Thanksgiving 2014

As the five-day holiday break draws to a close, I have to admit it is ending pretty much where I thought it would. A few things achieved that I had not thought would be done (very few) and a whole list of tasks not accomplished. Ugh, why do I do this to myself? Eh, honestly though, no regrets. It was a time of rest and respite, and I feel charged to march (arm-in-arm with Julius Caesar) through the next fifteen days (school days, but sounds better than 19 days, no?).

On Wednesday, Cameron and I grabbed breakfast, did a couple of errands and drove out of town to a "real" Verizon store to tackle our phone issues- namely his phone issue, or more precisely, lack of a working phone issue. Cell phones are such a... scam. Less than one year ago on Black Friday, after spending hours upon hours in lines to buy phones for the boys, I was told that you didn't have to wait out contracts any more- that you could just upgrade your phone whenever you wanted, but without the super-crazy cheap  deals though. Wednesday though? I get hit with the "not due for a new phone" until November- of NEXT year. So, I had planned to upgrade the whole family to smart phones but sales chick was proposing that I would have to pay $500 - $800 per phone, walking out of the store having spent over $1500 for new phones and upgraded plans. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say I "went off." I did say something to the effect of "So you mean to tell me after 12 years of being a customer, this is the best service you can give me... when the phones I stood in here and bought less than a year ago are already trashed" (noticed they weren't even on display anymore although they were the "new" phone last year). Basically I said I was coming from a place of confusion and just didn't know how to wrap my head around all this... sales clerk disappeared for a while... came back and told me "The Manager" said she could upgrade all our phones... at the current promotions rates... and left paying less than even a quarter of what she first proposed. The moral of the lesson boys and girls? Never walk out of a cell phone store without some kind of deal or spiff?

Thursday could be summed up by my quote that Jason apparently found amusing: "I'm going to cook my ass off all day and not cook again until Sunday." For the first year, for as long as I can remember, our family didn't participate in the local YMCA 5K on Thanksgiving morning. I also did not subject myself to the Macy's Parade. Every year, I force myself through the greater part of the televised event. However, each year it is less and less parade and more and more commentary, so I didn't even put on the charade of pretending that was a tradition this year.

The turkey I made was absolutely gorgeous. I really toyed with the idea of taking a picture of it, then told myself that was a little too promote-myself-on-Facebook'ish... but now I wish I had, because it really was gorgeous, like greeting card gorgeous. Like Hollywood movie dinner table gorgeous - and not one with a dysfunctional family cast. Benjamin asked me if I "painted it." From the mouths of babes, eh? I stuffed the inside with lemons and rosemary sprigs, which I didn't actually taste in the turkey. I guess it depends on what part of the bird you ate. I think I will try the same combination next year but also work some on top and maybe under the skin.

Other recipes delivered with equal success (culinary bragging is a rarity for me, deal with it) were:
Trisha Yearwood Slow Cooker Macaroni & Cheese
Candied Sweet Potato Casserole
Baked (Sweet) Corn Pudding

On Friday, Cameron and I headed back out of town for some casual Black Friday shopping. We didn't peel ourselves out of bed and stand in long lines. We didn't check out sales or even have an agenda before we headed out of town. By the time I got to Chesapeake and checked some specials online, the deals I would have wanted had already ended at noon. So, I did a little shopping - nothing ambitious.

Saturday and Sunday kicked the Housework &Home work agenda into gear. We got a lot of picking up here & there done, then pretty much desecrated all that work when we pulled all the Christmas stuff from storage (that would be the "unplanned" event of the weekend). Along with lesson plans, and benchmarks, and grading other assignments, I also read through a hefty amount of Titanic research papers (default research project because the librarian is on maternity leave). (Can I tell you how sick I am of that ship?) Oh and lest we not forget that I let Cameron twist my arm into watching "Grumpy Cat's Worse Christmas Ever." Apropos because it was the. worse. movie. ever. I mean PAINFUL to watch... but when Cameron fell asleep only an hour into it... I just had to see how it ended, and watched the next hour. (Already confessed multiple times my obsession with trash television, no further explanation needed.)

Tomorrow marks December on the calendar and I am trying to carve out my Holiday Spirit... beginning with getting ready (or not) for the arrival of this stress-inducing pesky critter tomorrow morning (The Elf, not Benjamin).

Thankful.

