazier... When we put our Ann Arbor house on the market in preparation for our move to Texas, Duke and Clemmy moved - temporarily, we thought - to Madison to live with my parents. We knew it would be easier to keep the house clean without them around, and while we of course had to disclose that cats had lived in our house at one time, we knew we'd have better luck selling if cats weren't winding themselves around prospective buyers' legs and trying to escape out the door behind visiting realtors.

In the fall of 2010, after the cats had lived with Grandma and Grandpa for a few months and we were about to move from Ann Arbor, Duke died after being hit by a car in my parents' neighborhood. We decided to leave Clemmy in Madison, rather than move her - without her brother - across the country to Texas; she never coped well with change, and because she preferred my parents to Tom and me anyway (she never really forgave us for having children), letting her remain where she appeared happy and comfortable seemed like the best option.

Four years ago, (we think) Clemmy developed an autoimmune disease. All of the hair on her stomach fell out, and while her hair eventually grew back, it was never as full or soft as it had been before. Two years ago and likely because of her compromised immune system, Clemmy developed a fungus in/on her paw. My parents and Clemmy's vet(s) spent the last two years trying to combat the fungus, but in recent months it grew worse, to the point that my parents could tell she was in pain. The plan was to amputate Clemmy's leg...until a spot of fungus showed up on a second leg.

At this point she's hurting, there are no more options to treat the fungus, and we can't amputate two of her legs, so unfortunately we have no other choice than to put her to sleep. This afternoon my darling Clementine will take her last breath in my mom's arms.

Duke and Clemmy were our first babies. The taught us to be responsible for someone/thing other than ourselves, and prepared us for the human babies we would later add to our family by regularly pooping, peeing, and vomiting on us and waking us up at all hours of the night. Duke and Clemmy may no longer live in our home, but they will always live in our hearts as a reminder of the decision Tom and I made to begin the transition from couple to family.

Clementine

2004 - 2016

Five Heads are Better than None

Though we haven't had tremendous success as gardeners since moving to Texas (unexplainable exceptions include a massive pepper haul four years ago and a decent beefsteak tomato crop - including two different human-esque, anatomically correct tomatoes - three years ago), this spring we have somehow grown five small but delicious heads of broccoli.

Hallie, the child who won't touch most foods with a ten-foot pole, eats raw broccoli (and raw green onion, whenever one sprouts up) right off the plants in the backyard and chooses it over almost any other vegetable. I guess we must have done something right, both in the garden and at the table!

Despite our success with broccoli, we remain miles away from earning our green thumbs...we managed to kill our beautiful little lemon tree.

Happy Day to All the Moms

Last weekend Will's soccer club organized an "in league" mini World Cup tournament. In his first game, Will played arguably the best soccer of his life. Every move, pass, and shot had purpose and accomplished what he meant for it to accomplish. His awareness of himself, his teammates, and his opponents on the field allowed him to capitalize on every empty space and every false step the other team made. And perhaps most importantly, he played like a leader, keeping the lines of communication open, helping organize explosive attacks and effective defense, and cheering for his teammates successes. In case you can't tell, this mama was PROUD.

With about five minutes left in the second game, Will's team earned a penalty kick after a member of the other team batted the ball down in front of the goal with his hands. As Will stepped up to the ball I could hardly breath...I turned to Tom as he said, "I hope he doesn't kick it over the goal - that's what he did in practice this week". Sure enough, Will's penalty kick went just over the crossbar. Disappointed for Will but relieved the kick was over, I turned to Tom and we gave each other sad smiles.

After every significant moment on the soccer field, Will looks at me. We make eye contact and then share a smile, thumbs up, or shrug or I offer words of encouragement. I learned post-game that after Will missed his penalty kick he looked at me, saw me looking at Tom instead of him, and felt completely abandoned. In Will's moment of weakness - of failure, as he described it - I wasn't there to share my strength with him.

My heart broke into a thousand pieces.

I sat down in front of Will, right there in the middle of the field, and pulled his chin up so he could see my face and look into my eyes. "I will NEVER abandon you. Not here on the soccer field, and not ever in life. Everything I do for you or say to you comes from a place of love and support and is meant to build you up, not bring you down. Today I missed an opportunity to be there for you and that will never happen again."

I have never been, nor will I ever be, an olympic caliber athlete (you're all thinking, "yes, Erin - we KNOW"), but back in my day I played a decent game of soccer. And throughout those 14 years and hundreds of games, I can't remember ever looking to the stands and not seeing my mom actively supporting me.

I'm not saying she never missed a game. She had a job and two kids and a life outside of her roles as wife and mother. And I'm not saying I won't occasionally miss a game, as I too have a job and two kids and a life outside of my roles as wife and mother. (And only one of the parents in our family knows how to put the dancing child's hair in a bun, which means that parent has to handle all of the dance-related activities.) I am saying, however, that whenever I sit on the sidelines, Will (and Hallie) will never again doubt my support or fail to feel my strength.

