Saturday, May 05, 2007

Dogbeard's Bathtub Battles


I'm losing again. This time to Piggy the Pig.

Today was a 'be careful what you wish for' day. I complained to Smurf that Sweetling's dress was taking a lot longer to make than it should, for no good reason. Fate then decided to give me good reasons for the dress to take longer.

My nice little break was losing an animated version of battleship to Piggy. The dress isn't finished, but the bobbin thread ran out, and I don't feel like messing with it anymore tonight. Tomorrow is a new day to overload with activities.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

'Cause its the...second... of May

Not nearly as catchy as a tune.

Good news:
--We'll have a date for flying to Guatemala sometime next week. Is it sad that I've already picked out my entry title for the blog on that one?
--My dress for Vaya's wedding came. Its a little too long, and I don't know what to do about that, because the bottom edge is covered with embroidery...so I can't just cut it off and re-hem the dress. Well, I could, but at the loss of the embroidery.
--I bought the pattern and the fabric I needed for sweetling's dress. I still need buttons and some trim, but I thought I'd take Sweetling to the fabric store with me to pick those out. Plus, I need to get the dress made first, so I can measure exactly how much trim I'll need.
--Mango Margarita called me on Monday just to say hi and chat. (insert small victory sound byte here). I sent her a vase of red roses on Webkinz world. I hope that wasn't too forward of me ;)

Other news:
--I'm trying to avoid stressing and panicking. I tend to do that when I start feeling overwhelmed. I really want to enjoy the cool upcoming events in my life. Right now I'm taking more of a 'lets get this over with attitude' and not only does that not match the many blessings going on in my life, it means I'll miss out on a lot of events that should be bringing me a great deal of joy.
--Sweetling wants to have a birthday sleepover. There is not a single weekend that we can do this in before the Guatemala trip. I think we'll stick to the original plan of a park birthday party. I have no rain plans. As it is, I think the plans are, the Jedi goes and scouts a location. I stay here and wait for most mom's to drop off and talk one mom into following me over and staying to the party. The Jedi calls me when he has a location, and we head out. We asked the park about reserving a pavilion. On monday-thursday, you can reserve a pavilion for half the cost of a weekend rate...only $57. We're going with the scout and squat option instead. I still need to come up with a craft and a game for the girls. You know, if I HAD a flippin weekend night open at all, the sleepover would be the much easier option.
--The other option that I take when I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed is to say "forget this" and go read a book. I have a box of VC Andrews that MIL sent back from Canton with me. And you can all get off your literary high horses about the author (I'm looking at you, Smurf)....these are my mind-numbing alternatives to facing responsibility.
--Telephone really really wants to come over and paint fishes on Energy's wall. So does Smurf. I don't think I need to spell that one out any further.
--I'm putting off going to the grocery store, because the prospect of trying to come up with a dinner menu for May is just daunting. I'm envisioning a lot of spaghetti in our near future. I am, however, almost out of cocoa...which means my hot chocolate is in jeapordy. Am I a bad mother if I come home from the grocery store with mutliple boxes of spaghetti, jars of sauce, peanut butter, bread, and two or three tins of cocoa? Oh, and cookie ingredients. Maybe a brownie mix or two.
--Mother wants me to go the to bank, take cash out of my account in the drive through, then use a deposit slip to go up to the tellar and deposit it in her account, so she can use her check card to get gas to get home from work. I'd make a few comments there, but I'm feeling rather guilty that so many of my blog entries have turned into venting sessions recently. (She doesn't know her account number, so I don't have that to put on a deposit slip either).

Oh, more good news. I'd scroll up, but maybe putting this at the end will off set my little pity party (with snacks).

The light is visible at the end of the school tunnel. We need to reach 90% completion on the core lessons, and we're at 86%; 75%; 81%; 81%; and 78%. That's doable right? That's 7 math lessons, 15 literature lessons, 20 total language skills lessons (includes vocab, grammar, and comp), and 12 history lessons. Those of you who are particularly observant will notice that I skipped that 75%. Yeah, that's in spelling. We're taking a new approach to that for the remainder of the year, so I'm not too fretful of the percentage there.

Speaking of which, Sweetling is finished with her math, so I'm going to go do grammar with her.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Tra la la la la

I had a totally awesome weekend, but only have a few minutes, so I can't blog about that now. I actually sat down, because I just finished unpacking from both this weekend and last weekend, and figured I could take a couple minutes to check my emails.

