what i learned doing NaBloPoMo...

...is that i am soooooooo grateful for the scheduling post option.  it helped for when i had verbal durchfall, for days when i didn't have anything to say.  cheating?  perhaps.  i call it a little extra help.

...is that my life really is mundane some days.  some days the only thing worth while noting is that i changed poopy diapers half a dozen times a piece.

...is that some of the topic prompts from the NaBloPoMo site did give me pause.  i still have a couple topics in the bag, to pull out when i am at a loss for words.

...is that i am grateful that it is december, and that i don't have to blog every day.  :)

NaBloPoMo was fun to play.  i just might do it again next year!

in five years...

What do you want your life to be like in five years


would i be boring if i said i want my life to be as it is today, except with a job? 


i love being a SAHM.  however, in 5 years, the kiddos will be in kindergarten and won't need me at home so much. i hope that after their first year of school, i'll either be looking for a job, or going back to school.


i was a billing clerk when i left the workforce to be a SAHM before the boy was born.  i've also been a administrative assistant, caseworker, and glorified babysitter therapeutic staff specialist.  i really would rather not return to these jobs so i either need to obtain training for something else, or settle for a part of my old life.


my dream job would be to own a yarn shop (surprised?) .  that feels like a pipe dream due to this economy, and to an extent, my skills.  i love my yarns, i'm a decent knitter, but to teach knitting, knit up samples - i'm not sure i could do that.  i thought of perhaps partnering with someone, either an existing LYS or opening a new one.  i'm not sure if i'd have the head for business.  there's the stock, the bills, the store space - it's not a very easy business.  i'm sure things will change in the next 5 years.  my interest may change as well.


i love books and reading, and i used to want to work in a library.  i'd like to think that i could get a job there with flexible hours, so if my kids needed me, or had games, i could tend to them.  but i wonder if libraries will be relevant in 5 years - people get books through amazon, you can read a book on a kindle, and the majority of people have web access in their own home.  will libraries become obsolete?


sometimes i think about where the greatest need will be in 5 years.  obviously the medical field should have the most options to pick from.  there's nursing, but i know i won't be able to tolerate the hours.  i'm too dumb to be a doctor (not really, but not minded for that anyway).  i thought about being a technician in a pharmacy - people will always need meds, as long as doctors keep shoving them down our throats.


of course, i could still be an at home mommy a little while longer...

happiness

What's your idea of perfect happiness?


i don't think there is such a thing as perfect happiness.  i believe in joy, and i believe in happiness, and i believe in despair and grief.  i think people have the ability to feel each emotion at the same time.  it's like a grey area, or a sort of emotional stew.


some days i know i am happy, even though i am tired, short fused and frustrated.  i have felt both joy and sorrow at the same time.  i'm not drowning in the depths of despair, and somedays the warmth of happy feels far away.  


i think people make their own happiness.  i think you can either choose to be happy, or choose to be miserable. it's easy to feel miserable, but it's the easy way out.  i remember many times faking happy even tho i was sad, but faking it prevented me from getting sucked into despair.


if everyone tried to reach for the warmth of happy, no matter how far it feels, i think the world would be much happier.  

my first piece of organ music

when i was in eighth grade, my mom and dad made me take organ lessons.  bah.  i hated them.  i liked my teacher - he was related to people at my church - but i couldn't wrap my head around not only playing with 2 hands but also both feet.

the first piece of music i learned to play on the organ was "let all mortal flesh keep silent".  it was a very minor sounding piece, a bit depressing for me, who at the time reveled in the likes of george michael and poison.

the keyboard was the easy part.  it was trying to teach my feet to play along as well.  i just couldn't get it.

we are singing this hymn for an anthem the first sunday in advent.  i always thought this was a lenten hymn, and it's actually listed in the communion hymn section in the green book.  mom said the lyrics lend itself to advent, which was why she picked it for us to sing.

i haven't played the organ in over 20 years.  i bet i still suck at it.

i love it, everyone hates it

What's one thing you love that nobody else does?



photo courtesy of google images


hubby laughs at me when i watch 90210 (the 90s series, altho i do watch the new version of it as well).  i prefer the "brenda years" over the valerie or gina years.  hubby can't stand shannen dougherty.  i think she's just misunderstood.  


i will admit that the only reason i started watching the new 90210 was becos kelly (jennie garth) brenda (dougherty) and donna (tori spelling) were going to be on.  brenda and donna were one-off episodes, and kelly hasn't been on all season and probably is finished as well.  i know the PTB behind the new series probably did that to lure old fans like me.  i guess it worked, although now i can take or leave the show.  

