What I'm Into--November 2013

More like what I've been into since April--has it really been so long since I posted one of these?

Birthday boy.

Life

T-Rex turned one last month. The DDH turned thirty. We celebrated five years of marriage. It was a milestone month for everyone.

And our one-year nursiversary!

We had a little dinosaur (of course) themed party for T-Rex, which was fun, and the next weekend he stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while the DDH and I stayed two nights in a hotel and had a spa afternoon with massages and the works. It was awesome.

T-Rex cake made by my MIL.

Read and Reading

Oh gosh. I've been working my way through Jane Lindskold's Firekeeper series, which just keeps getting better and better. Definitely a must read for fantasy fans. Lindskold is from Albuquerque and I've met her several times; she is just the nicest person, and these books prove she's a good author, as well.

Carrying things in his mouth is a trick he learned from the dogs.

On TV

As T-Rex gets older, tv viewing gets pushed more and more firmly back to after his bedtime. We are way behind on all our shows, with a queue on Hulu a mile long.

Favorite new shows this season? Agents of SHIELD and Sleepy Hollow. Of the two, Sleepy Hollow is actually my favorite--the characters are excellent, though the premise is ridiculous.  

Once Upon a Time is having a better season than last, IMHO. We're so far behind that I'm not sure I've watched enough of the spinoff, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, to evaluate it properly, but it was growing on me.

I've also been slowly working my way through a rewatch of Firefly, which leads me to two conclusions: one, why did they ever cancel this show??? so good. and two, comparing Firefly to Castle makes me realize Nathan Fillion is getting old, which is sadface. Also three: WHY DID THEY CANCEL THIS SHOW?

Ride 'em, cowboy.

In Theaters

I have been waiting for an Ender's Game movie since the eighth grade, which was more years ago than I care to admit (umm, thirteen. or fourteen. ack). It did not disappoint my tempered expectations, but it wasn't the book, either.

I know we went to the movies at least one other time in the last six months, and certainly we've rented movies to watch, but I don't remember anything particular. Except--Man of Steel was surprisingly boring, and T-Rex loved The Sound of Music.

Birthday boys.

 In the Kitchen

We did about two weeks of a semi-Whole 30 in October. It was a disaster. For one, we simply cannot afford that much meat. Our diet relies heavily on legumes and grains and streeeeetching out the meat as much as possible. We did each lose about ten pounds, which was nice, and it did break me of what was getting to be an out-of-control candy habit. I guess it wasn't a total disaster. But it was very stressful, having to plan out every single bit of food that went into out mouths. That is just not healthy for me psychologically AT ALL.

I'm looking at getting raw milk come January. If the weather isn't too disastrous, we plan to visit the farm this weekend. So looking at the weather forecast...maybe next weekend.

I made some grain-free pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that were to DIE for. Eventually I'll get around to updating the food blog. Probably in another six or seven months. ;-)

Green chile stew at his birthday party.

First time tasting yogurt.

Music

It's FINALLY Christmas music time! My Pandora list knows pretty well what I like--but what's your favorite Christmas tune?

Rex and Meg.

Pat the bunny.

Linking up with Leigh at Hopefulleigh, like I used to before I fell off the face of the blogging earth. Check out what everyone else has been into this month.

What are you up to, friends?

Goodbye, November!

I am relaxed.

I would say huzzah for election day because now all the obnoxious political backbiting all over the internets will stop, but who am I kidding? That nonsense never stops.

T-Rex is head down and facing the correct direction, but otherwise shows no inclination to leave his comfy home anytime soon. Less than a week until the due date! We'll see how things play out.

The nursery is all done except for one last decoration project. I'll do a nifty reveal post soon. Maybe.

I still need to clean out my car and install the carseat in one car or another. But at least we have the carseat now, which we didn't before Friday.

I am super stoked to see the diaper bag Jessi made for him. It should be in the mail tomorrow, gah! (Also, if you like fun crafty stuff, you should definitely be following her blog.)

The DDH picked out some freezer-cooking recipes and we bought ingredients yesterday. I have a lot of cooking and chopping and labeling in my future, if T-Rex cooperates. But it will be good to have the freezer stocked.

I have a To Do list and would like to check everything off it, but there's nothing I really feel compelled to do anymore. Things will get done, or they won't, and who really cares? Other than installing the car seat. But really, the DDH can do that after T-Rex is born and before he comes home, if necessary.

