The Wagon Came 'Round Again, So I'm Climbing Back On

Do you ever have the feeling there's a zamp in the lamp? No wait... That was Felix's naptime story... (Yay Dr. Seuss!) I've been in a decline since the whole job thing exploded on me, and it's physical, too. I've put on more weight, I'm more out of shape... I'm too broke to join a gym or go back to WW meetings, so I've let it slide. Bad idea, right?

Well, I found a free site for food journaling (something, which I know doesn't work for everyone, but it very much works for me), and registered myself. I've spent a lot of my free time today getting it set up, and documenting my meals and activity. I even hauled myself out and spent an hour and a half raking the lawn (more tomorrow! love those leaves!), which was nice, because Felix and I, and the dogs, could be outside, and I was still getting a workout.

I'm going to try it for a week, and reevaluate its usefulness. I'll report in on that here, in the name of full(ish) disclosure. Wish me luck.

Also, I might have some more interviews... fingers crossed.

Pooh's Thotful Spot

Winnie-the-Pooh really knew how to go about things. When he needed to think, he went to his Thotful Spot. Being a bear of Very Little Brain, thinking came hard to him (his intuition and general character made up for his intellectual shortcomings, real or imaginary), and I suppose having a spot made it easier to focus.

I think I need such a spot right now.

Still no job, but there's an interview coming up. I'm not especially optimistic, but I'm glad to have the opportunity to peddle my wares, as it were. I'm just not that enthusiastic about going back to nannying, but I feel very hemmed in my circumstances. I've been writing some, and I like doing it, but I'm going to need a jolt of mojo or something if I'm going to be able to take myself seriously. Also, I need to bring in some money while I'm writing and peddling that, if that's the direction I'm going in, but what to do, if not what I've proven I'm good at? Ugh! It seems I'm between a toddler and a unemployed place.

It's hard to stay focused as the time without a job to go to stretches out further. I want to find that spark of give-em-hell I had when I was young and stupid. I seem to have misplaced it along the way.

Although secretly, ok, maybe not so secretly, I just want to curl up here in our cozy house and have another pot of hunny.

If anyone has inspirations for a thotful spot, please let me know... I'll be playing Poohsticks and posting resumes.

My Friends Tigger & Pooh, the Super Sleuth Cake

Yesterday we celebrated Felix's birthday, and as he is an afficionado of the Playhouse Disney animated series, My Friends Tigger & Pooh (warning, if you love AA Milne and Ernest Shepard, do NOT click on the link), I did his cake based on the colors and "Super Sleuth" logo favored by the show. Add some birthday candles and a set of figurines I picked up on sale at the Disney Store, and we have a cake with toppers you can keep and play with!

The recipes are all from The Whimsical Bakehouse, by Kaye and Liv Hansen, one of my favorite books on cakes. I did 10" tilted "mini" birthday cake, with chocolate butter cake, cookies and cream filling and vanilla Italian buttercream. Yum!

Looks like a success to me!

The Next Gap Kid?

How can anyone resist this little face? Please go vote for him in the Gap Casting Call!

Time for Some Change

I lost my job.

There's no better word for it. After a summer fraught with uncertainty, filled with missed opportunities to actually discuss the changes affecting the family in the autumn, and following an unresolved salary negotiation, the Bosses decided to go in a different direction. With six weeks notice.

It's a hell of a way to round out a two part, eight-years-out-of-the-last-ten stint in loco parentis.

I find myself in my early thirties with no real life experience, and a toddler who requires constant feeding and looking after. I feel like a complete failure.

To say that I am devastated and terrified is a gross understatement.

I know there are lots of people worse off than me. Way worse off. And yet, I still can't quite wrap my head around what to do next. So, I've been brainstorming. I have a few ideas, tiny germs of ideas. One of them is that I should change up the format of this here bloglet. I've said that I think it's stale, and perhaps it needs to be about something else... I still enjoy the process of putting thoughts out there, but I'm smart enough to know when to say when.

Confessions of a Suburban Murderess

Weeds. Not People. Let's just get that settled straight away.

I have these weeds. They plague me. I spend hours plotting their demise. They have deep, strong, hardy roots, and grow up from underneath the old concrete of our driveway. I dig, I pull. I cannot get the roots up. I cut them back and they sprout like hydras. It's obscene.

I'm loathe to use commercial weed killers because of the kiddo and the dogs and the healthy shrubs and perennials I have on the property, so I called my old friend, the internets, to find a home remedy for the problem. After a few sites, I managed to cobble together a rudimentary understanding of the remedy.

Here's what I made*: 1 T. strong spirits (gin, preferably, though I didn't have any, so I used vodka), 1 T cider vinegar, & 1 T dish soap in a 16 oz. spray bottle. Top off with hot water. I would not use this is in a broad application. It kills indiscriminately from what I've read. Also, you would need gallons. It's not super concentrated.

I cut back the foliage of these nasty, invasive chard like weeds so that the stalks were raw, and then I sprayed the bejeezus out of them, right up in their faces, so to speak. I am optimistic that they won't come back this time.

Mwah ah ah ah....

*Hello, fine print! I am not a chemist, a horticulturist, or even an avid gardener. I cannot be held responsible for you trying what I did and deriving unacceptable results. I'm just sharing what worked for me. Then again, it hasn't worked yet. I'll get back to you on that...

Canning is the New Knitting...

... apparently. Always one to be just behind the trend, I learned to knit in the fall of 2005. Now I find myself canning. My Mom learned from a friend of hers, years ago, and on and off over the years has produced much yumminess. I've wanted to get into it for years, but was (yes, I admit it) intimidated by the equipment. That always strikes me as funny, since I have little fear of complicated devices used for creating 2 foot tall tilted cakes... Ah, well.

She and I made blueberry jam a few weeks ago, and I was hooked!

Not one to rest on my early laurels (I prefer to rest on later laurels, or my ass, whichever), I struck out solo and jammed a gallon of frozen strawberries from earlier this summer. Canned! What next? Pickles, of course! It's string bean season here in the Northeast, so I procured 3 pounds of string beans from the farm stand, and lo! pickled green beans. Canned! While poring over my Mom's old copy of Putting Food By , I found a recipe for Lemon Honey Jelly, and threw that together the same afternoon. Canned! (and some for the fridge that didn't fit in the jars I had. It's so frickin' good!) Eagerly, I await peaches and apples, as visions of brandied peaches and apple butter dance in my head.

I think I would have made an excellent housewife in a previous era.

I think that a lot.

I can't sew, though.

Hrm.

Will trade pickles, preserves and scarves for garments and linens?