Archive - 2006

Woman on the Edge

I’ve mentioned that Philip is gone for the week. Did I mention how much work it is to manage a house, care for three children, do any kind of school and have time to play on the computer? The work never seems to stop! The things that are normally Philip’s jobs have fallen to me this week, of course, and they are just enough to cause things to stack up. He empties the dishwasher every morning and this week I have to do it myself. Just this one extra chore in the morning causes the rest of the chores to become delayed. Plus, I decided to start taking the children to the park in the morning to avoid the heat, so when it’s all said and done, it’s 1 o’clock, we’re finally done with school and are just getting started with the chores, including emptying the dishwasher and reloading it with the breakfast and lunch dishes.

Then Boo starts nagging me to read more from the Boxcar Children book we’re into, but it’s time to get the baby from his nap. Finally, we sit down to read which doesn’t last long because Bip has gotten into something. For a baby who STILL doesn’t crawl, he sure manages to get into a lot of trouble. Then it’s quiet time for the older ones and a small break for me until I have to start dinner. Sadly, my dc don’t think that cereal for dinner is very fun. Then it’s Bip’s theoretical 2nd nap – which he wouldn’t take yesterday – then dinner, then Bip is up again, then dinner clean up and just when it’s winding down, someone asks for dessert. So I get dessert, then put everyone to bed. Back downstairs to find that no one (that would be me) has cleaned up the dessert dishes or started the dishwasher. Sigh.

And yesterday, add in Bip screaming in the living room while the rest of us ate dinner in stony silence. He wouldn’t nap, then became overtired but it was way, way too early to let him go to bed unless I was willing to get up with him at 5 am. It was awful. I finally let him go to bed where he slept for 12 1/2 hours. Sadly, not without waking to nurse, but at least he slept.

Then today, more of the same except we had to go to the PX to get poster board for a project that Boo wants to do and batteries for Pumpkin Girl’s new crayon sharpener.

Don’t let me forget about the swimming lesson saga! We have been calling every day for weeks, literally weeks! to ask if the swimming lesson schedule has been set. Boo is finally brave enough to take lessons and since he’s 7, he really does need to know how to swim. Well, this week has been so hectic that I’ve forgotten to call. I finally called today and woohoo! the schedule is ready. I load the children into the car and drive to the pool to sign them up. You see it coming don’t you? The first session is already filled up. Typical. We can’t make the 2nd session because while we were waiting, VBS sign-ups came around and of course, it conflicts with the swimming schedule. So we sign up for the 3rd session. The guy was so clueless! I wanted to know if I could sign up the children for the next 2 sessions after that, so they could continue in the beginner class if necessary or move on to the next level. He said I could only sign up for one session at a time, but he had no idea what would happen if I wanted the children to take more lessons. Argh. Ok, deep breaths. These are free classes and at the very least, they will be taking 10 one hour lessons. That should give them a good start in the basics. Maybe, just maybe, Philip and I can give them additional instructions during the rest of the summer.

Still, I was pretty irritated on the way home. Then as I was adding the swimming schedule to our calendar, I realized that between swimming, VBS and a visit from my parents, I only have 5 teachable weeks left this summer! Yoikes! I have 6 weeks of material left. Clearly, this whole swimming mess is God’s way of helping me finish up the school year all neat and tidy the way I want to before we start 2nd grade/K. Nicholas unwillingly took a nap this afternoon so I sat down with the calendar to map out the remaining weeks of school. I’ll need to double up on some science here and there, but it’ll all work out. I can only imagine what I would have needed to do if I’d managed to sign the children up for all four of the 2-week swimming sessions.

Did I mention it’s really hot and humid and I really don’t do summer? My arms break out in this weird itchy rash if I’m outside too long. Clearly, I belong inside in the air conditioning.

And I won’t even get started on the attitudes of the children. You’d think a 5 yo was capable of putting cereal back in the cupboard without muttering under her breath about how many chores she already has and how mom just keeps piling them on. Then again, you’d think a 36 yo would be able to get through one husband-less week without venting on the internet for all the world to see about how many chores she has.

I wonder where Pumpkin gets it from.

I’ve been tagged

I got tagged by Amy!

 

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4.

