Tales From Another Planet

Well, I finally realized why I could never teach my husband how to swim. One of things I love about him is that he always makes me laugh. However, when I'm laughing at him while he flounders in the water, it's not the best teaching environment. He is actually a decent swimmer though, so I'm not too worried about him. I'm just not the best "stroke clinic" instructor when I'm laughing so hard. Since it's officially summer now, and many more kids are swimming at the pool, I wanted to take a few moments and review the "basics" of beginning swimmers from an instructor's perspective, and how it applies to real life. Fear. The first point to make is that you cannot learn to swim while you are afraid of the water. Whether you are an 18 month old or a 60 year old in my class, we will talk about the water and perform activities to reduce your fear. There are two different methods to eliminate fear, but I've always encourages parents that ...

My oldest son turns 5 in August. He's growing by leaps and bounds. He "went for a run" with his dad this weekend for over a mile, although I've been told that they walked most of the way. He also is about to learn his first spending and saving lesson (maybe). He fell in love with a giant "funny ball" in the Aldi's ad (it's 51 inches in diameter and cost $29.99). Since we had just bought a water play toy AND a red wagon, I vetoed the purchase. He REALLY wanted it though. Enough that he picked up and vacuumed the living room by himself to earn $1 towards it. So, my husband and I had a discussion. because Aldi's normally only carries a limited amount of these toys, so by the time he earned $30 for it, it wouldn't be available anymore. Plus he's not even 5 yet, so is it realistic to make him wait as long as it would take him to "earn" the money. On the other hand, we really didn't want to spend the $30 on a toy that we don...

Obstacles in my way Nearly breathless Every day Hurry, worry, dragging Underwater, climbing higher Now I surface, clinging Dripping wet and slipping Rarely have I seen Energy so strong Daring sons gripping me

If you've read my blog for awhile, you may be aware that I was diagnosed with a B-12 deficiency about 6 years ago. I take sublingual B-12 tablets (when I remember) and haven't had any problems since then. One of the main side effects of B-12 deficiency, however, is depression. One of the trickier things about depression is that it's hard to tell when someone is depressed. You have to evaluate yourself and when you're evaluating yourself you're looking at it from a skewed perspective. I know one of my coping mechanisms was to do research about depression. I figured since I never had suicidal thoughts, I didn't really need help. So I tried journaling, praying, exercising, eating right, doing fun things. Nothing seemed to help. I truly only decided to get help when I realized that my short-term memory was being affected and I couldn't remember what I had eaten the day before. Of course, this was before kids, so I didn't have a valid excuse for not remem...

I've always been on the fence between crying it out (which both of my children have at some point) and letting the kids just get in bed with us when they need to. It's one thing if they aren't getting the sleep they need while co-sleeping. But it's also not good for them to be scared and for parents to refuse the basic hug and cuddle that a kid might need after a bad dream. For the most part, our kids don't sleep in the bed with us, but they have both gone through stages where they did (usually about 3-9 months old and occasionally since then). A few nights ago we kept having thunderstorms at bedtime and the kids were getting scared. So one night, we had our oldest on the floor of our room in a sleeping bag and our youngest in bed with us. Early this morning, my husband woke me shortly after 1am, when he brought our youngest in bed with us. He had been wandering downstairs and was scared (either from a dream or not being able to find us. So, he ended up in bed w...

I keep insisting that I'm not a crunchy mama or a hipster. Yet, some things just make sense, even without completely adopting the persona. I love my hot Keurig coffee in the morning. However, with two kids and summertime upon us, my coffee is generally cold by the time I get to finish drinking it anyway. When I first heard of this so-called "cold brewed" coffee, I was skeptical. There's a reason coffee is hot, right? We're just going to let it sit for 12 hours and it magically "brews"? What about the caffeine content? However, as skeptical as I am, I am currently in the process of trying out my first "cold brew" coffee. Regular beans (coarsely ground), regular water, pots, bowls, and jars that I already have. Nothing fancy or that I had to buy, although I'm not sure where my coffee filters are, so I may need to borrow some from a neighbor or friend when it's time to strain. I'll let you know how it turns out! Also, when I'm ...

Over the weekend, I had the privilege of playing in the "Coaches Game" during the closing ceremonies of our Upwards Soccer league at church. When I originally signed up as a player for the game, I was thinking that maybe I would be in better shape by then, and the weather would be nice, and people wouldn't take it too seriously. What I forgot to account for was the number of men present and therefore, testosterone overload! I saw at least two people get flipped on clean tackles, another couple scary bumps and both teams played a hard fought 2-1 game. We lost, although one of the other team's goals was off a penalty that was called on the goalie coming out to get a player shooting. While the goalie did try to pull up to not mow someone over, I think the ref was just trying to keep the playing a little safer for everyone, because these guys were GOING after that soccer ball. There was even a yellow card given during the game! I was really out of shape and the othe...

