Express Yourself!

A Day in the Life

I already blogged this on our Weed Patch blog, but I thought it would be worth repeating here, as I haven't been blogging too much lately.  Just been busy working!  Today has been another typical work day.  Here was yesterday, up to now:

9:00 am Parents get up for the day, get dressed, have a nice quiet discussion regarding store stuff.

10:05am Parent goes upstairs to dress and ready child for the day, as child is heard running and playing, and therefore is indeed awake.  Parent finds child not in closed bedroom as usual, but instead in the closed bathroom.

10:10am Parent installs sock on child's bedroom door to help control child-door-opening activities.

10:13am Parent reinstalls sock on child's bedroom door, securing with rubber band.

2:05 pm Child plays quietly in room, and goes to sleep for a nap.  Parental bliss ensues.  Quiet working, uninterrupted lunch, etc.

6:15 pm Parent gets child up from nap, in closed bedroom.

7:45 pm Child goes into kitchen.  Child is quiet.

7:47 pm Parent enters kitchen to find child inside refrigerator, in the process of pulling the door closed.

7:48 pm Parent begin going-night-night actives with child.

8:35 pm Child bites nipple off before-bedtime-bottle of milk, and pours milk over couch, couch contents, and surrounding couch area.

8:45 pm Child is given crash course (long over due) in going to bed without bottle.

9:34 pm Parent repeats cuddling, talking, song singing, tucking in process.

10:18 pm See above.

10:35 pm Quiet upstairs.

4:00 am Parent spends 1 hour with perfectly dry, sound, healthy, whole, yet utterly inconsolably screaming child.

9:38 am Sleepy parent gets out of bed, thankful to have slept in a bit.  All is quiet from child's room.

11:00 am Evidence of quiet happy playing heard from upstairs.

11:48 am Parent greets child's for the morning to sweet happy "hi mama" and "up! up!"

11:49 am Parent notices child has a black eye.  Child does not notice or care.  Parent wonders what's she's doing wrong in her role as a parent.

3:15 pm Child goes down for nap.

3:19 pm Parent sits on couch and stares off into space for 14 minutes.  Wonders...what's next?!

Sigh....

Outside

I see many sunburns in my near future (well, hopefully they'll eventually just be suntans).  I finally figured out a way to successfully play outside with Ben in our yard.  For those of you who haven't been to our house, half our lawn is level, and the other half is steep hill.  It is also unfenced, and on the corner of our street, with a decent amount of traffic.  Playing outside with Ben for me usually amounted a lot of running, catching, "no no's," and bouts of very vocal confused and frustrated opinions (from Ben - mine was all inside my head).  My mom jokingly said I just needed a tether for Ben, so he can play relatively unhindered, without rolling down the hill onto the street under someone's moving car.

Well, actually, I found one, and it worked.  We played outside successfully for two hours yesterday.  With Ben's new favorite toy.  The hose.

He only went out so far as the hose, with its slow trickle of water, reached in the yard.  I brought out all kinds of toys to play with, but the hose was it.  For two hours, he watered the bushes, the fountain, the lawn, the flowers, the rocks, his bucket, and himself.  This time I'll remember to put sunscreen on myself and not just him, and I'll bring myself out a chair and a magazine.  Watering things with the hose captured my interest for only so long...

The new shoes of summer.  Is it just me, or did we totally skip Spring??

Two Today

(At about 2 weeks)

Two years ago today, I remember trying for twenty-six hours to bring my son into the world, only to have a stranger come in and do it in under 30 minutes.  I turned my head, and the first view I had of Ben was him lifting himself up on all fours on the table as the nurse did those things nurses do when babies are born.

(at about 3 months)

 I remember expecting him, as a newborn, to be tinier and more fragile than he actually was.  At almost 9 1/2 pounds, he was just barely under my approved weight limit for what I could safely lift and carry for the next 6 weeks. 

 
(presiding over The Weed Patch)

Driving down to Colorado with my new son, my husband, and my in-laws was one of the most challenging experiences of my life, but one that has given me some of the best memories.  In two years, I have learned about multi-tasking, sensory overload, self-sacrifice, what real messes are, how to clean in record time, and the importance of personal devotional time and coffee. 

