I needed to hang out with some other 8-9-10 yos this week-end to really see how far behind E is. Ok, I am more lax than I thought…and Waldorf pedagogy only goes so far to explain why we are so far behind. A new crack-down is happening—thank goodness R is here—otherwise, E honestly would have to go to school…although I am not ruling out Montessori at this point—and Montessori is in her future. As soon as I can find a good one that I can afford—that isn’t too far away. Yes, yes, I know—criteria. At least E has been put on notice and at least things here will be changing. For that, I am very glad.
And again---grr that I cannot get to the books I need…that too is becoming less of an issue as I spent a good bit of time re-arranging the basement last night. I have a small little office area set up already … I have access to my yarns, to my fabrics, and now to my clays. I can reach my paints, as well as my ATC papers and some other things drawing related. I need to do three things…clear off the downstairs table (it has machines and boxes on it) and find all the pieces to my sewing machine (can’t find the cords at the moment)—and find a way to plug everything in down there when I need it plugged in. Otherwise, we have to bring things upstairs to use them, the sewing machines, the serger…which is not as bad as it seems there either.
September is National Sewing Month. It seems very apropos to break E’s sewing machine out and get her going on that. Knock on wood. It’s not as if we don’t have patterns and fabric for her to play with downstairs. And—I know where they are too.
Goals this week:
Write and submit two to four articles every single day. (Thank you, Michele—more on this later).
Finish bikini bottom and start bikini top. I have fifty rows of garter stitch left on the bottoms before I can bind off and seam everything. I am actually very excited about this. Not to mention, as I was reading over the bra pattern yesterday afternoon, I discovered a Yoga version of the top written at the bottom. I am not sure which I plan to do now…I think I shall stick with the basic pattern first. If I like it, I will make the Yoga top version.
Set E up her own blog—which will be available only by subscription. I want some caring adults (Kerry) to be able to read her blog and offer criticism and pointers, suggestions. Not to mention, I want to get some discipline instilled in her, not merely as a writer, but as a student.
I must check to see if I have the right yarn for the Hawkins House project. I have a few more ideas, both knitted and otherwise, that I need to run down.
Decide if I am going to frog the baby blanket I have had OTNs for months and months now (for the twins) or finish it. I am leaning towards frogging it even though we have friends in need of a baby shower gift coming up in September…but really it wouldn’t take all that long to finish the blanket anyway.
Cast on my friend’s birthday present. I can’t find the original pattern I used to make my own shawl/wrap/scarf thingy (great name, huh?) –but I can wing it…and it might not be such a bad idea to wing the pattern anyway…even though it is nothing like the original pattern. I do so prefer to be safe.
Find rabbits a home. This is so mandatory at this point it is not even funny. We switched from the knock me on my butt/knock me out allergy pills to a once a day type—but the new stuff doesn’t really work all that well. Even though I am setting up the basement as a work space, with the rabbit’s downstairs the workspace isn’t applicable until I can get the air quality settled and ---mold? Or whatever free. Good news is we are finally coming back down to the bottom of the hay bin…so this time I won’t buy hay until I clean that sucker out really well. But R keeps reminding me, the allergy was there even before I had the huge reactions to it. So, even as I say we can clean things up on one hand, the other issue is still likely there.
R set up the desktop pc last night. Today I have to find out what it needs to get it to run and to see if it will run E’s new program. Plus, I have to remind R we are going to Micro Center tonight so we can get hardware to update his computer.
Set up E’s excel sheet (thank you, Chott family)…her chart on her bedroom door is obviously not clear enough or detailed enough, so R and I are borrowing another family’s idea; we are setting up a fairly detailed excel sheet of chores and schoolwork assignments for E.
Having said all of this, let me also say things are moving along nicely on my t shirt sweater. Even though I am working on size 7US needles and was expecting the progress to be very slow (compared to the tanks I’ve been making on 10 ½ US or 15 US needles), I am actually very impressed with the way things are moving along.
I have been holding back on casting on my seamless yoke sweater, only because I have so many other projects OTNs…but it shouldn’t be too much longer now before I cast on for that.
BTW, the zombie doll came back this week-end. Pictures will be put up on ravelry soon. Now the poor little thing has arms, thank goodness.
