Recovery

December 8, 2012December 8, 20121 Comment

This past week can be wiped off the charts and I’d be all the happier. I hated every moment of it. An alien creature made its home in my stomach from Sunday night through Friday night and I haven’t been so miserable in years. The headaches he brought were the worst; I have a newfound appreciation for people suffering from migraines. Five days without children in the house all morning and afternoon, and I couldn’t even watch a movie because my head would explode. Such a shame.

Jon and the kids were great during the ordeal – Jon took them to Tommy’s Pizza (Maria came home and said “I wish you got sick more mom because then we’d get to go to Tommy’s with dad!”) and let them watch nightly episodes of Duck Dynasty.

Maria was my caretaker. She ran upstairs every day after school and asked how I felt. She felt my forehead and made sure I had water. The second day she made me hot tea, bananas and oranges. She made sure the covers were wrapped snug around me.

Mario was my entertainment. He came upstairs at bedtime and ran naked next to the bed saluting me “Good night dear ma’am!” He closed the bathroom door in our bedroom and sang on the toilet. When Jon came up to scoot him out, he meekly opened the door and whispered “hold on a minute, man. I have some girls in here to chat with for a while.” Jon looked at him quizzically.

“They broke through the window, dad. They wanted to talk to me so badly.”

Jon and I and Ri looked at each other and all knew what each of us was thinking “Crazy, crazy Mario.”

After a few more days of Ri’s nurturing, I have finally started to come back to life. As Maria scolded me after I told her to just put me out of my misery the other night “our family never gives up!”

So take that mr. alien!

Simple pleasures

December 3, 2012December 3, 2012Leave a comment

The kids have been begging to see Rise of the Guardians. After a disappointing trip to the zoo on Saturday afternoon (playground closed and hardly any animals out – I guess it is December…), we decided to hit the 7:15 showing. Of course, it was only playing in 3D so we paid $37 for three tickets – insane. Between the tickets and the popcorn, we could have bought groceries for the month. But the kids loved it.

On Sunday morning, we woke up to sheets of rain. Hence, no stroller ride. So we decided to put up the Christmas tree. I brought up my grandma’s tree and the kids and I assembled it to surprise Jon while he was out for coffee. Mario assembled the metal base of the tree from scratch; he figured out how to put the metal feet in the circle and where to place the screws. There may be an engineer in our future…. Meanwhile, Maria perused through the cardboard boxes of ornaments picking out select ones that she remembered creating or that she knew had meaning to us. Jon’s blue ornament from his teacher, the ornament I gave my grandma when I was ten, Mario’s gingerbread ornament from his old daycare. Ms. Sentimental she is.

We blasted Christmas music from the tv and went to town on the tree. I love our time spent decorating the tree. We talk about years’ past, we admire the ornaments that we forgot about it since last year, we laugh, hysterically. We are completely immersed in the process and it is delightful. Jon always hunts down his favorite ornament to place strategically on the tree; Mario places all of his in one big clump; and Ri directs us all on where things should go.

And there you have it. Our darling Christmas tree lighting up our abode. Later in the evening we realized we forgot to place the star on top of the tree. We looked through all of our boxes and finally found it. Mario begged to put it on and Ri agreed, as always. She got to take the picture and tape a video of it though so she was happy.

Simple pleasures.

Compassion and Febreeze

November 30, 2012November 30, 2012Leave a comment

Jon went hunting last night with the hopes of bringing some deer meat home to his family (I’m just hoping for some of Vicki’s meatballs!).

It was just the kids and I and I had to help out a local non-profit with decorating for a gala tonight. So the kids got to head downtown with me and “work” their little butts off. They had a blast doing it. The gala is at the Vault, which I believe is an old bank converted to an event hall. It has a vault in the back of the hall that provided a secret hideaway for M&M. They loved running around the place and hiding from me. But they also provided assistance putting favors in bags and decorating table trees with red ornaments. They thought placing the plastic red cardinals on the tree was the bomb!

They were polite yet animated and the volunteer crew loved them. I love that I can share with them my passion to help others and they enjoy doing the work with me. I hope I am instilling in their little bodies a life-long desire and passion to care for others. With each project, I imagine their souls expanding to make room for all the compassion, empathy and purpose pouring from their little bodies into the work.

But, alas, they are kids and must mix a bit of childish fun along with virtues of compassion and giving. Mario found Febreeze in the ladies bathroom and thoroughly enjoyed spraying its remnants among the four walls of the tiny room. I thought a cheap perfume grenade had exploded when I stepped in to retrieve Mario but his face said it all – no grenade, only Mario orneriness.

The elf brings magic

November 29, 20121 Comment

Ri and I walked into her classroom on Monday morning and all of the kids were in a circle screaming at one another about what their “elf on a shelf” did the night before.

“My elf’s a girl and she took clothes out of my brother’s drawers!”

“My elf swung from one side of the room to the other side with my dad’s rope!”

Maria stood outside of the circle with her mouth opened just enough to form a tiny candy square and her eyes fixated above the kids as if she was watching their words floating in the air. She shifted her piercing blue eyes onto me.

