Unique Like Everyone Else

Epiphany

Today, January 6, is the Twelfth Day of Christmas, Epiphany, the day it is said that the Three Wise Men's journey culminated in the Revelation of the  Baby Jesus--God revealed in physical form.

 

 

I was chatting online the other day with an acquaintance from England about when people take down their Christmas decorations.  She said that she generally takes them down somewhere between Jan. 3-5 because it is considered bad luck to keep them up past Epiphany.  I had to laugh (and thank my lucky stars!) because I have always used Epiphany as an arbitrary date that the Christmas decorations can come down NO SOONER THAN.   Haha!

The word "epiphany," based on this divine manifestation, can also mean

"any moment of great or sudden revelation."  (Collins English Dictionary)

On this twelfth day of Christmas, 2012, I had an epiphany.  There were presents that I had squirrelled away that I totally forgot to put under the tree on December 24th.  Whoops! 

So I put together a little festive lunch with the Christmas Crackers I'd also forgotten to bring out when my mom and dad were here (and some Cheez-Its that J-Boy has now dubbed "Epiphany Crackers" to go with the Christmas Crackers) and gave the kids their bonus gifts.

 

 Happy Epiphany, Everyone!

 

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you!!

We had a lovely Christmas celebration joined by Nonnie and Pop-Pop this year!  It was fun being able to introduce them to and include them in some of the traditions we've developed over the years for our own little family, as well as partake in some of the time-honored ones they created for me when I was a child.

For the past few years we have been lucky enough to be invited to a delicious dinner at our good friends, The H.'s, Manicotti Madness Christmas Eve Supper.

     

They are such gracious hosts and such amazing chefs! 

 

On our way back home, stuffed and content, we drove through one of the most decorated streets in our community.  Almost every house is crazily lit up, with lights zig-zagging across the street connecting all the homes, ginormous candy canes flanking the entrance to the neighborhood, and the story of The Night Before Christmas painted on large signs to read as you slowly drive down the road.  A feast for the eyes, and a definite dose of Christmas Spirit.

 

 

We were all ready to head straight to the "nestled all snug in their beds" portion of the evening when we returned home, but one of Santa's elves had left a couple of packages under the tree while we were out. 

 

New jammies for J-Boy and J-Girl!

 

Christmas morning has taken on a much more mellow tone now that the kids are older and understand and appreciate the beauty and indulgence of sleeping in. Still, they were up ahead of us and quietly went through their stockings, and helped Edward with his.

 

We ate a leisurely breakfast, and then worked on a puzzle that J-Boy got in his stocking while we waited for Nonnie and Pop-pop to arrive back over at our place. 

 

After a round of kisses, hugs, and Christmas morning greetings, we introduced them to our new Sock Monkey that Big Daddy had scored at his office party a few days before.

 

I just love it, and it has become expected that if someone starts up the monkey, it is required that you stop whatever you are doing and come to dance, dance, dance, dance. 

 

 

Once the House Rule was explained, even Nonnie and Pop-pop were willing to play along!

 

 Many lovely gifts were given and received.  Some elicited more excitement and raw emotion than others, but all were good, appreciated, and met with the utmost gratitude.

 

Dishwasher rinse agent for Nonnie
(Yes, "Really."  And, yes, she was happy! 
She and Pop-pop are now SoCal residents
and must succumb to the harsh reality of hard water.) 

 

Coconut Soda for Pop-Pop--a delicacy and difficult to come by
unless you know where to look!

One bottle in his stocking as a tease...

 

...and a box with 8 more!  Next time I'll send the stockboy to the back with a cart
instead of just his bare hands with the instruction, "as many as you can carry."

 A new laptop for J-Girl, which J-Boy was just as excited about so
his sister wouldn't have to share with him anymore. 
In the Spirit ofof the Season, that kid...

 

A bit emotional...a few tears were shed.

 

 And a dream several years in the making finally came true for J-Boy!

 

Santa, so wise, brought a board game J-Boy had never heard of, but has been
proving to be one of his favorite gifts in the lot!

 

And he knew just what to get for his sister to make her smile.

 

Another neat thing that only Santa could know is that a doll can still make a
girl happy, even on the cusp of fifteen years of age.  How does he do it??

 

You can see that we were well looked after, truly blessed, and had a wonderful Christmas. 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope yours was lovely, too, and that the New Year brings you
nothing but the best in love, health, and happiness in 2012! 

Mutual Adoption

"I'm not a 'cat' person."  I've said it for years.  But there's been a cute one hanging around our neighborhood for several weeks now.  It is clean, friendly, but collarless.  Well, when we first noticed her she had a clear collar with a handwritten, hospital ID-ish number on it.  Then that disappeared.  We all (the neighbors) assumed the owner had removed it.  But still, nobody claimed her.

