Halloween

We had a good Halloween. My kids told me some time ago that they wanted to be a witch , a black cat and a broom, the witch and the black cat were easy, generic costume for the witch, ears and tail kit with black sweats and a little bit of face paint for the cat, but a broom.. now that was kind of tricky. I thought about it some… I could have gone to the home improvement store and gotten  the round tubing that is used for pouring cement pylons, but that was expensive, and for what I had in mind, heavy.

In my garage, I still had the box for the hot water heater that we replaced when we moved in (we switched from gas to electric) so I went out and cut out two sides from it.. brought it in and worked the long sides so that it would curl. Wrapped it around the child who would be wearing it ,and cut it so there was only about 3 inches of overlap, not 12. Once I got that cut, I wrapped it around her again, and measured so that if the edge of the cardboard were to sit at her hips, so that she can still walk, where her face would be,  and cut a hole out for her face. after that I cut hole on either side for her arms to stick out, this also means that the weight of the cardboard rests on her shoulders.

Once all the holes were cut, I wrapped it around her again, and taped it, using clear packing tape, into the tube that would be the broom handle. and then we pulled it off over her head. Just before we went trick or treating last night I helped her put the handle back on, over her head and then I took a generic faux grass hula skirt and wrapped around the cardboard at about her waist, making sure that it didn’t quite drag the ground, so she could still walk. taping it in several places around her body. on top of the grass skirt I wrapped two circles of silver ribbon, so that it looked like the wires that generally bind that style of broom. After much discussion the kids had decided that they wanted her to be a Firebolt, like one of Harry Potter’s brooms so I took a magic marker and wrote Firebolt near the top. I think it turned out cute. It won’t win any design or construction contests but it lasted the evening and all the neighbors loved it.

They were adorable, if I do say so myself.

some recent realizations…

1. Putting kids to work yields iffy results.
2. I own a LOT of blankets.
3. Putting 2 kids on the same job is asking for fights and a bigger mess than you started with.
4. Windows Live Sync is a wonderful thing. Especially if you have more than one computer you use regularly.
5. Weekends, when all 3 kids are home during the day, mom gets no more than 37 seconds of quiet at a time, and absolutely no time to concentrate on anything.
6. A beard trimmer, with guides, will double as a set of clippers for giving a small boy a haircut.
7. If you say you will do something “over the weekend” this means that the kids start nagging for it to be done as soon as they get home from school on Friday, and continue until the promised event is done or until they annoy you to the point that you cancel said event.
8. I need a new copy of Office ‘07
9. I still enjoy cooking…
10. Google docs Rawks for so many things.
11. Temperatures over 100 in mid October is obscene.
12. Well.. I enjoy cooking when it is not obscenely hot…
13. Men who think they know more than you on a given subject will not accept that you might have learned something they don’t know… no, this isn’t a new revelation, but I feel the need to remind myself periodically.
14. When PMS strikes, it is entirely possible that nothing will sound good to eat, except dark chocolate, and baby carrots. No, not together, that is nasty…. and no, I am not pregnant.

One day there was

a little boy, he was only three years old, but pretty quick thinking… He ran into the kitchen, where his mama was working, and asked “What ‘cha doing, Mama?” His mama tells him that she is making banana bread, because she realized that they had some bananas that were getting ready to go bad. At the same time she is measuring and adding the flour to the mixer, and greasing the loaf pans to bake the bread. The little boy looks at her for a minute, and says “I want some ‘nana bread!” then he looks into the oven. The oven is not yet hot, and is still empty. At which time the small boy sits on his butt on the floor in front of the oven and tells his mama that he can’t see the ‘nana bread and it needs to get in there soon so he can eat it.

He waited very impatiently for the bread to make it into the oven…. all of 5-10 minutes… But he was very patient for the hour that the bread took to bake. By then, his older sisters had gotten home from school, and they were all impatient to have some bread as an after-school snack. The bread had a very short life span, and was deeply mourned when it was gone.

Some things I have realized..

yes, even in I have deep moments.

