July 20, 2011
July 19, 2011
The Mostril Story
For end of the year teacher gifts, I turned the kids loose with sharpies on some white plastic flower pots. The hubby sprayed them with clear coat... They came out cute. It was father's day, and the kids wanted to make one for the hubby. Since this is a big secret surprise, spraying the clear coat on this one fell to me. The application of the clear coat went uneventfully. I left the Father's Day Flower pot in the driveway to cure. I capped the spray can an headed back to the garage, and then it all went south....
Once inside the garage, it made sense to leave the spray can with the other flower pots in case a second coat was deemed necessary. The other pots were set on a rubbermaid lid, balanced on a go kart stand (you can picture a saw horse with a little foam padding across the horizontal part). The riding lawnmower was parked between the garage door and the stand. The regular mower was angled in front of the stand. Beyond that were bikes and trikes and power wheels... you get the picture, its a real garage for a family with a mechanic, mom, and 2 kids...
I stepped over the pushmower to set the paint on the lid beside the pots. I picked up my back foot, promptly tangling it in the pull cord to start the push mower. I had one of those moments of panic where your life flashes in front of your eyes... I had too much momentum to stop, and besides, in that instant, I wasn't thinking "Hey, I'd have to squeeze the lawnmower handle to start it" but rather, if I pull this cord with my foot I'll start the mower and cut my leg off. I toss the spray can near it's intended location and put my hands out to break my fall. My left hand fails miserably at this task, missing all things I could possibly grab on the way down, so I focus in that instant in making contact with my right. Well I did... My right hand catches the very edge of the rubbermaid lid... Except we have to remember, this is balanced on the stand with nothing but light plastic pots holding it down. So the stand acts as a fulcrum, the lid as a see saw, and the pots, spray can, and lid are all catapulted into the air, flying across the garage and tumbling in various locations, and my hand once again is falling.
The stand is getting closer and closer to my face, so I turn my head, and catch myself with my nostril. Well, really the whole side of my face from my pointy teeth/lip area to my brow bone. Then everything stops... I wait for a second, get my bearings, stand up, check my foot (no longer tangled). Breath a few times, collect all the flower pots and things (this time MOVING the lawn mower to put them in their designated location.
For the most part, the story ends there. However, the next day, sitting all alone, I start having a little stinging burning sensation along side my nose... so I announce to the world "My mostril is hurting" and the world replies back with "" and the world responded: "I hate it when my mostrils bruise" and "yeah, bruised mostrils are the worst!"
This, of course, resulted in the need to explain the mostril story. Explaining the mostril story, when don't in person, is accompanied by pantomiming the events and reliving the momentary fear of death... and at least one coworker crying from laughing at me so hard. So, sorry if you need a tissue now... Next time, I'll try to get it on video!
July 16, 2011
A new trend- Salad as Landscaping
When we bought our house, we worried about the neighborhood, the schools, the commute and more. One of the last things I considered was maintaining the landscape! The VERY first thing we did when we closed on this house was dig a trench through the front yard. It was mid december, and there was snow on the ground. Thankfully a close family member just purchased a backhoe, so he hooked us up... Unfortunately, this means that we displaced a lot of landscaping. Did I ever mention that the previous owner was a landscaper?
So for the past year and a half, we've struggled to decide which projects to do next. What makes sense? What can we afford? What will we later destroy in efforts to fix something else? What do we need to put minimal effort into because it will be a while before we can really do it right? Landscaping has mostly fallen into that last category. Hopefully the downstairs bathroom can be our next priority (once we clean up the mess from the current project, that is, demolition of the illegal sun room off the back of the house...)
When we moved in, the hubby and I discussed the garden. I need a garden to feel whole. A garden can be a big commitment, and depending on how it is done, a big expense. Then my mom bought the kids about $20 in seeds that they chose. So we both caved... We dug (by hand) a little plot, planted some stuff straight into the dirt, and nutured what we could until the deer ate up 2/3 of our crops. I also tried to plant a little herb garden behind our roses. The second bag of compost I opened should have been labeled "mulch." It was 1" pieces of bark and wood... It was 10:00 at night, I didn't have the energy to return it, so I decied I'd make it work. I got some sprouts, but within a week, they were gone... At the time, I blamed the dirt, and moved on...
