So the other day another mystery box arrived. This one contained tea. I feel like I should shout that because it was like a 50 pack assortment of Twinings. Once again, don’t know who sent it, but am thoroughly delighted. Immediately separated it into “Have Tried Before” (right side of box) and “Have Not Tried Before” (left side of box) Categories. Kids and spouse are being allowed to drink from the former, but the latter are ALL MINE! I’m keeping a tally of the new ones and if I liked, felt eh about, or did not like. This is fun!
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I have just had such a weird summer. I have been so sad about so many things, but like my kids growing up should be a good thing and if my brain was normal it would be fine, but it’s not and so I get sad instead of just a little bittersweet about these sorts of things. Greg is getting taller like every day now. Ree is so tall I can’t see the top of his hair anymore. Then there is the usual back to school sadness of kids being in new classes and new experiences. I don’t know why it makes me sad when they have new teachers, but I miss the old ones so much sometimes. Plus I’ve been bonus sad because I was gone for nearly all of my kids free time this summer visiting places I had very little interest being (China) and then when I got home they were all off at camp or trips with their grandparents. I feel like we had no good summer time all together. Plus for bonus sadness, I have a kid starting college soon, but not moving out so I have that not-here-nor-there feeling while watching everyone else’s kids move into dorms and starting life away from home. Plus the sadness of my mom not being here to see it all. So yeah, I’ve been crying a lot today.
We started the night by going to 1836 Texas Kitchen for dinner. Nick really loved all of his food. Mine was just okay, but I did get the novelty of trying a Cucumber Margarita. We finished up our anniversary night with the by-now-traditional stops at Half Price Books and World Market. 🙂 At Half Price, I got a craft book, a writing book, and a fantasy book, and Nick got a sci fi series. At World Market we got a replacement wine glass for the one I knocked over earlier this week, some “extra strong” British tea for Nick, some lemon poppyseed scone mix for the kids who insist that it’s better than homemade, and currywurst (because everyone likes it). And now we’re back home polling everyone on what they want the Back to School tasting to be. 🙂
I’m reading this book called “Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie” because my dyslexic kid read it this summer for Pre-AP homework and loved it so much he’s on his 3rd re-reading and man, reading this book as a former band nerd immediately after a summer band banquet for my kid… I have all the feels. Y’all that love band should read it.
Dude. If I gave up social media entirely, I could read 188 more books a year. So, since one of my goals for the upcoming school year is reading more, I’m going to spend half as much time here and see if I can really read 31 more books by the end of the year. Challenge accepted!
I have let this blog flounder for far too long and today is my first day back at it. We have had a wacky, crazy year. I’m not even sure that I should try to summarize it, but find myself wanting to. Let’s start where I left off… oh my. Okay. That’s a rough place to start.
December 5th, 2018 my mom left the nursing home to go home for my dad’s birthday. She lasted at home until December 7th, when she had to be rushed to the emergency room. I went down on the 9th because it was clear that she was on her way out of this world. She passed away on December 12th. I spent the month in College Station or Wisconsin. We had two funerals for her, one in each of her hometowns. They were lovely, both of them attended by family and friends and filled with beautiful reminiscences of her full, mostly happy life. (Please note that this is short, not because I am being in any way flippant about it, but because I’m crying too much to say more.)
In January we tried to be humans. We had our annual board game extravaganza on January 1st at my dad’s Tyler house so he wouldn’t have to be alone yet and could be a little distracted from all the sadness. April is with him all the time, but we come and go and try to bring a little joy to them with our visits.
February and March went by kind of in a blur. We visited College Station every couple or three weeks and spent half of spring break with my dad and sister. David and Nick were each gone a week in April and then it was birthdays and Easter all at once. We celebrated in the Tyler house, trying to avoid sadness, but failing. Easter was one of my mom’s favorite times of the year.
In May everything ramped up. The six month anniversary of my mom’s death was literally Mother’s Day. How’s that for irony for you? April and Dad ignored the day completely, while Nick, the kids, and I went to Scarborough Faire for the day (something I’ve been wanting to take the kids to for years. They were, naturally, underwhelmed because we’d waited too long). All the end-of-year “lasts” were heightened because it was David’s last high school everything. We had a graduation party for him the day before graduation, we all attended graduation night outside at the stadium, and then the very next day he left for his band’s spring trip. And because we’re crazy, we had a family BBQ the following Monday with Nick’s family.
