April was not a very good month. Not terrible but just not very good. I'm looking forward to May when I have grand plans for doing some scrapbooking, planning the triple birthday party for Oscar, Mr. H and my dad, gardening, sewing and generally having fun and being productive.
To kick off a new month, a photo of Oscar which should be excellent blackmail material in the future. Princess tiara--check. No pants--check. Chickens--check.
Kid was in his element :)
I can sum up our week in one word. Homeland. As in the TV show. A friend loaned us the entire first season on DVD and Mr. H and I have been on a TV binge the likes of which have not been seen since our Christmas break Sopranos binge circa 2004. I know the entire internet is currently in love with Downton Abbey and I trust you that it's excellent but spies and guns are more our speed.
Today we had to add Showtime to our cable package just to get Showtime on Demand so we can watch season 2. But it takes 24 hours for the new channel to start so I have time to write this post (while checking every few hours to see if by chance our Showtime subscription started early) (and can you believe it was only $8/month and I can cancel anytime? Way cheaper than any other option we explored).
So we haven't been sleeping much even though Oscar is currently in a good place and mostly sleeping through the night. Biscuit has a cold and is mostly miserable but seems to sleep okay. Getting them to sleep is a hassle but when they're down they're down.
We've had fantastic weather and a lot of nice family time this three day weekend. A bike ride to the Farmers' Market.
Fort building with friends who came over for dinner. (our entire living room is filled with cardboard)
Trampoline jumping with cousins.
Bike riding and scootering with cousins
There was also a competitive game of 4-square which unfortunately ended in an ER trip for my brother-in-law. His awesome dive and roll on the asphalt tore a shoulder muscle and now he's on painkillers and in a sling. Oops.
Other than his injury the weekend was great. 49ers got to the Superbowl (I don't care, Mr. H does) and the new exterior doors we ordered arrived. We (ok, let's be honest here, Mr. H) already installed the garage door. I got out the door for two slow, painful jogs (not sure what my problem is, I thought I was in better shape).Biscuit and Oscar were mostly delightful reading together and being cute.
Sadly, back to work tomorrow.
(PS Still no Showtime. Guess all that laundry folding can wait for tomorrow night...)
So, Oscar has the flu. But does this baby look sick?
This was an hour after he spiked a 103 degree fever and barfed all over the table (and me) at a restaurant. Tylenol. It's a wonder drug I tell ya. Very effective on baby fevers.
Speaking of obvious tips, here are some kitchen tips that have seemed AMAZING and SO ORIGINAL to me and yet are almost certainly not original at all.
1. when you have a bit of leftover, cooled, stale water in your tea kettle use it to water your houseplants.
2. keep a piece of fresh ginger in your freezer. When the recipe calls for fresh ginger, grate some off the frozen hunk. Don't worry about the skin. It's ok.
3. frost brownies with peanut butter straight from the jar.
That's all I've got.
Whoa (or as Biscuit would say, who ah). It's tough getting back in the school/work/daycare routine after two weeks of sleeping in. Biscuit has been reading Judy Moody books nonstop (when you put books on your Santa list in our family, odds are you'll get what you ask for. Or, in her case, six of what you ask for). She was reading aloud to me and I discovered she was pronouncing "whoa" phonetically. It is "who ah" if you sound it out. And gross really should rhyme with moss and toss shouldn't it?
So, whoa, we survived our first day back. I'm still plugging away at New Year's projects here on January 3 trying to wrap up 2011 before too much of 2012 goes by. I must admit, I was rather proud that I completed my Snapshot-a-Day challenge. I think I only missed two days all year. Granted there are a ton of terrible photos but I did it. I'm trying to compile them all into a (very expensive even WITH the half off deal snapfish is running) photobook by January 6 when this particular half off photobooks deal ends. It's tedious but sort of fun to look back on little bits of the year. I'm up to August.
My other year long thing which wasn't a project and wasn't exactly planned was my notes book. My sister gave me a recycled cover blank book last year and all year long I used it to jot down anything and everything. I also let Biscuit write notes in it and pasted in some of her little notes and scraps I find lying around.
Lots of grocery lists, menu plans, to do lists and the like--completely haphazard but sort of an interesting record of the year. I was almost out of space so I got a brand new book for 2012. Thanks, Laura!
I'm not sure if I'll do any year long projects for 2012 (other than the haphazard book) but so far I've taken a photo-a-day just in case. Anyone seen any interesting year long stuff?
Just jotting down some thoughts.
It's raining. First rain in a long time. It's actually rather nice but a bit of a bummer for Biscuit's outdoor field trip tomorrow.
Today was my first day back at work. It was fine. I like my job and my co-workers and it was good to start reconnecting with them and projects. And a friend took me out to lunch for soup so that was good.
