Grumpy's Ramblings

Day 22 - operation 295

2011-12-28T22:54:00.001-05:00

As predicted my plans to succeed over the holidays kinda fell down. But I have also been investigating a new eating plan! I love WW, love that I can track cals and eat with a specific idea in mind of when I've had enough.... but recent health issues have come up that I'm struggling with the whole idea. I've discovered that I need to eat wheat and gluten free... and while that isn't new to plenty of folks, its new to me and quite a challenge and quite a learning curve. I have room to play, I don't have to be super strict, but I do need to proceed with caution. So anyway, I'm looking at Eat Clean with a little WW thrown in just so I can track what is going on and what my comparisons are.

So I've got 2 of Tosca Reno's books and am reading through them trying to set things up to work with it. While balancing the girls on the other side. And that is where I'm at. Since I eat next to no fruit or veggies at the moment, I'm going slow and moving it in! I can do this!

I ate really poorly over the holidays... and gained some.... Weigh in on Sunday will tell me how much.

On the exercise front, I did none over Christmas, but this morning oDD and I went for a 2 mile walk, and despite the cold, I dragged the hubs and other 2 girls out late this afternoon for a fun walk 1.45 mile walk!

Tracking my miles here:
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

And I have tomorrow's oatmeal (Bob's Redmill Gluten Free Steel Cut Oats) in the crock ready to be turned on at 4 am! I'm getting ready!

Knitting / Crocheting for Special Olympics

2011-12-19T01:43:00.002-05:00

So here is my first scarf for the Special Olympics. It is the 2012 Colours of Red Heart SOFT - Really Red (9925) and Navy Marine (4604).

I started it at 4:30-ish pm and finished it around midnight. Making dinner in between and watching TV! Hoping to get my kids involved with making some of these!

Day 11, 12, 13 - Operation 295

2011-12-19T01:42:00.000-05:00

The eating OP isn't going so good, but we did take in a mile on Friday and another 1.5 miles today (even the littlest walked the whole mile - well she ran half of it! LOL!)

Since I'm not posting regularly it is tough to caculate the miles... but I'm getting in at least 2 a week I think!

Weigh in:

up 0.5 lbs (boo hiss! but I knew that would happen!)

Last night's Lasagna, left me bloated and overfull - even though I didn't eat all of it. I think if that hadn't happened I would have stayed the same. Oh well. Roll on next week, and better laid and kept plans!

I'm printing my journal for the week and tomorrow morning planning out the menu. Dh's birthday is this week (so a party!) plus Christmas Eve, then Christmas and Boxing Day...

To all my weight losing friends good luck.

Day 10 - Operation 295

2011-12-15T10:18:00.003-05:00

It is early in the day right now - so exercise hasn't happened yet! But I got started on this post early and hope to be back to finish it! :)

So after yesterday's slacking post, I really did print my journal for the week, and we really did have lunch, and we really did go for a 2 1/4 mile walk around the block (yes big blocks in the burbs!)

The weather is unseasonably warm, for December in our part of the world. So we took advantage of it and took that walk and my 6 yr old announced that she'd like to do that everyday - I think I've found a walking partner in crime! LOL! We hung at the park for a little while, the girls played and I shot photos. Got some really nice outside photos of the girls for my Project Life book! :) So pleased.

Thanks for keeping me honest.

Today's Mileage - 2.25 mile (yesterday)
Weekly Mileage - 2.75 mile (Goal 8 miles)
Overall 295 Mileage - 6.25 miles! (week 2)

Day 7, 8, 9 - Operation 295

2011-12-14T12:29:00.001-05:00

Ya, can we say slacking.

This is what happens everytime I embark on a weighty adventure, by the 2nd week I collapse in despair and give up - my whiney innerself complaining that it isn't happening fast enough! While my normally logical mind knows full well that it will take more than 6 months to get rid of the weight! My whiney innerself also stubbornly refuses to plan out a menu and go shopping. My whiney self doesn't want to take my 2 yr old shopping knowing full well that she won't sit in the cart. We look like a 3 ring circus in the grocery store lately and that just gets my ire up!! Yet my logical brain also knows full well that if I provide dh with a shopping list, he'll get what I need him to get and just what is on the list, this is win win right?!

No walking has happened. But lots of sleep is happening - no not really a good thing -- I so don't love this season! and when pressed the other day as to why, I really had no answer!

I find myself tucking into comfort foods of high sugar and salty foods and high fat foods too! I haven't even printed my journal for the week which I should have done, but someone reset my computer and we ended up leaving the house for most of the day on Sunday, and I just never got back to it!!

I've got plenty of excuses, but the buck needs to stop here. Now printing my journal for the week as I type here. Then we need to figure out a reasonable lunch. I think the girls and I will have lunch in a sec and then I'll drag them for a 2 mile walk around the block, it's such a beautiful day! A short stop at the park on the way home will also be in order.

Thanks for keeping me honest, and giving me a boot in the rump to keep on plodding. Today will be a better day!

FWIW, I said I'd post back on Sunday if we made it out walking, and I never posted. We did go out. Walked about 1/2 mile maybe, with me carrying the sleeping 2 yr old most of the way!

Today's Mileage - 0 mile (so far!)
Weekly Mileage - 0.5 mile (Goal 8 miles)
Overall 295 Mileage - 3.5mile!

Day 5 & 6 - Operation 295

2011-12-11T11:26:00.001-05:00

So Weigh in Day is Sunday even though it is only the 6th day of my week this week.

Anyway without further adieu... I'm down 2 lbs

Woohoo!

Week in Review
This week has been any eye opener. I can see where the little bits sneak in. Ya I'm eating pretty healthy most of the time, but the times I don't are like benders when everything goes to heck in a handbasket!

Our Monday Burrito routine while fun is detrimental if it happens more than twice a week, at times it has. When I run out of ideas, it easier to go out and grab something with mega calories than it is to just fix something at home, plus it gives me a change of scenery on days when we don't get out as much as we could. I have succumbed to the convenience of fast food and restaurants. I think part of me is also jealous that dh eats out everyday at work - and while his choices are healthier he still eats out a ton!

My love for sweet tea - though lightly reined in is still there and like soda/pop/coke it all catches up at some point. I'm still weaning here, and this week will be 75 un/25 sw

I managed 3 miles this week. 5 miles short of my goal, but that's okay! I didn't manage to walk as much as I'd hoped this week or even get in much exercise. So that is a place I need to pay attention and fix. I did manage to walk a little over a 1 mile yesterday, carrying 20 lbs, & snapping pictures!

For this week my goals are:

Continue to follow the WW plan and eating better (portion control and more veg & fr)
I'm aiming for 4 fruits and veggies daily!
I will make a conscious effort to walk 6-8 miles this week.
I will consume my 6 - 8oz glasses of water - daily!
I will plan better lunches!

Today's Mileage - 1 mile (yesterday)
Weekly Mileage - 3 mile (Goal 8 miles)
Overall 295 Mileage - 3 mile!

I will update later this aft. Hoping to get out and walk with the family!

Day 3 & 4 - Operation 295

2011-12-09T00:07:00.001-05:00

2 more days of staying on points. And still working down those extra points I indulged in on Monday - but they are balancing out! I'm still trying to get the extra fruit and veggies in, but struggling with that. Might have to resort to smoothies for breakfast to cover that aspect - which isn't a bad thing, with fresh and frozen fruit, no added sugar! I have a plan! I just need to make sure I measure! :)

Exercise is also not coming along this week. I'm not sure if it is the weather, lack of sugar (ya fellow addict here!) or just the season, but I have been really tired this week, yet getting up at the crack of dawn! Could be the fact that DH is leaving early too that is doing it... but I don't really know! A nice early afternoon nap has become the mainstay! hmmm maybe I should go to bed earlier! LOL!

I did sneak on the scale this morning, and was happy to see 2 lbs gone. I'm not counting on that as my 5 yr old turns 6 tomorrow! And has requested the one place where I'm likely to over-indulge for dinner. I suppose if I plan well, I could bring some home, and not eat too much, plus budget my points the rest of the day. We'll see what happens!

Thanks for reading!

Today's Mileage - 1 mile
Weekly Mileage - 2 mile (Goal 8 miles)
Overall 295 Mileage - 2 mile!

Day 2 - Operation 295

2011-12-07T00:51:00.001-05:00

So today I managed to stay within my points range better, but I need to save some for Friday for my 5 yr old's birthday. She has demanded that Daddy go to lunch with us at Moe's, and that we take her out for Steak and Sushi dinner. Major pointage! There will be cake (unless oDD can convince her that birthday pie is the way to go! LOL! or maybe Fairy cakes! hmmm!)

It was a dreary, wet and rainy day outside. We started off with a quick trip to the post office to mail gifts. Some idiot, bashed his car door into my car while it was moving (worth a bag of M&M's but I let it go sans M&M's - told him he was an idiot, and left it at that!) Drove to the grocery store to get nutritious food for lunch and few staple items, but the 2 yr old had a major meltdown, turned into a raving lunatic, so we left without further thought. Dh happily brought us home food for tomorrow's lunch when he brought home dinner fixins!

Being wet and dreary, I decided not to walk outside today - figuring I'd get some time on the treadmill, but the couch sucked me in, deep and cozy, so I took a nap. Was so tired this morning I couldn't even keep my eyes open while doing math and reading with the middlest! (sad, I know!) It's close to migraine time for me... so I wonder if this had something to do with it.... hmmm maybe hormonal, must watch that maybe the sudden vitamin kick changed something!)

We had a crappy lunch, but I planned out my points, and I knew what I was getting into. I budgeted enough for dinner, and added in a couple of snacks... so life was good!

I know Christmas/Holidays are a really bad time to start a life change, what with all the baking, fun foods and a holiday 100% surrounded by food! But I've been putting it off, and putting it off, and suddenly I feel that pull and need to succeed, very much inspired by Kara over at 365 days and 100 pounds . I'm determined to do this!

By the end of the day, I will have met all of my water goals, 1/2 my milk (but I take a supplement), 1/2 my F&V intake. Not bad considering I haven't been watching these in eons!

Thanks for reading!

Today's Mileage - 0 mile
Weekly Mileage - 1 mile (Goal 8 miles)
Overall 295 Mileage - 1 mile!

Uncultured Book List (updated!)

2011-12-05T21:10:00.001-05:00

I'm feeling a little uncultured today so I thought I'd post the 100 Greatests! (yes new word!)

100 Greatest books (according to Nicholas Whyte in 2003 - his take on the BBC Big Read)

legend: black=Read, red = not read, green=on my book shelf!

The Lord Of The Rings, JRR Tolkien
Pride And Prejudice, Jane Austen
His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (read 1 of 3)
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, JK Rowling
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Winnie-the-Pooh, AA Milne
1984, George Orwell
The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe, CS Lewis
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
The Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger
The Wind In The Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling (12/09)
The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
Middlemarch, George Eliot
The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
Persuasion, Jane Auste
Dune, Frank Herbert (hated this one... tried 3 times)
Emma, Jane Austen
Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
Watership Down, Richard Adams
The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
Animal Farm, George Orwell
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
The Stand, Stephen King
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
The BFG, Roald Dahl
Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
Mort, Terry Pratchett
The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
The Magus, John Fowles
Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (loved this one!)
Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
Perfume, Patrick Süskind
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
The Secret History, Donna Tartt
The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
Ulysses, James Joyce
Bleak House, Charles Dickens
Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
The Twits, Roald Dahl
I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
Holes, Louis Sachar
The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
Magician, Raymond E. Feist
On The Road, Jack Kerouac
The Godfather, Mario Puzo
The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
Katherine, Anya Seton
Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer (hated this one .... tried 3 times)
Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Woohoo - only 76 books left to read! LOL! (that means I've added 4)

100 Greatest movies that I haven't seen (stolen from AmyDe in one of her Februarywho stole it from someone else! LOL!)

legend:
black=seen, red = never seen

1. Citizen Kane (1941)
2. The Godfather (1972)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Raging Bull (1980)
5. Singin' In The Rain (1952)
6. Gone With The Wind (1939)
7. Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
8. Schindler's List (1993)
9. Vertigo (1958)
10. The Wizard Of Oz (1939)
11. City Lights (1931)
12. The Searchers (1956)
13. Star Wars (1977)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
16. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
17. The Graduate (1967)
18. The General (1927)
19. On The Waterfront (1954)
20. It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
21. Chinatown (1974)
22. Some Like It Hot (1959)
23. The Grapes Of Wrath (1940)
24. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
25. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
26. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)
27. High Noon (1952)
28. All About Eve (1950)
29. Double Indemnity (1944)
30. Apocalypse Now (1979)
31. The Maltese Falcon (1941)
32. The Godfather Part II (1974)
33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
34. Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
35. Annie Hall (1977)
36. The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
37. The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)
38. The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)
39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
40. The Sound Of Music (1965)
41. King Kong (1933)
42. Bonnie And Clyde (1967)
43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
44. The Philadelphia Story (1940)
45. Shane (1953)
46. It Happened One Night (1934)
47. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
48. Rear Window (1954)
49. Intolerance (1916)
50. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)
51. West Side Story (1961)
52. Taxi Driver (1976)
53. The Deer Hunter (1978)
54. M*A*S*H (1970)
55. North By Northwest (1959)
56. Jaws (1975)
57. Rocky (1976)
58. The Gold Rush (1925)
59. Nashville (1975)
60. Duck Soup (1933)
61. Sullivan's Travels (1941)
62. American Graffiti (1973)
63. Cabaret (1972)
64. Network (1976)
65. The African Queen (1951)
66. Raiders Of The Lost Ark (1981)
67. Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
68. Unforgiven (1992)
69. Tootsie (1982)
70. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
72. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
73. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)
74. The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
75. In The Heat Of The Night (1967)
76. Forrest Gump (1994)
77. All The President's Men (1976)
78. Modern Times (1936)
79. The Wild Bunch (1969)
80. The Apartment (1960)
81. Spartacus (1960)
82. Sunrise (1927)
83. Titanic (1997)
84. Easy Rider (1969)
85. A Night At The Opera (1935)
86. Platoon (1986)
87. 12 Angry Men (1957)
88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
89. The Sixth Sense (1999)
90. Swing Time (1936)
91. Sophie's Choice (1982)
92. Goodfellas (1990)
93. The French Connection (1971)
94. Pulp Fiction (1994)
95. The Last Picture Show (1971)
96. Do The Right Thing (1989)

97. Blade Runner (1982)
98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

99. Toy Story (1995)
100. Ben-Hur (1959)

Woohoo - only 85 movies left to see! LOL!

