snippets

Blog? Huh? I don't think I know what that word means.

2009-04-24T10:46:00.003-04:00

As I see my traffic reports for Snippets each week, I am reminded that I haven't posted in quite a while. I tend to find that when my life is going well, or at least busy and fulfilling (for the most part) I don't care to blog about it as much as just live it. However, I do greatly enjoy the chronicling of my mundane life, family, hobbies and random interests when I go back and reread them later. There could be a book in me somewhere at sometime, and so, I think it is important to start keeping up with the blog, at least more often than I have.

That being said, presently I'm not so interested in writing about my life, but would like to track my creative endeavors a little more closely. I've been working on some projects in the sewing studio and would like to share them here. A good friend and I have been discussing ideas for creating an Etsy shop... I'm not sure that would be very lucrative, but it could be a start.

As I have been teaching art to third grade boys this year at our home school co-op, I learned of a new (to me) method of batiking and tried it out with them for a lesson. I was so impressed by this that I decided to use the same method to create a fun and artsy lining for my bff's coat that needed a red0.

ho ho ho

2008-12-14T17:28:00.002-05:00

L: Mommy, is Santa Clause real?
Me: No
L: Good, cause I want to be bad.

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-11-04T23:01:00.006-05:00

Despite the look from this picture, I did not celebrate my birthday alone. On Sunday, November second, my actual date of birth, I was treated to lunch at Gertrude's by some girlfriends. That same evening, another special girlfriend came over with food and cupcakes to watch a movie with me. The following day, my folks celebrated with me over a lovely meal prepared by my mom. This particular moment captured on my new camera(yay! and thanks family!) is funny because the reason I'm smiling/laughing is because my adorable five-year-old daughter is screaming in the other room. Why is that funny? Well, sometimes I just have to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. She was having a particularly difficult evening, and by the time dessert rolled around, she was being disciplined until she could settle down. She wasn't allowed to join the rest of us until she could and here she was screaming, "I'm calmed down now!!"

Today, a whole week later, she asked me if she could sing Happy Birthday to me, because she didn't get a chance to. I had forgotten that she missed out on the singing and presenting of the cake (which only added to her fury, but I wasn't going to let my birthday wait on her unpredictable attitude). Anyway, it was a very nice birthday... even if my special cookie arrived the day after due to a mistake on UPS's fault. It just made celebrating last a little longer.

The trees (these in the East yard) always put on their most colorful leaves to celebrate the occasion.

Here is more glorious foliage, an example of our Creator's great work. The boys play on the tire swing in the background of the yard at "Mrs. A's" preschool.

So I'm teaching art this year at a home school co-op... On Halloween my third grade class finished up their paper masks. D is in that class, he's on the far right, his mask reminds me a little of Darth Maul. K wishes he was in my class too, and often tries out our projects at home. He made his horned mask and then made a kitty one for his little sister. (What a sweet big brother!)

Costume Cuteness!

2008-11-01T14:56:00.005-04:00

On left Z, L's best friend, and surrogate sister, is Sparkle Mist fairy. On the right, L as Princess Hello Kitty. I made L's costume, a stroke of genius, I think. :) White fleece pillow like head stitched to a hood lining I made. I copied the design from a placemat L already has. The tiarra was from Target $1 bin. I drew a yellow nose on L, but it didn't really show up. L picked the fabrics for the dress out of my stash and told me how she wanted it to look, then I made fleece underthings and mittens (not shown) to keep her warm. She got lots of compliments and double takes, "Oh, it's Hello Kitty!"

Left, D is a glow in the dark skeleton again, which simplified things for me. Center, Puss in Boots, he's not mine, but oh, so cute! His parents made his costume! On the Right, K as Teen Titans Robin. I made this one from scratch too. I cut the sleeves off a red t-shirt and sewed on green ones. I used a p.j. pant pattern I developed for the green pants (which will now be worn as p.j. pants!) I bought the green cotton rib knit and yellow poly double knitfrom Fabric.com. The black poly I purchased last year at Walmart. The cape is a separate piece, I didn't use a pattern, just sort of guessed at it, and it worked ok. I made his gloves by tracing my hand as a pattern, knowing his hands are just a bit smaller than mine. The mask is white fun foam and black paper tied on with string.
And I grabbed a pair of L's kitty ears and pinned a tail to my darkest jeans, paired with a black sweater, and drew on some whiskers and a nose and I was all set to trick or treat with the kiddos!

Blog? What Blog?

2008-10-31T14:25:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, Lil Miss turned five years old. The night before her birthday I took out her baby book, which was also my prenatal journal and read some of the entries to her. I was surprised that I took the time to write so much in the midst of very difficult circumstances, and was pleased to relive some of those very happy moments.

That said, I have noticed that I haven't taken much time to write or journal, here or elsewhere over the past many months. And it's a shame really. I've been spending my free moments sewing for my kids and myself, maintaining important friendships or taking deep breaths... it's a very busy year for us and it's only just begun. L is in preschool this year, three days a week, which she LOVES and requires about 4.5 hrs of driving a week for me (Ugh). Also this year we are in a home school co-op which is stretching all of us in good ways. I'm teaching third grade art, and the boys are getting some subjects I don't have to teach at home. The kids have all made some nice friends, but it is one more thing on the calendar each week.

So, the blogging hiatus hasn't been due to anything bad in particular. Things are going generally well for the kids and me, just a change in circumstances that require me to be "on duty" a whole lot more than before. Unfortunately, swing dancing has been placed on the back burner for the time being, but I hope to resume my efforts in swing and Lindy Hop once again.

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

2008-07-24T12:13:00.004-04:00

I'm presently out in Cheyenne, Wyoming, visiting my brother and his family on F. E. Warren AFB. Last weekend it was Fort D.A. Russell Days and also the beginning of Frontier Days. It's the biggest thing that happens around here and there's a lot to do and see. So far we've watched a parade, seen civil war reenactments (I missed this because D fainted and I had to take him to the ER)*, historic house tour on base, Indian flute playing, Native American Dances, Thunderbirds Air Show, and "The Daddy of 'em All" CFD Rodeo. And there's still more to do!

*D had been tired, Johnny's kids have been sick and we (the doctor's and I) think that he was suffering the onset of a virus coupled with the heat and some dehydration. We had been watching the Trotters (a civil war horse battalion doing called manoeuvres) and been invited over to pet the horses. While I was helping L to pet a horse on it's nose, I heard a thud and D had fallen down. We quickly got someone to call 911 and then he came to. I moved him into the shade and immediately some military personnel came over with a cooler full of ice water and tried cooling him down. Within minutes the ambulance had arrived. D was able to climb on himself, but he was ashen faced and very tired. They ran tests (all negative) and gave him IV fluids and after a couple hours let us go. He's been improving each day, but the other kids have gotten the cough, gunky nose, bloodshot eyes virus from their cousins.... so we're trying to break up the activities with periods of rest.

Here are some pictures: Home on the Range
Indian Village

Beantown

2008-07-04T00:11:00.003-04:00

I spent last weekend at Beantown Camp in Beverly, MA. It's dance camp for adults and it was absolutely fabulous! I can't remember the last time I had so much non-stop fun. So instead of boring all of you with the rundown of my weekend, I thought I'd just list my favorite things about it, in no particular order.

1. Beverly, Massachusetts is a very quaint little town. I fell in love with it the second I saw the knee high stone walls that bordered the streets.

2. Endicott College campus, where camp was held, is absolutely beautiful. While the campus map was impossible to comprehend, it provided opportunity to explore the campus to find my classes. I found a lovely little path which led to a bridge over a pond, complete with croaking frogs and ducks.

3. Camp food. The food was good, and I'm not going to complain about any food I didn't have to cook or clean up after, even if there wasn't any beef served (that I can recall).

4. Alone time. Because I drove the 8 hours to and from camp and also didn't know anyone who would be there, I was afforded lots of much needed alone time. Since I didn't bring anyone or know anyone, I felt no obligations to anyone. I came and went to classes, meals and dances as I pleased.

5. Fun, Talented Instructors. A few of the instructors seemed really familiar to me, and I'm not sure if it is because I watched videos of them on Youtube or saw pictures of them on the Beantown website, or what... I think I actually had Jojo and Kevin at a Charm City Swing workshop, but I'm not sure. Personal favorites: Evita and Michael, Marty (so adorable I kept making mistakes because I was distracted by his cuteness) and Sylvia, Ryan and Jenny (famous UK dancers with credentials longer than my arm) and Eric the amazing hiphop/ movement instructor (I was feeling his class for days afterward).

6. Social dance time. Every night there was a dance giving us all opportunity to practice the days lessons and to fake at being better dancers than we really are. I was happily surprised to have several of the more experienced leads ask me to dance and show me how it's done.

7. Diverse people. From a grumpy octogenarian to the perky 18yr old hiphop dancer; French Canadians and Brits; many races, religions and origins. There were even French Canadians. Overall I found this diverse group fun and welcoming to a newbie like myself. I do hope to get back there again.

8. Dancing all day. Can't feel guilty about eating dessert at lunch and dinner when you're moving all day long :)

Six Million Dollar Man Intro

2008-06-14T09:38:00.001-04:00

Six Million Dollar DAD

2008-06-14T09:06:00.005-04:00

So dad is doing pretty well now. He's back home, moving about the lower level of the house and the upper area of the "ground" in his wheelchair. It will take a lot of physical therapy and another surgery to get him back to full mobility. We learned this week that he will need a new shoulder. I have a joke with my kids when they get hurt that I ask them if I need to go to the ____(fill in the hurt body part) and get them a new _______(body part). Usually this makes them laugh, but if it doesn't, I suggest that we'd better hurry in case they run out of the little kid parts, and we get stuck with hairy man parts and then I get a little chuckle. Well, I had no idea you could actually get a new shoulder! It's pretty cool, really, but will be a major surgery and can't happen until dad is ambulatory perhaps in a few months. When all is done, my dad will have lots of metal in him... not sure if his surgeries and care will total six mill, but it's getting close to one.

"Gentleman, we can rebuild him....better, stronger...."

Hanging on

2008-05-14T00:18:00.003-04:00

Dad was in a motorcycle accident last week. He'll be alright, eventually. His doctor's expect a full recovery, it's just going to take a long time to heal his two broken legs and bum shoulder. Because of this and some other stuff I've been clinging to these verses a friend sent me. I thought I'd share the blessing.

From Isaiah 43
...listen to the Lord who created you.
O Israel, the one who formed you says,
"Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

5 "Do not be afraid, for I am with you.

10 You have been chosen to know me, believe in me,
and understand that I alone am God.
There is no other God—
there never has been, and there never will be.
11 I, yes I, am the Lord,
and there is no other Savior.
12 First I predicted your rescue,
then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world.
No foreign god has ever done this.
You are witnesses that I am the only God,"
says the Lord.
13 "From eternity to eternity I am God.
No one can snatch anyone out of my hand.
No one can undo what I have done."

Twins! sort of

2008-05-07T08:10:00.004-04:00

My latest project was a birthday gift for L's best friend. L requested that I make "Twin dresses" with the pink and white fabric I promised to make her a dress from (last year). There wasn't enough of that fabric to make a "Spinny dress" so I incorporated some soft pink cotton knit fabric, the last of my pink knit stash I'm afraid. But the dresses turned out super cute. Here are the girls, Z on left and L on right.

Celebrating Z's birthday was a pretty big deal too, since her birth nearly killed her and her mom. I'm happy to report that both are doing great, five years later. Mother and daughter are spunky and adorable as ever.

Where did April go?

2008-05-01T23:18:00.008-04:00

April breezed on by because we've had a bunch of things happening. We started the month getting ready for our first Eternal Blessings home school science fair. K's project was to make a battery from lemons. It worked in the sense that we got some voltage from the lemons, but not enough to actually power anything, not even an LED. But it was fun nevertheless. The other kids projects were great too.

I've always wanted to go to Longwood Gardens in the Springtime, and so, Oma treated the kids and me to a very lovely day there in mid April.
The new Children's Garden was the highlight, and it was hard to tear them away, but we took lots of pictures, and will certainly visit again now that we're on Oma and Grandpa's membership :)

Then we had a trip to tour Baltimore's Fireboats. Not only were the two boats we boarded extremely cool, one being very old and antiquated and yet still fully functional, the other brand-spanking new (by about 2 yrs) and under repair because electrical problems, we also got to see a water show where the boats exhibited their awesome ability to put out fires with Inner Harbor water (ew). And since my crew needed to use the lav, we also got to see the firehouse and use real firemen bathrooms (it was cleaner than mine at home, but that's not saying much.)

When we got to the car to go home, with a quick stop at Ft. McHenry, we discovered the spray from the boats had landed all over the Green Machine. Disgusting. I don't even want to know what makes the harbor water leave such a nasty residue, but it's taken 3 days of heavy rains to wash it off.

