Category: Sunday Contentments

Last Friday, I had one perfect moment of nostalgia.

I was in the pool at the YMCA, taking my regular water aerobics class, when I saw a woman and a small child come into the pool. The child was a perfect chubby little three-year-old girl, with pigtails and a fishy print bathing suit, and she toddled around on her perfect chubby little legs with her mother trotting after her. They got into the pool together and the mother held onto the little girl and carried her around in the water, hoisting her up into the air and bringing her down with a splash, or standing at the side of the pool and helping her child jump into the water.

As I watched them, I was suddenly taken back four years, to a time when it was just me and Princess, and once a week I would bring her royal chubbiness to the pool to splash around just like that. Looking back, things seemed a lot simpler then, even though I know they weren’t. But still, those memories have a golden haze to them as a perfect time in my life.

I haven’t taken Pixie to the pool as much, due to scheduling conflicts. You’d be amazed at how busy a three-year-old’s life can be, as well as my own. But I’ve made some changes recently to free up our Wednesday mornings, and I’m thinking that this Wednesday, I’ll bring my own perfectly chubby little three-year-old to the pool so that she and I can splash around and make a few nostalgic moments that I can enjoy years down the line.

Enjoy your Sunday, folks.

My apologies for missing last Sunday’s blog post, but we were in DC to celebrate my mother-in-law’s/Princess’/my birthday that weekend, and Princess and I were sick on top of all that. Yes, we had a lot of fun on that trip 😉

But now we’re all home and I’m content to sit on the couch and contemplate what’s currently going on in my life. And what’s currently going on is my budding new love affair…

With my local hardware store.

You have no idea how giddy and excited I am right now. Yesterday, after taking the kids to swim class, I headed to the post office to mail a couple packages. Post office was closed, unfortunately, but rather than declare the trip a bust, I decided to visit the nearby hardware store. It’s a Taylor’s DIY store, far smaller than Lowe’s or HQ, and I wasn’t expecting much from it, but when I pulled into the parking lot, I felt the first blush of attraction.

You see, the girls and I just planted seeds last week, in preparation to start this year’s container garden, and I’d been thinking about buying compost instead of potting soil, but wasn’t sure where I could easily get some. Well, there in the parking lot of Taylor’s was several bags of the stuff, along with bags of peat moss and vermiculite and other garden goodies. “Yes!” I thought. “Here’s a place where I can get exactly what I need for this year’s herbs and veggies, and maybe this time we’ll have a shot at harvesting more than two tiny shriveled tomatoes!”

Then I walked inside the store, and that was when I really fell in love. The place was clean and well lit, and I could clearly see the signs for where everything was. This place was not a massive, monumental maze of confusion like Lowe’s or HQ. It was small, tidy, and well organized. And it had staff! Helpful friendly staff! The girls and I weren’t even in the store two minutes before someone asked if they could help up find anything. And as soon as someone noticed I was in the store with a couple of antsy kids, a clerk headed over to the old-fashioned popcorn cart and started heating up a batch of fresh popcorn! I got to spend 45 minutes wandering through the entire store while the girls happily munched on popcorn!! There was no whining, no fussing, no arguing; just the quite munch-munch of two little girls happily devouring large bags of free popcorn!

And if that wasn’t enough to seal the deal on my undying love, Taylor’s had a very nice selection of stuff I actually would use, like heirloom vegetable seeds and bird feeders and gardening tools and pots. Lots of nice pots at very reasonable prices for my small container garden. I drooled my way through the store, smiling happily at the clerks who showed up every ten minutes to ask if I needed help or more popcorn. I left with a bag of dried corn cobs and a squirrel feeder to put them in, but I made plans to come back soon, very soon, with a long list of must-have items for my garden.

It’s crazy, I know. I’m hopeless as a gardener, and an even worse do-it-yourselfer, but being in that store with all those helpful friendly clerks and actually being able to find stuff made me feel like I could do anything! Or at least made me feel like I could tackle a few simple home projects this Spring and Summer and come out with half-decent results.

Where is this crazy new love affair headed, you ask? What will the results be? Here are the results I’m hoping for:

• A bigger, nicer container garden that produces plenty of herbs and even a few heirloom veggies!
• Pixie’s clunky old cargo box bed disassembled, sanded down, and painted a lovely shade of girly pink with little blue flowers and dragonflies on it.
• A small bookcase to fit in my master bathroom, so I finally have someplace nice to store all those books and magazines I like to read while I’m in the tub.
• Maybe even re-finish a few pieces of the old cargo box furniture in our living room to give the whole room a new look!

