The Mystery of the Disappearing Kittens

Because I know some of you will wonder, here's the stray cat update. We went outside one day last week, and they were gone. No sign of Grizzly Bear or the kittens anywhere. We think maybe when the air conditioning went on, it scared them away.

You'd think I'd be glad about that. But, really, I'm not.

Straying

A stray cat had kittens in our backyard.

In case you're thinking, "Didn't that happen before?" The answer is yes. Different cat, same problem.

There is a whole feral cat community that lives in our neighborhood. The Hubs and our neighbor Danny recognize them all, occasionally feed them (the Hubs secretly sneaks them food because he knows I disapprove, but he always ends up confessing later on), worry about them during the hot summers, and discuss whether there's an organization that (as rumored) will come pick up stray cats and get them fixed. Danny has also given most of them crazy names like "Cowboy" and "Orangey" (not to be confused with either of the two Orangey Juniors).


Whenever we see a cat in our backyard, we chase it out with water. So why a certain brownish feline named Grizzly Bear (incidentally, the sister of Polar Bear, who is all white except for her gray nose) decided to have her litter in between our wall and some bicycle tires is beyond me.


But here's where it gets really weird: I'm suddenly really attached to these kittens. Yeah, me. Ms. Just-Leave-the-Cats-Alone! I really wanna keep one. Which is ridiculous for several reasons, such as the fact that our landlord said no pets. And I'm allergic to cats.

They're just so tiny and cute. Teensy little bundles of adorable. And I want to take care of all of them.

Even though (supposedly) I'm a dog person.


Photos: I took the first two photos, and the Hubs took the last one.

On the menu: planning better

Since my last menu plan posts, I've learned some things about meal planning. That time, I planned two weeks at once - and then ran into some glitches.

1. Underestimating amounts.
There were a couple times I ran out of ingredients I'd planned on having for a dish later in the week. And I didn't want to be running off to the store all the time.

For example, I wanted to make a cucumber yogurt side dish. Then we ate most of the plain yogurt as a snack with fresh fruit and honey. It was reeeally good. But it messed with my plan. In the end, I sliced the cukes, some tomatoes and some of our mint, then drizzled my homemade Italian dressing over the top. That was good too. But still. It's the principle of the thing. I need to figure out how to account for snacks, etc. when I come up with my plan.

2. Overestimating my energy level.
Some days I'm pretty tired out by dinnertime. (I think it's a combination of the stress of running a business - plus all the tiredness-causing allergy meds.) And the thought of trying a new recipe can seem like more work than I'm up for.

I need to make sure to plan several easy meals and limit the number of new things I'm trying. That way, if I was going to try a new dish on Tuesday, but I'm drained after an afternoon of client meetings, I can just pop the chicken and rice I was planning for Wednesday in the oven instead.

Sometimes the Hubs steps in and takes over. (He made the empanadas I had planned, and the process turned out to be quicker and easier than it looked. Also? They were delish!) But now that he's going back to school, he's just not going to have as much time for that sort of thing.


With that in mind, here's the basic plan for this week (still figuring out some of the details)...

Mon: I'm making Moroccan Lamb Salad With Carrots and Mint, only I'll be using leftover pork instead. Which probably wouldn't make most Moroccans happy. Shhh...don't tell.

Tue: Pesto chicken and maybe some pasta.

Wed: Gonna try out that empanada recipe - with extra veggies in the filling.

Thr: Lentils.

Fri: Tilapia and rice.

What about you? Anything delicious planned this week? You can link up at Mindful Menus.

Kitchen for a fight

Our cabinet may have declared war on us. Or at least conspired with its contents (cereal top shelf, spices bottom shelf) to mess with us a bit.

But it chose the wrong time to pick a fight.

I'm not a morning person. So trying to open the inner bag of a new box of Cheerios and instead having a corner of it rip completely off flinging cereal in all directions does not make me happy. To say the least.


When the Hubs had an incident with the same cabinet a few minutes later (something knocked something else over sprinkling crushed red pepper and assorted herbs and seasonings over the cabinet, counter and floor), then I knew it was on.


