Weekend Recap, april 22

1. Baseball heaven | 2. Boston Strong | 3. Friday walk | 4. "It" is NOT dead | 5. Carpool snack | 6. Friday night gathering | 7. Ice Cream treat | 8. Presents! | 9. My planner | 10. Baseball | 11. Baseball | 12. Baseball | 13. Front yard heaven | 14. Spring sunset | 15. Fiddler! | 16. Medicinal | 17. Inspiring | 18. Medicinal (again) | 19. Guard beagle | 20. Catch in the front yard | 21. Hankering for cookies | 22. Rocket watch | 23. Sighting | 24. Sighting | 25. Grill master (every time) | 26. Fireside supper | 27. Faithful

No school! No school! No school! Ahem. I may have mentioned this, but there's no school today. Somehow those administrators know just when we need a break. Noreen will understand this, I bet, and all the mamas and papas, but time speeds up un the spring. Like, seriously speeds up. Crazytown. Last week wore us all out, and now Neel and I both have colds, and I'm fighting my typical miserable cough. But whatever. Life marches on.

I want to march our weekend back a bit to last Thursday. That baseball picture was not taken last Thursday...it was taken the Tuesday prior where the field we played on had chickens wandering in the outfield. Loved that! Last Thursday however, was the Big Deal. Aside from a tournament loss very early in the season, our boys have only lost one game this season (when my dad was here of course), and we went back to play that team on Thursday. On their field. Despite some questionable calls (Ahem. Can middle school coaches get thrown out of games? Cause I thought for a minute ours was going to!), our boys got up and stayed up and won 10-4. A symbolic victory, but, we learned later, bigger than that. The team we beat has been undefeated for the last two seasons. We handed them their first loss. In fact, it was the first time any of our baseball teams have beat them in, get this, EIGHT YEARS. If you follow the MLB at all, you may know of BJ Upton of the Atlanta Braves. He graduated from that school. Drafted straight out of high school to the major leagues. And we beat them.

It was a bit of a thud to come back down to earth and have to do homework after that.

Who wasn't mesmerized by the events in Boston on Friday? No matter where I went, those images and that fear seemed to follow me, but what a relief to have such a stunning outcome. Seems so heartbreaking for everyone. And now come all the questions. More of those than answers, I guess.

Our quiet weekends have gone by the wayside. Cal had a hitting lesson on Saturday and we went to an amazing performance of Fiddler on the Roof that night. It was directed by our friend Mark Paladini and featured college and graduate school students at Regent University in the cast. They were ah-maz-ing. Blew us away. As our friend Tracy, Mark's wife, said, Fiddler's just a show that everyone should see at least once. You know what else is amazing? Our friend Mark, the very same Mark, was a finalist in the New Yorker cartoon caption contest this week! Looks like voting is closed, but we're anxiously awaiting the results. I'll keep you posted!

I took to my bath twice this week to try to kick my cold. To no avail, really, but it felt good at the time. I was astounded and inspired by an article in this month's Bon Apetit about home chefs that I'll chat about another time, I think, when I've had a moment to reflect on it more, and then I baked some cookies. They're pretty good. They made Neel very happy.

On Sunday we dashed outside at 5PM to peer into the heavens to see a rocket launched near(ish) our house. It was, I have to say, pretty flipping cool. There are two lines in the middle photo (#23), and you can barely see the first line. That's the rocket. How cool is that? Wings on the grill, eaten al fresco and prepared with the help of our trusty grilling sous chef. They remind us that despite the chill in the air, spring really is here.

Despite some appointments (back to the ortho and the passport office), Cal and I have a nice day planned. I have some work, and he has homework, but Neel has a dinner tonight, so my boy and I are headed out to see 42. Gonna try not to cough my way through.

Oh, and one other thing. Erin asked what wasn't working about my calendar, so I popped in a quick picture of it. Here's the deal. I like the fact that it has months and weeks, but I use my days of the week for to-do lists. So the fact that each day is divided into morning/afternoon/evening is, well, disconcerting to me. I try to ignore it, but it's still sitting there bugging me. Also, I just need more room. Apparently I write big. Hmmmm.

five things, april 19 edition

1. I think I never meant for you to think I was so despairing yesterday. You must have caught me at a weak moment. (wink) Truth is, it's been a rough week. Let's face it. In general, I believe in the inherent humanity of our fellow humans. I really believe that good and peace and right will prevail. When my mom and her friend Mike were here we were talking about (honestly, don't ask me why, I can't even remember how we got there) how people become terrorists and it's generally because they lack hope. Really, if you don't have hope, you don't have anything. Well, I'm full of hope. I have to be. We all do. And don't get me wrong. I love April too. As my dear friend Debbie pointed out, some people special to me were born this month! But I think Eliot was onto something. Real growth hurts. It's mucky and ugly and painful, but hopefully we really grow. I'm hoping that as much as we're in a mucky part of our history right now we're growing.