black friday

when i was younger, i used to go shopping with my mom and grandmother on black friday.  we used to eat out then head out to the malls.

i steer clear of stores on black friday now.  i can't stand crowds and the craziness of the day.  i do most of my christmas shopping on line, or if i go to a b&m store, i go off hours during the week.

now i spend my black fridays eating a belated thanksgiving dinner with my family, and then go home and start decorating for christmas.

gratitude - NaBloPoMo

i am grateful for...

my family - my loving husband, my precious children, my generous parents and in laws.

my grams and grandmother in law - i am grateful for their wisdom, and that they are here to be with their great grandchildren and enjoy them.

i am absolutely blessed to have a roof over my head, food on the table, relatively good health.

i take so much for granted.  today, i give thanks to God for all i have in my life.  

me in five words

Describe yourself using five words.


snarky - i'm a bit sarcastic in my old age.


curious - i like to learn about everything.  google and wikipedia are my friends (not always good, but they are fun).


anal-retentive - it takes me forever to get something "just so".  i'm getting better, but i'm still pretty fussy and picky.


creative - knitting, crafting, decorating - i love to make things with my hands.  homemade rocks!


loving - my family are my world.  they mean everything to me.

dread

What's the one thing you always dread?


i dread when the boy brings home a report card.  although he does well in school, i'm afraid he'll come home with a poor mark in something.  he does his best, and that's what counts.  i just think this irrational fear is an extension of how i felt when i got my own report card years ago (math was my killer.  so was chemistry).


on a serious note, i fear the days when my loved ones pass away.  i try not to think of it much.  but i am at that age where many of my friends have lost parents and even siblings.  i don't know what i would do without hubby, my mom or dad, or grams.  i know i'll feel lost, that's for sure.  

collections NaBloPoMo

What do you collect?


i collect a lot of different things.  i suppose my largest collection is my yarn.  i have several sweater bags full of luscious yarn in many kinds of fibers, colors, and weights.  i could knit every day for the rest of my life and still have yarn left over.  i have way too much yarn.


i collect things that have snoopy or the peanut characters on it.  mostly snoopy tho.  i have stuffies, jewelry, dishes, figurines, clothes, even makeup.  i have a lot of toys.  my most favorite snoopy possession is my snoopy and the red baron music box.  it's snoopy sitting on his doghouse, and it plays "over there".  it used to be my mom's, she gave it to me when i was little, and then it was in the boy's nursery.  when petunia is bigger, she'll get it for her room.  poor freddie.  i guess they'll have to share custody of it.  


i used to collect angels, but no so much anymore.  the majority of my angels have flutes, which is what started my collection.  most of my angels are packed up and residing in the attic, but my favorites sit on the shelves by the steps, and the more fragile ones are in my china cupboard.


i used to collect boyd's bears, but i don't anymore.  i collected both the stuffies and the figurines.  i liked collecting the puppy stuffies, but i have a few odd bears and animals.  several years ago i unloaded some of the stuffies becos i didn't have the space for them, but i did keep a moose, the first boyd's i'd ever bought, a couple puppies, and a burke bear.  he was one of the first run of burke bears and that's why i hold onto him.


here's an odd collection - i have several movies and tv shows "hoarded" on the DVR, recorded over the past 4 years.  i have a couple of charlie chan movies, "alice's restaurant", "duel" and "the phantom tollbooth".  i have several episodes of "knitty gritty", "yes dear" and lawrence welk.  if i could get these movies or shows on dvd, i'd buy them so i could delete and gain recording space.  but as far as i know, KG will never be released on dvd, YD is a big question mark and i keep the rest for either the kids' entertainment (the LW and TPT), and the rest of the movies i will watch "when i am good and ready".

women's fashion magazines piss me off

one of my parenting magazines went defunct a while back, and instead of refunding my money, it transferred me to allure to finish off the subscription.

many moons ago, when i was a fashionista and not yet a SAHM, i used to get this magazine and devour it every month.  i loved the make up and hair tips and reading about the celebrity of the month.  after i had the boy, i became less interested in fashion and makeup, and i let the subscription run out.  at that point the fashions pissed me off (who could afford a $500 pair of shoes?), the "forced weight loss" section annoyed the hell out of me (a couple of women would take the weight loss challenge and lose weight by eating rabbit food and exercising for hours on end - they never gave updates a year after they weren't featured in the magazine anymore!)

