So Proud

Sis was awarded the student-of-the-month "Character Counts" for her class.

We are very proud.

And surprised.

She hadn't told us--I read it in the monthly class newsletter this morning.  So Mama and I are thinking up ways to celebrate.

Cat Love

Loving my fur buddies, who are my constant companions (usually one or two at a time.)

He was purring AND snoring!

Albus says, "This is my house."

I like to sit on my brother (see his ear?)

My brother makes a nice pillow.

Brothers

Hermione refused to pose for the paparazzi this time around.

Happy Tea Day!

I saw a funny joke on my FB feed recently, from Twitter, I think.

Brit:  Put the kettle on.

American:  Americans don't have kettles.

Brit:  Then how do you make tea?

American:  We throw it in the harbor.

Actually, most of the tea we drink is iced, something like 80%.  Like shrubs, iced tea began as an ingredient in a boozy colonial punch, until Temperance, Prohibition, and the 1904 World's Fair combined to popularize iced tea by mid-century (for more information, see this NPR piece.)  

I love iced tea and in the fifteen or so years that I've been up north, I've noticed that iced tea--and actual good iced tea--has become widely available.  And most of it is fresh brewed!  You can even get sweet tea at a few places, though nothing like Texas sweet tea.

The stuff I make at home--and I'm making a pitcher right now--isn't quite as sweet.  I used to like sun tea or cold steeped in the fridge, but I've read too much about it not being safe because the tea is not heated; fine--my way is quicker.  (And you know how much I like a cup of hot tea and an afternoon tea party), but that's not what we're celebrating today.)  Anyway you like it though, it's wonderful . . . and perhaps even more American than baseball and apple pie.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Mommy Hungry's Iced Tea

2-3 tea bags (right now I'm using two Lipton decaf and one Celestial Seasonings Tangerine Dream; lemon and mint are good, too.)

2 sugar cubes, to taste

2 cups boiling water

4 cups ice

Steep tea bags and sugar cubes in boiling water (I used it straight out of my Keurig) for approximately 2-3 minutes.  Remove tea bags and stir until all sugar is dissolved.  Pour into heat-proof pitcher filled halfway with ice cubes.  Drink.

Summer 2015

School hasn't even ended and we are checking things off our Summer Fun activities list!!

The * are for weekend activities with Mama.

1. Party/activity in honor of Aunt Sis
2. Go swimming at Y with friends
3. Meet friends at ice rink
4. *Attend town festival in June/volunteer at historic house
5. *Beach trip in city
6. *Putt-putt golf
7. *Baseball game
8. Family book club (we're reading Menagerie and also Redwall)
9. Eat Dole Whip
10. Make ice cream
11. Go to outdoor concert
12. Have a barbecue (after bricking fire pit)
13. Raise butterflies
14. Have a lemonade stand (cookies for cancer?)
15. Picnic
16. Mario kart-athon
17. Movie night
18. Old tv show marathon (ours or theirs)
19. Watch some movie musicals 
20. Play in sprinkler
21. *Go to culture festival (Scottish, Irish, Greek, etc.)
22. *Go to Renaissance festival
23. *Go to zoo
24. Stargazing at observatory
25. *Biking
26. Celebrate 4th of July
27. Celebrate Solstice
28. Celebrate Mama's birthday
29. Birthday party for kids
30. *Go to nature center
31. *Go to aquarium
32. *Go to bird festvial
33. Try a new craft/art project
34. Decorate chalkboard for summer
35. Learn to cook weekly dinners
36. Make ice cube candles
37. Make soap
38. Activity kit day
39. Host a sleepover with friends.  
40. Learn how to clean bathrooms.
41. Learn how to work washer/dryer
42. Make popsicles.
43. Hang pictures.
44. Learn an ASL sign a day (or more)
45. Learn some computer coding using Scratch
46. Make shrub for 4th of July
47. Make friendship bread starter and share
48. Photos with public art around town ("benching," Bud called it)
49. Make homemade virgin pina coladas
50. Make blankets for cat shelter


