Splish Splash

I still remember a roommate saying with a lot of emotional energy in her voice, “I would never take a bath—why would I lay in my own filth??”

Now—I was not too interested in taking a bath in my apartment bathtub—at least not until the grime from the feet of 6 roommates had been cleaned out of it.  But I was surprised to hear her say this, because I didn’t (and still don’t) consider myself particularly filthy.

In the years since that comment, I have learned that the world can be divided into two groups.  The bathers, and the showerers.  The bathers cross into the showering world as necessary—there’s no question that a shower can be faster, use less water, and seems more efficient.  But the showerers rarely cross into the bather world, many of them because they, like my roommate, are somehow concerned about “filth.”

To each their own.  But my, do I love a good hot bath.  The picture at the top is a source of total happiness to me because we finally have gotten the hot water heater fixed and I could fill the tub up with all of the hot water I needed!  As I slid down into the water yesterday, I was surprised again by feelings that rose within me.  “Oh yes,” they said, “hot water is wonderful…”

My Lucky Day

Yesterday was Russ’s birthday.  My lucky day.  Now you may think that I should have said it was his lucky day, and it is true that he is the one that got presents,

and a Costco chocolate cake covered in candles (48, to be exact)

and he is the one that blew out the candles.

(It was actually kind of amazing that he blew them all out—everyone was really impressed.)

But this year I am so very aware that the day we celebrate his birth is my lucky day. 

Oh how I love this man.

 

The last year+ has been difficult in our life together like few other times have been.  The combination of job loss, home improvements, new job, relocation at separate times, extended separation, etc., has been so much harder than I ever imagined it would be.  And Russ has been right there for me, every time I’ve needed him.  He’s hugged me while I’ve cried, supported me in my every crazy idea, made fajitas for me every night for a week when that’s what I wanted, been the best father ever, all while working a really tough new job.

He may have gotten the presents, but I’m still the lucky one…

 

PS—I felt like I didn’t want to celebrate his birthday with just our family, so yesterday morning I called 3 families in the ward and invited them to come over for cake & ice cream last night.  I was a little hesitant about doing it, and two of the husbands weren’t able to make it, but in the end it was really fun.  After eating the big group of kids (about 9) played games together and the parents stood around and talked.  It felt good.

Thinking about mom

 

My mom died 15 years ago today.  I don’t always remember the date—I knew that healing was happening when I didn’t instinctively “know” that we were approaching the anniversary of her death every year, and I was glad for that.  Last year I really didn’t notice—between taking our early 25th anniversary trip and getting Russ ready to leave for Oregon, life was crazy and I missed it.

But not this year.   This year I remembered, and have been thinking about her for days.

I wonder what kind of 70 year old my mom would have been.  I wonder if she still would have been active and engaged in life.  I wonder what kind of grandmother she would have been.  I know she would have been delighted to see her grandkids, and I hope that however things work in the spirit world, she can see them now. 

I hope she can see the way that she lives on in all of us, both the good ways and the bad.  (Been late much??)  I hope she knows that every time one of my sisters asks me for advice I am likely to say, “Well, you know what mom would have said.  Have you prayed about it?”  I think she would be happy that that question finally sunk all the way into my heart and became my first response instead of my 3rd or 4th. 

Last night when I wrote to Jason I told him that today was the anniversary of grandma’s death, and that I’d been thinking about her a lot.  I asked him if he remembers her; he was just 5 when she died, and I know I have few memories from that age.  This is what he wrote in his letter to me today:

Let me tell you a little story about grandma. Since you sent me her tithing story, I have used it in almost every single lesson we have taught on tithing. And every time I tell it, I can feel the spirit testifying to me that tithing is a real law, and that the blessings are even realer. Then, when Elder Oaks came to the mission, he taught us that, every once in a while, an ancestor, other relative, or close friend is present to support us in difficult times or to witness the truth of our testimony (in most cases it’s the Holy Ghost, but he said this does happen). I thought a lot about it, and I am sure that Grandma Cindy is there with me every time I talk about the faith that she had to pay her tithing, how she met grandpa, how their 6 sons served missions and their 10 children were sealed in the temple, and how I am the 2nd of some 20 grandsons (that´s just an estimate, I really have no idea how many male cousins I have) to serve a mission. So, I don´t remember Grandma Cindy much, just a couple of memories that stuck in my mind, but I feel like i know her, anyway. 