i can't wait for this subscription to end.  i could scream when it slips through the mail slot.  the clothes are ugly and expensive.  i can't afford the makeup they recommend.  i don't even know half of the celebrities they feature - they are mostly vapid, bitchy twits.  i.  can.  not.  relate.  to.  this.  world.  anymore.


the last issue had a dress that cost $9000.  it was this ugly grey tattered thing.  all i could think was, for the price of that dress i could pay for braces for all of my kids. when i see a pair of shoes that cost $1000, i think, that pair of shoes equals 2 mortgage payments.  i wonder how many people look at the price of something and calculate what they could buy instead?  i'm sure i'm not the only one who does this.

allure is probably the only magazine that i read under an hour, and it promptly gets pitched into the recycling basket.

stash

i tidied up the crafting room/boy cave this morning.  thought it was probably time to flash some stash.




i don't believe i got a shot of the shelves hubby got (originally for the boy) but i liked the cubbies for my yarn.  the packages are pretty much recent acquisitions.




would you believe i have a small fabric stash?  the pile of fleece are for no sew blankeys for the kiddos.  those are 2 cloth napkins i bought at fly creek last spring when we vacay'd in cooperstown.  i thought the patterns might be pretty if used for a lining for a bag or something.  i also found a package of peanuts material (are these fat quarters?) that i got at ben franklin.  they were in the step basket, so i got them 2 years ago or more.  i don't sew.  it's my fervent wish at this point.




oh geez.  this is the bad juju yarn.  i have tried to knit a pair of socks for my grandmother with this yarn.  magic loop, toe up, cuff down, dpns, no matter what i tried, i just couldn't knit them.  i love the yarn.  it's a beautiful teal blue colorwave.  but for some insane reason, i find myself repelled by them.  i haven't given up on them.  maybe someday the spell will be broken and i can finally knit something with it.





patons sock yarn from michaels.  recent buy during the summer.




i planned to knit socks for the kiddos with this yarn.  i got it at Glenda's over the summer.




i have no clue what this yarn is.  guess i'll have to do some sleuthing on this one.




i can't remember if i got this at kutztown (more likely) or christkindl market last december.

boy, i'm behind on posting my yarns, aren't i?






this is all my sock stash.  i have a couple odd balls in the living room, but most of it lives here.





i store the better yarn in the folding bag.  i pray the lavender rice pillow keeps the buggies away.




this is my older stash that i keep in the hamper.  i need to start stash diving.  i have way too much.



the cream/yellows and brown/blacks plus odd balls.  these hover on top since i don't have much in these colors.



my greens and light blues



pink/reds and oranges/salmons



the purples and blues.  can you guess what my favorite color is?


the tweeds and varigateds are in the living room in picnic baskets.  my luxury yarns (the quiviut and 2 skeins of jaggerspun zephyr) also live there as well.  maybe someday i'll take their pictures too.

yeah.  i don't need any more yarn.  i have SABLE and then some.

i can't sleep

What do you do to make yourself fall asleep at night?


after we put the kids to bed (around 8, earlier for the kiddos), hubby and i try to wind down for the evening.  


some evenings both of our noses are stuck in our macbooks.  i do find that the light from my laptop and even my iphone mess with my circadian rhythm, so i try not to do it much.


often you will find me curled up on the love seat, either knitting away or reading.  we watch tv, usually stuff i DVR.  


some nights, when the clutter gets to me, i start cleaning.  it's tough to clean when the kiddos are up and getting into things.  


evenings are more fun now that the kids aren't up and crying for milk or messy diapers.


i really have to watch my intake of caffeine during the day.  if i drink too much soda, i can't sleep.


sometimes when i can't sleep, i do yoga breathing and scanning to fall asleep.  usually it works.

circle of friends - NaBloPoMo

What's more important, having lots of good friendships or just one person to love?


i think about this when i am on facebook.  i have friends who have hundreds or thousands of "friends".  it has taken me nearly a year to get over 120.  the friends on my list are people i went to school with, are in my family, or went to church with me.  i do have a couple odd "celebrity" friends (vickie howell and members of ETH, for example) but i'd like to think that i could go out to lunch with anyone on my list and be able to hold a conversation with them.  


i was the same way in school.  i had a small circle of close friends.  i never felt very comfortable in a crowd.  i'm still that way today.  it's not the quantity of friends, but the quality of friendship.  

