just a thought

thinking and writing and thinking. what untold stories do you have?

2015 weekly menu #24

this time of year there is a lot of end of the year celebrations. the kids' school put on a volunteer breakfast last week. notre dame mother's guild had a dinner for all of the moms. this week we have end of the year parties for each class. good food all the time.

we are all looking forward to wrapping up the year and getting on with our summer.

weekend eats
saturday: tacos
sunday: dinner with our friends: grilled skirt steak and peach crisp

making this week
monday: greek feta turkey burgers, salad
tuesday: grilled chicken tacos, salad
wednesday: class parties
thursday: bbq chicken quesadillas
friday: eat out

here's to the last few days of school.

jordan's sophomore year

jordan is finishing up his first week of summer vacation. it's been an amazing year for him and it's hard to believe he is halfway through his high school career.

we were talking the other day on the way home from swim practice and i asked him if there was one word that he could think of to summarize the year. he said it was commitment.

he showed a tremendous amount of commitment in everything that he did and he has a productive year to show for it.

his first day as a sophomore feeling a little more confident and comfortable. he carried a tough course load and excelled and struggled this year. he maintained a high gpa and received maxima cum laud honors at the end of the year. we always joke that the academic portion of his day is smaller than the extra curricular part of his day. but he takes his studies seriously, always has. he knows that school is the most important part of his time at nd.

 his heart lies with the band. through summer band camp and long rehearsals he absolutely loves being a part of this amazing organization. there was a new band director this year and things changed a little bit. but jordan was committed to learning the pieces and worked hard to keep the program up to the high standard that the previous director had created.

he went to every football game, parade and festival and took each one seriously. these kids work really hard and sacrifice a lot of free time to be a part of the band.

his pride for what he does is impressive. he goes to the band room any time he can to practice, and it didn't go unnoticed.

he is waiting to hear from the teacher if he will get the lead snare spot next year. it's looking promising but he hasn't gotten the final word. either way, we look forward to hearing him play the nd victory march again.

he was committed to the water polo team. he went into it hoping that it would be a positive experience. it stinks that water polo and football are during the same season. his responsibilities to the band made it hard to do both. he would sacrifice a band practice to be at a water polo game and vice versa.  the games were exciting and he definitely improved over the season but his heart was just not in it. he couldn't wait for the season to be over. he told me that water polo taught him what it meant to work hard and to give 100% every time. we would have pep talks along the way, especially when he was disappointed by his performance or his feedback from the coaches. it's a tough sport during a tough time. he's happy he did it but he's even happier it's over.

swim team was a different story. this year he saw it as something he wanted to do instead of something he had to do and he saw big changes. i think a lot had to do with the friendships he made on the team. but he was more serious about swimming this year and about setting goals and working toward them. he pr'd in all of his events and hopes that qualifies him to be on varsity next year. he never missed a practice and kept going after the season ended. he even asked to join a swim club so he could train during the summer and fall. we are looking forward to seeing what he accomplishes next year.

he spent hours in the winter perfecting his twisty puzzle skills. he wanted to enter some rubiks competitions to see how he did against the big guys, and some small guys. this is his time on a 2x2 puzzle. the 3x3 one takes him a little longer to finish, 18 seconds.

 he committed to going through the confirmation program at church. he wasn't always on top of the meeting dates and requirements, and it took some reminding, but he made it through.

i think what really stood out for him this year were the friendships he made. he found that group of friends that support and encourage and cheer each other on. it was so fun to watch.

and in his free time(?!) - he committed to playing with encore, the band he has with his cousin. they didn't play many events but the corechella event was the biggie. they were so excited to get to play at chris' high school fundraiser and they sounded better than ever. chris graduated from high school this year and is moving away to college. it's going to be hard on them to have to split up the band but we know there will be a reunion show when chris comes home.

he took a practice test for the sat's and then he started getting letters, brochures, post cards and mailings from colleges. i had to pull this one out of the stack because well, it's stanford. he hasn't been thinking much about college until now. he knows that next year he will have to focus on where he wants to go and what he wants to study. it's all so exciting yet nerve racking. hopefully we will find a way to make it easier on all of us.