Learn a new game
Learn a new magic/card trick
*Go letterboxing or geocaching locally
Attend friends' Friday Night Dance Party
Start afternoon tea party tradition
Practice making lemon curd and clotted cream
Research places to go in England, etc
Purge and donate toys and books
Pajamas day
No electricity day
Do a 1000 piece puzzle
Kite flying
Wash car
Buy new couches?
Community service project (volunteer with cats?)
Do nothing special

Diagnosis

Well, the CT scan showed not only diverticulosis (a small pouch pushed in my colon, but not infected) but also a burst ovarian cyst and extra fluid in my abdomen.  No wonder this week sucked.  (And Lambeth, before you say it, neither had anything to do with my over-reaching my abilities!)

The irony is that diverticulosis is caused by a low-fiber diet, something I had mainly because of the surgery--I was told a bland diet, which is defined as having no whole grains, very cooked vegetables, etc., --not my usual beans and broccoli and cabbage!

Oh, well.

Time to go back to my mostly vegetarian routine.  I'll consult a GI specialist and my GYN just to be sure we're doing everything we can.

But my surgery incision, etc., looks good.  And that is no small thing to be grateful for.

Corner to Corner

This is what I'm doing in my copious spare time:

Corner to Corner Crocheted Afghan

Lion Brand Thick and Quick, 4 skeins

M hook

Ch 6

Rnd 1:  In 4th chain from hook, dc.  Dc in next two chains.  Turn.  (1 block made)

Rnd 2:  Ch 6.  In 4th chain from hook, dc.  Dc in next two chains.  (sl st, ch 3, 3 dc) all in ch-3 sp of previous row.  Turn.  (2 blocks made)

Rnd 3:  Ch 6.  In 4th chain from hook, dc.  Dc in next two chains.  *sl st, ch 3, 3 dc all in ch-3 sp of previous row*, repeat.  Turn.  (3 blocks made)

Rnd 4:  Ch 6.  In 4th chain from hook, dc.  Dc in next two chains.  *sl st, ch 3, 3 dc all in ch-3 sp of previous row*, repeat in all blocks.  Turn.  (4 blocks made)

Rnd 5 etc:  Continue Rnd 4 until you reach the length and width you desire (the straight sides of your triangle.  I think the above afghan had maybe 20-22 blocks at its widest.)

Now to decrease:  sl st across first 3 dc *sl st, ch 3, 3 dc all in ch-3 sp* repeat to last ch-3 space; sl st in last sp.  Turn.  Do not make a block in the last space.

Decrease until you complete round with 1 block, fasten off.

Edge as desired (mine is a picot edge, on top of a round of sc;  *(sc, ch 3, sc) in same stitch, 3 sc* repeat, adjusting for corners.)

Somewhat Better

Well, the pain subsided to discomfort by Sunday evening, at which point Mama and I were both in the throes of a stomach bug.  Or something. 

But no ER.

The painful spot still aches and throbs, so I head to my CT scan in a bit just to check on everything.

More on cobbler, afghans, puzzles, etc. this afternoon.

Our 5th Girl Scout Year

It's been another banner Girl Scout year, our fifth year--their first year as Juniors--if you can believe it.

We'll have a wrap-up party in a couple of weeks, passing out the last of this year's badges and celebrating round the campfire as we look forward to next year--we want to help the girls earn their Bronze award.

The girls have:

• completed their aMuse journey, which included lots of drama play, discussion of discrimination, designing of superheroes, making costumes, a photo shoot;
• completed their Playing the Past badge, with our overnight trip to Old Sturbridge Village, which was a huge deal for our whole group and lots of fun;
• completed their Social Butterfly badge, with discussion of table settings, thank-you notes and etiquette;
• completed their Simple Meals badge, with a breakfast-for-dinner event, with pancakes, yogurt parfaits, and an Egg and Hashbrown Casserole they all loved;
• hosted a very successful Cookie Booth;
• participated in an Aqua Zumba class;
• baked cookies for Christmas with the seniors at the local assisted living center;
• collected items for Stockings for Soldiers at a local VA hospital;
• enjoyed a wonderful and exciting evening in the trees at the rope course, with s'mores afterwards;
• and our regular meetings with arts and crafts, games, and lots of singing.

