Nuthin' up My Sleeve...

Magically, we turned ourselves into other kinds of creatures during the second yoga class last night. There was an upward facing dog, a cobra, a sphinx, and a corpse. The stretching was tougher to do than last week's, but I didn't feel my breathing as labored this time. Maybe the gym wasn't as warm. The corpse pose was appropriate, because we lay in that state for a little while towards the end of the class, concentrating on breathing and awareness of our muscles and vertebrae. So relaxing. At one point, Helen told us, "You are relaxed but very aware." I was thinking, "Man, I'm this close to drifting off to sleep." Slept pretty well last night and feel pretty good this morning too!

Forty-Five

Yup, today I sit firmly on the fence between 40 and 50. In 1964 when I was born, it was also a Friday, and my mom tells me it was a sunny day, as it is here on Lawn Guyland today.

I'm in a pretty good place in my life right now. All three of my children are at different stages of development, are different in their approach to school work and social dynamics, and are carving out different roles in the household. Apart from the occasional bumps in the road, it's rewarding to watch them grow and to help them along. I'm very happy and fulfilled in my work, being surrounded with smart, capable, and genuine people for the most part. We're doing all right financially, which is truly lucky. I'm in fine health and still fit into the same clothes day after day. Other than taking two days off for minor surgery last year, the last time I used any sick time was eight years ago after the birth of Son #3.

Some people think that email and Facebook and Twitter and other such Internet communication channels depersonalize relationships, but I have received such lovely greetings and messages today...and so many that it would be impossible to do over the telephone. Many people are too busy (or don't plan in advance) to be able to put a card in the mail, but I know how they feel because they typed out a short note on the computer. I've heard from old neighborhood friends who've moved across the country, relatives, college dorm mates, high school classmates, old work comrades, and even my son's clarinet teacher from last year who is now a freshman at Fredonia.

Hubby had a great birthday card waiting for me this morning and I got all sorts of hugs and kisses from the kids before school. My friend K brought a big bouquet of bright flowers. My morning hot chocolate buddy gave me a birthday cake candle and a collection of vanilla scented toiletries. J brought a box of fancy chocolates. T brought a big pot of purple mums and a hilarious card. We had a departmental birthday sing-along with chocolate cake (yes I traded my normal mid morning snack for a slab of that today) and our group cartoonist drew a great image of me rocking out to KC and the Sunshine Band in my office. R whisked me out for a lunch time stroll, and when I returned to my office C had left me a gorgeous butterfly wind chime. I really have been the object of special attention and indulgence today.

I truly feel blessed, not only because I have such wonderful people helping me celebrate today, but because they are in my life every day. Thank you. You know who you are. And I know when all of your birthdays are!

Mom Said WHAT?!?

Sad but true, Mom had foot in mouth syndrome at the dinner table last night (doesn't sound very appetizing, does it?).

I made a chicken, sausage, and corn pot pie with the rest of my homemade gravy from the Rosh Hashanah meal (yummy). One of the kids' favorite veggie side dishes, too: fresh green beans tossed with chopped toasted almonds.

Son #2 was chit chatting while eating, and of course wasn't exactly keeping his face over the plate while taking in mouthfuls of green beans, so almonds were dropping here and there. Venting my annoyance, I bluntly informed him that he had nuts in his lap. (Great choice of words, huh? Of course I didn't think about this 'til it was too late.)

First the kids all went hysterical, then I cracked up too. No one complained that the food was too cold, but it was at least five minutes before anyone was able to pick up a fork again.

Not Quite the Seventh Inning Stretch

I did it! Last night I attended my first yoga class. Let me say that it was a lot more invigorating than what I normally do before "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

There were around 30 of us, about half of whom were completely new like me. We were lucky to get a 20 year veteran yoga instructor. She introduced herself as Helen and told us we'd be doing a lot of breathing and stretching, and ordered us not to compare ourselves with how high or low anyone else was stretching. Everyone at his own pace. I was relieved to hear that.

Normally I don't concentrate on doing deep breathing, except when I'm trying to relax my body on nights when the brain is still twirling at bedtime. We were constantly reminded to fill our lungs and expand our bellies when inhaling, and to squeeze the abdominal muscles when exhaling. It feels good! And it makes a difference to do that when in various poses. I got in touch with muscles and nerve endings that normally lie dormant. Very enlightening.

I did all right for a newbie, I think, although I had a couple of rough spots. The first time I sat on my legs and stretched my toes out, I got painful cramps in my feet. I stubbornly kept going back into the pose and the cramps eventually subsided. A couple of times when holding a squat pose, my chest muscles began to cramp and burn. Not sure why, but maybe that's also due to using previously inactive muscle. I do have to work on getting lower to the floor when I do squats; the trick is to keep the feet flat on the mat.

