Ten things about me and reading - 31 Things

ONE | My favorite childhood memories were summers walking to the Bookmobile. I could easily check out 16 books each week and read each one.

TWO | One of the hardest things about moving to Ecuador was the lack of public lending libraries and the limited selection at bookstores.

THREE | I will always prefer traditional books vs reading books on an e-reader. Nevertheless, I’m happy that I can buy books for my iPod Touch. It is freeing to have a selection available of new and old, right at my fingertips.

FOUR | Even though the device tries to mimic the experience, reading books on my iPod Touch is not so enjoyable.The screen is small, the device difficult to hold, the glare eventually tires my eyes, it is difficult to visualize where things are in the book. Reading electronically has taken a little of the joy out of reading.

FIVE | I almost never leave home without a book in my purse/bag/car. 

SIX | I am not super particular about the genres I read, but I do go through stages. Ten years ago I would only read “highbrow” literature: classics, Nobel Prize-winning authors, winners of the Booker Prize. Five years ago I was only interested in magazines and “fluff.” Nowadays I find myself reading non-fiction.

SEVEN |  Two of my favorite books are Wuthering Heights and Les Miserables. I was an English major and read a lot of 18th-19th century British literature, and to this day I continue to prefer British writers. I miss the analyzing books for symbolism and motifs of my college days.

EIGHT | I wasn’t expecting to love the Harry Potter series so much. I can’t wait until the boys are ready for me to read it to them. I ask them every week. 

NINE |  The boys are read to every single night. Andrés and I take turns. They actually look forward to bedtime and this ritual helps them fall asleep quickly. Some days they have us read for 45 minutes or more.

TEN |  I don’t intend to ever get rid of any of the books in my collection. Most have been brought in suitcases from the States every year. I love each one.

I have so much more to say on the subject - I will probably be revisiting this idea again and again in the future.

Here is the look of the two-page spread:

Morning - 31 Things

Mornings usually come too fast for me. 

I’ve never been much of a morning person. In the morning I am slow and lethargic and it seems to take me twice as long to get things done. I can always convince myself, as I’m reaching for the snooze button, that just five more minutes won’t make a difference in my routine.

The alarm goes off at 5:20, and after a few pushes from the snooze button, I am finally up. We make the bed, and then I get into the shower. I usually take my shower before Andrés, since the water heater is broken and has to be turned on manually, and he doesn’t mind going outside on a chilly morning to do so. Then he hops in while I get dressed. 

Just about at that time, the kids come into the room. They don’t need a wake-up call. There is a 5:50 plane to Loja that passes over the house that usually wakes them, and if that doesn’t, the sun will, at 6 a.m. They are a little like mini zombies: push open the door (there’s always a slamming door involved), use the bathroom (eyes generally closed at this point), then hop up on our bed and cover up with blankets. Nico likes the blue one and Tin prefers the pink and green one. There’s not much talking yet, but in about five minutes the remote will come out and they’ll be watching Disney Channel (Poppy Cat, Special Agent Oso, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates have been the favorites lately).

If I have to go into work, I go downstairs with Andrés and we have breakfast until Grandma Shushú comes to take over for us. Andrés and I both like to mix it up. One morning it might be scrambled eggs on toast, the next a grilled cheese sandwich or yogurt with granola. I rarely have time on weekdays to eat fruit for breakfast.

I grab some coffee in a mug to go, and we get into the car and head out for our 45-minute commute.

If I don’t have to go into work, then usually I snuggle with the boys when they jump into bed. They fight over whose side I turn to, who I hug, who gets the blankets, etc., and so instead of sleeping in a bit more, I end up tossing and turning and talking to them until 6:30. 

At 6:30 I get up and go downstairs to get their breakfast ready. Agustín loves cheese, so his breakfast usually consists of a piece of toast or bread and a half of a banana (one of the few fruits he’ll eat) with some sort of cheese - a wedge of cheddar or gouda or crackers with cream cheese. It’s important to have a glass of milk ready for him on the nightstand. (They eat in our bed on trays, watching TV - basically their only TV time at home.) Agustín eats quickly, and usually has me go downstairs for seconds. You can always tell what his favorite thing on the plate is - he always saves that for last.

Nicolás, on the other hand, likes to savor each and every bite. He loves cereal, with milk, and usually asks for that in the mornings, but if there is time I might make him pancakes as well, and that is always a big hit. He is the opposite of his brother when it comes to eating: he doesn’t like cheese, isn’t a big fan of bread, and saves the “yuckiest” thing on his plate for last. He is usually finishing his breakfast right up to the very last second. In this sense he and I are the same - always taking our time, and at the last minute rushing around so we won’t be late. I imagine I was the same way when I was little. I remember walking into the kitchen and all of mom’s daycare kids (many my same age) already well into their breakfasts, and me just rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

After breakfast is finished, the kids get dressed. Uniforms have almost always been laid out the night before. Agustín will dress himself but Nicolás still likes to be babied and will mess around until you get frustrated and get him dressed yourself. My favorite part of the morning is changing their socks. I make a habit of kissing their feet and changing their socks for them each morning. This started because I realized that when they were dressing themselves they were forgetting to change their socks, but now it is a little routine that both boys love and have come to expect.

