All Hail Bill Nye the Science Guy!

This morning's home-schooling session was off to a smooth start. The kids did their reading and their reading log with out complaint. Then came math. My 5th grade child decided that subtraction problems were too hard and chose to do a multiplication worksheet. My 7th grade child whipped through his flash cards like they were no big deal. Then came the question of what to do about social studies.

That was when I remembered that Youtube has educational videos. We spent about 45 minutes watching fact videos about former Presidents, the White House, and what the job of being President of the United States entails. The kids were fascinated. I decided to take a different approach than doing a science experiment with them this afternoon. I set them up with Bill Nye the Science Guy's video about rocks. They loved it. That was about when Billy's teacher did her weekly call in to see how we're hanging in.

Billy told her all about the rocks he was learning about and what his favorite type of rock is (granite because it has crystals in it). When he passed the phone over to me, she was still chuckling about his joke "science rocks." We discussed what the school's plans were going forward on the educational front. They were surprised by the amount of the community that didn't have internet access or a computer for their child to use. So, now they're scrambling to find away to supply resources for the kids. At the same time, the teachers are being trained in how to use Google classroom.

I don't know how this is going to go. I have a feeling that the school is going to have a much harder time getting devices to families that don't have a computer for their kids to use and assisting them with internet access than they are with providing meals to the district's families. I'm thinking that I will continue to make my lesson plans and worksheets for a bit longer while the school sorts out what they're doing. And make the kids watch Bill Nye when they get sick of me explaining how things work to them.

Home schooling: Week 2 - Actual schedule + Work

So, we're on week two of no school. Because the kids need their academics, I am home schooling. The school is promising to send us supplies and instructional materials. With the unofficial quarantine

order (I get that the governor didn't want to scare people by say the state is under quarantine but the PAUSE acronym is stupid and I refuse to use it.), I have no idea if those materials are going to get to us or not. That said, being the person who has back up plans for their back up plans, I put together a schedule and some lesson plans for the kids. They're really rough because I suck at lesson planning.

The dash mark indicates the lesson for a given day, going by order M-F for each subject. Because I have yet to locate the guitar music book, I'm just letting the kids strum away and make up their own songs right now for their music time. I have a stockpile of science kits thanks to MK down in Maryland. She finds the coolest stuff and sends it up for the kids during the holidays. I aim to have weekly themes for the science and social studies things. I've been giving the kids writing prompts for their writing and reading logs. My goal is to eventually get them to work on those independently.

As you can see, I made a mistake in writing up Billy's lesson plan. We're doing the crystal kits today. It's going to be a casual on-going experiment. We have two small kits and one big kit. We're going to observe how fast the crystals grow and figure out which one has the biggest crystals and grew the fastest. We've got books about rocks and fossils in part because of my hobby collecting rocks. So this week's theme is rocks (which the crystal kit is part of because they're growing borax crystals, I believe).

The social studies themes are based on what they were doing in school as of the last time I spoke with their teachers, which was about three days before everything was shut down. Doug already has an opinion on the question of if he wants to be president or not. It's a hard NO. I'm going to get him to give me some evidence to back up that no. Billy has already decided he wants to go to Ecuador. So, I want him to give me reasons why.

Worn down, but whatever.

Today was a kinda long day. The kids are home on break. I have the lingering effects of a cold. It was not a great combination. Still, I managed to get out and get a walk in, socialize a bit, and get the kids to play at the park for a little while. The lake is not completely open water, but there is a marked decrease in the ice covering it. That wind blowing across it made my hands very uncomfortable as I was trying to do some knitting while the kids played. I guess, however, it was not a bad thing. I mean, shivering does burn calories, right?

I have made some big changes to my diet. I have dramatically cut down how much carbohydrate I have been eating and equally dramatically increased the amount of fiber and protein. This has resulted in my feeling full more of the day with out a huge difference in how much I eat. I am also making a point of cutting out things like processed foods and artificial sweeteners. I don't have much love for plain yogurt, but I am eating it anyways. I am just adding fruit to it. So far, I think the biggest challenge in that area is the fact that the kids have been eating the strawberries I picked up to put in the yogurt.

Still, it is healthy and they're getting good eating habits out of the matter. Honestly, I'll buy more fruit if it means that they are eating stuff that is better for them instead of a ton of sweets. We're still having some fighting over eating dinners that are not chicken nuggets or their favorite sandwiches (PB&J/PB&Nutella for Snuggle Bug and Ham & Cheese/Pizza for Cuddle Bear). I am finding that involving the boys in making dinner is making them more likely to consider eating some of what we make.

Dinner tonight was scalloped potatoes with ham. I used a bacon alfredo sauce in it with a lot of cheddar cheese. It came out pretty good, in my opinion. I made sure to eat only one serving. When I found I was still hungry afterwards, I had the peas left over from dinner last night. (That was hamburgers with peas.) I have been cutting down on the amount of bread that I am eating. It is not exciting. I am not entirely thrilled with having my sandwiches with out bread. I assemble the stuff for my chicken salad sandwich on the plate like a salad, put a big pile of bean sprouts on the side, and then eat the whole with a fork. It is an intermediate step between the salads I was doing last year at about this time and what I was eating for lunches up until this week.

My goal is to get myself back to eating a diet that is more heavily based in vegetables. I am not completely sure how I am going to do so. Portion control has been a big part of what I am doing right now. I am also stopping myself when I want to go get a big scoop of ice cream or something. I ask myself if I really am hungry. If the answer is yes, I then get myself some vegetables. Not as much fun as ice cream, but I want to be healthier. So, I am going to make that sacrifice.

