Tales of a Shoebox Princess

I don't get introspective here on my blog. Normally, cyberspace is where people bare their souls to complete strangers for attention and comments like "ur awsum srsly!" But I try not to. I am only interested in introspection as far as it's related to moving furniture around and trying to decipher things Paul says (like yesterday when he said, "Hey mom, you know that song 'Hometown California?'"* The dog knows I died laughing. What dog, you ask? Nevermind). Why don't I get deep on this blog? Because I'm not deep. I am 5 foot 4 inches; how deep can I be? I'll never be poetic--my poetic attempts are limited to odes to oatmeal and random rhyme schemes (I also favor alliteration, but not very often). I can't describe a scene of tear-jerking nostalgia or love in language chosen to rip your heart out with pangs of desire for bygone days and teddybears and childhood. (and I mix metaphors) I much prefer yammering on about band conc...

Jim had the day off work yesterday. Guess what he did? That's right, kids, he added a third shelf to the closet and filled up the sewing room! I took stuff out of boxes and bags and put it all in place. I now declare The Great Room switch officially DONE! Except I need a few more folding chairs, curtains, another cabinet, maybe some cupboards on the wall (no we are NOT moving the ones from Hayley's room upstairs. I need MORE cupboards!). I have decided to move all of fake child's toys to this room so that I can sometimes reclaim my living room as a normal non-toy-infested space when fake child isn't here. She was a little miffed about that yesterday, but she'll get used to it. She won't play in here, but the toys will be stored in here on a shelf right by the door and next to the serger's table.

Kuni: You took the box? Let's see what's in the box! (Pause while Hiro-san opens the box) Nothing! Absolutely nothing! STUPID! You're so STU-PIIIIIIIIIIID! That is my blog today. NOTHING is in the blog. Although you all are not stupid. I'm in a funk, although not the kind of funk where those of you who have my phone number need to call it to see if I'm ok, though. I'm fine. I just haven't showered or brushed my teeth and it's 11 a.m. It's the kind of funk a person sinks into when they read only bad news in the paper. Or when that person hears of a potential vehicle repair bill that threatens to break into quadruple digits. Or hears bad things about people. Or any number of things that make a person wonder "What the h-e-double-hockey-sticks happened???" Hmmm. What will get me out of a funk? Random pictures maybe? Random pictures of ME? Random pictures of me as a teenager? Yes, I think that will help. But does it help if one of t...

The first couple of days after Christmas are black hole days. All matter, energy, time, and motivation are sucked into a vortex of "I don't want to do anything." I didn't have to babysit yesterday, so yesterday is a strange melange of memories involving shuffling around the house looking for something to stare at. And that is why I didn't blog yesterday and why today's entry is so lame.

Someone called my husband and asked when I was going to post Christmas pictures on my blog. And I promised that I would put some up as soon as my nails were dry (I got two colors of nail polish in my stocking! Jim knew just what colors to get!). So now my nails are dry and I need to fulfill my promise. But buckle up because there are lots of pictures. Don't worry--if you say "Forget this, I'm not looking at all her holiday pictures," I won't be offended. You only have to look if you really want to. The first set of pictures is from Christmas Eve. Mom likes to entertain. Here she amuses all by busting out her moves with the dancing man. Owen had fun playing the harmonica. Matt did a headstand for more than ten seconds. I didn't know he could do this. Sidney helps Sophie do double duty with a harmonica while Sophie also operates the dancing man. Now on to Christmas morning. Jimmy gets the tomtom he wanted. Believe it or not, this is his "I am ex...

This post has nothing to do with trucks or snow. I just liked that "two-door pickup truck" fit so well into the song cadence of Jingle Bells. I have lots to do today and no time to sit at the computer and type up blog posts. And yet, here I sit, staring at the empty box of "tell the world (or the 8 or so family members and friends who are curious enough to check out the blog) what you think or did or like." So here is my list of things to do today. 1. Bake cardamom bread. I had schedule to do that on Monday, but I had also scheduled myself to run errands that day as well, and if I had done BOTH, the world would have imploded and every body would have died horrible, painful, and even itchy deaths. So I decided to save the world from certain agony of not being able to reach the itchiest part of the back where you can't quite reach it to scratch at it. And death. 2. Bake molasses cookies. That was scheduled for yesterday, but I did four kinds of cookies yest...

Let the sewing room receive her stuff! Oof, it's 6:20 in the a. of m. I'm not going to try to rewrite a whole Christmas carol around the finishing of the painting of the sewing room (enough gerunds for you?) at this early hour (I'm only up because fake child arrived at 6:10 and is at present sleeping in my bed). So Jim finished the room. Again, I would have helped but someone had to procure groceries for the family and, in doing so, had to fight crowds and wait in line for long periods of time. Bleagh. Who had the harder time, I ask you? He painted at a leisurely pace, with no one to bother him, and music he likes played in the background. I had to constantly herd a small child around and say no to requests for cookies, toys, candy, snacks, treats, sugar, more toys, and chocolate both from the fake child and from my infantile brain. And I had to brave the below zero temps and park in a crowded lot and jostle and maneuver in a crowded store and wait in line til my ear...