that Princess Bride quote is so overused

[mamajoan]

So much going on, so little time or motivation to post.

Well, fortunately Ruthie's second bout of RSV was much milder than the first. By Saturday morning she was mostly fine except a lingering wet cough, so I did leave her with mom and go off to the Chocolate Buffet. Note to self: next time eat some actual food first...! Sadly metafrantic and sandykidd had to bail on the chocolate due to their own and Baz's illness(es). So it was a smaller group than planned, but we still had fun and radegund_lj proved how well she knows me ;)

Alas, though, even before the Buffet, I could feel the onset of that scratchy-throat feeling that means I'm getting sick. And it was worse on Sunday and Monday. I feel somewhat better today but not much. :P Man, it has been a terrible winter for illness! I think this like the fourth time I've been sick and a similar number for Ruthie. I blame Purell and amoxycillin, but let's not go there right now. ;)

The work itself continues to be interesting and challenging, but all the other stuff around the job (logistics, etc.) continues to be just awful. Several times now I've ended up parking in the lot across the street from the office ($22 for the day, ouch!) after ages of circling around looking for a spot. This cannot continue. The circling is hard on me physically as well as mentally, and the $22 is just outrageous (even though I'm pretty sure I can take it as a tax deduction). The bottleneck here is still the Ruthie childcare situation, or lack thereof. I have an appt on Friday to visit an in-home daycare that is absolutely perfect in terms of location, quite reasonable on price, and has an opening. I just hope I don't hate it. Sigh. If I like it but don't love it, it'll be a pretty difficult decision. Anyway, we'll see how that goes.

I really can't believe that Ruthie will be a whole year old in just a couple of weeks. It's incredible the way these things happen. This morning at preschool dropoff, there was another mom whose baby is now 3 months old and today was to be the mom's first day back at work (and the baby's first day in daycare). I expressed my deepest sympathies and the mom seemed appreciative. She said that with her first (the one who goes to preschool now, obviously) she couldn't wait to get back to work, but this time around, it's just too soon. I said that was exactly how I had felt too....

Oh, and something a little odd. On Sunday, for no discernable reason, while I was sitting around feeling like utter crap and Isaac was largely entertaining himself, I had a sudden urge to tie-dye something. Don't ask me where that came from. I have (had) never tie-dyed before, so it was pretty much totally out of the blue. (I think it started when I got to thinking about how Ruthie has outgrown most of her girly clothes so now she is mostly wearing Isaac's hand-me-downs again, and how I want to get her more girly stuff but don't want to spend actual money on it, etc.) I spent quite a while googling tie dye instructions and supplies, added a bunch of dyes to my Amazon shopping cart, then came to my senses and deleted it all, LOL. I was so crazed, I almost thought I'd take the kids to Target and get some dye and white shirts -- this after I had spent the morning whining (to myself) about the fact that I felt like crap and wanted something carbonated to drink to soothe my throat but didn't have the energy to haul two kids even just the few blocks to CVS to get a soda.

Anyway, so after all that, I had another insane inspiration to try tie-dying with tea. I brewed up a strong pot of black tea and actually did tie-dye one of Isaac's shirts and a onesie of Ruthie's. The shirt came out a bit faint, but the onesie came out pretty well. Then I brewed up some cranberry-apple tea in hopes that it would make a nice bright red/pink dye, and did another of Ruthie's onesies, but that didn't work out so well. It was just sort of faintly pinkish and mostly just looked dirty. Ah well, at least it seems to have scratched the itch, at least temporarily.

Isaac liked the shirt that I did for him though, so much so that he insisted on wearing it to preschool. Last night I tried to get a picture of both of them in their tea-tie-dyed clothing, but they were so busy goofing off, I didn't really get any good shots. :) This is the best one I could get of Ruthie's onesie, at least showing a bit of the concentric-circles pattern:


and just for the fun of it, here's the two of them being silly (this is me lying on the floor and them both climbing on me, LOL!)


♥

I believe I shall try tie-dying again in the near future, with actual dyes! In my copious free time! Because just what I need is a new hobby that costs money and makes a huge mess! ;) But it's fun dammit! Okay. I am insane.

Comments

[sandykidd.livejournal.com]

Hey, if you want to set a date (some time in April, preferably), we can get together and tie-dye some summer clothes.

I was thinking of getting some fabric pens and some plain tops for Bart and Baz and I and unique-ing them up, anyway, so tye-dying first might make things even more fun. :)

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

I think you should have a tie-dying party in your backyard this spring/summer!

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

That's actually an awesome idea! Maybe for Isaac's birthday? :)

[sunlit-mists.livejournal.com]

Kool Aid has great dye properties and is very cheap!

[ima-omi.livejournal.com]

Tie dye rocks! A loves it too.