Highlights of the Week: wut?

This has been a long week. I'm not entirely sure what about this week made it so difficult for me. Perhaps it was the two half days at the end. Perhaps it was the parent-teacher conference on Wednesday. Or, maybe it was the fact I had two migraines this week and my body just feels off because I'm due to start my menses soon. (I know this is a detail that you were all just dying to hear. Fun fact, I can never quite tell when they're going to hit by the calendar because of PCOS. But physical discomfort is a generally good indicator that it will be happening at some point over the next several days. Just not sure when. Thanks, genetics. Hate you too.)

I have a difficult time pointing at something fun I did with the kids this week. This has been a week with a lot of fussing and arguments. I am just mentally tapped out from it all. I am not really coming up with much to write in here. I don't feel well. This is partly because of what I mentioned earlier. This is also due to my clumsiness. I managed to cut my thumb this evening with a pair of scissors as I was opening up a package. (It wasn't deep enough to do serious damage. And the scissors were sharpened last week by a professional. They are *very* sharp. If you have scissors or knives that need sharpening and you're local, check out the hardware store in Honeoye Falls. Weiders Hardware does great work and their customer service is second to none.)

So, I am going to go drink some tea. I may give writing in my paper journal a shot. Who knows, maybe I will find a way to get up the energy to do something like a shower or a hot bath. First, however, is going to be a spot of tea and maybe a couple of cookies.

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Days exercised: 7

Current weight: 169 lbs

(This is going to be a weekly thing. I'm going to note how many days a week I get my exercise in. And I'm going to track my weight on a weekly basis as well. Theoretically, this will help me get healthier. Who knows how this is going to work out. My confidence levels are pretty low right now.)

Spoon deficit.

Today has been a very long day. The boys were home from school for the day. As a result, we had pretty much chaos from when they got up to when they went to bed. The apartment has gone through two full cycles of clean everything and then destroy all order.

As a result, I am operating a bit behind the curve right now. I got two washcloths finished. I DO NOT RECOMMEND the Scrubby yarn from Coats and Clark. It is as bad as eyelash yarn. I have a really hard time seeing where I am making stitches. It was really difficult. I knitted the smaller one and the larger I made via Tunisian crochet. It is just a simple square with a loop added on at the end in one corner from basic chain crochet.

I will attempt to post this week's menu tomorrow. I will be sort of doing all the things tomorrow as well. In the morning, I have an appointment with the allergist to do a food challenge. We're trying to determine if I am indeed allergic to salmon. I am struggling with a great deal of anxiety over this. It is unpleasant. I get to be there for 3 to 4 hours. I am planning on bringing my writing stuff to continue my work to get things organized. Who knows how successful I will be, I know I don't know.

I apologize that I don't have the menu post for you this week. Please bear with me as I strive to get things sorted out over the next day or so.

Burning out.

Today was a long and exhausting day. I spent 90% of it cleaning and directing the kids in cleaning. After all of this work, the toys are now sorted out. The books are all organized on their shelves. The toybox is full and sitting in its proper location. The extra blankets are stowed in the kids' chests. We got a lot of stuff done. Looking around the room, though, it doesn't feel like we did. Thinks were relatively picked up this morning.

I tripped over a few toys as I was walking across the room and saw a bin full of just random stuff. I got angry. Then I started cleaning. The kids were confused when I dumped out the toybox. They were even more confused when I insisted that they couldn't just throw anything in there. It was a painful process to sort all of their toys. They didn't like it. I didn't like it. But it was something that hadn't been done in over two years. When things started to shape up as how they were going to get put away, it got easier.

I'm glad that I saved those stupid McDonald's halloween buckets. I used four of them. Two to hold dinosaurs and random animals. One to hold knock off transformer toys (which were in happy meals originally) and one to hold all of the action figures they've got. We have three gallon sized bins full of toy cars and an additional fleet stowed neatly beneath a shelf and a table, mostly. I have recycled a large box that held pullups to hold large dinosaur toys and large action figures. I also recycled a slightly smaller box to hold stuffed animals.

The big innovation was taking the box that Cuddle Bear's toy weed wacker came in and turning it into a shelf on the wall. Instead of holding the weed wacker, it is full of small stuffed animals. The whole affair is light enough that it can stay up with three anchor points. The other innovation came from taking a box that the electric grill came in and cutting it up to make a 'tool box' out of it. Between the two tool boxes they had to begin with and this third one, they have 90% of their toy hand tools put away underneath their toy workbench. Sitting on top of it is the rubber work belt that came with it (with tools in their respective places) and a handful of others with it.

I have folded up the extra blankets that the kids kept shoving around on their beds and put them in the base of their chests from Grandpa M. When they went to bed, they didn't notice the blankets missing. Maybe we can manage to get to the beginning of cool weather before they come back out. I don't know. It did make for them to have an easier time making their beds. (This is a new thing. The kids mess up the sheets on their beds and, in the past, we fixed them. Now they are taking responsibility for it. The results thus far have been mixed. Hopefully putting the blankets away, this will make for more positive results.)

