Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Pinterest Win

I want to start off saying that I absolutely love it when things like this happen.  Here I was, just finished with a Pinterest inspired success, thinking that I really should write a blog post about it, and when I open up this week’s writing prompts, I see « Pinterest Inspired! Share something you pinned and actually tried. ».  Serendipity.

As you probably know if you are reading my posts, we area household comprised of 2 adults, 3 step kids, and 2 cats in a large 3 bedroom apartment.  By large I mean large for an apartment, not large enough to hold all of our stuff without a f***ton of creativity.  So I often turn to Pinterest for ideas on how to maximize space and attempt to keep us organized.

Then last weekend we took the kids to the local library’s annual book sale.  I usually don’t allow myself to go being a book addict and all (which is best saved for another post), but I want the kids to enjoy books and learning.  The books are sold by weight, so initially when the kids asked how many they could choose I said about 4-5 each.  We got there, grabbed a box, by which I mean my BF grabbed a box while we started to fill it up.

We told them that the plan was to grab all of the books they liked and that after we went around, we would sit down and sort out which ones we wanted to bring home.  So we did that, and when I started to look through their choices, I immediately knew I would have trouble.  They made fantastic choices, 75% were reference books, or books of science experiments and the like.  Just as I was starting to add up the daunting total in my head, a volunteer came by, and told us that he was in charge of choosing winners for the day and that he had chosen us.  He then handed us a certificate for 15 kilos of free books.

We weighed our box, 18 kilos, I told the kids that we could keep all of the books they had chosen (57 in all) and it cost us a grand total of 12$.  When we got home, reality hit, and we realized that we had nowhere to put the books.  I went to my computer and opened up my Pinterest board labeled Kids to see if I had pinned any ideas that would work.  I saw this: http://pinterest.com/pin/132504414008802258/

And this past long weekend, we built this :


My very first Pinterest win.


Inspired by Mama Kat's writer's workshop : Pinterest Inspired! Share something you pinned and actually tried.

Mama’s Losin’ It

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Sekhmet

I decided that this would be a good time to properly introduce my kitten of mass destruction, Sekhmet.  I wasn’t planning on getting her, she sort of decided for us.  I kind of touched on the story of how we acquired her in a previous post, but this is a great opportunity to present her to the unsuspecting world.

I have a cousin; she is pretty much my favorite cousin.  She is sweet natured and gentle and soft hearted, basically the opposite of me.  Seriously, she seems to have infinite patience, and if it weren’t for the fact that I have known her my whole life, I would be suspicious.  She is one of the very few people that I can honestly say I trust completely and who, when she says something critical I don’t get defensive because I know she wants the best for me.

Anyhow, there were these two stray cats that would come to her door every day and she would feed them, and when it was really cold in the winter she would let them into the basement for the night.  One was an all black tom, and the other was a brown tabby female.  The female was very friendly, and would purr like nobody’s business when you held or pet her.  Eventually, the female got pregnant, by the male, and when my cousin found out, she let her in to give birth in the basement.

She had a litter of 6 black and white kittens.  I was unemployed at the time and went over to visit; they were only a couple of days old.  From that day on, every time I would go over to my cousin’s, this one little kitten would come right over to me.  When I got my other cat, I had wanted a black female, but I ended up with a gray and white tom.  Here was this tiny black fur ball, with 7 toes on each paw and a purr that visibly shook her little body.

My godson started bugging me to bring the kitten home with me, I immediately started to delay and give the multitude of reasons why I couldn’t, the main one being that my other cat, who is almost 12, was a very solitary cat and got nasty and territorial whenever I had tried to bring another pet into the house.
Time went on, and all of the other kittens were spoken for, except this one.  Finally I caved and said I would try it out, but that I would bring it back if my other cat didn’t accept her.  I brought her home, and after much hissing and spitting, three days later he was playing with her and grooming her.

I had been had, but I had no idea how much she would change our household dynamic. 

I named her Sekhmet, after the Egyptian Goddess.  Sekhmet was a fierce lioness whose name means « the (one who is) powerful ».  She is clumsy, very vocal, and adorably stupid.  Though she spends most of her time running and playing, she is double her ideal weight.  She unintentionally destroys most things she comes into contact with, but will then come up to you, with her mother’s loud purr, and snuggle away all of your anger.  
Inspired by Mama Kat’s pretty much world famous writing prompts - Introduce a pet


Mama’s Losin’ It

***UPDATE***



Thursday, May 2, 2013

The Berlin wall

I was almost 8, my mom called me to the living room and told me that I had to pay attention.  There was a wall in Germany that was coming down.  I knew almost nothing about Germany at the time, except that mu aunt was from there.  I knew even less about communism.

My mom told me to pay attention, that this was important and that I would be happy later that I could say that I had seen it.  I sat down cross legged on he floor and watched.  At first I didn’t understand how something so violent, so destructive, could be good.  I asked my mom about it and she explained about communism, and world war 2 etc.

Again, I was confused, communism sounded good to me in my child’s mind.  Everyone sharing, wasn’t that what the grown ups were always telling us to do.  My mom eventually gave up on trying to answer my questions and suggested we go to the library.  This was pre internet, so we headed to the encyclopedias.

This event sparked a life-long interest in history, politics, and world events for me.  From then on I would watch what was going on in the world, and become active whenever I could.  It sparked the journey of learning that would mold my ideals and beliefs and help to create the woman I am today.

This made me curious about other cultures, other religions and belief systems which mold and shape other people’s ideals, and affect how the world works, and evolves.  That day showed me that not all that seems peaceful is good, and not all violence is unnecessary.  That one man’s terrorist an be another’s freedom fighter, and that things are always more complex than they seem.

Today I must admit that my mom was right, I am glad that she made me sit down and watch that day, and you better believe that I will make current and world events a part of my stepchildren’s education whenever possible

Inspired by Mama Kat’s pretty much world famous writing prompts - How old were you? Share one of the first news stories you remember caring about


Mama’s Losin’ It