my journey, destination unknown
As I still work on my July portion of my happiness project, Energy, it is now August and time to take on a new challenge. I’ve done fairly well with the “Energy” project; I’ve gained enough energy to really reduce my to-do list and keep up with other things too. But, I’m still not there,…
At last, Chloe is nine! Sure, her birthday was almost a month ago, but she had not completed her birthday missions. Birthday missions? What are those you ask? Ah, well, to the listeners of the Absolutely Mindy show on Kids Place Live, these are the tasks that one must complete to become a year older….
I know, I know, You are bored of hearing about it. And I’m bored of doing it. But, once it is done, we all feel a huge sense of accomplishment. We feel free to move on to other projects. A huge sigh of relief. And a feeling of a job well-done. This week (we’re at…
This past week, the girls and I made a *very* fast roadtrip up to the DC suburbs; the entire trip was under 60 hours, with at least 25 of those being spent in the car. The motivation? To attend the One Voice Rocks! concert in Gaithersburg. What made the trip even more special was that…
She’s now an nine year old! Dinner at her favorite restaurant (Harmony Vegetarian) with friends, her parents and her grandparents. Then home for ice cream cake and presents and sparklers. Our family rule is that nine is the magic age for getting ears pierced. I suspect that we will head out sometime in the coming…
If you’ve been following along with me for any amount of time, I’m sure you are tired of hearing about my cleaning/de-cluttering strategy., called room of the week, though really “Room of the Month” these days. Unfortunately for you, here I am posting about it again. Simply because I’m happy to have finally taken care…
When Gazoo walked in the door and made herself at home in our house at the end of October of 2007, we had no idea where she came from or how old she was, though it was obvious she was pretty young. We took her off to the vet, who said she was about four…
To celebrate Gazoo’s birthday and the Fourth of July, we had a party! The girls made a cake, I cut up veggies for the grill, Rob grilled. Some friends came over to celebrate with us; we made homemade ice cream and lit up some sparklers too. We stayed up far too late but the combination…
A new month, a new item to tackle for my Happiness Project! As a reminder (to myself!), May’s focus was on Diet. Unfortunately, our month on the road negated most of what I had gained (or lost) during May. Thus July is going to be a dual focus — getting back to where I was…
I realize that I’ve been fairly quiet here in regards to my Happiness Project. I just haven’t had much to say, and I don’t want to bore you all… I’ve been making progress on this month’s topic (Diet), but not as much as I’d like. Since I feel myself slipping a bit, this public admission…
Ugh. By 8pm, I had had it. I had spend almost the entire day, save a trip to the store, on the computer. Not mindlessly web-surfing, mind you. Working, blogging, organizing, replying. Despite still having a long list of things that “have to get done”, I just can’t go on. The computers are going to…
Every couple of years, I lose myself in my fantasy books. No, not sci-fi. Not my thing. I lose myself in Peter Mayle, Frances Mayes and other “ex-pats” making new lives or “alternate lives” for themselves in places like Provence and Tuscany. This spring, I’ve read my stash of Peter and have almost gone through…
I had been doing so well at staying on top of everything and even moving forward on a number of projects. But after our trip to New York last weekend, I have managed to fall behind on just about everything, except for work. It is so frustrating to have a to-do list that is a…
A kindie friend posted on facebook that he had visited Forbidden Planet near Union Square, so I decided to surprise the girls with a visit to this scifi/manga store. Chloe loved all the Doctor Who “collectibles”! Camille was feeling a little out of place, though, and wouldn’t go upstairs to look at the manga 🙁
While the girls have certain favorite places to visit in NYC, I do try to make sure that we get to at least one new place each time we visit. This time, I decided it was about time for us to get to the Guggenheim. By the time we got there, after the subway ride…
After our trip to NYC, we arrived in Times Square where I surprised the girls with a visit to the Harry Potter Exhibition. But then, once we were out and had a soft pretzel (gross) for a little sustenance, the girls wanted to visit places in Times Square. The Toys R Us with the Ferris…
How I love my lavender! I need to get it transfered into a “real” pot soon … sigh.
The kids like them. The process is a tradition here — eggs dyed from the vegetable and spice aisles. No PAAS here. We use red cabbage, beets, spinach, turmeric onion skins, blueberries and more. Unfortunately, this year we waited until the last minute, and I was caught up in other things. The girls took over….
As you probably know, I’m not a huge fan of clutter. One way to stop the clutter from becoming an issue is, of course, to make sure that there is a net outflow of crap from the house. I don’t buy plastic junkies for the girls. I discourage them from buying it for themselves —…
A chilly morning, but everyone came out in force for the Pine Lake Easter Egg Hunt! The prizes were these awesome felted eggs that Camille had helped to make…