Does anyone know how…

…to get that little barbed-wire picture off of my page?  I am looking everywhere and can’t find the way to do it.   Another question…if I want to change the name of my blog, do I have to create a new one?  I reallyyyyy hope not…that would be a procrastinator’s nightmare!

Left-Brain/Right-Brain Fun

You Are 40% Left Brained, 60% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you’re left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet.The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you’re right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

I am always a sucker for these quizzes.   I found the question “Are you better at geometry or algebra?”  a hard one to answer….duh…neither?  Overall though, it seems to fairly accurate for me. To find out for yourself, click the link above.

Q&A Thursday: A Christmas Memory

I was wondering tonight, as I was singing my girls to sleep with Christmas songs, if I have been making good Christmas memories for my children. This year has been a little “off.” Two weeks of sickness tumbling about the house has translated into neglected Advent traditions. Our forlorn advent wreath still has the third candle unburned and our wonderful new Jesse Tree is missing about a 1/3 of its symbols. Alas. There is always next year…

Back to my singing… It triggered a memory of a favorite Christmas Eve of mine as a little girl. I don’t know how old I was, probably 6 or so, but I remember sitting with my family around our artificial tree bedecked with colored lights and gold tinsel. I was wearing a red, polyester nightgown trimmed with itchy lace, with elbows reduced to see-through mesh ovals. We were singing Christmas carols. My dad, as usual, was terribly off-key, but continued on steadily. Afterwards, he read the nativity passage from Luke while Mom passed out eggnog. I always loved this part, because she served it in tiny ruby colored glasses. These glasses only came out on Christmas Eve. I loved the way I would sip the eggnog and the nutmeg would stay on my upper lip. I would then lick the little spongy pieces off my lip and chew them while Dad read the story.   Afterwards, Mom and Day tried to shoo us to bed, but we were so excited that they let us stay around the tree a few more minutes.  My sister and I made up this hyper little song and dance, that continued well into our teenaged Christmases.  I can hear us now…”Un-dee-li-lee, Un-dee-li-lie, Un-dee-li-lee…”  It always cracked us up.

When I remember that Christmas Eve, I breath a little sigh of relief.  The ingredients of a wonderful Christmas memory are fairly simple…family, love, carols, Jesus, a little eggnog, and a dose of silliness.  I think the only ingredient we’re missing is eggnog, and I can buy that tomorrow.  I wonder if Silknog will count.

What about you?  What is your favorite Christmas memory?

Q & A: Musical Instruments

I often fantasize that one day I will play both the clarinet and the cello. I’m already 35, so I’m not sure that my chances are any good of getting beyond Level 1A of either, but oh, how I really, really wish I could play them.

I learned to play the piano in third grade and I was actually pretty decent, but not what you’d call a born musician. I loved to “escape” to the piano after school, and I progressed rather rapidly due to my excellent teacher. But something happened in 6th grade, namely hormones and shallowness, that suddenly made me embarrassed to be caught playing the piano when friends called. I convinced my mom that I needed to quit for awhile but I would take it up again later. Yeah, right.

I found myself wanting to play again in college and sought out the free piano rooms, but without a teacher or music, I just played the same two memorized pieces over and over. You can only imagine how long that lasted.

We now own a piano (I will have to tell you how that came about in another post) and I will sit down and play when I get the chance. I bought a few beginning adult books and easy classics books and have been working my way through them, but I think I really need a teacher to help me progress beyond the stage I left playing in my youth. I have also found, that, while I like playing the piano, it is the haunting sound of the clarinet (think Mozart, not marching band) and the pensive and moving cello that really stir me.

Some of my friends are real musicians, and from being around them I know that I do not fall into that category. (“O.K. guys, this time around we’ll just change the measure to E minor…Ready?”) It makes me wonder why I still have the desire to learn to play more instruments. It wouldn’t come easy to me. I guess it is just that I want to be a musician. I would love to have my hands create the soulful sounds that cause such a range of emotions in me. I know that I probably need to learn to be content with just listening to my Yo-Yo Ma CD and appreciating music.

Okay, here is my weekly question for you: Is there anyone else out there harboring a secret desire to play an instrument? Those of you that do play an instrument, do you get to play it enough? What is it like to be a real musician? Do you think anyone beyond their 20’s can learn a new instrument? Let me know what you think!

Question and Answer Thursday: Advent Traditions

December 1st is tomorrow! Time for me to rush around the city looking for pink and purple candles for our Advent wreath (why do I always wait for the last minute?).

