Hilary

Book-a-licious

DH and I love to read. We’ve got books all over the house in various states of being read. Books on shelves. Books on tables. Books in the bathroom (um, best place in the house to read!).
As a kid, even though I loved to read, I loathed getting books as presents. Bring on the Barbies! Where’s my new bike? I said I wanted the My Little Pony Mermaid Playset! How I enjoyed many a coal-free Christmas is beyond me.
Now that I’ve got two burgeoning bookworms of my own, I’m all about wrapping up books for gift giving occasions. While Morgan is tearing up book after book, Coever is still learning, which means DH and I do our fair share of read-alouds. Despite our trips to the library and our own collection of favorite titles, I’m starting to feel like we’ve read everything we have. Several times. While I’ve picked a few titles to give to the girls for Christmas, there are always some that I forget. I was checking out different websites, thinking I needed to jot down some titles as they came to me when I saw that Chronicle Books is having a “Happy Haulidays“promotion. Bloggers (we’re such a lucky bunch) and their readers can enter to win $500 towards books.
Along with this post, I will (finally) make my wishlist of our most desired kiddie Chronicle Book titles and that constitutes my entry. You can enter by simply commenting on this post. I have yet to win any contests that I enter, but it is the Christmas season and you’ve got to believe in miracles, right?

For them:
Little Books Boxed Set by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Let Freedom Sing by Vanessa Newton
Doodle All Year by Taro Gami
Scribbles: A Really Giant Drawing and Coloring Book by Taro Gami
Walk the Dog: A Parade of Pooches from A to Z by Bob Barner
Don’t Let Auntie Mabel Bless the Table by Vanessa Brantley Newton
Day and Night by Teddy Newton
Mama’s Kiss by Jane Yolen
A Dictionary of Dance by Liz Murphy

For me:
Cake Pops by Bakerella: Tips, Tricks and Recipes for Irresistible Mini Treats by Angie Dudley
Stuff Every Woman Should Know by Alanna Kalb
At a Crossroads: Between a Rock and My Parent’s Place by Kate T. Williamson
Drinking, Smoking and Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times edited by Sara Nickles
Paris Out of Hand: A Wayward Guide by Karen Elizabeth Gordon, with Barbara Hodgson and Nick Bantock
Cheese and Wine: A Guide to Selecting, Pairing and Enjoying by Janet Fletcher
The Wine Lover’s Cookbook: Great Meals for the Perfect Glass of Wine by Sid Goldstein

IN: ON: December 7, 2010 TAGS: books, contest BY: Hilary

Dear Santa. . .

Morgan’s List

If you know what’s good for you, Fat Man, ignore #5.

Coever’s List

(dictation by Mommy)

She got bored by the bottom of the page.

Tough nuts, Daddy.

IN: ON: December 6, 2010 TAGS: holidays, my girls BY: Hilary

A Walk in the Woods

image

I don’t mean I’m going to take a walk. I just like how it looks.

IN: ON: December 6, 2010 TAGS: winter BY: Hilary

Rant

image

I have often read how writers have a designated time of day where they can write without interruption. Writers who work from home have routines whereby they get up, get their families ready and out the door, and then write in blissful, contented silence for the better part of the day. Sounds like nirvana to me. As luck would have it, I have to write when the mood strikes. Even if I had an office in which to lock myself, designating the hours of 9am to 3pm to just write — however delicious that seems — is setting me up for a major fail. If I feel like writing, I write. Of course, that means, if I’m in the middle of washing dishes, I stop, flip up the laptop and go. There can be several pans on the stove, the whites in a for a soak or a cupcake pan that’s only half filled; if I’ve got an idea, everything comes to a crashing halt. I’ve got to write. When I’ve poured out a few paragraph, I pick up at whatever task I’d left off and keep it moving. It’s getting increasingly frustrating to keep up that routine, though.

DH said “Let’s go out,” when he came in from work the other day, but the nuances of life crept up on us. The girls got busy coloring, he got busy surfing the ‘net and I was sifting through mail and magazines. Everyone was occupied, and a little nugget of a potential post started to grow. I put down the mail, fetched the computer and started writing. I was typing furiously. The sun started to set, cars started turning into driveways signaling the return home from the end of another day. Kids playing outside were, one after another, being called in for dinner. Our kitchen was growing dimmer in the fading light.

The kids were still playing. Coever was singing, Morgan was banging on a toy drum. The decibel level was steadily creeping towards 140. I couldn’t write like this. I was making mistakes; I lost my train of thought, jumped back on and was tossed back off. Trying to concentrate was harder than trying to make a left turn into the mall on Black Friday. Suddenly, Morgan announced that she was hungry. Coever chimed in with her constant refrain as well. But guess what?

I wasn’t hungry.

I’d had a big lunch and a Coke Zero in front of me that I had been nursing for the better part of the afternoon.

But my girls were hungry.

But I was writing.

What to do? What to do?

DH was deep into whatever he was doing, his Mac and his work computer like conjoined twins in front of him. My audible sigh went unnoticed (at least I think so). The offer to go out to eat hadn’t been repeated, so I saved my work, shut the laptop, got up, and I. Made. Dinner.

