Posts Tagged ‘calendar’
Busy afternoon today. I’m dropping Lucas off at preschool at 12:30, and I have lots of stuff to bring with me. I’m taking four empty milk jugs to contribute to the construction of the school’s igloo, and I also washed some dress-up clothes as part of their winter cleaning. While Luke’s in school, I think that I’m going to take Meredith over to the local yarn store that a friend told me about yesterday. (Lord help my wallet, LOL!) Then, after preschool, Lucas has a quick checkup at the pediatrician’s office. Sometime today, I also have to make a grocery list and work on the finishing touches for this town calendar. And I’m doing laundry ~ and I’d also like to relax and do some knitting tonight, if possible. Such a busy time of year!
Yesterday afternoon, I took the kids over to our town’s train station to help decorate for Santa’s arrival this Saturday. Lucas was *so* excited about the model train that’s there. He also saw Santa’s chair sitting in the corner and asked me, “How tall is Santa?” It was super cute. The tree that they chose for the station is so beautiful and full and smells incredible. Lucas is contributing his glittery bell ornament that he made during moms’ group on Tuesday. :) I helped string lights on the outside of the depot, and while we were doing that, we saw an eagle flying overhead! Yesterday was a great day for decorating because it was actually pretty warm ~ in the 40s and low 50s! I can’t wait to take some pictures on Saturday. It’ll be interesting to see whether Meredith enjoys Santa or is afraid of him! Oh, and Santa will arrive on one of the town’s fire trucks!
Well, I’d better go ~ the laundry probably needs to be switched around. This week has gone by *so* fast ~ how did it get to be Thursday?
I’m so excited about making snowflake-shaped sugar cookies today. I have navy blue and royal blue coloring, and I’m going to tint the cookies a pale blue. I also have clear, sparkly, edible glitter and some crystal sugar. I’ll probably leave some of the frosting white, too. The dough is chilling in the refrigerator. There’s a cookie exchange on Tuesday during my moms’ group meeting (where everyone comes home with three dozen different kinds of cookies, depending on how many participate!), and I’ll probably freeze some for our train station’s holiday party on the 13th. Now I just have to discipline myself not to eat too many cookies and gain a zillion pounds! These cookies have two cups of sugar and one cup of shortening ~ talk about fat and calorie overload!
By the way, we received our very first Christmas card: from our friends Vicky and Natalie. They hand-delivered it to us when they came over for Thanksgiving. :) Our first Christmas card in the mail was from fellow blogger Connie. Thank you very much! I love picking up our mail this time of year! So where’s the farthest away that you’re sending a Christmas card? I guess that ours would be relatives in California.
The only thing I have going on today is a meeting about this calendar that I’m designing, and hopefully I’ll be finished with it very soon. I feel like I can’t start on Christmas projects until it’s done. We’re almost there, though. I did address some Christmas cards last night, though, and I also stayed up late knitting. :) I’m working on a new project … Grandmother’s Favorite Dishcloth. It’s really easy so far ~ I haven’t managed to screw it up yet, but there’s still time! :)
P.S. If you’re looking for a foot-related Christmas gift for someone special (yeah, I’m not kidding!), here’s a website that has pretty much everything you can possibly imagine that relates to the feet (including special splints to help with Plantar Fasciitis). Actually, they have some socks that look super comfy ~ and look at this gadget that lets you take a walk while you’re sitting down! I need one of those for when I’m tied to the computer doing freelance work!
I never thought that I suffered from Seasonal Affective Disorder, but today is sure making me wonder. It’s in the high 40s/low 50s outside right now, and I’m in such a *good* mood. (It’s even Monday ~ isn’t that incredible?) I was singing at the top of my lungs in the car and dancing around with the kids. Such a bright day. If the entire winter season could feel this way, I’d be one happy girl! But on days when it’s cold, dreary, and gray (typical of most every month here except for June, July, and August!), my mood seems to reflect that. I realize that weather can have a huge impact on a person’s emotions, and I know that I’m not alone. How do you tell whether it’s SAD, though? I dislike winter *so* very much. I’ve heard that you can purchase special home lighting in order to simulate natural sunlight. Really, I think that what I need to do is figure out a way to possibly enjoy winter. I *love* to figure skate, but I don’t think the kids are old enough yet for me to take them to a skating rink. Playing in the snow is fun, and we do have a sled. But overall, I just *dread* the arrival of winter. It lasts *so* freaking long here. January and February are the worst. I guess that I just have to keep thinking March thoughts!
