Scattered
Scattered is how I feel today. A combination of factors has led me to this recurrence of a not-unfamiliar state of being.
I'm feeling physically much better after last week's mastitis, although I'm still taking the antibiotics and will be for a while more. I hate taking antibiotics if I can help it, but if you're going to start a regimen of 'em, you damned sure better finish 'em, I say! I do need to remember to pick up some kefir the next time I go to the grocery store, though. Must replenish the gut flora (or is it fauna?). Anyway, the actual being sick part feels like ancient history, although I am still a little angry at someone who let me down last week in an incident related to my being sick. I'm not going to say more - this person doesn't read the blog as far as I know, but I also don't want to stir it up.
At some point during the day today, our web server crashed or something, and Joe couldn't fix it till he got home from work. So, if you were looking for me earlier and couldn't get through, that's why. I felt especially bad when I realized this was going on because I hadn't blogged the last couple of nights. It was just that by the time I finished the bare minimum chores and landed on the couch, I was too exhausted to string a coherent thought together and I really wanted to do some knitting. But I'm here now!
Speaking of knitting, I'm going to do a separate blankie update post in a minute, but I will show you the FO I've been working on this week.
This is not the best picture in the world, and I actually took it a couple nights ago when the third clog was still not quite right. I had to knit three because somehow I managed to knit the second one in the wrong size - but at least realized that before I knit up the second sole for it. Then, I knit the third one and knit the outer sole on wrong so had to rip and redo that part. This would have been a super-quick project if I hadn't been so....scattered. As I was ripping and re-knitting, I sat there feeling grateful that it was me doing the extra knitting and spending one extra evening at it instead of my friend, the mom of the child who's getting them. It would have taken her at least an extra... week? month? Anyway, they're done, and I am going to gift them unfelted so that the mom and child can have the fun of shrinking them as a little project. I just need to run by the craft store and get some paint for the bottoms and then they will be all set to go to their new home. Hopefully, I'll get permission to show you a picture of the truly finished project when it's completed. Little M was here the other day and ran around wearing one of Julie's clogs, so I know she is excited to get her own. That's a happy thought.
So anyway, a couple of other things that had me all wound up today. Really, it's been building. Julie has been refusing to pick up her toys. I've tried all kinds of tactics to get her involved in picking up from singing songs, physically directing her to the problem areas, instructing her piece by piece, and finally threatening that either she start picking them up or I will pick them up and put them away where she can't have them for a while. Different tactics have worked with varying success over the last couple of years, as age and mood have dictated. But it's come to a head. The kid is three and a half years old and this is something we've been working on since she was under one. I'm tired of having a toy explosion throughout my entire house, and I'm tired of coming down the stairs after bed time every night and spending half an hour putting toys away, struggling to find all the pieces and keep them sorted out so that they're playable.
Julie has a habit of re-purposing toys and using them for very creative imaginative play that is really cool, but creates a huge mess. Anything with a collection of small parts (like a puzzle or a set of alphabet magnets) becomes some kind of food or just fodder for stuffing into a container and carrying around or sprinkling across the floor in some game she's invented. On the one hand, it's fun to watch and listen to. On the other hand, it's extremely frustrating when she moves on to the next game and doesn't want to pick up the mess. I'm sick of it! We have WAY too many toys anyway. I finally had enough today after I asked her to help me pick up and she flat-out refused, even when I said "Come pick up now or I will pick up for you and take the toys away for a week." ARGH!
After bed time tonight, Joe and I - mostly Joe because I was busy doing another chore - gathered up all the toys, organized them so the pieces of each were as together as possible (where does she hide the missing pieces?) and packed about 90% of them away. There are only a few toys left out in our living room - enough that the girls both have something to do, but few enough that keeping things neat will be more enforceable. I'm still thinking about how Julie is going to earn some of the other ones back. We may have to set up some kind of rotation where we put one away for everyone we bring back out. There are also still buttloads of additional toys upstairs and in the basement, so don't think the kids are in any way deprived. We talked about this with Julie before bedtime as well, so it's not going to be a total shock when she comes down in the morning.
All this week has been kind of a rough one for me and the girls. Sophie has been quite clingy and doesn't want me to put her down. I know she's working on teeth, and the constipation problem is still ongoing. It's hard to get her to eat the stool softener when she isn't consistently interested in drinking juice or eating pureed solids. When she takes it, life is better. When she doesn't, it is very sad. Carrying around a 20-pound baby non-stop is draining, and makes it all the harder to go around picking up toys strewn around by her sister.
Julie has also been a bit off - she didn't eat her dinner one night, so the next morning she melting down almost from the moment she woke up until I managed to get her dressed and down stairs to eat breakfast. That morning she sat and ate for 45 minutes straight: half a pear, an apple, sausage, corn flakes, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a couple of clementines, milk and a vitamin and she was still asking for more. I had to cut her off because we were already half an hour late for school. Jebus!
