Daily Challenge - Day 5

Today, I stopped putting off something that I had been meaning to do for awhile because my challenge today was

Pick a project you've been wanting to do and work on it for 15 minutes.

The project, as I mentioned yesterday, was to make a silverware caddy for our forks, spoons and knives.  I adapted a pin I had over on Pintrest to create a little caddy from three tin cans.  It didn't come out exactly the way that I wanted it, more because I haven't had the time or money to go to Goodwill to look for the one piece I'm missing yet.  But for a temporary measure, I think it came out pretty good.

For this project, I used:

3 cleaned out tin cans (I believe these were all vegetable cans)

3 pieces of scrapbook paper, cut to fit around the cans (I used  Colorbok 8.5 x 11" Bright Patterned Paper)

Hot glue gun

Journal Tab Stickers

Lowercase Letter Stickers

Fabric ribbon for embellishment

Twine

I didn't really take many pictures as I was in the process of doing the craft itself, partly because it went a lot quicker than I'd expected and partly because it had been a long time since I used a hot glue gun so it took me a couple tries to remember what I was doing.  Yeah, I"m not the crafter I wish I could be.

I started by measuring the paper around the cans and then cutting them down to fit.  I left some overlap on the width of the can so the edges would overlap.  Then, after one false start, I used the hot glue to put the paper on the outside of the cans.  My own personal way of doing things was to finish all the cutting and gluing of one can before moving on to the next.  It probably took me 10 minutes to finish getting the initial paper on all three cans.

With the last can, I noticed that I hadn't gotten the paper centered quite right and there was a bit of a gap at the top.  Being the crafty person I (sometimes) try to be, I pulled some of my ribbon out, measured and cut it and made a nice (if not completely even) band around the top of the can.

From there, I picked out three journal stickers and added one to each can, following it with letter stickers to spell out what each can would be for. (fork, spoon, knife).

This is where my project today deviated from my ultimate plan.  Ideally, I'd like to get a lazy susan or some other type of tray that has a handle in the middle and glue the cans around the base.  It would give me an easy way to lift the set and bring them to the table.  But, as I mentioned earlier, I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for yet, so I had to go with option two - twine.

I decided to twine the three cans together, seams to the inside and words pointing out.  I double wrapped a length of twine at the top and tied it off, and another length at the bottom.  For the time being, I'm hoping this will hold them together.  And while I haven't had a chance to put my silverware into them yet, I think it will be a nice, cheery place to keep them in, thereby giving me a drawer for other, larger pieces of silverware that are currently scattered around my kitchen.

So I'd say that today's challenge was a success.  And I even managed to get most of the rest of my chores finished as well.

Come back tomorrow to see how I handle the newest challenge:

Spend 15 Minutes Writing About What's Good About You

No breaks here! - and other updates

Well, I had my trip to the ER yesterday.  Interestingly, the longest wait I had was to be seen by triage.  It was a very busy night there and it took triage over an hour to finally bring me back and get my info.  But once they did, things went fairly quickly.  We'd barely gotten back to the waiting room when the doctor came out to take off my shoe and take a look at my ankle.  With the amount of swelling I had, they were glad that I'd had the forethought to leave my shoe on.  It helped keep the swelling down some.  The doctor said there was definitely something wrong, at the very least a bad sprain, so he wanted to get it X-rayed.  They were going to try to fast-track me through the clinic instead of having to wait to be seen in the actual ER.

Within a few minutes, I had someone come to wheel me to X-Ray.  The X-Ray was one of the most painful parts because of how I needed to move my ankle so they could get the pictures they needed.  And, of course, it didn't want to move the way they needed it to without large amounts of pain.  But I've been through one labor and severe back spasms that felt like electrocution, the pain from this was something I could handle.

As soon as we got back to the ER, someone was there to wheel me back to be seen.  Off we went to the clinic with some awesome nurses that I would have loved to have had on my floor if I'd been staying the night.  Great sense of humor and really on top of things.  We had the nurse come in, followed quickly by the doctor (who was also fantastic - heck, everyone I dealt with there was fantastic).  He took a look at my x-rays and saw what he thought was an old break but wanted the radiation tech to look it over.  The radiation tech concurred, so the diagnosis was bad sprain.  Within 30 minutes, I had an air cast boot, a pair of crutches and a prescription for Lortab.  (Along with a Lortab in my system - I felt so much better!)  We were out of the hospital by 6:30, made phone calls to family, grabbed some dinner and picked up the kids.  All in all, it could have gone much worse.

