madranchwife

The freedom of speech is, at times, a hard pill to swallow, isn’t it?

I want my freedom to spout my beliefs, but if you spout yours and I find them offensive, well then, that’s just not ok.

Parisians seem emboldened by the last few days.  Many are standing in the streets holding up signs saying “We are not afraid.”

As we should all be–NOT afraid.  Not afraid to have beliefs.  Not afraid to express them.  Not afraid to walk down the street, holding hands with whomever we wish to hold hands with.  Not afraid to speak a language that the majority of surrounding people are not speaking.  Not afraid to worship in a building or in a religion of our own choosing.  When we give in to the first nigglings of fear, we begin to erode the foundations of that perfect freedom.  The one of the right to speak our minds.  The one where we can think what we want about whatever or whomever we choose.  Now, granted, along with this right comes responsibility.  Responsibility to treat this freedom to speak our mind with care.  Meaning, of course, it would be irresponsible and dangerous to yell “fire” in a crowded space just to see what would happen.  Obviously.  It would be irresponsible to taunt someone with words just because you wanted to get a rise out of them.  That’s cruel.  In my book.

The right to the freedom of speech also comes with the responsibility to treat others who disagree with you with compassion.  And respect.  To do anything differently dishonors yourself.

As those in Paris, and across the world, are saying this day: “Je suis Charli.”

“Je suis Charli.”

I am Charli.

And need I say more?

There was an excavation of a mammoth skeleton going on in the kitchen, breakfast was sizzling, and I simply could not resist.

The mammoth was eventually assembled and is now on display with the T. Rex from last year.  She’s starting a collection.  Oy vey–the things I get myself in to.

And yes, the pancakes are Paleo.  Coconut flour and almond meal flour…delish she says and almost just like mom’s infamous PoohandPigletpancakes.  This is only about the fifth or sixth Paleo pancake recipe we’ve tried, so we’re getting there if they taste almost “normal.”  The sausage is from Whole Foods, not sure if it’s grass-fed (a stipulation for Paleo), but we’re going with it right now.

And the chocolate milk you ask?  Dark chocolate almond milk.  Delish she says.

All is good in our world.  Lots of snowflakes falling as I write.  Maybe we’ll finally get enough to make it look like winter around here.

Oh, and get this.  I sweetly, ever so sweetly mind you, asked the dear husband to start, pretty please with coconut sugar on top, bringing me the Christmas bins.  So I can begin the long process of packing everything away.  He looked at me quite incredulously and said “Already?  You’re going to take all the decorations down already?”  I kid you not.  Lately I’ve been wondering who pulled a fast one on me and switcherooed the Scrooge I used to live with and replaced him with this man who is enjoying the Season.  Not that I mind, mind you.  It’s simply divine.  Delish if you will.

Blessings be.

Cheers 2014.  It was nice knowing you.  I’d raise a glass, if I had one, and toast “Slainte.”

And then I’ll welcome the New Year and wish blessings on you and yours.  May 2015 be everything you wish, may you have everything you need.  May you find peace, happiness, contentment, prosperity, love, serenity and safety.  That’s a tall order for the year to produce, but truthfully, so much of it lies within.  May we all find a way to experience the joy that we’re meant to live.

Blessings be.

We had a White Christmas after all.  Not as much snow fell as forecasted, but it was beautiful nonetheless.  And cold.  Brrrrr!  It’s winter here.

Santa made it through the wind (there was A LOT of it on Christmas Eve day and night).  That guy is truly amazing, eh?  Thank goodness we have the good things to believe in.

(With flash and without, for your viewing pleasure.)

Teepees, fairy houses, dragon hatchlings in eggs in nests in bathtubs–it was a big haul for the little one!

  (Though me and the dude in red might have to have some words.  Do you know how much hay was scattered about?  And how difficult it is to clean up????  For Pete’s sake.)

Happy happy day to you.

Blessings be.

Wow.  Eight years.  I know.  I said the same thing last year when it was seven years.  I don’t feel any differently this year, maybe just more bittersweet.  I wouldn’t trade a single second of a single minute of a single hour of a single day with her.  Not for anything in the entire universe and beyond.  Every single second of the last 8 years with her (and six and a half hours, but who’s counting?) has been absolutely, positively, undeniably, without-a-doubt, truly and unmistakably the best seconds of my entire life.   I would only ask the Universe to slow it down a tad bit.  A wee bit.  A mite?

