Tossed-Salad Tuesday
This post is not about tossed salad. I just needed a title, and it's sort of a toss-salad of topics for this Tuesday - sorry, the holiday wish list is going to take at least one more day to ferment in my brain. And in case any of you reading this who haven't heard me talk in person are wondering, yes, I really do say things like "ferment in my brain" and sometimes when I say things like that, they come out with a slightly southern accent. I am, after all, from Missouri originally. Now that we got that straight, I'm going with a camera-dump post.
Sophie has a thing for messing with the Daisy cat whenever she gets the chance. Thankfully, Daisy is pretty patient with her. We have another cat, Harry, but the kids rarely see him because he spends most of his time hiding from them in the basement. I can't explain why Sophie is wrapped up in the afghan, but it was cute. That afghan was a gift from my maternal grandmother, and even though I barely knew her, I hold it dear.
Sophie with "Aunt Dottie"
And with "Uncle Bill"
There is a back story here. Aunt Dottie and Uncle Bill are actually the aunt and uncle of my Julie's namesake, my best friend who died of ovarian cancer two years ago in July. They are good people, and sort of my own adopted extended family. They live in St. Louis and were up here for a wedding, so they stopped by Sunday afternoon. Sophie took to Bill like a duck on water. Both girls enjoyed their visit, and ran a little wild while they were here. I think it was the toys they brought.
Here is proof positive that I am not the perfect mom, nor do I always make the best of food choices. We had McD's for lunch yesterday. Julie tried chicken nuggets for the first time ever, and liked them, and one of their hamburgers for the first time ever and hated it. At least we ate grapes and carrots along with our grease. I only do fast food like that maybe once a month, usually less. It used to be that Julie could only eat the french fries.
Sophie likes the grease too...
Here is today's lunch just before I served it.
This is much more typical at our house. It takes about five minutes to throw together, and even though they are going to leave something untouched on their plate, it's all healthy and they're likely to try something they don't normally eat if I just slip it quietly onto their plate. Julie loves it when I give her big chunks of, or preferably whole, cucumbers. Nobody but me ate the celery today. Those crackers? They're wheat, but they're a healthier whole-foods version of they type of cracker they resemble. Darn tasty, though!
And finally, Daisy came over to check out the giant bandage on my foot. That stupid toenail started to grow back, and it was immediately ingrowing again. This time I made it in to see an actual podiatrist, and he "took care of it" permanently (we hope). The good news is that the procedure was 99% painless. He somehow managed to numb that sucker up entirely, and was dismayed to hear what I had suffered through at the urgent care, although not surprised. He hears about it all the time. Man, he even had this magic freezing spray that he put on before doing the lydocaine injections, so those barely hurt.
Oh, and a follow-up to yesterday's post about the Christmas presents for the girls. Thanks to all of you who mentioned tips about the View Masters. I hadn't even considered getting vintage ones, but that's a great idea, and reader Katy says she may even have some around to pass on to the girls (crossing my fingers!) Hey, Katy - I could pay you in sock yarn and patterns if you want!
As soon as she mentioned that, I went and checked out e-bay - they have tons listed, and I may bid on a lot of those eventually. I had kind of a negative experience on e-bay recently where the seller claimed the handbag I bought was in barely used condition and it arrived quite worn. I tried disputing it through Paypal and got a big fat zilch back out of it. But you place your bet, you takes your chances. I've had lots of other quite positive experiences with e-bay and I guess eventually I'll have to jump back on the horse.
Also, thanks to Kathy for the heads-up about Hearthsong. I will keep an eye on the calendar, and cancel the order if they don't ship in reasonable time. That is SO frustrating!
Alright, I'm off to surf the net for my own present ideas. By the way, after writing yesterday's post, I started to wonder if maybe the present list for the girls is not so excessive after all. I mean, we don't have a huge extended family. They won't be getting many additional gifts besides what we give them - maybe 2-3 others, and probably half of those are likely to be ones we deem totally inappropriate and likely to "disappear" quickly. I'm really hoping we can convince Joe's parents to buy them a play tent with a tunnel attached. So let me ask you - if they were your kids, would you get them more stuff or less? Honestly. You won't hurt my feelings. Also, if you have suggestions of toys you think I might really really like for the girls, what are they?