Hmm. I should probably clean the rabbit's cage, too. Because heaven knows no one else will do it for me, which means it likely won't be done again until a couple weeks after T-Rex arrives, and ewww. Poor Meg.

Gratuitous Rabbit Picture.

What else? I don't know. I am content to wait, though I don't like uncertainty and it would be nice to have a definitive date and time to put on the schedule. In the meantime, I'm trying to enjoy these last few days of just me, the DDH, and the dogs. Of life without diaper changes and car seats and scheduling everything around a kiddo or three. I look forward to meeting T-Rex, but I'm not really in any rush.

I feel like I'll jinx it by saying work has been going better, but it has. It helps to know that I don't have more than two weeks left here. It's the only thing that threatens this relaxed and peaceful calm I've been feeling, though.

Also, and this is very important: We've eaten all the Halloween candy and I really shouldn't replace it with Christmas candy right away, but I want to. Hmph.

I am busy (busy, dreadfully busy).

I'm not sure when I'm going to learn to stop overscheduling myself. But some things just can't be helped.

Friday, the DDH's coworkers threw him a wonderful baby shower. I got to put faces to a bunch of names (not that I can guarantee that I'll remember either). The DDH loves working there; we'll both be sad when they make him move.

We hit up the state fair again Friday night, stuffed ourselves with more junk food, pet ALL OF THE RABBITS and a bunch of goats and a WALLABY and things, and watched a super awesome fire-spinning show. Yay fairs!

Petting a wallaby.

Disapproving rabbit does not approve.

Saturday managed to be quite productive, as you can see:

Brown is done!

Taped.

We took the blades off the fan to make it easier to paint
the ceiling.

The DDH takes all the credit for that. I went to the farmer's market and made pumpkin gingersnap oatmeal and cleaned the kitchen.

Saturday afternoon we attended a beautiful wedding for one of my college friends. And stuffed ourselves on more food. Then I bought pinking shears and turned two t-shirts into wipes while watching Breaking Bad, because nothing says preparing for baby like a show about meth cooks.

Wedding cake and Mario Mushroom groom's-cupcakes.

Sunday after church we were incredibly productive, and the nursery now looks like this:



First coat of blue on the walls done.

Exclamation point!

Again, that's all the DDH's work. I was trying to clean up the office, which is now the office/second guest bedroom, since the second guest bedroom is now the nursery. I made progress, but nobody would admire any pictures of the room in its current state. So.

I also turned another t-shirt into yet more cloth wipes, and discovered that I had bruised my hand with Saturday's cutting. Ow.

We went out to dinner with some friends who were in town from Maryland. It was a lot of fun, though it brought home the fact that most of our friends have moved away and we don't really have people to just hang out with anymore. Sigh.

After that was a couples' wedding shower for an old college friend, the highlight of which was getting to see a different old college friend who had just flown in from Japan, where he now lives (I told you all our friends moved away).

Anyway. That is sort of our schedule from now until the baby comes, I think: lots and lots of work to do at home and lots and lots of other obligations. Doctor's appointment and hospital tour were Monday (doctor's appointments every Monday here on out!), church stuff Wednesday, a different church thing tonight, work AND a wedding Saturday, etc., etc., etc. And I have so much to do that I decided that I needed to start getting up earlier, so I'm getting less sleep right when I'm exhausted anyway. I suppose I'll have two months to lounge around and nap once T-Rex gets here. Right? Oh dear.

I am a reader: The Book That Changed My Life Carnival

Happy to be linking up to The Book That Changed My Life Carnival at Modern Mrs. Darcy.
Head over to Anne's site to read about more people's life-changing books!

I don't remember when I first read Watership Down.

I know I borrowed it from the library, that first time and many times after. So many books I remember only vaguely, by the stamp of some emotion they left on my soul long after title and author were erased by the endless succession of library books devoured and returned.

But Watership Down I remembered. Watership Down I checked out and read over and over, until finally, in high school, I used a birthday gift card to Borders to buy my very own copy.

For those of you not familiar with this classic, Watership Down follows a group of rabbits as they escape the destruction of their warren and travel across the English countryside to make a new home.

As with the best animal books, the rabbits talk and have some human characteristics but still retain their essential rabbitness. They are not merely miniature humans in fur suits but very definitely Other.

The story of Fiver, Bigwig, and their companions teaches many lessons about bravery, friendship, perseverance, brains-over-brawn, faithfulness...the usual suspects.

