lost and found

With our family's involvement and interest in turtles and tortoises, we made plans to visit the Triple T Ranch up in Arroyo Grande. S got up close and personal with this Galapagos, who came running (well, stumping along rapidly) as soon as she saw visitors near her pen. She enjoyed having her long, leathery neck scratched, so S was happy to oblige.


After we finished the tour of the Triple T Ranch, we were hot and sweaty, so we headed over to Avila Beach (very crowded) where Mom, A and I sat in chairs in the shade of the lifeguard's tower while the kids did some wave jumping. Here S encourages us to live long, and prosper!
The lifeguards kept a vigilant watch...notice the warning on their platform, however, and heed! :). Keep your nasty kelp off. Or is that a rude central CA way to tell someone to go away?

On Saturday we went on another critter exploring trip. I took my new book, which I did not get at midnight when it was released, but rather, early the next day at Walmart, where it was much cheaper than the $35 list price ($17 something). (Guess which book THAT was). Anyway, I sat in the van and slowly began to read, dreading what COULD happen, but excited at the same time. I only made it to chapter 3 before the others decided it was too hot for critters to be out. S. wanted to do something SHE liked, rather than just nasty old critter hunting, so she chose....a picnic at the beach! Surprise, surprise.

This time we chose Pismo, since we hadn't been there yet. I settled myself on a blanket, still reading the book, which starts off with a bang and a zoom and tragedy.... while A and the kids went wave jumping. After about 30 minutes A came in.
"Where's S and D?" I ask.
"S came in to get a sandwich from you!" A tells me.
"She never did." Stone-cold fear in pit of stomach, new novel forgotten.
Nervous plans made: "You stay here. I'm walking down the beach to look for her."

D was sent the opposite direction from A, down toward the pier. I'm scanning the horizon, the water, the beach, and praying I know not what.

A and D came back. No S. Assuming a calmness I most certainly did not feel, I went to the lifeguard station. "Missing girl, age 8, tall, pink swimsuit, talks to anyone (why oh why is she so friendly?), reasonably competent swimmer (did she get too tired out? STOP that thought right there)..." The lifeguard thanks me for remaining calm (if he only knew), assures me there's no undertow out there, that this happens often and the kids get disoriented because the waves push them further south (why did I not tell the kids to look for the hotel with the green roof for a landmark, stupid dolt, I know better than that!)-- hands me a pair of binoculars while he puts in a radio call for the beach truck. D. sits on the blankets, A gets in the truck, I scan the horizon, the beach, the waves.

The red truck is gone for an age, then returns. "Oceano State Beach has her. We're going to pick her up." I burst into tears.

I walk back to our blankets, drizzly. A woman calls out to me. "Did you find her??" "YES!" I sniffle. "Good!!" she smiles, also teary-eyed, I am surprised to see.

S arrives back, blanket-wrapped, with Daddy and the lifeguard in the big red truck. She had indeed gotten out of the water to get a sandwich, but noticed a seal bobbing up and down in the water. She followed the seal until she didn't know where she was, and asked two ladies for help, who took her to the ranger, and so forth. She was at the next beach further south, not even at Pismo at all!

Overwhelming relief, overwhelming self-condemnation, overwhelming thanks and praise of God's mercy and grace to foolish me.

I am through with beach excursions at this point. Not unless I have a long-range tether, based on the same design some parents use on their toddlers (think kids on a leash).

Day 2: Skinny Bears and Bluebellies

After a restful night's sleep, A. wanted to visit the dunes again. Driving past field upon field of strawberries, broccoli, and celery, we went out to Oso Flaco Lake just off Hwy 1. There's a nature trail that cuts over the lake and then out to the dunes. ooo, and if you park outside the gate, you don't have to pay! :) So, cheapskates that we are, naturally we parked by the broccoli field and walked in a little farther.

Lake Oso Flaco (which, being translated, means Skinny Bear):
We didn't make it too far down the trail before we got blown away once again by the chilly wind off the ocean. But, point of interest.... once you get down to the beach, this is where Cecil B. DeMille filmed the movie The Ten Commandments. When he finished the movie, he just left the sets there. There are plans for archaeological digs to uncover the set, as funds become available. There's a couple of sphinxes out there, under 6 feet of sand. Kewl! :) Also, I'm told that part of the third Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed out there as well.

Hurriedly returning to less breezy spots, I was interested in what looked like rudbeckia (black-eyed Susans) but with teensy little petals:
So we retired to the local Dune Interpretive Center or whatever it's called.... and determined that this is probably called "coastal sneezeweed." Priceless name! While I was muddling about these little flowers, a bee got busy with a thistle--so I channelled my inner Rebecca and took a few snaps, this being the clearest shot (I am still determining how close I can get and still get a good picture):
After lunch, D. wanted to go critter hunting. We took him to a newish park near the local airport and did some hiking through the ubiquitous eucalyptus groves. Hoping to find some kind of snake, of course, but he was unsuccessful. We did do some good catch-and-releasing of bluebelly lizards (aka fence lizard):
Happy child. BTW his t-shirt says, "Every great idea I have gets me in trouble." (this sent a man into gales of laughter when we were walking back in from Lake Oso Flaco). Here's a better picture of why it's called a "bluebelly":
Once you get the lizards on their back like that, they stay calm and 'take a nap' - you can stroke their tummies and they like it. Well, at least, they don't struggle against it. Maybe they're actually paralyzed with fear, I dunno...but to make myself feel better I just assume they like it.

OKAY. enough on the computer for today! More photos later. We have spent a LOT of time at the beach, which is lovely.

"what I did on my vacation..." day 1

I am so behind. I just uploaded 173 pictures from my camera to the laptop. Don't worry, you wont be seeing all 173~!

So anyway.... one week ago today, we drove allllll day Tuesday and allllllll night long, arriving in Santa Maria at 5:30 a.m.

A. and I went directly to bed. S. took a nap. D. just stayed up and talked with Grandma.

That afternoon I took the kids to Paul Nelson Pool:

...where I sat on the grass and knitted while they swam and went down a waterslide like this (look, Ma, BLUE SKY!):


After dinner, we went to the closest beach, Guadalupe--where you do NOT swim, because the undertow is too great. Matter of fact, we darn near froze because the marine layer (aka FOG) was blowing in and the wind, as always, was pretty strong. Grandma and D. were rather chilly posing for this shot (she will kill me if she sees that I put this here):
But, cold water, marine layer fog, and stiff wind notwithstanding, S still managed to fall and get her bum all wet:

And the morning, evening, morning and evening were The First Day.

Audra's Kitty Slayer

Link above....My dear friend gets her five minutes of fame!! (on the video, not the text) :) :( But at the expense of MissyLou, her kitty. Here's the video link....I can only get it to work in IE, not firefox. Ah well.

So I'm trying to get a hold of Audra to find out if Fish and Wildlife caught that bad ol' puddy tat last night!

overload

madness. just madness. The Today show is on, my father is talking, my mother is talking, my children are singing "Foood, glorious fooooooooooood," and my husband is in search of caffeinated coffee.

IT'S TOO NOISY AROUND HERE!

I need a more simple, quiet existence.

This is why the TV stays off when I am in my natural environment. I canNOT talk, listen, or think when that thing is on.

Will everyone just SHUT. UP.

Thank you. Vent over. I think.

Remembering Peter

I learned late last night that my high school classmate Peter Garland was killed in a car accident. Since I'm blogging "on the road" from California right now, I'm linking to all the stories I'm able to pull up on Google search. Looks like most of the stories are just one story, passed around via newswire.

Peter was the strong, silent type who didn't let his guard down much...well, not around silly, flighty girls like me. But he was a man of integrity and respected. My prayers are with his family.

Head-on crash kills police sergeant

Sheriff's sergeant killed in head-on crash

Klickitat County Sergeant Dead in Crash South of Toppenish

Death almost always catches us by surprise. Are we ever really, truly prepared for it? Peter is enjoying the presence of Jesus Christ right now. That thought is too big for my mind to encompass. I look at the report and think, what a waste...he was only 38! He was doing great things! He has a wife and two sons!

But God's thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and his ways higher than mine. Thankfully.

Forgive the scatteredness of this post. I'm dealing with this in the best way I know how.

insomnia

Maybe it was the flash of lightning followed by grumbly thunder. Maybe it was all the celery I ate today, making my stomach grumbly. Whatever it is, I'm wide awake. Kids are sleeping in a tent in the backyard...probably another reason I woke up when the thunderstorm came through...but they never woke up or budged back into the house.

