HeatherA Writes Stuff

This fall has been difficult. Work has been difficult, home has been difficult, helping friends through difficult times as been, well, difficult. This month has been we-didn't-put-up-a-Christmas-tree difficult. But we have made it through the fall semester, and indeed through Christmas. I did less shopping than usual and it worked. The boys had fun opening presents yesterday morning and seemed grateful for what they received (none of which was oriented around video games!). A small bag of catnip, an impulse purchase for the cats' stockings at Target last week, was the surprise hit of the holiday. I don't think I have ever bought a cat a present that they cared even a tiny bit about, much less used and enjoyed. But both cats have been going crazy for the catnip. We put a small pile on the floor and they rub themselves all over it, contorting in all directions to soak as much of the scent into themselves as they can. The family has had many laughs watching them have such a go...

Next spring we will be on sabbatical in Barcelona, Spain. Matt has been eligible for sabbatical for a few years now and I have finally earned one as well. It comes at a good time because Matt has been profoundly disappointed with the trajectory of a major project at work and he needs some time away to refresh and reconnoiter. That is, I guess, just what sabbatical is for. It's a good time for me too as our gigantic NSF grant is coming to and end and we are in the process of transitioning to being supported by the university. The truth is, I'm feeling kind of burnt out myself and a break will be nice. We submitted vague and easy-to-accomplish sabbatical plans, so another truth is that we don't plan to work all that much while we're away. We will make good on our promises, but we will also do a lot of exploring and traveling during our semester away. It will be a family adventure! Everyone wants to know if we are planning to enroll the boys in a Spanish school. The answ...

It is summer! Yes, it is summer and we’ve been hard at work doing the things that working parents who live in an old-ish house do over the summer. We’ve been not going to school (oldest boy skipped the last two days of school due to overexcitabilties), we’ve been graduating from elementary school (that would be the younger boy), we’ve been visiting my family in upstate New York, we’ve been trying to balance work and childcare, and we’ve been seeing Hamilton. You know, the usual. (Obviously, Hamilton was awesome. The tickets were my birthday present from Matt this year.) Also, we’ve been resurfacing the old, ugly, cracked concrete pad where the old, ugly, cracked hot tub used to sit. It is now covered in grey Trex (TM) in an attractive pattern. The wooden deck that abuts the new deck is poop brown, but the colors complement each other. Sort of. We looked at Trex in different browns to try to go closer to the deck color but I could not handle more poop. So much poop. So we went with gr...

Here is Will playing Bert Healy in his middle school production of Annie Jr. He was great! We saw the show on opening night Thursday and again Friday evening. He hammed it up considerably more for the second show. Seeing him open up and be much more comfortable on stage the second night made me happy. I love how much this kid loves doing theater, but his anxiety goes through the roof during performance weeks. On top of that, this year he also has a cold and isn’t sleeping well. It’s been rough for him and rough for the rest of us as well. He has been quick tempered, on the verge of tears, and very, very sensitive. This happens every time he is under unusual pressure so I have been preparing to anticipate his every need and pretty much give him everything he wants. As a consequence, it’s been a struggle to keep the peace between him and his brother, who probably feels relatively under-accommodated in comparison. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it for the artistic experience as well as t...

I am getting closer to understanding how to post pictures here. This picture, to the left, is from October 2017. It shows the aster that we planed in front of our house. Our house, as you can see, is brown. There is no contrasting color in the trim, door, anything. It’s pretty dull on its own. But from spring to fall we have flowers of different colors (trending toward my preferred pinks and purples) that brighten it up. I love how each year the flowers come back fuller and more beautiful than the year before. This picture also shows how grungy our front walkway is. It could use a good power washing, which I will probably do this spring (no, it was not done in 2017 or 2018).  We are talking about going on a sabbatical next spring semester. We are exploring various locations, but Barcelona is a top contender. I have never been especially interested in Spain, and I took French in high school, but the more I read about Barcelona the more perfect it sounds. It’s a large, walkable c...

Sleepovers successful. One at our house, one at a nearby friend’s. It’s damp, gray, and cold outside, which is too bad because I need some outdoor activity. Yesterday in front of the TV was lovely and perhaps needed, but it was enough. Then we had a nice dinner out, followed by the remains of the chocolate-chip cookie disaster and I went to bed so full, which is a feeling that I cannot stand. And just now I ate two pancakes for absolutely no reason except that they looked good. I wasn’t hungry and now I’m full again and I can’t stand it. I want to go out on a trail or at least stretch my legs around a park, but I don’t see it working out. Not with this weather and not with post-sleepover kids. Maybe instead I’ll look for kitchen tables online and see what I can find. Or I’ll play with old photos. I still cannot figure out how blogger access my photos or which ones it chooses. Here’s one made available to me. It seems to be Will at the Starbucks on Limestone Rd. I guess we were rea...

The cat is walking around in circles, waiting for her dinner to drop from the automatic feeder. It is just after 5 so it will come soon and somehow she knows it. Looking out the glass door to the backyard I see the sun is still up, but it’s gray out and the deck is wet. It must have rained in the last couple of hours since we got home from our lunch outing. A dead mosquito plant is still sitting there in its large pot, droopy and brown. I meant to get rid of last fall before the snow fell, but I guess I didn’t get to it. That’s what spring is for—finishing up the stuff that didn’t get done in the fall. The boys are playing video games in the next room. They are speaking cheerfully to each other, for once. The last few weeks, maybe a couple of months now, have been rough between the two of them. The rivalry, the petty arguing, the roughhousing. It’s all been getting to me. I don’t love video-game time, but it is an interest that they share and it keeps the peace on a low-key Saturda...