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Rolling, rolling, rolling December 18, 2005

Posted by spacemom in : Food and Drink , 3 comments

I spent yesterday rolling. Rolling cookies that is! I made Edna Koenig’s springerlie recipe for my family. These are amazing little pillow like cookies that are flavored with anise. I will post a photo later. They are great, but you have to make the dough (includes beating the eggs for 25 minutes- Thank you Kitchen-Aide) and chill it, then roll with a regular rolling pin, then use a special springerlie rolling pin to add the pictures, the cut and let dry for 18 hours before you bake them. Soleil helped me roll the pictures on and we baked them today! YUMMMY! Now we have to wait until Saturday to eat them with my family for Christmas. I added a photo showing the springerlie pin and two of the cookies so you can see how the  pictures are rolled on!Img_4223_3

Chocolate December 15, 2005

Posted by spacemom in : Kids, Depression, Nance , add a comment

This morning was rough. Soleil and I had a little fight. She had been up since 5 am and was playing "can’t catch me" all morning. I was trying to get her to put her coat on since it was -3F outside and I thought MAYBE she would be cold in the car. I lost it, I yelled (not one of my finer moments as mom) and she cried.

We had an arm hug in the car (I put my arm back and she hugs it). Then she told us "I need chocolate".

Dr. Jay said, "You are so 14. If I had chocolate, I would give it to you."

Poor kiddo. 3.5 and she already needs chocolate when she is sad.

Improving the spacemom December 14, 2005

Posted by spacemom in : Nance , 1 comment so far

I am busy. Busy busy busy!
However, this post has been rolling around in my head for about 3 days and despite the need to go get lunch, I will take a break while I run some numbers and write this.

I feel fat. And Lazy. And yucky. I haven’t been able to exercise since we got back from Hawaii. I have been going to physical therapy for my foot and slowly, that is getting better, but it is tearing into my precious time at work. My boss doesn’t care if I exercise during work hours. He cares that work gets done.

I also did a great job getting my pregnancy weight off. But it is back. I have been eating terribly lately. This was also since Hawaii. Yes, I did get stressed in there. Yes, all we did in Baltimore was eat (and I swear, that is where I gained 4 lbs). But that is no excuse. I want to be back at my pre-pregnancy weight. As in my pre-any child weight. I was 180lb at my wedding (I am 5′3") I got down to 125lbs. Today, I am 135lbs. Yuck.

I am not really "overweight". I am just not where I want to be. I just got my pass renewed for the gym at work. I am starting to cut back on my bad foods and bring back some control. I hope I can get back into the swing. I feel so much better when I can exercise. It’s a mental thing.

So, I hereby announce that I am working on getting back into shape. I plan to try to exercise 2X a week if not more. I plan to lose the extra weight and get back into my size 4 COMFORTABLY, and I plan to show my girls the exercise and strength are important.

Musings of a Mother December 13, 2005

Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 1 comment so far

I am in a frustrated state today. This is the week we tell daycare
that we are leaving. I know in my heart, this is the right thing to
do. Soleil needs the challenge. She needs to be in an environment that
is non-violent, challenging, loving. The current daycare can be
loving, but the rest, I don’t see anymore.

I worry that we are going to cause Luna and Soleil undue stress. Hell,
I know Luna is going to be stressed. I am not sure about Soleil. She
will do well since Rachael is going with her. I am sure she will make
new friends. Dr. Jay points out that to improve things always takes
work. I agree, but I wish I could somehow make things better for my
kids and not cause them pain.

I suppose this is part of being a parent. You want so much to do the
right thing for your kids, but if that involves pain, you want to
avoid it. I hate to imagine Luna having trouble adjusting to the new
daycare. I think she will do fine in time.

This is just the ramblings of a worried mother. What else can I do?
Sigh….