We started with fresh resolve this year, building a better fence with some lumber scraps (and some bought lumber) and some hand me down fencing. We started tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower and broccoli inside at the end of March. When the farmers market opened the first week of may I picked up some more varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and the kids BEGGED for lettuce. How does a mom turn THAT down? But we had a problem... while we enlarged the garden this year, we had plans for every square inch of it... so where to put the lettuce? Well, for a week, it sat in a sunny window in the kitchen. And then it came to us... We bought one more bag of garden soil, filled up the area behind the roses a bit more with nice fresh dirt, and planted those lettuces right in our front flower beds. I dropped some seeds for green looseleaf and swiss chard in as well. We discovered that the dirt probably wasn't the issue last year... as the purchased seedlings dug right in, the sprouts we tried to start from seed would disappear about 2 days after we saw them... critters... The bigger plants didn't seem to attract them, so for now, we'll stick with some already started varieties!
Hopefully we don't get arrested for this front yard implementation. I'm wondering if we can start a new trend instead. Tired of pulling weeds? Lettuces are pretty good for keeping them at bay (or you could just eat your dandelions, they're possibly more nutritious than the domestic leafy greens!) We interspersed some marigolds for pest prevention. Artistically arranged our varieties... It's quite possibly the prettiest part of our landscaping... well... like I said, the rest will have to wait for later!
So for the past year and a half, we've struggled to decide which projects to do next. What makes sense? What can we afford? What will we later destroy in efforts to fix something else? What do we need to put minimal effort into because it will be a while before we can really do it right? Landscaping has mostly fallen into that last category. Hopefully the downstairs bathroom can be our next priority (once we clean up the mess from the current project, that is, demolition of the illegal sun room off the back of the house...)
When we moved in, the hubby and I discussed the garden. I need a garden to feel whole. A garden can be a big commitment, and depending on how it is done, a big expense. Then my mom bought the kids about $20 in seeds that they chose. So we both caved... We dug (by hand) a little plot, planted some stuff straight into the dirt, and nutured what we could until the deer ate up 2/3 of our crops. I also tried to plant a little herb garden behind our roses. The second bag of compost I opened should have been labeled "mulch." It was 1" pieces of bark and wood... It was 10:00 at night, I didn't have the energy to return it, so I decied I'd make it work. I got some sprouts, but within a week, they were gone... At the time, I blamed the dirt, and moved on...
We started with fresh resolve this year, building a better fence with some lumber scraps (and some bought lumber) and some hand me down fencing. We started tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower and broccoli inside at the end of March. When the farmers market opened the first week of may I picked up some more varieties of tomatoes, peppers, and the kids BEGGED for lettuce. How does a mom turn THAT down? But we had a problem... while we enlarged the garden this year, we had plans for every square inch of it... so where to put the lettuce? Well, for a week, it sat in a sunny window in the kitchen. And then it came to us... We bought one more bag of garden soil, filled up the area behind the roses a bit more with nice fresh dirt, and planted those lettuces right in our front flower beds. I dropped some seeds for green looseleaf and swiss chard in as well. We discovered that the dirt probably wasn't the issue last year... as the purchased seedlings dug right in, the sprouts we tried to start from seed would disappear about 2 days after we saw them... critters... The bigger plants didn't seem to attract them, so for now, we'll stick with some already started varieties!
July 15, 2011
A little fear is Healthy... right?
People are scary... In the computer age, you don't know your neighbors the way you used to... or that is, you have millions more neighbors... people that you've never met that know all of your secrets. Sometimes this is great. I've met women all over the country through online playgroups for my two kids. We've visited with them, exchanged pen pal letters for the bigger one, and stickers for the little one. Holiday gifts have been sent and received, some random packages that you find on your doorstep when you come home for no reason other than your friends were thinking of you. We've supported one another through marriages, divorces, new babies and loss of babies. The internet is a grand thing. Its kind of fun going through customs into Canada, how long will you be staying? Just the day. Purpose of visit? Seeing friends. How do you know these friends? Umm... we met on the internet.... I usually skip that answer and go with we're part of a parenting group!
