Stay at home days

Today was one of those lovely stay at home days. It was much appreciated after partying for a week and half with the Walkers.

In contrast to what I posted a couple of weeks ago, here's what I did today.

7:30-8 Get ready for the day. Went to bed to late since Ellen was leaving the next day.

8 - 9 Exercise and change into real clothes.

9-10 Jacob reads to me the Lord's Prayer from our little story book. We also review the fourth commandment. He's working his way memorizing the Deuteronomy 5 commandments. Say good bye to the Walkers. Clean room.

10 -11 Personal Bible time. Read through and study Jeremiah 2-3:5 in Youngs Literal Translation. Facebook and email. Although, I might have done those first. In theory, I tell myself to do Bible first then FB, but often I get, ahem, distracted. Realize that we haven't done family devotions yet, cause I got distracted doing mine. Call Andrew, Daniel and Jacob down (Mom's already there) and we sit down to work on memorizing the books of the bible by singing along to the Jamie Soles song. Dad conveniently walks by right when its time to pray so we all get to pray together. Then it's a Christmas song singing (Jacob needs to memorize some for Newell House) and we read about a saint from Reformation Night. It just happens to be the Pilgrims which ties in nicely with Thanksgiving last week.

11-12 Sewing, listen to Anna telling me about Thanksgiving. She's Sonya's 4 years old daughter. Sonya's our wonderful housekeeper. We couldn't do it without her. Jacob reads to Mom and then he/I work on his math. Mums leaves to go out to lunch with a friend. (She's driving all by herself!)

12-1:30 Cleaning out fridge of leftovers, lunch.

1:30-5:30 Sewing on Marie's dress. Most days I would probably be working on some misc project inside or outside. Alternate listening to Christmas music to Andrew practicing violin, Daniel practicing piano and Jacob tinkering on the piano. Lots of minute interruptions that would make this more boring then it already is.

5:30 -6:15 Work on dinner. Got off super easy. Mums brings home pizza. Made salad and cooked carrots. Supervise Andrew making cake.

6:15-7 Dinner, Couple of Dads arrive to coordinate HOOPS stuff with Dad

7 -8 Cleaning up, talking, finish hand sewing.

8-9 Quiet time. Knitting and watch the Office. Rare. Usually it seems like I'm working until 9.

9 -10 Cake time, internet. Say goodnight and prayers with Jacob. Start episode of Psych with family. Blog time. Laugh. Blog. Laugh. Blog.

The end. Well, kind of. I haven't gotten to bed yet. Who knows what might happen.

Realize that I haven't done my violin practice yet. Sigh.

Outtakes at the Outlet

I think I laughed the hardest that I've ever laughed before in a store.

We should've taken a picture but we were laughing to hard.

Aunt Susan decided to try on a cowl neck sweater...

She thought at first it was too small.

We thought it was put on backwards.

Then we thought it was odd that there was a pocket near the neck.

Then we realized that...

She had put it on upside down.

Yes, there we were in the middle of the store. Four women laughing so hard that they're stomachs hurt. It was just that funny.

Some Snow

Yesterday, all day, there were rumors of snow hitting the Portland area. Usually I don't take them very seriously, as it seems like whenever the weathermen predict snow it never happens, and when it does, they always seem surprised.

We did actually get a little bit of snow last night. And what made it fun was the layer of ice that was underneath. The ice was actually thick enough that I could slide on our gravel driveway. It's been awhile since I've been able to do that!

This morning we went out to explore.. as in I, Andrew, Daniel, Jacob and Ellen, (basically all the irresponsible people who didn't have to go to school or work, mwahaha!) We did some skating, attempted to sled down the driveway, but only Daniel and Jacob were light enough for that, and we walked down to the "pond" to see Uncle Roger.

This is Uncle Roger's Arctic Explorer Look.

On the way back, I took this shot of the house which shows the sheep looking forlornly at me. They hoped I had food when I walked by them the first time, but I betrayed them and gave them nothing.

Doesn't this looks so cozy?

We then all tramped inside and had a marvelous day of not doing much.

I did knit some. I'm in a race with Sally to see who can finish their sweater first. She's undoubtedly going to win as she can knit way faster than me (and play the piano, too). It's all in her fast fingers. I'll post a picture soon.

This evening the youngsters (ie, everyone under the age of 50) took a traditional night time stroll. We always seem to take a walk at night when its snowy, and I think part of the reason might be is that we've usually spent all day cooped up by the wood stove 'cause its warm. So anyways, we were hoping to see more stars but it was so bright because with the the full moon and the white snow the stars were rather faded.

As a side note, Tyler and I decided not to do our barefoot running this morning. Not that we truly run barefoot, but brrrr, I can't even imagine how cold that would be.

Are you in sync?

Last Sunday a group of girls and I were talking (ie, I was monologuing) about Microrhythms (Although I was wrongly calling them Biorhythms. Nice, Sara ).

I couldn't remember where I had read about them first, so I promised to put some links together (not sure if anyone really cares but this is going to make it a lot easier to find them the next time I want to refresh my memory or want to sound smart ;) ...). I couldn't remember where I had read about them first. But after some memory prodding (mine and others) I figured out it was from The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, which by the way, is an excellent read.

And then while searching for a good article to describe it, I found the actual book on Google reader and it even contains the pages where he describes Microrhythms. So lo and behold, The Tipping Point: Microrhythms (Pages 81-83)

One of the things that makes me love the idea of microrhythms is that it ties in nicely with Nate Wilson's book, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl. Nate Wilson (if I remember correctly!) talks about God singing the world into existence and preserving it through song. Song means beat, and as micro rhythms make clear, we all have a beat. Thus every time we cough, stretch or fidget, not only may we be doing it in response to someone else's nonverbal cue, we are really participating in the grand song of life, God's song.

