an efficient use of your time

Test your vocabulary and help end world hunger at the same time. Try it. You'll like it.

concentration

I'm in the laundry room loading clothes from one machine to the other when suddenly I look down to realize I have just put all of my wet darks back into the washing machine from the dryer. At what point did I switch from loading to unloading the dryer, I know not. What I can tell you is this: it could be a long day.

I'm thankful

Each year I make a list of everything I can think of that I'm thankful for. Okay, I actually didn't get around to it last year and I don't know about this year either, but I have done it in years past and it's a fun exercise. I list everything from my family to grape juice, my faith to a good notebook with an accompanying pen. It's all about the big and the small and I enjoy chronicling all of it. It helps me recognize things I really am grateful for on every level.

This year of course I would list my family, which includes my own family and the one I grew up in. They really are what makes my life. Last night almost all of my siblings piled onto the couch at my parent's home to watch Little Women. We laughed, we cried. We groaned at the end, because none of us is very fond of the ending (the resolution is fine and good, it's just the way they executed it - it could've been better). The party was a lot of fun.

Next I would say that as far as frivolous goes, I am in love with the grapefruit Izzy (a carbonated fruit juice beverage, yum) and would just be thrilled fushia if Santa dropped some of those off by my stocking in a month or so. I'm trying to cut down on my "splurging on the Izzy, just today." But I really like that little drink right now and it is on my list.

Last but not least on this mini-list of thanksgiving and gratitude is this little world of blogging. I enjoy the writing. I enjoy the reading. I love getting comments and giving comments. I have been without consistent internet at home, so I squeeze it in when I can and plan on getting "online" for real in a few weeks, so I can get back into a rhythm. But readers, and writers, I am thankful for this little hobby that lets me connect with you.

Happy Thanksgiving. I hope your blessings big and small are actually too numerous to list.

It's that time of year!

It's been a week and a half since Halloween and Ben takes my daughter, still welded to her kitty-cat costume, to the grocery store, where Santa Claus is merrily greeting the customers.

Thanksgiving must be just around the corner.

In which I think about becoming a cook

My daughter's birthday was on Saturday. She turned four. Which is kind of funny, because in truth, I feel like she's been four for at least six months now. Actually, I always feel that way when her birthday comes around. She has a way of seeming older than she is, and her intellect is certainly up to it. Then again, she throws in a few moments of "younger than" as well, to make up for it I'm sure. In any case, birthdays mean birthday cake. And we needed to make one!

I'm trying to stick to a budget and so in the grand tradition of trying to save a little moolah here and there, I decided to make the cake from scratch myself. Also, the frosting. (Whoa! Don't go too crazy, Allysha!) So I did. With ample help from Ben. Actually, I was probably more of the cake assistant, but it was a cake with frosting all made from ingredients in our kitchen! The frosting required a little bit of cooking, even. But it was easy.

It turned out pretty good. The cake was little bit dry from being in the oven a few extra minutes, but the frosting was great. A chocolate truffle frosting made largely from cream. Yummy. And we had some extra frosting, so we homemade some cupcakes as well. They were not bad. But I think the bug has bitten. Ben and I are curious as to how we can better our cake making skills. Or is that skillz? I'll let you know how it goes, if it goes!

I didn't shave my legs, but I did paint my toenails!

Sometimes you just have to make it about the little things. Like today, for instance: My neighbor complimented the shirt I was wearing, and I confessed that because I hadn't gotten around to taking a shower this morning, I decided to wear something more than just a T-shirt, to make up for it. I can say this to my neighbor because we often greet each other in our PJ pants (or the equivalent) in the middle of the day when I go out to pick up my mail or take out the garbage. I like this about her. I like that one day her daughter came over to play. In her nightgown. Not that she constantly sends her children out into the world dressed like it's a slumber party. But she knows that there are Those Days. She doesn't sweat them. It's a good quality to have in a next door neighbor. It's a quality I emulate well, I think.

it's about Time

What I used to love about changing from Daylight Savings Time back to ‘Regular’ time was the extra hour gained. For a week or so, I could feel like I was sleeping in every morning. Sadly, that changed when I had children old enough to sleep in their own beds.

Time is not something children understand. They refuse to be governed by it, and they flaunt their ability to be wholly unattached to the hands of the clock, mostly by refusing to stay in bed an hour later in the morning after the time changes. So much for sleeping in. What you end up with is a child standing at your bed at 6 a.m. demanding breakfast.

