Thingfinding.

 

When I was a little girl, my Grandma Pumpkin would take us to the beach, where she would put us in charge of thingfinding. Whenever we found something worthwhile, we would shout out:'I'm a thingfinder!' and everyone would come running to see what it was we found. I laugh about that now, because I totally know that she was just keeping us engaged, because engaged children are easier children, and I learned that from the master. :)

Consider me having shouted.

I am 'seeing green' these days...seems like everything I find lately that is totally cute is green...and this sign is no exception. Not quite sure where I'm going to hang it, but it looks pretty cute next to my green ladder. Also not sure if I will keep it up year-'round, or relegate it to the Christmas decorations...we'll see.

Also found this cute little platter at my favorite local thrift store: Isn't it cute? 2 bucks. Love a good deal!

 

Irish Girls Basketball Citrus Sale

 

Click photo to read brochure!
It's that time of year again, the main fundraiser of the year for Sheldon Girls basketball, and while we did better last year than the year before, I have decided to put all the info up on my blog, then direct people there in order to learn more about the product and to simplify the payment process.
The Oranges are Sunkist Navel oranges, the grapefruit are Rio Star and no matter which you buy, they are large juicy and sweet! The fruit keeps extremely well, but I also like to tell our customers that if one peels the fruit, and puts it in the freezer, it makes great smoothies! Also good ice cubes for chilled drinks!

The fundraiser helps the girls offset the expenses of uniforms, basketballs, tournament costs, and a large transportation bill now that the district is no longer picking up the tab.

The sale goes through 11/30, with final payment due then, and fruit will arrive in Eugene on December 4th.

Please use the link to the left to pay via paypal; you should also be able to submit a donation if you'd rather not purchase the fruit. I will contact you to confirm your payment, so if you do not hear from me after a day or so, please let me know!

Thanks so much for whatever help you can offer!

Books and Books and Reading...

Have all been on my mind lately, for lots of different reasons:

I just joined a book club.
preparing to hunker down for the winter...lots of books on the 'to read' list in these long winter days and nights
My kids. More specifically how I went wrong, and what I can do about it.
My chosen format.

As you can see, I have a widget of two different lists of books: Books I have read, and books that I want to read. I began these widgets on library thing quite some time ago, and really just kind of did it by memory. I have slowly added to the already read list as I get through books, and if I happen to chance upon them in searches for other books. I'm in no hurry to complete this list, and in fact, doubt that 'completing it' is even a possibility, as I have been a voracious reader for most of my life, and cannot begin to make a dent in that which I have read in my lifetime. (The current list is a dismally meager assortment.) It's fun trying though :)

I am excited about the prospect of a book club; For me, reading a book is much like watching a movie; What's the point of reading if you can't talk about it afterward? I have long wanted to participate in one, and am looking forward to this new venture. Our first book was the novel Loving Frank by Nancy Horan--her first! I was glad this was a choice, because it was already on my personal list of books to read, and did not disappoint! Very disturbing from a personal perspective...I could not relate to the woman in the novel AT ALL, and found myself judging her rather harshly...but no spoilers! It was an extremely well-written book, well-researched and an easy read. Highly recommended--helped me to be near a computer to google things as they came up in the context of the story; I was introduced to several FLW buildings, and learned something of his philosophies. It definitely encouraged me to look into other books about him; I love his architectural style already, but knowing something of the man makes it all the more interesting.

I should note here, that I have become an avid e-reader, and I will tell you why, though I share the opinion of most people that I do prefer the heft of a good hard-back, I love that I have no less than 30 novels currently in my purse, along with a book light and a dictionary. All in the palm of my hand. :)
My fetish with e-reading started out a few years ago when I bought a palm OS PDA...I needed a way to plug in all my kids schedules and synch them with my computer so that I had ALL the information I had for EVERY kid...My life was getting too crazy to keep it all on a calendar at home--We were hardly ever there. :) In the course of setting up my new PDA I noticed that it had a website for downloading books, so I got one (a freebie) and have never looked back. I can change the size of the font when I can't find my glasses, I can set it to scroll so I don't even have to turn pages (Though i don't really do this much--I'm a page flipper--I go back and forth a lot.) and best of all, it's back-lit so that I don't need to have a light. My palm pilot has become my constant friend while waiting for practices, Dr. appointments, etc. I can turn it off and on--it saves my page automatically--bookmark, highlight, look up words, etc. The website has everything from classics to current best-sellers. There has only been one title which I have not been able to find, but what I have discovered is that the iTouch has applications for both kindle, which does have my favorite book in e-format, and also the application that allows me to read all the other e-books I've purchased. So...I may be saving up for an iTouch. :)

Finally--I have spent 'the day' (not the entire day, but it kinda feels like it) looking for a book for Cooper that he needs for a class project. It needs to be a book of at least 200 pages, that has been made into a movie. I decided that I was going to pick it, because I want him to not pick something stupid...It disappoints me greatly that my children are not readers, and I tend to blame myself, since I never encouraged them as much as I could to be readers. I read quite a bit to Taylor (who, not coincidentally, is my best reader) but when the other two came along, it tended to be he who read to them, so it was always short and sweet, rather than some of the longer tomes which were read to me by Grandma Punkin. I am hoping that it is more the craziness of youth that prevents them from being readers, though I am certain with Cooper that he literally does not enjoy it; his vocabulary is somewhat limited (a by-product of his stunted reading!) and it just is not his thing. So, because he needs to do well on this next section, I found a classic, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and I have downloaded the audiobook. (Gasp!) But I decided to balance my need to have him read with our desire that he keep up with his school work and continue to thrive in the Honors environment. So the compromise is that he will listen to the audiobook, and keep a list of vocabulary words, and we will discuss each evenings chapters with him...I'm actually looking forward to it, and I think he will find himself engrossed, and hopefully, it will light a spark in him.

