In Case You Need To Know

We are planning to switch Web Hosts.

This may or may not have an impact on the accessibility of my blog.

Which, fortunately, has very little activity, so it would not be an internet catastrophe if all were lost. Although there might be two or three confused readers, should that happen.

So now those potential confused readers have been warned.

If all goes seamlessly, I'll see you on the other side, to resume my sporadic random blogging.

Oh, yes, and I'll be turning off all commenting until we break on through to the other side. You'll have to just comment in your head.

Out of Date

My blog is out of date.

Have you noticed?

There aren't enough children in the cartoon. And I wanted to change the name to *kimodified* but never redid the graphics. And all those "blogs I read" links are WAY out of date.

Who has time to keep those things up to date?

Plus, I don't have the time to learn the things I need to know to update it the way I *want* to ...

But one of these days I'm going to at least try.

But not tonight.

I just figured I'd mention it so that you knew I knew those things.

The Problem With An Entry A Day

The problem with trying to do an entry a day is that ... I either have too little or too much to say. There's a lot of stuff on my heart and mind. Sundays are like that. But not stuff I feel ready to ramble out.

And today I'm tired and over-caffeinated and stressed. Which means I don't feel like talking (weird, I know!).

So I'm at a loss as to why you'd want an entry today. But for the sake of an entry-a-day February, here one is:

I enjoyed church, it gave me a lot to think about. I was very tired, so I had a short nap. Then our Life Group time was good, it gave me more to think about. Although I think I talk too much, I wish I didn't feel compelled to blab out my thoughts on almost EVERY question. I worry that there are quiet people wishing they could talk but never getting a chance because of me.

We didn't watch the super bowl. We did eat some junk.

And now I think I'll go to bed.

Yesterday

The day after the blizzard.

My favorite picture of the day: 'Seven' looking out the window, wishing I'd taken her with me when I went out to photograph the snow.

Later the neighbors invited all the other neighbors sledding. Here's the parade of us on our way:

And here's me, with my obligatory "Take a picture of me to prove I was here and chose to be a fun mom for the day" picture:

The BEST part of the day, though, is that coming back from sledding I smelled natural gas. I called our gas company, who came out with their detectors and, after much careful detection efforts, we determined that our furnace was venting natural gas. We must've caught it pretty quick because, at the time, from *inside* the house, it SEEMED the furnace was working fine. It wasn't getting cold or anything, and seemed to be running. It turns out we needed a new igniter, and it was the pilot light gas that was being squirted in and vented out when it didn't ignite. A few hours (and a yet unknown emergency late night call rate later) we had heat for the night. The reason that's the BEST part of the day is because if I hadn't gone sledding I wouldn't have smelled gas and we probably wouldn't have known our furnace wasn't working right until we woke up freezing in the middle of the night. I thank the Lord that we had a heads up in time to get it repaired, and that we could go to bed safe and warm.

Blog Through February?

It's 12:16 am - is that any indication of how the month will go?

It's been suggested I attempt to blog my way through February.

And so it begins, with a late entry while under a blizzard warning.

Tell me when you can't talk!

So there's something funky with my blog, comments used to be on as a default, now they're off. I don't know where to go to change the default or why it changed.

So if I post another one that you can't comment on, tell me. Otherwise I'm all sad and thinking no one reads my blog anymore ...

Also, I think the search is broken. And the pic is way out of date. And I really should overhaul the whole design.

Except suddenly I'm pooped.

stupid is as stupid does

I've once again proved I can't do a little caffeine, regularly.

I haven't been having a lot. But I've been having a little, regularly.

I'm starting to feel anxiety creeping up on me.

I know the caffeine is what triggers it. But I can feel it slowly rising over the last few days.

I'm discouraged at the idea of trying to quit again. It doesn't matter that I haven't been drinking a lot. My 1 cup of coffee has been 1/3 regular, 2/3 decaf. You'd think that would be low enough. But no. I'm pretty sure I'm facing the same horrible headaches, fatigue, and depression even with that low level.

It's a lose-lose situation, and I'm in the Loser seat.

Today I'll try to stick to that one cup I had this morning, not add a can of diet coke or anything. We'll see if I survive.

What am I up to?

Seriously, what have I been up to? I'm asking you, 'cause I'm not really sure.

I've been running more. Using the Nike+ website 'coach' to train for a 10K in June. I won't be *fast* but I will finish. I just ordered new running shoes from Zappos.com and they should arrive today. I hope I hope I hope I love them.

I've been muddling through laundry, dishes, school, supervising kid chores .... those things are endless.

I've been waffling and failing on healthy eating. As usual, it's the junk food that really undermines me, not so much the meal tweaking.

My creative energies have mostly gone into birthday cakes and cooking. which I haven't blogged, but still take pictures of as if I'm going to blog them.

I've continued in my tradition of not being well scheduled with a baby, probably even less so now that we've wandered away from the "whole family peace & quiet" time in which babies always napped. So now I have a busy toddler who doesn't really sleep regularly. It's taking it's toll on me, but I'm too tired to deal with it. She does sleep, it just tends to be when she decides to, rather than when would be good for the rest of us. Blah blah blah.

Oh, and several of you have asked about the robots. Yes, there was plenty of food. Hungry high school kids can be surprisingly picky, but overall there were good reports that they enjoyed the meals. I provided three meals over the season. The team did very well, making it to the quarter finals in both the State and later the World competition. Both times they were eliminated by the team that went on to win, so we can't really complain about that. The kids and the robot did great, and we were pretty impressed with the whole FIRST Robotics experience.

The kids who are in the community honors choir had their final performance last night and all sang well. I completely forgot to bring my camera. And Eminoodle has been cast in another play, so I'm juggling rehearsals and costume help for that. Hopefully I'll update on that when it comes up, but don't count on it, given my recent blogging record.

Actually, I'd like to get back to blogging regularly. But I won't promise. I did (gulp) join facebook with my real name, so if you know me and want to look me up, you can. Don't expect much from me there, either, though. I do still hate facebook. LOL.

I wish I had more interesting things to say, or deeper stuff. Truth is, I'm kind of plodding along feeling pretty good about a few things and like I'm trying not to *sink* in the rest of the stuff. But if you someday read a headline "Local woman and part time runner drowns in pile of laundry" you'll know it's me.

Feeding the Robots

My daughter is on a Robotics Team this year. They're building a robot. It's part of the FIRST Robotics Competition.

They get their challenge and kit just after New Years and have something like 44 days to build their robot for competition. So during this "build phase" they're open every day after school and on weekends. The kids come when they can. So parents provide the meals.

This is my first time bringing a meal. 25-35 students and mentors. Mostly high school boys (who might eat a lot) but then again many skinny nerd boys ;-) (maybe they won't eat that much) ... are they picky eaters? Will bringing veggies be a waste? I'm told there was a plate of cut up fresh veggies that didn't get eaten, and it keeps returning, day after day, looking sadder and sadder.

I decided to bring a chili buffet. Three big crock pots of chili. Well, four, if you count the smaller one to feed my family, who happen to also need to eat tonight.

One Buffalo Chicken Chili (think hot wings flavor), one traditional ground beef & beans, and one white chicken chili. I've got three huge "family sized" bags of fritos, and all the extras to go with chili ... I've got a heap of two liters to drink, and I'm bringing about 7 dozen big homemade chocolate chip cookies.

I don't know if it'll be too much or not enough. I don't know if I should've had a heat-and-serve pan of cheesy veggies and one of mac & cheese. I'm told there's always peanut butter and bread for the desperate. Everyone I've asked has said, "Hey, if you're bringing free food, and people don't like it, tough."

But, still. I'm a little nervous about feeding so many robots.

I want to be on their good side if they ever take over the world.

A lotta behind

gah, this blogging in my head isn't working! I'm a lotta behind on my entries. and so here's a summary sans pix.

Let's see ... around thanksgiving seven learned to stand unsupported
we wondered if she would walk by her first birthday
she didn't.
but she did the next day
and has been charging around ever since.

we had a great week before christmas with my sister & her family

and a great week and a half after christmas with auntie L. and her doggie

and then we crashed and tumbled back into "real life" and are still swimming upstream ...

I have started doing run/walk intervals again (finally!) to ease back into running in time for local races this spring. so far, so good. I'm not pushing it, I'm up to 8 minute jogging intervals (about week 6 of C25K) but I can feel the aches and stiffness of having not run in months, so I am trying to take it easy.

I'm hoping to get all the way on track with eating and back to walking / stationary bike intervals on my off-running days in order to lose the lotta behind that I gained back in these no running, bad eating months. boy was it easy to *undo* that hard work.

and I'm back to trying to get off caffeine once more. yeah, yeah, I know. I'm a dork.

so ... that's what's up here.

In which I post old stuff pretending it counts as a new entry

So I got my hair cut a few weeks back. I don't remember how many. Long enough that I should've posted it then, but recent enough that I'm still being stopped by people who exclaim, "Hey, you got your hair cut!"

So right when I got it done I took pictures so you could see it. Assuming you were all dying to see it, of course. I hope you weren't literally dying, since it was weeks ago now.

but here it is.

I'm not sure it still looks that way. I can never make my hair do what salon people do. But if anything I think I like it my way better. Although there are no pictures of that, and maybe it only looks different to me.

Trading for Joy

This is not meant to be a rhetorical question ...

Many years ago, now, a man in our church faced cancer and did not survive. He was a worship leader, he remained positive and praised God to the end. The first time I heard this song at his funeral - from all reports it was a song he really *lived out* until the end:

I'm trading my sorrow I'm trading my shame I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord

I'm trading my sickness
I'm trading my pain
I'm laying it down for the joy of the Lord

Chorus:
And we say yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord
Yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord
Yes Lord yes Lord yes yes Lord Amen

I'm pressed but not crushed persecuted not abandoned
Struck down but not destroyed
I'm blessed beyond the curse for his promise will endure
And his joy's gonna be my strength

The joy of the Lord is the strength of my life
The joy of the Lord is the strength of my life
The joy of the Lord is the strength of my life, Amen

Though the sorrow may last for the night
His joy comes with the morning

Somehow my brain can wrap around how - theoretically, at least - one might be able to live this out in a big trial. Persecution for your faith, cancer, something where it's hard to escape the Sovereign hand of God in action. Somehow it seems easier to see the potential to live well and die well in the joy of the Lord in big things.

But I know God is also Sovereign in the little things. The days of fatigue. An afternoon with a crushing headache.

What I'm wondering is ... how do I really live out this idea in the little daily things? How do I trade a really bad headache for the joy of the Lord? Or a stuffy head and sore throat? Or those days when you're just so pooped but there's no nap on the horizon?

Help me "put some feet on this" ... how do you trade little sorrows and shame and sickness and pain for the joy of the Lord? How do I make the joy of the Lord the strength of my life in all the little ups and downs of the day?

Oh, that my life would be clearly built on the joy of the Lord.

Connecticut in Thumbnail

My eldest daughter, youngest daughter, and I flew out to Connecticut to be lovin' on Linda after her surgery. Here's a few quick highlights on the trip -- full size pix are linked via Flickr:

Baby meets Beach - and - Linda, Seven, and I on the beach:

Rock Climbing Girl - and - Girl Winking in a Castle


The Castle Tower at Sleeping Giant State Park

Barking Fox on a Rock
this is what we woke to this morning

Video of the fox, barking!!!

All in a day's work

How often do you get to wake up and have breakfast in the 19th century, then travel to the 23rd century, then return home to sleep in your very own bed?

Every Baby Was Kung Fu Fighting ...

38.5 weeks.

Baby is incredibly active today. Like trying to Kung Fu his or her way right out of my belly. That can't be done, right? Maybe I'll make history with the first baby to do so.

I thought I could settle baby down by pulling out the camera set to video, 'cause we all know babies don't like to perform. And baby did slow down, some, while I was reclining and trying to video my belly. Which is actually quite difficult to do.

But here's some video proof that baby is really super busy. Note, also, my favorite shirt.

Kung Fu Baby 1

Kung Fu Baby 2

A word to the wise -- if watching an 8.5 month pregnant belly squirm around isn't your thing, um, don't click those links, that's all it is. I realize it has limited interest to the peeps. But I know there's peeps who will be quite amused by it. Or, at least, I hope so. Surely at the least they will affirm my wasted time in this project.

Oh, and I know it would be much better if I had taken the time to put it to the King Fu Fighting song, but I'm a busy, busy woman and can only afford to waste so much time in a morning. I'm sure you understand. Sing it in your head while you watch.

oh, I made them mp4's -- does that work for you? Let me know if I need to upload them differently. Your whim is my command.

The Suited Mover Takes A Picture

Remember the suited brooklyn treadmill mover? Or perhaps the well-dressed window installer? An amazing Jack-of-all-Trades, he's also come through with a picture of The Grand Lunar and I at the dressy gala dinner thingie we went to on Tuesday. A grown up dinner date was nice. The Grand Lunar in a tuxedo? Priceless. :) (Don't forget to visit his blog in that last link, and tell him how sharp he looks, and maybe follow his twitters, too!) For the official record, I'm 36.5 weeks along in this picture.

We had a lovely time. But then, again, I always do when out with the Grand Lunar. He's the best date evah. Since we drove separately, I also got to hear others raving about the entertainment he apparently unknowingly provided on the way down. I think it's sweet, not only is he very funny, but he doesn't even really realize how funny he is. I love that Grand Lunar.

I do have to say, though, that besides the great date with my spouse, the thing I enjoyed 2nd most of the evening was the guy sitting at the table next to us, who laughed genuinely and heartily at all the jokes. I don't know why, but he made me smile every time he erupted in laughter. I'm glad he had fun, too, whomever he was.

Anyhoo, take a jump over the Amazing DeMo's blog and thank him for accomodating us with a picture from the evening. He's a much appreciated mover, installer, photographer, and friend.

And, if you're so inclined, since you're blog-hopping anyway, you could also stop by The Other Suited Mover's Blog, and tell him that you heard he pulled off quite the shebang -- he handled many of the logistics and details for the gala event and did an amazing job. I was particularly impressed that, when the Big Event came, he glided around smiling, taking care of details, never sitting down, but if he was stressed about it he didn't let it show. Being one who reacts like a chicken with her head cut off under the least amount of stress, I thought he did an amazing job of coming across calm, cool, collected, welcoming, and helpful, not to mention all the work he did for the event itself.

Maybe soon there'll be a picture

I get to go to a dinner tonight as my husband's date ~ dressed up and all!
So I'll try to get a picture of us dressed up, together.

But there's a more pressing concern. How should I wear my hair?

It's 1.5 hours away, so I'll change down there most likely ... but ... my hair is kind of finicky, I get a few hours a day it looks okay, some days, and then all bets are off.

some kind of updo is traditional for dressed up, but my hair isn't all that long right now, and I'm just not sure ...

Baby Names

I'm considering changing our approach.

Selecting baby names from Captchas.

What do you think of Sesquive? Warrygma?

Brown to Black

In case you're not following my every Tweet over there on the left sidebar or at Twitter, we had a brown out, then a full power outage today. Power went out briefly this morning, for a few seconds, then we had two brief "dims" for less than a second in early afternoon or so. But then a little after 3 we thought the whole power went out -- then realized the lights had gone very dim. Kinda freaky. We turned off most things, and called to report the partial outage. The lady said there were over a thousand calls from our area, although I don't know how big an area that means. The Grand Lunar came home awhile later, power was out downtown, too, and they'd actually evacuated his building. Apparently many things don't like brown outs, because they've got things to modulate their amperage and end up burning out their motors or something. I don't know.

Anyway, we ended up seeing most of our neighbors at the mall for dinner, and we hung out at the mall play area and Target until 8:30. Got home to find the power had been on for 24 minutes, so I guess we timed it well.

Grand Lunar went promptly back to work to restart all the things that had been shut down.

So ... and I ask out of concern for my finicky comments and curiosity, not trying to nag or pester for comments ... are my comments not working again? Or did no one read my last post? Or maybe I've become so sporadic in my blogging that no one reads here anymore. In which case you won't really need to know about the brown out. Although you might be interested in the baby swaddle sock. I will try to post about that someday. In the meantime I need to learn an *easy* and stretchy method of binding off 2x2 ribbing.

World Bread Day and other rambles

Apparently today is World Bread Day. I wish there was a little more information at that site. But the upshot is that someone declared it World Bread Day and I believe bread is a healthy global staple food. Or can be. I'm all for whole grain healthy homemade bread! Whooo!

So my plan is to kimodify a combination of two bread recipes The Grand Lunar sent me the other day -- for a whole grain bread that can be made with minimal effort, and a speedy non-whole-wheat recipe. 'Cause I'm all about the minimal effort. And the kimodification. If I were smart, I'd also think of a clever healthy soup or stew to go with the bread, for a complete dinner. Maybe I still will. I'll be out this afternoon, so getting the crock pot ready would be ideal, if only I can think up something that uses ingredients I have on hand.

Anyway. Won't you join us for World Bread Day and have yourself some healthy bread?

In other rambles:
I need to wrap up my knitting project (uh, no, not the shrug, it's been bumped for the moment) in the next day or two because I have an urgent project coming down the line.

Also, today iliacat and I used a kimodification of Feye's Self-Trim Method and gave me a haircut. I can't reach behind me well, so I use iliacat as my behind-the-head arms. We cut about 6" off the back, but since my hair insists on growing unevenly and in straggles, the effect is more to tidy up uneven ends than a drastic haircut. And then we parted it down the middle of the back and I pulled it together in a sort of loose pony tail somewhere out in front of my nose (rather than pulled down in front as shown in Feye's Method for the U- and V-) and pulled it out to where the bottom ends were slipping out, and snipped the end of that front pony tail to sort of taper the sides and make it a little shorter on top, although not really bangs. There are no before or after pictures, because I'm sure whatever you're imagining is more clever. I must say that this is one time I'm glad to have curly and forgiving hair that allows me such simple and inexpensive haircuts. Without some crazy hair stylist insisting on blowing it dry, somehow thinking it won't foof for them. Because it always does.

I thought there was something else I was going to tell you, but of course I've forgotten. Maybe I'll remember when I'm out and far from my computer.

And Then We Were Home

Well, our vacation is over.

We had gorgeous weather -- no small blessing, considering we're talking Michigan's U.P. in October, which could really go either way. We could've had all rain, all snow, nice weather, or a little of each. But we had 5 straight days of beautiful weather and wonderful fun with our cousins. I really must admit I didn't want to come home.

Most of the pix are on the Grand Lunar's computer, I did steal a few. Here's one my sister took of our family up at Gnome Rock, standing just behind the 6' or 8' or something drop off that we managed not to have anyone fall off.

And, for those watching/waiting for belly pix, here's one that shows my belly at 32 weeks, with The Grand Lunar and Sputnik ~ photo credits for both these shots go to my sister - Thanks, Kelly!

Of course there were many many more pictures taken. I just haven't had time to weed through them and send the ones I want to my computer.

Oh, 40winkzzz , I don't think I'm officially supposed to call the place we went what I called it on twitter ~ it's a little piece of privately owned land near the camp where we stayed, it's not really a tourist place to just go to ... but it IS like stumbling on a magical land. I'll try to get a picture up later.

Anyway. We're home. Yesterday when we arrived home I had good intentions of getting us promptly unpacked and back on track, but we're only muddling through those intentions, poorly, now that today is here.

Then I got a Twitter Thingie

Grand Lunar suggested I get a Twitter account.

So I did.

Now, assuming I post there when I don't blog, you'll know if I'm dead or not.

As long as I remember to post there before I die, I guess. Therefore, I hope I have some heads-up, should I be about to expire.

Riiiiight. Whatevah. Sometimes things just go from weird to weirder.

I think there might be some way to stick my little twitter posts into here. I'm not sure. (**Oh look! I did it! Over on the left!**)

But anyway. Did I tell you I'll be away from my computer and internet for a few days? So if I don't post and I don't twitter, don't assume I'm dead.

You've been warned.

Oh, ha ha ha, I didn't post the twitter link. So how can you check up on me? Unless you're a shrewd guesser. Here's the link, so that we don't have to know who's shrewd and who's not so much: http://twitter.com/kimodified

Apparently my blog is needy and demanding ...

... it seems it doesn't like 2 weeks of neglect. I think I have it set to show the last 2 weeks of posts. So if I don't blog for 2 weeks (which, perhaps, has never happened before?) it goes all blank unless you click a post link or category or something.

So. Where have I been?

Uh. With one exception, I don't really have a good, exciting answer for that. I've been here. Even at my computer. Even writing blog entries in my head. Sometimes even taking pictures to go with them. But my poor communicator tendencies have, apparently, blossomed. Not only have I not been blogging, but I haven't been answering emails, making phone calls, or the other things I ought to do. Not that I'm deliberately not doing so. I just am procrastinating and suddenly it's October. You know how it goes?

So a short recap of random things:

I knit all summer on a shrug. It was looking like it'd be very cute. As always, I had greatly kimodifed the pattern. Turns out the loose big-needle-stitches with thin yarn means it *stretches* under it's own weight. It 'fits' okay if I lay it out on the floor and lay down next to it, but if I actually put it ON and let my arms hang down, the sleeves stretch to the floor. I spent a few weeks debating whether to *finish* it or frog it. I have decided to continue knitting, adding some decorative *stays* to key portions. We'll see. I have pix. Maybe I'll post them, if you want to see. Keep in mind it's not *done*.

What else? Iliacat and I went on a very belated birthday trip up to Mackinac Island. We had a good trip, took a ton of pictures. We even did some exciting adventure things, although I'm not sure I should tell you, since some of you might scold me, doing adventure things while pregnant. I'll show you one picture of the one I did NOT do, so you can't yell at me for it. This is Iliacat on the rock wall at the Mill Creek place in Mackinaw City. And a few other pix that I already had gotten ready but not posted.

And two more of her doing the other adventure things:

While we were on the island this way cool fog rolled in. It was great. Here's two fog pix of the bazillion I took:

Uh, what else?

We're doing schooly things.

We did most of the seasonal clothing swap.

I've had some OB appointments with the midwives. Oh, they made me take the stupid 3 hour Glucose Tolerance Test because I followed the instructions on the 1-hour screening which specifically say "you do not need to fast" and I ate a big lunch RIGHT before drinking the goo. I was barely over the line, but still "flunked" and had to waste 4 hours in the lab. The good news is that my blood sugar levels are very good, not even close to the real danger lines. And I read a good book while in there.

So I guess that's what I've been up to. I haven't finished the shrug but did start a new knitting project that I hope to finish soon as a gift to my neighbor who recently had a baby boy. So I should be knitting rather than blogging.

Oh! And we got a wii fit, and we all think it's a lot of fun. I've heard some people say it's boring, but we didn't think so. I've heard some people say it's not a good work out, but I think it CAN be -- certainly the walking/jogging can be comparable to the WATP videos I've been doing, and it's fun to do the jogs with the little boys. They always beat me because they can wiggle their feet really fast, whereas I do it literally, walking in place. I don't really *jog* being 7 months pregnant and all.

So ... that's the news. And hopefully posting this fixed my blank blog of death. Plus, as a bonus, you know I'm not actually dead.

In which I decide - again - to be someone else when I grow up

I did something really cool today, but I'll have to blog it tomorrow.

Actually, it's already tomorrow. But I wasted the last part of the day looking for things I'd put "in safe places" so as not to lose them.

One of the items - an audio CD I need for schooly stuff - I'd already lost once, and found sometime somewhat recently - and then put in a "safe place"

Which, as I'm sure you've guessed, I can't find anywhere.

I've been up since 3:30 this morning (for the cool reason I don't have time to mention) and it's now after midnight and I can't find something I thought would be easy to find.

So I'm frustrated and angry and discouraged with myself.

And on that note I'll head to bed.

Excuse me, this isn't mine ...

Apparently I was mistakenly given the wrong fortune at the Chinese Buffet today.

Don't you think?

I hope whoever got mine wasn't crushed.

Homeschool Taboo

In which I say what no good home-schooler would ever say...

I hate the library.

Well, actually, I like the library itself. The building. Cool air conditioning, quiet places, lots of lovely resources and books.

What I hate is how we check out books and misplace them. Everyone is excited to go to the library, but no one is excited to go get their books to return them. In the excitement to get the Library Summer Reading Challenge prizes, we made the mistake of returning "a few" each visit, and checking out many more.

Now you might be thinking, "You should have a limit on how many each child can check out!" -- we do. But 5x6 = 30 books. Not too unmanageable.

But 30 books minus "a few" plus another 30, minus "a few more" plus another 30 equals way too many. Especially when very few are returned in the "a few" ...

Now you might also be thinking, "you should have one place in the house where library books live!" -- we do. Except those "in process" of being read. Which, astoundingly, in the excitement of the Library Summer Reading Program, didn't make it back to their home, but lived in their new home, under a child's bed, or behind a dresser.

And now you might be thinking, "Well, it's really their responsibility to find them on the days you go back." -- yes, yes it is. But there comes a time when there are 38 books on your overdue list, and fines of 10 cents a day per book looming, when the kids claim that they have "looked everywhere" when a mom has no choice but to step in and crawl under beds herself.

Crawling out with dust bunnies in her hair, bits of yarn on her pants, and a growing resentment of the library. And a handful of "unfindable" books.

I think from here on out I'm going to make the kids write their own books.

Pool Hair

Would it surprise you to know I like my pool hair?

Oh, not when it's wet.

But sometimes ... not always ... when I get my hair wet at the pool and it dries while I'm sitting on the side talking to another mom, all my curls fall into place together. Big fat bouncy ringlets, not unlike the girl in the TRESemmé ad ... I can not make my hair do that at home. I even bought the TRESemmé curl goo. I didn't by the whole line. Maybe that is my problem. I have a hard time believing the shampoo and conditioner are really all that different from any other shampoo and conditioner. And I have a cupboard full of wishful thinking curl-oriented gels and potions, so I didn't buy the special gel. There is also a 'revitalizing spray' and maybe that's what I need. I just got the goo. But that doesn't explain how pool hair works.

What's in a pool? Water. And perhaps too much chlorine. (We won't think about what else might be in the pool) All of which (that would be water and chlorine) I can get right out of my tap here at home. Why buy the fancy 'revitalizing spray' ?

And yet. If I put my pool-like tap water into a bottle and spritz my head until it's quite wet and let it dry, here at home, what happens? It's fuzzy and the curls don't sproing. Why is that not the same?

Occasionally, at home, I get to half-sproingy. Almost sproingy. With not too much frizz. And I call that a good hair day. And it's okay as long as it's not windy, nor do I sleep on it (which means I have to choose between a nap and continuing good hair, sometimes it's a hard choice), nor do I fiddle with it too much. The more I touch it, the more the good hair slips away.

Rain hair, like pool hair, often (but not always) turns out well. Occasionally when caught in a downpour, I have some excellent curls going on.

Why is it that showering, leaving my hair very damp, and letting it dry here at home doesn't result in pool hair or rain hair or TRESemmé hair?

My kingdom for sproingy hair ... but I really don't want to have to go swimming every day to attain it.

Oh NO, I was tagged for the one I was avoiding!

Ahhhh memes. You come across them all the time. Do you hope you're tagged? Steal it for your own blog without being tagged because you love it so much? Or cringe and hope you don't get tagged?

For me it depends on my mood and busyometer reading and the meme itself.

There's one that's been out there that I've been ducking and running when I see. I thought it would be really hard and too personal and all that. So When Terra Incognita posted a comment that she tagged me I was curious, but have to admit I shrunk a little when I saw which meme it was.

A memoir in six words.

Anyone who knows me knows I've got more than six words in me on EVERYthing. I'd say words ooze out of my brain when I sleep, only that sounds kinda gross. They don't, really. Although occasionally I do talk in my sleep. But that's rare. And usually embarrassingly disconnected and nonsensical. Especially if I try to explain why I said what I said.

Anyway. Terra's entry starts, "I thought I would be agonizing over it. But I wasn't."

And I shook my head. Knowing that I would be agonizing over it. Trying to figure out how deep I'd want it to be, and then of course cutting out the other 42,615 words that summed up my memoir.

But, surprisingly, it came to me, in 7-8 words. Which is almost worse, it's harder to cut words out and still have things make sense when you start with so few. Cut one word out and the whole thing becomes a grammatical nightmare, you know?

Of course, I didn't START with what I figured out, and now it's floating out of reach in my brain again. I should have started with the six words. Live and Learn. Wait, that's only three words, and wasn't it.

Here we go. Wait, I'm not sure it counts as a memoir if it's based in the future, and isn't MY reflection but what I hope others can see when I die. But it's what I have. So if it doesn't actually meet the criteria, we'll just say I kimodified it.

That's what, at the end of my life, I'd like you to see in me. I don't think I'm there yet, but that's what I'd like you to be able to say was clear about my life, when I'm old and - oh, wait, I'm already gray. When I'm old and/or gone.

I guess I could make it "memoirish" by changing the I to she, but I want it to me more than a secret in my heart that I felt. I want my life to be unmistakably clear, that I loved the Lord and lived for Him.

How's that for turning 6 words into a novel? :-)

I won't tag you. But I'll encourage you to think about it a little. It wasn't as bad as I thought. Thanks, Terra. I think I needed to think about this, today.

One of Those Days

It's another one of those days ... I think I have too many of them.

Our morning was spent simply trying to get the 'daily' chores done. They were done yesterday, so how did they get so out of control or take so long this morning?

I gestured to the posted schedule/list and explained how the before breakfast jobs should be done before breakfast, and that ideally the after breakfast jobs would be done by 10 (we do have a late breakfast and slower start than some industrious families, especially during the summer) and that would give us a nice 2 hour block to enjoy relaxing and playing in the clean house before lunch and lunch chores. They all looked at me rather blankly.

Some barely found time for lunch before quiet time began, squeezing their last chores in in a panic. One chose to miss lunch rather than complete the assigned work (which was by no means too much for the child). Several lost their computer and technology time for the day, as well.

And yet, it doesn't seem to matter to them. They are as content to lose official desired play times/privileges as they are to squirrel away the morning playing in 10 minute bursts before being caught and sent to finish their work.

We have had good times, good seasons, where they seem to engage in their work quickly and take pride in a job well done, and look forward to being done to move on to bigger and better things. But this has not been the case lately.

Little ones sometimes nap well and sometimes rest well and other days don't ... today was a don't. While they were relatively quiet (a requirement of quiet time) they were not asleep, which led to extra potty breaks and such, which led to many interruptions to my dozing, which meant I never really took the *nap* my tired pregnant body seems to need right now.

So somehow we muddled through and most of the jobs were done adequately by some point, the house never really had that clean, fresh, and done feel to it. Add to that one tired and crabby and worn out mommy, and it means all the other things on my mind reduce me to tears.

We're reaching a stage with my older daughter where she wants to do more Youthy things. I am willing to begin to grant some additional privileges and responsibilities, but the options available are not always what I would choose. Our church is big and huge and, from what I see helping with the children's choir during the school year, the youth group spends a lot of time running around unsupervised in the hallway, giggling and being cliquey and looking very much like I remember junior high. I would love for my daughter to be involved with some other girls growing into young ladies, but I am not seeing the youth group as the best path to that. I would like to hang out with other like-minded families, but those we are closest to do not have girls in the same age range. I don't want to "throw out the baby with the bathwater" with the church and youth group -- certainly there are some good people involved and some good things happening. But I can not sort out how to add the good without taking the package deal - in fact, sometimes the few things we have interacted with have seemed like high pressure sales pitches for the whole program, and that does not seem to be what we want or need right now.

I don't really know where this is headed. I'm spending time in the Word and prayer over all this, but right now feel like I'm spinning my wheels. Maybe because I keep crying, thus making slippery mud beneath me. Don't overanalyze that, I just said it because it sounded funny. So I could end on a light note. Ha. ha. huh.

Boring Life Rambles

I have pix of things to blog, and other stuff I could write about, but it's not coming together and the laundry is waiting, so I thought I'd just ramble, quick.

I almost took a picture this morning of a pile of spoons and bowls and boxes of cold cereal. Some people (see me not naming names? But you know who you are!) were under the impression that I cook "cool" breakfasts all the time. I don't. I just only take pictures and post the pretty ones. Most of the time we have pretty lame breakfasts. Worse than that, despite all my nutritional beliefs, most of our cereal right now is the name brand sugary stuff. I'm pretending, at this stage in my life, that the "made with whole grains!" blurb on the side of the box means something.

We had some trees taken out last Friday, which was exciting. I took a lot of pictures, once I weed through them I'll post a few.

I also had a library book I wanted to get -- I found it on some blog that I'd surfed into from somewhere, I don't know how I got there, and don't think I could get back again if you paid me. My library had it and I wrote it down on the list when the kids went with mom to the library. Then, when they came home, I threw out the list. But I didn't think to ask if they'd picked up that book. They hadn't. So then I thought what a bummer it was, because I couldn't get back to find the book again. But THEN I remembered I'd actually put it on to my electronic "my list" that the library account has, so I will be able to get it, after all. Phew. Of course, my dream is to get it and read it, but my actual "let's be realistic" plan is that I'll check it out, not read it, it'll come due, I'll renew it, not read it, it'll come due AGAIN, I'll renew it again, and still not get around to reading it, and then it will be too late and I'll return it. And then I'll never check it out again because it will be a discouraging reminder of my inability to follow through on reading things I WANT to read at this stage in life. There are a lot of books in that "discouraging reminder" category.

I'm also toying with the idea of doing a summer project or two, you know, the before and after visible progress sort of project ... only I'm afraid to pick and commit to one because I'm just not really sure I'll do it, and then that project will also become a discouraging reminder of the things I don't do.

Speaking of the things I don't do, I did mention laundry waiting for me, didn't I?

Remember how Dr. Science knew more than you do?

I went blog surfing this morning. Found my way from blog to blog to blog to ones that were full of funny hip young people.

It reminded me of Dr. Science - where you were supposed to ask him your questions, 'cause he knows more than you do. Only I was thinking you should just read those other blogs, 'cause they're funnier than I am.

Only I really don't know them, or how I got there. I'm sure they'd think I was a weirdy if you all went there and said I sent you. It would be yet worse if you linked back to me and they were appalled at how this boring stranger found them and linked to them. Freaked out, I think.

So ... no linky love for my surfing.

You might be wondering what I'm doing posting in the middle of the morning, anyway. Or, if you're like me, you just assume that the blog entry was written whenever you were *reading* it, so you didn't think twice about it being posted in the middle of the morning, because surely you are reading this in the evening, after your day and work is done and the children are nestled all snug in their beds.

But I'm writing it in the middle of the morning, still in my fuzzy-wuzzy robe, with my KOOL socks on.

My excuse for this, in addition to the week of sleep I promised myself last week, is that we have sickies in the house. Always an occasion to stay in jammies and do nothing in my book. The Grand Lunar didn't feel well yesterday. Tobiwan Kenobi had a headache which turned horrible and resulted in unhappy barfing. Gark also developed a headache. And I have a gassy tummy ache. Which is probably more than you want to know. 'Cause talking about kids barfing is under mom-blog-topics, but gaseous anomalies really are not. I wonder why that is? I wouldn't mention the tummy ache except I've had it for a few days. What's up with that? And then my friend told me to eat charcoal briquettes or something. No, no, she didn't really say that. But she said I should get some activated charcoal or something, and since I'm not leaving the house today, the briquettes are the closest I could come. Or maybe the graphite in pencils is close enough?

What? Where was I?

Oh yeah. So one of my children is running around in a Captain America muscle suit, two are wearing winter hats and gloves for unknown reasons, and one decided he'd feel much better if he had some computer time. ::Insert suspicious look:: That's only four. Two haven't woken up yet. These two have inherited their father's capacity to sleep. I used to be able to sleep late, too, but not since I turned mommish.

I have fun pix from the park yesterday I could show you, but I guess maybe getting showered and dressed might help me become productive today. I have some laundry to sort-and-fold. Other than that, it looks like a low laying video day for the household.

Oh, and the Grand Lunar said I should change my name in the internetosphere to "sarcastic sugar" ... what do you think? Of course actually changing it anywhere is probably too much effort for me, but I have to admit it has the ring of accuracy to it. Except for maybe the sugar part. Maybe I'm more of a sarcastic lemon. Oh, or Splenda, the Fake Sugar. I could be Sarcastic Splenda, The Fake Sugar With a BITE.

Use your imagination

okay, I need your help. Remember that skunk cabbage picture? Well we're going to use it, and that one by the famous dude with the tree thing. And those six new shelves/shadow boxes I bought in the bright colors. Help me arrange them on this wall in the living room.

What, you can't see them?

Yeah, that's because instead of taking pictures of the wall with one lamp in the middle, the wall with two lamps, one on each end, and all the individual pieces of my decorating puzzle, I ate baked cheesy potato chips and then napped.

So ... I still need some closure on the decorating problem, but I didn't yet take the time to put all the pictures in one of my many layer-based-image-editing applications and drive them around until I liked the layout or had several to ask your opinion on.

Sure, I could just hold stuff up, but it's too many pictures ... I'd need a whole herd of children each holding up one item. And then you'd need to mentally delete the children from the scene, for the sake of the arranging.

Maybe someday soon I'll have digital decor for you to help me arrange.

For now, just use your imagination.

Wednesday Morning Rambles

I didn't put enough creamer in my decaf coffee this morning. Every sip reminds me of that. but I'm too lazy to go fix it.

Today I need to drive 10 children to a choir event, so I need to have my own children help me empty out and clean out the van. It's hard to clean out a van if you don't clean it regularly. Bits of granola bar are, in particular, no fun to clean.

I'm still walking walking walking but so far my dream of walking whenever I'm at my desk hasn't come to fruition. The treadmill is a little loud, and I find it difficult to feel like I can really hear what's going on in the home. Plus stepping on the treadmill *feels* like I'm going to stay put, there, whereas sitting on my rear at my regular desk at least provides the illusion that I might hop up to do other things.

It's a cloudy morning here, chilly in the house, and I am running behind. See why "I should blog!" occurred to me? Uh, yeah. I'm also behind on sorting clean laundry. I was doing really well for awhile, but got behind over the weekend. So today I'll try to catch up. It's very doable, I'm not that behind. My new plan is that I sort it out into small baskets and let the kids each fold their own. I fold the littlest ones, mine, and The Grand Lunar's. It works very well when I do it.

Well, I really do have lots of things to be doing, and can't really count blogging as work. Plus I suspect you may be noticing I don't actually have anything to say. I could tell you about my bizarre dreams, but they were just bizarre, and my memories are fragmented. So I'll spare you that, today. No promises for the future, though.

What i really need to do is spend some time redoing my blog layout and colors and all my very pathetically out of date links to friends and things. I never did fix and put back the little list of friends that wasn't functioning right. But that's one of those "if I'm going to do it I should do it right" projects that I keep putting off. Which, really, is a mode I'm stuck in far too often. Doing anything is often better than waiting to do something right.

Right?

The First Day Of Grill

We have successfully completed The First Day Of Grill of the season. Although the children informed me that the neighbors beat us by a day. Fortunately, I did not know until they informed me of this that I was racing the neighbors, so I was not upset.

I have no pictures of the First Day Of Grill. I didn't think of that until later. You'll have to imagine.

Once, last year, I bought a box of frozen pre-formed "beef" patties to grill. Everyone ate them the way cats chew things - you know that open mouth suspicious kind of chew where some of it might just fall back out? 'Cause it turns out "beef" patties aren't. If they don't say 100% beef, they're not. They're soy patties that have had a cow walk past. And shredded newspaper, I'm pretty sure that was on the label, too. They were gross. I wanted to throw them out, but my mom thought that was wasteful so she took the rest home and I guess they must've choked them down, chewing like cats, and trying to pretend they weren't awful. But they were awful.

So that was LAST year and, trust me, I learned my lesson.