Let it snow! December 10, 2005

Posted by spacemom in : Current Affairs , 1 comment so far

So, we did stay home yesterday. Good thing we did. As usual, the forecasters were wrong. While they forecast 6-10 inches, we ended up with 14 inches.   Yes, 14 inches. At the end of the storm, the pressure dropped and we had thundersnow (which is cool), but the snow increased to 4 inches per hour for the last 2 hours. We couldn’t see the street! When I took the girls outside, I was over my knees in the snow!

The girls helped me rip down more wallpaper and clean the next wall. It still needs some serious cleaning, but we are one step further to getting this project done!

Then we went to clean the driveway. When the snow stopped, it stopped hard. The sun came out for sunset and Dr. Jay went to fire up the snow thrower. And it stopped. The snow thrower that is. We got it going for about 5 seconds and then it refused to go. I think it has a clogged fuel line. It sucks. We took it in to sears today, but we won’t get it back until the 21st! I hope we don’t get too many storms in between then and now.

The surprise of yesterday was that our neighbor, Julie (no relation to JulieV), came over and offered to use her snow thrower to clear the rest of our driveway. We have had a very strained relationship with her and her (ex?) husband, Ray. We bought our houses at the same time. Both of us looked at the others house at the time. They are a childless couple and the bought the bigger of the two houses. They decided to clear cut their yard last winter. We asked them to spare three trees that were on the border of our properties. They said no. Then after they clear cut, they realized they had to remove the stumps (duh!). The company that did that and regraded their yard insisted on a survey. We discoed that the three trees (now gone) were on our property, and that the very front corner of what we thought was our front yard is theirs. Julie got very upset when we planted trees on our side and we started to have a very rough time with them. This year, Ray hasn’t been around. The rumor is that Ray has left her. So it was a huge surprise for Julie to offer help yesterday.
I am glad she did. We may bake her something nice for a thank you.

Life in suburbia…

Soleil would like to type  something, so..take it away Soleil

cup

Thanks Sylv!

Life in Boston December 8, 2005

Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise , 2 comments

As I type, I am getting ready for the first real snowstorm of the season. Ah, snow in Boston.
I grew up in the Buffalo New York area. Ah ha! Some of you can see where this is going! Yes, Buffalo, Land of Snow (and a football team that can’t get it up, so to speak, or at least goes wide right). I grew up on the edge of a snow belt. A Snow Belt? I can hear MMM scratching her head now. What the hell is that?
Well, Buffalo is in the edge of beautiful Lake Erie. As the winds blow across the lake, you pick up moisture and bands of snow form. They tend to form in the same locations. My house was on the edge of one of these locations. Hence, a snow belt. The snow is also called Lake Effect (as in the lake causes the snow).  It is typical to have a forecast in Buffalo that goes like this " Tonight, expect 3-6inches, except in the Southtowns, where you can see up to a foot of the white stuff from Lake Effect. Tomorrow, temperatures will be in the lower teens and you can expect the snow belts to receive anywhere from 4-8 inches."
Note, nothing about school closings, nothing major. It was just a little snow!

Now, I live in the Metro Boston area. Snow brings fear to the natives. An inch is considered "bad". And sadly, I have to agree. You see, they don’t clean properly here. So the streets turn to ice very quickly. Add to that, the ocean is right next to Boston, so the daytime can get up to 37, melt the top layers, then down to 14 at night and Ice-o-rama!

Tomorrow, we are looking at 4-10 inches from sunrise to sunset. I am probably not coming into work tomorrow. I don’t trust the roads here. In Buffalo? hell yeah I would be out there. My first driving lesson was

"Here’s an empty parking lot (no light poles). Ok, accelerate. good, NOW HIT THE BRAKES REALLY HARD" Ok- that was your first skid. Did you control it? No? Ok, Try again. And again. And again until we got how to pump your brakes and steer into the skid.

There are serious questions here about if people really know who has the right of way in a traffic circle (curiously called rotaries here). I doubt they have skid training.

So, tomorrow I expect to toss a duraflame in the fireplace, and drink cocoa with my girls and watch the snow fall… Welcome to life in Boston.