Their brand-name Transformers toys are sitting on top of their bookcase. The extra large ones are in back against the wall. The smaller ones are towards the front, where they are easier to access. Snuggle Bug broke Cuddle Bear's new one this afternoon, so I took away his more complicated version of Bumblebee. We'll see if he bears this in mind when he is sharing with his brother. If he breaks his brother's brand new transformer again, I believe that I will have to put them up for a bit. As it stands, we are missing one somewhere. In all of our cleaning, we have not found it. I suspect it is under the couch, which we did not touch today.

I didn't get the kitchen clean. I ran out of energy for that. I didn't get any laundry put away. And I have a pile of mail that I really need to go through but I am apprehensive about it all. I look back over the day today and I realize that in some respects today's big business of going through the toys was a form of procrastination. Because why procrastinate in a small way when you can go huge, right? Thus, tomorrow morning, I think I will do a 'bad mommy' thing and let the kids watch cartoons as I go through the mail, balance the checkbook, pay bills, and make official phone calls.

I'm super anxious about looking for a new psychiatrist. I'm afraid that they're going to look at my file from where I have been getting services and take the abject nonsense that these people have written as gospel and ignore what I have to say about it all. Money anxiety is taking a backseat to this.

Fine weather for ducks.

From Here

It rained hard today. So hard that the end of my street by the fire department was flooded. It made walking to Cheergirl's tutoring session an adventure that Cuddle Bear loved. Cheergirl (this may be a new moniker for her, because I don't remember if I had one before or what it was) has been a friend of Cuddle Bear's since he was in the Head Start program a few years ago. Her little brother, Hot Rod, and Snuggle Bug go to Head Start together and will be starting Kindergarten this fall. It looks like they're not going to be in the same class room but I think that is to the benefit of the teaching staff to be honest.

Put Hot Rod and Snuggle Bug in the same room and mischief ensues. They're thick as thieves, as my Grandma K. would say. The boys were off at Head Start today and Cuddle Bear and I were off to Cheergirl's house for her tutoring session. As I tutor Cheergirl in math and english, Cuddle Bear usually plays with her family's cats or is busily showing off for Lily (Cheergirl and Hot Rod's mom) what he can do on the playground, when the weather is nice. During the last few weeks, Cuddle Bear got to play with Cheergirl's half brother, D. and he was real pleased with that.

But, I digress, Cuddle Bear and I were on our way down to do our tutoring/play session. We do this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday over the last month now. (I can't believe it has been a whole month already. Where has this summer gone to?) At first Cuddle Bear was really excited by the fact that he got to carry an umbrella just for himself. Then we crossed the street and he noticed the water running in the ditch.

He decided that was awesome and proceeded to tell me all the reasons why he loved the water. By this time, we had reached the parking lot of the railroad line/lumber yard. There was a LOT of standing water. I foolishly thought it was just a series of really big puddles and that it wouldn't be so bad. Oh, how wrong I was! We splashed through water up to our ankles to the train tracks. Then, as we crossed the tracks, the water came up about an inch higher.

Much to my dismay, what I thought was a series of big puddles was a large flooded swath of the road. It went from the edge of the treeline of the property by the rail line down to across from the firehouse. It was close to 50 yards wide from east to west and around 25 yards wide at its widest point from north to south. We started to traverse this and the water kept getting deeper and deeper. As we were walking, I noticed that there was a bit of a current to everything.

Deciding that we were a quarter of the way to Cheergirl's house, I continued on but did my level best to remain at the edges of the surprise pond. We carefully wound up on the street for a few yards (fortunately with no traffic in sight for a good long ways). It was as we were making our way back to the sidewalk where it emerged from the muddy water that I stepped into a low spot and had water up to my right knee. Cold water and shorts does not mix well. The fates were in my favor, however, because Cuddle Bear was in the ankle deep water

The rest of our walk to Cheergirl's house wasn't as bad. It was a bit breezy, however, and I think I felt every puff. It was when we were going past the runoff ditch that went behind Cheergirl's apartment complex that things got a bit interesting again. The water was again ankle deep and moving at a pretty good clip. I had Cuddle Bear keep a firm hold on me and I kept a firm hold on his wrist when we crossed it. The street was pretty well flooded. When we got to Cheergirl's townhouse, the property groundskeeper was going around telling people to move their valuables up from their basements because basements had started flooding.

I guess we got about a dozen math flashcards down before the guy got to their place. Then tutoring was put on hold to emergency move stuff up out of their basement. I was happy to help because I didn't want Lily to sprain her ankle again. She sprained it pretty bad about two months ago and only recently been declared healthy. It was then that I discovered that I am a pretender to the crown of doll collecting. Helping Lily and Cheergirl move boxes, I found that Lily has a fantastic collection of porcelain dolls. I am not ashamed to say that I envied a few of them, especially the one in the lavender Victorian dress. It was a really splendid doll and even had the box still.

As we were winding down from the fast bit of cardio (and I was quietly thanking the gods that my knees weren't complaining too badly from the stairs), Lily looked up how the weather was effecting the area. That was when we learned about the next town over having a section of road washed out due to the flooding and a good portion of the western part of town (ironically beside the same rail line that starts down the road from me) was getting evacuated because of it. I was impressed with this and decided that perhaps a tactical retreat homeward was the best option.