“also The Magician’s Nephew: the uses and misuse of nature and peo..” from Companion to Narnia

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch?

nothing

3. What is the last thing you watched on TV?

Trading Spaces

4. Without looking, guess what time it is.

8:45pm

5. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time?

8:48pm

6. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

The tv.

7. When did you last step outside? What were you doing?

After dinner, taking out the trash.

8. Before you started this survey, what did you look at?

 

my email

9. What are you wearing?

my pajamas!

10. Did you dream last night?

I’m not sure.

11. When did you last laugh?

During dinner. Boo was making Bip laugh.

12. What is on the walls of the room you are in?

Pictures of the children and a sign I painted that says “God Bless America”

13. Seen anything weird lately?

hmm. No

14. What do you think of this quiz?

silly

15. What is the last film or video you saw?

“Green Card”

16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy?

A house, start a non-profit organization and adopt a baby from abroad. And a little chocolate.

17. Tell me something about you that I don’t know.

There’s a picture of me on an album cover.

18. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?

Wow, where to start…maybe change the laws to better protect the rights of our service members and their families to receive medical malpractice compensation.

19. Do you like to dance?

Not in public.

20. Comment to George Bush:

 

Hang in there!

21. Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her?

Well, I call my first girl Pumpkin Girl

22. Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?

We call him Boo.

23. Would you ever consider living abroad?

In Asia – never again. In Europe- in a heartbeat!

24. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gate?

“Well done. And here’s Rebecca.”

25. 4 people who must also do this quiz on THEIR blog:

Steph, Lori, Wendy and Liesle

 

 

Summer Schedule

Bip and I have the bed all to ourselves for the week since Philip is gone. He’s spending the week in Hawaii (lucky guy) at a conference he put together. I’m not too sure what exactly his job is, so I can’t explain this conference. I know he’s in charge of a global satellite system and trying to get as many joint commands to use it as possible. Joint commands are where multiple branches of the US Armed Services are serving together in one unit. I think. Could be wrong, wouldn’t be the first time.

With Philip being gone and summer having arrived with a bang, I decided to mix things up a bit with our schedule. We school year round for two reasons. First off, we take a break from our regularly scheduled curriculum on Fridays. We don’t skip the assignments or double up on another day, we just push the 5th days’ work into the next week and everything moves over one day. If you do the math, you’ll see that we end up with 9 weeks beyond the more traditional 36 week school calendar. Those weeks, plus 7 weeks worth of breaks scheduled around the year make up our year round school. Taking one day a week off gives us a lot of flexibility. Sometimes that day is for appointments or other non-school related activities. Most of the time, though, it is for our extra fun things, like music, art and hand crafts.

The other reason we school throughout the summer is to prevent the summer boredom and craziness. My oldest tends to run amok without specific, directed things to do. Left to his own devices, he irritates me and his sister and ends up in trouble. Having schoolwork to do leaves less hours of the day for him to be naughty. Not to say I schedule every minute of his day. That would drive all of us nuts. But between school, chores, quiet time, and meals, his free time is in shorter blocks of time throughout the day- just long enough for uber-silliness to start to creep in but short enough for me to end it before the trouble starts.

The only problem is, we usually have school in the morning and by afternoon it’s blazing hot and humid outside. Today’s forecast – hot, in the 90’s, humid, chance of thunderstorm in the afternoon. That’ll be the forecast until September. The children last all of 5 minutes outside before coming in, first for water, then for a hat, then just give up altogether. You’d never even know that public schools were out for the summer. It’s so hot that there are no children out at all.

So we readjusted our schedule. We loaded up Bip in the stroller and headed to the park at 9 am. It was still warm in the sun, but there was a good breeze. We stayed out for an hour, then came home. By the time I put Bip down for a nap, we were able to start school at 10:30. Everything else in our normal schedule has been moved down. I wasn’t entirely happy with the fact that by being at the park, our morning chores didn’t get finished until 1 pm. Maybe tomorrow we’ll do chores before going to the park.

One of the Good Ones

Happy Father’s Day to my great husband, who is on his way to a conference in Hawaii.  Here he is with 3 of our children.

 

A Contest

I wrote my "Where I’m From" poem yesterday and this morning I discovered that there is a whole contest going on about this poem!  Cool.  Write your own "Where I’m From" poem, enter it and see if you win.  And make sure you say I sent you!