Day 1 - Operation 295

2011-12-05T20:28:00.001-05:00

I'm both happy and sad to admit that today was really a fact finding mission. An eye opener. I learned much, but learning about your behaviours is the first step to correcting them right?! So even though it was half a loss, it was also half a win!

Every Monday for the last ~~little~~ while, I have been taking the girls out for lunch to the same place, we love Moe's (Welcome to Moe's!) When we first started going, dh and I had difficulty eating a regular sized Burrito split between us, but eventually I just started chowing down and eating the whole thing. (ha, yes OINK! *blush*) By the time you have the burrito, add the chips & salsa, Tea, and cookie you're walking away with a 28 pt lunch (at least!) OMG, good job I had a light breakfast, drink unsweet tea (yes I have weaned myself off the sugared variety a while ago!) and we walked 1/2 mile there and 1/2 mile back (low intensity 40 min exercise - c'mon I'm walking with a 2 yr old!!)

The girls don't eat the chips with lunch but have recently taken a liking to the black bean salsa (I prefer the verde variety!) So we bring home the chips, just in case the girls want a snack later, we often toss them, I don't seem to indulge after lunch (ha too full!)

This afternoon however, I found myself happily munching on some of those chips, twice I stopped to ask myself if I was hungry and twice I was not, I found I was craving the salt on my tongue, so I put back the heaping handful that I took and stopped eating (yes I recorded it too!)

In an effort to offset the big burrito lunches we've been having - if the weather is not too hot (heat-stroke variety) and not too cold (for my fatless children!) we've been walking there. As I said 1/2 mile there and 1/2 mile back, totaling a 40 min low intensity 1 mile walk.

Today though, being one of the last beautiful days of the year, I decided to rake the leaves. The girls wanted to play outside, so I set to raking while supervising them and I set a timer for 1 hour on my phone, so that we could finish up some unfinished school work for the day.

Feeling guilty about the lunch as it was presented in my worksheet, we opted for a lighter lunch of (gluten free - for me) Pasta with tomato sauce.

I also managed to sneak in a couple fruits for the day. So while I was about 13 pts over my daily budget today, I'm opting to correct this over the rest of this week.

To change What I love
I love the tradition of going out for lunch on Monday's with the girls, they look forward to it each week. I'm thinking we can still do it, I just need to find a way to reduce the pointage. I can - without difficulty half my burrito and save some for lunch the next day but that would leave me with 2 high point days no matter how I look at it! I can look into the salads, with better choice of options (hate salad dressing anyway - so save points there!) This would give me more veggies and might lighten the fare. Decisions, decisions!

I'll keep ya posted, on what I decide!

Today's Mileage - 1 mile (+1 hr of moderate raking!)
Weekly Mileage - 1 mile (Goal 8 miles)
Overall 295 Mileage - 1 mile!

Tad Files

2011-12-05T20:04:00.000-05:00

So the Tads are now swimming head down. According to the literature that means they're happy and adjusted! They are growing and getting easier to find!

Funny M pointed out that when Tad arrived - he already had arm buds and was quite large judging by these little guys!

Pledge To Lose

2011-12-04T22:31:00.001-05:00

So here I stand, less than a week before my 2nd youngest child's 6th birthday, weighing more than I did when I was 9 months pregnant with her oldest sister (remember I've had 4.)

I've gone back and forth for years (8 of them to be precise!) with being comfortable being labelled obese, and being sick of the extra 40 lbs I carry around. I feel awful. Simply put, I can actually feel the strain this is putting on my health both mental and physical.

In the 11 yrs since I last did weight-watchers, I have learned that I'm allergic enough to dairy that drinking milk is unwise (to say the least!) I can eat nothing related to a cow. And now, that I quite simply might be wheat sensitive (allergic, gluten? - I dunno but its in there too!) My diet sucks, I eat next to no fruit or veggies... and I simply hate food - my palate is very bored.

Well, ENOUGH is ENOUGH! Tonight, I'm hatching my plan (just like the darn tadpoles that hatched in Frog-quarium - 2 days ago - but that's another story) to get rid of this weight once and for all, and teach my girls the ideas of proper nutrition and exercise! I am currently walking between 2 miles and 12 miles a week, and my diet sucks!

But I have goals.

Over the next 295 days I will lose 40 lbs. (at least!)
Over the next 295 days I will improve my eating with nutritious food!
Over the next 295 days I will walk/run/exercise more to aid in my goal of losing this weight!

For this week my goals are:

Follow the WW plan and begin eating better (portion control and more veggies & fruit!)
I will walk 8 miles this week.
I will consume my 6 - 8oz glasses of water - daily!
I will plan better lunches!

I hope to post my successes and challenges daily, along with other events that are happening in my life... like my Project Life Scrapbook, fun stuff the kids and I do and well about life in general. So if you're reading this, I hope you'll keep me honest, root for me, and wish me luck! :) I will be skinnier before I turn 40 (I turn 40 in 296 days from this post! I begin tomorrow!)

Tad Files

2011-12-04T16:09:00.000-05:00

So in May of 2008, we got a tadpole - from the Grow-a-Frog company! - whom we named Tad - not knowing if it was a boy or a girl! Tad has remained Tad and he is in fact a boy African Clawed Frog. A short period later, I ordered a habitat for him not knowing that it came with a live froglet. We named the froglet - Lily, also not knowing if she was a boy or a girl! Well low and behold she was a girl!

Fastforward 3.5 yrs, Tad and Lily have mated a couple times, but did not produce offspring. This past week however was another story. 2 tadpoles survived. Here is one of them!
(the little line, slightly off center - a 3 hour old tadpole)

They are now 2 days old, and not much bigger, but thriving.

Wordless Wednesday - Nov 30, 2011

2011-11-30T17:59:00.001-05:00

Backyard Chicken Movement

2011-11-06T11:57:00.004-05:00

So here is my question.

I have a piece of property just under an acre. I choose to grow flowers to have a beautifulgarden. I cover my plot of land with FRESHmanure that I obtained from a local farmer. Pretty, pretty smelly but really of no use except a mood booster, myneighbors mutter under their breath, but nothing can be done, the county does nothave an ordinance against it, and save for the manure, my garden isn’t offensive! So I progress and decide to grow veggies inmy garden. Again I cover my plot with FRESH~~(fragrant)~~ manure from the local farmer. The veggies grow and prosper. Weget a year’s supply of veggies and a happy family – and the neighbors can’tcomplain, again there is no ordinance against the foul stench my garden caused!

Move along. I erect alittle container in my backyard. It hasmesh wire and a little box. Inside arelittle birdies. The birdies produceeggs. They are quiet. The neighbor’s beagle bray’s at the nightssounds, keeping my family awake. In themorning the wild birdies not contained in my container… begin chirping and eruptingin squabbles around 6 am. They havenested outside my bedroom window. Mylittle birdies they merely cluck quietly most of the time… sometimes like theother neighbors children they squabble… but it doesn’t last long before theycalm. I keep the container clean and itsmells far less (if at all) than the veggie garden my neighbor has now taken on.

My family has eggs. My neighbor complains. Mychickens must go, because apparently my pet birdies are offensive and governed by a countyordinance that isn’t exactly supported by the state.

So explain to me why my neighbor can have aFragrant garden and get away with it, and the other neighbor can have a braying beagle, and I can’t have non-fragrant pet birdsbecause they are deemed livestock. Whatif I had a pet pot-bellied pig… would I be subject to the same ordinanceissues??

(this is not a problem I face, but the dilemma of a friend. I cannot see why in these hard economic times the county has issues with such things. Feeding a family and not relying on food stamps, isn't that better than the alternative? Should we not teach our children to be more self-reliant no matter what size property we own? For reference our county government requires that you have 2 acres - or pretty close to it - in order to own chickens.)

Photo borrowed from my friend J. Pond ... please visit Back Yard Chickens Alliance of Cobb County to read more about his battles.

Farewell Dead Weight!

2011-10-29T13:58:00.001-04:00

So now that the crafting frenzie of Halloween feels over, I can cruise into the Hallow and sail into that wonderful time of year to which I'm not a huge fan of. Relatives come and go - though usually the same old suspects (no pun intended!) It has gotten to the point that I do the bare minimum of cleaning before they arrive - that is to say make it look neat, but don't go out of my kind of thing. But now I have this urge to FALL clean - ya know I have to be different! Most people Spring Clean, right.... but no, no, dear old me has FALL clean! Maybe its a birth time of year thing or something. Since I was born in the fall my time of renew is fall... (well that's my story! LOL!)

So, those of you that know me know that I have knit since I was 6, those of you that don't know me so well, know that I've knit as long as you've known me! LOL! Without giving away my age, that's more than 30 yrs now. A girl can collect a whole lotta yarn in that amount of time and a whole lotta ends of projects too! A girl born of an 'affectionately named' packrat, could store a whole lotta leftover projects in ~~(and out of!)~~ various bins around the house and still never have enough yarn to knit with (we won't go into the fabric stash and toy collections, just yet, but their time is comin!!)

Well I'm proud to say that I freecycled 3 boxes of only acrylic yarns just this morning! YAY! I'm so proud of me! (<-favourite line from my favourite potty training book!) Sadly though, it isn't enough the drawer that I'm deputizing to be my yarn stash (yes a SINGLE DRAWER!) is still not as threadbare as I'd like to see it! LOL! Gads, did I really just say that? I have at least 1/2 a drawer more of stuff that needs to go but I must first get over the fear of letting it go, that I won't miss it, the project it was intended for won't miss it either because it has been lost in the abyss of my mind! LOL! It must depart my mortal hands and occupy someone elses!!

The key here is lightening the bulge around the house! And one tiny project at a time is being accomplished!

Halloween and Crafting

2011-10-23T22:08:00.003-04:00

It definitely has been a busy couple of days.

We started out with a planned walk that fell through on Saturday. Bright, beautiful, cool autumn day, we started heading to the mountains 2 hours away, and ended up changing to one only about an hour away in the opposite direction. Arrived in the town in time for lunch, only to find all the places packed... so we drove back 10 minutes and ended up at a Ruby Tuesdays. Well, let me tell ya. The wait staff was pleasant, but seriously it took more than 40 minutes to get our food. A burger and fries - seriously it usually doesn't take that long. Then it took another 30 to ring up the bill. Apparently the computer went down and well, ya they never took credit cards before the internet was widely used! *sigh* So all in all an hour and a half to get food, which then put us at 3:30. We turned around and came home.

The girls had energy to burn so they stayed out playing. I wanted to sew, but the 2 yr old needs to be supervised. So I hung out outside with them. 1 hour turned into 2, as I decided to ~~decapitate~~ prune my arch-nemesis - the Holly Bushes which decorate our entry. Have I asked recently what the hell the builder was thinking when the put them in? and why after 3 owners - and us here 10 yrs this week - why they are still here? Well if they don't die of some over pruning disease, they will remain for the next owners. I only managed to seriously prune back 1 bush - the other would wait another day.

At 6 we headed in, the sun was going down, it was getting chilly and my tiny children were getting chilly. I sewed for 4 hours. I managed to mostly finish 1 blue angry bird costume - which was modified from a costume my oldest wore years ago! I have yet to get the face right!

Roll on to today. We walked. We lunched. He mowed, I ~~decapitated~~ pruned the 2nd bush. I sewed and completed an Abird Piggy for a very thrilled 2 yr old! :)

Yes, the bird needs a face make-over... but they both turned out kinda cute. I'm pleased! :)

Are there Bad Days on the Beach?

2011-10-08T14:17:00.001-04:00

When the family takes a trip to the beach you don't imagine bad days. And I'm not talking rainy thunderstormy days, or days when the kids take to screaming and fighting instead of remembering they have to face each later in the day when they share a room, unsupervised!

I mean days that look beautiful from the shelter of the room, beautiful blue sky, blazing sun unhampered by clouds, beautiful foamy whitecapped waves.

The brain has neglected to recognize that the foamy white waves are crashing viciously on the shore, not a soul is in the water and the obnoxious red flag that is attempting to escape it's tilting flag pole! Perhaps the flag is the only wise one unhappily launched from it's quite storage 2 days ago!

So everyone happily don's their bathing suits and scrubs in the sunscreen. 30 minutes on the beach receiving a sandblasting spa treatment from mother nature, and it's time to call it a day and find something else to do!

Looking down from the balcony now you see a totally different scene. The beautiful white capped waves are really an angry sea, churning, crashing and destroying all it touches. The blue sky is hazy, from sea spray and sand flowing freely. Now you note the lack of footprints in the sand leading to the occupied deck chairs and umbrellas which have not been unfurled or maybe they have, and quickly bundled again in fear of a beach chase, or worse impaling an innocent victim!

The water which is usually grey-blue is now brown as far as the eye can see, from the churned up sand.

It is our last full day near the beach this trip! The winds at 1pm are near 21 mph (33.8 kph.). They are expected to get worse as a trough just southeast of us brings in a variety of weather! Today I am happy we are leaving tomorrow and grateful for the last 28 days here with only two rainy days!

Long Time No See!

2011-10-06T19:19:00.002-04:00

Like so many other facebookers at the moment, I'm disgruntled by the recent changes to the UI at FB, and figure I should be having way more fun typing here on my blog! My status updates have gone from multiple times a day to only a couple times a day and as such they are more worthy of blogging than fb'ing.

So here I am rounding on the end of our surprise one month vacation at the beach! It has been a great time. Mostly just the girls and I, but dh has joined us a couple times during the month!

We have seen 28/30 days of sunshine, complete with awesome sunrises and sunsets! We had 2 days of cool thunderstorms.

The girls got a month worth of school work done in 3 weeks! And both of them relearned to knit! I managed to finish 3 projects and am working on my 4th!