And if you want to read more...

Microexpressions is the same theory related to facial expressions.

There is also The Wizards project that found people who were adept in telling if someone was lying by looking at their facial and body movements.

Want to know how this applies to marriage and spouses? Then, of course, there's John Gottman. He studied micromovements of couples arguing. Laurie Abraham writes that, "he (Gottman) could pick out future divorcees 91 percent of the time based on coding a mere five-minutes of tape."

And if you really want another link, here's a paper dealing with Microrhythms and empathy.

How not to change a lug nut

Herbert needs his wheels taken off.

1. Find cross lug nut loosener thingy mah jingy in the back of the car.
2. Attempt to use it on lug nuts that are very rusted but were taken off when we were inspecting Herbert.
3. Admit to myself that I'm not strong enough.
4. Spend 5 minutes trying to find the perfect steel pipe for leverage.
5. Get confused about which size I'm using and search for another steel pipe.
6. Find 5' steel pipe.
7. Attempt again.
8. Live in fear that I am going to shear off the end of the lug nut loosener thingy mah jingy. (It's late, and I don't feel like looking up the official name. Not that it would take more time than retyping that over and over again.)
9. Attempt again. Success! (x6)
10. Realize that by the time I'm done loosening all of the lug nuts, it will be Spring.
11. Move on to next wheel.
12. Try one nut. No success. These lug nuts haven't been taken of since who knows when. Pipe is bending dangerously.
13. Try another nut. Pipe is bending. "How much force can really I use on it?" I wonder. Afraid its going to shear off.
14. It shears off. With a nice snap.
15. Go tell Dad that I sheared off his lug nut loosener thingy mah jingy.
16. He laughs.
17. Tell family members that are home for dinner about it.

18. Scott and Tyler laugh.

19. Mom looks concerned. I assure her I will buy her a new one.

20. Scott gives me a high five.

21. Tyler and Scott both attempt to tell me in pigeon African-English "that I done be strong mammy" (from Gerald Durrell's books)

22. Yes, we they are just that weird.

Picture of said lug nut loosener thingy mah jingy:

Naked Herbert

Today I got a chance to work on Herbert. I finished pulling out his floor... I feel like he looks rather naked.

If you look at his "eyes" I think he has a "why are you doing this too me?" expression...

Donut Biscuits

This evening I went to make biscuits for dinner and I couldn't find the biscuit cutter.

But I did find the donut cutter...

About to be baked.

Browned Yummy Goodness.

The donut shape didn't work too well for spreading on the jam, but it was a fun!

If you look at the background, you can see the chocolate cookies

that Jacob, Anna and I baked this afternoon...

Tum Diddly Dee

Today was another one of those run errands until you drop. Not sure why all of a sudden we are doing all of these. Oh, wait, I know. First, we are having the Walkers up in a week and a half. So we are trying to tie up loose ends around the house. Second, we've avoided doing errands for while. So we've gotten behind. Third, we're crazy. I think I always end up writing posts after these sort of days as a way to decompress. I could sit down and tell the half of the family what happened. But they would probably just fall asleep. As it's not really interesting. And don't worry, I'm not going to recount you with all the gory details either. But I will say that I think I'm over half way done with Christmas shopping!

BUT, at least this morning, we got school done. Well, somewhat. And skyped with a friend overseas. And I made it to the feed mill to pick up sheep and chicken feed.

When we were out running errands, we got a call from Dad saying that his cousin from Alaska would be stopping over to spend the night. Said cousin had let us know that he would be passing through, but we didn't know when. Of course it happens the night 7/8 of us are gone. He's been in Alaska for 20 years and is now moving down to Texas. Talk about climate change.

What made the drive tolerable on the way home was listening to Bob and Ray. If you've never heard of this satire radio program (think The Onion in radio format), here's a small sample of what you've been missing...

Just one reason

Why I love Oregon in the fall... I feel like I live in a Country Magazine article!

Favorite articles from November

From November 2010 issue of Popular Mechanics

Strong Magnets With Printed Poles Have Endless Engineering Applications

Fascinating article about a grandfather who figured out how to manipulate magnetic fields... as in one magnet could have multiple north and south poles.. of differing strengths. Amazing.

Next Gen Digital Sight for the Blind

One day these will be the equivalent of a "hearing aid" for the eye...

Note to self

Today was another one of those crazy days driving around to appointments.

We saw this bumper sticker and had a good laugh!

Paint Particulars

This afternoon, Amanda and I worked on finding the perfect color to paint our church fellowship hall pictured in the terribly blurry photo on the left. This was round two.

There are several things working against us.

First, there are three areas we are trying to paint. In one room, the paint takes on a brown tinge, the second room turns the paint peach and the third room, yellow/gray.

Also, we have numerous things we are trying to tie together with the paint color. Of first consideration is the new floor tiles the church is putting in. And we have to choose the paint color before they're in. The second thing to consider is the wood color in the kitchen area. The wood has a green-y tint to it, which we are trying not to emphasize. Also, the new counter top isn't installed yet. And then don't even get me started on the curtains that line the sides of the fellowship hall. They are a beautiful burgundy-ish color, but it's just one more thing to worry about.

We spent about an hour picking out colors in the fellowship hall part. We basically laid out a quarter of the color wheel book at a time and then compared it to samples of each thing to match. We found about 16-20 that we liked and then moved into the kitchen and took out any that looked to peachy and added a few. We then cut it down to 16 and then again down to 8 at the paint store, plus a couple of ready made sample packets.

So overall its been fun, challenging and interesting. Thankfully Amanda and I are pretty good friends so we can speak our mind about paint colors! Anyways, hopefully one of them will work as they are supposed to start painting on Saturday. Eeks!