Wed - Special exposure

A long while back, I had a couple of non-verbal boys.

Later, they became......a bit more verbal.

A wee while ago, one of them decided "not to talk" any more, for no apparent reason that I could fathom.

I was worried!

I hoped it was a positive choice on his part, a voluntary mute. I decided to worry and wait. I wondered how long I would have to wait? How long is it possible to remain mute, voluntarily?

Meanwhile, whilst I waited, I found my house suddenly plastered with numerous arrows of varying hues and sizes.



With a little help from his sister in the paper and cutting department, they decided to let me in on the act.

He posted a key to the arrows in chart form and stuck it to the fridge. Pink arrows for food, blue arrows for 'other needs,' blue arrows to direct my attention to important matters of interest and green arrows for area from which I was no longer permitted entry.

He added a few pertinent notes just in case I failed to catch his drift.


Everything comes to she who waits. Although for a moment there I returned to times when I would count words per day. Other people still wait.

Why might this be of interest to anyone else other than us? Because there are other skills that we learn, skills that we believe we have mastered, although often a little late in the day. If you find that new skill disappears overnight and you hunt for it for hours, maybe a little time will pass before it comes back again. I call it the "corkscrew effect." I wouldn't like anyone to waste valuable worrying time.

The words returned after four and a half days, a feat that I doubt I could challenge myself as I do have a tendency to whitter on a bit.

For more words, you may wish to meet up with "Nonna" or the "Alien."

Tackle it Tuesday - Welcome home

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR RUBY TUESDAY / CATS ON TUESDAY



From earlier this summer.





This is the room, originally, together with an interloper.









What can I say? It seemed like a good idea at the time. With both the girls gone for two weeks at Summer Camp, I was confident that I could redecorate her bedroom with time to spare.

As they all get older I become bolder, but her choice of red, my own personal favourite, made me baulk. A bedroom should be a place of peaceful repose, not a fire filled incendiary.

We compromised. White walls with dashes of red decor.

What I hadn't calculated, is the amount of help and assistance I would derive from other quarters.

But I digress.

This is the original room, as decorated for her older sister quite a few years ago. Alright, I admit it, a decade. After ten years in this room, it was time for a change.

White walls, a colour that was identified as Swiss Coffee, for some mystifying reason, coated the walls.

All the wooden furniture was painted red.

This only left the carpet.

The carpet, previously owned by the previous owners together with their pets, was a striking shade of pale grey. Pet deposits are difficult to eradicate, hence the pale grey effect was worsened by the splotchy additional patches, a great many of them. A new carpet, any carpet is the single most expensive outlay when it comes to redecoration.

But it was worth it.


It will have to last at least 10 years.

Since there are endless sites and books offering comprehensive advice on decorating projects I shall limit my advice to the following:-

When you make curtains and attach the curtain tape, take care. Oversew the outside edges several times.









Before you pull the gathering strings ensure that you double knot both ends, or you will be sure to unravel. When you pull the gathering strings, pick a point a few inches in from the outer seam because that way you will avoid having an annoying piece of visible dangley string on the edge of your curtain.







Oversewing the edges will ensure that when your children swing from the curtains, the edge will remain secure. It will not weaken. It will not rip. Instead the whole curtain track will crash down on top of your child.

I believe you have been duly warned.

Now I must attend to another lapsed campaign:- is there anything else that we might swing upon, as we surely need a cheaper form of vestibular regulation.


If I decorate one room every decade then I'm probably not doing too badly.

Ruby Tuesday and Cats on Tuesday

Look closely!

Genealogy – a brief history

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A nation is a society united by delusions about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbors.
- William Ralph Inge

From a few weeks ago [ish]

I sit knitting a "poncho" for Nonna as a surprise birthday present, the perfect gift for someone enduring an 85 degree heat wave.

My son lies at my feet examining carpet fibres.

“What it is?”
“What is what dear?”
“Dat fing on yur finger?”
“My wedding ring, this one?”
“No…..dah lil one which is being……bented.”
“Ah well that’s the McEwen seal, for a Scottish clan.”

