Here’s a little Irish Oona for you.
It’s also my 12th anniversary today. I think I’m gonna crack open a Guinness and put my feet up.
Author Archives: WoolyMama
Dear Today Show Producers:
I’d like to thank you for your lovely show. It keeps me entertained in the mornings after my kid has gone off to school and that 3rd cup of coffee is struggling to take effect. I enjoy that you try to impart important life lessons and tips for better living without coming off too preachy. I am also grateful for the friendly banter between your hosts to lighten up the mood between the inevitably sad, tense, or disturbing breaking news stories. I’d also like to throw in a thank you, on behalf of the female fan base out there, for hiring Matt Lauer.
But I’d also like to say, after watching the show this morning, that I am getting some seriously mixed messages over here. For example, I put off showering an extra hour because I was waiting for your tips to get rid of my “spare tire”. I’ve recently had my third child, and you know, that area could use some major help. And, the segment delivered the goods. I felt motivated to go make a bowl of oatmeal instead of cramming down the half eaten rice krispie treat my kid left behind. I learned better workout moves to tone my obliques that I may actually be able to accomplish while cooing at my 6 month old so she doesn’t scream through my entire workout. Bravo for encouraging us to be healthier! So why is it, please tell me, that what stuck with me most was the segment featuring yummy homemade apple pies? And why, I would also like to know, did I spend my day, instead of finishing the sock I am working on for my sister (so close!):
Why did I instead spend my time making THIS:
A yummy homemade apple pie? Loaded with sugar and butter? Which I will surely eat for breakfast tomorrow morning while you tell me (probably) how to cut back on the sweets and lose the weight fast???????
Bob the Pimple
Why did I think that at age 31 I would no longer have to deal with pimples? Where did I first hear that acne was the exclusive domain of teenagers? Because I have to say, some days my skin is just as bad as it was when I was 15. And I know they call it “adult acne”, but it didn’t magically appear after I reached adulthood. The acne I developed as a teen just never went away. Oh sure, it got a lot better, and the mystical concoction of potions and unguents I apply to my misbehaved skin does a pretty darn good job of keeping breakouts at bay and covering the occasional whitehead. But there are days. Frustrating days. Days like today, when there’s a monstrous cyst – like abomination on my face that I can actually feel pulsing, like it has its own personality or something. And it’s one of those that will probably hang around for awhile, so I may as well make friends with it.
I think I’ll call it Bob.
Yummy….
A nice glass of pinot noir and a box of Whoppers candies is surprisingly good together.
I’m just sayin’s all.
Another Night, Another Visit to the E.R.
I swear it’s a concerted effort on the part of my children to use up all my money. I wonder if our doctor has considered any renovations or upgrades, because clearly my kids would like to pay for them.
Neve accidentally slammed Emily’s finger in the shower door last night. It was bloody, the nail came clean off, and according to the lovely folks at the ER, the bone is fractured. Now I know both girls claimed it was accidental, but she must’ve really slammed it.
At this rate I’m thinking I may consider keeping them padded with bubble wrap at all times.
Houston We Have a Problem
Ummmm…….anyone else ever experience this? There I was, diligently knitting away, getting ready to turn the heal on a sock, when “snap”, the needle broke. Now, I don’t have a particularly tight knitting grip, and this is sock yarn, not “big and chunky” wool. AND, I might add, this is the first time I’ve used this particular set of needles.
Need a better look?
I only ever use Crystal Palace or Lantern Moon wooden needles. This particular broken needle was a different brand, which shall remain nameless, and which I shall never ever buy again.
Unfortunately, and unbelievably, I didn’t have another set of size 2 dpn’s, so I had to make a trip to the LYS and get more. Despite the setback, I still managed to turn the heel this evening. If it weren’t for that wine I had after dinner, I might actually have finished it. Oh well. Have a gratuitous cat shot.
Signs of Spring
You know what this means?
This means I am woefully behind in all of my garden prep work. There’s a literal metric ton of weeding to, plus some transplanting and plant feeding……..I better get a move on! It’s just so weird that this little gem is hanging out with some of its buddies in my front yard while the rest of the country is being overcome by the white stuff. Ah March. ‘Twas (and is) blizzard season back home in the ol’ North Country.
But I won’t be out in the garden today. We’re getting rained on, so I’ll be digging in and trying to finish up a project or two.
