Lori's Light Extemporanea

Knock, knock, knock...

2011-10-01T18:46:00.000-04:00

Anyone out there?Well, I'm not surprised. It's been busy here, what with school starting (August) and Rachel's being in a musical (September). Here are a few random pics of what all I've been doing. Hope to be blogging again regularly, if anyone can stand the excitement.Well, at least the crickets are applauding.

Puzzle

2011-08-06T14:21:00.000-04:00

See if you can figure out what I was doing this week:

Hysterversary

2011-07-19T02:06:00.001-04:00

In the spirit of the last post, I will proceed to "do it now" instead of putting it off. Ha! So last Tuesday was my "hysterversary". That is what the website HysterSisters.com calls the anniversary of your hysterectomy. If you're registered with them, they send you a friendly e-mail to celebrate your hysterversary. Last year about this time, if you'd have told me that I'd be celebrating, I

Do It Now

2011-07-14T17:49:00.001-04:00

I suppose I could be a whiner and complain that Friend Cherylyn jinxed me by complimenting me on how much I'd posted of late, but the truth is that I goofed up. And then I sulked. And then I procrastinated. And here I am now. Told y'all I had an issue with that discipline thing... I'm especially bummed because that means that I messed up my NaBloPoMo (blog every day for a month). And it was

Briefly

2011-07-07T18:24:00.001-04:00

It's been such a busy day! I ended up sitting with Rachel's elderly lady from 12-5 today & had to get my own chores done here first. Just got home and need to leave again to go to book club. That caffeine is going to go over very well tonight.So I think I've mentioned that this lady (Audra) has some dementia. And she gets very irritated when she can't tell me what she wants to tell me. Today

Tomatoes and green beans

2011-07-06T16:08:00.000-04:00

There really was something I wanted to say about tomatoes but, like so many things of late (like the last 7 years or so), it's slipped the surly bonds of earth and disappeared into the ether. I will answer something that Friend Cherylyn asked me in yesterday's post. Why take off the "armpit hairs" on the tomatoes? To review, what I call armpit hairs are the side branches that sprout between two

Tomatoes and mosquitoes

2011-07-05T19:10:00.000-04:00

I finally got out in my garden this evening. My general rule about gardening is that I don't do any of it between 12 & 3. Just too stinking hot. And I didn't get out there this morning for one reason and another. But I wanted to go check on my seedlings after last night's storm. And it just now occurs to me that I did not do that. Because I was entranced by tomatoes and pummeled by

Independence Day

2011-07-04T16:29:00.001-04:00

Happy 235th birthday, America! Hope you make it to 236!We still have not had the celebratory reading of the Declaration of Independence. We've been a bit messed up on our schedule today. Rachel had to work at 8, so I dragged her out of bed to do that and drove her out there, leaving her with my phone as the place where she works has no land line. I then went to the home of our friends to

Bullet Blog

2011-07-03T20:03:00.004-04:00

See, here's where it gets hard. I don't have anything interesting to say and I don't have a lot of time in which to recount my randomness. But then there's that whole discipline thing. Yeah. Ok, here goes:It's hot. Not hot like it is in OK, but hot enough for here. I spend a lot of time cowering in the house.It needs to rain. See above.Tomorrow is Independence Day! It is my most

I found my thrill

2011-07-02T12:00:00.004-04:00

Well, it's that time again...time for picking blueberries at Rouster's. The Rouster family has been hosting blueberry pickers for decades, and our family for a decade now. They have acres of land planted in blueberries, blackberries, and apples. (They are also the place-the only place-I will buy apples.)Blueberry picking is a family tradition for us. I love this tradition. The first berries

Wearing of the Green

2011-07-01T12:53:00.003-04:00

Ok, so it's July. And I did not blog in June. I did look at the entry page in June but for some reason it was beyond me to be able to do anything with it. So here I am.And here I am trying to post a picture of what I did today. Or part of what I did part of this day. I've been doing very well to get out into the garden in the mornings and weed and take care of the plants that are supposed to be

Way too hot

2011-05-30T10:08:00.001-04:00

It's Memorial Day 2011 and it's way too hot for May. Honestly, if we are already in the 90s, what is it going to be like in August? Never mind, I'm not sure I want to know.I should be outside digging things up and planting other things but I dread going out there. As soon as I'm out there and over the initial heat wave (hot flashes really enjoy company I've discovered), it will be fine. But

Once a month blogging

2011-05-26T22:27:00.001-04:00

Blogging used to bring me such joy...I don't know why it doesn't now. Ah well. I was working out in the garden day before last and thinking about how much I am like my grandmother and not much like my mother. My maternal grandparents came from farming families. I thought it interesting that, of the 20 or so children in those two families, only two of them farmed as adults. They were

