Joy

I recently read a topic on Amy's Live, Learn, Knit blog titled What Brings You Joy? In her post Amy mentioned a book she had read, Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer, which I have added to my "must read" list. During this past week's marathon NaNo writing, I found myself often distracted from my story and thinking about joy. I began to wonder what the difference was between joy and pleasure, since I could easily think of many things that brought pleasure to my world, but not so many things that seemed to bring joy. So today I looked up the words "pleasure" and "joy" online and found an explanation that suited me at Dictonary.com.

Pleasure, enjoyment, delight, joy refer to the feeling of being pleased and happy. Pleasure is the general term: to take pleasure in beautiful scenery. Enjoyment is a quiet sense of well-being and pleasurable satisfaction: enjoyment at sitting in the shade on a warm day. Delight is a high degree of pleasure, usually leading to active expression of it: delight at receiving a hoped-for letter. Joy is a feeling of delight so deep and so lasting that one radiates happiness and expresses it spontaneously: joy at unexpected good news.

So what does bring me joy?

My first thought was writing, but writing is not always joyful or even pleasurable. It can be difficult, painful and emotionally revealing, none of which brings me joy. Writing is something that I have to do, like breathing and eating. It is a rare day that I do not write something, whether a blog post, an email or a letter to a friend (sometimes those are even handwritten!). It does not matter to me whether anyone reads what I write or not. The possibility of an audience is not why I choose write.

Reading also comes to mind, but again, it is more of a need I have, like an addiction to caffeine or nicotine. A day is not complete if I have not had my daily fix of word input and output, reading and writing.

Crocheting gives me pleasure and satisfaction. I find it relaxing, soothing. But crocheting does not give me joy. The act of giving a crocheted item away, knowing that it will be used and appreciated by the recipient, that gives me joy. I never really understood why we needed to save an item that someone had made, pass it down from generation to generation, never to be used. To me, the value of the item is in knowing the person who created that item. If I did not personally know great-grandma Tilly, I am not going to value something made by her nearly as much as I am going to value something made by my Grammy. And so it brings me joy to know that items I have made and given to others are actually being used. That was the reason I made them in the first place!

Here is a picture of the baby afghan I made for my niece's new baby boy:

Knowing that Aiden's older brother loved his afghan and carried it around with him for several years gave me great joy. I hope Aiden enjoys his half as much.

Here is another thing that gives me joy:

Copper has taken to sleeping on laptops and computers. When it was ninety degrees and better outside, she preferred sleeping out on our balcony all day long. But when cooler temperatures came in September, she ceased wanting to go out on the balcony and now sleeps away the day on top of laptops or any other computer she can find that is running and warm. Anyway, just seeing a cat gives me pleasure, but having one (or more) of my own that I can interact with gives me joy.

Photography brings me joy. Amy mentioned photography and art in her post, too. Unlike Amy, I have never been interested in the darkroom and developing of pictures. What I love is the hunt for a good subject, the art of framing the subject and the sense of accomplishment I feel when I capture a moment in time. That gives me joy, knowing that I have saved some essence of "now" that can easily be recaptured in the future simply be looking at the picture.

My children, of course, bring me moments of joy. Their individual births were three such moments. Add to that my granddaughter, Miss Munchkin; I was lucky enough to be present at her birth and one of the very first to hold her. Miss Munchkin brings me joy almost every time I see her. There is just something about a toddler who is happy and curious and loving that is joyful, especially when she is related to you.

I feel joy when we hit the road for a road trip, whether it is just a day's jaunt somewhere or a vacation. There is something truly joyous about leaving behind the every day world for a bit and looking forward towards possible great adventures. And I feel joy every time I step onto a beach. Hearing the waves crashing onto shore and the cry of the gulls, feeling the heat of the sun through the sand on your bare feet, the smell of the salt spray, it all fills me with joy. Oh, and the skirl of bagpipes bring me joy. If ever I were to come across bagpipes being played on the beach while I was walking barefoot with my granddaughter, my heart would likely burst from experiencing too much joy all at once.

Amy's post talks a lot about finding joy in your work or rather work that you find joyful. I know this is the goal of many unschoolers, to find a way to turn their passion into a career. That is a great goal, although I know few that have been able to truly realize it. The only possible work-related thing that brings me joy is being able to find answers and resources for others. I love to research; I love to hunt for the perfect gift, for the perfect book, for that needed quote or just the right word that will complete a project. I think that is why I continue with my website, since HTML and web design certainly does not bring me joy. On the contrary, many days it fills me with stress and frustration. But I love to know that a resource I have reviewed or something I have written has provided an answer to someone's quest. That brings me joy.

So, what brings you joy?

Catching Up

Now that NaNo (National Novel Writing Month) is over and successfully completed, it is time to begin catching up on all that was left hanging during November. For those of you who have asked, this first completed novel is not something that anyone will ever see. A first draft is just that, a first draft, and not meant for anyone but the author's eyes. Whether I retain any of this first effort remains to be seen, but it is doubtful. My basic intent was just to prove to myself that I could do it, that I could actually finish a novel. Too many stories have I begun and set aside when the going got tough or life intruded. But now I know I am capable; I can see a story line through from beginning to end. Not only that, but writing that many words in not an impossibility, as long as you keep writing! That is the key, to keep writing!

I did discover one thing about myself. That email is my main time waster. When I removed myself from the computer that has my email program, I could write for several hours without even thinking about email. I accomplished big things! But sitting at the computer with my email, the temptation is there to check it frequently. This not only takes time away from actual writing but also distracts the mind, causing me to lose the flow of the story and lose my momentum. Better to write one hour uninterrupted than to write three hours with many interruptions. As I was reading my favorite blogs (playing catch up after finishing the story Thursday), I came across a timely post: How to Keep E-Mail from Wasting Your Time. If you have find email to be taking up too much of your daily focus, check out the article. It has some good tips!

So, what do I need to catch up on? Besides the usual laundry, dishes and house cleaning? Numero Uno is my desk! I had done quite a good job of keeping it clean until NaNo hit. Oi! It is going to take all afternoon to find the desktop again.

Second is crocheting. I finished the baby afghan for my niece's new baby boy. I will get a picture taken later today and posted up asap. Thursday, while waiting for my car at the dealership (which I still do not have back!), I began working on a doily for a Christmas present. I need to make two and will not be able to post up pictures of those until after they have been given to their intended recipient. And I have several items to make for Miss Munchkin. First her Christmas stocking and then two hat and mitten ensembles, one for her and one for the dolly that Santa is going to be bringing her. Or for her favorite Miss Kitty stuffed animal or any of her mommy's several teddy bears that are fair game for playing with. She is at the age where she likes dressing up dollies and kitties and bears. Hmm . . . maybe I will need to make more than two.

Third, Christmas cards must go out soon. I did not send out cards last year … last year was the Christmas from Hell and no one felt in the mood to do any celebrating. Plus, with our move, I need to get cards out early so that people have our new address. Luckily, the MC (main character) in my just completed novel wrote her Christmas letter and it looks remarkably like what I need for my letter! So that is done and I just need to get it printed off and mailed out.

And last, but certainly not least, I am sure that my readers here would appreciate something new to read besides NaNo updates for the month of December. So I will strive to provide something that might actually be interesting and/or thought-provoking reading, although maybe not both at the same time!

A Haircut!

Miss Munchkin now has bangs! Kat said she cut them while Miss Munchkin was asleep. And then she had to wait for Miss Munchkin to sleep again so that she could even them up a bit. She looks so much better with bangs! You can see her lovely blue eyes now!

Miss Munchkin Pics

Pictures taken from Miss Munchkin's stay earlier this week.

Miss Munchkin has a hat thing. This pink one is her current favorite.

The children in her Signing Times videos sing and dance with microphones, so I guess it looks like fun!

