Weekend notes, early March edition

This was a fairly low-key weekend. The boys had the Cub Scout pinewood derby, and the 8-year-old had a baseball clinic (ahead of the team evaluations, which happen next week). This allowed us to have a discussion of the merits of practice. Him: “Mom, I don’t think I’ll be a pitcher because I’m not good at throwing the ball.” Me: “Sweetie, no one is good or bad, they get better with practice.” Unsaid: You haven’t picked up a baseball since the end of the season last year. What can I say. He’s really into his sports when he’s playing them. Then when the season is over, whatever.

The 3-year-old flushed a (child-sized) toothbrush down the toilet. I welcome any thoughts on whether we need to get a plumber out to take the thing apart or not.

I spent big chunks of the weekend packing up the kitchen and master bathroom ahead of our renovation. I chucked some things, and put others in the attic. I packed away the fondue pots and then my husband went to the grocery store and decided we should have fondue for dinner. So back out they came (it was a very good dinner!) Since the renovation doesn’t start for at least another week, we still have the bare necessities in the kitchen. So the kitchen is in perfect Kon-Mari state at the moment. Perhaps I’m supposed to feel like I can go do great things now that my house is in order. But I pretty much feel no different. Except for needing to hunt for the fondue pots. And the kirsch for the fondue (also not deemed a necessity in the original purge).

I have spent a lot of time thinking about how the household will function without a kitchen. Then I remembered that I actually have a spare kitchen. Our basement has a bar kitchen with a sink, counter, outlets, and a small fridge. We never used it, because we’re not the sort of people having huge, raging basement parties. Since we’ll have access to our real fridge, we’ll just move the microwave and coffee maker, and get a small hot plate or camp stove to boil water for pasta and mac and cheese. So the basement kitchen is cleared out of all the junk that was stored there, and we’ll move some bar stools in, and be good. Now I just need to figure out where to put the membership cards (kids museum, zoo, etc.), the car keys, and the mail as it comes in. All those things went on the kitchen desk, which is getting painted and will also not be available for a while.

There is still a lot of snow on the ground, but since I’m signed up for two spring races (a 10-miler and a half-marathon) I need to get started with training. I ran 4.7 miles with Jane on Saturday, and ran 5.5 miles in spurts on Sunday. 2.7 miles outside in a small window of time I had before people needed to go various places, and then a 1.1 mile run on the treadmill, and a 1.7 mile run on the treadmill later. I figure all the mileage adds up, and even if it’s not run at the same point, it’s better than nothing.

My husband decided to take advantage of the snow and get one last round of skiing in. None of the kids have wanted to go, so he cooked us dinner on Saturday, and we ate, and then he took off at 6:40 p.m. to drive to the Poconos for a night run. I have no idea what time he got back.

The upside of using a smart phone as an alarm clock is that it takes the time change in stride. The kids were all sleeping later Sunday morning, so I went to church on my own. I assumed my husband wasn’t going to rally them all to go, so after choir I just jetted home. I got there, and noticed the minivan was gone. I called my husband to see if they’d gone to a museum or something. My husband answered that he was standing outside one of the kids’ Sunday School classes. Apparently they had all been there and I had completely missed them. Whoops.

I am speaking at Norton Healthcare’s Go Confidently Series tomorrow night in Louisville, at The Olmstead. If you’re there, please come say hello afterwards! Alternately, you can catch me on WHAS 11 News around 4:20 p.m.

Photo: snow drifts