I must also mention that I was stopped (while L was on the verge of a tantrum) by a PBS reporter and cameraman to talk about what I think about when I look at that big flag. I had nothing brilliant to say, because I was thinking only of my four year old daughter who was refusing to use her own legs to walk. But later, on the way home, in the solitude of the car (the kids were either asleep or otherwise occupied) I did think of some things I would have said to that PBS man. I would have told him that the flag reminds me how blessed I am to live in such a country where I have so many freedoms. I am also reminded of a friend who's in Iraq right now, my AF chaplain brother, and the rest of our military doing their jobs to promote peace, stability and freedom. I am thankful that there are such people who do those jobs so willingly and I'm proud to know a couple of them.

My New Favorite Fairytale

2008-04-06T21:23:00.004-04:00

After finishing the good books sent at Christmas from my brother's family, and Robin Hood, I've moved on to reading fairy tales to the children at bedtime. On Easter, my mom presented me with a book that belonged to my grandmother. It's a Reader's Digest collection titled "The World's Best Fairy Tales" and it's quite good. The boys are eating these stories up, "Read another one, Mommy." It even has some decent illustrations. On Thursday and Friday I read the Hans Christian Anderson story called "The Snow Queen*" for the very first time and it is now my favorite fairy tale. Here is my summary.
It begins with an evil mirror breaking, the shards of which fall and corrupt those they pierce. A boy named Kay gets a splinter of this mirror in his eye causing him to see everything that is beautiful as ugly and also one in his heart which begins to turn it to ice. He then meets up with the Snow Queen and she chills him even further with her wicked kisses. But Kay has a faithful and loving friend, Gerda, who goes looking for him and has many adventures along the way winning people to help her on her journey for she is true and loyal to her friend. Eventually she finds him and he is nearly frozen in the Queen's icy castle, where he is trying to spell the word "love" to free himself but he can't remember how. Gerda rushes to him crying, her tears melt his frozen heart and as he too, begins to cry at the sight of his dear friend, his tears wash away the splinter in his eye. He then remembers how to spell "love" freeing him from the Queen's power. After a long journey home, hand in hand, they discover they have grown up and it is summer.

Also we watched Disney's "Enchanted" last weekend, and since we are becoming well versed in fairy tales, it was even more fun. The children were identifying which parts belonged to the different stories, and since parts of the movie are in cartoon, Little Miss was also pleased with the choice.

*The version that I have linked is slightly different than the one in my book, but only in little details.

ATL

2008-03-11T23:41:00.002-04:00

I made my annual pilgrimage to Lilburn, GA, an Atlanta suburb, last week. I had asked K what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said he wanted to spend it with his cousins! So I planned to come a little earlier than his birthday so we could also celebrate my sister's forty-fourth. I offered to watch all of the kiddos while her hubby took her on a date for a nice dinner in the revolving Sun Dial restaurant in the Westin building downtown. They even brought back a delicious pecan tart for my dessert.... absolutely fabulous!

The children have been having a blast, although today's celebration of K's 9th birthday was tinged with sadness as the evening wore on, because we leave for home in the morning.

Hello, Hello Kitty Dress

2008-02-25T16:10:00.003-05:00

After making L the "Ballet Dress" she hardly wore anything else. Everytime it needed washing, it was a sad, sad day... So I made another dress, similar, but different, since I just can't stand making two things that are identical. I searched the fabric store for some warmer, more seasonal fabric with kitties or more specifically Hello Kitty and all I could find was this flannel backed satin. I knew she'd love it, even if it's intended for sleepwear. Besides, pajamas are her second favorite thing to wear after the "Ballet Dress."

Three quarter sleeves keep them from getting as dirty (dragged in ketchup and the like) and also will transition into the Spring wardrobe despite the Winter themed print of Hello Kitty in ice scates and snowflakes.

Two tiers of gathers make this a great spinning dress, which is the true test for dresses among girls (and some women, like myself).

Twirling to her heart's content.

Results not too suprising ;) (except for the "man" part)

2008-02-23T17:36:00.001-05:00

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman		100%
Wonder Woman		80%
Robin		75%
Spider-Man		70%
Supergirl		65%
Catwoman		50%
Iron Man		50%
Green Lantern		45%
The Flash		30%
Batman		25%
Hulk		10%

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Swingin' into action

2008-02-05T00:59:00.001-05:00

Look who's on this month's brochure for the Friday Night Swing Club!
Yep, it's yours truly dancing in one of my very own sewing creations, doing a little East Coast Swing with my good friend, Brian. (Those are the shoes I got for my birthday that I was so excited about! They make my feet happy too, thanks again mom and dad.)

So even when the crappy winter doldrums have got me down, I can look forward to dancing on Friday nights, which instantly lifts my spirits. But really, I think the doldrums have waned for now. I found great encouragement just the other day while out walking. I noticed tulip bulbs breaking through the cold, crusty dirt, and buds tinged with green on the Dogwood tree. I also noticed, as I was out around dusk this weekend, that the days are getting a teensy bit longer now. And while I know we've still got more winter to bear, I've seen the signs of Spring and I'm heartened by them. It was a somewhat mild day today, so I spent some time on a bench, while the kids played "mud pies," facing into the sun and trying to absorb those rays. Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy, and so does dancing on Friday nights.

why bother?

2008-01-21T12:00:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been trying to decide if I still want to keep blogging. I feel like it's lost it's importance to me, having been replaced by, well, nothing really. I'm just not sure why I blog anymore. The reasons and motivations have changed over the past few years. Perhaps it's just a slump... or perhaps I'm just feeling like everything in my life these days is futile.... it must be the winter.

It is hard to feel motivated to do much around here, knowing that I'm the only one who will notice. Maybe I need to remind myself that I'm worth it, but it's not really that. It's not that I don't feel worthy of a clean, tidy house... it's that the work, the tiresome, repetitive work of maintenance goes unnoticed, unappreciated and only gets messed up again within minutes. Mopping the kitchen floor seems an invitation to spills, changing the bed linens seems an invitation to "accidents" in the night, putting all the toys away only stimulates more creative play at which time, everything comes back out again, and cooking interesting food just produces extra dirty dishes and frowns around the table. "Why can't we have___________ instead?"

So I push the boulder up the hill once more, only to watch it roll back down again.
After rereading that post from Christmas past, I am somewhat encouraged by my own musings and those writings I quoted in that post, and now I remember why I do this blog thing... to remind myself why I do any of it at all.

All for Jesus!
All for Jesus!
All my being's ransomed powers:
All my thoughts, and words and doings,
all my days and all my hours.*

kind of a mom

2008-01-14T01:01:00.000-05:00

Watched "Nanny McPhee" tonight with the kiddos. And they were having some trouble understanding who the women in the household were at the beginning. Being middle class kids of the twenty first century it's hard to comprehend the idea of servants, cooks and housekeepers. It's made clear that the mom has died at the beginning of the film, which is the reason a nanny is needed, however, my children were perplexed with the roles of the scullery maid and cook. "Is she the mom?" they persisted in asking. "No," I replied, "she's a housekeeper. You know she brings out the food and cleans up." To which my daughter (age 4) responded matter of factly, "That's kind of a mom." I'm trying not to let that oversimplified job description irk me... and let it be a reminder to get my kids to help out more, especially with the cleaning up!

A Red Door Day

2008-01-06T00:22:00.000-05:00

Since I've been posting for a few years now, I'm sure I must have mentioned how depressing I find New Year's Eve, and just the whole New Year hubbub etc. This year isn't any exception...but I'm doing my best to fight those new year-pre-post holiday blues.
Last night was dance "therapy" and today I fought them with a very "hands on" approach. Starved for physical touch and wound tighter than a corkscrew from the stressors of single motherhood I took a "Spa Day." I thought that would be a good way to start off the year.

On my birthday a few of my friends gave me gift certificates for "spa treatments" so today I redeemed the Red Door half day of treatments that my cousin so graciously gave me. I started with a deep tissue massage (I upgraded from the "Signature Massage" which is a Swedish one, which in all honesty feels like being petted and caressed which I find a little bit creepy from a stranger) and I HIGHLY recommend it. Darlene, my masseuse, used her elbows to iron out all my kinks and recommended that I come in regularly like every 4-6 weeks for deep tissue massages, and perhaps the knots in my upper back won't get so bad. Now wouldn't that be nice? ( She worked out most of the spots, but I could have taken another 50 minutes easily.) Then a facial with Jenella ... cool name, eh? She was keen to notice my sensitive skin and was careful not to aggrevate it. She also used this tool, that kills all the bacteria on my skin with heat, I forgot what it was called, but that was a first for me and it didn't even hurt. Then on to a pedicure and manicure followed by a "complementary make-up refresher." The mani- and pedi-cures were good especially since I asked Anna the nail specialist not to cut my cuticles.... that always hurts and then stings and kind of ruins the whole relaxation experience. The color I chose for my toes, Sasha, was the same that several other women there kept choosing, I noticed this while I was waiting for my makeup. The makeup refresher was an odd experience. I've never ever had anyone apply my makeup for me, (maybe my sister did once, but I'm pretty sure she just showed me by demonstration)... anyhow, this woman had never seen me before or how I normally do my makeup and so I guess she did pretty well. I asked for a "fresh look" which to her meant lots of brown eyeshadow and pink lip gloss. She also applied some blush and mascara and lined my lower eyelids with a white liner, which I never do and I thought that it looked sort of Bambi eyed. I didn't look like a drag queen but I also didn't look like me so after I dressed I wiped about 30% of it off, blotted the gloss applied my own lip color and looked almost normal. Then I did a little shopping, got a portabella mushroom salad and tomato bisque at Donna's and came home to watch Spiderman 3.

Spiderman 3 was awesome. I wish more hero movies like that were out there. The themes of responsibility, goodness, forgiveness that are woven through the plot are classically refreshing. I know everyone has probably seen this film several times already, but this was my first viewing and it was a great movie to end a great day.

The "Ballet" Dress

2007-12-19T11:47:00.000-05:00

L loves cats and pink and purple, so I took it upon myself to make her an instantly favorite dress combining all three of those elements. The fabric was found at JoAnn's and I made up the pattern myself. L calls it a "Ballet" dress because it twirls nicely. This is the most important feature of a dress for girls of a certain age (and also ladies who like to twirl, like myself ;) .

close up of kitty fabric

Mugly Others

2007-12-18T22:21:00.001-05:00

Some more of the boys' creations which were sent off today as gifts to some cousins.
Top row L to R "Army Man", "Cutie Pie", "Trucky"
Bottom row: "Dolphy" on left and "Wonder Horse" on right
From this batch only "Trucky" was made by D the rest are K's work (with my help of course.)

the collages

2007-12-13T14:47:00.001-05:00

Unfortunately, you can't see all the cool details, like the wires that connect all those gadgets, with this crappy camera-phone shot.

home school happenings

2007-12-11T22:16:00.000-05:00

My oldest son likes math, but not only does he like math, he does it for fun. Today instead of his regular math lesson (which have been too easy lately) I taught him an impromptu lesson on long division. He doesn't even know all his times tables yet, but the subject came up and so I seized the opportunity. I remember being a bit mystified when I first learned long division in third grade, and that was probably because I had absolutely no interest in it whatsoever when it was taught to me. This is another great benefit (and draw back) to home schooling. I get to strike while the iron is hot, but that also means getting "behind" in our lessons... ironic since I'm actually teaching ahead of them. Anyway, K, spent at least an hour writing up very long addition problems with multiple digits adding them and then multiplying the sums by 2 or 4 or 7, for fun! The problems he was inventing were too big to punch into the calculator to check his work, so I also got to do lots of math for "fun." Yay.

Today we also started an impromptu art project of creating self-portrait collages. I traced the children on large paper and they started clipping out magazine pictures and pasting them on as well as adding some of their own drawings. The boys' images are looking very much like robots. After "lights out" tonight, they were discussing how they wanted to finish them and even make more. K suggested making one for each season, and also one with all plants "like a jungle." D doesn't usually like doing "crafts" but once he saw what K was making, he wanted to make his own. The results are similar but different enough... I'll post the finished products when they are complete.

Yesterday we went to Holly Hills Nursing Home in Towson to sing to the residents and give them some of the children's art work. This was arranged by another mom in our home school group and she did a great job organizing it all and presenting our group to the residents. Many seemed unresponsive but the few who could speak expressed their delight in seeing the children and hearing our singing. I had taught an art workshop last month with the primary purpose to produce a gift item for the children to give to the nursing home residents. We printed designs inspired by Baltimore Album quilts on little tote bags. The products turned out well.... better than the lesson did, in my mind, although I did get a lot of positive feedback from our group. (It's been a long time since I taught an art lesson to a group of 20 kids!)

Nothing Spectacular

2007-12-01T23:15:00.000-05:00

I've been reflective lately. Autumn has that effect on me. It's something about the way the sunlight flickers through the wind blown leaves, casting shadows and dancing orbs of light on the floor. I could watch this for hours just thinking about things.