So why is it, that I go to buy something on Craigslist, and find myself paralyzed with fear? Oh, right... psychotic sickos.. that's why. So we plan ahead. I'm buying something for $1... it is perfectly reasonable that this woman wouldn't want to drive to meet me somewhere (cause there goes the profit margin!), so she gives me her home address. I run it through google maps, print it out, set it on the ledge to the stairs and leave the house. (Note to my friends, if I ever turn up missing, I don't have my directions with me... that's my "insurance" policy, memorize the directions and leave them at home for the hubby to find). The woman's house is all of 4 miles away through 3 backroads (we're kind of neighbors). When I arrive ten minutes later than I planned (oops), she comes to the door and she asks the inevitable "did you find it OK?" This is where I excercise my insurance policy "oh yes, good thing it was easy to get here, since I left my directions at home!" Now she knows that I've left a trail right to her doorstep if she pulls any funny stuff. I pull out my dollar and we make the exchange.
Then she surprises me. I'm still on guard, I don't know this woman. She asks, "do you want some perennials to take with you?" I only brought my dollar with me, so I politely decline, when she explains that she rescued these from her friends greenhouse, they were headed for the trash, and she wants to give them a second chance. We proceeded to load my car up with a flat of creeping phlox, a flat of portulaca, a HUGE hibiscus, and 2 more flats of perennials. As I'm about to get into the car with the kids, she asks if they'd like to see some chickens. Now my guard is up again. But, the kids want to see chickens, what can you do.
Off we go up into her yard, where she has 4 week old chicks, and some 8 week old chicks, and a batch of 4 freshly hatched bantams with their momma (and daddy and aunts) and a big (HUGE) ol Rooster named Rodney, and a bunch more up in a little shed that she let out to run around beneath a mulberry tree. My kids, not known for being brave, boldly followed the largest chickens right over to the mulberry tree and stood in the middle while the birds munched. The rooster came over and joined us for some of our visit. They were in awe! She had chickens with funny hair doos and a bunch of eggs she'd already collected. She talked to me about how the chickens would get broody if she didn't pick their eggs up soon enough, so she'd have to let them hatch. She showed us themomma bantam sitting right on her day old chicks.The kids laughed as Rodney the rooster attempted to... ahem.... get a piggie back ride As we were headed back to the car, we saw even more chickens. They'd just built them a new coop. and put it out under the mulberry tree. Already thinking like a farmer, my big guy noticed that the holes in the chicken wire were big enough for the mulberries to fall through, and my little one pointed out the rectangle of picked clean grass beside the cage (where they had been the day before.). And then we left. So what started out as an overcautious trip to pick on one silly little thing turned into a lesson on farming for my kids, and landscape work for me. A little fear seems healthy, as long as you can still put it aside when the time comes!
Editing to add a pic of our columbine rock garden...
July 13, 2011
July 12, 2011
Momma, How Much is a Trillion?
Okay, so no one asked me this today, but after hearing a little mis-information on the radio this morning, it got my gears turning (and grinding a bit...). It was a really simple mistake, I caught someone saying a Trillion dollars is a million Billions... that's not quite right... a Trillion dollars is a thousand billions, or a million millions (a million squared). There's 12 zeroes after the trillion... that's a lot of 0s
Our country owes SOMEONE 14.5 Trillion bucks... If that number is accurate (lesson of the day... where does that website get their info? I don't know, but the number does roughly match what I've heard in other media sources, so I am using it for blogging purposes, I wouldn't trust it if, say, I was writing a check to pay off my share. When you hear information, check your sources people), each tax payer in the US has an extra $130K in debt. Its our country, it's our debt.
