Why · would · anyone · want · to · read · this?

So in the last few weeks, I've been very busy and very bad about updating my journal! I've made several status updates on Facebook, but I realize now that if I look at those in 6 months, I won't have a fricken clue what they mean today.

So, I need to get some details down before I forget! This might be a bit random, based on my stream of consiousness.

First, my vegetable/fruit gardens: About 2 weeks ago, the strawberries started to be ready to pick. We went out every day to pick whatever was ripe at the time, and I ended up with enough to make 12 jars of jam, and get another huge bowl of fresh berries to eat. Unfortunately, we also had about a third of the berries grow rotten, which according to my research means we have a fungal infection in the mulch under them. This is something we have to treat now and probably forever. Plans are: keep cutting off infected stems as we find them, pull up a few plants to allow more air-flow between them, provide support for the plants so the berries don't sit on the ground, and get an anti-fungal spray from Gardens Alive! next spring.

The veggies are growing well, too, even in spite of the huge hail storm that swept through 2 days ago and ripped the leaves up on every plant we have. One broccoli was toppled, so we'll be eating that one tonight. All the other plants look like they will recover. We've been harvesting radishes for about a week now, and they're yummy! The tomatos and sugar snap peas have flowers on them. The bush beans are falling over...notes for next year: almost everything we planted this year need some kind of support. Also, don't plant oregano behind broccoli. :) It is in the shadow and not growing as well as it could.

NJ's ballet classes are done for the year, but her recital is still coming up this weekend. Friday night is dress rehersal, and Saturday afternoon is the presentation. Also going on this weekend - Landsknecht, our SCA camping event at the Homestead. So, I've got to drive up to Lehighton, set up camp, drive down to the dress rehersal, and back up to Lehighton Friday night. Then Saturday at lunch time, head BACK to the recital (in Souderton), not returning back to the event until dinner time. Then pack up and come home Sunday morning! And poor DH is going to miss all this, keeping SA and Cleo with him at the event so they don't disrupt the recital. Oh yeah, I also need to organize the raffle going on at the recital. HA HA HA! Will I EVER learn to say NO?

My first book club meeting was REALLY fun. I love our club! We have such a diverse membership of great people! I can't wait for the next meeting. :)
The best part of the night was when my wonderful sis-in-law gave me her Princess House Vintage Garden tea set...pot, cups, saucers, cream/sugar containers and serving caddy. She is TEH AWESOME! :D Now I can't wait to have my next tea party :D

Speaking of which...I will be serving tea to our guests over the July long weekend. We're having a weekend-long party with close friends and their children...so it should be a fun-filled chaotic weekend, and I'm really excited about it! But it means that coming home from the event this weekend cannot result in our usual "dump all the camping crap in the house until the next event". Nope, we'll actually have to CLEAN IT UP this time. Can't have our guests think we're complete slobs!

I can't remember what else I wanted to discuss, so I guess I'll wrap this up now and come back later for more updates.

I don't know why, but I FEEL hungover this morning. I'm not...I had one drink with alcohol in it yesterday, at about 5pm. No way am I hungover from THAT. But, my head aches, my body aches, and I feel like crap.

Anyway, if the weather cooperates, I'll be outside a while today, prepping our veggie garden. I need to turn the soil, rake it flat, and then measure out 1-foot squares. Last weekend I planned out all the veggies we want to grow, when they would need to be planted, how much room they would need - all according to "The Square Foot Garden" technique. If this guy knows what he's talking about, we'll have a lot of fresh-grown veggies this summer, in our tiny little plot (6x7)! If it works well, we might expand it a bit next year to have enough for canning...but that's really getting ambitious.
I sat down and wrote out all the things we need to do each weekend on the family calendar. A lot of items clash with SCA events, birthday parties and other travel plans. I suspect our garden won't do as well as we'd like, unless we (and I mean mostly DH) do a lot of work during the week (weeding, tranplanting, harvesting). Luckily, too, my MIL does a lot of her own gardening, and tends to start more seeds than she needs, so we'll be getting a lot of transplants from her...which saves me a lot of time and work!

