for good or ill, they're always surprising me...

Last night at supper, I asked the boys what was the most fun thing about their school day. Gray gave us an exasperated look, shook his head, and said, "Well, it sure wasn't gym."

"Why? What was wrong with gym?" I asked.

"We had to watch the puberty movie. It wasn't pretty."

*****

Annie finished up A Canticle for Leibowitz over the weekend. I was really curious to hear what she thought of it, and yes, a bit worried that she might not be thrilled that I made her read it. In some ways, though not entirely, it's a quiet book. And I wasn't sure how she'd feel about the "religious setting." Her reaction:

"Mom, I loved this book. I think it's the best one we've read all year."

Hmmmm...go figure. Of course, I also enjoyed the book much more than I would have expected.

*****

On the "ill" side, I was cleaning up the mess of clothes that Max had managed to land on the floor of his closet when I discovered a little chunk of soap. Somehow I immediately knew that he'd taken a bar of soap from the bathroom cabinet and tried his hand at carving. A little more digging and I found a pencil with soap all over it...his carving tool, I presumed. I called him in, and got the confession. Except, I could tell from the way he was acting that I wasn't hearing the whole story. Sure enough, I little bit deeper digging, back behind his shoes, I found one of my very sharp, very nasty wicked tomato knives. *sigh* I'm grateful he still has all his digits, of course. But I tell you, the stress this munchkin causes is just of an entirely different breed than his siblings.

*****

Also last night at supper, Gray asked how many people died each year of malaria. Rich said, "About a million. And of course, most of the people who die are children. And the elderly."

Gray got this sad, surprised look on his face and said, "Not old people. Something needs to be done. Old people are precious!"

It was just a reaction that caught me totally off-guard. And made my heart smile.

a mini bit of projects progress

Okay, so I haven't been keeping track lately. Well, that's not really true--I have been keeping track on my actual lists, I just haven't been keeping track on any sort of draft post or anything. Just haven't felt like it. But I decided to mention getting to put a couple more checks on one of my 50x50 goals.

#29-Upcycle 50 things.

Someone gave me this print a while back. And while it seems like the sort of think I might like, I just didn't. But instead of shipping it off to the thrift store, I decided that I'd hang onto it because one day I could turn it into a blank canvas to play on. (Of course, I save things to turn them into other things all the time---it's the follow-through I have trouble with. :P ) But with the gang away, and with my brain just sick to death of the rise of Christianity and the fall of the Byzantine Empire and religion in science fiction and vocabulary lists, I decided it was the perfect time to do a little playing.

So I took the less-than-loved print...

...gave it a nice coat of gesso...played with some modeling paste and water color pencils and metal bits and paper bits and rub-ons...and ended up with this:

Oh, I don't pretend that I have any artistic talent or anything like that. But the point is I took something that was destined for the charity shop and had fun playing with it instead. And while it may not be anything special, I have to say I'm a lot more likely to hang it in our house than I was the "before" version. :)












And as for upcycle #2, well, while I was rooting through my pile of "treasures-to-be-revamped" for that print, I noticed how many outgrown, stained, or otherwise no longer desirable t-shirts I had amassed. All with the intent of turning them into t-shirt yarn one day. And when I noticed them, I decided that maybe today should be that day...because just a few days before I'd seen this cool tutorial for making bracelets out of t-shirt yarn. So here's my very first ever ball of t-shirt yarn:

Which I used to make this bracelet for Annie (and still have lots of this yarn leftover, of course):

So, nothing overly exciting, but nonetheless, it's two more checks off that list of 2,500 things. :P And best of all, I had fun doing them.

well, that went quickly...

So, my very incredible husband gathered up the three rambunctious monkeys and headed off camping. They left Sunday and are due home later today. Before they left, I envisioned spending time catching up with everyone on-line (emailing, tweeting, *finally* doing some blog reading) interspersed amidst all the mountains of work I was going to get done. So what happened???? *sigh* My google reader is still overflowing, and I haven't written any of those emails that I so wanted to. Yeah, I got a lot of school work done...but there's so much left to do. Always so much left to do. So in a sense, I feel like I've sort of wasted my days away. :(

I did do a wee bit of creating...and that was quite refreshing. But I'll talk about that later. Right now I'm off to write a couple e-mails. And maybe even make a wee dent in the lovely pile of blog posts everyone has been busy writing.

smile-worthy

It's been one of those weeks...you know, the kind where you're lucky to find time to go pee. (Yeah, I'm classy, huh?) But despite the stressful hectic-ness, there's been plenty of reasons to smile, too...

