D.O.N.E.

The Lego Challenge 2014 has officially been met.  The last two snow days off school helped to put us over the top and enabled us to reach our deadline.  Woo hoo!  All Legos are color-sorted and neatly tucked in containers.

 

Ben's comment at dinner, "Now we can get more." 

 

Sorry darling.  That wasn't the goal for Mommy. 

 

Natural Phenomena

Here are some pictures of some natural phenomena that we saw today as we ventured out.  We have been out of school for two days due to negative temperatures. 

I, too, am amazed by the beauty of this empty dish drainer.  A freak of nature for sure.

Lego Challenge 2-0-1-4

Also known as the year of the snow day.

The countdown clock is ticking, ticking, ticking away. 

Today we spent two hours sorting.  Okay, okay.....some of us have more stamina than others.  Not sure how that converts to ALST or Actual Lego Sorting Time as compared to ALPT or Actual Lego Playing Time, but it was a darn good effort.

Lego Haiku

See scattered rainbows
All over my house again
Little plastic bricks

Perhaps not impressive, but the day was spent inside ALL DAY WITH THREE BOYS so cut me some slack.

Shhh I'm Hiding

K is upstairs doing the supper dishes, so I will hide here (downstairs) until he is finished.  Hee hee. 

 

Below is a photograph of two of my Christmas gifts this year purchased by older boys at Santa's Workshop at school.  Plaque awarding me title of "Best Mom Ever" is from Ethan and "Ocean in a Jar" is from Ben.  I thought they were pretty sweet.  Not sure if I am worthy of the award, but it is something to aspire to.  Who wouldn't want to look at an Ocean in a Jar in the dead of winter? 

 

 

School is already cancelled for tomorrow since the high temperature is to be a whoppin' 9 degrees.  WHAT WILL WE DO WITH OURSELVES? 

Possible scenario:  Two months ago we challenged the boys to sort through all their Legos and put them into color appropriate bins.  They have until the end of the month or (dun dun dun) Mommy will be disposing of them.  They have been working pretty diligently.  Can we work on that for 8 straight hours?   We shall find out.

Coast is clear and kitchen is clean.  (smirk smirk)

Today's Schedule in a Nutshell

Things to look forward to today...

1.  Watch snow fall.
2.  Shovel.
3.  Watch snow fall.
4.  Drink hot drink.
5.  Shovel.
6.  Argue with children.
7.  Drink hot drink.
8.  Contemplate shoveling.
9.  Watch snow fall.
10.  Anticipate big temperature drop.


Events listed not in real time or in list of priority.

Old Man Winter Strikes Again

I know that we are light weights. 

We aren't used to having a real winter so when it comes and hangs on for days. 

 

Then comes again. 

 

Then comes again. 

 

We don't know what to do with ourselves. 

Therefore you bundle up and go outside and enjoy it.  

 

 

Telegraph

Forced to eat out for supper tonight due to the status of the kitchen table.  Stop.

Unable to make headway on paper chase.  Stop.

Glorious to be out among the English eating someone else's cooked food.  Stop.

Highly recommend it.  Stop.

Last Ditch Effort

BLOG.

Just under the wire.  One minute to spare.

The streak continues.

YEEEEE  HAWW.

How many posts can one woman do about nothing?

I guess we shall see.

It's Someone's Birthday!

Happy Birthday to a great friend, T.

A Friend is Like a Good Bra....

hard to find

supportive

comfortable

always lifts you up

makes you look better

always.....close to your heart!


Sit back and take the day off!  You deserve it!

Late Night Antics

 

TiVo records the Late Night show circuits for us and then I fast forward through them and pick and choose what we watch during a reasonable hour.   We were watching Letterman the other day and came across this diddy which just makes me smile.  Their little legs just crack me up! 

 

 

Perhaps it reminds me of my canine nephew Finn who is the sweetest dog I've ever met! 

 

We showed it to the boys who loved it and then proceeded to watch a bunch of other past episodes.  Here is our other favorite.

 

 



Almost makes a woman want to run out and get a dog.

