Category Archives for Family

7 Days Left (now 6) – What, me worry?

I always have so much on my plate that I’ve developed a coping mechanism to save my sanity, which involves focusing on only the task that will have a major negative impact if I don’t complete it.  The only things I manage to get done are the things that would result in being fired, served with a warrant, causing someone’s death, initiating financial collapse or foreclosure, or named the worst mom in the history of moms.  Each day there are to-do list items that fit into those categories – if I don’t do this, the results will be catastrophic, or at least humiliating.

I haven’t always been this way.  I used to be proactive and organized.  I made lists that I actually checked things off of.  They were to-do lists, not wish-i-could-do lists.  I knew where to find every item I owned, instead of running out to buy another one because I don’t have a clue.  I was on-time with birthday gifts.  I did crafts.  CRAFTS!  I cleaned – I even washed windows!  Now I’m lucky if I can keep most of the vermin away.

I feel like at this point – less than 1 week until departure (FOR A MONTH which is a really long time if you think about it), I should be starting to ramp up the preparations.  But I haven’t quite reached that critical point yet – lately it’s not uncommon for me to be doing laundry at 2 a.m. with a business trip commencing at 6 a.m.  I have passports, plane tickets, and immunizations – those would fit into the catastrophic category by now.  The balls will be here Tuesday and the miscellaneous items (except the new culotte slip!) have arrived.  I have the shuttle lined up to take us from the airport in Queretaro to SMA – I actually felt a little proactive doing that a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t want to forget.

I put the preparations aside this weekend because my bestie Sherry and her daughter Hannah were here and last night was the Annual Fool in the Pool bash.  So making sure Adlani had underwear packed became less critical than hiding all of the clutter and baking rum cakes.  If I showed up at the party without a rum cake the results could have been catastrophic.  Yesterday we went on a tour of Harvard to see if Hannah might want to apply…it was AMAZING!  The pool party was a big success on the LG Evaluation Scale which includes scoring in the categories of food, drinks, spontaneous nudity, laughter-induced peeing, and memorable moments to be rehashed the next day.

I had planned to get some hardcore packing done today but after some college drive-bys we ended up back at the Ce-Ment Pond and now I’m working on laundry, laundry, and more laundry.  It is now officially crunch-time so I expect to get A LOT done this week.

Here’s Norah at the Ce-Ment Pond today, waiting out a rainstorm.  Good practice for visiting Mexico during the rainy season!

 

9 Days Left, and 9 Necessities from Amazon

Thank goodness for Amazon Prime.  With only 9 days left until we fly away, we have come up with a few things to add to the packing list and no time to hunt around for them locally.  It’s almost magical to wake up during the night in a cold sweat because I just thought of something we can’t live without, order it via my iPhone app, and have a random assortment of items show up on my doorstep 2 days later.  How do they do that?  Here are my 9 necessities:

Mini Speakers – We will have an embarrassing amount of electronic devices – e-readers, iPads, a Nintendo 3DS, and at least one computer.  As much as I want to be the mom who leads a rousing sing-a-long of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, I’m not.  There are some times when in order to keep everyone alive I need them to go watch a movie or play a game – educational of course.  I’ve told them that all devices will switch to Spanish when we cross the border, so at least they’ll be practicing their español.  But when two or more kids are trying to watch a movie on an iPad, we needed an external speaker so they don’t have to fight over proximity to the tiny sound hole.  So one of my most favorite Amazon items is the set of 2 tiny speakers that recharge via the USB, and provide amazing sound quality!  I love them!

Ball Bag – Yes, although we live less than a mile from 3 or 4 sources of soccer ball bags, I added them to my Amazon cart and saved myself a trip.  I can’t wait to bag up our balls and take them to the orphanages.  We ended up with 10 balls – all sponsored by various families.  I’ll definitely post photos so you can see how much the kids love them!

Underwear – While I was able to find A LOT of underwear for the orphanage on super-sale at Children’s Place, we had to supplement for the larger sizes.  The girls range in age from 3 to 19, with a 31YO mentally disabled girl too, so I’m assuming that some may need women’s sizes.  I think we’ve got enough to accommodate everyone…who doesn’t love getting new undies??

