He's mangoriffic
Last night after Turbo's his dance class I had him at Trader Joe's I was looking at peanut butter when he brought me a bag of dried mangos and said, "I want some mangos!" Since we pretty much never bought them, I asked how he knew they were mangos. He points to the label, "It says mango!" How did he learn that? All that brillaince made up for today, when I had to plunge snake plunge the toilet and then clean up a huge mess on the floor thanks to him.
Crochet Hogwarts Scarf pattern
Is that clear enough for the search engines?
Note: I will assume you know all the techniques or are willing to look them up.
How I made mine: You'll need 8-10 ounces each of your house colours. For the scarf to work up quickly, I used double-treble crochet. Start and end your scarf with the darkest colour. Starting chain of 39 for a row 35 stitches long. 4 rows per stripe, total of 17 stripes. Fringe: 3 strands tied into each stitch, start and end with darker colour.
Currently working on:
Crochet Four projects! The blanket for Filius Caesar, baby blanket to donate to the food bank, hat for chemo patients, and a sweater for HRH the Fairy Princess for her birthday. Although the sweater is the one I need to finish the most, it's also the hardest as I can only do it when she's not around.
Gluten Free Still a work in progress, which I know sends the extremists into a tizzy. Sorry, but I cannot just do it all at once. And I currently have no plans to replace all my cookware with virgin stuff.
Body Am up from one 10 minute toning per day to two or three. This needs to stay a priority! Also cutting back on portions (most of the time) and I have lost about 4 pounds.
Tired today.
I actually turned off the alarm and slept and extra hour. I'm so tired. Filius is being a little snot today, it's cold and rainy, and I'm getting over a respitory thing. I look forward to work. I DON'T want to go to the co-op tomorrow, but have no valid reason to stay in.
Back to reality
I am getting back to the real world, with some feeling of surreality (is that a word?). I wonder if it is good or bad that I have a PACKED week; Monday, Turbo to dance, Tuesday, Filius Caesar to counseling, me to work and then late to committee meeting, Wednesday, work MOPS, Thursday, work in the evening, Friday, story time then homeschool co-op then see Heather Alexander in the evening, Saturday, Fairy Princess to dance and help paint a school, Sunday, my regular work...all on top of getting the kids back onto school schedule and getting Fairy Princess back onto a gluten free diet, without the benefit of having done the grocery shopping.
My little nuts are outside at the toy kitchen, doing Monty Python's
Bavarian Restaurant sketch. I think they're warped.
People ask me to describe my trip, but words seem inadequate.
Destructrion, Distribution, and The Big Easy (Not in that order)
Yesterday, the team headed out to Biloxi and Waveland to see the damage. As we drove, we kept thinking that it couldn't get any worse, yet it did. Miles of coastal property with nothing but foundations left. The Biloxi Bridge, buckled and broken. You just say "Oh. My. God." because there are no words, just a formless awe and prayer. In Waveland we split up. Thirteen of our team of twenty felt that if we got that far, we should just drive on to New Orleans, and we did just that. Now, most of you will not know this, but one of the items on my "do before I die" list was to visit The French Quarter and specifically, Rue Bourbon. I am very much in love with The French Quarter and I would move to NO in a heartbeat. It's so alive, pulsingly alive, an a way no other place I have been is. We ate at Oceana (on le Rue Chartres, right off Bourbon) and I have had a foretaste of Heaven. New Orleans chefs who die are sent right to Heavenly KP. I tasted gator sausage and it was incredible! Blackened chicken, squash, blackened red potatos, red beans and rice, with the NO "HolyTrio" of garlic, onion, and celery.
Today I worked at tyhe distribution center, doing intake for people who needed food and household items. How wonderful to talk to all those people, see what they need, hear their stories. People are so thankful that we have come.
So, now the work is done. We eat out tonight, then sleep, then head home tomorrow. It will be a different person getting off the plane.
I can't believe it's almost over!
Really, can you believe it? I have been on the Mississippi Gulf Coast almost a week, I leave in less than 48 hours and I have not updated you! Ithink part of it is that few words are sufficient to descibe the experience. It is incredible, it is life changing. I truly feel one of the reasons God sent me here was for ME. Is that selfish? But it has given me more confidence in myself than I have had in a long time. I, I who am not really good at anything, can help rebuild and can help give people hope. How is that? Is it not amazing?
I will try to make up for my slacking by giving you some highlights fomr here and there.
Posted: 17 Jan 2006 07:30 Post subject:
Some stats for you: There are 85 THOUSAND people in Soutern Missisippi still homeless from Katrina. People are still getting their FEMA trailers, and there is NOTHING in them. Food stamp applications here are delayed by several months. Christus Victor/Lutheran Episcopal Disaster Response has an average of a family every three minutes coming by every day for food. Every day the run out of things - food, cleaning supplies, blankets and bedding, etc. It's really desperate here still, 4 1/4 months after katrina. Anyway, today we did our first full muck out. We cleaned out a garage that the water had come through so forcefully as to move the car sideways. We had to clean everything out, move the car, get it out, rip out the sheetrock and insulation, and clean it all up. The pile of debris at her curb was enourmous, but what a sense of satisfaction!
Posted: 17 Jan 2006 08:11 Post subject:
. Some things keep popping up in our convos with people: The federal gov't has FAILED FAILED FAILED here. This even from the pulpit. Tell people is is not just N'awlins that was devestated. Mississippi was hit terribly. There is a whole town here, Waveland ( which we want to try to get to) that is basically gone, all gone. It's just...my God. Really. I keep finding myself thinking "next time I come"...how will I do that? I don't know.
Posted: 17 Jan 2006 08:23 Post subject:
Here is a slide show of OS:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=8q2frws.ev7fa6k&Uy=-cum2cx&Ux=0_________________
One thing that keeps popping up in this or that mesaage or devotional is that God didt cause this- God does not cause natural disasters. GOOD things come from God. And do I need to hear that, in light of our personal natural disaster. There is a sign on the wall here:"Katrina was an act of nature. What we do here is an act of God." Say Amen.
Current projects
Right now I am about half way though my Gryffindor scarf. I am using double-treble stitch to make it go faster. It's looking fairly good. Thing is, I'm a Hufflepuff. I don't know what I'll do with it.
I took a break from it to make a cute little black skully the other night. Cute, but I'm not 100% happy with the fit at the crown.
My travel project is a jute bag- easy to throw in my purse and work on in odd moments.
I got some yarn yesterday- planning an Easter capelet for HRH, and maybe a capelet for me. I also owe Filius Ceasar a blanket, so I got a pound of yarn he chose for that.