Lately my thoughts dwell on my imperfections and the great shortcomings I'm noticing in myself. I wonder why my passions don't always align with my beliefs and vice-versa. (I am praying for more continuity in these things.) I'm wanting to be better at what God has called me to be, and I'm still trying to discern what I'm supposed to do with this life I've been given. I continue to feel tension between believing home schooling to be the best option for my children, and a desire to have them in school so I can pursue meaningful, full time, gainful employment to be a better financial provider. (This could just be a pride vs humility thing.) It seems that whenever this doubt grows to the point of where I'm on the cusp of acting on it, some sort of encouragement comes from an unexpected source. That usually gives me enough momentum to carry on another day or week or month until the doubt wells up again.

Today, while the kids were with their dad, I got to sleep in after a late night of swing dancing and apres diner chow down. I managed to do the grocery shopping, run an errand, do some housework and get dinner underway before my munchkins came home.

As we sat down to dinner, my heart was bursting with love for those three little people... just seeing their faces around the table, having them home safe again... "I love you guys," I said hoping that it sinks in all the way down to those hard places inside of them that will surface in the next five to ten years. I don't ever want to take that for granted. It makes me think of that scene from "Our Town" when whats-her-face gets to go back and see one day of her life. She's told to pick an ordinary day, because that will be hard enough. It was an ordinary moment, but I shall treasure it.

The children didn't like what I had prepared for dinner which I thought was one of their favorite dishes. I guess their tastes have changed since last time I fixed cranberry meat balls and rice. Oh well. When I asked them what they had eaten today at their dad's, they said, "Cereal, bacon and cheese. ...Oh and smoothies." Yep, that's him alright. Their father thinks of bacon as "the pink vegetable." So I didn't force them to eat the meal. They had some carrots and fruit to make up for the forgotten food group and we were all content.

Entertaining Myself

2007-11-18T23:24:00.000-05:00

Lately I've been watching season 3 of Project Runway. The first disc had a long wait on Netflix (no, I don't have cable T.V.) so I just skipped on to disc 2. I love this show because it has not only to do with fashion, but construction of garments. I love watching the process of an idea being made into a reality. The people on the show (real people chosen for their talent) are characters to say the least. The dynamic in and out of the workroom with these people can become quite intense. They are under extreme stress, limited time, sleep, and budget, with crazy criteria and high expectations from the critics of creating "fashion forward," "innovative" designs that are made and fit well. I can't help wondering what kind of stuff I'd make out of recyclables, or what I'd design for a plus size woman to make her look fabulous and "fashion forward," or what kind of outfit could I make with only one day and $50 starting from scratch? It's "reality" television, yeah, right, this stuff never happens in reality, but it's still fun to watch.

Friday afternoon my cheap-o plug'n play Dance Dance Revolution game arrived in the mail. I had bought it from ebay for cheap, and now I know why, but it's still great fun for the kids and myself. Dancing is really the only form of exercise I enjoy, so I thought I'd get this as a workout kind of thing. The music is cheesy electronic versions of pop songs from three years ago (or more) and the graphics are reminiscent of programs we designed in 8th grade computer lab (OK maybe not the ones I designed but other kids in my class). But it keeps us moving. The boys have taken to the pinball game where they move the "flippers" by jumping on the dance pad, and L likes the "whack-a-mole" game if we all help her, so she only has to jump on one square. Now, after playing for only three days, I'm seriously considering going for the real deal...

Friday night I went to a party for my friend's birthday and learned about another cable show I'm going to be hooked on called "Flight of the Conchords." It's completely quirky and hilarious and I can't even begin to explain it in a way that would do it justice. Only that I laughed so hard that there were many lines I missed, so I'm definitely going to watch those episodes again. Watch a clip here.

Fabric Junkie

2007-11-15T09:18:00.000-05:00

On my birthday one of my mom's friends brought me three big bags of fabric, patterns and notions from her stash. She is downsizing, and I think, realized that a lot of the projects she started will never get finished. I've been having fun picking through the stuff, and have found some real "gems." But even though I have plenty of uncut yardage waiting to become something wonderful, it's very difficult to curb the compulsion to buy more fabric, especially when it goes on sale for riduculously cheap! My latest acquisition is this fabric (above) which I thought would make a humorous "Cocktail" dress. It's 100% Japanese cotton lawn, which for you fabric dummies, has a lovely soft hand and is almost sheer. I'm thinking it'll be cocktail/sundress for Spring/Summer '08.

In the Wall

2007-11-13T10:57:00.000-05:00

Lil Miss L has some new friends. Jo-Lisa and her boyfriend, Bajesus, live in the wall (at the ex's apartment) with their cat, Meego. L informed me that they are only pretend, but I have to wonder if she's given names to the voices she might hear of the neighboring tenants.

Look what fell off the Ugly Tree!

2007-11-08T16:58:00.000-05:00

After seeing these "Ugly Dolls" (left) in a toy catalog yesterday, my boys decided they'd like to design and make their very own ugly doll.

D drew several designs and finally settled on a bat-like creature. I had to enlarge the drawing to make it a more workable size. Instead of making it all in fleece, D chose to use some black leather scraps for the ears and wings. In K's drawing the legs were too thin to sew so we beefed them up a bit. I did most of the assembling, but the boys did do some hand sewing on the eyes and mouths. They also stuffed them and then I sewed them closed. The only thing this cost us was time. I think they turned out quite nicely and the boys are so proud of their unique toys!

Marilyn Me

2007-11-06T19:34:00.002-05:00

Now I'm famous! I just found a picture of myself (enjoying the fan) posted on the Friday Night Swing Dance Club website! Check out some of the crazy Halloween costumes here, or better yet, come dance with me sometime.

The Soiree

2007-11-05T21:20:00.000-05:00

Here I am at my party sporting my $2 dress after a few alterations. What did I do? I had to take in some from the back, shortened the sleeves and used the extra fabric to add a swingy gore to each side seam to keep the dress from clinging too much. This also helps the dress from disappearing when I sit down since it is cut on the bias.

It was a great time: lots of yummy food and drink, great people, and even a little Dance Dance Revolution (not kidding!) I think what I enjoy most about my parties, is seeing all the different people who are special to me mingling and getting to know each other and having a really good time. I had dreamt up the idea, and the speech to go along with it, one night last week for a toast I was going to give at my party. You know those eloquent things we think of saying to people we love just before dropping off to sleep?.... anyway, it didn't quite come out the way I'd hoped, but I think I was successful at communicating that this birthday I wasn't celebrating me as much as I was celebrating all of *you* being in my life!

You say it's your birthday? It's my birthday too, yeah!

2007-11-02T09:56:00.001-04:00

In this week of Octember, we celebrated L's 4th birthday, got geared up for maximum candy collection and today, "celebrate" my, ahem, 35th year of life. I actually had an early family party on Tuesday with L's complete with double chocolate cake (I made for L) and birthday pie. (Mom's pies are hard to beat, so I take the opportunity to request one instead of cake these days. It also made up for the disappointing pie I had at Towson Diner last Friday with my new swing dancing friends.) Tomorrow is the real party though, and I'm looking forward to spending an evening amongst some of my most favoritest people.

So you ask, what did I get? Well high on my "want list" was a new pair of dance shoes. The Suzie Q in particular, I found a pair for a terrific price, but a day after I placed the order, found out they were out of stock (boo). I guess they are very popular and sell out fast. So I decided to go with another less costly style and placed my order for this fantastic footwear. I can't wait to try them out! The shorter men at the dances will appreciate them too.

Halloweeners

2007-11-01T14:00:00.001-04:00

Harmony Bear, Mars Mission Astronaut, and Skele-boy.

K wanted to be a Lego "Mars Mission Astronaut" so I stepped up to the challenge and created his costume. My dad had an extra, small white motorcycle helmet which worked perfectly. I covered the face shield with gold faric using temporary double-stick tape (he could see through the fabric.) I had lots of white shiny stretch knit that was given to me, so I used that lined with white polar fleece for the "suit" which consisted of a vest with silver patch "kangaroo" pocket and zipper and pants. The harness was made of duct tape (I love that stuff!), fun foam, self stick velcro and some metalic paints. Both boys love this suit, mostly because the soft fleece feels so good against their skin!

Dad's thumb was hiding the rest of this dress in the photo, perhaps mom's copies will be better. I was, you guessed it, Marilyn Monroe for the Friday Night Swing Dance Club Halloween Dance. It was loads of fun. I used more of that shiny stretch knit (I still have tons of it left) and designed this simple halter dress. I didn't use a pattern, but I borrowed a pattern piece from another dress for the high waist band which joined the halter and the circle skirt. It was a great dress to twirl in! I received lots of compliments, but since there were 2 other "Marilyns" present (even though I was the only "blonde") I didn't win any prizes.

50's Flair

2007-10-11T23:25:00.001-04:00

Sometimes all I need is a good excuse to make a dress and I will. I've had this reissued 1952 pattern hanging on my wall for at least three years now, but it wasn't until my friend announced a 50's themed birthday party for her husband that I actually took the time to make it up. Being that I hadn't tested the pattern and spent about six bucks on the fabric, it's more of a wearable muslin. But I wore it swing dancing last weekend and it held up just fine.

Hidden talents. I managed to win the bubble gum blowing contest. Look closely, this one is a double bubble. I know you're impressed, well at least the dude in the background is.

At the Fair

2007-10-11T23:10:00.001-04:00

I already posted, but here are more fun pics of our day at the Maryland State Fair.

Mmmm, bacon. Just kidding. (sort of)

I made this dress that L is wearing...it's getting too short now, but with shorts, it works.

The boys sit inside the belly of a real State Trooper helicopter.

The horses are on the track...

Holden Turtles (again)

2007-10-11T22:57:00.000-04:00

I just got some pictures back from my recent summer excursions. I thought I post the visual aides to this post here.

This is the turtle nest. If you look with a magnifying glass you just might be able to make out the teeny tiny tracks they left behind....or not.

My surfer dudes.

Finally Lil Miss L is enjoying the ocean!

The Big Fat Greek Wedding!

2007-10-07T23:30:00.000-04:00

First, thanks for patiently waiting for this post...I've had to be patient about it too. See the slide show with more photos via Snapfish here.

Maintaining sanity:

At the salon, the mother of The Bride received a very unsatisfactory hairdo. The Bride and bridesmaids agreed, it needed more oomph. Her stylist added a little more curl but it still didn't look good. Then her stylist began working on someone else...After The Bride had her hair coiffed her stylist completely redid the mother's and it was much better. Then a tipsy client standing next to The Bride spilled sangria all over the place, but thankfully, none got on her veil. After our hair was fixed and shellacked into place, The Bride and I went back to her place to finish getting ready and tie up some loose ends with the programs. It took her a long time to get the layout right and then we were hurting for time to get all the programs printed on her computer. She called Kinkos. They could manage the job in about an hour, but it would cost $500 for the job. She decided to print them at home and let the groomsmen pick them up and fold them at the church. While she tried to figure out her printer, I put on my make-up. Then she started in on her own make up, but still hadn't done her nails. It was almost 3 o'clock and that is when we were supposed to be at her mom's house for pictures. At about 3:10 the groom's sister called, frantic and lost in Towson wanting The Bride to give her directions (!) I took the call, but didn't know the way and tried diverting her to call The Groom. She started to freak out, The Bride, with only half her face "on", took the phone and told the sister to call her brother for help and hung up. At 3:30 the sister of the bride called, I answered it. She was getting impatient and said, "The photographer wants Tricia here NOW!"
I told her, "I'm doing the best I can and we are getting ready to leave." The Bride took a final sweep of the apartment trying to remember what she had forgotten. I was standing by the door holding several bags and things ready to go. Then she remembered: "My Computer!" Stuffing it into a bag, she then grabbed for the power cord. It was plugged in, of course, behind a tall book shelf. The Bride got down on the floor with her veil off to one side and reached under the shelf tugging hard. I saw the bookshelf teeter. "TRICIA!" I yelled. "The shelf! Be careful!" Her arm is sort of stuck under the shelf and she jerks it out. I dropped everything and rushed over and then she heaved the whole shelf away from the wall in one hulking thrust, yanked out the cords, jammed them into the case and we were off. Whew.

Pre Wedding Photos:
The bride wanted a photo of herself in her veil while sitting in her convertible. So instead of driving there and then putting the top down, she drives the whole way with the top down, veil blowing up in the wind. I followed her in my car and saw passersby giving her double-takes. I thought for sure the whole veil was going to blow off and fly away down the highway, and I'd be the one chasing after it, but she managed to keep it on. The bride's dress and accessories were all at her mom's house and still needed to be put on.

Some other bridesmaids and I dress her, and secured her into the gown and she hurried off for pictures without any jewelry (or her nails painted!). I pushed through the crowd of relatives and put on her necklace and handed her the earrings while the photographer adjusted his camera.

Whew! Lots of photos are shot very quickly,
and then there was some confusion about the limos. One had to leave ASAP because he had a prom to get to, and we were about 50 minutes behind schedule. We headed off to the church.