From it, however, I also learned a sad lesson--a necessary one, perhaps, but a truth parents wish their children never had to learn:

Nice people aren't always nice. Evil doesn't always wear a black hat.

(Spoilers beneath the bunny.)

Perhaps the greatest lasting impact of the book:
My succession of pet rabbits.

In a pivotal scene in the book, our rabbit heroes stumble upon a warren filled with fat, sleek, friendly rabbits. After weeks of wandering a hostile landscape, escaping death by predator and weather alike, and worrying about how they will start a new warren without any female rabbits, this place and its co-ed inhabitants seem like heaven to our hero rabbits.

They are given a warm welcome, and several of the group argue that the journey should end here, that they should assimilate into this warren and cease the search for a new home.

There's only one problem: it turns out the nice, friendly fat rabbits are trying to kill them.

There's more to it than that, but the point is this was, if not the first book, than the first book I remember reading that presented evil in such a nuanced light.

Most children's books follow the simple moral duality of old westerns. White hat/black hat, good witch/bad witch, Superman/Lex Luthor. The main story arc of Watership Down follows the same formula--later the rabbits steal female rabbits away from an evil, openly oppressive warren and an epic bunny battle ensues.

Life for a little kid is like that, too. Everyone you know is nice to you. If you have a teacher you think is mean, that teacher becomes the Mean Evil Teacher and you see no redeeming quality in her at all. Life is as black and white as the Wicked Witch of the West versus Glinda the Good Witch.

But slowly you come to see the gray in life. The Mean Teacher turns out to be the best one you've ever had. Your best friend betrays you. The worst criminals are the ones who can masquerade as normal and friendly. Normal people are capable of committing terrible acts in the name of "the greater good."

This last is what those fat sleek rabbits were really guilty of. They grew fat and sleek because a farmer spreads food for them in a nearby field--but in exchange, he periodically places snares there and kills them. The rabbits hope that our heroes, unaware of the danger, will not be cautious and will be snared and killed, sparing their own number for a little longer. They have traded freedom for convenience and try to kill fellow rabbits so that they can maintain their lifestyle.

The lessons are chilling and many. But as with the best books, I never consciously defined these lessons until re-reading the story many years later, with waaaay too many hours of critical reading classes under my belt.

It is, at its heart, a good Story. And that lesson, too, is important: that power of Story to captivate the heart as well as the mind, to cross the barriers of time, space, culture (and even species!) and speak to us all.

Perhaps it was in Watership Down that I first learned how seamlessly Story and Teaching could be woven together.

I am growing our food.

Some of it, anyway.

A few weekends ago I decided that, February or no February, this weird warm winter meant it was time to plant some things.

I've gone about things all backwards. Though I planted a bunch of cool-weather seeds outside, I have yet to start my indoor transplants--which should have been done in the middle of February, except that it was so nice out in the middle of February that I did all the outdoor stuff instead.

C'est la vie.

So! Without further ado, here's what's going on in the garden:

False advertising.

Let me start with this picture of the garden from last spring. Lovely, no? Let's pretend it still looks that way and that weeds didn't grow straight through the weedcloth under the rocks and that the dogs didn't chew through my irrigation hoses. Mmkay?

Layers of expansion.

A space about as big as the garden itself in front of the garden has been covered in cardboard, soil, compost, leaves, rabbit litter, and a big ol' black tarp. In the next month or so we'll fence it in, hopefully do the gravel path deal, and presto! doubled our "acreage."

Lots of crops do well in cooler weather and can tolerate cold temperatures and even a light frost. These include cabbage, kale, broccoli, lettuces, chard, peas, and carrots. Some, such as kale, even get a flavor-benefit if you let them get a bit frosty. Some of these do better when directly seeded (as opposed to being started as transplants) than others.

Chard seeds.

So far, I've planted three kinds of lettuce, five-color Swiss chard, one row of kale (it's recommended that you start this as transplants, but I figured it was worth a shot), carrots, and peas.

After about three weeks, here's how they're doing:

A row of Forellenschluss lettuce.

Baby chard.

Nascent kale.

Carrots (bottom center).

A pea plant.

I am thrilled that my pea plants are looking so lovely, as I've never tried growing them before.

All three kinds of lettuce are sprouting; the Forellenschluss seems to be doing the best so far.

The chard and the kale are growing encouragingly well.

Really the only disappointment is the carrots. Last year I planted ollllld carrot seed as an afterthought in a corner of the garden when I was getting impatient but it was too cold and wet to really plant anything out. They grew like gangbusters and Meg enjoyed the bounty for the next almost nine months:

Some were as big as she was.

