Naked Opinions: The Fabled Forties

Ok, I'm just going to do it: VOTE FOR ME!

2011-12-10T12:30:00.001-06:00

And TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS!

Alice in the Palace: The Real Life Story of a Part-Time Princess

This contest is for me to get published electronically. In addition, my daughter's elementary school will get a full blown electronic picture book library for free! The company is called MeeGenius and this is what they specialize in, electronic picture books.

My story is a real story, about a princess. I hope it conveys the fact that princesses aren't about being pretty and getting the prince, but about doing the right thing and not worrying about your looks. My critique group said they liked it because it wasn't about being a pretty princess, cancelling out all those princess stories out there.

I am so far behind the top vote getter, I don't think I'm going to make it to the final round. That round would let me be edited and get pretty pictures. I just would really, really, really like to get my book edited and illustrated, just to see what it's like, for once. Although, I'm not going to scrap the book. It could probably use a lot more work. But I think the idea is solid and could maybe be sold. I know I can and need to get better. Maybe I'll go to my picture book guru and see if she'll give me a critique.

But, if you find it in your heart to post it with your 1000+ blog followers and tell them to all go vote for mine, just to make my dream come true, I would be eternally grateful. I might even knit you some wrist warmers. Because I've picked that up in my spare time, too.

From Lion Brand website

What am I doing with my time?

2011-11-28T16:56:00.001-06:00

What am I doing with my time, you wonder? I guess living up the forties. So many firsts.

Started my first weight training program. Never would have thought of myself as a weight lifter. I am going to be STRONG. No joke.

Started coaching a Future Problem Solving team. First time ever. Future Problem Solving, you ask? Well, click the link and find out more about it. I knew as much about it as you know right now. But it is a pretty cool process. And I work with some pretty cool sixth grade kids. Yes, sixth graders?! Can you believe it? They are neat little people though.

Started my first year as the mother of a middle schooler. Oh, boy. It is simpler and more complicated. He seems challenged enough. We are. I feel a little more lost. But he still gives me hugs and doesn't mind holding my hand in public still, so I feel blessed.

Got our first Wii! Well, ok, it's not the first gaming system in our house, but we finally joined the rest of the world.

Bought a new camera, the first time in years!

When the casing is falling off in pieces from your old camera and has been doing so for about 24 months, you really should bite the bullet and get something else.

Joined my first writer's organization AND attended a writing retreat! SCBWI and SCBWI-Wisconsin is an awesome place to be involved. We loved our critiquer and her points on our book were fabulous and just the push we needed to work harder on it. We're still working on it, but now, we understand that books take YEARS. Yes, YEARS. When one lady says one of her picture books was twelve years in the making, well, we've been at it about 3 and a half, so we still have a lot of work to do. People on the writing websites say join the groups, attend the conferences and get out there and meet people! They are so right! You just have to quit hiding in your little writer's desk and go to the conferences. Of course, yes, that's putting money out there before you even get published, but all those who are experienced are willing to help and be your cheerleading section. And you meet other new people, who are so fresh and excited and you can be excited with each other. Who knew there were so many fascinating stories to be told?

Speaking of stories to tell, I also pushed myself and wrote a picture book (in addition to the middle grade I am working on with the best author partner in the world, yes I'm biased). I entered it in a contest! The book is found here and if you like it, please pass it around the blog-o-sphere and encourage your friends, family, relatives and the guy down the street to stop by my story page and "like" it too! Click the caption below for more on the rules and MeeGenius!


MeeGenius! rules and website

Thanks for playing!!!

Edith Wharton: American Jane Austen?

2011-09-07T12:14:00.000-05:00

Edith Wharton, writing nearly a century later than Jane, is what I believe to be a cynical version of Jane Austen. At least in the House of Mirth. She can write about the nuances of behavior and looks, the confusion between men and women about love, power, or intent in the confines of society rules. But I find Edith a bit more cynical. I don't believe she means for her heroine to triumph, even though I'm only 1/3 of the way through the novel. We shall see. But I would recommend checking out her works. Next on my list is the Age of Innocence.

Horrible Histories

2011-09-06T12:09:00.000-05:00

My new favorite past time (ha, ha, no pun intended) is watching clips from Horrible Histories, a British children's show about the icky and creepy stuff from the past.

Be sure to check out all the offerings on YouTube you can find. It will entertain you for hours!

For someone who loves historic clothing of all kinds

2011-09-05T09:04:00.000-05:00

Only thing I wish they did in this video was to label the slower version with the actual years they were hitting as they danced back to 2011. Otherwise this is a fun romp.

Thinking me like the new Blogger interface

2011-09-04T07:09:00.000-05:00

I am getting sucked into more computer media. I've been using the new Blogger interface (what the hell, be an early adopter) and find it is fascinating to get a look at which posts have gotten the most views. So much easier than trying to use a site counter. Now I know which posts have attracted the most looks. Funny. I will have to send the Blogger folks some feedback. Maybe this will get me back in the game. I was going to be all chronically about my life as a forty-year-old. Turns out pretty much like a 39 year old. So it's been hard to see where I should go with this blog. Maybe the new feedback info will help.

Look out world.

Questions of balance

2011-09-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

Some days, I feel I'm a lazy mom. I was just reviewing what I did, or did not do, with my kids the week I had off before school started. I am afraid I just let them veg in front of the TV or with a video or computer game for too long. I had no gumption to get out of my pjs before noon. I spent too much of my time letting them do whatever with each other with electronics. Usually, I let this get to me, but that week, I just let go. I was tired from work and let my brain rot. Rot on reading FB posts, emails and strange internet news. Wandered around the house organizing small piles of stuff here and there. Catching up on DVR shows. Reading several different books at once: a guidebook on Maui, a book about weight training and the House of Mirth.

About noon I would realize I needed to get dressed and "do something." And maybe feed my kids lunch. Most days, lunch came at 1:30 pm. I did take them to a museum and we spent quite a bit of time there. They did have soccer practice at 5 pm several days that week, so I guess I felt justified in letting them veg in front of the TV. Three days that week, I also got them to the pool and one day my daughter and I went to the farmer's market. So I did make an effort to get us away from the house. Just not really hard.

So I know other people who talk about writing in gratitude journals, taking walks at sunrise for inspiration, taking time to think and ponder on the meaning of life, finding time to exercise, wanting to make sure that they spend as much time as they can as a family without TV, video, or computer. I feel a pang of guilt, because I feel I am not being a deep person, not making life meaningful for my children, not facilitating their sense of self and spirituality. I feel guilty that I'm not spending more time with them.

Then I realize, I wouldn't be happy doing that. I can't sit and be emotional and spiritual in front of my children. I have to be matter of fact, open and honest but matter of fact. Logical and straight from the hip. I also want my me time, which, I guess, for me, is to spend some time on the computer web surfing. I surf for information, often reading news articles and Wikipedia, for questions that come up. I relax by watching goofy SyFy shows and just letting my brain turn to mush. I don't want to spend every waking minute with my kids, I want them to find ways to entertain themselves. Maybe they need to see me doing more reading, like when I lost an hour just reading about Maui and suddenly realized I should shower and work on lunch.

I ponder life's problems driving to work, always. I have composed some awesome blog posts in my head. But as soon as I get to work, they are forgotten, because I must deal with the mundaneness of work. I probably get enough time to wonder as I drive to/from work and maybe I don't need to write it all down. It is enough to think it through in my head. I defy being there every minute for my kid and embrace the lazy parenting attitude.

Come to think of it, when I was kid, I was outside, wandering the front and back yard and next door parking lot. I don't remember spending a lot of time playing with my parents in elementary school. They were doing whatever parents do and it didn't make a good or bad impression on me. It just was. So I think we have some time yet to get it all in and I'm not going to sweat the small stuff. It will come when it needs to and will shape our family life however it can. They will grow up how they are supposed to.

Because that is just how it is.

Nostalgia: that's what all those posts are for

2011-09-02T23:09:00.002-05:00

Did a little look through my "favorites" and I decided I chose well. They reminded me of times and stories I hadn't thought about in a long time. So maybe that's what the blog is for, to look back, laugh, be glad I recorded it somewhere and to come back to it time and time again. Sigh, dream of the sweet days gone by. They were soooo cute, but they can be something else even now.The oldest and I sat down and reviewed the middle school handbook. I'm one of those parents who does exactly what the letters from the principal says to do. Goes over the handbook *with* my child. It was a good time to discuss what could, might, or what he should expect to happen and to have him declare that he would get A+'s only and he would never, ever end up in anything other than Honor Level One (which means no demerits. Really? They use demerits at this school?). We read all the classroom policies he brought home, signed all the papers promising he would abide by teachers' rules and I would be the back up to enforce that he abide by teachers' rules. Then I had him stuff them back in his backpack. For Tuesday.Yes, I'm an overachiever. I'm going to finish MY homework ahead of time, so I can relax and enjoy the weekend (well, Monday anyway, I am working the next two days.).

First day of school

2011-09-01T21:40:00.000-05:00

I am just blown away by the fact that my oldest is in middle school. This should not come as shock, there are people who I know with their youngest leaving for college, but still, I am probably more nervous about middle school than he is.

My favorite comment about middle school from him today was that "It isn't like on TV where there's a lot of bullies in middle school." Good call, my dear boy, I think we need to talk about fact vs. fiction again.

The other thing I had to get over was that they are now in two separate schools until he is a senior and she is a freshman.

More passages this year.

The insanity

2011-08-06T11:10:00.001-05:00

Nearly twenty years ago, I took this test, in anticipation of taking school to the next level: a master's degree. Here I am, so many years later, signing up to take the GREs. This, in anticipation of possibly, maybe, going ahead with a doctorate. I think I might be insane.

Differences: Now the test is on a computer. The price has gone up exponentially. I can take the test not on a Saturday. My brain has not been in the school mode for at least 12 years. I am a little more freaked out.

Worst part is that I did, actually, amazingly well the last time. I wish I could have just kept that score. Unfortunately, they let them expire after five years. So, I am worried that I will not do so well. Don't we lose brain cells every year?

Ah, me!

2011-08-05T11:09:00.000-05:00

Yes, where has a whole month gone by. I was going to get all excited about being forty. Being forty means living up to responsibilities, which is working so that I can have health benefits for my family. And work I did. I am getting too old to do so many weekend days. I'm just tired of being a weekend worker. I should have known better working in museums. Our visiting public is on the weekends.

Instead, let's think of nicer things: lovely CSA (community supported agriculture) foods that are no longer mostly salad greens. The first beets of the season, roasted on the grill, sliced and served with a shallot, red wine and balsamic vinegrette and feta cheese. Son taking on his first triathlon, finishing and not last, as he hoped. Siblings offering to organize another family trip to Hawaii (oh, how we all adored Hawaii and together!). Husband doing so much better after some major surgery. He is a trooper and I love him for taking on the challenge so that he can eventually feel so much better. Getting on the bike again after too long. The super heat ending, somewhat. I hope it stays down for the next few days. Starting in a writing group, making me read, share and critique. Reading new YA books. Deciding to read the House of Mirth, it's good to keep up with the classics. Daughter enjoying her Laura Ingalls Wilder day camp.

Ah, that's better.

Recovering from my 40th birthday week!

2011-06-28T17:26:00.000-05:00

Oh, yesterday I had to go back to work. (boo) I had spent the last week and a few days with family and friends and enjoyed it all. It started with a trip back to my home state. I met up with my sister and her daughter and our cousin who is my sister's age and her family during a nice downtown concert. After Chipotle, a playgym and some rocking ice cream I headed back to the hotel with the kiddos. We continued with the celebration of my brother's marriage to a really great gal, which was a nice time, but all too short. My dear sister and one of her daughters rode back with me and my kids in the car. That was a fun trip. A bit long, but we took breaks for gas and Cold Stone, and a Subway pit stop.

The week was anything goes. The kids had summer school, so my sister and her kid got up at leisurely hours. We did things a toddler could handle, walks to the swing and to the park, playing in the backyard, pulling out trains from my son's toddler days, riding tricycles and bikes. My kids, being 6 and 9 years her senior, did surprisingly well with a small toddler cousin (who is only just two and can tell you in whole paragraphs about anything and everything, which floored me). A run to the tattoo place (which you already know), a visit to an indoor pool (hey, it may be summer, but it still is Wisconsin), a few naps, mommy bike rides and mommy runs and a couple of visits to our favorite ice cream place.

And the late nights. My sister and I come from a night owl, our mother. Our brother also seems to have gotten this gene. If we could all get up at 10 am and stay up until 2 am, I think we'd feel we had it made. (My poor dad falls asleep by 8 pm, but is up and at them by 5 am.) Good thing I didn't have to work, but I did have to get up somewhat early as I had to send a couple of kids off to summer school on time. I drank a lot of iced coffee this week. But those late nights were good for reconnecting and discussing all sorts of kid raising issues, friends, old times, things we remembered.

Your siblings and parents have known you the longest and at your youngest. Though we change as we grow older, there's something comforting knowing that someone knew you "before." What you liked and disliked, how you acted as a kid. They may have changed, but still things stay the same.

My birthday rolled around and I had a brother, a sister-in-law, a sister, a brother-in-law, two nieces, two kids of my own, a husband and friends from way back, friends who are tight with me now, and newer friends that are gracious and fascinating. Not everyone could show up and they were missed, but it was the right amount and right mix of people. We had a great time at the park, all the kids that came got along very well and the set up and take down was so easy with all my relatives at hand. My high school friends sent me my "over-the-hill" flowers, which made me smile.

One of my very best college friends made the trip with her family, which was fantastic since the last time we saw each other might have been two years ago. People came and went with food and we nearly got rid of all the cake the first time around.

It was a great way to start the forties.

The night ended late, as only we siblings can do. The kids were in rare form, making up dance recitals and plays, while the adults gathered at the kitchen table to reminisce about childhoods, giving away family secrets to spouses, gentle teasing and literal ribbing. The next morning, before all my siblings and spouses left, we took pictures.

Now, you will note that me and my siblings seem to be on the short side. That is correct.

And you may note that our spouses are on the tall side. That is also correct.

I think we all had some innate need to even out the gene pool.

I am contemplating that maybe my career should be in getting together with my family and friends. Life would be perfect, then. There's just this little thing called money (and health benefits) that would not be forthcoming with that lifestyle. I need to keep looking. If I could combine a career with a way to get to see my family and friends every day, or at least once a week, I might find what I'm looking for in life.

Fabulous Forty

2011-06-25T12:55:00.000-05:00

John Cougar Mellencamp, I'm sorry, but I think you got it wrong:

"Oh, yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone.... Hold on to sixteen as long as you can..."

Don't hold on to sixteen as long as you can. It gets better and better.

And the thrill of living is just getting started.

I think this qualifies as slightly wild

2011-06-21T10:21:00.000-05:00

Having kicked off my week of celebrating with visiting my cousin (makes you feel like a kid again), celebrating my brother's marriage to a really great woman at a reception dinner, bringing my sister and one of her girls home to stay with me for the week, I continue with my birthday week celebration with the following:

Wild Child indeed.

Happiness

2011-06-13T10:00:00.006-05:00

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

-Attributed to Nathaniel Hawthorne and/or Henry David Thoreau in various forms.

What evolutionary purpose does this have?

2011-06-12T12:48:00.000-05:00

Why is it, when my son, who completed fifth grade this year, walked across the stage and took his certificate of completion from his teacher, that I teared up like I was going to cry forever? Why did I feel an ache and sadness while watching the slide show of pictures of the whole school of fifth graders with pictures of my son at various stages in his elementary school career, including the one where he and his sister pose in front of the school sign on her first day of kindergarten? Why does my throat lump up as the principal and teachers tell the kids how great they've been and how great they'll all do in middle school?

Shouldn't I be so happy that he's growing into a responsible young man and is ready for his next level of development? That he's going to take his challenges and manage them well? What makes me so sad and weepy?

At this rate, I am going to need a box of tissues and permission to bawl my eyes out when he graduates from high school, and when he gets married, I may need some people holding me up.

PS--I don't remember such a fuss being made of me finishing sixth grade (which was the top grade in elementary back when I was a kid). Maybe it didn't impact me all that much. We'll have to check with my mom and see if she was weepy.

Stupid number

2011-06-11T16:48:00.000-05:00

So, I am trying to be all positive about that number 4-0. I feel great. For the most part. There are maybe a few aches and pains that surprise me. Recovery time maybe takes a little longer from some exercise, but that could just be I'm not in the top shape I could be.

I don't think I look much different from my 30s and 20s. There's a wrinkle here and there, or a sag, but on the other hand, I am a mother and going to be 40, so I should forgive these. And I should also remember that no one notices what I see.

Logically I tell myself to not be obsessed with images, numbers, age. I should work from what I have and make it the best it can feel: healthy and strong. Compare myself to myself and remember I am a forty year old and that's exactly where I should be.

As one friend put it, we should all be so lucky to arrive at forty. She's damn right. There are a few acquaintances, high school classmates that didn't. I should be thankful and thankful for the many more years that I hope to look forward to. And take my own advice and use up the body for what it was meant to. Gather the wisdom and stay healthy and strong.