NaNo Eve

This may be Halloween for most people, but for over 100,000 crazy souls, it is NaNo Eve. The night before NaNo begins. Am I ready? No way! We somehow acquired a Miss Munchkin on Saturday afternoon for an extended stay. She went home this morning. So I am exhausted from lack of sleep (she does not sleep through the night when she stays at Grandma's), shell-shocked from her continual (and improving) efforts at talking, and hurting from being pummeled by a 20 month-old toddler climbing all over, up and around me. Somehow, until I saw the announcement in my e-mail box this morning, I had forgotten that November 1st was just around the corner. I mean, I had almost a whole week right before Miss Munchkin arrived … but time seems to have slipped away.

One good thing about time slipping away is that I have not spent hours and hours contemplating my plot and characters. In fact, I have the barest of outlines and only a slim idea of my main character. Last year I had so much planned ahead that I felt burnt out by the whole thing before I even began writing. We will see whether not knowing everything in advance (or thinking I know everything) will work better.

Another good thing is that Penelope is home! She was home again for a couple of days last week, but then her check engine light came on, so she had to go back to the shop. But it was just a vacuum hose or some such thing easily taken care of, so she is back home today. That means that David can take himself to class and I no longer have to drive people everywhere. More time for writing!

The goal for NaNo is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That breaks down to 1,666 words per day. And since I already know of a few days here and there where I will not be able to do any writing, I figure I need to do at least 2000 words per day, and it would be way better to do 2500 words per day. Wish me luck! I'll try to keep my count updated here, but if you don't hear from me for a few days, hopefully it is because I am busy writing the Great American Novel!

Finished projects

Finally! At Last! It's About Time!

My niece graduated from high school last May and I just last night finished her graduation present. The weather is getting cool enough now, maybe she'll need it at college!

The pattern is called "Southwestern Cables Afghan" designed by Karen Wolfram. My niece didn't care about pattern or size; she just wanted something with yellow and bright colors. What looks like red is actually a Red Heart's Shocking Pink. Why is it that pics taken inside do not always show the true colors?

Here you can see part of the reverse side.

It fits a full-sized bed just nicely. I hope my niece likes it. It is tightly wove, a very warm afghan! Should keep her warm at that north Georgia college.

I also found this scarf that I crocheted last spring. Miss Munchkin was going through a phase of wrapping ties and scarves and other pieces of clothing around her neck, so I made a scarf for her out of Bernat's Softee Chunky, Circus.

There was enough yarn to make two, so this one is going on to my E-bay Store later today. The rule is a six-inch ruler, just to give you an idea of how long the scarf is.

FlyLady Influence?

Did you notice there were no posts Wednesday and Thursday? Wednesday we had unexpected company. Miss Munchkin's daddy had the day off from work so the whole family came to spend the day. When Miss Munchkin visits Grandma, Grandma gets no work done! And barely any computer time. So no writing, no posting here.

It is amazing the increased number of words that Miss Munchkin was saying Wednesday as compared to ten days earlier, the last time we saw her. Then it was "eat" and "car" that were very clear and "Pe-eey" for Penny and "Pa" with the appropriate ASL sign for Grandpa. Now it's all of those, and Penny almost has some n's being pronounced, along with "Daddy" and "Bye" and the sign for Uncle. And a lot more talking that sounds almost like real words, after several months of not so much jabbering. It won't be long and she will be talking a steady stream.

So that explains why no writing on Wednesday. Thursday, though, that was a cleaning day. Miss Munchkin told Grandma that her house was dirty. Well, she didn't come right out and tell me that, but she certainly demonstrated it. Kat has been following a FlyLady schedule the last several weeks and Miss Munchkin has been helping. Obviously she enjoys cleaning, since when Miss Munchkin was here she did the following:

• Swept the balcony with her little broom.


• Took one of Grandpa's handkerchiefs and tried to "sweep" or "mop" the living room floor with the cloth.


• Picked up any tuft of dog hair and returned it to Penny, setting it on top of Penny.


• And the one time we left my bathroom door open, she found the bottle of Ivory Liquid and proceeded to dump a large portion on the floor. Then she took a wash cloth that was on the edge of the tub and began scrubbing the bathroom floor.

So yesterday I swept, mopped and vacuumed floors. Of course, that did not take all day, but it did take a fair portion of time that I normally would have spent writing. And since I still do not have Penelope back, the rest of my writing time was spent driving! Arg!

Made in USA

Made in USA is a phrase that has taken on new meaning over the past several months. With recalls in food, toys, makeup, etc., many of us have been having second and third thoughts about purchasing items that are made in China. Not too long ago there was a news story of a family that went a whole year without buying anything made in China. Their book, A Year Without "Made In China": One Family's True Life Adventure in Global Economy (by Sara Bongiorni; ISBN: 0470116137) sounded like it would be an interesting read.

So lately I have been checking the labels of items I want to buy just to see where they are made, mostly out of curiosity to begin with, but now with more concern. For several months I tried to find bath towels that were made in the USA and fit my budget, two seemingly disparate criteria. Finally I found some at Sam's Club, of all places! And just yesterday I was looking at potato mashers at Publix. They had three different brands, all made in China. Now a potato masher is probably not going to have lead paint on it and likely is pretty safe to buy, no matter where it is made. But still! Is there anything still manufactured in America?

With all that in mind, I have been thinking ahead to Christmas and what I might want to get for Miss Munchkin. She recently discovered baby dolls, but a trip to Toys R Us a couple of weeks ago was not real fruitful in that department. So I spent part of this afternoon looking for dolls made in the good ole USA. And actually found a couple. And some others that were made in Europe. Research indicates that the EU (European Union) has more stringent quality controls that the US, so likely any toy made in the EU is going to be as safe, if not safer, than any toy made here. That's good to know.

I liked the Corolle dolls found at Kazoo Toys. Their website indicates the dolls are "designed in France" but does that mean they are made in France? I guess I will have to contact them to be sure.

The Kinder dolls at www.usmadetoys.com are cute.

Nico & Zoe has some cute cloth dolls.

If you are looking for toys made in America, or at least not made in China, here's a couple of websites that will be very helpful:

10 Lead-Free Toys Made in USA.

Toys Made in America -- Extensive list of American toy companies, brands and products.

I am definitely looking for a baby doll suitable for an almost two-year-old little girl this Christmas, so if you know where I can find one that is not made in China, leave me a comment! Thanks!

Exhausted Grandma

I suppose everyone is wondering what happened to my declaration last Monday. You know, the one where I was going to blog daily for the month of October? I'll tell you what happened. Miss Munchkin happened.

Shortly after I posted my blog entry on Monday, Kat called to see if she and Miss Munchkin could come early and spend a few days, instead of just Miss Munchkin coming on Thursday and staying till Sunday, which was the original plan. Well, what's a Grandma to say?

So they arrived Monday afternoon, then Kat went back home on Thursday and Miss Munchkin stayed here. Kat and Shawn arrived last night just before Miss Munchkin went to sleep and they all left this morning. Wow, is it ever quiet here today!

Miss Munchkin is now nineteen months old and she does still take a nap, thank goodness. Sometimes it's an hour, sometimes longer, but if you happen to be doing a lot of driving around town, like I have been, and Miss Munchkin takes her nap while in the car, that means she is wide awake the whole time at home. Which means that Grandma does not get any quiet time at all! That means no e-mail time, no writing time, no shower, etc. Just getting things like meals and laundry done can be a stunt. I really do not remember my three children being quite that busy as toddlers. I know the older two were not that busy. Maybe Charles was, but by that time he had two older siblings to play with and annoy, so maybe I just didn't notice it quite so much. But Miss Munchkin definitely is Grandma's girl and that means she wants Grandma to do everything with her! Thanks goodness for uncles that will play ball with her a bit.

