Author Archives: michellereitemeyer

12.04.06
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My cough

I’ve had a cough for three weeks now. It’s been more annoying than anything else, but last week, I also started to feel short of breath and very lethargic. Sick? Me? The cough was bad enough to actually get mentioned in conversation with my sister (who suggested bronchitis) and with my mother (a RN and my personal health line who suggested a trip to the doctor). So I went to the doctor.

I hate going to the doctor. Especially when the diagnosis is basically we-don’t-know-why-you’re-coughing-here’s-a-drug-to-make-you-stop. I hate taking drugs. I’ve been pregnant or nursing for 9 years now, and basically anything and everything is not recommended to take while your body provides nutrition for another body.

And yes, I’m still nursing that 17 month old who is at that obnoxious, demanding and possessive stage that signals to me it’s time to start seriously weaning him.

“What is your plan to wean him?” asks my skeptical husband as we debate the prescription drugs sitting on the table near me.

“I’m already working on it,” I claim. He cocks his eyebrows in doubt. “It’s a gradual process.”

I asked the doctor if the cough would go away untreated. “It’s been three weeks,” she said. I agree that three weeks can seem like an eternity, but it’s really not.

We talked about possible causes – something triggered the cough. A cold? Maybe, I can’t remember that long ago (it seems like an eternity). An allergen? Maybe, we did start closing all the windows and turning on the heat, and I have a bad habit of starting fires in the kitchen which generate smoke.

Bill and I decided that changing the air filters in the house was a good idea. It had been about a month since he replaced the 30 day filters with other 30 day filters. We went to Home Depot and bought “up to three months” filters with extra allergen filtering capability. They are a bit more expensive than the standard 30 day filters. We also bought an air freshener that goes right on the filter. Right now my house smells delightfully like cinnamon. Cool. But probably releasing an irritant into the air with every cycle of the heater!

And for the cough? I’m taking the one medication at night after Pete goes to sleep and skipping the morning dose. I’m a really bad patient. But I am noticing an improvement – not only am I coughing less, but my minute per mile pace is getting better – not good, just better. Yeah, I’m sick, but I’m still going for my morning run when I’m motivated to do so. Not only am I a bad patient, I’m an annoying sick person too. See, look at me! I’m sick but I’m running two miles anyway. And making dinner, and doing the dishes and tending to the needs of the whole family. And you think you can spend the day in bed because you have a witty bitty cold?

Ah, time to go to work now. I’ll consider being sick some other time. Perhaps when I hire a nanny and a governess and a cook.

12.04.06
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Happy New Year…

…liturgically speaking.

If you haven’t already visited the Catholic Homeschool Carnival at O Night Divine it is definitely worth the time – homeschooler or not. The Advent ideas are fantastic. I’m taking a clue from Love2Learn Mom and have added Advent tasks to our paper chain countdown. My kids’ tasks are things like making Christmas cards for different people on different days (our pastor, soldiers at Walter Reed), saying prayers for people who are sick or lonely, and taking canned goods to a food bank.

On Friday night, I made the usual mistake of getting all the Advent decorations out at once. So now I feel like I live in a holiday debris field. Tomorrow we will get to work and find seasonal homes for the Jesse Tree, the Christmas books, the perpetual Advent calendars, the nativity sets. We’ll hide Jesus, set up the kings in a faraway land and put Mary, Joseph and donkey en route to the stable.

I’ve just about completed the gift shopping for Christmas. I think if I take a few hours without kids to go shopping, I can take care of a few minor details and be done. We were out today running errands, and I’m glad I did most of the shopping online – oh, the lines, the attitudes! I’ve made my to-do list, and now I just need to schedule the baking and cleaning and wrapping and decorating. If the kids ever go to bed tonight, I hope to make some chocolates. A few years ago, I decided that Christmas and Easter warranted special treats – Hershey Kisses just weren’t good enough: too ordinary. At that time, there was a specialty chocolate shop near me, and I bought at least one treat for everyone. But they went out of business and left me hanging, so I started making my own. It’s actually really easy, really fun, and an act of love.

This will be a busy week. Tomorrow, Katie’s Little Flowers group has a craft co-op which means a big playdate for the kids with another family who’s daughter is in the group (we play while the girls are at the meeting). And then Tuesday afternoon, this same family will come over for a St. Nicholas Vigil Feast Day party.

