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Wednesday Musings: Media Edition

Posted on September 18, 2013 | 2 comments

Our three months of getting all of the channels with our television provider is just about up and I’m a little bit sad about that… but it was perfect timing as it gave us new shows to watch when the mainstream stations were mostly on summer hiatus.
New show I am in love with: Newsroom. It from Aaron Sorkin so it has the fast-paced, witty banter like The West Wing but a whole new cast of actors/characters for me to love. [I still miss The West Wing].
- Jane Fonda ironically plays a media tycoon, a female version of Ted Turner, if you will… she also plays someone who is high fairly well, which makes me believe she is perhaps well-practiced.
- Olivia Munn just might be one of my favorite actors – yes, she is gorgeous, but is also smart and great at line delivery.
- I do not see the appeal of either of Meryl Streep’s daughters: Grace and Mamie Gummer (Grace is in Newsroom, I could do without her).
I’ve re-found my love of Homeland and since the new season launches at the end of the month, they are finally replaying the last season so I’ve gotten to binge on that. Do you watch it, have you watched it? You totally should. Then we can talk about how much we hate Brody’s wife, feel sorry for Carrie and wish we could hear Damian Lewis’ British accent in real life.
Even though I’ve never watched it before, I’m very much enjoying the final season of Dexter… perfect timing since the series finale is up next week.
And then there is Rookie Blue, a network show that has new episodes airing throughout the summer… much like the characters on ER before them, this team of cops has the worst set of luck when it comes to horrible things happening to them. Members of their squad are regularly kidnapped and shot at and they switch up romantic love interests like crazy, but still, it’s my guilty pleasure (and Simon’s). Oooh, we also love Suits and I am hooked on Covert Affairs (despite the unbelievability of Piper Perabo as a CIA agent).
For the fall I’m looking forward to the return of Castle, Chicago Fire, Scandal, The Good Wife, The Vampire Diaries (my always guilty pleasure), Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother, Parenthood and The Voice.
Sadly there is nothing new that excites me at all.
I’m a little bit (read: a whole lot) excited about the following upcoming movies: Rush, the next Hunger Games movie, Divergent and Fault in Our Stars. I’m sure there are others, but those are the top of my list.
Music I’m enjoying lately: To Build a Home (Cinematic Orchestra); Roar (Katy Perry – yes, it’s true); Safe and Sound (Capital Cities); All I Want (Kodaline); Bloodstream (Stateless) How it Ends (DeVotchKa), Let it Be Me (Ray LaMontagne) and Down (Jason Walker).
- Here’s a YouTube playlist of the above listed song:
  September Favorites
Music I am not enjoying: Anything and everything by Miley Cyrus. She is trash, plain and simple. Misguided and pathetic trash. She is in need of an intervention, a reality check and good timeout. Role model for anyone, she is not.
I’ve also fallen back in love with Coldplay… Simon DVR-ed a show of their concerts and every song made me happy. More than happy… their now on my list of groups to see live. Adele, Coldplay and Mumford & Sons. No big deal.
And now I will admit to watching Step Up: Revolution… I just love, or rather, enjoy, dance movies. I can’t help it. Simon just rolls his eyes and sighs but then he has loved martial arts movies so he can’t judge me any more than I can judge him (except, I totally judge him).
Books on my to-read list: Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman); Where’d You Go, Bernadette (Maria Semple); Allegiant (Veronica Roth – the third in the Divergent series; if you read Hunger Games, read these); Cuckoo’s Calling (J.K. Rolling); Beautiful Ruins (Jess Walter); And Life Comes Back (Tricia Lott Williford); The Husband’s Secret (Liane Moriarty) and David & Goliath (Malcolm Gladwell).

Tuesday Musings: Pinterest Edition

Posted on September 17, 2013 | 12 comments

I have pinned a lot of things on good old Pinterest and so far I’ve made a good handful of recipes and tried out a couple crafts. But now that we have gotten more settled and I’ve starting setting up a crafting area in our basement (someday I’ll post some before and after shots of that – I’m in love, or at least inspired).

