Empty Nester – Extraordinaire

Archive for the ‘Daily Life’ Category

Rainy Days are Made for Reading

And I have a couple rainy days in my future – at least that’s what the weather man tells me.  So while Alek was at dance and Jordan was at a Teen Advisory Board meeting, I scoured the library for interesting books.  I found four with varying levels of promise.  All about the goth community.  I hope to spend some time reading over the next few days and promise to share my thoughts and ideas with you all.

Circumstances in my life indicate I’ll be spending a lot of time in the near future explaining exactly what it does and does not mean to be goth.  I want to know what folks are saying 🙂

For now, enjoy the rainbows 🙂  We ran into these on the drive to the grocery after the Egg Hunt on Saturday.  Luckily Eric was driving and I could aim the camera out  the window!

~ sheila

Egg Day

In our house Good Friday = Egg Day.  Boiling, cooling, coloring, fighting off the boys who wish to snack on them.  Usually, we don’t make many – just enough to make sure the kids get a turn. This year, though, everyone wants to EAT the eggs, so we made extra.  Two dozen.  Wasn’t it lucky that a good friend [with a surplus of chickens] brought over four dozen eggs when she came to visit last weekend.

We’d never worked with brown eggs before, so we were unsure what dropping them in dye would do. To be safe, we added the suggested 2T of vinegar to keep the colors vibrant.  And let them soak extra long.

It worked 🙂

Now, we want to eat them, but the rules clearly state, we cannot until Easter.

Tonight, Eric and I are heading down to Indianapolis to do a little PR, but we’re staying home long enough to watch the season premiere of Wife Swap.  Maybe I can get a nap first.

~ sheila

freezing fog

I do so love winter.

Frozen fog sounds awful, but it sure is pretty. When I ran across town to deliver Alek’s backpack to the school [woops! he forgot it] this morning, I took some photos at the park.  I use this park for a lot of the product photos on my website.  I rarely see it in winter.  I think I’ve been missing out.

This is a rock wall which separates a picnic area from the playground.  I have to admit I’ve never noticed it before.

Just after I took this photo an older woman drove up behind me and rolled down her window.  “Lovely day for photos, isn’t it?”  And she shook her camera at me.  We talked about the ice frozen on the trees and agreed it was a shame that the paths weren’t clear for walking.  I would have loved to get down by the river which I could hear running in some place I couldn’t see.

I did push my way into the park a little ways to explore the winter.  I love how each branch is completely encased in ice.  And how you can see the unused playset in the background – oh, the cruel beauty that is mother nature 😉

Happy to be back home, I’m enjoying a hot cup of coffee and will soon head out to the sewing studio.

~sheila

waiting… for?

While I’m not an incredibly social person, I do pride myself on keeping in touch.  I text friends and family sitting at stop signs or while waiting for trains. I tweet while standing in line at the post office or the grocery.  I love to write and receive long, detailed, hand-written letters. I’m still in touch with [thanks to Facebook] many of the kids I went to elementary school with.  I research my family tree, keeping track of cousins’ kids and grandkids – most of whom I have little chance of meeting.

Yet, I created this blog an embarrassingly long time ago and it sits – untouched.

Something about starting a blog post worries me into a level of writer’s block I’ve never felt before.  And the first one is even more frightening, because I’ve convinced myself it needs to be IMPRESSIVE and grab the attention of strangers and be written about the most important thing in the world.  But, what is that?

The truth is I am not like you; my children are not like your children; my home is not like your home.  What I consider incredibly important wouldn’t cause many of you to even blink or glance in this direction.  And what I look at with only passing interest may very well be the most important thing in the world to many of you.  So, this morning, standing in line at the post office, I decided to stop waiting and just to begin.

I am wife and mama to this bunch.  The photo was taken in October, 2007 at the Perry Monument in Erie, PA.

I own and operate, Bats! meow…, a website catering to the needs of goth parents and their gothlings.  I read tarot and work with candle magic.  I believe in the powers of herbs and stones.  I talk to ghosts.  I sew, crochet, and quilt – all skills taught to me by my father.  I love to work out and cook and eat.

Stick around and you’ll learn more about me and about each of those interests.  Probably more about each of the folks in that photo I just showed you as well.  Even though this is primarily a business blog, my life isn’t simple enough to keep all the parts separate.

By the way, it’s good to have you here.

~sheila