You Spin Me Right Round

Just wait, I have so many more unfunny and unclever "spin" titles to attack the blogosphere with.

So, have I mentioned I love spin class? I absolutely love it. Who knew you could get the equivalent of a runner's high from cycling? That is, after you get over how hard it is, how freakishly much you sweat, having to stare at someone's (usually an old man) ass for an hour, and having to wear shorts with padding in the crotch.

As a semi-related side note that you don't want to know about: Sometimes when I'm cycling, I'll glimpse down without thinking and wonder, "why is my crotch puffy? Is there a man sitting on my lap?" Then I remember, "nope, I'm just wearing padded shorts." Oh yeah... I'm cool.

The best thing about cycling is that while it's hard, anyone can do it (unless maybe you have no legs). Beginners can adjust the gears on their bike to any level of resistance. No one can tell what gear their neighbor is in. So, on a rough day, while the rest of the class is doing an uphill climb on gear 20, I can be sailing along on gear 13 so long as I make sufficient grimacing faces to assure the instructor that I am working as hard as everyone else. And when I feel like I'm dying and the instructor yells "ADD A GEAR!" I can easily waive my hand over the gear level to make it LOOK like I'm adding a gear.

I'm so clever. I know all the tricks.

Because you can never judge, simply by sight, how well anyone else is doing, there is only one way to indicate your elite status as a spinner. Elite status is achieved when you work so hard that sweat continuously drips off your face and forms a nice puddle on the floor. Yes, your performance is judged by your sweat. I love being in an environment where it is totally acceptable to sweat. It makes my life so much better.

Oh and did I mention that in one hour of spinning, I can burn 600 calories?! It's totally amazing! That's like 1.75 donuts, 4 small scoops of vanilla ice cream, 7 oreo cookies, 600 carrots, or one Butterfinger Blizzard.

Turning One {And How She's Changed Me}

Two other little voices joined me in song

All a buzz with excitement 

Movement never ending

While her big, beautiful blue eyes stare

Surprised 

And wondering

What is this?

One whole year 

And I feel much the same, my little Ren

How could you go from this...

To this 

In a mere twelve months?

I should know by now

How fleeting those tiny baby moments are

In a flash they are gone

But your sisters have taught me well, my darling

And I have drunk deep of your newborn scent

I have rocked you longer than necessary

I have found ridiculous joy in rising to nourish you at all hours of the night

In the quiet

Those moments of me and you

It will never come again

But I have learned the error of holding on too tight

Like sand in your hand

If squeezed too tight, it pours out anyway

And you will have missed the joy of feeling it trickle through the fingers of an open palm

I have sought to take in the wonder of each moment

To let it come and go

And to simply thank the God that is good

For snuffy nosed silliness 

And hand phone telephone calls

For clapping happily to every song

And snuggling in to the crook of my neck

For discoveries of sound and voice

And warm, rosy cheeks in the morning.

With you

I have come to terms with the reality that I can't do it all

But I can do something

Each and every day

I can take time to hold you

To roll a ball back and forth

And take turns balancing a toy on our noses

The housework and emails and errands can wait

If only for a minute or two

Because I can't do everything

But I can spend time with you

Thank you, little girl

For slowing your Mama's pace

Reminding me that sweet, simple memories with my babies

Are infinitely more important than a clean toilet

For charming me each and every day

With that grin

And those precious baby rolls

Helping me truly embrace life as Mom

Happy 1st Birthday, Renly!

You are my sunshine!

Sometimes I Live Out A Legal Drama

*Updated to fix the misplaced hyphen in the title (it was driving me crazy!)

I've had some notable deposition experiences in my life. My very first deposition is by far my favorite story. It involves a 6-foot stuffed bear. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried. Plus I have pictures. Although I can't imagine anything topping that, today's deposition was pretty memorable.

Today's deponent was a 70+ year old man. He's your typical ornery, fiesty older gentlemen. But his answers were hilarious. They absolutely did not make sense. For example, if someone would have asked him what color the sky was, he would have answered "square." The other attorneys around the table were looking exasperated, flustered, and impatient. I, on the other hand, was trying very hard to keep a gigantic smile from forming across the surface of my face.

The deposition started out friendly as the elder gentleman flirted with the four of us in the room (all women). By the end of it, he was very offended by all of the questioning and took each question personally. Whenever an attorney raised an objection, he immediately stopped his narrative as emitted rays of icy death from his eyes both of which were partially hidden by his down-turned, silver eyebrows. Each time he gave The Look, I nearly choked on my tongue. At one point, he let out a string of french explitives which he refused to translate into English much to the anger of another attorney and the court reporter. When he wasn't being ornery, he was thickly laying on the charm and sending overtly flirty compliments in my direction.

