This past month has been both busy and extremely difficult. We are going to have to move, so we’ve been trying to get the house ready to go on the market. It went live last Thursday, and we WEREN’T ready, so the weekend was all sorts of fun trying to balance house work with people walking through and looking.

Ugh.

I really don’t have any idea where we’re going to end up. We’d like to move to Austin, TX once the school year ends. That’s what we’re working towards, but who knows what will happen between now and then? Certainly not me.

But I want to be warm. And I want to be near my sister. And I want to be somewhere with friendlier taxes for small business, and better cost of living. Plus, I’m intrigued by the whole “live music capital of the world” thing.

So, we’re hoping for Austin.

Regardless, we need new doors to knock. New bushes to beat. It’s not working here, time to go.

I’ve never successfully uploaded a video here before. Here’s another try.

I wrote it. I hope that…

1. you can see and hear it
2. you like it!

seein-you-again-movie2

Follow up- and it would appear that you have to click the link, then click the movie looking icon thing, then you can see it. Let me know if it works for you, or if you know how to post videos more gracefully. Thanks!

I couldn’t sleep the night before last because song lyrics kept running through my head and I got up to write. So yesterday I was super tired, but I also worked on recording the new song. Until someone decided that it looked like so much fun, that THEY should take over

and that pretty much wrapped it up for me.

My mom knows a guy whose daughter is getting ready to record a CD in Nashville. My stuff is hardly country, but we sent him 4 of my songs. He said she’d listen to them. Kind of cool.

I’ve had a juicer for quite a few years. I think we bought it in 2005, but I’m not really sure. In any case, it’s been an on again, off again thing for me. I bought a juicer so I could grow and juice wheatgrass. That’s how it started at least, but to be honest, I can’t even smell the stuff without gagging anymore, so the juicer has been sitting primarily in a drawer in my kitchen for a couple years.

However, every late fall/early winter when I see fresh cranberries hit the grocery store, I pull out the juicer for awhile because I really, really like fresh cranberry juice. Particularly when it’s combined with celery or cucumber and apple. Really, really yummy. This year was no exception. I saw bags of fresh cranberries. Bought one. Pulled the juicer out along with my most fabulous juice book EVER, and started juicing*.

Having officially decided that I’m “over” trying to juice wheatgrass this year, I took a more serious look at the juices in my fabulous juice book, whereas before, I’d just dabbled with them.

Oh my, have we been having fun. I’ve juiced parsley, garlic, sweet potato, parsnip, fresh ginger root, fresh mint, broccoli, beets with their stalks and leaves, watercress, as well as the cucumber, celery, apple, carrot, citrus, kale, spinach, etc that I’d done in the past. I love it. I really, really love it.

And so does Max. If that juicer turns on, he comes running, because he wants to do it.

and if he doesn’t do it, he’ll stand there and scream at whomever is doing it. It’s really pretty annoying, but it’s also really cute. On occasion, he’ll decide that he’s done and he’ll just start eating my stuff. I end up cleaning up the counter and throwing pieces of fruit or vegetable in the juicer with Max sized bites in them because he doesn’t eat all of it. Just bites.

We’ve been juicing a couple times a day for a few weeks now. Yesterday, Max drank some. He had beet, cucumber, apple juice in the morning, and carrot celery juice at lunch. I’m not sure how I feel about this, ’cause I don’t really want to share.

All of the kids have taken more of an interest in the juicer this year, frequently calling out requests (hello, this isn’t Jamba Juice), but their tastes bend more towards the fruit juices, one of their favorites being 3 oranges, 1 apple, and a cup of cranberries, whereas I really like the more bizarre vegetable and root varieties. And Clark just wants granny smith apple juice or “green” juice as he calls it. It’s surprisingly good, actually.

Clark is demanding breakfast, so I’ve got to wrap up.

Basically, that’s one of the things we’re up to right now. Fresh juice. And I love the way it makes me feel. I feel good. I’m eating less and craving less. Well, other than craving juice, like, all the time. I had to run to the store late one night because I HAD to have the cucumber apple mint juice before bed and I was out of mint.

That’s all for now. I’ll try to come back soon. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. See ya!