And this insomnia comes after a day when I felt like I could and should go to bed and sleep off the exhaustion that's been with me ever since we went to Ohop Lake Tuesday and Wednesday to escape the 90 degree weather.

So here I am, blogging from the laptop in the living room so I don't disturb my dear husband's beauty sleep.

We picked cherries today. I borrowed a cherry pitter thingymabob with instructions in German on how to operate it. (Where's Susan when you need her?) Anyway, I figured out why kirsch is called kirsch---ohhh, because it must be the word for "cherry" in German! I hadn't known that before. Apparently if you use this pitter you can stone 10 kg of cherries in one hour. That would be 22 lbs, for us non-metric Americans. Well, in my 45 minutes or so, I managed to do 4 lbs. Nowhere near the 22. :) When I finished with the cherries, I looked like I'd been murdering gophers. I'm thinking it will be a while before the stains on my fingers and thumbs go away!

Tomorrow I need to make/can cherry pie filling. I have never done this before, so it will be An Adventure. 4 lbs will only make 2 qts of filling, so that's not enough to go to all the effort of canning. Fortunately, the man whose cherries we picked also gave me a bunch of cherries from his deep freezer that he'd pitted but never used. So I'm going to thaw them and use those for the remaining filling.

I've got that to do, and get ready for our upcoming trip to California. We're leaving Tuesday morning and driving straight through, with a pit-stop in Portland to a bookstore (OF course), and dinner somewhere between Salem and Eugene. We'll go through the pitiless Sacramento Valley under cover of darkness (the way it's best observed IMHO) and cut over to the coast highway at San Jose for the remainder of the trip. Have to smell the garlic at Gilroy, don't you know, and laugh at the sign that says "It's happening in Soledad!" (When really, nothing happens in Soledad except maybe a lettuce festival?) Okay, forgive me, it's part of the New Wine Country too. Like Santa Maria and surrounding areas has become. What used to be beef is now wine. ANYway, we'll pull into Santa Maria sometime Wednesday morning and turn the grandkids over to the grandparents so we can sleep off the grueling trip. :)


Ah. Sleep. I don't know if I can go there yet. I'll pick up a book and see how far I get before having to put it down. Writing stimulates too much of my brain and keeps me awake. I'll pay the price for this tomorrow, so I'd better post and close the lid here.

Sarah's Meme

Sarah has asked some ORIGINAL questions on her blog (she's an original person :) ) and invited others to participate if they wanted to. So since my one brainwave is completely UNoriginal this fine, hot morning.... I'll just answer her questions and call it good for a blog post today!

1. Do you have a favourite Bible translation, and why?


I grew up using/memorizing from the King James Version. Didn't know there WAS another version... unless, as the pastor was fond of saying, it was a "PERversion." I still enjoy it for its flow, its poetry, and the long history I have with it. But my favorite translation is the New American Standard Bible. My husband gave it to me for a wedding present and I love to study from it. And I've even begun to re-memorize passages from it.

2. What is the best children's book that you have read with your child (or friend or relative's child) and wanted to read again just because it was just so good? Is there a book you remember with happy nostalgia from your childhood?


The Velveteen Rabbit always makes me cry. So does The Little Match Girl. For fun fun fun, I love to read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes, or Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, um... can't remember the author.

3. Why do you blog? Is it a case of 'I blog therefore I am', is it just a hobby, or do you have a desire to spread the word or teach (etc)? ;)


I blog to record the things I too easily forget. I am not a detail person, and I don't want to look back over my life and the lives of my children with a "huh?" This way I can reread the events that mattered to me. Hm. Thinking about it... .makes my blog topics look trivial, rather Seinfeldish.

4. Jeremy Clarkson once said that: "What's wrong with global warming? We might lose Holland but there are other places to go on holiday.."...do you think global warming is a result of our 'carbon footprints' or do you question the validity of it? (don't worry this isn't a loaded question I won't tell you off for not believing in it or vice versa, I'm just interested).


We haven't been recording this information long enough to make a valid conclusion that This Is Global Warming. Back in the 1970's the concern was for Global Cooling and the coming Ice Age. IMO, the earth is in a rhythm where it's warmer right now. It'll eventually shift back to cooling. Again, JMO.

5. To tan or not to tan? Do you like to sunbathe/use sunbeds or do you prefer the shade?


I used to try to get a tan. Now I use SPF 30 religiously and let the freckles fall where they may. I'm fair complected and I don't want skin problems brought on by foolish decisions.

Monday, Monday

I am struggling to consciousness here this morning, Mao mug of coffee next to me steaming with liquid awareness...my son, surprisingly, wide awake and chatty. He's talking about all the frogs he plans to catch tomorrow when we go to Ohop Lake with Audra. I'm fantasizing about sitting and knitting, or sitting and reading....or just plain sitting.

Me: "So....you gonna make breakfast or not?"

D: "I'm working toward that." Ah. He has bounded off to the kitchen.

Me: "So.....whatcha making?"

D: "What's it sound like?" I hear the clinking of glass, a "tap tap tap" crunchy sound.

Me: "Scrambled eggs?"

D: "Precisely."

His specialty is cheesy scrambled eggs with a sprinkle of parsley and some onion. S prefers to make pancakes when it's her turn to make breakfast. They're both getting rather good at their one thing they do.

Eventually we will branch this out to the "one dinner" that they can do. And then add on from there. What I really need them to do, however, is to learn how to make The Cookie Recipe. Because I canNOT control myself when it comes to that stupid dough. I find myself reaching for a nibble here, a scrape there... and next thing you know I've eaten the equivalent of four cookies, just in dough.... and let me tell you, each cookie is worth 4 points on the Weight Watchers points system. I need to be applying that whole passage from Proverbs 4:14-15 in this area.... just substitute "cookie dough" for the word "wicked" or "evil men" and it comes out just about right for me:

"Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not proceed in the way of evil men.

Avoid it, do not pass by it; turn away from it and pass on."

That is exactly what I have to do with this because I have no resistance at this point.

Okay, for the record I'm truly not trying to make light of scripture in this case.... this is a wisdom passage, and it is applicable to an area where I struggle. Okay? Because if I'm not eating/sleeping/exercising right... then I am not taking care of the one temple that God has given me, and I am not keeping my body under subjection, as He directs in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.

Sermonette over.

D has just returned to the living room. "I feel like I'm breathing fire."

Me: "Did you put pepper on your eggs?"

D: "Lots. I can knock my swim mates out with hot breath."

Well, that about wraps up the early morning from the glorious Northwest. Must get my day started, and the halflings off to swim lessons.

I love summer.

Happy Birthday to Me!

...Except that was back in the middle of the merry merry month of May. :) Regardless, I got a package from a brown delivery truck today that carried my birthday present to myself, all the way from Racine, WI. BEHOLD.

NO, my daughter didn't come from Racine, sillies. I have a working CAMERA now!!!

Seems like every summer I have a photo of D just like this. the floaty toys change, the boy definitely changes, but the cheesy grin and the quik-set pool is the same.

These are never exactly the same, but very dependable yearly, nonetheless. Meet Graham Thomas, my favorite yellow rose in the front yard.

Supposedly this is a Tropicana rose, but all the other Tropicanas I've seen have huge blooms and aren't quite so glowing. This has smallish blooms, more toward a miniature rose but larger. In between miniature and florabunda. And it just glows. A. snipped me one of these roses and put it in a vase for when I came home from the hospital after having D. TEN YEARS AGO.


So let me just give my thanks to Rebecca and John for thinking of me when they were fixing to sell their old camera~! It works great. And the USB quick upload thingy is pretty cool too.

Just to prove how excited I am to have a camera again....I opened that box about 15 minutes ago and now there's photos on the blog. now how's that for efficiency? *fluffing hair*

....is that my dinner smoking on the grill?! eep!

Help Meet - Some Brief Thoughts

I've heard so many online friends talk about Debi Pearl's book Created to be His Helpmeet that I had to read it. For several years I immersed myself in what I call "Titus 2"-type books because my own life desperately needed it, but this was one that I had not read yet.

I will submit that The Church as a whole steers pretty clear of husband and wife roles. Biblical teaching is desperately needed in this area, just so we can get our heads and hearts straight.