Cue the mile trudge back home through the same conditions. Cuddle Bear was six kinds of excited and happy with the whole walk. I was a bit more cranky because I was cold and concerned that the flooding might prompt Head Start to send the kids home early. We got home, changed into dry clothes, and ate lunch. Then I tried to call Head Start's transportation office to make arrangements for Snuggle Bug to get dropped off at home rather then at Lily's place. I was curtly informed that such arrangements needed to be made a day in advance, at minimum, and then the woman I was talking to hung up on me. I get that she was probably having a rough day with the weather being what it was. I wasn't exactly impressed (and honestly a bit annoyed) with her lack of customer service skills, however.

So, we make the trek back to Lily's place a bit later. It was a huge relief to find that the massive pool had diminished to a series of large puddles that were a quarter of an inch to an inch deep. We still had to go around one very large pool, where the poor guy living by the lumber yard had his whole lawn flooded and about a hundred feet of sidewalk submerged as well. We were most of the way to Lily's place when we came by the spot that the runoff ditch was spilling into the street.

I was honestly surprised to find a fish laying on the sidewalk. I wasn't sure if it was alive at first when Cuddle Bear pointed it out. Then I leaned down and saw the poor thing's gills flapping. As I didn't know where the nearest body of water was, aside from the lake that was a quarter of a mile away, I felt a bit bad leaving the fish there on the sidewalk. When I saw Lily I mentioned the fish and asked if there was a pond nearby. She stated that there were two. One was at the western end of the runoff ditch on a bit of a rise and then there was one on the eastern end, across the street.

We walked back and I picked up the fish. It was so stunned and unwell that it didn't do anything other then flap its gills when I picked it up. I tossed it into the pond across the street. It made a pretty hefty splash. I couldn't tell what became of the fish after it hit the water. I'd like to think that it recovered because I didn't see it on the surface of the water when we passed by later after Snuggle Bug and Hot Rod's bus had dropped them off.

Snuggle Bug and Cuddle Bear had lots of fun jumping in the small puddles on the way home. We did a little bit of listening to random music on the internet before I set the boys up with some videos on Youtube while I did some dishes and made dinner. We had hamburgers, cheese crackers, and salad for dinner. Cuddle Bear just about had a meltdown when I put the salad on his plate. I told him, however, that he had to eat at least one bite of it before he could get more crackers. To his credit, he didn't take a single piece of lettuce and declare that is one bite.

Snuggle Bug surprised me and ate all of his salad, cheering after each bite that he loved salad. I think I am going to have to hang onto this particular variety of salad dressing because the salad wasn't any different from the ones I have made before. The dressing was Kraft's Red Bell Pepper Italian dressing. I think I am going to have to stock that in my cupboard now. I wasn't terribly impressed with the pretzel rolls that I had gotten when I went grocery shopping at Aldi's last Saturday. I didn't think they were bad but they didn't go well with the burger or the grilled portobello mushroom. I had planned on saving the mushroom for my lunch tomorrow but I was too hungry to pass it up.

Fortunately, I have more of those big, tasty mushrooms in the fridge. I can still zap one in the microwave and have it tomorrow for lunch. I haven't been posting pictures of the salads that I would have been making for myself of late because of two things. One: the software to upload the pictures from the camera to the computer hasn't been installed yet. Two: I have been eating sandwiches and soup rather then salads. I'm still doing alright for keeping breakfast meat free. My lunches, however, have been featuring more cold cuts then I want. Today, though, I manged to go vegan until dinner time. I'm not planning to do the vegan thing every day but once in a while isn't too bad of an idea.

Today, I walked 4 miles. Tomorrow, Snuggle Bug gets dropped off at home. I think it will be an inside day again. I am going to try to get some exercise in by way of housework tomorrow. My living room is literally a train wreck. The boys set up a monstrously huge train track through out the living room and it is in pieces now. Between that and matchbox cars, I don't think I need to fear any ninjas breaking into my home. We have lots and lots of caltrops for them to step on. Thank goodness the legos are regulated to being table toys.

Long day.

I'd like to say that I accomplished a lot today but I don't feel like I did. I knit a few more rows on the kerchief that I am making. I managed to keep the kitchen clean despite making meals (dishes are not my friend). The kids played relatively well. We even went outside for a little while in the afternoon.

Right now, however, I feel like I am about as useful as a bump on a log. I am more then a little upset with this writer's block that I'm struggling with. I don't know what to do about this contest for Amazon. I keep trying to put together a pitch for my novel and it keeps coming out like garbage. It makes me want to pull my hair out with frustration, to be painfully honest.

I am somewhat dreading tomorrow. I have two appointments back to back. I worry that I am going to be late to the second and that this will be problematic. I suppose, however, that is life and if I'm late, then I will be late. I will do my best to keep a cheerful outlook on all of this.

Look for the positives and all that. Who knows how well this is going to work out.

Monday, we meet again.

I wish I could say nothing but happy things right now. I'm feeling too worn out, however, to muster up cheer, even false cheer, for you folks. Today was a very long day. I'm rather dreading how the rest of the next two weeks are going to progress.

All the plans for Christmas have been shot because Cuddle Bear is sick. When I say sick, I mean he threw up four times this afternoon. Three of those times with just water in him. It makes me dread the next few days. Because once he is over this, then Snuggle Bug will get it. I'll be lucky if I walk away with a passing day of nausea. I feel really bad that he feels so awful.

The poor kid just snuggled up next to me on the couch and didn't move. While Cuddle Bear is not all over the damn place like his brother, he doesn't usually sit down and not do or say anything unless he is completely entranced by something he is watching or if he feels horrible. Because we didn't have a parade of chainsaw action complete with garbage truck displays, I would say that he was feeling horrid.