Being immobilized like this is both frustrating and freeing.  On the one hand, I can't even get upstairs so I'm sleeping on the pullout couch downstairs.  It's not the most comfortable place to sleep.  I'd planned today to clean out the linen closet and start going through and organizing all my books.  Both are upstairs (well, a majority of my books are).  The boot is uncomfortable and I'm abysmal at walking with crutches.

On the other hand, it means that I'm being forced to read (right now, I'm reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple) and get some online things done that I've been putting off (like updating my blog).  It also means that I'll be able to do the advent calendar activities that I've been putting off doing with the kids because I've been busy trying to get things done in the house.

Our advent calendar is working out pretty good.  I don't have the money this year to buy lots and lots of gifts to put in it and neither of my kids needs tons of candy.  So I decided to come up with a list of activities to do.  Actually, I came up with two lists - one of activities like crafts, cookie baking and decorating the tree, and the other of more giving things, like calling family members and helping out when you can.  This is what I've come up with (though not in the order we have it on the calendar):

Advent Activity Ideas

1. Write letter to Santa
2. Make sugar cookies
3. Make chocolate chip cookies
4. Make peanut butter cookies
5. Make gingerbread men
6. Decorate tree
7. Drive to look at Christmas lights
8. Watch Christmas movie with hot chocolate and popcorn
9. Make snowglobes
10. Make Christmas Ornaments (Salt dough)
11. Make Shrink-a-doodle ornaments
12. Make popsicle stick ornaments
13. Read a Christmas story
14. Make Christmas gifts for Teachers
15. Write Christmas cards for family and friends
16. Make Apple Clove Ornaments
17. Shop for a gift for Mommy
18. Shop for a gift for Daddy
19. Listen to holiday music
20. Wrap presents
21. Cut out paper snowflakes and hang them in the windows
22. Visit Santa at Bass Pro Shop
23. Make a special holiday meal with one thing each of us enjoys
24. Put out stockings and read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Advent Giving and Thankfulness Ideas

1. Tell everyone in the family something you like about them.
2. Do something nice for a stranger
3. Donate a toy to someone less fortunate
4. Donate a book to someone less fortunate
5. Talk about what Christmas means to you
6. Read the story of Jesus' birth
7. Make a list of 10 things you are thankful for
8. Call Nonni and Pop to tell them you love them
9. Call Grandma and Grandpa to tell them you love them
10. Call Poppy to tell him you love him
11. Call Aunt Robin, Uncle Simo and Layla to tell them you love them.
12. Call Aunt Deni, Uncle Mike, Gabe and Mikayla to tell them you love them.
13. Do something nice for a family member.
14. Make a video to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
15. Give out free hugs to someone
16. Donate extra change to the Salvation Army bell ringer
17. Suggest something fun to do the weekend after Christmas
18. Suggest a tradition you'd like to add to our family holidays
19. Help someone with their chores.
20. Make up a story about Christmas together
21. Donate food to Second Harvest
22. Buy something from the Angel Tree for someone in need
23. Tell one thing you want to do better in 2013
24. Say Thank You to someone you don't usually thank

Our advent calendar with notes waiting for each day 's activities

The crossed out ones are the ones we've finished.  The italics are the ones that we were supposed to do but haven't yet.  Technically, the snowflakes are today's activity, but we should be able to do those without too much trouble, along with the other crafts that we haven't finished yet.

The ornaments that we did do have come out pretty good.  The kids loves doing the Salt Dough ornaments (it's another one I've found on Pintrest) and they had a lot of fun using the cookie cutters to cut them out.  This is what we came up with:

Our Salt Dough ornaments

We still have to paint them (also happening tonight) and put mod podge over them so we'll be able to keep them for years to come.  Teddy had so much fun with it that he made making new ornaments every year as the family tradition he wants to adopt.

All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about things.  Yeah, my leg hurts horribly, but it could have been broken, which would have been worse.  But my house is clean, I've got plenty of books to read and I've got lots of fun things to do with the boys.  What else could I ask for?

Steps to Organization - Chore Chart

This morning, I had to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few things before bringing Teddy to school (since one of the items was something he needed for school).  I did self checkout and paid cash.  Teddy immediately ran to the cash dispenser and took the money out.  But instead of being helpful and handing it to me, he wanted to keep it for himself and got upset when I told him that, no, he wasn't getting the money.  I'm not even sure what he wanted the money for - maybe a snack at lunch time or something like that. Money being as tight as it is this month, I really didn't have it to spare.

