The best part of the weekend for me is that I can sleep in and not be exhausted all day.

My doctor says that there is enough wrong with me to explain my chronic fatigue without needing to go for a label of CFS (nice huh? since apparently that also means that we shouldn’t bother trying to relieve the symptom either). Add to that the fact that I generally don’t sleep all that well and the result is that I generally have to chug caffeine all day all week long just to keep one foot in front of the other. But weekends? My alarm is turned off and I get to sleep until I wake up on my own. I live for it!

It is a blah weekend weather-wise and we don’t have all that much planned.

My older daughter has a book project due on Monday and has to finish working on it.

Both girls have to work on their bedroom and I have some cleaning to do as well, especially since next Saturday Lady Rose is coming over for us to have our “monthly” weekend. BTW its her b-day this week!!!

Tomorrow we plan to pick our pumpkins, carve them and set them outside for Halloween.

But today? Today the house is full of the early smells of my famous Tomato Soup. I learned to make it from my mother, who learned to make it from my Dad’s mother, who learned it from ?????. It is a soup that takes all day to make as you make a stock from beef bones, and then add the rest of the ingredients in stages. But oh it is worth every second of labor.

I am one of 2 people in the family who know “how” to make this soup. But my dad, who is the one who grew up eating it, says that only I make it right. It is actually one of the few things I cook that he doesn’t wind up with a complaint about.

Hubby has a sinus infection and is being pretty good about suffering through cups of tea since they do seem to provide temporary relief of the congestion and rawness. I am hovering on the edge of coming down with something. Both girls are a little sniffley and sneezey but nothing to write home about.

Blessings
Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:fatigue

Well it was almost a nightmare.

About a week ago we had purchased the kids costumes. They had adorable matching outfits — they were going to be Midnight Fairies — sporting black “dresses” irridescent wings and wands. Although the elder had decided to add a pair of Vampire teeth to her outfit.

A couple of days ago the girls tried on their costumes and it was immidately apparant that my older daughter was going to need a different costume.

My daughter doesn’t turn 12 until December and is already in a C-cup. She stands about 5’1″. We knew that she was going to need an adult-sized costume, but even with that knowledge it still went kablooey.

My daughter hemmed and hawed about the Fairy costume and wound up putting back the Medium/Large I had picked up and finally grabbed, unbeknownst to me (and to her), a Small/Medium.

Additionally this costume was REALLY skimpy. I mean seriously.

Her Pop-Pop made the point to me, privately, that it was a nice costume … IF you were going to a party at the Playboy Mansion. Yes … it was THAT bad.

So we went out tonight and made an exchange. and came home with a new costume for the older child — a Vampire Countess.

Problem solved right?

Well, yes it fit.

And YES it looks okay. Great in fact.

But, remember when I said that we had originally bought TWO Fairy costumes?

You guessed it. We exchanged the wrong one.

However, because of the extreme skimpiness of the costume I only need to adjust the straps with safety pins and VOILA my younger daughter has a much more suitable costume that she did originally. Yup, thats right, a “dress” meant to fit a grown, albeit skinny, woman fits my SEVEN YEAR OLD. Now granted, she is tall for her age, but she is not even what you would call chubby.

Do we all see a problem here?

I still need to pick up a black turtle neck or something similar because costume designers, in addition to thinking that parents want to dress their children like little sluts (BTW I saw what I can only describe as a “Paris Hilton” costume while we were browsing in the KIDS SECTION) seem to think that Halloween occurs in the dog days of August or something.

Anyway …. crisis averted.

Happy Haunting

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:halloween, kids

Its fall – my favorite time of year (the leaves are sooooo pretty) and my birthday is Oct. 30, (explains why I’m full of mischief).  Turning 51 isn’t so bad and I plan on getting my next tattoo soon to celebrate (this one will be a pentacle on my right ankle).  Last weekend we went to the Pocono’s for Angelgirl’s, my daughter’s karate competition; her creative team came in third. 

The leaves were awesome up there.  We visited a small Indian museum which was very informative and we got some good supplies for my daughter’s school project on the Hopi Indians (small book of stickers and stencil book and a book with a punch out of a whole Hopi village). The museum had a tape recorder to take with you as you strolled through the six room displays — at the point where we were looking at a map and the voice explained how the Indians were tricked into loosing their land and forced to most east, my daughter kept saying over and over for the rest of the day “they lied to them” and she recognized the injustice of it all even at the young age of 10.

We also celebrated family day (Oct. 20th), which is the day 10 years ago that our daughter was placed in our arms and we became a family.   We will be getting together for a big Chinese lunch with the other families in our group that we went to China with some time next month to celebrate all of us becoming families. We try to have a reunion at least once a year (though we did miss last year’s). It’s a lot of fun catching up and seeing how big the girls are getting.  As a special surprise that night after the competition we gave her a present – the Pink Nintendo DS and Animal Crossing Wild World (which she had on her xmas list) — needless to say she was thrilled and her and I have been busy planting, fishing, and earning “bells”.  I try to play a little too to help her out to build up her little virtual town. 

