Kristen's Balance Beam
Monday, July 10, 2006
Fulton Street Farmers Market
With this being summer in Grand Rapids, one of the very enjoyable activities is going to the Fulton Street Farmers' Market. I thought I'd highlight a few of my favorite vendors:
Trillium Haven Farm--An organic farm based in Jenison, MI. A couple from our church owns it, and while it's a Community Supported Agriculture farm, they sell their produce at the Farmers' Market. I have eaten the best-tasting broccoli ever from their farm.
Juliana's Pastries--We like to get the fruit-filled rolls on Saturday for our Sunday breakfast. I really enjoy the poppy-seed rolls. All the pastries at her stand look really delicious, but if I purchased everything that looked delicious to me, I would be many pounds heavier than I am!
Brickyard Farms Soap--They make many different scents of soap, my favorite being the oatmeal and goat's milk soap. It's great for my sensitive skin. My skin will break out if you give it any excuse to, but this is one soap that won't make me break out. Must keep a bar in the house at all times.
Tanis Farms--Great produce from the Riverbend area. Their farm is located not too far away from where I grew up for the first 8 years of my life, and they occasionally help me catch up on how some of my old neighbors are doing.
Market season is in full swing. Saturdays are busy, but that's when the widest variety of vendors are out there. Get out there while you can!
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Hitting too close to home
We live on the southeast side of Grand Rapids. Our house is in a relatively calm and peaceful neighborhood, save for the occasional loud parties at the house down the street from us. We have lived on the southeast side for 11 of the twelve years of our married life, and woudn't live anywhere else. There are two churches a block away from us in different directions, and we are walking and biking distance away from stores, restaurants and parks. I always like to tell people I live 10 minutes from most places I need to go, whether that's downtown, church or work.
The southeast side is diverse area of town, racially and economically and has quite a few distinctive neighborhoods but it's also an area that has been raised to prominence in the local media in the last couple of days with the reports of several shootings. One which surpised me and saddened me the most, however was the report of two evenings ago, where shots were fired after a local middle-school graduation, outside of the school and and a couple of blocks away. They were in and near the Ottawa Hills neighborhood, one with very attractive, architecturally interesting 1920's-era homes, and what appear to be many professional upper-middle-class people who live in those homes. I enjoy running through this neighborhood, and haven't ever had any reason to feel my safety was at risk (maybe because I'm out at 6:30 AM, when those inclined to commit acts of violence might be asleep at the time?) The middle school sits in the middle of the neighborhood, but draws from much of the southeast side.
The police have had a mobile post a few miles away in a neighborhood with a reputation for crime and poverty for the last couple of summers, they are considering adding more of these to other sites in the southeast side. But we can't law-enforce our way out of our children shooting other children. A group of ministers is trying to help by going out and helping patrol the streets, but what will it take to eliminate the threat of violence among our children? Will it take better-paying jobs for their parents, more parenting skills classes, more assistance to struggling families trying to help and better themselves? Crime prevention programs for kids won't work if the kids haven't eaten or don't know where their family is going to stay tonight. We know the City's budget is tight right now, but there can be no greater investment than in our children.
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Some good news for my practice
When I decided to try to start a private practice, I talked with a few people who were also in the throes of beginning their practices too. One thing someone mentioned was that they would not be participating with insurance companies for some pretty good reasons, but just charging really reasonable rates. I know there are some therapists who do this, and they do pretty well with this approach. However, despite having a website, getting some free advertising on our school's TRIP website, and dropping business cards to whomever would take them, there hadn't been any clients. No one had ever said that beginnning a private practice from scratch would be this difficult.
One of the therapists in the office where I have the practice suggested that the referrals come because the therapists participate with insurance companies. Not necessarily from the insurance companies, but perhaps from friends of theirs, or other therapists, and they're looking for someone who participates with their insurance company. I noticed this when I would talk with my potential referral sources, the question would always come up "what insurances do you take?" So I began the process of getting paneled/credentialed with insurers, which I've found takes a while, depending on the company. So far, I am now credentialed with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, and Medicare just told me today they'll be sending me my provider information next week. I've talked with a couple of other companies, one told me "we'll send you a contract!" A couple of other companies stated either on their websites or over the phone that they're not credentialing any new social workers in Grand Rapids. So things are looking up for me right now. I remain optimistic....
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Planning Abby's birthday party
About a week ago, Abby, who is about to turn five, mentioned she would like to have a birthday party with some friends from school. I went and bought some invitations. Abby decided whom she wanted to invite. She immediately came up with names with not a whole lot of prodding from me. Normally I would want her to invite all the girls in her class so no one would feel left out. However, Abby is in both her school's morning and afternoon preschool programs, so the number of girls that could potentially be coming would be unworkable given the size of our house. (My apologies, I really didn't want to leave anyone out). We ended up inviting nine, thinking that some would already have things going on and not be able to make it, having hosted a few BeautiControl spa parties and expecting a no-show rate of about 50%.
I was wrong, however, but happily wrong.