I've also been slowly working away at my pile of sewing projects. I found out that many dresses I had made for NJ will fit SA with only slight modifications needed (mostly hems). So YAY! for not needing to do as much. However, the flip side of that means, of course, that NJ needs bascially an entirely new wardrobe to get through Pennsic...that means at least 7 distinct outfits to last 10 days. We found 2 that fit her now. I also wrote down a list of what I wanted to have next Pennsic right after we got home from last Pennsic - smart of me, eh? - and so I've started working on the 5 new chemises and 3 surcoats. My cloak is lined, finally (after 8+ years of wearing it without lining or clasps). I fixed up my rust-brown dress, which is the first dress I ever made. While it has many "not right for medieval re-creation" things about it, I think it is still my favorite item to wear. I get many compliments from it, and its warm, and I can "change it up" with surcoats over top of it. I just need to figure out what kind of headgear would be most appropriate to wear with it.

Anyway, today I want to get a few minor details on these projects taken care of, so they can move upstairs to the attic in the "ready to wear" garb pile. I also need to do laundry, clean up the house in prepapration for the party we're throwing next weekend, and keep my tabs on what's going on at work today (major application upgrade that I've been working towards for 6+ months now).

Guess I should start with another cup of coffee and a shower...

What comfort means to me:
I'm so happy and content with my life, that I have nothing to write about in a journal. ;)

Sorry its been so long, LJ! I've been busy, but in a non-frantic way. We have been making plans for the future, and I am happy to do that.

We're going to be attending at least 5 SCA camping events this summer, so I have a lot of sewing to do for the girls. I'm sure they've outgrown anything that fit them last year! I also have a bit to do for myself, as I want to have a few more comfy and cool dresses for Pennsic. Since sewing is my absolute favorite hobby, I'm really excited about all the projects I have planned!

We're also planning a vegetable garden this year, which I really need to get moving on before it's too late. I think we need to start tomatoes now...gotta look up my book again :) Since gardening is my second favorite hobby, this is cool, too!

We're also discussing schooling plans for NJ, visiting family plans, other hobbies like geocaching and woodworking, and when are we going to go back to the Jersey shore or Disneyworld? Whew, busy! :D

Work is also going well. My project is still not officially funded, but we're probably within 2-4 weeks of having all the contracts signed and funding allocated. I met with the President of IT on Monday, and it was a very positive meeting. He told us that my project will be one of only 6 across the entire company (J&J Pharma sector) that are above the 10MM level, which means that ALL levels of management will be watching its progress. That was the not-so-subtle message to not F*&( it up. :) My IT VP (whom I love) also complimented me highly in that meeting - saying that she's seen my previous work and relationship with our business partners, and feels that I am "the best choice" for running this project successfully. (She was including the Program Manager, C, in this as well, but she definitely meant it for us both).

Anyway, life is good and exciting and fun so far...so I'll be back later when I find time, or something to bitch about, again! :D

and I find it amusing that, even though I'm totally sick of it, every post on my friends page is about...

SNOW!

Well, at least yesterday, DH and I went out geocaching with the girls. Totally fun! I love that hobby, even the frustrating parts of it. :) I also won an auction for a new geocoin last night that I think will be my FTF prize in my first hidden cache. Maybe. Or it might be my personal dipping coin. Not sure yet. :) Its coming from Australia, which is pretty cool! If I like it too much to give up, I'll keep it.

Today, we received a package from the local school district to sign up NJ for kindergarten. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it, because right now I'm just re-angered at the amount of privacy-invading crap they "require" to enroll a child in school. The deed to my house? Which I have to pay to get a copy of? No, sorry. My kids genitalia must be examined by a doctor? (and btw: if she was a he, they'd do that *IN SCHOOL* for him...how nice). And WTF is the reason for having a dental exam? What communicable disease could be spread by bad teeth, may I ask? And don't even get me started on the vaccines...at least we still have the religious exemption option there.

