Christmas Lists

Yes boys and girls. It's time to make out your list for Santy Claus!
My mom would throw a Sears catalog at me and let me go for it. It was pointless because unless I could wear it or it was otherwise immensely practical, I didn't get it. I made my own clothes for Barbies I got from friends... but I digress. You might want to break it into four sections:

1. Things I need for school, sport, to wear or to sleep better at night:
2. Things I would like for school, sports, to wear or sleep better at night.
3. Things I would like for hobbies I like to do
4. Stuff
It's just a way to get them to think about things they need as well as the things they just see that are shiny in the catalog. I'm sure there is a better list! Tell me what you do!!

Dont forget to make a copy and send the original to Santa Claus, North Pole

North Polar - Santa Claus P.O. Box 56099 North Pole, Alaska 99705-1099
If you want a reply you need to follow instructions here http://www.northpolar.com/

or email to http://www.emailsanta.com/ in English or French for your French Immersion Student!

Don't forget to track Santa at NORAD. We do this every year. Gives NORAD something to do besides watch for missiles and UFOs. :D

Bucket lists

Here is the "Real" bucket list from the movie:

The "Bucket List"

1. Witness something truly majestic
2. Help a complete stranger for the common good
3. Laugh till I cry
4. Drive a Shelby Mustang
5. Kiss the most beautiful girl in the world
6. Get a tattoo
7. Skydiving
8. Visit Stonehenge
9. Spend a week at the Louvre
10. See Rome
11. Dinner at La Chevre d'Or [1]
12. See the Pyramids
13. Get back in touch (previously "Hunt the big cat", added after being earlier added and crossed off)
14. Visit Taj Mahal, India
15. Hong Kong
16. Victoria Falls
17. Serengeti
18. Ride the Great Wall of China

Some of these things mean nothing to me. Some I have done, but would not have counted my life unfinished without them. I keep seeing mock bucket lists on facebook and other places and wanted to see what this was really about. Some things are just more important to some people.
Here's the challenge: this is what lists are all about. Make your own bucket list. As you broaden your perspective, add to the list. As you become more understanding of what's important to you, you learn more about yourself.

Feel free to share here or keep it in a Chock-Full-Of-Nuts can...

Here is some facebook stuff to give you more ideas:


The Bucket List


( ) Been to Europe
( ) Been on a cruise
( ) Gone on a blind date
( ) Skipped school
( ) Watched someone die
( ) Been to Canada
( ) Been to Mexico
( ) Been to Florida
( ) Been on a plane
( ) Climbed a lighthouse
( ) Swam in the ocean
( ) Cried yourself to sleep
( } Seen the Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C.
( ) Played cops and robbers
( ) Flown a plane
( ) Owned a boat
( ) Own/Rode a motorcycle
() Watched grandchildren grow and loved every minute
( ) Recently colored with crayons
( ) Been to the Kentucky Derby
( ) Been to Key West
( ) Been to a rodeo
( ) Sang Karaoke
( ) Paid for a meal with coins only
( ) Done something you told yourself you wouldn't
( ) Made prank phone calls
( ) Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose (hasn't everyone)
( ) Caught a snowflake on your tongue
( ) Danced in the rain
( ) Written a letter to Santa Claus
( ) Been kissed under the mistletoe
( ) Watched the sunrise
( ) Seen the green flash at sunset
( ) Blown bubbles
( ) Gone ice-skating
( ) Gone to the movies
( ) Gone to a Drive-In Movie
( ) Owned a convertible

1. Any nickname -No
2. Mothers Name - Yes, she has one
3. Body Piercing? - ears once only
4. How much do you love your job? How much... I love it.... hmmmm I do but hard to measure
5. Birthplace? I don't answer this as it's confidential
6. Ever been to Hawaii ? No
7. Ever been to Africa ? no
8. Ever been to China? no
9. Ever been to Europe? yes
10. Ever been to Austrailia? no
11. Ever been to South America? no
12. Ever been to Russia? no
13. Ever eaten just cookies for dinner? Yes
14. Ever been on TV? Yes -- very briefly
15. Ever steal any traffic sign? No
16. Ever been in a car accident? Yes
17. Drive a 2-door or 4-door vehicle? Mine is 5
18. Favorite number? Are we buying chocolate or cutting inches off my hair?
19. Favorite movie I like many movies... All time fave gotta be It's a Wonderful Life.
20. Favorite holiday? Christmas
21. Favorite dessert? hot homemade chocolate chip cookies
22. Favorite type of food: seafood
23. Favorite day of the week? Saturday but I like the rest too
24. Favorite brand of body wash - I still use (gasp) SOAP
25. Favorite smell ? gardenias or lemon blossoms- not the perfume but the real flowers
26. How do you relax? Tempurpedic
27. How do you see yourself in 10 years? Older

