I've returned! Except I've left!

Hey, folks!  I've moved to a fresh blog for a fresh start!

http://craftwriteflaut.blogspot.com/

Hope you'll follow me there!

In which I realize that I'm not good with nail polish

I've been all about self-improvement lately.  I'm not sure what inspired such grandiose objectives, but I made about a half dozen summer resolutions to which I've stuck to with varied degrees of success.  And some degrees of outright failure, but let's not think about that right now, okay?

Many thanks.

One of my struggles is nail biting, so I've decided to quit cold turkey.  I've actually been pretty good about it, and my nails look a little better than Frodo's right now.  Since they are all peely and chippy and breaky, I've started applying clear nail polish to keep them looking halfway decent.

And this is how I know I'm no good at polishing nails.  Seriously.  I remember my mom painting my nails a few times when I was a kid, but since I always chewed on them, she decided that it would be best that I didn't attempt to digest whatever it is that nail polish contains.

Is it just me, or does anyone else read the word "polish" and want to pronounce it "Polish," like the people of Eastern Europe?

Just me then?  Okay.

Anyway, since I've painted them a few times now, my fingernails don't look so bad.  Plus, the PAH-lish is clear.

Today I attempted to paint an actual color on my toenails.  (Not that I bite my toenails, because ew, but I just never really got into the whole thing.)  It looks like my 21-month-old painted them.  Seriously.  Except she'd probably do a better job.  There is a lovely bronze sheen all over my cuticles, the skin surrounding the nails, and some inbetween the toes.  I'd post a picture, but I don't have nice feet so I won't inflict them on anyone.

I'm so ashamed.  I know I'm not all frills and ruffles, but sheesh!  Now I have to wear shoes until it wears off of the non-nail portions of my feet!  Closed-toe shoes at that!

Ugh!

Hellllooooo iiiinnnnn theeeeeerrrreeeee!

Um.  So.  Hi.

*Ahem*

I'm still here.  Sort of.  It's been a crazy past few months, but things might just be settling down for a little while.

Or so I think...

Let me sum up.

April was consumed by Easter and all the Church and family obligations it entailed, plus recovery.  Okay, so that was the beginning of April.  The rest of that month was basically spent preparing for May.  Here is why:

May 9th was Mass in my hometown for my grandfather, who passed away 6 years ago.  Wee Ninja Girl, my sister The Queen of Musicke, and I trekked to the Albany area for a long weekend, leaving EP Dude home all by his lonesome.  (He cried every night.  He told me so.)  We arrived home on the 10th, only to unpack and get the house ready for my brother, sister-in-law, and three nieces to descend upon us for one night only on their way through to New Hampshire.  That was the 12th.

May 16th was the ARS Recorder Concert, which required rehearsal, baking, practicing, and more rehearsal.  It went really great, by the way, except for the strange little bird that kept attacking one of the windows.

May 21-23 was the weekend that my ENTIRE FAMILY (parents, siblings, nieces) came to stay with us for my younger brother's graduation from the Rochester Institute of Technology.  It was insane and loud and a total blast, but I was exhausted afterward!

The holiday weekend was full of fun and parties, but also exhausting in its own right.

Whilst all this was going on, we were trying to get our house sided, changed our minds and went with windows instead, and are now looking to get the house painted.  We also had a cancer scare in the family, which of course caused much anxiety all around.  It turned out to be a serious cancer, but at the earliest possible stage, and it's been taken care of, to everybody's relief and joy.

So... I've been a tad busy.

I've also set up an Etsy shop which I am slowly stocking with yarncrafts and jewelry, and maybe even some sewn items, once I get around to taking pictures and posting stuff.

Otherwise, everyone is well and getting ready for summer.  May was unbearably hot.  Now that it's June, I'm actually wearing jeans and a sweatshirt because it's so cold and rainy.  Sigh.

Finally, a gratuitous picture of Wee Ninja Girl, because she's getting so big I can hardly stand it.

