College preparations right now, because it will be August move-in date in two blinks of an eye

One blink of an eye will be May graduation.

Two blinks will be college move-in date.

I am not kidding.

Last week we got a wrist watch for youngest. I realize in this day and age, people just use their phone. But cannot always have an iPhone out in many college circumstances (tests, practicums, performances, etc). I get Timex from Kohl's with light up dial. I buy them when they are on sale. This time they were on sale, I had a 30% coupon and I had $20 in Kohl's cash. I also bought a back up band (for the watch) because they always break on a key day. (Middle uses her wrist watch every day. Youngest will too. This might be a family thing. It might also depend on major. Nursing and teaching being two obvious watch oriented fields.)

I ordered LL Bean duck boots for youngest last October or November (2015). Lots of college walking in the rain. Duck boots are a must in my opinion. They arrived a couple weeks ago. (They are hand sewn in the USA and have consistent backlog of orders.) She needs a wide. LL Bean was the only one I found with a duck boot in wide. We took the boots into our local shoe guy to confirm fit. 6W was the smallest women's size. But we could have called customer service to figure out the equivalent next size down in boys, for example, if she needed smaller. We bought supportive inserts for the boots, size was confirmed, I got two pairs of replacement laces (they always break on the worst day).

College physical is required. Youngest is scheduled for next week. She needs a physical for another project. So we are getting one physical, having two forms completed, she is good for the next year.

If you remember, when we moved Middle into her apartment last fall, we turned right around, took inventory, bought what else was needed and packed youngest for college (fall of 2016). Bedding, towels, lamps, step stool, storage, bathroom caddy, long charger cords, power strips, bolster pillow, stuff for walls, etc, etc, etc are all packed.

I got her the right size suitcase for travel. She already had overnight size. (This makes a very good graduation gift, kids travel a lot in college).

I have already stocked extra underwear, sports bras, socks for youngest. I need to get more volleyball or softball (thick, tall) socks for her to wear with the duck boots. They are about the same height as ice skates and we know they rub without tall socks.

Stocked jeans and jeans shorts. Youngest is a very hard fit, so this is an important thing for us to do in advance. Waiting until the week before she leaves and we might not find anything. So that is done.

I stocked college appropriate shirts and jackets and sweaters last year. She has clothes appropriate for dress up and interviews. (This is different for us because our kids have lived with school uniforms K-12.)

We have been doing one thing a week or so.

A while ago it was stocking a lot of good quality bras. And regular shoes and dress shoes and good snow boots.

Paperwork has been flying for a couple  months really a year now. (She is currently taking placement tests on line. We discovered she could do all of that now.) That is just a constant.

One week it was jeans. She had to go with me for try ons.

Another week it was shorts (as soon as they hit the stores and all sizes were stocked). With the shorts I bought two sizes of six kinds, she tried them on at home, I returned the rejects and bought more of the keepers. That is what I did with sports bras when I found them on sale too.

Last week it was the watch. Today was confirming fit of boots. Next week is doctor/physical.

So we are getting it all done, spacing out the demand on her time, spacing out the demand on my brain. And many, many things have been on sale. Like all the college dorm room stuff I got last fall.

I have known moms who have taken the week before college move in off work and done all the shopping then. I think that makes for a very emotional, stressful week for all. I think the getting ready process is really important to the transition. And I think having the stuff organized and the things needed (placement tests, physicals, etc) done early makes a very big difference in how the kids do.

The same way that I think college visits/deciding on a college should be (mostly) done during sophomore year in high school, I think college packing starts a year in advance of move-in date.

The missing pan, Christmas tree skirts for wedding gifts, water jugs working well, mountains of laundry, cross stitch Angels, errands, paperwork, looking for suggestions.

Odds and ends post.

I may have mentioned this previously. I have two sets of three each, nesting 9x13 glass pans. I use the "9x13" label/term roughly, because if they were all 9x13, they clearly would not nest. The middle ones are 9x13 sitting in ones that are slightly bigger and with slightly smaller ones in them. Only one of the middle ones, an actual 9x13, is missing. It has been missing for weeks. We cannot think of anywhere we took it. It did not break. It is not in another cupboard or the refrigerator. The two older kids did not take it. Mystery of the ages.

