More Portraits, Anyone?

Mindy was kind enough to swing by my house today so I could try to finish up my portrait assignment for tomorrow's class. The weather has not been cooperative - we've had heavy clouds for something like 4 days now! I had a 30-minute time slot, so we had to really slap-dash some pictures together under less-than-ideal conditions.
Surprisingly, these came out really nicely!
Batteries ran out and babies fussed and all sorts of other little things went wrong. Some of these look very different from the others, as I was really looking for a sweet spot in the camera's settings. And once I found it, well, like I said before, the batteries died. So then I spent a while with the next camera looking to get it just right.
In the end, though, in spite of the very different looks some of these have, I really love them all. There were so many good ones, Mindy. I promise you copies of all of them!









Thank you. So. Much. Mindy Sue! You are so beautiful and so is that baby. It was really fun and I can't wait to do a "real" shoot with good lighting! Soon.


On a funny side note, we were really having trouble coming up with an idea for dinner tonight. I haven't been shopping in just forever, I was coming home late from my piano lessons and various other reasons happened that dictated an easy, low-dirty-dish-quotient meal. I had been thinking chili (the cloudy weather has really got me wishing for winter) but the kids all overheard the phone conversation and complained. Somehow, I landed on chili dogs. I was really feeling guilty for picking something so unhealthy. I mean, normally we eat lots of veggies, whole grains and lean proteins. I cook from scratch, for Pete's sake. But I felt a little better when I arrived home, grocery bags in hand.
"What's for dinner, Mom?" is heard even before "hi, Mom!" is heard. I told them we were having chili dogs.

And neither one of them knew what a chili dog was!

Ha! Much less guilt now. I told them what was up. And Emma said it sounded interesting. Of course, they both loved dinner.
Good stuff.

Ka-pow!

We punched through our first week of school and new schedule stuff!
And now we are all very tired.
Emma pretty much fell asleep in the car at 8:15 this evening, Chris is snoring in his recliner and I am struggling to hold my head up long enough to post something here.
Sleeping in will definitely happen tomorrow.

So, I've got buckets of new music, thanks to a birthday iTunes card. That's always an energizing thing. I spend weeks and weeks picking and choosing and narrowing it down and asking for suggestions (which rather un-narrows the list) and then I finally just spend it all in one fell swoop.
Then I get to listen to it all.
Inevitably, the cream rises to the top within one or two listens. There will be a handful of songs, and sometimes just one, that were worth the whole purchase - the one or two that will get stuck in my head.
I thought I'd share one with you, but I can't find a decent video because this dude is pretty much unheard-of as far as I can tell. There's a music blog that I like to check out now and again - that's where I heard of him. So, if you want to have a little listen, click on that there link and scroll down (because I am so not gonna try and embed some kind of player in my blog while I'm this sleepy). You're looking for a track by The Wheel, the song is Just For Me (But I Thought Of You).
It's just dreamy and singable (who doesn't love to sing "doo doo doos?") and there's an upright bass and marimba and drum brushes...and...and...all sorts of good stuff. Sigh. It helped me stay mellow today.
Hopefully, I can capitalize on that and get right to sleep now, before my head hits the keyboard anzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Daily Bliss: meeting my old friend's new sweetie - such a fun guy!
Wake-up Playlist: Malajube, Luna

A Tutorial For You

If you are just dying to run into five families you haven't seen in ten years, plus parishioners of the church where you work, here's how it's done:

1) Make sure that you are helping your mom run a few errands and your feet hurt from your ever-so-pretty shoes that lied to your feet (they said they'd be soft as flower petals - ha!).
2) Trade out your pretty shoes for a pair of your mom's Crocs - you know, the flip flop kind. Do not even consider changing out of your work clothes. What we are going for here is flip flop Crocs with black dress pants and a flowy shirt.
3) Forget brushing your daughter's hair. Your children shouldn't be seen as a reflection of you anyway.
4) Also, little mascara flakes on the dark circles under your otherwise un-made-up eyes will help.
5) Prance through the doors of Target at 8:00 PM like you haven't a care in the world.

Results guaranteed!

Just Tuesday

Hi everybody. It's just Tuesday around here today.
We're expecting a visit from our Pest Control Inspector.
I've been knitting a bit.