Click Here for more information:
"Where I’m From" Writing Contest

 

 

Where I’m From

I am from school desks, Ford and Pine Sol.

I am from the house on the top of the hill, the one with the grass that won’t grow.

I am from the Pacific Ocean, creating fog in the morning, salt spray in your face, seaweed in your toes, tar on your feet.

I am from church on Saturday and long, straight hair,
from Esther, Margaret and Annie.

I am from long eyelashes, chubby toes, and five feet tall.

I am from uncompleted projects, guilt trips, and putting on a good face.

From "wear real shoes" and "laugh like a girl."

I am from Catholic school uniforms, white knee socks, blue cardigans.

I’m from San Pedro, tamales and beans.

From Grandma rode with Pancho Villa, Grandpa pressed into the Russian Army, the Uncle lost in the Korean War.

I am from scrapbooks in progess, old photos in a trunk, the best pictures in frames on display.

Where are you from?

 

 

Story notebooks

One of our extra things we do in school is our story notebooks. I don’t really know what else to call them. Each child has their own sketchbook to draw a picture and then write a story. They use Crayola sketchbooks which are unlined. I measure off 2″ from the bottom of each page and draw a line. They draw on the upper portion of the page then dictate a story to me. I haven’t given them any direction on this, just let them draw whatever they choose. It’s been an interesting peek into whatever is on their minds that week.

Boo is not really into coloring or drawing. This is painfully evident in his story notebook. He does not draw like a 7 year old at all. I have been trying to keep my opinions to myself and not “help” him draw, but really, he really needs to do better. You can really see what I’m talking about here:


“We were all with God in a very happy place. That is Heaven. All the yellow stuff is the glory surrounding them. We were all very happy. We had a terrific party. We danced and danced all night.”

He does write good stories.

After another, I hate to say “bad”, drawing I decided he did need more guidance. We had an impromptu art class where I taught him how to draw a little more realistically. Here is his first drawing since then:


“Today I was driving my motorboat to the Smarty Mart to deliver stuff. The wind blew now and then, so I had my motor on, too. I also had my sail up. I arrived at the Smarty Mart in a jiffy. Then I just hung out for the rest of the day.”

Much better.

Pumpkin Girl’s stories are mostly about her and Rebecca:


“In Heaven, Becky was with God. They were happy and smiling at me when I went in. They had a beautiful party for my family. At the end, we all had a great time and then went to bed. The End. (p.s. The one that is all sparklish is God.)”

Today we not only used the notebooks for undirected stories and pictures, but we also used them to further our drawing skills. We used a picture of Larry and Bob from a coloring book and copied it. I then had the children write their own stories to go with the pictures. Interesting enough, Pumpkin did better at the drawing, getting all the peices in the same places at the coloring book picture, but for all her story-telling skills, she had trouble making up a story.


“Bob and Larry are dancing outside in the cool morning.”

Boo wasn’t as accurate with the drawing of Larry and Bob, but he embellished his drawing by putting them in a boat. He also made up a great little story, complete with dialogue.


“It was a warm, sunny day. Bob and Larry were out sailing. They were headed towards the beach. It was a windy day. The wind took a pause, so they had their engine on, too. When they spotted the beach, Bob shouted, “Land, ho!” And Larry shouted, “Anchors down!” They landed ont he beach and had a wonderful time there. ”

Here’s my drawing. I didn’t write a story.

This is one of Boo and Pumpkin’s favorite school activities. My plan is to keep them going as long as they enjoy them. We will be starting nature notebooks in the fall, too, so I may combine the two into one discovery journal where they can continue to write and illustrate stories, and observe and record nature and the world around them.

