Furore and Frenzy

Queen of the Bloggers

fur — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:53:32 +0000

A recent New York Times article highlighted the blogging career of Heather Armstrong, author of the longtime running blog Dooce. I’ll be honest, I have tried unsuccessfully over the years to become a regular reader of Dooce after numerous friends and fellow bloggers recommended the site. For me Dooce quickly fell by the wayside into the category of so many other parenting blogs that I felt I could never relate to. While, judging from Heather’s popularity, I am definitely in the minority in my feelings about Dooce, I will admit that she definitely paved the way for the writings of ‘Mommy-bloggers’ everywhere and defined the ideal blogging model.

Reading about Heather’s writing career seemed to be the final push I needed to resurrect my old blog. I’ve spent the evening running the two years worth of updates that at this point in time WordPress was begging for.

Stay tuned.

Six Months of Change…

fur — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:59:02 +0000

So after a six month pause from writing at FnF I have to wonder if all of you really missed anything? Were the trappings of my mundane life followed by enough people that they were actually missed? That people actually wondered what I was doing and what was happening? Probably not…I’m realistic at least.

I will fill you in on some of the bigger details…

In April I turned 31 on a day that was so horribly over-scheduled there was hardly time to breathe. However for the first time in my life I taught a college course on that night after agreeing to present on information literacy and the role of the school administrator. While my teaching skills were a bit rusty, by the end of the evening I had warmed up and I would come to teach other classes when asked. It was good to remember how it felt to teach and I felt more inspired in my day to day work with libraries.

Max Cleaning Toys for Spring Play

My biggest accomplishment during the month of April into early May was the completion of the SLMS 2009 Conference in Saratoga Springs, NY. This was the culmination of two years of planning as a conference co-chair and was by far the largest event I had ever planned. The weeks leading up to and following the conference were chaotic and I found myself with little time for anything else, but it was a wonderful experience to have been part of.

Meeting Gregory Maguire!

In May Catherine had her first dance recital. This was the first event of its kind for either side of the family and it was a good time. She was fabulous and performed a very energetic Hula Baby dance. She seems to like dance very much and will start classes again in the fall. Catherine\’s Dance Recital Video

In June, with little fanfare, Chuck celebrated his 35th birthday and Father’s Day on the same day. We also welcomed a new member into our family with the birth of my niece Erika.

Catherine Talking to Her Cousin Erika

Chuck and I took our first vacation without kids in July. It was an experiment both for us and for the kids that seemed to work really well. The kids spent a week with their grandparents, visiting playgrounds and museums in the area and enjoying Grandma and Grandpa’s swimming pool. We spent our time in the area around Cleveland and Sandusky Ohio touring the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and Cedar Point Amusement Park. I think we all needed a break from one another and everyone seemed to have time to re-energize. Perhaps we can do it again another year.

Cat Plays with the Slinky Exhibit at the Strong Museum of Play

For us, summer isn’t full of beach vacations and leisurely days enjoying the sunshine. We tend to march on with our regular routine, which is good to keep the kids on schedule but at times a bit pathetic when it comes to summer fun. This summer we spent a fair amount of time preparing Catherine for school in the fall and on September 8th she began kindergarten.

Catherine's 2nd Day of School

It’s been bizarre to be involved with the school as a parent rather than a teacher. I’ve been amazed at the rapid flood of paper that arrives home on a daily basis, even in the 21st Century. However, I’m happy to report that thus far she seems to really enjoy school, although she does miss her daycare friends. While I had a bit of fear and apprehension about sending her knowing she would be one of the youngest students in class, all of my fears were dismissed the first day of school when I watched her follow directions upon arriving in her classroom, listened to her talk to her teacher and her classmates, and watched her draw an incredible picture and write her name without assistance. As I looked around the room and saw other parents anxiously leaning over desks, drawing the assignment for their children or choosing to write their child’s name upon the paper to save time I realized that she would be just fine. There are definitely times that her independent streak works in her favor.

