Sunday, March 17, 2024

Things I Don’t Need to Write About

I usually keep a list on my phone of ideas for blog posts. Some of them never get written because, when it comes down to it, I think, “I don’t really need to write about that.” One thing about me is I can go on and on in great detail about very uninteresting things. Just ask my friend Shannon - I sent her a lengthy Marco Polo the other day about the colors of the spray bottles at the car wash, and how I can’t tell if the yellowish/greenish one is glass cleaner because it’s not labeled. I probably didn’t need to tell her that. 

(If you like hearing about topics such as this, please sign up for my weekly newsletter).

(I don’t actually have a weekly newsletter). 

(This morning I went ahead and used the yellowish/greenish bottle as glass cleaner). 

(I think it worked).

(I let Shannon know).

Today as I was reviewing my list of blogging ideas, I eliminated the things I really don’t need to blog about.

For example, I don’t need to write a tribute to the green bathrobe I’m throwing away.

I also don’t need to blog about how I pierced my own ear the other day (but if I die, please tell them that I used a disposable ear gun from China that I purchased for $2.50 on Amazon. I’m sure they’ll figure it out in the autopsy, but you might be able to save them some time by pointing them in that direction).

I’m not going to write a post about how I waited over an hour for an order of fries from Wingstop on Friday night.

And I’m not going to write about me being the only person in my family who likes Chex Mix and how that makes me feel very lonely sometimes.

Or a detailed description of why I load the dishwasher the way I do.

Or an elaborate commentary about how the pharmacy tech where I get my meds won’t hand me my receipt, and instead says, “Don’t forget your receipt!” as she walks away, and I have to remove it from the register myself.

And I’m most certainly not going to blog about the weather. Instead I’ll show you this photo of me channeling spring:


That’s a whole lotta things crossed off my list, so I’m going to need to come up with some new material.


Saturday, March 16, 2024

The Post I Gave Up On

There’s no school today (I started this post on Friday), so we are all having our tech time. Me included. So how about a Q&A from my writing prompts board on Pinterest? Yes, yes. Then I don’t have to be responsible for coming up with a topic to blog about (though I do have a note on my phone with ideas for another day when I have more brain power) (I just woke up from a really long, much needed nap. I can’t brain yet). Here’s what I can offer: 

Are you happy? Why or why not?

Overall, I have a pretty happy life, especially if I go by my chosen definition for happiness which comes from a sociologist named Ruut Veenhoven and is “an overall appreciation for life as a whole.” 

In fact, this morning before I got out of bed, I scrolled back through my past year of Instagram posts and kept thinking “look at what a good life I have!” So either it is really a good and happy life despite its imperfections and struggles or social media is so deceptive that I’ve even fooled myself into believing my life is happy and great!

What challenges are you currently facing?

Parenting - all the decisions I have to make for my kids and not always knowing what the right choice is and how it will affect them. Discipline. Technology. Teaching them everything they need to know to get through life. Communicating love to them but also not putting up with crap. Raising them with values without imposing beliefs on them or making them resentful. The list is long.

I was going to list some more challenges I’m facing in sloppy, incomplete sentences, but that last paragraph fatigued me on this topic.

Do you have a solid, consistent routine? Do you like it?

Every day is a little different, but there are points in most days that are routine. Mornings on school days are pretty consistent with getting everyone ready and out the door. I have some variations in work days vs days off. Evenings vary based on the schedule, but we have a pretty normal dinner routine and bedtime routine. There are things I like and things I dislike about the routines in our household. We can always improve and make things more meaningful.

What changes do you want to make in your life right now?

I need to implement some healthier practices with food, money, exercise, technology, and relationships/communication. I just don’t feel like it right now.

What keeps you up at night?

Oh! A variety of things! But mostly stress and worrying about my kids. 

What is your favorite hobby?

Reading. It’s my most frequent hobby and the least messy. 

What’s the first thing you think when you wake up?

What time is it? And then what day is it? Then I assess whether I need to be awake.

Do you still maintain a lot of relationships from your childhood?

I have a fair amount of friends I’m still in touch with from childhood. I confess, social media is mostly responsible for that, but it also helps when you marry into the same family. 

———-

I ended up bailing on this post, so I’m just going to turn it in as is and take partial credit.

And for the sake of including a photo, here’s my BeReal from today:

I call it “Walking Home From Tarolyn’s House,” and it has no significance to this post whatsoever.