And later tonight, into early tomorrow, we'll be taking in the opening show of the new Transformers movie. Emma will be sleeping at Grandma's house while I am caught in what is sure to be a swarm of aimless, testosterone-driven semi-adolescents. But it should be lots of fun. I really like boys.

Daily Bliss: vegan key lime pie for breakfast and a drizzling, rainy afternoon
Wake-up Playlist: Muse, Hoodoo

Contents

I was trying to clean up my house a little bit this afternoon because our annual pest control inspection is tomorrow. We, of course, don't want the pest control company to know that we do anything that might attract little buggies, so we quickly clean up the evidence and whistle to ourselves while the expert walks around our house.
When I was working in the kitchen, I was struck that the contents of my counter top were so random that it was a little funny. I like to keep the things I need quick access to out in plain sight (Chris likes them all to be put away regardless of how present the need is, but that's for another post). I don't know if this is true for anyone else, but it would seem that the contents of my counter reveal the state of my life at the moment.


And so I give you fever-controlling implements and congestion prevention, aloe for sunburns, lemons that were zested for muffins, oranges that Emma picked at the fruit stand, a green jalapeno pepper that has sat so long on the counter it turned red and some bubble soap that Emma made from a recipe in one of her books. I don't know why there's a marble in it.
Need I say more?

Daily Bliss: leftover watermelon lemonade
Wake-up Playlist: Kings of Leon, Arizona

Little Things

Posting has been less-than-inspired lately, hasn't it? Well, at least I think it has been. I feel like there have hardly been any good stories at all. So, I decided to pick up my camera and seek out something interesting and I hope to make it a daily habit. Of course, in picking it up and trying to learn more about it, I was messing with my ISO settings yesterday and forgot to re-set them today. I took lots of pictures today and was disappointed to find them all rather grainy. Terribly sorry. But, still, here are some small things that made my day more interesting:

This Little Miss Spider lives at my place of employment. My friend Katelyn and I were very impressed with her eye-catching web stitchery and we have researched and determined that she must be a St. Andrew's Cross spider. I sat down with her this morning for a little chat on the sidewalk. It's a good thing nobody saw me, I guess. I don't know anybody else that talks to spiders.


Driving home from work, I got stuck behind this guy:

I suppose I shouldn't have photographed while driving, but it was so great, so perfectly indicative of the local culture that it could not be helped. I was on a mission to find interesting things and I thought this was interesting. I was actually thinking about that tire on there and how, next time I buy a watermelon, I'm going to wash it really well before I cut it. Also, I was listening to Van Morrison, which made me think of Mary, who had that most famous song of his played at her wedding. That was also great.

We spent quite a bit of time outside, trying to clean up the garden spaces. Our inexperience and yesterday's storms had left quite a mess. Our squash are being ravaged by squash bugs (they already took out my jack-be-little pumpkin and possibly my watermelon and cucumbers), which are awfully hard to get with pesticides once they have already bored into your vines, so we were hunting them manually, the kids and I, while Chris stirred the compost pile (ew!) and planted a second grouping of sweet potato slips.
After we were all itchy, all the way through, from various bugs and grasses, I sent Emma in to shower first, since she is still recovering from her fever (it's a little better, thank you). As I waited around for Chris to grab the post-hole digger, kind of toeing around in the dirt, and I found a little treasure:

Now, there is knitting ahead of me this evening, and online entertainment courtesy of a friend who heard my plea (we still haven't picked up that TV converter box...)and sent me some very nice links to some favorite shows and stuff. But before I go, I must brag a bit. One other not-so-very-small thing came my way today. A picture of my brother's table. Gaze upon it in wonder and astonishment,

for he made it himself, in all of its modern-yet-warm, sleek-yet-home-y, design-perfection glory. My middle brother made this with his own two hands. It is so very nice to know that I'm not the only one in the family that makes things. I am so impressed - I begged him to let me blog about it.
And he said yes.
So I did.

