Monday, January 31, 2011

Eating Day

Every once in awhile Jupiter has an eating day, where she pretty much eats nonstop all day long. Yesterday was that day.

She woke up around 6am, demanding oatmeal. I demanded that she eat the banana kept on her windowsill for the purpose of fulfilling a hunger pang. (note: she was up early again.)

Demanding that she eat the banana did not work.

I made oatmeal. I fed her oatmeal. In bed. She said she was going back to sleep.

She didn't. I did; briefly.

By 7am we were up for the day. At 8:30, she wanted more oatmeal.

At 10am she broke into the bag of pirate booty. I gave her a gladware container of pirate booty.

She ate two more containers of pirate booty after that. Now the bag is 1/3rd gone.

She went outside for 40 minutes.

She came in and ate half a can of dinosaurs.

She ate 5 chocolate covered pretzels.

She ate 1 and 1/2 kiwis.

She ate two pieces of peanut butter toast.

She ate 4 chicken nuggets.

She ate an oatmeal cookie.

Then she ate 1/2 a yogurt tube at bedtime, but couldn't finish it.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Boom!!!!!!!

So today, Mimi brought over Jupiter's food thermos. The one from Wednesday which she haden't been able to get open since. The one Jupiter put the apple juice in with the fried rice she didn't like because it tasted too much like rice. She didn't know if it was broken or if Jupiter just closed it with her super strong muscles.

I tried to open it. I banged it on the counter and then tried to open it. So I got a cheese spreader and tried to get it between the thermos lid and the metal side of the bottle to see if I could break the seal. Jupiter dragged Mimi to the living room to show off her cat. I got the lid a little looser, so kept working at it.

BOOOOOOOMMMMM! The lid exploded off the top of the thermos and flew accross the dining room. Scared me to death. Fortunately the lid was pointed at the farthest point possible, and not at my face, at Jupiter's face (where she normally would have been climbing all over me wanting to help) or the ceiling which would now have a giant hole in it.

I'm not quite sure what caused the thermos to create such a super vaccum seal. Unless Lina's apple juice and rice fermented into some kind of vaccum packed moonshine.

Lesson learned.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Yesterday I woke up

Well, actually I woke up twice. I woke up at 4:30, realized I could sleep another hour, and buried the alarm clock under the pillow so it wouldn't wake up Jupiter when it went off.

It didn't.

I had forgotten to set the alarm entirely and woke up at 6:20.

Really, we should be OUT of the house at 6:20. At the very least, we should be leaving the house.

I skipped the shower (though I did brush my teeth and all the really important stuff). I went and poked Jupiter so she would wake up. She didn't.

I ran to the kitchen and tried to find Jupiter's lunchbox. No lunchbox. Maybe we left that at Mimi's yesterday. I threw her snacks and some clothes into a store bag (I used them for the cat box. But I used a clean one for Jupiter's clothes and food. No worries.). I threw them in the car, started the car, and went to get Jupiter.

She was awake. Not suprising, since I'd been running through the house like a herd of elephants.
We got in the car and drove to Mimi's house.

No lunchbox. No thermos for hot canned dinosaurs for lunch. I try to convince Jupiter to eat hot lunch. It's supposed to be pizza Friday.

Mimi pulled out a long retired lunchbox from I don't know when, and a thermos from last year which may or may not have been designed to keep hot food hot.

I cruised to work. Ten minutes late. Not too shabby for being up 50 minutes late.

At 10:30 I looked in the mirror and decided to wear my hat for the rest of the day.

At the end of the school day, the check out teacher delivered Jupiter to the room where Mimi was working that day. Jupiter did not have the lunchbox she had brought to school that day. She thought it was in the check out room. They trooped back to check out. The check out teacher appeared with Jupiter's regular lunchbox she had apparently left there the day before. Then they had to troop to Jupiter's regular classroom to retrieve the spare lunchbox.

One of the kindergarten teachers laughed in the hallway until she cried at the lunchbox saga.

Normally I'm glad that Jupiter won't touch hot lunch with a 50 foot pole. But some days, it would be convenient.

Today, Saturday morning, Jupiter was up at 5. AM.

Why???

Is it a defiant thing? I'm going to sleep when I can't sleep and wake up when I can sleep?

