Last Friday Jim came down with the flu (stuffy head, coughing, aches, fatigue). He seemed to weather it alright - he spent a good portion of each day in front of the computer. Along with that, though, he had the knowledge of an impending root canal.
On Sunday we found that the car had a flat tire - another thing to take care of this week. We went to church, where I gradually felt the onset of the flu. By the end of the morning service, I was tired and coughing. I managed to make lunch for us - leftovers - but went to bed immediately after. I haven't left my bed much since then. The flu hit me hard, and came with the added symptom of nausea.
Jim stayed home on Monday, as the kids had a field trip to attend. They all enjoyed the Anne of Green Gables play, and the pizza afterward. On Tuesday, Jim had his root canal first thing in the morning. Thankfully, the doctor did a great job numbing him, and the prescriptions do a great job of keeping him pain free. He stayed home again, though, as I was still in bed, and the kids were running wild.
Today, Jim is back to work, and I am out of bed. I'm still not fully recovered, but I'm getting better. I suppose it's a good thing that we are so far ahead in our schoolwork - we'll probably be taking off the whole week. I hope the kids stay healthy.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Jamie's quilt top: done!
Other than straightening up the edges, this quilt top is done! Now comes the grunt work - layering the backing and batting, basting it all together, and quilting it.
In times past, women would gather for a day, sitting around a large quilt, hand stitching the layers together. Some women would have a large quilt stretched out somewhere in their house, ready for them to sit down whenever they had time to hand stitch. Some women still do that... but I don't have room, nor the inclination to hand stitch this huge quilt!
Nowadays you can send your quilt off to be machine quilted for you, which can save you quite bit of work. However, it will not save you money - the prices make ready made quilts look economical! A simple quilting can cost $250 or more. That's just the quilting - after you've bought the material, done the patchwork, layered everything and basted it together. And after they quilt it you still have to sew on your binding.
So, this quilt will be wrested through my regular old sewing machine. I will fight it and hate it. I will breathe a sigh of relief when it is finally done. And then I will give it to my four-and-a-half year old to drag around the house.
who's the real idot here?
This morning I came across this line in the book I was reading:
Hmm... into what sort of family did I marry? Take comfort, the book was not written about Jim's family, or any other specific carter family. It is fiction, after all.
However, here is a chance for redemption. While connected with the idiocy, the Carter name is not the source of it:
Yes, the company sent a life insurance offer to a man who has been dead for 10 years. That's some "second chance" they're offering!
And the idiot Carter? "Tis a sentence worse than death merely to be associated with the Carter name, " Andre muttered.
Hmm... into what sort of family did I marry? Take comfort, the book was not written about Jim's family, or any other specific carter family. It is fiction, after all.
However, here is a chance for redemption. While connected with the idiocy, the Carter name is not the source of it:
Yes, the company sent a life insurance offer to a man who has been dead for 10 years. That's some "second chance" they're offering!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
word play
At one time we thought we had a nice, quiet second child; a child who would give us a bit of a break form the seemingly never-ending chatter of our first. Lately, though, we've found out that we have two talkative children. It's hard to find a moment's peace in our house! However, all this chatter does lead to some humorous situations at times.
In the car we talked of kosher food rules, which led to the history of food production, and we found out that some farms may use an item known as a incubulator... square eggs, anyone?
While going over our flower flashcards in homeschool, we repeatedly find that the carnation is now the "all creation", and the chickory plant had become "chick and eggs."
In the kitchen, I often have company as I cook. One day Jamie was playing with some office supplies on the counter. After telling him that, yes, that box was full of tacks, I heard this short story take place:
"Aaah! A Tack!"
"Attack!"
In the car we talked of kosher food rules, which led to the history of food production, and we found out that some farms may use an item known as a incubulator... square eggs, anyone?
While going over our flower flashcards in homeschool, we repeatedly find that the carnation is now the "all creation", and the chickory plant had become "chick and eggs."
In the kitchen, I often have company as I cook. One day Jamie was playing with some office supplies on the counter. After telling him that, yes, that box was full of tacks, I heard this short story take place:
"Aaah! A Tack!"