We went to IKEA and came back with an army of uniform glass jars with shiny silver caps ready to restore order to the unruly mishmash of bagged bulk seasoning mixes and tipsy wannabe-Tupperware prone to toppling over. We also brought in a couple of tall, slim containers with snap-on lids to assist with the cereal situation. (Earlier in the week I had accidentally destroyed one of those bags that you're supposed to be able to open and reseal. Yeah. Not a great week for me and cereal.)


While our new purchases took a spin in the dishwasher, I got out the spices in their assorted containers. Then I took out the Lazy Susan, washed it, wiped the shelves, and then started on the next cabinet over. Pretty soon I was re-evaluating the placement of...everything...and started rearranging, consolidating and throwing lots of stuff into the recycling bin. Once the new jars were clean and dry, there was a lot of dumping, labeling and throwing away sad-looking plastic baggies.


Maybe it comes from growing up in a place with 90-degree days in February, but I've never really gotten into the whole spring cleaning thing. I have to tell you, though, this felt pretty good. And even though I'm still moving some things around, I'm pretty sure it's going to end up as a win.

That'll teach my cabinets to mess with me!

Thankful

So just a quick update before sleepytime. The first part of this week was packed with trying to tie up work projects, etc. before the long weekend.

We had an absolutely lovely Thanksgiving with my family - plus the parents of the Hubs.

Over in Bold Avenue's shop, I decided that instead of a Black Friday sale, I would donate $1 for each tee sold to Heifer International. You can read all about that over on my other blog. I'll just say that I would love to sell enough t-shirts to buy a family in need a water buffalo!

In the meantime, I hope you had a beautiful day and are finding many, many things in your life to be thankful for.

Hubby birthday

A week ago Saturday we celebrated the birthday of the Hubs.


After changing the plan (because of the Hubs going out of town) and changing it again (because it's been so hot and monsoony), we just went with a laidback afternoon. In fact, it started with a post-work nap.

Once he was revived, we had coffee and a lemon tart at Liberty Market, and hung out there for awhile.

Then we walked across the street to Joe's Barbecue for a seriously good dinner. (Yes, in that order. Dessert first!)


Nothin' huge - relaxing, quiet - but he has at least one more birthday celebration in the works. Maybe more. Maybe we'll just keep partying until my birthday...and then start again. Sounds good to me!



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Photos by me. Thanks to Aunty for help on getting them from phone to blog!

Hi, remember me?

No, I didn't die. I'm still here. I just (accidentally) took a week off blogging. Didn't mean to worry anyone.

Here's what happened. I had a post mostly written up, but when I thought about posting it, I thought "I should add those photos off my phone first." Then I would think "where'd I put the connector thing for that?" Then I would think "well, I'll look for that in a little bit. First I need to call this client/finish up that design/respond to this email/etc. And then another day would pass.

The thing about blogging is it's a rhythm: read, write, reply, repeat. You get in the habit of working it during certain times of the day. Once you break the cycle (to go on vacation or because work is taking more time), it takes a little time to get your rhythm back. (Especially if you didn't have a lot to begin with. I'm pretty sure that the stereotype about white people not having any rhythm was started by someone sitting behind me in church watching me try to clap with the music. But I digress.)

I think we have a good thing going here with this Little Stuff of Life community (which, yes, you are a part of if you're reading this). I want to keep this going, but I can't keep up with my previous post-a-day pace.

Quickly, here are my thoughts on how this will probably look in the coming weeks:

• 2-3 posts a week
• Not always photos (I know! I love them too! But they're a huge time drain - even know that I know how to get them off the phone)
• When things are crazy, at least a quick post on what I'm up to

That's all I can say now - I've gotta get going. But feel free to let me know what you think!

Quick Takes: Better late than never?

One Friday I forgot to blog, the next Friday I just had some things I needed to finish up - a logo proof, a brochure quote, good stuff like that. Today I'm sneaking this in real quick while I wait for approval on an ad. So some of these items are a little overdue, but, still, here are my quick takes on this week the last few weeks:

(1)
Thanks to everyone who stopped by my blogiversary party! You made me smile and smile! I definitely felt the love! I hope you enjoyed "meeting" each other, too.

(2)
Also thanks to those of you who wrote a poem or chimed in for our Quatrain edition of Perfectly Poetical Tuesday!

(3)
The next PerPoTues is three weeks from Tuesday. Since the style is haiku, you could write one line each week and totally be done in time.

