Thrifting fueled by compliments

I love to thrift shop.  The more overflowing with stuff and under crowded with shoppers, the better.  Recently found treasures included a little black dress, fun belts and a bedazzled top that may be a little young for me, but it was designer and only $3.  Yesterday's trip resulted in $5 paten leather shoes, Aerosoles that hadn't been worn.  The clerk commented on how nice they were and I realized that that was yet another benefit of thrift shopping. The excitement over the find is fueled by compliments from other shoppers or the clerks.  Simple words of praise also wipe away any buyers remorse, not like there's much when your total bill is less then what you'd pay for a bottle of wine or a few lattes.

Friends, No Ice and Napa

I like ice in my water, but am fine without, a girlfriend that I've known since college, prefers no ice.  It was my other girlfriend who mentioned that when we were together for a girls weekend earlier this month.  The three of us vowed, in 1999, to get together for a girls weekend every three years.  It's 2014, and it's happened twice; there were a couple of visits in between, but husbands, kids and an occurrence of cancer were involved, so those don't count. What does count is uninterrupted girlfriend time to take note of small things (no ice), and pick up where you left off; even if it takes a few moments, or glasses of wine, to remember where.  What counts is casting aside all the multitasking involved in the daily life of being a mom and wife, so that you can just be a friend for a few days.  What counts are friendships that are timeless, and friends who are priceless.  Thanks ladies for your friendship, endless generosity, and therapeutic shoulders.  Oh, and of course... Thanks for Napa!

Pine Ridge Vineyard, our table, inside their winery cave, set for tasting... hands down our favorite winery!

Tonight, I made ugly cookies

On the to do list tonight was to make shamrock cookies for my brother-in-law's party this weekend.  I don't have a go to recipe for cookies, I would like to be the person that pulls out their worn cookbook, or recipe file holder, and retrieves the tried and true, perfect sugar cookie recipe.  But I'm the 'what can I do without going to the store' person, the allrecipes.com cook.  The result? Cookies that were shamrock shaped until baked, then they just melted together into flat awkward shaped blobs, which I topped with green icing to complete the perfectly ugly shamrock cookie.  The girls made few disparaging remarks, wisely opting to eat, rather then critique. There were countless events in my community tonight. A meeting with some women in leadership positions last evening made me feel like I should be going to at least one of those events. I'm sure I would have enjoyed them, networked a little and perhaps caught up on the latest in current affairs. My absence at those events tonight didn't win me any points in the 'leave your mark on society category', and I truly do want to be that person, someday. But, tonight I made ugly cookies with my girls, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

If only it was as easy as Safety Town

The police officer who presided over Safety Town when my daughter was in preschool, is now conducting workshops on cyber safety.  I still remember Safety Town graduation day, standing room only with parents elbowing each other out of the way to capture it on video. There were tricycles, firetrucks the kids could climb into, stickers and snacks. Safety Town had everything a five year old needed to master the course content of bicycle, poison, fire, and traffic safeguards.  Fast-forward to middle school, and now the course content is cyber safety, and the safeguards are far more complex.  I suppose you can draw a parallel between the inquisitive minds of middle schoolers and the naive minds of preschoolers.  We don't assume that a five year old instinctively knows how to avoid eating something that is poisonous, so we teach them not to.  Likewise, we shouldn't assume that a tween understands the impact their shared pictures or online discussions could have on their college application, so we need to teach them what to avoid.  In order to teach them, we must first learn it ourselves.  Seek out a workshop on digital dangers and kids, I thought I was relatively internet savvy, but I still have a lot to learn.  The workshop I attended was from the Digital Innocence Recovery Group. 

Snow shoveling and neighbors

Three hours... the amount of time I would have spent with a client this morning, but instead spent shoveling... ah, the joy of a corner lot.  My 10 year old failed to make a dent in the ice covered snow when she attempted a snow angel.  That should give you an idea of the weight on each lift of the shovel.  Regardless, I enjoyed the exercise, did my homeowners duty of clearing the sidewalk and made the following observations about my neighbors:

1. some embrace shoveling, strap on their heart monitors and count calories
2. some pitch in and help others, shoveling beyond the boundaries of their own sidewalks
3. some say "Why bother? I've got nowhere to go.  People can walk on the other side of the street."  

While the 'why bother' option was tempting, I'm thankful that I am capable of and have the flexibility in my schedule to bother.  I guess I'm grateful:

1. to have the time and physical ability to do a chore like shoveling (to bother)
2. to show my kids that this is what you do, when your get 6 inches of snow.
3. to have seen the trash collector stop to retrieve what I thought was a soda can, but in fact was an injured bird that he gently moved to safer ground.

My dog was just grateful
for the path to pee

She Made Her Godmother Smile

After going to the theater with friends to see the documentary NED The Movie, I came home and hugged my kids (my sister's nieces), perhaps tighter then I ever had before. The film brought out emotions that I'd buried away, deep enough that when roused, brought tears and perhaps too much familiarity, considering the passage of time. I guess that's the mark of a well done film. A film that I'd like to see go viral (though, I wouldn't suggest it for a date night). The intent of the documentary was to raise awareness for gynecologic cancers. It followed gynecologic oncologist doctors, both as practicing physicians and musicians. In the latter role, they were bringing awareness and healing; the former, depicted the reality of the disease that so randomly, yet decisively kills over 14,000 women in the US every year. What are the odds, that 1 of those 14,000 could be your child's godmother? Their aunt? Your sister at the age of 41... It happened to us in 2008, which is precisely why I embraced my kids so tightly when I came home. As I left the theater tonight, my friend was distributing pamphlets with the warning signs ovarian cancer, I graciously declined. She knew that I was well aware already, having learned from loss (as did she with the loss of her mom). Hug your kids, talk to your siblings, raise a toast with a girlfriend... make some noise in honor of Eileen. I only wish that we'd known the signs... On a lighter note, my nine year old reminded me that "at least Aunt Eileen is having a good time in heaven."  With that, I'm certain, she made her godmother smile!

Diagnosed in March 2008
with ovarian cancer at age 41,
died 8 months later.

http://www.nedthemovie.com/

I Love Lucy vs morning news

This morning, I randomly turned the station on the kitchen tv from my default channel with morning news, to meTV.  I wanted to spare my 9 year old the day's headlines; weather, politics, reports of kindness, followed by headlines that you simply can't (and wish you didn't have to) explain. MeTV airs I Love Lucy  at 7:30am.  Instead of watching the news, I was watching how captivated my child was by I Love Lucy. I don't know how much of it she got, but she laughed, genuinely laughed, which is how a 9 year old should start her day.  Had she been watching the news, she would have seen a girl, her age(10 actually); living in a country, 7,000 miles away; on TV, because of her forced involvement in a failed suicide bombing. Try putting that into terms a child can understand...  I know, when I was 9 or 10, I had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world.  I do remember my parents sometimes watching I Love Lucy. It makes me think that I should tune into more of the classic shows for my kids sake… and mine; after all,  I did make a resolution to laugh more.  Just because the headlines capture my attention, they don't need to and certainly shouldn't, captivate my kids.