I’m telling myself I really need to let go of the school cirriculum this month. I’ve always derived much comfort from “checking the blocks” – from doing everything listed on the to-do list of school work. But that’s not why I homeschool. I chose homeschooling so I could celebrate the Church seasons in all their glory first and foremost and not as an afterthought. Tis the season to prepare our hearts and minds and homes for the beautiful celebration of Christ’s birth. Math should be the afterthought, not the Jesse Tree. We can learn about Henry Hudson in January – really, we can. This month should be St. Nicholas and St. Lucy and Our Lady of Guadalupe and delivering cookies to a neighbor with no kids at home and buying some presents for those who have little money. It is as hard for me to do this (let go of the cirriculum) as it is for me to sit still for my 15 minute daily rest. But my heart tells me it is right and that spelling can wait…as long as the kids are learning and doing all these things with me.

And so it begins. May this new Church year be a holy one for us all.

And as a post script…for some reason Blogger is no longer showing the WYSIWYG editor for posting or editing. All those links above were done in HTML instead of with the little icons that make life so much easier. What gives? Anyone have any clue what is going on?

12.01.06
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New Month’s Resolution for December

In this hectic month of planning, shopping, decorating, and baking, I resolve that every day at some point between the hours of 2 and 4 pm, I will rest for 15 minutes. I will make a cup of hot tea with lemon and put on some nice music. I think I have a CD of Advent themed Gregorian chants which will be perfect.

I will not address Christmas cards at this time. I will not flip through cook books. And I will do everything I can to turn off the nagging voice that constantly adds things to my mental to-do list.

What’s your new months’ resolution? What is a new month’s resolution?

12.01.06
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Decorating for the holidays

Even though my husband is military, he works in an ordinary office building in an ordinary, mixed-zoning neighborhood. You might think his office was just any other civilian office building.

Except that the entrance is gated. And the guards are armed. And you have to show – not one, but – two forms of ID to get in, one of which they confiscate until you leave. And they inspect your bags to make sure you don’t have bombs hidden between the diapers and the wipes. And the majority of workers bees running around are dressed in camouflage.

Except for those minor details, it’s just an ordinary office building.

And like lots of ordinary office buildings, they are decorating for the holidays. There is a decorating contest for the different sections or departments. Last year, my husband’s office (the one he is in right now, not the one he was in last year) nearly won. They are determined to take the blue ribbon this time.

The theme is something about supporting the soldier and his/her family no matter where in the world they are (I’m sure someone came up with much nicer phraseology than that, but I don’t know what it is). The entrance to my husband’s section is pretty big, so they have lots of physical room in which to work. They’ve decided on one side of their big foyer to have a living room scene with a Christmas tree, cookies for Santa, stockings hung with care. Only it’s obvious that Dad is deployed. Maybe the letters to Santa ask him to bring dad home safely. Maybe there is an overseas package with wrapped gifts for the kids and notes from Dad saying he wishes he were there. There’s a photo of dad in uniform.

Are you crying yet? No? You’ve never had your husband deployed, have you?

Well, it gets worse. On the other side of the room, will be a scene depicting the soldier’s Christmas away from home. Ruck sack, boots, mini-tree, mini-nativity set, care package from home.

I have to go to his office in a few weeks for the Holiday party. I really don’t think I’ll look at the decorations.

I offered to have the kids draw pictures for “Daddy” away from home for Christmas. Blogger won’t let me upload their drawings right now, but they each took to the task with gusto.

But Billy, my sweet Billy…when given the assignment, he excitedly described his plans for what to draw. “I’m going to show Dad in battle with all the bad guys dead!!!”

“NO! No blood and guts in the Christmas picture! No, no, no!”

He paused while he thought about that.

“But Mom…red is a Christmas color, right?”

Oh. My.

He drew a house with Santa landing on the roof. And seven presents under the tree, plus an 8th wrapped dog bone.

Maybe later I’ll post the pictures.

11.30.06
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Crinkled Molasses Cookies

Although I usually post recipes on another page, Danielle Bean plans to host a Christmas cookie carnival, and it makes more sense to put this recipe here. The recipe is from Cookies! A Cookie Lover’s Collection. I wish all cook books came with full color photos of the final product like this one does. Years ago, Bill came home from work after shopping at a book fair and told me he had gotten me a present. I took one look and asked if he got it for me or for him. It doesn’t matter now; everybody here loves this book. The kids pore over it like it was a toy catalog.

1 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup light molasses
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
granulated sugar

Heat oven to 350 deg. In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 cup sugar, shortening, molasses and egg. Beat at medium speed until well blended. Add flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Beat at low speed until soft dough forms.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes, or until set. Cool completely before storing. Freezes well. Makes 5 dozen.

11.29.06
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The Birthday Meme

I was tagged by SFO Mom. As an aside, I despise Wikipedia, but I’ll play anyway.

