Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Why Halloween?

Skadi: "I will tell you how Halloween came to be mom. See boys like scary stuff. And Jesus was a boy. And so they made Halloween to make Jesus happy. Ok?"

Me: "Actually..." (Launch into Day of the Dead...)

Skadi: "Ok mom, you are weird."

Saturday, October 05, 2013

Goals Wrap Up September, October Plans

Well I wouldn’t say that I hit it out of the field this month on my goals. Maybe a base hit? Ah well, I am not a baseball fan, so I should really lose the baseball references.
 
The goal for September was to select quilt pattern (check!), select fabric (check!) and get started on Skadi’s quilt. And yes, I did get started on it. I cut a few squares out. I would have probably gotten more than a “few” squares cut out if I didn’t have a little helper bee who wanted to cut the squares herself for her own quilt. And well, yes, I have to allow her / encourage her to be crafty and learn to sew as my mom did with me. So I let her cut some squares out. But man is it scary watching your child with a rotary cutter in her hand.
 
And this was where I stopped.
 
I just have this fear of even pulling the fabric out that she becomes a moth to the flame and has an insatiable need to cut out her own fabric.
 
I have been thinking about how to handle this… and first in my mind is to give her some fabric to cut and make a quilt out of alongside me. But I know my daughter. It isn’t the need to make a quilt that is causing this obsessive behavior. It’s the rotary cutter. And I can’t really blame her – they are the epitome of cool tools for the quilter. I find tremendous pleasure in my very neatly ordered stacks of fabric with the precision achieved only by the use of a rotary cutter. Nope, scissors won’t work.
 
So what I need in order to advance on this goal is a day at home without my daughter. I might be able to get the quilt cut out then. Then I could just battle her over the sewing machine…
 
So onto October! Hello one of my most favorite of months! The time when the weather cools and I get to wear my warm clothes again, cook yummy foods, enjoy the sounds of football in the background (because it is completely impossible for me to sit my butt in a seat and watch a game… if they were only 30 minutes, maybe.)
 
 
I suddenly have a number of things to hang on the wall. We have a print we bought near Mt. St. Helens. I want to relocate a metal art. And I have stacks of framed photos I want to shift around. And my foyer, office and dining room have no more prime wall space. I need to prep another wall!
 
So I am thinking I need to go small scale for October given my crazy October schedule – a trip to Reno, swimming lessons, Leif’s football, an itty bitty (but very important) surgery my husband is having (and he may disagree with me saying it is itty bitty…), me speaking at a local University to a women’s group – ah, the list goes on. Oh and not to mention that quilt is still on my to do list.
 
So my goal is to scootch the piano and sectional away from the walls they are residing on and paint said walls. Then scootch the piano and sectional back and hang some stuff on those two walls. It would be perfect for our Mt. St. Helens picture and might just also work for the metal art. Framed photos? Yeah, well maybe if I get these two walls done then I will have some clarity with the rest of the room. Or maybe it isn’t clarity I need… just motivation? (And money.)
 

Catching Up

I need some mental blogging capability. Because I really do enjoy blogging and love the journaling aspect. I really love flipping back to old blogs for reference (how big exactly were the older two at this age?) and when my kids are older I want to share some of the crazy things they did and said. In order to keep doing this, I need to keep blogging. And since adding hours in the day hasn’t panned out, maybe blogging mentally would work? I think about what I want to blog about and it just happens... someday it will be real.
 
Anyways, new fiscal year, let’s get it caught up and started out right.
 
Skadi: “Mom, pinky promise me you won’t tell dad?”
 
Me: “Ok.” (Crossing fingers because I tell AB everything.)
 
Skadi: “I have a boyfriend!!” Then she jumps up and down and squeals like the little girl she is!
 
Me: “Really!!” (Thrilled that she is telling me this and hoping she will continue to tell me these things as she gets older.) “What’s his name?”
 
Skadi: (Blank stare) “I don’t know that.”
 
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Me: "Didn't you find your sweatpants in the dryer yesterday?"

Leif: "Yes, but they probably aren't there now."

Me: "Oh yeah, because our house elves came."

Leif: (eyeroll)

Minutes later the dishwasher is acting up.

Me: "Hans guess what you get to fit in today among everything else?"

AB: "Ugh."

Skadi: "What about the house elves?"


 
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Girl Scout Coordinator to Skadi: "Would you like to join Girl Scouts?"



Skadi: "No I just want to buy cookies."

 
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Daycare floater: “I have to tell you, I just love when I get assigned to Infant A because I know I get to go in and have Silas smile and laugh with me for at least some portion of my day. He makes my day.”
 
Awww!