Sweetling just went tra la la la la-ing down the hallway, with ka plunk ka plunk ka plunk following along with her. I looked up to see what the ka plunks were. She had a cup of glass marbles (the kind you put in vases for flower arrangements and the like) and was strewing the marbles all over the hallway like they were flower petals.

I just turned back to my computer without asking.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Mango Margarita OR I'm a stray cat

In the past couple weeks I...

...completed my first scrapbook ever. Key word here is completed. I've worked on scrapbooks before, but you know I'm not down with this completion thing. I got the pictures in the mail for the scrap book on Tuesday afternoon. The Jedi went through them with me on Tuesday night and scanned the ones we were going to use in the computer. On Wednesday I sized some photos and did a little photo editing because the photos were old, and their quality was low. On Wednesday night (after church), I got my first double page spread completed. I did a full day of school on both Wednesday and Thursday, and then on Thursday afternoon, between 3:30 and 11:30...I got all the other scrapbook pages done. Go me. About 18 pages (nine double spreads) in all. Yay :)

...discovered that red and green really do make a yucky color together. We went, as a family, to ColdStone last week or the week before (its all a blur.) The Jedi bought a strawberry cake, which had huge honking whole frozen strawberries on top that one could break a tooth on, but not eat. Sweetling wanted a smoothie, and I through the frozen strawberries in the blender. I didn't rinse the icing off of them, because I figured, bonus sugar, right? Well, red icing and green icing results in grey smoothie. Sweetling and I drank our grey smoothies anyway.

...drove the wrong way down a one way street on purpose with a van full of little girls. I told them to close their eyes. So, maybe that doesn't quite count as corrupting a minor. Endangering maybe...

...decided that as soon as my life calms down, I really need to spend time with my friends. Realized that my life isn't going to calm down until maybe July. Maybe.

...told Telephone that I was NOT working Veteran's Day and that if she signed our troop up for working the Veteran's Day program, I was anticipating being sick that day. Telephone laughed, but she didn't sign us up for Veteran's Day.

...wore matching shirts with Telephone to church on Wednesday. Our camporee theme for the weekend was "Extreme Home Makeover: Camporee Edition." I really really really wanted a shirt. They were so cool. They were also reserved for the workers and the organizers of the event. Which, you know, I wasn't. (see above for a clue as to why). Telephone nabbed me a shirt anyway.

...discovered that getting your thumb smashed by a hammer weilded by a 7 year old really hurts and birdhouses aren't as easy as they should be to build.

...was amazed that 400 girls could spend all day working at stations learning to use tools (including some power drills) and didn't have any injuries worse than a scrapped knee after lunch.

...got my picture taken for the local paper at above events.

...went stargazing with 7 little girls after campfire. Found the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, Polaris, Draco's tail, Orion, Venus, and Saturn and was able to point them out to the girls. (Saturn involved calling the Jedi and having him run a starchart on the computer to tell me where to look and how to find it).

...was the absolute last group of little girls to get to bed.

...became enamored of Mango Margarita and want her as a friend in the worst way. Like grade-school, please oh please oh please be my friend.

...shuffled across the courtyard of the 'fort' in the middle of the night with Mango Margarita because neither of us could sleep for worrying about the seven little girls in the other room. Mango Margarita decided it was too cold to get out of her sleeping bag, so she did the sleeping bag shuffle across the grass. I stepped into my shoes, wrapped my sleeping bag around my shoulders, and through my flimpsy camp cot mattress over my back like a mutant turtle. Just outside the door of the room (which we reached after a great deal of giggling), Mango accurately observed, "We are the biggest losers *EVER*". She creaked open the door, and whispered "Girls, don't be scared, its just us." No one answered her, because the girls were all alseep. Not a single one was lying on their cot in a dark room feeling homesick, needing to go to the bathroom, or too cold to sleep, as we had imagined. Mango slept on the last cot open in the girls room, and I slept on my sorry camp cot pad on the floor. We still slept fitfully, waking up when the girls would turn over. (Which really was noisier than it sounds.) In the morning, we further proved our dorkiness because between the two of us, we couldn't get Mango's sleeping bag rolled up and back in its nifty duffle bag. The two of us were outside, trying to wrestle the sleeping bag into submission long after all the 7 and 8 year olds had rolled their sleeping bags up and packed up for the day.

...drank more hot chocolate than I even want to think about.

....have successfully made many dinners in the crockpot, which I remembered to plug in and turn on. Now I just have to work out this whole "turn it off" part at the end.

...am two weeks behind in my Beth Moore bible study. Haven't decided if I want to try to catch up, or skip it.

...am sleeping through the night, for 7-8 hours, but still feel sleepy through the day. The answer of course, is to maybe exercise to get my circulation perked up. Or something else that just isn't going to happen.