Oh, and I solemnly promise to post more than once every two months.  Honest.

Stop laughing, I mean it!

No fool!

It looks like my followers increased by 25% recently*, so I should probably actually post...

Although, if I was 9 years old and my mom were here and I wasn't in school for some reason or other, she'd probably kick me outside on a gorgeous day like today and tell me not to come in unless I've broken a bone or am otherwise bleeding profusely. 

Yes, I said profusely.  Skinned knees and small scrapes and cuts don't count.

I was just saying to EP Dude yesterday that the Rochester area has been lucky this year in terms of weather-related disasters.  While much of the Northeast battled blizzards, defied downpours, fought flooding, and sparred with sinkholes (what?), we haven't had any fun at all.  A snowstorm here and there... some drizzle... maybe a smidge of freezing rain... and now it's 74 degrees and sunny, and should remain so until Easter Sunday.

While I appreciate it, I find it hard to focus on the graveness of the Triduum when there are frolicking chipmunks and squirrels and chirpy birds all over the place.  Not to say that I can't focus or pray properly, but I am much more easily distracted.

Two weeks ago we planted impatiens, johnny jump-ups, snapdragons, and some rosemary in little Jiffy peat pods and already the snapdragons and johnnies are popping up!  I am so excited to move them outside where I hope they will manage to grow despite our overabundance of shade in all the prime garden areas.

Has anyone else started their spring and summer "Things That Need to Be Done But Keep Getting Put Off Year After Year But We're Really Going To Do Them This Year, We Mean It, Honest" lists?  I started writing one a few weeks ago, but I will probably have to put it into a spreadsheet where I can track things like cost, estimated time of completion, progress made, and such.  Plus, then I can spend all sorts of timei color-coding things and making them look pretty.

Aaaaaaaaand, now Wee Ninja Girl is awake from her nap and my free time is over!

A blessed Triduum and Happy Easter to all!

*In actual numbers, my followership (it IS TOO a word!) went from 4 to 5, but I prefer not to use actual numbers if it's all the same to you.

Warning: This post may contain child-related anectodes. Read at your own risk (of boredom).

I must apologize.  I blogged three days in swift succession, and then left you all hanging for a week or so.  I am so ashamed.

Here is the reason I don't blog as often as I would like: Wee Ninja Girl.

Yes, folks, Wee Ninja Girl is the true culprit here.  I'm the victim!

Stop laughing!  It's true!

I spend most of her awake time chasing her around while she tries to get away with stuff she KNOWS she isn't supposed to do.

How do I know she knows she shouldn't do things?  (Forgive me, English language, for that sentence.)  Well, she will actually shake her head and say "No," as she does them.  For example, WNG will try to take the Dirt Devil dustbuster off its charger so she can vacuum, all the while softly chanting, "no, no, no, no, no."

What makes it really adorable is that she actually says "oh" for "no."

WNG has been honing her ninja skills lately, trying to sneak into the bathroom and scrub the toilet with the toilet brush.  She will play peek-a-boo behind the dining room door, and then suddenly she will stop peeking.  When I open the door to find her, she's usually about halfway to the bathroom.  If she makes it all the way in or manages to grab the toilet brush, I just have to go in and give her "The Look" and she will hand me the brush (gee, thanks) and run out.

She also has developed an affinity for YouTube, particularly Muppet musical videos.  I hang my head in shame.

Why?  Well, I'll tell you.  EP Dude and I have both been very strict with "screen time" for WNG.  The only television she really watches is Wheel of Fortune after dinner (she has started to yell random letters at the screen, just like we do!) or some football during the season.  We don't have cable or anything, so there aren't many options for her, so we figured that every once in a while she could watch a YouTube video or two.

As I'm sure you can imagine, every once in a while has quickly become every single day.  And by a video or two I mean the same 6 videos over and over and over again until we are all singing "Mahna Mahna" in our sleep.

