A spider in my orange. (And other fairly twisted tales)

I found a spider in my orange today. Not a large one. Just a tiny, little thing, who's life was cut short by my fingers when I squished it (Hey, it was in MY damn orange, I will squish it if I want to.) Although it does beg the question, how the hell did it get in there in the first place? I prefer not to think about that, and just enjoy the fruit (And again. Yes I did, in fact, eat the orange after disposing of said intruder.)
The thing is, that tiny spider makes me think about what I eat every day. Am I putting the "best" into my body?
Honestly, we are a fruit/veggie/multi/whole grain kinda household (well, except for The Man, who is a meat and potato kind of guy. But, when he is at home, he is a fruit/veggie/multi/whole grain kind of guy LOL) My children eat their vegetables FIRST, before anything else on their plates ~ entirely by choice. They like beans in many forms. And they will devour just about any kind of veggie/fruit. We don't eat a lot of meat. No pork whatsoever, very little beef, chicken, and turkey. And only a little bit of fish (no shellfish.) We do eat cheese, eggs, and drink milk (recently we cut out butter.)
Sounds like a pretty decent diet, right?
I think so.
My issue is that we live in the MidWest. Fresh produce is not readily available year round here (I just paid almost $3.00 per pound for some serously SAD looking tomatoes ~ I understand that this is less than most of you would be paying, but we also live in a lower per capita income area. So for us, that is, like WHOA ~ way HIGH!) The fresh stuff that we shell out the cash for in the Off Growing Season is often not very good quality or oddly colored (ie. Strawberries that have half white tops and berry red bottoms ?????) And even if you drive to another market (for us, another market is 25 min away) there is no guarantee that the produce will be any better (in fact, it might really be much worse.)
Now, we will still buy the fresh stuff. We always have, we always will. But is it really the "best" we can offer ourselves?
Compared to the alternatives, I think that it is. Some is better than none in my opinion (although the hormones, genetic alterations, etc. used in the growing of mass distributed produce offer another position of contention.) And for us, it is not an option to grow ourselves, visit local Farmer's Markets (great in the Summer, non-existant in Winter), or purchase everything organic (which is another Soapbox topic for me altogether.)
Right now, we do the best with what we have. And I am guessing that will just have to be enough. LOL

My children are Spider Monkeys!

I swear that they are. The little carrier "monkeys" collect every single available germ known to man, and then disperse them amonst their loving friends and family at random. I am convinced that they do not do it on purpose, it is just their calling in life to infect the whole of the free world with illness. They can't help it, it is in their nature. LOL
I am sick, AGAIN!!! And, as usual, the children in my life have gifted me with a viral load that is hanging on for the foreseeable future. They, on the other hand, are feeling just *SUPER*, and driving me crazy while I attempt to sleep the day away on the couch. (All the while popping in videos to "entertain" them and plodding into the kitchen to make sandwiches when the cries of "We're STARVING" are just too much for my ears to take ~ NAUGHTY MOMMY, I know.)
I am going to bed, I have errands to run tomorrow (on a Holiday no less.) And I have to go to the fabric store (GASP!!!! During the Stash Game!!?!?!??) I am going to stay strong and NOT purchase the *lovely* fabric that I am ever so obsessed with. It will be difficult in my current state of sleep deprivation, but I am confident that I will emerge VICTORIOUS!! Besides, I can't afford the NEGATIVE points from purchasing. LOL

Busy Busy Busy!!!

So I have been busy busy with this Stash Game, and I am currently up to 101 points. YIPPEE!!! And there is *still* 3 and a half weeks left to go!
Anyway, here are some pics of what I have made thus far...

Japanese Hedgehogs


Picnic Toile


Summertime Blues


Sweet Strawberries


Chocolate and Roses


Tween Style

So cute!

The Man hath Cometh.

Well, blog readers (and you know who you are!) The Man has arrived. And with gifts no less. Not gifts from the dreaded InLaws, no, these gifts are ones that he used his own personal Christmas gift cash flow to purchase (The IL apparently forked over a couple of bucks so that he could have a Christmas gift, and he opted to spend it on us ~ his familia.)
For that, he is FABULOUS (I know this term contradicts my normal word usage for him, however, I can change my mind for at least 5 damn minutes every once in a while.)
We apparently do not rank among those who are worthy of a direct gift purchase by the IL. No, not even the children. Once again, they are a**holes. Need I say more.
NEWay, I will probably not be posting for the next few days due to the fact that we will be having our holiday now that The Man has graced us with his face. SO, if I don't "see" you before the Grand Ringing in of the New Year, stay safe. Have a great one.
And I will see you on the flip side!!!

Well, the Holiday has come and gone...for most of us.