It turns out that when Jim and I talked with some of the moms who called to RSVP or we talked with in person at a school dinner, they mentioned that this was the first birthday party that their daughter had been invited to, so this was a huge event in their daughter's life. Some mentioned that their daughters had watched older siblings going off to birthday parties and now it was going to be their turn. So I have seven "yeses" and one "maybe" at this point. I've enlisted my Mom to help. We'll be doing a "frost and decorate your own cupcake" and some games and activities, though I'm not sure exactly what yet. Still scouring the Internet for those. Becca will be in the party too, so there could be up to 10 kids in our dining room. I'll have goody bags put together. It'll be fun.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Marathon #3
This past Sunday, I completed my third marathon. I decided to stay home this year and run the second annual Grand Rapids Marathon. I've done Chicago twice, but thought I'd save us the drive and the waking up at 4:45 AM to catch the train into Chicago from Westmont to get there in time for the 8:00 start.
I thought this year would be different--I was sleeping in my own bed on the night before the marathon, but still did not get any sleep the night before the marathon. It wasn't so much nerves, really, but more like the excitement a young child feels the night before Christmas. Jim's parents took Abby and Becca for the night and brought them down to the race. They had been excited all week in anticipation of Mommy being in a "running race." The weather was gorgeous, starting out near 40 degrees at the 7:00 start for the "velocity challenged" runners (of which I am one). I made it through the first 13 or so miles of the course just fine, but I think I may have over-hydrated too early, which made me feel quite uncomfortable for the rest of the race, to say the least. I finshed in 5:12:00, a few seconds better than I did in my second Chicago Marathon. The GR Marathon course went along the Grand River, mainly through woods along bike trails, with loops through Millenium Park and an industrial park/residential neighborhood in Grandville. It was flat and fast, but I'm used to training on city streets in residential neighborhoods, where one regularly sees street address numbers and can gauge where in the current mile one is. I loved the scenic parts of the course (this is about the best time to see our fall colors in this part of Michigan) but we have some very distinctive and beautiful neighborhoods--North Monroe, Heritage Hill, Eastown and the Reeds Lake area that maybe they might want to consider having the race go through. The course also went past junkyards and scrap metal recyclers, hopefully this didn't make a negative impression on runners from out of town. GR is NOT all like that! But, the race was well-staffed and the volunteers at the aid stations were wonderful and always quick to encourage. Even the fast guys who passed me were very sweet and encouraging. My friends Dawn and Mike from work came down to see me at the finish line as well as Jim's mom and dad and my sister Sue and her friend Bill. I'm still a little sore, though, but I'm mostly recovered.
Saturday, October 29, 2005
What's new
After training for roughly 22 weeks, I will be running the Grand Rapids Marathon tomorrow. I'll be taking advantage of the early start time, 7:00 AM and anticipate finishing in 4 1/2-5 1/4 hours. I run REALLY slow, like 10 1/2-11 minute miles. I took my family down to the race expo yesterday, and happened to run into one of my favorite musicians, Deborah Henson-Conant, a harpist who is currently in town to rehearse with our Grand Rapids Symphony in preparation for the production of the DVD she will be putting together with the Symphony. We've seen her several times in concert, and have tickets to her Nov. 12th concert. We found out she's running the 1/2 marathon and her husband will be running the full marathon. Of course, I couldn't resist telling her that we enjoyed her music and I in fact, had one of her CD's on my MP3 player to listen to during the marathon, and that I had spent some of my birthday money on getting tickets to her show. I called my friend Kate last night, who is also a DHC fan, and Kate happens to be volunteering at aid station #5, so I've told Kate to look for her and cheer her on as well.
I've also been able to finalize some details around the private practice. I'll be available on Tuesday evenings and some Thursday evenings and hope to focus on adults with ADHD, women who have had pregnancy losses, but I'm open to working with anyone who'd like to improve their relationships or try to overcome anxiety or depression. I'm not currently participating with insurance companies, but will be offering a sliding-fee scale. I'm very excited to be able to have this opportunity to do this kind of work! I can be reached at 616-304-4160 or e-mailed at kmzoetewey@yahoo.com to set up an appointment.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
My private practice may have a home!
After considering trying to set up a private practice based on home visits, I happened to talk with a woman at my church (who is also a social worker in private practice) who is trying to figure out what to do with her office space while she travels out of state for a couple of months. It's in a really great part of town, close to a freeway exit, so it's really accessible, and the rent rate is extremely reasonable. I'm planning to check out the office space tomorrow, and ask some more questions, seeing if this is the right thing for me. I am thinking I will see clients on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and maybe Saturday mornings if needed. The only problem with Saturday appointments is that when I'm in the West Michigan Flute Association Flute Orchestra, the rehearsals are on Saturday mornings, but there are only 7 or eight rehearsals between February and May, so it's not like I'd be unable to work around things.
Now all I need are some clients!
Monday, August 01, 2005
About our summer...
I haven't written anything in a while, we've been busy this summer. Here are some highlights:
About a month ago, Jim and I went to Applesauce Inn Bed and Breakfast in Bellaire, MI (which I can't say enough good things about). It is close to Traverse City and Charlevoix and near good hiking, beaches, and wineries, plus charming small towns. The rooms are well-appointed and the gourmet breakfasts will keep you full until well into the afternoon. We had a very enjoyable and relaxing time and the kids had a great time with their grandparents!