I tried to get the kids to help me clean up. It was about as effective as shoveling snow in a blizzard. It didn't help matters any that every time that Snuggle Bug got mad about something, he pitched things over. I tell myself that this is a phase and that he will grow out of it. It is really hard to keep your cool, however, when the whole mess of train track pieces that you just finished picking up got dumped on the floor moments after you put the last piece in the bin and the offender just walks away.

I truly think that this dumping things is an effort to try and make me do what ever he wants. I'm not exactly sure how to approach this nonsense. Ignoring it hasn't been terribly effective. Cleaning up after him isn't going to do any body any good. If anything, it teaches him that there are no consequences for his actions. I've tried making him pick it up but that just doesn't work.

Time out doesn't work that well on Snuggle Bug either. I'm rather at wits end with him. It's only the first day of winter break and I'm ready for school to start up again. Ah well, I suppose all other parents go through this. I'm going to try approaching tomorrow as a completely fresh slate. I'm doing my best to attribute positive things towards the kids behavior and not let them drive me too crazy. I honestly don't feel like I'm doing a very good job of it. Again, I am pretty sure that is how a lot of other parents feel after a day that is as challenging as today was.

Brain fried.

I've been writing a whole slew of articles over on Helium.com today. I finished up five of them. I had this crazy idea that I would get caught up on my writing for the day and possibly sneak in a bit of work on one of my novels. I am totally burned out right now. I'd love to be doing some fiction writing but at the moment, I just want to stop looking at words. I suppose it is a good thing that it is bed time.

I never thought that I'd feel this way. I have been reading and writing since eight o'clock this morning. I think I am going to space out some breaks tomorrow. I know that I can do this whole writing professionally thing. I just need to pace myself.

First day of school!

The boys were excited this morning. Snuggle Bug practically ran to his bus when it arrived. Cuddle Bear was impatient for his bus and we watched, watched, and watched for it. It was running almost an hour late. When it did show up, we ran for it but the bus stopped long enough to honk before driving off. Beloved's mother, the glorious woman she is, came over and loaned me her car. (A short conversation with transportation for the school got the bus situation figured out for tomorrow, thank goodness.)

Thus, we arrived at the school just in time for the other kindergarten kids and their parents to be making their way to their classrooms. It was a delightful surprise to find that Cuddle Bear's teacher is the same woman who happened to have taught Beloved and I in 4th grade. He was quite charmed with her and quite excited to be there. I must confess, it surprised me to no end to learn that Mrs. Smith was still teaching and at this different school district no less. (She confided in me when we were chatting on the side after Cuddle Bear's testing a little while back that she is beginning to think about retirement, but absolutely loves teaching so much she's reluctant to do it.)

The boys both had half days. They're napping right now. I think the excitement just wore them right out. Now I'm tempted to start doing cleaning, though another part of me says I should take this break while I have it.

Rocker Chick started school yesterday. She says that it went well and it was good to see her friends. I'm really hoping that things continue on a good note for her. I'm thinking that I may want to surprise her with something in a few weeks to help keep her spirits up. Who says that you have to wait until a kid's in college to send them care packages! She's expressed some interest in a few subjects that I happen to have books about kicking around here. So I'll be sending them to her soon. It may help make the more boring classes tolerable to have those books to look forward to later in the day.

It looks like my other nieces are starting school later this week. Again, I hope that they all get off to a good start. I think I am going to do something special for them in a few weeks too. I am thinking about crocheting them bookmarks or something else nifty. I am fast with a hook and I don't have EVERYTHING packed right now. I can't believe that it'll be time to start working on Yule stuff in earnest. Where did the time go?

A crochet snood and other things.

I used this pattern with a bit of an alteration. Using thread weight crochet cotton and a size 'H' hook, I made my starting loop with the magic ring method. My first round was to crochet six stitches (single crochet) into the ring. When I came back to my first stitch, I pulled the tail and snugged the ring up tight. Round two had me crocheting two stitches into each stitch until I came back to the beginning of my round. I then put a marker at the beginning of the round. Round three I crochet two stitches into the first stitch and one into the second. I continued this around the round. (All of this was in single crochet.) Round four, I crochet two stitches into the first stitch and then one stitch into the next two stitches. I repeated this until I came back to the beginning of the round. I continued on in this fashion - adding one single crochet stitch for each round after the two stitches in the first (which turns out to be the first of the two stitches done together, so you can make sure that things line up properly that way).

When it became difficult for me to tell where to do two stitches together, I put markers at each increase. You should have six markers (including the one at the beginning of the round). Increase at each marker and then do one stitch for each stitch following until you come to the next marker. Do this until your circle is big enough to fit comfortably on the crown of your head. If you want it a little larger, that works well too. The way I checked to make sure it was the right size was to just set it on my head. When it covered the back of my head and the crown, I started on making the 'bag' portion.

This is where you chain two at the beginning of the round. This counts as your first half double crochet (hdc). Then do one hdc per stitch. As you work around the round, remove the markers, except for the one that marks the first stitch. Continue to work one hdc per stitch until the snood is long enough to be comfortable. Put it on your head from time to time to make sure that it is a comfortable length. When you have it just right, at the first stitch of your second to last round, chain four. This will be your first double crochet and chain. In the third stitch from the hook, do a double crochet. Chain one. Do another double crochet into the second stitch from the hook. Chain one. Continue in this fashion around the round. When you reach the beginning of the round, single crochet in that stitch. Then single crochet around the round into each stitch. Slip stitch the last stitch of this final round together with the first stitch and tie off. Weave in the ends.