For Simplicity’s Sake

fur — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 02:02:36 +0000

In an effort to not allow my hiatus from blogging to become a permanent departure I have pared down FnF to it’s bare bones state. After living day after day in a world where I am constantly immersed in media and electronic communication I’ve found that I hesitate to make the time nor energy to devote to my personal blog in the evening. I’m hoping that by paring back to strictly basic content and ignoring all the possible bells and whistles I’ll feel free to make a quick post more often…

The Big K

fur — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:48:17 +0000

March is kindergarten registration month in our school district and for the first time we are registering one of our children. Catherine will begin kindergarten this fall. Although she’s still on the young side with an October birthday we think she’s definitely ready and we welcome the structure it will bring to her.

I filled out the lengthy packet of paperwork the other night, having to stop myself from filling out my own information as I have been doing my entire life. I answered questions about my daughter that I have never even considered before. I tried to honestly assess her skills and readiness and was amazed by all the things she can do and aware of those things she can’t. I understand that it’s not an entrance exam and that she’ll be registered for kindergarten regardless, but I think like most parents I would be happy if I knew she could do all of those things.

Thursday my husband will hand in her paperwork, the many, many forms and checklists, copies of physicals and immunizations and of course her birth certificate. At that time he’ll receive our appointment date for the month of May when the actual screening occurs. Hubby of course is excited about the screening. He’s been planting all sorts of seeds of mischief that he hopes will take root.

Me? I’m just hoping that when asked to sing she doesn’t launch into The Lumberjack Song from Monty Python.

Binge and Purge

fur — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:57:46 +0000

Today I’ve launched into spring cleaning mode. I purchased new cleaners yesterday, stacks of storage and organizational tools and today commenced my cleaning. I began with the kitchen, wiping down cupboards and window sills, cleaning off the many pieces of paper stuck to the fridge, cleaning under things that hadn’t been moved in some time and deciding to toss others.

I noticed yesterday that others had been purging as well. Cardboard boxes littered the lawns of many of the homes near us, the boxes typically featuring the word FREE on the side in black Sharpie and containing an assortment of junk that could possibly be considered treasure to someone else but was likely destined for the landfill.

I spent the afternoon cleaning various closets, purging items and packaging other items into storage bins to prepare them for storage in the basement. Other items that were too good to throw away, but no longer wanted by our family I sat down and posted on Freecycle. I’ve mentioned Freecycle before in other posts and I still swear it’s a wonderful way to encourage recycling and keep things out of the landfill until they’ve received their maximum amount of use. I’ve never received anything via Freecycle, but I’ve used it often to eliminate items from my home including a large storefront awning that was abandoned in our backyard when we purchased our home, and various bits of baby and kid stuff. If you haven’t yet tried Freecycle I really recommend it, especially during the spring cleaning season.

What do your spring cleaning rituals look like? Do you purge? Scrub down the house? Focus on the outdoor tasks? Or all of the above?

Waiting for Spring

fur — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:05:27 +0000

I think for the most part that spring has finally arrived where we live. The past two weeks have heralded temperatures in the 50′s with drops into the teens at night. It’s a perfect scenario to create quick running sap from any nearby maple trees making our area syrup producers happy. Our snow has been completely eliminated, but the cold temperatures at night have slowed down the run-off to avoid flooding in most places. All in all it would have to be considered an ideal spring thaw and a rare one to have all the snow completely eliminated before the first of April. While I remember birthdays from childhood that were warm enough for bike rides and jump rope I can’t seem to recall any birthdays that warm since I was in high school. I am definitely enjoying the return to what I consider to be ‘normal’ weather patterns and I wonder what happened to our global warming?

The kids have been enjoying the weather as well. The first few days were spent donning galoshes and splashing in puddles. Now that the puddles have finally dried up they’ve been enjoying wearing lightweight fleece jackets and sneakers when they play. Max has been happy to have the return of his baseball cap to his head rather than his winter touque. Yesterday we spent most of the day outside, raking the INCREDIBLE amount of pine needles and pine cones that are covering our yard from the many wind storms we’ve had this year. The kids this year were finally old enough to be helpful. I purchased each kid work gloves and Max happily helped me rake, dragged sticks onto his sled and dumped them into the woods for me. Catherine took a bucket and collected pine cones and spread them throughout the woods as well. I was able to clean out the flower beds and even saw new growth from the perennials I planted poking up through the earth.