I shut my mouth, drop a stitch and hear the pot boiling over in the kitchen.

I know that I have made several serious errors but I blunder on to pick up all the little hic-cups that I can manage.

“A seal is not a swimming mammal kind of a seal, it’s the kind of seal that you put on letters……er……..letters that come in the mail not the ABC kind of letters.”

I pause to draw breath, permit percolation and processing, mainly my own. I count to ten and then continue.

“Do you see the little tree on the ring? That is an oak tree that has been struck by lightening, so the top came off.”

Too many "triggers!" Conversations with this child are a minefield of "unexploded fears."




“But look, see that teeny tiny little leaf? That means that the tree has survived, it’s going to be o.k. It’s growing again. It goes along with the motto, Re res......actually it's Latin for 'I grow green again,' but we won't bother with that bit now.”

I take a few gulps.

He looks at me with a dubious air.
"We are skip dah Latins today?"
"Verily, let us not muddy the waters any further!"
"Mud?"
"Confuse....I mean..."
"Scottishs say Latins?"
"Ooo er well, not really.....but Latin was the common language amongst all those dialects.....any way I.."
"Dey have Daleks in Scottishs?"
"No....well not then in any case......"

I scrabble to regain ground. “Back in the olden, olden days there was a castle at the Firth of Fourth, or possibly the Fourth of Fifth, near Fife or possibly Fishgard, which was the McEwen Castle. 'Mc' means 'son of'...er......Ewen.....which is Scottish for John, sort of. Anyway, all around the castle, there were oak trees, so it’s sym…..bol……ic……….which means it is a symbol, not the clashing musical instrument kind of cymbal but……a sign that means something.”

Why on earth did I ever even begin this!

“It is be like a ……..sandcastle?”
“Well it certainly collapsed like one…..er…….I mean, it’s a ruined castle, like Corf Castle. Do you remember "Corf Castle?”
“Yeah.” Horray, something from England has permeated.
“It’s like a "coat of arms," it shows significant things about a family……”

What on earth am I talking about?

“What you are do?”
“With the ring? I thought you might ask that.”

But clearly not early enough.

“Well in the olden days people wrote letters on scrolls or parchment…….I mean……...envelopes hadn’t been invented yet, so people rolled up their pieces of parch....paper, with the writing on the inside……so it wouldn’t get wet……..because then the ink would run……..because they didn’t have biros back then…..”

Why is this so difficult!


“Dah ink is………..run?”
“Yes I’m sorry about that I meant……leak, spread…….make a nasty mess that you wouldn’t be able to read any more.”
“Like ……..dah magic ink!”
“Exactly so! Anyway, the other thing they didn’t have was glue, …….nor elastic bands come to think of it......……so hey invented sealing wax…....…which was wax that would seal or stick the paper together so that it wouldn’t unravel.”

I am unraveling much faster!

“What?”
“What what?”
“Wax?”
“Ah, well wax is…..just like candles, like on your birthday cake.”
“I am hate dah flames!”

I slip my arm around his shoulders so that he doesn’t escape, as I have let off more fire crackers than usual, and we need closure. I watch the stitches slip off the needle one by one, “so you’ve seen the drip on the candle as it melts? Well if you collect those drips they work like glue and stick the paper closed. Whilst it’s still a warm blob, you take the ring, the seal, and stick it in the wax and it leaves the mark of the tree. Then when……the delivery man..er....person…….brings the letter……..they already know who it’s from …….and they know that nobody else has taken a peek.”
“It is be private?”
“Exactly so.” He ponders.

“I am want?”
“What do you want dear, a ring? I'm afraid you'll have to wait until you're 18.”
“No …..dat would be an owie finger…….....I am want a "coat wiv no arms" too.”




Please stop by for an "anecdote from an alien" or a "Note from Nonna."


If anyone knows of a handy mechanic who is able to fix blog bugs, please give me a tinkle. I wonder if that should be 'bloganic'?

