Lisa Holcomb

All I do is rush around and read

Last Wednesday we didn’t have a lot going on, which was good, as I was still recovering from Icky Tummy. Greg had a short playdate with his friend Kya. We were late, then they needed to leave early, but they had fun in the backyard! Lots of climbing on the jungle gym the way it wasn’t intended to be played on, of course. Then I caught up on housework, Greg caught up on My Little Pony watching, and the big kids had school.

Greg & Kya both fit on the swing in her backyard! Too cute!

Thursday all the kids were in school, so it was another day of errands for me, this time for the Spring Recital. I got the programs made and ordered, practiced my various instruments, and picked things up from hither and yon. The scout pack meeting was at the Waste Management Plant south of town. It was very, very stinky, but also quite interesting. Made me want to re-read Slow River. David “officially” crossed over to Scouts and received his Scout book from our pack leader. (I didn’t know that was going to happen or I’d have invited people and probably would have insisted it not happen someplace quite so informal.)

Friday turned unexpectedly busy. More Spring Recital errands, more just-for-us errands. Greg got a new toy with his own money at the dollar store. We had my “birthday lunch” with Nick at Oliveto’s (I had a birthday coupon!). Then I went up and had a conference with Ben’s teacher because (prepare yourself for the shock. No, really, prepare yourself!) Ben had been challenging the teacher and substitute teachers authority. My Ben. For real. It turned out to be no big deal, but apparently he’d had a hard week, there’d been a mix-up with the sub paperwork, and it just spiraled from there. *sigh* After that was an impromptu PTA meeting (announced in the funniest way: “Let’s go to my house and drink beer in the front yard while the kids run in the street!” whee! note: the kids did not actually run in the street, nor was it an official meeting). After that I took the kids to the PretzelMaker in the mall, to use our birthday coupons there, whereupon we were treated unkindly by the establishment, they denied looking at our official documents proving our dates of birth (which I’d brought just in case because it can be awkward when two in a family have close birthdays), but they gave us our free pretzels eventually.

Greg's cool new toy. It's already been repaired five or six times. Nick and I take turns repairing it now. Yay for cheap toys.

Saturday was busy as well. Ben had a birthday party for his friend L. to go to first thing in the morning. It was in the backyard and I got to spend my morning chatting with my friend R, who I don’t see enough of, which was lovely. The cake was a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake (homemade). So very yummy!

DSCN5822 — This was the Pokeball Drop game at Ben's friends Pokemon themed party. It was a gorgeous day for a party.

Saturday was also my solo debut doing special music on the piano. I’ve done quite a few duets with Nick’s mom, but never played on my own. I was so nervous and shaking so hard I could barely play. Everybody later said that it was beautiful and soothing music (I played Savior Like a Shepherd Lead us from the Simple Hymns book. I’d originally planned to play a more complicated version, but with the RA flare, I decided to go simple). Hehehe. After church I managed to spill an entire cup of hot tea down my front, burning myself across my belly, thigh, toes, and hand. It was really quite painful that first day and continued to be painful in spots for several days after.

Sunday was the big day of the Spring Recital. The kids and I practiced, practiced, practiced, then loaded up all the munchies for the reception and drove out to church, whereupon we started set up and rehearsal. We had some great people come out to help with sound & kitchen stuff, for which we are very grateful. The recital went very smoothly. My parents and Nick’s sister and dad came. Nick did a great job as MC, the kids did excellent at their various instruments (Ben played three pieces on piano, David played one piece, three ways: piano, violin, & recorder), and my clarinet solo (the adagio section of Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No.2) went off without a hitch (playing the clarinet in front of people is a breeze; why is it so difficult to play the piano in front of others?). There were tons of other refreshments there (we were worried there wouldn’t be), so we got to take home lots of goodies, too. My parents cooked dinner for us afterward.

Me, in my new dress, playing clarinet. I still need to work on my posture, apparently.

Monday we hung out with my parents again in the morning for breakfast, then had a working PTA lunch here at our house to try to make t-shirts (the iron-on stuff just didn’t work). After that we went & picked up my parents and took them with us over to David’s TARGET Bullseye forum. David played the recorder there, too. I can’t seem to get the video off the iPhone, but will update this post once I’ve figured that out. 😉 (Monday was also art lessons and scouts, but no photos of that nonsense.)