I think that's all my whining done with. Now, here's a cut picture of the girls on Valentine's day:
It only took about 20 shots to get the one decent image. I loves my digital camera.
Speaking of Valentines' day, I really wanted to do an anti-Valentine's Day-hate post. I mean, I pretty much agree with Stephanie's take on V-Day, but I couldn't believe all the I-hate-Valentine's-Day posts out there in the blogosphere. Valentine's Day to me means cheap little cards that come in packets of 30 that you pass around to your friends at school. It means the chocolate covered strawberries my father used to buy us when we were kids (heaven!) It means cutting out heart shapes and maybe using a bit of glitter or string to put up decorations. Yes, there are plenty of bad things about the day, but what's wrong with spreading a little cheer with a frou-frou holiday in the middle of the coldest month of the year?
Of course, I have a nice, dependable Valentine who left me a nice prezzie on the counter before he left for work.
That's a bottle of Sweet Toofs from FlapFlapFly, and they're very cute. Joe loves buying little artsy collectibles, and I make a great excuse for it. That's one of the things I happen to love about him.
Anyway, tomorrow is the last class in my current Fair Isle series, so I baked up a pile of chocolate chip cookies for my students and self-medicated by eating several hot out of the oven with a nice cold glass of milk. Now if I can just get the blankie post written, I may even have a few minutes for knitting before bed.
Oh, and yes, the Harlot is coming to the Yarnery on April 4. She's going to speak at the William Mitchell College of Law auditorium at 7, then sign books at the store afterwards. There should be plenty of room for everyone - the managers at the store are planning how to manage the crowds and are even considering handing out tickets for timeslots at the signing so you won't have to stand in line for too long. Say, come back between 8 and 8:15 and then people who are in the next time slot can go have a treat at Cafe Latte or something while they wait. Squee!
In the mean time, I think the girls, the blankie and I will be at the Knit-Out at the Mall of America at some point in the afternoon on Sunday. I want to check out the presentation on dyeing with Kool-Aid, among other things. If you're going to be there and you want to meet up, or if you just happen to spot us, don't be shy! Say hello and I'll be happy to introduce you to both the girls and the blankie.
I'm feeling physically much better after last week's mastitis, although I'm still taking the antibiotics and will be for a while more. I hate taking antibiotics if I can help it, but if you're going to start a regimen of 'em, you damned sure better finish 'em, I say! I do need to remember to pick up some kefir the next time I go to the grocery store, though. Must replenish the gut flora (or is it fauna?). Anyway, the actual being sick part feels like ancient history, although I am still a little angry at someone who let me down last week in an incident related to my being sick. I'm not going to say more - this person doesn't read the blog as far as I know, but I also don't want to stir it up.
At some point during the day today, our web server crashed or something, and Joe couldn't fix it till he got home from work. So, if you were looking for me earlier and couldn't get through, that's why. I felt especially bad when I realized this was going on because I hadn't blogged the last couple of nights. It was just that by the time I finished the bare minimum chores and landed on the couch, I was too exhausted to string a coherent thought together and I really wanted to do some knitting. But I'm here now!
Speaking of knitting, I'm going to do a separate blankie update post in a minute, but I will show you the FO I've been working on this week.
This is not the best picture in the world, and I actually took it a couple nights ago when the third clog was still not quite right. I had to knit three because somehow I managed to knit the second one in the wrong size - but at least realized that before I knit up the second sole for it. Then, I knit the third one and knit the outer sole on wrong so had to rip and redo that part. This would have been a super-quick project if I hadn't been so....scattered. As I was ripping and re-knitting, I sat there feeling grateful that it was me doing the extra knitting and spending one extra evening at it instead of my friend, the mom of the child who's getting them. It would have taken her at least an extra... week? month? Anyway, they're done, and I am going to gift them unfelted so that the mom and child can have the fun of shrinking them as a little project. I just need to run by the craft store and get some paint for the bottoms and then they will be all set to go to their new home. Hopefully, I'll get permission to show you a picture of the truly finished project when it's completed. Little M was here the other day and ran around wearing one of Julie's clogs, so I know she is excited to get her own. That's a happy thought.
So anyway, a couple of other things that had me all wound up today. Really, it's been building. Julie has been refusing to pick up her toys. I've tried all kinds of tactics to get her involved in picking up from singing songs, physically directing her to the problem areas, instructing her piece by piece, and finally threatening that either she start picking them up or I will pick them up and put them away where she can't have them for a while. Different tactics have worked with varying success over the last couple of years, as age and mood have dictated. But it's come to a head. The kid is three and a half years old and this is something we've been working on since she was under one. I'm tired of having a toy explosion throughout my entire house, and I'm tired of coming down the stairs after bed time every night and spending half an hour putting toys away, struggling to find all the pieces and keep them sorted out so that they're playable.
