Well, folks, I shall be forty one in just a couple of days. I have likely mentioned here before that I like my birthday still, I guess I always will, but I sort of forgot it was coming for a while – til I wished my mother happy birthday yesterday and remembered that her birthday is three days before mine. Oof. The years fly by.
For my forty-first birthday, I want fun earrings, really good coffee, Louise Penny’s latest book, a bottle of excellent wine, and a massage. And I shall buy myself these things if no one else does, because I am forty one and I have a decent job and I can afford modest treats such as these. And what a blessing that is.
In my fortieth year, I have accomplished several things that have been on my To Do List for quite some time. Chief among them is improving my deteriorating back, by working regularly with a personal trainer. I have three sessions a week, generally – upper body, lower body, and high intensity interval training. Each session incorporates a lot of balance and stability work, and most days we do ten minutes of focused core work at the end. The overall strength has been great, but especially the core strength. I still have moments of back pain but it is MUCH improved, and that was something that I decided could no longer wait. I pour a lot of work into a lot of areas, and it was time to devote some work to this issue.
In addition I have taken lots of depositions, done a trial, expanded my cooking skills into some authentic Chinese. I sewed several outfits, took several trips (mostly to Texas), and kept up a relatively regular meditation schedule. I called my Senators a lot, bought some furniture, sold some clothes and bags, and flew out of town on business trips probably 20 times. It’s been a good year. Cheers to more good things in year forty-one!
The Prof is out of town at a conference this week. I hope he is taking some break time, enjoying some kid-free nights. I know I am somewhat enjoying being the primary parent, although it’s been a tough week because I am SICK with a bullshit summer cold that I caught from Liam (who was out of school sick on Monday). I myself did not go to work today. I did a little research for a matter today from my perch on my couch, but otherwise I napped and re-watched Schitt’s Creek from start to finish. It was actually not bad, although in the afternoon I spent a solid 2.5 hours in the car, ferrying children from here to there. Then this evening I had to make dinner and supervise a couple of hours of homework of three kids at once. So despite the fact that I slept six hours today, I’m tired again.
Here’s a kid update: Jack is in flag football. In the morning he complains incessantly about having to stay after school to practice – although we have pointed out time and again that he would be in aftercare anyhow, so it’s not like he could come home even if he didn’t do flag football. Today I felt somewhat vindicated when I picked him up from practice and he was in a pack of kids, laughing and roughhousing and tromping along the sidewalk in their cleats. He clearly likes it. So there.
In addition to flag football in the fall and basketball in the spring, Jack does piano lessons (half hour a week) and youth group at church. I feel like that’s perfect – he’s not overscheduled (especially since flag football is always right after school – never on weekends). He’s getting really involved in youth group, which I like. Our youth group leader is wonderful – very young, very energetic, always praising Jack for showing up and being brave. Jack is new to youth group this year as a sixth grader, but I like it a lot.
Liam does piano lessons and Cub Scouts. We are also going to try to get him in martial arts. We’ve been talking about it for ages, but we have got to get him going. He’s getting better and better all the time at impulse control – it’s mostly a maturity thing – and I just really think martial arts will help even more. There are class choices for him for aftercare at school – we’ll check those out and sign him up for something fun to do while he’s there.
And last is our Craiggy boy. He just started piano lessons, like his Big Brothers – his lesson is just fifteen minutes, but he is *really* into it. He also just closed the loop on learning how to swim. He’s been doggy paddling for a while, but I took him to the Olympic sized pool at our gym recently and he just started to jump in and swim to the wall – pure determination. He looks a bit like he’s drowning but if you can resist reaching for him, he always makes it.
We’ve been in our house for three years – meaning we’ve been back here in New Orleans for almost four. While I definitely feel, on the verge of forty one, like I’ve sort of bumbled my way to where we are right now, without a clear plan – – – I guess we’ve made it to a pretty good place. If I could just get rid of this cold . . . it’d all be good. 😉 Wish me happy birthday!