I've learned...
Kids grow. Tall kids grow like weeds. At one point, I had nicknamed our kids Weed and Feed. Feed one, the other grows like a Weed. Which one was which changed on a regular basis. One would eat insanely, the other would grow insanely. Then, after a new shoe size in one, they'd switch. Both Bigfoot and Beadgirl are above their height growth chart. Bigfoot in particular, is way over his growth chart. So are his feet.
I just bought him size thirteen shoes earlier this week. I only bought his size twelve shoes in September. Actually, six months is a long time for him to wear one shoe size. I replaced shoes in December due to wear, not from growth. I got lucky this time around. I replace shoes resulting from growth every three months. Five months without foot growth is a first. We haven't seen this in almost four years.
I wonder how long this shoe size will last?
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Green Tissue Paper, Coming Back to Haunt Me
My green tissue paper issues almost rose from the dead last Friday. Don't get me wrong, the flags came out wonderful. I'm glad I decided to use fabric instead of tissue paper for them. Trying to starch them wasn't so friendly.
Starch has not been seen by my iron for over three years. Of course, I forgot how much of the stuff sticks to the heat plate of the iron. As I was starching these three-inch flags, they were sticking to the iron, removable only with utensils such as forks and table knives. In the end, the flags turned out wonderful.
Stuffing them into the flower boxes was the issue now at hand. Craft sticks hold in floral foam quite well, so long as nothing covers the foam. I can't put these decorations on display with foam showing. I didn't have enough moss for all six boxes, and there was no time left to shop. Tissue paper would work. I need green tissue paper for these boxes, I thought . I'll call Kevin and ask if he can pick some up. Nope, he wouldn't be available to stop in Silverdale for green tissue paper. Tony works in Silverdale. I'm sure he can stop for some. Yeah right. He got the message AFTER he left Silverdale. Great, time for plan “b,” use something else. I guess I can go out for the stuff I need after dinner. I'll just stay later and stuff the boxes after I get green tissue paper.
I began to assess my situation with these decorations after dinner. I realized then, I had white and orange tissue paper. I never needed green tissue paper in the first place.
Orange tissue paper turned out just fine. Unfortunately, NO ONE took any pictures at dinner, and my phone was dead. I had to bring this one home for photos. I really must learn to not forget my camera.
Starch has not been seen by my iron for over three years. Of course, I forgot how much of the stuff sticks to the heat plate of the iron. As I was starching these three-inch flags, they were sticking to the iron, removable only with utensils such as forks and table knives. In the end, the flags turned out wonderful.
Stuffing them into the flower boxes was the issue now at hand. Craft sticks hold in floral foam quite well, so long as nothing covers the foam. I can't put these decorations on display with foam showing. I didn't have enough moss for all six boxes, and there was no time left to shop. Tissue paper would work. I need green tissue paper for these boxes, I thought . I'll call Kevin and ask if he can pick some up. Nope, he wouldn't be available to stop in Silverdale for green tissue paper. Tony works in Silverdale. I'm sure he can stop for some. Yeah right. He got the message AFTER he left Silverdale. Great, time for plan “b,” use something else. I guess I can go out for the stuff I need after dinner. I'll just stay later and stuff the boxes after I get green tissue paper.
I began to assess my situation with these decorations after dinner. I realized then, I had white and orange tissue paper. I never needed green tissue paper in the first place.
Orange tissue paper turned out just fine. Unfortunately, NO ONE took any pictures at dinner, and my phone was dead. I had to bring this one home for photos. I really must learn to not forget my camera.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Happy Saint Patrick's Day!
Happy St. Patrick's Day to all. May the luck of the Irish be with you today and always. Enjoy your day in which we celebrate the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick. I found some interesting websites on Saint Patrick's Day. Just a few of them include:
The History Channel Online. They have a page dedicated to St. Patrick's Day.
Wilstar.com has a section on the holiday.
Teachers.net has some lesson plans here.
We won't be dining on corned beef and cabbage tonight. I'm not entirely into cultural celebrations during the week. This is especially true when Dancing With the Stars is opening season six tonight. There is no time tonight for Irish food. There will be time, however, for my tush to plant itself on the sofa and drool in front of the television.