and this year he was just a teenager. playing video games, sleeping in and listening to his iPod. he still likes to hang out with us and talks to me about his day. he stays home when he's not at school but i can see that changing in the next two years.

this summer he is swimming, drumming and marching in the back yard. he already has assignments for his ap classes and he hopes to get his driver's license.

looking through the photos of the year i realized how quickly time passes. i am doing my best to enjoy every moment but i know the next two years will go by so fast.

everyday in may recap

it's done. a goal i set and a goal i achieved.

what worked

• planning my posts ahead of time. looking at my calendar and knowing what was coming up and what i could write about.
• staying flexible. i started with some ideas and used sticky notes to work out the weeks. but i moved the sticky notes all over the calendar depending on my mood, inspiration or time i could devote.
• consistent posts like menu on monday, just a thought on tuesday and 5 things on sunday. those are  easy to plan around.
• no excuses. even if the post went up at 4:30pm on a saturday,  even if i thought no one was going to care if i missed a day, i was not going to let a day go by without writing. this was something i set my mind to.

what i would like to do differently

• write my posts ahead of time. i would love to get posts written and ready to post before the day they are posted. i've done it before but it takes planning.
• photos. i need to have a better set up for taking photos of things.  my house doesn't get a lot of sunlight so i'm always struggling with exposure and correcting on my computer.
• variety. i'm not a food blogger but i like to write about food. i'm not a photographer but i like to take photos. i'm not a professional crafter but i like diy projects. maybe i need to focus on one thing...or maybe not. i don't think i fit into one category and not sure i need to.
• my writing style. i find myself using the same techniques over and over - read bullets and repeated words. it's time to change things up around here.

what i got out of it

• overall i call this a success. it was a practice that i did everyday. i can look at my archives and see 31 posts in may. i only had 8 in april, so that's progress.
• i saw what people responded to. it was interesting looking at the stats over the last month.  the most read post was this one. if i didn't post a link to facebook i didn't get very many readers. only a few people read this one but it was one of my favorites.
• it inspired me to write more. i was constantly thinking about writing and what ideas i could come up with. i looked for inspiration and read and listened to anything that would give me that.
• accomplishment. like running a marathon or planning an event or having summer goals, this gave me something to shoot for and work towards. i don't think every piece was genius but i was honest and i captured thoughts and details of our lives. that was the goal. 

is blogging a dying art? i guess it depends on why you do it. for me it's about telling our story, that's why i will continue to do it. i found lots more stories i want to tell.

our weekend in photos

let's start with friday. the kids had their student showcase at school. cha is currently a candidate school for the international baccalaureate program. for the last six weeks they have been studying units of inquiry and on friday they presented their findings to the parents and other school mates.

andrew did a presentation on redesigning one of the classrooms to function as an idea lab for the middle school. they had to meet with the head of middle school and the head master to determine the needs and budget of the space.  then the group researched learning environments, furniture, technology and ergonomics to come up with their proposals. they created the space using minecraft.

he also did a presentation on the renaissance period, which i heard was amazing and a music presentation where they asked the question, is there any bad music?

sofia's class created a mini society. they came up with a pledge of allegiance, their own currency, laws and jobs for each member of the society.  sofia was elected mayor of the society and had to govern and take a leadership role - she loved it.

then they stimulated their economy by opening the market where each student "sold" a good or service.

sofia taught yoga lessons. she came up with her concept, had business cards made and gave out mint brownies to her customers.

i love the ib concept and appreciate that this was student driven, takes a lot of the pressure off the parents. i'm looking forward to attending the graduation next week. the 8th grade students got to design the graduation themselves.

and of course on friday we went to tgifridays.

and had queso dip.

saturday bobby took andrew and sofia to the school camp out. they went to castaic with other families from school and had fun climbing trees, playing with bottle rockets and roasting s'mores.

jordan and i slept in our comfy beds and celebrated my brother's birthday. on sunday we went to breakfast and church with my parents.

andrew had a game in the afternoon while jordan and i went to his swim banquet. so much good food.

and these gorgeous cupcakes.

they handed out awards to the league winners, academic athletes and individual awards to some students.

jordan won the most inspirational swimmer award for the boys' jv team. the coach talked about how he always came to practice ready to work and with a good attitude. he wanted to train with the varsity boys to push himself. he did well in the races and was always looking for ways to improve his time. and even after the season was over he continued to come to the pool with his friend eddie who was training for cif finals. eddie won most inspirational swimmer for the boys' varsity team. he is an outstanding young man and has been a good mentor and friend to jordan. and he's almost 7 feet tall!

jordan with the coaches and one of our friends - she won the coach's award for the girls' varsity team.

sunday night we settled into bed to watch game of thrones, o.m.g! what an episode. no spoilers here but there is one scene that i can't stop thinking about.

it was a great end to a really good month.