I am also in the process of trying to get a private counseling/psychotherapy practice going. I'll be doing appointments in the evenings after work to start out, so for now no one at my workplace needs to worry that I'll be leaving immediately. I don't want to incur huge amounts of debt to get this going, so I'm starting by doing home-based appointments, and if it looks sustainable, then maybe I'll rent an office. I think a counselor/therapist can gain so much more understanding about interpersonal and family dynamics from doing in-home work. If you're interested in working with me and you live within the Grand Rapids, MI area or no more than a 15 min. drive away from there, please call me at 616-304-4160 or e-mail me at kristen@balancepath.com to set up an appointment. I am a fully Certified Social Worker in the State of Michigan and possess the Academy of Certified Social Workers credential through the National Association of Social Workers.
I'm interested in working with persons who are dealing with anxiety, stress, grief/loss issues, depression, and learning how to live with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. I've had several years of work experience with individuals who have dealt with those issues and come through very severe circumstances. I don't participate with any insurance companies at this time, but will work on a sliding-fee scale for payments. Seeing as I'll have limited time to work on this for now, I'd rather spend the time I have being creative about how I can help people deal with their issues than negotiating with insurance companies. I am very excited to see what transpires and hope to make a difference for those who'd like to work on those issues. I also want to thank Carissa Woodwyk, Deb Jandle, and Jeff Vanden Bosch for sharing their insights and encouragement.
Also happening this summer, Abby will begin preschool in a couple of weeks at Evergreen Christian School. Abby will be going three days a week, and will soon bid goodbye to the daycare where she has stayed since she was eight weeks old, the Salvation Army Booth Family Services Community Child Care Center. Jim works from home and will continue to watch the kids the other two days they are not in daycare/preschool. It'll be a good thing overall to have Abby in a place where there are all kids her age, though I'm sure she will miss her daycare as she's grown accustomed and attached to the teachers there. Abby will already know a couple of the kids in her class as they go to our church and she's been in Little Lambs groups with them. She's very good at making friends quickly though, so I don't see that she'll have problems with it.
Hope you enjoy the rest of the summer. It's been too short!
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Rogers closes
I learned today that Rogers Department Store is closing. Rogers has been an icon for many years in Wyoming, MI where I grew up. My mom took us there when we were growing up to purchase much of our school clothes. I feel as though I practically grew up there. I have a lot of great memories from going there with my Mom, as small children, we looked forward to picking a plastic ring out of a wooden bunny box when done with our purchases, and we would go there to visit Santa at Christmas time. The store owner, Mr. Berkowitz would often walk around the store, passing out Russel Stover chocolates to shoppers before he died. I remember Mr. Berk (as he was referred to) giving me a chocolate one evening as I shopped there. The clerks there were the kind of clerks who really cared about how something fit you and had been working at the store forever. Rogers was also a great coprorate citizen and would sponsor events like a handicapped fishing derby and host a special shopping day for senior citizens. They would also have special events during their anniversaies, one year they brought in the gentleman who played Mr. Mac Feely from the Mister Rogers television show. I think they may have even brought in Scotty from Star Trek another time. We bought many of my pairs of shoes at the onsite Muller's shoe store. My mom still buys my kids clothes there.
I haven't been there in a while as I live on the other side of town, except when I went looking for a swimsuit last summer. There was a new mall that went into Grandville, with national chain department stores, which funneled a lot of business away from Rogers and a new highway that took a lot of traffic from 28th street, which the owners cite as the reason for closing.
I feel like I'm losing an old friend that I thought would be around forever.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
What I've been up to lately...
I haven't written much this past week in this, but I've been up to a few things lately. Last week, I recieved my first mystery shopping assignment, a mission to visit a local college bookstore and evaluate them on their store layout, service, cleanliness, and ease of use, among other things. I was able to complete the actual shopping assignment over a lunch hour, though the evaluation survey (done over the internet) became lengthy and took me upwards of about 2 hours to complete. It wasn't supposed to take that long, but while I was finishing it up, it somehow didn't save when I went to take a break from it, and I had to write it up all over again. The company coordinating the mystery shopping gives a small stipend and reimbursement for an inexpensive item, so I ended up with a pencil sharpener out of it with a few extra dollars. In all of our married life, we have not owned a single pencil sharpener, except for the one I use to sharpen eyeliner pencils.
This weekend, I finally, after nearly eight years in our house, painted our living room and dining room. I had always kind of found the task to be kind of daunting (and we have a grand piano that I don't even want to think about moving), but next Saturday, we are Having People Come Over for breakfast, so I needed to do something drastic. I stayed up until 2:00 AM Saturday morning. My dad took the kids on Saturday afternoon, helped us move the piano away from the wall, and I was able to get the living room done. The rooms look surprisingly good for having been done so quickly. Dad even bought the kids a couple of switch tracks for their Thomas the Tank Engine train system at the hobby shop.
I also took my kids to the Lollipops Series concert that the Grand Rapids Symphony did on Saturday morning. This was a presentation of Peter and the Wolf done in collaboration with the Grand Rapids Ballet. The kids behaved very well, were very quiet, and enjoyed it up until the moment that the wolf ate the duck. I am happy to see that the kids seem to be picking up on their mom's love of music.
Saturday, January 08, 2005
It's that time again...