Youth is wasted on the young. Old age should not long for the looks of youth, but use the wisdom to create a healthy and happy life to be enjoyed to the fullest.

'Bout time I take my own advice.

Oh, I'm so addicted

2011-06-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

Somebody stop me.

First I bought this:

But to use that, I wanted the shoes:

And of course with the shoes I need the cleats and the right pedals:

I had a bad dream that I could never click into the pedals properly. You'd think I'd be more worried about falling down. But then I fell down. I had to literally get back in the saddle and get over that fear. I also started not being able to click in properly. Finally it helped that the local bike shop loosen the parts on the pedals that hold the cleats. By the way, if you bike with any regularity and without the cleats, I highly suggest getting the cleats.

I rode (without cleats) about 10 miles back in April. Cold, but I loved it, but really should have been carrying a water bottle. So I had to get the water bottle carrier:

After that ride, which was my longest on the road up to that point, I also felt pretty butt sore. I hadn't been in my spinning classes (I've been taking since January), so I thought I was fine. But, I had to go and buy the biking shorts with padding. (The matching shirt didn't hurt either, love those colors) Bliss:

I also had really numb hands after my first long ride. My friend loaned me some on the next ride, so I had to get my own pair. Got a mirror, got a carrier for the front of my bike and finally added a kick stand because I got tired of leaning the bike up against things.

Nobody tell my husband. However, since he's done reenacting in the past, I'm sure his bill for his two guns (here and here and this is not including his historic clothing or camp gear) came to more than what I've spent up to now. Maybe some glasses to protect my eyes? I already had the helmet.

Somebody stop me.

Thinking about forty

2011-06-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

People sometimes get all worked up about twenty and thirty, but I think we can all agree forty is quite the milestone. It's ever present in my life, because my high school class is all going through it at the same time. Facebook makes that fact ever present. I think that's great. I don't feel so bad, because we are all in the same boat. It's allowed me to make it a bit of fun, too.

When I was a senior in high school (still sweet seventeen) myself and the three other girls who were seniors in the show choir got wind of the fact that our music teacher was turning forty. We got the date, which, I believe was a Monday. We made a plan. We got the band teacher in on it. We gathered our forty decorating supplies and waited in the school parking lot the night before. Our band teacher arrived and let us in the music room. We filled the office with black streamers and black balloons and signs all over the room proclaiming his age to the whole world. One of my sneaky friends had ordered a "dead bouquet" which was black roses with a stuffed bird hanging upside down on a limb (get it? dead bird).

The next day, we made sure we were by the music room bright and early. He was quite surprised. He took it in stride. Then we were gathered for our show choir class during the lunch hour period. The bouquet arrived. He was flustered, but appreciative. We 17 and 18 year olds thought we were so clever.

Now, here we are 22 years later. Um, now we know what forty feels like. Some of us take it in stride. Some of us are hesitant about this number. Some of us are ready to celebrate this milestone like crazy. I cooked up a plan with two of the three others. We found our own "dead bouquet" (which are very hard to find now, I was disappointed, but mine came from Gifts for Geezers, whew!) and we all pitched in and sent it to our first victim who turned forty on New Year's Day. She was a bit hesitant about the number, but appreciated the bouquet and told her husband the story of making our music teacher's wonderland of forty decorating. It made her smile. Two more have had their birthdays. Lucky me! I'm the one left. I'm expecting nothing less than the "dead bouquet."

I'm all about that quote:

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming: WOO HOO, WHAT A RIDE!

I am looking at the number 40 and thinking, dang, I have a whole lot more I can do and accomplish and it doesn't have to be professional. I need to get a tattoo. I need to ride RAGBRAI. I need to spend more time decompressing and enjoying my family and friends. I need to spend more time on writing and working on PUBLISHING, even if it starts with just a magazine. I need to save for my quilt/tea shop, so I can open one (hey, I don't have any plans for my 50 decade yet). I need to get more involved in my community, state, and nation, because professional politicians are not getting the job done, and if I don't do it, who will?

I am hitting this decade running and I hope to leave it proud.

A Woman Never Tells Her Age

2011-06-08T11:01:00.000-05:00

Yeah, right.

I am nearing that magical age of forty. Not quite there yet, but it is at the end of the month. Fabled as the middle ages (this assuming that I am living until 80, but with the family genes of women in my family living until the 90s, doesn't quite work for me), I am excited about this decade.

Everyone can pshaw me. I have a complex about being treated as younger than I am. I will say, I know I look younger, which is fine in social situations and not an issue for me. Usually this bugs me most in a work situation. It is getting more fun to say I'm in my late thirties, but still, I get the "you're still young" statement at work more times than I can count. In my twenties, I thought, fair enough, but I do have ideas I would like to try. In my early thirties, sure, I've only been out of grad school for 5-10 years, I need to get some time under my belt. But now I'm starting to get a bit peeved. How many years should one expect to be in the work force to get respect for experience? So I keep thinking that maybe 40 is the magical number. That this is the time that people will say, "Ok, yeah, she's been around the block a few times." On the other hand, I have always worked with people older than me, so I guess they deserve to lord their years of experience over me. But I would like them to acknowledge that I have spent enough time in my business to warrant a nod of recognition that I do know what I am doing, on occasion.

This has been a fun year on Facebook. Old high school pals and acquaintances have been turning 40. I've been trying to say witty and fun things for everyone's 40th birthday. I think we all should embrace the 40 and run with it. So many sayings about 40 is the new 20 and all that.

I have noticed, once the kids got older, it leaves more time for mom and dad to look back to themselves again. I have a goal to participate in the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) next year. I've done spin classes since January and try to get in 2-4 bike rides a week. I'm impressed with myself in staying power in tackling 20+ miles. I know I need to boost this number by quite a lot, but I'm very psyched about what I've started. I think my son was inspired enough that he is going to sign up for a youth triathlon. I'm almost thinking about doing it. I never believed I was an athletic person in jr. high and high school. Now I believe that maybe people like me might have responded better, if I hadn't been compared to my peers' abilities, but instead compared to my own abilities and that improvement over time was emphasized instead of trying to get me to beat the fastest people in class. Seeing improvement in oneself is a great reward already. It might be more motivating to kids rather than comparison to each other. (I suppose that might also apply to learning)

Hitting this decade also makes me a bit reflective. What have I done with my life until now? What haven't I done that I used to do, that I should do more of? What really matters? Should I be doing more to improve the world, or is improving my part of the world, no matter how small, enough?

Nostalgia also hits. I sometimes wish I could have told my teenage self that the things I cried over were really not worth it in the end, because they didn't matter in the long run. But that is what age is for, to understand what is not worth it in the long run and to pare down your life into what is really worth it.

I'm taking you with me on this journey of hitting the big 4-0 from before the big day to beyond. Let's see what this 40th decade is all about. I am going at it with a cando attitude and challenging ideas of myself that may not be totally true and need to be changed.

Spring Cleaning at Work

2011-04-09T10:36:00.000-05:00

So, how satisfying is it to clean out your email? Actually, quite a bit. I was using 160MB of my mailbox. I went through the inbox and sent mail portions, then went and deleted it out of the deleted box and cut it down to 75 MB. Lots of email from the second half of last year that I hadn't had a chance to clean out. Then I went through files. When you move office, you find you have a number of files that you need to comb through and whittle down. Most of yesterday I spent shredding a lot of those files (yes, it was sensitive information) for about four years worth of stuff. So I didn't accomplish much of anything else (filled the shredder about five times though), but it was satisfying to get my office less full of boxes and putting the files away.

Now, if I could just get that feeling about the papers laying around my house. They just keep coming. School papers, ads from the mail, bills, stuff I need to make a decision or take action on. I also need to finish taxes. They are almost done, but need to force myself to do them.

Remember my organization from several weeks ago? Ok, maybe a few months ago already. Yeah, that lasted about a week.

I dreamed a dream

2011-04-08T16:44:00.000-05:00

This political fighting is getting to me. It's haunting me in my dreams.

I am in a train car with separate compartments. I happen to be in a compartment with Speaker of the House Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Reid. I find I have a unique opportunity to speak to these two gentlemen. I start off by saying that I'm disgusted with the fact that they cannot work together to come up with a compromise. I state that life is full of compromises and we don't always get what we want. In fact, people who compromise are valued for their ability to do so. I'm tired of the bullying and standing off. Both men just sit and stare at me. I wax more poetic, telling them that I have a bachelor's and two master's degrees, and I can work with people to get things done. Then I say, but I don't need those to know that working together is better than not. All this I learned in kindergarten. Then I round on Mr. Speaker, telling him that he should play well with others, and learn to share and that kindergarteners get this better than he does. Then I yell at them both for sitting in their offices, getting perks, privileges, and extra money, just for having been elected. I said they were out of touch and no politician really knows about what they do and how it affects people. I said they didn't deserve the salaries and the high paying friends they had because they weren't getting the job done.

I woke up, still angry about the fact that these elected representatives aren't doing us a bit of good. I started wondering if we needed to limit Congressional terms as well. If they aren't worrying about getting re-elected, would they instead think ahead to the future and be brave enough to make the tough decisions to get us out of this mess.

The commission on the budget has said we need to change Social Security and Medicare. They have suggested raising the age of retirement. They have also said to get us out of debt, we need to increase taxes. I'm sorry people, the reason why the banks failed was because too many Americans were over-extended. But there's no incentive to save. Not when savings rates are 1.35% and that's on a CD. Do you remember when you could get 5% on checking? Yes, really, on checking!!! Instead of getting more credit people, we have to spend our hard earned money. Yup, which means also the government needs our hard earned money to get out of debt. We can't keep living in lalaland thinking we are going to get out of this by cutting what we spend. Eventually, in a household, you don't eat, or don't drive your car, or don't pay your doctor bills. Then the household will implode. Not going to work for the government, either. It's going to hurt and if people on the left would quit crying about the entitlements, buck up and say, hey, ok, we'll raise the age limits and cut back some, and those on the right, if they would quit hollering, no taxes (I'm sorry guys, your hero Ron Reagan raised your taxes. He didn't like it, but he did it. He and Tip came to an understanding. So if you're going to be all excited about him, remember, he PLAYED WELL WITH OTHERS). Right wingers, we cannot be policemen of the world and spend our money on the military if you're not going to pay for it!

So, I'm thinking, I'm tired of politicians. I would like to see the regular folks say, enough is enough. And I mean moderates, not Tea Party unknowns or extreme liberals. Moderates, who would think about running for office, think about only staying in one term, and if enough of us got there, would we be able to tackle the hard questions, talk civilly to each other and come to a compromise? I would hope so. But civilly minded people don't run for office. Winners run for office, and they want to keep winning and have their opinions win.

It is getting so divided. I will admit it, I find myself being a hater. I hate being angry at the TV, angry at the person who votes against me or my position, angry at the people who won't work together, tense because I'm judging people before I really should, just because they are of a certain party. I am tired of extremes. I want a civil conversation. I want my conversation to have give and take and, in the end, I want both groups to say, hey, that was a lot of hard work, but we each got a say and what we produced is something we ALL can be proud of.

Random Tuesday--Spring Edition

2011-03-22T08:44:00.001-05:00

While you are reading this, I am in a water park with my kids. The water park has a flow rider. I want to try to fake surf.

I love how my kids love America's Funniest Videos. It's so cute to listen to them laugh.

Julie/Julia was a really good movie. I should check out the book. This is courtesy of the fact that our satellite provider has all the Starz channels on complimentary for a year. Something about being their 30th year in business (really 30 years?). So we're seeing movies that were out recently. Many of them I am glad I never spent the money in the theatre for.

My ideal job would be to go antique picking. If I could go with Mike and Frank on the History Channel, that would be a blast!

I'm trying out NoScript to protect myself from getting clickjacked on Facebook. Do you know what clickjacking is? Neither do I, I have no idea how it happens, but maybe it won't happen now. If anyone knows anything more let me know.

Go, be random!

Random Tuesday--Getting out of the shadows

2011-03-01T14:21:00.000-06:00

Ok, I could talk about this, but I think we all know what's going on there, so we'll let others deal with it for now.

Instead, I'd like to talk about The King's Speech. A movie I have not seen, but desperately want to. But I am so happy one of my favorite actors got an Oscar.

Very handsome and modest.

From here.

What else? Oh, I guess my book won't take as long as this. At least I hope not.

And today is the first day of metereological spring. Yay! February is over, March is in like a lamb and I really, really, really want a new bike. I'm thinking Trek women specific design. Trek is made in my home state, I think I should put my money back into my state.

If a person has a master's degree, how much money do you think they should be making annually? $30k? $40K? $50K? $60K? I suppose you will say, well it all depends on what you do. But, if everyone with masters has to take 60 hours of credit and write a thesis, no matter what the subject, and have to pay the tuition and fees, what should they have to show for it at the end? And if they shouldn't need a master's, then what is the case for postgraduate education? What is the purpose?

(Yeah, the ulterior motive is I want to see if I'm making what other people think I'm worth. I have two masters by the way.) And if you haven't seen Keely, head over to the UnMom via the ugly button at the top.

Longest labor ever!

2011-02-28T20:16:00.000-06:00

Dear Book,

I know these things take time. I know you need the time to become perfect. Because if you're not and we send you out into the world, the world will chew you up and spit you out. But, oh, my, have you changed since you first peeked your way into the world. And even that took a while. We had all these plots twists, turns, locations, neat places, tons of characters. Then we set you aside and then looked at you again and suddenly you were less places and different characters. How does this happen? Then we took turns and you changed a bit more and got shorter. Which is good, I guess, since you are for the middle graders.

I am so embarrassed when I say, "We're really nearly done," and come to find that we really nearly aren't. I don't even want to say it anymore. But coming up on two and a half years, I really think this labor process is taking a long while. Even my first born at 22 hours is nothing compared to you. You need to be done already. Got it? I really think you are ready to shine on your own. For heaven's sake, we wrote a kick-ass logline about you. You should be proud to show yourself off. I'm hoping the query letter is just as kick-ass. Because it is time that some other people got to share you.

So, if this time I say, "We are really close," be a dear, and make sure that we're there. Because there's a few other babies swirling around in my head that need to get going. Having a full-time job, while being a full-time mom and a part-time writer is a bit hard. So it would be nice to say we finished something. Okay?

Sincerely,

me

P.S.--plus, my fortieth birthday is coming up, so that would be a nice present, don't you think?

So much to blog about, but I keep quiet

2011-02-21T08:24:00.000-06:00

Lots of political things happening in my state and the nation. I have definite and naked opinions. But I also have a job that I need to keep. I want to shout from the rooftops my frustration with what appears to be illogical thinking and gross misrepresentation and generalization of how I as a taxpayer feel about things.

I will say that education is incredibly important and that cutting it is the most short-sighted thing we can do to our nation. Not just for our children, who, as an average, are falling behind the rest of their counterparts in other DEVELOPED countries, but also for the future innovation and pulling up from our bootstraps to make us who we are. We are cutting off the opportunities for our future to continue to have the majority of us live good middle class lives. It seems many people are believing that taxes are evil and are what are going to drive us into the ground. I believe that is not true. However, none of those people will be alive when their grandchildren or great grandchildren have to deal with the fallout of their decisions. Why should it bother them?

Stopping spending now, which seems to be the direction we are going, appears that it will make local governments and school districts have to shed personnel. This will remove good middle class paying jobs. More and more parents will both have to work just to maintain a $40,000 income (and I'm talking in my area, there are many other places where the cost of living is so much higher and they need to make more just to be able to own a home in their area). Down the rabbit hole we go. There will be no wonderland on the other side.

Random Tuesday Thoughts are here

2011-02-15T10:39:00.000-06:00

Check out my new profile photo. Not the best quality, but I wanted a pic of my haircut and I did it with the laptop camera. It's okay. I like the background. It's our office and I like how it makes me look all professorial, even though I'm not.

Did a little change up to the background. Feeling a litte romantic and historic these days.

Well, well, climate change strikes again. 141 years ago actually. Check this out. Essentially, even our ancestors noticed that their acts upon the prairie land changed the soils, which changed the runoff, and then changed the air mass temp, which changed the winters, to cooler. They were happy for 2 out of 3 winters good for sleighing. I got a kick out of that. And then the end of the article trumpets human change as progressive and good for the world.

Now I think I have a reason to visit Florida. I've wanted to go to Disney World, but it is so DISNEYFIED. I really would rather have other things to do. Well, I have a few friends out there that have been to the Universal Harry Potter theme park. I think now is the time to go. My kids would love it, I would love it, I think even Mr. Wild would love it.

What's not to love:

From here

And that's just the scenery. Who doesn't want to take in a butter beer, or a broom stick ride?

Ok, ya'll go and be random with Keely.

Ahem, yes, we need a reality check...

2011-02-13T19:12:00.000-06:00

Here's a great blog post on the "socialist" agenda in our country.

Measured out with coffeespoons
Socialism in America

Couldn't have said it better myself. Pass it on...