That must be it.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Photopost Friday in Sepia






Someday I will have current pictures....when I remember to bring the camera with me.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

True Dialogue

"Jupiter? Why didn't you eat your fried rice at lunch today?"

"Because it still tasted too much like rice."

"So, wait. You like fried rice because it doesn't taste like rice?"

"Yeah. And, I can't eat the leftover rice from lunch, because I put my apple juice in it."

"Why did you put your apple juice in it?"

"Because I couldn't throw the apple juice away."

(I should have known to stop earlier. But I couldn't help myself.)

"Why didn't you DRINK the apple juice?"

"I didn't want it." (Duh).

"Well, then why did you open the apple juice if you didn't want it?"

"Well, I did want it then. Then I didn't want it."

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

School calls

Yesterday, the school called twice. In one day.

But it wasn't bad. Not that my heartbeat doesn't start racing as soon as I see any number that ends 183- on my phone.

The first call, at 11:15, was from the school social worker. Jupiter has been making such good choices at school that she will graduate from the behavior check in/check out sheet on Friday. Jupiter is happy about this.

The next call came at 2:15. Jupiter had a vision screening and did not pass the distance vision part of the screening. The school nurse called to tell me in case Jupiter might be worried about it and not give me the form she was sending home. I like the school nurse. I hung up and called the eye doctor to add Jupiter to the appointment I'd made for myself two days before. Two specialist co-pays in the same day.

I got the form (Jupiter handed it over willingly. I'm not sure she was aware she did not pass the screening) and it said her vision was 20/50 in one eye and 20/60 in the other eye. I always figured when she put her face right down to the paper she was just blocking all the extraneous stimuli.

My uncorrected vision is 20/400. Just for perspective. Although the number of things I can do in the dark without bothering to turn on a light suprises me sometimes.



I can't imagine Jupiter with glasses. I can see her taking them on and off all. day. long. I can see her taking them off and spinning them in the air. I can see her throwing them in the air and catching them. But actually wearing them, I'm having a hard time envisioning.

Side note: I got my glasses in third grade. The first time we went to the ocean that summer, I looked out over the water and promptly asked my mother "When did they put that island out there?"

Update on hiding things in stores: I drove to work this morning and they were STILL asking that question. They almost NEVER run the same topic for two days in a row.

And for those commenters who feel bad because they have done this (:)).....today a man called who went to a big box hardware store during an ice storm and found a generator. He did not have enough money for the generator, so he made himself a nice sign that said "Motor Blown", went to the bank, got more money, and went back to get his generator he had hidden in plain sight.

I ask you: if you were going to look for a generator, why wouldn't you bring enough money with you to buy the generator? It's not like a generator is an impulse buy or something. You pretty much have to intend to buy one ahead of time.


And update two: the radio co-host who hid the purse in the store for three weeks is now planning to return the purse back to the store because it is not big enough.

I kid you not.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Hiding Things

This morning, after I dropped Jupiter off and attempted to make my commute through the "light" falling snow, the radio station announced their call in topic for the day.

Hiding things in stores to go back and get later. Waiting for it to go on sale, don't have enough money with you, whatever. Apparently the radio show co host did it with a wallet three weeks ago.

And I thought Jupiter was the only one who did that. She's been doing that since she could enter stores not riding in the cart. My favorite was the can of Pringles she hid in the drugstore (behind some other bags of chips). Two days later, she went and retrieved it.

Now she does it with clothes. I keep hoping she'll forget. But she never does.

Monday, January 24, 2011

PTO

So my boss wants me to figure out when I am going to use all except 8 days of PTO that I have this year.

Let me be clear: I am NOT in the least complaining about having 280 (plus about 30 hours left over from last year) hours of PTO to use up. It's the top reason I haven't left the bank to become an edcator (or a farmer). In fact, the whole reason I wanted to work for the bank when I started was because they had holidays. We don't have many holidays anymore; but I have PTO.

So while our computer systems were down this morning, I worked on the PTO Project. (sounds like a PBS committee or something). I wrote down two weeks in August and Christmas week. That used up 120. I put in a day next week when Jupiter had to go to the orthodontist. I made my optometrist appointment for the same day so I could justify not going to work at all. I randomly took two days in March to celebrate Spring and two days in April so if the stars and planets line up in exactly the right order, we can go to Montreal for two days during April vacation. I put in the mandatory (we think) holidays...Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. I took the day after Thanksgiving just because I wanted too. Then I put in a note for a non specific day in May or June and a non specific day in December that I will need for Jupiter's school music concerts; as yet unscheduled.

