Tomorrow is Friday

Today was another good day. I forgot to say that yesterday we got our molding for the sides of the trailer installed. We found a super good, honest, trailer repair guy. I like him quite a bit. It wasn't cheap, but he did a good job. We're real happy with the fix. The tire blowout last summer thrashed the whole side of the trailer. It is fixed and pretty now. Praise the Lord we don't have to drive down the road looking like Ma and Pa Kettle.

My present from my husband came in the mail today. I have them on right now. He got me a darling pair of Minnetonka moccasins. They are totally cute! And WARM. I get icy cold feet and I complain about them. They're not cold now I tell ya! Not only are they warm, but I can wear them with skirts and I do love the look of a skirt with boots and thermal underwear underneath. Way cute in my opinion. I will try to take a pic of them tomorrow. Yeah, that's a good idea.

I didn't get any sewing done today. Tomorrow I will for sure though.

I had a tummy ailment which I will spare the details, but I didn't feel like going to ballet tonight. Thing is, I went, I was the only student who showed up, and it was great. At dance class I always forget my troubles. Since I was the only student we worked on pirouettes. This week I'm going to practice half turns because my fulls are sloppy. It felt so good to stretch at the barre. What was also nice is that she did the barre in front of me, like a mirror reflection?, so I could copy her stylization such as how to hold your head. I have the routine down fairly, but I have always lacked the ballerina attitude. Got no 'tude.

I have a link to share for a holiday sweet treat that's fun to eat. I think it looks very doable! Chocolate Cherry Mice at craftster.org

Generally, I feel well. I wish to bottle this feeling and have it every day. Not possible? I know. But still...

First baby blanket done

I did it! Is it pretty? I think it's pritty pretty. The corners turned out nicely too. Next I'm starting on a pink one for a baby girl. It's a wild pink. One side is fleece kitty cats and I chose a flannel backed satin for the other side and I will add white satin binding like this one.

I had a rather nice day. A good day. For one, when we went to the library I heard a guy across the street say lookitthathair as I got in the truck. Well, it was a old grizzled voice, but I don't care. A compliment is a compliment. Haha! There's a utility company across the street and that's the direction the voice came from. I was embarrassed to turn around. I have to be cool, ya know.

Our son got his free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut for reaching his reading goal. What a great program - the Bookit Program. He was nonplussed that I got him signed up and set up to participate, but now he's all happy about it. Boys get ripped off in reading at school. I'm proud to say, I taught him to read. He loves Beverly Cleary. In his contract he agreed to read 20 minutes per day and he's read twice that amount. Life is good.

Also on the edumacational front, he has begun his first research paper. I've put it off for two months because he hates writing. He is my extremely reluctant writer. He can talk, he's engaged and engaging, but ask him to write it down? Forget it. So I postponed it till today. Had myself all prepped and pumped and, surprise, surprise, it went well. Exceedingly well. Looks like he's interested in LED lights as a topic. He said, "Mamma, I'm kind of excited about this." Woohoo! I didn't act excited though. I just said, "Well, good." I have to stay cool and psyche him out.

Oh happy day

We drove to Cruces for supplies. I got to spend the whole time at JoAnn's Fabrics. I got all the stuff to make a couple (hopefully cute) baby blankets. Tonight I sewed a mini sized practice blanket with, get this, with mitered corners and it turned out. Yay! Tomorrow I'll sew a real one - size 36"x45". The fabric is light blue fleece with floaty white clouds and I chose white satin binding for the edge. I have a good feeling about it! Third time's the charm they say.

Oh no

Christmas is coming. My second baby blanket turned out, meh, just all right, but it's not very giftable. Maybe I should just send the babies all twenty bucks each and be done.

If I find her

If ever I find the woman who posted the easy peasy baby blanket I will strangle her with my own two hands.

My easy peasy blanket took me two days to make. I finished it. It's now in the trash which is where it belongs.

