Bike riding

It doesn't matter the weather, when he has a spare minute he wants to RIDE HIS BIKE!

I don't think I've ever seen my 4 year old son have such excitement for anything outside.  Sure, he has a great time at the playground and he will happily dig the dirt out of each and every flower bed around the house.  But there is something different about him on his bicycle. 

I think he enjoys the sense of freedom while riding his bicycle.  He only rides back and forth on the sidewalk between our house and the next door neighbor, it's short enough to be safe but long enough to actually get moving.  Even though he rides with training wheels, he has crashed numerous times.  I'm not really sure how it happens but it doesn't seem to faze him.  Most of the time, he just rides with a big leisurely grin on his face.  

This past week, I was able to get an opportunity to ride my bike with him while my 11 month old daughter was napping.  A long time ago, I used to race bicycles, so my past relationship with riding is somewhat complicated.  But riding with J, I simply loved it.  We rode back and forth, along the same sidewalk.  Sometimes, for variation, instead of one house down we ride two houses down.  Yesterday, we went on a bike ride all the way to playground in my neighborhood, it was so easy for me and yet so hard for him on his little 12'' bicycle.  My neighborhood is quite hilly, so I will have to pack up the bikes so that we can find a flatter path somewhere.

My favorite part of bike riding is when we race.  J announces the same way every time. 
"Mommy, ready?  Ok, I'm going to count backwards from 1"
"4...3...2...1...GO!"
I can't even write this without laughing. 

31 days of writing, wow!

Day 31 of 31 - yahoo!

Here we are, March 31st.  I did it!

I want to personally thank Stacey and Ruth for hosting this challenge, which must be a ton of work on their end.  Thank you.

I am proud of myself for taking on this challenge that is definitely out of my comfort zone.  What did I accomplish this month?

- I think, most importantly, I took some time back for myself.  Writing allowed for some 'me' time, something I'm sorely lacking.  Next project, getting my exercise routine and diet in check.

- I very much enjoyed reading the other blogs, but found I just didn't have the time to read and comment on as many as I wished.

- I enjoyed the distraction of writing while dealing with the most frustrating month of my professional career (not an exaggeration .

- I really enjoy putting the memories of my family in text.  I have always been good at taking pictures and I remember the stories, but having them in writing is different.

- I need to learn how to be reflective on my own teaching.  It's an area I want to improve on, but just don't have the energy at this particular moment.

- Will I continue to slice on Tuesdays?  Sure, why not!  See you all in a couple of days.

I think I blog with rose colored glasses

Day 30 of 31

One of my reflections about this month long writing project has been that I think I blog with rose colored glasses. 

I think, that in general, I'm an optimist.  I really do always try to see the positive of every day and situation.  And I think, that we all have a choice in our attitudes even in we don't always have a choice about our circumstances.

I chose to make this blog anonymous, and it's been a challenge to keep it that way.  I have posted pictures of my kids, have made mention of the area I live, and if you put the pieces together, you can probably figure out which school district I work at.  But I haven't listed my last name for a very specific reason.  10 years ago, my Mom started the divorce process from my ex-stepfather.  It was the nastiest a divorce can possibly get and somehow I got in the middle.  So, if you were to google my name, you will see some pretty terrible (and completely false) stuff on the internet about me.  So, for obvious reasons, I want to keep this blog anonymous from him. 

In many ways, the last month has been good (like always).  But in reality, I have dealt with some very real issues involving my job and the labor disputes that we are currently in.  In addition, my husband worked nearly non-step from until March 25th, so I was pretty much on my own for the month.  But I don't want this blog to be a place about complaining.  So maybe I blog with rose colored glasses because it makes me feel better and see the positive of each day.  I don't know, still figuring this one out.  

Songs that are full of memories

Day 28 of 31

I made a quick trip to BJ's after dinner tonight and on the short drive there and back I heard two songs that invoked some pretty strong memories.