*This book is out of print. The author has released a new version with much of the same content but based on my online perusal of the new one, I think mine is easier to use. However, if it was my only option based on availability, I would buy it without hesitation. It’s fantastic.

And to be honest, it looks better with the plaid ribbon, but…

Nate set up the tree on Saturday, I put on the ribbon, and the kids put on the ornaments, reserving the glass balls for me. Which I added yesterday. I hadn’t counted them before, or if I had, I had forgotten. We have 12 dozen glass balls that go on the tree. There are other glass balls that I have for decorating other things, but for the tree, 12 dozen. That’s tons! BUT, and here’s my magical-gorgeous-tree secret… (maybe this is already common knowledge), if you put a ton of cheap but pretty glass balls on your tree, it ties everything together and looks beautiful.

Seriously.

I had a friend stop by yesterday and comment on how nice the tree looked and how our ornaments are all coordinated, whereas hers are a mismatched hodge-podge.

Not so. I walked her to the tree for a closer look. We have oodles of kid ornaments made over the years. The paper mittens connected by yarn, the foam star with puffy glitter glue that says “Olivia,”

popcicle stick Christmas trees with glued on sequins (which are really cool, actually, but they’re still popsicle sticks), the sticky bow hung by a piece of yarn

as well as all the mis-matched ornament gifts we’ve received from friends over the years and purchased ourselves. Not the least of which are the many superhero ornaments, which, to be honest, are the only reason Nate hauls the tree up from the garage and sets it up every year.

I have my porcelain ballerina set ($1 each at Fred Meyer 10 years ago) and barnyard animal set (don’t remember where they came from, but they hardly match the ballerinas) and a number of non-coordinating dough ornaments… to name only a few. There are tons. And before the glass balls go on, the tree is just ok. Not all that pretty.

Glass balls are awesome. I bought ours in 2005 at Michaels. They were having some sale, Buy 1 get 1, or buy 2 get 1, or buy one get one half off…. I don’t remember. But they were super cheap. And I love them. Most of them are the smaller, plain ones that come 12 to a box, but there are some bigger, patterned ones (still cheap) that come 4 to a box that make it look amazing.

If you’re interested, I can get a little more specific. I chose one main, large patterned ball (red on red stripes). I have 20-24 of those. I have a couple sets of other larger patterned balls that don’t match, but look nice together. Then I have about 7 dozen small, matte red balls. I bought them at different times, so the exact shade of red varies a bit. Doesn’t matter. 2 dozen small, shiny gold balls, and 1 dozen small light green ones. I think the key is having mostly one color, with significantly less of the others, just to accent.

It’s not all matchy-matchy, especially when combined with the hodge-podge of ornaments I mentioned earlier. But it looks really nice.

There’s my tip.

It makes me so sad when people come over, see my tree, and then say things about how I’m creative and have a gorgeous tree and they aren’t and don’t.

Oh, don’t say that! It’s not hard.

And you don’t have to spend a zillion dollars on expensive matching ornaments. More than that, you don’t have to hide or get rid of the sentimental (not necessarily pretty) ornaments that don’t “match.” It all adds to the charm.

Finally, there’s Kringus.

(A little info if you’re lost. And you most likely are).

I know he’s not for everyone, but he cracks the heck out of us. I think we’re going to laminate the eyes this year so we can reuse them. We’re also going to laminate a set of eyes for each of the kids so as they move on, they can take Kringus with them.

Happy Christmas!

Nate came home with some cool stickers last week, so the Yellow Submarine had to move

I also scored a vintage Elvis Costello sticker from the ’70s. How cool is that? When I got the camera out to take a picture of the new stickers, Max had a lot of fun sticking his face in the camera and laughing at me

This case has been fun to decorate.

Abby has finally decided that she wants to read Harry Potter. She’s been resisting, because she tends to resist things that “everyone else” does. But she’s been in the mood to read, and was having difficulty finding enough books to keep her occupied. The Harry Potter series has, what, 5000 pages? I think the sheer quantity was appealing to her. Liv thought it was a good idea to read them again, so here the two of them are, reading big books in front of our little fire, trying not to freeze to death in our cold house. It was cute.

