Monday, February 3, 2014

Grasshopper Days

 

Grasshopper Days

For today, Monday, February 3, 2014.

Outside my window...   not snowy.  The photo above is from a few years ago, and is sort of my Grasshopper Days - Winter Edition standard.  Out my window this morning...


Venus shining brightly, black skies turning to blue, and then to daylight, and the temp around 20F.  Brrr!

Hearing...  the furnace trying to take the chill off the house.

Pondering...  yes, it's been quiet around here lately.  In the infamous words of Thumper, If ya can't say somethin' nice, don't say nothin' at all.  

Praying...  work for Kerry.  He did not get the job he'd applied for.  Not even an interview.  Rats.

Thankful...  he did get a phone call from another local architect who is somehow overburdened with work and willing to contract some out to Kerry - maybe a month's worth of work.  So hallelujah for that.

Also thankful for a fun time at my parents' yesterday... can you tell what we were doing?  Look closely at the shirts ;D


Wearing...  proudly wearing my green and blue ;D

Creating...  I'll show more pics soon, but working on a couple of baby quilts to try to sell.  The colors look a bit over-saturated here, but they are pretty vibrant.


Going...  to try listing them on ebay.  Not sure if that's a good market for handmade items, but we'll see.

Learning...  to remember to lift the lid and check the washer before turning the water on.  Duh... Now that we've (happily!) returned to a top-loader, there have been a few times I forgot I had a load in there ready to go to the dryer, and just started running water to fill for the next load.  Oops.  A quick spin sorts it out.

Looking forward to...  hearing birds in the morning when the weather warms up.

In the kitchen...  just a little bit of leftover chili from yesterday - enough for the boys for dinner :D

In the learning rooms...  Tate is swimming through the Civil War (which has always interested him) while Gunnar reads through the Middle Ages.  We have several experiments lined up this week for both of their science studies (I know I need a hard boiled egg, some purple cabbage indicator, lye-based toilet cleaner, and a host of other things I think I have on hand...), and the usual round of math and language studies.

Around the house...  a few touches of red, looking forward to Valentine's Day.

The Mother Load...  pay bills (!!!), make two appointments for boys, mail Tate's HA back to Children's for trouble-shooting (not working right), write a couple thank-you notes, dig out my desk (tends to disappear when I'm distracted with fun sewing projects), have a "calendar summit" with Kerry (synchronize our daytimers), and... well... much, much more.

Noticing that...  the days are a little bit longer...

Something fun to share...  had a good time watching the Superbowl with a few other families (pics from my mom, who even snapped some of the tv)...


... as the Seahawks pulled ahead the kids would say things like, "We can't lose now!" and we older mature folks would kind of shake our heads.  One of the high school age kids asked why we doubted.

Well, my dear, I've been a Seahawks fan more than twice as long as you've been alive.  I've seen them lose to Denver more times than I can remember.  So you'll have to pardon me for my happy amazement at their win!

One of my favorite things...  finishing a project, because then I can start another one.  I read a few quilt blogs and they'll write about how many "WIPs" they have (Works In Progress) and I think I'd lose my mind.  I like to FINISH things, not have twenty in the works.

A few plans for the rest of the week...  a full school-week, rehearsal tonight, CAP tomorrow, and a trip to Whidbey NAS later in the week.  We have a friend who is a P-3 Orion pilot and has offered to take the boys (and a small group of friends) onto the base and into the flight simulators - FUN!

A peek into  my world...  in the category of Strange American Traditions The Rest Of The World Probably Doesn't Understand, my mom captured this image just at "the opportune moment".

10 comments:

sara said...

I'm not a sportsy person, but I thought of you last night as we listened to part of the game in the car. Congratulations. :)

Regarding "We can't lose now," I remember a story, I think about the Jets maybe? About the network cutting off the last few minutes of a game to put on the movie "Heidi." Apparently whoever was winning lost but the fans didn't know it. I bet it wreaked havoc with the bookies too. ;) Do you know that story?

Herding Grasshoppers said...

I think I'd heard it referred to, but had to ask "Uncle Google" to get the story - 1968, NY Jets vs. Oakland Raiders. The Raiders scored two touchdowns in the final MINUTE of the game.

Crazy!

Monica said...

Oh, sorry to hear about the job! I wish you lived closer to Phoenix! My Uncle is VP of an architect firm down there! He said they are taking on some help recently. Will continue to pray though.
We started watching the blow out game but since it didn't really matter to us which team won we went on to reading and other types of entertainment.
Birds singing sounds wonderful right now. We are about to be hit again by another winter blast! 4-12 inches predicted. {{sigh}}

RogersUIO said...

Enjoyed your big family picture. We need to get some green to go with the blue in our wardrobes! We watched the Super Bowl here in Ecuador, but without the famous commercials.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Oh Monica, you're getting a LOT of snow this winter! Or is that normal for you?

And wow - the game was on in Ecuador?! Missing the ads has pros and cons. At least there weren't so many skanky ones this year.

RogersUIO said...

Yep -- watched the game in Spanish! (And you thought English commentary was confusing!)

Wilma said...

Julie, I just gave your blog and email address to a friend of mine, Maryanne Davidson. She has a grandson who has lost the hearing in one ear due to tumors having been removed. He is a candidate for a CI, but doesn't want to consider it because of the pain of his former surgeries. I am hoping you and Tate might have some encouragement for him. Just wanted to give you a heads up on the email.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Hi Wilma,

If you'd like, leave your email in a comment (I won't publish it) and I'll send you mine. I'd be happy to correspond with your friend if she would be interested. Not that I'm going to try to convince her that a CI NOW IS THE ONLY ANSWER, but Tate and I would be glad to share more and answer any questions.

Julie

melanie said...

I watched a whopping 5 min of The Game - the ending, including the e-source commercial - ha ha. Had to feel a bit bad for the Broncos, but we were rooting for Russell Wilson {former Badger!}

Love your quilts ~ I trust you will find some happy customers on ebay!

Praise the Lord for a month of work for Kerry!

Rebecca D said...

First thing... Since we didn't have a proverbial horse in Sunday's "race" we each chose teams... I chose Seattle in honor of you and my husband chose them to punish Denver for letting Tebow go. (And he is SURE that explains what happened with the game!)

Also... I would be very interested in buying a baby quilt... I have admired your work for years and would love to buy one!!!