Taking the Scenic Route

Find out where you are on the Political Compass.  Below I put a few charts I found on the site with some well known people, and then my chart  Fun!

Below chart was from the Primaries

Composers

Mine

I was laughing because Kucinich was the democratic candidate I really liked…I guess there was a reason.  I also line up pretty closely with Gandhi, which I found interesting.  No surprise that I didn’t even come close to matching Bush.

Zane has taken to dumping several puzzles out and piling all the peices together and then proceeding to put together several puzzles simutaneously.  Zach’s mom said he used to do the same thing.  We went out and got one more of the 4 puzzles/$5 packs.  We were hoping to find something another step up, but the next step that was available there was 100 piece puzzles….a bit too much of a leap.  We will have to go look for some puzzles some time this week.

 What type of homeschooler are you quiz from my friend jessemommy’s site

“What Type of Homeschooler Are You?” – Results:

Mr. Potato Head You have your ideal of how things should look, but youre flexible enough to allow for change. You are not bothered by changing methods, mid-course if necessary. You use an eclectic combination of curriculum sources. Visit my blog: Guilt-Free Homeschooling

Last night I went to the bookstore to search out a nice pattern for some baby stuff for my cousin’s child.  I love bookstores.  They smell so nice and the air just feels different in there, so relaxing…my oasis.  I spent an hour and a half in there and could have sworn it was 10 minutes.  (dh assured me I had been gone MUCH longer than 10 minutes…lol.).  I looked through about every knitting book they had and settled on ”Debbie Bliss – the Baby Knits book”  Now I know why her books are so popular…wow, some serious eye candy in the photos with such beautiful detailing.  I don’t think anything in there is quick to knit, but I think the effort would be worth it.  She certainly does not have a converstaional style in describing the pattern.  It will take a lot of work and some sketching before I even get started.  lol.  I look forward to the challenge.

Now, the downside.  I went to look up the yarns she *strongly recommends*, which is of course her yarn.  It does look like trully beautiful yarn, but at $7-8 for a tiny little ball, it seems ludicris to me.  It will take 6 (sometimes more) skeins of her yarn for a freakin baby sweater.  My gosh, that would make a baby sweater more expensive than most of my plus size sweaters.  I went to Mothering to ask about substitutions and found the question answered already.  There is a yarn called Mission Falls that is about $4.50 for the same size skein that somebody there used as a substitution that worked well.  If anybody reading this knows of another, please let me know.  I am still sort of freaking out at that price.  The LYS doesn’t open until Tuesday, so I will have to wait to see what they have. 

Zane has discovered in the last few days that he can stand on tables & computer desks as well as the desk we have the tv nestled in in our room  (put it in the “leg space” of a desk to keep him from crawling on tv, uses the drawers for toy storage).  I am sure the kitchen counters are next.  He is determined to make dh and I crazy I think.

He is really obsessed with play-doh (especially when Daddy tosses into the air), loves to color in coloring pages dh prints out on the computer, and is getting into kicking/throwing balls.  He still likes chalk drawing on the porch.  One really neat outcome of him being sick is he finally was still enough that he paid attention when I read to him, so now he likes to sit down and read.  That really thrilled me because I was wanting him to develop a love of reading so badly.  He still counts everything endlessly, but we were able to get him to do the alphabet last night.  His current favorite song is “happy and you know it clap your hands”, except he only does the clap your hands right now…no stomping feet or anything else, just claps his hands.  hee hee.  He is so much fun!

Two cute Zane stories: 

1. A few days ago, when I was laying on the bed to take a nap, Zane clamoured up to me the way he does to nurse.  He started lifting my shirt, looked up at my face, put my shirt down and came and gave me a kiss before going back to nursing.  He has never done that to me.  Today he came over and kissed me while we played with his blocks.  I about cried it was so sweet.  Just in the last week I was feeling a little sad that I had never heard the words “I love you” from him, and then he does this.  It just warmed my heart.
2. On a funnier note, when dh was trying to shut down the tv viewing for the day, he pulled Zane off the desk (see photo from last post) for the zillionth time, turned off the light and closed the door to the room.  Ds, gave dh a dirty look, opened door, turned on light and went back to desk…repeat this scene about 3 times with progressivly more frustration from ds, including grunting and making a little growling type noise.  Then, instead of opening the door after his show of frustration, he grabbed dh’s hand, lead him to his computer desk, sat him into his chair and left to open the door, turn on the light, and get back onto the desk unimpeded.  Smart little guy!  dh really had to stiffle the laughter to be able to go back there and firmly tell him that it wasn’t going to happen.  lol.

