We are so dependent on electricity it's disgusting!

Our power went out yesterday. It went off and came back on about three times before it finally decided to stay off for awhile. I guess it was off about an hour.

Well, with no computers or TV to watch, I found that everyone just sat around looking at the TV wistfully, as if to say, "oh TV, how I took you for granted..." There was a little whining, but not too bad I guess. I said, "well we could TALK to each other" LOL! Talking, what's that?!?

Our stove and oven are gas, but luckily I already had it going, so I didn't have to put a match to gas (not something I enjoy). Because of that, we were able to have dinner without delay & that wasn't a problem.

I encouraged (ie prodded) my daughter to hurry up with her homework, because the sun was going down. I explained that this was a concept from the old days, when people didn't have electricity and they didn't want (or couldn't afford) to waste their candles...and that there was a real life reason for the expression "Make hay while the sun shines." I told her, this is what Laura Ingalls Wilder had to do every day! Blank look. "Mom - who's Laura Ingalls Wilder?" Argh! We're going to go to the library!!!

Support American Companies & Artists

I discovered a truly American company recently, and I found their company's story interesting.
The company is Hartstone Pottery, located in Zanesville Ohio. All their products are lead free. Their baking stones are the only kind that are microwave, oven and soap and dishwasher safe.

If you've never baked on a stone, you should try one. They are the best for nice, even cooking of cookies, pizzas, and other baked goods - especially with Christmas coming up and all the cookie baking that we do! I used to think I was a lousy baker - it turned out it was my baking pans that were the problem.

Another reason to buy mugs, pet bowls, stoneware, bakeware and more from Hartstone is that you will be helping real American families, the folks who work at Hartstone - who are back at work after their factory was dealt a blow - Starbucks sent their mug orders overseas.

Chip Royer, the VP of Marketing and Development for Harstone, told me,

"Hartstone is an American treasure. We got our start as an art pottery, making mugs for Starbucks Coffee. When Starbucks sent the work overseas we faced a difficult struggle. Today we're back open, hand-making the finest American art pottery from scratch."

If you don't care for baking, check out their pet bowls and their items for sports fans.

Licensed Michigan Stoneware. Go Wolverines! Gifts, mugs, plates, serving pieces made in the USA!

Licensed Ohio State pottery! Mugs, ornaments, kitchenware, crocks, bowls, platters, dog bowls. Handmade and handpainted in Ohio, USA

Licensed Virginia Tech Stoneware. Go Hokies! Gifts, mugs, plates, bowls, serving pieces. Handmade in the USA.

Licensed WVU stoneware! Mugs, gifts, plates, bowls, cookware, dog bowls. Handmade in the USA.

Popsicle Time

I just love seeing Little Guy in the background on this one,
getting ready to chomp on that Popsicle!

The Thinker...lol

Sunday Feast

Appetizer
What is your favorite type of art?

John Singer Sargent, Norman Rockwell, Pre-Raphaelites

Soup
When was the last time you got a free lunch (or breakfast or dinner)? Who paid for it?

I guess this isn't totally free, but I signed up to be a secret shopper (eater) with a company that pays me back for the meal in exchange for the secret shop review. So it was free but I had a bit of work to do.

Salad
On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how emotional are you?

Probably about 7 or 8. I used to be 9 or 10 though. Maturity is wonderful. I still cry often when I get a fallen soldier portrait request and when I do a stillborn baby's memorial portrait, but I don't have a problem with that. It's good to be human. I do feel things deeply sometimes so I have to limit my exposure to CNN Headline News or it can make me too sad.

Main Course
Approximately how long do you spend each day responding to emails?

I do this off and on through the day, but I try to limit it or I could be in front of the computer, chatting by email all day and not get anything else done.

Dessert
To what temperature do you usually set your home’s thermostat?

I like it at about 78.
We have a programmable digital thermostat because I was so convinced it would save us money, but somehow it has gotten itself off schedule and now we can't find the programming instructions! So at 6 am I wake up freezing because the air conditioner is going full blast. Of course, at 6 PM, it has to be prompted to run! I think it's still better than our old thermostat though.

The idea for this post came from Kat's Blog

can't think of a cute title for this one

Now everyone in the family has been sick except one - my daughter. It's just a matter of time now. She's such a show off with her excellent immune system! That little stinker.

It has been a rough week with all the sickness, but we are making it through.

Do you ever have useful quotes come to your mind when you really need them? (Oh, just me?) The quotes that kept coming to my mind this week were:

"be kinder than necessary - everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
(from the signature line someone used in one of my business networking groups..it kept coming up and reminding me that there are TONS of people worse off, no matter how bad I feel)

"it's always darkest right before the dawn."
(that came from somewhere wayyy back in my psyche)

"put on your 'big girl' panties and DEAL WITH IT!"
(I saw that one in a gift item catalog of all things, it makes me laugh and keeps me from whining)

But what has cheered me up this week came from an unlikely place. I received an email from someone wanting me to promote their new product on my blog.
The email called me an "influential blogger." Yes, it was really sent to me, it wasn't an error.
Are you laughing as hard as I am?

Tell you what, if I am influencing you, please email me.
. . . . . and send money by PayPal.

my annual croup blog post

I awoke at 4 am today, my toddler son (Little Guy, shown finger painting in yesterday's photo) was barking like a seal with the classic cough of Croup.

I ran into the bathroom and got the shower going with the hottest water I could. I got the bathroom all steamy. Then I went to get Little Guy and I held him on my lap in the steam for about 15 minutes. That has seemed to help. He would not stop hugging his large, stuffed Winnie the Pooh bear for anything in the world. I know stuffed animals aren't the best thing for kids with croup to be hugging (allergies, etc) but I think the psychological benefits of Pooh outweigh any harm the stuffed animal could do.

