tn_chocolatefountain1
Events, Project 365, Silliness

Socktoberfest

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October is an important month in our family. Tim and Joshua both have birthdays as does my sister in law, Elizabeth. Several of my dear friends also celebrate their birthdays in October. With all of these gala events, there’s hardly room for other parties or festivals. Or so I thought.

I may change my mind.

A new cyber friend of mine, Cindy from Still His Girl, hosts an annual Chocotoberfest. If you click on this link she gives specific details on how to throw your very own Chocotoberfest. There are contests and prizes and chocolate desserts galore. It looks like an amazing, fun night full of deliciousness. I wonder if Cindy had one of these little treasures at her party.

chocolately goodness

This is a must at any Chocotoberfest.

Sadly, I am currently living a no sugar life. Since most chocolate is usually found paired with sugar of some form, a chocotoberfest might not be the best choice for me. Cindy’s husband, Tim’s new pencil pal, has a different idea; instead of chocolate, how about a Cheesetoberfest.

Truly the mind boggles.

Again, I find myself in a bit of a dilemma. I’m in the middle of a very intense Reunion Countdown where I am limiting my calories and increasing my work outs. Cheese, it turns out, is often paired with calories, lots of calories. While calories are, in and of themselves not bad (they turn up in EVERYTHING), I have an aversion to eating my entire day’s worth in one sitting.

Today I stumbled on my very own October celebration – Socktoberfest.

gather ye socks

To hold your own Socktoberfest, invite friends and family to bring all their unmatched socks to your home (only clean socks allowed). Decorate the rooms with famous sock quotes such as:

“Never put a sock in a toaster.”
“I washed a sock. Then I put it in the dryer. When I took it out, it was gone.”

hold up your socks

Decorum is strictly followed at Socktoberfest, proper manners and all that.

Offer prizes for the person most dressed like a sock, the best missing sock story, and the most creative sock puppet.

Play games such as: Trail of Socks, Hide and Sock, Pin the Sock on the Dryer, and Bobbing for Socks.

tossing socks

grab a sock

The kids practice their sock throwing for the Sock Toss

This idea may take off and become a huge phenomena, just remember you heard it first on the Duckabush Blog. I’m still searching for some appropriate sock-based culinary delights to serve at the party and a theme song, so I need your input and suggestions.

Kathy
Project 365 – Day 287

Related posts:

Daily Life, Project 365

Do All Children Long for a Dog

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Or cat or guinea pig? What is the origin of this deep seated desire for a pet?

joshua's got a puppy

Notice how Joshua keeps one hand on the mouse while holding a dog on his lap. That’s my boy! :)

My good friend and neighbor, Julee, recently (as in yesterday) acquired a dog. It was unexpected and a complete gift – food, accessories, dog carrier, dog all free. My kids have been writhing in jealous envy ever since.

Tonight the kids had an opportunity to dog sit little Mia while Julee and her family were at church. What a thrill. We’re probably the only family on the planet who would go around offering to pay for the opportunity to pet sit.

joshua, Mia and the girls

Joshua is not as dog crazy as the rest of the children but he was in the comfy chair and Mia was looking for a cozy resting place. Up into his lap the dog climbed. The main responsibility of this evening’s pet sitting job was to keep the dog awake. This picture looks mighty suspicious.

Joshua, is that little dog sleeping?

We did our best. She obviously found Joshua too relaxing to resist.

Kathy
Project 365 – Day 286

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Events, Project 365, Tim

I Am a Winner!

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As a result of poor timing on the part of my parents, I missed the brief era in American education when it was fashionable to emphasize self esteem at the expense of excellence. My public-school teachers, in callous disregard of my tender little heart, stubbornly insisted that my grades correlate with my performance, so that I graduated from high school with more B’s than A’s. In college, this worrying trend persisted, and I was forced into a much closer acquaintance with my deficiencies than I would have wished. Sadly, being a grown-up isn’t all it is cracked up to be, and opportunities to rise above the mundane are infrequent.

Every once in a while, however, life offers an opportunity to reverse the negative flow; last week I found just such a chance.

I'm a real Winner!
Wouldn’t you award this man a prize?

I don’t read many blogs, but I do sporadically follow the adventures of Scott, a clever and quirky Dad, husband and pastor in the wilds of Indiana. One day I happened across a post in which Scott apologized for a recent blogging hiatus. (His blog is pretty new, and I’m sure his wife encouraged him to post more regularly, if he wanted to attract a readership.) Scott said he had a bunch of prizes from his desk drawer and asked for people to comment with regard to how they used the time they saved from not reading his blog. I was compelled to speak from the heart, hoping to encourage him to keep blogging. Little did I know that he was serious about sending the ‘valuable’ prizes.

Today I received in the mail a mysterious package, with not one, but five valuable prizes:

  • 2 packets of hot cocoa mix
  • A DVD of Holy Moses!, a children’s musical from Scott’s church
  • a mostly-eaten package of tic-tacs
  • a sheaf of play money
  • and the Pièce de résistance, a ‘B’ scrabble letter (worth 3 points)

Enclosed was a short note, which I provide for your edification:

Tim,
Congratulations on winning this wonderful set of prizes in the contest you entered on my blog.

If this is the wrong Tim, I apologize, but you may still enjoy these random prizes scrounged from the back of my pencil drawer. Or throw them out. I’m not particularly an advocate for accepting used containers of breath fresheners from complete strangers.