I limit it now to just before lunch and just after dinner, but WNG will still ask for it all the time.  She invented her own sign for the computer, although it took us a really REALLY long time to figure it out. She sort of pinches at her face with all her fingers, as though she is stroking some really epic mutton chops.  Finally, last week, she did that sign while saying "Tee tee?" (meaning "TV") and we thought she wanted to watch WoF.  She said no to that, and then signed again while wandering into the room where the computer is.  Then it dawned on us that she did that particular sign because the Muppet from "Mahna Mahna" has a wispy red beard, and that's what she related to the computer.

I know, random, right?  But I think it's pretty cool that she came up with her own sign.

Lately she has been trying to pull off the whole "if I can't see you I can't hear you" schtick, so when I tell her to do or not to do something she will turn her head away and go about her business.  So, I have started to preface things with "WNG, look at mama.  Look at me."  So far, she always does, and then will comply with my demandrequest.

When she wants me to do something now, she gets right up in my face and stares at my eyes before speaking or signing.  It's a bit disconcerting!

Anyway, happy March, everyone, and let's keep our fingers crossed for Spring!  Then we can actually be outdoors doing stuff in the sunshine, instead of sitting around inside shivering or scrubbing toilets.

Snow Day!

Well, the snow did indeed come, as promised.  It wasn't piles and piles of it, but we seem to have gotten a good twelve inches or so, and it's still coming down at this point.  I'll probably have to go out and shovel again before EP Dude gets home from work.

Or he could just plow his sedan right through the snowplow mound at the end of the driveway and skid to a stop as best he can before slamming into my car.

I'm going with option B.

Don't look at me like that, it's cold out and I've already changed into my comfy pants.

I did go out to shovel this morning, with Wee Ninja Girl in tow.  She was content to just stand on the sidewalk as I shoveled around her for a long time.  Then she discovered that I had cleared a path to the road, and I spent the rest of the time shoveling, warning her to STAY OUT OF THE ROAD, threatening to pick her up and bring her back to the front stoop, and then picking her up and bringing her back to the front stoop. 

So it took a bit longer to clear the driveway than I had anticipated.

But we did have lots of fun and WNG got to wear her snowpants at last.  I love the *zip zip* sound they make when she walks around!

We did not sled down the driveway into the backyard on pillows in garbage bags, cardboard boxes, or any other kind of bootleg sledding device.  We did wander around and catch snowflakes on our tongues and draw a baby face in the snow on my car.

WNG had so much fun doing just those simple things that she started crying when we came inside, despite her cold hands and the snow up her sleeves.  I had to distract her with YouTube videos of the Muppets, which has become her favorite pasttime.

I will expand on that failure of motherhood some other time.  For now, here is the snowbaby all geared up:

Batten down the hatches, ma, there's a storm a-brewin'!

It seems that we here in westernish New York are finally in for a good, old-fashioned, winter storm.  Except it's going to be about 12" total over the next two days, which sounds more like a really long but not too intense snowfall.

Sigh.

I want snow!  I want to bundle the Wee Ninja Girl into her snowpants and sled down the driveway! 

Although I suppose I might need to purchase a sled...

Nah, I think we can just sit on a garbage bag and slide around.  I may have to put a pillow inside the garbage bag, since I nearly broke my tailbone last night falling on the ice in our driveway.  I was on my way to a music practice and when I went to put one foot in the car, the other just slipped out from under me.  My head ached all the way to the practice, and sitting on a folding chair for 2 hours didn't help either.

/whimpering

Back to the snow-induced panic!

WNG and I trekked to Wegmans this morning to do our weekend grocery shopping a day early, just in case people forget how to drive and the roads are messy tomorrow.  We usually go shopping on Mondays and Fridays, so it wasn't too bad to pop out a day early.  Now we can spend tomorrow SLEDDING!  Using pillows stuffed in garbage bags!

Seriously, how bootleg can one get?

Maybe we should use some cardboard boxes instead.  That would be much classier.