And so on and so on. I’ve got a list of home improvement and redecorating projects as long as my arm, and I’m just dying to get to work on them. Now that I’ve discovered my local hardware store, I think I might actually have a shot. Though to be really successful, I may need to expand this relationship. You know, make it a threesome? I hear there’s a very attractive fabric store in our area…

Today has not gone at all as I would have liked, so I’m doing my best just to roll with it. I should know by now that the entire month of February is going to be totally F’ed up and just deal, yet somehow this month always catches me by surprise. In February, la casa de Madden has…

• Valentine’s Day
• Princess’ birthday
• My birthday
• My mother-in-law’s birthday
• My trip to the Farpoint science fiction convention
• And the ever popular 100th day of school project for Princess

We did manage to stave off some stress by not having a big party for Princess. However, we are going up to DC for my MIL’s birthday. So actually, we haven’t reduced stress at all on the birthday front. Princess’ 100th Day project got out the door in plenty of time and she received a good grade on it, but I’m juggling work and other responsibilities like nobody’s business.

Oh, and did I mention I just found out yesterday that my sister is in the hospital? She’s doing fine, but I may or may not end up flying up there to help out, depending on how things go.

But for now, it’s Sunday afternoon. Princess had dinner out for her birthday, and received more presents than I can shake a stick at. I can tell she’s gotten older because she’s developing an attitude. Even so, I love the little twerp. It wasn’t that long ago I was going into the hospital for a c-section and wondering what was going to come out in the end. A very bald, very fussy baby is what I got. And I miss having that baby, and the one that followed, because babies don’t usually talk back when you tell them to pick up their stuff or you’ll throw it out.

But the joys of a seven-year-old are many. This morning Princess described some birds that she had seen in the backyard. Birding is our latest hobby. Hubster gave me binoculars for Valentine’s Day, and no I’ve not been using them to spy on the neighbors, you perverts. I’ve been watching the birds in my backyard. Thanks to my nifty new binoculars, I can now identify house finches, dark-eyed juncos, cardinals, American gold finches, black-capped chickadees, blue jays, tufted tit-mice and a few other species. It’s fascinating to just sit at my dining room window and watch the action going on at my bird feeder. I love to spend lunch nibbling on a sandwich and watching the birds. It’s calm and very quiet, and I obviously need a little calm and quiet right now.

I’m going to go on with the remains of my day as peacefully as I can. I have stories to critique, laundry to wash and fold, and a podcast to edit. One day, I’ll clear some of this work off my plate and be able to relax a bit more. Until then, I enjoy my day as best as I can. I hope you enjoy yours as well.

Well, we are not nearly as snowed in today as we were last week, which is good because last week I was starting to get some serious cabin fever. Being locked in the house with two squabbling children for four days straight was enough to send me running to my mammogram on Tuesday morning. I was willing to do anything, ANYTHING, to get out of the house for a bit.

But now we’re back to Sunday and all is peaceful and quiet. I’ve been up working since 5AM and am not too tired. This week’s podcast is already out the door, and this morning’s workout is done and over with. I’ve got a full day ahead of cooking, cleaning, and crafting. Oh, and Super Bowl. Must not forget Super Bowl.

To be honest, I am not a fan of football. I sat through more games than I care to remember, thanks to my years spent in school marching bands and the VTCC. In fact, my freshman year at Virginia Tech was the year after the football team had been caught in some sort of recruiting scandal, so the school was banned from recruiting for 4 years, starting that year. Let me tell you, if there is one thing that is worse than watching football, it’s watching football being played by a team that has no chance in hell of winning due to a lack of star quality players. And the only thing worse than that is having to sit out in the frickin’ snow, in a painfully uncomfortable uniform and being ordered to cheer your team to victory, because if the Hokies lose this game, your weekend pass will be revoked. And it always was revoked, thanks to that recruiting ban and the resulting lack of star quality players.

