Celebrating Eleven Years

Hubby and I celebrated our eleventh wedding anniversary last week. We're coming up on fifteen years together as a couple come September, and it dawned on us that we'll meet that "half our lives" together milestone in just a few years.

Taken Thanksgiving of 2002. We'd just announced our engagement.

How time flies!

A Visit to the Botanical Gardens

Long time readers will know our family takes a yearly trip to the local botanical gardens every summer around the girls' birthdays. It's usually the only time we can afford the ticket price plus gas plus time plus snacks for the day. However, I lucked out and won a Twitter contest held by the gardens a few days before this year's spring break for Hubby's school.

Here's a pic from our first trip as a family for comparison.

We allow the girls to have half days when Hubby is off for school holidays aside from summer vacation, so time wasn't a problem this time. We needed to head into town anyway to run errands on Tuesday, so gas wasn't a big issue. So we packed up our own water bottles from home, grabbed a box of trail mix bars, and went to the gardens several months earlier than is our usual.

Valentine's?

Everyone's been talking about Valentine's Day lately, and there've been heart shaped boxes of chocolates and whatnot on shelves almost since December 26. Am I the only one that just doesn't get it?

Valentine's Day confuses me.

If you enjoy the holiday and like celebrating it, more power to you. But it's something Hubby and I just can't get into. It feels too manufactured to actually be romantic, so we just skip it.

Creating Memories

We instituted a weekly "family night" just over a year ago, and it's been a rousing success. The girls look forward to it each week, and not just because that's the night we have our weekly sweet treat. They're still at that age where they want to hang out with their parents. Even when we've been together all week, they still crave time and connection with Hubby and me, and they see more as more.

From our Lord of the Rings Marathon Christmas 2013

I have a confession to make though. I've been getting lazy with planning our family nights. It's so easy to fall into a routine of popcorn and a movie. I only managed to participate in the first retro game night a time or two before the controller that worked with our Nintendo emulator got to where the rumble was a constant thing. That'd freeze my hands up inside five minutes, so we tried using our hand-me-down Wii, but then one of the controllers stopped working back in the summer. And our balance board died sometime last month, so video games are pretty much out. The girls have usually used up their focus for the day before Hubby gets home from work, so the board games and puzzles we have get frustrating for them late in the evening, relegating them to a weekend and holiday only thing. So, what's a mama to do?

Sharing is Caring

No, this isn't an article on teaching your children to share their toys, but it is about how sharing can and is a form of caring for one another. What I'm talking about here is work and responsibility sharing. Perhaps not the most fun form of sharing, at least at first, but it's one of the most important ones we as parents have to teach our children.

I've made no secret about the fact we expect our girls to help out around the house. They've been putting their toys away since they were two, and they've learned how to do a couple of new things each year. It's my job as their mother and Hubby's as their father to teach them how to take care of themselves spiritually, physically, financially, and domestically. If we didn't teach them how to cook and clean for themselves along with how to read, handle mathematics in all its applications, and think critically, we'd be failing them as parents. But that in and of itself isn't what I'm getting at.

It's something I've come to realize as my "bad" joints have started getting worse and even my "good" hip and knee have started giving me trouble. Sharing the work and responsibilities involved in tending hearth and home is a powerful way to show one another how much we love and trust them.

Event Recap: Con Kasterborous 2015

This year's Con Kasterborous was this past weekend, and it was bigger than ever this year!

My Con Kasterborous setup for 2015.

July in Alabama is always hot, and this weekend was no exception. How all the cosplayers managed it in so many layers when outside the cooler confines of the hotel, I have no idea, but let me tell you, they were there and just as magnificent as always. Sadly, I'm kind of a chicken when it comes to asking folks for photos, and my camera gave up the ghost after overheating sometime last spring. So the only photo I have is the kinda sad set up shot above, which is the best my phone camera can muster.

Opening ceremonies was as fun and entertaining as ever. The guests were great this year and all seemed kind and charming. Unfortunately, thanks to it still being the middle of summer semester for Chris' students and his taking over the school's website and social media maintenance for the upcoming year, he was busy with grading and communicating with parents most of the weekend. So as much as both of us would have liked to take turns attending what we heard were wonderful panels, we really only got to see and hear as much as went on in the dealer's room.