I opened the freezer, the fridge, the pantry and started creating something out of nothing. I had pans going, oil popping, water boiling and within 20 minutes, a very nice dinner.

But I still wasn’t hungry.

I just wanted to finish writing.

DH, bless him, came into the kitchen to ask what he could do to help, just as I got popped in the forehead with some stray oil spatter. Now, I was angry that I had had to stop what I was doing. I was angry that I just got scorched. I’m a woman who will say, “Nothing,” through gritted teeth when asked “What’s wrong?”. So, it should come as no surprise that I was considerably less than polite in my response to him. I just wanted to finish what I started.

Dinner was made, presented lovingly in Tupperware so it could go from table to fridge. No mess, no fuss. I even leapfrogged over the inevitable, “I don’t like this”, and I made Coever a separate dinner of a cheese stick, grapes and turkey slices, just so that she would eat it and we could avoid drama. Yes, I am officially a short order cook.

And now here I am, about to clean up the very dinner I have not even eat because (say it with me) I’m not hungry, and I’m struck by this, this situation. If I’m not hungry, do I still have to cook? If I’m in the middle of something do I still have to get up and wipe a butt? What if I stop mid-sentence and lose the thought, that million-dollar idea, that would make us independently wealthy? I mean, I’ll stop if we’re talking blood and broken bones, but for all the times there’s been a primal yell for me to wipe a nose, tie a shoe, wash some hands, or dress a Barbie? Yes, these formative years and precious moments will be behind me before I realize, but in the here and now, the very moment in which I’m living . . .I. Just.Want.To.Finish.My.

Hang on, somone’s calling me.

IN: ON: December 1, 2010 TAGS: life, motherhood, nerves BY: Hilary

Tell Me How You Really Feel

Sunday afternoon of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Reactions to learning Monday was a school day.

If those lips were poked out any further, they’d trip over them when they walked.

IN: ON: November 29, 2010 TAGS: holidays, week-end BY: Hilary

A Little Pre-Christmas Cheer

With Thanksgiving all but here, Christmas and its associated preparations are not that far behind. As a matter of fact, Christmas stuff was available for purchase a few days before Halloween. I had been at Target trying to wrap my mind around the fact that another holiday season was up on us when I spotted these:

Guess who?

Holiday cards have definitely been on the brain. The girls Christmas dresses are in pre-production, and I hope they will be delivered in time for me to get them photographed for our annual card. I opened our Christmas addressee list from last year and found myself adding names to our already multi-paged document. The prospect of the Christmas card assembly line (cards, envelopes, stamps, return address labels, address labels, stuffing, and licking) already makes my blood pressure spike, but I always look forward to the satisfaction that comes with slipping the wad of cards into the mailbox.

I was reading the latest issue of Real Simple magazine the other day and the etiquette dilemma of the month was the following:

In a world with constant Facebook updates, isn’t the ritual of sending holiday cards obsolete?

It was like the magazine had been reading my mind! Seriously! When I uploaded the photos of the girls in their Halloween costumes, part of me thought, “Crap! Now what am I going to put on the Christmas card?! Everyone’s already seen this.” In our everyday goings on, don’t we bombard one another with every hiccup, burp and fart by way of photo, YouTube link or Foursquare update? We could save ourselves a whole bunch of time, effort, and potential fatal envelope residue poisoning by just uploading/Tweeting/list-serving, right?

I thought about skipping the cards altogether for some pretty practical reasons — cost, cost, and cost. We are in a recession, right? What about “going green”? Maybe I can just send out an e-card and save time, money and trees. The etiquette expert in Real Simple was of a similar mindset, until her spouse asked her what other time honored rituals she was going to axe next (Trick-or-treating? Hunting for Easter Eggs?). Couple that with a dear friend of mine who is living abroad this year, imploring her friends to send her holiday greeting so that she can decorate her home with the smiling faces of the friends and family she’s left behind. Who can say “no” to a request like that?

Truth be told, I love getting Christmas cards, too. Instead of draping my mantel with garlands of greenery, I tape up the Christmas cards we’ve received **koff, koff** so get up off a card**koff,koff*.

The final ~~paper cut~~ straw came as I was reading the newest blog posts from my blogroll. I’m not the only one thinking about Christmas, cards, and holiday greetings. As it turns out, over at Little Page Turners, they’ve got Christmas cards on the brain and are carrying the banner for the return to the Christmas card by touting Shutterfly’s blogger promotion for 50 free holiday cards.

What the what?!

Awww, yeah. Shutterfly is currently offering bloggers a 2010 Holiday Card collection promotion. Click here to learn how you can contribute and receive 50 free holiday cards. We’ve used Shutterfly in the past for our Christmas cards((http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards), so I can say that they’ve got a great selection of templates, sizes, and options for whatever you would like your holiday card to convey. We usually go with a photo or several of the girls — really, y’all don’t want to see my smiling face year after year — after our pilgrimage to the Picture Peeps or Portrait Innovations. This year, I’m going to do it myself. I’ve got a few ideas in mind, but barring that, you may see some photos that already debuted on Facebook.

Just act surprised when you open the envelope.