what we did

1. Lily went as Fionna from Adventure Time for Halloween. Noah was also a character from AT- Science, Princess Bubblegum's candy corn mouse. It would have made more sense if I had made my costume (Princess Bubblegum in sciencey mode), but I wad too busy constructing costumes for my children. So instead..
2. This was the extent of my Halloween festivity. Orange socks.
3. Fall sunsets are some of the best
4. And the foliage
5. Our fridge broke. Did you hear? We were without one for over a week and got to borrow a tiny one for a few days. It was so awesome. (No, it wasn't.)
6. Lily and I (mostly I) got into the Thanksgiving spirit. She was out of school this week and missed out on whatever Thanksgiving-y festivities that were going, so I thought she'd want to do something at home. Eh, she didn't really care.

and only ten days later..

Oops.

So.. my ordered-online, sight-unseen refrigerator arrived. (An hour before the earliest time in the time window I was supposed to expect it to arrive.) The neighbors were moving and when I saw the nondescript truck near our driveway I thought it was for them. And then it started backing down our driveway. And.. oh shit..

I hadn't even brushed my teeth yet. But.. it was fine. They took off a couple of doors. We took down a baby gate. The fridge fit in its allotted space perfectly and the rest is history. Ish. There are pros and cons to it. But.. it's fine. It keeps the food cold.

I decided on a car. And it is now in my driveway.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Lily and I made a paper turkey. Well, mostly I made a paper turkey. I thought she would want to do it because she missed out on school this week.. being sick and playing hookey today so I could pick up my car. She probably would have been fine, but we wouldn't have been able to go back and get her if she needed to come home. And guess what? She totally didn't care she didn't go.

Then she was borderline bratty for the rest of the day. Including trying to kill her brother. So.. you know..

I'll blink again and it will be Christmas.

failed, failing, fail

For the second month in a row I failed to my personal blogging goal. Life just got the better of me. And not in any type of good way.

Oh well.

Our fridge couldn't be repaired. We had to buy a new one. I looked a little bit online and in two physical stores. I saw one that cost over three thousand dollars. It didn't look like anything special, but I also didn't dare get too close to it. And then I went home and ordered my new refrigerator online- site unseen. So.. I'm sure nothing will go wrong there..

I also don't have a new car yet. I had basically decided on one. Even a specific one. At a specific dealer. With a specific salesperson. But then I decided to do a web search for "what's wrong with (insert car x make/model here)" and I learned all about unintended acceleration. I thought I was going to be sick. (Although on the upside, I found this video with a Toyota Highlander crashing into a house.. and I couldn't stop laughing.)

So.. what choice did I have? I started over..

an ending

I watched a dove die today.

The thunk it made when it hit the window was the loudest one I've ever heard- a loudness that was telling of non-survival. I jumped, then got up to see what it was. There was a good-sized, white bird print on the window. Oh no, I thought.

Down on the ground below was the dove, just barely moving. There was no way it was going to survive that. Was I going to have to go out and..

I didn't even want to think about it. After a few seconds it stopped. And seven other doves gathered around it. (Seven.. an odd number. Doves mate for life you know.) Just sitting there on the walkway. Every few minutes I'd look out again.. and they would all be there. Just sitting. More doves came. Other birds came. It was awful and beautiful to see at the same time.

you don't know what you've got. till it's gone

Still no working fridge. And I am starting to realize how much it's taken for granted. Honestly. Try going an entire day without getting out of or putting anything into your fridge (AND not having takeout). Then try two days. With kids.

We've had things like oatmeal, flavored breads, and apples for breakfast (okay, and crackers). The coffee creamer I got is actually not too bad and I did have my coffee today. Which only prevented morning meltdowns. By the afternoon I was so sick of eating nonsense (and my body was lacking a lot of nutrients) that I.. well, ya know.. may have perhaps had a lack of patience with my children.

Lily and Noah had gross microwave lunches and I had.. I don't know.. a Clif bar I guess. And apples.

