Brain Junk and Tidbits.

Ok so here are a few crumbs I have collected this morning as I have speed cleaned my house.  Why I'm in a hurry, I have no idea because I have pretty much nada to do for the rest of the day.

I guess I could sew some.  I have some lunch bags to make.  See, I'm taking (and issuing) a zero waste lunch challenge.  Can you pack lunch for your children (and yourself) this coming school year without using things that have to be thrown away?  My pal Fer the wonder seamstress shared a link with me way back in April for nylon reusable sandwich bags.  I'm going to try this.  I think if I combine the nylon lunch bags and the refillable juice box shaped water bottles I should be REALLY close to the zero waste lunch.  My only glitch is the daily yogurt and cheese stick.

And speaking of going back to school...We are only 3 weeks away!  Can I just tell you how stoked my kids are?  Tuck is crossing off days on the calendar to count down.  Mo is just ready to see her friends again.  And Munch?  She is ready for some peace and quiet.  I'm ready for the grocery bill to drop again.  Holy Smokes!!  These kids have been vacuum cleaners this summer!  And they've grown about two feet collectively. 

But the back to school means time to go shopping and I think we all know how I feel about shopping.  Thankfully shopping for my children is not nearly as devastating for me as shopping for myself so it won't be that bad.  And who doesn't love new crayons?  This year we are filling a third backpack for a local charity.  With the economy being what it is, I'm sure there are some kids staring down the calendar wondering how they are going to face that first day of school.  I hope we can help at least one of them. I strongly encourage you to search out your own area for a charity that may need the same kind of help.

Which leads us to the concept of "new."  Remember way back when I chopped off all my hair in a fit of "I'm so sick of this being in my face!"? Yeah well, now I'm ready for the bangs to grow back out because they are in my face.  I have that dorky split down the middle flipped up thing going on and it's driving me bajonkers.

And I tried a new swimsuit top yesterday.  A bikini for the first time in my life.  I've had two pieces but they have been tankinis so there was no tummy showing.  I'll be going back to that, thank you very much.  My stomach is resembling a cooked lobster right now.  You know how people say they look like a lobster?  Well when you consider that a lobster is brown, that's not such a bad idea.  It's the cooked ones that get ya.

While we're talking about cooking, I'm going to brag a little.  My Christmas presents for my teachers are almost done.  My tag teaming pal and I have been working the last few weeks on mini jars of various jellies to create neat little assortment baskets for our teachers for the holiday.  You can be jealous because so far we have blueberry, strawberry, peach, blackberry and cherry and we have tasted them all and they are FABULOSO!!  We are still adding some mint, grape, fig and savory onion garlic to our repertoire along with some apple and pumpkin butter.  Tell me you don't wish you were a neighbor or a teacher right now and I will call you a big ole fibber.

Which leads me to my last little snippet.  What is up with the fibbing?!  Mo has entered the fibber phase and I am really not "down" with that.  Will someone please tell me that it is a phase and that I am not raising a criminal here?

By the way, it looks like the other Max will not be joining us after all.  I believe that he has found a new home without our help so I may have dodged a bullet there.  The kids have joined Daddy's dog campaign though so I have probably already been out voted.  I might as well start looking at breeds I will tolerate. 

Hey, thanks for letting me brain dump.  I'm sure you're a bit dizzy from all of that and wondering how it all fits together and I'll just let you know...It doesn't!  Have a great day!

(By the way, I just thought the picture was really neat!  No political commentary or deep meaning - although I'm sure I could come up with one if I thought on it.)