The TV goes off, the kids finally get up out of bed and go brush their teeth while I wet and comb down their rogue hair. 

Downstairs, the boys get their shoes on while I warm up the car and then we’re off. It takes about 15 minutes to get to school. Sometimes there is music on,  but many times the boys are asking me tricky questions. This morning it was who invented money? and why do we care about money if it’s just paper?

Jewelry - 31 Things

I guess I'll follow Amy's example and post my daily entries for our 31 Things class (with Ali Edwards, shoot shoot!). So glad that she's doing this with me - so cool to know someone out there on the forums. Maybe next time we can convince more of the Miller clan to join in ;)

 “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” At least that’s what they say. I don’t own a diamond, nor have I ever owned one. I don’t necessarily want a diamond, and do not notice diamonds on others. Sometimes this makes me feel strange, like I am missing something everyone else sees. Most of the time I don’t even really think much about it, or about jewelry in general.

But I do occasionally wear jewelry. Nothing expensive. Definitely nothing over ten dollars. In the stores I find myself drawn to necklaces and bracelets more than anything else, but in real life I seldom wear more than a ring and my watch.

RINGS | I like to wear rings. I admire larger rings and have a few myself, but don’t usually think to put them on in the morning. Of course I wear my wedding ring. It is very simple, just a gold band, bought for me by Andrés in Windsor, at Quicentro Mall. Inside I have his initials (and inside his, mine) and our wedding date.  About two years ago I actually had to go have it made smaller, and in an interesting turn of events, the man working there recognized the band and year it was made. Suddenly my very simple band became something even more special and unique. 

EARRINGS | I have a jewelry box full of earrings. Many are small, made of gold or silver, and bought locally. Some are things I see at the mall when I am home in the States for a visit. My problem is that I never remember to wear them. Andrés’s great-aunt loves to buy me earrings – long dangly ones. I think she notices that I never wear them and perhaps thinks that I don’t have any. When I was young, my ears were double pierced, but they have long since closed up. Now I am always on the lookout for the perfect “small” pair of earrings that I can wear all day and even to bed, and not have to worry about taking on or off.

NECKLACES | Necklaces are more my “thing.” I have many and like to buy them. I probably wear them once or twice a week. My favorite is a silver one on a long chain with a circle at the bottom, a heart inside of the circle. I don’t remember where I got it from, but it isn’t real silver. I like to wear a necklace when I’m teaching – it gives my hands somewhere to go – and that silver necklace is the best one for the job.

I remember my mom wearing an occasional ring or earrings, but I don’t remember her jewelry box. My maternal grandmother never wore any jewelry that I can remember. My mother-in-law, however, does, and while most of it is not expensive, one thing she really looked forward to when I married Andrés was being able to pass her jewelry on to me. Many of my more expensive pieces are from her. 

The Magic Formula

Almost three years ago, I set off on a quest to lose weight. It's not that I had never tried before, but this time something was different. I had this do or die attitude, this sense that there was no "good" time to start and that I just needed to start to actually start (if that makes any sense), the question how could eating better and getting more exercise actually hurt me, and a hope (in the far recesses of my mind) that I would possibly even lose a bit of weight.

The first two months I concentrated on exercise. Started walking, then did a bit of running (I am seriously talking 2 minute spurts, people, nothing fancy or difficult), and as I ran (which I do NOT like to do), I realized that I actually liked running a bit (the getting-somewhere-faster aspect, not the can't-breathe-gonna-die-of-a-heart-attack aspect). It really surprised me that I was getting into it. Nevertheless, I only lost about 10 pounds those first two or three months. (It didn't feel like such a big deal when I felt I had so much more to lose.)

I talked to a friend who said she had joined Weight Watchers, checked online and realized that they had an online program. Decided to sign up for the three months and see what would actually happen.

I loved the old points system. it worked much better for me here in Ecuador - the new system needs too much info - stuff that usually isn't written out on the packaging - and is also much harder to figure out by "eyeballing".

Wow. I couldn't believe it. It was so easy and so fun and I saw results almost immediately. I was dropping 2-3 pounds a week, feeling healthier (and this made me feel better at running - jogging - which I did more and more)... it was like a switch went off in my body somewhere and suddenly the pounds were dropping.

That year, I lost about 50 pounds.