We spent a small fortune at the bookstore and discovered my oldest doesn't read books, she devours them! We are currently listening to "Throne of Fire" (the Kane chronicles) by Rick Riordan. We like the narrators!

My middlest is getting hooked on reading! We have just finished her 100 easy lessons and started our first book!

So in a nut shell that is what we've been up to!

Bednight rnd 2 Socks for S

2011-07-17T11:44:00.004-04:00

Years ago, in a frenzie of knitting, I made M a pair of socks she never wore. A few years later along came S, who loved the colours and started wearing those socks to bed (they were bulk and not good for regular use! LOL!)

A few weeks ago, chilly feet (yes in the dead of summer) S climbed into bed, and tried to put her socks on but they didn't fit. Too snug in the ankles and too short in the feet. Broke her sweet little heart. A few days later we hit the store for her choice of yarn. (we picked Lily Cotton, yes the cotton that you make dishcloths out of!) I just knew they'd be bold (or maybe dark!)
A couple hours knitting (all told over 3 days) and

VOILA! The Socks

Bold like her personality! :)

With extra yarn left over, I'll have to make a couple more. They are super easy for the person who doesn't knit socks! :)

Here is the link.

Revamping the Menu - Smoke Alarm Dinners!

2011-03-12T20:15:00.003-05:00

So I woke up in the middle of the night again a few nights ago and a thought struck me. Our diet has been pretty pathetic of late, consisting of last minute planning, not enough food in the house to cater to whatever we need spur of the moment, and a lot of food going to waste. We've been eating out more than we should and my girth is showing it. The kids, dh and I deserve better. We're only on this planet for a short time, so we might as well make the best of it, and keep our bodies in good shape. Its time to start feeding them better! So I started Friday morning with a menu & shopping list.

We did some fun stuff this morning - namely lunch, and then meeting some puppies (all dogs are puppies to me! LOL!) Because we're hoping to get one in the near future. After that we came home, dh did his thing and the Littlest and I went shopping - well I went shopping and she snoozed face down in my sweater in the cart! (she was really cute - I wished I could join her!!) Got most of the things on my list, kinda missed a couple but that's okay because I can put those on the OS list - we'll call it the After Shopping list (for politeness!) and dh can pick them up on his way home during the week!

Its been some 10 yrs since I cooked! Well, I should say, I've cooked sporadically during those 10 yrs and dh was always around to keep me on the straight and narrow! So its okay that I sort of singed the garlic bread and set off the smoke detector!! The food made it to the table warm and tasty tonight! Little (if any) added salt, all healthy and nutritious including some whole wheat pasta (I mixed a box of regular stuff with some whole wheat stuff no one noticed!!) And definitely A for effort of getting more veggies into the kidlets! :)

The goal for now is just to get up on the menus and keep the shopping list going for more than a week. Once we start eating in and eating healthy regularly (dinner & Lunch), then I'm going to start shifting to better foods - both nutrition-wise and organic. One step at a time. So if you have suggestions, I'm all ears!

I personally am shifting away from meat (again), for my health (no other reason), but the kids and hubby will continue on their meat-eating endeavours! :) I totally need to stay on top of the B12 though.

Snow Fall (take 2)

2011-01-11T12:30:00.003-05:00

Its a new year and a crazy one at that. In the city where we are likely to get 1 snowfall year and usually around Valentine's day we're working on our 2nd decent snow fall in just over 2 weeks (one Christmas Day and then one this past Sunday!) All totalled we got 6 inches over night and most of that fell within an hour! The picture below - shows a mist - which is actually snow it was coming down pretty heavy! The city has been shut down for 2 days now. Between the "wintry mix" (snow, rain and freezing rain) there is a decent cover of ice on the snow, making it un-snowman-able!

I finally broke down and bought a sled/toboggan for the girls to play with the next snow fall! Thus guaranteeing it won't snow ever again! LOL! This happened the year my parents bought me some cross country skis. I got little use out of them as it just seemed to stop snowing! LOL!

At the moment, the government offices are slowly starting to re-open. Our road is starting to thaw.

Happy New Year's Eve!

2010-12-31T09:55:00.002-05:00

Wow, budda bing budda bam, and yet another year just flew past.

Things have been crazy and the days escape me before I remember them beginning. I guess that's the standard refrain of parent with multiple kids. I have only 3, but sometimes they feel like 20! LOL!

All is quiet here. It was a busy year for us, plenty of things done and seen, plenty of new experiences, plenty of tears and plenty of laughter. But all is good. FB seems to have taken over my blogging time, and I'm hoping to make some changes on that front this year. Hoping to get more time with the kids as always and hoping to generally make progress on some of my goals as almost everyone is planning their New Years Resolutions!

We had a nice quiet holiday at home this year, our first alone as a family of 5. The littlest seemed to enjoy the festivities with a look of puzzlement. A good time was had by all!

Moody Monday

2010-12-13T12:22:00.005-05:00

Just random work from the weekend. It's an old art form, but makes neat new things, and inspires creativity!

It's a chilly cold morning here in the ??Sunny?? South - with actual snow on the ground. But the focal point of my photo is the rainbow of colours.

2010-12-12T12:34:00.000-05:00

Before working hurriedly away on Christmas gifts that suddenly and mysteriously came due (not like I had the whole year to get 'em movin!) .... I had started working on sweater for the littlest. A webfriend posted pics of an adorable little sweater she had made, and well I just had to try it. Well, here is the finished project!

We added cute little crayon buttons from my stash - and she insists on running around with it on. Gotta love a little ego boosting! LOL!

Anyway here is a link to the pattern just in case you're inspired! I adjusted it and worked tighter stitches than the pattern called for so I'd have a dense warm sweater for the cold weather!
http://www.coatsandclark.com/Crafts/Crochet/Projects/BabyChild/LM0266+Crochet+Baby+Hoodie.htm

Finding the Joy (Dec 3)

2010-12-04T00:25:00.002-05:00

This week:
The holidays are fast approaching and I find myself rather unprepared. I've had a tough time focusing on the holidays this year (well for many years) though I'm not sure why its just not my thing I guess... so I've found peace this year and will celebrate my way! :)

* Finding peace with the holiday season and feeling free to celebrate it my way!

* My cute little friend above - is the start of my new holiday decor! :)

* A week of happy caroling by happy children.

* A week of productive crafting, and more ideas than I have time to make! LOL!

* Two of my girls have decided to try out one of my hobbies! :)

So what made you smile this week?

Finding the Joy Friday (Nov)

2010-11-12T13:04:00.004-05:00

Inspired by AmyD ( at Ignore Me Its Easier).

This week:

* Cute little potted Viola's that tickled the girls fancies (even the littlest!)

* A decent running start on Christmas gifts - that I'd make again for me! :)

* A successful week of getting school work done.

* Fixing plumbing problems without assistance

Home Repair

2010-11-11T23:47:00.008-05:00

So I started up cloth diapering again this week. Not because diapers are too expensive, but because I have this stash from when M was a baby, it grew when S was a baby and now that ET is here - its been plaguing my conscience, that they are sitting here unused while I fill that landfill with more diapers than I need to! Part of the reason I never got my jive on cloth diapering with ET was because the rinsing system I used with M and S - was no longer working right. The white garden hose nozzle was so badly corroded that it was filling a bucket 2 gallon bucket of water in under an hour (that's a lot of water!) And I didn't feel like turning the toilet off after every flush!

Finally I dragged my sorry butt over to the HD where the girls picked out my new flashy orange garden nozzle. I tried to find a new male connector to fit, but apparently mine is a 3/4 inch and the ones they have an abundance of are 5/8. I was pretty sure the existing connector was well corroded in there too! But a little sunshine, and pair of vice grips and a little elbow grease and I got it out. My first couple of attempts to get it all together and not leaking failed... I ended up needing another washer (which I pilfered from the old head.)

In the end it cost me $18.99 to fix my old sprayer! a garden hose and nozzle connected to the toilet in-flow!!

HA! yup $19. My 9 yr old and 4.5 yr old convinced me I needed a Salad Bowl, and 3 different Viola plants for the garden too! The sprayer part only cost $4. The rest was on the plants!

Happy Thursday! :)

Crocheting on-Demand

2010-11-03T12:43:00.003-04:00

I don't generally crochet on demand for people, just because it is my hobby and I don't want to change that, but for my kids - its a whole'nother story! LOL!

So a friend on one of the boards posted a link to Inner Hooker's Owl Earflap hat on Etsy. And while I was checking out the photo of the hat she made, ET came up to me and started cackling (laughing) and pointing and getting excited. For a 1 yr old - that's major excitment! LOL! I had been trying for months to get her to wear a hat on her head as winter is coming, and while the winters here in GA aren't like the winters, in the North - they can still get pretty cold - especially if you start out with thin southern blood to begin with!! LOL!

So when she got all excited about this hat I figured I'd have to try it. And guess what she actuallykeeps it on her head and when you ask about her hat... she points to it and cackles! :)

Mission accomplished! :) 1 kooky hat, for 1 kooky kid who hates hat!

Crafting and Swapping

2010-10-30T22:56:00.002-04:00

Its funny how time seems to slip by so quickly!
I've been busy this month. I started the month with a swap on one of the boards, where I made a scarf and a crochet hook case - sent it to my swappee - she was supposed to take a pic and post the board but didn't, and wouldn't you know I totally forgot to take a pic of it. That's okay I have to make another one, so when that is done I'll post it! I got an email from my swappee saying thank you and that she loved the hook case.

I received a darling scarf in return from a different person! Its simply beautiful. Its autumn colours and so simply done! I love it needless to say - so I'm showing my ugly mug just to show off my scarf! :)

The scarf swap was quickly followed by a mad frenzy of halloween costume making. M decided what she wanted, and we had picked up the fabric, but neither of us was inspired to get moving on it until a few days ago. So a mad frenzied sewing fest occurred as I realized she had a party Friday - so we finished with a day or two to spare.

I then proceeded to put a 1/2 dozen new projects on my to do list - and one of those was the completion of a square swap blanket which - I needed to stitch together and then put a "binding(?)" on ... so that was the order of business today!

Treating I'm Bored with Respect

2010-10-19T00:18:00.002-04:00

Wow, talk about a new perspective.

So one of the boards that I hang out at was having a discussion about deschooling - the process of giving your child a break from the 'busy-ness' of school and getting them to switch gears back into the process of learning. Some kids need this more than others I gather... but since mine never went to school I don't really know! Anyway, one of the mom's posted a link about it for further information, and me being me, I clicked... I followed, I wandered... and meandered around and found myself looking at an article called "Bored No More."

How many times have my kids said to me "I'm bored!" and I blew them off or suggested they clean their rooms. I love the perspective this article puts on it. If a baby is whiny/fussy or seeming uncomfortable we tend to their needs until the whining/fussing stops. The same can be done for kids.

I think next time I'll try out a technique or two from that article and see what happens!

DNA - it's Your Fault

2010-10-10T11:54:00.005-04:00

As the parent of 4 beautiful children, 1 with a birth defect and 1 with a genetic anomaly does it really matter how either came about? In our quest to gather information to help future generations prevent the diseases, defects and anomalies that our children face, I understand the whole reason for testing. But when a grandparent comes to you and says "OMG we should all be tested to find out why this happened," isn't that person looking to wash their mortal soul clean of the guilt that possibly their DNA may have caused this? I mean mom and dad have enough DNA to answer the question of where this came from - don't they??

I care that my child has spina bifida, and a bunch of bizarre manifestations that leave her doctors scratching their heads wondering why. I care that my child has galactosemia - but not severe enough to warrant any special services from the medical community. As the mother of these children, I have spent years blaming myself not really knowing if the blame is appropriately placed. I have blamed myself not knowing if their birth issues were a matter of a freak accident during a certain stage of their development - that happened when I carried them. But over the years, that blame hasn't helped me but hindered my ability to deal with the fact that the issue is there. Blame isn't going to make it better, knowing who is at fault isn't going to take it away. Knowing where the faulty genetic material came from isn't going to change how I love them - because they are who they are inspite of things. My job as a mum to these kids (all of them) is to move on and make them into the people they will be for their lives - to help them live with the abilities, disabilities and capabilities they have and if possible not let them hold themselves back because of them.

I care, to know if my children - should watch out for certain gotchas and I want to help my children at least know what they are up against should they decide to have children in the future, but isn't it enough that we research the mother, father and siblings... do we really have to involve the grandparents?? Only 1/4th of their genetic material is likely to be present in their grandchildren. What will testing 4 grandparents, 3 aunts and uncles, 10 cousins, 2 parents and 3 siblings really provide for the picture and maybe we should throw in the family dog too (if we had one!) Will it make you feel better to point the finger straight at the person who has the faulty DNA and say "IT's ALL YOUR FAULT!" But wait - what if the issue is a mix of both sides. Can we then turn around say to the Doctor "OMG its all your fault you should have know that this would happen!"

Pardon my french - but screw the blame, it is what it is, and knowing what your DNA looks like isn't going to help - let's look from this point forward and help our children know what their future could be. Let them make their decisions based on knowledge of themselves going forward.

And OMG for pities sake, keep your pity to yourself, it isn't welcome over my door or near my children. We don't need pity - we need someone to hold us up and make us strong, and move us forward ...

So let the merry sunshine in and show me what you can do kids!

Politics

2010-10-08T11:27:00.003-04:00

What? OMG, I'm posting about politics... the plague must be coming! LOL! Nah, this is just here to serve as a mental note for local friends to look into this candidate...

John Monds - article in the AJC
http://www.ajc.com/news/libertarian-john-monds-vying-640229.html

I am doing some research on his views... and since he appears new to the race - I thought I'd put him out there in case you share some of his opinions! LOL! Nothing more nothing less. I'm not telling you how to vote! :)

Another mental note for local folks
Georgia's My Voter Page.
http://www.sos.ga.gov/mvp/

Finding the Joy Sunday! (Oct)

2010-10-03T19:21:00.005-04:00

Totally stealing from AmyD ( at Ignore Me Its Easier).
Also totally posting this like 3 days late (yes it is Sunday!)

This week:

* Hours on progress being made on my easy peasy - but pretty swap scarf

* Hours or progress made on our school work.