I only wish they would create a game that was a virtual medieval type town, build up to a castle, raise a dragon from an egg, learn lots of magical spells (could call it something like “Merlin’s Apprentice”) – so Nintendo creators if you’re reading this PLEASE make it!          Of course as cool as that would be, I would end up hooked on the virtual world and real life might suffer a bit from neglect (I have a history of getting just a little too involved in online gaming a few years back). 

We are all set for Halloween – my daughter picked out the “Charm School Witch” costume, which she just looks adorable in. She has a party this Fri. at Karate school, Sat. a party at my sister’s house, and Tues. afternoon a party at school and then trick or treating.She will be a very busy little “witch”.

I managed to resist the urge to start a new home business – it wasn’t easy!!!!  I was seriously considering getting in the Passion Party parties, it would be lots of fun and totally up my alley. BUT…the whole complication of not being able to let my daughter know about the home business and having all the orders delivered to my house and having to pack and deliver and not let my daughter know what I was doing was just too complicated to deal with.

I decided my energy is better focused on continuing to get all the junk sorted in my house and decorating (I want to get some nice dragon things for the living room and fairy decor for the bedroom, etc.), the preparations for the Harry Potter party, and also getting my spiritual room back in order. I have some creative ideas I’d like to develop for it also. So it’s much better if I stay on target with the plans I need and want to get done, rather then go off on another project like trying to start a home party business and then getting overwhelmed, exhausted and failing like I have every single time I have tried before — which has been a TON of times. I’ve tried it all before and never could get the hang of selling stuff (Mary Kay, Tupperware, Avon, Meleucca, Tshirts with photos on them, video arcade games, etc.) – I am not a good salesperson and I really don’t like selling. I have wasted 1,000s of dollars trying and now I’m going to save 1,000s by not trying because I have other things that I need to focus on. Besides I already work full time so I need just give myself a break and not keep feeling guilty that I’m not doing enough or making enough.

So life this fall is unfolding to be very nice so far. Usually I get very stressed out with the holidays coming, and some deep urge to do more and I go off on projects and new business ideas or what ever and by spring of the following year I’m burned out and depressed. This year I am going to keep myself focused and use my time and energy more wisely.

Bright Blessings, Lady Rose

Written by Lady RoseTags:family, halloween, karate

My depression is still high and some familial issues are acting as a trigger to my anxiety issues as well.  Presently my hubby is in desperate need of a new pain doc and so my medical issues have been put on the back burner as I can’t (my issue, not something being told to me) even begin to open the can of worms that is my health with his situation being unresolved.  Also the 9 year anniversary of mom’s death looms ever closer and it just makes me very sad.

Most of my spare time this week was spent between doing some small site tweaking, some writing on Epinions and cleaning in my attic.  The later was due to Fall Bulk Pickup in my community and my father’s constant nagging about how much stuff we have “in storage”.  Now, like Lady Rose, some of it was stored in hopes of one day having a killer yard sale but alot of it was stuff I just hadn’t been able to handle tossing yet.  We got rid of some baby items, alot of empty boxes, a dressmaker’s form, and other stuff.  Today, the girls and I went through a bunch of clothes.  I had drawers in the attic filled with last year’s colder weather clothes which we took out, put on hangers, and put away.  And I also had BAGS full of clothes that I had to sort into a pile for donation (with my older daughter keeping track of how  many shirts how many jeans, etc.), a pile for the younger child to grow into, a pile she has ALREADY grown INTO, and a pile of stuff to just keep.

The keep pile is hard to keep small.  But, what I’m doing is keeping items that I can either remember them wearing and so want to pass down, or items that have sections that cut out would make adorable quilt patches.  I have the idea of making a quilt out of old kids’ clothes.  Something to hang on the back of my couch one day.  Something for the grandkids to snuggle under.  Soft squares of bright colored fabric, soft squares of embroidered denim, kitty cats, and teddy bears, etc.  If only I had someplace to set up the sewing machine in this house so I could learn how to use it and get started, LOL.

I realize that with my girls only being 11 and 7 it seems ridiculous to think about grandkids, I know, but one of MY treasures is a collection of items that survived MY childhood.  My teddy bear (who sits in our bedroom), a couple of clothing items (that my girls got to wear too), and some of my books (which are one the kids’ bookshelf).  So I’m sorta into that whole saving items for posterity thing.  I have the china of one grandmother and a bookcase of the other.  And while my girls never got to meet either one, a piece of their legacy lives on in those items.  We eat holiday meals on that China and the bookcase sits under the window in our dining room, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I still have a lot to do ….

I have a pile of stuff in the hallway upstairs which was originally planned to go to Lady Rose’s yardsale but will now be donated to the Salvation Army (since they will send a large truck to us).  Unfortunately, that means having to sit down and itemize everything for tax purposes.  But once that’s done I can call them up and GET RID OF IT ALL.  And this also includes some office-type furniture in the attic that Dad’s been after us to get rid of …. oh ….. since we moved in here 5 years ago.  He has his reasons and validity aside it’s his house and also its time.