This year, those two tiny tiny sprouts pictured above are it. After three weeks! And this was brand new seed. I'm disappointed, but I'm not sure what the problem is. My guesses are either not enough water or being planted in rabbit litter (last year I planted them directly in our very clay soil). The litter compacted when water more tightly than expected, and I wonder if the carrots are too small and weak to break free, or if maybe enough light isn't reaching them.

But since I used my entire packet of carrot seed (grumble), I'll have to buy more if I want to try again. So I'm hoping I just need to be patient.

And then there's these beauties:

Bad angle on those pictures; they look smaller than they are. But those are my two plots of garlic that I planted back in November. They've been growing all winter. At this point I can snip off some of the greens to use in cooking, and by the time the tops die down in, oh, July, I'll be re-stocked on delicious homegrown garlic. I used the last of it a few weeks ago and store garlic is just not the same.

I also have these little volunteer garlics growing:

They've sprung up from heads I must have missed harvesting last year. It's unlikely they will develop good quality bulbs, but the greens are good eating and I'll probably harvest them for the young garlic bulbs later this spring.

Do you keep a garden, vegetable, flower, or mineral (rock gardens totally count)? Do you have an outdoor space or do you do containers? What foods do you like to grow?

11 Things at 11:11 on the 11th.

By the time I hit "Publish" it won't be, but I would like to point out that RIGHT NOW it is 11:11 a.m. on the 11th. ^____^ (By the time I hit "Publish," it's not even the 11th anymore...oh well.)

I think the entirety of my online existence in middle school (and, honestly, most of high school) consisted of chain survey emails passed around between my girlfriends and me.

At some point I realized that other people didn't enjoy them as much as I did...and my innate shyness means that I cannot do anything that might possibly irritate, offend, or cause someone to think less of me. So I stopped sending them.

But I love love love them. I am endlessly curious about other people's lives, and perhaps because I'm so shy and spend the entirety of my life crafting a persona I think others want to see in me, I spend a lot of time navel-gazing myself.

SO. Megan at SortaCrunchy tagged me in this little meme and I'm going to do it. SO THERE.

RULES

1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in the post of the person who tagged you.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to the blogs of the people you've tagged and tell them that you’ve tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

11 RANDOM THINGS

1. I own or have owned a variety of dogs, rabbits, fish, and rats, but I have always wanted and never owned a guinea pig.
2. I showed dogs for five years or so when I was younger (elementary and middle school).
3. Monkeys creep me out to the point of terrifying me. Ugh.
4. I have lived in five states and two countries. Technically, I'm a Yankee by birth, but I'm a Southwestern girl at heart.
5. I only shower about three times a week.
6. I am the oldest child of two oldest children.
7. I hate Jon Stewart. He's a pompous, unfunny jerkface and I have no idea why he's so popular. (I also don't get The Office. Obviously my sense of humor is broken.)
8. One of my husband's and my old college friends is currently living in one of our spare bedrooms.
9. I don't like olives, bell peppers, or pepperoni.
10. I eat hamburgers and other sandwiches in circles around the outside edge. The middle bite, where there's a bit of everything (meat, veggies, sauce) is the tastiest and I save it for last. 
11. I have an insatiable sweet tooth and the summer I spent nannying, I went through a 96 oz. bag of M&M's from Sam's Club every two weeks. By myself. I didn't gain any weight because I was spending ten hours a day literally running (and biking) around after two little boys, but amazingly once I stopped this habit, I lost thirty pounds.

QUESTIONS

 

1. Which season is your favorite and why? Fall. Harvest season! The weather is beautiful, there's an abundance of fresh produce, and I like coziness and pumpkin spice. I'm a fan of summer, too, though, and spring when it's finally warm after winter. Honestly, more than the season, I just love a clear sunny day, no matter the temperature. Rain and mud depress me.

2. What is the best deal you've ever gotten on anything? Hmm. When I was in middle school, my Destination Imagination team went thrifting for supplies for our skit. At one of the thrift stores, I found and for some reason fell in love with a stuffed armadillo. I don't remember what he cost; maybe a dollar? Little enough that my limited-income middle school self could snatch him up. Armee has accompanied me everywhere since: to dog shows, on road trips, to college, to Germany. He lives in the bottom drawer of my bedside table and even now if I'm feeling gloomy I pull him out and hug him and think of a sunshiny Albuquerque day and an adventure with friends and all the places we've been together.