I'm going to try a different pattern with no stinkin' satin binding. When you sew one side of the binding you having no idea what's happening on the other side. You might be be 1/2" above the bottom of the binding or you might be 1/4" below the edge of the binding missing the binding completely so it's just blowing in the wind unattached. And don't even talk to me about mitered corners.

Trying

I'm trying to sew a baby blanket. It's flannel and I bought pretty satin binding for the edge. The last mitered corner is a bearcat though. I hope I can make it work. I suppose I've spent three hours already on a one hour "easy peasy" sewing project that failed to even mention the last corner is harder to do than the first three.

I decided I will make my dad a rice warmer for his arm that hurts. His ankles hurt sometimes too I think. I had one that I made for myself and I loved how it warmed my frozen feet at night. I will make my dad two maybe. One for his back which he could use pretty much anywhere, and one about 5"x30" for his arm.

Mermayd. She's the one got me goin'. She's made some awesome jewelry gifts. She sent me pics and boy, one of 'em was real shiny and it's still shining in my mind! She's gotten so good at designing necklaces.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Husband is making the mashed potatoes. Son is bouncing off the walls in anticipation. I'm waiting for the water heater to warm up all ten gallons of water so I can wash my hair. I'd planned to go the camp showers today, but a cold north wind blew in during the night. It's 37 degrees outside! Yipes. Yesterday was in the 70s.

1 Thessalonians 5:18. Give thanks in all things.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today I bake a cakes

Bake a cakes? What? I can't talk now?

I have pictures of the cake in question on my November 2006 page. You need to scroll about 1/4 down the page.

I dreamt of Debbie Turner last night. I dreamt I was real ugly with awful swollen lips from cold sores, but she didn't seem to notice I was ugly. I cried in the dream, but can't remember why. Twenty years passed and I dream of her? Will I still miss her when I'm 80 years old? I need memory erasure.

Time to start mixing the cake frosting now.

Ow

My right arm has been achy all day today.

I impressed my husband with my after dinner talk tonight. I'm very pleased with myself. I told him all about Martin Luther and his 95 Theses and I told him how Constantine created Christendom when he made Christianity the official religion. Usually he has no attention span when I talk to him about churchy stuff, but he liked this subject. He ate it up with a spoon. I do too.

My connection is deadly slow tonight for some reason. It's bumming me out.

What am I

There is a study I've wanted to undertake. It's been bouncing around in my mind. Simmering.

The other day my son said he knew we were Christians, but he needed to know what kind of Christian because the neighbors asked and he wasn't sure. Also, I had a conversation with a Hindu and I did not say I was Christian when she gave me some excellent witchcraft tips.

I would have had to blurt it out. I can blurt pretty well, but I tend to prefer that my actions show my faith rather than plainly stating it.

... I'm Christian" or "I'm a Christian." What does that make you think? Well, I tell ya, I've met a lot of them and wasn't impressed by a single one for 20 years. And what about the people who believe in God, but not in Christ. They also call themselves Christian. "Christ" is a pretty key part of the word Christian.

So what am I. What can I say that states my position with more clarity than "Christian?" Christian should be the best word, but it annoys me slightly.

I'm thinking I'll tell my son to say we're disciples of Jesus Christ, Son of God. And that's what I can say to the Hindu person if it comes up again. I'm not sure, I'm just thinking in writing. I want our response to not be with a period at the end. I don't want it to be a dead end. I want our response to elicit interest, curiosity, and possible discussion - even just one question. Once I met a woman who stated she was a Christian then she went on a long rambling monologue about her history of alcoholism and being saved. It was neither inviting nor warm. As I think back, the best way to express it is that it was like a giant regurgitation and she felt better afterwards. I think maybe she intended it to be a testimony, but if so, it did not have the desired effect.