I have decided, that I must schedule an eye exam and obtain either new glasses or contacts. I'm a little on the fence about what to get...I like the convenience of being able to just whip my glasses off before going to bed and not having to deal with cleaning off and storing contacts. The downside to new glasses is that when I go out running and it's raining, it gets really difficult to see what's ahead. Contacts would be great in that respect. I suppose I could get the kind you wear for a week or two and then you take them out and throw them away, but I don't like the idea of sleeping with contacts in. Or maybe people aren't supposed to sleep in them. Whatever. I don't like the idea of spending money on all the stuff you have to have along with the contacts. So what do you, the readers of this blog think? Some of you have known me for years and know what I look like in both contacts and glasses...please add your comments. (I've now enabled this for comments, so go ahead. Thanks.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
A good thing...
Jim finally took the boards that went to the old-broken down bookcase out of the garage and put them into the trash. Now I can finally park the Saturn in the garage! Yeaa!
Sunday, January 02, 2005
New Year's Weekend
We had a mostly enjoyable New Year's Weekend. I had a personal day to use up from work, so Jim and I were both home with the kids on Thursday. Friday night my dad had bought us (my two sisters, my brother-in-law, my dad, Jim and me) all tickets to the Grand Rapids Symphony for their performance of various appropriate New Year's Eve selections and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, so we had a sitter watch things while we were gone as we had put the kids to bed just as she was arriving. We were home from the concert about 10:50, but then Abby woke up and said she was thirsty and wanted something to drink. I gave her some hot chocolate, then Becca woke up and wanted some too. We put the kids back to bed before midnight, then Jim and I toasted the new year with champagne, then went to bed soon after.
We were sound asleep until about 2:00 AM, when Abby woke us up saying "I threw up a little bit on my pillow." After Jim took a look at things, it wasn't exactly a little bit, to put it as delicately as possible. So we both cleaned the bed (twice, after all was said and done), put Abby in the bathtub, and put the sheets in the washing machine. Mind you, I'm running a race the next morning at 8:30 AM. But I wasn't able to go back to sleep....until about 4 or 5 AM, and then I had a weird dream about my mom discovering mice in my piano (which wasn't even my piano in the dream).
In the morning, I ran the Resolution Run around Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids, finishing the 4-mile race in a time of 40:05. I thought beforehand about making a sign (though I did not actually do this) to wear on my back saying something like "cheer for me, I had a sick kid at 2:00 AM!" It was one of the best race paces I've done (very slightly over 10-minute miles) but oh-so-close to going under 10 minute miles. Later in the morning, I took Becca to my mom's for her annual New Year's family breakfast, while Jim stayed home with a recovering Abby.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
See Kristen Run
I will be running in the 2005 Resolution Run this Saturday, New Year's Day. I've done this run before and the course goes around the East Grand Rapids/Reeds Lake area, one of my favorite training haunts. I am getting adjusted to running in colder weather, something I'm not used to doing much. I don't go out if it's below 15 degrees, though. If you're awake at 8:30 AM, come on down and cheer me on!
Monday, December 27, 2004
Our 2004 Christmas
Our Christmas this year was divided into 3 separate celebrations--our own family gift exchange on Thursday the 23rd, my family's on Christmas Eve and traveling to Holland to be with Jim's family on Christmas Day. The kids were more into the opening of their presents than they were in previous years. Becca and Abby were both very excited about the presents we gave them, a talking vacuum (given to Becca to help with her fear of the vacuum cleaner) , a Fisher-Price Noah's Ark, and DVDs of Thomas the Tank Engine and Veggie Tales. We deliberately did not go all out on spending for toys as we knew that our parents would give them plenty of toys. The kids loved seeing all their grandparents during the course of the weekend--going sledding for the first time with Grandma Zoetewey, and baking a cake with their Aunt Lisa in her Easy-Bake Oven which she found in their basement, still in good condition and working. Abby and Becca did not want to leave any of their grandparents' homes, and fell asleep in the car each night we drove home.
A Christmas word to the wise: When replacing batteries in toys, do not replace the batteries for all of the toys at once. The kids will want to play with all of the noisy/talking/musical toys ALL AT THE SAME TIME. On Christmas Eve I went to Meijers and decided to stock up on AA batteries as they were having a sale, so I thought this might be a good time to replace batteries in toys where they were dead or dying. Never again.
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Cha-cha-changes
In the next couple of weeks, life will be taking a few major changes. Due to a reduction in work hours at Jim's regular job after January 1st, we will be having Abby and Rebecca in daycare only 2 days a week instead of every day. Jim will be a stay-at-home dad for the other 3 days of the week. The two days they will spend in daycare will allow Jim to go out and troubleshoot computers, printers and other things for the places he's contracted. His webpage and server-realted work can be done at home early in the morning before the kids get up or at night. I think overall, it'll be a good thing not to have to contend with children who would rather stay in bed some days than get up early, get dressed and go to daycare for a couple of days a week. Certainly more peaceful for all of us. What would I do if I didn't have to get the kids dressed and fed for a couple of mornings a week? Watch the Today show? Get to work early? Don't know. Jim is looking forward to this arrangement and even planning some activities...
