Mother May I?

No, it's not May yet, but it's close enough. According to something I read in The Boleyn Inheritance last night, May is a time for putting off old things and taking on new ones (a la Henry VIII and his wives.) For me, it's more a matter of taking on something old again, but making it new. Again, close enough.

"Chateau Sur Mer"

We took our first actual vacation ever this year. Yes, we've taken time off to go visit family and friends before, but this was the first time we've ever gone somewhere just for the sake of going there. It was SO relaxing. Our destination was a beach house on the Outer Banks in North Carolina. (Yes, there were a LOT of stairs!) I'm not going to wax eloquent about it. I'll just post some pics now, and probably some more in future posts.

Hatteras Island Lighthouse

I'm getting back into the swing of normal life again, which (in my usual style) involves trying to do way too many things at once. One of my goals is to make a set of alphabet beanbags for Craft Hope's donation to the Liberia Orphan Education Project. It's a great project to get the kids involved in, as the sewing is very simple. I plan to use stencils from Dick Blick and fabric paint to do the letters. Looking online, I was despairing of finding anything affordable until I found those, and joy of joys, MuNKi can pick them up at the store in Detroit on a work day.

Prawn woke up barfy today. :-( I had her make a nest on my bed after a bath, and Enya immediately decided to keep her company.

Kitties make even pukiness better!

She just woke up, and is feeling a lot more chipper. Never underestimate the value of kitty therapy.

Kitty therapy x 4 = WIN!

An Inauspicious Day

In Chinese philosophy/theology, there are days that are auspicious for certain endeavours, and other days that are less so. Today, March 19th, is a particularly inauspicious day for our family, as it's the day my father died, as well as the day that MuNKi choked last yr, requiring the Heimlich to save his life (thank you, Erica!)

Today we played hooky from TKD in the morning, because we were so behind in everything else due to extensive yard work this week. (A result of the gorgeous weather.) After I decided not to take the kids, I realised what day it was, and silently breathed a sigh of relief for the avoidance of whatever driving disaster we may have ended up in had we gone. We agreed that my dad would have highly approved of our schedule-breaking hooky behaviour.

MuNKi went off to take part in a BIG presentation at work, dressed (as we would later realise) in one of my dad's suits. He ate his lunch with full supervision in the office and did not choke even once.

I took the kids to the library for volunteering as usual for Thursdays, but when I saw Grumpy Newspaper Man in the Teen section, I got worried about the Littles, who were in the kid section. Usually Grumpy Newspaper Man stays in his wing chair by the fireplace, thus leaving my Littles free of his candy-giving, worriesome-question-asking behaviours. Today, noting that he was on the prowl, and also taking note of the date, I uprooted from the teen section (where you can plug your laptop in) and took my laptop over by the Littles in the Kid Section, passing GNMan on the way. He was already interacting with some tiny kids, but their dad was there, so I felt comfortable moving on to my own crew.

I got hold of MuNKi upon arriving home, and determined that he was still alive (he was supposed to call me after lunch, but is notoriously bad about remembering to call me back, ever, LOL!) and not too long thereafter, he arrived home safe and sound.

We played hooky from night class and sparring, too. I just wasn't in the mood, which isn't really like me, but what can I say? I felt guilty, but it passed (all too quickly, as Mr. Bennet would say.)

And that was March 19th. There's an hour and 5 minutes remaining. I think we'll make it. In the meantime, a weirdly coincidental song that found my sister today:

Rollercoasterama

I should have known it was coming. Last time I got all antsy and decluttery, MuNKi got activated to full time Air Force, and we ended up moving across the country. This time, MuNKi got laid off.

Here's how the day went:

Morning: MuNKi goes to work. I remember that this is Layoff Day (30% ends up going) and try to decide whether I hope he makes it through or not, since "not" will push us onward to more exciting things. ^_^ (I know. I can be reckless.)

10:00 am: I take the kids to morning classes at TKD. I tell the Master that MuNKi might be getting laid off today.

12:00 pmish: We head home. I call MuNKi to see if he remembered to fax my sworn statment of Absolute Being (or whatever) to CA so I can get an official copy of my birth certificate. The phone picks up and there's silence. I try again and get a recording - not his. A few mins later Mollusc tries and then informs me "I think he said he was in the process of being laid off. It was hard to hear him."

12:45ish: I open my compter and see that MuNKi has messaged me that he's been cut. I'm strangely untroubled.

1:15ish: Friends come to hang out for a bit. (We took their son home from TKD with us so the kids could play) We talk about the job thing and toy with the idea of going to live in Hobbit Holes in Wales.

