Strawberry Yogurt Soup

Hello!  I've been busy with house stuff and retaining my sanity.  Much of my time has been spent trying to resolve our current health insurance mess.  We were approved to have OHP, but they still had it on record that we had private insurance, which we lost when my husband got laid off, so I've been having to untangle it.  I wont go into more detail as it is confusing and borning.  I think I'm finally near the end of it!  I'm still fixing doctor appointments though.  My doctor that I just got doesn't take my new insurance so I'm having to switch again, as well as other family appointments.

Good news!  My husband started a new job last week!  It's through a temp agency, but both the agency and the workplace have made my husband feel appreciated and productive.  He's also on day shift!  Hallaluja!  He gets up at 5 a.m. now, instead of 10 a.m.  I'm adjusting my schedule a little bit (I used to get up at 6:30) so I'll be getting up with him.  It's *so nice* to be able to cuddle with him instead of sleeping alone.

I've been doing art on the computer these last few weeks.  I've had several graphic design orders - a few repeat customers came back.  I love hand dyers!  They make such lovely yarn and they like to dress them up with pre-printed labels, which I am happy to make for them.  :D  It's so satisfying to work with other artists! :)

Ooh, I don't think I told you all that we got a fish!  Anna's been wanting fish for quite some time but I didn't have any time or money to invest into an aquarium.  I told her it would have to wait until after Pandora, our ferret, was gone.  She passed a few months ago now and my daughter was having a hard time with it, so I was thinking it would be a really good idea to try to get fish sooner rather than later.  So I started looking at fish books with her and we decided on a betta and a mystery snail.

Then a friend had a betta they were thinking about getting rid of; apparently he killed any tank mates and she didn't like that.  I told her that was funny as we were thinking about getting a betta and a snail.  So we talked about it a bit more and they brought over the whole 5.5 gallon tank a couple days later!  Anna was thrilled!  While I started working on getting everything set back up Anna decided to name him "Soup."  😂  The previous owner told me she'd named him "Strawberry Yogurt" because of his red/white coloring.  So his full name is "Strawberry Yogurt Soup."  Hehe.

I've been working on getting him happy as there were a few things making him upset.  He didn't like the stronger current of the filter so I changed it.  Then he got sick (probably from stress from the move) and there were a lot of nitrates in the water.  I've been doing daily water changes to fix that.  He seems much happier and relaxed than he was when we first got him.  He's settling in nicely.

Note: His fins have healed more since this picture was taken.  I'll post more later. :)

Never a dull moment!

I'm back, again.  I really don't like being away but sometimes I really can't help it.  😥

So just as I was getting on a roll with my blog things go reeeeeal interesting in my life.  Sigh.  Things never are simple. lol  First I had an anxiety breakdown.  I got help and got the ball rolling to get mental health services for myself and special needs services for my kids.  THEN, my husband got laid off from his stable job of 9 years.

I'm actually okay about my husband being laid off as things were getting ugly at work.  His superviser was being abusive and getting away with it, and I was really done with the whole swing-shift thing making me a single parent.  (It had been 2 years on that schedule!)  But with having gotten all the balls rolling for all of the health care I couldn't just let it all drop.  I need to resolve my anxiety with a councilor.  My boys need extra services for their special needs.  My husband needs to continue to take his medications or he will die.  (Today is the 1 year anniversary of the day I nearly lost him to heart failure and a pulmanary embulsism.)

I had to do all the paperwork, appointments, and phone calls to get health insurance through the state, which I did.  Then some things with what was approved was wrong so I'm still going through all the steps to get it straightened out.

Meanwhile I haven't had terribly much time and attention to do any in-depth crafting.  I'd mostly sit down on the couch in the evening with an audiobook and my knitting, and promptly fall asleep instead.  It was mighty frustrating!  Then an opportunity came up that I couldn't pass:  My husband's schedule had changed so he'd be home with the kids and I could go play Dungeons and Dragons in our friend's group.

I haven't been able to play regularly since I was in college.  Several months ago I created a character for a 1-off event and I'll be playing her: Professor Arryn, an overly curious half-elf who sold her soul to and Elder God in trade for knowledge (warlock).  I've decided to actualy MAKE my Book of Shadows (my pact boon).  I'll be doing it art-book style from an old book I had in crafting supplies, convienantly titled Magic Made Easy. lol  It's a discarded library book, which further goes with my character's background.  Maybe I'll write some stories later of her adventures and share them with you.  We'll see, but I will definately keep you updated on the progress of my book! :)  So far I've copy/pasted some of the text I'll need handy from the downloadable version of the Players Handbook and printed it out to paste into my book.  (Our family owns two hard copies of it and this is for private use only so I should be okay.) 

In addition, an online friend is getting married very soon.  I'm working on some crochet hearts that she's requested so her online crew can be represented at her wedding.  :)  I've made three so far.  I'm going to see if I can make 3-9 more and mail them out by Saturday.

So that's what's going on currently.  There's a lot to do and I hope to get back to my regular schedule again.  That's all the time I have for now, so TTFN.

P.S. My husband got a temp job yesterday.  Yahoo!