My boss loves that.

Still have time. I'm sure I can use it up between snow days and sick days, though.


Speaking of snow days, it was 5 degrees at 4pm when I left work today. The tv keeps informing me that its the coldest weather we've had in two years. I know. Last year we didn't have a true Maine winter.

It was great. I loved it.

But it was fun to imagine warm summer days when I get to use the PTO.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

God bless warm water indoor pools

Amen.


I always forget the look of pure joy that lights up my daughter's face the first two minutes of swimming. Especially after a months long hiatus from same.

She swam for about two hours and only gave it up because she had to go to the bathroom. Otherwise I think she would have stayed until they literally threw us out of the pool at 4:30.

And boy was she mellow tonight. Didn't even get mad at the money counting worksheet we finally got finished. And she asked to snuggle on the couch while we watched The Alaska Experiment. I'm not sure why she likes the Alaska Experiment. But hey.


Our free Y card is good for another week. How many times can we get back in the pool this week, I wonder?

God bless pools.

Amen.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Mystery

Tonight's question:

Jupiter's laptop (clarification: not a real laptop. A pretend laptop she made out of a large sheet of drawing paper which she folded in in half, drew a large apple on the front labled "apol", and on the inside drew lots of squares with letters on them, as well as a bunch of other buttons) is not on the kitchen table anymore. Is it....

1. In Jupiter's lifebook where I meant to put it? Did I put it there and forgot?

or...

2. Is it NOT in Jupiter's lifebook, even though now I THINK I put it in her lifebook even though I don't remember putting it in her lifebook?

Friday, January 21, 2011

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Better....

I knew a day would come when attachment parenting would trump homework. That day is today. Jupiter's homework page is not done, and I am actually quite proud of that. We'll do it over the weekend, but we were not going to do it today.

Normally we don't do homework on Thursdays. We try to get it all done on Monday so by the end of the week we can focus on other things. However, there was no school Monday, Tuesday in the snow I forgot to pick up her backpack on the way out the door when I picked her up, and yesterday we did two worksheets. But that money counting one.....

Have I mentioned she hates money counting?

So she melted down when I ended homework time, but I did not get sucked into the vortex. Once we got past that meltdown, she was calm and ate a bowl of fried rice, had a shower and bath, and decided she wanted to sleep in my bed. I agreed. After we read a story she was asleep in ten minutes.

Ahhh...peace.

It's supposed to snow again tomorrow....maybe school will get cancelled and she'll have all weekend to finish the money counting.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

gotta change things up

Jupiter is spinning all day, exhausted at night, and it is not fun. Everything is an argument and/or a power struggle. As much as I try not to participate in a power struggle, because by definition it should take two people to have one of those. But I am evidently failing at disengaging. She had to do homework tonight and literally the entire time complained about school and homework and anything else she could think of to be negative about.

She needs to go to the pool. Badly needs to go to the pool. I want very badly to take her to the pool. I don't think the pool people want Miss Croupy Cough in the pool though. I wish I had a soaking tub...anything. I wish we could go to Puerto Rico for the weekend and boogie board and sit in ocean waves.

This is my worst time of year. I hate cold and dark winter. So a trip to Puerto Rico would probably be more for me.

Tomorrow is a new day...

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Mom, are you an innapropriate girl?

Apparently Jupiter (she of the "belly shirts are the best thing ever, and I don't get why Mom won't let me wear them") thought my shirt was too low while we were reading tonight. And it is evidently not okay for me to wear a tank top with built in shelf support in the privacy of my own home. Also evidently I was having a hot flash at the time, because ordinarily in January I am bundled up in multiple layers of clothing, hats and blankets.

Rates up there with the day I left one of Jupiter's sparkly gold headwraps on my desk at work and my boss glanced at it on the way by and thought it was a pair of thong underwear.

Yeah, Maria. That's for my 2nd job. It's called innapropriate girl. Don't worry, the thong I left on my desk is clean.