I was fascinated that I was the only one who found his behavior to be completely hilarious. During the entire deposition I kept thinking, "this could be a scene from The Good Wife."

I love days like today. They remind me why I love practicing law: people. Litigation brings out the most interesting aspects of a person's character. With some people, litigation can be one long, drawn-out cat fight. Or a series of bitch slaps. People can be so childish sometimes, but most especially when they are in an extremely contention situation and thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars are on the line. I absolutely love it. I love it in the same way I love reading obnoxious posts on Facebook or watching people act like the characters in Mean Girls. The flattery of 70+ year old men doesn't hurt either.

by 30!

The big 3-0 is knocking at my door.  That's right my 30th birthday is only 65 days away.  

65 days away people!  

I have told several people over the past year that I want to be in the best shape in my life by 30.  I've done pretty well with keeping track of calories using myfitnesspal.com and training for a half but I've got to be honest - most days I am over my calorie goal and have not eaten as well as I should.  

Today was a wake-up call for me.  When I logged in today, I got a notification, "you've logged in for 100 days in a row!"  My "friends" were praising me but I didn't feel proud.  Yes I've logged in for 100 days, but no I have not done well for 100 days.  I would really hate to go back and count how many of those days I have not made my goals.  

 Well something has to change if I want to be in my "best shape by 30!"  

Since I am a major a visual person I made this chart to put on my fridge.  

After seeing it all laid out I know I have time.  I think I'll do a weekly post on my progress.  This will just help keep me accountable so feel free to ignore.

Do you have a wellness goal you want to set?  What helps you?  I'd be happy to make you a goal chart if you think it'd help.  

The third decade of my life is going to rock...starting with my healthy lifestyle!

{P.S I also bought this yesterday}
Yay for MLK super sales!! 

source:  oldnavy.gap.com
The thought of swimsuit weather and the hopes of a sunny birthday trip are also good for accountability. :)   

Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel {FIAR}

I've been putting off completing this post because it's a long one and I have a lot to say!

Our first week back to school was a good one and we accomplished most of what we set out to do!

It felt so good to be back into the routine of things!

We 'rowed' Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton.

I wasn't so sure how much the girls would enjoy a book about a machine considering they have never showed much interest in such things.

To my surprise, they really enjoyed this book!

It was a really sweet story and provided us with many different topics to talk about!

This week I attempted to put many of Piper's lessons related to the story in a lap book.

I'm hoping this will provide her with a way to show others what she is doing in school and give her a sense of accomplishment in all she does throughout the week.

Day 1:

We talked about steam engines - how they work, why they were such a useful invention and what has since replace them.

Piper was extremely interested in the youtube videos I had to show her.

This one was our favorite:

We also talked about stewardship.

Mike Mulligan took such good care of Mary Anne, his steam shovel, that she could still dig extremely well.

I explained to Piper what good stewardship meant and asked her to think of ways she could be a good steward of her things.

I was going to record her answers for her but she asked me to write them out so she could print them on the paper I had printed for her lapbook.

I wasn't sure she was capable of so much copywork but she surprised me with how well she did!

Day 2:

We talked about personification.

As a visual representation of this literary device I gathered some toys - some with eyes and/or faces painted on them and some without.

I had Piper sort the objects that had been given human qualities from those that had not.

Next, she personified an object herself by giving a flower eyes and a smile.

This was a very basic understanding of the literary device but we eventually moved on to talk about how this also involved giving objects or animals feelings or making them talk.
Throughout the week, Piper began to point out different objects around our home and characters in stories we were reading that had been personified!
Her greatest challenge was pronouncing 'personification'! Haha!

We've also begun to fill out a story map for each of the books that we row.

Day 3:

We did a little art lesson involving trees.

First, we practiced drawing a tree that was seen from further away.

Then we drew one close up that included more detail.

On her own Piper also attempted a pine tree as is found in the mountain scenes of the book!

Day 4: 

Piper learned that squares have 4 equal sides and 4 equal angles.

She went hunting for squares to cut out of a magazine and glued them in her lapbook.

Then both girls worked together to make squares with elastics on their geoboard.

This was a first and they were fascinated with this activity!

Piper was so intrigued by steam engines and how they worked.

I decided to print her off a picture of a train showing a diagram of a steam engine.

I made her a copy of her own to fill in.

I left it with her after a snack as something to work on if she wanted to while a I took a quick shower.

When I came back to the kitchen later on I found this:

Not only had she correctly filled in the train, she had also added a track and trees (like the ones she had learned to draw during our art lesson a few days earlier)!