I am now acquainted with The Tortoise, The Mountain, The Warrior, The Tree, and The Downward Facing Dog. I found it amazing that, when we stretched out as far as we could go and held the position, when we drew in our next breath the instructor asked us to stretch a little farther...lo and behold, this was possible! I felt fantastically loose and limber at the end of the session. It was a pleasant sensation to be all pulled out like taffy when it was time to go to sleep, too.

I don't know whether the relaxation had anything to do with it, but the cell phone rang just when the class was ending...homework crisis because an essay had to be printed, the printer was jammed, Dad had taken it apart but didn't remove the paper...blah blah blah...I didn't feel overly freaked. When I walked in the door, I went downstairs and gently flipped the printer upside down and backwards. The two sheets of paper that were firmly wrapped around the roller and wedged in the teeth came right out. I then calmly asked the dad to put the machine back together at the next commercial break of NCIS. Printing was all wrapped up within seconds of beddy bye time.

This morning my lower back and shoulders were still feeling stretched out, and the back ached somewhat. But not the same kind of ache that I get after a day of house painting or any other overuse. I can just sense that all the vertebrae are there, but it doesn't seriously hurt. Can't quite describe it. I'm looking forward to next class!

Easter Seals Photo

Here's a pic (snarfed from the Easter Seals web site) of our four family volunteers from the day of the Easter Seals walk. Those blue t-shirts were special, for volunteers...as I kept reminding Son #3 who wanted to take it off because it was too big on him. I explained that they didn't get many kids his age who were ready to do such an awesome job volunteering!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

This afternoon we planted a bag of crocus bulbs that I'd bought a couple of weeks ago at one of the warehouse clubs. An impulse purchase which was not too expensive and definitely not unhealthy...

There were 121 bulbs. Son #3 counted. One more than advertised! Gotta celebrate these little victories. We had a lovely assembly line going. I cut out the beginning of the trench with the post hole digger (the border of the front garden) and Son #2 followed with the spade to get the right depth. Son #3 dug out the excess dirt. I popped the bulbs in the ground every so often, behind them as they were working. Number One Son joined us after a little while and began to cover the bulbs with dirt, weeding as he worked. After the last bulbs went into the ground, I took the youngest with me to get a couple of bags of soil to cover everything well. While we were gone, the other two finished putting back the dirt, cleaned up the tools and weeds, and did the first watering. We'll put the soil down later. In a little while we're going to visit friends who are on LI this weekend (they live in Massachusetts) along with their whole family, also our friends.

I told the dad that the kids earned a trip to get ices after dinner, if he feels like buying.

Short on Shortening

After we had dinner last night, I had a "D'oh!" moment.

I prepared a bunch of traditional foods for the Jewish New Year. Several of these recipes started out as Xerox copies of my mother-in-law's index cards (since my traditional Italian family recipes wouldn't really cut it). I've modified some of them over the years, reducing the fat content or changing to healthier ingredients. My husband goes so far as to say that traditional Jewish cooking has killed more Jews than Hitler did.

Anyway, I've stuck faithfully to the matzo ball recipe (including the 1/2 cup of seltzer which creates the fluffy texture). I must've been really tired on Thursday night when I made the batter for this year's "balls" because I realized last night that I'd forgotten to melt the 1/2 cup of shortening and add it to the batter before I refrigerated it. Well, it was after 10PM, after the kids had gone to bed, and that's late for me to be thinking straight...

But when I thought about it, I hadn't tasted a difference so I asked hubby. He said he thought they tasted the same too. Normally the recipe calls for refrigerating the batter at least one hour before scooping it out into balls. This batch had been refrigerated for almost 20 hours. Hmm, I think I'll do the same every year if possible, so I can avoid including 1/2 cup of solid fat. Yeah baby!

I'll bet that many of the best changes to recipes have been accidental.

Bright Outlook

Yippee, last night my dentist concluded that the straightening of my lower teeth is just about done. I already have the Invisalign retainer, which I'm supposed to wear during the day also, until November sometime. But last night I got a home whitening kit, which I'm supposed to use at night for about a week. I'll start tonight or tomorrow night. Stay tuned!

Bing Bing Bing...Ricochet Rabbit!

I found myself becoming tongue tied when I was explaining today's family schedule to a friend.

