Grand Plans

I had grand plans for all I was going to accomplish this week.  Unfortunately reality didn’t turn out quite as grand as planned.  Monday was supposed to be one of my uninterrupted work days, but at 6:40am the phone rang  and the voice on the end of the line asked me to come to my boys’ school and substitute for the 2nd and 3rd graders.  School starts at 8:00 and we live across town from the school.  My normal routine is to get the boys out the door to school at about 7:00 am with their dad and then I get ready.  Getting ready usually includes 3 miles on the Nordic Track before a shower.  There went the exercise for the day.  A mad dash about the house and I made it to school by 8:15.  I will readily admit that if I’m substituting I prefer the upper grades.  My boys are in 6th and 7th and I know the kids in those class rooms.  I know very few of the students below the 4th grade.  All I will say about my day is, teachers deserve so much more pay and respect. 

I also just happen to be the school board chairperson for this school and I think parents expect way too much from the teachers.  In my opinion the education of a student requires at least three entities.  Yes, the teacher is important, but the student has to be willing to learn and to put in the time and work necessary to learn.  Usually the parents are the biggest problem in the education process and they are the third part.  I find that many of them think it is completely up to the teacher to instill knowledge in their children, unfortunately that just isn’t the case.   Yes, there are a few parents that are actively involved in their children’s lives, but by and large most believe they aren’t responsible.  The teachers have no control over how much sleep the children get or whether they are getting a balanced diet.  Also if a student refuses to do their work and the parents don’t step in there isn’t a lot the teacher can do.  With a class room full of students the teacher can’t give one on one time to the same student all the time.  It is up to the parents to help their child after school if they didn’t “get it” out during class.  (Turn off the TV!)  Enough ranting on my part.

I’m fortunate to have two relatively intelligent boys that are pretty responsible.  It wasn’t always that way.  When my youngest was in 1st grade he decided he didn’t need to do part of his school work.  In that grade they had workbooks.  If he didn’t want to do the assignment he would rip out the page and throw it away.  When I found out, he had to dip into his own savings and pay for copies of those pages so he could complete them and turn them in.  In fourth grade he had a new teacher that expected more from the students.  We spent hours after school most of that year making sure he finished his homework.  I’m happy to say the tears and frustration paid off.  He pretty much takes care of being sure all his work is turned in by himself now.

 So exactly what did I accomplish this week?  I finished hand embroidering my last snowman block for the “Winter Wonderland” quilt from Crab Apple Hill.  Now I need to piece the sampler blocks that are the border.  Here is a picture of the blocks, they haven’t been pressed or trimmed to size.  (Click to see a larger picture.)   That means for handwork, I’m back to working on the border of my “All God’s Critters Got a Place in the Choir” quilt.  I’ve finished appliqueing the center on that quilt.  The pattern for the quilt is out of print, but it was from Brandywine Design and similar patterns are available from them.

I also made some progress on my Monochromatic color project.  Almost 600 pieces are cut out for the Storm at Sea blocks.  I’ve stitched together all the centers and have the diamond units together.  I still have all the corner “square in a square” units to go.  Here is a picture of the progress to this point. (Again click to enlarge.)

After a very long hiatus from Fly Lady I started back up with that this week.  I actually adapt the program to fit me — I like to go bare foot or wear slip on shoes.  Those 15 minutes a day do make a big difference.   Since this week crossed two months there were actually two different zones to work in.  The first was the living room — I decided to work on the family room since that’s where most of our living takes place.  It looks much better.  I found a large square basket with a lid at Target and it was marked down 50%.  The boys video games and controllers and any other paraphernalia are now contained in that basket behind the TV.  I’m still looking for baskets of the right size to house all the DVDs.  Even the baseboards were washed down this week.

The second zone was the Entry, and dining room.  Our entry basically comes directly into the living room, so the living room is decluttered and so is the dining room.  My mother-in-law had an old buffet she wanted to move out of her dining room, so when my parents drove out from Oregon last month they brought it to me.  I still need to move some things into it, but it is the new addition to the house.  My poor husband thinks I’m trying to fill every available space in this house.  But look at the picture and tell me how I could pass it up.  The color goes great with the dining room table and chairs.  The quilt hanging above the buffet is a Harmonic Convergence quilt made in a class with Ricky Tims.  The fabric for the center is some I dyed and the borders are batiks.