Monday, March 11, 2024

It’s Daylight Saving Time (and ten other random facts)

Fact #1: I try to use proper wording as often as possible in life. For example, I make sure to say “celiac” disease and not “celiacs” disease. 

“Groundhog Day” and not “Groundhog’s Day.” 

Young Women” and not “Young Women’s.” 

“Sisters-in-law” and not “sister-in-laws.”

The list goes on… but I just really want to say “daylight savings time” instead of “daylight saving time.” 

Fact #2: I also say “Legos” even though it’s incorrect, and each time I do so, I want to over explain my word choice even though no one really cares or even knows that the official stance of the LEGO company is that LEGO should only be used as an adjective. 

(Also, the amount of time I’ve spent going back and forth between LEGO and Lego in these last few sentences is utterly ridiculous). 

Fact #3: It’s 4:00 in the morning right now, and I’m wide awake contemplating solutions to all the world’s problems. I also have a toenail situation that is bothering me. 

Fact #4: When Chick-Fil-A first came to our area, I was always uncomfortable with how they would say “My pleasure!” It annoyed me because it sounded so unnatural. Now, several years later, it just feels normal, and it’s so expected that, if they say anything different, I don’t know how to react. 

Normally, at the drive through ordering box, they greet me with “It’s a great day at Chick-Fil-A… bla bitty bla bla…” but the other day, the gal came over the speaker and said, “When you’re ready…”

When I’m ready?

I was so confused by the lack of greeting… the incompleteness of the instructions… and the non-Chick-Fil-A-ness being presented that I thought maybe I’d misunderstood, so I said, “Pardon?” and she repeated, “When you’re ready…”

And that’s it! That’s all I got! I didn’t even know if it was a great day at Chick-Fil-A! 

As I approached the window, I was like, “I’ve got to see this person!” but I never did. Whoever served me at the window wasn’t the same person. Now I’m troubled with the knowledge of an employee at my local Chick-Fil-A gone rogue. 

Fact #5: Since I’m in my 40’s now…

(I fell asleep, and now it’s 7:00, and I have no idea what I was about to say right there).

Fact #6: I realized recently that I get embarrassed very easily. I’m not sure why I didn’t know this about myself already. But now I know, and I see where my daughters get it from. They, too, get embarrassed very easily, and they have some very painfully self-conscious moments. The things they get embarrassed about at their ages are very different from the things I get embarrassed about at my age, so I still have a hard time being sympathetic toward them sometimes. 

Fact #7: My calendar through the end of the school year is going to kick my butt. I’m going to have to be really “with it” to make it through. Every time I learn of another event to add to the schedule, I die a little inside. 

Fact #8: Nicky had jr prom over the weekend and was crowned Prom Prince, so that was kind of fun. He does not come from prom royalty stock, so we’re not sure how we ended up with a Prom Prince for a son. The Princess was his very good friend, Addie, so that was a joy! 

Nicky and his date

Fact #9: Nicky took a girl he has liked for a really long time. This was their first official date!

Fact #10: Scotty just got back from Brocation. This was the 7th time they’ve gone. The bros had a blast, but they are getting old!




Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Tales of Boys Past

This is the kind of post where the title will make my husband nervous. “Oh no,” he’ll think, “I’m going to have to read about all her other men!”

Well, not all of them. But a few. And they are most threatening!

Now that I have two teenagers, there have been romances coming and going. Crushes and confusion and giggling and new relationships and ongoing relationships and boys that are absolute turds and other boys that are so stinkin’ cute and all that fun stuff. Suddenly I’m a fourteen year old girl again! I forget that it’s not me… it’s someone else’s turn while I have to be a sideline observer.

We are bound to get our hearts broken multiple times before we reach adulthood. Oops! Did I say we? I mean… they. The kids. My kids. Oh, but who am I kidding? I cried for two days when Nicky and his first girlfriend broke up. My heart is on the line, too! 

Recent events have reminded me of a few of my early “relationships.”

When I was five, I was a flower girl in a wedding, and I fell in love with the ring bearer. We held hands for the whole wedding, and he showed his affection for me by stealing a handful of tiny toothpicks out of the sandwiches at the reception and presenting them to me. A while later, my parents took me to his house to see him (I was going to give him a pair of spurs because he was a little cowboy, and for some reason, I had some spare spurs). I was too shy to talk to him, and I hid behind my mom’s legs the whole visit.

