The nature of happiness

I was reflecting, as I walked to work yesterday, on the nature of happiness. I'm a pretty happy person "by nature". I had started the day off taking some simple pleasures in interactions with my kids and daily tasks. My mom and I often talk about our general happy natures and the fact that, although our lives are not always just like we wish they would be, we choose to look on the sunny side of things. Well, most of the time anyway. It's not possible to always be up and happy. I also reflected on the fact that some days the bickering and drama of the morning get to me and I don't walk to work with a happy lilt in my step (although most days, being outside and walking the short distance to school puts me in a pretty good mood, even if I started out grumpy). Anyway, my day started out so happy because of a series of events that are kind of silly, but made me happy. First, Emma checked to see if I was ok when a bunch of things fell off the side of the tub when I was in the shower. Because most of my first morning interactions with her are to wake her up (when she doesn't really want to get up) it's not always so pleasant. But she was checking to see if I was ok and it was very sweet. Then I enjoyed shaving my legs, which seems pretty silly, but . . . I had new shaving cream which smelled really good (someone kidnapped my old shaving cream and I'm not naming names but the man of the house likes using my raspberry shaving cream and has been known to rip the label off and put on his own "He man shaving cream" label), I didn't cut my legs at all (which I never do anymore, thanks to shaving cream for women), and we all got off to school without bickering. The bickering did start as we walked into the school but I walked with the kids in front of us and ignored my own daughter's bickering :)

Tonight my mom and I went to the Crown Uptown for the dinner theater "Church Basement Ladies". It was so funny and such a fun evening with mom. It was my mother's day present to her. I think we'll do it again, maybe with the whole family. But it was fun for just the two of us to have a night out too.

Testing, testing, 1 . . . 2 . . .3

Testing. This post is about the testing I have been having lately. First and foremost are the tests I took a week ago to prove that I have all the book-learnin' I need to be an art teacher. Some of the massive amounts of information I tried to re-learn was what I needed and other parts were not. I hope I had enough of the right things in my brain to get a high enough score. Time will tell. I felt fairly positive about them right afterwards, but time makes my assuredness wane. I should know in about 3 weeks.

Other testing in my life would involve crashed computers, mouthy teenagers, and dramatic 8 year olds. Oh, and sometimes other family members of the adult variety too. The computer has been crashed for 3 weeks exactly. I woke up 3 weeks ago to a blue screen. It told me to restart in safe mode and it wouldn't even do that. The good news is two-fold. First, the computer folks want to barter computer work for bicycle work (hubby) so that is very good. Second, the computer guru is saving all my files (doc/pub/jpeg) and I have vowed that I will now backup my files weekly. The only rub is that they will now have numeric names and I'll have to go through them all to rename them. At least I have them so I'm looking on the sunny side. I'm hoping to have my own computer back this week. We are also lucky that the kids didn't lose any due schoolwork and that my mom has a computer we can use.

I'm counting down the days til school is out -- 14 school days!!! I really like my work but I also really like having time off in the summer! Having only experienced it for 1 summer so far I am really looking forward to it again! Since I'm a secretary this year I do have to work 2-3 weeks into the summer and start back 2-3 weeks before school starts but it's still a nice break. Nice to have SOME income for part of the summer too. This is, of course, if no art job appears. I'd really like to stay at the school I'm at now (since it's across the street -- can't beat the commute!) so I probably won't actively look for a job unless one opens up there. And I don't think it will, and I'm ok with that for now. The additional money would be nice but I really like what I'm doing right now and wouldn't mind doing it another year or two.

I'm outta here!

In honor of St. Brigid . . .

I have been celebrating St. Brigid's day for several years. I found out about it researching Irish stuff on the net. My family on my mom's side is pretty much all Irish and she and my sis have traveled to Ireland four times. St. Brigid was new to me and to most people I've talked about her to. Depending on what you read she was a part of Pagan or Christian history in Ireland. I usually celebrate by making Irish Gingerbread Scones (yum) and weaving a new St. Brigid's cross for my mom and other special people. I couldn't find the straw this year so I may make them a little late this time around. You are supposed to weave a new one each year to hang above ryour door to bring good things to your house. I think you're supposed to burn the old one. Anyway, when I read about the online Silent Poetry Reading in her honor on February 2, her Saints day, I thought I should take part. I seem to forget until I read the Yarn Harlot's page, which I hadn't read in ages and for some reason typed into my address bar just a bit ago. Anyway, I'm sharing two poems. The first by Julia Kasdorf, one of my favorite poets. I love her work . . . it is so real and speaks to me on many levels. The second is one I discovered quite by accident and it made me laugh out loud.