I need to address the denomination question for my son too. We are non-denominational and we attend various churches depending on where we are. Always Protestant. But people want to know what denomination you are, he is, for classification purposes. I like the Charismatics (this is like a lighter flavor of Pentecostals), but I am not convicted regarding all of its beliefs. I like Calvary Chapel's verse by verse teaching, but some regions of the country have no Calvary Chapels (known for its Jesus Freaks back in the day). The Baptists are pretty cool and uniform wherever I go. I love the physical beauty of the Catholic church, but not its paternalism. I have never been in a synagogue, but I'd like to someday. The Seventh Day Adventists sure eat healthy, but I can't do church on Saturday. There are a bunch of churches that I don't even know what their doctrinal distinctives are. Distinctives are what sets your church apart from others. Maybe we're multi-denominational. You can liken it to the old question of what is zero. Is it nothing? If it's nothing, then it must be something, so what is it? Is zero something? Then how can zero equal nothing if it's something. How do we quantify zero.

So is anyone really non-denominational. What denomination was Jesus?

I have known for sometime that something big happened to Christianity somewhere around 300 A.D. Last night I discovered that it had to with the Roman emperor Constantine. He was the first Roman emperor to claim his Christianity. The capital of Rome was even moved and renamed Constantinople after him. It is present day Istanbul.

It was he who instituted the change that created "Christendom." This christendom thing is huge. It changed everything. I think it changed everything to opposite of what Jesus preached and taught.

I have to go to bed now. Tomorrow's a school day. I'm researching more about Christendom and will post it tomorrow. Stuff I need to define for our (planned) lesson:

Christendom
Catholic (which means universal)
Martin Luther
Protestantism
Hey, hey, we can even throw in antidisestablishmentarianism, which he can already spell. :)
Mega churches and seeker-friendly

This is one of the things I absolutely love about homeschooling. We don't have to stick to a standardized curriculum. I need to teach him basically about how the church divided and developed into what it is today.

Really, the people are the church, not buildings.

I'm not so bad

I got happy at belly dance tonight. As you may recall, I felt rather ill about that dern sword falling off my head 80 times last Saturday night. And after that it affected my dancing altogether. Afterwards, at home by myself it was eating little small bites of confidence out of me.

But at class tonight three girls came up to me (grown women, but I say girls for my blog) and gave me compliments on my dancing of Saturday night! One said she couldn't decide whether to watch me or my teacher and so her eyes went back and forth. She said she and her friends talked about it for two days. She said that the costumes made our dance moves even prettier to watch. The best compliment though came from a girl from India. A real Indian girl who is a dancer. She dances folk dances of India and I hear she's very good though I haven't seen her choreography yet. But the thing is, she said my movements were so very feminine and flowing that she was thinking she would like me to dance with her in her Indian style. Boy howdy, I told her I would love to learn her style if she wanted to teach me! She said she's not a good teacher and cannot break down the moves like our Middle Eastern dance teacher does, and I said, "Well, how do you know if you haven't tried teaching it before?" I should have told her I can pick up moves pretty well too. I hope something may come of it. She's young and nice, dainty and petite. She recently finished university here and is now on a work visa. Her husband is still in India until next year and she misses him terribly. He's in the military there. She liked the skirt I was wearing tonight and said it reminds her of her saris at home. She says during the wedding season everyone loves to dress up in India. It reminded me sooo much of Leia because she once wrote about the exact same thing to me in an email! They call it "The Wedding Season." Interesting! We don't dress up much here she said, and I have to agree.

And I thought my teacher almost might cry when she was apologizing about the sword. Evidently the sword was her friend's and she thought it was better than hers is. But even though my teacher's sword is nothing expensive or amazing, I knew how to feel it on my head. Never do a performance with a sword you've never used before. Yeah, I'm an Einstein now! Plus, my teacher expressed to another student that I've been dancing for years and I interrupted and told her, no, I have but eight months of Middle Eastern dance. She was surprised and said she couldn't believe it. Well, I suppose it's actually a left handed compliment to me. So when I left class she asked me if I forgive her and I said of course. I have no hard feelings toward her, only toward myself. Ha! I did tell her no improv for me for awhile. She looked disappointed, but my confidence is a little tattered and I need some time. It all builds character, right? Yes, it does actually.

