by mayberry on October 20, 2008
If you’ve been to Julie’s, you know we’ve been to Julie’s this past weekend. There was much eating (thank you Kyle!), musical beds, walks around the neighborhood, cooing at the baby (OMG the baby. He is edibly cute), an intense game of Taboo in which Nancy‘s name was invoked (how else could I explain “hat trick” without saying the word “hockey”?), and not nearly enough picture-taking–partly because I left my camera at my brother‘s overnight. (Ask Julie about how he returned it on his motorcyle, fully decked out in leather and chains.)
Once again, Jo and Tacy picked up without a moment’s hesitation and didn’t leave each other’s sides, awake or asleep, for the entire length of the visit. Neither did Jo wear any of the clothes we brought for her, preferring instead to raid Tacy’s closet. I don’t know if it’s the fact that they spent so much time together as infants (nearly every day from three months to two years) or the fact that we parents do our best to encourage their continuing relationship, but these girls have a strong bond that’s now weathered four years apart. I hope it never breaks.
Goodbye Denver–we’ll be back as soon as we can.
by mayberry on September 20, 2008
What can’t I live without as a mom, ask to Yoplait Kids and Parent Bloggers Network?
I’m going to have to go the totally corny route and say other moms. Other moms have taught me what to carry, what to buy, and what to ignore. They’ve taught me what to wear, what to sweat, and what not to. They’ve lent me baby gear and dropped off meals in times of crisis. They’ve kept me company on long stroller sojourns and on trips to the mall squeezed in after bedtime. They’ve kept me sane at the playground or cooped up inside when there’s two feet of snow on the ground. (I am so much better at spending long hours with my children when I have a peer of my own at my side.)
They’ve reminded me over and over that I’m not alone. And while I loved my Boppy and my Bjorn and even my breast pump, while I’d never want to give up my bike trailer or chai tea lattes or the DVR or god forbid the Internet, I think I could get through just about anything if a fellow mom was there to hold my hand.
by mayberry on September 6, 2008
My friend and Full Mommy collaborator extraordinaire, Leeanthro, is hosting a big giveaway at her site to raise funds for her Step Out Walk to Fight Diabetes.
So many of our kids and adults are affected by this condition, which has no cure and requires a lifetime of care and attention. It runs in my family and my sister’s boyfriend was diagnosed with Type I (juvenile) diabetes just last year in his 30s.
Please consider making a donation or spreading the word! Enter by September 15.
by mayberry on July 12, 2008
I didn’t really mean to leave that birthday-wish-soliciting post up for so long. But since July 1, my calendar has looked like this:
2 nights home
3 nights away
3 nights home
2 nights away
1 night home
8 nights away
I’m now about to start #1 of those last 8 (up to and including BlogHer). So I’ll remain scarce, especially after the geesemice descend in a few days. I’ve never been very good at planning ahead with blogging. It feels too much like work, after years of writing about Christmas every June in my magazine days. So later, gators!
by mayberry on June 25, 2008
The one thing about enduring the neverending winter around here is that when summer comes, it’s goooood. Clear, sunny, warm but not too hot, very rarely humid. So we just want to be outside and celebrate every minute.
At book club the other night my friend Theresa introduced me to what’s going to become my signature summer drink. We were sitting outside at a waterfront restaurant which got me in the mood to order a gin and tonic. But Theresa showed me the light: the gin press. Ahh! Lighter, sweeter, and très refreshing.
Then, just to prove what a good friend she is, when I appealed to her the next day after I couldn’t find a recipe online, she found me a video of a cute bartender doing a demo. The trick is that the drink is more commonly made with vodka.
Cheers!
Edited to remove embedded video — sorry, that was annoying the way it played automatically.
by mayberry on June 17, 2008
Something I even ranted about on my blog: Hosting a sales party.
[cowers in shame]
Apparently I have been living in suburbia too long because I finally succumbed. In my defense … I got suckered into this by going to a party at Jo’s teacher’s house. How you gonna say no to an invitation from your child’s teacher, for an event held just a few weeks before the end of the school year? And then, at that party, how you gonna be the fifth person in a row to pass on hosting your own party?
I know. You’re going to grow a spine, that’s how.
Maybe next time.
So tomorrow night it’s my turn to be the shill. I was frankly embarrassed to send out the invitations and I mostly limited them to other mothers from the kindergarten class. But now that the party’s almost here, I’m secretly excited. I love to have people over and I don’t get to do it enough. It helps that it’s MY event and therefore my husband will not be helping with the preparations (although he will be on kid duty). Every other time we have a party or even just invite another family over for a kids-included meal, he gets so panicky about how everything will look and taste and possibly be ready in time. He makes entertaining far more stressful than it needs to be.