Magic Marker Monday

Here's one from my typical girl, it's about 9 inches tall, hanging in the kitchen.




She copied it from her Nonna's version, which is about five foot tall, hanging in the hall:-




She copied from you know "who!" It is "91 by 72" centimetres.

SOOC

This is from "Melody" at "Slurping Life" and refers to 'Straight out of the Camera'

Scroll down for Saturday Photo hunters and awards






The explanation =

"Mom?"
"Yes dear?"
"I am need."
"What do you need dear?"
"My medieval."
"Your what?"
"Medieval."
"Do you have some more describing words perhaps lovie?"
"Er....it is being a shirt dat cool baseball guys are wear."
"Ah. A sleeveless t-shirt then?"
"Yes."
"I don't get the medieval bit?"
"It is be look medieval."

I found it. Medieval? Ethiopian dearie. Maybe we need a geography lesson or perhaps history?

Cheers dears

Recipe Award [s]

Please Scroll Down [a couple of pages] to Photo Hunters




Additional little deviations.

First of all many grateful thanks to "Angela" from "Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy" the button making genius for creating these buttons for me in the first place.

I love them both and couldn't decide which one to use and then I thought, delegation! Someone else can make the decision for me, much easier, you get to choose.

To "Michelle o"Neil" at "Full Soul Ahead" for "Baked Pears / Riley's Dessert."

"Melinda" for her "recipe" for cookies and who also hangs out over here for special diets "gfcf Mama."

Then to "Bipolarlawyercook" for her post called "Spinach pear and chicken apple sausage salad," the picture is enough to make you slather!

Then "Your Vegan Mom" because she is just wonderful when you're in a fix, which I usually am. Try out this recipe for "Pizza Sandwich" but only if you can dislocate your jaws of course.

"Michelle" at "Zanes Milk Machine" for her post "Mich cooks snowballs."

For "Empress Bee (of the High Sea)" on "Muffin 53" and her post "Snickerdoodles."

And to "Hammer" from "When your Only Tool is a Hammer" for his recipe called "Hammer's Wing Recipe" which strangely has nothing to do with flying.

Lastly to the "Antiwife" for a very interesting and alternative "recipe" indeed!

Guidelines:-

1. If you have time you may wish to link to the originators [Ooo, that would be me I suppose? No that would probably be "Angela" on second thoughts. Can you tell that I pinched these rules from someone else?]

2. Whizz it off to seven other blogs that you like, ideally to a perfect and specific recipe.

3. Tell the awardee that you have awarded them [because lots of people will never know otherwise because they have no way of knowing unless you tell them, unless they're higher up the blogging learning curve than I am!]

4. Sit back and enjoy the glow.

Cheers dears

Knitting Award

Please Scroll down for Photo Hunters and our regularly scheduled programme, or glance in the sidebar to your right.

Yes, a little deviation but I have been wanting to do this for a very long time.

First of all many grateful thanks to "Angela" from "Memoirs of a Chaotic Mommy" the button making genius for creating these buttons for me in the first place.

First to "Anne" from "Anne's House," funnily enough. You can see some of her work on her post called "how was your weekend."

Then to "Crazy for Yarn" at the "Yarn collectors anonymous" although I can't link to a specific page if you scroll down [past cats and squirrels......[see why I like it?] then you get to see the knitting.

Then to "knit and Tonic" loads of brilliant idea here to suit all comers as well as lots of helpful hints.

Also to "mini knitting lessons" because I need the visuals sometimes.

Then to "Emma" at the "Middle Knitter."

Also to "Wendy" at "cat knits" I mean! What a perfect combination.

Then to "Amy" at "Live Learn Knit," a multi- tasker if ever there was one!




Last one, a new one for me and possibly the solution to the Webkins clothes dilemma for "Carol" from "Go knit in your hat." It's bad enough saving to buy the Webkinz. I absolutely refuse to save to buy clothes for the little blighters.