We did get the chance to catch up with friends we haven't gotten to see in a long while and meet a bunch of new folks. We got a kick out of seeing all the beautiful cosplays as well as seeing Dalek Braun and R2-D2 rolling around the lobby.

There were a couple of disappointed mentions of lotions missing from our table this year. We've discontinued those and the guest sets from our usual line up. Unfortunately, the smallest possible batch of lotion makes four bottles, and the majority of the time only one or two would sell within the ten months before they became too close to their expiration dates to sell. If someone wants to order a minimum of two or three bottles, I can make a custom order for them, but otherwise the lotions just seem wasteful.

Also, discontinuing the lotions and guest sets has allowed us to keep more fragrances this year than we would have been able otherwise. My inventory closet is just a teeny tiny linen closet, so space is at a premium. The trim down freed up an entire shelf for new fragrances, meaning only one old scent had to be discontinued this year and room is still left for seasonal items and next year's line.

There is one thing I love about the new Westin location. The tables are large and sturdy, and the tablecloths provided are amazing. They don't slide around on the tables, and they provide enough friction to keep stuff from wobbling. We missed being as near the action as we were last year, but the new dealer's room was large enough that they could scoot the tables farther away from the wall than we've ever been able to before. Between that and having a parred down selection, it was a lot easier to manage the busiest times because Chris and I could slide by one another without tripping over chairs and open the cash box without knocking a shelf over.

All in all, Con Kasterborous 2015 was yet another good year, and we're looking forward to going back June 25 and 26 next year.

Patio Vegetable Garden: Getting Started

We've been talking about starting a patio garden for two or three years. It's one of those things that can be a bit pricy to get going. So, we've been accumulating pots, tools, and bags of drainage rock here and there over the last few years. While irritating, it's been for the best since it gave the girls time to grow into being able to take active roles in tending the garden with us.

The girls learned how to transplant seedlings. They were so gentle with their beans!

Thus far, 2015 seems to be the year to get started as things finally fell into place with only bags of high quality potting soil and seedlings left to go. So with the girls' bean plants outgrowing our kitchen table, we devoted Friday afternoon and just about all day Saturday to setting up our first patio vegetable garden.

Branching Out Our Taste Buds

One day back in late February, I was out grocery shopping with the girls and bemoaning the fact our local Aldi had once again run out of gluten free bread. A woman overheard us talking and told us about a new store getting ready to open just up the road called Sprouts purportedly like a lower cost Earth Fare or Whole Foods. Of course I had to go home and look it up.

Inside Sprouts from their website. Not a sponsored post, just an excited mama.

A few weeks later this new Sprouts Market opened. We weren't there at the opening itself, but it didn't take us long to go check it out.

Fall Show Review

These past couple of weeks have been busy ones. The last two-thirds of our fall show season happened back-to-back, so there wasn't time really to comment on each of them in turn.

First we had Rocket City NerdCon in Huntsville on October 24-25. It was a first year event, so we weren't sure what exactly to expect. However, we thought chances were good it might be a fairly laid back affair, so we decided it would be a good convention to be the girls' first.

The girls were proud of their homemade costumes.

Both girls wanted to cosplay, especially since it was the week before Halloween. I, of course, waited far too long to get started on their costumes. I'd never made a full costume before, let alone two, so I was probably procrastinating out of subconscious fear. Anyway, with two full days of intensive sewing, their Batgirl and Supergirl costumes got done about 9:30 Thursday night.

Friday was eventful and interesting because neither Hubby nor I were able to get the day off work, and the convention started just half an hour after I usually get off work. Thankfully, the Huntsville City Library is just a block or so from the station and basically across the road from where Hubby works. We got set up just in time to catch our breath before attendees started coming in.

Saturday was also a learning experience. As I said before, we'd never carried our girls to a convention before, so we ended up overestimating how engaged they would be by it all. Although they liked seeing the costumes and looking at everything, they got bored fairly quickly. It probably didn't help that between the excitement of spending the night at Granny D's and knowing they were going to get to go somewhere special the next day, neither girl slept much the night before. So, we had two sleepy girls on our hands well before lunch.

Still, we all enjoyed the show overall, and it went well for a first year event.