What I do remember from those early baby years of my own is how overwhelming babies / toddlers can be, both mentally and physically. Mentally you are on call 24 / 7, always listening for that baby cry, always aware that you are responsible for this little being's welfare. Even now, after all these years, just knowing that Miss Munchkin will likely wake up in the night means that I sleep ever so lightly, awakening upon the slightest stirring in the next room.

Physically my body feels as though it has been through boot camp. And I think it has. This could be a new obstacle course for any military boot camp. Carry a thirty-pound squirming toddler up and down the stairs. Pick her up whenever she wants "up." Let her crawl in and out and over and around your lap whenever you sit down. Have her walk on top of your feet whenever you are standing at the kitchen counter so she is taller. Reach quickly to remove items that are now too close to the counter's edge (she's grown just a bit taller since her last visit). Bend over to clean up spilled plants. Race to the potty and then the bathtub because the race to the potty was too slow. Oh, and did I mention the constant fulfilling of the "eat" demand as the seemingly ever-hungry toddler pulls at the refrigerator door? Definitely not an obstacle course for the faint of heart, let alone weak of body!

Playing Peek-a-Boo on Grandma's bed.

Eating grapes on the balcony, Miss Munchkin's favorite place to be.

"I need more grapes, Grandma!"

Grandpa and I have decided that a two, possibly three-day visit from Miss Munchkin is just the right length. Anything longer than that and Grandma will need a vacation at a spa to recover!

My Nice Clean Desk!

For weeks I have been trying to clean off the top of my desk. You wouldn't think it would need cleaning, since we just moved in here a little over 4 months ago. But flat spaces seem to accumulate stuff in my house, with myself as the chief offender. It's a lifelong work in progress, keeping flat spaces clean. Any, all I seemed to accomplish was moving piles, or parts of piles, from one side of the desk to another, but never really making a dent in the total massed accumulation.

Then earlier this week I read an article over at Zen Habits titled "Simple Living Simplified: 10 Things You Can Do Today to Simplify Your Life." Item #7 was "Clear your desk" and I immediately saw that the process it outlined might just work for me. It said to remove everything from the top of the desk, putting everything either in a pile on the floor in into a box. By doing this, I could actually get my organization plans in place and then deal with the items one at a time.

So this morning I found a box and put everything in it. Now I had room to set up my nice color-coded manila folders and envelopes I had purchased and get organized! Hopefully now I have a place for everything. Of course, I still have the box to work through, but at least I can see my desk top and I feel like I have a method in place to deal with everything in that box. So the goal for the rest of this week is to tackle that box, dealing with each item one at a time, until the box is empty. And I think I have until Thursday to accomplish that, since it sounds like Miss Munchkin is coming to visit Grandma again!

See how nice it looks? I should have taken a "before" picture, but believe me, you could not see any desk top and it was piled almost as high as the bottom of the monitors.

While I was working on my desk, the men were installing a wall mount and hanging our flat-screened TV over the fireplace in the living room. Again, I wish I had taken a before picture. The TV was sitting in front of the fireplace on top of an unfinished wooden chest. This looks so much better!

We are not quite done with the project. Now we have to find some sort of component unit that will hold the receiver, DVD player, etc. and also somewhat contain and conceal all the cords that seem to accompany all these wonderful electronic gadgets. Hopefully we can find what we want this next week and be able to finish this project up by next weekend. Then the old kitchen table can go into storage or be used elsewhere. And we'll have a nice orderly living room!

It feels good to be working on some of the projects we've left undone from our move. I still have a few things I want to finish:

• Hang my seashore quilt in the living room behind the couch
• Hang curtains over the window I bought for the dining room
• Get some matching picture frames to hang family pictures in a couple of spots (living room and dining room)

And here is a pic of Bill as he "watches" the Busch race.

I usually try to wake him if there were any exciting parts so he can watch the replay!

Pictures, As Promised

She loves to talk on the phone!

Wearing Grandpa's shoes and socks!

Poor Penelope

Penelope was involved in a traffic accident Sunday afternoon. No humans were injured (other than maybe some self-esteem damage), but Penelope suffered major cosmetic damage and is going to need extensive work done at the body shop. The estimate I received today was for just slightly over $3800. I think that is likely the most expensive pizza run we have sent a child on! (For those of you who don't remember who Penelope is, check the October 2006 blog archives for pics. I won't post pics here of how she looks now. She would be too embarrassed!)

So we are down to one car to use to get everyone to work and college and karate. David is learning how the local bus system works. It looks like we might be without the van for most of two weeks, so we'll have to decide whether we can continue the "car shuffle" or if we need to rent something to drive for the duration.

This weekend was a good one, even with the accident. Miss Munchkin stayed with Grandma and Grandpa from this past Thursday till Sunday. She is getting to that fun stage where she can somewhat entertain herself for a short while. She especially likes going "outside" (one of the few words you can understand) and on Saturday Grandma let her "discover" our balcony. She spent most of the rest of Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday going in and out, taking her cars and her ball and playing "outside."

Grandma and Grandpa learned some new signs this weekend, like butterfly and watermelon. Signing helps the communication issues, since Miss Munchkin is not saying very many words yet that you can really understand. She's funny ... When she wants to sign something and has her pacifier in her mouth, she takes the "passy" out of her mouth, either giving it to you or throwing it down, and then she signs and speaks at the same time. She does not seem to realize that you can sign without speaking.

I took some pictures of Miss Munchkin while she was here, so hopefully I will get a chance tomorrow to get them off the camera and upload a couple here! So watch for pics tomorrow!

American Sign Language

A couple of months ago we were discussing toddlers and temper tantrums on my Friday morning homeschool chat. One chatter mentioned that using the Signing Time series with her pre-speaking toddler had brought about good results in reducing temper tantrums. Since Miss Munchkin seemed to be just entering the temper tantrum stage, I sent away for the Baby Signing DVDs without even telling Kat about them! Was she ever surprised!

I just posted up an article telling about Miss Munchkin's experiences with sign language. It has been fun watching pure unschooling in action. When you have teens, you miss seeing the joy and excitement that little ones express when they learn something brand new.

Come on over and read American Sign Language (ASL) for Toddlers and Children.

End of July Update

Can you believe it is time to wrap up July? Here are some brief thoughts, pics that didn't get posted, and updates on various items mentioned earlier this month.

While Kat and Miss Munchkin were here two weekends ago, we visited the beach. I did not think to check for beach advisories before we left, so we were rather disappointed to discover one when we got there. That meant no swimming. It was hot and sticky and there was no breeze and it was not much fun if you couldn't get into the water. Miss Munchkin played some with her sand and shovel and chased some birds, but we did not stay very long. Next time Grandma will remember to check online for advisories.

I keep telling her Mommy that she needs a haircut!

Penny Update - I took Penny back to the vet on the 23rd for a follow-up. She was doing better and then she wasn't, so the vet decided to do an x-ray to see if she had any kidney stones. Good news: no stones. (Bad news: wasted money on an x-ray!) The vet decided that she likely has a leakage problem that is fairly common with spayed females of her age and size. So she is now on a twice-daily dose of something to prevent bladder leakage. It does seem to be working, which is good news for my carpets! Now to retrieve my rug cleaner when I go back to Alabama next month.

We had a lot of rain yesterday, maybe close to two inches. The pond in the apartment complex is much higher this morning and Mr. Alligator is having fun cruising around. He seems to be enjoying the higher water level. And I notice this morning that the bird that has been fishing around the pond the last week was now staying out of the water, just fishing from the stone bank. Maybe Mr. Bird is more concerned about Mr. Alligator now that Mr. Alligator is getting around the pond more quickly? I don't know what the bird is, maybe a heron or egret. I will try to get a pic tomorrow.

The boys signed up for Kenpo Karate last week. Now they just need to get into a routine again, hopefully one that will not involve me doing all the driving! With David as a driver now, it would seem like I should be able to stay at home when they go.