Remind me—I actually need to block and seam N’s birthday sweater. We had to go to hobby lobby this week-end to grab the yarn for the rest of his birthday ‘stuff’—his matching scarf and mittens to go with his hat. I have the pattern saved in my ravelry queue for the mittens. The scarf…it may look simply, but I am actually going to improvise this one, as I have not seen one like the one I am planning.
My only other thing today is to clear off my work space and the dining room table…I could use a bookcase close to my desk, but that’s not going to happen—no space. I’ll have to see what else I can do.
This week-end was fantastic. We finally discovered the dining room table again…it’s been our catch-all for quite awhile. E and I have both used it as a desk…and once we removed that, the rest of the clutter on it wasn’t too difficult to put away. I tidied up the coffee table in the living room as well, another catch-all, and again with many of E’s books and projects on top of it. Not that I don’t have a sweater waiting to be sewn together still sitting there, but it’s a start…
I did pick up my knitting needles and finally start a project…well, actually it started out that I finally decided to work on the Belinda shawl I had cast on and not messed with for so long (especially since this was part of the clutter on the dining room table…I figured I might as well DO something with it)…however, after getting lost in the pattern on row 1 while trying to sit with the kids and not pay attention to anything other than my knitting…and I mean I got lost on a VERY simple pattern repeat about five times before I decided, ok, let’s frog this…it’s mohair…frogging, not such a great idea…I decided I need to buy some feather weight or lace weight yarn, also silk, probably with wool, to use as a carrier yarn in order to get me used to knitting with mohair…since my colors are darker, I figure a dark grey or black yarn will not detract so much from the pattern…and I need something to encourage me to get through this pattern without ripping all my hair out…and then, since I bought enough mohair for two shawls, I can make the shawl to pattern afterwards, without a carrier, if I can get over myself…
What I started, and finished, was the Mitered Hanging Towel. The main body is worked in blue and white ombre…and the doubled part is whatever you call the variegated stuff I had out. Pictures will be forth-coming.
We have a terrible issue in our house…we are all very good about grabbing the towel off the handle of the oven…but we are not always good about putting it back. When I am cooking, I am notorious for grabbing the towel and setting it on the counter, because I know I’m going to be using it a lot. This hanging towel seemed like such a good idea—and it really is. Plus, I got to use one of my Grandfather’s antique buttons. It wasn’t antique when he collected it; it’s just an antique now. Funny thing is, my Grandfather’s button collection is probably my most treasured inheritance…that link that I can use to fuse my ancestry with/to my children—and one day, to their children. I make things as often as I can for the kids and use Pappap’s buttons. N has a snowman hat somewhere where all the buttons were from Pap’s collection…I can’t remember if I used the old buttons with the rocket ships on them or not for that project…I am planning to make about two more of the mitered towels for the kitchen, to start out…I may even stash dive for other colors…but…no promises there.
I actually drew a picture this week-end. I am just so proud of myself. The idea came from similar prompts from two places…Magpie Girl and SoulFoodCafe. I have a partial text written to go with it, but if was half poetry and half dribble, so I am planning to rewrite it…ahhh…thank goodness for rough drafts and for editing. The drawing is currently only in pencil, but I am planning to add color. Then I will have to print out my backstage pass and get a picture with it…so I can send it to Magpie Girl…I’ve put this particular project off for awhile, even though I kept coming back to it. I should have that written out today, although I can’t be sure on the colorwork for the picture.
The good news is I finally set up my printer/copier…part of the dining room table reclamation project…so at least I know I will be able to scan the pic and post it. Yippee!