But not for us.
We (meaning, I) made the executive decision to wait until The Man gets home to officially begin our Christmas celebration. And the girls feel the same way (which is a good thing, 'cuz I gotta tell you, they don't really have much of a choice. LOL)
We are going to decorate the tree tomorrow (during the time when most of you are taking yours down) and then we will wait.
I, for one, would just like to have a holiday that occurs on the day it is supposed to. This makes Christmas #3 that The Man has missed, and last year we had to wait until the end of January to have dinner and gift exchanging. If we have to wait that long this year, I am just going to do it all without him and say "Oh, too bad, so sad, sucka!" (Not really, but that is what I will be thinking while he is whining about how he wasn't here for Christmas.)
Oh, yes, by-the-by, his mother -- she is just fine. No stroke, no heart problem, and (surprise, surprise) still a beeyyaatch. So basically, he has spent the past week in misery for a grand total of NOTHING. Yippee!!

It's time for Monday's Looks We Love!!!

Oh my goodness, with the holidays creeping up on me I have barely had the time to breathe - let alone search out wonderful little items to bring my JOY! LOL

I did, however, happen upon these LOVELY little creatures...
Hedgehog Christmas Ornaments by Corkyscookies on Etsy. These are FABULOUS!! And extremely SOFT and cuddly.

And, how ADORABLE is this?!?!?! Perfect for Valentine's Day or any other day for that matter. I have long been a fan of Jaybird*designs, and if you check out her About ME page, you will definently see why. Her designs are just AMAZING.

Well, there is some food for thought (or should I say Fashion for Thought LOL)
Hope that all is well, and HAPPY SHOPPING!

*NOTE* I would like to say that, we all love to look at items for sale everywhere, I am in no way endorsing these sellers or the items that they are selling. I know nothing of their business practices or the quality of their items. I am simply stating my opinion on the cuteness of the items they have listed. If you happen to fall in love with something on your own, and it doesn't work out (for whatever reason), I cannot (and will not) be held responsible.
This is my little disclaimer so that my a.i.c. Happy Monday!!!

P.S. - If you have a designer/listing/store that you would like to see on the Monday Looks we LOVE!!!, please send it to me. If we like what we see, and it is "drool worthy", we may choose it to be featured (and by we, I mean, me and the girls.)

Brava!!!

I am *ALMOST* finished with my "Handmade Holiday" items for my girls.
I decided a couple of months ago that I wanted to give them an entirely handmade Christmas (completely crafted by moi!) So, I made a list. I checked it twice. And I decided exactly what I was going to create for each child (although there are a lot of duplicate items - they fight over the stuff if I don't.) I also determined what I was going to make for my friends' children (because it kind of defeats the purpose of a "Handmade Holiday" if you purchase items for other children, and just not for your own.)
I have been sewing until 2 AM nearly every night, and running on just a few hours of sleep to get them done. But they are almost finished.
And I am happy!!! :)

Sad day in the ol' Dirt Box.

Our worms are dying. And we are sad.
That sounds odd, doesn't it? Maybe a little backstory will shed some light on all of it.

About a month or so ago, we attended an event (Recycling Night) at Cait's school that offered a "Take Home Recycling Center" (aka. a Worm Farm.) We were to bring a plastic tub/box the size of a shoebox to fashion into the worm holder, and the school would provide the rest (worms included.) Now, before you start to exclaim "Ewwwww ~ Worms, how disgusting!!!!" I should probably note that the ones that my mother has in her worm farm are really clean, do not smell, and quite cute little things. (Ours, sadly, are not the same worms.) So we went to "Worm Night", as the girls refer to it, with the intention of getting our own personal "Take Home Recycling Center".

Fast forward to about a week later, the worms are still fine but they are not eating any of the food that has been put in for them (as a side note, worms consume - something like - 4 times their body weight in a week or something like that.) In fact, the food that we had put into the container for them when we set up the farm had molded. So we began the process of cleaning out the worm box, throwing away all the newspaper, leaves, moldy stuff, etc. (but not the worms :) ) And basically starting all over again. And thus began our quest to keep the worms alive - which I affectionately refer as "Save the Worms - 2007."

My mother came over several days later with some scraps for the worms - coffee grounds, cucumbers, and the like - that her worms had really loved and eaten right up (her worms had liked them so well, in fact, that they had been reproducing by the thousands inside of the coffee grounds.) So we added the scraps and some peat moss to the box, and put them back in the closet (worms HATE light.)

Moving ahead to last weekend (not this past weekend, but last weekend), the worms had eaten through the cucumber, and not much else. Of course, I couldn't exactly tell the difference between the coffee grounds and the dirt, but they had not eaten the carrots or the cabbage that was put into there so I would imagine that the coffee grounds were still in there as well. And there is absolutely no sign whatsoever of any kind of reproduction either (Worms are asexual creatures, does that strike anyone else as odd? Probably just me.) And it was moldy once again. So I cleaned out the box again, and started all over again.

This morning/afternoon I opened up their box and found 1 dead worm and a whole lot of messy, moldy orange and it's peels. They have not eaten any of the food that we had put into there, there is still a problem with molding, and now they are starting to die off. So, again, I cleaned out the moldy stuff, replaced the other stuff, and put in some pieces of apple.

Hopefully, they will live. I know how sad the girls would be if their worms met their untimely end inside of a box in our closet. My mother has already given up hope for them, I think. LOL She offered us some of hers.