The Chickadee Feeder

THE SHIRT SAGA

A couple of months ago I was very pleased to find a special shirt at the thrift store.  The theme for our Jane Austen-type ball this year is “Masquerade, Regency-style” and this shirt was perfect for my Younger Son:  black, with grommets and lacings-up down the front.  The only trouble was that it had three-quarter sleeves, so I would have to do some sewing to make the sleeves longer.

I washed the shirt, and then I thought maybe I had put it in a plastic bag to take with me to the store, to accurately match the fabric for sleeves.

This week we couldn’t find it.

No where, no how.  Not-in-the-house.

I kept thinking, “OOOH, I know where it is!”  But when I looked, it wasn’t there.

OOOH, I’ll bet it’s in the car!  Nope.

OOOH, I’ll bet it WAS in the car, and then it got brought back into the house with the groceries, and it’s down in the basement with the canned goods!  Uh-uh.

Oh, it was such a perfect shirt.  I couldn’t possibly find the time or the creativity to make another like it.  It was the best shirt in the WORLD.  Really.  Except for the sleeves.

Today I gave it up.  It truly couldn’t be in the house, or all of us who were tearing the house apart this week would have found it.  So I went to the thrift store to please-please-please find something the tiniest bit suitable for his costume.

And there it was—the exact same shirt, on the rack, at the thrift store.  Same brand, same size, same sleeves, our laundry smell; I’m pretty certain it was OUR shirt.  Hmmm, just a couple of weeks ago, I DID donate a bunch of things….

I was telling my Older Son this on our way home.

Him:  “So what did you have to pay to get it back?”

Me:  “Oh, I didn’t buy it—I found a better one!”

Hi, my name is: thechickadeefeeder

But you can call me: Eppie (which is not my real name, either!).

My school is: Laughing Brook Academy (homeschool), named after the
Laughing Brook in the Thornton Burgess stories, such as Paddy the Beaver which I
had to read aloud a million times when my oldest was 5.   

I once wrote a silly
cheerleading song for our school, which is good for getting a rise out of the
guys who live here, but it wasn’t appreciated!

When I’m nervous: I am irritable.

The last song I listened
to was: a waltz done on piano
by Ellen Gozion (a CD called On a Lark)

My hair is: blonde/brown with bits of white-silver.

When I was 4: we moved a mile down the road to our first farm of
50 acres.

Last Christmas: my elderly mother-in-law, not understanding the
conversation was about having children, said in a very loud voice to our
nephew’s fiancé:  I’m sure you’ve both
been VERY busy.

I should be: eating my breakfast apple.

When I look down I
see: the booklet I wrote called
So
We’re Going to Compete?  All You Need to
Know About Speech Tournaments in the NCFCA  (a homeschool speech competition
league).

By this time next
year: my older son will have
been to Tunisia and back. 

I have a hard time
understanding: math, any
math.

There’s this girl: who wrote a book called Sick Girl, about what
it’s like to have a heart transplant. 
Her book was excerpted in U.S. News & World Report this
week.  I am thinking of her today.

I want to buy: a vacuum cleaner just like my mom’s, which I recently
became acquainted with while helping her after knee replacement surgery.  It’s one of the “higher end” Kenmore/Sears
canisters.  It is awesome!

If you spent the
night at my house: I would have
a lot of tidying up to do, first.

Most recent thing I’ve
bought myself: a blouse at the
thrift store.  Of course, it needs
hemmed, because I’m so short-waisted.  My
friends call the Salvation Army thrift store here in town Sally Ann’s.  The one in a town further south we call Hess
Brothers.  “Where did you get that
wonderful suit?”  “Oh, I bought it at
Hess Brothers.”

Most recent thing
someone else bought me: a bag
of candy to use as prizes for speech class.

My middle name is: Elaine.  When
I was in 2^nd grade, I started signing my name with this, trying to
get the teacher to call me by my middle name. 
But it didn’t wash.

In the morning I: do a routine that I learned how to do from The
FlyLady:  1) wind the cuckoo clock 
2)  look outdoors at the woods  3) drink a glass of water 4) do the
allergy routine 5)  eat apple while going through email.  ETC.

Last night I was: preparing another lesson for my beginning speech
students (high school level) in our homeschool speech club of 70 students.

If I was an animal
for a day I’d be: either a cat
(how nice to laze around for the day!) or a bird (because I would love to fly).

A better name for me
would be: Overweight.

Tomorrow I am: going to go shopping while my Younger Son volunteers
at the library, and then visit my mother-in-law at the assisted living center.

Tonight I am: hopefully going to continue sewing on costumes for
our Pemberley Promenade.

Please feel free to
copy this and insert your own answers so we can learn more about you!

CORN SENSITIVE

I’ve had a very bad cold/flu lately and have either been stupefied with sickness or groggy with drugs.  What easier meal to make than tacos?

I misread the label for the taco shells.  It’s to be 4-5 minutes in the OVEN, not the microwave.  So I stared unmoving when my son asked, “Mom, why is there smoke pouring out of the microwave?”

Who woulda thought taco shells could be so sensitive?  Geesh!

We’re going to go around with burnt-smell for the rest of the week!

BEN AND ME

With
Husband and Older Son at the college, it’s just Ben and Me at home now.  We went camping together before the Labor Day
crowds crowded in, and so we had the place to ourselves.

We hiked
through old-growth forest,

Photographed wild things,