Good time for a segue here…I had a dream…which is how so many of my tattoos get started…maybe drawing this picture started it, except I know I have long wanted to get a wind dragon tattoo that starts at one ankle and weaves and winds its way all over my body until it reaches the nape of my neck, without obliterating the spider or anyone else on the way…I have this one tattoo, which is the other place this dream started…the one we have been working with wrecking balm to remove (did I see that right? Wrecking balm is now available at WALMART? Keee-riiisssttt!)…the problem is…wrecking balm is a slow process…and I have stopped doing it twice now…once after the break-in in November, and here recently because I grew tired of fighting to keep the sandpaper glued to the little round disk…I used a different form of manual exfoliator for awhile to keep the process going, and then grew overwhelmed by the move and what not, so I stopped for awhile again…I’ve been kicking around the idea of laser removal for months anyway…but…I had this dream where I got a tattoo over the one I am trying to get rid of (which itself is a cover-up job anyway)…I am not so sure I could have the dream tattoo done, since I am not so sure I could take the needle to the stomach or the inner thigh the way the dream flows…but the image was lovely. Now see, that cover-up won’t happen…mostly because it requires the drive to my coveted tattoo artist Bryn in Weirton (Ben is awesome too)…which is prohibitive, but well worth the drive and the effort…under other circumstances, I’d do it.
Not to mention the deal with this particular tattoo is once it’s removed I can get R’s first name tattooed in its place, or at least in that general area. If the tattoo I am trying to get rid of weren’t so big and black, I’d incorporate it into a different design…since I have an idea as to what I want to do w his first name. His middle name is merely ornate letters…very pretty, yes…but I have some ideas for this next one…
The irony there is that this whole thing started to cover up the ex’s initial…and he had some ideas at one time about putting a declaration that included his entire name across the entire region and down my thigh, so that everyone knew to whom I belonged…the irony of which is he was still banging a number of other people at the time and was actively working to get me out of the house—when all he ever really had to do was open his mouth and speak up…what he told me was one thing…what he told everyone else was a whole other universe that he had created for himself…
R came back from camping yesterday. Gosh, it was so good to see him, and to see him smile. Some days I can’t figure out what is funnier: N asking where R is all day and asking when he’s coming home or N attacking R to wrestle and play and then screaming like a banshee for me to come save him once R starts playing w him…when N knows the second I step in to ‘save’ him, N will turn around and jump R again because he just loves it.
E is very upset. We set the tent up in the backyard, to hose it off and to let it dry out before we packed it away before the next trip. She wanted to sleep in it. She was ok letting it dry out overnight, but since there is a sleeping bag in it this morning, she was certain that meant we were going to camp out in the backyard tonight.
It is now officially official, come hell or high water, I am required to go on this annual float trip next year. By next year, the house will be all unpacked and completely settled; all the myriad stresses we’ve been under lately will have fallen by the wayside, and things should be good. So unless there is some huge hindrance that forbids float trips and camping out, I’m going.
So, plans for this week. Hmm. I did not get anything hung up on the walls at all this week-end, minus a painting that our neighbor across the street gave us. Which, strangely enough, now that I have it hung, I am already planning to move it…if we pull the drum kit out a bit, we can manage to put bookcases along the one wall…especially the ones we plan on building (which are more like 6 inches deep, rather than 12) – saying that makes me realize we don’t have to move the picture if we don’t want to – we can build the bookcase to size to fit that space. But, I want to move the bookcases so we have space to put the piano…the one we haven’t gotten yet. My only gripe there is the fact that years ago, a piano stood in the same place we are planning to put this one…but at least we’ll be taking care of our piano and actually playing it. R and E both are going to learn to play…with my dyslexia, reading music is a bit of a stretch for me…although if I fought it enough, I could manage, I am sure. I learned to read some Hebrew when I was taking the class, so, I know, with enough determination, learning to read music can be done.
There is still the closet issue, our master bedroom closet…that bothers me more every day.
I need to make room in the basement to move the trunk upstairs down there…I need to finish putting away the office supplies that came out of the file cabinets…because that stuff is currently piled up in the place where I am planning to put the other kitchen table…I am planning to create a nook there, where the table can sit and be used for my artwork, E’s schoolwork, my schoolwork, whatever we need it for…and we are planning to build bookshelves, so I thought if we surrounded the table, enclosed it with the bookcases, while making sure we can still move things around when we need or want to, that would work great.
Again, still need to list all that stuff on craigslist. I didn’t want people I don’t know here over the week-end, especially since I can’t get to some of the stuff we are selling…much less do I feel the need to allow complete strangers who don’t care what they break come tromping in to the basement to remove the stuff…
Back on the list: repaint that blue dresser…which is becoming a priority since I have things I need to put away …and that dresser is really it, at least until we start building other things…
I need to sit down w R later, when he has the time. I have been thinking that maybe an online school, or maybe a boxed curriculum, may be better for E. I think if she is accountable to someone other than me, when she sees she has real deadlines and they cannot be bargained with the way she tries to bargain w me, maybe then she will start accepting some responsibility and working harder and working more.