At The Church:

I followed the limo in my car since the reception was not too far from home, and when I walked up to the limo, Sam (the old and small but forceful wedding coordinator or Wedding Nazi as we bridesmaids referred to him) was yelling at the limo driver, "You need to back this limo up NOW! The bride needs to come in that door, back there!" The driver was confused since he was taking orders from the bride and her parents from inside the vehicle too. He explained there was to be a picture taken by a certain tree. Sam insisted there wasn't any time for that, and demanded the driver move the limo back. The bride and all her stuff get ushered into the chapel and there we wait. She still didn't have her nails done. Her cousin volunteered for the task about ten minutes before it's time to walk down the aisle. Sam hollered to us to get lined up. "Where is Mimi?" everyone was wondering.

Later, I find out the nail polish had spilled on the floor and there was a frantic half-assed effort to clean it up. The bride changed her mind that she wanted the children to walk down first. Sam insisted we must do it as rehearsed the night before. I noticed a vein popping in his forehead. The father of the bride and The Wedding Nazi butted heads but the Wedding Nazi won the skirmish. The flower girl was confused about when to walk down. A compromise was reached. The boys walked down first and the flower girl walked down after the last bridesmaid, just before the bride.

The Ceremony:
I walk down the aisle on cue and met my handsome groomsman at the dais, he had missed the rehearsal the night before, so I whisper to him, "Bow," when we step up to the table. Slightly confused, but obedient, John followed my lead and all goes smoothly.

One of the priests looked like a salty-haired Mr. Bean.
I tried not to think of it, for fear of inappropriate laughter. We stand for 45 minutes on very hard marble. I resisted looking at the candles as advised at rehearsal to avoid fainting, and listened to the chanters. The ceremony was beautiful. The flower girl was standing, shifting, one arm akimbo like a little diva.
The flowers got really heavy and then we were walking out again.

The Reception:
It was starting to rain at the time to head over to the hall so one groomsman offered to get an umbrella from the car. I look up and see this dapper tuxedoed man walking with a bright tangerine umbrella. It's not the wide kind for two people to easily walk under, it's the highly domed kind, somewhat reminiscent of the clear plastic bubble ones that were popular in the 70's. He reminds me of a Magritte painting. Several of the bridal party caravan to the reception hall with me in the lead, I nearly lose everyone at a stop light. (In my defense I only knew of one groomsman who was unsure of the way who was following me, but he had some other guys following him.) We make it there and are ushered upstairs for our own private cocktail party while the rest of the guests enjoy cocktails downstairs. The place is absolutely gorgeous. Gold and crystal chandeliers, damask wall papers, and rich textiles decorate the rooms. Everyone is introduced into the Grand Ballroom.

Pure genius on The Bride and Groom's part was to provide big wheels for the little ringbearers to cruise around on while the Father of the Bride gave a neverending toast. Delicious food was followed with lots of Greek-style dancing,

including the Ouzo circle dance the young men were doing in a corner to demonstrate their "manly coolness." Money was strewn all over the floor after having been thrown into the air by the Father of the Bride and other relatives.

Holden Turtles

2007-09-17T23:46:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm back from a week at Holden Beach, North Carolina with the kids (and Oma, Grandpa, and my sister's whole family of 7). It was loads of fun. This was the first year that my sons took a real liking to the waves, either jumping them or riding them on boogie boards. Lil Mis "L" was scared to death of the water for the first half of the week. Granted the waves were pretty ginormous, but even after she was OK with wading in knee deep, she'd completely freak out if she saw me out there swimming.

The most exciting part of our stay this year (no we weren't evacuated this time) was the nest of sea turtle eggs right near the dunes by "our" place. Not only that, but it was the week that they were expected to hatch! Now I didn't see the nest "boil" as they say. (That's when the sand bubbles up because the baby turtles are pushing their way up and out.) But I did see the most adorable little tracks in the sand one morning. Sea turtles are heavily protected on Holden Beach. They've got a Turtle Patrol specially equipped with red t-shirts and ball caps monitoring the whole process. They had the nest taped off and they dug a trench out to the water to give the hatchlings a better chance of making it to the sea. Two days after the hatch, the Turtle Patrol noticed a crab hole down in the nest, so they carefully hand dug up any remaining eggs or hatchlings. There were five babies left. I asked if I could touch one of the broken pieces of shell. Would you believe it's ILLEGAL to touch a piece of shell? I can understand why touching the endangered turtles would be a problem, but a discarded piece of turtle eggshell? C'mon. I wasn't asking to keep it. Oh well. We all got to watch them walk the trench, some much faster than others. We placed our bets and named them, but since they all looked the same it was hard to be sure who really "won". They didn't crawl into the ocean either, they were collected at the end of the trench and then placed in the water. A thunderstorm was approaching and the Patrollers wanted to speed things along a bit. Still pretty amazing. Most likely a once in a lifetime experience.

*Because the turtles are attracted to light, we weren't allowed to use flash photography, so I didn't bother taking any pictures since it was dusky when they made their way down the beach. The one I found online, however is pretty good and shows the cute little tracks they make, like the ones I saw.

Ren Fest, Races, and Rides

2007-09-03T22:52:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, as in just over a week ago, I took my three darling children to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Huzzah! It happened to be the hottest day in August, but we went anyway, and I think we had fun. Sometimes, when it's very hot and humid, and I can feel sweat sliding down the valleys of my body, it's hard to feel anything other than hot and perhaps a little irritable. I made some cloaks for the kids to wear, but guess what? I forgot to bring a camera, so a whole day of photo ops was lost. I tried to make a conscious effort to store up some vivid memories, though. Let's see, we started out by spending nine bucks for three snow balls, and then walked over to the playground area. On our way over there, I noticed a sign a for free pony rides, and L wanted one, so she got to ride around the ring once on a little brown pony. She wanted the white pony, but didn't make a fuss. (That's my girl.) Our quest for the day was to enjoy as much shade as possible, and the playground was mostly shady, but unfortunately the jousting was not. We stood off to the side in a small patch of shadow cast by a small spindly tree and saw two jousts. The boys wanted to know why no one was knocked off his horse. We watched two plays. The first was Robin Hood, the children's theater version where volunteers from the audience act out the story. We sat still and watched. The shade shifted and we got a little baked in the sun. Then we walked around a bit, bought some wooden swords and then watched most of the Hack and Slash show, we were late and the best shady seats we could find were behind some posts and trees so we had to lean to get a good view. Oddly enough, even though it was so hot, and we were sweating quite a bit, I guess the kids were well hydrated because it seemed like each time we visited the "privies", five minutes later someone else had to "go" again. I was losing most all my water through my skin... After about 4 hours of wandering around peering in shops, and spending too much money on beverages and food, we all agreed it was time to leave. It would have been much more enjoyable on a cooler weekend, but this was the one when kids were free!

Friday "Grandma" took all of us to the Maryland State Fair. I usually don't like the fair. You see, I have lived for 30 years only about a half mile away from the fair, and it gets old. I also get annoyed with all the increased traffic and lack of parking at the shops, but actually this year it wasn't so bad. Maybe I just stayed home more this past week. Anyway, we went to the fair on Friday and had a really fun time. We saw lots of cows, horses- part of a pony show, pigs- with 4 day old piglets, chickens-and just hatched chicks, and other farm animals, prized vegetables and local honeybees, but L was disappointed that the cows babies weren't being born as scheduled. Grandma also bought us tickets for rides. I took the boys on a little caterpillar roller coaster, L on a merry-go-round (and tried not to get sick), and we all went through a mirror maze fun house. We got to look through a telescope and see the sun. It just looked like a bright yellow circle, no spots or flares, probably because it was a little overcast. D won a stuffed animal for popping three balloons (for $5) by throwing darts at them, and then the man gave L a little blue bear just for smiling at him with her big blue eyes. Then, since I have never once been to the races here in town, we watched two horse races as well. Grandma placed a two dollar bet on number 6, her first bet ever, but he came in 4th place. Oh well, at least the parking was free. It turned out to be a much more educational "field trip" than I had expected too. We learned a good bit about erosion and global warming and how it would effect our wildlife and streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed area. Overall a rollicking good time. Experienced through the eyes of my children, it was like being a kid again myself. Thanks again Grandma M!

Poke-a-what?

2007-08-26T23:07:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd finally post something! I started school with the boys two weeks ago, we are following a pretty structured schedule now and so far so good. Last week's impromptu art lesson, jumping off from something the boys were already "into," was to create their own Pokemon character in a crayon/watercolor resist. They had already been busy making (rather crudely) some of their very own Pokemon cards drawn out in colored pencil on index cards and then roughly cut to size. My idea was to make a larger painting of one of their favorites. It took very little to motivate them, in fact they were busy before I finished giving them some basic instructions. Today, after fiddling around with the scanner and changing some preexisting cards, at K's request, I thought, we should actually make their paintings into cards. This became an all day project of figuring out the software and remembering once learned, and soon forgotten, computer graphics skills I picked up in high school.

The paintings:

As you can see, K already added some of the card info to his painting.

OK, now their cards. I had to squish D's "Spiraly" to get him to fit our format, and they aren't perfect, but certainly satisfactory for a first time effort, I think.

Twice this week I received emails from different friends with a link to this ebay item. There's a very funny story that goes along with the Pokemon theme here, about shopping with lots of children, and how sometimes we buy things we never even meant to. She is a kindred "mommy blogger" check out her other funny writings here.

Guess who?

2007-08-04T22:03:00.001-04:00

OK, you probably guessed who easy enough, but can you guess when?

Today I've been organizing and tidying and throwing out bunches of junk that has been cluttering up my desk and making room for the scanner. I found this old first grade (possibly kindergarden) picture in the heaps. I discovered this cool program on my computer that will organize pictures into photo album pages. I haven't actually tried it out yet, but what a neat-o concept, eh?

Last night I saw Harry Potter 5. It was super good, I had forgotten much of the plot in that one. In fact when I started reading HP7, I had to go back and skim through HP6 because I had forgotten some really important events. I read #6 while pregnant with L and pregnancy clouds my memory. So I absolutely positively LOVED Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was superb! Even fundamentalist-witch-hating-Christians who dare to read it will see how beautiful the story is.

*MK at Ganap! clued me in to a great review of HP7 from Christianity Today. Read it here.

Scan On!

2007-08-04T01:55:00.001-04:00

I just installed a scanner (no longer wanted by my pop) and was finally able to scan in the boys' Chinese scroll paintings they made in May. They used water color paints and then I made a "chop" from a potato so they could stamp their initial on the painting. K's is a panda and D's is a fox in a mountain cave.

Now that I've got scanner powers... I hope to be able to put up a lot more fun stuff.

Summer on the hill

2007-07-12T16:57:00.001-04:00

The hill on which I am blessed to live.

L and D in the coop holding "their" chicks.

The playset. (Action figures sold separately.)

Cherry picking

A birthday dress-up "no boys" tea party. (The bunny is mine.)

I'm still not in the mood to write much at length here but I thought I put up a few pictures from when all the family was gathered together.

*Still waiting on the Greek wedding pictures.

Blessing

2007-06-19T23:24:00.000-04:00

I'm still waiting for the pictures so I can post them with my Greek wedding entry....thanks for your patience. (Notice the new profile pic? That's me in the car coming home from the wedding. I stopped by the bride's condo and saw some of the wedding pics her photographer took, they look promising, I hope she emails me some soon.)

Other reasons for not posting, well, I've just not really felt like it. Sometimes this happens to bloggers, and it happens to me, usually when the weather warms. A little seasonal depression I think. You see the anniversaries of my wedding and divorce are less than a week apart. This year I realized that not only is my divorce day 6-6-06, but it's also "D-Day"...that's kind of a strange coincidence, don't you think? Anyhow, I think it's beginning to lift. I'll know better after things calm down around here.

I'm sorry to say the baby bunnies have eaten all our sugar snap peas (planted twice!) and strawberries this spring...This is because Jasmine, our cat, passed away earlier this year. She was almost 17 years old and the best darned cat I've ever had. But my mom is also tired of all the baby bunnies, chipmunks and other varmints running wild here (spreading ticks and eating everything), so she finally agreed to get a kitten and brought one home on Friday. Mom named her "Segen", which means "blessing" in German. She's a sprightly little tabby cat with a white chin. We absolutely love her!

Both my brother and sister's families are here this week, so it's kinda busy round here. Just this afternoon I had 11 of the 13 children in my living room watching Charlotte's Web. It seems the days are filled with making food, cleaning up dishes and providing entertaining ideas to keep kids busy. There is a lot for kids to enjoy up here. Just this year we were given a swing/play set and I also got a horsey tire swing for my kids with some gifted Christmas money. My dad (still recovering from Lyme's) also put up another tire swing which hangs on a very long rope from a very tall tree and provides a very satisfying ride. There are cherries to pick, bikes to ride, scooters to scoot.... a sandbox, wading pool, and lots of driveway for chalk drawings. Yesterday I organized some water balloon volley ball, and a water balloon fight. Great fun! My kids aren't going to know what to do with themselves when all their cousins leave.

