Sushi, anyone?

So, what did you do Tuesday?

My Tuesday looked like this; get up and dressed, start school, decide that guinea pig is sick and needs to see a vet- call around trying to find one that will see a guinea pig. Find one in Newport Beach, if you can get there in 30 minutes- before lunch, they will see you- or take an appointment later in the day (note: when your day becomes hopelessly complicated).
We rushed on down.
On the way home, turn van around and drive back because son left his stuffed toy in the waiting room.

Too much money later, I am force-feeding a guinea pig and administering 4 kinds of medicine twice a day. Party on..

Next: throw the kids some late lunch and launch off to art lessons. While olders at lesson, take youngers and do some frantic shopping for nice dinner you were planning for Grandmother's Birthday dinner. Note to self: no good plan ever goes unpunished when you are a mom. Got it? Good.

Go to store for expensive pre-made chicken cordon blue (because I'm smart like that and I knew my day would be busy) and to Trader Joe's for pre-packaged yummy salad. Put them in cooler I brought, cause I'm smart like that....
Pick up older girls and get home and actually eat my lunch after getting taken down several pegs for the guinea pig thing...yeah.

Remember!!! oh- forgot about Amie's Irish dance lesson! Jet on down to that. While waiting go get gas for the van.
Come home and start making homemade present that I dreamed up a week and a half ago, but didn't get the ingredients for until the day before.
Start dinner.
Congratulate self that even though I spent a good chunk of change for the chicken, it will be a nice, yummy dinner and pretty easy to prepare- I simply place the chicken into the oven to bake, toss salad and make some rice. Breath. Tell self, things are going to be o.k., you can finally take everything down a notch....
Mix cake and place in pan to pop into oven as soon as chicken comes out.
Wrap presents and have kids sign cards.
Bless husband for cleaning up house while you were at dance lesson. (when this all began at 11 something this morning- you left the usual disorder plus a huge, gigantic couch-pillow/ blanket fort in the front room ala the two youngers...

You'll love this part: 30 minutes before dinner is supposed to be ready, power goes out.
My oven is electric.

take 4 kids and Grandparents out to dinner.

Planning is it's own punishment.
Dinner out would have been easier, you think I would have learned by now and just gone with the obviously easier route.

I learn my lessons the hard way.

Sushi, anyone?

the possibilities

Yesterday was the first day of learning center classes for my kids. Amie has been eagerly looking forward to attending since last year. This fall, all 4 of my kids are taking 2 classes plus lunch- one day a week. Amie very seriously considered her wardrobe choices. After I vetoed the heavy cheetah print coat, she choose this cheetah print shirt with brown pants. "So everyone will know I'm a cheetah-girl." she informed me.

I dropped the kids off in the morning, and as I left the building and crossed the street- I had such a strange feeling as I realized it was the first time ever that I had left that building and crossed the street without holding on to a small hand or two. I kind of felt a little sad. -just a little. Until my friend Graceful mom suggested we go out for bagels. Whoo-hoo! I paused to consider my intentions of going home for a run around our quiet neighborhood, then did the clearly sensible thing and went out for a bagel. Intense physical effort vs. yummy egg bagel sandwich with cheese and bacon...no contest, really.

My visionary plans for my first regularly scheduled free day in like 12 years include yoga, painting, blogging, shopping... I went home and did laundry. And considered my huge library fines this week. My life is contained in monochromatic prose, it seems.

Well, there is always next week.

The kids had a blast, Amie was eager to go again tomorrow. She was very disappointed to learn that the classes are only once a week.

half of a lovely couple...

I went shoe shopping tonight, because, well, I really needed some nice everyday shoes. My current everyday shoes are not so nice.
I call them my chicken-farmer's-wife-shoes, and they look it.

But, oh, they are so comfortable!! I wear them around the house, and out and about doing mom things-like the park, grocery shopping. I try to remember to change them if I go somewhere where it might count, like the library or out to eat...or let's say shopping in an upscale department store... ahem. Sometimes, much too often' I forget to change the shoes.

Something really had to be done about my shoes, so I finally had a free space in my day to go find me some nice, but comfortable shoes. Let's just cut to the chase and let me fess up that I walked into Nordstrom's in my chicken-farmer's-wife-shoes.