patterns

my loose knitting patterns have been a jumble as of late.  i use 4 plastic accordion files to store my patterns, and they were getting really overstuffed.  i buy these files at target, where they are occasionally sold in the dollar bins.  i bought them with hubby and our bill filing in mind, but he did not want to use them, so i decided i'd use them for my patterns.

my patterns are sorted by socks, sweaters, toys, hats, scarves, mittens, dishcloths, household, holiday, etc. etc.  i decided to sort these categories further by woman, man, child.  so in the sweaters category, i have women's sweaters, men's sweaters and children/baby.  i did the same for hats and socks.  i had a shawl category that i sorted by shawl and poncho.  it took a couple of hours, but i tamed my patterns.

here are the fruits of my labor:



these are all of my files.




these files contain my hats/scarves, shawls/ponchos, socks and blanket square patterns.




household/jewelry, holiday/toys, more socks, assorted patterns that i culled from magazines and the patterns are all mixed up (i might as well had kept the issue instead).




sweaters and WIPs.  the WIPs file is usually in my knitting bag - it contains all the patterns of current projects, plus those i want to knit someday.




i store my patterns on a shelf in my desk.  there isn't enough room for all the folders.  but they're a lot neater, and it's easier to find what i need.

Le nozze di Figaro tames the shrew - NaBloPoMo

What's the first play you ever saw live?


i saw many plays and operettas when i was little.  but the first "real" play i saw was the taming of the shrew at the BTE, and the first opera i saw was marriage of figaro at lincoln center.  i saw both of these shows within the span of a month when i was a senior in high school.  actually, i saw a second play in that span of time - a christmas carol - at the BTE that christmas.  wow.  i had no idear i was that cultured in such a short amount of time.


i saw TOTS with my senior year english class.  i was so excited becos the boy i was dating at the time worked for the BTE and i hoped he was at the theatre that day (he wasn't.  he was in school like a good boy).  it was a very good show, the cast was wonderful, and i had a good time that day.


i was a sneak tho, and at lunch time they foolishly allowed us free reign for lunch.  i cannot remember where we ate for lunch, but i do remember going into a head shop, buying some buttons, then running up to my BF's house 5 blocks away to leave him a letter.  i cannot imagine being allowed to do this now, and if i knew my own children did something like this i probably would have been torqued.  but i was 17, in love, and felt invincible.




the week before thanksgiving my mom and i went to manhattan to see the marriage of figaro at the lincoln center.  the trip was sponsored by SU and there were many college students attending as well.  mom's friend and her daughter went along too, and i remember looking at bridal magazines becos the daughter had just gotten engaged.  


we went our separate ways and mom and i went to macy's.  i wanted a purse.  i felt so fancy going to this big department store. it was nothing like the bon-ton or boscov's, stores i was used to shopping at.  i got a teal liz claiborne satchel that looked a bit like a bowling bag.  it was nearly a hundred dollars, an enormous sum for me at that time, but it was part of my christmas present, and i felt so special.  i also got a black beret at lord and taylor and felt so chic.  


i think mom and i ate at tavern on the green. i felt like such hot stuff.  later we met up with mom's friend and at a mama lione's, which was okay but not a big deal. then we went to the show.  


the hall was enormous - i felt so tiny, like i was in a jewel box.  i felt very rich even tho i am no.  the music was beautiful, the acting was wonderful.  i remember there was a screen so we could read the translation of the lyrics, but after a while i just settled in and listened to the music as it relaxed me.


before we got on the bus to leave, i went into a tower records and picked some tapes (!!!) for christmas.  i picked joy division, some queen, and another group who's name is currently escaping me.  mom let me listen to one tape - the others i got christmas day.  i picked queen becos it was one of my BF's favorite bands.  later that night i learned that freddie mercury had AIDS.  a few days later he died.  




over the Christmas holidays i went to the BTE to see my boyfriend in "a christmas carol"  he played young scrooge and only had a couple of speaking parts.  he and another boy shared the part over the span of the run, alternating shows.  he was very good (considering he was on stage for a total of 2 minutes) and looked totally adorable.  i got to see him for only a minute that night, becos he was busy helping staff prepare for the next show.  


the BTE performs several excellent shows each season.  this year we are taking the boy to see "a christmas story".  hubby and i saw this show several years ago at the BTE and it was wonderful, and we can't wait for the boy to have his first play experience at this sublime theatre.    