Here are some DIY projects I’d like to attempt sometime soon (I’d say before the end of the year, but realistically…)

I love dahlias and our new neighbor has an abundance of these planted in her front yard so it seems fitting that I make this wreath – either for myself or, if I’m being super nice, for the new neighbor.

Pinned from here.

We have a large deck and I love the idea of lighting it with some of these… also on the front porch in the fall and winter. So pretty.

Pinned from here.

This would be another cool technique to try on mason jars:

Pinned from here.

I already have all the supplies to make an MSU-themed one of these… now I just have to find where I packed them.

Pinned from here (she’s also one of my favorite bloggers here).

I love a chevron pattern and I’d sure love to make an afghan like this – how warm and cozy – but I don’t actually know how to crochet (at least I haven’t done it in AGES).

Pinned from here.

These two paint-on-glass projects appeal to me for so many reasons… who doesn’t love pretty colors and dots? Uninspired people, that’s who.

Pinned from here and here.

Puffy paint or elmer’s glue on a canvas and then you can leave it white or paint it all one color when it dries. In theory these seems color, though I’m slightly afraid it would just be one big mess. Never hurts to try.

Pinned from here.

I just love pom poms… Trying to figure out where I could hang these that wouldn’t make my hubby’s eye a little twitchy…

I am dying to do something with nails on a board(s) and some string (and state of Michigan, obvs).

Pinned from here and here.

Someone in the comments suggested the wooden plaques from a craft store and painting them yourself and then attaching the photos somehow.

Love the wall hanging here, not the sharpie wallpaper.

Washer on a canvas – how easy? Well, it may involve a glue gun and I always burn myself with those.

Pinned from here, here and here.

And of course, Christmas decor…

Felt ornaments… cute and easy.

I actually have a bunch of wire that I could do this with… hmmm.

Get chipboard letters from crafty store, glue them together and paint.

Pinned from here, here and here.

Want to come craft?

12 Comments

Posted in Crafts, Random

Monday Musings

Posted on September 16, 2013 | 5 comments

Hello there! Long time no talk… my lack of attention to this blog can be blamed on three things: being sick, school starting again and writers’ block. School is still going and I still feel a bit ill but I am feeling more inspired so there’s something. Without any more ado, here’s a random list of stuff I’ve been dying to tell you!!

