DragonBlog

The Budding Young Photographer...

I hope everyone has been having a good holiday season this year. Ours seems to be going well. There's still some awkwardness as everyone tries to figure out how to respond to us celebrating Solstice instead of Christmas, but overall I think that we're slowly working the kinks out.

Also on that longest night, we packed up two big Hefty trash bags of clothes we're no longer going to wear and tried to take them with us to donate the following morning on our way to breakfast. Unfortunately, someone saw fit to remove all the Salvation Army collection boxes that I knew of nearby and we had to wait until the next day when Brian headed out to run errands while I cooked up a storm for the family Christmas gatherings. He found a Goodwill store that took donations instead and dropped them there. I've determined that the Salvation Army web site sucks for finding info on where drop boxes and donation locations are actually at. Goodwill, on the other hand, with a smidge of digging, listed locations with hours they took donations and everything.

He was nice enough to take the kids with him so I could maximize my cooking time and I got a good majority of the two desserts and three appetizers I was whipping up done. Except for the incident in which I dropped the pan that had the crust for one of the desserts. This wouldn't have been such an issue, especially considering the pan didn't even break, but the crust calls for pecan meal, which is relatively finely ground pecans. Only one store around here seems to carry it and I'd already bought them out for the crust I'd just baked and then accidentally dumped onto half the inside of my fridge and the floor after it had been cooling in anticipation of the next layer. After a quick check for more at one of the other stores, (okay, sometimes it IS nice that Brian has a cell phone - I was able to call him while he was still running errands) Brian came home and proceeded to "grind" some pecans for me instead. We've determined that using a coffee grinding mill is NOT the way to go. It ends up looking like the thing is pooping clumps of pecan goop. Ewww. The food processor didn't get it fine enough either, but the "hack 'n slash" basic coffee grinder with the whirling blade did well enough. Good to know for the future.

For Solstice, Brian and I gave each other... dice. Yes, we're geeks. We'd also spent the "budget" on paying the plumber recently so we had to rethink any original plans. We'd thought about skipping it entirely but that seemed kind of... well, depressing, so we splurged on something we otherwise wouldn't be able to justify spending money on - colorful, fun dice for our pen and paper roleplay games (kinda like Dungeons & Dragons for those who don't know). We gave Kayla a soft interactive piano thing made by LeapFrog which she seems to love. She likes toys that make noise far more than Jareth ever did. Jareth, on the other hand, got a digital camera. Yes, we gave our three-year-old a digital camera. Because Fisher Price went and made one. It's not exactly high-res pictures, but it is certainly just right for kids. And thus, today I'll include a picture of myself, taken by my little photographer son...

Yep. That's me. Or part of me, anyway, along with our daughter Kayla. Whatever have I gotten myself into? We're going blind from the flash!

Although, actually, after that first couple of days his non-stop use of the camera has died down a little. He's mastered the control buttons already, and loves seeing me upload the pics on to my computer (his isn't hooked up right now, so it all goes on mine). It's been dropped twice so far (that I know of) and is still in working order. His camera is red - a color that seems to have only been available in a deal with Target stores, where they included a small memory card. So he can get quite a few pictures on there before it needs to be emptied onto the computer. His favorite color is red right now too, so that and the bonus memory card made the deal sweeter. I'm glad he likes it though, since we paid more for it - everyone bought them up when they came out and I had to get it on eBay instead. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't the greatest price either. But worth every penny for how excited he is over it. He's already getting better at taking pictures, although he still wants to get really close to stuff sometimes and then the flash kicks in and he gets the mostly white picture instead. He's learning though.