“Mom, why don’t we have an elf?”

By Tuesday we had one: Christmas Elfie, Snowy Snowbell. A girl. I didn’t run out and buy one because everyone else had one and I needed to keep up with the Jones’. I bought one because I saw the magic and wonder in Ri’s eyes when the kids were talking about the elf. She believed. After last year’s trauma with St. Nick where she refused to believe in him and broke me down to where I had to admit it was dad and me who filled her stockings, I would have bought a continent to have her believe.

When we all got home Tuesday night, I placed our elf on the mantle and yelped “Guys, did you see what’s on our mantle?” They ran in the living room and Ri screamed and immediately belted out commands to Mario.

“Don’t touch the elf; she will lose her magical powers! Don’t bother her! Write down what you want for Christmas and lay it next to her!”

He listened intently. I told them that one of their friends’ elves must have told Santa to send an elf our way. I described to them how this elf would watch over us all day and head back to the North Pole at night to deliver a report to Santa. Their eyes bulged out towards the window imagining the elf’s travels to the North Pole. They each wrote up a list of desires: Maria, a pup, American Girl doll, a Barbie; Mario, a scooter, tic tac toe game, and a laser. They set it by the elf and we all went in the family room to play.

A half hour later, Jon rushed into the room and gasped “the elf is gone!” The kids bolted into the living room and he was out of sight. The front door was ajar.

“He must have headed back to the North Pole and taken your lists!”

Mario burst through the front door and stood on the porch looking into the black sky. Pointing to the North Star, he proclaimed “I see the elf riding towards Santa’s home!” Ri stood next to him and gazed up at the crystal star.

Jon moved the elf to the kitchen bookshelf that night and the next morning the kids ran downstairs screaming “the elf didn’t come back!” Jon explained that the elf may have landed somewhere else in the house upon his return from the North Pole. They opened a hall closet and found the green exercise ball shoved in it.

“Dad, the elf shoved your ball into the closet!”

Jon had shoved the ball in there on Thanksgiving to avoid someone tripping over it but he went with it. “Oh my! Where could that elf be?”

They finally found it in the kitchen. They did not touch it because they didn’t want it to lose its magic. They just yelled “We found Elfie! We found her! She’s back!”

Pure Magic.

Twice-baked goodness

November 26, 2012November 26, 2012Leave a comment

We ended the four-day holiday with twice-baked potatoes; Jon’s and his brother, Chris’s favorite and one of Patty’s signature dishes. I am not a velveeta cheese fan and was hesitant to try one but I had put so much effort into helping Patty make them that I felt compelled. It was not a mistake. Pure yumminess.

I need to buy some stock in Nike elastic sweatpants because that’s all I will be wearing for the next two months between all of the holiday goodies.

Maria and Mario called me from the road on their way back from the farm to see when Grandma and Grandpa Ionno would be over. They had a good time at the farm with Sarah and Jorge and Mama Meg and Peepaw. Maria got in a hike with Sarah and the pups and Mario got to go hunting with Peepaw.

They also got treated to a holiday parade in Marietta. Peepaw piled ’em up in the car on Saturday and drove to Marietta to see what was happening; he had no idea that a parade was in order! Mario scored some plastic army men and a tank and Maria nabbed a ladybug pillow. Maria got to bathe Taz and love on him, too. Mandatory horse fixes when she’s out on that farm.

I got some monstrous hugs upon their return, which I soaked up like bubbles in a bubble bath. The farm (or maybe Aunt Sarah or Mama Meg) had quite the effect on Maria. She went upstairs without any prodding and took a shower, got dressed, and brought down both hers and Mario’s dirty clothes bins. She dragged them right over to the washer and threw them inside. She went back upstairs and got a hamper for the clean clothes in the dryer. All without any peep from me or Jon. Alleluia! She did ask for help with the detergent though and I walked over to get it down for her. She pointed at the Downy and said “I need that, too.” I told her she didn’t need to use that with detergent and she promptly channeled her dad directing me to get it. “We need both – Downy makes the clothes smell better.” I could practically hear Jon in her voice.

Grandma and Grandpa Ionno arrived at 2 pm and Mario promptly laid his body across Grandma and played his iPad game. When she tried to move, he cried “No, grandma!” Finally, she got to move but only to help Ri with her homework. Ri got lucky because Grandma is the master of word puzzles. They cranked the puzzle out with the help of Alana and me at the end. As soon as that was over, Ri and Alana dashed upstairs to Ri’s room never to be seen again until dinner. Mario and Gio watched tv in our room and then went outside to play frisbee and bounce on the trampoline. They referred to each other as “dude” continuously. I picture them on a cross country road trip in ten years with feet hanging out the window and music blaring.

We all watched the Browns game (Patrick was lucky the Bengals weren’t playing) and caught up on the latest. Chris and Connie arrived with pictures from their wedding. Dinner was fabulous with the twice baked potatoes quite the hit. Ri ate two and begged for a third. We talked about Jon and Patrick as kids – Patrick slapping his cheeks outside in order to stay awake on New Years Eve and win 50 cents. Jon had no trouble staying awake. It was a superb time especially with the kids eating in the other room.

