There is fire. And this time it was across the road from our house.
I didn’t really know what to expect when we came home and saw all the lights from the emergency vehicles on the road in front of our house. My first thought was that something may have happened to one of the neighbors’ kids. They’re little, and full of mischief. It could happen.
Instead we pulled up to the scene and find a patch of grass burned, right up to our mailbox. The wind was very strong from the south, and the fire was going to head to our house. I am thankful that our neighbor noticed it and, after not being able to find us at home, called 911. It’s one of those things that can happen, though this is the first time since we moved in here that it has ever been an issue. And then there was the discussion: How did it start?
Two theories seem plausible. Either someone threw out a cigarette butt and that started it, or, more likely, the dead grasses produced a mold that then produced heat until the grass smoldered. Like a hay fire that was then fanned to full flame by the wind.
Burned area
The area smelled like a campfire for a while afterward, and the black patch is there. It will be replaced by green soon, and will be the only green space in the WPA aside from around the sloughs.
And the biggest lasting impression seems to have gone to Emily. She was asleep as we pulled up and opened her eyes to all the flashing lights around us. She was disoriented and scared. The next day, she spent quite a bit of time at the window looking out and calling back to me, “I don’t see any fire yet, Mom!” I spent a lot of time hugging her and explaining to her that there won’t be any more fire. The neighbor saw it and called the fire department. The fire department came and put it out. But still she watched and asked questions. It’s her way of figuring it out and getting back to feeling safe.
Yes, there was a fire.
No, it didn’t burn the house.
Yes, we are safe here.
I know, because that’s the first time since we’ve lived here that it happened.
No, the grass was dry and there was a lot of wind, that’s why it was burning.
No, the black part won’t go away right away.
No, the mailbox did not burn.
Because it’s metal, and metal doesn’t really burn, it melts first.
And so on and so forth. And in answering her questions, I found myself starting to relax more. Yes, we are safe here, and no it didn’t burn the house. And all is well that ends well.
Here is a picture of Charlie sleeping, just because I can:
I want to write about reading today. Seems strange as writers are those who create what we read, huh?
Anyway, reading is on my mind because I have lovingly watched Kirstin transform from a little child— sitting in laps, getting books out of the book case to have them read to her—to today—still getting books from the book case, but much thicker, and curling up on the couch, the chair, her bed, and reading to herself. On the morning of her eighth birthday, she was wearing a tank-top, ripped up jeans, on the couch reading a book. And I couldn’t help but think: This is awesome!
Reading has opened up so much for her. She can find any information she wants now. She uses reading to learn about anything that may be in her mind. She reads to entertain herself. She reads. Period.
Now I am lovingly watching Emily go through the same process. I am here to guide her, as is Matt, and Kirstin, too. While she sits in the chair, with “Hop on Pop” by Dr. Seuss open on her lap, reading to Mongo cat, I feel pride. Pretty soon she’ll be the child wearing a tank-top and ripped up jeans on the couch reading a thick book.
Emily’s reading buddy and favorite book
And here’s the fun thing: Both Kirstin and Emily have the foundations in place for being successful in school and life, because they are both readers (or will be soon). That’s the best part.
We all read in this house. Emily reads her “Hop on Pop,” “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish,” and has an obsession with the “Judy Moody” books by Megan McDonald. Kirstin reads whatever books she picked out for the day. Lately she has been reading the “Ever After High” books by Shannon Hale and anything else she can get her hands on. Matt reads a lot of articles online, from most any genre.
And then there’s me. Lately I have been on a Minnesota author kick. I just finished up “The High Divide” by Lin Enger. I have two books of short stories by Minnesota authors waiting for me. From there I have a few reference books to look through and absorb. And after that, I don’t know. It depends on what I’m in the mood for.
Me: I last saw my pants on Tuesday when I wore them to a doctor’s appointment. I came home, changed into comfy clothes and they have been missing ever since.