On the way there I heard "Piano Man".  I'm sure everyone who follows Two Writing Teachers has their own memory of this song.  For me, it was going to see Billy Joel in concert at Hershey Park Stadium.  It was July and I was about 2 months pregnant with my son.  It was the closing song and I think the whole stadium sang in unison. 

On the way home, I heard "Come on Eileen" which I don't hear that often.  Between junior and senior year in college, I planned a month long trip to Israel that turned into a three month trip (but that's another story).  One of my classmates on the trip was named Aylin (but pronounced Eileen).   Since it was 1997, we were still living in the land of mix tapes, so I guess someone had made a mix tape that included "Come on Eileen" and we must have heard it hundreds of times, much to her chagrin. 

I have always had an excellent memory, but as I get older, I find that my memory of dates is not as good as it used to be.  So I find it fascinating that songs can invoke memories so easily and so vividly.  When I hear a song that was once popular, I can remember the year, current events and what I was doing.  Does memory work this way for everyone?

On Marriage Equality

Day 27 of 31

Like everyone else in the country, I'm following the Supreme Court proceedings regarding Prop 8 and DOMA.  It's time that once and for all, the same rights, privileges and penalties are bestowed equally.  I happen to be heterosexual, but here's the part I just don't understand.   How does it affect me, I mean one iota, if two men or two women decide to get married?  Does it change my rights, my tax structure, my right to divorce?  Does having more married couples help the country?  It's not my area of expertise, but my guess is yes. Is having families with 2 parents beneficial to the community, absolutely.  Do gay families face challenges just as straight families do, absolutely as well. 

I am an A and a very close family member is a T in the LGBTAQ acryonym. It will be three years in May and you know what, it wasn't a walk in the park for me.  It's complicated and it takes a lot of time to make the emotional adjustments.  However, from day one there has been unconditional love and support.  So, if they are lucky enough to a find a person to spend the rest of their life with, who am I to deny that? 

My new car

Here's the update to the earlier blog post about my husband's car accident in early March.

We got a new car today! Actually, it's a used car, but it's new to us.  I find car shopping overwhelming.  There are a gazillion choices of cars and who to purchase one from.  I went through a lot of scenarios, but at the end of the day, I though the most important thing was to find a car that would not put me in a financial bind.

I drive past a used car dealer every day between work and daycare, so I decided to check out the stock.  I found a car that is from 2009, but only has 24,000.  It wasn't a car that was even remotely on my radar, but the miles were low and the price was right.  It's got a funny look, but is surprisingly roomy inside.  esides, a car purchase is not for the rest of my life, I can always change in a couple of year.  So, without further adieu, here she is, my new to me eggplant. 

The winter of 1994

Day 25 of 31

It's snowing here in Central PA, again.  It feels like it's never going to end.  I've seen some buds trying to come out, but it seems they're afraid to.  I have pictures from a year ago and everything was green, right now it's still very much winter.

It reminds me of the winter of 1994, in Rockland County, NY.  I don't think that I would remember a year so vividly, but this one was important, because it was the year I was supposed to start driving.  I got my learners permit very early in January (the first week) and I remember that I actually went to get it on a day we had off because it was a snow day.  That winter, it snowed and snowed and snowed.  In fact, there was snow on the ground until after Easter.  There was one big blizzard and the banks of snow were many feet high, making some driving very dangerous.  So, while I got my permit the first week of January, I didn't actually drive until well into April.  And when you're 16 years old and wanting to learn to drive, every day feels like a year.

I'm sure spring will come eventually, just as it did in that long winter of 1994.  

Passover cooking

Day 24 of 31

We go to my inlaws for Passover this year.  They are hosting the sedar at the commons room at the apartment complex they're moving to.  There are way too many people to have the sedar at someone's house, but this is a new experiment, so we'll see how it goes.

To make the task of hosting 25+ people, we split up the cooking.  I volunteered to make brisket, but someone else was already bringing a roast.  Unfortunate, because my brisket is really good and this other person's meat is notoriously not so good.  Oh well, so I volunteered to bring kugel, which I think is a yiddish word for casserole.  Maybe not, who knows.