Anyway, it served to erase, eradicate, delete, deter my bad feelings. I mean, don't you hate those sick, sinking feelings? It's awful. Well, it's really gone now and I'm not just saying that for lip service. Also I learned a good lesson - that as bad as I feel, if I keep moving I am probably not as bad as I think. I thought I stunk completely, but if I break it down I think I did okay when I didn't have that evil sword on my head.

I've been writing about this a lot, I know, but it was a small drama for me. The inward drama being ten times worse than the real thing, huh.

Next performance I'm going to ask my girlfriends to pray for me that I don't flub up. That will give me a special, heavenly boost.

Tomorrow is a brand new day. Isn't that something! Yeah man. A brand new day.

Happy

I was sharp in ballet tonight - for a change! I felt great afterwards. We don't meet next week because of Thanksgiving. Bummer. It was chilly tonight, so finally I got to wear my black knit leggings. I wore my hair in a side braid.

They liked the homemade chicken noodle soup a lot. Their 13 year old said it was addictive. That's a big compliment coming from a picky 13 year old. The husband liked it. And my friend told our son it made her feel better.

Now there's a request for chicken noodle soup on Saturday night from my husband and son. I really had to fend them off yesterday. They were smelling that soup all afternoon and wanted to eat it. I almost had to fight them. I wielded the ladle like a weapon, like a sword, and said "No, no, this isn't for us. It's for someone else!" I got it delivered to the neighbors in the nick of time.

It doesn't get better than this. :)

And I'm wearing my new Eddie Bauer, plaid, pink and cranberry colored, flannel pajamas. My husband picks the cutest stuff. I'm all warm and cuddlebug. I'd have never picked this style. It reminds me of Lucy from I Love Lucy. She had pajamas just like these.

Think I'll have some Nabisco Nilla cookie wafers with milk and hit the hay. Tomorrow is Friday!

I did something good

I did a certain Christian thing that I've never done before. A lady at church had surgery today. She asked me to pray for her and I am. And I made some chicken noodle soup and took it to her family. I'm not too good in the kitchen. My husband does most of the cooking, but I am the queen of chicken soup. I prayed over it as I prepared it. I hope they like it. My husband bought freshly baked sourdough bread to go with it and boy howdy, it's delicious with the bread. He's always thinking! It been proven that chicken soup aids healing. That's science! And who created science. God created science. Chicken soup made with love has purpose.

A long time ago I made a pie and the hostess of the party said my pie must have given everyone a stomach ache. Ever since then I've been totally paranoid about giving homemade food to people. I wrote about the mean lady here, so I won't rehash the event. Anywho, I'm feeling very smug that I courageously cooked chicken noodle soup and delivered it today. It would be so me to cook it and then say, "No, it didn't turn out well enough. We can't deliver it. We have to keep it." But I didn't do that. I followed through. I so much hope they like eating it.

This afternoon I saw the hawk that preys on our quail. It's a Cooper's Hawk I think! I read that they're also called Chicken Hawks. He's a beauty. No quail came around after he swooped by. He flies faster than lightening.

Finally ordered a skirt and veil to go with my cabaret costume. I bought dark purple because my costume, it's called a bedlah which refers to the costume bra and belt that goes around your hips, is purple. I stressed out over lilac or purple and thinking that lilac would draw more attention on stage being light colored, I almost got it. But the purple was the color that really called out to me. I asked our son which I should get because he has a good eye for color and he hardly thought a moment and said, "Purple." It takes six whole weeks for them to deliver it because they custom order it. The fabric, I chose it because it has a remarkable sheen to it. It's called faux silk. I have to think up some sleeves to cover my upper arms. They're not as firm as they once were. I want to attach perhaps purple chiffon bell sleeves to the bra strap. I need a little bit of fabric over the bust too as I want to be appropriately dressed to dance at a family oriented venue. We don't want to see the girls spilling out all over the place now do we. Certainly not! I think it's going to be duperly pretty!

