I surely won’t be sad to see you go. It’s bad enough I have to deal with you for an extra 24 hours this year. But I’m optimistic that I’ll make it through, and March will kick you out of my life for another 11 months.

So how about a flight-of-ideas post? Every paragraph will be a whole new train of thought. Try not to hurt yourself reading it!

What’s on tap for March? Well, for one, the end of rehearsals! This next week is tech week for KT’s show “Antigone” and after performances start next weekend, we’ll be able to breathe a sigh of relief. We’ll be able to actually eat dinners together. We won’t be missing out on evening family TV fun time. We’ll be able to put less than 75 miles a day on the car! Yeah!

I’ve got to get moving and figure out cruise clothes for the kids. It was easy when we were cruising regularly, but we haven’t been on a cruise in two years (I know, you’re so sad for me) so now everything they used to wear is too small. Seeing as KT doesn’t wear dresses daily anymore, I’m in quite a quandary about what to get her for dinners. I surely don’t want to invest a bunch in clothes she’s only going to wear once. And don’t even get me started on shoes she’ll never wear again. I’m sure Nick’s last suit is too small too. He’s the kind of kid who wouldn’t mind going to dinner in sweatpants and a flannel shirt. Maybe I should let him.

I saw a pair of shoes yesterday at Whole Foods. I think I’m in love with the concept. These are Earth shoes and the sole is actually taller in the toes than in the heels. This (they claim) improves your posture by throwing your body into the correct alignment. With correct posture comes less joint pain, less back pain, less neck pain yada yada. Plus (they claim) you burn more calories with each step and (they claim) this tones your legs and bum. But they are over $100! And that’s the sale price! Yeowzer. Hmmmm….. So I started researching shoes online. And I found the MBT shoes. Now I’m in love with those. Why? Maybe because they are $250 and therefore they must be much better. Just the fact their website has better animations makes it so, right?

American Idol is interesting this season. If I was 12, I’d be so infatuated with David Archuleta. Man, that kid can sing. But I’m 39+. HA!

We’ve got big decisions on the horizon regarding school for KT next year. Do we continue what we’re doing? Or try a co-op and let experts teach the hard high school classes? Public school isn’t an option unless we move to a much better school district. Not going to happen. Hmmmm…..

I’m done with the snow. It was pretty. It looked great with our Christmas tree (which is still up, btw). But I’m done. Spring can come. Sunshine can come. Warmth can come.

Whole Foods layered Mexican Dip with their homemade tortilla chips is awesome. I took this picture for a totally different reason, but noticed the dip was in the background, so I’ll post it anyway…..

Ok, I’ll tell you why I originally took the picture. I was making some cloth diaper wipes for a bloggy friend of mine, and I made a few extra. But not for wiping butts. To wipe down counters or whatever. And I’ve come up with a zillion other things to use them for so I’m not using (disposable) paper towels. The picture is only one example—I’m letting the strawberries drip dry on an adorable penguin cloth. Normally, I’d put them on a paper towel and then throw out the paper towel. I’m really getting into the “reduce, reuse, recycle” thing. (Insert Mike’s eye roll here)

Next week is my annual appointment with my Gyn. I’m looking forward to it. Yeah, seriously. The only downfall is I’ll have to shave my legs. Why, oh, why do I schedule these things for the winter? How dumb of me. Now I’m going to lose an extra layer of insulation with cold cold cold still in the forecast.

I’m trying my hand at a new craft. You know, because I don’t have enough to do. It’s called needle felting and basically it involves dyed wool and a needle you jab in and out of your finger the wool. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure this craft out, and literally the possibilities are endless. So here’s my first crack at it….

In case you can’t tell, it’s a bunny. No, it’s not a kangaroo. I know, it sorta looks like one. I think I might have made him a big too long in the torso. I could add a coordinating pouch and actually make it a kangaroo, but I think once I add the Easter egg between his paws, it’ll be a lot more obvious. I got the kit through Wool Pet’s Etsy shop and shipping was lightning fast.

My house is a wreck. Literally. I guess with all of the rehearsals, cross stitching, diaper wipe sewing, and needle felting, something had to give. The BioKleen is great, but it’d be better if it didn’t need me to wipe it around.

Alright, I think I’ve rambled enough. That’s what’s been going on at my house in a nutshell. A very very big nutshell.

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Well, after my post about Cow Regularness, I thought it would be a good idea to show KT in a more……uh…..creative light.

So here she is in all of her dramatic glory giving you the heads up on square hairstyles.

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KT and I dropped the boys off at an OSU basketball game on Sunday and headed to Whole Foods for some shopping. I did have a list of things we needed, but as Whole Foods is known to do, more things ended up in my cart than planned.

One of those things was a big ol’ pot roast. More specifically, a chuck roast about the size of my head! Other than its faint marbling lines, it had very little fat on it. It looked way yummy!

