2/8/10

It's that week

For a month, we've been building up to this week. Sydney found out about a science project and Rob made the decision on his teeth 4 weeks ago and everything since then has been building up to this week.

We've gently pushed Sydney on the project, reminding her of what we would expect. And, she waited. And, she sat at the dining table with it spread out in front of her...and waited. I swear, I think she was waiting for the light of divine inspiration to shine down upon her. So, last Friday night, she worked on it and most of Saturday, except when we were at the movies, she worked on it. And, all day yesterday she worked on it. Yesterday afternoon, she kept wandering into the kitchen and I'd give her a few minutes for a break and then I'd ask "is it ready for me to read? is it going to meet my expectations?" and she'd say "kinda" or "sorta" and I'd say how long is it going to take to meet my expectations and she'd say "I dunno". So, I gave her a deadline of 4:30 and at 4:30 I told her she had until I finished my shower, so she needed to finish up. Then, we found out we couldn't print it from her computer or save it to a disk to print it from mine, so I had to retype it into my laptop while she ate supper. And she'd done a really good job. As I typed, I inserted some questions in all caps and then she got the chance to answer them and I took out some questions and asked a few more, but overall, I think she's going to get it finished and earn a really good grade. She has to design a building that uses renewable energy for most of its power and she picked a house. She has the blueprint drawn and while I think she should have spent a little less time on closets and closet doors (Rob's input) and a little more time on where to place the solar panels, it's a well thought out project that includes a windmill and a cistern along with solar panels and trees to shade part of the roof and a yard of native plants that won't need water. Hmmm.

And, after a month of denial and sleepless nights and bad dreams, Rob has finally developed a good attitude about transitioning to the denture. He was even able to laugh at a couple of old man jokes (when I was cutting his hair, I asked if he wanted me to leave a comb-over to go with his store bought teeth ;-b) As far as I can tell, we've thought of everything from bags of peas to use as ice packs to protein powder. He'll be able to drink milkshakes or soups. I'm even making a big batch of potato soup from my friend Suzanne's recipe (sorry, tried to add a link and can't get to it) Wednesday morning. Potatoes are his favorite food and we can run that through the blender and he can drink it. I even made a pumpkin pie and a buttermilk pie and put them in the freezer. Everything soft. And tonight, we're having brisket cooked slow most of yesterday and tomorrow night, steak. He wants to eat all the tough stuff he can while he can still chew it.

How is all this affecting me? Well, all my perfectionist tendencies are tingly, so instead of taking a picture to show you of the cute blue and white pinwheel quilt, I started taking it apart because I wasn't happy with the way I turned my seam allowances. Sheesh! But, hey, better to do something like that with my OCD than to take it out on anybody else. Oh, and I indulged myself in a little ebay shopping. I want to make a Letha's electric fan quilt, and stumbled up on a set of 30's repro FQ's at a terrific price and snapped them up late yesterday and I found a good copy of a pattern I've been trying to get my hands on for a couple of years and snapped that up, too. It's Ruby McKim's pattern for the flower garden applique newspaper series. Soon as it gets here, I'll try to share a pic of it. Yes, all those are distractions, but hey, I'm not gonna let that bother me. bother me. bother me. bother

Have a great Monday. Take care. Lane

4 comments:

CC said...

I just love your posts, you're a great writer and you share your life with us in such a sweet,loving way..you've let us become almost a part of your family..Hope you have a wonderful day

Becky said...

I'm still piecing my Leatha's Fan.....it's my travel project. I'm doing it by hand. I'm actually doing some hand quilting along....which is a big improvement over the NOTHING quilty of my recent past. It's good therapy for me. I can't wait to see the flower garden pattern pictures. You know how I love 30's fabrics. Hope your week flows evenly!!

Coloradolady said...

I'll be thinking about Rob this week...and you! So proud of Sydney, sounds like a really good project...and by the way....closets to a girl are of the most importance!!! LOL....glad the soup recipe works,especially now! Have a good week, check back here Sun. I am having a giveaway....something you might like!!!!! Have a great week!

Snooze said...

What a great post ... so cute and funny. And I love you taking your OCD out on a quilt ... sounds like the best think to do. I hope things go ok for Rob and it sounds like your daughter will get a great grade.