Yesterday was actually the first day we had had big issues with food…or with schoolwork. R and I believe it is her usual ‘my little brother is here and I will show my butt to get more attention’ diversion…we’re used to that, but when it comes to her eating, we can’t allow it to go too far. She is back to her usual weight, but she was always too thin anyway…if nothing else, we are getting her to eat better…today, she is just all about stalling…which could be worse…but at least she is eating…
Speaking of which, Wendy may have been the first person to mention the eat-clean diet in my realm, but I didn’t look into it until at least two other people, in unrelated groups, mentioned it working for them. I borrowed a couple books from the library to check things out. Actually, we do work rather hard at not eating processed foods in our house…I was hoping we could find some interesting things for E…and I found a great deal more than that. I didn’t realize that by combining proteins and carbs, it could actually improve your physical body. I did find some stellar recipes too…a pea soup w basil, and a peanut butter spaghetti…I think I may have to buy at least one of the books now. I know I should eat the six small meals a day; I’ve known that for, what, twenty-five or more years now. I do like that there is a schedule that says eat now…and I am going to post it for E—because if I can say this expert says this, she’ll listen. If I say, your mama says this, she’ll look at me like I’m nuts and start making excuses.
Ok, I have stuff to get busy doing. T should be here soon to pick up N, the little stink monkey. The only other thing on my list of things to do is to vacuum the house…so…I’ll keep ya’ll posted.
Monday … today started WAY too early. My insomnia is not improving…it’s been getting worse and worse…maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s the time of year. Maybe it has something to do w the distraught state of our house… Hopefully, that will get better soon.
So…what am I going to do this week? It’s a busy week, even without any of my own stuff in it. R has tons to do. His dad is going into the hospital to have knee replacement surgery…there’s golf, maybe two nights. Jazzfest, which E really really looks forward to every week. R was too sick for us to go last week, even though he told me the kids and I should still go. Nope. Not while he’s sick. Plus, there is a float trip coming up this week-end too. *sigh* so much to do …
But, I have all this ^other^ time on my hands? What exactly are my plans? (If I write them down and make them public, will I not have a much better chance of actually accomplishing something??)
N’s room…my top priority. E has her room all to herself. Now it’s time to pull all the not N stuff out of N’s room. This entails moving one dresser into the basement and one dresser out of the basement. A lovely wooden storage chest is also basement bound. I also need to go through all his clothes…he’s a husky little thing…not to mention, we can’t find where he took off his sandals…weeks ago…we are still looking. Hopefully, we can finally find them.
If I were really good, I’d clean out the fish tank. We have lots of little babies running around … even orange ones, and more spotted ones. If I were really really good, I’d get R to sit down to hold one bun or the other and groom my rabbits…because they are in sore need of it…why I had to get angoras is beyond me. Sure sure sure. The whole spinning thing. It sounded good at the time.
Rabbit note: I am this close to only having one rabbit…I keep telling myself it takes 2-3 months after getting your rabbit fixed for all the testosterone to leave his little system…if Simon doesn’t quit marking his territory to prove that’s his side of the cages, I think I might be having braised rabbit for dinner here soon. Charley calmed right down after surgery. Humper bunny Simon though is still…bonkers. Patience, of course, is not my virtue. But in this case, I am trying.
Btw…do you know how to tick a dog off? Give your bunnies each a piece of zinger (yes, a small piece) and don’t give the dog any. Drives the dog nuts. (dogs here are not allowed to beg, even though they try to get away w it…which is why the buns got zingers in the first place) Kids don’t much seem to mind though…maybe because I like the yellow zingers and they like the chocolate ones…
Sand and repaint the blue dresser. N inherited this dresser, I think from his great grandfather? It was ugly when we got it. It had chips and pieces knocked out. So I repainted it…and added some texture to cover up bumps and dings on the sides…I changed the handles…and I totally did not think about it but I basically painted it the Blues team colors (which is T’s favorite sports team—and the only St Louis sports team I have anything to do with here). Well, the paint has been …ahem…burned in several places (from incense) and the whole side panels thing is bothering me…plus, I just simply do not like it anymore. N helped me pick out colors yesterday…I have to sand the thing down…remove all the stuff (it started out as tissue paper and kid’s school glue, then painted over—it is a pretty cool effect—I am just…tired of it) on the sides…and start over. With claret wine and nutmeg paints…I am not sure yet which paint is going to be the focal paint and which the accent paint…but for some reason, those are the two paints we chose. Oh, we chose those because home depot did not have much selection in the realm of red…candy apple red was not nearly where I wanted to go…but these two will do quite well. Plus, I’d like to get this done before N comes this week-end. He can be very *helpful* at times. Then again, so can his sister.
