Friday, July 30, 2010

My Third Follower!

My page views have increased a bit, and I'm excited about getting a follower that is actually someone I've never met!  Things are starting to get interesting.  Hopefully! :0)  

Molly starts Pre-K on Monday.  I still don't know what time to drop her off and pick her up. I'll have to call up there today.  Sometimes I look at her and think how awesome it would be to be able to start over from the beginning again, except this time a lot smarter.  I'm not envious exactly, but sad for myself a little. Aw, well, such is life.  It's not about me anymore.

The Crest in Edmond sells the anniversary Dr. Pepper with real sugar in it.  We drove up there last night and bought four 12 packs.  That should last me quite sometime.  I have banned Molly from drinking regular soda pop because I have associated behavioral issues with it.  Now she has to drink juice or water when we go somewhere for lunch.  She did argue with me a little, but over all she seems sort of grateful that I put my foot down. 


I thought I'd leave with  a couple pictures that Molly took to entertain herself when I left the camera unattended.  They seem a bit postmodern, don't you think? :)





















Thursday, July 29, 2010

Loud Noises by Multitudes of Children

We went to the Science Museum (formerly known as the Omniplex) today with some friends.  I just feel grumpy now from all the noise.  It was busy, but lots of fun for the kids.  They don't mind all the noise. And they don't have to keep track of themselves, the way their mothers have to keep track of them.  I forgot to take the camera, which sucks.  But check out the website and remember all those times you went when you were a kid.  Also remember that in these hard economic times, museums need what little support we can spare for them.  My friend Jamie has a pass so I didn't have to pay to get in, but I did buy some cookies at the snack bar and I got Molly a freeze dried ice cream sandwich at the gift shop.  Yay for SCIENCE!  (Okay that was a little sarcastic Sen. Inhoffe, sorry.)

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Allrightythen!

Jeri Askins it is then.  Yay!  

I will have to do some research on the other candidates.  I didn't recognize many names when I voted so I started just picking women at some point.  Thank God Sally Kern's name wasn't on my ballot, ha! 

Don't forget Obama on The View tomorrow!  10:00am KOCO 5. 

Okay, enough with the politics for awhile.  I personally am so sick of all those crazy commercials.  I am also saddened that only conservatives get to be patriotic and constitutional. :0)

The founding fathers were deists.  I'm just saying.


Toodles!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Primary Voting!

I am so hooked on voting.  I finally enjoy taking part in something bigger than myself. :0)
I don't know who to vote for though, for governor and I'm not informed enough on the other races. I can totally go with Askins or Edmondson.  I suppose it's a numbers game, deciding which has the best chance against that woman that voted for the bank bailouts. Ha! ha!  I kind of wish I lived in a state where I wasn't so outnumbered in my political views.  It's lonely. 
Go Vote!

Monday, July 26, 2010

It's This or The Gulag!

I'm starting the blogging week off on a sleepy-ish, Monday kind of tone.  It's also my last week before Molly starts school, so I'm going to try and line up some activities that we probably won't get to do until Fall break. Today is library day because I don't want to do anything else and the library only takes a half hour or so.  I still have lots of work to do that I meant to do while Molly was at my mom's.

I had a great week end.   On Friday I took several deep breaths and finally did the sock heel that I started back in February or whenever it was. Anyhow, I did it.  I did a  sock heel!  I'm working on the instep now.  I'll take a photo when I finish it.  Saturday we went to Pop's in Arcadia. We bought some Dr. Pepper that had sugar in it.  Very, very good. I also got a bottle of Leninade which was decent enough lemonade flavored soda pop, but the bottle was hilarious.  "A taste worth standing in line for." http://realsoda.com/  

After lunch at Pop's we went to my aunt's for a family pool party.  I swam for a couple of hours hoping to work off some of my back fat.  Ha!ha!  I forgot to take my camera, so I didn't get any pictures of Molly hanging out on the steps.  She would hold onto the bar and get her whole body in the water, but still be holding on to the rail, and then say,  "Look Grammy!  I'm all the way in!"

I didn't think to take a picture of the Leninade until after I'd drunk it all, so it was hard to get the full effect.

Yesterday we were all a bit tired and grumpy but I managed to get some work done anyway.  Today the plan is to go to the library before lunch and give Molly a hair cut after lunch.  I want to work on the sock, but I need to get etsy stuff done too. What to do, what to do! 