Nope. Not me. I am astoundingly boring.

Now I'm having a different kind of hot flash. It's called just finished shoveling my driveway in the light of the streetlamp after Jupiter went to sleep in the half hour window after the snow turns to freezing rain which means no more accumulation but before the 1/2 inch of ice accumulation makes the snow too heavy to move.

Jupiter didn't want to fall asleep last night and consequently was a mean bear most of the day. She was also up early this morning. She was in the orange zone at school and was only at school for four hours because of early dismissal. She argued with every. single. thing. I said. All day. Probably even when I wasn't there. So tonight, she got to go to bed early. Her cough is hanging tough. Now accompanied by a very runny nose. She doesn't notice when there are streams of mucus running down her face until someone reminds her. (Really, I do try. Haven't yet figured out how to get her to pay attention to that on a regular basis.) Now the skin under her nose is irritated and it makes her more grumpy.

Hopefully she sleeps. All night. And awakens in the morning magically cleansed of any cold germs.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Winter Storm Warning

Another Maine storm's coming. Whoohoo.

Jupiter better hope she's not going to school tomorrow, because she's not going to sleep now.

This time we get snow, followed by sleet and freezing rain. Can't wait to drive home in it tomorrow. Good things...less snow. Bad things...snow covered with a layer of ice and soaked through with rain is a bear to shovel.

Ah well.

The sun was shining right in my face when I drove home today. It was not twilight at 4pm.

And it was 14 degrees at 4pm. My furnace just came on again.

Go here. Read this.

Mama C puts it better than I can. And certainly in a more constructive way than my personal boycott of the title of governor in regards to the person who currently holds the title.

http://mamacandtheboys.com/2011/01/17/an-open-letter-to-my-governor-paul-lepage/

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Medicine Battle

Well, now the melty strips don't work.

Here's the thing.

With a palate expander in place, a child is not capable of rubbing the roof of her mouth with her tongue. So if the melty strip is on the tongue, it's harder to disolve. If it happens to get stuck on the roof of her mouth, well.....let's just have an anxiety episode followed by a defiant refusal to swish water around to remove the melty strip. This is why I avoid giving her medicine at all costs.

I asked her if her ears hurt yesterday, which led to a discussion about if you go to the doctor for an ear infection, where do they give you the shot? I told her that normally, one does not get a shot for an ear infection. You get nice medicine that tastes like bubble gum and swallow it. I don't know where one gets an antibiotic injection for an ear infection.

I just threw away the ten melty strips left in the box. Which was completely stupid and didn't solve anything. But I had to do something. So there. Stupid melty strips.

I am coming down with the cold. Not sure if it's Jupiter's cold or the work cold, or a hybrid of both colds. Excellent. We went to the grocery store today in workout pants and pj's. And of course, saw someone from Jupiter's school. But she thought wearing pj's to the store was pretty cool.

We parked on the side of the building, so I let her push the cart by herself along the walkway in front of the store. She skipped along in her pj's pushing the cart, happy as a clam.

Can clams actually feel happiness? I am not sure. But Jupiter was happy as one, if they can.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Library Day

Today we went to the library.

I got books for myself that look really interesting. Which makes sense, of course. But normally, for that to happen, I go online, study the card catalogue and decide which books I want, and then place hold requests on them. Then the librarians go pull the books off the shelves and put them behind the circulation desk so I don't have to haul Jupiter all around the library while she demands to know when we will be leaving.

I should clarify. She loves the library. As long as it's the part of the library SHE is interested in.

This system of requesting books, while convenient, generally means I have nothing new to read for several weeks. Then three or four or five books come in all at one time and I have to decide which book to read first.

Sometimes being tired is my own fault, because I stay up too late reading instead of listening to my body (which I say to Jupiter how many times a day????) and going to sleep when I know I'm tired. Like last night, I stayed up late having a conversation with Elmo during which I maintained I will not call the head of the State of Maine by his proper title of Governor. Then I stayed up late reading the book I had already started. Then Jupiter had her 11:30 coughing spell and I went to lay down with her. Where I fell asleep.

So anyway, today we went to the branch library instead of the main branch. The catalog indicated Ramona and her Mother was on the shelf at the branch library. (I can't find my copy.) Right off I saw two interesting books. Jupiter picked up two chapter books and some kids graphic novel about somebody called Baby Mouse. I found the Ramona book. We chose a couple of easy reader books for Jupiter to read on her own.