Just before dinner, I dragged them out to the grocery store and bought just enough to make the one meal for them. Which is super cost effective of course (no, no it's not).

this day, i'm done with it

It started last night. When the entire refrigerator broke. As in ceased to continue to create a cold environment for food.

And it continued this morning at 7am when I was throwing out hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of food. The actual amount makes me too sick to think about, so I'll leave it at that.

Then it went on when there was nothing for breakfast. Oatmeal? I forgot to buy it. Cereal? No milk. Eggs? Gone. What do other people eat? Fine I'll eat another Clif bar. Coffee? No half & half. Oh no.. no coffee!?

The fridge died. I was up til 2am dealing with that and children that couldn't sleep because of us dealing with the fridge. I woke up at 7am to clean out the fridge for trash day. (Actual, I woke up to Jason cleaning out the fridge instead of getting ready for work, so I mean..) And then I had no coffee.

Which didn't create any happiness. I even tried to warn my children. Gave them the entire story of tiredness and absence of coffee. They pretended that sure, sure they understood. (They lied.) Sure, we'll get ready to leave so mommy can get coffee. (They double lied.) And not kill anyone. Lily mentioned that I shouldn't do that because it was bad. I agreed and yet explained that I wasn't responsible for my own actions sans coffee and avec children (see what I did there?). I'm sure there must be a law about that somewhere.

Do you know what I was forced to buy? Some type of coffee creamer. In little tiny, single use containers they don't have to be refrigerated. Because..

The part that will theoretically fix the refrigerator isn't going to be here for 3 days. Oh. Pff. Sure. That's totally fine. What the heck do I need a fridge for anyway. I mean.. it's not like the kids require a constant supply of chilled juice flowing through them at all times or anything.

Upside? One, all the money we're saving without a fridge running for 100 hours or so. Two, I didn't have to put the groceries away when I came home for a couple of hours.. when I "felt like it."

And.. the children can actually continue to have their juice because it's pretty cold out here now- to the extent that it even snowed today. (The former window garden now makes an excellent temporary fridge.)

not on the list

I looked at the paperwork from Lily's school three times before today.. regarding today. Just to make sure there was indeed school. Veterans Day was NOT listed as a holiday that her school was closed. Well alright then..

But I'm sure you can imagine where this is going.

I asked Jason to check on his way to work. He said it looked like there wasn't school. But I thought maybe it was just early. We were already half ready and were actually fully ready on time.. which hasn't happened in months. So.. that alone should have been the biggest tip off of what we were to find at her school.

No cars. No parent cars. No teacher cars. Of course.

Originally I had told her if there was no school we would go to the playground instead, but I was too tired and it was too cold. So instead I drove on and to a fast food restaurant (and as I pulled into the parking lot I commented to myself that I couldn't believe I was doing this voluntarily). I purchased Lily an overpriced breakfast sandwich. And myself an even more overpriced breakfast sandwich (pretty sure I was charged the same amount as if there had been meat on it). She loved hers because it had bacon. I didn't care for mine. And Noah wasn't interested in any of it. Smart man.

Overall a fail of a day. So far anyway.

inspired #9

to MAKE..

tzatziki sauce @nikki dinki cooking

I really need to try making my own tzatziki sauce- as it is one of my favorite things to add to as many dishes as I can. This recipe makes it looks pretty simple.

to MAKE..

how to prepare boba pearls @a beautiful mess

Another thing I need to do is get some boba pearls. Bubble tea with these boba pearls is one my absolute favorites things.

to MAKE..

fried potato cheese puffs @jane doe cooks

Something else to make. Fried mashed potatoes, basically. And can you imagine if one were to add blue cheese to it? Mmm..

to MAKE..

fabric wrapped bracelets @creme de la craft

These bracelets look so simple to make and are as cute as the fabric you wrap them with. Really, you could use almost anything for the base of the bracelet.. even another bracelet.

don't tell anyone but..

I test drove a car today. And not only did I not hate it, but I'm pretty sure I found the make and model that we will ultimately purchase.