Infections and Such

Will stayed home from school today due to a cough and cold.   He complained about his ears hurting so we took him to the doctor expecting an infection.  Fortunately he didn't have one, so I tried to tell him that this ear pain is when his ears are "full" and he is getting a cold.  Maybe he will be able to discern between ear infection and cold symptoms sometime in the future.

I took the older boys swimming at the local pool tonight.  It always takes me overcoming my mental block of having absolutely no desire to put on a bathing suit and get into a cold pool.  I made it however, and they had a great time.

Now the boys are in bed and we are settled in awaiting the snow to begin.

Bring it on Old Man Winter.

Bored on a Sunday

We have been laying low due to cold of the youngest.  This is all good.  I keep telling myself as I huddle in the corner and rock back and forth.  It's all good.

Today was spent doing piddly things such as shoveling the driveway and sidewalks, changing sheets on beds, finishing homework (AHHH!), and cleaning.  The AHHH!  represents my parental frustration level which was "HIGH" due to a lack of focus and determination.  I heard myself saying, "Just do it and it will be done! Stop wasting time!"  Apparently rewriting 10 sentences is just too labor intensive for the weekend plans of a ten year old.

Actually looking back it was an historical day.  This is a true story with no exaggerations.  More than two years ago a can of coke exploded in our downstairs refrigerator.  Then a year after that someone gave us a tub of blue Hawaiian Punch which the kids LOVED (of course because it is PURE SUGAR) and they sneaked into it and sloshed it all over the inside of the frig.

I have been successfully ignoring these two disasters for quite some time now.  Today I took it upon myself to scrub that sucker clean.

That is just how bored I am.

Bored on a Saturday Morn

Hanging around the house on a Saturday morning and we were inspired by friend T's boundless energy and productivity....she canned her own homemade dog food!!! 

Check out our commercial for her product below. 

http://youtu.be/prn_MfNR870

Nuttin much

Nothing to report today but hated to lose my posting streak.

I will try to live a more exciting life tomorrow.

Word.

Bring on the Euphoria

Early birthday present requested by me...mood enhancing light.  I think the trade name is "Euphoria Light" or something of that nature. 

We live in GRAY GRAY GRAY America or GREY GREY GREY America.  Use whichever spelling you prefer.  For years I have been reading about light therapy and thought, "Why not?"  Today was my first experiment.  Can't you see the skip in my type...I mean step? 

At 6:15 I rolled over and switched off the alarm and switched on the light.  Kevin's comment, "What is going on over there?"  Of course I think, surely he is used to my personal aura of light after 13 years of marriage but that's another story. 

I soaked up the light for 30 minutes.  Not sure if it has filled me with bliss yet.  But I have showered and exercised a bit.  Also have twice stretched my "hot" piriformis and it's only 8:51 am. 

"Hot" piriformis you say?  Not "hot" as in "good looking" but "hot" as in more sore than words can describe.  For a year and a half I have been nursing what I originally thought was a pulled muscle in my rear end from biking.  It hasn't gone away yet.  After discussing it with co-sufferer dear friend T. I have jumped on her medical diagnosis and determined that I have piriformis syndrome.  It's a real thing! 

Per the Internet the best thing to do is stretch the heck out of it.  Before I get out of bed I stretch, after I shower I stretch, if I get the chance to exercise afterwards, you guessed it stretch.  I have a physical next week and intend to ask "What else can a woman do?" 

I stare at this post and wonder, "Why am I sharing stories of my hind quarters?".  Maybe euphoria has set in and I just don't give a.....

Space Log

Star Date 11514.7

-Better part of two days spent cleaning space station.  No personal satisfaction yet to speak of.  Time delay possible but not probable.

-Small round colorful foreign objects discovered spread all over mess hall floor.  Possible bracelet making devices.  Small alien creatures request more be purchases in varying colors.  Shall I conform and only make more work for myself?

-Outside water cyle continues to spit things thereby restricting our daily access to the yard.    Contact sick bay to see if possible to create sunshine pill to compensate.

-Crew starting to turn on one another.  Hard for me to keep morale up.
 

Take That

zing.  Look what I made...using my inertia deflecting wristbands.

I wish me a belated Merry Christmas, I wish me a belated Merry Christmas....etc.

