this woman’s work

1. I have a wicked bad hormonal headache. I hope starting out in grouchy pain doesn’t cast a pall on the rest of my year!

2. My mom and my aunt are coming over for honeycake later. But we don’t have the car so no shofar for us. (Brett got a new-to-us car in what we’ve deemed a signing bonus. There are many advantages to going to work for a friend! But he doesn’t have the tags for it yet so we’re still acting as a 1-car family.)

3. Pennie is coming over tomorrow to see Madison’s very loose tooth! Yes, Madison is only four. We’re shocked, too.

4. Speaking of Madison and Pennie … the other day Madison and I were in the grocery store where there was a truly scary rubber animatronic witch with lit up eyes. (At the Westerville Kroger’s for you locals.) Noah would have had to leave the store IMMEDIATELY if he saw that at four but Madison was fascinated. I asked her if she thought it was scary and she said, “No, funny.” Then she wanted to touch it. Pennie is a huge fan of horror movies like Saw and The Hills Have Eyes (I can’t even look at those posters!) and also thinks they’re funny. Who knew horror appreciation was genetic?

5. I let the kids decorate for Halloween even though I usually make ‘em wait ’til October 1st but my head is killing me and I wanted some coffee and I wanted to drink it in peace. They did a bang up job of it, too.

6. I’m trying to dig out of the morass of undone housework due to Brett being home for that year. See, we thought he’d be a better housekeeper than I am but it turns out that he’s a surface cleaner. He doesn’t know that you also have to periodically clean from the inside out so I’m upending drawers, digging through closets and clearing off the top of the refrigerator.

7. I also went through the kids’ winter clothes and we will need to hit the thrift stores hard for both of them. I haven’t had Noah try his winter coat on yet but I think Madison is covered there thanks to Abby.

8. I’m caught up on work, which is a nice feeling. The article that was giving me fits source-wise went to bed and I really enjoyed writing it. I realize I’m most happiest when I can mix marketing communications with consumer stuff. Now if I can just figure out when to fit in creative nonfiction…

9. I’ve kept up with my exercise routine for over a month now. I’m definitely getting stronger and have lost a very little — and I mean LITTLE — weight. It’s going to be a long road to my fit by forty goals but it’d be an even longer road if I waited ’til fifty so I’m sucking it up. I love to exercise although you wouldn’t believe it just by looking at me. I also love to eat, which wouldn’t surprise you one bit.

10. To establish an exercise routine I can stick to I need: ease (no elaborate rituals, no weird schedules, no reliance on other people), privacy (no classes, no companions, no nosy trainers) and a decent soundtrack. One thing that surprised me about my mom’s trainer is that it feels like I’m moving in a smaller range than with the other but I think it must also be more focused because I’m really feeling changes in my back, especially my neck and shoulders. I get very sore but I’m also hurting a lot less from my whiplash (once I get past the lactic acid days) so the soreness is worth it. I haven’t really had a bad neck day since I started. Plus my mood? Not as psychotic.

11. I work out in the mornings while channel 34.1 (PBS) is showing kids’ shows. Madison watches ‘em while I sweat and Noah usually sleeps in. If he’s up, he’s doing his school work. A good time is had by all. (And today a better time than was intended because a quick glance at my browser’s history shows that Noah was on Neopets instead of Study Island. Busted!)

12. I want to think about buying a used piano for the kids’ big xmas present. I know Madison would like it and Noah might, too. But I don’t know anything about used piano buying. Anyone have advice to share?

This here? This is the ellipictal trainer my mom LOANED me (see mom? I remember it’s just a loan!). I don’t have the plug for it yet so I worked out on it without resistance, which obviously is a pretty dang low key workout but you do it fast enough and your heart rate will get up there. I woke up this morning knowing that I was going to get on it come hell or high water and I wasn’t going to let any stupid little forgotten power cord screw it up for me! Brett will pick it up later this week when he heads over to paint my mom’s kitchen. (He is a gem!)

This is my first chance to get down to my desk because I had my sister’s kids for the morning/afternoon. The boys disappeared into the basement but the girls bickered and bickered and bickered. And flounced out of the room at each other. And came whining to me. Then made up and put on princess dresses and danced around until it was time to bicker again. Bicker. Flounce. Whine. Dance. Repeat. That was my afternoon. Also? Nobody liked my PB&J stromboli. Next time I’m making them boxed Mac & Cheese. Hmph. (Actually I didn’t love the stromboli either so I won’t hold it against them. I’ll hold it against Donna’s Day although there’s no one to blame but myself for making the dough from scratch. What a time-wasting fool am I.)