Job Rewards System

The job system I have set up for my kids had grown stale; I would assign points with signatures on the refrigerator and then award prizes out of a box.  Unfortunately, my daughter tried to sneak some of the prizes, so I put them in a cupboard out of reach.  Out of sight, out of mind. :(

I used my husband as a sounding board.  What would work?  Should I hang them on a clothesline?  Should I stick them to the outside of cupboard?  What if I displayed them on the wall a la Chucky Cheese?  (We'd been to two birthday parties last weekend, both were at arcades with prize walls.).  I liked this idea, but where would I put it so that 1) it didn't take so much work I wouldn't upkeep it 2) the kids couldn't sneak things easily and 2) it needs to not look tacky.  This is my home after all!

My exhaustion-induced OCD babbling continued until about 12:30 a.m. when I finally struck upon the idea that I'd go with:  I'd tape poster board to the inside of a cabinet's glass window and affix prizes and coupons to it with mounting puddy!  This particular cabinet is on the side of our TV and isn't used as much as the other side so I wouldn't be blocking anything vital.

Peanuts Strike Again!

Last week was Spring Break.  Not only were my kids home all week, but the kids I daycare for were here all week as well.  I had the whole week planned for to keep them all busy so they didn't eat me.  (You know that meme where Chris Pratt is keeping the raptors at bay?  Yeah, that's my home every day.)  The week went rather well.  Yes, there were mild disasters, but nothing unexpected.  Paint got everywhere as we all made treasure boxes (tutorial is coming soon!), popcorn got all over the floor, many cookies were eaten, and several episodes of Gumby were watched.

My kitchen was a wreck all week.  But not for the reasons you would think.  Sure, the kids used a lot of extra dishes but I was running the dishwasher three times a day.  The problem was that I was running another peanut purge.  Yup.  Tuesday morning we had peanut butter in the dishwasher again.

Sigh.

Spring is here!

While Oregon teases us and lets us see the sun every once in a while, I know that more sun is coming.  It is already much warmer and after such a harsh winter we are ready to get outside! 

I’ve been working a lot in the garden this week, cleaning, setting up, and repotting the plants that the kids started over two weeks ago.  I live in an apartment so I don’t have and ground to dig in, but I do have a good space for a potted garden.  

Really I have a brown thumb.  I have killed so many plants it isn’t funny.  I have been trying to learn over the years what works for me and what doesn’t.  For the longest time I couldn’t have indoor plants and my ferret would dig them up, or my kids would knock them over.  My kids will ever be a danger, lol, but I’ve learned better placement when I have plants indoors.  TV trays in the corner by the sliding glass door work pretty well.

On the porch I’ve had realize that I have FULL SUN all day long and certain plants don’t do so well, or don’t do well if I don’t keep them *really well watered.*. (Cough) Sorry tomatoes! (cough). So I’ve skipped the more delicate plants until I improve with my diligence of caring for the plants.

Last year I had a *gorgeous* succulent that I unfortunately lost to an insect invasion in the fall.  It spread to a few other plants I had, too, which was really sad.  I’ll have to get another one of those.  Besides desert plants, I have a spider plant that my sister gave me from her Mother Ship.  I’ve named it Satellite (hehe) and it has done extremely well both on my porch and inside the sliding glass door.  She’s produced many of her own satellites over the last year and a half that I’ve had her. 

Marigolds always do well on my porch, but this is the first year in several that I don’t have any.  This year a friend gave me a bunch of wildflower seeds so I’m trying those out.  I also got Teddy Bear sunflowers as my kids really really really wanted sunflowers.  These were the smallest I could find, and they’ve planted so many seeds that they’re going to take over my garden later this summer.  lol. 

Besides flowers, I really like to have an edible garden.  Peas are excellent; they’re pretty, provide some privacy screening, and are a yummy snack. 😃. Thomas loves to grow carrots and eat them fresh out of the garden, so I always have some smaller varieties of those.  I have spinach, basil, and rosemary too!

I have a little shelf connected to my house where it gets some shade during the day.  I’ve decided I want chives (they did extremely well before) and cilantro there.  I’ve not gotten those in yet, probably get to it this weekend.

A few weeks ago my daughter decided that she’s in love with worms.  She kept begging me to go on a walk so she could say “Hi,” to all the cute pink worms.  Haha!  Some friends encouraged me to build a worm bin and let her have pet worms.  I reluctantly have agreed but I am *not* going to be the one taking care of them. lol

I repurposed a rubbermaid bin that I had in the other room.  I drilled some air holes in the sides and drainage holes in the bottom.  The kids shredded newspaper, soaked and squeezed it out, and I fluffed it up as they put it in.  Then they threw in some old fruits and veggies we had, as well as some coffee grounds.  Then we had to wait for it to rain again.  The instructions we followed to build a worm bin are here: http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/garden-yard/make-worm-bin-ze0z11zhir?pageid=1#PageContent1

My daughter was so cute with her shovel and pail.  We walked the older kids to school and she was saving worms in the parking lot.  She talked to them and tried to encourage them to get on her shovel!  Haha.  I think she saved about 15-20 worms that day.  We’ll have to gather some more again soon.  I don’t see much activity in the bin yet, but maybe we’ll see some castings soon.  They’ll be really good for our garden when they’re ready.

