a soup and kick tail

 The first step to making this great soup ALL week long, has been that I made a pot of pea soup on last Sunday, and stored it in a quart jar in the fridge.  That is the standard of a cup of split peas to two to three cups of water, a bit of butter, celery seed, black pepper and a bit of onion, all blended together once it has cooked until the peas are soft.

Then, I took about two to three tablespoons of the slightly solidified pea soup in a container all week with a bit of rice, frozen zucchini, more frozen onions, frozen beet greens that were in the freezer, and garlic parmesan seasoning and black pepper.   I added some water to that at work and made a VERY tasty soup that I kept coming back for.  One of the days I added some spicy seasoning with cayenne, and another I put some furikake rice seasoning in it.  The beet greens were a very small amount in each bowl - but it has used that up VERY well.  The picture below shows the soup with the furikake and sesame seed combination in it.  This is a soup I could eat much more often - and would work very well with what I typically grow in my gardens, beet greens and/or kale, zucchini and summer squashes.

 I also checked the little car today, after it had sat dormant for almost two months.  I've been kicking myself that it wouldn't crank, or it would choke on the fuel pump - it still might.. but it cranked, and it ran really well on my usual 'runabout' trip that makes sure it is not overheating and is working well enough for emergencies.  I was feeling quite bad about letting it go so long with all the cold and the ice storms that really required more maintenance of it... but it wasn't going to get any better for not knowing and I finally kicked my own tail today.

I tried to make gnocchi last night, and it was a learning experience.  I needed to add more flour, as the first batch disintegrated in the water - but the second and third bits that I had put more flour in turned out edible.  Tonight, I made leftover rice with kielbasa, diced tomatoes, garlic and lots of other vegetables, mandarin oranges and an egg for each of us on the side.  We're still trying to stretch to make sure everything works out from the lost wages with the ice storm.

I've been catapulting forward with my German on Duolingo - taking the tests to try to get up to my actual level on my phone, and working at my level on my computer account, in between Japanese and Turkish.

It's time to start the garden - I planted a few little things that I don't know if they will take, and ordered some seeds from the preservation society.  I need to go out and do some more work after the hopefully last freeze on Sunday.  We haven't seen opossums, or eggs though, since we went and tried to fix the fence.   Store-bought eggs work in recipes, but they are definitely not the same as having your own chicken's eggs.

 

mid February tools

 

This is called a 'hoedag', it is a gardening tool that is a hoe on one side and a set of tines on the other.  I have been calling it, in my own mind, some sort of conglomeration of 'hoedak' or 'hoedar' and today, I decided to go look up what it was actually called.  Surprisingly, I have not just made up a name and used it (as I have done with some things all my life, as a way of keeping it organized in my own head) - but it really is a 'hoedag'.  Where did I pick up that name?  It certainly wasn't on any of the tools when I bought them - I remember looking, and even asking myself at the time - what do I CALL this?  Unlike my hori-hori knife, which I also use so often in the garden, and use the name from what was on it when I received it.

It is mid February, and the ice age has ended, at least for now.  I hope for all year.  In those hopes, I put a small patch of turnip seed out in the front garden with this hoedag this morning.  I had given some chickweed that was growing by the front steps to the chickens yesterday and watched them run around and peck at each other to get some.  They looked so miserable and wet this morning in the rain, that I decided it was worth some of my co-op 'old but might sprout' seed even at these temperatures to plant a little something - just to ask Spring to keep rolling along to warm.

 

 Mark had made a good pork roast with all the spices a few days ago (Esme helped grind those up and measure them), and we made stir fry with it.  I bought a new rice cooker a few weeks ago with a gift certificate, and it finally came in the mail.  I think I like it - but I want to see if it will cook lentils as well as rice.  The book has nothing about that - but I've seen some things on line.  I also wonder if it will cook soaked adzuki beans - if so, that would be 'golden'.

 

the sauce for the stir fry, as usual : 1 tbsp brown sugar, bit olive oil, about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water (I often add more later), 2 splashes of soy sauce and one splash of balsamic vinegar, and about a half a tablespoon or bit more of prepared brown mustard - mix that all together and put in with the vegetables and pre-cooked meat, and when it has all come to a good cooked mixture, add the recently cooked (but not just cooked) rice, a bit more water and when that has heated back to sizzling - make a hole in the middle and crack one egg.  Let the white cook for a moment, then drag the egg through the entire mixture and put the lid on to steam while turning off the heat.  Serve immediately.  This had zucchini, red bell pepper and onions in it, as well as the pork roast and rice cooked in the rice cooker the night before.