(Our other years:  Daisy1, Daisy 2, Brownie 1, Brownie 2)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Egg/Hash brown Breakfast Bake

12 eggs

1 block of cream cheese (softened)

10 frozen hash brown patties (thawed)

2-3 scallions (chopped)

1/3 lb. sliced deli ham (diced)

2 cups shredded Monterey/Cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray bottom of 9x13 cookie sheet with sides or stone bar pan; crumble hash browns; press into bottom of pan. Sprinkle about ½ cup of shredded cheese onto hash browns. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until light brown. While hash browns are cooking, whisk eggs and softened cream cheese in bowl; add diced ham and scallions, salt and pepper. Once hash browns are done; reduce oven to 375 degrees, pour egg mixture onto hash browns. Bake for another 8-10 minutes or until center is cooked. Remove from oven, sprinkle remaining cheese. Let cheese melt. Cut into squares. Enjoy!

Today Sucked

Well today just sucked.

I had abdominal cramps all day, having started the day before.  Who knows why.  Ovulation, muscle pull, mild stomach bug...there were no other symptoms, just cramps on my left side; I hadn't even overdone it. And my Tramadol didn't help.

I finally called the surgeon and she saw me this afternoon.  And said there was no emergency but ordered a CT scan on Monday just in case.  And if it gets worse, I'm supposed to go to the ER.

Blah.

Now to stay calm, rest, and feel better.

But a HUGE thank you to Mrs. S for meeting the kids after school.  Thank you so much!

Let the Shrub Ferment!

The recipe I started last night will be ready on the 4th of July!

No, it's not friendship bread or friendship cake.  (Though, now that I type that, it would be a fun summer project!)

It's shrub!

It's that vinegar-and-fruit-based drink that was so popular in colonial America (which got it from the rum- or brandy-based fruit drinks popular in England, which apparently grew out of older medicinal drinks.  And preserving berries or other fruits in vinegar was common esp in the colonies.)  And this recipe for raspberry shrub, from Saveur, is fermented.

Okay, I imagine you're thinking, "you're going to drink vinegar?"  Think of it like the lemon juice or citric acid in a drink, giving it tang (and not like the Romans giving Jesus vinegar to drink on the cross, which, by the way, is mistranslated--the original Greek is something akin to cheap wine, my prof said.)   'Cos there's enough sugar in the drink to balance it out.  Once the syrup ferments on the counter for a month, we'll strain it and add it to seltzer.  Yum!  I've had shrub in a few places, the best being City Tavern in Philadelphia--they make a raspberry shrub, too, based on a recipe of Martha Washington's.  (You can also buy it bottled to add to seltzer yourself.)

Maybe it can be a new tradition for 4th of July--making a batch of this very American drink!


-=-=-=-=-=-

Fermented Raspberry Shrub

4 cups raspberries
4 cups sugar
4 cups champagne vinegar
4 cups water

Mix all ingredients in a sterilized jar and cover.  Ferment in cool place for a month.

Saveur 

New Stitch

I'm crochet crazy these days.  Besides those 10 or so afghans I've made and the study of my grandmothers' own afghans, I'm taking not one but two crochet classes online at Craftsy.  One course is improving my crochet techniques with Edie Eckman, while the other is woodland amigurumi, with Stacey Trock.  I'm taking the latter with Mama, who has always wanted to make amigurumi but doesn't crochet. The class teaches both basic crochet and how to make small stuffed critters out of yarn.  