Today though seems to almost taunt our hard work yesterday with a dark, black sky, lightly falling snow, and the occasional pierce of bright orange sunshine through the clouds. It almost seems like winter and spring are still battling it out, but I still think spring is going to be the victor.

From the Archives: February

fur — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:09:01 +0000

Previous Furore and Frenzy posts from the month of February.

Frebruary 2007

Maxwell Simon: A post dedicated to Max on the occasion of his first birthday.

Let the Festivities Begin: We host our first family event in our new house

No Infants in This House! : I lament over the dismissal of our infant carrier from daycare

A Generation of Bored: Why are kids ALWAYS bored? Who’s to blame?

A Tribute to Aurora: A reflection on a friend I haven’t seen in a decade

Oblivious to the Universe: A rant about people that don’t notice the world around them

February 2008

Why I Love February: A simple checklist of all the reasons I love the month. This year I’m not so sure I love it.

Happy Birthday Maxwell Simon!: A tribute to Max on his 2nd birthday

For Once There’s A Happy Ending: A retelling of a local accident and some local students who saved the day.

Falling Off The Road: I recount our adventure when our car goes off the road on a trip to my mother’s house.

Enjoy That Daylight While It Lasts: I rant about daylight savings time arriving much to early in my opinion.

Papa Will You Get the Moon For Me?: A reflection on viewing the lunar eclipse, miscarriage, and parenting.

A Plague Upon My House: The flu takes over our house and our lives.

What Will You Do With Your X-tra Day?: Believe it or not, there is actually some controversy involving Leap Year. What do you think?

Blogging to a Screeching Halt

fur — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:52:42 +0000

It dawned on me, just at this moment why I’ve stopped blogging. It’s not intentional, I certainly have just as many ideas happily bouncing around in my head during the day that I’ve always had. I pulled out my blogging notebook the other day, the place where I keep my ideas for posts and dusted it off. I thought to myself that even if I don’t have access to a computer that if I keep it with me I can perhaps jot down part of a post to simply type later.

The bottom line? I’ve been busy as can be at work. I suddenly realized this afternoon as I sat literally surrounded and drowning in books, toys, cds, and media to catalog that I used to come in every morning and while drinking my coffee I’d open a web browser and quickly type out a post with a fresh mind. The office would be quiet at that time of day and I could write away unobserved.

Is it a good practice to blog at work? Probably not, unless your job involves such applications.

This school year in general has been chaotic to say the least. I’m down to the wire with preparations for our statewide conference which occurs at the end of April. We operated for part of the year without a budget and have spent the remainder frantically trying to catch up. I find myself taking on many new roles in my work place, that while good for job security do increase any flexibility that I once had.

I hope to blog more soon. I miss it. I really do. I haven’t gone away, really…

Do You Know Your Neighbors?

fur — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:36:35 +0000

I’m sitting here watching my neighbors pack their belongings into a U-haul. I can only make the assumption that they are preparing to move out of their home. There’s been no indication before now that they’ve been intending to leave, the absence of a for sale sign in front of their house makes me wonder if the house is rental property. I could be nosy and go over there and start a conversation, but unfortunately I hardly know them. Other than a few rare occasions when they’ve brought us a piece of misdelivered mail we’ve never seen them up close. We don’t even know their name.

I realize that I don’t know any of my neighbors, and to some degree I find that unnerving. I grew up with neighbors that were close friends with my parents. They were included in family parties, took turns babysitting and shared fresh produce and meat. I know nothing of my neighbors. What a different world we live in!

