Halloween

Halloween costumes 1/2 done. Luckily her brother will want something store bought and made of polyester.

7269.4 miles is too far

I chatted online with an old friend today from our first post. She is now posted 7269.4 miles away. It was nice and that is way too far. It was even nicer that she ended it with 'it's just nice to talk to someone who gets me' No kidding!

Our first post was good in many ways. The other women there made it for me. Almost none of us worked. No one thought less of you if you went crazy with a hobby. There was no Martha Stewart like competition there because we all had plenty of free time to devote to the children, or the cooking or any type of domesticity. Or learning the difficult local language. It was good and I miss it.

best chicken ever

My newly finicky 5 year old now loves chicken. I should have cooked more tonight. What did I do? I threw some thin chicken breast in a ziplock bag to marinate in the following:

some lemon juice

pepper

salt

little olive oil

plain yogurt

squeeze of honey

garlic

It makes for some tender juicy chicken. Yum

Heaven

I am in heaven. npr all day every day.

A year after we arrive---

I finally am getting around to doing up the tiny bedroom the two youngest share. First thing - box spring covers out of the above. The whole girl/boy sharing room is tough, can't have too much pink or blue. Red, I hope, can go either way. I am a little worried as I think sewing fitted sheets is at the very limits of my sewing abilities. If it goes badly I plan to mutter things about never again going to an LGA post - Never!

I suppose I should thank Donna, who I don't know in real life, for including me in the FS blog round up this week. Thanks Donna! I think I sent her a fan email after reading one of her pieces in either FS Journal or That's Beijing. I think the topic may have been tai tai life. Of course, her tai tai life was a touch different than mine, like she has a career she could keep going….

What did you do today?

Our volunteer project, aka Orchid the wonder dog, had 1/2 of her 1 year old puppy assessment. She passed. Part two is a sleep over at the dog trainers house. Seriously. That is actually a beanie baby or something in her mouth, not an actual living thing dangling limp.

And here is what I spent much of the day on. A little pillowcase embroidery from Alicia Paulson's awful book (and I only mean awful because from the day I got it in the mail I have been cranking out projects from it - abandoning all others), a quick knit hat for an Emb homeless donation project that may or may not get off the ground. If I had to bet I would bet no. The fabric for someone's red cape for Halloween and the never ending miter square blanket that may or may not get finished one day.

I also fed some children, walked them to and from school, am thinking about feeding them again, did some laundry and made bread - but that is all so boring it puts me to sleep just thinking about it.

What to do if....

the other mothers at the kindergarten make you want to scream?!

I have no idea but I am working on it - a lot.

Do what you can

So Donna asked for knife fights and bug eating. I have neither. What I do have are interesting ideas on how to volunteer at post. Or not that interesting ideas depending on how you look at it.

This is clearly our biggest volunteer opportunity to date. We are in a mostly English speaking country and were able to become puppy walkers for the national guide dog group. This has been great, except for that time she ate the stairs. Yes we will be sad to let her go, yes she will 'pass' and we know that we did our part to make life much better for a local. And she loves Embassy trivia night and Happy Hour at the Marine House - added bonus!

This is one of dozens of pairs of mittens I cranked out for the school mitten tree last winter. It was easy enough, I did not have to go anywhere and my kids loved hanging so many pairs on the tree. I will gloss over the fact that I ended up making so many because I cannot pay attention and kept putting the thumb on the same side for each pair, thus the need for another whole pair.

And this was the easiest of all. In Beijing I could not stand going into the special needs orphanage run by foreigners. I knew I wanted to bring them all home. Luckily I found another way to help out. We had a yahoogroup for expats so everytime the people who ran it needed something or it was packout time, I put out the call. I think this load might have been a call for winter clothes. There was also that time I ended up with about 1000 used baby bottles in the garage, that was a kind of crazy one.

So, in summary, do what you can. Look for ways to help out in your host country and make the locals think fondly of Americans. End of PSA.

another baby sweater for a woman I do know

This is Elizabeth Zimmermann's Feb. baby sweater. Easy peasy though it looks lacey and impressive. This baby mama I do know. My wonderfully sweet knitting pal from Malaysia. I feel pretty confident that she will love it!

What is up next for me and my crafty zen? Well, I did just get a CD of over 300 vintage Barbie clothes. That could get out of hand. I have a Little Red Riding Hood cape to whip up a la Angry Chicken. I have countless Japanese sewing books yet to be sewn from. I have numerous quilts to put together and/or quilt. I think I have 2 dresser to paint, and a bed frame to buy and then paint and on and on and on.

Apparently I have big plans to just stay home and make this fall and winter. Fine with me!