I want more time.  I want more time to soak up the smiles and the questions and the laughter and the tears that only mommy can love away.  I want more hugs, more giggles, more hysterically funny comments.  I want more time.  I want more negotiating with me on bedtime or bathtime or naptime or schooltime.  I want more skiing, downhill and cross country.  I want more days at the library, more cruising through flea markets, more playing at the Seahorse Park.  I want more snowball fights and snowwomen in the backyard.  I want more swinging and sledding and hiking and camping.  I want more marshmallows in hot chocolate and marshmallows in s’mores.  That’s it, I want some more!  S’more please.  Of all of the last beautiful, perfect eight years with her.

That’s all I ask.  Just more time.

We had a lovely day, just hanging out here at home, while the Universe couldn’t decide if it wanted to snow or not.  We might go skiing tomorrow, or not.  We might just watch the Star Wars movies all over again!  Maybe even White Christmas.  (Cause the last time we put it in, it snowed six inches.  We think we may be onto something.  We’ll let you know.)

Honey vanilla cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting made for yummy birthday dessert!  (All Paleo mind you!!)

I know my cup runneth over and I drink from the saucer tonight.

Blessings be.

I meant to post pictures of projects as they were completed, but a quick sojourn to Eagle for an early birthday party, more cookie baking and decorating and then play-acting as one of Santa’s elves got in the way.  Of course.

So without further ado, let me show you what we’ve been up to the last couple of weeks!

Holiday felt banner, courtesy of A Beautiful Mess website (http://www.abeautifulmess.com/2012/12/my-entry.html):  we changed it up a tad bit to reflect our Solstice wishes here.

Appliqued pillow covers (moose template found at The Pleated Poppy, http://thepleatedpoppy.com/2013/12/diy-moose-silhouette-pillow).   I added the tree template, found a long, flannel, patchwork skirt at the consignment store and voila!  Festive pillow covers and a holiday skirt for the darling daughter!!  Bonus.

Ornaments for our tree!  Made out of white air-dry clay (so incredibly easy) and copper wire.  Sorry, no pictures of the making of them, just the results.  Quite pretty I think.  Idea found at http://www.taradennis.com/celebrate/christmas-craft-decorating-style-ideas/beaded-star-ornaments.html.  The clay and the copper wire I found at  Michael’s.

 If I think of it, I’ll try to get a few pictures of the tree with the stars and discs hanging.  Gracelyn used a toothpick and other little items to make designs and write messages on the discs.  Then she signed them on the back!  They were dry overnight.  SO EASY!  And actually quite pretty left white.  We talked about painting them, but we like them as they are.

HOMEMADE GARLANDS

These were so fun!  And I think they look really lovely hanging in our windows.  Remember that whole thing about the REALLY big trees we cut down???  Well, the trunks left over were then graciously cut into about 1/4″ thick pieces and holes drilled top and bottom by the dear husband.  Gracelyn and I had fun decorating them with markers, crayons, pretty scrapbook paper and other baubles and such we found in the house.  Some kitchen twine, pretty ribbons, jingle bells and our garlands were complete!!

I tried pictures with various lighting and will just include them all because I think they’re all so pretty. 

Cool outside lights courtesy of Greg.   And garland idea from http://www.songbirdblog.com/rustic-christmas-garland/.

CLOVES and ORANGES

How can you go wrong with these?  Whole cloves decorating oranges–smells so lovely!

(No website link for these.  I actually thought of this myself.  I know, I know.  What can I say?)

COOKIE DECORATING EXTRAVAGANZA

  (Don’t these look delish?)

CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT WREATHS

Whew.  These were fun!  A bit time-consuming, and not the “under $10” the website promised, but I LOVE the end results!  I didn’t get the best pictures, cause I kept catching myself in the mirror.  Not cool.  But I think you’ll see they really turned out nicely.

 Glue gun, Christmas ornaments of various sizes, foam wreath base in this case (second “wreath” base was made out of cardboard and duct tape!!).  And some patience and a good DVD.  “The Italian Job” in this case.