Abby and the Polar Express
I took this week off from work and have been spending time taking the kids on various activities--we met my friend Kristi and her son Alex at the Woodland Mall indoor playground yesterday. Today I took Abby to see The Polar Express, while Becca stayed with Jim. Abby assured me that she knew about the Polar Express as they'd read the book in daycare. Abby was quite excited to see a movie about a train. The movie scenery was beautiful and, being from Grand Rapids, where the main character lives, it was a lot of fun to see the scene with the old Herpolsheimer's department store (though the building that once housed Herpolsheimer's is now the Grand Rapids Police Department and the Secretary of State's downtown location). Looking at the outdoor neighborhood scenery, it looked as if it were lifted straight out of somewhere around Garfield Park. I could swear I had run through that neighborhood depicted on screen while training for the Chicago Marathon this past summer. I realize that the drawings of the homes most likely aren't an exact replica from any particular street, but the artwork does effectively capture a neighborhood of older homes in Grand Rapids. That being said, Abby overall enjoyed the picture, although the intensity of the crisis-laden train ride to the North Pole may have been a little scary for her as I turned around to see her cowering in her seat with tears on her face. I held her for the rest of the movie and then she did fine. It was her first time watching a movie in a movie theater.
Abby does really well in most situations where she needs to sit still for long periods of time, as long as there's something interesting to watch. (This cannot be said for going to the grocery store, where she will ask to get in and out of the cart, and will run all over the store given half a chance.) I took her to the Grand Rapids Ballet production of The Nutcracker a few weeks ago and she sat still for nearly the whole duration. It's great when one does not have to spend time telling a child to sit still in a performance or a movie.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Popcorn Irony
I make a lot of microwave popcorn. It's overall healthier than a lot of things I could choose to eat. This past year, we bought a new microwave and it had a button on it dedicated to microwave popcorn. All well and good. Now, however, I look at the preparation instructions on the bags or the boxes of microwave popcorn and there are now very specific warnings: "Do not use the popcorn setting on your microwave." So what good is that?
Sunday, December 12, 2004
OK, OK, it's been a while....
I've been busy, and I didn't realize the last post I'd made on this was 7/30! It occurred to me that friends and family who live far (and not so far) away might want to read this just to keep up with my family and me. My husband's blog, http://jim.puddingbowl.org also links to this, my apologies to anyone who tried to look at mine and was disappointed with with the lack of recent posts.
I realized I had a blog entry about training for the Chicago Marathon. I did finish the race in 5:12:29, on a sunny, perfect day, and no complications. I am finding now that I have put on 5 pounds since then and need to get back into running again. Holiday parties are not helping with this. I've been doing various aerobics videos and going for walks at lunchtime, but nothing kept the weight off like running did. Winter running is not as enjoyable as summer running for me...I don't like the wind and cold rain. I went out today for a couple of miles and beat the snowstorm coming.
Abby and Becca are now very close to being fully potty trained! We love not spending the extra money on diapers! Abby is very creative and lively. She enjoys leading her little sister in playing "pretend" whether is "house" or "airplane." They both received beanbag chairs for Christmas from their Uncle Derek, Aunt Meredith and Aunt Lisa, and enjoy playing in them. Becca enjoys playing with her baby dolls, and is very proud and possessive of telling people who her mommy is. People often tell me that kids who are that close in age (16 mos. apart) are often best friends growing up. That certainly seems to be the case right now, though I know that can change as they grow older. Both kids are very verbal and it's fun to listen to them tell stories and pretend play together.
Jim is doing IT work for a few non-profit organizations, GRACE, ACCESS, and Criminal Justice Chaplaincy . Jim is also very close to completing his master's degree in Information Systems.
I see we have an active Winter Storm Warning, maybe there will be a snow day tomorrow?
Friday, July 30, 2004
Sweet Hour of Prayer
Our church had a week of 24-7 continuous prayer this week. Members were encouraged to sign up for an hour during the week to come to church and pray. There was a special prayer room set up, beautifully decorated and well appointed with inspirational books and food and beverages.
I was a little resistant at first to signing up to be part of this. I didn't think I was actually capable of praying for an hour at a time, given that I have some ADD tendencies. That changed when a couple of women stood up during announcement time after last Sunday's church service and talked about how quickly their hours went. So I signed up.
The hour did go quite quickly. I was greeted by a young woman who prayed with me for a few minutes. I went around the room, first sitting, then kneeling, but then I found that I pray best while moving, and maybe that's because I'm so used to using part of my morning runs as prayer time. I found that I could concentrate better if I were walking around the room, and felt more grounded being barefoot. What I found remarkable afterwards was I really didn't want to stop praying. The next pray-er came to the room, and I had a short prayer with him, and I drove home. While driving home, I through of people I had forgotten about whom I would have liked to pray for, but then I thought "you're running 13 miles tomorrow, that's over 2 hours you have to pray tomorrow on your run." Some of it felt like therapy. I think I'm a bit more inspired to make prayer a bigger part of life. We pray at mealtimes and I pray on my morning runs, but up until this year, I've been kind of resistant about prayer and I dont' know why. Maybe I'll explore that later...
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Breath mints for cats
I was in our local grocery store after work, and was getting ready to pay for my purchases. I was perusing the selections near the checkout counter (looking for small amounts of chocolate, but didn't see any I was interested in) when I came across a box full of breath mints for cats! There were dog treats for sale too.
When was the last time you saw a cat in the checkout lane at the grocery store?