 

 And before we go out to town today, I am making some soup.  Mark had given me a large rind of fat in the refrigerator off of his pork roast two nights ago, and it was time to do something with it.  I put a pot of split peas on the stove with olive oil, celery seed, and pulverized brown mustard seed in it, as well as the fat rind.  In a couple of hours I can blend it up and put it in quart glass jars to use for the week.  Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old - not quite, in glass jars put up in the fridge shelf :)

This is the little mortar and pestle that my mother-in-law gave me a few years ago.  I use it to grind up seeds like these in small batches to use in cooking.  Whole brown mustard seed, from an Indian cooking spice kit I bought years ago, and did not have too much use for it particularly, until I began grinding it up in small batches. 

for languages lately, I've done Spanish, German, Turkish and Lithuanian.

I had the opportunity to try to speak to someone in Spanish, they asked me if I could say whatever it was en espanol etc...  but all I could think of was half German, half English, and something else in Spanish that had not meant the right thing in the past.  For actual usability, I really do need to take some face-to-face Spanish lessons covering things I actually need to say.  Maybe some day here.

rolling

 Getting back in the swing of things, now that the ice is finally gone.  There was even some still on our road this morning and, taking the back road on the way back in, we saw some even this afternoon at 70 degrees.  I'm very glad I didn't try to take the back road route to the highway that other day - I turned around and took the shorter, more hilly route that I had already been over once in a wild ride, because I knew what it looked like and the back road route is longer, a bit flatter but so narrow there is no place to turn around if you come up on something you can't manage.

 We restocked our feeds, and are halfway through restocking our propane.  It will be tighter this month, especially trying to restock, because of the missed paychecks from the ice storm.  I bought eggs for the very first time in a store in what has to be years - because I was going to make some cookies and our hens haven't laid in months - they were laying one every three days or so before this ice storm but of course during it, nothing at all.  Opossums may be to blame - as well, time will tell.  I'm glad to have the chickens themselves mostly healthy and bumping around pecking in their yard as pets, even without eggs.

 Esme had been very worried about her classes at the trade school with the state of emergency and yet their strange attendance policy.  However, it seems like that will work out - and she can catch up.  It took a lot of reaching out and frustration to get them to actually talk to her before she showed back up at the doorstep - which she wanted to know before she got there etc.. but finally the answer was : 'yes, it will be in a way excused because it was weather emergency, but it will still be marked on the papers absent'... I saw her put her hands out and say 'What does that even mean?' to me in sign language.  I agree, kid.  I agree. 

For languages I have been doing mostly Japanese (at the highest level I have reached) and Turkish (low profile, and vocabulary work) and a little vocabulary work in Lithuanian.

Now to catch up on the rest of the things at work - some chores, restock and pinch our pennies for a few weeks until we know everything will work out better and / or the taxes get done and we see our return. 

rolling

 It's been a hard couple of weeks - was trying to heal up from that knee I smashed up (it is finally scabbing over enough not to break open, but I still wince whenever I kneel on it, which for some reason, I can't stop doing at least once every few days), and the dental plate caused a soreness and stiffness in one side of my face that I was worried about for a while, but finally has went back down just as it had done before.  *sigh*  I've been taking the plate out as soon as I can at night, and on Sunday I didn't put it in for more than a few hours because it was finally feeling better.  Advil and antiseptic rinse and turmeric/curry powder milk just before I go to sleep.  The hard thing is I don't like to take any pain reliever too much - so even taking three or four single pills during a 24 hour day is a LOT for me - but I was able to see the difference and know that it was helping.

 

Charlotte and Minerva, watching me cook

My anxiety was really up because of that, but I've been running through my 'brain routine' to make sure I don't miss anything and to take care of what I can before it adds to my latent anxiety - and that helps a LOT, really.. it does.  When you can get something that would be a worry taken care of, it helps with the bit that just won't smooth down no matter what.  And it helps to see the difference, between something you can fix and something you have to wait out.