And that’s how people will introduce themselves in my new group: Missing Pants Anonymous or MPA. I’m still working on details for the first meeting and recruiting other members.
I routinely misplace my jeans. I have one pair of good jeans and one pair of older kind-of-ratty-but-I-can-make-them-work jeans. I don’t actually go out much, therefore these two pairs of jeans are enough. Until I lose my good pair.
And the really disturbing part of losing them this time is that they have yet to turn up. Usually they show themselves when I get back in my older pair and go to change into my comfy clothes again. They show up where I had looked about a dozen times before–either on the bed or the ironing board.
I’ve come to the conclusion the black hole that sucks in socks, hair clips, combs, and brushes has now taken my pants. Usually the outlet of the black hole is under the girls’ bed, but I have not had luck looking there yet. If the black hole didn’t suck them in, then gnomes took them and cut them up to make new gnome clothes. I hope they look good in denim!
ETA: I found them! In a laundry basket, if you can imagine that. The black hole spit them out. No cut marks, so no gnomes this time.
The last few times I tried making bread the result wasn’t even edible. This time I didn’t go for looks or anything, but just something people could eat without gagging or feeling like they were eating communion wafers in big form. Wine anyone? Yes, my bread was dry, why do you ask?
I can make bread. I have done it and had spectacular results. Just something these last few times has not gone right. Today’s attempt was edible, and very good, but it didn’t rise much if at all the second time around. But with the way the girls gobbled it down, I think I need to attempt again on Friday when I’ll be home without children around to ask a thousand and one questions about what I’m doing and why.
Today’s attempt looked like this:
Really flat loaves!
I used a recipe I got from Mary and the Biker Chef over at Play Off the Page. I changed one thing, and it is probably this change that made it not rise nicely: the recipe called for maple syrup and I used honey and a tisch bit of water instead. Also, I need to use my baking stone, and that should help some in the way it bakes.
Tomorrow’s new recipe is gnocchi (again, thank the Biker Chef!) to go with the lovely alfredo sauce we made and have extra to use up. I’ll add some chicken and green beans to the meal to balance it out, though I really think gnocchi and alfredo sauce is a meal in itself.
To new adventures in recipes, inspired by a trip to visit Mary! Cheers!
I have my writing mojo back! Last weekend did the trick, from learning about the publishing industry on Thursday to an awesome time at Mary’s house reading her new play on Friday and Saturday, I got the kick in the butt I needed to go out and write.
So why so long to post this week?
Painting. And more painting. The girls’ room is being transformed from a baby room to a young girls’ room. The wall paper border is down, and the walls are primed. I just did the trim today, and soon will be taking on the ceiling and the yellow for the walls. Then it’s just making curtains and a headboard, and we’ll be done. I hope.
So, instead I give you a few things related to Kirstin.
She is raising money for Jump Rope for Heart again. She explains it all in this video:
And then some writing of hers from the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa’s house:
RECIPE:
This is for making your sister mad. Take her head and put it down. This should create the claw moment. Next, say mean things. It should make her even more mad. It should create the hiss moment. Last, say “Na na na na boo boo.” It should piss her off. I have tried this and it works.
Bye,
Kirstin
I talked to her about the one word in there. She knows it’s not really appropriate for school. I think she was having some issues with Emily at the time in which she wrote this. I’m not sure what my first clue was.
I’ll be back again after the painting is all done. This weekend should get it finished up. Thanks!
Haven’t written anything in a long time. I’m having trouble forming coherent sentences.
The page is too big to fill right now.
I can’t even fill a full page in my notebook. I start and then realize most of what I wrote is horrible. So I stop for a while and try to come back to it.
I have a few events coming up in which I hope to get my writing mojo back.
The first is Thursday, and is an event at the University of Minnesota, Morris library. Publishing anyone? I hope to find the event informative and useful to what I hope to accomplish.