Every Sunday up until Christmas we light our Advent wreath and read the corresponding Scriptures. Each child gets to take turns lighting the candles and reading. We also will light these at dinner during the week, but only with a little reminder about the candle’s meaning. We have also done the Advent Alphabet [This link will probably not work…if anyone on WordPress can clue me in to what I’m doing wrong, I’ll be forever grateful! For old-fashioned cut and paste: http://www.theologic.com/oflweb/xmas/alphabet.htm%5D. This is a fun game, especially for little guys. It comes from our Greek Orthodox friends, so you may have to tweak it here or there. My children love it.

I was thinking about this game yesterday and how my kids now know all of the answers when my doorbell rang. My dear friend, Julie, had come to give us a new Advent, or Jesse, tree that she and her children made for us!! I was so excited. It is a huge, green felt tree that you put on the wall. They cut out 25 different symbols and included a guide with Scripture that tells the salvation story from Genesis to John. Some of the symbols are an ark, an altar, a coat of many colors, a whale, and the familiar manger and star. This is so wonderful…it connects the Old Testament stories with the coming of Jesus, which is often lost in the week-by-week Sunday School setting. I so wish I could load a picture for you! Maybe St. Nicolas is packing his bag right now for me with a new computer!

So, my Thursday question for you is this: How do you celebrate Advent in your home?

Question and Answer Thursday: The Quick Tidy-Up

So many times, people don’t want your advice. If you’re like me, you also tend to freely give it. Now is your chance. Every Thursday, I will be begging for you to give me your advice. I can’t wait to see everyone’s answers.

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I have quite a bit of housework to do. Many family members are coming, and some are staying here. If you haven’t caught on to this already, I am chronically messy. I can clean, but it seems only one room at a time. While I am cleaning one, the rest of the rooms fall apart. So, today’s question is this:

What is your best and quickest way to tidy up the whole house, so every room looks basically decent all at the same time? All answers must assume a toddler on the hip.

I wish I had something nifty to offer you for giving me your thoughts, like Mary over at Owlhaven offers for her “Opinion Saturday.” But I don’t. Maybe next time!

Question and Answer Thursday: Uninvited Occupants

Ever since we bought our 1930’s home, we’ve had difficulty getting the past occupants to move out. They are very stubborn and, worse, they act as if they don’t hear us or care that we want them out!

I am beginning to understand a little more about them. They are sentimental (they only like to live in one part of the house), they have a large family, and they very likely have been living here for generations. I bet that they even knew the first home owners.

I might have made them a little upset the other night when we ate some for dinner. You see, I was making soup, and I decided to throw in the remains of some arborio rice from the pantry. I was a little shocked to see 4 or 5 deceased members floating on top of my bubbling soup. I scooped out as many critters as I could before they sunk to the bottom, but my husband swears he later saw one in his bowl. This, of course, only delighted him because, well, he is weird that way. (He also eats shrimp tails, fish fins, and once ate raw shrimp eyes just to flirt with me.)

We have tried to get rid of the little pests. They have proved to be quite persistent. We even completely moved out of the kitchen while it was being renovated. I thoroughly cleaned every shelf, crack and corner in the pantry. I threw out any suspicious grains, nuts, and pasta and froze the rest. When we moved back into the kitchen, I thought Aha! They’re gone! A week later, I saw one. Then two more… Fast forward to the soup, and, well, you get the picture.

My question to you is this: How do you get rid of pantry moths (admit it, how many of you were thinking roaches!!)? I would love to hear your suggestions!!

Makin’ a List

Today, with my 9 y/o and 1 y/o sick with fevers, I was wishing that I had some better DVDs around. We own plenty of movies, mostly gifts from relatives, but I would love to have some quality (perhaps even educational!) DVDs for the kids to watch on sick days. We gave up regular t.v. (one of the best decisions of our life!) so we are at the mercy of our own DVD stockpile.

Most of the time, the DVD cords are locked up. DH and I started to be disturbed by the seemingly infinite number of times our children could watch something. It seemed rather wrong that our 4 y/o could quote minor lines from 10 or more movies. Now, barring no privilege revocations, we bring the cords out for the weekend. In a fit of evil humor Sunday, I checked out from the library “The Anasazi: Lost Civilization” and “Wild Edible Plants” and announced that these were the only two choices during the grown-ups/baby’s Sunday nap. Ha! Try quoting from these!!

Anyway, what are some DVDs that you really like and don’t mind being watched over and over, and perhaps even teach your children something good? Add them to the comments, and I’ll post them later in a complete list.

Oh, and to those who caught it, yes, I will have to start over with the baby. Rats! She is almost never sick, so she would get sick on the fourth night of our nighttime weaning! There was no way I was going to enforce it during her illness. *sigh*