Slippery when wet.

 

I remember doing this weather widget post last year, the day that it first went to a full week of drippy clouds. (It actually started yesterday, but I didn't have the presence of mind to save the image yesterday, so good 'nuff!) but the thing was, it wasn't until the last week of October last year. Oh my! A frost alert and a wet week already! I am glad for some reason that we are in a house...probably just my imagination that it will not seem so bad...most definitely will not be so bad driving the kids to school. I am going to work on getting some insulating curtains made--I wasn't going to bother, but I am already rethinking that one. I need to find some nice creamy colored heavyweight fabric. I might just line some burlap with muslin though...Inexpensive and sturdy. Trying to maintain a balance between money and projects, while still filling our needs...more of the same around the Stiles' household. I did get a raise at work though (ya!) and a request to be a facilitator for an alzheimer's support class that my employer is going to be hosting...I love my job; I can't believe my luck at falling into this line of work again after all these years.

Fall fell this week.

like a ton of bricks. Last week was beautiful indian summer weather, and this week the 'frost is on the pumpkin'! Literally. A freeze warning was issued last night. Ack! It's only mid-October. This does not bode well for our energy bill this winter. I, however, will do my part by providing warm, life-giving sustenance to my brood, and today it looks like this:

 

The smell is divine! I found this recipe on the internet- here, in fact--and was intrigued when it was described as 'Autumn in a crockpot'-with apples, sausage, rice, allspice--Autumn, indeed! Now, I have to admit, usually when I look at a recipe, and decide at whatever point that I am going to give it a shot, I almost immediately start thinking: OK, I don't want to have to go to the store, so I'm going to substitute this for that, and oh, I don't have enough of those, so I'll just put some of this in, and ew--I hate those, so I'm not putting any of them in...then I taste the end result, and I think: "Gross! How did this recipe ever make it to publication?" It finally dawned on me (in the frighteningly recent past) just how much I was sabotaging myself by doing this, and that I owed it to myself and all the nice recipe authors out there to give the recipe ONE SHOT their way, before giving it one shot my way. (*and* I have a rather strict '3 strikes and you're outta here' policy with regard to recipes.) With this new policy in place, I have discovered some long-latent tastebuds of late. Mea Culpa.

That little story just there was all to explain why I am cooking a savory dish with allspice in it. I really wanted to leave it out, because I'm not a huge fan of allspice, unless it is in holiday baked goods, but I remembered my rule, and the smell of my house is my reward. I can tell that it is really going to be perfect with the sausage and rice; a wonderful complement.

Now onto the Fall sport: This photo would be of my amazingly talented, whip-smart and hauntingly beautiful daughter, who also happens to have discovered that she's not a half-bad water polo goalie. :) The Sheldon water polo team has not, before this season won a game in 4 years. This year they have won 7.

*just sayin'*

 

This is the kind of crap I put up with...

Sat down to my computer the other morning, coffee cup in hand, and reached over to flick on my desk lamp, and came across this.

 

Kinda reminded me of this post from a few months back :) My kids are great at letting me know (often) how much they love me, and I don't take one second of it for granted. I love them right back!

and now, onto the promised photo of my new ladder. What do you think?

 

Dryer: Fixed. Thank goodness for extended warranties. Normally, I don't bother with them, but I ALWAYS buy them for appliances and cell phones. Have not regretted it yet. Dryer was a 370.00 repair job. Free. (or at least amortized over the cost of the warranty, which is sorta the same thing.) All I know is that I didn't have to plunk anything down to repair the damage that a little mousie did while my dryer was in storage.

Knocking out the to-do list...Today my goal was to find a home for the books that we have; Not really enough to warrant a bookshelf, per se, but I did want to find something...Found an old green rustic ladder today at my favorite antique store in Coburg. Brought it home, and set my books on the rungs, along with some little photos and a couple of gew-gaws...so cute. I did find an old library ladder, which was, of course my first choice, since my original idea was to buy the ladder, use it for books, then actually install it someday when we have 14 ft. ceilings and need a library ladder to reach the upper shelves...and I actually found one. 80 bucks. A vintage oak library ladder, that would have been perfect in every way, except that we have 8 ft ceilings. I would have had to cut off 3 ft...and I couldn't bring myself to do it. So I passed on the ladder...and resolved to find something else that would work. I'll take a picture when I get it cleaned up and put where it will go.