 

I started to make this table runner for someone for Christmas and then realized part of the way into the sewing that somehow when I measured the sewing lines I went from 2 inches to 2 1/2 mid way through.  Oops.  Must have been those shots of tequila I was doing in my sewing space.  So now I will keep it for myself. 

 

Hip hip hooray. 

Wanted: Deflecting Bracelets

Maybe they aren't bracelets, more like kick *** wristbands.  Remember the Wonder Woman of the 70's?  What was her name?  Linda something?  She had that rockin' patriotic costume, her magic lasso, an invisible jet and most importantly those all powerful wristbands.  Can I buy those on Amazon?

We are all fighting the blues here.  We don't feel good.  We live on an educator's salary (stinkin' national priorities of who gets paid the most).  Good friends have moved away.  We never get anything accomplished.  House is falling down around us.  Car makes a weird noise.  Bathroom ceiling paint peeling off.  Kids argue all the time, and whine, and make messes.  Oh, the list could go on and on and on and on.

For me, I think I inherited my predisposition for the negative from my father.  He struggled with depression from what I gather.  My Mom says she remembers sitting on the crest of one of the hills above her house and reflecting, "What more could you want Ernie?  We have this house and these kids?"  But my Dad fought with inferiority.  That feeling that no matter what you do, it isn't quite up to snuff. 

I feel that.  Often.  I try to recognize it and then challenge myself.  One of my favorite books, Anne Lamott "Operating Instructions" chronicles her struggles with depression before and after the birth of her son, Sam.  I remember reading a quote with the gist of "Don't leave me alone with my own thoughts.  It's dark and dangerous."

BUT if I had those magic wristbands I would put them on and deflect, deflect, deflect.....I may even sport the uniform if it comes in my size.

Apparently I will do anything to get through January and February. 

Aftermath

Point to ponder:  now what do we do with it?

Flashback

Neglected to post any Christmas pictures because....guess what?  We totally forgot to take any pictures on Christmas Day!  We did video tape so that will have to do as for as documenting family moments.

We did remember on Christmas Eve and captured this picture of the boys after they opened their new Christmas pajamas.

In case you are wondering, yes, it is indeed difficult to get three boys to look and smile naturally at the camera.   Also we found these slippers for them this year.

When we were shopping at Old Navy (very close to Christmas) the fact that we found three different slippers in each of their sizes constituted a Christmas miracle as far as we were concerned.  To identify the slippers to the child, Will is on the left, Ethan in the middle and Ben in the gorilla feet on the right.

Ivory Soap meets Microwave

 

Since we are all working to fight off the winter blues this January, last night for entertainment we put a bar of ivory soap in the microwave for 60-80 seconds.  The result is this billowy, puffy, cloudy form.   Pretty interesting.    Who knows what we will do tomorrow?  Any ideas?

 

All the Better to Smack You With My Pretty

Yesterday was my scheduled day to work the morning at Will's preschool.  It was quite a fun day.  Those little buggers keep me smiling.  Of course, they also try my patience, but mostly they amuse me.

Some days we rotate around the rooms for "center time" and on this day I was in charge of the Language Arts room.  In the science room they were experimenting with "Sink and Float" so I carried this into my room with rhyming words.  Great fun.  We were sitting on the floor sorting our -ink and -oat words when it happened.  One little boy, we'll call him T, put his hand on my hand.  "Oh how sweet." I think to myself.  "He is really engaged and enjoying this."  T looked up at me and said, "You have OLD hands."

Well sweet little T, this comes as no news to me.  I have often thought my hands looked like my Mom's even when I should have had "young hands".   My veins have always been close to the surface especially in my hands and I guess them are getting even more pronounced as I age.   I can vividly remember in high school looking down at the veins on my right hand and thinking they almost spell the word "shy".  The -s is a stretch but the -hy are spot on.

My Mom often hid her hands in photographs because she thought they were ugly.  She had one finger  tip that was misshapen because of a run in with a softball when she was in nursing school.  Apparently her hospital was next to a school and some kids were playing ball.  Even though it was against the rules she hopped the fence to play.  In an attempt to catch a fly ball with no glove, her middle finger was broken.  She was so afraid of getting into trouble she endured the pain of it healing incorrectly and never told a soul.