Debi's book has some good stuff in it. (I have since returned the book so I can't really do "chapter and verse" quotations here, so please bear with me.) She talks about women who use their so-called spirituality to manipulate their husbands, and even usurp their husband's authority. There's also a goodish section on "what kind" of husband you have - either visionary, or dominant, or steady that I thought was worth consideration. Oh, here's a link to that on their web site. I also appreciated the fact that her discussion of modesty was balanced. We are NOT bound by the Law in any way, shape or form, and I have heard too many fundamentalists use the verse "Thou shalt not wear that which pertaineth to a man" to be a blanket condemnation of women wearing pants... or in the opinion of the late Jack Hyles, jean skirts (because denim is a supposedly an exclusively male material). But that's putting a 20th century spin on a verse that only applied to the nation of Israel. Debi does well to bring that out.

That said, this book made me a bit concerned. Some of it was Debi's overall tone/style of writing, which is just a personal thing on my part and not to be regarded as a just criticism. However, the overall impression given throughout the book is that if the woman just gets her act together, then her husband will too and all will be well. A giggle and a roll in the hay will put your marriage back on the right track, and if your husband's eyes/heart are straying, then it's YOUR fault because you aren't X, Y, or Z enough. Sisters. THIS IS BONDAGE. We are fallen creatures who do right only by the grace of God. And even if you are doing all the good/right you can before God and your husband, your husband may still walk away because of his own sin issues. Debi presents her topic with the approach of "if you do this, then you WILL have a heavenly marriage" and in reality, it does not always play out that way. Some women will come away from this book feeling incredibly guilty over things that they could not control.

She also interprets the whole David/Bathsheba thing, that Bathsheba was not discreet, thereby luring David to his doom. Debi condemns Bathsheba, whereas God is silent on this issue. Bathsheba wasn't doing her bathing in the common square where all could see...she went to the place where she'd have the most privacy-- her roof. DAVID was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And when a person is out of fellowship with God, their opportunities to sin increase. David, the absolute monarch, was in control of the situation, not Bathsheba. She was, essentially, chattel, forced to the whim of a man out of fellowship with his Lord.

Interestingly enough, several chapters later she brings up a discourse on Proverbs 31-- the stuff that Solomon's MOTHER taught him.... but does Debi mention that this is the self-same Bathsheba that she has already written off as indiscreet and the cause of David's moral failure? She does not.

Personally, I would recommend this book with reservations. Of course, with everything, you must be discerning with what you read. Glean the wheat from the chaff. If you're looking for a book that is absolutely saturated with God's wisdom, scripture references and principles based directly on the word of God....this is not it. This book has a theme verse per chapter, a few letters/situations from their readers, and Debi's solution to their problem.

For a book that drips scripture and wisdom based on Biblical principles, I prefer and recommend The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace. You can get it here, or look at an online weekly Bible study here. Second would be A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George.

Not Sunday-itis After All

This past weekend, the Whirlwind-whose-name-is-Jennifer blew over onto my side of the state, bringing her usual entourage of insanity with her. All time is mañana time with her. It was great fun while it lasted.

Sunday afternoon we went to the Les Gove park in Auburn. There's a little water playground there, and with temps in the 80's it sounded like a good idea. D promptly nicknamed the place "Awesome Island" and he and S ran through the various squirting devices, thoroughly soaking themselves and their friends and having a good time, whilst Jennifer, Audra, Bonnie and I sat and nattered about Life, The Universe, and Everything. Jennifer's son kept wanting to "borrow" a water bottle--any water bottle--so he could fill it up and toss it on people ("NO, this water is for DRINKING"), and Audra's daughter kept sneaking handfuls of my Trader Joe's Pirate's Booty (think Cheetos, but without the nasty orange color). I didn't mind--the child usually eats air, not food...but after a while Audra put an end to it.

We left with plenty of time to get home and ready for evening services at church. S: "I don't feel well. My head's all stuffy and it hurts." Yeah, right, kid. (My sympathy was non-existent.) She did this last week as well, and both D. and I chalked this up to "Sunday-itis" - she didn't really want to go to church, therefore was fabricating some illness. I was kind, but firm. "Sorry, hon, but I have to go play the piano, and daddy has to teach. I can't leave you here alone." I was wondering how far she'd carry it.

We got to church...she stayed in the car. I played the piano, then went to check on her. Hmm. she DID feel warm, but she'd just spent the day running around in the hot sun...

sigh....I AM A BAD MOMMY. My poor child WAS actually sick. When we got home, I took her temperature: 101.3. AUGH, the guilt!! I was caught, thinking this was version 2.0 of last Sunday's Sundayitis. Which leads one to the truism...NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING. Why? It's all contained in the middle word, friend, all in that word.

So S went immediately to bed, and I mentally beat myself up over being such a heartless, unkind mom who jumps to false conclusions. Isn't this the soul of 1 Corinthians 13? Love believes the best about a person instead of assuming the worst? Hopes for the best in a person? Clearly there is more work that needs to be done in my life in this area.

whole lotta (insert whatever) goin' on

So, um... hello to my four readers! :)

To sum up: In the past weeks, we have pressed on to finish our school year with WAVA; canned two batches of strawberry jam; attended D and S's final piano recital of the year; gone to a Mariners' Game (they lost); been interviewed/filmed by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation for a part in a DVD they're composing for alternative education; taken a weekend sabbatical sans kids to the Tacoma waterfront; plugged up the dishwasher so it wouldn't drain; taken apart same dishwasher at least 8 times to determine the source of the plug; contemplated shelling out $199 for a new cheapo dishwasher, then fixing old one once we removed the source of the problem: a plastic fork tine and an orange pip stuck near the valve; primed the front bathroom walls; primed the porch railing; pressure-washed the back porch in preparation for painting; and accidentally left $20 worth of household supplies at the checkout stand at WalMart....AFTER having paid for them. And customer service can't find it. If you came home from Wally's yesterday with three sticks of deodorant, a new mop head, and two tablecloths that you did NOT purchase.... please email me.

There's more, too, but I don't want to drive you away from this site begging for mercy.

The dishwasher saga has been going on since last Friday. A. now knows the ins and outs of this dishwasher, let me tell you. I started to take the dishwasher apart, but came down with some vague stomach virus thing that knocked me queasy with a low grade fever through Sunday.... (sorry I didn't call you back, Lori... that's why) --so A. had to finish it up for me.

Tomorrow D turns 10!!! sigh. All you moms of toddlers..........hug em now, huh? And all you can. Every day. Even if the hug is more like a strangle at times. :) I've baked a cake that needs frosting and decorating (with dragons). We're having a family thing tomorrow, then Friday we're hooking up with Crystal and her two halflings up in Seattle. Maybe she'll take pictures. :p

Then in July we'll be taking D. to his birthday present over at the Tacoma Dome: Walking With Dinosaurs exhibit. This has better be cool because it was spendy even at WAVA group rates!

what lies beneath

Today, arriving by the grace of Grandma K. and the Big Brown Truck, D and S received a White's Prizm II Metal Detector for a shared birthday present.

It arrived whilst they were at a piano lesson, so A and I got to play with it first. Our first booty: 1 penny! WOOHOO!

The thing has a discriminator on it so you know whether you're over a nail, a pop tab, or a diamond ring. However, I'm a little dubious about its reliability.... when I tossed MY wedding ring on the ground, it registered as a nail. (Hm. Must examine this ring more closely.)

We left the detector in a conspicuous place so they'd find it easily when they came home from piano. Overjoyed kids! Pirate's booty to be found! Caches to be sought! The treasure hunt is on!

Scanning a small portion of our backyard, the kids and A recovered 11 pennies, 3 nickels, 1 dime, 2 quarters, a button (or a cracker jack toy, can't tell), a fishing weight, a click-clack/hair thing, and the back water spigot handle that D lost when he was 3.

What would make D's joy complete: finding that mammoth skeleton he KNOWS is in our backyard somewhere...

We have big plans for this metal detector, oh yesss. Maybe it will be the O family version of geocaching.

The eighth thing

Rebecca nailed me to do the "8 things about me" meme, when I had already / recently completed 7. So I told her I'd think on it and try to come up with something that she didn't know.

So here it is. Number eight. woot.

8.) I can't pronounce "frontier" or "windmill" properly unless I specifically think about it in advance. Frontier I have ALWAYS pronounced "frawn-tier" because that's how I remember singing the Davy Crockett song when I was a kidlet. And windmill comes out sounding like "wind-meal"--UNLESS I stop and make myself say it right.

