Our other blog
Okay - I'm working on it. You can find us
here, too. There's a lot more to learn over there than here. I'm working on it one nap at a time. Off to make a cake. What more can you do for a boy who's been chanting "cake" all week. (And yes, he did go right to sleep.)
When we got home from the store yesterday, he grabbed a box of cake mix and a bowl. He was ready for his cake. Picture of a cake on the box, there must be cake in the box. Luckily we still had a bit of cooked cake left over from one of my birthday celebrations, so I could immediately satisfy his need for cake without having to explain the alchemy of mix (inedible) combined with various ingredients (not really appetizing on their own) mixed then heated before he could have edible, yummy cake.
Boy, bat and balloon
I thought I already posted this entry, but under the influence of a cranky toddler, I wonder if I hit cancel rather than add.
[EDITED: I guess I should have hit the refresh button before I retyped this, but I'll leave them both up. Boy is in bed. We'll see if he sleeps. He's been trying not to nap this week - he likes jumping in his crib.]
Give a silly boy a bat, and an Elmo balloon and let him have at it. Unadulterated joy (and slight havoc). I got whacked twice while tying this entry the first time. (Now, I think Ian just took a picture of my shirt . . . he's playing with the camera around my neck.)
And - no jury duty. I'm grateful to have fulfilled my civic duty in such a delightful way. Now, I've served for my one year, and I can tell them in February that I have already served and am the same person, in spite of the fact that my legal name on my driver's license and my voter records are different (have the Louise on my driver's license, but not on my voter records).
Off to convince Ian (who's still taking pictures of my tee-shirt) that it's time for a nap. We'll take Boo (or Boo Boo, also known as Papa Bear), a drink of milk and his new Elmo/Zoe/Baseball blanket. I hope he likes it. I'm going to have a lot of pictures of my shirt - Ian likes to make the flash pop out, pop it in again, take a pictures and so on and so forth. He loves the flash. I think there may be a few shots of my arm now too. I'm feeling like a celebrity with all of the flashing going on right now.
Boy, bat and balloon
Ian's supposed to be going down for his nap right now (about 11:00 on most days), but he's got Elmo balloons for his birthday. Imagine the joy of a boy, a bat and a sturdy balloon. It's a bit dangerous, yes. We are in the house. In fact, he just whacked me twice trying to get me to play with him. Off to read, play and put to bed so I can make his cake.
No jury duty!! It makes me very happy to have served my civic duty in such a fulfilling way. No more obligations, at least until next year. I get called regularly, twice a year. But, now that I've served this year, I'll them in February when I get my next summons and say that I really am only one person, not two, in spite of the fact that my legal name on my driver's license is longer than the one I use for my voter records (I didn't have room for my Louise when I signed up vote, but I do have it on my driver's license - it's part of who I am, even if it makes my name wrap around onto two lines).
Demanding boy grabbing my "han" so I'll go be with him.
Two - glorious two!!!!
Ian turns two tomorrow, Tuesday (Two-sday?). The same day I have a jury summons, and did not, for some ridiculous reason, postpone it again. I get it regularly on 9/23 (and again in February, since the DMV and voter registration have different legal names on file). Sigh.
Anyway - I'll get the word out, but in case you catch this first, if you're in the area on Tuesday night, feel free to drop by, maybe 5:30 or 6:00. We're going to have pasta (bacon/ricotta cheese sauce), green beans and cake/cupcakes decorated to look like baseballs. There's ice cream and itty-bitty cones for the little ones. If you can't make it Tuesday, let's try to get together some other day. Saturday we've got obligations at least at 9:00, noon and 5:00, but our Sunday afternoon is relatively free. I think we're free on Friday night too. If you can't make it, I'll try to get pictures posted.
All weekend, Ian's been saying "cake" at random moments. I think it's because we had two different cakes for my birthday this month already. I think he sort of gets it. He at least had good reason to get excited about the Elmo birthday balloon bouquet that followed us home from Safeway this morning. I also finished his "90-minute" quilt this weekend - Elmo, baseball and Zoe . . . some of his favorite things. I hope he likes it. It was fun to make, and finish!!!
Ivy was a bit sick over the weekend (sore throat), but it seems to have gone away. We've been praying for her to feel better, so that helped a lot. We're trying to add more praying to our days . . . it's easy to forget and let it slide sometimes - hurry, hurry, get your shoes, brush your hair, let's get to school before the 8:20 bell!!!!! Actually, it's better now that the school bells were set to match "cell-phone" time - the 8:20 bell used to ring at 8:17. It was a bit confusing, but those last three minutes make a huge difference.
Our corn finally has "grains" - we're going to have a hot next couple of weeks, so I hope it's good for our late garden. Our squashes keep shriveling up and shrinking away. I don't know if it's not enough water, or some other weird squash thing. I've been trying to remember when it rained out here last, maybe April? So we're on water rationing, and it's hard to keep up a garden that way - especially when Ian wants to help water and squeezy-nozzle-thingy broke-- so when the water's on, it's on--so I'm using it less. Our Christmas cactus and apple tree both have flowers right now (what season is it, anyway???). It's been great to see hummingbirds flying around our garden too. A couple of days ago, Bud saw a tiny lizard out there. I love seeing life flourishing around here finally. Just remind me of that when I move things around in the garage and see mice droppings . . . I love life, just not in my things, okay!!!! Ants are being rather invasive too. Ian already thinks ants are for squishing . . . I guess I'll have to be more careful around him.