By the time we got back to the van, he'd calmed down and that's when he asked a question I hadn't expected.  "Mommy, if I clean my room all by myself, can I get an allowance?"  This is the child that fights me tooth and nail to feed the cat (one of his few regular chores - yeah, I know... he should have been doing more.  That's what this is working toward).  During the short drive to school, I told him that would probably be acceptable, but it would need to be more than just cleaning his room once to get an allowance.

"Like what?"

"Well, feeding the cat without complaining is one thing..."

"What else?"

I thought for a few seconds, a multitude of my hated chores wanting to rush out of my mouth and sit squarely on his shoulders.  But instead, I told him that it was something that Daddy and I needed to talk about before I knew for sure.  That we'd talk about it tonight.

I talked to Rich about it briefly this morning, and we've decided that a $5 allowance a week would be a good amount for him.  And that with this $5 a week allowance, "good boy gifts" (which was a semi-regular occurrence when we went shopping) were going out the window.  He can pay for them himself.  I'm thinking of the same for Pete (though at this point, I'm thinking $3 a week for him will be good).

I'm also thinking of tying Rich and my spending money into our chores.  I'm thinking that it may help to teach the boys that it's not just them that get spending money by helping around the house.  It's all of us can use the help that it would provide to curb spending.

So today I'm tasking myself with getting a chore chart started.  I'm not sure yet if I'm going to actually make/print out the chore charts or if I'm just going to do the prep work, but I do know that I want to do this for the whole family.  I'm working hard at trying to stay organized, and I'm getting frustrated with having to go behind everyone to do things that they are able to do perfectly themselves (laundry off the floor, paper plates in the trash, dishes in the kitchen).  Yes, I'm the stay at home mom, but that doesn't mean I should do all of it by myself.

Along with writing out what chores each person needs to do, I'm trying to decide how to create the chart.  I've been looking at various chore charts online and pinning them to my organization and parenting boards on Pintrest for ideas.  There are a lot of create ones out there.  But they ultimately come down to money and creative ability.  I don't really want to reprint a chart every week and, while I think a white board would be a great way to go, I don't have the money to purchase one large enough right now.  I do have one thing I can possibly reuse already, but there really isn't the room to add the various things that need to be added.  So I'm  looking at various options for how to create as well as what will be on it.

So, dear readers, what are your thoughts on Chore Charts?  More trouble than it's worth?  A godsend?  What works for you and what doesn't.  I'm always open for ideas!

Coming back to the List Challenge

The List Challenge is one that I'd started participating in back in March.  Then life happened and it didn't.  But I still like making lists and I've wanted to get back to it and I figured now was as good a time as any.  If you'd like to check out the list of challenges, along with my lists for each question, you can find it here.  I'm going to continue to go back and link up the answers as I write them.

Today's list is:

Good Things That Happened This Week

• We got the letter from Teddy's school letting us know some of the important information that we need for him to start next week. I won't find out who his teacher is until the day before school, but at least I know where to park and where to go and all that stuff.
• I've ordered my yearly Sandra Boyton calendar... and this year, I may actually have things to write in it!
• Between my mother-in-law and I, we've finally found some shorts that Teddy will be able to wear to school (thanks to the dress code).
• I found small alphabet stamps at Target in their dollar bins.
• I finally got all the laundry that had been sitting around forever finished.
• Peter still wanted me to carry him - bad on my back, but good for my soul.
• I found that, within the last 9 months, I've read 121 books.
• I was featured on The Mom Pledge Blog today!

What I've Been Up To, Thoughts, Questions and Anything Else That Comes to Mind

I feel like writing tonight more than doing much of anything else.  That's not to say that I won't do anything else, but for the moment, I'm going to just kind of go with the flow.

Teddy's been sick for the last week, so we took him to the doctor today.  His fever's been off and on, which I didn't worry a whole lot about until a) it happened for a week and b) one of the teachers/mother of one of his classmates said that her son had the same symptoms and his doctor diagnosed it as flu.  Our doctor was only able to say that it wasn't strep and probably was a flu-like virus.  And that it looks like it's mostly run it's course. He's been fever free all day, so I'm planning to send him to PDO tomorrow.  Which Mommy really needs.