(4)
Work is still staying busy. I'm grateful. And tired.

(5)
The Hubs was pretty disappointed he didn't get to execute his meal plan last week. So he told me he'd take care of dinner this week. Have I mentioned lately that he's awesome?

(6)
We had a nice, relaxed Independence Day celebration with part of the Hubs side of the family. We didn't go see fireworks, but we did - at the insistence of his cousin's four-year-old - put candles on a cake and sing happy birthday to America. The kids blew out the candles on the country's behalf.

(7)
I'm pretty far behind on dealing with photos - getting them off the camera, posting them, etc. There's also a few things I've felt like I should post about, but haven't for one reason or another. I'm thinking of instituting Things I've Been Meaning To Tell You Thursdays. What do you think?


What are your 7 Quick Takes? Dish it at Conversion Diary!

REPLAY: Babies in Bolivia

Continuing to replay a series of photos from the first year of this blog, in celebration of Little Stuff of Life's blogiversary. This one originally aired August 31, 2007.

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I'm not going to talk too much about our Bolivia trip overall here, since you can read all about it here. But there are a couple baby/kid related thoughts and stories I had to share.

• DIY baby carriers. One other thing Naomi (official trip photog) really wanted a photo of was a woman carrying a baby in a bundle on her back. We saw lots of people carrying various things - including babies - in blankets they tied to their backs, but never could quite get that Kodak moment.
• Reusable disposables? Naomi is pretty sure she saw disposable diapers hanging out on a clothesline. We kept an eye out for them after that (would've loved to have a photo of that!) but never saw anything like it again. That would put a whole new twist on the diaper debate, wouldn't it? (Speaking of new twists, a certain new-father-to-be I know recommends skipping diapers altogether and just hosing the little one off as necessary. )
• No klutzy kids here! The kids at the orphanage we worked at were amazing. They knew how to do all kinds of cool stuff without hurting themselves. The ground was really hilly there, and you'd see a little girl standing right on the edge of a drop off, but she wouldn't fall. The Hubs saw kids under 10 cleaning up the grounds with machetes (they seem to prefer those over weed-whippers in Bolivia) and no one was missing fingers. Later, some boys talked the Hubs into helping them build a fort. When they showed him what they had done so far, they were placing large sticks into - not mud - concrete. (We're still not sure where they got that from.) The suburban kids I know tend to do things like cut themselves when opening a pocketknife or fall off the curb. What does it take to have kids that don't constantly injure themselves? Do you need to move to the jungle?
  

Ok, that's enough for now. I'll try to post a few more photos later.

On the Menu: Up in the air

Business is booming on Bold Avenue - lots of custom design and writing projects have been coming in. Which, of course, is fabulous! But busyness comes with its own challenges.

As I was looking at this week and feeling overwhelmed, one thing lead to another, and I ended up asking the Hubs, "how would you like to deal with the food next week?" And he was up for it! (He likes to cook.) I am so grateful! He already made a plan for Monday through Thursday and went shopping.

His plan (written on the back of one of my new menu plan pages):



Which means:

• potatoes and eggs (omelette) with carrot soup
• tuna casserole (which I didn't make again last week)
• chakchouka
• chicken and rice
  

Ok. So I wrote the above last night. But there was something neither one of us took into consideration.

Friday, my hubby's Uncle Karl passed away. (That's the uncle we stayed with when we went to Pennsylvania.) At first, the Hubs wasn't going to fly out for the funeral. Now he might. So a lot of things are up in the air.

So what's on your menu this week?

Getting back into the swing of things

Even though I got back from California and hit the ground running business-wise, that never seems to happen with my blog. It always takes me a few days to get a post-trip summary written up and photos sorted and uploaded.

But we're back. It was fun. And I'll tell you more about it soon. In the meantime, we have luggage and laundry and shoes and water bottles strewn about. The inside of the fridge is...roomy. So I'm gonna have to get back to you on the trip thing.

Hope your week is going well!

REPLAY: First Post

Today we're taking a look back and replaying the very first Little Stuff of Life post, which went up almost two years ago. Funny how things change - and don't...

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My husband and I have always wanted to have kids, but we weren’t sure when, until my doctor recommended I get allergy shots – and wait at least a year to get pregnant. Having this year-minimum time frame in front of us has made us think more about ways we can prepare and things we’d like to know.