Tomorrow we will go out again because next comes the most difficult step: what color?

this was our halloween

Now that Halloween is very safely over (and I have pretty much recovered).. I will tell you how ours went this year.

I had the great idea, very late into the game, that I would make costumes for everyone. Everyone. Lily finally decided that she wanted to be Fionna (from Adventure Time). Originally she was telling me she wanted to dress up as costumes she already had (strawberry, cowgirl on a horse, etc) until I thoroughly explained that she could be anything she wanted.. and I would make her costume for her.

So, she decided on Raven from Teen Titans Go. Which I was thrilled about. Cape- easy to make. I could buy a black long-sleeved mock-turtle leotard, some beige/tan leggings, and short black boots. Add in a few small details and it would be done. Then she changed her mind.

Thankfully I hadn't purchased anything for a Raven costume yet. I asked her over and over and over what she wanted to be for about a week just to make sure she was still saying "Fionna".. and I began the costume assemblage.

She already had three shirts that she could choose from so I figured I'd just buy a blue skirt, black shoes, blue striped tube socks, etc etc. Haha.

The perfect shoes were quickly found at Payless, but the skirt? I looked absolutely everywhere I could think of online for a blue skirt. There were a few possibilities, but "surprisingly" mid-October is not a good time for buying anything close to blue bicycle shorts for preschoolers. So... I made her a skirt.. with shorts attached underneath. I traced a pair of her leggings and improvised the rest.

I also designed and made her backpack, painted blue stripes on the tops of her knee socks (after the attempt with ribbon failed), and added yellow "hair" onto the hat we bought her. Jason and I repainted a foam sword for her.. and she was pretty much in heaven over all of it.

Noah on the other hand had absolutely no say in his costume.  Just like last year, poor thing.

I had planned to create a Princess Bubblegum (from the same show) in her science gear costume for myself, but spent so much time on Lily and Noah's costumes that I knew I'd never even have a chance at half-completing it.. so I didn't even start. But, Noah's costume was more to match my own.. with his being Science, her candy corn mouse/rat lab assistant.

I partially used a pattern for his costume, but made a lot of changes to the basic lion/pig/whatever form. I also made a pair of pants to go under it and a hat with ears I knew he'd never wear.

Although time consuming, everything was fairly easy and came out really cute. Proof during our one "real" trick or treating stop after sort of bizarre mall trick or treating..

It was the only time that night Noah had his mouse ears hat on. Or would allow it I should say. All my pictures of him are either from the back or a blurred streak. Constant motion that one is. Really, both of them.

Next year I need to start earlier, because I'm not sure who was more disappointed that I was dressed up, me or Lily..

welcome to day seven

November. Day 7. I am struggling for something to say, because there's not much good to say about today.

Well, actually.. the tooth fairy visited Lily for the first time last night. She left a $5 bill and a lengthy note. Do you know what I got for a lost tooth when I was her age? A quarter. Boy, that inflation..

We didn't go anywhere today- which was just as well because it was raining. Lily and Noah colored some pictures for me today. Together. On the same paper. For the first time ever.

But that wasn't even the highlight of my day. Nope. That came when Noah took off his diaper and pants in one swift motion, took a step back, and peed on them. There are a variety of meanings that could have- and I don't care for any of them.

And ya know what? That's all the quantity I've got today..

tooth fairy night

So after a couple of weeks of wiggly teeth, Lily finally lost her first one today. At school.

Of course at school. She spends hours and hours and hours and days with me. And her first loose tooth comes out during the few seconds she's at school.

It popped out during snack time and one of her teachers plunked it into a baggy for her to take home at the end of the day. Of course it's all very awesome (and I'm only slightly crushed that I missed it) and she's so excited for the tooth fairy to come tonight.

Which brings on a whole new level of panic and responsibility for me. What does the tooth fairy bring these days? Money? Elaborate notes? Promises of exciting adventures with mommy and daddy?

Maybe I should Google it.. because if I ruin first tooth fairy night.. I'll probably have to give back my good mommy certificate.

the last of my 2013 window garden

I guess it's time to accept that gardening season is over. I even started to clean up what was left outside. I brought in a few flowery plants that were still alive- as well as my lettuce and green onion plants.

