robot•jumping•rope

I’ll be posting images of things that bring me joy every day (mostly) for 25 days, with little or no accompanying text (saving up my words for relatives and parties and did i mention relatives?)

I do hope you will stop by once in a while, that you enjoy the photos, and that you all have the loveliest of holidays, my dear, dear friends far and near.

and just to clear a few things up: i didn’t make the star in my header (anthropologie circa 3-4? years ago), i definitely did not make the shoes, just embellished them because they’ve languished unworn (and plain) in my closet forever, and the coffee cups - well, you’ll see more of them in days to come, ’cause they make me happy. and 25 days just because i love the number 25 and january 8 seems like as good a day as any to jump back in to daily writing, hopefully refreshed and full of newly percolated ideas.

xxxxxxx

estea

“If you don’t take me with you for the holidays I will destroy the tree and all your favorite tights while you’re away. I mean it, lady. Don’t toy with me.”

- boris the cat

no time to say anything much (sick children. again.) except would you please imagine me sitting at the screen with a bit of a teary face, thinking about how we are all pulling for each other out here in the vast and sometimes choppy seas of motherhood. I had a bit of a leak in my boat but fortunately others were in a position to lend a hand. THANK YOU for the encouragement I denied needing, and for the commiseration. Things look brighter today just ’cause my girlfriends gave me a little virtual smooch. Sweet!

sometimes it’s good to go for broke in the whining department when everything hits the fan; I can see that now,  that it helps us to see each other in honest light, flaws and all (as much as possible in such a medium) because man, just to know you’re not the only one who feels like an unglamorous pack mule in need of a bath and a dirty martini is Absolutely Priceless.

Be good and have a terrific weekend (remember to check the schedule!) and maybe I’ll share on Monday the wishlist that is to be my eternal damnation.

And in the meantime, did you see? Resistance Is Futile. I’ve succumbed. and it feels so gooood. What a perfect simple craft to take your mind off the bad stuff. But then you already knew that.

xxxxx

me

sigh.

people, I’d love to say all is well. yes, I’d love to say that.

I cried in the shower this morning. This is not typical.

My toddler is driving me crazy. He screams. All the time. This is a 3rd child issue, because the older ones have Cool Stuff and he WANTS IT NOW. How to be fair to them and yet not have awfully high expectations for a 2 year old who (quite developmentally normal) thinks everything belongs to him? Seriously, I need help here.

My oldest son Knows It All. Everything must be questioned. He is smart, he is curious, he is killing me. This is not about picking battles - I let him learn from his own mistakes plenty. This is exactly how I was as a kid and man if that isn’t coming back to bite me in the nether regions.

My daughter is pestering the living daylights out of me.

As my husband puts it, “we’re at the nadir of childrearing fatigue.” Yep.

My car is making funny noises and smells.

My hair is graying at a very rapid pace and it’s FREAKING ME RIGHT OUT.

I can’t sleep at night because I wake up sweating every 3 hours. Don’t say it. Don’t say perimenopause. NO. DON’T.

My Amex bill will not be paid in full this month for the first time.

I need Thursday to myself in a big bad way but we can’t really afford co-op for 3 kids next semester, unless I find more work. Considering giving piano lessons again, or cleaning houses, or stripping (not really. they’d never take me. I have the cleavage of a pre-adolescent boy.)

Mother in Law says we are both going straight to hell because of our amazon wishlists and the cds upon it. sigh. this is why i am a recovering evangelical.

PMS.

Nothing in my closet fits me and it’s directly proportional to the amount of butter I consume and the amount of exercise I avoid.

There were 323 spam emails in my inbox yesterday. I would pay $1000 to be in a room alone with a spammer for 10 minutes.

I think winter break may have commenced early in this homeschool household.

This whole blogging bit was started because I needed an escape hatch, a place to stick out my head into the adult world while sequestered here at home with my youngsters. But now I feel aimless - am I a crafter? a writer? an amateur seamstress? a whiner? a Kansas housewife cliché with nothing interesting to say? Does it matter? All I really want to do is piddle around the house and take pictures for my Flickr. Maybe that’s all i should do for a bit. How does “Closed For The Season” sound?

