Malachi

Everyone who knows me knows my grandsons are the light of my life.  I just can't get enough time to spend with them and everything they do, of course, fills me with delight.  Zachary, of course, is too little to do anything but smile at you.  But some of the cute things Malachi has been saying lately:

I went into Malachi's Sunday school class to visit with him a few minutes before I went into the service.  He and another little boy were building something with large cardboard blocks and wearing Little Tykes construction hard hats on their heads.  Malachi said, "You come to teach my class, Grandma?" "No, Grandma just came to visit you a minute.  Can Grandma get a hug and a kiss?"  Malachi says, "Sure, I give you a builder's kiss!"  Then after giving me a hug, he turns to the other little boy and says, "XXX, don't you want to give my grandma a hug and a kiss?"  The other little boy looked at me with alarm.  "No, Malachi, he has his own grandma to give hugs and kisses to."  "Oh, okay."  The whole conversation was just too cute.

I work for the state Legislature.  When Malachi comes to visit, he sees the big legislative building with its dome and tells me I work in a castle.  "I come see you in your castle."

Right now, his current phrase is "Right?"  Everything includes the word, "right."  We're going to do this, Right? 

His favorite song right now is Jingle Bells.  He sings or hums it constantly.  I tried last weekend when he visited to get him onto some other song.  But Jingle Bells with its "Hey!" is the favorite.

He is such a little motor mouth.  I hear his little voice as a constant drone behind my daughter whenever I talk to her on the phone.  I know now why MY mother always used to ask, "How many children do you have over there today?" when she would call.  One noisy little child can sound like a dozen over the phone.  Apparently my daughter must have been just as noisy when she was little as Malachi is now.  :)

~Jane

Saturday

Started the day with a trip to the grocery store with my daughter and grandsons.  Several of us are starting the 17-Day Diet on Monday.  I've never really done this diet and obeyed all the rules before.  I've lost about 10 pounds over the summer and I'm stuck there. I'm hoping this diet with jumpstart some more weight loss, and having an eating plan may help me avoid the dreaded "session" eating.  Which is basically eating whatever comes into the office, usually fat and calorie laden comfort foods.  I stocked up on lots of fruit and vegies, fish and chicken, and yoghurt.  I have a few health issues that I've been told by various people may improve if I removed some of the carbs from my diet, so I guess I'm ready to experiment and try it out.  I also decided my refrigerator was the pits, so I cleaned it all out today of various moldy leftovers and bits and pieces of stuff lingering in there.  After cleaning the refrigerator, I ran back out to Costco to have them double check my glasses.  They claim they are spot on, and it's just that its a major adjustment that will take some days to get use to.  I hope that is all it takes, just wearing the glasses for a while.  Otherwise I'll have to go back to the eye doctor for an update on my prescription.  After all the busyness today, I think I'm going to spend the evening watching TV and knitting on Zach's sweater.

~Jane 

Friday Night

Today was a busy day at work, training session help and helping the new staff on my committee get settled in and their offices moved.  I picked up my new glasses, but there seems to be something off with them so will have to run them back to Costco tomorrow and see if they can figure it out.  I had high hopes that I'd found a new place to buy glasses, but I guess I'll see.  I came home and settled on the couch under the heated throw, turned the TV on, and fell asleep until my husband came home.  He'd been volunteering serving dinner with our local Union Gospel Mission.  Then I set up the ironing board in the living room and proceeded to iron my entire basket of ironing while watching a couple TV shows with my husband.  I love it when I can be productive that way.  Usually I knit, but I really wanted to empty that basket.  Off to bed now.

~Jane

Resolutions - 2013

I was going to say I never usually make New Year resolutions and then realized I made some last year.  How did I do?  My blood sugar is still not under good control.  I have my moments but nothing lasting.  I've lost about 10 pounds, but need to lose more. I was doing better about getting to bed, but it fell apart with the holidays.  Freezer meals - sometimes.  Doll dresses, a couple.  These were items #1, 2, 3, 7 and 12.  I made a stab at these but didn't really succeed the way I wanted to.  I did well with #4 - my mother's house.  It isn't done but I did get estate ladies in to finish up emptying it out.  The leftovers can go to the Goodwill with a clear conscience.  Now to get it on the market for sale. I also did well with #6 - sewing up flannel yardage around the house.  I made Malachi a couple pairs of flannel jammies, pj bottoms for three of them for Christmas, and three sets of cotton summer pjs for Malachi out of stash.  Epic fails - #5 - Devotions, #8 Samplers framed, #9 Redo the small bedroom, #10 Organize the landing, and #11 Have a Garden.

So I have some resolutions for this year, but not with a lot of hope.  These are in no order of importance.

1.  Get to bed at a decent time.  I've read all the information about how most Americans are sleep deprived and the toll it takes on your body.  I'm going to attempt to get to bed by 11 at the latest and hopefully more like 10:30 p.m.