I read part of a book the other day - it was just so cold I spent half the morning in bed, because I could.  Every other day I've been running, work, errands, postal route.  But, Esme is really liking her college courses and work at the office job has been rolling and getting that done which it needs someone to get it done.  Told Esme that is a big thing - show up, do what needs to be done without waiting for people to stick up their finger and say 'shouldn't you be doing...' and don't put things off because they stack up and then it will be even harder to keep it all balanced and working after that.  Rest in between when you have run through the whole list and know that you've done all that you can do right now.  I also showed her my unique budget 'program' language that I have worked out the next two months in to help myself remember to account everything.  She said she actually understood it, that it was logical.

 We've also had what I would swear was a fifteen lb. opossum in the hen house - and maybe the thing that blinded my one green-egg layer a month or so ago.  I bruised him up pretty good with a hand tool and threw him out in a box he was hiding in - but I didn't actually do that much damage because he ran off and up a pole and out across a tree quick as lickety split, and then the dogs went off chasing him into the woods.  I only have the one chicken out of the twelve hens that are left that is laying an egg every two or three days - I don't know if that is the only egg we find and they are getting the rest or if that is the only egg that is being laid because of the cold.  I want to protect them better than that but I looked all over where I saw him go and couldn't find a hole in the netting or the fence - like he melted through it somehow.  I've sprayed white vinegar out there in that place and another I saw one melt through fence four or five months ago on the other side.

Now, it thinks it will snow sometime this week.  I don't need that.  We have a bit more animal feed and propane to get before that happens. Tomorrow will be a bit stressful with that run after work but once that is done we are at that 'what will be will be' state again. 

I've made pancakes, and curry, and orange chicken, red lentils and flatbreads, and bean soup and am researching using a rice cooker to cook my adzuki beans.  I showed Esme how to peel ginger when making the red lentil dish, but the 1 cup to 3 cups of water was too much for it, so half of that meal became soup.  I will have to work on that recipe now that I have the red lentils again, made a special trip to the other grocery store to get them.  I made 'seven spice' with star anise, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, fennel, coriander and yellow mustard seed.  I had looked at all the five spice mixtures available to me and found none that I liked as much as the one that I am almost OUT of...*sigh* - I had all the spices, so I just used my coffee grinder and made a batch.

For languages, I've studied such a mixed bag it is almost funny - French, Spanish, Lithuanian/Latvian, Japanese, Czech, Russian, and Polish. 

Nac ydy.... ydw rwan

 The to do list is working, although a bit ... what is the best word for it... reluctantly?  reticence?  skeptical?  I can sit here and think I'm not gonna do it, etc.. and then there's a good chance somewhere I will get the spark I need and get up and go get it done.  All except typing up that story - so far.  Nac ydw (no I'm not), ydw rwan (yes now)

I even added 'drink one extra cup of water' to the list today, and 'clean one thing' - both to repeat daily.  We'll see how THAT goes.  *peer hard at self*  After cutting all of my split ends off the other day I picked up a new shampoo, and am working on the damage in my hair.  And I cleaned the back shelf of the bathtub all around - in addition to washing the floor towels and rugs.  Have studied Lithuanian and French and Japanese - and done kanji every night - except tonight - which I need to go kick myself into gear.

 Made some ground mustard seed two days ago and have been putting it in our meals and on top of my rice at lunch with some ground cashews that were sitting in a container unused for more than a month.   Made a rice-noodle stir fry tonight with vegetables out of the freezer and eggs, and Mark had made some ground beef and gave us a portion of it to put into it.  That was quite good.  I didn't use the tomato I have set aside for tonight - but that is something I will forward to tomorrow or cut and freeze.

 The budget is something I am being more strict on after two unexpected purchases already this month - one a car registration that came due and the other something that is now earmarked as a birthday present for two months from now for Mark, but he had to pounce on to get it now.  *small sigh*  But I am trying hard and our grocery run the other day was reserved.

OK, off to do the little budget work I need to do and my kanji, and put the clothes in the dryer before bed. 

to-do or not to-do

 Well, the new to-do list application really shows what I'm willing to put myself to task to, and what I'm much more likely to swipe to the next day.  I even went out and washed the windshield of the car because I had put it on my list earlier in the week.  That is one of those things I just don't do because by the time I think of it, I am far from the place and then when I am at the place, I don't think of it.  I did the laundry, AND got it into the dryer AND folded it and put it away.  I watered the plants.  I made rice one day and then finished it all up in different meals.  I did the budget entries and analysis, without putting them in the to-do-list, but remembered I should do them because I looked at the to-do-list and asked myself what I was missing.  I did all the language lessons - even the kanji lessons that I had been ignoring for a while.  