And to be absolutely clear, the money enclosed is FAKE. The “Milton Bradley” imprint should be a dead give-away. If you try to spend it anywhere, about 60% of retailers have specific training for employees for how to spot counterfeits, so don’t be surprised if you end up in the slammer. I think it’s actually from a game of “Operation” so you might be able to use it at your child’s next doctor visit.

Happy Birthday and best wishes,

Scott

I learned a number of things about Scott from this letter, some positive, some worrying. He is apparently a very generous man, and a man who loves to celebrate, sending me five prizes where only one had been promised. The note was signed in pencil, which suggests a lack of commitment to our relationship. (In fairness, since we’ve never met, it might be best if we start out as ‘Pencil Pals’, in the finest traditions of Charlie Brown.) On the other hand, it tells me that he is a man of his word (in that he really does have a pencil drawer). Frankly, the precision of his estimate with regard to retailers who train against counterfeiters, made me wonder if he’d already tried (and failed) to spend the Milton Bradley money. Noting his apparent need to emphasize that the money was fake, I discovered that Scott doesn’t see me as the sharpest knife in the drawer. I suppose this is to be expected, since he comments on (and presumably reads) my blog entries from time to time.

I was delighted (to state the obvious) to receive this valuable package, especially so close to my birthday. The hot cocoa will probably be slurped up by my children, but I can hardly wait to view the DVD musical, in all its glory. The mints (all five of them) will come in very handy, and I need hardly mention the utility of an extra ‘B’ tile for our Scrabble game (9 points if I can finesse a triple-letter-score square). We’re in the market for a new fridge; it may be that Scott’s failure with the Milton Bradley money was due to a lack of confidence on his part — it might be amusing to succeed where he failed so woefully.

prizes galore
Hard to believe Scott sent this package without insuring it!

It is at times like this when you are on top of the world, and you want to go out on your driveway and shout to the world, “I Am a Winner!” And so I did.

The neighbors already think I’m weird, what did I have to lose?

Tim
Project 365, Day 285

Related posts:

Daily Life, Joshua, Project 365

Dishes Anyone?

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What would you do with a young man, about to turn 14, who FORGOT to do the dinner dishes? Yes, Joshua, my oldest son, was so engrossed in his Carcassonne game with his father that he forgot to wash the dishes. He didn’t even appear to give the job a second thought. I came home from a baby shower and was sure to remind him of his responsibilities.

I mean, isn’t this why we have children, so they will wash the dishes and do the laundry?

joshua takes his turn

Maybe Joshua and Tim had a little wager on the ole Carcassonne game and the loser was responsible for the kitchen clean up. Yes, that must be it. That would explain that smile on Joshua’s face. He’s sure he’s about to win.

So how come it’s after midnight, everyone is bed and I’m up washing dishes? I guess I lost.

And yet with a husband who initiates Special Days with his children and a teenager who WANTS to spend time with his father, I think it’s far more fitting to say I won. Those dishes suddenly look a little sweeter.

Kathy
Project 365 – Day 284

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Daily Life, Kathy

Heading to Work Out

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This Reunion Count Down is a killer. All the working out is seriously cutting in to my busy social life (ie blogging time). I don’t know how people fit consistent, regular exercise into their schedules. Maybe if I were a morning person it would be easier. I would get up early, while the children were still tucked quietly in their beds, and enjoy an invigorating, brisk work out. Hmmm. That so isn’t going to happen.

gotta go exercise!

Heading off to the Y with trainer Julee.

In the meantime, I steal away an hour here and there every day to exercise. Today I did some weight training in the morning and then went BACK to the Y in the evening for an hour of cardio. Whew! Don’t I sound energetic and motivated. Or is it desperate and obsessed?

Only a couple more weeks until reunion time. I figure I can remain committed for that long. If nothing else, this has certainly been quite the experience. I’m logging in my food (calories, fat, carbs, proteins) and exercise (time and calories burned) daily on an Excel spreadsheet (gotta love Excel). I don’t think I’ve ever been this serious about high exercise and low calories. I’m certainly learning a lot.

  1. Beef (even lean) has a lot of calories. It’s often a better “bang for my buck” to stick with chicken or fish. I had tofu tonight and it was delicious and low calorie.
  2. Vegetables are amazingly satisfying when you are hungry.
  3. Striving for a goal on the treadmill or elliptical (calories burned, time spent) is very motivating. It brings out a competitive side in me that I didn’t realize I had and I find myself working harder and pushing myself to the next level.
  4. Losing weight and getting fit just plain takes time. I’m still losing weight that I’ve already lost before. Or rather, I’m losing the weight I gained over the summer. It will be another week or two until I hit “fresh” pounds.
  5. Some condiments are so NOT worth the calories and fat – salad dressing, cheese, oil, butter. I’d rather save the calories for something else and stick to spices, mustard, and vinegar to season my food.

Interesting how keeping track of things changes your perspective and focus. Well, I don’t mean to turn this into a weight loss blog so I’ll stop rambling on. If you have a great tip on eating healthy and fitting exercise into your life, PLEASE share!! I am so encouraged by other people’s life experiences. Leave a comment!!

I’m sure the weight will start melting off at any minute now. Until then it’s:

Another day another work out. :)

Kathy
Project 365 – Day 283

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The musings and ravings of a bloggart family