List Maker, and Proud of It

Posted on 12/05/2015 by chick

I have long been a list maker, particularly a maker of to-do lists, but I haven’t always been proud of it. List-making is often seen as an anal habit, and who wants to be perceived as anal? And while I’m good at making lists, I’m not so good at sticking to them. When I tackle a list, I often change around my priorities, skip tasks that I’m not in the mood for, and do things that weren’t even on this list. (Clearly I’m not anal!)

There is power, though, in the very act of planning and in promising to allocate time toward a goal. A to-do list helps to keep me focused when I’m tired and have a lot to keep track of. I think I accomplish more after making a list, even if I skip some of the tasks that are on it.

Lists are especially helpful at this time of year. Christmas is nearly upon us, and there’s so much to do! I have several lists going right now. I’ll probably make more before the season is over.

That’s good, because list-making works for me. I’m happy to have found such a helpful method for getting things done. So today I am not just a list maker, I’m a proud list maker!

Posted in Crazy Me | 1 Comment

Bloodthirsty

Posted on 12/01/2015 by chick

It pains me to remember how I thought of winter moths when I first moved to Rhode Island. I’d see them fluttering around leafy areas on the chilly nights of late fall, and I’d think, “How unusual to see moths at this time of year.” I thought that they were interesting.

But I also assumed that they were a local phenomenon. I didn’t know then that they were an invasive species. I wonder how many times my husband and I drove through those fluttering hordes, commenting on how their numbers had increased, without any realization of how awful that was.

Then our trees were decimated by caterpillars last spring, and I did some research. I found out that those moths came out at night to mate, and that from this activity would come the voracious caterpillars of spring. I now hate the sight of them.

Alas, there are so many to hate this year! We’ve learned from previous experience that we should leave the exterior lights off at this time of year, because the lights attract the moths. But one night we forgot. We turned on the light, and this is the scene that greeted my husband when he returned home.

mothy1

He didn’t dare enter that way. He went around back to try the kitchen door, but that door had several dozen attached to it. He tried to keep them out as he entered, but some of them chased him inside.

The kids wanted to rescue the moths that had invaded our house. My husband and I shouted, “No, kill them!” The poor kids could not understand why we were being so bloodthirsty, because we usually gently catch bugs and release them outside.

But we weren’t going to play nice with winter moths, uh-uh. My husband vacuumed the beasties from the cabinets, walls, and ceiling. I watched with great satisfaction. I wish we had a vacuum cleaner big and powerful enough to suck up every last winter moth in Rhode Island!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Reading Rainbow

Posted on 11/30/2015 by chick

rainbowbook

Yesterday the sun streamed through the window at just the right angle so that it went through a glass candle holder and threw a rainbow on the page as I was reading. It was a real “Reading Rainbow!”

P.S. The book was A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd.

Posted in Reading, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

“S” Is for “Satsuma”

Posted on 11/29/2015 by chick

My husband went to Whole Foods the other day to pick up our Thanksgiving turkey. While he was there he bought some oranges, not because we needed oranges for our Thanksgiving feast, but because they were a variety he had never seen before. They were bright and fresh-looking, sold with stems and leaves still attached, so how could he resist? But by the time he got home, he had forgotten the name of the variety. He knew only that it started with an “S.”

A couple of days later I was watching an episode of Doctor Who. The Doctor found an orange in the pocket of a borrowed bathrobe. He said, “What have I got in here? A satsuma!” Then he said some things that would make no sense unless you know that in England the satsuma is sometimes called a “Christmas orange” and that they use it as a stocking stuffer. Finally, the Doctor used the satsuma to defeat the alien bad guy and save the Earth.

“Satsuma” starts with “S,” of course, and that’s how I discovered the identity of our mystery orange. And because I was interested to learn more about it, I looked it up on-line, which is how I came to understand what the Doctor had been saying about it.  I love this kind of happy coincidence!

On-line, the satsuma is described as easy-to-peel, sweet, and tender. Having eaten a few, I agree. I might even like satsumas better than clementines. Not only are they tasty, but they could come in handy the next time I have to battle aliens.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Daily Checklist

Posted on 11/25/2015 by chick

I’ve been thoroughly miserable lately. I even have some cause to be miserable. That is, there are external factors (problems that aren’t just in my head) working against me. But I know that happiness is a state of mind. You have to will yourself to be happy. And to do that, you have to make the effort to 1. Do things you enjoy, and 2. Enjoy the things you do. It also helps to take care of yourself. So I’ve come up with a checklist of daily activities that I think might help to improve my outlook on life.

  • Eat breakfast.
  • Eat lunch.
  • Listen to music.
  • Write for at least 15 minutes.
  • Read for at least 30 minutes.
  • Take a walk.
  • Drink at least one large glass of water.
  • Dance/stretch for at least 10 minutes.
  • Pause to consider someone or something for which you’re grateful.
  • Do something you’ve been putting off.
  • Reach out to someone.
  • Find a reason to leave the house for a while.
  • Praise yourself for something.