 However, I did not retype the short story that was written on paper in the tiny font.  Yea, have to think on that one again.  I actually forwarded it yesterday, and then today, decided it is probably not getting done anytime soon even if it is on the list.   It is a bit like being an anthropologist studying myself.

So, French, Japanese and Lithuanian today, and the postal route of course.   

bits - kick my tail, imaginary time

had some reflective 'I should kick my own tail' thoughts today that I have several more small stories and books and I just haven't been able to drag myself to work on them but then I go and spend a few hours here and there in Minecraft building a huge empire that doesn't exist - which imaginary world is more productive? It is all 'imaginary time', like dreams, but a bit more tangible.

 

I have another Mikki story I had half-realized - and several others, and then a few more popped into my head today and I captured an iota of it... and yet I sit here staring at what I sent myself on my lunch break and saying 'Do I really want to work on that or do I want to go build a road to nowhere in the game' again...

 

Both past times can be done at midnight or 3 am...

only one of them will ever amount to something in my publish queue....

 

  

 

Mikki Mack - the quite pretty small grey cat with the glorious long fluffy tail 

 

I worked on a few simple illustrations and thoughts for that story.  And I thought about tomorrow, which is the Solstice.  I have to work tomorrow, and it will be early.  What if, instead of walking all the way up to the road and watching the first light and walking all the way back down, I made coffee and an egg and watched the red day lilies light up in the garden?  I think that would be good.  And Saturday will perhaps be a hard day, starting late at the post office and as long as it takes to get it done - and not a route I run often.  There won't be a lot of time the next few days to do much leisure / thought process.  Sunday I have not volunteered, though - and I hope it won't be a call in situation, so we can all go to the store.

 

how we motivate

it's Monday

ok brain, we're at 80% but we can drag ourselves up

yes -- I'm here talking to my brain/body like it's a second person, because it's a conscience: (jiminy/pinocchio) type feeling a lot  like I know what I have to do (jiminy conscience) but I have to pull myself with hooks and ropes to get it done bit by bit (pinocchio/puppet)

got Esme off to school, fed the chickens

did the dishes and the floor towel/rug laundry

cleaned some other things (sink, stove, counters), swept some

--it's not everything that it needs, but it's some, and that's better than none

--if we didn't do the some when we can, none of it would get done

--told myself to pick two more things that I don't do everyday that should be done right now

//cleaned the cat food counter (Loki did not appreciate, and he attacked my feet very gently later because he had been shooed down)

//washed one of the concrete floor sections (but then the cleaner was too much for Mark and after I do one section I'm kind of done, too and worry about getting a headache from it, and from the hanging my head down and getting back up etc etc..) 

did my Japanese homework on two platforms, that leaves two more later

-- my remembering ear is getting pretty good for Japanese, almost as good as for Welsh and French.  I can remember most of what I've heard in a single long sentence and where it should go (order)... but some of the in between things like 'wa' and 'to' and 'mo' I still have to ask 'did I hear that?' etc.  My vocabulary needs a big expansion, doing babadum for that and realizing how very little DL has given me for word number

made my budget paper for the month so I know what I need to remember

--that can be depressing and I've got it in my head but that's not the same as writing it out and filling in figures and checking things off 

--asked myself what was one thing I had asked myself for a number on (spending, percentage, etc etc..) that I didn't have a firm answer for last week?  Check that.  (which means finding a paper it is on) Ok, I know that for certain now.  Rarely when I have those questions am I anywhere I can look it up.. and then I forget to when I have the time unless I store it in that 'mental box' AND check it when I have a moment.

made a grocery list, checked the animal feeds

--one of the grocery items limits where I can go for it, and that makes getting the feeds probably another day

smacked myself that I have to check the oil in the truck

--whimpered that I need to check the transmission fluid, as well (very difficult, it is so far down in the engine after they did that rebuild a few years ago I have to fight with it several times before I get anywhere AND then if it needs some, I have to close it up, go get some, open it again AND find a way to get it down into that tiny space - last time I rigged up a CPVC pipe and a funnel and some tape in order to get it done)

--and I should go do the checks on the truck before I go get the groceries

--so I'll know if I need to buy oil or transmission fluid while I'm out

and none of that is going to do itself by my checking my email and my social media and drinking more coffee

// checked the oil - it was ok, checked the transmission fluid, it was ok

// took the truck to town, and filled it with gas, got the animal feeds

// then the battery light came on (long story, has to do with it being a mail truck with a return spring that breaks a lot on the brakelights) - and realized I had not been pulling the brake lights back up this entire trip which I needed to do since the spring broke again on Saturday

// came home instead of getting groceries, and put it on the charger (after the charger alligator clip was broken, and we had to fix that first)..