Guidelines:-

1. If you have time you may wish to link to the originators [Ooo, that would be me I suppose? No that would probably be "Angela" on second thoughts. Can you tell that I pinched these rules from someone else?]

2. Whizz it off to seven other blogs that you like, ideally to a perfect and specific recipe.

3. Tell the awardee that you have awarded them [because lots of people will never know otherwise because they have no way of knowing unless you tell them, unless they're higher up the blogging learning curve than I am!]

4. Sit back and enjoy the glow.



Cheers dears

fri - An Astute Comment of recent note

Please scroll down for photo hunters


Still struggling with the juggling a bit here, hence this is an alternative to the 'comment of the week award.' I hope that normal service shall be resumed shortly or if not that, then longly.

<a href="http://whittereronautism.com/"><img src="http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q158/mmcewen/Recipes-1-1.jpg" /></a>

[Inspired by "Scribbit."]

I couldn't resist this one from "Frog's Mom" over at "4 Green and Speckled Frogs," when she commented on this post called "A Pouf of Ponchos" and said as follows:-

'
Gold:
Connection to God, in the service of Humankind,
Restructuring seventh layer,
strengthening field,
charging field,
Wealth, security, ease

It sounds like a great color for a Poof to me!'

If by any remote chance you have not visited her site before, then you may wish to start here on her post called "A Frog of Discriminating Taste," which indeed she/they is/are!






As an addition, maybe you might like to pop over and visit "Osh" at the "House that Osh Built." If this is a new site for you, I would recommend that a good starting point might be over here on her post called "Vacuum cleaners and cats." I've picked this one because it suits all comers. Those who hate cats will see it as just desserts. Those who love cats can report the owners to the Humane Society. For those who hate vacuum cleaners, I offer safe sanctuary. Those who love vacuum cleaners are beyond help, seek professional treatment dearies.

P.s. a pal of "mine" mentioned that the animator above locked their computer. Has anyone else had this experience as I feel I may need to axe the lil guy!

Photo Friday - exercise

Actually this apparently isn't exercise, merely play, and supposedly fun.

Each to their own I say dearies.

Cheers

Photo Hunt String

"Photo Hunt"



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A Pouf of Ponchos?

I make one for my daughter.

It looks delightful.

I knit one for myself, they’re so quick and easy.

I knit one for my older daughter, sludge coloured so that she can blend in with her beloved trees. Since my mother-in-law's birthday is only a day or two away, I knit another one.

I have quite a bit of wool left over.

At the weekend, when everyone is home, I sort though my wool basket to the delight of small people who frequently believe that playing with balls of yarn makes them every bit as irresistible as kittens.

“You are knit me?”
“Pardon?”
“I need?”
“What do you need?”
“I am needing a pouf too,” he wheedles.

It certainly would be a good way to use up all the scraps and leftovers. It might help reduce global warming. It would fit in well with the recycling plan. It would be bound to come in handy when the summer days wane and everyone complains of chilliness.

“Ah! Waste not want not! Which would you prefer, greeny, purply, pink, or sludge, or red, or lemon or stripes?”

He pauses, deep in thought, “I am be have golden!” he announces with glee, as yellow is still his current favourite but his father is quicker off the mark as he pounces, “not on your nelly Sunny Jim, you’ll look like a complete......…” I lop him on his politically incorrect loaf.

Thursday 13 - The Crown Jewels reveal

Thirteen Things about crown jewels 1.... Start your list here!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants








I’m a bit of a hoarder on the quiet but not the sentimental variety. I hold true to the values of quality above quantity. That said, I feel it only fair to put them all on public display. It is also a reminder to update your home’s personal insurance policy. Make sure to detail those items that have a value greater than the minimum deductible claim adjustment cost ratio.

1. here we have the treasure box that houses the gems. It’s some kind of old cutlery box, slightly smaller than a house brick.





2. This is my grandfather’s wrist watch. Sadly I can’t wear it as I am allergic to nickel.





3. This is my grandmother’s brooch made of Porcelain. Sadly I cannot wear it as the clasp is made of brass, it’s heavier than a rock and tears clothes.






