Happy Mothers Day to Me from Me

I don't require a lot of presents for Mothers Day, which is good karma because I don't give any to my own mom. A bike ride and dinner of my choice is enough for me. But when my old bag started to rip at the seams, I thought it was time for a change. (I was super happy to see the old bag was more than three years old! I think that's pretty good.) I saw this tutorial, liked the challenge of sewing with pleather (new to me), and so I took it on. About a month ago. BUT THEN. The measurements just didn't seem right. The zipper seemed really long, so I just gave up. It sat there, my poor, sad, work in progress, until a friend posted this on Facebook: "There is something you have been meaning/wanting/needing to do for a very long time. What is it? Let's you and I do it. TODAY." UGH. So I decided I'd finish that stupid bag.

And guess what? It turned out okay! I think if I did another one, I'd make it less wide but I'm still happy with it. The pleather was easy and yet dramatic. I think it looks fancy (until you see the straps are cotton webbing--ha). And I like the lining.



I do miss the utility of the old bag. The pockets were just so perfect. I'm going to have to figure out how to make this work, but I like it!

Update

We're in another one of those, "What's new? NOTHING." times in our lives. So my apologies for the unexciting post.

Ollie: He's (thankfully) having a much better go at school. Is it the new teacher? His old(er) age? Who knows. Who cares. He still doesn't love school, but I'm okay with that. He wants to take tennis lessons (he LOVES tennis), but sadly I don't think summer is going to work out. But come fall, I think we should be able to make it work. He's reading like a maniac! Like most parents, I love catching him reading and more often, we're finding him in this situation. It's kind of amazing. As previously mentioned, the boy can bike and hike just as much as his older brother. He can also wear t-shirts, unlike his older brother, so that's good. He's definitely excited for summer (which is still about five weeks away).

Rhett: He's really made great strides in his ice skating! It's kind of amazing to watch. Not that he's great, but considering how long he's been at this (remember, he'd never even been on ice skates when he declared he wanted to play hockey two months ago), Chuck and I are really happy. Plus, he still likes it. School is great. He got accepted to a gifted and talented center for 4th and 5th grade, so he won't be going to the new school after all. (I can brag about him because no one reads this except my sister and parents, and they already know.) But man, sometimes I get nervous about how well he's going to do because he exhibits some, uh, less-than-desirable traits. I think he'll be okay, but I'm betting on a big transition at the beginning of the year. He's also excited for summer, but probably not super excited about swim team. Too bad. I think, however, he has more confidence this year so that's good.

Chuck: I think he's gotten over the Caps loss (to my non-sports readers: hockey playoffs). It's hard being a sports fan in Washington. His work is fine; they're plowing through the online course development. He is also ready for summer.

Me: Sigh. The end-of-the-school-year madness is starting to set in. Most of it isn't due to school stuff, but just everything else. My current calling is assistant to the Stake Camp Director, so that's getting really busy because camp is the week after school is out. My work is lame. I want to paint our main level's interior walls, but am feeling ill-equipped to do it (darn you popcorn ceilings!). So that means we need to hire someone. In my head, this should cost a couple hundred dollars. But I'm sure the estimates will be in the thousands and I'll be depressed because it's just too much. I did get some new curtains though, so... My swimming is going well. I'm still crazy slow, but I can go for a long time. I had visions of doing a triathlon, but they were dashed when I realized how slow I was on the bike. A friend let me borrow her road bike, so maybe that'll make a difference? A backpacking weekend with friends was cancelled by rain, and I'm still angry about it. Last week we had some wicked heat. Not nice. Plans for my birthday trip are starting to congeal; we've obtained childcare!

Okay. That's it.

Take Your Kid to Work Day

A couple of weeks ago I was able to take Rhett to work with me. The Department of Labor put together some activities for kids and I was able to leave Rhett there while I got some work done. But once that was over, I brought him back to my office. I think he was underwhelmed. He liked seeing his artwork on the cubicle walls. He liked looking through my drawers and finding weird office supplies. He liked creating a PowerPoint presentation on Piggie.


But he LOVED creating his own spreadsheet. (You may correctly guess that I created the first three variables, while Rhett created the rest and then filled in the data and did the drawings.) Such a weird dude.


Obviously it's hard work to work so we went to Shake Shack at the end of the day. Obviously it was delicious.

Another Reminder

My mom reminded me about other things I like about my family. And I'm the first (well, maybe the second) to admit when I'm wrong. There are three other things I like about my family:

• We are a biking family. Once Ollie could ride without training wheels and on something a bit bigger than a clown bike, I've been pushing him. Probably too much, but he's definitely risen to the occasion. For example: On Mothers Day before church (we have 12:30 church), the whole family biked six miles. I don't know if this is a lot for a five-year-old boy, but it seems like a lot to me. And it makes me happy.
• We are a hiking family. I think my posts about the Smokies showed this. But the love continues! They even asked if we could hike the Billy Goat trail on Sunday. I declined only because I was afraid our recent rain storms closed the trail, as rain has wont to do.
• We are an early family. Yes, sometimes (a lot of times) I complain about this, but I think there are more upsides than down. Plus, on Sunday, I told the boys that they are to stay in their rooms until 7 a.m. and guess what?! I didn't even hear them once. So yes, I slept until 7. It was a Mothers Day miracle. But had we slept until much later, we couldn't have done the ride, so I guess I have to be happy about it.

A picture just for fun.

Reminder...

I'm having a hard time with my boys. It seems to me as if they only know three actions: fighting with each other, complaining about dinner, or whining about chores. It's exhausting. So I have to remind myself that there are some things I like about us as a family:

• We are a windows down family (as long as we're not moving too fast, it's not precipitating, and the temperature is within an acceptable range).
• We are a nutty family (crunchy peanut butter, nuts in baked goods).
• We are a spicy family (yep, even the boys can tolerate a good amount of hot sauce).

But right now, that's about all I like.