Being Present

With my new lifestyle change, I've been trying really hard to be 'present' - as I'm not known for my ability to sit still or stand still..or do anything slowly. As some Christmas song says "Christmas is an emotional time of year" or something like that - which is true. So I've tried to stop and take the time to be grateful for the little things in my everyday life that make me happy or make me smile or elicit a fist pump (see cat puke below) If you already do this - good on you. Me - not so good at it. So I'm trying and I challenge you to try it this week too!

I'm thankful for the small things, some of them being;

- Christmas music!
- Being able to burn nag champa and crank what my husband deems 'whiny' music in my new office.
- Power walks and sweaty long runs with fabulous girlfriends on really cold and frosty mornings!
- Watching my 3 year old jam out in public to the sound of a drum circle at the Seattle Center.
- Hearing the cat start to puke and actually catching it all on discarded paper sack before it ruined my carpet! Yes!
- A husband who supports me and willingly climbs tall ladders to put up Christmas lights even though he could care less about the holiday.
- Knowing how to successfully snake a shower drain. (this one of those disgusting but strangely gratifying chores..)

I'd love to hear a snippet from my friends out there - what is a little thing that made you stop a feel a bit warm and fuzzy....

Happy Monday all!

Spacial Awareness

I love people. Well, to clarify, I love watching and observing people. Today I had a nugget I can't pass up and is close to my heart. Spacial Awareness or lack thereof.

I'm at Trader Joes buying Hannukah Gelt for my daughter's kindergarten class. (Apparently she is now VERY much on board with Hannukah - I think only because she's the only one in her class that has any relationship with it and it makes her feel cool. I use the term relationship loosely, in that I force my husband to say the prayer for 8 nights while we light the menorah so my kids will understand what Grandma and Grandpa and the cousins celebrate. I bought a book with the prayers and attempted it myself the first year - and that was enough for him to take over the duties.)

So back to TJ's, I've got my gelt and an entire basket of other things I don't need like ginger cinnamon flavored coffee and salted caramels... and I head for a register. I mistakenly choose the one behind a woman who looks as though she has finished checking out. But she's a check writer. Damn! Check writer! The check is written, but she's apparently very diligently filling out the check register with her purchase details. Slowly. Very slowly. And she's a chatter. And she's chatting with the girl at the register. Who looks as pained I as feel about this exchange.

And then I hear the nugget, I think in reference to the person who was in front of her before I showed up. "I call it a lack of spacial awareness! I mean really! Not being aware of the people around you!" Aaccchhhemmm.... Perhaps you mean like ME behind you? WAITING for YOU??? Are you spacially aware of THAT? While the register next to me blows through two customers and you enjoy a leisurely chat? Ahh.. the irony.

It was really all I could take not to step up really close to her at this point.

Give me your spacial awareness story! We all have them.... unless maybe you're a check writer?! Hah!

Random Bits

Gobble Gobble - Hope Everyone had a Thankful Thanksgiving!

No long winded blog today - but merely a compilation or medley if you will of flotsam and jetsam I've picked up over the past week. (I will forever think of the Lionel Richie Medley we played in 7th Grade band when I hear the word 'medley'. Yes, Lionel Richie.)

- Hot rollers UP! How did I not know this? I consider myself very versed in hair and hair 'dos'. Seriously, I might have to be stripped of my girly girl status. But according to Allure online - to get that tousled look - it's hot rollers - rolled UP!

- Applegate Farms bacon is a YES with the kids and is nitrate free! First nitrate free pork product that passed the test! Yay! I know that the pediatrician wouldn't be thrilled that bacon, oh and sausage (turkey sausage) are the main protein components of my kids diet..

And I just have to shout out locally to my 'boot guy'. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it when you you are pleasantly surprised at the quality of someones workmanship. My beloved Frye boots have new heels and a whole new lease on life. J&J Shoe Repair - Thank You! Job well done!

Lastly, my random observation of the day: It is a bit concerning to be sitting at a stop light only to look over and see that the car next to you is being driven by an elderly gentleman, wearing an oxygen tube. His wife didn't look very thrilled either. I'm just sayin.

Onward!

The Costco Food Sample

I am one of those Costco shoppers. I buy all those bulk staples that a family needs. I usually end up buying things I don't need too, but that's the whole point of it right?