Yes! Eight useless facts about me!

It's not easy being...

GREEN

You are a very calm and contemplative person. Others are drawn to your peaceful, nurturing nature.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

Hat Tip to Karen, my BF's SIL!

Bathroom Remodeling Tip #42

Always doublecheck to be sure your tub walls are square BEFORE applying adhesive to the shower panels.

a two-front battle

Well, as A. went to put up the baseboards in the bathroom so we could reinstall the toilet.... he discovered that the wall behind the toilet ALSO has water damage and needed replacing.

We stood in despair in the bathroom for several long minutes. So close to Ultimate Fruition... and so easily wrenched from our grasp.

Ah well, fortunately we have more greenboard, tape and mud. So today, our holiday, A. carefully cut out the damaged section and replaced it with fresh. He'll texture it in a while, install moulding (forget the self-stick baseboard from McLendon's Hardware, it's useless) and then I'll paint. No more "Contentment" in the bathroom---the color was too yellowey for the tile and flooring. We're going for "Sandstone." And the toilet MUST go back today. Especially since tomorrow is piano lessons and that bathroom needs to be functional!!

Yesterday we had a bit of excitement. D and S came running back to tell me "there's a bird in the house!!" Sure enough... it had flown down the chimney (where S had seen it emerge) and then sought refuge behind the piano. We turned off all the lights and opened the doors wide. It was a pretty little thing, olive and yellow with a white circle around its eye. A identified it as a warbler, but wasn't sure what kind.

Photo by Sherry Hagen, from birdweb.org

Eventually after a few frantic flappings around the living room area, it reoriented itself and headed out the front door and away. Escaping the giants. A. grabbed his Peterson's Field Guide to Western Birds and identified it as a McGillivray's Warbler. He'd never seen one before, so he added it to his life list. How courteous of the bird to come to him, rather than his going to search for it!

Guinea pig arriving from Chewelah later on tonight....a surprise gift for D., whose birthday is coming up.

A funny thing happened on the way to karate...

Yesterday on the way to karate, my son sighed to himself, then asked, "Mom, has anyone ever thought of a giant centipede?"



"Um...not sure, why do you ask?"



"I mean for a monster movie."



"Ohhhh.... yeah, I think that's been done already, hon."

Another sigh, and a long pause.



".......What about giant people?"

"Gulliver's Travels. Already been done."



(Frustrated exhale) "I want to make a scary movie that nobody's thought of before!"

That's my boy.


In other news, we're pressing on to getting that front bathroom finished. Today the linoleum guys came bright and early to put down new floor. It being a holiday weekend and lovely outside, they came early so they could start weekending sooner! Anyway, new floor is down... I have to scrub the walls with TSP, sand in some places where the paint looks peely and gross, and put a nice coat of Kilz (primer) before putting up my chosen paint color of "Contentment." (Also known as eggshell.)



I know, I know, I vowed to use color last summer when I was redoing the livingroom/entry/halls....but this is the leftover ceiling paint from the kitchen. :) I'm being thrifty. When it's all said and done it'll be beige/tan/navy blue. We're going with the Washington State Tsunami Poster theme... ah nuts, I can't move it down here, where it's relevant!! Okay, so you've already seen it at the top of this post, and now you know why it's attached to this post. (pfft on blogger!) Anyway, when A. was working at The Press, they ran a batch of this very image for The State and he took one of the overruns and framed it. (He wasn't the only one... it was a rather popular print run with the employees!) Anyway, it'll be perfect for the kids' bathroom! :) We'll accent with some other beachy things and call it good. And Lord willing, the bathroom will be completely useable by this time next week.

If slow and steady wins the race...

...why am I so out of breath?

I speak metaphorically, of course. I do not run. It ranks right up there with visits to the dentist or removing hair from drains.

But it seems like the closer to the end of the school year I get, the more time demands there are. I feel like just hanging a sign around my neck that says "No, NO, NOOOOO, I am not available!" But that's not me. I'm too interested in pleasing people (the fear of man brings a snare) so I go ahead and try to accommodate yet one more event.

It's insane. And by extension, I am insane.

I'm reminded of Atalanta's race, getting distracted by the golden apples Hippomene tossed--stopping to pick them up... and thereby losing the race.

So. NO MORE GOLDEN APPLES. And the answer to your question is NO.

aebleskivers 101

So this morning, armed with an aebleskiver recipe from allrecipes.com, my new $2.99 pan, and a knitting needle-- I got to work creating delightful Danish doughballs. (Had to alliterate, sorry).

Whoops, I didn't season the brand-new cast iron pan first. So everything got stuck in short order. The breakfast was certainly doughballs, but not delightful, and I would wager that no Dane would ever claim affinity for my sad production.

I left it all on the stovetop and bustled away to our Ladies' Brunch (we didn't call it "Mother's Day Brunch" because not everyone's a mother but we're all ladies--so there it is). A nice, relaxing devotional (on the book of Ruth), some good lemon bars, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and sandwiches with no crusts. When I came home, it hit me like a ton of feather pillows that I was absolutely exhausted. So my DH gave me the luxury of an uninterrupted nap.

Later on I decided to have another go at the aebleskivers. By now the cast iron pan had been seasoned a little bit, so I tried again with less batter in the holes, and waiting longer before attempting to turn. Success! No, they weren't perfect balls like Arne's makes in Solvang, but they at least came out of the pan better. Kinda ovoid-shaped but without the pointy end. I still messed a few of them up, but once you sprinkle with powdered sugar and raspberry jam, it's all good. D. didn't' care for them very much, so A. and S. polished them off. A. came in later and told me I needed to make these for a church social or fellowship at our house around New Year's. (Interestingly enough, that's when the Danes traditionally have them--Christmas and New Year's.)

I'm hoping to get another digital camera within the next few weeks. Audra's old one is getting rather finicky and more often than not, when I take a picture and later try to retrieve it, I get "disk error" or "file error" and no photo at all. :( My last digital camera, an Olympus D-520 zoom - I remember spending about $300 for it. 2.0 whopping MP! (whoa! ); 3x optical zoom + 4x digital zoom (crud); 1.5" viewfinder; Quicktime movie mode---ahh, this baby was state of the art. 5 years ago.

Right now I'm totally up for getting a "point and shoot" camera but I keep looking at these Pentax and Canon things. Lead me not into temptation. Just lead me to a Best Buy and I'll do the rest.

birthaversary fun

Nothing like getting up in the morning, checking your email, and having a wacky Hallmark e-card from a friend. Thanks, Rebecca! :) I watched it three times.

This week Grandma Karen has been here. We have been eating out almost every night. I have been doing my utmost to not overdo it, and it's paid off--the scale this morning is exactly where it was at this time last week, so I'm extremely pleased!

In one of our wanderings about, we stopped at Value Village, the so-called "department thrift store." S. needed a new pair of tennis shoes. The halfling is only 8 years old and she is wearing a woman's size 6 shoe!! Amazon girl. I stumbled across several treasures while there - an aebleskiver pan for only $2.99!! Not that I've ever made aebleskivers but I sure loved having them when we would visit Solvang. And Petersen's Yummy Burgers, which I think is now gone, but that's another story. ANYway, I'm going to try to make aebleskivers with raspberry jam for breakfast tomorrow.

And the brass ring of finds at Value Village yesterday for me? A coffee mug that has a picture of Chairman Mao on it!!! I laughed my head off-- who wants a coffee mug with Mao Tse-tung on it? Well........ I did! I'm going to take it to church Sunday and have my coffee in it during Sunday school and see what happens. And think what a great White Elephant Christmas present that will be! It's nice to be prepared for absolutely everything. Like I said, brass ring.

It's quiet on the western front. This means that the kids have forsaken math for greener pastures - or backyards. We're off to Red Lobster for dinner in a bit so I'd better crack that whip.

A Google meme: "(Your name) needs..."

This is clever. Naturally, I didn't think of it; I'm stealing it from Sarah again. The deal is this: Google search your first name with the word "needs" after it (no quote marks) and see what the top 10 results are.

Since mine are pretty funny, I'm sharing: ( I DID eliminate one of them as not being family-friendly)

1. E__ NEEDS ANOTHER MIRACLE!!
2. Auntie E__ needs a drink.
3. E__ needs to wear shirts
4. E__ needs to go to bed!
5. The Looney Bin: E__ needs
6. Camp E__ Needs Volunteers
7. E__ Needs a New Hobby
8. E__ needs some friends to love her
9. American Sports Mag needs pictures of E__
10. (The funniest one of all IMO) E__ needs an exorcism.
    