Weave a ribbon through the gaps in the second to last round. When you wish to wear it, just tighten the ribbon by tying a bow. I secure it with a few bobby pins for a little extra insurance against slipping on my fine hair. If you wish, you can weave elastic through. Either way, make sure that your ribbon is long enough that you can tie around your head comfortably. Or your elastic is comfortably snug on your head before you sew the ends together. there will be some bunching of the snood. Don't let this trouble you. It is supposed to do this and adds to the charm.

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Today has been a pretty good day so far. I feel a bit guilty that this is the first time I have had the opportunity to blog in here for a little while. And that I am letting housework go for a little longer while I do this. I am, however, resolute not to wallow in guilt. Blogging in here is as important as my daily journaling (which I will be doing next). It feeds my soul.

Snuggle Bug and I got our first real walk of the season in. I popped him into the stroller and we walked two miles today. On the way home, we stopped at the park. I let him run around and all over the playground. As he was going to town on the slide and teeter-totter, I was doing a little bit of spinning. We admired the flowers popping up in the butterfly garden over there and he had fun watching the ducks swimming in the lake.

I was hoping we'd get to see the albino duck that was here last year, but I saw no evidence of it. I did see a few juvenile ducks swimming on the stream that is the outlet from the lake when we crossed over it earlier in our walk. Snuggle Bug was more interested in watching the crows flying overhead then looking at the ducks then. There weren't any geese about, but I suspect there may be a few when we return over there in the late afternoon after Cuddle Bear gets home from preschool.

I think dinner for the kids tonight is going to be sandwiches. Something simple and not going to really heat the kitchen up. Because in the afternoon, it gets sweltering in here. The sun beats on the western side of the building for most of the afternoon. Beloved says that we'll be putting in the air conditioner in a little while if this heat wave keeps up. I suspect that may happen this weekend if the weather permits.

Long day is long.

Today, I overslept again. As such, Cuddle Bear did not go to preschool today. It made for a long day. I did get a little bit of the housework I wanted to do today done. I was thinking about possibly washing some more laundry but decided that it wasn't worth the effort.

The things we did today were:

1. Go for a walk and look at where the town had been doing some construction work. Snuggle Bug was especially charmed by the excavator. He kept reaching out to touch it as we were walking past it. Cuddle Bear had fun jumping over where they had flags marking out where they were yet to dig. Fortunately, no flags were disturbed and it didn't cause any problems. We passed by when they were going on their lunch breaks. A few of the construction workers chuckled at the boys.

2. Grabbed a quick bite to eat. I had half of a Ruben sandwich and fries. The boys split a turkey club sandwich between them. They nibbled on the tomato and ate half of my fries. I saved the leftovers and that was what the kids had for dinner. It was so hot today, I just didn't have it in me to cook anything.

3. Looked for flowers on our walk home. This included looking about the yard when we got home. It was nice to see that the dog violets are up. I am also delighted to report that my hyacinths are blooming. Small purple-blue flowers, but flowers none the less. I don't think the poor things get enough light where they are situated.

4. Did some 'educational' efforts while Snuggle Bug was napping. Cuddle Bear practiced writing his letters and we practiced counting. Cuddle Bear is getting better at picking out the correct number for what he wants to say. He's finally making the connection between what he has counted out loud and the squiggles on the paper. I'm really pleased with this development. Now to just get him willing to work on writing his name.

5. Wandered around the front yard. Snuggle Bug decided that he and I had to walk around the yard to look at the flowers. I made a point of showing him and Cuddle Bear how the trees were getting leaves on them and the tiny flowers they had. Snuggle Bug wasn't that impressed but Cuddle Bear seemed pleased. I got to do a little bit of weeding in one of the flowerbeds on the eastern side of the building. Snuggle Bug insisted on trying to go up to the back deck. When I had enough of that nonsense we went inside. Fortunately, it was time for dinner.

After dinner, the boys watched videos on Youtube. For a while, Cuddle Bear and Snuggle Bug were both sitting in my lap. It was sweet that both of my boys were feeling affectionate. It was also sweltering because it was 75 degrees and I was sitting in front of a sunny window. They had been somewhat whiney and a bit cranky for a good portion of the day. I am inclined to blame the heat.

Supposedly it is to be a good ten degrees cooler tomorrow. I'll believe it when I see it. Theoretically, it is also supposed to rain. I hope it will because I have plants and seeds that needs it. If it doesn't, however, Friday evening, I'll be out with my watering can. I hope to have a better year with the plants this year.

What We Did Today: 3/5/09

The last few days have been crazy. As a result, I haven't had the opportunity to post what we've done. I'll be honest, pregnancy and the busy couple of days have made things blur together so giving a quick synopsis would not work out that well. So, I'm going to focus on today.

This morning went well. Breakfast was waffles and despite a minor temper-tantrum, it was peaceful. I'm delighted to say that my stomach decided to let me eat breakfast, so the boy enjoyed breakfast even more because he could eat with me. After breakfast, I read him a few stories and then let him play independently.

Cars and trucks were driven across the dining room floor before being dropped back into the box which holds them. All on his own! He decided he was done playing with his cars and he put them away. To say the least, I clearly and delightedly expressed praise for his efforts. At which point, he began picking up other toys and putting them into the toy basket in the living room for a few minutes before sitting down with his drum. I think we're almost to the stage of having him help out with cleaning up.