However I really do NOT like going to Costco. It's like people just leave their brains in their cars before they hike across the parking lot. Or Costco attracts hordes of folks who are missing common sense. I'm still not sure which yet.

I've tried going at many different days and times - thinking that I'll eventually find the 'sweet' spot. So while Tuesday morning at 10A might be a lot less crowded, it's the slow moving Grandma and Grandpa set paired with the small restaurant business owner. Not a good combo.

I am strategic in my shopping there. I NEVER go down the 'gauntlet' if I can help it. (i.e. the middle aisle where people just stop their carts willy nilly, completely blocking everyone and everything. Completely unaware, or purposely unaware of their surroundings. Drives me NUTS! My husband thinks I'm crazy when I scream at him 'no no!' 'not that way' if we go shopping together. But I have a STRATEGY! Apparently he needs a field briefing before we go in...

But what just gets me the most... is the free food sample days. People will LINE UP down an aisle, crowded around a hair net wearing woman screeching the attributes of whatever foodstuff she is hawking... and they WAIT! You're waiting for that tiny sliver of quesadilla? For that fruit juice sample? You desperately want to have that meat ball? That you'll wait in a LINE for it? It boggles my mind. Am I alone in this? You're so starving that you absolutely just HAVE to have that sample and will elbow a 4 year old out of the way for it? Okay....

So fess up - have you hovered around a hot plate next to the frozen foods aisle? You realize you can get a $1.50 hot dog after check out.. right?

Elvis Has Left the Building

Many of my friends and family know that I've been struggling with the whole work life balance for a while. Particularly as my eldest started kindergarten. Even though I had a great job and a boss who was very flexible, I just didn't feel like I had the time I needed to do the 'kid stuff' and I just didn't want to look back and wish I had tried to make this happen.

So I decided to take the leap.

I now work for myself. Well really I work for Koenig Inc. (actually the IRS knows me as Kimberly Koenig Media) which includes a very bossy 3 year old and a sensitive 5 year old. And a husband who is incredible, but maybe needs to have the clothes hamper moved right next to his side of the bed. I'm just saying.

As my employment drew to a close and yesterday morning as we got everyone loaded in the car for school/pre school drop offs- there was much crying about ridiculous things, like no you can't take the magic wand to school and please will you use some words instead of grunts. I took the tactic that some Mom had confessed to me at an earlier date, and turned my hip hop music to ear bleeding level to 'freeze' them out. I danced in my seat, I sang.. I ignored whatever whining/crying was coming from the back seat. And I panicked. What in the hell was I doing? I was choosing to do THIS full time? This is the meaningful time together? I'm afraid I might find myself shouting 'no more wire hangers' soon...

Today as my eyes are puffy and I am prone to fits of nostalgic and fear riddled crying, my youngest climbed into my lap (at my new home office desk) and said to me "Mommy, my heart says I love you". And she squeezed me. And I squeezed her.

Here we go.

Yoga: An Inner Dialouge With Humming Bee Finale

Prelude:
I like yoga. I hadn't tried a class until about a year ago because I'm not known for my ability to sit still or be quiet. But I actually really really enjoy it. I consider it my 'church'. However, I am still not able to 100% 'quiet my inner mind' - no matter how much I focus on my breathing.

Yoga: 12Noon - Inner Monologue

Substitute teacher. She looks cool. She's very tall. I wonder if I did yoga all the time if my body would look like that. "Well, minus the 6 inches she has on me, that definitely helps. I wonder if she eats meat. She's super nice and chatty. Can you comfortably wear glasses while teaching yoga? I wonder if those are natural curls or if she used a curling iron. If she used a curling iron, I really need to know how she did that. She referenced her niece while we were talking before class, I wonder if she has a boyfriend or wants to have kids, she seems like she'd make a great Mom. Hmm.....

Wow, she's a very clear and comfortable instructor. She didn't seem at all yoga-y in the beginning. Those glasses made her look like a book worm or a scientist. Do you think scientists like yoga or do they have a hard time letting go too?

Oh greeeaatt... a late arriver. Please don't try to... damn. Squeeze in RIGHT beside me, so now I won't be able to put my arms out. And she's wearing heavy perfume. Gross. I really hate people that aren't cognizant of other people's personal space. I'm going to scoot my mat up a little bit so we're not exactly side by side. Are those fake rips in her pants or real rips? Oh, they're Nike, looks like those are on purpose. Focus inward..... breathing in and out. Is that a dead bug or an alive bug right beside my hand? Okay, it's dead. Phew.

