Poison, Bike, Trailer... Christmas!

I'm going to sum up my week with two words: Food poisoning.

To be fair, I actually contracted the food poisoning Thursday and started feeling ill in the afternoon, so really those two words only sum up the last two days. But they've been two very long and painful days, and I feel like it's been wrecking me for the whole week. If you've ever had food poisoning I'm sure you understand. The worst part is, I shared some of my lunch on Thursday with the baby, so I think she's been feeling sick too. Cranky, not sleeping well, not eating well, poop problems... poor kid. As if she didn't have enough troubles, what with being a baby and all.

Here's a picture of my bicycle (it's not my my bicycle, it's just the same make and model):

My bicycle is overdue for a tune-up, so I took it down to the bike shop yesterday. I was kinda forced to do it because I loosened (and couldn't seem to fix) the back brake in the process of putting on a new rear fender. Since I'm only going to be in the office one day next week, I figured this was a good window of time to get the tune up (okay yeah, and get the brake tightened and get the fender adjusted, since I screwed them up).

The bike shop owner put my bike on the rack to check things out. Turns out I've got a worn down something-er-rather and a loose something else, and a thing that's bent, and I could probably use thicker brake pads. Plus some other stuff that was totally optional but would be nice to fix. I don't even remember all the things the store owner listed, but I've noticed problems/challenges with all the stuff he mentioned, and I agree that it would make for much better cycling if I got it fixed. But by the time you add up the stuff that has to get done and everything that could possibly be improved, the total cost is about what my old bike is worth if I sell it.


I've actually been thinking about buying a new bike anyway, I tell the guy. Well now he gets excited -- which in this case means he went from a 1 on the Enthusiasm Meter to a 2; not really much change but perceivable on so dry a character -- and starts showing me some different options. At first he lists a few things that make sense to me, like a lighter frame, easier shifting, certain parts that are reinforced against damage, and standard sized wheels (because my bike is old, my current wheels are a wacky, non-standard size). Then he starts getting into nuances, listing all kinds of little details that don't mean anything to me, and when I ask what he means he launches into the nuances of the nuances. Are you getting a headache yet? I was. I was at the point where I just wanted him to stop talking and let me leave. TMI. Props for knowing his stuff, but yeesh.

I'm not ready to buy a new bike, and certainly not ready to drop the kind of money he's suggesting for "something that will last me 10, 15, 20 years." I'm only at the very beginning phase of buying, where I'm thinking about maybe buying something and I want to get some ideas. (I get this purchasing caution and patience from my awesome mother, bless her.)

So maybe in the next year I will get a new bike. Or maybe I'll just spend a whole lot less money and do some major improvements on my current bike. We'll just have to wait and see; I've got enough to worry about for now. I'm not even going to give it another thought until after the new year.

One of the other things on my mind is still bike related: Trailers. If you recall, this summer my mom bought us a used Burley Bee trailer for my bike. It has been such a blast to haul my daughter in it, and such a blessing since I commute via bike. But I've had some issues with the tires on the trailer... let's just be generous and say that they are very sensitive tired. After several frustrating experiences, I have decided that I am going to buy a brand new trailer. (I will resell the old one in the spring, hopefully for the same amount my mom paid.) I want to stick with the Burley brand, but move up to either the Encore (larger; see picture at left) or Cub (larger and burlier) model.

This story could get very long if I go into all the details, so I won't. Here's the short of it: The Cub (pictured below) has a hard plastic bottom, the Encore has a fabric bottom. This means the Cub is more durable and water proof, but it's also quite a bit heavier. I was really worried that the extra weight would be too much. After all, the uphills coming home from work are pretty brutal. But I love that the Cub is sturdier and built all-around to handle the harsh weather.

So I ordered the Cub, thinking I would take it for a test ride and send it back if it was too heavy. I've actually taken it out for two test rides... surprised myself when the extra weight really wasn't that much harder. But remember how the Cub is supposed to have a bunch of extra weather proofing? I got it home from the second ride, which I deliberately made on a rainy afternoon, and it was pretty wet inside the trailer. There are a couple of "vents" that allow water to enter the trailer. My daughter's socks were wet. Her blanket was damp. Yuck.