Happy birthdays and other stuff

2011-04-04T22:52:00.000-04:00

Ok, wow. It's been such a long time that I had to change my Xanga password in order to log on here. Sorry...I have to say though, that I prefer Facebook for a lot of my online interactions. Happily some of my Xanga friends are my friends there too, so I get to keep up. But occasionally I think I should blog. Why? I don't know. Just because. This is apparently one of those times.I must say I don't

Book List 2010

2011-01-31T22:42:00.000-05:00

Yeah, January was a nice month, right? Sheesh! I tried to get this done at the beginning of the month but I have the list written across two notebooks. One was always lost. I found both of them and finally, on the very last day of January, I will get this thing written.Here is a list of the books I read in 2010, along with stars to indicate their quality. That could mean I liked (or disliked

December 10th

2010-12-10T08:21:00.000-05:00

So, I've been wanting to post something about my adventures with my cats and dog lately but I have not had the time. This week seems to have been full of appointments and other nuttiness. And today is December 10th so I need to talk about Asher.When Sarah was a wee babe, I found myself pregnant again, unexpectedly. I was a bit astounded, seeing as Sarah was so young but there it was. About

Da Winnah

2010-12-06T13:13:00.000-05:00

I think I spend too much time with teenagers seeing as my grammar seems to be subtly changing. Note title. Anyway, I did "win" NaNo, which means I wrote 50K words in a month (or actually less since there were many many days I did not write). I promised Friend Nina that I would edit it and let her read it by 1/31 so I guess I have to do it now. Nina is like that.We had a lovely Thanksgiving

NaNOOOOOO

2010-11-22T08:13:00.001-05:00

I am so very very very far behind. Well, maybe just very very. At any rate, I'm behind and running out of juice. I must now write 2664 words a day to make the deadline. That would be 1000 more than the usual number. And why does this matter to me so very much? Part of it is my thought of myself as a writer. Although I sincerely doubt that I will ever be a writer (I'm giving up so many of

Bummer

2010-11-08T20:37:00.001-05:00

I realized today that I missed posting Sunday and thus blew my NaBloPoMo. I was a little unhappy but not terribly. I think I'll go write a letter (since I'm even with NaNo words for the day!)

Silver

2010-11-06T17:55:00.000-04:00

Our locale has a very neat online auction business. Although I spend most of my time on it just perusing what people are getting rid of, I have bid on and actually won some lots. One of these was a silver-plated tea set. This morning I finally got around to polishing the set and took pictures. And then I put them down on a table and came downstairs to battle through a few more hundred words.

Senior pictures

2010-11-05T22:06:00.001-04:00

Hard to believe but our oldest daughter is a senior this year. I'm so proud of her. She's doing great work in school, she's looking forward to college, life is pretty good. But I'm also sad that this is the last year I'll have her as a "student". Of course, for the last couple/few years, she's been largely working on her own, with guidance from her dad and I, but she was at least nominally

NaNo goes slowly

2010-11-04T17:28:00.000-04:00

Well, it usually does anyway, but this year it has been excruciating. Each and every time I sit down and have any time or inclination to write, the twins or Abby or Rachel are on top of me. I am already thousands of words behind. But I do currently have a story idea marinating in my brain, if I can ever get near the computer again!

Busted

2010-11-03T21:45:00.001-04:00

Am I the only one who gets totally buzzed out by getting pulled over by police? I attribute it to being a pretty much law-abiding citizen and being freaked out to realize that you are being lumped in as a criminal. Which is sort of what happened just a bit ago.I should just say that I hate Wednesdays. They are the most draining day of my week. On top of everything else that happened today, my

Nice problem to have

2010-11-02T16:30:00.001-04:00

Great. Haven't written a word of the new novel and already have a NaNo-induced headache. Is the feeling of unworthiness inherent in not doing NaNo worse than the frantic feelings incurred by doing it? Anyone with experience want to weigh in here?That is what I posted as my Facebook status a while ago. And it's a nice problem to have. Obviously we have enough food, power, and time to complain

Done got myself in trouble

2010-11-01T16:35:00.000-04:00

I truly have wanted to blog of late. I even started a post, to realize that, when I left it up on the computer, one of my children closed it down. What a waste of time! What I was going to blog about was Sarah's senior pictures. Instead, what I will blog about today is how I got myself into trouble by joining both NaNoWriMo and NaBloPoMo this year. Yay!I don't really have a concrete idea of