It is my 11 year olds job to dust each week, and he does a haphazard job at best.  So as I was in each zone they got a really good dusting.  Part of doing the entry includes the entry closet.  We do have a closet near the front door, but since we come and go through the garage most of the time it isn’t used much.  There is a large closet near the backdoor that is usually a catch all.  It has all our coats plus whatever else gets tossed in there.  I hauled away a box full of ink cartridges (they are used for a fundraiser at school) and all the extra school supplies were tossed in there so they were put away.  I was actually able to vacuum in that closet and you can walk into it now.  Those were the two zones this week and it is amazing what a difference there is on the main level of the house.  I admit once I got going it was hard to stop.  I even flowed over into the kitchen and the counters are all decluttered.  Next week the kitchen is the zone, so maybe I’ll attack some cupboards and definitely the scary things growing in the fridge!

Thursday an order I had place arrived while we were doing parent teacher conferences (I was very proud of my boys report cards — one straight A’s and the other about half A’s and half B’s — this from the child that did 1st and 2nd grade in one year) and at the orthodontist.  Some fun things were in the boxes.  I ordered “Free Expression: The Art & Confessions of a Contemporary Quilter” by Robbi Joy Eklow.  I’ve only had time to scan the book, but the photography is outstanding.  The quilting is so clear.  She does lots of freehand designs on her work and the book does explain some of them.  The inspiration is there just looking at the pictures.  I also got “Another Can of Worms” by Debbie Caffery.  I’ve taken a class with her and really enjoy her methods.  This book is another one using 2-1/2″ strips.  Those are the only books that came — some more on back order.  I finally caved and ordered the Curve Master Foot and since I was getting it, I got templates for a Giant Dahlia quilt and for a Double Wedding ring quilt.  Those quilts are in my future.  Stick with me long enough and you’ll see I rarely choose the easy in life.

So looking back at the week, it didn’t actually go the way I planned, but it looks like I did accomplish much.

Next Color Project

Today I should have been quilting  a customer quilt and I did pin one on the machine, but I spent part of the day planning my next color class project.  This one is monochromatic and it is due the middle of next month.  I came up with my idea when I found a group of blue green fabrics.

I played in Photoshop with one of the sailboat pictures I took while at Embarcadero Park .  The plan was to make the picture blue green, too.

Next I scanned the fabric I had purchased into EQ6 and started playing.  Part of my personal challenge while taking this class is to try techniques that are new to me.  I haven’t ever printed any photos on fabric so that is one of my challenges this month.  The other challenge is that if I use this drawing, those Storm at Sea  blocks are only 5″.  This picture is the one I think I have settled on.

 

 I was domestic today and baked bread.  I avoided baking during the summer because it was just to hot without air conditioning.  I mentioned in my previous post that we are trying to cut the fat.  We are also trying to increase whole grains.  Here is the recipe I used today as I modified it:

 5 cups warm water

2 T. yeast  Allow yeast to disolve in water.

2 cups regular oats

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup soy flower

1/2 cup vital wheat gluten

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (this replaces the oil)

5 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups bread flour

1 T. salt (or lite salt)

Combine all ingredients in large mixer and pulse machine until flour & liquid are mixed.  Add Whole wheat flour until dough comes away clean from the sides of the mixer.  Knead in machine about 10-12 minutes.  Cover and let rise until double.  Punch down and divide into 5 sections.  Shape into loaves and place in loaf pans sprayed with cooking spray.  Cover and let rise until double.  Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until the bottom is golden brown.

This bread usually is tall and light.  I was in a hurry today and put the loaves in the oven before they had come up enough because I wanted them to be finished before I left to pick up the boys from school.  It didn’t come up quite as high as usual, but is still good.

Road Trip

We just got home on Tuesday afternoon from a road trip to San Diego, CA.  Talk about good timing!  Every year my husband’s company sends all their employees somewhere for the new fiscal year kick-off.  Each employee gets to take a guest — no children allowed.  My husband has family in Riverside so we decided to take the boys along and leave them there while we spent two nights in San Diego with his company.  They boys have wanted to go to Legoland for years.  It opened the same year we moved away from California.  So we collected a weeks worth of school work and packed up.

We left at about 6:30am on Tuesday, October 16.  The plan was to drive from home to St. George, UT on the first day.  My husband has a habit of driving for hours on end before giving up the job to me, so I took lots of things along to keep me busy.

 I took along two books by Gilbert Morris from The Singing River Series.  I only had a couple of chapters to go on the second book and finished that up before we were two hours into the trip.  Picked up what I thought was the 3rd book and realized I had grabbed the first book instead.  That ended the reading for the trip.

Next I worked on hand-stitching the binding on a quilt for the Color & Design class I am taking.  It is a nine month class with a new project to be completed every month.  This was the first project and it was neutrals.  We were allowed one other color and it could cover up to 15% of the quilt top.  I missed the second class because it was on Wednesday after we left on the trip, but my project was finished on time.