So what do I do? I don't know. Maybe the Encore is the better choice, since it doesn't have the water-allowing vents. I'll have to stew on it; more on this later.

Let's move on to...Christmas. It's just a couple of days away. I wrapped presents yesterday and today. Why did I get so many little things for my kid? She doesn't care. She'd rather I just slide the new books right onto her bookshelf, slip the jammies in her drawer, and drop the big yellow airplane in the bathtub. I guess I got them so I can enjoy watching her unwrap stuff. So hopefully she'll want to unwrap stuff!

I got Nate a new tool for Christmas. We decided that we want to use Christmas gifts as an opportunity to buy each other things that will be beneficial to the family. We figured that birthdays are a good time to be selfish, and we each have a monthly allowance if we want to get a toy, so why not put this gift-giving occasion to better use? Nate got me kitchen stuff, although I don't know exactly what.

Next year I think we're going to do Christmas differently. I would like to really focus on making Christ the center of Christmas. I don't know how to do that, I'm not really sure what that even means for us, but I know there's going to be a lot less of the worrying and working and frustration I've felt the last few years. More acts of service, more time with people we love, more time talking about the Savior... fewer presents, less shopping, no worrying about decorations and to-do lists. There's my outline; I'll figure out the specifics sometimes next autumn.

I took the last three days off work. Glorious. I'm off Monday and Tuesday, too, so that's a whole week away from the desk job. I almost never take time off (I haven't really been able to anyway); it's weird but nice to have some staycation time. Of course all of it went to running errands, housework, and rolling on the floor clutching my aching tummy.... it wasn't exactly a fun and relaxing time. Still, I suppose it's better than being in the cubicle.


I'm not sure how to end this somewhat random round of updates. Next week's post should be really good, though -- a recap on the year, whether I met my goals, highs and lows, and some deep thoughts. Check in with me again if you have time!


Until then, may your holidays be safe, fun, and filled with joy.

Interviews are over, went well (plus a few pictures)

You probably noticed that I didn't blog last week. It has certainly been on my mind, it's just been a busy time between recovering from sickness and interviewing for the new job...

As I mentioned in my post two weeks ago, I applied for a promotion at work and was then invited to the first round of interviews for said promotion. The interview took place last Wednesday (12/5). Many long hours were devoted to preparing for the interview -- researching possible questions, writing down responses, practicing what I would say, etc. I'm a bit of a nervous public speaker, and not just formal presentations, but really any kind of speaking up in group settings is outside my comfort zone. (I'm working to get better about this.)

On Monday (12/10) I was invited to participate in the second (and final) round of interviews. These took place yesterday, Friday (12/14) in the morning. I had the delightful (sarcasm) time slot of 8am. My very supportive and all-around awesome mom was at our house by 7am to take the baby and let me scoot out the door.

I feel like the second round went really well. I did my best, was fairly comfortable, and gave solid, honest answers to all of the questions. (It helps that we got all of the questions in advance, so we had a couple of days to gather our thoughts.) That said, I really have no idea if I will get the promotion. The other two candidates in the second round are also brilliant, fully qualified individuals. Either of them would also be great at the job. So really it comes down to what the managers and what they want, which of our skill sets they think is best suited to the position.

I know it's strange to say, but no matter how it comes out, I'll be content with the results. If I get the promotion, yay me, I will get to do some new (and much, much cooler) things, travel a little bit more, learn a lot of new stuff, and okay, a little bit more money. But it will also mean working quite a bit harder, sometimes putting in a few more hours, and having to be away from the family a little bit more. So if I don't get it, I retain more flexibility, I won't have quite as much work-related weight on my shoulders, and I can keep doing my relatively easy job. Win, win... right?

