25 October 2006

adventures in single parenting

Some of the highlights of the last few days:
  • We got a package yesterday, and the first thing James did once the contents were removed was to dump out the foam packing material all over the floor. Evan's reaction to this was to stomp all over the peanuts (as we call them) and turn them into tiny little foamy flecks all over the floor.
  • Evan woke up approxiamtely every hour last night.
  • James threw a fit this afternoon (I can't for the life of me recall what he was upset about) and when he refused to go to his room I carried him there and held the door shut while he pounded on it. (This makes him sound like a monster, when really he just inherited his mother's tantrum gene. The tantrums are very, very unpleasant when they happen, but thankfully quite rare. And for me, they are good practice in patience.)
  • I had just gotten the boys into the bath tonight when Evan pooped. So I got the boys out of the bath, drained the tub, cleaned the tub, refilled the tub, and put the boys back in the bath. Evan promptly pooped again. That was the end of bathtime. In the time it took for me to go get Evan a diaper, James had pulled all of the blankets off of my bed.
  • Evan's current favorite activity is to pull the board games off of the shelves in the living room and dump their contents all over the floor.
On ordinary days, Greg comes home around 6:30 and we eat dinner and he plays with the boys before bed and I get a break. And then after the boys are in bed I clean up a little or do the dishes or whatever before relaxing for the night. So all of the things listed above might have happened anyway, even if Greg were here (most likely they would have), but without Greg, my break never comes. So once the boys are in bed I want nothing other than to collapse on the couch and watch TV or read.

This is very bad when it comes to the household duties. For example, the peanut pieces are still all over the living room floor because to vacuum them, I would first have to pick up the living room. And who knows what kind of messes the boys would make while I was thusly engaged. Besides, when I do have the time to get some housework done, I work on the never-ending pile of dirty dishes, because of that whole eating thing.

Hey, you know what else is great? Greg called tonight to tell me that he'll be in Colorado an extra day because bad weather is preventing them from taking good solar readings, which is the purpose of their trip. Excellent.

And now that this is starting to sound a little whiny and bitter, it's time to wrap it up. There have been plenty of nice things about the last few days, sure, but it's easier to dwell on the negative when I'm feeling tired and cranky. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

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22 October 2006

updating

It has been raining and/or gray outside for almost an entire week, and I'm getting tired of it. Greg is, at this moment, competing in an Adventure Race in Pennsylvania, and after coming home late tonight he'll be leaving tomorrow for Colorado, for work, for four days, so I'm single parenting for close to a week. I had my last ultimate frisbee game today, and we barely had enough players so I played almost the entire game, so I am tired, but in a good way.

So things are okay. I haven't had the blogging urge lately -- partly I'm feeling sluggish and uninspired, partly I'm feeling guilty about how often I update the blog versus how often I write personally to people. (You thought my blogging was infrequent? Try waiting for an e-mail from me: you can watch water boil, watch paint dry, and you'll still be waiting for me. Maybe I have some kind of disorder. I refuse to believe I'm just incosiderate.) I'm thinking that if, instead of writing a blog post every day, I write an e-mail, then I'll be caught up on my correspondence in a week or two. No reason I can't do both, I suppose, but I'm trying to prioritize, which has never been one of my strengths.

So, long story short: I will not be attentive to blogging this week, and possibly after that.

(But who knows? Every time I say I'll update, I don't, and when I say I won't, I do. It seems to work out that whenever I have the time, I don't have any ideas, and vice versa. Sorry to leave you hanging like that, but if you know me, that's the kind of thing I'm good at. Indecisiveness.)

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16 October 2006

ending my absence

Hello, loyal readers, if you're still reading after my unplanned absence, that is. I didn't really intend to abandon the blog for a couple of weeks there, but you know how it is. Stuff comes up. People get busy. But I intend to resume regular blogging any day now.

Today, though, no real blogging, just some cute photos. Two weekends ago, my sister and her family came to visit, and this past weekend we went out to see my other sister and her fiancee. Much fun was had by all, and I took about a million adorable pictures, of which I'll share a few of the best here.

James and cousin Molly among the pumpkins at a local farm

James and a pony at the same farm

At the waterfront in Salem, MA

The boys with Aunt Ren and some monsters at a street fair

Aunt Ren and her nephews outside the Rainforest Cafe

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04 October 2006

by popular demand

I've updated our Yahoo photos with photos from August and September. Enjoy!

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03 October 2006

autumn

So we are now officially into autumn, and if there's one thing I love about nature, it's the changes of season. I like wearing pants and sweaters after months of skirts and tank tops, I like drinking hot tea instead of iced, I like leaves changing colors, I like apple picking and Halloween and my birthday.

But what I really, really love about changing seasons? Changing foods. Summer giving way to autumn means that I can make soups and stews and casseroles, and I can cook with sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I'm digging out favorite old recipes, and experimenting with new ones. I can bake again, I can use the oven without having to evacuate everyone from the house for fear of heatstroke. We have pumpkin ice cream and apple pie ice cream in the freezer (because even when it's getting colder, it's not too cold for ice cream!). Maybe I'm a food geek, but I get so excited about cooking different things with different ingredients once the seasons change.

In bad mommy news, James is playing outside right now, alone, in the pouring rain. He's wearing rainboots and three layers and has an umbrella, and obviously is enjoying himself or he'd be back inside by now, but I still feel a little bit guilty. So I will make him a nice hot lunch when he gets back.

In employment news, we are entering the fourth month in which I've heard nothing from my employers, not even responses from the emails I've sent, yet they continue to pay me. Actually, I did hear from them -- I got an invitation to a reception for the retirement of my supervisor, and I couldnt' make it. No word on who's replacing him, or when we're actually going to do something, though.

And that's about all. Not much news for blogging, these days.

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