Between us, oldest and middle we have five weddings later this year. I am starting on Christmas tree skirts as wedding gifts. I made a similar type for my mom years ago. I have always liked it. It requires no batting and no backing. My mother's was made from regular cotton fabric and was proportional for a small tree. I am making the current versions from upholstery fabric and on a larger scale. I am collecting fabric now. I will post pictures as I get going. My machines are both in the shop. So no sewing yet. (I have a pile of mending for middle's boy that is next in line when the machines return.) Extremely strange feeling not to have instant machine access. I do have a couple other machines in a cupboard for an emergency. But hoping my regular ones return quickly enough that I do not have to dig them out for set up.

If you recall, I took water jugs with pumps to middle and her boy (who lives with two other guys). The boys go thru a jug a week, so they are clearly using it. It takes middle about three weeks to use hers, living alone. So they are working well. Again, transporting full jugs with pumps attached, like when traveling to or from camping, simply belt jug into seat. It works very well and protects pump.

Mountains of youngest laundry. I tend to wait until she is in need and then do it all at the same time. This is that time. There is something very satisfying about laundry.

Angel stockings. Husband went with me this time. Back over to my friend, who is good with color, for a consult. Stars were too dark on one fabric and too light on another. Curly cues were too light on one fabric. Skin fabric was too light on one fabric. What to do about the ecru wings and doves on light fabric? The result was I picked out/unsewed several things on Saturday night. I started, again, on Monday, now more confident that I am actually finishing five. Hopefully no more unsewing. Then I have two left where we have to pick dress colors, but those are on the darker fabric, so it should be easier. I am still very careful not to do too much cross stitch at a time nor days in a row, to protect my hands.

My husband swims at a local high school several days a week. I give him errands to do on the way home nearly every time. He is out anyway, so it is convenient. If he does one or two each time he swims, we keep up with all errands.  And honestly, he is learning where things are and how to do them. An example is water jugs. We keep two full ones in the garage at all times, ready for a water emergency, and for normal use. (We take full jugs to middle, and bring the empties home. We also go thru jugs at home.) So if we have an empty jug, it gets refilled immediately. I am getting him in the pattern of refilling immediately. Patterns are important.

Youngest is still in the midst of major paperwork. Oldest, husband and I are all helping. Oldest has proofed a couple essays. I supply some missing information. My husband supplies more (copies of taxes mostly). So much paperwork.

I AM LOOKING FOR SUGGESTIONS - I found new, unopened, Creative Memories, photo album stuff while cleaning out my closet last fall. I found more last week in my sewing room. I contacted a local Creative Memories sales person to verify what I had because the items did not have labels. They are (still) sealed in plastic, so you can see them. I want to sell all of these. I also found a lot of doll clothes patterns. I am keeping one of each and want to sell the rest. They are new, unopened, discontinued, duplicates. I am thinking my best bet for all of this is either Amazon or eBay. It is all ship-able, it might be my best bet of the most $$$. Oldest has used Amazon to sell electronics and books, in past. I buy things in eBay, but have not sold there. I have considered, it might be easier to sell from home, mini garage sale with very good ad in paper, no shipping. But not sure how much money I would get, garage sale people are looking for cheap, normally. I have two sewing machines I would sell too, if I was doing mini garage sale. Not shipping those, clearly. A good sorting of attic and rest of house might yield a lot more. That would be good. And I could probably get my husband to man the sale. He likes cleaning out, he likes $$$. If you have any thoughts on any of this, please leave me a note.

20 lb rice bag for passive yoga poses

I mentioned, months ago, I bought a 20 loud bag of rice to use as a weight (pushing my body down, deeper into poses) at home, in passive yoga poses. Mostly on my lower back in child's pose.

If you google "sandbags in yoga" and then click on the "images" option, there are some great pictures. Look for the one with the mother in child's pose with the toddler on top of her. (Youngest was a moveable weight for a Pilates class long ago). And look for the one with the woman covered in sandbags in corpse pose.

A weight in passive poses allows one to sink deeper into the pose.

I use bolsters and blocks in poses a lot.

I craved a weight (like a sandbag).

I craved a heavy weight.

If you buy a yoga sandbag on line, it comes empty and you add your own sand.

I did not want to deal with sand.

I decided on rice.

I bought 20 lbs in a very sturdy bag.

My husband asked if 20 lbs was too heavy. I replied that Yoga Lisa used to sit on me. It would be like having youngest sit on me. So, no, 20 lbs for an experienced person is not too heavy. I think 5 lbs is normal for a sand bag in case you are wondering.

I used the rice in the bag it came in for a long time. Eventually it sprang a leak.

And using it in the store bought bag showed the need for a non slippery bag/case. It slid off of me, all the time. I never was able to fully relax, because I was expecting it to slip at any moment.






