Real winter

After enjoying several very mild winters in a row--this time last year we were at the playground in sweatshirts--we are being squeezed under the thumb an an extended period of real cold. The snow lingers on the ground long enough to become dirty looking around the edges. Quite astonishing after being essentially winter-free for a few years.

We had a lovely Christmas with family and then celebrated Mo's 3rd birthday in style. Amy and Mike came from Pittsburgh for the birthday weekend, which was a real treat. We played this game called Head's Up with them one evening and laughed until we nearly peed our pants. The main source of hilarity was Robb's ability to free associate answers that sometimes had little to do with the subject at hand.

Now we have a visit from Jenny to look forward to in two weeks, before she ships off to her next assignment in South Korea. What an adventure!

Robb is experiencing a winter of the soul, if you consider our refrigerator and pantry to be the vessels in which Robb's soul lives...and I do. Robb needs to lower his sodium and protein, and I need to eliminate saturated fat. I'm not exactly turning cartwheels over making these changes because it means more work in the kitchen from me. We are getting rid of most processed foods and cooking as much as possible from scratch, that way we control the contents of what we eat. But Robb is especially despondent over dietary changes. He will move toward better health kicking and screaming. I remind him that we are also modeling good habits for Mo. I don't think that makes it any easier for him.

We are still in computer limbo. The new tower (refurbished) had a power supply issue. It was still under warranty, so Robb swapped it out for another new (refurbished) tower. And it has a power supply issue too. Very frustrating. So it also needs to go back, this time we're thinking of swapping it out for a different brand/kind/whatever. This must be a problem specific to the one we purchased. Our old computer was a refurb, and it lasted about 4 years, so I still have faith in refurbs. Hopefully we will get this resolved by the end of the month and be on our merry computing way.

I also went with a friend to see the Van Gogh show at The Phillips Collection before it closes.  It was fascinating, especially the Rouin family portraits.

Happy New Year!

Rockin' New Year's Eve

It's 8pm, and I can barely keep my eyes open. My heart goes out to everyone working in emergency and critical care settings today, tonight, and tomorrow, whether it be with people or with animals, because holidays in the ER are crazytown. Crazy. Town. And on the way home from my little workday, I decided to brave WalMart for Mo's birthday party supplies. I was simply not in the right frame of mind. Every decision was agonizing. Striped napkins or polka dots? Slinkies or markers for favors? Do I need more alphabet stickers? An hour and a half elapsed in this manner. Sheesh. I did enjoy wishing all sorts of strangers a very Happy New Year, though. And did it with a smile.

I hope you all had a nice Christmas. We did. What a glut! I have so many homemade cookies at my beck and call right now, I could glitter glue them all together into a full sized igloo. A delicious igloo. It's enough to tempt Hansel and Gretel off the beaten path, and certainly enough to derail the correction of my wayward cholesterol levels. But I certainly won't construct a cookie igloo. Imagine all the crumbs in my igloo bed!

I'm so tired I'm typing nonsense now.

Delicious nonsense.

I've been MIA for a last week or so because we're having technical difficulties with our desktop. The motherboard blew up, and the new tower seems to have a few issues as well. So for now I'm typing missives from the wilderness known as Robb's laptop. I think you know how I feel about laptops. Me and my crucially first world problems.

Right-o, I have to make up the favor bags before I doze off. No way I'm making it to midnight this year. I'll be lucky to see 8:45pm at this rate. Cheers, y'all!

Some homemade is better than others

My recent knitting binge is finally slowing down because of the mixed success of this little number I'm calling Clown Puke. Slowing is a good thing because I really need to get going on Christmas and Mo's birthday plans. But back to Clown Puke. I improvised the pattern combining some details from recently made kid sweaters with some ideas I had while making several stocking caps. And the results are, well,...colorful. It's cropped and swingy which is good. Mo selected this yarn herself and then hugged and petted the skeins like  bunny rabbits for hours after purchase. Alas, she is less enthusiastic about the final product. We did a test fit, and she said, rather forcefully, "No, Mommy, take clown puke off me!” The heart is fickle. The sweater is definitely big on her and will fit better next winter. Maybe by then she will change her tune.



Last year Mo gave her cousins and friends a mix cd of some of her favorite songs. It was very well received. So we're releasing a new edition this season. Robb downloaded everything yesterday, and I designed the album cover. We might need to add What Does the Fox Say to the playlist though. Too trendy? Will it get old? No indeed, the Fox has a timeless quality: Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding! Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow! Hatee-hatee-hatee-ho! Tchoff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff!