...learned that "putzed", which I've always used as a synonym for "puttered" has a *totally* different meaning.

...have been so very very glad that I didn't order any seeds or bareroot plants for the garden. The outdoors is just going to have to fend for itself this year. Its getting NOTHING from me. Nothing.

...tried to tactfully explain to Sweetling why its important that she get her foot up high enough to kick the little boy she is sparring with *above* the belt.

Next week, I'll...

...keep up the amazing progress Sweetling has made in school the past few weeks. She's gone from being behind (from missing a lot when mother was in the hospital and had appointments all over the place), to being on track to finish within the first week of June. I'd like to get finished before the end of May, but that's a long shot.

...get fabric and a pattern to start sewing Sweetling's dress for Vaya's wedding.

...hem 14 sashes for girl dancers.

...finish painting fishes on Energy's wall.

...clean Sweetling's fishtank and take her to pick out a couple new fish as a reward for the school progress she has made.

...wish I was able to celebrate the first of May properly. Nothing in our yard is conducive to that though.

...go on walks or scooter rides with Sweetling. Post our minutes on FlyLady's 'bless your heart' club to participate in her 'virtual walking tour' of America.

...make three dozen cookies for the reception after the Children's Musical on Sunday.

...call Mom to tell her about the Children's Musical on Sunday.

...get together a grocery list for May and go shopping. When I'll get to go shopping, I don't know. Maybe the Jedi can take Sweetling to Tae Kwon Do on Tuesday and I'll go while they're in class. Maybe I should do the May shopping week by week, since there's so much craziness going on. Maybe trying to go shopping every week would only make it worse.

...realize my plans for the week have a distinct lack of fun or interesting activities. Drink more hot chocolate to compensate.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Stuck

I'm writing a letter about the Jedi to someone who is very important to the Jedi. The Jedi asked me to do this, and I agreed. BUT, I'm stuck. I can't explain in a whole lot of details, because the Jedi is so very private, and I'm not sure he wants his story posted on my internet blog. I've gotten two paragraphs finished.

Stuck.

Suggestions?

And yes, I've been scarce. If it makes you feel better, I went for days without being on Webkinz either. Christopher Robin will tell you its because its spring.

Yes, it is Spring. Hooray for Spring. Glorious Spring. Wonderful Spring.

It also happens that every spring my life gets really busy. This spring is more busy than most. Now, I'm trying NOT to sound like a helpless victem of circumstance. I think that's a broken record that has been skipping along the same sorry rut in the women of my family for a while now. TPTTPTPTPPPPtttt to being a victim. I'm all freaking done with that.

But, in the priorities of my life right now, sitting down to spend time at the computer isn't high on my list. Not that I don't love all of you. Just that computer time is pretty far down there on my list at the moment.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Cleaning out my Yahoo mail

It isn't on the list, but the laundry is nearly caught up. and anyway, I have to hang out in the school room to help Sweetling not get distracted.

Anyway, I came across a Cranium "newsletter" (read graphic advertisement with a code for free shipping that's already expired.) And, being the productive, non-sucker that I am, I click on the link for their new blog site.

I read...

she asked him a couple days ago how stoplights changed color, he asked her to put forth her theory.

“I can think of three things that make stoplights change colors,” he said. “Can you tell me what any of those might be?”

“People can push the button …” she said.

“And?” Adam asked.

Lucy paused for a moment before answering.

“Gnomes?” she suggested.

And Sweetling (remember, I'm in the room so that she doesn't distract herself from school) immediately begins drawing me a possible circuit for the interior of traffic lights. Then we went on to read about the gnomes together.

Hey Vaya, check out the dress I found for me for your wedding. Go me. I should post this as an image so Christopher Robin gets to see it. No, nevermind, I need to beg her for favors. I shall not tease her with dresses.

About Completion

Just a little thought of encouragement for myself:

Getting it done IS the "right" way of doing it...NOT "doing it the right way"

I have a lot on my list. I just need to get it done, not fret myself into paralysis over getting it done 'perfectly'.

Vaya is my foster daughter. We got guardianship of her just before she turned 18, only because they wouldn't let us adopt her. But everyone assumes that we're sisters, because I look 15 at best, and Vaya looks 12 ;) Sweetling looks, um, sweet enough to eat. I think I'll go do that now. Better run little girl who is reading over my shoulder. Your stuffed eagle isn't going to save you.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Ding, dong, the list is here...

It does *so* work as a title. You just weren't trying hard enough.