I’ve had an ugly ball of handspun yarn on my bookshelf for a long time now. I haven’t wanted to take it down to the yarn room in the basement, because I knew it would never resurface. It was some merino/silk/angora that someone gave me to spin in very soft, pale shades of pink, green and blue. Well, it spun up pretty muddy and bleh. On Sunday night, I decided to just jump in and make a small scarf with it, hoping that it would look nicer knit up than it does as a ball of yarn. I’m nearly finished.

I think it does. I go back and forth

It’s not quite as pretty in person as it is in the pictures. Especially that last picture. It’s much more muted. But it feels dreamy and it will be warm, and that dumb ball of muddy yarn isn’t going to stare at me every night as I get ready for bed anymore. Win win.

Nate is 40! It feels so weird, mainly because it doesn’t feel any different than being 30. We’re still us. He’s still him. But now he walks around with the big 40! label attached to him. So weird.

It certainly wasn’t the type of celebration I’d always imagined, but then again, I didn’t anticipate a global economy crash, either. So I couldn’t import Michael Andrew (loud site warning) and his big band from Florida to play at a huge swing dance party this year. Dangit. That’s been my plan for 10 years now. (And it would have been SO AWESOME)!

BUT, we did have a really nice evening at home with the kids and Nate’s parents, which is what he wanted.

I spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen making biryani and homemade angel food cake (at his request). Best. cake. ever. And that was pretty much it. Except…. for sweet little Veronica. I swear, she’s the most creative and thoughtful person I know. She continues to amaze me. All on her own, the dear, she made this

and filled it with strips of paper on which she wrote as many things she could think of that we love about him. I’m sorry to say that when she went to her sisters to ask them what they wanted to put in the box, they laughed her right out of the room, telling her it was a stupid idea to give a “piece of paper” as a gift. Broke my heart.

So she did it on her own. Not only that, but she included things about Nate that she knew her sisters liked, and included them as if they were written by her sisters. I’m tearing up just typing the story. She told Nate to take it to his office and use it when he’s having a rough day. I love that little girl.

It was a fun albeit low key night. Abby was in attendance that evening, but was in her usual “don’t take a picture of me” mood.

Over the weekend, Nate’s parents and siblings surprised him and took him out for a fun night of sushi and a movie. Happy Birthday, honey!

I know, I know, it’s only November 2nd, and we have a few weeks ’til Thanksgiving, but can I tell you how ready I am for it? Even though things are going pretty gawsh-darned awful for us right now, I can’t help but feel so grateful for the things that are going well. And something about the Thanksgiving season with it’s tendency towards family and personal reflection, feels very comforting to me.

And I am grateful for many things. For one, Halloween is over! The week after Halloween just might be one of my favorite weeks of the year! It’s over! And I’m so very happy.

More importantly, my fantabulous man is turning 40 today. I adore him and wish him a most happy birthday. Nate, I’m beyond-words grateful that you came to the planet and we happened to meet up.

This Thanksgiving theme just might continue all month if I continue to feel it like this. I wasn’t planning on posting the turkey so early, but I walked through my dining room yesterday, and the sun was coming through the window and hitting it from behind. It looked cool so I took the picture and didn’t feel like sitting on it ’til the 24th.

I wasn’t kidding about the gawsh-awful by the way. We could use prayers.

So, bah humbug, I hate Halloween. However, we had fun trick-or-treating around the neighborhood with friends. If that’s all that Halloween entailed, I wouldn’t hate it. But it’s not, so I do. Here are pictures…

On Saturday morning, we had our who-knows-how-many annual pumpkin carving party. Clark carved his own this year. Happily, there was no blood. Well, none of HIS blood anyway.

Here are Abby and Olivia, once again clearly demonstrating how they feel about having their picture taken

group shot with Grandma and Grandpa

That evening, we had a big halloween party at church. Here’s the one picture I have of Abigail in her Batgirl costume. (She’s painting faces, not bat-punching little girls).

We spent an entire afternoon looking for the perfect pair of boots a few weeks ago. She’s wearing them, but there are no pictures.

Here’s a couple of Max. I’m usually the one watching the baby while everyone else runs off to play, so he’s the one that gets photographed the most. It’s a matter of proximity.

And finally,

Finally.