And yet, she seemed to claim everyone.  "Don't feed her!" I said, when Big Daddy mused over the idea.  "I think [our neighbor] Pearl or Li'l B have seen her eating their dogs' food."  And I've seen her sitting sentry at our other neighbor's garage door, like she belongs there.

 

One day I was unloading groceries from the car, and got the bejeezus scared out of me when I returned for the next set of bags.  As I leaned into the back of the car the cat BOLTED out of it! 

 

 

She came to visit us one sunny afternoon when we were hanging out in the backyard.  Big Daddy was working on his computer and I was crocheting.  She jumped up and snuggled at my feet on the chaise for a half an hour!  (Kinda weird that I let her, huh?  She was so very clean, and we really assumed she belonged to someone in the 'hood because she was so very tame and friendly.)  Then we started to see her hanging out back there on her own.

 

 

So we broke down and put a bowl of milk out for her. 

Which she then began to expect and clamour for.

 

 

It doesn't appear that she's going away any time soon.  She started growing on me.  I said to the kids, "Maybe we'd better name her," and they laughed, and we continued to call her "Cat".  I said to Big Daddy, "I kind of like having this outddor cat."  And he put a hand on my shoulder and said, "I would like to go on this journey with you."  Which cracked me up a) because he's such a dork, and b) because he's "not a cat person" either, especially allergy-wise.  So we bought a Cat a bag of food at Trader Joe's. 

 

And BD, without a peep, disappeared into the garage at some point and emerged with a house for her!  A house!  And she loves it!

 

 

She doesn't go in there all the time.  We're not sure if that's where she warms up at night.  We still kinda think she may spend her nights at her "real" family's house. 

 

We welcome Cat to hang out in our yard, kick back on our lawn furniture, and have a little snack (as long as it does not come out of our pond!) as long as she likes.

 

But she can't come in the house.  Sorry, Cat.  We already have a furry snuggler and my guess is you two wouldn't get along very well...

 

 

Nope.  We wouldn't do that to you, Edward!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Holidays!

I am just getting over a weekend in bed with the flu. :( 

I'm feeling much better, but I really didn't want to go out today.  I thought it might help me over the hump if I dressed and ran an errand or two, you know, to get back in the groove of every day life.   Well, just a few blocks from home and my spirits were lifted.

 

Aw, shucks.  I wasn't able to capture it in this picture, but the route on this bus was alternating with a message of "Happy Holidays".  It made me so happy!  It was the first Season's Greeting that I've received this year! 

So, perhaps I am or am not your first this year, but I want wish you all a Happy Holiday season, and hope you will find joy and cheer in all the little things in your day! 

 

 

Changing Interests

I knew it had happened.  With one kid in High School and the second one, the baby, now in Junior High, I knew Big Daddy and I had entered a new stage of parenting.  So often the day-to-days can just morph into each other such that you don't realize you've been making little subconscious adjustments to how you interact with your kids, how you treat them, how they've been maturing, how their interests are evolving.

And then it hits you one morning while making their school lunches, that little act of kindness, that mom ritual that sends them off for the day with a little bit of your love.  It hits you when you are packing up the Go-gurt.

 

 

"Oh my!  It's time to make a change! 
I need to pack the tube with the
cute girl on it into J-Boy's lunch,
and the one with the cute boy into J-Girl's lunch." 

 

Whoa!  My babies!  I'm not even sure what else to say! 
Mama fall down, go BOOM!

Sew Crafty Halloween

 Happy (belated) Halloween, Everybody! 
Say hello to Liechtenstein and Finn!

 

sources: http://hetalia.wikia.com/wiki/File:Traditional_Liechtenstein.PNG and
http://adventuretime.wikia.com/wiki/File:Finn.PNG

 

Whew!  J-Girl and I really put our sewing machine to task this Halloween!  J-Girl made her skirt and sash from scratch, altered a black blouse from Goodwill into a corseted vest, and fabricated a black stand-up collar out of the vest scraps.  J-Boy's Finn hat and backpack were experiments all the way, sculpting, pinning, cutting, sewing, fitting (seam ripping, repinning, refitting, sewing wrong sides out, seam ripping....I think that backpack was put together and taken apart every step of the way!)  But the results made for a happy kid!

 

Whoa, J!  Watch out for that Aperture Laboratories Test Subject!  He's aiming a portal gun straight at your head!  I always thought it would be cool to get inside that mind of yours, but, hey, I didn't mean it literally! 

 

ALTS, aka "Death", aka "Dr. Jekyll", is looking quite official in his Lab gear and identification badge!

 

 ALTS was hanging out with J-Boy a few weeks ago and had this great idea that they could make portal guns with Big Daddy's help.  BD was game and took the boys to the hardware store to research and commandeer some materials. 

