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Personal Blog of Author Kathryn Thompson

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Archives for September 2008

Please Sir – Buy My Wares

September 30, 2008 by Kathryn

Things have been a little wild around here, me with my head cold, Dan with his stomach flu and the kids with the freedom to run wild through the house. Being the least sick of the two of us, it’s fallen on me to buck up and take care of things which I’ve been doing to an extent. Dan seems to still be living and partially hydrated and I distinctly remember washing at least 2 dishes today and at least looking at the laundry.

Being mostly home-bound, I decided that today was a good day to get my Etsy shop up and running. I’ve been making stuff for a while now and selling and giving it to friends and family but I think it’s time I got my act together and offered it to you good citizens of the interweb.

My most urgent seller right now is the Halloween Boo Bag. It’s perfect for all your Halloween panhandling needs. When you take your kids from door to door begging for food this October, you should do it in style with one of these adorable cotton treat bags. Each bag is made of 100% cotton and tinged with cuteness harvested directly from Magoo’s cheeks.

Tomorrow is Laylee’s big long appointment at Seattle Children’s. She’ll start the day off with a CT Scan and then we’ll be meeting with doctors, audiologists and geneticists to determine what’s the deal with her hearing loss and to find out what our options are. We’ve been waiting for months for this appointment. Wish us luck. A prayer or two couldn’t hurt.

Filed Under: Crafts

Brainiversity – Giveaway

September 28, 2008 by Kathryn

brainiversity

***And the winners are Shaye and CBS! Congrats.***

I often feel that my brain is going to mush. I’ve tried reading Tolstoy, playing Sudoku, taking extended adult naps, brushing my teeth with my non-dominant hand and many other remedies for getting my brain in shape and improving my memory.

None of these were as much fun as playing Brainiversity, a new brain fitness game from Brighter Minds Media. Full of fun little brain stimulating activities, it gets you thinking on your feet and then tracks your progress as you complete daily quizzes.

I was excited about my progress as I continued to improve my scores from day to day. The excitement wore off JUST a titch when Laylee got on my computer to play by clicking on things randomly since she can’t read or do math and earned basically the same score as I had worked my way up to.

I’ll just chalk it up to the fact that she’s likely a child of unparalleled and even freakish genius, not that I am a moron who’s brain is in a state of rapid decay. Hopefully even if the latter is true, I’ll be able to reverse the effects by keeping up my daily brain-ercises.

If you’d like to keep your brain agile enough to help your kids with their homework, leave a comment on this post and I’ll enter you to win one of two copies of the PC-compatible version of the game. I’ll draw a winner on Wednesday at 10pm PST.

Click to Read My Product Review Policy

Filed Under: Reviews and Giveaways

Magoo is Six of Awesome

September 26, 2008 by Kathryn

When describing a mind-bogglingly huge number some people might use words like MILLIONS or BILLIONS but Magoo uses the number SIX. It’s a lot like “six” only a little different. [read more at Parenting.com]

Filed Under: Parenting

If Wishes Were Work Ethic

September 24, 2008 by Kathryn

Sometimes I really wish I were good at laundry. The problem is — I don’t wish it enough to actually make it happen. I’ve known quality laundresses in my day (yes they’ve all been female). I’ve observed them and I’m pretty sure I could become one of them if I really put my mind and my back into it.

To be good at laundry, you have to be a meticulous gatherer. Like a sheepherding dog, you must constantly be yipping at the heels of the dirty clothes piles and at the heels of the people who create them. Sometimes the people yip back but the clothes rarely do and they need to be gathered. Relentlessly. Possibly day and night. The gathering never ceases.

You then have to be a transportation engineer. This is crucial. Once you gather the laundry you have to find the motivation to actually get it down to the room where the washing of the laundry occurs. I’ve thought about putting in a laundry chute to make this a little more fun, that or a dumbwaiter like Webster used to ride in. I could put the whole basket in a dumbwaiter and even jump in there myself if I were feeling particularly lazy, which I never do. I just like to have contingency plans in place.

At this point in my laundry career I just tend to throw the clothes over the banister while looking at my kids and saying, “You know that only mommy gets to throw things or people down the stairs, right?” They see right through my hypocrisy but have yet to question it openly.