I went to Joanns looking for non slippery fabric.

Not a lot of options.

I ended up with the dotted fabric used on the bottom of the feet in toddler footie pajamas.

I poured my 20 lbs of rice in a very sturdy plastic bag (Karen had warned me about bugs), squished all the air out, zipped the double zip locks, got rice gathered in a corner, wrapped the excess plastic around it like a Christmas present, and then packing taped the daylights out of it.

It ended up about 17" X 17". Most yoga sand bags are long and skinny. I wanted square.

That rice package then went in a casing I made from muslin.

And then all that went in a casing I made from the footie pj material.

I closed the last casing with Velcro so I can wash it. (Unfortunately the only color of the footie pj fabric readily available was white.)

It is good I used Velcro, because I have already flipped it inside out twice and made that outer casing smaller to really hold the rice. The picture above, shows my first try (before decreasing size twice).

So, it is not at all cute (in white) but it is very, very functional.

Feeling the footie pj fabric at the store, neither my husband nor I was convinced of the quality of the non slip-ed-ness. But an older clerk at the store said she put it in the bottom of her mother's chair cushions (wheel chair, kitchen chairs, lawn chairs) and they totally stay in place while her mother transfers herself. It was $12+ a yard for 50" width. I had a 60% coupon. So a yard was a reasonable investment.

And it definitely works. It does not slide off my back, at all.

I have quite a bit left of my original yard, so I can use it for other things too.

How to modify burpies

Bridge vs hip thrust

It amazes me how fast I can go when I repeat the same things

I have only been cross stitching a few days a week, and only in the evenings, to guard my hands/wrists.

Still working on seven Angels.

And I have been doing the same sections, on multiple Angels, one right after the other.

So the star that is above their heads, on multiple ones, all in a row.

And my speed greatly increases.

Mostly, I think, because my eye knows where to go on the paper pattern.

My doing time increases. My thinking or trying to orient myself time decreases. I am much more relaxed and I am much faster. Amazingly faster. So much easier.





I am  now done with Poirot on Netflix. I loved all of them, but starting with season 7 is when they really got good.

I started X Files. Good to do while sewing. I am able to mostly listen. (There are somethings where I have to watch. I have to look for things where I can just listen.)

Middle finished Call the Midwife and loved them. She was very sad to reach the last one.

Oldest finished Would I Lie To You? And he was really sad to have them done.

So coincidental, I just sent a note on this same subject (Squatty potty topic in comments)

I bought a lot of gloves

Stocking update

Rather than just emailing pictures to middle, I decided to post them here. She will see them. You will see them.

This is the continuing, proactive supply of cross stitch stockings for middle's future children, at her request. She knows about these. She reads this blog.

All of these pictures were taken at the same time, in the same place. About 3pm on Friday.

I take these cross stitch pictures in front of our big living room window (using a piece of white foam core board board on top of the window bench; it helps reflect light, I think) on a cloudy day. So I have a lot of light, but no window reflection and no shadows.

I actually ended up resting my hands for three days over the weekend. And then have worked on these a lot this week. But I am careful to keep my hands relaxed as I sew. And then when not sewing, I am careful to rest my arms/wrists/thumbs in the opposite direction than I use them for sewing.

I was curious, what did the new one look like next to the rejected pink?
(It is still rejected, I just have not picked it all out yet).
As I was sewing on the new one, I was worried for a minute I had grabbed the rejected blue. 
I was worried I would not like the new one either. 
But I like the new one very much.
 This picture does a good job of showing the difference between the two shades of 10 count.

Here are the two new angels. 
They are on a lighter 10 count fabric than the original ones. 
And there is more of a peach undertone to this fabric. 

Notice I did not use ecru for the lace nor the pindots. 

Ecru did not show on the light background, at all.

Here are the two new ones next to middle's original stocking. 
Blends super well. 

Here are the two new ones next to the original three. 
I think these blend also. 
I used a very toned down brick/red for the one new dress. 
It is not as deep a color as the three original dresses.
 Because any shade of red is so prominent, it really needed to be toned down to "go".
Notice I replaced the white in the flower centers with a pink on the green angel. 

Here is everything so far.
The fact that they are cross stitch makes them blend well.
The reindeer colors blend well with the Santa.
(I think it is the browns and the greens that do it).
The reindeer blends well with the angels colors too, in my opinion.
I am very okay with all the different 10 count fabric colors. They blend well.
I am pleased. 