A to Z

2007-06-04T21:04:00.000-04:00

Another one of those meme thingies... this one was sent to me on myspace, and instead of sending it to everyone there , I thought I'd post it here.

ALL ABOUT ME FROM “A” TO “Z”
A - AVAILABLE?: -- very

B - BEST SPORT?: -- frisbee

C - CRUSH?: -- Adrian Grenier (in Devil Wears Prada)

D- DREAMS?: -- often and weird

E - EASIEST PERSON TO TALK TO?: -- MK

F - FAVORITE COLOR?: -- cerulean (because I like to say it, but I'm fond of lots of colors, especially purple)

G - GUMMY BEARS OR GUMMY WORMS?: -- bears

H - HOME STATE?: -- MD

I - INSTRUMENT?: --kazoo or tambourine

J - JUICE?: -- cran-anything

K - KIND OF MUSIC?:-- it depends on the mood

L - LONGEST CAR RIDE?: -- Baltimore to Colorado

O - ONE WISH?: -- a helpmate

P - PHOBIA/FEARS?: -- spiders

Q - FAVORITE QUOTE?: --" Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intellegently." Albert Einstein

R - REASON TO SMILE?: -- the 3 munchkins

S - LAST SONG YOU HEARD?: -- "Lead me Lord" (I just sang it to the kiddos)

T - TIME YOU WOKE UP TODAY?: -- 6:55 am

U - UNKNOWN FACT ABOUT ME?: -- I curl my toes under when I'm nervous

V - VEGETABLE YOU DON'T LIKE?: -- eggplant

W - WORST HABIT?: -- staying up too late, cracking my neck

X - X-RAYS YOU'VE HAD?: -- teeth, chest

Y - YUMMY FOOD?: -- dark chocolate

Z - ZOO ANIMAL?: -- polar bears, otters and prairie dogs

The six year old just said:

2007-05-31T13:14:00.000-04:00

"Hey L, do you want to play forces of good and evil? Do you want to be the good guy or the girl?"

Out Skirts (and "Project" Friday)

2007-05-27T00:54:00.000-04:00

Another shot from the alpaca farm, taken by MK. Here I'm petting the ginormous Anatolian shepherd (I think he liked me) in my moss colored paisley skirt. I whipped up several of these skirts last year (or was it the year before?) and varied each slightly. Based on a simple 7 panel skirt that I custom designed at a pattern making workshop three years ago, I inserted godets into each seam to give the skirt a little flippy swing. The fabric was a great deal, it was given to me free in a pile of remnants donated to a thrift shop my sister's mother-in-law runs. I prefer skirts over shorts in the warm weather because they are more flattering and easier to fit. I generally pair them with a basic t-shirt and flip-flops or sandals for a casual, everyday look. Thursday night I just put together this little A-line skirt from only 1 yd of fabric. The yardage dictated the length of the skirt so to preserve some modesty, I bound the hem with self bias so more length wouldn't be lost. (Left: fabric view close up. I love the butterflies and silver outlines. Right: whole skirt view, t-shirt is tucked under so you can see the whole garment.)

Last Friday the children and I made fuzzy felt balls with our alpaca fiber. Some of the wool I dyed with food coloring and silly me, I didn't wear rubber gloves. Fortunately, most of the color washed off before the big fat Greek wedding I was proud to serve in as a bridesmaid the next day. (More on the Greek wedding when I've got some pics to show.)

Yesterday, Chinese scroll painting was our project, and the results were beautiful. I will see if I can scan them in on dad's scanner to post.

Cloudy with a chance of alpacas

2007-05-16T21:48:00.000-04:00

DAFI alpaca farm field trip, planned and arranged by yours truly, was today. The only day in the ten day forecast with rain expected (at the time I checked yesterday), but thanks be to God, the clouds didn't burst until well after our picnic lunch at Oregon Ridge after the trip. I'm not sure it was a good thing for me to go there or not, because now I really, really want to raise alpacas more than ever. I invited my mom along, since she shares this interest and she asked lots of good questions and took notes. The children absolutely loved this trip, and not just mine, but all of the 23 children who came from our home school group! We even got to take home some fiber to make into felt (that will be our project for Friday). Enjoy the pics of my munchkins feeding some of the animals.

Oh happy day

2007-05-04T17:15:00.001-04:00

Yay, I'm about 99% recovered from the gunky ickiness and I'm starting to get things back in order. I'm extremely pleased with the weather, something people take for granted when it's nice like this, I suppose, but thanks be to God, for the month of May! I love the pink flowering trees and green foliage. K planted sugar snap peas, L sowed pink and purple flower seeds and a few lettuces from last year's that went to seed have come up in just the right spot in our garden this week. I finished the first of several summer sun dresses for a new client and she was ecstatic to see how well it fit and felt on her. I'm making at least two more for her!

Tomorrow, mom and I will visit the BSO symphony show house. It's been an annual tradition for us since about 1990, I think. I may post my reactions or inspirations on that later. This weekend is also the big annual Sheep and Wool Festival. I'll be missing it this year, but I've got friends going who will surely tell me all about it and let me pet the gorgeous yarns they purchase there.

Oh, and girlfriends, thanks for the long chats this week it helped a lot. (You know who you are.)

5-17-2007 A word about the showhouse.

This year's showhouse was the most cohesive of all the ones I remember having gone to. There were several rooms using a black and white color scheme, Asian influences, and soothing palette . I would say my most favorite room was The Master Bedroom, flooded with sunlight from it's many windows and decorated in colors of celedon, chocolate and accents of red, which was unexpected yet just right for this room. A close second was the Family Game Room. It was filled with so many fun ideas, I can't begin to list them here. My least favorite was the "Out of Africa" office for her. It lacked pizazz and the designer was in there defending her design and "color" choices to all who entered and would listen. There were some interesting aspects to the design but overall I found it dull and uninspired.

Every year I come away with a few practical ideas that may or may not be incorporated into my life. Sometimes it takes me years to actually carry out an inspiration. For instance, several years ago I saw a table treatment I liked and it gave me an idea for one I could use on my outside table with an umbrella. I cut out the fabric, but didn't sew it up until a week ago. This year's innovative idea that I liked, but probably won't use, was wood panel covered with faux embossed leather leaned against the walls of a covered porch. Beautiful wall sconces were then installed to the panels which hid the cords and wires. A great lighting solution for a temporary living arrangement or for those who don't want to mess with wiring inside the walls.

bread and butter

2007-04-28T23:44:00.000-04:00

I'm still not 100% better from the upper respiratory infection I came down with on Easter. My voice is still hoarse, and I sound like I smoke 3 packs a day. By days end, I summon my energies to read to my children but I haven't been able to sing to them in three weeks. We recently finished reading the Hobbit, and are now beginning the Fellowship of the Rings.

Today at Church, while retrieving the boys from musical rehearsal, a fellow mother said, "Joyella, I don't know how you do it. I've been 'single mom' for the past six Saturdays while my husband is taking classes, and it's really hard." Whenever someone tells me they don't know how I do it, my response is always, "I don't know how I do it either." I often feel like Bilbo when he said he felt like "butter scraped over too much bread." Especially these days. Work has been picking up a little, which is a blessing in a time of need, but I'm getting overwhelmed. If you think of it, pray for me.

On top of it all, something has recently been brought to my attention that I'm very disturbed about, and I'm not sure how I need to go about dealing with it, but it definitely needs to be addressed. Add to that, a semi-dead beat.... and you've got a recipe for stress with a capital S.

Philly fun

2007-04-24T23:18:00.000-04:00

I trekked up to Philadelphia on Saturday. I had a yummy brunch at Ida Mae's, the opportunity to meet lots of interesting individuals at a cookout (and other brunch) and did a little shopping at Circle Thrift, in Fishtown. Tif found a great faux wrap 100% silk dress in a gorgeous print (above), but lucky for me, it was not her size. It only cost $2 folks! It will need a few minor alterations, but TWO DOLLARS! And it still had tags on it! I also got another dress (which I will dye) and a pink t-shirt (for the chocolate bunnies decal below) for a grand total of six bucks. I love thrift shopping.

Also pictured (bottom), some fun cotton prints I'm looking forward to working some magic with this spring. For some reason pink keeps attracting my attention. I'm also happy to report I've gotten a few new clients recently, who actually want new dresses made, (not old ratty bedsheets mended.) Yay!

From Top to bottom: Warm pink/coral cotton batiste with Morroccan print in red and pink flowers, Pink and White floral (alternates pink on white to white on pink), two of the same print in slightly different color families --florals with butterflies and silver accents, Lipstick print (for a handbag), and last, Purse print (also for a handbag, I think).

2007-04-20T11:51:00.000-04:00

Listening to the Smith's "How Soon is Now" and reading MK's excellent post "Numb," I thought I'd post a reaction or reflection of the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech.

I don't watch the news on T.V. very much, or read the newspaper, and even though I once listened to NPR almost religiously, I've slipped from that habit as well. The morning of 911 I was reupholstering my dining room chairs and thought, "It's been a while since I've heard what's going on in the world." So I turned on the radio and immediately heard about what had happened only minutes before in NYC. I had the same thought this past Monday afternoon and proceeded to turn on the news and heard about the shootings. The next day I heard about bombings in Iraq where hundreds were killed. I thought of all the hype over here about a senseless shooting rampage, and of those places where bombings are a part of daily survival and reported on almost casually now. I was thinking of the children who have been orphaned because their parents were killed because of "civil unrest"...we don't hear about them. It seems to me that Americans think we are immune to violence since we have so many laws protecting us. We seem more enraged when something horrible happens on our turf, because that kind of thing isn't supposed to happen here.

I don't like to watch or listen or read the news often because it depresses me. Not that I want to stick my head in the sand and pretend that all is well in the world. I know quite certainly that it is not. I just don't have any idea what I can do to make a difference. I pray for the victims' families and the orphans that they may experience the hope and grace of Jesus' sacrifice.

On top of Stone Mountain

2007-04-17T18:42:00.000-04:00

My three children hamming it up on the top.

My kids and four of their cousins.

At the top, the skyride thingy we came up on.

In the "town," enjoying the little stream. Miss L (right and below) got completely soaked.

Too sick to blog

2007-04-16T21:25:00.000-04:00

I came down with a nasty flu virus on Easter and have felt pretty wretched ever since. The symptoms are changing over now from fever, malaise and cough to sneezing,runny nose and stuffiness. It's the sinus pressure all around my eyes that makes me look and feel like going back to bed indefinitely.

Pictures from Atlanta's Stone Mountain are forthcoming.

Which Care Bear are you? I am...

2007-03-30T23:52:00.001-04:00

	Funshine Bear You are filled with unlimited energy and extremely resourceful. You like to tackle problems and tasks head-on and you gladly accept any jobs that come along the way. However, you often take on too much and your stubbornness won't allow you to accept help from others. But you're always willing to have a good time!
*Take the Which Care Bear Are You?* Quiz!**

Manifold difference

2007-03-30T23:23:00.000-04:00

I've been auto-less this week in Lilburn while visiting sister Julie because of the afformentioned noisiness from my exhaust manifold. Originally we thought it just needed new bolts to tighten it. The old bolts had snapped off and needed to be drilled out. (How does that happen?) Once the mechanic got in there to see what the trouble was, it was discovered there was a hole in the manifold (go figure) and so needed replacement. This is a very expensive repair...one I don't have the funds to cover. But the Lord provided, through the means of my church, and I am so thankful for their generosity and care. I'm also grateful that I won't have to listen to the grumbling engine for 13 hours on Monday when I head home. The Green Machine now purrs like a kitten.

Hotlanta

2007-03-24T22:17:00.000-04:00

I spent all day Thursday driving from Baltimore to Lilburn, a suburb of Atlanta to spend ten days with my sister and her family. I am happy to say the trip went just as well as last year, mostly uneventful. The only thing about this trip that made it "interesting" were some minor annoyances such as, even though I spent $406 the day before the trip to have the squeaking taken out of the brake pads, the car decided it needed to make another even more annoying sound. Apparently a hole erupted in the exhaust somewhere close to the engine and the Green Machine sounded like a pack of Harleys everytime I accelerated. Also the little thingy that goes into the tape deck to play cds from the portable cd player over the car speakers wasn't working right. So twenty minutes into listening to "Prince Caspian" the sound cut off. I guess my heads are dirty or the tape thingy is busted, and Little Miss peed her pants and annouced it one second too late for me to pull off at the rest stop (which was the last one for the next 37 miles). So I had to do a roadside changing, but I'm extremely thankful no one got carsick.

Anyway, the children and I are really enjoying the warmth (80's) and the sunshine and the blooming trees everywhere. It's a nice change after that snow and ice storm just last weekend!

AVAM

2007-03-21T14:42:00.000-04:00

We had a great time at the American Visionary Arts Museum.

"Dressmaker" not "Seamstress"

2007-03-18T22:46:00.000-04:00

I have never liked the term "seamstress" and now I have another good reason. I was just looking up the definition for "tailor" on Wiki and came across this:

A Seamstress is someone who sews seams, or in other words, a machine operator in a factory who may not have the skills to make garments from scratch or to fit them on a real body. This term is not a synonym for dressmaker. Seamstress is an old euphemism for prostitute.