Hair pulling, twisting, turning, Aggravation, negotiations. Hostage taker, bedtime hater. Swaddling, snuggling, Screaming, struggling. What more must you ask? Water, juice, milk. Toys, books and blanket. When will this pass? Dear God, please, At least by age three. **In other news, I may start posting some short stories on Friday instead of poetry, because this is the most creative I can get in my current life stage. These boys are draining my brain most days... Or maybe I just need more sleep.

I'm very fortunate that I have a part-time, at home job that occasionally allows me to browse the Internet, work on my blog, or take surveys while I'm getting paid (sort of). I am an online tutor for tutor.com. They have an "on call" type rate that they pay during scheduled hours, even if there are no students to tutor. While it is only $5.50 an hour, I can take that time to earn money in some other ways, to up my hourly rate. Pinecone Research. Although they do not have a paid referral program, they do offer $3 per survey completed. Since most of the surveys only take 15-30 minutes, if I do 2 surveys I can up my hourly rate to $11.50 an hour. I also find their surveys relatively enjoyable most of the time. It says I've earned $93 in the past year, so it averages about 3 surveys a month that I am able to complete. Sign up for rewards programs. Whether it's through Ibotta, Checkout 51, or your credit cards rewards program, there are some things that you ar...

I actually feel kind of bad for dentists. They are like mechanics, except that they have to work on people instead of cars. It's a bit harder for a human to sit still with their mouth open for over an hour than it is for a car to keep it's hood up. One of the scariest things about moving to a new area of town is finding new dentists, doctors, etcetera. Fortunately, we hit a home run with this dentist (at least so far). I was a bit worried when I had cavities on my first appointment, but despite the time invested in getting cavities filled on two teeth at the same time, the dentist did a great job putting me at ease. The dentist we chose when we moved is a husband/wife team. They are both dentists and then there are several different hygienists there as well (I think there are three hygienists). The wife gave me the numbing shots (which is usually the worst part). Honestly, I didn't even feel the shot go in, which was good because I was about to pass out just from thinki...

So, I have been somewhat keeping up with an exercise plan. However, I have not yet started walking or running much. The main reason for that is the insanely hot weather we've been having here lately. Today the high is supposed to be 103! It's only mid-June. It's not even officially summer yet! There is a heat advisory between 12pm and 7pm today. We went to the park yesterday at about 11, and it was already too hot to stay outside in the sun for long. We walked in the shade and my oldest son was sweating buckets and red faced after about a half hour (of course, he was riding his stride bike, which meant he was moving a lot faster than I was, but at least he got to glide downhill). I was pushing our 2-year old in the stroller at a leisurely walk, but we were both drenched in sweat too. Needless to say we came home before noon. My husband had started running, but I told him it wasn't a good idea today. We may try to go to the pool, although the water wasn't really ...

I've been thinking about the issue of race a lot lately. I think there are definitely some valid reasons for the racial tension in our country. I thought it was no problem in Louisville, but I think that's because I lived in the "east end" of town which is where all the wealthy people live. In my experience, society doesn't care as much what color your skin is, as long as you have enough money. After moving to Raleigh, NC, however, I saw a slightly different story. Our temporary housing was on the wealthier "north end" of town, so I thought I would find the same experience. In actuality, the zip codes were more diverse, but there were pockets of low income housing all throughout the wealthier zip codes, and that's where a certain color was more predominant. Not only that, but I started noticing that all of the "service" or "labor" jobs were almost all black. It was very disconcerting to me to walk into a Wendy's and see an...

I stand in front of a rack of shoes To try to decide between black and blue. The black are classy, traditional Full of elegance and grace and all. But I like a little spice in my life I am not yet a complacent housewife So I look at the blue shoes for some time Full of beat and rhythm and rhyme The pulse of electric blue hues Seems to give happy new clues. Convention says black is the better choice Electric blue shoes would make too much noise.

There's nothing like skipping from Monday to Friday after a long stretch of "on time" posts. It has been a very busy week. Normally, I would post a poem or short story today, but I've used up most of my good old stuff, and haven't been feeling very creative lately. At our book club last night, we were talking a little bit about how intimidating it can be to be creative. It's one thing to "just get back to work" if you're doing something physical (completing a project, cooking a meal, doing the laundry). It's quite another thing to hop back on the horse of creativity when you don't "feel the muse". It's been quite a week. I have been able to relax a bit because my parents are in town. I even got a massage! However, I've also been quite busy in other ways. We've been to the pool and the natural science museum, and to the park. And my oldest is sick, again. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but he threw up a litt...