Happy Mother's Day to all those celebrating (and hugs to those for whom today hurts), especially my mom, grandma, mother-in-law, sister Sara, and sis-in-law Chandi.

High Five for Friday (5.6.16)

1. Happy Nurses Day! I'd like to give a special shout out to the many nurses in my life, especially my aunts, Will and Hallie's elementary school nurse, and my mom, who throughout the last month has answered multiple hours worth of medical questions for me and my friends.

2. After a mostly critter-free winter, Texas' four- (and zero-legged) natives have begun popping out to say hello once again. The high five here, you ask? While I hate them all as much as I always have, with each passing year I find myself slightly less panicked by their presence in my life.

On a related note, I saw my first large, live snake last Sunday afternoon. While driving home from the swimming pool, a LONG (confirmed by a Texan friend) snake slithered across the road right in front of my car. I managed to miss hitting it by screaming, taking my foot off the gas pedal, and taking my hands off the steering wheel as it somehow fit perfectly between my wheels, but I don't know if that's a good thing...

3. Last weekend was a big one for Will. He had a piece of his artwork chosen for display at the school district's annual art show, and he placed second among all of the third grade boys at his elementary school in their annual Road Runners competition. Last year he ran 214 laps, and this year he increased his total to 233 laps - that's almost 78 miles logged over the course of 30 20-minute runs.

4. Hallie also had a fantastic weekend. A few weekends back, Hallie and a few of her friends attended a dance camp hosted by a local high school's dance team. Then this past Friday night, the little girls had the opportunity to perform the dance they'd learned at camp during the big girls' - the Strutters' - end of the year showcase. They did a lovely job on stage, and the show as a whole was tremendous. I truly can't believe the artistic, athletic, and academic talent in our high schools.

Sadly, we had to leave the Strutters' showcase at intermission because we all - at least Hallie and I - had to get up at 6am on Saturday morning to prepare for her dance recital. Like any mom whose child dances, I adore watching Hallie. She takes the stage with such confidence, even when she "feels nervous in her stomach", and as the music rises she becomes an even stronger, braver, and more vibrant version of herself.

We left Hallie's recital and headed straight to the art show, where Hallie also had a piece of artwork on display. Both kids proudly showed off their creations to Tom and me, as well as to their friends and principal, with whom we happened to cross paths that morning.

5. Happiness Highlights:

Reading together on Saturday night.

Wait, you mean you don't do your home with a cat on your shoulders?

My girl helped me bake bread earlier this week. I was thrilled to see
that she hasn't yet outgrown her fascination with the bread machine.

That same night Hallie and I dined together - just the
two of us while the boys were at soccer - by candlelight.

Hooray for Teacher Appreciation Week!

Happy Friday, friends!

Linking up with High Five for Friday here:

 

A Tip of My Hat

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, below is (a slightly edited version of) a post I wrote three years ago but still rings true today.

It occurred to me, as I wrote end-of-the-year thank you notes to Will and Hallie's teachers and allowed my mind to wander back through the last few months, that this has, at least unofficially, been the year of the teacher. Not in the sense that we've suddenly decided to pay teachers the salary they deserve; or provide schools with adequate human, physical, and educational resources; or stop basing teachers' worth on how well their students score on standardized tests. But in the sense that teachers have been thrust into the limelight for going above and beyond their professional responsibility to teach our children the basic lessons of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

In Newtown, Connecticut in December, dozens of teachers saved the lives of hundreds of children when a crazed gunman opened fire in their elementary school. Two teachers, two aids, the school psychologist, and the school principal paid the ultimate price for their bravery and lost their lives that day.

And in Moore, Oklahoma last week, dozens of teachers saved the lives of hundreds of children when a EF5 tornado crashed directly through their elementary school.   

As parents, our children mean more to us than anything else in the world. Every morning we pack their backpacks, hand them their lunch boxes, kiss their cheeks, and send them out the door to spend the next seven hours in someone else's care. We trust our children's teachers to not only educate them, but also to nurture and support and protect them.

A good friend of mine, who has been a high school English teacher for 11 years, recently told me, "I don't know one teacher who WOULDN'T throw him/herself in front of a gunman or on top of students during a devastating tornado".

And you know what? Neither do I.

So I tip my hat and raise my glass to teachers. My teachers, my children's teachers, my friends who are teachers, and all of the teachers I don't know - and won't ever know - but who are making a difference in their small corner of the world. Thank you.

I also wanted to share links to an additional two relevant posts...