And so, I'm getting better and expanding my interests.  I experimented with that mitered Granny Square that came out not quite square but still lovely.  And now I'm practicing Corner to Corner crochet, seen above, which also works out of one corner instead of the middle, using what I know as the crazy stitch.  In fact, I'd worked a whole little blanket with the crazy stitch and had given it to Mojito, but it was straight lines, not diagonal from the corner.  I finished the above today--yes, in Hogwarts colors, and, yes, probably also for Mojito--and will try one in my super chunky soft Lion Brand soon.  Just a change from my usual Granny Square.  There's also a "reverse" Granny Square that uses what I think is a cluster stitch--the directions are in Spanish so I'm having to learn how to read crochet diagrams, which transcend language barriers with their use of symbols (I can't locate the original post, just the image of the pattern.)   And another linear pattern that's more like a labyrinth or squared spiral that I'd like to try (and that pattern is in Chinese!  But again has a diagram--thankfully, my techniques class will cover reading diagrams!)

Before we go to ComicCon in the fall, I want to make a chunky cowl--because I'm going dressed as a Scot from "Outlander!"  I don't plan on cosplaying a specific character--trying to be Claire with her fantastic clothes would be too hard--but just the idea, with my green skirt, a brown bodice, something tartan-y, and a cowl.  

Lastly, if I get really ambitious, I want to make the crocheted "mandala" called Sophie's Garden.  It's small stitches, various stitches, and lots of color changes.  Beautiful and hard.

And if Mama and I don't crash early, we might start our amigurumi tonight! 

Making stuffed animals will open up a whole new realm . . . . because I'd want to make a penguin for Bud, a bunny for Sis, a sheep for Mama, or maybe an owl, and a hedgehog for me . . . or a panda, or a cat . . . . . 

Kidbits

Bud was in a bit of trouble with me the other day and felt quite put upon, taking refuge in his room.  I was seated on the couch downstairs when I heard his iPod, which he'd repositioned in the stairwell so I could hear it.

"No good deed goes unpunished," sang out the lyrics from Wicked.

Ah, clever boy.  I couldn't help but smile.

Later, Mama asked what the good deeds might have been.  Bud would have said it was his honest mistake that got him in hot water.

Later that night, after hashing it out with Mama, he played from his iPod loudly, "Close every door to me, hide all the world from me . . . " the song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat when he mourns his imprisonment.

Well, I'll say this, the boy has his Mama's sense of lyrics!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Sis was complaining yesterday that she didn't have anything to read.  We have hundreds of books, but she goes through them so quickly.  She'd started and finished my last recommendation, Island of the Blue Dolphins, in less than a day.  So I suggested Little Women, one of my favorites.

Later, she came downstairs.  "Mom, I'm not reading that.  It's boring.  They just sit around knitting and not doing anything!!"

Sigh.

Weather Report

What a funny June it's been.  The highs for yesterday and today are barely out of the 50Fs!  And we've gotten 3" of much-needed rain.  There's been lightning and tons of thunder and not a drop of sun.  I love it.  But I did have to dig a pair of pants and a jacket out of the winter clothes closet.  And I'm wearing a turtleneck!  On June 2.  Well, at least we're not paying for air conditioning yet.  Actually, I like this weather a lot.

A Sign

We watched "Signing Times" the other day, mainly because the kids couldn't remember much about it.  And there it was, "Signing time with Alex and Leah . . . it's singing time, it's laughing time . . . " all in the big treehouse.

See, after months of Sis taking sign language, Bud has become more interested and we've decided to add "learn a sign a day" to our summer activities.  Only we started early!  That's why we were watching "Signing Times."  And I showed Bud a few useful signs--know, don't know, understand, need, help, right, wrong.  He picked them all up pretty quickly, so we'll keep going with probably more than one a day.

Awhile back, I catalogued a list of words that I found most useful.  It's a good list of words, though I've already forgotten a few of them myself (like "impossible.")  I've also got some flash cards, 500 of them, so that we can all learn some new words.

Should be lots of fun.

"Fun"--I'll make sure that's on the list!

(For more words, see Life Print's 100 first signs.)
-=-=-=-=-=-
I've added a few at the bottom.