There are other things I could and perhaps should do every day, but these are enough to start with. And having written this post while listening to music, I can cross two items off the checklist for today!

Posted in Crazy Me | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Who’s the Psychic?

Posted on 11/14/2015 by chick

When I was a child, my mother often told me that I was psychic. Apparently I used to just randomly come up to her and start talking about whatever she happened to be thinking at the moment, and I did it often enough that she felt coincidence could not explain it. Even now, she swears that I used to read her mind.

I never really understood how my so-called “psychic power” must have made her feel until yesterday, when something similar happened to me. I was thinking about how I was going to make some popcorn as soon as Marshall returned home from school. Suddenly Livia barged into the room and announced, “I want some popcorn!”

We hadn’t had popcorn in weeks, and it’s not her favorite snack by any means. What a strange coincidence that she should mention it at exactly the moment that I was thinking about it. It was really, really weird.

The thing is, though my mother claims that I have (or had) psychic powers, I don’t believe in them. I don’t believe that I’ve ever been psychic. I don’t believe that Livia’s psychic.

I believe in coincidence. I’ve seen plenty of weird examples of coincidence. I know coincidences happen.

But if this kind of weird and unsettling thing were to happen again and again and again, then I might have to wonder who’s the psychic!

Posted in Crazy Me, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Don’t You Hate It When…

Posted on 11/12/2015 by chick

Don’t you hate it when you wake up feeling tired, nauseous, and headachy?

Don’t you hate it when you want to write something but your brain refuses to cooperate?

Don’t you hate it when the speed at which time passes keeps changing so that you’re constantly confused about what time of day it is?

Don’t you hate it when the people you love are sick and there’s nothing you can do but wait for them to feel better?

Don’t you hate it when there are all sorts of fun and interesting things you want to do but you can’t because you have to work ALL day?

Don’t you hate it when your fingers are cold and nothing you do seems to warm them up?

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

A Modest Goal

Posted on 11/09/2015 by chick

It’s impossible to have a full-time job and be a full-time mom, let alone have any time left for oneself, and I’ve been feeling that very keenly lately. I’ve had to let a lot of things slide, and feeling bad about that has caused me to allow yet other things to slide. Not good. So I’ve been concentrating on finding time for me. I’m rereading one of my favorite books (Magician by Raymond E. Feist). I’ve been listening to Muse and Coldplay. I’ve been practicing piano pieces by Chopin, Debussy, and Ryuichi Sakamoto. I’ve even managed to take a few hikes.

It’s a start, but still not enough. Writing is something that I enjoy, too, and seeing this blog so empty depresses me. It’s November, and I ought to be writing a novel, but I would settle for a couple of blog posts! At the least, I ought to post about the kids’ soccer season and show you some pictures from my recent hikes. So my modest goal for this month is to write two posts. Just two. And if I can’t manage that, well, then I’ll really have reason to feel sorry for myself!

Posted in Uncategorized, Writing | 1 Comment

Soccer and Ice Cream

Posted on 10/31/2015 by chick

Dear Kids,

You played soccer for the first time this fall. Games started on the first Saturday after the first practice, so you were in the game before you really knew how to play it. You were confused at first (and no wonder), but you figured things out.

My favorite memories of Marshall’s soccer season are the moments when he seemed to be in his own world during the games. He once spent most of his stint as goalie hanging from the crossbar of the goal. So, before the next game, I kept saying, “No hanging from the goal!” And he didn’t hang from the goal during the next game. Instead, he lay down on the field whenever there was a lull. So before the following game, I kept saying, “And no lying down during the game!” To give him just due, he didn’t love soccer, but he went to every practice and game without complaint. He had fun, just maybe not in the same way as the other kids did.

Livia really enjoyed playing. She scored several goals over the course of the season, but she seemed equally happy to be simply running up and down the field with an aggressive, I’m-gonna-get-that-ball look on her face. My favorite memory of her soccer season was the time that she was pelting down the field when she suddenly stopped, bent down, and picked a dandelion. It was also cute how, after discovering that her coach would pick her up if she fell, she would occasionally throw herself to the ground on purpose.

After playing in the hot sun, you deserved a cool reward. So sometimes on Saturday afternoons, after you had both finished your games, I took you to the ice cream shop. The nice thing about doing stuff with you kids is that there’s almost always something in it for me. Not only did I enjoy watching you experience new ice cream flavors for the first time, but the ice cream shop makes a delicious, decaf, low-fat pumpkin ice cream coffee drink. Yum. So a good time was had by all.

Livia wants to play soccer again next year. Marshall isn’t that interested. I think we might sign you both up again, though. Marshall might not have loved it, but the fresh air and exercise were good for him. Plus he liked the after-game ice cream, and so did I. Soccer is a great excuse to go for ice cream!

Love,

Mom

Posted in Dear Livia, Dear Marshall | Leave a comment

Mama Didn’t Raise No Cannibal

Posted on 10/07/2015 by chick

Marshall says the sweetest things. Here’s what he told me tonight.

“I love you so much I can’t even think of eating you!”

Posted in Marshall Says | Leave a comment