Do you think it's cheating to buy the pre-formed burger patties? Did you know they sell them in the frozen section in giant boxes, and you just pop them on the grill? Okay, I suppose it's not cheaper, but hey, it's soooooo easy and they come out perfect unless you flip them badly and they fall between the bars of the grill and onto the coals. But that was last year, too. I'm learning. Getting better all the time.

Maybe you don't remember, but last summer was The Year I Learned To Grill. Because my family likes the idea of grilled animal flesh in the summer, yet getting the grill ready and standing over it and getting a head full of smoke does not appeal to anyone. So I decided I would take on that role.

This year is a year to build on last year's success. I will learn how to better clean and care for the grill, how to drag it across the lawn to the Pit of Yecchhh without the back leg coming off and dumping the ash-tray on my shoe, and how to grill things I've never grilled before.

But here's the amazing part about today. As you may recall, I am not currently an eater of animal flesh. For health reasons. I won't pretend it didn't look and smell realllly good, nor that I don't miss it at all. But I can live without it most of the time for the benefits in health and healthy weight. But I digress. I bought myself some vegan grilling patties. With much fear and trepidation. Because I've done that before and hated them. HATED! They were almost as bad as the "beef" patties. Not quite. The "beef" patties were that bad. But I was feeling adventuresome and so I tried again with the vegan burger thingies.

I got the Morningstar Farms Grillers' Vegan Patties and noticed after I'd bought them that there were no grilling instructions. Apparently you are not supposed to actually grill "Grillers' Vegan" patties. This did not bother me. I am not a rule follower, which of course you all know. So I just plopped them on the grill next to the sizzling grease splattering beef. You see I am not a purist.

The surprising part is that they were good! They were not great - i.e. they did not taste like a greasy hot burger. But! On a whole wheat bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, and a little horseradish mustard, they did have that smoky "something grilled is in here" flavor and no weird soy taste. Perhaps it was the fine spray of smoky burger grease splattered on my vegan meal, but I really felt like I was participating in the family grilling night. I hardly knew it was faux. AND I didn't feel all fat and greasy afterwards.

So there you have it, the shocking news. I would do it again. That's how not bad they were. And, if you knew my soy aversion, you would know that's pretty high praise.

What should I grill next?
I would like to try pork chops this summer, and will have to do ribs again, and I'd really like to learn how to grill good steaks, but I'm afraid I'll ruin them.

I'd also like to pick up some good veggie-and-side dishes -- with no added oils! -- to grill, but then again on a little Weber charcoal grill there's not a lot of room for a large family's meatsy meat plus a vegetarian's meal's worth of veggies. So maybe I'll stick with the non-grilled sides.

And thus endth The First Day Of Grill.

When Did They Discontinue Camel Snot Brown?!?!

So today a painting job estimator dude came by. A very nice young man. Doing the College Pro Painters thing. He's a writing major at my alma mater. Which is not really my point here.

So ... I looked in vain for the match to our current house color:

Since when did they discontinue "Camel Snot Brown" ???

Well, if I can't have my camel snot, I may as well go for something strikingly different.

I must admit to being tempted by the Electric Lime - who knew exterior paint came in so many lovely colors? And it would certainly make for a unique house.

Some of the colors had exceedingly stupid names. Some were a bit too "clever" for my tastes. Do you think this color would never change, despite how much sin and evil went on inside the house?

So, in the end, here's my top for contenders. White trim, blue-gray paint. Yeah, I know, you were hoping *I* would do the lime green, so you could say you know a crazy lady who painted her house lime green. But ... I like the deep colonial blue-gray. You'll have to be your own crazy lady. Or gentleman. Depending on your gender.

Clockwise from upper left:

Sporty Blue, Bracing Blue, Distance, and Denim.

Stay tuned, sometime in June, for the final verdict.

---
oh, wait, a little blast from the past -- I found these old pix from a few years ago, before whacking out all the bushes, when I was dreaming of a slate gray house. It doesn't quite look like this now, but oh well. Close enough.

the house, then:

the house, then, photoshopped to a slate gray:

What do you think??

Not Quite What I'd Planned

You know, I don't see a lot of flops posted on knitting blogs.

And I guess I could wait until I had something good to post.

But ... I'll show you my flop. Or maybe it's not a flop, but a rough draft.

'Cause sometimes things don't turn out like I planned.

I give you: The C-3PO hat - Attempt II

Attempt I was frogged before you ever saw it.

Attempt II didn't go quite like I'd envisioned, but it was a learning experience, and in some ways I needed to press on to see how I'd like it in the end.

So here's the idea:

From the front - a regular beanie, yellow/gold. The BACK of his head.
From the back - C-3PO's face, with an extended "chin" panel.

Why? Because, like Kelly said earlier, "Wouldn't a C-3PO cap just be yellow?" -- I needed some way to get his face in.

Some problems I ran into:

Well you know when you're knitting a rib and the purl columns pull back? That doesn't mean they'll do that if you're working horizontally - a purled section puffs OUT ... thus the spookiness around the "cheekbones" ~ in my head it was going to pull back, not puff out. I should've known that, because I know knitting horizontal ribs the purls stick out. But ... oh well. I didn't think that through.

Stranding and Intarsia. Wow, they're just hard! Getting the tension right, not gapping, not puckering, especially working in the round. This added to the spooky eyes. So next time (yes, yes, there will be a next time. But I should really finish that sock, too ... Hmmm) I will try the "duplicate stitch method" which makes more sense on this anyway, being that there's not really a LOT of other-colored parts to deal with.

I tried a pseudo-bobble for the eyebrows (because I was too lazy to learn how to do a horizontal cable) and should've purled instead of knit the extra stitches.

And I guess it needs to be a little smaller. Or I need a bigger headed model (looks around for Gark) ...

Since I haven't started Attempt III yet, I'm open to gracious suggestions. :)

Enough babble, here's what you really wanted to see. Just don't laugh at me too much. I've already admitted it's not what I intended. But I still have high hopes for next time. Plus, I made everything but the shaping up myself (I did use the shaping from the R2D2 hat) so I figure I should get some points for that, right?

Old but colorful news

We went to the butterfly exhibit the 2nd day it was open. Most of my pictures are just like everyone else's, so I spared us all the cropping and posting. But I will share a few.

I did get this pretty cool closeup of a Buckeye that perched on Eminoodle's hat:

click on it if you want to see it even closer up at flickr ...

Buzz liked them - except when they landed on him:

And, while this isn't a dazzling photo, it was exciting ~ one landed on me, way down here by my thigh, and worked its way all the way up to my shoulder, over my back where I couldn't see it.

on the way out, the girls and I - who were walking home - jumped off the ledge for awhile. I really wanted to do this on LeapDay, but was a bit late.

I should jump more often, I like mid-jump hair. And do you like my new "girly" coat? And how it matches my boots? I'm quite pleased with them. :-)

Last colorful news doesn't fit with the rest, it's the old "hack it into the same blog entry or it'll never get posted" routine.

WAaaaaay back in 4th grade we had a chalk drawing assignment. It went to tour somewhere, as Elementary school Art is known to do. There wasn't a mall in town way back then, so maybe it was the Big City Mall a half hour away, or maybe it was one of those cool Mezzanine Library Art Shows I always loved. But anyway. After it was gone, my art teacher said someone contacted her because they wanted to buy it. As a budding artist, I was thrilled. She helped me set a fair price, and I never saw the picture again. I didn't forget about it, though, once in awhile something reminded me of those old days when I thought of myself as an artist, and that I had actually SOLD a work of art.

So anyway. Back in the dead of winter '08, on some bitterly cold day, I got a phone call. Some lady said she had just talked to my parents, and had been at an antique show / flea market. Well, if you know my parents you would have hung up right there. We all know they weren't at a flea market or antique sale. But I didn't hang up. Turns out SHE was at a show, with her friend, and her friend saw this framed chalk drawing. And looked on the back. Where it still had the original school art display sticker, with my former name, address, and phone number. So the lady bought it, took it home, and sought to reunite it with the 4th grader who made it. Fortunately for me, my parents still live at that phone number, and gave her mine. She gave me the drawing for free, happy to reunite it with it's owner.

So here it is! Are you so curious?!?!

I'm sure some of you are struck by the smudgy nature of chalk, some of which was at the advice of the art teacher, as I recall, and you are thinking, "messy."

Others of you, surely, are struck by the delicate artistic balance and signs of budding genius (like the clever signature, complete with exclamation point!) Uh huh.

And the rest of you are stuck thinking, "What IS that?!" because you want to understand and it looks a little abstract, which bothers you. Right?

It's skunk cabbage!

Skunk Cabbage!

nifty, eh?

So now you know a famous artist.

Er. An accomplished artist.

Yeah.

As a result of the return of this work of fine art, I will in the future need your decorating advice. But not today, all this typing is too much for my poor weakened state.

Moon Rocks and Germs

It's not a song, Rosanne, don't try to look it up. LOL.

So the Grand Lunar *rocks* !!! He fixed my blog spam issue by upgrading my blog software and working out all the bugs. I should have a handy-dandy annoying captcha like everyone else, now! WOOO! If you mistype it, it currently goes to some lame-o page that says your text wasn't accepted. It doesn't mean your comment, it means what you typed for the "type the mystery code to prove you're real" thing, so just back up and try again. Just to warn you.

So anyway, thanks Grand Lunar, you're the bestest.

In other news, I'm sick! Wah!

I usually manage to avoid disease and germs, but there's something going around that my children were thoughtful enough to pass on to me. While symptoms vary slightly, it seems to involve a cough, sometimes a sore throat, and sometimes pain behind the eyes, most often when looking around. I have a slight fever, cough, and congestion. And feel like poodoo.

(pauses for you to work up lots of pity)

In the wonderful words of Mrs. Bennett, "I have such tremblings, such flutterings all over me such spasms in my side, and pains in my head, and such beatings at heart, that I can get no rest by night nor by day..."

Yeah, if only I had some servants, so I would wear a frilly nightgown and retire to my bedroom for the sake of my poor nerves, to convalesce.

But I'm not dying, and the chore machine doesn't run very smoothly without (or with! ha ha!) my input, so I only took half the day to lounge about coughing and moaning.

I have to be better by tomorrow, though, I'm the designated chaperone for a rehearsal.

In other other other news, I'm making a concerted effort to eat healthy again. Have I already told you about that? This time around (because I've been around this road several times) I'm not going all out trying to make all my family eat healthy without me. I'm sure it's a lame excuse, but it undermined my poor ego to make healthy food that no one liked. I have never been able to be strict enough for long enough to have the family's tastes change and begin to really, truly, enjoy the healthy food.

So this time around it's just me. I mean, I'm willing to share if anyone wants some, but as much as possible I'm cooking meals in pieces so that I can choose healthy and they can add on what they desire.

Most of you who know me already know the path I follow for "healthy" but for those that don't, I am a big fan of Dr. John McDougall's plan. If you want to lose weight, if you're facing health problems and want to avoid a life of "inevitable" medicines, check it out. Do some reading. Diet and Exercise. It really works. Go figure.

And, along those lines, following the McDougall plan, I've lost 10 lbs this year. Now I'm sad to admit that the first 6 or so are the SAME 6 lbs I've gained, lost, gained, lost, and gained again in the last year or two. But the last 4 are really new territory that I haven't seen since Eminoodle was little. So that's exciting. I've also been walking, walking, walking, but that you do know.

The good news is, now that I've "unhitched" my enjoyment of eating a healthy plant-based diet from familial complaints, I'm really truly enjoying what I eat, and feel like I get plenty to eat. And am losing weight, as a bonus, at a nice, steady rate.

The bad news is I must be getting old ~ I certainly don't feel as thin as I did back when Eminoodle was little. Same numbers, or getting close to them, but rearranged unfavorably, I guess. I don't really feel much like I've lost 10 lbs, despite what the scale says, and despite what the little fat-o-meter reader saying most of what I've lost is, in deed, fat rather than lean muscle. That's good, yes, but I guess I was hoping to feel skinnier, too. Maybe that will come in time.

Sorry to ramble on, it must be the brain-fog from being sick.

Anyway, leave me a comment so you can oooh and ahhhh over the bot-blocker.

The Boy Turned 5

I'm so behind on blogging. You wouldn't believe how many pix and half-thought-out entries I have, unposted.

But I shouldn't let Sputnik turning 5 go unmentioned. Sunday was his birthday. We tried to tell him that if he didn't eat all his cake, he'd stay 4, but he laughed and didn't believe us. He was quite insistent on turning 5.

Four days before his birthday, my friend Dawn pointed me to this knitting pattern. Thanks, Dawn!! I decided, if I hurried, that I could quick knit it in three secretive nights.

The rare Up R2D2's nose shot:

I have never done any stranded knitting, and apparently need more practice. But it turned out well enough for Sputnik, and I did get it done in time for his birthday. And I have requests for more, an R2-D9 which is red instead of blue, and maybe a C-3PO hat, although I was unable to find any instructions or images for those, so I would have to (looks around nervously) invent that myself. I am not sure I am a good enough knitter for that, although I do have an idea rolling around in my head.

Anyway, ramble ramble, Happy Birthday Sputnik! We love you and are so glad to have you in the family!

Spring might actually come ...

Don't have much time to post. Sorry I've been a rotten blogger. I've put off memes and procrastinated on being tagged and left comments unreplied to. I am ashamed of my blogging behavior. The short story is that I've been a little overwhelmed, with the kids' musical for church coming up, and just trying to do a better job with house and home. And the caffeine withdrawal and wacky dreams (Of which I had another, I got to visit Katie in CO's house! WOW, what a house! But I can't tell you about that right now) ...

ANYway. Yesterday it got up to nearly 50 here. The snow was melting, the birds were chirping, and it almost seemed possible that it would eventually be spring.

Amidst my hopes, I dashed out and hunted for sprouts. I was rewarded with some daffodils and then, upon VEeerrrrry close inspection, even a few of my beloved squill.

Here, for your amusement, is the daffodil duck (Kelly says dolphin, but there's no daffy dolphin cartoon, so duck it is) in my neighbor's yard.

I suppose it's kind of cheating to take pix of my neighbor's sprouts, especially when I have my own and some of those pix really did turn out quite nice, but the duck (dolphin) is amusing to me.

And my squill sprouts. I saw just one peeking through a gap in the dead-leaf cover, but I lifted the leaves to find a whole bunch just barely peeking through. The picture is not my best, but squill bring me joy, so I post it for the joy:

And of course, you know, now that I have this hope, the temps are dropping for the next week, down to barely above freezing during the day, and possibly more snow later next week. I think ... I hope ... I can survive.

Same Song, Second Verse

(fortunately not really louder nor worse, though)

More bizarre and apparently anxious dreams. I thought I was just feeling tired, but my dreams say anxious, too. Good old dreams, there to tell you what you're trying to stuff.

Last night I dreamed we completely missed tonight's last rehearsal before the final musical. I was watching the clock, in my dream, and knew we had to go soon. Then I guess I *spaced out* for a bit, and I looked up and it was 8:15 and the rehearsals ended at 8:30. I knew we didn't have time to make it, but I scrambled around trying to get the kids ready ... until I realized they were already in their jammies, even. So I left them and hurried off to the tail-end to make my apologies.

I also dreamed I was hosting some sort of HUGE dinner party, and making all the food myself, from scratch. I remember moving a bunch (stalk?) of Bok Choy out of my way, past some other dishes, so I could open a can of (water chesnuts? macadamia nuts? some dream-food that was a cross of the two? water macadanuts?) and commenting to the people in the kitchen that I wished I was one of those people who cleaned up as they cook. I was making a huge mess, but too stressed to stop and tidy up as I went because all the people for the big party were already THERE, and apparently I was running behind. I was trying to make the (water macadanuts?) into some sort of frosting, so I needed to puree them into a nut-butter, add sugar and cocoa ... I wanted to blend them but didn't want to find the old nut butter maker I used to have - I think I was embarrassed to have so many people in my kitchen seeing how I cook (winging everything) .... I couldn't find the cocoa and people were getting out all the wrong old bizarre dishes to serve things on.

Then people started picking through all the half-made dishes we were working on to serve, because they were hungry and wanted to eat now.

Then there were all these children that were there for part of the party - there was something like a big scavenger hunt, and it was supposed to end with the kids' dessert table, and I was scrambling in big dark rooms to stay ahead of them preparing things, setting them out in time ...

I woke up feeling anxious and stressed.

In which, apparently, I'm insecure and stressed

Gotta blog this quick, before I forget it.

Then I've got muffins to bake (peanut butter chocolate chip, today) and - according to my dream - I'd better get cracking on the house cleaning.

I had this dream this morning ... the kind that convinces you that you should turn off your alarm clock because it's part of the dream and it just makes sense to do so, and you only realize when you wake that your dream tricked you ... I'm not the only one who does that in dream, am I? So somewhere along the line I turned off my alarm and overslept, and was rewarded with this dream:

So in this dream we were... somewhere. I guess it was our house, parts of it were similar, but all rearranged. And the house was a MESS. And people were over to get donuts before church. And everyone was being polite, but I was looking around - I believe I was even still in my bathrobe - and realizing how messy the house was, and particularly the kitchen where the donuts were.

Then, after the people were gone, it was raining really really hard outside, and the rain was coming from a different direction than it normally does. It was pouring and I realized it was dripping quite steadily into the living room. I ran to get some pots and pans to catch the drips, but all the pans were full of things like forgotten cookies and unwashed brownie crumbs. All I had was dirty dishes. Finally I just grabbed a few, turned around to turn them into the living room, in time to see the few individual drips turn into a downpour.

The pans I had chosen were woefully inadequate for the downpour, so I started running around the house looking for other places it was leaking, and trying to figure out where the roof might be leaking to cause it. It poured down one wall of the hallway and was dripping in several places in the bedroom. I used some dirty laundry to wipe up the floor as I heard the rains slow outside.

We had to go outside for some reason, and while we were out I realized I was wearing only a shirt and underwear, and was desperately trying to make sure my shirt was long enough to cover at least my behind. The Grand Lunar laughed and said not to worry, because the Shirt And Underwear Band -- apparently the high school band in his hometown, where we apparently were, and sure enough, down the street came a marching band whose uniforms were barely bottom covering tunics. But somehow I did not feel comforted by being attired like the band.

I realized I needed to get home and clean up the horrible mess, but somehow -- I guess as the marching band was coming by -- we needed to sit on some stone-and-grass steps, sort of like a roadside amphitheater in town, to watch the parade. We were sitting right near The Grand Lunar's old High School Youth Group Leader, who wasn't old at all. Somehow we had grown up, but all the people he knew in High School were still late teens, early 20's. And they were whispering and pointing. At me.

It turns out, according to the dream, that The Grand Lunar hadn't been back in town since way back before we were married, in the time where we had broken up after dating quite some time. And in that time he had tried to get together with his high school romance, who's name was something like Nadine or Noreen. And who looked quite a bit like Elizabeth Bennett in the "Colin Firth P&P" which we just watched in real life. So, as the story went, Nadine or Noreen would not take him back, when he had returned long ago, but he didn't really want to get back with her anyway, he was just sad that he and I had broken up, so when we got back together he was happy. But in my dream, all the old high school people did not know or believe that, and so they were whispering and pointing at me because The Grand Lunar had had to settle for me, his second choice.

Then I realized that Buzz, my newly potty trained (WOOOO!) 2 year old, was over peeing in a canoe. So I had to run over and get him and tell him not to pee in canoes, and the people who had been sitting on the edge of the canoe were appropriately shocked and grossed out, because of course in addition to it being shocking and gross, they were all still late teens, young twenties, and had no idea that sometimes kids did crazy things like that. So they couldn't relate. I tried to laugh it off and tell the youth leader that everything looks like a toilet to a potty training toddler, but he wasn't so sure.

So I scooped up the toddler and began making my way back to the early morning parade outdoor street amphitheater seats, and saw my mom, who apparently was also visiting my husband's childhood town (which, I must also say, bore no resemblance to his real childhood town), and my mom was wearing a big fluffy white swank-hotel bathrobe, and her hair was down and drying naturally after her shower, so it was all in beautiful auburn ringlets, and I remember thinking, "At least mom was able to shower and dress before coming out in public, unlike me!" (because I was, of course, still in my t-shirt and underwear) ...

so I wobbled my way along the amphitheater rock ledges to get back to where we were sitting, stepping over and around people, and as I got closer to our seats I found I was also stepping over dirty dishes and the like. Because, apparently, it was also our home. And it was the end of the day, and I realized the parade had diverted our whole day, and it was bedtime and I hadn't gotten any of the cleaning done. The dream ended with me sighing that i'd have to spend all tomorrow cleaning.

---

*the ironic thing is that we did work pretty hard to get the house back in shape yesterday, and it's not actually so bad at all. Not perfect, of course, because we do live here and I am behind on folding the laundry (although totally on top of the washing and drying!) (and the folding will be rectified today)

**after re-living all this, I think I'll pass on the muffin baking and get down to cleaning, just in case all of The Grand Lunar's high school youth group drops by.

I'm not dead yet!

(although you'll have to wait until maybe next week for me to finish the quote with the "I feel happy!" part)

I keep forgetting you don't get the posts I write in my head. It would be so much easier if you did.

yesterday was day 1 caffeine free. I did drink a cup of *just* decaf, and I know that does have a little caffeine in it. But close enough. I figure I'll drink decaf for a week, then drop it in favor of decaf tea.

Anyway, yes, my head does still hurt some. It's more come-and-go now. Sometimes when it doesn't hurt it feels ... squeezed. Hard to explain, but it's a very intense feeling. Yesterday was particularly bad in the squeezy pressure feeling and sensitivity to noise and chaos. Of which my house seemed full. But we survived, and I'm hoping today will be a little better. I am not really sure whether today will be better or worse. Technically I think yesterday would have been the worst, being the actual first day all decaffeinated, but I am wondering if cutting back slowly will keep my body hoping longer. I don't know. I've never really cut back slowly and successfully before.

Someone asked why I was quitting. I used to have a post about me and caffeine and our on-and-off-again bad-boyfriend type relationship. Apparently I took it down at one point. Maybe I'll scrounge it up and repost it. But suffice it to say that caffeine is like that for me, the bad boyfriend who you kick out and they come back sweet talking, promising to change, and then when you take them back they're just as awful to you as before. When I'm *on* caffeine it takes caffeine just to bring me up to normal. I'm tired all the time, my moods are less level, my motivation goes with my moods and alertness, needing caffeine just to keep me sort of normal. It's a controlling drug. And I feed headaches caffeine out of fear of withdrawal. I always think it'll be different and it never is.

When I'm off caffeine (once I'm over the hump, that is) I am more alert without it than I ever am with it (other than the honeymoon days when I've had some after a long time without) ... my moods are more level, and I don't live feeling controlled by it.

Good reasons to quit, eh?

Plus I've just been having random headaches and feeling down a lot in the last 6 months, and I can't really accurately ascertain how headachey and/or depressed I might really be until I rule out the obvious things like caffeine.

So ... blah blah blah!

I have some other posts in my head, like the one of the Art From The Past. And I'll need your help with some living room decor arranging. But I've rambled on enough for today.

Have a good Wednesday!

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Dear Local Reader Friends,

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*** End Advertisement ***

Slowly, Slowly, she sank into the sea ...

I've had a headache for going on 3 days now.

I can push it back a little, keep it at bay, with ibuprofen, but it hasn't ever quite gone, just sort of faded back a bit. When it comes back it's been fairly bad.

I think it's probably from my slowly quitting caffeine. I've been cutting back, cutting back, a little less every day or two. Measuring carefully, some regular, some decaf. I'm down from 4 T. regular (my starting baseline) in a BIG cup to 2 tsp. regular, 1 tsp + 2 T. decaf in a smaller cup.

So I think the slow-quit has kept away the migraines.

But not the headaches. They've come and gone throughout the slow withdrawal, until the last 3 days where they've mostly just stayed. I'm hoping when I finally drop the last bit of caffeine this week they won't get worse.

Stupid drug.

Remind me, this time, to stay quit. Once I get quit.

Nothin' makes you feel crazy like ...

There's nothing to make you feel like a crazed lunatic like a twitching eye.

While I usually consider myself a sane person (ahem) and have actually been feeling fairly well, lately, physically and emotionally ....

I must say I am starting to doubt that perception of sanity.

Because my left eye has been twitching, twitching, twitching ...

and going on a week of twitches now ...

I am starting to think I am indeed insane. If not evil. It's the evil insane people in movies who have eye twitches. And they're about to snap.

So ... you might want to just baaaaaack up.

I'm just sayin'.

This is a Public Service Announcement - with Guitar!

It has come to my attention that I broke two-thirds of my "my favorite blogs" links and didn't fix them. While I actually knew that, I forgot that you all didn't know. So for every one of you who said, "Waaaah, you don't link to me as a good blog read anymore!" there must be another 20 of you who are just quietly weeping and feeling neglected!

Please don't be sad! It's not that you didn't make the cut! It's that I broke my links and didn't fix them yet!

One day I went to load the blog and it hung up, repeatedly. The Grand Lunar checked something magic somehow and said it was the blog links that were crashing it. So I just commented them out. (That means put little code to tell the code to ignore them for now) -- so I still HAVE them, I just need to figure out why they were crashing my site!

Also, a few of you have relocated your blogs and I am woefully behind on updating those links.

Also-Also, I am, likewise, woefully behind in reading my blogs -- yes, even yours, yours is one of my favorites!!! -- so if you are feeling sad because I took out your blog link and/or because I haven't commented on yours in days, weeks, months (what's with that time slipping slipping slipping into the future thing anyway?) please don't feel bad! The malfunction is within me, not you or your blog!

And with that, I have to run to an all-morning choir musical rehearsal. I volunteered to sit upon the difficult child. LOL. Figuratively speaking, of course. Fortunately, too, the difficult child is not my own. Although I am bringing along a whole box of evil eyes in case my children try to push the limit.

Nothing I can do, Total Eclipse of the Moon

I hope you weren't counting on me to remind you to watch the eclipse last night.

For the record, there was an eclipse last night.

I hope you didn't read "Feb 21" somewhere not not realize that meant universal time, and thus subtract your time zone and realize it was LAST night, and not today. Stupid Universal Time.

Fortunately, I personally had about 64 reminders. 53 of them were from my children.

I really should've looked up *how* to photograph the moon and an eclipse *before* the actual eclipse. But I was able to get a few decent pix by fiddling.

Turns out that a tripod that only locks at 0, 45, and 90 for the angle isn't all that helpful when the moon is somewhere between 45 and 90. And tripods aren't really all that steady when plunked in the snow. But, nonetheless, it was a good learning experience for me. It was unusually clear for a Michigan Night Sky Event. And like I said, I did get a couple decent pix. I'll quit rambling and show you.

Going under:

Eclipsed:

Coming Out:

Coming Out:

The two littlest boys were long in bed. The two middle kids did not want to brave the bitter cold, and peeked now and then front window. The two eldest would've stayed up all night if I had let them, but when we realized it would be fully eclipsed for ~50 minutes and that they had already seen it at full, we sent them packing off to bed, after hot chocolate for them and decaf coffee for me. I'm really not a cocoa gal. My poor fingers were frozen from dinking around with the camera settings, and glad to sit in front of a roaring fire while the pictures downloaded from the camera.

Not Easier, Not Better, But Amusing

First: The History

I've never been a successful popcorn maker. Other than the microwave variety, which I'm quite good at. At which I'm quite good. Ahem.

I was sidestepping one friend bewail the unhealthy toxins in microwave popcorn, using my clear failures in the past as my excuse. When my other friend said quality seeds make a difference.

Well.

I must admit, I'd never, in all my failures, tried name brand seeds. I've always used the cheapie store brand bagged ones.

And so I said I'd give it one more shot. I had The Grand Lunar buy me some actual Orville Reddenbacher brand seeds.

And I attempted, following Orville's very own directions, to pop seeds on the stove.

And it worked fabulously.

The children were much impressed.

And ... yet. Oh, all that oil! And adding butter on top of that! I checked and oil alone, with no butter added, was already as high fat as the microwave Xtreme Butter kind. And really, it needs butter. But do WE need butter? Can we afford to eat a stick of butter a week on various bowls of popcorn?

But I didn't really want to (my goodness I'm rambling on and on, I'm still not to the point!) buy another air popper or microwave popper, just to declutter it again in a year.

So I surfed around to find if you could REALLY make oil-free popcorn without an air popper.

Most of the directions I found were for the brown-paper-bag method. I had a stack of brown paper lunch sacks! Which, doggone it, I had just decluttered in the last few months.

So ... instead of a brown paper sack ... maybe we could FOLD one. After all, Moogie The Origami Queen happened to be here. And I was anxious to try.

So we got a big piece of blank newsprint, and found origami water balloon instructions online. Well, Moogie actually already knew a better way.

Pardon the not-crisp folds in these, this is actually a re-creation, I didn't take pictures the first time around. I admit, these pix are staged. Although, I really DID re-do it.

Folding the water balloon from a not-quite-18" paper square:

And then we filled and nuked it:

And ... ta da!

It wasn't easier, it didn't work better, but it sure was amusing!

About 2/3 of the kernels popped on the 2nd attempt. It was just starting to burn when I stopped it.

I discovered with further experimentation that I can also pop them without oil in a heavy non-stick pot on the stove, lid slightly vented. Or, better yet, in the microwave in a glass bowl with a glass lid, slightly vented. That method proved to be the easiest, no shaking, I could see it pop. And that's the method I'll be using.

But that wouldn't have been as exciting to blog, would it?

And It Shall Be Called The Winter Of Sledding

I fear I am setting an unwise precedent this year.

After 12 years of being pregnant or having a little one, this is the first year sledding has been less of a hassle, more doable. And we've had several good snows. (And, I hear, possibly more on the way!?) So we've been sledding a lot. But will I have to do this every year, now? What have I done?!?!

On Friday morning Karen called and invited us sledding*. (link to Karen's entry on the sledding) We almost didn't make it, but I'm so glad we did. The kids had a wonderful time being able to sled with friends, especially to make giant "blobsled" runs. And with only minor aches to my healing tailbone, it was a success.

My only real complaint is my pictures. I had my camera on the "sports" setting, and all my pictures are grainy. Whether that's because at some point I changed some setting I shouldn't have, or because there wasn't enough light on a dreary Michigan day (perfect for sledding, though!) or ... because I just don't know what I'm doing ... I don't know. But I'm bummed that I didn't get great crystal clear magazine quality sledding action shots. Perhaps I set my hopes too high?

So, as if all sledding pictures don't look more or less the same to you, and as if you hadn't seen too many already, I present: More Sledding Pix.

I'm still using the funky zoom. If you're on dial-up, I'm told the bigger pix load when you hover over them or click, so if you're careful to only point at the ones you want to see, the load time should be reasonable.

The regular kids (and moms) on the big city hill pictures:

Special thanks to Karen & Her Mom for the pic of me videoing on the way down.

The "Bad Idea" Series:

And - last but not least - yet one more video in my series of "Lets Film As We Sled!"

New And Funky With The Pix

The Grand Lunar sent me this link for FancyZoom ...

Simple, easy, stylish?

So I'm trying it out with these pictures of SNOW! I took this morning.

Not that you haven't already seen enough images of snow on my chair and snow on my stump. But it's a Michigan Winter, so there's not much else to show you.

At least until I get that other sock done.

So I give you ... FancyZoomed Snow! (uh, click the thumbnails)

... uh ... hm. I must've done something wrong. I'll take this back down *again* until The Grand Lunar can tell me what I missed.

I keep trying. It is not working. I am not smart enough for "Simple!"

Oh Grand Luuuuuuuuunar! Save me!

**update**

thanks, Grand Lunar! Turns out we were having issues because something else wasn't loading. And because we couldn't read. Both are fixed now. More or less.

trying to think of something to say

I like to read blogs, even ones that don't have "deep" or "exciting" entries. So why am I having trouble writing blog entries these days?

I'm trying something new with my laundry. I don't think I told you. But if I did ... um ... I'm sorry for the redundancy.

I'm trying to fold each load the same day. Okay, that's not all that novel. But I'm trying to fold it on our bed. Also not so exciting. But wait! I'm trying to listen to upbeat music and *walk* and *dance* in place while I fold, and add little steps - be inefficient - while I fold. So, for example, instead of making a little stack of socks to put in The Grand Lunar's sock drawer, I'll put them away as I fold them, so I have to take a few extra steps to the dresser and back.

The bummer part is if I really DO do it every day, it takes me 10-15 minutes per load (maybe more if there's a lot of socks to match ... maybe not) which makes me wonder why I save it all up until I have 8 loads to fold.

My old method was to save it up and then sit on the floor folding and sorting while watching videos. Which was good for getting videos watched. But not so good on the activity.

I'm trying to add little steps to my day - not necessarily long aerobic lengths, although it's always nice to find that I walked/danced long enough to trigger the aerobic minutes on my pedometer.

Today I was (again) way behind on the baskets to fold, so I stood and danced/walked to some aerobic-tempo playlists and got an extra bonus 45 minutes in, on top of my "real" walking this morning! Now my legs are tired. It's not as intense a workout as "real" walking with Leslie, but every not-sitting-around minute counts, right?

Oh, and Daisy - my pedometer claims all my walking adds up to 553 calories burned! Woot!

Once is funny, Twice is silly ...

Anyone remember that line from the Frances books? It was always a favorite saying in my home ...

but today's application is a little different.

Once is funny, twice is silly, three times is a bruised tailbone.

Yeah, apparently I'm getting a little old for going down bumpy hills ... I should've stopped when my tailbone was just a little sore, but I went down one more with Sputnik, making the mistake of using an unpadded sled and going over the little bump. YOUCH!

I'm sure I'll be fine in a day or two. But apparently I'm not 10 anymore. Go figure.

I'll leave you with this picture from last Saturday that I never got around to posting -- which is a much bigger hill and jump than the one that did in my tailbone:

A Little More OrgoWorking

Betsy asked awhile back whatever happened to the Organizing. I can't remember if I had posted about that ... I guess I posted about the Grand Lunar's desk, right? So in summary:

Hollie and I have been on hold since Christmas. First there were the holidays, family, food, and all that ... then Hollie was sick. Then sicker! Then very sick! (yes, you were, Hollie!) Then getting better. Then sick again! Then getting better! Then we had a snow day with bad roads. Then she got sick again! Then still sick! Then finally better! We got a day in! Then car trouble. Pray for God's protection over and provision for Hollie and her family, if you would, they've been through one thing after another!

So in the one day we had together this week we were back to working in the basement. The basement is no one-day-quick fix. At least not with me and my stuff. I think if I stepped out of the picture, Hollie could've whipped the whole thing into shape in a day, but I was underfoot trying to explain why we needed to keep that really old software and boxes of weird stuff and fifty-odd old cans of paint.

Plus it took us almost a whole day to bolt one cabinet to the wall. I don't believe I told you about our failed attempt to move the cabinet while Hollie's son stood back, shook his head, and laughed at our foolishness. Apparently with his guy-genes he could see right away that it was not moving out of it's entrapped location, but Hollie and I thought our stubbornness might have been a good match for the law that two objects can't occupy the same place at the same time. You know, like maybe it would be okay if one is just passing through? Turns out that's not true, it's not allowed to just pass through. Yet. Maybe when we catch up to Star Trek technology. Apple's probably got something in the works.

But I digress. We couldn't move the cabinet elsewhere, so we figured we better secure it, having wrenched it free in order to move it. Turns out there was a reason it was screwed to the wall. The first toggle bolt went in through the cabinet, through the wall, and down into the hollow cinderblock. Oh, right, that's what washers prevent.

The second toggle bolt went in through the cabinet, through the wall, not through the hole because the washer stopped it. But I'd put the toggle-wing part on backwards and so it spun aimlessly in the block instead of tightening, and so in the end the toggle-wing fell into the wall, never to be seen again.

~~ We interrupt this rambling retelling of an old story for this public service announcement. The H button on the round timer is for HOURS. Yes, you already knew that. But do you remember when your mother told you that sometimes it's very important to pay attention? This is one of those times. Do not bake cookies for 16 hours. Thank you. We now return to your irregularly scheduled ramble. ~~

The third attempt (third time's a charm, right?) put the toggle-wing on correctly, and it went through the cabinet, through the wall ... at this moment we *thought* it worked, because the cabinet appeared to be secure. Foreshadowing! And we went to drill another hole with which to anchor it. The second hole turned out to be much closer to the edge of the block than we thought (due to the cabinet not being movable, we were left to try and measure and guess at the bricks behind it) and so we drilled a goodly long hole the length of the drill bit, and never burst through to the spooky dark innards.

Somewhere around that time we also discovered that the previous snug toggle-wing had actually gone through hole, but not quite far enough to expand on the far side, and had been working it's way through the hole, snugly against the sides (thus the perceived tightness - we did yank on the cupboard to test it's snug fit, really!) and eventually loosened and popped out and promptly expanded on the wrong side of the hole. Whoops.

The fourth attempt (fourth time's a charm, maybe?) - back at the original failed hole again - was with one of only two long machine screws we could find. As we started, Hollie's son mumbled something about "it's bent" but opted not to elaborate. Possibly due to that guy-gene, being a man of few words. Or possibly because watching me repeatedly attempt to bolt the cupboard to the wall amused him immensely. The toggle-wing successfully deployed on the inside of the cinderblock and tightened for a bit. until it hit a point where we could hear it grinding against the brick rather than tightening. Eventually we realized that, as he had predicted, the slight bend in the screw-thingie was too much, and the toggle-wing was stuck. So we went to take it out. But apparently had coaxed it far enough into the bend that it refused to come out, either.

So there we were, with a toggle-wing bolt expanded in the wall, and the screwy-thingie-part stuck sticking out of the hole, unable to go forward or backwards. Kind of like Pooh when he ate too much honey at Rabbits Howse. Right.

Wait, am I even getting to the point here? NO!

So (cutting out long parts of the story) we eventually DID secure the thing to the wall.

And then put stuff in it.

Then Hollie had to leave, but I vaguely promised to keep working.

Then I bought shelves. (can you tell I'm still cutting out long rambly parts of the story?)

Then I built them.

Then I went through and decluttered the bulk of my baby clothes, figuring someone else can be using them rather than me hoarding them, and that we can get more if needed, when that time might or might not come ...

I did save some stuff, don't worry.

Anyway, at the end of the day I had this:

**Eight** empty totes! WOOoooo!

A stack of boxes to give away, send to friends, and give away to a different place. (Two views, same stack)

One giant empty tote to also give away:

and the lovely shelves I built, more or less without catastrophe:

cool, eh?

If I wasn't so lazy I'd have a real post with real pix

Maybe not lazy. I might be sick. I don't know. Sick only counts if you are feverish or are throwing up, and I am neither.

But my tummy hurt today, for unknown reasons. And with all the gastro-intestinal yuck going around right now, I lay low, just in case. It hurt a fair amount, then a little, then almost none, now a little again. I don't know.

But anyway, here's some pictureless blog information to tide you over until I feel like messing with pictures and video.

1.) the no-bakes. Last night made as if to start a new batch, with the butter, sugar, cocoa, and milk, and brought it to a boil. I stirred in the peanut butter, then added the crumbled mess of the previous batch and sort of smooshed it in until it was more or less incorporated. Then added about 1.5 more cups of regular (non quick) oats. They looked about right, I dropped them onto Saran Wrap (or was it some other brand?) and they set up beautifully. So they were, indeed, redeemable. Yay!