Darkness descends again December 6, 2005

Posted by spacemom in : Depression, Nance, Religion , 2 comments

It’s that time of year again folks! Winter Solstice time! YEAH! NOT!

I very much dislike this time of the year. I have disliked it more and more since I moved to Boston. We are way too far East. I have a friend who is up in Maine. I can’t imagine how she handles this. It is 4:30pm. It is dark out. This is a hint of the sun,slowly descending behind the Earth, but other than that, it is dark. I feel it starting around 2pm, the skies start to darken. My eyes and my brain can not explain to my body that it is really happening. My body thinks that it is mid afternoon. It is time to sit back and have a cup of Joe and relax before the late afternoon rush to finish things. My eyes tell my brain that it is time to go to bed. I can’t reconcile these things and I start to get depressed.

I tend to sink into these depressions most around the time of my cycle. It is good to understand these things, but even more depressing to realize that your mood is affected by hormones that your probably won’t need anymore. At least not to reproduce.  I wish sometimes that I could control my mood more just by saying "Hey, you! SNAP OUT OF IT!" but I can’t. It doesn’t work.

Now the dome of the observatory outside of my window is just a faint silhouette against the black sky. I see a touch of color around the trees, but that it is. The sun has set. And it’s not even 5pm.

Southern Hockey or Bubba, this just ain’t right! December 5, 2005

Posted by spacemom in : Sports , add a comment

Since we are parents, hence, stuck home in the evenings, Dr. Jay bought me the hockey package on our cable. This means I get hockey almost every night. I love it. I am a huge hockey fan and it really helps to watch 10-60 minutes before going to bed.

On Saturday, we watched the Nashville Predators game. First of, Hockey does not belong in Tennessee. OK? I can understand Florida; all of those snowbirds need something. I can understand Dallas; Texas has this thing for having everything (sorry Johnny and MMM), and well Phoenix falls under the Florida rule. BUT TENNESSEE?

Then the announcers. Oh My G-d! The hockey package picks up the local broadcast. So, we get the Nashville announcers. We heard things like "well, tell you what, I see that he might score himself a goal here tonight" I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP!  And the pronunciations! There is a player named "Degardens" Pronounced "Day-zjar-dans" (French Canadian). The one announcer kept saying "Dee-gardens". I was doubled over in laughter.

And Finally, the jerseys.Just look at that color!! Does that not make you want to scream and run away?

Hockey does not belong in Tennessee…. Sorry if you hang your hat there, but it just doesn’t belong there…

Tasteless Post December 2, 2005

Posted by spacemom in : Current Affairs , 1 comment so far

OK- If you are easily offended, I would strongly advise that you look away now.

On our ride home from Baltimore, I mentioned to Dr. Jay that I had recently noticed that CT passed a law forbidding a driver from doing anything but drive. This includes eating, etc.

Dr. Jay then pondered whether a blow job would be illegal or not if the receiver was driving.

Both girls were asleep at the time of this discussion.

We never did decide if it was legal or not.

Ok- back to our tasteful portion of the  Spacemom!

Daycare Woes and Life December 1, 2005

Posted by spacemom in : Kids , 1 comment so far

I’ve been a little AWOL lately. I feel I should explain.

We got back from a wonderful Thanksgiving trip on Saturday. It was a ton of fun. Soleil and Luna had a great time, but I must say, that driving in New Jersey SUCKS. (Sorry Kristen). At one point it took 15 minutes to go 2 miles on the Turnpike. Sigh. And we returned on the easier drive day! It took less time to cross the GW (George Washington Bridge for those who are not familiar with NYC) and drive to Boston than it did to drive through NJ!! I kid you not!

Sunday was spent readjusting Soleil and Luna. Soleil was mostly fine. There was a dusting of snow, so she wanted to go out. Luna was not happy with the snow. She screamed that every outside toy had snow on it. "Slide" sob… "Ball" sob… "Slide"sob..
We also had to adjust Luna to her stuff again. The cousins we visited have a boy that is 9 months younger than Soleil (yes, they got pregnant just as we were on bedrest with Soleil). He played great with Soleil, but everything was "mine" if Luna touched it, including the dogs!