mittens

i tried something new with my knitting.  i knitted mittens.

years ago i made the boy an alligator mitten/puppet, but never real mittens.  the thumb gusset always intimidated me.  but last week the boy asked me to knit him something, and he requested mittens.

i used the "smitten with mittens" pattern from knitscene's knitting workshop special edition magazine.  it's a very simple pattern, with clear instructions.

you know me, i can't do anything simply.  it took me 3 tries to make the first mitten.  it was purely knitter error - i was getting stitch and round numbers from one pattern, while using another pattern.  in other words, it was like i was cooking something using two totally different recipes.  duh on me!

after i got the pattern sussed out i whipped off the boy's mittens.  if i had no interruptions, i could complete a mitten a day if i had to.




the mittens were knit with paton's classic wool merino in black, light green, navy and cream.  i tried to do a slip stitch to prevent the stripe jog, and i'm not sure i succeeded, but it doesn't look too bad for a first try!  i didn't pay much attention to the number of rounds (not the colored stripes but the black) so the mittens are more fraternal than identical.

the boy was so happy for his mittens, he wore them to school in 60 degree weather.  now that's devotion.


i had so much fun knitting the boy's mittens that i thought i'd whip up a pair for myself.




knit in women's size, with malabrigo silky merino, these were a dream to knit.  since i didn't have to worry about striping, they knit up pretty quickly.  i even had enough yarn left over to knit a matching hat (the pinch hat) which is equally is fast.

now that i understand how the thumb gusset works, i'm no longer afraid.  :)

tonga

What toy from your childhood do you still have in your possession?





when i was 3 i got a small stuffed monkey from a lady at my gram's bank.  his name was tonga.  he was brown with dangly arms and legs, and a long tail.  he had a tan muzzle, cute little ears and brown eyes.


i loved that monkey and he went with me everywhere.  i loved rubbing his right foot - it was so soft.  the left one was rough.  





tonga had 2 profiles, one jolly:





one serious:


  


i used to wrap wet kleenex around his leg, pretending he had a broken leg.  i used to parade him up and down the sidewalk in my doll stroller like that.  i'm sure my neighbors thought i was nutters, doing that.





as tonga got older, his eyes frosted over, he lost a nostril (and i colored it in with black marker) and the fur rubbed off in spots.  but i loved him.  


when i had the boy, i let him play with him.  but when he was too rough, i'd take him away.  he was still my monkey!


on a visit to philly a couple years ago, i found a stuffed monkey in a children's shop on walnut street.  he was a jellycat stuffy, but but he was a deadringer for tonga.  i bought him on sight, praying for a baby someday to love him as much as i loved tonga.


a year later we found out we were having twins.  so i ordered another jellycat monkey, although it was smaller.  so now, petunia and freddie each have their own "tonga".


tonga sits on my hope chest in our bedroom.  

veteran's day - NaBloPoMo

a salute to those who gave all...

                                    via *weheartit*

curses! NaBloPoMo

Some people hate curse words, some people love them. Which side are you on? And what's your favorite curse (or curse-substitute) word?


as a preacher's daughter, i'm not supposed to curse.  but i'm human, and i do.  i used to love shocking people in high school, blurting out a swear word.  i remember when i was little, when i said a bad word, kids would say "oh, i'm gonna tell your dad!" and i would say, "so?  go ahead!"


i try really hard not to say anything around the kids.  i adopted one of the boy's favorite sayings - "oh pickles!"  i also like saying "bugger!" (a british curse, hopefully people don't know what it means here!) or "bother!"


i had to give my first "bad word" lecture to the boy a few days ago.  on one of his word papers, he had to write words that ended in -ag.  i saw he wrote "fag".  now, we don't use this word around him and i'm sure he doesn't know what it means, but i freaked out, thinking his teacher would think we were bad parents, teaching him this word.  so i asked him about it, and he said it was supposed to be "flag".  i told him that correct spelling means everything, and explained that "fags are british slang for cigarrettes".  so the boy says, "i hate fags!" and i had to explain again that the word had a second meaning, and that this sentence was highly inappropriate to say anywhere.  i wanted to die, i didn't want to have this talk with him, but i didn't want him to think this word was appropriate either.  


a while back, the boy also flipped us the bird, and we had to explain what that meant too.


when i'm really pissed (!!!) i do let the curses fly.  gutter talk isn't cool, but sometimes you just can't help it.