2:30: MuNKi (no, I'm NOT implying that he's a jerk, LOL!) arrives home with his box of stuff. Someone has given him the contact info of the competition's director. Heh.

3:00ish: I take the Bigs to the Library for their volunteering hour.

3:20: MuNKi arrives with the Littles, who apparently wanted to come after all. He informes me that he's gotten a call from a different company in Muskegon or somewhere across the state with a job offer. Upon hearing that it's across the state, the dude says he thinks he has stuff in Detroit, too and says he'll call back.

3:30ish: The Bigs want to know what "grades" they're in. We don't have "grades"; we just do whatever's challenging in different subjects. I give random numbers that are hopefully close. It turns out that the children's librarian is nominating them for the town's Teen Service award for their volunteering work.

4:00ish: we head home and the phone starts ringing off the wall. I can't begin to count how many calls came and from whom, though I know there were people from 2 companies calling: MuNKi's employer's company and the company with whom they are doing their best business.

4:45ish: The Director of Engineering calls MuNKi to say "Oops. It was a mistake. We need you after all."

I guess it's good to know you're needed. But do we trust the company to keep him on? Ha!

My Kingdom for a (Wooden) Horse

We recently finished The Children's Homer by Padraic Colum. I had originally thought that the kids would find it semi-dry, especially in light of the somewhat archaic prose, but each reading brought clamouring for more. They were truly bummed when it ended. Now I'm looking for supplementary materials, so if anyone knows of any great books or films, let me know. I've checked out Troy from the library, but have no deslusions as to its suitability for children. Still, I'll preview it and see. Prawnie made a lovely painting of the sea nymph who helped Odysseus, and Fishy made a fun diorama out of Sculpey that has Polyphemus the Cyclops and his cave, one of his big sheep, and Odysseus with his wine skin and sharp stick (for putting out Polyphemus's eye.) Maybe someday I'll be able to post a pic. In the meantime, I won't attempt to describe it with 1,000 words, lucky for you.

I'm about to embark on another math book spree - Alg II for Mollusc to accompany her Geometry, and the 4th grade book for Dags. I can't believe it. Realli. I was talking with friends about Geometry's application beyond the actual class, and we were all hard-pressed to come up with any times we've actually used it. Even playing pool is more Physics than Geometry. Perhaps it's a time filler so that kids can get ready to embrace the headier concepts of higher level Algebra and Trigonometry. Surely there are useful principles, but beyond those that can be taught in about 1 week, I'm not sure what they are. So I think that doing Alg II concurrently with Geometry will be good. Less chance to forget how to do "real math" and all that.

We got our passport photos done on Saturday, and now all we need for our apps is proof that I was born. Here's hoping that the lovely state of California isn't so broke that it takes my $ but can't afford the postage to send out my birth certificate.

Penultimately, while I'm wasting your time with the trivia of my life, I finally downloaded some songs from the net. MuNKi* was able to get a Linux-friendly downlad app installed. I am now the proud owner of Coldplay's Viva La Vida (song, not album), Gavin Rossdale's Love Remains the Same, O.A.R.'s Shattered, and Blue October's Calling You and Into the Ocean. I need to look for Peter Gabriel's cover of The Book of Love next.

And finally, I have about 7 books going, but the one I'm reading the most is The Hindi Bindi Club, by Monica Pradhan, which is fantastic. It also makes me terribly hungry for good Indian food. Fortunately, there are recipes at the end of each chapter.

If you made it this far, tell me what you're listening to and/or reading. Please! :)

*Is this a sonic screwdriver which I see before me? Hur hur hur!

Nothing much

When I started blogging again, I had visions of making this more of a photo blog. Unfortunately, the computer I use for storing (and then uploading) photos is toast on a stick right now, so that's going to have to wait.

So today you get:

* no pictures

* no wine recommendations (because, seriously, what are the odds you're going to be able to find the same ones in your area, regardless of how good they are? Hell, I can't even find the Sacred Stone that was so great at the same store where I originally bought it.)

* no description of my super amazing electrono-gizmophone, because I don't have a cell phone, nor do I want one

* no MuNKi link.

OK so, I lied about that last one.

The Frugal Foody

As a household administrator (doesn't that sound snotty?), I've always found rising to challenges exhilarating. Yeah it can suck, too, when you see something you want or *need*, but there's something about not letting things get you down, not being beaten, that feels good.

This month's challenges include finding a way to go Organic and Non-GMO in a frugal way, and doing my best to handcraft as many gifts as I can for the holidays.