We took a walk this morning and saw quite a few different types of trucks. The boy especially enjoyed the tractor-trailers and the tow trucks that were red. He was very good when we stopped at our favorite little restaurant near home. We shared a bit of lemonade and some crackers. As he smiled at the waitress and ate his crackers, I decided we'd have lunch.

This went wonderfully well, even with the introduction of other small children who were not behaving into the mix. The mother with the 14 month old child who was being a screaming banshee and trying to climb out of his high chair kept casting envious eyes at my boy who was being good. He was doing his best to use his spoon to get his hot dog pieces and didn't drop food on the floor intentionally. This was a first. He was all eyes and smiles as more people arrived.

We watched as families sat down around us to lunch. My son smiled and played peek-a-boo with another little toddler near his age across the restaurant until I told him to eat his lunch. At which point he did a wonderful job of listening to me. It was when the police officers came in for their lunch that food was forgotten and my boy just stared at them in awe. The officers were bemused by his slack jawed interest. He completely ignored the trucks that drove by the large window we were sitting near to watch them as they found their table.

When we were on our way out, the boy waved at them and then shyly hid his face against my shoulder with an enormous smile as the younger of the two officers waved back. It was painfully cute and makes me look forward to doing this next month. Nap time came and went with no trouble. It was actually at the end that things got difficult.

For some reason, the boy woke up crying loudly. I think it was one of those infamous toddler night terrors. I changed him and he was dry and the diaper was clean. So there was nothing to irritate his diaper rash. I hate diaper rash because it makes babies so miserable. Fortunately, when he teethes it's multiple teeth at once and I don't get the screaming and cranky baby for weeks on end. If the Gods are kind, that will be the same with the next one.

I sorted and picked up his toys. The boy was such a trooper. He helped me out with putting the toys away by handing them to me. It was another very cute and sweet moment. There was a little bit of a temper-tantrum when it was time to go down stairs, but that was gone when he realized that the back door was open. The weather was wonderfully warm and we went out back for a few minutes to see how the throw rugs from the living room were airing out.

Now it's dinner time and he's enjoying his food. I think we're in for a quiet and pleasant evening.

What We Did Today 3/2/09

First, a bit of rambling mouth noise that can be disregarded if so desired. The last week has been insane and I think I'd prefer it if things like my morning sickness just didn't rear their ugly heads again. It's not so much that I've been too busy to post as it is that I've been too disorganized and scattered to do so. My PTSD has been making life hell and I absolutely fucking HATE it.

Ok, ranting/rambling done! On to what the boy and I did today!

This morning was an odd morning for us. Breakfast was fairly quiet, as usual. The boy doesn't get very excited over breakfast unless it's pancakes. I'll be making some in the near future, but we don't have them very often. So, pancakes = treat. Once breakfast was done, he got to play on the floor with his cars and I think I almost tripped and killed myself on them three or four times walking thru the room. Thank the gods that we don't have Matchbox cars everywhere! I'd surely have been dead six times over then.

After the playing with cars happened to the sound of the morning news show, the TV got turned off and he began playing with his music playing toys as I read some e-mails and news stories on the Internet. He then decided that he wanted to cuddle. So, he sat on my lap while I looked at a few webcomics, which he was fairly bored with except for Questionable Content. He seemed to really enjoy the coloring that was done for that one because he kept pointing at the green shirt/jacket that the character of Martin was wearing.

We then went away from the computer and looked out the window. The wind was blowing pretty good today and making the trees in back sway. The boy kept pointing out the window at them with a huge smile on his face. We sat on the couch and read his board book If I Had A Little Train. I think we read that three times before he decided he wanted to get down off the couch.

So, off the couch went the little boy and this was about when I started feeling absolutely exhausted for no reason. Oddly enough, this was also around when the boy started his fussy because he's tired business that happens sometimes when he misses a nap or goes down for it late. The odd thing was this happened at around 10:30 in the morning, almost two hours before it usually happened. So, we went up stairs for what I thought was going to be a little nap.

I was wrong. We slept for a while. It was around 3 in the afternoon when we got up. I'm rather confused by this because as far as I know, everybody (my husband, son, and I) slept well last night. Either way, when nap time was done, we had a late lunch. I just have to say, my son's love of sandwiches makes lunch time so easy! He was delighted with his ham sandwiches and crackers. I was impressed by the fact that he drank three cups of milk.

I think we'll be dealing with a growth spurt soon because his appetite has increased recently. I know we're going to be dealing with teething. In addition to him drooling like a faucet has been turned on inside that little mouth, he has now started trying to chew on everything and he has diaper rash. I think it's another molar coming in but I could be wrong.

This afternoon, he drove his little remote control car around the floor. It was actually very cute because he made a point of walking over to me where I was sitting on the couch to point at his car spinning around in circles as he pushed the button. I have to say, Lady_Cinnibar, you are a genius and this was probably one of the best Christmas gifts he's gotten so far.

We had a little meltdown when it was time for the car to get put away but by then it was time for the news. When the weather man came on, it was all good. The boy decided he wanted to cuddle some more and made a point of putting his cheek against my belly. I think he can feel the baby squirming around inside. As I felt the baby move, my son cuddled closer to me and put his hand on my belly.

