Yep, it's has been a long while since I posted anything. I certainly plan on getting back to it now that my life is getting back to normal. What a summer! I did end up doing a show, and am so glad I did. God must have known (duh) that I should be back in the professional acting world and that we really could use the money. So I found a job at New Candlelight performing in ANNIE and serving tables. Not completely glamorous, but fun and rewarding nonetheless. I was in charge of a very successful registration table for our church's VBS program, had my Dad's 70th birthday party (can't believe my Dad is 70!), had a few short getaways to the shore, a B & B, and a really hot one to Williamsburg (all to remain sane), working on getting the kids back to school, preparing for our final real vacation of the summer, and saying goodbye to my cat/friend/constant companion Petey aka Pissy cat. What a summer.....
I got Pissy cat when he was a tiny kitten, no bigger than my hand, a month before my 18th birthday. It was silly at the time since I was planning to go to Europe in June and then away to college. That summer was certainly my rebellion rollercoaster at my parent's expense and after I got back from Europe, decided I didn't want to go away to school. I ended up at Widener and commuted from home. Even though I wasn't home much, Pissy cat was my cat and certainly made it known. He was so bad. He would tear through the house, jump up on everything he wasn't supposed to. Would "hunt" people as they walked by attacking their legs. He would lay down on the kitchen table (bad cat) , we would squirt him with waterguns and he would just look at us. He would get outside (bad cat) and end up with fleas. We would take him to the vet, and they were scared of him. They put "vicious" in red tape across his file. I moved out of the house when I was about 20 into an apartment with 2 girlfriends. I brought Pissy cat with me. It was not a good space for him there, so when my brother Jimmy and my future husband Jason got an apartment together, Pissy cat moved in there. He was not real keen on Jason at first and showed his jealousy by biting him alot, eventually they tolerated each other. Pissy loved that apartment, it was on the 7th floor and he loved laying in the windows hunting the birds, playing with his ball everywhere, running down the hallway to the laundry room. Jason & I got married, moved to NJ and into a townhouse. Pissy was not happy there and neither were we. It was small, cramped, and he was stressed. When we moved to our first house in DE, he was much happier. His name had been changed to Petey by then due to Jason's nephews and it fit his just fine. He was still pretty bad, but loved by everyone who met him. He would always come to the door when you came home and was very social with visitors, especially our neighbor Maryanne. She loved Pete almost as much as we did. She helped us out both times he got sick, once with pancreatitis and once with a bladder stone. After those episodes, he was the $3000 cat! We sure missed her when we moved to PA, but Petey did fine in this house too. He was still bad, getting out, jumping on counters and tables, knocking stuff over, bugging us when we slept, all his normal stuff for awhile, until about 6 months ago when his age really started to show. His back legs started hocking on him and he couldn't jump as high or run as fast. This was around his 18th birthday. I started giving him "safe for cats" B12 vitamins. They seemed to slow down the process, but in the past couple weeks we would have to lift him up to us to snuggle on the sofa or put the bean bag near it so he could jump up on it. When it seemed he had a stroke when I got him up from the basement last Thursday morning, I knew it was the end. He was trying, but I could tell he was not comfortable and possibly in pain. We were pretty sure he was not going to die on his own (it was almost like he refused to leave me), so we had to take him in to put him to sleep. That didn't even go smoothly (typical of him) and they had to inject his heart directly. When the vet brought him back to us, I double checked to make sure he was really gone. It didn't seem real, still doesn't sometimes, but I guess it was. I missed him immediately, hated leaving him, and still miss him every day when I am home.
That day was one of the toughest in my whole life. I knew it was coming, but how do you prepare to lose something that feels like it has always been there. I can't remember a time he wasn't. He was there for every big moment in my life: graduating highschool, my first apartment, graduating college, getting married, my first job, our first & second house, having all three of my kids, our first dog, every success and failure, every joy and heartbreak. He was a fantastic gift from God to me and my family, and I especially enjoyed him for 18 years. A few people I know even got cats with his traits because of him. Jason says I can get another cat only if I can guarantee it can be just like Pete. Not sure how I can do that as it seems he was one of a kind.