* Finding 2nd hand bookstores with awesome books in awesome shape, and finding the book I was looking for.

* Big box bookstores, that have what I'm looking for on the shelf that allows me to use my gift card from a couple months ago. (and nice tellers that remind me since I'm buying homeschool books I should bring in my Letter of Intent and get discount cards - and maybe the manager will be nice tomorrow and credit me the discount even though I don't have the card yet! LOL!)

* Finally turning in our Dollies for Haiti to our Girl Scout Council - and M finally finishing hers so we could turn them in!

* M loving her homemade dolly for Haiti and wanting to make some more! :)

* Soccer in the Rain, and a dry car to sit in at the edge of the field! LOL!

* Family walks in the rain, and the need for new raincoats.

* Planning Christmas Vacation having just arrived back from Fall Vacation - a real Christmas vacation - like over Christmas! LOL!

* Hours of decluttering - and finally seeing a difference! :)

Where are you finding JOY this week?

Finding Joy Friday

2010-09-24T21:44:00.002-04:00

Totally stealing from AmyD ( at Ignore Me Its Easier).

This week:

* Missing shows on TV only to find that I can catch them on streaming video on my computer with way better definition and way less commercials.

* Watching the girls spend a couple hours pretending to be the Stars on Dancing with the Stars... and feeling the earth move under my seat while they twirl, spin, prance and have fun!

* Listening to my big girls laughing and having fun using their imaginations creating different scenarios all week.

* Birthday dinners spoiled but that meant that I ate a healthier dinner at home.

* Finding a plan of attack for getting M to master her timestables.

* Seeing S make progress with her reading skills.

* Lunch with a friend.

* A birthday cake made by a friend for me to celebrate with tomorrow.

* Made it to the Tag Office before they closed today.

Where are you finding JOY this week?

Finding Joy Friday

2010-08-27T14:14:00.004-04:00

Totally stealing from AmyD ( at Ignore Me Its Easier).

This week:

*The possibility of major change in our lives. (not that I totally didn't steal this one! LOL! SSSHHHH! But the chickens haven't hatched, and I'm not counting them! LOL! kinda half praying they don't hatch too! ;0 - did I say that??)

*A midweek trip with my dear sweet family who travel well and only complain a little!!

*2.5 hours in the car to finish up a torture project that would have taken much longer if I didn't have those 2 hours to dedicate to it! :)

*A clean kitchen (ha the simple pleasures!)

*A child who likes to nap. (1 out of 4 isn't bad!)

*Schooling is underway on the home kindergarten front I'm happy with our progress

*The fact that if I want to arbitrarily decide to ditch my yarn stash, my husband would be totally supportive! LOL!

Where are you finding JOY this week?

Frivolous Crochet Fun

2010-08-23T18:51:00.004-04:00

So I ended the weekend making crocheted Mary Jane's for ET that she won't ever where for longer than 30 seconds... Her older sister will get them plus another pair in a colour she likes! :) I figured I'd start the week with another frivolous adventure making Crocheted Flip Flops - Pattern found here

Mania's, Found Mine!

2010-08-20T15:43:00.002-04:00

Every person has what I will call mania. Something that sucks all rational thought away and turns them into blubbering idiots! I think I found one of mine today! I was dropping one of the kids off at the local school (remember we homeschool) for a program she was doing with her GS troop. I had warned the leader that I wouldn't be doing much dropping off like this because:

My kids don't go there and I don't feel right being there.
I joined a non-after-school troop because I didn't want to go there.
The whole confusion and mess of pick up lines and insanity that occurs is just enough to tweak me over the edge! LOL!

I have known about this mania for a while, I just didn't know how deep rooted it was. I don't know where it came from either. The thing is this mania isn't just about the school line, its about lines in general. I can handle traffic lines, but people hangin out in a line, in a car doing nothing makes me insane. I can't explain it.

Excuse Me While I Rant....

2010-08-18T23:30:00.005-04:00

School's gone back in... and less than a week later the kids are sent to the streets to beg for money.... Please know that this isn't directed at anyone in particular. And if you could shed some light I'd be much obliged... but I'm about to spout - because from my perspective this is how I see it.

As a homeschooling parent, if I sent my kids to your door to hawk some of our wares... like magazines, or cookies or wrapping paper or whatever, and told you that we needed them to fund our next trip to Disney - you'd look at me like I had 6 heads and slam the door in my face and probably never talk to me again! If I told you that we needed the money to fund the purchase of our textbooks or a new computer you'd likely pause a moment (because you have a heart!), and still slam the door in my face and yell that your tax dollars are paying for public school books already and why the hell can't I afford to buy my own damn books!!

As a tax payer I give my money to the government yearly and get no education benefit - not a deduction, nor a credit for the fact that my kids don't use the public school system. I pay for our books, and I pay for anything else my kids do and still pay the taxes. Hell in our county we aren't even allowed to join the school sports teams or activities.

I understand that as a homeschooling parent, I opted out of the system, be it temporarily or permanently that choice is mine. I also understand that if I decided to send my kids to a private school I'd be in the same predicatment (only way meaner cause it cost more! LOL!) I just don't understand why the public schools are sending kids out freakin door to door to solicit sales for gift paper, magazines, chocolate and other crap, with the line that they need the money to pay for the damn school books and technology.

They no longer provide pencils, paper, notebooks, tissue, crayons, antibacterial lotion, papertowels scissors or anything else on the back to school list. So where has the money gone.

Forgive me if I don't buy your wares. I have my own tightly budgeted, school supplies to fund!

Sewing for Charity

2010-07-31T22:15:00.004-04:00

Well the girls have received their first lessons from "Hogwarts" but they haven't gotten started yet. The lessons began a little late which is good because things got a little crazy around here for a while. We always seem to get super busy at times then suddenly things calm down again!

First we got ourselves stuck at the top of a local mountain with a dead car battery which then fried the main fuse, leading to well lets just say a crazy few days. We were only 84 miles from home! LOL! The girls took it well.

Anyway they'll likely get started on Monday so they can return their first assignment by Friday. So I'll keep you posted there.

In the mean time, we found out that Craft Hope has started Project 9 for ConKerr cancer which you can find here. So we got started. Previously S (4.5) has felt a little left out when I've been working with M (9) on sewing projects, so I figured I'd get her involved this time. She's having a gay old time picking fabrics and taxing my brain to come up with matching fabric! Let me just say our tastes are very different! LOL!

We only started a couple days ago but have 7 pillowcases done. Each of us has pledged 5 pillowcases - totaling 15 - and one that they are keeping for themselves. Meaning I think we'll end up with about 18 pillowcases when all is said and done! :)

Who says a 4.5 yr old can't sew?? Well S is having a grand time helping me work on her cases. Ya her attention span is that of a typical 4 yr old but I gotta say she's managed to get more done than I expected! :) I'm impressed! FWIW, we're using the Hot Dog Roll Method to make our pillowcases.

A Scarf for Summer

2010-07-12T09:42:00.004-04:00

So we've been heavily engrossed in the entire Harry Potter world for a few months now. As such, the girls are anxious to go to Hogwarts. M can't wait till HP world opens at Disney this year. I'd include S in that but I'm not really sure she cares! She loves the HP characters and the first book totally appealed to her. But after that she kinda lost interest and built her own version of HP in her head! Ah the joys of being 4.

Anyway- I spent a few days this month whipping up a Gryffindor scarf for M. While most go for the traditional colours of a wine yarn and yellow, M opted for a wine and gold. The scarf totally came down to her ankles. She asked for LONG! and she totally got it! LOL! I told her to take comfort inthe fact that she could wrap it round a couple times and still have it long. Plus she could GROW into it. She totally loved it!

S has asked for a Ravenclaw scarf which is still on the needles. M and S picked out a lighter blue than I would of and a darker bronze. Oh well, as long as they're happy with the colours that's all I was worried about. S' will be shorter (not sure yet by how much) bit she has asked for hers to only come to her knees.

Who knows. at the moment, I'm still contemplating making myself a Hogwarts Colours Scarf or just a scrappy scarf like Dr. Who used to wear!

Hogwarts Adventures

2010-07-01T13:46:00.007-04:00

So for a while the girls and I have been ~~listening on audio~~ reading the Harry Potter series, and sadly, we've just finished the last book! (Sadly because it was a good series and we didn't want it to end! LOL!) So anyway the girls have been talking about Hogwarts and wanting to go when they're old enough so I sent away asking if we could do a Hogwarts Summer Correspondence course for under age witches and wizards (Hogwarts as you know starts at age 11.)

I told the girls I had requested it and on Friday we got to work on making our wands. As under-age wizards they aren't allowed to perform magic so if they make their own wands... its good! :) While the girls painted their wands the littlest one was colouring pictures - actually first time she has ever been ALLOWED to hold a crayon - without someone taking it off her so she spent the time figuring out what to do with it. Ripping off the paper and colouring on the high chair table was the best! LOL! As I was digging through the pictures later ET looked like she was asking questions and making notes, so she became the official admissions clerk at Hogwarts! LOL!

The girls got their letter by Owl Saturday morning - the Owl left it in the petunia pot out front. The letter just asks if they would be interested in doing a summer correspondence course through Hogwarts - but not AT Hogwarts. They both got very excited at the idea.

Just before lunch M and I created the quills they'll use for the work. The Quills are feather with and gutted ballpoint pens stuck inside! I haven't come up with the ink-well yet (but I'm still thinking on it!) M needs to reply to Professor McGonagall - which she'll do by Owl this evening or this afternoon! :) (Pink is a flamingo Feather, Red is a Phoenix Feather, and Green is a One-can - not a Toucan feather!)

The Return!

2010-06-21T18:04:00.003-04:00

Wow, its been a serious while since I've posted here. Life with a little one, and 2 big ones keeps a momma on her toes. I had the option of either crafting or posting. And no-offense dear readers (if there are any left) I've not been feeling very friendly in the posting department. So sorry. With that said though, I'm aiming to start blogging again and getting things under control.

At home here, we've been doing a bunch of things. Ranging from vacations NV, and Canada. We've been cleaning and decluttering, we've been finishing up some unfinished lessons from last year's material, I've been knitting and crocheting, we've been sewing and trying new patterns, car shopping, car repairing. You name it no stone goes unturned here at the moment. Heck I've even been down on the floor scrubbing the laundry room! Such fun! And reading too!

I've added the goodreads shelf to my links on the right so if you're on there or Shelfari, feel free to friend me on either or both!

We've finally made it to the final book of the Harry Potter Series (Deathly Hallows!)

So its not like we've been sitting around doing nothing! We've been super busy and time has slipped away!

But I hope I'm back for now! :)

Breast/Bottle and Galactosemia

2010-01-13T10:34:00.004-05:00

As always I meander around on this blog... I craft, I live and so this blog reflects the way I live! My post today is a comment I posted on Facebook (with minor changes!) in response to a comment on an article that it isn't that "Breast is Best" but more that it feels NORMAL.

Here is the article... (note I read about 80% of it!)
http://one-of-those-women.blogspot.com/2009/04/case-against-reasoning.html

... its not that it is best... it is very much that it is NORMAL for me. I was never trapped in my house due to breastfeeding... Hell I got 'em, I used 'em, I flaunted them for 2 of my 4 babies - which for my severely modest personality - I didn't even wear tight shirts as a kid! LOL! You'd understand... it was just NORMAL.

It irks me to no end that I couldn't breastfeed baby E. When you're in the post midnight throws of postpartum (as opposed to the pre-dawn bliss - when all seems to come back into focus! and be normal in your sleep deprived brain!) and your doctors throw around an earth shattering word like 'GALACTOSEMIA' and your research yields the word 'DEATH' - and generally before the results come in the damage is done... you stand up with tears in your eyes and anger and frustration in your heart - at the unfairness of it all and say "Well, S**T, it sucks but its best for her" and to hell with what feels "Normal" and "RIGHT" to you! Her survival is paramount.

(FWIW, she was a 31 weeker - a preemie - and spent 35 days in the NICU - despite that I could have - and would have gone onto have a NORMAL breastfeeding relationship with her, except for this one HUGE stumbling block!)

It irks me, to hand this child a bottle of formula and know that I could produce something far more nurturing to my spirit than something canned that has sat on a shelf for how long. I don't begrudge the parents that choose to bottle feed ... hell if it feels right to them go for it! I'm not a breastfeeding nazi - if I was before, this has definitely humbled the experience!... I don't begrudge the parents that breastfeed their babies. But I do stand back with a feeling of jealousy, a tear in my eye, a hole in my heart for the emptiness that I feel when I hand my baby a bottle of formula instead of having her suckle, and know that I was at least lucky because mine survived and mine after 6 weeks was JUST a carrier! I think we got the FINAL answer when she was 10 weeks old. How's that for speedy answers on a potentially life threatening condition?? FWIW, most children with full blown galactosemia (not the duarte variant) don't survive beyond 2 weeks of life - both regular formula and breastmilk is TOXIC to them! Soy is the only viable option.

It fills my heart with Sadness to know that E's babies will have to be tested immediately after birth - to make sure that they don't have the full fledged disease that would permit something so NORMAL to KILL them. It fills my heart with sadness to know that if she wants to breastfeed - she can't do so immediately after birth - that she will have to wait almost 2 weeks and be a slave to the damn pump - but at least today she has that option, and she will know what she faces. It also fills my heart with sadness (to the point that I have thus far ignored it...) that she may not be able to have her own babies... though I think that was ruled out when we found out she is JUST a CARRIER!

Bottle feeding doesn't feel NORMAL to me! But this is why I do what I do!

FWIW, Galactosemia is very similar (yet very different) to Lactose Intolerance - only more severe - in that it can and OFTEN does kill - because the body is unable to process the Galactose in the foods, it builds in the body until it reaches toxic levels. If you want to learn a little more on Galactosemia visit http://www.galactosemia.org/

Crafting Yumminess

2010-01-06T23:17:00.007-05:00

So apparently someone spiked my New Year's punch with "stitch itch" - because that is all I've done for the last 6 nights.