Since I was over in that area, I stopped by Michaels while I was there.  I'm trying, and failing desperately, to find a stamp or a stencil or something reusable and/or easy to find again (like stickers) with generic books/someone reading/a quote about reading.  With all of the book swaps I've been doing lately, I think having something book related that I can use to jazz up envelopes or bookmarks or pages in journals would be a great thing.  I just don't have any luck with it.  If anyone has any directions that they can send me in my hopeless-feeling quest, I'll be forever grateful!  I've tried Amazon and while they have some, but of the few selections they had, nothing jumped out at me.

I have found, however, that Michaels will be where I go for my journaling needs.  I picked up a couple of really pretty 100 pages journals for $2 each.  If I'm not in the mood to decorate a journal, I think these will be the ones I'll use.  I may go back over one day next week and pick up a few of the 80 pagers that they had for $1 for some of the smaller swaps that I'm doing.  I also picked up a new punch and a new stamp that looked kind of neat and useful in the $1 bin.  When I can go sans kids (because going today with them was a nightmare on two sets of feet), I'm going to look through their punches a little more closely.  The one I picked up today has a butterfly, but I glimpsed a few others that may have caught my fancy if I had more than 2 seconds to look at them.  And I may check Big Lots again for some of the punches, because I know they've had some in the past for around $1 as well.

Another item that I'm having a heck of a time finding is stationary sets.  I used to remember seeing them all the time when I was younger - I even had several of them.  Now I'm finding a ton of notecard sets but no stationary and matching envelopes.  And I'm not quite crafty enough yet to try making my own envelopes. Any of my readers that have suggestions on that, I'll be happy to hear from you as well.

I can also use some advice.  My boys have been getting completely out of control when we've gone out to stores lately.  Though, honestly, it's more Pete than Teddy.  Teddy does have his meltdown moments, but more often than not, he's willing to help me.  Pete, however, thinks that "Run away from Mommy and get into everything I can" is the most exciting game in the world and he has to play.  I've tried putting him in the cart - he tries to climb back out.  I've tried buckling him in, but have the carts have broken buckles any more.  I've tried swatting his bottom.  No luck.  I can REALLY use any suggestions from anyone who has dealt with the same kind of thing.  Because at this point, I'm getting to where I don't ever want to leave the house with them again except for PDO, doctor's appointments or to go to the park.

My toils with organization are still ongoing.  I picked up the Organizher Family Organizer on clearance and I'm finding it incredibly useful.  It has undated calendars with different sections for each member of the family, plus a section for lunch and dinner and daily notes, as well as a notes column on the side for the week.  There are several meal planner sheets with grocery list space on the back, two large plastic zip-closed pockets, sheets for addresses and websites, a plastic business card holder and elastics over the back cover to keep things that you may need there.  It's in a three ring binder, plus Mead (who makes the product) has downloadable content on their website so I can add pages when I need it.  So far, it's been pretty useful this week.

I have a grand plan for organizing swaps.  Actually, two grand plans.  The first is the 3 shelf bookcase that I bought.  At the moment, my crafting supplies are all over the dining room.  There's no place that can hold all of it.  So I'm going to use this bookcase for that purpose.  I have a caddy organizer (smallish) that I can put scissors and other things I don't want Pete to get his hands on on top. For things like pens/stamping pens/etc, I think I'm going to get a pencil case to keep him from grabbing that.  I'm hoping that I'll find new and inventive ways to use the space and still keep all my stuff relatively neat.  The second is getting a small folder or binder that I can put active swaps in.  I've found that when I've been out lately, I haven't been able to remember exact rules for certain swaps, or I don't have papers with me that I need, etc.  I can fill the folder with sheet protectors, get a ringed pencil case to put pens and dry erase markers in and have space to work on the things that I want to work on.  Not sure if it'll fit in my small backpack, but it's worth a try.

I've still desperately got to work on mu Plan.  I'm finding more and more that I can easily make excuses or waste too much time on the computer, things like that.  And in my effort to get better organized, I've got to stop doing it.  I'm hoping that a schedule will help me with it so I can get done the things that I NEED to get done.  I have such a hard time putting off fun until later.  Not much of an adult, sometimes.

I'm guessing that my bookcase isn't getting built tonight.  It was one of my possible plans, but I've been working on this quite a bit.  Not that this is a bad thing.  And maybe it's what I needed tonight more than building a bookcase.  It'll probably be easier with Rich around anyway.  I find it interesting the things that I write sometimes, what comes pouring forth from my brain, etc.