All I know at this point, is that I miss my cat and I probably will miss him for a very long time.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Monday, April 11, 2011
Yeah Spring, time for the Zern Garden!
I have had some requests for gardening help, tips, tricks of the trade etc. I am not an expert, but am lucky enough to have a mother and father in-law who are. I have learned so much from them and then learned some on my own and I am happy to share with anyone and everyone what I do to have a successful flower and vegetable garden. I'll try to do it a couple months at a time, I know March is past so I will backtrack and then go through April. I'll hit May & June later on this month. So, here ya go:
1) March- clean out flower beds and till under garden. Map out the vegetable garden and review the map from the year before. This prevents me from planting certain veggies in the same place as last year. Study up on what you plan to plant and review your notes from last year about how the sun hits your garden to you know what you can plant where. Make sure you read about how far your plants should be from each other to prevent overcrowding and study up on the best way to care for the plants, ie. plant food, pest control. When we till under, my husband puts manure down to really help the plants grow. Pay attention to the weather and start planting your lettuce, broccoli and any other veggies that do well in cooler temperatures. Mulch those flower beds! It is so worth it to get this done before it gets hot outside plus you can get those early bird savings. You can plant some bulbs if you wish, but I usually wait until the fall for that.
2) April- Draw a flower bed & veggie bed plan for your property of what already exists and review the one from last year plus the year before that if you have bi annual plants. This you will need to update every few weeks as plants grow and bloom. I include every plant & tree plus I have a separate column for their bloom times. This year is about 1 -2 weeks off from last year and this is good info to have. Mine is about 4 pages long and gets longer the more beds we add. Also this is a good time to separate some of your plants (do this about every 3 years) to plant more, give away or toss. If you are just starting out, seek out some friends who are gardeners and see if they have any extra separates. Make sure you note this on your map and mark where you replant. Another good tip if you are just starting out is to pay attention to what plants grow around your area. This will let you know what will be fairly easy to grow in both sun and shade. Don't go crazy on perennials they grow rather quickly and you can fill in with annuals for a couple years until they are bigger. Also, weed those beds every chance you get to help control it. When it gets really hot, weeding is not fun!
The seeds you planted in your veggie garden in march should have popped up by now. Thin them out according to the recommendations on your seed packs. With my regular watering I like to feed my plants with miracle grow about 1 time per week until they are really established. This goes for any annuals and replanted perennials as well. I usually go to this awesome Amish farm in mid April to get some annuals for my pots and really pay attention to the weather so I bring them in if it gets cold at night. Money is pretty tight this year so I will be buying salvia, impatiens and petunias mainly with a couple vine-like plants.
That's pretty much my March/April, but I think it is plenty to get anyone started. I am so very excited for the warm weather and to see my bulbs from the fall pop up!
Happy Gardening!
1) March- clean out flower beds and till under garden. Map out the vegetable garden and review the map from the year before. This prevents me from planting certain veggies in the same place as last year. Study up on what you plan to plant and review your notes from last year about how the sun hits your garden to you know what you can plant where. Make sure you read about how far your plants should be from each other to prevent overcrowding and study up on the best way to care for the plants, ie. plant food, pest control. When we till under, my husband puts manure down to really help the plants grow. Pay attention to the weather and start planting your lettuce, broccoli and any other veggies that do well in cooler temperatures. Mulch those flower beds! It is so worth it to get this done before it gets hot outside plus you can get those early bird savings. You can plant some bulbs if you wish, but I usually wait until the fall for that.