Things you should not do

2011-02-10T10:55:00.000-06:00

It was a cool idea to start out. My mother had made quilts out of t-shirts my brother and sister wore in high school and college. I had some college t-shirts that I should have parted with, but had yet to do that. So I asked Mom to make me a quilt out of those shirts. I thought the shirts were clever, funny. I did not think about their appropriateness for elementary school students. The quilt arrived at Christmas, but really didn't get used until recently, it is so dang cold, that the pile of the other quilts dwindled as they got used and we pulled this one from the bottom.

Then, sitting on the sofa, my daughter reads and repeats what's on it.

She says, "Marching band is better than," she pauses. Makes a I know that's a naughty word and I'm not going to say it face (you know, that excited look you get running across something forbidden. You're all grinny and embarrassed). Then finishes reading, "because..." Then her grinniness becomes more pronounced and she repeats it louder and with more finesse, making a quiet hand gestured emphasis to show that she was not going to read that one word, but with so much glee about its inappropriateness. Her brother takes note. They start to giggle. I start to get embarrassed. Then I admonish, "You will not talk about this with anyone outside the house, okay?" She nods and giggles some more. I do an eye roll and that sigh my sister knows so well.

Then a thought occurs to me. So I ask her point blank, "Do you know what S-E-X means?" She blushes and shakes her head. And I say, "That's fine, we'll talk about it later." Then my son announces that they are learning about sperm, eggs and genes at school. OKAY, way more than I wanted to deal with, but I take the bull by the horns and try to get him to tell me what more he knows. He doesn't want to talk about it. Fine, but I make a mental note to dig into that conversation privately, at a different time.

Luckily, she did not notice the back side of the shirt lower down on the quilt. Son did. He starts reading and says, "What?!" And I grab the quilt and flip it over.

Lesson learned: College created t-shirts probably should not be used in quilts used around the house until your kids are at least the same age as you when you got the shirts and then maybe you should still keep it under wraps when they are around.

What's one of your parent faux pas?

Random Tuesday Thoughts: Crushing

2011-02-08T13:49:00.000-06:00

If I were Queen of Everything (or even Princess of Quite A Lot), or perhaps an author who gets to see her book made into a movie, here are some actors I wish I could meet.

Colin Firth
Pierce Brosnan
Val Kilmer
Nathan Fillion
Anthony Michael Hall
Jensen Ackles
Zachary Levi
Matthew Morrison

I would worry about being all fan-like and would not probably say very much. Like, "Hello, Mr. Firth, very nice to meet you." I wouldn't even remember to say, "I really enjoy your work. You're very good." Which is what I'd like to say.

It would be interesting to see how these people act and look IRL. I know the camera and production makeup can be superkind. I wonder if it might be a let down, like they look much older than they do on camera. (well, those that are older)

No, I do not have any famous females listed. This is my fantasy and I'll meet whomever I want to. And this is not like that deal on Friends where you pick five celebrities you'd get to sleep with and your partner can't get mad. Come on, I'm a grown-up! And probably not any of their types anyway.

Seriously, what is up with my almost 40 year old self? I suppose this is just fine and normal.

Anyone else coming up on a milestone birthday. It seems like my 30s was spent with raising toddlers and elementary students. Now I have a kid who will be in middle school next year. Am I just wigging out because I'm getting older. I seriously don't think so. Because I feel pretty good for an almost forty year old. It's fun to watch my high school classmates on Facebook hitting the big 4-0 before me. I'm a summer baby, so I can watch all of them turn the milestone and see how they handle it. Ignore it, trumpet it, bemoan it, celebrate it. I'm looking forward to saying, "I'm forty" and having people say, "No way." That will be cool.

My friends are going to make fun of my celebrity crushes. Oh, well, I got that out of my system.

Hopeful Inspiring Education Salmon

2011-01-26T10:34:00.000-06:00

NPR asked listeners to describe Obama's State of the Union speech in three words. Then they made word clouds out of these 4,000 responses.

What I found most interesting, when they divided the word clouds into self described independents, Republicans and Democrats, the top words that came up bigger than the rest were HOPEFUL, INSPIRING, and EDUCATION. Nothing else was as big as these on all three word clouds.

(Well, except SALMON, which, apparently was a funny reference to how salmon are regulated and one of the funniest parts of the night.)

To me, that says people are all touched by the same thing, and that if we come together on anything, we should start with education. Let's roll our sleeves up, put our money where our mouth is and get to work.

Unfortunately for me, I forgot about the speech, as I was watching Eloise at the Plaza with my children and we had a good time.

The King's Speech and other asundries RTT

2011-01-25T11:15:00.000-06:00

I haven't seen the King's Speech yet and I really want to go now that I see it has been nominated for 12 Oscars. Plus, I just adore Colin Firth. I would see a movie with him in it any time.

I did see True Grit and that was a good movie. If you haven't seen it on the big screen, I don't think that will damper its watchability much. I think it will be fine on your home theatre.

And surprisingly, I enjoyed The Social Network. Got that one on DVD and yes, it will be well worth your living room watching.

Ok, enough about movies. I'm at home with a sick kid. It's not terrible, but I didn't feel comfortable sending him to school when he said he had a bad tummy pain and was curled up in our horseshoe chair. The tummy pain seems to be gone, but he is chilled. I should take his temp again.

I have to admit, I decided to record and watch the Oprah Show about her "big family secret." But from all the previews, I knew it had to be a long lost sibling. I do have to say, I am just as impressed as Oprah that the half-sister did her best to keep it quiet, while she was trying to get in touch with her birth mother. It is a story with, I hope, a happy ending.

I was in an organizing mood this weekend. While the rest of the family stayed in pjs playing computer games or video games, I spread THE PILE out all over the floor and started to put things in their proper folders and filing cabinets. Then I kept some folders out and went looking for a table top file folder holder that is tiered so you can see all the folders. I got tired of them being in a pile too. So here is where I hope THE PILE ends up.

Pretty snazzy, eh? Of course, don't go to Walmart or other big box stores looking for these. I had to go to Staples to find one, and at least I found several, in different prices, that I liked. Here's to no more of THE PILE, which could overflow onto the table, kitchen counter and rolling kitchen counter.

Now, I have a pile of the early 20th century magazine, The Craftsman, that I need to have Mr. Wild to finish selling on ebay, so they don't continue to sit as a PILE in our office. Anyone an architect or interested in 1910s architectural magazines? Some are in rough shape, but we have about 7-10 left. I'd entertain some offers. Just let's get them out of here.

Speaking of old things, my husband and I haven't been in antique shop since the youngest was out of the stroller. I can't tell if it's because I have enough antique "stuff" or if the antique things don't hold any charm for me anymore. There's one collection we had when we moved here that fit perfectly around the plate rail in our dining room and there literally was no more room for more. If I get more pieces, where would I put them?

Anyone else feel they need design help in their house? I really would like something more comfy and cozy, but I can't figure how to get there. So I become static in my decoration. It ain't really broke, so why fix it? But every so often I get design envy and wish I had someone to come help me beautify my house. Oh, well, next life, I think.

Go be all random over here. My sick son is hungry and I must feed him. Must be a good sign, except he has a sore throat.

Bored on a Sunday

2011-01-23T19:01:00.000-06:00

I liked a little Firefly and Serenity in its day.

(by the way, I got this quiz by going to Nathan Fillion's MySpace. Don't ask me why I was there.)

Your results:
You are Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)

Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)		90%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)		70%
Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic)		70%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic)		65%
Wash (Ship Pilot)		55%
Derrial Book (Shepherd)		45%
Inara Serra (Companion)		40%
River (Stowaway)		30%
Alliance		25%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary)		20%
A Reaver (Cannibal)		0%

Dependable and trustworthy.
You love your significant other and
you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.

Click here to take the "Which Serenity character are you?" quiz...

Food Revolution Fail

2011-01-18T21:46:00.000-06:00

I don't know where else to vent. My school district has been discussing the flavored milk issue of late. It might be because I brought it up at a parent teacher meeting. I expressed my concern for the extra sugar the kids get in their milk since they are offered flavor. The principal and the school board member sitting in on the meeting said they'd look into it.
They did. At the following parent teacher meeting, the principal brought the three milks they offer: fat-free, 1% and fat-free chocolate, so that we could look at the labels. The fat free had 80 calories. The 1% had some fat and 100 calories. The fat-free chocolate had 130 calories, no fat, but the second ingredient, after milk, was high fructose corn syrup. Cocoa was such a small amount that it was listed as less than 1% of the total ingredients.

The principal explained that a committee was convened with our food service director, a nutrition director from the local hospital, and one of the elementary school principals to make a recommendation to the superintendent. They said they looked at the research. Their recommendation was to eliminate chocolate milk from the breakfast menu, but still offer it for the milk break and lunches as a choice. Their biggest reason for keeping the choice was that if they limited it too much, they were afraid the milk consumption would go down. Their argument was that it was better for the kids to get all the nutrition of milk with the extra sugar than to not get it at all because they wouldn't drink white milk.

On-line, I've found the National Dairy Council supporting putting flavored milk in schools. The same reasons were brought up as were listed by the committee that made the recommendation to the principal. MilkDelivers.org also lists a study about how the consumption drops dramatically if flavored milk is removed and goes on to argue that more calories and fat, half again as much sugar, and more dollars must go into the food then served to make up the difference in the nutrients lost. If these organizations have research and papers supporting it, how can one make an argument against it.

So these things are only upsetting a little. What was more upsetting was the parents at the meeting, whose children are in the same school as mine are, who were so very against removing flavored milk from the school entirely. They came prepared with stacks of research and surveys. One mother said her doctor told her that her child could drink chocolate milk because he wasn't going to drink white milk at all and he needed the nutrients. She was all ready to get a doctor's excuse to bring in chocolate milk if it was banned entirely. She also said she checked with the dentist and that the dentist said it wasn't the cause of cavities.

I cited the Princeton study out a year ago that rats fed virtually the same diet and the exact same calories, except one group drank sugar water and the other drank HFCS water and they found the HFCS rat group gained more weight and showed more tendencies to obese diseases. To that she said, what's a little HFCS in one drink? I said, well it's all cumulative, isn't it? It's not just in these drinks, but in so much else. Then another mother pulled out a poll she had done at the school. This was the most disturbing to me. She was using it to argue for chocolate milk, because if they didn't have it, she was arguing they wouldn't drink any.

This survey showed that out of 289 students who chose to take milk at milk break, 227 chose chocolate milk, and 62 chose white milk. That's 227 students who chose a milk that had 50 extra calories and 12 more grams of sugar which were all HFCS. That does not count lunch choices. And teachers stated opinions like, "My personal opinion...if they will drink it, what difference does it make if it is chocolate?" "Most kids like chocolate and get a good source of calcium and vitamin D from it. I would rather the children get chocolate milk and the good that it provides rather than juice. ... I was a kid who didn't like white milk and would not have drank milk in school if chocolate wasn't offered. Overall I think chocolate milk does more good than harm."

Another parent stated that it allowed the kids choices and that the kids had to start to learn to make good choices, just like when they are offered alcohol, they have to decide in that moment that alcohol is bad. If our children make the choice for alcohol like they do for chocolate milk, we are doomed. My children, even though we discuss at home better food choices and enjoying making and eating our food, still choose chocolate milk. We have discussed high fructose corn syrup and the rat study and they still choose chocolate milk even though they know it is in there.

I am not a perfect parent. I give in to McDonald's and ice cream and all sorts of things. But I have come to realize this is about their future and conditioning my children to like the healthy choices. If you have sugar sabotaging us all the time, at every corner, and parents who still think, well a little HFCS here and there can't be all bad, it will accumulate and our children will be left with an even worse health care mess. I feel I have no back up in this community. The issue even came up at a party. One parent could see both sides, especially since he had a kid who wouldn't drink milk unless it was chocolate, but he agreed that we had too much sugar drinks as it was and it might be a good change for the school. But people waver when it might mean their children will not get the calcium they need.

My question is, since when did chocolate milk become so ubiquitous? It was a treat at my house when I was a kid. We maybe had it once a week with school lunches, but I honestly don't remember. But I don't remember thinking I could have chocolate milk ever on a regular basis. Where between the late 1970s and now did it permeate our lives and schools? I suppose it is just like soda. It got cheaper to make and buy, we all like sugary stuff and we went overboard. Now, compared to soda, chocolate milk is a "godsend" for those kids that "hate the white stuff" and won't eat anything else calcium related. I am so sad that our attitudes about food have become so warped. What about soy milk, or plain old water?

So I guess I will watch out for my own kids. Some parents suggested I tell my kids' teachers to watch them and make sure they only take white milk. But honestly, should I make the teachers work that much harder just to make sure my kids are not taking chocolate milk? They have so much work as it is.

I thought asking about flavored milks and seeing if they could be really limited or eliminated would be an easier way to start the Food Revolution in our community, but it seems that if this is the reaction to the whole thing, the Food Revolution will have a very long row to hoe in these United States of America.

Randomize me: RTT

2011-01-18T09:58:00.000-06:00

Snow, snow, snow. Ok, which do I hate more? When it snows in fits and spurts nearly every day, or when we get a big huge ass snow that shuts down all the roads and we get a snow day and I have to stay home from work? It seems to me that I still do a lot of shoveling either way, so getting a day off for the snow is better. Hear that Wisconsin weather? I want 18" of snow so I don't have to go into work. Then I'll take all day to shovel out and play with the kids. None of this pussy footing around with an inch here and there, everyday, without sunshine and having to clear the drive some little bit here and there nearly every freaking day.

Oh, and I probably should watch the weather more often so I know what to expect. Although they got yesterday wrong with saying, "oh about 2 inches" and then we get nearly six.

And why in the heck won't I move to warmer climes? But I just can't do it. I think it's because I need season change or I'm afraid I'll be bored with the weather. I know, call me a dope.

It's so funny when my husband tells me some snippet of news and I've already seen it or read it because it was on Facebook, or I was checking mail and the news section on the homepage shows it and I've clicked through to read it. The thing is, he may be on computers or video games more, but he's using them all to play games.

Speaking of which, I was asleep by 11 pm and he played video games until almost midnight. Talk about random. Usually I'm the one up late.

I started watching an archived webinar on "how to get published." I couldn't watch it when it was on live, but I thought, hey I should get some good information. I'm just now in the mood to watch it, but I'm a bit annoyed by the fact that the first 12 minutes are talking about first you must write a book, and revise it and revise it and revise it and then have someone critique it, before you even start querying. Duh! If any of you are writers worth your salt, you've already read the myriad of websites that state this very same thing. I got bored about 12 minutes in and decided to watch it when I was more alert. I hope the rest of the hour and fifteen minutes is more worth my $70.

Ever try to spend 30 minutes in a car with an 11 year old boy, who is related to you and you're going to an orthodontic appointment, so you have to drive far to get to the orthodontist and it is snowing out pretty heavy and you decide to try to make conversation? Well, don't. I've learned an 11 year old boy really doesn't want to talk about school or school work with his mom. Worse than pulling teeth, though, fortunately, we won't have to pull teeth during this treatment. Moms should never expect that their sons really want to talk to them.

I had the day off and it wasn't long enough. I did manage to spend yet more money. This time I got a pilates video and a yoga mat. I got exercise in and also did some snowblowing (oh yay, more snow [sarcasm]). But I didn't do everything I wanted. We had a nice dinner of lemon chicken broiled, mashed potatoes and mixed veggies. And I finally sat down and planned meals through next Monday. I do better with suppers if I plan what they are ahead of time. I do pick specific menus for specific days, but if I have the week's list, go out and get groceries for it, I can switch it up, because I have groceries for it.

Okay, join Keely and the rest of the gang at the UnMom.

Thursday Goodness for Friday

2011-01-07T09:46:00.000-06:00

Sorry a little late, I hadn't seen a good story until today. Since I have NPR in my FB newsfeed, I am getting some feel good stories from there lately. I am not doing the guy with the great radio voice, we've all heard that one and I think it is fantastic. Here's another one to finish up the holiday season. If you'd like to add something, join along using Mr. Linky below.

One Student's Christmas Lesson

Don Michaels really didn't like school for a while when he was growing up.

"I had terrible migraine headaches when I was in fifth grade," he explained to his daughter Jennifer recently. "Whether that was because of the pressure, or because of the reputation that the teacher at the time had, and my having gotten reports from my three brothers who had her, I just, I just don't know."

Michaels remembers his teacher, Miss Leister, having very sharp features.

"The most prominent thing was her nose — it was very hawkish," the 72-year-old said. "She didn't smile a great deal. And she was a taskmaster — she expected you to perform."

Miss Leister wasn't very warm, he said.

"But we had a Christmas party — all the classes had Christmas parties — and we all exchanged names for gifts. And the Christmas party started, the gifts were being handed out, names were being called, and one by one all my classmates went up to get their gift. When the gifts were all gone, I had not been called and did not receive a gift, for some reason or other."

The day before Christmas, Miss Leister showed up at Michaels' house, unannounced.

"And she had a small gift that she gave to me," he said. "That gift was a key chain. I kept that for years and years. And as odd as it may seem, my headaches went away about two days after she came."

Michaels' relationship with Miss Leister changed from that day on.

Produced for Morning Edition by Jasmyn Belcher. The senior producer for StoryCorps is Michael Garofalo. Recorded in partnership with WPSU.