Tomorrow I'm going to definitely worsh my hair and give it some attention. I got two nice comments tonight; one from Kara and one all the way from down under - that would be Jules. I am so fond of the women I've met on the hair board. Kara and Jules have both been there for me when I was unsettled by church and religion issues, or looking for an answer, or worried.

It's important to have reliable people you can reach out to when you have no one to talk to.

Bike riding

I rode my bike a whopping three miles yesterday and again today. My favorite part is the downhill part and going over the speedbumps! I did some belly dance drills afterwards. Then I had to make steamed rice to go with the salmon my husband barbecued. I have a song I might use to choreograph a sword dance. Practice sword dancing, that is. My teacher suggested the song and I think it'll work great. Speaking of my teacher...

I may have forgotten to mention that I danced downtown with my teacher and another tribe on Saturday night. As a result, I've learned that improv is not for me. No, no, no, no more improv for me to songs I don't know. When I danced in Southern California it was choreographed. I can memorize a dance. I am not so good at making up my moves as I go along. So. My teacher told me to dance with a sword on my head too, only I don't have a sword. I've practiced with hers for a couple classes and that's the sum of it. I enjoy using her sword and I balanced it pretty well if doing simple moves. Once I even got down to my knees and up again without dropping it. I was so thrilled. I practice at home with books on my head.

Well, I should have practiced my freedom of speech, but I'm lame and quiet. I gave her a look of petrified fear and she said, "You can do it." And she gave me not her sword, but a different sword that I've never even seen before. That should have set off the alarms, right? It did for me, but not her. But I still didn't say no.

Sigh. I went out with her and did it and that thing slid off my head about 80 times. It was a six minute song. Geez. It seemed to last forever. On the up side, it's a teeny town, I saw no one I knew, and the small crowd was really nice. I never dropped it, it just wouldn't stay. Then after the dance she told me she put wax on her sword to help it stay on her head. What!? I am never doing improv with her again. My ego was bruised, you can be sure of that, but I'm better now. It's funny because I never felt like crying, I was just upset. Truthfully, what upset me most was dancing poorly in front of the other dancers. It's just a darn good thing that I already performed a couple times because if that had been my first time I'd have been thoroughly discouraged from performing.

I did see one friend, Judy. She missed my dancing, but saw me afterwards and we chatted. She liked my costume and I told her I danced badly, so I'm glad she didn't see me. She wouldn't believe me and said she was going to tell everyone I was awesome. She lifted my spirits. Sure enough, she saw my husband at the market a couple days later and told him I was great. She was my angel that night.

Yum

Last night our son made me hor'dourves when I got home. They were delicious! He made eight. All lined up neatly on the cutting board, Ritz crackers with jack cheese and a small piece of ham. I love seeing him working in the kitchen. He was so solicitous. "Mamma," he said, "Here they are and if you want some more just let me know and I'll make them."

My looking glass

Like Romper Room. I look through my looking glass and who do I see? My mom! Aaaaahhhh!

Hi (((Mom))). I'm not colicky anymore, but I'm still a pain to have around, eh? Heh. Sorry about that!

Already

Tomorrow is Friday already? I can't believe it. We have a volunteer meeting at 10:00am tomorrow. Why is the meeting so early?

Scimitar ordered

I did it. I finally chose a sword. Technically, I ordered a scimitar not a sword. A top of the line sword is about $200.00. Since I'm a beginner I shopped for a cheaper one. I considered a Saroyan which is very high quality, but I couldn't believe they have a no return policy on their swords. I emailed and inquired about their return policy and got a snooty reply. Marge told me if I want a trial period to buy a sword from somewhere else. I don't want a stinkin' trial period. If I don't like it I want to be able to get my money back. She said they've never had a dissatisfied customer in 35 years and have more business than they can handle. Yeah, I'll take my money somewhere all right. She can count on it. I went down to their shop when I lived nearby and bought my zills. Nice zills, nice guy, but whomever answers their email could use a lesson in customer service. We make all kinds of online purchases from desktop computer to beads. I would never order anything that has a no return policy!