For Christmas dh got me a new Ipod Touch - and of course I had to drag out the machine to make a cozy for it. I'm not happy with my first edition so it will be back on the crafting block in a bit, when I come up with remedies for my problems with it... it also needs an add on for my cell phone since my itouch isn't a phone! :)

So I started the year off with a little Art Roll for a friend. She hasn't gotten it yet, but she will! Soon! This case was initially inspired by the Artist's Paintbrush Roll. Along with the various knitting needle cases that can be found all over the internet. Let me tell you this was a dog to finish just because I lost the button a bunch of times, and thank goodness for small mercies I had just ENOUGH (like barely enough) black thread to finish it... I had to steal from the bobbin to finish it.

So the New Year here has dawn across the country with an incredible cold snap. Unseasonably cold and yucky for some of us. So my kids demanded I make them a Snuggie. You know the lady in the blue blanket with sleeves that can be seen on the TV! So we ventured out to the fabric store where they picked their fabric. And back home again to create these. The pattern we sort of used can be found here. With Some modifications the girls are quite happy with their new blankets! :)

So that put me at 3 for 3! Because both Snugglies are slightly different - one followed the pattern but needed a little tailoring and the other we pretty much reinvented it - with our own modifications!

So a few days later I decided that my Swiffer needed a cozy (or 6.) and within an hour I managed to cobble together 6 new floor cleaners so I don't have to buy and trash a bunch anymore! :) Idea can be found here.

And tonight's little bit of yumminess came from 2 dish cloths. We are in desperate need of library book bags as we keep getting books from the library and they clutter up my counter space or get lost in the house until its time to return to the library. I figure if we have a designated storage place for the library books we'll have it made. This one is my library bag and it came from this tutorial. Now my eldest kid is planning to make one of her own, only she isn't using dishtowels. Its all set up all she has to do is sew!

So far it totaly I'm 6 for 6 crafts this year... that means almost one a day for the entire year so far! :)

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T22:33:00.003-05:00

2009 Is fast drawing to a close. This has been a busy hectic year for our family with a new surprise bundle, but I'm finding ways to keep on crafting and hoping that the coming year will yield more time for me to blog too!

This year has been about experimentation and playing with different crafts, and I think I've found a new balance in my home life, homeschooling life and crafting life. I'm finding time to read, and finding that taking timeout for me is actually better than getting all wound up with things.

So anyway just a brief note to wish everyone who reads here a Happy New Year and may 2010, bless your family, a bring you much happiness!

Feelin' Crafty - Car Seat cover

2009-08-15T16:50:00.004-04:00

From ET came home, we've been tossing a blanket over the carseat and just going. Well everytime we went outside - its been windy - it would blow off and I'd spend half my time picking it up off the ground. So I had seen this Summertime Carseat Cover a while ago and decided to make one. Here is mine.

The instructions were great. I got lazy at the end and just tied my ribbon on... nut enamoured with buttons! LOL! I'm thinking of centering a piece of Tulle netting on the underside, so that I can lift the cover up and still have her mildly protected from the bugs But it hasn't gotten passed the "Thinking" stage yet.

Galactosemia, a Crapshoot in the Dark...

2009-08-13T23:54:00.002-04:00

So shortly after little ET was born, the metabolic screen came back indicating that she has Galactosemia. The NICU doc wasn't worried said she had no symptoms and it was probably a false positive. The next day ET threw up the entire formula feed, but had been okay with the breastmilk feeds. So I took the opportunity to tell them that I and older dd M were definitely dairy intolerant. So they switched her to Enfamil's Lacto-free formula. I think she was getting so little formula at the time that it didn't matter. I stayed the required night for "rooming in" to get her released. Turned out she was a gassy baby - but she did well with the feeds.

We were home a couple days and went in for a weight check - told the ped about the Galactosemia results, and the in-hospital lab results which supposedly came back mostly normal - but that they had sent off more blood for more labs to be drawn.

A week after we were home the 2nd results came in and confirmed that she had a mild variant of Galactosemia - not the Classic form. With those results in, I stopped pumping and she went total on formula because Human breastmilk has as much if not more galactose in it than cow's milk. So we stuck on the Lacto-free until we discovered we'd have to drive 10 miles to get more and that the company was discontinuing that product. So we tried the Similac Sensitive AR. Well doesn't she start projectile vomiting on of all days a Friday afternoon about 10 minutes after dh leaves me with the kids for the afternoon.

Panicked I called the Ped - told them what was going on, and that I had researched and found out that neither Lacto-free - nor the Sensitive AR were recommended for kids galactosemia - charming! So I switched her to soy. The spitting up stopped pretty quickly. But then the constipation started up pretty quick too - and extra gas too. So with the constipation and the gas, the ped suggested and I agreed gas drops. A few days later she developed a nasty looking heat rash. When the heat rash didn't disappear after a day or 2, I suspected the soy. So I researched again and found that Nutramigen was the next step for formula if there were issues with soy.

Well guess what ... the gas drops have galactose in them... the nutramigen and Alimentum have galactose in them. I can't win. I've been wondering why she's been spewing again... well I got my answer tonight in the form of the above. Charming.

I'm at my wits end here. The Ped has no clue on the galactosemia thing, but then its so rare. And we're still waiting on further genetic testing to find out what she really has and how she can be treated... I assume from there we'd be sent to a nutritionist.

I fee like I'm doing all the wrong things here, its crazy.

Cupcake Hat

2009-06-20T20:50:00.000-04:00

We continue to grow in a box in the NICU.

Unexpectedly Early - 31 weeks

2009-06-19T09:38:00.004-04:00

On June 4^th, I went to the doctor for my regular monthly appointment. I was 31 weeks that day. When I got to the doctor , the nurse took my bp it was some inordinate number that she refused to take it any further. She ran to check my urine. I was spilling 3+ proteins. I told her my blood pressure machine wasn’t working right and wouldn’t read my bp so I didn’t really know what it was. As soon as the Dr. arrived she told him, what she had found and what I said. I had been partially deaf for almost 7 weeks at that point. So it was hard to hear what was said beyond him shaking his head and saying, “That’s scary!”

He took in the first patient. And a few minutes later came out and took me to the Blood Pressure cuff. My bp was 180/120. He took me into the office and we chatted, he told me he that it was possible that I was going toxemic, and he wanted me to head to the hospital so they could bring my bp down and hopefully buy me and the baby some time. I begged and pleaded that he put me on BP meds and let me go home and I’d adhere to strict bed rest or whatever they wanted. He refused saying that with a BP like that I was a ‘Walking Stroke’ waiting to happen or worse yet I was risking seizure.

So I jumped in the car and headed for home. I had nothing with me, and no clue how to get to the hospital. When I was most of the way home, I finally reached dh(who’d been on a conference call.) I told him what was happening and that he needed to get the girls ready ASAP – that we needed to head to the hospital. I grabbed a bag of coloring books and papers for them, and a bag of stuff for a 3-day stay at the hospital for me (just in case!)

We arrived at the hospital around 1:30. And had to wait about 30 minutes for a room. They put me in L&D Room 1. Called the Dr and he had them start the protocol of blood work, and some BP lowering meds (Labetalol and if I didn’t respond quickly Hydralazine.) They also requested a Biophysical of the baby – which is just a high level u/s measuring the fluids, baby’s heart and other aspects of the baby to make sure that my BP wasn’t affecting him/her at that point. After 1 oral dose of the Labetalol and 2 doses of the hydralazine, my bp was still quite high, so they started Magnesium Sulphate and IV fluids. Within an hour I was swelling pretty bad.

At sometime around 7:30, some older doctor, I want to say Dr. Jacobsen came in and gave me his version of the low down on what was happening. His bedside manner left a lot to be desired. The man had not one good word to say. He gave me every possible bad scenario, while not once looking me in the face. He told me the baby would probably not survive etc, etc. I was a mess and the L&D nurse was LIVID. He left and the nurse calmed me down and had a Dr. from Neonatology come down and speak to me. The nurse filled her in on the u/s results and while the doctor was talking with me, the nurse got lung maturity steroid started – a sharp stick in the thigh. It was around 8:30 at that point. And I was pretty scared.

Once everything was started, they gave me an Ambien (sleeping aid) and I was out cold. My OB apparently arrived around 9:30 saw me and determined that I was definitely Severely Pre-Eclamptic. He came back around 11 and we chatted a few minutes. Where he told me they would buy me 48 hours so the steroid injections would take full effect.

Friday passed. I don’t remember anything eventful except the steroid injection where I felt the muscles in my other leg separate as the nurse injected in full throttle. I swear she was sadistic and simple. I also argued with this nurse who refused to let me use the bathroom.

Saturday passed in a delirium… Dh called and said he and the girls were on their way down. I remember being extremely jealous that they were sitting on a patio having lunch when he called. Sometime around 2:30 dh and the girls showed up. I couldn’t see them straight, one eye kept wandering off. They went home had dinner, and around 8:30 the nurse informed me that I needed to stop eating that the doc would be inducing that night and likely as soon as he got there. So I called dh and asked him to come and also to call my doula.

Dh arrived with the girls. Our initial plans fell through. His mum wasn’t due to come until August. Our backup plans (both sets) for them fell through too. We couldn’t reach either party to leave them with so he had the girls pack a little suitcase with their blankets and some jammies. I didn’t expect they’d be allowed to stay in the room, but the nurses and the doctor never said a word. They were fast asleep on the couch by the time the doctor arrived.

Induction began at 11 pm. He inserted a Foley bulb catheter, to open my cervix. My doula had said he’d wait a bit and get started on the Pitocin, but he started that right away. For some reason this caused me some distress. Meaning I felt he was worried enough that things had to progress and quickly. I had a panic attack and couldn’t breathe. I was scared out of my mind to say the least. I looked into the faces of my sleeping daughters, and my poor hubby lying on the floor trying to catch 40 winks, and this calm quiet voice in my head said “You need to be there for them when this is all over. The baby will be fine no matter what, but you are the key.” Crying, shaking, I woke dh and told him we needed to end this now. I couldn’t go through with the induction – something in my head was telling me it wasn’t a good idea, nor was it safe. Not to mention that I hadn't slept since the Ambien on Thursday night - and my body was now just starting to shut down from exhaustion. (I had no idea that there was a standing order in my chart for it, and no one had offered.)

The doctor seemed pretty short. But I imagine that a lot of that was that I seemed pretty wishy-washy in my request. I hadn’t really slept in 2 days, and with the mag sulphate I was pretty delirious and I was very scared. After the paperwork was all signed, they removed the cath, and wheeled me down to the OR, where I sat on the table shaking like a leaf for what seemed like an hour. They brought in blankets and I kept telling them I wasn’t cold, I was hot actually – I just couldn’t stop shaking. They did a spinal, and had me lay down. Where I promptly fell asleep until I heard them say quietly “It’s a girl.” And then she cried.

4 girls can you believe it?

The nurse that took me from the L&D room, came over and told me it was a girl, she was breathing on her own, and didn’t even need the blow by O2 at the time. She was pink and feisty for one so little. She was 3lbs 9oz. 16 inches long. There seemed to be some dispute as to when she really arrived but with a few hours they settled on 4:22 am.

I slept some more until they finished closing up and the doctor asked how much fluid was lost. He was told 5 liters total fluid and tissue. They took me to the recovery, where I slept for a while too. Eventually the nurse had dh come in and chat with me for a few minutes, and then they brought in my oldest daughter (as the youngest was still sleeping.) When they both left the recovery room the nurse who had me and I ended up chatting as we were both from Canada. I spent about 2 hours in recovery, and then they took me back to L&D for the day. Dh got the girls up around 8 and took them home to sleep some. I slept a little more and then phoned a few people about Erin’s arrival.

*************************************

My only complaint about the whole childbirth process. Postpartum care in the two hospitals that I have been in sucked. This time – while on seizure watch, I was left alone for more than 12 hours. Hell my children could call 911 and have the paramedics respond and have me at the hospital before the nurses would have found me – if that happened. I felt safer all three times times at home than in the not so tender mercies of Postpartum care.

I don’t understand the disparity between postpartum and L&D nurses. The L&D nurses are almost all cheerful and very good at what they do. Maybe the expectant parents excitement plays a role there, maybe they are just differently qualified. All except maybe 3 of the postpartum nurses I’ve ever met frown and treat you like just another body.

I Quit, I Think - little homeschool article

2009-05-12T22:23:00.001-04:00

A friend found this article that intrigued me. So I thought I'd share...

http://educationrevolution.stores.yahoo.net/iquit.html

It kind of echo's the sentiments of why many homeschool!

These are Darling

2009-05-09T13:45:00.002-04:00

These are just darling.... I think I'll have to try this!Click the photo to go to the VeganYumYum.com Blog... there is a tutorial at the bottom of the page on making these... I truly think I need to try this! :)

Its ingenius! hmmmmmm.

Now to find out where to get Marzipan! :)

Little Boxy Pouch.... first attempt!

2009-04-29T23:29:00.003-04:00

So M has a ballet recital coming up quickly and as a result we've had to purchase makeup. Well she needed a place to store it.

So I found this awesome little Tutorial for the Little Boxy Pouch.

I used a flimsy material but figured it would be good for a first try - and it was from stash so it cost me nothing and I got rid of some fabric scraps! LOL! I think I might need to rework it and make it Longer!

UFO - Finished the Coronet

2009-04-15T16:46:00.005-04:00

It only took about 2 yrs.... but its finally finished. I love the pattern, and I really really love this particular yarn. Didn't think about it clashing with her hair, but it is lovely and soft, and she likes it so who am I to argue??

UFO Diving

2009-04-12T10:42:00.004-04:00

As mentioned before this month is dedicated to clearing up the UFOs.

I've come to the realization that UFOs are robbers of time, space, money and sanity! Unfinished projects mean money committed to something that I couldn't be bothered to finish the first time around - so I have a ton of money sitting in my closets keeping my clothes company - not the ideal place to store money, eh??!! My logic says this could be gifts, or simply stuff that could be put to use ... and if I won't use it then maybe I could put it out the pasture, recycle the project and save money on the yarn for something I might actually appreciate more!

So here we go on a treasure hunt.... buried treasure... just like a pirate, me-thinks! Don the obligatory pirate hook, patch and pirate hat we're going in matey's.