Heidi's Bucket List
1. Be patient with my husband
2. Raise my children well
3. Continue every day to improve myself, broaden my vision, learn something new
4. Someday, write a book worth reading
5. Help people in need before they request it
6. Continue to work on my family history
7. Be completely debt free
8. Attend or at least see every graduation, wedding, birth blessing, and baptism of my progeny until I die
9. Every boy an Eagle Scout
10. Learn when to accept ignorance and when to fight it; personally, never stop learning
11. Live so people want to be more like me
12. Always find creative ways to answer challenges or teach

Food Storage Update

Our latest addition to the food storage is a can of Heritage seeds.

Why would you want Heritage seeds?

In case you haven't been gardening much in the last 10 years, you probably wouldn't realize that you pretty much can't buy a fruit, vegetable, tree or even plant that will give you fertile seeds.

WHAT? Plants make fruit and the seeds make more plants! What are you talking about?

Not hybrids. Hybrid seeds are (almost always) genetically altered so that they will not reproduce.

I KNOW!! Look, it's just wrong in a way isn't it! But those hybrids are resistant to pests and diseases, specially developed to produce bigger, more colorful, healthy plants and fruit, veggies, grain. (WHAT? They're messing with the grain too? Oh yes, and for longer than the rest.) So the companies that develop these specially resistant, healthy, bigger plants "copywrite" them by making them so they won't reproduce. THey do get seeds, just not fertile ones. So you have to buy them again. Every year.

Heritage seeds are unaltered and will reproduce seeds that can be saved and planted again. If I need a garden that bad, I am going to need a SUSTAINABLE garden. What if some calamaty happens? If I am desperate enough to cultivate, plant, water, weed (ough!) and tend to my plants, I am going to have to have more seeds to use next year or next season (we have a long growing season and often can get two crops in.) OF COURSE I hope that Home Depot and other garden supplies will be there for me indefinately, but how cool to have, and if I do use them, how cool to learn together with my kids how the great Circle of Life is supposed to be... not Driving back and forth to the store! Planting, harvesting, planting again.

Also adding more powdered eggs to the food storage. We have used the can we bought quite a bit and I decided it would be a super addition to the pantry. There are a lot of things you can make with eggs that you just can't without! They're incredible!

Spay and Neuter your Pets Please!

What to do about stray cats?
Do you feed them?
I will state my opinion and then get some quotes for ya. I think a lot of people feel sorry for the cats/kittens and put out food for them. Then there are stray cats around. And they make more.
If I find a stray I either ignore it completely, hoping it will go away, or catch and release-- catch it then give it a good home. If I keep it, I take it to the vet, spay or neuter, and care for the pet. I have done this with dogs and cats. Sometimes animals just come in to your life, sometimes you go find them. Regardless, responsible pet ownership means shots, and fixing. Sure, kittens are cute, but really, unless you are a breeder, and make lots of money with your kittens, you really don't need to add to the surplus population.
Our "no kill" pound is full and won't take more animals. No tiny kitties, no puppies, no purebreds. You can take bred dogs to the specialty pounds, like there is a Great Dane Shelter somewhere about 3 hours north of us. They only take Great Danes. For many the only other option is The Pound, where the kittens will be put up for adoption for three days if there is room. You are more likely to get a kitten a new home if you find them one. However, too much of this will wear out your welcome with your friends and neighbors.
From a great metropolis in California, there is a website that states:

The kind people at the local dog pound hesitated to give an exact answer the first few times that my child and I asked how many animals a year they euthanize, only answering, "way too many." They later gave me some statistics which show that, unfortunately, the number in the Sacramento County area alone is in the thousands.

In 1998, of 25,302 incoming live animals (2,963 came in dead), only 4,231 were adopted/redeemed. That leaves over 13,000 animals that were "put to sleep."

Do you get it? Can you imagine being down on your luck and needing a job so bad you would be the one to handle that problem? IN ONE YEAR-- that means roughly in a 5 day work week you would euthanize 50 animals a day. And go home and try to sleep. And that's just in one shelter in Sacramento.

