Treaty Cream

I make no secret of the fact that I love coffee. I am the only person in my house that drinks coffee and 90% of the time I drink my coffee black. The rest of the time, I like “treaty cream” in my coffee… just a splash of International Delight to make it a sweet treat…

Yesteday was a storm day. No work. What a perfect time to brew a pot of coffee and christen a brand new bottle of International Delight. So imagine my surprise when I lifed the blue cover to remove the foil seal and found that it had been impaled with some object to access the contents. Could it be anyone in my house given that I am the only coffee drinker?

So I confronted Husband and accused asked him about the mooched treaty cream. He positively denied impaling the seal, though noted the stuff tastes really good on ice cream (implying he has helped himself in the past).

The next most logical suspect was Rainbow….

“Rainbow, did you stab Mommy’s special treaty cream with a knife and take some?”

“No, of course not!” she answered.

And just as I was about to move on, she added…

“I used a fork. ‘Knifes’ are just too dangerous, silly.”

Things I’ve learned so far in the step challenge

… Exercise can help sooth the soul when the week has been really stressful. So can chocolate, so it kind of evens out.

… You can work on your feet all day but that doesn’t necessarily mean you get steps on your pedometer — and you’ll still be exhausted even if you don’t get any steps.

… If you attach your pedometer to your underwear because your pants don’t sit at a suitable place for your pedometer to work properly, you need to be really careful when you go to the bathroom.

… Replacement pedometers can be found at the dollar store.

Spinning Productively

I have had an inner ear virus for days. Essentially this has meant that I have been off balanced and dizzy, and the mere act of walking gave me motion sickness. It has been a lot like being drunk without the happy. Thankfully, things seem to be improving.

One thing I tried this weekend to occupy the girls while I was spinning about the place, was to bake bread from scratch for the very first time. I had read somewhere that the more you knead the stuff, the better, so what more productive way than to give each girl a good long turn wacking the daylights out of a giant fragrant lump of play doh. The end result was this…

Now, I admit, for those who might be opposed to finding dough about the kitchen for the next few days this project may not be ideal. And if seeing your kid up to their elbows in gluten makes you weak in the knees, this is probably not for you. But if you need a project that takes all day but leaves spaces for tiny spells of down time and gives you something yummy in the end, you might want to give this a try.

2 Years of Socks

Yesterday was my second Blogiversary!!! 332 posts in two years and lots of blog friends later, here I am.

So I was thinking about my first blog post two years ago, and I realized that I do not, in fact, ever actually talk about point #3 in a literal sense… ie, I never actually discuss socks and laundry (though domestic life does come up). So here it is… I really do marvel at how socks disappear. I have an honest to goodness issue with it. And here is the proof…

I do laundry nearly every freaking day (presuming my machines work and they don’t always). And nearly every single time a load comes out of the dryer, at least one pair of socks will have become a single sock. So, I put the single sock in my “single sock” bag, intended to be the holding place until the other sock appears… ya’ just never know if it never made it out of the hamper or got into a different load. But it doesn’t always work that way:

Behold! My “collection” of single socks where the mate never ever materialized. How crazy is that? Care to give theories on what happens to them?

- Is that what my alien neighbours have buried under their “headstone” lawn ornaments (don’t ask);

- Is there a sock party going on somewhere behind the dryer?

- Did they just disintegrate from over use or stinky feet?

Got any other ideas?

Delurking week

This is apparently “delurking week” in the blogosphere. It is a time when those who read without commenting are asked to post a wee “howdy” of introduction. I don’t actually think I get many lurkers…. more like drive-by visits… folks looking for information on “older boobs” (I kid you not – that seems to be a hot topic in the last week or two), “hamster comas,” and pretty much anything related to socks, and then they disappear into the night. But if you happen to pause for a moment and read on occasion, please delurk this week and say hi!

Unless of course you’re nasty, in which case you may carry on with your lurking.

Interesting Dreams

While in dream world I cannot do a bichagi to save my life, apparently in that same dream world one taekwondo class gives me the ability to block alien death rays.

A Kicking Time Was Had By All

Family night of taekwondo was a lot of fun. Mostly.

During the course of the evening I discovered two things:

~ that I’m not as flexible as I once was. Age and inactivity have taken their toll, I suppose.

~ that certain stretches can give me a muscle spasm where my rib cage meets, round about the area of the solar plexus. Just about here…

But as I was scrunching up my face trying to figure out what on earth to do about stretching properly when there was a screamingly painful knot between my ribs, Rainbow was good enough to remind me “This is for your own good, you know.” She’s nice like that.

In the end the it seemed all the families had a great time… we wary first time adult kickers and our slightly more experienced kiddies. As we left Rainbow asked, “do we really have to wait seven days to do this again?” And I sort of felt the same way.

On Your Mark, Get Set…

There is no question it is time I got moving. I have perfected not-exercising to an art. Coincidentally, two things are about to happen…

1. The 8-week office step challenge begins on Monday. Our office is highly competitive, having lost out of winning on the final week in last year’s competition. And for some reason I have been relegated to team nag captain to keep track of everyone’s steps, etc. That in itself is motivation to keep my numbers up even before adding the incentive of kicking the butts of last year’s winners.

2. Almost by magic, the kids dojang is doing a family taekwondo class starting this week as a 10-week trial to see if there is any interest. The kids think I should try this. Now, despite the fact that this seems perfect timing for someone who is about to get more active, it does present a couple of dilemmas if I decide to attempt this….

- First, my children are now a higher belt than I would be. This probably means I will have to kick around the living room when they go to sleep to save face (Husband and Dog are herein forwarned to remove themselves from the area).

- Second, I do not currently own any suitable workout attire. Why would I… I don’t actually work out? I am not paid until the end of the week and the first class is this evening, so buying something isn’t possible. Dolittle has suggested I just wear her clothes and pretend they are capris. I’m not sure about that though.

- Third, I had this dream that I could not, for the life of me, do a Bichagi (45 degree angle kick to midsection). I told the kids that this morning…
Dolittle: I know you can do that, Mom. I’ve seen you do one in slow motion.
Me: I don’t recall that. (…though it does sound like something I would do.)
Dolittle: And you have to remember to yell when you kick.
Me: I don’t think I can do that.
Dolittle: Well I KNOW I’ve heard you yell.

So, it should be an interesting couple of months.
Anyone care to strap on a pedometer and count steps too?

Observations I Can Thank My Children For

1. Dora the Explorer has a head that is bigger than her shoulders.

(How hard would it be to dress a kid like that? Maybe that’s why she rarely changes her clothes?)

2. “High fashion models” walk like they have to go pee.

(The wiggle and step slightly over the the position of the opposite foot thing… think about it some time.)

3. If you are having bad dreams it is because you are sleeping on the wrong side of the pillow.

(I haven’t actually tried this one out, but it does sound like a logical conclusion nonetheless.)

4. It’s probably a good idea if sisters are not practice partners in Taekwondo.
[From what I can tell, if someone you don't really know accidentally hurts you, then it was an accident; if your sister does it, she's probably been planning it for weeks ]

Cheers to 2008

First, I’d like to start by wishing all my blog readers a very happy new year. I truly hope that this coming year is going to be fabulous for everyone.

I started to do a year in review post, but essentially it looked like this…

- I got a degree
- I didn’t get a bunch of jobs
- I ranted about a few things
- I could have blogged a bit more
- And I didn’t get nearly enough exercise (either physically or creatively).

Here’s to a more productive 2008. Moving on….

It seems Mother Nature is doing her best to see about the physical exercise thing. New Years’ Eve saw a lovely dump of snow in Charlottetown…

I’ve marked a few things worth note…

First, my van is actually green, not white…. and is several inches shorter… that’s just a small snow bank on the roof.

Second, the snow bank to the right of the picture is my wicker furniture that should be in the shed in the background, but never quite made it there this fall. Given the amount of snow that they are now beneath, I’m guessing they will not be in great shape come spring.

And last but not least, that few inches of space between the snow bank and the top of the deck…. That’s not there anymore. Because today, on what would have been my first day back to work after the holiday, was a snow day. Yes, today we got a brand new snow storm on top of the New Year’s Eve snow, so the snow bank now meets or exceeds the top of the deck.

So, you see, with all the shovelling this winter seems to be bringing, I’m already off to a flying start on my moto to do more in 2008. So, thank you Mother Nature. I did need the exercise. But you can knock it the heck off now.