Instead, we celebrated Saturday night, we dined on Irish stew and soda bread. I loved this stew, made by my friends, Kevin and Tony. Tony stayed up late Friday night roasting lamb all night long for this stew. Friends were many and fun Saturday night. For the past two years, we've served corned beef and cabbage at this particular dinner. Irish stew this year was a delightful change.
Enjoy your holiday. If you choose to drink; do so RESPONSIBLY! Don't forget, HAVE FUN!
The History Channel Online. They have a page dedicated to St. Patrick's Day.
Wilstar.com has a section on the holiday.
Teachers.net has some lesson plans here.
We won't be dining on corned beef and cabbage tonight. I'm not entirely into cultural celebrations during the week. This is especially true when Dancing With the Stars is opening season six tonight. There is no time tonight for Irish food. There will be time, however, for my tush to plant itself on the sofa and drool in front of the television.
Instead, we celebrated Saturday night, we dined on Irish stew and soda bread. I loved this stew, made by my friends, Kevin and Tony. Tony stayed up late Friday night roasting lamb all night long for this stew. Friends were many and fun Saturday night. For the past two years, we've served corned beef and cabbage at this particular dinner. Irish stew this year was a delightful change.
Enjoy your holiday. If you choose to drink; do so RESPONSIBLY! Don't forget, HAVE FUN!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Science Lesson Anyone?
My thumb had a science lesson today in motion. As of the time I'm writing this, it still has not forgotten todays lesson. We spent the day in Olympia cleaning Grandpa's house. Don't worry, he hasn't passed away yet. Some of the regular weekly chores have become more of a chore than they used to be. We spent several hours today scrubbing kitchen counters, doing laundry, cleaning windows, and scrubbing bathrooms.
The spare bathroom is where our little science lesson takes place. In this bathroom, lived a very dusty vent. Grandpa has lung cancer and is living on oxygen. Dust in this house is bad. We were on a mission to remove dust. This vent needed dusting badly. What's the best thing to remove dust from a vent without taking it down and washing it? How about a vacuum cleaner? This shouldn't be too hard. Just run the vacuum hose over the vent and its done.
It works just fine if you can get the vacuum hose detached from the floor runner. This is how we come to our little science lesson in the laws of motion.
When the vacuum hose has inertia, outside force is required to set it in motion. In this case, my hand was the outside force. Remember, once an object, such as a hand holding a vacuum hose, is in motion, it stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force, such as the vacuum motor itself. Finally, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When a hand, holding a hose hits a vacuum motor, the motor gives off an action of equal force to that of the hand holding the hose. This is why my thumb now has two red marks that will very likely bruise by tomorrow morning.
The spare bathroom is where our little science lesson takes place. In this bathroom, lived a very dusty vent. Grandpa has lung cancer and is living on oxygen. Dust in this house is bad. We were on a mission to remove dust. This vent needed dusting badly. What's the best thing to remove dust from a vent without taking it down and washing it? How about a vacuum cleaner? This shouldn't be too hard. Just run the vacuum hose over the vent and its done.
It works just fine if you can get the vacuum hose detached from the floor runner. This is how we come to our little science lesson in the laws of motion.
When the vacuum hose has inertia, outside force is required to set it in motion. In this case, my hand was the outside force. Remember, once an object, such as a hand holding a vacuum hose, is in motion, it stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside force, such as the vacuum motor itself. Finally, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When a hand, holding a hose hits a vacuum motor, the motor gives off an action of equal force to that of the hand holding the hose. This is why my thumb now has two red marks that will very likely bruise by tomorrow morning.
Has the party ended?
Oh well, the end is here. The Ultimate Blog Party is over for 2008. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to visit all 1470 party guests. I only got up to number 200 on the Mister Linky list. yesterday, I had too much to do to even visit anybody.
My deserts of choice last night were two different cobblers. One was my classic apple/blueberry, the other was apple/blueberry/strawberry. I saved myself time at home by making the crumble here at home, then putting everything together and baking there.
My crumble is fairly easy to make. I'll be sweet and give you the recipe.