Then we went to check out, and sitting on the circulation desk on display was another book that looked good (involved cooking). So I grabbed that one too. One of my goals for this year is to check out of the library with fewer than 22 books. Seriously, we've done that. Repeatedly. I'd love to know the patrons with the highest ciculation records. I bet I'm on that list.

But now I have to finish the book I've already started before I can read my three excellent library books. Guess I'll be up late again finishing that book.

BTW, I am posting late tonight because I had to start a batch of yogurt in the yogurt maker. Once the milk goes in the yogurt maker, it just sits there for 8 hours. Heating up a 1/2 gallon of milk to 180 degrees at a low heat, however, is not a quick process. Finally managed to make yogurt the consistency of greek yogurt this week. Mixed it with fresh strawberries and homemade museli and a little sugar. And spent this week at work waiting in anticipation for the 10:30 stretch break so I could eat yogurt. But the last time I started a batch of yogurt in the evening, I put it in too early, so I had to get up at 4am to turn OFF the yogurt maker. Not a problem tomorrow.

Jupiter would like it known that she read the entire kids graphic novel all to herself in one day. She is wicked proud, as we say here in Maine. Though, come to think of it, I don't think I've heard Jupiter use "wicked" in that context. As much as she does enjoy purposely throwing in an exaggerated Maine accent every now and again just for the look I give her.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Candy

My child is addicted to candy.

As it turns out, while I was outside shoveling yesterday, she located the bag of leftover Halloween/Christmas candy that I had been meaning to take to work. She ate some candy, then hid the bag under her bed.

While we were doing bedtime reading, she indicated that her doll had fallen off the side of the bed. She leaned over the side of the bed to get the doll.

She also got two snack size Kit Kats. Wiggled around. Hid under the covers.

and ate two snack size Kit Kats. While I was right next to her. Without my knowledge.

Until I smelled the candy on her breath.

Just prior to the KitKats, she has finished a delmonte purple freeze pop because I tortured her with a purple cough melty strip, hoping she would sleep through the night without waking up coughing. I was hoping the grape freeze pop would make the purple melty strip flavor more tolerable.

This was after the little dish of ice cream I let her have after supper because she didn't have any during the day.


This morning, I found out that yesterday, Jupiter served herself a bowl of whip cream and chocolate syrup while Mimi was out shoveling. (Jupiter doesn't normally get to stay in by herself, but her cough is irritated by cold air.). Mimi didn't know about the chocolate syrup until late last night when she went to do the dishes. I told her to check the chocolate syrup bottle to see if there is any left in the bottle.

Last night, Jupiter couldn't fall asleep. I can't imagine it had anything to do with the 800 grams of sugar she ate yesterday. The cough wasn't helping either. I finally got her to sit with me in the rocking chair wrapped in a blanket until the cough settled down a little. Then she finally fell asleep, although it was after 9pm.

Today she didn't have desserts (with the exception of the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies I put in her lunch because of the oatmeal. And the flaxseed I put in with them.). And she didn't ask for desserts either.

The team at work is enjoying the Halloween/Christmas candy.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Survived the storm

Well, I managed to travel safely too and from work. The forecaster, of course, indicated we would get 5-9 inches of snow and it would fall mostly while I was at work. I drove to work in moderate snow.

Then the storm hit. We got the 9 inches during the first four hours of the storm. And it was still snowing.

I should have just stayed home. ( I felt bad because I called out during the last storm. Apparently I forgot that I have 280 hours of PTO for a reason. Like if it snows, stay home.) Like the 5 smart people in my department who didn't come in at all. The rest of us were stuck leaving early and driving home during the worst of the storm.

I got to Mimi's house to pick up Jupiter and couldn't get the car in the driveway because the wall of snow at the end of the driveway was about as tall as the car itself. So I parked on the street with the hazard lights on and climbed through the snowbank. Snow got in my boots. Jupiter grabbed her coat and ran outside through the snow drifts. Her cough which is beginning to sound bronchitisy will undoubtedly appreciate that.