Culotte Slip – When we had our madres trip to New York City in the 95-degree heat, I had enough experience with the Moroccan heat to pack my trusty culotte slip.  I decided to add a shorter version to the Mexican packing list, and I found it in 2 seconds on Amazon, rather than spending hours traipsing around the ‘Ham in search of chafe-protection that didn’t involve “shapewear” (AKA garment that leaves you unable to breathe and causes you to contract a UTI because you’re so hesitant to pull it down in case you can’t get it back up).

Metamucil Wafers – Again, my Moroccan experience (and a sleepover with Aliya’s friend Victoria) taught me that these little magic cookies can reverse the gastrointestinal effects of an all-Mexican diet.  Enough on that, but I ordered a 2-pack.  They work!

Raincoats – There must be like a 2-week window in the spring when the stores are stocked up on raincoats, because it hasn’t been easy to find light-weight but waterproof raincoats for the kids.  It’s the rainy season in SMA, which basically means a short shower or 2 each day (we hope).  Our friends’ parents (I’ll just call them John and Carolyn because those are their names) told us that Mexicans don’t carry umbrellas…they just step into a doorway until the rain stops.  I LOVE the idea that the rain isn’t going to keep us home, and we have the free time to stop and watch the rain, and maybe chat with other doorway-dwellers in my mangled Spanish.

Thermometer – I think our old thermometer was used to measure the temperature of a science experiment, so I threw one on the Amazon order.  I’m hoping that we won’t need it, but just in case, we have Pepto-Bismol, Immodium, Motrin (adult and children’s), Benadryl, and antibiotics from the pediatrician.  The pharmacy doesn’t mix the distilled water and powder, so we don’t have to refrigerate them until we need them.  This worked well for past trips.  We are all up to date on our shots – Hepatitis A & B, Typhoid, Tetanus, and the other typical US shots.  The only time I’ve really gotten sick is after drinking a frozen drink in Zanzibar.  That was ugly.  We’re hoping for a doctor-free trip to Mexico, although this article almost makes me want to schedule a house call from Dr. Gorgeous.

Headlamp – Call me crazy but I always carry a headlamp with me, and mine recently resurfaced without a strap.  I may look like a coal miner, but I can use it to read, crochet, tip-toe to the tequila cabinet without waking the children, and lead us safely through the cobblestone streets after a Mexican fiesta.

Doors of San Miguel de Allende – Last year I took lots of door photos in Morocco and posted them on my work blog (www.iDigHardware.com).  The editor of Doors & Hardware magazine asked to publish them as a photo essay, and it came out great!  So imagine my excitement when I found out that San Miguel is know for its beautiful doors!!!  There’s even a book about them, which I purchased in used condition via Amazon for literally 1 cent plus $3.99 shipping.  I have another photo essay lined up with the magazine, and I can’t wait to get started!

I’m hoping that my purchases are complete…gotta save some pesos to buy a wardrobe of flowered skirts and a sombrero.

Countdown to Mexico!!!

Right around January 1st I received an email about our friends’ parents house for rent in Mexico, and it seemed like a sign.  Yes, I think lots of things are signs.  The email was sent to A LOT of people and most of them didn’t decide on the spot to go to Mexico, but I’m easily influenced.  I immediately put the wheels in motion to rent the house for 4 weeks, and work remotely while also taking some vacation time.  The departure date seemed so far away…now it’s 10 DAYS until we will be south of the border!!!

Ben can’t work remotely or take 4 weeks off, so we will be spending the first 2 weeks with my friend Elizabeth and her twin daughters, Chloe and Hannah, who coincidentally are Aliya’s best friends.  I can’t imagine being 11 years old and spending 2 weeks in Mexico with my best friends (plus 2 more weeks after that for Aliiya).  I don’t think they know how lucky they are.  When they fly home, Ben will fly down and spend the last 2 weeks with us.