Thank you, Jason, for sharing that.  Thank you for reminding me that every day I am blessed because of my mother’s faith and determination.  Every day I am blessed by the siblings she was determined that I would have.  Every day I am blessed because I learned how to be a mother by watching her. 

When I left my mom for the last time I knew I wouldn’t see her again.  She was laying in bed and I went into her room to say goodbye to her.  I hugged her, cried, and told her that I loved her so much, and that I would rather have had her as my mom for 31 years than anyone else for a whole lifetime.  That’s still how I feel.

One year my mom and her sisters went and got “glamour” shots.  My mom LOVED these pictures, and because she was delighted by them I loved them too.  But every time I look at them I think that we didn’t need to see the glamour shot—we already knew that she was beautiful. 

Inside and out...

Homeschooling at it’s finest

Jared trying to pick our back door lock after watching a youtube video on how to pick locks…

 

And one more thing to add to this post that just happened a little while ago.  We were all sitting at the table working on language arts and I got up to go get everyone a snack.  (What can I say—I need a nap almost every day, and we eat snacks.  It’s who we are.)  Anyway, I was in the kitchen getting cheese, crackers, and peeling some oranges.  I called out to the kids that it would probably be helpful if every morning one kid got a snack ready so that we wouldn’t have to stop working on school to get it.  They started chiming in as to what they would do for snacks….cheese, crackers, clementines, apples, peanut butter, etc.

At this point I (not realizing that the peanut butter was planned to go with the apples—a snack we have quite regularly) thought the list was getting out of hand so I started adding things as well.  “Butter, jelly, roast beef, graham crackers, muffins,” and then I got really weird and said, “toast that’s already been chewed…”

To which Jared replied, “Eewww gross  mom, it wouldn’t have any crunch!”

 

Oh how I do love that boy!

The gingerbread mystery revealed

I kept remembering that I needed to say which girls made which house, and then forgetting when I was near the computer again.  So, without further ado, here you go.

The maker of the glass tower was <drum roll>

Rachel Ray!!

Rachel had a clear vision from the moment she began of what she wanted her tower to be like.  She thought up the idea of using the glass candy for the eye, and I thought it was spectacular.  (And not as hard to make as I expected it to be, thankfully.)   We were also impressed with her persistence in finding a way to add more candy to her structure.

 

The maker of the m&m tower was….<more drum roll>

Jenna Ray!!!

Jenna stunned us this year with her creative interpretation of the eye of Sauron, using orange m&ms and orange colored frosting to build a dimensional model of the eye.  We were also impressed with her patience as she carefully shaved away more and more of the pieces of graham cracker for each layer of her tower.

 

Way to go girls.  It’s going to be hard to top this next year!

Verbal Vomit, Revisited

After the last few days I am beginning to wonder if the possibility of experiencing verbal vomit also increases if I haven’t been processing enough of my thoughts/feelings through writing.  It’s been a dry two weeks—between the gingerbread contest and the general chaos of life, there’s never been a conjunction of available time and enough brain power to transfer thoughts into lucid words on the screen.  At first my only concern was that the things of my life were going unrecorded, but now I am suspecting that this lack of writing has contributed to the leakiness of thoughts & emotions I’ve had over the last few days.

It has not been comfortable.  Not for me, and probably not for the people that I have leaked all over.

I think I’d better figure out a way to make time for some therapeutic writing…

And the Winner Is….

It was a tie!

I just have to say what an amazing experience it was to watch both of my girls make their creations this year.  They were amazing in both planning and execution, and I am proud to be their mom!

It’s a Gingerbread contest!

A few days before we made our gingerbread houses we completed our annual "Lord of the Rings" marathon.  I think that this being fresh on our minds contributed to two of our children deciding that they were going to recreate, using graham crackers, hot glue, frosting and candy, Sauron’s tower.  Also known as Barad-dur.  They decided that since they both were going to make it they would have a contest like Cindy Lynn and Mahon do every year when they carve pumpkins.  So here you have it—our Gingerbread competition.

First, so you can see the look that they were both going for, here is a picture of Barad-dur.  By the way, Barad-dur took Sauron 600 years to build—our towers were much quicker than that.  (And tasted better too.) 

(Can I tell you how much it delights me that there is a wikipedia article on Barad-dur??)

A brief note.  I lay in bed last night trying to figure out how to label the contestants.  I figured that since they came into the world labled “A” and “B”, it would be foolish to use any kind of alpha-numeric label here and have people trying to guess who’s tower belonged to whom based on birth order.  So I present to you:

M&M Tower:

The builder of the M&M tower utilized the always necessary butter knife carving strategy in building her tower.  The foundation is made of 4 full sized graham crackers, and then the graham crackers in each succeeding level are shaved a little bit smaller.  This precision cracker-alteration requires a patient mind and a steady hand. 

