Lassitude
Posted on | June 28, 2009 | 5 Comments |
We went camping this weekend. My knees got sunburned. The children spent more hours than I have fingers throwing rocks into the pond. We ate meals cooked over a campfire. We all practiced peeing in the woods. The boys went hiking with their dad as I read Waiting For Godot and scratched my head.
My allergies kicked in almost immediately, causing my face to swell up and my nose to leak like our discount-store garden hose. I bore it as well as I could all morning and then took a specially-packed Benadryl, saying a short prayer for all the people born before Benadryl was invented. Then I fell asleep and got sunburned. Then I woke up to the noise of Iain’s relatives riding ATVs in the distance. Then I fell asleep and got further sunburned. Then I woke up to the sound of my father-in-law arriving and laughing at my sunburned knees. Then I fell asleep in the tent. Then I woke up to the sound of — well, drool doesn’t make a sound, but it still woke me up.
Finally, four-to-six hours passed and I was again alert, though sneezing.
We played frisbee. Owen pouted and threw a fit about not being able to catch it, and he gave up, and stormed off to have a good cry … and then later that evening came back and gave it another shot. Turns out he’s pretty good, for a little kid. Gave me some pointers. Caught 20 throws in a row. Like his mother, if he isn’t brilliant at it right off the bat he can’t handle it, doesn’t want to do it.
We caught fireflies. We sat around the fire, watched the stars come out. We saw the Milky Way and shooting stars. We ate smores. Cormac ran around with no pants on, and even used the “bathshume” — a jerry-rigged camp toilet that Iain built for me out of an Ikea folding chair and a toilet seat. (Funny what constitutes romance as you get older. But you have no idea how happy that chair made me.)
I caught some kind of plant-related rash. I slept next to a spider. It rained on our tents, but the seams held and we stayed dry. The kids slept in a tent by themselves — Owen stayed up until 11:30 the first night we were there. We were reading Spiderman stories by flashlight next to the fire when he stopped and said, “Oh my gosh! This is like being at home except I don’t have to go to bed right away!” His eyes said, “So THIS is what you do after you hustle us out of the picture!” I couldn’t bear to break it to him that we don’t usually hustle him out of the picture so we can read Spiderman stories. He will learn, in the fullness of time, that we stick them in bed so we can watch Arrested Development on Hulu.
Organize yourself: Free downloadable To-Do list template
Posted on | June 25, 2009 | 8 Comments |
Now available, thanks to popular demand! Where popular = one person!
Instructions:
- Download PDF
- Write stuff on it
- Hang on fridge
- Kick ass
- Take names
- Stop for iced tea
I like to write down each and everything that needs my attention, no matter how small. Under ‘Notes,’ I like to write down things I am waiting on: e-mails without which I can’t continue on projects, for example, or phone calls, or packages that are due to arrive in the mail — anything I need to finish my tasks that isn’t here yet. This document has two pages: the first page has ‘Notes,’ and the second is all lines.
I have more versions, including PROJECTS and SOMEDAY. I posted the photo above showing how I use them in conjunction with a customized grocery list and a weekly menu to keep my ship shipshape — check it for notes and a closer look.
If enough people (i.e. popular+1) request, I could throw the other versions up on the site, too. Otherwise you can marvel at my ability to draw straight lines in Pages. It is quite amazing.
Guac’s Return
Posted on | June 22, 2009 | 7 Comments |
Who here remembers our buddy Guac? Raise a hand. No? OK, a character description:
Guac does many naughty things. He shoots rayguns at his mother. He squishes the baby. He fights with dinosaurs. Guac also needs to change his clothes.
Guac is friendly, Guac is mean, Guac needs a ride to the mall. Guac will pinch you when you’re not looking. Guac likes to live dangerously.
Guac is also invisible. Did you guess? Guac’s bodily functions are invisible, too. Guac is not ready for big boy underpants or peeing on the potty. Guac doesn’t get a sticker for his chart.
Well.
This morning, as I slumbered on my Sleep-in Day, Iain got up with the boys. He discovered an alarming substance on Cormac’s pajamas.
“Mac? What is this on your shirt?” leans in for closer inspection, sniffs “OHMYGOD, is this poop?”
“I dunno.”
“IS. THIS. POOP.”
“I dunno.”
“How did you get poop on your pajamas?”
“I no did it. [beat] Guac did it.”
Annnd, commence freakout. We have not heard one peep about Guac in over a year. Maybe almost two. Iain asked Owen if he told Mac about Guac, and he denied it. Which leaves us with two scenarios:
- Either both boys came up with the same mexican-appetizer-themed name for a poopy invisible friend, independent of each other … OR
- GUAC IS REAL.
Run away! Run away!
Up to lately
Posted on | June 17, 2009 | 1 Comment |
Sewin’ sewin’ sewin,’
organizin’
caretakin’
hangin’.
MommyCoddle: how to save money on groceries
Posted on | June 16, 2009 | 6 Comments |
Last week, the gas man came by and shut off our gas for more than 24 hours because he detected a leak in the line outside our house. We had to call in a plumber to drill into the walkway and the basement wall to fix the leak and repair the pipe. This cost half a month’s salary.
SO, needless to say we are trying to cut expenses elsewhere. There’s not much left to cut, honestly, but it seems we could always take a few bites out of the grocery budget.
I found these tips today: MommyCoddle: how to save money on groceries. I got to her blog via Wise Craft. Some useful stuff there; check it out.
Happy second birthday, Mackie!