I sometimes think back to the time that we moved into our home two and a half years ago. There was no welcome wagon, no neighbors coming to introduce themselves, baring casseroles as I’d always been told would happen. To be fair though, I didn’t go knocking on doors introducing myself either…even though I probably should have. While it seems a little late now to do so, I also wonder how many years I can live in a residence without at least knowing their name?

I wonder if others have had the same experience we have? Have the days of friendly neighborhoods raising children passed? Do we all prefer anonymity and isolation instead?

The Importance of Good Dentistry

fur — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:50:56 +0000

I’m the first one to admit that when it comes to my dental health I rarely give it a second thought. It’s not that I don’t value my teeth or that I don’t see the link between healthy teeth and gums and other diseases. The truth is that I’ve become scared of the dentist.

I’m not sure when this started happening. I certainly had more than enough experience while growing up dealing with dental appointments. My parents were kind enough to fashion my mouth with braces while I was growing up and for 3 years I wore the shiny metal tinsel with little complaint and monthly orthodontist visits. For that reason alone I know that I should take better care of my teeth because I know the effort my parents made to make sure that I had a nice smile. Yet somewhere along the way I stopped going to the dentist. Once the braces were off there seemed to be little reason to visit the dentist. Growing up without medical insurance gives you a greater perspective on choosing to go to a medical professional, and unless it’s an emergency, you don’t go.

I’ve actually spent most of my adult life without dental insurance. Even while teaching full time dental benefits were considered a luxury and despite having excellent medical benefits I found that I lacked dental coverage. For the first time ever, we now have dental insurance through hubby’s job.

After giving birth to my daughter I found that my mouth was a mess. Pregnancy hormones have a way of wreaking havoc on a mouth and mine was no exception. I found a dentist that was close to home and made appointments for both hubby and I to go. The two of us went for our appointments, had to take out a loan for thousands of dollars and left with many fillings. The day I saw my dentist’s Lamborghini parked outside the office I knew that I would not be coming back there.

This afternoon I had my first appointment in three years at a new office. I LOVED the experience. It was the complete opposite of our last experience and I know that this is where I will be taking my kids. The office was clean and professional, with bright cheery open rooms. The equipment was modern and used digital imaging in each room. I walked into the lobby and was greeted by warmth. A small glass-front refrigerator offered juiceboxes for kids and bottled water for adults, a Keurig coffee maker with a selection of choices sat atop the fridge. There were snacks available, magazines neatly in their rack, and a television quietly playing in the corner. I wondered for a moment why a dentist would put out such a display of goodies, that could inevitably harm your teeth, but came to realize that they wanted patients that were comfortable and calm. It worked like a charm. I was officially and warmly welcomed by the office staff. I didn’t have to fill out paperwork because the efficient office (after confirming the appointment that I was able to make ONLINE! Hee-Hee) had sent me all the necessary paperwork ahead of time. I was only able to enjoy the lobby for a few minutes though before my name was quickly called and I headed into the bright open exam room. As they made me comfortable in the chair and asked me a few questions about my past dental experiences, they then handed me a remote control to a small LCD tv that was right in front of me on a movable arm. The hygienist told me to make myself comfortable and watch whatever I like while they processed my insurance information and let me know what my out of pocket expenses would be before treatment began. They don’t participate with any particular insurance company, but they will gladly process your forms and contact your company to inquire about your benefits. I watched tv for a few minutes before the hygienist returned with my benefit information and we started the exam. All the xrays and impressions were completed quickly and digitally. Then the actual dentist came in. She was young and attractive and easy to talk to. She examined me and told me that things looked good. We scheduled a cleaning in a few weeks and I was actually able to leave the office without owing thousands of dollars and questioning whether one person could really have that many cavities. I definitely found that I was no longer apprehensive about going to the dentist and I schedule my next appointment knowing exactly what was going to be done and how much it was going to cost upfront. I even scheduled an appointment for my daughter who will need proof that she has been treated by a dentist before beginning kindergarten this fall. I don’t know if it’s just that I expect more than the previous practices I grew up with and am happy to have found a young and upcoming practice. I do know though that it makes a huge difference when you find a good practice that knows how to treat you like a person.