Where is this month going?

I mean really, this month is flying by! I guess I've been busy, but my tangible accomplishments are lacking. Housecleaning and chores have been the major bite of my time. My conjecture is that I haven't had as much free time to myself as I have been accustomed to with Andy's new hours. My time after the kids go to bed has been taken up with making supper and helping him get ready for work. By the time he walks out the door, it's about 9:30 at night and that isn't much time for doing much except some clean-up and watching one of my dvr'ed shows. I gotta get my act together and manage my time better, but that is certainly easier said than done!

I did start a "new" line of product to sell out at the farmers market. My dad brought down all of my mom's catnip toy supplies so I essentially inherited her product line. I made 20 of the cat toys last week at my dad's insistent urging. He was always going on about how mom could never make enough of them for Kathleen to sell so I made them to get him off my back about it. To my surprise, 9 of them sold just last weekend for a total of $25.00! That is equivalent to selling a necklace or a couple of pairs of earrings, so I apparently am now in the cat toy business. It seems more lucrative than the jewelry right now. Of course, I hate to buy stuff I don't have to so I have bought some catnip seeds and have started growing my own. In the meantime I will have to actually buy some until they grow enough to start harvesting.

I'm afraid that nap time is going to be a thing of the past very,very soon. Once they figure out how to escape from their cribs, life will never be the same. There is no bright side to this that I can see. The kids communication skills are getting better but it still is not a two-way street yet. Laying down the law is not yet an option either but it's not like I haven't been trying. That is still too abstract a concept for them. They are getting pretty good at problem solving, especially Tabitha. Together, they are quite the mischief dynamo. The other day, Tommy knocked down Andy's keys off the nail on the wall with my broom. Then, Tabitha took the keys and used them to open the door to the bathroom. The next thing I hear is the splashing in the toilet so I double-timed it in there and cleared them out of there pronto! I confiscated the keys from Tabitha and put them waaaay up out of their reach. She is constantly trying out objects to open the bathroom door with ever since she saw Andy use my bookmark to do it and realized if it fits in the hole, it can open the door. Gee, thanks Andy!

Bummer, the Cards lost!

As I'm sure everyone who has a t.v. in the world has now heard. Hey, they had a good run while it lasted. Leave it to the Cardinals to allow the longest drive in Superbowl history, 100 yards. If they had made that touchdown and not been intercepted they would have won the game. Though they fought the good fight after that it just wasn't enough to pull it off. Well, there is always next season.

Ashley was acting weirder than usual this weekend. She was constantly talking to someone who wasn't there. I don't mean in that talking to your self mode, but really asking questions in that tone you would use to actually ask someone, not the rhetorical tone like when you talk to your self. When a 4 year old talks to an imaginary friend it's considered normal generally. I think when a 17 year old talks to an imaginary friend it's called schizophrenia. I am afraid for the kids when she comes over because I don't know if and when she is going to snap. I would not be the least surprised if Andy gets a call one day, or we see on the t.v. that she has committed a double homicide on her mother and her roommate. I have heard she has had some real nasty fights with her mother and I think it is only a matter of time before something tragic happens. I just don't want it to be at my house. She is a big girl, over 200 pounds, and strong too. I think Andy does not feel as physically threatened by her as I do, hence the feeling I am over reacting to her presence. I have had enough tragedy, thank you very much.

Keeping the kids out of my garden seems to be a hopeless task, but I will persevere. Tommy purposely stepped in the garden, for the attention I guess. He squished a couple of my tomato seedlings. I hope they pull through and spring back but I am not holding my breath. Otherwise it is looking great and after about a month it's really starting to look like a garden, not a bare patch of ground. Tabitha seems to have more respect for the garden; she likes the idea of flowers growing. She makes this cute squinched face with a sniffing sound to signify flowers, which she makes when pointing to the little plants in the garden. She pats them like little pets, to show she is nice to them. Tommy is mostly interested in using the garden to get my attention. Kids will be kids and I'll just have to be patient.