On second thought, I decided to just link to the poems because they are copywrited and I don't want to get into trouble for posting them. I have no idea what the rules are about that. Paranoid much?

First Gestures
by Julia Kasdorf
-----------------

The Hymn of a Fat Woman
by Joyce Huff

My children's mother is a drunken slut

Ok, let me explain myself. I'm not really a drunken slut (anymore). No, no, really, I never was. One of my favorite lines from "Roseanne" is when Darlene asks to go somewhere or some such thing, and Roseanne says no and Darlene says "so & so's mother is letting her go" and Roseanne says . . . "So & so's mother is a drunken slut". So anytime my kids want to do something I don't want them to do I use that line. Heh. It makes me laugh and also I am a bad mom because my 8 year old now repeats that. When middle daughter was being picked up early one morning by a friend and her mom, said friend came in to pick my daughter up. It was COLD out and I said to my darling, sweet, 13 year old "PUT ON A COAT" and she replied "my friend here doesn't have a coat on" and I had to literally BITE MY TONGUE because for starters, I couldn't call her mom a drunken slut with her STANDING RIGHT THERE plus her mom was giving my kid a ride to school at 7 AM so . . . who am I to call names, right?????

I can't remember where I planned to go with this post. I had it all planned out in my head on Sunday. That just shows how this week has gone.

Youngest daughter has been sick since Monday. She got up complaining and I didn't believe her so I made her go to school. About 10 she came down to the office and I took her temp and it was 101. Oops. She's been home all week. Her fever has mostly gone but now she has a weird rash. I'm taking her in to the doc tomorrow morning.

And, now for something completely different . . .

I just thought I lost this whole post above. I'm glad I found it again. I don't have any knitting news or Kool-aid dye news but hopefully one day soon.

I will leave you with this photo of my latest FO . . . fingerless gloves I made for hubby for Christmas.

Because a promise is a promise 100%

Didn't Bambi or someone like Bambi say that? I think so but I can't find the quote anywhere. Maybe pinnochio. Some kids movie character I'm sure. Anyway, I promised (sort of), at least I put into words (to my ONE reader and commenter :) Thanks Diva :)) that I was going to post more photos of my current high-inducing activity (what does THIS say about me? I don't want to know) . . . kool-aid yarn dying. So, below you will find my latest and greatest yarn dying experiments. I switched methods after my first try. Instead of pouring the dye on, I put it in jars and "dipped" the yarn into the dye. I put the jars in a corningware dish and left the yarn ends in until I had microwaved it. Most times I would move the yarn a bit between microwaving so all areas received dye. Hopefully the photos will tell the story well enough. If you have questions though, let me know. I have a couple more photos of the wound balls of yarn, which, by the way, really changes the look of the skein. I can't find my digital camera tonight. Someone has hidden it from me. I don't know who, but trust me, when I find out . . . Let me just say that today was NOT A DAY TO MESS WITH ME. Hormones rage in an almost 50-year-old woman's body and there are certain days that it might be best to leave said woman completely alone. Today was one of those days. I'm better now (wine works wonders). Once again, I digress :) Pictures below! Enjoy the eye candy.

The dyes and the yarn, all a-ready (Colors are Strawberry, Orange, and Lemonaid with just a touch of Orange added)

This is actually after the first 2 minutes in the microwave and I've moved the skein a little to the left so there aren't any off-white parts left

Now two more minutes (or maybe 4) in the microwave . . .

The finished yarn in the sink (you can see I wasn't completely successful in getting rid of ALL the off-white parts)

Viola! The finished skein. Pre and Post ball-winding. As an aside I have to say that this dying has made me LOVE my swift and ball-winder, which work together in perfect harmony. Kind of like Ebony and Ivory (dating myself????). LOL

Kool-aid test

Tonight I dyed some yarn with kool-aid. I'd been meaning to try it for a long time. I got some handspun cream/ecru colored yarn for Christmas and I'm not much for the solid light-colored yarn. It's called Border Leicester handspun. I have no idea what that means and wonder if that makes me a yarn dummy, but oh well. We saw a booklet at Target today that was Knitting for Dummies and my sweet, darling daughter picked it up and said "hey mom, you're a dummy!". Such love.

Ok, on to the yarn dying. I'm going to post photos of the process, although I must admit that I got carried away with the process in the middle and forgot to snap photos. I got before and afters but the part where you're pouring the dye on, wrapping it in saran wrap, and microwaving it didn't get photographed.