2) April- Draw a flower bed & veggie bed plan for your property of what already exists and review the one from last year plus the year before that if you have bi annual plants. This you will need to update every few weeks as plants grow and bloom. I include every plant & tree plus I have a separate column for their bloom times. This year is about 1 -2 weeks off from last year and this is good info to have. Mine is about 4 pages long and gets longer the more beds we add. Also this is a good time to separate some of your plants (do this about every 3 years) to plant more, give away or toss. If you are just starting out, seek out some friends who are gardeners and see if they have any extra separates. Make sure you note this on your map and mark where you replant. Another good tip if you are just starting out is to pay attention to what plants grow around your area. This will let you know what will be fairly easy to grow in both sun and shade. Don't go crazy on perennials they grow rather quickly and you can fill in with annuals for a couple years until they are bigger. Also, weed those beds every chance you get to help control it. When it gets really hot, weeding is not fun!
The seeds you planted in your veggie garden in march should have popped up by now. Thin them out according to the recommendations on your seed packs. With my regular watering I like to feed my plants with miracle grow about 1 time per week until they are really established. This goes for any annuals and replanted perennials as well. I usually go to this awesome Amish farm in mid April to get some annuals for my pots and really pay attention to the weather so I bring them in if it gets cold at night. Money is pretty tight this year so I will be buying salvia, impatiens and petunias mainly with a couple vine-like plants.
That's pretty much my March/April, but I think it is plenty to get anyone started. I am so very excited for the warm weather and to see my bulbs from the fall pop up!
Happy Gardening!
Monday, April 4, 2011
The week of the rollercoaster
I am excited to remember to blog yet again! How long must you do something before it becomes a habit?
Well, what a week I had. It certainly was an emotional rollercoaster, some good stuff, but also stress, sadness and disappointment. Of course some of it was self inflicted (I certainly love to torture myself), but some was just life circumstances and time going by. My youngest son, Colin, turned 4 on Saturday. That was rough, I will miss 3 with him. I know I will enjoy 4 and we are starting into a new phase of our family, but I am grieving. This was certainly not an emotion I was expecting. My cat also turned 18 this week. Another rough one. He has officially been in my life more than he has been out of it. His health has certainly declined this past year and he will most likely not reach 19. I have somewhat began preparing for this, but I'm not sure how you can totally prepare to lose a constant companion you've had with you longer then the current members of your household. I have lost pets before and I know what that feels like, but this will be different.
The rest of the week consisted of: a husband being away for 2 days, auditions (for one show I really wanted to be in and one that I didn't care so much), 8 yards of mulch to be spread in the snow, rain and hail, preparing and having a birthday party for Colin with about 25 people, callbacks for both shows but wasn't cast in either, a very emotional 11 year old boy with a bad math test grade, a really fun gala where I performed with friends and we won the auction for a B& B and a dinner at a restaurant we enjoy. Some really good stuff and some not so good. Most of my weeks are not like this and I felt like I was on overload. My body certainly had enough as I woke up at 3 am this morning drenched in sweat, yuck!
Thank goodness God was in the middle of it. He gave me patience, perseverance and endurance to get through it all. And now I feel his comfort for the tough stuff that is left in my brain that I am having a hard time getting over. He has given me a warm day so I won't mind running errands and then enjoy some gardening where I feel closest to him anyway. I am not feeling so overwhelmed and look forward to catching up on things that were put on hold last week (taxes, accounting, monthly menu planning, grocery list). I am starting to be ok with not performing this summer. I certainly am disappointed, but I won't have to cut short any vacation, can really focus on registration for VBS, helping with our church's community fair, playing lots of volleyball, and really enjoying my husband and kids. There are other places I can audition for, but I think God is telling me to continue my break from my last show this past December and to focus on other stuff. There is plenty of time for it in the future.
That's enough for now and I am excited to see what this week will hold for me.
