Wednesday, February 28, 2018

What I learned this winter



I'm linking up again with Emily P. Freeman today for her quarterly feature "What We Learned."


1.  Potatoes can actually explode in the oven.


....although it's not as exciting or catastrophic as it sounds.  More like all the insides of the potato end up sitting next to the outside of the potato on the pan.  Not a disaster, but enough to ruin your picture-perfect baked potato.  So, I might find time in my life now to prick a few holes in my potatoes before I bake them.




2.  Better shaving cream is better.


I'm a cheapskate.  Jason has still not forgotten the cheapest toothpaste I bought when we were first married that so offended his palate.  So, I've always (naturally) gotten the very cheapest kind of shaving cream there is (men's, obviously, because it's cheaper than women's).


On some shopping trip in the last three months, the store didn't have my cheapo brand, so I was forced to buy the second-cheapest shaving cream in existence.  Lo and behold, my legs are significantly smoother!  I grudgingly concede an improvement.  And I'm converted to the second-cheapest kind.


3.  Bunnies do binkies.





This is the same as what they call "popcorning" with guinea pigs:  a happy bunny will bounce up and spin in midair, repeatedly.


One more reason I'm convinced that bunnies are the best pet there is.


4.  The local-ish farm stand has tons of vegetables in the dead of winter.





Having gotten used to a certain level of freshness and locally-grown deliciousness this summer, between a subscription produce box and regular trips to my farmers' market, I was very concerned at the end of the season that we'd be living off of frozen peas and the same three vegetables the grocery store sells all winter.


Happily, I finally tried out a farm stand that, while not right here in town, is also not all the way into Big Town.  I was astonished at what they had, when it was freezing cold outside:  not just squash and cabbage, but apples and salad greens and tomatoes.


And peanut butter cream pie.





5.  You (and your child) can use your thumbs to remember which one is "b" and which one is "d."


This one is from my clever friend Vicki.



via My Teaching Station


Hold up your thumbs as above.  It spells out "bed," so decide which hand the letter looks like and then you know which sound it makes.


6.  Bunnies sleep with their eyes open.


Strange but true!  The only way you can tell they're asleep is if their nose stops twitching.


(Cuteness is equal asleep or awake--although nothing beats when they wash their ears with their little paws!)






7.  Pigs are slaughtered by gun, not by knife.


Moving on from bunny cuteness.


I had no idea that animals are first dispatched with a firearm before slitting their throats.  I can see that that would make it easier.


Also I'm told that "slaughtering" is different from "killing," so they're technically "killed" by gun, then "slaughtered" by knife.  Whatever.






8.  The Statue of Liberty could fit inside the U.S. Capitol rotunda with a few feet to spare.


Her torch wouldn't even graze the ceiling.



9.  Making a ridiculously detailed itinerary for a week-long field trip is totally worth it.







Call me OCD, but this cut down on So. Many. Questions.  All of which would be repeated at least four times.  Will it be cold today?  Is it supposed to rain?  When do we eat?  What's for dinner?  What are we doing after this?  What Metro stop are we getting off on?


The itinerary was a beautiful, marvelous thing.  I gave each literate child a copy of their own, and I regret not one bit of research, calculating, and pre-field decision making that went into it.


*Also notice the pattern of which items are highlighted in blue: those events that the pre-literate children care most about.


10.  Snapchat streaks are a thing.






I'm indebted to our youth pastor for this piece of knowledge.  You make a "streak" by Snapchatting a given friend every day, for however many days in a row.  According to our youth pastor, it's cool to have streaks of 300-400.


This item, I realize is less lofty and more depressing than most of the others.


What have you learned this winter?










Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Capital odyssey, part 2: memorials great and small



When we woke up our first morning in D.C., we walked a block or two to a deli and got some delicious breakfast sandwiches to go.  We ate them in the comfort of our luxury suite, and then Jeddy went off to log in to his online algebra class, and the rest of us hit the books.














When Jeddy was done, we bundled up and took a long walk past the White House to the trolley tour welcome center.


Treasury Department




The tour bus took us past the Capitol and the Supreme Court.  At lunchtime we hopped off and walked to a mall food court for smoothies and sandwiches.




Next on The Itinerary was the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (where they print paper money) for a tour, but I was fortuitously warned by Google that the BEP was about to close for the day.










So we readjusted and rode the tour bus to the Jefferson Memorial instead.














We also visited the nearby and lesser-known George Mason Memorial.




George Mason is famous for refusing to sign the U.S. Constitution because it did not abolish slavery, and because it lacked a bill of rights.  He also authored the Virginia Declaration of Rights, which influenced the Declaration of Independence and the eventual Bill of Rights added to the Constitution.


Way to go, George Mason!




After visiting Tom and George, we hopped back on the trolley and rode to the Lincoln Memorial, where we could switch buses to continue the tour at Arlington Cemetery. 


Everyone was hungry, so I just managed to purchase snacks at a refreshment stand before we caught the bus.  We shuttled to the Cemetery, where we learned that although we could carry snacks in our bag, any eating inside the cemetery is prohibited.


