I think it’s making me a better photographer if only because I’m noticing the world around me more. I always have my phone with me, so it’s easy to snap a shot when I see it instead of wishing I had a camera. I’ve been focusing on playing with patterns, light, and textures so I’m doing more close ups. Eventually I’d like to get a real dslr and learn how to do all of these cool things by messing with f-stops, shutter speeds, and different lenses instead of relying on filters but for the moment the apps are helping get the end product I want without the frustration.

I’d love to know what you all think of these, and if there is one you like best.

Stairwell in an old mill building, from below.

Conveyor belt close up.

Wooden railing.

Zakim Bridge in Boston. (No, I wasn’t driving, and yes, we were stuck in traffic.)

Granite wall.

Filler on paved road.

I’m going to give you all a few pieces of unasked for advice today. And you WILL thank me for it later.

Um. If you’re squeamish, or a man, you might want to go ahead and leave right now.

1. Okay ladies, we all know when we’re getting a UTI, right? We don’t need no stinkin’ medical degree to tell us this diagnosis. Ahem. But sometimes it’s the weekend and it’s snowing and you just don’t wanna** go sit at the walk-in clinic all day just so you can pee in a cup and they can tell you what you already knew. Right?! So you start researching home remedies on the dear ole Google. Well let me just tell you right now, if you run across the one about dissolving a teaspoon of baking soda in some water and drinking it (because it changes the ph of your pee and all that) just keep in mind that this concoction is ALSO a home remedy for CONSTIPATION.*** But they don’t tell you that part. Until the stomach cramps start and you start Googling other uses for baking soda because you think you might have just poisoned yourself. That’s when you find out about baking soda super-quick (!) laxative effect. Except now YOU know and you didn’t have to learn it the hard way. Like me. I’m ready for my colonoscopy now. Yeesh.
2. You guys! I warned you to stop reading.
3. Moving on, those of us with kids know that pukage is an eventuality. Yes? I mean some kids hurl a lot and some not so much. If your kid is like mine and you can’t remember the last time he puked then I have some words of wisdom for you.**** He/she will not have the puking instinct! He won’t know it’s coming and he won’t even come close to thinking he should run for the bathroom, EVEN though you’ve said repeatedly “If you have to throw up there’s a bucket next to your bed, but can you please try to get to the toilet?!” No. No. No. He will instead come to your room, complain his stomach hurts, and proceed to climb in your bed. You will then have to basically shove him off your brand new comforter that doesn’t fit in your washing machine and bodily throw him toward the bathroom. He will then miss the bathroom (the first time anyway) and spew across the rug. I think we all know who HE is. Hint: Josh.
4. For those of you with a cat and/or dog, fyi, the above applies to them as well. I really hate my carpets yo.
5. And last but not least! When dealing with a 5 day, 7 day, 10 day long snot-filled MAN COLD in your house, just go ahead and get him a humidifier and every single kind of cold/flu remedy available asap. In fact, just go buy it all now in anticipation of the MAN COLD. It will save you all pain and suffering later. Oh, and buy extra trash bags for the enormous volume of tissues the Man will use.*****

We are all FINE now, so we don’t need get-well wishes. I just felt it best to share my recent experiences with you so you could enjoy them as much as I did. You’re welcome!

* I still want a full redesign but this will do for now! I don’t have the skills myself, nor the money to hire it out, and Damon doesn’t have the time to do all that. But I swear I’m going to learn how…maybe next year.

**You have to read that with a little whine in your inner voice. It helps.

*** LAXATIVES and IBS DO NOT MIX. EVER.

****I want to say that the last time Josh threw up was at least five years ago but it really has been so long that I can’t remember. I know, we were totally due.

*****It’s really snot funny. Oh, wait, yes it is. And I hope he doesn’t read this.

I got his via email from Josh on Sunday morning. Yes, an email, from my kid, who was upstairs in his room at the time.

1. I have no idea how he got the writing on the photo. All he would tell me is that he used Camera + (on his iPod.)

and

2. No, his closet isn’t usually that messy but we had company (hi Phil!) staying in his room so we shoved all kinds of stuff in there that day. George loooved that.

and

3. Technology is weird. Eight year olds are even weirder.

First of all, I’m almost a full week late now. I’ve been planning to write this for two weeks but I have like 3,000 work deadlines this month and we all know this blog is the first thing to suffer the consequences of me having to earn actual money. (The second is housework. Or is it the other way around? Seeing as I’m sitting here writing in a very dirty little house. Ahem.)

Honestly though, nothing in my 2011 archives was all that entertaining and well, I just didn’t write nearly often enough to bother. Bad, bad, blogger I am. Lucky for me I’d rather read blog posts than write them! There are gazillions of good bloggers out there writing fabulous stuff every day. Lucky for you I’m going to tell you about a few of my favorites.