Sweetling's birthday: May12th
cake
location
games
craft
party favors
decorations
invitations
snacks
guest list

Energy's room: ?
sort clothes, fill drawers
paint fish
toys?
books?
figure out what IS that STUFF on the shelf of his closet
comforter for bed
scrape vaya's stickers off the windows
items for shower: car seat, big wheel, baby monitor?, church clothes

Sewing projects:
flower girl dress
my dress
1850's outfit?
-find patterns (Simplicity 3987)
-buy fabric and notions
-shop around for dress for me so I don't have to sew one

Vaya's wedding: May 19th
procure tableclothes (9 round and 2 rectangular)
beg and borrow glass bowls (8)
buy floating candles (8)
buy ivy 3 runners, 8 circles
get plates, utensils, etc- 60 people
plan menu with Mollie
drinks, coolers, ice
outdoor seating arrangements (Christopher Robinnn....)

The Jedi's scrapbook

Girls' Dance May 7th
--figure out where in the world I put the CDs
--hem sashes
--borrow streamers from Guappa

Guatemala!!!!!!!!!!!!
-get list from NiceLady of needed items
-get said list to Office Jewel
-pack medicine bag (sounds so tribal)
-list of materials for plane ride
-get second Hep B shot (ooops, hope the first one is still valid)
-disposable cameras
-get vacation fish feeder
-ask neighbor to grab mail

Summer
--darn schedule
--Sweetling handwriting
--Spanish
--summer reading list
--scrapbooks

Garden
--move strawberry patch
--reseed lawn
--mulch under swings

Computer
--rename and save photos

School
--math
--history
--literature
--grammar
--vocabulary
--spelling
--art

Ok. I'm stopping now. I was excited when I sat down to make my list...but I can sense myself turning sarcastic. So I'll stop now. I have BIG news to share though. I put it last as a special treat for everyone who loved me enought to read trough my list....

Energy's adoption case has been approved by the Guatemalan government! Hooray! We'll all be flying to Guatemala to get him at the end of May, beginning of June sometime. Woo and HOO!

I'm editing this entry and greying things out as I get them done.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Me want spring!!!

I don't have a lot of room to complain, cause we don't have snow here...on the other hand...we have cold and mud here. Of the two, snow might be preferable. That would at least give me an excuse to send Sweetling outside to play while I did many productive things....none of them involving Webkinz. ;)

I was going to say that I have nothing to write about, but that's not true. I have plenty to write about. The truth is just that I don't feel like writing.

I want the magic house fairy to come in and clean my house. Or at least pick up and put away all my clutter. I can clean, I can't declutter. No, that's a lie. I can clean, and I don't like to declutter.

And I want chocolate. I should take five minutes and do just a few exercises. Because you know, five minutes of exercising totally negates a chocolate binge, right?

Sweetling is dressing herself out of clothes in "buckets". I had, several weeks ago, put away all her winter clothes and put out all her summer clothes. The Jedi, in his wisdom, didn't take the large storage tubs out to the garage just yet. Which is good, cause he'd have been bringing them back in from the garage a week after I packed everything up. Now Sweetling is living out of two plastic storage tubs till the weather changes back to what its *supposed* to be.

We put on music after devotions this morning and got 15 mintues of cleaning done. We did a five minute room rescue in the school room. We got math and some history done. We're having egg salad for lunch. I lit candles to bring some more cheer in...but there's still a distinct lack of cheer and enthusiasm over here.

Nonetheless, I'm being a good little girl and staying home to do school and housework instead of giving up and heading to Christopher Robins house. My reward for being good is that I get to stay home and do school and housework.

I need to pick a better reward? Do I want to reward myself this afternoon with Buffy, Malcolm, or webkinz?

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Beedy Red Eyes

This is a "collectable" dice game inside the webkinz world. Its a strategy game...you try to knock out your opponent's move dice, defend your own move dice...and at the end of the turn, each player advances...if they have any move dice left.

In this lovely photo, I'm in the process of having my sweet pink bottom handed to me by a tree frog controlled by an eight year old. Notice the beedy red tree frog eye's staring at me in mockery.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Webkinz


Forget World of Warcraft. This is where the action is, baby.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

Tadpoles and Accountants

One of these two things are absolutely adorable and a blessing from God. The other is the embodiment of slow, cruel torture. Can you guess which is which?

I didn't blog on Tuesday. I should know better than to make predictions. You should know better than to believe me.

