Countdown to Summer

Countdown to the last day of school:  4.5 days. This week Thea has a trip to the upper elementary school she will be attending in the fall on Monday and the rescheduled Third Grade Carnival on Tuesday, Micah has Sliding into First Grade on Wednesday and his AM Kindergarten class party on Thurday.  So by my estimation, 'school' was over last week and this week is for festivities and celebrating.

And it's the one week that I am working Monday through Friday, and Saturday is my day to work.  I am rather pouty about it, especially since I am usually of Fridays and would be there to pick the kids up from their last day of school.

Since Memorial Day weekend, quilting has gone by the wayside, so I was happy to drag out my bags of stuff and go off to OCQ for Super Sew on Friday.  Instead of working on projects, I once again worked on Thea's Junior vest by sewing on all the event patches that had been removed from her Brownie vest.  This is their final resting place, I am not ripping out all those stitches if she moves up to Cadets.

Then I worked on making scrappy strips for the Foursquare Farmhouse.  I like having a quilt back that has a little interest to it, and it's a great way to not wind up with a bunch of scraps that are too nice to throw away but will likely not find themselves used in a project any time soon.  I think I'm keeping this one.

Friday night I didn't even take all the quilting supplies out of the car since Saturday night was The Sew Must Go On.  Unfortunately, the path to The Sew went through a trip to Parsippany to attend the Practicing Clinician Series 2012 Symposia.  9.25 free CEUs.  To good to pass up, even it means driving an hour at 7 am on a Saturday morning, and then spending 90 minutes on I-78 and the NJ Turnpike to get to OCQ.

I got there a little later than I usually would (9.25 free CEUs), but quickly got up and running  I made a second strip, and then a third scrap strip for the back of the quilt, bought a very wide piece of a light batik and put it all together, then bought the batting and left it there to be quilted.  Estimated time for getting it back is about six weeks.

Meanwhile Steve has gotten memberships for us at the West Windsor community pool.  Not much in the way of grass is growing on the patch of backyard where the pool used to be, but the old pool is not missed.  The kids and Steve went for the first time yesterday., and may go back today. 

Memorial Day Mind Fog

Tuesday morning back at work, and already the weekend has blurred into a foggy blob of what did I really accomplish this weekend?  Not much in the way of cleaning the house or working on the garage.  Too bad.

Thursday was the end of the Third Grade Inquiry project, with the 132 students who stuck it out to the end (or who did enough work so as not be asked to drop out) showing off their work in the cafeteria at Town Center School.  Thea did well, worked without note cards answering questions about what she learned about genes and DNA; we were proud of her and her presentation looked liked she did it.  There were two others who also worked on similar projects - one with a slick Power Point presentation on a laptop (which to me smacked of too much parental involvement).  Thea hasn't gotten the paper back that her reviewer used to evaluate her presentation, but it will be interesting to see.  Particularly since the glue was still drying on the the tri-fold poster board as we were walking in. 

Friday, the car and I went to Honda for a much overdue oil change.  Nice of them to tell me on paper that my tires need replacing, it would've been nice to hear it in person rather than finding it out when I flipped the receipt over one day later.  The rest of the day was devoted to sewing: the two Saturday Sampler squares for PQW, which I usually finish within a day or so of bringing them home, Thea's Brownie and Junior vests and the start of a Four Square Farmhouse quilt top.  I forgot the pinwheel lap quilt top that I was working on so I couldn't put on the trim on the bottom edge - got to dig that out before it becomes a UFO (which translates an unfinished object).

 Saturday while Micah was at his friend Leland's birthday party, Thea and I went to the EMS store to pick up two dunk bags for the Brownies camping trip next weekend.  I remember dunk bags from my own Girl Scouts camping experiences, but instead of plastic, I think it was made of metal.  Then we went to Target to pick up sleeping bags and print up pictures for the troop leader to put in the scrapbook.  Once all that was finished, I could get back to sewing.

Which continued into Sunday, and once I had twenty squares for a lap quilt, making ten more for a twin-sized didn't seem so unreasonable.

But on Monday the two shops I frequent were both closed for Memorial Day so the five light / five dark batiks had to come from my stash and not from fat quarters.  So with a True Blood marathon on HBO and the kids at the Princeton pool with Steve, I made ten more squares.

Which leads me to wish there was an app for the iPad to put in pictures of quilt squares to crop and shuffle into the most pleasing pattern.  Doing this by laying them out on the bed is both time consuming and annoying and makes it a chore similar to working through a GRE question where you have five red books, four yellow books, two green and six red books, the red can't touch the yellow, the the blue can't touch the green, so where does the black book go? Tedium exemplified.

