bits

My goal on the task site is to make about 1.30 or more a day for the month, on average, and that would equal around 40 dollars for the month (in gift cards, which must be spent on that site).  I've been averaging a little more than that, and am getting close to my second gift card for the month.  Mark said not to treat it as a second job, but it feels like a good thing to do with extra time - and it really doesn't take that much time... it isn't like I'm devoting even an hour to it usually, and if it is an hour the return is a lot greater than 1.30.  I have to say I feel kind of excited to watch that card balance grow and know we can get something extra I wouldn't normally buy with our bank account dollars.  But there are extra things we can use here and there, birthday gifts and home items being the firstmost category.  Esme has pointed out a color of sheet for her bed that she would like in the future (I asked her) and we talked about colors of tshirts in case I throw one of those for her on an order.  Those seem like useful 'stock up' things to throw in the cart because we'll always get to needing them.

Thai Kitchen Red Curry Paste  This is what I was talking about yesterday.  I could probably eat the entire jar with a spoon.  It isn't spicy to me, only savory sweet and citrus tasting.  I put a good tablespoon of it right out of the jar on a sliced boiled egg yesterday.

Esme had some complications with a girl at school who had bamboozled her out of money this week - now she doesn't want to be her friend because Esme found out that the taking of the money was not cool and that her 'friend' tricked her.  She would have better chances of having a true friend with someone else, I told her.  Live and learn.  Esme's PTC is next Monday and now I have it organized at work so I can go to it.

I've been in late the last two days - which has given me time in the morning to do things at home.  We went to the store yesterday morning and by the time I got home it felt like I had lived two days instead of one.  Seriously, as I was driving home I had to think hard - 'Was that this morning?  It seems like a whole different day now, like yesterday...'

Esme would like to play with a friend Sunday but I also want her to go out and take photos of a local landmark to send to a pen pal request from Australia.  It is the only day I get 'off' this week so I was hoping she would want to go do that with me.  I keep thinking about her standing trying to hide under my coat on a cold day earlier this week - looking up at me through her eyelashes... I'm going to miss that when she gets taller than me.

Her new backpack should be coming sometime soon... another week or two maybe.  Her old one is quite sticky inside (even though we rinsed it out!) from repeated spills of drinks and the exploded banana.

SNACK ACCOUNT
How will you spend it?
We've also enacted a weekly 'snack fund' for her, ten dollars maximum (no rollover) to spend on SNACK items we would normally not buy as food OR to spend on buying school lunch or breakfast instead of what she would normally take from home.  She has to plan it out, make choices, and understand that if she takes the money to school and gets it tricked away from her.. well... we can't do anything by the school rules.  So, she'd better pack something in the morning.  We will keep all of our regular 'food' items stocked as always.  Sugary drinks and snacks she wants outside of our usual fare she would have to ask for and decide if that is her choice for the week.  She also has to choose does she want that kind of ice cream bar and then eat half of them immediately after we get them home?  Well... that was $ off your snack account and we won't go automatically buy another box tomorrow.  ETC.  (Can you tell we're not fans of LOTS of sugary drinks and snacks in general?  We keep maybe one or two cookie items on the table in bags and neither of us drink soda).  She always has Kool-Aid in the fridge, yogurt, cereal bars and free reign of anything she can make by herself as long as she isn't wasting it.  We make dinner or 'graze collectively' every night depending on what the leftover situation is from the night before.

Her original request yesterday was that she would like to have us pay a full month of breakfast and lunch at school in addition to the snack items she already purchased this week at the grocery.  Someone else at school told her that all breakfast and lunch are 'free' for them, because their parents pay it.  Hmm.. that's not free kid. I showed her the math, and then told her how much that was compared to what we spent for the entire week for the family groceries. I reminded her that she had decided at the beginning of the year that she wanted to pack her lunch and that we had made our grocery decisions all the way up to now based on that.   

She listened to our snack account proposal and decided that it sounded fair and she could be responsible to make those choices.  She looked at the lunch menu for today and tomorrow and decided that she didn't care for the food served today but did want tomorrows.. so she will get hot lunch tomorrow (but still pack a drink and a snack on the side just in case).

On Daddy's shoulders, and bits

This was the picture I had been looking for awhile for the album... and I finally found it.  

Esme was just about two in this picture.

I feel like I'm getting 'the hang of' the sites I signed up for when Esme went  back to public school.  I consider them time-fillers, not time-wasters, as they do take time but they return with savings on our groceries, or gift cards from retailers etc.  

I packed my lunch today with a boiled egg, red curry paste, a tomato, cheese and salad.  The curry paste was a treat for myself -as no one else eats it.  I like it and probably use way too much because I like curry!  Mark made the boiled eggs from an extra dozen from our chickens.  We have all been enjoying the eggs.. it is just we take some time to get to them once in a while and have to make a big scrambled egg dinner to make sure they are being used well.

Some goals

I'm making progress on a few goals, the family photo album for one.  I found some of the pictures I really wanted copies of from the blog and ordered them to be shipped to me.  There are also the bits and pieces I am ordering for the house (through the Amazon program), plans for packing lunchboxes and so forth.  I have some idea what I will get Esme for her birthday... although I'm not sure what I will do at the school.  I did ask for the day off as vacation.  It is a Friday so she will have school.  School Parent Teacher conferences are coming up next week.  I have to arrange somehow for that already-scheduled day to be moved about, if possible...  I really wish they would have given us more notice than one week.