Closet Diving UFO Mission#1, turned up a Curly Purly Soaker started back when S was about 1 - she's now 3 and potty trained ... I'll need to judge it and decide if I'm going to frog it and start it again, or if I'll keep going and store it for when "Probie" is big enough to wear it!

Knitting Basket Diving UFO Mission #2, turned up a Coronet that I started for M a couple years ago when she complained that her winter hats itched her head too (big head lollipop kid! LOL!) I have most of the band done, and just need to get it to the right size so I can begin the top... this should be pretty quick, once I figure out where I'm at in the pattern! :)

New Project #3, I committed to making a blanket for an online friend who is due a month after I am. I just found out she's having a little boy... so my crochet project for the month is for her. Its pretty simple obviously, but I like it that way and it fits my purpose!

I figure 2 UFOs and one new project should offer me enough variety to keep me going!

Another FO! Woohoo!

2009-04-07T23:10:00.001-04:00

Candi, if you're reading close your eyes! :)

This is the sweater I just finished making for my sis for Christmas 2008. I started July 10, 2008 and any avid Knitter will tell you half way through any project new things become so much more alluring! LOL!

Anyway it is done, I love it, and one day will make me one too! :)

UFOs are topping the List.

2009-04-05T22:56:00.003-04:00

Wow, in my ~~nesting~~ cleaning frenzy, I'm finding a ton of UFO's that need completing (knit, sew, crochet you name it!) .... so off I march on an alien expedition to finish them up! Look at the in Progress and the Recently Completed lists in the sidebar and all the UFOs will be marked as UFO.

This should be quite the adventure! LOL! I didn't realize I was such a bad finisher! LOL! Will post pictures as time permits. Posts will be labelled UFOs and also the title will have UFO in there somewhere!

Wish me luck!

CAM - Cesarean Awareness Month

2009-04-02T18:01:00.002-04:00

April is Cesarean Awareness Month.
The cesarean rate for the u.s. is 31.1% despite the world health organization's recommended rate is between 5 and 10%.

if you or anyone you know has had a c-section or is being threatened with one visit the ICAN website today to receive information on how to bring this number down.

My Latest Yarn Adventure

2009-03-15T10:11:00.004-04:00

M has showed me a few different homemade virtual pets on webkinzinsider. S has requested a Bubblegumasaurus, a virtual webkinz pet that came out in October 2008. She's been begging for a "Kate" for a while now, so I've been thinking about it and having trouble wrapping my head around how to do it! LOL! This is a completely unfinished pic of it so far. It still needs a tail, some legs, some spikes and fins, eyes etc. But this isn't bad for an off the top of the head creation, considering I haven't really gotten into making my own patterns for anything quite yet! LOL! And all I did was let my imagination and crochet hook lead me wherever we were going. The yarn used was a few odd balls of my 20+ yr old stash! LOL!

St. Patrick's Day is coming

2009-03-12T15:30:00.004-04:00

When M was tiny I got really into doing crafts with her but they were all over her head and I got frustrated, life then happened and I got out of the habit of doing this fun stuff with them.

Today I decided it was time to get back in the flow of things. Now both M and S are of an age that we can actually have fun with them. M is capable of doing it alone, where S needs more one on one help. Our adventures today lead us to make a Shamrock crown in preparation for the Big March 17th. Here is what we made!

Houston? ...We have progress

2009-03-09T15:16:00.008-04:00

Wikipedia says "Progress indicates generally forward moving"

Pictures speak 100 words (this what my bonus room looks like.)

A cleaning frenzy has overcome me. Needless to say we have tooooooooooooo much junk. Too many toys, too many computer parts, too many books, too much clothes, too much of everything. I feel the need to reclaim my house from clutter, from disorganization and chaos.

I want to live simply but can't part with the 30+ yrs of books that have accumulated, so I must find a way to organize those! I can part with the "fluff" books that I read - because I'm a "read once get rid of" kind of person - so will list a few on here:

And I've been making good on my new years resolution to buy only books that I will reference time and again! So the Library is the place for me!

My TO DO List

I will lighten the load of toys (both mine and the kids.)
I will hold on to my sewing machine,my knitting accoutrea and my implements of crochet.

Progress is:

Two small places of sanity in a very BIG mess!
3 bags of trash are now gone - not the usual kind of trash mind you, more like old computer manuals that dh never got around to tossing - things from computer parts bought in 1995 that have long since departed this house.
Clothes that were too well worn, bits of junk (happy meal toys etc.)
I have a box of clothes for donation - the next person to call can have them.

That is just some of the books and one of the new shelves. The gray boxes on top are yes, toys, toys and more toys... mostly stuffed critters in good condition. I will go through them and wittle them down to a smaller quantity. The table is our new homeschool work place. It will move when the computers come back upstairs, but for now it is a good place to be so I don't have to worry about clearing it away at the end of the day! I'm pleased, this is one days work and dh is off putting the other bookshelf together as I type.

Slowly I dig out from beneath! LOL! One step, one day at a time, one bag at a time.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2009-02-26T17:32:00.003-05:00

M has gone to watch a play tonight with a friend.
S wants to go on "a-aventure" her words. "We must go to the train to see the a'planes."

Me: But I don't know how to get to the trains.

S: "Oh, that's easy get in the car and drive for 6 minutes. Then we must go on the elevator and walk out of the elevator then go to the train... and you don't stop."

and you know you're on the right train when it stops and goes, stops and goes, stops and goes!

LOL!...
Daddy to S on a a-venture on Saturday while M and I hit the Thinking Day celebrations with her Brownie troop! They road the train to the airport.

*sigh* How can I ever measure up! (LOL!)

Adventures with Fevers and Seizures.

2009-02-20T21:42:00.003-05:00

Well we had quite the adventurous morning, that I'd prefer not to ever repeat.

A couple weeks ago S came down with this bizarre fever... 3 day high fever starting at 100.9 reaching as high 103.5 at its worst points. After that it was gone, no cold, no ear infection, no nothing.

Well M turned up with this yesterday. Missed Brownies, so I went alone. Came home to find that her fever had risen to 102 inspite of the tylenol I had given before dinner. I gave her more tylenol, checked her an hour later (usually takes 20 minutes for it to work on me) And the temp was up to 103. Checked again in 30 minutes and it was down some. At 4 am... I checked her again and it was way way up, so I gave her more tylenol and then heard her up around 8:30. Checked her and the fever was gone... thought... phew.

Came downstairs, started the usual routine, quick email check, breakfast, and then get ready.... well checked my email then hurd a loud thump behind me. Looked down and there was M flopped on top of Bertram (her stuffed bullfrog) twitching, seizure like spasms. Yelled her name a couple times... asked her was she foolin' around? Told her she was scaring me.... It lasted about 10-30 seconds - ya know how the brain slows everything down at those crisis moments...

When she got up it was clear she had no clue what I was talking about.... her face was white as a sheet, even her lips were white. I panicked called dh - knowing he was enroute to work (no cell.)

IM'd a friend who I knew might know what I saw... and she told me to call the ped. Called the ped, tried not to melt into a blubbering mess... held it partially together, then was in the ped's office 10 minutes later. Two unwashed but dressed kids, snacks in hand and me eating a hamburger bun... it was all I could find! *sad and pathetic.*

OY! Bloodwork, swabs later, all came back clear and it is a viral Fever that is going around.

So lets not repeat this adventure kay?!

Cleaning, Cleaning, Cleaning.... Oh MY!

2009-02-19T16:30:00.003-05:00

If a girl was never pregnant would there ever be a reason to clean?
What is the fascination for cleaning while pregnant? I mean sheesh, MIL won't be here for a month, and already the guest room is set up for her, and I'm in full tilt, OMG the house is in CHAOS, cleaning mode. I've got two full garbage bags of stuff, one from my room and S's room (and mine ain't done yet) and one from just the downstairs on regular cleaning - I haven't even gotten into the declutter phase of things - but I can feel it coming.

I was at a friends house yesterday morning and I swear she suffered a little OCD. (LOL!) She has 2 kids, and her house is spotless, and apparently remains that way because the kids seemed to think it was normal. Where mine move from room to room finding a new clean spot to play - and forgetting the mess they left in the last location! *sigh*

They have too many toys... and sadly I have no clue what to do with it all. I can't throw it out, the little one might need it. I'd just settle for one room not looking like a nuclear detonation went off for five minutes. *sigh*

Some day I'll hire an organizer... and have them help me declutter my house from top to bottom! A girl will dream. In the mean time I'll just use the excuse and keep on "nesting"

Going Green

2009-02-17T22:02:00.002-05:00

Actually I'm tired of wasting money on my mop's wet cloths and the smell of the darn things is making me queasy these days. So I figured I could make my own re-usable cloths (to reduce and reuse!) and my own environmentally friendly floor cleaner... and I'd be set and a little green at the same time!

Using patterns from here

And recipes from here

I figure I'm off to green start! :) with my 2 cloths!

History Repeats Itself Too Much

2009-02-14T10:52:00.002-05:00

Without elaborating very far. If the past is any indication of the future... I predict my charming hubby will be in a new job in a few months.

Silence is Golden unless you're awaiting updates!

2009-02-11T23:38:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the long silence. The blog has taken a back seat these days as I find interests outside the computer. My interests have taken the form of taking the girls to the park, knitting my little fingers off, or crocheting. So without further adieu, here are some of my recent projects!

M asked me to make her an outfit like the one Kit Kitteridge wore in the Kit movie that was out this passed summer. So here is my first attempt. It turned out a little short in the waist, and ya I could take it out and extend it but S will grow into it faster and I'll just make the next one longer, (and make sure the buttons are in the right place! LOL!)

She likes it, and the hat I made to go with it! Now she is begging for a knit T-shirt and a sewn skirt to go with them.

In the process of making the sweater, because a knitter can never have a single project on the go at any given time, S asked me to make her a blanket just like one I had made for her sis a few years ago. She chose the colors (sort of) herself and as it was going together she kept asking is it done yet, is it done yet? When I wove the last string in and hand her the prize blankie she was ecstatic! A few days later, she announced that its name is Daisy! And she has slept with it every night since. Funny that M doesn't find her blanket soft, yet S totally loves hers! Funny how different the kids are!

I've been taking little side adventures off the beaten track too! No matter how you slice it, making baby items is almost always fun! They're fast, and give you that gentle little push of OMG - I'm done so quick. Plus for me, baby items are done in a different quality of and type of yarn, that I think I'm becoming a fiber-phile!! LOL!
So here on the left is a newborn soaker, and off to the right there is a newborn hat.

Stay tuned for more from the needles, and the hook, and quite possibly the sewing machine as I'm incrafting high gear.... and expect it to last just a little longer before it packs its bags and I can pick up a book again! LOL!

Marvelous... Peanut Butter Recall

2009-01-17T23:32:00.003-05:00

M is allergic to something associated with Peanuts. So we tend not to have it in the house. In the last 7 yrs I think I've had a bottle of Peanut butter in the house twice.

But a couple weeks ago I had a hankering for PBJ sandwiches. I miss them! So I have a jar, that I have used twice and not knowing where it is from... the FDA is suggesting I voluntarily throw it out! It's not fair!

And for you folks that like chocolates like Reese's peanut butter cups, or peanut butter and crackers .... they aren't exempt from this discussion either!

For more info...
http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/salmonellatyph.html

Cold, Cars (or cash?), and Cons!

2009-01-15T22:23:00.006-05:00

What January Brings....
In one of dh's childhood books there is a poem that the first line goes something like this.....

"January brings the snow,
makes our feet and fingers glow."

So far this January I haven't had much to complain about. New Year's day the kids and I were at the park and while a bit nippy for here, it wasn't what it could have been. We've had days where we've been out with light spring jackets on (like Tuesday this week.) Where most year's we've been bundled up. So far tonight and tomorrow will be our coldest yet this winter... with our lows being 14F and 13F, and our highs being barely 30F. For my Northern relatives, that's a walk in the park -- they'd think a mere night time temp of -10C and a daytime temp of -1C is downright balmy for this time of the year. But houses are built to stand the cold up there, where here and especially in this house insulation is a joke - I mean I can feel a blast of air coming through the electric outlets let alone the OMG the pipes might freeze warnings. In my next life I'll be a carpenter and strip my houses to the beams and fill with luscious insulation no matter where I happen to live! LOL!

So it must truly be January, old man winter has his siphon in my pocket draining our bank book yet again! Last year we started the new year off with a beautiful flat tire that fell right off the rim. This year we started off with 2 dead garage doors, 1 dead car battery, a new set of front tires on 2 different cars... and a set of rear breaks and rotors on one of those cars and it's only the 15th. I can't wait to see what the rest of the month brings! *sigh* I need a new door on my car - well the inner parts anyway - as the molding has fallen off one of the rear doors making it impossible to open without sheer brute force.... and there are other expenses coming, I just feel it.

So after M got her American Girl - Mia doll, with her Christmas money yesterday, dh blowing a whole lotta dough on the car today.... we were picking daddy up to get the car from the shop this aft and M reminds daddy that there is a Leaf's game tomorrow at Phillips Arena....
"Oh please daddy can we go??"

To which daddy huffs and says.... "No, I'm sorry we can't.... I'm just about to spend a bunch of money on the car sweetie."

Which is greeted with a flurry of tears from the backseat.

So I asked how much the tickets were ... just because she's had her heart set on seeing this game since Dec 26th when she went to her first Thrashers game. To which he replied the tickets were $40 - ish a piece.... I asked if there were cheaper ones and he said he thought so but would have to look and also check if they were available..

Sure enough when we got home.... he and M were at his computer finding the nosebleed seats for $10 a piece. Hey its a live game, she's 7 and all she cares about is being there and having a night out with daddy! We aim to please.... its a cheap date.... now if I could get the same deal and leave the kids home for just one night I'd be in heaven! LOL!

So all in all, the cars are fixed (for now) the garage is fixed (sort of) and the big kid is happy!

My Apples are In Season..... YAY!

2009-01-15T15:15:00.003-05:00

Each year since I got pregnant with M, I have waited and waited for my apples to come into season..... they are finally in season and taste just as good as I remember them!

