Life in the Slow Lane

I changed my layout( you like? ) because I think I was jumping the gun a bit. Yes, I wear flip flops as of March 1st, but it was just a misleading thought that summer or even spring might actually visit this year. I love spring. I love the smells. I love the changes in this beautiful, natural place I live in. I love the sound of my son clinking his aluminum bat on the ground, getting ready for baseball. I love letting the dog out to sniff around for an hour. I love sitting on the porch and staring into nothingness, and listening to the silence. I love opening the sunroof. You get the idea. But Mama Nature just isn't respecting the agreement to bring spring. It's 30 degrees today. The sun has peeked out, but it's still too cold to be anywhere but indoors.  I can go on complaining, but we are all in the same cold boat here. I just don't want to miss spring all together and suddenly it's summer. That happens to me every year with fall/winter, and it ticks me off. So

I've been up since 3:30am with my son. I decided somewhere in the 5am range that today would be a great day to go walk the track. I layered my clothes, got my iPod, and set off. Little did I know before I left the house that it was 17 degrees out and completely frigid. Half way around the track I slipped on ice. Hmm, I figured it would be all melted by now. Then around the next bend, it wasn't melted at all. It was covered with about 4 inches of snow. The wind started blowing, my eyes started watering, and I just stopped. I looked ahead, knowing how far away the melted area(and my car!) were. I got really upset. I wanted to cry. I wanted to go home. Then I looked off to my right towards more snow. The track is around a huge field, and right in the middle is a covered picnic area. I remembered from last year that there is an off-shoot on my path to get to the picnic area. Maybe that would be a bit more walkable.  So, I trudged through the snow, and found some walkable ground

I usually review things after I've fully tried them out. But for this experiment, I decided to do a blog-as-I-go. I enjoy changing my hair color from time to time, and today I decided to try this. The box and directions make it sound SO easy. How could I not try it?? I read all the directions, it starts as the usual 'mix this with that', then you put on the foaming pump top and SWIRL, don't shake. Now here's the thing. Mama has a LOT of hair. It's long, and it's quite thick. I can usually cover all of my hair with one box of color, but this was my obvious first concern. I swirled, I pumped. It looks just like a light mousse. I apply to the top of my hair first. The first thought I had was 'huh!' in a pleasantly surprised way. I was sure to research and read reviews, and most people said it was easy to use, not messy, and even in color. So, my first pass on the top of my head was fine. Then it was a bit downhill from there. I wasn't sure how t

Hershey Park. My favorite place on earth. Usually I think happy, fun things about the park. But today is a bit different. I'm feeling unsettled right now. No idea why. Very unsettled. In fact, so unsettled that I just wrote an entire post, just to delete it. That sounds more like uncertainty than unsettled, but nonetheless. So many people say life is like a roller coaster. Super Dooper Looper, Great Bear, even the simple Trailblazer. They all have their ups and downs. Sure, I understand that, but right now I'm thinking of other rides in Hershey my life is like .  Frontier Flyers : Around and around, no end in site, just a constant motion.  Leaves you with a crappy feeling, a headache, and me personally, the pukes,  as you swing back and forth. Lightning Racers: A dueling wooden coaster of sorts, two tracks, which coaster do you choose? You try to take the right path, but are never sure it's right. Reminds me there's always the need to compete against others, do b

I'm going to let you in on my secret ' hey kids, get upstairs and go to bed! ' technique. I've been using it with the boys for over a year now, and it works like a charm. Every time. Remember of course that with anything like this, there is a warning label. Not every child will fall for it every time, or at all, it may cause some injuries(even to mom), and it may cause a tiff now and then. But other than that, it's super simple. My boys fight me to go to bed on a regular basis. They make themselves dead weight so I can't carry them. They pretend they don't hear me say 'ok bedtime!' So, I say these 6 simple words. Actually, now I only say the first 5 words, some nights even 3. Ready? Here it is ... On your mark.... get set.....go! And that's it folks! I turn getting up to the bathroom and bed a simple race. Two boys vs. one mama. They never let me win, some nights I even start on the second steps and say it. They love beating me up the steps, b

I feel like I did this sometime long ago, but I can't find it, and I'm sure my answers would be different now. So today I'm taking a lazy approach to blogging, filling out a good old survey. Just some great songs I love for different times in life. Opening credits: Viva La Vida, Coldplay Average day: Today, Smashing Pumpkins Driving: American Girl, Tom Petty Bad day: Fell on Black Days, Soundgarden Fight scene: Mama Said Knock You Out, LL Cool J Mental breakdown : Landslide, Stevie Nicks Graduation: Closing Time, Semisonic First date: easy! First Date, Blink 182 Falling in love: Falling, Jamiroquai Breaking up: She Hates Me, Puddle of Mudd Long night alone: Mad World, Gary Jules Wedding: Grow Old with You, Adam Sandler Reflecting on life: In My Life, The Beatles Reflecting on love : Lovesong, The Cure Death scene: Champagne Supernova, Oasis Closing credits : Claire de Lune, Debussy