Maybe I should try working on a few of those book reviews at least.  The numbers keep going up rather than down.  Look for those shortly.  And thanks for listening to my babble.  Or reading my babble, which is slightly more appropriate.  And please... I'm serious about getting advice and suggestions.  I can't say that I'll take everyone's advice, but I will at least take a look at it.

Book Review Number 41: Scrapbooking Just For You! How to Make Fun, Personal, Keep-Them-Forever Keepsakes by Candice Ransom

Scrapbooking Just for You! How to Make Fun, Personal, Save-Them-Foever Keepsakes by Candice Ransom

This year, my big project is going to be trying scrapbooking. My plan is to scrapbook the year 2011. So I picked up a couple books from the library to help me figure out some neat designs for it.

And this was a great book for that. There were lots of different ideas for different kinds of pages and the best way to make your pages look good. I kind of wish I'd been able to keep the book for a long, long time because I suspect I'd get a lot of use out of it. I may actually put it on my wish list one of these days soon.

Book Review Number 40: Month by Month Scrapbooking: A Year of Scrapbook Ideas by Amanda Probst

Month by Month Scrapbooking: A Year of Scrapbook Ideas by Amanda Probst

I picked this book up from the library in the hopes of getting some ideas for my scrapbook project over the next year. Since I'm hoping to sit down at the end of each month to scrapbook from that previous month, I hoped for a lot of great ideas. Unfortunately, it didn't give me the kind of ideas I was looking for. Rather than giving me layout ideas for different things that happen in specific months (particularly holidays), it was more how to use different kinds of layout pages in an abstract manner. It wasn't really BAD, because there were a lot of great ideas in there. But it wasn't what I was looking for when I picked it up.

Being Crafty

Here are some pictures from my previous attempts at crafting.  I can never seem to get good pictures because the light reflects off the pages.  I need to make a light box, I think, if I'm ever going to get decent pictures. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures.

This was the journal I did for Amanda's Journal Swap.  If I remember correctly, this was the alphabetical pages.

More of the alphabet pages.  You can see Jazmin for J, Love for L, Scooby Doo for S...

The last of the alphabet pages, plus the doodle a page page.

I had to write an entry with words cut from a magazine.  I wrote about being a gamer chick.

I don't remember what the one on the right was supposed to be, but I'm kind of pleased with it anyway.

I had to design a page with tape.  I'm actually pretty proud of this one because I used a lot of different kinds of tape, including hem tape.

This was for the Geek Squash Book.  I had a great time putting it together.

 Here you can see it unfolded.  There are a couple closeups of the geekdom that I did below.

Phineas and Ferb

And Pokemon

This is one of the Christmas Cards I made for the Christmas Card swap.

 And here's another.

I used a combination of stamps, stickers and rub ons.

This one was pretty simple, almost all stamping.

And this one looked a lot better than the picture came out.  The picture is a bit blurry.

And these are the final items that I worked on - postcards for the postcard swap.

I'm hoping to get into more crafting after the first of the year.  We'll see how that works out.

Bibs and Bobs of My Life Lately

Things on Planet Amber have been a bit busy.  I've been working hard on getting several swaps together, reading quite a bit and keeping busy with a few other things as well.  I'm hoping to have time to update my blog here in the next few days. I've got three books reviews coming - Blood Lite, ed. by Kevin J Anderson and volumes 1 and 2 of DC: The New Frontier.  I may have a few more by the time I write the reviews.  I'm currently in the middle of reading Birds of Prey (the comic) and The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Plus about 3 other books that I have out from the library and a couple I bought at the library book sale yesterday.

For swapping, I'm almost finished with my geeky squash book.  I'll take pictures and post them.  I'm hoping to have it finished and out the door by Tuesday.  I'm doing a 30 day journal swap, which has been interesting to write.  I haven't started the David Tennant ATCs, but I'm hoping to work on that after I get the Squash Book out.  I've had a lot of e-mail swaps going as well.  Quite a few are of the survey variety, but I have a few that are a bit more creative.  Also, keep an eye out here for reviews of other blogs for another swap that I'm part of (Blog my Blog) and the week 3 prompt for the November Challenge is up, so that will be coming out soon too.  I'm really having a blast with Swap-Bot, though I probably should slow down a bit.  I've been signed up for 20 swaps with several on my watch list pretty consistently.