I’m not asking for sympathy or prop-me-up comments. These are just things to get off my mind and onto a page. If you’re looking for interesting projects move along, because I’m fresh out.

Going to go sit in the sun now and paint my toenails and listen to Dylan and think about nothing. That should help.

(yes, new banner. the old one wouldn’t load because of high res and low res looked like crap.)

all the cool chicks, anyway. next thing you know I’ll be churning out soft trees. must. resist.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?
nog but cut it with 2%, otherwise the snot-like consistency really gets to me. oh, and spike it. please.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit *set them under the tree?
Santa delivers, Mama wraps in special elfin magic paper (glittery!) *verb police moment - people sit down, things are set down. please don’t hate me.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?
Vegas-worthy splendor, baby. (color, of course.)

4. Do you hang mistletoe?
like he needs more opportunity to feel me up.

5. When do you put your decorations up?
far enough ahead of time to ensure tree is a complete fire hazard by christmas morning.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?
my mom’s homemade cornbread & sage dressing. it is so fabulous. StoveTop® can bite me. oh, and apple salad gets honorable mention.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child:
I was the 6th kid (but not the last!) and there was no place for me to sleep except on the yellow naugahyde couch in our living room. So I’d fall asleep every night watching the tree lights all blurry and fantastic through half-closed eyes. And listening to my big sisters talking and laughing in the kitchen while they made divinity, snickerdoodles and peanut brittle to the sweet sounds of our Elvis Christmas album.

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa?
my mom thinks imagination and magic are satan, so i never believed and was a total brat about it to my cousins who did. pretty sure i killed a lot of innocent wonder. yep.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?
all of them always. nobody in my family is a morning person. plus we had to truck to grandma’s house the next day for the “family gift exchange”

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?
see #3.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it?
Love love love! it’s the only time Kansas looks pretty in winter.

12. Can you ice skate?
quite well, actually. I am freakishly coordinated.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?
yeah.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
teaching my kids it ain’t just about presents and being entertained.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?
hmmmm. probably some type of cranberry/vodka combination. oh, and fudge. good fudge, not dry fudge, not too many nuts, not grainy because the sugar didn’t melt properly.

17. What tops your tree?
homemade glittery star by my daughter (it’s different every year.)

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving?
Getting, because I’m greedy and love new stuff, and I suck at picking stuff out. but giving to my kids is getting more and more fun as they get older and more interesting.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song (s)?
Nat King Cole crooning anything (his is the best Christmas album ever.) I also listen to and play pieces from the Messiah until my family wants to shoot me. oh, and the Carpenter’s Christmas album, although the pure schmaltzy goodness is completely lost on the Artiste. and John Denver! and The Staple Singers. and Frank and Bing, together. oh crap, too many.

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?
lordy i hate mint. you may as well just eat toothpaste.

thanks for reading, now consider yourself tagged.

first, thank you for all the birthday wishes. my boy had a wonderful day full of the things he loves (Krispy Kreme® snowmen, pizza, (more!)legos, time spent with his very best friend Sam and new additions to his train fund.) Big-lump-in-the-throat-time when I tucked him into bed last night, as I wondered how long he would let me continue our nightly ritual. (Not that i want the creepiness of this book, sorry if you’re a fan - can we still be friends?) He shared with me about one of his other friends at school. her name is Josie. “I really like her, mom: even though she’s a girl and doesn’t like legos she’s really cool and she likes my robot shirt.” gulp.

next, let me apologize for being the biggest. whiner. ever. Has moi been commenting or replying to emails? No. Does moi deserve the same? No. Please forgive my arrogance. Let’s just agree we’re all busy right now and that the love is still there, it’s just hibernating a little. You’ll probably see more of me at Flickr until after the holidays. Which reminds me. i need more Flickr contacts. get on it.

loving these posts about great toys. nothing to add to those great lists of good things, many of which we have enjoyed around this joint (except the dolls. not much of a doll girl here; she’d rather dress up the cat.) However, 2 things that are new to us and more suitable for slightly older kiddos are getting a lot of airtime:

