for love of home

Monday, July 17, 2006

save the children--calling all knitters and crocheters

something slightly different from me here, but please read on...

according to save the children, four million newborn babies die each year within the first month of their lives--half within the first 24 hours of life. this makes me very sad, as a mommy and as a human being. says Save the Children, many of these deaths are preventable:

"Research shows that 70 percent of the 4 million newborn deaths that occur each year could be prevented if mothers and children in poor countries had access to a simple package of health measures. This package includes antibiotics to fight infections, immunizations against tetanus, training for skilled birth attendants, education on breastfeeding and basic care such as drying a newborn baby and keeping it warm (this is where the caps come in)." (http://www.savethechildren.org/)

so, Save the Children has started an initiative calling on all knitters and crocheters to make little caps for newborns around the world. this is an amazing opportunity for people like me who 1) have a ton of leftover yarn hiding in closets and 2) want to do something to make a difference. the following link has information about the initiative (called caps to the capital) and patterns for both knit and crochet caps for little ones. the link will explain everything much better than i can, so i'll let it speak for itself. please, if you can knit or crochet, consider joining in this effort. if you can't, but know someone who does knit or crochet, pass the information along to them. it may not seem like a couple of caps you make will really make that much of a difference, but consider the story of the man who was throwing starfish back into the ocean, one by one. a skeptic approached him and asked him what the point was; he'd never be able to save all the starfish, that he'd never make a difference. the man looked back at him as he threw another starfish into the ocean and said, "made a difference to that one." even one little life saved makes a difference.
http://www.savethechildren.org/capstothecapital/images/kit11.pdf

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

gardening

disclaimer: i am not a woman in love with the great outdoors. i sometimes walk across the grass on my way to the mailbox, but usually i'll take the long way around to stay on the concrete. i do not do oceans, lakes, mountains, creeks, fields, etc. i sometimes like a picnic if there are benches to sit on. mostly though, i'm perfectly content to enjoy the outdoors from the great indoors. that said...
right outside my front door, there is a small flower bed. very small. all last summer i let it go--i had a new baby after all. it was overrun with weeds as tall as the new baby, if not taller. then, in september, my mother came down and stayed a week. she dug that little flower bed up and planted pretty little mums. which i faithfully weeded for about 3 days after she left. but since she had done all that work, i felt compelled to get out there today and dig up the dead mums, weed it all out and get it ready for some spring flowers. so, i hauled the exersaucer and the little cherub outside and i set to work. armed with my $.97 trowel (i always thought it was a spade), $1.50 "cultivator" and my good kitchen scissors, i got down to the dirty task. i dug out the mums and pulled up several clumps of what looked like onions. i only startled the first three or four times i saw earthworms. and i even picked one up to show the little cherub. (he wasn't that impressed, especially since i wouldn't let him touch it.) i did my best not to get dirty in the process. but alas, dirty i got.
so the little flower bed is cleaned out and ready for spring. i have no idea what i'm going to put there. in the past, my idea of "landscaping" has been to take a big can of wildflower seeds and dump it out on the dirt. i don't think that will work here. i lack my mother's eye for what looks good in a flower bed. i just can't seem to figure it out. i do have 2 packs of sweetpea seeds and i think i'll get a little trellis for them to climb, but other than that, i'm at a loss. so, mom, i need your help. i guess you gotta make a trip down to help me figure the flower bed out...again.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

washing dishes

i have to say, i'm sick to death of washing dishes. dishwasher is still broken. the control module was bad, so the little repair guy ordered the part and said they'd be back on wednesday. well, the part came in on thursday and i was able to get the appointment moved up to monday--sometime between 1 and 5. (what we'd do if both of us worked, i don't know. i guess one of us would have to take off work to sit and wait for the technician to show up. last time they said between 1 and 5 it was 5:30 when he finally showed up.) anyway, my hands are cracked and bleeding in places. i have tried using gloves, but that just makes my "dishpan hands" worse. i try and keep up with them, but it's never ending. dear husband helps a lot, but still, it's a lot to do. i don't know how we ever did without a dishwasher. of course, we didn't have the little cherub when we did without.
speaking of the little cherub, that kid can FLY. he is crawling like crazy and into everything. he loves to pull bowls and lids and stuff out of the kitchen cabinets. and then he bangs them together. another one of his favorite things is to carry stuff (toys, his socks, whatever) around in his mouth as he crawls. he thinks that's really funny. and it is. oh, and he loves cheerios. well, they aren't actually cheerios. they're publix toasted oats. but it's the same thing. "o" shaped cereal. and i've finally gotten him to pick up little pieces of banana and eat them, although he doesn't care much for how slimy they are. he also loves to go outside, but he's not too sure about crawling in the grass...maybe he's my son after all. :)
well, i guess the dishwasher will be fixed soon enough. maybe i can avoid doing anymore dishes until monday between 1 and 5...

