Seattle Mom Blogs

I thought with the beginning of the school year quickly approaching, now would be a good time to re-visit a back-to-school post from days past, originally published October, 2008.

Every morning it is the same old routine around here.� I get up way earlier than I�d really like to, make the excruciating decision between getting my caffeine fix from half a pot of coffee or go the quicker route of grabbing an icy cold Diet Coke from the fridge, and get on with the business of packing lunches for my school-bound children.

Once I read about a mother who organizes her pantry with special bins, each containing a type of food to put in a child�s lunchbox.� I am not that mother.

First, my pantry is much too small for over-sized totes filled only with enough snacky items for a week�s worth of lunches and even if it were � I think I could come up with about a thousand other items (cough, Pepperidge Farm Cookies, cough, cough) to fill my shelves.� Second, I am just not that organized.� Did I mention that I have a small pantry?

Instead, I look in the general area (and I use the term �area� loosely, as sometimes the �areas� of my non-organized pantry blend into one another, making them completely indistinguishable from each other) of the carbohydrate section and decide on a bread with which to make the sandwiches for the day.� White or wheat?� White or wheat?� These are tough decisions.

Then, I rest for a minute and drink my caffeine.

After I am a little more alert, I check the deli drawer for fresh meat and decide whether today will be a turkey and havarti day or a peanut butter and jelly day.� You just never know in my house.� When the sandwiches are made, it is time to check the fruit situation (and no, fruit snacks � even the really, really good ones, don�t count).

This could go one of two ways.� Either a fresh fruit item, like a banana or cut up apple, will make its way to the lunchboxes or something resembling real fruit, like a fruit cup, will be the choice of the day.� I know, it is a highly complex form of decision making that only the inside of my head can determine and is greatly influenced by how quickly that aforementioned caffeine has made its way into my bloodstream.

On to the �extras� part of the lunch building task � and this is even more complex, don�t say I didn�t warn you!

Granola bars, fruit leathers, crackers, popcorn, nuts, pretzels . . . how does one choose?� �I like to close my eyes and grab the first two items that my hand lands on.

I told you it was complex.

After adding a dairy item, like yogurt or a string cheese, the lunches are almost complete. . .

Drinks!

I forgot drinks!� I race down to the refrigerator in the garage, where we keep all the beverages. �I make yet another difficult choice between water, apple juice or the sports drink du jour � in today�s case, Gatorade, which is an excellent choice as long as my sons do not suck their entire mouths into the spout while drinking it thus giving themselves a semi-permanent blue stain around their lips for the remainder of the school day.� This is especially fun when it is picture day.

Add a napkin, a cold pack and zip it up.� Voila!� Lunch is done, and it only took me 10 minutes!� 10 minutes that I could have spent sleeping, but there are no lengths to a mother�s love and the need to pack a nutritious lunch for her offspring, each and every day.

Now, let�s just hope they eat what I packed and do not trade their entire lunch for one Ding Dong.

�

What are your time saving tips for packing lunches for school-aged children?� Do you have a system, or do you just wing it like I do?� I�d love to hear your strategy!� And if you�re the mother with the bins, I don�t even want to hear about it, okay? ��(said with a smile because secretly I�m totally jealous of those bins)

Carrie can be found hanging out at her personal blog Stop Screaming I’m Driving! where she is kept busy wrangling three kids, one goofy Aussie, and her very own firefighter. She can be bribed with lattes and offers to do her laundry. Please send column suggestions to carrieb at seattle mom blogs dot com.

Hola, I’m Isabel and you can usually find me over at Hola Isabel.  But for today I’m over here at Seattle Mom Blogs sharing the love for all things Seattle!

My husband decided that this summer should be known as The Summer of Fun for our little family.  I admit I was a little skeptical when he first told me this.  And then I remembered that I was due to have a baby at the end of August.  So yeah, we must get in all The Summer of Fun that we can before we introduce a newborn baby into our lives and get rid of all fun.  At least for a few months.

We’ve been trying to do a couple of Summer of Fun activities per week.  Thankfully Seattle is full of awesome and fun things to do, so we hadn’t had any problems coming up with activities.

Until last week.

We’d done one activity (had dinner on the beach) but were looking for something to do on the weekend.

Enter the Youth Theatre Northwest.

We were lucky enough to score some tickets (thanks to the director of the theater) to the Saturday night showing of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” performed by local youth from the age of 3 to 18.  I didn’t even know theaters like this existed.