  Much prettier in person I think!

For the Queen Elsa fan!

Found at http://www.livelovediy.com/2012/12/christmas-ornament-wreath.html.

And finally: Santa’s toy shop in the kitchen!

These are top-secret as Santa will be bringing a miniature dragon to hatch out of an egg on Christmas morn.  How do I know this?  Me and him are simpatico, capsice?

So I was tasked with creating the egg.  Of course.  He gets the easy part.  All he has to do is bring the dragon.  I, on the other hand, have to create an egg.  And, with all due respect, I had help from another elf.  I neglected to take pictures of his creation before I covered it with the felt.  But the elf named Daddy Greg, made the wire frame for the very large egg.  I then covered it with felt and last night, made this goopy, sticky, homemade paper maiche glop!  And a few hours later—-an egg!!  Now I need to paint it to make it look just like the picture in the book of the Standard Western Dragon egg.  When one lives with a child that is detailed and particular and specific to the nth degree, one learns quickly that things better be just so.  Ya know what I mean gene?

For your viewing pleasure (and keep your mouths sealed tight should you bump into my precious daughter):

Trust me, it’s an egg.

And now it’s behind closed doors.

(She actually tried to open the door, can you believe it?  The threat of feeding her to the dragons, the bad ones, just didn’t deter her.  Her response?  “Mom.  Did you forget I’m a dragon trainer????”  Ahhh.  I guess I’ll have to come up with a different threat, eh?)

Blessings be on you and yours during this holiday season.

AND HAPPY SOLSTICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally.

The white stuff is falling and the little girl is smiling.

My estimation of inches fallen thus far always seems to overstate the amount (exaggeration much?), so keeping that in mind, I’m going to say about 4 or 5 inches of the fluffiest, prettiest snow we’ve seen in a LONG time is now on the ground and the trees and the fence and the driveway.  Gorgeous, simply gorgeous.  And so desperately needed.  We had 50 degrees here this last week!  And tried to go cross country skiing on Rabbit Ears.  There was snow up there but boy howdy was it crunchy.  Not that fun.

However, seeing as I’m the adult in the family, I had to spin it in a positive light.  (Sometimes I really hate that about adultness.  I would love me a good temper tantrum.  Oh wait.  I’m thinking the dear husband would have something to add.  Something along the lines of:  “Honey.  You do throw temper tantrums.  Where do you think she learned how to pout?”  Ha ha.  Funny guy that one.)

Anyhoo.  I’ve been trying to paint it all in a good light–the lack of snowflakes.  We’ve actually had tears here about it.  Not tantrums.  Just great, big, sad tears.  Because everyone knows Christmas requires the white stuff.  And we can’t celebrate the Winter Solstice without snow benches dug around the bonfire.  It has been a tense couple of weeks.  The snow left on the ground was a scant inch or two, crunchy, spotted yellow in places (don’t ask) and just generally NOT a pretty sight.  I tried to wax poetic about the beauty of where we live, how fortunate we are to even have those paltry little patches of white, how grateful we should be for what we’ve been given.  I may as well have been saying this: “blah, blah, blah.”  I couldn’t break through the sadness.

So now I have a happy 7 11/2 year old little girl!  (That’s what she’s been telling anyone who asks how old she is.  Before that it was 7 7/8.  Too cute.)

Without further ado, feast your eyes on the beauty thus far.  (And no, these are not file photos.)

I’m thinking we’ll be sledding this afternoon!  Yippeeeeeee!

Slightly.

As in, ever so small an amount.  A wee bit.  A mite.

Or, well, maybe a tiny, teensy, eensy bit more than a wee bit.

As evidenced by the following.  My sort of “Top 10 reasons why the tree MAY be too big.”

 Inside.  Extra branches.

Inside.  (And such a cute little Springer Spaniel, eh?  Just waiting to grab that juicy pine bough and run.)  More extras.

Outside, front door.  Still more extra pine boughs.

Inside…again.  Yes, extra.

Couldn’t resist.  And it made her feel special, so there you go.   LOTS of extra pine boughs.  That thing is heavy.  I can’t believe it’s still there actually.

Because every little girl should have not just one tree in her room, but two.  (The front one being the top of the living room tree.)