 

 

Knitting Disasters

I finished Pumpkin Girl’s poncho, sort of.   I happily finished the body and started the hood.  I grafted the hood together with the Kitchener stitch which is way harder than it looks!  I pulled that thing out 3 times because I kept losing my place and had no clue how to figure out where I was.  I finally resorted to counting out loud, "Purl, purl, off, knit, knit off, purl, purl, DON’T TALK TO ME!, off, knit…"  It was worth it though, because it looks beautiful!  I kept turning it over and over, marveling at how the seam just disappears.  Then I worked on the fringe.  The whole time I was working on the hood, I kept looking at the bottom edge that was curling up.  I figured the weight of the fringe would pull it straight.  Well, no.  Hmm.  Maybe blocking it would could it from curling.  Anyway, I tried it on Pumpkin Girl.  The darn thing is too small! In the immortal words of Charlie Brown: ARGH! It barely fits her right now and I made it for next fall.  She wears a size 5, so I made a size 6-8, hoping to get a year or two of wear out of it.  I checked my gauge and I’m right on, if not a little bit bigger.  I am positive I made the correct size.    So there I was, with the disaster of a poncho, looking closely at the picture on the pattern for any signs of the end curling when I noticed something.  The last four rounds were supposed to be knit in garter stitch, which is simply knitting every row.  Unless you are knitting in the round, which I was, in which case you knit one row, then purl the next.  This would have prevented the curling.  Or maybe it’s the other way around.  Either way, I did the wrong one.  Now I’ve got to pull out the fringe, pull out the offending rows and reknit them.  Which brings us to the next problem.  I had bought an extra skein of yarn, but I now  had barely enough to allow for the new rows, let alone the casing for the hood and the drawstring.  The only mercy was that I had not yet trimmed the fringe which will make it easier to pull out and reattach. 

My friend and knitting guru recommended giving the poncho a time out and letting it think about the errors of its ways.  She was also pretty sure I could block it out to a better size.  So into the yarn basket it went until I was ready to deal with it.

And on to Bip’s sweater.  You may recall that I just need to do the sleeves.  I found a quiet moment to get the ribbing done ("knit, knit, purl, purl, knit, knit, purl, DON’T TALK TO ME!) and then blissfully began knitting up the length of the sleeve, increasing every third row, just like the instructions said.  The sleeve was getting pretty long and I was only about half way to the amount of stitches I needed on the needle.  Hmmm.  I checked the instructions again.  And I quote, "increase one stitch at EACH end of every third row."  That would be twice as many increases as I was making.  Out came the sleeve, right down to the ribbing.

You know the saying, "Measure twice, cut once"?  Well, my lesson here was read twice, knit once. 

I figured I better move on to something where I was less likely to get hurt.

Washcloths!  That I could do!  And rather successfully, I might add!  I have decided I love washcloths.  You can use inexpensive cotton yarn, there are a ton of free patterns to be found on the internet and they are quick and easy.  See:

The blue one is for Boo, the purple one is Pumpkin Girl’s.  They are thrilled with them!  They think I’m a genius.

Flush from my victory with the washcloths I set my sights on socks.  I’ve always wanted to make socks.  And look, I did it!

Yes, it’s a funny shape, but it’s the practice sock from the book Sensational Knitted Socks. I’ve heard that socks are actually pretty easy, and they are, even if they often involve that pesky Kitchener stitch. 

And perhaps even more exciting, I found another skein of the poncho yarn at the bottom of the basket!  I will have more than enough for what I need.

Now I have moved on to a very easy baby blanket.  I think I can handle that.

 

Thumbs down to Sears!

On Saturday we took Bip to the local Sears Portrait Studio for pictures of him in his baptismal gown.  We left in plenty of time to arrive for our 1:30 appointment at the mall which is 20 to 30 minutes away.  The sky was threatening to rain so we parked in the covered parking which is on the other side of the mall as the Sears.  We had to make a potty stop on the way, plus little legs just don’t walk very fast.  We got to the portrait studio at 1:40.  The woman said "your appointment was for 1:30 and it’s now 1:40.  You’ll have to be considered a walk-in."

Me:  Ok, what does that mean?

Woman:  You have to wait until 2:00 and see if the 2:00 appointment doesn’t show.  If they don’t, we can take you.

Me:  Oh.  Well, is there anyone back there now?

Woman:  No

Me:  Well, can’t you just take me now?  I only have the one child, one background, no props.

Woman:  No, that’s the company policy.

Me:  So even though no one is back there right now, I still have to wait?

Woman: Yes, that’s the company policy.

?????

Then the 2:00 appointment arrived, and even though they were not going to take her back until 2:00, I still had to wait.

Me:  So what you’re telling me is that I now have to wait here all afternoon, waiting for someone not to arrive for their appointment?