Yesterday was another busy day (they all are lately, it seems). Got the kids off to school, then headed over to Rose Stadium for the area 5th grade track meet. Someone was really thoughtful this year and brought a tent for the parents to sit under (in the bleachers, which I thought was a bit weird, but all the schools were doing it) so I didn’t quite die from heat. Got some quality time talking with my friend Lea, which is always good. David ran the 800 meter race and came in 7th, which was an improvement over last year. I don’t know why he keeps getting signed up for that one; he’s much better at sprinting. He had a lot of fun, though! I took advantage of a 10 minute lull in my schedule and showered before heading on to other things. Other things being: kid pick-up, Lego club, buying a present for David’s friends birthday, taking the kids to piano lessons, then yet another PTA meeting (last one before the spring carnival!), then the aforementioned kids birthday party. The birthday party was interesting because it was at a pizza buffet and we’d gotten a call earlier in the day that they were going to discount our meals by about half, but we didn’t know why. Well, come to find out they were filling spots for commercials. So we had to do all this cheering and present giving over and over and they interviewed some parents and generally were in the way with their big camera and lighting set up. It was chaos!

DSCN5832 — Lining up for the 800 meter race

Today looks to be a quieter day. Greg and I are going over to Molly & Clive’s for breakfast/coffee, then we’re going to register him for kindergarten this afternoon. 🙂 He’s sooooo excited! 🙂

Books

books, books, books!

19. Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch

20. Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

My husband stole these out of my giant-pile-o-Steph’s-books and devoured them first. Then he kept leaving them out places and asking if I’d read them yet. I took this as a hint that he wanted me to read them so we could discuss them. So I read them. They were super fun magician’s new apprentice novels, if gritty and gross at times. Still need to discuss them with Nick. Hoping there’s more to the series by now. 🙂

21. Thorns and Blossoms by Theodora Goss

Lovely little two-books-in-one, each told from a main characters viewpoint. My only problem? The “unique accordian style binding” that was touted as a feature was actually a bug. It was impossible to read while sitting in a chair, much less reading in a chair while kids wanted attention. Also, I didn’t want to read this story twice all the way through, so I kept flipping back and forth between the stories. It was cute, but annoying.

22. In the Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

I started this book yesterday after coming home from piano lessons with the kids and finished it by 11pm, reading pretty much continuously, except for dinner, snuggling kids before bed, and trying to watch Eureka while finishing it. It was really, really good. So good, in fact, that I’ve already been to the author’s website to see when the next one comes out – and it turns out there are two more books, already out! Must find them. I really don’t like zombie stories, but these are so good.

Books

Books, 2012, one more

17. Rude Mechanicals by Kage Baker

Yes, I’m on a Kage Baker kick again. Somehow there’s always more of them, which is amazing and wonderful and sad because one day there won’t be more that I haven’t seen yet. This one was one of the delightful shorter length books focusing on Joseph and Lewis. I love them! 🙂

I’ll just go ahead an list it now, to put the lie to the title of this post.

18. Mother Aegypt by Kage Baker

I’m starting it as soon as I stop typing this. 🙂

Books

Books 2012, continued

12. Reread The Hunger Games in time to see the movie.

13. Finally read Goliath by Scott Westerfeld, after putting it off forever because I was scared I’d drop a cup of tea in it like I did to Behemoth.

14. Finally finished Wings by Aprilynne Pike, which I can’t remember where I got it in the first place.

15. Scarfed down Every You, Every Me by David Levithan & Jonathan Farmer in one evening as I really, really needed to know who the crazy person was.

16. Now reading The Women of Nell Gwynne’s by Kage Baker. The cover really is that purple. Love it!

Around the House, The Past Comes Back to Haunt Me, What I Love

More old family photos

More old family photos, a set on Flickr.

Most of these are from the trip we took to Europe in 1983 — I was 7 and got a camera for my birthday for the trip. My parents occasionally took photos of us, but most of the photos I took. The other one is one of our engagement pictures (the color weirdness is due to the fact that it sat in my Dad’s office window for 15 years. I think it’s the only copy we have of this picture).

Books

Again, not dead

No, I’m not. Really, I promise. I got an iPhone, rarely go near the computer any more, and so blogging has fallen by the wayside, as I’m not entirely proficient with the thumbs-typing-on-small-keyboards thing yet (though I am trying. This for example).

So, what’ve we been up to lately? Lots of stuff, mostly kids, school, church, more doctor visits for me. Whirlwind. I will try to find time this week for details and pictures maybe tomorrow night while people are off at scouts.

I did finally sit down & read this week, a nifty little book about feeding your children called “Hungry Monkey”. It was more of a memoir than really helpful with what to do with your own kids, but it had some fun recipes (we have overlapping cookbooks with the author, so some things we’ve already tried) and things I may try with Greg that I hadn’t thought to do with him. So add this to the book list at #11 for the year.

Around the House, My Own Personal Weirdness, Organizing, Saving Money

Don’t Just Talk About It, Round Up

Yesterday was the last day of my personal challenge. I will admit that I was a little sad that no one joined me on it. Oh well, moving on.

Here’s a round up of areas that I worked on that I somehow managed not to post photos of earlier in the process. Some were places I didn’t have finished on time and others were places I didn’t have on the list but did anyway.