Today I bought some bricks to boost up the garden pots off of the concrete, and while I was at it, I bought some big bricks for the worm shelter, too.  They’re going to live on the porch so I’ll have to block the sun from roasting them.  I’ll get you a picture of that when it is complete.  As you can see, my daughter is NOT shy about playing her pets. lol

 

Stretched Thin

I've told you before that this is a blog about my life just as much as it is about my art.  My artistic efforts are one segment of my life, and an important one.  Without creating, I wouldn't be me.

Some days its been hard to have enough brain power and inspiration to create.  My husband and I have been struggling to keep up.  Not with the Jones', but the bills - the demands of life.  He has his regular job which pays most of the bills, but those bills keep increasing.  (i.e. Rent just increased in the fall.)  He has a creative mind, too, and

Pandora Out of the Box

I know I've said in the past that I've had a hard week.  I have a lot of those.  I have a lot of mental, emotional and physical demands in my life.  Some weeks take it to another level.  This was one of them.

This is my furbaby, Pandora.  In her youth I would call my baby a feisty princess.  She had an attitude and wanted things her way.  I reorganized her cage?  Well it wasn't how she liked it so she's going to re-reorganize!  lol 

 I've had this girl since she was little and I've comforted her through pain, sickness, and loss.  There's

The Peanut Purge

My husband has been having... (clears throat)... digestive issues lately.  It happens on occasion, but it's been really bad the last month or so.  He's allergic to peanuts, so I figured maybe one of the kids stuck a butter knife full of peanut butter into the dishwasher.  So I started having the kids use plastic knives to make their sandwiches.

It is normally Blur's job to load and unload the dishwasher but he had a bad insomnia night a few nights ago so I was doing the dishes.  His verbal filter was off and he was rambling and complaining about how every time he ran the dishwasher he had to clean out the filter because of the pumpkin soup.  This was really odd to me as no one had eaten the pumpkin soup for more than a week and therefore there shouldn't be any soup dishes to cause any issue.

I pulled out the filter and Blur pointed at the small bit of debris complaining how filthy it was.  I really wasn't bad.  As I was looking around it and trying to explain that it wasn't a big deal I saw it, and I groaned.  At just that moment my husband walked in the front door, heard me and asked what was the matter. 

The inner dome of the filter, where my fingers couldn't reach, was coated in a suspicious brown sticking something.  I got a swap scrubber thing and check it; peanut butter.

I don't know how long it had been going on, but for weeks every load of dishes had been inundated with a indiscernible coating of peanut butter.  Indiscernible unless you're allergic, that is.

So began the Great Peanut Purge of 2016.

First we had to get the peanut butter out of the plastic filter.  We boiled water and tried to melt it off.  It mostly worked.  Eventually Blur was able to get the filter apart (it was really tricky!) and we got it clean.  Then I changed the dishwasher settings from the 1 hour wash to the full wash with extra hot water and a  sanitizing rinse.  Then I ran it again.

Since I found it late in the day that was the only load I was able to get finished right then.  I pulled out disposable cups, plates, and flatware and had Mike eat off of those.  I also have changed the peanut butter routine.  It should be on paper plates / paper towels, and the plastic knives are NEVER to go into the dishwasher.  At some point I got interrupted and I had Blur finish loading the dishwasher.

The next morning I found a blue plastic knife that was used for peanut butter in the dishwasher.  Sigh.

So now I have put up large obnoxious construction paper signs above the sink and on the dishwasher.  - NO PEANUT butter EVER!  Hopefully they'll remember now.  :/  If they don't I'll have to ban peanut butter from the house.

So my other projects are currently on hold until I get it all clean.  Yesterday I systematically started working through the cupboards.  I got all the lunch plates and bowls first.  Then the silverware and glasses.  Next my hubby's favored water mugs and the dinner plates, etc. 

While I was working on the dishes I figured I'd better bleach all the kitchen towels.  My kids often wipe their unwashed hands on them (ew!) and could possibly be contaminated with peanut butter.  There was only half a load of whites so I went searching around the house for other things I could toss in to fill the load.  I grabbed my daughter's pillow and one of my husband's pillows to balance it. 

The saying goes; when it rains, it pours!  I should have known better.  This is my husband's pillow out of the washing machine:

Stories

Thomas and Anna both love to make up stories.  The sillier, or more absurd,  the better!  Here are some stories that they've written for you today.

Anna's story:
Once upon a time a little girl named Anna went to a pond and fed the ducks and they didn't want any food.  And she laughed and laughed at the letters.  They were set in a funny name; Seme. And then

New Elastic Sanity Segment

Hello!  I've been hoping to get blogging here more frequently but it just didn't happen over the summer.  My life exploded, as it seems to every summer! lol.  Of course I should have predicted that, but I seem to have selective memory. :P

My tagline is "Crafting daily to retain sanity in a stressful world."  Every wonder what has me so stressed?  I used to do a blog for a while about all the weird random stuff that happens in my home