Simplify

Okay, so my one month off to get through the holidays turned out to be a bit longer than one month.  It’s okay though…you know, since my parents are probably my only regular followers and I talk to them once a week.  Hi Mom & Dad.

During my blog-free 7 weeks, quite a lot happened.  We celebrated Christmas and the New Year, I finished my overnight rotation at work, there was an earthquake in Haiti, we replaced our kitchen floor with slate tile & we celebrated Amelia’s 5th birthday.  I also spent some time thinking about the direction I wanted to take my blog (that makes it sounds very, very serious.  It wasn’t, it was more like ‘hmmm, should I try to have some sort of theme?’ while I was driving Amelia to school). 

For some time now, I’ve been thinking about the purpose of my blog.  When I started, I just wanted a place to get my thoughts out and get some writing done.  Then I started thinking about how cool it would be for people to actually READ what I was writing.  I read, and it completely makes sense, that in order to gain a readership you need to have some sort of niche.  I have no niche.  I don’t want to be ANOTHER mom blog.  I haven’t had any sort of hobby or project that I felt compelled to use to fill a slice of cyberspace.  I was at a loss.

Then, while doing that New Year thing where I decide to eat healthier and exercise more and cut negative people out of my life, I had a bit of an epiphany.  The name of my blog is SIMPLYjess.  It’s not COMPLICATEDjess or NEUROTICjess (although that would be cool).  My tag line is “Just another girl living simply in a complicated world“.  Um, HELLO.

So, here’s the deal.  2010 is the year that I simplify.  This is that year that I ensuring that everything in my life has a purpose.  Simplify my life, simplify my house, simplify my blog.  What does this mean exactly?  Damned if I know.  But I hope to figure it out and use this blog to document my journey.  I invite you all to join me.  Feel free to to point and laugh.

Stay tuned…..

 

Kitchen Scale

I bought a new kitchen scale today.  Can you guess why?

For the record, Carly is approximately 1lb 11oz.  Although she’d just eaten.  And the scale does say ‘Not Legal For Trade’, so I’m not sure how official it is.

 

Parent-Teacher Conference

I hit another “Parent Milestone” on Thursday.  I had my first Parent-Teacher conference.  Nothing bad.  It was just a mid-year meeting to touch base with Amelia’s Pre-K teacher. 

Now, I know that Amelia’s a good kid.  She’s smart and well-behaved and sweet and pretty much perfect (hee hee hee).  I figured it would be a pretty good conference.  However, as I signed up for my time-slot last week, I felt a tiny twinge of worry.  Am I a completely biased mom?  Could I be completely naive in thinking that Amelia is well-behaved.  She’s had one note from the teacher following a tantrum caused by lack of sleep.  Could that mean that she’s a “problem child”?  I figured that it would be standard for the teacher to give a couple examples of things that Amelia has trouble with or needs to work on.  What would those things be?  Is she too shy?  Is she too sensitive?  Does she have tantrums that they just tell us about?  By the time I walked into the classroom, I was a basketcase.

The teacher, Miss Sabrina, told me that it wouldn’t take long, so we could just stand (instead of sitting in the teeny tiny chairs).  She took a minute to look over her file and then she sighed.

This is it!  She’s going to tell me that I have a devil child!

“Amelia is wonderful.  She’s well adjusted.  She’s well-liked.  She catches on to the lessons.  She’s compassionate.  In fact, I’m really surprised that this is her first classroom experience.”

Oh….okay then.

I asked about a couple concerns that Jason and I had discussed.  Miss Sabrina said that she hadn’t noticed any issues.  I kept asking about things, almost LOOKING for things to be wrong, but Miss Sabrina wouldn’t give one criticism.

So, I guess I just have to accept it.

My kid is awesome.

 

On Display

Jason’s parents gave us this winerack a few Christmases ago.  By some miracle it’s never been pulled over by a toddler, we’ve never even broken a glass, although you’ll notice that we no longer keep bottles in the bottom “rack” part.

One of features on this unit is the center shelf with a door.  I suppose it’s meant to hold something like a candle or potpourri.  However, since we have an almost-two-year-old who is the perfect height to utilize the shelf, we tend to find other stuff there.

In fact, finding things to put on the shelf seems to be Zaven’s new favorite hobby.  It’s always a fun surprise to see what shows up.  Sometimes it’s a hairbrush.

Sometimes it’s a shoe (Jason was actually impressed with Zaven’s eye for design with this one).

Sometime’s it’s Amelia’s Cinderella electric toothbrush.

The funny part is that Zaven turned the toothbrush on first, so when I walked into the room, the toothbrush was vibrating in such a way that Cinderella was actually twirling around in circles.

As long as he doesn’t try to put the puppy on the shelf, I think we’re good.

