On Monday I started a Chia pet for Amy; got it through a white elephant gift exchange at Christmas. Soaked it and the seeds Sunday night, spread on the seeds Monday night, and here it’s sprouted already.
It looks pretty creepy to me. Like lots of little worms. Hmmm.
The split pea soup, a double recipe, made five meals — the other four are in the freezer. I was a little concerned about it because it looked so thin, but it tasted great and the blender made a nice puree. And Mark remembered we had leftover ham in the freezer, so there was a little meat in the soup, too. (I know, I could have cut apart the hocks and gotten one or two tiny pieces, but, no thanks.)
The bread was also pretty good, although it was a little sour / yeasty to my taste. Maybe I let the second rise go too long, or maybe the recipe really was crazy to call for a tablespoon of yeast (I had to check twice to be sure that’s what it said).
On the other hand, the “pour boiling water in a pan on the lower rack” method is apparently not safe for use with a baking stone. It cracked. Loudly. Fortunately, only three pieces, and the bread was unharmed.
And here we are, still awake, because my dulcimer acquaintance in Chicago, who has no little children and works a non-teacher job, and who is in the next time zone, called us at 10:15 to discuss our carpooling plans for the Chattanooga festival; Mark was already asleep and I was almost there. Oh well.
May I mention that Amy can count to twelve? Sort of. If you say “1″ she says “2″ and so on, and sometimes she strings together several numbers all by herself, often in the right order. And when she’s looking at a book she sometimes repeats phrases or sentences she remembers from it.
My day has been focused on split pea soup, even though I haven’t started making it yet.
Set the bag of peas on the counter and the frozen smoked hamhocks in the fridge last night.
Looked up recipes this morning, realizing I needed an onion. Hmmm. Gas is expensive. Ask the neighbor? Or what else could I get done if I go to the store?
(Also got Amy up; after some naked time and breakfast we played in the music room (me practicing for the festival, Amy looking at scrapbooks and playing with Legos and my measuring tape). Somewhere in there I also washed and re-lanolized all of her wool pants.)
I decided to go to the store. I could also order some photo prints, post some YouTube videos at the library, and check my post office box, which has never contained any mail that’s for me. At least I don’t remember any. I could rattle off a list of names of previous boxholders, though.
So onto the computer to put the pictures and videos on a CD, then to the kitchen to make some lunch for us and eat it, and off we went.
Amy fell asleep for a few minutes in the car, so I decided to do the library first, so that she could nap in the sling if she wanted to. She didn’t nap, but she enjoyed being in the sling anyway.
Next door to the post office.
Back in the car and to Wal-mart, to choose one lovely Vidalia and to use the photo kiosk to order prints.
Home again, singing songs to keep Amy awake (if she sleeps in the car too close to naptime, she won’t nap), then a quick diaper change and into the bed.
Back to the computer to look up French bread recipes using whole wheat flour. I picked one, revised to make the flour ratio half and half; it’s rising now in the sunlight from the sliding glass door.
Soon it will be time to punch it down and shape it for the second rising, and to start the soup.
Mmm… soup and French bread…
Today is Mark’s birthday.
(Happy birthday, Mark!)
Amy and I spent a good part of the day in Culver, hanging out with Jasenka again at her garage sale. At her invitation; I might call on someone one day in depression, but I don’t push my luck, don’t foist myself on people too much, too often. In fact, I debated whether to go or not; I didn’t feel quite as deeply pitted as I did yesterday. But I remembered that garage sales might be a good place to look for a little table and chair(s) for Amy, so we went.
There weren’t any other garage sales in walking distance, and Jasenka and her cohorts didn’t have such a table and chairs, but I did pick up a few books, some toddler socks, and a toy dustpan and brush (Amy wants ours very desperately whenever it appears).
At one point we took a long walk over to Amy G’s to see if she and the new baby were home yet, but they weren’t — but we visited a few minutes with little Ryan and his grandma.
Just when we returned, there was a flash of lightening and a very loud crack of thunder, followed by a relatively brief downpour. We tried to push all the goods (already on the porch, good thing) out of the rain’s way and retreated inside for a while.
Then to the dining hall for lunch, but we’d just missed Mark, apparently, and ate by ourselves.
Home for a little play and a little nap, and Mark got home early. We all napped. It was good.
Out to dinner at Cristo’s, a little diner with the typical very long diner menu complete with some Greek dishes. Good rolls. Good soup (I had something Greek which was light, a little creamy, chicken and ricey; Mark had a potato soup; Amy tasted a lot of each). Good ribs, good patty melt, not so good fries and grilled cheese — and really, Amy doesn’t eat enough to merit ordering a kid’s meal for her yet.
Thence to Sears to pick up Mark’s birthday present — not particularly fluffy fun, but still appreciated, a 6-ton hydraulic jack and a work light with a 30-ft cord in a retracting reel.
Then grocery shopping (everything interesting on the shelf, or that mama picks up, Amy wants to “help mama!”, i.e. hold it for me), then home and a bath for Amy, complete with one poop in the tub and another on the naked-time blanket afterwards and one tiny bit in the potty.
What a nice greeting when Mark opened Amy’s door today.
Oh, and one of her new favorite songs is Baa Baa Black Sheep:
Mama: Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any
Amy: Wool
Mama: Yes, sir,
Amy: Yes, sir,
Mama: Three bags
Amy: Full
Mama: (holds up a finger)
Amy: One
Mama: For my master
Amy: One for-eye mai
Mama: One for the little boy who lives
Amy: Down
Mama: The lane
Amy: Baa back sheep
Mama: Have you any
Amy: Wool
Mama: Yes, sir,
Amy: Yes, sir,
Mama: Three bags
Amy: Full.
Amy: Baa back sheep?
First, we picked up Melissa and baby Noah and went to playgroup at the library. Amazingly enough, two other people showed up, too.
Then on to the dining hall for lunch with daddy.
To the swimming pool, next. This time we were not sitting on the side very long before I was able to get in the pool and, maybe a minute later, she was willing to come in with me. She enjoyed herself for the most part. There were a few “no no no” moments, but also a lot of laughs, splashing, playing with a floating toy, blowing bubbles, and even letting me support her just under the arms while she kicked.
On our way to the car, we spotted a friend walking her dog with her preschooler, so we joined them.
Home for what should have been naptime, but I keep hearing noises in there… well, now it’s quiet…?
I think I need a nap, too.
I didn’t take pictures of the process. The overalls were tight in the crotch but too long in the legs. I did the following:
Cut the legs off before the crotch curve
Cut off the snap tapes
Cut the legs in half across the knees
Picked out the hems and other seams
Sewed the pieces in a circle, alternating a longish width with a shortish width
Used a long stitch to gather the circle, centering the embroidered motif — which didn’t really have enough white space between it and the cut edge, but at least the whole motif still shows
Sewed the circle to the garment body
Hemmed
Mark showed Amy how to blow bubbles this afternoon.
We improvised a wand with a piece of plastic-coated wire — the kind the holds a toy against the cardboard insert in its package. Amy liked dipping the wand into the bottle.
She didn’t quite catch on to how to blow the bubbles, but occasionally she’d wave her hand fast enough that a bubble would form and fly away.
She was Very Upset when bubble-blowing time was over.
