Crazy Days
Today was Super Errand Day. We did the following:
- Stopped at the bank.
- Dropped off books at the library.
- Got propane and seeds at the locally owned hardware store.
- Stopped at Luna's for an extra long wait for coffee.
- Arrived at the diesel testing station 15 minutes late, but the guy running it was running 17 minutes late on everyone (it is good to be lucky).
- Went to Pho Duy for big bowls of good, hot pho.
- Went to the Pacific Ocean Market for Jet's hairy sprinkles (no MSG!) and a few other things.
- Went to Duart's garden center, a locally owned garden shop for potting soil and a few other things.
- Went to King Soopers for our weekly stocking up.
What's more interesting yet is that yesterday was even more busy.
We got Jet all ready to go to school, got the tomato plants out to harden, walked Jet to the bus stop, and then John headed to the OUR center. I loaded up the Eurovan with my gardening stuff, a return I had to make, and I headed to do my things and then to the OUR center as well. I transplanted two raspberry plants, a dozen rosemary starts, and a bunch of raspberry run aways from the raised bed. Then I weeded my habitual two buckets of weeds, and then watered and fed everyone. By then it was time to feed me. I signed the volunteer book, went over the garden with Rick, and then ran off, late, so I went to Inta Juice and juiced up on a choco-nutter (chocolate, peanut butter, banana, vanilla yogurt, and milk with oat bran and calcium boosts).
I was home long enough to get the plants back into the house before John came home and we loaded up the Passat with a big box of dye bottles we'd mixed the night before and another box of tie dye equipment. Then we headed to Jet's elementary school, signed in as volunteers and started mixing the soda ash solution to soak the shirts so that they'd react well with the dye.
Then one other volunteer parents and the two of us helped 20 kindergardners dye t-shirts every conceivable color, and some inconceivable (I don't think that word means what you think it means) colors as well. One girl ended up with a huge brown puddle under her shirt... but on the most part they were pretty spare with the really vivid colors. I hope they end up bright enough. The other mom and myself did the bottle passing out and helping with spreading the shirt bundles so that the kids could get the dye all the way into the shirts. They'd all done a spiral tie job, so they'll all have something in common when they all wear the shirts on the field trip to the zoo.
Yeah, we're going with them to the zoo, too. On the bus, even. *grin*
They didn't use nearly all the dye we made. But there are four other classes that are going to use the dyes after us, so it should be just fine. Many of the kids used every color multiple times. I was handing them out like crazy and it was fun, but tiring, too.
Now I know how to tie dye, too, which is a good skill to have. It definitely makes for fun clothing. I'm just really wondering how our shirts turned out and I probably won't get to see until next Tuesday. *sigh*
I had been stressing about the whole thing for the last couple of days. John and I spent three hours mixing lots of bottles of dye the day before, with me doing all the powder handling, and John doing most of the pouring and staging of other things. That night, John had a class, but I discovered that the shirts we'd bought were 50/50 cotton/poly from the hobby shop we'd bought them from. They only had the 50/50 blends, so Jet and I had to run to a couple other stores before we found 100% cotton. It was kind of nerve-wracking, but it was satisfying to finish what we did and all the kids seemed to have a great time doing the dyeing. We even got to do the shirts for ourselves, which was cool, but now I'm wondering how they'll turn out, too.
Between the gardening and the dyeing, I was exhausted for the evening. Tanner and Chris came to play, and then Chris started hitting Tanner. I told him that he had to say sorry, and when he said that it was just an accident, I told him that even if it was an accident he should *still* apologize. I think it's my soccer background... a foul is a foul even if you didn't intend it. Maybe it's a consequence thing, too, in that even if there aren't intentions involved, there's still an injury to contend with and having been injured enough times, even by accident, there's still a price to be paid. Chris ran off in a huff. I gave Tanner a hug and a sorry as well. Jet did, too.
Good kid.
I did manage to make dinner... John's taking care of most of that today, as I have knitting in a bit. We bought short ribs, and he's grilling them while we have them with rice and some artichokes we bought as they looked good for spring time food.
One great good and interesting thing is that in the last few days Jet and I have been reading the manga Rave Master together. It's relatively PG, with mild language on the most part, but plenty of action for Jet. No really gory details, but plenty of humor that appeals to him. That's been really fun. We've been reading a book a day since Saturday.
Getting John from the airport was fraught with a few things, but I managed to do it, finally, and everyone was grateful for the ride and not having to park a car at the airport the whole time they were away. The stories they've come back with are... fraught. Good, too, but so much destruction... and so many odd, sad, and scary stories and so many pictures of the damage that is still there. *sigh*
It was also odd, because during the weekend, lots of people asked me, "Does Jet miss his dad? Of course he does," they'd answer themselves... but Peter, another Dad who is away on trips a lot said, "It doesn't always work that way, does it? Sometimes it's the other way, they just attach a little more firmly to the parent that is there for 'em..." He had it dead on in some ways. Jet was very happy to see John, but he never really said he missed him, and Jet's really taking my going to the knitting night a bit harder than he usually does. *sigh*. Well, we'll see.
Another interesting thing is that I'm running smack into the distance between my take on things and everyone, and I mean everyone, else's take on how well I'm doing at various things. I can tell that folks really are appreciative and admiring of all the work I'm doing in the OUR center garden, but I keep thinking I'm not doing nearly enough and I'm desperately behind on everything there and that I'm some how screwing up contact with folks when they don't contact me the way I need to be contacted... I thought I really screwed up with the tie dyeing because of various small mistakes, but I also know that the other parent appreciated how much John and I had done, and Mrs. Bauer was very happy with how much work we did and how we did it. Plus, John said that he thought I did great!
I may be just on a down cycle and I have to match things up again, somehow. But I'm feeling desperate about a lot of things that are working out really well, and... (laughter) that's not right, either.