And especially not on Mercer Island.

According to their website:

The Youth Theatre Northwest is a school, theatre, and home for children and families. At Youth Theatre Northwest, children and young adults explore the depths of their creativity and experience the thrill of live performance. Through the magic of theatre, YTN helps young people find their “inner light” of self-confidence, sensitivity, creativity, and leadership.

Sounds like a great program for the kids.  But also for the patrons of the theater.  (Like me!) (And my family!)  (The Summer of Fun continues!)

I decided that this would be the perfect way to introduce our four year old, My Sweet Babboo, to the theater.  I insisted we all dress up and we headed to Mercer Island. (Okay, so my kid wore shorts.  But look, he has a jacket on too.)

We don’t watch a lot of Disney movies at our house, so my son had never heard of “Beauty and the Beast”.  It had been a long time since I’d seen the movie, so I sort of forgot about THE BEAST being a little scary.

Oopsie.

Yeah, the beast scared My Sweet Babboo.  Which is really a compliment to the actor (an excellent actor named Atticus).  His voice was booming.  His singing was awesome.  And his mask was furry and scary.

I think I should have taken the few minute before the show started to warn my son that he might be scared a little.  Instead I took pictures of the stage.

Anyway, once Babboo got past his initial nervousness with the beast we all enjoyed the production.  Who knew such young kids could kick so much butt when it came to the theater?!  (I didn’t.)

The costumes were great.  The set was great.  The acting was great.  The singing was great.  (We especially liked the role of Gaston.)

I found myself looking over at my husband from time to time and, be assured, even he had a smile on his face the entire time.  It truly was the perfect Summer of Fun activity for the whole family.

My only complaint was the theater felt like it was about 20 degrees inside.  I’m 9 months pregnant and even I was freezing.  Oh, and I couldn’t bring my water in with me.  But that one I sort of understand.

“Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” is showing until the 15th, so you’ll need to get your tickets fast.

“Thoroughly Modern Millie” starts it’s fun on August 27th and continues through September 5th.  I would love, love, love to go and see it.  Here’s hoping we can sneak away from the baby by then.

So, if you’re looking for the perfect Summer of Fun activity for your family, drive on over to Mercer Island and watch some awesome and talented kids from the Youth Theatre Northwest put on a mighty fine show.

Just remember to bring a jacket.

Quick fly by here at the blog.  I’m off in a couple of hours to run the Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage relay race. 

The Ragnar is “you and 11 of your closest friends running day and night, relay-style, through some of the most scenic terrain North America could muster. Add in live bands, inside jokes and a mild case of sleep deprivation. The result? Some call it a slumber party without sleep, pillows or deodorant. We call it a Ragnar Relay.”

The Northwest Passage course description reads: Skagit, Deception, Fidalgo, Whidbey. Unusual names, killer places to run. This adventure-fest will push you and 11 pals through 187 miles of stunning Washington scenery. Starting in the seaside town of Blaine, your team will head south through farm country and along the coast, ultimately crossing over Deception Pass. The race (and your stamina) wraps up on the southern tip of Whidbey Island. 

So, why am I doing this you may be asking?  Well, I’m on the verge of turning 40.  In fact, my 40th birthday is Saturday and I will be the runner crossing the finish line…. on my 40th birthday.  I saw an ad for this race last year and really wanted to do it but schedules didn’t allow it nor did I have time to put a team together.  But when I thought about what I wanted to do for my 40th, this immediately came to mind.  So, I got my husband, Jenny from Jenny On The Spot and Anthony from The Pursuit of A Life plus L, my running partner, and a few more friends and we will spend approximately 24-28 hours running almost 200 miles.  Yep- that’s my version of a blow out 40th birthday party!

Wish us luck…

So for years I have always been convinced that I hate spinning classes.  I took a class a few times about 8 years ago and I would spend the whole class watching the second hand tick over every second for an entire hour.  But slowly over the last few weeks, I’ve been more and more intrigued by the idea of trying a spin class again.  One of the trainers at the gym is this very French, very intense man.  I tried to joke with him one time about how his is so much meaner than my trainer.  Yeah, that did not go over so well.  But he’s know around the gym as The Feared French Cyclist.  So, if I’m going to take a spinning class, I’m going to go big and take his class.  That’s just how I am.  No easing into anything.  No doing anything the easy way.