Then comes the sorting. To be good at laundry you need to know not only color names but also color/social groups and not every pink shirt belongs in the same group. The color/social groups as I see them are Whites, Volatile Colors, Benign Colors, Magoo’s Underwear, Light Linens, Dark Linens, Nasty Linens and Nobody Cares.

Laylee likes to sort and so does Magoo. One of my children is better at sorting than the other. Hint — It’s the one who does not need an entire laundry category for her underwear. I like them to help when I’m feeling all Mary-Poppinsy and wanting to sing songs and whistle tunes and teach them lessons about life. But let’s be honest, it’s easier to sort myself and this is probably my favorite part of laundry.

I’m also passable at step three, removing lima beans, pens, crayons, lipstick, chapstick, glue stick, pretty much any stick, coins, bobby pins, bowling balls and living creatures from pockets before putting the clothes in the washer.

Next is the part I never do but always wish I had but then never do again because it takes a little something called effort. Pre-treating. The name is misleading because doing this is not a treat. It’s not even foreplay to a treat. It’s just a pain in the glute.

I have a couple of natural stain removers that I like now, Charlie’s All Purpose Cleaner which was suggested by Kath and the Ecover with the built-in brush. They’re both good for different kinds of stains. That being said, I still hate looking for stains and putting the soap on the clothes. There are too many spots and grime and goo everywhere. My kids attract stains like… like…slime on a couple of kids and it drives me crazy. Usually when I’m pre-treating I want to put down the clothes and just go wrap my kids from head to foot in saran wrap with tiny holes for breathing and visibility.

The next part I’ve probably done 8.5 times in my adult life. It’s probably the most important. The next step to being a good laundress is checking the clothes for remaining stains between the washer and dryer so the stains won’t be forever set in. I find this so discouraging because half the stains become camouflaged with the rest of the clothing item when wet. So even if I decide to go crazy and actually do this step, I miss half the stains anyway and my kids end up going to school looking like schlumperly orphans by the second time they wear an outfit out of the house.

Alas, I believe my mom had a special laundry force that allowed her to see these stains with the aura emanating from her fingertips. I can assure you that the aura is not hereditary. Neither is her knack for finding good deals on clothes. Luckily, although she is not available to wash all my children’s clothes, she is willing to act as my personal shopper, keeping new inexpensive raiment coming so that once a week they can wear something that is not stained until it is.

Filed Under: Aspirations

Never Boring

September 24, 2008 by Kathryn

I guess it depends on your definition of boring. Here’s a little snapshot of my life:

Word on the street is that these dolls barely escaped when a fire began raging in the wooden prison where they were being held captive.
barely escaped

Some people find rocks in their dryer. I just found a lima bean in my washing machine.

This morning I dropped Laylee off at the front door of her school, the kids’ favorite song YMCA blaring on my car radio. She looked so proud to have such a hip fly mom. I bawled as I pulled away knowing it won’t be long now until she’s no longer proud of her mom blaring disco tunes from the tinny speakers in her dorky old car. Yes. YMCA brought me to tears.

I also cried as I talked to my spinning instructor this morning asking her to check my form because if something doesn’t change, I’m going to need to drop the class due to raging joint pain. Real tears. To a woman of steel. Who hugged me right there in the gym and told me that in the past 5 years she dropped down from 230 lbs and she knows where I’m coming from. Next class she’ll be biking right next to me checking my form.

FOR THE LOVE, the TEARS! Followed by the Elaine-esque spasmodic dancing in my house after my kids were out the door for school. I haven’t had a personal dance party like that since college. If I don’t have my period soon, I think my hormones may implode.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Tech Vader at the Gym

September 22, 2008 by Kathryn

Well I just wouldn’t be me if I didn’t take my techie nerdesty into the gym. I find that the more technological equipment I can strap to my person, the better I feel about the whole workout experience.

It started with tunes. I find it nearly impossible to work out without a good mix of sweatastic jams. And the mix has to be perfect. I spend weeks tweaking the mix, adding songs, deleting them, taking them for test runs and then adding and deleting some more from my MP3 player. Just when I think I’ve found the perfect mix, I get bored with it and start the whole process over again.