I was concerned about the expense of Organics, but I think there's a way to do it frugally. It will just take more work. MuNKi called this morning to say there was a rumour floating around at work that there is a possibility they won't be paid for the Christmas break. Which would be sucky. He thinks it may not affect the salaried employees, though (like himself.) Either way, if I plan ahead, we'll get through. I'm going to buy some bulk stuff from the co-op: oatmeal, beans, etc. We just ordered a bunch of flour from King Arthur when they had a free shipping deal, and I still have a ton of bulghur wheat, too. And I'm looking for a source for rice in even greater bulk than we already buy. So this week and the next will be devoted to finding some great recipes that stretch the food budget and maximize low cost ingredients. Feel free to share recipes and resources. I'll try to post some as I discover them. :)

I've decided to take my kitties off their conventional meds (one has a thyroid condition and another has athsma) and go homeopathic. Hey, if it's good enough for me, why not them? And bypassing the side-effects of the meds is a bonus, not to mention the cost difference. I should have thought of this ages ago, as homeopathics are what finally cured Emmett's UTI after 2 failed courses of traditional meds a year or 2 ago.

It's important, too, at this time to count my blessings. MuNKi still has a job, which is BIG! Today I'm making another batch of soap, and know that there are people at the co-op waiting to buy it. And the weather has been warm, so that keeping the thermostat at 61 just hasn't been a big deal. Yay! :)


But back to the food. Here's a yummy looking recipe for starters. My sis and I both had a thing about lentils leftover from our childhood, but we're challenging each other to make the yummiest and cheapest daal. This is going to be fun. :)

Geekery

This is just a random geekiness post. You may experience turbulence as it jumps rather abruptly from topic to topic. Please fasten your seatbelt.



When we lived in CA, I started a tradition of blowing up as many balloons as possible and trying to fill a room with them, then letting the kids frolic. This started on Sluggie's third birthday, when MuNKi was out of the country on her special day. With just the four of us (me and 3 kids aged 5 and under) I was feeling a little bummed, and not "festive" enough, so voila: Balloonorama was born. We've missed a birthday or two here and there, but I think the tradition has been re-revived. All I can say is that whoever invented the air compressor is my hero! ^_^ (I used to have to do these all by lung.) There are at least 4 kids in this picture. Maybe more.

We're going through a massive Star Trek phase here. When I learned that Pfaltzgraff had made some Enterprise dishes, I was totally geeked up. Then I saw the price tag: $300.00. Um, no. Thank goodness for eBay! 10% of that was much more reasonable. We use these every day. The kids take turns with the cup ("Tea, Earl Grey, hot") and share the plates. I need to find more! :)

And speaking of being geeked up about stuff, I tried Paper Piecing for the first time yesterday. Here's what I made:


I started with something simple, but I can see a lot more of this happening. In fact, I'm off to look for Star Trek and LOTR piecing patterns now. ^_^ I love the web!

Picture This (Part 654)

We found some plates that were made somewhere besides China! (Italy in this case.) MuNKi is semi-embracing my desire to get completely mismatched dishes. My logic is that we can get a bunch of interesting stuff and if something breaks, we simply find another interesting setting. I know stacking won't be the greatest, but who cares? MuNKi liked these enough that he bought a bunch, though. I don't think he's quite on the same page I am.

Lamb's ears. Not deceptively fuzzy. They really are as soft as they look.

I wish I could make the lilac one scratch 'n' sniff.

Cookies, cookies, cookies! They look better than they tasted, IMO. But MuNKi liked them.

This tastes pretty good though. ^_^

So if you put chive flowers in a jar of vinegar (with some plastic wrap under the lid to prevent corrosion) . . .

it turns into this!

Emmett is always such a help in quilting.

He's practicing for his role in the upcoming Puss in Footwear here.

Trillian, on the other hand, contents herself with helping to change the lightbulbs.

Tashiya brought only one of her three babies this day. (Or maybe it's Winona. I'll have to ask Mollusc.)

Awww! Who could say no to a face like this? Well, besides Egan. ;-) (photo credit goes to Mollusc)

And yeah, I'm being brave and posting a pic of my haircut.

I think I look slightly less liney outside. Thanks to Mollusc for the first pic and Fishy for the second. :)

Willoughby Wallaby Weenis

the elephant went to Venus, Willoughby Wallaby Wuranus, the elephant saw Uranus.

Yeah, we've been having too much fun with that song. I laughed so hard I nearly wrecked the car on the way to the co-op, and I can't even remember what we came up with that set me off.