It was a sweet and special moment... up until the baby inside kicked my bladder and my toddler son pushed against my bladder as he stood up. A part of me almost wondered if there was some kind of psychic exchange between them to plan that. Was it a conspiracy to make me really need to run to the bathroom? And if so, why did my son throw his usual screaming tantrum when I went upstairs to do so?

Dinner time went well and when his father got home, he had a good time watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune as I finished up dinner for my husband and I. I think he prefers 'Wheel' because of the colors on their wheel, but that's just my suspicion.

What the boy & I did today: 2/24/09

I've decided to start posting what my son and I do on a daily basis. It will help me to update this on a more regular basis and I think it'll serve to bring a little amusement to folks around too. So, here is the first installment.

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The morning was a bit busy from the word 'go'. The boy was up at the crack of dawn and playing in his crib with his toys. Usually, I get him and bring him down for breakfast at 8:30. Today, because I was up at 6:30, I went and got him shortly after he was up. So breakfast was an hour early today. He absolutely enjoyed the bananas we had this morning and completely ignored his cereal 'O's.

He played on the floor with his stuffed dog toy that sings and his big blue fuzzy bear while I finished up some writing in my journal. When I was done, we read a few stories. He has several favorites but right now the one that is top of his list for when we're downstairs is 'Bumpy Tractor'. Most days we alternate between that one and the other in the box set, 'Speedy Firetruck' but for the last three days now he has been all about 'Bumpy Tractor'.

I hope that he decides to go back to alternating between his favorites because I'm starting to have dreams about reading that story! At least they're not nightmares of the endless 'Speedy Firetruck'. That was a result of reading it at least a dozen times over one week! I was ready to go hide that thing!

After reading 'Bumpy Tractor' two times and reading a second hand copy of 'If I had a Little Train', we listened to the news on the TV and to the boy's 'Spin 'n' Grin Snail' play Camptown Races. The boy was rather entertained by the weather man giving his report of what we should expect over the next few days. I don't claim to understand it, but the boy will stop what he is doing and just stare at the TV when ever some one is giving a weather report. I think he gets it from my side of the family. After all, I have a grandfather, a father, an uncle, and two brothers who watch the Weather Channel constantly.

I turned off the TV before I got out the coloring book and his big crayons. We sat on the floor with my lap desk and first he watched as I colored a picture of a ship. Then he and I worked together on a picture of art supplies, with him picking the colors I used and finally coloring some himself. He colored some on a picture of a tractor with an apple tree. This was after I had colored in the apples on the tree purple because he pointed at them and handed me the purple crayon.

When it was time to pick up for the morning snack... Well, we had a melt down. The boy wanted to keep his crayons and we had to put them away. I'm glad that he didn't try to crawl away with the three he had in his hands. That could have made things a bit difficult. Instead, he just sat and fussed at me. Once I put his snack in front of him, however, all fussing stopped. It's amazing what a few cookies and a cup of juice will do. :)

Then came the barrage of songs. I sing alot with my son. He can't quite manage to sing but he'll coo at me or babble along with the songs at times. He has started to do what he can for the hand gestures to accompany 'Itsy Bitsy Spider'. He's been doing his best to keep up with 'Baby Bumble Bee' and '5 Little Ducks.' A bout a day or so ago, the boy has started to point at his head at the beginning of 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes' and he started to clap to 'If You're Happy and You Know It.'

I'll post up a list of lyrics for these in case anyone reading this doesn't know what I'm talking about. I'll also note the hand gestures. My young neices absolutely love it when I do these songs with them too. :) I suppose working at a daycare did me some good after all. :)

The boy started to fuss and rub his eyes a little bit at about 11. So, I asked him if he wanted a nap. Usually, nap time is about 12:30 or 1 pm (right after lunch). I wasn't horribly surprised when he said yes in answer to my question. So, he went down for a nap and I did too. I woke up almost an hour before him. My little man slept for a long nap today! He fell asleep at about 11:15 and woke up at almost 2:30 in the afternoon (when he usually wakes up from his nap).

Lunch time went well. He ate up his sandwich and didn't really pull it apart too much. I was surprised, actually, how well he did with his lunch. I figured he was going to play with it some but he didn't. He poked at his fruit a little before eating it but on the whole he ate very, very well. I'm hoping this good behavior streak with his food is going to carry on into dinner tonight.

After lunch, we played with blocks some and then played with his trucks. I'm proud of the boy because he stacked one block on top of the other on purpose a few times this afternoon. We piled up the blocks, using his trucks. Instead of the expected temper-tantrum when I started to put the blocks away, he sat down in the corner with all of his books and started 'reading'. This means pulling out all of his downstairs board books and sitting in the middle of the pile as he looks at the pictures.

I then began composing this entry as the boy has been playing independently with various stuffed toys and noise making toys. He is fussing a little now, but I think part of it is because his sippy cup was out of reach until just a moment ago and it is starting to get towards dinner time. We're also close to the evening fussing because Daddy is not home from work yet.

As I sit here and think about this entry, I'm debating possibly posting up the 'menu' that we do each day. I'm sure some folks would freak out over some of the stuff I feed the boy, but he does good with it and generally enjoys it considerably. The pediatrician has no complaints either, beyond the fact that he thinks we started him a little to early on solid food. When the child is smacking his lips and screaming because he is not getting any of your sandwhich, that's a rather impossible to ignore sign that the child is probably ready for the infant cereal. No harm has come from it, so we're not worried over it.