The Odyssey

Here's a typical day in my life. I woke up at the usual time and got the kids up. We actually started off pretty well and Annika finished her breakfast a few minutes early so she offered to help me pack lunches. We were all in good moods and joking around with each other. I happened to glance at the clock and my stomach flip-flopped when I saw that the time was 7:17.  We're supposed to be walking by 7:17! They started stuffing things into their backpacks and we all threw on shoes and coats and ran for the car. When the garage door opened and I saw Dwight's car blocking my car, I should have realized that was a sign of the day I was about to have. We quick jumped out of my car and into his car and fortunately I did manage to get them to the bus before it left.

A few hours later we had a small playdate mishap. Kiersten's friend got a little homesick but we couldn't reach her mom (which was very understandable since her mom had been sick). I managed to cheer her up but when it came time for the bus, I immediately realized that wasn't going to work. Her friend typically drives to school and today was not going to be a good day for a change in routine. So we all jumped into the car to head for school.  The only hitch was that Kardynn's buddy was supposed to be headed to our house before we would get back from driving the other two girls to school. But that was nothing a quick phone call couldn't solve. I got a little mixed up about the new plan with Kardynn's buddy, which resulted in us being a little late driving to elementary school. Fortunately we made it before they closed the "pony express doors"...but it was close.

By this point we were in a rut and it's not surprise we were also a little on the late side getting to preschool. But we managed to make it in time for car line. I picked up my friend for lunch. Before we actually made it out to eat, we had a little adventure at her son's school but it seemed quite eventful after the crazy morning.

Oh...and did I mention that all morning I had also been exchanging phone calls and e-mails with friends about a) the possibility of a Van Halen concert this evening b) going to the gym tomorrow morning at 5:30 am and c) having a wrap-up party with my Odyssey of the Mind kids either at 3pm or 4 pm in the afternoon?!

After a very nice and relaxed lunch with my friend, I drove her back home and then ran to pick up some paint swatches at Home Depot and some cupcakes for the now-confirmed 4 pm OoTM party. I did feel quite lucky when I got back into the car just as big, fat raindrops were starting to fall.

I drove to the bus stop and picked up my kids.  We went home so that I could order pizza for the party and so that they could drop off their backpacks.  As we all piled back into the car to pick up Kardynn, Annika said, "Mom, shouldn't you take your umbrella? It's raining. What if we run out of gas?"  I assured her we would not run out of gas and we set off for preschool.

We got about 3 minutes from my house when the car suddenly started making crazy noises.  It sounded like we'd gotten something caught under the car. I immediately thought that we must have run over a branch or something although it was odd because I hadn't seen anything in the road. But I pulled over to check.  I was concerned when the noise didn't stop when the car did.  So I turned off the engine and immediately called my husband.

Then came another flurry of phone calls.  I called the preschool to let them know that I was going to have to find someone else to pick up the kids and that person would likely be late. I called the mom of our preschool buddy to see if she could pick up the kids. I called my neighbor to see if she could pick up the pizzas that were due to arrive at my house. I called all the OoTM parents to let them know that the party was now off. Dwight arrived and called a friend to get suggestions on where to take the car. I called the Honda Dealership. We called a tow truck company. I called Papa Johns to ask them if they could deliver the pizzas to my neighbor's house. And so on and so forth.  I think you get the idea. While we were waiting for the tow truck I went to pick up Kardynn and we got back to the car just in time to follow it to the Honda dealership.

I believe it's the the drive belt that was starting to fall apart but I'll know more tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for me!  Oh, and I also thought it was interesting that not a soul stopped to ask if everything was okay. I was crawling around on all fours in the rain and car after car just cruised on pass.  At one point cars started lining up for a bus but no one so much as rolled down a window. Personally I would definitely ask someone if everything was okay but I've been told many times that I don't quite fit in here so I guess those people might have been on to something.

I wish I could say this was unusual but you know what, two days ago I was posting about getting glurch out of my carpet so I think this is just how it's going to be for a while. *sigh* And now I'm off to send an e-mail to Oskar's teacher to explain how Oskar's homework ended up in the back of a minivan which is now sitting in a parking lot at the Honda dealership.

Check out the pretty rainbow in the background.  I really hoped that was a good omen, at that point.

Glurch vs. Vinegar

The other day my daughter brought home "glurch" from preschool.  You might know it as oobleck or slime or flubber or gloop or goop and countless other names, no doubt. If you didn't already know what I'm talking about, you can probably get a pretty good visual from those various names!  Specifically, this glurch was a mixture of glue, borax and food coloring.  The kids love it but as you can imagine, I've always been a leery.  It just seems like that glurch could do some damage.