Peace
Well, what a week I had. It certainly was an emotional rollercoaster, some good stuff, but also stress, sadness and disappointment. Of course some of it was self inflicted (I certainly love to torture myself), but some was just life circumstances and time going by. My youngest son, Colin, turned 4 on Saturday. That was rough, I will miss 3 with him. I know I will enjoy 4 and we are starting into a new phase of our family, but I am grieving. This was certainly not an emotion I was expecting. My cat also turned 18 this week. Another rough one. He has officially been in my life more than he has been out of it. His health has certainly declined this past year and he will most likely not reach 19. I have somewhat began preparing for this, but I'm not sure how you can totally prepare to lose a constant companion you've had with you longer then the current members of your household. I have lost pets before and I know what that feels like, but this will be different.
The rest of the week consisted of: a husband being away for 2 days, auditions (for one show I really wanted to be in and one that I didn't care so much), 8 yards of mulch to be spread in the snow, rain and hail, preparing and having a birthday party for Colin with about 25 people, callbacks for both shows but wasn't cast in either, a very emotional 11 year old boy with a bad math test grade, a really fun gala where I performed with friends and we won the auction for a B& B and a dinner at a restaurant we enjoy. Some really good stuff and some not so good. Most of my weeks are not like this and I felt like I was on overload. My body certainly had enough as I woke up at 3 am this morning drenched in sweat, yuck!
Thank goodness God was in the middle of it. He gave me patience, perseverance and endurance to get through it all. And now I feel his comfort for the tough stuff that is left in my brain that I am having a hard time getting over. He has given me a warm day so I won't mind running errands and then enjoy some gardening where I feel closest to him anyway. I am not feeling so overwhelmed and look forward to catching up on things that were put on hold last week (taxes, accounting, monthly menu planning, grocery list). I am starting to be ok with not performing this summer. I certainly am disappointed, but I won't have to cut short any vacation, can really focus on registration for VBS, helping with our church's community fair, playing lots of volleyball, and really enjoying my husband and kids. There are other places I can audition for, but I think God is telling me to continue my break from my last show this past December and to focus on other stuff. There is plenty of time for it in the future.
That's enough for now and I am excited to see what this week will hold for me.
Peace
Monday, March 28, 2011
Healthy Living, not impossible
Wow! My second Blog, and it has only been one week since my first, and I remembered. Amazing, maybe I'll be able to keep this up.
One topic that has been on my mind for sometime now, is how to live healthier. 5 years ago if you asked me how healthy I thought our lifestyle was, I would have said we are a pretty healthy family! I thought we were doing just fine. Then 3 years ago, my oldest son Josh started getting these terrible headaches. They happened 1-2 times per month and would be just awful. They would make him very sick and he would be in pain until he fell asleep. I had similar headaches when I was in my early 20's and worked in a bar/restaurant called Di Matteo's. Back then you could smoke in bars and I found that I was very sensitive to second hand smoke. I would get migraines occasionally and they were very scary. I thought my head was going to burst, they were so painful. After I stopped working there I never got another one. My oldest child, however was the lucky recipient of this condition.
We started seeing a specialist for Josh to determine that they were in fact migraines. We kept a journal of his headaches, he had multiple tests done, and we worked hard to figure out what his triggers were. It was during this time that I started researching the food we ate and our activity level. I got a full eye opener about the hormones, pesticides, and preservatives put in the food we had been eating and the chemicals in the products I had been cleaning with. This stuff is pretty scary when you start to think about the poisons we had been breathing and ingesting. I had been one of those people who didn't understand the people spending so much money on organic foods, but that all changed after my research. Our food bill also changed and now that all three boys are eating quite a bit our bill is close to $750 a month instead of $400 from 3 years ago. Shocker, right? Our health is so very important, it is worth every penny. I also only use a cleaner for toilets, a safe oil for wood and white vinegar for everything else. I used to think that if a product was available to buy, then it must be safe. Think again. No one knows the long term effects on the environment with all of the chemicals used, and they are not necessarily safe. I used to think anti-bacterial sanitizer was great, now we don't touch it and wash our hands more. We get sick much less now. The size of my garden has doubled and during the spring, summer, fall months I grow much of our produce.