But no, I understand that in our "liberal" society, we must ALL go through this pain, inconvenience, and expense so that "we" don't treat anyone "differently" because they come from a family that doesn't take care of their teeth..because if we can save just one child from cavities, then its worth it to waste millions of dollars on un-necessary doctor and dentist visits to prevent singling that child out in class! *sigh*

Anyway, I guess this at least put the deadline on figuring out what we need to do with NJ in the fall.

"Dear God,
If you're saving someone's life right now, that's ok, I'm just leaving you a voice mail..."

Love,
NJ

Ok, I know. I think a LOT about what I'd write here, and then I never do it.

So, here's my updates for the first half of Jan'09.
First of all, work is actually kinda fun. Running this huge of a project, even without approved funding, is interesting, and I'm learning a lot. These are all good things that keep me motivated to actually do my job.

Second, family is doing just fine. We're in a decent routine of life, and have added a free library program to NJ's schedule that allows her to meet other kids her age that live closer to home. She is still loving her ballet/jazz class, and bugs me every week to get her into the spring showcase even though we've decided not to pay for that this year. (again).

DSS, MI, turned 16 years old this past weekend. It was a calm affair, but still kinda exciting for him. :) We'll be discussing babysitting classes, jobs, driving lessons, etc, in the coming months with him...and it all opens a new world to parenting. :)

NJ lost her second tooth yesterday, while eating Cheerios. "It just popped out!" she told me when I got home from work. :)

I was going to post a recap of how many resolutions I kept or goals I met from 2008, but apparently I didn't write any down last year. :) I know one of them was to get out of debt...and without going into details, we'll just say we missed that one by a mile. :\

I think this year I will try to set goals instead of resolutions. I'm going to keep them simple, and attainable.
1) Improve my relationships with my family. I will try to do this through personal phone calls, but will more likely resort to Facebook and emails. However, I realized this past Christmas that I truly LIKE everyone I'm related to, and without my Nanna to pull us all together, we have to make a better effort of staying in touch. *I* have to. Especially being so far away that I miss out on little weekend visits and trips to the cottage and stuff like that. So my goal is to contact my cousins, aunts and uncles at least once a month.

2) Get on better financial footing. I have to go do some math to figure out exactly what the realistic number will be, but I want to have a bigger Emergency fund saved, and put more towards the principle on my car payment.

Ok, time to get to it. :)

Yes, I'm here, and still not posting very frequently. Sorry.

I'll be back soon to give a good recap of the recent holidays and fun stuff like that.

In the meantime, check out my cute daughter's new hair cut :D

Last night, Daddy stayed home with SA while I took NJ to her first public dance performance. The hall was packed with about 200 parents/family members, and since we were all sitting on a flat floor, anyone past the 3rd row basically couldn't see a danged thing. I was in the 9th row.

NJ was in the 5th or 6th performance. We got to see some pretty decent teenaged ballerinas, some pretty awful singers and piano-players, and some pretty cute preschoolers dancing and singing. NJ's group was the biggest, and she got to be in the front row. She came out and tried so hard to find me in the audience...even putting up her hands into binoculars as if that would help. :D She didn't see me, but then smiled as big as she could anyway and danced her little cute butt all over the place.

We decided (sorta by default since we missed the deadline to pay) to not sign her up for the spring recital again. I think we're going to regret it this year...I don't think we'll be able to hide it from her as well as we did last year. So I am going to try to preview the costume and make her something that looks as close to it as I can. I think she would play "dress up" a lot more if we could provide her with play costumes and props.

Anyway, I was pleased and proud of her, and I wonder now if she'll continue to like dance lessons or what. Guess we'll have to just wait and see!

Today was a day of adventures...

We first tried a new recipe for parmesean breaded chicken, which turned out quite well. We refinanced our mortgage and made a solid comittment to getting completely out of debt in 10 years.

I then gave the girls a bath and had the fun FUN of cleaning up as SA decided to choose right THEN to have her every-3-day poo.