While we're on the topic of homemade, Robb made himself at least 3 kidney stones just in time for the holidays. One has passed, another will pass, but the behemoth pictured above is 10mm in diameter. That's 1cm. If you're rusty on your metric system, the stone is as wide as a dime (whoops, a dime is 18mm, so that was a wild exaggeration). Now before you start thinking that we have money coming out of our urethrae--that's the correct plural of urethra, I looked it up--let me just assure you that this bad boy ain't going anywhere on his own. I've named him Ebenezer because he's trying to ruin Christmas and also because Ebenezer means "stone." Okay, actually it means "stone of help," but this Ebenezer is only helping Robb to the hospital next week for some aggressive treatment called lithotripsy, which as I understand it feels akin to being beaten with a bag of oranges. Only much louder. Humbug, I tell you! Humbug!

[Robb will most certainly mention my naming of his kidney stone in his application for sainthood.]

Gifts with extra oomph

I'm working on our Christmas list and whenever possible trying to come up with gifts that give twice. It would be nice for our purchases to be meaningful rather than desperate.

We renewed subscriptions to Ranger Rick Jr. for our nephews and niece which provides entertainment for them all year and also supports the National Wildlife Federation. We also ordered ornaments from St. Elizabeth School, a school for special needs children in Baltimore. Students in the Artisans program there make ornaments, trivets, and soaps. We are going to purchase our tree from the Solomons Fire Department again this year. The gift shops at the museum and the gallery have a nice selection.  We're donating a Basket of Hope to Heifer International in honor of my office. And I'm considering that a bag of groceries delivered to our local food bank or a contribution to the fuel fund in someone's honor might be good gifts as well.

A word about charities. 'Tis the season for giving, but unfortunately not all charities are created equal. So I consult Charity Navigator to help figure out where my money will make a difference. The statistics I look at are Program Expenses (the percent of funds going directly to the program) and Compensation of Leaders (how much do they pay the CEO). For example, a charity we love is the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The Charity Navigator profile shows that 88% goes to program expenses, and the President only makes $172,546 a year.

(Compare to, say, the Firefighters Charitable Foundation who use 7% of funds for program expenses, 87.7% for fundraising (!!!), and pay their $98,000 a year or 1.28%--that's nearly 1/5 of the funds going to programming. Deplorable!)

When in doubt, donate to the American Red Cross.

Legen...dairy

I'm no great cook, that's a known fact. But sometimes even a blind chicken gets a grub. Robb's parents sent us home with a gallon ziplock bag full of leftover dressing. I love dressing, just not the second day when it becomes dense doughy goop. We're fixing plates of leftovers for dinner tonight when inspiration strikes. I grab the Belgian waffle iron and tell Robb, "Don't judge me!" Press a layer of dressing into the waffle iron and wait... (Ding, fries are done!) This is a thing of beauty. It re-crispifies the dressing, as though it just came out of the oven with all the yummy crunchy bits. It didn't make it out of the waffle iron in one piece. Maybe if I mixed in some water or a little egg beforehand. Whatever, the taste was awesome. If you have leftover dressing, I dare you to try it. Oh, and be warned: it makes a mess of the waffle iron.

Happy Thanksgiving

We're on the road celebrating and packing on the cellulite. Tis the season. We had so much fun with Robb's family and all the little cousins last night. They were all running around and playing together and treating Uncle Robb like a pony. And we'll spend today with my family and later go visit my cousin Paul and his family. Mo will be enamored with the teenage girls. What a great couple of days!

I continue to be obsessed with the Hunger Games trilogy. Robb and I are going to see the 2nd movie sometime next week. And a few nights ago I watched a marathon of Frontier House on GAC channel. Do you remember that reality series on PBS about 10 years back? Three families tried to homestead in Montana the way they might have a hundred and fifty years ago. It was a little shocking to watch up against holiday commercials for excess and luxury and glut. All of the adult men lost 30 pounds during the course of filming, shrinking back to the average weight of an adult man in 1850. The families struggle to harvest and preserve enough food for themselves and their animals to survive the winter. Springtime was referred to as "the starving time." And it all has me thinking about how for all of human history we have had to think about obtaining and preparing food almost every waking moment of every day. Until fairly recently. And many people still live this way, scrounging calories any which way they can.

I'm still turning all of this over in my head. In the meantime we're planning to add a few non-perishable items to our grocery list every week to take to the local food pantry. A new and continuing resolution because there is need in our community all year round. And we are very fortunate, very blessed, and very thankful. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Whew-wee it's cold

I found an ugly Christmas sweater at the thrift store this week. It's a vest that is covered with beaded tree ornaments, and upon each bauble rides a creepy elf.  I need it for my book club's holiday pot luck and ugly Christmas sweater party in three weeks. It set me back four dollars, and I was feeling guilty about spending so much--until I saw that new ones are $18.99 at The Walmart. That made me feel a little better. So when you see me sporting my leering elf sweater this holiday season, you'll know that I'm trying to get my four dollars' worth out of it.

