Mama Sutra

What I Like Wednesday

One day late.  Oh well.

I meant to post last night.  Then I got caught up finishing Anthony Bourdain's "The Nasty Bits" and doing laundry and working on my menu plan.  And then it was 1 in the morning.  And then I got up this morning and was all groggy and bleary and drinking full caffeine coffee for the first morning in a few weeks (half caff, baby, and I never feel like I really wake up in the day).  And then the phone rang and my old work was calling to see if I'd substitute teach for the day (junior high, baby, nothing better...suspend your judgments of me, please).  And now it's half past supper quarter to bedtime and I feel like I've been run over, and I'm going back to work for another half day tomorrow afternoon.  I actually really enjoyed working today, I've just lost my stamina for it, and I'm crashing hard.

Here's the stuff I'm liking:

• Spring bulbs in little pots: bought a tulip (the cat gnawed it up and I didn't water it enough so it is no more), a crocus, and a hyacinth.  The girls are crazy about them, and we check them out each day, guess what colour the flowers will be (Meredith predicted a red sunflower and a green sunflower), count the blooms, and so on.
• Scramble, the facebook version of boggle.  Who knew I'd get into that?
• This book and the author's etsy site, which is where I ordered my copy.  The art is  just so lovely and sweet.
• Sublime Stitching is where I got my kit to fuel the embroidery obsession.  Very fun

I was going to write about the great laminated card sets I bought for the girls with dry erase pens, but I left Helena under-supervised while I played the aforementioned scramble and she proceeded to body art herself up with dry erase markers: feet, calves, hands, chin, and belly.  And, in case you were wondering, dry erase markers do not come off toddlers very easily.

My big project is to do a month's menu plan.  I will probably post it over on my Martha blog, but I think I have most of March planned out.  I feel like I need to do this as I've finally got my weekly grocery shopping under control (ie. I'm not making three or four trips a week because I actually know what we're going to be eating ahead of time), but I need to curb my costco enthusiasm because it's becoming my recreation.  Seriously.  I should be embarrassed to admit that. 

Toddler Tuesday

I had this vision of posting every Tuesday, coming up with something cute that I did with my lovely daughters, yadda yadda.  Instead, I dragged them out of the house this morning to arrive late (as always) to the library for craft and story time.  Then we hung out and Helena removed every book from every bin in the board book section while Meredith eavesdropped on the other parents while they were reading stories to their kids (meanwhile I was reading this book which had arrived in the mail this morning, and it's quite adorable), and/or starting up conversations with anyone she could make eye contact with (very new this, such that it feels a wee bit creepy, though I don't think it's completely unusual for kids her age...is it??).

Then they did crafts while I put together supper in the slow cooker.  Then we went for "rest time" (because I am the only person in the house who likes the word "nap"), and we read most of the new library books, and I almost fell asleep but the girls ran laps around the bed room until Helena pooped and I had to get my lazy ass up to change her.

Then we hung out until daddy got home.  Then they didn't like supper.  And then I had that crazy look in my eyes so DaddySutra sent me out and I bought a whole bunch of stuff at Costco.  And now they're having bedtime stories with DaddySutra and that's hopefully it.  Mama of the Year, thank you very much.

I did omit mentioning our little lunch outing because it seems like the one thing that went really well (thus not fitting well with the description of the rest of the day).  We went to the grocery store because they have good sandwiches, and we sat at the tiny seating area by Mama's favourite coffee place (I'm down to 2 or 3 visits per week, and I have decreased my total caffeine intake dramatically, like one cup half caff in the morning and then maybe one decaf in the afternoon...and ohmygod do I miss the caffeine.  Seriously: I have a cup of regular coffee and I'm ready to renovate the house...or something).  I digress: they were very good and very quiet and didn't disrupt anyone or break anything and they ate really well. 

We're out again tomorrow morning, for music and then a lunch/playdate thingy.  If I'm really on the ball, we're going to do some baking for our neighbours and stop by, because I have been meaning to do that since I started staying home with the girls in September.  My current favourite thing to back with the girls is this oatmeal loaf from a Dorie Greenspan recipe.  It's great for kids because it can all be mixed by hand, and it's very adaptable.  I made it first as written, with raisins.  I made it again a couple days ago and realized we were out of applesauce but we did have canned pumpkin.  I think that I might have even liked it better.  It's a keeper recipe; I'm thinking we might do a pumpkin-dried apricot combo next.