The difficult thing is that we have to wait 2-3 weeks before we get an answer. Schedules are really crazy during the holidays with people on vacation at different times, so the hiring manager is just going to wait until everyone is back in the office before getting the paperwork started and letting us know. It's hard to be patient, but anxiety won't do any good, so I'm just taking some deep breaths and putting it out of my mind. Or, well, I'm trying to!

THAT SAID, what else is new? Hmm....

Christmas is coming, of course. We have a stack of presents under the tree, but none of them have been wrapped yet. I'm really not feeling at all festive this year. No holiday spirit. It's not for lack of wanting; I'd certainly like to be decking the halls and humming happy tunes. But Baby Girl really likes to attack the Christmas decorations (she's destroyed a couple of ornaments already), and I can't help but think about how much effort it all takes. Effort that I just have to undo in a couple of weeks... as if we don't already have enough to do. So, I don't know, I guess maybe next year we'll be better about it. Right now I just don't see the point. (Sorry, that's not the most uplifting paragraph.)

My daughter is now 18 months old. Pretty neat. I have to go write her monthly "birthday" letter so I'm actually going to wrap this up. Here are some pictures from the last week...

Fell asleep in the truck on the way to Grandma's house last weekend (she never sleeps in the car, so this was kinda amazing):

Eating lunch at grandma's house (notice the towel used as a bib):

With grandma (and yes, this is the best of the 10+ pictures I took of the two of them):

Sitting around and eating some puffs, in what has got to be the most awkward position ever:

Parenting is such messy business (and other goodies)

Prior to having a child, I never knew, never even imagined, some of the things I would have to do as a parent. It's an unexpected and surprisingly disgusting journey. Today I got to experience five of those wonderful (sarcastic) new things; I share them with you for your amusement:

1. Sniff someone else's bottom (to check for poop)
2. Forcibly brush someone else's teeth
3. Read someone a story while I'm going to the bathroom
4. Catch vomit with my bare hand(s)
5. Use random noises and gestures because my brain is so tired that I can't form real words

I think I'm supposed to be able to make another list of the truly wonderful (not sarcastic) things that I never expected about parenting. Things like the thrill of being called mama or the smile-erupting joy of watching my daughter toddle around. There are, after all, a lot of upsides to being a mom. But since it was a diarrhetic, triple poop, vomit catching, five-hours-of sleep kind of day, I'm really not in a happy-sunshine, I-love-being-a-mom mood. Although I am feeling a tad more sympathetic to and grateful for my own mother these days. (Thanks mom.)

That said, I've got about ten minutes until I need to shut down my computer and call it a night. So I think I'll try to bullet point out the highlights from this week:

- Remember my friend who watches my daughter a couple of times a week? She moved last week. The difference is only about a mile, but it's a mile of steep downhills (from here to there) and makes for a totally different trip to work. Instead of going to her house, back to my house, and then on to the office, I have to go straight from her house to the office. On a very different, less safe route. I'm not thrilled. I don't at all mind the little bit of extra time or distance (I like that I'm getting a bit more and more challenging exercise), but there are a couple sections of road with no shoulder and crazy drivers. I love to bike. I don't like worrying about my safety when I'm doing it. Thankfully I traverse only a very small section of bad road with my daughter. Then there's the long uphill ride at the end of the day to get us home.... brutal. I did it twice this week; both times I had to stop and walk for a section of the hill because I don't have the cardiovascular strength for it. We'll get there.

(^^^So much for a brief bullet point. Sheesh.)

- Remember how I applied for a promotion recently? This coming week, I have an interview for the position. It's the first round of interviews; there will be two rounds. I feel confident that I can make it through the first round. It's the second round that's going to be the most challenging. But one thing a time! This week's goal is to knock one out of the park for Round 1.