The Asheville Humane Society, one of the “Founding Lifeguards” of the campaign launched in January, recently released a six-month report that shows an increase in animals' lives saved. From January through June, 3,239 dogs and cats were taken in at the AHS animal shelter, compared with 3,487 animals during the same period last year. Of that number, 1,280 lives were saved, including adoptions and pets returned to their owners, reflecting a 40 percent rate of lives saved compared with a 37 percent rate for the same period in 2008.

So 40% chance. THey are thrilled that the numbers are better, and thank all those who adopt from shelters.

So please, please don't add to the problem! Keep your kitty from making more, and don't encourage a congregation of strays where they can breed and make more too. If you care about a stray, take care of it.

Something else to note: Our city, and many others, actually do a "catch and release" program. Our neighbor just never got around to fixing her cat. I volunteered to pay for the cat's fixing, but one day the cat disappeared. Three days later Tigger was back with a missing part and a clipped ear. We discovered that the city catches and neuters cats they find that are not feral. Though I don't condone waiting for someone else to fix the problem, it's a great idea and hopefully keeps the population down and is cheaper than the alternative - euthanizing more animals.

Bookishly Speaking

Books and reading material:

Here are some interesting things to share:
This is not my personal all time list but sourced) :
http://zenhabits.net/2007/03/best-all-time-childrens-books/

Here's a list for the librarians out there, stolen from my sil on Facebook that she stole from her friend Chuck: http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/1090000309/post/1160046916.html
It's a list of the top 10 things to infuriate a librarian.

So yes, we are getting ready for that back to you know where time. A friend just put out there that she's decided to buy her kids a new book at the beginning and ending of school. What a great idea! How better to jump-start the enthusiasm? She chose these:

"I Don't want to go to School", "Is your Mama a Llama?", and "Clovis Crawfish and Friends". We're in a place where we totally appreciate Crawfish, and school starts real early.

I understand they are putting Maurice Sendak's book, "Where the Wild Things Are" to the big screen. Sigh... is Hollywood that desperate? THat's like putting "Harold and the Purple Crayon" (by Crockett Johnson) to film. Come on. It's not about spelling things out, it's about imagination. Will I go? Probably not... but I will send friends who will rate it for me :)

My 'Tween has read the Twilight books and likes the "all about me" kinds of books. It will be interesting to see how she feels about reading after the dreary year ahead is half through. My pick of her reading list is Animal Farm for it's humor. (That was a joke, there is Absolutely No Humor in that book... but more in there than any of the other blithe assignments.) Oh well there are lessons to be learned.

I am sticking to non-fiction drudgeries right now and hope to wrap my stuck in tar little mind around making and sticking to a budget (Ho, hum. Dreariness. I am going to have to build in budget items for "Ice Weasels" and "Glue Sticks" just to have some flexibility. (If you know me, you know I own about 4 states worth of glue sticks, or enough to supply a kindergarten class until 2045.) Money is the only thing I hate making lists about (unless it's what I want to buy. Of course).

So books... take me away and don't let me down! Here are some books that are wonderful for that starting school off right celebration!

I can beat 40 tigers today Seuss (Ok anything by Seuss. If you want a challenge, go for "Oh Say Can You Say?" My personal fave.)
Anything by Tommie DePaola
Anything by Maurice Sendak
Bread and Jam for Frances
Chrysanthemum
The Mango Tooth
M&M Counting Book (also cheerios, etc.)
and for older kids, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Enjoy!

What to do with all the Koolaid?

I get really tired of Blogger not liking the way I press the buttons I guess... here we go again!

As many of you know I recently became the owner of a great deal of Koolaid. About 400 packets. I was completely out and we’re going no soda this summer, and with mom and dad and four thirsty kids that’s a lot of koolaid.

My friend Carlie said, “That’s not enough Koolaid for the summer, it’s enough for the decade!”

So I got to thinking, and found this great website where they dyed silk scarves with koolaid. Aparently you can’t dye cotton with it, it’s a stain, and won’t set, but silk and wool work great. So I bought a bunch of white silk scarves and we went at it. We mixed a little water with the koolaid and painted or dunked. We had a lot of fun!

Another website you shouldn't miss

I have a few places I go when I need cheer. Here are two of them. Enjoy!

http://icanhascheezburger.com/

www.cakewrecks.com

Honestly, you need to laugh sometimes!