…I forgot about one other bit of working out the other day. My daughter is going on a 6 day hiking trip in Mt Zion, so I took her and her best friend for a 2 mile walk in their hiking boots to break them in.

And today I am on vacation, and woke up at 8:12 – and just made it to 8:30 power flow class. Ahhhh yum!

So, about that “Taking Turns” thing your eyes just skimmed over up there…

I think Brian and I take turns getting PMS’ed. Now, obviously he wouldn’t have hormonal fluctuations for the same reasons I do, but it seems like every-other month I have moody time, and in between he has moody time (sympathy induced?)

When one of us gets stressed, thoughts and conversations usually come back around to money. Sometimes it’s like Paul Revere (Oh geez, I almost typed Pierre Cardin) is riding down the street swinging a lantern, shouting, “The Future is coming! The Future is coming!” The future with daughters driving and needing money for college. The future with repairs on the house and minivan. The future with medical bills and hopefully kickass vacations.

So we try to balance: Living in the Moment with The Future is Coming. It’s not always easy.

Sadly, in April, we buried a dear friend. A woman I met as a mommy in my daughter’s class who quickly became a neighbor with an open door. Her future came and went all too soon. All those overtime hours away from her daughter… all that savings sitting in a bank… And my grandparents seem to be the same way – saving for The Future when they could be traveling the world or doting on Great Grandchildren who are already entering high school or paying for weddings as their grandchildren seem to be getting married one by one lately.

But we can’t just say F$^& The Future, right?! We have to maintain that balance of being prepared for it. I mean, I guess we could fill out every single one of those credit card apps we get in the mail each day and spend money right and left that we don’t have and not worry about it because we’ll be dead someday, but that doesn’t seem very realistic. It might be fun to make a movie about it though… and Donald Trump would applaud it. (Dude, fire your stylist and get a hairdresser.)

Over the weekend we were watching the Michael Douglas movie that was a sequel to Wall Street and he called us The NINJA Generation. No Income, No Job, No Assets. That was a new one to me! Cute and catchy, but awfully scary. And certainly not true of many of the people I know. Brian and I always seem to be recreating jobs for ourselves, so there is that…

So, what do you think of this ramble? How can one plan for the future and live in the moment? Is the secret simply to find what makes you happy? If I meditate long enough will it all be clear and these questions will just float away? Or is it this exact amount of searching that keeps life from becoming a bore?

While you chew on that, I’m going to take my vacation day and spend it with my husband and children, the 4 of us finding what will keep us happy in the moment, and probably spend some time discussing the future. And all the while, smiling.

I’m going to Chicago. And “we” aren’t going to Chicago. Brian will be home with the kids. I will get on a plane by myself, probably sleep the whole way, share a hotel room with my mom, have room to do Yoga because no little ones will be bunking on the floor, and I will take hot showers and wear cute clothes. I will see cousins and Aunts and go to a rehearsal dinner and a wedding. And I will bless the wine with my mom at the ceremony because we were honored like that – but just in English because a man has to do the Hebrew part. And then I will dance in my purple dress and open toed shoes. Which will make me start to miss Brian and home for possibly the first time during the trip – but then I will fly home the next day after a family brunch, so it all works out fine.

Can I crochet on a plane? Think crochet hooks are banned? I’m guessing they are.

I just heard Avril’s “What the hell” for the first time today. And then I saw that Youtube version with the guys and the dog. I love when the universe randomly circles back around.

Brian’s Wine and Dine half marathon group is growing. And they are all women so far. If you want to run a half at Disney organized by a guy who has done tons of Disney races and with ME as the organizing Mommy machine, join us! Even if you don’t have him build your custom training plan and you just happen to be doing that half because you know the glory of it ending at a private EPCOT food and wine festival party, let me know so you can meet up with us!

Today I missed the gym to do a photoshoot at YogaBlu Studio. Then I joined the 7th grade on their class trip to the new Dali Museum. I love staring at his art, and 2 hours was such a tease! Yesterday I met some moms to go running, but we ended up walk-running because someone hurt her hamstring playing golf the day before. Tomorrow I’ll either hit the gym or run… not sure yet.