2.) the squirrel. While home nursing my tummy this morning, a squirrel got itself caught in my bird feeder. I do not have pictures because it was fairly appalling and traumatic for both of us. He did not get stuck in some cute and comical way, like squeezing his whole body into the food. Instead he somehow got one tiny little squirrel paw caught in a wire loop, and the weight of the feeder and his body were, apparently, pulling the loop tight. He was frantically trying to chew the wire from which the feeder hangs, and chewing at a bead which, unbeknownst to him, would not have freed him had he chewed through it. We watched for a little while, hoping he could just pull loose, but he didn't seem to be making any progress. I tried to call the local Nature Center, but they do not open until 1:00 on Sunday. I would've called my parents to rescue me, but they, and the Grand Lunar, were at church and unable to rescue me. I thought, perhaps, if someone could lift the feeder a little, it might put enough slack in the wire to free the squirrel. But I'm a little too rodentophobic to even attempt it. Eventually I went over to my neighbors and quiiiiiietly knocked on his door, not wanting to *wake* him but hoping he might be awake. But no one stirred. I was tromping through the snowy lawn in my jammies and a sweatshirt and denim coat to try the other neighbor when I looked between the houses and saw the squirrel was gone. I was so relieved. He sat in the tree licking his paw for a long time. So that didn't really help my tummy ache.

3.) a sock - I finished the first of my pair of kool-aid dyed yarn socks. I took a picture, but at the time my machine was disassembled, so I didn't put the pix on the computer. Maybe tomorrow. It's a pretty sock and fits me well. I started the 2nd one.

4.) sledding - I took some of the kids sledding yesterday, and we had fun going down the Big Hill with the Big Jump. If you're interested, here's one video -- http://homepage.mac.com/kimanderson/iMovieTheater39.html -- I didn't put it on my youtube space because with my computer disassembled I didn't have the password saved, couldn't remember it, and didn't want to reset it. So I put it somewhere else. It starts kind of abruptly. But make sure to enjoy, especially, the squeaky-toy child at the end.

pictures coming ... soon?

A Little Snow

We got a heap of sparkly snow overnight. Public schools are closed. Big kids are finishing up some shoveling.

I tried to look up online how much snow we got, but it turns out that information is hard to come by. The weather advisory says "storm total 5-8 inches" but it looks like we got more than that already. I was guessing 8-12 inches on the driveway. Hard to tell when it's light and poofy. But from the stump I'd guess around 10"

The snow interrupts our about-to-get-back-to-Organizing plans. First we took a break for the holidays, then Hollie has been quite sick for quite a while! :( She's finally feeling better and we were going to ease her back in with a half-day of work today. But God overruled our plans, she gets another day of rest.

But in the meantime, I actually did do a little Kimorganizing, myself! No, really!

I can't remember if I told you I did the back bathroom by myself.

Hollie and I had also, at one point, sort of sorted The Grand Lunar's Desk.

Here's the before picture of that zone - I guess I don't have one of just the desk:

He said he was no longer happy with the wire 'college cube' shelving, so we figured we'd get some other kind of hutch for his desk. Only we couldn't find anything we loved.

In the end, I built a hutch/shelves out of some of those stackable cube units that Target and Meijer sell, and added some shelves. Here's his desk when I'd emptied out the cubes but before I removed them, the day I started building the new hutch.

We still need to finish sorting and organizing what went back into it, but this is it pre-organized:

The green and turquoise totes are ones we've emptied out as we've organized other areas. I offered the Grand Lunar red ones, since he likes red better, but he was amiable to use what we already had.

I should've turned on the cool light saber up across the top before taking the picture. Remind me to do that when I take the final organized pic of the desk.

Anyway. I guess I better get walking and doing laundry.

Hard Hats Not Required - Now With Ham!

My mom had a neat idea while we were at their house yesterday.

Her mini marshmallows were just a little stale, and she had appropriated some of Poppie's toothpicks from a project he'd done with a Youth Lay Speaking retreat. We modified the project to suit our group.

Our assignment: Build things out of marshmallows and toothpicks.

This was one of the days where the candid pix delighted me even more than the posed ones. But here's a little of both:

Tobi-wan laying on the floor next to his self-made Tobi-Robot:

And Buzz wanting in on the floor-laying-photo-shoot. Would you like a little ham with your tower?

Mom and I took up the challenge to see how tall a tower we could make.

Here's mom after adding the final spike to hers. Where do those kids get their hamminess from?

The marshmallows made it tough to build very high before things got wobbly. Originally we were trying to beat Poppie's claim that the youth could only build about 1' tall ... as we worked, Poppie came through and mentioned more and more ridiculous rules they'd used that we hadn't. Like only using your 'other' hand (left if you're right handed) ... and working in teams ... and only having 15 minutes.

I was glad we hadn't started with all those rules, I would've quit before I started. Using both hands, not having to coordinate a team, and having as much time as we liked, Mom and I were both able to make structures around a foot and a half.

And then we piled her structure on my structure.

Look, it's as tall as my extended fingertips!

Yes, Yes, I know I look like a dork in that picture. Apparently hamminess does not skip a generation. Why am I doing that next to the tower? Because I'm mimicking this picture from my past!!

This is Randy-the-neighborhood-kid and I with our very tall block tower when we were 4. Nice outfit I'm wearing, eh? It was purple plaid.

Okay, really, ours wasn't that tall, I'm squinched down and it's on the table. Here's me leaning to get out of the picture before the tower tips over. I'm not pregnant, and not fat. Well, not that fat. I'm leaning. Leeeeaaaaning.

But really, the combined tower held up pretty well, even when iliacat carried it around the house, balanced on one hand. Can you spot the ham in this picture?

Or the ham in this picture?

Does it look like Buzz is building in the background of that last one? Look closer. He's just eating the building materials.

When we were all done, the marshmallows were divided up amongst cups of cocoa. A good time was had by all!

Thanks Mom!!!

Building A Habitat for Monkeys

Today we built a monkey habitat!

Here's the sweet 'n sappy version (the one I made):

And here's the wacky quickie version (the one The Grand Lunar made):

And here's the boring static final-result images for those of you unenthused, unwilling, or unable to view the movies:

And, lastly, the link to the teeny weeny soundless quick version for the DialUppy Friends (348 K)

6' Dome Kit from www.domeclimber.com

See me walkin ... walkin' out the door

... not really out the door. That's just the song, singing.

Actually, just in the living room. Mostly in one place. The place where the area rug is getting worn thin.

... believe me ... gonna make it, make it ...

Would I lie to you?

Yeah, so I'm walking again.

I was inspired to post about it reading Rosanne and Daisy's blogs. Those exercise Canadians! They're inspiring!

I did so well the first half of last year.

Then fell off the wagon and got run over. Then I kept trying to get up and chase the wagon. But couldn't get back on. That was discouraging.

But I'm back on now.

A little concerned that I won't STAY on. So I've been hesitant to post or make "goals" ... I tend to do well when I'm doing well, and not be able to get back to going if I stop for some reason.

But I'm up to 29 miles so far this month, and enjoying it so far. I'd really like to be someone who walks for the rest of their lives. But for now, I'll just try to take it day by day, week by week.

Walkin, walkin' ...

How about you?

did you see that tall woman with the long curly hair?

so I had to run an errand today

(not to fetch a peck of snide, though)

and I parked way way far away in the gihugic parking lot.

And I was walking in, enjoying the sun and the nice day, and I was walking with LONG brisk steps, and my hair was bouncing along ...

and I realized I was imagining being really tall and thin with long hair waving behind me in the breeze ...

I was cool, all tall and thin like that. You should've seen me.

Who left that roller coaster there?

So I was walking along, minding my own business, and tripped and fell into a rollercoaster.

I wasn't looking to add any "ministry" outside of what we already do. I have been, however, praying that God would show me what He wants to do, whatever that might be. Asking Him to use me, however He wants to use me.

I got a call inviting me to consider joining a ministry. I've been asked about it before, but successfully ignored/forgot about it, or didn't feel at all called to it in the past. I don't know what was different this time.

So I decided to pray about it.

at one point I was sitting somewhere unrelated, thinking unrelated things, and the thought wafted through my head "I will need the training that ministry provides ..."

Which was odd. Not like me. I didn't want to discount it, nor did I want to make too much of it. My brain is full of odd thoughts, although usually not like that. Was it the Holy Spirit? I didn't know.

I kept praying about it.

Two different days at different times I prayed the Lord would really show me, yes or no, and someone from the ministry called, or stopped me, and asked me if I was still considering it. On the same day that I had prayed about it.

but is that a sign? I tend to overanalyze things, and didn't want to make too much of a little thing. Nor did I want to be that guy in the old joke, waiting on the roof for God to save him. I'm sure you know the story.

So ... I gave it some more prayer, more time. Plenty of time to forget about it, really, which is my usual style. But I didn't forget. It kept bothering me that I didn't know. Kept praying.

Asked my husband, who, to my surprise, suggested I go ahead and fill out the application and see what happens. I did and they actually came over to pick it up when I wasn't able to get it in right away. And signed me up for an interview.

I went expecting the interview to confirm that it was where He wanted me ...

The interview was interesting and intense and there was much discussion of how I really wasn't sure ~ IF God was calling me to this, I wanted to respond with clear obedience. IF He was saying, "Yes, this is for you" I was ready and willing to jump in, fully committed. But only IF. And that IF swirled about. I had no CLEAR yes. No blinking green light. No lightning bolt. A lot of little things that maybe could add up to a muddled yes, especially if confirmed in retrospect. But I also had no flashing red NO. God had ample time and many ways to give me a clear NO, yet hadn't. Instead, this seemed to keep popping up when it could've faded away. And yet. I wasn't sure.

One of the ministry leader interviewers seemed to believe that God's leading is always clear when we seek Him on it, and that joy and peace in the decision-making is always there. I have not found that to be the case for me. I believe joy and peace DO come, but sometimes not right away. For me, sometimes, following God has been a gut-wrenching stepping out in faith, praying I've heard Him right, praying He'll stop me if I'm wrong.

Is it just me that has felt that way more than not?

In the end, I left the meeting still confused, drained, for awhile leaning towards yes, then leaning towards no, still praying for clear decision from the Lord. Not my will, but Yours, O Lord. I had a headache at the end, a migraine as I drove home. Squinting to see the lines on the wet road made me nauseated. I came home, tried to tell The Grand Lunar about the meeting, started to cry, and went to throw up. Then I went to bed. At this point I was feeling mostly like the ministry was not for me at this time.

i had weird dreams. I don't think they were prophetic dreams. But I dreamed the weird dreams were telling me no. I know that sounds strange. I think it was more a reflection of my mind than God Speaking Through Weird Dreams. They weren't the right sort of weird, you know? But anyway, when I woke this morning, I no longer felt the ministry was for me at this time. I think it's a wonderful ministry. I would love to receive the training someday and see where God might work through me, through it. I would love to have God glorified to others through it.

But apparently it wasn't for me at this time. In fact, tonight, I'm pretty certain of that. And I'm okay with that. I'm glad to know.

I'm just not quite sure why I had to ride such a roller coaster, just to end up at what appears to be nearly the same point I started.

Why would God leave a roller coaster there, right in the middle of my path?

Because I haven't rambled excessively about hair in a long time

well, unless you count the random rambling and yesterday's mention.

Which I guess should count.

So I need a new title, but will forget before I think of one. Sorry. Maybe I should call it "Random kim's hair thoughts that you probably already know" ~ an enticing title if I ever saw one!

I used to measure my hair every month ~ for those of you not in the know, you can measure from the hairline and stretch out any curls to get a more or less accurate measurement of hair growth over time. Did you know the average person's hair grows about 1/2" a month? As a curly girl, most of my growth sproings up and is difficult if not impossible to gauge.

So I started measuring it so that I could pat myself on the back and say "Look, your hair really IS growing!"

What I didn't forsee is how very uneven it grows. Between postpartum/hormonal loss over the last 12 years (I really don't think the idea that you only shed what you didn't during pregnancy is true for me, I think my hair has thinned considerably over the last 12 years) and whatever else might cause it, even when I've confirmed THAT it was growing, I've been disappointed with HOW it's grown. First I tried the "as much length, no trimming" method, and ended up with thinning scraggly uneven hair. So then I got it chopped way back and started trimming it every 3-4 months, which the stylist even said shouldn't be too bad if I were to grow it out. I didn't keep going to her, though, she really didn't seem excited about the prospect, I got very "yeah, whatever" vibes from her when I went back for a trim. I don't know. So anyway, I've been having The Grand Lunar or iCat use Feye's method to trim up 1/2" - 1" every 3-4 months. Which you'd think would be enough to keep the ends evenish.

But not so. Apparently much of my thinning and uneven V-shaped growth is 1.) just the way things grow and/or 2.) the results of my postpartum excessive shedding.

I guess I said all this yesterday, I apologize for rambling profusely on things you already read. here's the real point ~ here's what my hair looks like yesterday. The curls are slightly more uneven than usual because my hair dried while I was wearing a hoodie, so the curls bunched up over/on the hood. But still, you get the gist.

It's at 27" at it's longest, but, sadly, there's not much of it making it to that length. Or, like before, even a few inches up. I'd have to cut WAY back, again, to even up and have a 'blunt hemline'

So ... like before ... I'm left wondering what to do. I don't want to give up my long hair dreams. But it seems silly to keep trying to grow it out when it grows so uneven and scraggly.

So (and I am in no way implying I'll take anyone's suggestions, but it's still fun to read them) what do you think? What might you do?

Oh, and the color - interesting, eh? What you see there is "temporary lasts up to 6 weeks" color not fading out, which is why most of it looks a nice warm brown. If you look close you can see gray peeking through the roots. And look even closer you can see my burgundy streaks, which I believe I forgot to tell you about. I bought some burgundy permanent color, but applied it only in a few streaks. 8 total, most hidden NOT at the edge or part line, so I can either hide them or expose them as I see fit.

Here's a dorky picture of me looking up at the camera trying to take a pic of the stripes. Pretend the wrinkles on my forehead are because I'm looking up, rather than because I look very old.

What do you think?

Goodbye half-done mittens ...

Alas.

I've been working on some mittens as a gift.

I already frogged them once, early on, because I was totally doing the two mittens at once on two circulars wrong. (Which, when I finally got it right, I must say is a way cool thing to be able to do, knit both at once!) Then I frogged them again after a few rounds of ribbing because the knit was too loosey on the big needles, and I thought I might want a few more stitches, too. So I was pleased with how these were looking. And they seemed like they'd be stretchy enough to accomodate even larger hands.

But I don't know. I think they'll be too stretched out for the recipient, when worn. They actually fit me fairly well, but they aren't for me.

I kept going, for awhile, not wanting to waste the effort I put into them.

But I think it's better that I frog mid-palm than complete them and have them be an "it's the thought that counts" sort of gift.

Goodbye mittens, about to be cut down in your unfinished youth. So sad.

Oh, and I owe Rosanne a MEME which I'm going to rebelliously call a MEME, so look for that, oh ... eventually. 'Cause right now I've got some frogging and knitting to do.

Sledding on Christmas Eve Day

We had just enough snow in the wee hours of Christmas Eve to make for good sledding on Christmas Eve Day ...

the kids had rolled and abandoned a snowball the week before when we'd gotten a heap of snow, and it ended up being perfectly placed for a ramp ... subsequent melting and refreezing made the ramp solid and strong for even the parents to jump the ramp ...

All these pictures are compliments of my sister, Kelly ~ thanks, Kelly! They turned out great!

icat hitting the ramp:

eminoodle going down on the ancient plastic roll-up sled:

tobiwan on the slopes:

sputnik going with me:

sputnik alone:

me going over the ramp:

And, if you realllllly want to, you can see the little video of me going over the ramp...

Let's see if I can embed it!

Oh, and last but not least, our Christmas Eve picture...

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!!

Walking In A Sugar Wonderland

Take:

6 sugar cones
1 can white frosting
too much food coloring
a fortune's worth of decor
every bowl in the house
6 exuberant children

mix frosting with food coloring, apply liberally to sugar cones, invert onto paper plates using additional frosting as glue

allow children to decorate as desired

Make children wait to eat until all are done and photographed

Enjoy!

It's Like Star Trek, only Not ...

remember that Star Trek where there was the negotiator guy and he did the thing where he transferred all the negative emotions to his wife, and that made her get all old and dying, but it enabled him to be all pleasant and helpful? And then something like his wife died so he had to transfer his emotions somewhere else, so he transferred them to troi, and she was getting all old and mean and stuff ...

so it turns out I've had something similar but different going on, all these years, where I've transferred my frustration to the poor cat, griping about her and stuff, and that's enabled me to be all pleasant and helpful as a mom ... but now it turns out the very old cat is not doing so well, and I can't really be mean about a cat who is in failing elderly cat health, 'cause that would be mean, so I can't transfer my negative mom emotions to her, so yesterday I was a very crabby mom.

But then the negative emotions made the dude's wife get old, and maybe it's because I was transferring negative emotions that the cat got old, and if I don't transfer them to her she'll get young again, 'cause Troi did, you know, and then the cat will get better, and then I'll transfer them to her again, and it will become a weird cycle, back and forth?

hm. I thought this would be a light way to say the cat is not doing well and it's awkward and sad, but now that I've made this weird Star Trek analogy it's ... well ... just weird and awkward and sad. We're doing our best to show love and take care of her, while keeping a practical eye on what seems to be the coming end ... Maybe I'll just trail off.

Leigh! Don't read this! It's regurgitated!

So I was over there reading at Leigh's blog and she made me Ha.

Right out loud. HA! Like that.

So I told her that.

HIRL - Ha in Real Life. It's a funnier level than LOL (I sez to Leigh) because I LOL all the time in blogging and posting but I'm actually only GOTI - Giggling On The Inside.

Because, really, while in public I am a very LOL person, and on the inside I am often quite amused, it actually doesn't translate to the outside very often.

I am sure you have all imagined me at my computer LOLling all over, but in reality, in order to keep up the facade that I am "working" when at my computer, I am only GOTI and you might see a slight smile on my face if it's really funny, but quickly washed away in order to perpetuate the fraudulent impression that i am Busy Working On Important Things.

So I guess those really funny things which ought to have been LOLs but can't be called that because LOL has in my life been demoted to all the things I think are really funny yet must only secretly enjoy now need to be HIRLs.

Which, as I pointed out to Leigh, sounds just like hurl.

So if you hear me say Leigh made me HIRL, remember it's a compliment.

Snow Day

We got a snow day yesterday. Somewhere between 8" - 12" of snow piled up upon us, and church was canceled - although not before I'd gone out to shovel in the wee hours of the morning. My daughter stuck her head out the door to report that it was closed when I was about 3/4 done with the driveway, so I finished that but didn't shovel around the big van or do the sidewalks, I left those for the children, later.

It was very beautiful. And very blustery.

It made for a wonderful lazy day of movies, knitting, and playing. We took advantage of the time to have our annual "meat and cheese and crackers" meal, thanks to my grandma's annual gift of a Swiss Colony package of sausages and cheeses. This is one of the children's favorite Christmastime traditions. :-)

In the afternoon I went out with the children to play. We built a small sled ramp in the back yard by shoveling snow up into a heap at the edge of the basketball pad where there's a small hill.

After the two littlest went in, the two biggest children and I went to the nearby golf course to sled down the BIG hill. I'm glad I only took the two biggest, since the winds were brisk and the drifts were high. And, since I didn't take the camera, there is no proof that I scream all the way down the hills. We returned home for cocoa and coffee.

A most excellent snow day.

Blog Commander ... Blog On!

Many years ago - back when we lived in our old house - The Grand Lunar bought something called Light Commander! ~ One of the many small treasures I discovered in decluttering in the basement and reinstated to a place of honor.

What is Light Commander, you ask? I'm so glad you did, as it just happens to be the topic of choice on today's blog entry. I love how we are always on the same wavelength, with you asking just the right questions!

Light Commander is some sort of futuristic electronic thing that consists of a box you plug into the wall, and then has two outlets on the bottom into which you light other stuff. Like lights, for example.

And then you turn the lamp to ON, and Commander to ON, and then rather than walking over to the lamp and tediously clicking that little knob, you simply talk to Light Commander.

"Light Commander?"

(and here Light Commander replies by blinking a green light and saying "bleeble blee?")

"Light Off!"

"byooo."

and the light goes off.

"Light Commander?"

"bleeble blee?"

"Light ON!"

"byooo."

and the light goes on.

And even fancier ~

"Light Commander?"

"bleeble blee?"

"Light dim!"

"byooo."

and the light dims.

It's really pretty futuristic and amazing.

when it works.

Which is about 50% of the time for The Grand Lunar.

And 25% of the time for me.

And perhaps 4% of the time for any of the children.

So rather than get up and tediously rotate a small clicking knob, we who live on the cutting edge (well, um, 8-year-old cutting edge) of technology instead sit leisurely on the couch saying "Light Commander? Light Off!" over and over ... and over ... then marching resolutely over to the area of the device to repeat our commands more clearly and authoritatively. Again and again. Eventually to have the light turn off in a glorious display of Star Trek like technology.

The future is now.

.
.
.

I can see why the future was living in the basement.

Crammin' several entries into one quick one

oh I have so many things I'm blogging in my head! But here's a quick babbling of a few of them, lest they never make it into print ... er ... electrons.

snow - we had an ice storm predicted but instead we got a great snow with big fat puffy snowflakes - huge ones, falling clumped together the size of cotton balls! It was cool. I got a video of the fat flakes, maybe I'll get it posted later. Early in the day the layer of packing snow was too thin to do much with, but I made the big kids shovel one last time at bedtime and then play outside in back in the dark and they built snowmen and had a snowball fight and thought that playing outside when it was DARK and BEDTIME was the greatest thing evah.

I have lots of other pix but no time to prep and post them.

Other stuff - the girls sang in their holiday concert and sang beautifully.

And then the Big 4 children and I went to see "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" last night and it was so fun! I was glad to see the children enjoying it so much, I wasn't sure how much they would like a play. And it was especially fun for me because I played Lucy in a production of it when I was in junior high! Although I wasn't half as good as the lady who played Lucy last night. But it was fun to re-live all the songs and lines. Anyway, it was great.

This morning I went to take frozen waffles out of the freezer (oooh, fancy breakfast) and some helpful child had opened the bag at both ends, and so when I pulled it out, frozen waffle pucks rained down all around Buzz, nearly beaning him. What a traumatic start to his day!

Anyway. Lots more to blog, but we're having friends over today so I need to run!

::fwooooosh!::

Wha?

I haven't posted in nearly 2 weeks? Is that right?

I'm sorry.

I didn't realize.

I've been blogging in my head, again.

(Although I get more comments in real life. And they're usually nicer. Than the in-my-head comments, too. So I really should stick to real life blogging.)

Um, we've been working towards wrapping up the Organizing. We're not there yet, but we're getting there. I haven't been taking pictures. And haven't posted the ones I took. Obviously.

In other news ... have you looked at the calendar?!?!? Holy Moly, Christmas is coming up fast. I have had trouble keeping that thought in my brain, even with the house decorated and knowing it's "out there" it just doesn't seem like it'll be all that soon. Until I think about the time and all the things I plan to do ...

hm.

I probably need to make a list and start working hard on getting it done.

I'm not talking all the busy extras that would make you say, "Kim, slow down, enjoy the season."

Oh, no. I'm talking all the little basics and big things like, oh, buying presents for people and traditions we have as a family. Yeah, those. Not to mention the packages I need to get packaged up and mailed out. Imaginary packages, filled with imaginary things, at this point. Yet somehow needing to be made real and actually shipped. Soon.

Wow, all that thinking of the planning I need to do ... makes me want to take a nap.

OrgoDay 15 And some Orghonesty

I counted up the days we've worked, and we've had 15 OrgoDays so far! Of course, we didn't work all day on many of those, but still. Wow!

So Day 15 was The Finishing Of The Garage. And boy howdy was it COLD! So cold I had to trick Hollie and her son into enjoying some hot tea and hot cocoa, respectively. I knew if I asked first they'd say "no, no, I'm fine" so I made it first, then told them they'd be wasting it not to accept. Manipulative of me, eh?

Anyway, I'm sure you really just want to get past the rambling and on to the garage, so here it is! And just in time!

Here's one teaser pic, but follow the link below to see the rest of the garage pics.

OrgoDay 15 - The Finishing of the Garage

One thing (of many) that amused me ... while we were working Hollie took all the rakes and shovels and arranged them. And then stared at them - she stood before them, motionless, like the pictures you see of people staring at fine art in fancy museums. Then rearranged them. Then re-re-arranged them. Several times. So I was teasing her about spending so much time trying to get the rakes and shovels just right when the whole north side of the garage was yet-to-be-done. We laughed and got to work on the north side. Until *I* turned to look at the shovels and rakes. They were all hanging crooked. Turns out the pre-existing hangy-thingies on the wall (which had previously been turned into an awkward angled shelf) were deliberately uneven, one side set about 1" lower. We speculated as to why, but agreed it was annoying, and that we couldn't leave them all crooked. So then I spent the next half hour adding side supports to where the handles hung until, at last, all the shovels and rakes hung neatly upright. So I guess there's potential for me to become a perfectionist organizer, eh?

In related news, alert reader Shari asked:

"Since you are answering some readers questions... ;-) I was wondering how it has been keeping up with it. Some of the rooms have been done for a while so is it easier to keep them up, or has it been stressful to try to keep it organized? Do you think that once Hollie is gone that you'll be able to handle it? Is it "you", or is it like living in someone else's home and trying to keep it their liking? I would love to know how the upkeep is going for you. "

In the interest of honesty, I offer you a few pictures, taken this afternoon: OrgHonesty

To specifically answer the questions:

Has it been stressful to try to keep them organized? A little, but mostly no. I mean, it hasn't really been any more stressful than simply trying to clean up was before. And it's paid off in being easier to get things cleaned up, between the less stuff and clearly knowing where almost everything should live.

Will I be able to keep it up? Ahhh, there's the big question in all our minds. What I'm finding is that, while the organization is nice, the long-term is going to come down to how diligent I am at doing my daily tasks, and doing them to 100%. One bonus is that I see more easily where I've been only working until the job is 50% or 75% done, or "better than it was" -- but now that it has been TOTALLY done and clean, one bright and shiny day, it is more obvious to me when I stop short that I am stopping short. So a big part of the "will I keep it up?" comes down to the family and I retraining ourselves to pick up, put away properly, right away, and to really persevere until a job is done. We've still been often operating in "catch up" mode where we don't pick up when we should, but scramble to do it before some deadline (like Hollie's visit, LOL). So that's better than not doing it at all, but still not quite the standard we'd like to live by. Can we do it? Yes. Will we do it? That remains to be seen.

Is it like living in someone else's house?
No, not really. There are a few cupboards where I consistently reach for the wrong one, out of habit, but for the most part things still feel like mine, only more organized, LOL. Hollie has been very gracious at asking for and listening to our input, and operating under the idea that it needs to work for us, not for her. She's encouraged us to try some new things - like hanging shirts - but the pay off (of having nice neat shirts and easily finding the ones we want) is worth it. And, most of all, it's still our stuff, just easier to find and use. So rather than like being in someone else's house, it's like living in our house, only better! LOL!

One last thought ~ a few of you have said how all this has encouraged and inspired you, and I'm so glad! And amazed at those of you who can do it on your own! Woo! Someday I hope to be able to do so (and just have Hollie over socially!) I just want to encourage you to take pictures! Not only is it fun to see the change, and remember, later, how bad things were (and aren't anymore!) but also, having before pictures helps me be more honest (remember my superhero power to overlook reality? pictures don't do that!) ... and if you're feeling brave, post them where we can see them and be encouraged and inspired by them, as well as oohing and ahhing over your good work!

Proof It Didn't Kill Me

So Hollie and I finished up my bedroom today. Yeah yeah, pix of that coming some other day. Actually maybe I'll wait until I paint and decorate it. But the closets and drawers look great. WOOT! But that's not what I'm here to talk about ...

Hollie's son volunteered to sort out and prep the garage for organizing -- I should've done it when it was warmer, it was eleventy-billion below today. But since he's a young man, he has no fear of the cold, no need for hats and gloves. I sent my eldest two out to help do some of the moving stuff out. We didn't really take everything OUT and organize it, because I wanted to sort of sort it, see what we had. You don't know how many shovels you have until they're all in one place.

So when Hollie and I were done in the bedroom, nearing the end of her time there, we went out to see how the kids had done. I only hyperventilated a little. And had that sinking "all this stuff, spread all over" feeling a little. Okay, a lot. But I bucked up and didn't freak out too much.

And they'd done a great job of sorting and spreading the things out. Except we had to get things back IN the garage before we were 'done' for the day, just sorted. And Hollie was out of time. But couldn't stop working. Here it was, past time for her to go, and she was trying to sweep the corner before putting the trash cans in, even though we'd just have to move all that OUT again tomorrow. I had to shove her into her car and quick lock her in to keep her from working. She was very unsure about leaving me with any tasks -- and with good reason! Since she always tacks on the phrase "if you want to" to any assignment she gives me ... well, you know how that turns out. I take the leeway she gives, and never want to. ha ha!

So today I told her to tell me to tidy up the sorting and put it back, and not to say "if you want to" ... and I promised I'd do it and it wouldn't kill me.

So this link is really for her, tucked away in her cozy home with her family, to prove that I didn't freeze and die trying to sort things out there. LOL. I present:

The Garage, put away sorted neatly but not yet organized.

I guess I should've taken before pix, you would've appreciated them. But I didn't. So you'll just have to wait for tomorrow, Organized With Room for the Small Van.

But see, Hollie? I told you I could do it without dying! I almost could've even made room for the van to fit, but I figured since we'll get it all out tomorrow or Friday, I didn't need to go that extra mile today. So I didn't. But still! It's even pretty tidy. I think you'll be pleased.

Tomorrow and Friday we'll toss and organize and it'll be like a new garage. Too bad I waited until it was too cold to paint.

Oh, and I didn't see any dead mice. So that's good. THAT might've killed me.

***

Oh, and I almost forgot to try to answer Reader Questions.

Betsy asked (and I paraphrase): "Where are the containers and shelves coming from?"

Most of the things we've used have been somewhere else in the house. We've bought a few cute basket packages from Meijer, and a few wire shelves ... I had some cute baskets buried in clutter here and there in the house, and the cubes with totes in the living room and boys room were things I'd bought previously in my attempts to control clutter myself. And I already owned lots of plastic totes that used to hold our too-too-too many toys in the past, in my various previous attempts to organize myself, which Hollie reclaimed with more thought and order than I'd done.

On top of that, Hollie is a prodigy in box customizing. She's taken shoe boxes and cardboard boxes and tapes little dividers and such, so that they hold things that are alike yet distinct. So many of the tidy spaces you see are divided with things I already had, and aren't cute and fancy when you look close, just amazingly functional. I really haven't spent a whole lot of money on organizey things yet, the most was on some cutesy baskets that I haven't figured out where to put yet.

As we've successfully decluttered, we've emptied out some dressers and cupboards and shelving units and been able to use them in other spaces.

Which brings me to Peggy's Question: "Okay, I have to know. Where IS everything? I see all the nearly-empty shelves and I have to wonder where all the boys' stuff went."

That's the other thing Hollie has really been a wonderful blessing with ... she has helped us to be more successful in our decluttering. In the boys' room I can't tell you how many times I'd swooped through (usually crabbily) and boxed up all their toys and stuff and stomped the box down to the basement to ... well, to be ignored or eventually just brought back up. Getting rid of stuff helped a little for a little while, but never really helped a LOT. Hollie helped us narrow down what we kept to fewer things, but additionally provided clear, labeled spaces for those things we DID keep.

If you look back at the boys before picture, you'll see that most of the mess was papers, toys, and clothes. We got rid of clothes the boys said they didn't like/wear (yes, even the ones I was fond of) and made clear homes in the closet for the ones we kept. We got rid of almost all the misc. toys, keeping just a few categories: Bionicles, Lego, Killer Bunnies game. We put in one of those magazine holders from elsewhere in the house to hold special papers and pictures and creations.

There was a bookshelf in the boys' closet that held books and piles of papers and misc. toys. We relocated the books to downstairs, leaving a very few to "live" in the bedroom, and we gave away some toys and relocated others to the rest of their "family" downstairs. Then we hung all their shirts and pants (Hollie's idea, she claimed it was easier, and it's working wonderfully!) which cleared out most of the dresser. Jammies, socks, and underwear fit into tidy canvas totes in that cube-thing, since those totes were no longer filled with miscellaneous junk.

Likewise in the rest of the house, giving away and throwing a way a fair amount of stuff is the main thing that has enabled us to find *space* -- and part of the idea is that if we leave a little free space, we'll have room to put things as we relocate them or buy more and such. So we're only aiming to fill shelves and cupboards 75-80% ...

We've had at least one "goodwill" box and some days two or three, for each day we've worked. And there's been a lot of things going to the trash, too.

I don't think I could've rid our home of so much stuff without her encouragement, gentle but firm questioning, and persistence. But it's been worth it.

Does that help answer those questions? Good thing it wasn't a 100 words or less essay question. LOL.

MoreOrgo Pix For You

I have totally lost track of number of days for the OrgoFun

And these aren't all my pictures.

And I forgot to go through and label them when I dumped them to a little web page.

But here's some more pix. I'll put just a few here, and you can go look at the rest if you want more, more, more.

Maybe later today I'll take more pix and put them up.

Hollie and I are almost done with the main floor.

But what we've got left is the "doozy" stuff to me -- all the boxes of "Kim's Stuff" I just have been shoving back in the house and in my mind. Ugh. I hate boxes of my stuff, LOL. And the BASEMENT. Ooooh, scary. Although really, I'm looking forward to the day when the garage and basement are tidy and useable, even if there's still issues with the cat and the basement. To be able to go down and find something quick would be nice.

So anyway. Enough rambling. On with the Catch Up.

Here's the link to all (well, many of) the pix: MoreOrgo! (don't be fooled, it's the same link!)

here's the upstairs (kids') bathroom, after:

I can't find a before picture of that bathroom, but trust me, you don't want to see it anyway. SCARY!

Part of the big boys' room, after:

they've been doing a great job of keeping it clean! And they got bunk beds out of the deal, so they're thrilled. You can see a little of their before room here and here.

Little Boys' room:

They each got bigger beds out of the deal, and we left room in the cupboards for them to still climb in and play, which you might remember from this before pic...

And then there's the guest room, as it was just before Linda arrived:

here's a pic from before, when I was using the room to store extra unfolded bedding, mending, and all the OrgoBoxes ...

the funny thing, to me, is that that guest room, bad as it was before, is the one room I thought as we did it that I could've done myself -- because on Guest Room OrgoDay we didn't actually sort and declutter, we just *relocated* all the sorting and decluttering to the basement. While I'm terrible at Organizing and Decluttering on my own, I am not too bad at relocating everything quickly. LOL. But Hollie did help me get some of the clutter out of there and we moved a dresser into the guest room closet, with some space for guests to use and also to hold my yarn stash.

Maybe I'll take some more pix to link to, I see as I look over my pictures that I don't have any after of the back room and my desk, both of which are impressive changes even if Hollie let me hide (for now) all my stuff I wasn't prepared to thoughtfully sort. Okay, she wouldn't call it hiding. But she was gracious enough to let me make a box of "I'll think about it later" for my desk and for much of the back room.

The back room is a story in itself, I'll save that for later.

Anyway, don't forget that there's a few more after pix of the boys' rooms here, if you want more, and those you can click to see bigger. But again, it's the same link as above! Ha ha! I just didn't want you to miss it.

Phew, I'll call this half-caught-up on blogging. I feel better already.

We Interrupt this ... uh ... blog hiatus ...

... for the first "real" snow of the year!

Real meaning the first one to *stick* ...

Oh, and before I show you the snow-on-plants, I must add this disclaimer: I DID take a few of the children (too few, they were all coming back in, cold and wet, before I got the camera out) but they were blurry. I guess blurry with excitement, I don't know. At least since it's the first snow of the year I'm guaranteed more kids in snow photo ops!

Tiny pix for my dial up friends ~ you know who you are! ~ click for the full size Flickr pix.

Regarding the lengthy dawdling pause ... I could claim I've been busy. I sort of have. Hollie and I have pressed on and are running out of jobs I can deal with, LOL. We even did my DESK the other day! I'm sure you want to see that.

Have you ever gotten so behind on blogging and pix that you figure the job of blogging the pix is just too overwhelming, both to do and for your dial-up friends to read? No? Well I have. And so I keep meaning to get around to it, but then I think of all the before and after pix to round up, and all the rambling to do, and I think "Yeah, I'll do that in a few minutes." and you all know what THAT means.

But today's a holiday and Linda is here, handling all the cooking, so maybe I will have time to blog. I could try.

Of course, you'll all be too busy to read it today ...

hm.

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You

Boy am I behind in blogging! It's been almost a week!

Yet to come:

More Organizing! Big Boys Room! Guest Room! Bathrooms!

More Fun! Our Concert and Movie Date Get-Away!

More Rambling!

Right now I have to fly, for more organizing, but stay tuned for more, more, more!

The Sixth Day

Phew, are you keeping up with the pace of this?!?!

Today, OrgoDay6, we started upstairs with the girls' room.

http://www.andfam.net/kim/OrgoDay6/OrgoDay6.html

I took some 'before' pictures the day Hollie came for the initial consultation, when we'd tried our best to tidy up. But this morning she came before the girls' had cleaned their rooms, so here's a 'worse' before. Having a place FOR things I think will really help them keep it clean.

In the pictures you might see that the hallway and boys' room are also in process. Hollie was busy organizing the girls decluttered and sorted things, and didn't really need me hanging around trying to help. So I took the big boys and we started the initial sorting into categories. I'm not sure how much we helped - but we did have a trashbag full and some things to give away, so at least it was a start. Of course, the 'magic' comes when she puts everything away, since that's when I feel most helpless.

While Hollie was busy and there wasn't much room for anyone else in the girls' room with all their stuff *out* Hollie's son took to the upstairs hallway. Not only did he sort and pile and organize the not-yet-gone through stuff, but he vacuumed AND scrubbed the railing clean. And he said he was having fun. I think he actually meant it. Learning to work cheerfully is a discipline I need, but to be honest, I can't really imagine scrubbing things being fun. Maybe I have a gene missing?

Anyway, stay tuned tomorrow for Boys' Room Part 2 - the Real Work

The Real Day 5 and an Easter Egg

I'm back! Did you miss me when my email and blog server were dead?

OrgoDay 5

Today was the 5th day of 'real work' -- we had a little less time, but still made good progress!

http://andfam.net/kim/OrgoDay5/OrgoDay5.html

Today we attacked the storage in the front hall ~ there's some built in shelves with a cupboard underneath, that I've 'curtained off' as storage because I just don't have (or want?) that much cutesy display stuff. If you were to come in my front door and down the front hall past some bedrooms, you'd pass this area.

Also, the coat closet doesn't have a door because long ago the carpenter ants ate the bathroom door, and the door isn't a standard size, so we replaced the bathroom door by stealing the coat closet door, which just has a curtain now. Is that weird?

So I don't know if getting those two areas cleared out doesn't look like a lot, but really, a lot of it was "nightmare" stuff to me -- things I'd stashed up there long ago and just made me weary to think of going through. But with Hollie to chat with and keep me moving (and guilt me into working with her ceaseless work, and me standing around realizing I ought to be working too) it wasn't too bad at all.

I think tomorrow we'll start on children's bedrooms!

And an Easter Egg ... of Yarn

In other news, I spent my non-organizing time on a craft project.

Yes, that's right, I didn't work on any decluttering and organizing without Hollie.

Aint no Orgo when she's gone ...
Aint to work when she's away ...
Aint no Orgo when she's gone,
and she's always gone too long,
and I find new ways to play ...

So yeah. I bought some undyed superwash wool sock yarn from http://www.knitpicks.com/ ... and read up on Kool Aid dyeing at knitty.com ... and finally decided Sunday evening to get to it.

