Updated Daily Checklist

Posted on 12/27/2015 by chick

So how has this Proud List-Maker been faring with her daily checklist? I must admit that there hasn’t been a single day in which I’ve managed to check everything off the list. I’m still calling it a success, though. It has made me much more mindful of the things that I ought to be doing, and I there are six list items that I’ve consistently added to my day.

As for those remaining, undone items on the list, perhaps the best way to tackle them is one at a time. So I’m going to update my daily checklist by scaling it back to just those items I’ve managed to do consistently, plus one additional item to work on (in this case, breakfast). If I can keep up with this new list, I’ll add a new item in a couple of weeks.

Here is the updated list:

  • Eat breakfast.
  • Eat lunch.
  • Listen to music.
  • Pause to consider someone or something for which you’re grateful.
  • Do something you’ve been putting off.
  • Find a reason to leave the house for a while.
  • Praise yourself for something.
Posted in Crazy Me | Leave a comment

Spider Family and Other Stories

Posted on 12/17/2015 by chick

Dear Kids,

Here are some more stories about you from 2015.

You love role-playing games. When we were reading about mythical beasts, our game was that Livia and I were harpies, and we sang to lure Marshall to us so that we could eat him. The next game involved spiders. First, I was the spider who caught you, wrapped you in spider silk, hung you upside down, and then ate you. Later we switched to a variation in which we were all spiders, and I was your mother. You liked that variation so much that we had to play it every day for a while. You wrapped yourselves in blankets and pretended that you were spider eggs. After you hatched, I tickled you and exhorted you to stretch out your eight hairy legs. Then I commanded you scuttle around and catch me some flies, which you did gleefully. We ate the flies together. The game ended when I put you in your “night webs” and sang you spidery lullabies. When you got tired of playing spiders, we became sharks. I wonder what creature will be next?

Marshall lost a tooth at school and brought it home in one of those adorable tooth-shaped containers that schools buy for just that purpose. He was going to put the tooth under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy, but then he decided that he couldn’t part with it. He asked if it was OK to keep it, and I said yes. So he left the tooth in the container and strung it from the handle of the bathroom mirror. There it still hangs. I’ve never known of a kid to pass up money from the Tooth Fairy, but it’s cute.

Livia has started calling her father Nigel. And I, by extension, am Mrs. Nigel. We’re not really sure where the name Nigel came from (we asked her, and she just said that she likes the name). One morning, when were talking about getting Livia a haircut, I said to your dad, “Are you going to get a haircut, too? Your hair is getting long!” (That was sort of an in-joke, because he keeps his hair so short that, even when it’s grown out, it’s still short.) Livia looked at his hair and said to him, “I’m going to call you Long Pancake Nigel!”

Livia’s diet isn’t very good. We keep trying to get her to eat better, but it’s not working so well. One day I said to her, “It would make you feel better if you ate more fiber.” She replied, “I’ll eat a bunch of sugar instead.”

One morning I went into your room to get you up, but you were already awake and playing a strange game. Marshall was still in his pajamas, but he was also wearing a bunch of other things, including multiple hats and his clip-on tie. He told me he was visiting the Weird Doctor. Livia must have been the Weird Doctor, because she was busy putting another hat on Marshall. Normally playing doctor involves the removal of clothes, not putting on extra layers! But you guys always do things your own way, which is just one more reason that you’re so much fun.

Love,

Mom

Posted in Dear Livia, Dear Marshall, Livia Says, Marshall Says | Leave a comment

A Few Stories

Posted on 12/16/2015 by chick

Dear Kids,

Here are some random stories about you.

It’s funny how you pick up our sayings. Marshall told me that his class had watched a movie at school. He said that it was about Thanksgiving and it had a dog named Snoopy. I said, “Oh, you watched ‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.’ Did you like it?” He said, “Eh, maybe it will grow on me.”

After we read “Peter Rabbit,” we asked Marshall what the moral of the story was. He said, “Always do what your mom tells you.” We praised him for his answer, and then he said, “But I still don’t get the point.” Ha-ha.

Your father and I used to think that you both had a special ability to sense if a new food was junk food without even tasting it. And we thought you would inevitably like a food if it was sufficiently bad for you. However, we’ve recently discovered that Livia doesn’t like Cocoa Puffs, Mini Trix cereal, or peanut brittle.

Livia told us that she has a boyfriend. His name is Joshua and he takes the same school bus. Your father asked her how the boy became her boyfriend, and she said, “I asked him. He helps me look for Christmas lights.”

I’ve told you both at least a thousand times not to throw things down the stairs, but you still do and probably always will. When it’s time to go out, Livia goes upstairs to get socks. Then she throws the pair down the stairs and shouts, “Cannonball!”

Love,

Mom

Posted in Dear Livia, Dear Marshall | Leave a comment

Getting Ready for Christmas

Posted on 12/14/2015 by chick

We reached several important Christmas-prep milestones over the last few days.

  • We bought a Christmas tree. A real tree! It’s the first real tree we’ve had since the horrible cinara aphid incident (I can still see, in my mind’s eye, the legions of bugs marching across my floor. Ick!). This new tree smells beautiful, and it’s one of the best-looking trees I’ve ever had. The kids did an awesome job picking it out. I just hope it doesn’t have any bugs lurking in it.
  • We decorated the tree. We probably didn’t put up even half of my ornaments, but the tree looks pretty enough.
  • I finished and ordered my annual photo album. It’s a relief to have it done.
  • Charley arrived the morning after we decorated the tree. The kids were thrilled to see him. And I was thrilled, because I had given the kids permission to hunt for Charley in the morning, so they were awake, dressed, and downstairs before I got up. Not having to roust them out of bed made my life so much easier!

Now if only I could magically finish up the Christmas shopping…

Posted in Crazy Me | Tagged | 2 Comments

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