The next event is going to Mary’s house! Friday we stay there and Saturday we read her new play. I am so looking forward to the reading and a good visit! Usually just an hour with Mary puts me right back to where I should be with my writing. And that happens from her full enthusiasm toward the arts in general and writing in particular. Thank you Mary!
This is part one of a four part series that I have planned. The title for this series is (as evidenced above) “Things I do that make Matt say, “Seriously?” Obviously there are more than four things that I do, but these have been the biggest ones lately. Today’s “Seriously?” is about yarn (imagine that!)
I have an obsession with yarn, I think. As evidenced in this post, I have way too much and just don’t always get around to doing anything with it. I know I have a bad habit of collecting yarn and then letting it sit. One day in a moment of insanity, I told Matt, “I’m going on a yarn diet. I won’t get any new yarn until I finish up some of my projects.”
He agreed. He was all for it.
I did try to be good. I honestly did. But I also read a lot of message boards on Ravelry.com. And one of them is all about how to get yarn cheaply by unraveling sweaters found at thrift shops. And my short downward spiral started there.
Cue closet clean out time: I spent a few days going through clothes and sorting them into three piles—keep, donate, and toss. I was going through the donate pile and refolding all the clothes to put into boxes and I came across a sea-foam green sweater. I could tell by the feel of it that it was a mostly cotton yarn. I looked at the tag, and found I was correct in my assumption. 60% cotton and 40% acrylic. This would be perfect first sweater from which to harvest yarn!
I looked around. No one was in sight. I put the sweater aside on top of my sewing box. I was going to unravel the thing and just see how much and what quality yarn I would get out of it. I finished boxing up the donate pile and grabbed the sweater and my seam ripper. I was happily undoing the seams when Matt asked me, “What are you doing?”
Caught! “Um…I’m taking this apart to see how it was all put together?”
I knew as I said it that even though that was ONE of the reasons, Matt would know that wasn’t the real reason. So, I quickly added, “And to get the yarn from it.”
Matt just looked at me and said, “Seriously?”
He was not amused by my excuse.
“But it’s not NEW yarn!”
While correct, it was obvious I was trying to justify taking it apart.
I did a good amount of yarn from it:
That’s a whole lot of yarn to use up!
And I’ve only ever unraveled something one other time, and that will probably be the last time. This sweater dress I got at the thrift shop:
The yarn in this told me it didn’t want to be a sweater dress anymore. What I really liked was the really dark stuff toward the bottom.
Turned into this:
Not much yarn this time, and full of knots!
And it was while I was unraveling the sweater dressed that I found not everything is meant to be unraveled like that. The yarn from the sweater dress is filled with knots and is so fuzzy I don’t know that I will be able to make anything from it.
Now I KNOW I can be good about not bringing in other yarn. Although…
So, I didn’t write anything last week. I just didn’t have the gumption to write. A nice case of the winter blahs descended, so I took a week off. I still did some research for my one story, so it wasn’t a completely lost week. I’m back, feeling more like I should. And then I get to today and find I can’t figure out what to write. So, I give you the Christmas/New Year letter that we never sent because…I don’t know. We just didn’t this year. I wrote it and then all of a sudden it was too late to send it.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
It’s time for a quick catch up again. We all survived this busy and sometimes chaotic year and are looking forward to next year. We didn’t do as much with our garden this year—rain came before we could plant everything and the ground stayed too wet for a long time. We did get some tomatoes and lettuce, and that was about it. However, we did get our flower beds around the front deck done and they looked wonderful this year! I’m very proud of how they turned out.
We also took in a lot of theatre this year, both local and in the cities. Locally, Matt and the girls went to see “The Mouse Who Roared” done by the Prairie Wind Players in Barrett; he and I went to “Greater Tuna” there as well. We also went to a play at the University called “A Midnight Dreary” which was about Edgar Allen Poe, and just by chance were able to see a play in Brainerd with our good friend, Mary, called “I Hate Hamlet.”