This past weekend was our third year at Hilltop Arts Festival.

A cold front came through the night before, so it was bitterly cold and windy early Saturday morning when we were setting up. Still, the girls had gotten a good night's sleep, or so I thought, and I'd gotten everyone hats and gloves the night before. So, we thought nothing of taking the girls with us.

We got there and began setting up. The girls ran up and down a small hill behind where we were setting up our tent to keep warm and busy. Hubby and I got the tent up with a lot less fuss than the year before, which considering we only use the thing once a year, is pretty good. We probably should have taken it as a sign to just take it back down when it tried to blow away three times in the process of trying to get it weighted down.

Anyway, we got the tent set up, and I was setting up the tables when the girls really started complaining about being cold. So Hubby took them home to get some blankets while I finished setting up the tables. I was done and had made a partial round to see the other venders when they returned. They got cuddled up under their blankets, and things seemed fine for a bit until the wind started picking up as the air warmed a few degrees. It was strong enough that Hubby and I were still obliged to hold onto the tent, even with center blocks weighting the tent down. This frightened Boo Bear so badly, she began crying in a panic.

Eventually we ended up calling Granny D to come get the girls, and then Hubby and I took the tent down once the wind died down enough for us to attempt it. That made things feel a tad warmer with access to direct sun, and we didn't have to sprint to grab the tent every few minutes.

Like NerdCon the week before, business was slow but steady throughout the day. We heard some great music, ate some good food, and met some very nice people.

I'm not entirely sure if we will be vending at Hilltop again next year, but I'm sure we'll go. It has nothing to do with the show itself. It's a wonderful event. But, the weather seems to be getting colder earlier each year these past three or four years, and other festivals in the area make moving the event date impractical.

I discovered Saturday night and in through Sunday evening, that I can't handle being in the cold for that long. A soak in hot water and some "Ow, My Aching Everything," relieved much of the aches and pains from the day, but the bones themselves in my hips, legs, and feet ached throughout the night. And those are areas I usually don't feel RA related pain!

Of course, this may change with continued treatment. It's possible my rheumatoid disease isn't as in remission as I thought, and it's just going to take longer adhering to the anti-inflammatory diet, exercise, and judicious use of medicines when needed to heal. I don't want to make any firm decisions until I know more.

Front Garden Makeover

So I've felt like death warmed over for the past six to eight weeks, but I've finally started feeling more like myself the last week or so. Maybe it's the weather slowly starting to even out. Maybe whatever tears up my sinuses at the turn of the year has passed. Maybe it's just a fluke. I don't know, but I'm taking full advantage.

I've been working on some long term projects throughout the last couple of weeks. I'll likely talk about those in a vlog later this week or next, when it's been finished and delivered, meaning I can finally show pictures. Right now, I want to talk about the project our family undertook and actually finished today!

Avoid the Stress Haze

All the traditions and social occasions this time of year make for some of life's most memorable moments. However, it's all too easy for those memories to get lost in a haze of stress as you rush from one event to another.

When I was brainstorming blog and video ideas earlier this month, Hubby and I came to the unsettling realization we didn't have a lot of clear memories of Christmases past. We have some photos and a few really short video clips, but just to remember them without those aids, there was nothing there.

Traditions

The holiday season is one of traditions. And with the girls and I doing some holiday tag videos over on the YouTube channel, we've been doing a lot of thinking about those traditions.

We have several in the E household, some common and at least one that's a bit off the wall. But all of them are much beloved by Hubby and me anyway, and they're both expected and looked forward to starting around Halloween.

First, as I've mentioned before, we always put up our holiday decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Once everything is up, we have a dinner of leftovers and then pile on the sofa to enjoy the first Christmas special of the year and the first cup of eggnog.

Boo Bear & Sneak decorating the tree this year.

This year we happened to watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," which we discovered is the girls' favorite when we shot the Holly Jolly Holiday Tag last week. I'd also managed to get a good bit of our gifts purchased by then this year, so there was some gift wrapping going on that evening as well.

So, Thanksgiving is coming up next week.