The hallway bathroom I didn’t take any before photos of. It didn’t look a whole lot different. Here it is with its new Reveille:

Here are the handsome new towels my mom got the boys:

And here are the tags for the boys. David is the crocodile, Ben is the love animals, and Greg is the cat.

The desk area hasn’t changed a lot since the middle of things, but it’s still a work in progress, here it is mid process:

The desk area now:

(the main change: I sent away the paper file box and brought back in the plastic box because it’s sturdier in the long run, then piled up the stuff over there while I’m working on sorting through it all. The sorting is taking forever because I haven’t had enough time to dedicate to it yet.)

The shelving units in my room before: super crowded.

The shelving units after:

(I have actually only gotten rid of a small pile of papers and four books. The rest just got re-sorted back to the places they were meant to be living in the first place.)

David’s room, mid process. Ah, it looked so clean. Too bad you couldn’t see all the stuff on his bed.

David’s room now: His aunt April donated an old computer for his use. It doesn’t have wireless access to the internet, so unless a parent gives him the super-long ethernet cable, there’s no internet in his bedroom. But still, he can write papers, play a certain subset of his computer games, use iTunes, and draw lots and lots of weird stuff with the mouse. Plus there’s an awesome outer space screen saver. The other half of his desk is covered in his current Lego battle.

Ben & Greg’s room mid-process:

Greg and Ben’s room now: The matching chairs came FREE from the garage, much to my happiness. Greg decided he was finally tired of the Moon Sand mess, so out that went. One of the teachers at school, who is mom to 2 ladies that have taught Ben & Greg, overheard of my yearning for a second computer for the house for boy use, and showed up one day during my volunteer hours up there with a computer very, very similar to the one April had given us for the big boy. (I know this sounds confusing “second computer.” When I had been talking about it, April hadn’t given us the one in D’s room yet. And then once she did he rejected it because of the lack of internet issue. BUT, once the little kids got and enthusiastically embraced their new-to-them computer, he was all “whatever happened to that other one?” and so now both rooms have one. Little kids room has one that’s more disabled for little kid use, chock full of educational games. Big kids room has a regular one that we’ll put big kid stuff on.)

The top of the dryer wasn’t on the list, but it should have been. Before: mess, mess, mess.

The top of the dryer, now: nice! (sorry for the angle change there!)

The other side of the laundry room has new labels for things (soap & different recycling bins), printed for free from my computer on regular computer paper and laminated with clear contact paper I had on hand as well.

The piano area before: mess, mess, mess.

The piano area after: I showed you where the books ended up, but not how the piano area looks now. I just added a stack off boxes from elsewhere, the snow dragon, and a strand of music garland from my first Homecoming mum (what, don’t look at me like that. Yes, it’s 22 years old. It’s plastic. Whee!)

And that’s all folks. I am done! Well, not really, as there’s always more to do, but I am done having a project a day all week long. It’ll be nice to just take things slowly again.

Books

RA Guy’s Book Club: “How To Be Sick”

Book 4 of 2012:

In case you haven’t seen it, there’s a discussion over at

RA Guy’s Book Club on the book: “How To Be Sick” by Toni Bernhard.

Through the magic of Kindle I went from the panic of ACK! I need to go to the bookstore! to AHHHH…. book in hand. I do so love my Kindle. I’ve read the first couple chapters already, keep tissues close by if you are easily emotional, as I am lately. I’ve gone over and answered the discussion questions already as well, but you’ll have to go over there to read my answers. 🙂

(And I know some of you may flinch at “A Buddhist-inspired Guide” but I’ve found Buddhist inspired guides to be some of the least offensive things in the universe and usually some of the most helpful. So I’m going with it.)

Around the House, health, I Am Traveling, My Own Personal Weirdness, Organizing, Television & Film

Don’t Just Talk About It, Days 13,14, & 15

When I first made my list earlier this month, I had no idea that I’d end up having the kind of week I have scheduled ahead of me. Monday I have a two-hour webinar for scouts, Tuesday I’m going to spend all day driving to and from Dallas with David, getting his back checked for scoliosis, Wednesday I have a half day playdate (planned for two weeks ago, then rescheduled) to catch up with a friend that I haven’t seen since my birthday last April, Thursday I’m going in to the hospital to have an EEG done to see if I’m having mini seizures, and Friday I’m having another catch-up playdate with a different friend (also rescheduled) who I thought I’d seen this month, but apparently haven’t yet.

