Projects

I have... five going simultaneously at the moment. Four are toys, a crochet otter, crochet bowling set (still on the first pin), and a Clown fish that needs eyes, plus a 'stuffie' that will ultimately go to a nephew since it's not coming out as I had hoped (was originally meant for my own son). Plus I have baby pants in the works. Then several projects that are still only in my head, but which need to be begun soon.

Did I mention that it's only 2 months until the winter holidays?!

Kids & Chores

My eldest came up with this brilliant plan to exchange chores for occasional sleepover nights, which traditionally were forbidden during the school year. Anyhow, it's based on a point system where points are earned for chores completed. It ranges from half a point for each basket of their clothes they put away to 3 points for vacuuming the house. They can earn up to 25 points in any week and must have 100 points to earn a sleepover night. The idea being they wouldn't be able to earn more than one per month (if that).

However, they have taken it to new heights! My second child has become some manic cleaner and is constantly on me for things to do that are not on the chore chart. Then she badgers me to add her points after she completed each chore. I won't discourage her, she is getting her share of the work done without my having to fuss or her getting upset for a change, it's just that she gets a little excessive in her efforts. There are more than enough chores for them both to earn their points each week, but they are designed that they cannot wait until the end of the week and still be able to earn them all.

I think they'll get there this week, but I have a feeling both of them are going to flex back just a bit afterward. It's a Halloween sleepover they are working so hard to achieve, after that they are just ordinary sleepovers.

A strange dream

Early this morning I experienced the oddest dream in which my mother, my aunt, and my youngest children featured. It was completely odd. I cannot recall how it began exactly, though I remember being in my grandmother's house (as it was many years ago... clear, with white carpets), and I remarked to my mother how I really needed juice for the youngest children. So my mother and I were discussing it and my aunt chimed in and said she would take me out to get some. So we got in her car and I remember asking where we were going since she was not on any route that would take us to a store. Instead she said, "I know where we can get juice." and took me to a building that was in some stage of construction... meaning there was no real landscaping and there were some large equipment (I didn't dwell on those). There were no other buildings around. By this time is was twilight. We went into the building and she told me to follow her and we went to a room where all sorts of bottled drinks were stored. My aunt glanced around and remarked that there didn't seem to be any juice bottles there (was thinking about purple grape juice), then she said maybe so-and-so would have some as she was one that was commonly taking it all. So we went to this persons office and we grabbed a couple bottles of juice. Then we went out to the car, by this time is was quite dark and magically I now had a car too, separate from my aunt (hey it's a dream world! The car I had was dark green, my aunt's was tan... both were some kind of luxury vehicle). Then suddenly these 'officials' were surrounding us at the trunk to my car. The looked at my aunt and told her, "you know better than to bring strangers into the building and you also know not to take the juice out of the building." She looked chagrined, but as she was not the one carrying the actual juice, they let her go with just a warning. She looked over at me briefly, sympathetically, then got in her car and drove off. The officials looked at me and told me they would go ahead and let me take the juice this time, but not to come back anymore. I said okay and got in the car. At this point I awoke.

The whole thing was exotically peculiar. Everything from the house to the 'building' to the weird juice sequel was just completely off the wall! But then, what are dreams for if not to give our subconcious an opportunity to delve into the bizarre.

Winter Holidays

I have a pine scented candle burning, it's cold and wet outside, I'm in the mood for the winter holidays! It's too bad when we actually get up to the time where I'll need to start digging out decorations and wrapping gifts, that this feeling of energy and excitement will probably have dissipated. Ah well, I still love that candle. Come to that, I really need to see about getting one or two more of them, they really are awesome.

Or I guess I could plan for a pine scented soap. I have some pine essential oil, just for that purpose.

Appearance can be deceiving

I'm a little of an anomaly to many, hard to stereotype or pigeonhole. I've always been this way, probably owing to my somewhat eclectic living style when I was young. A neighbor came by one day and I was dancing in my living room with my children. The radio was going quite loud to the local popular music station. The neighbor commented, "I had you pegged as one that would listen to country, not hip-hop."

I love to knit and crochet. Awhile back my husband was observing me doing so one evening while I had a movie going for 'background noise' and he commented, "I never would have thought you'd go in for something so... feminine." Now I think my father would have something to say about that comment, seeing as long ago it was quite common for men to knit their own socks. Come to that, I'm really not sure how the idea that knitting is a female chore came to be. Truly, anyone can knit, but these days it seems everyone is surprised if anyone under the age of 70 can do it.