I also worked on my ninth embroidered block for a bluework snowman quilt.  Possibly pictures of that later.

We drove 70 to 15 on our way to California.  There was snow on the passes in Colorado (not on the road) and it was cold.  We learned that the Rockies had swept the playoffs when we made our first pit stop.  I’m not really a big sports fan, but it is always a little more fun when a local team is involved.

Utah was desolate, but beautiful.  I tried to get some pictures, but they just don’t do the scenery justice.

   

We arrived in St. George in late afternoon at the Best Western Abbey Inn.  It was a nice hotel for the money.  Checked in and unloaded the car then went in search of something to eat.  Our whole family has been vegetarians for pretty forever.  We have been trying to cut out most of the fat and cholesterol at home, but on this trip those good intentions were tossed out the window.  We went to the Pasta Factory and had an excellent meal.  I think the staff was feeling a little overwhelmed.  Apparently the Senior World Games were happening in St. George that week.

After dinner it was back to the hotel to let the boys have some time in the pool.  It was a very nice pool and we had it mostly to ourselves.

The next morning we took off again bright and early.  The goal was to get to Carlsbad, CA early enough to hit the beach.  We drove through 29 miles of Arizona, which was a surprise since we hadn’t looked that closely at the map.  We saw 7 highway patrol in those 29 miles, I think that was more than we saw on any other full day of travel.  This ways the boys first time into Arizona so it was another state they could check of their list.  We boogied through Nevada, I don’t think we stopped at all.  By the time we made it into California I was needing a rest stop.  The rest area was closed when we got there.  We hurried on into Baker and stopped at the first gas station we came upon.  I rushed in and wouldn’t you know it there was a huge line at the women’s restroom.  There was a small tour bus stopped there and they were cleaning one of the stalls.  The men’s restroom was busy (no line) so it wasn’t an option.  I’ve never been so happy to finally be at the head of the line!

We drove on across California was we got into the more populated areas I think we saw the same group of chain stores about every 15 miles.  We did stop at Target so I could get an adapter so I could plug my laptop in while we were driving.  I had one before, but couldn’t find it when we were getting ready to leave home.

During our flying trip across Arizona, Nevada and California I finished sewing the binding on a small applique hanging that I appliqued in 2002 during a class with Claire Rutilla (sp?).  The technique was to trace the applique design on the back of the background fabric.  Then pin the applique fabric to the front and baste the through the layers on the outlines.  The technique is really good for detailed applique where placement is very critical.  I’ve since used it on several blocks.  I still need to put a label on the quilt so it will count for the UFO challenge on MQResource.

We arrived in Carlsbad at about 2:00pm.  Check in wasn’t until 4:00, but our room was ready at we were allowed to check into Inns of American Suites.  Once again a nice room.  Unload the car and a quick change and the boys were on the beac for the first time in over nine years.  They had a blast.  They spent 2-3 hours in the water and we practically had to drag them out to go get something to eat.

We ate at The Old Spaghetti Factory in San Marcos.  I know it isn’t a particularly high class restaurant, but my husband and I have eaten at as many different ones as we could get to over the years.  Several we enjoyed have since closed.  I had my usual Mizithra and Brown Butter.  I don’t want to know the fat content.  It was wonderfully rich as usual and the Spumoni ice cream topped off the meal.

It was back to the hotel so the boys could spend more time in the pool.  I opted to just use the jacuzzi this time.  I had pulled something in my knee the day before we left on the trip and was babying it so I could make it through Legoland the next day.

Thursday found us waiting at the gate when Legoland opened!

The men in my life — not the short fat guy in front! This picture was taken just inside the front gate.

The first ride we took was a little boat that went through some of their miniatures.  The detail was amazing (I think I took about 250 pictures).  Here are just one of many.

The second ride was the wildest in the whole park.  You could choose from 5 different levels.  My 13 year old wanted the highest level, the 11 year old wanted one of the lowest and finally decided not to ride at all.  My husband ended up going with our oldest and I stayed on the ground.  Here’s a video if you would care to get sick to your stomach.  I videoed the whole ride and it was less than a minute, but my husband said it felt like it went on way longer. 

Legoland was operating on winter hours so we only had 7 hours to see it all.  We pretty much covered it.  Since it was during the school year the lines were very short.  Some rides the boys would go on and then come off and be able to go right back on.  The mini cars were really cool.  They were not on a track like at Disneyland.  The kids actually could control where they were going on the streets.  There were stop signs and signals they were supposed to obey, HAH!

These last two pictures were at the end of the day while their dad was standing in line buying a lego set for each of them.