After a few months of seeing the specialist, Josh's migraines were determined to be of multiple sources: audio sensitivities, food, weather, hunger, stress, lack of sleep, hormones. Even now new possibilities of migraine triggers pop up, and it is something he will have to figure out on his own as he gets older. As long as he gets his medicine before the migraine gets bad, he only lays down for about 30 minutes and is fine. If he puts it off and doesn't say anything until he is crying, then the migraine is terrible. Again, something he has to figure out. At this point the number of them is still 1-2 a month and we have gone through stretches of months (summer) when he didn't have any. School stress is a definite trigger.
We also decided to join the Hockessin Athletic Club (HAC). We had been at the Y for awhile, and we as a family needed something more. Joining HAC was one of the best decisions we ever made. It is a little pricey, but totally worth it. I watched my husband who has struggled with weight loss lose 25 lbs. I never really struggled like him, but I lost 10lbs myself and was down to my pre-marriage weight. The kids are involved with gymnastics, swim lessons, dodgeball, tee-ball, flag football & karate.
This has been our healthy living journey so far. We have made it a priority in our lives and we hope we can continue it for our lifetimes. We also hope we are teaching our kids valuable lessons on how they treat their bodies. God only gave us one body and it is our job to take care of it the best we can. My husband and I are currently working on a challenge and weigh in is tomorrow, so stay tuned for that blog....
Peace
One topic that has been on my mind for sometime now, is how to live healthier. 5 years ago if you asked me how healthy I thought our lifestyle was, I would have said we are a pretty healthy family! I thought we were doing just fine. Then 3 years ago, my oldest son Josh started getting these terrible headaches. They happened 1-2 times per month and would be just awful. They would make him very sick and he would be in pain until he fell asleep. I had similar headaches when I was in my early 20's and worked in a bar/restaurant called Di Matteo's. Back then you could smoke in bars and I found that I was very sensitive to second hand smoke. I would get migraines occasionally and they were very scary. I thought my head was going to burst, they were so painful. After I stopped working there I never got another one. My oldest child, however was the lucky recipient of this condition.
We started seeing a specialist for Josh to determine that they were in fact migraines. We kept a journal of his headaches, he had multiple tests done, and we worked hard to figure out what his triggers were. It was during this time that I started researching the food we ate and our activity level. I got a full eye opener about the hormones, pesticides, and preservatives put in the food we had been eating and the chemicals in the products I had been cleaning with. This stuff is pretty scary when you start to think about the poisons we had been breathing and ingesting. I had been one of those people who didn't understand the people spending so much money on organic foods, but that all changed after my research. Our food bill also changed and now that all three boys are eating quite a bit our bill is close to $750 a month instead of $400 from 3 years ago. Shocker, right? Our health is so very important, it is worth every penny. I also only use a cleaner for toilets, a safe oil for wood and white vinegar for everything else. I used to think that if a product was available to buy, then it must be safe. Think again. No one knows the long term effects on the environment with all of the chemicals used, and they are not necessarily safe. I used to think anti-bacterial sanitizer was great, now we don't touch it and wash our hands more. We get sick much less now. The size of my garden has doubled and during the spring, summer, fall months I grow much of our produce.
After a few months of seeing the specialist, Josh's migraines were determined to be of multiple sources: audio sensitivities, food, weather, hunger, stress, lack of sleep, hormones. Even now new possibilities of migraine triggers pop up, and it is something he will have to figure out on his own as he gets older. As long as he gets his medicine before the migraine gets bad, he only lays down for about 30 minutes and is fine. If he puts it off and doesn't say anything until he is crying, then the migraine is terrible. Again, something he has to figure out. At this point the number of them is still 1-2 a month and we have gone through stretches of months (summer) when he didn't have any. School stress is a definite trigger.
We also decided to join the Hockessin Athletic Club (HAC). We had been at the Y for awhile, and we as a family needed something more. Joining HAC was one of the best decisions we ever made. It is a little pricey, but totally worth it. I watched my husband who has struggled with weight loss lose 25 lbs. I never really struggled like him, but I lost 10lbs myself and was down to my pre-marriage weight. The kids are involved with gymnastics, swim lessons, dodgeball, tee-ball, flag football & karate.