So let me sum myself up for you: I like modern music, but I'm open to just about anything. I love to craft and consider myself to be somewhat of an artisan, but I'm no artist (yes, I believe there is a difference... and artist splashes some paint around and it turns out beautiful, I splash paint around and it turns into a mess. LOL). I love animals of all species and phyla without equivocation. I'm quite knowledgeable on many subjects, but I will be the first to say "I don't know" to many many things, because I don't. I like to make soap, I love to read romance novels and watch comic movies. I don't like horror films and can't stand any kind of 'mealy' bean, no matter how it's dressed up. I love my kids, my husband, my city, my state, and my country, in that order. I'm very much into the 'green' movement, as it's now called, but have been doing things different since before it was popular. I believe in grass roots and sustainability. I have my own way of thinking and will NOT be told by anyone what to think, say, or do. I am very firm in my beliefs, but open to being educated on someone else's. I'm accepting of all walks of life regardless of any minority factor. And I have a southern hill accent that was developed as an early adult.

There now, can people please stop acting so surprised when I don't fit their image of me?

Coffee Soap

I made a batch of coffee soap today. It smelled so wonderful and looked awesome! The temperature is getting colder, so I thought I would try an oven method for forcing gel (gel is the natural chemistry in the production of soap generally indicated by heat production and a darkening of color). My mistake was in using my 1 lb plastic molds instead of heat resistant silicone or a wooden mold. Can you see where this is going?

I had the oven on it's lowest temperature setting of 150* and I put the molds on a towel in a shallow baking pan. Apparently even the low temperature was just too much combined with the heat produced from the reaction itself. Both molds warped and one of them cracked around the middle bottom. Fortunately the soap was far enough along in the reaction that it was more of a gel, so it sort of oozed out the crack and left a blob on the outside. I'm still hoping the soap is salvageable, that was the last of my vanilla fragrance oil! If I wish to repeat this experiment, I will need to acquire more of that oil before I can continue.

*sigh* it seems as though every time I get something I like, something goes wrong. I made over a dozen batches of soap by now, how many more things can go wrong before I finally get what I'm aiming for when I start?!

Toes!

My youngest child... and only boy... discovered his feet earlier today. It really surprised me since none of my other children really did that. He actually reached out to grab them and seemed quite fascinated by the little pink wiggly things stuck to his foot. He didn't really try to chew on them, just studied them for awhile. It was very amusing.

I hate to say it, because it makes me sound biased, but I feel like with each subsequent child, their intellectual capacity has increased. My eldest is smart and ambitious, a good combination. My second is so intelligent sometimes it's frightening. My third has a quick wit to her (even though she's not quite 3) and catches on to things very rapidly. My 4th has stumped me with how quickly he's learning. At just over 4 months he's starting to mimic. Earlier I was reaching to get him from his carseat, and he actually bowed his back so that I could get him more easily. One day my husband was holding him and jerking his own stomach muscles to make his belly jump. The baby began to imitate him! He's already beginning to test the world around him, he explores people's faces (something my other children didn't attempt until they were much older), he practices grasping the teething ring I got for him, among other things.

It's very fascinating.

Looking Back

I was driving down a dark road earlier tonight. It was dark, but it had been awhile since I'd been down that road. When I came to the spot, the memories came rushing back. It'd funny how some things latch into your mind, and it's strange the details the mind deems necessary to recall. In that spot on that road almost 10 years ago I was in the worst accident I've ever had. My 2nd daughter was in the back seat, safely buckled into her car seat (thank goodness). My car had a driver's side airbag and I was wearing my seatbelt. We walked away from the crash whole. But the scars on the mind can sometimes be greater than those that may be visible.

I remember that I was heading up to work at my husband's land, I wanted to cut a few select trees down to make room. I had goats up there at the time. My mother in law was bringing my eldest daughter there after having her overnight. I had a small gas can in the trunk, along with a chain saw and various other paraphernalia. The girl I hit was coming towards me and tried to make a left turn... directly in front of me. There was absolutely nowhere I could have gone, nothing I could have done to avoid the accident. Even the police officer said the only way I might have avoided it would have been to stay home. I drove a Ford Beretta at the time, in retrospect a great car with high safety ratings. I hit the girl's truck just behind her passenger door. The front of my car was completely crushed from the impact. My hands were thrown away from the steering wheel by the airbag. My left hand hit the windshield and cracked the glass, my left arm hit the window column between the drivers window and the windshield. My car limped/rolled into a ditch at the side of the road... about 10 feet from a fire hydrant. I didn't pass out, the car was still running (I was shocked) so I turned the engine off. I thought it was smoke I was seeing, but later found out that the airbag has a powder in it to make sure it will deploy.

As soon as I got a few wits about me I got out of the car (it couldn't have been more than a moment), I pushed the drivers seat forward and unbuckled my baby, who wasn't but about a year of age or less. I remember I walked around behind the car, clutching my daughter, shaking and telling DD that it was "okay" as I literally crumpled to the ground. My legs could not hold me up. It was as though I had the strength to get her out of the car, but then everything just failed. The other driver hovered around me apologizing like crazy. I remember that my arms hurt, I was holding the baby with my arms, not my hands. When the paramedics arrived they tried to take the baby to check her over and I did not want to let her go. I remember that everyone was making herculean efforts to keep me calm, I think they knew that I was so much on the edge of hysteria and genuinely tried to keep me calm. It was my first, and last, major automobile accident. I truly hope it stays that way.

