Friday bullets, February 16, 2018

How on earth did it get to be the middle of February? I don't have any idea, but the year seems to be well on its way to zipping along now that we have surgery and my trip to Arizona behind us.

• We are beset by worasauruses. Don't worry if you do not know what a worasaurus is, I didn't either until the beginning of the week. These are L.'s new creation, and they have completely consumed her imagination. Thus they have completely consumed the household. From what I can gather, there are three different types, all very fierce looking. The fire type can hold the sun, I'm told. L. is often a worasaurus which conveniently (for her) means that she cannot communicate using words, just growl-like sounds. (P. thinks L. sounds like a zombie when being a worasaurus, which does raise the question as to how P. knows what a zombie sounds like.) Last night as we were driving to their midweek program at church, and there was general chaos in the van, L. shushes everyone and announces that she is busy imagining what the worasaurus world looks like and they are disturbing her. I should probably make an entire blog category titled, "Life with L."
• A. had some car trouble earlier in the week. Her car worked well one moment, and then the next it felt as though the steering wheel was not turning the wheels. She managed to safely pull to the side of the road, where she called me. Eventually the car ended up at the mechanics. It turns out there was a very significant steering issue going on, as well as something with the front wheels. It sounds as though it was incredibly serious and dangerous. I'm so glad she was safe when it all finally decided to fall apart. We're down to two cars at the moment, but she should have it back by Monday.
• I forgot to mention in my riveting grocery store post that I picked up a new iron at Aldi. My old iron was old. At least 30 years old, if not more. It still ironed, but no longer steamed, and would sometimes, annoyingly, leave a small black mark on what was being ironed. I needed a new one, but was not excited about the price tag attached, so I ignored it. It was even almond colored. If that doesn't show its age, I don't know what does.

So, when I saw the bright and shiny new steam iron at Aldi, and it only cost $12.99, I figured why not? The worst would be that it works for a little bit, but it had to be an improvement over what I had. It seems to work really well, and it is so nice to have a steam function again. It is not almond colored.

• Do you know how wonderful it is to have a 14 year old who is able to totally make dinner? Last night, D. offered to make calzones for us, and so he did. He even made the dough from scratch. It was delicious, and I enjoyed not making dinner.
• I spent some time in my studio yesterday, making this.

It's a throw blanket that I made the binding for and then sewed on. It was formerly a bedspread that B. had which he didn't want any more. We needed a couple of blankets in the lounge for when people were watching movies (not a lot of sun in that room), so took the bedspread from B. I cut it in half to get two reasonable sized blankets, then put the binding on. This one has already been used, and now I just need to do the second one.

• TM's ability to pick up instruments by ear and YouTube videos never ceases to amaze me.
• P. jumped her first oxer last week at her riding lesson. That is a kind of jump that has two jumps, one in front of the other, to make a slightly wider jump. She was pretty excited.
• Have a mentioned how much I adore the thrift shop near me? I dashed in yesterday, and did quite well. For just over $17, I got a clean coloring book on woolly mammoths, three pairs of socks for K., a pair of pants for Y. which looked like a pair that G. already had that Y. really, really liked, a pair of skinny jeans for L. (because she needs skinny and can blow out the knees of pants like no one I have ever seen), a pair of flowered jeans for G. which she really likes, a blouse for me, two yards of a pretty fleece fabric with bright fish on it (I will bind it for a blanket for someone), two yards of a pretty cotton fabric, two yards of a plum knit (will probably become a t-shirt or two for girls), and two yards of a blue plaid wool fabric. Not bad, huh? Oh, and all the proceeds go to a worthy, local ministry.
• We were reading a couple of books about Japan this morning, and there were a couple of photographs of bento boxes. While the children were exclaiming over how cool they looked, I was suddenly struck with a resurgence of bento box fascination.
• We have not done anything about either starting Lent or about celebrating Tet/Chinese New Year yet this year. Usually for Lent, we do nightly devotions and put a corresponding ornament on our Lenten tree, but that would require both finding the box with the ornaments (the holiday stuff is still not quite sorted out enough to make it easily accessible) and figuring out where to buy a nice spray of pussy willows. I realize that life isn't quite back to being completely normal when figuring these two things out leaves me feeling a little drained. The same with the lunar new year celebrations. Usually we celebrate with friends, but once again, this would require rethinking the whole thing as opposed to just hitting the auto pilot button of "celebrate Tet and Chinese New Year". The whole lack of good Vietnamese food options out here is another problem. I'm sure we'll get back on track next year, but this year I'm giving myself permission to take it off. Besides, Y.'s birthday is next week, and I'm quite sure she will want Chinese food for her birthday dinner. We'll get at least part of the food in this month.
• I have been going to a women's Bible study at church since the fall. I have ended up in a group with the most wonderful women that I am thrilled to be able to get to know and spend time with. 
• Finally, I wanted to thank everyone for their kind words they wrote to me on yesterday's blog post. I loved reading every single one. Thank you! I'll keep writing (because it's both therapeutic and I've done it for so long now, it feels weird not to). Also, I'll keep the ads off. I personally can't stand them, and have stopped reading more than one blog because the ads got in the way.