Day One

I'm officially a student again! Summer term started today and I have my photo ID and parking badge.

I spent the time while Sofie was at preschool this morning getting these and other tasks done on campus, finding the rooms my anatomy class and lab meet in, figuring out where I needed to park, and getting some odds and ends at the bookstore.

My lifespan psychology class started today, and anatomy starts tomorrow night. I'm very excited and will most definitely be that geeky person who sits in the front row. For sure.

I was thinking about Mom today when I was wandering around campus. She was a huge community college proponent - she taught both in private universities and in community colleges over the years, and the community college classes were by far her favorites, especially when they were packed with older adults and returning students. She used to tell us how much more rewarding it was to teach these students, who were really engaged and interested and who had, in many cases, worked much harder to be there than the 19 and 20 year olds in her private college courses and who generally had no idea what they wanted to do with her lives.

It made me feel close to her to be taking part in this as an adult. I can see what she meant, I think, just from my own excitement and motivation to be there.

memories of home ec

Gluten Free Girl's post on the first meal she ever cooked got me thinking about how I learned to cook and what the first thing I remember making is. 

I love to cook now and believe I've gotten pretty good at it over the years, but I was a late bloomer on the cooking front. My sister learned to cook when we were kids, but I either wasn't interested or Mom was too busy to teach us both separately - either way, I emerged from college having almost never cooked a dish in my life. My first couple years of supporting myself were pretty grim. Lots of minute rice and dry chicken.

I say  that I'd "almost never" cooked a dish before I graduated because I did have a home ec class in eighth grade. We had a cooking unit, along with a childcare unit in which we diapered dolls, a sewing unit in which we made shirts, and I can't remember what else. Makeup application, I think - I remember being taught how to line our lips with lipliner, and showing a surprising level of skill in that.

How retro does that curriculum sound? This was in the early 80s, when women were starting to make lots of strides in the world and workplace, but in small town Ohio things hadn't changed all that much.

When I think back on the cooking unit, I'm equally mystified. Instead of teaching us the basics, I remember we made about four dishes - one a fancy, schmancy cheese sauce that was really good but highly impractical, which I did make at home a few times (my sister liked it) for pouring over broccoli. Another was some kind of complicated apple thing wrapped in bacon that we broiled in the oven. A third was some kind of fancy cookie. I can't remember what the fourth item was.

Don't these seem to be kind of impractical choices, in retrospect? Why not teach us to chop and dice vegetables, saute, fry an egg, make pasta or rice, make a soup base -- you know, basic things that are fundamental skills to more advanced cooking? It would be easy to give kids a good foundation in a class like that.

Instead the curriculum seemed to focus more on some 1950s fantasy of the happy housewife who just needs a couple of fancy dishes to make for the husband's boss so he'll get promoted. And hey, they taught us to put on our makeup for the same evening. Unfortunately, they couldn't show us how to mix the requisite gibson at the same time. A shame, that - *that* would have been useful.

Does home ec class still exist? Is it still like this? I'm curious.

Feet are right, and other tidbits

I love hearing how Sofie interprets lyrics on songs. Her latest one that has me tickled is Bob Marley's One Love, from a Bob Marley for Kids CD we got at the library last week.

You know the song, probably -- "One love, one heart, let's get together and feel all right..."

Yesterday when it began to play on the stereo, she looked at me and said, "Hey, this is the Feet Are Cool, Feet Are Right" song!

One love
One heart
Let's get together
And FEET ARE RIGHT!

Everyone sing!

***

Has constipation ever killed a toddler? I'm just asking. Without getting into gory details, let's just say the last month has been all kinds of awful on that front, and she's in so much pain sometimes that I'm beginning to worry about her overall health. We're doing everything we're supposed to and nothing is working. Anyone? Advice?

***

I'm starting classes next week - Lifespan Psychology and Anatomy and Physiology I. I'm working on prereqs to apply to the Masters in Occupational Therapy program at the University of Washington. API is kind of a scary sounding class. The syllabus says to expect to study about 20 hours a week to keep up with the condensed summer session. Not quite sure how I'm going to dig up that much time, but I'll figure something out. I foresee a summer filled with my getting up at six a.m. to study before Sofie wakes up and reading late into the night.

What's occupational therapy? Here's a good intro, and a more lengthy article.

***

All this coursework means I'm probably going to shut down Bellflower Textiles relatively soon, or at least put it in vacation mode for a few months. There's just no time to do both, and I especially don't want to get sucked into the fall and winter rush on Etsy while trying to get good grades in some critical prereq classes. So head on over to pick over my remaining stock before we close! I've got makeup rolls, pencil and crayon rolls, a few zip pouches, and lots of coffee sleeves left. It's never too early for a little christmas shopping!



 

Father's Day Craftiness

Here's a close up of Daddy's father's day present:

He wore it to a graduation party this afternoon to great acclaim.

While I was at it, I made them a set of matching, father-daughter Herschel and Monkey tee shirts. Does anyone remember Herschel and Monkey, our two infamous stuffed animals who traveled the world with us and had their photos taken in a variety of interesting locations? Most of my pictures from 2005 and earlier are missing now due to a website we removed, but you can see a shot of them at LL Bean in maine here.

They've been to the top of the eiffel tower, to London, camping, to several of the Hawaiian islands, and to various other places as well. I will someday have to try to recreate their photo journal!

Anyhow, here they are in their matching H&M shirts:

And here are some of the originals from the top-secret photo shoot I held when Brett was out of the house one afternoon to get a good image for these shirts.

Cat Face

Sofie came home from the zoo today with her face painted in full tiger style! She's pretty excited, since in Sofie world, she is actually a cat-human hybrid.

Aloooooooooone

I love my kid. I love her more than just about anything in the world, with the possible exception of her father and followed distantly by chocolate or possibly ice cream. I adore being with her, she's fun to play with, and 90% of the time, she's great company. She is my great big girl and my baby and I marvel that I still can't get enough of her after almost four years of her constant company.

Which is why I feel no shame in saying that I am alone in my house for the first time in at least a month or two and have been for hours and hours and IT IS FREAKING AWESOME.

She and Brett went off to the zoo around eleven and have yet to return, nearing 3 p.m. This is an exceptional event partly because we've all been out of town so much lately that there's been no chance for her and Daddy to go have an adventure together without me, and also because most of the time, she refuses to do anything that takes her more than three feet from my side.  

Brett: Want some ice cream, kid?  
Her: Is Mommy coming?

Brett: I'll buy you a pony!
Her: Will Mommy be there?

You get the idea.


So today feels like a lovely little vacation. I am alone! Alone! And it's a gorgeous day. Unfortunately, I had to study for part of this little bit of wonderfulness, but I got that done, and even just the uniqueness of having two uninterrupted hours to study was novel. No preschool pickup deadline looming. No naptime I'm monitoring with a little bit of my brainpower. Just me and some green tea and maybe a cat and a wide open front door with the sunshine pouring in.

And then I went outside and ate my lunch on the porch. Leftovers from last night, yummy ones. Nomnomnom. And then I weeded a little and filled up a yard waste bin. (Ok, more than a little.) And then I showered. And you know what?

They're STILL not home.

This is better, almost, than a spa treatment. Although I can't wait to hear all about her morning. And I'm sure they'll be back soon. But I have been craving a little bit of time like this for a lo-o-o-ong time and getting it has been awesome.

Those of you without kids just ignore me. Those of you who are someday going to have some, well, you'll be here someday. :)