So I knit a row of stockinette and a row of the funky zig zag in the sock pattern I want to use. I marked the start and end of the rows, then frogged it and measured and got about 40" per row. I decided I wanted 3 rows, more or less, of each color band, and that I wanted it to go blue, green, blue, pink-variegated, and then repeat.

So ... 3 rows x 40" = 120" per color band, which equals 10' per band. (right?)

4 colors before repeating = 40' circumference of the pattern.

So I made a 40' circle of some old burnt orange yarn, and placed it around two chairs around 20' apart, and then walked with the hank of yarn around, and around, and around.

You would think that would be one of those peaceful, mindless tasks, right? But it wasn't. It was really stressful! I had to keep carefully flipping the hank so that it didn't tangle as I went. And as careful as I was, I couldn't keep the tension of the big loops even, so some were saggy. At the end the last few rounds got tangled and I had to sit and carefully untangle before wrapping and I was just really stressed out by it. Plus it took a lot longer than I'd naively imagined.

After wrapping, I measured off a 5' (doubled) loop at one end, then two 10' sections next to each other in the middle, and let the last ~5' (a little more, I don't know where I measured wrong) doubled end be for the red. I carefully did a criss-cross banding to mark the separations and to hold the loops so they would tangle less ... for the pink I zig-zagged the loop back and forth and tied it loosely so I could just dip half of it in the pink, giving myself a few stitches pink, a few white, repeating pattern for those rows. I hoped.

Then I dyed the sections in Kool-Aid on the stove.

green = lemon lime kool aid, 2 packages
red = strawberry, 2 packages
blue = ice blue raspberry lemonade and berry blue, mixed, 5 packages total

A few things I'd do differently -- 2 packets strawberry was a much deeper and redder "pink" than I wanted. Plus I should've wrapped the zig-zag much tighter, effectively tie-dying the white section off, because it started to come undone and I got less white banding than I wanted. I pulled the red out early, before all the dye was absorbed, and so it bled onto the 'white' and made it pink. Oh well.

There's more pix at Flickr by the way, if you want to see the rinsing step and the hanging in the basement to dry part.

If I thought wrapping around the chairs was tedious, I hadn't even dreamed of laying out the 20' long band and then UNwrapping the dyed loops, trying carefully to pass the half-rolled ball over and under the places where it had twisted. It took me over 3 hours to roll it into a center-pull ball.

I'm really hoping there's some sort of yarn dyeing initiation that I just went through, and someone will say, "ha ha, now that you did it the hard way, here's the easy way!" because the Kool Aid part was fun, but the wrapping and unwrapping, not so much!

But in the end I got this pretty little easter egg, with which to make socks from. Do you think I'll get them finished by Easter?

Fifth Day Thursday Soup Day Friday

I didn't blog the Fifth Day, I'm sorry. All that nap skipping is catching up with me.

Thursday was the Fifth day, and I completely forgot to take pictures.

I worked on finishing up some toys and puzzles, sorting and making sure all the pieces were there and helping the children choose which to keep. Hollie and her son worked on the books in the Living Room, and all the little things that were NOT books that were crammed into the shelves. How does that happen? Hollie started by - you guessed it - taking down ALL the books.

I tried to tell her that The FlyLady had told me (well, not ME specifically, but people like me) NOT to take down all the books because it's too overwhelming. But Hollie is not overwhelmed and daunted by that, so she took them all down. She piled them up for me to go through, and I plucked a few to get rid of. We brought stray books down from upstairs, sorted out schooly books from fun books from Christian books from parenting books. We set schooly books aside for their own zone elsewhere. Hollie's son organized all the little kid books at their eye level, and bigger kid books nearby. Hollie "preorganized" all the other books back in. I like that term she used, "preorganized" ~ she left spaces and options so that, as we finish going through the house, we can work in things that were left out, or re-reorganize if what we did before doesn't make sense.

I forgot to take a picture at the end, but, since they're books lined up, they don't look a LOT different. I'll take a picture maybe on Monday when we wrap up the living room.

So what about Friday? We didn't work today. It was planned that we'd work 9-5, and we were both excited about what we could get done. But Hollie was sick and in pain all night, and had to unwillingly call it off. I did my best to encourage her to stay home and rest; I was disappointed not to keep working but would've been more upset to have her trying to work through pain! Sometimes you just have to listen to your body's signals. And I know her well enough already to know she's not a "drop everything at the first sign of not feeling well" slacker like me. :-)

So what did I do today?

I tried to catch the 'done' rooms back up to 100% -- I've found that, in keeping with my bad habits, I work until things are maybe 75% done. Like dishes washed, counters washed, but stopping short of drying dishes and putting them away. Or putting MOST things away but leaving the last few out. So I started at the door and worked my way around the kitchen and living room trying to make sure I'd at least caught up to how we'd left things.

And then, because my husband was also feeling not well (although with an unrelated ailment!) I made chicken noodle soup for dinner.

... and because the counters were clean enough to do it ...with homemade noodles!! Or dumplings, as Dale's family called them. But you can't fool me. They're noodles.

Then we watched the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and ate popcorn.
Then we sent the children to bed, and The Grand Lunar sent himself to bed.

I'll be sending myself, soon. It's been a long week.

Hopefully we'll be back on track with the Organizing on Monday, if Hollie is available. I'll keep you posted!

The Fourth Day ~ And Meanwhile ...

Today was OrgoDay4 ...

but lest you think all I've done is work hard (well, I think you all know me better than that anyway!) I threw in some more of what's been going on.

Yesterday it was leaf-heaping:

Tobi-Wan floofing leaves on himself:

Low in the leaves he lay, Garkie the Jedi, waiting the coming Sith, Garkie my son...
Up from the leaves he arose! With a mighty triumph o'er his foes:

Three Monkeys in a leafy nest:

and tonight was Tent Night:

A tent in the living room? How can that be?

They even get to sleep there:

Um ... except they're not sleeping. Yet.

But you're still wondering about OrgoDay4, aren't you?

Today we moved on to the family room and living room. I decluttered quite a few videos (after beginning the morning explaining why I didn't need to get rid of any, ha ha) but I didn't get pix of that. I was supposed to do a filing cabinet, but we moved on to toys and that took longer than we imagined.

The toys. Oh, the toys, toys, toys, TOYS!!

Too bad I didn't have a picture of the cabinets before.

Hollie began by ... *gulp* having the children DUMP all the toys into a huge heap.

A huge freaky heap of all kinds of toys, mixed together. This is just a small piece of the heap.

We even brought up some of the toys in the basement, and the toys from the kids rooms, and put them in the heap so nearly all the house's toys - and all the upstairs games and puzzles, were out on the floor at once.

Here's the cupboards, emptied, with their contents barfed out in front of them:

It brings to mind the near-end of Cat in the Hat, where the children say, "This mess is so big, and so deep, and so tall, we can not clean it up. There is no way at all."

So little Buzz took a SpiderMan break, and I took a PhotoOp break. Since he was leaping the whole time, none of the pix are great. Here, he leaped right out of the photo frame.

So anyway, the toys. She wanted us to take that giant heap and to sort it into bins, and then declutter.

The worst part was that the decluttering was slow, and Hollie had to revive me twice, plus give me several pep talks on the value of decluttering and a sparsely-toyed home. Which was fine, but then we ran out of time. And she had to leave. Before the mess was done. Leaving me to do some on my own.

::blink blink:: did you catch that? On. My. Own.

It was too much for me.

Okay, I'm half kidding. We got through the toys, and she really didn't want to leave without it being done, I could tell. But she needed to and I boldly reassured her that not only would I not die, but I would sort through the puzzles and games returning odd pieces to their games and making sure puzzles have all their pieces and stuff like that. I decluttered some, and then neatly put away all the things that weren't quite done that we could finish tomorrow.

So, even though it's not Hollierginized, and it's not done, it looks pretty good, don't you think?

Maybe there's hope for me after all.

Thus Endeth the Third Day

Today was, I think, the most stressful day so far, even though we only worked 9-2 (well, it took us until 2:30 to wrap things up); artsy craftsy stuff have always been sort of overwhelming, in part because I want to keep it all, in part because there's so many in-progress stuff and crafty-gifts to deal with.

So when it was all spread out on the table and I didn't know what to do with it, I was freaked out and felt like we weren't making any progress on it. Again I felt like I was just staring helplessly at all the unsorted piles, but Hollie gave me tasks, papers to go through, and I sorted them while she thought and organized and tried on different containers. Hollie brought one of her daughters today, and the girls sorted crayons and tested pens and peeled the paper off broken crayons for future-melting purposes.

And in the end we DID get it done:

http://www.andfam.net/kim/OrgoDay3/OrgoDay3.html

more or less. In reality, much of what was in there was 'schooly' (because it was our art/school cupboard last time I officially organized it, and now most of the schooly stuff will NOT live there. So all that schooly stuff is sorted into different boxes awaiting the day we do the schooly stuff. So it's not like EVERYTHING we took out is back in it's home.

But on the other hand, at the end of the work time all those flux boxes were stacked back in the guest room and not visible. So the task at hand - finishing off the crafty cupboards in the dining room, is complete.

Tomorrow we move on to Family room and/or living room.

For now ... I need a nap.

Thus Endeth the Second Day

Phew, working 9-6 makes for a long day!

Sorry I couldn't post sooner; In addition to working until nearly six, tonight was also my date out with Tobi-Wan, and then after getting kids to bed I had a little putting away and tidying up to do. So I'll try to make this quick.

Organizing Day Two -- back up two posts if you're not up to speed with us here, LOL.

Day Two Pix:

please note that the LAST pic somehow showed up first on the page, but after that they're in order top to bottom ... so think of the first pic as a preview, LOL, and then the before pix.
http://www.andfam.net/kim/OrgoDay2/OrgoDay2.html

We really finished the *kitchen* today, but still have the dining room / craft areas to do tomorrow ~ the schooly/crafty cupboards intimidate me, but it will be nice to have them done and done well.

We worked all day. We agreed to take a lunch break, but they worked while they ate. I told them that for lunch they were no longer my Organizing Helpers but my guests, but apparently they really wanted to keep working... so I finished my yogurt smoothie quick and went back to work as much as I could.

My children were a little more tired and squirrelly today, but we were still able to keep working, sorting, cleaning -- I even pitched some of my beloved spices!

By the end of the day everything (!) in the kitchen proper (except cleaning OUT the oven, which I was going to do tonight but will have to do tomorrow night) is done. Hollie said she's done houses where it's taken 4-5 days, so us finishing a pretty big kitchen in 2 days wasn't bad at all. You know me, I was afraid my kitchen was the worst evah. But apparently not. We had a bag and a half of trash, and a BIG box for good will, plus continued to fill the many boxes of things that go elsewhere.

The method was really the same as yesterday; take everything out of a zone, weed through it for different room stuff, declutter and toss stuff, and then she put it all back in. And Hollie's son put shelf paper on many of the shelves and that made them look much nicer. One very nice thing about this method was, at the end of the day, when we were wrapping it up, we just stacked all the "elsewhere" boxes up in the guest room and the kitchen was clean, and those boxes are just waiting quietly for us in the morning.

Tomorrow we're starting at 9 again but only going until 2, I think.

I need to fold laundry, but instead I'm going to bed, I can't believe it's already after 11 and it's been a very long day.

You'll be proud to hear that I did not check my email ONCE during that 9-6 window, not even a peek. And I didn't even die not checking! ;-)

Thus Endeth the First Day

Stop.

If you didn't already read my previous post about "The Organizer Lady" coming (Let's call her Hollie. That's her name.) go read that first.

Okay, you're back? Ready to hear how day 1 went? Good, good. Fasten your seatbelts.

Day 1

Okay, here's the Day 1 summary:

pix of day 1:
http://www.andfam.net/kim/OrgoDay1/OrgoDay1.html

So Hollie and her son came with boxes and trash bags and rags and cleaners. And she explained that she likes to start at the front door and work around.

I was appalled that the first thing inside the front door is the JUNK DRAWERS and did NOT want to start there. But start we did. She jumped right in.

We labeled boxes as we came to things: office-y stuff, toys, kitchen gadgets, tools, misc. (not much went in there!) Goodwill, health & beauty, kids' rooms, etc (I think there were more boxes ...) and we just started tossing things into those boxes. We got the drawers emptied out and wiped out and she took out all the organizity holders inside and washed them all off well, and she started moving stuff around. Most of the office-y stuff, tools, and JUNK did not go back in. All that stuff stayed in its respective boxes for later, we'll keep adding TO those boxes as we work our way around the house to where that box should live. So only the kitchen gadget one got emptied, really.

This was slightly different from other methods I've used where I had a "put away" box for things that just went elsewhere ... that box has always ended up big and full and scary to me. Today we ended with a big pile of small boxes of different categories. So if I wanted to put things away (although I'll wait until we work around/through the house so that those other places have some logic and space) I would just have one box at a time, not a giant mixed and overwhelming pile.

By the end of the time (we worked 10 - 3) we had a box and a trash bag full of stuff for goodwill, which she took with her.

We filled about a bag and a half of trash.

And we did a lot of cupboards and all the drawers.

Hollie just worked steadily. She enjoyed arranging and re-arranging the things to see how they would fit and what made sense.

Those are the two biggest differences between how she worked and how *I* work (or, um, don't work, as the case may be) ...

1.) she (and her son) just kept working. She didn't take breaks to check email or sit and blog ;-) ...

2.) she didn't seem to feel the need to figure it all out FIRST and THEN put stuff in it's place. She said once or twice that we might move those things again. I gasped, realizing her method was breaking the "only touch stuff once, decide now" rule of decluttering. But it allowed her to keep moving, being willing to change things later if need be. She hasn't had to RE-move things much (yet) but it was interesting to think that option was open. LOL. I often get daunted by the whole "where SHOULD it BEST live" part and never come up with the BEST plan, so I falter.

I did notice her general undauntedness compared to mine. She had me take things out of the cupboard above the microwave, which has been quite crammed full in an awkward way. Take it all out and wipe out the cupboard. So when it was ALL out I was a little freaked that all the stuff was piled up and some of it I wasn't sure what to do with, and so it FELT like ALL of it was a giant "ack, what do I do now" but she just worked with me to put things away one at a time -- things I rarely use in the top, back of the cupboard, things I use frequently down close where I can reach ... she put all my glass bowls up high and cheerfully moved them down when I said, "wait, I use them and can't reach them ..."

So in the end, we did all the lower *kitchen* cupboards and one of the upper ones, and under the sink. She started on the upper pantry ones and got those 1/3 or more done before it was time for them to leave.

Meanwhile, her son just worked steadily and quietly. He helped sort through the junk at first, them moved on to cleaning things. While we had a drawer empty he wiped it out thoroughly. When that was done, he scrubbed the counter, wiped out under the sink, washed all around the sink, scrubbed the hard water scale guck off the dish drainer and made space for the dish drainer to live under the sink. When ALL that was done, he washed the stove thoroughly, removing all the burners and scrubbing them and even removing the screen on the vent and washing it

When THAT was done he kept working, cleaning the screens on the kitchen window and washing both sides of the windows and the front door glass, too!

I was amazed. He didn't ask what to do next, although she suggested a few things once or twice. He just kept working.

I was a little nervous that while they did this they were thinking "Ew, has this oven ever been cleaned?" or "how could anyone let their windows get so cobwebby and gross?" but if they were thinking those things they didn't let it show.

The only part I felt a little bad about was sometimes I wasn't sure how to help. I really am not good at putting stuff back IN drawers logically, and don't naturally think "oh I'll scrub this while I wait" like her son apparently does, so I sort of stood dumbly by, watching, and tried to ask "what should I do next" which kept making Hollie laugh. I couldn't tell if it was the "what, is she serious?" type of laugh ... I worried that she thought I was just one odd duck of a woman. But if she did think so, she was very gracious and didn't let on.

SOoooo we're going to keep going next week, date and time to be determined. I MIGHT even keep working on my own.

She did leave me with an assignment:
1.) return all those pop cans/bottles that are in the way
2.) go through the recipe notebooks and get rid of what we don't want
3.) if I want, go through the plate/cup cupboard

but she also said, other than the pop bottles, if I didn't feel up to doing it alone, I didn't have to, that we could wait and do it as a team.

HEYYYYyyyyyy, I'm on the cleaning team with Hollie! I didn't get cut! LOL!

Woooo! I made the team!

Although, I must admit, if she were paying me to be a helper, I'm not sure I would still have a job, LOL.

Almost Like Being on Television

Have you ever watched those shows on TV where someone swoops in and helps a poor pathetic clutter-bug family get organized?

And you watch it thinking, "Wow, I would love to have someone do that with me. If they were nice. And didn't pit me against my husband in a big yard sale. And didn't mock my stuff."

Well I have.

And I even went so far, a year ago or so, to surf and see if there was anyone in my area who did that. There were some down near Detroit, but as far as I could tell their rates were more than I'd pay and their radius of employment did not extend to my location. And I figured I'd never really do it anyway.

But then I saw a post on my local homeschooling group's classified ads.

For someone local. And not just that, but a fellow Christian homeschooler. Who even offered a free email and in-home consultation.

And so.

It begins.

Today is Day 1.

Well, Day 2, technically, since the in-home walk through sort of counts as day one.

But today is the day we actually START decluttering and organizing.

Meet Hollie and her son:

Hollie is an organizer, who, having come from a distant past of clutter now helps organize for friends and family and is expanding into a business of helping poor schmucks like Kim.

Meet Kim:

See Kim's new glasses? Do you like them?

Wait, that's not the point here. I was going to take a picture of me sitting and chewing my nails looking nervous yet hopeful about starting today. But in reality, I have to do some panic-cleaning before Hollie comes, even if my mess is why she's coming. So I'll use yesterday's not-yet-posted (well, NOW it's posted) new glasses picture. Kill two blogs with one stone.

Anyway, Meet Kim. Kim is a disorganized doofus of a slob. Actually Kim has made reasonable progress over the years in coming from near-total chaos, but has decided to call in help for a big push to get over the hump, making her life organized and smooth running.

Today it begins.

Meet Kim's Kitchen:

As the first room one enters after Kim's small entryway, as well as the heart of the home, the organizing attack begins here.

Now, in true TV style, having met the participants, we'll cut away to a commercial and when we return some things will, miraculously, be done. Especially since I don't REALLY have time to sit and blog about this right now. ;-)

Oh, and a note to my local innately-organized friends ~ please do not be offended that I've gone this route to hire someone rather than have you over. I do not doubt your abilities, having seen your lovely homes. I just felt better about inviting a stranger to work with me and my foot dragging clutter loving lazy whiny self than expose you to all that. Truth be told, I was a little afraid that you, my good friends, wouldn't like me after working with me. Yeah, yeah, I know that probably sounds dumb, but still. It's because I love you that I didn't take you up on your offers to help me. Of course, now I've met Hollie and she's very sweet and encouraging and so I'm sure we'll become friends and then I'll have to fire her and find another stranger, ha ha. Just kidding, Hollie. Sort of. ;-)

A Trip to Whiting Forest - or why I could never be a real photographer

Here are just a few of the bazilliondy pictures I took this weekend when my sister's family was visiting and we went to Whiting Forest.

I could never be a real photographer because, while I like taking a bazilliondy pictures, I have a lot of ADD when it comes to siting down and sorting through them and deciding which of the bazilliondy are good enough to blog or post. Especially when there's hundreds of shots up through autumn leaves to the sky.

So here are some for you. Let's do family first, artsy fartsy second.

Eminoodle pondering autumn:

The Grand Lunar and I ~ I'm squinting but my eyes aren't quite closed ... not ... quite ...

Tobi-Wan - or should I say Toadi-wan? - squats under a fallen tree (bigger pic at Flickr):

Tobi-wan and iCat leap from the tower rails (click for larger pic at Flickr)

Buzz in a tree (also bigger at flickr - can I just say CFB - click for big?):

Buzz, BigE, and Gark (CFB)

Looking up at the family in the tower:

All of us. Well, except me. (CFB)

We also saw a pileated woodpecker, although I wasn't able to get a great shot (CFB):

And Buzz found some rather worried Mac & Bubbie berries:

Earlier that day, iliacat and gark got to wash our skylights from the roof - a very exciting task. I should've reminded gark to look through the clean part:

Lastly, here's a few obligatory artsy fartsy type shots, all of these are click-to-Flickrable:

My Sweet Woot Reprise

I meant to post this last week, but am easily sidetracked. (oh, really?)

We are the proud recipients of another woot! deal ... specifically one of the oft-wooted refurb iRobot Roombas! Yeah, baby, we're moving into the 1980's with the Robot Vacuum! Remember how, in the 80's, we dreamed about all the futuristic devices we'd all soon have?

Now I have one! WOOT!

My sweet woot Hm, my woot Hm, my woot

I really want to see you
Really want to watch you, woot
Really want to vac with you
But you charge so long, my woot

My sweet woot
Hm, my woot
Hm, my woot

I really want to Roomba, woot
Really want iRobot woot
Really want to charge you, woot
And it won't take long, my woot
(hallelujah)

And I must admit ... it's pretty cool. It was even brave enough to go under our bed! ::shudder::

It isn't perfect, but like the FlyLady says, "housework, even done poorly, still blesses your family" ... or something like that. it does a better job than, um, not doing it.

Perhaps you're thinking what I was thinking, and still think in my guilty mind ... why buy a robot to do what the children should be trained to do?

Well ... all I can say is ... um ... the robot is way cool. WAY COOL!

Double-click the irobot picture to play video:

And look at what enthusiasm the iRobot evokes! How often do you get a whole herd of children lined up to, um, watch housework?

Besides, I'm sure by the time my children are grown manual vacuuming will be a thing of the past. The future is here, baby!

Turns out I have Super Powers

I have a nagging feeling I've discovered Super Powers before, but I can't remember what they are. Maybe I have the SuperHero Power of forgetfulness?

But that's not what I discovered today.

Today I discovered that I had the amazing ability to look straight through reality as if it weren't there.

I had been out shopping, and came home and dumped my bags next to the ones the children had carried in for me. I do remember thinking the kitchen was even more trashed than I thought I'd left it.

A bit later The Grand Lunar asked me if we'd received some things we ordered. Things that would come in a Big Unmissable Box. We had received a package earlier, and I didn't remember seeing one by the door or on the way in through the kitchen, and there wasn't any placed on his desk by the children while I was gone. So I told him no.

I realized a while later that, given the state of chaos in the kitchen, it was possible that a smaller-than-expected box might have been overlooked, particularly if I was as distracted as usual.

So I went back to check.

And there, in plain sight, was not one but TWO HUGE boxes. Well, maybe not huge, but big and unmissable.

Also, I ripped the rear-view mirror off my mom's van without even trying. With my bare hands. Apparently in addition to my ability to look through reality, I have super human strength.

When I handed it back to my mom, she claimed that it falls off twice a year. I think she's just in denial, not ready to deal with having a superhero for a daughter. If she thought about that too much, she might worry that she has superhero powers herself. If I know my mom, she doesn't want that kind of pressure.

So. Anyway.

The ability to look right through reality as if it weren't there. And superhuman strength.

Wow.

If those things don't make me special, I don't know what would.

Just A Little Post ... no, wait, a long rambly one.

some ramblings for you ...

Sometime this month is my Knittiversary ... I started knitting October 2006! Maybe I'll do a short summary of what I've knit in this first year.

Speaking of knitting ... that 2nd hat? I got to the end, where I should divide the stitches into 3 groups and kitchener them together and do the icord ends, when I changed my mind. Yes, me, winging it. I'm sure you're shocked and appalled. I decided to divide into three, but do each third onto three dpns and knit points, decreasing every other row. I'm trying to keep up with the waffle pattern, but the decreases make it confusing, so I'm ... erm ... winging the waffle pattern now. We'll see how it turns out.

Many deep thoughts rolling around in my head. One of them revolves around something I heard in a sermon a few weeks ago ... that the worst thing that could happen to a Christ-following believer who listens to a false teacher is that they'd lose their joy as they turned to trusting in something other than Christ. Now I don't really think I've followed any false teachers ... I do think that some of the things I've tried to do in my walk, that began as heartfelt obedience to Christ's grace, have become ... have ... weighed me down and become my focus, although not my hopes of redemption ... and that they are, perhaps, in part why I've lost the joy in my walk with Christ.

There's a lot more rolling around with that thought, but I don't want to start bawling and typing and typing and bawling. So we'll leave it at that.

Wait, no, apparently I'm rambling on. Go figure. :-)

~ I have struggled with feeling joyless, knowing I should feel joy, and not sure why not. And I think, in part, perhaps in whole, it is because I need to reclaim Christ as my "first love" and re-claim the understanding that all things come down to Christ and His mercy. To the cross and what He's done for me.

By way of analogy, I thought the other day that I felt a little like I've been clinging to the face of a cliff. At the moment, how I got there doesn't matter as much as what next. I've always been a quitter when it comes to athletic events, and I have no real desire to go rock climbing. As a teen I had a chance to rock climb and repel and I remember standing at the top of the repelling cliff being frozen in terror. I remember the instructors reminding me what to do, how to start, and me thinking I was going to do it, but my body just wouldn't. I couldn't move. I remember the instructors starting to get a little frustrated with me because I just wouldn't start down.

I feel like God feels that way about me. I believe with all my heart that He's there with me as I hang on that cliff. I know He holds the ropes secure and I won't fall to my death. I know I'm secure in Him. And yet ... I'm frozen, not sure what to do next. I'm sure He's there telling me where to put my hands and feet.

Maybe I've been listening too much to other people. Maybe I've been so scared that I can't make out what He's saying. The Bible tells me that His sheep know His voice, and it troubles me that when I need it most, hanging on the side of a cliff, weary and frozen with helplessness, that I can't hear the simple step-by-step instructions He would surely be giving. Does he want me to let go, reach up so he can catch me? Does he want me to move a hand or foot this way or that, and He'll coach me up step by step? Why am I having trouble hearing the next step, much less acting on it?

After I rambled about that in my journal I asked Him for that one next move. The ONE thing I needed to hear / do ...

and He pointed me to an article about the core of our walk being the cross of Christ. Remembering that all things come down to that.

I'm still trying to figure out what that means to me, to make that the center of all I do, all I process ... yet another concept I comprehend intellectually but am not sure how to apply. But it rings true that I've drifted from that. I mean, I still know and believe that, but I haven't been LIVING with the cross of Christ at the center.

Bring me back to that, Lord, teach me how to live with the cross of Christ at the center of who I am and what I do.

While We Were Gone - part 1

so we were gone, on a trip to Wisconsin

we saw family, friends, and other friends

it was a good time, but tiring. I crammed a lot of plans into a few short days. And bookended it with all-day driving for the other two days.

One of the things we did was meet some friends for a cornfield maze at Treinen Farm near Lodi, Wisconsin.

We arrived before most of the group, so the children played in a big "sandbox" of dried corn. It had a big corrugated plastic slide which apparently was really cool.

Some of the children in the corn:

Buzz in the corn:

The corn maze was 15 acres !!!! In the shape of an enchanted castle! Pretty gihugic!

The above picture was taken from the tower at the edge of the maze. You could climb up and look down on the maze. They had big flags on poles that you could carry, to look for your color nearby if you were separated from the group. We didn't take a flag. But we didn't lose anyone, fortunately.

They gave us one portion of the map, and there were places marked on the map to find another piece of the map. They also gave us an emergency map that we were not supposed to open, and you'd get a prize or something if you found all the pieces and didn't open the emergency map and found your way out. It was pretty neat. We let the children read the map and lead and they did very well! Better than I would've done. Once you were in the middle of the maze, the corn was tall and the maze walls were "thick" and you really couldn't tell - without the maps - where you were.

Here's the Grand Lunar, as seen through the corn.

The cell phone service was poor out in the cornfield boonies, but the child-signal was a strong 6-bars. I really wish this picture had come out better, but oh well. Maybe someday I'll get some artsy fartsy group portrait done like this.

Anyway, it was a nice visit, I'm glad we went. I had a lot more pix but I don't want to bog people down. Plus, I'm tired. So maybe I'll do another installment later. We'll see.

addendum, at Karen's request ~ yes, we survived! We had to backtrack a few minor times, but were never lost and never had to open the emergency map. The prizes were confusing, there were extra secret spots where you could get hole punches and if you got all the maze pieces and the punches you got some other-other prize, and we were sort of confused at the end because we survived but had no extra punches. So ... maybe we could've claimed something but didn't? I was just glad to emerge with the same number of children I started with, no more, no less.

A good rain storm

we did have a good rain storm yesterday.

The kind that waits until I get out of the car to pick up Eminoodle and then pours like a flood while I run into the building from my far-distant parking place, then lets up when I'm safely inside.

The kind that necessitates umbrella twirling, leaping and jumping, and a change of clothes at the end.

Buzz: thrilled to hold an umbrella and learn to twirl it:

Three twirling umbrellas:

One leaping lady:

Standing under the porch drip:

All in all, the good kind of rain storm.

In other news? Pond water + homemade growth brew + several days incubation time = a really stinky kitchen. On the agenda today? View the potions and toss the stuff!

I got stuff to say, but ...

it's really late!

I'm up so late!

why? WHY?

I had to do the newsletter for our small church (think adult sunday school class)

I had a half a page to fill at the end

I surfed up a comic and an old ad from the early 1900's.

I always wonder if others are amused by my space filling or irritated. No one has ever complained. But maybe they're all just frowning and wondering?

Oh, I did the hair thing again today. Tried to do a better job. But not so much with the striping. It's not worse, just not better. I think I need an assistant. I did two colors, because the rest of my hair was getting pretty shiny silver again. So now it's a "light" brown (which, really, is pretty dark. Today. until it starts fading) and a "light" reddish brown. The colors aren't too similar, I just did a bad job placing the stripes. I probably look like I have an orange blob on my head.

So anyway, I have some fairly deep stuff I'm thinking about and wanted to blog about.

I'm not sure when, though, because tomorrow we're leaving for a short trip and I'll need to pack. And stuff.

but I didn't want to leave you without ANY post.

Cause I know how you look forward to my rambles.

Or at least, I know how I pretend that you look forward to my rambles.

:-D

Buzzupdate

That has a nice ring to it, buzzupdate, doesn't it?

I didn't update on Buzz earlier because I was waiting for the end of the story.

Here it is:

Nursemaid's Elbow.

I'm kicking myself for initially thinking that, then second guessing. Nursemaid's elbow goes back into place easiest if it's treated fairly quickly. But because he wasn't quite presenting the classic symptoms, I decided it was something else, and to wait it out ...

now I know. I hope. It's funny how things you are familiar with can look a little different - just enough different - each time to keep you wondering.

But it wouldn't pop back in with the maneuver last night. All 3 of my nursemaid's elbow experiences are that my children's don't click back in right away. Hrm.

Doc wanted to call his brother, who is an orthopedic specialist or something like that. His brother is the one who fixed Eminoodle's Nursemaid's Elbow many years ago when hers wouldn't pop back in, either. But Doc Bro wasn't around last night, and it was late, and there wasn't much else to do ... so he sent us home and promised to call in the morning.

Once nice thing about Nursemaid's Elbow is that, when the arm is held in it's safe position and isn't moved, it doesn't hurt, at least after the initial while.

So he slept well but it still was out of place this morning, he woke whimpering with wide eyes, scared to move his arm. He played well, one handed, this morning. Classic Nursemaid's elbow. Doc and I made plans to meet with the brother-doc at 1 pm. Brother-Doc felt the "click" that it went back in.

Buzz was feeling better within the hour, and has been fine, since.

I wonder if they would teach me the maneuver?

Thanks for asking about and praying for Buzz, we appreciate it!

La-La-La-La La La ... La La La-La-La-La Lockers ... here we go

Here's a little photo-song of the locker installation. Um, if I got that Haircut 100 song in your head, shake it out, quick, 'cause the photo-song is a different song.

HUGE amounts of thanks to my friend Karen for taking all the pictures (as well as helping clean up dinner, because, after I helped get people settled in with heaps of pizza, Buzz and I took off for the doctor, and I missed the whole thing!!!)

Huge huge enthusiastic thanks, too, to Joe and Joe and their wives, for not ONLY helping with the physical labor, but also simply the enthusiasm and willingness to tackle a job that The Grand Lunar and I had pre-discouraged ourselves on. It's amazing how easy work can seem when good friends help you through it!

Here's the wall, waiting for the lockers. I was pleased to have gotten the area all ready, even the baseboard pried off, by locker time.

Make sure to sing along to the Itsy-Bitsy-Teeny-Weenie-Yellow-Polka-Dot-Bikini song:

from the garage to the walkway:

from the walkway to the door:

from the door through the doorframe:

now they're sideways on the floor:

from their end they lay them flat now:

then they turn them all around:

that looks good, move it back now:

take a break and stand around:

find the studs, measure caref'ly:

now you've got them in their place!

stand around and admire:

There's a smile on this mom's face!

*you see there's a few details to wrap up, like the fact they need the left side endcap cut and painted and screwed into place. Which hopefully will put that bent top piece back in place. But I think we can do it! The children are excited. I'm excited. Wooo!

It's Locker Day!

I have the greatest friends.

I finally quit procrastinating and emailed about the lockers. Two friends responded almost immediately and said "lets do it TONIGHT!"

So I'll order pizza for dinner for all of us and for our GREAT friends, and have iliacat make some brownies or something, and we'll get it done!

here's one last look at the lockers before, to give you that "man, they need to get OUT of there" feeling that I have every day.

In other news, Gark has an assignment in his schooly stuff to look at some pond water under a microscope. Which he was quite interested in. So we hauled out The Grand Lunar's Sister's Old Microscope, and dusted off the Old Digital Microscope, and even borrowed Moogies Old Microscope hoping for a glimpse of a paramecium or amoeba.

So far we've seen dead blobs of pond weed, and we've seen some scooting around tiny dots.

So far we've only been able to get a good focus at 100x on one old microscope, and the 200X on the digital works great but we haven't seen any little swimmies. the old microscopes have the potential of 300x, 400x, and I think even 600x if we can get the lenses cleaned off and the light source adjusted right.

But in the meantime, I surfed around and found that you can increase the number of little creatures in your pond water (usually you're lucky to see 1 or 2 in a drop, from what I read) by incubating them in happy pond goo. You can make your own growth mediums by boiling water and adding timothy hay (I substituted alfalfa, hope that's close enough) or some wheat grains (good thing I have them sitting around not being ground) or rice grains, or a little egg yolk, or dried milk, or yeast! So I boiled a bunch of water and made up 6 jars for each of the different solutions, and then we'll add pond water to make two solutions per jar, after the jars sit and percolate for awhile. Some you incubate immediately, some you wait. Apparently different little critters grow best in different cultures.

Soooo .... for your viewing pleasure: Pond Culture E1, with it's parent collections of Pond Water 1 (from near the surface) and Pond Water 2 (from near the bottom). E1 (and it's friend, E2) is the dried milk 'host' culture, and was the only one to be incubated immediately after mixing.

by the end of the weekend I'll have 12 jars of pond scum cultures, and hopefully some reports (and perhaps a digital picture or two) of the creatures we'll hopefully see. I hope.

In other-other news, little Buzz, who appears to be my accident-prone child, hurt his wrist today. He's asked to have ice on it and has sat still watching videos, crying when he tries to move it. For the moment we're taking a wait and see approach, since his last two injuries resolved themselves after a little rest and relaxation and babying. But if you could pray for wisdom for us and healing for him, I'd feel better. There's no swelling or discoloring, but his protecting it has lasted more than one video ...

When the Peeps Need Pix

After I teased you the other day with references to undisplayed pix, I got some requests to see them.

So, lest I disappoint you, my beloved blog peeps, here's some pix!

First up: The Hwimmin' Huit SuperHeroes, and then a Bad Guy in his Huit:

Yes, that's Buzz's bad guy face in the second picture. See how serious bad guys are? And see how he's wearing his Huit (Suit, minus that difficult to pronounce S) over his clothes. I guess I didn't get one with the boots, too.

Although I DID get this picture of him exercising in his boots:

In addition to proper exercise attire, you will note also the presence of proper exercise motivation, and proper exercise nutrition. No wonder I haven't done so well with the regular exercise. I rarely eat Star Wars action figures for breakfast, much less exert my efforts to squash stuffed frogs.

Now no one REALLY said they wanted to see my tote heap, but here it is, nonetheless, in it's before glory. There is no after glory. Yet.

In other news, some of you may be quietly wondering if I killed all those plants I planted this spring, but know me well enough to be afraid to ask. There's good and bad news on that front. A good handful of the plants did not survive this very dry summer, despite my best efforts to water and care for them. I haven't acted on the replacement guarantee yet because I'm not quite sure which of the what-ones died, I'll have to look at my order. Since most of the flowering plants did not bloom, even if they survived, I'm not sure which is which anymore. I never did draw that garden map.

But more than half DID survive, and I'm hopeful we'll see some blooms next year. One of my hardy hibiscus was gracious enough to even flourish and bloom, despite some little caterpillar really really lovin' on his leaves, and the other hibiscus planted out front was gracious enough to live, if not bloom. And my dark butterfly bush has also done well, not only not-dying, but blooming! These two are on my flickr pix if you want to see them bigger ...

So, there you go, pix-loving peeps. And, once more, my apologies to my dial-up friends.

Nothing to say but that's okay

Should one limit their blogging to when they have something to say?

I, for one, think not.

It's Tuesday now. I don't have anything exciting to say from the weekend.

I did take some pictures the other day when I hauled out all the totes for the Great Seasonal Clothing Swap.

For any of you who don't live in states with *seasons* or own a herd of children, the gist of the Swap is that when it goes from hot to cold we have to put away most of the t-shirts and shorts, and drag out the sweats and long sleeved shirts.

Why put away *most* ?? Ha ha ha! because in Michigan the transition time is not one of steadily declining temps from summer into fall where, at one point, you can say "ahh, we have moved from summer to fall and will not need our summer clothes." Indeed, we instead oscillate back and forth insanely, where one day might be high 80's and the next day in the 40's. And back and forth again. And again. And again. Necessitating a fairly long season of having a little bit of everything out.

Which drags the Great Seasonal Clothing Swap out in a frustrating manner if you'd prefer your totes of clothing to live in, say, the basement, attic, or back closet rather than the living room, where you have space to sort and pile and open and close totes.

So I did take a picture of the stacks and stacks of totes. Why not just one tote per child? Because their sizes are always in transition and some things must necessarily sit, tidily (or not so much) toted for several years. There is a big difference between recently-outgrown size 10 jeans and a small 6 year old, for example. And the in between child, unfortunately for the clothing, is of the opposite gender.

And of course there is also the totes of "I believe this will still fit next summer" and all of that. It adds up to a lot of totes.

But you don't really want to see the heaps of totes, do you? They're not really very interesting pictures. Although, I guess I will say the pictures of little boys in their floatie swimming suits - especially those worn as helmets - were amusing. Buzz went through a day or two of insisting on wearing the floatie suit over his clothes, with cowboy boots, too. Crazy boy.

Anyway, today I hope to wrap up the tote job to the point of stacking them back in the closet, where they are much more difficult to access but at least not trying to pass for living room decor, nor tempting anyone to scale them.

My, that's a lot of words for having nothing to say!

Shhh Probably not supposed to tell you

Do you ever do those online surveys that are supposed to be top secret?

Well shhhh. Don't tell anyone I'm telling you this.

I have one today that wants me to record all my conversations.

Not the actual words (phew!) but count the number of conversations by category, and note if I mention any specific products.

Skimming over the list, it makes me wonder:

Do people in the real world have conversations about this stuff? And I'm just living under a rock?

Does mumbling, "need more coffee" to myself count as a discussion on beverages?

Does "Honey, go toast some waffles" count as a conversation about frozen food?

Does "Time to get dressed. Where's your other sock?" count as a conversation about clothing and apparel?