Random Tuesday: We're lacking in the Random

2011-01-04T16:16:00.000-06:00

How random can you be when you start the new year and back to school and back to the grind? Not so random.

I started the new year off with a spinning class. Not the spinning wheel kind of spinning:

(Though with my background, you can be forgiven for thinking so)

The bike training kind of spinning:

We did "hills" which means you increase the tension and "climb" for five minutes with your butt off the seat (which I couldn't make the five minutes, ugh) and "jumps" which means you get your butt off the seat and pedal for about a minute, then sit on the seat and pedal for a minute. It got me sweating and breathing heavy.

And when I say I started off the new year, I got up at 8:00 am and headed to the 8:30 class on January 1st.

You can call me an overachiever.

That same weekend I took all the random physical photographs I had laying around and stuffed them into an album. Not much call for albums when all the photos are on your computer and pop up as your screen saver. But enough for the stuff lying around.

We still have a tree up and a puzzle to put together. Do NOT buy a puzzle that has foil on the pieces. Hard to see and figure out in any type of light.

(Hey, we didn't get that nice included poster!)

Everyone seems happy with their gifts, Santa and otherwise. Except maybe me. I was hoping for an iPod Touch, but I don't think Santa had it in the budget this year.

Mr. Wild bought me this hat. I'm not sure if it's me or not. I'll keep you posted.

Check out more random with the UnMom.

End of the Year Goodness

2010-12-31T16:29:00.000-06:00

True to form, I will be donating money to Heifer International. Though I only got about 5 comments, including those that follow me, I will be purchasing a bee hive for a family. I think a bee hive is a good way to try to increase the bee population, increase pollination to help other crops and have products for sales later like honey, wax and pollen.

I don't do new year's resolutions, but I am kick starting my new year with a free spin class tomorrow! I figured I could handle 8:30 am. My real class starts a week from today. It's at a newly opened bicycle shop, so I am hoping that they will start to help me choose the proper bike for my trek across Iowa in 2012 and in training during 2011. I've also signed up our family for a community family fitness challenge sponsored by the hospital and school district. It appears to be helping us work on our eating and exercise habits as a family. The kids are all ready to point out what fast food places we should avoid. I think it will be good if they are our reality check on staying healthy. I like how they are willing to be into it.

So here's to you and yours for a happy and healthy 2011!

Thursday Goodness: More Jolly Goodness

2010-12-23T08:15:00.000-06:00

First things first. Nathan Bransford and his wife and Alexia over here are donating $1 for every comment made on their blog to Heifer International. I have always loved Heifer since I first heard about it in church and my children's Sunday school got to choose what their money would go to, whether it was rabbits, a flock of chickens or a calf. I like that these families that are in need are given animals to supply food to their family and are offered a chance for breeding more animals and extra income. Along the lines of "If you give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach him to fish, feed him for a lifetime." I am very much for giving people resources that can help them now and in the future.

Nathan's ended on Wednesday, so, please comment here on the blog between now and midnight Christmas eve (CST on December 24) and for every comment, I, too, will send $1 to Heifer International. Depending on the number of people will determine what we get, a flock of chickens, a calf, or a goat, etc. To increase the amount we send, you can do these additional things:

1. Follow me here on my blog (over there on the right hand side), click follow and be my friend. Leave me a separate comment pointing that out.

2. Join me by posting in Thursday Goodness this week, using Mr. Linky. Leave me another comment to let me know you did that.

(Ok, so both of those benefit me, but I think it will benefit you as well, thinking of positive things by participating in Thursday Goodness and getting to read my ~~fabulous~~ silly little blog, which may (or may not) brighten your day. In the end, the winners are those that benefit from Heifer International.)

I will post on next Thursday's Goodness what animal or animal grouping we will be donating our money for. Check out their website to see how the donations work. My kids love looking and picking out animals. They will probably pick out what we will send.

Now, below is some real Thursday goodness. What a sweet story and Merry Christmas!

Plucked from NPR, a great story about how a man won his wife over.

StoryCorps: How A 'No' Led To A 'Yes' In 1959

Jim Crane didn't date in high school. Not at all.

But when he went to college in 1955, he found out he liked girls. A lot.
"They were soft and they smelled good," he tells his daughter, Missy Worden, at StoryCorps in Atlanta.

During his senior year at Union College, Jim met his future wife, Juna. He was working in the business office and she was a switchboard operator.

"I'd come up the hall a-whistling and she'd always fuss at me because she was trying to hear," the 73-year-old says. "I got to talking to her and I got to liking her. I finally said, 'You wanna go to a movie with me?'"

Juna declined. "I've double-dated with you. I see what you do to those girls in the backseat," he tells his daughter she said.

Jim had never gotten a "no" from a girl.

He had given a woman he had been dating in Charlotte, N.C., a pin.
"I wrote and told her to send it back to me," he says. "And the girl I was dating in town, I'd give her some little something or other and I told her to give that back to me. And another girl I was dating on campus, I'd done something for her, and I told her to give that back to me. "

Jim took those three trinkets to the switchboard where Juna worked and laid them down.
"I said, 'Now, lookahere. I done broke up with all three of those girls.' I said, 'Will you go to a movie with me?' She said, 'OK.'"

Jim and Juna started dating. After graduating from college in 1959, Jim went immediately into the Navy.

"I was gonna give her a diamond engagement ring when I got paid at the end of boot camp. But the Navy screwed up the pay somehow, and everybody got paid but me," he says. "Well, I'd told everybody what I was going to do with my money, and I was very despondent.

"I was sitting on my bed and this guy I didn't like came up to me and he said, 'Crane, give me a match.' I said, 'I don't smoke and I don't have matches.' He said, 'Yeah you do. I've seen them in your locker.' And I gave a great oof, and stood up and went to my locker and opened it."

Jim's locker was full of money.

"The money started falling out, so I sat down and cried," he says. "I guess they passed the hat. And I used that money to buy your mother's first diamond ring.

"I said, 'Now, you're gonna marry me, but you gotta know that you're engaged to Company 290,'" Jim explains. "So she said, 'That's fair.'"

The Cranes will celebrate their 51st wedding anniversary on Monday.

Produced for Morning Edition by Nadia Reiman. The senior producer for StoryCorps is Michael Garofalo. Recorded in partnership with WABE.

Random Tuesday: Oh the Christmas Love

2010-12-21T11:04:00.000-06:00

I am really extra giddy over here. Tonight is the start of my Christmas vacation (or holiday vacation, depending on how you want to look at it). I am planning on serving up myself a hot whiskey to kick off the season. I have presents to wrap and I am determined to start my wrapping before Christmas eve. That's insane. Fortunately, the children are still in school tomorrow, so maybe I can squeeze in a few more in daylight.

I have no clue what to make for supper tonight. What goes with hot whiskey? I am making lasagna for Christmas Eve. It's a tradition, though perhaps unintentional by my parents. They for some reason seemed to make something Italian for Christmas Eve dinner. Not because we're Italian in anyway. Maybe because it was easy to make? My kids like it, too, and I hardly throw together a lasagna on any other night, so I might as well make the most of it. As you know, finding anything that BOTH my children like at the same time, is a potshot in the dark.

I am also giddy because I've launched myself out there more in the blogosphere, doing some commenting here and there and feeling the LOVE of all the people visiting my blog and then following me! Which is so sweet of everyone and I hope I can live up to their expectations. It's an increase of about 30%. (Did you see how I did that calculation? I know, so geeky.) We can blame my new blog friend Jen. She inspired me to get my a** in gear. Well, that and actually participating in the blog give and take.

Don't you love how kids change their minds on their Santa gift list? I don't know how the big man does it. One announced, near the end of our shopping spree on Saturday (which is tricky, but we split up the duties and got stuff done, all behind their backs) that he needed a watch. Great, got to pick up a watch now. The other announced, as she saw the clock ticking down on her Webkinz time in the virtual world, "I've got to have a Webkinz or I won't be able to play with them anymore." Imagine that in a whiny voice. Usually, Santa might ignore these pleas, but Santa is feeling extra nice this year and they may get what they wished for. Since Santa's not bringing the DSi or the Wii, I think these little things can be handled.

I'm making this short and sweet, because it's the holidays. Go, hit the button, join us in our randomness!

Be Jolly By Golly! Blogfest

2010-12-20T20:18:00.001-06:00

Hi all, I'm joining in on the Be Jolly By Golly Blogfest, hosted by Jen and Melissa. And I'm getting it in under the wire. I was working/interviewing, getting physical therapy for my arm, fighting off snow and taking the family out to eat. So it's a busy season.

Obligatory festive decorations. My camera is dying and I don't get very good pictures (or maybe that's just my excuse for a really crappy camera eye).

I've posted about my springerle before, so I thought I would try a different twist and post a different cookie (well, candy) recipe. This was my favorite treat at my grandmother's house. She was the kind of person who made 6 dozen each of twenty different kinds of cookies and fudge (I am not kidding), but this was the standout for me. No matter what else I ate, I had to eat one of these. Maybe it was the total of two sticks plus two tablespoons of butter in it.

Napoleon Creams

1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1 c. flaked coconut
1/2 c. chopped nut meats

Combine first four ingredients in a double boiler. Heat over simmering water until butter melts. (you must do this, it will not work otherwise) Add egg, cooking until mixture thickens (add in a thin stream to stop the egg from curdling), about 3 minutes. Blend in crumbs, coconut, and nuts. Press into a buttered 9 x 13 in pan. Chill.

1/2 c. butter, softened
3 Tbsp. milk
1 (3 1/2 oz.) pkg. vanilla instant pudding
2 c. powdered sugar

Cream butter with pudding mix, milk, and powdered sugar until creamy and fluffy. Spread evenly over bottom layer. Chill.

1 6oz. pkg. of chocolate chips
2 Tbsp. butter

Melt chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl (follow the melting directions on the package for melting the chocolate chips in the microwave, this worked well for me). Spread over vanilla layer. Chill and cut.

Now for the beverage, which doesn't necessarily go with the cookie, but that's just fine and dandy. One of my good friends is Irish and she introduced us to hot whiskeys, which are excellent on cold nights. This is the best warm alcoholic drink I've had. I also like spiced wine, but this takes the cake on a cold night. Sorry we don't have a lovely picture. We usually drink them up fairly quickly.

Hot Whiskey

Whiskey (preferably Jameson)
Boiling water
Scant teaspoon of sugar (white works best, or a sugar cube is good)
Lemon, sliced
Whole cloves

Pour a bit of whiskey in the bottom of a heat proof glass (Irish coffee glass is a good one for this, though we also just use wine glasses). Pour according to taste, I can't tell you exactly how much, I do it by sight and feel. Add the sugar at the bottom and stir a bit to mix it up some. Cut the lemon slices in half and stud each section in the slice with a whole clove. Drop it in the bottom of the glass. Pour the hot water over all, filling about half to two-thirds of the way up the glass. Stir with a spoon. Let cool a bit and enjoy!

Be Jolly By Golly, and check out the rest of the participants here and feel full of holiday cheer!

Thursday Goodness: What's in your soapdish?

2010-12-16T10:11:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine on FB shared this picture and link:

Cleaner Science at Etsy.com

Would you like the Hib virus or the glowing Legionella to rub on your hands?

Best laugh, so far, I've had today!

Join me for more goodness. Add a link to your goodness this week.

Other things writery...

2010-12-15T09:14:00.000-06:00

I've been floating around in the writer's universe a bit and ran across this book: Across the Universe. The author, Beth Revis, has a blog and it is interesting to see her progress through to a finished, published book. And the first chapter is fascinating. It is very sci-fi, but I like sci-fi and it seems entertaining. She's offering a generous contest, in which 100 prizes will be awarded. All book related, as it will come out 1.11.11. If you're slightly sci-fi leaning, or interested in seeing more about her publishing journey, go check it out and see if you'd like to win some free stuff, too. Good luck!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

2010-12-14T07:18:00.014-06:00

Once Willa had a bath, she came down the stairs in wet hair and footie jammies, raiding the construction paper pile, making a pretty big mess. Well, she just stated she's making it into a good pile, because "it's just weird when paper is sticking out." Ah, wouldn't you enjoy footie jammies? I almost bought some today. But Mr. Wild already hates my fleece blanket cocoon, I think he'd find the footed pajamas, let's say, offputting.

I love eating Mexican at a restaurant. When I suggest going out for Mexican, my kids are very excited. "Can we go to El Jefe?" they ask. Don't let their enthusiasm for Mexican fool you. They actually want to go to this restaurant because they serve KRAFT MACARONI AND CHEESE. It's in the kids' menu. With fries on the side. Willa shows some sign of a possibly maturing palate, because she doesn't want fries, she wants the Mexican rice. But Andrew is all about the mac and cheese and fries. Sigh.

Speaking of Andrew, he turns 11 today. The years just keep rolling by, don't they? We all say that. We all hear others say that. Yet, why are we so surprised? What is more surprising, when the jeans you bought last fall are no longer long enough? Or the fact that they turn one more year older. Bonus: most people think eleven is an acceptable age for me to leave the oldest in charge of the youngest for an hour or two. Ah, the freedom. I need it, otherwise, Santa doesn't get her shopping done.

I agreed to make banana muffins for his class treat. We can't, or aren't supposed to, send unhealthy food to school for snacks, not even for birthdays. I understand why and I accept it, but I'm a little sad I'm not sending cupcakes. My muffins have extra wheat germ in them, in addition to the banana, so I think we're sending something better than a cupcake. On the other hand, in Willa's class, the girl with the birthday last week sent home a giant pixy stix for each classmate.

Ahem!

I was all set to try my free Oikos Organic Greek yogurt and the store I stopped in didn't carry it. They had every other kind of Greek yogurt, plus Stonyfield's regular organic yogurt, for which I also had one free coupon for. But it wasn't worth it to me to pick up any of the free yogurt at that point. I got orange juice instead.

For the word coupon, do you say "Q-pon" or "COO-pon?" I say "Q-pon," really I do. I think it's an Iowa thing, because another gal I know who grew up in Iowa says it the same way I do. Actually, maybe eastern Iowa, my husband is from the western Iowa side of I-35 and he says "COO-pon." Those Westerners. What are you going to do with them?

I am thinking about joining up with some blog fests. I'll let you know how that goes, if I get to doing it. Just some more fun for the holidays.

Hot whiskey in hand, the last batch of muffins in the oven. Go Random up with Keely at the Unmom. Click the button above and enjoy the muffins you aren't having.

The healing starts when you admit the problem...

2010-12-13T11:10:00.000-06:00

I am coming to terms with it. I started looking at the "genre" of my blog. I was hoping to be some cool, hip, authoritative person on anything and everything that would garner lots of love, free offers, and followers on the internet.

Recently, I have admitted to myself. I am a "mommy" blogger.

I don't really care much about the pop culture scene. Okay, I am addicted to maybe too much television, but I don't have the self-effacing gall to go googoo over all the hot actors that are on my TV screen (my really big TV screen, mind you, which really rocks, but I still feel conspicuous about my consumption) in my blog. For heaven's sake, they are way too young for me anyway. Sheesh.

And I find my children much more amusing than anything else in my daily life. You can't make up things like the forged signature or the blank stare during concert practice.

I wanted to talk about books more, but that would mean I need to read some. Okay, well I've read some recently, and I want to critique one, but I actually know the author in a roundabout way and would rather tell her to her face (or via email) before going all ballistic on the blog (well, not really, but I have some issues with the history in one of her books). And I keep saying I need to read Persuasion. (that would be the Jane Austen reference)

I find I don't wax literary like some of my other blogger friends (Irish Gumbo, Psuedo). I don't even take good pictures like Feet Off the Table.

I do say short brief things about mulled wine, my choice of teas, a few recipes here and there, hot whiskeys (dang I could use one tonight, good night for it), wishes hopes and dreams, rolled in with kiddos, travel and Mr. Wild. I occasionally dabble into politics, but I have friends who are much braver than that (True Blue, and Helen and Margaret) and do it better.

I'm not sure what I thought would come of my blog. I enjoy that friends near and far and sister and mother read it some. I like the small laughs that I give, or get when I follow other blogs.

But, I have to admit, I am a "mommy" blogger, because I really don't delve too deeply anywhere else. I guess I thought I could be category-less, but no, I must admit, that is a bit how a mommy blog flows, isn't it? And no, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that. Because I read them, too. Just there's so many good ones to choose from. Soooo many! Keep em coming, gals and guys!

Now I have to do some shopping. Non-Christmas shopping because the schools decided that today would be a snow day (more like the roads are still freakin' ice and snow covered and we can't get the buses out today) and my free day off with no children is thwarted. But, much better than being at work. Which is a whole other subject I won't touch. Not in the blog if I can help it. Early on in my blog discoveries, I learned the lesson to not blog about work from an oldie but goodie, Dooce.

Thursday Goodness--Part II

2010-12-09T12:29:00.000-06:00

We got a flat screen TV. Happy Birthday to Mr. Wild, Happy Birthday to Andrew, Merry Christmas to all of us and probably Happy Birthday to me and Willa. It is still in our den, sitting in its box, because we need a stand for it. This is what we got:

Vizio Razor LED (42")

I keep staring at the box, wondering if my eyes were bigger than my eyes. Everything I read said that the distance we would be viewing should work with this size, but again, I wonder. I am feeling rather conspicuously consumtive.