Needless to say I was very impressed!

This girl just keeps amazing me!!

The girls also had their first experience with Lego!

I had picked up a box of construction vehicle Lego for them knowing that our next two rows were about construction vehicles.

When I opened it, I realized the instructions were far too complicated for my girls.

I figured I could at least put it together and then let them play with the constructed vehicles.

I began to build and wasn't surprised that Tait quickly lost interest and went off to play with something else.

However, Piper stuck right by my side and worked hard to help me piece together aspects of the trucks.

She was so interested and eager to be a part of the constructing process!

I definitely plan to invest in more Lego sets.

It ended up being a really fun thing for her and I to do together and both girls enjoyed playing together with the finished product!

That was our first week of 2013!

It was very full but very rewarding!

And it has been a delight to watch Piper experience new things and tackle new challenges!

Next, we moved on to row Katy and the Big Snow but I'll share that another time!

Mustache LOVE

I know, I'm a bit early but I'm so excited I have to share with y'all!

Below is the valentine card I made for Keeler to give his classmates this year. 

 Coming up with a "cool" valentine for a boy was not easy but oh so fun!!

Yes, he'll probably want to kill me someday but for now he thinks I'm pretty cool.  He loves to watch and help me edit photos.  He dies laughing when we do silly edits to people...like put make-up and princess crowns on daddy!  

He took his guitar to school last week for show-and-tell and all his friends were very impressed.  I think they'll get a kick out of his card.  Now to decide what special treat to attach :)

Child-Colored Lenses

There is this surreal moment when you become a parent when you instantly empathize with your own parents. A flash of insightening (insight + lightening, I'm so clever!) hits you out of nowhere and you suddenly realize, "So, THAT'S why my mom never let me drink a jug of chocolate milk before bed," or "wow, THAT'S how my mom was feeling when I threw my body on the floor like a human grenade and demanded ice cream until I turned blue," and "no WONDER my mom sent me to my room all the time!" When you join the parent club, you magically receive the gift of understanding the plight of parents everywhere, spanning both time and geographic space.

But now that I have a four year old, I'm not just empathizing with my own mom, I'm suddenly empathizing with my son. Because, even though I'm quickly approaching the wisened age of 30 (I just had to go to my happy place, practice meditational breathing, and remind myself that I am only 28 just to recover from the onset of heart palpatations I received from typing that dreaded number), I still remember what it was like to be a kid.

I have two very distinct memories of being completely frustrated with my mom. The first was when I was about five years old. My mom had let my brother and I pick out a bag of candy as a treat for later that evening. We picked a bag of Skittles. When we got home from the grocery store, I really REALLY wanted to eat the Skittles. My mom took them away, put them above the fridge, and told me I had to wait until after dinner. I was furious. I didn't understand why I couldn't have them NOW. Even after my mom tried to use her annoying grown-up logic, I still didn't get what the big deal was. I just knew I HAD to have them. I felt so helpless. Helpless in that I really wanted the candy and didn't know how to refocus my energy (I wanted what I wanted, damn it!) and helpless in that I could not change my mom's mind. That feeling sucked. I sulked and screamed, and whinned, and tantrumed away. She never gave in and I made a loud vow that when I was a mom, I would let my kids eat candy whenever they wanted!

The second memory was when I was about 10 or so. My mom would not let my best friend spend the night on a school night. I remember how desperately I wanted my friend to stay over. I also remember the anger and helplessness I felt as my friend walked out our front door. I had begged and begged and begged for my mom to let her stay. Yet, despite all my wanting, I was powerless to change my mom's mind.

I'm reminded of those horrible feelings of uncontrollable desire, anger, and helplessness when my son throws a tantrum. Usually, it's over something silly and, at first, my grown-up self cannot fathom why Jacob cares so much about drinking his soup with a straw versus the spoon I want him to use. Then I have to travel back through time and try to understand the situation as a kid. Then I'm reminded that he doesn't exactly know why he wants something, he just knows he wants it. And at the age of four, no amount of adult logic can remove his desire.

I'm pretty sure the tantrums are a result of not knowing or understanding how to cope with automatic emotional responses. So, I'm trying to take the tantrums in stride. I try to see Jacob in the context of his childish brain rather than the way my adult self sees him. I don't always succeed. Honestly, when I'm exhausted after a long day of work, I sometimes don't even try. I just promise to do better next time.

BUT I've noticed that when I AM able to see Jacob with the eyes of a child and the wisdom of an adult, he is much sweeter than I give him credit for. Even mid-tantrum.