Our nature walk

Yesterday evening, Garielle wanted to go on a nature walk. She asked me to take pictures of things she pointed out.

Here are some shots of Garielle in the park. (This is the park where we released the mouse we caught in the humane trap, as described in my other blog, Can This House Be Rescued. Don't go there if you're squeamish.)

My daughter's plans

My five-year-old daughter has been making plans for her future.

She would like to run an orphanage. She's given this a great deal of thought lately. She's planned most of it out. She says she'll take both boys and girls, probably totalling about 12 kids. She says she doesn't want to have TOO many, because it would be too hard to take care of them all.

She's come up with a list of policies. Every child will get present on his or her birthday. Every child will get to choose what they want to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No child is allowed to chew with his or her mouth open.

The orphanage will have 2 bedrooms - one very small one for herself, and one huge one for all of the children. The children's bedroom must have a bookshelf full of books. The children won't go to school because she will be their teacher.

She has roles for us to play as well. I'm in charge of cooking, and her father is in charge of lining them up to go on field trips and so on. Also, in the evening, when she wants a night off, I'm in charge of babysitting, and her father is in charge of reading them stories when they go to sleep.

Last night, she even asked me, "Mom, what do I have to do to become someone who can run an orphanage?" I said "You probably need a degree in social work and a degree in early childhood education." "Where do I go for those?" she asked. "You can get them at Mount Royal College," I said.

She fell asleep continuing to think about her plans.

Counting my blessings

It's a hard time for all of our families. On Eric's side, there have been two recent deaths of very good people who were too young, and another relative who is also a dear friend of my mother-in-law's is dying right now. It's supposed to be a matter of days, or even hours. On my side, I have an uncle who has been to hell and back, and then back to hell and back and then, just to make sure it was covered off, back to hell, and is trying to work his way back. And my sister's husband's family is falling to pieces - the mother passed away recently, the father is dispirited and dying, a daughter and a daughter-in-law have been in the hospital, and two sons have had the flu.

My big beefs have been my disgust at what the clothing stores are offering, dissatisfaction with my house, and the fact that we've had housemice. (Read all about that in my blog "Can This House Be Rescued?")

And we're getting ready to go to Disneyland soon.

So my life is pretty damned good.

I'd like to finish an outfit I began sewing awhile back, and then start on some of the vintage patterns I ordered from ebay. Everyone else's lives are full of sturm und drang, and all I can think about are my clothes.

Will Spring EVER come?

So it's April 5. Why, pray tell, is it snowing?

I am sick of all the black winter clothes in my closet.

Well, that's my update. Sorry.

Retro me

So I've been getting my patterns in the mail that I ordered from Ebay. While I was waiting for them, I made it to a fabric store, where I bought patterns and fabric for a tunic, a skirt, 2 shirts, and a pair of pants. I made the tunic - it's splendidly long, covers the tummy nicely and goes an inch below the crotch, which is the perfect kind of garment for lumpy middle-aged women like me. Right now I'm making pants and a top. They're actually quite a bit more stylish and current, but I can control those critical elements, like how much cleavage (if any) is visible, and whether or not the midriff is sufficiently swathed in material.

Tomorrow begins Passover. Every year, I think I'm going to get my shit together for the holiday, and every year, it seems like the weeks and months leading up to it are a mad rush, so the holiday is upon me before I have time to say "Unleavened!"

All we managed to do to prepare for the holiday is buy a box of matzoh. Well, Eric bought the box. I had nothing to do with it.

Thank goodness Eric's mother is still willing to have the first seder. The second night, Eric wants to go hear Arlo Guthrie. And there's still bread and pasta in our kitchen.

For those of you who are curious, Passover takes a heck of a lot of prep to do up properly.

How to prepare for Passover

And in other news, I started two more blogs. As soon as I hit "post," I'll put the links over where the links are. If you don't see them, either I have JUST hit post, or I got called away from the computer.