Oh, and Andrew lost his first molar, which none of us, including him, knew it was ready to pop out so easily. He had just announced in the morning that a molar was loose, leading us to scramble to make sure it was the right kind of molar to be loose. (Hey, it's been nearly 30 years since I lost molars, I can't remember) It was one that was supposed to go, then he comes home and says, "My molar fell out. I was chewing at lunch and I might have swallowed it, except I bit down on something hard." Eew! They have cute little tooth shaped containers to put teeth in.

So, I had intended my first goodness post to show up this morning, but apparently I can't distinguish between AM and PM in the scheduled post section. Please link up to the post below with your "goodness," anything heart-warming, fun, silly, or just plain ridiculous, to make us all feel warm and fuzzy.

Oh, here's one more thing, a picture from Andrew's teacher while they are rehearsing for the school concert tonight. Andrew is front row, on the right end. He looks thrilled, doesn't he?

It's still goodness, because Mama is absolutely thrilled to see her babies get up and sing, no matter how bored they are with it. (Willa is not bored, she LOVES the stage)

Thursday Goodness--Geek Out!

2010-12-09T12:15:00.000-06:00

For my dear husband, Mr. Wild. He loves Doctor Who. I like it, but I am not as into all the various Doctors or minutia. And really, I can't think of anyone better than David Tennant. Though I'd be willing to give the newest one a look.

If you're joining us on Thursday Goodness, use Mr. Linky!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

2010-12-07T08:21:00.001-06:00

Thinking about getting an iPod Touch. To replace my Palm Tungsten E, which I use for my calendar function and not much else. And it's pretty out of date and worthless now, because I cannot sync any calendar with it. Supposedly, iPod can sync with Outlook and Google, which is good, plus can surf the web with wi-fi, take pictures, video. Oh, and play music. Which is like the last thing I want it for. I'm not a huge music fan, I do listen to stuff, but I don't buy much. It turns out the photos are not much better than my camera phone. The videos look pretty good on its screen. I know this because my son has two in his 5th grade classroom and they were using the video function to record their experiment results. The kids really liked it. (They also have an iPad in the classroom. I wonder if the teacher got a discount). Our point and shoot is losing parts and may need to be replaced. But I now know that the iPod isn't going to replace our point and shoot. It must have been a cost thing, because why they didn't put in the 5 megapixel camera in the iPod that's in the iPhone is beyond me. I like to think I'm a closet techie, but I really don't understand how all the things work and never use them to potential.

I bet you're wondering why I don't get a smart phone. I am not paying $70+ a month for just one smartphone to be able to take advantage of what it has to offer. I don't really text that much for heaven's sake. To pay for a data plan seems ludicrous at this point. I am in the mood to upgrade a lot of stuff in my house, but I need to prioritize. We want a flat screen TV (I may delay that until after the holidays, the prices may come down), perhaps a Wii gaming system (we're still not sold on that yet), a new printer/copier/scanner would be nice (it's harder to find the cartridges for our old one), a new camera (the zoom function is partially broken, probably due to the crack in the casing that has copper bits hanging out of it), and now I am thinking about this iPod. Oh, and the youngest wants her own iPod shuffle, like her brother won two years ago (lucky boy). He uses it as much as we listen to music (like never). On the other hand, she listens to a lot of music (comparatively speaking). Her reasoning is that she won't bother her dad with her music if she has the shuffle and earphones. This from a seven year who listens to Irish style music. I almost died laughing.

Speaking of the youngest, check out this assignment she handed in.

Yeah, you're seeing that right. She's already started forging my signature. Of course, she didn't think that putting "mommy" would look suspicious.

In the museum business, reproductions of historic clothing are often called period clothing. Period meaning they are designed for a certain time period. These are often not factory made, but made by enterprising tailors and seamstresses. So, Etsy, being the home of handmade, I thought might have some reproduction historic clothing on it. Since those of us in the know call it "period clothing," I searched on "period clothes." This is an example of what I got.

Epicerma's Shop

Um, yeah, not quite what I expected. And there were lots! I'd like to be more green, but personally, I really appreciate the Always Infinity. And apologies to the gentlemen readers. I've strayed a bit into TMI. I did other searches on period clothing and period costume. Got better results, but not a lot on there in the way of historic clothing.

College athletes? Should they be paid? Should the coaches be paid their outrageous salaries? Should schools use their sports teams to "promote" their schools? Shouldn't our professors get paid more than coaches? Should corporations sponsor bowls, i.e. Insight Bowl (formerly known as the Copper Bowl), TicketCity Bowl (formerly known as the Dallas Classic)? Should outrageous amounts of money be paid to the schools to show up at the bowls? Should athletes be forbidden to profit from their sports skills while playing for a school? (Some FB friends are having a hot debate on a topic I brought up. Thought I'd throw it out there to a more general world)

Personally, I think our nation is backwards. We pay people who are essentially entertainers, (actors, singers, professional athletes) millions, while the people who are teaching our children never break 5 digits (if you know of a teacher who is making 6 figures, I'd love to see it, I'm not counting professors, but I hope some of them are getting six figures). We pay corporate leaders billions, while the people in the front line, making the business work get pink slipped. Those of us at the bottom, if we don't prosper, we won't have the money to throw around to help make those above us prosper. I really don't know. I guess I want to live in a utopia, but that means all the people have to be unselfish.

What do you get parents who are over sixty for Christmas? Magazines, charitable giving, new gadgets, what? I could use some help here. Only 18 shopping days until Christmas.

Go be random!

I'm a winner!

2010-12-04T14:44:00.000-06:00

I entered a contest on this blog. Guess what?! Of course you can guess! I won.

I eat a lot of yogurt, but have never tried Greek style, so I'm looking forward to it. Also, check out her blog, Fit in the Midwest. She takes lovely pictures of her food. It always makes me hungry, and has certainly given me ideas for work food. I always want to do better than taking frozen dinners. Her ideas are pretty good.

Thursday Goodness

2010-12-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

Oooo, shiny!

Nothing more fun that getting a new look, dressing up, putting pretty colors together.

No, not myself. My blog. I'm getting into the winter wonderland look and the holiday spirit. Enjoy!

Maybe I should try a little of that on myself.

I would like to get some folks to participate in Thursday Goodness. Pass it around the internets. Pay it forward with spreading posts about good things we know, hear about, remember, enjoy.

If you want to join me in Thursday Goodness, link up, shout it on your own blog and encourage your followers to come find me. Nothing better than a sharing good things this holiday season.

RTT: I also suck at NaNoWriMo

2010-11-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

Well, random up, or rant up, I guess...

NaNoWriMo: I got a total of 4,740 words. I started out okay, then after-work and school activities got away from me. It is a poor, poor showing. I also got bogged down in the I have to look something up to make sure it is right. Hazard of a historian I guess. So research prone. That was what I wanted to avoid.

I think I need to start over again. Maybe in January, when things have died down? I have a fun story idea, maybe I need to map it out better first and then take another month to monitor the situation.

It does have me worried about my goal to go on RAGBRAI in 2012. I need to complete something. I need to attain a goal. Though, I am getting back on track with the exercise. I was at the gym again yesterday. This time, I used the stationary bike to its full advantange and worked up a sweat. Thirty minutes hardly hurts my bottom any more, so I need to carve out more time sitting on that seat, while I am looking for a good road bike. I really do intend to next summer to do some biking to work, 22 miles of it.

I have a former work colleague who has a fit and food blog. She has a giveaway for Stonyfield yogurt coupons. Go get yourself a chance to win. I miss having her around, because it was great to talk about the museum field in general and the challenges and triumphs the field faces. This month, I got to be chaperone mom at her museum with my daughter. I gave her a report about my thoughts and some other parent thoughts. Overall, it was a pretty good experience. I shared some ways I thought it could become outstanding, but also commiserated with the fact that budgets are tight and staff is limited, making our ability to impact the visitors' experience limited at best. But we keep on, keeping on, knowing that we will touch some people a little bit every once in a while.

My family Thanksgiving was early this year, the weekend before. My brother and his girlfriend and mom and dad came here. I made the meal all organic, for my mom, who is trying to cut down on the chemical influences in her life. Except the turkey, which was all natural. The guy at Whole Foods said the only difference between the two (besides the jump in price) was that organic means they've built a berm around the farm to guarantee no pesticide run off. Mom was fine that I didn't bother going that far. I was just hoping that maybe the farm was located away from others with pesticides. We were willing to take that chance. I was really proud with the results and I got it planned and everything came out on time and done. I made rolls from scratch (I found even organic yeast), pumpkin pie straight from roasted pumpkins, my own pie crust, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole (ok, the French fried onions were not organic either). It really came out pretty well. My bro and girlfriend brought a squash casserole that may as well have been dessert. She cut the sugar to 1/2 cup, but it was still pretty sweet. I skipped the sweet potato casserole that is very similar to it. The only thing missing was my sister and her family. I did so miss them.

In case you're wondering, going all organic for the meal was about twice to three times as much in cost as it would be for all our cheap processed stuff. Cheapness of food should make you think twice. I know I have made a personal decision to quit buying non cage free eggs at the least. On the other hand, we like to save money in our house, so I can't totally ditch the cheap stuff. I can make better choices, no HFCS, avoid artificial sweetners, no trans-fat, make things from scratch more often. My kids are learning as well. It's a slow process and we are not perfect, but perhaps in the future this will lead companies to producing items with better ingredients and healthier lives for farm animals. I need to keep working on it.

I hosted another Thanksgiving for friends here in town. I sort of blew it on the turkey this time because I was up late the night before watching America's Test Kitchen. I love that show, but neither the turkey, nor the tweaks that I did to my grandma's pumpkin pie came out really well. The pie was fine, but my grandmother's method tasted better than I what I got. The only thing I did do better was make the pie crust crispier and flakier and not soggy on the bottom. The key is to keep all your ingredients really cold, whatever pie ingredients you prefer to use, then let the pie dough sit in the frig and get cold for 30 minutes, roll it out with minimal handling and pre-bake it (15 min at 400 covered with foil, 10 min at 400 without foil). Make sure it and your pie filling are both warm, combine them, then bake again at 400 without foil for 10 minutes, turn down to 350 for 20-30 minutes.

Hope you are recovering from the overabundance of food. We are eating leftovers for days. I need to throw some stuff out before it goes bad. Americans truly have plenty of food and choices. Enough random, go see Keely.

I suck at Cyber Monday

2010-11-29T14:22:00.000-06:00

We're in the market for a flat screen TV, with some money saved up, we thought this would be the year for door busters for one we might want. No dice. Not a single really good savings or really good TV deals in any of the ads. What gives? No big deal. I figured, what the heck, I'll check on-line deals. On-line prices seemed to beat in store prices, as suggested by Consumer Reports. And it was true, much of what we looked at pre-sales were cheaper than the non-sales in the stores. So we figured we'd keep looking. But I haven't seen a lot of deals anyway.

Had the day off today. Yay! Dropped the kids off at school, drove over to the gym and exercised. I got home about 8:45 am and just caught the tail end of Cyber Monday deals on ABC Good Morning America. I went back a few minutes in the DVR because I had just missed most of the segment. First item up? A 47" Vizio with 120hz flat screen for $599! You saw that $599! Augh, I said. I had to get dressed and take my son to his orthodontic appointment in a town 30 minutes away. No matter. Emailed the link to the hubby (because we never make a buy over $100 without consulting the other). He voicemailed me while we were in the appointment. Sure it's bigger than what we really wanted (40-42") but one heck of a deal. I was no where near a computer. Drove son back to school, went to get a sandwich.

Got a plate for my sandwich.

Took it in the computer room.

Opened the window I had saved on my computer with the Amazon TV deal in it.

Refreshed.

UNAVAILABLE!

AUGH!

Thought I found something comparable in the 42" size at $499.

BUT,

OUT OF STOCK.

And won't ship until after Christmas.

That's what I get for not jumping on an opportunity.

Maybe I should wait until after Christmas? When they want to get rid of overstock?

You watch, there won't be anything I want then, either. I have to be a reasonable consumer with research and making sure the item meets all my demands.

I have a feeling shopping for a good road bike is also going to be painful.

I have yet to see a good holiday deal on the things I want for the family's holidays. Maybe it means it is not in our best interest to get these items.

Happy shopping.

Thursday Goodness

2010-11-18T08:53:00.001-06:00

If Alaska can return to sanity, there may be hope yet for the rest of the United States. Murkowski may be a Republican, but she is closer to the middle than the Tea Party candidate, Joe Miller. Please, let's get back to the middle and work together.

Thursday Goodness

2010-11-11T08:29:00.000-06:00

We're just too cute. I had to share the Wild Child family.

This was taken in September, but I have it on my desktop at work and look at it every day. I like Willa's expression the best. It is the most recent one I have of all of us together.

Geeks Grow Up

2010-11-10T21:51:00.001-06:00

Remember some of the geeky actors in the 80s. They really grew up, filled in and became hunks.

Remember Anthony Michael Hall?

Don’t you like the way he grew up?

And how about Can’t Buy Me Love nerd, Patrick Dempsey?

He was cute, but sooo geeky.

And now we see him as Dr. McDreamy.

Aging isn’t so bad for gentlemen, is it?

LUCKIES!

Thursday Goodness

2010-11-04T07:07:00.001-05:00

A thought for all my friends who were hoping we were moving forward. Yes, we were sad that things seemed to move backwards. But now, as what happened in Clinton's admin, the onus is on the Republican House. Can they really fix things? Can they really get things done? We shall see. My guess is they will screw up royally, the Dems will look better and the fickleness that is the American electorate will swing back the other way in two years having gotten frustrated on the fact that two years is too long for them to wait for anything to be fixed.

Besides, the Republicans led the way in overspending money on a war that I felt was not justified. (I remember praying that we wouldn't attack Iraq without the support of the UN. Ah, no such luck). So fair enough that they get to lead the way in cleaning up their mess. Should be interesting as they try to not raise taxes, spend more money on war and try to take away Medicare when they can't find anything else to cut in the budget.

Someone else told me that Reagan, their precious Reagan, spent us into debt to get us out of a recession. Correct me if I'm wrong. That someone was listening to NPR, which I think is pretty careful with its sources. They really just can't learn from the past. Maybe this time more people will start to see the light.

We can only hope. There always is hope.

BTW, I got into an FB argument with some die hard conservative. He doesn't want to be forced to buy health care. When I pointed out that we are required by all states to carry car insurance, he said owning a car was a privilege, living (with or without health care) is a right. I did not carry the argument on because I was so frustrated. If living is a right, then shouldn't healthy living be a right for everyone? Meaning shouldn't we all have access to basic health care without going into debt? Or do we have a right to have our lives saved in an ER and other patients then carry the cost of what we couldn't afford because we didn't have the insurance to pay for it? I just don't get it. Why isn't one's health and keeping it in good health a right?

The Halloween Candy Mystery

2010-11-03T16:48:00.000-05:00

The candy sits out in the open on the counter.

And it's not all gone yet? How can that be?

A picture for Wardrobe Wednesday. You can see the detail in the upper part of the dress. Notice the Drink Me bottle.

Random Tuesday: Post 251, White Queen, Voting, NaNoWriMo

2010-11-02T11:15:00.001-05:00

How can I already be at 251 posts? I guess it has been over two years. I am not even really keeping track anymore.

Here's something I made for Halloween. Well, two somethings, my daughter's costume and my costume:

The White Queen with Alice. I had a pattern for Alice, I only sort of had a pattern for the White Queen. Actually, the only pattern pieces i used were for the bodice, then I made up the rest. I'm crazy like that.

Let's compare:

Little apron thingy, check, puffy side sleeves with transparent shoulder stuff, check, bodice with lace at bottom and in front, check, pearl like beads around shoulder line, check. Big pouffy skirt, check.

Not bad given what I had to work with.

(Did I mention that the finising work on this was not done until 5:30 am on October 31st?

Yeah, you got that right, it was an ALL NIGHTER! Sigh, I actually miss the all nighters. It's quiet, no one bugs me and I can catch up on my dvr recorded shows. Not that I remember much of them, because it was 3, 4 or 5 am in the moring.)

Better than what I could buy:

Those in the US, did you vote today? I don't care what your vote is, but don't sit there and be lazy, get out and vote. Every little bit matters and counts. Some of these elections are going to be decided by the thousands, or hundreds even. You better make your voice heard, or don't complain about what is or is not happening.

I put in my 1667 words last night in my first attempt at NaNoWriMo. Go me. Some others I think have taken on the challenge of NaBloWriMo. Go you. I'll keep you posted, maybe during the weekly random.

Go see Keely for more random.

Thursday Goodness: I love my kids!

2010-10-28T13:44:00.000-05:00

Playing together:

Nicely...

And Andrew actually rolling out and cutting noodles.

I think this is the first time I let him use the knife so freely. Is ten a good age for that?

So proud of my little people.

Eight questions to while away the time

2010-10-22T13:00:00.008-05:00

Taken from Aliceson @ Feet Off the Table.