We also have errands to run, including food shopping, picking up materials for a school project, doing the Halloween costume thing, various and sundry other household tasks, etc.

_______________

Regarding us living with my Dad … We have accepted, for the most part, that we are here for the long haul.  Originally it was meant to be short term but when my hubby got hurt and went on permanent disability our list of options shrank.  And now we’re all so used to it —- Dad to the company, the girls to having Pop-Pop around all the time, and us to the extra income from having the ability to rent out our townhouse —- that it would be hard all around to go back.

And while I still dream of a little place in the country I have not been able to believe in the dream ENOUGH to really do anything meaningful toward that goal.  In the meantime I have been struggling with figuring out if its possible to live any part of that dream while still living “in my father’s house”.  As I do that I would like to think that I will resume writing there.

Mainly I find that I want to run away from home.  Yesterday I went to drop off my daughter at a playdate and wound up staying over, essentially hiding from my family.  This can’t be a sign of good things.  LOL 

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama Kelly

I worked from 8-2, which was an hour longer than I had been scheduled.  Sometimes I wonder why I fill out a schedule since they almost always ask me to stay late anyway.  I came home and made a casserole with noodles, leftover pork, cream of mushroom soup, gravy, and velveeta.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Then, as I had some time before a hair appointment, I watched an episode of Signing Time with my younger daughter which we recorded on our DVR.  She had wanted to join the sign language club in school but it was filled so now she and I have our own “club”.  I had taught myself the manual alphabet when I was in grade school and some sign language as I got older so it’ll be fun to put some of it to use.

I went and got a haircut.  I had been growing my hair out to all-one length but realized that all that hair around my face wasn’t looking all that great so, while I kept most of the length it now has some longer layers to frame my face as well as bangs.  Hubby said he really liked it and I guess that’s what is important.  As for myself, I don’t like much of anything these days … but I don’t feel that it looks quite as terrible as it did previously.

I guess that’s something.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama Kelly

I put up a pot of Chili this morning and its been on the stove on low ever since.  It is your standard meat based chili with 3 colors of beans, diced tomatoes, fresh bell peppers (yellow and orange), onions, garlic, and lots of spices.  I also added a couple of shredded carrots just for the heck of it.

We’ll be having it served over mini shell pasta with real cheddar cheese.

Adding lots of vegetables to a beef based chili is a great way to stretch your food dollar, lower the overall fat (and cholesterol) in each bite and add some extra nutritive value as well.

Wish you were here …. my house smells wonderful!

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:food

Life is pretty good, my daughter, Angelgirl, is enjoying 5th grade and has added twirling classes to her busy schedule.  She tested last week in Karate and is now just one more step away from black belt (should be about a year away or a little less) — she has to write an essay, take a big written test, run 4 miles in a certain amount of time, attend karate camp at least one more time, attend a certain amount of classes, and then pass the belt test so there are a lot of steps involved.  Wed. night we start Family Science night at her school – a series of 5 Wed. nights for the family to get together and enjoy science.    She was also selected from the top 5% of the students in the US to take a national test in math and science, and the program opens up all kinds of opportunities for enrichment programs in the summer and later as she gets older for travel.

So we have been busy adjusting to the hectic schedule of the school year.  I’ve been posting a bit on my other blog Diet Pulpit.  I have also been reading some good paperbacks Mama Kelly loaned last week and in the rest of my spare time I am continuing to work on the Harry Potter birthday party for my daughter (scheduled for May 2007).   This past week I finally finished the birthday version of a Daily Prophet with articles, personal adds, sales, and even a job openings section.

Since Mama Kelly and I decided not to have the yard I have managed to sort a little more but still haven’t put together a “mystery box” to sell on ebay yet.  I tried listing one but the whole process was a lot more complicated then I remember it being when I sold something a long time ago, plus I need to find the time to go to the post offer and figure out how to ship a box and how to figure out postage — all of which takes time, energy, and sucks the joy out of it.  But I did get a few boxes sorted and tossed out some junk.  Hopefully I can sort a little each weekend.

I keep having the urge to try a something new (this time button making) — but I am resisting.  I don’t know why but fall seems to be the time I get grand ideas that never work out.   Of course the button machine I want is over $700 — it would make 3 sizes, comes with a lot of supplies and cd with a lot software for designs and clip art.   But $700 is way way way to much and it would just sit like everything else I have tried.    I have a ton of cool ideas for buttons and other creative projects — I just never have enough time, and even when I try I just can’t seem to find a way to get the creative ideas out of my head into a format that is workable.   Oh well — it’s almost Christmas and by Nov. I’ll be swamped just thinking about getting ready and how to find the energy to shop and get a tree up so all ideas of doing anything creative or starting a business will eventually be overwhelmed by the stress of the holiday season.

Bright Blessings,  Lady Rose

Written by Lady RoseTags:karate, school, sorting junk