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Top Ten

I’m not having a really great day today.  Many reasons…none of which can be discussed here. 

So, for your reading pleasure, CNN & Time  have the Top Ten Lists of Everything in 2009 

Enjoy.

 

 

Vermont the Top Maple Syrup Producer of 2009

Well…yeah.  It’s not even close!

From the Burlington Free Press website:

U.S. sugarhouses this year produced 2.3 million gallons of syrup.

The top states:

Vermont: 920,000 gallons
Maine: 395,000 gallons
New York: 362,000 gallons
Wisconsin: 200,000 gallons
Michigan: 115,000 gallons
Source: US Department of Agriculture

As ‘VTmountainMan’ commented “this is considered news?”.  He has a good point though, it would be interesting to see Quebec’s numbers.  Although Vermont OBVIOUSLY has a superior product  (not that I’m at all biased…..)

 

Dog’s Best Friend

Can you tell what’s going on here?

Our Pomeranian puppy, Carly, has given us a bit of….stress….since she came to live with us in October.

First, a week after we got here, we learned that small breed puppies are susceptible to hypoglycemia.  Several hundred dollars later and a night at the doggie hospital and we will NOT be forgetting that any time soon.

A week later, while we were still on pins and needles about making sure she was eating enough & feeding her Karo syrup just in case, Carly completely stopped eating.  She didn’t just eat less or suddenly get a little picky.  She STOPPED eating.  Luckily, the vet had already turned me on to Nutri-Cal to keep her blood sugar up, but it was still an insanely stressful and mentally exhausting week.  Carly went from 1lb 3 oz to 8oz.  Yes, seriously.  She was sleeping all the time and getting smaller and smaller under her fluff of fur.  The vet diagnosed an upper respiratory infection and gave us meds.  Three days later nothing had improved.  Jason & I had just had the “we’re not spending more money, we’ll just have to get Amelia a new puppy” conversation when Carly magically started eating again.  We were sitting on the couch and Carly suddenly crawled up and sniffed at Jason’s face.  Then she licked it.  We put her down and she immediately ran over to her bowl and started eating.  Just like that.  After hundreds of dollars in antibiotics and decongestant eyedrops, a drop of Vick’s Vaporub on the nose (suggested on the down-low by the receptionist at the vet) did the trick. 

So, everything was great, Carly was eating and running around and heathy, until Friday night.  We were all goofing around when Amelia came in holding a lifeless Carly whimpering “I’m sorry…I dropped her”.  Apparently she’d fallen on her head.  I’m not sure what exactly happened.  Concussion?  Dazed a little?  Something with the spinal cord?  Her eyes were rolled back, her tongue was out and she didn’t seem to be breathing or have a heartbeat.  All I know is that Jason told me to take the kids out of the room and he did, I kid you not, puppy CPR.   Because Carly is apparently indestructible, she came out of this too.  An hour later she was literally as good as new.

So, we’ve learned a couple things from this.  Little dogs are a pain in the ass.  And Jason is Carly’s guardian angel.  Although she’s officially Amelia’s puppy, and she’s playful and affectionate with everyone, she obviously has a soft spot for Jason.  And he has a soft spot for her.  It’s right on the back of his knee……

 

Fun Fact About Danny Elfman

Did you know that Danny Elfman provided the singing voice for Jack Skellington in Tim Burton’s ‘The Nightmare before Christmas’?  He’s made such a name for himself as a Composer- Edward Scissorhands, The Simpsons, Spider-Man, Batman (I could go on)- it’s easy to forget that he was a Singer/Songwriter and Rock Star first.  He’s got a beautiful voice.  In fact, that’s what led me to this discovery, I flipped past Nightmare the other day and thought ‘Wow, whoever does Jack’s voice is really good…I wonder who it is.”  Incidentally, Chris Sarandon provides Jack’s speaking voice and Catherine O’Hara does Sally’s voice.   

I also just learned (while checking my facts on his official website) that Danny Elfman is self-taught and has had no formal musical training.  It’s amazing how distinctive you can be when you don’t have formal training holding you back.

Also, if you’ve never heard ‘Serenada Schizophrana’, Elfman’s first orchestral composition written specifically for the concert hall, go to his website and listen to the samples.  It’s definitely ”Elfman-esque”, but he seems to stretch his arms a little too.  It’s actually really cool to concentrate on the music, rather than just have it complement a film.  I guess this is nothing new, the piece was originally performed in 2005 and the CD was released in 2006, but I just discovered it and I think it’s worth checking out.

So, there you go.  You’ve learned a little more about Danny Elfman….

 

Yeah…What They Said….

This picture has been making the rounds, but it’s BRILLIANT.  I want to live in the next house over and hang my Christmas lights to read:

Awesome
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