And family.  I don't know how single moms do it.  I wouldn't have made it this far without our parents, sisters, brothers, aunties & uncles, best friends, new friends, grandparents, and of course, my husband.

(First pool experience)

Benjamin is two today.  He knows the entire alphabet by sight, and can name over half the letters.  He loves ducks and books, and of all his toys, he plays the most with his ball and Mr. Potato Head. 

(The discovery of Toilet Paper)

Music is by far his most favorite thing in the world, second only to going outside.  His favorites are Loreena McKennitt and the fiddler from the group Celtic Woman.  Shortly after walking (at about a year), he began running, then jumping, and spinning. 

(First Sprinkler)

He has danced to music ever since he was able to bounce on his tummy.  He is strong, stubborn, intelligent, and has his own mind about things. 

(With Daddy)

He gives me a bad headache just about every day, which I get over during his long stretches of (thank you Jesus) sleep.

(First Lawn Mowing)

And I love him more than anything else in the world.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Thoughtful Friday 14

"Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway."  --Mary Kay Ash

Brownies

The other day, we made brownies.

'Nuf said. :)

Journal Day

Today is a day to journal.  If you are a journaller, you know what I mean.  If you aren't I encourage you to consider jumping on the bandwagon.

This is a journal I made my last year at Artfest.  I was over 8 months pregnant, in a tiny room at Fort Warden in Port Townsend, over-filled with 6 foot tables.  I literally couldn't maneuver in there at all.  But it didn't bother me, as I had great fun in the class.  Traci Bautista was teaching us to make great messes with scraps of various papers, most of which was from my recycle bin, along with inexpensive liquid watercolors and markers of all kinds.

That was over 2 years ago now, and I still had yet to write in the resulting book.  Nothing really seemed to fit, and it still really doesn't, but I'm tired of my poor little book being all dressed up with nowhere to go.  I have been experiencing some dark times of late, and though I am a journaller, I haven't ever really been one to write out all my unromantic, depressing worries and sad thoughts.  I guess I assume someone will read my journals someday, at the very least after I'm dead, and I don't want them to think I had a morose personality.  Despite all this, however, I have been putting pen to page, deciding that my own journal therapy is more important that what people think of me (especially since the only ones reading these will probably be those who knew and loved me anyway).  Perhaps the bright cheery colorful pages will have a positive effect on the words I write?  We'll see I guess.  But either way it is nice to be scribbling again.

ABCs and Play Doh

Yesterday we tried out Play Doh for the first time.  His auntie Holly brought him some Play Doh a couple of weeks ago, and we gave him a can of it in his Easter basket.  Yesterday afternoon, it just seemed like the right time to give it a go, so we pulled out a glass cutting board surface, and I explained to him that the Play Doh only goes on that surface, and we opened up the can. 

He didn't really get the concept right away, he just kept putting it in one container after another without really squishing it.  But I formed it into letters for him to guess, and animal shapes to play with, and although he didn't go crazy with it, he did seem interested.  Success was confirmed this morning - it was the first toy he went for after his bath!

My friend Charity tagged me on one of those meme's, and I'm always a sucker for them so, here we go.  I'm supposed to "tag" a bunch of people, but I hate doing that, so join in if you'd like, and let me know if you do!

A - Age: 30

B - Bed size: King

C - Chore you hate: putting away clean laundry

D - Dog's name: we don't have a dog.  We have a cat, his name is Rumpuss (like in Cats)

E - Essential start your day item: COFFEE.  in a pretty mug, on a pretty tray, with four small powdered doughnuts on a pretty plate.

F - Favorite color: red.  no, light blue.  no, green.  no, pink.  no, red, definitely red.  Today at least.

G - Gold or Silver: don't have much of either.  not really into fancy jewelry.  its all gifts or homemade, so I guess silver.

H - Height: 5' 10"

I - Instruments you play(ed): piano since I was 5 or so through college after which I haven't had a piano to play.  I miss it very very very badly.

J - Job title: Mom, retail/online store owner, artist

K - Kid(s): 1

L - Living arrangements: Married with children at our home in Everett

M - Mom's name: Esther

N - Nicknames: don't have any at all, except from my friends at my old work.