Now, I'm kind of short and I am attired more often then not in bootlegged jeans that are alittle too long for me- my shoes usually peak out looking kind of worn, but not too noticeable. Until you are standing in the middle of Nordstrom's in the shoe department, under the bright lights chosen to show off the wonderful, beautiful new shoes showcased there. I had to fight the urge to go slink away. My time slot would be lost if I went home to change,...so I tried to wrap myself in a shred of dignity and went ahead and tried on shoes. Peeling off my insoles from my tired, dusty old shoes and painstakingly jamming them into the new shoes was more than I could venture though, so I skipped that part.

dignity girls, always dignity.

the 2nd photo is of my new pair. Aren't they lovely? I'll try to remember not to wear them out to the coop.

the perfect book storm

Memo to self: not a good idea to start Harry Potter #7 a week before the start date of homeschool. when.I.should.be.planning/organizing. Just saying...

I have to mention that this afternoon was the perfect storm; bibliophile-wise.

Picture it:

• Me
• a glass of chilled diet coke with a slice of lemon
• a tin of Natural Cougar Gold Cheddar Cheese- aged 2 yrs
• a box of ritz crackers
• a box of water crackers..just cuz I can go back and forth between crackers...
• HP #7, about 2/3 way through...

sometimes your week just can't get any better.

Usta!!

I am giving myself a headache deciding on a new phonics program for our new K student.

It's official, I am finally free-ing myself of the last remnants of my Abeka curriculum habit.

It's official, because I offered my books to my S-I-L to use with her kids.

It's official, because now I have to pick something else to use to teach Amie to read.

It's an official headache, because days after I decided on using Phonics Pathways...(it's simple, it's all contained in one book..what's not to like?...) I went to parkday today and had the chance to look over a Sing, Spell, Read & Write kit. Once I got over my fear of the million pieces, I kind of liked it. And Amie really liked it. (sorry, no links, I am on my mac tonight!...)

Homeschool bloggy friends, any suggestions? Anyone use this? Should I stick with simple?

On the bathroom remodel front-

we went today and ordered a new bathtub. A new, whirlpool bathtub...woo-hoo!!

We live in an old house, a tub such as this has been un-imagined in this sort of house. I am so glad that Sky kept all the measurements and specifications in hand, because I could not keep track of it all.

And the poor guy at the home improvement store..he was very patient and professional, as we gawked/ um, looked through the catalogs and tried to figure out what we want/need.

He wrote us all up, told us what all we needed to add to it like drains, pump package, etc...itemized all the prices like we asked, wrote it all down for us, figured out the tax
- and then sweetly did it all again.
Because, In 2 seconds, I picked up a catalog-looked at the cover, and said "Honey, I really like this here.." and hubby looked and agreed, and we had to change out how many sides it had, what kind of tile lip it had/did not have..etc. We then switched to a different model, discussed sides/lips...then switched back to our original choice without lips.

utsa!! (isn't that" lips" in Polish??) I know he thought we were alittle crazy when we began singing the veggie tales "I love my lips" song...

We did order the tub, hopefully it will arrive with the correct rights and lefts...

Next we have to pick out tile. The home improvement guy is going to cry when he sees us back.

It's the fumes...

So, anyone up for the rest of my camp week story?

How can I top my last story of driving to camp the wrong day?? -chronicled *here* in painful detail...I'll wait till you get back, really....

I'm going to try to make this short and sweet, since it still pains me.

I drove almost 3 hours, part-way up a mountain, with 3 kids in the backseat-and my logical/linear/near-perfect/engineering husband....

and ran out of gas.

We were on our way for the last day of camp- "show-deo", intent on getting there in time-at the unmentionable ghastly hour of 9 a.m (which meant we had to leave by 6 a.m.)...and about 20 minutes past the last city, the "low on fuel" light came on. I had meant to stop and get gas, but forgot. I was afraid to tell Sky, and so I drove on, thinking that we would run into one of those small, lonely gas stations. We didn't. It got worse and worse. Finally, when the road began the assent, and I knew we would in no-way make it, I told Sky we were out of gas. As in, "I tried all I could think of, now fix it please." (isn't our spiritual life like this, we try on our own efforts to be good or to attain holiness- and then once we've made a complete muddle of it, and our circumstances seem hopeless-we look to God to fix it, somehow?)