Kugel #1 was something I had at a matza cookoff a couple of years ago.  It's onions, celery, mushrooms mixed with matza, chicken soup, eggs and spices.  I think it reminds me of Thanksgiving and Passover put together.  It is so good that I made a second one for myself.

Kugel #2 was a potato kugel.  Pretty simple, potatoes, onions, eggs, salt, pepper.  I used to think that I had to grate potatoes by hand, what was I thinking???  Now it's the food processor or bust.  I peeled the potatoes right into the sink since we have a garbage disposal.  I turned on the water and turned on the disposal and before I could stop it, I knew what happened, I had clogged the pipes.  Same thing happened this past Hanukah when we made potato latkes.  When will I learn?  I do feel empowered that I know how to undo the pipes and fix the garbage disposal, but it added at least half an hour to the job this morning.

Recipe #3 (that I made on Saturday) is matza crunch.  If you have never had this for Passover, you must make it!  If you are not Jewish, but like caramel and chocolate (who doesn't), go to the store and buy a box of matza and make this recipe, you won't regret it!!  Caramel Matza Crunch recipe

A confession...I let my kids go to Easter Egg Hunts

I am Jewish, through and through.  I have gone through periods where I have been more observant, less observant, more involved, less involved.  But I can know say, especially as a mother, that my commitment to Judaism is stronger than ever, especially for the sake of my children.

So, I have a confession to make: I let my kids go to the local Easter Egg Hunt!  I went to Easter Egg Hunts growing up, I actually have memories of them from about 4 or 5 years old.  I even remember making some strange sort of Easter bonnet. 


So, why do I let my kids participate in this?  First of all, I really don't see any relationship to the holiday of Easter.  We're running through a meadow, searching for plastic eggs filled with candy.  Second, it's fun!  What's not to like about candy?  Third, (and I think this is really the reason why so many neighborhoods do this activity) after a long winter it's one of the first opportunities to get everyone out to see each other again. 

Today's Easter Egg Hunt was fun, but it was freezing cold and windy!  I was there without my husband, so it was a little hard to have both kids and take the adequate number of pictures!  Nevertheless, I think that both kids had a good time and no tears were shed (at least by my kids).  It is so nice to see my neighbors for a few minutes, too. 

Go Fish

Day 22 of 31

J and I enjoy playing cards together.  We're pretty limited in our repertoire right now, but I'm hoping it will grow in time.  Playing cards with a 4 year old is funny, the rules are not exactly right and the he usually lays his cards face up.

It's been a long, exhausting week (even more so than usual), so I took a cue from Stacey and made a podcast of 2 minutes of our game.

New haircut, part 2

Day 21 of 31

I had my hair chopped off yesterday, but the best part came today.

Countless students stopped me today to tell me that they liked my haircut.  Most were students that I currently have, but many were students that I had last semester or last year.  I'm pretty modest about my appearance, but I must say that I enjoyed the attention.

It's been a long week, between board meetings and parent / teacher conferences (which mostly involves sitting around since they are poorly attended).  I'm ready for our (shortened) spring break coming up next week.

My new haircut

Day 20 of 31

I needed a new haircut, plain and simple.  I had a hairdresser that I liked, but it just wasn't a convenient location in relation to work and daycare.  Because of that, I've been negligent about my hair and it basically became an overgrown mess.

But how do you find a new hairdresser?  It's tough.  A few weeks ago, the answer was handed to me.  My friend and new neighbor gets her hair cut right near my work (30 minutes from home).  She has great hair, so I figured I would give it a go.

It was a great move.  The salon was beautiful and I got along very well with my stylist.  I feel better about myself and I'm so pleased to take back some "me" time.

My new haircut

Decluttering my electronic life

Day 19 of 31

I got an email from the network administrator at work today politely asking us to do some email housekeeping.  While they haven't enforced any mailbox limits, the server space is starting to dwindle.  At the end of the email, he noted that a suggest limit is 50mb.  I checked my limit, I had over 900mb - egads, he could have called me out by name.

