Kontan’s Place

It’s A Challenge!

While visiting Tense Teacher I discovered a challenge…a marathon of sorts.

Yep…365 Days, 52 weeks, 12 months, and 1 lap around the sun! Here are, Da Rulz:

If you’ve been around you know the last month or so has been difficult. Several times I posted simply because I didn’t want to just let the blog go. A post a day and the Blog365 community looks like fun so I thought I would take advantage. It is also an attempt to visit more bloggers, expand my horizons. (Not that you guys in my blogroll aren’t great.)

If you’re feeling brave or experiencing temporary insanity, join me! If you can’t join in, at least stop by to laugh at my attempts!

Happy ho ho ho!

Hope Christmas was merry. Despite the fact that we’ve all felt a little cruddy it was nice here. Several years ago we decided that it was best if we stayed home Christmas day. It beats waking early to rush the kids through presents, dressing, and driving hours to spend a few hours with each family then return home for bedtime. Instead our Christmas day started at 6:30 with the girls excitedly encouraging us to join them in the music room. Woohoo!!! After an hour or so of slinging wrapping paper and unloading the stocking, the girls are told to eat breakfast and find something to do while Dad and I open all the boxes. By 11:00 AM most all of the presents were unboxed with the important information stored in a Christmas bag. Guys, I think Christmas packaging is a communist attempt to ruin Christmas for American families. Is it REALLY necessary to tie-tape-glue-seal each piece of the toy? Honestly! It is impossible to make it through without a good knife. If you are reading this and you didn’t cuss the toy packaging please post your secret in the comments section.

I must say Jem did good. I love PJs and he gave me the cutest pair of flannel jammies with penguins. I loved them so much that I decided yesterday was my do nothing day and spent the day in them. A couple of books and a Colbie Caillat CD will keep me entertained for a while.

But he out did himself with something I have wanted for quite a while…an adorable pocket trumpet! Look how small it is compared to my other trumpet (also a gift from Djembe). The pocket trumpet is considerably smaller but it has enough piping to give it the same sound as a full size trumpet. Love it! I haven’t played in months and months. Playing around today I realize how much I have missed it and how much I really enjoy playing.

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Relaxing to the sounds of: Colbie Caillat - Midnight Bottle
via FoxyTunes

Medical myths?

I’ve heard most of these. I’m not certain I agree with the reading speculation. According to the article reading in dim light really won’t damage your eyes, at least permanently. It seems to make sense that if you strain your eyes enough that there will be damage. I’ve always heard that cutting your hair will help it grow. I wonder if that is true and it is just the shaving myth that isn’t?

Reading in dim light won’t damage your eyes, you don’t need eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy and shaving your legs won’t make the hair grow back faster…

I think some people use less than 10 percent and they are the ones who are dangerous when using their cell phones in hospitals. But that’s just my opinion. Have you heard these? Believe it? Think the research is simply showing what they want us to see?

Greetings!

Decorating

I finally made an attempt to decorate today. Up until now I reluctantly put lights on the tree so the girls could decorate. I have dutifully wrapped presents. That was the extent of it. Today I did the mantle. It was mainly an attempt to keep Lil Bit busy because her sister was staying with a friend. We put fake greenery across the mantle then collected holly to strategically place to get the “real” look. Lil Bit made a wreath at school so that is adorning the center spot. (It makes her day to have it so prominently displayed.) While I handled the prickly stuff Lil Bit set up the manger scene. Usually that is Big Bit’s job, so it was ultra cool for Lil Bit to get to do it. It isn’t much, but I’m going to call it progress.

Djembe did a great job picking out a Christmas tree. It is very healthy and full, nice height. I love the perfect imperfection of live trees. They have a personality that adds to the season. For years we used a fake one. It was perfect in shape and the ornaments hung on the sturdy limbs. Looked great. I look at our tree this year and think about how nice it is, even the slight lean at the top. It is tall and has many sturdy limbs. Not all of them are sturdy enough to hold some of the heavier ornaments. Overall, it is real in its imperfection and is a reminder that life isn’t perfect, but it can still be beautiful. This is the first year in a while that our tree has colored lights. Lil Bit’s request. I think it was a good call. The girls decorated this year and the colored lights add to the childish element of their decoration. Not that it isn’t good, but there isn’t symmetrical perfection with the placement of ornaments. Maybe it is time to pass on the decorating duties…

While blog hopping today I found several cartoons that made me laugh. This gets the chuckle award:

Papa Smurf?

I guess if the prince and maiden from Enchanted’s Andalusia can do it, so can Papa Smurf. Looks like he’s been found living in Madera, California. Well, maybe not Papa Smurf, but according to this article dude could grab a pair of drum sticks and join the Blue Man Group…no problem. To relieve his dermatitis he took colloidal silver. Not approved by the FDA, side effects include…

Well what do you know? Discoloration of the skin! (As well as seizures and kidney damage.) To top it, he’s still taking it! (Just not as much as he used to.) What do you say to that???

Just a few more hours

and winter break will be a welcome blessing.

And in the news…Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. This article details feedback from parents and how they will handle discussions with their children. Honestly, I hadn’t given it much thought, but I guess if it comes up it will have to be addressed. I wonder if the Zoey doll will now come with pregnancy clothes, boyfriend, and eventually a newborn?

Hollywood…World…Here ya go, grab a basket, take a number it’s going to be a long trip.

blogging…just like working out at the gym

Yes, it is true. I believe there is little difference in blogging and going to the gym. Both activities serve to relax the individual who chooses to take part. Both can relieve stress and frustration. If you ever miss a day it is easy to skip another…and another…and another…and then you aren’t participating at all. In case you’re wondering I haven’t been going to the gym either. Well, wait, I take that back. I go to the gym almost every day. I go in the front door, walk past the desk…past the equipment…past the weights…and then I sign my children out and leave. At least there is a routine involved, and maybe I’ll stop walking past the equipment and use it.

No exams tomorrow. I pray that students will leave after the first exam and I won’t have to babysit a study hall. The first exam is my planning and the second is their lunch. PLEASE go home people! I’m hoping to accomplish a good bit during the non-student time.

I’m feeling sort of grinchy scrooge like. Getting into the happy ho ho ho mindset is taking effort. Maybe that isn’t bad. Christmas isn’t about happy ho ho ho. Shopping is virtually done. I really do like to buy for my kids and make it special for them. We finally picked a tree and put it up last week. I vowed that I was not going to do the lights. Yeah…so after I put the lights on the kids were persuaded to decorate. From the time I was the age of my oldest I was in charge of lights and tree. I used my allowance to buy the lights. Gran always tried to make Christmas special. She would make sure everyone had a stocking filled with fruit, nuts, and candy. I still have the stocking she made for me. By the time I was in high school she had gotten really bad sick and was in the hospital two and three times a semester. I realized just how sick she was when she had me fix the stockings for everyone. I think I fixed my Easter basket that year too. (Yes, I received an Easter basket up until I moved out. If you were in the house on Easter you had an Easter basket.)

*edit* note to self…work on the scrooge thing.

just sayin

Whining and complaining does not make anything better. It is simply annoying.

Tomorrow is another day. One exam to give. yipee.

still here

And doing OK. Finishing up the semester, lots of work to do. Playing catch up, not fun. But it is a downhill slope right now. Slippery, but downhill. I spoke with my mother a little bit ago. She seems to be doing OK and is going through the steps of grieving. It is a process. I don’t know what good will come of this, but maybe it is my relationship with her. We have talked more in the last two weeks than we have in the last year. We’ll see…