Mary also introduced us to a new-to-us theatre: The Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. We first went there to see a short play called “Balloonacy.” That got our interest and since then we have seen “Busy Town the Musical” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” there. The kids love going to plays, and in fact a recent conversation with Kirstin told us just how much. “When are we going to see another REAL show?” she asked. She’s been perusing PBS Kids for ads to the next show at Children’s Theatre. Matt and I were also able to see “Book of Mormon” at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. We had fun that night riding the light rail to and from the theatre, and the show itself was phenomenal! We’re still singing the music from it.
We also took a trip to the cities this summer and spent a few nights there. We went to the sculpture gardens at the Walker Art Center, the Science Museum, the Mall of America, and Como Park and Zoo (and conservatories). It was a long weekend and a lot of walking, but we all had fun and no one complained TOO much.
Of course life isn’t just about going to shows and taking trips. The girls are growing up way too fast for my liking. Emily is now four years old and busy in preschool. She goes two days a week for all day. She loves riding in with her dad in the pickup and then riding home with her sister on the bus. She is very close to reading and is already picking up words here and there. She surprises us with her knowledge every day. She is very enthusiastic about everything she does, and even her teacher has commented about how refreshing her attitude is.
Kirstin is seven (and a half, as she always reminds me) and in second grade. She loves school and has tested really high in both math and reading (actually highest in her class for reading). She is fortunate to have an awesome teacher this year who has found her opportunities to continue her learning while still being in the classroom for most of the day. Kirstin has a “special” math class four days a week and a book club one day a week in addition to her regular class work. She thrives on learning new concepts and keeps us guessing what she is going to learn next. Science is a favorite subject, and she was thrilled to get a microscope and science kits for Christmas gifts.
Matt still works as an application developer and server administrator at the University of Minnesota, Morris; he also does some freelance work for a few clients on the side. This year he took the challenge of taking down the chimney. Floor by floor he worked until there were only three bricks left in the concrete of the basement floor. He hauled them all out by the bucketful and figures it was about 4.75 tons of “stuff.” The bricks will find new life as flower bed borders. The next portion of that project is finishing up the walls in the girls’ room and in the kitchen.
I’m still at home with the girls. At first it was a little strange to have two days a week alone while both girls were at school, but now I find myself looking forward to those days. I use the time to work on a few projects I’ve got going on and doing housework. I’m still a companion of an elderly lady and really enjoy the time I get to spend with her. She’s a wonderful conversationalist and we have some really good times, even though coming from California she doesn’t think much of Minnesota winters. She always gives me a new perspective on life in general. I took some time out of a few days one week to go skating with Kirstin. I was rather apprehensive about being on skates again as the last time I fell and hit my head pretty hard, but nothing bad happened. Emily came along and we all skated together. I really enjoyed watching the kids as they learned how to skate.
That is our year in a nutshell—busy and full, with a lot of family time.
God bless!
Matt, Beth, Kirstin, and Emily
And then we were going to send out a picture with the letter:
Every now and then we can get them to sit somewhat still and smile!
This post is written with much thanks to Matt for helping me make it look pretty (format it) and helping me figure out why I couldn’t get the pictures off the camera right away.
I love to create. Sometimes (okay, most times) I get an idea for what I would like to make and then dive right in. I start off and do well for some time only to put it down when I get busy with other projects–often for months at a time.
Most of my projects are yarn crafts, mainly crocheting and knitting. I have a huge backlog of projects that need finishing. Add to that a ginormous amount of yarn for projects not yet started and you can understand why most of my goals have to do with yarn crafts.
So much yarn! And this isn’t even all of it. I have a 20 gallon tote full and some off in the wild elsewhere.
I mostly crochet, but I am in the process of learning how to knit. So that alone doubles my in-progress projects. And if you add in all the fun stuff I’ve found on Ravelry, my list grows to an astronomical length. So I pared it down to something I might be able to accomplish in a year:
Crochet:
sew together blocks for Americana Afghan
Finish blue ripple afghan
Finish gift project
Find and finish my crocheted wrap project (I lost it somehow and was working with a favorite yarn!)