So creative!  I love that he bought a couple of small, white trashcans
(see in the background, there?) to cut out the molded, curved plates he needed.

J-Boy's peers and younger recognized his character right off,
but ALTS got "the nod" from all the older teens and twenty-somethings.  :)

With their backpack candy collectors, the boys quickly developed a system to deposit the treats.  At first they struggled with their own bags, then taking each other's candy and putting it into the rightful bag, and finally, just putting the candy they got into the other guy's bag.  The coolest part of this system is that they got to know what each other liked, candy-wise, and started picking the other guy's favorites to put into his bag for him.

 

J-Girl has been a big fan of the anime Hetalia for a couple of years now.  She has made various cosplays (a fan contraction of "costume role play", I think.  And I think calling the anime fans' dress up clothes "costumes" is like calling an "action figure" a "doll".  Ah, but I digress...)  Last year she was the character "Taiwan" and her friend Ray-Ray was "Hungary".  They went to the Anime Expo in LA this summer as "Liechtenstein" and "England", and this Halloween they dressed as alternative renditions of those same characters.

 

 She magically whipped up Ray's blue cape and vest after school on the 31st, and Big Daddy got to work on that little blue top hat.  Bless her heart, she was working all the way up till it was time to head out trick-or-treating.

 

I took the opportunity to snap some shots of Neighbor B. and her buddy.

The girls headed out solo for the second year in a row.  I guess it's a rite of passage of sorts.  We left with the boys before they headed out, and they were gone when we got back.  So responsible, though.  J-Girl made a note and set out our candy for the trick-or-treaters to take.

We brought the bowl in when we got home, and leave it to J-Boy to notice
that "one piece of candy is being contradictory to the sign."

Let it be known that Big Daddy and I NEVER dress up for Halloween.  I don't think it is necessarily burn out from all the themed college parties we attended way back when, so much as we've made the holiday all about the kids.  But this year, perhaps because our kids are now in junior high and high school, or because there was an expectation that Big Daddy costume up for work at the freelance gig he's got right now, but he got into the spirit and put together an awesome boxer costume for himself.  The piece de resistance was the championship title belt he crafted from cardboard and high resolution internet photos and had slung over his shoulder. 

 

Even cuter,  however, is the fact that he's since hung it on the wall in our room. 
Unless Clive Owen comes a-knockin', Big Daddy will forever be my undisputed champ. ;)

The belt hangs proudly next to the cowboy mask that J-Boy gave him for Fathers' Day this year.  Wait a minute....is this actually Big Daddy's "vision board"????  Well, I made one in 2010 with a new refrigerator and a tortoise on it.  If I'm still waiting on those, then it may be a while before these goals manifest for the man!   

 Finally, because we had been invited to a Halloween party, I had to come up with a costume, too.  Goodwill glasses and dress, a borrowed wig from J-Girl, and I am ready to go-go!

We sure had a good time!  The best was running into someone I met at the party a couple days later and them not recognizing me because then I was a blonde!  Ha-ha!  I don't know that blondes have more fun, but I could see having some fun in a disguise!  Hey, J-Girl, I'm gonna keep that wig for a little longer, 'kay?  Yes, a happy Halloween, indeed!

 

Even cuter,  however, is the fact that he's since hung it on the wall in our room.  Unless Clive Owen comes a-knockin', he'll forever be my undisputed champ.)

Proper Roasted Chicken

I had a craving yesterday for proper roasted chicken. 

Not "boneless, skinless", but boneful and s(k)inful!  Yum! 

 

Simple seasonings:  salt, fresh-ground pepper, garlic powder, oregano, olive oil. 
Roast about an hour till brown and juicy.  

 

That, and some turnips and green beans from the Farm Box.
Mmm.  Just what I needed!

On Boredom

Like many kids of this generation, J-Boy is a video game fanatic, always with a handheld gaming device on his person, that device usually on and in use, his head bent down and his longish, Junior High hair hanging forward helping to block any glare on the screen (and, perhaps, any glare from his mother...).  Somehow the stimulation is calming to him.  Maybe it drowns out all other stimulation that can be overwhelming, especially to a person with autism. 

I know that this obsession is not an "autism" thing.  Or a "kid" thing.  Put the portable gaming system into the more general category of "handheld technology" and there are many, many an adult who can't or won't disconnect from their various iThings during any lull in the day's flow of activity.

I was driving J-Boy to school the other morning and as we pulled out of the driveway he flipped open his 3DS and the battery died before we were a block away from the house.  We didn't have time to go back for him to grab a charger or his PSP-Go (I know, he's kinda spoiled) as a back up plan.  So I knew we needed to use the drive time to strategize how his day would go when he got free time during at school that he would usually spend pacifying himself with video games. 