I did a few hours of research online last night and could not find any definitive post about removing the finish off of vintage glass pearls, but I went ahead and decided to try out acetone nail polish remover, and it worked like a charm! I had half a large salsa jar of these beads and poured in enough polish remover to cover the top. It just melted the finish right off the beads. I still have to do some clean up; I really should have used less pearls at a time, with more acetone since I have congealed lumps of the coating that gathered in the solution. I am going to strain my vintage glass beads with a fine strainer and get the plasticy lumps out and give the beads a good cleaning. The ones that still need some more treatment I will set aside and use some fresh acetone nail polish and give those another go. I did find out acetone does not hurt real pearls with all my research last night so I might find out some of my glass pearls are real; that would be cool. I just can't believe that after all that Googling not one place on the whole web had the instructions on how to remove the finish from vintage glass pearls. It's not like those things don't get worn out and salvaging them just for the pretty glass beads they are underneath is a bad idea. It's just not out there as something people can do. Well, I'm off to go work on those now and by tomorrow I should be making stuff with those newly cleaned beads!

He's driving me crazy!

A husband home due to lack of work available is not a good thing. The kids aren't driving me any crazier than usual, but with hubby home it somehow seems worse. I understand he is depressed and anxious, but my daily schedule of what I do is all messed up so I'm on edge myself. Not to mention, I sort of expect him to help some with the kids since he is home and all but unless I directly ask him to do something or give him the eye when he talks about a dirty diaper they are not his problem. I did have a talk to him about that this afternoon so I hope tomorrow is better. Ashley is coming over tonight so I'm just a little vexed about the next few days. Between Andy not working and Ashley until Sunday evening I am going to have to work at not being in a complete snit about all this.

Anyway, tomorrow there is a rummage sale at a nearby church. I have been combing the classifieds for weeks looking for one and finally I have one to go to! They open at 7am to I was planning to get out there pretty early. I scoped it out on the way to my sister's farmers market, since it was on the way. They were even setting it up already when I passed today, but their sign said it was for Saturday only so I shouldn't be missing anything. I am hoping to find some good jewelry, maybe some clothes for myself, work pants for Andy and clothes and perhaps a toy or two for the kids. It is half-price day at Goodwill tomorrow too, so it should be a good day in that regard. I have to get some unbreakable dishware for the kids; Tommy shattered a little vintage glass bowl I gave him breakfast in this morning. He was just so fast! I just turned my back for a second, and crash! I was bummed, but I paid half of 35 cents for it from a now closed thrift store so it wasn't a big loss, but I liked it. I think it was a dessert bowl; it had a pedestal and a cut glass design all around and held about half a cup. Oh well, I've memorialized it, now it's time to move on.

My garden is still growing nicely. We didn't get the predicted rain so I've had to water it. I'm trying to not over water it, but it has been warmer and I don't want it to dry out too much. It seems to be growing maddeningly slow. The volunteer tomato in my potted plant is about to flower already! I guess it's been growing about two months now. Both seem to be okay but I think I need to take a cutting, just in case.

I finally finished going through all the junk jewelry I got from eBay; I should be able to make a bunch of stuff out of it. My first projects will be what I've had in mind since I got it- Gypsy treasure necklaces. I only need to sell 4 of them at $15.00 each to recoup my cost for the stuff I got. I even found some sterling, but I had to keep a real eye pealed for those. Some wasn't marked, like the sterling beads. I know they are sterling because my silver polish worked on them and the way the tarnish came off was exactly like sterling. I've tried that silver polish on junk jewelry that fooled me with it's tarnished look, but the polish doesn't work on that stuff at all. It's the chemical reaction that takes off the tarnish, so when it works, I figure it must be sterling. I got some real vintage sterling box clasps from some of the old strands of pearls, so that was nice. I also have a bunch of old glass vintage pearls that I am going to remove the pearl finish so I will then have a rather huge collection of milky and bluish milky glass beads. They look rather exotic once the finish is off of them. Czech glass, Indian glass, lampwork glass, a ton of findings, and some nice interesting plastic beads I kept for jewelry was recovered. I also collected two full big jars of beads I will give to Tabitha when she is old enough for them. I need to get to work on that jewelry, hopefully tomorrow but more than likely after Ashley leaves on Sunday. Tonight I just need to rest a bit, but tomorrow, who knows?