So back to my scimitar. It's a scary looking one so I can't wait to take a picture of me with it to show my mother. Haha! It's unsharpened, but you still have to be cautious. Drop the tip of it on your toe and you'll have one less toe to worry about. The only unfortunate part is it's on backorder. Huge bummer, but it should come in this month they say. Their customer service was prompt. Ideally, I wanted one with the fancy scrolled engraving, but plain will do. It's a very sexy scimitar!

What kind of dove again?

My mom wrote me an email. She makes me laugh. And at the end she called me her little turdle dove. I am not quite sure how I should interpret that. Haha! She must be in an awfully good mood today.

I wrote my daughter-in-law. Finally. I've owed her an email for well-nigh a month. My eldest quit writing in the summer. I don't know why except he wants me to call and I don't like to call and I want him to email and he doesn't like to email. We are betwixt and between. Where is all this Middle English coming from tonight. I miss him sometimes. When he falls on my mind I accidentally call my youngest son by my oldest son's name. That's how I always know for sure he's on my mind. I miss him.

Time change

I was up at the crack of 8:30am because of the time change! Yay! We started our homeschool day early.

Oh

Sunday was terrible. I don't care to watch football. I sit statue-still and writhe. Try to blend, smile on cue. An emotional amalgamation of myself. Took a Tylenol PM because I don't want to start a stay awake trend. Rumination is a waste of precious time.

So Monday I was blue all day. Couldn't shake it. Gives me those bad feelings inside and I want it to go away. Sad to feel my old self in my new town. Too bad, so sad. I hate to disappoint my husband. We all went to Cruces and I ate a really bad burrito. Husband ordered me pajamas that are way, way too expensive. I could buy a whole belly dance costume for that much. I shall have warm cotton flannel pajamas instead. Oh.

And when we got home I browsed online for costumes. Then I felt much improved! Well, it was after the pajama ordering too. :)

I'm learning a Middle Eastern folkloric dance. It's cute and happy and upbeat, but I don't have the right costume yet. I'm not quite sure what kind I need. My only complete costume is American Tribal Style and that won't be right for the dance at all.

Son made fresh squeezed lemonade this evening and it was delicious. It puckered us up. Me especially. It's very good for your body. Lemonade from real lemons.

The other day he was riding his bike home after his volunteer work and a coyote crossed the road just yards in front of him. As he rode by he turned and looked behind. There went the coyote back to the other side of the road...with a squirrel in his mouth!

Tonight we sleep beneath a brand new comforter that is in a nice, new, bright white duvet. I like white to sleep in. And I will make myself have nice dreams. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures...

Saturday

I got my toenails done in my favorite shade of red. I soaked my feets and it felt so good. My son put his feet in too. All the rest of the day was incidental. Son went to a birthday party but I may have offended the hostess by not staying. Hmmmm.

November measure-in 39 7/8"

I had fun at the measure-in today. Several people like Kara, Lacemitts, and Avrilon have new pics up so I put one up too. I need a good new sig pic though. I haven't done one that I especially like since January 2006. That's kind a long space of time there.

This photo (below) shows my trouble spot. Three years ago I thinned out my bangs so they wouldn't be so heavy looking. Glad I did, but they're not as long as the rest of my hair now. As chance would have it this pic shows them pretty clearly at about waist length so you can see what I'm saying. It bugs me sometimes. It's more apparent on this side than the other. It's a bother because there's nothing I can do but wait for it to catch up.



The next one is swinging hair. Got a wee bit of motion in it. I thought 40" would be the bottom of my derrière, but the bottom of the derrière is technically a couple more inches lower. I'm not classic till I get there. I'm almost classic. My big plan is that once I get there, maybe about April, I'm going to trim for a couple years and stay there. I think. Actually, I'm getting a trim in March because that's when we're leaving and going to San Diego and I have to see my trusty barber, Ivan. I won't let anyone else trim my ends. I crave a trim right now, but I will wait. My ends are not bad. I oil them regularly, but I sure do like fresh cut ends. They're soooo purrrfect.