Violet's Secret Garden

The weather has been glorious the last bit, but it has its drawbacks. The biggest problem is the dry weather that is ever-increasing the pollen count. The pollen is so bad that this morning, after washing it yesterday afternoon, my car is covered in a fairly thick patina of yellow pollen. I might as well have not bothered doing it at all and just wiped my windows down so I can see clearly through them. 

The increase of pollen has us all miserable. The kids are snotty all the time and cranky because of being stuffed up all the time. My fuse is shorter than normal, and even though it's been lovely outside, we've been slightly lethargic and wanting to stay inside. It's so bad that even the seasonal allergy meds like Claritin and Zyrtec are not working for any of us.

I've been looking for places that sell locally hived honey, but the store they told me about at the vitamin store is unfindable by me and the local farm that sells what may or may not be thier own hived honey is only open on weekends. We shall see if we can find something in Redmond or Woodinville, but I may have to wait until farmer's market season, which is, thankfully, soon. 

Posted by Karen Backman at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We finally got the queen bed home from my mother in law's house. It only took about 2 months. First it was the rain, then the truck had a dead battery. I fixed the truck battery very easily and then it took until the weekend to do the deed. 

We got to go out to visit with people and have dinner while Megan watched the kids for us. I can't even express how appreciative I am that she can and will watch the kids for us. And they love her. 

We are going to go over with food to my mother in law's house for her birthday tomorrow. Apparently she's been telling Peter that she doesn't want to celebrate her birthday this year, but I think the boys have a different idea. Anyway, I thought if a good gift and need to head out of the house today to get it and run an errand. 

My sister Treloar and my closest in age cousin on my dad's side, Aurora are coming over for dinner tonight. I haven't seen Aurora in far too long. We're having tacos. 

I've been working on Spring cleaning the last couple of days. I got my bedroom cleaned up mostly. I need to put away laundry. While cleaning I found my favorite dress, which I thought got lost in the move and I danced with glee. 

Posted by Karen Backman at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My grand idea to have neighborhoods come over and string popcorn and/or cranberries never got further than here. 

I could blame my lack of good sleep, or Finn being sick, but really it's just me not doing the things I think that would be cool to do because it either is too much effort  or I don't make time for them. 

So let's see, what's been happinging. . . 

I had plans to go out with my husband that fell through because his mother was in the ER with chest pains. She's doing much better, it wasn't a heart attack, but rather inflamation of the sack either around her heart or her lungs. 

I met a bunch of the other parents at Ingrid's preschool and was informed that a little boy told his mother he was going to marry Ingrid. 

We got our Christmas tree at a u-cut place. It was fun. We were going to go get one from the forest service, but they said there was 3 feet of snow blocking the way to the cutting area. 

My sister and friend Megan are coming over on Saturday to make cookies and holiday treats.  I might try making small popcorn balls this year on my own as well. 

I did get some christmas shopping done. I have it pretty easy this year. We have spending limits and assigned giftees on my side and spending limits on Peter's side. 

Megan mentioned she read The Hunger Games a few times and since I got a Kindle Fire for my birthday and it comes with a month of Amazon Prime, I used the Amazon Library and got the book to read. I am really liking it so far. I mean it's a grim sort of dystopian fiction, but it's an engaging story. 

I'm still plugging away on A Breath of Snow and Ashes for the Ravelry swap that starts the first of the year. I've been asked to be the Murray Clan Chieftess and so I am. 

Posted by Karen Backman at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been wanting to blog every day, but it's been hard the last few days. Last weekend I pulled my desk out of the office and put it in the living room, but I think one of the kids might have spilled something on my keyboard (my brother's kids, not mine) and so the essential v key was not working. Yes, I can pull up the on-screen keyboard to bypass it, but it's hard to type in flow when I have to stop and add a letter from the on-screen keyboard every few sentences. 

Well it seems to have dried out, or at least started working again and so I can go back to my normal typing and thus to posting on twitter, G+ and this here blog. 

I had a much better morning than I had  day yesterday. I think I was picking up on my eldest sister's sorrow. Her ex-husband hung himself early in the week and she was not doing well. I went and got her a little care package together and took the kids over to say hi yesterday afternoon. Chocolate and tea and ice cream and scrumpy were all in there and appreciated. I also got kicked out of the DMV yesterday because finn was crying loudly. Good thing I didn't REALLY need to do it that day, because I'd be more pissed than I was already. I swore at the 2nd lady that asked me to leave. If they were considerate to let people with small children get in and out of there fast he wouldn't have been crying. I'd been waiting outside 20 minutes before they opened and inside for 30. 

I had a much better day today. I'd forgotten that it was a school holiday, though I knew it was Vetran's Day. So we went to Seattle and had coffee with Amie. It's been a long time since I saw her, in July I think.  We left her to her business and came home and got some cleaning done so Peter comes home to a clean house. 

Posted by Karen Backman at 3:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I love Wednesday morning and I hate Wednesday morning. If I could remember the night before that I need to put the garbage/recycling/compost bins out it'd be fine, but the last 3 weeks I've had a mad rush at 7:30 to make sure they're out in time for the trucks to come by. *Scramble, where's my robe, there aren't any shoes! to heck with it, I'll just go out barefoot, I hope my robe doesn't come flapping open!*

Sadly that comes on the day that I technically don't need to be out of bed until Peter is ready for work and leaving since Ingrid doesn't have pre-school  on Wednesday.

On other days of the week I have to get up and dress Ingrid for pre-school and change Finn's diaper and get him ready to go out into the world.  No rest for the wicked, I guess. 

Posted by Karen Backman at 7:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)