It was a beautiful day :) We had had a "spell" with mother that morning that was a bit worrisome. But, by the afternoon, she was doing much better. Smurf had come over to be with me and Mom, cause Mom's health was still a bit iffy and she needed someone with her just in case. (The anti-coagulent level in her blood was dangerously high, any bleeding or bruising or signs of spontaneous internal bleeding was cause for an er trip). But, like I said, by the afternoon she was no longer weak or dizzy, and was in fact, pretty perky. I was restless. Smurf wanted to take Sweetling for a walk. Mom wanted to go. I wasn't going to stay cooped up in the house when it was sunny and 80 out....so we took our health frail mother to the local nature preserve. That's right. But, in fairness, its not a 'rugged' nature preserve. It has a paved asphalt path and I had a wheelchair in my van, so we thought we'd go for a walk and let Mom alternately walk and ride when she needed to.

There's a little pond there, and it was *full* of tadpoles. I have never in my life seen so many tadpoles. The pond had a small wooden deck so that we could stand on the deck and lean over the rail to look straight down at the shallow edge of the pond. And that's where all the tadpoles were. Fat tadpoles lazily hovering over the rocks at the bottom of the pond. Every now and then one would slowly swim up to the surface. We who were leaning over the railing decided that they were coming up to say "hi". They were just adorable. I loved them :)

Accounting on the other hand, is a very different story. Mom is taking Financial Accounting and Business Stats. She's not very computer savy, and has trouble getting her homework to format correctly on the computer. She asked if I would type the problems up for her after she worked them out on paper. I thought, hey, I can type and use a computer. I said sure. Foolish mortal that I am. Accounting sucks. Accounting sucks so bad that even excel, which was created to do accounting, hates to format accounting homework problems.

Tadpoles good. Accounting bad.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Back to Life, Back to Reality

You know, the next time anyone hears me whining about wanting a break from my life, smack me upside the head.

I had a break from my life for about a week and a half now....AND I WANT MY LIFE BACK!

There. I'm done with my temper tantrum. Almost. Can I just say that getting excited about being able to do laundry and housework again is a *bad* sign. A very bad sign.

I got to clean my kitchen today and pick up a bunch of clutter in the living room and I am thrilled. Its like the Easter Bunny came early :) I can't wait till I get a chance to get some of my laundry in the machines. I'm totally serious. I know I'm often sarcastic, but I swear I'm serious this time!

Spring happened while I was at the hospital with Mom. Literally. I went on a walk in the hospital courtyard on one of the first days I was there, and the ground was bare and the trees had just the faintest of buds on them. I went down with Mom when she was allowed to push her IV into the elevator and go on a short walk. There were daffodils and baby leaves and sunshine and pear blossoms. It was beautiful. It could not have happened in so short a time, but it did.

I spent Saturday morning puttering outside for a little. I cut back the dead growth from last fall and did some early spring weeding. I have to move the strawberry patch though. boo hoo. The strawberry patch is directly off the back patio. Sweetling is very careful to go around the strawberry patch. The worry is that E is for Energy will go THROUGH the strawberry patch on his way to the lawn. Its a valid worry. And the lawn isn't that big, so having that area as lawn space will be better for a little boy to kick a soccer ball around on.

I'm moving the strawberry patch into the butterfly garden. Now, the butterfly garden has been, to date my most successful gardening attempts. I felt like crying as I ripped up the path in preparration for moving things around. It started to rain, and I was sitting in the mud digging up buckets of decorative rocks that were in the path. The Jedi (who had spent the morning changing the oil in the van and car) came around to make sure I had enough sense to stop what I was doing and come in out of the rain. I wouldn't have left to my own devices. Sitting in the mud in the rain digging up rocks fit my mood for most of the past couple of weeks. But I stopped. The Jedi took my trowel and my bucket away from me and put them in the garage. And I did feel much better after a shower.

The plants still need moved. They are already nearly too big to transplant. Spring happens FAST.

Lushgirl tagged me with songs, I think. I'll try to get back to that tomorow. (And hooray for having a tomorrow when I *know* I can sit down and blog.

For now, my little timer has gone off. Fifteen minutes are up. I'm going to go start dinner. (Monkey bread, bacon, eggs and canteloupe).

Friday, March 23, 2007

Oh, we've come to intermission...

I'm not in the mood to write about the hospital just now, though I totally have to write about the urine log later. I don't see how Smurf still has a shred of sanity left. It will be my watch tonight.