The wall of snow in front of my own driveway wasn't quite as tall as Mimi's; but it was tall enough. I sent Jupiter in the house and Elmo helped me shovel the driveway. I had to run to retreive the car from the street when the town plow came through. If we actually get the town plow and not some dinky contracted plow, you know its a real storm.

But we're home now and safe. I'm still chilled from being outdoors. But I get a chill anytime it's under 50 degrees, so I'll probably live. Jupiter is going to have a warm shower and I am going to fill up the humidifier in her room. The snow is falling less heavily know (naturally. If I had stayed at work it would still be coming down at 2 inches an hour) but the wind is picking up. I'm glad to be home before dark.

Jupiter will probably have chicken noodle soup for supper (again) and I will finish my veggie harira soup I made on Sunday to go with the sourdough baugettes. We will finish reading Ramona Quimby, Age 8, and with any luck will go to bed early.

My super extra nice terrific snowblower owning neighbor (technically he has custody of two snowblowers AND a teenage son) is widening my driveway now. I am thankful.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

More snow on the way

Called out of work for the last storm, so I guess I should go to work tomorrow. I think now I wish I would have picked the last storm to work. Doesn't sound like going to work will be too bad, it'll be driving home that's the fun time. I wish it would snow on the weekend only.

Jupiter likely won't have school tomorrow and is happy about that. I'll be sitting on the cell phone waiting for the text notification that there is no school, because I have not packed her a lunch. Not that she eats it anyway when I do pack it.

Looking forward to shoveling tomorrow. Not!!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Homeade Bread

Yesterday I made sourdough baugettes.

A miracle in the fact that I managed to revive my sourdough starter from 5 solid months of negect.

Then another miracle happened.

Jupiter asked if she could try my bread.

Then she liked the bread!

As a rule, she does not eat anything I make from scratch, with the exception of pancakes.

Then she said she would only eat bread that I make from now on.

Yikes. That's a lot of baking.



sourdough baugette recipe: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/ultimate-sourdough-baguettes-recipe

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Question of the Day

Is it possible to remove dried sparkly nail polish from hair?


update: sissors work. She wasn't too pleased with the hair removal. I did not cut more than I had too.

Natural consequences.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Overheard today

"Mom, when can I study history?"

(Mom)- Any time you want. What is it that you want to learn about? We'll look it up for you."

Pause.

"You know....Rudolph went down in history!"

Friday, January 7, 2011

Thursday, January 6, 2011

alternative pay scales

Today at work, I decided I would like to get paid by the keystroke. If Charles Dickens was paid by the word, I don't see why it can't work, really. I wonder what a 1 percent raise would be in keystroke?

Three or four years ago, I remember wanting to be paid by the staple. But I don't staple anything anymore. The stapler is just a fancy desk decoration. I bought my own personal stapler because the stapler that came with my desk wouldn't actually staple anything.

Today I asked Jupiter if she had anything planned for my birthday tomorrow. Just so I would know if I had to bake myself a cake or anything like that. Jupiter said she wants to go shopping together for my birthday because the only time we get to go shopping together is to buy food. L But she doesn't actually want to buy anything for me for my birthday. She would be okay with buying things for her. She loves things. Any Things. It doesn't have to be anything in particular. Just a Thing. But before we got out of the car tonight she gave me a very nice heart picture today that she drew. :)

The moon is still a bitty crescent sliver.

It's COLD. It was about 30 degrees at 4pm this afternoon and the temperature had dropped 5 degrees before I got home. Sunny this afternoon...I found a sunny window at lunch and fortunatly today nobody came along and closed the shade on me. Because seriously, we get sunlight (if it happens to be sunny in the first place) for 6 hours a day right now. Why on earth would you want to close the shades and BLOCK the sun when it is out? I love sun.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

moonrise

I forgot I wanted to post about the beautiful crescent moonrise we saw on the way home. And I love how Jupiter always notices stuff like that, even when I feel permanently stuck in fast forward.

My girl is BAACK

Only at home though. School was fine. It's astounding how very quickly fatigue can affect her behavior choices. She had lots of mean voice for me tonight.

And I tried to cook supper. On the stove. More ambitious than the usual microwaved leftovers I usually do. I put water on to boil while I went to start Jupiter's shower. She wanted to take her shower by herself. Instead of giving her free reign with the shampoo bottles (because I need some in the morning) I put shampoo in one dixie cup, conditioner in another dixie cup, and showed her which bottle was the body wash.