4. This is a Fimo brooch with respect to a career that never panned out.






5. This is a photo of the three of us before we became six





6. This is the pair of ear-rings that she made for me a couple of decades ago. Sadly I cannot wear them as I do not possess the neck of a giraffe and hence I have a tendency to impale my shoulder blades with dagger points when I laugh.










7. This is the necklace he gave me during the many happy years of sin we enjoyed.









8. This is a golden plastic box.







9. In the golden plastic box is a flower made of sugarpaste that a dear pal made to adorn our wedding cake.






10. This is my 13th Wedding Anniversary gift, it is a glass waste product of NASA.





11. These are my watches. The Timex is accurate but winder is a fighter. The bead one is fabulous, elastic and therefore allergy free but the dye leaks from the natural wood.



12. This is my son’s Worry Stone. It’s never in the treasure box as we need it on hand at all times, not tucked away gathering dust.






13. This is a pin that my OBGYN gave me and all his other patients. It represents the size of a babies feet at 9 weeks. I don’t think they do that kind of a thing in England, but I still acquired quite a few, over the years. I could only keep three of the little ones. Maybe it represented 13 weeks of baby development but memories fade in sharp relief.

Of course it’s 100% tin, so I couldn’t possibly wear it.

Fortunately they came with their own protection, hypoallergenic, you know, the really pure gold kind.








***

And now........for something completely different!









Brought to you by "Artie.com", the nearest I can manage to a button! Today I should very much like to recommend this site to you called "Like a Shark" and her post called "Outside/in," as alternative perspectives are always highly recommended. Ooo the drama!

And finally, real life catches up.

Whilst I was whizzing around today I came across a post from a pal of mine, "Mary" at "A Room Of Mama's Own." It always makes me laugh because from when I first visited there many moons ago, something dyslexic kicked in and she has been stuck in my brain as 'Mama's PJ's,' which is of course American for 'pyjamas.' So there she is, forever stuck in her pyjamas in my brain, but of course she's real person, just as all the other jolly bloggers are, in the real world, where real things happen.

A lot of the things that happen in the real world are "horrid." When horrid things happen it's hard to know what to say or write to that person, a "real person." Often it's simpler just to slip away unnoticed, especially if you're a cowardly type like myself.

I often wish I could find a new system of communication. I'd like to just be able to put at 'X' in the comments box.

The 'X' could mean all sorts of different things, a code.

My 'X' would translate to:-

1. Maybe a kiss or a hug, or something mushy like that.

2. Perhaps it marks the spot of the treasure, 'here I am!'

3. I have read what you have written but I lack the worms to convey what I wish to share.

4. I was here, I read what you wrote, but somebody already wrote the worms that I was going to write.

5. His / her worms are better than mine, so I won't write anything.

6. I am a huge, hunky, chunky, chappy type that eats worms for breakfast, but I do have a sensitive side.

7. I am but a mere worm but with access to a laptop. An 'x' is all I can manage. Although I can head butt the 'x' key, don't ask for a capital as that shift key is a bit of a stretch.

So nip along to read "Mary" and leave an X in the box, as she's a very good translator.

Photo Friday - old fashioned

What is it?








Well it's several things all at once.

1. a traditional gift for a baby

2. a whistle [see the little hole in the pipe]

3. a rattle [hence the bells]

4. supposedly you could rattle the rattle to entertain the baby whilst you blow the whistle to corral the rest of your herd. Could prove a very interesting experiment trying to rattle and whistle at the same time. You'll probably find your self all alone with absolutely not children or babies within sight.

But that's just my take of course.

Cheers dears

Recommended

Please scroll down for Tackle it Tuesday

Brought to you by "Artie.com" today I should very much like to recommend this site to you called "Slurping Life " as well as this post called " FASD " which you can also read over here on "5 Minutes for Special Needs," as a little more awareness never hurt anyone last time I checked.

Cheers dears