They Eye of Saron is also made of graham crackers.  One piece was cut in the shape of an eye, and then a smaller diamond shape was put on top of that to give dimensionality.  The entire surface was then covered in orange frosting, and orange, yellow, and brown mini m&ms. 

The tower is decorated authentically in choco-rocks with just a small starlight mint departure to honor the Christmas season.

It is important to mention that before the m&m tower builder put frosting on the sides she stuffed candy through the openings into the tower.  Ending up with a lot of candy to eat afterwards is a very important component of gingerbread house making in our home.

Glass Tower

The builder of the glass tower utilized a different strategy to make her tower.  She used half-sized crackers to make little cubes, then glued them together to make her main tower.

She added additional structures at the bottom of the tower to represent the wider bottom levels of Barad-dur.  Her frosting embellishments include ladders to climb up and a door in the middle.

The glass tower builder came up with the idea of using homemade glass candy to create the eye of Sauron.  Originally I was not enthusiastic, because I knew that due to the extreme high temperatures involved in making glass candy that part of her idea was going to be outsourced to me.  Fortunately it came together quickly and I could see that her vision was indeed a good one.  While the candy mixture was boiling I made a tinfoil mold in the shape of an eye.  (Ok, I made it round and Mahon shaped it to be an eye.)  I made the glass candy, colored it yellow, and poured it into the mold.  Then I dropped a drop of red food coloring in the middle and used a wooden shish-ka-bob skewer to widen the drop of red and pull the color out in streaks.  It was a thing of beauty if I do say so myself.  My only regret is that the eye of Sauron was not flavored.  But that has nothing to do with the contest.

It was a tricky business securing the eye of Sauron to the top of the tower and required a glue gun and the hands of three people. 

The builder of the glass tower was so caught up in her building that she initially forgot to stash candy in her building.  She made up for this by carefully carving out an opening in each level and stuffing the levels with jelly beans, choco-rocks, chocolate bells, and m&ms. 

Then she carefully reinserted the cracker pieces and secured them with a little bit of hot glue.

RULES FOR VOTING:

Thanks to Cindy Lynn we know just how to run a blog contest like this.  One vote per person.  If you don’t have a login with your name in it, below the comment box under “choose an identity” you can choose “name/url” and then put your name in there.  You don’t even need a url, how nice is that.  More than one person in a home can vote, but they each need a separate entry with their name on it.  We will run the contest through Monday night, Martin Luther King day, and announce our winner on Tuesday.  (Probably after I take our cousin back to the airport…so don’t look for it too early.) 

VOTE PLEASE!  So that my girls won’t look like this:

And here is one more look for you (as per my cousin Melanie’s request) of both towers.  First the glass tower, than the m&m tower.

[This was as close to side by side as I could get, since the towers (and particularly the candy inside) have since passed on to that great trash can in the sky…]

Gingerbread Mania

As in years past, this year we waited to build our gingerbread (graham cracker) houses until after Christmas when Cindy Lynn and Mahon were here.  I’ve decided that this is a fun activity this way—instead of it being one more thing we try to cram in, we do it when things are a lot calmer and we have a great time.  We did decide that next year we need to figure out how to have more room though—we were really missing our big NC kitchen/breakfast area.  We were also missing our glue guns—we never have found that box so I ended up borrowing a few from various people in the ward.

Because I waited until after Christmas to buy the candy, I got lots of green & red candies at Winco in the bulk section for really cheap.  I got way too much though—I’ll have to see if I can remember to buy less next year. 

[picture temporarily removed—will be replaced after contest.]

Josh really worked hard on his this year, but the structure took him so long that he didn’t get it decorated at all.  He promised to return next year and find time to both build a bmx bike park and decorate.

Jared took on a big project all by himself—a houseboat.  (Filled with candy.)  Unfortunately by the time I came back to take good pictures the next morning some of his had collapsed a little.

Mahon made a party house complete with rock covered chimney, santa, and front porch filled with partiers.

Cindy Lynn had decided that she was going to make Rapunzel in her tower, but her plan was temporarily thwarted when, for the first time ever, I didn’t buy pull n peel licorace for her to use for Rapunzel’s hair.  I have repented and vow that from this time forward I will never leave out the pull n peel.  She recovered when I made her some glass candy hair.  (Which for your information was much harder than buying a pack of pull n peel!)

