This Week's Randomness

We had a water softener salesman at the house the other day. Bless his bachelor heart, he had not a clue. He stupidly said that if there were any stains on the carpet his pure water's cleaning abilities would take care of it. I pointed out the "took his diaper off and pooped on the floor" stain. I thought for a second that he was going to bolt for the door. I was quite disappointed that he did not clean the carpet.

Luke made something in school that totally rocks. It's kinds like homemade playdoh, only gooier. Not quite Slime quality, but shiny and smooth and oh-so-pliable. And it comes off surfaces very well with little residue. That's always a good feature. He calls it Clay-Doh. Because it's not really clay and it's not really PlayDoh. He also called it monster poo, and when he put it back into the jar I noticed that he added large googly eyes. His little mind fascinates me. The other day he asked me why we didn't name him Jesus. Because he thinks it's the coolest name ever.

And speaking of Luke, I made him a shirt with a bullseye on it at his request. Again with the weird mind thing. He was so thrilled that his classmates loved it and used him for the target in balloon volleyball. I added a dart to it and it looked particulaly bad since he has a dart-shaped scab in the middle of his forehead. If we're not called in to Children and Youth for a consult some day they're really slacking on their jobs. As a side, I find it totally hilarious that my kids tell their classmates that "mom gets these shirts from a really expensive online store." Oh, the jealousy that will bring to their peers. I can hear them telling their mommies now, "I want a shirt with a target, take back that Gap hoodie."

I broke out my Christmas cards. I bought these in January. Don't hate me, I'm not normally this organized. But I was with a friend at the clearance rack and we found these super-spendy cards that are $6 for a box of 5 cards. When you've got just under 100 cards to send out this is less than practical. This store was desperate to off-load these things so they were selling them for the low, low price of 10/$1. You read that right, 10 boxes of cards for $1. AND if you bought 10 they threw in an extra for good measure. We have 22 boxes of cards and paid a whopping $2.12. (Gotta love tax.) The bad part is that I accidentally brought my friend's cards home with me and she lives 5 hours away. I'm gonna spend more in postage to mail her the cards than it did to buy them in the first place. But they are really great cards, and they were a really great price.

I attended a jewelry making class with my 4th grader last evening. The school is doing a study to try to determine why kids who are more involved in art do better at math and reading. I think it's brilliant myself. And tons of fun. Only 8 kids from the entire 4th grade were chosen and Josh was one of them. He was the only boy, but it was metal poured jewelry so it was more than fun. I, er, he got to work with a propane torch, liquid metal, pliers and metal cutters. We made tons of jewelry! He got the metal cross necklace he's been wanting for a while, and made a basketball for Luke, a heart for Becky and a swirl for one of his grandmothers. Then he ran out of time. His Christmas list? Done. Well, for the abovementioned anyway. I made myself a necklace and matching earrings. And I'm not really into jewelry. I'm thinking that I may have to locate me some pewter and melt it down. That could be my newest addiction.

10 comments:

Jennifer said...

I was waiting for a post about the water softener guy. If you wanted your carpet cleaned you should just call the Kirby people - they will do it for you no problem, LOL.

That sounds like an awesome class! It would be intersting to take a class like that. Andr ewould even love a class like that! (he was the only boy who would take the bead jewelry class at school, and he would come home on the days when they had specials and bring home tons (like mor ethan 30) of those beaded bracelets and necklaces.
~Jennifer

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you guys had a blast... I am always happy to hear about any school thinking of adding more Art back into school :).

I have been going to a metalsmithing/jewelry class every saturday morning at my local community college for the last 2 years... think cheap class with an AWESOME instructor plus a break for momma where I can have conversations with people over the age of 18 and leave feeling like I acomplished something... it is absolutly addictive.

Once you start creating Jewelry it is hard to stop ;-)

Ally

(p.s. the pictures are not coming up for me)

Kellan said...

CUTE boy!! Jesus is the coolest name ever - isn't it. How cute. I'm all for any kind of art - we are big on Art in our family. Good post - see ya.

Karen said...

Jennifer - there's a whole story there, but not nearly as exciting as yours. I hate salespeople.

Ally - if I could find a great class like that I'd join you in a heartbeat. So would my kids.

Deanne said...

Total score on your Christmas cards! That's awesome! Now all you gotta do is write a personal and thoughtful message in each one, then address and stamp them! At least we can now buy stamps that we don't have to lick anymore. One more thing to make us feel old.....hey kids, I remember when..... :)

Making jewelry??? How cool!!! Oh, I didn't know about the artsy kids being more inclined to do better in math and reading. Hmmm....very interesting! If your son does well enough then maybe he can start selling his stuff at your Esty store! :)

Karen said...

Deanne - I have way too many cards to write a personal message in each one. We've started doing the incredibly boring Christmas letter a few years back.

Burgh Baby said...

I have to admit that when I first saw the bullseye t-shirt, it brought me back to my days at Kent State. We used to walk around with similiar t-shirts (minus the dart) on May 4th.

BTW--Luke is going to be a lady killer with those eyes. I fear for the mothers of daughters everywhere, myself included.

Karen said...

BB's mom - that's Josh in the photo. I stupidly cut Luke's head off the target shirt. Silly me. But they could be little twins.

Anonymous said...

Hey Karen, did you know that you have been featured on mamaslike.com?go check it out.

Karen said...

Hey, anonymous! (I love secret admirers.) Thanks for the shout out! I've been working with Angie over there for a while now. She's just a dear.