So I have no great love for football, but I do love cozy afternoons at home with the family and I do love to eat, and the Super Bowl actually provides me with an excuse for both. I plan to get all my chores and cooking done early today so I can spend the afternoon in the living room with the Hubster and kids, ignoring the game while I crochet and sew with Princess and Pixie. Hubster picked up all sorts of hors d’oeuvres and I’ll be baking a fruit pie for dessert. I may even knock out some work while we watch the game. I’ve got some articles to get done, and that won’t take long. Yes folks, I think a lazy yet productive Sunday will be enjoyed in la Casa de Madden today.

Whoever you’re rooting for, I hope you enjoy the game. And if, like me, you can’t stand the sport, you can always watch the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet instead of the big game. I hear this year they have bunny cheerleaders!

I had the best day yesterday, probably the most relaxing day I’ve had in a long time. On Friday, the weather forecast was calling for 6-12 inches of snow, starting in the middle of the night and continuing all through the next day. That forecast did not disappoint. We rarely get that much snow in this area, and I decided to use it as an excuse to really truly blow off all work and just do stuff with the family and take some time for myself. Here’s a list of what we did yesterday…

• Ate breakfast. The night before it started snowing, I set up the slow cooker to bake my favorite breakfast casserole. Breakfast was hot and ready when we came downstairs to eat. I read the paper, ate my breakfast, drank my coffee and in general eased my way through the morning.
• Took a short walk in the snow. It was coming down in stinging particles, with the wind whipping it into our eyes and faces, so we couldn’t stay out for long, but we did get out. It’s amazing how beautiful and quiet our neighborhood is when it’s being buried by that magical white stuff.
  
• Watched the birds in our backyard. I’ve been lax about filling the bird feeder. After a while of it hanging empty, I filled it on Thursday. Yesterday, that bird feeder was obviously the place to be. We had a few species of birds I hadn’t seen before, migratory birds that swarmed in along with the usual cardinals, doves, and chickadees. I must have spent an hour or so sitting at the back window with my birding book trying to figure out which species were there. Finally caught a glimpse of a spread tail and realized we had slat-colored dark-eyed juncos. And I was thrilled to figure this out!
• Baked pie with the girls. I hit the grocery store when I heard the forecast and bought a pre-made crust and some fruit. We made our own filling, laid the crust in a pie pan and had the most delicious pie later that evening. This is something I need to do more often. I love fruit pies!
• 
  Who wants pie?!
  
  
• Read to Princess about Egyptian, Greek, and Norse mythology. Princess loves anything to do with Egypt. She read to me a bit from a book on mummies her grandparents bought her for Christmas. When she got to the myth of Isis and Osiris, I pulled out an old book on mythology I had from when I was young and we went through the story together. Then we got into Greek myths and the story of Ragnarok and Asgard. Honestly, I don’t think I could have found a better way to spend that time.
• Took a hot bath. I poured myself a cup of wine, grabbed a small snack, and soaked in the tub for the better part of an hour. I try to do this once a week. When it’s freezing cold outside, it’s an even better treat than usual.
• Sewed and did crafts with the kids. I’m teaching Princess to sew. Pixie is too little still, so I gave her a bunch of beads and some chenille stems to string them on. She made lots of little bracelets while Princess worked on a hand-sewn doll and I crocheted a ninja. It was quiet, it was interactive, and again, I couldn’t have found a better way to spend my time.
• Did a little writing. For once, I had time to clean up my story for the week before sending it to the writers’ group. It was probably the cleanest draft I’ve sent to ERWA in a while. I wish I could spent more time polishing that first draft. I love to write, but I really dig rewriting. I may carve a little time out of my schedule to do just that.
• Played video games. I don’t normally play video games. I can’t play when the kids are up, because they get sucked in and won’t do anything else, or else they’ll want to take over the game from me. I have this single player game for the Wii, Rune Factory Frontier, that’s just my speed. A little monster fighting, a little farming, lots of interacting with other characters, a mystery to solve, and if my character runs out of hit points, he doesn’t die, he just ends up in the village hospital. I can hang with this game, and I did last night for FOUR HOURS STRAIGHT. You have no idea how much I enjoyed doing that.

All in all, it was a nice, quiet day. Now I’m spending today doing a little work while Hubster shovels the driveway and the kids run amok in the yard. In a while, I’ll head out for another walk through our neighborhood, just so I can enjoy the peace and quiet and freezing cold, then come back in, grab a cup of cocoa, and sit down to do some more work. It’s work I love, graphics and writing, and I can do it all on the couch today, so you better believe that today I am very, truly content.

I hope you all had as nice a weekend, if not better. Take care!