// can someone please send me a bucket of luck or something, I need it

A wire and rope hinge gate

 The finished gate - it's functional and it locks.

 We looked for metal hinges and couldn't find any - so we made a hinge out of a piece of wire and a hook, a board and some nylon rope.  I couldn't find this on the Internet anywhere, either - so we documented it.

 A very massive knot of rope through two holes drilled in the board.  Mark said its a nice piece of redneck engineering.

 Spud Dog decided it was all just too exciting for him and Esme got pictures of him vegging out in the leaves.

 The main purpose of the fence was to keep the goat from digging up the plants near the well house when we tie her string out longer in this area.  With it contained we can put some more Spring bulbs in here to add to the daffodils, rose bush and tulips that are already planted here.  I might even make a brick pathway inside here to keep everything easy to access...

 And there is a lot of sharp metal and glass in the area near the wellhouse, and we wanted to contain that as well behind a fence.  We intend to clean it up some more in the Spring and maybe build another set of stairs and a platform for the cats to have a lounging area out here.

Mark pointing out the hook wire mechanism and lock that he is proud of on the gate.

Construction Projects and Chicken

We've done a lot these past few days.  Esme's bed and mattress had come (it's early birthday and something we've been wanting to do for a long time).  She loves her new room.  It was such a project putting it together!

All finished and everything is in place.

 Looking down at me like a teenager

 

 I swear I will be careful with this ladder!

Her room looks so bright and colorful, -- also, very full, but a cool room!

 

There was some swearing happening during this stage - things had to be forced into place...

 

I love this expression on Esme's face! 

Slat, Key, Scalpel, What?

And Mark bought ten pounds of chicken on special and fried it up.  He put it away in the fridge for later and Esme took some up to Grandma.

 Chicken!

 I was able to eat this with some lime juice, which is a first for me.  I've avoided chicken cooked on the bone for years and years - more than twenty.  But I had this idea that lime or orange juice is 'the opposite color' of what I don't like about the bone taste.

bits of vacation

I've had a busy few days off - and done most of the things I'd told myself I needed to get done.  I made two new yarn toy bags for Esme's room, found a hanger hook bar at the thrift store and put it up in her room for coats and hats (no bookends, though.. still thinking on that one -- she has some on one of her tables in her room and I might move them), went through some of my fabric and patterns, made two good new items for Esme's closet, and sorted out all of the too-small and stained things that had to go.  I cleaned a bit more, and made banana bread :) 

It feels good!

Plus, I asked Mark if he could find me one of his hard-drive platters to make a stand for my cone thread.  I saw a cone thread holder on a website for $$, and was pretty sure we could mock something up that would work in a similar fashion.  I have this big cone of thread a coworker gave me.

This is the result of one safety pin (hooked on top of machine), a size 1 knitting dpn (double pointed needle) and a hard-drive platter that spins on its own ball bearings. 

It really works, without any more adjustment than just sitting there.  The thread goes through the safety pin on the bobbin winder, through the tensioner like normal, and through the needle.  It slowly unspools itself as the machine runs.  I had to take the cone off to wind the bobbin from it, but it wasn't that much of a hassle to put it back on.

Then I drafted a shorts pattern for Mark using something from my collection and they worked out, too.  If I sit down and make a pair for Esme (out of some different fabric) I'd have made almost everything I had planned on during this vacation.

I work tomorrow, and then two 'regular' days off.. Thursday is Esme's meet-the-teacher registration day.  We bring the school supplies and get her registered in the class.  Friday is her first full day at school.

Jewels from the Garden - beans and corn drying for the year

 Esme helping sort the corn and break out dry pods of beans onto a plate.  She was so bouncey, and wiggly, and overexcited - she wanted to wash everything and dance and jump and splash water everywhere... finally calmed down some.  I told her a joke because she was scowling at me - and said I had tricked her into looking happy... well.. after that she continued to smile, because she actually was having a little bit of fun.

 Breaking out the whipporwill cowpea pods - which are very long, narrow and crispy. 

