Pictures coming soon!

I have been busier than a marshmallow vendor while Rome burned!  At the beginning of March, I realized I did not have A SINGLE UNSCHEDULED DAY in the entire month!  It has gotten busier since then!  And, while all of the stuff is good—some of it is FABULOUS, even—it is still LOTS OF BUSY!

 Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Both the Yoga and the Herbs classes that we are taking are offered though our Tech HS Community Ed classes.  Yoga is very sneaky—it starts off so easy you think “this isn’t even really exercise!” and then, before you know it, you are working so hard you can’t believe it!  I am really enjoying it—I love it even more because I am doing it with BigGirl!  I wish we had somewhere closer (it is about 45 min North of us) so we could do it several times a week. 

The Herb class is actually 5 freestanding classes that I signed up to take as the entire series.  Mary Colvin, the teacher is a woman who is a Master Herbalist, certified through Dr. Christopher’s School of Natural Healing in Springville, UT (where my friend Heidi worked).  The first class was on Growing a Medicinal Herb Garden.  The second class was “Herbal First Aid” and the third was “Herbs for Women’s Issues”.  I am working on designing and preparing gardens, and hope to plant them next year.  However, it did make me feel better about several “weeds” that I never got around to exterminating—turns out they are awesome helpers that I was already growing!  YAY!

I am taking Beekeeping classes, also, and I will gradually buy apiary supplies this year and get my bees next spring.  I am REALLY excited about that—I didn’t think it would be possible to think bees were any cooler, but the more I learn, the more fabulously awesome they are—truly celestially designed!  (However, the pests that affect them are DEFINITELY in the telestial category!  GROSS and nasty!)   I will probably start my “vermiculture” worm farm this year.  Pretty neat little critters—but not as beautiful as bees!  Red Wigglers eat 1 ½ times their body weight a day in household waste that they turn into the highest possible quality compost!  You can just set up a bin in the basement or outside and make sure they have plenty of kitchen scraps and newsprint, and enough moisture, and they do their magic without much outside interference!

We had the Candyland Activity last Wednesday, so now I can give you more details!  The Laurels wanted to plan a really special Mother-Daughter Activity, and they recruited me, because they know where my talents lie!  We actually started the planning back in November, and over the Christmas break Sarah K and Aryn P came for a 2 day sleepover, and we started work on decorations.  BigGirl and I have been working at least once a week on parts of it since then! 

It started with walking in the YW hallway under 8 ft tall Candy Canes flanking the inner glass doors, with a “Welcome to Candyland” sign.  There were bright paper squares on the floor, like the game board.  If you followed them, you went into the YW room, where the front chalkboard had been turned into the Peppermint Forest, and they did a craft, decorating picture frames with Starlight Mints (red and green).  Then they went to the “Gumdrop Mountains”, and guessed how many gumdrops were in a jar.  Then on to “Peanut Acres” where they played cornhole with beanbags shaped like peanuts.  Each of those areas had a large (4-5 foot long) painted backdrop.  Then out into the hall, past “Lollipop Woods” which had 6 paper mache lollipops that were about a foot across standing in a grove. 

In the RS room we had 4 tables set up, each with a brightly colored plastic tablecloth. The table centerpieces were little gingerbread houses. Over the chalkboard we had the “Candy Castle” which was a castle I painted on sheet years ago for a little girls birthday.  Up at the front we had the “Chocolate Swamp, where I had a chocolate brown silk fabric “chocolate waterfall” and a real chocolate fountain, with stuff to dip.  On the other food table we had sandwiches in the shape of gingerbread people and “cupcakes” made with mini meatloaves in aluminum cupcake papers, topped with mashed potatoes piped on like frosting, then baked.  Out in the hallway by the gym, we blocked it off with the piano, and then put up giant stand up Gingerbread Mom & Daughter cutouts, where we took pictures of the girls with their moms, and we will put those pictures in their frames as a memento.  It was a HUGE amount of work, but we had a really good turnout, and we had several of the less active girls and everybody had fun, so it was worth it!

