Category: list

hello June…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay2 Comments

June is a pretty special month for me… Not only does it hold several very important birthdays, but it’s the official start of summer and that’s a great thing, right?

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Me-
– An exciting new project that I can’t divulge too many details about, but you know what they say: my excitement is your excitement… {They say that, right?!?!}
– I joined a new summer book club and I am so excited! (Perhaps I should add overuse of the word exciting and any words derived from it. Yikes.) I’m hoping it will be a great experience and connect me with a few new gals in my area!
– I have some fun books between my night stand and my kindle that I’m looking forward to getting in to.
– have coffee/tea/social plans with a new friend.
– I have not done it in ages, but I really want to do a paper craft project, or two, this month.
Family–
– End of the year school program.
– sending our youngest off to Jamaica with a youth group team from our church, for a mission trip. {yikes!}
– we are (finally) going through the stuff we have stored in our garage, from our move, that we just don’t have room for.
– celebrating several birthdays of loved ones, even if from afar.
– having a belated Father’s Day since we won’t be able to be together for the calendar scheduled one.
– bike rides, evening walks and active weekends.
– summer movies, trip to the drive in, etc.
 Food–
– I’m wanting to try some new, summery recipes in the kitchen.
– Mastering fontina cheese fondue. {Yum!}
– concentrating on more vegetables.
– Grilled dinners complete with deck dining.
– weeknight sun tea, fresh squeezed lemonade, weekend cocktails.
 
Home–
– I’m inspired to redo my photo ledges (and this has been an ongoing hope for months) but I can’t quite figure out what I want to do.
– we’ve had tragedy befall our dining room table recently so we will be taking on a creative, yet affordable redo in that area.
– My office has been a mess since our trip to Idaho. When I’m in here, it’s for a quick second or to rush through a work project. I need to organize and clean it.
Love–
– We have theater tickets to a Tony winning show that I’m really excited to see!
– We have a couple of other fun, intentional dates on the calendar for the month. Our intentional date challenge has been a really fun one!

Slow learning, since 1976…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay6 Comments

What I’ve learned in May is kind of a tricky topic. I feel it’s likely, on any given day, that I could have a varying degree of answers. One day I’d tell you that I learned to master the most amazing sandwich recipe, the next I’d cry into my sourdough bread and tell you how I’ve learned nothing and I’m a huge failure, doomed to repeat the same disastrous mistakes day after day.

I live with a fifteen year old girl, who is the barometer of our house. I’ve learned this.

I kind of, sort of, pretty much, definitely hate it. {learned that too.}

In all seriousness, it’s been a tough month. My instinct is to lay it all out for you and prove to you that I’m a failure as a wife, mother, writer and _________ (insert every other area here), but the truth is, I’ve learned the damage thinking such things can do. While yes, it has become painstakingly clear that I am not an awesome mom because apparently awesome moms have their stuff figured it by now, I have learned that I daily become more and more of the person I’m destined to be. Labeling all of my steps along this journey, until this moment, as failure only sounds spoiled and ungrateful.

I already knew I didn’t want to be that…

I’ve learned that love is patient. Most of us know that. It’s something ingrained into our brains and yet, I’m only really starting to understand what that truly means. I’ve learned that saying “no” to the stuff we should say no to is tough, and saying “yes” to the stuff we should agree to is even tougher. This realization hit me like a Mack truck to the face, and I still think it sucks, but something about knowing it helps me when I’m faced with the question and that’s a good thing.

I’ve learned that intentional dating is an awesome thing to do with my husband, but sometimes life is heavy and hard and we just need to escape and zone out at the movies together. Feeling guilty for that isn’t healthy.

I tried to learn to make fried chicken again. (the last time was 20 years ago.) I will not try again. I realize there is nothing healthy about fried chicken but I grew up on fried chicken picnics and Chw grew up on Sunday fried chicken dinners. Nostalgia inspired me to try it again. I did learn that I’m a really great cook, when it comes to some things, and fried chicken is not one of them. I am ok with this…

Regarding writing, and working from home, May has been quite an educational month. I’ve learned I work better when I’m working. Novel concept, (no pun intended) I know. It’s that simply, though, so I’ve begun scheduling my hours and it works like a dream. Because it’s the end of the school year oddness, a few things have been tweaked, but it’s been a pretty great and I’ve been more productive and taken more steps forward this month than I have in well over a year.

It all falls under the same lesson though, one I think that I’ve been learning since I was seven years old… That’s the lesson of grace. Grace for myself, grace for others… I’ll wake up and need to learn it again tomorrow. I think I’m stuck in my own version of Groundhog Day over here…

Happiness is…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay4 Comments

Over the weekend we had the privilege of seeing a local theatre production of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love musical theatre, but I have to be honest, this show was nowhere on my radar. At all. I don’t even know why. In reality, if it wasn’t for the fact that friends of ours were directing the production (and their awesome kids, whom we adore, were also in the show) we probably wouldn’t have gone at all.

Sometimes, I love the surprise of being wrong about something. This show is adorable. These kids were incredible, maybe beyond incredible. Having a daughter who was once heavily immersed in theatre, I’ve seen a lot of children perform but some of these kids were phenomenal. Plus, the show just made me, well- happy!

Towards the end of the show, different members of the Peanuts gang take turns saying what Happiness is to them. Interestingly, I have that little Peanuts gift book, Happiness Is… And I love it!

With last week being such a downer, I thought I’d take a minute to just share some things that are happiness to me.

Happiness is…

– a warm ceramic mug, cupped by both hands.

– fresh sheets.

– songs sang by the Cello.

– laughing with my husband.

– tall blades of grass flecked with fireflies.

– peonies.

– thunder rumble, with pouring rain.

– bright blue, sun streamed sky.

– weekend brunch.

