by mayberry on May 1, 2011
I loved everything about the royal wedding. Everything! I was smiling all day on Friday. Then sun came out for the first time in days. I even went to an afternoon tea party and wore a hat.
I loved the dresses, the trees in the Abbey, the uniforms, the music, the cars, and the carriages. I loved the genuine affection and loyalty and pride between the two brothers and the two sisters. I loved Pippa wrangling the train and all the little kids. I loved Beatrice and Eugenie looking like Cinderella’s stepsisters. I loved the boy choir and everyone in the congregation singing along to the hymns. I loved the camera angles from the BBC–bells tolling! Hats perching! Cathedrals soaring! I loved “Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”
I loved the crowds lining the routes. I loved the kisses and the grumpy little girl on the balcony and stuffy old Charles picking up a little bridesmaid so she could see. And then I loved rehashing it all with the Fug Girls coverage. Loved. it. all.
by mayberry on September 28, 2010
This is the year that Jo gets serious about figure skating. While she isn’t at the point of taking tests and having to schedule ice time for 5 a.m., she has come a long way from rental skates, sweatpants, and a bike helmet. Now she is all about the tights and the fancy light-up blade guards, and the begging for a fancy skate bag like the other girls have (to the tune of $200+, ZOMG).
She has a semi-private (because only two kids signed up!) lesson once a week and team practice once a week, and will participate in several competitions and ice shows this season. Despite my initial reservations (some of which turned out to be unfounded), we have a good little routine going for the early Saturday practices. I find it easier to get to bed early on Friday nights since pressing work tasks can always be put off a bit on the weekend. So we two get up early together and hit the road. On the way, we listen to Jo’s Suzuki cello CD. During practice, I catch up on email, Twitter, and Facebook plus a magazine or two. After practice, we hit Starbucks for a mother-daughter breakfast. On the way home, we listen to Harry Potter on audiobook. We’re back by 10:30 a.m. with most of our Saturday still free.
While I am ever on my guard lest I become a wacko stage mother, it’s exciting to see her making progress and enjoying a sport. That didn’t happen for me until I hit my late 20s! I don’t know if she’ll stick with the team or even the sport past this year, but for now I’m enjoying the ride with her.
by mayberry on August 19, 2010
At our small blog session at BlogHer, someone (wish I knew who!) made this lovely comment:
I think maybe if you have a small blog you have a tendency to think it’s because you’re lazy but maybe it’s quite the opposite. Maybe your blog is small because you’re living. You’re throwing parties for your kids and not so your blogging community is impressed by it. You’re living the life other people are just trying to document.
To that end, here’s what I’ve been doing instead of blogging … posts to come soon, I hope.
- My little sister got married and it was beautiful. Worth every minute of the 22 hours it took to travel from Mayberry to northern California.
- We went to Disneyland and spent approximately one million dollars. Also worth it.
- We went to Legoland California and spent a couple hundred bucks so my son could play with a big bucket of Duplos. Just like the ones he has at home.
- We came home and landed amid the circus that is “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” filming right here in Mayberry.
- Somehow our little one became old enough for kindergarten. Who allowed that?
P.S.: I dragged my family to Pinkberry twice in California to make up for not going there in NYC. However, I’ve since learned that Yogurtland may be better. Opinions, Californians?
by mayberry on July 22, 2010
A few months ago Jeff suggested that we start having a regular family game night. Usually on Thursdays, we’d have pizza for dinner and then play a game. Board game, outdoor game, Wii game–all’s fair and we take turns choosing, even the grown-ups.
Frankly I thought it was a little dopey. We are fairly good at eating dinner together most nights, and after dinner we often spend more time together, just doing whatever (pause to say that even during the school year, there’s very little homework to deal with. Montessori FTW!). So, like, what would be the point of formalizing Family Game Night?
Well. The kids loooove it. They know that it happens on Thursday. They remind us that it’s coming. They remind us that it’s TONIGHT!!! Whoooo! Family Game Night!! They discuss whose turn it is to pick the next game (they keep track when I cannot). They sometimes even play the game without being sore losers.
So, ritual. Ritual and routine. Perhaps you’ve heard that children like them, even crave them? Family Game Night says yep, they do. You can bet on it.
Games we love:
Jo wants to play Scrabble tonight. Attagirl!
by mayberry on June 28, 2010
Every night when I peek into my son’s room, I see the puppy lamp. I swear it makes me smile almost as much as the sight of my little boy all sprawled out who knows where/how/why (on the floor? the armchair? horizontal or feet-first on the bed? next to a tower of picture books or a row of perfectly lined up toy airplanes?).