These are women who write about anything and everything; work, relationships, kids, funny stories, heartache, whatever the topic, if they’re writing about it, I want to read it. Some of them you’ve surely heard of and others you might not have. Popularity doesn’t matter to me, good writing does. These are the blogs that when I spy a new post in my Google reader, I skip over everyone else to read them first!

I’m kind of a terrible commenter, so this is my way of saying thank you to them for being awesome. In random order here are some of my favorite bloggers of 2011:

• Stimeyland
• Dutch Blitz
• Magpie Musing
• An Amiracan Story
• The Bloggess
• Swistle
• The Spohrs are Multiplying
• Wendi Aarons
• Fairly Odd Mother
• Writing as Joe
• Sizzle Says
• In Pursuit of Happiness

So seriously, if there is ANYONE on this list you’ve never read before, GO RIGHT NOW!!

BUT WAIT! Before you go, tell me your favorite blogs? I’d love to find some new good reads.

Tomorrow I’ll make popovers for breakfast and then we’ll watch the Celtics season opener while Josh builds the Lego sets he’s not expecting to get. We might even take naps, (well, at least two of us will!) Does it get better than that?

Honestly, as much as we would love to see the rest of our families, we’re glad we made the decision to stay home this year. Josh has had a cold for a couple weeks that’s morphed into a bad cough. He would have been miserable if we were traveling. Been there, done that, and not doing it again!

I hope that you all are exactly where you want to be and with those you love the most this weekend. May you all be happy, healthy, and have lots of chocolate things to eat.

xoxo

It is easy enough not to talk about it though. Most people don’t really want to discuss death and dying. It’s too messy, too hurtful. It hits too close to the heart, so we gloss over it. I’m fine, I’m fine, we all say, rather than speak the truth, that a piece of you is missing, gone forever. We’ve all experienced it, haven’t we? So why the silence? It’s because hearing about someone else’s pain makes us think of our own. A grandparent or parent lost, or some other dearly loved one. Avoid. Avoid. Mortality bites.

I believe would all rather think of death in generic terms. Sad events happening in far off places are easier to cry over than cancer in the house. I can bawl at a sappy scene in a movie but real life hospital rooms and funeral parlors just make me numb. I can only assume I’m not alone in doing that since no one actually speaks of such things.

Well, at this moment I’d like to speak of my father but it’s easier to write it here than to say any of it aloud. Who was he? A father of seven, he was Pop to us. A husband of 50 years, yes, they made it to 50 last August, with three-ish months to spare. Grandfather of 17, soon to be 18, and with them Pop became Pepere. Catholic, always and forever. Engineer, artist extraordinaire, fixer of all things. He and flawed and kind and wonderful. I say all of this because these words describe him, but yet he was so much more than a few nouns and adjectives. He was the sum of years of 77 years of life, and love, and light.

I can’t look at a sunset and not imagine him painting it. I can’t pick up the phone and not yearn to call him. I can’t go to their house without glancing at his chair, expecting to see him reading, or well, snoring there. I can’t hold a broken electrical anything and not laugh at how he would have stashed it away for parts. I can’t help but for wish we’d had more time with him, for myself, and for my son. I can’t stand it, no, I hate it that he’s dead. Dammit.

So.

I hope you don’t think I’m crazy or depressed. (Well maybe a little crazy but not so much certifiably.) Sometimes grief just looks like this. It ebbs and it flows like the tides, and it’s not a bad thing to let it loose once in awhile.

Now, if you’ve made it this far, you could do me a favor; don’t tell me how sorry you are. I know you’re sorry. You can’t read this kind of a brain dump and not feel some sadness. Instead, I’d rather you tell me a little something about someone you’ve loved, and and miss, and hardly ever talk about. Even though it hurts. Writing it down helps, I swear.

In return, I’ll show you one of my father’s paintings, one of my favorites:

and one of my recent photos:

Sunsets. It’s a family thing.

Unfortunately, that’s not true for everyone. Right now there are many, many children across the country who are very ill, with cancer and other catastrophic illnesses. My child is not ill, but I can’t forget those who are, especially on this holiday.

I have no doubt you have heard of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital ®, and that they are a leader in both treatment and research of these illnesses, but did you know their work is supported primarily through fundraising efforts? This year they have partnered with Ruckus Media Group for their Thanks and Giving campaign ® to raise money for all of those kids who so desperately need answers.

Ruckus Media Group is an family friendly entertainment company that creates iPhone and iPad apps for children, and really, they are fabulous! (I would never say that if I didn’t believe it!)

Now through Dec. 31st, all net proceeds ($1.39) from the sale of any of Ruckus Media’s Rabbit Ears classic interactive storybook apps will be donated to the St. Jude Thanks and Giving campaign. These apps are priced at only $1.99 right now, discounted from $3.99. So hey, not only are you doing a great thing for St. Jude’s by buying them, but you can buy twice as many.