Thirteen years ago for Kevin's and my wedding, Mom splurged and had artificial nails put on her fingers.  She loved them and thought they made her hands look more attractive.  She continued to garden, scythe, knit and dig in the dirt as much as possible and continued getting those nails filled and painted up until she passed away.  She claimed to never have had any problems with those nails breaking or splitting except for the time one caught on fire as she was putting another log into the fireplace.

One redeeming factor also happened at preschool however, later on in the day not one but TWO children in my room drew pictures of hearts and wrote their names in it then asked how to spell my name and proceeded to write it in too because they said they loved me.  Old hands and all.

PS

Oops I forgot to include these pictures of my assistant working diligently by my side in the kitchen.

 

The explanation that goes with this photograph is I turned my head for a few moments and he was able to knead the dough with his belly.  It's hard to find good help these days.  Or at least ones that conform to universal codes of cleanliness.

Frozen Days call for Cinnamon Rolls

 

 

When the frozen temperatures make the windows look like this, Will and I decided to make the kitchen look like this.    That's right....homemade cinnamon rolls.  Eat 'em and weep baby.

Origami Master My Eldest Son Is

Here is a look at Ethan's collection of Star Wars Origami.   Notice Jabba hiding in the top left.  For some reason there seems to be a plethora of Han Foldos.  I guess my love for Harrison Ford has rubbed off on him.  The kid's got taste.  He is way better than Luke Skywalker.  Or at least I have always thought so.

May the force be with you.  

Frasier Fir Rocks

We forked over a few extra bucks this year for the soft, plush needles of the Frasier Fir.  I must say it is the best Christmas tree there is.  Quite possibly why it is also more expensive than most.  But it is well worth it.

Check it out Grandma.  Your favorite. 

Apparently Stink at Origami I do

Ethan has been enjoying star wars origami lately.  He and a buddy at school have been making them during recess.  "Awesome." we say and encourage him to continue.

Fast forward spending a gift card at B&N bookstore, we spy a somewhat more complicated book.  "Sure.  Go ahead.  We can handle it." 

Somewhere in my brain I have a section that totally misjudges my abilities.  It thinks, "Yeah. I can do that."  When really it should think, "Let's leave that to the professionals."

I tried the Millenium Falcon.  Fail.  I tried the pod racer.  Fail.  I tried Chewbacca.  Fail.

Finally I buckled down.  I was fresh faced, a Saturday morning (I have my best energy level).  I had not one but two cups of tea.  I had eaten a healthy oatmeal/craisin breakfast.  This was it.  My best, and possibly, only chance for success.

I spent two hours at the kitchen table watching a you tube video and referencing the book.

Oh the sweet smell of success I have.

Epiphany

 

In true Raymond and Rosemary Forestal tradition (Kevin's wonderful grandparents), our three wise men have been making the journey towards Bethlehem for quite some time now.  I have been working with my three boys to ALWAYS stop and ask someone for directions or help so that needless time may not be wasted.  I am in no way implying that the wise men, may perhaps have not been so wise, since they were tardy in their arrival.  Just saying that possibly they could have and should have stopped for directions.  

 

 

 

 

This is the beautiful nativity scene that my husband bought for me when he was still "woo-ing" me.  Back in the day when you could spend money on something decorative without thinking, "I shouldn't."  Isn't it beautiful?  The only other nativity that I have loved as much belongs to K's sister, Susan.  (I've got my eye on it....fyi)

O come let us adore him. 

My Apologies

to my mother-in-law who has been checking this blog faithfully only to find nothing new.

Sorry.

I will get my act together!

It is ironic that I just made that statement and now am unable to make this picture turn the correct way. 

Is this an indication of my abilities to get my act together in 2014?

I hope not.  Anyhow here is a photo of the boys with Santa.  It was taken during the Open House uptown on a cold rainy and then snow night.  Hence the outer gear.  This reminds me of the fact that the only wedding video of my Mom and Dad's wedding was taken upside down because my Uncle had just purchased a camera and didn't realize he had it upside down!