- A lot of banks these days have an e-deposit program for checks. If you have a smart phone, you can take a picture of your check, send it to the bank, and it will be deposited. Amazing! My bank has this program. Unfortunately, we don't have smart phones, so I still have to go to the bank branch when I get a check. (Actually, let's be honest, my mom has been depositing most of my checks for me. Have I mentioned lately that she's awesome?) So speaking of my awesome mom, she pointed out to me this week that I can actually use the document scanner on my home printer/copier/scanner to do the same thing! I can scan the check, log into my bank account on my computer, and e-deposit. I tried it out on Tuesday and it was incredibly easy. Yay!

- Nate took down the autumn/Thanksgiving decorations yesterday. We got out our lights this morning and put them up. (But I just remembered, we forgot to turn them on! Ha!) I'm not going to rush into the Christmas decorations, but I am happy we're getting started a little earlier this year. I think maybe it will help me get into the Christmas spirit. Hopefully I can get my shopping done really early, too, and then I can just kick back for the rest of the month. Amazon is definitely going to receive the bulk of my transactions. I do not like holiday traffic on the roads and crowds of people in the stores. Makes me claustrophobic.

- Cooking. There's a lot I want to say about cooking but I have only one minute left before I need to wrap things up. Oh well, I'm just gong to go over time...

Remember my friend Kimmy who is oh-so amazing? She made some pea pesto this summer and gave me a  batch. It was delicious. I finally got a chance this week to try the recipe myself and it turned out yummy! It's really easy, too. I added 1 cup of cooked quinoa to a triple batch of the pesto so that it would have protein and thus be a "one stop" dish. I cooked the quinoa in chicken broth, which I think helped preserve the good flavor. I also made Moroccan Tofu this week, which is a variation of Nate's "famous" Moroccan chicken recipe. It turned out well. Surprisingly tasty. And my rice-and-quinoa stuffed bell peppers were so good that even after several bites, Nate hadn't noticed they were meatless. ("Wait, there's not any meat in this? Really?") Maybe just maybe my vegetarian ambitions will come true.

This coming week I'm going to make some tofu pad Thai. Nate scowled at me several times already ("I want chicken pad Thai!") but if it goes as well as the Moroccan tofu, he'll hardly notice. Let's all cross our fingers.

Finally, if you're mouth isn't watering yet: cranberry orange muffins. I want these, have been thinking about them all day. I'll have to print the recipe and get the ingredients next weekend... unless someone wants to show up at my door with a bag of groceries? I'll make the muffins and give you some in exchange? Anybody?

Thanksgiving and the Chicken Coop

Thanksgiving was this week. That makes me feel obligated to talk about all the good food we made and how much we loved seeing our families, or maybe gripe about the insanity of early-morning Black Friday...

But the thing is, we got our chickens today! I'm on an emotional high from having sorta finished the coop, so I feel more like talking about chickens than about turkey.

I will try to reign in my enthusiasm long enough to talk about things that happened, gasp, two whole days ago! Thanksgiving! It's funny that I could be so excited about it for weeks but completely over it the next day. Life is so short and so fast sometimes...

Here's our beautifully set table for Turkey Day:

I was happy that I had an excuse to use the fine china and silverware, and the pretty glasses. Nate was kind enough to do some decorating last weekend (clearly I just wasn't going to make time for it) so we actually had some leaves, pumpkins, and my "Pioneer People" set up. I think I'm going to leave them up through this week, just so I can enjoy them a little longer. Besides, it feels too early to start doing Christmas things. There's still a whole week of November left! A whole week for pumpkins and pioneers!

I didn't have time to photograph the food spread before we dug in. It was standard fare (mashed potatoes, carrots and green beans, cinnamon-pineapple yams, rolls, stuffing, turkey, gravy; salad, ham, and apple pie from the PILs; pumpkin cheesecake). The baby loved eating carrots, green beans, and turkey. We've been chowing on leftovers the last couple of days.

After a full morning of cooking, we enjoyed our feast at about noon. Then the baby went down for a nap, the grownups had dessert, we cleaned up, and the PILs went home. Nate and I alternately worked on the chicken coop. When Baby Girl woke up, we hopped in the car and went to see my family for the latter part of their festivities. We got to spend a couple of hours with my side of the family, so it was a wonderfully well-rounded day!