In the meantime, I'm leaving you with this interesting thought I came across:

-----Email Message-----
Sent: Sunday, March 11, 2007 2:29 PM

For the last year, since I discovered PostSecret, I've been writing a different secret on every one dollar bill I get. When one makes it back. I'll send it to you.
I used to write my initials on the corners of the dollars I got in my birthday cards each year. This is like a more interesting version of that.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Tae Kwon Do

First, Mom's recovery is going much slower than anticipated. They're thinking maybe a blood transfusion is in order. They had her back on oxygen this morning. She was able to eat a little bit at lunch, and she was a bit more awake and aware this afternoon than she had been all morning.

Second, I'm in total need of a mental break. Smurf needs one more though, so I can't complain too much.

Third....also called "In other news"

This is Sweetling's second week of Tae Kwon Do. When she was little, I have to confess I was really hoping she would take a liking to gymnastics. I even enrolled her in gymnastics for a year or so at Cincinnati Gymnastics. It was never her thing though. We've since tried swimming and soccer....but what Sweetling is really excited about is this.

You go girl.

In other, other news, I had a great, great birthday this Tuesday. Bear pointed out that he thought fey creatures like myself don't age. We might not age. We certainly don't grow up. But we *do* have birthdays. Why? Cause birthdays are awesome excuses to have everything just the way we want it for a *whole* day. It's like a magic phrase. Merely utter "but it's my birthday" on calendar date for which it holds true, and reality itself shifts to your whim.

Sweetling assembled ingredients for the crock pot dinner for the day, then we went and picked up Smurf. Smurf treated us to an awesome Japanese restaurant called Mei for lunch. Then we went to the Krohn conservatory with cameras and sketch books and took pictures and did sketches for the entire afternoon. We left there and went to Sweetling's Tae Kwon Do lesson, which Smurf got a kick out of watching. (I'm so very clever). Dinner at home, which mother and of course the Jedi joined us for. We all played Cranium Cadoo...which like Cranium is basically an excuse to do silly things together. I opened presents (a pink pegasus Webkinz which I named Phoebe, a book of Akiane's art, and all seven seasons of Malcolm in the Middle episodes.) Then we had ice cream together. After Sweetling's bath, she helped me adopt Phoebe and showed me around the Webkinz world.

See, I told you reality shifts for me on my birthday :)

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Mom's surgery

Mom's surgery was today and it went really well. They wound up being able to do everything without cutting her abdomen open. Smurf's staying in the hospital with her tonight. There's a chance that they'll send her home tomorrow (though I think that sounds rather soon).

I did nothing but sit in a hospital chair since 9 this morning, yet I'm totally exhausted. Hopefully I'll get a chance to get back to blogging in the next day or two. (Prolly more like two.)

Prayers for her recovery and prayers that the insurance all works out (yes, that is in question right now) would really be appreciated.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

My turn

Gaming is cancelled for tomorrow night. Which makes that Friday night become a date night for me and the Jedi. On Fridays, after Sweetling goes to bed, we take turns picking what we want to do together. Tomorrow night its my turn. I really want to watch Firefly, but know he isn't going to go for that until we wrap up a series that we're already watching. So, something else. Hmmmm....

Today was such a much better day than yesterday. Yesterday, after I posted about the dishwasher, I decided to get the vacuuming done for the week. I don't *think* I sucked anything up with the vacuum cleaner, but it suddenly started making a horrible clicking noise. I only had the school room left to vacuum though, so I went ahead and tried to quickly vacuum the school room. I bumped the closet door (which was partly open) with the vacuum and knocked it off its track again. I don't remember what we had for dinner. It might have been leftovers because I didn't want to risk cooking. We were late for church. And my shoulder, which has been inexplicably sore recently was just plain hurting by that night. I took two motrin, but had a hard time sleeping because no matter how I laid, my shoulder throbbed in discomfort.

So, to sum up, yesterday was bad. Today was good.

Today, I got my freezer cleaned out, had a great day of school with Sweetling. We made moon craters by filling a cake pan with 8 cups of flour, sprinkling 1/4 cup of cocoa on top, and then dropping small balls and pebbles into the pan. Sweetling then measured the diameter and depth of the craters. It made a wonderfully awesome mess. And of course, a crater had to be made with the fist as well. While Sweetling changed her flour and cocoa covered clothes and washed her hands and feet (yes...she was that covered), I swept and mopped the kitchen floor for the third time this week. We did math brain teasers via email. I emailed Sweetling the problem, she sat at the computer in her bedroom and worked it out then emailed me her solution. While she did that, I found FIVE count them FIVE brand new crockpot recipes that I think all three of us will actually eat and enjoy. Yes, yes, this totally IS a major accomplishment. If you doubt me, I'm make you help me plan next month's dinner menus.