Weekend Update

Well, I just wanted to give a quick update on how things are progressing. I finished my advent tree, yay! Today's picture is of the finished tree, because I'm proud of making all the ornaments and especially the top star which I hand formed and decorated in a star shape. Wouldn't you know it about 10 minutes after taking that picture I was putting away the Christmas decorations and knocked it off the table which broke 3 numbered doors off the base. At least I have the rest of the year to contemplate how to fix those before next season. I was thinking some sort of tape from the inside since replacing the little dowel hinges requires taking the base completely apart.

My garden is growing nicely, apart from the forays by the twins into it. I hope the seedlings weren't too crushed. They are actually growing a little too close together and perhaps the kids stepping in the garden will do the thinning work I just can't bring myself to do. I'll post a picture next time to show the weekly progress.

On the kid front, the kids have officially left their highchairs behind and are now sitting on booster seats at the table. I am going through a lot of paper plates now, so I better get some more. Walgreens has a good coupon for those this week. Tabitha thought it was special that I was sitting right next to her for supper the other night for the first time. She gave me a big smile and patted my shoulder like she couldn't believe it was real. Just too damn cute! They are using spoons and forks better also. Now if only I could get them to start talking more. I am sure they could, but they just don't seem to see the need right now. Sigh.

And that big box of jewelry I got from eBay is going to take me a long time to go through. I have already spent several hours on sorting and have only gone through maybe a fifth of the box. I have found some sterling beads, charms and clasps and a little bit of scrap; a nice collection of vintage Austrian crystal and a ton of glass rhinestones pryed from old jewelry. I have definite plans for those involving stained glass kaleidoscopes in the future, for both decorating the outside and for use in the object container. They will be very cool! Well, I have tried to make this quick, and now I'm off to sort through some more of those beads and stuff.

Potpourri Thursday

A little bit of this, a little bit of that to write about today. My tomato seeds in the garden have sprouted, yay! The rest of it is growing nicely, and we had some rain last night, so that was a plus. I hadn't watered it yesterday because I was banking on that, and I'd like to work on the roots getting deeper and stronger in preparation for the heat that will come. I went to Goodwill yesterday and found some awesome stuff! I found an E.T. Journey to the Green Planet electronic solar system toy for only $2.99, and it even came with batteries so I knew it worked before I bought it. It is very cool, it is like an interactive electronic encyclopedia all about the planets in our solar system with the voices of Eliot and E.T. telling you all about the facts. I looked it up on ebay and found only two, listed for $9.99 and $21.99, not including shipping so I think I got a pretty good deal. The kids get to play with it when they are a little older. Now all I have to do is get a copy of the E.T. movie so the kids will know who the heck E.T. is. I also found a sterling silver and rainbow moonstone bracelet for the excellent price of only $3.99. Boy, I don't hink they knew what they had. It is clearly marked .925 on the clasp, and on a couple of the moonstone links. I found it was marked $40.00 with permanent marker on the back of one of the links, which is what I told Andy was how much I would have paid new for it. I originally wanted to buy it for the parts, but it is beautiful and fits perfectly so I think I will wear it for a while until inspiration strikes to make something out of it. Which reminds me, I really need to post something on my site here to lead to all the pictures of my jewelry. I also need to get back on track with making some more. I was able to buy this stuff yesterday just because I sold two cellphone charms last weekend at the farmers market. I couldn't even have bought one rainbow moonstone link from a jewelry supply store for what I paid for the bracelet; I think I'm going to be pretty proud of this purchase for a while! Relatedly, I received my huge lot of "junk" jewelry and beads from ebay on Tuesday and I need to start to sort through it. I gave it a quick looksie and I think I paid about what it was worth, just for the beads. It came with a lot of vintage glass pearls and a bunch of other stuff. This was a good thing for me, it makes me do stuff I wouldn't normally make because individually I wouldn't have bought these beads myself from the bead store. It certainly fits the bill for making a ton of gypsy treasure jewelry and such. I found some sterling in there too. Well, I hear the kids sqawking in their room so they must be done with their nap so I better get going.