And then half-an-hour later, my eldest lost her first tooth! WOOHOO! She was a bit freaked out...there was a bit of blood, and then she had the moment of "I hate this hole and I miss my tooth!" while she cried a bit. Then she called Grandma and proceeded to talk her ear off like she was high on life! It was quite amusing. :)

Tomorrow is NJ's ballet recital. Somehow this weekend I must get Christmas presents bought/finished.

But for now, I must turn out the lights, get the girls to sleep, and get some rest myself.

G'night all!

Well, I had a great long weekend! It actually started last Tuesday, so it was almost a full week, but still...you get the point. :)

Tuesday morning, I brought my DD NJ to work with me. She had a blast, coming to the cafeteria and getting an icing-covered doughnut for her "second breafkast". (Yes, I spelled that how she says it). She played with my Post-It notes and decorated my cubicle with little tiny pictures and math problems (11-5=6, I *heart* you Mommy, 2 Christmas gifts with hearts all around them, etc...). Then right before lunch we drove over to the Philly airport and picked up my sister. The three of us came back and had lunch in the cafeteria, they played on a laptop while I worked for another hour or so, then we all went home.

We spent the weekend watching movies, eating great food, having visits from DH's family (who all are in Disneyworld right now!), and drinking LOTS. :) We put up the (fake) Christmas tree on Saturday, and Sunday I braved the rain and snow to drive my sis back to the airport to go home. Her flight was *only* delayed an hour, which isn't so bad on the busiest travel day of the year, I guess!

NJ also sprouted a fever Sunday, which spiked to near 104 degrees. She spent the day on the couch, and had a pretty bad night's sleep. She woke up this morning as cool as a cucumber and feeling great. I only wish I could get over a cold that quickly!

So far, SA seems to be fine. DH had a bit of a stomach "thing" going on this weekend, too. I haven't got any symptoms yet, but I'm sure I'll be sick by the end of the week too.

Just 3 more weeks til Christmas break!!

This was a weekend of ups and downs for me as NJ's Mommy. It all started Friday night (I think?) when we had Chicken Fricassee for dinner. NJ decided she suddenly doesn't LIKE Chicken Fricassee. We have eaten it probably 100 times, no exaggeration, and I think this was yet another Battle in the War of Food in our house. (Every so often she likes to see how much she can get away with *not* eating for dinner).

So DH decided we were going to win this battle by making NJ stay at the table until her plate was empty. Flashbacks were running through my own mind, of me at age 5 sitting at the table in that horrid kitchen, with a bowl of stew in front of me. I knew that I wasn't going to eat it. I knew I'd go straight to bed after sitting there all night, alone. And I knew that NJ was thinking the exact same things. (For the record, that night didn't make me eat my stew the next time we had it, either.)

Finally, after about an hour at the table after everyone else had left, NJ announces that her plate was empty. Sure enough, it was. First thing I did was check the dog's food dish, and then the trash can. There was some CF on top of the trash, but I thought it was the stuff I had dumped off of SA's plate earlier. I asked NJ if she had thrown out her food. She said no. She promised me she didn't. She even *pinky swore* it. And I believed her.

Last night, we had the rest of the CF leftovers for dinner again. I brought up the fact that she probably didn't want to have another fight over dinner...and just as I was about to say "so eat it this time", she confessed that she had, in fact, thrown her dinner in the trash on Friday.

I was shocked. I was so hurt. I honestly had my trust in my daughter shattered just then. Maybe I was naive to believe her, but I honestly she's five and has never lied to me before, so I had no reason to suspect her. I cried at the dinner table last night. She went to bed right after supper last night (which she ate without complaint), and didn't even argue with us for that punishment. I think she realizes she got off pretty light with that. I only hope that her seeing what she did to us made her realize how bad a thing lying is, because I don't want to have to follow through on the promise I made - that the punshiment for lying will be worse than the punishment she was trying to avoid with a lie.

Between all this drama, we spent a few minutes writing her letter to Santa. I'm pretty proud of the results! Keep in mind, I only had to help her spell "please", "cycle" "skateboard", "talk" and "kitchen". The rest she already knew, figured out or looked up by herself.