3. What is your favorite dessert? Ice cream. Anything involving ice cream and/or chocolate.


4. When was the last time you went to the dentist? Just a few weeks ago, actually. No cavities!

5. Do you prefer older homes or new construction? Older homes (though updated plumbing and electricity would be nice). They just seem more solid, somehow. Built to last. And I love love love hardwood over carpet or tile any time. Our house has hardwood that some idiot covered in hideous Berber carpet, and it is one of our fondest dreams to rip it up and refinish the floors beneath. But bringing the electrical system up to code and replacing the disintegrating cardboard sewage pipes should probably come first....

6. What is your favorite social media platform and why? (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, etc) Facebook 'cause my mommy's on it. Ha. No, Facebook seems the most suited for actual personal interaction with family and friends that I don't see every day (or ever), as well as for just sharing those interesting tidbits I find on the web. Though I just started on Pinterest yesterday and it's proving useful so far.


7. Photography: do it yourself or go to a professional? I haven't had a professional portrait taken since my senior pictures for high school. I guess except my wedding pics, which aren't very good. I am a prolific but mediocre picture-taker and would really like some nice, artsy photos of me, the DDH, and perhaps the pets. But, you know, money.


8. What is the last thing you made? Yesterday I made two tortilla pies, beef stew, and some granola bars. Today I made guacamole. I make a lot of food. What was the last non-food thing I made, though? I'm not even sure.

9. Thrifting: love it or hate it? I want to love thrifting. That is, I want to have all these cute vintage clothes for very little money. But I have not found a good place to go in Tulsa and/or I'm just not very good at it. I have difficulty seeing the possibilities of a garment and I never seem to find any treasures (except Armee the Armadillo, of course).

10. Sunrise or sunset? Fiddler on the Roof. ^_^ Sunrise. There's something special about being up and outside at that time of day.


11. What is your guilty pleasure? Long, hot showers, since I am a water Grinch in the rest of my life (desert girl, you know). Also, trashy novels.

I'm not tagging anyone because the only people I know who read me are Megan (who tagged me), Anne (whom Megan tagged), and Sarah, who has an itty bitty baby and negative amounts of spare time. I guess technically I'm tagging you, Sarah, but you can just answer Megan's questions. And, contrary to the rules, anyone else is welcome to play, too.

Yay weekends and middle school flashbacks!

I am dressed (don't ask much more of me).

Since the beginning of the year, I've been planning my outfits out the night before.

This has helped me keep my goal of putting together interesting outfits, though often, still, my planned outfits are just a shirt and pants and nothing exciting at all. At least I don't have to worry about it the next morning.

I even managed to put together an actual outfit that wasn't a skirt-and-tights one:

The shirt is actually black-and-white striped, not gray, and is a little overwhelming on its own (especially considering the Christmas pounds I put on last month). But the belt (a thrift store find, woot!) cuts that nicely and ties it all together. I was really quite proud of myself.

With cardigan

I did do my skirt outfit as well, with a pair of supremely comfortable navy tights. I wish I could remember where I got them. Oh well. As you can see, I wore it with a cardigan against the AC in my office, but here it is without:

No cardigan.

I am fairly partial to my cozy cardigan collection, honestly.

Anyway. Yes, I've been a terrible blogger lately. It's been busy at work, and I am falling victim to the perfectionism virus: I have a post or two planned but don't want to do them until I have time to do them perfectly; therefore, they never get done.

Also my mother keeps making me post recipes. This is my personal wander-about-random-stuff blog. I gave up my food blog mostly because I think so many other people do food blogs so much better. But I really do enjoy it because I really do enjoy cooking and sharing that with other people. So I'm not too upset about its little revival.

In the meantime, I will leave you with a picture of a girl who's always impeccably dressed:

Meg.

Merry Christmas!

Lights in downtown Tulsa.

Christmas Eve eve dinnersnack of Triscuits
and jalapeno goat cheese.

Nascent homemade eggnog.

Fuzzy penguin pajama pants.

 

A beautiful sunny Christmas day.

Meg opening her stocking.

Kaylee investigating her stocking.

Jayne waiting very patiently for someone
to open his stocking for him.

Candlelight service on Christmas Eve.

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht.

Peter the Penguin.

House lights.

Luminarias.

Luminaria trail.

Christmas sweaters.

Merry Christmas!