The next day, a bit of early morning Black Friday. (Why do I do this to myself?) We tried the craft store, it was crazy busy and a bit disappointing, so we just got a couple of things and then went on to Freddy's. Sock sale! I think Fred Meyer's has to be the nicest place to go Black Fridaying; the other shoppers are relatively nice, the staff is friendly; there's free coffee and donuts; and the socks! They are all half price. It's really the only reason my mom goes out, I think. I also got a few extra things for Darling, since the prices were decent.

The rest of Friday was spent finishing up the chicken coop. Actually, that's been the focus of any and all free time during the last week. Evenings, afternoons -- any time we had a few minutes, it went to the coop.

Now I know I said we brought home chickens today, but I want to make it very clear that the shed is not completely done. As I mentioned in my October Recap post, I can't finish painting it until it the weather is sufficiently dry and warm (i.e. not until this spring), so there's a lot of painting yet to be done. We also need to add the rain gutter and hook it up to the rain barrel. Nate is less concerned about this task, but it's still high on my list! I didn't paint that rain barrel and schleck around in the mud to build it level foundation just for looks! Also, on the inside of the coop, we (Nate) would like to build a bit of shelving and storage space.

Finishing up the electrical work was a lot of fun. When you get to the home stretch and everything is coming together, it really is great. Very rewarding. When I got to turn on the breaker, flip the light switch, and go out to see the light shining brightly (and not electrocute myself, start a fire, or destroy anything in the process), I let out a whoop of joy. It gives me a bit of encouragement and motivation to work on the basement.

With that, here are some pictures...

The outside of the coop (needs more painting!)

The inside (you can see the light I wired and installed, upper right corner of this pic):

These are our chickens (Bitsy Crowing and Doreen LeWing):

The side/back of the coop, with a view of the chicken run:

Before-and-After Pictures of the back of the shed:

I'll share the before-and-after of the other side when it's actually all done... in the spring.

And then she walked! (Plus other updates and a bunch of pictures)

Years from now when my daughter asks me, "When did I start walking?"
I will tell her, "November 10, 2012."

We went to visit my parents last week at their new house (it was Nate's first time up there). As soon as we stepped in the door and I set Baby Girl down so that I could take off my shoes... and she toddled away from me, across the room.

Up to that point in time, my daughter's walking was pretty limited. She'd use furniture and other objects to help herself stand and walk, and she would sometimes take two or three steps on her own. One time I even saw her take about six unassisted steps. But mostly, she wasn't interested.

Not until the magic of Grandma's House intervened. A magic spell was cast when we walked in the door, and now my daughter is walking. She still crawls a bit, especially if she falls down while walking, but for the most part she is just toddling around as though it were the most normal thing ever.

I LOVE IT.

A lot of people tried to tell me that walking wasn't going to be much fun. They said she would get into everything and run away all the time, and that she would be too fast. I think these people must not have waited for seventeen months to see their children walk. To date, of all the things my daughter has learned to do, this is my very most favorite. It is amazing and adorable! I don't miss crawling. She's too big and too old to crawl, and created plenty of its own worries and nuisances. Bring on the walking! Heck, bring on the running!!! I love new adventures and challenges.

The next day, on Sunday, our very good friends who live an hour south (in our college town) came to visit. You might remember them from previous blog posts -- Nathan and Kimmy, whose son "Little" is nearly the same age as our daughter. We made them dinner and Kimmy took some pictures of me making my beloved new treat, pumpkin cremes! Kimmy has a food blog and wanted me to write a guest post. I was/am totally flattered! But since I'm not a great photographer, I convinced her to come and take the pictures. You can check out the post, pictures, and recipe on the Bake Shop's blog, www.kimmysbakeshop.com (here's the direct link).