To my relief, he seemed positive and calm.  We quietly drove along, listening to the radio.  Then he started a conversation:

J-Boy:  "Mom, I think I know how music was invented, and I think it is genius."

Me:  "Oh, yeah?  Tell me!"

J-Boy:  "Well, sometimes when I'm bored, I will just start tapping with my fingers and it gets sort of, like, into a rhythm.  And I think that's how it got started, by someone just being bored.  Then someone was playing around with some string and figured out that if you pluck it when it is different lengths then it'll make different sounds."

Ooo!  Knock, knock!  Opportunity, here!

While trying to keep it conversational, I went into a little dissertation on boredom, the importance of boredom, the luxury of boredom, the skill required to be "productively bored."

We discussed Early Man and his trecherous day-to-day fight for survival, how exhausting that must have been.  And before fire, how long and scary those nights could have been.  Early Man did not have the luxury of boredom; there is not really "down time" when life itself must be protected and fought for each day.

We talked about how as humans gained skills and made discoveries, tools, and inventions they gained some efficiency in meeting life's basic needs, allowing time for play, art, music, and even more tools and invention.

J-Boy found humor in the irony that this talk about boredom started because he was bored.   But he seemed to understand that giving the mind a break from constant occupation and stimulatory input would allow some of the information in there a chance to digest and perhaps grow into different or even bigger ideas and thoughts.  He seemed to "get" that one should feel very lucky to experience boredom because it must mean that all their other needs are being met.

Now, I'm not sure if this last bit was meant to be a genuine compliment, or a crack about me sitting around on my A#% all day, but as he gets out of the car at school he says to me,

"Mom, you live very efficiently.  Bye!"

Well, thanks to many a modern invention, yes, yes I do.

 

 

A New Blog

I started a new blog today:  My Peace of Paper. 

It will feature all the craftiness that goes on in this house.  I figure mostly it will have scrapbooking pages I create, and I can feel free to post details like which paper and glue I used (as other scrappy people seem to do) without boring you dear readers here on ULEE (Unique Like Everyone Else) who are here for the story, not so much the art inspired by it.  Does that make sense?  Also, sometimes I like to participate in scrapbooking "challenges" which can inspire creativity by limiting supplies or instilling must-have elements.  Often these sites like your entries to be linked/submitted through your blog, and I always felt weird putting them here, like they would be out of place. 

Now, I have a dedicated realm to geek my crafts on! 

I'm sure I will have some posts cross-linked between here and there now and again.  ULEE isn't going away; if fact, I feel like I will may be able to post more often with a clearer focus and sense of direction. 

So check it out if you want to see what we've been getting our hands dirty with lately! 

Cheers!

Big Daddy: He Can't Help What He Is

Big Daddy and I were out running errands the other afternoon.  We were feeling pressed for time with yet another evening meeting at the school (J-Girl's this time--Freshman Parent Orientation with focus on college planning and strategies to get 'em there).  We made a pit stop for gas and made an impromptu decision to just grab dinner from the adjacent Del Taco.  Divide and conquer:  while I attended the pump BD made the food run. 

I was hypnotized by the digital display, thinking about how I was simultaneously filling my tank while draining my bank account, when I was approached by a nice looking twenty-something, greeting me kindly, but obviously wanting something.  Could I spare a couple of bucks so he and his girlfriend could catch the bus?  Well, I never carry cash and told him I had nothing, glancing at the pump display to see if I could cut short and get out of there.  Shoot.  I almost forgot about Big Daddy.

Big Daddy is the sucker nice one in our relationship.  And since the stranded couple was still lingering, looking ready to challenge my claim of no cash (Really?  Even 50 cents would be a big help, ma'am.) I offered him up to them.

Me:  "Well, my husband is over there in the Del Taco if you want to check with him..."

Him:  "In the Del Taco?  Uh...I guess I could...How will I know who he is?"

Me:  "He's tall, dark, and handsome."

Him:  "Tall, dark, and handsome, huh?  Ha-ha. Ok..."

Me:  "Oh...and I think he's wearing  a blue shirt and brown shorts."

Big Daddy comes strolling out of Del Taco with a big grin on his face, shaking his head.  "You're such a dork," he says when he reaches me.  Beyond him the guy is waving two dollars at me and yelling, "Thank you!"

A few days later we were in Barnes and Nobel when a stranger gives me a great big grin and hello.  "Ha-ha," I say to BD, "he thinks I'm someone else!"  "No," Big Daddy replies. "I was just over by the magazines and he called me tall, dark, and handsome. So, yeah, he knows you...dork."

Hey, I just call 'em like I see 'em.  And as for being a dork?  Yeah, I can't help what I am either.