This afternoon, we left for the store at 3:40. I got three weeks worth of food for $180, including a couple of pricier meats. We got through the checkout and back home and had all the perishables put away AND fed Sweetling a quick snack AND STILL made it to Tae Kwan Do by 5:15. Of course, that's also because the Jedi showed up at 5 when we were just starting to unload groceries and totally saved the day. Sweetling is now signed up for six months of twice weekly lessons. She is extremely excited. I really liked the instructor, and her class was a small class, but had a range of ages and ability levels in it. (Including two little girls smaller than Sweetling who have a yellow and a red belt). The class ended with sparring. I don't know how typical that is of a kids martial arts class, but there it was. Sweetling is eager to try it. The Jedi was also all about her getting signed up. Mommy was wistfully remembering Cincinnati Gymnastics.

Now its 7:50. Sweetling's bath time is in ten minutes. I need to put the non-perishable groceries away, and I think I still have a load of whites in the dryer that need put away. I also have a day's worth of Breaking Free to read and respond to. (still on photocopied pages *sigh*). The Jedi is hooking a computer up in the living room that will run all the media electronic stuff through Windows Media.

He came home last night with the book America's Cheapest Family. Which, after I had broken everything we owned, seemed well timed. I had also spent a bit of the afternoon checking out cool online clothing just for fun. If I had the money to burn, I could drop hundreds of dollars into clothing every month. Hundreds. I don't. In fact, the last article of clothing I purchase were a pair of $8 brown cords at Steve & Berry's in January. Before that I dropped nearly ninety on a new bra. It was totally worth every penny of that money. So, online clothes browsing is truly window shopping in every sense of the word. I try to make Christopher Robin look at all the cool things I find, but she still hasn't gone for it. She did go bra shopping with me though, so that counts.

The dishwasher, by the way, worked just fine for the Jedi.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Talking Teeth and Broken Appliances

Sweetling is trying her best to put the tooth fairy out of business. She's lost and is growing in teeth that the dentist said doesn't usually happen till they are eleven. She's well past the teeth replacements that happen to the typical seven and eight year olds. For the last few months, every time I look at her, she has her hand in her mouth wiggling a tooth. This last tooth, an upper canine, has been loose for a while now. A long while. Sweetling, in exasperation, asked *when* was this tooth going to come out? This was not the first time the question had been asked. Having moved beyond the standard 'when its ready' responses, over the weekend, I told her that if she were really quiet, she could hear the tooth whispering to God about when it was going to be ready to come out. Now, don't judge me yet. In my defense, Sweetling is a bright eight year old, and could tell I was just kidding. But, we've been having fun with this. Now the game is, I have to lean very close to her mouth so that I can listen to what the tooth is saying and repeat it in a murmured little 'tooth' voice.

Yes. A tooth voice.

Sweetling thinks this is the funniest game in the world. She is amused and delighted and thrilled by this game. Last night teeth brushing went like this:

Sweetling: "Try to hear what my tooth is saying now."

Tooth: "I'm wiggling."

Sweetling: "Listen again."

Tooth: "I'm wiggling."

Sweetling: "Is it saying anything about when its going to come out?"

Tooth: "I'm love wiggling."

Then I had to listen to the tooth while she was rinsing out the toothpaste. Maybe the toothpaste rinse would bring the tooth to its senses.

Sweetling: "Mmmm?"

Tooth: "I'm wet."

Water went everywhere.

Sweetling: "Listen again."

Tooth: "I'm wet and cold."

More hysterics and spraying water.

Sweetling: "Sorry about the mirror, Mommy."

Today listening to the tooth resulted in "Sorry about the saliva in your hair, Mommy."

In other news, yesterday we had the oven repaired to the tune of $172. And we also had cable switched from lifeline (which we only had because it came with cable internet) to basic cable. This was done so that Sweetling and the Jedi could have access to more documentaries on the history channel, learning channel, discovery channel and so on.

Saturday I went to Christopher Robin's and the Bear's house for movie night. I should have said CR and the Bear. (Get it, get it? CJ and the Bear? I'm so clever.) Sweetling was excited, because Mommy's absence meant she and the Jedi got to hang out that night and watch Nova episodes on tape. They watched the first part of a two part thing, and watched the second part on Monday. Then they decided that Mommy should be a part of this family time on Monday night. So Sweetling came in to ask me what documentary I wanted to watch with them. Once Mommy got involved, we wound up watching "The Tick".

My laundry is caught up, my bathroom is clean. My dishes are put away....BUT...

see, I told you my stories always involved that conjunction.