The Grand Lunar says a conversation would be two-way. So if the child wanders off, supposedly to do what I said, is that not a conversation?

Anyway, so far, my "conversations" are not very impressive. And perhaps not even conversations. Perhaps on a regular day I don't converse. Perhaps I just give orders and mumble to myself.

Oh, wait, do you think blogging about it counts as a conversation? Only if you reply?

Okay, now eat this email. It never happened. You're sworn to secrecy.

What, I haven't written?

I thought I'd written.

Sorry about that.

This blogging in my head ought to stop.

I had a busy day yesterday. On top of having the children rotating through their schoolwork, we had some cleaning up to do, where we'd gotten behind, before we had friends come over.

I was trying to figure out whether having gained a vision/understanding of a cleanable, clutter-free, organized house has helped or not. Sometimes it seems like having gained that goal makes things harder, because my ability to reach the goal has not grown proportionally with the goal. So now I have this goal, this burning hope, out there, but when I work real hard I don't get as far as I dream.

It used to be that my goals were so low that just getting things somewhat tidied up seemed good enough. I think. Didn't it?

But now as I'm tidying up I see the clutter, or the piles of things that were put on the shelf because they didn't have a 'real home', or a convenient home, and I wish they were clean and organized and easy to put away. And when I am able to get the clutter put away, or tidied, then I see the crayon on the windowsill, or the splotch of who knows what on the wall, and wish I regularly got to cleaning those things up.

Much less decorating. Not fancy, mind you, just ... coordinated. If I could paint and arrange things so they looked purposeful and somewhat stylish... wouldn't that be nice!

Anyway, we spent the first half of the day scurrying around to reach the 'company clean' level which is never as high as I hope it will be. But in the end, we have a cleaner base from which to work on our zone jobs and hopefully we can not only maintain but make progress. I intend (in my head, anyway) to spend some time tackling some of my organizational nightmare areas, to declutter and logically (?!) organize, so that we CAN easily put things where they go.

This morning when one of the children came down, they commented how nice it looks to look into the living room and see it so clean, with only one throw pillow on the floor. It's nice that they see it, too.

Now to ... somehow ... keep up with it.

The second half of the day was playing with friends, playing with Moogie, choir registration for my two girls and a long parent meeting that taxed my attention. Then hurrying home for dinner (which was, at least, in the crock pot ready to go, yay!) and cleaning up after dinner. Which, really, took us almost to bedtime.

The other tiring part of the day was trying not to compare. Realizing that my busy day is many people's norm. I've realized how much more industrious most of my friends are. Organized, diligent, and industrious. I used to think perhaps I had some clever traits that were different but equally valuable, but I'm not so sure anymore. The ability to talk up a storm? To cook without a recipe? I just don't know if those measure up.

Not that we're supposed to measure up like that.

But sometimes it's hard not to.

OH, but tot totally change the subject: I DID take some pix of the hair so you could see me, since you asked so nicely. But I haven't looked at them yet. If they're okay pix I'll post one. If not, you'll have to wait until next time I play with it. I was thinking of getting another color, maybe a dark brown. And then I could do some stripes of red, some of brown. I could feasibly also do a stripe or two in the back (very gray) area of a light golden brown ... maybe. LOL.

maybe I'll look at those pix now. Stay tuned ....

(later ... really ...)

Okay, because you asked, and only because you asked, here's one pic. Excuse the shiny green glare on my glasses. You can't actually see the streaks here. Because the hair around my face is less gray, and the streaks were a little smaller, they're more subtle. But now you can see me, which is what you asked for, right?

Funny hair story. My mom came over yesterday and she left her hair down and wet. Supposedly to show me that it doesn't look good when left down and natural.

But it looked awesome. My mom has the hair I want. It's waist length, auburn, not much gray (less than I have, by far!) and has grown fairly evenly to that length. When she leaves it down to dry (which she never does!) it dries fantastic ringlets. I was going to take a picture, but she quick squarshed out the curls and put it in a ponytail. So you'll just have to take my word for it. My mom has the long thick awesome auburn ringlets I always dreamed of.

Oh well.

The Dingo Ate Your Bloggie?

well shoot.

I had written you a very nice (and, of course, long and rambly) blog entry.

And then I previewed it, and it was excellent.

And then ... apparently ... I wandered away without saving and publishing. Yeah, because I'm new to this blogging thing. Uh huh.

so then I was 'reading' on the couch, and in my 'half'-asleep state my son asked if he could quit things and I said "yeah, sure, quit it all" and he said "it's asking if I want to save it" and - having done nothing that needed saving - I said, "no, I don't need it."

And, with that, your lovely reading material was gone.

And now I must recreate it, only half as clever as the first time. And, possibly, twice as rambly.

It was about my hair. Yeah, yeah, that again. I know. But if you had something better to do, you wouldn't be reading HERE anyway, right? So I shall proceed to ramble about my hair. It's okay if you wander off, seeing as I've already spent a long time explaining why I'm rewriting this less witty than before. I'm sure I'll still be here rambling when you get back.

And so.

remember when I said I was going to go gray naturally, and chopped off all the old henna, and just had gray hair?

and then I said I'd never dye it again.

and then I freaked out and thought maybe I would.

and then I came to my senses and decided I wouldn't.

and then ... well, we'll just say I didn't stay at my senses...

So I did that silly glaze I mentioned. (I won't surf for old entries unless you really want me to ... you don't really want links to them, do you?) Anyway, the glaze did little. Nearly nothing. The kind of nothing that you squint in the mirror and think maybe it's working because you really want it to work. Wishful thinking. After a few weeks of using it as directed (apply in shower, rinse out) I threw caution to the wind and started applying it more like a leave-in. Which was only slightly more color-glazing than the wishful thinking.

So then I tried a temporary "washes out in 6 washings" dye. I liked that. Only, if you color it once a week and it fades in between, your hair is always changing from dyed to gray and back again ...

So then I tried a temporary "washes out in up to 6 weeks" dye.

I think I liked that. Except the first day it seemed very startling and I was afraid it looked all fakey-dyed. You know, like Mrs. FnoGum in 8th grade English (whose hair would one day be solid maroon one day, solid brick red the next month). The children all asked, "Did you dye your hair?!" the day I died it. And at the park all my real life friends were strangely silent. Either because it was such a good job that they didn't notice, which seems unlikely since they already knew about my gray-bewailment, and judging by the children's reactions. So I figure it must have looked like a really horrible job that they were politely biting their tongues not to mention. Karen, Betsy, you were at Emerson that day, what did you think?

Aaaanyway, after a day or two that softened up a little and I've been pleased with that, and how it's slowly fading, no sharp dye-ends-here line.

So it's been not quite 4 weeks, I think, since then. Or is it not quite five? And I was looking at the little boxes of the striping-highlighting kids - you know, the ones that make the bold chunks of highlighting? Only it doesn't make sense to highlight half-gray hair, for one thing, and I don't want to do anything permanent, for another.

So instead I had this funky idea. I'd make cinnamon streaks.

I bought a box of the same stuff I'd used before, a warm medium/light auburn color called cinnamon something. I mixed just a little of it, in a measuring cup, and tried my best to apply it into chunky streaks at the part. Which is harder than it looks, especially the behind your head part.

Then, when I was all done, I couldn't find where I'd parted it, and so even though I tried to offset the chunky cinnamon streaks, I couldn't get it to look that way when done, it was like I kept parting down the middle of them. Hrm.

But anyway, I kind of like it. Especially if I did again with a little more practice. It was fun.

Wanna see?

Okay here's the top from the front:

And the top from the back, with my head tipped up:

What do you think?

Does that count as a mid-life crisis?

Locker Unveiling ... on the floor ...

Well, the lockers aren't done.

But they're beautiful to me.

Lying there, so pretty, on the garage floor.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. You need the whole story, right?

So way back in April I saw these at the church yard sale. Propped against a church wall, surrounded by other people's junk, in all their coral-orange glory.

And I wanted them.

For my dining room.

To go here:

because that shoe area never looks as nice as in the picture above. The coats are barfing off the hooks, shoes spewing under the table ... lockers would contain the mess and give each child their own spot!

Of course, knowing me and orange, you know I couldn't leave them orange.

And so, after several rough drafts in PhotoShop, I came up with this:

And so I tried (badly) to paint the insides yellow, after sanding and wiping and spraying the rusty spots.

Here they are on my garage floor, with the insides (badly) painted and the handles painted green then taped off.

And then, a while later, with the doors painted and then taped over and the green edges painted:

And then, today, for the grand unveiling, which was very exciting for me.

They're not perfect, but I like them.

Now to find some big strong men to help The Grand Lunar move them in and install them.

I'll need to plan when so that, that day, I can remove the old coat hooks, coats, and shoe cubbies to make room.

I'm so excited!

Dunes are hard work, too ...

We're back from the dunes!

Welcome to the too-many-pictures!-so-sorry-dialup-friends recap of the trip:

After a later-than-planned start and a 3 hour drive, we started with lunch at the foot of the dune climb:

And then changed into swimming suits and started up the dune climb hill, carrying water and towels. Halfway up the dune climb the children take their first rest-and-pose stop:

From the bottom you can't see the top. You see what looks like it might be the top. At what looked like the top, from the bottom, you could see part of the "Lake Michigan Hike" sign. When we got to that sign, this is what stretched before us:

Over and over again we would climb a tall dune hoping to see Lake Michigan beyond, only see another dune-valley and slow, hot climb ahead of us. This is looking back towards the start, before we could see Lake Michigan ahead.

Finally we crested a rise and saw Lake Michigan far in the distance. Several dune hills in the distance, it turned out.

After not quite two hours of walking, climbing, resting, and appreciating our now-nearly-empty water bottles, we reached the beach and began to play. We were a little disappointed to find that the beach is very rocky with round, smooth, slimy, medium sized rocks that were very difficult to walk on. There was a sandbar, but getting past the rocks to the sandbar was a chore. But the water was cold and refreshing after the very hot walk, and we didn't mind the slimy algae cloudiness. Too much. We swam and waded and collected rocks and built sand castles and played in the waves.

And then, finally, facing a long hot walk back, we started back. We made better time on the way back, maybe because we just wanted to be done with the hiking. Did I mention how much work hiking in sand is?!

We celebrated the return with rolls and runs down the main hill:

and at last we were back to the car. By now it was nearly 7 pm and we hadn't eaten since lunch, so we quickly piled in and headed off. But then we decided, since we'd paid the park fee, to swing through the 7 mile scenic drive. After all, how long could it take?

Of course, we arrived there just before sunset ...
and were glad we stayed for it ...

I realize I'm already picture heavy, so if you'd like to see the rest, the following thumbnails link to my flickr pictures of the dunes at sunset.

After sitting through the sunset and watching the pink fade from the sky, we finally headed home. We got home a few minutes before midnight, tired, sandy, and glad we'd gone.

Socks are not so hard ...

Knitting socks is easier than spray painting lockers.

I'm almost done painting the lockers. I may or may not do one more coat of green on the 'background' part. Then I need to make arrangements to somehow get them IN the house. Which will require entreating some big, strong, willing men to assist the Grand Lunar. The outside spray paint portions have gone on much better than the awkward inside. They won't be perfect, but they will be, I believe, good enough.

But enough about the lockers. Let me show you the socks!

It took me all summer, but only because I didn't work on them much, until recently.

I learned:

1.) how do do the kitchener rib in the round, incorrectly (the sock on the left)
2.) how to do the kitchener rib in the round, correctly (I think! the sock on the right)
3.) that they don't match when you do one wrong and one right and don't frog the correct one to match the incorrectly previously done sock
4.) that I don't like the kitchener rib stitch
5.) that I prefer ribbed socks to the bloated look of unribbed gussets.
6.) kids don't mind bloated gussets or mismatched cuffs.

In other news ~

Today I'm taking the big kids all the way up to the Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Pray for us to stay awake, alert, and healthy!

Pictures tomorrow! Maybe. Tomorrow starts school.

Spray Paint is Hard

Today I found out that spray paint is hard.

In the (one) small area it has gone on well. But in the big expanse area - which most of the lockers will be - it is really hard to do well.

The angles are awkward, being small little locker cubbies. you can't get 12-18" away. It's hard to spray in even strokes when you're running into walls. It's hard even when I'm not running into walls.

I thought enough coats of blotchy might magically add up to an even looking finish. But no.

Plus, it's taking a lot more cans of paint than I thought. Maybe because the bottom was so rough, even after sanding and wiping down. Maybe because the trendy colors cover less per can than ugly colors? I've never tried to spray paint anything big, but it turns out 25 square feet isn't very big.

So ...

it's hard.

I really hope they don't look horrible when I'm done.

I took the whole herd out to buy more yellow paint, when I realized one can was far from enough. I forgot to buy blue painter tape. Which I guess is okay because I think I have some around here. But now I have to look and see where I might have put it. I'm sure I put it somewhere that seemed logical at the time. Which might be harder than the painting itself.

We'll see.

You can't see it because I didn't take a picture ... in which I overuse the imaginary word "thingie"

I didn't take a picture because it looked too good to wait.

But I told you this summer was my "summer to learn to grill" right? So I've been buying things and bravely grilling them. I bought one of those charcoal chimney things, to begin with. That's a big help. I wasn't so good with the pyramid thing. I'm really pretty unclear on the whole how to regulate the temperature thing, but thankfully the only grilling mishap all summer has been that I flipped one burger exactly sideways, between the bars on the grill, and into the charcoal.

So anyway, back to dinner.

Tonight I grilled steaks! I flung together a marinade first ... and I did goof and forget to open the venty thingies when I first put them on. I do think in the 2 minutes it took me to realize the vents were closed that I "killed" some of the charcoal. But it was hot enough for long enough, anyway, to cook the steaks very tastily. They were juicy and tender and the family was quite pleased. I also grilled some veggies to go with, and the grill cooling off was a little more apparent in the veggie phase, but I found a "hot spot" to finish them off and they turned out good, too.

So ... no pictures, no recipes, but a happy experience. Too bad you missed it!

I do still have 2 slabs of ribs I bought recently, the last ones I cooked in the oven but I am toying with the idea of doing these on the grill ... I'm not sure.

In other news, I also built ... well, assembled ... some shelvie thingies. Those 9-cube things that you can get the bright colored canvas drawers for? Yeah. Those. I bought one 9-cube set the other day, and then decided I needed two. I put them across from the piano, in that funky little alcove/hallway/whatever area by the kitchen. Last year Buzz kept pulling down all the books and I got tired of it and I packed them all in big totes. But no one reads books in totes, and Buzz is getting bigger. So I tried to arrange the books in the cubie thingies and put some of the littler kid toys in the canvas drawer bins. It looks pretty nice, although I need to finish off the area before I can take a picture.

and then I need to get to work on the toy cupboard. the bins on bins in a cupboard is a great idea, but I have made the mistake of assuming, time and time again, that when someone cleans up they are putting things where they go. No, instead, they have just been shoving things in. So the good news is that things do get picked up and out of sight. The bad news is that the cupboard is pretty much an avalanche of totes and toys.

Maybe THIS time, when it gets done, it will stay nice?

I have one more neat thing to blog about, but you'll have to wait ...

snippets and stuff

Oh, I see I'm not really back to blogging much. Boo, me.

But here's some snippets.

On the last post ~ I am feeling better. Thank you for your prayers. I am sure they helped. Perhaps, too, some of it was hormonal. Sometimes I still have waves of the stress and anxiety but not as bad as those few dark days.

On life in general ~ The Grand Lunar has helped me choose a curriculum direction for next year. It may not be ideal, but it eases the weight of fear of failure I was carrying, yet still allows us to stay home and together, which we all enjoy.

On food ~ the other day I cooked pork ribs. Lunar's mother's pork ribs were renowed, but I do not have her recipe. (Linda? Do you?) But I hoped to try some on the grill. It rained a lot, and I ended up opting to do them in the oven, instead. Someone sent me a link to Alton Brown's recipe for ribs, and of course I made some kimodifications. But in the end they were both tasty and photogenic.

On fun ~ today we watched two children for our friends. I made playdough, and then baked cookies. The cookies taste quite a bit better than this picture looks, really.

The children also noticed that our wild plum tree's plums seemed to be ripe, and there were a few branches they could reach, with minimal climbing effort. The plums up there turned out to be small with tart (!!) skins but very sweet insides, and there was much plum eating to be had.

Overall, not a bad day, really.

uphill climb

today's been a hard day

sometimes I get little notions in my head that discourage me or cause me anxiety and they take root and grow and bloom into ugly things ...

I know the Bible tells us to cast our anxieties on the Lord, and that we are not given a spirit of fear.

I've been struggling to root those things out today. I know God is able to root them out.

In the midst of that struggle, He sent someone, out of the blue, who has never called me before, who spoke encouraging and sweet and Biblically grounded words. I'm clinging to that call as a whisper from God that He is helping me to uproot the fear and discouragement and anxiety

but it's still hard to feel like they're not winning today.

So.

If you would pray for me, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks. :-)

SweeTart, and Sweet

SweeTart

Friday Morning's Muffins are brought to you by the letter, um, lVl

These muffins were inspired by a discussion with a friend named lVloose ... they are as buttery as overpriced fancy lipstick, but without the excessive cost. As shiny as lipgloss, but sweeter and less slippery on the lips. And if you don't follow all that, that's okay, just enjoy the muffins.

Lemon Butter Muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh lemon juice
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons dried lemon peel + 2 tsp. real lemon extract (or 4 T. fresh lemon rind, freshly grated)
1 cup butter, melted
2 cups flour, unsifted
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt

glossy glaze:
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Grease 2 muffin tins well. Stir lemon juice, eggs and lemon rind into melted butter. In another bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and salt; make a well in the center. Stir in egg mixture and blend until well moistened. Pour into muffin tins, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 24 muffins.

while muffins cook, whisk sugar and lemon juice together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. reduce to a simmer and whisk 2 minutes until slightly thickened. Brush glaze over tops of muffins while warm.

Notes: I reduced the salt to 1.5 tsp from 2 tsp and they were still a bit saltier than needed, so I reduced it more for this posting. Also ... the batter puffed right away. I'm sure it was some magic baking powder and lemon juice science. But they seem to have spent their puff a little too soon for the baking, they did not rise much beyond the initial puff, and some fell. So ... I'll have to ask my chemist father how to adjust that. But, despite those minor problems, these tasted great. The recipe was very similar to a pound cake recipe, only in quick-cooking muffin form, and with more liquid.

In other Sweet news ....

I'm washing my first load of laundry! Bedding from icat's bed. fun fun fun!

updates to follow!

My Sweet Woot ....

My sweet woot
Hm, my woot
Hm, my woot

I really want to see you
Really want to wash with you
Really want to touch you, woot
But it takes so long, my woot

My sweet woot
Hm, my woot
Hm, my woot

I really want to know woot
Really want to dry with you
Really want to launder, woot
And it won't take long, my woot
(hallelujah)

(and on and on she sings)

There's a light IN the dryer? What posh laundry world have I stepped into?
Will wonders never cease?

Laundry report to follow ... tomorrow, most likely.

Thursday doesn't even start, it's Friday I'm in love

Well, the good news is that my washer & dryer came yesterday. Turns out there WAS 'white glove delivery' on them. So I didn't need to arrange for someone else to come.

But then again, when they (the freight people) came, it seemed like they really didn't know what they were doing, they said they'd never delivered a washer and dryer before. There were no white gloves involved. There was some bickering between the two of them. They were trying hard to make me happy, but it was making me nervous. I didn't want my washer and dryer tumbling down the stairs. So in the end, I had them put them in the garage - my original plan - and wait for the installers to come Thursday morning. Since the installers are actually appliance installers, and local, as well.

But when I talked with the installer guy yesterday, he said the couldn't come out until 12-2 pm instead of our original plan of 9 am. So that messed up my park plans a little. We decided to go to the park promptly at 10 and come back home to be here by noon.

We hurried this morning to get ready for the park, and were in the van at 9:45, just in time to hear the van say clickclicklickclick instead of starting. The Grand Lunar thinks it's a low battery, nothing worse, and offered to come home and jump it, but since we already had to hurry home to be there early, and were by this time getting a late start, we just bailed out on the park plans.

So I came home, removed the basement door, and assigned the children to some basic jobs.

I really need to revisit the chore schedule and system, what we have been doing this summer has NOT been working. And, with school looming in our future, I really need to get busy.

If only I could figure out where to start.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for the call from the installer people, and fighting a bad cold. My head is congested and hurts and I'm coughing and feel rotten. So ... with that whining out of the way, I'm off to clean the kitchen.

WOOT!

I'm getting my new washer and dryer tomorrow!

The Grand Lunar found me a sweet deal on woot last week!

I've got a space cleared for the old washer & dryer until my friend can take them (hi esea!)

I'm so excited!

In other news:

Did someone ask about the shoes I wanted that I couldn't get so I bought the slippers?
Didn't I post about the great shoes here?

Here's a picture of them:

Aren't those kimshoes if you've ever seen such a thing?

But they only came in 9 and 10. Not my size.

So sad.

Anyway. I better get to bed, so I'm fresh and alert for my washer and dryer.

bleah

well, we're back.

I tried to post when we were gone but had some weird problem logging in. Well, it claimed I didn't know my password, but I'm sure I had it right. Maybe it was a capitals issue.

we got back Thursday night.

I am very bleah today.

I did the Iowa Basic testing with my two oldest for the first time. A friend encouraged me to do it, saying it would encourage me. I should've known better. We got the test results in the mail on Monday, just before we got the phone call about The Grand Lunar's Father.

After receiving the results, I certainly don't feel any better. I feel like I stood us all against a measuring stick. They didn't do all that bad. The things that didn't seem great shouldn't have surprised me. And The Grand Lunar doesn't think the scores were too bad, nor does he think they're a measure of what's important.

But.

they sure knocked the fun out of me.

I was already down about some other things, before we got the results.

Have you read that pig book by Phil Vischer? Sidney & Norman, I guess it's called. I listened to my mom & sister read it to kids last weekend. It made me cry. Not to ruin the story, but the Sidney pig thinks he does everything wrong. When he meets God, Sidney is afraid God will yell at him for doing everything wrong. God tells him He loves him, three times. That's all God has to say to Sidney. It makes Sidney feel better.

The book made me cry because I know for a fact that God does love even losers like me and Sidney. But ... that doesn't make me feel any better. The book made me jealous of Sidney for feeling better, knowing that God loves him. What's my problem that it doesn't make me feel any better? I still feel like I'm doing everything wrong.

I'm really dreading the school year. I don't know what I'm going to do or how I can possibly improve on things, not because they're going too well to improve but because I have little hope I can change for the better.

Plus? My kitchen is a mess.

And although children should really appreciate blueberry pancakes, they don't. I would've been better off making regular pancakes.

Maybe my blog peeps will enjoy the pancakes more than the kids did:

And hey ... if those don't make you happy, maybe these $7.44 slipper/sandals I bought at WalMart will. They're terrycloth. Very soft, verrrry squishy. They might not be as great as those shoes I can not own, but they'll make a cheap comfy happy foot.

I guess I better go clean that kitchen.

More Stuff than one entry can hold

I had stuff to say

and pictures

and just didn't get to them

and then more stuff to say

and ponder

but it'll have to wait.

The Grand Lunar and I will be traveling to IL tomorrow to be with his sisters ... Lunar's father passed away today. We were actually finishing up plans for Lunar to go down and help provide care for his dad after what was intented to be a minor surgery turned out to be more major and his recovery wasn't going as well as hoped.

But we didn't see this coming.

If you could pray for us as we travel, and for the Grand Lunar as he processes and grieves. And that we might show the light of Christ's love despite our own failures and problems. And for my parents as they care for our children while we're gone.

Thank you.

Kim

I'm so blue I don't know what to do ...

Okay, I'm not blue as in sad.

I'm just up to my eyeballs in blueberries!

On Wednesday we went blueberry picking. We went way south of town, got to the place, and were told they were at the end of their season, early this year, and that the picking wasn't great for littles, all the remaining blueberries were small and high. They sent us another 7 miles down the road to a place that still had great picking.

we got about 18 lbs in around an hour, not too bad. It was hot, but early enough in the day we didn't bake.

Yesterday I made blueberry quickbread, only made it in a 9x13 pan because it cooks much quicker:

And that was well received and tasty ...

Today someone suggested scones. Scones??!

I've never made scones. I thought they were fancy. But I thought I could give them a shot. Turns out they're really just glorified biscuits! Who knew!

So this morning we had Lemon Blueberry Drop Scones:

The recipe I pulled from allrecipes.com -- Lemon Blueberry Drop Scones

I didn't make many changes ... I used dried lemon zest because it's what I had, no real lemons here. And I used plain fat free yogurt, rather than the lemon yogurt suggested, because it's what I had. I added about 1.5 tsp lemon flavoring, as well.

here is the recipe as I made it:

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup plain fat free yogurt
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup butter, melted
* 1 cup fresh blueberries*

GLAZE:
* 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl, combine the yogurt, egg and butter. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in blueberries. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned. Combine glaze ingredients; drizzle over warm scones.

*If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw before adding to batter.

Stay tuned for more blueberry fun!

I'm afraid to look ...

The worst part for me of making lists is looking back at them ....

it's not that I don't work on them ...

but I rarely get anything to the "cross off the list" point.

deep breath ... yesterday's list ... I'm afraid to look ...

here's the key:
worked on but not done
done enough to call done

...

at least 2 loads of laundry, washed, dried, folded, and put AWAY!
    - I washed and dried 3 loads, but didn't fold any of them

folded backlog all put away
    - I put away towels, kitchens, and ours ... but just put the kids' laundry near their rooms ... did not follow up to see if it was put away ...

shovel out and organize the boys' room with them
    - they got it well cleared out, so the room is ready to be vacuumed and put back together. But all the *stuff* is semi-sorted into piles, baskets, and boxes in the hallway and needs to be gone through ... today being park morning and shopping afternoon, I'm not sure if I'll get it done today or not.

    - I did by a storage 3x3 cube thingie and some cute totes which hopefully will help with the *keeping* the room clean and organized. I'll try to get that set up later today.

shovel out and delete blog spam backlog
    - I did some but there's yet more. I need to get to installing the whatever thingie The Grand Lunar told me about ...

* feed family several meals
   - as long as ordering pizza (well, asking the Grand Lunar to) for dinner counts

* remember to eat, dress, and shower

not on the list, but I also:
went shopping for some clothes, organizing stuff, and groceries, and put most of those things away ... that took more time than I thought ...
chatted with the real life living person neighbor

hm.
I think I'm really a half-done sort of person.

I hope I'm not boring you with these lists. Is it better to babble about my productivity efforts than not blog at all? I added some bold and italic text to spice it up a little.

Oh well, today is a park day, I better get moving. Park in the morning, returning ill-fitting items to Target in the afternoon.

What do you have on the agenda for Tuesday?

Have a good day!

On Today's Agenda

Good morning, blog family

I apologize, yet again, for my bad blogger etiquette, both in not posting and in not reading/commenting. I am taking steps to rectify the situation.

However, I have some things to attend to first.

On the agenda today:

* at least 2 loads of laundry, washed, dried, folded, and put AWAY!
* folded backlog all put away
* shovel out and organize the boys' room with them
* shovel out and delete blog spam backlog
* feed family several meals
* remember to eat, dress, and shower

possibly more. We'll see.

I'm off to start on #1 and #3

Busy Morning Nothing Done

Gah, do you ever have mornings where you feel like you've been busy but you don't feel like you got anything done?

I think the key is clothing. Even if you do a lot before noon, if for some reason you're still in your jammies, it feels like all is for naught.

Why am I not dressed? Because I planned to exercise before I showered.

But I timed breakfast and baking bread badly, so I didn't have a good exericse window. And then when I had one, redirecting children to chores and cleaning up cat poodoo redirected ME. And now it's almost noon, I still haven't showered and dressed, and I feel like I haven't done a thing.

So in a futile exercise in making myself feel better, here are some things I HAVE done ...

drank coffee and wasted time
changed diapers twice
nursed several (bazillion) times
got all the kids dressed in matching orange shirts with the idea of going blueberry picking
found a new recipe for peanut butter pancakes and made it
made pumpernickel bread
washed the dishes from baking
cleared the table after breakfast
directed kids in chores (some still in progress)
cleaned up cat poodoo
took first load of bedding to wash
refrained from putting cat in washer with bedding

I'm blogging now because needy buzz is nursing yet again. I don't know why.

After this I'll scoop and mop the basement, and then shower and start lunch and maybe then I'll feel like I did something.

Sigh.

here's the pancakes, though ... the kids liked them. The bread is pretty, too, but no pix yet.

The Morning After

Monday morning!

The tent adventure went well. No one bailed out to sleep in their bed, although rumor has it the night got a bit chilly. They are requesting to do it again tonight, although permission is somewhat pending based on behavior and attitude in light of the lesser sleep some obtained.

The harder part was, perhaps, mine. I didn't feel comfortable going to the bedroom at the other end of the house with the white noise and the comfy beds. I didn't think I'd hear kids even come in if I did that. So I opted for the futon with the back door open a crack, to listen. Since I didn't sleep deeply, I was up and down a few times, played some games online, and the like. While I'm all for the kids getting the camping out of their system this way, I'm not sure I want to spend too many nights away from my comfy bed and the Grand Lunar. Maybe I'll rig up some monitors so I can keep an ear out for the kids ... I don't know. Or maybe we'll just do two tent nights and call it good.

Perhaps due to the lack of sleep and infusion of extra caffeine, I have a LOT of energy today and am feeling good. Probably that pre-crash sort of good. So I got off my rear and walked 3 miles with Leslie this morning, as well as doing a modified upper body weight training thing. I still use the Joyce Vedral videos for the direction/exercises but am using closer to the Power-of-Ten guy's method to actually execute them.

It's almost the end of July. I am thinking of aiming to lose 10 lbs by the end of August. I'm again kicking myself for not having been more serious about this weight-loss-window. I see summer coming to a close and the slow progress I've made as mostly wasted opportunity and overly-claimed indulgences. I wonder if that's reasonable? Seems like it is.

For lunch I'm having an asian-style somen noodle and cabbage salad, McDougall compliant. It's good. I was hungry.

Well, it's just about quiet time and it sounds like the children can use one. So I'm off to get them ready so I can enjoy the quiet part of the afternoon.

Have a good day!

Weekend Rambles

Here's a little report from our weekend ...

Saturday The Grand Lunar (that's Particle Man to some of you lurkers - feel free to say hi) and I went down to Ann Arbor to pet the new iPhones at the grand opening of the newest Michigan Apple store. It was a fun date-day, we listened to 80's tunes and sang and laughed all the way down. The iPhones were fun, although it would've been nice to play with them longer ... we also petted several of the other sleek Apple products, such as the very nice 30" monitor. Ooooooh.

Here's the pix we took of each other with the iPhone cameras ... I forgot to do my cheesy camera smile, and am not fond the the pic, but oh well. I was listening to Particle 'splain stuff. I'm showing you because I thought the quality of the pix was great for a phone! Even at the full size 640x480 they looked very good, I was quite impressed. We took them and emailed them from the iPhone to ourselves from the store, that was fun. Notice I'm wearing blue. ;-) It was a nice date day.

Today the kids wanted to camp out in the back yard. They didn't seem to want or need parents actually camping, which is good. So my contribution was to put up the tent and photograph the event:

Here's a dorky pic of putting it up ... not my weekend for pix. Also, here's Buzz watching: He wanted to be nearby but not stay IN the tent. Not that he had that chance, overnight. He went down in his own bed nicely. :

Eminoodle and Tobi-Wan trying out the tent before bedtime:

The big kids peeking out:

It is now 11:30 and we've only had one tearful temporary visit from a camper who was scared, but not scared enough to be the only one to come in. I'm guessing they must be asleep now. And, although I'm not sleeping out there with them, I'm still staying closeby, I'll sleep on the futon by the back door with the screen door open, just in case.

Hope your weekend was as fun!

Vanity, thy name is Kim

I'm sure you all woke this morning wondering, "How is Kim doing in the vanity department?"

Well, to satisfy your curiosity, I have two tidbits to offer:

1.) weight ~ thanks to being sick (yay, sick!) I'm down to 25# off my highest, as of today. The best news about that is I've kept off what I lost when sick and another 1/2 lb on top of that. That leaves me with 11 lbs more to hit the top end of the "healthy" rating on the BMI, and I'd like to see at least 19-24 more off (including that 11) to be at a better place in my zone. I'm not sure. As short as I am, it seems like I should lose even more than that, but I never have been much below that.

2.) hair ~ okay, I know I said I wasn't going to color it ... but I was at target and I found this product, and it was on sale. It's John Frieda's color glaze, and you put it on in the shower, when your hair is wet, and leave it on for 3 minutes, then rinse. It's supposed to slowly build up some blended color, plus and shine and stuff ... I've been using it not quite a week. Not sure if I see any difference yet. And I only got the glaze portion, not the coordinating shampoo and conditioner. So maybe that's part of why ... But if it's not an abrupt change, and if I could taper off slowly without a clear growing-out line, I'm willing to try it. I'll keep you posted.

I need to go get lunch for the munchkins now. Hope you all have a good weekend!

My Absence has been noted

Turns out I've been missing

we're not still sick. Or at least mostly not. Took longer to shake the bug than I thought.

Today's a park day. It's not even 60 degrees at the moment. I sure hope it warms up fast.

Why is it that the kids sleep late on days I have something to get ready for, but are up as early as possible when there's nothing going on?

Which makes me sing that song, in my head, "I know there's something going on ... "

who sings that? I can't remember right now. You know the song, right?

"There something going on (on on on on) there's something going on (on on on on) ..."

anyway, I'm off to wake the kids and scrounge for a picnic lunch. I really should plan to shop before running out of food on a park day. We're going to be eating dry pasta and hot sauce at the park.

anyway, the point of this being? For those of you who asked: no, I'm not dead.

hopefully more blogs to follow - maybe even with pictures.

I need a better spam killer.

love,
kim

sick days

This time I have an excuse for not posting

I've been sick

Yes me, the "I don't get sick" mom

Caught a variation on the bug going through the family. Came home early from church Sunday because I felt wrong. Felt like I was cheating, since I wasn't throwing up and didn't have clear signs of being sick. But I think I maybe had a fever. Spent all day Sunday and Monday in bed, more or less.

Today I'm feeling maybe 75% better. Still have some symptoms. But I am better by default because Buzz is sick. When a 2 year old is sick, Mom has to kick it into gear whether she feels like it or not. 2 year olds are not compliant in the bucket grabbing. In fact, he sees the bucket as a sign of being sick and will not let it be near him. Stupid Bucket!

So anyway. I'm a little oogey, a little light headed, and facing 3 days of laundry to catch up on.

But still. Nice to be feeling a little better.

Only bad part? Seems not fair to only lose 2-3 lbs after not eating for 2+ days. Not that I'd get sick to lose weight. But if you ARE sick and can't eat for a few days, seems like you ought to get a little more bonus in the weight loss department, is all I'm saying.

I'd really like to be down 2 more pounds. That would put me in another zone I haven't been in, in a long time.

As for the walking ... I can see it slowly drifting out the window. Summer and walking just don't go well together. I don't know why.

Farmers' Market

Took Iliacat, LittleD and Buzz to the Farmers' Market this morning. We got some local fruit and some Traverse City Cherries.

Pretty, huh?

Now I'm off to start prep some bbq pork for dinner and get some lunch for ... lunch.

I'm hungry and sleepy today.

Because c0rny is Cool

My friend c0rny blogged this the other day.

I totally had to copy her, because she is the c00limost.

Octopus Hot Dogs on Mac & Cheese

Here's the whole Octopi family, before serving:

The kids liked it, and it was fun.

She said something about skinless hotdogs but my brain said "blah blah blah" and bought what was on sale. Hers curled up more on the legs, I'm jealous of that. I don't know if mine were skinless or not. I could read the package, but it's so far away. Maybe mine didn't curl as much because 8 hot dogs cooled the water too much, too fast?

anyway ...

Thanks c00l c0rny! :-D

Long Long Ride

Iliacat loves bike rides.

Long ones.

We did 10 miles recently. She remembered our long trip a few years ago and wanted to outdo it. You might or might not remember that I overdid that long trip a few years ago, paid for it with my knees, which are not at all "bad knees" but perhaps are predisposed to become so if I don't take some preventative action. But since I'd been walking regularly since last August and doing some other strength/alignment/flexibility exercise I thought it would be okay.

So here's the start ~ we joined the path 1 mile from it's start, but it's also 1 mile from home, so the mile markers matched up nicely:

And the route:

We rode down the Rail Trail past Sanford, over the cool Railroad bridge:

Looked down and saw a bike in the river:

Detoured through the Arbutus Bog path

Past the bad pun:

Out so far there was only cornfields, path, and sky:

I pretended to be dead upon reaching Coleman (20 miles out) - but I'm not sure Iliacat appreciated it. :-)

We ate lunch in Coleman and turned back. Shortly thereafter I realized 20 miles without working up to it was perhaps too much for my knees. :-( I was frustrated because I still had energy and wanted to go the whole way, but the previous knee ordeal made me wary. After a few miles Iliacat decided she was, also, getting sore and tired. So we called for the troops to bail us out.

We stopped at the Sandford trail head, 12 of the 20 back, and waited for our ride. I felt a little bad bailing out - especially when my knees felt okay after we stopped riding. But tonight they have the same achy burning feel I remember from last time. So I'm glad we stopped when we did. :-/

Maybe next time we'll work up to a long ride slowly, like smart people would.

It's all in the dirt!

I did it!

Can you believe it?

The Grand Lunar helped me get some of the space ready, and I pruned, sawed, dug, and planted all afternoon and evening.

I planted:
4 tiny baby lilac bushes (including one red, one lavender, one deep purple and one white)
3 tiny baby blue hydrangeas
3 tiny baby bare root dead stick looking sub-zero hardy hibiscus
1 tiny itty bitty baby butterfly bush
6 blue asters
6 jacob's ladders
3 butterfly blue scabosia

I hope they grow, and look nice, and don't die, and don't take over.

I took before pictures. But it was getting dark so I didn't take after pictures yet.

It would've been a lot easier if I'd just prepared for planting before they arrived.

Live and ... well, I don't really expect I'll learn from this, other than intellectually. I'm sure I'll do the same thing next time. Stupid procrastinator.

waiting ... waiting ...

In retrospect, I guess it was a stupid plan

Yesterday someone called and said she'd stop by this morning around 9, for an exchange of goods. I said fine, that I'd be up ... still in my shorts/t-shirt jammies, but hey. She said she'd call if she couldn't make it. I said fine. I'm flexible. I'm in no hurry.

I was up at 7 this morning, but don't usually exercise/shower until I've gotten all the children fed and all that ... so I drank my coffee and waited while kids straggled down.

By the time almost 9 rolled around, I didn't want to be exercising or in the shower when the lady came, so I waited.

Now it's almost 10 and I'm still waiting. I guess I could start exercising and just stop, and answer the door all sweaty ... but I'd rather not. If I had just exercised and showered at 8, I would've been done and fresh and clean and shiny to answer the door.

But the later it gets, the more likely I'll be interrupted if I start, or worse yet miss her while I'm in the shower.

So I'm just sitting here, stalling, waiting to see whether she comes or not.

Getting hungry, too.

I don't like to eat right before exercising, so I was planning to eat afterwards.

I hope she comes soon.

Or calls to say she's not coming.

Waiting ...

Waiting ...

Let the Summer Begin! ... I guess.

Well, today is the first of an unending series of "park days" for the summer. Actually, I guess there was one on Tuesday, but I was out of town and I think it was cold and rainy here. I'm not sure. But we obviously didn't go.

But today's park date is one I'm committed to, being a long standing attender with a reputation for always being there. I'm part of the core, baby.