Sky actually took it very well-though I could tell he was near panic mode. He had me turn around and head back for the city. It was hopeless, we would never make it back at that point-and we would miss the show and disappoint Meg- I felt physically ill.

We got to a certain point near an Indian casino, where I had looked for a filling station in vain- on the way up..and as we waited at a light and debated trying to take a side road to look for a station, Sky pointed and said, " a station!!"

...the light turned green

and the car died.

We coasted on down the highway, Sky yelling "steer!", crossed the highway into on-coming traffic, coasted up into the driveway and then came to a dead stop. Sky pushed the van the final 5 feet or so.

He filled the tank while I burst into tears.

yes, it was the crowning touch to my rough week..almost.

The next day on the way to Lord's day meeting, I locked my son in the van and walked away.
It was his frantic pounding that alerted me to the, ahem, 'oversight'.

that brought me to tears too, in the meeting as I confessed to Sky my latest escapade.

It was really, only the second time in my whole life that I had run out of gas. Really.

***I'm going to add this on, several months after this post, I was diagnosed as being very, very anemic...one of the symptoms is 'fuzzy thinking'...it was a relief to find out I wasn't losing my mind, the crowning point was me asking Sky nightly, 3 or 4 times in a row if he had locked up our hens for the night, he would tell me yes, I would nod, satisfied and then 10 minutes later ask him again, and then again...

Am I in sync?

Camp week was a rough week for me;- Intellectually.
Actually, the unsettled-ness followed me for a week or two after... It wasn't really all my fault. It was a cosmic, I-have-kids/ Jenny's world- collision- sort of week. And, Sky was out of town; the linear half of our partnership.

The first photo here is from my van, on my way
to drop Meg off at horse camp. Saturday afternoon we ran into a roadblock before heading up the mountain.

See the water-dropping helicopter in-between the trees-center of the photo?

Here is a shot of the fire-trucks lined up on the side of the road. Not bad photos, taken one-handed, while driving and trying to follow the nice police-man's directions...

We were detoured off the highway onto a side-road, in an area I am not familiar with.

I pulled over, once at a safe-ish spot, to call the camp and get alternate directions.

Had a nice discussion about camp- which was starting on Sunday afternoon. Did I mention I took these photos on Saturday?

Yes, I drove 2 hrs. one way and endured a wild-fire roadblock..just to turn around and drive 2 hrs. back. And then I had to drive the 3hrs each way on Sunday.

Not totally my fault. 3 things conspired against me, besides my Jenny-ness ...

1. The handy wipe/off wall calendar I bought, and had installed on the wall, so I could be better organized. The wipe/off wall calendar my kids took over and began taking turns filling out every month. The wall calendar that my kids had filled out wrong on 2 other prior occasions, not counting this notorious instance.

2. Sky cleaned out our "important papers" spot next to the microwave before he left on his trip. The spot where we scientifically jam things we will need soon, but don't want to take time to put away somewhere. He put them away somewhere and I couldn't find them. This included the camp registration information- which included the time we needed to be there, and oh, the date. I called Sky a few days before camp to ask him where the papers were so I could check what time we needed to be there. He couldn't remember where he put them. I didn't question the day though, it had been on the calendar all month.

3. I checked the camp site on-line to get directions and check the times, the times and dates were not listed, but I printed out a nice map.

4. It's just a Jenny thing.

I have more, it gets way more entertaining. It just took some time for the sting to go away...

to be continued...

it's the little things in life...

Just thinking I would try my hand at a cooking post.

I've been just so awed and inspired by the great recipes and step-by step directions (and photos!) over at Barb and Ree's blogs, I thought I would jump right in and share my best cooking secrets with blogland. So, I give you...

Jenny's spiced-up version of low-calorie pizza

Start with one frozen diet pizza: shown here still in the box,
straight from the freezer.

Here I have gathered my secret ingredients: a tub of goat cheese from Trader Joe's and a bag of shredded mozzarella cheese.

The goat cheese adds an extra tangy bite, besides making you feel really continental somehow for buying it. The mozzarella evens- out the empty spaces on the low-calorie pizza..somehow they never look as loaded out of the box as they do in the picture. So, what is up with that anyways??

Here is my 'after' photo, after I have added the goat cheese and extra mozzarella.

Now, next step is put it into your pre-heated oven, as per directions

Last step, take out and enjoy.