We’ve had the puppy lamp since way before Jo was born. Somewhere in the first trimester, my husband got into the Pottery Barn Kids catalog and next thing you know, the nursery was pretty much finished. He bought the lamp, an ABC rug, and stencils to paint the alphabet on the walls. Once you have the rug and the wall decor, there’s not a lot of decorating left to do, you know?
I appreciated the enthusiasm, I really did, but apparently he’d never heard that mothers usually like to at least help pick out this stuff. Still, I liked it and I liked how the room turned out, with blue walls that we decided were suitable for a boy or a girl, and the alphabet letters in a border near the ceiling. They were all white, except for the ones in the boy and girl names we’d picked out (word nerds!). A friend came to stay with us at one point while the room was half guest room and half nursery; he spent half the night racking his brain to figure out the names (he eventually did it).
When we left our apartment in New Jersey, we said goodbye to the painted letters. When Jo turned 7 we finally got her a big-girl rug–no more pastel ABCs. But when we upgraded Opie’s room from baby to boy two years ago, the lamp stayed. In the past several weeks I’ve given away most of my maternity clothes and a substantial chunk of our newborn boy clothing stash, without (too many) tears. But I’m going to miss that lamp.
by mayberry on April 1, 2010
I truly am grateful for
- A big work project
- Two children celebrating birthdays
- The opportunity to fix my child’s crooked jaw and teeth
- A holiday featuring yummy food, fun traditions, and one of my favorite hymns
- Family coming to visit
- Days off from school
- Stunningly amazingly beautifully gorgeous weather
I would be EVER SO MORE grateful if all this were not happening simultaneously.
by mayberry on August 29, 2008
I really like Obama. Here’s the thing: I want a president who is intelligent and thoughtful. To me that is far more important than what kind of experience he has or doesn’t have or even what his specific plans and ideas are. I want to be confident in him as a person, to trust that he will seek out the information and advice he needs, weigh it carefully, and make smart decisions. I believe Obama will do that.
I’m impressed that McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, even if is all calculated to win him votes (and I don’t disagree that the Democrats did the same). I wonder if he’ll win over some undecided women or former Hillary supporters by doing so. But he might also lose some hard-core Republicans.
And also, for the record, I am really over Jennifer Lopez spouting off about training for a triathlon “because she wants her babies to be proud of her.” AS IF.
Agree/disagree/opine on your own in the comments …
ETA Sunday 8/31: The more I think/read about Sarah Palin, the more I feel like Tree does.
by mayberry on July 7, 2008
And then a step to the right. I’m back from Flashback Weekend and my head is still spinning. Besides the fact that visiting my in-laws is already a step into an alternate, back-in-time universe, I also went to my 20th high school reunion. I. know.
In the car on the way there, I stumbled onto every Greatest Hits of the 80s station there was. Scan … “California Girls” (David Lee Roth version) …. scan … “Manic Monday” … scan … “And We Danced” (Hooters, baby).
I ate one meal that consisted entirely of frozen yogurt (just like my entire 8th grade year) and another one made up of Pop Tarts (just like … never, my mom refused to buy those).
I stayed in a king jacuzzi “suite” in a roadside motel. Skee-zay. The jacuzzi was in the corner of the (one) room, two feet from the bed.
Mostly I just tried to wrap my mind around the way things change. The way that huge subdivisions sprout up in my once-tiny hometown, seemingly overnight. The way that our old Roy’s is now a souvenir shop. The way that the convenience store I once rode my bike to looks so seedy I’d never let my kids in.
And yet all the people are exactly the same. They look the same, sound the same, hang out with the same clique they did 20 years ago. One woman I swear I never spoke to in four years of school gave me a big hug, called me by name, said how happy she was to see me. What is that about?
You’re spaced out on sensation, like you’re under sedation
Let’s do the Time Warp again!
by mayberry on May 13, 2008
It’s me, deciding to do a random-things meme by telling you about things that have annoyed me in the past few days! And cheating on the number of things too!
The woman driving her huge SUV slowly alongside her daughter, who was riding a bike on the sidewalk.
The boss’s boss who called all the content on my site (at work) “meaningless bullsh!t.” Yeah. The content that I’m 90% responsible for and have spent the past 7 and a half years creating.
The alumni magazine which reported: “He owns a credit-card processing company and she sits back and enjoys the luck of her birth.”
The 8-year-old who informed me: “I am the smartest one in my class. And the best athlete” and then proceeded to list all of his many stunning accomplishments for 10 solid minutes.
The TV commercial which gave the world the song “Walk of No Shame.” Actually, I include that because it’s obnoxiously funny, not actually obnoxious.
Thanks for the tag, Mandy! If you’ve got something to get off your chest, well, consider yourself tagged too.
by mayberry on March 9, 2008