Yee-haw

When I was ten, I went through an entire relationship without ever speaking to the boy. His name was Ernie (just had to throw that out there because… well… his name was Ernie). Think what you will, but all the girls had a thing for Ernie. The kid never gave me the time of day, but out of the blue, the girl who sat in between us in class said, “Ernie wants to know if you’ll go out with him.” Back then, of course, that meant being boyfriend and girlfriend without actually going anywhere. So I said yea, and we “went out” for a while. The only thing that ever happened between us was he picked me for heads up seven up. Then one day, the girl who sat between us turned to me and said, “Ernie is breaking up with you now.” Of course, I was devastated and had to hold my head high the rest of the school day and act like nothing was wrong. My boyfriend, who never said a single word to me, didn’t want to be my boyfriend anymore.

I tell these two stories specifically because one of my children is in a texting “thing” with someone, but they will not talk to each other face to face. They completely ignore each other in person, but the second they part ways, they are on their phones. This is something I always worry about in our modern society. I love texting - it’s so convenient, and I love the ability to quickly check in with my people without causing a big interference in their time - but I am so glad I didn’t grow up with it. 

My precious

I’ve been trying to help my kids develop healthy and effective social skills, but gosh, it’s hard, especially when I don’t feel like I have good social skills, myself. Deep down, I’m still the girl who wants to hide behind my mom’s legs. 

So I tease my kid a bit about this silent relationship, but at the same time, I remember not knowing how to talk to someone that I like in person. Whether you’re five, fourteen, or forty it can still be a challenge. I just hope that somehow my kids learn and grow from these experiences and come out of it all with reparable hearts. 

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Currently (Special Leap Day Edition)

 Reading:

Finished so far in 2024

Currently reading

Currently reading 

Drinking: water, orange juice, and occasionally a Minute Maid Lemonade Zero. 

Sick of: influencers and the Tik Tok.

Cooking: pasta with Italian sausage. I don’t particularly care for Italian sausage except for in two dishes - my step-mom’s breakfast casserole and a tortellini soup. But I have a bunch of it in the freezer that I need to use up, so I’m putting it in pasta even though I don’t like it. My family doesn’t like it either, so making this dish makes no sense. There will be compensatory garlic bread, so it will be fine.

Suffering from: an annoying cough. It’s the kind that you never get relief from. You get the urge to cough, so you cough, but it doesn’t clear up whatever the discomfort is.

Wearing: all the things the current generation makes fun of on the Tik Tok.

Feeling: a bit headachey. My sinuses are doing something. 

Annoyed by: a bottle of pee sitting on the roadside that I pass every time I go to work. It’s been there for five weeks.

Singing: “Welcome to the Moulin Rouge.” It’s 7 minutes and 40 seconds of party.

Saying: “Oh boy, oh boy!” Last week I listened to The Labors of Hercules Beale by Gary D. Schmidt, and Hercules always says “Oh boy, oh boy!” He rubbed off on me.

Listening to:


Buying: hand soap, Cholula, and copy paper.

Smelling: pizza. Papa John’s was 50% off the other day so we had pizza for dinner, and it stunk up my van. 

Playing:


Scotty insisted that we play this over and over until he won.

Craving: Italian ice with custard. Rita’s or Zeppe’s would be fine. Or a rainbow from Pace’s. 

Thinking about: how I used to have a crush on Josh Hartnett, and then he disappeared for years and years and came back in Oppenheimer old. 


Watching: nothing really. 

Needing: to find a new hair person. 

Dreading: Easter.

Missing: Arby’s breakfast. I used to love their croissants and their biscuits and gravy.

Procrastinating: shampooing the couch. 

Looking forward to: Lagoon opening. I’m shocked that I’ve become a Lagoon enthusiast. 

Grateful for: ibuprofen.




Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Catch Up (not to be confused with ketchup)

Today I'm playing catch up on my digital life. Scotty fixed my laptop over the weekend, so I'm on my laptop for the first time in months (when I fired it up, the browser was still open to the registration forms for Nicky's golf season which started last August... so my laptop had been out of commission for about six months). Man, it feels good to be using a keyboard! Do I remember how to type? Nah. I never learned how to type. I do my own thing, which involves only using one finger on my left hand. I was really self-conscious about this when I was a school secretary and had to do typing tests to qualify, but I always made the minimum WPM to be eligible, so who cares?