( NJ's letter to Santa, 2008 )

Today you turn FIVE years old. Somehow in my brain, this is the crossing point between having a little girl, and having a big girl. You are not a toddler or preschooler any more, and you certainly don't behave like one (most of the time). I am so proud of how you are growing up. Even your bad points aren't really that bad. I mean, you don't eat very well, but what kid doesn't go through THAT phase? Heck, there are times I don't eat very well either. You still fight with us when you don't want to do what we say. Again, not really a huge deal, since that is less than 50% of the time. Your other biggest transgressions? You bite your nails, and you continue to run through the house even after telling you at least 10 zillion times not to. *shrug* Oh well, at least you're not setting your sister on fire or trying to drown the cats. :)

Your favorite thing right now is knock-knock jokes. Thank goodness we found a book of them for you to memorize, because your attempts at making them up were so not funny it was pathetic. However, even after hearing the same joke more than twice gets old. We try to laugh anyway, because it is just so darned amusing to see how funny *you* think it is.

Your other favorite thing is coming up to Daddy and me and saying "I'm bored, can you think of something fun for me to do?". While I really wish you could think of your OWN fun things, in general I don't mind helping you come up with something fun. :) At least it helps you get your "fun things to do" list longer than "watch tv, play on the computer".

I hope you have a fun day at home today while I'm at work. Tonight will be pretty low key, since we already had two seperate birthday parties for you this past weekend. I hope you are not disappointed, but I will make sure you get a slice of cake today, just because you should always eat cake on your birthday! :D

In the past five years, you have changed so much that I cannot even articulate it properly. From a cute, squalling baby, to a funny inquisitive toddler, to a bright and fun little girl, and I've loved you every moment of these years. I look forward to watching you grow more, and loving you for the rest of my life!

Happy Birthday, sweety!
Love,
Mommy

Driving on the twisty back roads to NJ's Acro class last night, I passed a house with one of those green turtle-shaped sandboxes on the edge of the lawn. It was empty. I thought "hmmm".

On our way home, we stopped and rang the doorbell. I asked the kind gentlemen if by chance he was getting rid of it. He said "its yours if you want it".

YIPEE!!!

I've been trying to get a sandbox set up for NJ all summer, just not finding a good deal on one I liked. Well, I can't beat "free" for exactly what I was planning on buying!

Now I just need to get play sand to fill it, and we'll be in castle-building heaven. :)

We finally got some progress made on the patio yesterday. I started off by dumping the weeds I had already pulled up over at the community compost pile, and then coming home to take care of shopping and errands. While DH waited for his latest wood project to glue up, he helped me out with lifting up the heavy slate pieces, and we got much further together than I would have alone.

If you want to see how horrible it looked before and how far we've gotten, ( check the pictures behind the cut. )

My back, legs, and arms are very very sore. :P

-------------
So, we're off to our second of two "usual" SCA events (East Kingdom War Camp)for this year on Friday. The landscaper is due to come Tuesday next week, almost right after getting home from EKWC, and then the next weekend, DH takes off for Pennsic. The girls and I follow the weekend after that. So, with no free weekends at all, today and this week I must get a lot done.
First, this patio has to be ready for the landscaper to work on it.
2nd, all family garb has to be ready for Pennsic, DH's first. Though I technically have 2 weeks to finish it, that isn't as much time as it sounds like. At the same time, I'm also supposed to be making at least 3 new dresses for SA, and seat cushions for our new fancy medieval chairs that my sweety has made for us. However, I'm putting those on low priority because we didn't really have a huge need for them at the last event.
I have 2 birthdays to shop for...no, wait, make that three...and two more immediately after we get home from Pennsic.
NJ has her Acro classes (1 hour each on Tuesdays...I could take hand stitching along, if SA doesn't get into too much trouble in the waiting room).
We'll need to re-pack most of our camping stuff since we now have new things to add to the pile. This has to be done twice...once this Thursday, then again to sort out what DH is taking to Pennsic and what I'll bring when the girls and I follow him.
And there's still the usual "running of the house" stuff...cooking, cleaning, playing with the girls, mowing the lawn, trying to keep the strawberries contained within their bed, etc, etc, etc. Oh, and did I mention I have a full-time job, too?? :D I get tired just thinking about it all!!

