Free!

All my life I have hung on to things because I felt they were "too good" to throw away or even give to Goodwill. I wanted to know that they were going to someone who could really use them. Now I have a means of finding that someone. I had heard about Freecycle a few years ago, but because I am a procrastinator, didn't get around to trying it out until now. It's amazing. Last night someone came over, loaded up and hauled away 9 concrete patio blocks that had been laying behind our house since we moved in. And he was delighted! If we had to load them up and haul them away, we would not have been delighted. I don't even know where we would have taken them. Which is why they were behind our house for two years. What's more, I had six people offer to take them off my hands. Unbelievable. I must go look for something else to give away...

Brand Recognition

It was not surprising when Madeline started recognizing the Target logo everywhere. After all, it's all over our house, on a mouse pad, credit cards, T-shirts and many household products. And we go to Target all the time. But apparently she's soaking up more branding than I realized. I bought her a pair of neoprene Nike sandals to wear at the pool. She immediately started calling them her "running shoes." They would be very hard to run in, so I couldn't figure out why she would think they were for running. Then she called Al's Michigan visor his running hat. He has never worn it to run. But I made the connection. Al's visor and her shoes have the Nike Swoosh. Al also wears a Nike T-shirt for running, white with a little, tiny Swoosh on it. As her little mind figures out the way the world works she filed away "Swoosh=running." Makes me wonder what other connections she's making...

1/30

One day away from it officially being a month since my last post. Thought I'd better write something. I'm trying to decide what direction I want to take with this blog, but maybe I'll not worry about it and just post whatever pops in my head. I'm getting a little tired of the snide comments by my adoring readers.

P.S. Despite her huge new front teeth, Madeline is still not a vampire.

At least I know she's not a vampire

Madeline likes to "help" me cook. Last night when we were fixing supper I was peeling some garlic cloves. Madeline wanted to see one, so I gave it to her. She popped it right in her mouth saying, "Yummy!" She chewed it a few times, then made a horrible face and spit it out.

Ouch!

As the three of you who read my blog (am I being optimistic?) already know, I dropped my laptop on its head. The hard drive is destroyed and who knows what else. I had nothing backed up (stupid, stupid...I know.) I didn't have anything critically important on it, but I did have a lot of pictures I'm very sad to have lost. Between Snapfish, pics I sent to people and pictures still on our cameras, I really didn't lose much, but it still hurts to have lost them...and to have been so stupid. Anyway, I'm having a hard time letting go and taking my computer in to get a new hard drive. In the meantime, I'm relying on the kindness of my husband and my 6- or 7-year-old Ford-issued desktop in our basement to get me by. So, I didn't finish the post I began just before the untimely demise of my laptop. And I haven't been able to write the Easter post I had in my head. I guess I still have tomorrow...

Unbridled joy

And so it begins

I've frequently considered blogging, but I didn't know if I really had anything interesting enough to say. My husband started a blog today and now I know interesting is not a prequisite to blogging.