When I’m in my spinning class, the instructor picks the music and I actually don’t mind it. I think of her songs as stationary biking songs and my music as everything else music. And she does a pretty good job, serving as both freakishly awesome teacherly person and DJ simultaneously. On International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I greeted her in Piratese and asked that she conduct the day’s class in a manner befitting the occasion. Glad that I had reminded her of the holiday, she pulled from her CD wallet a disc entitled “Pirate Mix.” I kid you not. The first song was from the soundtrack of that one Johnny Depp pirate movie. The name escapes me… And we all let loose with a hearty “Arrrr Mateys!” and when the going got rough, we suggested that our instructor walk the plank if she felt so inclined.

Tunes ARRRRRR important. I keep my MP3 player strapped to my arm with a black band. It’s a cheap 1 gigger but I’m dreaming of the new Zune. Am I the only one who loves the Zune in all its hotness? Also, I ask you all why you are not downloading all of your music from the Zune site. It’s cheaper than iTunes and comes in a more versatile format, playable on all kinds of devices. If you have iTunes software, it will convert your Zune files into iPod-accessible format in a jiffy so you can play your songs anywhere.

Next in my oh-so-important Darth Vader-like arsenal of life-sustaining workout devices is my heart monitor. I lerve it so greatly. With that strap around my chest and that watch on my wrist I can always see how fast my heart is going so I know if I’m getting a decent workout or not. There are times when I look around the gym and feel like an over-sized mollusk, schlumping my way along on the treadmill and then I look at my heart rate monitor and see that I’m actually getting quite a nice workout. So I take heart and keep on keepin’ on. When I’m stronger and have shed a few layers of myself, there will be time for running like a gazelle. For now, I’ll settle for mollusk if it’s getting me where I need to be.

Truly I used to get so frustrated with my speed compared to everyone else around me. Now I just compare my speed today with my speed yesterday. It’s been 3 weeks and I already have to work much harder to keep my heart rate where it needs to be for a good cardio workout. It’s encouraging and the monitor helps me notice the teeny little baby steps I’m making.

A word of advice — if you’re going to get a heart rate monitor, spend the extra money and get one with a chest strap that keeps constant track of your heart rate. Attempting to save money, I originally bought one for $40 at Target that required me to stop moving and put my free hand on the watch to make a complete circuit in order for it to read my pulse. It was a big waste of money and really frustrating to use. Strangely enough, I found a decent Reebok chest strap monitor on Woot a few months later for $19.95. It works great and I love it.

The third piece of equipment that really keeps me going is my pedometer. I’d used one in the past and didn’t know what the big deal was with counting steps. Mine wasn’t accurate and I forgot to keep track so I could compare my activity levels from day to day. The one I have now, a $30 model from Omron, rests in my pocket or clips onto my belt and keeps really accurate track of how much I’m moving. It has a digital display that calculates number of steps, number of aerobic steps and distance traveled based on me entering the average length of my stride. It keeps track of 7 days worth of data at any one time, resetting itself automatically at midnight. I wear it to work out and try to beat my step record from the previous day.

Then I continue to wear it throughout the day, trying to log as many steps as possible. I have chosen to walk 2 or more miles to meetings just so I can see a higher number on the pedometer. The moral of the story is, if I make fitness a game, I’m much more likely to get on board and stay there.

Filed Under: Technology

Sparring

September 19, 2008 by Kathryn

I’ve decided there are ways I can make money off this whole preschool gig. [read more]


Read more at the Parenting Post

Filed Under: Education, Parenting

Talk Like a Pirate Day

September 19, 2008 by Kathryn

AHOY!

Ellie and I want to remind you to talk like a pirate today. ‘Tis good for the soul, mateys! So grab some grog and let loose with a hearty “YO HO” because a pirate’s life is the only life for me.

-Kathryn “Arrrrr” Daring

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Fat Oprah and Me

September 17, 2008 by Kathryn

I’ve never been much of an athlete. I did some pathetic gymnastics in elementary school and junior high. I loved it but I wasn’t exactly one of the girls the instructors spent any extra time on. They didn’t see me as an investment. Therefore I didn’t see me as an investment but I sure loved wearing my team hoodie around.