I have been working on updating my Alabama Church School listings the past several days. Each summer I contact every church school listed (and many, many that are not listed) in my attempt to have the most up-to-date listing of church schools online for Alabama homeschoolers. It is a lot of work, but necessary. There are just so many lists online that are not up-to-date, with inaccurate URL's, e-mail addresses that no longer work, and church schools mentioned that no longer exist.

David's Freshman English class ends next week. It appears that he is doing well in it, perhaps even a B average. That would be great, compared to how he did last year at Evansville. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

And I think that is it for the updates! Tomorrow is August 1st. That is my Grammy's birthday, or would have been if she were still alive. I should make molasses cookies in her memory; she always made the most delicious molasses cookies! I wonder if I have her recipe with me or if it is packed away back in Alabama?

Bears!

Some bear sightings over at Adventures with Miss Munchkin. Oh, did I say sightings? I meant signings!

Signing Update

Miss Munchkin continues with her signing adventure. A new post today at Adventures With Miss Munchkin. You think she might be telling Mommy it's time for another visit with Grandma?

Another Chat Success

About three weeks ago, maybe four, someone on chat mentioned that they had used the Signing Times program with their toddler with good success. At the time my daughter was experiencing some difficulties with Miss Munchkin's temper and I thought that might be due, in part, to Miss Munchkin's inability to make her needs known. So I checked out the Signing Time website and ordered the Baby Signing Time gift set and had it shipped to my daughter. It seems they are a big success! Check out Adventures With Miss Munchkin, July 15th post, for Kat & Miss Munchkin's experience with them.

And a big thank you to the chat member (sorry, I don’t remember who it was) who mentioned the Signing Times DVDs.

Fourth of July

I meant this to go up on the 5th. Oh well, better late than never.

Here's the way to celebrate July 4th. Spend a couple of hours at the beach with your children and grandchild, walking, wading and swimming. Pick up some steamed crab legs, shrimp cocktail and cheesecake on the way home. Eat supper. And then enjoy your granddaughter's delight as she experiences her first firework. Priceless!

Cute as a Button

Do you think Miss Munchkin knows how cute she is?

Driver's Edge and stuff

David and Bill just left for Atlanta. David is signed up to participate in the Driver's Edge program tomorrow afternoon. They will spend the night near Macon and be back late tomorrow night. For those of you not familiar with Driver's Edge, it is a youth driver's education program founded and developed by a professional race car driver. Here's a quote from their website:

Young drivers are placed through this half day, four hour program at no cost, making the program accessible to young drivers from all economic backgrounds. With professional driving instructors at their side, the students … participate in customized behind the wheel driving exercises developed to address the most common driving situations that can lead to collision.

I'll post next week to let you know how it went and whether David found it to be worthwhile.

So what have I been up to this week? Mostly playing with Miss Munchkin. I drove up to Albany Wednesday morning and brought Kat and Miss Munchkin here for a few days. They were getting housebound. Not sure yet when I'll take them home: possibly either tomorrow (Saturday) or Monday. I could do it Sunday, but Sunday is race day and the four-hour round trip would cut into my race watching!

It appears like David is ready for Orientation on Tuesday at Tallahassee Community College He's spent quite a bit of time online and on the phone and visiting the college, trying to get all the needed paperwork submitted. He plans to take an English Composition class this summer and then begin full-time classes in the fall. We are hoping that this works out better than Evansville did last year.

Oh, and I found a great natural foods place yesterday. New Leaf Market.It has a deli, organic and local produce, and best of all, it's a co-op! I'll be joining after we get next month's paycheck!

There are also three different farmer's markets in the area, on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. The one on Monday is less than a mile from me! I hope to get there next week. Last Saturday we visited the one downtown and bought loads of fresh produce and some cut zinnias. It's so nice to have fresh flowers!

Miss Munchkin the Water Baby

I am back from my housing foray. Will write more about that later. But we do have a place to land when we get to Tallahassee!

Took Miss Munchkin to the Gulf. Boy, does she love water!

Catching Up

I can see I should have set a goal for writing daily in April! Goals. Must have goals! And deadlines! All procrastinators work better when there is a deadline looming.

Here are some pics of Miss Munchkin from Easter Sunday. She had fun gathering Easter eggs at my dad's, even though she did not have a clue what was going on. Once she got one egg in each hand, she just grinned and watched all the other kids running about, picking up eggs.

And here's a pic of the handbag I crocheted for Miss Munchkin. I had troubles with the handle and will probably have to redo it, but she seemed to like it.

It's been a busy April. On the 5th I drove to Evansville to bring David home for Easter break. And on the 9th I drove him back. And then on the 11th we (Bill, Charles and I) drove to Tallahassee. Bill had an interview there on the 12th (his birthday!), which we are still waiting to hear the final verdict on. Hopefully we will get word soon.

Friday the 13th we drove to Jacksonville, just to see. There are more job opportunities there, but none of us felt at all comfortable there. It is just too big of a city. Way too many people. Way too much traffic. We drove right on through and headed for St. Augustine, spending Friday night there. On Saturday morning (the 14th) we visited Castillo de San Marcos and walked the beach long enough to get the beginnings of a nice tan. It was lovely. Saturday afternoon we headed back to Tallahassee and then for home, driving through some very nasty storms but arriving safe and sound in the wee hours of Sunday morning. It was very nice to be home. And it was a good thing we came home earlier than planned. Bill had turned off the power strip to my fish tank before we left. I had some very cold, hungry fish in dire need of some oxygen! The tank was down to 62 degrees and most of the fish were just lying on the bottom, slowly fluttering their fins / tails. But I did not see any dead ones. I think they must have been practically hibernating from the cold and lack of oxygen. By Sunday morning they were looking much improved, swimming around the top, waiting for their breakfast!

March Update

Well, I have failed at my goal of daily writing for the month of March. I know March still has a few days left, but as regular readers have likely noticed, there is a huge gap in entries, from March 17th to today, March 28th. My excuse? Life. In all it's wonder and glory!

Sunday (the 18th) was race day and also was the beginning of two days of watching Miss Munchkin while her mommy and daddy got all of her belongings moved to their new apartment. They did take Charles with them, but I am not certain it was a fair trade. Charles is pretty quiet these days, sleeping late and not keeping me very busy. Miss Munchkin not only does not sleep late, but she does not take very long naps and she is not quiet when she is awake! She kept me very, very busy those two days.

I did have Tuesday to myself and I do not remember why I didn't write that day, other than possibly I was trying to catch up on every thing I did not get done while Miss Munchkin was here! And then Wednesday morning I got a phone call from my daughter asking if I would come and help clean and paint their house, which consumed the next four days. I know their house was not that clean when they moved in to it! But it does look nice now and hopefully they will be able to sell it quickly.

So that took care of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday? Race day again, and a resting day as I tried to recover from four days of manual labor. I'm soft, I know! And also hunt the job boards for possible positions in Tallahassee for Bill. That has been my normal Sunday occupation for many months now.

Monday? Tuesday? I do not know where those days went. I was busy, but not too busy to write. So no excuses there. But today I have written twice to (hopefully) make up for lost days. And who knows? Maybe during these last remaining days of March I will be as prolific as I have been today! And be able to create whole entries that say absolutely nothing, as this one does!

Spring Break Over

Tomorrow we take David back to college, which means another long day of traveling. It is really an easy trip, with the only really heavy traffic going through Nashville. And even then, we are usually making the trek on either a Saturday or Sunday, so the traffic is not all that bad. But it is still a long drive. And with tomorrow being the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, that means we will lose an hour's sleep tonight. I love Daylight Savings Time and am very happy that it is starting earlier this year and lasting longer, but I hate losing that hour's sleep!

I spent most of today working on creating a list of all the math and science books that I sorted off the shelves on Thursday. All day, but I have only about 1/4 of them on the list. That means a lot more work next week before I am ready to post the list to any group. After I get the list made, then I have to go back through the list, looking up comparable books on e-bay and/or Amazon and see what the used price should be for each one.

