6 word memoir

I read about the 6 word memoir on a message board so I thought I would come up with one.

difficult people are my life's work - Heather

Today in the paper, Dean Kahn, columnist for the Bellingham Herald, was discussing the 6 word memoir. It is also a topic of a book called "Not Quite, What I was Planning."

I do math and I'm silly- #1 Son

Coming up with a really good one that isn't 4 or 5 words long is challenging. Here is the another one from me - lost the guidebook but that's ok. Give it a good honest try. Try it, you will like it

Fireman Snowman

Here are the boys by the snowman built at the local fire station. The Bellingham Hearld even had a little blurb about it. The snowman looked a little better yesterday. The snow we got today was more of the wetter variety.

TEXAS CURSE!

What is with this weather? Someone who will not be nameless - SPERMY was bragging about how wonderful their weather was. I think you cursed us. Yes, all the way from the great state of TEXAS. This is just wrong. I protest. We live in the Pacific Northwest so we can be continually wet and soggy. Snow is really not part of our overall weather pattern. Bring on the RAIN! I don't look good in white.

A New Throne

The Giant Man Child told me that we should do something fun while the children were in school Wednesday. Well, the fun was buying a new throne. This is one of those power flush ones. You know the one you could put a bucket of golf balls down and it won't clog. Ever since, the school has been hooked up to the sewer system our downstairs toilet has been a 3 flusher. I know TMI. So, the Man Child decided we needed a power flusher. THE BEST PART of this throne is the toilet seat snaps off for cleaning. You know a Mom with only Men in her house invented this. I threatened so many times to make this a sit down house. Whoever invented this is a genius.

Board of Advisors

Whenever I feel my life spinning out of control, I consult my board of advisors. They have never have led me astray. Never mind, that the oldest is 9 and the smallest is 4. I asked them if I should clean my desk. They all said I should. I really didn't like that advice but they are right. I asked them if I should dye my hair. The oldest two said no. The Big E, formerly known as Ebony, thought I should dye my hair in the color of the rainbow. Chuckles thought I should dye my hair red. I am taking the matter under consideration since it was a split decision.

Late Entry for Weekend Creative

This was part of Ali Edwards homework as part of weekend creative. Here is my entry - better late than never. The quote is "Three things in human life are important: the first to be kind; the second is to be kind; the third is to be kind." - William Blake

I have a couple quote boards in my living room/family room and I change the quotes frequently. They are basically glass dry erase boards that the Giant Man Child made. He is handy like that.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! These cards are made by the very talented Nonna. The photos above really don't do the cards justice. These are works of art. The technique used is called Iris Folding.

HAPPY EASTER

Interesting Easter Facts

We dyed our Easter eggs last night. The Giant Man Child is working a double today so no one thought it would be a good idea to dye eggs at 5:30 am or 11:30pm. My friend, the other Heather aka Blondie, passed these interesting Easter facts to me so I thought I would share in the spirit of the Easter Season.

Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20).

This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22)but that is pretty rare.

Here's the interesting info. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see. Only the most elderly (95 or older) of our population have seen it this early and none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!

Here's the facts:

1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913, so if you're 95 or older you were around for that.

2) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

Bang, Bang

Bang, Bang is basically what I woke up to this morning. Life is rough living next to the soon to be two-story, 60,000 square foot state of the art facility being built in my back yard. The bad boy being built back there is going to cost $13.8 million. The school will have 4 learning classroom clusters and will share a library, gym, and computer lab. Just in case you were wondering.

Busted!

I have a slight confession to make. My littlest, Chuckles, told me I lied about the leprechaun gold. He was with me when I bought the candy gold and I told him that I was buying for my nephews' Fast Eddy and Sasquatch. He told me I was going to be in BIG trouble with them. I guess next time I need to be a little more stealth in obtaining my leprechaun gold. My sister sent me an article from 9News in Denver about a guy who found a pot of gold. You just have to think Wow! My #1 son has an uncanny knack for finding money. He finds not only coins but once he found $5. The blog, "A Penny At a Time" recently discussed good places to look for money.

What are these children doing in my closet. They are looking for leprechaun gold, of course.

The delightful Diva with her gold

#1 Son

That was one UNLUCKY leprechaun who left his gold hidden in our house.

Happy St Patrick's Day

A little St Patrick's Day message from Chuckles: "If I caught a leprechaun, I would throw him away in the garbage can so I could keep his gold."

Digital Scrapbooking

Thought I would post some digital scrapbooking pages that I have been working on.

I have been keeping a preschool art scrapbook/project book for Chuckles. Here are a few of the pages from it.

Wash Me!

