Tea Party!

One Friday in January, Anna came in to the kitchen, dressed in a floor length gown, (as usual) and suggested we have a tea party. That seemed like a good idea, so we did. (Before you think too highly of me, I was ironing curtains, and who doesn't want to quit ironing curtains, if given the opportunity?)We used my pretty pink dishes.
We had Cheese and Crackers, cut "fancy", and Choco-Banana Pocky...very elegant.
And "Hors d'oeuvres"

This is something my Grandma Madge used to make for me, when we had "fancy" snacks together. Saltines, cream cheese, and sweet pickle. It's always been one of my favorite treats. These had a little too much sweet pickle, and I used relish because it was quicker, but I think it's better how she made it, with very thin slices of tiny sweet pickles.

We had a lovely time.

Cocoa Dolce

Cocoa Dolce

Matthew went on his "guys weekend" a couple of weeks ago and brought me a little box of chocolates back.
It came with this little freshness stamp, which was good, because sometimes I hoard things until they're not good anymore.

We have been having the best time, sharing one each night. (Seems much less expensive, spread over 9 days!)

We started with Irish Cream, and we've been eating right to left, in a nice orderly fashion.

It's practically impossible to pick a favorite, but maybe I can say... Glenmorangie Simgle Malt Sherry Wood Scotch. (The fleur de lis)

Highly recommended--and made in Kansas! Cocoadolce.com

Fear the Beard

I'll admit it, I've got no experience being a basketball fan. I didn't go to the games when I was in school, and I know that I was a terrible fan and all that. I'm sorry. I think it would have helped if the basketball players had been a little nicer in the weight room, but that's my only teeny defense, and I know it's feeble.

So, fine. Now I'm learning to be a fan and we're doing well and I know that's sort of bandwagon-y, but they're my team, and I'm happy to support them.

So anyhoo- it's the year of the beard. That's something I can definitely get involved in.

Here we are, in beards made from a fulled wool sweater, with a lining of flannel to help with the itchiness.

Go 'Cats! (And have you read Matthew's post about Frank Martin? Best Post Ever.)

Calendar Project

This year none of us got Calendars for Christmas, so I got to thinking.

I had 5 or 6 old calendars in the basement that I couldn't throw away, because the pictures were so pretty. I knew, someday, I'd think of something...

So we cut them apart.

Printed new pages to paste over the old ones,

And then put them back together, all mixed up. So one month you have roses, and the next month you have Snoopy.

Then we punched them and bound them with the Bind-it-all! We made 6 new calendars in all. It was a fun project. Anna especially enjoyed choosing who would get which picture for each month. "This one for Papa, because it's funny. Susan would like this one..."

And we used up something in the basement!

Organize Now!

I picked up the book Organize now! a couple of weeks ago. I thought it looked like fun. Is that strange?

(pic from Amazon.com)

I am having a really good time with it. It goes one week at a time through life, organizing little bits at a time. In January we were "organizing myself", getting all set up with a planner and a cleaning schedule and lists, all things that I love.

Remember when I was asking what sorts of things you're supposed to do to your house, other than the regular cleaning and tidying? I finally looked online and made up a list, and I'm going to do one bigish task each month. Some of these things Better Homes and Gardens thought I should do monthly, but if I haven't washed the windows in 5 years, it doesn't seem like something that I need to do every month. :)

Here's my annual list:

January: Wash Curtains
February: Deep Clean Carpets
March: Medicine Cabinets
April: Pantry
May: Windows
June: Fridge and Freezer
July: Rotate and Flip Mattresses
August: Check Batteries
September: Wash baseboards
October: Light Fixtures
November: Vacuum upholstery/wash slipcovers
(Don't judge me for never doing these things.)

Next month we're going to be organizing my papers. I've had "buy a fireproof box" on my mental list for years, and it's one of the tasks in the first week of February. Very exciting.

Amazon Downloads

Sometime during Christmas Amazon sent me a credit for some MP3 downloads, and sometime after Christmas I finally went to pick something out. That's when I discovered...

I love Amazon Downloads.

They're cheap, easy, go right into your itunes, and don't have funny rules attached about how many computers you can own.

My favorite thing to do right now is go to MP3 songs, and then pick a genre like...Classical, and then sort by price. Look at all of the free music!

I got a fun sampler of new Latin Music from 2009(some good, some bad), and "I Love the 80's. Volume 1 (1880s)" conducted by Marin Alsop (our somehow sometime somewhere relative). And then I made myself quit for awhile.