I love my sunglasses. They are pretty and dark and big. I take them everywhere I go. I have some cheap backup pairs, but I love these most of all.  This morning I went to take the boys to school with my hair all a flutter. When not straightened, I have big hair. I didn't stress big enough there. BIG hair. It's wavy and wild and all over. Fun, but not when you try to look presentable. No time to straighten, too squirrely to pull back, couldn't find a good hat, so I just left it in it's natural, crazy state. Good thing I live in a place where people don't care all that much. When we were almost to school I took a peek in the rear view and just could not bear to get out of the car looking like that. I looked all over the car for a quick fix, and aha! My sunglasses. Sure, it's raining out, but maybe there's a glare that I needed them for. I brushed my hair off my face, then put my sunglasses on top of my head. Viola. Tossed hair is now tamed. And cute. I rea

In Western cultures, a wedding ring is worn on the left ring finger. This developed from the Romans, and according to tradition in some countries, the wedding ring is worn on the left ring finger because the vein in the left ring finger, was believed to be directly connected to the heart. Blessing the wedding ring and putting it on the bride's finger dates from the 11th century. How many of you actually knew that? I did not, and I thank Wiki for the low down. But that wasn't my question of the day. I want to know, why is it that some people equate happiness and being in a good place in life by what's on your left ring finger? I can remember finishing college and feeling ready to conquer the world. I got a teaching position I loved, and started grad school. But for some reason I felt the urgency to be engaged and married! So, I got engaged(well of course not that simple, but for reading purposes it was!). Had the big, perfect diamond ring on my left finger. It brought a

I LOVE PAINTING! I always have, and I know many of you are grumbling at me. Just the idea of painting makes me  want to run to the hardware store to pick up swatches. I change the colors of my rooms every two or three years. Not because they need to be changed, I just like to paint, and like to see the transformation that occurs. When we built our house almost 8 years ago, every room was white. Crisp and clean, but not a functional color with a child. Here and there I would do some painting. Light blue for the baby's room, tan for the bathrooms, light green for my bedroom. *YAWN*. Then I got wild and decided to do one bathroom in a darker shade of brown. Almost camel color. Then another bathroom was dark tanish/greyish/purplish. And that was the extent of my colors. Yup, I was almost asleep as I painted. So, I painted my living room yellow. Looking back it was an obnoxious, awful yellow. But it was color. It made me feel alive. Lightened my day. Needless to say, it didn't last

My boys are 5 & 7 years old, and very close to 6 & 8, yikes! I'm definitely not the most knowing mom, but I feel pretty confident in my momming abilities, and my know-how in situations that unexpectedly show up. Except one. Sick kids. Just last year my 7 year old got a fever. The first fever he's had since he was a baby. And what did Mama do? Panic of course. Why does he have a fever? What is one to do for that? Then there was the time about 2 years ago my younger one kept puking. How do I stop that from happening again?!? It sounds ridiculous, I am well aware of that. But I have been unbelievably fortunate in having children that do not get sick. Ever. Am I jinxing myself just by writing this? My guess is hells yeah! My bestie has kids that used to always be sick. Not sure if it was just crap luck or daycare germs. My younger one went to a daycare, and there could be kids vomiting all around him, and nada. My older one had swine flu run through the school last year a

Holidays with an Italian family are like extreme eating contests. There are a ton of choices on the table, you try a bit of everything, then a bit more. It's ok if you don't like roast beef  or ham, there's a whole turkey too. Pasta? Salads? Breads? Veggies? You name it, we've got it. But growing up, this gal waited for the desserts. Not the fruits, and nuts, and cookies. Just the pie. The chocolate pie. The chocolate pudding pie. No whip for me thanks.  Grandpa would put together most of the feast on his own. I always requested my chocolate pudding pie, and it was always there waiting for me. A cousin tried to make it one year after my grandpa was gone, and she ruined it. She ruined that part of the holidays for me. But I'm getting off topic here. Back to the pie. It's my favoritest. My sister made me buy Nature Valley Dark Chocolate Granola Thins recently. One side is pressed together granola, the other side a coating of lovely, smooth, dark chocolate. Yummy

 Since I'm oh so busy today[ insert sarcasm here ], I Googled myself. Well, I Googled my web name. Most of you know my by Mama, but around these parts I'm known as PoconosMama! I was curious to see my whereabouts on the web, so I searched. It's interesting to see where I am, where I've been, where I didn't even know I was! I also found Googlism, which is a neat little site. It cross-references Google search results for different things, and gives a compiled list. For example, I simply typed in 'Snoopy' and got these and many more: snoopy is not made outta plastic snoopy is joe cool snoopy is cute snoopy is smiley's linux server for marquisade snoopy is so good snoopy is too snoopy snoopy is the official rock song of ohio snoopy is joe cool cartoon character snoopy is eating dog food for his thanksgiving dinner snoopy is a little software tool for windows 98 Pretty neat, I love finding places on the web I've never been. Have you Googled la

Cabin Fever? Spring Fever? Bieber Fever? Honestly, I don't really care what kind of fever it is, but I have a SERIOUS itch today to get a jump on many put aside projects. Perhaps it's because the sun is shining, perhaps it's because tomorrow is my birthday and I'm in that 'I haven't done enough this year' mode. Either way, get going Mama! Since just last night, the furniture has been taken apart and rearranged in the dining room, everything is vacuumed, the piano has made it up two floors, the curtains have been changed to let the sun shine in, and it feels FANTASTIC. I must thank my sweet guy for all the help of course :) He thinks I should tackle my mess of a walk in closet. Baby steps.... I don't think it's a fever at all. I think it's just a birthday gal with a spring in her step...for spring. Wow, that's corny.