I ordered our Christmas cards a few minutes ago. Pretty pleased with them ~ I designed them myself ~ but we’ll see how the print quality is when they arrive in the mail. I cannot *wait* to snuggle underneath a blanket on the couch with a cup of hot tea in hand, a cool sparky pen, and fill them out! But first, before I can think about any projects like that, I *have* to get this quadricentennial calendar finished. I’m almost done designing it … just need more motivation to push through the very last part.
Jeff leaves on Wednesday for his dad’s memorial event in Texas, which is on Saturday. We *really* need to figure out ASAP what our travel plans for Christmas are, too! Such a busy time!
Can you believe that the Christmas tree pictured on the right is made entirely from empty cans of Mountain Dew? My friend Cassandra in Minnesota sent me the e-mail forward with photos, and I couldn’t resist blogging it. I actually think that it looks kind of pretty! The two-liter bottle on top is such a nice touch! :) It looks like it probably took a long time to put together … there are wires soldered to the cans, and then somehow they’re hooked to the inner pole of the tree. I wonder how long it took for them to drink all of that Mountain Dew? Talk about a great way to recycle … and I’m sorry that I don’t know who created this Christmas tree, or I would give them proper credit here. (I hope that this isn’t a “hoax” ~ I probably should have checked out Snopes first!)
It’s almost 60 degrees here today. So nice! I went grocery shopping with the kiddos this morning (they were really good ~ yay!), then we took a walk around our neighborhood after lunch. (With the McDonalds that I ate yesterday, I needed some exercise ~ or some cheap diet pills, LOL!) Now that Meri is napping, I’m settling down to work some more on this quadricentennial calendar for our town. Later this afternoon, we’re picking up our next-to-last CSA share from the farm. Not sure what’s on tap for this weekend, but tomorrow I have to stop by our neighbor’s house to pick up something ~ and I’ll get to enjoy some “me time” on Sunday. We also have the Netflix movie “Kung Fu Panda” to watch. Happy Friday, everyone! :)
I’m unfortunately skipping my MOMS group meeting this morning because both kids have bad colds. :( Green stuff keeps coming out of Meredith’s nose, and they both have coughs. Right now, Lucas is relaxing on the living room couch underneath a blanket, which he hardly ever does. Meredith is also very snuggly (which I love, of course!). I have a *ton* of things to get done, and it’s a very rainy, dreary day ~ so it’s a good opportunity to be at home working on stuff and just hanging out. I have to call the printers today to touch base with them about this calendar that I’m designing, and I’m also interviewing a lady over the phone for a feature story that I’m writing ~ not to mention it’s preschool day!
Many thanks to Cheryl, who *so* generously sent a wonderful Tigger costume for Lucas in the mail! He looks *so* freaking adorable in it (and it’s warm, which is a requirement of Halloween costumes here in upstate New York!). I didn’t get to see the costume on him for long, though, because he refuses to put it on until Halloween gets here! :) I couldn’t find a Tigger costume except for on Amazon.com, and it was $50! Crazy. Thing is, I should have started looking for the kids’ costumes earlier. Note to self … start in September!
I’m in the process of making a grocery list for the items that we’ll need when our families are here. Thursday’s dinner will be roasted butternut squash soup, crusty bread, a mixed-greens salad with walnuts, pears, cranberries, and apple slices, and maybe some green beans; Friday’s dinner will be homemade pizza with salad and possibly breadsticks; and then Sunday through Tuesday will be meat and potatoes/slow cooker meals. It’ll be a huge grocery shopping trip, but I’m *so* looking forward to cooking! I just hope that the weather will be nice this weekend for her party. I heard a rumor about the “s” word ~ snow! Hope not!
Greetings from the land of the stuffed up, clogged, congested ~ whatever you want to call it. Yes, I’m still not quite 100 percent ~ but I’m doing much better now, thank goodness. I can hear a little more, and my head doesn’t ache like it did before. One of the moms at Lucas’s preschool had this same virus, and so did the husband of the teaching assistant. Yesterday when I dropped Luke off, they were both going on and on about how bad the virus was (especially the vertigo that comes with it). They understood perfectly why I wasn’t able to get into the car and drop Luke off at school last Thursday.