Sophie has a thing for messing with the Daisy cat whenever she gets the chance. Thankfully, Daisy is pretty patient with her. We have another cat, Harry, but the kids rarely see him because he spends most of his time hiding from them in the basement. I can't explain why Sophie is wrapped up in the afghan, but it was cute. That afghan was a gift from my maternal grandmother, and even though I barely knew her, I hold it dear.
Sophie with "Aunt Dottie"
And with "Uncle Bill"
There is a back story here. Aunt Dottie and Uncle Bill are actually the aunt and uncle of my Julie's namesake, my best friend who died of ovarian cancer two years ago in July. They are good people, and sort of my own adopted extended family. They live in St. Louis and were up here for a wedding, so they stopped by Sunday afternoon. Sophie took to Bill like a duck on water. Both girls enjoyed their visit, and ran a little wild while they were here. I think it was the toys they brought.
Here is proof positive that I am not the perfect mom, nor do I always make the best of food choices. We had McD's for lunch yesterday. Julie tried chicken nuggets for the first time ever, and liked them, and one of their hamburgers for the first time ever and hated it. At least we ate grapes and carrots along with our grease. I only do fast food like that maybe once a month, usually less. It used to be that Julie could only eat the french fries.
Sophie likes the grease too...
Here is today's lunch just before I served it.
This is much more typical at our house. It takes about five minutes to throw together, and even though they are going to leave something untouched on their plate, it's all healthy and they're likely to try something they don't normally eat if I just slip it quietly onto their plate. Julie loves it when I give her big chunks of, or preferably whole, cucumbers. Nobody but me ate the celery today. Those crackers? They're wheat, but they're a healthier whole-foods version of they type of cracker they resemble. Darn tasty, though!
And finally, Daisy came over to check out the giant bandage on my foot. That stupid toenail started to grow back, and it was immediately ingrowing again. This time I made it in to see an actual podiatrist, and he "took care of it" permanently (we hope). The good news is that the procedure was 99% painless. He somehow managed to numb that sucker up entirely, and was dismayed to hear what I had suffered through at the urgent care, although not surprised. He hears about it all the time. Man, he even had this magic freezing spray that he put on before doing the lydocaine injections, so those barely hurt.
Oh, and a follow-up to yesterday's post about the Christmas presents for the girls. Thanks to all of you who mentioned tips about the View Masters. I hadn't even considered getting vintage ones, but that's a great idea, and reader Katy says she may even have some around to pass on to the girls (crossing my fingers!) Hey, Katy - I could pay you in sock yarn and patterns if you want!
As soon as she mentioned that, I went and checked out e-bay - they have tons listed, and I may bid on a lot of those eventually. I had kind of a negative experience on e-bay recently where the seller claimed the handbag I bought was in barely used condition and it arrived quite worn. I tried disputing it through Paypal and got a big fat zilch back out of it. But you place your bet, you takes your chances. I've had lots of other quite positive experiences with e-bay and I guess eventually I'll have to jump back on the horse.
Also, thanks to Kathy for the heads-up about Hearthsong. I will keep an eye on the calendar, and cancel the order if they don't ship in reasonable time. That is SO frustrating!
Alright, I'm off to surf the net for my own present ideas. By the way, after writing yesterday's post, I started to wonder if maybe the present list for the girls is not so excessive after all. I mean, we don't have a huge extended family. They won't be getting many additional gifts besides what we give them - maybe 2-3 others, and probably half of those are likely to be ones we deem totally inappropriate and likely to "disappear" quickly. I'm really hoping we can convince Joe's parents to buy them a play tent with a tunnel attached. So let me ask you - if they were your kids, would you get them more stuff or less? Honestly. You won't hurt my feelings. Also, if you have suggestions of toys you think I might really really like for the girls, what are they?
posted by Shelly Kang at 10:28 PM
11 Comments:
I think the amount of presents totally depends on the kids. For ours, we heaped them on our first born, to find out that what everyone said was right, they mostly end up in the trash in a couple months. Now that we have 3, we're a little more choosy. Santa gets them each something big, usually he spends about $50. Then they each get something useful/non-toy like from each of us, parents, I mean. I like to get them each a game, since I stay home and play with them all day, between the cleaning and laundry and knitting, and you know. One year, we got them all PJ sets that had a theme and came with a little toy. The toy lasted about a week, they were little foamy sports balls, and the youngest literally chewed his up. But, the pj's lasted. Then I buy 2 more smaller items for each of them, and let their brothers pick which one is from them. Did that make sense? So, I get 2 things for son D, and let P and R pick "I want that one to be from me". Then they usually get a few little things in their stockings.
