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- Spooky Saturday, Libib, Recipes
I’ve always wanted to start a segment called Spooky Saturday, but I just don’t have enough spooky content of my own. I will share this one spooky (I’m not sure that spooky is the right word, actually; you can decide!) story from around the year 2012:
Cameron and I lived in a 6th-floor apartment in Washington DC. Our floor happened to be the one with balcony access for the building, so we had more foot traffic going past our door than someone on another floor. It wasn’t a lot, really - not many people used the balcony except for on New Years Eve or July 4th, when you could see the fireworks going off by the Washington Monument.
There was one couple who lived down the hall from us who loudly argued from time to time; we could only hear it when they had the door open and one of them was leaving. One night, around 2am, we woke up to lots of shouting. Cameron stepped into the hallway and asked if they were okay and then reminded them people were sleeping, and it was quite late. They settled down, and the guy left.
Fast forward a few months, and we could hear a group of folks walking from the elevator (on our left) toward the balcony (on our right). We peeked out the peephole and could see that this group was not going to the balcony but was heading to the couples’ apartment. Around 1am, we could hear some commotion in the hallway again, so, being a nosy neighbor, I decided to check out the group as they walked by. And, when I looked out my peephole, one of the guys in the group was looking back at me!! He had his eye all the way up to the peephole on the other side. It scared me so bad! I pulled back right away and when I looked back, the group was gone. And we never saw that group again. But to this day, I can still see his bald head, black leather jacket, and giant eyeball on the other side of my door.
On the same theme, if you haven’t ever heard of the two podcasts Full Body Chills or So Supernatural, you might enjoy them! And Psycho was just added to Netflix. 😅
Pictures = Memories ?
I think about this a lot. And I don’t know the best way to describe it. Whenever I come across an old video or photo, I think “Oh yea, I remember that!” But do I really? I think it’s not an actual memory, just a picture that I remember seeing before. But the memory isn’t really there; it’s fabricated from the picture or video.
This came up the other day; I saw a video on Facebook memories of Alexander, as a 2 year old, matching cursive letters to print letters. And it reminded me that he was really into letters, even from a really young age. Annabelle, then, asked what she was into at that age, and I didn’t remember at all. You see, for some reason, both my phone and Cameron’s have virtually zero photos or videos from the year 2016 or the first half of 2017; they somehow got deleted when we bought new phones at that time.
It got me thinking, a few decades ago, people weren’t taking videos and photos of every little thing. So do they just remember things a lot more? Were they journaling all the little details? Do they have a few key memories and then just fill in the details by guessing?
A few baby updates
Yesterday I took the kids to a place in town where you can paint pottery - I’ll show some pictures next week once they’ve been glazed and fired!
Before we left, I was getting myself ready - hair and makeup. Lately, when I’m at home, I brush and wash my hair, then I put it up in a bun and leave it there a few days (I take it down and put it right back up in the mornings, just so it doesn’t look so sloppy). Since we were going somewhere, I decided to brush it again. And holy moly, so much hair came out. This post-partum hair loss is wild. It always throws me off! The internet says it’ll take about 6 months for it to stop falling out (🎤whoooa, I’m halfway there🎵).
Baby Bea is growing great. She’s super smiley, with just about everyone. She’s still an awesome sleeper at night. Leap 4 has just begun (if you’ve got a young baby and haven’t gotten the free app called Wonder Weeks, I suggest it!); this is a long one, 4-6 weeks of extra fussiness, followed by a few weeks of lots of skill practicing! After this one, she’ll be able to roll over in both directions and move objects to her mouth, and possibly even say mama and dada.
Nicknames! You probably wouldn’t know this, but when Alexander was a baby I called him “baby” for a long time, then I rotated between Al, Alex, and Alexander, before deciding to stick with Alexander. Baby girl is Beatrix and sometimes Bea (pronounced like B), but for some reason I’ve started to call her Honey Bun, Honey, or Pumpkin. I literally just put it together that bees make honey, and maybe that is why I have started saying Honey?!? What names do you call yours?