November is winding to an end and I find the urge to "create" to be overwhelming yet once again. Once again too though, about as creative as I am finding myself with the time to be is to Pin tons of ideas I will never get to, if I even remember. At the very least, I would like to write again. And it's okay if it is just for me- my enjoyment, my therapy, my sanity.

This has been a crazy-busy school year. when I make comments like that, people often respond "When aren't you busy" and they are right. There was a time when I prided myself on that chaos of busyness but not so much any more. I really wanted this to be the year I slowed down, stepped back. In small ways I guess I have. My responsibilities with the local Relay are much, much less. Rather than being a chair of the whole event as I have done for the past three years, I am this year just in charge of entertainment and activities. I found myself at peace with real fast but am still feeling out my boundaries as to where my input is needed or welcomed. Relay for Life is a microcosm of small town politics in these parts.

Jason has a heavy course load of college classes this semester as he works toward student teaching next. I promised to really step up the domestic goddess game so he could turn his full attention to schoolwork and not meals or household matters. I can definitely confess to not holding up my end of the bargain on that deal. Man, I wish I was just one of those people who liked to cook... but I. am. not.

Only teaching 10th grade English, although two levels, seemed that it would make for an "easier" year, at least as far as planning and prepping goes, but the classes, as they often are, are so uniquely different- each presenting their own set of stresses challenges- that I end the day just mentally exhausted and feel like I am always playing ketchup.

Benjamin is at the age that he is really making me feel the busyness that consumes my life. I just can't hold him enough. I cannot believe how fast four years flew by and I know with the blink of an eye that it took Cameron to become a young man, the next decade in Benjamin's life will fly by just as fast, especially if I continue to feel like my "pockets of time" for him just aren't enough. Maybe I am making myself sound like a bad mother. Maybe I am. I am sure though that many moms feel this way. We all work. We all have stuff. I just want less stuff and don't know how to make that happen just yet.

Key Club is... Key Club, the great consumption of my life. Last week was our "Key Club Week" so I am really feeling the timesuck it can be, for better or for worse. Kiwanis Family Month is November and Key Club, their high school branch, celebrates a Key Club Week internationally usually the first week in November. And, as usual, I ignored that one and crafted out own Key Club week the week before Thanksgiving Break. On Monday, we inducted 35 new members during a formal evening ceremony. We graduated out some great kids last year but thankfully I feel like we brought in some young dedicated, energetic ones that will respect and carry on the legacy of those before them. On Tuesday, the kids counted UNICEF collections afterschool and tallied about $1,200 in donations for The Eliminate Project, a Kiwanis initiative to end Maternal-Neonatal Tetanus worldwide. On Wednesday we had our traditional breakfast at a restaurant out in the community- little business, lots of fun. That afternoon the 350 boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts sold were distributed, most in a 10 minute window of pure chaos before bus dismissal. Thursday was the night for our monthly Bingo at a local nursing home. And Friday, ohhh Friday- we hosted the Red Cross Blood Drive at the high school. Despite collecting 78 pints, it was a dramatic day with more students getting sick, hurt, and passing out than normal- including Cameron. Within a couple of hours of that event ending, the Key Clubbers and I were serving Thanksgiving Dinner and dancing the night away with our "friends" at Zuni Homes, a residential facility for intellectually-disabled adults. Since everything couldn't quite be squeezed in last week, volunteers also gathered up all the donated cans and boxes brought in during the Food Drive Key Club hosted last week. There were over 650 items, with at least a third to half being from the top two classes loaded with competitive club members. I even managed somewhere amidst that chaos to get all members "officially" registered with the international office and send dues in. AND (!!!) the pre-holiday mini-week ended with a letter from Key Club International announcing that our club has been awarded a $1468 grant for our "Kick the R Word" proposal (another full week of activities, but thankfully not until March).

SO...

I can't say I don't know what is keeping me busy because obviously I do... and even though that was a rarely beyond-the-norm-McHenry-chaos week... I need to strive towards some sort of balance - not ending my nights just falling into bed because I am to physically exhausted, or mentally drained, to do one. more. thing.

I cannot purge this ball of tightly wound stress though without coupling it with just how thankful I am to have this opportunity to work with the kids. I can tangibly feel the influence I have in their lives. I know that in 10, 20, 30 years they are going to look back on high school and most of their memories are going to be related to Key Club. I look at weeks like last week, and the cumulative goodness that came from it and am just amazed by it. By how such a "little" group can do so "much." Jason and I have started the conversation for maybe not living here forever more... maybe in a few, several, some, years moving to another area. There are many things about my job I love. I dread waking up in the morning but (once functional) I never dread going to work. Of all the perks, benefits, positives of school, my career, my life though, the one that makes it hardest to entertain any self other than the one I am now is walking away from this legacy I fostered into being. They renew my faith that there is good in the world every. single. day.