Meanwhile in the backyard, the chemical- and money-sucking cesspit that was the above ground swimming pool is GONE.  Two Thursdays ago Steve mentioned that Thea didn't really care if we had the backyard pool so maybe we should get rid of it.  Somehow I mentioned this in passing to Mike who was at the office to repair the hole in the wall made by one of my patient's who passed out, and he has a neighbor who wanted an above-ground backyard pool.  Reduce, reuse, recycle.  Gone, gone, gone as of Friday when I came back from Honda to pick up my quilting supplies to find two trucks in the driveway and heard the sounds of men doing manly disassembling things coming from the backyard.  I grabbed my stuff and trotted back to the car.

.Now I have my mother telling me that I should use it to plant an herb and vegetable garden.  Like that's ever going to happen.  I am just not the tilling the soil sort of woman; quilting, yes, gardening, big fat NO.  This is not Little House on the Prairie here.

No sewing this weekend:  Brownie's overnight camping trip to a Girl Scout camp in Somerset County and Ying Hua, the last class followed by the end-of-year ceremony.

Spring Cleaning

. . . for Micah's ears.  Yesterday we made another trip up the Turnpike to Englewood to see Dr. Choe.  I must have had a complete mental lapse when I called for the appointment because I took an 8:00 am slot, which is just murder from the get-go:  to get Micah up, fed and dressed on a school day in time to catch the school bus at 8:25 am is a minor feat.  To have him in the same state 90 minutes earlier would require prayer, a lot of talking in a loud voice, some gratuitous tickling and patience in quantities greater than I have at that hour of the morning.

Thankfully the Turnpike cooperated.  The GPS set our arrival at 7:58 am, and we were putting in the parking lot right at that time, and there was parking spots on the open, sunny first level so we didn't need to park in the dark, creepy bowels of the building level.  The appointment was 15 minutes: five minutes of chit-chat, five minutes per ear of Dr. Choe picking out the waxy debris that accumulates in the canals and we were back out at the reception area where Micah could schmooze with the staff.  He is especially proud that he can now see over the reception desk on his own.

Then we made the trip back home, with a small reward trip to Target thrown in, and he signed in at school, got a late pass and trotted off to Mrs. Miller's room by 10:00 am.

Later that day I had to go back to Wicoff to be the helping mom at the Brownie meeting, which was mostly taking pictures and bringing Capri Sun juice pouches since a troop of Juniors came to share their wisdom regarding camping, building fires and how to dress for a camping trip.  The Juniors brought the snack, which was various pretzels and snack cereal so that the Brownies could build a miniature camp fire on their plates and then eat it.  The mother-daughter camping trip is coming up the first weekend in June.  By the mercy of whatever higher power, it will be at the main house of the campground, so we'll have beds and indoor plumbing.  Thea is nervous about the camping trip for whatever reason.  At the meeting yesterday the girls had to put down who they would like to bunk with, putting down three names and with the guarantee that they will room with at least one; I was shocked to see how many put Thea's name down (which is sweet, but they have no idea that she sometimes snores like a water buffalo and talks in her sleep.)

After the Brownies award ceremony (i.e. more patches to sew on), we went to pick up Micah from EDP and then went right back to Wicoff for the End-of-the-Year Celebration.  Multiple bouncy houses and slides, a balloon person, DJ, pizza and ice cream truck.  (Thankfully no evil pony ride lady from the Fall celebration.)  Thea was allowed to run around with her friends, Micah hung out with his friends Charlie and Jeff, running, jumping and balloon sword fighting (after we stood in line for 45 minutes for the balloon lady).

We left as it was getting dark and much cooler and went to KFC for dinner.  Micah fell asleep in the car but revived once he remembered that he had a new Bey Blade waiting for him from the morning trip to Target, and I had picked one out for Thea, so they spent awhile having battles and then watching Phineas & Ferb and Penguins of Madagascar before crashing for the night.

Once upon a time. . .

. . . which was only about three weeks ago, we were on vacation.  Meals were as easy as just showing up, buffets meant that there was no whining about not liking what was being served.

 No beds to make.

 No homework to check up on.

 Sandals or bare feet all the time

Coatis and iguanas clambering around.

 A half dozen swimming pools meant that "I'm bored" was not uttered during that entire week.

A lazy river inner tube ride.