Don't forget to vote in the primaries tomorrow!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Mommy

  Every time I search the blogs for blogs to follow, I come across all these "Mommy blogs" and they all thank god many many times for all their blessings, and it all just makes me sick. I always wonder what goes on in those families when no one is looking, because no one can be that beautiful AND happy AND grateful AND perfect.  
  Then I sit down to write my own blog and find myself writing about my only child, whom I love so dearly. She's starting school in about a week and a half, and I admit I'm getting a bit misty.  But the thing is it doesn't seem like YESTERDAY that I brought her home from the hospital, it seems like a long ass time ago.  So much has happened since then, and I guess it went by kind of fast, but the experience has been such a full one that I'm actually a bit exhausted.  I'm so looking forward to my two and half hours a day to myself. :)
  One day when she was a baby I was watching Reno 911 while she screamed in my arms.  I can't remember enough about the episode to explain it, but someone was singing Amazing Grace and I remembered how soothing that song was.  I started singing it and Molly went right to sleep.  I sang it often to her going back and forth between that and Train In Vain by the Clash.  As a non believer, it is hard to know how to approach the subject of religion with a child, because I want her to make up her own mind about it someday.  As I sang that song to my infant, I started to understand how easy it would be to give credit to something other than myself for all the joy I felt.  Saying I'm lucky seems so hollow somehow.  And while I still can't take that leap of faith, I can say that life does seem rather magical sometimes.  And there, by the grace of god go I. 




















Thursday, July 22, 2010

Squirrels!

I have caught the squirrels eating the pears 
off the pear tree, and when I dug up 
my potatoes I found several buried 
pecans trying to grow.  I think I know 
how they got there.  But the other day 
I realized Molly's sunflower was all 
droopy because (and I'm assuming here) 
a squirrel sat on the fence and ate 
all the seeds out of it.  All those shells 
on the ground are empty.  My tomatoes 
still going strong.




 

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Wednesday, Bloody Wednesday

  First of all, I have to point out something you may have already deemed obvious.  I'm not good at titles.  I've always hated it.  I didn't want anyone to think that I didn't already know.  No need to be polite.  :)
  I'm sorry I skipped yesterday, I went school clothes shopping and I finished up a certain baby shower gift.  And I played Frontierville.  (Why can't I stop?)   
  I'm really amazed at my tomato harvesting.  I've had to tie up the plants because the cages are falling over.  I also cut the ends off of the plants because the won't stop growing and blooming.  It's insane. I made spaghetti sauce and used the leftover for pizza sauce and it was SOOOOO good. 
   I don't want to go into any details, since the, technically, the whole world can read this, but I am SOOOO tired of drama.  It's not as bad now that I don't actually get upset, and I know there's nothing I can do about it anyway, but I'm still tired of it. I just want to enjoy myself and my loved ones.  I don't want to be involved in conflict. Sigh!  Okay, I feel better now.
  Here's a picture of my biggest tomato so far.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Won't It Be Odd

I wandered around, running my errands, eating my Sonic hamburger in my car in front of JoAnn's fabric store ALL by myself today, and I found myself pondering adulthood.  While I spent a good portion of my time off from blogging playing Frontierville on Facebook like a damn teenager, I think I have come up with  a good list of what it means to me to be a grown up in preparation for my upcoming 35th birthday.

1. Impulse Control  -This one is complex for me, because mostly I have always had pretty good impulse control.  However, the things that I did do that I believed I had no control over, I did because I wanted to avoid reality-or a certain reality about myself.  But, lo and behold, when I did finally face those realities, it wasn't so bad after all.  Which brings me to:

2.  Demons Belong in Hell, Not in My Head.  I mean this metaphorically, of course.  Because....

3. FDR was right when he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  There are things that I'd like to avoid experiencing, and to the best of my ability I will do what I need to do to avoid those things.  But I can't control rapists, child molesters, bank robbers, fascist dictators, or anyone else for that matter.  As long as I face the dangers of life with dignity and logic and respond to them appropriately, I can only hope to get through them with minimal damage.  My experience with living in fear was lonely and depressing.  I'm tired of being afraid.

4. Facing My Own Mortality.  I think it's true that children MAKE you grow up, if you haven't already.   The hardest thing I ever had to do was tell Molly the fish that she named Bob, was dead.  She was three, and no longer could we live in our joyful little bubble of newness.  Death entered the room and robbed us of our innocence.  Without actually putting it into words, I looked her in the eye and told her that someday I would die and then she would too, and that was if we were lucky.  This is somewhat related to:

5. Facing My Own Limitations.  I can't be the perfect mother, or the perfect wife, or the perfect blogger.  The knitting project I'm working on right now, I forgot to decrease in the right spot and I didn't want to tear it out so I just decreased farther down.   I don't have it in me. 


6. Admitting These Limitations To Others (Not to be confused with self-deprecation which is not very grown-up at all, in my opinion.)  As an obvious example, I hope that by admitting to Molly that I am unable to provide her with everything she needs (or thinks she needs), she will become, over time, more and more self reliant, thus resulting in less resentment on my part.