Last night I went shopping with my daughters at Forever 21. There are a few stores we can all shop at. Most have family shopping – like TJ Maxx or Old Navy, but Forever 21 lets us all feel like fun girls while trying on items that suit our own figure and level of sophistication. I got 2 cute lightweight dresses to pack for my trip and have for work thereafter. Alice got a pretty shirt, and Wendy got a new skirt. Then she used a Borders gift card and bought a BOOK! Wendy doesn’t often seek out buying books on her own. She’d rather draw on her PC or play Wii. But she wanted to read Kingdom Keepers 3 before #4 comes out.

Thurs night Alice runs the 3200 and 1600 in one of the last track meets of the season. She’s had a really great year and hopes to go to MD State later in the month.

I made spaghetti for dinner. We have it almost once a week, and Brian only wants his mom’s recipe. I get sick of the same spaghetti over and over. So tonight I took a scoop of the sauce and put it in a separate saucepan for me and added garlic, spinach and chopped tomato. It already had tom sauce, tom paste and ground beef. The chunky veggies made it seem like a whole new meal, and I sprinkled Parmesan on top too.

Wendy has some big news coming up about a land far away. More on that soon…

My daughter’s 7th grade just finished reading The Outsiders. Because my girls are a year apart, her older sister read it last year. After hearing so many moms talk about how much they loved this book, I sat down one Saturday morning and read the whole thing cover to cover. I had never read it or seen the movie, and honestly I hadn’t heard of it until the first time I toured the English class they read it in.

After they finish reading the book, the unit culminates in 60′s Day at school. This is an award-winning curriculum program our 7th grade teaching team developed. The kids can dress as a greaser or a soc. (If they don’t dress up they get a lunch detention.) Instead of going to their regular classes, the rotate activities with their advisor / homeroom teacher. They learn some dances from the 60′s and ogle a teacher’s yearbook from the 60′s and make up music videos to songs from the 60′s. During their morning break parent volunteers served root beer floats. I came in costume with the best 60′s homemaker look I could muster, including a very sprayed updo – which I never wear.

My daughter had a tougher time. She was afraid that even though she has Converse sneakers and they “wore those back then” she couldn’t wear her because they have cupcakes on them. She was also told she was not allowed to wear skinny jeans, which are the only jeans she owns. And when she tried on Daddy’s white undershirt it was to her knees. In the end we were able to piece together a look she was happy with, topped by a pleather jacket borrow from a friend. (Thanks Anne!) She also didn’t brush her hair and wore too much eyeliner.

Before school, though, we had to stop at the orthodontist for an appointment, and after root beer floats were served I had a meeting at my office. So I felt myself explaining my outfit a lot. People thought it was hysterical. Even when I ran to the post office the employee there asked a lot of questions about how I attached my fake eyelashes. It was the first time I had worn them, and apparently I did a good job of not having a tale-tell thick black line.

Have you read The Outsiders? Now that my daughters have both finished the book I can finally watch the movie. Did you know the author was a girl – not woman, but a 16 year old girl?! Maybe that’s why the perspective seems to be so clear!

I thought the book was wonderful. I don’t think it would have made a huge impact on me at 16 like so many people said. Maybe because with my private school and stable home life I was so sheltered that the whole notion of these kids would just seem to far-fetched. Like when my daughter says we live in a bad neighborhood because her bike got stolen. I’d kind of like to drive her by a bad neighborhood so she can see we live in peaceful suburbia and how lucky she is!

Alice in Wonderland had a big impact on me. That’s why I named my first born Alice. So did the Judy Blume book Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself. In college it was A Prayer for Owen Meany, and later City of Ember, Jitterbug Perfume – and most recently Born to Run. Right now I’m reading Why Marry A Millionaire? Just Be One! and it made an immediate impact on me. I’d love to go to a remote cabin with this book and my husband and a pen and really drill down some meaningful stuff for our futures. Just starting this book helped me melt some personal ice and hug my father again after many years. I am forever grateful for that!

And since this blog is supposed to be about working out, I’d like to mention that over the weekend I tried Body Pump class at the gym for the first time. I LOVED it! The teacher was great – a very happy, motivating guy who called everyone by name. He did a great job of offering corrections while being an example of correct form at the front of the room. I think if I had discovered this class 4 years ago when I first joined the gym my whole body would look different. I hope my schedule will allow me some more Sunday morning classes in the near future! I went running Monday morning with some moms and did yardwork with Wendy on Tues. She’s grounded and I told her she could only be part of Daddy’s birthday celebration if she helped me clean the yard for an hour. And she did!