2. I think I need to figure out a schedule and stick to it. We were at sixes and sevens this week. (Side note, isn't that a great phrase?) And remember that planner I got? I think it's finally time to admit that I don't love it. It's not her, it's me. I just can't use it in the way it's meant to be used or I need it to do something different or something. Part of what I love about what I do is how varied my days are, but I'm slowly being driven mad by the lack of routine. Anybody have any suggestions for me? How do you keep your days screwed straight?

3. I think this is one of the most spectacular things I've seen in a long time.

4. I think two weekends of company and one out of town (and two to three baseball games a week) are a bit much for this mama to bear right now. My house is a wreck, I have my summer/winter clothes switch-over halfway done and spread across my bedroom (nice), our dinners have been impromptu and half-assed all week, I've missed loads of your blog posts. Seriously. Fail. Is it bad that I wish it would rain all weekend so I could hunker down and clear the decks around here?

5. I think I can't decide if I should go frugal and use something from my wardrobe or get something new to an event for Neel next month. These are the things I think about in the quiet spaces of the carpool line and the orthodontist's waiting room. Theresa, can you do a "Where in the World," Lauren Has to Leave the House Edition? I think I might need one.

April is the Cruelest Month {still + life}

"April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain." ~ T.S. Eliot

Siege on Waco, TX: 1993
Oklahoma City Bombings: 1995
Columbine School Massacre: 1999
Virginia Tech Massacre: 2007
Mid-April Tornado Outbreak (largest in history): 2011
Boston: 2013
Explosion in West, TX: 2013

I'm not going to lie. It's been a helluva a week in this country. We're all on edge. Yesterday was improbably chaotic with reports of poisioned letters being sent to our political leaders (And I use the term "leaders" lightly, Senate. But that's a story for another day.), suspicious packages investigated EVERYwhere, and bomb threats. News outlets, in their rush to be first with the story played fast and loose with the facts (What are we coming to?), only adding to the confusion and chaos. And then last night, this horrific explosion in Texas. I just can't imagine. I am reminded of the terrifying days just after 9/11 when each new day brought more concerns and chaos. I told someone then that I felt that the whole world was holding its breath. I feel that way now.

It's seeping into my family. We're overworked and tired and everyone is cranky. I just couldn't post the post I had scheduled for today. Eliot was right, April can be cruel as the earth surges towards renewal. I remember being baffled by that concept when first studying the The Waste Land in school. Still, anyone who's experienced a tornado in the south or mid-west, mud season in New England, or, dare I say, allergies in Virginia, knows just how cruel she can be! And yet, the promise of rebirth, courage and renewal remains. It has to. Where else would we be?

oh, boston {still + life}

“There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man.” ~ Alan Paton

On days like this, small things on the scale of life become writ large.

A nice afternoon for a run.
First responders rushing in to help.
Marathoners stopped, quite literally, in their tracks. Thrown off their stride. And then striding to hospitals, offering to give blood.
Hours and miles of training, stopped short.
Runners racing for charity, for friends, for loved ones. A day of jubilation. It should have been.

I'm struck, as always, as I scrolled through some images of the day, the horrible day, at the sight of all the people helping each other, touching each other, holding on to each other. Man's humanity to man. Nothing can take that away.

Weekend recap, April 15

1. Stocking up | 2. Friday night cocktail | 3. Dinner out | 4. Pollen. | 5. Packed up. | 6. "Take me with you, Momma." | 7. Instant relaxation | 8. Home away | 9. Enough food? | 10. Sand art | 11. Walkie Talkie | 12. Pier | 13. Hello, ocean | 14. Shell | 15. New Friend | 16. Options | 17. Home away | 18. Wine in a straw | 19. Bacon wrapped crackers? Yeah, we did it. | 20. Red? | 21. Sunset | 22. - 24. While we were gone | 25. Breakfast | 26. Where we were | 27. On our way back home | 28. Lap time | 29. Work time? | 30. The allergies? They are brutal.

What more is there to say about an amazing weekend getaway than we ate a lot, walked a lot, talked a lot and laughed a lot. Some of us colored our hair (not me), necessitating wine through a straw, and some of us did not. At one point we all started singing along with an 80s song on the iPod and we had to laugh. Would our husbands ever belt it out together to "Total Eclipse of the Heart?"

It was nice to come home though and see my guys again. Poor Callum is miserably unhappy with allergies right now. We watched Amadeaus and cooked out, and I put him to bed with some puffs on his inhaler and Vick's Vapo Rub. I'm hoping he's breathing easier this week. We're busy with work and three baseball games. What do you guys have on tap?