Monday was a day off work (Vet's Day, belated) so we were all home and having fun. We went to see Nate's dad and then worked a bit on the chicken coop. (More on the coop in a minute.) I finally finished my edits to Queen Witch, J.R. Pearse Nelson's latest work. I sent them along and final revisions are underway. I am grateful and pleased to have participated in the writing process for such an inspiring, self-published author! The new book should be out by the end of the month. Do you want a copy? I'm going to order some extra prints to give away; just let me know.

There's a job opening at work that has me very excited. It's for the Senior Analyst position, which is one step up in pay and about five steps up in awesome from my current job. The position came open two years ago and I very much wanted to apply, but after many long deliberations, I decided the timing wasn't right. For one thing, I was four months pregnant with daughter so I knew I would be out of the office (parental leave) during a critical workload period. In the end I applied for a promotion to my current position, and I am very happy about the route I took. I've gained great experience in my job, and developed leadership skills that will be invaluable if I'm promoted again. It also gave me time to better understand and appreciate the workload of the Senior Analyst.

Now, I don't know whether I will be the top candidate. I'm a strong contender, but several smart, capable people are applying. I do know now that I am very seriously interested in the job, and I feel ready to tackle it, should things go well. The whole process will take a couple of months, so for now... stay tuned!

Today was a pretty normal Saturday. We ran a few errands and got a few things done around the house. I finally got most of the wiring set up for the chicken coop, so that we can have a light out there to keep them warm this winter. There's a covered patio out back with several lights and outlets -- too many, in fact. So I axed the last two routes on the line, hijacking them instead for the coop. I installed a light switch, and then ran wires through conduit out to the coop. (In the rain. And mud. And cold. The conditions were ugly and shoving the wire through long plastic tubing required more muscle than you would think, but when I was done and got to head inside to take a nap with the baby... total satisfaction.)

The thing is, I'm going to have to redo a bunch of work. The switch box is too small to comfortably hold all the wires, and the box doesn't mount securely. So I got a different box after nap time, and I will have to spend another hour out there sometime soon so I can swap out the switch and boxes. It's okay, it will be worthwhile in the end.

As if that wasn't enough stuff, I also tried a new bread recipe today. The goal was a bread with lots of seeds.  It has five kinds... but... it's hard to explain. The bread didn't have a big rise, so it's dense (not bad, just not great); the flavor is a bit... bitter? Some of the seeds have a great flavor, but others are kinda sour/bitter. So maybe more sugar/honey/agave next time? We'll see. I'm not going to make bread for a couple of weeks; too much is going on.

This week is Thanksgiving! Nate's parents are coming over for "dinner" at noon on the big day. We are making most of the goodies. I'm actually excited. I didn't think I would be -- who wants to go through all of that effort? -- but then we went grocery shopping today, and I got yams and potatoes and green beans and pumpkin puree and a turkey... and now, I'm feeling festive! I love Thanksgiving. If only it didn't have to be followed by the madness and annoyance of the Christmas season. (Bah humbug, I despise the holiday commercialism, masses of people everywhere, and stress. Can't I please just skip Christmas this year?)

Since I don't want to end on that Scrooge-like note, here are a ton of cute pictures from the last three months:

Set A) Climbing, crawling, exploring: She'll get into everything. It use to be "Where did we put the baby?" but now it's, "Where did the baby put herself?"

Sitting in a crock pot -- I swear she did all of this on her own:

Climbing on the step ladder -- she loves this:

In her room, she climbs onto her chair, then onto her desk, and perches up there:

And now here are a bunch of cute pictures of various things, many of them with food...

Pretty much one of the worst things I've ever seen:

Halloween Costume: Monkey

(Her) Feelings about Costume: Hatred

Time spent wearing it: Minimal

Playing with Buckle Bear! She doesn't hate him after all:

Diaper Hat -- She can thank her dad for this idea:

The back of her hair is getting long. Sadly, the font is not. Insert nickname: Mullet Girl

(Sleeping. This is what she's doing right now. I love it when she sleeps -- so peaceful.)

October Recap

Hi there. Are you wondering what happened to October? Me too. What a month.