It's going to be a long day

2010-10-12T06:53:00.001-04:00

Remember those old McDonald's commercials? The ones with the slogan, "It's going to be a great day!" Substitute "long" for "great" and you have it. I've been up since 3:30. It's about time for everyone else in the house to be awake, yippee. I have a million and one things to do today (in-laws are coming in tonight, late, among other things) and I really really need a nap. Why does my brain/

A new post

2010-10-07T10:24:00.001-04:00

The problem with these "more daily" posts is that the titles are boring. Oh well.Yesterday was a day which amazed me with its ability to make me tired. It was co-op day so I am on my feet all day anyway, but one of the other moms was gone. I ended up doing more work. And having a swollen belly by the end of the day. Not good. Every fiber of my being hurt, from the middle of my skull to my

Good grief

2010-10-05T10:46:00.001-04:00

So I decided last night that, in journals, as in life, you must live in small spurts. It is apparently not my time in life to write long, introspective anything. And so it is in blogging.Today we are waiting for the gas man to show up and turn on the gas. So we can have heat. Because it's in the low 60's in my house. Because it's finally cool outside! Yay! Friend Husband suggested that we

Library Loot

2010-09-02T12:44:00.002-04:00

Friend Jen has been doing this Library Loot thing for a while and I've enjoyed reading her posts about her library finds. I finally determined this week that I would do the same, finally, because I want to laugh at myself. I go through feast or famine at the library. This summer I finally got so desperate for books that I started reading the ones holed up in my basement! And then there are

First days

2010-09-02T08:23:00.000-04:00

Monday was our first day of school this school year. It was also the first day that Friend Husband was back to teaching at the uni. It was also the day I went back to the doctor to see what he had to say about my healing, 6 weeks later. Big Monday! First, the doc. He said that I've healed up well and cleared me for most activities, with the caveat that I need to start small and work my way

Updates

2010-08-12T07:53:00.000-04:00

I was trying to wait for something positive to say before I updated. Since it looks like that will take some time, I'll go ahead. Things have been...okay. I have been extremely moody lately, which doesn't help with everything else that's going on. I've had to take over more activities since Friend Husband is transitioning into going back in to work. School starts on the 23rd and he's got a

Good stuff

2010-07-27T17:04:00.000-04:00

My Xangaversary passed without much fanfare on Sunday. Six years. Yeehaw!Yesterday I went back to the ob/gyn who did my surgery. Last week when I was there, he decided not to take out all my staples because he thought another week would finish it up better. So yesterday, he finished taking them out. It's a weird feeling to have metal poking at your skin from your own body.I don't think I've

The 5 minute gardener

2010-07-22T13:08:00.001-04:00

One of the things that has very much gone by the wayside with my illness/surgery/recovery is my gardening. I sneaked out to my veggie patch Tuesday after my doctor's appointment. I carried a pair of scissors. I figured that I could at least start slicing down the weeds, even if I couldn't pull them up (ground's a little hard, might strain the stomach). Whilst out there, I noticed some

Hyster sister

2010-07-20T00:30:00.000-04:00

And yes, she managed to skip over the entire month of June in her blogging, mainly because she was out of town so much. So I returned to town and sort of cratered, which resulted in a very urgent hysterectomy. In my former blogging days, I'd probably have written about this at length, and I still reserve the right to do so, but for now I'm just going to praise my God for keeping me and

Abject humiliation

2010-05-26T13:43:00.000-04:00

Well, I guess I should not say "abject humiliation" because I have sort of successfully thrown this onto the pile of "things that will make me wince in pain forever" and am trying not to think about it. It was, however, quite embarrassing but funny so I thought I'd share. We can all use a laugh, right?So I've been busily working on my garden. When we first moved here, almost 9 years ago, I

The Accidental Gardener

2010-05-20T23:15:00.000-04:00

I have gardened for years. I enjoy it more at certain parts of the year (March, April, May) than I do at other parts of the year (namely August) but it is incomprehensible to me to think of not planting at least tomatoes and squash. And basil. And usually rosemary. These are things that are generally easy to grow (except for the squash which usually falls victim to the squash bugs pretty

My last couple of weeks...

2010-04-26T19:08:00.000-04:00

have been rather busy and stressful. Performance Night for our co-op was Saturday night. One daughter was in the performance of Alice in Wonderland. Two daughters were in the performance of Fiddler on the Roof. In addition to all the stuff they needed (and the house, husband, and other children needed), I was working on costumes for Tweedledum (Abby) and the three Alice dresses (for when

I'm baaaack!