After dinner, the kids helped Alana and Grandma open birthday presents. Grandma scored an iPad for her birthday – I can’t wait to see her on Facebook! I am also going to urge her to write her and Joe’s story on it because it would be an amazing memoir.

We had to end the holiday on a pumpkin pie note so we sat down at 7 pm for one (or two) last pieces of pie with lots of whipped cream. Maria showed us her “trick” which entails putting the tip of the can of whipped cream in her mouth and pressing down to fill her entire throat and mouth with whipped cream. About as impressive as her dad swallowing a whole deviled egg.

We sang happy birthday to Patty and Alana and wrapped up the night. I kept wanting to extend the days longer so that the reality of work and school could be quashed. But I woke up this morning (after falling asleep with the kids at 8:30) happy as a clam – my body filled with tenderness and appreciation for a most incredible family and a most fantastic holiday weekend.

Alpine Ghost fever

November 24, 2012November 24, 2012Leave a comment

Jon and I got an evening to ourselves thanks to Meg and dad. We ate incredibly royal food at Hyde Park (au gratin potatoes are ridiculously good) and then I felt a little crazy and decided to make a night of it by going out to a campus bar to watch my extremely talented little brother play in his band Alpine Ghost. His musical talent floors me. How did he get so much and me so little?! I should have stuck with piano at age 9….

I recorded this video –

– for Mario to watch tomorrow because he loves screaming the lyrics like his Uncle Jack!

Taking care

November 21, 2012November 21, 2012Leave a comment

My nephew posted this video on FB yesterday and it immediately lifted my spirits. It’s also so appropriate for this time of year – I’m gonna bike home and give Jon and the bambinos big smooches!

Lamott goodness

November 19, 2012November 19, 2012Leave a comment

I love Anne Lamott.

She tweets “My pastor’s mother Reverend Evie Goines used to tell her, “Peace is Joy at rest. Joy is peace on its feet.”

Simple but celestial. Perfect nugget for a Monday.

Babes in the woods

November 19, 2012November 19, 2012Leave a comment

Jon gave me an early Christmas present yesterday by taking the kids to Dover to see Big Mario and Vicki. I had 20 different ideas on how to spend my day – get a massage, go see a movie, go buy a pair of winter boots. But alas, after working on a project for a non-profit in the morning, I spent 5 hours in the yard raking leaves and planting baby fir in my planters. I loved every minute of it, though. The day was gorgeous with sunny skies and 50 degree weather. After the yard, I had about two hours before the family got home. I splurged on a Wendy’s burger and fries at the drive-thru and took off up north to Michael’s craft store to get some table decor for Thanksgiving. That store is addicting, I’ll tell ya. I have never had a desire to scrapbook but after leaving there, I think I could quit my job and go for it!

Meanwhile, Jon and his two hunters sat in a blind in the woods and waited to see a deer. Ri had been so upset earlier in the morning because Mario kept telling her that she didn’t know how to hunt. She gets her feelings hurt so quickly and bawled after Mario chided her. But Jon stepped in and consoled her and made her laugh as he always does and she had a great time.

Jon sent me this picture of M&M heading out to hunt and I swore it was a photo out of a militia magazine.

They look mean… and ready to do some damage. But I know under that paint and camo, they are gentle babes. I should have gotten a picture of the babes when Jon pulled up at 9 pm. Zonked out like little angels in the backseat.

Gobbling up Fall

November 16, 2012Leave a comment

I love birch trees in the Fall when their leaves have nearly all dropped off and their powerful cream branches shoot up to the sky as if proclaiming “Rejoice, Smile, Be Grateful!”

I also love a little tree on our street that produces the most vibrant red berries, which twist and wind off the dainty branches and twigs possumhaw maybe?). Mario and Ri climb up that little tree and enjoy sitting on the branches as I snap pictures below.

I could swallow up those Fall days with the sun beaming just enough warmth on us that the chill in the air simply serves to keep us alert and ready for new discoveries. We find maple and oak and even poplar leaves (or so we surmise while comparing them to the pictures in our leaf book). We gather acorns. Mario performs a jig for us and we laugh so hard we fall to the grass.

Later, Mario informs us that Nukie, his imaginary friend, died today. He leads us over to the dirt by the trash cans and shows us the grave he built for him. It couldn’t have been more spectacular.

We stood in reverence to sweet Nukie for a few moments, and then began playing again. After a couple of minutes, Mario stopped Ri and I as we gathered leaves.

“Nukie is alive. He is playing over there. He just wanted to trick us!”

We wiped our brows thankful that Nukie was back with us. I asked Mario what he’d do with the grave. He told me we’d leave it there in case we ever needed it. Made complete sense. He understands at age 5 that life in all forms is fleeting, and hence all the more reason to gobble it up in the moment.

"MOM!"

Adventures in the Life of a Working Mama