Tonight's Little Kid class was pandelirium. 23 kids. Oy! Actually, it was fun, and not too crazy. I don't think I screwed anyone up, and I remembered everyone's name, so that's good. :) To be honest, kid names are easy for me; it's the parents' I can never remember. It was also the traditional Monday night DadFest, which it hasn't really been pretty much since I mentioned here how I enjoyed perving at them. So obviously they found my blog and were horrified and made a pact to mostly stay away until now. Bummer.

I also kicked one of the fathers in the butt tonight. I don't know what came over me. It was just a reaction. He put out his hand for a high 5, and thinking it odd, but not wanting to snub him I went for it, so of course he pulled it away (shoulda seen that coming) and my natural reaction was to smack him and kick him in the butt. (lightly! lightly! Not hard. I'm not mean like that.) Yikes. I don't think I offended him, though. I hope not anyway.

I watched PS I Love You last night, which, while being a glorious ManFest (including some full backal nudity) and pretty entertaining, probably did not garner the sympathy from me that it was supposed to for the main character. She was just such a high maintenance, neurotic bitch that I thought her hubby was better off dead. But there were bits that reminded me of my dad (the knowing the end is nigh stuff) so they were a little tear-jerky. Harry Connick Jr.'s character was bloody entertaining, too. ^_^

I got a new book called Garden Spells that I'm loving, and I finished The Camel Club, which was fantastic. The twist on the terrorist attack was brilliant. I'm also listening to Twilight, so I'm finally finding out what all the hoopla is about.

Oh, and the Master taught us a new Black Belt one-step sparring tonight. I can't wait to show MuNKi. It's cool!

So Much for That Idea

Oh well. I'll get this "clickable larger pictures" thing figured out one day. Maybe.


Crocus


Chives! We ate some tonight. Yummy! It's not going to be long before we get some of those beautiful chive flowers.




Finally! Daffodils. :)

And some signs of life in the clematis vines:







I made a bunch of headbands on Saturday. There was one more, but the little girl I made it for already had it by this point. ^_^ All the light ones are made from vintage scraps I got from MuNKi's mom.


This was a Cuddle Quilt kit from JoAnn's. I liked having the fabrics already coordinated. I still had to cut the squares to the right size, and it was kind of a PITA sewing knits, wovens, flannels AND satins together, but it was fun. I love the fabrics. :)


I also made the triple-play peanut butter cookies again. They disappeared the same day, so that evening I tried Tea & Spice Squares. Nom, nom NOM! The glaze is confectioner's sugar and Bailey's. YUM!! I think these will become a Christmas staple. They are very gingerbready and have chopped dried fruit in them (in this case raisins and candied red and green cherries.)



Emmett decided to "help" Mollusc play RuneScape while the girls chomped fresh green beans (stolen from the chef.) Prawn is "wearing" a pop-up laundry basket in case you were wondering about the red stuff.



And last night, all 3 girls were collaborating in the game - one on a regular computer and 2 on laptops.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Overheard on Friday:

Prawn: **aah!** (surprise more than shock) A SPIDER!

Sluggie: It's BIG!

(a few minutes pass)

Fishy: NO SPIDEY!! Don't leave the Spi-Tanic!!!

(a few seconds pass)

Fishy: Prawn! Come see! The spider can walk on water!!

Lazy

~I'm listening to The Friday Night Knitting Club, reading Labyrinth and The Silmarillion. Next on the docket are Wicked and Rebel. (No one can say it's not a varied list, right?)



~The crocuses have bloomed and faded and the daffodils are open now.



~My kids have gotten their first sunburn of the year (where WAS that blasted sunscreen?)



~We're going swimming tomorrow.



~I'm putting together a patchwork baby blanket and in the last few days have made 4 pairs of shorts, several little bags and a dolly flannel robe. Xavier continues to rock!



~I feel very good about sparring tonight. Sparring to 1 point gets the adrenaline going and makes me nervous, but I didn't suck, so I feel happy.



Oh, did I tell you all about my "swimsuit"? The things available at Target and Wallyworld are so hideous that they defy description. I was kicking myself for not taking along a camera they are so bad. We're talking monstrosities of brown and avocado with ginormous hibuscus prints, and pink and brown things with huge ruffles, buckles and wooden beads. I feel the need to wash my eyes out with Daniel Craig just thinking about the things. **shudder** The new style seems to be the "backless front" this year. This amounts to something that looks like a one-pice from the front and a bikini from the back. This might not be so bad, were it not for the fact that some of the ones I saw (and, God help me, actually touched) were gigantic (but also tiny if you KWIM.)