2015 summer goals

is it already time to talk about summer? hard to believe but summer has started for jordan and it's just 1 week away for the other kids. i'd better have a plan if i want to keep them entertained.

ok, the list is more adult friendly than kid friendly, but trust me they will have lots of fun too.

i didn't state the obvious:

• lots of pool time
• pajama days
• drink water
• go to the movies
• have playdates
• go to disneyland

these are always on our summer lists. but here's some new ones.

• venture out of the valley for restaurants, shops and things to do & places to hike. huntington library, museums downtown, rooftop restaurants. here's a good list to work from.
• visit the library with the kids. this is something we don't do at all. we all have library cards, let's put them to good use. and i have quite a list going of books to read.
• plan get togethers with the ladies. i always manage to plan playdates for the kids in the summer but i want to do some girls' night out too. maybe a cooking class or one of the paint parties or a book club. 
• get 10,000 steps a day. anything goes; hikes, running, after dinner walks with the kids, cycling, yoga, etc.
• go to a beer, wine, or food festival. summer is the right time for hanging out outside with hundreds of people sipping, tasting and enjoying the summer.
• lots of camping. we don't have a big summer vacation planned as of yet so we are looking at taking a bunch of long weekends and getting out into nature. campsites are tough to find at this point but we're going to try.
• start a technology token/ticket system with the kids. we talked about this yesterday. they get a certain number of tickets or tokens each week and they can spend them all at once or spread them out throughout the week. interested to see if this works and cuts down on the complaining when it's time to shut off the games and iPads.
• plan a weekend getaway with bobby. we haven't gone away in a while. but cabo is sounding really good to both of us.
• go to outdoor concerts. i have one on my calendar already and the hollywood bowl has some awesome shows coming up.
• brew real coffee. i love my keurig. but summertime means less rush in the morning and maybe a little extra time to learn about making a good cup of joe.
• create a summer cocktail. something we can call our own and that we will enjoy sipping on a hot summer evening.  

jordan

• swim club - he started swimming with a club this week and is loving it so far. he wants to keep in shape to make varsity next year.
• drumming - he does it for hours outside, walking around with his snare drum and marching. 
• learn to drive - despite my anxiety he's got to get his license. don't worry i won't teach him.

andrew

• perfecting his nerf gun, video game and role playing skills. i see a lot of nerdy game nights in the summer.
• golf camp. we think he'll enjoy learning a new sport and his baseball swing will help. 
• prep for his last year at cha. he needs to do some serious thinking about high school.

sofia

• learn how to skateboard. again my anxiety might hold her back a bit but she really wants to learn.
• playdates with her friends. they love spending time together.
• swim. she would spend her entire summer in the pool if we let her. and she really wants one of these.

that should keep us busy for a while, right?

2015 weekly menu #23

this is what our sunday breakfast table looks like.

i'm hoping to change things up this month, again. i've fallen back into some bad habits and i need to correct them now so it doesn't get anymore out of hand.  i just want to clean things up a bit and be more prepared, like having cut up fruit in the fridge for snacking, drink more water and not go to the grocery store everyday.

feeling motivated this week but we have an interesting week ahead.

weekend eats
saturday: chicken tostadas for my brother's birthday
sunday: pot luck at the swim banquet, bobby and the kids had pizza

making this week
monday: eat out or something quick i can pick up at trader joe's
tuesday: teriyaki glazed grilled pork chops with pineapple salsa (skinnytaste cookbook), vegetable fried brown rice
wednesday: pizza party for andrew's baseball team
thursday: crock pot chicken tacos - nd mother's guild dinner for me
friday: graduation party

i see peaches, fruit water and grilled vegetables in our near future.