O - Overnight hospital stay other than giving birth: None

P - Pet Peeve: Losing things, especially when it is a book or toy I want to play with and I only have a little while to do so before I have to go somewhere or Ben wakes up.

Q - Quote: Seize the moment.  Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.  ~Erma Bombeck

R - Right or left handed: Right.

S - Siblings: 2 sisters, both married.

T - Time you wake up: between 8 and 9, depending on when I went to bed

U- Underwear: Um, usually.  (Gee, some of these questions are weird.)

V - Vegetable you dislike: can't really think of any.  Artichokes, I guess.  Older ones.  I like the hearts.

W - Ways you run late: don't understand the question.  Late is late, not sure there are different ways of being late.  I am typically late because it always takes me longer to get Ben, and then thus myself, ready than I think it will.

X - X-rays you've had: spinal

Y - Yummy food you make: hm....soups, bread, flank steak, cakes, cheesecake, pastas, tea party food

Z - Zoo favorite: I haven't been to the zoo in so long, I can't remember.  i remember being very fascinated with the gorillas.  so human-like.

Neighborhooding

 

Chris and I have been taking evening walks in the neighborhood, every night so long as it isn’t pouring, and as long as it is still light.  Our neighborhood is a wonderful mix of houses, some run down a bit, and some painstakenly cared for.  I love both kinds equally, as almost all the homes around here are very old, and thus even when run down they have great character.  One of the several things I badly miss about our Snohomish home is the neighborhood.  If you’ve followed the blog at all, you’ve heard about it before. 

 

At the end of the main street of Historic Snohomish is a small cul-de-sac of old, brightly painted historic homes.  Behind them is a garden, all netted together, full of plants I remember from my childhood.  If you live in one of those homes, you are part of the Neighborhood, which I learned was a small community of people that instantly became family and friends, the kind you would have last minute dinner parties with, drink wine outside under the stars and flower, and slap miquitos.  Indeed, we spent a few of the wee hours of our labor with Ben wandering our neighbors’ back yards, because it was such a lovely and peaceful place to experience excruciating pain, and really the best part was knowing we were welcome.

 

When it came to buy a home, we had to move, sadly.  We have lived in Everett now for about a year and a half, and although I know nothing will ever be like The Neighborhood, I think this place has potential.  There seem to be plenty of storybook characters living around here, some new to the area, and some who have been here longer than I’ve been alive.  We pass by a few of them as we are taking our walks, and we are starting to build our own neighborhood personality as we chat with them.  

It was on our walk yesterday as we were exchanging gardening ideas with a couple who had just torn out part of their yard that I realized that unlike Snohomish where we moved into an instant neighborhood, here we’d have to make our own.  I have heard enough comments from various folks to know that the desire to actually know each others’ names and be welcome in each others’ yards is actually there, just no one has really started working toward it yet. 

Having grown up in the middle of nowhere, I had no neighbors, so I’m not really sure how to go about it.  Chris, of course, doesn’t have a shy bone in his body.  He can talk to anybody, and I mean anybody.  Me, I speak in food, among other things.  Maybe I’ll drop off some cookie gifts and see where it leads us….

Useless Things

Chris takes the camera to work with him almost every day, so I don't often get a chance these days to snap many shots.  He did leave it yesterday, though, and I took some random pics of our morning.

Ben was working very hard, as usual.

I was not.

I have started painting again, a bit.  Nothing fancy or museum worthy, but fun things that bring out that child-like spirit that has very unfortunately been buried lately under adult concerns.

My mother told us a couple weeks ago that we were living a wretched existence (I love my mom).  And at that moment, she was right.  We have this tendency to run around like chickens with our head's cut off whenever life gets a little tough, as if our sheer effort is going to make the difference.  Every single time we do that, sacrificing everything from time with each other to sleep to even eating, we suffer worse than the original problems in the first place, so I can't really figure out why we end up doing it again later.  Silly us.