"Focus over your right shoulder toward the back wall" Oh hey, look at all those ladies. That one looks like she does yoga all the time... I wonder where she got her tank top? Hmmm...

"Now for this next pose, if you are menstruating heavily or have neck problems, please stay in a bridge pose". Eewww.. did she just say menstruating heavily? First off, if I was, I wouldn't stay in that pose because then everyone would think I was...eewww.... and why? Is it like when you're camping and bears will come to your campsite because they can smell it? No, it's probably to do with balance or having all your head rush to your blood. I wonder if that one guy in the middle is taken aback...hmmmm...

"Please turn and face the window and move your hands over to your right foot in a side lunge" Hah. I'm standing at the end of my mat so that late arriver girl doesn't get my tush in her face, but she's not moving. Too bad for you - tush in your face. That's what happens when you CROWD. Focus on breathing..... clear your mind...

Wow - this was a nice class. Not too tough, a good intro back into yoga. Now we'll get to lay on our mats and do that inward focusing thing that feels like a nap to me.. ahh.. I love that. "And as the practice comes to an end, we're going to do something a little different. It's called Humming Bee Breathing. Put your hands over your eyes and over your ears, making sure not to constrict your nasal cavity. Breathe in and as you breathe out, humm. It will take over your whole body. Lose yourself in it. I will come around and gently pat you on the shoulder when we are finished." Whaaaaaa??? What? I thought she was cool. She's DEFINITELY all yoga-y. I'm going with vegetarian for sure. Man.. I don't want to do this. What If I'm the last one to be tapped on the shoulder and I'm still humming. Ah, let it go.. what do you care? Maybe it IS a nice escape. Just go for it. Okay.... ... hmm.. this is weird, but kind of nice? I can hear humming in the background through my closed ears. Wow, we almost sound like an acapella group. Wow someone over on the right has a VERY nice voice.... concentrate, focus...... oh, there's the pat... oh and I still hear humming.. phew. and from the pretty voice girl, maybe she's used to performing and doesn't care. I bet that's it."

Namaste.

Strangers, Toddlers and Bathrooms

It's pretty much established that I'm a bit weird and pay attention to the strangest things. Case in point last night.

The girls and I stopped to grab a bite before going down to watch Daddy's indoor soccer game. (First time in um... 2 years? Sorry sweets..)

The vote was for Pagliacci and so there we were. Now I know there are Mom's out there who don't bat an eye at eating out with their 5 and 2.5 year olds. For me, it can be a bit chaotic. Someone's always hanging off some railing or darting in front of a busser with a full tray, you get the picture.

We get our respective slices and drinks and Riley gets the high chair that she demanded and we sit at the table Kate selected - right next to both the bathroom and the garbage. Clearly this child needs to be schooled a bit in the restaurant department. But I obliged. Eeeh, easy access to napkins and straws...

We're eating and drinking and trying not to spill when I notice some tall man doing a bit of a potty dance near the bathrooms. He is sipping his beverage while waiting for the Men's room to become available. First of all - universal rule. NO FOOD OR DRINKS IN THE BATHROOM. That's just disgusting!! Unless you're out at 12A and it's a beer bottle that you shakily set down on the back of the toilet seat...but that's a different blog.

After waiting a bit - Mr. tall guy hot foots it into the ladies room instead. And wouldn't you know it - that's when Riley (who we're trying to encourage to potty train) announces she needs to go to the potty. I tell her we have to wait for the bathroom to be free. And deep inside myself I know this potty dancer is going to be in there for a while. Eww eww eww... Yep. And when he finally emerges I just know that the ladies room is a hot mess. I cannot and will not willingly take my toddler (or let's face it, it's really about me) into the ladies room. You just know it's not good. Toilet seat is probably still warm.

So I convinced my child to 'wait' to go the bathroom when we got to the soccer field. (Yes, I chose warehouse soccer bathroom over the former...). Of course she wouldn't and couldn't hold it.. but I'm totally okay with that.

I just have to say it again, why would you bring your drink with you into the bathroom?? He's probably the same guy that wears his socks into the airplane lavatory....