Meanwhile, we've been trying to kick some things into gear around here in recovering from the water damage. We've gotten the upstairs bathroom functional enough that we can actually shower in the shower now (YAY!!!). Everything is painted and water-sealed and really it's just some trim and other small bits that need taking care of. We may even start demolishing some of the downstairs bathroom as early as this next weekend. We need to pull that shower out and see how all the plumbing work was done to determine how we're going to redo it when we put new stuff in. I'm both looking forward to and dreading this repair/remodel project at the same time. On one hand, it will be nice when we get it all done, and we've been kicked into gear to GET it done. At the moment the living room is an utter disaster, trying to accomodate the living room, family room, office, playroom, and jewelry scenarios all in one room. In ordering new desks and such I'm changing my layout around my computer to better incorporate jewelry - adding an actual small jewelry bench into the mix, as well as an inexpensive drafting table! Some of it will get set up in the living room when it arrives, until we have the carpet and paint done in the family room and can start moving back in there. I'm hoping we can move down there again before March, since I usually have everyone here for the kids' birthdays and Kayla will be having her first.

Seems like there is just so much going on right now. And I've been trying to take more time to work on jewelry whenever I get the chance instead of jumping on the computer. Sorry all, but there are actually a lot of things that take priority over blogging. hehe. But I pop in when I can.

And yes, I DO still know I haven't gotten the batch of pictures up in the gallery. I haven't forgotten. I'd do it right now, if there weren't nearly a dozen baby bottles waiting to be washed in the kitchen, along with a few other chores. Maybe I'll have a chance to get to it this week finally. Maybe not. No guarantees. But I haven't forgotten. It's going to be a huge upload to the server too, since I've got a few months worth of pics to show off at this point.

More later though. Off to get some dishes done!

Current Mood: busy

The Shortest Day...

Today, the shortest day of the year, began like any other. The children determined when we rose from bed, Kayla beginning the call with the unhappy sign that generally indicates she's been busy digesting foodstuffs into a nice little steaming mess in her diapers for me to tend to before her breakfast. Then Jareth was awake too, hungry and ready to start the day. Before long we were all fed and ready to dive into whatever list I had made of things that we needed or wanted to get done...

Groceries. Had I known, I would have done them earlier in the week. As far as I could tell, half the known world had taken today off to get their shopping done. And half of those people needed to get groceries too. At my store. There were more registers open than I'd ever seen and they were still backed up well into the aisles... Nevermind the mess just trying to get to the products in the first place. It had been meant to be a quick trip to get some supplies for the weekend family festivities, since I'm doing desserts for one and appetizers for another. I had a slightly murderous glint in my eye by the time I left the store. And I wanted to find the idiot that decided the store only needed SIX of the kid-friendly carts (that have a bench for the older kid(s) to sit on to make room for the little ones in the cart seat too) in the WHOLE store and wad them into a ball and stuff them into that space beneath the kid seat on the cart, since that's where half my groceries needed to be in order to stick the car seat back there and Jareth in the kid seat...

Murderous glint, I tell ya. Rawr...

But, happily, I shook it off once I was safely home again. Maybe it was something about the day itself. Maybe it was just that it was a cold, dreary kind of day but Kayla was getting such a kick out of watching the raindrops on the back window of my car as we drove home. I knew that the "celebration" part of Solstice wouldn't really start until Brian got home anyway, so it was all good...

According to weather.com sunset was at 4:24 pm today. You really couldn't tell, what with the rain. At 7:19 am, the sun will rise again. We plan to see it through tonight, this longest night of the year. We've been drumming some. Some cool music is currently playing in the background. Candles are lit about the room. Brian's dad came by around 7:30 pm or so and guided us in making a stone circle. Each stone is nestled together in harmony around a single light. Each stone was chosen and placed by one of us (Jareth picked and placed several) and has it's own meaning. Other items joined the circle as well, nestled in the sand, watching and communing with the stones. So simple, yet so complex in it's meaning, the circle now sits serene in our living room, a representation of our family and this night. Both the circle and the building of it have been a wonderful addition to our night...