Of course, sometime in between jr. high and high school this will change. The “Fall Back” will come to mean something important to them. At least at an intellectual level, because children like to make up for the lack of sleeping-in done in their early years with an over-abundance of sleeping-in during their adolescent years. Time change or no time change, every day is a new opportunity to sleep late. This fact of life does not comfort me.

There are a few logistical matters to take care of with a time change. I still need to change the clock in our bathroom. We changed the clock in the kitchen right away so we wouldn’t be late, or early I guess (yea, fat chance), to church on Sunday. And actually, there are a few of our clocks still on Eastern Daylight Time. Yes. I know. I have a tendency towards nostalgia and sentimentality and despite the stories I could tell you of busy mom trying to get her house unpacked and ordered, it’s a little bit embarrassing, and may be a wee bit pathetic. But I will tell you nothing, if not the Truth.

Our cell phones access some almighty satellite in the sky that Knows, so they are always in the right time zone. Ben changed our alarm clock a few weeks ago from EDT, because he was tired of calculating when exactly he needed to wake up. “Let’s see. Five-thirty a.m. in Utah is seven-thirty in New York. It says eleven o’clock right now, and that means the majority of people here think it’s nine – bed time in an hour and a half, that gives me seven hours of sleep. Good deal.” I personally don’t see what the problem was but then again, I’m not the one getting up before 6 a.m. I mean, I wasn’t, until this past Sunday. Anyway, the alarm clock was changed and changed again.

So now’s the time. As long as I’m changing the time on my clocks, I may as well situate everybody here, well and good, in Mountain Standard time. At least most of my clocks. For a few months.

sound off - a rose by any other name

So here is a question for all you bloggers w/ children: do you use their real names? Why or why not? I've been weighing pros and cons for awhile and haven't made a decision. (I'm either really slow, or very busy- maybe both.)

I'd love to use my kids nick-names, if they had any. But they don't and I'm pretty attached to their real names. I mean, I named them what I named them for a reason. And I want to use names for my kids here, because when you get three daughters and a son, it's time to identify them by more than age and gender. But I don't know about sending out their little identities unprotected into cyberspace.

Let me know what you think. If you do use your kids real names, but don't want people to necessarily know that, sign in with a different name or as annonymous so others can't link back to your blog.

Thanks! Happy Weekend!

I like Thursdays

...because the week is almost over, the extra-curricular activities have all been accounted for, and the weekend is just around the corner. I like Thursday because it's a good day to take stock of what you've done and what's coming up. It's a day when you can have a little bit of chocolate just because. Maybe because you walked an extra block this morning. Or maybe because it was a day to skip the walking because you did a lot of walking last night. You called it "trick-or-treating." (Hence the ready availability of chocolate). Thursdays are like odd numbers. They just are nice to have around or to be. Or maybe like carameled apples, where the caramel isn't too sticky and the apple isn't too sour or too sweet. Thursday just is. And I really like Thursday.

This Thursday is especially nice. For one thing, it's November first and Halloween is OVER. I love November and I have been pretty bah-humbuggy about Halloween this year. I didn't want to participate. I'm working on keeping to a budget, so I didn't want to spend any money on contributing to the collective neighborhood cavity count. The prospect of visiting the non-descript architecture they call houses here, in the cold and dark, was not inspiring. Last year we trick-or-treated on Dante Avenue. It's hard to beat that.

There is a little tradition around here where during the month of October, treats are delivered anonymously to people. The treat comes with a little paper ghost to put in your window, indicating that you have been cheerfully spooked, but not before you make copies of the ghost so that you can continue the tradition.

But really, I wasn't in the mood to run away after ringing someone's doorbell, cackling like a witch over her brewing potion. I did made a few treats and even delivered them. In person. Without the little ghost. I didn't want to pass on the responsibility. I did, after a few days, put my own ghost in my window, so that we wouldn't get treated a second time. (I'm noble like that.)

The girls have been asking why we have Halloween. Hmmm. Because of the commercial dividends paid to the candy makers and distributors? They had a blast dressing up (including the few days before Halloween- let's get some use out of those costumes!) and they enjoyed going out with Ben. My little boy was a sweet cowboy in a costume that cost nothing (hooray for that budget!) and now I'm ready for some real holidays. And, as always, regular Thursdays welcome at any time.