The tour turned out to be longer than I expected, including a required stop at Kennedy's Eternal Flame, which caused the Bangles song to be eternally stuck in my head.


We dutifully refrained from eating our snacks--even when the shuttle bus at the end waited and waited before pulling out of the cemetery--until the moment we exited the gates,.


After such a full day of touring, we did not intend to walk all the way home, so I took them into the Metro station, bought tickets, and gave a training speech on how to navigate turnstiles.  Thankfully, they nailed it, and after some further instruction, also mastered riding the escalator single file on the right.


The Metro took us to within a block of our apartment, where I made spaghetti while Ada made salad and Lizzy set the table.  It was lovely to sit down to a home-cooked meal, although I was so tired I was slumped against the wall.  After cleanup and bedtime, I fell into my sofa bed and slept much deeper than the night before.






Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Capital odyssey, part 1: Expedia nightmare


Jason had a somewhat last-minute business trip to New York City two weeks ago.


Between terribly missing my better half and a fair amount of possible jealousy (New York City!?), it seemed the ideal time to take that days-long field trip to Washington, D.C. I've been rather optimistically considering.


So as Jason booked his ticket and packed up, I bravely forged ahead: I found a VRBO through Expedia just behind the Capitol that could sleep us all in one room and had a kitchen; I planned an obsessively detailed itinerary for each of the four-and-a-half days; I made a grocery list, a packing list, and a school assignment list.


One tiny snag was that although I had received a receipt from Expedia for the $1000 I dropped on the rental apartment, I never received the promised email from the owner with the entry key code.


Not knowing how these things usually work, I waited until the day of for this email--probably a mistake, in hindsight.  


The Itinerary dictated a 1:30pm departure to drive to the city, so I called the Expedia helpline first thing after breakfast and explained that I had no way to get into my rental that afternoon.


Expedia was, to put it delicately, less than helpful.


Their first solution was for me to wait longer.   "After all," they said, "it's only 6am in Washington, D.C."


😳


When I pointed out politely and firmly that no, it is, in fact, 9:30...they put me on hold.


Again.


Solution #2 was for me to drive to the property and "then figure it out."  They insisted they could do nothing for me unless I was actually at the locked property.


I did not find this a satisfactory resolution to my issue, which I finally expressed to the third person I was on the phone with--in a heated manner at raised volume.


Lo and behold, after this demonstration of high blood pressure, I was suddenly being rebooked at a new property--one that had two bedrooms and two full baths, instead of the original single room, at a $200 lower cost.


I'm a pretty tolerant person, but 2 hours and 14 minutes on the phone with Expedia found my breaking point.


At that point I had to rework the itinerary to reflect the new location of our apartment, taking into account new travel times, Metro schedule, and nearby restaurants.


By now the kids were practically frantic with deferred excitement, so I sat on the kitchen floor to eat a leftover pizza slice and told them they could form a line and ask me one question at a time until I finished my lunch.  The new itinerary was brought out and read aloud, and when it was discovered that we were staying in the neighborhood of Foggy Bottom, all impatience was forgotten as they dissolved into hysterics.


One whirlwind of speed-packing later, we were on the road, headed to our new luxury place.  Long about Manassas, however, I got a voicemail......from the owner of the original apartment, welcoming me to her place.  


Long story short:

-Phone conversation with apartment owner (43 minutes) reveals no one told her my booking is cancelled.

-Second call to Expedia (47 minutes) to object that I'm booked for two properties at once results in a downside:  nebulous promise that I probably won't be double charged; and an upside:  guy with thick Indian accent pronouncing "Foggy Bottom" on speakerphone while all the kids are listening.


The lesson we're learning here is that too many middlemen = bad.  Further confirmation of this came when I blew right past our Foggy Bottom property because the name on the building is completely different than the name I was booked under (the welcome letter inside the apartment had another name entirely).


Conveniently, circling back to a hotel in the middle of D.C. at the height of rush hour was more than enough to answer the kids' earlier question, "What's wrong with driving in a city?"


Because of the configuration of one-way streets, my only option was to make a left onto Pennsylvania Avenue with no traffic light at 6pm, crossing 3 lanes of traffic to do so, which I only managed (very narrowly) by drafting a local driver and holding my breath.


After that we navigated pedestrians and traffic circles while being followed by screaming ambulances and fire trucks.


When it was all over, the kids' conclusion was a trembling, "Let's never do that again."


I was immensely relieved to park but also totally disoriented from circling into the bowels of the parking garage, so we ended up hiking through an office building and around a block with our luggage before arriving in the lobby of our building.  And we had to make a second trip to the car to get everything.


But when we finally entered our apartment, we were met with this view from our balcony:






Jeddy pulled out his algebra while Ada helped me make dinner and Lizzy unpacked our groceries.  Caleb ran around playing cleaning service with a mop he found in the closet, despite the apartment being so pristine it was unrecognizable as any place we would inhabit. 


