Meh. I'm three quilts and four books behind in things I want to post about here! But for the latter, at least, I have to wait until the LJ folk fix their Java script - I have no access to my galleries to upload new pictures!

That said, I'm starting a new blog, one dedicated to my sewing and quilting, here.

Don't worry! I'm not abandoning LJ! The new blog is solely for the sewing stuff. My life and my peeps are here. I've got a lifelong paid account, and I intend to cling to LJ until it dies a hard, cold death on its own.

So, let's see. What else? Christmas ended up coming together in the last day or two before the actual date. Wonderful Husband is off this week so we've been sort of teamworking to get some stuff around the house done that usually slides and piles up. Squiddle is still resisting our nudges about potty training. Jazzy is a happy, fat, gurgly baby. And it's just over three weeks until I get a niece.

Ah, amusing thing about the niece. For Squiddle, Wonderful Husband and I chose not to know the gender, so of course no one else did either. (Save the doctors, of course.) For Jazzy, we had a hard time deciding on his name - I think we only finally decided like the day before he was born. So in neither case have my parents known the name of their grandchild-to-be. Well, my sister is continuing the tradition! She's teased us by saying it starts with "S" and is not a common, though also not an unknown, name in this country. I told her I was perfectly okay not knowing ahead of time - I appreciate the mystery. But consequently my parents and I are referring to the baby as Vera. The name (and yes I know it doesn't start with an "S") being pulled from The Beatles' song "When I'm 64," namely the line "grandchildren on your knee / Vera, Chuck, and Dave." And since my parents already have two grandsons to fit the rest of the line....

We are all dorks in our own ways. ^_^

Squiddle got up an hour before Wonderful Husband's alarm this morning. And wanted to come into bed with us, which doesn't happen that often, so okay, whatever. I let him. He proceeded to toss and turn and squirm for half an hour before he finally wanted down and wanted me to come with him.

Sigh. I sense a nap in my afternoon....

Day three of heatwave. Supposed to be the final day for this one. Squiddle and I are planning on retreating down to my parents' again, where I have been slowly cutting up the leftover fabric scraps from the Quilts For Kids group, as well as all the scraps my guildmate gave me.

Should go wake up Wonderful Husband now. And put on shoes and go water the outdoors potted plants.

ETA: Wonderful Husband seen off to work. Plants watered. Stuff from garden harvested to go down to my parents. A few weeds pulled. Dishes washed, dinner defrosting, dessert (raspberry jello with cut-up strawberries in) chilling in the fridge. Time to grab a little bit of sewing time.

Have been busy-ish poking around with things. I did get quilt pics taken! So I'll edit and post them here later today.

Meantime, Wonderful Husband and I raided CostCo on Friday to fill two bags with non-perishable goods for the USPS' "Stamp Out Hunger" food drive on Saturday. And then CostCo again on Saturday to get me a new desk chair for my Mother's Day present. As well as the neighboring Toys'R'Us for a bike helmet for Squiddle, because Wonderful Husband bought him a scooter. Which Squiddle is quite liking, despite the hard-and-fast rule of him having to wear the helmet while using it.

Yesterday, Squiddle got to show off the aforementioned scooter to my parents while Wonderful Husband and I finally saw Zootopia. Which was actually pretty good. And here I'd thought Disney had mastered city design in Big Hero 6!

I should probably be working on outfits for Costume College or SDCC. Or getting another quilt basted so I can quilt it. (I have... two finished tops to do at the moment. Plus a box of my grandmother's quilt tops that I should look at.) Instead, I'm piecing. At least I'm being good-ish and not starting another new project! I'm working on Bonnie Hunter's Allietare pattern, which I started last year when it was a mystery quilt. I did buy and download the pattern after the mystery was taken down, and printed it out the other day, spending an enjoyable half hour recoloring it to what my version will look like. Rather than Bonnie's red-and-gold color scheme, I'm doing mine in turquoise blue and purples. Wonderful Husband said it looks like hers is sunlight and mine is moonlight, so I'm going to call it "Allietare By Moonlight" or something like that.

So. Today being a slow day (no classes, no appointments, nowhere to be), I'm inching my current project along, and trying to rediscover the house, if not the surface of my desk. I'm trying "two things to tidy the house, then one thing for me" as a guideline. Onward! To lunch for the Squiddle and myself.

New computer in working order: hooray!

Bathroom remodel: done.

Health regained: mostly.

This year's promised El Nino rains: still awaiting delivery.

Pardon my French, but yesterday was a shit day. I try not to swear much, either online or in real life, because there are so many more interesting ways to express one's dislike and displeasure in the wonderfully complicated and convoluted language we speak, but... in summation, there's really not a better way to describe yesterday.

Today is better. We went out to dinner last night, and Squiddle slept through the entire thing (finally, he was taking his nap!). I had yoga class, and left it feeling centered and no longer focused on the bad things. And I'm finally something like 90-95% over this cold from hell.