One other thing I do is to do a toy purge in the months leading up. I put a couple of boxes in the hall, and every couple of days, I ask them to put x # of things in there that they don't play with anymore. Then we take the boxes down to Goodwill. I've found that the tax deduction is far greater than a garage sale. More time-effective too. And the kids get the good feeling of knowing they've blessed someone else with their stuff.
Yarn and patterns would probably be just fine if I find the reels this weekend. I can see them in my minds eye in a few different places, so we'll see if my mom moved them. I totally forgot to ask today.
I think that Christmas presents are totally about quality and not quantity. I say this as a child who was literally buried in gift wrap and presents when I was 2, so perhaps I'm a bit biased. You have well thought out gifts for the girls, and it looks like stuff that they'll play with. Even with lots of ridiculous gifts from one side of the family as a child, my favorite memories are of the art sets in the black cases and drawing with my dad on a big pad of paper on the floor.
If you don't expect many other gifts, your list seems good to me. My son was born in December, so he gets a ton of stuff from family--that I need to sneak away and distribute throughout the year. Santa usually brings one special gift, and we give him some smaller items (books, art supplies). Santa's gift has historically been a musical instrument. He has a reasonably priced ukelele, and an inexpensive keyboard. I got him a drum set over the summer (because one of his little friends broke his original cheapy set). This year I know he has received an accordian and a set of chimes/xylophone from my sisters. The other thing he loves is dressup/costumes. I agree that life is better without too many battery operated toys.
Enjoy Thanksgiving and happy Christmas shopping!
I usually get my two girls (10 and 5) each a book to read, art stuff, like a ream of paper is huge to my 5 year old. I really look over the Crayola aisle, I can find fun creative things there. I get them beads, foamy things to play with. Lots of glue sticks and tape. Between the paper and all the embellishments they play for a long time with those....and I always get them a new pair of pj's.
I think your gift list for the girls was very very thoughtful. In our home, we try to stick with that old Victorian poem "Something they want, something they need, something to play with something to read" which works out very well for us because we get a lot of C.R.A.P. from certain in-laws who shall remain nameless.
I think the amount is perfect. When they are older and comparing what they got to what their friend got you can consider increasing number or value if you feel the need, or not. Especially at this age, number is not important. Since they don't get every toy they want during the year, this is going to feel like a bonanza to them.
This comment has nothing to do with your post, however, I just finished listening to the "Sticks and String" podcast. David Reidy talks about seeing the blankie in Yarn magazine! He compared it to Kaffe Fassett. High praise indeed.
I know I've told you this before, but that cat (I think you said her name was Daisy?) looks like my cat Hobbes' twin. Even the expression is the same! Hope your toe feels better:)
If you are not familiar with Chinaberry catalog and/or website you should check it out. Lots of books, categorized by reading level and thoughtful, interesting gifts.
http://www.chinaberry.com/index.cfm?tid=803081201
Firstly, I am sorry that your toe was bad again, but glad that you found someone who was able to give you care without so much pain.
In regards to the Christmas, I would probably give more... just cause that is how I was brought up! We had 5 kids, and sometimes foster kids, so we there was not a lot of money. We would get one gift on our birthday. My mom would save all year for Christmas, and it was pretty big! We would get toys, and books and art supplies and clothing and a noisemaker for new years eve!And lots of stocking stuffers! But I think that you have thought carefully about how you want things to be for your family, and that is what works for you. Even growing up, I quickly realized that other people did not always get as much as I did for Christmas, but that they quite often got more for birthdays and more random things throughout the year. And I was quite happy with how things worked at my house.
I don't have any kids, so my opinion may mean nothing--I do have about 10 nieces and nephews though.
I think since you don't normally go out and buy little things for them all the time that the amount of presents you have gotten for your kids is good.
As an aunt that is a little more financially strapped than my siblings, it is sad when you really like to find something special for kids that maybe you've made yourself or hoped to get something really unique and it ends up thrown aside and barely noticed because they have 20 presents around the tree.
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