I really can't see any of my cats being even remotely interested in cat breath mints, save for if they might be salmon or tuna flavored.
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Vacation
This week, we decided to take a vacation. In figuring out what we wanted to do, we purchased a family membershhip to teh Frederik Meijer Gardens. They've put in a new Children's Garden where kids can do all sorts of fun stuff--float toy boats in pools shaped like the Great Lakes, play in a giant sandbox, sit on concrete "eggs" in a giant nest among other things. The membership has mostly paid for itself already, seeing as we've gone twoice just in the last week. And we still haven't been to all of it--it's a huge place! The kids love it, and if the toy boats were the only thing in the children's garden, they wouldn't care, they could have played with the boats all day!
My friend Beth also had us out to her farm one evening. Beth keeps ducks, sheep, chickens, a goat, a goose, and a llama. I did not know there were so many varieties of chickens. Beth keeps several varieties of chickens, many of which are quite beautiful. The kids spent much of the time there watching the chickens. Becca was a little afraid of the animals at first, but was very interested in watching them from behind the fence. We also walked around Beth's beautiful flower garden for a while. Beth also showed us some bags of wool from her sheep and llama--it's amazing how different the raw wool is from what we see in sweaters--we're so removed from the process of seeing it go from the sheep to the sweater and don't know what it takes or what it's like at first before it's processed.
We have also just had some free time to hang around and play with the kids at home, or take them to the playground. We are finding that Becca is beginning to speak in complete sentences (saying "There's a boat" when we were watching boats in the Holland, MI channel) and Abby has occasionally been saying very funny things herself. One day, she brought me a Fisher-Price bus that Becca recently received on her 2nd birthday, and proudly told me that "I bought this for two-ninety-nine, from Becca." I laughed so hard when she told me this that it scared her and she began to cry inconsolably. I kept telling her that what she said was so cute and funny, and I wasn't trying to hurt her feelings. My mother-in-law tells me that Abby is beginning to have a sense of self-consciousness. That is probably what is going on with her.
Marathon training is going well. I've been doing my runs a bit later than the 5:30 AM that I usually wake up to do them because of vacation, but I am scheduled to run 10 miles this weekend. I did nine miles last weekend, and found that it is exactly nine miles from my house to Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids, around it, and back. It was stunningly beautiful to see the sunrise over Reeds Lake in the morning. I feel fortunate to live in a place where there are places of great beauty to be seen during training runs. Who can't use more natural beauty in their lives?
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
It's (Still) Cold Outside...
I'm still following the "spring training" running schedule beofre I begin the 18-week marathon training schedule. Most mornings now it's anywhere from 2-3 miles, with anywhere up to 5 and 6 miles on the weekend. It's nearly the second week of May and I am still having to wear a hat and mittens when I run at 5:45 in the morning! I'm looking forward to shorts weather. I really can't complain, though as it's rained only once or twice the entire time I've been at this, even though there's been rain in the forecast. One morning I ran, and bare moments after I finished and came inside the house, I heard thunder! Dodged the bullet on that one! Training continues to go well, with just a slight bit of knee pain that generally goes away after a few minutes. I'm looking forward to bigger distances.
Thursday, March 25, 2004
Marathon Training
I decided a couple of weeks ago that I would like to train for my second marathon. I ran my first marathon nearly five years ago, which I decided to do that at the time because I had lost a baby at 22 weeks of pregnancy, and discovered that the Chicago Marathon fell on the one-year anniversary of the loss of our son, Jacob Andrew. I had been doing some distance running at the time, and had completed the Old Kent (now Fifth Third) River Bank Run (a 25-kilometer run), and received a flyer for Chicago in the mail. Upon realizing the date, I knew this was how I wanted to spend the anniversary weekend of the loss of our son, rather than moping around the house and being sad. So I trained, and trained and trained, and finshed with a time of 5:29:40.
Fast forward five years. Haven't done much in the way of running as I had two children and some knee and foot problems which I think have been worked out due to a pair of finely-crafted custom orthotics and a new pair of running shoes. Right now, the training runs are pretty short (1.5-3 miles at a time) on the schedule I follow, which is available through Hal Higdon's website (www.halhigdon.com), but they'll work up to longer distances. However, one consideration I have this time that I didn't have last time was that I do not want training time to compromise time with my daughters. So that means training runs over lunch hours at work (with the shorter runs) or getting up really early in the morning, or some other very creative scheduling. Looking ahead, I'm scheduled to run a 20 mile run (the longest training run in the schedule) on the day of my sister Sue's wedding, in which I'm a bridesmaid. So I will be devoting part of this to my progress in training for the race, scheduled for October 10, 2004.
Sunday, March 07, 2004
Weight Loss
I have been for most of my life, anywhere from a little bit to moderately overweight. Being of a more petite stature and having a slower metabolism than most people, this has been quite a struggle. However, over the last 15 months, I have managed to lose around 40 pounds, many of then having been put on from pregnancies. I am only a couple of pounds shy of my goal weight, and am wearing petite small/medium sizes, down from extra large. Lately, people whom I haven't seen in a while, when we first meet, I will very likely hear "You look great/awesome/wonderful, have you lost weight?" To which I reply in the affirmative, and the next question inevitably is "How did you do it?" Well, I've done it in a couple of ways. Last spring, a group of us at my work had a "wellness challenge" where we organized ourselves into teams and worked on our personal goals for 12 weeks. Some quit smoking, many attempted to lose weight, others made a more concerted effort to devote more effort to daily prayer and devotions. Each of us were to assign point values to how difficult the task at hand would be and how well we accomplished them. The team that had the highest amount of points was treated to lunch by the other teams. (I didn't say winners and losers because I think anyone who tries and makes an effort is already a winner!)