Have fun!

And Happy Kansas Day!

Friends

I'm so thankful for the amazing friends I have. This is for all of you.

Twice as Good--Sara Groves

when I am down and need to cry till morning
I know just where I am going
when I'm in need of sweet commiseration
to speak out loud
raise a glass to friendship and to knowing
you don't have to go alone
we'll raise our hearts to share each others burdens
on this road
with every burden I have carried
with every joy it's understood
life with you is half as hard
and twice as good
with my good news you're dancing on the table
babies born to celebration
the joy of life oh what a sweet communion
shared with you
I know we're growing older
can you imagine what that will bring
it's all a mystery to me now
but this one thing
will be half as hard, and twice as good

I'll just go ahead and plug this whole album. I've been playing it a lot lately.

Download it here for only $5.00!!

Pillow Month

First I made the pillow for my bed, and then Anna wanted one too.

I found this pillow cover in the basement when I moved everything to make space to build a new room. I bought it at Goodwill sometime before Anna was born, but then forgot about it.

I made a pillow insert out of an old faded curtain that I couldn't throw away because I figured it would be good for something.


Adorable!

Then Anna wanted to help make some more pillows. She had picked out some fabric with Grammy Joan, and we sewed it all together. It was her first time helping with the machine. I was kind of a nervous Mama, but she kept her fingers back.

I love the look of concentration on her face!

That's 6 pillows this month!

Got no excuse...

It's a flip card! See, elephant head, goose body...(Anna giggles wildly)...
Or goose head, elephant body! (Look, Mama! It's so sillly!)Ahhh...I love old cards.

When's your Birthday?

I missed quite a few birthdays in December and January, but then I got to use some of my lovely "I forgot your birthday" cards. (Look at her adorable boots!)

More tomorrow!

Crafting for Haiti

One Pretty Thing posts roundups every day of so many of the amazing crafty projects on the web.

Crafters for Haiti

is a listing of all sorts of crafty fundraisers. Shop a little, share a little.

Have a good weekend.

Alsop Christmas 2009

With no snow, just bitter cold, we went into town for Alsop Christmas. I spent most of the morning sitting on the heater vent.

Anna made Susan and Abby books. Here they are reading Susan's.

Here's Matthew perched in his usual spot, pre mid-Christmas nap. Notice how he's really getting into the spirit of Alsop Christmas, enjoying his present before anyone opens another.

Susan got Anna a Taylor Swift CD. Here she is opening it. A hit?

Anna helps Poppa Ted look in his stocking. They're two good friends, especially when Poppa has treats.

Abby got an Abby cadabby ornament in her stocking. It's one of my favorites from this year-so cute.

We opened presents for hours, stopping for lunch around 2:00 because Matthew insisted. Sometimes Alsops forget to eat, but Lobmeyers never do.

We had a good day.

My Christmas Present 2009

This year when Matthew asked me what I wanted, I had an answer.


Didn't he do a nice job?

Anna chose to showcase her new very own tape dispenser. I guess I did a good job too.

Thank you Matthew!

1st Christmas, 2009

We slept in a little and started 1st Christmas when Anna woke up around 8:30. She found the Princess Barbie and ran around the room, delighted. She laid out all of the Princess outfits to show them to me, and wanted to spend the rest of the day in Cinderella's dress (it was too cold). I think Santa did a good job this year.

She got a dino ornament in her stocking, here she is accusing me of sticking it in the stocking after Santa had come.

She and Daddy got their favorite shampoo and conditioner. Santa is so kind, getting things that I could never stomach, like fancy shampoo and princess Barbies.


Linda made us all matching shirts! It's been very fun so far.

Merry Christmas!

Matthew's Birthday

Let's play catch up this week!

We woke up early on Matthew's birthday and opened presents (see the cool re-usable wrapping!) I think he was happy.

Then we went over to the farm for a Birthday Breakfast. Delicious. We had lunch at Napolis and then went to the Alsops for the traditional flaming cookie.

We had the usual Birthday slew of church services, seeing Matthew play drums at BCC and then Abby sing at St. Dominic. Then for the first time in a long time, we got to have a quiet Birthday dinner of Potato Soup and Feast with the Alsops. It was a great day.

Generally, this song sums up my approach to life.

No quiero saber-Selena

(that means "I don't want to know")

But every once in a while, it may be a good idea to poke my head into the rest of the world. Adventures in Life is a blog written by a friend of a friend. She's from Kansas, she's a doctor, she's in Haiti.

Every once in a while.