Thank heavens she wanted to take the shower by herself (so not typical). I got back to the kitchen and found that I'd turned on the wrong burner, so that instead of a pot of boiling water I was melting three plastic spoons on my ceramic cooktop.

That smelled nice. Jupiter appeared half naked to ask what the smell was. I turned on the vent fan and opened the kitchen windows wide lest we die of plastic smell poisoning. Fortunately the kitchen didn't burn down. Made macaroni and cheese for me and chicken noodle soup and peanut butter toast for Jupiter (acceptable supper number one. She hates mac and cheese).

Hyouter appeared in the kitchen naked and dragged me back to the bathroom so I could "help" her get dressed. Then she decided she could do it herself and kicked me out. Then she decided she needed help. Then she crawled into bed and wanted to stay there, but I refused to spoon feed her soup in bed ( I did say if she wanted to stay in bed she could have the toast and her usual yogurt and banana). But she got up to eat some soup and half her toast.

Then we read. We're reading Ramona the Brave right now. Ramona doesn't like first grade either. Jupiter identifies with Ramona. She talked me into an extra chapter. I love story time. Sometimes I read for 45 minutes. She snuggles with me and we're generally not having any battles. What's not to like?

Anybody know how to get the remnants of plastic spoon off ceramic cooktop?

Maine weather: same as yesterday. And I thought the weather update would be interesting. HA HA HA

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Nighttime wakefulness

Jupiter was up last night. I wonder how she always pulls that off when I fell asleep late to begin with. She knows.

So anyway, she was up (for a reason she would prefer I not post in the blog, but it doesn't happen often anymore) and we got her changed and she got into bed with me. She didn't take too long to fall asleep.

Me on the other hand, then couldn't get back to sleep. Then I was awake early to keep the alarm from waking her up. If I had a dime for everytime I yawned at work today, I could probably pay for the new session of therapeutic riding which starts Saturday. (Invoice came in the mail today, but I am afraid to open it). Though the odds are good I would have yawned a lot anyway from sheer repetitiveness. In addition to repetitive, it is also demoralizing when I work very hard to clear over and above the required number of alerts each day, and then receive an team email stating that we are no where near reaching our goal. Believe me, I know. Fortunately they hired me, who will work as fast as humanely possible for absolutely no reward whatsover, just because I have an inborn work ethic which I can't override no matter how hard I try. When I die, is the fact I cleared 42 alerts in one day going to make any headlines? Will Jupiter care that I did that? Nope.

Well, let's just watch this post go off on a tangent. (See title. Here are the results). And I didn't really have any good post ideas anyway.

Jupiter had an excellent day at school again. Two in a row...tomorrow is a Wednesday half day so I'm optimistic about it too. She got lots of positive reinforcement for the completed and NEATLY done homework. WHOOHOOOO!

Weather notes: same as yesterday, less windy, more cloudy.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Homemade yogurt

I received my long longed for yogurt maker for Christmas. I know it's possible to make homemade yogurt without an actual yogurt maker. However, I need something simple and easy.

This year I discovered Greek yogurt. They were a dollar a cup though. When the store had them in stock. And all the store yogurt seems to have lots of extra ingredients. Jam should have pectin. Yogurt should not. Yogurt should have milk.

So anyway, I got the yogurt maker on Saturday. On Sunday, we went to the store basically so I could buy milk to play with my new yogurt toy.

It's not as easy as dumping the milk in the machine and plugging it in though. (which you would think it would be, for what the machine retails for). So I heated up the milk til it was frothy (there was a thermometer in the box? Really?), let it cool down til it felt lukewarm, added two packets of freeze dried yogurt starter to one cup of warm milk, added that to the rest of the milk, poured it into the yogurt machine. THEN I plugged it in and waited 8 hours.

It actually made yogurt. It was thinner than the greek yogurt because I didn't get around to draining out the whey for three more days. And being accustomed to store bought yogurt, it was quite tangy. But pure intense yogurt flavor. But I spent the week eating it at work with various toppings/sweetners.

Still experimenting. So far I've tried diced peaches and sugar (good), honey (nice contrast) and a jar of baby food pears (not good).