Thanks for the fodder. Remember when we used to tag everyone? I think that trend has died a bit. Thank goodness, though I don't mind when I can steal from someone else to do this. Maybe I like that better, don't tag me, just feel free to steal and let me know if you did use it.

1. What's your favorite book? Still has to be the Little House series. Have loved it ever since I first picked them up and am now loving it every time I read it with Willa. And loved it that Andrew took it upon himself to read every single one. See, they are my kids.

2. How do you get over writer's block? I need to get over it. I am going to try the NaNoWriMo with a silly little idea I have. I need discipline and less fear about writing crap stuff. It doesn't have to be perfect the first time, because it never is. I also need to get out of my creative funk. Like not having sewn anything in nearly two years. Oh, and when I mean sewing, I mean something that I cobble together with 2-6 different patterns, plus parts that I make up and put together and get it to look good. Or what I think looks good.

3. What's your favorite Holiday? why? Still has to be Christmas. The magic that happens around then, for when I was a kid and recreating that for my kids, it is just amazing. It is also amazing how we can create the family and friend togetherness magic during then, too.

4. What's one place you would love to visit? Darn, just one? Okay, next on my list is the Netherlands for my husband and kids. I just want to see how he feels when he's in a country of his ancestors and how he may find he fits in well. I loved the British Isles for that reason and I think he should get an opportunity to experience that. (also on my list are Australia, India, Ireland and a grand tour of interior Europe, plus a revisit to Hawaii, and somewhere near the Rockies. Got a long list, need to get working on it.)

5. Do you have any pets? Two children and a husband are enough, thank you very much.

6. What's your favorite thing to bake? As insane as they make me because of the long convoluted process and extremely large batches, I still really like my springerle cookies.

7. Do you like sunsets or sunrises? Sunsets. If I had my druthers, I would not get up until 10 am and stay up past midnight. I do not care to ever see any sunrises and if I do, I just feel depressed because I would rather be in bed.

8. What's your favorite movie? Like one I would go back to and watch over and over again? Maybe the original Star Wars trilogy. The second batch is fine, but I still adore the characters in the originals. Every three months, Spike TV obliges with a marathon weekend of them. We just love to have it on in the background. I can quote way too much Star Wars.

Thursday Goodness (oh me, oh my!)

2010-10-21T07:32:00.000-05:00

I did it. I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. Because I just needed to kick myself into gear with my writing and see where it takes me. What the heck! I'm not out any money. I have a crazy idea for a story that I want to go with. So, go it is!

Just a reminder about October...

2010-10-20T22:47:00.000-05:00

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Having had relatives have this disease and lose, I want to make sure other people keep it in mind, among all the other good causes out there. This one is just very close to my heart.

I have a little clicky button in my sidebar there to the right. Go give it a click and the sponsors of the site will donate to getting women free mammograms who need them.

Random Tuesday--R2D2, Yogurt, and 40 year olds (who are probably not virgins)

2010-10-19T13:32:00.000-05:00

Take your own strawberry freezer jam you made earlier in the summer, put it on the bottom of a reusable plastic container, dump in about a cup of plain non fat yogurt on top and you have your own made by you fruit on the bottom yogurt, minus the extra high fructose corn syrup and no need to recycle an individual-sized plastic container from the yogurt. (at least not until the large container is empty). You're welcome, environment and body.

Who hasn't seen the R2D2 pumpkin carving? You're welcome, Star Wars fans.

Making costumes seems like it should be easy and cheaper than the stuff in the store. Not true, but you can be sure of the quality and make it fit. Theme this year for us Alice in Wonderland meets the White Queen.
This is the Alice and this is the idea for the White Queen (more here). The White Queen that you could buy on-line was really bad, so I'm making my own. Wish me luck! And daughter and the economy, you're welcome.

Son has decided that he will trick-or-treat this year. About a month ago, he was not going to do it. Then he got swords to go with last year's ninja outfit. I think it's safe to say he's got a cooler costume, so he feels he can wear it in public. He didn't want me to make him anything, though we don't mind doing it. You're welcome, son.

How is it our lives are so busy? This week alone I have a meeting tonight, Mr. Wild has one tomorrow night, I am hanging with my girls on Friday, daughter has a birthday party on Saturday, son has a soccer game on Saturday and Sunday we have a family birthday party. October seems to fill up fast, November even more so and December gets to be insane. You're welcome, friends.

What does one get for her husband's 40th birthday? I was going to go with boudoir photos, but I can't get my act together to get to a photographer. Where would you put those anyway? In the boudoir? The back up plan was blacksmithing lessons. I think I still made it work. You're welcome, Mr. Wild.

Speaking of 40, I have decided, for some reason, that I'm really excited to turn that in a little over six months. I was thinking this morning, the 20s are for discovering yourself, the 30s are all about raising your kids from babies to more mature, able to take care of and entertain themselves children, so the 40s must be when I can have some time to be me, who I discovered in my 20s, but hadn't had a chance to really explore that me. Or be a couple, without the kids, sometimes, again. Or spend more time with my adult friends. It may just be a perception and totally bogus. But you're welcome all you nearly turned 40 year olds. Enjoy the ride!

I still get the "you're so young." I know, I know, it is awesome to be almost 40 and be considered young, but professionally it actually sucks. I'm sorry, there really has been 20 years since I was in high school. I should get some credit for experience and maturity. I still get so tired of being treated like the 20 year old. You're welcome bosses whom I have worked my butt off for and you don't give me a shred of credit.

On Facebook, I decided to like NPR and it was an awesome decision. I get news in my news feed that I actually want to read and learn more about. If you are on Facebook, you might want to check it out. It's pretty cool. That's how I found out about R2D2. You're welcome, Facebook and NPR lovers.

Nuff random, I need to eat my lunch. Visit Keely and the gang, just click through on the button above. You're welcome, visiting randomizer.

Community

2010-10-15T13:20:00.000-05:00

Nothing like a night out with friends to recharge your batteries. Me and some gal pals went down to the local pub, obstensibly for book club, but really to socialize because book club seems to be fading fast. We're not into the books as much anymore, and it is getting hard for all of us, of which there are only eight, to get together and have a night as being us. Not so much moms, doctors, vets, lawyers, nurses, historians, teachers, office managers or writers. We do talk about our kids, but we also talk about community, a little gossip about our work lives and spend the time learning about each other as we tell stories of our past. I enjoy this little group of friends, and though book club may not be what we need, I think we do need time together, separate from our kids, husbands and work obligations.

So I woke up this morning, thinking about how I got the opinions from one friend on the youth sports programs in our town. She's probably more knowledgeable about that stuff. I wouldn't know if the high school was winning or losing. I'm not one to care about winners and losers in sports, just how they play the game. Yes, it is great to win, but I'd rather they focus on team work and skill building, especially at a young age. I was also thinking about how we compared notes on sending daughters to dance, and our thoughts on local Cub Scouts. Most of us walked, but some drove to the local pub to meet. It's so cozy to be just blocks from your downtown businesses. I walked in the warm fall air to meet up with one friend on the way to walk the rest of the way to the pub.

This is the community that you wonder about when you move away from home. It's not very big, but it's part of the larger town landscape. It's the friends and neighbors that give you their advice and opinions, invite you over for backyard parties and pumpkin carvings, take pictures of your kids in Halloween costumes, debate with you and accept your differences, share cookies and holiday recipes, invite you over in the winter storms for coffee cake and hot beverages while your children play and argue together. It can be found. But it does take work.

I now understand how hard it is to move. It's not just hard on your children, it's hard on the grown ups leaving their social groups behind. That next job somewhere else needs to be pretty spectacular to make you want to uproot your whole sense of being as self, as a couple, as a family. We did move once before as a whole family and we were pretty strong in our convictions that we wanted a smaller town life for our children. The uprooting was deemed worthy of the goal we were looking for. We had our very good friends in our city suburban life and we miss them dearly, but it was a much smaller group of people we knew compared to how we've branched out. The only thing that would make living here better is if we could have brought them with us. But each family has to weigh that decision. For us, the move to the small town was a mystery that we couldn't be sure it would be totally right, but turned into a great thing. It could have turned out different, but for that fateful day my then stay-at-home husband took our then two year old to the library and the librarian said, "Oh, are you here for the playgroup?" He wasn't, but it seemed like a good idea and somehow a group of similar minded parents met each other, let their little children play, and eventually grew to bond in different ways.

The "new" job maybe has faded in its previous expectations, but we have something we value so much more, the community that we live in is something that makes our lives full, balancing any of the difficult challenges that we face.

Thursday Badness (really, but it's a good one)

2010-10-14T17:48:00.000-05:00

I think the CSA folks were chuckling when they put this in our box for this week:

My husband was laughing at the images as I uploaded them.

Doesn't hurt being sophomoric every once in a while.

Mr. Wild says, "They were very productive carrots."

There were two "legs" on each, but it looks like there's more.

Let's hear it for vegetables with sex appeal!

Thursday Goodness

2010-09-30T16:55:00.000-05:00

is Chinese food from your favorite buffet. Nothing makes me feel better.

is the turning of the leaves. I love their almost fluorescent reds, oranges and yellows. As they start to spread over the landscape, they bring me joy in my favorite time of year: autumn.

The teeming autumn big with rich increase, bearing the wanton burden of the prime like widowed wombs after their lords decease.

-- William Shakespeare

My day started out not so well, but doing these things and enjoying the color helped bring my mood up.

Happy Thursday.

Random Tuesday: I have smart phone envy

2010-09-28T16:29:00.000-05:00

Just because I married a Dutch guy, doesn't make me Dutch. But, maybe I am cheap. I cannot, for the life of me, see my way to trying to get a Blackberry, Samsung Acclaim, iPhone or any of the other myriad of smartphones out there. They are cool. I would like to be able to whip one out and look up information on the web right there and then, maybe post an update or two to Facebook, but at $100-$150/month just to own one of these things does not appeal to me. I still cringe that we pay $70/mo just for two of us to use a service, though when you break it down, it's $35 each, which in the grand scheme of things, is not bad. I will have to wait until I am an old lady and my fat fingers cannot maneuver the little keys. Sigh.

No surprise. Many Americans know little about religion, its origins for it tenants and about other religions.

In a perhaps counterintuitive finding, the researchers discovered that atheists and agnostics generally know more about religion than people who profess a belief. Atheists and agnostics, on average, answered 20.9 questions correctly. Dave Silverman, president of the advocacy group American Atheists, told The New York Times that he was not surprised by that.

"I have heard many times that atheists know more about religion than religious people," he said. "Atheism is an effect of that knowledge, not a lack of knowledge. I gave a Bible to my daughter. That's how you make atheists."

Atheists and agnostics were closely followed in religious knowledge by Jews, who answered 20.5 questions correctly on average, and Mormons, who averaged 20.3. Protestants averaged 16 correct answers; Catholics averaged 14.7.

There were also some differences due to amount of education, which stands to reason. In addition, though they knew more about their own faith, what they knew was still relatively low.

Respondents were generally more knowledgeable about their own religion than about other religions, but still had significant gaps even there. More than half of Protestants (53 percent) could not identify Martin Luther as the man whose teachings inspired the Protestant reformation. And 45 percent of Catholics did not know that that the Catholic Church teaches that the communion bread and wine actually become -- not just symbolize -- the body and blood of Christ.

I took the quiz. I got 14 out of 15 right. I guess nirvana is part of Buddism. I thought Hinduism. Still, not bad. But I am an historian and we do study a lot of the backgrounds to cultures. It depends on how broad your undergrad is, but mine was pretty broad. In addition I was raised in a church that studied books of the Bible carefully and intellectually. I wish I could find a church that studied the Bible for my children, rather than making them memorize verses. Really? Doesn't anybody do Sunday school classes where the kids hear the Bible story and then learn about what it is supposed to teach us about our own lives? Memorization teaches you nothing but a bunch of archaic verses.

Not so random today. Go random up.

Random Tuesday Thoughts: Get it in at the last minute

2010-09-14T21:46:00.000-05:00

So, I found this little scifi tidbit (seriously hate the Scyfy. One question: Why?)

Disney princesses reimagined as superheros.

That is pretty awesome.

I want to like the "new" Doctor Who. This article makes it look as if the stories might continue to be campy and interesting. But really, can anyone live up to David Tennant?

Courtesy of david-tennant.org

Do I seem a little geeky? Well, live with it! I do. Someone had to marry my husband and all his geeky likes. It might as well have been me.

So, thanks for waiting out all of Tuesday with me until I got my act together. Writing has been harder of late.

Random up:

Track your change in age with Jane Austen

2010-09-05T12:55:00.000-05:00

A blog I follow occasionally has an article about how one's tastes change as one reads different Austen novels again and again over the course of a lifetime. I am hoping I will get to reading Persuasion soon. I would like to see if I enjoy it as much as I did P&P when I first read that.

The Jane Austen Signs of Middle Age

Thursday Goodness

2010-09-02T07:37:00.001-05:00

Speaks for itself...

Random Tuesday Thoughts: Too Much Stupid?

2010-08-31T10:57:00.000-05:00

You wanted it, you got it. Find out whose fans are more stupid. Based on Twitterers who are fans of "famous" people.

I am determined to ride RAGBRAI in 2012. But first I need to start biking. Oh, but before that, I need to get a new bike. And before that, I actually need to get out to several bike stores and look at bikes. I probably should also learn a lot more about maintaining and fixing bikes, and how RAGBRAI works here in 2010-11-12. I'm thinking I need to sign up with a charter company. Well, lots to learn before the snow flies.

My brain is really mush. Which is funny, because the kids are heading back to school and have to get into gear with the whole thing. Good luck to them. I'll just continue to coast along.

What did you want to be when you grew up? You know, in elementary school when they asked you that? My ambitions--first female president. Yeah, I know, I'm a little behind in that goal. In order to acheive it, I figured I needed to be a lawyer. Yeah, missed that one, too. What the heck am I doing now? Oh, yeah, this. (Well, not exactly that organization, but what they represent) We're bringing history to life, one person at a time. (Sounds like I'm raising zombies)

My husband is turning forty soon. I feel like we need to make a big splash about it, but he's not all that excited. It's interesting, I saw an FB status post from a friend who was mourning her 20s, as she was turning 30 soon. Basically, I told her no sweat, the 30s are awesome. And I'm looking forward to the 40s as well, because my kids are bigger and then can take care of themselves more. It's all around a good deal. Which is why I can't understand mourning your 20s or 30s. Life just keeps getting interesting.

I wanted to plead one more day of Prisoner of Summer (POS badge up in the corner), but I think I need to move on and get my calendar straight for the fall. Soccer, dance, practices, events, work, play, it's all coming to a head and it will be a downhill slide to the holidays. So busy!

Click the button for more random. It's fun, you'll see.

Seriously?

2010-08-27T19:11:00.000-05:00

I don't know, these weird me out. Ick. See them here.

Not so famous quote, but one you should ponder

2010-08-26T15:43:00.000-05:00

Freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom to never have to encounter anyone who doesn’t think or live the way you do.

--James F. McGrath comment on Unreasonable Faith.

Ok, now discuss....

Thursday Goodness

2010-08-26T09:00:00.001-05:00

We should appreciate having our indoor toilets and sanitation facilities. Some people aren't so lucky in the world. I think we need to keep top of mind the fact that probably the majority of the planet doesn't share in the wealth and luxury we take for granted.

Standing in a Really Long Line: Toilet Queue Serves Indian Village Effort to Promote Sanitation Awareness

In honor of World Toilet Day, nearly 850 Janadesar villagers aligned themselves in front of this newly constructed toilet. Eighty percent of Janadesar’s households have access to a toilet, making the village a leader in sanitation issues in the region.

Random Tuesday Thoughts: So I'm behind...

2010-08-24T23:02:00.000-05:00

I didn't mean for Tuesday to get away from me. To keep this random, I am sure you have all see the stuff about the crazy Chinese traffic jam.

Oh, and when your daughter says that Pinkie Pie needs new batteries because she sounds funny, just say you don't have the right screwdriver to get to the batteries. Or you will get renewed sing-along with Pinkie Pie episodes that haven't been done in months, but now are suddenly the best thing since sliced bread. (and NO I did not buy that thing at $129. I didn't know they had gone up so much in value. I will be Ebaying that baby later.)

I think zucchini is an astringent. I grated two extremely large zucchinis to freeze later for bread. I squeezed out a lot of juice (different websites advised that), but now my hands feel all tight and dry. Yuck. Where's my lotion? (and those things I thought of all while I was in the bathroom.)

I recovered on Monday from a fantastic 12 hours at Irish Fest on Sunday with my kids and my Irish friend and her kids. We did a lot, but not all of it. I am sure we could have used a couple of days to do everything. We did, however, get to see Gaelic Storm, my daughter's absolutely favorite Irish band (I like them a bit too). They started out in Cali, but are made up of ex-pats. They got their big break as the band in the steerage section in the movie Titanic. It may be the only band she knows, but she loves the music. I even found out Gaelic Storm was doing autographs. It was brilliant (to use an Irish phrase).

Here she is getting the autographs. (there was a splash pad at the place, so she had just been in her swimsuit splashing and was still too wet to put her shorts on. Sorry she looks half dressed.) They were very nice to her. It was like an assembly line, but they gave her a couple of posters, some temp tattoos and signed her bag, too. If I had known, I would have said that her favorite song was What's the Rumpus? You'll find out why in a minute.