Garden Update

Ahh...naptime! For the kids, anyway. I have increasingly come to mentally refer to it as "breaktime" in my busy workday. Not that work stops, per se, but I can unwind a little and catch my breath. It gives me a chance to work on things I just can't when the kids are up, like write my blog.
My garden is really sprouting now! As you can see from my picture, it doesn't look like much now, but I am proud of the bed I prepared and I think it looks pretty good. I can identify a few different flowers already: Bachelor Buttons, Calendulas, Marigolds and California Poppies. Yesterday I planted seeds for cherry tomatoes in the area I ran out of wildflower seeds and had a very low density of sprouts. At least the little footprints turned out useful after all; I planted the seeds in those depressions because they hold the water in a little puddle and stay wet long after the high spots dry out in this warm weather. We are now in the mid to upper 70's, with lows about 50. It shouldn't take long for those tomatoes to sprout. I found I have a tomato volunteer in my potted plant I received as a gift from Cassie's funeral. It is one of those green leaf plants that make those runners down the side and are near impossible to kill. I just can't remember what those plants are called. My tomato volunteer may do the trick, however; it is thriving in that pot while the plant looks like it is struggling. I thought that it was a marigold at first, but I smelled the familiar aroma of the tomato plant the last time I watered it. I have no idea how that got there; I give the kids a lot of cherry tomatoes from the farmers market and a seed from one of those must have somehow got in there either from their grubby little hands or one of the times I had to sweep up the dirt from one of the many times they pulled it onto the floor. I guess I'll see when it flowers and sets fruit if it is a cherry tomato or a full size tomato plant. I am in a quandry about it though since the tomato loves sun, and the green leafy plant gets burned pretty easily with a lot of sun so I need to make a decision as to which I want nurture. I suppose I can make a cutting from it since those plants are famous for being able to root easily from a cutting and start a whole new pot once it roots. That way I can feel I've kept it. Anyway, I hope that planting the tomatoes in with the wildflowers will help the pollination of the tomatoes; last year I had a lot of flowers, but very few set into fruits. If I still have a problem with pollination, I will put out a few old cans of Coke; the bees seem conditioned to be attracted to those judging from the swarms around my bags of cans for recycling, and the fact I cannot bring a can out without attracting a few even for a few minutes. My sister suggested last year a lack of bees might have been my problem.
Yesterday, I finally took down the outside Christmas lights from the back porch (it's the only place actually visible from the street, since I live in the back of a duplex) and I am getting mentally prepared to pack away Christmas until next season. Losing my mother just a few months ago really took the shine off the season for me, but I did persevere and did bake cookies and decorate. Now I have to psych myself up to take it all down, even though it took halfway into December to put it all up. Declaring Christmas officially over was always a little sad for me, but this year it is a little extra sad because it was the first without my mom and I will think about that while I put it all away. I promised a picture of the advent tree when I was done; all I have left to do is finish making the star for the top. I made the star shaped frame and support, and right after I finish this post I will go finish it; it is the very last thing I need to do before I have run out of excuses for not putting away the Christmas stuff. I'm planning on doing that tomorrow, while having Pres-Elect Barack Obama (woo hoo!) on TV for his inauguration ceremony. I have the pre-inauguration festivities on TV right now, to capture the ambient joyfulness of the occasion. Go Obama!