Dressmaker, Custom Clothier, Alterations Specialist and Pattern Maker all describe what I do much better and that suits me fine.

Winter's Last Hurrah

2007-03-17T12:35:00.000-04:00

It would figure that the day after I planted pansies, we would get lambasted by a wintery mix of weather. Last night after some consideration, I decided to venture out into the storm to get a movie. Four wheel drive? No, two foot walk. It took me about an hour and a half to walk a little over a mile, select a movie, and trudge back home. Considering that I've spent close to 45 minutes contemplating movie choices in the past, it wasn't so bad. This time I knew what I was after: Project Runway. MK recommended it, I watched disc one of season one last week and was hoping to get disc two, but Blockbuster wasn't carrying season one so I skipped on to disc one of season two. I had a jump hem on a jacket to do by hand while I watched and ooh, it was good. I think I'm hooked. Although I can't help sympathizing with the anxiety some of the designers face. It reminds me very much of college, bizarre, open ended projects to do with unusual criteria. I find watching Project Runway inspiring though. I especially like watching the processes the designers go through. I'm also a little intimidated by what these people can do... I'm mostly self-taught, and I'm not sure why I didn't pursue fashion in college. I think it's a bit too cut-throat for my personality. I'm not a competitive person, but now I see what kind of skills these designers have and I wish I had taken classes when I had the chance. One more thing to add to the to do list: take design classes.

Black Current L.L. Bean Comfort boots: $39.95
Two videos at Blockbuster: $8.38
Watching the snow fall against the black night sky while my feet stayed not only dry (after sloshing through several deep puddles of slush) but warm: Priceless

DO NOT FLUSH

2007-03-01T17:02:00.000-05:00

Two out of the three kids have been sick this past week. This morning I was feeling the beginnings of whatever it is they had and L was feeling particularly impish. While I was making bacon and eggs for the lot of us, K called to me from the bathroom, "Mommy! L put something in the toilet! Now she's FLUSHING it!" I ran in to see the swirling colors of the three foam alphabet shapes she deposited in there as they disappeared down the toilet. Since the things fit down the hole I thought that perhaps they made it through...none such luck. So after I had a go with the plunger, and dad had his turn with the "snake," he called Roto Rooter. Tom (who broke the stereotype for plumber) arrived shortly to remove our toilet and dislodge the foam obstructions. He only found two of them. We think the last one made it through the pipes. We hope the last one made it through the pipes.

To Market, To Market

2007-02-26T21:20:00.000-05:00

I had to run to the supermarket tonight after dinner. I was already a wee bit annoyed as Lil' Miss was in overdrive (the natural result of my having skipped her nap time in order to be sure she will sleep soundly tonight) and as we entered the store I saw him. He was standing behind a small narrow counter with a Baltimore Sun newspaper logo behind him and a newspaper splayed out on the counter top. I veered hard to the right to avoid his obstacle in the produce section. (I was in a "get in and get out quick" kind of mode.) He didn't even look up when he spoke to me. "How would you like to save $10 on groceries and get a free paper?" I, being the polite young woman my parents raised me to be, felt obliged to answer. "No, thanks."
"Do you already receive the Sunday paper?"
"No."
"Wouldn't you like a free one?"
"No, I don't have time to read the paper."
"You, don't have time to save money by clipping valuable coupons?"
Okay, I'm getting really bothered by his tactic. Didn't I already say, No thanks?
"No, I don't," I replied. He eyed my children and me up and looked at me in disbelief. Finally I said, "I don't have time for this conversation," and then wheeled behind the apple stand, attempting to select fruit more gently than I was feeling at the moment.

This "attack" bothered me well into the cereal aisle where I heard myself talking to myself "let it go, he's just trying to sell his newspapers." Blah. I found myself, even at the self-checkout explaining to myself why coupons don't really save me money. It's because most of the stuff in the coupon sections are for junk food that I don't buy. I know what I buy, I've tried doing the coupon thing, and frankly the coupon choices just aren't very healthy. Well, once and while I'll find one for whole wheat pasta, but it's just not usually worth the time and effort.

Why do I feel guilty shrugging off this newspaper man? It's really stupid. Actually, I think I feel guilty at my annoyance. I mean, I was on a mission, and he was creating an obstacle to the goal of speed shopping for no reason and he wasn't taking NO for an answer. I hate that. I sometimes forget that even though I do take "No" for an answer, other people don't always.

Take a brief survey?

2007-02-24T23:16:00.000-05:00

Here's a brief survey to help a friend with an up and coming small women's wear shop formulate a retail strategy. All the results are confidential.

blogkeeping

2007-02-22T22:58:00.000-05:00

Okay, Blogger has a new version out, which I switched to in November, but then was having trouble getting all my old features back that I had customized to this blog. I finally figured out how to add Haloscan commenting system back on, so I have returned to it. Also I've organized my blog links a little better on the sidebar. I hope these changes make snippets a little more user friendly for my readers.

Naughty Spot

2007-02-22T21:51:00.000-05:00

I just happened upon this ad and had to say something. I'm sure it's a useful parenting/disciplining aide, but I couldn't help laughing at the comment:
"We use it everywhere we go.”
- Susan, Mother of Ashley 6yrs and Tyler 4yrs, Palatine, IL

A Field Trip

2007-02-21T23:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, our home school group took a little field trip to radio station WYPR 88.1. After hearing the trip was ideally for children six and up, I asked a friend if she wanted to swap kids: I'd take her two older ones with my boys and she'd take my little princess for the afternoon. I allowed more time than necessary to find suitable parallel parking on Charles Street and so I found myself feeding the meter a whole thirty minutes before our tour was to begin. We only had a two block walk to the station and even though I insisted on taking our time, we were still unfashionably early. We entered the building, waited a bit in the lobby and then when I noticed the children getting antsy, (in about 4 minutes) I decided to take them for a march around the block. It wasn't until we entered the lobby the second time (now accompanied with several other moms and kids) that I realized I had been to this radio station before. Two years ago my friend, Gordon, had asked me to help him move some of his paintings from his studio space to WYPR for a little exhibit he was having there. We schlepped a good many cumbersome paintings up and down those steps, but I didn't see much of the inner workings of the radio station at that time.

This time however, we got to see the important computers that almost run the station themselves, the recording booths, the producer's booths, the music archives, the "bat cave" and the news room. Our tour was guided by none other than Andy Bienstock and I even saw Baltimore's own Marc Steiner! He was getting ready to go on air and I smiled broadly as I walked right past him, but was too shy to say, "I love your show." I'm sure he gets that a lot anyway. The grand finale of the trip was a lunch provided by The Evergreen complements of our hosts up in the conference room. I had a very delicious curry chicken green salad, but also got a sampling of D's tuna and all I can say is, "Yum, what a great trip." Even the children enjoyed it.

[side note: I also happened to notice on the way out, that the building directly across the street was where I took some of my nanny courses when enrolled at Lovegrove School for Nannies my first year after high school graduation. I had forgotten that little detail of my life until this trip.]

I had a dream...

2007-02-19T21:54:00.000-05:00

I had a dream the other night that was really disturbing. In the dream I thought I was facing death. I was in a truck (or possibly a bus) with all of my family, children, siblings, nieces, nephews, and I think my parents were driving. The truck was going up a huge very steep mountain and when it got near the top, the ground started to heave upward and the truck left the ground and twisted over and began to plummet down to the chasm below. I could see out of one window as the ground approached faster and faster. I remember thinking, "This is it, we're all going to die. I better pray." And I had enough time to utter the words "Father forgive me," before we crashed to the ground. I thought I was dead, but I wasn't. Then I realized that no one was but everyone had been terribly lacerated with glass. I had to pull out long splinters of glass out of my own legs to move to help carry the children. That's what I remember last from the dream, pulling out glass and carrying bodies of children.

This dream really impacted me. It made me tired and particularly emotional, maybe some of the children did die in the dream, I don't remember that so well now. I do remember that feeling as I thought I was going to become dust: fear, and at the same time, calm. I had enough sense to know that I wanted my last living words to be ones spoken to God.

Last night I dreamed about this dream again, in a different way. I dreamt that I was trying to explain it, but this time instead of a mountain, it was my parents' house that we were driving over. I have a vague memory of trying to solve the meaning of the previous dream in this dream.

I thought I'd look up some of the major elements of my dreams, although I am usually skeptical of interpretations, these were down right eerie:

To see a truck in your dream, implies that you are overworked. You may be taking on too many tasks and responsibilities and are weighing you down. On a side note, pregnant women often dream of trucks or driving trucks. This may be a metaphor of the load they are are carrying or an expression of their changing bodies.

To dream that you are riding a bus, implies that you are going along with the crowd. You are lacking originality and are taking no control over where your life is taking.

To dream that you are in a bus accident, signifies that you will find yourself in an embarrassing situation. Your finances will be effected in an adverse way causing your much frustration.

To see your own family in your dream, represents security, warmth and love. Consider also the significance of a particular family member or the relationship you have with them.

To see children in your dream, signifies your own childlike qualities or a retreat back to a childlike state. It is an extension of your inner child during a time of innocence, purity, simplicity, and a carefree attitude. You may be longing for the past and the chance to satisfy repressed desires and unfulfilled hopes. Take some time off and cater to the inner child within.

The loss of a child, signifies fallen hopes or a project.

To save a child, signifies your attempts to save a part of yourself from being destroyed.

To see mountains in your dream, signifies many major obstacles and challenges that you have to overcome. If you are on top of the mountain, then it signifies that you have achieved and realized your goals. Alternatively, mountains denotes a higher realm of consciousness, knowledge, and spiritual truth.

To dream that you are climbing a mountain, signifies your determination and ambition.

To dream that you fall off a mountain, suggests that you are in a hurry to succeed without thoroughly thinking about your path to success. It also means that you have a tendency to give up or escape from demanding situations.

To dream that you are praying, signifies a need to turn over some matter to a higher force and let it go. You need to learn to relinquish and let go of your worries. It may also be an indication that you need to pray more.

To see glass in your dream, symbolizes passivity or protection. You may be putting up an invisible barrier around you in order to protect yourself in a situation or relationship. To see broken glass in your dream, signifies a change in your life. You will find that a situation will come to an abrupt and untimely end.

Boars, Books and Best Friends

2007-02-18T00:00:00.000-05:00

I had a little shindig this weekend, an excuse to eat Chinese food, crack open fortune cookies*, talk about and exchange books, and visit with some of my most favorite women friends. Those invited were asked to bring a book or books they would be willing to exchange, there was great deal of variety representing the diversity of my friends. We had books about pregnancy and childbirth, novels, theology, sci-fi, non-fiction, cooking, crafts and how to books, among others. Everyone went home with something new to read. I'm looking forward to reading "Me talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris and a couple other books I saved out. I took the remainders to the Book Thing after visiting Baltimore Clayworks with my out of towner, Tif, who needed to collect her friend's artwork that had been displayed there. It was inspiring browsing the galleries and the gift shop. There were several pieces in the teapot exhibit that made me want to get my hands back into some clay again. Thoughts are brewing for taking a class on Raku...

*Fortune cookies, I learned, are much funnier if you add the preposition "in bed" at the end. (Yeah, it's a wee bit juvenile, but still humorous.)
Here are some of my favorites from the evening:
Luck will visit you on the next new moon.
You are a gentleman of outstanding wisdom.
Speak softly and sweetly.
To be mature is to accept imperfections.
Your kindness and generosity will be appreciated by others.
Many possibilities are open to you- work a little harder.
Emotion is energy in motion.

Litany

2007-02-15T23:20:00.000-05:00

Today for the first time in at least fifteen years, I
actually jotted down a few verses of poetry. I am not poetically inclined. I'll be the first to admit it. However, I did write lyrics for two songs for my high school boyfriend's band. The lyrics weren't awful, they weren't good either. I think what I came up with today could be good, but I am not sharing them here because 1. It's not finished (and may not ever be) 2. It could come off as....well, self absorbed, maybe. 3. I don't need the additional criticism in my life right now. I needed an outlet of self expression today and for some odd reason my mind took to poetry for a change. Anyhow, I've read a few poems today, worked at writing one, and so I thought I'd post this one by my very favorite poet, Billy Collins.

Litany

You are the bread and the knife,
The crystal goblet and the wine . . .
Jacques Crickillon

You are the bread and the knife,

the crystal goblet and the wine.

You are the dew on the morning grass

and the burning wheel of the sun.

You are the white apron of the baker

and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,

the plums on the counter,

or the house of cards.

And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.

There is just no way you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,

maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,

but you are not even close

to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show

that you are neither the boots in the corner

nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.

It might interest you to know,

speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,

that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,

the evening paper blowing down an alley,

and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees

and the blind woman's tea cup.

But don't worry, I am not the bread and the knife.

You are still the bread and the knife.