But I have to admit, at this very moment, 7:40 am on the first park day, I'm really not looking forward to it. I do this every year. I somehow perceive the hassle of getting all the park stuff ready as monumental, and the idea of being out in the fresh air and sunshine, instead of basking by the warm healthy glow of my monitor, as foreign and scary.

Plus, we've been in a pretty decent rhythm for school, chores, and exercise recently. Laid back, slow moving mornings, but making steady progress. The children have done really well in getting to their school work, and I've been consistently getting my workouts in. I don't really want to give that up for the faster paced morning rush of park days.

Seriously, though, I get to hang out with some of my best friends at the park. The park is all fenced in, with a little shallow pond and some sand, so the kids can get wet and dirty without getting lost. This year I don't have a newborn, but my youngest is old enough to play without me being 1 step behind, so I get the luxury of sitting on the blanket, watching the kids and talking with my friends. What could be better than that?

So I'm not sure what my hang up is, with not wanting to go. I think it's just figuring out which clothes to be the "okay to get dirty" park clothes and deciding whether to have them change into clean dry ones before coming home (requiring, then, two outfits per child for the trip) or what. I could do swim suits for them, but I don't want the nice swimsuits to get trashed by the muddy sand ... and then there's lunch, hauling a cooler and trying to remember to take fruits and veggies and hope nothing gets squarshed on the way there.

Writing that down seems like a lot of lame reasons not to want to go to a really cool thing. I'm sure I'll have a blast and be glad we went. I guess I'll start getting ready. In a minute. As soon as I sit here on my behind drinking my coffee, a little longer.

Maybe I'll take my new camera and manual and see if I can figure out the things that are confusing me. And if I get some cool pix, I'll share them with you.

While the bells ring

Heads up, peeps!

I'm going up to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island with Iliacat today, leaving in a little while. I'm not taking any of our technostuff, other than the phone & camera (okay, and the iPod, but no computer, that's my point) so you won't be hearing from me! But I promise you pictures when we return.

While I'm gone, say a prayer for me, I got some of that Venom goo on me about two weeks about and it's been trying to entangle me. I even tried it on as a spidy suit under my real clothes, but I don't want to go that route. Decided to listen to the persistent whisperings of God, instead. So I'm using the time we're gone as the clanging bells to throw it off of me. Pray that it would be like coming out of the fog into the sunshine. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, that's okay, just say a prayer for me anyway, I'd appreciate it.

See you all Tuesday night!!!

Oh, and here's a pix of the 3 littles with their new little baldy heads for summer. Kelly, see a little Mac wanna be in there?

hey there

hey there ...

I feel like I've been off in space. still a little sleep deprived. thinkin' deep thoughts and shallow thoughts but not getting them out to the blog peeps. sorry about that.

I haven't been reading blogs and commenting, either. I feel like I've abandoned my buddies. I'm sorry. I'll try to come back soon to the blogosphere.

we got a new camera I want to try out today. our old one was having odd lens cover issues and iliacat had also asked for a camera for her birthday. (blog about that soon) ... we didn't want to spend $$ on a less good one for her when our old one is still mostly good, so we've got the lens cover mostly working and gave her our old camera - pretty sweet for a 12 year old I think - and we got an even cooooler one for us.

I should spend some time learning more about photography. I love taking pictures but there's so much I really don't know about camera settings and options and all.

But anyway. Due to sleep deprivation and stuff, I'm behind on my walking and should get going on that.

Just wanted to let you all know I'm still alive ;-)

miss you, peeps :-*

enough with the faces, Kim.

oh, and shari, you asked about the blog spam I mentioned -- spam comments posted to the blog, usually on old posts. I'm getting something like 100 a day, and I got way behind and bogged down in deleting them. It's just another thing to babysit. Wears me out. LOL.

exercise update and some griping

exercise update

been a long walking month ... forgot to update all my tickers, but I'm keeping track here. Walking challenge buddies, get out your spoons for the dust eating:

94 for the month, 404 for the year. Go me!

I also started a new excercise thing which seems kind of weird but effective. I started doing the Basic Plus T-Tapp workout (search YouTube for some of the moves, mini workouts, or try them on their site) and also got her walking workout, Step Away The Inches. The T-Tapp SATI is interesting because it gives some techniques you can use in any walking program and it really really increases the intensity. I am so not kidding. It's amazing. I just started the walking thing this week, the first DVD I received was a dud, but they graciously sent me a new one. Anyway, I can't wait to see in a month or two how much difference it makes in the inches ... but whoa my legs and hips are impressed with the extra effort the Ttapp alignment makes.

In other related and good news, I finally hit 20 lbs off my high. yay. It took awhile, I stalled out there. But it appears I'm back on track.

I'm tired today though, not enough sleep and a clingy two year old who woke at 2 am and 6 am ... so that's all I've got to say.

Sorry I've been neglecting the blog and blog buddies. I still love you. Kissy kissy.

I forgot what I was going to gripe about. Oh yeah. Blog spam. Can't weed through it fast enough. It's wearing me out. only a few comments squeeze through to get posted, but many still are asking for approval that I have to dump. Tired of it. So. very. tired.

Zoooooo Day

hi!

here I am.

I bet you thought I was busy. Or maybe wasting time elsewhere.

But here I am. I was at the zoo today with my extended family.

See? Here we all are:

That's My mom, my sister & I, and our children, 10 grandkids all together. Poppie and The Grand Lunar aren't in the pic because they were the photographers.

I took way too many pictures (as usual) and am too tired to weed through them all to give you too many and overwhelm the dial up folk. So here's just two more.

The initial results of blue and green cotton candy. Gives a whole new meaning to Bluetooth, right?:

And ... wait, what was my other picture?

Oh yeah. The creepy sheep. This is the closest I get to farm animals. And this was only to prove how creepy sheep are.

So ... the zoo was fun and I'm tired and half-incoherent.

A good walking day, and Jell-O Take 2

Here's the Jell-O mentioned in my previous post.

Pretty, huh?

And just for fun, here's my (um, dusty) pedometer so far today ...

It's been a pretty good walking day, too.

Fun Mom Times Three

I did three fun things today. I don't think any of them were on the list (although I DID do some list things, too -- not the fun ones, the boring daily work things)

1.) I learned how to grill. LOL. I had The Grand Lunar coach me via email how to prep the kettle grill and how to do the charcoal and when to put the food on and all of that. It took a little longer than I planned, but I made a good dinner, I grilled hot dogs and bratwurst and some red potatoes, and we had a nice McDougally spicy pasta side dish and a big salad to go with.

2.) I made another - different - rainbow jello. When I was first telling my friend Chris about it, she told me she makes one with layers of creamy pastel in between. I decided to sort of kind of follow that idea, I made the 4-serving boxes of jello with 1 cup boiling water. I made a mixture of 8 oz. cream cheese and 8 oz sour cream, blended together. Then I blended ~1/4 cup of that mixture in with each color jello, and poured it in layers in a glass pan, allowing 45 minutes in between to set. It's pretty. I'll post a picture later ... It would be fun to do in a fancy bundt pan or something.

3.) I took the kids to the park after dinner. I left the dishes to soak in really hot water, and it's still pretty warm now, so I should wrap up this entry and go wash them now that they're tucked in. The park is just down the block, and has swings, a big slide, and a sand box. Nothing fancy, but we like it. Actually we like it a little better than the fancy parks. The other park nearby they JUST this past month tore out the big swings, monkey bars, and jungle gym. I suppose they're going to put in some of the newfangled plastic coated stuff, and it won't be as cool. Those were cool when they were rare, but ... we like swings and monkey bars!

Anyway, I also gave the two youngest baths when we got home, which for them counts as a fun mom thing. They'd bathe several times a day if I let them.

But now my dishes need bathing, so I'm off to finish the work I put off to be a fun mom.

It's some sort of miracle, not ONLY that I did Three Fun Things but ALSO that I'm going to keep working now. LOL.

what did you do today?

Some Things I Could Do Today

Here is a partial list of things I could be doing instead of sitting here blogging. They are in no order and I make no promises of them ever getting done.

-the dishes soaking in cold scummy water in the sink, that started out in hot soapy water with good intentions

-the laundry that needs to be folded, waiting in the bedroom

-install the remaining smoke detectors in bedrooms. Don't worry, I did the minimum every-level-of-the-house hallway ones. But I bought more for each bedroom and now they're sitting helpfully in the cupboard. I'm not saying for how long they've lived there.

-sand and clean the rust spots in the LOCKERS so that I can prime, paint, and install them before the children have grown and moved out

-clean the little boys' room and remove excess toys so they can, theoretically, help keep it clean

-hem the curtains in the little boys room so they don't pile up on the top of the built in cupboards ....

-finish chiseling the holes for the poles so that our back gate opens, shuts, and latches correctly.

-make a different kind of rainbow jello salad because now I'm on a "what can you do with jello" kick

-clean and declutter any one of the million cluttered level surfaces in my home

-sweep up the several pounds of cereal around the dining room table

-mop the sticky kitchen floor and try not to think about how it got so sticky

-wash the bedroom walls in preparation for painting them so that eventually our bedroom will look decorated.

-paint the living room

-paint the planned way-cool timeline on the living room wall

-convert spelling curriculum into some sort of magic independent study lessons

-delete hundreds of mostly un-posted "waiting for approval" blog comments

-check email ... I just got a "yahoo!" indicating an email from the Grand Lunar, so out of this whole (incomplete!) list, I think I'll start with this item.

Maybe I forget because I'm old.

Thanks to everyone for your nice words and sympathy and what-not on my insane gray hair post.

Kudos (the granola candy-bar kind, yum) to Peggy and Kelly for pointing me back where my sights belong ~ on God's standard.

Did you know God has something to say about gray hair? I did. But I forgot. I forget. Again and again.

I don't even consider myself wanting to "follow the world" -- I know how messed up our culture is. But boy do I drift easily!

Proverbs 16:31
   Gray hair is a crown of splendor;
     it is attained by a righteous life.

Psalm 25:6-8
6 Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,
   for they are from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth
   and my rebellious ways;
     according to your love remember me,
     for you are good, O LORD.
8 Good and upright is the LORD;
   therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

The Bible tells me, again, that gray hairs are not to be ashamed of. They are a crown of splendor.

While we are young, it is our youth and strength that is glorified. But the standard changes as we age, and at some point our gray hair is a sign of our maturity. Of course, this is not to say that everyone matures equally as they age; Certainly we can all think of some very wise and mature youth, and we can think of some foolish older people.

But, for my part, I know I was rebellious and sinful in my youth; For the longest time I prided myself on being rebellious, I did not even realize that God saw it as a sin. I indulged my rebellion and covered up my sins. The Lord saw. And in His great mercy He not only forgave me, but He called me back, again and again, to the Truth, to His way. He did not leave me to go my own rebellious direction, a path that ends in death and destruction. He reminded me, again and again, that His ways are true, that He is the living God. He has instructed me in His ways, reminded me of the Truth. Sent me good friends to point me back to the Word when I start drifting on faulty auto-pilot.

So I take back my complaining about my graying hair. It may not reflect that I'm mature, but I will cherish it as a sign that He IS maturing me. He will not leave me to the folly of my youth, but will complete the good work He has started in me, for His glory.

And that's what's really important.

In Which I Attempt to Blame Produce ...

I spend all week thinking about the projects I could tackle on the weekend. All those bigger things that slip through my fingers in daily weekday busy work seem to shine with the promise of Saturday.

When Saturday comes I inevitably waste the day.

I'm not even really sure what I did today.

I think part of the problem is that the daily living stuff takes up more of a normal day than I count. The littlest one still gets to nurse throughout the day, necessitating my sitting quietly and, in a housework sense, unproductively. (Of course I am not saying it is not good to nurse the little ones. I am simply saying that they eat up (pun intended) many minutes of Saturdays, just like they do weekdays.) The laundry still needs to be gathered, washed, and dried. The children still need to be supervised through their tasks. Dishes still need to be washed.

And then there's the meals.

I am blessed to have some children who really enjoy artichokes. Especially the baby ones, which were on sale this past week at our favorite store. I bought one package of 9, which was gone in one quick lunch, and more was requested. So I bought 3 packs of 12 on my next visit. This morning I rinsed them, cut them, removed the small, pointy outer leaves, and steamed them (with most of the outer leaves still intact, we eat the baby ones much like the bigger ones, only there's no scooping out of the choke, it's all edible in there! Hooray!) But prepping 36 small artichokes took quite a while, really. Especially during the part where I was "helped" by the 2 year old with the artichoke rinsing and such.

After lunch the little ones still need to be corralled and sent to the potty / diapers changed and get their story and pre-nap routine and tucked in for naps. And of course I sometimes still need MY nap.

Little ones still wake cranky on weekends, as well as weekdays, and just want to sit and snuggle all afternoon. They still interrupt my purposeful stride towards the trash can which needs emptying, or need a juice cup filled just before I take the laundry to the basement, and often by the time I come back to the task I've forgotten it or been several-times-sidetracked, just like a normal work weekday.

And then there's the dinner, in which rinsing and hulling and slicing 3 pounds of strawberries, and cutting up carrots, red peppers, and cucumbers, as well as sausage and cheese with crackers for an "easy" finger food dinner ... and suddenly it seems I've spent the better part of the evening over the cutting board.

Not that the fruits and veggies aren't good. They just take so LONG.

I can't tell you how often I skip the healthy salad lunch because I don't want to mess with all the veggie prep.

No, literally, I can't tell you how often because in this post I'm using the veggies as an excuse for not getting other things done. So we'll have to pretend I regularly slave over the cutting board.

Anyway, here it is, 7 pm on a Saturday evening - pre-church evening requiring baths and making sure laundry is washed and folded and available for tomorrow. There's really less time on a Saturday evening than a weekday evening for projects and things.

All day long I've wandered the house with projects and home improvement dreams in my head. Not the ones where you redecorate a room or build an addition. I'm talking home improvement as in decluttering the book shelves or organizing the toy cupboard to make those things functional parts of the home.

And all day long I've managed to do ... as usual ... the bare minimum of the must-be-dones.

I am frustrated with my wasting of time, which is spattered throughout the day, gobbling down the little minutes between necessary things.

If I could learn to use the little minutes, instead of viewing life as needing big chunks of time for big projects, I would get so much done.

If I would keep on keeping on, rather than looking for breaks and self indulgences, I could be a productive woman.

That's my dream, anyway.

Some Saturday it's gonna come true.

You missed the good hair moment

I had a good hair day going.

Or thought I did.

Somewhere after putting the Sebastian Potion 9 on after the shower and when it's fully dry and I start to push my hair out of my face, there's a short period when my hair looks pretty good. The curls hang together in ringlets, not too frizzy, and the front looks kind of styled and nice.

That window was about 10 minutes today, and it was around the time the mailman came, requesting $5.95 postage due. Which I paid in change, because I had no bills. But at least it was during my good hair moment. I hope he appreciated it.

At least ... I thought it was a good hair moment.

After that I pulled the front back (to keep from running my fingers through it and ruining it) and had Iliacat take a picture in the sun, so you could see the ringlets in all their good hair glory.

Except ... when I came in and dumped the pix from the camera, I saw this:

Do you see that? What color would you call it? Come on, you can say it, it's not like it's not there in plain sight. It's not even "dark brown, graying fast" is it? It's just plain gray! except for maybe those tips of ex-henna at the very bottom.

I reasoned that it might be the blindingly bright sun, washing out the color. And of course the shiny healthiness reflecting the bright sun and blue sky.

So we took another picture, in the shade. Mostly.

Uh ... do you see the problem here?

That one is very gray, too.

Is that really what my hair looks like? Am I in such severe denial that I thought it at least still looked sort of brown?!!?

Worse yet, there are no clearly defined bouncin' and behavin' ringlets. There's just fuzzy ringlets and frizz.

I had my hopes set on proof that I had a good hair day, and a great picture to document that maybe I CAN grow my hair long AND nice looking. That maybe, even, it would grow long and lovely and curly, and not get thin and frizzy like my last pathetic attempt at long hair.

But ... apparently the good hair moment was only in my imagination. There's the proof staring at us.

Yikes.

Let's give them something to blog about ...

Here are some random things. (I have a vague feeling I'm supposed to be doing a meme ... uh ... I'll do that tomorrow. Unless I can incorporate them into today's entry? Hm ... let me go see what Barbie tagged me about. ... ..... .. .... ..... ....(and she trails off with excessive and erratic ellipsi, leaves you hanging, calling over her shoulder, "Help yourself to a scoop of nutella while I'm gone.")

Oh yeah, here it is. 8 Random Things About Me. I can work that into my pre-planned (ha!) rambles.

1.) Today I got a blister trying to pound out what I thought was a thin cement pad under some bricks along the side of our sidewalk. Turns out it's at least 6" thick and while we made progress, not enough. More pounding tomorrow. So glad I bought myself a baby sledge hammer a while back!

2.) When I get email from my husband, my computer yells "Yahooo!"

3.) Um ... I haven't done tonight's dishes yet because I was out pounding, and then I was smacking.

4.) Oh yeah, I wanted to tell you about Smack. There's this site called Jellyfish and you can sign up there, then go there before you shop online, and places registered with them give you a cashback rebate. Kind of like eBates. Ebates? don't know which way they cap that. Anyway, if you already are shopping at some of those places, you may as well get a rebate, eh?

5.) That didn't really tell you about the Smack part, though. They (jellyfish) also have Smack shopping where during a show they bring products up one at a time and the price slowly drops and you don't know how many they're selling, but if you want it you're torn between waiting for the price to drop and not wanting to miss out. If you don't want to buy it, you can still guess what % off it'll go for, and if you're the closest you get 'guru' points, which is fun.

6.) I'm not really tellng you much about myself, am I? I can't think of much you don't already know, besides the blister, which I already mentioned. Oh, and sitting on the cold cement while leaning and pounding turns out to be really hard on my hips and back. I'm stiff and achy and feeling very old now.

7.) I have really bad astigmatism; the times I've tried to get contacts I've had to get the super duty way off the charts expensive ultra-weighted ones, and they still never sit right. So ... bummer. I'm sure I'd be very cute in contacts.

8.) You already know about my two-tone hair in high school, but did you know it was green for awhile? No, not very cool lime green or not-so-bad-school-color-Spartan-green, but pretty scary-bad grayish-moss-green. Which came from when I tried to dye it back after it was two-tone. The "ash brown" reds washed away leaving "ash brown gray" over "bleached so white it screamed" and made a lovely grayish green color. Which I then dyed auburn to cancel out the green (color theory at it's finest) and it mostly worked, except in bright sunlight, when people would suddenly notice "hey, your hair looks greenish on top." -- I grew that out for over a year and had almost all one-color, natural hair when I suddenly decided to dye it plum, in college. And from then on it changed color monthly. But I have always been fond of the plum.

9.) Maybe I should give you a bonus thing about me, since many of these things are lame. Um ... Um ... Did I ever tell you about the time in college during exam week when I'd been up studying for something like three days straight, and it was the end of the week when almost everyone else has gone home or is done and partying, but I still had one exam? And at 3 am I was awakened to this weird loud buzzing sound. I jumped up and turned off my alarm clock (I had one of those ones where the little clapper vibrates on the big bell thingies), but the noise continued. So I stared at the clock for a long time. Then tried turning the alarm back ON. But that didn't help either. I looked around the room and couldn't place the noise. I heard people outside in the hall and went to ask them if they could hear it. When I opened the door, there wasn't anyone hanging out nearby, so I shut the door and headed back for bed. Then I realized that the noise had been louder when the door was opened. So I opened it up again, just to check. And it was LOUD and almost seemed to be shaking the whole hall. And I thought, "That's strange." and then it dawned on me it was the fire alarms. And I couldn't remember whether I was supposed to wear shoes or not if the fire alarm went off. I went in and found my shoes and eventually made it outside.

It turns out it was one of those exam week party false alarms.

Which, I guess, in my case, was lucky.

So ... there you go. 8 things plus one that are, sort of, in the spirit of the meme. And I'm tagging the first 8 people who read this. Who, I believe, judging from my recent junk comments, will all be spammers. It will be nice to hear from them, don't you think? I am sure you are as curious as I am about my friends "low prices evrpure" and "ZZzz" and "auto insurance low price" -- so, spambots, take it away!

Oh, but any real people reading this can do it, too. No, really.

Things that make you go "oof"

Oof.

Ooof.

I think I'd rather be a crazed bird than a sad mad cow.

Although, really, I think I'm a mutant mixture of both. I'm the crazed weeping cow flying at the car mirror.

No WAY !!!

No WAY Liz, No WAY!

What are the odds?

Don't freak out, it's an analogy

I have a malignant tumor*.

Its name is "wasting time" and it's in the "selfish and lazy" category of malignant growths.

The worst part about it is that if I hack it out, it just grows back. Sometimes in the same place and same form, other times in a different place and form.

I can't tell you how many times I've tried to hack it out, only to see it growing back, sometimes almost immediately. Sometimes it even grows bigger than ever.

I've tried to hack it out in my own power. I've tried to sit back and pray for healing. I've tried to hack it out while praying for healing and strength to do the task.

So far it's still there, growing.

I'm trying that third approach again today. I've chopped myself off from my message boards, even though I'd already pared down to just a few small ones, I've been long gone from the BIG one that used to take all my time. I'm going to chop off a lot of my blog reading list. I'm going to chop away at the TIMES I can use the computer. again. Trying to stay off while the kids are awake.

I'm going to check my email now and then during the day, and I'll still try to get blog entries in, and friends' blogs visited, in the time after kids are in bed. So if I don't visit your blog as often, please understand. And if you miss me, drop me an email. I'm going to try to be a better reply-er. I've been bad lately. I'm sorry. I have intermittent trouble with bounces (sometimes that I don't even know about) but hopefully I'll find out if you're bouncing and get things straightened out.

To be honest I don't feel very hopeful at winning this battle. Seems like it's a pretty virulent malignancy. I know there can be healing in the Lord, that He's the great physician ... but it's hard to be hopeful when I've tried, and tried, and tried, and am still facing the same old prognosis. But I can't just let it grow, either.

So ... in case you're skimming and freaking out, I'll reiterate. It's just an analogy for the ugly truth that is my life.

*credit where credit is due ~ this analogy is a spin-off from Kelly's comments in this previous post.

*****

unrelated note ~ come do a little mini Bible study with me:

Is "balance" a Biblical concept? Should we seek balance in our lives? If so, where do you find that in the Bible, and what would you be balancing?

The original specific context of this question was: should we have a "balance" of being guided by the facts of doctrine vs. our emotions/feelings (the Holy Spirit) -- so specifically that, but I'm expanding the question to include the whole concept of "balance"

Please do not just state your thoughts, but back your position up with Scripture. All Scripturally backed opinions are welcome. :)

Tucked Away In Town

We rode past this place yesterday. The girls and I decided to walk back today to take pictures.

It's tucked away just past the library and always amazes me. Isn't it pretty? And it's within walking distance of our house.

I won't overload you with pictures (today), but you can follow that one, above, to my flickr pictures if you want, to see the artsy fartsy flower pix I took. Oh, and one of Noodle sitting on a fallen tree.

I thought this one was fun, although not the greatest quality. It's Iliacat on a fallen tree bridge, she's my monkey girl, always climbing. And Eminoodle running through the forget-me-nots to tell me something. It reminds me a little of Laura running through the fields in the Little House on the Prairie intro. I always wanted to run through fields of flowers.

A nice way to wrap up a Mother's Day afternoon, with a lovely walk with my girls.

Happy Mothers Day, to all you Mothers out there!

ohmygoshiamsotired

Saturday.

Pooped.

Exercise today took more out of me than usual. I'm not sure why. I was back to watching the clock and wearily counting the minutes until I was done.

Then, this afternoon, I took a bike ride with the girls, hauling LittleD in the Burley behind me. Boy does THAT add a lot of extra effort! (imaging me puffing and panting the whole time.) He's even a skinny little kid! But, still.

We rode one mile to the bike trail and then 2.5 miles down it to the Duck Memorial where we stopped for a granola bar snack and looked for places to hide a geocache.

Then we had to ride home. I thought the way there must've been all uphill, since it was so tiring, but the way home was just as hard plus into a stiff cool breeze. 7 miles in an hour's worth of riding. I wish the exercise calorie burn places had a checkbox for "hauling preschooler in Burley" to check when choosing "cycling, <10 miles per hour" ... I should get some calorie brownie points there.

Then I went to do some laundry but the stupid mattress cover and blanket that I, uh, crammed into the dryer late last night are, surprisingly, not dry. They were all wadded around eachother in a heat-impenetrable ball. So I separated them and tried to fluff them into the dryer. I am sure they have returned to their undryable glob. So I can't wash anything new because in the dryer are the never-drying pad-and-blanket, and in the washer is the similarly never-drying ... what's the word? ... comforter? those big poofy things to look nicey on top of your bed. Only they don't look so nicey with cat barf on them, thus the rotting in the washer while the heat-impenetrable blanket blob rolls in the dryer.

Then (I know it's bad to start every paragraph with "I" ... is it bad to start them all with "then" ? I'm such a classy writer)

Then the neighbors asked to borrow our oven. Apparently they're making a mothers' day cake (um, I guess in this case it would be mother's, since they only have one mother) but their oven died. They knew it was dying, it was working but giving warning error messages, and they responsibly called a repairman who is coming Monday, but it completely died. So the cakes are in my oven, making my house smell nicey. I hope I don't burn them or undercook them or something.

So now it's time to give the little kids baths, at least when the cakes are done ...

Oh MAN!

Did I tell you a week or two ago about my stove? How I discovered that, after 5+ years of living here, I could no longer use both big burners and the oven at the same time or it would blow the fuse? I blew it about 6 times in a row one day, trying to juggle half-cooked dinner items, before I figured out I could use the right burner and the oven, and did the rest in the microwave. Adequately. So anyway, I've just been using one or the other burner since, and it's been fine.

I was sitting here, happily blogging away, oblivious to the world. I didn't need to pay attention to the cakes, that's what timers are for.

But then I eventually realized I didn't hear the teapot boiling.

I didn't hear the teapot boiling!!! I dashed out there and checked the stove. No lights.

Rats. I turned off the back burner and ran downstairs and threw the circuit breaker, then ran back up and switched the tea pot to the right-front burner. The oven had cooled to about 275. It hadn't been off a LONG time, maybe 5 minutes?

I hope I didn't ruin their cake.

Apparently it's the left-back burner and the oven that is the/a trigger for the circuit thingie.

One good thing, at least the adrenaline from neighbor-cake panic woke me up a little.

At least long enough to drink the coffee.

Right?

I'll let you know about the cakes*.

*update ~ I think they're okay. They passed the toothpick test. ~ phew! ~

Possibly a full cup of sugar in every bite!

Are you a Jell-O mom?

I'm really not. I don't know why. I suppose because I don't love the stuff, myself.

But The Grand Lunar, he's a Jell-O Man. He likes the artificially colored, artificially fruitful wiggly blobs. And when he bought some Jell-O for the kids a while back they were very excited and pleased with his choice.

And so I thought ... "Why not? I could do Jell-O now and then."

Only.

I have to do it MY way.

Of course.

And of course MY way would take all day.

"All day? For Jell-O? What could you possibly mean, Kim?"

Simply this:

Six layers of jiggly rainbow bliss.

Because my favorite color still is "rainbow".

Proper enjoyment for the under 3 crowd included obligatory squarshing.

Recipe:
8 serving boxes of strawberry (cherry also acceptable), orange, lemon, lime, blue raspberry, and grape Jell-O. Use the Jiggler recipe, halved. Make one layer at a time, poring layers successively into pan in proper rainbow order, allowing at least 45-60 minutes between layers. Requires patience. And at least 4.5 hours, I did it in 6. And some ability to remember to make the next layer. A timer works well. Also requires space in the fridge.

Procrastination Entry!

I'm making dinner for a family in our church tonight, the mom/wife had surgery this past week ...

I love to cook for people and make meals. It's one of the few 'ministries' I feel easily fits with my talents and time and can be done with my family, not splitting us up.

But I'm still a procrastinator at heart, so instead of being in the kitchen, busy busy busy, I'm here, goofing around.

I'm making chicken enchiladas*, without the yummy onions and peppers, at the receivers request. I think I'll make ours with all the veggies and black beans and only a little chicken.

I should probably get to work.

I'm having a major junk food craving right now. Not sure why.

Oh, and regarding the previous subject, I don't have anything new and exciting to say, but I wanted to agree with what Theresa said in the comments -- I can't focus on how I FEEL, because emotions deceive. I need to stand firm on the facts. God draws near to those who call on Him, whether we can always see that right away or not. I believe that. He IS here, He will be here, He will supply all my needs. Thank you, Theresa, for pointing me back to the Truth.

* I thought for sure I'd put in the recipe for Yvette's Chicken Enchiladas before, but I don't see it. Maybe if I have a break in all my procrastination, I'll do that.

Hi from the Homeschooling Conference!

Good morning!

How's everyone doing?

I'm blogging from the homeschooling conference, holed up in the Radisson across the way from the Lansing Center. We're up on the 11th (and top) floor, which is kind of fun. In a look-out-the-window-and-see-how-far-down-things-are sort of way. We're up so high! The sun is rising over the city and the view out our East facing window is blindingly brilliant. This part of Michigan is flat, and downtown Lansing wouldn't win any awards for *pretty* but I still think there's something about looking out and seeing for miles, with the blinding sun washing everything with golden light through the haze ...

And my favorite building, the Water & Light Building, has sunlight illuminating it's windows ... I love the way this building was built on the river, with dark almost black bricks at the bottom, shades of purple and orange as you go up, to very light yellow bricks at the top, as if sitting along the river it has soaked up water over the years. I'll try to post a picture later.

The conference is good so far. I like conferences. I like speakers and talks and seeing friends in the hallway. I like staying in a hotel and drinking the free coffee with nasty powdered creamer (why don't I ever bring those little containers of liquid creamer that I like?) and being away from 'real life' long enough to think a little.

We don't go to ponder curriculum directions or to buy things. I know a lot of people come for the Exhibitor's Hall, to look first hand at the curriculums and to buy them (often at a discount) while here. But not me. I come for the talks and to be re-focused on God, and re-energized and encouraged. I usually need it by May! We do visit the exhibitor's hall, but my brain seems to shut down as soon as I walk in, even if I know what curriculum specifics I want to look at and buy. I walk in and am dazed and overwhelmed and just wander, buying my stuff later, from home, over the internet. But I love the speakers and the encouragement, the reminders of why we do this and what's really important.

At some point I'd like to blog those deeper thoughts of the why and what's important, but not today. I need to get on with drinking the not-so-tasty but well caffeinated coffee, and packing up our few belongings, so we can check out before the first session. The Grand Lunar is in the shower, and I'm just goofing off, here.

If I were ever holding a conference, I'd see about a late check-out time for attenders, like after the end of the whole conference, and a continental breakfast. At least for those on the 11th floor. Which is the 'concierge' floor here. Which is French for, "registered late enough that the only rooms left were on the expensive floor." -- you need to swipe your room card to even GET to this floor. So if it's soooo special, shouldn't a continental breakfast - just bagels and fruit would be fine - oh, and flavored non-powdered creamer - come with the extra price? I think it was $25 for this floor. I mean additional. So we should get some perks besides the closed-on-the-weekends conceirge room. Which, apparently, is a big empty room with lounge chairs. I'm not really sure the point.

The hotel is connected to the Lansing Center with this great long tube tunnel thingie. I love walking through the tube tunnel thingie. I'm easy to impress. But we always stay here instead of one of the cheaper but farther away hotels. It's a once-a-year splurge. We don't have to drive back and forth, we can walk to the car if we forget or need something, and we get to use that tunnel tube walkway several times.

There's also a Chinese restaurant within walking distance that we like. I'm having the steamed veggies and white rice, with hot garlic sauce on the side.

Not for breakfast. I'm just planning my lunch, already. We usually eat there twice, Friday night dinner and Saturday lunch. It's "our place" LOL.

Anyway. I'm rambling. I was reading recently that a good blog is succinct. Haha! Well, that just makes me One Bad Blogger.

HEY! I should've worn my HSB shirt, been on the lookout for other bloggers here.

Maybe next year I'll have a blogger workshop, LOL. The Workshop itself could be just sitting and giggling, really. Talking about what we like about blogs. Finding out which blog-reads we have in common. Meeting famous Michigan Homeschool Bloggers like ... um ... uh ... I guess I don't know any. Besides me. LOL!

Wouldn't that be fun?

I'm so full of good plans.

Spider-Man! Spider-Man! Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!

It's 2:51 a.m.

We just got back from the 12:05 a.m. showing of Spider-Man 3!

Whooooo! I really liked it.

And I'll tell you this: It was intense enough, and Venom was creepy enough, that afterwards, when I used the ladies room and the auto-flush toilet did it's gearing-up-to-flush squeak, I FREAKED OUT thinking it was Venom about to get me in the bathroom!

Also, on the way home we passed this bank where you can see into the lobby window and there's a painting on the wall, and I thought it was Sandman looking at me. Seriously!

Freaky!

Or maybe it's that it's way past my bedtime and I'm just a little jazzed.

Pretty intense, though.

(nods seriously)

And for tonight & tomorrow ....

Pray for Heather, would you?

Her surgery is tomorrow.

I've been amazed at her strength in the Lord and her choice to turn her thoughts, her fears, her posts, her eyes, and the eyes of her readers toward the Lord through all of this.

May God continue to be glorified through her ordeal.

A glimpse into my busy and productive day...

Despite your own busy schedule, I interrupt your important computer time to offer you one short glimpse into my busy and productive day.

I was reading BooMama's post about the Purse meme (which I won't do right now, mine is too messy) and followed her link backwards to GiBee's recent purse meme entry, and followed her link back to some older purse entry, which included a comment from someone named moledog (other than BooMama, none of these people are in my regular reads (because I'm such a busy woman, I suppose, as you can see from this important post) so I can't vouch for what you might or might not find on their sites, I'm just trying to give credit and linkage where it's due, although after I wrote that I couldn't link to moledog because the link went to some can't display profile page, anyway):

uh,m where was I?

Oh yeah, "moledog" said in his comments:

"At one time my wife was carrying around a purse that you could put a small child in, thankfully she has downsized a little. :-)"

And that reminded me of this, which I can't remember if I showed you last year around the time it occured. Not that this is my purse. This is my bag. Which my purse sometimes goes into. I love my bag. (And my purse. Although I could use one just a little bit bigger, and am on the lookout.)

That's LittleD at 3, completely in my bag. Ain't he cute?

And so ... uh ... I don't have a point, other than moledog's wife must have had a great bag, too. Although a cuter kid is hard to imagine.

And so ... um ... I just had to rush over and show you the picture that went with the comment I read surfing an old entry on a blog I don't read that I'd linked to from a blog I do read.

There was a jerk ...

It wasn't nearly as exciting as me being an idiot, but there was a jerk on the bike ride.

At the very end we were riding along a road that is the business route through downtown. I don't live in a big town, but this is one of the busiest roads, and so we were riding on the sidewalk, which is separated from the busy road by about a foot of dirt. We were slowing down and checking carefully behind us at each small street crossing, to make sure no one was turning in, when someone drove by and yelled "WATCHOUT!" just as they drove past. I'm just glad we didn't tip over into the road in shock. Stupid Jerk.

But that's not really that good of a story.

So back to the caffeine thing.

I had a can of Diet Coke With Vitamins last night. They added Acesufacefsition-K (whatever) artificial sweetener to this Diet Coke, which I say is unwise. Don't be messing with the perfect mix. But maybe it's trying to mask a vitamin taste. But now it doesn't taste quite like Diet Coke. But caffeine beggars can't be choosers. Anyway I had it before dinner, then finished off the Grand Lunar's abandoned DCWV after he'd gone to church. So I had 1.5 cans of soda, or so. In the evening. And this morning woke to ... guess what? Yes, the distinctive start of a caffeine headache. I'm serious. This is why caffeine and me have issues. At least I recognize the start and can feed it while it's still a baby. Keep it at bay.

I remember working up in the UP one summer (if you know of a college age person who needs a great summer experience working in the UP, let me know!) and getting caffeine withdrawal headaches around 10 each morning if I hadn't fed the monster yet.

When I was in college, one year I had a double room all to myself, and used one entire closet to store my pop can empties, because Michigan has a bottle return law, and I'd invested $0.10 into each and every can. So I would stack them up to heaven, and if I didn't get to the store that week I'd have an additional heap next to the door. Seriously. I drank that much diet coke. I probably could've had a year of college free if I'd invested that money in school instead of staying drugged. Drugged on caffeine, I mean. In case you misunderstood.

That was the same year I worked at the front desk several nights a week - whatever the max hours were - from 7-12 and then came back and studied until 3, and then slept until 7, and then had class all day. My first class was on the South End of campus - a 25 minute walk from where I lived in the North, at 8 am. In the Winter. It was horrible.

That winter semester I did have a roommate for a short time. She was a grad student from China. She moved in late and only stayed in the dorm until she could find some grad students to move in with. I remember I would come home to exchange books during the day, with no time to eat, and she would be eating lunch. I would come home in the evening to grab my things for work, with no time to stop and study or play, and she would be studying. I would come home at 12:30 from work and have to hit the books, and she would be sleeping. And all the messages on my answering machine were in Chinese. She got to do everything I didn't have time to do. It was weird.

I lived on Diet Coke, Coffee, Ramen Noodles, and Microwave Popcorn that year. I'm not really sure how I survived.

Don't even ask me about the No-Doz year. Which actually came before the Year Of No Sleep And No Food. Because by that year I think I'd had so much No-Doz the year before that I was still shaking from it. They use peppermint to mask the caffeine bitterness, and I still dislike peppermint candy to this day, it makes me feel queasy.

So anyway, what's my point? I'm not sure I have one. But if I do, It's not that I'm some sort of a holier than thou anti-coffee health nut. Me and caffeine go way back. We've got history. A lot of history.

I Have Met the Idiot and She is Me.

Yes, yes, I admit it. The idiot is me.

You saw that coming, I'm sure.

But first, a disclaimer ... in my absence you have all been eagerly awaiting the rest of the story, and now it seems very lame indeed. I'm feeling pretty bad about letting you all think there was some great story coming, and then it just being me. Talk about a let down! Like when you wait all season for the 2nd part of a cliff hanger, and then it's just stupid?

Yeah, so that's me.

Why?

I bet you can guess that, too, if you've known me for long.

I dangled my foot off the front of the caffeine-free wagon, lost my balance, fell off, and got run into the ground.

I can see you shaking your heads. Don't think I can't. But I deserve it. I knew better.

Here's how it went down.

First, I wasn't sleeping well.

Then I had one biggish cup of coffee a week ago Sunday, because of my irrational but well-deserved fear of dozing off in church. One. Biggish, but not huge. Sunday.

Then one can of soda the day I drove to the airport after lunch, because after lunch driving on a warm day can be dangerously dozy. Tuesday.

Then it was Thursday and I had a killer headache all day. Tried ibuprofen. Tried Tylenol. Doubled up on them, even. Not a dent. Even tried an Aleve later. Nothing. Going out with friends from church, an event that took much acrobatics to bring together four couples. Had one Diet Coke at the restaurant. One. One ice filled watered down fountain soda.

Headache went away like magic!

Good all day Friday. Great! Whoo Hoooo!

Not so much Saturday. Woke with a headache that just got worse and worse. Really bad while out riding in the sun. Really. really. bad.

Gave up and drank a new Diet Coke With Vitamins (talk about weird!) when we got home because my head. hurt. so. bad.

And it went away. And I felt GREAT!

And I knew it was too late. I'd tempted the addiction with small tastes, knowing I shouldn't but justifying them with 1.) it's not much, only one serving and not even every day, and 2.) I really neeeed some this time, so as not to crash (figuratively, or literally).