My plan was at first to only eat sweets on two occasions during a week. I was fairly successful with that approach until late summer, when the weight loss plateaued. I had to find another plan, I had about 20-25 pounds to go. Finally, I signed up for the online version of Weight Watchers in late September and have lost 22 pounds since! It's nice in that you can eat anything you'd like, but all foods have a points value assigned to them, and one must stay within the points guidelines for their height and weight in order to lose weight. It's not that difficult, once one is used to the plan. As a result, I do eat healthier, look better and feel a bit more confident about myself. However, I still find that either if one is skinny or overweight, people still judge a person on the basis of their body shape. Even though I might find myself being judged positively instead of negatively as a result of this, it still seems like judging someone like this isn't exactly a fair assessment of their capabilities and talents.
Kids are Funny!
One thing I didn't know about before I had children is how side-splittingly funny they can be. Although in my day job, I've worked with lots of families with children around, lots of those families are under huge amounts of stress so its very likely I'm not seeing those parents and children at their very best. However, my own children are both now toddlers and have very active imaginations. Becca, even though she isn't talking much yet, carries her baby doll lovingly (most of the time) and wraps her up in a small blanket. Abby, who has just turned three, is trying to "help" her father put away a VCR tape into our cabinet and telling him "there has got to be another way!" to put it in. She has just asked to watch "Star Wars" to which Jim cheerfully obliged. But it's funny when you get moments like when we're working in the kitchen or at the dining room table, the kids are in the living room playing with toys, it gets a little too quiet, and then there's an exchange that goes a bit like this:
Kristen: "What are you doing?"
Abby: "Becca and I are doing sumping."
Which means that whatever "something" they are up to may or may not be officially sanctioned by parents. Usually what they're doing is OK, and won't create a mess, except for the time when Abby decided it would be a good thing to pour milk from her own cup into one of the plastic toy nesting cups we have for Becca. Abby proudly announced to us "I feed Becca milk in the nesting cup!" To which we promptly removed said cup from Becca (who was doing a passable job of drinking from it, even though she drinks mainly from sippy cups). Maybe what impresses me is how intentional they are about what they do and say.
There are times where I could have cried or become angry, but what they did was so funny, it was all I could do to laugh about it. Maybe that is what saves all of us at times.
Sunday, February 15, 2004
Abby is Three Now
Last week we had the privilege of celbrating Abby's 3rd birthday. We had my parents, Jim's parents, and both my sisters and their fiances, as well as Jim's sister and Grandma over to our house on Sunday afternoon to celebrate with cake and ice cream. When Abby turned two she didn't quite get the concept of having a birthday and getting presents, but this year, she was quite excited about opening up presents, especially anything that had to do with Thomas the Tank Engine. Her main interests include anyting that has to do with Thomas the Tank Engine, Sponge Bob, Blue's Clues, Arthur, and Dr. Seuss. She had a great time at her party!
A strange and kind of wonderful thing is happening. Becca, who will be 2 in June, recently decided that she is interested in potty training, and put herself on Abby's potty seat. Without becoming too graphic in my description, I'll just say that Becca was successful on her first try! We wish we could get Abby as interested in transitioning out of diapers as Becca seems to be. We will not only not be spending money on diapers but saving a little bit of money on daycare costs as well, as our daycare offers a less expensive rate for children who are fully potty trained. Our daycare teachers tell me that second children are often easier to train than first-born children, and they thought that Becca may well be easier to train than Abby. Abby doesn't seem to show much interest right now. We hope that will change soon.
Thursday, January 22, 2004
Third Grade
My husband and I recently attended a dessert social for our parish group at church (our church membership is divided up into several geopgraphic areas called parishes, and occasionally each parish gets together to share a meal or social event). One couple in attendance there we had known for a few years and had gotten to know them as their daughter had my husband's father for a professor in college. I had a chance to talk with Viki, who mentioned she had been an elementary teacher for 30 years.
My mother had also been a teacher in this district so I asked her if she happened to remember my mother. She said that the name sounded familiar, and then I mentioned that I had gone to a particular elementary school for third grade and remembered that the principal at the time was someone my mother had taught with before she had me. She mentioned that she had taught at that school in 1978, while I was in third grade. I said, "that's funny, I don't remember a Mrs. Barber." She said "that's because I was Miss Moore then." My jaw dropped and I exclaimed "No wayyy...I had you...you were my teacher! Wow!" She asked me if I remembered any of my classmates from then, and I listed the names of at least 10 kids I remembered from 25 years ago. (I was really quite amazed at how many I could recall from that far in the past. I probably wouldn't recognize many of them now) We reminisced about the nature walk our class took where we picked up trash near the school, led by a dad of a classmate. And the worksheets (called TLU's though I'm not sure what TLU stood for) we were assigned where we filled out our responses on Scantron cards (I could still remember the student number I was assigned that I put on each and every Scantron card). She commented that still uses those old Scantron cards for flashcards as she now teaches first grade. Turns out I've been in worshipping in the same faith community for years with this friend, then I find out she is the same person I had as my third grade teacher! (It's a lovely surprise, though, as I have fond memories of third grade...)