So spinning with Seby is now my new Wednesday noon workout and I love it.  I know.  I’m just as surprised to you.  I guess all that was needed all these years was a hot French cyclist in front of me and I would have tried spinning a long time ago.

So it was the weekend of the Seattle R.ock N R.oll again.  This time, 27,000 runners registered for the sold out race.  As usual, most of the runners registered for the half.  L and I were all set for the full 26.2 miles and made plans to meet downtown at 5 am.  Which meant I got up at 4 am.  Let me repeat that- I voluntarily got up at 4 am on a Saturday to go run 26.2 miles.  Cra-zy.

There were some glitches with the shuttle buses and lack of adequate port-a-potties for 27,00 runners plus volunteers.  The race started and our corral (#8 which was a HUGE improvement over corral #24 from last year) already crossed the start line while we were all still standing in line for the bathroom.

L and I jumped in with another corral as it approached the start and we took off.  It was so crowded and hard to find a good pace for miles.  I hate to say it but there were too many racers.

Oh and let me back up- on the way down to the shuttle buses, L told me she had decided to run the half instead of the whole.  I had to understand as she had been sick twice and had been traveling which had left her very little opportunity to run in the month leading up the race.  So I already knew she would be leaving me when the groups split at mile 9.2.  Instead, we ended up splitting at mile 5 as she needed to stop and deal with some issues.  Damn.  21.2 more miles to go and now I’m alone.

I kept my eye on my Garmin to keep my pace about 8:35-8:45 per mile (going for a sub-4 hour finish!) and hit L.ake Washin.gton Blvd.  I love the stretch along this road from Seward Park to Madison Park.  At mile 9, in Leschi, we ran up the on-ramp to get on the express lanes of I-90.  At that point, my Zune quit on me.  Dead.  Totally dead.  Now I am looking at 17.2 more miles with NO ONE TO TALK TO AND NO MUSIC.  This sucked pretty bad.

I ran out across I-90 to Mercer Island and made the turn around to head back to Seattle.  We rejoined the half marathoners in the express tunnel and ran together for about 3 more miles into downtown.  I think they were on miles 9-12 and we were on 12-15 at that point.   I was slowing down to 9:15-9:30 minute miles which wasn’t going to get me my sub-4 finish.  I had a really hard time dealing with that.

I was struggling with pain in my pelvis from an injury I suffered a while ago.  I had a groin pull which led to an inflammation of my pubic joint and I have not been able to completely heal from this.  The pain in my pelvis led to a change in my gait and then my right calf started to try and cramp up.  The muscle would seize but not quite be able to cramp.  It was momentarily painful and highly annoying.  It was tempting to just cross over to the half marathoners and run their last mile with them and be done.  But I stuck with it and hit the on-ramp to 99.

Last year, the long stretch up to Fremont, back to way south of downtown and then up the hill back to Qwes.t Field was really hard on me mentally.  For some reason, this stretch wasn’t as hard for me this time.  Maybe because I had already had plenty of time to have my mental breakdowns from mile 5 on?  Who knows.

By mile 21, I was in so much pain that the pelvic pain and pain in my feet was all relative.  Everything hurt.  But everything always hurts at this point in the race.  I found my determination that had been missing since about mile 12 and managed to get my splits down closer to 8:50-9:00 minute miles.  The sub-4 finish had slid out of my grasp at about mile 19 and I knew there was no getting it back.

I managed the final turn around between mile 24 and 25 and headed back north to the exit to Qwest and the finish line.  Down the offramp and around the corner and the finish line is less than .2 miles away.  I sped up but was unable to actually break into a sprint to cross the finish line.  Chip time was 4:24.  Disappointing.

Sunday morning I finally faced the inevitable and looked up my stats:

Only 4,010 of the 27,000 ran the whole. That means I at least ran twice as far as 23,000 other people.  I was in top 40% of all marathoners; top 30% of all women and top 25% of women my age. I may not have gotten my sub-4 but maybe that’s OK.

I’ve been trying to be OK with this result but it was hard when I ran into my trainer at the gym this morning and he was so excited to hear about the race.  I felt like I was disappointing him when I told him I didn’t finish sub-4.  I’m sure he was just disappointed FOR me but still.

So: moving on to the next race.  The Ragnar Relay Northwast Passage to celebrate my 40th birthday.  Less than 4 weeks away…

At the Seattle International Film Festival this month I got an early look at a screening of the documentary Waiting for Superman by Davis Guggenheim. I think this film will change the way that people in America view the education system. I think it will cause a massive unrest. I hope it will.