This morning Mo and I worked on her homemade ornament project. Last year we made salt dough ornaments for our loved ones. The first batch were too thick and many of them never fully dried even after HOURS in the oven. The second batch went smoother, but then the clear gloss varnish was really stinky... This year we worked with foam stickers to create snowmen and women. Mo finished 16 of them before melting down into a sticker-grabbing monster, so I consider this a very successful project. She still needs to write her name on the backs, but we'll do that part another day. Sorry no previews photos.

11/25/13 .PS. - Just for the record it was 18 degrees with the windchill this morning!

Quotations

Edwin Arlington Robinson: "Two kinds of gratitude: The sudden kind / we feel for what we take; the larger kind / we feel for what we give."

Jon Krakauer: "Heaven, for me, is one focused project — it's like a weird form of autism. And if it pans out, you get the royalties and you get to write the next one."

Beverly Cleary: "When I am writing a book I also enjoy ironing, an idiosyncrasy that probably makes me sound more domestic than I really am. Working with my hands frees my imagination."

Daniel Boone: "I have never been lost, but I will admit to being confused for several weeks."

Also, Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the Year of the Snake--check out your Chinese horoscope for 2013. We're wearing red for luck today. I might need to run out for pork dumplings if I keep thinking about them....and I do keep thinking about them.

Happy Valentine's Day

We were roaming the aisles of the local craft supply store trying to come up with an idea for Valentine's cards from Mo made almost entirely by Mo. Painting or coloring a dozen cards was not going to hold her interest. Then we saw the stickers. Mo loves stickers! She selected the stickers at the store, and then decorated and signed the cards. They turned out great. (And I mailed them early enough that they might actually arrive on or before the holiday--that never happens!)







Mo has a Valentine's Day party at Storytime on Tuesday, and we needed to make some cards for her friends. While we were at the craft store I found these tiny gift cards. Again I wanted her to be a major participant in the crafting. So Mo gave each card a sticker or two and signed her name. I think these turned out cute, too! Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are a little displaced this Thanksgiving Day because Mom is out of town, and she hosted Thanksgiving dinner at her house every year for the past four decades. Thankfully we shared a wonderful dinner with Robb's side of the family last night. As the little cousins get bigger, the family gatherings keep getting rowdier in the best possible way. This morning, weather permitting, we will be taking Maureen to the National Zoo for the very first time. I am excited to see what she makes of all the animals from her books walking around in real life. In the meantime, we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving! And to kick off the holiday season, a poem--a prayer--to set the bar high for the coming year, to help us remember to cherish one another, to give the present of being present. Glad tidings!

 "A Prayer among Friends"
by John Daniel

Among other wonders of our lives, we are alive
with one another, we walk here
in the light of this unlikely world
that isn't ours for long.
May we spend generously
the time we are given.
May we enact our responsibilities
as thoroughly as we enjoy
our pleasures. May we see with clarity,
may we seek a vision
that serves all beings, may we honor
the mystery surpassing our sight,
and may we hold in our hands
the gift of good work
and bear it forth whole, as we
were borne forth by a power we praise
to this one Earth, this homeland of all we love.

Maaaaaaaaa

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Valentines Day

I had big plans to hand make cards with Maureen for all the grandparents but didn't quite pull it off in time. We might still make them this week and get them out late. This morning I scoured my brain for the perfect Valentines gift for Robb, and I could not think of anything more romantic than deep cleaning the kitchen and dining room. Trust me, he will totally swoon!

Hope you and your loved ones have a nice day! <3

Ahead of schedule

I can't remember the last time I wasn't frantically finishing craft projects this close to Christmas. I must have set more reasonable goals this year. I did not handmake gifts for as many people as I would have liked. But yesterday we wrapped the last two gifts and started getting the house in order. The decorating is done. The rubbermaid tubs are back in their storage nook. The only thing unfinished is Maureen's heartwarmer sweater, and that's okay. She has plenty of gifts to open on Christmas day. So I'm just knitting along at a comfortable pace. Nice for a change.