Outside, back door.

And finally, the number one reason why the tree you cut down in the forest might be a wee bit too big for your house:

The star won’t fit between the “top” of the tree and the ceiling.  And yes, one could simply cut off the top of the tree, but as seen in the photo above, the dear daughter’s tree is the top of this tree.  And I was not going to take it down and do it again.  Well, let me rephrase that:  the dear husband was not going to be talked into taking the tree out of the stand and taking more off the top.

So we have a crooked star, but a star nonetheless.

And there you have it.  Simple ways to determine if the tree you cut down in the forest is too big for the house.

Yes, yes, I know.  I could simply take a tape measure along.  And since we’ve been doing this for several years now, and the height of the ceiling has not changed, one would think I might get wiser about it.  One would think.

Still looks good though if I do say so myself.

Blessings.

I don’t know how I didn’t know this.  I really don’t.  I’m slipping in the “know-everything-about-current-events category.”  What can I say?  What can I say.

Oh yes.  Well, for starters, we are all about the holidays here.  ALL about them.  So it’s holidays, holidays, holidays 24/7 here.  Which gets difficult around about school time.  I don’t know how many more times I can give the “you don’t know how good you have it, how lucky you are” lecture.  The one that goes something like this:  “you do realize that you would have already been up since 6 a.m. and on the bus for over an hour and at school for approximately three hours already and we’re just getting started.”  (EDITOR’S NOTE:  do NOT pass along that tidbit of information, I repeat, do NOT.  I have enough of a complex about making sure we get in enough school hours during the day to add worrying about the entire universe judging when we start school.)  Anyhoo.  The lecture gets tedious and I have to put it on at least once a week lately.  And that is SOOOOOO annoying.  To her too I am gathering, as this last time I started in, she immediately sat up straight, folded her hands in front of her on the counter, put a contrite smile on her face and said “please don’t mom, I got it.”  I stopped mid-sentence and said “What?”  (Sometimes I am a woman of few words.  Sometimes.)  She then, ever so sweetly, said to me, “Mom.  I don’t want to hear another lecture about you putting me on the bus and sending me to school.”   Ha ha.  Funny girl that one.

Regardless, the holidays are interfering with the schooldays and what can I say?  I myself would much rather create exquisite new decorations and gifts and bake deliciously bad-for-us cookies and whatnot, than figure out how to diagram a sentence with indirect objects and prepositional phrases that act like adjective phrases.  (I kid you not, that is what we are doing.  Ick.)

So.  To make the short story REALLY long, that is why I am not up to date on current political events.  Oh yes and also too, we are playing our Christmas music instead of listening to the news all day.  (I was trying so hard to use the word “holidays” instead of Christmas because the dang truth is that Christmas arrived AFTER a lot of other holiday celebrations at this time of year and Christmas is not the ONLY holiday to celebrate.  We’re big about the Winter Solstice here, which actually predates Christmas by a few thousand millennia, at least.  So perhaps I should start using the word “Solstice.”)

Good grief I can digress like no one else I know.  Well, except maybe my mother.  (Love you mom.)  Anyhoo.  Let me sum up:  current events–nada, holiday extravaganza–beaucoup (mucho, lots).

So I missed this really special thing.

Hot off the wire tonight was the headline “CRISIS AVERTED.”  I was so intrigued I just had to read further.   And get this!!  Along with the headline was a picture of my favorite imagined zombie dude Mr. John Boehner himself.  (He didn’t look very undead-like, but was all smiley and such.)  That REALLY intrigued me.  So I read a bit more and lo and behold there was a teeny, tiny, eensy, weensy, little spending bill that got passed (to the tune of 1.1 trillion dollars, which is mucho dinero) at close to the nth hour, avoiding–wait for it–yep, you guessed it, a gubmint shutdown.  Lawdy, lawdy.  Another cliffhanger, right up to the wire, 11th hour (just ran out of trite phrases) deal that kept the machinery oiled for another day.  Or two or three.  I mean seriously.  That’s a hunk of change.  That surely must buy us a lot of days of government work.  Right?

I was flummoxed, flabbergasted, bewildered by the fact that I completely and totally missed the fact that a CRISIS was looming on the horizon.  And was AVERTED.  Lord love a duck but ain’t that special?