Now I look back and think how ridiculous it was - some weeks I actually felt like I couldn't NOT lose weight, I felt like I was looking a little sickly and gross, and I missed my curves a little. I know, silly, but seriously it was coming off pretty easily and something like that had never ever happened to me, so maybe you can see a little where I was coming from. I entertained thoughts that maybe I was secretly ill and that is why I was actually losing weight!

Flash forward three years. Yep, I've gained most of it back. And nope, the Magic Formula is no longer working. Because of my silliness (which I explained in the previous paragraph), I decided to just take it easy for awhile, and sort of went into maintenance mode. (Even though I still wanted to eventually lose 20 more pounds.)  Big mistake. Famous last words. What a huge regret... I did keep the weight off for two years (well, I gained about 5-8 pounds back, but it wasn't very noticeable), and then one thing led to another and it started to slowly creep up. Five pounds became ten pounds which became fifteen, then twenty... well, you get the picture. At ten pounds I tried to stop it - went back to Weight Watchers but - GASP - they had changed their system to the "new" Points Plus and while I tried it for a couple of weeks, I didn't lose a single pound, and even seemed to be gaining.

I hate you PointsPlus.

Since then I have tried to go back to WW (about two months ago I canceled my subscription because honestly I cannot make the Points Plus system work), tried exercising more (gained 2 lbs), tried exercising less and watching what I eat (lost a pound in like one month - not good), tried doing nothing (staying the same pretty much), tried Sparkpeople (it's free so why isn't it working? I think the calculation parts - like the PointsPlus system - is just a tad too complicated for me to maintain my motivation), Andres got me a treadmill (love it but find that it is SO hard because I have to maintain a constant speed and there is really no excuse-making when you've got a treadmill at home), and a slur of other things.

Basically I have every excuse in the book - my knees and shins and heels hurt (they do), it's too rainy outside (it is), I've already showered (I have), it's too unsafe outside (it is), the treadmill is hard and I don't go very fast because I can't and therefore I don't see results (all of the above), my dad was here for three months and we went out to eat more (he was - but over a year ago), I have trips to the US planned (a sure way to gain a quick and easy ten pounds - just stepping off the plane)...

The beginning of the end - this December. After this trip I have steadily been gaining...

What is wrong with me? Why isn't this working anymore? Where is my drive, my feeling of love for running, my feeling of loving to eat right and add veggies to everything? (I have been avoiding veggies like the plague - they make me nauseous for some reason).

I am really frustrated...with myself. It's almost worse at this point, because I KNOW I can do this (I mean, I did do it!) and yet nothing is happening. It was easier before to think nope, my body will never do this.

The worse thing is, while I know I haven't been eating so well, I never felt like I was eating so terribly, either. It was almost as if, once my body started gaining weight, it couldn't help itself again, and without any effort at all, I found myself almost at my starting weight.

Taken about two or three months ago - yikes!!!!!

Pretty funny, thinking I threw away my "fat" clothes (I mean, I'd kept the weight off for 2 years!). Now I have no motivation, no drive, no desire, and no clothes. And bum knees and shins and heels and feet I can barely stand on. I know my leg issues should improve if I can get the weight down again, but how can I when I feel like exercise is a huge part of the "Formula" for me?

I think it will just be fruit and water for me the next month. I am willing to go on a starvation diet I think (yeah, right! lol).


This is my last desperate cry!!!!!

Project Life: Weeks 11-17

Week Eleven

A quieter week. Some laundry, some crochet, a cute book came home with nico this week (seen in the insert).

This is the only insert I've done so far, but I'm ok with that. So far the album is so much fun to go through, not sure each week needs more. Just going to go with the flow I guess. A lot of excitement below as the kids were given permission to ride from Grandma's house to home in the front seat. How cool was that!?

Week Twelve

The kids went to the stadium on Sunday and got Liga shirts (it was Nico's first time at a game) and so soccer fever has started!

Some shots of "Mommy School" as well!

Week Thirteen

It's been a rough rainy season, and although we had planned a beach trip every weekend in March and April, the landslides on the highways have prevented it. Things opened up for Easter break, though, and the kids were dropped off to spend a week there with their grandparents alone (well, we stayed on the weekends, just not during the week). Bati and Gaby came but can you believe I didn't get one picture of them? Crazy.

Week Fourteen

Andres turns 40, we spend some days in the city alone (catch a movie and go out for drinks a couple of times!), then back to the beach to pick up the kids.

Week Fifteen

Easter egg hunting and dying, bowling night, and some very cold weather makes up this week.

Week Sixteen

As I said, the soccer bug has bit. Back to the stadium. Some crochet for me. Some cleaning for Nico (he wasn't even asked! He loves to sweep with that little broom - great purchase!) More ephemera this week - I love that and want to do more. I feel like I'm filling things up with too many photos and not enough words and stuff. Will be more mindful to do so...