• hungry, eat, dinner, breakfast, lunch
• restroom
• yes, no, maybe
• help
• later, now
• change
• take, give
• ready
• hurry
• keep
• careful
• stupid
• weird
• funny, fun
• easy
• want
• need, should
• again
• like, don't like
• forget, remember
• more
• make
• fine
• finished
• stop
• always, never
• same, too, different
• understand
• think, know
• talk, say
• happy, sad, mad/grumpy
• hot, cold
• tired
• please
• sorry
• go, come
• start, begin
• cancel
• interested
• who, what, when, where, why, how, how much
• what happened?
• sick, pain
• better
• good, bad
• wrong
• love
• impossible
• bring
• watch, look, see
• worry
• embarrass
• wonderful
• sure, real
• miss
• all, nothing
• here

• favorite
• show (v.)
• progress
• game
• can't
• disagree
• clothes
• buy, spend, money
• excuse
• better
• fix
• more than, less than

Book Report

Okay, apparently this went around aeons ago, but I did it just the same.  It's a (weird) list of 100 books--that the BBC doesn't think people have read more than a handful of (could I make that sentence more awkward?)  I've read 44, which is more than I would have expected since I don't count myself a great reader.  Interestingly I read most of them either a) in school or b). with the kids!

And what I'm reading these days--historical mysteries and Outlander and hospice/death and dying books--aren't on the list!

Mine are marked with an X; Mama's with an asterisk.  We've overlapped in several places, which is perhaps not too surprising with our similar liberal arts educations (she has a liberal arts degree in computer science, not a BS.)

It's an odd list--the whole Bible and all of Shakespeare vs. Bryson's Notes on a Small Island?  Bridget Jones's Diary and Middlemarch?  Extra points for certain writers such as the Narnia series AND The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, plus all of Shakespeare and also Hamlet.  And lots of Dickens and Austen.  But no Homer or Virgil or Dante?  It's not just English lit (Les Mis, 100 Years of Solitude) or 20th century.  So why not Fielding?  or Henry James?  Or Twain?  Or . . . or . . . or? And Dracula over Frankenstein?

100 Books

100 Books Share

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions:
Copy into a new note Put an X next to the ones you've read. Include the number you have read in the headline and tag your friends!



*X1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
*2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
*X3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
*X4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
X5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 
6 The Bible (all)
*X7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte 
*X8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
*10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
*X11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott 
*12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
X13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
*X16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien 
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
X18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger 
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
X20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
X21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
*X22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald 
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
*25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
X26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
*X28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
*X29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
*X34 Emma - Jane Austen
X35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
*X36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
*X40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
*X41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
X42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
X43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
X45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
*X48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
*X49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding 
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
*X51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel 
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
X54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
*X57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
*X58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
*65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
*70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
*71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
X72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
*X73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 
X74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
*76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
X80 Possession - AS Byatt
*X81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
*X83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
X84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
X85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
*X87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
X88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
*X89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
*X92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery 
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
*94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
*95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Toole
*97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
*X98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
*X99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl 
*100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Happy Birthday!!!

A very happy birthday to Gommie!!!  We love you.....so we didn't call at 6 am your time!!  We'll call after school or after your man jongh game.  Have a great day!!!

Job Board

We have a new chores system, well, more of an addendum.

In addition to their regular chart of chores--including feeding the cats, taking out the garbage, unloading the dishwasher, rotated by odd or even dates--for which they are unpaid because we see it as part of their family responsibility, they can now pick up "jobs for hire," which I'll post on sticky notes.  These vary week to week, season to season--shovel snow, water the garden, take out the recycling, fold the clothes, whatever I can come up with--and are paid in tickets.  These tickets are redeemable for screen time OR for cash equalling about $2.50 to purchase books, toys, souvenirs, music, whatever.  Which means we're also going to start having them pay for more things (though, no doubt we'll still purchase or go halves on things.)  There can also be surprise reward tickets; also, we won't be taking any tickets away as punishment (though, we can delay the use of screentime as a consequence.)