Here’s how you play:

1) Go to Wikipedia
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday
4) List two important birthdays and one death
5) One holiday or observance (if any)

My birthday is April 7th.

3 events:

1805 – First public performance of Beethoven’s Third Symphony (Eroica).
1906 – Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
1933 – Prohibition was repealed for beer of no more than 3.2% alcohol by weight (or 4% by volume), eight months before the ratification of XXI amendment.

2 important birthdays:

1506 – Saint Francis Xavier, Spanish founder of the Society of Jesus (d. 1552)
1954 – Jackie Chan, Hong Kong actor

1 death:

30- Jesus according to the Bible (Do you see why I hate Wikipedia? I mean, really…what Bible says that Jesus died on April 7th, 30? Are there dates in your Bible? What calendar are they using?)

Holiday/observance:

World Health Day – April 7th of every year is designated as World Health Day and celebrated by the 191 member countries of the World Health Organization to emphasize significant issues in public health of worldwide concern. Observed annually since 1948.

You’re it!

Celeste
Sarah

11.29.06
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It’s never too late to say thank you

On Thanksgiving day, our doorbell and phone both rang at the same time. Since the Caller ID said Private Name Private Number, we ignored the phone and focused our attention on our first guest to arrive. But when one minute later the phone rang again with Private Name Private Number, my instincts (my curiosity) told me to answer it.

It was our friend, Perry, calling from Afghanistan to wish us a pleasant Thanksgiving. Well, actually, he wasn’t calling for us, he was calling for his family, who he hoped was at our house. Although we expected them soon, they were, unfortunately, not the first guests arriving just then.

I passed Perry off to Bill right after I confirmed that this was indeed a wretched Thanksgiving for him. I don’t envy him at all. It is hard to be a single mom and hold the fort down while Uncle Sam sends your husband away for a year. There were many times I longed for a vacation and thought Bill was the lucky one since he didn’t have to deal with the insanity that was (still is) my life. But honestly, never ever ever would I choose to be apart from my children for a year. Too much happens in that time, and I don’t know how I could bear the pain of missing it.

Now, a weekend away…that sounds really nice…

Besides Perry’s family, we also had my friend Stacy and her children here. Stacy’s husband is in Afghanistan, too. I was very happy to be able to host this dinner for these friends. I’d have hosted every deployed soldiers’ family in the area if my home and budget were big enough. I’m not happy that they need to be hosted; I’m just happy if I can distract them for a few hours.

Growing up, it was a tradition to go around the table during Thanksgiving dinner and list the things for which we were most thankful. For the past 8 years, I’ve been able to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, and we continued to do it. I’m willing to bet that my sister, her family and my parents did it last Thursday as usual. That’s what makes it a tradition.

I considered carrying on the tradition here this year as well. But then I thought of my guests, and I really didn’t want them to have to offer a litany of their blessings. The emotions are too high, and the setting – with Bill’s parents, brother, sister, and aunt here as well – wasn’t appropriate for that potential mine field. So, we gathered everyone in the kitchen where the buffet was assembled and offered the traditional Catholic blessing before meals with no extemporaneous ramblings before freeing the guests to fill their plates. I walked away to attend to something, and Stacy came up, gave me a quick hug and thanked me for being a good friend. The rapidity with which she dashed off to get some food for her little ones affirmed that public displays of thanksgiving would not have been a good idea.

Although I am sad that our military is deployed, and I’m not certain we’re accomplishing much, I am very thankful that we have a proud military who voluntarily sacrifices so much for so very little personal recompense. And even if they don’t seem to make a difference in Afghanistan or in Iraq, they do make a difference here in the United States. We are so accustomed to freedom here and so very oblivious to the conditions under which the vast majority of the world lives. We debate tax codes for churches while citizens of other nations pray they don’t get caught worshipping in a manner in which they choose. We rally against censorship if a library wants to put filters on computers to prevent children from seeing pornography while citizens of other nations are arrested for simply owning a Bible. And we owe these freedoms, not to political activists who lobbied for changes and had sit-ins and hunger strikes, but to soldiers who fought and died for it. And while activists may keep the public aware of dangers from within our own society who seek to destroy our freedoms, it is our military which prevents forces from without from forcing us to live in constant fear.

I am also thankful for these military families who manage to keep on with life despite the hardship of deployment. We have an all-volunteer military only because of supportive families and strong women like Stacy and Perry’s wife, Kim.

But most of all, thank you, dear Lord in Heaven above, that it’s not my husband over there right now. I am so very grateful to have him here at home.