Monday, March 06, 2006

broken dishwashers and old southern men

well, our brand new dishwasher broke. i had it all loaded, soap in it and ready to go. i pushed start and it filled with water and then just QUIT. so i tried to figure out what was the problem. i flipped the breaker, that didn't work. i attempted all the troubleshooting tips in the owners manual. still nothing. i tried pushing all the buttons again. didn't matter how many buttons i pushed that thing wasn't gonna run. here i was stuck with a dishwasher full of dirty dishes. so, i called the landlord.
just a few words about the landlord. he's a nice man. an older gentleman who's lived here all his life. and a southern accent so thick you'd think he was from the deep south--not just tennessee. but, apparently he still thinks that women don't really know a whole lot when it comes to household appliances. now granted, i don't know a lot, but i can go through the troubleshooting steps listed in the manual.
so, i called the landlord. and i told him, the brand new dishwasher broke. "aww, no," he said, "whadit do?" so i explained the whole thing to him. and don't you know, this is what he said, "well, you have your husband look at it when he comes home from work and you have him call me back." now, i can't type a deep southern accent, but you get the point. yes, he really said that! now, some folks have asked me what i said in response to that. well, what can you say, really? he's my landlord. so, i just said ok. and when dear husband came home, i told him what the landlord said. now, he got quite a kick out of that too. so dear husband opened the dishwasher and looked inside. then he grabbed the phone and called the landlord back. yep, it's broken. ah, if he only knew...

Thursday, March 02, 2006

fisher-price update

just a quick update on the fisher-price saga. i attempted to use one of the vouchers they sent me at babies r us tuesday night. and what do you know? it didn't work. now, i can't be entirely certain the the people at babies r us knew what they were doing. i don't have the utmost confidence in them and frankly, i feel that they take advantage of their position as "baby superstore." if there weren't things i could only get there, i would *never* shop there. most of the employees are rude and very unwilling to help. anyway. i haven't tried to use the voucher at any other store, but it seems pretty peculiar to me that babies r us didn't accept it. i wonder if fisher-price is running some kind of scam. i will try a couple more stores before i jump to conclusions and call fisher-price, AGAIN. i'm gonna put their number on speed dial...

Monday, February 20, 2006

lapsed!

well, i have to confess, this over ambitious domestic engineer has lapsed, fallen off the wagon, backslid. it's bad. oh, i'm still managing my 1 load of laundry a day although it doesn't always get put away until the next day when i need the laundry basket. and i usually have the dishes done and the kitchen cleaned up by the time dear husband gets home from work. (well, except for today when i opted for a nap with the cherub.) and i definitely clean the bathroom every morning right after my shower (except sunday's, i don't clean it on sunday's. oh and last saturday. i just didn't feel like cleaning it.). but the other stuff? vacuuming, mopping, dusting...well, i have to admit, i've let them slide. and our bedroom? eek! don't ask. why? one huge confession: i spend way too much time online. yes, i'm ashamed. i did much better today though. and another thing, the cherub is crawling. so there's no plopping him down in one place and expecting him to stay there while i get something done. nope. those days are gone for good. i spend so much time chasing him down, pulling him back away from bookshelves, outlets and stairs that i don't have time for much else. and when he's napping, well, that's me time, right? i could put him in the wrap that i finally figured out how to use. (i had to call the company and they walked me through it. like my dad says, i'm all about calling the company! big thumbs up to the parent's of invention company.) i'm not sure he would like that though. now that he's on the go, he wants to stay on the go. so, i have to re-evaluate my plan. actually, i just have to get motivated again. i loved when i was motivated...

another OT rant...

today's off topic rant goes to...WALMART!!!! i detest walmart more than any other store in the WHOLE WORLD. (you know it's bad when i'm using capital letters, huh?) well, don't ever use their photo upload tool to try and save yourself some time. first, it rarely works. i have a dsl modem and was trying to upload a few pictures, all well within their size limit and the stupid thing said it was going to take 5 HOURS!! what in the world? i could drive to walmart, park, take the disc into the store, upload them on their system, wait an hour for them to be printed, pick them up, check out (which takes a while in itself) and be home in less time! and this is supposed to save me time? what a crock. then, when i finally did get 2 measly photos uploaded and selected the 1 hour in-store pick-up option, they weren't going to be ready for pickup for 14 HOURS! what? i chose 1 hour in-store pick-up? so, i called and cancelled the order. that's just ridiculous. so, why do i even bother with walmart? because, unfortunately, the nearest target is 15 minutes away. i know, 15 minutes, but still, walmart is 5 minutes away. i love target though. it's such a pleasant place to shop, even on a saturday. granted the checkout folks aren't all that much nicer than walmart's, but still, the store is so much nicer. i hear we are getting a target here. yipee! that will make my life so much more pleasant. and, it will be really close to publix. ah, publix. now that's a store i can love. end of rant.