As you can see Rapunzel has beautiful golden hair

And the prince climbs up it.

Or maybe this was the part where the witch tricked the prince and cut off Rapunzel’s hair…I can’t quite remember.

I, as I so often do when making gingerbread houses because I’m actually not creative, based my house on something real.

It’s our house here in Oregon, or it would be if I hadn’t forgotten the living room.  But at least I got the pond and the bridge.

Or as Cindy Lynn called it, the satanic circle of rocks.  (That was before some obliging person put “water” inside of my circle of rocks.)

The girls decided that they were both going to make the same thing, so tomorrow I will post pictures of their individual creations and we will be taking votes on who’s is best.  So prepare yourselves!

Note to self: Old bread pans work great to hold glue guns while not in use.  Keep high temp glue guns away from both the kids and Russ.

oBoB (Oregon Battle of Books)

The kids came home from school one morning all excited, telling me that they had joined teams and were going to be participating in the Battle of the Books.  I’m all for anything that encourages reading, and especially anything that gets them out of their normal reading ruts (I’ve been known to suggest, strong-arm, and even pay!) so I was all for it.

As the books started coming in from our local library I got curious about what they were reading and decided that I would read as many as I could.  Originally they were all supposed to read 8 books each, but Jenna is adamant that she wants to read them all now, and I think Rachel might too.  The girls are already saying that next year when they make a Battle of the Books team they want to be sure to choose other teammates who love reading, rather than choosing friends who turn out not to like reading.  Whatever happens in the contest and next year, we’re having a great time reading right now and talking about what we’ve read.  Here’s the list of books:

• Al Capone Does My Shirts—I had no idea that families used to live on Alcatraz Island!  I really liked this book and it’s main story line about 12 year old Moose and his autistic sister at a time when no one knew quite what to do with autistic children.
• Also Known as Harper—Poignant story of a family who becomes homeless.  The main character is a girl and Jared has had a hard time identifying with her, but I thought the author did a great job showing many of the little details that we normally would not think about.
• Artemis Fowl
• Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to Not Reading—Jenna didn’t care for this one, thought it was too modern with it’s pages of tips and occasional lists.  I thought it was a very clever story and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
• Claudette Colvin, Twice Toward Justice
• Fever Crumb
• The Girl Who Could Fly—my kids LOVED this book.  Seriously loved it.  Each would wait breathlessly for the next to read the sad part and to get to the end so they could talk about it.  I really expected to love it but I found it so-so.  Intriguing storyline, mediocre writing.  Satisfying ending, though.
• Incarceron—I read this a few years ago and don’t think I’ll read it again.  It’s a pretty long and highly convoluted fantasy story about a hidden prison and a mysterious prisoner that’s an entertaining read.
• The Lab--It was interesting to me that my kids like this one much better than I did.  The premise was interesting but not particularly well written, and I hated the feeling of certainty I had a long time before it ended that it was just setting me up for the sequel. 
• The Red Umbrella-- I wasn't impressed with the beginning of the book--the main character seemed like a shallow whiney teenager. But as the story got going she developed more maturity and the story became more interesting and I was hooked. I had NO idea that in the early stages of the Cuban revolution 14,000 children were sent to the United States to save them from the revolution. What a heartbreaking time.
• Seedfolks—this was the first BoB book I read and I loved it.  It’s a book of little stories about different people who start gardens in what was a vacant lot.  I love the sense of growing community in what was previously a barren area.
• A Tale Dark & Grimm—Here was another book that we divided on.  Rachel really loved this one, a modern twisting of fairy tales with an interesting narrator.  I got a little tired of the narrator. 
• Tangerine—I’m reading this one right now.  I’ll let you know what I think.
• Three Days—A very interesting premise for a book—Jackie is on a business trip with her father when he has a heart attack and dies.  She is grabbed by two men off the side of the road and taken far away to their house, where she tries to figure out what they are doing and why.  Jackie is the only character after her father dies that speaks English, so that makes for an interesting book.
• Under the Blood-Red Sun--I had never stopped to wonder how the people in Hawaii dealt with the Japanese population in Hawaii after Pearl Harbor.  This book tells the story of a young teenaged boy who is living on Oahu then, and a little about the things (good and bad) that happen to his family.  I thought the book was well-written and I enjoyed it.  I find myself conflicted--between hoping I would be loyal to friends, and thinking that I would also be suspicious of where the loyalties of the Japanese people lay.  I thought it was interesting that at the end of the book the author says that there was never a single confirmed case of espionage or sabotage done by any Japanese person living in Hawaii. 
  
