moving forward bits

Moving Forward Goals:
I received another fifty pictures to put in our family photo album, then Esme requested another one based on those... and I put another fourteen in the queue.  She saw pictures of her admiring a fish Daddy caught when she was two, and then she wanted the picture of the fish she caught last summer in there, too.  Mark says having a paper printed copy is kind of old-fashioned, definitely will be by the time Esme is older.. but it did feel nice to flip through pages and show her how the time has passed.  A lot of the pictures are natural 'pairs' as well, where two pictures tell a story of what happened that day.  ie: Me and Esme walking in the woods when she was one.. her barely at my knee level, and the next picture Daddy carrying her over his shoulder over a big log.

Esme's new backpack came.  She is considering it part of her birthday but she broke the zipper on her old one's front pocket last week so it came just in time.  It is dark grey with bright pictures of foxes and owls all over it.

Rolling from the Weekend:
Esme is still poorly, but eating and drinking and watching her TV standing up like usual (instead of sleeping or slumped in a chair).  She still can't go to school tomorrow, either.. because she was running 101.5 this morning and had a headache when I woke her up.  Hopefully the antibiotic and the tylenol will start knocking it out.  She had chicken soup and honey lemon tea this morning and ate all of it.  Seeing her attitude improve (she was cracking jokes and wanted to play ball in the hallway) is a good sign.

I have tonight at work and then two days off... so hopefully we can get her well then.

Whatever you Call what was on NPR last night at 8:
We listened to the presidential debate on the radio last night, while Esme watched cartoons in bed.  I've never consumed more than a bottle (MAB) in a single night*, but I had one and a half (Mark finished the other half) listening to those two argue audio-only for an hour and a half.  I can't in good faith vote for either of them...   Hillary might have seemed to hold her 'poise' more, but also sounded so much more scripted.  We looked at each other several times saying 'Does she even believe what she just said, or is she just reading it off of something?'  Trump was on bad behavior and huffing and bluffing through it all, barely able to keep himself from shouting like a kid in an elementary school debate.  All in all, he sounded like he was going off note cards, too... badly written ones he glanced at now and then but kept him hitting the important points to dig the other side about before he was done.  Neither of them stayed close to the topics - verging off far and wide and then finding places to argue with each other over that were closer to what they really wanted to say and weren't being asked about.  Mark said they both sounded like sideshow clowns hitting each other with rubber hammers, or chickens, whichever you like.  And most of America is going to pick between these two on the ballot, if they vote at all.

*Honestly, most of the time I can't even finish a single one, with food.  Mark was absolutely certain he had never ever seen me open a second.

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.

collections and album bits

This is the glasstop display box I gave Esme for her geology and shell collection.  The collection was sitting on a shelf by my sewing box and it is much more enjoyable this way!  I put the shell she got from her grandparents (Grandpa Harvey and Grandma Gale) in there it had been out of sight in a jewelry box.  Then, she asked me why we didn't have any photographs of them up on our memory board.  She couldn't remember what everyone looked like!  It was near bedtime so of course she got deeply philosophical about this.  She also wanted to see more pictures of Grandma Irene and Grandpa Henry.

I printed out a batch of photos and put a few up on the board, and a set into her little album here on the display box.  The album already had a lot of pictures from when she was a little baby, but it was put away in a drawer.  It now has more recent pictures as well from our Kentucky Lake heritage center trip and her third grade photo the other day.  She can have it out and page through it.

The memory board in the kitchen is a little crowded now, but it's good!  I think she will like it.

I think I need to get a big album and start putting all of the other photos in it.  They are laying in sleeves in a drawer and I'm not even sure what is there.  It would be a good project for this fall.

Anymore sausage flavored dog food in this pan?

Gave away these kittens today at the flea market.  They went together to a good home.  I thought I had lost my ring and couldn't find it anywhere.  Then when I got home it was in a soap dish from earlier that morning after Esme's bus stop I had washed my hair.  I felt silly - but glad it wasn't lost!