*My sweet (usually) baby girl turned fourteen last Friday. 14. Yeah, sheesh. But we'll forgo all the "how the hell did time pass so fast?!!" talk, because I've finally realized it's never going to change and I'm never going to figure out the answer.

(Annie's traditional birthday breakfast.)

(Annie wearing the the Gothic Lolita dress that she wanted more than anything for her birthday.)

(Exceptionally blurry photo of Annie with a much-loved gift from Jean.)

(Annie and her birthday cake.)





















*We had our first real taste of spring last weekend...and it was glorious! We got some yard clean-up done, passed around the football, grilled veggie dogs, and ate outside.

*I finally, finally, finally finished a book.

Yes, this a book for school, and that fact alone tends to slow down my reading (that psychological rebellion against "have to," I guess). But thing is, I really enjoyed this book. Have to say I've never read anything quite like it, and it caught me somewhat by surprise. Though why it should have is beyond me, as I really knew very little about it beforehand. I knew it was science fiction--because that is what the lecture course we're using is focusing on now. (This book is a wonderful example of how incredible varied the genre of sci-fi really is.) I also knew it was dystopian--because I've seen it on lists of dystopian fiction in the past. And I assumed, in this case correctly, that it somehow involved religion--because of the title. And, yes, it was all of those things--but face it, those labels really say so little when it comes to a particular work. Anyway, like I said, I truly did enjoy this book. In fact, I'd like to revisit it again sometime in the future. Still...I sure hope it doesn't take me as long to finish my next read. :P

*My dear friend Chris opened an Etsy shop! I can't tell you how ridiculously excited I am about this. :D (Okay, and just a wee bit envious as well.)

*And looking ahead, spring break is almost here!!! (And yep, the boys' school and the community college where Rich teaches and Annie takes classes have the same week off.) Tomorrow we'll all be heading to my parents house to celebrate my Mom's birthday. But on Sunday, Rich and the munchkins are heading out for a few days of camping. I am both bummed (because I really wish I could go, too) and elated (because the thought of a few days of peace and quiet sound heavenly). I can't go because I just have too much damn school prep to get done. Maybe not the most fun way to spend some alone time--but 1.) it's amazing how much more I can actually accomplish when alone, and 2.) hopefully I'll sneak in a bit of relaxing as well.

So what are your reasons for smiling lately? I love hearing because it gives me more reasons for smiling, too. :D

Project Life...a resurrection

So, I mentioned Project Life earlier this year. I was ridiculously excited about trying to capture a year's worth of memories in this simple way. The Project Life kit can be used in any way you choose, of course. But I planned to do the picture-a-day-with-lots-of-journaling thing. The kit is ideal for this sort of plan.

But it turned out to be harder than I thought. Despite this truly simplified set-up, I found that I still couldn't keep up. I'd attached too many rules to the thing, and I think that's what ultimately led to my failure.

Except! I've decided to *not* allow it to be another failed project. Is it tacky to admit that I'm proud of myself? Oh well, so be it. I am proud of myself--for loosening up, for not letting the unattainable idea of perfection stop me, for doing something that makes me happy even if takes time away from things I *should* be doing.

It's no secret that Ali Edwards is my creative crush. I swear, I adore everything she does. Ali Edwards = Inspiration. So, of course, it came as no surprise that I totally fell in love with the way she's approaching her Project Life this year. Each spread still contains a week of her family's life...but not in the picture-a-day way. And sometimes she has more to say, so she just adds extra page protectors within that week. It's so relaxed...and so very, very beautiful--a real look at the way her family lives.

And that's what I want. Oh, our book won't be as visually wowing as hers, of course. But it's the "idea" I want to capture. A relaxed, no rules, record of our daily lives. This obsessive "if it's not perfect then it's not good enough" attitude *must* go.