The next morning was our Seminary visit from our Stake Seminary Supervisor.  He drives all the way up from  Columbus twice a year to visit!  (He has to get up at 2am, and he is still willing, cheerful and brings donuts!  Talk about dedication!)  After he left, I jumped in the shower, then got SmallDaughter dressed and on the bus, then left for town, where I hooked up with a couple from my Ward, and my newly returned from his mission cousin, and we went to the Temple.  It was a wonderful session, even though I was running on 4 hours of sleep!  I stayed in town for an hour, then drove over to the church, where I carpooled BACK down to Columbus for the Stake Primary Leadership Meeting.  It was also very good.  There were several classes on Special Needs children, which was excellent, since SmallDaughter’s new Assistant was able to go! 

I had been really worried about finding a babysitter for SmallDaughter for Saturday’s Quad Stake Seminary Activity/Dance—I knew I would be gone 10+ hours, and there was NO way she would like it!  However—the babysitter situation was looking pretty dire!  Grandpa & Grandma were in Maryland for her brother’s wedding, LargeCousin & Auntie were in their final performance of “Oklahoma”, and Bestie K and her kids are in TX, where her mom has been in Intensive Care with internal bleeding.  Even my backups—were all babysitting grandkids!  AARGH!  I finally asked the mom of one of my seminary boys, and she was willing, but was sick, and not sure how she would be feeling.  Anyway, in blessings many layers deep, My Favorite Gentleman got to come home on Friday, so SmallDaughter just got to have an awesome day with her daddy!  He took her to see “Wreck-it Ralph”, to ride the carousel (once on the chariot, twice on kitties), and to eat Hamburgers at McDonalds! 

So, on Friday, I worked on the house (slowly, since I was super-tired!), and I was at Beekeeping Class when My Favorite Gentleman got home, but boy was it nice to see him!  It is working out that he comes home once a month, and I go see him once, so I average seeing him every two weeks, with the kids seeing him once.  Better than nothing, but less than ideal.  Please pray that he will be transferred to a crew that works 10 days on, 4 off, so he can be home more.  Saturday was the big seminary activity, and it was really fun.  I took my whole seminary crew and we had a great time, but I got home a little after midnight, and had to leave the house on Sunday at 8, so I could be at Ward Council by 9.  I presented the new Summer Project—instead of Book of Mormon Reading, we are doing a Summer of Service.  I have had so much inspiration on this, it has already been awesome for me, and I hope we can get the rest of the Ward to catch the spirit!

Today we are going to go pick up our new chicks!  Always a fun time!  (We just got back—they are--OF COURSE!—super cute!)  And varied, because I just got 25 assorted brown egg layers. I think we have 4 or 5 breeds—lots of barred (black and white striped feathers, very pretty), some yellow chicks that will probably be regular red chickens and 4 cute little “booted” girls that have feathers on their feet, and are a really pretty “seal” brown like a Siamese cat! 

BigGirl going to Spain is because we found a neat program called Pueblo Ingles, where they pair up native English speakers with Spaniards who need to practice English.  We only have to pay for plane fare, and they put the “anglos” up at a 4-Star resort, all expenses paid for 1 or 2 weeks.  All she has to do, is have lots of 1 on1 conversations with teens from Spain!  And,  they use English speakers from all over the world, so she can meet friends from South Africa, Ireland, Australia, etc.  The only problem we are having is with scheduling, because the teen program mainly runs through the month of July—right when she has Youth Conference and Girls Camp!  We are doing our best, but she is planning to try next year if we can’t make this year work!  And for just awesomeness, our passports have arrived!