2010-04-10T17:25:00.001-04:00

Call out the Internets, Lori's back! We finally faced up to it and purchased a new computer. It has been more than 5 years since we bought our last one and 14 months since we started losing large chunks of our computer life due to computer failures. Enough justification. I'm sort of back.Sort of because, of course, life intervenes. I'm trying to get 3 Alice in Wonderland dresses completed

Two-Thirds Finished

2010-03-04T20:19:00.000-05:00

So, here I am...I've been working on a project for 2 years. I still like it but I'd like more for it to be finished so that I no longer have it hanging over my head. Wanna see what I've done so far? For those of you who have forgotten, this is Friend Husband's wool sweater. If you see any mistakes, I don't want to know about them. Although, I think I saw one when I was uploading this picture

Camptown Races

2010-03-04T20:18:00.000-05:00

For those of you who were concerned, apparently Aragorn the Cat is in good health and is losing weight for no discernible reason. Wish it were me!After I published the last post, I recalled the other thing I'd wanted to put in here. I didn't have pictures at that point so I decided to just forget about it until the next month or next blog posting went in. Here it is, a new month and a new blog

More cards

2010-03-04T20:16:00.000-05:00

I had a delightful time with Friend Rachel the other afternoon, making cards. After she left, I continued making cards. I got into that happy creative zone I like so much. Here are some of the cards I made...Gotta go take Lucy the Wonder Dog to the vet for a bordetella shot, so she can play at the dog park. Second visit this week. I took Aragorn in on Tuesday because he's lost a lot of

This, that, and the other

2010-02-20T16:15:00.000-05:00

I was all set up on this the other day, having typed a couple of paragraphs, when I heard, "Sweetheart! I need your help!" I left the browser window up. After helping and doing the rest of the stuff I do, it was down again. And all my beautiful, heartfelt words were gone. So you'll just have to take these. May I just say that I really don't dig the "new" stuff that Xanga is doing?

Bullet blog

2010-02-02T14:08:00.000-05:00

Because I have to do the Tuesday carpool in half an hour...* We got a new range last week. Cooking is fun again.* David's inhaler costs us $90/50 days. Ouch! We didn't have to pay for them last year because we were over our deductible.* Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning...6 more weeks of winter. Personally, I don't believe him this year. It is feeling like spring again to me.*

Rain, rain, go away

2010-01-19T12:22:00.000-05:00

I logged on here to answer a message and realized that it had been quite some time since I'd blogged. I still blog or journal in my head all the time but don't take time to come here and write it down. Part of that is just getting through all the trauma and depression that life brings me. I don't always like to have everyone know how very disturbed I am and how often. But I came on here to

Awaiting the White Death, with spewage

2010-01-07T07:29:00.001-05:00

We're supposed to be getting a "big winter storm" here soon. Honestly, I don't know why people in Cincinnati get their knickers in a twist about snow. It's not as though they never have it here! It's not a surprise...get over it. It snows in Ohio in the wintertime!Anyway, you can't get into a grocery store right now without doing your best defensive driver-bumper car champion thing with the

Önskar er alla ett riktigt Gott Nytt År 2010!*

2009-12-31T15:44:00.000-05:00

* Stolen directly from Cousin Monica's Facebook status, as my Swedish does not extend past saying, "Excuse me!"So, here we are, the last day of 2009. It has been a difficult year, for many reasons. But it has also been a wonderful year in many ways. My Friend Cherylyn is still around, for which I am very grateful. The twins have grown up a little more, making them a little easier to train.

Hello out there...part 2

2009-12-26T13:15:00.001-05:00

Well, I'll tell you...it's been quite a month. So let's start again.In addition to my bronchitis, David developed pneumonia, which has sent us on many trips to the Children's Hospital ER (downtown) and to our own doctor's office. He has been on two separate antibiotics, steroids, inhalers, etc. It's been quite the trip. They gave him copies of his lung x-rays and he's been showing them to

Hello out there!

2009-12-15T13:21:00.000-05:00

Yes, it is me again, the Infrequent Blogger. Many times over the last two weeks I have sat here thinking of things to write down and then deciding not to for one reason or another. One of the ones which has been so very enervating is the twice-yearly issue with remembering my miscarriage. Seeing as I've blogged about this before here I'll not belabor the point. But that with all the drama

Call me exhausted

2009-11-30T14:18:00.001-05:00

Novel snippet

2009-11-20T21:55:00.000-05:00

After not writing for a few days, I finally kicked it into high gear and got caught up tonight. I really do like this novel. It's fun to write. This is very rough, from tonight's writing.