They are supposedly available from October to the early part of the year, and while buying products from the country that I live in is important, I think I'll pass that opportunity for the good taste of these Australian Pink Lady's.

They are just so red and crisp... and divine! :)

Been Busy.

2009-01-01T23:12:00.002-05:00

You'll notice that my Recently completed projects have been humming along. LOL!

Well oldest is thrilled with me. Without telling her about 30 minutes before we went to the park, I started work on a Kit Kitteridge Cloche hat for her....
Finished it around 9:30 pm.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T10:31:00.002-05:00

Happy Happy New Year to all my favourite readers - whether you comment or not. May 2009 be a prosperous year for all of you and may the year bring luck and health to all your families and friends. From our house to yours Good Health and Good Cheer.

So, 2009 is finally here. 2008 has been a busy and learning year. I joined a book reading board in July 2008 and attempted to read 100 books by Dec 31, 2008. I only made it to 19, but I didn't join til July. There were more books than just what is listed on this list.... so its really not a fair or accurate description of what we/I have read! LOL! Anyway without further adieu, here is the list of my books for 2008. I'm going to aim for 100 in 2009. So if you have suggestions, I'm all ears. I have 2 on the go at the moment.... Physik by Angie Sage, and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

(#19) Flyte, Angie Sage (12/08)
(#18) The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman (10/08)
(#17) Magyk, Angie Sage (10/08)
(#16) The Mark of the Crown, Jude Watson (9/08)
(#15) The Hidden Past, Jude Watson (9/08)
(#14) Dark Rival, Jude Watson (9/08)
(#13) Rising Force, Dave Wolverton (9/08)
(#12) The Trail of the Jedi, Jude Watson (8/08)
(#11) The Way of the Apprentice by Jude Watson (8/08)
(#10) Lindsey, Chryssa Atkinson (8/08)
(#9) Meet Felicity, Valerie Tripp (8/08)
(#8) The Trojan Horse, by Emily Little (8/08)
(#7) The Alchemist, Paul Coelho (8/08)
(#6) Meet Kaya, Janet Shaw (7/08)
(#5) Samantha's Surprise, Susan S. Adler (7/08)
(#4) Happy Birthday Samantha, Valerie Tripp (7/08)
(#3) Meet Samantha (1904), Susan S. Alder (7/08)
(#2) Meet Kit (1934), Valerie Tripp (7/08)
(#1) Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (7/08)
Quilter's Legacy by Jennifer Chiaverini (6/08)
Runaway Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini (6/08)
Wicked by Gregory Maguire (5/08)
Miseducation: Preschoolers at Risk by David Elkind (4/08)
Cross Country Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini (3/08)
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (2/08)

I've set my mind to focusing more on my crafting activities and recording them too! This year as always will prove to have its challenges... but I'm looking forward to a fun and exciting year and hoping to get more fun activities done with my girls. We started one last night and we'll post the results on the Homeschool blog when it is done! So keep your eyes peeled for it! :)

I hope to post a little more often than I have been lately. I think the winding down of the Old Year leading into winter, then Christmas, then new Years and more winter always drag me down a little and I lose focus on my goals and ideas a little. But I'll be seeking suggestions and advice and sharing the things I've found over the coming year and hopefully having fun too! :)

Anyway.... before this gets too long (since there are no pretty pictures.... Happy New Year! :)

Kitchen Experiments.

2008-12-26T17:09:00.002-05:00

Well one of the things we're venturing into at the moment is experiments in cooking.

We are just finishing cooking our tradition Turkey Paella (from BHG from the late 60's early 70's) which we will eat tonight. Tomorrow dh and his father are eating Sveetskova (sp?) which is a marinated beef dish (since it is beef I can't eat it I won't be eating it!) So this will be an experiment. I guess I'll have to hunt down my own meal! LOL!

For the first time I'm boiling the bones of our Turkey to make a broth which I hope to make into several different soups! Figure it will be fun!

For Christmas dinner I made a homemade from scratch stuffing which dh and FIL seemed to enjoy. I didn't like it just because it was too soggy for my taste and it certainly wasn't very pretty but who cares as long as it was tasty!

Dessert was supposed to be Apple dumplings... but they were too soggy to be recognizable.

Oh well. Life goes on! And I'll have to try some of those home-mades again and see what happens.

Belated Seasons Greetings

2008-12-26T16:56:00.002-05:00

Belated Seasons Greetings from our house to yours!

Its been a busy couple weeks at our house so I haven't had much time to post.
The girls seemed to have had a great Christmas. As always Santa and the family spoiled them.

We did a traditional (almost) Czech Christmas Eve dinner, and the traditional Anglo Turkey dinner ... though the Turkey is the only real tradition at our house as dh and I invent our own sides and fixings. Our Turkey flopped badly this year and dh's carving didn't do it any assistance. Dessert was even more dreadful. All around the whole Turkey thing just put me right off.

Couple by the fact that little is potty learning at the moment - wet her bed once and mine twice Christmas Eve. So the day just got off to a not so wonderful start. But life goes on. The girls had a good day and that's all that matters.

A Hybrid!

2008-12-12T12:04:00.006-05:00

I'm branching out! LOL!

In trying to come up with a craft or something that M could make for her secret pal at Brownies, I came surfed the digi sites and found this hybrid composition book covers. So to test out how easy or hard it would be to do this, I made one myself.

The experiment was somewhat of a success. I love it! This one is super simple, but I decided to try my hand at sewing cardstock, Which M could probably do too, if she wants. OMG, I love the effect! LOL!

Anyway - the plan is to have her design on paper what she wants - and then help her plan it in the Photo Editor and then cut it out and put it together. This along with a little 'food' gift, will be her gift to her secret pal!

(credits: Eva Kipler and Amanda Rockwell Lola Freebie Bonus -- Also I followed instructions here - sort of!)

Funky Weird Picture

2008-11-27T21:51:00.003-05:00

This is a neat picture. I'm not sure what happened or how it happened because the image is totally untouched... how is she a ghost and crystal clear at the same time?

I just thought it was neat

I finally Got Around to it!

2008-11-16T17:09:00.002-05:00

I always say I'll do stuff when I get around to It. Well guess what... I finally got one! :)

credits: Dinner Party by Shabby Princess and Sara Carling

I was just messing around between loads of laundry!

Hark, What's this?? Another Request

2008-11-16T12:23:00.003-05:00

I'm trying not to die of "wonder shock and amazement!"

Dh has asked me to make yet another item on my trusty sewing machine! (hee hee!) Feeding into my handmade frenzy! I love it! (hey its not knit, and I think secretly - he shares the same issues with knit things that M does! *sigh*)

We asked MIL what she wanted for Christmas and trying not to be a bother, she said oh just something cheap from the $1 store. Bwahhahh haa, like I've ever bought her something from the $1 store as a gift. LOL! Not that it's beneath me - we love the $1 store, but more because I hadn't quite thought of it! LOL!

I'm dragging him kicking and screaming to the fabric store, to choose the fabric (with input from M and I, of course.) To put together a nice little something to go with the nice little something else that I have already made.

Do you think he is humouring me or do you think he has finally found something that he thinks could be useful!?

Just Unloading my Brain

2008-11-15T18:09:00.007-05:00

In my little corner of the world it is supposed to freeze tonight, the season rolls nearer.

Sadly we are sleeping in our guestroom. While getting the girls ready to go out yesterday (fri) afternoon M pulled the curtains closed and down came the rail, the board and the curtains.... fun fun. It narrowly missed her (thank goodness) but we were all kinda surprised!

But its not a bad thing really. The guest room is so clean and tidy and minimalist (and the fan works - woohoo!), where our room is cluttered, dusty and ..... oh alright.... a pigsty. When guests (or visitors) come I load boxes and take them to our room, and sort through 1/4 of them and then never get back to it. Mostly it is papers, some of it is books, probably some yarn, and kids toys (squirreled away maybe I can unload them! hee!) - just the general day to day clutter that I never get around to. (mental note need to make a new "round-to-it")

So in honor of our time away from our room, I've hired myself as the maid and am setting up 30 minute blocks (when S doesn't steal the timer) to sort, tidy, dust, vacuum, declutter and in honor of my mum - rearrange. I expect to be back by Monday in a clean and spotless, cozy room, and it will probably stay like that for .... oh about a week! :(

In the 30 minutes in between each adventure, I'm taking computer time, and sewing up a storm on my other little corner of the world or knitting so I'm not idle. Poor dh almost had a fit when I spent $56 at the Joann's this afternoon (on just fabric and thread!) hee hee, not to mention when he walked into our bedroom last night to see what I was up to! Its just not been a good weekend for him so far.... save and except that he loves the mattress in the guest room.... and has no qualms about sleeping on it.

So anyway that is what I'm up to...

Holly - Jolly - OMG - NOT!

2008-11-13T17:22:00.005-05:00

Thanksgiving rapidly approaches - we don't do anything special as the rest of the family celebrates in October (Canadian Thanksgiving) so its just us and dh hates turkey so unless we go somewhere we hang out quietly at home tripping over each others feet! LOL!

But along with Thanksgiving comes Christmas and suddenly I feel like I've been caught with my proverbial crafty pants down! There was so much more that I wanted to get done and yet suddenly I'm feeling very lacking in the gifts I have. A single item that I made yesterday cost $20+ and yet it is only one single simple item (might cost $10-15 in the store) .... which puts me over budget for the gift swap that we are doing. A 2nd item cost only about $13, but much more work went into it and I know that I would have spent more than $40 purchasing it in the store (shh its still not done but I have a week.) Am I undermining my creativity in favour of store purchased items? Why do I feel so cheap? I mean these items aren't the only things I'm giving but why do I feel the need to bulk things up?? Its not like I haven't just spent my entire year making this stuff. *Sigh*

And then I have to start on my shopping for the girls.... *sigh* and they wonder why I'm a "hum-bug" kinda person.... I'm not really I just hate the hustle and bustle of last minute shopping! Which for me is November because I don't leave my house to visit with the crazed crowds of December! LOL!

So there you have it ...

Totally Ungirl-y Halloween

2008-10-31T23:34:00.005-04:00

My two girls are Girly Girls - they like pretty dresses, love ballet, and the littlest refuses to even contemplate the notions of jean.... so their costume choices came as somewhat of a shock...

Darth Maul (from Star Wars - Phantom Menace) and a Skeleton!

So dh in the theme of the oldest's choice in costume went with the Emperor from Star Wars. Here is the costume I sewed up in 18 hours.

Things I learned.....

9.25 yards of fabric is more fabric than I have ever seen in one sitting! LOL!
9.25 yards needs to be spread over two bolts because in stores a bolt is only 6.5 yards.
I won't ever work with a fabric thicker than the one I used for this costume! LOL!
I won't be making Grim Reaper / Emperor costumes for a living! LOL!
I enjoy sewing costumes
Its time I made a costume for myself.... :)

...And Back to Creating

2008-10-29T23:21:00.003-04:00

We just got back from a wonderful week at Disney (see HS blog) and I'm getting back in the groove. Hitting the crafting wagon again - and feeling the pressures of the upcoming season - have I mentioned that Halloween is my FAVOURITE time of year, and how much I'm not a Christmas person!?

Something interesting happened today - a strange feeling but I'm not sure how to put it into words.... maybe it was the crafting buzz hitting me hard - or maybe it was something else - I don't know... but there is a buzz (for lack of better description!) in the air about me.

... 3 weeks ago - Dh requested I sew something for him! WOOHOO! Just a Halloween costume but still it's something for him! LOL! Considering he never wore the sweater I made for him when we were dating (it was technically too small - because suddenly my tension changed!) I'm feeling adventurous and hoping it works out! I'd have to say its the biggest project I've taken on! Cause Sass-Fox, frankly, I'm still chickening out on your request... though I have the pattern and 1/2 the fabric! LOL! But if this works, out I'll be on your request ASACIO (ha - as soon as Christmas is over!)

I'm not gonna share the project with y'all yet, but we did just joke that Heaven help me I hope it works out or he'd hold it against me (he said he wouldn't!) - but it'll be good practice for the girls wedding dresses (HA, highly unlikely said the brain - I think I might leave that one to the professionals - I have to learn to work the darn serger first - I'm still petrified of that! *GRIN*)

E-Mealz - recommendation

2008-10-15T22:04:00.003-04:00

Sorry - A Little Advertising here.

I suck at menu planning and have recently found a reasonably priced service that works for us.

We're using the Walmart Register - that has WW points on it and when I follow it, not only is it saving me money - its more than paying for itself.

I'd recommend it to anyone looking to take the stress out of planning decent meals for their family! I'm cooking again (a fair bit.)

Here is a link! (if you try it please use my name as a reference!)

Going Dental

2008-10-08T10:32:00.003-04:00

Oy! Something came over me and I'm not sure I like it!

I went and paid a bill on Monday, after M's recent dentist visit and suddenly felt a pang of guilt that I've been making M go to the dentist regularly every 6 months and she has beautiful clean teeth while I have dirt and grim on mine! I had 2 root canals 2 years ago (??) after a 10 year abstinence stand on dentistry! Let me tell ya as a dental fear patient, that normally would put me off for life but dang it, I think I've found a dentist office I'm comfortable with!

Chatting with the hygienist this morning I was tickled to find that she agreed with me in my plight to NEVER EVER send my children to a pediatric dentist. Having dealt with a pediatric dentist many years ago from age 3-8 - who subjected me to the torture of removing teeth without adequate freezing, and drilling and filling my teeth with the same inadequate freezing, or cleaning my teeth and yelling at me to open my mouth wider when it was open as far as it would go - apparently chair side manner wasn't his best class! Anyway for me to find comfort with a particular dentist is nothing short of a miracle and for me to actually work up the nerve to send my children to them is a miracle within a miracle! LOL!

So all in all a good visit.... 10 yrs no cleaning - 2 root canals (at the 8 yr mark) and 1 filling, I've been given a good bill of dental health (minus that cavity!) I attribute it to the new kids anticavity mouth washes on the market and that purple Listerine stuff. That cavity I have, was there 2 yrs ago when the root canal was done, but it was marginally smaller and I've been religious with the mouth wash!

So all in all a good start to the day even if it was just a trip to the dentist - all over by 10 am!