This evening we met Kat and Miss Munchkin in Cullman for dinner. Steak! Yummy! Miss Munchkin ate a fair share of my green beans, along with some french fries and a small bit of cheesecake. She definitely prefers to feed herself now, although with only two teeth, you have to really watch what she tries to eat.

It was a nice dinner out, with all three of our children there. But every time the past few months that we have been able to all be together, I cannot help but wonder how long it will be before we are all able to be together again. Life is changing. David in college. Kat with a family. Us looking to move further south. So many changes. And no way of being able to look ahead to know whether they will be good changes or not. No guarantees in this life! Just sight your course and hope for smooth waters and good times ahead.

Time for bed … I am going to have to arise much too early for a Sunday morning!

Miss Munchkin's Birthday

I did not post an entry yesterday because it was Miss Munchkin's first birthday and I was very busy! I began crocheting a YoYo Bunny back in early January, but somehow, like usual, it came down to the wire and I spent five hours yesterday finishing it. And finish it I did, with time to spare (a whole half an hour!). It looks sort of cute, in a disturbing kind of way, but I am not sure how well it will hold together. If it falls apart, probably the yoyo's will be more fun to play with than the bunny!

Miss Munchkin had a small first birthday party, with just family there, grandparents and uncles and aunts. She loved the black cat that we had made at Wack-a-Bear or whatever that store is called. Most of all, though, she liked the balls that Uncle Charles picked out. They were one of the first gifts she opened and after that, she tried to bounce every other gift. If it did not bounce, then back she went to the balls!

And, of course, there was the obligatory chocolate cake with frosting! Mommy and Daddy just could not understand why both grandmothers thought that a little girl covered in cake and frosting was so cute! When we left, Miss Munchkin was headed for the bathtub for a thorough cleaning.

Something Meaningful

Well, here it is the sixth day of my 30 Day Trial and I have not a clue what to write. I have already missed one day, so I really need to write something for today. But today has been one of those non-eventful days and I feel rather brain dead tonight. So meaningful this likely will not be.

This afternoon the boys and I went to the mall to find Miss Munchkin's birthday presents. I bought three board books:

• Goodnight Moon, by Margaret Wise Brown
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, by Bill Martin Jr & Eric Carle
• Good Dog Carl, by Alexandra Day

All three books were favorites of her mother's, so I am sure they will be well used.

In addition to the books, we went to Build-a-Bear, or whatever the name is for the one at the mall, and picked out a black cat with green eyes. Miss Munchkin has a thing for cats, so I know she'll like that. And then we found a couple of small bouncy balls, since she seemed to like Uncle Charles's basketball the last time she was here.

Tomorrow is the big party day. We will go over to Kat's in the late afternoon for dinner and birthday cake or whatever the dessert of choice will be. Miss Munchkin will be one! A year ago tonight I was walking the floor with Kat, wondering when/if Miss Munchkin was ever going to make her arrival. And now she's one. Simply amazing!

All Tired Out!

I know I did not write yesterday. I will have to make up for that by writing two entries another day. Miss Munchkin and her family have been visiting for the last 48 hours, from Saturday night just after we arrived home with David until tonight. So yesterday was a busy day with all of our children home. We played on the Wii, watched movies, and were generally entertained by Miss Munchkin. I was so busy that I just plain forgot to write!

Today I have been babysitting, from 7:30 a.m. till 6:15 p.m. I am barely coherent at 7:30 in the morning, let alone capable of taking care of a one-year-old! Miss Munchkin was good most of the time, but she sure is busy and she jabbers almost continually. She took only one nap, which lasting little more than an hour. Grandma is one tired gal tonight!

I have gotten very accustomed to a quiet house, with morning all my own, and just generally not having to think about a wee child every waking and sleeping moment. There is a reason why older women do not conceive as easily as younger women. Little children are just plain exhausting and best left for the young of mind and body to raise. And this particular old body is going to go soak in the tub and go to bed!

Finished Afghan

Here's a pic of the crochet afghan I've been working on for the past couple of years (on again, off again). I finished it Sunday. It fits nicely on the couch, although it doesn't match the couch at all. Maybe it will match my new living room, someday! In the meantime, it's nice and warm!

Now to finish Miss Munchkin's YoYo Bunny before her birthday!

More Miss Munchkin

More pics of Miss Munchkin, 11 months old.

A cutie, right?

Miss Munchkin with Grandpa. See her tail? Ever see a cat chase it's tail?

How about a Munchkin chasing her tail?

Just can't quite catch it!

Babysitting Miss Munchkin

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of babysitting my granddaughter, Miss Munchkin, for four whole hours! Luckily she took a nap for one and one-half hour, so she didn't tire me out too much! She is a busy girl. Before M&M visits again, we need to install some child safety latches in the kitchen. Here are a few pictures I took yesterday:

Miss Munchkin's devilish grin!

Trying to get around Grandma and into things she shouldn't have!

Walking and into everything! Not only is she walking now, but she also has two teeth! It is hard to believe she'll be a whole year old in another few weeks.

December update

I just checked when I last wrote here and can't believe it was so long ago. Where did December go? It's been a month of ups and downs and not one I'd like to repeat for a long time to come.

Mr. Algae-Eater seems to have recovered nicely. I bought some sort of aloe juice medicine that was supposed to be for sores on fish and added it each day for a week. It seemed to do the trick. He's back to his old self.

We did take a trip to Tallahassee last week and Bill interviewed for a position with a company there. He liked the company, so now we are just waiting to see if they liked him enough to hire him. Or if they thought they needed his experience enough to hire him, as they have a huge mess to clean up. Hopefully we'll hear soon. Bill and I really liked it there. The sunshine, the warmth, the beach, the seafood. It was very nice.

Christmas was a quiet day. Several of us have colds, others have been stressed and working too many hours. So we just watched movies and played with Miss Munchkin and tried to keep the wrapping paper out of her mouth. The best gift seemed to be the Flexible Flyer horse we got her. It didn't take long for her to figure out how she could move to get the horse moving. It is going to be a while, though, before she'll be able to ride it herself.

And I bought her a stocking that had the head of a cat at the top of it. I was going to make her a stocking. I got all of 4 rows done on it. I'll have to finish it next year. But the cat stocking was a big hit. Miss Munchkin loves "fluffies" and all day long she'd carry that stocking around and put her face right down into the cat's face and make her "kitty cat" noise, which is sort of a cross between a meow and a purr and a dinosaur growl. Very cute. That's what she's doing in these pictures, in addition to trying to eat the nose of the cat!

Fish update

Well, Mr. Algae-Eater is not looking very well. Sunday he has what appeared to be open sores on his skin. I bought some stuff to put in the water that is supposed to help. Maybe it is; I don't know. The sores do not look as red, but today his tail does not stick out behind him like normal. It curls and definitely looks shorter, like he has lost some of it. But this afternoon he did scoot around quickly into the weeds when I turned the light on, which was the fastest I had seen him move in several days. Maybe there's hope?

Kat says that Miss Munchkin walked across the kitchen on her own this afternoon and then stood there longer squealing about it. I need to take some more pictures. I haven't taken any since early November and they are still on the camera. Tomorrow she will be 9 months! I'll have to remember to take the camera with us dancing Friday night and get some pictures of Miss Munchkin and I doing Cotton-Eyed Joe.

I talked with David for a short bit today. Today was a "reading / studying" day in preparations for exams, which begin tomorrow. Next Wednesday he will be ready to come home for semester break.

I continue to declutter, cleaning out more books and videos. Some I am selling; many more are just being given away to the public library or being Freecycled (new verb there, like Googling!). I do not want to have to box all these up and move them with me! The more I get rid of now, the less I have to move.