We had a lot of trouble getting DD2 into a car seat for several weeks after the accident. She was, fortunately, completely unharmed. The other driver pleaded guilty to her charge of failure to yield. I was 21 years old at the time, she was 17, definitely too young to inadvertently cause the death of a young mother and child. I'm grateful everyday that everything was 'right' and that accident yielded nothing more than a few bone contusions on my arms and a totaled vehicle.

The End of Havanas?

Will this be the end of a long and illustrious breeding program?

Havanas came to our farm and family in the fall of 2002 (I think). They were the main, and only, breed of my second daughter. Over the years I've gone to a lot of trouble and some expense helping her achieve all the goals she set for herself and her rabbits. She has a (very large) BIS trophy and a couple RIS trophies because of them. She was one of the first breeders in the region to have brokens. Her original broken came from the Boyce's, who were responsible for getting the variety recognized by the ARBA.

Overall I found it to be a rather unremarkable breed. Their main attraction being their pelt. A very lustrous coat with deep, penetrating color and luxurious feel. It's no wonder, seeing as this is the breed most commonly used to make rabbit fur coats for people. Their biggest limitation being the low number of available varieties, being recognized only in black, blue, chocolate, and brokens of those three. Surprisingly Lilac is not and has never been recognized, nor does anyone, to my knowledge, hold a CoD or have plans to attempt to make it recognized in the near future. Lilac being a very common result of crossing blue to chocolate it makes little sense to not have it recognized. And it would account for the almost anal way most Havana breeders keep the chocolate variety completely separated from the other varieties (excepting for broken chocolate, of course).

At any rate, earlier today I had a discussion with DD2 about her extreme reactions to my requests for her assistance in feeding. Since the girls have rabbits they own in the barn, I expect them to rotate helping to feed and occasionally to feed without my assistance. DD2 apparently feels the 30 minutes she is required to spend in the barn helping with the rabbits is 30 minutes wasted when she could be doing other things. Our discussion circled around reasons and consequences. If she doesn't wish to take responsibility for her rabbits, then her rabbits will not be available to her for anything else. The real catch is she would still be required to occasionally help in the barn, chores still rotate among the family, after all. She would also not be permitted to show at shows, though she would still have to attend with the rest of the family. Essentially she would lose all the benefits of having rabbits without actually relieving herself of any of the responsibility.

Where I hesitate is in actually selling the rabbits she has. Those are literally 100% her lines. They go all the way back to her very first rabbit. While I would hate to let that go, only to discover that she wants to get back in later, I also don't know if I can have rabbits sitting in the barn, staring at one another, completely useless. I have no desire to show them.

I gave her some time to think it over. She can have that for now.

Facebook Fun

So I've discovered the fun that can be had on Facebook. Farm Pals and Farmville are very fun. Though a bit tedious as one must wait and starting out there isn't much to be done really. Still, I am having fun with it. It's also interesting seeing who I recognize through the various pages. I don't always extend or accept 'friend' invitations, but only because I am still a little hesitant to do so. Thus far it seems quite fun and interesting.

Facebook

Okay, so I'm not really a big fan of Facebook, in fact I really just don't 'get' it at all. What real purpose does it serve? It doesn't really do anything at all, so I just DON'T get it! However, in spite of that, I figured I'd go ahead and sign up for it anyway, maybe I could figure out all the hullabaloo concerning this odd and seemingly purposeless website. I put down my name, e-mail, a password, and my age. That was all it asked for to register. Then the next page came up to an 'add friends' section and listed several people. I became truly freaked out at this point because it was listing people I actually know from online or real life! I went to one of my forums and mentioned my concern over it. Everyone said things like, "you put in your location, it will suggest people that are close to you from that." which I then shot down because 1. I hadn't put in my location and 2. some of the people I recognized live in other states, one is clear across the country! Someone mentioned that it probably got it from my e-mail, which I'm more apt to believe, but I certainly do not want some computer program thumbing through the e-mail contacts on my computer! The more I think on the list of 'suggested friends' the more I am suspecting that is exactly what that program did.

Do you really want just any old program looking through your e-mail contacts? Isn't there another name for programs that do this? Yep, it's called a VIRUS.

Yeah, I'm a little bit frazzled by it, that much is certain.

Massive Disappointment

I swear, sometimes it's barely worth getting up in the morning. I received a call today. "Thank you for your interest, however we will not be extending a job offer at this time." Well it would have been nice to have said something along those lines or at least not to lead me on and make me jump through ten hoops only to whisk the rug out at the last moment. I was so happy to have found employment that would permit me to be home with my children. I was figuring ways to make it work out and considering long-term solutions for the various associated challenges. Only to have one single judgmental error ruin everything. Ah well, by now I suppose I ought to be used to this, however I am not. I do not like being led on with lies and platitudes. But I will soldier on and find a way to make things work for me. Keep going because any other alternative just doesn't make sense to me.