Woman:  Well ma’am, our company policy…

Me: Right, I heard you.  But you are saying that in order to get pictures today, I have to sit here all afternoon.

Woman:  Our company policy is that…

Well, I finally got her to admit that yes, rather than going right away to take this one picture, I would now have to sit and wait for someone not to show up.  I don’t think so.  We walked out into the mall, and what should we see directly below us on the first floor:  The Picture People!

We went down there and they were happy to take our money!  From the time they took us back, changing Bip into his gown, taking 3 different poses, changing his clothes back and walking out the door:  15 minutes!  The photographers were wonderful, props and backgrounds were in good shape and the pictures turned out beautifully!  An added bonus was that I donot have to make a return trip to the mall in a week or so to pick up the pictures because they were ready in an hour.

Now, I totally understand that we were late.  That was our fault.  I would have understood if the Sears people had taken a walk-in in our place when we weren’t there in time.  I also understand that the company needs to have a policy in place to deal with apparent no-shows.  What really made me angry was the inability of their employees to assess the situation, realize that they could accomodate the customer and still stay on schedule.  What happened to good customer service where the customer is always right?  They would rather take no one’s picture rather than bend the rules and take the one quick portrait I wanted.  Well, not only did they lose my money that day, but I have no intentions of ever returning to that particular portrait studio (Landmark Mall in Alexandria, VA) and possible even any other Sears Studio.

And about this "company policy."  In the 7 years I have been taking my children to have portraits done, I have used Sears almost exclusively.  At no time have I ever been informed of this policy.  Not back when I would call the individual studio to make appointments and not the last two times when I called their central appointment number.

I will be writing a letter of complaint to both this particular Sears Portrait Studio and their corporate office.

It all turned out in the end.  Like I said, the pictures are beautiful and I don’t have to make another trip to pick them up.  We got a lot of things done while waiting for the pictures, including getting me an eye exam and a new prescription for reading glasses.  Boo got to by the Larry Boy car he’s been thinking of for months, plus we all indulged in Auntie Annie’s pretzels for snacks.  So 2 thumbs down plus a giant raspberry for Sears, but yay for the Picture People.

Garden Repairs

To say that there was a breeze that day would be an exaggeration. So when this HUGE gust of wind came out of nowhere, we were taken completely by surprise. Phil had been grilling hamburgers and was stepping outside to check on them and Boo was going along to supervise. The wind gust was so strong that trees were bending over and our canopy was lifted up and dropped about 2 feet from where it had been. One of our picnic benches fell over and the 50 pound bag of sand that had been weighing down one corner of the canopy was lifted and moved to the other corner. The fountain on the other corner managed to stay right where it was, but the plug was ripped out of the wall. And then the wind was gone. Nothing else in the neighborhood seemed to have touched. Very strange.

The good news is, even though the fabric of the canopy has some small tears, Phil was able to pound the bent peices back and the whole thing is still in good shape. We had no other damage.

While I was putting the tomato cage back in place, I noticed a bunch of little green bugs investing the tomatoes. I googled them, but all I could come up with were “tomato stink bugs,” but that didn’t seem right. I sprayed them with Dr. Bronner’s soap and water. That helped a bit. A couple of days later I sprayed them again, this time with 2 teaspoons of Tobasco sauce in the soapy water. Hot bugs! That got ’em! On Wednesday I was out, setting the fountain back up from the Freak Wind and I saw all the little dead bug bodies. Bwah ha ha! I am Woman, hear me roar!

But I was still wondering what those little buggers were, especially because now the leaves that most of them were on had yellowed. This time I googled “green bugs turning leaves yellow tomato” and got my answer: aphids! Now this is not the first time I have grown tomatoes, but this is the first aphid infestation I’ve had. Of course, the best way to rid your plants of aphids (besides the hot sauce!) is to go get yourself some ladybugs. Well, that wasn’t going to happen yesterday, but what did the Good Lord send me? You got it – a nice little ladybug got herself caught between the glass and the screen on my storm door. With Phil’s help, I captured her and released her on to my tomatoes.

And yesterday, as I was pruning all the damaged leaves from the tomato plants, I found not one, but two ladybugs! And a couple more aphids. So hopefully the ladybugs will have a feast and the aphids will be no more!

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