How is everybody doing?  Well, My Favorite Gentleman is working lots and lots, BigGirl is busy doing awesome young lady things like watching the Lizzie Bennett Diaries (which finish up next week!!), staying updated on several webcomics, reading stacks and stacks of books, going to plays and various social awesome things, and  being on the Stake Youth Committee.  LargeBoy is drawing all the time, and having a great time being awesome with his seminary bros.  They alternate between video games, drawing, creating live online adventures via chat with the various far away friends, learning to play musical instruments and practicing sweet dance moves.  He is also working on becoming a fashion-meister with his own hipster, thrift store style.  It is pretty awesome (often involves hats, suspenders, cool belts and custom decorated canvas tennis shoes).  SmallDaughter is doing really well.  She is continuing to progress in school, and when I had our meeting with her teacher, Mrs. K, (who taught her for 3^rd grade, didn’t for 4^th and had her this year for 5^th), she has noticed LOTS more concentration, and Lots less picking, which gives me hope.  I am just doggy paddling along, trying to keep everything in balance!

Such a blessing!

Each birth is a blessing!  

And when it happens that the birth is a new niece for me--even better!

My dear sister is quite the specialist--

This sweet little girl is

her 5th girl!

(She has a great recipe--look how cute they are!)

Not that I am at all biased--but these girls are all as smart as they are cute!

(Proud Daddy was taking the pictures!)

It seems a little weird to me that my younger sisters have more children than I do!  

I spent so many years being the trail blazer, it is now a slightly odd feeling to be outnumbered!

Whew!

I haven't posted in a coon's age because SmallDaughter decided to make life...interesting. By climbing up and getting a bottle of lamp oil (the refined kerosene type) off the top of the refrigerator, and drinking it. We immediately called 911, and she got to spend several days in the hospital, and another week recovering. Now that I have done more research, I know how scared I should have been! I was worried about her stomach and esophagus being damaged--but the really scary part is learning how dangerous it is for the lungs (I didn't know I needed to worry about her lungs!).  

Here is a little sample of the reading I have been doing  (I underlined my favorite panic inducing statements!):
"Hydrocarbons ranked sixth in substances most frequently involved in human exposures reported to the American Association of Poison Control Centers National Data Collection System in 1988. Roughly half of these cases involved children under the age of 6. This is not surprising in view of the fact that hydrocarbon-based products are commonly found in the home. With adults, gasoline siphoning or deliberate inhalation (“huffing”) appear to be the major sources of accidental hydrocarbon exposure.

Symptoms of aliphatic hydrocarbon ingestion, in the absence of toxic substituents, are confined to the gastrointestinal tract and the respiratory tract. Local effects include a burning sensation in the mouth and pharynx, nausea, gastric irritation, belching and diarrhea. These rarely require treatment and are considered fairly innocuous.

Pulmonary effects, when they do occur, are the result of aspiration. A severe necrotizing pneumonitis, with direct tissue destruction, can occur. Aspiration can occur at the time of ingestion, or during vomiting or gastric lavage. Aspiration can occur from minute amounts of hydrocarbon. Pulmonary toxicity represents the most common complication of hydrocarbon ingestion and accounts for the majority of fatalities.

When aspiration occurs, the patient may initially experience coughing, choking, gagging or grunting respirations.

X-ray findings are usually significant at two to eight hours after ingestion. Pulmonary infiltrates or perihilar densities have commonly been seen. Following aspiration, deterioration of the patient may occur over the first 24-72 hours, with resolution of symptoms in three to six days. Bacterial superinfection is also possible. Hemorrhagic edema can rapidly lead to the patient's demise.

Aspiration of aliphatic hydrocarbons may result in lethargy, tremors, and, rarely, convulsions or coma. These effects are more likely due to severe pulmonary injury or hypoxia."

So many scary things!

However--she is back up and around, and I am feeling SO blessed!

So, I am going to try to be better about posting...but (sorry!) no promises!

Life goes speeding by!

On Tuesday, for Relief Society Homemaking meeting we went to Catholic Charities to see just where exactly the 100 pies we make every year in November go. They were super nice, and I love knowing that good people are looking out for our brothers and sisters. The only weirdness was when lovely Patrice (our hostess), typed in the wrong code for the alarm system as we went down to see the food pantry, so we spent about 20 minutes huddled in a hallway with a VERY loud alarm went off—making jokes about what the police blotter would report about the Mormons robbing the Catholics! In the end, 2 police cars showed up, but everything was resolved smoothly.