11.28.06
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Jump ropes

Recently, the kids have been singing:

Cinder-ella
Dressed in yella
Went upstars to kiss a fella
Made a mistake
Kissed a snake
How many doctors did it take?
1…2…3…4…5…

I think I taught this rhyme to Fritz years ago, and he must have pulled it from the deep recesses of his memory. In my neck of the woods growing up, it was a jump rope rhyme, usually sung by the two girls holding the ends of a long rope while the girl or two in the middle tried to break the record and jump to the highest count.

The only times I remember jumping rope during recess were the two years I attended a Catholic school in Canton, Ohio – second and third grade. There was no playground. The little kids (like me) played in a concrete courtyard, and the older kids played on the asphalt parking lot. There were balls and jump ropes, and that’s it. No slides, no swings, no basketball hoops. We were highly encouraged to expend vast amounts of energy by jumping rope (mostly by the girls) or running in some sort of game with balls (mostly by the boys). I don’t remember feeling deprived or bored. I also don’t remember any public school I attended having jump ropes. They all had playgrounds.

Bill went to Catholic schools from 1st through 12th grades. Same deal: jump ropes or balls on an asphalt parking lot for recess. But he says they took the ball away because the boys were getting too sweaty. Yeah.

Fondly recalling those jump rope days and inspired by my kids Cinderella chanting, I went online and found these playground jump ropes just like the ones from those Catholic school days, but with lighter beads. I bought them as stockings stuffers – one for each of my 4 older kids. I also bought a “Double Dutch” set, so my kids can play together.

I’ve got an asphalt alley behind my house. Next up: plaid jumpers and navy slacks, and SMARTY PANTS will have a professional air.

Does anybody recall any jump rope rhymes from their childhood? I’d like to have a full repertoire to teach the kids.

11.27.06
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Football, running and coffee creamer

Although it is painfully clear who won the Bengals – Browns game yesterday, I’m not certain who won the Bengals – Packers game played in my backyard around the same time. Both my boys seemed to have sustained minor abrasions. Billy, for once, was excited to see his own blood pouring from his lip. My suggestion that they tone down their tackle “football” to something a bit less aggressive fell on deaf ears.

At one point, I poked my head into the backyard and Fritz said, “Mom, look how muddy I am!” And then Billy said, “Mom, look how muddy I am!” I asked if the point of the game was to get muddy, and Billy answered in the affirmative with a look that seemed both shocked and bewildered that I didn’t already know the answer to that question.

Later, Bill played with the boys and is now nursing an injured knee.

Of course, who I am to point out their foolishness? At least they had fun obtaining their wounds. The palm of my hand and my knee are still stinging from a fall I took this morning barely a tenth of a mile into my run. It would have been much better had I just stayed in bed that extra half hour. Instead of exercising myself and my dog, I hurt myself and put three holes in the only well-fitting pair of running pants I own. And my left ankle doesn’t feel great either, having been rolled off the edge of the pavement causing my fall.

ugh.

On a good note (always must end on a good note), I have to chuckle at a man I overheard at the grocery store yesterday. He and his wife were contemplating various flavored coffee creamers as I reached for International Delight’s Pumpkin Pie Spice. Having had too many of Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spice lattes (and if you’ve had one, you’ve had too many: my SIL accurately compared them to crack – have one, get addicted), I eagerly jumped at the opportunity to inexpensively recreate the flavor in the comfort of my own kitchen. The man was rejecting the Pumpkin Pie Spice because he felt it was a Thanksgiving leftover. “There must be a reason nobody else wanted it,” he said, implying the reason was that it wasn’t good tasting. I actually paused for a nanosecond, contemplated the under $2 purchase and considered returning it.

But now, as I sit here enjoying this little luxury, I’m happy I didn’t listen to the man. There are many reasons these creamers might be there – not just the possibility that the hoards tried the flavor and found it lacking. The risk of trying it was pretty insignificant; the pleasure of success is immeasurable. It’s a shame the man was more willing to follow what he perceived, possibly erroneously, to be the crowd’s opinion than to take a minor risk and find out for himself the truth.

And I suppose this is the lesson I need to learn today as I whimper over my injuries and wish I’d stayed in bed instead of wasting my morning. I could have gotten a half hour more sleep. But I could get a half hour more sleep every day. Instead, most days, I get up and I run two or three miles with success. Today, I was not successful. There is no guarantee that I will or will not have a good run when I head out at 430 am. But had I stayed in bed, there is 100% certainty that I would not have had a good run by the simple fact that I would not have attempted it.

To paraphrase Moses, we can choose life or death. I say, we can choose a premature death by not living life. God, help me to live.