Irish Fest has these neat family passports and every stop has some type of craft or thing to do. These were black shamrocks you scratched off to make a design and see colors underneath.

Many, many acts from the US and Ireland, and other places I am sure, were on hand for great entertainment, including musicians, poets, dancers. These are kids from the area that had learned to play Irish instruments in a band. They were pretty good.

Tug o' war contests, a few hurling matches with a chance to try hurling with a hurley. You could buy drums and whistles, jewelry and clothing. Some Irish food, but none of us thought that was all that great. Which is too bad. This would be the chance to showcase good Irish food. The mead was really good though. We didn't make it into the Jameson tent for our flight of whiskeys. We had kids with us, you know.

Topped off the evening with Gaelic Storm concert. Since it started at 7:30 pm, we thought we could stay for a bit with the kids. We stayed the whole time. It was a blast. Except that they didn't play What's the Rumpus? My darling girl was a wee bit disappointed at the end of the concert.

(I know, it's a beer advert, but honestly, I don't think the kids noticed.)

We were having too good a time.

She's a concert goer alright. She screamed her head off at intervals throughout the whole concert.

(Pay no attention to the lady in the short sleeved green shirt. Though her disposition at this moment may scream "Wild Child" to you, it's really a hoax with smoke and mirrors.)

Better randomness can be found by clicking the button at the beginning. Keely has threatened to make a new one. I don't know if I need to go and get one yet or not.

Thursday Goodness (yeah, I think this counts)

2010-08-19T15:12:00.000-05:00

NPR article about the flap about Laura Schlessinger who said some things that people didn't like, then she quit, saying she had to get her 1st Amendment rights back.

The gist of NPR's article is that she has always had her first amendment rights. What she didn't have was economic freedom to say what she wanted. When she quit her show that depended on advertising to pay for her and everyone else's salary, she gave herself freedom from economic pressures. By going through her blog and You Tube and books, etc, she targets her specific audience and doesn't have to please a larger more general audience that advertisers often target.

I'm glad someone puts it straight. Thank you NPR. See the article here.

I really should be asleep, but for that stupid Coke at 4 pm...

2010-08-19T00:44:00.000-05:00

Mind on overdrive, not sure why. I am tired, but I don't want to sleep.

So, it's a good thing I'm listening to recent top 40 hits or I wouldn't have known what my son was singing when he went, "P-p-p-p-p-p-pokerface, pokerface" out of the blue. He doesn't listen to the radio at home or in the car, so I said, "Where did you hear that?" It seems their PE teacher fancies himself a sometimes DJ and was playing it during gym. It is a little strange to hear it coming out of your ten year old boy.

Mr. Wild had a good comment about 9/11. "It was men that were the terrorists, not a religion." They were rehashing Obama's comments on the radio and a person argued that if it had been Christian extremists we would not be that up in arms about them building a church near the towers' site.

If you were to get a tattoo, where would you put it? I'm taking a survey. Or maybe you already have one in a favorite spot?

I keep wanting to get up early and go to the gym. Doesn't help that I am staying wide awake at night.

I need to find a book title for book club and I'm fresh out of ideas. I should probably go to the library and just browse the shelves. I had checked out the next book for September for our group, THE HELP, but it came due, I hadn't started reading it and I couldn't renew it. Appears to be a hot read. So I hope it is good. We just finished DROWNING RUTH, but I totally spaced the meeting night, which was okay, because I hadn't read the whole book yet. It was a fascinating story, but I had to read the end early on and I think it ruined the suspense for the rest of the book. Also, in the 1910s and 20s, I don't think one could take a car from Milwaukee to Chicago there and back in one night. There were no interstates, no street lights in the rural areas, and probably rutted roads in the countryside. That was a bit unbelievable in the book. I hate traveling 40 minutes to get to a restaurant, so to believe the characters tooled all around south eastern Wisconsin was just not working for me historically.

Maybe I'm tired now. Thanks.

The Nineteenth Amendment

2010-08-18T18:50:00.000-05:00

Ladies,

Ninety years ago, today, the gentlemen of our country finally ratified the amendment that gave us the right to vote. My grandmother, when she was born, at first appeared she would not have a vote, but by the time she was two years old, her fortunes had changed.

Thank you, Google, for making sure we didn't forget this momentous occasion.

From the Washington Post:

"Ninety years ago today, women got the right to vote. Here's the text of the 19th amendment, which was ratified on August 18, 1920, by the Tennessee General Assembly: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." Tennessee was the thirty-sixth state to ratify, giving the amendment the requisite approval of three-fourths of the states; the amendment passed because 24 year-old legislator Harry Burn changed his vote, at the insistence of his elderly mother."

Whew, thank goodness Harry listened to his mother.

Maybe you want to see where your state ended up in the order of ratification*:

Illinois (June 10, 1919, reaffirmed on June 17, 1919)
Michigan (June 10, 1919)
Wisconsin (June 10, 1919)
Kansas (June 16, 1919)
New York (June 16, 1919)
Ohio (June 16, 1919)
Pennsylvania (June 24, 1919)
Massachusetts (June 25, 1919)
Texas (June 28, 1919)
Iowa (July 2, 1919)
Missouri (July 3, 1919)
Arkansas (July 28, 1919)
Montana (August 2, 1919)
Nebraska (August 2, 1919)
Minnesota (September 8, 1919)
New Hampshire (September 10, 1919)
Utah (October 2, 1919)
California (November 1, 1919)
Maine (November 5, 1919)
North Dakota (December 1, 1919)
South Dakota (December 4, 1919)
Colorado (December 15, 1919)
Kentucky (January 6, 1920)
Rhode Island (January 6, 1920)
Oregon (January 13, 1920)
Indiana (January 16, 1920)
Wyoming (January 27, 1920)
Nevada (February 7, 1920)
New Jersey (February 9, 1920)
Idaho (February 11, 1920)
Arizona (February 12, 1920)
New Mexico (February 21, 1920)
Oklahoma (February 28, 1920)
West Virginia (March 10, 1920, confirmed on September 21, 1920)
Washington (March 22, 1920)
Tennessee (August 18, 1920)

Those not listed either ratified it later, or not at all. Yes, I said not at all. And some did not ratify until the 1980s. Hmmmm....

*Mount, Steve (January 2007). "Ratification of Constitutional Amendments". Retrieved August 18, 2010.

Random Tuesday Thoughts: You Really Want Inside This Head?

2010-08-17T13:11:00.000-05:00

What is the fascination with "reality" shows? Which you all realize are as far from reality as a well put together TV show. When you partially script the actions of the people, then put them in front of the camera, expecting them to do crazy or bad things, well of course the drama ensues and gets crazy. I was sort of watching the "Dating in the Dark" last night, the last bit where there's the "reveal." I was sort of like "who cares?" Which is why I was only sort of watching. I was multitasking and it was just noise in the background for me.

I am still listening to the pop "mix" radio station to and from work. Not really very mixed when they play the same songs nearly every hour. A few are thrown in here and there for good measure. It does remind me that I used to like to go to clubs or dances and dance with the girlfriends. I miss that. There's no place or call for nearing 40somethings to go party and dance to teeny bopper music. I would be so embarrassing. But lovin' it.

Have you ever thought of taking a vocation vacation? These really do exist. You pay inordinate amounts of money to go "try out" a job you aren't doing right now. Check out this link. I could use one myself. What should I be? Oh, I know, sword maker.

Actually, I love making reproductions of historic clothing. Can I make a living at that? I don't know, because the amount of labor that goes into that, not to mention that fabric is no longer all that cheap (in fabric stores; clothing in big box stores are exorbitantly cheap, but we won't go into why that is), I don't know if people could or would pay me what I should be worth.

My husband, you know, the one who is a mite picky about his food (he would disagree), is absolutely begging to go to a new restaurant. It serves...wait for it....sushi! Well, he doesn't want the sushi part, he wants to try the hibachi grills. Kids are set against. Never mind that they grill the chicken, which they love. Grilled chicken that is. Not the grill.

And the weather we're having is just perfect. I want to be at home with the kids on bike rides to the park, the store, around town, just being outside. But, usually I'm inside with my job. Oh joy.

Speaking of bike rides, I am leaning more and more towards training for the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). My dad did one day in the early years (this was the 1970s) when I was in elementary school. I don't remember if he liked it or not, just that he did it with my uncle. I, personally, want to try it all the way. Mostly because I want to dip my back wheel in the Missouri and my front wheel in the Mississippi. Seriously, that's my whole motivation. I am thinking about this bike for an upgrade. A bit pricey, but I'm thinking I ought to get several years out of it if it's better than the box store kind. Actually, I found a store that's has them on sale at $539. Now, to convince the husband.

This year I have been thinking about 40. It's my next birthday. Not in the way of "OMG I'm 40, I'm getting freakin' old." No more like, "I'm 40, I should be able to do whatever the hell I want." And I want a party or some kind of fun time. Something pretty splashy that my friends and family would come see or do. I know if I want to do something, I need to plan it. My birthday will be on a Saturday, how perfect is that?

Mr. Wild turns 40 this fall and he wants to avoid all the fanfare. The grey hairs must be getting to him. Recently, upon leaning in close, I noticed his salty grey along the temples. It's hard to notice because his hair is reddish blond and if he doesn't wear a beard, you really can't tell. I see the crow's feet around his eyes. I love him all the more for it. They look good on him, but I think he's very self-conscious about it. I did like though when he announced that he wasn't going to bother keeping the hair up front long to cover his receding hair line. I felt like shouting, "Good for you." I think he figures he's pretty lucky. He likes to point out all the guys our age and younger who are bald. Not to make fun of, mind you, just that we're so surprised that we've reached that age point, I guess.

Geez, that's about enough for today, and my lunch break is over.

Thursday Goodness

2010-08-12T17:00:00.004-05:00

Baby born on 8/9/10 at 11:12 pm.

CINCINNATI --

Terri Riehle was already happy that she was going to have her baby on August 9, 2010 -- 8/9/10."I'm like 'Oh, easy! I won't get my kid's birthdays mixed up. 8/9/10. It'll be easy to remember, good to go!'" she said.But her doctor, Dr. Peggy Heis, noted another interesting possibility."And then just joking, I said, 'Wouldn't that be fun if happened at 11:12?" she said. Watch Report But 11:12 a.m. came and went without a baby."Everybody was making bets and guesses on when she was going to come out," Scott Riehle said.Just before 11 p.m., the labor started getting more intense for Terri."I looked up and it was a quarter till 11 and I said to mom, 'Do you want to wait?'" Heis said."And I'm like 'Let's just get this over with NOW!'" Riehle said.The minutes ticked by, but despite Riehle's pushing, the baby wasn't coming out quickly."And the heart rate was going down. And I said, 'You have to push now. You have to get his baby out,'" Heis said."I looked at my mother-in-law right as the baby was coming out and I tapped her and I started pointing at the clock, like 'Look, Look!'" Scott Riehle said."And baby popped out and I look at the clock and there it was, 11:12. So some things are just meant to be," Heis said."She was set on that time. She wanted to be unforgettable," Terri Riehle said.Ella Rose Riehle almost took the numbers game a bit further. She weighed almost, but not quite, six pounds and seven ounces.

Can be found here: http://www.wlwt.com/r/24592171/detail.html

Random Tuesday Thoughts: Too Much Ranting

2010-08-10T10:40:00.000-05:00

So, I was thinking about passion for what you do. I have passion for raising and being with my children. I have passion for my family and enjoying my family moments. I have passion for my husband and enjoying spending alone time with him (minds out of the gutter, I'm talking dinner and a movie). I have a passion for spending long quality time with my girlfriends. What would life be without them. I realized this morning, driving to work, I have lost all passion for my chosen vocation. Though I don't think it is the actual chosen vocation I've lost passion for. It is the current position I am in. This is the feeling that kids get when their passion for learning is squelched by all the teacher and school rules and regulations, when the teachers are phoning it in, even while sitting in front of the class. I cannot believe that further up the managment chain that those people have the passion I used to have for this job. They keep shelling out rules, regs, hoops to jump, committees to form to study yet again another thing that we never, ever take action on. I am tired. I am also tired of solving all the little problems, both for those I supervise and those that are supposed to be managing me, but really, I spend my time managing them. I used to think I liked interacting with people, but I think I'm done now. If I'm going to solve people's problems or the ones they create for me, I'd much rather do it on a small scale and do it for my children and family.

Which leads me to a beef. I am really sick and tired of health care being tied to a job. I can't say that I have a better solution than the myriad of the ones out there, but I don't think the current system is going to continue to work. I wonder if my health care was affordable in the private sector and if it was that way for everyone else, if we'd be staying in these jobs we don't like, or if we'd have more creativity, small businesses and some economic growth because people aren't tied to unproductive boring jobs with health insurance.

The mosquitoes are awful around here. I hate DEET and it seems to not be working, according to my friends and kids. Perhaps a more natural alternative might work. I had a friend say that Burt's Bees Natural Herbal Insect Repellent works well. It has lemongrass in it and my herb gardener friend says anything with lemon scent should help keep the mosquitoes away. Lemon balm, lemon juice. I say it is worth a try and natural to boot.

Anybody out there ever think about packing up your family and doing service work in a foreign country that needs it? I know that is super risky, but I also feel that my chosen vocation and profession really doesn't make a difference in the grand scheme of things. I feel like I should make a better difference to the human race. I should have become a doctor. I like to solve problems. Maybe medical mysteries would have been more my style. Maybe I'd feel I was being more helpful, which might make me feel more fulfilled about my job? Oh, heck, maybe I should have been a teacher.

That's all I got for today. Click on the button above for better random choices.

Thursday Goodness

2010-08-05T14:20:00.000-05:00

I know that some people disagree and we'll just have to agree to disagree. But my sense of justice feels righted today.

I would say there is a difference between the legal union in the nation state's eyes and the union advocated by religious organizations. Religious organizations can still refuse to recognize these unions if they so choose. However, the nation state, in its attempt to be fair and equal to all peoples who live in this country, cannot withhold this legal standing from a minority of its citizens. If they do, they are treating that minority unequally. If you have a religion against it, you have a right to speak out about it, but you do not have a right to deny others equal treatment under the Constitution.

Yes, a little political for Thursday Goodness, but in my heart of hearts it is a step in the right direction towards fairness.

Open letter to Mr. Favre

2010-08-04T13:08:00.000-05:00

Dear Mr. Brett Favre,

Not that I care very much about your career. I didn't care when you "retired" from the Packers. I didn't care when you moved to the Vikings. I don't care whether you want to "retire" again. What I care about is all the stupid hubbub it causes. Do news outlets really need to hash the "Will he, or won't he?" story again? Could we please not clog up the airways? I am sure there are many more newsworthy stories out there. (Ok, maybe Lindsey Lohan doesn't count either)

I do want to say, hey, you've reached 40, you're heading for 41, most great atheletes at this time would say, "I've had a good run, now it's time for something else." Face the music, you're not getting any younger and that body of yours isn't going to last. We all know it's hard to start something new, but you've had a good career, good money, and I hope you invested it wisely for a day like today. Because I wish I was in your shoes, with enough money to stop what I'm doing now and try something new.

So cut bait, pack it up, and the next time you hit the news airwaves, maybe it will be for a good cause or something. That's always worth hearing about.

Sincerely,

A Wisconsinite who doesn't give a rat's ass what you do for your career

Random Tuesday Thoughts: Give Me a Break

2010-08-03T13:37:00.000-05:00

Blink. Trying to stay focused and awake. Where is that Diet Coke?

Guess what I got to deal with this past weekend? A husband with a bout of the flu. The serious flu, influenza kind. (The other kind could be just as bad, but lasts a much, much shorter time.) The kind that knocks you down, sends your fever soaring gives you aches, pains, headaches and chills. Finally, today, he's feeling better.

Funny thing is (or not) we all got both seasonal and the H1N1 vaccinations.

Like my new blog background? It seems a bit froufrou, but I'm in a froufrou mood. Love that Cutest Blog on the Block!

Work is back open and I'm madly playing catch up. It's nice to be back to some semblance of a routine.

Instead of listening to books on CD, I've been listening to the radio station(s) on my way to work. Now I remember why I quit listening to them. I get so damn bored. I flip between four--one NPR station and three mixed pop/rock/today's hits, etc. At least I get to have that "can't get this damn song out of my head" feeling every night. There's some fun pop songs out there, but not fun when they play the same ones every hour. I think there's a rotation of about 20, maybe 30 songs, and they are all the same all day and all night. Really? I forgot what it was like to listen to those kind of stations.

Here, let's see what I can get stuck in your head.

I don't think I have any other rants or raves inside me. Except, does anyone know what the "rockabilly" style is, in regards to clothing? I'm not sure I quite get what that is supposed to be.

Go, be more random than me.

Monday Garden Club

2010-08-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

What the hell do you do with swiss chard?

This:

Flaky crust thanks to some rendered lard from Aliceson:

That was some serious swiss chard, onion, garlic and egg pie!

Too bad for everyone not willing to try it in my house. I think it's better than spinach in pie.