Here I did get some journaling in from the kids' teacher conferences and also a little about our "wild" Saturday (started with books form the library and ended with Shushu being rushed to the hospital. It turned out to be a pinched-nerve-like thing in her shoulder, but very painful. Thought it might be her heart so didn't want to take chances.)

Week Seventeen

And here we are - all up to date. Again with super bad, blurry pics. Sorry!

This Sunday we saw Pirates in the theater. Nico won first place in a drawing contest (Tin won third!), we had an ice cream break on Monday, the kids got soccer gloves from Grandpa for their outstanding report cards, Mommy and Daddy went downtown to a super fancy restaurant, and Nico shadowed me all day Saturday, then ended the day doing some nifty acrobats for me!

Wow. Just when you think your life is a bit on the boring side, you go back and see how absolutely blessed and lucky you are.

As Agustin would say, "This family rocks."

He also likes to say "thingamadoodle."

Project Life: Weeks 7-10

More from my Project Life binder. Again, horrible photos. I know. They make me want to cry. Oh well. 

Week Seven

Valentine's Day, with some of the cards I gave the boys. An insert from the chocolate heart Tin received. Pictures from Family Game night, and some pics of A wrestling with the boys.

Week Eight

Carnaval weekend, lots of soccer as you can see.

Week Nine

This week saw us back at the beach, as well as starting swimming lessons again. A few samples of the kids school work (studying for tests) as well.

Week Ten

Back at the beach again, after a big storm. Birthday week as well - Nico turned 6 and Shushu 66! Some pictures from our secret mission that led to the birthday gifts. That was so much fun to put together.

The photo of the balloons on the left hand side where the balloons I put up the night before Nico's birthday. I laughed so hard when he came out. He just looked at them, looked at me, and then in his voice that says you-must-be-crazy said "What'd ya put up all the balloons for?" Still cracks me up!

Playing Project Life Posting Catch Up: Weeks 3-6

I have been really good about keeping up with Project Life. In fact, I look forward to it all week, and some weeks it goes by too fast. I did run out of photo paper one week and had a hard time finding some in the stores, so I got a little behind, then proceeded to run out of ink the next week, but I am finally all caught up and things are working just fine. I am using the DayOne app to jot down little things - I haven't used it every day but two or three times a week, which helps record some of those little moments that are hard to remember at the end of a week.

I am going to go ahead and post each of my weeks, because I like to get a general feel for the album this way. I am doing it in terrible light, however, because during the day when the sun's out the kids are following me around and it's harder to get it done. So excuse the horrible horrible quality of the pics. Maybe someday when I've got tons of extra time to spare I'll re-photograph them.

Week Three

A pretty normal week around here. Not much going on out of the ordinary.

Week Four

The kids had an event going on at school. Andres and I took some time off and went to watch it. Had a lot of fun, although it was so cold outside!  And wet.

Week Five

A birthday party for a girl in Nico's class, another event at Tin's school to celebrate the Tarqui Battle. Some of the kids art work...

Week Six

A trip to Ibarra this weekend, an event at work (nice and fancy, haha), a meeting with an old student of mine, some family time.

Cosmic Bowling

The other day Nico mentioned that even though we said in January that we would go bowling in Quito, we hadn't been bowling here yet. So we made reservations for a lane for this afternoon at 5:30 and went for a little bowling foray!

Unfortunately, the kids had had a really busy and active day at school, hadn't eaten well at lunch, and therefore were very crabby and difficult to handle. The bumpers at the bowling alley had broken and they were awaiting an import, so even though they told us upfront, I opted to go anyway. I figured it would be fun, even if we didn't hit too many pins.

My bad.

Mostly we just heard whining and watched kids hold back their tears because they were last, they only had 11 points, they couldn't hit the pins, etc, etc.

Even with help, they were not happy.

And actually it was almost worse to help them, since if - God forbid! - we didn't hit a pin ourselves, we had to really hear it!

It did not make for very pleasant bowling but Andrés and I tried to make the most of it and see the humor in the situation. Maybe in a few days or weeks or years it will seem funnier.

Brrrrr

It was really cold tonight.

You can't even walk around the house without three or four layers.

Axl....?

We have been getting a lot of lip lately.

Sometimes I blame school. Other times I think it is age. But tonight Nico informed me that it's because that's how Axl (from the TV show "The Middle") acts, and he's cool. Ummmm, ok, maybe no more "Middle"?

The face above was because I mentioned that we'd need to take a bath tonight.

Dying eggs - our Easter tradition

It's become something of a tradition, dying eggs. We can find white eggs now, and while they aren't as popular as the brown eggs, they're in most supermarkets.

The kids made a couple two-toned eggs this year. Daddy gave them the idea. They turned out cute!

We made deviled eggs with most of them, ate the others as hard-boiled eggs.