WOOHOO Go me!

meme: Trivial info!

2008-10-07T13:32:00.003-04:00

Tagged from Ignore Me Its Easier

1. What is your occupation right now?
Home Maker

2. What color are your socks right now?
Pink and white

3. What are you listening to right now?
M - playing with computerized bubble wrap and S singing the Death March from Star Wars.

4. What was the last thing that you ate?
Banana and Berry smoothie

5. Can you drive a stick
YUP!

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
Bank's Card services - and funny transactions department! :0

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Yup - she's pretty cool!

8. How old are you today?
36

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?
Baseball or hockey

10. What is your favorite drink?
Sweet Tea!

11. Have you ever dyed your hair?
just for my wedding and only streaked

12. Favorite food?
Mexican

13. What is the last movie you watched?
Princess Diaries

14. Favorite day of the year?
October 31 (HALLOWEEN ROCKS!)

15. How do you vent anger?
Yell, stomp around and then cry!

16. What was your favorite toy as a child?
My Baaa lamb

17. What is your favorite season?
Early Summer

18. Cherries or Blueberries?
Blueberries

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?
always

20. Who is the most likely to respond?
Gah! who knows!

21. Who is least likely to respond?
See above! :)

22. Living arrangements?
Wishing to move - someday!

23. When was the last time you cried?
Don't remember

24. What is on the floor of your closet?
hee hee... you don't want to know - everything

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to?
??

26. What did you do last night
read for a bit

27. What are you most afraid of
dying young

28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers?
Plain

29. Favorite dog breed?
Springer or Cocker spaniels and Retrievers

30. Favorite day of the week?
Thursdays (don't know why!)

31.How many states have you lived in?
1 state, 1 province!

32. Diamonds or pearls?
Emeralds (I'm with ya AmyD).

33. What is your favorite flower?
Forget me nots

Please consider yourself "tagged" and link back so I can read your answers!

Need Scrapbooking Advice

2008-10-05T13:23:00.002-04:00

So, I've renewed my interest in scrapbooking, but now its outside this box (the computer that is!) I want to dabble with traditional, and I think I could interest my 7 yr old in it too - while she plods through her school work, but have a few obstacles in my way that I need to wrap my head around.

I guess I'll start with the reasons I gave up traditional in the first place.

1. Lack of time. (Its amazing what happens when the kids grow a little!)

2. Glue - I think I hate gluing. now I know I'm still doing this wrong, but inevitably when you use glue - think school glue (yes I'm that clueless! LOL!) - the pages warp and loose their nice crispness, so I think I need different types of adhesives.... but what adhesives does a scrapper use and where do I find it?

If I want to glue one background to another what do I use for adequate coverage?
If I want to glue just a small thing to a page, what do I use for that?
If I want to raise something - for dimension - what do I use?

3. Cutting photos??? - OMG isn't that akin to sacrilege! I still can't get past the notion of cutting pictures, its almost as bad as writing in a book! LOL!

4. Being Cheap and lack of storage - I look at my friend's scrapbooking supplies and tools and think - gah with sewing, knitting and kids already in our space where would I find that space for this and still keep my house organize (not that it currently is - but shhhhh let me dream!)

5. Where to find supplies? I don't know, I think dh would have a heart attack if I went supplies shopping to scrapbook! LOL! I mean I walked out of Joann's the other day with $100 worth of stuff (fabric, scrapbook papers, a specific scrapbook.) Joann's, Michaels and Walmart aren't the best places to get supplies either..... but all the online places make me want to hide my wallet!

So I'm thimking hybrid. No storage, except for tools, but printer ink gets expensive!

*********************
All this because FIL gave us this cool gift a while ago and lord knows dh and I won't ever use it - but in this months' Scrapbooks etc magazine, they had a cool way idea, and of course one idea leads to another and now I need advice on how to traditional in order to use it!

I really should just stop picking up magazines on a whim!

So who wants to teach me tradition scrapbooking??! LOL!

I'm a good talker!

2008-09-30T23:48:00.000-04:00

Your Linguistic Profile:

40% General American English

25% Yankee

20% Dixie

5% Midwestern

5% Upper Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

A Snake!

2008-09-28T12:47:00.001-04:00

We try walk about 1-3 times in a weekend. Well in our typical weekend walk yesterday, in one of our local National Recreation Areas, dh was running ahead to catch up to little S, and M and I were walking enjoying the views. M was on my right, and out of the side of my eye I caught a glimpse of a long black stick...something in my strange brain triggered me to yank M to the left of me and I stepped weirdly to the left as well, in some strange fluid dance like motion! I paused and looked back and yelled "Hey did you see the dead snake?" To which dh and S came running back to look. Its body was all lumpy and bumpy which suggested to me it was newly dead.

M and I began to study it from a distance, using the things we had learned from other "Caged" snake encounters, and her Brownie Try it book. I looked for a rattle, and note-able danger markings, keeping far enough away from it ... M noted that it had a tiny "NON SPADE" like head which suggested it was non-venomous. We had no idea what kind of snake it was - it looked all black with no note-able markings. So I assumed it was a Black Rat Snake.

We stood looking at this funky looking snake that looked dead as its body had shriveled up and it was all lumpy - but again my brain said, 'wait a sec, its head is up... and there is no rock for it to rest on.... its not dead - its playing dead.' So I said that aloud and dh curiously agreed. We watched it for a sec, dh moved in for a closer look, camera in hand of course.... and we watched. Sure enough in a split second it flicked its tongue. Slowly the lumpy-bumpy -ness of the body smoothed out and it slowly slithered away into the underbrush of leaves and ground debris.

You can't really see in the above picture the details but we did get a close look at. Its body had large spots when it stretched out, a light underside. It was about 2-2.5 ft long, so it was still quite young. As M says a teen.

I discovered that it was likely a Black Rat Snake in its juvenile state as it still had the markings of a Gray Rat Snake.

It was an interesting life science lesson - that we hadn't even planned to have! LOL!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2008-09-27T20:50:00.002-04:00

Littlest said the other day in the car:

"Daddy you're not a person, you're just a man!"

Which would lead one to believe that men are not people! hee hee!

Another Year Old

2008-09-26T23:08:00.002-04:00

Another year older, though next year I'll be celebrating the 1st anniversary of my last birthday.

Dh and the girls took me out for my birthday dinner last night! We had Greek.
It was good. M suggested it, and since I was at a loss for ideas - it was a good suggestion.

We came home they gave me my cards - as always dh gave me his Sympathy Card! LOL!
M made a card for me with a Neopet's Scorchio on it. It was beautiful!

All it all it was a good birthday!

Toddler Ballet Bun!

2008-09-26T22:59:00.001-04:00

The little one doesn't really have enough hair for a bun, but she insisted.

The Ballet Bun

2008-09-24T23:49:00.004-04:00

Back about a month ago I posted about not knowing the first thing about Ballet or Ballet Buns! The photo to the right here was my first one and they have gotten better since, we've been doing them weekly!

Sadly our little ballet class has only 2 kids in. My dd and another. They're hoping for a bigger influx of kids in the Winter session, but so far its like private lessons and the other kid is moody and un-cooperative most of the time.

What bugs me is in spite of the notice that they must be dressed according to a certain style, and they must wear a bun, neither the teacher nor the other kid is dressed by the "required standards." So M says "Well I don't have to wear my hair up, no one else does and I could get a pretty leotard like the other kid's Leotards." (the other kid has many!) But I keep telling her that she looks fabulous and like a real dancer so she buys into it and runs with it.

Of course the little one has now gotten in on the bun thing too - and despite not having enough hair or time to do this stuff, we always make it on time and she is dressed for M's class too! LOL! Will post pics when I unload the camera again! LOL!

I am Japan

2008-09-23T20:15:00.001-04:00

You Are Japan

You enjoy being part of a group. Having a good reputation is important to you.

You get along well with others. You don't openly criticize or insult anyone.

You like to co-operate, and conformity is fairly important to you. You love your culture and country.

But when you're by yourself, you may have some very eccentric hobbies or interests!

What Country Are You?

Grumpy's Reading list.

2008-09-23T19:55:00.002-04:00

Who me on Jedi kick as M would say.... NAH! LOL!

Actually yes, I scored an Ebay set of ALL the Jedi Apprentice books (which introduce Obi-Wan as a 12 yr old before he became Qui Gon Jinn's apprentice.) After reading 2 of the Jedi Quest books (which star the young Anakin) I was hooked.... sold hook line and sinker and poor dh had no choice but to give in! LOL!

Hence the sudden need to save some pennies on the grocery list and menu planning! Grin (I'm kidding of course!) But must do something to save money so that I look like I'm earing my keep!

Ridiculous - Gas Shortage.

2008-09-23T17:42:00.003-04:00

Until now we've been relatively unaffected by the gas shortage. But now at 1/8 of a tank left, and a need to drive across town tomorrow for yet another class, I'm in a slow panic. I probably have enough to get there and back but what happens then?

I hate being confined to the house but if we have to we have to.

There are rumors out there that the gas shortages are nothing but a ploy on the part of politicians. I'm not sure what to think at this point.

Its rather amusing to me puny little mind that such things as the 1930's come to mind and the only thing I remember from grade 9 history class was the struggle buggies and great depressions. It kinda fits with the roaring 90's computer technology boom the subsequent stock market crash and now lay offs, mortgage crisis and other panics - and the gas shortages that come into play.

I'm not sure what my mind is driving at, as it runs on its own steam and tangents sometimes, but there is something in my mind (that I know.) And it keeps saying "This is Ridiculous!" But is it? Is it a political posturing manoeuvre? How could such political posturing really do the current government any good if it is hurting the economy more by making the people hurt more?

I remember my friend once talking about a book that suggested that the weather was controlled by the government... it sounded like a good book. Wouldn't it be a neat premise for yet another book, how the government kept the people down by stealing all the gas and making them think they were in crisis!? Hmmmmm

I'm rambling of course.... I'm just fed up with wondering when I'll get some gas... to the point that I want to buy a couple gas cans and store them in the garage in case we really do have a problem. I told the girls if it came down to it we'd siphon gas from daddy's little red car, using the frog's siphone tubes! LOL! The oldest was not impressed - "But mum won't that kill the frogs?" and "Oh mum that's disgusting - sucking gas from the tank... wouldn't it taste yucky!"

Menu Plans

2008-09-22T16:05:00.002-04:00

I suck at Menu planning! LOL! But I grocery shopped yesterday and so the plan is set, now i just have to stick with it.

Dinners
1 – Lemon Basil Pork Chops w/Baked Sweet Potatoes
2 – Club Sandwich w Carrots and Dressing
3 – Pecan Crusted Flounder & Corn
4 – Mummy’s Birthday Choice!
5 – Chicken Pot Pie & Jello
6 – Greek Chicken & Pasta
7 – Stuffed French Toast & Pears

Lunches
1 - out just too much running (joys of last minuting)
2 - salad and fruit, and meat and cheese (Afternoon snack necessary)
3 - pita bits, with veggies and hummus dip
4 - left overs
5 - dinner leftovers from birthday night
6 - Club Sandwich fixings
7 - every person for themselves! LOL! (leftovers!)

I signed up with a meal planning service.... for a month trial - because I suddenly feel the need to be more frugal, more financially responsible, and less driving around so I'm more environmentally friendly too - plus less food will go to waste (and the waist. hee hee!)

I figure its time to teach the girls a little more about healthy eating and healthy living so we're going to try and walk more, eat out for lunch less, and simply spend less. I say this often but this time it is important. I feel like pooo and I need to fix that.

I'm not posting this on MPM, just because it isn't my own menu. But its here.... more for me than anything and so dh can look up dinner on line.

A Little Help??

2008-09-20T00:24:00.004-04:00

If I were 7 yrs old. And I needed to do a small service project for Brownies. What should I do?

Something that will make the world a better place. (I might need to do 2 or 3 different things.)

Menu Plans

2008-09-16T10:47:00.003-04:00

So I'm finding I have neither the time nor the patience to do menu planning and grocery shopping but my family and my health need me to. Over the years I have frequented different menu planning websites and am slowly collecting a list! :)

I've used
http://savingdinner.com/
http://menus4moms.com/

and have now signed up (however temporary) with
http://e-mealz.com/index.shtml

I will let you know over the coming weeks what I think of it.

My Goals are to reduce our budget some as the economy slows, tighten the belt a little, cinch it tighter so we eat less! LOL! are the old cliches that come to mind! Not that I'm worried right now but I figure teaching the kids something I don't remember from my childhood would be a useful skill - make them frugal (or cheap! hee hee!) One never knows what will happen with the local jobs and at least if we've managed to scale things down a bit we'll be in better shoes - should something bad happen.

I think I'm going to encourage / hire my 7 yr old to clip coupons, and she will get 50% of the savings, the other 50% will go towards the menu planning or fun stuff for school! Of that 50% that she earns 25% will go to savings.

Now lets see how it works! LOL!

Questing for Better Homemade Brownies

2008-09-08T17:21:00.004-04:00

So I've decided to try my hand at better eating, or at least home-made eating when those chocolate cravings hit! Midnight Milky Ways, M&Ms and all those other dark chocolate candies can't be good for you, so I'm questing for a better option - and I'm starting with Brownies.

I've been craving brownies - especially the 2 bite brownies you get in the bakery at the Grocery store. Figuring there must be a ton of bad things for me in them, I decided to make my own. I'm sure over time we'll fine tune the recipe adding what we want and taking away the things that don't work for us or replacing the things that are bad for us... but here is the recipe I used! They just came out of the oven so the verdict isn't in yet! I'm also looking at a RAW brownie recipe, and working up the never to go for it! :)

Literally sick of it

2008-09-03T17:16:00.003-04:00

Yet another Z-pak, yet another round of steroids.
All for Allergies that are bordering infected. CRUD! And a chest wheeze. GGGGRRR

Did I mention that during Fay we got a little wind, and that weekend we unsuspectingly walked through a Ragweed patch and again this weekend - before I identified it?

I think the Weed did us in - because it wasn't just me it was Little S, M and I, and good ole DH! But I'm the only one not getting better.

If y'all know of a better way to hold off allergies I'm all ears!