Froze the leftovers for quick breakfast warm ups.

Thursday Goodness

2010-07-29T09:00:00.001-05:00

A Life in Color

Do what you like, like what you do.

To see more go to Vincent: A Life in Color.

Courtesy of a Facebook friend who used to walk by him everyday on his way to work.

Thursday Goodness: Guaranteed to make you smile

2010-07-22T08:18:00.007-05:00

Dare I say it? Better than Glee? Oh, yeah.

I miss college. Wouldn't this have been fun?

(Cheers to Vodkamom for sharing this.)

And another goodness, this time for you to do. Go to Vodkamom. You can help out the JM Foundation with a click at the Pepsi Refresh Project. The click is nothing, but if you want to join in the Despicable Me contest as well, go and do that too. Then read some more of Vodkamom's assist to random acts of kindness. You won't be sorry that you did.

Wardrobe Wednesday: I'm on a roll

2010-07-21T09:00:00.005-05:00

I had to rejoin the meme themes again this week. I finally got some subjects to work with.

My daughter's new favorite and frequent thing to do is to wear my shoes. This time she dug out my winter dress boots.

Throw in the bright 80s reminiscent colors and the headband with the flower and I think she's starting to channel Cyndi Lauper. I don't know if I can handle the 80s stuff the second time around. Last week I was in Old Navy and they had the polo shirts, with two toned collars, meant to be worn UP!

Come on people, it was geeky on us in the 80s. You really think it will get better the second time around?

Check out Heathen Family Revival for more wardrobe.

Random Tuesday Thoughts: I'm baaack!

2010-07-20T08:00:00.001-05:00

Keely at the UnMom started this silliness.

Last week was my 15 year anniversary. Of my wedding. All I can say is WOW. Really didn't expect that to creep up so fast. I guess when the big 4-0 is around the corner, the 15 year thing could easily sneak up on you. I managed to create a mid-week getaway for us. We went to a cute historic, but trendy chic little town up north. Booming thunderstorms during our overnight. It is nice to get away and leave the kids behind. You feel like a young couple again and can do things the kids can't whine about because they're not there. We visited a winery, had a wine tasting, and bought cheese and wine as well as wine. I guess we got our w(h)ine in.

My son had a bullseye rash on Friday. Yeah, that kind of bullseye. The one where you're not sure if it was a tick bite or a really bad mosquito rash. We went to the doctor on Saturday morning and he was looked at, had blood drawn for testing, and put on antibiotics as a precautionary measure. But I think we'll have to watch him for fatigue, chills, aches and pains. He's acting fine, so I'm not too worried. I'm glad the doctor wasn't taking any chances, even though it could have been caused by something else.

Someone I know on Facebook had this link to science tattoos. Hmmm...I've been contemplating ink to mark the 40th anniversary of my birth. Maybe this will give me some inspiration. I can be geeky and tattoed.

Is the laptop or it's smaller friend the netbook the new 'I'm taking a magazine into the toilet'? Maybe that's what the iPad is for actually.

If you caught my post yesterday and saw my CSA goodies, I just want to say they are growing the tastiest, crunchiest, yummiest cucumbers I've had in a long time. Aliceson, maybe you'll have to drop some of yours by for comparison.

I was with a group of women, of a certain age, my age, or range of ages with a median upon my age, in fact. And I was so relieved to find a majority of us had chin hair challenges. So much so, that many are stocking up on tweezers to have in the car in addition to home use. I will have to think about that. Unfortunately, I have yet to find tweezers just like my very best ones, which are probably 30-40 years old, because I think I took them from my own mother (sorry, Mom, but they do work nice). I prefer the scissor style with a straight edge, not angled. The pinch ones don't pinch tight enough. The grip on the scissor style works better for me. Now if I could only get good light into my bathroom to actually see the culprits.

That's all I got for now. Stay tuned, more craziness to ensue the next week. You're going to think I exploded with the blogging. I just divided it up equally so you could get a little every day.

Monday Garden Club

2010-07-19T08:00:00.002-05:00

I've been dying to share my CSA box as part of the Monday Garden Club meme. Unfortunately, the box comes on Tuesday night. And I usually forget to photograph what I have to share. Well, last week, Tuesday, I REMEMBERED!

Napa cabbage I believe, and summer squash, patty pan squash peeking from under the beet greens.

Some multi-colored Swiss chard. I will chop these up and saute with onion and garlic, to freeze and use in a quiche recipe.

Green and yellow beans. Very tasty, and so fresh.

Beets, summer and patty pan squash.

Cucumbers, yellow and green zucchini.

So I tried Aliceson's recipe for veggies and pasta, using mild bulk Italian sausage, canned tomatoes, and garlic from the store, but still, it is tasty.

So, enjoy. If you can't grow your fresh produce, I highly encourage looking into community supported agriculture (CSA). Someone can grow it for you and you can enjoy the benefits of really fresh and local produce. We lucked out, because our health insurance rewards us for buying a share. $100 worth of reward. That's pretty awesome. Happy gardening.

Prisoner of Summer (and everything else)

2010-07-18T16:02:00.002-05:00

Maybe I mentioned that my place of work was hit by a tornado. Did I? Maybe not. Yeah, it was not too terrible, but we have been closed to the public for about a month now, in the height of tourist season. NOT A GOOD thing. We do get to open up soon and maybe my life will return to normal.

I avoid talking about work, because I don't want to get into trouble for any reason whatsoever (the story about Dooce getting in trouble has haunted me ever since I read it). But I thought I should offer up a partial reason to my being absent. Just too worried about things at work and too beat with keeping staff informed of what's going on. And, hence, not feeling very bloggy.

But, recently, the universe has presented some opportunities for me to blog again. Let me tell you a little story.

I was pulling into my driveway last week and noticed a lot of birds gathered around our driveway and lawn next to it. In a circle. Watching something. It piqued my interest and I pulled in very slowly to get a peek at what was going on. Suddenly, a couple of chipmunks exploded into view. They were grappling in a small ball, almost in the center of the circle. I could almost hear the birds chanting, "Fight, fight, fight, fight," as the chipmunks ferociously went head to tail, whirling and whirling in a vicious rolling ball. My mouth dropped open and I resolved to park there and see how it turned out, whipping out my phone to call my husband to the door to have him witness what I was seeing. If there had been little red, green or blue sweaters on the chipmunks, I would have sworn I was being punk'd.

The birds noticed me and started to fly away. Reluctantly, I might add. The chipmunks must have either figured out who was dominant, were disappointed their audience was gone, or realized that I was more of a threat than trying to figure out who was top chipmunk. They broke it off and ran into the neighbor's yard, though one was clearly chasing the other in pure anger. I started laughing as I pulled into the garage.

It's what I needed.

Thursday Goodness

2010-06-24T07:00:00.002-05:00

How to stay positive:

Best day ever!

Random Tuesday Thoughts

2010-06-22T08:31:00.000-05:00

I have been awake more than asleep, though now I feel more asleep than awake. I started this post while waiting to hear about my place of work and whether it suffered damage in the storms last night. Well, it did and it's in pretty bad shape. We were in the basement for about 30 minutes ourselves, but we squeaked right between the worst of it.

Tooth fairy finally got a tooth. Willa lost the top one now. This time she placed it in a juice glass and it was much easier for the fairy to get to.

My staycation was not long enough. In fact, I'd rather it was permanent. With my children, I spent last week doing some to all of these things: getting my hair colored, getting in a doctor's appointment, stopping at the library, playing on the computer, going to the pool, traveling to meet and play with new friends, picking strawberries, losing teeth, throwing water balloons and using water guns, riding bikes to get ice cream, watching the half marathoners and cheering them on, checking out the farmer's market, going to a post marathon party, planning my 40th birthday (not until next year, but hey), letting the dads play D&D with sons while painting toenails with the girls, hauling kids to parties, having dinner with friends, finishing up a query letter, batting book ideas around, and staying up to 1 am (I am still on my staycation time, which is harsh considering I have to get up early now for work).

Happy belated Father's Day to all the dads. Mr. Wild played D&D with his son and his friend and his son. They seemed to enjoy it. Andrew was just happy to spend more time with boys. I guess Willa and I were just too much girl time.

Now, I am a sometimes historic clothing historian. Which can make it difficult for me to watch "period" movies. Because, invariably, the costume designer takes a lot of "artistic license" with historic clothing. Marie Antoinette was one that was a terrible violator. The Other Boleyn Girl had promise, but in the end, I was sorely disappointed. However, I have found a film that impressed me with its clothing. So much so, that I did not have to even think about it, or spend half my time thinking "he wouldn't wear that, she wouldn't wear that" and could actually enjoy the movie and plot line. Which, usually, if I find the clothes so totally wrong for the time period, I can't enjoy the movie. The movie was The Young Victoria. It was well acted and interesting and great historical clothing. I felt it was too short. I would have liked to have seen more of her early married life with her husband, Albert, but it ended way too soon.

Ok, that's all I've got, especially now that I'm trying to function on 4 hours of sleep. I will try to catch a nap here and try to avoid a headache. Until then, go random!

Thursday Goodness

2010-06-17T08:00:00.005-05:00

Caught this by way of Unreasonable Faith. I think it is something we should think about and then, hopefully, act. I am thinking I can give this a shot.

Another bit of something to share. If we would all think backwards, maybe we will accomplish great things.

Get your goodness out. If someone can tell me how to create the button (or even better, make me a pretty one) and how to use Mr. Linky, I will start making this a meme you can follow. There's nothing wrong with finding the good in life to make us smile and think.

UPDATE: Alicson at Feet Off the Table is joining in. Are you next?

Wardrobe Wednesday

2010-06-16T20:21:00.000-05:00

We're late today, but the shoes were too cute, couldn't resist.

They actually look as good on her as they do on me.

Strawberries!!!!

2010-06-16T19:33:00.000-05:00

Big thank you to Aliceson for hosting us for berry picking, lunch and a rousing game of kick ball. Silly me, I forgot to take my camera out of the car. I really brought it, I just plain forgot. It was a nice day, overcast, but warm enough, so good for picking berries and being outside. But then I got home with my haul.

Dang, that's a lot of strawberries! Okay, easily my kids go through four pounds a week, but I guess they aren't all super ripe at the very same time. Aliceson, I also forgot to grab rhubarb. Never fear, we have some in the freezer from my mother-in-law. I'm thinking I've got to make a rhubarb crisp here shortly. I am slowly picking my way through them. Washing off nice ones for eating go in the fridge, cutting the tops off less nice ones to use in cooking or slicing and making a sauce. It was a fun time and the rewards are sweet. Aliceson made a spinach, feta, strawberry, walnut salad. I did the same thing at home when I returned, with a balsamic vinegar, oil and sugar dressing on it. Fabulous! We did dip them in chocolate, too. My son had another idea.

We had some pretty ripe bananas, so we cut them up, dipped them in chocolate and then froze them. The kids are going crazy waiting for them to freeze. Then I tried to use up more of the chocolate with dipping them in strawberries. Willa was going nuts and pulled out the blueberries to try to use up the last of it. We dipped nearly every fruit in the house.

Click over to Feet Off the Table. She'll probably share some of the photos she remembered to snap. I have some camera envy, but I don't think I can use all the flashy attachments she's got. I suppose, though, it's just taking the time to learn what works and makes great pictures.

Randomize me!

2010-06-15T10:05:00.000-05:00

Randomize me!

Oh, yes, it's that time.

First for an update:

Unfortunately, the FIRST tooth appears to have taken a trip either down the sink or down the throat. Ack! She composed a very nice letter to the tooth fairy.

She added a nice picture on the back to attract the fairy.

It did work. The note stayed under the pillow, but also three quarters made it under the pillow. She was most excited that one of the quarters happened to have the Hawaii logo on the back of it. What a clever fairy. I'm sure she put it there on purpose rather than digging around in her change and just throwing under there whatever coins happened to be in her pocket.

Next, some advice for the ladies in catching a man. Between three of us women, with our husbands in the same room, we have determined the following:

1. Laugh at all his jokes.
2. Watch his scifi.
3. Go Dutch.

Just saying. Seeing as how collectively we had probably nearly 40 years of wedded bliss between us, we must be on to something. So any of you young gals out there not yet hitched, we dispense this wisdom freely and with confidence.

I'll let you know what the men come up with in catching their women after they have their poker game. Seeing as how they have a heck of a time actually organizing the day and time of the poker game, it may be a while before I can share this wisdom.

Ok, other randomness. Remember back in the early days of email and internet there were fleshmeets? According to The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang, fleshmeet is "a meeting of the flesh of on-line correspondents." They designate it as US slang and give it the date of 1996. I am here to reassure you that in Iowa in 1992, we were corresponding with people from Illinois and Australia and using this terminology well before that particular date. My first one was with a Illinios high school student in the said time period of 1992. I wasn't dating him, just met him through a list serve and email correspondence when the email was still in DOS format, rather than all html prettied up. It was weird and rare then, but now, I think people do that all the time, meeting up at BlogHer and quilt events and so forth. And we don't use the slang anymore, which also is kind of weird. Whatever on-line community you happen to be in, you tend to find a chance to meet the face behind the email. Or at least try to, because it can be fun. Now, if I want to go visit, say, Ohio, I might actually know someone there. Whether they would let me and my clan stay on their couch would be a different matter altogether. What is the protocol for that anyway?

I only mention this because I'm heading out to meet fellow blogger Aliceson for some strawberry picking. I just want you all to be jealous, because I'm hoping we can get some chocolate covered strawberries. (you have to scroll to the bottom to see them, but they look amazing) And maybe I'll get some nice pictures of my kids too. She seems to have some great photo equipment. I'm just worried she's going to find out how truly weird my kids are in the eating department since we're having lunch. If we have strawberries, we should be fine, but maybe I need to bring some things the kids will eat. Though, as I think back, I seem to remember I've posted about their eating habits, so perhaps they won't be a big surprise.

Ah, my children's eating habits. The ones where he likes peanut butter, she likes jelly. She will eat anything remotely related to the pig, he turns his nose up at everything, but sausage on pizza and pork chops in the crock pot. I don't know why, but I forever find myself apologizing for them and being embarrassed by their pickiness. I don't remember being so picky when I was young, which may be why I am so embarrassed. We have friends watching the kids this summer and they wanted a list of things they like, which I found wasn't all that long. They stayed with them last Friday and when lunch came around and they were served, Willa looked up from the lunch and said, "I thought my mom gave you a list of what we liked to eat." Yes, somehow we haven't fully mastered the "politely eat what you are served without a comment," yet.

Here's another song I would add to my list of "feel good" songs for my CD.

I'm trying to decide if I go original cover or Glee cover. There's also this on YouTube which is pretty good as well.

Speaking of Glee, having been in show choir both in high school and college (yes, I was one of those. I was also on flag squad and the captain, both in high school and college), it makes me wonder if Glee has changed the way show choirs are doing things. Like more arrangements of current artists rather than show tunes and songs from 30-40 years ago. And the whole mash up thing. And does Glee sell its arrangements for show choir consumption? Oh, I guess they're out there. As my husband says, Glee puts our show choir experiences to shame.

And how about those show choir names? On Glee we have Vocal Adrenaline, New Directions, and Aural Intensity (I'm still laughing about that one). I've personally been in Encore, South Side Transit, and Show Stoppers.

Okay, nuff said, I need to get out of my pjs and actually do something with the kids. After my iced coffee drink. We were going to go to the park, but it got dark and started raining soon after I started this composition.

Monday Garden Club

2010-06-14T13:59:00.000-05:00

Go to Feet Off the Table to check out more gardening.

I've been wanting to share one gardening feat I did this past fall.

Notice how my peonies are squished up between the other bushes? Also, notice the space between two of the bushes? Used to be a peony there. I had read that you transplant peonies in the fall, so I did a test one, moving it from less sun and crowded conditions in the back, to more sun and freedom in the front. I full expected it not to bloom, as everything I read on-line said it wouldn't bloom the first year after transplanting. Boy, were they wrong...

So, not only did I have blooms earlier than the ones in back (see first photo, they were all taken at the same time), I discovered I had two different peonies in this bunch that I moved. (see third photo)

I am leaving you with the wisteria that I've been nursing and trying to train ever since I moved in here. At least now it blooms too. It took a lot of work and I have to keep those tendrils in check, trying to get them to cover our pergola in the back. But that's all I got for gardening. I give up on the tomato plants.

More milestones

2010-06-13T22:35:00.000-05:00

My dear daughter has her first (and second) loose tooth.

For your viewing pleasure:

It's one of those situations where you're grossed out by it but can't stop looking at it, or touching it, or trying to wiggle it free. This one is a stinker and I just don't want to yank it out.

The top tooth just above this one is wanting to come out too. She's excited because a straw fits in that space.

Thursday Goodness

2010-06-10T17:04:00.000-05:00

Heard this song when I turned on the radio:

Yeah, reminds me of a marching band trip to Arizona my senior year of high school. Awesome!

In addition, a little Jane Austen for you. Apparently the male mouse pheromone that attracts female mice has been named 'darcin' after the hero of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. You can see more about that here. Sigh...I still think that Colin Firth made the best Darcy.