A lot of the corn seen here was 'volunteer.'  It came up without my knowing what was there or how... we had ornamental corn there last year but grew all of our other corn elsewhere in the garden this year.  I planted a few seeds of Smoke Signals and Peaches and Cream corn in between each of the volunteers to make a full row that we would not step on - as they were naturally scattered a bit here and there and not quite in a straight line.

Upon examining the outcome - I think it was a cob of Hopi Pink and one of Glass Gems that got mixed in, or some cache of seeds some animal had buried from last year we hit with the tiller.    I have them drying out to shell into containers and label for the year.  The pictures don't do any justice to the blues and greens that are present in real life.. .a whole range of color - which is where I say they are our jewels from the garden.

 

And this is the bean crop so far.

The large buff colored beans are Ireland Creek Annie - which did very well.  I started with nine of those seeds and have 30+ and have more to break out in the coming weeks.  The Black Shackamaxon has a showing already and there are gallons of that coming later.  The red and white speckled ones are Taylor Dwarf Horticultural - something I didn't have room for last year.  

The Ireland Creek Annie and the Taylor are both my first 'major' expeditions into full rows of "reserved to dry" bush beans - as most of my harvests have come from pole beans up until now.  There are also some tiny white climber beans, whipporwill cowpeas and black eyed peas.  I planted some unlabelled Pinto beans (which I thought the white climbers were when I gathered them...odd...always have some odd ones out, right?)   Kenearly Yellow Eye (a semi-climber that says it is a bush), black seeded wax (one of those seeds is one, but I've lost it in the mix!), Bosnian and Provider seeds all drying out in the cabinet.

I've also got a decent collection of Mammoth Striped and Lemon Sunflower seeds this year... partly for the chickens, partly for next year.

Full Sunday

 We took on a lot today - and conquered ;) hehe.  I took Esme out for school shopping early in the morning, with a brief (and I do mean brief) runby the park on the way back home.  Mark was canning tomatoes while we were out, and we returned home just in time to watch him setting up the last run of about three gallons worth.  We tackled the old aquarium, emptying out the old water and cleaning it up.  We gave it to a friend who had helped us out last January with the truck, for their snake that had outgrown their old one.  We brought the partially washed gravel to Esme in her kiddie pool to pick out the 'terasure' of jewels, marbles and large agates into another container.  She enjoyed panning for treasure like a pirate :)

 Garden harvest.  That is volunteer Glass Gem corn, which I will try to dry out.

 Mark with his canned tomato sauce!  We will be using this all year.

Esme's pink truck in Minecraft.  It has a bed for having picnics in and a cab with glass and a strange 'vertical' hood thing going on.  Over to the side of it she has a recreation of the beach we went to on the Fourth of July - with stairs down and sand.

Little bits:  The other morning Esme woke up and asked why we were downstairs by her room being so noisy.  We told her we were checking up on the alligator Daddy had found and put in the bathtub.  She went and looked tentatively..worried... There's no Alligator, Daddy!  'Oh - really?  Did it get away?  Where did it go?'  She got even more worried and went back into her room to hide for a bit.  We laughed!  She came back out as I was washing my hair and poked her head in... convinced herself it was all a joke, and then brought me her Kindergarten start book with a picture of an alligator and said she had finally found it and everything would be okay. as a way of telling me she knew we were pretending.

I saw her on the porch hugging the goat by the neck the other day.  It was very sweet - they both seemed to be commiserating about being lonely.  I think they both miss Tink, the kitten who died.  I think they also miss having the puppies running around the yard.  I miss them, too... it is strange to walk over the ground between the garden and the house and not have my heels chewed on.  We think the older dogs have mostly forgiven us now for giving them all away... but they were pretty upset we took their entire pack of hard work and training and 'lost' them in the town that day.

We let Esme play a bit in the small wading pool at her friend's house when we brought the aquarium.  I told her she could wade, as we hadn't brought other clothes for her and didn't intend to stay long.  A few minutes later she was entirely soaked and still had not done more than 'wade'.  She jumped and sat down - stood up and yelled 'Sorry Mom!' across the yard.  Her friend's parents asked 'What was that for?'..  I told her she couldn't swim, just wade.  Oh, at least she said sorry, about it *giggle*... I told her it was okay, she could swim a bit now.. and they immediately started cannonballing each other and spraying the hose over each other.  After about ten to fifteen minutes we said it was time to go .. she did get ready to go reluctantly.  At home we filled up her pool again and she brought a little plastic doll out there to be her 'friend' until it was time for supper.

bits in productive mode

Mark made Esme an egg calendar so she can count up all the eggs over the next few weeks.  We are thinking of basing her allowance on this.. we'll see.  They've averaged four eggs a day the past few.  I've been trying to make a few productive steps each day, even with work.  It always makes me feel better to say 'I got that done.'... some days it is hard, like when it is raining, and there can be no progress made outside.  I have a black stitching (not quite blackwork) embroidery towel I am bringing to work with me today.