"Attack!"
Monday, February 11, 2008
Woohoo!
A box from Amazon arrived in the mail today, and I had trouble keeping Jamie from opening it. As soon as Jim got home from work, the kids ran to "help" him open the box. Jim and I were puzzled, as neither one of us was expecting an order from Amazon.
Turns out it was a gift! Thanks, Linda! Enough milky tea to last for a few months! Woohoo! (And blue was the right color!)
more accomplishments
The thrift store and Craigslist strikes again... On Craigslist I found bookshelves this time, and a furniture sale. There's this company called Corporate Rental that every so often clears out the warehouse with a really good sale. While most of the furniture is too modern for my taste, we needed a table for the sewing room, and it didn't really matter what it looked like. We ended up getting a nice-looking, good-quality table and four (need to be reupholstered) chairs for only $60. What a good deal!
At the thrift store we found Playmobil! And not just any playmobil, a pirate ship and two castles! For only $20!
The kids are thrilled with them, and can't wait for me to sew so they can play some more.
Hey, at least they didn't get into trouble while I finished the baby quilt.
Last, but not least, today I will be very happy to finish my dinner with a slice of banana cream pie - one that doesn't contain any milk! Jim will be happy to finish his dinner with some of the leftover chocolate chess pie (it's like eating brownie batter!).
Are you drooling yet?
At the thrift store we found Playmobil! And not just any playmobil, a pirate ship and two castles! For only $20!
The kids are thrilled with them, and can't wait for me to sew so they can play some more. Hey, at least they didn't get into trouble while I finished the baby quilt.
Last, but not least, today I will be very happy to finish my dinner with a slice of banana cream pie - one that doesn't contain any milk! Jim will be happy to finish his dinner with some of the leftover chocolate chess pie (it's like eating brownie batter!).
Are you drooling yet?
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
some work completed
We've been busy lately, and not just with homeschooling. Of course, normal chores fill up our time, along with parenting and church volunteering, but we also are accomplishing things around the house! Woohoo!
This past weekend we revamped a lot of the storage areas in the basement. For too long they had been overrun due to their poor use of space, or general lack of storage. With a little elbow grease and a trip to Lowe's, we now have more useful storage space in the basement, not to mention more room to walk around. Here is the pantry/Jim's closet/ toy storage area:
And here is the sewing room storage:
Have you seen that much material outside of a sewing store? Other sewers call this a stash, and some are embarrassed by it. Personally, I adore mine!
I don't get to use the sewing room as much as I would like to - there's this job I have, you know, watching the kids, that prevents me from doing so. However, here is one halfway completed project (it needs to be quilted yet):
All of the materials for that quilt top came off those shelves. Most were leftover from previous projects. And I have made some progress on Jamie's yellow and green quilt:
Yeah, it's crazy, and there is a lot of work left to do on it!
We have work to do yet in the basement as well. We have pegboard to put to use! And more stuff to sort! And a few loads of stuff to take to the thrift store and dump! Clean and organize, that's our motto for the year. What have you completed this year?
This past weekend we revamped a lot of the storage areas in the basement. For too long they had been overrun due to their poor use of space, or general lack of storage. With a little elbow grease and a trip to Lowe's, we now have more useful storage space in the basement, not to mention more room to walk around. Here is the pantry/Jim's closet/ toy storage area:
And here is the sewing room storage:
Have you seen that much material outside of a sewing store? Other sewers call this a stash, and some are embarrassed by it. Personally, I adore mine!
I don't get to use the sewing room as much as I would like to - there's this job I have, you know, watching the kids, that prevents me from doing so. However, here is one halfway completed project (it needs to be quilted yet):
All of the materials for that quilt top came off those shelves. Most were leftover from previous projects. And I have made some progress on Jamie's yellow and green quilt:
Yeah, it's crazy, and there is a lot of work left to do on it!
We have work to do yet in the basement as well. We have pegboard to put to use! And more stuff to sort! And a few loads of stuff to take to the thrift store and dump! Clean and organize, that's our motto for the year. What have you completed this year?
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