So, yep, this album starts out with several weeks of a picture-a-day-with-lots-of-journaling layouts. Then you come upon a few weeks worth of layouts where there are pictures missing (because I forgot to take any some days) and no journaling (because I was frustrated with myself for forgetting to take pictures, thus ruining the "perfection" of the whole thing). Then there are a few weeks that are just not recorded at all because I'd given up. And then you get to this:

The week I began anew. Nope, there's not a picture for each day. There's not even a ton of journaling (I suspect this will vary from week to week). But it does tell the story of our week.

I even mentioned my "epiphany" right there on the layout.

Max had saved up his money to buy a "real" skateboard. To him this was a pretty big deal, and I definitely felt it warranted three pictures. I'd even considered doing a whole layout and sticking it in between here, but ultimately decided that if/when I do make a full layout about Max and his new skateboard I'll add it to Max's album. And herein lies the joy of this new approach--I can go with whatever feels right.

And here's an instance where what felt right did include adding a page. Albeit a mini page. (And my first attempt at making a custom size page protector--I totally love how simple it is to do, not to mention totally loving how it turned out!) I really freakin' adore the divided page protectors that come with the kit. But there are no slots for vertical shots. You can purchase additional ones that do, but I'm really trying to work with what I have. And I have oodles of regular old 8 1/2 x 11 sheet protectors just waiting to be altered. So alter I did...because I really wanted to include a picture of Annie heading off to volunteer at the community party at the town library, and the only shots I had were vertical.

That also allowed me to include a picture of Baker (on the back side) that I probably wouldn't have included otherwise.

Another cool thing that Ali Edwards does is include all kinds of memorabilia. Obviously, saving memorabilia is nothing new in the keeping of scrapbooks, but there's something about the way she does it that just makes me smile. But I can't put my finger on why. Perhaps it's the way she doesn't feel the need to justify each piece she includes. After all, not everything needs an explanation to have the story told. But I included a couple pieces this week--part of netflix wrapper with the movies we'd watched that week written on it and part of the invoice from our trip to the garage.

So overall, is this perfection? No. Three pictures to show the soup I made for Rich--yeah, overkill. But for whatever reason I like the picture of the veggies...and I wanted to include a picture of Rich...and I didn't really have anything else that I thought should be included. So that's how it turned out. Not perfect, but I really do love it. And so does the rest of the gang. And that's all that really matters, right?

projects progress (update 4)

>Mission: 50x50.

#8-Donate 50 trunkloads of stuff to charity thrift store, etc.
Another bulging trunkful of stuff was carted off to the thrift store this weekend. (We are in big declutter mode here, and this is just the first trunkful of what will hopefully be several to head out this month.)

#14-Drink 50 different beers.

Kirin Ichiban

Coopers Pale Ale











#15-Try 50 new recipes.
Whipped up a little snack the other night--many thumbs up from all around for this one.

Chocolate Snack Cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp white vinegar
2 tsps vanilla

Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in large bowl.

In separate bowl, whisk together water, vegetable oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and mix just until blended.

Pour into a 8x8" baking pan that has been sprayed with vegetable spray. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean).

#16-Bake 50 different kinds of cookies.
Made chocolate chip bars--nothing exciting, but one I hadn't made for this goal yet.

#23-Give 50 "happy something unexpected" gifts.

(My regular model, Maxidoodle, wasn't available, so I got a substitute.)

I made my friend Kara (who is hopefully too busy to be reading boring blog posts because I haven't yet got this in the mail) a farmers market bag. Just because.










#47-Watch 50 different seasons of TV on DVD.

The boys and I finished watching the last few episodes of Kaze No Stigma the other night on Netflix. Ummmm...is it weird to have a crush on an anime character? :P

#48-Find 50 new bands that I like enough to download something by them. (And by "new" I, of course, mean "new-to-me.")

Well, thanks yet again to my dear friend Ana, I get to check another off this goal. This time it was the Mountain Goats that she got me excited about. :D


>Mission: Declutter.

This mission is still moving along fairly well. (Though it will likely lose steam over the next few weeks as I get back to a heavy focus on homeschooling prep--I'm afraid in my mad decluttering frenzy, I've ignored this and used up the small cushion I'd built up.) Anyway, my original plan was to stick with a single room and get it done before moving on. Yeah, that didn't happen. I'm sort of all over the place--but I am staying organized within each room, so it should all work out in the end.