Still a lot of work to do on the angels. It takes me an evening to do half of a wing set. 
So it is eight days just to put wings on all of them. 
Then I will spend a few days on stars, another few days on doves. 
And it takes an evening to do a face/hands/hair, so that is several extra days there.
I am not quite sure what I am doing for a dove color on the two light pieces. 

And then, when all that is done, I have two more pieces of the original/darker angel fabric (have to pick two more angel color sets) and one Santa and one Snowman to do. The Santa and the snowman fabrics are slightly different than any of the above, which is good. 

So everyone else might be ready for spring, but I am not ready to let go of winter yet.

5 gallon purified water with hand pump

I might have mentioned college town water is not good where middle and her boy are living. As in it tests poorly. And it tastes terrible.

They both have lived on campus in past. And the university runs the city water through a major filtration plant.

Now they are both off campus, They have regular city water out of taps.

All of us use stainless steel water bottles (Kleen Kanteen). We only use the plastic bottles sold in stores (individual serving size) when there is a need (can't take a Kanteen for some reason). We do not want anyone drinking out of the kind of plastic used for individual serve bottles on a regular basis. Other points against individual water bottles - amount of recycling it produces, and the cost.

So, I spent some time on the phone last week looking for a better solution. An easy, safe water solution that would work long term.

I ended up going with the same water company we use at home. Their water comes from a big filtration plant. No water is produced from city water in the towns where their stores are located. There is a location in our home town and in their college town.

This (bottle above) is the same style 5 gallon bottles we buy for our water cooler (upstairs at home).  The same type of bottle in the picture above (minus the pump) gets turned upside down in our water cooler at home.

Water coolers are expensive and not very portable. At home, it works great.

But I was looking for a better solution for middle at school.

And I was also looking for a solution for middle's boy 1. because I would not do something like this for her and not him, 2. because he was concerned about the water quality and taste, also 3. because middle is at his house a lot and a water source for her there too is smart.

In talking to the water supply company we use here, the guy told me to drive out to their location because they had several options (other than water coolers). So, I did.

The picture above shows what I ended up buying.  (Two $20 pumps. Two 5 gallon water bottles. One of each for middle and her boy.)

That is a 5 gallon bottle in the picture. (I think it looks small in the picture, but it is a big bottle).  To install the pump - The cap on the water bottle is removed, the pump fits securely on the top of the bottle. 

This is how the company works - we put a one time deposit on each bottle. It is around $8. We then buy the water for just under $5 a bottle. (So, I went home with two pumps and two water bottles for middle and her boy.) When their bottles are empty, they pull up at the water store. They do not get out of their car. The guy at the store takes the empty bottle(s) out of their car and puts in a new full one. So the store does not refill the empty bottles for you right then, they give you a whole new bottle. The empty bottles are then sterilized and refilled at the plant. We pay just under $5 per bottle for the new water. There is a punch card system. 10-12 purchased bottles nets a free one.

The plastic of these bottles is different/safer than plastic used for individual water bottles.

The guy at the store said people buy these pumps for offices and camping mostly. BRILLIANT for camping. Brilliant for a trip/weekend away from home anywhere really. That bottle is easily set in a seat and safety belted in to the car so it does not move around while driving, and to keep the pump safe. The pump makes it very simple to use directly from the car's back seat.

Middle's pump was defective. She took it back to her college town location and they replaced it without even asking for her receipt. The second one is fine. One push on the pump button produces a lot of water. Two pumps fills a 27 oz Kanteen I think.

The boys who live with middle's boy all thought this was stellar. They are all using the bottle and then splitting the cost of refills.

When I took him the water/pump, I said if this is not a good solution for you, just pass it back and I will use it in our kitchen pantry. So, if he hated it for some unknown reason, he had an out. They clearly did not hate it.

Yes, having good bottled water increases the amount of water they will all drink, hugely. It also decrease the kind of other drinks they will buy, I think.

My husband calculated the cost of a case of individual serving size water bottles from the store is about the same cost of the 5 gallon bottle; and, the 5 gallon bottle has one more gallon of water than the case of water. A trip to the store is the same as a trip to the water supplier. And at the water supplier, you do not even get out of the car.

We keep three 5 gallon jugs full at our house all the time. One is on the cooler. Two are ready in the garage. I do this so if there is a water emergency, we have a stock pile of water. (The water store would simply send more truck fulls from their plant it this happened, but there might be a delay.)