Posted on | June 8, 2009 | 4 Comments |
He didn’t want to come out, two years ago. We had to beg and plead and prod and grab. But out he finally came. And he’s been so full of life and personality since then. He’s a wonderful little guy. I can’t believe he’s two.
I can’t believe we cut that hair.
I still get to call him my baby, right?
For his birthday we are going hiking today. I think that’s going to be our new birthday tradition for the boys. They get so many toys, but it’s a treat to take special little trips as a family.
Onomonopeiac Cormac-to-English dictionary
Posted on | June 5, 2009 | 3 Comments |
Caw-caw: Bird
Eeowm: Cat
Beep-beep: car
Wheee-bonkbonk: slide
(I’m sure the unabridged version contains Notagain: Mom)
Time management
Posted on | June 3, 2009 | 4 Comments |
Some days being a stay-at-home mother to two kids under the age of four makes me want to shave my head and fill my face with doughnuts. I don’t know why. Today was one of those days.
Overnight, the kids wet the bed they share. Breakfast was immediate and loud. Then they fought over toys. Mac picked today to decide to wear big boy underpants. He wet them. Twice. I mopped up puddles of urine, swept up breakfast crumbs, swept up lunch crumbs, did four loads of laundry. I popped in to the Internet to check Twitter and my newsreader and my e-mail, bemoaning my lack of time management skills all the while. I fed the children. I soothed the children. I put one down for a nap and sat down with the other to do “homework.” I folded four loads of laundry. I mediated fights, I poured drinks, I hopped from one task to another, invited the neighbor girl over to play, rescued Mac from the top bunk not once but twice. I dug through my recipe book, found the one for pretzels. Decided nothing else I wanted to get done was going to get done today, so set about making sure hands and faces were scrubbed and then pulled stepstools up to the kitchen island for a drawn-out dough-making process involving three pairs of tiny hands.
The end result was delicious.
Let me tell you about my Singer.
Posted on | June 3, 2009 | 3 Comments |
Sew Mama Sew, one of my top fave sewing-related blogs, is doing a sewing machine meme right now, kind of like Facebook’s 25 Things but for your machine. Yay, right? Right.
What brand and model do you have?
I have a Singer 5932. Also a Brother Lock 929D serger.
How long have you had it?
The Singer? Since about 1995. It was a birthday present when I was 15 or 16.
I got the Brother Lock last summer from my husband’s grandmother’s junk shop.
How much does that machine cost (approximately)?
About $100, I’d wager, for the Singer. Not sure for the Brother Lock.
What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)?
Yes. I mean, I’ve done quilts, clothes (adult and child), tote bags, pillows, curtains, toys, coasters, mending, you name it.
How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?
I’m kind of seasonal and sporadic with the sewing. I let it sit idle for a few weeks at a time and then I’m sewing for 2+ hours a day every day for a week.
Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?
The Singer: I … can’t say that I LOVE IT love it. I like it fine. It does what I need it to do. I wish it did more even, straight stitches; I wish it had a stitch regulator; I wish I could do quality free-motion quilting on it. But really, it’s a good little machine. Same with the Brother Lock. I’m sure 90% of the things I don’t like about them are really just user error.
What features does your machine have that work well for you?
The buttonhole stitch, the zig-zag stitch. I have about 20 specialty stitches I never use, so I can’t speak to those.
Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?
The feet seem … wobbly. Things feed in a little crookedly. I’m used to it, but I feel like things ought to operate a little more tightly. Also, it’s very picky about bobbins.
Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!
Oh, I wish I had a great story! My Grandfather gave it to me for my birthday in high school and I’ve been beating the hell out of it ever since. I used to cover it in stickers, as high-schoolers tend to do with everything, but since then I’ve cleaned it up and tuned it and treat it much more circumspectly. My kids, not so much. There was a time when you could shake it or turn it upside down and it would just rattle and clink, because they fed all sorts of tiny things into the hole in the throat plate.
My Brother Lock came to me, as I said, from my husband’s grandmother. A woman dropped it off to her junk shop, a little too overwhelmed by health problems to mess around with learning to thread a serger. It needed a little fine tuning and wasn’t working properly; I offered to take it home to look at it and Grandma M said I could keep it. That was a great day.
Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?
The Singer: Sure! It’s a great starter machine. It’s lasted me almost 15 years and does everything you’d need it to.
The Brother Lock: Ditto above, except I haven’t had it as long.
What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine?
Sturdiness and dependability. You don’t want it breaking down or acting delicate like a hothouse flower, you want it plodding along with its head down like a Clydesdale. Metaphorically speaking.
Do you have a dream machine?
Maybe a perfectly reconditioned vintage Singer, or perhaps a top-of-the-line machine with all the doodads. Or perhaps gewgaws.
The two machines I own are the only two I’ve ever used, so just trying a different brand or model would be fun and interesting.
Building ‘sustainable connection’: make a mail center
Posted on | June 2, 2009 | 1 Comment |
OOOH, do I want to make this with the kids. I love the idea.
Craftzine.com blog : Family Connection Letter Writing Center.
keep looking »As our own children grow and mature, we realize how crucial it is to think ahead and to think outside of what we are doing at the moment. We have to shake ourselves into thinking of the relationship we are building, not just the snacks we are getting, the mess we are cleaning, or the bedtime we are facilitating. But how do you teach the idea of long-term connection to your children? Like so many other things we want to teach, we model it now, build activities around the modeling, and hope the messages will stick.
One of the tools we’re big fans of for building lifelong connection is maintaining ties via the written word. Letters and postcards sent to family and friends far and wide make us feel attached for now and for the long haul. And who doesn’t love to get a handwritten letter in the mailbox, amidst all of the bills and bulk mail?
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