7.  Self reliance.  I am part of something larger than myself, a family.   I do need this family for emotional and physical survival. Although I don't want to contemplate living without either Mike or Molly, I do know that I don't need them to be a whole person.  I can look at myself and my accomplishments and evaluate them for myself.  Although I have become a bit of a praise junky in recent years, it is the sentiment behind the praise that gives me joy.


8.  I Don't Do Anything I Don't Want To Do.  Several years ago I found myself in a situation where I felt trapped and somewhat desperate.  I realized that if I did not get out of it, I would kill someone or myself.  When I realized that staying meant one or the other, I also realized that I did not want to be a murderer, and I did not want to die. I chose option C, where what I really wanted was still possible.  Acting with my best interest in mind ahead of all others has made all the difference in the world. There are small things that I do that I may not enjoy, but I do them because I have bigger things in mind.


9.  Long term Goals Are Usually More Important Than Short Term Desires.  Hopefully this would leave some room for spontaneous goofing about and, uh, other things.  Here's an example:  I really don't want to spend the money on school uniforms for Molly.  However, I want her to think of her education as important and the school we have her enrolled in, that we are in the district of, has a uniform policy.  I also want to find a way to teach her the difference between blind obedience and compliance with social norms and school policies.  (Ugh, that's going to be hard.)


10. Finally, Finding Peace With the Past, the Present, and the Future.  It's been a hard road, but I finally got to a place where I can be confident in who I am.  I found a constant in a turbulent sea, myself. For the most part, I've actually had a pretty good time of it.  We shall see what happens next......

Monday, July 12, 2010

This Week

I got up this morning, and I thought, I've been doing really well keeping up with the blogs for the past few weeks.  Frankly, I'm tired of it.  Well, I'm sure it's a temporary thing, but I thought perhaps I should take the week off.  I'm going to focus my energies on other things, like the baby shower gift I am preparing for my sister-in-law.  The shower is not till August 14, so you'll have to wait until then to see the pictures. :0)  
Sigh, I don't get it, why do kids have to eat all the time?  I have stuff to do!  
Anyway, my mom will have Molly next Monday and Tuesday, so I will take advantage of my time alone.  I think I want to focus more time on etsy this week too.  Molly also starts Pre-K on August 2. She'll only be gone for a couple hours in the afternoons, and I'm sure it will take some time to figure out how to utilize my time. (I'm so worried that I will forget to pick her up.)  
Write more in a week.  
H.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Whatnot

Short weeks are nice.  We had a good 
holiday weekend. Mostly.  (Ha, ha!) 
Tired of all the rain though. 

I made a couple mitts for dusting 
shelves and things.  They will be 
posted on etsy shortly.  Here's a  
preview.  (Looks like an oven mitt, 
huh?)  The acrylic yarn really picks 
up dust like a vacuum.  ;)

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Homemade Soap

I have sensitive skin, eczema to be exact.  It's nothing catching or terribly gross, but itchy all the same.  Long story short,  I have discovered that homemade soap is a wonderful thing.  I've always been afraid to try different things because of embarrassing red itchy patches.  (Don't even get me started on eye creams.)  

The homemade soap that I have tried so far is made by a super nice lady named Anne living on a farm in Wisconsin.  So far I have tried the goat's milk soap, and it is FAN-tastic.   Most of the soaps are $4 a bar, which is well worth it, and everyone knows what a cheap skate I am!  

www. circleanaturals.etsy.com


Mike also loves the soap so much that he's been accumulating the supplies needed to make his own soap.  I'm going to have him put oat flour in it and see how that helps my skin.  I'm excited.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Etsy Update 7/7/10

 




I have some wash cloths up 
and one mop cover.  
Both products are made 
of cotton and very absorbent 
for cleaning surfaces.  
I will have much more up soon.  :)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Baby Pics

  I am in charge of organizing all the photos in different files and on different discs, now that I am not so much the technophobe.  I also have better organization (ahem) skills.  :)  I ran across a   few baby pictures.  (Finally found the hospital ones!) We had a really crappy camera back then.  Sigh!  Nostalgia all the same. 
 
 

Monday, July 5, 2010

Garden Update

I took these pictures on 
Wednesday, when I took
a bunch of others. I have 
never seen tomato plants 
go crazy like that.  It must 
be the compost. :)





Friday, July 2, 2010

Etsy

I've got two new listings on etsy for a few of my scrubbies, by the time you read this there will hopefully be more than just the two listings.  Yay!  I'm excited about the pictures.  I think they are getting better.

Pick two for $5. 


Have a great holiday.  Remember all the sacrifices that others have made for your freedom.  :)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Molly's Bed

Molly inherited a bed that had 
the name Ariel painted on it. 
Mike stripped it and Molly 
helped him paint it with the 
leftover paint from her room.