Oscar can (and will) go 9 hours without eating. But he did eventually take the bottle and doesn't seem any worse for the wear. Although he seemed to want extra snuggles and nursing tonight which I can totally understand and am in favor of.
This apple cake is good. Smitten Kitchen. No surprise there.
I just finished reading Matched and I think my dysptopian teenage romance reading phase may be coming to an end. I felt like I was reading a mashup of The Giver and Hunger Games. Of course I say that now but the sequel is coming out November 1 and I'm pretty sure I'll be reading it. Now I'm reading Buddhism for Mothers of Young Children which is a bit of a departure from the dystopian teenage romance stuff. I'm also listening to Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates on audiobook. I like her but not sure I'm following all this history very well via audiobook format.
I am excited about Biscuit's Halloween costume. It's a bit, how shall I say it, esoteric? Anyway, nobody will know what she is but she's going to be the dragon guarding the apple tree from Harold and the Purple Crayon. I LOVE that book. Oscar is going to be Harold. Biscuit has her costume all planned out and I can't wait to see how she creates her vision.
Speaking of Halloween, found this in her backpack today
And on that note, goodnight.
I volunteered to help Biscuit's teacher with at home projects and ended up with a stack of First Grade writing projects. The prompt was "What do you want to learn in first grade?"
A few, hilarious, examples that I keep giggling over days later.
In first grade I want to learn:
there were more but I'm going off memory. Several kids do want to learn Spanish, math and reading. BTW, Biscuit would like to take care of the Earth. Way to go kid.
While we're on the subject of funnies and our planet, funny bumper sticker seen on a Prius:
"Well, at least the war on the environment is going well."
Mr. H and I laughed about that for a good while.
We had a great weekend hike with the family on Sunday (to a beer garden!) and today was all house projects all the time.
Hope you had a great three day weekend!
And, finally, is it just me or has the internet slowed down lately? Seems like several of my favorite bloggers are posting more sporadically. If they keep this up I'm going to have to go get some work done :)
It is possible to hold a (happy/sleeping) baby and: 1. catch up with friends over coffee 2. play on the internet 3. read a book (especially on a kindle) 4. knit 5. watch tv 6. eat
It is possible with a (happy/sleeping) baby in a sling or moby wrap to: 1. do all of the above 2. fold laundry (but not put it on the line because of the bending over/baby head flop problem 3. clean the kitchen (quietly) (and not the dishwasher becasue of the bending) 4. sew, inefficiently 5. scrapbook
But, unfortunately it is impossible (for me) to combine these tasks:
This is a shame because I am totally in the middle of a scrapbook project, a sewing binge, a knitted blanket, a book (At Home by Bill Bryson, just finished A Discovery of Witches this morning) and my house is a total sty. And I'm way behind on the Daily Show and I"m sure Mr. H could use a hand here and there on the shed. Oh, and the garden could use some attention.
So, of course, I'm on the internet. Time management? What?
Until March 29. Tuesday was busy and I woke up Wednesday and realized for the first time since January 1 I had not taken a single photo the day before. Oh well. I picked back up on March 30. Life goes on.
march 31
I've haven't taken this project especially seriously but it has been surprisingly fun (perhaps because I put zero pressure on myself to have an image that is any good at all).
march 16
Some of the photos are truly bad. But sometimes I take only one photo in a day so that's that.
march 5
More often I find that I'm carrying my camera more and capture things I might not otherwise catch on film. And some days it's nearly impossible to choose just one image.
march 2
Oh, and phone photos totally count in a pinch (and sometimes I even like them--see above taken out the window of a car on a business trip)
february 1
Looking back it seems I took most of my favorite images so far in January. Maybe I was more inspired? For some reason I love this one taken out the window of my car at a stop light.
january 20
And I always love ones of Biscuit. I have many shots I have of her earnestly focusing on her homework.
january 3
My totally arbitrary "rules" for this project have been: no use of the flash (but messing with camera settings ie 1600 speed "film" is totally okay), no photoshopping or even cropping of the final image (this actually takes the pressure off--if it sucks, it sucks) and, that's about it. Easy peasy.
january 9
So while I am not doing nearly as cool/artistic/professional job of this as my ever amazing pal Lauren I have been having fun. If you want to see the whole set, here's the link.
Of crows. Just crows.
And my camera was in the car and I'm always wanting more bird-on-branch silhouettes for potential engraving. So yes, I took these photos through my car window.
The drive to work (blue skies. finally!)
From the parking lot after work
During the drive home (at a stop light!) And, again, what's UP with the sideways photos? Grrr.
Did you know a group of crows is called murder? Bit of trivia.
