Weekend Adventures

Saturday my parents and Niecelet came over for a few hours so the kids could play before we went out to dinner, as a belated Mother's Day celebration for Mom.  There had been a 60-piece set of old Franciscan apple pot dishes at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store up in Port Orchard for weeks.  Those are my mother's primary dishes, given to her by my grandmother (Dad's mom), who received them as a wedding gift.  Mom has added to the collection over the years (some of it the new repro dishes, which are a lighter color and much thicker), and I had sent her a picture of what they had.  She told me to let her know if it ever went half off.  Well, it did, but I did not let her know; instead, I purchased it and gave her the set as her Mother's Day gift.  I also harvested carrots and parsnips from the garden and sent them home with her.  (She turned down the offer of rhubarb.)

We went to Massimo's, an Italian restaurant just across the Purdy sand spit.  We'd never been there before; I think it was reasonable, and what I ordered tasty enough.  Wonderful Husband isn't so sure, but we've agreed to give it another couple tries, ordering different things on the menu.  And since Massimo's was quite near Squiddle's new school for next year (he tested into the district's Highly Capable program, and we talked it over with him, went to a few talks and presentations, and in the end he decided he wanted to be challenged more), we did a drive-by so my parents could see it.

Yesterday, I tried to make lamb cawl for dinner.  Dismal failure.  I had to toss the lot, and had an existential crisis about my inability to cook.  My mother is a great cook.  Our friend Serge is a great cook.  Me... well, I'm a decent baker.  At least the soda bread I made turned out well?

Weekend Stuff

Well, Squiddle's ear infection seems to be under control.  He's starting to not want to take the medicine, but I've been very clear to him that if he does not take every single last dose, it won't kill all the germs, the pain will come back and it might never go away.  A bit of a scare tactic, but this is actually important, so I can live with it.  He's also finally asked for an allowance!  So we have agreed that for a starter, he will get $5 a week, and we will see how it goes.

Jazzy and Wonderful Husband are still coughing, so at least the former will probably be out of school again this week.  I'm also coming down with something, but (thus far; knock on wood) it's significantly more mild than what the rest of the household has had.

Friday afternoon I laid out and spray-basted a quilt.  It's a top I got at St. Vincent de Paul last month for $3.  Very plain and utilitarian, but I kind of like it.  It's clear the maker was using every last scrap of the brown in it by how many pieces she used, which is the kind of thing I find charming.  There's lots of room for me to mess around with practicing quilting feathers, and it's definitely not going to be a "best" quilt - it's the kind to be snuggled under and not made a fuss of if it gets thrown up on or used for a picnic.  The green checkered backing also came from St. Vinnie's on some other trip.  Amusing thing - when I laid it out I used up the last of my batting roll.  There was about two feet left over.  So I went and checked and I had a 20% off purchase coupon from Joanns for their online shop, together with free shipping, and the 40-yard rolls of batting I get were already heavily discounted.  So the timing of that worked out well.

Saturday the weather was nice and sunny, so we picked up McDonalds and went to Sehmel Homestead Park.  The boys got to play on the equipment with other children for a couple hours, while Wonderful Husband and I did Pokemon Go things.  We were the only people there wearing masks - but given we're a household of plague, we were not going to go without.  Even the boys kept theirs on without complaint the whole time!  After we got home, I cut up the gallon milk jugs I've been saving and planted out the first eight (tiny) tomato plants, using the jugs as cloches.  It's an experiment - we'll see how it goes.

And today was sunny again, so I worked on cutting up more of the ground-eating bushes on the east fence.  I'm planning to replace them with dwarf lilacs.  There is going to be a lot of rooting out of blackberry vines in that area too, but one thing at a time.  Since this was going to be the last clear day for at least a week, and the grass was actually dry, Wonderful Husband mowed the lawns.  I imagine this caused the chickens, in their mobile run, a great deal of consternation as he went around them for several passes.  We also hung up the codling moth disruption strips in the apple trees.

