silence

I am right now doing something both fabulously delicious and something that makes me somewhat uneasy: I'm spending time senza la mia famiglia. I have finally (and again, really) asked for some time to myself because I feel I need it if I am going to be a kind member of this family. I have been allowing myself to become overwhelmed all together too often lately (slept from about 5:30-9:30 this morning and that was it) and I need to step back and figure out how to deal with this. I need to take a little time for myself so that I have more to give to my family when we're together. The snappishness just isn't fair to anyone and I can't stand myself when I'm constantly lashing out at those around me.

So, as I've a limited amount of time here in this vast haven of silence (thanks be for Saturday at a (very quiet) library), I'm about to head off to do what I intended. I'm hoping to make this a weekly thing. I keep pushing Cardo to do the same, but I think I'll ease up on that as he doesn't seem too into the idea...yet.

There's so much more that I need right now -- for my family, for myself and for goal-reaching, but this, right now, feels like the proper first step.

Here's hoping that you are all also able to take a bit of time to step back from "it all" and recoup.

Happy Saturday.

laff track and a possible weekend outing

I actually laughed out loud when I read the label on the third cake in this Cake Wrecks post.

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All right. I'm off. Cardo is reading The Deathly Hallows, so I cannot right now. Which reminds me, who wants a fabulous six-year-old for a good long weekend so Cardo and I can indulge in an HP movie marathon? (I said I'd finally watch all of the movies with Cardo because he will have read all of the books. And, I kind of want to see them all now.)

Pic is watching some good old Alvin and the Chipmunks episodes.

I...? I might be about to head off to rest as we had a looong and broilingly-hot day yesterday and not enough sleep last night before another long, but much better, day today. Tomorrow and Saturday will also be pretty full.

I am too worn out to even catch up on what's been going on in blogland. Ah, well. Summertime...and my brain is all melty.

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However, before I rush off: If anyone is interested, Capt'n Jack Spareribs is making appearances at local (Washoe County) libraries. We're very much looking forward to seeing this show.

psa: yoga gear & misc

Just popping in very quickly (why, yes, it's well after ten) to mention a super short sale over at Barefoot Yoga. (Oh, I'm tired. I typed that 'Barefood' and it took me a moment to figure out how to fix it.)

Sale ends tomorrow, July 28. (Must check my electronic mail more often. Not that I'm buying anything this time, but I could have passed on the news sooner.)

All of our yoga mats are from this shop. Both Pic's and Cardo's are the hybrid eco mats and mine is an earlier version of that.

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On another note, before this day officially ends (in this time zone), Cardo and I have been together for ten years. He told me he's ready to go another ten.

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Also on this day, one of my nephews is now only one year away from teenager-hood! I have a hard time thinking of him as past babyhood. Wow.

musical monday (a day late): for indie

"Hanson - Thinking 'Bout Somethin' (EXCLUSIVE LIVE!)"

a little look at language

For whatever reason, it's funny to me that "we" still call our grown children "children." (The first use of quotations marks there is because I don't yet have a child who is 18+.) Why don't we call them our "adults"? As in, "Oh, yes, my adult is moving into her first place on her own next week." Hmm.

night owl

Quite a while back, Cardo was lucky enough to snag a large chunk of a homeschooler's library and other resources through Craigslist. Along with a good many books, a recorder, bookcases and a night sky light thing, we got a 2005 daily-page calendar of origami instructions.

I've been meaning to delve into this calendar for quite some time and last night, I finally did. Actually, I pulled it out and set it aside where I'd notice it and finally get to it. (See v strew. Go me!) Pic grabbed it and set about making a dog finger puppet with Papi. Later, she and I attempted to craft some owls. It took me long enough to figure out how to make a square base (and yes, there is some folding involved in that...it doesn't just refer to the square piece of paper we started with). It took some blue language muttered under my breath and too many minutes for me to want to admit to for me to figure out how to go from the square base to the bird base. (I'm using the "bird base" and "square base" terminology from the calendar. I have no idea if it's common origami parlance.) Oh, buddy, I need someone to show me how to do this stuff live and in person*.

Anyhow, as evidenced at the top of this post, I figured it out...eventually. I am not elated with the appearance of the resulting owl, but I am loving that I figured it out.

Most of the pages of the calendar are still in the box and I look forward to tackling more of the projects. (At least, I say that now, at five in the morning on zero sleep.)

I do think that the many, many freecycled magazine pages might not be the absolute best origami paper, though. I'll stick with it because, well, I collected those magazine for around-the-house projects and the above is just that.

I should mention that the back of each calendar page is patterend paper, but this makes little sense to me. How I am supposed to fold the figures on the paper that contains the instructions? There might be some obvious, logical answer to that question, but please refer to the above lack-of-sleep comment.

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* Such a funny phrase.

nearly wordless wednesday

"I just thought I wanted to cut my ribbons."