What makes a day wonderful?

I often wonder at the end of the day what made the day what is was.  Good or bad, what was the turning point?  Everyday we all wake up and have a morning routine.  For me it is a cup of coffee (or two), shower, hair and make-up and dress depending upon what the day will bring.  Board meeting days means full business attire while at-home, lazy days mean pajama pants and a sweatshirt.  Then, the day begins.

Everyday is different in my so-called life.  Whether it be at work or at home, no day is ever the same for me once the morning routine is over.  At work I usually have a schedule completely PACKED with meetings and typically someone needs something from me every minute.  When I work from home I am much more productive with my work to-do list, but still have constant interactions via E-mail, IM and cell calls.  So... as I go through my days I don't really think about whether it is a good day or a bad day.  It is really only on my conscience when it is a truly bad day.  Typically I (like most people) will often verbalize "bad" days to colleagues, friends or loved ones, but it is not often when I stop and say "this is a good day" even when I am having one.  Why is that?

I think there are many wonderful days.  Whether it be because I was productive, got to spend time with my family or made a great decision, many days are wonderful and all for different reasons.  Just the other day, the house was filled with toys and it was truly a mess, but I was happily playing games with the kids and posting pictures of the Christmas parties that we had hosted or attended.  It was a wonderful day.

The following day I completely cleaned out the toy room (purging I call it so the kids don't really "get" that those boxes are donations) and I felt so good about it.  The room looks great and I was happy that we could fit in the newly received Christmas toys and start again.  It was a good day because I was productive and accomplished something.  Much like the days when you get all of your errands done - a good day too.

I guess the reason for this post is because the new year is upon us and I am not typically a "resolution" fan. A resolution is "the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc." I feel that change is difficult and just because you say on a particular day (say, January 1st) that you resolve to do something does not make it so.  It takes constant mindfulness and practice to truly change something.  So, instead of make a resolution, I am going to make a promise.  (A promise seems more personal and I never want to break a promise.)  So, I promise to myself that I am going to recognize the wonderful days more often.  Rather than move from day to day, year to year, and only really recognize the bad days and the great days, I want to think about the many wonderful days in between.

Now, the trick is to hold myself accountable.  Let me start now and say that today was a wonderful day!

Happy Halloween!

It has been what seems like forever since I last blogged.  The kids are now 7 and 10 and keeping us very busy.  I wanted to say "Happy Halloween" before we go off to trick or treat at Nana's house!

I am published! "A Spotlight on Moms"

About a month ago I thought it would be fun to submit articles to our local paper, The Valley Roadrunner.  The editor said that next time he "had room" he would run my article.  Well, the time has come!  This Friday my article was run in the paper, head shot and all.  In case you aren't a Valley Centerite, and are interested, here is the article.  Ideas for new articles welcome!

A Spotlight on Moms

By: Amy Podratz

“A Mom’s Work is Never Done”

While doing my fast-paced read of a recent Valley Roadrunner publication, I got to thinking… us moms really need a place of our own – a spotlight on moms.  That thought led me to writing this article. 

Daughter, niece, aunt, wife, friend – no label is as important as being a mom. As a mom of a 4 and 7 year old, I am exhausted when I think of all that I have to accomplish in a day.  Whether you work full-time or stay at home, being a mom is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week job.  Though this particular job has no paycheck, the rewards are priceless! 

If you are anything like me, you only found time to read this article because you are enjoying a cup of coffee before the kids wake up, waiting for dinner to cook or between loads of laundry.  The old adage is true – a mother’s work is never done.  So, I hope that you make it to the end of the article before the next buzzer rings or a child starts calling!

As a regular Facebooker, I have found that us moms have many things in common.  Busy schedules, funny stories, grateful for a break from time-to-time and the skills to multi-task all seem to be consistent in my “friends” posts.  Moms are everywhere!  Helping with school events, volunteering in the classroom, cheering on your child at their sport of choice, posting pictures, helping with homework, planning gatherings, sending birthday cards, organizing schedules, being referee between two siblings, packing lunches, making doctor/dentist/orthodontist appointments, chauffeuring, running endless errands and trying to keep the house clean.  The list goes on and on.