Last Man Standing

Everyone in the household is sick.  Except for me.  And the cat.  Jazzy has the flu.  Wonderful Husband has the flu.  And last night Squiddle came down with what is apparently an infection in both ears.  So the night went something like this:

1am - Squiddle comes in complaining
2am - Squiddle comes in complaining, and gets dosed with children's Tylenol
4am - Squiddle comes in complaining, and is told there's nothing more we can do in the middle of the night
4:15am - I go into Squiddle's room, where he's crying, and let him know that it's probably an ear infection (he thought he was going deaf, or dying) and that I will take him to the Urgent Care as soon as they open at 8am
6am - Jazzy wakes us up to let us know he used the toilet (with no accidents, hooray!)
7am - Wonderful Husband gets up
7:45am - Squiddle, already dressed, wakes me up. I put on clothing and take him to the Urgent Care.
12:00pm - We get back, I dose him with amoxicillin and children's ibuprofen. Wonderful Husband goes back to bed for 3.5 hours now that I'm back to keep an eye on Jazzy.

NOT A RESTFUL NIGHT.

And I'm being told that I'm not allowed to get sick.  Which, I don't want to get sick!  But having the responsibility for keeping everything chugging along entirely on my shoulders while everyone else is sick is draining unto itself.

At least this, too, shall pass...

A Visit!

Mark and Sionna, who we haven't seen in a couple years, went to Sakura-Con up in Seattle over the weekend, and asked if they could stop by today on their way back home.  Of course we said yes!

And of course I used this as an excuse over the last couple days to clean and tidy, leaving the house, well, not spotless, there were definitely areas of mess, but looking better than before.  And I jotted out to the post office and put a couple packages in the mail, so that's one more thing off the to-do list.

It was really good to see them and spend a couple hours catching up.  We offered them carte blanche on our guestroom if they'd ever like a longer visit.  They couldn't stay, needing to get home before dark, but the all-day rain had put me in the mood, so I made split pea soup for dinner.  Yum!  Squiddle ate a couple bites and Jazzy refused to touch it.  Of course.

Thrifting Day

My mother came across the bridge today, bringing a stack of clothes for the boys (dinosaurs and Minecraft featured heavily in the designs) from the kids' clothing sale she attended recently with my sister.  And returning some jars that I'd sent with her full of salsa, and some saved eggshells for me to bake and feed to the chickens.

Squiddle was not feeling 100% - he's had congestion and a hoarse voice on and off all day - so he stayed home while Mom and Jazzy and I went up to Port Orchard.  We went to St. Vincent de Paul, lunched at That One Place, and then went into One Less Orphan before heading home.

In the middle of lunch it started snowing.  And then hailing.  And then snowing more.  And the trend continued even after we got home!  nothing sticking, but still, very late in the year for that kind of thing.  (For a while it was fat dizzying flakes floating down, my favorite type of snowfall.)

She acquired a book, a couple bracelets, a strainer, and a couple bread loaf pans.  I found two shirts for me, one for Jazzy, a couple dinosaur undies also for Jazzy, three small plant pots, a basket, a quilting magazine, some quilting templates, and two embroidery projects - a matched pair of pillowcases, and a hand towel.  I sent Mom home with some parsnips and carrots from the garden, as well as a variegated spider plant.

I also got a horseradish root planted, another pot of basil started, and another couple variegated spider plants rooting in a hanging pot.  I probably should get around to putting more hooks in the ceiling so I can hang some more plants....

Catching Up

No pics for today.  It's quite late as I write this (everyone else is abed).  I've been trying to cudgel story words out of my brain, but they don't seem to want to come.

I've finished a quilt that's been on my sewing machine in various stages for the better part of a year, and got the next one lined up to baste.  It's a homely top I got for $3 at the thrift store, but it spoke to me and there's lots of room for quilting feathers and such.  Homely quilts are nice to snuggle under, and you never really have to worry about staining them or anything.  Jazzy actually took a couple hours' nap with me under my favorite homely quilt today!  Which never happens anymore now that my babies are big boys.