I participated in a line of Random Act of Kindness on Friday, which made my heart feel good.  I'd stopped at Starbucks for a Pumpkin Spice Frappachino and there was a bit of a line.  When I finally got to the window, I was told that the woman ahead of me had paid for my drink.  When I asked why she would have done that, I was told it had started several cars ahead of us when someone felt guilty about holding up the line.  So each one paid for the person behind them.  I couldn't break the cycle, so I paid for the person behind me as well.  I'd considering doing something like that before... just randomly pay for the drink of a person behind me in a drive through.  It was nice to be part of it, even if I didn't start it.

Today I'm going up to my dad's for my niece's birthday.  She'll be 10.  I suspect I'm going to be doing a lot of resting while I'm there.  I've overdone it the last several days.  Yesterday, we went to the library, the book sale and shopping. While we were on our way back to the van, my back started to spasm and I looked like a little old woman walking across the parking lot.  It wasn't quite as bad as right before the surgery, but it was worse than it's been in awhile.  When I'm lying down, it doesn't hurt as bad, so I've been lying down a lot lately.  Luckily, I have a doctor's appointment on Monday so I'll be bringing this up.

This week, I'm going to have a chance to bake. The boys' have their Thanksgiving luncheon at PDO on Friday.  I'm really looking forward to eating with them. It should be a good time.  The rest of the week is going to be cleaning, crafting and writing... I hope.

So that's the bibs and bobs.  Hopefully, I'll have some interesting things to post in the next few days.

Another curve around the corner

Tuesday morning, my phone rang at 5:30 am.  It was my best friend, calling to tell me she was on her way to the hospital for her mom.  Mom B had been in the hospital for several days and had been getting worse.  Carm was scared, and so was I.  Even though Mom's health had been bad for a long, long time, she'd always pulled through.  It didn't look like it was going to happen this time.  And, unfortunately, it didn't.  Carm called me a bit after 9 to let me know that she was gone.

Mom B had been there for me a lot after I left college.  She welcomed me into her home, had no problem with me calling her Mom and just WAS like a mom to me.  So her loss has been devastating to me as well.  Not as bad as it's been for Carm or her husband, but still very rough.  Her funeral is this weekend, but I won't be able to make it there.  Florida is too far of a drive and I don't have a lot of money.  However, her internment is in Indiana on Tuesday.  That's only a 5 hour drive, so I'll be driving there Tuesday morning, spending the night and driving home on Wednesday morning.  I suspect I'm going to be a bit quiet at that time.  Of course, considering my spotty posting, people might not miss me.

I've been trying to keep busy with swapping and reading.  I've got to get a few pictures of one of the journals I'm working on.  I'm pretty pleased with how it's come out.  I've been doing a bit of crafting in it, which has come out pretty good.  I've got a lot of online swaps going as well - Halloween cards, Cheer Up cards, things like that.  I've still got a bit of bookkeeping to do with several of them.  But I'm surprisingly on track for everything.  Part of me is wondering when that will fall apart!

I also decided I needed one MORE thing on my plate and I've picked up crochet again.  I used to do some when I was younger, mostly chain stitching, and I needed something that I could see when I finished.  So.... crochet it is.  I've started doing bag.  I'm 3 rows into it.   I'm hoping to work on it some while I'm in Indiana.

I also have been working a bit on my 101 in 1001.  Still need to get all those figured out and written.  And I've got an intro post that I need to write for LJ Idol.  That one has been a bit harder because I just don't know what to day about myself or how to say it to catch people's attention.  I'll figure it out, I'm sure.  Before the end of the weekend.

This weekend is going to be as busy as last weekend.  The kids have trick or treating at PDO tomorrow (which reminds me, I need to make up the bags to hand out there), then I'm giving blood at 12:15.  The kids are out of school at 2, we're coming back to my place to hang out for awhile with Becca and her kids and then going to my church for the Fall Festival.  Plus we'll be making a stop at IHOP because they have free pancakes for the kids.  Saturday is library, followed by the Fall Festival at the kids PDO, followed by a birthday party and possibly trick or treating at one of the malls in the evening.  Sunday is church and trunk or treating at the church where we get our Angel Food.  Plus I've got to work on getting things cleaned up, clothes packed and to be ready to leave early on Tuesday morning for my trip.

Will time calm back down again?  Probably not.  But this is probably for the best.

And in another off-hand remark, I'm watching Clash of the Titans on BBC America.  I've never seen it before.  I think I'm going to have to borrow it so I can watch without commercials.  Now I'm off to do a bit more brain work.  Keeping busy is a good thing.  Or so it seems.