Begin tree of life project
Make flamenco outfits for my plastic flamingos
make cat toys as needed
Then there’s the knitting. I want to learn new skills, so these projects are towards that goal:
Make special gift x2-speed up my process to get things done on time
Make socks-using double pointed needles, knitting in the round
Winding river scarf-learn cable knit
Baby gift to have on hand- increase and decrease techniques, lace techniques
Skirt for me-knitting in the round
Dress for Emily-construction techniques
Tunic for Kirstin-same as above
make a cat to watch over my yarn cabinet-doing tiny things in the round, stuffed animals
And then, if that isn’t enough to do, I also have two sewing projects planned. One I have to get done, but it’s rather straight forward: curtains for the girls’ room. It shouldn’t take me too long to get them done, especially as I have the fabric on hand. The other sewing project is a top for myself. I’m going to do a mock-up out of some worn sheets we have on hand and then translate that to the other fabric once I get the fit exactly as I want it. I will not be making the girls’ Halloween costumes this year. I promised myself that this last Halloween after rushing to get them done–again. I do not want to be sitting up the night before working to get things done.
I will definitely keep busy this year between my writing and my crafting. As both are things I enjoy, I should have a good year. I will post pictures on here of things as I finish them. Except for the gifts. Those won’t be posted until after they are given for obvious reasons.
It is January in Minnesota. Cold is a known factor, and we deal with it every year. So what makes this year so different? We have very little snow.
Usually I welcome a year like this: generally warmer than usual and little to no snow. Heating costs and transportation are easier not to mention my mood is much better. However, this year we still have no snow and we wound up with the bitter cold. We’re talking wind chills down to -40 type of cold.
Even though we (as in humans) can adjust to this quite easily by hunkering down in the house under blankets and having good reading material at hand, our poor pup, Koshka, doesn’t have that option.
Our usually happy pup.
The years that are cold and snowy Koshka just burrows in and lets the snow insulate her. She stays nice and warm without any issues.
Warm in the snow.
This year, however, she is exposed and cold. She was shivering a lot out there, and we knew we had to do something. I came up with an idea to keep her warm while waiting for Kirstin to be done with a dentist appointment, and put it into place after the girls and I got home. I went to the basement and found a few boxes to block off the doorways into the kitchen. I then went to the garage and grabbed some dog food and the leash and headed out to Koshka. I should have aborted this plan when Koshka balked at the back door and tried to get away. Instead, I made her go inside. I admit freely that this was not a good idea. She hates being confined and won’t even use her doghouse unless there’s a bad thunderstorm. She was shaking more indoors than she was when she was outdoors. Eventually her nerves got the best of her and she wound up pooping on the floor. Plain failed. I couldn’t keep her inside, so out she went again. When I left her she was much happier and no longer shaking.
Cue the next day. I knew it would be even colder, so I had to find some other way of keeping her warm. On my way into town for my own dentist appointment and other errands, I pondered the situation. I couldn’t come up with anything. I talked to our daycare provider when I dropped off Em, and she said, “Too bad you can’t find something like a horse blanket for a dog.”
I had my answer! Really, I think there was a light bulb above my head and everything.
I headed for the thrift shop and picked up a lined flannel jacket. I put it on Koshka and buttoned the top three buttons. It took a few tries to get it set up so she could walk, sit, and lie down. Finally with some extra fabric I had on hand used as a belt and the sleeves tied on top of Koshka’s back, she had her “horse blanket for a dog.”
Under her tree with her blanket. She moved enough that it was coming off, but it was warmer during the day.
She is much happier and no longer shivering. She kept on her blanket all last night and all day today. I was just out there to readjust the jacket for tonight, and she’s very content. In fact, she was talking to me like she always does, so I think this makeshift thing is working.