So when my daughter brought home her glurch, I was a little paranoid and kept close tabs on it.  But I did let her play with it a little bit, at the table.  Unfortunately, when I went away for the weekend, I never thought to mention to my husband that there was a dangerous item within her reach...a rookie mistake...and a mistake I would pay for.

Within minutes of returning home yesterday evening, the kids informed me that the glurch had made a bit of a mess.  As it turns out, there was a large stain in the family room and an even nastier stain in my daughter's bedroom.  To give you perspective, here's a picture of part of the mess in my daughter's room.  It might look wet in the photo but that's dried glue, folks - crusty and solid...and blue.

I was not happy. 

After a quick Internet search, I discovered that supposedly vinegar would dissolve the glurch.  The stain on Annika's floor was pretty bad.  Could the vinegar actually get that stuff out?!

I hauled my supplies up to Annika's room: vinegar, a paper towel, my stiff brush and the steam cleaner. I poured the vinegar onto the paper towel and let it sit for a bit.  I'm not sure how many days the glurch had been there but I'm guessing it was a few.

 

The vinegar helped a little but there was still a lot of crusty glurch - particularly around the edges.  So I just went for it and poured the vinegar out of the bottle onto the stain and this time I let it sit for even longer.

Unfortunately I think the borax bleached the carpet.  Or maybe the borax and the bleach sitting together for a while bleached the carpet.  I can't tell if the pink was already there in the previous pictures.  I don't see any pink but there was a lot more glurch on the ground too.  Who knows?  But one this *is* for sure and that's that the glurch is definitely dissolving.

I poured more vinegar onto the remaining glurch areas. Several times I poured water from that cup, as well.  I also used my stiff wire brush.

On a side note, it is *quite* satifsying to see the water getting sucked out of your carpet by your steam cleaner.  A little bonus tip here: if you're going to be crazy enough to have lots of children and white carpets, then a steam cleaner is a must.  Although in my defense, when we settled upon the color of these carpets, we had no children.  Now I would totally know to get some sort of multi-colored, speckled carpet! *hehe*

I vastly prefer this stain to the original one.  I'm still bummed that her carpet got stained at all but these things happen when you have kids.  I think maybe if I could have gotten to the stain right away, the carpet wouldn't have gotten bleached.

In the end, I declare vinegar the winner, wouldn't you agree? Oh, and if you were wondering about the stain in the family room - it's completely gone.  I never thought to take before pictures but there's no trace of it now.  Yippee!

Jan 27

20120127-HPE_0564, originally uploaded by hezro.

Today did not start well. We got off to a late start. I knew we were cutting it close with the school bus. The kids jumped in the car and sure enough, we saw the bus leaving as we pulled out of our driveway. Ugh. I missed the school bus...for the third time in as many months. Luckily for me, I can take a short cut and actually beat the bus to the next stop. 

After I dropped off the kids off, I pulled back out and followed the bus for a minute before returning to my short cut. (Note to self, if I'm ever really, super late, I actually have one more opportunity to catch the bus. And I would be lying if I tried to pretend that this wild idea didn't just race through my head: we could *always* drive to that stop and it would probably buy me an extra five...or maybe even ten minutes every morning.) Anyway, here I am, following the bus, after having safely deposited my children on it. And because I'm a sucker for wet pavement and big, brooding clouds, I just happened to have my camera with me.

When I got home, I got a lot done but before I knew it, it was time to rush to the gym for my masters swim class. I actually had a pretty good swim.  Right now I'm focused on improving my rotation.  Last week it was steep and deep.  The week before that it was a 2:3 breathing pattern.  Who knew swimming was this complicated?!  Ha!  Although, it's crazy how far I've come in a year and a half!  Wait...it's been a year and a half?!  Seriously?!  That's a pretty long time.  Hmm...well...still...today's swim felt good.  I think I was a little slower than usual but I think I was nailing the drills.  In fact, after the stun gun drill, the coach said my stroke looked perfect...for 25 meters.  *ahem*  Can we pretend that he didn't add that caveat?!  (After typing this paragraph, I went back and read this post from October 2010 and had to laugh.  Oh...how little I knew. Not to mention, I'm suddenly feeling less pleased with myself for my little compliment today.  Apparently I had a better stroke back then than I do now because I can assure you that none of the coaches since then have ever been as pleased with my stroke as that swim teacher was!)   