Son #2 is staying after school to try out for intramural basketball, so didn't come home on the regular bus. Son #1 had forgotten that, so called me at work to tell me there'd been a problem. We settled that, and moved on to the next thing. Son #1's soccer coach is arriving at 4:40 to take him to practice. Normally the dad would do this, since he arrives home from work earlier, but has a 5:00 physical therapy appointment today. Son #1 has to leave a note for Son #2 if the late bus doesn't beat his departure...in case he forgot what his brother was doing.

Moving on...because of the P/T appointment, I have to pick up Son #3 at after school care on the way home from work. I have a 6:30 dentist appointment, so have to drop off the youngest and run. Even if the eldest and the dad are not home by the time I get there, the middle one will be. Tonight's dinner is all cooked and in a Tupperware in the fridge. If the kids need to, they can nuke individual portions (whole wheat noodle ribbons, imitation crabmeat, veggies in a low fat alfredo sauce). I need to stop at the market on the way home to get a couple more things for the Rosh Hashanah meal tomorrow night...and will do some more prep later tonight.

Am I nuts? If not now, I could be certifiable anytime...I think I hear the thumping of that Napoleon XIV song...

It's a Crappy Job, But...

There are some things we could never envision ourselves doing before we became homeowners, parents, or both. And then there are some things we thought we had given up doing once our kids were toilet trained, at least until we become grandparents someday. Now, mind you, my youngest is eight, so we've had it good for a while.

Son #2 was in the shower for a long time last night (nothing new) but it was after 8:30 and his younger brother still hadn't had his turn. So I rapped on the door and asked him to hurry up (again, nothing new). I try not to go in there at these times, now that they're older, since I'm in a house full of males and they should have their privacy. But the time kept ticking on, and the father showed no signs of willingness to disturb his state of being sprawled on the bedroom floor in front of the TV. So...

What do I find? A very bewildered and embarrassed eleven year old, standing in the shower with the water off, but in about an inch full of water and poop. Apparently dinner disagreed with him (no, not my fault; I was at the elementary school open house and Daddy took them to the diner) and he wasn't able to get out of the tub in time. Sigh. You can't make this shit up, literally. He was trying to figure out what to do, because the drain was clogged, and he was afraid he'd get in trouble. Well, if he'd called one of us right away, there would've been much less trouble.

So picture the mother, trying to help him clean his feet while trying to also dry off and get out of the tub, which still is full of water and you know what. Then picture me trying to unscrew the drain from the bottom of the tub, and it's not cooperating because the screw is stripped, and it's not as though I want to put my hand in to lift the screw while I'm turning it because the tub is STILL full of you know what. Luckily the father took mercy on me after about 10 minutes of futile effort...as it is approaching 9:00, with Son #3 still in the on deck circle and bedtime (9:30) rapidly closing in. He did put his hands in there. Ewww. Then again, he's an electrician and comes into contact with all sorts of disgusting things when doing demolition. So I finished cleaning the tub and we finished our evening routine (if you can call it that).

Another evening down the drain.

Fall 2009 Soccer Begins!

Yippee! Both teams won this weekend. Son #2 played on Saturday (in the middle of the Easter Seals walk) and his squad took the game 5 to 2. He scored one of the goals. Son #1 played Sunday morning (had to be on the field at 8:30 which was a bit of a rude awakening since Saturday was our bowling night) and was on the winning side of a 6-3 result.

The volunteer effort for the Easter Seals walk on Saturday was great fun. At 7:30AM we were helping to set up the registration site and breakfast for the staff and volunteers. The three amigos got to inflate helium balloons. They were able to take a playground break until we went out to serve as route marshals. We got to stand at the halfway point where we turned people around to complete the second half of the course, and give them water and vitamin water. I found it satisfying to watch people's faces as we cheered them on, particularly the people in wheelchairs.

After the walk was over, they fed us lunch (donated by sponsors) and then we watched an exposition game by the New York Warriors. These fellows play basketball in special ruggedized wheelchairs, and the huge metal wheels are tilted. They slam into one another much like we do at an amusement park when we ride the bumper cars. I can't imagine the upper body strength needed to whip those wheelchairs around the court so quickly. This is just one organization funded by Easter Seals. They fund many more programs for people with disabilities. The folks who drove down from Rochester to organize and run the walk are very enthusiastic about what they do, and about all that Easter Seals does. Thanks to sponsors and volunteers, they are able to give a high percentage of walker and corporate donations to the organizations they fund. The best part: the kids told "Mr. Shane" (our volunteer liaison) to sign us up for next year's event!