Using the children as my cover, I got to swim with dolphins (which they happened to enjoy as well) and I bought amazing pictures of my children with dolphins, snorkeling, holding macaws, iguanas and parrots.

I watched Thea climb on a rope line over water, twice, and got to snorkel with her and see that she loves it as much as I do.

And yes, there were a few not so magical moments: waiting on a bridge to take pictures of my family.  Waiting, waiting, waiting.  Until I figured they had taken another route back so I hiked around Xel-Ha to the floating bridge, which was bouncing away (? high tide) and only had hand-railings on every other section.  Visions of me and the camera getting bounced into the Caribbean danced in my head, and the humiliation cake was iced by the Xel-Ha lifeguard coming out onto the bridge asking if a) I had too many rum and Cokes and b) did I need any help?  (To which I answered a) No. (I hate rum and Cokes) and b) No, thank you.  Although my interior monologue, was telling him to be gone before I push him off of the bouncing bridge. Then after making it back to the main area, finding no family at any of the meeting places (not to worry, I had the key to the locker, so I had dry clothes and the cash), they come walking up, Steve with a huge smile on his face that I wanted to wipe off with towel that had cleaned the bottom of the seal tank.

The biggest feat of the vacation was going without internet access from Tuesday through Friday because in-room Wi-Fi was $100 per week.  (Seriously?  Internet access is de rigeur in this day and age.)  Wi-Fi at the Iberostar Paraiso Maya was found in a 20' x 6' area in the lobby, the closer to the window the better, which counts as one of the hotel's few faults.

All in all, a good week, until it was over 

Happy Easter & Passover

Easter weekend at our house has been pretty laid back.  Saturday night Steve, Thea and Micah went to the seder at Temple Micah; I went to The Sew Must Go On at Olde City Quilts.  It's usually 4 pm until 1 am, but I got there a little late, and most everyone was packing up and ready to head out at midnight.  I finished 32 more pinwheels, whose fate I am still contemplating - and since on a good evening at home, finishing 12 is an accomplishment, it was a good night.

The kids' Easter baskets were thrown together in haste at around 1:30 this morning.  Oma provided a good bit of the chocolate, a patient gave me a pink bunny and a yellow duck stuffed animal and chocolate bunnies for them, so I did next to nothing other than throw a few quarters in the plastic eggs (also supplied by Oma.)

Easter breakfast was the usual three-way split: Thea with her steamed eggs, Micah with cereal and pancakes for Steve, sausages and pineapple for all.

Then the kids and I got going on making food for Steve to take with him when he goes to visit Grandma.  Micah made matzoh balls with me, and Thea was in charge of the potato latkes and was fearlessly flipping them despite getting hit with a few pot shots of hot oil.  She also took on cooking the chicken for the soup without much in the way of supervision from me.  This was one of the first times that boredom didn't get the best of  either one of them mid-project; they stuck with me until the last latke came out of the pan and the matzoh balls were transferred into the soup pot.

Now it's just a question of airing out the house to get rid of the fried latke smell and getting back to trying to get a little bit organized.

Voiceless

From February 24, 2012. 

A cold virus began to take hold of the insides of my head last weekend, rattling through my throat, sinuses and nose.  A container of cranberry-raspberry juice kept it at bay while we were visiting my mother last Sunday through Tuesday, but the ickiness came back once I was back at work.

Leaving me today with an annoying rasp of a voice today.  So I spent my day off by myself, trying to not talk.

I sewed a decorative ribbon and a Brazilian flag onto small white totes I purchased at Michael's.  This weekend is the Girl Scouts' Thinking Day celebration and Thea's troop is representing Brazil.  Fortunately for us, the costumes are samba skirts for half the group and gauchos for the other half.  In case you need to have all the dots connected, I barely got Thea to wear the Maori skirt last year, so I was not looking forward to convincing her to wear a ruffly skirt.

Souper Sew

From March 23, 2012 aka Our Tenth Anniversary or the 2nd Anniversary for Micah's Left Ear Canal

Another Friday spent at Olde City Quilts at a Souper Sew.  The crab quilt got a blue border on it and I started putting together pieces of the fabrics that made up the crab quilt into a back for it.  Sewing has turned into my therapist, and it probably costs as much as conventional therapy.  I got to try out yet another Bernina, an Artista 730.  It had a touch screen and chirped much to much for my liking - and amongst all the buttons and icons on the screen I couldn't find the 'mute' button, so I found myself saying "Oh, shut up, will you?" with every beep.