So yeah, I know, this post has meandered over all over its little space on the web, but like I said- I'm writing for me tonight, and these are the things that are on my mind. About this time last year I had my fill of people posting on Facebook what they were thankful for every.single.day. Regardless, I decided to do my own little practice of gratitude right here and reflect on what 30 things I was thankful for... and while I am still thrilled when my Diet Coke is carbonated just right or when I find myself delved into a good book, I am feeling gratitude mostly this Thanksgiving night for this group of kids that call me their mentor (actually more often "guru"- at my insistence), a gratitude so overwhelming that it leaves my teary-eyed and speechless to contemplate.

YET...

I have to, have-have-have to, find a way to channel that good and not let the rest of my life succumb to chaos in trade for it, or for the job I love.

Thanksgiving Traditions?

Justin came home for Thanksgiving Week. It's comforting how quickly family life can fall into routine again. Our home had adjusted to one less son, and then when he returned home, he just melted into that Justin-sized hole left in his absence. We didn't feel that void, life gets busy, life goes on, but when he returns everything just fits together as if he never left. In many ways the same son that I knew a year ago, in many ways also showing a sense of maturity and reality-adjustment that only perspective and reflection can give... not too much maturity though.

On one of his first nights back home, Benjamin asked Justin, "Why do you have Cameron's face?" That's an astoundingly perceptive question for his 3-year old little brain. I have occasionally noticed a shared trait between the two but I have never thought they looked alike, despite the comments of many others. I guess since Cameron has just sprouted up and changed so much physically lately, I can see it a lot more.

My sophomores read the short story "Everyday Use," by Alice Walker. The pre-writing activity is writing about a family tradition. The students often struggle over this and say that they don't have any family traditions. So, I tell them to just think about something they always do for the holidays. This, of course, causes me to stress and worry if our small little family has any traditions and would my boys be ones to struggle over responding to this prompt. I imagine they would.

Our Thanksgiving morning traditionally begins with the boys running the Turkey Trot 5K with the YMCA. This year, they actually walked down there themselves, food donations in tote, and ran. So, I can't really say that's much of a "family" tradition. Second to that, I would say we traditionally watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Except this year, I gave myself permission to admit that I just find the whole thing irritating. Is it a parade or is it a collection of musical melodies? And do we really need commentators identifying the overly-inflated socially iconic balloons harnessed down and drug along "Fifty Shades" style? No, this year I didn't need that, and just skipped the whole thing.

Does Black Friday shopping count as a family tradition? It probably shouldn't since it is the epitome of why I dread the "holiday season." If it could though, we could check that one on the Thanksgiving traditions list. We didn't get crazy about it, didn't head out until after 10 in the morning. Of course with the (much debated) beginning of "Black Friday" specials on Thanksgiving Day, it doesn't seem there were the normal early morning hour crowds and craziness.

We did a little bit of this...

 

And a whole lot of this...

 

Getting the boys new phones was first on the agenda of the day. However, it became the greater part of the entire day. After spending nearly two hours waiting in the Verizon store, we were (thankfully) told by our Associate that the phones we were looking at were $200 cheaper at Best Buy that day. The really sad part of the whole "adventure" was the phones we were getting were the most decent of the nondata-required models, and thus not at all the ones anyone else wanted, but yet the ones that consumed our day in wait. Case in point, when we arrived to Best Buy, there were only two models in stock. Over two hours later when we made it to the front of the line (which was not that long and should not have taken two hours), there were still two models in-stock. Of course with both boys having phones requiring duct tape to hold them together, speaker phones to call anyone, and advanced cryptology skills to decipher the texts, I was approaching the modern-aged definition of neglect, and they needed to be allowed to just die... the phones, not the boys.

After a bit of shopping, post phone-buying-marathon, we did go see "Catching Fire." Come to think of it, the last time we did Black Friday shopping, it was to stand in line over 3 hours to buy I-pod Touches after going to see the late showing of one of the "Twilight" movies.

So, I guess the best summary of our Thanksgiving traditions is prolonged shopping to buy mildly outdated technology coupled with Hollywood's raping of young adult literature?