 

But, that's what friends and moms are for, to tell us when we are being idiots.  So, lately I've been spending a little bit of each day (naptime) doing some completely useless things, to relieve myself from having spent so much time doing useful things.  Well, when I say "useless" in this context, I mean things that don't have anything to do with any of our businesses, or cleaning the house, or things like that.  I think the things I am doing ARE useful, but in more personal ways, like, um, helping me to not go insane.  Insane in this context just isn't a good thing, so the other day I painted an elephant.  Yesterday I painted a house and put glitter on its roof.  Today...well, today I'm blogging.  During naptime I may actually get outside and plant my flowers before they decide that the little 4 inch plastic containers they came in are their permanent homes, and die out of misery...

What we're watching

Tonight we're watching Cirque du Soleil's Varekai before Ben's bedtime.  We don't have a TV, and haven't used our cable service since moving in here a year and half ago, so we really don't watch any TV.  However, we have a few concert-type DVDs that we do love to watch, Cirque du Soleil being one of them.  We have a projector that blows it up on our wall, and it takes up the whole wall.  This is right across from two large windows that face the street, so anyone that drives by gets glimpses of really rather interesting characters.  The Skywatcher is one of our favorites.

 

He is one of the "clowns" of the show, and always reminds me of my friend Evan.  Not that my friend typically wears grass pants or walks around in an oversized hampster ball, but I just imagine that he could play The Skywalker's kind of character.  (Sorry, Evan - but it really is a compliment!  The act is very good and fun).

I think what Ben likes the most about these shows (we have three) is the music.  He has responded to music from the moment he was born, and has been dancing since before he could walk.  He'd lay on the floor on his tummy, bouncing and slapping to the music (often he even claps to the right time).  Not long after he learned to walk, then run, he added jumping to his musical routine.  He responds most especially in this respect to the group Celtic Woman, specifically the fiddle player, Maidread.

 

The moment she comes out and starts playing, he is spinning, waving his arms, and jumping into the air, not unlike what I imagine primitive tribal dances to be.  I've considered videoing this reacting and emailing it over to them to see what a big little fan they have, which I really won't, but I'd still love to get it captured for our own watching later.  His joy at the music is so sincere and uninhibited, I always think of that famous "...dance like no one is watching..." quote.  How wonderful to be a child, not even remotely concerned about what other people must think you look like, as you're dancing to your heart's content.  We could all learn a lesson from that, I guess.

Anyway, I really just meant to pop in and say hi, and share what we were watching tonight.  We never get sick of these concerts, though we watch them over and over.  It is our evening wind-down time.  Sometimes we sit and watch, and sometimes we play.  And, of course, we always dance... (Though I'm always sure to close the blinds first).

Family Fun

Chris and I find traditions very important.  There are just certain things you do at certain times.  We are not dogmatic or regimented about them – we simply love traditions because they are fun and provide a fantastic excuse to take a break and go do something together as a family. 

Last Saturday we packed up Benjamin and headed over to Craven Farm in our beloved Snohomish so that Benjamin could having his first experience with picking out the all-important Halloween pumpkin. 

 

We had no illusions that he would actually know what Halloween was, or care about a pumpkin as anything more than one of about a billion toys covering the whole festival area, but we knew the experience itself would be great fun for him, and memorable at the very least for us.  We were not disappointed. 

Craven Farm is nestled in Snohomish’s farmlands (being a farm, this of course makes sense), and with the day being right in line with most of this fall so far (weather-wise), the place absolutely sparkled.  You walk into a clean open area surrounded by various barn-like outbuildings, with wood chips underfoot, and pumpkins and gourds of every size, shape, and color strewn all about the yard, along with chrysanthemums, a couple fair-food stands, and plenty of contraptions for kids to crawl into and over while parents snap endless photos.  We of course were among them.  

I think at first when we put down, he was incredulous that he could run free, relatively uninhibited, and was shy at first. 

That lasted about five minutes.  And then he was everywhere, which was Ok because they place is extremely kid friendly. 

They even have a little petting zoo, so Ben got to see kittens, bunnies, goats, geese, chickens, and ducks, all of which he joyfully named “wa-wa’s”.  (That’s Ben-ese for cat, and really any other pet-like animal).

  

 

We never did get a pumpkin, which we expected – by the time Ben had enjoyed every toy there, he was exhausted and never would have lasted in the line, even though it moved pretty quickly.  We packed him back up in the car and he was asleep inside two minutes.  We picked up a pumpkin at the local farm stand by our house, and he just slept.