And I think this (all) is a good life lesson for middle and her boy. I think this whole experience will make them think about what water they are drinking. And whether they end up together or not, it will make both of them think about what water they are giving their kids. If they are on a well, I think they will have that water tested. If they are on city water, they will check the reports. (Actually we will all have our close friend check the reports, she gets them regularly and reads carefully. She is the one who sounded the alarm about their college town water last week).

So freaking many pictures

First, as I mentioned a week or two ago, I move posts backwards quite frequently. This week I moved a lot back, so if you only get on occasionally, you will want to glance a week or more backward each time to catch all posts.

Second, I worked on pictures for about six hours today. First I looked to see what digital pictures were on the computer that had not been put in our youngest's album. My husband had the albums. I had the computer. It went faster with two of us. There were a lot. I ordered all those. I ordered on line from my local store. 4x6 matte.

When I was in the photo files, looking to order for youngest, I put a new file in each file labeled "pictures". So the photos stayed in their original file, but were easily found. So there might be 50 pictures in the "2010 Chicago" file, but I only wanted 8 printed. I put those 8 in a "pictures" file within the "2010 Chicago" file so I could find them easily.  I had a window open for the photo lab. As I filled each "picture" file, I immediately uploaded those pictures to the lab website. When I had all the photos uploaded, then I went in the site and did my cropping. 

I am not sure I mentioned, youngest is not a dedicated picture taker. So, I contacted her friends (weeks ago) and asked them to email pictures (with her in them) to me. I got several dozen. Most I had never seen. Some were from grade school.

Then I worked on the picture computer files from the years when we were using digital cameras. The way we were downloading at that time produced files on the computer with more than one topic/occassion in them. I found a lot of duplicate pictures. I found the same pictures with different digital dates on them (I guess because of when they were downloaded). I did not delete any pictures. Instead I filed all of them. We figured better to have the same pictures under 2007 Zoo and 2008 Zoo than to accidentally delete all copies. I opened two windows. I looked at pictures in one window and clicked and dragged to new files I made in the other window. I start most files with a year. (Middle has so many college files that I have a whole big grouping that start with her name.)

There were pictures on our computer that I had not seen. There were pictures my husband had not seen. Because pictures have been coming off of multiple digital cameras and iPods for years.

So, you guessed it, I ended up with a second on line order from pictures I found tidying files.

I am not done tidying files.

All this showed me that our current method of everyone putting all digital pictures in drop box and then me moving them from drop box to specific picture files is extremely effective. Yes, at this point we have lot of picture files. But I am consistent with my file labels, so we can easily find things.

Interestingly, I eat very little when I am involved with any type of project. The time just flies. Two days in a row now I thought it was about 5pm and it as actually 9:30pm. Friday it was because I was watching a marathon of Shark Tank and cross stitching Angels. Saturday it as because I was knee deep in picture files on the computer. Both days just flew.

And I have figured out how to be very fast on the Angels. I do the same thing on multiples. So I do the stars on several. Or I do the doves on several. Same placement, same thread. The only danger is I have to be very careful of what I am doing. If I do the wrong thing, I am doing it on several pieces, not just one. So far that has not happened.

Meanwhile my husband has envelopes of old family pictures ready to go to his brothers. He had me go through them to see if I wanted copies of any of them for the kids. (He has the originals or has scanned every picture.) The ones I thought I wanted, he put in groups on the table and then took a picture (of the group of photos) so he can have prints of those made for the kids' albums. It was a way to touch it once and be able to send to his brothers.

So we have contemporary pictures going and very old pictures going. We keep them in two different spots in the house.

Oh, my, goodness.

pictures

These are in the same order as the previous picture (earlier in the week) when I was changing out the purple dress on the left for darker periwinkle to avoid duplicate colors. I also changed the star color for the green dress angel slightly. I like her with the lighter yellow. Keeping previous yellow (which is more gold) for purple dress angel.

I am not sure I ever posted a picture of the picture shelves (living room) after we finished them. These black frames with no matting or white/off white matting really unify.  Very pleased. Previously there were dozens of small frames on these shelves. Too many. No unification.

I saw a pinterest with a huge wall of photos (picture rails very much like these, but whole length of wall) where they had used both white and black frames. For a sea of photos, that was a good idea.

Important picture note - On the shutterfly pictures, where we had never changed the title of the picture, the date appeared on the back of all those pictures. So the ID the camera gives to each picture, which includes the date, automatically printed on the back side.

These are the first three of five albums, middle's. It gives an idea of the scope of our albums.