• Patternables

We’ve had pattern blocks for a while and they are wonderful manipulatives. This book provides some great patterns for the shapes so you can create actual pictures. There are a variety of skill levels, so there’s something for everyone. I plan to pull out the pages and hole-punch them into a sturdy binder so the pieces will actually lie flat. This is so much fun mom and dad have also been playing…

<post interrupted because my sister stopped by and talked me into going to 3 estate sales, 2 thrift stores, then out to lunch. tons of fun, tons of goodies, tons of breakables we almost bought. I got several vintage clothing pieces, including a cashmere sweater with fur collar for 1.50. i kid you not. pictures soon!>

okay, where was I?

Oh, the other cool learning tool is not a toy, it’s a book, and it’s one of the best books i have ever read. In fact, when it arrived last week we all immediately started looking through the pages and didn’t stop until we’d gone from cover to cover. We had several family friends over for dinner last week and they couldn’t put it down either, not even for my soft molasses cookies. It’s that good. It is a must have. Incredible. Important, especially for my little kiddies who are growing up here in periously affluent JoCo.

Anyway, there you have it.

Works in progress…hmmmm…

well, I need tea towels, so I might cut up this tablecloth and make some. It’s that perfect thickish cotton weave that makes lovely thirsty drying towels, and I adore the pink/red combo. and the whiskey barrel! it’s very holiday, don’t you think?

and seeing these gave me an idea for some thrifted drapes I’ve been hoarding forever:

so I put some batting in between and sew together the layers, then what? turn under edges? bind? help me, ye sewing goddesses.

also need to finish up some ornaments, for now that The Birthdays are done, we’ll get around to the tree and decorating the house. I’m envisioning a 50’s style tree with gobs of tinsel on every branch. All out glitz, baby. We’ll see if the austere spouse goes for it. ahem. An old wool skirt I bought last week felted deliciously, so ’twill be lots of fuschia stars on the tree as well. touches of orange and turquoise should pull everything together nicely…:)

(i don’t know what speedboats and trains have to do with christmas either, but i love these little guys too much to leave them on the sidelines.)

okey dokey, everyone set for a good weekend? excellent. it’s been a really emotional week for me (all of us, probably), and I’m greatly looking forward to some personal cathartic time in the craft room.

take care and remember to snuggle up to the ones you love.

xxxxx

once upon a time a nice young man and even nicer young lady were married, and just about 2 years later a tiny slightly-jaundiced bald person joined them in their tidy little Brookside bungalow with the beautiful oak floors and the drafty but charming windows. when this small boy arrived he at once set the house aglow with his giggles and dimples and dark hazel eyes that squinted just like his mama’s when he laughed. he detested (and still does) tomato sauce and chocolate, loved cucumbers and Thomas the Tank Engine with a white hot passion, and walked, no ran, before he turned ten months old.

eventually, of course, as boys will do, he grew and grew and grew some more and now he is EIGHT, which none of us can really understand because the time seemed to rush by in a blur of diapers and birthday parties and soccer practices and Christmases and so many more milestones they make your head spin.

now the boy lives in a slightly larger house in a somewhat less charming neighborhood with his brother and sister and mama and daddy and a cat named Boris and a fish named MoMo. he spends much of his time reading books about owls, and fish, and airplanes, and building complicated Spaceman Spiff Alien Shooter Missile Launchers (actual title) with his father’s boyhood legos (all 1,473 of them), and is saving up all present and future allowances for an electric train (HO gauge, because they have the most accessories available, or so he tells me). He is at once charming and wilful, sweet and sassy, young man and boy, bold and hesitant, slob and perfectionist, tender older brother and bossy sibling.

he is my tommyboy, my firstborn, my opening act of motherhood and, increasingly, my friend.

happy birthday mr. boop boop!

p.s. please forgive all my sappy pollyanna posts of late. i am frightfully sentimental when it comes to birthdays. i promise more flippant posts and less tissues in days to come!