Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Preparing for my Lenten destash...

Last year for Lent (despite being one of the least observant Catholics I know), I gave up buying craft supplies of any sort. It kind of worked for me. I came up with new ideas, saved a lot of money (sort of - the post Easter spree I went on probably made up for the savings).

I'm vowing to do the same thing again this year, but a step up even. I'm going to make an effort to use up my stash. Stashes. One per hobby, since I don't seem to be able to resist creating a stash. Mainly that's because I find nothing more frustrating than getting inspired to create something and having to wait until I can get to a craft store. I have such a large yarn stash that I could probably knit through the end of the year, at least, without running out. I'm a pretty slow knitter, but I have a ton of yarn. Not even including the really horrible acrylics that I've donated to my kids' craft box.

That doesn't even take into account my fabric stash. Or my scrapbooking stash. Or my half-started random project stash. Or my newly growing bead stash.

Since Lent begins in two weeks, I'm writing lists and figuring out if I need to up my stash to make it through my self-imposed hiatus from buying. Because how else is one supposed to go two months without buying new craft supplies?

Sunday, January 20, 2008

I'm feeling guilty...

I totally judged Jeannie without watching the whole season 1 disc 1. She was a little huggy (I'm not a hugger), but Captain Nelson (did you know he was a captain back then? I'm waiting for his promotion) got ditched at the altar by his fiancée for some childhood sweetheart. Jeannie played a role, but Jeannie was right - the fiancée wasn't right for him. It might be been nice to know this before the fifth episode, but I'm watching the rest of this disc with a little less judgement. And I'll happily let my four year old keep watching.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Can we watch Barney?

Pregnancy has made me even moodier and bitchier than usual. Honestly, for the most part, I'm even tempered when not pregnant. But lately I have no patience. So when Miss G asked me if we could watch Barney, I sort of snapped at her. "We're not watching Barney. When have we ever watched Barney? I don't even know if Barney is on here anymore."

Then I felt dumb. "Not that Barney, Mom. Barney the policeman." It all clicked. She meant the Andy Griffith Show. Tom likes to watch old tv shows with them and their latest show (just because it comes on at the right time) is the Andy Griffith Show. So I let her watch it that evening when it came on.

We're watching a lot of old tv shows because, well, they were so much more wholesome and family friendly than just about anything that comes on today. Some of them are on TV Land and some on DVD. We have the Addams Family, a big favorite of everyone's. Tom likes just about every show, so if they're not watching cartoons together, they're watching TV Land. I got I Dream of Jeannie for Christmas and I've started watching Season 1. Miss G LOVES it. But I started to think that Jeannie might not be the best female role model. She's kind of a ho, always throwing herself at Major Nelson and stealing him from his fiancée. I didn't know all this.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

A fun start to the new year...

And a motherhood first for me - a trip to urgent care. In 6.5 years, none of my children had needed anything other than well checks and two - yes, two visits among the three kids - sick visits to the doctor. Well, our streak is broken. Today I had to take my 2.5 year old Miss S to have her foot x-rayed. A fun two hour New Year's Day trip to the off-hours medical place only to find out that it's not broken, or at least isn't showing up as a fracture on the x-ray. In the meantime, she still won't walk on it and keeps forgetting that it hurts and stands up to run and then screams "my foot!" I'm told she'll be fine in a few days. Meanwhile, I should keep her off of it. Said by someone who's never tried to keep a two year old still, obviously.

And while this might seem like an inauspicious start to 2008, I'm trying to look at the bright side. I hate streaks. When my team is on a streak or a favorite player is on a streak, I get all tense and nervous every time they make a move on the field. Streaks add an unnatural element to the game, be it football, basketball or motherhood. When March Madness closes in, I always hope my favorite team gets a loss right before it starts. A win streak (which adds a bit more tension than a losing streak, because, well, no one minds if a losing streak ends) puts your mind in a different place. You don't lose yourself to the moment, you start thinking about every little move.

So our streak is broken. May it be a fresh start for the new year.