And when scrapping can't fix it...

...clean the bathroom and start teaching self to knit.

Yesterday I did some serious scrapbooking therapy. I wasn't in touch with the nostalgic/fun and playful feelings I like to have when I scrapbook (so that the pages don't reflect misery/bitchyness), so after today's crying jag about what an awful human being I am that I can't manage to secure professional employment, I went crazy.

Not bad crazy, don't call CPS.

First, I ate a brownie sundae. Then I changed a shitty diaper. That's a good way to get back in touch with reality. Then as long as we were upstairs and Deuce was having fun throwing toys at our refinished hardwood floors (praise Jesus), I cleaned the upstairs bathroom. Now the bathroom looks like something I can be proud of as a person who stays home all fucking day.

Mid-towel change, Deuce started begging for Backyardigans, so I turned on the magic bullet (The Tale of the Mighty Knights), found the knitting needle Deuce hid behind the loveseat yesterday, and cracked open the Learn To Knit Kit. I "learned" the knit and purl stitches about 2 years ago when I bought the kit. I'm surprised to find that although my gauge is loose like a $10 hooker, it can still do a knit stitch. I have about a dozen rows and it's kind of fun. I mean, it's not anything I should be doing so it's great fun.

So the moral of this little story is that I need to focus more attention on housework (and eating sundaes apparently) so that I have something to show for myself.

Scrapbooking cures what ails

I have nothing but frustration and grumpiness in my heart today, so I'd like to share some things I've been working on that make me happy. Scrapbooking.

I'm still working on Deuce's first year, but I'm really organized and doing a page every day. I have literally scrapped once since we moved because my space is so disorganized. I'm taking a class to get my shit together and it's really helping me. It's "Get Organized and Be Inspired" from Big Picture Scrapbooking.

The class is actually one of the reasons I'm grouchy. I can't really do any serious scrapbook room remodelling because... oh I'm not working. It just makes me frustrated that my lack of employment is keeping me from doing something I want to do.


But I'm making progress toward a more organized and creative environment, and doing pages too. I forgot how much I love scrapbooking. So on to some pages from this weekend.

This is Deuce's first time feeling grass (April 2008). Awesome day.


Collage of Deuce teething (and drooling). The puzzle pieces are from Cricut's My Community cartridge.

Here's a page with my dad. He is a champion tickler and has no mercy even on the young. Deuce managed to escape, as you can see. I'm really proud of this page - using the circle motif on the patterned paper on the on a top layer highlighting Robbie crawling away. Not too shabby.

This page is busy. I cropped the photos close before I printed them, but it would have been easier to cut the photos down so that the page wasn't overrun with patterns and colors.

Here's a fav page - I was going to frame that 5x7, but the page came together so I used it. This is also from April, 2008.

So that's what I've been up to lately! I have to shovel the driveway today (boo!) but then back to it!

Hey, what's that funk?

That garbage funk. Damn you Backyardigans.

Count on DeuceDad to snap me out of the funk. Not just an old funk, beetches. A crying funk. An "I'm going to have to work third shift for minimum wage because I have no marketable skills and am a software-engineer reject" funk.

What did he do that was so great? Sent me a craiglist posting for a rockin' job. I didn't even procrastinate sending my resume and didn't just do my normal slightly generic but individually written cover letter. I went to the company's website and read about them. Sounds kind of fun. Customer relationship management software. Very interesting.

I love DeuceDad for a lot of reasons, and one of them is that he is supportive when I need him.

Wind faster!

I wanted to save this for ABC-along, but I can't. Too awesome.

I received an all hand-made Christmas from BIL and FSIL. This is one of my favorite kinds of Christmas, along with useful, thoughtful, and shameful spoiling. Anyhow, check out my winnings!
Yarn swift, made by BIL from cedar and a repurposed pool cue. It turns so smoothly - it's really pretty impressive. I definitely don't need all that speed for my handwinding, but it's so much nicer than the stretching hank around feet method I previously used. This is getting a home in the in-progress craft room.

Nostepinne, which I have not gotten the hang of yet, but I remain determined. This is turned so smoothly the yarn doesn't hang up on it at all. I guess it has a design improvement in that there is a groove for the first wrap of yarn so it doesn't get dropped. Such beautiful work from him.

And from FSIL herself, a Faberge cowl(Rav link)!

The cowl yarn in Malabrigo worsted in the Polygala colorway, and is fantastico! So warm and soft even against my neck. It's a treat for sure.

Thanks so much for all your hard work!!

It feels good when you sing a song

A strange thing happened to my feed burner. I added Club Trillion to it. I'm sure my (few) readers are not raving college basketball fans and are not tremendously interested in a college kid expounding on the trials of being a poor player on a great team. But this shit is good. And I just had to say something about it because I got all excited when I saw there was an update. AND he calls out Stuff White People Like, which is off color, but hysterically funny to me. In fact, it was on my blogroll, but I decided it was a little off the topic of parenting, and so it was removed.

Meantime, Deuce and I got out for a much-needed play date today that ended in me dragging his crying ass out the front door of my friend's house. Her 2 year old didn't nap yesterday and Deuce is teething. Apparently in toddler math this ends in fighting over DJ from Cars and crying. I need to get this kid back in day care. Before I know it he'll be 39 and going on movie dates with his mommy (I have an uncle who, until recently acquiring a girlfriend, did just that. It runs in the family).

So there's DeuceMotherhood today. Reading sports blogs and failed play dates. G-l-a-m-o-r-o-u-s.

Bonus: Want dance around the living room with your son looking at you like a loon? Play this one for him.

Am I a Democrat now?!

It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but
also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our
fate.

I tortured Deuce by watching the inauguration instead of his after-lunch Backyardigans today. To say President Obama is well-spoken is like saying I have a little cellulite. He's cool calm and collected on the day he inherits a struggling economy and a war.

The goals he layed out in he inaugural address are going to be challenging, if not damned near impossible. But he struck some notes with me that rang true.

The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross
Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend
opportunity to every willing heart - not out of charity, but because it is the
surest route to our common good.

The key to this one is the "willing heart." The opportunity to earn a living for those willing to work for it is an issue that has been on the minds of this DeuceFamily since, oh, say October 21, 2008.

If President Obama can really help instill this nation with accountability toward our children and the desire to work hard, then I might just become a believer.

The Not-A-Shower

I'm back and ready for action! This week I need to catch up this blog (among other things). First up, the recap of the second-baby-not-shower-luncheon-and-make-and-take.

Friday I prepped the food. The menu was light - veggie tray and little sandwiches, punch and cake.

The sandwiches went off without a hitch. Mix 8 oz softened cream cheese with one packet of dressing mix:

Spread on 8 sandwich wraps (these are Flat Out).

Layer your fixin's - here spinach, ham and swiss. Leave some exposed cream cheese at the top to stick the wraps closed.

Wrap and slice. Easy!

Now the cake. Fuck. This was a lemon chiffon cake from Williams Sonoma "Baking." Lovely, I'm sure. If you don't accidentally leave the oven set to broil from the night before. If one were to do that, one's hypothetical cake would not cook in the middle. And when one turned it upside down to cool as per the instructions, one would dump the whole fucking thing all over the counter.


Fuck. (that's cake batter stuck to the front of my btw)

After a brief trip to Wegmans to get a carrot cake, and then a miraculously uneventful drive north, lunch was ready.

Momma was happy, and got TONS of meals for the freezer.

I would do this party again in a heartbeat. It was fun, and low impact to plan, and I think it provided a real benefit to the mom. Good times!