Saturday I tried to make a new batch of yogurt using some of the previous batch as starter. Not successful. Not sure why.

Sunday I bought more milk (hopefully I will break even from the yogurt making before too long) and went back to the freeze dried starter. I also pawed through the recycling until I found the yogurt machine box and the thermometer still in the box. Then I had to stay up til 10:30 waiting for the yogurt machine to incubate for 8 hours.

Currently I am draining the whey out of the latest batch. Did I mention how purely white the strained homeade yogurt is? Love it. My co-workers are all intrigued by the great yogurt making project. I suggested getting a department yogurt machine.

Tomorrow I can have yogurt for morning snack again.


Jupiter had a great day at school today. She had a great night at home tonight (there was no money counting homework). She did Wii obstacle coursing for 15 minutes, ate a cucumber and dip, declined to eat her soup and peanut butter toast, and sat down to her homework. She did all four assignments and took the time to do quality work. She helped pack her lunch for tomorrow. We read for a half an hour. While we were reading she ate two yogurt tubes (unfortunately she is not interested in converting to homeade yogurt) and a banana. She's listening to her music but not asleep yet. Whoohoo!!


Maine almanac: 01/03

Sunrise: 7:15

Sunset: 4:16. (we've gained five minutes since the solstice).

Temperature at 4pm: about 30.

Weather: dusting of snow overnight, sunny and windy during the day

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Monopoly

Jupiter has a thing about money counting.

She's supposed to be learning how to count pennies, nickels and dimes at school. She hates it. Every time I open the homework folder and there's a money counting exercise in there, I cringe. And yet say brightly, "Oh look! We get to count change! How cool is that?". And then I dodge the flying pencils.

Anyway, yesterday we played Monopoly for the first time. It turns out I've had a brand new Monopoly game downstairs in my house probably since I moved in 9 years ago. So we opened it up.

Boy, did Jupiter like that game. I beat her, but only by a few hundred dollars (Elmo came in a distant third, having spent much of the game landing in jail). She may not be able to count change, but her dollar counting showed great promise. She owned three out of four trains. I honestly didn't expect her to take to the game that quickly. I want another monopoly game specifically designed for pennies, dimes, and nickels. Because if she can do it with tens, fives, and ones to collect and pay theoretical rent, she should be able to do it with pennies, dimes, and nickels. I think we played for about two hours...at any rate I looked at the clock and said "It's 8pm!!).

She wanted to play again this morning. She ended up owning three trains again. We quit early though....and she did beat me.

School starts again in the morning. Flying pencils coming soon...

New Years Resolutions

So, ok, this is yesteday's post. I belive Wordpress (where I do not have a blog, but why split hairs?) is beginning a blog a day challenge this year. (Thanks, Mama C! http://mamacandtheboys.com/2011/01/01/postaday-2011/) 365 days in row......which I think should be a challenge considering I've posted 3 times in the last four months and one of those posts really doesn't count. And techinically, I did NOT post yesterday, so I've already failed that challenge. But why split hairs? If I post twice today, we'll call it even. And see if I make it through the first two weeks.

Okay, so that's resolution number one.

2. Set the alarm 15 minutes earlier for work mornings. Rushing in the morning is bad. I know this. 15 minutes makes a difference.

3. Actually GET UP 15 minutes earlier on work mornings. Extra time not to be used for snooze alarming. Must split that hair.

4. Spend more quality time with Jupiter.

5. Spend less quality time arguing with Jupiter.

6. Bring the pile of stuff meant for Goodwill TO Goodwill.

8. Follow the meal plan again. Plan meals in advance and buy the food I need for those meals. If I'm going to be a food snob, I have to plan ahead so I can afford to be a food snob.

9. Exercise, even if it's only Wii Exercising. Lose some of the weight I've gained in the last five years.

10. Get a new couch/futon. Seriously. I have the worst looking couch ever, with very little upholstry left because the cat has destroyed it (which in fact was why the last people sent her to the animal shelter in the first place) and big gold balls for feet. Currently very attractively covered in pink flannel king size sheets. I'm thinking futon because it will be more difficult for the cat to destroy. But honestly, a couch would be less expensive.

11.????? More later on this one.



Well, that's it. Nothing terribly original.

See you later today for today's post....