Daily Bliss: dirt under my fingernails and a few more fresh tomatoes
Wake-up Playlist: Wheat, Some Days

A Slice of Today

Remember that apricot tart I made over and over last summer? Well, apricots are back in (insert opera-singing voice) sea-son!
So, guess what we're having for dinner tonight? Oh yes. Yes we did. Apricot tart and ice cream! I figured, why not just skip the mess and extra calories of supper and go straight for the decadence?
It is really hot here today. This time of year begins the long season during which I hate living in Florida. My car told me it was 99 degrees outside and the bank said it was 104. Sheesh. And no rain in sight just yet. Our afternoon showers have been sporatic at best. We had such a hot, dry spring, then a couple of weeks of rain, rain, glorious rain, and now we're back to nothin'. Wish it would just make up its mind.
The kids are continuing their instrument lessons over the summer, so the afternoon brought an hour to me of listening in amazement to my kids. It's so brilliant that they can actually do stuff. I mean, when they are babies, it's so hard to imagine what they'll be, what they'll do. But as they grow, you just have to stand back and take it in sometimes because they really are people, in their own right, with talents and abilities. And they do stuff - even without your help!

Daily Bliss: a cool cotton tunic, made by me of course
Wake-up Playlist: Jars of Clay, Two Hands

I'm Good!

I love that guy phrase - you know, when they fall down or get hurt or something and they holler out, "I'm good!" I saw that on a Pepsi commercial recently. I laughed a lot at it because it's really true.
So I feel like I ought to holler out at you all that I'm good. You know, I didn't hurt myself or anything, I just haven't had a lot to say this past week or so.
Summer is rolling along.
We haven't bothered to get our TV converter box yet and we don't have cable, so we're outta luck on TV. I'd like to be in a store and state loudly and self-righteously that we don't watch TV in order to make people think that we are that kind of family. Does it really matter why we're not watching TV?
That lack has made for some interesting entertainment choices, though. We've really been digging to the bottom of our DVD collection to find something to watch in the evenings (not that we watch something every evening...). I tend not to enjoy watching things twice, so it's getting hard to find something entertaining in the cabinet. Last night, we watched the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers while I knitted on that baby blanket (sorry, Melanie, that this blanket is taking so long! I don't know why!). Chris grew up on that kind of stuff, but I didn't, so it's fun for me to see those campy sci-fi movies. Only, this one was actually good. Bonus! Plus, Kevin McCarthy, the leading man, was in UHF, which is one of the few movies I've seen multiple times. I know. I'm not normal.

I made spaghetti bolognese for dinner tonight. It's really a simple meat sauce recipe that somebody gave me - the photocopy looked like it was originally from a box of spaghetti noodles. It is such a favorite in this house and I think you should try it if you don't already have a sauce recipe of your own. My husband came home from work and I was cooking (listening to my iPod - The Silver Seas' High Society album is really happy indie pop stuff). He lifted the lids on the pots, you know, just to check. He was so happy about what was in there that he started making out with me right then and there! So, ahem,I highly recommend it.
Just brown a chopped-up onion with a pound of ground beef and a clove of garlic. Add parsley flakes, dried basil and oregano to taste - oh, and salt and pepper of course - and pour in a large can of tomato puree. That's all! Man-pleasin' dinner is what that is. Trust me.
I did a little knitting and a little sewing too. There are a few new projects listed over on the side bar, if you haven't noticed. The nephew pants are kind of a consolation prize because I haven't finished Max's blanket yet. Only, they were meant to be cute little matching pants for my Indiana nephews and somehow they are becoming pants with monogram-appliqued t-shirts and maybe some sun hats. But I might nix the sun hats because I don't have enough fabric. We shall see. I always do complicate things.
My sewing was interrupted by a stiff breeze outside that could almost be called a real Wind. I headed out to the porch in the dark and took that in for a while, until I got some dust in my eyes.
I guess you could say that things are happening, lists items are being scratched off and...you know, I'm good.

Daily Bliss: Choxie (chocolate) - bought with coupons!
Wake-up Playlist: Eric Claipton, After Midnight