2.  Turn off the computer by 10 p.m.  I get stuck reading something at the last minutes or playing a game and then the next time I look, it's way past my bedtime.

3.  Read 104 books.  This is a totally doable goal.  I read at least 2 books a week all this year.

4.  Work on my menu planning.  Some months I've done well, some weeks I have no clue what's for dinner.  This will incorporate even more freezer meals as I go along.  However, some of this will depend upon.....

5.  Start eating better.  I eat very few vegetables, too much cheese, and too many carbs.  It's been causing me to have elevated blood sugar levels and I need to get them under control.

6.  Start exercising some a couple times a week.  I'm limited in what I can do because of my knees, but I still have my gym routine for my upper body and the equipment to do it.

7.  Continue to destash.  I managed to get rid of 12 boxes of unused/uneeded stuff  in 2012.  I'm aiming for double that this year.

8.  Sew a couple of french fashion/other doll dresses this year.  I have all the supplies, just need to take the time.

9.  Paint and wallpaper the little bedroom.  It still has wallpaper from when Elsie was a baby.  :)

10.  Get my samplers framed and hung.  It's no good having them stuck away in drawers.

11.  Have a garden this year and really utilize what we grow.

12.  Continue to organize my stuff, finish projects that are started, and go through what I drug home from my mom's.  I want to sell the stuff I planned on selling, and fix what I planned on fixing, and just generally organize everything.

~Jane

Counting Down

Christmas is almost here.  Just a couple more days.  I've spent the last couple days babysitting my grandsons.  I just love being with them.  Yesterday Malachi and I baked cupcakes since Christmas is Jesus' birthday.  Today my husband and I took the boys to see Santa at the local mall and get their picture taken.  Malachi is really funny lately when you ask him to smile.  He scrunches his face up so much his eyes close.  After about a dozen takes, we finally settled on this pose.  Zachary was having a wonderful time.  He thought Santa's elves were so funny.  I felt so sorry for this one poor mother.  After waiting an hour in line to see Santa, her little boy had a meltdown when it came time to see Santa and she couldn't get him to sit on his lap at all.  She had him all dressed up so cute.  She was so disappointed.  I was afraid Zachary wasn't going to make it to pictures either, since he was awake past his nap time.  But both boys did really well. 

I have all purchased except for some gift cards and a couple little gifts, but I still have projects that I'm working on.  Elsie ran out of time making Zachary a Christmas stocking and they are away with family this weekend, so I volunteered to finish it up for her.  I need to sew a small tote bag for my husband.  He wants one for his lunch and I haven't been able to find what I've been looking for so am going to attempt sewing him one.  Elsie wanted to do a Christmas Eve box with homemade jammies for everyone but ran out of time, so I have some red plaid fabric here and am going to attempt making a pair for her, Malachi, and  Zachary tomorrow.  Luckily she already had a pair for her husband.  I have a couple potato bags to finish up for guests on Tuesday and a stocking for Zachary to finish.  Plus some cookies and goodies and clean my house.  I should be able to get all that done, right?  :)

~Jane

Hello! 11 Days to Christmas????

It's been incredibly busy around here lately.  Between work, babysitting, and getting ready for Christmas, time just seems to fly.  I took a day off work this month and my daughter and I started working on our Christmas presents.  She is making rice bags and goodies for presents this year.  I am sewing potato bags for my co-workers and also giving goodies.  The day we spent together we got everything cut out and she and I both got the majority of our projects sewn.  I still have a few to finish up.  I also decided Malachi needed some new pajamas.  He doesn't have many warm ones that he still fits into, so Grandma sewed him two new pairs of snuggley flannel ones. I'll have to get Elsie to take a picture of him in them for me to post.  I have some of my gifts purchased, but have a bunch left to go and haven't sent any cards yet.  We purchased and cut our tree, but it isn't in the house yet.  Maybe tomorrow night.  :)

~Jane

Boys

I wasn't sure about being a grandma of boys.  I only had one child and she was a girl.  We did dolls and tea parties, ballet and violin.  We read all my old favorite books:  Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, and Little House on the Prairie.  Boys are totally different.

From the day Malachi was born, he was my little guy, and he is still Grandma's little guy.  There is just nothing to equal a hug and little boy kiss and an "I missed you, Grandma."  We love to read books and play with playdough.  We play trains.  We play "crash" with his cars.  We watch "shows."  We play his educational computer games or try pages in his workbook.  We throw the ball back and forth and go for walks with him riding his bike or his scooter.  We blow bubbles.  We play on Grandma's "playground.," which is my daughter's old swing set.  Just recently I discovered he is old enough now to play Candyland.  I'm sure I have all types of sports events in my future.

Zachary is just a darling, happy, smiley baby.  Grandma loves both her boys and has discovered boys are lots of fun.

~Jane