The Menu

Since Thursday is my Saturday, rhetorically speaking, I prefer doing my grocery shopping today. So I've adjusted my menu accordingly. It's been a mental wrench: I'm used to seeing things listed out so clearly from Monday to Monday, when I used to shop. But as Life changes, the routines need to change as well.

It's rather silly- I got caught in this trap of, "if I can't shop on Monday, what's the point?" instead of tweaking my routines to fit my life. I know some other people would figure this out without too much trouble but it takes me a bit longer!

And here's a cool thing Audra tipped me off about: when you use Allrecipes, you can create menus and SHOPPING LISTS and print them off!! You can even add your own custom items to the list.

This is my second week doing it, and it's been a good thing, Martha Stewart!

So (fanfare- "ya ta ta TAAAAA~!") <-(think "Elmo's World")-- THE MENU:

Thursday: Enchiladas Verdes with Spanish rice and refried beans

Friday: Hamburgers
Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Saturday: Pizza with Italian sausage and mushrooms

Sunday: Leftovers (called "Tovers" by my family)

Monday: Slow-cooked Pork with a couple of indeterminate side dishes

Tuesday: Garlic chicken and rice

Wednesday: Whatever A. decides to make, it's his night :)

Thursday: Sweet and sour pork



This is the plan, anyway! Things often get moved around for the sake of convenience. At any rate, I highly recommend the "shopping list" feature at Allrecipes. I hope it remains a free service!

Socks make the world go round

This is my "make it yourself Christmas present" from Tammy!!!
I am proud of myself, yessss, preciousssss!

I MADE THESE! And I totally didn't understand what was going on when I got to the heel bit, nor about picking up stitches along the gusset, but I muddled along and with help from knittinghelp.com I DID IT!!!

*preening feathers*

They are the most lovely stripey things ever and I will never part with them!! lol

Then Audra got inspired and she made a pair of socks too-- we went to a yarn store in Tacoma and bought some lovely 100% Peruvian wool to make some socks (not scratchy!).

I'm now working on the first sock of my second pair ever. Using a pattern from Cider Moon called "Campfire Socks" because the yarn wanted to be made into a nice chunky sock.

S. has now put in her bid: "Mommy.... would you please make ME a pair of socks??" "OF COURRRRSSSE, Dahling!!"

D chimes in, "ME TOO!!"

My Dad has told me he's a size 11D.

So it will be one lovely sock knitfest around here for some time to come.

I got preached at!

But for the life of me, I can't remember what was said.

While I was sitting in the Sunday sermon today, the Spirit of God was nudging me, saying...THIS IS YOU. THIS IS YOU.

Then right after the service we had the annual church polity meeting and my feeble brain did not move the information from short-term into long-term memory.


*BANGING HEAD* what a dolt I am! I should have had my notebook out.

Fortunately I happen to live with the man who preached the sermon, so I can go look at the notes and get prompted again. This frustrates me about myself. I am so mentally scattered sometimes too often!!!


Upon returning home from church, I saw this in my inbox...sent to me by a born-again Christian--a plea to forward our support for the troops in Iraq, and embedded within the email was this:

Something good will happen to you tonight at 11:11 PM. This is not a joke. Someone will either call you or will talk to you online and say that they love you. Do not break this chain. Send this to 13 people in the next 15 minutes. Go.

THIS, my friends, is SUPERSTITION, plain and simple. Would that they would please, please, PLEASE expunge all of this tripe from the emails they forward thoughtlessly! After all, one doesn't want to appear unsupportive of the American troops (and I do support and value their sacrifice on my behalf, personally knowing several who have served over there)--BUT PLEASE. I want no part of superstitious chain emails.

This seems to be an ongoing theme of mine... email tripe. *sigh* I know that people have put up with me for years, so I need to be more understanding until they reach my *cough* level of discernment.

(tongue firmly planted in cheek--however, my sentiments on email tripe remain unchanged!)

Okay, off to find the sermon notes. No doubt I need it.

Cat Flushes Toilet

Hey, Rebecca, can your new furbies do THIS??