Friday Fun

Today was the big Typhoon Lagoon field trip with Emma. We really had a good time. We ran into one of her girlfriends first thing, so we spent the day hanging out together. This girlfriend has a mom I actually really like, so that's a bonus. There were a couple of water slides and a long ride around the park in Castaway Creek and mostly there was the wave pool.
I went to Typhoon Lagoon when it first opened with a friend of mine. We must have been in our early teens, though I'm not really sure, so it was fun to go back and see the things I remembered. Theme parks are not really my thing, but I was able to set that aside and just enjoy the company of my Best Girl, which makes any day a great day.
The swimsuit/coverup debacle is another story.
I found this cute little shirred-top strapless dress-ish, skirt-ish thing that you can wear up like a dress or down like a skirt. It's polka dotted, which I adore, and has a ruffle at the bottom, which I also adore.
I'd planned to stay mostly dry. But that ended almost immediately upon entering the park. The first wave in the wave pool soaked me and I spent the rest of the day in a dripping wet, woven cotton, droopy dress thing.
Oh well.
I have never really been able to pull off the whole "glamorous" look, so it was not surprising at all. Nor was it upsetting. Whatevs.
We dug around in the fridge for leftovers to serve as supper and played a couple rounds of Dirty Uno (No, no. It's not that sort of dirty!)while listening to Anberlin, and the face time with my kids has done my tired heart some good.
Tomorrow is haircut day! Maybe I'll get around to taking some decent photos this time around. I don't believe I've properly shown you my super-short hair! Ah well. I'll only take pictures if it's cute. Deal?
Emma has got the sun-sleepies and was out like a light within five minutes of laying down and I think I may be heading in the same direction.

Daily Bliss: a giant bag of cotton candy and the feeling of accomplishment that comes from eating leftovers instead of eating out.

Wake-up Playlist: I actually woke up singing some song my brain wrote while I was sleeping. I don't remember it now. Does that happen to anybody else out there? I write songs in my dreams all the time. I've always wanted to be a songwriter, but I never can seem to break the barrier when I'm awake and access the music that lives in my heart.

Drizzle

We had so much rain today! Hooray! It's still raining, actually.
This afternoon shoved me around a lot, from place to place, and I only accomplished some of what needed to be done, but sometimes it's good to be busy. At least that's what I'm trying to tell myself today.
There was gardening to be done, children to pick up at clubs, dinner to be made, a grocery store errand and a hair color purchase (it's been too long...my grays have grown out at least a half-inch on top!). Emma and I left early for ballet and dodged the torrent as we headed toward Hancock's for some patterns and fabric goodies. They're having a good sale and Emma has to dress like a fairy for an oral book report. Obviously that means I have to make her a fairy dress and obviously, that calls for a trip to the fabric store, yes? So that's what we did. We dashed in and out of the store and dashed into ballet where I

just sat


and knitted.

And that was quite wonderful. Knitting has fallen a bit by the wayside in the crush of end-of-school-year schedules. Not entirely, but I'd say it's been several days at least since I had a chunk of knitting time.
I had beautiful thoughts throughout the day that were going to be turned into a post. They have all evaporated. I know there were deep and lovely things about the beauty of daily life, I just can't remember what they were.
What I will do is update my project progress bars and leave you for now. Perhaps tomorrow will bring time to mull over dreams and plans and the changing landscape of my inner life. The rest of tonight shall be spent listening to the rain falling in the dark, cascading over my porch steps and soaking my garden.

Daily Bliss: laughing out loud at sitcoms with my honey
Morning Tune: bonus! two songs today! Young Bride (Midlake) again and 17 (Kings of Leon)

PS: I need help naming that song footer that I decided to start including...Subconscious Soundtrack? Dream Tunes? I'm looking for just a couple of words (or a few words) to indicate that they are songs I do not pick, that I just wake up singing and don't know why :) All suggestions are welcome!