 MDC Post, Response to:  Why do some SAHM’s insist they have to shop at Walmart?

“Reduce” is a way of life. I don’t wear make-up, wear my hair back so that I only have to wash it every week or two (although since I started working out, I do rinse it almost every day, but there isn’t money for that much shampoo usage), use watered down soap, only shave my legs with razors my husband can’t use on his face any more, don’t use deoderant unless I am going to be in close proximity to people, get through heavy periods by jumping in the shower and rinsing all day so that I only have to use one pad /day (haven’t been able to get money together for the cloth pads yet), cut my families hair, and have not bought a single pair of shoes or of clothing for myself in several years. (the only clothes dh & I have gotten is from our parents…a pair of jeans when the holes are too big to patch for dh and some misc. hand-me-downs from my grandma for me), no cable, no long distance ( a calling card for emergencies – our folks all have 800 numbers), no backyard to grow a garden, can’t container garden or hang out clothes because it is against apt. regulations (even if I could afford the containers, soil & seeds, which I can’t), and all of ds clothing is bought twice a year at an Old Navy or Carter’s outlet (and my mom usually pitches in on that), and we have only gone out to eat when my mom gave us money with the stipulation we must use the money for going out and having some fun.

Now add this: Walmart is across the street, Kroger is a short drive. Farmer’s market is once a week and costs about $5 in gas and parking fees. There is no Kmart (unless on the other side of town, which I never go to – gas money). Target is 20 minutes away and pricey. The only HFS in town are small indys which I would love to support except they cost 4x what I used to pay at Wild Oats (before I moved to this town) and about 6x the price of walmart. I do end up going there when I can because it is the only place in town that sells organic normal fat yogurt for ds. There are a few items I get at Krogers that aren’t available at Walmart also.

Now, food. I am on food stamps. I am not going to say how much, but it is a really, really tight squeeze to feed our family on them and we never buy any prepackaged anything (except fruit & veggies – generic). We only buy whole foods, and not much meat. We have to be really careful because there are times when there is no money left to fill in the gap if we overspend, and dh and I are stuck eating noodles (made with white flour and water…cheap)

There is simply no place else for me to cut. There is a LOT we do without. This time has taught us that there is a lot more you can do without than I would have imagined before, and I am really grateful to have what we do. I am a SAHM because if I worked, at this point, I would have a net loss (childcare, loss of foodstamps/ health ins for ds, clothes, gas, makeup, soap). If something costs $1 more, there is a good chance we can’t get it. There IS a point where your family has to come before politics, especially when you can’t routinely get the basics.

eta: Two more weeks and then dh has a degree. Even if he doesn’t get an outside “real world” job (resumes are out), grad school money is much, much better. I just laugh when people tell us that he will be a “poor grad student” if he works as a GA…it will be more than we have ever made. We might be well enough off in two months to turn down the food stamps when they are up for renewal after August.

I did NOT write this for sympathy or anything like that. I just felt like it needed to be illustrated that some of us really don’t have the options some suggest.

This morning I woke up, changed ds, went to the bathroom, put the cd back on, got him yogurt and set it down in front of him and went to get another cd I could snappi on to him.  Evidently, when I turned around, dh observed ds peeing directly into the yogurt cup, maintaining his aim even when it started pouring out the sides of the cup onto the tray I had set it on.  *roll eyes*  *giggle* 

Some photos from the last few days:

 <—  This was previously known as child proof.  Seems nothing is out of reach any more.  lol.

My happy guy —–>

On the political front, finally, some sense in Washington.  (can you beleive it).  The drive to make gay marriage illegal via constitutional ammendment has been stopped.  Why anybody would think this is worthy of a constitutional ammendment in beyond my comprehension.  There are children starving, soldiers dying for oil, sick people who can’t get health care, and homeless in this country and people somehow justify dictating who loves who.  What a completely screwed up world.

FLUFFY MAIL!  WooHoo! My prefolds came today.  My kitchen was too much of a mess to boil them, but I started them in the washer, so I am on the way to having a good size stash now.  Yeah!  *doing a little happy diaper dance*  ALSO, the ~*~DIAPER FAIRY~*~ sent along an ecobaby organic one size.  It was so very very soft and looked really cute on Zane.  Really made my day!!!

I got sleep last night, so I am feeling a little better.  I was able to make a dent in the kitchen, but tired really easy, so I didn’t even come close to finishing.

Today Zane picked up the phone that I laid down next to me, had a “conversation”, then took the phone to the phone dock, almost set it down but pulled it back to his ear to say “bye bye” before putting it away.  so cute!