When I’m running the show solo–like with this party, or when I host book club–I go for super easy and I do not worry for one second “what anyone will think” like he does. These are my friends and if I keep the wine flowing, they will not care that all the food I am serving is storebought. (When our book club read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, I served rice crackers, edamame, and miscellaneous frozen dumplings and egg rolls–and everyone is still raving, especially the woman who’d never had edamame before that night. There is nothing easier than throwing a bag of soybeans into a pot of boiling water!)
So tomorrow, it’s wine, cheese, wine, crackers, wine, cookies, wine, and cheesecake, with a few corny games and catalogs on the side. It won’t be that awful. I promise.
Photo by Swamibu.
by mayberry on May 3, 2008
The second one is different and exactly the same.
The second one is harder and easier.
The second one is predictable and surprising.
The second one is more work and less work.
The second one is a thorn in the side of the first one, and a partner in crime.
The second one strains your family and strengthens it.
The second one is worth it, Mrs. Chicky, HBM, and Mrs. Chicken. I promise it is.
by mayberry on April 20, 2008
After my mini-college reunion last month, our host gave all of us a CD which is a recreation of a mix tape he had made way back when. I’ve been listening to it all week and here’s one of my favorite songs from it.
*because it was so very popular last week
by mayberry on March 23, 2008
Last night was my friend’s baptism and confirmation. I really don’t think I have ever been prouder of someone who isn’t a member of my immediate family. Her bravery and faith were breathtaking. She never wants to be the center of attention, but elected to do a full immersion baptism (betcha didn’t know we Catholics even did that… I didn’t!). It’s unusual enough that when Father invited her, me, her family and friends to proceed to the baptismal font, he also invited the entire congregation to gather around as well. (Then he joked that he’d try not to fall in with her.)
She wore a bathing suit covered by a short robe, which she kept on as she knelt in the font. Her family was there, including her two little boys, her in-laws, and her sister; as her sponsor, I stood by her side. The rest of the RCIA candidates and catechists watched, along with a few hundred other parishioners, a deacon, several altar servers. Can you imagine the strength it took, to decide to do this, to want to do this? It was a privilege to observe it, and even more so to have my own small role to play in it.
After it was over she beamed with the joy of it, and the relief; her four-year-old piped, “Mommy, I am so proud of you!” and we all smiled because we were too. The rest of the Mass passed by in a rush and afterward, it seemed that everyone who’d been in the pews stopped to congratulate her and to welcome her. It’s an Easter I won’t easily forget.
by mayberry on February 17, 2008
I don’t normally post about religion, because holy lightning rod; and also, my feelings are nothing if not conflicted. I enjoy the ritual of it all and have found comfort there in times of grief. But if I am honest with myself, I haven’t nearly the faith to swallow everything I should to be a true believer. And as a leftie, feminist type, I have Issues with a capital I about many teachings and dictates of the Roman Catholic church.
And yet, you’ll find me at Mass nearly every Sunday, goosebumping up when the priest presents a newly baptized baby to the applauding congregation, beaming as if he bore that child himself. You’ll notice tears leaking from the corner of my eyes during a soaring hymn. You’ll see me volunteering to send valentines to homebound parishioners and organize the Sunday morning nursery co-op. You’ll realize I’m sitting alongside almost all of my close friends in this community, the ones who’ll watch one child while I chase the other or save a seat for us during coffee hour. On warm-weather days, the kids and I may be at church for two hours or more, including Mass, coffee talk, and a visit to the school’s playground.
This year I am sponsoring a good friend as she goes through the RCIA process. I was honored to be asked, but hesitant. Was it really right for me to hold myself up as an example for her? In the end I decided that all I could do was tell her the truth. That I have questions, questions that will probably never be answered; but if she wanted to, we could seek together. And so we have. This Easter she will be baptized and I know I’ll be proud to have been a part of this process with her.
I’m still out there wondering, but I know I have company. And that means a lot.
If you’ve been to Julie’s, you know we’ve been to Julie’s this past weekend. There was much eating (thank you Kyle!), musical beds, walks around the neighborhood, cooing at the baby (OMG the baby. He is edibly cute), an intense game of Taboo in which Nancy‘s name was invoked (how else could I explain “hat trick” without saying the word “hockey”?), and not nearly enough picture-taking–partly because I left my camera at my brother‘s overnight. (Ask Julie about how he returned it on his motorcyle, fully decked out in leather and chains.)