On Thursday, I got to drive down to the Columbus Temple with a sweet sister from my Ward. It was so nice being able to do something spiritual for myself. It was a very peaceful and relaxing session, and I am super glad I went, and we had a lovely lunch afterwards.

BigGirl and LargeBoy both had big weekend plans. BigGirl went to Ohayocon ("Ohayo" is Japanese for Hello, so it is a clever pun with "Ohio"--a convention for people who enjoy Anime, Manga and Japanese Culture--which perfectly describes BigGirl!) with her friend Danielle, and D’s brother & his wife, then went to church on Sunday with them, then I picked her up. She looked very cute in her costume—Toph Bei Fong from Avatar the Last Airbender (and, having learned a major lesson last year, packed plenty of food--a cooler full of Bento).

LargeBoy went hiking at Hocking Hills State Park with his best friend Tall Sam’s family (it is a little confusing that both of his best friends have the same name!)—it was lovely weather, which has since dropped like a rock into the single digits (from the 60’s!).

SmallDaughter & I also had a big weekend—we went to the lovely home of our Primary 2nd Counselor for a Primary Worker Brunch (she had a great time playing with the other kids and their toys!), then I took her to the carousel, where she (ironically, in my opinion, since she begs for horsies every time we drive past!) did not ride any horsies! She rode the tiger, giraffe (twice!), bunny, kitty, bear & chariot. Then I dragged her off to the library, and she spent the rest of the day, expressing her disgust at my actions and her desire to go ride the carousel some more!

In the evening I cleaned the Church, with help from LargeBoy & Tall Sam (They went back to Tall Sam’s afterwards), LargeCousin & Sister V. I had been worried that I would be alone to do it, so I was really relieved!

My Favorite Gentleman hasn’t been home since Christmas, so he doesn’t have much to report in news—he is really cold and working hard.

The funniest quotes do not come from my house, but from my dear Sister's, where my nephews work hard every day to make my life funnier!

Almost 4 Year old (singing):
“Mary had a little man,
little man,
little man,
Mary had a little man,
And it was quite a show.”

Also, the boys are excitedly planning the turning 4 birthday party. Last year he had a “baby cow” party, but this year his big brother(age 5) informed him that baby cows aren’t cool, and what he really needs is a “Bully-Cow” party! Blessedly, the only experience they have with “Bullys” is as daddy cows!

A New Year

I think it is very easy on blogs to get a pretty one sided view of the blogger. I know I often find myself feeling pretty down that I don't make my own yogurt or scrub down my baseboards monthly (seriously, I read blogs on both of those things today--I can honestly admit that I scrub my baseboards never!).

I could only show you the glossy highlights of my life. I want to do posts on how fabulously mellow and great our Christmas was. And how proud I am of my awesome teenagers (and how on earth, with parents like us, did they end up cool AND with rhythm? Mysteries abound!)And how awesome my Christmas party with my seminary kids went (the words hilarious and awesome spring immediately to mind!) And I could post pictures of the neat decorations we are making for a Young Women's Mother/Daughter activity (but I can't until Feb, because that one is a secret--but we are sure having fun with it!)

But instead I will confess that I spent the whole entire day working on the finances that I have been sorely (pathetically, really!) neglecting--for months . I KNOW it is not a big job to balance my checkbook, etc, if I do it every week. And, furthermore, I KNOW it turns into a big, hairy, stinky, nasty bearcat of a job if I neglect it. Sigh.

I am also worrying and praying for people I love. For babies to gestate and be born safely, for the hospitalized to have their Doctors guided and inspired, for the worried, confused, stressed and grieving to have their hearts lifted and their burdens made lighter. It makes me think of how, in the Book of Mormon, when Alma and his people were slaves to the Lamanites (and the renegade Nephites), who treated them horribly and forced them to carry heavy burdens, that the miracle they were given was NOT to have the burdens removed. It was that they were strengthened so the burdens seemed light. I pray for miracles like that for those I love whose burdens seem almost to heavy to bear.

2013. Maybe I will be able to dink around less, and accomplish a few things that will stay done! In general, I avoid New Years Resolutions (I merely have to look at my track record to see why!), and prefer to think of each day as a great place to jump in and become better.

