Posted by: LSM on: July 8, 2009
Posted by: LSM on: July 6, 2009
I know I shouldn’t admit it, but I’ve never really gotten over not having a summer vacation anymore. Yes, I complain when people are surprised that I work year round. It’s amazing how many people express amazement that we don’t just shut the doors of the schools and offices in May and arrive again with the students in August. Little details like conducting professional development, hiring teachers, placing textbook orders, ending the fiscal year and budgeting for the next, building a master schedule, enrolling new students, and making class placements don’t just happen by themselves.
I wish they did. Because if that were so, I’d be able to enjoy a few months off with the kids. And to disabuse anyone of the idea that teachers aren’t working during those months, I am well aware of the amount of time they spend in those professional development sessions and in preparing their lessons for the coming year. But, it’s not the same as working full-time. And that’s the adjustment I’m still working on as I watch the cloudless skies outside my office window and read my girls’ updates on Facebook regarding the cupcakes they’re making. Oh, and also as I try to get everyone to their various summer activities once they return home from camp.
The rest of my summer will be a balancing act of getting my work done and shuttling children to practices, tutoring sessions, day camps, and social commitments. Though it’s been eleven years since I had the full summer off, I still miss the longer stretches of unscheduled time. To try to make up for a bit of what I’m missing, I’ll be using some of my vacation days to take three or four-day weekends in July, giving us a little extra time to explore and hang out. Oh, and I’ll also definitely be eating my share of those cupcakes!
Posted by: LSM on: July 3, 2009
Today over breakfast I told my mom, “The worst part is lying there alone in the room waiting for them to come back and tell you the news.”
“Oh, yes. That’s the worst part. Even once I got the news about my cancer it was better than just wondering. At least then, I knew what I was up against.”
My mother is a breast cancer survivor. She’s well on her way to her fifth anniversary of getting the “all-clear,” a milestone she’s looking forward to. And, fortunately, I am not dealing with a cancer diagnosis. But it seems I am destined to have to spend those excruciatingly slow minutes lying on the exam table, waiting for news, wondering if I’ll continue to be so fortunate.
Each year in June, along with the travel and the relaxation of having the kids away at camp, my annual mammogram comes due. Two years ago, after dutifully showing up for my baseline screening before I turned 40, I entered a long-lasting saga of testing that eventually turned out to be a completely benign condition. And, last year’s test blessedly ended with the standard “everything looks good” letter from the breast center and a “come back in a year rather than six months” from the breast specialist I now see thanks to the need for all the aforementioned testing.
So, I cruised into the women’s health center this year with less trepidation than last year. I endured the minor squishing and went to pick up my children without a lot of further thought about the whole process. Of course, it’s obvious by now that when I arrived home, I had another letter waiting for me. And, yes, I needed more screening. Ironically, on the breast not affected by the trials of two years ago.
Having been through the whole routine before, I found myself calmer this time. I also took it as a good sign that they’d requested additional mammography films rather than an ultrasound as they had when I needed additional testing before. I assured myself that they’d just gotten a bad shot the first time around.
That’s what the technician said as well when I showed up yesterday morning at the hospital. “Sometimes they just don’t get exactly what they need the first time around. We’re going to do some additional things to get a clear shot.”
But ten minutes later she said, “Well, they are going to want an ultrasound of this.” And with that I was whisked five rooms down the hall and two years back in time. I lay on the table as the technician wanded her way through the exam, taking pictures of the “something” that was there. After she left for the radiologist to read the results, I took deep cleansing yoga breaths and tried to calm myself.
It worked a bit, and texting Adventure Guy and emailing the August Moms to let them know what was going on made me feel less alone. Social networking devotion aside, I somehow didn’t feel this was Twitter or Facebook material. I stared at the screen trying to determine if the pictures looked like they had before. They didn’t.
That didn’t make me feel better. I moved the blinds aside and looked out the exam room window to see where I was. Note to Adventure Guy, I found the view of the fancy jewelry store at the shopping area across the street very reassuring.
By the time I’d finished imagining fabulous new settings for my wedding ring (it was right after our anniversary after all), the technician had arrived to tell me the results. I know enough about how things work to know this was a good sign. No radiologist arriving means no further tests.
At least not at this point. Yes, I’m entering the waiting game again. The doctor believes it is again a benign condition he’s looking at on those films. But he wants to retest in three months to make sure nothing has ”changed.”
Usually, I’m all about change. It’s exciting. I can believe in it. But this time around, I’m all about the status quo. Let’s just hope whatever is hanging out in there buys into the plan.