 Nate came down with a cold at the start of the month. Right after he recovered, the baby and I got sick. And  even though that was weeks ago, we're all still feeling a bit sick. In fact, Nate seems to be starting a whole new round of illness. The baby and I have just been battling runny noses for three weeks. It is exhausting; I feel like we're running at full speed just to keep up with the bare minimum. 

I haven't put out a single autumn decoration, even though this is one of my favorite times of year. We were so tired on Halloween that we gave up early, turned off the lights and closed the curtains. (It was terribly anti-social of us and I missed seeing all of those sweet trick-or-treaters, but oh... man... it was nice to go to bed early.) Papers have piled up in our office. I haven't finished my ballot. I didn't post a single blog or even write in my journal.

But that's not to say that nothing got done. Lots of little things got done whenever we found a few minutes or a spare hour. We did a tiny bit more work on the chicken coop, on the chicken run. It's still not done. The coop/shed is partially painted, which I am just going to have to live with it until it's warm and dry enough to paint again. We (Nate) need to wrap chicken wire on the run and we (I) need to wire out a light. It's so close. Maybe a couple more weeks and we can finally bring home a pair of chickens. (I hope!)

I also got a few sections of wiring replaced in the basement. It's slow going. I still have a lot of old wire to remove and it is hard to pull the old, dirty wires through the tiny holes, and it's hard to stuff new wires back through those holes. Plus I have to drill through some of the studs to make new holes since I'm changing the configuration. With only a couple of good hours available each week (in 30-60 minute chunks), it is s-l-o-w. Slow! For the record, I don't mind, I'm not in a hurry, it is just the hallway and utility room after all. But Nate is a antsy, and oddly, I think my mom is kinda annoyed. (Sorry y'all.)

I continued biking to work, except for the week when I was totally knocked out with my cold. For a few days I thought I was finally seeing some great results, then I realized I was just dehydrated from my cold and then over-exerting myself. On the bright side (?) my friend-babysitter is moving farther away, so I will have to bike even more. Yay exercise...?

Just this morning I finished making a new toy for my daughter...

Buckle Bear (shown above pre-buckles)

About a month ago, my mom got a bunch of buckles and some sheer ribbons for us at the craft store. Darling enjoyed buckling the buckles, but the ribbons were kinda floppy and the buckles came untied often. So I dug through my stack of old stuffed animals, looking for one that would make a good "Buckle Bear." I found one, and he sat in the office for a couple of weeks. Then he was in my craft room for a week so I could work on him whenever I found five or ten minutes to spare. This morning before work I was able to put on the finishing touches:

Now, I admit that this is not anywhere near as cool as the commercially available versions (like the Buckley Boo Monkey) but I am really proud that I made the time to do it and had the courage to try this project that was a challenge for me. Buckle Bear is also a lot cheaper than the commercial version... especially since my mom bought the buckles. (Thanks mom! You're the best grandma ever!) To my slight disappointment, my daughter was not especially excited when I presented Buckle Bear with all of his new bling. But she's still learning how to buckle so I have hope that she'll enjoy him more as time goes on.

Last weekend I tried my hand at making some pumpkin creme candies. (It reminded me of college, working at the candy store. Sometimes I feel nostalgic for those days.) The candies were actually really easy to make and they taste DELICIOUS. I was surprised. But I would really like to figure out how to make the creme center so that the candies don't have to be refrigerated. It will involve cooking the pumpkin and probably leaving out the cream cheese... but I need to do more research and some experimenting. If I can make time. In the meantime, here's a picture of the beauties:

I also made bread twice this week. Twice! I haven't made bread in many months. In my ideal world, I'd make bread every week, but it's hard to find the time. I got lucky in that Nate really wanted home made bread and was willing to haul the baby away so I could get it done. Mmmm... autumn, candies, bread, pumpkins, apple cider, rain, leaves falling... wonderful time of year.