Today is definitely going to be a busy Monday. We spent all weekend away from the house, and now it's time to get things ready for the week. With the additional problem of our washer still being unhooked due to some drywall work we are having done, it will definitely be an interesting day. We've been using my in-laws washer and dryer, but they really need to get their dryer vent cleaned out or something, because it is taking over an hour to dry each load. Our weekend plans included a quick beach trip. Saturday we spent a total of about 6 hours in the car, and 1.5 hours "at the beach". However, Daniel loved getting smashed by the waves. James loved sitting in the sand, and we got a few other fun things done as well. Unfortunately, there was a beach soccer tournament and a beach music festival on Saturday, so things were much more crowded than we anticipated. However, we did walk around Fort Fisher and we got to stop at Britt's Donuts, so that made the trip w...

Because this love, changes everyday, This hate comes and then it goes away. And when love hurts, don't up and run away, Just kiss it goodbye After you kiss it hello, And love hurts less after the walls go up. This love works best from a distance. Do you love me? You're standing there, looking just right And I'm standing here, looking all wrong. But hey, at least I'm looking, And maybe you'll hear my song as I sing. This love changes my everything. This hate, flees with every step's ring. And when love hurts, I know it can't be you. And I'll kiss you goodbye After I kiss you hello. Because I hurt less after the walls go down. And love works best with you by my side.

The problem with politics in the United States is that our political system was designed to be primarily local, with an emphasis on individual states rights, and our current world is built on a global scale. Unfortunately, this means that while it used to be okay if Congress took a couple years off from doing their jobs, it no longer should be okay. Yet, the American people have to way to force them back to work. The endless cycle of checks and balances is causing our government to become mired down by unimportant (relatively) disagreements about marriage, immigration, or healthcare instead of focusing on major items such as tax reform and paying down our debt. I'm not saying that the issue of immigration is unimportant, but does it really matter how many people we let into this country if we can't afford to pay for the people that are already here? Does it really matter how much we spend on healthcare if we have no way of paying down our debt? I mean a few more billion in de...

We are in process of what will hopefully be our last main home repair expenditure this year. However, we do have two other large expenses that we probably should get done relatively soon, but we hope that we can wait until we have the funds saved up. Our break even point on the house is approximately 6 years from purchase. What does "break even" mean on a home purchase? In my opinion, it will be the time when we'll have built up enough equity in the home (without relying on home price "increases") to recover any realtor fees or expenditures associated with selling a house. So, in other words, we would be able to recover our entire investment. Many people will factor other expenses into their purchase (such as those large initial repairs if a home hasn't been kept up with). Others will factor other "income" into their break-even point, such as the mortgage interest tax deduction, or an estimated increase in home prices. In our case, I factor...

The joke has been told many times in many different ways. If you don't know someone who is... (a bad roommate, socially awkward, a geek, etcetera) then you are probably that person. Or, if everyone you know is weird, then maybe you are the weird one. I know that I can be socially awkward. I often say the wrong thing and only notice in hindsight. Because I know this, I try to give grace to those who are the same way. However, I don't have any deep friendships, yet. Obviously, I just moved less than 6 months ago, but I have always had a hard time developing deep friendships. I used to wonder if it was just my personality, however, I have recently learned a lot about my personality (I am actually a reserved extrovert) so I have pushed past my reserved side as much as I can and am trying to let me extrovert flag fly when necessary. Although now I wonder if, instead of the shy quiet friend on the outskirts, I've just turned into the loud obnoxious friend on the outskirts. I...

My upper body is a bit sore today. On Saturday, I decided to try out the "Fit In" for my husband's company's health initiative. Basically, you have to choose certain things from a list to complete in order to receive a discount on health insurance. The option that sounded the most fun to me was to take two "Fit In" sessions to see how your health is improving (or deproving as the case may be). Since we've moved this year, I had let any semblance of being healthy slide. I no longer work at a YMCA, so I don't have access to treadmills and childcare while I work out. I also no longer work as a swim instructor (I would, but I don't have any clients right now and I haven't advertised). I think I underestimated how much those hours spent in the water helped me maintain my physical fitness, because I am woefully out of shape. I was proud of myself that I did manage to do a few modified pushups and sit ups within the time limit. But my "Riva...