Recently in Peonyiana Category

So my post total's been in the tank since I moved a couple of years ago. Some of it's because of Real Life Going at High Velocity; some of it is because I've been making a concerted effort to Not Spend So Much Darn Time on the Internet; some of it's because Hambet knows that when I'm at the computer, I'm concentrating -- and he's got a chance to raid the ice cream before he gets caught.

And a lot of it is fear. I've made some good friends here, good Catholic women, but this is Virginia and they're tech savvy. They read blogs. They read Catholic mom blogs. They know who else reads blogs. And they're clever! What if I blog something about, oh, I don't know, what flavor gum I got at Target and I'm found out?

I've been tagged by Mama T!

Here are the rules: Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. The outfit I bought last weekend is the first (non-khaki) brown clothing I've owned in at least 15 years.

2. I have a bad habit of forgetting to water plants. I start off with great intentions but then I get distracted and....

3. I have been bitten by the photography bug and am saving up for a new camera.

4. I love coffee.

5. I have been working part-time at a long-term temp job since January, and might go on staff if they can keep up with the flexible hours and let me work just one day a week over the summer.

6. I have pre-ordered a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

7. I have a secret cache of Hershey's Kisses.

8. I am going to break the rules of this meme and not tag eight people.

9. I'm on the same wavelength as MamaT concerning housework: don't like the cleaning part, do like the clean house part, trying to work on my attitude, tapping ideas from Flylady. At this moment I am almost completely caught up with the laundry. Yay!

10. I have just started listening to podcasts in the past couple of weeks.

Pansy, you're up! And anyone else who wants to play, consider yourself tagged.

Which is the perfect lead in to this:

Snow. Sleet. Ice. Sniffles and sore throats and a solid week off school. Toilets overflowing and soaking the basement floor (with clean water, thank God.) Stomach flu. A sixth birthday for Hambet. Work (a temp agency found me a copacetic assignment -- part time work during school hours only.) And a resolution to give up aimless Web reading for Lent. So probably not much even less blogging from me.

Well, we did it! On May 31 we settled on our old house and our new house without bloodshed (though the people who bought our old house annoyed the settlement attorney so much, she held back the bottle of champagne she'd brought for them and only gave a bottle to us. Ha!)

We're almost unpacked; only a few more boxes to go. "Unpacked" doesn't mean "put away" though. I have a lot of weird family room type stuff -- media, craft supplies, toys -- to figure out how to shelve. I wish the Container Store would accomodate me by putting the elfa shelving on sale this week -- I don't feel like waiting till January!

FYI: If you are even thinking about moving to Virginia, do yourself a favor and make sure you have an official copy of your birth certificate (and your marriage license, if you changed your name when you married) or your naturalization papers. Your old driver's license isn't enough anymore. I found this out the hard way last night after a gruesome trip to the DMV. So, on the agenda today: a trip to the notary to certify my identity to the State of California so they can certify MY identity to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Crazy, isn't it?

Four Jobs
1.Clerk in a craft store
2.Clerk and salad-bar tender in a grocery store deli
3.Office Temp
4.Registered Nurse

Four Movies I Would Watch Over and Over:
1.Persuasion
2.The Incredibles
3.Tampopo
4.Monsters, Inc

Four Places I Have Lived:
1. Durbin, North Dakota
2. Tacoma, Washington
3. San Antonio, Texas
4. Baltimore, Maryland

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:
1. House
2. American Idol
3. Masterpiece Theater reruns from Netflix
4. America's Test Kitchen

Websites I visit daily:
1. The Bleat
2. Amy Welborn
3. Washingtonpost.com, to read Rex Morgan and For Better and For Worse
4. my bank

Fav Four Foods
1. Cheese
2. Bread
3. Chocolate
4. Coffee

Four Places I Would Rather Be:
1. My computer, if I were alone
2. my scrapbooking table, if I were alone
3. A really good used bookstore, if I were by myself
4. the Crypt Chapel of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, if I arrived alone.

Four People I Am Tagging:

Four people who have started reading this blog in the last year.

Peony: Just to make it clear, we're not getting a dog. But if we did get a dog, and we're not, it's going to be one of these dogs. (Shows husband the new Lands' End catalog with the Boston Terrier on the front.)

Posco: You want a dog with antlers?

Peony: I don't want a dog, and this one is just wearing a costume. But if I did want a dog, I would want one of these little black and white ones. Without the antlers. And I could name her Bellatrix!

Posco: Great! I know what you're getting for Christmas.

Peony: No! I don't want a dog. I just wanted to show you which one I would want if I did.

Posco: Bellatrix. But what if it's a boy dog?

Peony: It would be a girl dog. So I could name her Bellatrix.

Posco: And what kind of dog is that?

Peony: A Boston Terrier.