  

There was some beautiful landscaping there as well.  Here’s one flower that looks good enough to eat.

We left Legoland and went to Souplantation for dinner.  One of the kids favorite restaurants is Sweet Tomatoes, but unfortunately the closest one is in Denver.  Souplantation is the same restaurant so it finished out their day nicely.  Stopping while we were still in the area also saved us traffic wise.  By the time we headed to Riverside traffic was moving.

We met up with my in-laws (who came down from Oregon) at my husband’s uncles house.  The house was built by my husband’s grandfather and he hadn’t seen it since his uncle remodeled part of it.  We spent the night and then left the boys and headed to San Diego on Friday morning.  I hadn’t planned to visit any quilt shops, but when I looked in the phone-book while we were in Carlsbad I saw Quilt in A Day listed.  My husband graciously stopped for me.  He lasted about 3 minutes in the store and then waited for me in the car.  The shop is in an industrial section.  It was a very nice shop.  I wasn’t looking for anything in particular.  However, my next color class was looming in the future so I looked around with that in mind.  The next project is Monochromatic.  I found several different blue greens in the store and an idea was born.  More on that later.

We drove on to Old Town San Diego (that was an experience — the signs on the freeway were very misleading).  I had suggested we stop there and my husband quickly agreed when he saw they had a Sheriff’s museum.  We wandered through Old Town eyeing the Mexican Restaurants.  I think all of them had women out front making fresh tortillas.  Before we could eat we found the Sheriff’s museum.  They had an amazingly complete collection.  My husband is a volunteer deputy at home and he started coming up with ideas for a museum here.  Still hungry we stopped at a Mexican Restaurant (sorry don’t remember which one) and had some of the best Mexican food I’ve had in a long time.  Those tortillas were wonderful!

Hopped back in the car and made our way down to the Manchester Hyatt and checked in.  We had requested a king bed but apparently everyone else in the company had too.  They gave us what they called a queen.  Someone needs to tell them the measurements on a queen bed.  The beds were actually doubles.  Other than the bedding, the other hotels we stayed in on our way there were nicer.  There was even only one chair in the room.  The company took over part of Embarcadero Park for dinner.  All different types of food, but we weren’t really hungry after the Mexican.  Hit the dessert table and had a plate of fruit and they had freezers of different types ice cream so had a Dove bar, too.  Then because we aren’t fond of crowds we wondered off through Seaport Village.  It was very pretty in the dark with all the lights.

Saturday morning we took a trip up to Balboa Park.  The plan was just to wander around and see what we could see.  We parked behind the Spreckels Organ Pavilion.  There are free concerts there on Sunday so we weren’t really expecting to see the organ.  However, it was all opened up because there was someone there practicing.  The sun was shining the wrong direction for a picture so I thought I’d get one when I came back.  They had closed everything up by the time we came back.

My goal was to get pictures of plants and architecture.  We were in the park well before the museums opened and there weren’t that many people yet.  So I did get some fair shots of some of the old buildings.  The vast majority of my pictures were taken in the Botanical Building and in the Rose Garden.  Here are just a sampling.

    

          

    

We didn’t see everything in Balboa Park, but we got tired of walking so went back to the hotel to rest. 

Later in the afternoon we wandered back down to Embarcadero Park and watched for sailboats.  I mentioned I had come up with an idea for my monochromatic project and now I needed some pictures of sailboats.  I did get a few that I think will work.

Saturday night dinner was on the USS Midway.  The whole deck was covered with food, tables and people.  It was too dark to get good pictures.  The highlight of the evening was a private fireworks show off a barge just a short distance from the Midway.

Sunday morning we were ready to see family.  So it was back on the freeway to Riverside.  We noticed the haze in the sky, but didn’t realize there were fires until later in the afternoon.  We hadn’t seen my husbands cousins for almost 13 years, hadn’t met the wife of one or any of their children.  Every one got together on Sunday afternoon and we had a good time catching up.  My boys loved hearing stories about their dad from his cousins.  Monday was a school day so the evening wrapped up early.

Monday at about 7:00 am we were back on the road headed home.  We decided to see a little more of the country so took I-40 home and the boys saw a great deal more of Arizona.  The tenative plan had been to drive straight through, but by the time we reached Albuquerque we knew it would be 3am before we made it home.  So we got another hotel and spent the night.  Most restaurants were closing by the time we started looking, but we found a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant that was still open and the food was good. 

I spent parts of the drive Monday & Tuesday putting together my digitizing class for Wednesday at the local Bernina shop.  I was very close to finished with it by the time we arrived home on Tuesday afternoon.  I also finished the block I was embroidering — one more to go.

 The trip was memorable, but it is good to be home!