I wanna talk about "meme" ---(7 random things about me)

Eep! I got tagged by Sarah-girl. The rules state that I am supposed to name seven people at the end of this meme to replicate the process, creating a ponzi scheme of memes, going viral.... but I, as always, take exception to The Rules and will not force you to participate. But I always like to know factoids about people so please leave a comment if you DO participate in this meme.

7 Random Things about Me:

1. Banana should never be a flavor in anything. Ever. Dittos to watermelon. I do, however, enjoy REAL bananas, as long as they are still slightly green. Age spots--out they go. (This may be a problem for me personally as I grow older...must ponder this more.)
   
2. I hate driving in the rain. This makes life in the Pacific Northwest a bit of a challenge at times.
3. I wrecked my fiance's car THE DAY before he was going to drive it to Washington State from South Carolina. (Hence the reason behind #2) He was able to get a much better one and drive it instead.
4. Hair must be attached to your head. If it is loose and floating around, or matted in shower drains, I will physically gag. I also get the willies when guys have a carpet of chest and/or back hair.
5. The worst restaurant ever was in Gardiner, Montana, where some creatively disgruntled cook took and wrapped his/her hair around a french fry 39 times, fried it in oil, and served it with a pile of other fries to our table of hungry youth group kids returning from a missions trip. I ended up leaving the table and wandering around the gift shop for the remainder of the meal. (This is a reflection of #4 but worthy of its own point).
6. There is nothing more appropriate to finish a warm summer's day than a bowl of strawberries and cream.
7. My grandmother named me. My first name for her beloved country, my middle name after herself. Oh no, she wasn't vain.

If you're reading this--I'd love to see some randomizing from you! BUT I refuse to manipulate or coerce you. ;)

Elementary wand safety and Bank Encounters

After I finished up teaching piano last Wednesday, I headed over to the local bank where I had to wait in a line to make a deposit. My attention caught on the young man in front of me. As he stood there, it looked as if he had no left buttock! I was trying not to stare (who wants to be caught looking at a man's rear end?!), but really....his pants were all caved in and hanging on one side. I found myself thinking of Mad-Eye Moody chastising Harry Potter: "DON'T put your wand in your back pocket, boy! Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!" Moody continues his rant quietly: "Elementary wand safety...nobody bothers with it anymore."

To distract myself from this distracting distraction I listened to the conversation taking place behind me. One of the bank workers was chatting up the man who entered after me. "Hey, Rex, how's it going? Still live on ________ Avenue" and so forth. As I eavesdropped, two things became clear to me: 1) There aren't that many people named Rex, and 2) I know one who lives on ____ Avenue. I venture a peek over my shoulder to find that it is indeed the Rex I know--the one who's Crystal's and Richard's dad. :) We exchanged small talk for a bit until it was my turn to see the teller. So Rex asked me if I knew about the upcoming joy anticipated by the Nuclear Microsoft Family--and the crazy thing is, I honestly thought I did. For some reason I wasn't surprised, and said, oh yeah, I knew about it. But Crystal hadn't said anything yet on her blog!!

So, like the Chinese emperor who had a nightingale, I guess a little bird told me.

Meanwhile I completely missed seeing the man in front of me walk up to the teller so I could more closely observe his supposed missing buttock.

Anyway, a new baby is more interesting. Many congratulations to Crystal, Aaron, Joel and Micah! (And the extended family too!)

More projects than I can shake a knitting needle at

A. observed this morning that I had 3 knitting projects going and was about to embark on a fourth.

Me, thinking: "so??"

I'm just about finished with a scarf (decorative) made out of a ribbony-type yarn--well, I guess it's not truly yarn, is it? It's made in Italy and has green, gold and purple in it. Shiny. I can finish this off in an afternoon. (I'm not a fast knitter, ok?)

I'm finishing up the second sock of S's pair of pinky red purply stripey socks made of Regia "crazy color" yarn. Currently on the heel flap. I can get this done in the next week if I do a little bit every day.

I'm still working on a baby blanket for some unknown child recipient. I don't think I will ever make a full-sized afghan because just a baby blanket is taking so long!!

AND--I went to the Lamb's Ear yesterday and got the requisite supplies for A's Christmas sweater. yes, I'm starting it now, to get it ready in time, I hope. See paragraph #3 above.

Meanwhile, it's a yummy, sunny day and I'm sitting here dinking on the puter while the kids watch Godzilla. Must get in gear to accomplish the day's tasks. S. still needs to finish her schoolwork!!!

Truth in advertising?

...or rather, appearance v. reality! The link above compares the advertising photos of some popular fast foods with actual photos of what you bring home. Delightful!

Real life sure looks drab when compared to Bright Shiny Yummy Photos!


Our Chapter's piano adjudications just finished up this weekend. Select piano students prepared and memorized two pieces from different time periods (or in younger students, pieces that contrast in style: fast/slow; major/minor, etc.) - and presented them to a master teacher, Dr. Leonard Richter from Walla Walla College. S. took part in it, although she was not selected as an honors student this year. I think she's okay with that--she knows she hasn't been putting a lot of effort into her studies recently; not enough to be in the honors recital.

The Daffodil Parade was on Saturday. We didn't go. I had fully intended to watch it on TV later but I forgot. (doh!) I had three students marching in it, too! *sigh*

Okay... off to start the week. Must get D. to the WASL exam. Only today (math) and Wednesday (writing) left, woohoo!

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

I am sitting on the loveseat next to a child who is SOoo TIiiiireed.... and caaaaaan't do her multiplication/division.......who didn't get enough sleeeeeeeep and is tiiiiiiiired. She wants to take a naaaaaap-- but I won't let her until she does her maaaaaaaath. And sciiiiiience. And soooo fooooorth.

Looking ahead in math I see we're about to sally forth into factor trees. And looking at the answer key, I don't see any numeral 1 in the tree. Is this because it's prime? But wait, it's all about prime factorization anyway... so, is it because of the identity property.. that 1 really doesn't make a difference in the factor tree? This is a Crystal question, mainly-- :) unless there are other math genii who read this blog, which I highly doubt.

Here's the example:

45
/ \
9 5
/ \ \
3 3 5

So the prime factorization of 45 is 3, 3, and 5.

I could throw in a 1 and 45 before the 9 and the 5... see what I'm saying? So the prime factors COULD be 1, 3, 3, 5. I haven't found a satisfactory explanation for this yet in the Sadlier-Oxford math book. Waaaaaaaaaaaaah. (In keeping with todaaaaay's theeeeeeme).

I'm also doing lessons a bit out of order....so as the kids are learning the x6 multiplication table, I'm making them do /6 as well to reinforce the concept.

This week D. has begun the WASL - Washington Assessment of Student Learning. He had a good time yesterday... but the schedule originally said he'd be done at 3:15 pm. We were just about ready to walk out the door yesterday at 2:30 to go get him when he called home. He'd been done since 2 pm!! He'd been hanging out and playing, waiting for us to show up. The teachers proctoring the exam said the kids got done much sooner than was expected. So we are readjusting our schedules for tomorrow, when he resumes testing. (Today he has off).


Now S. is huuuuuuuuungry, can she eeeeeeeeat? (No, not until you finish your maaaaaaath.) She's reading as I type this. She just inserted a qw - ah, thank you, dear daughter, but get your own blog. (giggling) Ah, progress!! She's now doing x7 /7!! Good. Once we get to x8 /8, we'll call it done.

Since she is no longer paying attention to her work, but rather to me, I'm closing for now. Seeeeee you laaaaaaaater.

And just one more

I really need to get up and do something PRODUCTIVE instead of sitting here goofing off so this is the last. I think.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta.
The Midland
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

So Andy, it's official. I DON'T HAVE AN ACCENT. Not the Michigan nasal "aah" (Father God="Faahther Gaahd"), not the Wisconsin "oa" (about="aboat", oh, and can't forget bag="beg"). Don and Dawn are pronounced the same. Nyah.

ooh, a new quiz

Stolen from Sarah-Over-the-Pond :D

AND LOOK at the anti-American bias here! LOL :) Old chap, forsooth.

You paid attention during 100% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

For the record, I did not pay attention during 100% of high school; this quiz just happened to be over subjects that I rock on.