Cool!

Me: "What a great day to enjoy a cuppa and look at the snow!"

Kids: "Coffee?? YUCK!! I'm going outside!"


I just sat in the rocking chair last night at 10:30 p.m., lights out, living room blinds open, and watched the snow sift down like fine powdered sugar. I was thinking we'd only end up with an inch or so, but joy! About 4 inches!!

We had snow yesterday morning too, but it was only a dusting and disappeared by the afternoon.

It's not supposed to get above freezing until the weekend, so this will be with us for a while.

Glad I don't have a commute!!

Next Survivor Series (email meme)

*I* can't even do this!!
(thanks to Amy S. for the email!)
~~~~~~~~

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, complete science projects, cook, do laundry and pay a list of "pretend" bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.

Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives and send cards out on time.

Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment. He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care (weekend, evening, on a holiday or right when they're about to leave for vacation). He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.

Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.

There is only one TV between them, and a remote with dead batteries.

Each father will be required to know all of the words to every stupid song that comes on TV and the name of each and every character on cartoons.

The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, which they will apply to themselves either while driving or making three lunches.

Each man will have to make an Indian hut model with six toothpicks, a tortilla and one marker; and get a 4 year old to eat a serving of peas.

Each man must adorn himself with jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep his nails polished and eyebrows groomed. The men must try to get through each day without snot, spit-up or barf on their clothing.

During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties. They must try to explain what a tampon is for when the 6-yr old boy finds it in the purse.

They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.

Each will need to read a book and then pray with the children each night without falling asleep, and then feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair each morning by 7:00. They must leave the home with no food on their face or clothes.

They must clean up after their sick children at 2:00 a.m. and then spend the remainder of the day tending to that child and waiting on them hand and foot until they are better.

They must have a loving, age appropriate reply to, "You're not the boss of me".

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name.

Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

The kids vote them off the island based on performance.

The last man wins only if . . . he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice.

If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years...eventually earning the right to be called Mother.

eeghads

I'm so glad I don't follow football regularly. It's just too darn stressful. 4th Quarter, 4:24 to play, and Seattle's up over Dallas, 21-20.


Heartburn, anyone?



We started watching the game late, because Perry Mason takes precedence in this household.

edit: Wow, what a finish!! Super heartburn! We were toast until the Dallas guy fumbled that field goal. I guess it ain't over till it's over!

2006 booklist

Just for my benefit, since I tweaked the template and removed this list from the sidebar, I'm posting it here. Just ignore it.

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Rebecca Wells

Jurassic Park, Michael Crighton

Hank the Cowdog, John Erickson

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Robert C. O'Brien

Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years, 1811-1847, Alan Walker

Love My Rifle More Than You, Kayla Williams

By Lemony Snicket:

The Bad Beginning

The Reptile Room

The Wide Window

The Miserable Mill

The Austere Academy

The Ersatz Elevator

The Vile Village

The Hostile Hospital

The Carnivorous Carnival

The Slippery Slope

The Grim Grotto

The Penultimate Peril

The End

...and now Miguel, Joseph Krumgold

Dobry, Monica Shannon

Ginger Pye, Eleanor Estes

The Failsafe Cookbook, Sue Dengate

Little Lord Fauntleroy, Frances Hodgson Burnett

Because of Winn-Dixie, Kate DiCamillo

A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832, Joan W. Blos

Moby Dick, Herman Melville

Ruby Holler, Sharon Creech

Matilda, Roald Dahl

Princess in Pink (Vol. V of The Princess Diaries), Meg Cabot

Elfquest: Wild Hunt, Wendy Pini

Elfquest: Shadowstalker, ibid.

By Lucy Maud Montgomery:

Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Avonlea