Honestly, though, I can't wait for my vacation. I always look forward to SCA events because it is one place I get to take the day at the pace I want...I don't have to be anywhere at any specific time. I can relax knowing my girls are playing with some of the greatest kids I've ever known, and I get to hang out with some of the greatest adults I've ever known. I get to forget that computers and workplace politics exist. I can forget about my messy house and weed-filled gardens. I just get to be ME and enjoy it. It sounds like a lot of work to prep for them, but SCA events to me are a true vacation, so its worth it. Besides, I love to sew, so that part isn't even really "work", just an excuse ;)

--------------------

Before I forget to write it down somewhere, SA has started to *ask* to walk places now. She still has to hold onto someone's fingers, but she's doing a lot more self-balancing than even last week. She's cruising on her own at full speed now, and has figured out that the CD's come out of the shelves in the LR...which means that room is no longer as "child proof" as it was. Darn! LOL

Ok, sun has peaked over the trees, which means its getting stinkin hot out there already. Time to get moving!

Hi Internet friends!

NJ's K12 curriculum arrived two nights ago, and we have already begun her first lesson (Science, by her request) today. In so doing, I'm reminded that we did NOT buy the "optional" additions to the kits, which contain a bunch of books. They are awesome books that I would love for my child to own, but I don't need Brand Spanking New copies.

So, if anyone out there has used copies of these books they are willing to part with, please let me know! I will reimburse you shipping costs if necessary. :) Alternatively, if you see these books at yard sales, or wish to get them for NJ as an early birthday gift, we'd be happy to take them that way too. (BTW: Each book title links to the book on Amazon.com so you can see the cover and know what we're looking for)

Thanks!

A Chair for My Mother


A Story A Story


Blueberries for Sal


Caps for Sale


Make Way for Ducklings


Millions of Cats


The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit


The Ox-Cart Man


The Snowy Day


The Velveteen Rabbit


Tikki Tikki Tembo


Tom Thumb


What's Alive?


Animals in Winter


The Big Dipper


My Five Senses

To make a long story short, we've been looking into buying the K-12 curriculum to home-school NJ on our own. So we made her take the placement tests so we would know what level to get her started at.

Results: Language arts: Kindergarten level
Math: Level 1, semester 2

*boggle*

Keep in mind, she's only 4.5 years old, has never had formal schooling, and wouldn't be "allowed" to even START kindergarten in this school district until Sept 2009 (2 weeks before she turns 6 years old).

Well at least now I feel completely and utterly justified in my belief that she can start school _this_ fall, and I'm not putting her abilities in a mother-induced limelight.

*beam*

I don't know if I'm ashamed to admit this or not, but I went out and bought myself a Webkinz Love Frog today.

I'm actually excited about getting to play with it. :)

Where did this come from? MY Mom, bought NJ a Webkinz pet Frog for Christmas. We have played with that thing every day since. DH and I do more playing than NJ, since many of the games to earn Kinzcash are a bit too advanced for her. However, SHE does all the care of the pet, and shopping. :)

It's now a family fun thing, all done online. We probably should just shut off the darned computer and go play a game together...but at least I can do this from work with her. ;)

Or, How To Make A Grown Woman Cry At Work.

Just got this in my inbox:

Dear Mommy,

Please come home soon, because I miss you.

Love N.

*sniff*

I miss her too!!!

"Deck the halls with bales of holly..."

"On the first day of Christmas, a tuna said to me..."

Tell me why...

on a holiday weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday my oldest DD woke up at 7:10AM each day.

But on Monday morning, when I have to wake up early to work anyway, SHE slept until 8:45???

*sigh*