Monday night, I checked my sitemeter and discovered the Julie was hunting around again…Sigh

Tuesday morning, I had an email from our friend L, whose daughter Rachael is Soleil’s best friend at daycare…

Let me back up and explain about daycare.

When we found this one, the infant staff had been there for 10+ years. The newest infant staff member had been there for 3 years. I was only 3 months pregnant, but since I was out of the first trimester and it looked like this pregnancy might actually work, we decided we better get on the list. It is not uncommon in the Boston area to wait 8 months or more for an infant spot. It is like buying a Prius. Soleil did great there. We were thrilled. The paperwork was lacking, but hey, they took care of Soleil very well.

Then when i got pregnant with Luna, we told them about her. I was put on bedrest again for 3 weeks (another long story) and Dr. Jay took care of Soleil and daycare. I found out when I was able to move again and I was off the "really nasty medicine" that the director was leaving. I was very upset. She had been there for almost 15 years.

The change happened while I was on maternity leave. Day care has gone downhill since that day.

The new directory, Mary, is an autocrat. She is horrible. She will dress down the staff in public notes posted where the parents can see it. She has implemented policies of "no inappropriate shoes" and "no inappropriate dress". Turns out she didn’t want the staff wearing flip flops or shorts! Hello? Who cares? I want the staff to be happy and relaxed and keep the kids happy, and safe.

The toddler coordinator left at the same time as the director. She was great! But they moved Joan to that
position. Joan is an infant person. She runs the toddlers like little
adults. Poor Luna. She can sit down in a chair in two seconds flat.
Why? Because of the way Joan runs the place. It makes me sick!

There has been an outflow of staff. We’ve gone through at least 5 toddler teachers. The preschool is short staffed, toddler 1 and 2 are always short staffed and the started mixing the classes. These classes are separated by age. This is important because toddler 1 is 15-24 months. Toddler 2 is 24-33 months.  Luna has been picking up the lovely habit of WWE smackdown from one of the toddler 2 kids. I have seen him come up to me and hit me, followed by Luna running up to me and hitting me the same way. UGH.

About 6 weeks ago, a terrible thing happened. The Toddler 2 staff was below state regs, so they made one of the preschool teachers go over. The staff was stressed and forgot to count the kids as they went in from the playground. One student was left on the playground. We work with his dad, so that is how we found out. Mary fired the two teachers involved. I asked Mary to tell the parents what happened and she said she was advised not to by the district office.

The preschool program has deteriorated since the preschool teacher left. There is little art work done. There is very little educational stuff.
Every day I find Soleil playing on the computer when we pick her up. I
was told by the staff that Soleil could read. Really? NO SHIT PEOPLE!!!
I TOLD YOU THAT MONTHS AGO!!!! I know the teacher that was fired was helping Soleil with
reading, but the other teachers have let it slide. Come on folks, the
girl is INTERESTED. She doesn’t nap, so take that time to work with
her. It isn’t that hard!

Now they are moving preschool 1 kids up to preschool 2
because they are short staffed. This means preschool 2 is over loaded
and the kids are suffering. The single preschool 2 teacher is at his limits. There are violent events everyday. One kid punched another in the nose and he had a bloody nose. One kid constantly beats on Soleil and Rachael. This same kid pulled down another kid’s pants. Yesterday, Soleil said that kid M kicked kid R so kid R turned around and punched Soleil i n the head. And Kid M, reportedly says "fuck" on a regular basis.

So L called me and told me that they are moving Rachael to another daycare. I went to the tour of the facility with them. It was amazing. This place is teaming with projects, happy kids, clean areas. The art work is cool, the toys are neat. I get good vibes from this place.

All of the teachers are happy in their classrooms. Nobody looks stressed. They gave us a 90  minute tour. They answered all of the questions I could think of at the time.

I mailed the cheque yesterday. Soleil and Luna will start in January.

 

The stresses of life!