Abbott & Costello En Francais

I'm making dinner tonight (boneless pork chops, green beans, and grits) and trying to have conversations with all three kids while I'm doing it. Second day of school is still fraught with lots of news about teachers and classes and which kids they saw, etc. Questions about whether I can sign forms, do we have this extra item the teacher wanted, etc.

One of the kids is taking French and had to fill out a questionnaire about how much he remembered from his vocabulary last year. There were definite gaps in his memory. Here's one example.

"Mom, what's the word for 'water' in French?"

"Eau."

"What?"

"Eau."

"Oh?"

"EAU!"

"Why do you keep saying 'Oh'?"

"Just look in the French dictionary and you'll see what I mean. I'm trying to get dinner on the table here."

(after a minute)

"OHHH. Eau."

Kinda reminds you of Who's on First, doesn't it?

Hole in My Heart

On Thursday the kids all went to see a pediatric cardiologist, for a baseline check recommended by their doctor. He thought it would be a good idea because both hubby and I have slight mitral valve prolapse. So the Three Amigos had an EKG and echocardiogram in addition to a physical exam.

Son #1 was the only one whose exam showed anything of any concern. He has a small gap in his atrial septum (membrane connecting two chambers of the heart). The cardiologist said there was no enlargement or evidence that there were any ill effects, so we will just monitor the situation once a year. No restriction in activities etc.

Hubby was upset by this news, as he recalls what his parents went through when he was diagnosed with insulin dependent diabetes (IDDM, or Type I) at age 9. In 1972, the older generation recalled how diabetes used to be a death sentence, and at that point in time checking your glucose meant peeing in a cup and putting in a strip of litmus paper. Parents who receive the news that their child has been diagnosed with a medical condition can no longer hide behind the illusion that they have created a perfect little mix of their DNA. And so it goes. They all lived through that, and are here more than 35 years later to tell about it. We will too. Luckily medical science has advanced by leaps and bounds and is still galloping along.

We have counseled our eldest that, even though his heart is healthy at this time, he shouldn't "push the envelope." What does this mean? Eat a diet of predominantly heart friendly foods. Exercise moderately. Don't carry excess body weight. No smoking or recreational drugs. Limit alcohol intake. At age 13, he's only partially in tune with what most of this means, but he was very quick in Hermione Granger fashion (a.k.a. "insufferable know it all") to rattle off an exact list of several chemical substances he should avoid, courtesy of his 6th grade health class and his own pursuant curiosity. I guess I can't complain since I also have a fascination with medical facts. The trick would be to make sure he takes it all seriously.

As a dear friend of mine pointed out the other day, I can just add this to the long list of thoughts that are continuously balanced on my full plate in life. Ah well, life ain't so bad if one considers the alternative. Or, as my great grandmother is rumored to have said (translated from the old world Italian): these are things that only happen to the living.

South Shore Scenery

This afternoon the kids were otherwise occupied so Mom decided to grab her last beach afternoon before vacation ends day after tomorrow. I went to the western end of Tobay Beach and walked the four miles or so to the eastern end of Jones Beach, and then came back. Great workout!

The whisper of the waves kept me company, and so did my iPod. Anyone who has ever seen me walk with my iPod knows that I do a half walk/half dance step through some songs and sing along with many of the others. At the beach, the waves drown out my singing.

I reflected on the many sights of my two hour walk. In no particular order...

• Hundreds of baby seagulls pecked at the sand, too tiny to be a nuisance to beachgoers, watched carefully by their elders.
• The old and the young combed the surf and sand for shells and rocks.
• Kids with buckets squealed with delight as they collected hermit crabs.
• A handful of men with metal detectors and stoic expressions moved mechanically along the shore.
• Tweens with boogie boards pretended they all were the big kahunas out there.
• Couples, gay and hetero, strolled happily hand in hand or arm in arm.
• A small boy managed a huge kite in the shape of an eagle, with the help of his grandparents.
• About a dozen advertisements flew by via airplane, trying to gain our interest in alcoholic beverages, depilatory treatments, restaurants, and insurance companies. Only one was not obviously selling a product, but trying to build good will: "The pilots of United say THANK YOU."
• Dozens of structures populated the sand close to the dunes. Some were made with logs and bedsheets. Others were based on poles with brightly colored cloths wrapped around them (someone told me these can be bought at the Jones Beach Surf Shop). A few had personality, emblazoned with American flags and sports team memorabilia.
• A few optimistic fisherman silently waited for a bite.
• Messages and hearts were drawn in the sand in various spots. Mystery and romance.

I'm really glad I got to do this today. And I think it will feel really good to relax later, in the last few minutes before I close my eyes for the night, as my tired limbs sink into the mattress. Ah!