June was even crazier, though. Nick and David left the first weekend, Nick for work in the Czech Republic and David for Tennessee for working a pre-teen camp. Then I left for China the same day Nick came back from his trip (and no, we didn’t even get to see each other at the airport). Greg spent weekdays at his Nana & Pa’s house while the other two boys came and went. David had college orientation for a few days in there. Nick and all the kids went to the Houston Aquarium for Father’s Day while I spent Father’s Day with my dad in Tianjin. Then kids all spent the last few days I was gone working the pre-teen camp at Camp Piney Woods while Nick was in Tennessee for work. We all were supposed to get home Wednesday, June 26th, but my flight got delayed by several hours and I ended up getting home at 4 in the morning on the 27th. Then on the 29th, Greg and David got in a van with other church kids and left for Teen Camp at Camp Pinecrest in Missouri. (I will most likely blog about my China trip in some upcoming posts.)
Today is first day I’ve felt human and somewhat put together in a really long time. I’m getting back onto somewhat of a schedule. I’ll be spending weekday mornings at the gym and afternoons writing. Ree has this whole month free, so we’ll be starting parent-led driving lessons for him this week as well, probably in the mornings after I’m back from the gym. 🙂 Greg will be in day camps most of this month and who knows what David will be up to? I sure don’t! He was looking for a job last time I checked, but no one would hire him because he was out of town so much this summer (he has one more camp he’s working at the end of the month).
So there you have it. We are crazy and we know it. 🙂 See you tomorrow.
I have been going to the gym for 8 weeks now, although with all the missed days due to illness or Thanksgiving break, it’s really more like 7 total weeks. Overall I have lost 27.25 inches off the 12 points I measure (neck, chest, chest+breasts, natural waist line, belly button, hips, upper arms, mid arms, lower arms, upper thighs, lower thighs, calves) and 4 total pounds. I haven’t changed my diet any, and I didn’t really hold back at all on Thanksgiving foods that week either.
I tried on those pants from the before photos over the weekend and they are so loose, y’all. I am down to regular size clothes in the next size down (from last month) and some of the super big ones from the size below that (which is funny because some of the super small in my current size are still too small. Oh the joys of size variety across brands). I emptied a new box out on the bed today and everything in it fit fairly well. This was a small box because I took the top half out just before Thanksgiving, trying to find a cute Thanksgiving outfit. Things in the next size down box are those that currently can fit onto my body, but I can’t move around much in them. So I started this effort with five boxes of clothes going from the biggest I ever was (back in September) going all the way to the size I was when I had David (17 years ago). I am two boxes down, with three left to go.
So I’m going to continue on in the gym, but I’m going to focus a lot more on my waist area, if that’s even possibly a thing (it must be). In January after the crazy eating month is over and hopefully we can start getting salads again (I haven’t been able to find one in the last two and a half weeks except at Dairy Queen, who gave me a chopped ice berg lettuce salad), I plan on tweaking my eating and maybe come up with a plan I can stick with. 🙂
Okay, that’s enough rambling about that. Y’all have a happy day!
When I started Nanowrimo this year, I felt super prepared for it. I’d done a couple months of prep writing to practice getting back into the habit of writing every day, I spent a month making a new outline for the novel I was working on, updating bits of the story here and there and strengthening the theme I wanted the novel to have, and I blocked out my calendar for the month to make sure I had time to write every day.
So of course it all fell apart. But I already wrote about that. This is the post where I talk about what I can do to make it better in the future.
In non-writing related things: First off, I’m going to make sure that my husband is, in fact, not going to be out of the country when I’m intending to do crazy things. Second, I’m going to make myself and everyone around me use more hand sanitizer. Third, I’m going to write ahead each day so I’m caught up with the words from Thanksgiving week so that I don’t stress so much that last week because I am so far behind. Fourth, I’m going choose easier meals to make if the husband is, in fact, gone while I’m trying to write a ridiculous number of words. Fifth, I’m going to make my kids start doing their own laundry.
Writing-wise: Numero uno, I am going to make sure that that spiffy new outline is completely fleshed out before I start. I had several days where I looked at my outline this time around and realized that a chapter only had one scene or that I hadn’t figured out how a character was getting from here to there from one scene to the next. Two, I’m going to make sure I have done all the research on the things I need to know more about before I start writing. I have a bunch of places where I have “insert data on that here” or “insert something more specific here” in my novel right now. Tres, make sure I really love character names instead of putting in place-holder names that I can’t remember how to spell from one scene to the next. Quatre, I’m going to figure out my magical system before I start writing so I stop making plot holes.
That’s about it. I’m looking forward to writing another 50,000 or so words again this next month now that I know I can do it under some pretty insane conditions. 🙂
So because I have a ridiculously busy life, I still have 7,000 words to go tomorrow. Will I make it? I don’t know. I have done more than 5,000 words a day every day this week so far. We shall see. So tired.
Lisa Holcomb 