I don’t think they fight as much at my sister’s house and I think this is because 1) Madison isn’t as good at sharing as Lucia is; 2) my sister plays with them or at least sets them up with stuff. I generally don’t do this. For a former preschool teacher I have a remarkably low patience level for playing with kids. I’m a great one for rolling my eyes and saying, “Work it out yourselves! I didn’t take your tiara!” I’m a reluctant referee.

To be fair to myself, I had a rotten evening with my own girl-child. She woke up an hour after she went to bed and stayed awake until after midnight so I was burned out as soon as I rolled out of bed this morning (naturally, she rolled out of bed with me and followed me around chattering while I groped for the coffee).

But now — ENDORPHINS! I love my kids! I love babysitting! I love my messy house and messy kitchen and the funny way my garbage disposal smells and the pile of dirty dishes I have to deal with before I can cook diinner! That, my friends, is the miracle of endorphins. It’s like crack only good for your heart!

I haven’t worked out in a long time — my lung capacity, rather on the large size and bad attitude will attest to that. I was remembering that the last time I was in killer shape (for me — my killer shape looks different than I once hoped in my blasted teen years) started when Noah was about four. Four seems to be when I quit thinking of my kids as babies and start thinking of them as kids. 3-year olds still look awfully small and vulnerable and needy and parent-centric to me.

Anyway! I’m going to go back on the squeaky, thumping, broken elliptical trainer. If I keep waiting for the perfect situation to get fit I’ll never find it so the squeaky, thumping, broken elliptical trainer it will be. At least I have one (that’s what I tell myself). So I did that while Madison performed feats of greatness on her mini-trampoline. (Just for kicks, I’m going to upload a picture of her getting xmas morning when she was one going on two. She was cute and fuzzy!)

Remember when I got up to an hour on the trainer? Yeah. Well. Twenty minutes this time around folks. I must have patience!

Wow — endorphins are AWESOME!

An awful lot of ‘em clash with 2.5 so if you don’t want to upgrade yet, don’t. Give the design people some time to catch up. I went through three or four here before settling on this one (having trouble with widgets in some of them) and this one seems wonky with pictures.

I also redesigned Smart Cookie Communications to leave out some of the sales-y stuff because I’m down on the sales-y stuff right now. I had a blog on there but am too busy to keep it up so I squelched it. Now to a list entry:

1. I know I said I’d post the results of the survey YESTERDAY but I want to try to figure out a helpful way to share the information and haven’t come up with it yet.
2. Brett got a part-time job today. We want a predictable amount of money coming in to ease our budget and decided this is the way to go. The biggest challenge will be working around our one-car status and also if he works nights, that cuts back on my networking at night. But that’s why God created relatives (i.e., free babysitters). And it gives me an excuse to cut back on networking. Heh. (Plus his hours will be flexible.)
3. Being in Portland reminded me of how active we used to be. The day before I went into labor with Noah I walked three miles to go see a movie and visit Trader Joe’s. (1.5 miles each way.) We lived on the third floor, too, and I thought nothing of it. No wonder I put on weight very quickly when we moved back! It inspired me to get my exercise regime back on track. And to work on using our car less.
4. My sister and I spent this morning chatting on the phone and debunking family myths. This is probably the most useful thing about having siblings; Brett and his brother did the same thing during our visit. My sister is a big-hearted person and the family myths hit her harder than they seem to have hit me. I don’t know why it is — she worries more and feels more responsible than I do and this makes her a lovely relative to have but is an awful lot of pain for her. Maybe it’s a birth order thing. (Brett — also the oldest — feels the same way about a lot of it.)
5. I also want to find time to write about other people’s marriages/partnerships because I find them fascinating. Don’t you? Isn’t it weird how people end up together and stay (or don’t) together?
6. Madison is at a mommy (or in this case, daddy and big brother) & me gym class today. It’s free so heck, we signed her up. She would only go if Noah came, too, and he was game so off they went. She’s wearing a pink undershirt that she calls a ballet shirt because it’s sleeveless and a brown and yellow striped skort that she got from Karoline. She looks cute and mis-matchy. I hope she has a good time.
7. Tonight my friends Kristen and Abby are taking me out for helping them with their blogs! I’m going to order the most expensive thing on the menu because they’ve been a lot of work! (Especially that Kristen!) I kid. I don’t even like the most expensive thing on the menu. On principle, I can’t. I’m like that. You guys know how I am about money. It’s sad.