Cobbler Crumble
(enough for two or more cobblers)
3 cups flour, don't worry about running through a sifter, you can get away with stirring with a spoon
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, does not need to be well packed
1 cup oatmeal, any kind works. Right now, I have the regular stuff
2 sticks butter or margarine
In a large mixing bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients, except the oatmeal (add that at the end) . If you wish, add some fun spices like nutmeg or cinnamon. I typically only use those for straight apple cobbler. But, have fun and play with this. Make it your own. Post a comment later to let me know what you did to it.
Cut in the two sticks of butter, and blend until crumbly. I still haven't unpacked my mixer, so I do things the pre-electricity way; I use a pastry blender. You can use a mixer if you like. Add the oatmeal and fold into mix.
In a casserole dish or two, or a dutch oven if you like, pour crumble over fruit of choice. I do not use pie mix. I prefer to use fresh or frozen fruit. Pie mix tends to have too much sugar and liquid for my preference. Besides, its precooked and you loose flavor in the fruit. Pie mix is for pies, not cobblers in my world.
Bake everything for about an hour at 350 or 375. It depends on how cooperative your oven is. serve this with whipped cream, cool whip, or ice cream. Drizzle caramel or chocolate if you wish. Enjoy and Have Fun!
By the way, in case you missed someone during the Ultimate Blog Party, you can still get to the Mister Linky. Have fun!
My deserts of choice last night were two different cobblers. One was my classic apple/blueberry, the other was apple/blueberry/strawberry. I saved myself time at home by making the crumble here at home, then putting everything together and baking there.
My crumble is fairly easy to make. I'll be sweet and give you the recipe.
Cobbler Crumble
(enough for two or more cobblers)
3 cups flour, don't worry about running through a sifter, you can get away with stirring with a spoon
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, does not need to be well packed
1 cup oatmeal, any kind works. Right now, I have the regular stuff
2 sticks butter or margarine
In a large mixing bowl, combine all of your dry ingredients, except the oatmeal (add that at the end) . If you wish, add some fun spices like nutmeg or cinnamon. I typically only use those for straight apple cobbler. But, have fun and play with this. Make it your own. Post a comment later to let me know what you did to it.
Cut in the two sticks of butter, and blend until crumbly. I still haven't unpacked my mixer, so I do things the pre-electricity way; I use a pastry blender. You can use a mixer if you like. Add the oatmeal and fold into mix.
In a casserole dish or two, or a dutch oven if you like, pour crumble over fruit of choice. I do not use pie mix. I prefer to use fresh or frozen fruit. Pie mix tends to have too much sugar and liquid for my preference. Besides, its precooked and you loose flavor in the fruit. Pie mix is for pies, not cobblers in my world.
Bake everything for about an hour at 350 or 375. It depends on how cooperative your oven is. serve this with whipped cream, cool whip, or ice cream. Drizzle caramel or chocolate if you wish. Enjoy and Have Fun!
By the way, in case you missed someone during the Ultimate Blog Party, you can still get to the Mister Linky. Have fun!
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Green Tissue Paper, That's All I Ask For
Did you know you cannot find true green tissue paper five days away from St. Patrick's Day? Why, you ask. do I need plain true green tissue paper five days before St. Patrick's Day?
Well, the answer has to do with the fact that I'm just a bit crazy. Isucker myself assist Bigboy's blue lodge with event decorations. There are anywhere from five to eight events I decorate each year. This year, there are more like ten (counting from January to December). Of those ten, two have been dropped from my plate this year. That is for another story. I covered that story yesterday. One of these events is a Shamrock Dinner, this Saturday.
For this dinner of Irish celebration, I am planning on stuffing miniature Irish flags into flower boxes Bigboy made last year, along with some curling ribbon and little black pots. There will be quite adorable by the time I'm done. If I can find the green tissue paper. I honestly thought the orange paper would be the most difficult. Boy, was I wrong there. I found that on my second stop. But green?
I can find bright-neon green, "candy apple" green, and "so-dark-its-almost-black" green. I can find green with shamrocks, green with rainbow colored polka-dots, green with who-knows-what-kind-of-design-that-is, but plain true green? HA!
