The thing is

The thing is, without my blog, how will I remember that the other day, Phoebe said something about a desperate housewife, and Mallory said she bet that Phoebe didn't even know what a housewife was, and Phoebe said, "You're right...but I think it's someone who's always grumpy."

And I don't want to forget, either, that recently Phoebe has started to say, "I love you as much as a pickle!" And then a few days ago she raced to the bathroom shouting, "I need to pee as much as a pickle!" and slammed the door. A few seconds later the door opened and she poked her head out and said, "There I go again with the pickles!"

And -- Mallory has to do a report on a famous North Carolinian, but her first choice -- Virginia Dare -- was taken by another kid in her class. She was working on some other homework and asked me to look up some other possibilities for her. I googled and discovered that Betsy Byars was born in Charlotte. "You can be Betsy Byars!" I said. "Who is that?" she asked. "She's an author...she wrote The Summer of the Swans, which was one of my favorite books. And Grandmom met her once and got her autograph. And," I continued, scrolling down the Wikipedia page, "she and her husband are pilots! She flies her own plane!" Mallory said, "So she writes books and likes to fly. Could you have picked a worse person for me?"

And -- I started the afghan and it's a lot of fun, actually, and I've finished quite a few squares. Maybe close to 30 percent. But...I've never been crazy about the yarn I was using...it's not very soft, and a bit too fuzzy for my liking. So I'm thinking about switching to a different brand of yarn. I know, I know, it's insane to scrap everything I've done and start all over. But I keep hearing my grandma's voice in my head, telling me that I'll never be happy with it unless I do it just right. And I think the other yarn is better. So let's move the completion date back to 2014. If I'm still blogging then I'll post a pic. br />
And p.s., I still have lots of Girl Scout cookies in my dining room.

Is this thing on?

It's an odd thing, not wanting to give up one's blog but also never really feeling like updating it. Anyway, I'll take the easy way out and highlight the past few weeks of our lives in pictures:



Phoebe. Is there anything funnier than a Phoebe? Above she is dressed up for her half-birthday at school (since she's a summer baby). (She did, in the end, decide not to wear the hat.) Every outfit, every clothing changed is thought out with precision detail. Where she gets her fashionista tendencies I do not know.

A few weekends ago she suddenly announced that if I did not get her a pair of jean shorts she would just die. This was alarming, but since we had to go shopping anyway, I said I'd see what we could find. Luckily we found some on sale. She has taken them off only to go to school --she wears them to bed! -- and she thinks they look best when she wears them with a skirt-shirt, as shown:



...and is frustrated by the fact that she mostly has skorts, which cannot be pulled up to her armpits, instead of real skirts.

This is how happy she is about her shorts:



In other news, I turned forty, which...what is there to say about turning forty? Here I am on my birthday with my girls:



I did decide to make the afghan, and have completed 16 of the 212 pieces. I'm guessing it will be 2015 before I get it done. I made this panda for Mallory:



...which coordinates nicely with her freshly-painted bedroom, of which more later.

I also made a chihuahua for Phoebe, who is on a Skippy Jon Jones kick:





He's supposed to stand up by himself, but, well, he doesn't.

What's up with you? Oh, and would you like to buy some girl scout cookies?

Somebody stop me

Because I have all the time in the world and unlimited patience, I want to make this:

The flowery one on top, not the stripy one on the bottom. Even though I've never crocheted anything larger than a scarf, and I only made the scarf this weekend, and before that I'd never crocheted anything larger than a cell phone case. Even though this afghan is made of two-hundred and twelve separate blocks that would have to be stitched together, and my least favorite thing about crocheting is stitching pieces together. Even though I don't need another blanket in my house, I have plenty. Even though I'm afraid I'm going to become a crazy crochet lady who keeps making things that nobody needs and foisting them on people. Here, have a scarf! Have an afghan! Have some booties! People will tire of me.