This has been our healthy living journey so far. We have made it a priority in our lives and we hope we can continue it for our lifetimes. We also hope we are teaching our kids valuable lessons on how they treat their bodies. God only gave us one body and it is our job to take care of it the best we can. My husband and I are currently working on a challenge and weigh in is tomorrow, so stay tuned for that blog....
Peace
Friday, March 25, 2011
You can take me or leave me
Hi, I'm Cindy Zern. It has been bugging me for sometime to create a blog, should I or shouldn't I? If I did, what in the world would I write about? I don't have some cause to write about, some goal I need to accomplish, family living far away that I want to give updates on my life to, problems to vent about (at least not today), or self help blogs of encouragement. I decided I am going to write about me and my life. The day to day life of a 35 year old stay at home mom. I think it will be fun to read back on these blogs and remember things I will have otherwise forgotten about. To see myself and the people I write about change and grow. Someday my children may find they never really knew all about their Mom until they read these, and they may grow to appreciate the time I took to write. I have three boys, so maybe they won't appreciate, but their wives and kids might! I am not much of a writer, although past writings I have done certainly crack me up. So here goes nothing....my very on blog...all about me....Cindy Zern.
As I stated above, I am currently a stay at home mom, a position/career I have held for almost 12 years. Like any job (and I did work for 10 years as a commercial insurance underwriter in the "real world") it has its ups and downs and I stopped counting the positives and negative long ago. They never seemed to balance out. I am married with 3 boys, a dog, cat, and fish. I am the queen of the house, since I am the only female. I couldn't even get a girl dog, but someday...just wait! We live in the typical rural suburbs in a nice house with nice neighbors. I guess we are the "American" family. My husband brings home the bacon and I fry it up in a pan. As for me, I love the Lord, my family, friends and country. I am not your typical homemaker and I have many interests outside of the house. I am smart, opinionated, rational, logical, aggressive, organized, athletic, quick minded, conservative, honest, and sarcastic. I am sure many blogs I will post will irritate and offend some people. One view I take is that everyone is entitled to their opinion and I really try not to call any one names, except my husband, when we argue, and he interrupts me :-). I love arguing, but the productive logical kind.
So I guess that is enough for my opening blog. As the title states, you can take me or leave me. I can't promise much about my life other then it is quite entertaining, never a dull moment. I look forward to keeping this up. And who knows, it might make me rich and famous one day. One thing is for sure, because of my honesty trait, I will never be able to run for office.
Peace
As I stated above, I am currently a stay at home mom, a position/career I have held for almost 12 years. Like any job (and I did work for 10 years as a commercial insurance underwriter in the "real world") it has its ups and downs and I stopped counting the positives and negative long ago. They never seemed to balance out. I am married with 3 boys, a dog, cat, and fish. I am the queen of the house, since I am the only female. I couldn't even get a girl dog, but someday...just wait! We live in the typical rural suburbs in a nice house with nice neighbors. I guess we are the "American" family. My husband brings home the bacon and I fry it up in a pan. As for me, I love the Lord, my family, friends and country. I am not your typical homemaker and I have many interests outside of the house. I am smart, opinionated, rational, logical, aggressive, organized, athletic, quick minded, conservative, honest, and sarcastic. I am sure many blogs I will post will irritate and offend some people. One view I take is that everyone is entitled to their opinion and I really try not to call any one names, except my husband, when we argue, and he interrupts me :-). I love arguing, but the productive logical kind.
So I guess that is enough for my opening blog. As the title states, you can take me or leave me. I can't promise much about my life other then it is quite entertaining, never a dull moment. I look forward to keeping this up. And who knows, it might make me rich and famous one day. One thing is for sure, because of my honesty trait, I will never be able to run for office.
Peace
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