This post is one of my favorite tributes to teachers, and this post goes out to all the professors I know (and love). Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Monthly Mash-Up: April 2016

Writing
April's writing assignments kept me extraordinary busy. In addition to three posts here and two Red Cross social media engagements weekly, I worked on three posts for MomsEveryday, one post for the Red Cross, and my longest magazine article to-date. One of the MomsEveryday posts and the Red Cross post will be up next month and the magazine article will run in October, but here are links to the two posts that went up quickly if you'd like to give them a quick read!

• Get Your Family Disaster Ready
• Prepare Your Kids for Severe Weather

Reading
Speaking of reading... Because I spent most of April sitting in front of my computer, I (sadly) didn't have time to read a single book. The stack on my nightstand grew taller and taller each time a title I'd reserved at the library became available, until of course the books' due dates rolled around and the pile shrunk back down to its pre-April size. My goal for the next few weeks - at least until summer vacation begins - is to spend 30 minutes every Friday reading quietly while the kids are at school. Hopefully I'll have at least one good recommendation for you at the end of May!

Watching
Hallie and I watched the first half of "Grease: Live" (I hope we can find time to finish it soon) and both kids and I cruised through the first season of Fuller House. I know Will and Hallie would also enjoy Full House, so I plan to purchase the entire series on DVD for the three of us to enjoy this summer.

I really hope the set of DVDs comes in
a cute little house-shaped box like this.

I can't seem to keep up with the television shows saved in our DVR, but I managed to find a new show to watch...I'm hooked on The Catch, which follows a female private investigator specializing in fraud as she becomes entangled in a professional and personal game of cat and mouse. Now if only I had a little more time to "catch" up - as is the case with all of my other shows, I'm already a few episodes behind!

Listening To
Every May I make a mix CD for the kids and me to rock out to as we cruise around town during summer vacation. Making mix anythings may date me, but I have no plans to stop as these CDs provide me with reminders of who we were and what our lives were like each summer. Because we listen to the same 20 songs on repeat throughout June, July, and August, whenever those songs come on the radio now I flash back to that particular year. I can picture the kids at those ages, riding in their carseats in that summer's swimsuits. I can hear their higher-pitched voices, and remember which song lyrics they mispronounced or completely bungled. I can recall what they liked to play with, which books they liked to read, and what foods they liked (or didn't like, in Hallie's case) to eat. All that to say I've been listening to our last four summers' mix CDs and feeling nostalgic. Now, if you see me tearing up in my car, you'll know why.

Listening to our 2014 mix CD while tailgating
before a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game.

I've also started listening to a new podcast called "Embedded", which "takes a story from the news and goes deep". Those of you who live in Texas might take interest in one particular episode - called "The Bikers" - that delves deeply into the May 2015 shootout between bikers clubs/gangs in the parking lot of a Waco's Twin Peaks restaurant.

Trying/Using
I came across "tootling" - the opposite of tattling and accomplished when one shares something positive about someone else - a couple of weeks ago, and while I haven't implemented it in our house yet, I plan to give it a try this summer!

Wearing
I hate shorts, and have for as long as I can remember, but alas, I live in Texas, and therefore own a few pairs out of necessity. I recently purchased a pair from the Banana Republic Factory Store, and though I didn't really want to bring them home (my mom convinced me to do so because I needed shorts and they were on sale), now, two weeks later, I'm glad I did. Check them out here if you're in the market for shorts!

Note: I didn't love the length or the somewhat restrictive seam at the bottom of the legs, so I cut them off to a length I preferred. 

Eating
This month I tried five or six new recipes, two of which went over swimmingly with the rest of my family. Both have very few ingredients, come together quickly, and taste incredible!

• Greek Tortellini Salad
• Chocolate Ritz Bars

I might actually go make another pan of the chocolate Ritz bars right now...

Drinking
At the end of last summer I sliced off the end of my left index finger in my Ninja blender. "Pointer" (as Hallie affectionately called it as we administered extensive first aid) healed nicely - a part of the tip even grew back - but I opted to steer clear of the Ninja because I wanted to hang onto the rest of my fingers.

Once summer-esque weather arrives I like to enjoy refreshing fruit smoothies for lunch. (My favorite combination is banana, pineapple, and spinach because these fruits, unlike most berries, are naturally sweet enough to balance out the bitterness of the spinach.) Making smoothies, however, would require me to once again brave the Ninja's crazy sharp blades...which I finally did after taking the appliance out of the cupboard three days in a row. Bring on smoothie season!

Any great smoothie recipes I should try while I wait for pineapples to go on sale again? Here's my go-to smoothie recipe for those of you who'd like to give it a try!

In a full-size or single-serve blender, combine:
- 1 frozen banana
- 1 cup of chopped pineapple
- 1 handful of spinach
- 1/4 c. water or milk (dairy, soy, or almond)

Blend until smooth and serve with a pretty straw!