If I'm going to make an afghan, having never made one before, it would be smart to start with something easier:

or at least with something smaller:

But what if I hate the whole process and decide, having completed one of the above afghans, that I never want to make another one? Then I'll have an afghan, but it won't be the one I want:

I really love it.

I really have a million other things to do with myself.

Maybe instead I'll make another scarf:

Even though I don't really wear scarves. But isn't it pretty?

This is getting dangerous.

Wrapping it up

No, not like that:



I am way behind here. I don't think I ever posted about Mallory's birthday, and I had some thoughts about Christmas decorations which I guess I'll save until next year, and I should tell you about the fab time I had with my family last week, but instead I'll just sum up 2011.

Best Books Read:
There But For The by Ali Smith
Chime by Franny Billingsley
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan
The Boy in the Moon by Ian Brown
Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin

Worst Books Read:
Obedience by Will Lavender
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
Sister by Rosamund Lupton
The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

Best Movie:
Bridesmaids

Fave TV show:
Modern Family; also Prime Suspect but I think they're taking it off the air

Proud of myself for:
Teaching myself how to crochet
Losing 10 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas (now need new pants)

Best new experience:
Riding a Segway with Aimee through downtown Charlotte

New places traveled to:
Atlanta
Chicago (prefer Chicago)

Glad that I:
Took the girls on fun outings this fall, even though it ate up my weekends and wore me out

Not glad that I:
Spent too much time on the internet
"Prepared" so many unhealthy "dinners" for my family

Most fun had:
Trip to Chicago (except for getting there, and the heat)
Visiting my family at Christmas

Favorite picture:



Up next:
Painting/reorganizing the girls' bedrooms

Hope to:
See my whole family again soon
Crochet more
Exercise more
Get my children to eat vegetables and meat that isn't dipped in batter

Happy 2012!

The Have Nots

A few weeks ago I sorted through the girls' books and set aside some to donate. I put them in a Bruegger's Bagels bag because it was big and sturdy and had big sturdy handles. Naturally, the bag has been sitting in our hallway ever since.

Phoebe noticed it last Saturday. "Mommy, why is there a Wubbzy book in this bag?" she asked.

"Because those are books I'm going to donate," I said.

"To the poor?" she asked.

"Yes."

"I don't think that's a good idea," she said.

I was about to launch into a lecture about how she had too much and other children had too little and she hadn't read any of those books for ages and --

But then she added, "Because if the poor children see this bagel bag, it's just going to make them hungry."

----------------------

Twenty-five people were laid off from my office yesterday. Luckily I was not one of them, although there were a few tense moments when I thought I might be. I feel bad for feeling happy that I'm still employed, when so many of these people -- including some friends of mine -- are now not. And, although of course I never want to lose my job, knock wood, wish on a star, cross your heart and so forth -- Chris and I have a pretty good safety net. I'm fairly confident that we would never end up without a home to live in or food to eat. I'm afraid that a few of the people who were let go yesterday don't have that kind of assurance, and it just makes me feel terrible. And although I understand the reasons they were let go now instead of a few weeks from now (because if they kept their jobs into 2012 they'd be able to claim there 2012 vacation hours) -- it's still particularly awful that this happened right before Christmas. I think the powers that be deserve a few lumps of coal for that one.

If you're not in the spirit yet...

you will be after watching this.



My only regret is that this version does not have Beeker singing the nine ladies dancing part. That cracks me and Phoebe right up.

Ten

Last night Mallory asked me to carry her. "Carry you?" I said. "I haven't been able to carry you for many years."

"But you said you always would, no matter what," she said.

"When did I say that?"

"On your blog," she said.

I guess she read this. Which, in spite of its schmaltziness, is one of my favorite posts. I can't believe that was 5 years ago. I can't believe that Phoebe is older now that Mallory was then. I can't believe that I thought five was old. I can't believe I didn't factor 4th grade social studies into the equation.

She's ten, my beautiful, goofy, kind-hearted, generous, bright and funny little girl. If I'm a bit sad today that she's growing up so fast, I'm consoled by the fact that I'm the one who gets to be there with her while she does.



Happy Birthday!