Little Mo bought me a small poinsettia centerpiece when she and her dad were shopping yesterday. She thought I could use a little cheer. That baby is very thoughtful. I wasn't overtly feeling sad, though. At least I don't think so. Not to make the blog a chronicle of misery, but this year has served up some bitter soup: a hurricane and a fall down the stairs, Aunt Julie became ill and died, a former coworker died, two close friends of Mom's died suddenly, a loved one lost a pregnancy, and as we begin the holidays we have two family members in Hospice care--Lisa and Great Aunt Sissy. Mom and I and Mo will travel to Ocean City for Aunt Julie's burial next week. She donated her body to Johns Hopkins for research purposes, and her remains were returned several weeks ago. Maybe her illness will help someone in the future.





Back to the matter at hand. With all this free time, I dug the fleece out of my stash and whipped up a couple of quick projects for Momo. First the Christmas Critter, a finger puppet (maybe a bunny) wearing a kilt. An immediate hit!




And second (complete with bedhead) a plaid fleece jumper. I used another piece of clothing as a template, and thankfully fleece doesn't need hemming. It probably won't hold up to heavy use, but for this winter it will keep her warm like a sweater vest. And it's short enough to allow for crawling. Although walking is just around the corner.

Holiday house of horrors

(before)

1. Overheard in the hardware store:
Daughter: Dad, we need to get these!
Dad: No, we have plenty of Christmas lights on the outside of the house.
Daughter: But that's the whole point of Christmas.
Dad: What? That's not the point of Christmas. Who was born on Christmas?
Daughter: Ashton Kutcher.

2. I did a lot of online shopping this year and discovered that the sound of packing tape being ripped off of packages really frightens Maureen. Then it should not have surprised me that the sound of packing tape being applied to outgoing holiday packages freaks her out as well. Had to do my mailings in the middle of the night.


(after)

3. Also, Santa Claus is scary.

Robb made me

I'm not such a fan of staged formal photos, but I'm glad that Robb pushed for a family Christmas picture this year. I pushed for us to wear matching outfits--Robb was not a fan of that at all. We made an appointment at The Big-Box and used a coupon from their website: free sitting fees ($10 per person at most places) and $3.99 per sheet for prints. !!! The photographer did a nice job, and Momo was an angel. I screen-grabbed these thumbnails to show you. Merry merry!

Not much on the needles

This December I'm barely knitting at all compared to past years when I've been frantically weaving in ends on Christmas morning. I am making a heartwarmer for Maureen for Christmas (raveled here) using City Tweed merino/alpaca blend. I'm working in the color snowshoe right now but considering a color change for the lace. Maybe to toad or jacquard...we'll see. For now the project lives in my purse, and whenever the baby falls asleep in the car I drag it out for a little parking lot knitting. It's coming along slowly. Also I have a late night top secret embroidery project I'm chipping away at that may or may not be ready in time for Christmas. And this cowl neck project is on my post-holiday-crafting-to-do list. I need to figure out what item of clothing will go under the knife to become the frankencowl.

Robb and Kevin circa 1983

Halloween costumes by Charlene. Awesome!

Baby's first Halloween

On Sunday Maureen wore her scary costume: Ravens cheerleader. *shudder* Yes, I wanted to be a Redskinette when I was little, but that was completely different. Number one: it was the Redskins. Number two: there doesn't need to be a number two...it was the Redskins. Case closed.



Although I did not make Maureen's costumes this year, both costumes were recycled. We found the cheerleader suit at the Goodwill in Eldersburg with Charlene for $2. Robb noticed what we did not--it had LEAH printed across the back. I said, "This is such a great bargain, we will change her name. What do you think, Leah?" Leah smiled back at me. And that's the story of why we changed our daughter's name.

Er, I mean, and then I stitched a pair of white fleece wings onto the back to the dress to obscure the decal.



Of course there's the holiday bib shot.



Then on Halloween afternoon, we dressed Leah Maureen up in her turtle costume and hit the streets. She looks totally psyched about trick-or-treating in this picture. In reality she was not such a fan of having the hood up, but it was chilly outside.



The turtle costume was $2 at the Clarksville Picnic this summer, so we did baby's first Halloween for under $5.



We went to three houses. Each time we came to the door they said the same thing, "She's a frog!"

"No, she's a turtle," we said and turned around so they could see her shell.

"Ooooh."



It was more convincing when she crawled. And made growling noises at Peg and John's cat Shadow. In all fairness Shadow was probably asking for it.

Pumpkins

Blogging with one hand. Baby thrashing in other. Momo decorated pumpkin with stickers at playdate on Tues. Mom helped. Frankenstein. Stickers for littles is brilliant.





I was inspired to come home and paint faces on the ones we got at Bowles Farm. Robb doesn't like happy jack-o-lanterns but admits these turned out cute. :)