And when the addiction started to growl, I didn't ride it out. I fed it some more.

And now?

I'm being dragged along behind that wagon.

Now I either stick with the careful balance of caffeinating my head, or I choose to go through withdrawal again. Or I misjudge the balance and go through mini-withdrawal and respond by overcaffeinating myself. Which is the most likely of the three options, really.

Now is the moment when the nice supportive people say, "Hey, you should be able to enjoy caffeine if it doesn't cause problems for you! Don't sweat it. It's not so bad. Don't beat yourself up, just enjoy it."

And to them I say,

"Amen!

except ...

it does cause problems for me."

And so.

After suffering through a hideous migraine to get free, a few months ago, I've enslaved myself.

Again.

To the headaches, the mood cycles and depression, the motivation issues.

Has anyone known me long enough to be counting how many times I've been through this cycle? I'm sure it's more times than years I have lived.

So.

There you have it.

The Idiot, Unveiled.

I'm guessing few of you are surprised.

A Good Trip, and an Idiot

First the good trip part:

Iliacat loves bike rides. So today she wheedled me into going with her.

It only took us about a half hour to ride from home, past the Bike Shop (have I told you my Ray's story?) to see if they could fix my brakes (they couldn't, but I can bring it in for a tune up, which I think I will) to the local Nature Center down the excellent bike trail.

The phone-camera was in the backpack on the way there, duh. I should've taken pictures, it's a great trail. I should have taken the REAL camera, really. Because the phone makes us pay to get them, and then they look like they were taken either with a camera-phone or with state-of-the-art digital cameras from the early 90's. Ha ha! So next time I'll take it, I promise. But once we got there I thought we should send a pic home to The Grand Lunar.

Here we are when we got there:

Do I look sunburned? Oh, and excuse the fly-away-post-helmet head. Helmet Hair is Safe Hair, I always say.

But then we spent longer trying to send it, punching the tiny little buttons and not knowing what we were doing, than the ride out.

Eventually we conversed by text and got the picture sent. Twice. Ooops.

Then we rode home, the long way, going past the bizarre Overlook Park which overlooks (sounds nice so far, doesn't it? If I hadn't said bizarre? ) the chemical cooling ponds and plant. Yes, it really does. You can kind of see the chemical plant and ponds here. Well, you can see the ponds easily, but maybe you wouldn't have guessed they were chemical cooling ponds. Or something. I'm not really sure what they are. Actually, I think they're full of magic algae that eat the toxic waste or something. Maybe dad will tell us.

Here's where the scary ominous clouds looked pretty cool:

Here's Ilicat on the funky three legged foot bridge in our town. Well, foot and bike. I think you're allowed to ride over it. We did.

Oh, we're going for a walk to the park, so I'll have to tell you about the IDIOT later.

Am I Cool? Or Am I Nerd?****

(Sorry for the repeat info, Rosanne!)

So we had dinner out (in a real restaurant!) with some church folk today.

One of them was marveling over the stupid stuff at YouTube... apparently he’d just discovered it through some lazy coworkers who had the audacity to watch idiotic stuff while they were supposed to be working ...

So I proudly said, “I have something on YouTube!” and they asked, “What?!?!?!” and I said a short clip of Darth Vadar dancing*, and someone asked, “What’s he dancing to?” and I said, “Safety Dance” and someone around our age, who apparently has lived in a hole** all her life, said, “What’s Safety Dance?!?!?”

I had to say only the COOLEST song EVAH (next to anything Adam Ant did).***

They just didn’t get it.

(wanders away shaking head sadly)

______

* You might have seen this before. And no, it's not new and improved.
Okay, in my defense, I didn't take the pictures, Gark did, so I only had a few images to work with. And the horrible quality is mostly YouTube's fault, it compressed it when I uploaded it. It looks really, uh, great here on my computer. Yeah. That's the ticket. On my computer? There's like costumes and a disco ball, too. No, really. And back-up singers.

** Um, no offense to anyone else who has also lived in a hole. I've heard they're nice.

*** Except that gorilla thing. Which is almost enough to make me crawl in a hole. We'll just pretend he's not related to his former self. 'Kay?

**** Uh, we better pretend that the subject is rhetorical, too, eh?

did you follow all those *'s ? A bit too many, I think. Even I got a little confused with the blog flow today. Consider it an exercise in creative mental path following. It's good for your brain. No, really.

What are the chances they drugged my beverage at the restaurant? The more I re-read my own entry, the more I'm thinking I'm on something.

rambling addendum to my previous post

I just realized that my last post probably makes it sounds like I'm NOT doing well.

Really, friends, I think I'm okay. Today has been hard, I'm sure because it's a one week anniversary, and we tend to think in weeks, months, anniversaries. And because today is the first day we haven't had wonderful company to distract us. So the whole 'normal day' thing is a little different, being just us again.

So don't read too much into the other post. Really, I think we're doing okay. Normal ups and downs. Nothing to freak out about.

Also ...

I don't know who invented the idea that junk food makes you feel better when you're down, but it's not true. After spending the day indulging in junk food of several kinds I can testify that, really, it doesn't make you feel any better.

Not that that'll stop me from finishing off the m&m's.

Okay, now you can read the previous post.

I didn't add this to the front of it because it was long enough already. I was skimming it after I posted it (not checking for grammar or typos, though, so you'll have to alert me to those) and thinking, "Gee WHIZ, she yammers on and on. Enough already!"

which this post will make you think, soon, too.

if I don't

aburptly

stop

*poke poke* ... is she in there?

Sorry, I guess I was spaced out, there. Here I was wondering why I'm pretty much only getting spam, and it turns out it's cause I haven't posted.

It's a rare at-a-loss-for-words moment.

Oh, that that I'm really at a loss for words. I'm full of words, as always. I just am indecisive about which ones to use, today.

I've got stuff I could say, like about things blooming in my yard, but I'm not really up for the effort of taking pix and cropping, resizing, and uploading them. Yeah, yeah, I'm that overworked.

Here's a tiny sample from my recent flickr stuff.

Those daffodils that were struggling to beat the odds of being wrapped up with the worms under the 'protective' weed barrier? They managed to bloom! But they were very droopy. But, come to think of it, I think they've been droopy in the past, too. Maybe they need to be separated? I don't really know. Maybe someone can tell me.

And some other things are blooming, like my Vinca, seen above unfurling in a spiral. And some wild cherry blossoms that popped out quickly, from nothing to bud to blossom in 2 days.

There's also unphotographed violets, dandelions, and things getting ready to bloom. I have a post in my head about the clematis I pruned, but don't have the energy to write it.

Truth be told, that's really it, I don't have any energy today. Today is one week from when I realized I really was, for sure, miscarrying. Or, I think more accurate, wrapping up a miscarriage. I think probably the baby had died sometime sooner than even when the bleeding started, but since I didn't go the high techie route I don't have the answers that the average american mom would have right now. I don't think those facts and knowledge would help much, but sometimes my brain tries to trick me, telling me I'd feel better if I just knew when the baby died. I don't know. Anyway, I guess I'm down today because it's been a week, because this time last week I was putting away my hope, and turning to walk in grief-and-faith.

People have been asking how I'm doing, and it strikes me as such an odd question. I mean, I see why they ask, but it's hard to answer. What's "doing well" ? What does that really mean? How does it work when you should feel sad and bad? Mumbling "Oh, I'm feeling sad, but I know God is good." sometimes feels a little weak. Not untrue, just sort of paling compared to real life. Maybe I should say, "I'm very sad, but God is very good!" ... LOL

And things that are minor and stupid make me sad. Like all our children's birthdays have been in odd years, save for one that came one day early of the odd year (and who's complaining there, because he brought that tax bonus early!) ... '95, nearly '97, '99, '01, '03, '05 ... and now we won't have an '07. The system is all messed up. Wouldn't that make you cry? Now I'll have to use my ACTUAL memory, for future children, instead of just math.

But, really. Back to my rambles on how I'm doing... You can't say, "doing fine!" because then you sound like you're in denial. You can't (well, you could) just weep and bawl, because then people worry that you're NOT doing fine. But sometimes the truth sounds small compared to how big it feels.

Sad but walking in faith. Feels big. Sounds little.

Look at me rambling and repeating myself.

I'm just pooped today. Physically and emotionally.

And I know it's okay to be. I know I have reason to be.

It's just too bad it interferes with the chipper happy blog writing.

But, really. I should be going.

I'll tell you why.

Because being sad and tired does not a clean house make.

Yeah. Laying around dozing and being sad all day = a trashed house pretty fast. If mom ain't workin and dictating, ain't no kids working, either.

But mostly I need to go because Buzz's diaper is "mom," really REALLY "mom" -- stinking up the room. So I'm earnestly blogging to avoid it for a moment. Although the stink might overwhelm us all, so, really, I'll go do it now.

Why Decluttering Pays

So, as you've been following the drama of my decluttering, I'm sure you were wondering, "Does all this stress to declutter pay off?"

I am pleased to inform you that it, indeed, does.

But first, let's recap.

I did start 'early' this year, trying hard to pack up stuff about a month ago, realizing the church rummage sale was coming up fast. But then suddenly it was yesterday and The Grand Lunar was informing me that today was the last day to take stuff in.

And so today I worked hard. Very hard. To finish packing up boxes, sorting through bags, and of course hauling, hauling, hauling things up from the basement.

(And yes, I did work too hard. I know you all warned me. But hey, a procrastinator driven by deadlines expects to have to work too hard one day, to make up for all her lollygagging previously. I'll take it easy tomorrow, I promise. Just try to stop me.)

Here's the final tally, in pictures:

One MobyFull:

Since that's the back of a 15 passenger van (with the rearmost seat removed), that's about 6'x3'x3' packed, so we'll call it 54 cubic feet of clutter.

And One MoogieVanFull, or, alternately, a Leaning Tower of Clutter:

which is approximately, oh, lets call it 5'x3'x2' or so. Give or take. So that's 30 more cubic feet of clutter.

Or over 80 feet of cubic clutter, removed from the house.

When I got to the church to drop it off, with the first load, I was awestruck at the sight:

Is that not ... flabbergasting?

Oh, that's not me in the pic, I'm sure you new that. That's one of the church rummage sale workers who was willing to be photographed.

Anyway, Moogie was going to take load #2 on her way home, but I decided I'd take my camera to try to capture the immensity of the gathering clutter.

And on my way in, I saw it.

The grand prize for all my efforts.

Yes, it's a beautiful (except for the orange) bank of lockers!!

Perhaps you did not know, but I have been searching online for lockers, but unwilling to pay the gihugic price for new ones. Because they are sold to fairly specific niche markets, there's no 'entry level, modest priced' lockers out there.

When I saw these I immediately started begging all the sale workers to let me buy them. Officially the sale does not open until Friday morning, and early sales only go to those working hard to RUN the sale. Which is not me.

BUT it turns out everyone groaned in dismay to see the lockers. Because who in their right mind would buy lockers? They were sure they would just have to haul them to the dump after the sale. So they were pleased to have some crazy customer begging to buy them. And they were gracious enough NOT to jack up the price based on my obvious desperation to buy them.

I'm going to paint them lovely color. And put them in the dining room. Which, in my defense, is the room the back door enters into, and therefore is always full of discarded coats and shoes.

Just imagine those lovely lockers, in perhaps a pale spring green to match the back door, right here:

The coat and shoe area usually looks MUCH more cluttered than in this old picture, by the way. Imagine 3x as many coats and shoes, many of them barfing out of the area and sprawling on the floor. The light green lockers will replace this coatrack and shoe cubbies.

And that'll only take up, oh, 36 to 40 cubic feet.

It's almost ... WHAT!???!?!

It's almost time for the church yard sale.

I've got another week.

In my head.

But it turns out, in reality, in the real world, where the church and everyone else lives, I've just got another DAY.

Yes, that's right. Tomorrow is the LAST day for drop off.

Today was the first day.

So not a BIG window. But somehow all along I missed that the drop off was only on two days, and those days were Sunday and Monday.

So I've got a heap of stuff in the basement. Mostly packed up, but not totally.

And we've got a houseguest.

And a husband with a busted back.

And a suggestion to take it easy and ease back into physical activity as my body recovers.

And a heap of stuff in the basement.

Only some of which was really gone through carefully.

Phooey.

I guess tomorrow I'll set the children to tidying the main floor and I'll do what I can to sort out the clothes and half-packed boxes in the bedrooms, and drag up what I can from the basement, and try to take a trip or two to the church.

If it doesn't get done tomorrow ... well, it'll probably still be sitting here next year.

Next year maybe I'll plan ahead even better.

Reading the flyer about the drop-off, for example.

I didn't blog the trip pix!

I forgot to blog the trip pix, didn't I?

I was disappointed that I, personally, didn't get to take many pix of the beautiful U.P. but Iliacat stepped up to the challenge and took a whole lot of very nice ones for me.

So, come travel back in time a week, vacation vicariously up north with us!

On Saturday The Grand Lunar took the big kids ~ ours and the cousins ~ out to Gnome Rock, which involved driving a mile, walk a mile or so, and much climbing of rocks. And while it's hard to believe it in today's 70 degree weather, last weekend in the U.P. there was still much snow to be seen.

In no particular order:

A quite unflattering picture of me lounging on the couch the whole time. Some of you were concerned that we were roughing it in a cabin with no flush toilets and all that. To which I say "ha ha!" and then in my best Tweety voice, "He don't know me vewwy well, do he?" You can see here the cabin was equipped with everything but free wireless internet access. In this picture I am shoveling excellent rice-and-bean enchilada, made by my sister, into my mouth. Attractive, eh?

Tobi-Wan on the Rocks:

A whole bunch of children on the rocks:

Iliacat waaaaaay up on top of Gnome Rock ~ due to the snow and slippery moss, she was the only one able to climb to the top this time:

I believe she took this one, looking down on the Grand Lunar and cousin Chickie:

She also took some artsy ones you can see on my Flickr space, including Yooper Snowy Moss Rocks, the side of Gnome Rock, Gnome Rock itself, Ice breaking up along the shore, and BigE climbing up.

The Grand Lunar also captured this great one of Eminoodle Leaping off a rock.

And let's not forget Little D's Bloated Gusset Socks, which I finished while up there:

They fit better than they looked like they would, and Little D seemed excited about receiving them, although has not chosen to wear them voluntarily, so perhaps it's one of those "it's the thought that counts" type of gifts.

Buzz liked them, too, here is is posing with them; you can still see the bloated gusset section:

Oh, and last but not least, some little red squirrels came to beg at the cabin's back door. And we named them all Hammy. Since they usually came one at a time, we pretended it was just one squirrel we were poisoning with Corn Pops and frozen waffles and Apple Jacks.

Oh, last last thing. In case all the snow and stuff freaks you out, go check out this picture that my sister posted on her Flickr space, which is the same day as all the others, but actually makes the snow covered beach look rather like a white sand tropical paradise!!!

Did you go look? If not, go look! I'll wait.

(cheerful hold music)

Sometimes a little imagination goes a long way.

Okay ONE more last last thing. Since you've all been so wonderful praying for us, and I've already got your prayertention (prayer attention, of course) would you also pray for The Grand Lunar? He's hurt his back, or the stress of this past week has hurt his back ... he is having acute attacks that are so painful he can't really move; in between they subside to 'very painful, but able to move around' ... he isn't sleeping well because of it, and it's wearing him down.

thanks, good friends.

And Now The Rest of the Story ...

Well, the rollercoaster hasn't quite come to a complete and final stop, but we know know which direction it is headed.

We found out yesterday that the baby is no longer alive. It was a difficult day, and I did not tell the children (or the blog) until today. I will admit that more than anything else, I was surprised that the process was so much like 'real' labor. (yes, I know, it IS real labor) but especially in contrast to the easy birth six years ago, this one was difficult, physically as well as emotionally.

The Grand Lunar came home from work and picked his sister up from the airport, with all the children, so that I could stay home and rest, and stayed home to be with me after that, which was really nice, just to have him here.

By evening I was feeling better and able to make it to Iliacat's end of the year concert for the Youth Honors Ensemble. She was beautiful and sang well and I was so proud of her.

We celebrated Tobi-wan's birthday with the first of the presents and the songs, but he'll get cake and more presents on Sunday with my parents.

Anyway ... now we move on with grieving for what is lost, and hoping for the future, and knowing that in all things, God is good.

My biggest prayer is that He would, indeed, be glorified through this. That through our lives, our loss, that He would bring glory to Himself.

Praise the Lord, His goodness endures forever.

A Mere Six Years Ago ...

Six years ago ...
around midnight ...
I talked to my midwife and we agreed I was in labor, but not too far along in labor, since I was still jokey and chatty. I decided to go upstairs to sleep for awhile, and make sure that my stop-and-start contractions weren't going to stop again. I promised I'd call back when things got serious.

And so I slept.

I would wake up in the middle of a strong contraction, unable to talk, and think, "Must Tell Lunar!" ... but then as the contraction would fade I would doze back off, until the next one.

Finally, after who knows how long, I woke up enough to mumble "call the midwife!" and hurry off to the bathroom, myself. In the bathroom I realized my body wanted to push. When The Grand Lunar returned, I said I thought we might've waited too long to call. I lay on the bed with my feet up trying hard not to push.

A few contractions later I said, "what's that, the bag of waters bulging?"

But this was no bag of water, what with little eyes and a nose, and a whole body soon to follow.

We tried hard to remember our "sudden birth" instructions. I sat up and wrapped a blanket around me and the baby while I nursed, and not too long after my parents arrived. It wasn't until mom asked whether it was a boy or girl that we realized, in all the excitement, that we hadn't checked. It was a boy.

Not long after that, the midwife arrived.

What a sweet, cute kid. He had fluffy little curls when he finally got hair, and big brown eyes like the Grand Lunar.

Today, as he turns six, he's handsome, silly, sweet, and sensitive. I love my Tobi-Wan.

On Not Knowing ...

It's been a hard day. A lot of crying, mostly when I was alone. Extra salty shower and all that.

The simple update is there's not much new information. I still have some light bleeding. It might even be lighter than yesterday. I'm not sure.

I've spent a lot of the day scheming in my head. How could I get an ultrasound without strings attached?

Why is the medical world set up so that you can't just get the tests you want, when you want them, and the analysis, but not the ongoing relationship unless you desire it? From my past experience, I know that doctors' office staff are pretty abrupt with people who come in at the wrong time, or with different thoughts than the average patient. You can't just waltz in and say you're planning something different but would like to purchase just one service. Maybe it's all the fears of malpractice, but many of the practices I called in the past wouldn't really even talk to me if I wasn't going to pretend to become a regular patient.

Anyway, I realize that I'm looking more to *medical knowledge* than to God for my peace, my assurance. I wrestle with feeling like I could handle either answer, as long as I had AN answer ... and I start scheming again, how can I get an answer.

But I come back to these facts:

1.) God could've given me an answer by now. We could've heard clear heart tones yesterday. Or I could have increased bleeding and passed the baby. My uterus could've been mushy and soft and all wrong for the dates. If He had the ability to give us an answer, but did not, why do I think I should seek an answer elsewhere?

2.) I asked my husband's guidance, and he gave it to me. I believe that is a God-ordained method of guidance. I didn't feel able to make a decision, and the Grand Lunar stepped in with his.

But not knowing, itself, continues to be hard. Not knowing whether I should start grieving, or rejoicing. I can rejoice that God is in control, that God is good, that God has a plan and will glorify Himself regardless of the outcome, indeed through the outcome, whichever directions things go. And truly, that is my prayer. Lord, you ARE good. All this is in Your hands, for Your glory.

But I can't currently rejoice or mourn the circumstances. I am stuck in limbo, waffling back and forth, somehow trying to do both at once.

Which makes for some tearful trips to the bathroom (one of the few places I'm alone during the day) ...

I guess if nothing else I can rejoice that I'm usually alone in the bathroom! I know not all mothers have that luxury.

Anyway, I'd love to chatter on about other things, but this waiting unknowing is weighing heavily on my mind.

I wonder sometimes when one knows to go and seek medical assistance ~ I do believe He uses it, I believe He often works through it. But I keep coming back to this situation and not really feeling he's telling me to go in. Sometimes I get upset, because I know most everyone else I know would go in. Why do I have to be the 'special' one with the crazy ideas? Why couldn't I just assume I should do it the way everyone else in America does it?

But ... I have truly loved our homebirths. And I have felt the snowballing of medical 'help' when one doesn't meet the doctor's schedule. I'd like to borrow the excuse that the situation is telling us to seek medical knowledge, but I don't really think this situation is. If it is, I pray that God really lays it on my heart, not a longing to have facts but an urgency that medical knowledge would be His way this time. And that more than that, He would lay it on the Grand Lunar's heart, and even my midwife's heart, whispering "Now is the time. This is the situation."

But unless He does that, I will just have to keep turning back to Him, trying to find peace and rest in the knowledge that He is good, He is in control, and that He has NOT called us that route.

If you would, please pray with me that He'll help me keep turning back to Him, even when it's hard.

Ahhh, a nice, lighthearted meme

The nice thing about having a "rambling" category is that almost every post fits neatly in there.

Theresa tagged me for this meme. I'll tag ... um ... Rosanne (got to get her to blog soon! She's slacking off!) and ... um ... Erin ~ bwah ha ha!!

1. How old will you be in 10 months? Let's see. What's today? The 16th? Then in 10 months I'll be 39. Wow.

2. Do you think you'll be married by then? I certainly hope so! I won't entertain thoughts to the contrary.

3. What do you look forward to most in the next 3 months? Spring finally arriving?

4. Who was the last person you called? The Urgent Care Clinic

5. Who was the last person to call you? Adam from the Music Program

6. Do you prefer to call or text? Texting, hands down. Literally.

7. Do you have any pets? We're down to one cat. I'm really her step-mother. She's never loved me.

8. What were you doing at 12am last night? Sleeping pleasantly.

9. Are your parents married/divorced/separated? Married.

10. When is the last time you saw your sister? Sunday! Just yesterday!

11. What happened at 10:00 am? I think that was around the time I finally took a shower. Before that I was knitting.

12. How many states have you lived in? Two. But only one that I remember much of.

13. Who was the last person you were(are) mad at? The rude receptionist at the regular doctor's office who acted like I was stupid. (insert Hammy voice: I'm not stupid.)

14. Do you prefer shoes, socks, or bare feet? Socks. Unless the floor is crunchy or sticky. Then shoes. I'll leave you to guess which it usually is.

15. Are you a social person? Yes, when I'm not tired.

16. What was the last thing you ate? A handful of tropical jelly beans. I don't know why.

17. What is your favorite ice-cream? Dean's Country Charm Moose Tracks. With what we call Yamok Sauce.

18. What was your last alcoholic drink? Smirnoffice. Which is technically called Smirnoff Ice, but sounds better if you run it together ending with the word 'office', don't you think? Before I was pregnant.

20. What kind of jelly do you like on your PB&J sandwhiches? I prefer peanut butter and honey.

21. How was your day today? Oh ... I don't know. It was a roller coaster. Overall ... 3?

22. What are you excited about? Um ... we've got an overnight date coming up in May.

23. What do you drink in the morning? Usually decaf candy coffee.

24. Would you rather sleep with someone else or alone? With The Grand Lunar, for sure.

25. Do you sleep on a certain side of the bed? The left side as you face the bed. Or the right side as you lay on your back in bed.

26. Do you know how to play poker? No, not really.

27. Do you like to cuddle? The Grand Lunar, and my kids, especially babies.

28. Have you ever been to Canada? Oh sure, sure.

29. Do you eat out or at home more often? at home.

30. Do you know anyone with the same birthday as you? Kristen M. Although I don't know what happened to her.

32. Do you speak any other language? Not fluently enough to count. I took German in high school and did well and could've been fluent.

34. Have you ever been in an ambulance? Um ... no.

35. Did anyone brighten your day? Yes, my friends who left all the kind and encouraging words and prayers and blog comments. They mean a lot to me.

36. Do you prefer a window seat or an aisle seat? window

37. Do you know how to drive a stick shift? Oh sure, sure. Although I'm getting worse at it since I don't do it often anymore.

38. What is your favorite thing to spend money on? One of my favorites is to be the "yes man" (er, woman) for the silly things The Grand Lunar likes to buy. That, and chocolate.

39. Do you wear any jewelry 24/7? My wedding rings

40. What is your favorite TV show? Currently? The Office. Only we don't have cable or an antenna, so we scavenge reruns where we can. Not Current? Maybe Columbo. And of course all Star Trek.

41. Can you roll your tongue? Of course.

42. Who is the funniest person you know? The Grand Lunar, when you really get him rolling. Especially if you can get he & Joe to talk about the old days.

43. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? Not anymore.

44. What is the main ring tone on your phone? How long is this meme, anyway? My lame cell phone just makes a digital ringing noise.

45. Do you still have clothes from when you were little? I have some clothes from when I was a smaller size, does that count?

46. What is the color of your bedroom walls? Well, technically they're off white. Only someone must've smoked in the room long before that, and this icky yellow-brown has bled through inconsistently so they're blotchy and kinda gross, really. Someone should paint in there.

47. Do you shut off the water when you brush your teeth? Good question. I'll try to pay attention. I think usually off, but not always?

48. Do you sleep with your closet doors opened or closed? Open. To let the clutter breathe.

49. Would you rather be attacked by a big bear or a swarm of killing bees? Who writes these questions? I would rather die peacefully in my sleep when I was very old.

50. Do you flirt a lot? Not anymore. Except perhaps with the Grand Lunar. I'll have to ask him if I flirt.

Still More Not Knowing

well ...

I haven't received the clarity I prayed for.

On the 'good news' side, my midwife said my uterus felt the right size and firm, she's felt some pre-miscarriage ones that felt 'enlarged but soft' and mine wasn't soft. She heard some possible placental noises but she wasn't sure.

But we couldn't get any heart tones for the baby.

But we both remember having trouble getting them this early on be before. Especially when I had the bleeding with little D. We heard them just fleetingly, just enough to give us a glimmer of hope, with LittleD, but then we could not confirm them or get them back.

So ... it was all just very inconclusive.

Really, it's all very similar to what it was like when I bled with LittleD, except for not getting fleeting heart tones this time. But that doesn't really mean anything, either.

I called my regular doc and said I didn't have a regular OB and could I come in? The lady treated me like I was an idiot for not seeing anyone earlier than 13 weeks. They can't get me in until 3 pm tomorrow to see the doc, and then the ultrasound would be separate after that, and I'm supposed to chaperone Iliacat's choir at 4 pm. So I left the tentative appointment at 3 pm but said I wasn't sure I could get out of my commitment. But I didn't like the way they talked to me.

I called urgent care, but they send people to ER for this sort of thing.

And ...

I'm struggling with the fact that it's not really an emergency. I mean, if the baby's in trouble, it's too early gestationally to *DO* anything but wait and rest and pray. I would hate to take ER time and ER doctors from more pressing emergencies.

As I was writing this, I heard back from The Grand Lunar. I've been too back-and-forth to make a decision, so I asked him, so we'll go with what he suggested. He recommends waiting and resting more, rather than messing with going to the doc or ER.

Please pray that waiting a week will provide more answers than today did.

:(

***

but in lighter news ...
I was crying, then stopped. Then the doorbell rang. It was the neighbor. So I called the big kids who whooshed down to come play. It was AFTER talking with the neighbor that one of the kids said to me, "What's wrong, mom, you have black lines down your face!"

Apparently my new mascara isn't waterproof.

Look at me, I'm a Twirl-o-Paint

Well, here it is, Monday Morning.

I'm feeling a little like ... no, a lot like ... a twirl-o-paint.

Did you have one of those when you were a kid? We did.

You put paper in on that little rack that holds it in place, and drip different colors of paint onto it while it twirls around, and the paint spins and splatters and runs together. You don't really know what it will look like until you're done, and it can be a little messy while it's in process.

So I'm a Twirl-o-Paint of emotion today, with all the different hopes and fears and twinges and reactions swirling and splattering all around and mixing together. The twirling is making me a little dizzy and nauseous, really. And we won't know how it turns out until it's done.

I'm sure glad God is in control. With so many ups and downs and mixed emotions and fears, I wouldn't even know what to think or do. I'm glad He does.

Anyway.

My midwife is coming over at 1:30 Eastern.

I'll let you know later this afternoon how it goes.

Back in Town

hey there!
I'm back in town!
Putting up my feet while the family does the hard work of unpacking. I'll have to delegate the mounds of laundry we brought back.

Anyway, thank you again for your prayers. It is so heart warming to read the comments and realize how many friends are praying for us.

I don't really have much new to say. The bleeding has continued, lightly. A little more than 'spotting' but less an a 'regular flow' ... a light flow, I guess, a little off and on. Sometimes I feel crampy and some pressure. I remember when I had the big bleeding with LittleD and analyzed every cramp and pressure and twinge, and I'm feeling about the same.

this morning was my weepiest, feeling frustrated at not being able to run around packing up efficiently, not knowing whether lounging around while others worked was even benefitting anyone, wishing I knew something one way or another.

Tomorrow I'll see my midwife and we'll use the doppler to try for heart tones. I'm praying that the Lord just really makes things clear, either we hear the tones or we don't hear anything ambiguous like the placental swish ... I don't know if tomorrow will really tell me anything or not.

Annnnnyway. My daughter and sister were good enough to get out and take lots of pictures for me, so I'll upload some nice ones after I look at them. I didn't get much knitting done, despite sitting around doing nothing most of the time, but I did finish LittleD's crazy socks and started on one that was originally intended for Tobi-Wan but in the end was clearly for Buzz. I just have to kitchener up the toe and I can show you the first one.

I may have more days of lounging around doing nothing but blogging, knitting, and directing, for your reading pleasure. We do have company coming on Wednesday, so keep me in prayer about that, too, with the emotional pressure of not knowing what's up with the baby, and Ilia's big choir concert on Wednesday, and Tobi-Wan's birthday, and company, and being expected not to 'do too much' ... I'm sure the week will be a rollercoaster.

Makes for good blogging, though, right?

Thank you, dear friends

I just want to thank you, my dear friends, for praying for me, and for asking other friends to pray. It means a lot to me.

I'm grabbed The Grand Lunar's notebook, my sister's car & housekeys, and snuck over to her house to grab a few minutes to update. I thought with GL's computer I could just log in and not have to REMEMBER my password, but guess what? It had forgotten it too. But thank the Lord, He eventually reminded me of the right one so I could post.

So ... for those of you who didn't see it snuck in the comments, I am posting from our vacation in the U.P. to ask you for prayer. I've had some bleeding with this pregnancy (12.5 weeks along) ... it started with a little 'old blood' (hope this isn't TMI) and then progressed to heavier and fresher blood, which really isn't a good sign.

I have talked to my midwife and I'm doing a modified bedrest and prayer approach. At this point the bleeding has slowed, but not really stopped. I spotted yesterday evening, but really didn't have much overnight, but it has picked up again today. Not heavy, but kind of always a little present. so ... I am still having some bleeding, off and on, at this point.

and, at this point, even things seeming to get better doesn't really tell us anything. If I am miscarrying, it could happen quickly or it could take days of off and an bleeding. We don't really know. Rather than rush to a clinic an hour away, we've decided to continue our normal low-intervention approach and just wait and pray. We'll drive home tomorrow, and Monday I'll see my midwife and she'll see if we can get any heart tones. At 13 weeks we may or may not, we've had trouble getting other babies' tones that early. I guess we'll pray and discuss more after that.

SO ... i don't really have any new updates, I'm not sure there really could be one without an ultrasound. For those of you who don't know, I had similar-but-different bleeding with little D, about 4 years ago, and in that case the ultrasound did show he was doing well but labeled us 'high risk' for other reasons and kind of stirred up up whole 'nother realm of prayer concerns and things to worry about. Or try not to worry, as you pray and trust God, if you know what my mean. So I'm not sure I want to go that route again, even though I know it could at least tell us whether the baby is alive or not. Since we're planning a homebirth, it would involve finding a doctor who would be willing to see me despite those plans. I don't really feel comfortable trying to *conceal* those plans, although I suppose I could just omit that information.

Anyway, I apologize for rambling now. I feel a little ... hesitant ... asking for prayer when I know so many others have walked this path quietly, and so many more have dealt with so much more than I have ... but then I've never been one to walk silently ;-) so I may as well have my friends praying along with me. Most of all, my desire is that God would bring Himself glory through our lives.

Well, I'll be home tomorrow night, and I'll post then.

thank you again, my good friends. I love you all. I was so encouraged to read your comments on my last post. It means a lot to me to know you're there.

kim

note to self: go finish packing

Don't sit there and read blogs. No matter what exciting things are happening in your friends' lives.

You've got packing to do, girl.

You are NOT done. You do NOT really deserve an extended break. In fact, you can't afford it.

Go finish packing.

You'll be glad you did.

Use the extra time to make sure all the packed bags get INTO THE VAN this time. They don't do any good sitting at home, you know.

P.s. to the readers ~ I did tell you I was going away, didn't I?
I'm going away. Until Monday.
Without internet access.

Well, unless I get desperate.

But I don't plan to. I've got books and knitting and I'm hoping for a little extra SLEEP.

Plus the nature.

Which is all covered in snow.

But, still.

Ooooh look at the finch! Is that a house finch or a purple finch?

Mom, he's back, right after you left! Rats.

Oh, anyway, back to what I was saying.

Gotta go.

I'll miss you. I'll blog in my head for you. That much I promise.

Just Pooped Today

Like my 4 year old, my almost-2 year old is running a little slow on the verbal development. Not as in "I'm concerned there's a problem" but as in he'd rather gesture and use one-word statements and re-enactments to get his point across. He's really quite good at making himself known, most of the time.

But when I ask him how his diaper his, he pats his bottom, nods, and says, "Mom."

Mom?

What does that mean, that he says Mom when patting his diaper? At first I thought it was a much-shortened version of "It's fine, you don't need to change it, Mom."

Today, though, I realized he might just mean "Full of Poop."

That could be synonymous with Mom, to him. After all, I'm the one telling him he shouldn't need to nurse for 5 minutes, play for 5, nurse for 5, play for 2, nurse for 3, play for 6, nurse for 4, etc. all day long. I'm the one telling him he can't go outside alone, or eat chocolate for lunch. I'm sure my statements come across to him as just full of poop.

But the Grand Lunar had a different interpretation. A nicer one. Maybe "Mom" means pooped. That, too, would be true of both me and the diapers. Me more often than the diapers, really.

Like today. I'm just pooped.

The sad thing is, today isn't the day I worked hard.

That was yesterday. Yesterday I made a long list of "home recovery" from the Easter Weekend. I assigned the older children independent school work, and some of the cleaning, and all day long I kept moving on to the next thing on my list. And I got it all done. And the house looked nice.

The idiotic (full of poop!) thing is that I realize if I would just do that EVERY day, it wouldn't be so much work. Yeah, yeah, I've learned that much from the flylady. I've learned the concept. But not the practice.

I'm good at that.

Today, since the house looked fairly nice when I started, I didn't make a list, nor did I stick to my regular list. I knit a little. Worked a little. Assigned a little. I did a lot of a little, but didn't really see things to completion.

So here it is, 7:36 pm, and I'm pooped, but most of today's work is still unfinished.

Again.

You'd think I'd eventually learn, wouldn't you? But no, I'm sitting here blogging, instead of working.

Oh, but there IS good news. Dinner was good. I've posted it before, so instead of the recipe I'll just link to it. Linda's Rice and Beans.

Oh, except I see that 1.) I didn't actually follow the recipe as it was written (I never do!) and 2.) that's not what I called it there. It's the 2nd recipe down. The 2nd sister. So I'll just semi-repeat today's version, and you can go back and read the other version (especially with the first recipe for the cucumber salsa! -- which I didn't make today) if you're interested in the many variations ....

Today was even easier:

Linda's Rice and Beans

1 cup white rice
1 cup Jubilee brown rice blend -- LOVE that stuff.
4 cups water
cook together as usual until rice is cooked
mix in 1 can black beans, drained & rinsed
spread in 9x13 pan
sprinkle with
~2/3 cup shredded parmesan
1 cup shredded cheddar
heat in 300 degree oven until heated through (or 30 minutes while you pick up your child from choir)

Yum. Everyone liked it. Except Gark, who refuses to eat rice. And we had a fruit salad with it. The kind that's made just out of fruit. That was good, too. It was nice to have a relatively healthy dinner for a change. I'm looking forward to feeling better regularly enough to cook healthy for us again.

But that's a different ramble.

Right now I've got a kitchen to clean.

And laundry to finish.

And fold.

And, apparently, change a diaper that's really really mom.

I'm What???

Hey Wow.

Apparently someone nominated me for the 2007 Homeschool Blog Awards! I'm a little shocked and stunned and maybe confused. If someone's trying to buy my love, it's working but they better step forward so I know who to love!! But seriously, folks, I don't think I should be in the "Best Of ..." -- there's tons of great stuff out there. I would like to win "Not the best but she amuses me" or something. Maybe, "hey, she rambles but has nice photos for an amateur" ... That would be more fitting. Not that that's Fancy False Modesty you're hearing. I may have my bizarrely placed pride, but not enough to fake modesty about my blog, LOL. This here is real modesty. Or just reality, maybe. I mean, I like my blog, but I wouldn't call it "best of" anything ... Except maybe the cartoons! ooooh, how about "best rambler to get to the point, pass it, and keep right on going?"

Or perhaps someone out there has some elaborate plan to feed me full of potential web glory and sit back quietly giggling as my head grows big from the attention? Although, really, that doesn't sound likely.

So, wow. Believe it or not, I found my blog in there twice! (Is there a category for "Looks for herself in every category" ?) Once for "Best Homeschooling Mom Blog" and once for "Best Homemaking or Recipes Blog". Which kinda makes me think I should post more about homeschooling, homemaking, and recipes. Although I've got nothing helpful to say on homemaking, you already know that.

So ANnnnnyyway, rambling on.

If you'd really like to vote for me, I'd be honored. But on the other hand, I'm cool with you voting for one that really IS best. Maybe one with a recipe for something ooey gooey and chocolatey. And easy to make. 'Cause that sounds good to me right now.

Workin' Hard

Shari asked in the comments for an update on the decluttering ... which made me feel guilty for sitting around in my "work clothes" not working. So I went to the basement to work. I decided that, for the moment, instead of decluttering I'd continue my project of ripping out the old closet in there, the one built poorly out of pressboard but glued and nailed in so many places that it was hard to get any purchase on. Anyway, I had to call on The Grand Lunar for help, but together we pounded, wrenched, pried, banged, and got it all out.

Whoooo!

Of course, now I've got a heap of mildewed pressboard and boards and trim all broken and naily. And An exposed wall and floor with globs of old black glue.

I think that I'm going to tidy that area up as much as possible but NOT try to paint and pretty it. A 65 year old foundation that seeps isn't going to have a cheap or easy fix, so I think just living with it for now is our only option. I'll maybe get some of the strong heavy duty plastic shelves and store things in there. Then I can clear the *storage* things out of the other basement room and use my paint and effort to make that one room a play and craft room.

So ... the decluttering. It's not going too bad. For me, anyway. I have made more progress than I expected. I discovered that a lot of the stuff isn't mine to decide, I'll be calling in The Grand Lunar on all the software, computers, and Star Trek paraphernalia. I have two 30 gallon bags of trash (one not yet full, but it will be!) and a pile of boxes to go. There's a few items still in the "maybe keep, maybe give" pile ~ a lot of it hinges on how useable I can make that room. If I can turn it in to a nice play room it would be a great place to play with the two boxes in question. They are things that have lived in the basement but the children DO ask about from time to time, and we bring them up for a little while. But most of the little obnoxious miscellaneous toys that added up are packed up and ready to go.

