tifi

I made it to the end of my month long challenge! No, not that one*. The secret one that I didn’t say in case I couldn’t do it. Say what? Yea, well, I decided I would post every day for the month of January and I did, woot! Don’t go expecting this all the time now.

*which ended horribly with me in Target this morning, filling my cart to the brim with tchotckes and laughing maniacally while saying “mine, it’s alllll miiiiine!” Kidding. Sorta. I did pretty well. I ended up only buying what we needed (except my book binge) and I went to Target maybe two or three times this month. I did fall off the wagon today though.

I finished four books this month. I might have time to finish a fifth before Friday.

This morning, I went to an awards ceremony at the kids’ school to see ZB get a certificate for honor roll. The very first certificate given was for perfect attendance…but the student was absent! LMAO. The crowd roared with laughter. Have a fab day!

So I’m going to go outside, enjoy the warm weather, and pretend I don’t have any problems. Have a fabulous day.

You Are New York

Cosmopolitan and sophisticated, you enjoy the newest in food, art, and culture. You also appreciate a good amount of grit - and very little shocks you. You’re competitive, driven, and very likely to succeed.Famous people from New York: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Tupac Shakur, Woody Allen, Tifi

What American City Are You?

1. Play Mas (in fact, I’m kind of ashamed that I never have!) This must be on my mind b/c it’s carnival season and my gf is going down just for the fetes*.
2. Learn to speak and read French fluently.
3. Go on a weekend getaway with Luis. (I’m also ashamed to have never done this, we’ll celebrate our 10th anniversary this year!)
4. Be able to sing. I hit a girl in the nose** in the 5th grade (in catholic school no less) b/c she said I couldn’t sing and was messing up an En Vogue song. I mean, I can’t, but she didn’t have to say it in front of everyone, did she?
5. Learn to draw. DH is a talented illustrator (IMO anyway, hehe),but hardly ever draws! What a waste! I’ve tried over the years to encourage him, but it’s a “sometimes at best” hobby of his. I wish I had even 1/10th of his ability.

*Parties

**The only time I ever hit a schoolmate or friend. And then, I cried over it.

I’ve got a bit of energy. Of course, now everyone’s asleep and so I have to tiptoe around in the half dark doing things. I felt slammed for a bit earlier. Achy back from letting the whole gang sleep with me last night, plus allergies, and getting my period . Combined, it felt like the start of the flu. Not fun.

and barely winning. Ugh, I think I should go lie down.

So last night while I was at the supermarket on the phone with my brother*, I noticed my supermarket now carries oversize canvas grocery bags. Cool, eh? At $4 a pop, they’re not expensive, and I would say they could hold about 2-3 plastic bags of groceries each. I also noticed a few weeks ago that they started a plastic bag recycling program. There are two large recycling containers at the store entrances where you deposit bags. Yay HEB!

*I was making fun of the fact that he hired a dog whisperer for his Jack Russell, Zuri.

I was up extra early as DH woke me with his switch flickin’ this morning. I checked the weather and saw that it was 30 but felt like 23 with the windchill factor. So I started to prepare. I ironed the kids’ clothes (yes, I do that every day), and then threw them in dryer so they’d have warm, dryer fresh clothes to put on. I put the kettle on to make hot chocolate and thought about making oatmeal with honey so they could have something to warm their insides, too. In addition to putting the clothes in the dryer, I threw some thermal undies in. We would be walking this morning and I thought it might be windy. The kids woke up, we did our morning thing, and left as usual. They were in layers, bundled from head to toe, but the layers were moveable, they didn’t have to walk with their arms in a “T” shape or anything. And not one of us was cold. I had put Vaseline on their faces (you know, in case of that wind), and my three shiny kids were walking, running, and smiling at me. I was cozy in my gear, hot in fact, and then it dawned on me. I’m becoming my mother.

When I was in junior high, it was well known that if you were standing at a certain B69 bus stop in the morning, and you knew me, and my mother passed by, and you weren’t bundled to her liking, that she was going to re-do you. She’d fix your scarf, your hat, your mittens and anything else that seemed out of place b/c she just knew your mother would have a fit if she saw the way you stood there, trying to be cool instead of warm.

And now, I’m becoming that mom to my kids. I have a fit if ZB comes out of the school without a coat on when it’s 50 degrees. I shake my heads at the parents who let their kids out of the house in shorts when it’s 40 degrees. Winter comes every year, without fail, and it never ceases to amaze me how ill prepared people seem. And that’s how I know I’m edging into her territory. I told her as much yesterday, and we laughed about it. I sometimes wonder if she knows, if any mother really knows, how the seemingly little things will be remembered, cherished, and handed down.