Sums it up
Still learning how to add stuff here, but the attached cartoon reminds me of the value of moms. I think I can add a link
here.
Attachments:
Catching up
I had my birthday last week - it was mostly quiet (except for standard toddler and first grade eruptions). I took Ivy to the park to see a friend of hers that we hadn't seen since July. Wednesdays are short days at school, so there's a bit of time for playdates this month. Dad & Melanie came over and we got pizza delivered, hung out a bit in our back yard, watched "David & Goliath" from the
Liken video series and then had cream cheese pound cake with yogurt & berries, just for something different.
Bud took Ivy to the campfire program of the Daddy/Daughter campout on Friday, but had a class on Saturday morning about dealing with Hazardous Materials. So far, he's told me that we shouldn't clean our linoleum with gasoline - that's a bad idea.
I've been spending time trying to figure out how to teach my son to sit still and my daughter to have more patience when the world doesn't go her way. Any suggestions? I'll take all you've got.
Profound but lost (and then found)
I had a great thought on the way to pick up Ivy from school - something I was going to rush home and journal about. But, somewhere along the way, I lost the thought. Can't remember for the life of me what it was. I think it had something to do with today being my birthday and the introspection that comes from days like today. I treated myself to a few things today . . . went to Trader Joes and came home with some basics and a wedge of brie (but forgot the baguette or crackers - had some stale saltines), some mango ice cream mochi and a pot of herbal tea herbs (lemon verbena, lemon balm and pineapple mint) that I'm going to put in the pot that our lemon tree is growing in.
Oh wait . . . I think I remembered the thought. My mom asked me if, at the end of each day, I was happy with my life. I joked and said that I would have just finished putting the kids to bed, so it's hard to say. But, after a bit of thinking - I am happy. Or maybe deeper, I'm content with the path I've chosen and am willing to accept all that comes with it, including the meltdowns and unexpected curves life throws - even the caterpillars that eat my kholrabi. This is my path, my career right now, and I aim to make the best of it.
Off to take Ivy to the park for a playdate with some our friends. Later we're off to Ikea (I think) for dinner.
Rough Night
Ian didn't go down for a nap on Sunday until 3:00, didn't get up until 6:00. When he was taking two naps, that was sometimes a normal time for a 2nd nap. For some reason, though, yesterday it messed him up so greatly!!!! He got tucked in 3 times last night, with desperate tears each time (lately, Bud's the favored tucker-inner). Finally I took Ian downstairs and we watched Elmo and hung out. His first tearless tucking in took place at 11:15 last night. But, at 12:25 this morning, he was in tears. It took singing "The Wheels on the Bus" lullaby-style, making up verses, until I hear the sleep breathing of my little boy. Then, Ivy had a nightmare and came in about 3:30 this morning (it was about bats). ((Okay - weirdness - I'm not being allowed to go back and edit anything that I'm typing right now - there's no cursor showing up, and deleting isn't happening. I have to type it right or let it go, I guess.))
But, hooray!!!! The fog rolled back in and we're getting our favorite, normal cooler temperatures now. I'm doing laundry, contemplating either cleaning up the kitchen, or letting the incessant ants do it for me, and trying to sew together a small, patchwork quilt for Ian using a book called "90-minute Quilts" - since I'm only getting 5-10 minutes a day, it'll take at least 2 weeks to get my 90-minute quilt finished (it's only going to be about 30x40 inches). I'll post pictures when I get them together.
So, now what?
If my photo website is getting to be more like a blog, do I spend more time working it here, or do I just go and figure out how to use the blog I've already created (and done nothing with after getting an account)? What do you think? I'll have to ponder that thought. A blog is more universal . . . this already has all of our pictures on it. What to do . . . what to do.
It's here
Well, actually, it's
here.
It's coming!
I've realized that this is great, but not so great to keep news over here. Comments aren't working, and it's not a normal format, so this week I'll be working on getting a "proper" blog going that's easier to read and work with. We'll still keep pictures over here for the most part. Also, we don't have anything working that takes digital video, so don't get your hopes up for action footage. I'll just try to take lots of photos and go from there.
Sums it up
Coming soon
I've taken a bunch more pictures (surprises close to home and our bean harvest) that I'll post up soon. I've had a couple of people tell me that they liked the daily digest . . . but maybe I'll still let you make that decision if you want to receive those emails.
Changed notifications
Sorry about the excess emails. I just figured out how to turn off the daily digest that you were all receiving. You have the option of turning it back on again - but I want it to be your choice, not the program's choice (somewhere in the member section you can choose the tab about outgoing mail and set your frequency). Have a great day!
Getting smarter
Stealing time away from mediation and moderating (but not meditating - unless tweaking a personalized site can be considered meditation), I'm slowly figuring out more and more of my options here. I hope someday you'll be as interested in our family website as you are in others' blogs. I apologize if you find yourselves receiving daily updates from Shutterfly. I'm not sure how "smart" the system is here - and how much information it's sending out automatically to everybody. I hope it's just me. Apparently I could set you all up as "contributors", but for now I'm leaving you as "commentators". I guess Shutterfly is trying to be everything to everybody, showing how you could use this for a classroom or team home site for updating things. There are calendar options and way more. I'm just going to focus on photos and maybe the blog thing. We'll see what happens over time.