It makes me wonder how many others in my life have had dual roles that I'm not conscious of?
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
Dance Class
Last night, Abby, our soon to be 3-year old, began Preschool Ballet, Level I. Preschool Ballet is offered through our city's Parks and Recreation Department and I signed Abby up for class with the intention that maybe it would help her channel some of her boundless energy. Parents were allowed to observe the class for th first night. There were about 12 young girls in the class ranging from ages 3 to 5 (Abby will be three very soon in February), and most of them with blond hair and pink leotards and shoes like Abby's. The teacher introduced herself and met the girls. She led them through a series of positions and moves. Abby did well some of the time, but I began to have some doubts when she didn't want to sit still on line on the floor with the other dancers. (The instructor addressed them all during the class as "Dancers." Very seriously.) At this point, the instructor told Abby that she would have to talk with her after class with her and her mom (me). At this point, I was thinking the conversation would go like "I'd like have Parks and Rec credit your account, Ms. Zoetewey, toward a class a bit later in the year, as I don't think Abby's ready..."
Actually it didn't.
The instructor was very kind and told me "dont' worry, I've had some younger ones in classes like yours, it's just that it's so new to her right now and she'll do just fine, we'll see you at the next class." I assured the teacher we would be working on things at home with her, and that she was pretty used to being in a structured environment at daycare. The difference is that between daycare and ballet class, there are no time outs at ballet class, like there are at daycare, and I think that was difficult for her to grasp at first. She'll get it eventually. We'll keep coaching her on it, that she must follow instructions and listen to the teacher.
Overall, I think Abby will enjoy it, once she gets the hang of things and sees the other kids following what the teacher needs them to do. Kind of like positive peer pressure. We'll be heading back for the next class.
Upon arriving home, Abby said "I want go to ballet class tomorrow again," and despite my best efforts couldn't understand why it wasn't going to happen for another couple of weeks yet.
Wednesday, January 07, 2004
Review: I Don't Know How She Does It" by Allison Pearson
My mom gave me this book for Christmas, as she'd perused my Amazon.com wish list, and I spent part of the New Year's holiday weekend reading it. The book is very well written, but intended for a British audience though it was possible to figure out the British-isms in the context. The main character is Kate Reddy, a wife and mother of two children who works as a hedge-fund trader for a financial services company. She basically manages large amounts of other people's money, and spends much of her time at her job, either in the office, or flying to meet clients in the USA. I found the story engaging, as I could relate in many ways working full-time outside of the home myself. It is at times hilarious, as when she finds out that her husband was too shy to ask for her preferred brand of toilet paper at the store (because he just couldn't bring himself to utter "Kitten Soft" to a store employee) but I found some sadder overtones too. It seemed like her job just went from crisis to crisis. She took a vacation with her family, but couldn't really be "present" with her family as she worried about not having made a particular transaction before she left for the vacation. She spent much effort in trying to impress upon other parents at her daughter's school that even though she worked outside the home, she could maintain the appearance of being doting and attentive, "a good mom" who comes the the holiday program, and brings what appears to be homemade food when asked.
As I read, I just kept thinking "why doesn't she just quit the job, it's obviously destroying her?." The social worker/coach (who works a lot with clients on money management issues) in me asks "why hasn't she really gone through and done a budget? Could you and your husband work out a better arrangement?" He worked as an archtect, and most architects I know make good money. She wore Armani suits. Could the family have afforded a bit less lavish of a lifestyle? Ditched the flaky nanny? Realistically, I dont' think anyone I know could keep up the lifestyle she led for that long. I won't spoil the ending, but the book was enjoyable and worth the read.
Friday, December 26, 2003
Reflections on Christmas 2003
This is the first Christmas that our daughter Abby, who's almost three, began to really have fun with the idea of Christmas. Though we don't try to encourage the materialism around toys and things, she was nonetheless excited about her presents, and about seeing grandparents more often than she might otherwise. Our other daughter Becca enjoys the presents too, but isn't really sure why she's getting them, being 1 1/2. We are now in the throes of sibling rivalry, with Abby wanting to play with whatever Becca's playing with. People often tell me they'll be best friends as they grow up because they're so close in age. They are at the age where they can spend time entertaining each other rather than relying on parents to be their Disney Channel. It's a bit of a relief and fun to watch.
I think what I enjoyed most about our family's Christmas was seeing the kids' faces and their excitement. Yes, it was fun to get and receive gifts, but it's different experiencing it as a parent. I'm finding that I enjoy picking out gifts and giving them rather than opening gifts intended for me. I'm always a little tense about whether I'm going to like what the giver gave, and if I don't like it, will I be graceful enough to not let on that I didn't like the gift? My husband tells me that sometimes there are gift choices that just don't work out, and to expect that every gift won't be perfect. He's right, given the volume of returns at retail establishments on the days immediately following Christmas.
It was a good Christmas. Happy New Year!