Liam said to me over the weekend, as a means of explaining why he couldn’t concentrate on his homework earlier in the day, “I just felt like I was having a heart attack.” Sounds just awful.
We watched “Admission” on Saturday night… it was good, though ended up being much more heart warming and less comedic at the end than I thought it might be. Still, Tina Fey and Paul Rudd are spot on in their delivery and timing (despite their total lack of chemistry and her lack of lips which makes their onscreen kissing a wee bit awkward).
As mentioned, I have a cold… it’s holding on and making me sleepy except for at night when I lay awake, wishing for sleep.
I have renewed my love of reading books in the past month and have read seven in the last 4 weeks.
I can only fill my brain with so much so since I’ve been reading, I haven’t been watching much TV or reading blogs, I wish I could find a way to do all those things… like picture-in-picture for media consumption that I could actually comprehend. I need a brain of the future.
Also related to the above, I’m throwing around the idea of starting a laid back book club… I’ll put out a list of the books, we’ll meet monthly and anyone who wants to can come that month to discuss. I’ll host it on the same day (like the first Thursday of every month) and people can bring an appetizer, dessert or bottle of wine (because we all know that one of the perks of book clubs is the food and drinks). Would you come?
I have been eating a glorified antipasto plate for dinner many nights lately… dip with lowfat sour cream, garlic olives, kalamata olives, turkey pepperoni bites, baby carrots, grape tomatoes and pretzels. It makes me so very happy. Who says antipasto needs to just be an appetizer? Sandy thinks I should market this as a grown up lunchable… so in case anyone steals the idea… you read it here first! Or at least give me a cut of your profits. Thanks.
Liam’s loving his new school and the bus so that’s a relief! But sadly, the after-school meltdown and rage-a-thon that comes after holding his sh!t together all day has not been pleasant.
We’ve been hosting a lot of friends and group things at our house in the last month which caused Jack to wonder why all the people are coming to our house now… that’s the joy of having a new (and significantly bigger) house and a mom who LOVES hosting things… you have people over. I thought it was cute that he noticed.
Jack is now reading 3-digit numbers correctly. I find this impressive and disconcerting, because I feel like he will surpass my homework helping skills at a rather young age. I mean, I am relatively smart, but I don’t think I was correctly reading 176 when I was 4.5 years old. Now if we could just get him to stay in his own bed every night, he could become the favored child. I also find it hopeful because perhaps we won’t have the same homework struggles we have with Liam, who, while smart, cannot sit still or pay attention long enough to want to complete a homework sheet. Thankfully his teacher recognizes his smarts and is willing to work with him to figure strategies for success. I was explaining something to Liam last night and then asked him a question directly related to what I had just said and he paused, serious thinking look on his face and Jack, complete with exasperated voice, responded with the correct answer. Little brother came to play.
Last night I had a very strange dream that our house was multiple stories and on a river and I was outside when I saw a very large bear (couldn’t tell you if it was black or brown and this really bothered me in my dream) moving by and I quickly went around to the front of the house where I was roadblocked by a cougar. The cougar started to come after me so I threw my cell phone over its head and it turned to check it out – luckily thinking it was a piece of food, even though I was cognizant of having no idea why I thought throwing my one means of communication at a cougar was a good idea. I ran inside and freaked the heck out. Then I woke up. I did not eat anything strange last night, or even close to bedtime so what in the world, brain, would you like to explain yourself?
We’re going to see Over The Rhine this coming weekend… you know how I feel about live music so you know this just makes my week! It’s been too long since I was at a concert… perhaps fun.?
I’m teaching Sunday school every other week… it started yesterday and it has been a long time since I did something like this (I taught Sunday school for a few years back in my near-post-college days) the best thing I can say about that today is that we survived. 18 4-year-old and young-fives… oh my. That’s a boatload of energy.
Remember when we went to Australia and a tree fell down and took out our fence (and car – no big deal)… well, it looks like that fence is not so lucky. The new homeowner contacted me last week in search of a picture of the backyard because a drunk driver took out the fence and bushes in the old yard. [Stinks for them, but makes me feel a whole lot better because we had driven by the house and seen the missing fence and lilac bushes and I was disproportionately upset to think the new people took them out.]

5 Comments

Posted in Random

Second verse, same as the first

Posted on August 29, 2013 | 12 comments

Photo credit: Kim Brock Photography

On Tuesday evening, Jack and I were sitting at the kitchen counter… he was playing Temple Run on the iPad and I was working on the computer. Out of the blue he says, “When are my fingers going to grow?”

*sigh*

We talk about his little hand fairly regularly. It comes up when we have play dates with new friends (and old friends – kids are often fixated on it and who can blame them, it’s different). I notice the looks from other children when we are at the park. I weigh out what I should say and what I should leave up to Jack to say for himself.

“Did those kids ask about your hand? What did you tell them?”
“That God made me special!”

But still, he wonders when he’s going to grow fingers. If only it worked that way (or not). Do I wish Jack could just grow some new fingers and have a fully developed hand? Not as often as you’d think, at least not anymore. Jack’s hand is part of who he is and it’s a part of who he will be. I’ve said before that I don’t believe it’s ever going to stop him from doing something he puts his mind to, but I do wish I could erase every potential hurtful thing other people could do or say with regard to his hand.

Yesterday, Simon posted a link to Tony Memmel’s “Lucky Fin Song” and the first comment was: “Simon, do you have a child with a limb problem?”

Breathe in. Breathe out. Even the well-intentioned say things that can be hurtful. We prefer limb difference. Our culture needs to change its vocabulary when it comes to talking about people with differences. We so quickly wonder, “What’s wrong with him?” when we see a person in a wheel chair. We label people with “disabilities” as if they are without ability instead of just being differently-abled. We shy away from asking what made them how they are or getting to know someone for who they are and instead stare and whisper when we think they aren’t paying attention. We need to change.