A very good recipe for a successful nap, if you ask me!

Thoughtful Friday 11

"Listen!  The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves, we have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!" - Humbert Wolfe

Steak, Carmalized Onion, & Brie Sandwiches

Steak, Carmalized Onion, & Brie Sandwiches

This is a very simple, loose recipe, so don’t pay too much attention to measurements, just make up your sandwich in however looks good to you!  This is a great way to use up leftover steak, and the mix of flavors are something we especially enjoy in the fall.  Serve these up with some sliced apples, like Honeycrisp – they pair wonderfully with the brie in the sandwich!

• 2 sirloin steaks
• Seasoning salt
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp butter
• 1 medium onion, sliced into ¼ inch rings
• Wedge of brie cheese (how much you use is up to you!)
• 4 nice crusty French bread hoagie-type rolls, or a baguette cut into individual portions
• Dijon Mustard
• (Chris added some Mayo, too....)

1.      If your steaks aren’t already cooked, preheat oven to the broil setting.  Sprinkle them liberally with your favorite seasoning salt on both sides, and set on a broiling pan (line bottom with tin foil for easier clean-up).  Put in top rack in oven and broil 4-6 minutes on each side, or until done to your liking.  Take out of oven just before they are to your liking, as they will continue to cook once they are out.  Set aside to rest for about 15 minutes.

2.      Caramelize the onion:  heat butter and oil over medium high heat in a large, heavy sauté pan.  Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are soft, golden brown, and caramelized.  Reduce heat to medium low if needed to keep from burning.  This will take approximately 25 minutes.  Add a teaspoon or so of sugar at the end of cooking to bring out more of the caramelized flavor.

3.      Cut some thin slices of brie.  Slice steak thinly across the grain.  Assemble sandwiches, spreading on some mustard, then layering some steak slices, a couple tablespoons of onion, and thin slices of brie.  Broil in oven until cheese is melty, just about 1-2 minutes, taking care not to burn!

SUPER-yum. Enjoy!

Steak, Carmalized Onion, & Brie Sandwiches

This is a very simple, loose recipe, so don’t pay too much attention to measurements, just make up your sandwich in however looks good to you!  This is a great way to use up leftover steak, and the mix of flavors are something we especially enjoy in the fall.  Serve these up with some sliced apples, like Honeycrisp – they pair wonderfully with the brie in the sandwich!

• 2 sirloin steaks
• Seasoning salt
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp butter
• 1 medium onion, sliced into ¼ inch rings
• Wedge of brie cheese (how much you use is up to you!)
• 4 nice crusty French bread hoagie-type rolls, or a baguette cut into individual portions
• Dijon Mustard
• (Chris added some Mayo, too....)

1.      If your steaks aren’t already cooked, preheat oven to the broil setting.  Sprinkle them liberally with your favorite seasoning salt on both sides, and set on a broiling pan (line bottom with tin foil for easier clean-up).  Put in top rack in oven and broil 4-6 minutes on each side, or until done to your liking.  Take out of oven just before they are to your liking, as they will continue to cook once they are out.  Set aside to rest for about 15 minutes.

2.      Caramelize the onion:  heat butter and oil over medium high heat in a large, heavy sauté pan.  Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are soft, golden brown, and caramelized.  Reduce heat to medium low if needed to keep from burning.  This will take approximately 25 minutes.  Add a teaspoon or so of sugar at the end of cooking to bring out more of the caramelized flavor.

3.      Cut some thin slices of brie.  Slice steak thinly across the grain.  Assemble sandwiches, spreading on some mustard, then layering some steak slices, a couple tablespoons of onion, and thin slices of brie.  Broil in oven until cheese is melty, just about 1-2 minutes, taking care not to burn!

SUPER-yum. Enjoy!

Thoughtful Friday 11

“Our life is frittered away by detail ... simplify, simplify.”
Henry David Thoreau

Photo taken 9/30/2008, Ebey's Landing, Whidbey Island Washington
The rocks were already stacked.
By Chris Tindall

Thoughtful Friday 10

“You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.”

--Barbara Hall