• A Wrinkle in Time—I am re-reading this one right now.  Even though I'm conflicted because I just read an interesting biography/memoir about L'Engle, I'm still enjoying the story. 

I came into the family room the other morning (at a time when everyone should have been doing math) and this is what I saw.

I reminded myself that one of the things I love about home schooling is that we get a lot of flexibility, and then took a picture.  How I love to see my kids reading happily!

Never Say Never Always

Many years ago I was on the most amazing scripture study schedule.  Every morning I spent 30 minutes in my room in my comfy chair studying the scriptures.  And then I usually spent 30 minutes more reading a book about some spiritual topic. (This must have been when the triplets were 4 and entertained themselves well.)  It was a wonderful experience and I was sure that I was always going to be able to study like that.

Except that I couldn't.

Several years ago we went on a camping trip with several families in our ward.  We all had a great time together and said enthusiastically that we would make this Columbus Day camping trip a yearly tradition.  I was happy to think that every year we would go on this camping trip.



Except that we didn’t.

As you all know, every year for the last 14 or so years (except for the year I was on bedrest) we’ve spent at least one week at the beach during the summer and often two.  The last 11 years with dear friends.  We’ve loved it so much that I knew that we would do it every summer.



Except that now we can’t.

I’ve noticed recently that I have this tendency—when something is good, and especially when something is wonderful, to “make” a decision that we will always do this thing or feel this way.

It’s not only big and wonderful things that I do this with; the other day I needed to put clothes in the washer, which lately means emptying the dryer first and then moving the clothes into it from the washer before finally being able to load the washer.  The dryer was full of darks which are pretty quick to fold, so I just stood there and folded them as I took them out.  The load of laundry was still a little bit warm and it was pleasant standing there folding the pants and hanging the shirts, and before I knew it I was done.

Before I realized what I was doing I found myself thinking, “That was great.  I should always do it that way.”
But this time I stopped myself.  You see, I’m learning that making the pronouncement of “always” doesn’t guarantee anything, and seems to bring with it an extra helping of sadness and disappointment when things don’t work out the way I thought they always would.

I am wondering if changing my approach will change my experience.  Maybe instead of pronouncing another “always” on a situation I need to focus on appreciating and cherishing the opportunities we have, while also keeping in my heart the awareness that very few things in our mortal journey last forever.  Maybe then I could avoid the heart-ache I’ve had when things I was sure would always last have not.

So there you have it.  My new motto—Never Say Always.  I’ll let you know if it works.

How to read the Book of Mormon more slowly than you thought possible.

 

[This post started as a super-long comment over on Segullah, where a guest blogger had written about how many times she had read the Book of Mormon.  (Many of them super-fast readings.)  I’ve been thinking about writing about my current Book of Mormon study plan for a while now, because it’s been such an interesting experience in my life.  Thanks to Segullah, it got written!]

I started the Book of Mormon again in November of 2011, assuming (rightly) that because Russ had just lost his job we were in additional need of spiritual help.  I can't tell you how many times I have read the Book of Mormon in my life, but since I'm 46 now so quite a few.  (Though I have never specialized in reading it fast.)  I had actually finished the Book of Mormon a few months before, and had put off starting it again, dreading the feeling of repetitiveness and "I just did this."  In the intervening months an idea for how to read it the next time had been building in my mind and heart, and when my Russ lost his job and I started reading again I implemented this plan.

It has now been almost 14 months since I started, and I am now on 1 Nephi 20.

Yep, I'm on the super slow plan.  And it has been amazing. This is what I do.

• I read the chapter once--an overview.
• I read the chapter a second time, then I take my scripture journal and I write the chapter down in my own words. 
• I read the chapter a third time, and write down the doctrinal concepts in the chapter.
• I read the chapter a fourth time, and write down all of the insights I've had about the chapter. 

Recently I had a moment of panic about this study system. Some days I have only 5-10 minutes for my study.  My scripture study wasn't very consistent for much of last year—what with the fixing up the house to sell it, moving across the country, and moving into a new house, but still--shouldn't I at least be out of 1st Nephi??  When I voiced these thoughts to my Russ, however, (and told him that I was going to go back to reading like a normal person) he calmed me down, reminded me that there actually isn't a race to finish the Book of Mormon (particularly when I've read it so many times before), and asked what my experience with this study method has been. 