So once I got started, it became pretty easy to delete old emails.  Older than 2012, definitely delete.  Items from the year 2012, definitely delete those, too.  2013, mostly keep, but delete some of those, too.  In about 20 minutes, I got my mailbox down to 20mb, which felt great. 

A few weeks ago, a friend posted on facebook about unsubscribing to stores and their coupon emails.  What a great idea, I did that too.  Things at Kohl's are always on sale, so I don't need 3 or 4 extra emails a day. 

I take a million pictures and used to keep everything (mostly at my husbands instance) but lately, I've started deleting duplicates, blurry ones, etc.  For the most part, if I don't want to post it on my flickr page, I delete.   I still have half a million, but it's a little less overwhelming. 

I feel better now than I did 30 minutes ago, who knew the day could change that easily?

Shameless

Day 18 of 31

I watch very little actual tv these days, mostly I watch old series from Netflix on the Kindle.  I DVR everything, so I haven't seen a commercial in a long time.

Just about the only reason I keep my cable subscription is so that I can watch Shameless, on Showtime.  At it's core, Shameless is a family comedy / drama, but it is the most exaggerated and dysfunctional family that you can imagine. 

I watch it for the drinking, the drugs and the crime.  Because it's a life that I've never had and never will have.  But more importantly, I watch it for the humor, because I think it's the absolute funniest show on tv.  When done correctly, R rated humor is really entertaining.

Being a tourist close to home

Day 17 of 31

I go to Hershey's Chocolate World a few times a year.  It's close, it's free and my kids are still entertained by it, so why not?  Besides, you never know what else you'll happen to see.

Apparently, something new is being built at Chocolate World.  Who cares what it is, building something means heavy machinery.  I'm not really exaggerating, one of J's first words was machine.  Actually, it was "chine" for the longest time.   For many months at the library, he would only get machine books.  A book of any other genre had to be taken out by me, separately. 

Excavator

Very large jackhammer

Road roller and jackhammer

As far as machines go, I figure if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.  I encourage his love of machines and don't mind taking pictures and uploading them to the computer in his own folder "J's trucks"

Chocolate World itself never changes.  There is a short ride with singing cows and it tells the story about how chocolate is made, though I never pay that much attention.

Finally, I let the kids have some fun and we went to the dessert creation studio.  For $4.95, you get a cupcake, icing and two toppings to build your own cupcake.  The waitress also put edible paint "melted chocolate" on the table with paint brushes.  J had a great time adding the Reese's cups and sprinkles to his cupcake and painting on some color.  Not to my surprise, although he ate the candy, he didn't have one bite of cupcake or icing.  Also not to my surprise, the 11.5 month old did a pretty good job of eating what was left.

State Museum

Day 16 of 31

Oh spring, will you please come already?  We've been waiting patiently all winter, it's time already.

It's a cold, wet, snowy/rainy day in PA today.  I didn't want to waste an entire Saturday, so I headed with the kids to the State Museum.  This museum has a great little children's play area on the ground floor, a plantetarium on the 3rd floor and a whole lot of strange exhibits in between. 

I don't know when the museum was built, but it was clearly in a different era because it has this enormous lobby with a grand ceiling and all I can think is how much energy is being used just to keep the museum open.  Some of the exhibits are pretty timeless (duh, it's a museum) but the floor with the stuffed animals makes me feel as if I went through a time machine to the 1970's. 

As we were leaving the museum (in the snow), the St. Patrick's Day parade was just getting ready to start.  Somehow the combination of cold/wet weather and a typical St.Patrick's Day crowd was entirely unappaeling to me, so we hit the road. 

So, spring is not here today and the forecast does not look good for tomorrow either, but hopefully soon. 

Reflections half way through

Day 15 of 31

So here we are, about half way through the Slice of Life Challenge (months with odd numbers are tough on this math teacher).  And so far, I've made it!