But I am still not betting that I will scrub my baseboards every month.

Christmas Capes

I got the CTR Hero Capes finished in the nick of time--not a panicked last minute sewing (Thank Goodness!)--but I ran out of fabric paint and had to wait till I could go to the "big city store" to get more, so I finished them while watching a movie Saturday Night, so they could dry all night, then got them bundled up.

They seem to have been a hit--almost every child wore them for the rest of Primary.

The sweet little ones show off their "Hero Style"

Here are some Hero Girls with ATTITUDE!
(And, you could not find sweeter, better girls if you tried!)

(The big girls had to move their long hair out of the way so it didn't cover the CTR shields for the picture!)

I made (of course!) Red, Yellow & Blue capes (The Primary Colors!)--but the little ones overwhelmingly picked blue!

Kitty Update

We have moved our last batch of kittens out to the barn/garage. They do not like this decision. The barn does not contain any of the things they like about the house—soft places to curl up in (favorites are whatever I am attempting to sew and the newly folded basket of laundry), or yummy things on the counter to eat (which is one of the reasons they are banished from the house!) The funniest thing has been trying to use the spray bottle as negative reinforcement for being on counters and tables. It works, and is very effective—except SmallDaughter LOVES to spray them, and whenever she can get her hands on the bottle, the cat is going to get it—which confuses them—“how is sleeping (on the floor in a patch of sunshine) naughty like being on the counter?” Less effective training, but pretty hilarious!

They are more pathetic than our other batches (or maybe I just forget the past!). Since the back screen-door screen is ripped, they can jump up and sit on the edge of the doorframe, just at the height to peek in through the glass window of the back door. And meow piteously. And occasionally, fall into the gap between the doors—always good for some amusing sound effects! It doesn’t worry me particularly, since the screen door doesn’t latch, and when they remember, they can just push on the right side of the screen-door to get out.

However, girl kitty (I think she is the one named Snickers) climbed through the mail slot on the front door last week, and got stuck between the door and the screen-door—which both latch securely and are much more solid! She will be too big for that trick very soon (I actually thought she already was!). They do keep things entertaining! SmallDaughter was just showing them her plate of scrambled eggs through the window. Very amusing from this side! Pretty darn pathetic from the other side!

I am in the finishing stages of sewing a bunch of capes for the primary kids. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. The theme for Primary this year was “Choose The Right” At the beginning of the year, our Primary Presidency decided to have a “CTR Hero”, which is a child we spotlight, and tell about a few of their good choices. I made a really awesome, swishy red cloak, with a very flashy CTR shield on the back—outlined in really blingy gold glitter.

Since I have no personal dignity, each week I don this piece of awesome, and swoop around the seated children, looking for my “Hero”. After I give some clues and they guess the child, the chosen one gets to wear the cape (and a crown) for the rest of primary. It has gone over very well. So, we are giving each child a smaller version of the CTR cape as a Christmas gift. My living room floor is covered with Red, Yellow and Blue capes, now embellished with a sparkly silver fabric paint “CTR” Shield on the back. Last night, I put on a movie and applied fabric paint (to the CTR that I had already traced on the back with a stencil and a sharpie!)—after I had put SmallDaughter to bed and made sure there were no critters in the house! Then they got to peacefully dry without anybody touching or stepping on them, YAY! They look really good—I hope the kids like them.

The most exciting news (for me, at least!)—is that I got a Serger for Christmas! While this does not fill everybody else with joy, I have been wanting, wishing, lusting and pining for one since I was in college! And now, I have a really awesome, brand new machine! And it is great! They do such different things than a regular sewing machine; it is rather like asking if a can opener or a blender is a better/more important kitchen tool. I need them both to be as effective as possible. And, because of My Dear Sister’s brilliance, I have set up a little sewing room in the back hallway (by the attic stairs, at the top of the kitchen stairway). It took a couple of weeks and a lot of work to clear out all the detritus that has accumulated over the last 5 years since the top stair broke, but it is working great now!