It wasn't the best dinner I've ever made, but rarely have I been so relieved and thankful to sit down to it.  We unwound at bedtime with a chapter of Harry Potter, after which, unfortunately, I had to try to explain to my husband why we had an extra $1000 charge on our account...


I had a night of restless dreams and woke up wondering if this was the start of a disaster, or if it could only go up from here.







Friday, February 2, 2018

What's saving my life right now



Today I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy to share (to put it hyperbolically) what's saving my life right now.




Today is Groundhog Day, aka the midpoint of winter.  Thus, amid the doldrums and the cold, we share what is giving us life--the big or the small.






I could list my gas fireplace I turn on every afternoon, or the space heater in the school room.  I could mention moving the cars out of the garage so the kids can play out there, or the sunny spot on the kitchen floor where I eat lunch.




I could honor the Wine Awesomeness subscription I got Jason for Christmas, and how it has thoroughly lived up to its name and seriously raised the bar for our date nights.




The habit of making lunchboxes for us all is possibly saving my life, as well as hot tea after lunch, and fuzzy wuzzy blankets.




But the life-giving routine I will highlight today is the most surprising one:  daily sunrise runs.




How does one get out of a warm bed (with fuzzy wuzzy blankets) to face the frigid mostly-darkness to do something physically challenging, you ask?


Good question.




There are lots of benefits to running every morning before work.


Catching the elusively brief, brilliant sunrise.


Flooding your system with stress-relieving endorphins.


Low resting heart rate.


But these won't really get you out there when the winter wind is howling, will they?




Here are seven strategies, which, taken together, support a habit that is, at least in some sense, saving my life right now.


1.  Get good shoes.


My running shoes cost $120.  That's a chunk of change.


But after trying three different pairs that made my feet hurt, I finally returned to a new set of the exact shoes I had had before.  It is so worth $120 once a year or so to be able to run pain-free.  This is not a time to go low-budget.




2.  Download a good podcast app.


Surprise!  The one that comes on the iPhone is NOT the best one.  In fact, it kinda sucks.  I used it for a while and it was always claiming I hadn't downloaded my shows, or cutting off after one episode and refusing to start another, or deleting shows I wasn't done with yet.


Thankfully Jason convinced me there is a better way.  I've been using "Podcast App" (brilliant name) for a while and am way happier with it.


But wait--don't people listen to rockin' music when they work out?


Yes, but listening to podcasts is better.


There are only so many tolerable upbeat songs in this world, and though listening to the "Rocky" theme on repeat is awesome, you'll get bored/annoyed very quickly trying to keep your running playlist fresh.


Yes, you totally run 28% faster when you're imagining you're Rocky, but I prefer to make one epic run soundtrack and save it for the once-in-a-blue-moon races I run.


For every day, load up your podcast app.


Whatever you're into, there's a podcast or six for that.  Or audio books are an option too, although I haven't tried that yet.


Podcasts allow me to indulge my inner nerd in a variety of ways, and I can easily toggle between the different genres, depending on what I feel like that day.


Soul encouragement from John Piper or J. Warner Wallace?  Yes, please.


Fitness inspiration?  Totally.


NPRSlatePeggy Post Institute?  Got 'em all.


Plus a whole podcast dedicated to the text of Harry Potter.




3.  Get a decent set of headphones.  


I've found headphones with easily accessible volume buttons (not a slide) a major advantage.


The great thing about a good podcast player is that it picks up wherever you left off and starts the next one in your queue automatically, so no more searching for podcasts that are the exact length of time I want to work out.


But that means that in the middle of a run, you might change to a show that is suddenly WAY LOUDER than you like, and it's really hard to adjust the volume if your only option is your phone strapped to your bicep.


Also you want your headphones to fit in or over your ears comfortably, not hurting and not falling out/off.




4.  Dress WARMLY.


Yes, if you run for 30 minutes in enough layers to keep a rain forest monkey alive in the Arctic, you'll be terribly sweaty.


But dress like the rain forest monkey in Alaska anyway.


The convenient thing about running in laps is that you can drop clothing along the way and pick it up at the end, but even on an out-and-back run, you can figure something out.  Even if you're only wearing that scarf/hat/pair of mittens/parka for the first three minutes, it's worth it to not associate the beginning of your exercise time with discomfort.




5.  Get out before your brain wakes up enough to realize what's happening.


Don't lay in bed and consider it.  Start moving when your eyes are still closed, before your brain has a chance to protest.




6.  Start the podcast before you step outside.


Now you're not thinking primarily about the temperature, you're thinking about the fascinating things Emily Post/John Piper/Harry Potter has to say!




7.  Go very easy.


You're not training for the Olympics.  You're aiming to settle into a habit.  So go easy, easier than you think is necessary.  You're warm and bundled up anyway right?  No need to sprint like your life is on the line.


Start by walking, not running.  If whatever you're doing exhausts you, you're doing too much, despite how ridiculous you feel admitting it, regardless of how many little old ladies pass you on the track [speaking of and to myself here].


You'll still get stress-busting endorphins, fresh air, and a lower resting heart rate.


And you won't miss the brilliant winter sunrises.


Which just might, figuratively, save your life.










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