1. My children are teaching me tolerance ~ I can tolerate them running and screaming through the house for about 3 hrs.
2. My tolerance is not yet perfect ~ after about 3 hrs, I am forced to find them each separate jobs so that they will be quiet and stop running.
3. Knitting is teaching me patience ~ I can wait almost forever when I have my knitting with me.
4. My patience seems  conditional ~ if the kids are with me, or if I don’t have my knitting, my patience is apparently absent.
5. Knitting has also taught me that time is relative ~ when knitting a sock, those first 8 inches seem to just fly by, but that last inch, though worked at the same pace, can take hours.
6. There is no such thing as too much yarn ~ just trust me on this one. And don’t ask how much yarn I own.
7. I love my extended family, and sometimes I love them more the further away they are from me.
8. In some ways, I am a very old fashioned woman ~ I love cooking, canning, putting up food, making things “from scratch” as in not using mixes, taking care of my family (though the whole washing dishes by hand thing, it is for the birds)  and just in general being a homemaker.
9. In other ways, I am very modern ~ I love my computer and internet, and I am not willing to give them, or my cell phone up. (mind you, cell phone is our only phone, we gave up a land line years ago)
10. Knitting has taught me to plan ahead ~ it is easier to use up extra yarn than to find more of the same color and dye lot to finish a project.
11. I have learned that beauty is relative ~ I have a red circular shawl pinned to one wall, I knitted the shawl, and dyed it myself, I am very proud of it and I thin it is beautiful, I have had people ask me why I have a huge doily on the wall.
12. I have learned that by the age of 3 children can no longer hear the sound of their mother’s voice.
13. A child who loves to read is a gift, though sometimes you may wish that she reads slower, so that it is easier to keep her in reading material.
14. A child who doesn’t love to read, sometimes just hasn’t yet found something she enjoys reading.
15. Time spent reading is never wasted. Trust me on this one, ignore the rest of my family.

The Cookie Incident We Do Not Speak of….

ok.. apparently my cookie dough was not dry enough. I chilled it, I rolled it out, I put the cookies on the cookie sheet, baked in oven preheated to 325, just like the directions said… and I pulled out of the oven one big wafer. They melted together, and flat.

I am glad my camera is out of town.

No pictures mean you can’t prove this ever happened.

But they still taste good…..

We shall never speak of this again.

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!!

I love you, Tomorrow, you’re only a day away!!!

ok, yeah, I have Annie stuck in my head now, but this does express my excitement about tomorrow. Hubster will be home after 3 weeks away. I can barely contain my joy. He is back in this country again, for which I can only be thankful, I was a little worried about those long flights.

I have done a lot of house cleaning, trying to make sure everything looks good when hubby gets home. Major battling with the Laundry Monster, I swear dirty clothes hide everywhere and I can never get caught up.

*sigh*

I decided to try a shortbread cookie recipe, I found it on the Pioneer Woman website, looks good.  I have lots of serving ideas…

I am preparing for school, what to pack in lunches, what do we still need to buy, what we can get away without buying yet, and what is on sale where.

Hubby socks

ARE DONE!!!!  I finished them yesterday, with just 4 days left until he returns (today it is 3 days, but not like I am counting or anything)  They are in hiding with the rest of the Christmas stuff…

On the other hand, I am seriously wondering about my children’s sanity. The oldest (9) and the youngest (3) are each holding pencils rolled up in  washcloths, and then a rubberband to hold it on.  They will at random point them at each other and shout things. Things like “Expeliarmus“  and “Impedimentia” but I think my favorite is from my 3yo. He is pointing his at his sister and yelling “Expelidavra” I am wondering if it will kill the wand that flies across the room?

Ahh… the joys of children…

I will let them do this until I can’t stand it anymore, and then I will find work for them to do.

See, Mom’s not so dumb.

I laughed so hard….

on a knitting site that I go to some one was asking for a pattern, a knitted version of a crochet pattern being sold on Etsy. So I followed the link… and you are more than welcome to as well, before warned, it is a anatomicly correct doll, labor and deliver educational aid. If you must, see it here.

I can see how it would be a great thing. and I totally applaud the designer for her ingenuity, but I am still laughing. See what you think.

beat.head.against.wall

my husband and any new electronic always ellicits this response from me. Today it was setting up his new Blackberry. He is one of those who reads the entire instruction manual before he even powers up the new toy. And then he sits withthe manuel, and goes through step by step, with every thing it tells you. This usually leads to liberal cursing and general stupid statements. Things like “You have got to be F***ing kidding me?”  to which I refrain from my usual response something along the lines of ” Yes, Dear, it is all a big joke, on you.” because it really doesn’t help, trust me, but sometimes I have holes in my tongue from biting it.

I did finially get the gadget out of my husbands hands, and set it up myself, it took a call to the service provider because they had it set up wrong on their end (smartphone services assigned to the wrong  phone number,) but before I managed, I was ready to beat my head against a wall… or his head against the wall, one.

Kids Games

I am sitting here eating brunch (ok, it was after noon, but it was my first meal) and I hear  my 2 year old yelling “Help!! Help!! ‘pider!! Help!! and I look over and he is rolled up in a quilt off one of the girls beds… so my oldest tells him “I’ll help you!” and unrolls him. then she rolls up in it.. aparently they are pretending that there is a giant spider who has caught them and wrapped them in web and is getting ready to eat them. All I could do was laugh, it was funny!