Given all of the bad news about Mexico in the media lately, a few people have asked why in the world we would go there, whether we’ll be safe, etc.  The answer is YES, we’ll be safe!  I met some people from Mexico the other day and they told me that San Miguel de Allende is “muy tranquilo”.  The areas of Mexico that are experiencing the violence and drug problems are not near SMA.  We don’t expect any problems but we’ll be cautious as always.  While trying to put mom’s mind at ease, I found this article – Top Ten Most Dangerous Things in San Miguel.  The list includes accidentally talking to a Republican, fallen seniors who have tripped on the cobblestone streets, and wine bottles clinking together in the trunk of the taxi.  No doubt we’ll come up with our own Top-10 list – we’ve already been warned about the drunk shopping…when you wake up in the morning and wonder how in the h*ll you’re going to get that giant piece of Mexican art home (thank you Priscilla!).

On Monday morning I told Norah that we had 12 more days and I felt that little flutter of panic that I get when I’m still doing laundry at 3 a.m. and leaving on a 9 a.m. flight.  So in hopes of some stress-relief we started getting organized and doing a little packing.  The kids and I already have our 4 pairs of matching socks ready to go into the duffle.  We are allowed one 50-pound bag each, and just like when we go to Morocco, a lot of what we bring will be staying there.  When I visit someplace I like to leave some sort of positive mark and teach the kids something, so on this trip we will be bringing supplies to a girls’ orphanage and doing some “social volunteering” (aka playing and visiting).

We’re bringing school supplies, soccer balls, and 270 pairs of underwear!  Here’s Norah sorting and packing the undies:

The soccer balls that we’re taking are really cool – they’re indestructible and they don’t need a pump.  We will be taking 10 balls with us, so we’ll have enough for the girls orphanage and also the boys orphanage!  If you’d like to sponsor a ball for $25, let me know!  Here’s a great story about the balls from the One World Futbal Project:

There’s more information about SMA, along with photos of “our” house on the SMA page.  I’ll try to do a good job of keeping up with my postings, for anyone who wants to travel to Mexico vicariously.  😀

 

Berry Pickin

One of the best things about my job is the flexibility – I can work from anywhere, and pretty much any time.  I work A LOT of hours so there’s really no question about whether I’m working enough to earn my keep.  The kids start a 2-week stint at camp next week, followed by some time working from my remote office – in Mexico!  But this week I’m WWK – Working With Kids, so I decided it would be cooler and also a change of scenery if we spent the week at our cottage.  When it rains that means that we are crammed into 600  square feet instead of having almost 5 times that to spread out and get away from each other, but I’m a weather-optimist.

WWK usually involves me working from early in the morning until 11ish, then taking the kids on a mid-day “adventure”, and then working until late at night.  Today, despite the rain, our adventure was strawberry picking at Charlton Orchards Farm and Winery.  I’ve dropped the ball on my parental duties here…this was their first time picking berries of any kind.  For the record, they HAVE picked apples.

Then we hit the grocery store (I swear, it’s hardly more expensive to eat out), drove home while debating the feasibility of sponsoring a beaver through Heifer International (Adlani’s choice because it would allow a family to cut down trees without the environmental impacts of manufacturing an ax), and then broke up a dog fight when one of the neighborhood dogs came into the house, continued Annie’s progress on her rawhide bone, and then got mad when she came to see what was up.  That got the adrenaline pumping.  Hopefully they’re all headed for a crash now so I can get a few hours of work done before our giant strawberry shortcake feast.

And I almost forgot…as we were driving along at 50 MPH, I saw a guy taking a photo of something and immediately recognized that it was a luna moth.  When we went back to check it out (the kids had never seen one), there were two!  Very cool.  They were both males.  The females have slightly darker markings and fancier bottom parts on their wings.

February Staycation – Days 4-5

The educational / cultural odyssey continues!  After musical theater on Saturday, science on Sunday, and politics and history on Monday, Tuesday we headed to the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester.  The armor was amazing!  Even Adlani liked the weapons, and Norah loved the shield-creating activity.  We all agreed that the best part was the presentation about armor and weapons.  Aliya and Adlani got to be part of it!

Wednesday I had some work calls scheduled, so Norah had a play date and Aliya and Adlani went to Roller Kingdom to skate.  I’ve heard there are photos and even a video of that outing, which I will add later.  Here is Norah preparing for her play date.  Independence comes at a price.  But at least the dog was happy.