As has probably become obvious by now, I'm still trying to find a good balance here on the blog itself after merging The Tekaran Lady, Contented Comfort, and this blog into one as well as with my newish YouTube channel. This process will probably intensify over the next few weeks or months as I get back into posting and uploading on some kind of regular basis. Things might get a bit crazy around here for a while, so please have patience with me.

Boo Bear took advantage of everyone talking to sneak HALF a pie!

I've been brainstorming, and of course considering the time of year we're in now, a lot of what I've been thinking about revolves around the holidays. I'm currently working on a child friendly Thanksgiving tag and planning to shoot a few Sunday Sides and Suppers videos featuring a few super easy but delicious gluten free sides and desserts as I start into my holiday cooking. I'll also do a couple of writing posts and/or vlogs as I get back into working on Right of Succession and start pre-writing my next project. And, of course, there are some things I may end up co-writing with Hubby regarding homeschooling and the other change ups we've had going on the past couple of months.

Yet another whacked out summer.

I only just realized how long it's been since I've looked at this blog. It's been months since I've posted or even checked comments. I'm a bad, bad blogger.

However, I've had a bunch of other things on my mind lately. First off, I was rather obsessed with finishing off the rewrites and edits on Right of Succession. Then, as it became clear I needed to start applying for an on-site job, that became all consuming. So, here I am two weeks away from the start of the fall show season with a list of items to restock as long as my arm, three and a half chapters left to finish rewriting, and getting ready to start a new part-time job come Monday.

Autumn Breeze Soaps. Leaves are available in red, orange, and yellow.

On the plus side, I finished stocking the limited edition Autumn Breeze soaps. They are available through the store front now through December 1, and I'll have them with me at Hilltop Arts Festival and NA Crafters Expo the first two weeks in November.

Although I will be going to work for a couple of local radio stations, Contented Comfort will stay up and running. Most of the time, I was manufacturing all the products, handling the marketing, and selling at an average of 10-15 hours a week. The rest of the time, I was homeschooling the girls and doing housework. Circumstances have changed for our family, and now Hubby has the opportunity to really teach the way he's wanted to do through homeschooling our daughters and possibly as an online social sciences tutor. This means I have mornings free, and if you know me, you know I can't stand sitting around doing nothing. So, hence my first regular, on-site job in almost seven years.

So now, I'll be working mornings using skills I developed at Cumulus Broadcasting back when Hubby and I first married, and I'll do what I need to do for Contented Comfort in the evenings and on weekends.

This week, I'm working hard to remake the items that are low or out-of-stock. In some cases, I'm experimenting with possible new products or making items I didn't get to make earlier, like Byronic Doctor guest soaps. So, watch here or on the store front for new or returning items.

52 Week Challenge: 12 New Habits to a Better You

It's been years, but I've decided to give the 52 Week Challenge another try.

I know. I know. I've burnt out before the challenge was over both times I tried before, but I've finally figured out what I was doing wrong. Even though simplifying my goals on the second try, I was still trying to do too much at one time. I have to keep reminding myself of the adage: "Keep it simple, stupid."

So, what is the 52 Week Challenge? It's based on the notion it only takes 30 days of doing something every day to make it habit. So, someone doing the challenge sets a goal for that month's area and keeps to it for thirty days. Then they move to the next area.

The challenge is meant to cultivate twelve new good habits in four key areas of your life. Those areas are: spirituality, health, relationships, and productivity.

The girls love their Nana and shower her with kisses and cuddles when she's in town.

Managing the Household Chores

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you know household management and I haven't always gotten along so well. I've tried half a million different schedules and plans it seems, and nothing sticks for long, if at all.

Well, to make a long story short, I finally just combined lots of really good advice from Hannah Keeley, The Fly Lady, and a few other household management schedules I came across on Pinterest to create my own.

Cheesy Chicken and Rice

Today's recipe is one of those that's inspired by typical restaurant fair, cheesy chicken and rice.

If you're like us, you might like the food at restaurants but hate the price and noise. Seriously, if you have sensitive ears or the least bit of hearing loss, going out to eat isn't all that fun. Hubby and I used to enjoy going out, even though he's always had issues hearing the waiters and me thanks to a childhood injury. Then I started slowly loosing my hearing five or six years ago now, and it's just gotten sad.