Yarn soaking in hot water "pre" dye.

My dyes -- cherry, lemonaide, and berry burst or something like that. The third and fifth glasses of dye I didn't use.

This is the finished product (above)

Close up of the middle of the finished piece. Shows the colors a bit more true.

Close up of the bottom. I'll wind it into a ball tomorrow and photo that too. Maybe even do a swatch. It was great fun and I'm looking forward to trying again. I have another hank of the same stuff plus several of Classic Elite posh in white/off-white. Expensive yarn to do my first tries on so I opted to do this stuff.

Happy Monday!

I KNOW

I was reading one of my favorite blog today and Jane pulled a blog post from her ass and I want to do the same thing. Life is busy, blah blah blah, but she's right, if you're gonna do this blog stuff, do it. So here we go, my own personal from-my-ass post ala Jane.

Write about my day!

Well, my day was a typical, very busy day at an elementary school. Lots of behavior issues, especially at lunch time, and two wet pants episodes. It was busy and the day went by quickly. Oh, lots of kids not feeling well and the secretaries were on nurse duty. Plus my own daughter smilingly wasn't feeling well for about 10 minutes. I think she just needed a hug (plus a tum(s). How do you say a singular Tums? She had a Tums? She had a Tum? I have no idea but they both sound weird.

Analyze my cat!

I have spoken of my demon cat here before I believe. He bites me, which I probably deserve. It's very annoying, though, when I'm sitting at my computer desk and he pounces on my feet over and over and jumps at my hand every time I move it. Maybe the picture below explains why he might attack me, but seriously, the clothing was not my idea.

Really, not my idea.

Tell what I had for dinner and why!
I made pizza. The reason is that I haven't menu-planned or grocery shopped for the week and that is what I had on hand. Also, I could put the dough in the bread machine and go do my after-school work and not have to worry about it for 1 1/2 hours (or so). My work took longer than I expected which explaines the "or so". Supper was at about 7:30 which is rather late but we lived through it. It was good pizza too, if I do say so myself. I put baby swiss cheese on it for added zip (my life is pitiful) and it was very tasty.

Bitch about television!

Television sucks. The only shows I like are on at 9 and it bugs me that the ones I liked the best last season, Medium and October Road, are not on anymore. I take those surveys online and they ask my age and then my favorite show. I always put Judging Amy whenever that was on. Then they took it off. Last year I put Medium on every time I took that survey. Now it's off. I think they see what 40-something women like and then say "we don't want to play up to that demographic, cancel that show". They can bite me.

Re-count a celebrity siting

Once when I was in Emporia, KS for an art therapy conference, they were filming a movie about that preacher and his secretary/girlfriend that plotted to kill their spouses. I think they killed one spouse or something, maybe both. Keith Carradine was playing the preacher and I saw him walking downtown. Also, once when I was in Aspen I was checking into the hostel, because it was all I could afford, and the guy working at the desk told me Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell just checked in to the fancy-schmancy hotel in town. I didn't really see them, but they were nearby. An aside to the preacher/secretary killers mentioned above. I was a church secretary for years so I found that story kind of amusing. Well, in a sick kind of way, but still.

Talk about my first date!

I was asked to a homecoming dance in 7th grade. I was immediately in love with the boy who asked me. He is now gay. I'm sure there's no correlation, right? I continued to be in love with him for at least the rest of that school year and he stomped on my heart.

Where was I born? What story did my mom tell me about it?

I was born in Des Moines, Iowa. Two things my mom told me. One is that I was supposed to be born the day before but she had a cold so they postponed my cesearean birth. So I was supposed to be slightly more of a Libra than I am. I'm currently right on the cusp, but my personality is SO very Libra. That explains it and I never thought about it til just this very minute. Also, now I can't remember what the second thing I was going to say about my birth was. Oh, yes, now I remember. I didn't gain weight and had to be re-hospitalized for it. Imagine that now. It can't be true, really.

What was my first pet's name?

My first pet's name was Princess Anne mylastname. I loved her and she loved me. One Christmas she ate my dad's present on Christmas eve, candy I had made in Bluebirds for him. It was wrapped with tissue paper in a margerine container with no lid. She ate every bite. I was very sad. But the shiny silver aluminum Christmas tree, with 4-color rotating light helped me forget my sadness. We really had one of those. It was awesome. It went well with the cardboard fireplace.

And there you have an out-of-my-ass blog post.