If you are anything like me you have some so-called organizational system.  In our house we have a white board on our fridge.  Though I would love to say that I am so organized that everything is calendared to the minute, it just is not so.  We write on there the groceries needed and major events coming up that week – picture day, wear red to school on Friday, appointments and the like.  Some days I feel like I need one of those incredibly large white boards that teachers have in classrooms to keep it all straight.  I think that each of us just do the best we can and hope that we don’t forget a family member’s birthday or find ourselves saying, “Oh no!  We had dentist appointments today!”

Though many studies show that multi-tasking is inevitably the most inefficient way to accomplish tasks, I don’t think moms have any other choice.  Here is one of many examples: Last week I was attempting to fold a load of laundry, that’s it, fold a load of laundry.  In the middle of my least favorite task my 4 year old daughter came to the door full of mud.  Yes, head-to-toe mud.  I had to stop, get her undressed, in the tub, and get the clothes soaking.  When I went back to folding, the phone rang.  After the conversation, I went back and had to re-start the dryer because everything was now in a wrinkled ball.  Do you relate?

So, here is to you moms.  The unsung heroes of the home, workplace and community! And, remember, none of us are perfect, we are moms.  Doing our best every day and seeking rewards in the form of hugs and cuddle time.

With my fellow moms in mind, I want to leave you with one of my favorite quotes: Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease.  ~Lisa Alther

My daddy

Today is one week after we laid my champion, Bob Wright, to rest.  Below is the eulogy that I wrote for his services.  I miss my daddy!

Generous, funny, kind-hearted, loving ~ these are just a few of the words that come to mind when we think of Bob Wright. 

Born October 2^nd 1947, Bob was the third child in what eventually became a family with 7 children.  Along with his siblings, Bob attended his beloved Mountain Empire for most of his schooling.  The family was so large and the school was so small, that there were times that he was in class with his younger sister Patty.  People often asked if they were twins!  His family lived in the small town of Potrero and he loved it there so much that he chose it as his final resting place. 

In March of 1965, he met Ann at Picnic Lake Park.  Ann’s parents didn’t think much of Bob at the start since he had a car that only drove in reverse and was a Catholic.  Ann’s Mormon parents were very strict. But, love found its way and on October 22^nd, 1966 they were married. 

Shortly after marriage, Bob enlisted in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and was based in Grand Forks, North Dakota.  He and Ann lived there for 2 years until he was honorably discharged.   A few years later, his late brother, Bill, joined the Armed Forces and was stationed in Hawaii.  Bob could never get over his brother’s luck – he got North Dakota while Bill got stationed in Hawaii. 

On June 9^th, 1969 their first child, Gregory Todd was born.  Bob was a proud new dad and was working his way up the ladder at National Steel and Ship Building Company where he eventually became a Systems Analyst.  A few years later, on Thanksgiving Day in 1972, their second child, Amy Marie, was born.  Although Bob said in the beginning that he wanted two sons, as the children grew he couldn’t be happier to have one son and one daughter.  He called Greg a “blessing” and Amy “his angel on earth”.

Ann recalls that she would put Amy in her nicest dress and stockings and then Bob would take her outside to water the trees.  Amy came back in with mud from head to toe!  When Ann would ask what they were doing, Amy would always say, “Dad says if we water the pine trees, their branches will go up in the air and that is how we know they are smiling.”  Ann would just laugh and get Amy ready all over again. 