Esme said her lunch bag keeps getting smashed and the softer things in it completely bashed to bits.  She doesn't say how this is happening... denies she has done it or anyone she saw, but the things are smashed anyways.  Maybe a hard lunchbox is in order.  An exploded banana is behind the reason her lunchbag is wet, dripping and hung upside down for the night.  She has a plastic tupperware to take with her if it can't be used tomorrow.

One of the things I wanted to order for the bathroom is a bamboo floor mat to replace the laminate sheet we have down.  It looks like it has good reviews and is the same size.  They make one for the kitchen size (in non-slip) that we could look at if the bath one is a win.

I think between yesterday and today I moved well over a thousand pounds at work... it's all in the physics, angles and leverage. An eighty pound vanity becomes much less effort to move when you move it horizontally along a line at the same height for the shelf it goes on.  And if you can do that times three from the pallet it is on (by making a conveyer belt of other boxes between it and the shelf) it is possible to expend much less energy than yanking it down only to have to lift it back up again.  And toilets pushed up onto a lift at an angle and then pivoted on the edge are much less actual work done than trying to lift it straight up from the floor etc etc... 

bits over a weekend off

Minion putting on her best dark attitude.

Esme has been in school for more than a month now.  Her report card came back with all A's.  And she is happy and liking school.  We took her and her friend out to the dog park today with Lucy and their dog (Shiva), and they had a good time. Lucy did very well meeting several other dogs besides Shiva she had never met before.  We stayed a little over an hour, then everyone headed home.  On the way home Lucy and Esme each had a separate corn dog!

I'm still branching out and trying other ways to bring little updates and income into the house.  It is using up some of the energy I put previously into maniacally cleaning the house.  So, maybe the house isn't becoming as spotless as it might be.. but my stress levels are better.  And we have a few new things from the Amazon work I was doing last month.... a handheld vacuum cleaner, some clothing storage bags and a new shower hose.  I'm working on another card and wondering what I might get Esme for her birthday from it.  The only bad thing is that it takes so long for them to ship it we couldn't use any of that for a birthday present for Esme's friend.  The party was more than two weeks away, but they wouldn't ship for a month.  But.. I have a little under two months for Esme's bday.

I knitted some dishcloths, and read a little bit more of my book (book 5 Outlander).  We watched the first disk of Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson from Netflix, Mark and I did, while Esme was at Grandma's house yesterday evening.  It was better than I expected, yet it did respect the original.  Esme and I watched the original series first few episodes for homeschool last year.  I wonder how/when I'd have her watch this.  Maybe on a school break.

Esme and I talked about September 11th briefly today, as well.  She knows it was horrible, and where it happened - but she doesn't quite sink in what it meant for the nation.  I saw some nice tributes today but generally everyone I met was upbeat and having a nice Sunday with their families and friends.

That was my weekend off... a long week of all-on work now and then come up for air next Sunday again.

Red Cabbage

I made this today, three pint jars worth from one medium red cabbage head.  I've been avoiding the cabbage for a while because I didn't know what to do with so much.  But, today Mark pointed out how pretty it was in the store and I decided to do SOMETHING.  I had a Granny Smith apple at home, too.  So, this was almost perfect.

 I got the recipe here:
German Red Cabbage
The only thing I changed was I threw in a handful of frozen chopped onion I had in the freezer, and a dash of cinnamon with the cloves.  I also added more water.

Then I made my favorite packet chicken flavored rice to bring to work this week.  I think a little of this and a  bit of rice would pair nicely this week.  I've still got some other greens and a head of broccoli to make it a little different each day.

I tried the TAZO Vanilla Caramel Chai and found that I really like the Classic flavor much better.  I mixed the other a bag at a time with a scoop of coffee and that made it drinkable.  It has licorice in it, which gives it an unexpected taste.

Bits:  Esme is still doing very well in school - getting good marks on all of her papers she is bringing home.  She says she gets interrupted too much by other kids to eat lunch, but she eats her snack and drinks her drink.  She has always been a very slow eater.. no matter what we've done to try to fix that.  Since we can't do a lot about that I just make sure she HAS food in her lunch that she can eat if she has time and non-distractions.  And we have set up for her to be able to get some decent (not entirely junk food) but quick food as soon as she gets home from school.

We're in the middle of Araminta Spookie 'My Haunted House.'  I'm in the middle of the fifth Outlander book - Marsali has just had her fourth child, who is a dwarf.  I've also started planning for what to get Esme for her birthday... will probably use my next Turk gift card towards that.  One thing she asked for is already on the way in the mail, but probably will take a few weeks to come.  We also told her we would hang her TV on the wall in her room (instead of in the kitchen) after she had been in school for two months at the very least.... she's been counting those days!

PROJECTS: (stuff  I've done...mentioned to keep myself rolling)
Still working on the purple shawl, bit by bit.
Patched a pair of Esme's pants that had been sitting on my sewing table for three days.
Cleaned out some magazines.
General upkeep... it still feels good to grab the broom, sponge etc as needed.

 TO DO :
Go through the blog and get some important pictures ready to be printed to put in our little album and one for the school days page of her Through the Years book.  I remember just the right picture I want to put on the front of the album :)

Purple WIP

The knitting work in progress...a triangle purple shawl.   I'm only averaging a few rows here and there.

I'm increasing on both sides now as I go up and also the one in the zigzag pattern in the middle.  It should get a lot wider and lose the pointy triangle look and become more 'batwing'.