For years I tried out for every sports team there was, volleyball, basketball, badminton. I never made the first cut and eventually demoralized I gave up on the possibility that I might have some latent physical abilities just waiting to be discovered. It’s sad that I gave up so completely on that side of myself, sad because it marked the beginning of the end of my belief that I could do or be anything, sad because it launched me into a lifelong pattern of neglecting and ignoring my physical fitness.

In college I was average-sized but I’ve never been fit. I remember being mortified when someone would suggest a weekend hike, knowing that although I had a normal body weight, I’d be huffing and puffing up the hill, slowing down the group and unable to keep up with everybody else. I saw fit people, really athletic people, as somehow intrinsically different from me, somehow better.

I’ve gained a lot of weight through the years and on Labor Day this year I saw a number on the scale that really scared me, one of those lines I swore I’d never cross, one of those weights that “other” people see on the scale, people I smile at and feel sorry for. We want to have more kids but my body in its current state would have quite a hard time with the stress of pregnancy. I have frequent back and joint pain and I’m always telling the kids I can’t hold them because I’m too tired or my back’s too sore. Magoo will even ask me in the morning, “Mommy. Kin you carry me or is your back too hurting?”

Sure I weigh more now, but honestly this is not much different than the way I’ve lived most of my life, not being able to do many of the things I want to do because I’m too weak, soft and uncoordinated. Now I’ve been working out sporadically with some wonderful friends for about year, doing big events and getting the little boosts of self confidence I needed to bring me to the point where I was on Labor Day when I finally snapped.

I dusted off a copy of Bob Green’s 12-Week Total Body Makeover that was sitting on my shelf full of health and fitness books I buy to change my life and then give up on when I realize that a book can’t change my life. Only I can do that. I read through it in the car on the way home from Montana and I formulated a plan. For 12 weeks I would treat myself like an athlete training for a major event. Dan was happy to support me and so I began.

I’ve always been afraid to use the weights at the gym, not knowing how to use them and too intimidated to ask anyone so the week after Labor Day I threw my last inch of pride to the wind and headed to the gym with a water bottle and my book, bearing a picture of Fat Oprah on the back cover. I shamelessly poured over the instructions from Bob Green and then read the fine print on the weight machine itself and then took a look back at the Fat Oprah book. I did this for 3 days and found I had the hang of it. I could leave Fat Oprah at home in peace while I went about my rehearsed routine.

Now I’m working out 6 days a week, 6 sessions of cardio, one yoga session and 3 days of weight training. For the first time in my life I’m in a steady workout groove and I can. not. believe. how fast my body is changing. I’m not dropping a ton of weight but I feel completely different. I am stronger. I have WAY more energy and patience and for the first time in my adult life I have hope that if I really want to, I can do anything I want to physically.

I’ve been putting off blogging about this because like most people no matter how far I come there will always be a little bit of Fat Oprah waiting to pop out. I get the feeling that no matter how thin, beautiful and successful she is, there’s always that Fat Oprah in the back of her mind telling her that that’s who she really is, that she’s gonna give up this farce of fitness and any day go back to her old ways. again.

And I do. I feel scared. Every morning when I get up at 5 or 6 to head to the gym for a grueling workout, there’s part of me that wants to give up or that reminds me I’m still that little girl who got laughed off the volleyball court. And I am still covered with a layer of fat that feels ever-so-slightly out of place at the gym, in my spinning class full of hard bodies, in my yoga class full of former instructors who can bend themselves into human pretzels.

But then there’s a bigger part of me that feels so proud and happy and strong and I just want to share with the world how great I feel. Yesterday when I picked up Magoo, I was shocked at how light he felt. I wondered if his picky eating had finally resulted in some toddler weight loss. Then I caught sight of my suddenly existent tricep in the mirror and thought, “Nope. He feels light because I’m an athlete and because I’ve shoved my own personal Fat Oprah in my sock drawer and I’m not letting her out any time soon.”

Filed Under: Aspirations

The Phantom Experience — According to Dan

September 15, 2008 by Dan

Yeah. That guy’s pretty much a freak show.

Filed Under: Around Town, Reviews and Giveaways

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