Some Good Stuff

I haven't been here in a couple of days. That's not like me. I know it's not like a few days between posts is a huge time lapse, but for me it is. I guess I just haven't felt like writing anything. I'm tired and I'm having more trouble handling some of the stress in my life than I want to admit. Heck, even admitting that I have stress is difficult for me. So, it's hard for even me to find the good things in life sometimes. And I don't like to write about the crappy stuff. It doesn't help that much.
But I've been amassing a stack of good stuff over the last couple of days and I think it's about time I sit down and remember the little things.
Friday night, I had big plans. I had actually cancelled some long-standing plans to make room for the big plans. And the big plans fell through. Not the kind of fall-through where you have advance notice, just the silent kind of fall-through. And at 6:30 Friday night, I really needed something to cheer me up. And one of Emma's friends' mom called me up to invite my girl and me to see the new Hannah Montana movie. Hannah Montana is something we really haven't gotten into. It's not that I have anything against her...it's just that I tend to omit brand names from our life wherever possible. But we partook of the pop culture phenomenon that is Miley Cyrus and we had such a great time. And I didn't even hate it. I hear that she's kind of a fan of my brother's band. Admittedly, that bumped her up, like, 8 notches of cool in my book.
So, Friday night was rescued.
Then Chris and I stayed up way too late catching up on all of our TV shows online that we'd missed while he was out of town.
And you know what else is good stuff? Sleeping in. I slept until 9:00 this morning! Uncharacteristic of me, but totally necessary sometimes. It seemed I especially needed it.
I made some vegan pancakes this morning that were actually tasty (my unfortunate allergy to eggs and intolerance of dairy makes bread-y food a little tricky and I've found that searching for vegan recipes usually saves the day for me). And we spent some time in our garden weeding and watering and picking a few of the first tomatoes.
We went out to run a few errands and stopped by the nursery where we bought all our tomatoes. I was a-huntin' for some okra, as I hear it grows well over the summer and now is the time to get it in the ground. I actually had three holes to fill in our little patch of veg. The guy there recognized us and when I picked up the dragon's tongue bean seedling I loved the most, he just threw in the rest of the seedlings he had on hand for free! There were only four others left and they needed to get into the ground. So, hooray for a nursery that knows me and for free plants and wonderful advice! Since I needed to put them out somewhere and since our lettuce is pretty much done for the year, I dug it all out when we got home and started a little bean patch. It hasn't been all sunshine-and-success in our garden, but I think we're off to a great start. He's got some miniature watermelons and cantaloupes that will be ready next week and I think I'm gonna have to go get some. Dang. I'm hooked.
We enjoyed a dinner of BLTs, with the L and the T coming from our very own garden, and a yummy popcorn concoction containing chocolate chips, toasted coconut and banana chips while we watched The Princess Bride with the kiddos. That was momentous! I think they both really liked it.
Sigh.
A day full of the good stuff is what I really needed, and I'd say I got just that. One more night of solid sleeping should set me back right, I think.

Suspension

I ended up working at home today, which is probably a good thing. We still didn't have our computers and stuff all up and running in the office (after we were struck by lightning last week), so I brought all my stuff home, opened my windows, turned on some good music, and...
got distracted.
It's been cloudy and breezy all day and the promising scent of rain floated through my windows. It called me out to my porch for a bit. It was just a tiny minute, but it was so nice. I talked to a dove and said hello to a Papa Mockingbird.
I talked to my brother and to Julianna. I did laundry and dishes. I deconstructed a dress that needs re-constructing. And, I mean, I got my work done too, mostly.
And with all that, I still feel like I'm in some state of suspended animation. I'm waiting for my honey to come home. I'm waiting on some decisions about what to do with my kids over the summer. I'm waiting to see what will come of my job situation. So, no matter how much I get done, so much feels undone and there seems to be nothing I can do about it.
I have a few more tasks to accomplish before bed tonight. I don't even want to tackle them. Maybe it's just that I don't think they'll make me feel any more accomplished, what with all the big stuff out there, waiting to be solved.
The rain loomed and flirted with my parched lawn all afternoon. It finally burst out at the most inopportune moment - Emma and I were on our way in to Publix to pick up a chicken. The wind blew my skirt up and around in many embarrassing ways as I tried to hold onto it with one hand, struggling to keep the umbrella in the other, simultaneously sheltering my little one from the fierce onslaught. She squealed and I screamed and the boys who were gathering errant carts smiled at the two of us.
I'm not worried or stressed about the undone things - yet. But when they do all come tumbling together, I promise to squeal loud enough for all to hear.

DAILY BLISS: open windows

Regular Day

Today was just a regular day.
That's not a bad thing, I guess.

I had to go to work early to meet a deadline. Bleah.
But once I picked up the kids from my mom's house, we came home. I took a bath and laid around the house. I'm so tired out after the last week.
We went outside and picked the first of our lettuce for a big dinner salad.
Chris came home from work and we chopped up so many yummy veggies. We sat down at the table and enjoyed eating what we had grown.

We drank the water that Emma and I brought home from Hot Springs

and lingered around the table, hoping this out-of-the-ordinary week would last just a little bit longer.

DAILY BLISS: hanging with my son - boy did I miss that kid!