Fortunately I’ve already done days 16 & 17. YAY. So today I’m going to try to get 13, 14, & 15 all done. Watch for updates. There should be some. You know, unless I fall over and hit my head or something. *sigh*

Update 1:

BEFORE:

Two hours later, I have emptied the entire desk-that-was-my-grandmothers (now referred to as the craft desk because that’s a less unwieldy phrase), taken stuff out, looked at it, pitched some of it in the trash, designated other bits -one entire drawer actually- for sale on ebay (anyone interested in some Stampin’ Up?), and moved another whole drawer over to another area, where I feel like I might feel more compelled to write notes & cards (since I won’t have to dig through the scary deep drawer to find them). I have also dug through the entire cart, following the same process as above, a drawer in the other cart, and the small three drawered cubby as well. I watched episode 1 & 2 of the first season of the UK version of Being Human while doing so. I say “watched” but listened was more like it. I wanted to see it because I liked the werewolf from when he was on Little Dorrit. I liked him here, too, which was unfortunate because the show is too bloody for me. 😦

Now the children are home, it’s lunch time, and we’re digging through drawer 2 of the second cart. We may have to stop to do tie-dye before we move on, since it takes up a lot of space and the children would rather we tie-dye today than throw it out unused. I agree with them. If only we had some white t-shirts. Off to check for shirt availability.

Update 2:

An hour later, Nick has gone off to work and I have finished emptying the second cart. Another trash can has been added, as the first one is FULL. The tie-dye did not pan out, as only one kid has a shirt available for it. The top of the desk is left to do, as is finding a home off the floor for all the paper products (which do not fit into the desk).

MIDWAY:

However, the day is still rain-free, the kids are awake and at liberty, so they are being drafted into “Day 15” and will help me carry heavy stuff in the garage. I can hear them discussing it amongst themselves right now. “We have to help her because she’s TIRED.” “We’ll carry the heavy stuff and then she’ll be happy and let us have screen time later.” They are SO RIGHT on both counts. (In other news, my bff read my earlier update & called & excused me from coming to her house this weekend, which was a relief because I was fairly certain I’d be dead by then. Two trips to DFW in one week do not make for a happy Lisa. On the other hand, I had wanted to see the Harry Potter party leftovers and love on her and her kids. Ah well, there will be time for that next month.)

Update 3:

Another hour later, because I’m about to pass out and this may be the last update of the day. The two younger kids have been very good helpers, as evidenced by the quotes above (you all knew that was Ben & Greg, right?). David got mad about 3 minutes in because I wouldn’t let him keep his large supply of sticks in the garage any longer. He left to take a giant bag of Lego bricks inside (why was it in the garage? no idea) and never came back out again. Greg and Ben helped me break down boxes, sort things into recycling bins (certain things can go in the one that goes out to the street that can’t go directly to the recycle center and vice versa) and the dumpster, and sort other things into whose room in the house they belonged to for once they go back inside. Now we have a couple bins of things that go back in the house, which worries me a bit. But the garage has been tidied up a reasonable amount, my trunk is full of more stuff for Goodwill, and in a few minutes it’ll also have been swept. And then I’m going to go lie down on the couch and watch The Secret of Moonacre again with Greg because it is a delightful movie and I am exhausted.

Update 4:

(Are you shocked?)

Well, another hour has gone by and I haven’t passed out yet. The kids didn’t want to watch a movie just yet. “It’s a lovely day, Mama!” And it is. Breezy, warm. Non-standard January weather. They wanted to ride bikes in front of the house. Sure, why not. Well, here’s why: we tidied the bikes into a figurative corner and couldn’t get them out without getting the van out of the garage. As long as the van was out and there was more space to move around in, why not reconfigure the garage so the bikes are easy to get to and the van seats (which rarely leave the garage these days) are less open to the elements? So the kids got their bikes out, I shifted the other stuff while they were riding, et voila! Now they can get to their bikes & helmets & padding on their own and I, thanks to some hooks hung on the wall to contain their never-used golf sets, have comfy seats inside the garage to watch the festivities from, out of the sun and elements. Wahoo!

BEFORE:

messy, hard to get around stuff

AFTER:

stuff we like to use front and center by the door, tidied up & purged of extras (except that small desk, which is destined for my in-laws house once their remodeling is complete, which will be soon)

Around the House, My Own Personal Weirdness, Organizing

Don’t Just Talk About It, Do It; Day 12

Day Twelve on the schedule had me cleaning something messy somewhere in the house. Very vague. Sometimes I like vague. Today was a good day for vague. Here’s how it went: I did some stuff in each room of the house, tidying up here and there various messes that had gone untidied earlier in the week. No before and after photos, no drastic changes. Just a bit here and a bit there. The only big things I did was gather up all the trash and put it in the dumpster, gather up all the Goodwill donations and drive them out to the drop off, and have the kids finish tidying up their rooms. David took down everything I put on his display shelf and put it on the desk “to play with.” Ben rearranged some of the bins in his room. Greg showed off all the changes to his cousins when they came over this evening. And that was it, end of week 3. Wahoo!

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