And the big news around here? Oona got a tooth!!!!!!!!!
No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!
What a weekend!
Friday night I fell asleep on the couch trying to stay up and knit (I’ve started the heel on Maddie’s emo sock!) but sadly it seems once the household has calmed down my eyes just do not want to stay open. I managed to make it up the stairs around midnight when Paul woke me up. I’m hoping that daylight savings next week will help me accomplish more knitting in the evenings. I’ve got so many projects lined up, and the wool keeps calling me to plan more.
Saturday morning the baby had me up pretty early so I was feeling rather groggy……and unprepared when the dog peed on the floor in the playroom. Fun!!! So we ended up getting a late start to the day, which was spent getting groceries (more fun).
Emily had a friend spend the night – the daughter of my friend, actually. And it was going really well for awhile……until Neve tried jumping on them and missed, smacking her face (again with the face!!!) on the headboard of Emily’s bed. There was an insane amount of blood from the wound next to her left eye, and after washing some of it away, I realized it would require a trip to the ER. Fortunately they used that skin glue instead of sutures, so we don’t have to go back to have them removed. But it looks just awful, and she has a really wretched looking black eye. Apparently she never learned anything from singing that monkey song all the time. And we felt badly enough about it that later on when we heard her tell the other girls “Uh-oh, I peed myself. Don’t tell mama and papa!” we decided not to say anything.
Today’s been relatively low key. But, we discovered a bunch of relatively fresh, half smoked cigarettes right by our front steps. And no one here smokes. No one has been to visit us that has smoked here. Our house is set back far from the road……so you’d have to purposely cross onto our property to leave them there. And we don’t always succeed, but we make a real effort to clean up any trash that blows onto our property. It’s weird. And scary, because I am here alone most of the time. Who’s been hanging out on my front porch that shouldn’t be (and helloooooo dog. why aren’t you doing that barking thing at them you normally do so well?) ???? We’ll clean them up and keep an eye out for any other trash that may surface in our yard…..and I’ll keep my fingers crossed that none does.
Here’s hoping Monday proves boring and uneventful!
While You Were Sleeping
Take a good long look at this face.
This, you see, is the face of evil. Don’t let her adorableness fool you. She is quite diabolical. I cleaned the playroom last night. Then I went to bed. When I woke up, I sent Emily off to school and grabbed the Dyson to finish the cleaning job. Imagine my surprise when I found black and red tempera paint all over the white carpet. It was mostly dry, with some especially thick spots still sporting some offensive stickiness. And next to it, crumpled up on the floor, the dress Neve was wearing at bedtime, also covered in paint. But you know what? As much as the implication of her wandering around in the night unsupervised disturbed me, I didn’t have time to wallow in my horror, since I was expecting company. So I made sure there were no more wet areas and got to vacuuming. I also figured I’d put on a Disney dvd for the kids, but when I went to insert the disc into the player, I couldn’t find it. All I could think was, why had Paul moved the vcr and dvd player? And where???? Well……I found them in a broken heap on the floor behind the tv. I guess in an effort to try and reach them, the mini terror must have pushed them off the top of the tv altogether (never mind that she has been told time and again to ask for help rather than attempt it herself).
Now skip ahead to this evening. (Yes we made it through the day without further disheartening discoveries or instances of evil). Emily, having finished both her homework and her dinner headed up to her room to grab her pink purse that she keeps her little toys in. I heard her screaming Neve’s name before she began stomping down the stairs demanding to know where her purse was. But cute little Neve, who was snuggling me sweetly on the couch, professed her innocence up and down. And since she’d had company much of the day (and I’d locked Emily’s door to boot) I believed her. Emily, however, wasn’t buying it. So I went to look for it. Guess what? A cursory glance of Neve’s closet yielded not only Emily’s purse, but some of my makeup as well!!! And what was little Neve’s defense?
“I said I didn’t do it today.”
So let me close out with the one thing keeping me sane , grounded, and from pulling my hair out. The picture of cuteness.
Retch Inducing
On the one hand it’s nice when you can more or less trust your kid to make her own sandwich for lunch. On the other, it’s kinda gross when that sandwich consists of 1 slice of American cheese on wheat bread slathered with mayo and ketchup. And it’s also hard to endure the lip smacking and the “MMMM you have got to try this!!!!!”
Merry Magpie Farm 