Posco: Well, if she's a Boston Terrier, you'd have to name her Bellertrix, wouldn't you?

holy cow, it's snowing, and at a respectable clip! I wasn't expecting the snow to start until this afternoon. If I'm going to make that grocery run I'd better get going.

It's been a busy week, mostly getting ready for Ruby, but also doing various frivolous projects. The daybed turned out to be quite a tale. I made a spontaneous trip to IKEA with a friend last Thursday, and they told me that they would get the bed in in a couple of days. So dh and I went back and arranged to have it delivered, and it arrived on Monday. It took a few hours to assemble (we had to correct a few mistakes) but we finished the main part Monday and I finished the drawers yesterday. I replaced the dark brown hardware with pretty brushed brass knobs. I am quite pleased. I'm almost finished washing the linens. Then I'll hang a few pictures and we'll be all set. I'm expecting Ruby on Friday. I hope she doesn't run into bad weather. Would appreciate prayers for her safety -- she sets out tomorrow. She'll drive from Kansas City to Indiana and stay with my sister, and then Friday she'll do the Indiana-Maryland leg of her trip.

I am getting frustrated looking for little things for feathering the nest -- rugs, lamps, and mirrors are proving the most difficult. All I want is a mirror to hang over Hambet's dresser so that he can brush his hair (when he's tall enough.) I just want a simple oval mirror in a dark wood frame. But I'm having a hard time finding one. Lamps and rugs are proving difficult too. I like clear colors and brass, but right now it seems everyone's showing muddy "global-look" colors and dark metals.

A nephew!

My sister (who was due on January 8) gave birth to a nine-pound, 21-inch baby boy on Christmas morning! This is the second grandchild in the family. So we are all excited and happy here.

We had an excellent flight in; the only difficult part was trying to keep Hambet occupied during all the waiting part. O'Hare airport has a marvelous children's museum where the kids can run around and pretend to run an airline, and that was extremely helpful. It's cold here but not too snowy. My mother went completely out of control baking cookies. Hambet got a crane for Christmas and is having a blast.

Merry Christmas!

Today is suitcase day. My things to do list:

• Change the bed linens
• Put the clean laundry away
• Pack the clothes
• Pack the Hambet entertainment bag. I was going to wrap the little books and wee toy airplane, but it occurs to me that TSA wouldn't like that.
• Prepare Hambet's car sear for airline use
• If time permits, knock out a few Christmas cards

We leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow and should be in Fargo in time for lunch.

Any tips on flying, especially flying with little people, would be most appreciated -- last time I was in an airplane was summer of 2000.

My husband never reads my blog, so this is not directed at him. (Plus, I know he's done with his Christmas shopping.)

BUT if you are casting about for last-minute ideas, some suggestions...

-- I was in Staples last week and they had a great deal on Brother label makers. I am totally serious! This is a great gift idea, especially for women who are fond of gadgets. I love mine, and when one of my clients saw it you should have heard the squeal of delight she emitted. (I think she got one for herself that very week.) I got one for my sister a couple of years ago and she was the envy of her workmates. Get the second most expensive one -- it's a little bit larger and will take laminated label tapes. You can even use it to make iron-on labels.

-- The Container Store stocks the same model of label maker. It's a bit more expensive than at Staples, but it comes with a cunning little case that holds an AC adapter and extra batteries. (I wish mine had a cunning little case like that.)

-- The Apologia shop is full of unique items designed by yours truly. The newest item is the "uhhh" mug; my favorite is the mousepad. Proceeds go to... well, smock and I haven't decided yet. But it will be some terribly worthy cause, I assure you, even if it's just our bandwidth fund. Oh, the shirts have printing on the back.

-- Speaking of dear Mr Luse, he has dropped a hint that there are extra-good reasons to subscribe to Touchstone this year. He is also endorsing TSO's Little Book.

-- For an album-maker, perhaps a subscription to the new Creative Memories magazine, Lasting Moments? I don't have a link at present; I'll post one if it comes back up. Otherwise please drop me an email and I can help you get it set up.

-- Williams-Sonoma has cookie cutters in the shape of dinosaurs! When we get back I am going to try my hand at rolled dino-cookies.

-- For the little train-heads in your life: the gift shop at the Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum has all kinds of fun train things: train hats, train whistles, train plates and cups, train models, train toys, train puzzles, train cookie cutters.... I stocked up for Christmas AND birthday when I was there. Go visit if you're around Pittsburgh and have the chance -- they have an amazing layout showing scenes on the line all the way from downtown Pittsburgh to Cumberland, Maryland. It is the coolest thing! There's one vignette set near Yough Lake -- if you look closely you can see a tiny model of Fallingwater in the background.

OK, less blogging more packing. This trip is going to be a haul, but I'm so glad that we can go. My mom says that everyone's really excited that there's going to be a little kid around for Christmas this year. Maybe they'll be glad to see Posco and me too!