With my digital catching up, I have the itch to blog, but I don't really have anything in mind for content, so bear with me on this one. It could be quite random. Normally I would do one of my "and ten other random things" style posts, but I'm trying to pretend like I blog in paragraphs and not lists (since I've done so many lists lately). 

Should you be interested to know what I've been up to lately, I'll give you the rundown. Yesterday I made pretzel bites, and they were delicious. I also made chocolate chip cookies (assisted by Zoe), and they were delicious, too! Chocolate chip cookies stress me out because everyone has a different recipe that they claim to be "the best," and I don't know how to navigate that. I want to have a chocolate chip cookie party where we are able to taste test all the cookies side by side. I don't know if I will ever claim to know "the best" chocolate chip cookie recipe, but I will confidently declare, "I made chocolate chip cookies, and they don't suck." Because they don't suck!

I've been working on cleaning out Zoe and Eva's bedroom over the past week. Their room is always a nightmare. They are little hoarders, and I have to comb through hundreds of art projects and tiny, stupid toys. Every time I get it cleaned and organized, I think, "Okay, this time for real! This room is staying clean!" and it literally takes five minutes for them to turn it into a dumpster. One of my biggest problems with them is that, in addition to wanting to keep everything, they want to display it! They set up their garbage like a museum covering every surface of their room. So the dollhouse? Every room is a collection of fidgets and squishies. The kitchen set? Here's every card and piece of candy they were given for Valentine's Day. The dressers? Every rock and stick they've gathered in the past month and every tiny eraser they've mooched off their friends from school is piled on there.  

The room is full of notebooks of song lyrics and screenplays. There are papers everywhere. And socks. So many socks. And they are not socks I purchased, so I have to ask, where the hell are my kids getting all these socks?

And don't even get me started on stuffed animals. 

I don't hate stuffed animals. But I want my kids to have 3-5 max. I swear I get rid of at least 100 stuffed animals a year, and they just keep multiplying! HOW IS THIS HAPPENING?

And, of course, they all have names, and they're super very special, so if I get rid of a bunny rabbit from the dollar store that has a big hole in its back that my kid hasn't touched for three years, it's suddenly named Harriet and is the most important stuffie of all time, and the kid will never sleep again. The days I purge the stuffies are brutal. The girls never see them leave the house, and yet, somehow they always know. Even if the dang things have been sitting in a garbage bag in the shed for eight months. 

As you know, I've started working a couple days a week. It's been so great. It's fitting into my life better than I ever imagined, and I am really enjoying the feeling of accomplishment I get when I finish something at work. I don't really get that feeling at home because anything I do at home is never really finished, and there's not always a visual cue to validate my efforts. At work, I can build 100 photo frames and watch them pile up on a shelf, and there's something to show for it. I can assemble an order and package it for shipping and see it sent out into the world, signaling that this task is DONE. 

I like that. And I didn't know how much I needed that in my life. I need to be able to FINISH something or to SEE progress in some way, and I get that at work.  

Last weekend Zoe competed in the State Lego League Competition. It was not my favorite event (nor was it hers), but we got through it. Scotty, Eva, and I spent most of the day in Ogden so we could pop in and out of Weber State to see some of Zoe's events. 

This is the first five-day school week we've had in a while. The past three weeks have been four-day weeks. I feel like five-day school weeks are rare. 

My eyes have been really itchy this week. 

(Yes, I'm digging at the bottom of the barrel for something to write about). 

I'm 43 days soda sober, and I hate living this way. Nothing fills the void. There is joy in a soda run - pulling up to the window and having someone hand you an icy Coke... running into a gas station and having access to pebble ice and styrofoam to keep everything chilled... ahhhhhh. There is nothing that replaces that. 

Maverik, I miss you.

McDonald's, I miss you.

Sweet nectar, I miss you.

But whatever. I can't moderate my soda intake, so it's best that I not have any at all. It’s all or nothing for me. 

In other news, I dyed my hair the other day, and I look like Snape. It's not the first time I've ended up looking like Snape, and it's probably not the last. Speaking of Harry Potter-esque things, there's a house for sale by the junior high, and the realtor is named Emma Watson. True story. 

My low battery indicator just went on, so I better finish this up before my computer shuts down. I would leave you with something profound, but let's be honest, all I'm thinking about now is what I'm going to have for lunch, and I can’t even muster up the energy to find a photo to stick in this post. 

Happy Wednesday, my friends.