Here's what I've learned so far:

• I enjoy the process of writing in this blog, I'm not finding it too hard to come up with topics and this process is pretty quick
• I have alluded to the fact that there is major crap at work right now.  I'm enjoying the fact that blogging gives me something else to do, something else to think about and most importantly, something else for ME!
• I have enjoyed reading the other blog entries, we come from so many different walks of life

Here are some of my challenges:

• I find commenting a challenge, mostly because it is difficult for me to access and (especially) comment using my phone.  I have spent a few minutes every night commenting from the computer, but I'm usually ready for bed.  
• I have read many blogs, but not many consistently.  Hopefully I will get to know more of you throughout this process
• I think, perhaps, that I need to focus my blog to something.  Parenting, teaching math, I don't know... 

 To that end, tgif.  I need this weekend like it's nobody's business...and next week is even longer.

Flying hot dog

Day 14 of 31

"Why do we have to learn this?"

As a high school math teacher, this is a question that I'm used to.  And I'm fine with answering it.  I am well aware that most people will not have to verify trigonometric identities as part of their professional lives.  However, I do sincerely believe that learning some higher level math helps develop analytical skills that (hopefully) will be used in the future.  Sometimes the concepts are tough, I think of it like excersizing the brain.

In my Algebra 1 class this morning, I had a student really floor me.  Instead of the normal complaint, his speech went something like this.

"To me, this is like building a flying hot dog.  Why do I need to learn all of the steps to building a flying hot dog when I can just take an airplane?

Like I said, stopped in my tracks.  

PS - Happy π Day!

Story Time

Day 13 of 31

When I grew up, I lived 2 houses away from the children's librarian of our town's local library.  So among other reasons, I was a regular attendee of library story time.  I actually have memories of going, I all I remember were the carpet squares that we would grab from the big stack.

I used to love going to the library, so it seemed natural to me to make it part of my routine when my son was born.  I went to the library when he was about 2 weeks old, in hindsight, it might have been a bit early, but it gave me something to do in the middle of winter.

Story time has been a part of my Tuesday routine for the last 2 years or so.  I enjoy talking to the librarian.  It gives us a chance to get new books, which is really just changing the rotation of construction vehicle books.  The local library is not especially fancy, but they have a great selection of puzzles, blocks and cars that J likes to play with.

Last night, the librarian was unexpectedly absent.  Turns out, she broke a bone in her foot within the last week and is still in a lot of pain.  Of course, my first thought is that I hope the librarian makes a full recovery.  Story time just wasn't the same without her, we missed the routine she always does and we missed her! 

A perfect 30 minutes

I guess I'm getting old.  Between the 3 (count 'em 3) drinks that I had at the wedding on Sunday afternoon, a short night's sleep and perhaps the switch to daylight savings time, I was exhausted on Monday.  Throw in lunch duty, ISS duty, after school parking lot duty and a union meeting, I was utterly delirious.  By the time I drove to daycare, I had a splitting headache, I was getting dizzy and my stomach felt upset.

Luckily, when I got home, my husband was already home from work and volunteered to do dinner duty with the kids.  I took an hour off, retreated to the basement and watched last week's Project Runway which involved crafting dresses from duck tape.

After the hour and when I could hear that the kids were done with dinner, I went back upstairs and offered to put the baby to bed.  I thought she was tired but she only drank a small amount from her bottle and was ready to play.  I guess she was able to read the situation and knew just what I needed.  We had the most extraordinary 30 minutes of playtime.  We were playing a version of peek-a-boo with her play house, she would hide and when I found her she giggled.  She is almost walking and did a whole lot of walking right into my arms.  I don't usually get undivided time with her since I have 2 children and this evening was just precious.  Finally, she put on a little fuss so I gave her the rest of her bottle and she went right to sleep.  After those 30 minutes I felt refreshed, my head was a little better and I felt ready to cope with the rest of the night.  I put the 4 year old to bed and he also seemed to sense what I needed because we read our 3 books with ease. 

Not my child, but wanted to show the house.  This is a fantastic toy, even though it takes up a bit of room.