BG and I were joking today about doing our own version. This would consist of a Sparring Banana and a posture enhancer.

Even if the available suits weren't hideous, it wouldn't matter. I can't wear one-pieces (unless I want to stay hunched over while wearing said suit) because I'm too tall.

So I ended up buying just a swim bottom at Wallyworld -- quite a gamble really, considering that I was then banking on finding a top at Target. My new swim bottom (which was found in the swim section, so hopefully it actually IS a swim bottom) is a pair of short black boxing shorts (think lace-up fly, etc.) Target yielded absolutely nothing acceptable in the top category, so I bought a black Champion C9 sportsbra. (My white ones are great for TKD. They also wick away sweat very admirably.) Yes, that's right, I've been swimming in shorts (or hot pants?) and a sports bra. In public. :-P

Of course the first time I went to the pool in this ensemble, there were men at the pool. Men! On a Friday morning! The audacity! Don't they know that the pool is the realm of mommies on Friday mornings? Clearly they had not read the handbook. (Then again, maybe they had. . .)

Considering that I have not shown my tummy to any men (well, besides MuNKi of course) since starting the process of growing children in my belly over 13 years ago, wearing a "swimsuit" that bared my middle section in front of men was a distinctly uncomfortable experience. I'm very glad of what TKD has done for my tummy muscles, but I was not banking on flashing them to men I don't know. (Well, any men, actually.) Usually BG and I have the pool completely to ourselves, so this was a shocking development. Fortunately I had a Prawn handy. The Prawn is never adverse to being carried, and even at 6 yrs old, she's still a featherlight 42 lbs or so, so I used her as belly camouflage until I could slip into the pool.

So far my swim bottoms are not holding up that great. They threaten to slip off when I swim forwards (though backwards is safe) and are fading after only 2 trips to the pool. The "swim top" on the other hand, is performing admirably. Though I'm still a little afraid of that space-age techno-fabric wicking away the entire pool when I jump in. O_o

No Pictures!

I took some today, but as I'm worn out and in bed, I'm not posting them 'til tomorrow. Instead, you get this random smattering of stuff.

Emmett has to get a chest x-ray tomorrow because he needs to have his teeth cleaned and he has (most likely) asthma, so the vet has to figure out how to safely knock him out. In the meantime, Enya is in the early stages of kidney disease, so she needs prescription food. Sigh.

Perhaps because of these things, I dreamt that MuNKi got a new, super-high-paying job (that he actually liked) and we were moving to Boston. Additionally, I had to strangle to death a woman who was trying to kill us all. (I think.) It didn't work very well. I could tell, because she was talking to me while I was trying to strangle her. I was pretty squeamish about the whole thing, so that may be why I did such a poor job. It would be nice to be able to say that she had a very telling name, such as "Housework" or "Vet Bills" but she didn't. I'm just a weird person with weird dreams, I guess.

And now, Ear Candy.


This song should be the anthem for the current (or perhaps any) Presidential Race. I ignore the vid and just listen.




And this one is just fun in a totally geeky way. I'm not generally a rap fan, but this partly musical and partly bad rap with some fun lyrics.

A Rash of Pictures

I got BG addicted to this liquid crack a couple of weeks ago. I shouldn't have told her where to buy it, because then I could have extorted large sums of $ from her for it.



It snowed again last night.




I figured as long as I was out there barefoot in the snow, I might as well get a picture of the bench. I'm hoping to be sitting there, sweating, in 3 mos or so.





Does my pussy make my ass look fat? Wait. Don't answer that.


At any rate, he's extrememly pleased with himself.




No, sadly, they aren't hickies. I traced this mystery rash to my hogu tonight. I don't think I've blogged my sparring gear. Maybe someday. It used to make me feel like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man when I put it on.



Now I have to come up with some sort of wrappy thing for the shoulder straps. Or go with the neck gaitor that MuNKi suggested. I think I'll try the wrappy thing.

Geekery

I'm so pleased to be raising mini geeks! ^_^


Helm's Deep




Aragorn, Legolas and half of Gimli (so he'll be short enough) man the wall.



Theoden hides inside where it's safe



Gandalf has brought the Riders of Rohan over Mount Spiderman just in time to save everyone from. . .



. . . one dead orc!



In other news, MuNKi made yummy bread



and stew



And I made "Lembas cookies."


One mouthful is enough to give a grown man a sugar buzz for an entire day. ^_^