In other news, I learned via fussy.org that National Blog Posting Month has now been extended to year round, ie. blog every day for a month, but not just in November.  And March is the month of the list.  Sounds like something I can get into, maybe.  But, I did say that about thing-a-day, didn't I?

Hey wow

(Oooh, I'll start with the contest info even though I'm decreasing my chances of winning...but go to Home Ec 101 and check out their first anniversary contest!!)

Almost a whole month without a post.  Yeah.  That was February, the month that mostly just kicked my ass and made me feel rotten. 

I had plans.  I was all set to do thing-a-day.  That didn't work out so much.  Though, really, I got more done than I would have normally.  I started a couple knitting projects, I finished a couple that had been sitting around.  I did not edit any of my nano novel.  I started embroidering after ordering a kit from Sublime Stitching, and lately I've been embroidering anything that isn't nailed down.  I made some new recipes, did some menu planning (check it out next door, at the other blog).  I crafted a bit with the kids, and they always like that.  I played a lot of scrabulous on facebook. 

I started to get a routine going, one that would let me keep the house pretty clean, do some exercise, keep the kids on their nap/bedtime routine (they fell off this over the Christmas break and it took most of January to get this re-regulated).  It was going really well, until the morning that I sprained my baby toe.  Sounds minor, but it was significantly swollen, making it hard to go out because my foot no longer fit my footwear.  Plus, I couldn't do my exercise DVD because it hurt to walk.  And I didn't want to clean the house because, well, it hurt, but also because I felt really sorry for myself.  I was pissed that my lovely routine was wrecked within days.  And I didn't do much for a week and a half.  And the house looked kinda bad.  And I got into that nice spiral of "agh, I'm getting fat...have a cookie...agh, what did you do that for?  go exercise!  but I hurt...what's wrong with me...agh, have another cookie."

I'm torn between being honest and being positive.  For example, I'm beating myself up tonight because I think I was rude to a person I don't know very well.  I feel like I was pushing my "weirdo granola hippy anti-establishment never lets her kids have fun or eat french fries" agenda, and making this person feel bad for doing things differently.  I hesitate to be any more specific, on the off chance that she might find this blog (highly unlikely, but still).  I feel a bit like I was pulling rank, or being a snob, even though I wasn't rude outright.  So, yeah, I'll stew over this for a couple more days, and hopefully I'll come up with something to say to put things right.

Anyway.  I want to get blogging again, if only to keep recording what life is like with my darling girls.  They've been a lot of fun lately, and I want to remember, and I know that writing will help, but I have to...get back to my routine.  Sigh.  I know what I'm like, I know how scattered I can be, I know that having a "script" for the day helps me to stay on top of things.  I just wish it didn't make me feel like such a keener, if you can be a keener when you're a SAHM.  (Agh...go have a cookie...)

So, maybe I'm going to get back to regular posting.  We'll see.  I'm thinking about some "theme" kinds of posts, just to provide prompts to myself.  We'll see. 

Feels busy

And yet, I don't feel like I got much done.  I'm chipping away at a lot of things at once and nothing seems to be DONE. 

Thing-a-day is keeping me motivated to keep working at stuff.  My real goal, as in for the whole month, is to finish all my works-in-progress (unlikely: I have a lot of these), work through my yarn and fabric stashes, and decrease the clutter and organize the stuff I actually want to keep.

To de-clutter, I went through my bin of toiletries (the stuff I've had to re-locate out of my bathroom because my kids keeps getting into my good lipstick and foundation, etc.) and the hall pantry.  The latter was an especially good idea because I'm doing my monthly shop, and I prefer to stock up on the stuff that I really need, not just buying more of what's already there.

My official thing-a-day was to take the kidlet  wrap dress pattern from tiny happy and actually draw up the pattern.  I'm a very reluctant sketcher, so this was something I'd been putting off for a while, but since the smocks for the girls had turned out well, I really wanted to get a start on the little dresses.  Check it off the list.  I also worked on a little blanket that will put a dent in my easy wash acrylic stash, and I finished the ribbing on the top of my self striping sock (I'd set it aside with about 3 rows done and forgotten about it: how odd).  I also made pork chops for supper after having a bit of a hissy fit about cooking.  It was one of those crabby kinds of afternoons, but the chops were delish, and the shiraz I drank with it wasn't bad either.