Anyway, today will be spent going to the post office to mail a few eBay packages that are completely late, working on designing this 2009 calendar for our town, setting up interview appointments for two feature stories I need to write by the end of the month, and doing whatever cleaning I can. It’s hard to believe that our families will be here next week! Yikes ~ so much to get done.
Today is Wordless Wednesday, so I’ll leave you with a picture from our recent trip to Canada. I think that some Picnik is in order for this shot, although I haven’t had a chance yet!
I am *so* excited about an upcoming project! Our town just contacted me to design a calendar celebrating its quadricentennial next year! (400 years ago in 1609, Henry Hudson arrived here.) I get to turn *very* old photos into digital images (editing them a bit, of course) and then make a calendar that will be a keepsake (and fundraiser) for our town. (Promotional pens to hand out at town events would also be a neat idea for the future.) I had a meeting about the calendar this morning. It’s such a blessing to be able to help our community and to continue my career interests (journalism, graphic design, etc.). I have a *lot* of work ahead of me!
So … I’m sure glad that we now have an *excellent* way to goof off! :) We’re just *loving* our new Wii. It arrived on Thursday. (Have I gotten any work done between now and then? Nope! Not a bit!) And let me say up front that I *rock* at bowling. :) Today, Jeff designed a “Mii” for each of us. We went to bed *really* late on Thursday because we were playing! I had a “Wii hangover” the next day, LOL! :)
Friday, we picked up our weekly CSA share. Included were: two delicata squash, one pumpkin, one bunch of broccoli raab, four eggplant, mizuna mix, two tomatoes, five peppers, one bunch of carrots, pick-your-own flowers, and pick-your-own tomatoes. I brought a huge, heavy shopping bag with us and picked as many tomatoes as I could carry. We’ll save the tiny ones for the kids to eat, but the larger ones … I’m going to try some fried green tomatoes soon and then possibly make my own marinara sauce to freeze. (You can ripen the green ones in a brown paper bag, right?) I’m also going to try cooking the pumpkin to make a puree for pumpkin bread ~ or maybe for pumpkin-walnut muffins. Those sound good! Our CSA continues through November 21st. I am just *loving* it.
I looked at my “365 Amazing Trivia Facts” desk calendar this morning, and I thought that today’s question was incredibly fitting and appropriate for my blog. “Who brought the first bathtub into the United States?” If you’d like to know the answer, it’s in my comments section.
And then, when I opened my e-mail this morning, I saw today’s horoscope (yes, I have my daily horoscope e-mailed to me, LOL!): “Go through your desk or your closet ~ or, if you’re feeling ambitious, your attic ~ and reorganize. Better yet, you may want to clear out some of that clutter and get rid of it for good!” No need to tell me twice. That’s the mood that I’ve been in lately (and I think that Jeff is, too). I’ve been wanting to reorganize our linen closet; maybe today’s the day! :) Funny ~ the last time that closet was reorganized, I was pregnant with Meredith (talk about nesting ~ I even took a label maker and labeled each shelf, LOL!).
Inspired by another member of my photography e-mail group, I’ve recently tried taking pictures solely in Manual mode. I’m so proud of myself ~ no longer am I “hiding” behind that Auto button! :) Nothing’s wrong with Auto mode, of course, but I’m trying to learn more about photography and expand my skills. Also, I’ve been shooting in both RAW and JPG formats, then using a program that came with our camera to edit the RAW photos. I am *so* proud of this picture of Meredith. I think that it’s one of the best ones that I’ve ever taken of her. I’m completely addicted to RAW! I’m just amazed at how editable the photos are.
By the way … my husband says that my blog is really difficult to read because the font is incredibly small. And then a blog friend e-mailed me today, telling me the exact same thing. Are you guys finding it hard to read? I’ll have to try bumping up the font size a notch. You’ll have to let me know what you think.
So … what’s on tap for your weekend? This afternoon, we’re picking up our CSA share and stopping by the farmers’ market. Tomorrow, I might take Lucas to help with weeding and mulching at our town hall. Sunday, I’m volunteering to help care for the infants during our church service ~ and then there’s a church picnic afterward. Should be fun, hopefully! But right now, I’m heading outside to finish up the trimming in our yard so that mowing will be easier for Jeff when he gets home from work. Have a great Friday, everyone!