Speaking of moving, it sounds likely that we will have to soon take a trip to Tallahassee, scout the area. Kat & Shawn announced Sunday that it is 90% likely they will be moving to Pensacola by the first of March and that Shawn will be manager of a store there. We had already been looking in that direction, in addition to the Nashville area, but now being further south takes on new meaning. Plus, after the cold weather this week, Bill and I are both looking at each other and saying "and we want to move to Nashville? Further north?"

Weather changes

Looks like November is going to go out with a roar … and December come in with a brrr! We've been enjoying some lovely warm days this past week or more; 70s in the day, 50s at night, lots of sunshine and gentle breezes. But from the weather forecast, that is all going to end tomorrow. Lots of wind and rain, possibly some thunder and lightning (but hopefully no tornadoes) going through tomorrow afternoon and evening. And then turning much colder on Friday, with temps down in the 30s and 20s at night and not much warmer during the day. So far no forecast for any of that white stuff, at least not this far south, and let's hope it stays that way!

Thanksgiving was a nice quiet day. And then on Friday Kat and Miss Munchkin and Shawn came to spend a few days, going home on Monday. It is nice to have them all here, but nice when they leave also! The house seems to much bigger after they leave!

Miss Munchkin is trying to walk. She actually took a couple of steps on her own while she was here. She will be nine months in another week. Nine months! That's too young to be walking!!

Bill and I took David back to college on Sunday. We had a nice visit, but I think he was ready to go back. We have to pick him back up on December 13. On our way to Evansville Sunday we spent some time driving around Nashville, getting the lay of the land, scouting out some possible areas for housing, just in case that is the area we end up moving to.

I've been working hard on my website and it is beginning to pay off! I've also been trying to clean up some of the piles of books around here. Putting more on auction at e-bay rather than on my e-bay store. And either they sell or I donate them to the library. Too many piles, too many bookshelves. If we are going to move … no, when we move I do not want to have to move all these books!!

Needless to say, from the word count showing here on my blog, I will not be completing my NaNoWriMo Novel this month. I did get over the hump I was in last week and had a great writing day on Thanksgiving. But with all the additional company and taking David home on Sunday and everything else, I have not had the time to write. Today I have gotten a little bit done. But I am going to continue working on this novel, as I like the premise and I love the main character. So maybe by this time next year I will have two completed novels - the one I am working on now and one for next year's NaNoWriMo.

Crazy Day

Well, Bill ended up going to Evansville by himself to pick up David. Charles was sick enough yesterday that I didn't feel comfortable leaving him alone today. He was much improved by bedtime, but still had a pretty rough day yesterday. And after his improvement on Sunday and then relapse on Monday, I wasn't going to leave him alone. So Bill went by himself.

He had two appointments in Nashville, but the directions to the first one were not very good and he got lost. By the time her found the place, did what he had to do there (which took longer than it was supposed to), his second appointment time had come and gone. Unfortunately, the second appointment's time was booked up for the afternoon, so I guess he'll have to make another trip to Nashville to meet some other time.

In the meantime, David is calling at 11 a.m. to let us know that he is ready! I told him he better get some lunch, because it's going to be around 3 p.m. before Bill gets to Evansville.

It's been a quiet morning and I've updated two more e-mail lists pages on my website and fine-tuned some other pages. Also washed some dishes and done some laundry. And now it's time to go begin cleaning a path to David's bed! Actually, what I wanted to do was make room here in my office for Miss Munchkin's port-a-crib so that Kat could spend the night Friday if she wanted to, provided we're not all sick with the bug by then. Shawn's work schedule becomes pretty hectic for the next month or so, so I thought she might like to stay here one night while David is here to spend more time with her brother. To do that, I've got to remove a huge amount of stuff that is piled on the floor in my office and then move Miss Munchkin's things from David's room to here. And then maybe there will actually be room for David in David's room!

Guess I better get started!

Halloween / NaNoWriMo

It's Halloween and all my children are healthy, I think. When they were little, it seemed as though every Halloween at least one of them, if not more, were sick with a fever, cold, sore throat, something. Of course, Charles is just getting over a cold, so maybe he counts? Nah. And I don't really know whether David is sick or not, but he sounded just fine on Saturday when we talked to him. So I'm going with "It's Halloween and all my children are healthy."

Kat was over on Sunday with Miss Munchkin. She had picked up the cutest Halloween costume for Miss Munchkin. A strawberry! It had a little stretchie hat that looked like the hull of a strawberry on top. The suit part was red, with velcro in the back so it went on and off easily. Sleeveless, so it wouldn't be too warm. I'm hoping Kat will get a picture of Miss Munchkin in it this week, as she didn't bring my camera with her on Sunday. If (when) I get a pic, I will post it up here. She looked so cute, although I do agree with Shawn that it was also mildly disturbing at the same time!

Miss Munchkin had a new game Sunday. She is now waving all the time as people come and go, or just when she looks around and "discovers" they are still there. Sunday she would crawl from her mommy to me, get on my lap, turn around and wave and grin at her mommy. Great fun!

I added a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) participant link to my description here on my blog today (check the right description column). I've never done NaNo before, never finished a novel before (although I have a couple partially written), so we'll see. The plot and characters all came to me within about 10 minutes of reading about NaNoWriMo back in September, so I think I was meant to write it. You have to write at least 50,000 words during the month of November. No editing, that comes later! That's almost 2000 words a day. With all my job hunting for hubby and updating of my website, I'm not sure I'll have time to write 50,000 words. Probably my posting here will be a bit sparse, so check my progress reports (clicking on the the links to the right) and give me heck in an e-mail if you don't see an updated word count each day!

Vacation Trip - Part Three

We planned to spend Thursday night with a friend who lives just south of Youngstown, Ohio. Thursday morning we were still debating just what route to take to get there, until I heard the weather report on the radio! Lake-effect snow flurries were forecasted for Wyoming County, New York. The snow wasn't supposed to stick, just flurries. A flurry was more than I wanted to see, so we headed south on 15 into Pennsylvania, taking 220 west and picking up I-80 across to Youngstown. The area around Lock Haven and further west as you join onto I-80 was real pretty. I've often thought Pennsylvania was a pretty place to visit, in the summertime or early fall, but not somewhere I'd like to live. As we got closer to Youngstown, we ran into some brief snow flurries. Ack!

As for the "non-sticking lake-effect snow" in western New York? Seven days later they are still talking about it on the national news, reporting that there are still large populations without power. My aunt said that the Thruway was closed for over 24 hours on Thursday / Friday. It seems some places west of Leroy received up to 24 inches. That's a lot of snow for early October and a lot of sticking!

Our stay with our friend's in Youngstown was very pleasant. She has a beautiful house and certainly pleased Charles with her mashed potatoes and gravy! We met several members of her family and just had a nice visit. Friday morning we were on our way bright and early (7:30 a.m. Central), as we had a long day of traveling ahead of us if we were to get all the way to Evansville, Indiana, by nightfall. By two in the afternoon it seemed like we were making good time, so we decided to take the scenic route across Indiana rather than staying on the Interstates. Wrong decision. Lovely countryside, but a bit longer trip than necessary, especially when we hit a traffic jam the first few miles and only drove about 10 miles in 45 minutes! It was 7:30 p.m. (Central) when we rolled into Evansville, meaning we spent twelve hours on the road.

Poor Miss Munchkin, she was getting so tired of her car seat (as were we all!). After darkness fell, she really began to fuss. She would only be quiet if Kat learned over and stroked her or talked to her. Finally the kids turned on the DVD player and she quieted down. We don't think it was the DVD, just the light from it enabling her to see people around her again. She did the same thing Saturday night after it got dark, fussing until Kat turned on one of the inside back lights. Then Miss Munchkin seemed happier.

Friday night we picked up David and his friend Ashley and all went out to supper. It was nice to visit with David, although I think he was more interested in food than seeing us! Miss Munchkin seemed to remember him, even though it had been about two months since she'd seen him. At least she didn't fuss any when David held her.