One thing I’ve been meaning to investigate is baby paraphernalia.

Of all the stuff that people claim you need to care for a baby, what’s really useful and what just takes up space, what’s worth doing yourself and what’s better to buy, what’s the best value for the cost…and those kinds of things. I thought that while I was learning, I could blog and share what I’ve learned. I can also post questions I have, and you can share your thoughts. So that’s what I want to focus on. But, just to mix it up, sometimes I’ll also post about other things related to our pre-pre-baby phase – like what I’m reading, how I’m growing my business (related because I’d like it to grow to the point I be a stay-at-home mom), things we do that will be more tricky with kids in tow.

Please check back in with me, and please post your comments. I would love to have some great discussions here! There may not be a lot to comment on with this first post, but please do say hello. It'd be great to know you're out there. :)

Quick Takes: heroic poets to free parking

1)
A big thanks to heroic epic poets Megan@SortaCrunchy and Noteverstill! Thanks, also, to everyone who stopped by, read and commented. (Looks like there was even a last-minute entry from Noteverstill's "Gramps"!)

2)
The next Perfectly Poetical Tuesday is July 14. (Details here.) Holler in the comments if you want to be on the email reminder list.

3)
Ended up being too bogged down by a work project to get coffee with Chanelle last week, so no Coffee Shop reviews for you yet. We'll try again next week.

4)
If you homeschool or have school-aged kids, check out this giveaway of A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth by Ann Voskamp (who you may know from Holy Experience). I haven't read it, but I've heard great things about it and it looks amazing. And if you're interested in homeschooling in general, there are a series of guest posts going up on the topic over at SortaCrunchy.

5)
Remember how last May we went out to the Orange County (CA) area for my cousin Ally's graduation? Since then, she got married! She had a little teeny wedding, but the BIG celebration is next week! So we've got another California road trip in the works! Hopefully, we can avoid $4 gas this time.

6)
I have to say I'm excited about the new birthday cards I designed.

7)
And I'm really excited about the free National Park weekends! I think we should go to a National Park each of the weekends. Since we'll be going to California during one of them, we'll have even more options. Fun stuff!


What are your Quick Takes on the week? Share them and then link up at Conversion Diary.

Quick Takes: free to funny

My 7 quick takes on this week....


Free stuff is so much fun! I'm thinkin' it's kind of addictive, too. After the Hubs and I got our free rootbeer floats at Sonic, I must've been hungry for more. I say this because my mom called to see if I wanted to get up and go wait in line with her for free Chitty Chitty Bang Bang tickets, I agreed without question. We had fun hanging out, though, and I'll let you know how the show goes.



Good week for exploring new coffee places! After Mom and I scored the above mentioned free tickets, she took me to try the Human Bean. It was a cute little place with good coffee and a delicious blueberry scone (not too sweet - perfect!), and then....

...today I'm meeting Chanelle at The Coffee Shop at Agritopia. I've never been there before either, but she loves it!

I know I've referenced the book Guns, Germs and Steel here at least once. It sounds super interesting from what Dad and E (*my brother) say. So Christine (*girlfriend of E) and I are both going to read it now. I fiiiiiinally got my copy from the library. (It was only on hold for a couple weeks, but it seemed like a long time.) I've just barely started it, and he's still kinda setting things up. But I think it's going to be a thought-provoking read.

I'm putting together a t-shirt catalog to showcase the different styles of t-shirts and polos I offer (including some that are not available in my online shop) with quantity discounts for groups, etc. You'll be able to download it from my website once I get the Big Redesign done. In the meantime, if you want one, let me know.

Some of you who get around in the blogosphere know that Mr. Linky has been having server problems. If that last sentence didn't make sense to you, all you need to know is that Mr. Linky is that box where you post your link on Perfectly Poetical Tuesdays, etc. and it's been having technical problems. Anyway, the point is this: whether the little Linky box shows up on Tuesday or not, the show will go on! We'll still have PerPoTues, and you can just leave your link with your comment if there's no where else to put it.


Also? "Write epic poem" is a funny to-do list item.


More Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

Quick Takes: Parenting figured out to The Big Switch

You'll be happy to know that after years (almost two) of research. I have parenting figured out. Ok, maybe not totally figured out even close. But I read this really sad article about this child in Siberia who has been severly neglected. And it made me feel - a lot of things actually...sad, angry, indignant, confused...and like, as a parent, you could easily do muchmuch better. There are some very basic (and doable!) non-negotiables to being a parent. Specifically, here's what I'm thinking: 1. Love the baby. 2. Feed the baby. 3. Keep the baby clean. 4. Keep the baby safe and warm. 5. Try not to drop the baby. I know that's not all there is to it, but it's a pretty good start, wouldn't you say?

I heard that there was going to be a performance of The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe at Bethany Worship Center. I don't really know anything about it except what's on their site, but it sounds like it could be good.

Did any of you end up going to the zoo on Monday? Did you tell them I sent you?


You would think that the fact that TV shows are in summer reruns would make it easier to kick our habit. So far, notsomuch.

Did I tell you I added more organic clothing to my shop? Yeppers. Fabulous new colors - check it out!

I didn't do the menu plan thing this week, because I didn't have time to do it before I went offline on Saturday. It's just as well, though, since I haven't actually cooked yet all week. (More on that Monday.) Tomorrow it's back to actual food though.

I'm thinking about making The Big Switch and getting a Mac. I hear they're reliable and better for design work. They have stores with real live staff for you to talk to. Plus, Macs don't come with Windows Vista, which is good. Vista = annoying. Speaking of annoying, I went into a Mac store to try to get some info, and the people I talked with were kinda snooty. But, at least they stay at the store, whereas your operating system stays with you. Thus, I'm still leaning towards a Mac.


There ya go! Those are my 7 Quick Takes on this week. More Quick Takes will be up on Conversion Diary around 6am CT.

Day off

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Photos by me. | More Wordless Wednesday.

Life unplugged

Other than about 45 minutes yesterday, I was offline and off the computer for over two days. Not something I can do all the time (especially running a business), but I figured I could sneak in a break over the long weekend.

It was good. But it was funny how - even when I had my vacation message and everything set up - it was still a challenge to stay unplugged. I had to fight the urge to check on things and to connect with the online world. (Kind of like those panicked moments that sporadically occur for months after graduation when you're sure you're forgetting to do some homework, but there's none to be done.) But I would take a deep breath and the feeling would pass. By the end of the day yesterday, I felt like I was living a lot more in the moment and a lot less like I needed to know what/how the whole world was doing all the time.

So I think that little break was exactly what I needed.


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Photos by me.

Quick Takes: Open windows to epic oxymorons

Already another week has gone by somehow. The good news is it's time for 7 Quick Takes! So here they are, in the order they popped into my head this morning....


Our high temps this week have been in the 100's (today's supposed to be 101 F/38 C), but I'm grateful we still have cool mornings (for now). I can keep the windows open until about 9:30 or so. This morning there's no breeze, but I'm listening to the birds chirp away. And kids playing outside. Is the bus not here yet? Why do I hear kids? Oh, I think I hear its brakes now. Nope. Must've been the neighborhood shuttle. (Didn't stay long enough.) Hmmm....


Tonight is NU at the Heard Museum. The first 100ish people to the Women and Art discussion will get goodie bags with a really sweet Bold Avenue coupon in them. But I won't be there. Our friend Mariano, who got his PhD in things waaaay over my head last fall, will be walking/going through the official graduation ceremony tonight, so we're very excited to go cheer him on.


Last week I mentioned re-evaluating some things about the blog. One thing I've noticed is that as things got busy the last month or so, I feel like things here got a little more impersonal than I'd like. I'm hoping to change that. (I'm hoping I've already started.)

Thanks for the feedback on Trends & Topics. A couple people told me it was hard to understand what was going on, so I've worked on streamlining it and (hopefully) making it easier to glance through. The news headlines there refresh every 30 minutes. So if you like to keep an eye on the news, perhaps you'd like to make it your homepage--?


Ugh. The air conditioning just kicked on. (I had to go switch it from "auto" to "off".) So much for 9:30. C'mon breeze!

I don't hear any more kids playing now. The bus must've come while I was downstairs adjusting the thermostat and refilling my coffee.

The next PerPoTues will be June 9. The style is epic. But maybe we should call it "mini epic," since they don't have to be super long. Do you think that's an oxymoron?

More quick takes at Conversion Diary.