We saw this on our trip. I can honestly say I have never seen a political ad written in dirt on the back of a truck. The race for president is getting really DIRTY.

Kindergarten Registration

Parents and families are the first and most important teachers. If families teach a love of learning, it can make all the difference in the world to our children."Richard W. RileyU.S. Secretary of EducationThe day finally came and Chuckles and I went to school to put him on the list for Kindergarten. Chuckles will be 6 when he starts Kindergarten. We decided that it was the best thing for him to spend an extra year in preschool. People have really strong opinions about this subject. I listened to both sides but the only decision that made sense last fall for Chuckles was to take another year to grow. I have zero regrets. He wasn't ready to spend all day in Kindergarten and I didn't want to make both of us miserable. I wanted him to enjoy school. Kindergarten is all day here and very academic. I know in my heart he is ready now. There are big changes coming this fall for the both of us. I can't wait to see him shine.

Into the Wild

Rail Road Bridge Over the Crooked Canyon

While on our trip, I finished the book "Into the Wild". It is a true story about a young man who hitchhiked to Alaska and walked into the wilderness to live off the land. The tragedy was that he died in the Alaska wilderness alone. Beyond that, Christopher McCandless (Alex Supertramp) story is of needing to be with nature or seek adventure in order to live his life to the fullest. It is a very haunting story. I couldn't help but think about his story as we drove across this beautiful high desert with it's stark beauty.

We made a slight detour on the way home. We pulled over and looked at the crooked river from the crooked river bridge. There is a rail road bridge, old bridge and new bridge. The Giant Man Child remembers driving over the old bridge with his Nanna and Pappy. That makes him ancient. The new bridge I believe was opened in 2000. He also remembers getting his picture snapped at the same location. I looked through his old photo albums but didn't run across the picture. Here is some of our photos.

The old bridge

Kev, Chuckles, ME on the old bridge

#1 Son

Evidently this is a problem

No Frills Adventure

The Giant Man Child invited the whole family along for a business trip. I told hubby that this is a no frills trip for him as there was no fancy satellite radio, no navigation system save his wife, and no armed escort except his lovely children, and no extra leg room. We drove to Bend, Oregon. It was a great and wonderful way to end a miserable week. We all needed to head out of town. The wrecking crew and I visited the High Desert Museum.

It is part museum, part wildlife, and part living history. They were having gold panning while we were there. The kids got a chance to pan for gold and trade that gold in at the assessors for a slip. They took that slip to the bank for some phony money. The kids really got into this. We did this twice as Chuckles lost his gold the first time. He had to tell everyone that he lost his gold. He was SO dramatic about it. This is a picture of #1 son panning for gold.

Here is Chuckles in a tepee.

Winner

Today at MOPS (mother of preschoolers), I won the coffee basket. I am thrilled. We were having our annual Spa Day and there were a ton of give aways. I finally won something. Living in the Pacific Northwest where coffee is king, this is outstanding and I can't wait to brew some coffee up. My hubby was just mentioning today that we were almost out of coffee. Rest assured giant man child, we are going to be drinking some good brew. We are going to be highly caffeinated.

Carmel Rolls to Dream About

The carmel rolls were so good that the Giant Man Child had dreams about them. They were so good that I don't even have a picture of them because they were eaten immediately. However, I made challah bread with the same dough batch and below is a picture of that.
The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or you can freeze it. I have two dough balls left n the freezer. This is a keeper as the Giant Man Child said.

Some Blogs to Check Out

Here are some links to some interesting blogs I have been reading this week:
Merchant Ships - This one is especially interesting to me because we just had a speaker at MOPS(mother of preschoolers group) that gave a talk on the Proverbs 31 woman which generated a lot of discussion. It was interesting to read about her 1950's meal plan experiment.
Money Saving Mom - This is updated frequently and lists some pretty good deals.

What have I been doing?

That is a very good question. I often ask myself that very question. Here is a sampling

I mixed up some no knead bread dough. I checked out the book Artisan bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Thanks T for the loan of the yeast. I have been coveting the carmel rolls I saw over at Steamy Kitchen based on a master dough recipe from the Artisan Bread book. I have to say my Mom makes the best carmel rolls and I often dream about them. That is a little sad isn't it. I hope to make these rolls later today for desert, tonight. I just couldn't bring myself to get up at 5:30am to make them for the Giant Man Child. I also have been experimenting with Penny Rugs. Boy does this picture show all the flaws. I just can't cut right. The circles were cut out with my big kick. I love that thing. Oh well, it is what it is.

I guess that I need to practice what I preach to #1 son that we learn through our mistakes. I should post all the Girl Scout Cookies we have consumed in the last week. The Girl Scouts found the Giant Man Child.