I heart craig. And his list.

I sold something on craigslist! I've bought things from craigslist and have posted things for sale before, but nothing ever sold. This time was different, and I'm thrilled!

I found a good home for an item that hasn't been used for over 10 years, regained some space in my closet and got some money to put toward our travel account (or whatever). This was better than a garage sale!

I think I'm going to try this again.

(Don't worry, dad. I had my neighbor come over as borrowed "muscle" in case the guy who came to pick up the item was the craigslist killer, or the craigslist thief, or the craigslist menace, or the craigslist door-to-door salesman.)

Gotta go find more stuff to post. :->

I just lost my daughter...

I just lost my daughter to a read-a-thon.

Her teacher is giving various prizes for reading during the next six days. Every three hours jumps you up to the next prize level. Free homework passes, extra recesses, and the grand-daddy of them all- sitting in the teacher's chair and making schedule decisions for a whole day.

To win the big one, you must read at least 18 hours in six days. Teacher said that in her whole career, no one had ever reached that level.

Guess who decided she was going to do it?

Yup.

I was kind of impressed by her gumption. She and I discussed the whole thing during dinner, and I showed her various ways she could accomplish the task if she wanted to. To understand the size of the task, I gave her 18 paper circles and we spread them out on the table in six groups. I knew she could not get three hours per night- especially when she has basketball on Friday.

This is what she came up with:

She also decided that she would give me one paper circle every time she accomplished an hour of reading. Very visual- kind of like cutting off a link in a paper chain that counts down the days till Christmas.

Smart kiddo.

I wonder what I am going to do on Saturday and Sunday while she is reading?

(Duh- scrapbook. :->)

Easy salad

This is one of my favorite salads- not just because I invented it, but because it is easy, quick, and tasty. Start with a bag of broccoli slaw and a bag of shredded carrots.

(Could you chop the broc and shred the carrots yourself? Of course. But why?)

Mix those together with a heaping cup of raisins and store in it the fridge. When you want a salad, add sunflower seeds and a dressing of your choice to each individual portion. I prefer a poppy seed dressing, but recently I discovered this amazing onion dressing (that has some poppy seeds) from Tastefully Simple and I don't think I'll go back to regular poppy seed any time soon.

I don't use a ton of dressing- just enough to introduce the taste to each piece of veg. If there is dressing in the bowl after I have eaten, then it was wasted, and that would be a shame.

Then I add the seeds, and done! No chop chop, no Veg-O-Matic, no washing of knives!

Just dig in and enjoy!

I think he was Tebowing

The Prayer at Valley Forge by Arnold Friberg.

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Well, Tuesday night brought the snow. It started around 8 at night and it was beautiful to see in the light of the street lamps. I went to sleep watching it through open blinds. At 4 in the morning, I woke to the sound of rain slamming against the window. It was still pretty cold and the 5 inches of snow wasn't dissolving very fast, so school was cancelled for the day. It was nice to crawl back into bed and just listen to the trucks drive through the slush on the nearby freeway.

Didn't make for very good snow pictures, but we did get another snowball for our freezer.

The thing is, even though the snow only really lasted one night, we were spared some very nasty results of this "monster" storm.

North of us was a deep freeze. They had two or three times the amount of snow, topped off with a layer of ice. Pretty, but treacherous. Tree limbs came down, power was cut off, at least one person died.

South of us was a swimming pool. Most of a whole town was evacuated, a car was swept into a rain-swollen culvert, two people died.

Latitude. Longitude. Altitude. Temperature. Humidity. Ocean. Mountains. Cold fronts. Warm fronts. Micro-climates.

It all contributes to the interesting weather stew that is the PNW. Personally, I love the rain and I enjoy the occasional storm drama. It reminds me that despite our preparations, things can happen that are outside of our control.

So we pray, and leave it in the Lord's hands. Better Him than me!

It's teasing me...

It starts. It stops. It starts again. Sometimes the flakes are huge, sometimes miniscule. It's not sticking, but it might tonight when it gets a bit colder.

A wish...

if this rain

were only snow

and i had no good place to go

i'd stay at home

with ab and fri

and a new book i would try

by the fire

toasty and warm

i wouldn't mind a winter storm.