The boys are off school this week, which they're enjoying.  Squiddle, now 8, has tested into the district's Highly Capable program, but it will mean him changing schools next year.  After his eye exam today, he and I drove by the (potential) new school and looked around a little.  I think he's willing to make the switch.  The only downside is, Jazzy was really looking forward to riding the bus with Big Brother next year, so we'll probably request (and it is not guaranteed that we will receive) a transfer for him to go to the same school.  Which I think will work out with his IEP?  But I want to talk with his teachers about that.

The weather has been something of a yo-yo lately.  In the seventies one day, frost on the roof another.  And it's windy!  There's pine/fir pollen all over the driveway, and my A-frame pea trellis has been blown down twice.  I've finally banged four stakes into the garden bed and tied the trellis to them.  I need to get on the ball about building this year's addition of three more garden beds and getting them in place.  I bought starts at the store!  Though I was virtuous and did not get the three or four more chickens I want.  The neighbors are going to borrow the brooder setup later in the month when they get chicks, and if I get more, I'll need to build a bigger coop.  OTOH, if the boys and I have scrambled eggs for breakfast, that's six eggs, and I only have four hens, so it's a case where I'm having to be mindful of consumption versus production.  Sigh.  Next year.  The potted dwarf peach and nectarine trees I bought have all started leafing out, as have the in-ground cherries and blueberries; I need to check the in-ground apricots and persimmons to see if they're going to break dormancy soon.

I guess the last thing for now is, I've decided against attending Costume College this year.  Attendees are required to be vaxxed and masked, but there's also two long plane trips in there, the cost, and the imposition on others around me for child care.  It was immensely more affordable when I lived in SoCal and it was literally day-tripping the con and putting up with horrible miserable no-good traffic on the way home on Friday.  Living 1100 miles away greatly increases the cost - roundtrip airfare plus hotel room plus meals plus either cab fare or car rental.  Yeesh!  Plus the social pressure of rooming with people I don't know because I have difficulty making friends.  (And, yes, I know, not going doesn't help with the making friends in the community thing.  But.)  So, not this year.

Back after nearly 6 months of silence

Last week, on Tuesday, I actually slept in past 7am (a miracle!) and ended up getting woken by the boys coming in, shouting that it was snowing.

Snow in December? thought I.  Surely not.

Yet there it was, snowing.  Where we live, on the seaward side of Puget Sound, we usually get snow in February, not sooner.  Yet despite the fact that Tuesday's snow didn't linger past midday, we got some flurries on Christmas itself, and as I type this, looking out the window at our front lawn, it's snowing again, and the grass has nearly completely vanished.  So, about 2" overnight and still coming down?  I opened the back door earlier and Sushi (our cat) set one paw out in the snow before deciding hell nope.  I'll have to see if I can get the chickens into their (covered) run in a bit.  It's so quiet that the snow coming down sounded like grains of rice falling.

It's supposed to stay below freezing for the next five or so days, so whatever we get, should stick.  I kind of doubt it'll match February's 11 inches, but I'll take it.

I did get three quilts (and five pillowcases to go with) done for Christmas.  First was Niecelet's, which I didn't get a proper picture of, but here's an in-progress photo:

The colors in the photo aren't true to life, and this was before I appliqued four more starfish and two Flounders in that middle border.  There was a matching pillowcase, and I had also found an embroidered pillowcase at the thrift store at some time, so that went with.  I'm actually quite proud that every piece of this quilt (except the ombre fabric, which was a remnant from Joann's) was a thrift store find over the years - including that red sea glass Kaffe Fassett border fabric, and the sea-green batik that I used for the backing.  You can find good stuff at thrift stores, if you look.

I'll do another post later on the boys' quilts - which are still here, so I can take pictures of them!  And right now they are being slept under.  Everyone got to stay up quite late on Christmas.  Wonderful Husband and I resumed work on that 2000-piece puzzle that's been shoved up and out of the way for months.  We're in agreement that 2000 pieces is just too big, for future endeavors.