Yesterday, I covered the entire thing with garlic and tossed that puppy roast into the oven. The house smelled glorious for several hours. Upon emerging from the oven, the roast literally fell apart. Success!! We like to call it “ruining the roast” but everyone agrees that if it ain’t fallin’ apart, it doesn’t taste as good.

And it tasted good great! Tender and moist and flavorful. An all around perfect roast. Somehow it got us to talking about where food comes from.

And I’m saddened to announce that my kids are naive. Sadly uninformed. Or they were just playing dumb to freak us out.

Somewhere in the conversation, I asked KT, “You do know what part of the cow this is, don’t you?”

(blank stare)

I continue, “It’s the muscle. Roasts and steaks and the meats we eat….that’s the animal’s muscle.”

(blank stare)
(gag)

“What?” KT replies. “It is not muscle.”

“Ok, fine, smarty-pants. What part of the cow is this?”

(blank stare)

KT replies, “I always thought it was just the cow’s……regularness.”

(ok, now it’s time for MY blank stare)

“Its what?” I ask.

“Its regularness. You know, not bone, not stomach, not brain, just its regular stuff…..it’s regularness.”

I grew up on a small farm. I was privy to where are food came from. It became obvious when Rainbow the cow was there one day, and the next day we were eating a T-bone. The circle of life for a farm animal was obvious. And maybe KT really knew what she was eating. She can be the drama queen about some things. Yeah, that’s it. She was just playing with us. She knew full well what that roast was.

But the next time I go to Longhorn, I’m going to order the 9 oz. Cow Regularness cooked medium-rare.

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My post about my dad’s creations has gotten quite a bit of great feedback! I’m sure it made his day to read all of the lovely things you had to say about his woodworking skills.

I’m going to show off one more thing now because one of my dad’s friend’s is interested in the cross stitch frame he made for me. Instead of emailing her pictures directly, I’ll show her here, and everyone else can see how cool this is too!

So here you go, Darla….the floor frame my dad made for me:

Notice the cat. What is it about them always having to be in the pictures?

Here’s another shot in working position:

There’s that cat again!

The frame adjust wider and narrower for different sized projects and it adjusts up and down depending on which chair you want to sit in. Oh, the project that’s on it now, it’s Rocky Mountain Christmas by Marty Bell. That’s how much of the project I’ve gotten done in the last 8 years or so. It’s pretty slow going.

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I’m afraid to post this Tackle it Tuesday because you are going to think I am a complete and total slob and that my house is disgusting with a capital D! But I swear, it’s not.

It all started when my dad came down for a visit. He took the dog out to potty and came back in and tracked mud on my cream colored carpet. Being a man (ha!) he had no idea he did it! Seeing as my dad graduated summa cum laude from Man College, he didn’t know how to clean it up.

I grabbed my BioKleen Bac-Out. If you remember, I raved about it here.

One squirt, two squirts, rub with a paper towel. BANG! The stain was totally gone. Only one problem now, the mud was in a high traffic area of my carpet which had gotten quite grungy, and now that spot is a bit cleaner than the surrounding carpet, but hey, at least the mud is gone!

What happened next? Well, Dr. Mike was working on tweaking the basement so we’d be more likely to go down there and exercise. But the thing that could not be moved was the carpet remnant that was covering an old cat hair ball stain from (gasp!) about 3 years ago. We had tried to get it up with various carpet cleaners, but there was always a stain there.

Then it hit me….Bac-Out! Squirt, squirt, squirt, rub, rub. Gone!

Then, and only then, I read the directions for how to clean carpets. Squirt, allow to soak, blot. Repeat as needed. Oh, I’d been doing it wrong and yet it still worked!

A few days later, I was straightening the bedroom and saw this:

Ah, yes. The puke stain from when some kid slept in a sleeping bag on our floor and got sick in the middle of the night. I don’t know the exact age of this stain, but (gasp) I’m thinking it was at least two four years old. This stain had been cleaned and re-cleaned, but we could never get it lighter than this. It was going to be one of the things we strategically “covered” when we put the house up for sale.

Then it hit me…..Bac-Out! Squirt, squirt, squirt, let soak, blot.

Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. First the squirt, squirt, squirt. And immediately it looked like this:

WOW! Then the soak and blot and it looked like this:



Wow!

Ok, in total honesty, when the carpet was totally dry, there was a faint circle of slightly darker carpet there. So I did as recommended–repeat as needed. One more squirt, soak, blot cycle and the carpet is totally clean. I did stack some paper towels, a paper bag, and two very heavy med school books on top to facilitate the blotting!

I’d take another picture of it, but quite frankly, I’m not even sure I’d get a picture of where the stain actually was. I can’t find any evidence of it!

Again, I highly recommend BioKleen products. Good for you, good for your home, good for the environment!

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