Our closet in the master bedroom is enough to make me shriek right now—so that has to be done. Since we are STILL waiting for Mr Sandless (it’s a lovely game of phone tag, it is. The guy, Lou?, will call R at work on R’s cel, and R cannot always grab the cel when it rings. Lou says call me any time, here’s my office number. I’ll be here til 5. Here’s my cel. Call me anytime. R can call back within 5 minutes of Lou leaving the message, well before 5 or whatever time Lou gives—and gets voice mail at the office number and the cell number. Isn’t that just convenient? And I am not talking once or twice—I am talking every single time. No matter when R calls, it’s always voice mail. Ask me again why we will never use them again and why we will never recommend them to anyone…). I have pretty much had it. Our closet floor has been in disarray because we’ve been waiting for Mr Sandless to come complete their job…if you missed why, read this post…. This week, I am putting it all back together the way it ought to be. Why? Not only because it is driving me crazy…but because, according to Murphy’s Law, as soon as I do that, Mr Sandless should become magically available and be able to come out the very next day to actually finish out the closet the way they were supposed to that very first time. This will also help me clear out N’s room, since we put most of our closet stuff in his room/in his closet to get it all out of the way.
I must work more on my knitting instructor’s program…I have three swatches done…and I think one of those swatches needs to be redone…who knew ribbing would be so contrary? My goal is to have the first four modules done by the end of the week…knock on wood. As I continue to read forward into things, I am actually worrying about things. Now, I am able to do colorwork (thanks to EZ’s Knitting Workshop)…I can work cables, slowly and without the intervention and/or assistance of small children—or dogs of any size)…but we’re talking intarsia, and all sorts of other really scary things that have been on my ‘going to learn one day’ list for …a long long time…I’m not going to let my own intimidation and fear get to me—I am just going to plow on through.
Note to self: if I don’t sign up for any of the classes (yet), I do at least need to join the Knitting Guild of America…because at some point I will be taking some of the classes…not to mention, now that I am doing more reading and research, I sort of wish I had gone w them first…but this is the course I chose to do first and it is the one I am sticking with, until the end…when all else fails with me, seek more education until confidence is gain and/or restored…
Work on unpacking all the kitchen stuff…yes, basically the first stuff that was moved over here is, not by any means the last stuff, but it’s still sitting downstairs, like most everything else…I needed to find our popcorn popper this week-end, for my darling boy {what? Gene Simmon’s mom own that phrase or something? ;) }…and there was no way I could find it in all the mess downstairs…I did try. There are many boxes to go through yet…not just kitchen related…
We did end up buying this terrific magazine while we were at Sam’s Club this week-end though. The Family Handyman. I originally picked it up for the landscaping ideas…since I have several different ideas on-going at the moment…but this issue alone had so many GOOD ideas for, say, organizing our basement, and creating tiny little nooks of cabinet space in over-looked places…before I hit page twenty it had already proven itself more than worthy of the initial investment. Heck, this magazine ended up being better than the past 5-6 books on build your own wooden projects books we’ve gotten from the library…and it was one of those fluky little purchases I make, grab me and read me, you’ll like it—this time we really did. Now all we have to do is start implementing these ideas and things are going to be great…
One more thing. I didn't do a full-moon dreamboard this week-end. I am in the middle of yet a very large, very disconcerting shift...but I have been having some ideas for a dreamboard--I just feel the need to do something ...bigger...than just a monthly dreamboard...so, add this to the list too.
These are my goals for the week…let’s see if I can achieve them.