I drove all over Port Orchard last night looking for that darned green tissue paper. this is not exactly an easy trip. Port Orchard is one of those everything-suburban-sprawling-everywhere towns. Albertson's is in one part of town. Wal-Mart is a mile away. Over a full mile from that is Fred Meyer. Somewhere in between in Jo-Ann's, Dollar Tree, and Safeway. There are no seriously dedicated shopping centers. Everything sprawls away from everything in such a way that you cannot simply park you car in one place and walk to everything. What public transportation we do have doesn't support anything being done efficiently by bus. I am a firm believer that Port Orchard is a poster-child town of big-box retail and the exploitation by big oil.
So, back to my story. I'm looking everywhere for this green tissue paper. None of the elusive paper existing in Port Orchard means only one thing: a trip to Silverdale. Silverdale is twenty minutes from my house. Gas is currently $3.50 a gallon right now in Kitsap County. I do not, under any condition go into Silverdale unless I am desperate for something that can only be found there. Even if I am desperate for green tissue paper, I am willing to avoid driving into Silverdale. I am now to the point of finding an alternative to the green tissue paper.
Find an alternative, I did. Fabric. Fabric and I are friends. I have orange fabric. I have green fabric. I picked up white fabric today. I can fashion my little Irish flags out of fabric. Ah, peace has come.
Well, the answer has to do with the fact that I'm just a bit crazy. I
For this dinner of Irish celebration, I am planning on stuffing miniature Irish flags into flower boxes Bigboy made last year, along with some curling ribbon and little black pots. There will be quite adorable by the time I'm done. If I can find the green tissue paper. I honestly thought the orange paper would be the most difficult. Boy, was I wrong there. I found that on my second stop. But green?
I can find bright-neon green, "candy apple" green, and "so-dark-its-almost-black" green. I can find green with shamrocks, green with rainbow colored polka-dots, green with who-knows-what-kind-of-design-that-is, but plain true green? HA!
I drove all over Port Orchard last night looking for that darned green tissue paper. this is not exactly an easy trip. Port Orchard is one of those everything-suburban-sprawling-everywhere towns. Albertson's is in one part of town. Wal-Mart is a mile away. Over a full mile from that is Fred Meyer. Somewhere in between in Jo-Ann's, Dollar Tree, and Safeway. There are no seriously dedicated shopping centers. Everything sprawls away from everything in such a way that you cannot simply park you car in one place and walk to everything. What public transportation we do have doesn't support anything being done efficiently by bus. I am a firm believer that Port Orchard is a poster-child town of big-box retail and the exploitation by big oil.
So, back to my story. I'm looking everywhere for this green tissue paper. None of the elusive paper existing in Port Orchard means only one thing: a trip to Silverdale. Silverdale is twenty minutes from my house. Gas is currently $3.50 a gallon right now in Kitsap County. I do not, under any condition go into Silverdale unless I am desperate for something that can only be found there. Even if I am desperate for green tissue paper, I am willing to avoid driving into Silverdale. I am now to the point of finding an alternative to the green tissue paper.
Find an alternative, I did. Fabric. Fabric and I are friends. I have orange fabric. I have green fabric. I picked up white fabric today. I can fashion my little Irish flags out of fabric. Ah, peace has come.
Take a Deep Breath, Take a Deep Breath
Please do not feel disappointed today. I am on hiatus from Wordless Wednesday for a few weeks. Our plate is plentiful with everything on it already with things I need to get of my chest.
Much of our time over the past few weeks has been routed to caring for Bigboy's grandfather. He is slowly dying of lung cancer. This dear man is almost ninety years old. Due to the location of the lump, treatments aren't effectively possible. The lump, I'm told is located at the top of one of his lungs. Surgically removing it would risk cutting the very muscles they are trying to save, therefore killing him. Radiation treatments would end up cooking those same muscles within the lungs. Chemotherapy isn't an option for, obviously, the same reason.
In the mean time, Grandpa is living on oxygen. Just a few moths ago, the oxygen treatments were only for a few hours a day. Now he's living on borrowed time with oxygen all twenty-four hours. Pain is increasing each day. Just two weeks ago, Grandpa fell out of bed, tearing his shoulder muscles and breaking a rib. Hospice has brought in a hospital bed for him since then.
