Walkin' in a winter wonderland

I think it is colossally bad planning that Christmas is so near the beginning of snowy winter. It adds insult to injury that there are carols that praise laden clouds and snow that say things like, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." that tie Christmas and snow together in my mind, because then I have 3+ more months of snow without a Christmasy reward. By the end of March it's just become a cruel joke to have huge, heavy clouds and four new inches of snow on the ground, but no tree and no presents and no glowing lights and no soy nog.

That's what's wrong with this world.

Christmas should be the reward for putting up with months and months of snow.

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Now playing: The Police - Darkness
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Spring (?) break

We're on the second week of our two-week spring break. Last week (the last official week of winter) was gorgeous—temps in the 60s and stretching toward 70, sunny skies, sun-pinked necks, cheeks, and ears.

This week (the first official week of spring) has been very cold, temps down in the 30s, and cloudy. We've had rain and a bit of snow, until this morning. Four inches and counting. It's really coming down out there.

It will help the lawn, that's the good part; but it's not great to have seven kids cooped up and housebound during one of our rare weeks off. :-/

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Now playing: Hans Zimmer & John Powell - Panda Po
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Random photo from the archives

I'd already done this over on my LiveJournal, and my niece Alicia just reminded me I hadn't posted it here. Her instructions were just a little different from mine. This is the fourth photo from my fourth folder containing photos.

You can click it to see it bigger. It's from my "nature" folder, and I took it in July 2004 as the full moon rose over the Green River and our little campsite.

Now at least we know the spectrum

I was getting the kids off to bed last night, hugging each one and telling them I love them. Kyrie came over for a second hug.

K: I hugged you twice!
Me: I'm happy about that, because I love you so much.
K: I love you, too! I love you most, then Dad. Then at the bottom: robber.

The cute part was the little face she made between bottom: and robber. Aw, Kyrie is full of these sorts of gems.

Macklin made some other-purpose toys into claws for his tiny hands last night. He say they were twaws so he can TILL. (Remember, the K sound is Ts with him, and the L sound is still about half the time W. So he had claws so he can KILL.)

Me: No no, we don't kill people, we save people! You can use your claws to help.
M: But I see two guys fighting, so I turn into a robot with twaws and I TILL.
Me: No you don't kill them, you save them.
M: But they are fighting because they're bad, so I have to till them.

Sigh. Boys. Despite my best effort at providing only cotton balls and baby dolls to play with, they manage to turn themselves into robots with claws and find justifications to kill.

We'd put Macklin into bed (two different beds actually, trying out different siblings as sleeping buddies) at least four times already, and he was back following me around while I finished up my day. I was turning off all the lights so I could go to bed and I knew more or less where he was in the dark, with his claws. I walked to him and we, you know, bumped just a little. I couldn't feel it through my pajama pants, but his claw probably touched me.

M (worried): Mom, I almost tilled you!
Me: No, you didn't.
M: Yes, I did.

I got into bed and snuggled in, and he climbed in beside me (no idea where he put the claws, probably under my bed) and worked his little, tiny arm under my neck so I'm sleeping with his arm around me and the last thing he said was, "Night, mom. I really, really love you so, so much."

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Now playing: Cream - Sunshine of Your Love
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Not-so-silly putty

Macklin fell asleep with silly putty in his hand. Seriously, it was about the size of a marble. There just wasn't that much of it, and yet it spread this far—the stuff on his tractor PJs is bigger than my palm, and some on Emma's cute throw pillow, and some on my furry blanket. All fleecy, furry things which will be difficult to clean out. Harrumph. (Click on the photo for bigger version.)

Then he peed in his underwear this morning, after months and months and months with no accidents. Is he trying to make me sell him to the gypsies?

SPRING BREAK! Par-tay!

• Am cutting out sugar. Crave it above all else, and I mean all else. Am addicted. It must go. Day 4 today, and counting.


• I love my new MacBook. The 15" screen is so much fun!


• Blaine and I have decided to do a pretty major remodel on the house. It may be stupid considering the current economic situation, but we have a leak in one bathroom that's rotting the subfloor that must be taken care of no matter what; as long as we're at it, we figure we'll do ten or so things that have been on the wishlist for years. When we bought this home we had four children 6YO and under; now that we have seven sweeties and two teens, we need to upgrade. We need more, and different, space—and we can get it much more economically by remodeling this house than buying a different one. I have two appointments with contractors this week, coming over to see the projects and give me bids. *fingers crossed*


• It's spring break! Two weeks of no school for Emma and for us. I have a list of projects I'm going to enlist all the children in, and I'm also planning to inject some fun times. But squee! School's out!

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Now playing: Devo - Through Being Cool
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My charmed electronic life

In addition to two dozen very lovely roses for Valentine's Day, Blaine, that wonderful man, gave me a new iPod. I was the first person in this family to get an iPod or MP3 player of any description. It was a little 4 GB iPod Mini. This is before the days of the Nano, believe it or not.

Now everyone down to Jackson has an iPod or MP3 player; Blaine has three! I've been fond of saying, if anyone complained, "Mine is the oldest iPod in the family." Now I can't say it anymore. Blaine gave me an 8GB fourth generation iPod Nano. Pink, of course. So much sleeker and thinner than my first iPod. Plays videos and everything!

My computer—an iBook G4—is way older than Blaine's MacBook Pro or Emma's newly purchased MacBook. But we needed a new computer for the homeschool kids and were going to have to buy something; Blaine said he'd rather upgrade me and pass mine along than upgrade them and have me continue to make do. (Funny, in human years my iBook should be a toddler but in computer years it's more or less a dinosaur.) It took a lot of investigation, but finally he talked me into it. I am now the proud owner of a 15" MacBook Pro. It is pre-owned, but still has about a year of the original Apple Care on it in which hopefully anything that can go wrong will.

So excited about iLife 2008 and all the other goodies that I didn't have on my iBook. And it looks so sleek and aluminum! Woot. Upgraded to the hilt, and ready to take on the world.

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Now playing: Elefant - Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want
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No Line On the Horizon

Got U2's new CD from iTunes. I'll admit this was barely even on my radar, it's just been in the last few weeks with random news headlines about U2 all week on Letterman that I realized a new album was in the offing; still, you know, had to buy it. :)

I've been through the CD once, and I really like it. There are a few songs that rock, and one of those reminds me of old U2, like maybe October or War era. The rest are more akin to Zooropa and afterward. But there are a lot of very peacefully calm songs. So much harmony on this album, Edge and Adam are really belting it on a whole lot of songs on this one. Am excited to listen to it again; and in this single-song era when I buy complete albums only exceedingly rarely, wanting to listen to the entire album again is a good thing. :)

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Now playing: U2 - Magnificent
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This is getting old.

Have been sick for a week now, with the flu—aches, congestion (snot like glue, TMI?), and generally feeling poorly. I'm functional, I can get up and make meals for the peeps in the house and I'm ambulatory, but I just feel wiped out all the time. After a shower I feel like I need to rest an hour or two. :-/ I'm getting tired of not feeling well, and I'm getting tired of being well enough that I can't just take a day off in bed.

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Now playing: Linkin Park - What I've Done
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