--The library: Weeded out Max's bookcase. I was very impressed with him--he managed to give up quite a few books he's "outgrown." No book in any way involving a cat, however, will ever be outgrown. :P Also weeded out about half of Gray's bookcase (his bookcase is huge). And he's also doing a pretty good job of purging--a few he gave to Max, a few I kept for myself, several were listed on paperbackswap, and many were boxed up to give to the library sale.

--My scrap area: Still making pretty good progress, but it's really hard to quantify. I did box up one decent size box of tools and whatnot to get rid of. And a smaller box of embellishment type things. And so far, one big bag of books.

--Max's bedroom: We also weeded out his bedroom bookcase. He got rid of few books here, but not many (as this is the bookcase where he keeps the books he's currently the most excited about). We also got through his stuffed animals (got rid of a small bag full, but hard to make much progress there because most of the animals he has left are cats). Also got rid of one box of toys.

--The garage: Rich did a bit of work out there. Hauled off some bigger things (like the booster seat Max finally doesn't have to use anymore), along with the bags/boxes of stuff we'd been gathering up.


>Mission: Tackle the TBR Pile.

No progress here because I *still* haven't finished getting my books catalogued on library thing. Thus, I still have no starting point.


>Mission: Sell the House.

I can take no credit for getting anything done on this, but thanks to Rich, I did get to cross something off the list--he took down a tree that was growing up in the middle of a bush. We should have taken it down years ago, but it didn't appear that he had many problems with it anyway.


>Mission: Conquer the Unfinished Craft Projects.

Just the farmers market bag I mentioned above.


>Mission: Recipe Reorganization.

Went through an even dozen cooking magazines, tearing out all the recipes (too many!) that I want to try, before recycling. This is such a time-consuming task. *sigh* But I shall keep plugging along. Only managed to transfer two tried-and-true recipes to cards.


>Mission: Photographic Scavenger Hunt.

Yep, a new project. Because I didn't have enough. :P But this one is purely for fun. My darling friend Chris provided me with a list of 52 prompts. One a week for a year. I completed both last week's and this week's. (I'm posting them on my tumblr, but will keep track of my progress on this blog.)

tidbits...

...Oh my. Have not had that rough a school send-off in a while. More than an hour of whining, begging, anger, and tears. Thankfully, my tears held until he got on the bus. This school year simply can't end soon enough.

...To de-stress, I crocheted another granny square. I've no clue what I'm going to do with these squares, but I'm not sure I even care. They're cute, they're a perfect way to use up my cotton yarn scraps, and crocheting them is a wonderful way to spend a couple minutes regrouping.

...Annie saw the neurologist today...he had no problem diagnosing what was wrong with her hand. It turns out she's got carpal tunnel syndrome. What surprises us is that the hand specialist hadn't figured that out. I had no idea that kids got carpal tunnel syndrome, or that it could cause such swelling in the fingers. Anyway, it's good to finally know what's going on. For now, she has to wear special splints on her wrists at night. Easy enough. And to write and use the keyboard as little as possible. Ummm, not so easy. She's a student. And she's a writer. Nonetheless, it's quite a relief to know it's not something more serious.

...As much as I'm enjoying A Canticle for Leibowitz, I'm really starting to think that I'm never going to finish it. *sigh* I was supposed to have finished it by today, so Annie could start reading it. But our school day was thrown all out of whack due to the neurologist appointment anyway, so I'm not going to sweat it. I bought a book called Shivers, Wishes, and Wolves the other night--it's a collection of five fairy tales retold in graphic novel form. I've been so pouty about not being able to spend any time reading for Once Upon a Time, and I thought surely I could squeeze this in sometime during the week. *fingers crossed*

...Someday I'm going to write a "tidbits" post and actually have something interesting to say. Hey--it *could* happen.

morning visitors

(While my "projects progress" updates are sort of fun, and definitely motivational, for me, I realize they're not all that exciting for anyone else to read. I had hoped never to leave one up as the first post for more than a day. But well, I just haven't had anything exciting to talk about--yeah, I know, do I ever? :P Anyway, thus the pictures from outside my kitchen window this morning. Hey, you gotta admit they're more fun than reading about how many shelves I've weeded out in the library and how many new plates I found at the thrift store, right?)