Timing is Everything

Riddle me this: how is it that I can put Ethan to bed at 8:00 and it's hard for him to drag himself out of bed on time, yet if I move up his bedtime to 7:30, he wakes up 45 minutes early?? What's up with that?! Both yesterday and today he was up at 7:15. Before spring break, he was hard pressed to make it up by 8 come Friday. Sigh.

Still trying to get our nightly routine to allow for more Ethan-time, but dinner is still ending around 7 to 7:20, which is not enough time to do anything except rush the boy. Both Kyra and I are already annoyed at the lacrosse practice schedule, which happens at dinnertime on Tues. and Thurs. Haven't even had a game yet and she was trying to beg off practice this week. I told her no way considering how much it cost and how hard she begged. I don't want to get all "Remember when you tried ______ and you gave it up and we put all that money and time into it??" on her and not let her try new things, but on the other hand, we sort of can't afford to be experimental right now. Oh well...

Does this font make me look fat?

Looking for something springy. Out of nowhere it became warm today. Seize the moment (so unlike me, but hey...)

Wanted: a mother

So apparently the only way I can be held accountable for a really hard or overly challenging or somewhat boring task is guilt. Unless I am accountable to someone, some of my more spontaneous promises will just fall to the wayside. I think everyone has experienced one of my grand ideas that never gets off the ground. Well, payback is a bitch...

I am nearly done cutting out the pieces of the quilt I committed to make for my daughter's school auction. One week ago, I showed the winner bidder a number of ideas for what I thought were all easy-ish quilts, and now almost a week later I have yet to finish one block of this monsterish "intermediate" quilt. Actually, yesterday I gave up on making the sample block because A) I could see that the colors were working without finishing it and B) I slapped the pieces together without really following directions and ended up having to rip everything apart several times. Since I'd already shown that my seams were too narrow and that it pays to follow directions (sigh) what was the point in continuing? I actually bought more material than I need, so I have lots of wiggle room in case something else goes wrong. 

In the meantime, the monotony of tracing templates onto fabric and cutting them out is starting to get to my neck, my back and my mind. Calgon, take me away!!!! All that stands between me finishing up the last template shape is like 100 pieces (I'm sadly enough not exaggerating) and these 2 marking pencils that keep breaking when I sharpen them. Did you know it's really hard to find a good marking device for dark fabrics?? Me neither. I swear half the pencil has ended up in the trash after snapping off below the base of the pencil wood. It is not helping my mood. This project is going to make all the other quilts I do look like child's play in comparison. Hopefully it will be stunning. The recipient is not a sewer and I'm sure she'll be happy with the results. If I don't commit seppuku in the meantime, I'm sure I'll be proud of how it turned out and pleased that I was able to donate something meaningful to my daughter's school. Till then, back to the salt mines (bugger...)

They're gone now: yay!!

Ah, back to school! Taking advantage of everyone being gone by cleaning the cupboard of expired condiments. The genesis of this project came about over the weekend when I opened a "new" bottle of worcestershire sauce and noted that it's expiration date passed by over a year. Yipes! How the heck did that happen?! I felt compelled to try it, and it was in fact flat, so today after Jason left, I dumped it. Then I combed the fridge and cabinets for other expired products. The oldest was from 2003 (guess I didn't like that tandoori paste...) Some are suspect, but had no date so I left them alone. I know that I will eventually buy a new one anyway, but... just couldn't toss it. Aside from the recycling bin already being full of empty condiment bottles (I'm up to 11), I don't think I'll be stir frying soon (I have 2 old, partially full bottles of sesame oil and one unopened bottle of "wok sauce").

I feel better now. Well, aside from the burn in my lungs and the sting in my eyes when I was rinsing the tabasco and chili paste jars I feel fine.

Struggling to climb back on the wagon. To that end I was looking at recipes. I'm ostensibly preparing a shopping list, including the now depleted condiments, but I have the feeling I'm just dragging my heels. 

I started on that auction quilt and it turns out that it's quite complicated. So apparently the jump from "beginner" to "intermediate" is less of a few steps and more of a gaping crevasse. Most of the pieces have to be cut from patterns (yeah, I just didn't read ahead far enough when I suggested the pattern to the quilt buyer--sigh), and even the most careful pining doesn't seem to reduce ripping out seams and starting over. I'm making one block to make sure it looks good and will work out before I cut the whole thing out, and I'm halfway done. Dragging feet... Maybe I'll clean the fridge first... I told the lady I'd be done with piecing this week, so I know I should go down there and face it. Quilting it will be a piece of cake after all this marking and cutting.

"I hate spring break!!"

Actually, those are my sentiments exactly, but it was Ethan who said that. We made the mistake of letting the kids watch TV on Monday morning, so by Tuesday they already were expecting to watch it. Yesterday, we got a full-body face down on the floor tantrum, and that's when Ethan made his statement. 

Not helping: I got some weird pinched nerve thing in my back over the weekend, and today's the first day I don't have any twinges, so Jason's been doing some entertaining, which also means yard work in our house (it's a give and take situation). The original plan was for Jason and Kyra to go off to south-eastern Oregon on a backpacking trip, but after he saw that pretty much all the best places were surrounded by snow, that was not an option. I guess Ethan would have been happier had that occurred because honestly I was planning on letting him watch all the TV he could stomach.

Still, I don't want them to expect TV constantly on days off. That tends to lead to expectations. If I am forced to pick a kid up who is not really sick, I will say no TV, just rest, but if they stay home sick and are all listless, then they do get TV. I know: weird policy, but there you go, and I was a kid, too, once...

Strange boy

We are moving from Ethan looking at any new food suspiciously to this new Ethan who tries things based on dares or looks of revulsion on my face. This week the new breakfast treat is toast with peanut butter, nutella, jam and hummus. I agreed to do the first 3, but I put my foot down at adding the hummus, so Jason is on toast duty. Maybe I should employ hummus as a method to get Ethan to eat his salad....

An "I told you so" moment

So several months ago Jason injured his shoulder doing one of his sports. Being a guy, he self-treated with hot tubs and aspirin and heating pads. It ebbed and flow. He got to a point around xmas where he claimed it was all better. Well, last week he finally admitted that it was not, in fact, getting better, so he saw his doctor. His doctor said it was inflamed and referred him to a physical therapist. The PT game him some exercises to do and said he would be talking to the doctor about getting an MRI, that possibly there was some torn something or others that could need to be surgically fixed.

Biting tongue, biting tongue (and not at all excited about having a convalescent spouse around the house)....

But after the man superglued a cut on his chin and used a popsicle stick as a splint on his finger it's about time he actually seek a real doctor.... I'm just saying...