Saturday morning David gave Kat (and the rest of us) a tour of the campus. He needs a bit more practice with that! "Here's a building. I think they do art classes in here. I never come to this building, so I don't really know." Very informative! After lunch and winter coat shopping for David, we loaded up and headed for home. We dropped Kat off at the mall so she could ride home with Shawn when he got off from work. Then we dropped Charles off at karate so he could be a part of the last bit of graduation. And we got home about 8 p.m., in time to watch the last half of the Nextel race and see Gordon suffer another late race DNF.

Nine days of vacation, six of them on the road, traveling 2370 miles. Are we crazy or what? Everyone did really well until Friday. By then we'd had enough togetherness. It's a good thing Charles was able to sleep at David's dorm Friday night. Another night of sharing a motel room with Charles and there's no telling what Kat might have done to him with the TV remote as he channel surfed!

Vacation Trip - Part Two

We (Bill & I) spent four nights (Sunday through Wednesday) at the hunting lodge where the 50th Anniversary Party was held. The hunting theme was a bit overdone for my taste, but then I'm not a mighty hunter! We removed some of the pelts from the walls, as their tails dangled down the back of your head when you sat down in certain chairs. One of the young children said we put earrings on the deer. One wall had the front end of a bear sticking out one side and the back end sticking out the other side!

The 50th Anniversary Party began at three on Monday, the 9th and went on until long after dark! Everyone enjoyed themselves, especially the guests of honor.

Tuesday Charles had the bright idea that we should all walk up (and back down) the glen at Watkins Glen. It's 1.5 miles each way, with over 800 steps going up, depending upon the path you take. It was a nice day for such a trek, not too hot, partly sunny, not raining. And October is definitely the perfect month as far as the color of the leaves. Surprisingly, I wasn't as sore afterwards as I was afraid I might be. Miss Munchkin had the right idea, though, riding in mom's sling!

Wednesday we just hung around, taking more pictures, gathering up squash, apples and cider, and doing a little reminiscing along the back roads of our youth. The area has changed so much in the last thirty-five years. Someone told me that Yates County is now the second most Mennonite-populated county in the nation, right behind Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Amazing when you consider the first Mennonite family moved to Yates County around 1970!

Vacation Trip - Part One

We had a late start to our trip. I left too many things to accomplish for Friday morning. And then we had to make a trip to Charles's girlfriend's home to return her glasses that "somehow" ended up in his karate bag the night before. From there we attempted to find a "quicker" route to Kat's house, so instead of only taking twenty minutes, it took us an hour. By then it was time to eat lunch! It was 2:00 in the afternoon (Central) before we left Alabama!

We drove as far as Knoxville, Tennessee, the first night. We were lucky to find two rooms, since there was a softball tournament in town. We took Kat & Miss Munchkin shopping for swimsuits and enjoyed the pool and whirlpool at the motel that night. I wish I had gotten a picture of Miss Munchkin in the pool. She sure enjoys water!

Saturday it was much cooler weather, down in the 40s for most of the day and snotty rain. Bill and I suddenly remembered why we moved south! Virginia is a long state to travel through on I-81. We began looking for a room in Hagerstown, Maryland, only to discover that there was a soccer tournament in town! Sound familiar? We finally found a motel with an indoor pool, got the last two rooms available, only to discover that it was full of eight to twelve-year-old soccer players who took over the pool.

Miss Munchkin traveled very well. We usually had to stop every couple of hours for a diaper change or feeding, but then we old people needed to stop that often to get out and stretch!

Sunday morning it was cool and sunny, but warmed up as we traveled further north. We arrived in Dundee about four in the afternoon (Eastern), visiting with family and enjoying a perfect October day. Miss Munchkin met her cousin Steven for the first time and they seemed to enjoy each other. Steven was a cutie and he loved showing Miss Munchkin all his toys at his Grandma's house.

After a nice afternoon and evening with Bill's brother and sister-in-law, we left Kat and Miss Munchkin and Charles there and headed for our bunks at the hunting lodge. More on that tomorrow!

End of September

Catching up on odds and ends …

We visited David at Evansville last weekend, Family Weekend. What a rainy Saturday it was! We didn't join in on any of the college activities but instead visited the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science. http://www.emuseum.org/.

I would have never imagined that Evansville was a major shipyard in the 1940s, building LSTs (Landing Ship, Tanks) for the war effort. Even the boys found it interesting!

David seems to be doing very well. After a bit of poking and prodding we got to hear tidbits about his classes, his teachers, and what he is learning. He could even speak some Japanese already! But he's definitely not homesick and by Sunday afternoon was more than ready for us all to leave. I guess that's a good thing?

My poor fern … first Copper decides it's THE place to sleep. Then the Fluffies discovered it and now it seems like the bed of preferences for several cats and kittens. I'm not sure it's going to survive. It was so dry and hot this summer that it didn't grow as much as usual and was just catching a second breath in September. Soon it will be cold enough that I will have to move it inside, but it really doesn't get enough sunshine when inside, so I hate to move it in any earlier than necessary. But somehow I've got to keep the kitties out!

Here's a new pic of Miss Munchkin, taken two weeks ago. A drooling baby, cutting who knows how many teeth! Today Kat says that Miss Munchkin is "cruising," which is a term for standing up, holding on to things, and walking around those things. You learn something new every day, Miss Munchkin how to cruise and Grandma what it means! It's only a matter of time before she takes those first steps and walks on her own!

Pics of Great-Uncle Eric and Miss Munchkin

These were taken Labor Day weekend. When Miss Munchkin first met great-uncle Eric Saturday evening, she was not at all sure she wanted to know someone with all that facial hair! At first she screamed, then she just gave him looks and tried to keep her distance. But, by Sunday afternoon he had won her over, as you can see!

David update

It sounds like David has settled in well at Evansville. I called him last night and then passed the phone around so everyone (Bill, Charles, Kat) could talk to him. He told me about the robot he has in Computer Science class and a bit about the Japanese alphabet (or it's three alphabets). And also said I should see the movie "Accepted" because it was funny and had a very unschooling slant to it). He told his dad that everyone seems to gather in his room and he's not sure why. It did sound a little bit like there was more than one or two people in there! But definitely it sounds like he is having a good time and not terribly homesick.

We're still trying to decide whether we'll go up for Family Weekend later in September or combine visiting David with a possible trip to New York in October. I guess the first decision to be made is whether we're going to New York or maybe the decision to be made is who is going to New York. It's my aunt and uncle's 50th wedding anniversary celebration, so I definitely want to go!

Sunday my dad had a get together at his house and my brother Eric drove over from Atlanta with his family. Daniel spent Saturday night here playing X-Box with Charles and Shawn. I took lots of pics, so maybe later this week I'll get one posted up here of Eric with Miss Munchkin. She was frightened of Eric when she first saw him Saturday night, but my Sunday afternoon she was having great fun with his beard.

Oh, and it looks like my kittens have all found homes! I just need to decide if I want to keep one of them or not. We've been talking of possibly moving in the semi-near future and it is going to be difficult to find a place where I could have my six cats roam freely outside, let alone adding another one to that number. Do we really need to keep any?

Watching Miss Munchkin Learn

Just this week on the Unschooling List (my very favorite e-mail list!) we were talking about "how children learn" and whether one can teach a child how to learn. The example given was that there are a few curricula available that say they teach a child how to learn. So that was on my mind Wednesday when I visited Kat and was able to watch Miss Munchkin in the process of learning. Of course, to the adult it would look like she was just playing, but she was hard at hard learning how to navigate this new and wonderful world of hers. And doing a fine job of it too!