Julie has a habit of re-purposing toys and using them for very creative imaginative play that is really cool, but creates a huge mess. Anything with a collection of small parts (like a puzzle or a set of alphabet magnets) becomes some kind of food or just fodder for stuffing into a container and carrying around or sprinkling across the floor in some game she's invented. On the one hand, it's fun to watch and listen to. On the other hand, it's extremely frustrating when she moves on to the next game and doesn't want to pick up the mess. I'm sick of it! We have WAY too many toys anyway. I finally had enough today after I asked her to help me pick up and she flat-out refused, even when I said "Come pick up now or I will pick up for you and take the toys away for a week." ARGH!
After bed time tonight, Joe and I - mostly Joe because I was busy doing another chore - gathered up all the toys, organized them so the pieces of each were as together as possible (where does she hide the missing pieces?) and packed about 90% of them away. There are only a few toys left out in our living room - enough that the girls both have something to do, but few enough that keeping things neat will be more enforceable. I'm still thinking about how Julie is going to earn some of the other ones back. We may have to set up some kind of rotation where we put one away for everyone we bring back out. There are also still buttloads of additional toys upstairs and in the basement, so don't think the kids are in any way deprived. We talked about this with Julie before bedtime as well, so it's not going to be a total shock when she comes down in the morning.
All this week has been kind of a rough one for me and the girls. Sophie has been quite clingy and doesn't want me to put her down. I know she's working on teeth, and the constipation problem is still ongoing. It's hard to get her to eat the stool softener when she isn't consistently interested in drinking juice or eating pureed solids. When she takes it, life is better. When she doesn't, it is very sad. Carrying around a 20-pound baby non-stop is draining, and makes it all the harder to go around picking up toys strewn around by her sister.
Julie has also been a bit off - she didn't eat her dinner one night, so the next morning she melting down almost from the moment she woke up until I managed to get her dressed and down stairs to eat breakfast. That morning she sat and ate for 45 minutes straight: half a pear, an apple, sausage, corn flakes, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a couple of clementines, milk and a vitamin and she was still asking for more. I had to cut her off because we were already half an hour late for school. Jebus!
I think that's all my whining done with. Now, here's a cut picture of the girls on Valentine's day:
It only took about 20 shots to get the one decent image. I loves my digital camera.
Speaking of Valentines' day, I really wanted to do an anti-Valentine's Day-hate post. I mean, I pretty much agree with Stephanie's take on V-Day, but I couldn't believe all the I-hate-Valentine's-Day posts out there in the blogosphere. Valentine's Day to me means cheap little cards that come in packets of 30 that you pass around to your friends at school. It means the chocolate covered strawberries my father used to buy us when we were kids (heaven!) It means cutting out heart shapes and maybe using a bit of glitter or string to put up decorations. Yes, there are plenty of bad things about the day, but what's wrong with spreading a little cheer with a frou-frou holiday in the middle of the coldest month of the year?
Of course, I have a nice, dependable Valentine who left me a nice prezzie on the counter before he left for work.
That's a bottle of Sweet Toofs from FlapFlapFly, and they're very cute. Joe loves buying little artsy collectibles, and I make a great excuse for it. That's one of the things I happen to love about him.
Anyway, tomorrow is the last class in my current Fair Isle series, so I baked up a pile of chocolate chip cookies for my students and self-medicated by eating several hot out of the oven with a nice cold glass of milk. Now if I can just get the blankie post written, I may even have a few minutes for knitting before bed.
Oh, and yes, the Harlot is coming to the Yarnery on April 4. She's going to speak at the William Mitchell College of Law auditorium at 7, then sign books at the store afterwards. There should be plenty of room for everyone - the managers at the store are planning how to manage the crowds and are even considering handing out tickets for timeslots at the signing so you won't have to stand in line for too long. Say, come back between 8 and 8:15 and then people who are in the next time slot can go have a treat at Cafe Latte or something while they wait. Squee!
In the mean time, I think the girls, the blankie and I will be at the Knit-Out at the Mall of America at some point in the afternoon on Sunday. I want to check out the presentation on dyeing with Kool-Aid, among other things. If you're going to be there and you want to meet up, or if you just happen to spot us, don't be shy! Say hello and I'll be happy to introduce you to both the girls and the blankie.
posted by Shelly Kang at 10:20 PM
3 Comments:
Three and a half is still pretty much of a baby. Not very big at all. This is going to take a lot more time. Cutting down on the number of toys is good. Picking up very frequently is another good idea. Just don't tell her she's a horrible kid for not having a skill at three that a lot of teenagers still don't have.
We used to put toys away too. When it got to be too much yelling and bribing, I told my kids I would take the toys to Good Will so other kids could enjoy getting them. It took about three trips to Good Will with the toys, but they finally got it that I wasn't kidding. When we would drive by, my youngest would say,"That's where my toys are!" He didn't seem to suffer any serious mental side effects. Maybe someday he'll talk to a therapist about it!! LOL My oldest turns 14 tomorrow, so I can't get to the MOA. Have fun!
I don't have kids, but another site I read (flylady) really raves about the House Fairy. I've pasted the link below, in case you're interested. Good luck!
http://www.housefairy.org/
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