Farmers Market Friday

It's Friday, and my sister has her Farmers Market in Mesa today. I try to go every Friday with the kids, because most of the time it is the only way we get to see each other. It's a good opportunity also for me to get some fruits and veggies for the family, organic no less! The kids always get some tomatoes to munch on, and the occasional seasonal fruit. Today it was a sweet little tangerine- boy did they like that! Having a sister involved in the local farmers market scene, and her having her own farm plot is like having an ace in the hole in this economy. I go there because it is certified for accepting food stamps and at the same time I get to support her. I sell my jewelry out at her booth on Saturday and Sunday in the Phoenix and Ahwatukee markets; at least my jewelry is out there, sales not so much these days. I did sell a nice southwestern style necklace and earrings set before Christmas, which gave me $60.00 to spend on gifts. It felt like quite the windfall, and payed for the Christmas Eve gifts for our side for everybody and I was able to purchase stocking stuffers (helped with judicious use of Walgreen's coupons for their candy) for everyone. Right now, my sister's booth out at the market has a lot of really good stuff. I'm sure she is happy our growing season turned cool for a lot of root vegetables and greens to ripen. One day me and the kids will be helping her out at the farm when the kids are old enough, you know like when they can talk and are potty trained and can follow directions. On a related note, I finished my little garden plot about 2 weeks after my mom passed away, but then it laid fallow about two months because I just couldn't get motivated to do anything with it. Depression kinda sucks that way. Anyway, a few days ago I decided I had to do something with it, so I sprinkled it with a bunch of wildflower seeds. I'm still waiting for germination but I have hope I'll have something grow, daytime temps in the low 70's, nighttime in low 40's, high 30's. Now all I have to do is keep it wet, and keep the kids from trampling all over it. Their trampling, plant-yanking ways also curtailed me from planting something serious there right now. Why set myself up for getting upset at the kids when they really don't yet understand they are ruining my veggies? Better to save that when they can understand to stay out of the garden, cause right now they are too little to understand threats. Anyway, I figured I wound up between growing intervals, too late for winter crops, too early for summer (but it is time to start tomatoes here in a few weeks) so I just did the flower thing. I'll let it go when it gets too hot, and revive it for a real fall planting. It's time for me to start planting the sunflowers out and about also- I hope they survive the kids but I'm not going to hold my breath. I always have next year to try again. Andy is getting hours at work again, thank goodness. Check 'n Go contract got literally screwed up when another guard was sexually harrassing one of the Check 'n Go employees, and also took out a payday loan and hadn't paid it back. The manager at Andy's regular Check 'n Go put her foot down and demanded her guard back; Andy is courteous and professional and made her feel a lot safer; those places get robbed all the time without a security presence. Now all we need is the Chevron to need Andy back for weekend late nights. The management over there are such morons; they need to get robbed first before they get security. Then they keep the security for a few weeks, until the management decides it is not "cost effective" so they cancel the contract. Then they get robbed again, and call out the security guard for a few weeks. Wash and repeat. The last time they were robbed, the assailant took the whole damn cash register! An employee quit over that also. Over a year ago, I told Andy that the coming recession would be great for the security industry, robberies and property crime would go up as the economy gets worse. It is getting worse, and I don't think there is a real end in sight for a while. Right now, security guard certification is job security. Well, the kids will be up soon so I gotta go get their lunch prepped and the house secured(check for stuff I carelessly left about when they were napping, like magazines and soda cans in reach, bathroom door shut- that sort of thing) before I get them up for the afternoon marathon of twin toddlers on the go. Their naptime helps keep me relatively sane.

Post Operation

Whew! My mom had her surgery yesterday, a triple bypass. She has spent an inordinate amount of time in recovery, but by tonight she should be moved to the intensive care unit. She is off the ventilator already and the doctors say her heart is beating strong. All Very Good. We all still have our colds and I am frustrated that I cannot go see her. I have to rely on phonecalls from my dad and sister to give me updates on her condition. It has been a little hard to concentrate on my own stuff with all this going on, but I'm trying to stay on track to get things done. No new news on my mother in law, but she is pretty sick still. When it rains, it pours.
In other news, I have been working slow, but steady on my little garden plot by the front door. I think it is actually going to rain today; that will soften the remaining dirt to shovel. I discovered an anthill right in the middle of it yesterday which pretty much stopped work for yesterday because these ants are very aggressive and boy do they bite! The weather is finally taking a turn cooler and I will finally have temperatures under 100 until next spring(hopefully). That should help my productivity outside. I'm a little torn; should I plant some low maintenance flowers for the winter, or vegetables? My sister thinks veggies would be better, but with the newly turned garden I might need a season to get the dirt conditioned and really productive. I am leaning toward the veggies though since I do have seeds for broccoli and peas already which are winter plants here in the valley. I have also been trying to work on getting my jewelry supplies organized and start work again. I think I have so many directions I want to go, I am actually stuck in inaction. Well, I have to do one thing at a time and work on my prioritizing. My inability to prioritize properly is often the culprit in making me feel a little overwhelmed about what I want and need to do. Well, I think the next thing I need to do on that front is finish clearing off the storage shelves in the bedroom and arrange my supplies for easy access so I don't need to have those spread all over the dining room table, only what I need for my project. I'll work on that angle tonight because I can't do anything despite my ideas until my supplies are actually accessible. Let's hope I get that done tonight!