Posted by: LSM on: July 1, 2009
Yesterday, Adventure Guy and I celebrated our wedding anniversary in what has become our fairly typical low-key fashion. Our trip to Arizona earlier in the month served to officially mark our nineteen years together, so the actual day snuck up on me a bit. So much so that I turned to him on the night of the 29th and said, “Uh, did you buy cards for tomorrow?” His response, “Well, did you?” We quickly determined neither of us had planned ahead and rather gleefully agreed not to exchange anything this year.
I’m sure there could be benefits to being a bit more demanding from year to year, but we like to focus more on the milestone anniversaries. For our tenth anniversary we took a wonderful trip to Europe, visiting Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein (because we wanted to say we had), and finally Paris. We’re starting to investigate options for next year when we celebrate our 20th.
And while I enjoy dreaming of faraway lands in my future, I have to admit that celebrating at home last night by making pot roast and all the fixins that DD1 has been craving since getting home from camp felt just right. Adventure Guy and I stole away after dinner to catch The Proposal, which lived up to its billing as a perfect date night movie. And, in a way, I did end up with a present today…new tires and brakes courtesy of Adventure Guy. While perhaps not the most romantic gift, they will make our trip to Texas for the 4th much safer. Who could ask for anything more?
Posted by: LSM on: June 29, 2009
Conversation as I drove the kids to the mall tonight (remember, by driving I rendered myself officially invisible):
Soccer Boy: “When I grow up I’m buying a Corvette. Just wait. You say I won’t, but I’m going to, and then I’m going to be the one laughing!”
DD2: “Hmmmm.”
Soccer Boy: “And it’s going to be green. If they don’t have green by that time, I’m going to spray paint it. It’s going to be so cool.”
DD2: “Ya, the spray paint will really up the cool factor.”
After that auspicious start–and by the way, my money’s on Soccer Boy but I hope he loses the spray paint idea by the time he’s saved up for the Corvette–we ventured into the mall itself, supposedly to drop off things for tailoring. But it’s always dangerous to show up there with anyone else along for the trip. Once we’d gotten DD2’s dance squad uniform pinned for alterations and several pairs of my pants in for hem repairs (really, one of these days I will learn not to catch my heels on them), I made the grave error of offering to look at some shorts for DD1, that effort being necessitated by my unreasonable requirement that she wear shorts that are at least mid-thigh if she plans on darkening the door of our church.
An hour later we emerged without any shorts but with one swimsuit for each girl and a Homecoming dress for DD1. And along with our purchases, I left the building with both good news and bad news.
The bad news? Even my tiny, twelve-year-old daughter who wears a 12 in kids clothing needed to go up a size in bikini bottoms from an extra-small to a small. In some ways, I guess this is good news in that it helped me realize how ridiculous the cuts on swimsuits are these days. What grown woman would be able to wear that size?
The good news? We totally scored on the Homecoming dress. I’d seen some ads in the paper about markdowns, which inspired me to make a run through the department store in the first place. But I never expected to snag a formal gown, much less one that looks fabulous on DD1, for under $30. Lesson learned? Late summer, post-prom is the perfect time to shop for high school formals. I can’t wait to share pictures of the event in September.
Posted by: LSM on: June 28, 2009
Maybe you’re just like my mother. She’s never satisfied. ~Prince
I’ve never really understood all the lyrics to When Doves Cry, but the line above always leaped out at me. Ironically, not because of my own mother’s expectations. No, that line resonates because I find myself too often unsatisfied. I’m the one who’s always after the next accomplishment, the better title, the latest “must-have” item. And, to some extent that drive leads to positive things. I wouldn’t be where I am professionally without it. On the other hand, my credit card balance could certainly benefit from a shopping moratorium.
But, a bigger source of nagging dissatisfaction bubbled it’s way into my consciousness today when a wonderful post by Sock Girl at Old Blue Socks got me thinking about my constant, ongoing search for real estate. Granted we’ve lived in our current home for twelve years now. But I’ve been actively looking for a different one on and off for at least seven of those years. Online searches, open houses, and even the occasional round of official looking with a realtor–all coming to naught so far.
Here’s the problem. I really love the floor plan of our house. It suits our needs well. The challenge? We’d like a larger lot, preferably one that already has a pool or the room to add one. I feel this “need” both literally and figuratively on hot summer days like the ones we’ve been suffering through in Suburbia lately.