I really hate it when websites do STUPID things like NOT LINKING to what you need.

For example, you're looking for the claim form on your health insurance website. Of course they don't have a link to it on the fricking FRONT PAGE, and provide no clues, so you click to the FAQ page and find something helpfullly titled, "Where do I get a claim form?"

So you click, and there's no link to the claim form -- it just says, "In the Benefits section!"

So you click to the Benefits section and THERE IS STILL NO LINK TO THE CLAIM FORM.

Thanks goodness for the site map -- it was the only way to find the stupid claim form. But to get there, you click the link on the side bar that says "Site Map" and what pops up? Another link that says "Site Map!" (At least when you click that link you finally get to the Site Map.) And someone got paid for this?

I have scrapped a very worthy and edifying activity today in favor of just staying home and doing some laundry and tidying up some of the piles of "get to it later" things. (And blogging.)

It's been a busy fall. I enrolled Hambet in a preschool program, two hours long once a week; he had a hard time getting into the routine for a while and was getting kicked out halfway through the session. I think he's finally settling down, though he still isn't totally compliant.

I'm also doing an informal co-op playgroup/ preschool thing with some of the other moms I know. There are six kids in the group, and each week we moms take turns planning a weekly two-hour session -- songs, games, a craft, a snack, stuff like that. Another mom serves as "backup" and minds a couple of toddlers so that the other moms are free to stay and chat or run errands. We also carpool, so that also helps. The kids love it and so do the moms.

So Hambet is learning the days of the week and even asks me what "day" it is: Sunday is Church day, Monday is preschool day, Tuesday is errand day, Wednesday is playgroup day, Thursday is often "go see kids" day (when I am doing to a recollection or something and he plays with the other kids) and Friday is usually Trader Joes-and-library day.

It's so fun watching Hambet and watching the little gears turn in his mind and seeing and how fascinated he is in learning about the world and how things work, and how satified he is when he understands something. He is fascinated by numbers and loves counting; when I mentioned a math problem ("five plus two is seven") he was murmuring it to himself long afterwards ("five plus two... five plus two..."). He's also learning to recognize letters and is starting to spell out words and signs.

Hambet is also trying to learn to tell time, and it is so funny, because he will insist on all kinds of things in an effort to get what he wants (like insisting that it's five o'clock when he's just rolled out of bed in the morning). I've started telling him things like, "we're going to leave when the big hand is on the 6 and the little hand is on the 8" and he's very interested.

This all got started when Hambet went on a chocolate milk jag and started asking for chocolate milk the minute he hopped out of bed. So I told him that he could have a cup at 3 o'clock (knowing that six days out of seven, he would forget all about it by then.) So that led to teaching him to recognize the big hand on the 12 and the little hand on the three, and so on. He's also enjoying mastering "night" and "day," and will bounce down the stairs in the morning and announce, "It's DAY time!" or inform me that pajamas are for NIGHT time, NOT for DAY time. It's also helping with bedtime, in that I think he's beginning to like submitting to the rhythm of the day or recognizes what the clock looks like or something -- anyway, bedtime is much less of a fight than it used to me.

I am thinking about making a little chart showing the tasks of the day with clock faces next to them. But I will have to laminate it because I know he will carry it around all over the place so he can gaze at it. Shhhh... I found a learn to tell time book that has clock faces and trains. I'm trying to decide whether to give it for Christmas or hold it back for birthday.

Maybe I'll hold it for next week. I don't know if I mentioned that we are indeed travelling to North Dakota for Christmas -- I did find a decent deal on tickets, though not as cheap as I would have liked. We are leaving at the crack of dawn on Christmas Eve. This will be Hambet's first time on an airplane, so I'm a little worried. I plan to have some gum and some things with high novelty and entertainment value at the ready.

1. make coffee
2. make bacon
3. put the car seat pad in the dryer (Note to self: remind husband that cars, fruit pies, and three-year-olds do not mix)
4. Despam the blog
5. get dressed
6. drink coffee
7. finish dishes
8. check on car seat
9. get Hambet dressed, fed, and in a car seat by 8:30 -- use spare if necessary
9.5 Say rosary in car; plan another time of prayer today.
10. pack some letters, catalogs, cookbooks
11. take Hambet to preschool; while he's in class drink coffee with other moms and write letters, peruse catalogs and cookbooks.
12. Come home. Stop by Safeway for ground beef if Hambet isn't too tired.
12.5 eat lunch
13. Declutter dining room table.
14. Dust and vacuum downstairs.
15. Get Hambet down for nap. (move to 12.75 if feasible.)
16. Call client.
17. Start supper (note to self -- check condition of lettuce; add to grocery list if necessary)
18. If time permits make sample scrapbook page.
19. Serve supper.
19.5 Put Hambet in pajamas.
20. Welcome clients to scrapbook class.