The kids will not be staying up all night. While we did let Jareth stay up quite a bit past bedtime, I know that he's not old enough to handle it and still be heading out for breakfast (since we've decided to go out for it) at the sunrise. And it would not be good to mess with Kayla's routine, although she did got to sleep a bit later than usual too, probably since things were a bit different tonight than most evenings. But they are both tucked away now, in dreamland. Now it's just Brian and I. Two adults holding vigil through the night, awaiting the sunrise. We may not be dancing around a bonfire and singing as they might of done in ancient times, begging the gods to spare them from eternal darkness, but we are each regarding this long night in our own way...

Happy Solstice!

Current Mood: thoughtful

The Longest Night...

The night that passes between the 21st and 22nd of this month (Thursday and Friday) will be the longest one this year. Brian has talked about it on his blog already. The 21st, during the day, will be the shortest day of the year, and the 22nd will mark the beginning of the days growing longer as we make our way towards the Summer Solstice (which, I believe, is when it shifts back again).

Finally, for this Winter Solstice, we are starting to come up with some "traditions" we want to observe. For one thing, it seems fitting that for the longest night of the year, we see it out, much the same way people stay up until midnight to see in the "new year" on December 31st/January 1st. The idea is to spend the night embracing the shift, reminiscing on the past year, and looking forward to the next. We will celebrate the passing of the long nights, and also the beginning of the lengthening days. There will be "feasting" (nice breakfast of some sort) when the sun rises, and gifts - both gifts given to each other here and donations of clothes and a toy (courtesy of Jareth) to be given out to others at some point during the new day.

All of the details aren't planned out yet. I'd love to fast on the 21st, until the morning feast on the 22nd, but while breastfeeding that's probably not the best idea, so we'll wait on trying that some year. There's the thought of doing some sort of craft with Jareth - I have a great book that my sister-in-law gave me that has some ideas for that. There's drumming that will likely happen, and Brian's dad is possibly going to stop over and the two of them will sit down and make Brian a Louie circle (the web site he's got is still a work in progress, but it's starting!) together. We'll talk about what we remember of our year - the good and the bad - and compare our goals, ambitions, and desires for the next.

Well, that's the idea anyway. We'll see how it actually turns out.

More later. I keep getting interrupted today and this post has been written in bits over the course of the whole darn day.

Current Mood: busy

Quick Update

Today, Kayla is nine months old. Yesterday evening she did the most amazing thing! While she's been thoroughly entertaining as of late, pulling herself around in a half-crawl and learning to clap and express herself so much so suddenly, we certainly weren't expecting this. About a week ago, at a moms' group party, we saw her pull herself back up to a sitting position after she'd gotten down from one to start crawling on the floor. That wasn't so surprising, in that she was already in the right position to backtrack to the sitting position, and she'd been trying to learn that one recently. She's not been able to really pull it off since then, however.

Instead, she cut straight to pulling herself to a stand last night!

It's not a fluke either. She did it again this morning too. She grabbed hold of her walker while crawling on the floor, and pulled herself up to standing so she could play with it while not actually in it. She's hardly pulling herself up off the ground yet while trying to crawl, and yet I think she's going to skip half the crawling stage and jump to toddling about instead!

I've heard lots of things about the second child learning things faster as a result of watching the first, but this is one of those moments of evidence for it. She's been trying to launch herself down to play with the others for quite a while now. I think she's going to zip over a few bits just so she can try and keep up with her big brother. I've been worried about getting gates up to keep her safe while crawling - I guess I'd better worry more about what's going to be in reach when she starts standing more and moving from one item of furniture to another in order to reach the fun things she sees about.

Anyway, she's nine months old and beautiful and growing up SO FAST already! Wow... just WOW. I love my little girl!

That's all for now.

Current Mood: enthralled

A Falling Star, Perhaps...

Saw this over on Lissakatt's blog, so I thought I'd give it a try...

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Interesting... mostly I just want that deck of tarot cards. Preeeetttyyyy!!

*drool*

Yadda, yadda, pics coming eventually. I've been busy. And I think Kayla's teething. She just won't let me put. her. down. *groan*

Current Mood: cranky