Anyway, when I left the gym I was feeling good. It was almost 60 degrees out. There was a beautiful blue sky with fluffy white clouds. What a pleasant day! Kardy and I went from the gym to Tysons Corner where we met up with an old friend of mine from way back when my family lived in Africa. And then I came straight back to coaching my Odyssey of the Mind kids.

A busy, full day - as per usual.



I've not been very good about linking up my Focus 52 posts but I have been doing it.  This week's prompt is leading lines.  I didn't actually know that when I took the school bus pic but...it's the best I've got.  (Sometimes I'm a little slow to get to the party but hey, better late than never!)  Last week was black and white.  The week before that was "I Am ___".  I was late with my "I Am ___" photo but I was pleased with myself for doing it all the same. For the first week of the year, I followed the "New" prompt but it was a conceptual leak.  I was determined to make a reNEWed effort to update my blog and recommit to Focus 52...and all that jazz.  So I actually sat down, wrote what was on my mind and even linked it up.  Although in general I'll be more Focus52ed on photos.

Jan 25

Jan 25, originally uploaded by hezro.

So remember how the tooth fairy wouldn't go into Annika's room because it was a mess? Well, as you can see, the tooth fairy wasn't kidding. I'm a little embarrassed to post this photo of my daughter's messy room, but, it is what it is. My mom keeps encouraging me to let them have control of their rooms. Meanwhile my husband's perspective is that we're complete failures as parents if we're not teaching our children discipline. UGH!

I'm *trying* to get them to appreciate the value of an organized environment...or at least a clear walking space...but clearly I've not had much impact on Annika. *sigh*

Anyway, the point of this photo is actually to show her solution for the tooth fairy. She stuck her tooth under her pillow pet and left it here at her door.

P.S. This morning I couldn't take it anymore and I at least threw her dirty clothes into her hamper, when I went to wake her up for school. Annika said, "Wow, I had a lot of clothes on my floor." You don't say?!

Juice Guts

My husband is totally grossed out by the picture of cucumber, celery, banana and apple remains oozing out of the juicer (see below...if you dare). The beets and carrot guts were kinda pretty in my bowl...but yeah...the greens...not so much.

Juice

Juice, originally uploaded by hezro.

A few months ago, my sister-in-law mentioned that she was trying something called "juicing" (which immediately makes me think of a gym rat but no, this is a different kind of juicing). That very same weekend, I was looking for a movie to watching on Netflix streaming and I chose one that Netflix recommended to me called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead.  It turned out to be the same movie that had inspired her. After watching the movie, I really wanted to try a cleanse but I was about two weeks ot from a triathlon so it didn't seem like a good time to try it.

In the meantime I purchased a fancy shmancy blender. My hope was to get more fresh fruits and veggies into our diet. (I've already used it almost 50 times in the fews weeks that I've owned it - it keeps track).

Recently my friend Bryan tried juicing and posted about it on Facebook. He's had amazing success and once again, the idea was back in my head. A few years ago my mom gave me a Champion juicer so yesterday I decided to give it a try.

I printed off Bryan's recipe and went to the store. This is the juice I intended to make:

5 cucumber
5 carrots
12 stalks of kale
12 stalks celery
1/2 bundle of spinach
1/2 bundle of parsley
1 beet
1-1/2" ginger root
5 apples
1/4 of a whole pineapple
1 mango
1 banana

Unfortunately, when I got started juicing, I realized that my juicer is missing its tamper, which was a bit of a problem.  I tried using a cucumber as a tamper, which worked a lot of the time.  But it didn't always work so I was using a wooden spoon to shove stuff down, but unfortunately once it got away from me and I completely destroyed my beloved Pampered Chef spoon.  :(

I wasn't able to get all 12 stalks of celery into my juice but I think I got pretty much everything else in there.  This was not really a full fledged jump into juicing.  This was basically a trial run to see a) how the juicer worked and b) whether the juice was palatable.  

The results

It was quite a lengthy process. I think it would have been much easier with a tamper so I've since purchased one online and I'll try it again after that arrives.  But I have to admit, the juice was much tastier than I expected it to be.  Because of my troubles with the juicer, it was a little pulpy but the taste really was not bad.  Having said that, I'm amazed that Bryan can drink it day after day. I'm pretty sure I'd have to switch things up.  But all in all, I'd say the experiment was a success and I definitely want to try a cleanse, when I've got all the right equipment.

Jan 24

Jan 24, originally uploaded by hezro.

The bus was 30 minutes late!