Prior to the economy’s recent nosedive, Adventure Guy and I went so far as to get some proposals from pool companies. During our updates last year, we decided putting in a pool made a lot more sense than moving, especially since we hadn’t found anything we really liked for less than several hundred thousand dollars more than what we could get for our current home. Unfortunately, our cash flow has become a bit lacking now, considering that a large part of Adventure Guy’s earnings come from sales commissions. And a pool falls squarely into the luxury category.
I’m working really hard on practicing delayed gratification. After all, we’re constantly reminding the kids that we need to be happy with what we have, asking them to appreciate how blessed we are in the scheme of things. No, we’re not the richest people they know, but we’re certainly not the poorest either, and we’re so fortunate that both Adventure Guy and I have good jobs in this tough economy.
In so many ways, I realize coveting a pool is awfully shallow (no, I really didn’t mean that as a pun). I felt this even more strongly when I read Sock Girl’s beautiful description of her dream home, a description that captures many of the features of my current home.
My dream house is not a mansion. It is roomy though, but not so large that I couldn’t clean it easily myself. It has a modest garden, or window boxes… just enough to make it pretty, but wouldn’t make me feel like I needed a team of gardeners to keep up with or like a failure when I don’t. It has a washer and dryer that is not in the basement. It has storage and big closets. There are at least three bedrooms (though a spare would be a bonus) and there is room to do more than just walk around the furniture. It has shelves and cupboards and drawers that work, and all our stuff is in those things. There is room to bake. And a welcoming place to take off your boots. And lots of windows. Maybe there is a deck, or a porch, or even just bench outside to read and think and stretch one’s imagination. It feels like home. ~Sock Girl
Thanks for the reminder, Sock Girl. My current abode may not be the ultimate dream house, but I know I’m fortunate to have it and even more fortunate to live here with the people who make our house a home.
Posted by: LSM on: June 27, 2009
Posted by: LSM on: June 26, 2009
I’m not going to write about Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, or even Jon and Kate. All those things seem awfully far away from where I’ve been this week, though the news infiltrated even through the spottiest of Internet connections.
For the second time in a month, I managed to get away without benefit of my laptop. Certainly my recent move to the iPhone has emboldened me in this area. I’m reachable for work now in a way I haven’t been by phone in the past. Blogging by iPhone, though? While possible, I’m afraid I don’t have it in me to plod through texting out a post. And, unfortunately, my stats show the neglect.
I’m hoping, though, that these little blogcations help make this spot a little fresher in the future. Recently I’ve wondered if this blog has run its course. Maybe it’s that my life hasn’t seemed all that noteworthy of late or that the creative juices haven’t been flowing quite so freely as I’d like. While I communed with nature this week, on the lake and in the woods, the ideas flowed as freely as the current (and a lot more freely than the wind, which was MIA). I hope to capture some of those for future posts.
But that will have to wait. While I’m thrilled that my children are home safely after another great term at camp, they bring with them their annual present–piles of laundry!

Unloaded trunks
Posted by: LSM on: June 20, 2009
June Tally:
And, in case anyone is just dying for the zucchini recipes, here they are.
Roasted Zucchini and Garlic Spread
1 1/4 lb. medium zucchini, sliced 1-inch thick
1 small, sweet onion, cut into wedges
2 medium garlic cloves, peeled
1/3 c. low fat, plain yogurt
2 Tbs. chopped parsley
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 pinch salt (to taste)
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (to taste)
Arrange zucchini, onion, and garlic in a single layer on a greased, foil-lined pan. Bake at 445 degrees until vegateables are very tender (about 25-30 minutes). Process vegetables in food processor until coarsley chopped. Stir in yougurt and parsley. Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and cayenne pepper. Serve with assorted dippers. Note: I substituted cajun seasoning for the salt and cayenne pepper.
Carrot Zucchini Muffins
1 egg
3/4 c. orange juice
1/2 c. applesauce
1/4 c. sugar
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 c. shredded carrot
1 c. shredded zucchini
1/2 c. raisins
Beat egg in large bowl. Add orange juice, applesauce and sugar, beat well. Combine dry ingredients. Stir dry ingredients into egg mixture, and mix until moist. Gently fold in shredded carrots, zucchini, and raisins. Spoon into well-greased muffin pans, about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.
* Adaptations: For the muffins, I substituted chopped pecans for the raisins. I also threw in cloves and nutmeg in addition to the cinnamon when combining the dry ingredients. One mistake to avoid: I used liners for the muffin pan but forgot to spray them with Pam. Be sure to grease the pan or the liners because these will stick!
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