It’s a film about the broken education system in America. It’s a film about trying to find hope when many signs point to hope being lost. It’s a film about great educators and loving parents trying to do the best for children and meeting road blocks all along the way. It’s a film about our future and whether we will get up and do something about it. Superman is not coming to fix it but someone needs to.

The past few months as I’ve gotten a bee in my bonnet about where education is going in this country, I’ve had conversations with people from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Excellent Schools Now, two groups who are working for education reform. ESN is specifically working for an education revolution in Washington State, while The Gates Foundation is looking at the country as a whole.

My interest has always been in the quality of education my children receive. I’ve been very narrowly focused, wanting them to get the best teachers and have the greatest opportunities, teaching them at home and volunteering at the school.

After some of the conversations I’ve been having and especially after watching this film, I feel the need to broaden my scope. All children in this country should have a chance at a quality education, regardless of race, economic status or family background. They must. If our country is going to grow and be a prosperous nation, we have no other choice.

It is not enough for your child and my child to get a decent education. Our country is experiencing a serious shortage of educated workers to fill positions in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields right now, while at the same time many people are unemployed. This gap is only projected to get worse unless we see radical improvements in college readiness.

I’ve always believed that family is the greatest influence in a child’s life. I still do but after watching that documentary, I’m convinced that excellent teachers can make a huge difference in the lives of ALL children, even those with no support at home. I can’t necessarily heal and strengthen every family in this country. Sometimes I struggle with my own. But I feel that it’s possible to help make excellent education available to all children.

I’m new to this issue but I’m passionate about it. I’m not a teacher, a professional lobbyist or affiliated with any organization. Through this blog, I hope to learn more and explore ways big and small that we as individual parents can not only improve our own kids’ educations, but effect major change in the way education is run in this country and specifically Washington State. I’d love to hear your ideas and maybe we can all be Superman together.

Next Post: It Starts With a Teacher

Well, times and places were finally posted and I eagerly (naively) checked to see how I had done.  Ouch.  My overall time was no improvement over last year.  The course was not identical to my very first triathlon last summer but it was close enough to be comparable.  And I was almost 2 minutes SLOWER overall.  And you know what?  It was the stupid bike leg that killed me.  Yes, my swim time was a little slower but I was ready to accept that.  Both of my transition times were faster- that’s good.  But I was SIX MINUTES slower in the bike leg.  I am still trying to process how that happened.  Clearly I must have been out for a Saturday morning stroll on my bike while everyone one else was in a race.  Sigh.  The good news is that I kicked ass on the 5K at the end, numb feet and mud and everything.  I posted a 21:34 for the 5K which means I averaged a 6:54 mile for all 3.1 miles.  So, while I was top 1/3 for my age group, my overall results were not at all what I expected or wanted.  Time to get some bike training in.

I got up at 5:30 this morning and was out at the lake by 6:30 with my stuff.  As I looked around, I quickly realized I was one of maybe 4 or 5 people without a wetsuit on.  In fact, many of the people had on wetsuits, booties AND neoprene hats under their swim caps.  Uh oh.  Water temp was 59 degrees.  I was in trouble.

I was the only woman in my wave that was not wearing a wetsuit and I got a lot of sympathetic looks and comments from the other women.  I waded out to the start and pretty much went instantly numb.  Which at the time I thought was pretty OK.  The gun went off and we all took off.  There was the usual jostling for position and trying not to kick someone in the face or be kicked in the face yourself.  The water was cold but not too terrible except on my eyebrows which were really cold for some reason.  I rounded the first buoy and then trouble hit.  I started getting really tired and kept thinking it might be a good idea to stop.  Then I started thinking that taking my goggles off would be a good thing to do.  At that point I realized I was not having rational thoughts and I may be starting to get a bit hypothermic.

I looked at where the rescue boats were and they seemed so far away.  And then I thought about how humliated I would feel if I quit.  Fortunately, I had kept moving while weighing my options so by then I was close to the final buoy.  I put my head down and swam towards shore.  I was so relieved when I touched lake bed and stood up to run out of the water.

The bike leg was an exercise in humility as usual- people passing me left and right.  I did manage to pass a few people myself and just powered through until it was over and time to run.  After slogging through the mud in the transition area, I racked my bike and headed out to the run course.