Craftster Best of 2009

Something to do over the weekend...

Craftster Best of 2009

I feel like the projects this year are more "Wow" than "I want to do that" but it's still fun to look.

Make Room for Crafting

Oh, Craftzine, how I love you.

This month the theme for the blog is showing craft rooms/spaces.

Make Room for Crafting

It's a crafty organizer's dream.

DSQ Quilted Pillow

(picture from Amazon.com)

Dad gave me this "Quilt-it Kit" for Christmas, from Denyse Schmidt Quilts. It came with the fabric to make the pillow on the front, and instructions to make lots of other things. I've heard of her, she's a modern quilt designer.

I was disappointed to discover that I was supposed to enlarge a pattern and then cut out my pieces from that to make the front. I don't need to cut special crooked pieces, I do that naturally. So I didn't follow directions, and then I didn't have quite enough fabric, but I had some gray in my stash (only had to look in two boxes to find it!) and I made corners from that.

Here's mine! It was my first attempt at hand-quilting, which wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. I do not have the hang of using a thimble though, it always feels to me like it's going to fall off. Generally I try the thimble, get frustrated, and then just put a couple of layers of band-aid on my finger to achieve the same result. I don't think that would work long-term, but for my small projects it does.

The first finished project of 2010. Yay!

Justo Lamas

This year at the beginning of the year my principal suggested that I take the older kids on some sort of field trip. I've gone on field trips, but never organized one myself, so I felt a little nervous about that. Later that week I got an email about a Justo Lamas concert in Hays. I decided to put in a field trip request form, thinking there was NO WAY that would get approved by the district. I did my best work on the application, using lots of silly education jargon, and turned it in to the central office.

I about fell over when, two months later, I got the approval.

So now I'm teaching the kids all of the songs Justo is going to sing, so they can participate and have fun and (here's the dream) get hooked on the language and get some intrinsic motivation to really learn Spanish. When I think about that, I just get all giddy inside and the scary "taking 40 kids to Hays to a concert" seems worth it.

Wish me luck!

Baila esta cumbia

This semester I'm teaching the biggest kids (5th and 6th grade) a song a week. We are going to get to do something super de duper cool (more info soon) and I want to get them ready.

I'm having a great time. Last week we learned "Baila esta cumbia", a fantastically fun Selena song. Here's a video. She starts with "Amor prohibido" and switches songs at about 2:05.



A couple of things to think about:

Can you imagine dancing in heels like that?

I saw that outfit and microphone when I went to the Selena Museum. So awesome.

Enjoy!

A child's view of money

Anna's Grammy Joan gave her a wallet.

Anna filled it up with all of the important things in a wallet--photos...

And credit cards.

I like how the Sam's card has her picture on it, just like mine.

Grammy's bookstore gets a special card too!

Mostly I wonder-no card for Goodwill?

Just to get you started

100 Tutorials from 2009

I'm so excited! (sing it!)

Happy Birthday Abby!

(photo by Anna)

Love you!

Crap.

You know that moment, just as you are doing something, when the sensible part of you says "Bad idea"?

WHY can't I learn to listen to her?

Here you can see, in the dust marks, where I set my brand new phone down on the top of the car when I buckled Anna in.

And here you can see it slide down the back of the car, when I forgot about it, and drove to town..

and continue to slide, but not fall on the dirt road where we could find it,

until it eventually leaps gleefully from the back, to shatter on the road or be run over by a truck.

Does insurance cover that?

2010

Last year I had the one fuzzy resolution--Do more of what I should and less of what I shouldn't.

I think that worked out pretty well for me. I thought of it often throughout the year, tried to make some better decisions some of the time, and not worry about it the rest of the time.

But I'm changing it up again this year. Still trying to be simple, but a little more specific. I have two.

1. Do Less. One way I thought of to measure this is that I will try to sit on my couch every day. I think sometimes months go by and I never sit down unless we have company over. I'm not sure what I'm going to cut, but I'm going to try.

2. Buy no crafting supplies in 2010. I will only use what I have in the house. I'm kind of excited about this, I have so many things that I want to use "someday" so that will be this year. Two caveats: I can buy thread, tape, glue, the sort of things that you have to have in order to make anything else, when I run out. I can buy old kits at Goodwill if they are SO cute and amazing that I know I will start them that night. Like the dino ornaments. It would be too hard and sad and silly to have to pass those up.

So that's it! There are, of course, always other things that I'm thinking about doing, or trying to do, but the only two I'm calling resolutions are these.