And basically, by the time the rug that goes under the kitty box literally disintegrated in the washing machine... it was okay, and a note of humor.

Tonight is quilt guild, and I'm pondering how much stuff I'm going to drop on the poor beleaguered souls running next month's guild garage sale.... Mwahahaha!

But for now, Squiddle and I are off to his Kindergym group. Mata ne~

Christmas tree - up and decked.

Flights to and from the UK in a couple months - booked.

Presents for birthday party tomorrow morning - not wrapped.

Imma calling it good and going to bed. Wrapping paper party in the a.m., yo.

Wonderful Husband's workplace sponsored their workers in a March of Dimes walk this morning, which is why we got up at 6am on a Sunday morning. We took Squiddle with us (he walked a little bit, but mostly was in his stroller) on the 3.5 mile walk. By mile 2.5 we were swearing it was a lot longer than that! But we raised $100, which wasn't bad on one week's notice, and his employer matched it. And particularly that last mile, with the names and dates of the babies that some of the teams were walking in honor of, was sobering. I ended up feeling very, very grateful that my time in the hospital came to naught, and that Squiddle was full term.

Squiddle is napping, so I should be on the exercise bike right now, or finishing up my homework for class tonight. Instead all I want to do is watch fandom music vids, or dabble in fanfic. I have a HHTYD/BH6 crossover idea that's unlike any of the others I've found, but finding the time/impetus to write it.... Meh.

It's my mother's birthday today. She and my dad are currently incommunicado somewhere in the Sea of Cortez, so I've shot her off a birthday e-mail. Who knows when she'll get it. By the time they get back, they'll have missed a third of Squiddle's life to date. As Wonderful Husband put it, when the first thing they say is the inevitable "How big you've gotten!", they'll mean it.

Squiddle, meantime, is up to eleven teeth, two words, six body parts he can point to, and drinking from a cup as of Friday. Not bad for a 17-month-old. And he still looks like a Gerber baby. Got another comment about that in the grocery store today. :)

I should go see about that homework now. Vids, and fics, later.

Feeling a bit better after a bout of depression yesterday that led me to skip my writing class. I'm attributing the downs to one part that class and anticipating the remarks on my next ten pages, one part my parents leaving for six months sailing around Baja, and one part my period. At least the latter is finally back on a four-week (rather than two-week) schedule.

Things that are making me happy this week. I'd heard, months ago, about the Detroit Land Bank auctioning off vacant homes, and thought it was a good idea. Then this article popped up on CNN, reminding me of it, and I went to look at the DLB's auction site. If I lived anywhere in the midwest, or didn't have roots and a mortgage here in SoCal, and a milder climate wasn't better for Wonderful Husband's health, I would be on this like white on rice. Meanwhile, my mother, sister, and I can all use this website to fuel our Rehab Addict-inspired daydreams.

Also making me happy: getting back in my homemaking groove. I put up four half-pints of Marisa's Honey Lemon Apple Jam today to go into the stash for Christmas gifts. And now, while Squiddle's asleep, I'm going to attempt to triage first the dining table, and then, if I'm lucky, the living room.

Squiddle had his first birthday this week, and later this morning he goes to the doctor's office for a checkup and his next set of vaccination shots. Which he is not going to like. He certainly didn't like getting blood drawn last Friday! But these are things we must do in this modern era to be assured of healthiness. And, hey, Kaiser puts bloodwork results on its website, so I've already looked at them and with the help of Google figured out what each of the results were. He's a touch low on iron, but the lead test, thank goodness, is WELL within parameters. Given we live in a 1955 house, I was a little worried. Though I suppose that worry was stupid. The only surfaces we haven't painted over since moving in are three windowsills, the laundry room, and three-quarters of the exterior of the house. Very little exposed pre-1970s leaded paint left.

On a different note, I sometimes feel guilty about my life. I have a friend who has several chronic conditions and she never seems happy. I realize that, not living in constant pain, I can never truly understand her position, but it makes me sad that I never see her take a moment of joy or beauty and just appreciate it for the solemn gift from the universe it is. I sometimes feel like life must have stolen my friend's share of happiness and given it to me, and I want to give it back, but I don't know how.

Not that my own life is perfect. I have conditions of my own. I will have to take thyroid medication every single day for the rest of my life. My left foot has heel spurs that, if I don't stretch my calves a couple times each day, make walking misery. I had - I will admit it here for the first time - infertility issues which I had to seek treatment for. I'm slowly coming to accept that biology is simply fact, and that that last point in particular is not something to be ashamed of and keep hidden.

But I can walk and sing and dance. I have the financial freedom to be a SAHM. I can and do pursue my interests, sewing and gardening and writing, with the support of my Wonderful Husband. I have a beautiful, happy child (complete strangers come up to me in the grocery store and tell me he's beautiful, so I suppose it must be true), and a good man to help me raise him.

My chalice is full.