No matter what career, Bob always made time for his kids.  He coached every one of Greg’s Little League teams – 7 years of coaching the Pine Valley boys.  Ann would keep score, Greg would pitch, Bob would coach and Amy, well, she would eat everything they sold at snack bar.  Bob really loved being a coach and he was so gracious.  One time, there was a boy named Dick.  Dick was mentally challenged so he could not play baseball, but he came to every little league game and brought a little radio to listen to the Padres at the same time.  One day Bob asked Dick if he wanted to be the bat boy and travel with the team.  Dick was so excited and Bob even bought him a pair of headphones so he could listen to the Padres and help the team at the same time.  The boys all loved Dick because Bob did.  When this story was remembered by Greg, we were all wondering how he remembered that and he said, “How can you ever forget what Dad did for Dick.”  This was the kind of man that Bob was.  He wanted to include everyone!

Greg also remembers that each time one of the boys hit a homerun that Bob would take them all to Swensen’s in Pine Valley for an ice cream.  Greg says, thanks to Glennie LaRocque, we got lots of ice cream!  He also recalls the times that Bob would say, “Let’s skip practice and go fishing.”  So, all of the boys would grab their fishing gear and jump in the back of the Datsun truck and go to Lake Morena fishing.  What a character Bob was!

Bob and Amy loved horses!  Over the years Amy would be in Gymkanas and Bob would make sure to get her there with the horse trailer and gear.  Every so often he would even enter an event.  Pick up and ride with one of his great friends, Larry Clifford, was always a crowd pleaser.  Two grown men having the time of their lives.  Bob always laughed because the Thing family would always enter too and beat him and Larry every time.  They were proud of their 2^nd place ribbons though!  Bob and Amy would also go to horse camp every year in Cuyamaca and ride on the trails, talk and enjoy nature.  This was truly daddy time for her.  

Throughout the kids high school years, Ann and Bob’s house was always full!  Greg nor Amy remember a time when someone else didn’t live there.  It was always a welcoming place for all of the kids to come and eat and drink whatever they wanted.  Amy remembers coming home on quite a few occasions when her friends would be there hanging out with her parents.  They would say, “Hey, Amy” and then go back to talking to Ann and Bob.  Through girlfriends, boyfriends and best friends, it was always a busy home and Ann and Bob took it all in stride.  They were kind to everyone and all of the kids always loved that the house that fully stocked with food!  There were a countless number of neighborhood kids ate them out of house and home and Ann and Bob wouldn’t have it any other way. 

His beloved miniature sheltie dog, Charlie, also took part in the eating.  Bob adopted Charlie from his brother because his nephew Brent always tried to ride her like a horse when he was just a toddler.  But, dog food was never good enough for Charlie.  Bob fed her hot dogs, every meal, every day.  Charlie was the happiest and fattest dog in the valley!

Bob was always a very busy man.  While maintaining his job at National Steel, he and Ann opened and ran a feed store in Pine Valley.  The feed store is probably one of the fondest memories for some of the people attending today.  Bob gave every boy in town a job “bucking hay”.  They drove down to the Imperial Valley loaded and drove back to Pine Valley and unloaded.  That is what Bob called “our picnics”. Then, the boys would drive house-to-house in the green Ranchero delivering hay to customers.  When the stack of hay was huge behind the store – over a story tall – Bob would take every tarp and make a huge pile on the ground then all of the kids would jump from the top onto the tarps.  Now that Greg and Amy are older, they often wonder how they ever made it through those days without more broken bones!  But, boy, was it fun for them. 

Bob eventually went to work for his brother Bill as Vice President of Wright Oil Company.  During this time he, some of his brothers, friends and the neighborhood kids played in a men’s traveling softball league.  You would think this was for recreation – oh no!  They were serious and the family even recalls a time or two where Uncle Bill would get thrown out of the game for yelling at the umpire.  It was a great time for the men and they always had great memories!  And, the stories of the game always became much bigger in the re-telling.

Bob and Ann’s kids eventually moved out, Greg went to work for Wright Oil and Amy went off to college.  Then, Bob had decided to take a whole new path and purchase his great-grandfather’s land in the desert.  From there he used the sand to help build the Seeley Prison and do some farming.  He was always such a proud man and so supportive of his children.  Amy recalls that even when she was just a cheerleading coach and teacher at Mountain Empire that he would come out and watch every Friday night home football game.  After the game, he would call in the score to the Prep Pigskin Report just so Mountain Empire could maybe get their score run across the bottom of the screen.  He was so proud of his alma mater and children, no matter where life took them.