They are so excited!  Bud earned six tickets just yesterday, for taking out the recycling and folding and distributing 5 loads of laundry.  This morning, he and Sis unloaded the dishwasher TOGETHER, working as a TEAM, for which I gave them a surprise ticket each.  Sis is planning to water the garden soon and regularly.  Plus all those tickets they got for the cursing at the Memorial Day party!

We'll see how it all goes, but it seems promising.

Hummingbird!

We have a new resident hummingbird!  We saw it out the window this morning, during the visit with my friend, Miss D; it was sniffing around our big green bushes (not sure what they are--evergreen something.)  And I just saw it again flitting around the honeysuckle bush by our mailbox.  I'll see if I can get a photograph, but they are very fast.  Pretty little things.  We were just a few feet away and could see its colorful plummage and sharp beak.  So small.  Hope we see it again and again.

Iced Tea and Coffee Cake

Last night's storm approaching

It's warm and moist here--ok, my Texas readers would think it's nice, but once we cross 70F, I'm uncomfortable (mind you, are AC isn't on; we often wait for 78+ inside--but this humidity has had us turning it on sometimes.)  My hair is nicely curly, though it didn't even completely dry, nor did the towels in the bathroom, much less the washcloths; and all the wood in the house is damp and slightly sticky.  Not my favorite.

Spiderwort is one of my favorites.

Still, when there is a breeze off the ocean, it's nice and I can hear the birds singing their little hearts out through the open windows (which then keeps the cats awake!)   And the flowers in the garden are all starting to bloom, helped by last night's 15-minute downpour (accompanied by impressive thunder and lightning--though, again, Texas readers, not impressive by your scale!  Our storms are wimpy in comparison to your regular ones, much less the deluge and lightning show you got this weekend.)

Okay, so this cat is not awake.

It's a beautiful day for Field Day, especially because the kids won't notice that it's muggy.  They are so jazzed to wear whatever they want (instead of dress code/uniforms) and to miss all their classes today.  With 16 or so school days left, they really are done.

Meanwhile, I'll be at home with my friend/ASL teacher, drinking homemade iced tea and coffee cake.  Yep, I baked!  I'm very proud of myself.  I had been assisting Sis, or vice versa, but I managed to get the whole thing put in the oven by myself today.  That's progress.  And one more activity I can add to my growing repertoire.

As for activities, we have very few planned for the weekend.  Sis has a Girl Scout thing tonight; I'll go as long as I can make it.  And then we have the usual kung fu and ice skating.  We might grab some Greek food at their festival this week; I don't think we'll make it to church.  All of which is to say, after the last few weeks, it's a slow weekend for us.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Release!

I saw my wonderful surgeon today and am done!  My granuloma is gone; there's no more drainage.  I will always be at higher risk for a small bowel obstruction just because I've had abdominal surgery; same with abdominal incision hernias.  So, I'm supposed to take continuous nausea, vomiting, pain, and particularly the lack of bowel movements or gas very seriously.  I'm also not supposed to lift anything more than 15-20 lbs, namely anything that would cause strain, which would cause an incision hernia (along where I have a diastasis recti and two hernias already.)  Still, otherwise, I am good to go.  And I can bathe and swim!  I've decreased my painkillers, down to just Tylenol with Codeine.  And I go see my physiatrist (pain doctor) tomorrow about PT to start to strengthen my core.  She said I could call her if I had questions or any of the above.

And I presented her with a pretty purple-y "Sunset Stripes" large Granny Square afghan, as a thank you for all of her care.  She was impressed that I had made it and grateful.  We talked a little about my plans, even hospice chaplaincy, and she was kind to say she thought I'd be good at it.

So an experience that started on a very low note in an emergency room eight weeks ago, in many ways officially ended today on a high note.  Sure, the healing isn't over, but it's a new phase.  And at least today (bored as I am most days, and still limited in many things), I'm optimistic.