I did take 'before' pictures, which I won't post until there's a good after, but I will take a picture of the "get rid of" pile before they go out.

One funny story - as I was going through piles of boxed I found one that I wasn't sure what it contained. When I opened it, it was a half-filled box from LAST year's church yard sale attempt. Whooops! But at least it was one more box half-done for THIS year. And THIS year I won't forget to finish it off.

I know you haven't read the last two posts yet

but that's okay, I don't want to clean the kitchen or check on the laundry, so I'll just keep on posting, posting, posting ...

Today was my 'date out' with Eminoodle. Once a week the Grand Lunar or I (we alternate) take one of the children (we rotate) out for a meal-and-something. The Something depends on the weather and season and child. Sometimes it's as exciting as those vehicles at the mall that you put 50 cents in so they go up and down. But today Eminoodle requested swimming.

So we went to Arby's first, her request. Turns out that an Arby's Melt and a Arby's Beef & Cheddar are not sufficiently similar to be swapped for each other. To the best of my knowledge the only difference is the bun, but apparently the onion and poppy seed bun is a deal breaker. So instead of my Arby's Regular with Arby's Sauce, I got the gloppy Beef and Cheddar with orange and red goo, and she got the Regular. Bummer. I really like Arby's sauce. But my sandwich did NOT need anything else that dripped or glopped.

Then we went swimming at the overly chlorinated indoor pool.

It was fun. She's learning how to swim pretty well, although not so interested in being taught as just experimenting. Today was "swim with my legs in a ball beneath me" day, I guess.

Near the end we snagged one of the too-few Community Center balls in the pool (it was really crowded today, and the balls were in high demand!) and were pushing them under-and-at-eachother in a splashy game of catch, when all of a sudden Eminoodle turned into a little Kim. I can't really explain what that means, though, I hope you weren't expecting more information. I don't usually think of her as looking like me. Maybe being like me in the spacey-ness. But this was more like I could see my little self in her. Or something. It was kinda weird. But we had fun, it wasn't a bad thing. It was fun. Until my eyeballs burned out of my head and I went blind.

Of Muffins And Ice

Of Muffins ~

Despite my fears mentioned in my previous post, the muffins turned out fine, they didn't stick much at all. Phew! They turned out pretty good. Not great like I expected. they seemed less sweet after baking. Perhaps they were a bit too eggy for my tastes. But they were well received, and the children are full. That's good enough for me.

Peggy asked why on earth I didn't healthify them. Um ... uh ...

The lame reason is:

Sometimes I get tired of healthifying things. Sometimes I dream of the "Wow, these are great muffins!" rewards of making things chock full of butter, sugar, and fat. And I just cave in, going for the compliment instead of the health.

Which, in this case, didn't really work. I mean, they liked them, but no one raved. No compliments that I'm a great cook, or that these are great muffins. Oh well.

Truth be told, my best bet is to make very healthy muffins and add a half cup of mini chocolate chips to a 24-muffin panful. Which, in my mind, is probably a better compromise anyway. So I guess I'll do that, next time.

But if you want it, here's the recipe for not-so-healthy pretty good muffins:

Lemon-Yogurt Muffins ~

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 cup plain, non-fat yogurt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 9x13 pan on the sides, and forget to put in the non-stick liner. Oops.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the lemon yogurt, lemon juice, and lemon extract.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the lemon mixture until just blended. Spoon batter into the pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top springs back when lightly touched. If you're clever and set the psycho timer that does not work, make sure to keep an eye on the muffins and test them with a toothpick.

Allow the muffins to cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the pan. Cut into 24 squares.

Of Ice

These are pictures from the other day. Yesterday, maybe. I lose track. But today started pretty much the same.

The poor rescued daffodils aren't getting a break:

The squill are drooping under the cold and lack of sun:

And the anemone blanda aren't too happy, either:

And now I'm back to the basement for another day ... or hour ... of work.

oh .... RATS!

So this morning I was making muffins for the family.

I make all my muffins in a 9x13 pan and then cut them into squares. I've told you that before, right?

So I made a new recipe for Lemon-Yogurt muffins. In a rare move, I decided not to "healthify" the recipe. Yes, you read that right. I used white flour, white sugar, butter, and eggs in it. No flax seed. No honey or Agave nectar or other natural sweetener. No whole wheat. No egg replacer. No applesauce replacing fat. I made it as written.

Well, not really as written, LOL, that wouldn't be like me. I omitted the spices and added poppy seeds and used some lemon extract instead of lemon zest, which it turns out I did not have.

Anyway, the batter was the best muffin batter I have ever tasted. I knew the children were going to love these muffins like no other. Of course, that's sort of a guarantee if I make "normal" muffins instead of healthy. Or better yet normal box mix. Those are the ones proclaimed "best muffins ever, Mom!" ... the healthy ones? Never so much enthusiasm.

So back to my point. I did have one.

I forgot to put the nonstick liner in the bottom of the pan. I sprayed the edges of the pan, where it usually sticks a little. But I totally forgot the nonstick liner in the bottom.

So ... my beautiful muffins. That I planned to be the perfect muffins ... will all be stuck to the bottom of the pan.

I'll report back when they're done.

Three Short (for me, anyway) Funny Things

three? I can only remember two, already.

1.) On a break from my decluttering I almost bought FOUR pairs of shoes. Iliacat can wear my shoes now, so it's sort of like getting twice as much use out of them. And this place sells them for "free" although free adds up fast ... 4 shoes that I don't really need for a total of $33.35 including shipping ... not a bad price, really, but ... um ... I don't really need them. Do I? Especially when I'm trying hard to declutter. They were cute, though.

2.) My Twirl-a-Squirrel. The squirrels rarely ever get to the point of *hanging* on it to be spun - usually they try to reach down from above and trigger it and jump away without actually spinning, themselves. Which is okay, it still is keeping them from gorging on the food. But today I saw one above the suet feeder. He triggered it but didn't want to jump away, so he tried hanging from his back feet and trying to grab the spinning suet. It kept thwocking him in the head. It was funny to watch.

3.) It's snowing here. I guess that's not really funny. Kinda sad, in an unexpected Michigan-like way. But it does make three.

Oh, you force my hand ... or "Would you like some psychobabble with that?"

Too many of you suggested the "cleanie friend" option for me to continue to ignore it.

Yes, yes, I was trying hard to ignore it.

Oddly enough, most (but not all!) of my IRL friends are Cleanies. Born Organized (or at least picked it up effectively somewhere along the line). Not Messies.

So it's not like I don't have that card to play. I mean *I* don't have a cleanie card, in fact I think I'm on the Cleanie "banned" list as a lifetime offender. But I do have Cleanie Friends that I could call in. As evidenced by Karen's kind offer.

But ... here's where the whole thing gets squirmy. Well, I get squirmy.

See, I know that Karen would be a wonderful help. When we were moving and I really needed my main areas looking showable, Karen was a wonder. She kept me moving, and she had the perfect balance of not wandering off with *each* object to find a home, but also not piling up a big heap of "find a home later" which would, in the end, defeat me. She cheerfully kept us working when I was sure, on the inside, that we needed a break. And, since then, many times I have entertained the notion of calling again on her expertise.

Except ...

the awful truth is ...

I don't know if I really want to.

Maybe it's because I know she'd be effective, and at some gut level I don't want to have that much closure?

Maybe it's because I know she's a hard worker, and it tires me out to think of working so hard?

Maybe it's because I'm embarrassed of the horrible junk and mess I'm dealing with, and would rather not share the depths of my messiness with anyone?

Possibly a combination of the three.

Truth be told, I'm not good at accepting help with housework and things. I'm not even good at having people nearby when I'm doing housework or cooking. I'm afraid people will be watching me in shock and dismay, thinking, "no wonder she never gets anything done, her method is all wrong ..." ... or something like that. Maybe, worse than that, they'd be thinking "Ew, I'll never eat here again." or something. I don't know.

When I was in college I lived one year in a dorm that had no included food plan, but instead had kitchenettes on each floor. You kept your food and dishes in your room and tromped down the hall to fix it, then back to your room to eat it. I hated the public-cooking aspect of it, and tried hard to cook "real" meals (all of twice, I think?) at odd hours when no one else was around, or live on ramen noodles and microwave popcorn the rest of the time. Once I was cooking something and some other resident wandered down and asked me questions about what I was cooking.

In retrospect it was probably some recipe-follower who was mesmerized by my off-the-cuff approach to cooking, flinging in this and that without measuring or timing anything. But it kind of freaked me out, having someone watch and question me. I'm actually a pretty good cook, I think, but I like to do it in secret. I don't know.

So aaaaanyway, I think that's part of it. Not that I don't WANT to learn the "right" and efficient ways to declutter and clean. I do. I would love to be able to clean things up speedily so they don't take all day. I'd like to be able to declutter without it being a gut wrenching, ineffective ordeal.

But ...
that would take someone coming in to my embarrassingly ineffective little world and seeing me in inaction.

I'm not sure my pride can take that.

Maybe that's all that it comes down to? I'm too proud (of what?) to accept the help I admit I need? Because I'll be embarrassed? And because I know I'll whine and complain - at least on the inside - at having to *press on* in the efforts. I won't be able to bail out if someone's keeping me on task. I won't be able to run away.

And if my cleanie friends really knew that, despite the positive outcomes, I spent every moment in my head whining and complaining and groaning and moaning and wishing I could run away, wouldn't they get irked and wonder how I came to be such a baby about it?

I'm such a doofus.

Purging the Junk

Our church as an annual yard sale to raise money for the youth mission trips. Or something like that. Truth be told, I don't usually pay a lot of attention to what the money goes to, although I know it's something "youthy" ... mostly I pay attention to the once a year chance to ditch stuff.

In my mind, each year, I will be packing our 15-passenger van FULL of the things that fill our basement, closets, shelves, and extra rooms, and take several trips to the church to pile up our stuff. I will return home to find my home sparse and decluttered, shiny clean, and easy to keep clean and organized.

Only in reality, each year, I pick a few larger items to part with, and then painfully spend hours staring at heaps and piles simply feeling lost. Not wanting to keep all the junk, but somehow not being able to efficiently divide into "keep" "toss" and "give away" ... instead, if I make any progress at all, it is to sort into a giant "don't know" and a giant "keep, I guess" and a tiny little "give away" and a small pile of "toss" ...

I emerge with my tiny piles feeling discouraged and overwhelmed.

It was the fall of '95, I believe, that I first heard of decluttering.

Yes, if you do the math you'll realize I was a grown woman at the time.

I had no idea that people decluttered at all, much less annually (or more often).

My close friend and mentor was telling me about her own personal annual yard sale. I was perplexed. If you didn't buy in order to resell, like our crazy neighbors growing up used to, then how did you get enough junk to have an ANNUAL yard sale? She was equally perplexed. Didn't I go through the house regularly and set aside things that were unused, unloved, or unnecessary, until there was a great pile to get rid of?

Turns out a lot of people DO do that! They don't duct tape their old shoes back together, they throw them out! They don't stockpile family games that no one liked, just in case some day someone decided to play them and DID enjoy them. They give them away! No way!

So that was over 10 years ago.

In those 10 years I have become comfortable with the concept of getting rid of junk. I even hold it up as an ideal -- freeing us from maintaining and storing useless junk will give me more space and time to enjoy the things we do like and need. In theory.

The problem is my ability to declutter is still sorely lacking. I have all the passion for the project. Just very little of the ability. I am so easily overwhelmed and defeated by the *closure* necessary to really choose what goes. Or even where to *start*. In fact, the thing I have grown best at is stockpiling empty boxes with the hopes of filling them with decluttered clutter. My basement is currently full of empty boxes. And ones filled with packing peanuts. Because you never know when you might need them.

Which brings me, many many paragraphs later, to my point.

I'm fast running out of time. The church yard sale is at the end of April. My chance to get rid of my junk without having to fold shirts neatly or guess at prices of things. (Please don't suggest I hold my own. No way! If ALL the work falls to me - not only the painful gut wrenching closure of decluttering but also the organizing, folding, and worst of all pricing, it will never ever get done. I'd rather live in the basement than have to do all that myself. So don't say it. Don't. even. think. it.)

I only have a few weekends left, and several of those are busy. We have a guest coming, and a long weekend away. If I am not careful the chance to declutter will slip away.

I am considering giving the older children independent school work for the rest of this week, and using my "best morning energy" (well, that which I didn't squander blogging, anyway) to work on decluttering. Fortunately my big kids really do work well independently. Unfortunately, I am not sure *I* do. I am a little worried that I will spend my mornings staring blankly at the heaps and heaps of stuff, with little actually making it into boxes and bags that go away.

But even a little would be better than none.

Right?

Fooled You! One Day Early!

Ha Ha!

What's the best way to pull off an April Fool's gag? Do it the last day of March!

Okay, actually, I'm not sure I fooled anyone. Whenever the children are shooed out of the kitchen they know something's up. And obviously some of them remembered our first annual April Fool's Dinner, last year.

This year it was cake for dinner:

It's a two-layer meatloaf baked in round pans, frosted with fat-free refried beans and decorated with colored shredded parmesan sprinkles and piped spring green sour cream.

I will say that the bean frosting and hot 'cakes' were pretty slippery, it started sliding before I served it and was slid into quite a mess by the end of the cutting and serving. But the children all agreed it tasted good, there was less complaining from the potato haters than last year's mashed potato frosting.

And you know it's a special day when you get dessert around here:

The giant hot dog cake is courtesy of Family Fun's April Fool's Pranks ... as were the fake fries. I did not use the cake's fries because I couldn't find a pound cake, and used a purchase strawberry jelly roll cake as the bun, instead.

And, although they're not pictured, there were vegetables served with dinner. No, really.

Giving credit where credit is due, I never would've thought of this had not Katie introduced me to the idea last year. Maybe since this is my 2nd year I could take credit myself, but really, I thought of Katie the whole time. Thanks again, Katie. You sure are fun! And from you I'm learning that even I can afford to be fun once a year.

And by blogging it tonight, I've left you time for a late-night-run to the grocery store, so you, too, can prank your children! Quick, get them tucked in and make your plans!

Super Powers

My friend Christina recently asked what Super Powers we would have, if we could have Super Powers.

Of course, "super" is all relative. I'm sure that some of our devices in the United States might seem like Super Powers to primitive tribes in South America. Don't say devices don't make you super, because that's really all Batman had. But back to the being relative thing ...

Once I realized that, I realized I *do* have some "super" powers, at least among my children.

Apparently a few of them are:

- being able to see toys on the floor, which are invisible to everyone else.
- being able to remember to brush my teeth.
- being able to get all of my teeth when I do brush them, rendering them shiny and clean and minty fresh.
- seeing crumbs on the table, much less plates
- seeing socks on the floor

I'm sure there are others.

Is Sarcasm a Super Power? Boy, do I hope so.

I'm so relieved ...

I'm so relieved to find that I wasn't the author of one of the papers on this page.

Because, you know, I could've been.

Maybe my teachers burned my "more creative" work. I can only hope.

Get Out The Math Tiles!

One thing my little boys love to do is get out the math shape tiles.

I have a bucket from Nasco of Plastic Pattern Blocks that we got, long ago.

Yesterday, for the severalth day in a row, they boys wanted the math tiles out.

Do you think they are learning all kinds of good mathematical concepts using the tiles to make Bionicle Adventures?

Here's the primary builders - note how in this picture the Visorak "caughted the disc in his claw!":

Is this how math works in other homeschooled homes?

Because I can't post my real post ...

I took pictures for a real post today.

But I realized after I imported them, and after I put everyone down for quiet time (well, sent the older ones) that I didn't write down the names of the *things* that I needed for the pictures.

So you'll have to wait.

In the meantime, here are some space filling rambles:

1.) my friend Nicole (Hi Nicole!) reminded me that I still haven't really read or blogged about the Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe. And that's because A.) the book will make me cry and B.) I really do believe some of them, so I feel overwhelmed thinking about someone trying to convince me otherwise.

2.) The Pit Book - remember those posts? I'm too lazy to hunt them down now. But the short story is, I still think highly of the book, but I haven't gotten out of my pit yet. Partly because I'm no longer doing what she suggested. Not that I don't agree with her approach, I think it's solid and Biblical. But I grew weary and let that turn to defeat. I feel like I'm the one who's not going to ever get out, and in the end I'll have no one to blame but myself.

3.) Here's some good news! After over FIVE YEARS of having our living room and family room windows painted shut, I got the two opening ones (the others aren't made to open) OPEN! I still need to wash the windows well and repair / replace one screen before they're USEABLE, but I'm so much closer than before. I left the big heavy storms leaning against the house and this morning two of the six were face down in the yard. Yikes! Fortunately that side of the house is spongy moss instead of grass, and they didn't break. So I carried all 6, one at a time, way around the house and then down into the basement today. It was a lot of work!

4.) Um ... Oh, I ordered a 2nd squirrel spinner, so i can protect the suet and the seed both. There's plenty of seed on the ground for the squirrels. I don't mind squirrels, I like the cute black ones, but they sure are gluttons that drain the seed so the birds don't get much. But I haven't received my 2nd spinner yet, I'm still waiting.

What else? I'm sure there was more I was going to tell you in my long absence where I was just blogging in my head. But now it's a blank.

Do you read The Grand Lunar's blog? He made me laugh this morning.

Well, I guess it's time for my nap. You didn't expect me to stay awake all DAY, did you?

My Own Personal Spring Joy

The one thing that tells me Spring is really coming is my squill.

They're not blooming yet -- usually that's mid-April. But look, they've popped up! And I found them in a rare splash of sun, even!

It looks like all the rain has unearthed some of their tiny bulbs, but they're popping up in their little ocean patches. The ones under the bird feeder don't look too choked out by the discarded birdseed and squirrel diggings.

Anyway, it's not a flower, blooming, yet ... but it's a start.

Maybe, just maybe, I can relax my winter guard and start hoping for Spring to stay.

The Cat Sat on the Mat

That stray cat I mentioned last week is still hanging around.

I contacted the county animal control today, via email, since their office was already closed. The cat doesn't show up during normal business hours. Apparently county animal control is the local lost pet / pet shelter center. Their website was particularly UNhelpful. It said on one page to fill out a "lost pet" report if there's one near you, but there was no link to fill out the form electronically. And I found that site through google, not through trying to navigate their site.

I get frustrated trying to do the nice thing and report the cat as 'found' and not really having a good mechanism to do so.

I tried to check the local classifieds for a lost cat blurb, too, but they just refer you - with a broken link, no less - to the county animal control.

So ... the cat is hanging out on our slide. Apparently our yard and children are giving off stray cat friendly vibes. Against my explicit "no vibes" edict.

Then again, maybe the cat isn't really a stray. Maybe it's a new indoor/outdoor pet belonging to someone nearby and is just trying to cash in on friendly neighborhood children, hoping to establish a feeding route. It's not getting fed here. Sorry.

This is why I'm not a big fan of indoor/outdoor cats. After seeing one neighbor's cat attack and carry off our little baby yard bunnies, and another one eat the neighbor's baby yard bunnies, and then having this cat out there trying to slip into the house discreetly, I'm just not a big fan of cats running free in the neighborhood.

So hopefully animal control will say they know just who is looking for this cat, and it will go home to it's real home to stay. A happy ending for all.

Waiting for the Squirrel to Barf

So a week or two ago The Grand Lunar sent me an amusing YouTube video of a Twirl-A-Squirrel.

I went on a hunt to see if it was an actual, purchasable product. And, in the end, found the best price from Amazon! (Although, oddly enough, the Amazon Store through which I purchased it is not currently listed as one of the sellers. Maybe I bought their last one?) And so I bought one.

It arrived on Monday and we promptly, and excitedly, installed it.

We've been watching out the window for two days straight, now.

But the feeder I have hangs from a cable, and the squirrels seem to have been daunted by the stretch from the bell to the feeder. Although that didn't stop them before, maybe the bell is just the right shape & size to make it hard. So instead of trying to climb down onto the feeder, and being spun for our amusement, they are using the pole and bell above the feeder as a launching pad to get to the suet feeder.

If I move the spinner to the suet, it will leave the bigger feeder unprotected again. But if I don't, we might never get to see a dizzy squirrel.

I might just order another spinner. Only I'd really like to see it work, first.

What to do? What to do?

Choir Concert and the Sock

I finished the first sock!

As I was nearing the end I tried it on ~ I will spare you the pictures of my unattractive naked toes sticking out the end, through the needles. It was scary.

But the fact was, the sock was nice, and I *could* get it on, but it was stretched unhappily wide. I realized that, while I could continue knitting to make it *long* enough in the foot to fit my feet, that I would never *love* my first knit pair of socks (assuming there's ever a *pair*) ...

The pattern I used only started with 40 stitches, and my yarn, although labeled worsted weight, seems to be thinner than average, and my needles were slightly smaller than the ones listed ... and yeah, yeah, maybe I should've done a swatch for the gauge. Live and learn. Truth be told, I've never knit a swatch and aren't really sure how to measure and count or how that little doo-dad thing comes in .... I bought one, am I supposed to somehow use it?

And so, anyway, I decided to stop, make the toe decreases, and give it to Eminoodle, whose foot was more it's size.

So here is the finished sock:

And here is my covered-for-your-sake-toes inside the sock, which I could still squeeze my foot unattractively into, so you can see how it was too over-stretched even though I could get it on, so you can agree it was best to give it to Eminoodle.

Here it is on her lovely, petite foot:

What do you think of my first sock? Is it a good first sock? Does the heel turn fall in the right place, or was it supposed to not go around the corner but be AT the corner? The pattern said to make the heel flap 2.5 inches, but I wasn't sure if it was supposed to stop at the sole of the foot, or supposed to round the corner with it's reinforced stitches. But the actual "turn" of the heel comes past where both my heel and Em's heel turns.

Does my knitting look terribly uneven? I think my sock looks fairly lumpy and uneven. Maybe I don't like the fact that it's fairly fat yarn/stitches, compared to tidy store socks with tiny thread, I guess. So I can't tell if it's good.

Here is Iliacat's first non-baby sock, which looks to be a more reasonable size than mine was. Hers is 60 stitches and I think it's sock weight or baby weight yarn or something. I don't know. She started it last Thursday, isn't she amazing?

And here's one pic from the choir concert. I guess The Grand Lunar shot some video of me leading the Bible Verses part, but I didn't digitize that for you. But he did, so now it's a link to his blog, go check it out, LOL.

I must confess, I'm glad choir's done for the year. I have to decide whether I'll help again in the fall or not. I really enjoyed teaching the Bible Verse part. We did motions to help remember it, and it was fun to see all the children recite long passages (Psalm 24 and Psalm 8) with the motions. But only a little of it was *real* sign language, and I'm wondering if it would be better to do it with REAL sign language, instead of just made up motions to jog memory.

Anyway, that concludes my partial report of Sunday Afternoon And Evening.

Being SuperWoman is Easy!

... if you redefine SuperWoman with really low standards, that is.

for example:

SuperWoman remembers that it is trash day before the trash comes, and gets it out on time.

SuperWoman goes to the extra effort* to get the basement trash, which is a daring process of picking up discarded dryer lint which should've been thrown into the trash can, but has instead rolled off the top of the overfilled heap, to cover the floor and make excellent imaginary hiding places for millions of mice, of which superwoman is deathly afraid and yet courageously perseveres. (Although now her nose is full of lint and she keeps sneezing.)

SuperWoman manages to blog - even before showering and dressing! Amazing!

And, beyond that, SuperWoman plans to exercise.

See? I've given you the tools you need to not only be SuperWoman today, but to far surpass my example.

Because you probably didn't take the trash out in your jammies (cute though they may be), nor are you still sitting in your jammies thinking about exercising while also noting that it's getting very late and you should really be starting your day. And maybe you've already eaten breakfast - bonus points for healthy - and showered and are started with your schooling, with a load of laundry in the washer and if you're Kerri one already in the dryer, too, because you've been up since some pre-dawn hour that I only squint at on my clock.

So, now that I think about it, you probably don't need my SuperWoman tips at all.

But they made me feel Super this morning.

Because I have nice low standards for Super.

Oh, and Karen asked about the skating anxiety. Yes, I found it much less stressful if I just knitted and didn't watch. Knitting takes enough of my attention that I never saw the crashes coming, and didn't watch the speedy big guys at all.

Someone else (who was it?) recently asked what T'Mahk means. Let me refer you to this ancient entry: The Origin of T'Mahk and hope it enlightens you. Because it's so old I barely remember it, and didn't actually read it to see if it answers the question. Because, after all, I'm the New SuperWoman, with extra low expectations for myself.

Oh, wait!!!!!! You didn't click that ancient entry, did you? Don't do it!!! It doesn't actually say anything. What a surprise! But I found this one, that did say something. So read this one instead: My Entry Rambling About My Blog Name, which you'll note is actually sort of hanging hybrid, since I changed some things but left the title as T'Mahk and never really finished deciding anything.

Oh, and we have an inch of snow today. It's just lucky it's the pretty foofy sticky-to-the-branches kind, or it would be unacceptable. Yes, yes, I know that I should expect this of Michigan. To get nice and stay nice without ups and downs would be very Not-Michigan. But still, I can't help but resent it snowing again when I had, indeed, gotten my hopes up that Spring would ever actually come. Yesterday after Em and Tobi-Wan's choir concert (oh, now THAT would be something REAL to blog about! Silly me, with the nonsense blog entry) we heard peepers in the field North of the church. Which made me think it was really Spring. But today I'm remembering the awful year that we went to the Nature Center and the pond was full of bloated and decaying pollywogs (also known as tadpoles) because they'd also been fooled by the weather into thinking it was Spring, daring to try to grow legs, when a hard freeze knocked them all off. And, of course, frogs don't bury their dead, so the pond was exceedingly creepy that year.

On that lovely note, I'll go exercise, and pretend I should've set the clocks back two ours and it's really only 7:23.

*I imagine SuperDuperWoman actually empties her dryer lint trash regularly, and it never overflows into creepy potential-mouse-homes.

I didn't blog today?

I thought for sure I did.

Until I followed a link from one of the Grand Lunar's Many Fake-or-temporary blogs to my blog. Where I was quite confused to see a picture of a newborn. I haven't had one of those in almost 2 years, so I thought it was an old post. LOL. Silly me.

But I guess it was old, since I posted it yesterday.

I thought I'd blogged today. I guess it was in my head again. I think it was about attending an International Speed Skating competition (to see our neighbor skate) ... a local teacher sang the US National Anthem and the Canadian National Anthem. I don't know that I'd ever heard the words to the Canadian National Anthem before, and I thought it was very nice. Maybe it's just the hormones, but it all made me a little teary.

I knit while I watched the skating. Worked on the sock. Still not done.

In the afternoon our student-friend from Sri Lanka called to see if I was going to the International Student Friends Potluck. I wasn't planning to go, but I decided to go, to see her and meet her friend. I'm so glad we went. It was really nice to catch up with her, and she brought me some beautiful flower candles from her mom. They are shaped like temple flowers, which are the national flower of Sri Lanka!

Her mom is coming back next month, so I'm looking forward to seeing her again, and hopefully having all our Sri Lankan friends over for dinner and/or dessert once or twice before they graduate. It will be sad to have them go. But nice to know I have a standing invitation to visit Sri Lanka! I guess I should start saving up, huh?

I sent my leftovers home with her to feed another of our students, who wasn't able to come because he was working. He told her to bring him some food back. So she did.

Anyway. Right now I'm blogging instead of exercising. It's actually 10:44 pm which is pretty late to exercise, but I skipped yesterday. I can't afford to start getting sloppy now. So ... I'll do it, late. It's not like I go to bed early, anyway. I really should, but I don't. And it's not like exercising late will keep me awake. Ha ha! There's nothing that can keep me awake! Nothing, I say!!

I guess I might survive

it's only supposed to get up to 35 today.

I guess it's good that it's still above freezing. It's supposed to get down below freezing at night this coming week, but the days are all supposed to be above freezing. My mom reminded me that makes for good maple syrup weather.

Not that we tap our trees or have any personal interest in syrup weather.

But I really liked the 60 and sunny day. It sure was nice.

Of course, Spring only reminds me of my lack of planning and know-how in the gardening realm. While everyone else is getting excited about seeds and seedlings and transplants, I'm half frustrated and half-glad that I didn't order my plants last fall and that my spring order is going to fall through.

Did I tell you about that? I heard of a deal ~ $25 off a $25 order ~ this past fall. I was excited. And daunted, I stress out a fair amount about what to get for where and whether I'll just kill it in the end. But I finally picked some things and was relieved, except that I didn't really write down where I thought I would plant them, so I knew I'd just have to re-figure all that out when they arrived in Spring. Now I'm always a little nervous ordering when I hear about a deal, thinking maybe the deal is one-code-per-customer and I'll spend all the effort (which is not minimal, for me) to pick what to order, and then be crushed at the checkout that the code isn't valid for me. But it was.

Until this Spring. When I got an email saying the company reviewed their orders and codes and that the code I used wasn't assigned to me. Months after the order went through.

So, bummer. They did offer $25 off of $50, which is nice. And I'm sure they only checked because they were freaking out about possibly hundreds or thousands of nearly-free orders ... the problem is, I'm not up for *re*picking *twice* as many plants as I'd picked before. $50 worth of product is a lot for a plant killer.

So I guess I'll just let the order drop and get nothing. Which is sad because later I'll be sorry I didn't order anything.

I would love to have a beautiful garden of flowers. I think it would be neat to have a successful vegetable patch. It's not that I feel I should, it's that I really think it would be neat. Only I'm not only bad with plants, but also lazy, which usually makes for a lethal combination.

Last year we had that nice young man help us whack out our weeds and cover things with weed barrier and mulch. The good news is that it looked good for the rest of the summer. The bad news is that there are weeds and plants poking through the weed barrier. Which might be good, if the plants I *like* pop through. But what if it's just the weeds? I covered up some daffodils and things, because late summer it was too late to remember exactly where they were, and the weeds needed some *major* control (think of them being neglected for 5 years that we've been here and countless years before that) .... so anyway, I'm not sure I'll have much at all coming up this year.

My idea was that I would be pretty vigilant about weed control for now, and plant thoughtfully in the future.

But now that it's Spring, my guess is that I'll neglect the weeds, and not figure out what to plant, and will continue to be sad that I don't have a lovely garden that comes naturally to me. Because I really don't have the knack for it, I don't think.

My sister is cool, she's bold and daring and remembers things. So she tries things out, and has success with some, and moves other things around, and it's neat. But I am both more timid and less hard working and forget everything, so it just doesn't really pan out in the gardening area for me. I think the biggest problem is that I want to only do it once, to have a good, smart plan and have it work smoothly, progressively, not have to re-do things that didn't turn out like I thought.

Boy, I guess I should quit whining about gardening. It sure made for a very long post! I didn't mean to whine about gardening. I only meant to whine about the weather a little.

Apparently they're somehow, mysteriously, related.

very random but verbose babbles

1.) yesterday there was a cat in our yard. Doesn't look like a stray. It's a young male cat, maybe a year or two old. We had a male cat who was fixed when he was a baby. So he didn't look very male cat-ish. But this one does, and the kids said, "what's wrong with its rear?" because it didn't look like the one we had. Ha ha, I'm glad the Grand Lunar was the one out there to field that question. He handled it smoothly. He's good. So anyway, the cat didn't leave. It hung around all evening while I was hacking up our lawn into deep channels to try to drain the sidewalk oceans. Which of course didn't work, but maybe added some landscaping interest? When I tried to come in, the cat walked right at my feet and tried to come in. Cats can be very slithery and fast, but I already knew that so he didn't sneak in. I was on to him. This morning I told the Grand Lunar about it, and he was surprised the cat had hung out so long. And then guess who greeted him on the way to the garage?

Don't try to tell me the cat's come to us, to take Mogh's place. He hasn't. The kids said they saw a van calling for the cat. We are not getting another cat. Especially a growing up boy cat. No way.

2.) Did you know that Mauritius and Mauritania are not the same? Not only did I not know they were not the same, I didn't know there was a Mauritius. I was putting a little fancy brown sugar in my oat bran and saw that it was from Mauritius. I was excited, because I've been reading a blog whose writer lives in Mauritania. I assumed they were just different spellings, one in English and one in ... Mauritanian. You know, like "Germany" and "Deutschland" ... But I was smart and looked it up before I made some stupid comment on her blog, which would've been especially embarrassing since I mostly just lurk and don't really know her, so I would've felt even dorkier than usual when coming out of lurkdome to say something incorrect. Because Mauritania is a country in *West* Africa, in the Sahara desert, that used to belong to France. Which I mostly knew, because I really do pay attention when I read blogs. Well, sometimes. Don't quiz me on your blog. Even if I pay attention, I also have a leaky brain. Many things just wash right back out. But Mauritius turns out to be an Island nation near Madagascar, in the Indian ocean, and was formerly a British colony. And French and Dutch before that. So my sugar comes from there, not from Mauritania, which makes sense anyway since I wasn't really sure how they were farming sugar in the desert. I don't know much about agriculture, but that one just didn't seem right. So you learn something new every day. Or at least every month or so.

3.) at the gardens yesterday we saw a place where they'd chopped up and tilled under broccoli. In big chunks. I guess those chunks just root and grow, we saw little broccolis poking up through the dirt. And some of the ornamental cabbages were looking like they were going to just pick up growing where they'd left off after being buried in snow and ice for months, their middle leaves were fresh and crisp. But their outer leaves were wilted and stunk like old cooked cabbage, and we exited that fragrant area quickly.

4.) Every morning I go to the back bathroom, off the back room, to take my shower. And it's always cold back there. So I turn up the heat a little first. And the furnace is right below the back room, and the back bathroom is small and enclosed, and so it heats up pretty fast. And by the time I'm done with my shower I'm always roasting and exhausted and feel like I can't breathe from the heat. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but still.

5.) Last night I did a prenatal yoga DVD. And the whole time I was doing it, my brain was saying, "this is so corny" ~ the lady even pronounced "exhale" as "ehks - ssale" and it was weird. So I figured I probably undermined any psychological benefit because my brain was working so hard trying to squelch my corny alerts.

6.) I'm late for school and late for inspecting jobs, but I can't find my inspection report page, someone misplaced it. I know who, but I won't name names. But it wasn't me. I'm going to re-interpret my instructions given yesterday on where said child should've put it to see if I can guess what (he or she) thought I meant. But I really don't want to do school and work today. I want to curl up in a ball and finish knitting my sock before all my children have grown too big for it.

Butterfly Day

It was a gorgeous day today. The temperature was in the mid 60's, the sun was shining, the snow was melting. And the Butterflies In Bloom exhibit opened yesterday. So after lunch we went with Moogie to visit them.

Here are some pictures of the children enjoying the day. If you want to see the butterflies, you'll have to visit my Flickr pics, I didn't want to overwhelm you with pictures, here. (Poor dial-up friends)

For Rosanne, here's the picture I took while thinking of you. This is my muddy shoe and the hole I punched through the snow into gooshy mud. I was fortunate not to lose my shoe and plunge a socked foot into more mud.

Buzz, not so sure about the butterflies:

Gark thought it was a bit bright:

Looking down on three from a bridge:

Two on a pig:

All six lined up on the way in:

LittleD riding through our sidewalk puddles:

And LittleD (again) on one of the bridges at the garden:

One Bookshelf Short

That's the story of my life.

I'm always one bookshelf short.

It doesn't matter how many books or shelves I have.

There's always a little more than I can squeeze in. So I'm always squeezing. Books sideways, or in front of each other, or "temporarily" stashed somewhere else.

It makes organizing (not that I'm capable of it, really) very difficult because there's no extra space to shift things into. Except to make piles. I'm pretty good at making piles. Terrible at dealing with them once they're made.

You know those puzzles where you scoot the squares around to unscramble a picture? And there's only one blank square to scoot into? Organizing is like that, for me. Except that instead of one blank square to scoot, I've got one EXTRA tile, and nowhere to scoot.

Why Why WHY??!

I'm trying to clean out my armoire-desk.

Trust me, it's horrifying.

Why, why WHY is it so hard for me?

Why must I accumulate piles of badly-stacked junk, and then feel tortured to go through them?

Why is only half the stuff being thrown out and the rest being stacked in several sprawling piles to keep?

Auuuugggghhhhhhhhhhh

Is it just me?

Is anyone else buried in piles of supplies of things that will make your life easier?

I've been planning to make chore charts. I can't tell you how many iterations of chore chart styles I've attempted. They usually work for a little while. Currently I have a bedroom inspection checklist I use which is working pretty well.

But I wanted to make something for around-the-house chores, using a card-and-pocket system. So that I could rotate the chores without re-printing (which, for me, usually entails redoing from scratch) ... something that could list the expectations, and be moved from one pocket to another when done.

A long time ago I requisitioned supplies from The Grand Lunar on an office supply run or general WalMart trip. Being the sweet and helpful man he is, he procured my requested supplies. Which I stored with all the other supplies from past chore chart attempts, like dry erase markers, magnetized white boards, multi-colored sharpies, and too-slippery-to-write-on laminated pages.

Today, I'm working again, or still, on the chore chart pocket idea. But the poster board I have isn't full size. I can't remember if that's because I had some clever idea for smaller ones? One per child? And I have no idea where I put the multi-colored index cards. To find them will entail, I believe, an entire clean-out of the 'school supply armoire' ~ a task that makes my heart sink.

I really shouldn't be entrusted with *stuff* to store. I always put it somewhere "safe" thinking I'll remember where. And it gets buried in other stuff I'm setting aside "for later" in a disorganized and frightening fashion.

So now I'm stumped because I have made a chore chart plan, and I have all of the supplies, but some of them aren't what I thought I needed, anymore, and other pieces are lost.

Maybe I'd be better off dreaming up a new system.

With two one cat in the yard

This week's vet visit confirmed that Mogh was dying and there wasn't much to be done. He had a lot of fluid in his chest and was having a lot of trouble breathing, which was why he's been so weak, having to rest after walking halfway across a room. She said the fluid on the lungs was something that could've come up relatively quickly. And why he's seemed to get worse rapidly.

We took some time to say good-byes.

This picture is from January, when he was old but still healthy.

But I didn't DO anything

You'll never guess what happened.

My back did that thing again.

It was fine yesterday - in fact, so fine that I was thinking, "Wow, it's really fine!"

And then, on the way to the vet, I realized it was tight and hurt in that spot, again. That spot that felt fine an hour before, a day before, etc. As the evening progressed it got worse and worse.

It's not horrible this morning, I can move around and function, but it's far from fine.

It's not like it's hurt this whole time, a little, and got worse. It was better! Really and truly better! And now it's not, again.

So I don't know what's going on. Maybe I'm just getting old.

In other news, I hate the time change. Ugh. I don't want to do it. What happens if we just don't comply? Will we end up in an alternate universe where time and daylight progress at a steady rate? Would that be so bad?

Bring On The Mud

My good friend Rosanne said, yesterday, that she would rather have snow and ice than mud.

Oh, no. Not me. Give me the mud, any day.

Why? Because it means it's melting.

I like winter, when it first begins. But oh, do I love the Spring when things begin to melt.

Even before the first sprouts peek up, fighting their way through mulch and mud, just the sound of dripping water, and knowing that Spring really is, finally, coming, is all I need. Although the sprouts are good to see.

I am kicking myself for not planting the winter aconite I promised myself last Spring I'd plant. This fall, Kim, even if it threatens to kill you, order and plant some winter aconite. And snowdrops. And glory of the snow. Trust me on this, Kim. It will be worth the effort, come next Spring.

But you'll be pleased to hear that 40 degrees and melting was enough to actually get me outside today. Yes, I am not kidding. Me. Outside. And not just to get to the car. I stood in the snow and saw the sun. Really. Here's proof:

Of course, the children went out, too. They sledded, stomped, knocked down fort walls, climbed, swung, and pa