In January of 1998, his first grandchild, Annika, was born.  Almost exactly three years later, his second granddaughter, Sydney, then Amy and Brian had two children, Colby and Sri.  Bob and Ann became Bob and Nana because Bob always said he wasn’t old enough to be called grandpa.  They were there for the births of each grandchild and love them dearly.  Not to mention, spoil them rotten! 

Christmas was always a joyful time with mounds of presents.  Last Christmas Amy’s son, Colby, was asking for a gift.  Amy said, “Well, you are going to have to ask Santa or Nana and Bob.”  To which Colby replied, “Oh, I am definitely going to ask Nana and Bob because then I know I am going to get it!”  The grandkids always made their list for Nana and Bob and one for Santa.  Nana and Bob always got a much longer list!  And, just like magic, everything they asked for was under the tree on Christmas Day. 

The grandkids just love their Nana and Bob.  Bob collected prized possessions just for the grandkids.  Annika got a 1965 Corvette Stingray, Sydney a 1955 Chevrolet car, Colby a 1959 4-wheel drive Chevy Apache pick up and Sri a 2000 Harley motorcycle. 

And, his great-grandfather’s land in the desert was his most proud investment.  Bob, Nana, the kids, grandkids and 6 other families would spend many occasions down camping on the land.  On Thanksgiving they would fry turkeys and on Easter Nana and Bob would bring down about 300 plastic eggs stuffed with quarters and they hid them all to have a major Easter Egg Hunt.  The kids would always run around like crazy and then count up their winnings.  They really made all of the holidays special.  Every weekend that the kids camped at the desert, Nana and Bob would come down and Bob would always take the grandkids “snake hunting”.  They would grab shovels and load up in the Polaris.  Honestly, the kids never heard of a snake sighting, but they did come back with lots of desert treasures and had a great time!  After that, Bob would take them to the little market so they could each pick a candy.  He would also take Amy’s quad out to go and have a minute with his dog, Charlie, who is resting peacefully under a tree at the corner of the property.  

Bob was the proudest grandpa (though don’t ever tell him that we called him that).  He always said how beautiful and smart Annika was.  And a great soccer player.  How Sydney is so vivacious, smart and beautiful even winning Little Miss Alpine.  Colby was his little athlete who he was always so proud to see hustle on and off the football and baseball fields.  And his little Sri that was so beautiful, quite the artist and so articulate for her age.  Bob and Nana attended Tee ball, flag football, pageants, school events and soccer to see the kids.  Bob would always be yelling the loudest on the sideline!  He was so proud of how great of dads and coaches Greg and Brian were, how proud he was of Amy’s career and family and what a great daughter-in-law he had in Becky.

When we asked each of the grandkids to write their favorite thing about Bob, they said:

Annika says, “The thing I most remembers about Bob is that he would always want to go on adventures where ever we were.  We would always do something fun when he was around”

Sydney says, “The thing I most remember about Bob is that we would always go fishing at Cuyamaca Lake and after we went fishing he would get us ice cream and fill us up with goodies.  We would have a good time when he was always around.  He has been there for me in any event I do.  Bob was always an adventurous grandpa!”

Colby says, “I loved when Bob took us snake hunting in the desert.  And, the tons of presents he had for us on Christmas Day!”

Sri says, “I most remember about Bob that he would help me feed his fish.  He also got us lots of presents!”

In the end, Bob found peace with his career, family and God.  When times were tough his brother, Jim, gave him a job as a Regional Sales Manager and he was so grateful.  He loved visiting with his brothers and sisters who helped tremendously at the end when Bob needed it most.  Bob took his mother, Betty, to his cherished church every Sunday in Campo where he was proud to sing in the choir and joined the Knights of Columbus.  He loved his little church and he was so grateful for Deacon Clarke who came to visit during his bed-ridden time. 