I’m going back to the holiday fun.

And stay tuned as pictures are forthcoming to let you know just what we’ve been up to!

Blessings be.

(And just because I’m in the Winter Solstice/Kwaanza/Hanukkah/Christmas spirit–blessings on Mr. Boehner and his as well.)

Somehow I missed this.  I’m not exactly sure how, as it is definitely something that hackles my hackles and prods at the little button I have that does not suffer fools lightly.  Yes, I have a short fuse for some things (right-wing ridiculousness being one of them).  There you go.  I admit it.  I’m not going to try to deny it and protest against any accusation thrown my way.  I am intolerant of ignorance.  Sorry.  Can’t help it.  I doubt it’s going to change any time soon, but if that’s an issue for you, then move on along.

I probably missed it because we’re immersed in HOLIDAY CHEER around here.  You should see our house…wowza.  We are decked out.  And I’m really about done.  There’s just the damn wreath from the last two years that needs to have the dead blue lights unstrung and the new blue lights restrung, but that’s it!  Yes, I’m procrastinating.  Have been for two years now.  What can I say?  Other than that, we are all about the holidays here.  Just waiting, ever so NOT patiently, for the white stuff to fall from the atmosphere.

So.  (And I know that is not a sentence.  Believe me you, grammar is at the top of our current lessons so there is a healthy dose of what’s correct and what’s not going on around here.  But, literary license being what it is, I let it stand.)

Back to the point as, yet once again, I digress.

I missed this.  I missed the histrionics of the United States House of Representatives and a certain Speaker of the House this past week.  That would be a Mr. John Boehner, who I just think would look divine as an orange-tinted zombie.  Doesn’t that just beg to be imagined?

Anyhoo.  It seems the House of Representatives is supposed to issue an invitation to the President of the United States to deliver the State of the Union address.  Just one more intricate, minute, little detail I did NOT know about the inane workings of our government.   Here’s where the histrionics and temper tantrums fit in:  the good ol’ boys (sorry ladies, if you’re there and took part in this then you get lumped in with my derogatory description) decided they’d take their ball and go home and show that black man in the White House a thing or two.  They passed a bill to NOT invite the President to deliver the State of the Union address.  And, yes, you guessed it, it passed.  I kid you not.  THIS is what our elected officials are spending time and MONEY doing in Washington.  THIS is what the people that WE elected have decided is the absolute most important thing they should be doing with their time and energy and OUR money.

Forget trying to make life better for the little guys down here at the bottom.  As in, wages haven’t increased since who knows when.  Meaning the rest of the 99% of us aren’t doing so peachy-keen.  (It was found that the typical American family’s median household income is still 8 percent below where it was prior to the recession, and remarkably 9 percent lower than it was in 1999.  From FiveThirtyEight.)

{Read more: http://wallstcheatsheet.com/business/wage-stagnation-is-devastating-the-middle-class.html/?a=viewall#ixzz3L8pQwET4}

Forget trying to figure out how to take care of the unbelievable number of hungry children HERE in this country.  (In 2013, 14.7 million or approximately 20 percent of children in the U.S. lived in poverty. {from DeNavas-Walt, C. & B.D. Proctor. (2014). Income and Poverty in the United States: 2013. U.S. Census Bureau.})

Forget trying to figure out how to be a united United States of America and solve our problems TOGETHER.  Problems such as WHY, why, why black lives are treated as less than.  WHY is it OK for UNARMED (and clearly so) people to be shot and killed by our supposed protectors of truth and justice and the American way?  I ask you why.

I wasn’t going to weigh in yet because I’m so opinionated.  And passionate about those opinions.   And I did want to make sure I knew all the facts.  But then I think, what the hell.  This is my blog.  I can write what I damn well please.  And what I please is to shout my disgust from the mountaintops that people can be killed (either shot to death or strangled) for MINOR infractions (such as illegaly selling cigarettes??????) by white men in uniform (let’s call a spade a spade, shall we?) and there are NO repercussions.  NO consequences.  Not even a slap on the wrist.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  Zippo.

BLACK LIVES MATTER.

HANDS UP, DON’T SHOOT.

I CAN’T BREATHE.

Ten words that should be indelibly inked on our consciences.