After I had emptied the dishwasher, I noticed a great deal of water still in the bottom of the dishwasher. I checked the dial, and its gone all the way through its little cycle. I'm pretty sure it doesn't usually have water in it, cause occasionally I have to retreave plastic lids and spoons that have made there way down there to die. So, being the mechanically inclined person that I am, I slid my fingers around the base of the big round thing. I found a paper label that had wedged itself down there and got that out. I slid my fingers around again, and this little doo-hicky came out. It looks like...well... remeber the little stoppers in squirt guns? It looks like a tiny one of those. I slid my fingers around again, cause the water was still there, and I found two more doo-hickies. They didn't seem to be attached to anything, they were just wedged down there. I don't know if they were supposed to be there, or if they came off something else. So, now my sink has a few dirty dishes in it, my dishwasher has two inches of water in it, and I have three doo-hickies lined up on my kitchen counter.

Last week I broke the closet door in the school room. The Jedi fixed it, and never said a word. I'm thinking he might not be too pleased with my doo-hicky story though. I'm contemplating running the dishwasher through a quick cycle before he comes home just to see what will happen. Maybe all the water will drain out after all.

Maybe I'll just go back to listening to teeth.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Just like college

Or high school either for that matter. On Wednesdays, I have a women's bible study and prayer group that I attend. We take turns watching little ones in the nursery so that the rest of us can meet together and do a Bible study and have a prayer circle. I really really really appreciate this in the middle of my week. Its my sanity break. This spring we're doing a Beth Moore study called "Breaking Free". Now, Beth Moore is a wonderful speaker and author. This study has a video segment that goes with it each week, that we watch and discuss together. And it has a workbook with five days worth of homework....which is often material I find very interesting and insightful.

But.

You know its a true me story when the conjuction "but" enters the tale.

When we first decided to do this study, no.... let me back that up. When the workbooks were first available for this study, we had already overspent in the month and I decided to be financially responsible and wait until March to get a workbook. We weren't starting the study till March (since we had a couple of snowdays in February...or maybe we started on the last wednesday of February. If you really need to know, I guess you could pull out a calendar. If Feb 28th is a wednesday, that's when we started.)

So, I waited until the start of the class to get the workbook. And...guess what? The workbooks were sold out. The bookstore said they expected a shipment in on April 1st. I said, you meant March 1st, right? No. No. They meant April 1st. But, I could, they told me, place and individual order for a book, since those often shipped before the big group shipment. Fine. I did that.

Now, I didn't ask for the first week of the workbook to be photocopied for me. I think I was pouting instead. I did ask for the second week to be photocopied, and one of the women in the group did that and gave it to me. I, of course, didn't do it. Why? Not because I wasn't interested...but because I kept waiting, hoping that MY workbook would come in and that I could do the assignments in my workbook rather than on the photocopied pages.

It didn't come in.

So, now, it Tuesday. I've done three days of the five days during the course of the day. I have two more days to do. And I'm having flashbacks to all my years of schooling. Of course, I started it this morning instead of at bedtime or midnight....so I guess in that respect its different from my high school and college days.

Now, I could have taken this opportunity to share with you some of the really neat insights that are in the workbook so far...but I didn't. I'm not sure what that says. I think it says that I didn't really internalize any of the really cool insights.

Or it says, I just spent all day on the really cool insights, and can't possibly sum them all up. I will leave you with the coolest one though. End of Day two's session (which I wrapped up during lunch.)

The day begins with Isaiah 43:7 "Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made." The day is spent studying what does it mean 'created for his glory'? What does 'glory' mean in different contexts and scriptures in the Bible? But...here's the coolest part. The day concludes with John 17:9-10...where Jesus is praying to the Father at the last supper "I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them." Beth Moore writes "In this context, Christ used the word glory to indicate wealth and riches He had received. No matter where you are on this journey to the glorifying, liberated life in Chirst, you are His treasure."

And finally, there is a space at the end of each day to write either a prayer, or a response, or a summation of what was revealed through that day's study. Here is what I wrote, as if I could hear the Father speaking to me...

"Be still, little one. You are my beautiful one. My treasure. My lovely one. I delight in you. Be still. Do not be anxious or afraid. Let me lead. Take my hand and trust in me."

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Blame Smurf



My newfound goal of blogging all the cool things that happened last week a bit at a time is out the window. Whose fault is this? Not mine. That would imply taking responsibility for my choices.

I spent the afternoon, and a portion of the evening on meez. So this is the picture that Smurf sent me that was the bait. Its Fawn.

The rest of the afternoon was spent recreating various rp characters as creepy little 3d dolls.