Bob will truly be missed as a husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, parishioner, coach and friend.  We were all blessed to have known him.  The family wants to say “thank you” to all of those present today and all of those who are here in spirit.  Bob was a great man and he will be deeply missed.

Pictures say a thousand words

After creating the blog, I wanted to remind you that we also have a family website of photos.  If you want to view them go to www.podratzfamily.net.  After all, pictures say a thousand words!

My first blog

It is the day after Christmas and I find myself creating my first-ever blog post.  My friend Jamie inspired me to do this based on his great post reviewing his family's year.  Journaling is always a therapeutic way to chronical life's happenings and, with technology, a great way to share with the people we love.

We have been truly blessed this year.  The biggest news is that we moved into a new city and bought a new house.  The old gated community, HOA rules type of existence was not really working for our family.  So, we decided that a move to Valley Center was in order.  It is a great, rural community where it is just a short 15 minute drive to get to anything you need.  I cannot lie - it was quite an adventure!

We rented our house in San Marcos, but the house we were originally going to purchase was a "short sale". ("Short" having no relevance to the time it takes to close escrow.) So, we had to rent a not-so-lovely house for about 8 months until we found the home of our dreams!  It was vacant for 2 years, so we had to see past the black pool, 6 foot weeds and blue bathrooms, but ultimately got the perfect home for us.  It is 3,800 square feet with a 4 car garage and an unattached granny flat that measures another 1,000 square feet.  It sits on 2 1/3 acres and has a big pool in the back yard.  It is just secluded enough enough that neighbor kids won't knock on our door day and night and just close enough to give some quick directions and have a great party.

The kids are doing great.  Sri is now in pre-school and Colby is in the 2nd grade.  They are both such loving kids and overall they are happy, healthy and great little people!

Colby played Caps baseball this year.  He was such a great little player for being one of the smallest on the team.  Caps is where they use a pitching machine and the kids get 10 chances.  Then, if they don't hit the ball, they get to hit off the tee.  Colby only had to hit off the tee one time all season!  He also played his second year of flag football.  Flag football is quite cute with a bunch of 5, 6 and 7 year olds running around trying to play one of the most complicated games there is - football!  But, the coaches make it easy and keep about 5 plays in the play book and then it is "chase the kid's flags who has the ball".  Quite entertaining, but us parents take it very seriously!  And, hey, we won 1 game which is better than last year's record :-)

Sri is 4 going on 14.  She is already showing signs of being a very smart little girl.  She recognizes all of her letters (upper and lower case) and can write each of them.  Her teacher says she is one of the smartest in her pre-school class.  We are very proud of her!  She is such a trooper and goes to all of Colby's games with mommy and tries to remain patient.  Is is about time for us to find her little niche in life - cheerleading, maybe?  She tells me everyday how much she loves me and loves looking at pictures of people on Facebook with me.  She always says, "Who is that, mommy?"  Then, I have to explain how I know that person.  She is a very loving little girl.

Brian is doing well.  He is still at Pacific Rim Mechanical and coached the Caps Baseball team this year.  He is also now on the Board of Valley Center Little League and is in charge of the Caps and Tee Ball teams.  It is enjoyable for him and he loves helping out our little community.  He coached football last year, by default, but we have since decided that it is "not good for the marriage" for him to coach football, so we are going to stick to him coaching baseball. LOL

For me, I am still at River Springs Charter School and just celebrated my 10th year.  Working for an ever-growing charter school is always an adventure.  I am currently the Senior Director of Business and Student Services which is like an Assistant Superintendent position in traditional schools.  It is a very full-time job, to say the least, but I make sure to leave plenty of room for the kidlets and family outings.

Usually about now I would packing up to take the trailer and all of our toys to the desert for the weekend, but we are going to pass on that this time around.  I think hosting 2 parties and going to 3 others wore us old folks out for the week!  We love our toys, desert trips and family vacations around here, but sometimes a little relaxation is in order.

Thank you for reading my first-ever blog post.  I hope this finds you well.

Until next time...