– being in one room, with my kids.

– taking a really unexpectedly great photo.

– my completely awesome friends.

– B29 bacon.

– unique & ecclectic office/paper products and notebooks.

– an afternoon to read.

– picnics followed by nothing but enjoying the moment.

– when a butterfly lands on me.

– getting a facial.

– good hair days.

– the Boise connector, right when BoDo comes into sight. *sigh* (makes my heart leap- EVERY TIME)

– the ocean beach. Any will do, but the Oregon coast is best.

– New Mexico sunsets. Best skies, period.

– good, fresh roasted green chili.

– getting letters in the mail.

– finding the perfect pen.

– Kate Spade. While I love most of the brand products (most), I’m a big fan of the woman herself. (who is no longer associated with brand, fyi)

– Starbucks Lime Refreshers. {and that my husband loves them too. We NEVER love the same thing!}

– inside jokes.

What makes you happy?

May, be…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay3 Comments

Sure, it sounds old, and over-used to take this opportunity to rant about how it’s already May, (and how is this possible?!?!?) but really, it seems insane to me. Wasn’t it just the polar eternal vortex? And suddenly green grass is everywhere and it’s May first. What in the world?

Usually, on the first of the month I take a post to outline my goals for the month. Here are my May aspirations…

 

Passions–

– I’ve taken on a new, slightly top-secret writing project that only a VERY small, handful of people know anything about. I’m really excited about it, maybe more excited than I’ve been about anything I’ve worked on before. Stay tuned!

– working on my quarterly newsletter. (aren’t on the list and want to be? Leave a comment with your email address and I’ll add you!)

– a few fun photo shoots coming up.

– Delancey, by Molly Wizenberg being released. I’ve waited literal YEARS for this book!

 

Family/Friends–

– celebrating my husband’s fortieth birthday.

– doing Storyline alongside my dear friend KL, (well, alongside, but spanning 2000 miles).

– honoring the moms in our lives.

– celebrating the special days of special friends.

– going to see the local theater production that friends of our directed. We’re pretty excited about that.

– Sunday morning excursions to the Farmer’s market. happily, happily, basket in hand, I’ll adventure off in search of wonderful.

 

Love–

– there are a couple of date nights on the front. We are right on schedule with our intentional date challenge, having completed 10/25, for the year.

– intentional conversations, planning sessions and dreams. It’s time.

– evening walks around the neighborhood.

 

Home–

– get the outdoor furniture out on the deck, should the rainy weather allow it. I’m so ready to sit out there and drink wine in the evenings while talking with Chw about our days. I’m ready to drink iced tea and write out there in the afternoons, (epi pen close by, of course, as our bees last year were horrendous!)

– grilled dinners! I am so excited about that! We’ve grilled out once already, but I’m ready for 500 more times.

– coming up with a fun Monday night tradition to accompany the return of 24. We LOVE Jack Bauer in this house and are BEYOND thrilled… (Any ideas?)

– getting rid of some living room furniture, making room for our beautiful new sofa (20 year anniversary gift) and just playing with the room a little.

– small bedroom paint project.

– possibly taking on the re-upholstering (or decent slipcovering) of an ottoman, should I locate my bravery somewhere.

 

What about you? What’s on your agenda for the month of May?

The scales of just…

Published on by Mae @ Rainydayinmay5 Comments

I’m headed somewhere really wonderful. (for me and the members of my family it’s pretty wonderful anyway… For you, it might not hold any sort of magic. That’s ok.) In the interim however, while we wait to go to Wonderful, we’re sort of stuck in somewhere a little less so.

By a little less so, I mean that for us it pretty much sucks significantly hugely. For someone else, it could be their Wonderful.

Now that we got that out-of-the-way, life for Gen and I is pretty much a series of images from our hotel room. It’s one of those realities that seemed dreamy and wonderful, in abstract thoughts and day dreams, but in reality is not. Allow me to share what our week days, thus far, have looked like…

– We bought the electronic banking version of Monopoly and played that.

– We’ve watched wedding shows on TLC, (her thing, not mine).

– We’ve watched Wife Swap.

– We’ve swam, but they have the STRONGEST amount of Chlorine, EVER.

– we’ve read our kindles.

– We have had deep talks, silly talks, stupid talks, bickering talks…

– She has done homework.

– I have looked at a magazine.

– I have tried to write.

– Our mini fridge has frozen EVERY SINGLE THING we have bought to have for lunch, since we are trapped at this hotel all day, in the middle of nowhere. (let me tell you, a frozen turkey sandwich is enough to make me NEVER eat another sandwich, and the frozen salad may have permanently killed the enamel on my teeth.)

– our microwave does not actually heat anything.

– our internet does not stay connected.

– the elevator keeps threatening to break with us in it…

– We have 12 cable channels, and most of them have crime shows on. ALL. DAY. LONG.

– the hotel has some sort of construction/remodel happening so there is equipment and HIGH levels of noise happening all day long. There is no escaping it.

– I have not had a vegetable in 5 days.

I totally realize there are real problems happening and none of these are. I am absolutely aware of that. I’m not so shallow to think this is the height of all issues, but it’s been a bit of an inconvenient (and eternally long) week. It’s not all bad though… like they have really amazing blueberry muffins, and possibly the nicest/most helpful hotel staff ever.

And let’s face it, comfort food and personal kindness make up for a whole lot of annoying inconveniences…

I’m tempted to say “Just a few more days until Wonderful”, but the truth is, it won’t be all that either. It will be pretty Wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but I’m sure there will be disappointing moments, and tensions, and sadness and goodbyes too. {which suck way worse than any of these silly frustrations here in Less Than} The best thing I can do for myself is simply to be present, all present and invested in the griefs and the joys of every moment and appreciate when life seems to strike a balance.