I can only speak for myself, but whether the money is owed by the government on my behalf, or owed by me personally, it's unsettling at best. The personal debt of my family is less than the debt the government has incurred "on behalf" of both my husband and I. We're not rich, but we're not impoverished, so when the amount the average American "owes" is more than what I am comfortable owing as a 2 working parent family, something needs to change.
Every now and then, I venture off into some conspiracy tangents, but I try to keep them reigned in. Really, I'm not worried who it is making the decisions to put me into debt... what I am worried about is the alarming rate it is increasing, and how to make it stop.
Here's a few things to consider-
Who makes the money, as in, what agency is responsible for literally creating money. It's NOT the US government. The Federal Reserve, while in theory has oversight from our government, in reality is a seperate institution, sanctioned by the US government, but not tied to it, other than having the power to tell the little banks what to do, and loaning their printed money to the government at interest. The US has the power and authority to print their own money, they just choose not to (Interestingly, JFK tried it for a bit, printing Silver Certificates, legal tender-money backed by silver sitting in US coffers... No president has done that since according to my research)
How does the national debt compare to your personal debt? If you add in 130K for each taxpayer in your family, how much more does your debt add up to? How do you feel about that? What if you were given the option to pay it off? Would you? Could you? Is it feasible in your lifetime to pay off an extra 130K? 260K? Will your kids grow up saddled with worry about if their government is going to allow an outside agency to create inflation that drives away industry and jobs?
If you've supported social programs in the past (or present) that the government funds, does it feel different to know that you 130K of public debt, that you own, increases with each program? That whenever we provide free health care, that the cost of services is being added right in there? If you were going to get a bill, you might ask up front how much the service would cost, but since the government doesn't really advertise the idea that you are your own soverign nation, they don't tell you the cost, or encourage you to ask... they just put it on your tab. Or your kids tab... or your grandchildren's tab.
Our country owes SOMEONE 14.5 Trillion bucks... If that number is accurate (lesson of the day... where does that website get their info? I don't know, but the number does roughly match what I've heard in other media sources, so I am using it for blogging purposes, I wouldn't trust it if, say, I was writing a check to pay off my share. When you hear information, check your sources people), each tax payer in the US has an extra $130K in debt. Its our country, it's our debt.
I can only speak for myself, but whether the money is owed by the government on my behalf, or owed by me personally, it's unsettling at best. The personal debt of my family is less than the debt the government has incurred "on behalf" of both my husband and I. We're not rich, but we're not impoverished, so when the amount the average American "owes" is more than what I am comfortable owing as a 2 working parent family, something needs to change.
Every now and then, I venture off into some conspiracy tangents, but I try to keep them reigned in. Really, I'm not worried who it is making the decisions to put me into debt... what I am worried about is the alarming rate it is increasing, and how to make it stop.
Here's a few things to consider-
Who makes the money, as in, what agency is responsible for literally creating money. It's NOT the US government. The Federal Reserve, while in theory has oversight from our government, in reality is a seperate institution, sanctioned by the US government, but not tied to it, other than having the power to tell the little banks what to do, and loaning their printed money to the government at interest. The US has the power and authority to print their own money, they just choose not to (Interestingly, JFK tried it for a bit, printing Silver Certificates, legal tender-money backed by silver sitting in US coffers... No president has done that since according to my research)
How does the national debt compare to your personal debt? If you add in 130K for each taxpayer in your family, how much more does your debt add up to? How do you feel about that? What if you were given the option to pay it off? Would you? Could you? Is it feasible in your lifetime to pay off an extra 130K? 260K? Will your kids grow up saddled with worry about if their government is going to allow an outside agency to create inflation that drives away industry and jobs?
If you've supported social programs in the past (or present) that the government funds, does it feel different to know that you 130K of public debt, that you own, increases with each program? That whenever we provide free health care, that the cost of services is being added right in there? If you were going to get a bill, you might ask up front how much the service would cost, but since the government doesn't really advertise the idea that you are your own soverign nation, they don't tell you the cost, or encourage you to ask... they just put it on your tab. Or your kids tab... or your grandchildren's tab.
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