Tomorrow, I'd like to cut out the wrap dress and just maybe stitch it up.  This one will be for practice, using up some of the miles of khaki twill I bought.  I have some baby corduroy and some cute prints that I want to use to do reversible dresses.  Best way I can think of to hide the seams, and twice the wearing power.  But it will involve another trip to the fabric store for more bias tape, the only thing I need to spend money on to complete the project (I hope).  Oh, and I want to call about starting Ju Jitsu.  A strange thing for thing-a-day, perhaps, but I have been putting this off for about two months, and I am in dire need of some physical activity.

I'm most of the way done Julia Child's My Life in France, which I'm reading for an online book club at Apartment Therapy.  And I'm playing a lot of scrabulous on facebook.  Apparently, I will be conducting my entire social life online between now and spring.

Happy all of it

Happy Groundhog Day.  Don't know what the vermin saw, but it was only -22 C when I went out which meant that I could even move around briefly outside with my double mittens off.

Happy day 2 of Thing-a-day.  I finally finished a little baby hat that I'm knitting to donate to the local hospital.  Sport weight acrylic yarn, 72 stitches in the round, I forget what size needles.  6 1/2 inches K2P2 rib, then K2tog to last 9 stitches, thread tail through, weave in two ends.  Cute, and immediately adopted by Helena on behalf of one of her stuffies.  I may never get these to the babies at the hospital.

Happy Feast Day of St. Brigid.  Gotta love the patron saint of babies, poets, and children whose parents are not married.  (Also love how I finished a baby hat for thing-a-day, not consciously intentional.)

Also have to love an event called Brigid in Cyberspace Poetry Reading.   I, in my usual punctual manner, found out about this about an hour ago.  I thought about what poem I'd post, got it to two, and could only find one online.  Decision made, pretty good for a libra. 

Let Evening Come -- Jane Kenyon

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don't
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

(I found the poem here)

Beginning

Welcome to February.  At least it's not January.  The weather has kind of broken, and by kind of I mean that it's now about -25 C (-15 F), which means that I was out with my jacket open some of the time because that's how we roll here in crazy land.  A couple days ago, I saw a woman running to her vehicle and she had on a hoodie.  No jacket, no hat, no mitts, a lightweight hoodie with one of those long lacy camisole things under it.  WTF?

Low points of the day: my kid peeing on the carpet, and most of my outing to buy groceries, including unsupervised kids (youngest about 7, oldest about 11; I'm referring to the ones that bugged me, I'm sure there were some responsible kids too, somewhere) pushing their carts all over the place, blocking the traffic flow, getting in my way.  The WORST was when I set my macchiato down to pick up some stuff to put in my cart and the woman behind me KNOCKED MY COFFEE OVER and was vaguely apologetic.  PISSED ME OFF.  I'm petty and I know it, but it's been a very very VERY long week in the house with the cold and I NEEDED my COFFEE.  Dammit. 

But, there was a lot of good and I thank Thing-a-day for getting me motivated to try some stuff.  I signed up (sign ups closed last night, I think), and planned out some stuff I wanted to get done and try and whatever.  Most of it is crafty, knitting and sewing, seeing as I have a tonne of yarn to use up and a two month old sewing machine that I have hardly used at all.  I also have a couple new recipes I want to do; I'm only going to count the bigger crazy things, so not just slow cooker chicken but, say, no knead bread.

So, today I decided that I would try to get the pieces cut out for the swing swing smock in Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing.  I'd already made one for Meredith, and had tried to make one for Helena.  The first worked fine because I had very wide bias tape, but I could not get the narrow bias tape to work for the second one, so I gave up.  I bought the new tape, and also decided I would try to make this reversible, basically cutting out two pieces, basting them together right sides out, then finishing the cut edges with the bias tape.  I thought I could get the pieces cut out today, then I'd finish tomorrow, but it's done.  I went over the recommended 20 minutes to an hour suggestion, but I'm so glad I got something completed.  I have a bad habit of giving up if I don't have some early success.

Part of my plan with doing this was to involve the kids.  I had this great idea that we could make this patchwork cat but instead of patchwork we'd use fabric crayons, iron the kids' designs onto the fabric and they'd have their own little cats.   I have about five metres of khaki coloured twill that I thought would be a good weight.  Unfortunately, the fabric crayons I bought are best for synthetic fabrics, and they just won't take, so I'll need to buy some different fabric before we can continue. 

I think we may have done something else, but I can't remember.  And I don't know what we'll do tomorrow, though I am very taken with these wrap around dresses (tiny happy is a lovely, lovely blog).  And I'd like to make everything Boden has posted for spring for girls, since I won't be buying any of that any time soon.