Way back in early August, I  mentioned that I offered to beta read and edit the latest novel by my author-friend, J.R. Pearse Nelson. She was hoping to publish the book this summer but then life got busy and she had to push her deadline. She finally sent me a copy this month and holy cow, it's a good one! I decided to read all the way through it once before making any edits and it was hard to squeeze in book time. J.R. is understandably anxious to get her book out the door, so now I'm trying to blast through the editing process. But I want to be a good editor and I have a lot of ideas, so it's yet another project that's going slowly. In the end, I could see this novel being very successful because it's a great story. It will be the first novel that J.R. has issued tandem as an e-book and print-on-demand. I'm planning to order a few copies and give them out to family and friends. I hope that if I send a free copy to my book-critic-friend Thalia Anderson (<<< that links to her very popular book review blog on tumblr, but she's also on Facebook), that Thalia will do a review of the book.

If you're curious, here's the cover for J.R.'s upcoming book (you know I'll be raving even more when it's published, so stay tuned):

Finally: I've been asked to take on a little bit more responsibility at church. In addition to helping in the nursery (kids ages 18 months to 4 years) for two hours every Sunday, I'm now also going to spend a few hours at the start of the month gathering information for a brief monthly status report. When I was asked to do this, I wanted to run screaming from the room, but I just took a deep breath. If it gets to be too much, I can always go back and ask them to find someone else. God's pretty funny, though... You feel like you have a lot to do, your plate is full, you're feeling overwhelmed... and He says oh no, you think you're busy now? Here's something else. Let me show you what busy looks like. Very funny, Big Guy. Thanks for the lesson.

With that, it's past bedtime, and I'm done. See you... next month?

Painted Rain Barrels

If you had the time to read all of the ridiculously long, round-robin-of-updates post that I shared a month ago, you might recall that we are going to install a rainwater collection system (a series of water barrels) in our backyard. We picked up five 55-gallon barrels, three blue and two white. I was initially pretty excited about the white ones because they were a few dollars cheaper than the blue barrels. Then my mom told me that the white ones have to be painted before we can put water in them, otherwise we run the risk of having an algae bloom in the barrel. Arg.

Thankfully, my mom had three cans of spray paint that she was originally going to use on her own barrel; it's blue and therefore does not need to be painted, she just thought it might be fun to do some painting. Instead she generously gave us her cans of spray paint. She also bought a big can of spray glue. Mom got the painting process started for us by putting green paint on the bottom of both barrels and trying out some plant-stenciling techniques:

Finishing her paint job has been on my mind, but only at the very back of my mind. There are a half dozen other projects that need to get done right now! But for whatever reason, I was feeling the creative bug this weekend, and I decided to finish them up.

The barrel my mom started inspired me to do an "Under the Sea" theme. I used ferns from our yard for the plant stencils, and cut out sea creatures (fish, sea horses, and a turtle) using my Cricut. As mentioned, the lower half of the barrel was painted green. I then painted the top and top half white. In areas where I wanted to paint sea creatures, I sprayed a square of color (purple or orange). Using the spray glue from my mom, I sprayed the plants and paper cutouts. I let them sit for a couple of minutes so they were less tacky, then stuck them on the green and colored parts of the barrel.

In the end, here are some pictures and a quick video of the Under the Sea rain barrel (sorry for the fuzzy picts):

(The sailboat on top is my favorite part.) 

For the other barrel, I wanted to do a garden theme. I used flower stems from the dead gladiolus in the front yard. I again used my Cricut to cut out the flowers, bugs, and grass border. And I bought a couple more cans of spray paint so I could get a little more color in the garden. (This means I now have a bunch of barely used cans of spray paint; what do to with those???) I took a lot more time planning the second barrel -- I measured the barrel, drew a sketch of how the flowers, bugs, and colors would go, and carefully marked the barrel. It was tedious. The result isn't perfect, but it's a lot of fun! The dragonfly on top... I can't decide... the color ran, so it kinda looks like an ink blot, and it's cool but also weird. Maybe I should paint over it? You tell me.

Here's the Garden theme rain barrel: