Breastfeeding while working

A commenter in the Feministe thread on Bill Maher doesn't think she will be able to exclusively nurse and work full time.

I thought I'd open a post for people to post their tips for working and nursing.

I worked from when Oceanus was 5.5 weeks old until he was 2. He was nursed exclusively - no formula whatsoever. I'll admit that I had an edge - Mr. Gaia was a SAHD and was able to bring the baby to me during lunch hours and occasional breaks. But a mother who has childcare reasonably close to her office could accomplish the lunch hour fairly easily. And I ended up dumping over 200 ounces of breastmilk by the end of our nursing relationship.

Here's how I did it. I realized that pumping was difficult and sucked, so I turned to my LLL friends for tips. The BEST tip I got was to pump while the baby was nursing. Nurse on one side and pump on the other. And to start this fairly early (about 3 weeks for me) so the baby would get used to the sound of the pump.

When I pumped at work to relieve engorgement, I would get maybe 1 ounce in 15 minutes. When I pumped while nursing, I would get 5 ounces in about 10 minutes. The letdown caused by the baby worked in my favor. So, I would pump a couple of times a day at work to relieve engorgement and then pump a couple of times at home and have enough to carry him for the 2 feedings he would need while I was at work.

I also took advantage of a natural tendency of some babies to "reverse-cycle". He cut way back on his feedings during the day (2 or so for 8 hours) and increased them when I was home (every 1-2 hours for the first part of the night).

I also co-slept. I know this is considered controversial and I understand the controversy - but let me point out that most adults know where the edge of the bed is even while they are asleep and don't roll out of bed. If you do roll out of bed - DON'T co-sleep without safety gear (a bassinet for the bed or a side-car, for instance). And it should go without saying that you should never co-sleep without safety gear if you are taking sleeping pills or drinking. What co-sleeping did for me was to allow me to nurse the baby while I slept with no worries about falling asleep in the chair and dropping him.

I know a lot of people who have worked and exclusively nursed. Please share your tips so we can help wishy-washy.

So much to blog about

So little gray matter left.

First, feministe reports that Bill Maher is a misogynistic asshole who thinks that breastfeeding in public is somehow special treatment for women. Nevermind that men go topless all the time. Nevermind that it's about feeding a baby. It's about tits being used for something other than turning him on.

Apparently this is in response to the nurse-in at Applebee's. I'm so ashamed, I knew about this nurse-in and failed to report it. My old LLL group had a nurse-in in Oklahoma City.

I'm so pissed. I nursed for years and never had a nurse-in - unless you count my own private nurse-ins. I was that woman who nursed in public all the time and without using a blanket. I figured the only way to have nursing viewed as normal would be for more people to see it.

Then out of Australian comes this story about a woman who went through IVF to have a child with her partner. Her story is she told them all along she only wanted one child, period. She was advised to put "up to two" on the form and that she couldn't tell them until the procedure based on quality issues. Sounds like she got extremely bad advice from the nurse and was pretty candid all along that she only wanted one child.

It's probably no surprise to most people who know me that I'm on her side on this. Doctors are in too big of a rush and have stopped listening to their patients. Patients are told to sign documents they don't agree with or told they will have the doctor-patient relationship severed. My birth was much more stressful than it had to be because I refused to sign a blanket consent form and marked it up. They didn't want to accept the form and threatened me with child services for putting my baby in danger.

And that's all the brain matter I can squeeze out today.

I'm a mean mom

Oceanus is now old enough to join the Nature Club at his school. He's been a little lukewarm about the idea, while Mr. Gaia and I have been pushing him to get more information.

Well, he finally brought home the information and has to write an essay. The essay he wrote showed he clearly didn't want to be in the Club. Being the mean mom I am, I asked why. Apparently it's because it is after school on Friday and that would mean he would miss TV for a part of that time.

Oooh. Yeah. That brought on the TV lecture. "If TV is so important to you that you're giving up activities you would find interesting, then it's time for the TV to go away" (expand from there).

So, they all went to soccer practice and I took a much needed nap (my jaw stopped hurting for 2 full hours after my nap!!!). When I woke up, they were back and Oceanus had had a change of attitude and re-written his essay.

I don't know that he will get in, his essay still isn't as good as it could be (it's clearly half-hearted to anyone who knows how smart this kid is) but he did at least make an effort. I hope he gets in because I know he will really enjoy this club. The kid says he wants to be a scientist, after all.

But Mr. Gaia and I are going to have to have some long discussions with them and work on limiting TV time.

I'm in pain

Stupid TMJ.

My whole head hurts, but mainly my jaw and behind my ears.

My tinnitis has been really, really bad lately (as in contributing to keeping me awake at night).

I AM not grinding or clenching my jaw, I swear. I'm not chewing gum (as much as I love gum). I'm not eating particularly chewy foods.

It's stress. I know it and I swear I'm ready to quit my job because it's too much. I'm a minimum of 3 weeks behind. I will never ever get caught up. And it's not like these are cases I can ignore, these are some of our biggest cases ever (or at least since I've been there). We just happen to have 4 of them at one time. One would be enough to cause a lot of stress while I tried to get my other duties done. 4? Well - TMJ, canker sores, tinnitis, irritability and extreme snappishness.

I'm not sure that a nightguard would help, really. I'm not grinding or clenching - so what good would it do? I have issues with things in my mouth (they make me gag, seriously if I hold a pencil in my mouth I start gagging).

Just a bit of Monday night venting.

Homesick

I'm watching the musical Oklahoma (for the first time). I know it's not really filmed in Oklahoma, but there are a few scenes that look like home. I've also been reading Foxfire and some of the pics there look like home.

I haven't been back home since July, I'm starting to miss the landscape.

I love where I live. I have wild parrots to wake me up. I have flowers blooming year round. I can see me living here for a good number of years. Even if Mr. Gaia gets transferred, I can see us keeping this house and renting it out (for the first time ever) so that we have a place to retire to.

But, I am an Oklahoma girl through and through. I will always get homesick for Oklahoma. When I see pics that remind me of home, I'm going to miss it.

More whole wheat cooking

Another birthday, another cake.

This time a whole wheat chocolate cake recipe. Again, a modification. First, we started with this recipe:


WHOLE WHEAT CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE

2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 c. cocoa
1 c. water
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 c. buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, sugar and cinnamon together in large bowl. Bring cocoa, water and oil to boil. Pour over flour mixture and mix 1 minute. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk; add with eggs and vanilla to mixture in bowl. Mix 2 minutes. Pour into greased and floured 10 x 15 x 1-inch jelly roll pan. Bake 20 minutes. Makes 24 servings.

Then, I left out the cinnamon (I'm aware that it would perfectly fit our culture here, but I'm not into cinnamon and chocolate together) and doubled the cocoa. It still needs more cocoa. I used buttermilk powder, because I don't use enough buttermilk to justify buying a whole container of it.

We baked two cakes, cut them in half and then made a 4 layer cake, using a chocolate ganache (made, I think, from chocolate chips and milk). We iced it with generic cool whip decorated with blue buttercream icing.

It was very rich and 4 layers was way too big. The kids couldn't eat their whole piece, even though I tried to cut small.

The secret to cooking with whole wheat flour, I've learned, is to start with the freshest flour possible. We ground this flour last night (a result of having used almost all the flour last week baking bread), it was still warm from the grinder.

Eventually, I will figure out a per item cost to my recipes.

How is everyone doing it?

I've been thinking about this since the Bitch Ph.D. post about finances.

I think she was very brave to put her financial info out there. So, I thought I'd do the same (to the extent that I can, so much of our stuff goes on credit cards and I don't have the statements in front of me or easy access to them).

Following her format:

Monthly income: $3900/month

Monthly Expenses:
Mortgage: $555
Insurance and taxes: $250
Car insurance: $80
Gas (water heater only now): $20
Electric: $125
Cells: $75
Cable/Internet: $130
Water/Sewer/Garbage: $40
Gas (car): $120
Groceries: $500
Student Loan: $175
Car payment: $200
Debt repayment: $200
Personal Loan repayment (grandparents): $500
Timeshare maintenance fee: $25

What's leftover, per month, to pay for school related stuff, summer camps, books, eating out, clothes, and stupid shit we don't really need: $905.

These are averages, of course. Most months we manage to put about $1,000 in savings even after discretionary spending. Of course, there is precious little of that. It gets swept into the $500/month grocery budget most of the time. We've almost paid back all that we borrowed from the grandparents, so that expense will go away in a few months (yay!). The debt repayment is money on a 0% credit card that we could pay off, but choose not to because we're earning 5% in the bank.

Anyone else willing to put their information out there?

Oops

Yesterday was a bad day at work. It started when I got there and my desk was covered with notes and files from other people and I couldn't even see my own files. Then a note said "couldn't find this file, blah, blah, blah". I walked over to the file cabinet and it was EXACTLY where it was supposed to be. Her excuse? Your desk is scary and I couldn't find it there. Well, yeah, because it wasn't there. It was where it was supposed to be.

So another coworker made a snippy comment to me in front of the boss and I lost it. I sniped back and we had a snipe fest in front of the boss. I think he was shocked and amused. I tend to really roll with the punches and the abuse at work. But I just couldn't take it. He treated me very well for the rest of the day. Alas, it didn't carry over until today.

I'm really burned out at my job. I have too much to do and not enough time to do it. I've explained that and I've shown them my to do list and asked them to priortize it. They know I'm that busy, but they are so concerned with bringing in money (which I'm sure is a valid concern) that they keep taking on new cases. Part of that is that the main source of income (real estate) has slowed down to the point where it's no longer the main source of income. So they pile the work on my and one other worker while the rest of the employees do less and less. Now, my work is for the most part plug and chug. With a little bit of training, anyone could pretty much do 90% of my work. But will they start training some of the real estate workers to do some of my more simple (and real estate related) tasks? Nope. Because they will complain about how busy they are.

Mr. Gaia might have the opportunity to be transferred. If he does get transferred, I will have an excuse to abandon this job. I hate it because there are parts of it I LOVE and find stimulating. It just gets bogged down by all the secretarial crap (they really need to hire someone to handle the simplest tasks so I can concentrate on the stuff that needs specialized training). And I'm getting bogged down by the petty office behavior. Standing outside of my cubicle talking VERY loudly while I'm trying to talk on the phone. Taking 30-45 minutes every morning for a breakfast break. All this while claiming to be sooo much busier than everyone else.

I survived

Not everyone showed up - thank goodness.

My house has an echo and a dozen kids or more are really, really loud in a house that echoes.

Mr. Gaia invited some really, really conservative people and I ended up not mingling much with them. To be honest, I was worried that I'd drink too much to keep from telling them off. I did pop off with "well, no great loss" when they mentioned Dr. Laura was no longer aired here in the Valley. I mentioned I listened to NPR and they went nuts with how liberal NPR is. Okay.

I now have a ton of food in my house. And a little less liquor. We'll be eating leftovers for the next week.

Party at my house!

Just kill me now. After dithering back and forth for over a year (since we moved into the house) Mr. Gaia came home on Saturday and told me that we are having a party this Saturday (I guess that's today).

OMG. My house wasn't even every day clean, much less having company over clean. So, I've been cleaning all week (which is why I've been so silent). I have 33 confirmed yes RSVPs, 5 maybes and 26 non-responders.

So, being environmentally minded, Mr. Gaia and I have been discussing our options for feeding people. We decided to buy the cheap, restaurant grade flatware at Sam's so that it can be reused. We've discussed plates ad infinitum and still haven't decided. I think we're going to go with Chinet that is made from recycled paper and then put it in our compost pile.

We've bought natural sodas, organic veggies, baked bread, brownies and mixed up dips.

I'll report back if I survive.

How are people doing it

Several bloggers have recently had some interesting financial posts.

First up we have BitchPhD with her two posts - But, but, I thought we were rich and Fuck all y'all, how have we been doing it?!? These are an interesting take on how someone making well over the median income still can't afford to buy a house in much of the US.

Then we have Pandagon with Poverty study brings the spin.

Over 36 million people in the US live in poverty. Over THIRTY-SIX MILLION. This doesn't include the working poor who are one small hiccup away from being in poverty. Or the rest of us who are one setback away from being working poor or in poverty.

Here in the Valley we have the colonias. Whole "subdivisions" that live without access to electricity, potable water and sewage systems. On property that is so worthless they can't even grow a veggie garden (if they could manage to somehow irrigate it when it doesn't rain here - which is more often than not).

Wage study

For a good portion of the population, wages aren't meeting needs in even low cost of living areas.

This article is about the Rio Grande Valley of Texas ("The Valley"):

Report: Valley familes’ salaries too meager
By ELIZABETH PIERSON HERNANDEZ/VALLEY MORNING STAR
AUSTIN — Families in the Rio Grande Valley routinely earn less than what they need to buy life’s basic necessities, a report released on Thursday found.

The study from the Center for Public Policy and Priorities, an Austin-based nonprofit that advocates for working families, studied what it takes to live in 26 metropolitan areas in Texas.
It found that in Texas, a family with two parents and two children must earn between $9,000 and $25,000 above the federal poverty level of $20,650 to stay on top of life’s routine bills.

“There’s a big gap between what people are earning and what it really costs to live,” said Frances Deviney, co-author of the study and a senior research associate with CPPP.

The cheapest place to live in Texas is the Brownsville-Harlingen area, requiring $29,982 to make ends meet, the study found. But half of Brownsville households make less than $26,000, leaving many without enough money to live with stability, according to the center.

The McAllen-Edinburg area is more expensive, about $35,000, primarily because housing is slightly more expensive than in Brownsville, Deviney said. Census data shows the median household income in McAllen is $28,660.

The most expensive area to live is Texas was Fort Worth, costing $45,770 a year, the study found.

Just because it’s cheaper to live in the Valley doesn’t mean it’s easier for those with low incomes, Deviney said.

“When wages correspond to the cost of living, you’re actually no better off,” she said.

Preliminary attempts to compare statewide Census data with the study have found that the median incomes, on average, are slightly higher than the salaries the study determined to be necessary, Deviney said.

“Probably over half the families are making what they need, but there’s a good chunk who are not,” she said.

Deviney said the study’s authors used conservative figures. They assumed families would buy food in bulk, buy little meat and never eat out. Housing costs were figured based on the fair market rate of public housing, which is often less than what families pay for apartments.

The authors also assumed families have health insurance on par with those of a state employee, which is often not the case.

The study did not figure that families might want to save for college, a home or retirement. It did not account for unforeseen expenses like a car accident or extra school supplies, Deviney said.

“When you’re living hand to mouth, on a monthly basis, you’re never going to have the opportunity to get ahead,” Deviney said. “You’re kind of on a hamster wheel.”

Becky Sanchez has a good idea of the feel of that wheel. The 36-year-old mother of two from San Juan earns $10 an hour as a teacher’s aide at a charter school. She would like to work full-time, but the school doesn’t have those positions open right now, she said.

To get by, she sometimes relies on help from her mother or her church, she said.

On Thursday the 1992 Buick Sentry she had driven for six years caught fire on U.S. Highway 281. Now she’ll have to think about a car payment in addition to household bills and credit card debt, she said.

The single mother has no health insurance. Her children, ages 12 and 14, are on Medicaid, which she says “is a blessing.”

“Sometimes I deal one day at a time,” Sanchez said.

Although the Valley has some of the poorest communities in the state, the study found low-income workers statewide face the same problems.

Deviney cited the decline of the real value of wages in recent years, less employer-sponsored health care and regressive tax policies as reasons for the gap between wages and what it takes to live.

To close the gap, the state should increase access to community college, make sure families have government aid until they are self-sufficient and attach economic development aid for companies with workforce training for workers, she said.

This is where I live. Salaries are low here. The article says that median incomes tend to be a little higher than the amount needed, but I'm not sure that actually holds true here. I thought it was interesting to see what figures they used. Government housing prices, only the most standard of household expenses (no school supplies, for example). Only what a family HAS to have for the most basic needs.

Cooking from scratch

Tonight we baked a carrot cake, completely from scratch. We started with wheat berries, carrots (and a zucchini for filler), added eggs, honey, agave sweetener, molasses, cinnamon, butter, vanilla, etc and ended up with a delicious cake. We wanted to bake it in the solar oven, but there was no sun.

I used a basic cooks.com recipe with a few minor variations. I started with this recipe:

WHOLE WHEAT CARROT CAKE

2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. toasted wheat germ
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1-1/4 c. honey
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 tsp. molasses (optional)
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
3 c. finely shredded carrots
1 c. chopped pecans
Cream Cheese Frosting
Grease and flour two 8- or 9-inch round baking pans. In a mixer bowl combine flour, wheat germ, baking powder, soda, salt and cinnamon. Add honey, butter, molasses and vanilla. Beat with electric mixer on low speed until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in carrots and pecans. Pour into prepared pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans and cool completely. Frost between layers and top with Cream Cheese Frosting. Store covered in the refrigerator.

I left out the wheat germ (I didn't have it and didn't want to buy it), substituted a cup or so of zucchini for some of the carrot, and went about half and half with local honey and agave sweetener (both light and amber).

I used their frosting recipe:

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. butter
2 c. powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. molasses or honey
1/4 c. pecans, chopped
Beat cream cheese and butter with a mixer until fluffy. Beat in powdered sugar, vanilla, and molasses or honey. Stir in pecans. If necessary, chill until it is of spreading consistency (about 30 minutes).

But I left out the honey and the pecans. It was really, really sweet already. It turned out kind of cream colored. If I had been thinking, I would have used the clear vanilla we got in Mexico. But it would still have been a little brown because I used an organic powdered sugar that's slightly tannish.

Even Oceanus liked it. We didn't tell him what it was until he said he really liked it.

Still Rain!??!?

While this is the subtropics, it's an area that doesn't get much rain usually. In fact, for the last 2 years rain was almost enough to shut down the city. Now? It rains every single day and rains enough that the water backs up in the streets. Life no longer stops, we just muddle through.

The rain has perfected its timing, too. It waited until I was 2 blocks from home (walking to the school) to start raining. Too far to really want to turn back and get in the car to park 3 blocks (or more) from the school. But had I known the deluge it was going to turn into? I might have seriously considered driving.

The kids have not yet had a real recess. Hyperion's teacher is a saint, she's keeping it together with a class room full of hyper 7 year olds (her reputation as being THE teacher for high energy kids means that us parents of high energy kids request her) - hyper 7 year olds with very little outlet for their high energy.

Children and Environmentalism

When I first met Mr. Gaia he introduced me to the idea of zero population growth (ZPG) and told me he never planned to have more than 2 kids. I had always thought 4 seemed like a good number, but I agreed with him that our planet was in crisis and we should have only 2 kids.

In my head in the stars view, I was sure that one of my children would be a girl. Ever since I was 7 I've dreamed of the day I'd have my own daughter (why yes, my childhood did suck, why do you ask?). I've planned and accumulated items based on the idea of passing them down to my daughter. I specifically had my mom make my wedding gown in such a way that it would be easily altered so that my future daughter could wear it in her wedding if she chose.

2 children later and I don't have my girl. I love my boys with all my heart, but my heart cries out for a girl. Hyperion has it figured out (he doesn't seem to feel that it in any way reflects on him, thank goodness) and has guessed that when I wish upon a star it's often to have a daughter.

This is where dreams and environmentalism butt heads. I agree intellectually with Mr. Gaia that ZPG is necessary and desireable. I know intellectually that even if we did have another child, it's just as likely to be a boy as a girl. But emotionally? Yeah, it's not so clear.

I would be open to adoption, but Mr. Gaia isn't. He's happy with our current family and feels that it is absolutely complete. I don't feel I can discuss it with him because I knew all along that he only wanted 2 kids. And, of course, with adoption it's still the same crapshoot. You can't say "I want to adopt a girl" and presto! you get a girl. You get what comes. Now there are things you can do to stack the odds in your favor - you can adopt from China, for instance. But adoption is expensive and international adoption is even more expensive, and even then you can't be assured you will have a girl. Plus, you get an older toddler and not a newborn - so formula would have to be used (I can easily relactate, if I spend time with babies I get the tingly let-down feelings and can easily express a few drops). My reluctance to use formula also prevents me from fostering a child (and really, I don't think I could take care of a newborn day and night and then give it back to its parents - which is another issue with domestic adoption).

So a few weeks ago when I was down? This is why. My period comes around and it's a reminder again that there will not be another baby. Ever.

Green TV

Okay, so watching TV isn't exactly green, but watching TV can help you become more green.

Living With Ed just started its second season on HGTV. Mr. Gaia and I love to watch Ed and Rachelle. We occasionally get good ideas for how to live more lightly on Earth from the show.

The Green on Sundance. Different shows every week. Including one that we especially like - It's Not Easy Being Green.

Of course, these shows help us to see just how far we have to go. It provides us with ideas and helps us to see that we aren't all that odd.

I'm happy to report the first day of school went well. Both kids seem to like their teachers and their classmates.

Back to School

It seems that every year there's that one item on the school supply list that you just can't find. This year it's red-checking pencils. We have quite a few red checking pens left over from last year, but no pencils. I refuse to shop at WalMart, so they'll start school with pens. Next time I grocery shop, I'll check their school supply section. I don't hold out great hope for them, though, they had last year's list when I went to look there. I also refuse to pay shipping prices to order something online.

The kids didn't really get any new clothes. My mom bought them some for their birthday and co-worker gave them some hand-me-downs. Their closets are bursting at the seams, so they didn't need anything new. They haven't hit the age where they want to make sure they wear new clothes on the first day of school.

Despite the rain we've been getting (almost daily) I've managed to get the laundry done with just a little bit of dryer usage - to fluff my nice bouses and to take the last edge of dampness off the clothes on the line that hadn't had a chance to finish drying before it rained again. I'd say about 15 minutes of dryer usage. I would think that would have to be less energy usage than an iron.

Tonight we cut Hyperion's hair. It went from a Dorothy Hamill crossed with a pageboy to an extremely short style that he wants to try to spike. I don't know that his hair will spike, it is really, really, really thick and fine. We can try to spike it, but I think he will be disappointed. Oceanus opted to keep his long skater-boy hairstyle.

So, for better or worse, we're back to school tomorrow!

Ack!!!

My alarm went off this morning and I hit snooze. And apparently kept hitting snooze.

At 7:47 I woke up and saw the time. I have to be at work at 8:00. Yeah, the words that came out of my mouth weren't too nice.

I was dressed, made-up and hair reasonably neat by 7:57. Breakfast was McDonald's drive-thru on the way to work (which is where I called and told them I'd be about 5 minutes late depending on traffic). And I was. Which, I think was pretty good. Less than 20 minutes from the time I woke up to the time I was at work. I used to do that when I was in college, but I didn't wear make-up then.

I was discombobulated all day long. I finally got it together about 2:00. What a wasted day!

Bug Hill update

Well, school starts next week. We in Bug Hill have been getting ready (okay, I haven't done diddly squat, but ...). I've been asked to remind everyone that donations of any extra supplies are always welcome. We need to remember that we have a high proportion of low income students who will likely start school without all the needed supplies.

I'm trying to decide whether to cut Hyperion and Oceanus' hair. They both have long hair. Oceanus' looks fine, but Hyperion's is so thick it looks oppressive and heavy. It's also inclined to smell. Technically, long hair is against dress code, but theirs doesn't touch their collars so it's okay for a little while. It's against dress code because "it's distracting". Well, it's only distracting because it's against dress code and somewhat unusual. I imagine the first girl with short hair was distracting, but we got over it. My theory is that if more boys had long hair, it would no longer be distracting. It's the same theory I had about breastfeeding - especially breastfeeding in public. I think I'll keep it trimmed just enough to be above their collar and call it good. Unless, of course, they ask to cut it. Hyperion can't decide if he wants it left alone or not.

I know the preacher's wife is more than ready for school to start. The twins are keeping her so busy - they're just starting to roll over now and they've learned to link rolls to move around the house. She's really going to have her hands full. She plans to send them to school for breakfast as well as lunch - which we all agree is a great idea.

Walking School Bus

The Walking School Bus project is a national project designed to help communities develop a program for walking kids to school.

Around our school we are known as "that weird family that walks". Mr. Gaia walks them to school in the morning and I walk them home in the afternoon. On one occasion last year, I walked with some boys who were walking home.

This year, I want to see if I can spur some other families to start walking. Our neighborhood is actually pretty safe for crossing - the only issue is the occasional train. There are sidewalks (unusual these days) and crosswalks.

So, I'm going to print this information to give to the principal and the PTA president. If you've started or participated in a similar project, let me know!

No hurricane here

We did get some bands of rain, but nothing much. It appears that most of our friends in the Yucatan managed to survive with minimal damage - there was some flooding and water damage, but they'll be open for business in a week or so.

Do continue to remember them, though. Most of them are operating on the edge and a week without business could be crippling.

Waiting for the hurrricane

At this point, we aren't even in the cone, so we should feel safe, right? But it doesn't work that way.

The Red Cross issued a voluntary evacuation for our area, but I doubt most people are leaving. Where will we go? How will we afford to lose time off work and stay in a hotel? Especially if the hurricane actually hits where they project (instead of here)?

So, this is the waiting game. Checking weather underground every few hours to see what the latest projections show. If we evacuate, it will be Tuesday or Wednesday before we leave and really, we won't know until then whether we will or won't.

Do be praying for our friends in the Mayan Riviera. They are pretty much guaranteed a direct hit. They were hit by Emily and Wilma in 2005 and are still recovering from those. If it does hit, there will be a donation link on this site http://www.ceakumal.org/, so if you have any extra, please share.

My wake-up call this morning:

This is what we awakened to at 7am this morning:

Wild Parrots

Turn your sound all the way up to get an idea of what it sounds like from my bedroom window.

(If you know how to add utube video to play without navigating away, please let me know)

Rockin' Girl Blogger

Tanya gave me this Rockin' Girl Blogger award. And now I get to pass it on!!!

Since I can't pass it back to Tanya, she won't be on this list, but that doesn't mean that I don't think she's pretty "Rockin'".

So, without further ado, I present to you my winners (in no particular order):

Grace because she's just too cool. I really want to be like her with her talent with fibers and her science smarts. Seriously, girl has it going on with the science.

Rani for her creativity with clothing and for her great eco-tips. Seriously, if you want to get more green, you should check her out. Plus she just writes well.

Jenny because she is living the green life and is willing to share it with us. She introduced me to Wardrobe Refashion.

Sally because she writes about cool places and she loves cats as much as I do.

An Honorary mention to all the bloggers at Wardrobe Refashion. I'd award them all but there's just too many.

Surprise Father's Day

I'm not sure how we managed it, but we managed to surprise Mr. Gaia. I'm very impressed that both boys were able to keep it to themselves. Of course, I didn't tell them the plan until Friday.

Mr. Gaia had a great day.

I mixed up some bread for the solar oven (finally a sunny day!). Of course, I got distracted and used gluten instead of the softer whole wheat flour (I usually mix 2 different grinds). I realized it when I took it out of the mixer to knead and it was tougher than a brick. Crap!! So, I quickly heated some more water, started mixing another batch - with no gluten this time - and then mixed them together. I'm happy to report the bread is really good, just a tad bit chewy, but a soft chewy. I've got a loaf in the freezer ready to pull out and bake next sunny day.

After we put the bread in the solar oven to cook, we decided to go to some furniture stores. Mr. Gaia and I haven't had a bed in 7 years. We have just had our mattress and foundation sitting on the floor. We also haven't had a dresser or chest of drawers in the same amount of time. I have open wire shelves to hold my clothes. We've decided we'd like to look more grown up. So we went to 3 different furniture stores, but none of them had what we want. We like simple, clean lines. Mission style is always good. We did find a lot that had the simple lines we wanted but the pieces were "Texas sized" and would be overwhelming in our room, not to mention that they would block our windows.

Then we went to Sam's to walk around and have lunch. That reminds me, I have to send an email to corporate. This Sam's never has Dr. Pepper on the weekend, or ice. How freakin' hard would it be to realize that you ALWAYS run out of Dr. Pepper and to order an extra canister? To make it worse, they never post an out of order sign on the machine - so you waste what little ice you can manage to get by having it covered in jet water. Today she told me the sprite and powerade canisters were empty too. None of them had out of order signs. Can you imagine the poor people that thought they got Sprite? At least with a cola you can tell the color is wrong.

Then we came home and the boys played on a Slip 'n Slide. These are so not fair, no one over 100lbs or 5' can play on them. Of course, it is wasteful of water so it's a good thing we aren't in a drought this year.

After they'd played for a while, Mr. Gaia sent them to the shower and mixed pina coladas for us.

Then he opened his gifts - a beer butt chicken cooker and a board game - The Game of Life. When I was a kid, my granny wouldn't let us play games with dice. So my mom bought us this game to take to her house (we still had Monoply, etc at home). Let me tell you, the game has changed since I was a kid. I swear I remember retirement was either rich or poor house, now it's comfortable or rich. It was a fun game to play with the kids and it provided some good teaching moments. Oceanus bought a house when he was a starving artist with a salary of $20,000 per year. He had to take out a bank loan. At the end of the game when he was last, we talked about how much money he had spent to buy his house. Hyperion was in a hurry to finish and kept treating it was race to the end. We'd explain that like real life, longer was better. He came in 2nd last.

I'm in a down mood

Does anyone have anything amusing to share?

I'm sure this mood will pass soon enough and at that point maybe I'll bore you all with the details. But for now, I'd like something amusing to jolly me along.

I hate cleaning

I just went Mommie Dearest on my kids. Mr. Gaia doesn't think we can assign them chores until he and I (emphasis on the *I* part) are able to set a good example and do the chores we wish to assign regularly.

The fact that I am overwhelmed by a demanding job and the chores I do stay on top of apparently isn't good enough. The fact that he isn't doing much to help, isn't good enough. Until "we" maintain the house and "set a good example" "we" can't assign chores to the kids. Well fuck that.

The kids were gone for Father's Day. I decided to surprise him with a Father's Day tomorrow. I figured part of that would be a nice clean house. But it has become enough of a sty that I can't possibly do it myself. So I assigned the kids some easy tasks - help fold the laundry, put your own laundry away. They are almost 9 and 7 - more than old enough to do these tasks.

I walked into their bedroom and the closet floor is full of clothes. I get it. I did it myself too when my mom said "go clean your room". But I didn't tell them to "clean their room" I told them specifically to put their clothes away. So tantrum #1 of mine.

"We" finally managed to get all the laundry folded and put away, so I went into their room to give them specific instructions about what to clean. See, I learned from my mom - don't give a generic instruction. There were clean sheets on their chest of drawers. I hadn't gotten around to folding them. I specifically said "these are CLEAN" and then said "fold them". I came back by a couple of minutes later and they were on the floor. Again I said "THESE ARE CLEAN!!!!!! KEEP THEM OFF THE DIRTY FLOOR AND FOLD THEM". I did a few more taskes and came back and the sheets were again on the floor but this time they were laying/standing on them. Wallering on them on their dirty fucking floor. I completely lost it then. Tantrum #2. This time they were told that they WOULD start listening to me the first time, period. I told them if I told them something was clean and then came back and found it in the floor, they would be doing all the laundry, by themselves. They will start listening to me.

I don't have high standards for cleaning. Really I don't. But I'm tired of never being able to have someone over. But, I can't do it myself. I don't make the mess myself and damned if I can clean it myself. And "setting a good example" by cleaning up after myself ala FlyLady doesn't do shit in my house. They see me clean up after myself and I swear it becomes a good excuse for them to make an even bigger mess of their own.

No more. Mr. Gaia is going to get with the program and stand back as I assign them chores. I am not the fucking maid. He feels put upon because when the house is cleaned he does do the majority of it (he is 1000x better at cleaning than I am). Well big f'ing deal. If he would just stop telling me that I *can't* assign chores to these two able bodied boys, then we wouldn't have to have marathon cleaning sessions and he wouldn't have to do the majority of the cleaning then.

I'm really worried for our country

People I trust are starting to agree with me that a depression is inevitable. I've been thinking this for the last 8 years or so, but I am, by nature, a pessimist.

Now, I work in the legal field - doing a mix of foreclosures, probate and estate planning (with a few other things thrown in). I figure my job is fairly secure. Foreclosures will not stop - they're only going to increase. People will continue to die and Wills will need to be probated. People will continue to need Wills, powers of attorney, living wills, etc - and people who don't get them will create even more expensive legal issues.

Mr. Gaia works for the state. I hope that his job is secure. I feel like it is, I figure the worst they will do is freeze any raises, even cost of living increases, and refuse to fill positions as they become vacant.

But I worry about our savings, etc. We've been pretty smart and stuck with credit unions. I feel credit unions will survive even if banks start to fail. Credit unions tend to have more stringent requirements for loans. In fact, in the past we've had difficulty being approved for some loans through our credit unions and we never asked for anything we couldn't afford. But where it is saved won't help if the dollar continues to tank.

This is why, more than anything else, I've been concentrating on becoming more self-sufficient.

Bug Hill update

It occurs to me that I haven't given a Bug Hill update in a while.

Megan is finally in her 2nd trimester, and being the suggestible person she is, she immediately started feeling 100% better. I think she would feel even better if she'd switch to maternity clothes, but I remember wanting to wear my regular clothes as long as possible, so I understand (of course, I was pregnant in the mid to late 90s when clothes were not nearly as fitted as they are now).

It's so stinkin' not, no one is doing much. The city has seen an increase in weed abatement notices. All this rain coupled with all this heat has made the weeds and grass grow 2 feet overnight (or so it seems). No one feels like working in their yards to get rid of the weeds. Whole neighborhoods are having parties to work in their yards and meet the city requirements.

I harvested my first volunteer watermelon. It was pretty small, but the vine had shriveled, so it wasn't going to grow anymore. It tasted about like you'd expect from a volunteer watermelon. It actually tasted a lot like my first watermelon this season. Edible, but really not that good. The second watermelon is a lot larger and the vine is still green and pretty. So there's hope. That vine has a lot of pretty flowers on it, but they apparently aren't getting fertilized - there's no baby watermelons appearing as the blooms die.

All the church kids are back from their various camps. School starts in 2.5 weeks. Parents are scrambling for school supplies and trying to decide if it's worth forking over big bucks for new clothes that the kids won't be able to wear until December (by which time, they will probably have outgrown them).

The local elementary has asked that I remind parents that they always accept donations of extra school supplies. If you can afford to buy an extra package of lined paper, or glue or box of crayons, they will be put to good use.

Paper Beads

I saw a cool piece on Wardrobe Refashion. One of the contributor's used security envelopes to make paper beads. This is a great recycling project and if you look at the patterns on the paper you can see how lovely the beads will look.

So, today while I was at work and sitting on hold, I grabbed my scissors, a security envelope, a glue stick and a large paper clip. I stretched out the paper clip to use as my roller. Then I cut a long triangle out of the envelope. I coated the printed side of the paper with the glue stick and started rolling (this is different - most instructions say to do the backside, but I wanted to do the front and it worked out well). I then wrapped the paper around the paper clip, starting with the wide end. I left one end of the paper clip in a hook shape and made sure the other was bent at a 90 degree angle. I used the hook to hang it over my desk container to dry.

I still need to string them on waste string and figure out what to spray them with to preserve them. I doubt the glue will last long enough to make a wearable item.

When I came home I found some security envelopes with green insides. Yummy! I love green.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Sara has a great post on reducing consumption.

A few years ago someone I know ridiculed recycling as "not worth it environmentally". I agreed that recycling alone won't do it, you really do have to reduce and reuse to make a difference.

Mr. Gaia and I were talking this weekend about how low maintenance I am. I spend very little on clothes, makeup and shoes. I wear things until the wear out and then keep them around with the idea of someday doing something with them.

We're not perfect, but we are working on it. I doubt we'll ever be as minimalist as Sara, but I plan to use her as a role model.

Rani has been working on reducing the number of clothes she has in her possession. Passing clothes on to someone reduces their consumption as well. She's challenged her readers to post a list of clothing they own. I'm working on compiling my list, but I'm embarrassed by it. My only excuse is that a lot of my clothes are really old - like 20 years or more.

Happy August!!

August is a busy month for our family - birthday wise. We have lots of birthdays in August between my family and Mr. Gaia's family.

So this weekend we had a mini-birthday celebration at SeaWorld in San Antonio. I'm sunburned and my legs hurt miserably (I really do need to find a pair of shoes that actually fit my foot, my current ones have the arch in the wrong place for me).

Mr. Gaia decided to make this MY birthday weekend (my birthday is actually in a couple of weeks, but this weekend worked best) so he and the boys gave me my presents this weekend. They were really sweet and I have some fun stuff to mess with. I had hinted for a digital camera but I waffled about it enough that Mr. Gaia decided I didn't really want one. I may buy one myself anyway for my real birthday, if I get some bday money. It would be nice to be able to post pics on the blog.

90% project

A while back I clicked through links from other blogs and found this project.

While I'm not ready to commit to 90%, I am ready to commit to reducing my consumption as much as possible.

So, Mr. Gaia and I have been talking about getting me an electric scooter to use to commute to work (less than 4 miles round trip). I, of course, thought of something along the lines of a vespa (yes I know a vespa is not electric) (image courtesy of vespa):

Mr. Gaia, bless him, thought of something more like this (image courtesy of Amazon):

Please tell me that I am not shallow for thinking that think looks ridiculous for a grown woman. In business clothes. I swear, it looks like a razer scooter with larger wheels, a motor and a seat.

Rainy days

It's still raining daily. I have no idea what to think of all this rain. My yard is gorgeous, but it's overgrown because there's never a dry time to mow. On the other hand, my grapefruit tree looks better than ever. I'm regretting that I was too lazy to plant a summer garden.

It's been too wet for the kids to practice their soccer. So I'm sure they will get a disappointed lecture from their coach.

We've taken advantage of the time inside to finish reading Harry Potter aloud. And that's about it. I hope to get out the board games again. Hyperion is just having too much trouble staying still. No one wants to play a board game with him because you know he will upset the playing board midpoint in the game. Not to mention that there will be tantrums from him and Oceanus when they start to lose.

I've been knitting and thinking about discussing adding a category for nice yarn in our budget. It's hard to do that, though. Buying nice yarn would mean that my handknits would cost much more than I would pay for the ready made item.

Knitting

So this is the tank top I decided to knit. I managed to get about 6 inches knit while listening to Mr. Gaia finish the last 200 pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. If that doesn't seem like much progress, well, that's because it isn't. I got caught up in the book too many time and ended up having to frog back the last row multiple times.

What sucks about it is that I really don't care for the yarn I'm using. It's red heart brand acrylic and scratchy as hell. I have no idea if I'll ever actually wear the darn thing.

Hyperion picked up a shell at the beach last time we were there. It was just a plain shell, but a hole had been drilled into it (probably by a murex). He asked me to make him a necklace with it. I collect these shells because I love the colors and the convenient hole makes me think I'll actually make jewelry with them. So far I've managed to continue to lose my stashes of them within days (yes, I finally decided on a central location and am not placing all of them there). Last night I went into my stash and found some waxed cord. I made a loop of the cord, pushed it through the hole and then the threaded the cord through the loop. Then I tied two knots in the cord - one strand was knotted OVER the other strand. Then that strand was knotted over the other. This makes a necklace that can be shortened or lengthened by pulling the knots closer to the shell. This all would, of course, be easier to explain with pics, but I don't have a working camera. A google search, however, turned up this tutorial which explains it very well.

He was happy with his new necklace for about 15 minutes and then he lost interest. Sigh.

But it is cool enough that I'm going to make more of them. So, it was a successful experiment in that respect.

Socially responsible investing

How to Save for College and Make a Difference Too

Seeing Retirement Investment Through Green-colored Glasses

Mr. Gaia and I have finally reached a point in our lives where we have a little extra money to invest.

Sure, we could make a much better return with less risk by going with a standard plan, but why not take a chance and help society?

This is something we are going to be researching over the next few months. We hope to have our research done and plans made in time to go ahead and fully fund an IRA or Roth IRA by the end of the year.

Knitting Suggestions?

Okay, Mr. Gaia likes my tank top fine (because it is somewhat low cut) but he says he wishes I'd wear something that isn't cut/knit straight across, a v neck or a scoop neck, he says.

So, here's what I want in a pattern:

1) v-neck
2) knit in the round with very minimal sewing
3) it needs to be shaped
4) works with multiple kinds of yarn (so it needs to have a fairly large guage)
5) is a pattern I'd want to repeat many, many times so I have a nice wardrobe of them
6) the straps need to be wide enough to cover bra straps.

Does anyone know of a (preferably free) pattern that might meet these requirements?

Thanks!

I hate bedtimes

Okay, not really. Just right now. We got the new Harry Potter yesterday and true to plan, started reading it aloud, one chapter by me, one by Mr. Gaia. This is great, but we have to stop at the kids' bedtime and reading aloud does go somewhat slowly.

So, we've only read through chapter 11 and it's getting next to impossible to avoid spoilers.

It's been just over a year since we started reading Harry Potter. We took the first book with us on vacation last year and read them through since then. Thank God we didn't start sooner. I'd be chomping at the bit even more.

Confession

I've been remiss and ignored comments. I didn't mean to, but I did. So, I'm going to respond to comments here.


Tanya Brown said...
Welcome back home. Now I want to see photos of the sea monkeys! In the comic book ads of my youth, the father sea monkeys were always puffing cigars while they read the newspaper, while the mother sea monkeys wore half aprons and were tidying the habitat. Let's hope that things have become more progressive since then!

I don't have pictures yet, but they are going, so that's really cool. We need to get a proper tank for them. What we got was a SeaMonkey nursery that included a cute little plastic tank like container.

But, they have a website with all the cool things you can buy and lots of great pictures.


rani said...
Lovely choices - I like the first one best, personally. As noted, my gauge problem made my socks into slippers! I know you can recalculate a pattern to fit your gauge, but it seemed too complicated at the time.

I liked the first one best too. I don't have a picture of the completed project though. I need to get Mr. Gaia busy with the camera.

Rod said...
I am the parent who said no more to TAKS testing. My 8 year old child moved with us to the USA and we duly entered him in a Texas public school. We researched the available schools and picked one with a good academic record. Second mistake. The record was achieved by teaching to the test and ONLY teaching to the TAKS test. Our son endured months of heartache, frustration and abuse at the hands of an inflexible system and staff forced to hothouse students in a manner totally against their training and instincts. There was no allowance for his lack of familiarity with the US (what are pecks and bushels?), and no support available other than additional hours of test taking.He is now in a private school, which is against my egalitarian principles, but provides an educational environment better in so many ways that it was the only acceptable option.I am aware that this option is not available to all, but so many children must be suffering under this frankly abusive system that I am surprised that I don't hear many more voices raised in protest. If there is a flag to rally round, please tell me - I am very willing to support change for the advantage of our children.RB

Rob, I don't know of any grassroots efforts, yet. I've heard rumors about schools refusing to accept government money so they can get rid of TAKS testing. Right now, they're just unconfirmed reports, so far as I know. But it is an idea for schools. The problem is that most schools need that government money.

There are an awful lot of parents really bothered by this, but none of us have managed to coalesce into a group able to really effect change.

I was tagged

Stephanie tagged me.

The Rules:“Each person links to the person who tagged them. Then each person posts the rules before their list, then they list 8 things about themselves. At the end of the post, that person tags and links to 8 other people and then visits those peoples’ sites and comments letting them know that they have been tagged, and to come read the post, so they know what they have to do.”

8 things about me:

1) My mother made my wedding gown and has it stored at her home.

2) I was in FHA for 4 years in high school and still cannot sew.

3) I drink my iced tea really, really strong but my hot tea really, really weak. I don't drink tea in restaurants (even if it is sweetened) because it is too weak.

4) I used to eat raw turnips as a kid, but only if I had a bowl of vanilla ice cream at the same time.

5) I love TLC on TV and will watch it every chance I get.

6) My first cat was a siamese I named Jamie.

7) I have lots of freckles (even though I am not a natural red head).

8) I'm very sensitive about my yellow teeth (the result of tetracycline staining but probably made worse by my Dr. Pepper and tea addiction).

I can't think of who to tag. I think all my usual victims, errr, that is "friends" have done this one. If you haven't done it and need something to spark a post, let me know and I'll update my list.

Rain, Rain, Rain

It has rained most of the day. Rain, rain, rain.

When I stupidly step off of the concrete surfaces, I sink up to my ankles in mud and grass. Rain, rain, rain.

My grass grows taller and taller and the city hollers louder and louder. Rain, rain, rain.

My watermelon vine still only has the one fruit (that I've found*) but has managed to grow 15 feet long and up and over my 5' back fence. Rain! Rain! Rain!

My cannas are blooming for the first time since I moved them from Oklahoma City to South Texas. Rain! Rain! Rain!

My ginger and my plumeria are putting on lots of nice foliage. Rain! Rain! Rain!

If it stops raining, I'll go out and weed the hell out of my garden bed and plant tomatoes and peppers (surprisingly this is the right time here in South Texas). And maybe some okra (yummy!). At which point, it will stop raining at all.

*I say that I've found, because it has chosen to grow in the direction of the most overgrown parts of my flower beds. So actually looking for fruit will require really searching.

Summer Fun

So my kids are home from Camp Grandma and it's time for our own summer fun.

Except - I've done nothing with them so far. Part of that is because we just spent almost 2 weeks traveling together. Part of it is because they are little monsters right now as they try to make the adjustment to being back home. A HUGE part of it is that I'm just exhausted after I get off work because being on vacation means that I have a ton of catch up to do.

They've spent the last 2 days at the Boys and Girls Club while Mr. Gaia and I are at work. So far they've had a blast. Yesterday they saw what happened when you drop Mentos into Diet Coke. Today they had cinnamon toast.

I can't say enough good things about the Boys and Girls Club. They charge $5 for a year membership and during the summer they provide a free program (ours is 9:00-2:30) with a free lunch. This is open to anyone and even though we are not low income, they encourage us to participate (good thing since my kids are too young to leave home alone but there are not really any summer programs for kids in the area). We send money with the kids to buy snacks at the snack bar and make sure to participate in their fund raisers. Even sending snack money with them, we're spending less than we would for them to be in school (we send less than we had to spend for school lunch).

Hyperion needs to practice reading this summer. He reads very well, but he thinks he doesn't, so I need something for him to read to build up his confidence. Right now it's a search to find material he will enjoy reading.

He's enjoying his new pets - the ox beetles and sea monkeys. Right now I'm still the primary caregiver for the ox beetles, but that's mainly because the container they are in is very flimsy and not really sturdy enough for handling by a 7 year old. But he does watch them and make suggestions for their care. They love grapes, so they are not going to starve as I had been afraid. I think if I could find a nice simple book about either pet he would be willing to read it. I think. It's hard to say because so far he won't read the instruction books for his gameboy games, even when they would really help him to win, or even understand the game.

Selfishness on display

I do think that people are generally good and they generally mean well and given the chance, most people will do the right thing. Unfortunately, that's not always the case.

At Six Flags Fiesta Texas we had time for maybe two more rides before the park closed. So Oceanus and I got in line for a roller coaster (Poltergeist). The line should have been about 10-15 minutes long. However, there were a group of young twenties ahead of us. They yelled at a friend and 4 people joined them (cutting line). Okay, that sucks and it's wrong, but whatever. Then it happens again. And again. And 3 more times. All in all about 24 people ended up jumping the line in front of a lot of people. This added about 5-10 minutes to our wait. Goodbye to the chance to ride another ride. Surprisingly enough, no one confronted them about it. Some people grumbled about it, but no one lit into them.

At SeaWorld there was a woman saving a whole row of seats in the 4th row (really the best row in terms of being able to see well) for the last showing of Shamu. We got there about 30 minutes early and ended up in the 2nd row - not bad seats at all, we couldn't see as much on the surface of the water as we'd have liked, but still not bad. We never saw the rest of her party. Not when we got there, not later. Finally, they've chained off the openings and aren't letting anyone else in - but still she's saving these seats for people who have "gone to the bathroom". Clearly she was sent in to save seats while the rest of her party enjoyed rides, etc. Finally people started sitting in her saved seats. They had no where else to sit and no one else was being let in. She got very irate and apparently ended up cussing out a 14 year old girl (who to her credit immediately stood up for herself and said "Don't talk to me like that! You don't even know me!"). Last I heard, the woman was escorted out of the park.

I understand her frustration. She was put in a bad situation. Her party sent her in to save them seats and then selfishly didn't come to the show in a timely manner. She's stuck trying to save seats while people are sitting 4 in a spot that would normally fit 2 people (Hyperion ended up sitting on Mr. Gaia's lap) and I became more intimately acquainted with the strangers next to me than I really like - I was sitting closer to them than I do to my own family.

I think the SeaWorld folks really should have gotten involved much sooner. There was a guy walking in front of our area of seats and there's no reason why he didn't notice the escalating situation.

I do think that we were very lucky to only see these two situations. For the most part people were extremely friendly. I'm that weird person who starts up conversations with perfect strangers while waiting in line. No one gave me the hairy eyeball and shunned me. They all talked with me and told jokes and helped the time pass much more quickly.

Back from vacation

I feel like I've been gone forever. I so do not want to go back to work tomorrow - so I'm up at 12:40am. Sigh.

We did have a pretty good time. We saw all 6 parents (includes step parents) plus one set of the the grandparents (Mr. Gaia's). We went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas and to SeaWorld San Antonio. We saw Harry Potter 5 in IMAX 3D. We hiked up to Robbers' Cave.

We drove approximately 2000 miles. And managed to only have a minor instance of a traffic jam in Austin (where I also observed a man pleasuring himself up under an overpass).

In the 8 days we were in Oklahoma, it rained 6 times (at least). All of the rivers were swollen and the news was full of concerns about whether the dams would hold this unheard of amount of water. People who were boating for the 4th of July report tying their boats to light posts in parking lots.

My mother in law reports seeing egrets fishing in her lower pasture. I observed a ton of either snowy egrets or great white egrets (nothing to compare for size to be sure and I didn't observe bill color as closely as I should, concentrating instead on leg color to distinguish between snowy egrets and cattle egrets).

I only observed one red tailed hawk. I usually see them at least every mile in my home county, so I'm disturbed by this observation.

I saw my parents' alligator snapping turtle and their huge carp along with the catfish they are feeding in their pond.

I saw a few of the people I went to high school with. Those who are still living in my hometown have gained a lot of weight and look supremely unhappy. Those of us who have moved out have gained some weight and look more happy. Of course, this was one day so who knows what it is really like most of the time.

I took the ox beetles with me (I have two males now, still no female) and managed to keep them alive as we traveled from place to place.

I slept in 5 different beds while I was away and am so happy to be home in my own bed.

I finished my knit tank top. I actually finished it twice, the first time I tried it on before I added the straps and figured out that it might fit a 12yo. So I frogged it and redid it on larger needles (I did swatch it out, but I'm having some difficulty learning to purl in the continental method, so my swatch was really uneven). Now it fits nicely. I found ribbon in my mom's sewing cabinet (it's actually hem tape but it's shiny like ribbon and is the exact color I wanted).

I gained at least 5 pounds. So I have to really work hard the next few weeks to get my appetite back under control.

Knitting

Well, I frogged my bag. It just wasn't going to work out. I couldn't figure out anything to put in the bottom to make it sturdy and have the right shape.

I decided instead to make this tank top. I'm making it in cream colored cotton. I need a cream colored shell to wear under a couple of sweaters plus I can wear it on its own. This is my second sweater and the first was an unmitigated disaster. So I hope this one works out much better.

I also like this tank top and this one looks really sexy.

My main problem is that my gauge is way too large for most sweaters. I'm using my smallest needles (size 2) so I don't know if I knit too loosely or if my yarn is just really heavy.

I hope I'll eventually have pics to post.

Fresh ground wheat

I made bread again this week. I used our new grain mill to grind the wheat (well, Mr. Gaia did), but I don't think it was ground finely enough - the texture was more like cornmeal.

The bread simply did not rise. I'm not sure why. I proofed the yeast, so I know it was good. I used my same recipe. The only difference was the flour. I'm hoping it wasn't the flour. That would really suck. I suspect the flour was really too coarse, but I don't know that that would have made that much difference. It still tastes good, it's just a little dense.

Today, Mr. Gaia cooked salmon in the solar oven. He sprinkled just a little dill on it with some salt. It was really, really good. When he finished that, he put in bratwurst and then we went for an 12.5 mile bike ride (took an hour and twenty minutes). It was perfect when we got back. Yummy and delish.

I've been really lazy lately. My house is a mess and I don't think I met any of my June goals. Shame on me. I'll soon be traveling to pick up my kids, so the blog will be quiet. I'll be going somewhere with no internet and no cell phone service. I'll bet you didn't know such a place still existed in the US, but it does.

Normal kid?

So, Mr. Gaia bought roach traps today because I decided that I've seen just too many. I mean, it's the subtropics, so we expect roaches (call them palmetto bugs if you want but they're still roaches) but lately it's been more than even bug tolerant me can deal with.

While he was bending down to put one under the dishwasher he found a month's worth of gummy vitamins and allergy pills. We immediately knew the culprit. Hyperion. He should be grateful he is 750 miles away. Mr. Gaia was not happy.

So, I think might explain the roach explosion. Sugary vitamins? Stashed in a humid, dark place? Roach heaven!

I tried to convince Mr. Gaia that this was normal. I personally remember putting food down the air conditioner vents in our house. And lying about it. Hyperion did fess up as soon as we asked him about it - so he's clearly a better kid than me. My next step was to then throw the food into the toilet and flush it, I'm thinking I'll have to watch Hyperion take his pills from now on.

Poor Hyperion is at my mom's. With my whole family. I did call him with Mr. Gaia to talk to him about it. Then I told him that he didn't have to tell anyone and that he shouldn't. I told Oceanus not to make fun of him for it and not to bring it up. Mr. Gaia didn't understand, but when I reminded him that it's family reunion weekend (a hell I got to miss because I HAVE to be at work on Tuesday), he was contrite for not waiting until the boys are back at his mom's.

So, hiding things you don't want to ingest is normal, right? It's not just that we're really weird?

Horrifying sounds

Tanya tagged me with a meme regarding horrifying sounds.

Horrifying sounds in my life:
1) The neighbor who mows at 7am on Saturday morning and crosses over to my yard and mows extremely short.

2) The neighbor with the friend with the Harley who sits right outside my bedroom window revving the engine (I assume he's working on it?) while I'm trying to nap.

3) The 3:00 in the morning sound that indicates one of my children has just upchucked all over his bed and possibly his brother.

4) The sound of fist on flesh that indicates Hyperion has finally gotten frustrated by Oceanus' superior verbal skills and evened the score with a demonstration of his superior physical skills.

5) The sound of a body hitting the floor/wall and no more sounds.

6) A room with my boys that is strangely quiet.

7) Rattling of paper while I'm trying to watch Jon Stewart or a movie that Mr. Gaia isn't that interested in.

8) Vague scurrying sounds that indicate the cockroaches have come inside to seek shelter.

9) Any mechanical sound that is louder than a hum.

I'm sure there are more, but with the boys gone, I find my memory drowning in a sea of "I really want my boys home".

Bah - dieting. Yay - South Padre Island

Dieting sucks! That's all I'm going to say on the subject.

Tonight Mr. Gaia and I took advantage of the boys being away and went to South Padre Island for dinner and a long stroll on the beach.

I love walking on the beach. We stop and watch the coquinas bury themselves back in the sand. We stop and look at little fish. I look for shells with a small hole in them (to make into jewelry, I have an idea, I just need the rest of the tools; or into christmas garland, strung on hemp). I found a perfect scallop shell (just the half).

We watch the kids running around and admire their sandcastles.

Then, as darkness falls (no sunset over the water unless you're on the Laguna side, which has no beach), we watch the crabs come out and scamper around.

All in all, we walked for at least an hour and a half.

Sewing

So, I pulled out the sewing machine last night. I actually did manage to thread it and get the bobbin thread to work. I grabbed an ugly, oversized advertising t-shirt, a crayon and a shirt that fits the way I like.

I drew around the shirt I liked onto the shirt I didn't. Then I sewed zig-zag on the crayon drawing. I didn't necessarily mean to sew zig-zag, but I, um, well, I get impatient with instructions. Then I decided zig-zag isn't such a bad idea on knit. Then I figured out how to get it to stop sewing satin stitch.

The shape is fine below the armpits. From there though? The shoulders still droop on the arms and look really wrong. So I think the next step is to trace the neck line of a tank top I like and cut it out and then sew a hem there. I've been toying with the idea of using a piece of t-shirt of a contrasting color to add a little interest. I also need to shorten it by about a foot. But I'm a little shy about actually cutting the shirt, so far everything I've done is reversible.

I did find a couple of pairs of shorts at the thrift store. I realized just how much weight I've gained, though. I grabbed four pairs of shorts that should have fit and 2 pairs that should have been a little big. Yeah. The two pairs just fit and the others wouldn't close at all. My waist is still fairly trim, but my belly is getting quite large. So, I'm back to tracking my eating on fitday.

Knitting

So, bowing to online peer pressure, I finally decided to learn the continental method of knitting. I have to say that it isn't as hard to learn as I had thought it would be and I think once my hand gets used to holding the yarn (and stops cramping every few minutes) I will be able to knit a lot faster.

I started knitting a bag that I wanted to look like this when I was done but I'm thinking that it just isn't going to work. I'm not sure I will get the nice neat bottom I wanted. Mr. Gaia has suggested using an embroidery hoop to give it structure. I've considered getting heavy gauge wire and making a frame out of it, but I'm not sure how that will work out.

I may just frog the whole project and make a nice hat for my mother in law (knit hats are not flattering to me, as much as I want them to be). And then I can use the pretty, soft crochet cotton for something knit for me (yes, I know crochet cotton sucks for knitting, it doesn't have enough give, but it's something I have and it is pretty and soft).

Biking
9.13 miles. I was really aiming for 10 miles, but without an odometer, it's hard to know how far I've gone. 87.1F, 69% humidity. 17.3 mph SSE winds with gusts of 25.3mph (and believe me, turning into that wind felt like hitting a brick wall, especially since I was stupid and plotted our course to have headwinds at the end).

Wardrobe Refashion

Some of my favorite bloggers are doing (or have done) Wardrobe Refashion. This idea intrigues me. I've spent the whole weekend ignoring Mr. Gaia to read the archives.

They make it look so easy. I want to try sewing. I have a sewing machine in my closet that I got 12 years ago. It's been out of the box once - to make sure it worked. I don't even know how to thread it anymore.

Here are the projects I want to try:
1) Fixing a stained t-shirt that fits like a dream and is the best color for me - but it got hit by some Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk ice cream. In two spots. The main idea I've gotten it to cover the spots with embroidery - which I don't know how to do.
2) Make an a-line skirt out of a yard of remnant fabric I have. I think it would be enough for a shortish skirt and then I could crochet an edging on it (I do know how to do basic crochet). I love a-line skirts and they appear to be the most flattering for me.
3) Remake a nice heavy silk blouse that currently is just a huge square with huge sleeves. I suspect this once had shoulder pads, given the way the shoulder drapes. I think if I took it apart and then found a pattern for a fitted blouse I like, I could use the buttons and buttons holes already on the blouse and remake it from there. This would require learning to sew (I have sewn before, but it's been close to 20 years) and learning to set sleeves.
4) Take in some t-shirts to be more fitted and flattering. This appears to be the easiest remake from the comments in the archives.
5) Remake a really long unflattering skirt into a nice a-line skirt. There is so much fabric in this skirt that I think I could get a really nice twirly skirt out of it. More than the simple a-line skirt that I could do with the remnant.

I'm basically already doing the pledge. I haven't bought any new clothes (other than pajama pants) in months - just thrift store clothes. But I'm not sure I'm ready to fully take the pledge - mainly because I wouldn't be able to post refashions and currently can't do pics (I have a feeling Mr. Gaia may get me a camera for my next birthday but that's still 2 months away).

Biking - no biking today as it was raining, AGAIN! Here in the subtropics we're not sure what to think. I've seen a ton of idiots mowing their lawns today - in the rain. I guess they don't know how to handle rain and the lawn needing to be mowed. We did take a short walk, though.

New pet

My nice co-worker brought me a rhinoceros beetle (well, it may actually be an ox beetle, but we'll call it a rhinoceros beetle). Right now it doesn't have a real habitat and it's just a lonely male. But she says she will look for an aquarium they were planning to get rid of and she will bring him a mate.

From what I can tell, it will live for about 4 months, but maybe we can manage to breed some.

He isn't eating the fruit the sites say he should eat (soft bananas, etc) but I gave him a tea bag and he went nuts. He immediately tore into it and then buried himself in the grounds. I figured that since I brew my tea with fructose, this would at least fice him an approximation of the food he normally eats. I guess he agrees. So I guess I'll need to save my tea bags and give them to him from time to time.

This will be Hyperion's new pet.

Biking -
Short ride tonight because it decided to sprinkle, only 2 miles. 79F, 69% humidity (that's according to weather underground, I would have thought it would have been more like 100% since it was sprinkling). 12.7mph, ESE winds with gusts of 20.7mph.

Wisdom of our Elders

I've been reading the Foxfire books. These are again books that belong to Mr. Gaia and have sat on our shelves for years.

A lot of this stuff will probably never apply to me. I mean, do I really need to know how to butcher a hog? But it's interesting to learn.

I also found a written example of an old wives' tale I've heard all my life. "If the sun shines while it is raining, it will rain the same time tomorrow". I can't tell you how many people have laughed at me when I've said that, but now I can tell them it is in the Foxfire books and isn't just a saying from my crazy family.

Biking -
8.06 miles. 84.9F. 63% humidity. 17.3 mph SE winds with ESE gusts of 24.2 mph.

Local Food

I'm still searching for local food in our area. I think I might have located a CSA, I've sent an email for more information.

Meanwhile, when we travel to Oklahoma, we're ordering food from the Oklahoma Food Coop. Technically it's only open to Oklahoma residents, but shhhh! Actually, they know we live here in Texas, but we were in the first wave of members and we have family in Oklahoma who are willing to pick up our stuff.

Recently we ordered 75 pounds of organic wheat berries. We bought a grain mill (the nutrimill) which is electric (I would have liked one that was manual, but Mr. Gaia wanted us to be sure we'd do this before we added an extra level of effort. We have the grain mill, but won't get the wheat berries for several more weeks. Meanwhile, we might just have to grind some rice for rice flour.

There's a perennial discussion as to which is better - organic or local. Since local doesn't appear to be much of an option here, I'm going with organic as much as possible.

Bug Hill update

Megan is driving me nuts. She's 13 weeks along (I seriously thought it was longer, but she brought in an ultrasound pic). So far, she's taken off work for swollen feet, possible hemorrhoids, and today gas. Yes, she left work at noon because she had gas. Had she taken anything for it? "No, I'm not sure what I can take". So call your doc and ask her. If she's actually going into the office for all these things, you know her OB is ready to scream. From what she's told us, she's had at least 6 OB visits (in 9 weeks, give or take).

Tammy Zain's husband is travelling. So if you see her out and about and she ignores you, don't take it personally. With her kids at summer camp and him gone, she's not sleeping very well. The house is "too quiet, except when it's not". All the little noises that a house makes wake her up because they're no longer just background noise to the snoring, rustling, etc in a full house.

Connie Anderson is starting to plan her mom's 60th birthday party. Theresa Maker reminded her that the "nice" restaurant in town doesn't have a kids' menu and that according to some that makes it completely unsuitable for kids. And then they had a nice belly laugh.

The First Baptist pre-teens are at summer camp for the week. It's been quiet in the town. I'm sure it's a coincidence. It's a great time to visit the municipal pool, though.

Leslie Johnson has asked that I announce that she needs volunteers for floats for the 4th of July parade. She also needs people to sing before the fireworks display and actors/readers for the town history play that will be between the parade and the fireworks display.

Thrift Store shopping

There are 2 thrift stores within walking distance of my office. One is the common Salvation Army thrift store and the other benefits a local charity.

Yesterday I walked to the closest one (the local charity). My mission is to find some new shorts. I bought my current ones in 2003 and they're really showing the wear (I have 3 pairs that I rotate, which was fine when summer was about 3 months long, not so great now that summer is 9+ months long). I know exactly what I want and I've seen them at the outlet mall, but I: 1) don't want to pay full price and 2) don't want to buy new for environmental reasons.

My rules of thrift store shopping are simple:

1) It doesn't matter how cheap it is, if it is missing a button, leave it behind;

2) It must match at least one other item in my closet;

3) Dry clean only items must be really cheap so that it won't be a great loss if they are ruined when I wash them in the regular washer (which I will do); and

4) Always check for stains, holes and other imperfections.

So yesterday I was sort of successful. No shorts (they were all from the 80s - high waisted, pleated fronts, tapered legs). I found 2 blouses I liked and would definitely have worked in my wardrobe. Unfortunately both were too small (thank goodness for dressing rooms). I did end up buying a tank top with a shelf bra. These I use when I bike instead of a sports bra.

Today, I prepared to go to the Salvation Army thrift. I knew they didn't have a dressing room, so I wore a form fitting, thin top under my tunic so I could try on blouses (yes, I'm looking for shorts, but blouses never hurt). I learned a trick from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - take the waist band of the shorts/skirt/pants and wrap it around your neck, if it wraps fully around your neck, it should fit your waist.

I found a pair of shorts that aren't perfect, but are pretty good. I also found the cutest skirt, which I knew would be tight based on the neck test, but it is just a tad bit too small - I think if I lose this 5-10 pounds I'm working on, it will fit fine. Then I found 2 blouses - fitted, vertical stripes and mostly match something in my closet (if jeans count).

The only problem I have is that I need to figure out how to shorten the long sleeves of one blouse to be 3/4 sleeves. I have, apparently, freakishly long arms. It hits just above my wrist bone and just looks country bumpkin. So, if you know how to do this, let me know.

I gifted 2 dresses from my closet to a coworker. I never wear them and indeed am not even sure they would fit. She tried them on and they look 5000 times better on her than they did on me even when they did fit. I do have a hard time letting go of things. My mom bought me these dresses and I wore one of them once and never wore the other one. She got them on sale, so it wasn't something she was wanting to get me for sentimental reasons. Yet, I feel the slightest bit guilty giving away something that she bought for me.

Father's Day

So with the kids out of town, we had a laid back Father's Day. Of course, it didn't help that I was thinking it was THIS weekend, not last weekend. Luckily, I had already picked up a small item to be part of a larger gift, so I had a little something to give him.

Then, we walked to the movie theatre to see "Wild Hogs". It was cute enough and there was one scene that actually made me laugh so hard I couldn't make a sound and tears ran out of my eyes.

After the movie, we walked to the restaurant to have dinner. It was a marvelous meal and I felt I really earned those calories. I didn't map our walk, but it was probably about 2.5 miles total.

I'm really missing the kids. Today Mr. Gaia received a package from them, a shirt with their handprints, little trinkets with their pics (from when they were 2-3) and homemade cards.

One thing I've noticed about the kids being gone - it's much harder to fill up a load of clothes. I finally had to give in and wash a partial load because I was out of clothes. I started throwing in pieces of random bedding to complete the load (well, it needed washed anyway and who says it has to be washed in its own load?).

Biking update -
87.1F, 67% humidity, 12.7mph SSE winds. 3.46 miles.

More cooking

So today, Mr. Gaia made more steel cut oats.

He follows the standard recipe:
1 c of oats
3 c water
pinch of salt (he never uses enough, so I add more after they're done, whole grains NEED salt).

He mixed this together and put it in our corning ware casserole pan. Then let it cook for an hour. They're yummy, nice and creamy.

Then he tried to make oven fried chicken. It wasn't bad, but I'm not a huge fan. He made 3 different kinds - one breast coated in crushed corn flakes, one coated in crushed wheat flakes (he used Uncle Sam's cereal so there were some flax seeds too) and one with just a sprinkling of corn starch. All were seasoned. He let them cook for about 30 minutes (use a meat thermometer to make sure they reach the right temperature). I think using the rack insert for our pan would have made them much better, maybe they would have had a chance to get more crispy. They didn't crisp at all placed flat on the pan.

I think tomorrow I'll try banana bread and see how that works out. But I need to bake more bread, so I'm not sure there will be time or room.

Biking:
89.1F, 59% humidity, 16.1mph SE wind at the beginning. At the end, 84.9F, 67% humidity, 15mph ESE wind. We biked 5.42 miles and it took about an hour. At the end, we stopped at a Raspa (sno-cone) stand and walked the bikes the last half mile home, while we enjoyed our raspas (natural lime for me, natural mango for Mr. Gaia).

No Border Wall

Mr. Gaia brought home a bumper sticker today. "No Border Wall".

For those of you who don't live along the border, this may seem like a no brainer. Why wouldn't people want a wall?

The main reason is that this will have a devastating impact on wildlife. Many endangered species rely on being able to get to the River and have migratory routes that cross the river. The current proposal for the wall is a 2 fence wall with ALL of the vegetation removed between the fences and between the fence and the river. People who have a basic understanding of river bank maintenance will immediately see the inherent harm in this.

I don't have the right words to describe my feelings/emotions/thoughts on this, so let me refer you to some people who do: The Mex Files, Land of Enchantment, OneWorld, Desert USA.

Of course the other reason is that it simply won't work. As long as you have the conditions that are currently in Mexico, people are going to want to cross. Even our homeless live better than a good portion of the population in Mexico.

What gets me is that most of the people who want this fence have never even been to a border area. They have no idea what it's like to live here. I don't feel unsafe living here. I feel safer living here (about 10 miles from the border as the crow flies) than I did living in Oklahoma City. The school my kids attend is miles ahead of the OKC school they would have attended (and we won't even discuss how much better it is than the school I attended). Even though each grade has at least one bilingual class (where the teacher literally teaches in Spanish and English) their test scores (not the be all, end all I grant you) are better than average in Texas. This is one of the poorest counties in the US, we have tons of immigrants and still our schools are better than average.

So how do I propose to control immigration? Well, honestly, I don't. It is a non-issue for me. But for those people who are bothered by it, I offer the following two part proposal: 1) Make the fine for hiring an undocumented worker so much that it will cause a business to go out of business. The fine that was levied against WalMart ended up being so little it didn't even cause a blip on their radar screen. This is typical. 2) Make it illegal and much harder to send money to Mexico. Put restrictions on the amount of money that can be wired out of the country by any person. Yes, people can still mail cash (most won't, I promise you) and they can carry it home with them when they travel home, but if you make it harder for people to get dollars out of the US, that will remove a huge incentive.

The radical liberal in me also suggest schools in border towns that actually pay the kids to attend school. Many kids are pulled out of school and put on the street corner to beg and sell trinkets because it is much harder to US tourists to refuse them than their parents. And because the whole family has to work in order to have a bare subsistence living. Getting the Catholic church to remove their restrictions on birth control would also help.