Happy Week!

So I meant to post this sooner... as is usually the case. lol

Sunday was my birthday. While not a bad day, it wasn't terribly exciting either. Most of the day was spent looking forward to dinner and dessert. Spiced porkchops, potatoes au gratin, and green beans. And dessert: birthday pie! Apple pie, to be exact. Birthday cake is overrated (and is too time consuming to decorate), and apple pie is DELICIOUS. So that's what I had.

Tuesday, as we all know was the Solstice. As well as a full moon and lunar eclipse. I missed the lunar eclipse; I slept right through it! Although, I don't think I'd would have been able to see it anyway, due to cloud cover. Camden and I did, however, go out to watch the sun rise. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see that, either. Cloud cover, again! It was too thick to actually see the sun break the horizon, which was really disappointing. I was really excited about it, because this was our first Yule at home. Typically we've always been at my parents' for Yule, and, therefore, missed any celebration of it so we (I) didn't make the parentals uncomfortable. Ah, well... There is always next year!

And now we have Christams Eve, and Christmas is tomorrow. More presents (Camden got a TAG reading system for Yule), more food, more family. I'm excited because I'll get to see my sister for the first time since Spring... Or maybe even longer than that. And I'll get to see my brother before he deploys. Not to mention the time Camden (and I, of course) get to spend with my parents.

So, happy Yule (a few days ago) and happy Christmas. Happy holidays. :)

Good deeds. Ah, Rats!

I don't do a lot for others. I try to take care of my friends, but that is usually as far as it goes when helping others is concerned. It's not that I don't want to help others, though. My time is limited between school and school work and taking care of Camden, so it's not like I can volunteer once a week at the Humane Society (which happens to be one of the few places to volunteer around here--no soup kitchen/homeless shelter/etc). I am generally broke, so I can't donate lots of money to organizations. I try to drop change into the Salvation Army buckets every year (actually, I make Camden do it), but that's about my limit.


(Photo not by me)


Well, a month ago I offered to help transport some rats who needed a home. In the rat world, I guess this is called a "rat train", getting rats from one place to another via multiple people. The rats were in St. Louis and needed to go to Ames, IA. I'm somewhere in the middle of all that, and (stupidly?) offered to pick the rats up in Columbia, MO, then drive them to Ottumwa, IA. All that equals out to be about 6 hours of driving for myself. And if I had thought about that before, I might not have done it. But, I said I would, and I did. And I feel good about doing it. I helped two girlie rats (who were likely at least slightly under-cared for: no fun toys, poor socialization, icky cage) find a forever home, with someone I know (well, very much suspect) will care for them and love them.

So I'm counting this as my one good deed for the year. Well, the big one. It was worth it.

Holiday Cookies!

My favourite part about the holidays is making/decorating sugar cookies! Well, maybe not making them, since my sugar cookie dough NEVER EVER turns out the way it's supposed to, but I like cutting the shapes out. Especially if I happen to be doing it at my parents' house, because my mom has buckets (literally) of cookie cutters, so we always end up with the usual wintery shapes, but also mooses, lobsters, and of course, dinosaurs!

This weekend, Camden and I bought (sad face!) some sugar cookie dough that was pre-cut (more sad face, but I don't have cookie cutters) so we could make some holiday cookies. It was a fun afternoon diversion, since it was much too cold to even THINK about playing outside.


Not only do I not have cookie cutters, but I don't have colored sugar... So I made some! 3T of sugar and 4 or so drops of food colouring, mix it up. I don't think it would be useful to save, but it worked for what I needed it for.


Awaiting the oven! (See my sugar?!)


Cam got to decorate the first cookie.


Cam's snowman. I helped just a little bit with it. :)


Nom!

Back? I hope so

The last couple of months have seen my life turned on its head. And not in a good way! I feel as though I lost a part myself this last semester. Or maybe I didn't lose it: maybe that part ran off until things get better. While I don't want to use this time or space to whine about my life, I will say this: it's been the roughest time in my life I've experienced since I was a self-hating teenager. I found it rather amazing, with the addition of so much stress, how easy it was to fall back into those self-loathing and unhappy life patterns. I stopped cooking "good" food. I had almost no time for books. (I've read... two? books since the start of the semester.) Worst, I stopped being a mother to Camden. That was my worst offense. We would get home in the evenings, and I was so exhausted and mentally tired, that I set him down in front of the TV. Every day. Until bedtime.

But thankfully, I've realised this. It took me a while. But this morning, I said to myself (and David, who happened to be there) that I don't like who I've become. My happy-Syd took a vacation and left the person I used to be in her place.

Thankfully, again, the semester is so close to being over, I can taste it. I have one assignment, four finals, and one jury (playing through what I've worked on over the semester in my percussion lessons) left. And that, my friends, seems like nothing. Even just tonight, I feel like the old (new?) me again. I was able to play with Camden without it feeling like a chore. I feel such a sense of relief and release, that it is almost as if I've been holding my breath since August.

So, now I am back. Hopefully to be posting again on a regular basis about the regular variety of topics found on my blog. (If I can even remember what those topics are. haha)