Kyla was thrilled, Willow was mostly just cold. But the girls got to make their first Vegas snowman and snow angels and a fun time was had by all.

From 2008 Pictures

More pictures in the Picasa photo album.

As I read the emails posted at Sullivan’s blog I can’t help but wonder how much of the success of today’s protests can be attributed to the movement started by Obama. His win may just have given people hope that as a group, when we work together, we can get things changed. No one thought he could or would win, but he built a movement from the bottom up that was too big to stop. Maybe the people really do have more power than the politicians and the elected if we make our voices heard. The internet certainly makes it more possible than ever before.

I have always been a skeptic, always been a cynic…. until this year. Its refreshing to be hopeful and happy about the future for a change.

Anyway, the Kindle arrived on Tuesday and I am happy to say that I carry it just about everywhere with me. Yes, it was expensive but it is also very convenient and there are tons of ways to find free or inexpensive books to read on it. Additionally you can’t beat new releases and best sellers for only $9.99 for those rare times when the library has 1 copy and 20 holds.

Amazon charges a subscription fee for RSS/blog feeds, but you can create RSS feeds of your favorite blogs and newspapers for free from Feedbooks. You can also covert PDF files to kindle format with some simple easy to use software! This will be great for business/board meetings at the co-op - I plan to dump the agenda to the Kindle and read it from there. It has a nifty notation features so I can take notes and not lose them in the mess that is also known as my car.

The only thing I am not in love with is the cover it comes with, but I am brainstorming a replacement for that as we speak.

Speaking of reading….. if you do a lot of it you should make sure you head over to Goodreads. Its a lot of fun keeping track of books you have read and I get a lot of great ideas from looking at everyone else’s booklists.

Some may notice that my webstore is gone. I haven’t sewn in probably a year (other than some quick mending) and the thought of dragging myself to the cutting table was not a pleasant one. I have sewn and sold clothing/diapers/bags/etc for 8 years… so it has been odd thinking of giving that all up. Ultimately I realized that it just didn’t bring me joy anymore, instead I felt obligated and it was more of a burden. So, I closed up the webshop last night. I am about to start selling most of my fabric and a couple of my machines. I will keep my sewing machine and will probably even throw a few things for sale up on the WAHM blogs on occassion, but for now I think I am done sewing and selling.

The reality is that the more I think about re-enrolling in college, the more I realize that when both my girls are in school…. I want a real job that doesn’t include being chained to my sewing machine. I simply won’t have time to do it all. So I am saying goodbye to girlwomangoddess.com the webstore and saying hello to a degree in some currently undecided computer tech discipline.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased my pieces over the years, you have been greatly appreciated!

I also threw together a reuseable bread bag made of waterproof PUL. I was tired of buying plastic bread bags, it seemed like such a waste and sometimes they were too small anyway. The one I made is pretty simple and closes with some velcro. It should keep it moist, but its still slightly breathable. It worked well overnight but we will see how it does after a day or so! To see pictures, click the read more tag.

Child Size Slings

Reuseable Bread Bag

Jim also brought home a cantaloupe that a customer gave him as a tip. I guess they got to talking about melons and this customer had a backyard full of melon vines.

I am behind on fall planting - I was hoping to have stuff in the ground already but I still need to get soil for the new boxes and make a plan. Hopefully I will get that done this weekend!

Because of the early wake up times, by the time it gets to be noon, everyone is a bit crazy and bored. The “witching hour” used to be about 4 on our old schedule and we could survive til Jim got home, but now that its noon I am having to come up with lots of afternoon activities to distract them. One of our favorites…. playdough!

Now, playing with the dough makes them happy, but making the dough from scratch makes them even happier. They love to help measure out the stuff, pick out the coloring, and watch the mixer go around. We tried a lot of dough recipes before we found one that is 1. easy and 2. a great consistency. Here is ours, made in the stand mixer with the dough hook:

Non-stick Playdough Recipe
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup of salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 Tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 pkg kool aid (or you could use drops of food coloring to get the colour you want)

1. Boil the water
2. Add flour, salt, kool aid, and cream of tarter to mixing bowl. Measure out 1 cup of boiling water, add vegetable oil to water. Dump water/oil mixture into flour mixture.
3. Turn mixer to medium speed (remember to use the dough hook) and let it mix for a minute. You may need to use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and get up any stuck flour to the bottom. Turn back on low again until you get dough that is forming a ball and completely mixed.
4. Shape into a ball and set aside to cool for a few minutes before you transfer to an air tight storage container.

If you don’t have a stand mixer of some kind you can do this on the stove. Simply mix it altogether in a large pot & stir constantly over low heat until thick and it looks like a ball of playdough, It just takes a bit longer and more arm strength

I giggled a bit at the satire of the celebrity ads on this blog.

I really appreciated the efforts John McCain made to inform my decision, and I wanted to believe him when he slipped on his $500 shoes and boarded his wife’s private jet to travel the country and remind me that Barack Obama is an elitist. But again, my sub-par education must be failing me, because it’s obvious that the meaning I had always assigned to “elitist” is completely wrong. Shucks. I wish I was smart enough to understand all of that stuff.

But then McCain did something that shook me out of my silly, overly-positive admiration for my candidate by doing what any great leader of a nation of simple folks would do to save me. He dumbed it down. I hadn’t even realized how close I was to casting a vote for my own destruction

I have thought about writing a long post about why I adore Barack Obama and why I will be volunteering in any way I can once school starts up, but then my friend Jennifer wrote one and saved me the work. Her Why I’m Voting for Barack Obama” post perfectly sums up my feelings and opinions on the subject. Thanks for saving me some typing Jen!