I refashioned the dragon bolster pillow this morning.  I had taken it off the bed because it was now too wide (We downsized to a full from a queen) and was worming its way out and onto the floor.  But, I have noticeably not slept as well without it filling in the 'dip' in between the headboard and mattress.  Finally I cut up an old pair of corduroy jeans (bought at the flea market years ago, and never the right size) and sewed the legs together to make a long bolster.  I slit the dragon pillow leaving most of the stuffing inside and stuffed him inside the new lining, sewing up the ends with circular patches.  It worked out quite well, and I no longer feel like the regular pillows are falling away from me in between the headboard when I lay down.

Then I cleaned some items out of the fridge.  And now my time is gone - and I have to get ready for work.  I am investigating making a cross stitch sampler for our hallway... silly feeling, old craft but I like the fact that they are a moment in time that we can still look back and say 'this was done X years ago'... and maybe one day Esme will make one.  I'm a bit nostalgic on those things.  Mark says soon I'll be making her a hope chest and filling it up with things.  We were, I guess, some of the few girls that were still meant to fill up our own hope chests back in the 80s... I have some nostalgia about that, too.  I learned to make things, and I still like to do it.

kick me in the pants - err.. I need to get some things done this weekend, including pants

Esme has been asking me two weeks now where her gold pants and blue shirt are - not in a mean way, which is good.. but I haven't gotten to them.  I know that means she wears one of two or three coordinating items each week for Blue and Gold day....  And I've had days off - we've just been focusing on other things, like her behavior, reading and math.  I have the blue and gold fabric ready to lay out.  But, the chair I was making for her is also taking up the table and I haven't dove back into it yet.  I also promised a playground trip and 'fun things' this weekend if she brings home a moderately good report 5-10 minute timeouts per day etc.. I think she is there - and I will take her out and spend time with her regardless. 

She is making so much progress.  Her words still turn inside-out sometimes and she will pick the wrong one and not even notice it still.  Sometimes she corrects herself, other times I have to choose if it is a good time to correct her.   She is also picking up lots of other phrases from school she wouldn't get at home, and trying to use them, and when I ask her about a word I am not sure she knows she often gives me a good definition of it.  We talked about 'obstacle' the other day and 'reception' today.  We've been talking about 'the rest of'', 'since' and the topic of verbs vs. nouns and nouns becoming verbs vice-versa. She keeps surprising me, which is excellent.

This is also the weekend before the 'full week on', so if I don't accomplish some things in the next few days it will have to wait a long time to get a moment.

I have been wrapping my brain around the math course I am taking online and I think it is coming along very well - it is not for credit - although it could be if I arranged to get into one of the study groups and really participate... with clothes to make and work and other homeworks, I think my efforts are pretty good. 

Productivity

The weaving is 4" tall now. When it gets over 6 inches, I can 'turn back'
that means mirroring the pattern (as much as humanly possible!) so that it is symmetrical from top to bottom. I really like to work on it when a little bit of sunlight comes in across the workspace -- usually in the midmorning. It seems to me that in natural sunlight I can see things down to the tiniest of details, much better than in artificial lighting. I love to draw 'in a sunbeam' as well ;o)

Busy day today -- lots of things got done! The snow is almost all gone here. In other news - I'm getting things ready to reopen the KnitOwl and friends shop. I need to make and mail Alee's aliens!

Sharing some linkys:
Awesome t-shirt designs from Robert Mars. I love to do this kind of work as well in my art -- structural designs, analogies between structures, symbols and systems. Check him out!

Nooka watches - the strangest and most interesting product change I've seen in a while. You could be staring at one of these on someone's arm for a good while before getting up the courage to ask - "Excuse me, what is that thing? A Watch? Really? COOL! Err.. how do you read it?" Comes in several designs, for even more interesting confusion ;o)

Milly Molly Mandy printmaker's shop I saw when visiting Jhoanna's site - I love this one!
AlthaeaSoaps etsy shop - I love her Yuzu olive oil soap, it smells extremely yummy!