Jen's Mental Scribblings

this week we traveled to the 42nd Ave neighborhood in the NE section of Portland to visit Roses Ice Cream. It's an old fashioned dinner that also serves burgers, fries, and normal greasy spoon food. Joe is currently en-route to San Jose, so he loses out.

Good thing to note about this neighborhood. lots of families out walking with their kids.

Gray: mint chip. Four spoons

Gwen: rainbow sherbet. Five spoons.

Ike: mint chip. Three spoons

Elli: black walnut (takes after her grandma...my mom loves that stuff) Five spoons.

Jen: Chocolate peanut butter Two spoons.

Overall, standard American ice cream. Nothing out of the ordinary. We got sundaes this week, the hot fudge and caramel sauce came out of number 10 cans and are overly sweet with no discernable flavor beyond sugar. Needless to say, the kids loved it...And I feel like my teeth are rotting out of my head. Bleh. too sweet. Closer to Fenton's than Cloud City, but the I've cream is better there than here.

Joe took the non-sick children on a bike ride today. After about an hour, I got a phone call. "Come get us." I drive over to where they are riding and this is what I see. My baby sitting in the middle of the road, bawling, covered in blood, tears, and road. He was going down "the big hill" and lost control of his bike and got smashed up. A quick visit to the ER (less than an hour!) got him x-rayed and examined. (He was holding his wrist funny, so I thought he might have broken it or his thumb). He's good. Covered in road rash. Not the first, and won't be the last. My little dare devil. (And yes, he was wearing a helmet, so no head injury other than road rash. Good thing too.)

When Ike came home on the last day of school before Christmas he says to me "Sorry Mom...your present just isnt' ready...you'll have to wait." I said "no problem"

Yesterday when I pick him up from school he has this huge cabbage in a plastic bag.

"Is that your's Ike?"
"Yep! I grew it in Gardening class"
"Awesome! It looks beautiful!"
"Merry Christmas Mama!"
"This is for me?"
"Yea, it wasn't ready to be picked before vacation, it was ready today."
"Did you get to choose what to grow?"
"Yep. I chose a cabbage 'cause I knew that's something you would like"

He's right...I weighed it, 3lbs 15.5 oz. It's a big cabbage. It's slated to become coleslaw and jalapeno saurkraut.

Doesn't he look so proud?

This is the only place, where after a few days of rain I see  sprouting in my garden: green beans, cilantro, and squash. It will be fun to watch and see what survives the winter.

I had Foundation Studies this weekend. The Art for this session was drawing.  *Groan* 

First we tried pastels on paper. After about 2 hours of work I ended up with this.

Then back to pastels...about an hour.

I keep seeing this on my drive to school. Pretty much sums up how I feel about it.

My dresser now



What you don't see is the basket and box with all the items that need repair. I'm going to tackle some of those tonight as its handwork. The box contains items I need to sit down at the sewing machine to repair. I also got through those little drawers on top. LOTS of stuff, stuffed in there. I even went through the items within the drawers. I eventually had a nice sized pile of broken gold jewelry. I'll take that to the mall next time I go and sell it. I didn't manage to move the dresser to get all the dirt and crap underneath. I'm too tired and out of spoons. The only thing I have left in that room is the upper shelf in my closet. I need Joe's help for all of that, so I MAY get to it this weekend...then again. I may not. Busy weekend ahead.

The basket to the right of the dresser is a pile of wool sweaters that: 1 need washing (so I need to get a sweater dryer) and 2 need a home. My sweater drawers are full.

I don't feel like I got as much done today as I have the previous days. But I think that's due to the fact that I'm actually having to find homes for things. When I started, I could just throw things in the general area where they belong. I'm running out of that generic space and have to find homes for things. I am not looking forward to the spare room. There's an incredible amount of stuff in there. It ended up being a dumping ground. And I have to have it cleaned up by the 1st.

Elli and Gwen get back late Monday Night. I've made arrangements for them and Gray to attend camp at school starting tuesday. I can distract one child from what Ike is doing. I can't distract 3. This also gives me a week to either purge more...or rest.

My toes match Gwen's shoes

Who in the hell thought it would be a great idea to put wheat in Altoids??? Seriously?