It has been extraordinary.

 

When I read through the chapter the first time, and it's pretty much like my "normal" reading used to be. 

When I read through it the second time it’s really slow because I'm trying to figure out the "regular" english vocabulary to rewrite everything I'm reading.  This seems to be serving two purposes.  It means that I don't skip over something without really comprehending it, which I might have done in the past.  But it also means that I'm spending a lot of time in these words and ideas.  It has created a new space in my mind that I can hardly explain, as I focus on the words and ideas without continually reading forward.  It seems that feelings and insights come into these spaces in my mind in a much stronger way than they ever did before.

When I read through the chapter the third time it  is interesting but not so remarkable--I look for points of doctrine and record those. 

The last time I read through has been very meaningful.  Originally I waited until this time through to start recording insights & thoughts that had come to me about the chapter.  But a few months ago I noticed that I was having so many insights earlier in the process that I was having a hard time remembering them when I got to the fourth reading.  I decided that I needed to follow Elder Scott's counsel to record spiritual insights when we receive them.  I've taken a sheet of loose paper, folded it so that it fits in my journal, and when I have a thought or insight or even a question I note the verse and the idea.  Then as I read through the chapter for the fourth time, verse by verse, I record these insights as well as new ones I have.

I'm in the Isaiah chapters right now, and wow it's hard to try to figure out how to put those in my own words!  It helps that I'm doing my reading using the Reader's Edition of the Book of Mormon and the Isaiah chapters are mostly in verse form.  I think that when I'm done with these chapters though I'll have a better idea of what they said and meant than I have after all of my previous readings.

When I started writing my comment over at Segullah I didn’t mean for it to get so long, but this has been on my mind a lot lately and I wanted to share what a good experience I've been having with what is quite possibly the slowest reading program ever.

 

PS—please don’t think I’m suggesting that anyone should run right out and start reading the Book of Mormon really slowly.  I wanted to record what my experience has been over the last year for my benefit.  But I also wanted to say that I’ve never stopped to consider that the Lord might be sensitive to my feelings of (dare I say it??) boredom in repeatedly reading the Book of Mormon, and might put into my heart and mind a plan that would prove so interesting and beneficial to me.

PPS—I can tell from Cindy Lynn’s comment that I haven’t explained very well exactly how I do this.  However much time I have for my scripture study each day (could be 5 minutes, could be 30) I just do the next part of this 4 step process.  If I’ve already read the chapter for the 1st time I start on my “interpreting in regular English”—something that can take somewhere between several and many days.  If I have finished one step the day before I start the next one the next day.  I end up spending a LONG time on each chapter—sometimes spending time in just one chapter for over a month. 

Ah, Pinterest

So my blog hits have been up a little bit.  Which is strange, since I’ve been so busy spending our last weekend with Cindy Lynn & Mahon and then recovering from the holidays that I haven’t really blogged.  I figured that people were just so entertained by my bad parking story that they just kept coming back to read and laugh.  (Yes, I’m talking about you, Lindsay!) 

But then when I looked at my stats I noticed something odd.  I have a few hits from Pinterest.  How unexpected is that!  

A couple of years ago I blogged about an earring holder that I had made.  My friend Diana and her cute daughters have a craft blog, and a while ago she made an earring holder and linked to the post I’d done.  I guess someone pinned that post and now it’s gotten a few hits.

Here’s the funny thing.  That first earring holder was much more a thing of functionality rather than beauty.  I was in a hurry, I wanted a place for my earrings, the end.

(That earring holder is now living in a box somewhere in the depths of our garage, along with 40% of the stuff we own.  Yes, we do have fantasies that one day we will get more boxes unpacked.  I fear that we will have to stop living our normal lives in order to accomplish that.)

When I decided last summer that I was going to make a new jewelry holder rather than wait until we unpacked the old one (good decision, yes?) I did a much better job and made something that looked a lot better.

So now every time I see that someone has gone to that page from Pinterest, I want to shout “It can look a lot better than that!  I did a better job the next time!”

I know, ridiculous.  Sometimes I’m entertained by the crazy stuff going on inside my head.

While I’m talking about the new earring holder, did I already mention that it’s not on the wall right now?  That would be because in the middle of the night recently one of the pins holding it worked free, allowing it to swing down and somehow hit the light switch in just the right way that it turned on the light, causing us both to wake up in quite a fright.  It’s amusing now, wasn’t quite so much then…

Just in case you were wondering…

I managed to park just fine at Curves this morning…