This list of apps includes The Velveteen Rabbit, (I bought this on ages ago and I seriously love it!) The Night Before Christmas (ditto!), Thumbelina, The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, Paul Bunyan, and other classic titles that your kids will adore and read over and over.

In addition, from today until this Friday, their Hasbro collaborations Chuck & Friends: Friends for the Long Haul and My Little Pony: Twilight Sparkle Teacher for A Day are also at the discounted price of $1.99.

If you would like to buy an app or two to support St. Jude’s Thanks and Giving campaign you can directly to the Ruckus iTunes store, (they made this way easy!) If you prefer to donate directly to St. Jude’s fundraising efforts you can do that too!

You know I don’t post things like this very often so it has to be important to me when I do. I’m really happy to have been asked to help St. Jude’s and Ruckus spread the word about this campaign and you should know that I get absolutely nothing out of this. Oh wait, I do get something, I get to be yet a little more thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving peeps, I wish you all happiness and health. xo

Um. Hmmm.

Not so much.

I have confession. I don’t really like vegetables.
~squeals and ducks~

I know. I know! I know I should but I just don’t. Ugh.

Don’t get me wrong. I eat them. I just don’t LIKE them. I usually put them in soup or otherwise cook them to death so I don’t have to taste them. Or you know, slather them in butter or other such bad things. Cheese…salad dressing…sour cream… ~ducks again~

Give me recipes please. Ones that will make me like them. HALP.

But…what they didn’t know COULD hurt them.

Dun, dun, DUN!

There were uninvited guests on the way.

Oh noes, they’re right outside the door!

Zombies! Noooo! Spiderman, don’t let them in!

Um. Spiderman let them in.

I just can’t show you any more.

The horror. ~gasp~ The minifig carnage. ::sob::

Back last spring when Damon got this  job offer in Boston we knew this was the opportunity we’d been waiting for, working for, to make a major life change. You already know we dramatically downsized our house and our possessions, (on purpose!!) so we could live a simpler lifestyle. Well, we also chose to ~gasp~ get rid of a vehicle and make do with just one. ONE car.

We specifically chose to live in Braintree for two reasons, the schools for Josh, and easy access to the train station for Damon. It’s like city life without being in the city. It’s a place where having one car is really possible.

You’re thinking well sure, lots of people make do with one car, or even no car! But not us. It’s just something we never even considered before. We both grew up in MAINE, and there is practically no such thing as public transportation in Maine. You certainly can’t walk – everywhere you need to go is like, 110 miles away, or more. Okay seriously, I pulled that number out of nowhere and then I looked up how far it is from my hometown to the Maine/NH border and it’s 113 miles! Not even kidding.

Anyway, our plan, and we all know how well plans go, was to keep our old crappy SUV right up until it was time to move and then quickly get rid of it. About 3 1/2 weeks before our closing date we made a decision to donate it to a good charity instead of trying to sell it. Believe me when I say it wasn’t worth much, certainly not even worth the hassle of a craigslist ad!

Three days after that, the dang truck died on the side of the road.

Sigh. I had three weeks of transfer station trips/school pickups/extraneous moving errands left to make. Gah.

Anyway, we gave up, donated it to the Epilepsy Foundation (hello tax break!) and we’ve only had one car ever since. That was four months ago, and I haven’t murdered anyone yet. Wahoo!

Every week day now, I drive Damon to the train station, drop Josh at school, then go home and work until it’s time to pick up Josh again at 3. (No he doesn’t ever take the school bus, but that’s another story of it’s own.) We come home and get homework done and dinner ready, then at 5 we go out yet again and pick Damon up at the train station.

You guys. I feel like I’m in the car ALL the time. But here’s the scary thing; I don’t mind it. Josh gets reading time, or we all actually get time to TALK to each other. It’s quite a nice novelty! One I hope doesn’t wear off. 

On weekends, we plan our time carefully, if one of us needs the car the other gets quiet time at home. We’ve been doing a lot more things together as a family too, even if it’s just errands. That’s a good thing!

The other really fabulous thing? Is how much money we’re saving. Think about this: no car payment, no car insurance, no registration fees, no tax, no maintenance, no extra gas. At MINIMUM we’ve estimated we’re saving around $5000 a year, but in reality, it’s probably 7 or 8. Um, yeah. I’m okay with that. I’ll just keep on doing all the driving, thanks.

Have you ever thought about downsizing to one family car or going car-less completely? Is it even doable where you live? Scary thought isn’t it?

We’re doing our best to make it work. We said we wanted try it for a year. I think we can, and if we get through the winter, maybe even longer!