I don’t have much on my calendar for this upcoming week, but I have a *ton* of things on my to-do list. Among them are making a dentist’s appointment, rescheduling my doctor’s checkup, scheduling my yearly OB/GYN checkup, making a follow-up appointment for Lucas’s Lyme Disease at the pediatrician’s office, etc. I *dread* making appointments and will be *overjoyed* when they’re all done and over with.
I also need to finish this freelance assignment by the end of the day tomorrow. After that, I’m going to take the kids to our town’s beach. It might be kind of difficult because the beach is *so* rocky at first (you have to walk a bit of a distance to get past the rocky area). It’s not stroller-friendly at all (perhaps a Bugaboo stroller would work!), but maybe we’ll be able to navigate OK. I’ll be worried about watching the two of them by myself while we’re so close to the water, but since it’s not crowded there, it’ll hopefully be easier. I’d also like to take them to this really great area called the Ooms Conservation Area. It’s 180 acres, and one of Jeff’s coworkers told me that it’s “all the rage” now. The kids would get a wonderful chance to run around and enjoy the fresh air, and I might be able to snap some good photographs.
I can’t get over how *nice* our weather is today! It rained for a while, and I turned off our air conditioning because it’s *so* breezy outside. When the wind blows, I can hear the trees in our front yard creaking. I like to think that they’re talking to each other. :) Jeff took Luke and Meri to church this morning and then stopped by our friends’ house to play for a while, and I’m working hard on this freelance assignment. It’s nice to have some time *alone* here at home, in the peace and quiet! (Well, there’s the noise of the trees, of course, and I can also hear birds chirping and cars driving down our road.) Living out in the country just rocks.
By the way, I’m working on a little something new right now. A new endeavor, I guess you could say. Sorry to be so vague, but I’m *very* excited about it and can’t *wait* to tell you when I get everything all set up! It might take a while, though. I hope that it’ll be a success, but I’ll just have to wait and see. (Ahh, don’t you just love suspense?)
Today is our eighth wedding anniversary! But first … I want to talk about Lucas. He seemed a bit “off” all day long yesterday. He was pretty clingy and totally freaked out when I went into a different room. He wasn’t as active, either. But we knew that something was up when he curled up with us on the couch after dinner and quickly fell asleep in my lap. (I took advantage of that snuggling time, though, because those moments are pretty much few and far between these days!) We covered him up with a blanket and then eventually carried him upstairs to his bed.
Around 10:30 p.m. when I started to head to bed myself, I went in to check on him and he was burning up. So hot. He stirred awake and said that his ears hurt. (He has actually been saying for a few days that his ears are bothering him, but we thought that it was allergy-related.) That’s when I figured that it was probably an ear infection. Neither of our kids had experienced one yet, but I’d heard from other moms that alternating acetaminophen and ibuprofen and giving lukewarm baths helps. After I took his temperature (which was just over 100 degrees) and gave him some medicine, he wanted to snuggle in our bed. I got a cool washcloth for his forehead, but he didn’t want any part of that. He did really great with drinking some water, though. I changed him into lightweight clothes, and he fell back asleep.
Around 4:30 a.m., he woke up and wanted to snuggle with me. I took him into our bonus room, and we both slept on the futon for the rest of the night. He doesn’t feel nearly as warm today, thank goodness. He seems to be doing a lot better. I hope that more medicine and a bath will help even more. I’m debating about whether to call the pediatrician because it seems like he’s feeling better now, but maybe I will just to be safe.
OK … so, like I said, eight years ago today we were walking down the aisle! We were pronounced husband and wife at exactly 4:54 p.m. Right about now, I was probably preparing to put on my wedding gown and get ready for a bite to eat for lunch and then have some pictures taken. I couldn’t wait to see how all of our wedding planning during the past year and a half would unfold. It’s amazing to think about everything that we have done together during the past eight years ~ especially being blessed with two incredible children. I seriously cannot believe that we’re approaching our 10th wedding anniversary so quickly, either! Maybe then we can go back to Quebec City (where we went on our honeymoon). And hopefully we’ll be able to go back there for our 50th anniversary in 2050! :)
Jeff left a “Happy Anniversary!” note on the dry-erase calendar on our refrigerator this morning. We’re going to have a nice dinner this evening and just hang out as a family. I really feel that it doesn’t necessarily matter what you do for your anniversary ~ but rather, the important thing is that you’re fortunate enough to just be together.