So, back to Tuesday and Jack’s question about his hand/fingers… no matter how many times we have talked about his hand and explained that it’s the way God made him; that it’s not going to change but just grow bigger with him, like his other hand (but without fingers) he still wonders and hopes that things will be different someday. I believe this will be a conversation we have many times in his lifetime, with varying emotions coming from my spitfire of a child. So instead of explaining it again, I opted to show him all the posts on the Lucky Fin Project’s Facebook page (take a minute to go “Like” them, I’ll wait). Clicking on photo after photo of kids and adults who, like him, were born a little bit different but just how God wanted them to be. And then we watched the “Lucky Fin Song” video (see below) and Jack spent the rest of the evening singing, “Yeah, I’ve got this fin but you should see me swim…”

We should all be so lucky to have a community to turn to when we are looking for answers specific to what we are going through. I hope Jack continues to find comfort in that community and as he grows, I hope he doesn’t forget that his little hand is just one small part of what makes him special.

“There’s always a choice and it’s time to dive. And when the day is feeling long and the sky is getting dark, you have got to let your light shine. Know how great you are!”
Tony Memmel, Lucky Fin Song

Also, go like Tony Memmel.

12 Comments

Posted in Family, Parenting, Symbrachydactyly

Instagram… Take 37 (or something like that)

Posted on August 28, 2013 | 5 comments

Abstract art or condensation on my water bottle…

New neighbors… we see deer in our back yard at least once a week and I don’t know that I will ever tire of it, though I might not end up ever planting anything back there which would be a bummer since having both a vegetable garden and a flower garden are on my life list.

We went to a water activity-themed birthday party and it was awesome! The grand finale was a super long slip and slide which was just the best!

There were also giant bubbles.

Friday night at the ice cream shop.

And after ice cream it was necessary to burn off a little steam at the fountain.

Haven’t heard this song for AGES but have heard it three times in the last month on The Coffee House station – you better up your game, XM. (at least it’s not something by Shawn Colvin – they love her, too, and I DO NOT)

A brief moment of brotherly love.

The covered bridge in Ada is a magical place.

How this is even comfortable, I don’t know.

Mumford & Sons on Pandora and feet up on the couch… perfect Friday night.

George agrees…

We visited the Farmer’s Market, we bought dill for making pickles. Jack clearly does not approve.

Peek-a-boo… someone likes to pop up when I am standing at the kitchen sink.

Saturday afternoon nap time… note the jeans and sweatshirt in JULY.

Jack’s new talent.

I so love it when they get along.

Date night with a stop at the Rockford Brewing Company… cider, raspberry ale and something very dark – all very good.

Hanging with some besties. Girls are a whole different deal than boys…

Liam’s birthday outing with his BFF, Alejandro… McDonald’s for lunch, Chuck E. Cheese’s for games and Krispy Kreme for donuts (instead of cake).

Just adding another “log” to the fire… it only took 3 hours to burn.

Playing catch with baby Ethan at Quinn and Chris’s summer house… we didn’t drop him even once 🙂

Nephew Mitch (who has a new radio show, BTW), by fire light.

I do just love that face.

Sun pickles… the best dill pickles EVER.

A cold, but gorgeous day at Duck Lake and Lake Michigan.

The personal trainer’s license plate (but of course)

Jack loves removing Lego heads and playing with just them… here, they face off with cars… we call this every day life.

Extreme close up.

My faithful companion.

The new IKEA catalog… swoon.

Driving to a friend’s house we happened upon a cat leading a string of ducks across the road… as our car approached, the cat turned around and walked back off the road and the ducks all turned to follow. What in the world?

File this one under “Can’t Possibly Be Comfortable”

I watch the VMAs… decided I was too old to be doing that because I continually exclaimed, “Are you kidding me?” but then Justin Timberlake performed (and reunited with ‘Nsync) and all was right for a moment. My favorite part of watching is also being on Twitter and reading snarky tweets aloud to Simon.

French macarons (or macaroons) brought to me fresh from Paris. Little bites of heaven. I had never had one before and my coworker fulfilled a life list item for me. So far, passionfruit with chocolate filling is my fave.