I took his older brother (age 4) to pediatric emergency care the other night, because his Croup seemed very severe and it scared me. The American Academy of Pediatrics book (we've nicknamed it Momma's Big Book of Worries) says that kids usually outgrow Croup by age 3.
The pediatric doctor said oh no - they can get it to age five.

Well, thank goodness for insurance. That's an expensive nighttime visit to the doctor just to find out there's nothing to be done about it other than treat it like a cold, encourage drinking a lot of fluids, use a cool-mist humidifier in the child's room, and the steamy bathroom treatment. All the stuff I was already doing. I know when the co-payment bill arrives in the mail, I'll open it and say to myself, "here's my bill for being stupid!"

So that's why I'm up at 5:30 am blogging.

artistic little guy

Enjoying fingerpainting...painting himself as much as the paper.

Soldier Portraits

SoldierPortraits.Blogspot.com is a group of artists I have gotten together to create a free portrait for each family that has lost a loved one in Iraq/Afghanistan, this article on Associated Content explains it all pretty well, the only slight error is that it makes it sound like I'm retired, which is far from the case!

The article tells how we got started doing this project. LINK

Now I'm looking for donations to cover the costs of shipping for the artists, when they ship artwork to the families. $5-$7 generally pays shipping for one portrait. Any amount is welcome, even a dollar. When you make a donation of $50 or more you, will receive a free Memorial Eagle Art Print. More information on donations: LINK

Darla

dreams alert that you are doing too much

I had a strange dream last night.

In the dream, a person from another church asked me if I would volunteer to run their children's choir program.

I told her I was sorry I couldn't run it, but I'd be glad to help out whenever I could, but I'm just too busy to run the program (besides being fairly unqualified - I've helped with children's choir before, but not run it!)

The next thing I knew, I was being thanked by other people from the church for taking over the children's choir! Ummm....I didn't agree to that!!! So I had to run around letting everyone know it was a misunderstanding and seeing the looks of disappointment on their faces, just because that first lady didn't listen closely when I told her I could just HELP.

A similar situation has happened to me in real life, but it was the PTA.

It really is hard to say no, but sometimes you have to.

sick little guy

Little Guy will be 2 years old in about a month. He is really talking up a storm these days! I love to see the satisfaction on his face when he has gotten his point across using some words. He uses "down" for "up," but we figured it out and hope he'll understand "up" soon!

He's so cute it's unbelievable, but all parents think that about their kid, don't they? So I will refrain from telling you how blue his eyes are and how cute his little cheeks are...oops! I need to get a picture put into the blog, I promise to do that soon. I have a ton of good photos.

He has the flu or something. Yesterday his fever clocked in at 102. I'm keeping a close eye on him and tempting him with yummy drinks like Kool-Aid that I normally wouldn't give him to get him to drink more. It's hard to see him sick but hopefully it'll be over soon and I'll have something interesting to talk about.

Ode to Ott

Oh my Ott Light
How I love you
You make my gray days bright
You help me get colors right with your white light
You're my buddy when I lift your lid
And I can see what my pencil did!





OTT-LITE® TrueColor (TM) Portable 13W Task Lamp


A must for anyone who does any detail work (drawing, knitting, sewing, paper crafts and scrapbooking)

It turns on when you open it up and it is one of my most favorite things!

Click the picture or the underlined text to see it at Joann's crafts store online,
it's on sale at a great price as I write this!

crumby project

My 8th grade daughter came to me fairly late Thursday night and casually announced that she needed to make a large cookie (or some kind of food thing) in the shape of the state of Georgia.
Luckily, I had some sugar cookie mix. I wasn't really thrilled for the short-notice of it, but I was secretly happy that I was able to appear to be 'SuperMom' for at least a few minutes.

So we put together an approximately 10" x 10" cookie shaped like Georgia. Georgia is not an attractive shape for a cookie. But there are no round states, last I checked, so we were stuck.

I used my portrait from photo skills to help her shape it. She frosted it with white frosting, while I added some blue food coloring to some more white frosting. My daughter marked all the rivers with a knife. I piped in the blue frosting using some cake decorating tools I have. We put some blue frosting around the Eastern edge of Georgia to stand in for water.

My daughter broke off extra pieces of cookie to create the barrier islands. We hopped on the computer and looked up pictures of Stone Mountain, resized the picture to the right scale for the cookie state. Once printed, she cut it out and we placed it on the cookie. She played with more crumbs to create the Blue Ridge region. While she was doing that, I got some sturdy cardboard and covered it with aluminum foil for a base for the cookie. We moved the cookie over to the base. Of course, because she had this huge, flat honkin' cookie that we didn't want ruined, I needed to drive her to school.

After school, she surprised me by walking in the door with the cookie untouched by hungry students.

Turns out everything had to be labeled, even though the instruction sheet from the teacher said nothing about labeling. I know, I read over the sheet with my daughter and we checked off all the items as we did them, to make sure we didn't miss anything. I was pretty annoyed. I had about 99 billion things that I would have rather have done that night, rather than bake a Georgia cookie.

The teacher told her she could turn it in as is and get a zero, or she could take it back home and label it and bring it back (moldy after the 3 day weekend I guess?) or, she could do the project on poster board. The family took a quick vote and decided to eat the Georgia cookie. Georgia is very tasty. The new project on poster board is hopefully up to standards. I don't want to eat poster board.