I had a good run this year though.. for only being able to have enough plants to fit just outside one of my windows. At first it was frustrating to have such a little space, but as the summer went on, it was nice to be able to have it right at eye level and be able to see what it was doing and who was visiting it.

 

In all my decades, I don't believe I had ever seen a praying mantis in person, let alone be able to reach out and touch one. Or two.

 

The cucumbers had some of the best flowers. Which is good, because none of the flowers I planted ever bloomed.

 

It seemed like the tomatoes took forever to arrive, but when they did.. they took over. And grew and grew and grew.. even into November.

 

One of the best parts of having a garden is not having to go to the grocery store for lettuce, or onion, or tomato, or whatever other extra ingredient your meal needs.

 

Today, I brought in the last of what was left of all the dead or nearly dead plants- so perhaps I will finally get to try fried green tomatoes.

The final garden total (not including this final mess above) for the year was.. 8 green beans, 49 purple beans, 6 full and 3 half grown cucumbers, 20 lettuce leaves, 21 tomatoes, and some amount of green onion.

Nope, no hindrances here.

I spent a lot of time on the internet last night and into this morning (oh, 2:30am or so) looking at cars online and revising my "list" based on what I did and did not see yesterday. And I actually found cars to look at that didn't involve driving hundreds of miles.. in fact they were in the next town over. But..

Four and a half hours of sleep plus 35 degree weather plus a completely zonked out toddler.. didn't lend well to car lot exploration this morning. But, that's fine.. plenty of time.

Or not.

Driving, driving. Without driving.

I drove around and looked at cars today. A lot of driving.. a few cars. It was pretty fun. Hmm.. no it actually was the opposite of that.

The first place didn't have the car I saw online. The second place was stupidly out of the way (and closed) so I didn't bother with it. (And I wasn't sure there wasn't an outrageous toll somewhere on the way.) The third place was overly complex and frustrating to get to. One of the cars didn't have what I thought it would (my fault) and the other one was actually a possibility, but I was cold and frustrated and hungry and totally not in the mood to deal with a salesperson. So I left and got something to eat instead.

Then I went to a fourth place that was supposed to be closed, but it wasn't. I wasn't going to get out of the car because I was still eating, buuuut it didn't even matter because there seemed to be no way to drive into the actual lot look at the cars for sale. And since it was even colder than it had been the hour before, I wasn't about to make a hike out of it- so I left.

The fifth place was closed, which was fine. But it was also gated. And that wasn't fine because there was nowhere else to park to even look at the cars.

There was no sixth place because I was tried of driving my own car at that point.. nevermind any cars that could potentially be mine. The end.

what we did

1. Noah has been getting into the crayons more and more lately. Very surprisingly he hasn't gone for the walls yet though.
2. More beans and tomatoes from the garden.
3. Early signs of autumn.
4. My favorite fall mushrooms. They look like candy corn when they first sprout up, turn all orange, and then eventually brown.
5 - 7. More and more tomatoes, beans, lettuce, and green onions from the garden. Even in October.
8. Sugar cookies made. They were from a package.. but heck, I still get credit for baking. Don't I?
9. Thought the garden was done? Nope. Even at the end of October and beginning of November I'm still getting tomatoes, beans, and green onions. It's now November 2 and there is still more to come.

in November

November? How is it November? I don't think that's right. It seems like summer was just starting and now I'm already being bombarded with Christmas. I don't like it.

My unofficial blogging goal for the year was that each month I would blog at least as much as the same month the previous year. And I did.. until last month. There was just too much going on. Recovering from Lily's birthday at the end of September, endless car nonsense, preparing for Halloween..

And I failed- with only 6 entries instead of at least 10. But, now that it's November (and NaBloPoMo) I have the challenge of attempting to blog every day of the month. Last year was the first year I succeeded with that.

The up side is that I write more. The down side is that it is clearly quantity over quality. Is it worth it?