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

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

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

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

A memoir in six words.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One of Those Days

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boring Life Rambles

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remember how Dr. Science knew more than you do?

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

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

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

So ... no linky love for my surfing.

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

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

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

What? Where was I?

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

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

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

Use your imagination

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

What, you can't see them?

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

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

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

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

For now, just use your imagination.

Wednesday Morning Rambles

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

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

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

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

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

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

Right?

The First Day Of Grill

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And thus endth The First Day Of Grill.

When Did They Discontinue Camel Snot Brown?!?!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Clockwise from upper left:

Sporty Blue, Bracing Blue, Distance, and Denim.

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

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

the house, then:

the house, then, photoshopped to a slate gray:

What do you think??

Not Quite What I'd Planned

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

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

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

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

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

Attempt I was frogged before you ever saw it.

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

So here's the idea:

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

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

Some problems I ran into:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Old but colorful news

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

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

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

Buzz liked them - except when they landed on him:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's skunk cabbage!

Skunk Cabbage!

nifty, eh?

So now you know a famous artist.

Er. An accomplished artist.

Yeah.

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

Moon Rocks and Germs

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

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

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

In other news, I'm sick! Wah!

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

(pauses for you to work up lots of pity)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Boy Turned 5

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

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

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

The rare Up R2D2's nose shot:

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

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

Spring might actually come ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Same Song, Second Verse

(fortunately not really louder nor worse, though)

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

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

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

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

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

I woke up feeling anxious and stressed.

In which, apparently, I'm insecure and stressed

Gotta blog this quick, before I forget it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

I'm not dead yet!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good reasons to quit, eh?

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

So ... blah blah blah!

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

Have a good Wednesday!

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Dear Local Reader Friends,

Our church is putting on a children's musical on March 15th at 6:30 pm. Gark and Eminoodle have lead roles (!!!) and Tobi-wan is singing in the choir. We'd love to have you come and see them! :-)

*** End Advertisement ***

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stupid drug.

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

Nothin' makes you feel crazy like ...

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

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

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

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

and going on a week of twitches now ...

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

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

I'm just sayin'.

This is a Public Service Announcement - with Guitar!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nothing I can do, Total Eclipse of the Moon

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

For the record, there was an eclipse last night.

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

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

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

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

Going under:

Eclipsed:

Coming Out:

Coming Out:

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

Not Easier, Not Better, But Amusing

First: The History

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

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

Well.

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

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

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

And it worked fabulously.

The children were much impressed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then we filled and nuked it:

And ... ta da!

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

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

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

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

And It Shall Be Called The Winter Of Sledding

I fear I am setting an unwise precedent this year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The "Bad Idea" Series:

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

New And Funky With The Pix

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

Simple, easy, stylish?

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

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

At least until I get that other sock done.

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

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

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

Oh Grand Luuuuuuuuunar! Save me!

**update**

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

trying to think of something to say

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Once is funny, Twice is silly ...

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

but today's application is a little different.

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

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

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

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

A Little More OrgoWorking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then put stuff in it.

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

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

Then I built them.

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

I did save some stuff, don't worry.

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

**Eight** empty totes! WOOoooo!

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

One giant empty tote to also give away:

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

cool, eh?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

pictures coming ... soon?

A Little Snow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hard Hats Not Required - Now With Ham!

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

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

Our assignment: Build things out of marshmallows and toothpicks.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And then we piled her structure on my structure.

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

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

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

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

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

Or the ham in this picture?

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

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

Thanks Mom!!!

Building A Habitat for Monkeys

Today we built a monkey habitat!

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

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

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

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

6' Dome Kit from www.domeclimber.com

See me walkin ... walkin' out the door

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

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

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

Would I lie to you?

Yeah, so I'm walking again.

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

I did so well the first half of last year.

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

But I'm back on now.

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

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

Walkin, walkin' ...

How about you?

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

so I had to run an errand today

(not to fetch a peck of snide, though)

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

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

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

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

Who left that roller coaster there?

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

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

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

So I decided to pray about it.

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

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

I kept praying about it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which I guess should count.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What do you think?

Goodbye half-done mittens ...

Alas.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sledding on Christmas Eve Day

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

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

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

icat hitting the ramp:

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

tobiwan on the slopes:

sputnik going with me:

sputnik alone:

me going over the ramp:

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

Let's see if I can embed it!

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

Merry Christmas, everyone!!!!

Walking In A Sugar Wonderland

Take:

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

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

allow children to decorate as desired

Make children wait to eat until all are done and photographed

Enjoy!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Right out loud. HA! Like that.

So I told her that.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Snow Day

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

It was very beautiful. And very blustery.

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

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

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

A most excellent snow day.

Blog Commander ... Blog On!

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

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

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

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

"Light Commander?"

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

"Light Off!"

"byooo."

and the light goes off.

"Light Commander?"

"bleeble blee?"

"Light ON!"

"byooo."

and the light goes on.

And even fancier ~

"Light Commander?"

"bleeble blee?"

"Light dim!"

"byooo."

and the light dims.

It's really pretty futuristic and amazing.

when it works.

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

And 25% of the time for me.

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

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

The future is now.

.
.
.

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

Crammin' several entries into one quick one

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

::fwooooosh!::

Wha?

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

I'm sorry.

I didn't realize.

I've been blogging in my head, again.

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

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

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

hm.

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

I'm not talking all the busy extras that would make you say, "Kim, slow d