I took off with two completely numb feet and legs that felt like bricks.  (Hence, the name for bike + run training intervals- bricks.)  Unfortunately I had forgotten my Garmin so I have no idea of my pace- 7:30 minute mile, 10 minute mile- who knows?  I managed to pass quite a few people, even when running through fields that were so muddy that people were coming close to losing shoes left and right.  I started to get some feeling back into my feet by mile 2 and was able to open up a little bit and work on passing some of the men that had passed me earlier.

I waded through another field of mud in the fnish chute and hit the finish line.  Woo hoo!  I was covered in mud and had seaweed (lake grass?) dried all over my arms and legs but I was done!

It’s been a while.  Are you even surprised at this point?  I know, not really funny.

Let’s see… I ran the Seahawks 12K last month and had a pretty good result.

Time: 1:00:14 so I missed beating the one hour mark by 15 stupid seconds.  Sigh.

Age group – 1st of women; 9th out of both men and women
All women- 41st out of 471
Of all racers- 184th out of 883
Beat course overall average 12K time by almost 10 minutes

And then this morning I ran the Kirkland Half Marathon:

I finished in 1:53:59 which is 6 1/2 minutes off my april 2009 half marathon time and 4 minutes faster than my fastest 1/2 marathon split which was during the 2009 Portland Marathon.

 My boys are just over 18 months apart, although you probably wouldn’t guess that now – looking at them – because my 11 year-old stands approximately 3 inches (maybe more) over his 13 year-old brother.  But trust me, they are close in age.  Which basically boils down to the fact that during their “toddler” years, I was one busy mom.   My house was never quiet, there were always little dirty footprints somewhere, and the constant buzz of toy cars crashing into one another never ceased.  NEVER CEASED.  Looking back, I have no idea how I survived.  I wasn’t even a big coffee drinker back then.

This weekend, we had a 4 year-old boy in our house.  Lucky for me, he adores my older boys (and Katie too) so I knew that he wouldn’t be following me around asking me to play Hot Wheels with him, but I knew that there would be a few things I’d have to do to prepare for his visit.  First, I’d have to clear the decks of anything a 4 year-old might trip over because HE NEVER STOPS RUNNING.  And second, I’d have to bring down the arsenal of toy vehicles (pick a vehicle, any vehicle, and I bet we have it in our toy car bucket) for him to play with.  But I knew that at some point, he’d tire of running and driving his cars all over the place and I needed something more…

Which is where the Handy Manny comes in.

I kid you not, after running nonstop for almost 3 hours (and my twitter page can attest to this @kidsinthecity) I thought nothing would slow him down.  Not even the “breakfast for dinner” meal that I was cooking.  But Handy Manny came to my rescue. 

Now, I may have mentioned before my aversion to children’s programming that annoys the spots off a giraffe (a’hem), and the same holds true with the Handy Manny series.  I do not find one single thing about Handy manny annoying.  In fact, I kind of like Manny’s voice – it’s soothing, and agreeable, kind of like Anthony Bourdain after a really long day…

I digress.

Handy Manny’s newest DVD, “Handy Manny:  Big Race,” is a lifesaver, even for parents with very busy little boys and girls.  When I declared, “Time for a movie, and guess what?  It’s about race cars!”  The battle was over.  The running stopped,  quiet returned, and one very special 4 year-old’s eyes grew big with excitement as he watched the cars Vroom Vroom on the screen, clutching his “Mater” car the entire time, of course.

Seattle Mom Blogs has FIVE copies of “Handy Manny:  Big Race” to give away to our readers.  Please comment and leave a working email address at the bottom of this post by midnight on Tuesday, May 11th, for your chance to win.  Winners will be notified via email following a random draw and the DVD will be shipped, new in package, to your front door (or address of choice, within reason).

Edited: The giveaway has been extended to May 15th! Please comment for your chance to win or help spread the word! Thank you!

Comments are NOW CLOSED.  Thank you for entering.  Winners will be notified by email. 

Carrie Blankenship is the author of the blog Stop Screaming I’m Driving, where she attempts to tell her story of motherhood. She likes long walks in the park, dancing in the rain, and can be bribed to do just about anyting with a vanilla latte, extra foam. Contact her with column suggestions or just say “hi” at carrieb[at]seattlemomblogs.com. Or, blankenship.carrie[at]yahoo.com.