Anne of the Island

Anne of Windy Poplars

Anne of Ingleside

Rainbow Valley

Rilla of Ingleside

A Long Way from Chicago, Richard Peck

A Year Down Yonder, Richard Peck

Eragon, Christopher Paolini

Eldest, Christopher Paolini

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code, Eoin Colfer

A Day No Pigs Would Die, Robert Newton Peck

Red Scarf Girl: A Diary of the Cultural Revolution, Ji-Li Jiang

How To Train Your Dragon, Cressida Cowell

The Laura Ingalls Wilder books:

Little House on the Prairie

On the Banks of Plum Creek

By the Shores of Silver Lake

The Long Winter

Little Town on the Prairie

These Happy Golden Years

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,, J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,, ditto :)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

All Shook Up: How Rock 'N' Roll Changed America, Glenn C. Altschuler

Trickster's Queen, Tamora Pierce

The New Dare to Discipline, James Dobson

Various Trixie Belden mysteries:

The Red Trailer Mystery

The Mysterious Visitor

The Gatehouse Mystery

The Mystery on Cobbett's Island

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, JK Rowling

The Mother Hunt, Rex Stout

Stepping Heavenward, Elizabeth Prentiss

Something like normal

Thank you to those of you who have been prodding me to post something (nudging my husband). Fact is, I need to get rid of the Christmas decorations around the blog and I get paralyzed with "I don't have time for that right now" --and then I don't bother to post either. Babysteps!

Yesterday we bid farewell to my parents at the Amtrak station and resumed our typical existence here in the soggy Pac NW. There are traces that a holiday did indeed occur here: Roboraptor on the kitchen floor, snarling and attacking bypassers; Sculpey clay on the dining room table; the Christmas cards taped to my kitchen cabinets; new pajamas and clothing in a basket, awaiting my attention.

It was a much-needed change of pace, and I am grateful that I took so much time off from the studio. Next week I'll be in the thick of it again with piano lessons, but for this week I'm cleaning the house, teaching my two kids, and practicing Beethoven's Sonata in E, Op. 14, No. 1, Allegro.

Along with changes of pace, once again I'm changing gears. I was so faithful at exercising, but then my kids' schedule changed, and I was not flexible enough to change with it, so exercising went out the window. After all, I reasoned, if I couldn't go from 8:30-9:30a for my favorite classes (Powerflex and Cycling), what was the point? I need to be home at that time to get the day moving along, or truly, everyone in the home will be in pajamas until noon. (Stereotypical homeschoolers).

So finally I sat down, put pencil (never pen! only pencils!) to my planbook, and deemed that 7-8:30a is MY TIME. Nobody wants me then, nobody needs me then, so I can go to Bally's then. Even though there isn't a class during that time, I'm reasonably clever enough to use the elliptical machine and the weights and get a decent workout. (Now if my mp3 player will only behave and start uploading files!)

So I went this morning and had a good time. Ran into many exercise buddies from before, including my favorite instructor, who gave me a hug and told me she hoped she'd see me back in class soon, "Because, after all," she confided, "It's a New Rear!"


On the kidlet front: (aka "mom moments that are funny to me but probably nobody else") We've been doing some basic letter writing for composition. Assignment: To write a Friendly Letter. D and S both worked on their rough drafts, then switched papers for proofreading and suggestions. D had signed his letter, "Your Chum, D___." S. offered the following suggestion for improvement: " You need to get rid of the comma after chum and add a P."

It took a good two minutes to restore calm.

We also have some money/math issues with S, it seems. I gave her a dollar today at Costco so she could buy herself and her brother a bottled water to take to karate with them. (The bottles are $.50 each.) Today on the way home from karate, S informed D that he owed her a dollar, since she'd spent a dollar on him buying water at Costco. "Excuse me??" I interrupted, "Just WHOSE dollar did you spend??"

"Well, I put in your dollar to buy a bottle, and got two quarters back. Then I used one of MY dollars to buy a bottle for D, and got two more quarters back."

We had to connect the dots for her, that she still in fact had her dollar (though in a "very special form" as my high school physics teacher was wont to say)--which caused much hilarity in the car as we drove home.

To quote Crystal from high school days: "I guess you had to be there."

Anyway, nice to be back to normal. Whatever that is. Happy New Year! Or new Rear, depending.