Our conversations in restaurants these days mostly consists of, "What did you say?" and, "I beg your pardon." Well, they do if we're out alone on our two or three date nights a year. We each end up taking a girl and spending most of the meal answering their questions and tending to their needs when we all go out as a family. Hubby and I have given up trying to talk to one another more than absolutely necessary on such occasions. It's the same, "Can you repeat that?" and, "Huh?" as it is when we're alone but with questions and pleas for help interrupting us.

So, a few years back, I started reverse engineering some of our favorite restaurant meals. You know me though, I can never leave well enough alone though, so I made a few of my own additions. In this case, I added some veggies to my version of El Camino Real's Cheesy Chicken and Rice.

Cheesy Chicken and Rice with Side Salad

Major Life Changes and Preschoolers

Long time readers will know Hubby has been trying to change careers for years now. He finally landed a job outside of education just last month. We're all pleased by this, but it has meant a major change for us.

You see, his job is half a state away. It hasn't been long since we bought our house, so we aren't willing to sell and move. This means he doesn't get to come home every evening as he did when he was just working at a school twenty-eight miles from our home.

We had our routine. The girls and I would cover lessons, clean, and then they'd nap while I either read, wrote, or more often, made something. Hubby would get home right about the time the girls would wake up. We'd have supper and spend the evening together before Hubby and I worked together to get the girls ready for bed. He was the reader of bedtime stories as he has been since Boo Bear was born. And then we'd tuck them in together.

Hubby reading to the girls.

It was this last bit the girls had the hardest time adjusting to. They were so used to waking after Hubby left for work that they didn't even notice the change until he wasn't home when it was time for supper, but they loved getting to talk to him via Face Time. However, they didn't sleep well at all that whole first week because it was me reading the bedtime story instead of their daddy. After a few days, they both became horribly whinny.

Going Gluten Free

We here in the E household have recently gone gluten free. Celiac Disease is something we've known about for a while, but even though Hubby has showed several of the signs for years before we met, it wasn't something we thought about until back in September. I mean, Hubby has been under a doctor's care for unintentional weight loss and being under weight for the past five years with absolutely no improvement. Even so, we couldn't think of anything else it might be until another family member with almost identical symptoms was told to try going off gluten for thirty days.

First Love; First Kiss

Oh, I thought I was in love a few times in my teen years, but I've come to realize now I didn't actually know those fellows well enough to really love them. They were just lingering crushes, and completely one sided, I'm sure.

As I've said before, Hubby was the only fellow I ever actually dated. We met our sophomore year of college when he joined Calhoun's college newspaper staff. During the usual "breaking the ice" round of telling about ourselves, he mentioned he was studying a traditional form of karate. I did likewise when my turn came. He asked who my sensei was, and it turned out we were taking the same style under different teachers. A couple weeks later, he saw me working on whatever story I was writing at the time. That led to a discussion of writing, science fiction, and a couple hours later he asked me on a date.

We had dinner and caught "The Musketeer" playing at the local theater the following night, talked every evening that weekend, and had a picnic in the park the following Tuesday. After we ate, we decided to walk around the park. Ten years later, I can't quite remember what we talked about that day, but neither of us can forget our first kiss down by the waterside.

Our engagement photo from November 2002.

It was my first, but he didn't know this. When he went to deepen the kiss, I panicked and jumped about two feet back. He had this look like I'd slapped him and started apologizing immediately. (I'd been told not to let him know I'd never been so much as kissed before, old as I was, because guys are blah, blah, blah.) I told him he had nothing to apologize for and confessed.

"I wish you'd told me," he said, blushing crimson. "I wouldn't have done that."

Three weeks later he told me he'd marry me one day.

"Took you long enough to figure that out," I responded with a smirk and a laugh.

"When did you know?" he asked.

"That day in the park."

It was a little more than a year later he officially proposed the Sunday before Thanksgiving, not long after we'd gotten back to my parent's house following church that evening. I'd barely managed to say, "Yes!" before Mom hollered supper was done.

My folks knew something was going on because he was unusually clumsy with his fork that evening before he managed to ask Dad's permission, which he gave on the condition we both finished college first. We'd planned to do so anyway, and after a round of hugs and handshakes, we set off to tell his parents.

Nine years later, we're still holding strong, more in love than ever.