And I could not resist the next link to the quiz below--this IS where my specialty, after all. But it proves nothing--the test was easy.

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
Make a Quiz

Lose the battle, or win the war?

Wednesday afternoons have long been a bane to me. I can homeschool, at best, for about 2 hours before I begin teaching piano lessons at 12:45.

But I do not allow my children to just play all afternoon, oh no. I give them SEATWORK to do. Nothing arduous; a spelling lesson (copy words or fill in the blanks), a vocabulary lesson (ditto), reading chapters of their current book--stuff they can do with little to no parental guidance. They get it completed before dinner and Wednesday night prayer meeting.

Well, that's the idea, anyway. In reality, they go to the library with Dad, then come home and goof off the remainder of the afternoon while I teach piano lessons, ignoring their existence and trying not to reveal my growing frustration with their lack of compliance with The Rules.

Today, I vowed, it would be different. At noon I announced: "I have a pizza waiting in the refrigerator. If you complete your seatwork by 6 pm, you may have pizza for dinner. If you do not, you will have oatmeal." Then I went ahead with my stress-free, piano-teaching day!

You can guess which two children are currently working on seatwork, panicked, regretting the time spent goofing off today. The pizza aroma is permeating the house, and there's a pot of boiling water on the stove just waiting for oats to go in...

Wonder how this scenario will play out? Me too. I'll update later.
(edit)
UPDATE: D., enraged, refused to eat dinner. S. wasn't having it either. So they accompanied us to Wednesday night church anyway, hungry.

By the time we returned home, the children cheerfully and gratefully ate a fresh pot of hot oatmeal. With raisins and brown sugar.

We had pizza for lunch on Thursday. Getting schoolwork done was not a problem.

Stayin' Alive

Meh. I fell off the earth! Last week was spring break and I Had Plans. Plans to get that front bathroom finished Once And For All.


Okay, so it's half finished. We were blessed and surprised when Audra's hubby Matt came over and put up new plywood, 2x4's and installed a new window. (We were planning to do this ourselves--actually Andy was, heh)-- so then we had to wait for the flooring plywood, which we now have. All Andy needs to do is put it in place, pour a leveler over it, put the tub back in place (cast iron, a real bugger to move---just like in the master bathroom remodel we did a few years back where Richard helped move that one... oy!)----then insulate, sheetrock, do the tub enclosure, and redo the laminate floors.


Yeah, I wanted it done during spring break when I wasn't teaching anything. Now my participation will be limited to Saturdays. BUT. I am not complaining!! The water damage was not as great as we had feared.


Meanwhile, D has gotten glasses. He is mildly farsighted, and the optometrist wants to try glasses for a year to see if it will help. I invested the extra $$ in the flexible titanium frames, not realizing that within 14 days their flexibility would be put to the test~!


See, we went to the park on Good Friday. It was 77º and gorgeous out. While at the park, a ranting, angry man was arrested; a biting Canada goose was carted away by animal patrol (S was a victim), we saw a bald eagle wheeling and soaring overhead, and BEST OF ALL, D. caught a frog AND got his glasses stepped on by some overeager kid.


Here's the frog - with S and D, glasses PRE-stepping:

I am grateful that Costco's optical department got these back into their rightful shape after the trouncing they received. Not a happy camper, I was. (Yoda) Lori tells me that Pearle Vision has some warranty deal for kids' glasses that I will def. look into if D. continues to need glasses after this year. The kid is hard on stuff.

Hm, what else? Life has been moving along and I've not been blogging, as you see! Trying to get my focus back where it should be. I've baked some cakes, had a tree taken down, gone shopping at the mall (you have no idea how big a deal that is, I NEVER SHOP THE MALL), made Easter dinner a day early, and stayed up with a kid who had a bad dream.

Yep, it's normal around here.
How's things with you all? I think I'd better go and read up on your lives.

Fat Birds

The title of this post is one of my favorite lines from Mary Poppins: "Feed the birds and what d'you get? FAT BIRDS."

However, I'm sidestepping the underlying point of this line from Mary Poppins here, and thinking this afternoon of American Christianity. We have SO many churches available these days in our country, and I do praise God for what religious freedom we have been granted.

But instead of making us stronger, more faithful, more grateful and service-minded as believers, instead we have become Fat Birds. American Christians are not service-oriented. We have a consumer mentality rampant in our churches. We look for churches that will "meet our needs," rather than our finding a church WITH needs and offering our gifts and talents to build that work.

Fat Birds. Feed me. I have to feel like my needs are met, or I'm not happy.

How sadly unlike our Jesus, who did not come into this world to be MINISTERED TO, but to MINISTER, and to give His life as a ransom for many.



Just my Saturday afternoon thoughts.

God bless.

March 14 is Pi Day!!

I never knew that until today. Get it?? 3/14 is Pi day... like 3.14.... okay. I guess you have to be more geekish to appreciate it fully.

I'm going to solve my grocery shopping dilemma by not thinking about it. I realize it's an ostrich solution at best, but it's what I can manage on a Wednesday afternoon. Thank you for commenting.


So, to close with an appropriately-themed limerick for the day, by Harvey L. Carter:

'Tis a favorite project of mine
A new value of pi to assign.
I would fix it at 3,
For it's simpler you see

Than 3 point 14159.

H82SHOP

.....that should be my licence plate number.

But as I sit here this afternoon doing my budget and entering expenditures in my money program, it's becoming very clear that the grocery budget needs some reining in.

I noticed a link on my MSN Today screen: How to slash your grocery bills. So I clicked it. It took me to an article by the head honcho of the Women in Red, a group of women who are trying to become debt-free, and are doing so publicly, via the Net. I was familiar with them, so I read on.

They recommend couponmom.com as a way to find out the sales in advance and organize your shopping, etc. And at couponmom, they recommend the Sunday papers and the Tuesday circulars as great sources for coupon bargains.

I hate newspapers. I don't subscribe to them. They're inky-messy, they never fold up just right, I don't have time to read them, and then I have the trouble of recycling them. But that's where the coupons are.

And the more I browsed around Couponmom, the more confused I got. I really have a mental block about all this. I desperately want to manage our money well, but can't someone else do the shopping and coupon organizing for me? I'm just literally overwhelmed at the thought of it all, shaking my head in a dazed way.

HOW do you coupon chicks make this work for you? I know some of you out there are queen bees at this life skill. The thought of carrying around fluttering bits of paper clutter in my wallet just is not me, but I'm afraid it might HAVE to be if I am going to get this monthly grocery bill under control. And even worse, that I will have to do all the shopping. (****screaming and hyperventilating****)

My sister-in-law Penny has walked out of grocery stores richer than when she went in. The cashier literally paid her to get out of the store- all because of coupons.

My friend Audra's cousin spends about $100 a MONTH in groceries. I do NOT know how she does it. Is this even possible, or do you think she is living on Jiffy Corn bread mix and cheap knock-offs of Kraft macaroni and cheese?

I'm mentally nauseated. I'm going to the chair in the living room to study. Kindly comment away, that I may glean of your wisdom.

Another Lazy Post- Book Meme

(I like to do memes when I have nothing original to say!) This was harvested from my friend Tammy, who harvested it from the popular mom blog Rocks in my Dryer, etc. etc., and so it goes....

Hardback or trade paperback or mass market paperback?
Hardback

Amazon or brick and mortar?
Depends! Amazon is convenient, but there's just something about used book stores. A. must visit every used book store in an area, whenever we go on vacation, and I'm not usually adverse to the idea, unless we've already been to three...

Barnes & Noble or Borders?
Borders.

Bookmark or dogear?
Sometimes bookmark, other times I leave it open, face down. Terrible, I know. Nero Wolfe dogears books that he doesn't consider worthy of keeping on his shelves.

Alphabetize by author or alphabetize by title or random?
Living room bookcases: Alpha by author. My personal bedroom bookcase: by subject.

Keep, throw away, or sell?
Keep! It's why I have so many bookcases around here.

Keep dustjacket or toss it?
Keep it. Do you know how valuable that will be later on? Money in the bank, my dears... ...when the book achieves "classic" status and YOU happen to have an edition with a DJ, ooh, shiny!

Read with dustjacket or remove it?
Remove it, or use the flyleaf as the bookmark. :)

Short story or novel?
Novel.

Collection (short stories by same author) or anthology (short stories by different authors)?
Hm. I'm not fond of short stories. Not enough time for character development, and I'm left wanting more.

Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket?
Harry Potter has a very clear delineation of right and wrong, good and evil. Lemony Snicket is more relativistic, muddying the waters unnecessarily for the age group it's written.

Stop reading when tired or at chapter breaks?
Chapter breaks, if I've never read the book before; when I'm tired, if I have read it before.

“It was a dark and stormy night” or “Once upon a time”?
Once upon a time.

Buy or Borrow?
Buy.

New or used?
Used!!! D'you know how much money you save?

Buying choice: book reviews, recommendation or browse?
All of the above. I usually find an author I like and read everything by him/her.

Tidy ending or cliffhanger?
Tidy ending.

Morning reading, afternoon reading or nighttime reading?
Bathtub and bed.

Stand-alone or series?
If it IS a series, I like each novel to be able to stand alone.

Favorite series?
Anne of Green Gables, and the Nero Wolfe detective series.

Favorite children's book?
This is a hard one. Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes

Favorite book of which nobody else has heard?
Argh, who am I to know what you've heard or not heard of?

Favorite books read last year?
Holes, by Louis Sachar, or Red Scarf Girl, by Ji-Li Jiang

Favorite books of all time?
Pride and Prejudice and Emma, both by Jane Austen.

Least favorite book you finished last year?
Princess in Pink (Vol. V of The Princess Diaries), Meg Cabot

What are you reading right now?
This morning I just finished The Lady's Confession *(formerly called Paul Faber, Surgeon), by George MacDonald.

What are you reading next?
I don't know yet!

Polly wolly doodle

...is the current song everyone in the O. home is singing or whistling. Reason? We watched "You Can't Take It With You," with Jimmy Stewart, as our Sunday Night Feature. I can't believe I'd not seen it before! It was a hoot, and good family fun. We only watched part of it Sunday night (it got too late to continue), so we finished up tonight. This is a movie I want to own! One of the few times that I'd seen Lionel Barrymore as a lighthearted good guy (I can't escape the vision of his "Mr Potter" character, the scurvy little spider of "It's a Wonderful Life.") Oh, this film is a Frank Capra film too, so it's chock full of feel-good moments.


I found a very useful/useless web site yesterday, with useful/useless Latin phrases like, "Quid agis, Medice?" (What's up, Doc?). Or, how about: "fac me cocleario vomere" - "Gag me with a spoon!" Another good one: "cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscripti catapultas habebunt," which, being translated, is, "when catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will own catapults." I was surprised to see that there are quite a few goofy Latin web sites like this around. Latin is on my list of languages to learn, actually (yeah, go ahead and roll your eyes) - because it's just so darn useful for understanding English. Yep, dead languages are cool.

Math is breezing along charmingly right now. It's all about inches, feet, miles; cups, pints, gallons... and metric stuff too - cm, dm, m, km; g, kg; L, mL. SOOOOO nice to polish off three math lessons in 30 minutes. Enjoying while I can, because NEXT on the math menu is multiplying/dividing with factors/divisors above 5. Sigh. I am going to make them complete the multiplication table EVERY DAY so the patterns sink in.

And what lovely weather today! It was difficult to stay inside to teach piano. I'm pointing a few of my students toward WSMTA's "adjudications" (this used to be "auditions," Crystal, did Mimi ever do this to you?) - where the students present two memorized pieces of contrasting style and/or period to a master teacher, who evaluates not only their playing, but my teaching. At any rate... I had planned for 6 students to be in this... but now I'm down to three. One is playing sports and isn't practicing right now; another one just isn't interested; and I learned today that a third student will be taking off the final quarter of the school year from piano. She plans to come back for summer lessons. Joy, a tuition gap to fill.

Gruff. These are all my higher level students. I have a couple of really bright kids coming up, though, so in a year or two I'll have more intermediate/late intermediate players. And the not-so-bright students...can keep going along as usual, so long as they love music and love me. :) :)

We just had a laundry folding bee in my bedroom. I know Flylady says not to put clean laundry to be folded in your bedroom, but this is my house! Anyway, A. tossed the clothes to their owners, while the rest of us folded/put away. He matched socks for me (woot!) while I folded towels. It's a good system, and lovely now that the kids are old enough to fold their own clothes.

And, on the subject of putting things away--here's a great idea I stole from FlyLady: The House Fairy. The House Fairy comes and checks the kids' rooms from time to time and leaves them a treat if their rooms are neat and clean-- or an encouraging note if they are not. D. has kept his room picked up now for a month. He's gotten 3 or 4 treats out of the deal. I'm pretty sure he knows I'm the House Fairy, but we keep it on the QT. This way I am not nagging them to clean their rooms, it's all the HF's deal. S. has gotten a couple of treats, but she simply doesn't see the piles of clothes or toys in the corners of the room. The HF has gently pointed this out in a note or two... "Great job..keep up the good work... what about the toys under the piano?" - but so far it hasn't paid off. Oh well, in time. And the HF's visits are totally random...meaning, whenever I have a treat handy and the kids aren't expecting it.

Which reminds me, The House Fairy is overdue. Probably tomorrow sometime!

D. has just come into my room to show me his latest monster drawings. It's 10:30 p.m. No wonder the kid doesn't sleep at night... his thoughts are all of monsters! But the drawings are pretty cool. What will this child grow to be, I wonder?

Wordsworth's answer, of course: the child is father of the man.

Ergo, he'll be what he is now, just bigger.

May God help me!
:)

Time management and the dark side of virtual academies

It's not even noon yet and I'm exhausted. Sure, I got my requisite 8 hours of sleep; I eat well--and even healthfully, ooh-rah... but it's my brain that's the problem!

Looking through my planner book over the last two weeks.... of 16 days I've scanned, 13 of them had a time commitment of some sort or another outside the home. Things that I can't skip--or skip very easily.

The end result is that school hours have been shortened around here. And now, today is February 28. Time to settle accounts. The standard must be met!! So we've been playing school catchup, to everyone's stress, irritation and grief.

This is my fault, though. Who manages the home schedule around here but myself? I have only myself to blame. This is the constant time-management battle.


Why am I staying at home, really? To homeschool my children. In order to FISCALLY be able to do this, I teach piano lessons. I take piano lessons to make myself a better teacher.

And it piles on from there....things that, though good, eat away at my primary reason for staying home in the first place. The Great Balancing Act...how to keep the plates spinning.

So, anyway.... we're supposed to be at 53% in all core subjects by 7:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. Core subjects=WASL test subjects; ergo, Math, Science, and Language Arts (lit, comp, grammar, etc.) And we've been busting our tails to get there.

It's nice in many ways to have these setpoints to shoot for--but right now I'm SO not enjoying homeschooling. I feel like I'm not really teaching, I'm pushing to meet an arbitrary standard.

Again, there have been distractions that I need to carefully evaluate and/or eliminate from our time. For example - weekends are for shopping, not weekdays. (Unless you send the husband!) And never never allow salespeople into your home for estimates on X, Y, or Z for this product or service. It takes up an hour and a half of precious time.

LOL - so you see I got roped into the last one. Some place called Celebrity Foods called us up out of the blue, wanting to make a presentation to us about their products, which have no hormones, preservatives, yadda yadda.. so, I, the fool, allowed them to come. It took an hour and a half, and at the end of it all, we can't afford their services anyway. Wasted time. My fault.

And blogging. You see that lately I've been sporadic at best. I am truly attempting to "redeem the time" in some small fashion - so blogging has fallen to the back burner. (I'm good right now because it's lunchtime.)

Anyway.... we will not meet the 53% in math. I will not push where the concepts have not been learned. Fortunately the next unit is on measurements and on time. Fast units! So theoretically we can get ahead - but not by tomorrow morning!! After those units, we're back to multiplying/dividing numbers past 5 - so, 6, 7, 8, 9.

But with Grammar....there's no excuse for me there. These kids ought to be at 70%, I being their mother. But... time management! I've spent so much time on the time-sucker (math) that I'm mentally exhausted by the time grammar rolls around.

Okay, I am sounding whiny, which I'm really not feeling- just overdrawn.

So, closing with a funny.

Last weekend we went to Happy Teriyaki for dinner. A. and I arranged ourselves on one side of the table, D. and S. on the other. As I read their sweatshirts from left to right as they sat across from me, I noted that, put together, they said "BUM GAP."