You will always be the bread and the knife,

not to mention the crystal goblet and—somehow—the wine.

Weird Science

2007-02-15T22:48:00.000-05:00

My friend Debbie said if I put snowballs in the bath water they will fizz like alka-seltzer. So I wonder, if I put my whole freaking snowman in the tub, will it be like a whirlpool?

Black Wednesday

2007-02-14T14:05:00.000-05:00

I got myself a man today, on Valentine's Day. Granted he's a little frosty and he's useless indoors, (OK, he's useless outdoors too) but he's mine, all mine.

And here's a poem for today.

Updated: Poems are for interpreting. Perhaps we read a bit of ourselves into them instead of reading them for what they are really about. I've had a few responses to this one I linked. I posted it, because I know what it's like to love someone and wish I didn't. Most of my separation/divorce was like that. I continued to love my ex almost against my will. Sometimes we want to stay angry and we know our own weaknesses, the power the one we love has over us, so we need to turn away because (perhaps) we need (or just want) to be angry for a while. I'm sure there are plenty of other interpretations, but that was what I got out of it. I, by no means, prescribe saving oneself from love. Love is risky, I know that as well as anyone, but I embrace love. I'm just not a fan of Valentine's Day.

Back in the Swing

2007-02-10T23:06:00.000-05:00

Last week I completed Beginning Swing Level 2 and went to the Friday Night Swing Club after a long hiatus. I received many complements on my dress (at left*) but not many invitations to dance, unfortunately. I was feeling a little "off" with some lingering back pain so perhaps that was a good thing, although I came away from the evening disappointed. Last night I thought I'd try again. It was Valentine Dress Up (red and white 50's & 60's style) night. I wore a simple red with white dot knit top from Target with a sweetheart neckline and empire waist with some black capri pants. (Comfort was what I was after last night.) It was a much better night. I had many offers to dance, learned a few new moves and met some new people. The band was great, playing all the best swing music from the 50's and 60's.

About the dress:
I started with a very boring straight, short sleeved black dress with white dots that my friend, Tree, had handed down to me a couple years ago. I cut out the back and cut off the sleeves (they were ugly and cumbersome) thinking I would make it a halter style dress. I added the pink godets in a sheer pleated polyester to the fashion fabric and a solid pink to the lining at all the seams. After a fitting I decided to repeat the pink in the cut out back to eliminate neck strain from the halter (halters always pull on my neck) and also because I read that while dancing, it is unpleasant for the man to put his hand on a sweaty back (not that I'm very sweaty when I dance.) I thought creating a pink shrug and then attaching it to the dress would solve the undergarment problem of having to wear a backless bra. I'd still like to edge the collar with pink piping, but I just haven't had the time to do it yet. I replaced all the buttons (original were basic 4-hole black shirt buttons) with smooth 2-hole buttons. After one night of dancing (at my birthday) I discovered that the buttons didn't want to stay closed, so I also stitched the center front closed by hand most of the way, making it a pull-over dress now. I don't want to worry about my clothes staying on when I'm dancing; I want to know they will.

*Apologies for the poor quality photo. I will be photographed modeling my garments in the not so distant future, I hope.

My Royal Family

2007-02-02T15:56:00.000-05:00

Friday is "Project Day" at Joyella's Home School Academy. Since we are studying the Middle Ages this year, and in particular, Charlemagne, this week, we made crowns like the Great Charlemagne himself wore.

Groundhog Day

2007-02-02T10:20:00.000-05:00

The best holiday of the year is here! Happy Groundhog Day!
Why is it the best holiday you ask? Because there are no decorations, no obligations, and no expectations for this day, other than some furry rodent will be pulled out of a hole and made to predict the weather. I'm not sure why G-hog day hasn't become commercialized and over marketed like the rest, maybe because they (you know, those people who market such nonsense) couldn't think of an appropriate color to represent the day. The only big publicity this day has received is from the movie (which I thought was quite good).

Anyway, I wish you a Happy Groundhog Day. Maybe Spring will come a little bit earlier this year, I mean if Phil said so, it must be true.

Would you could you with a mouse? part II

2007-01-25T22:54:00.000-05:00

K has been asking me all week to fetch a set of hot wheels tracks from the attic. And since today he finally lost his third tooth, I agreed to retrieve the set. After the school work had been finished and lunch was consumed, I borrowed the ladder from Oma's kitchen and climbed into the attic. I don't know if I've mentioned it lately, but I have been hearing things at night. I was pretty sure I had critters in the ceiling but today I saw the evidence: little droppings and chewed cardboard boxes. If Jasmine, our seventeen year old cat, wasn't so tired and rickety and it wasn't winter, I'd have half a mind to toss her up there for the night. I'm not a big fan of the mouse trap. I suppose the good news is I know it isn't a poltergeist making all that racket.

Putting the dream into action

2007-01-21T21:40:00.000-05:00

Alpacas, while adorable are a lot of work, or at least I assume they are. I know absolutely nothing about raising animals for profit, but the idea is so appealing. Living in the country on a ranch/farm with nature, a garden cultivated by me and the children. The children could learn to care for the animals, I could learn how to card and spin the wool... but this is a fairly far-fetched dream given my circumstances.

Another dream I have that seems to resurface every time I meet some like-minded, creative individual, is to have a shop where we sell our creative expressions of ourselves. Tif and I have shared this dream from time to time. She's a potter/ceramics artist and now has taken a particular interest in fibers. Tree and I have shared this dream on occasion. She's an artist too, multi-talented in various media and an expert bargain hunter. MK and I have recently been toying with the idea of combining our skills (my sewing and her crochet) to produce some unique garments. Yesterday I met another talented women, Debbie, who shares the dream. She's a fellow seamstress and we were dreaming a little together too.

What would it take to put this dream into action? Money, of course... time.... and some more money, and some more time. Experience with running a business wouldn't hurt either. This is where my dream begins to evaporate. But I'm seriously considering my future these days. What do I want to be when I grow up? How can I use my gifts to support myself? What do I love? What do I know? The dream starts to come into focus again... I think the first step will be this summer. I'm talking up doing a "trunk sale" with some of my creatively gifted friends. We will invite our various circles of people to come browse our wares and maybe even sell something.

...And talk about the weather

2007-01-15T21:33:00.000-05:00

Hey, did you know it is January. Did you? I can hardly tell. I keep thinking it's March or April and feeling like I'm in some time warp or something. My tulips are up several inches and the hyacinths too. I was wearing flip flops last night and was perfectly comfortable. I heard something on the NPR news about snowstorms and harsh winter weather somewhere in the country...maybe I should take a trip.

I happen to be one of those weirdos who likes winter. At least, I feel the only reason to have winter is so that it can snow. I really LOVE snow, even if it makes my nose pink, cold and drippy. I think snow makes the whole landscape like a dreamy fairytale--everything whitewashed and pure looking, at least for a little while before it gets mucked up with dirt and sludge.

I went to Target tonight to return something and pick up K's prescription and then just browsed around a bit. Swim suits are out. Some of you might wonder why department stores always sell swimwear in January. I did too, until I learned that in winter, the fashion industry puts out "cruise wear" in between seasons. The fall/winter line has been out and by this point is on sale and it's still too early for the spring/summer lines to be on the racks. I wonder how many people go on cruises? I have little desire if any to go on one, but seeing swimwear in January does make me long for the sun. And when the weather has been this warm it's a bit disorienting, like summer is just a couple months away.... I'm still hopeful for a few flakes but if we don't get any, I've still got a few snowballs in the freezer from last February.

Spiorad

2007-01-11T17:48:00.000-05:00

Local musicians Bryan Rowe and Phil Munds are interviewed on WYPR, our local National Public Radio station. Their Celtic piano/french horn combinations are soothing and beautiful. You can hear a little of their music and their story on the interview.

New on the Blogroll

2007-01-10T08:19:00.000-05:00

I've just added "A Dress A Day" to the blogroll. I don't know this blogger personally, but I happened upon her page last night looking for vintage patterns, and I think we must be kindred spirits. If you like dresses, you'll love her site. Enjoy!

Greek Tradition

2007-01-08T09:04:00.000-05:00

My friend, Tree, is getting married this May and she has asked me to be bridesmaid. Saturday was the engagement party, which was my very first of that sort. You see, Tree comes from the Greek Orthodox Church and her parents are elated that she is finally tying the knot, so they've pulled out all the stops. I have very little experience with Greek culture and I know very few people in Tree's life. We became friends in college while we were preparing to become art teachers. So I didn't see much of that side of her life. But Saturday night, I got to see quite a bit. There was a brief ceremonial betrothing and exchanging of gold necklaces and blessings, annointing of oils, and then came the dancing. First the bride-to-be and future groom danced, not a slow, close romantic dance, but a handholding, side to side circle dance. The family of the bride and groom then joined them linking hands and then the extended families and eventually everyone was invited to join as the circle of linked people spiraled inward with the betrothed in the center. Every so often, Tree's father would throw handfuls of dollar bills in the air. Real dollars! I assume that this is symbolic of him giving a blessing of prosperity, but I'm not sure of the origin of this tradition. After several dances to traditional Greek music of people holding hands and linking arms and dancing round and round, the D.J. played some jazz, oldies and typical dance floor tunes. At one point, I glanced over and saw that Tree's father was wearing a bright red fedora and cape and was hoisted on the shoulders of some other men. Then even later, I noticed that many of the men had their shirts torn to shreds. I asked Tree about this and she simply replied, "It's Greek Tradition." (Oh, well, that explains a lot.) She added, "It's like the smashing of dishes". I can't wait for the wedding! Maybe I'll need to brush up with "Greek Weddings for Dummies" book.

I NEED MORE FRIENDS

2007-01-02T17:55:00.000-05:00

Please join my friends list and help me discover more good films at Netflix.

Smells like burnt plastic

2007-01-02T17:07:00.000-05:00

A few months ago someone forwarded me an email all about what it's like having boys and all the crazy stuff they do. One of the cautions was to always check the oven before turning it on. Well, I assure you that my boys are NOT the reason I need to check my oven. My daughter is the one always finding new "homes" for things. Within a minute of turning the oven on tonight to bake some chicken, smoke started pouring out of the vent. I open the oven door to see what would be causing such a foul odor and the smoke was so thick I couldn't see. I turned off the heat and as the smoke began to clear I found two plastic gears for the Gears, Gears, Gears, Robot set the children were playing with earlier. Unfortunately one gear was melted beyond function and the house smells so bad all the kids took to being outside in the cold while I tried to air out the funk.

So here's a caution to all of you with daughters as well as sons: Always check the oven before turning it on.

New Year's Hymn

2006-12-31T16:58:00.000-05:00

We sang this hymn today in church. It was traditionally part of the New Year's Eve service in years past (we no longer have that service). Anyway, the words are good, real good, so I thought I would share them:

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.

Peace, perfect peace, by thronging duties pressed?
To do the will of Jesus, this is rest.

Peace, perfect peace, with sorrows surging round?
On Jesus' bosom naught but calm is found.

Peace, perfect peace, with loved ones far away?
In Jesus' keeping we are safe, and they.

Peace, perfect peace, our future all unknown?
Jesus we know, and He is on the throne.

It is enough: earth's struggles soon shall cease,
And Jesus call us to heaven's perfect peace.

Edward H. Bickersteth, 1875

To all my readers, I wish you a Very Happy 2007.

Our new "pet"

2006-12-28T11:16:00.000-05:00

You may recall that I have this dream of raising Alpacas as a family business with my children. Well, my folks gave me my very first Alpaca for Christmas. I've decided to name her "Felice". I had thought of calling her "Fleece Navidad" but thought that might be a little too corny. She is a very good "pet," since no one has to clean up after or feed her and she is only about a fifth the size of a live one. At least her fleece is real and oh, so soft!

The Night Before Christmas, I was stirring...

2006-12-25T03:10:00.000-05:00

I had a really lovely day, Christmas Eve. I was blessed to share a good portion of the day in the company of some close friends at my kitchen table over some brunch. Perhaps the two cups of coffee I drank with my Bavarian Cream Puff as evening approached are why I am awake right now. Or perhaps it is because my bedroom is aglow with the Christmas lights outside and so I don't have the usual degree of darkness which I prefer for sleeping. Maybe it's the little tiny Prettiness who is sleeping in the very center of my bed, perpendicular to me, feet poking my side. Or maybe I just can not quiet my mind. Too many sugar plums dancing.

