The Body and Mind Vacation: Let's Just Say It Ain't a Fancy Spa

I find I don't have much to say.

I've tried to come up with some sort of meaningful post. I've tried to make connections or be inspired or be inspiring. Nada.

Maybe I am on vacation. I don't get a real vacation, so maybe my body and mind, in sync with the school year, teachers, students, parents and kid, is saying, hey, it's almost time to start a new year of doing stuff, so I want a break. Maybe that's it.

Okay. That's fine.

I'll talk about what I have done this weekend of no inspiration.

I've made some brownies. They are just box brownies, but I like to doctor them up a little. This time, I put in some strong coffee, and cut half the oil with sour cream. I don't know how they will end up, but the batter sure tasted yummy.

I ate enough brownie batter to feel slightly ill.

I went into the garden and picked enough ferns to fill a vase by my bedside. Okay, a mason jar, but I like it. I also stuck in a blossom from a bush out there. It is a kind of peachy pink color and made of many little flowers, like lilac or hydrangea, but I don't know what this is called.

I realized that I like the alley behind my house better than the main street. The alley looks like some beach town, with it's narrow brick and little garages and guesthouses huddling together down the wavery alley. I like the posts that collect all the phone and electric wires, too. When you look at them, they are like pen marks on the sky. That's also where I found my bedside flower.

Potty training. Potty training. Potty training. The Spiderman stickers are even better than the batman stickers. And the baby girl is into stickers too, but still a little iffy on potty processes. So.

Helped the boy through poop. That's right. The icky, inglorious, smelly, sticky, sometimes, and in the boy's case, often very difficult. Apparently my efforts in putting the right things in his body are allowing him to poo without drama. This is a big thing in my life. That's what it means to be the mom of toddlers. Poo and pee are of UTMOST importance.

By the way. Poop.

Checked on the status of my new... well, okay, my refurbished camera. It should be here tomorrow! That may get me posting about things again. I do like to think visually. I would have liked to get a nice DSLR camera, but I am not quite in the place to go expensive and indulgent right now, so I got the same camera I lost. The price went down from over 300 when I first got it to 100$. That's good. I don't really need the latest technology, especially if I am still planning to upgrade when our financial situation starts recovering. But I do really need a camera. That's why I made the executive decision to get one. I hope it all goes smoothly.

I signed up for dominomag.com so that I could get a decofile and keep track of the images I see on line that inspire me to create a beautiful homespace. Especially since we're still going to be in transition until the end of the year, I want to think about what I want to have in my life. I believe in visualization. Maybe if I figure out the technology soon, I'll start posting my decofile here. I also subscribed to domino. I really am a pop culture junkie, and I do love me some design-- whether fashion, home, art, books... it doesn't matter. I like pretty things.

I did a little painting in my journal. It isn't my favorite painting ever, but I've found that it takes a while to get the painting juices back. Start slow, keep it moving and soon, if you are consistent, the inspiration and the facility will become natural and take on a life of it's own.

I've helped the kids do some painting and drawing, too... although they have a tendency to want to paint warstripes on themselves and/or eat the paint. We tried some coffee filter butterflies... but ran into the eating paint thing. Neither of them have any clothes yet that are not covered with stains from paint, jelly, chocolate and marker.

I bought supplies to make our own play dough. They are sitting there in the cupboard, staring at me. I am afraid of what will happen, a little, but maybe if we do it outside and they run around naked, with potties nearby we can reduce the stain possibilities. Of course, that will increase the mosquito possibilities. G has inherited my mosquito loved blood and gets almost as many bites as me. Ivy is barely bothered at all. Lucky little bunny.

I've realized that the word "two" is really bizarre. Look at it. TWO. TWO. TWO. T'Wo. Where the heck did that word come from? I bet it's Saxon or Nordic or something, some sort of language that uses way too many consonants. Why do we pronounce it "too" anyway?

I've seen a bunch of movies. And even better, I have not watched some movies, and instead have gone to bed and read books until I was tired. Reading books seems to be kind of restorative, lately.

Well. There I am. And I went grocery shopping. That's pretty much all I've got.

It's not profound....

Or is it?

(I have no idea if it is or isn't. My brain is on vacation. I leave it up to you folks to find the profundity. Maybe my brain will be back from vacation on Tuesday.)