Miss Munchkin spends a lot of time in her walker right now. Her feet just hit the floor, but she loves sitting in it, being able to sit up and look around, have her toys on the tray where she can drop them and pick them back up again as she wants. Last week Kat told me that Miss Munchkin had not really figured out how she was getting from here to there in the walker. She would have this look of surprise when she'd go from point A to B like she didn't know what had happened. Wednesday, though, it was obvious she has figured out that she is the one propelling the walker. Kat had pulled out a box of baby cereal, with it's nice shiny crinkly plastic wrapper still on it, and was looking at the box. Miss Munchkin, across the kitchen in her walker, saw that box and in two seconds flat was across the floor, hands outstretched trying to reach the box! I am pretty sure she has not had any lessons on how to work the walker! And yet she managed to figure it out.

You can certainly teach someone a particular skill, such as how to compose a nice essay or how to play the flute. It'll cut down on their trial and error time, prevent the "reinventing the wheel" process. But you are not teaching them how to learn. They are using their hardwired learning skills to pick up the skill you are showing them. Even teaching them to think more logically or how to use certain study skills, like listening better or taking notes of key words in a lecture, is not teaching them to learn. If they didn't already know how to learn, they would not be able to listen to you, observe what you want, absorb the lesson and integrate it into their behavior.

It sure is fun watching a little one figure these things out!

Miss Munchkin crawling, almost too fast to get a good picture!

Miss Munchkin in her walker with her ever-present teething ring.

David called

Well, he's alive and knows how to use the phone! David called yesterday and he was doing great! And he sounded like it was going great. It seems that his FlexPlan Menu card allows him to get food at the sub shop where they sell pizza and root beer. And it's just a short walk from his dorm. His Internet speed is about 100 times faster than our dial-up connection. And he and five other guys (one being his roommate) all went bowling, which David has always enjoyed. So life is good!

Classes began yesterday (Wednesday) and David was calling because he needed to buy some additional books. And so he needed to check his bank account online, which he didn't set up before he left home, even though mom had advised him to! Not only that, but he did not have his bank account number with him nor the pin number he needed to access his account online. Nice to have a mom who keeps things like that on file and knows where they are.

It was nice to hear, though, that he was doing so well and enjoying himself. Of course, his dad is worried that he'll enjoy himself too much! We shall see!

And yesterday while Charles was at karate, I went to visit Kat and play with Miss Munchkin. Took some pictures, which I have yet to look at. Watched her scoot around in her walker and crawl. She certainly is mobile! Tomorrow I will write more about Miss Munchkin.

Miss Munchkin is 5 months!

I can't believe Miss Munchkin is five months old already! I took pictures when she was four months old and it wasn't until yesterday that I even had a chance to go through them. So here are a couple of more up-to-date pictures of Miss Munchkin and family.

Miss Munchkin on her four month birthday with Mommy and Daddy!

And here is Miss Munchkin two weeks ago, July 27, 2006. It's getting very difficult to take good pictures of her because if she's awake, she's moving! Hence, blurry pictures! This one didn't turn out too badly.

Oh, for time to crochet!

It must be summer. I've had barely any time to crochet lately. I almost miss having to drive David to his dual enrollment college classes at Calhoun each morning. At least then I had an hour, some days almost two hours, solely devoted to either reading or crocheting. Or maybe I should begin to go sit at karate again in the evenings, waiting for Charles to get finished with classes, instead of just dropping him off and letting Bill pick him on his way home. I got a lot of crocheting done there. But here at home it seems like there's always something else I have to be or should be doing. Dishes, laundry, e-mail, playing with Miss Munchkin, playing Mah-Jong, paying bills, working on webpages, etc., etc., etc. No time for crocheting. And this month the Nextel Cup races are on cable stations, so I can't even plan on a Sunday afternoon of race watching and crocheting.

I'm currently working on an afghan for David for college, but at the rate I'm going with it, there is no way I'll have it done by the time he heads of to Evansville. He'll be lucky if he gets it by the time the snow flies up there. And then I've several projects I want to work on. Each day, Annie's Attic has a free pattern on their website:

http://www.anniesattic.com/free_pattern_day/index.html

So now, in addition to the dozens of books and pamphlets I have with crochet patterns, I've been saving many of the patterns from Annie's Attic. I'll never have enough time to crochet them all. It's like books … so many to crochet, so little time!

I do need to begin planning Christmas presents, if I'm going to crochet anything for Christmas. There's a lion I'd love to make for Miss Munchkin. And my niece Chelsea graduates from high school next year, so I need to think of what afghan to make for that present. Oh, and I know of a new baby that'll be making his/her way into the world around the first of the year, so I'll have to make a baby blanket. Lots of projects! Guess I better quit blogging and get to work crocheting!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Twenty-seven years ago today Bill and I tied the knot. Twenty-seven years! Wow. I'm not sure whether I'm amazed that we've made it this far or amazed at how quickly the years have flown by.

July 7, 1979 was a picture perfect day; sunny with a brilliant blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds. You couldn't have asked for a more lovely July day. The day went smoothly, no major hitches in all the proceedings, and all the various branches of the families got along well for the day. Or at least, I never heard of any problems afterwards!

So, what will we do today to celebrate? Let's see … hubby went to work. I stayed home and ran my IRC homeschool chat all morning, played with Miss Munchkin, washed some dishes, boned out some chicken, the usual stuff. And tonight we will do our regular Friday night square dancing. Maybe we'll do something special tomorrow night to celebrate, like go to a movie or dinner out, or maybe we won't. The company Bill works for is having their annual summer "do" at the local water park, which includes a bar-be-que dinner and water rides. Somehow I'm underwhelmed at the thought!

Now's the time to plan something big for our 30th! If I begin saving now, a dollar a day, let's see ... that would come to $1095.00 in three years. Wow! That would certainly cover more than a movie and dinner out! Think big! We could travel to the coast and have seafood, although the south coast is a bit warm this time of year. Maybe Maine and lobster!

Miss Munchkin is 4 months old today. I took a lot of pictures of her and Kat and Shawn yesterday. Now to find the time to sort through them and get some actually printed for family members. I've not had any printed since she was a week old. She sure has changed since then!

Miss Munchkin - Almost 4 months!

Miss Munchkin visited with us last week and again yesterday. She's trying to figure out this crawling thing to the point of having rug burns on her knees. But she hasn't quite got the hand action going yet for crawling, just the bottom leg action. Funny to watch her scoot herself across the floor, but rather frustrating for her and she begins to voice her frustration before very long.

Miss Munchkin has discovered that she can actually grab things with her own hands and now find her mouth when she wants. So nothing is safe anymore!

Yesterday she had her second solid food, Grandma's homemade applesauce. I wish I had gotten a picture of that! Her daddy had fed her a finger scoop of spaghetti sauce the previous night, thinking that would show her that she really didn't want his plateful of food. Was he mistaken! She wanted more!

Here's a pic from last week, June 30. She'll be 4 months on July 7th, our 27th anniversary! She's 20 pounds now ... I think her mother is not feeding her well enough!

You'll notice that Miss Munchkin does not wear any plastic pants (or wraps, as they call them these days) nor is she using safety pins with her cloth diapers. Kat has been practicing EC (Elimination Communication) for about two months now. It's working very well. When at home or here at Grandma's, she might wet one or two diapers all day long and rarely does Kat have to change a stinky diaper. Both Kat and I have learned Miss Munchkin's cues and habits pretty well. If she's not teething and not hungry, it seems like the only time she gets upset and cries is when she has to go potty or when she has wet her diapers (she hates, hates, hates being in wet diapers).

I have to admit I was skeptical at first when Kat mentioned she wanted to try EC. But it really does work! Here's are some links if you want to learn more about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_communication

http://www.natural-wisdom.com/

http://www.goddessunplugged.com/articles/diapers.htm

An Adorable Baby!

Some have been asking for an up-to-date picture of my granddaughter Miss Munchkin. This was taken June 14, 2006. So just a bit over 3 months old. Isn't she a cutie?