We've been traveling to Olympia every weekend for the past month. Grandpa has his good days, and his bad days. Saturday, as we arrived at his house, Bigboy was asked to come in, and assist with taking him to the ER. Fortunately, that trip was only for a reaction to pain killers. We didn't have much of a visit that day. Hopefully this next visit to him will be much more pleasant. We would like him to stay alive long enough to see the tulips bloom this Easter.
In the mean time, I have my hands full as usual. I have kids to educate, laundry to take care of, errands to run, a dinner to decorate this weekend, desert to bake for the lodge, and I just got stuck with babysitting for the next few days.
Of course, Ihaven't done any of the decorations am totally prepared for this dinner Saturday. I still have to shop for have all the stuff I need. This is another story to be posted tomorrow.
At the last minute I have selected three deserts for twenty people or so. Amazingly, I have no shopping to do, as everything I need, I have here at home. Yeah! I don't have to shop any more than necessary this week.
I was not supposed to babysit this week. I got a call yesterday, asking if I could. Her grandma went back into the hospital in Seattle Tuesday. Sure, we can take her this week. I think it may be all week that she's with us. Not something I was expecting, or really prepared for, Just something I have to do for this mom. There isn't anyone else she can go to for sitting help. The retail industry is not friendly toward moms in the least. I've worked retail before and know just how bad it bites.
Just to keep my busy, as if I wasn't busy enough, I am trying to visit every site participating in The Ultimate Blog Party. Monday, I started at number one. As of this blog entry, I've visited up to #125. I already know I won't get to everyone by the end of the party. over 1000 people have registered on Mister Linky. I figure I will spend at least one month getting to everybody. Yes, I'm crazy. I know this already. Just look at my family. You know I have to know I'm crazy.
With everything going on, I'm not expecting anything to slow down for me. I don't think I'd know what to do.
Much of our time over the past few weeks has been routed to caring for Bigboy's grandfather. He is slowly dying of lung cancer. This dear man is almost ninety years old. Due to the location of the lump, treatments aren't effectively possible. The lump, I'm told is located at the top of one of his lungs. Surgically removing it would risk cutting the very muscles they are trying to save, therefore killing him. Radiation treatments would end up cooking those same muscles within the lungs. Chemotherapy isn't an option for, obviously, the same reason.
In the mean time, Grandpa is living on oxygen. Just a few moths ago, the oxygen treatments were only for a few hours a day. Now he's living on borrowed time with oxygen all twenty-four hours. Pain is increasing each day. Just two weeks ago, Grandpa fell out of bed, tearing his shoulder muscles and breaking a rib. Hospice has brought in a hospital bed for him since then.
We've been traveling to Olympia every weekend for the past month. Grandpa has his good days, and his bad days. Saturday, as we arrived at his house, Bigboy was asked to come in, and assist with taking him to the ER. Fortunately, that trip was only for a reaction to pain killers. We didn't have much of a visit that day. Hopefully this next visit to him will be much more pleasant. We would like him to stay alive long enough to see the tulips bloom this Easter.
In the mean time, I have my hands full as usual. I have kids to educate, laundry to take care of, errands to run, a dinner to decorate this weekend, desert to bake for the lodge, and I just got stuck with babysitting for the next few days.
Of course, I
I was not supposed to babysit this week. I got a call yesterday, asking if I could. Her grandma went back into the hospital in Seattle Tuesday. Sure, we can take her this week. I think it may be all week that she's with us. Not something I was expecting, or really prepared for, Just something I have to do for this mom. There isn't anyone else she can go to for sitting help. The retail industry is not friendly toward moms in the least. I've worked retail before and know just how bad it bites.
Just to keep my busy, as if I wasn't busy enough, I am trying to visit every site participating in The Ultimate Blog Party. Monday, I started at number one. As of this blog entry, I've visited up to #125. I already know I won't get to everyone by the end of the party. over 1000 people have registered on Mister Linky. I figure I will spend at least one month getting to everybody. Yes, I'm crazy. I know this already. Just look at my family. You know I have to know I'm crazy.
With everything going on, I'm not expecting anything to slow down for me. I don't think I'd know what to do.