This sent me into convulsions of laughter, as it did the rest of the family. It is now the "in joke" of the household.

Until the next time I have time... ciao!

The battery bites the dust

It finally happened: my laptop battery died. Wouldn't hold a charge, even if plugged in. I knew it was just a matter of time. Approximate cost to replace a laptop battery= $200!!!

Cost of a brand-spankin' new laptop at Best Buy: $399.

Guess which option I chose? :>

So the 2001 laptop ($1200 on the original invoice I found) is now in the capable hands of our techhie friend Mr. Funk, who can refurbish it and do as he wishes with it. And I'm here trying to learn the ins and outs of Windows Vista on the cheap new system. It has some features I like (like a "doublecheck" feature that asks "are you sure you want to do this??") and several I don't - like, I can't set Firefox to be my default browser. Hmmm, not that that truly surprises me. Also it came preloaded with the Yahoo! toolbar, which I deplore. But I got rid of it.

So I'm having fun fun fun!

Mr. Funk asked if I would rather have a new dress or a new laptop. My answer: "Duh!"

I'm not a proper sort of female at all, I guess.

"Hey nonny-nonny and a hot cha-cha"

My kids like to sing this song about Saturday: "It's Saturday, oh it's Saturday... hey nonny-nonny and a hot-cha-cha..." I think it came from a Little Rascals episode.

Last night A. and I prepared and served the Valentine's Banquet at church. Fire Department regulations now forbid the use of the church kitchen for anything but reheating pre-cooked food, so we had to do the cooking at home. That seemed like a headache to me at first, but it played out to be very convenient. The evening went very smoothly since I wasn't frantically preparing things in the kitchen, just serving what was reheated.

The menu:
Grilled chicken
or
Roast beef (done for us on the smoker at Green Valley Meats in Auburn, WA)

Garlic Mashed Potatoes (eeeeeeevil, must post the recipe so you can all faint- it's the recipe from the restaurant Buca di Beppo's)
OR
Rice Pilaf

Mediterranean veggies (which means green beans, artichoke hearts, yellow squash and a few other veggies tossed in together and steamed)

Spring mix salad with craisins, feta cheese, and slivered almonds, served with raspberry vinaigrette

And mustn't forget dessert!
Raspberry cheesecake
Chocolate Fudge cake with ice cream
Tiramisu (NOBODY chose this! GO FIGURE! more for me hehehe)

We did well... got finished cleaning up the church kitchen, dishes and all, by 9:30 pm.

Went home and crawled into bed, where I dreamed about how tired I was, all night long. D'you know how difficult it is to wake up in the morning when you've been dreaming about how tired you are!?

So, hot-cha-cha, today was Saturday! To celebrate, we had steak and eggs for breakfast (beef leftovers from last night's banquet) - then I decided to thoroughly clean the kitchen floors and countertops. EWWW. I moved the refrigerator. EEEEEEWWWWW! That was a gloriously sticky, dusty mess. At one point some 7UP had spilled and run underneath the fridge, making a glue-like substance to which was affixed a penny, a hairband, a button, a photograph, and a missionary prayer card.

Irrecoverable items went straight into the trash, and I spent a good 20 minutes with a scrub brush and a bucket of Murphy's Oil Soap to remove the residue. Ah, looked great! So I carried on with the rest of the kitchen floor and am now guarding it jealously against all debris.

This has reinforced my realization that I MUST get this kitchen painted, and soon. However, I still need to paint the crown moulding all around the living/dining areas, as well as change the color on the piano wall once again (remember the Nacho Cheese wall incident? - well, we're growing tired of looking at Buttered Rum now, too.)

Fortunately Monday is a holiday, so I plan to sleep in and perhaps get that piano wall taken care of. I pinched a bucket of Audra's leftover living room paint because it's close to the color I want to try - Carob brown. Looks rusty red, which will set off my shiny black piano nicely. :)

Photos if and when I paint, of course. Happy weekending, all! See you in church tomorrow.

She blinded me with science

This, dear readers, is an oxygen atom made out of common household ingredients: 16 green grapes (8 protons, 8 neutrons) form a nucleus, wrapped in saran wrap, and peas and toothpicks comprise the electron cloud of 8. My children were awed at their ability to create an element; captured forever on my RAZR phone, and now recorded here.

A. continues to rack his lungs and his sleeping ability with his seemingly annual bout with bronchitis. The poor man doesn't just plain ol' cough; he hacks, hawks, barks, croups, and expectorates. TMI? SO Sorry. This has been going on since a week ago Monday night. We are all a little short: with sleep, with tempers...with patience... and long on wakefulness and irritability. He went to the doctor yesterday and was given 4 different medications- an antibiotic, an inhaler, a steroid, and a cough syrup with codeine. So life is getting better in the sleep department for him (and by extension, me).

My daughter just came and told me that I'd made the best meal EVER in the whole world. So you can be amazed (sarcasm font!), this is what I did: emptied out/cooked some stray bags of pasta that only had a little bit of noodles left; emptied a sack of peas into a casserole dish and tossed leftover bacon in it and microwaved; prepared an envelope of Newburg sauce (Knorr's makes it, I think?) and emptied a leftover remnant of Costco frozen, cooked shrimp into the Newburg sauce. Put it all into bowls. Whatever it was called, the kids ate seconds. Pasta, peas, bacon, shrimp, and Newburg sauce.

This meal happened because I have not made a menu for this week!!!

Coming up: Valentine's Day. I'd better get cracking, Gromit.

This one hit my email inbox today

(Click the title above if you want to visit Snopes)... the one where a woman returns from shopping at Wal Mart to find a flat tire-- a gentleman in a suit offers to change it for her and she gratefully accepts... when he finishes, he asks for a ride back to his car, which is on the other side of the mall, etc.... woman is suspicious, goes back into store, feigning to the man that she forgot something; she notifies security....and lo and behold in the man's briefcase is ROPE And KNIVES and DUCT TAPE!!!


urban legend strikes again!

But forward it to all your girlfriends so they don't become victims too!! .......Of the legend, that is.

My Ya-Ya Name

....is Princess Gigglebox.


Thought you ought to know.

"Bowl" Games

...or, "Where on earth have you been for the last week?"

It started last Sunday evening. We were watching The Two Towers, and S. was not feeling well. She kicked it up several notches and continued to "not feel well" rather violently from 9:15 p.m. Sunday night until...5:00 a.m. Monday morning. Poor kid. She finally was able to sleep from 7 a.m. until about 3:30 Monday afternoon. I slept in as long as I could, but had things to do and places to go, so I was a little sleep deprived all day.

Monday night: 12:45 a.m. - D. decided to join in on the "fun" by having a bowl episode himself. My dear husband took pity on me and tended to the boy in his distress. His bout with sickness only happened once, though he was very peaked the following day. S. had a nightmare Monday night that I thought was D. getting sick again, so we ran searching for the crying child - to find S. blinking sadly in the glow of her nightlight. "A Star Destroyed me," she said tearfully. She had been watching Star Wars earlier that day so it's amazing what the mind pulls out in the middle of the night! I laughed it off and went back to bed.

Why do these things always happen in the middle of the night?

So Wednesday night and Thursday night we all gratefully got enough sleep - though I'm not feeling so hot today. It's been a 7UP day while I have my own version of the Superbowl.

In the midst of this, I made a baby shower cake--thankfully, before I started to feel so gross. The technique I used is called Buttercream Transfer (google it) and it's a fabulous way to reproduce a complicated pattern on a cake. I meant to do a step-by-step and post here, but got all wrapped up in the DOING of it that I forgot to take the "along-the-way" type pictures. There's lots of them out there on the 'Net that are just ducky if you care to have a go at it yourself for your kid's next birthday!




Oooo-lah-lah, that's pretty! The cake is 12x18 (takes two mixes), vanilla with raspberry filling, and the frosting is just regular American buttercream with paste food coloring. (ARGH--THE KIDS GOT INTO THE LEFTOVER FROSTING and ate a ton of it. A NO NO for them!~! no colors or preservatives allowed!! We shall see how things go over the next few days).


So now you are filled in on the more unsavory aspects of our week. I pray yours is exponetnially better!! :) :)

To steal an idea from Susan:
Things I am Thankful For:
1) The cake was done before I started to feel gross
2) I feel gross NOW, not in the middle of the night
3) A loving husband who has been watching kids all day, taught them two history lessons, and prepared dinner for everyone so I wouldn't have to smell it.