So instead of lying in bed awake, I decided to get up, have a little snack and read a chapter or two from Andree Seu's, Won't Let You Go Unless You Bless Me. I just read the essay entitled, "Omega Point, What are we working for?" and thought particularly of two brothers I know. For them and the rest of you, I want to share this excerpt. I found it quite meaningful and heartening as well. The essay begins:

Sometimes, in mid-footfall, I get confused: am I rushing about my work so that I can eat, or am I eating so that I can work? All this striving, where does it tend to, where is the payoff, the "meaning"? "All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; ...All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied" (Ecclesiastes 1:7; 6:7). Thus the intellectual pursuit of fractions of seconds at traffic lights, or while removing lint from the dryer lint trap. And then I submerge again beneath the surface of thought into the vortex of quotidian events. Till next time.
***

All this was grievous to me until I considered...
A man in the Russian Gulag had had enough. He decided he'd carried his last stone from pile A to pile B for his tormentors in this Sisyphean farce. He laid himself down to await execution by shovel blade. Just then a fellow prisoner sidled up and, wordless, traced the shape of a cross in the dust; walked away. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn then gathered himself together and scooped up another rock- this time knowing why.
The rest is history.
"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," quoth Henry David Thoreau. But I know a better quote: Malcolm Muggeridge said the happiest person in the world is the woman who sweeps out her house to the glory of God. She is not aware of the grievousness of her days because she has transcended them with knowledge; she has "overcome" and will receive the hidden manna and also a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to her (Revelation 2:17).

... "Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Scene 1: Willy Loman, working for Willy Loman, walks in, stage right, carrying two large sample cases: The Death of a Salesman.
Or imagine: Willy Loman, working for Jesus now, walks in, stage right, carrying two large sample cases: new play.

The whole collection of essays is definitely worth reading, and it's quite a small book, unfortunately, but it is meaty. While I have nothing more to add to her words, I will leave you with this seasonal message:

"Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." (Luke 2:14)

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Ta Da!

2006-12-17T21:34:00.000-05:00

The dress that had been consuming all my free time and creative energies (hence no new posts) is finished and much to my great satisfaction, also was an apparent hit at the Christmas party. Merci bien! MK, for letting me put these up! You rook mahvelous!

Okay, so about the dress. MK was inspired to have one similar to one she saw at Anthropologie. I developed a pattern, made a mock-up and once I established a good fit, we decided to raise the waistline a bit in front and remove the skirt gathers at center front to make it more flattering. The fashion fabric is a white taffeta flocked with black velveteen and the sash is black cotton velveteen cut on the bias and hand stitched in place. I underlined the fashion fabric of the bodice with white silk organza to give it more structure and less transparency in the white areas. The bodice is also supported with boning along all the seam lines except center back where there is an "invisible" black zipper. The dress is fully lined in white to maintain the "whiteness" of the taffeta. Because I was working with a limited amount of fabric that MK had purchased prior to the designing of the dress, I chose to add a black point d'esprit petticoat layer to give the dress a little more length and oomph. I'm especially proud of the motif matching I was able to achieve considering the limited yardage and a few fabric flaws I had to work around.
MK purchased the shrug and then doctored it up a bit with her crochet genius. She also made her beautiful choker and handbag! I expect this won't be the last time we combine our creative talents...

Juror #0

2006-12-07T15:48:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago I received notice that I had been selected for jury duty. And I know it's my civic duty and all that, but really, it's completely impractical for me at this point in my life. I filled out the form with my reasons why I couldn't do it (single-homeschooling-mom of 3 and jury duty would disrupt my children's education and providing childcare for them would be very difficult for me, etc), and today I was relieved to see that I have been excused......this time.

fire and ice cream

2006-12-06T20:21:00.001-05:00

USECAUTION

IN THE INTEREST OF SAFETY IT IS ADVISABLE TO KEEP JOYELLA AWAY FROM FIRE AND FLAMES.

From Go-Quiz.com

Your Icecream Flavour is...Neopolitan!

You aren't satisfied with just one flavor. They say variety is the spice of life and this shines through in your Ice cream of choice! Just don't eat all the chocolate and leave the strawberry and vanilla behind!

What is your Icecream Flavour?

Find out at Go Quiz

girls in white dresses with pink satin sashes

2006-12-04T15:27:00.000-05:00

I actually made three of these little white eyelet dresses for the grand daughters of my neighbor for a family photo op. If my own daughter wasn't so particular about what she wears, I'd make her one too.

My most current project is a retro inspired cocktail dress for my dear friend MK. I'm hoping she'll let me post the finished results here. I'm making good progress with it, and it's a good thing since she'll be wearing it to a party on 16 December.

Also I have the hankering to make loads of p.j.'s which are another favorite garment of mine to make. They are quick and fun to wear. I found some extremely delicious fabric at WalMart (of all places) for a buck a yard! If I get my rear in gear and get them photographed before I ship them off and give them as presents, I will also post them here.

My sons have expressed an interest in learning how to sew, so I have begun to teach them the basics. They made some robes (with help) from fleece fabric they picked out.

Ebay bug

2006-12-04T15:04:00.000-05:00

My sister likes shopping on ebay. I have on occasion tracked items and looked at prices and then become overwhelmed and just went to the store to find what I needed. But today I made my first ebay purchase. The boys and I have been watching some lego star wars minifigures and sets that they would like to add to their growing collection. I've lost several bids so far, and last night I thought I had lost, but today I was given a "second chance offer". Apparently the seller actually had two of the same set and offered it to me also as the second highest bidder. So I bought it, and K still thinks I lost so he will be pleasantly surprised when he opens the Emperor Palpatine and throne seat. The set we are most anxious about "winning" is the new and hard to get X-wing fighter with six minifigures: Leia, Chewy, Han, Luke, Antilles, and R2. I tried to order it from Lego.com and it is backordered until April. Which means it wouldn't even be on time for K's birthday.

This whole concept of "winning" (buying) and "losing" (not buying) is an interesting twist to shopping. It makes a game of shopping, and I can see how it becomes highly addictive and expensive. It's amazing what some people will pay for a 2 inch high piece of plastic, and by "some people" I mean myself.

2006-11-30T00:21:00.000-05:00

How to make a Joyella

Ingredients:

5 parts friendliness

5 parts self-sufficiency

5 parts leadership

Method:
Add to a cocktail shaker and mix vigorously. Top it off with a sprinkle of fitness and enjoy!

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

"Sprinkle of fitness"? Yeah, right.

Back to the blogging board

2006-11-29T14:15:00.000-05:00

I've just updated to the newest version of blogger and now I've noticed all my custumized elements have evaporated into cyberspace. I'm tweaking and tuning, so please be patient because I'm already overloaded with other non-computerish tasks to do the next few weeks. For some odd reason I can't get my comments with Haloscan to work here, so I'm back to blogger for now...

In other news, I have recently inherited a vintage, customizable dress form. I was so eager to try it, I nearly got myself stuck inside it's metal meshlike cage. It's meant to be put on, with help, and molded to one's shape, I of course, tried it on alone and found myself in a potentially very embarrassing predicament. But with persistence (and brief panic) I was able to shrug it back off.

4 Tagged (again)

2006-11-27T23:28:00.000-05:00

MaryKate tagged me on this one, and I do believe I've done it before, but for those of you who are new or forgetful I'll give it another go.

Things You May Not Have Known About Me:
Four jobs I've had in my life:

nanny/ day care
school librarian
art teacher
freelance seamstress/custom clothier

Four movies I would (and do) watch over and over:

Amelie
Anne of Green Gables
Pride and Prejudice
It's a Wonderful Life

Four places I have lived:

Baltimore, MD
Timonium, MD
The Philippines
Chantilly, VA

Four TV shows I love (or would love) to watch:

Gilmore Girls
Smallville
Numb3rs
(I don't really watch t.v. so I don't even know what the shows are anymore....the 3 listed above are favorites from the past couple years, but I'm sure there are better, more interesting programs that I'll never see since I don't have cable and will have forgotten about them by the time the roll out on dvd.)

Four Places I have been on Vacation:

Estes Park, CO
Les 7 Laux, France
The Netherlands
North Carolina beaches

Four of my favorite foods:

waffles
most non-pudding related desserts especially if chocolate, fruit or nuts are involved
roasted meat and potatoes
cheese fondue

Four of my favorite books (a bit redundant from a previous quiz, but hey):

The Bible, God (and others)
Lord of the Rings, Tolkein
The Chronicles of Narnia, Lewis
Harry Potter, Rowling

I'm not passing this one on, since it's come around quite a bit in the blogosphere. Rest easy all you blog-friends :D

*Hey, I'm really excited that the new version of Blogger has a functioning spellcheck! Okay, now I've got no excuses.

Zen Mom

2006-11-18T22:17:00.000-05:00

Are You a Slacker Mom?

Your quiz results make you a Zen Mom

How do you do it? Even when explosions are all around, you are able to take a deep cleansing breath and chant your mantra "this too shall pass." You are a calming influence on your kids in a hectic world.

Take this free personality test by Clicking Here>> or going to www.areyouaslackermom.com

That's progress, eh?

Art Glass

2006-11-08T21:28:00.000-05:00

We had a field trip to McFadden Art Glass Gallery and Studio today. What fun! Here are some pictures, and check out the website. There will be an open house with live demonstrations and refreshments on November 17th and 18th check out their website for more details. Tim makes all kinds of fabulous glass things. We happened to witness him make an ornament, bowl, pumpkin, flower and a fish today.

I love an opportunity to spread the word about local artists (especially if I think they are talented) and Tim McFadden is also the nephew of a good friend of mine, so I'm happy to give him a little free publicity here at snippets. Also availble, see the website, are classes, make-your-own-workshops, and lots of cool stuff for sale.

Too Much Chocolate

2006-11-03T01:35:00.000-05:00

I guess I ate too much chocolate or possibly it's the chocolate covered espresso beans I ate that my sister sent me that are keeping me up, so I thought I'd make a post-birthday post.

I'm thirty-four now. I'll probably not have to tell anyone my age for many months and by then I will have forgotten my age and have to do math. It was a good day. I took us out for breakfast, part of my present to myself to have a hot breakfast without the dirty dishes. Afterward, I drove home the long way to admire the morning sun rays shining through the golden foliage.

This is my most very favorite time of year. Yesterday we were wearing shorts and t-shirts, today it was back to corduroys and jackets. Something about fall makes me contemplative. I've been thinking about a lot of things, feeling somewhat overwhelmed with my life and honestly kind of sad today. I haven't felt sad for months, so I guess I'm due. I fell climbing over a baby gate on Sunday at a birthday party and badly bruised both my kneecaps, and the kids keep bumping them with themselves and various toys and I have forgotten and tried kneeling a few times. Ouch! Physical pain sometimes feels good in the midst of emotional gloominess. It gives me something tangible to be sad about. In the midst of my black and blue knees, I have much that I am thankful for, and it is focusing on these things that helps me to pull out of the shadows.
Today I am thankful for:

text messages that say Happy Birthday
Supercool birthday songs on my voice mail
bacon and french toast
apple pie
Mom
Dad
big sis
big bro
my kids
trees in vibrant hues of gold, crimson, orange
grilled cheese sandwiches
chocolate
emails
birthday wishes
lots of phone calls at dinner time (usually I don't like that)
faithful friends
nasturtiums
a comfortable bed
things to look forward to
the giggles and wiggles of L

I guess I was thinking mostly of tangible blessings, and there are some that just go without saying, like Jesus' saving work on the cross and resurrection, answers to prayers never spoken, and all of God's creation. There are more things but since that's a nice even twenty, I'll stop there.

Thanks friends and loved ones, for making this birthday Happier.

What's New Pussycat?

2006-11-02T00:56:00.000-05:00

L turned 3 on Monday, and I celebrate my 34th birthday today! So wish me a happy birthday or send me some chocolate, the kids aren't sharing their Halloween candy.

Little Pumpkins

2006-10-31T00:54:00.000-05:00

Did a little pumpkin carving on Saturday with the kiddos. K and D drew the faces for theirs and I carved them, easier said then done! The littlest one, I designed for L, she loves kitties. My mom told me she saw an article or something where the pumpkins were carved with wood carving tools (like the ones I have from doing wood block cuts and linoleum cuts for printmaking in college), so I dug them out of the closet and gave it a try. I only nearly cut off my finger twice, and only drew blood once, so I consider it a success.
Although you do still need to gut the seeds and goo, the cool thing about using these tools is you don't have to cut all the way through the pumpkin, just skim off some of the outer layer and then the candle glows through when lit inside.

Beater Lickin' Good

2006-10-22T20:34:00.000-04:00

Best part of helping mom in the kitchen is getting to lick off the beaters.

Belly Flops and Belly Rolls

2006-10-21T23:24:00.000-04:00

I was able to get out for a little fun recreation today. I took Light Rail down to Baltimore's Inner Harbor for Flug Tag today. For those of you unfamiliar (as I was), Flug Tag is an event where people create man-powered flying machines and test their abilities to fly....landing them in the harbor. Some were designed well for flying or at least, gliding down to the water gracefully and others were just fun to watch plummet, flop, or even get hung up on the side of the platform before going down.

Then this evening spent a few hours with some girlfriends learning how to belly dance. Just watch me figure 8, belly roll, chest pop, and shimmy. It was great fun. Our instructor first performed for us a dance where she balanced lit candles on a tray on her head. Later I learned she does the same dance with a sword! Now that would have been cool to see! But the candles were pretty impressive. Not sure when I'll have opportunity to put any of these new learned skills into practice, but it was entertaining and I think that I may have created a few new synapses in my brain because of it.