Libib
I finally moved all our books onto shelves in the house. The kid books are in one area; the grown-up books are in another. I really want to organize them; right now, they are mostly by size… tall books with other tall books, short books with short. But that means, if I want to find a particular book, I need to remember what size it is. Not super helpful! So then, organizing by color doesn’t make sense either. Author could work, but that means I either need to remember the author or have to look it up.
I think category is the best method, but… what about sub categories? Do I go with the old faithful Dewey decimal system? And within each sub category, organize by last name? I haven’t done this yet, but I’m sure I will today. I’m not good at putting off projects.
While I was trying to figure this out, I looked online for a digital catalog for home libraries, and I came across Libib.com. It’s free for home use. You type in each individual ISBN for your books (you can do board games, video games, music, and movies, too). And it creates a digital library for you. (I do wish it would categorize it for you, into those sub categories.)
What’s nice about it: You can keep track of books you have read, plus rate and review them. And if you loan a book, you can take note of who has it and when you loaned it. So far, we’ve catalogued about 300 books!
A few random things
I saw a cheesy Facebook ad for this laundry apron. Basically, it goes over your neck and has a giant pouch in the front. She used it by filling up the pouch with clothes from the washer, then she was able to stand up and hang them on clothes lines without having to bend over every time. I don’t use a clothes line*, so I’d use it for folding dried clothes. My mama used to bring all the dried laundry to the couch and fold it while sitting down; I bend over to pull out each piece one at a time, fold it, then put it in the right pile.
I think this apron would help my back out since I have awful posture. But basically every one I saw on Amazon for “laundry apron” looks like it’s an AI-generated image.
I found this tutorial for a pretty apron with large pockets. I’m going to try making it but with a large pouch in the front. If it works out, I’ll let you know! I’ve got a lot of fabric scraps (I keep scraps from projects, and I always save old bed sheets and curtains for sewing projects too!).
*I actually got a clothes line and clips that I purchased years ago, but I still haven’t put it up anywhere. I got confused by the logistics, like where to hang it so it gets the right amount of sun, how to clip certain things so they don’t get stretched out, how to get everything out to the lines then back in…
Recipe time!
I shared this one on my subscriber story and IG feed, but I’ll share it here too.
Marshmallow fluff - I’ve shared this a bunch of times, and it’s so dang good. One new thing that I’ve done recently, though, is putting it in the fridge once it’s done. The texture changes overnight, and it’s so smooth and just amazing. And then, a little treat when I want something sweet… I put 2 spoonfuls of the fluff into a ramekin, plus 1 big spoonful of peanut butter, mix it together, and just eat it like that. (It’s a fluffer nutter, minus the bread.) SO GOOD.
Recently, I asked folks on IG to tell me where they’re from and what’s a popular dish in that location. I got so many responses from all over the world! And I have a giant spreadsheet of these ideas. It’s sort of overwhelming, so I have not done anything with the ideas yet. Maybe we’ll travel around the world, starting in one spot and just sort of zigzagging around the globe, trying various dishes from different places.
Once I start that, I’ll be sure to share all the recipes we make!! I want to do them right though, which isn’t always how I cook (I wing it a lot, use what I have, don’t quite follow recipes…). That will probably mean finding ingredients online that I can’t get in local grocery stores. So give me a little time, but I do want to get on that project soon!
Space Unicorn
This is so goofy, but I really like the little kid song called Space Unicorn. Honestly, the chord progression is so pleasing. My kids LOVE Parry Gripp, the guy who sings Space Unicorn. He’s got a ton of goofy songs:
Raining Tacos
Oh Potato Dog
Narwhal Eating a Bagel
There’s a Cat Licking Your Birthday Cake
Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom Nom
Hamster Banana
Square Bottom Cat
Anyway, I was thinking, that would be a fun idea for a group Halloween costume. Each person dresses up as a different Parry Gripp song. Basically, no one would get the theme besides the people in the group. Maybe my family can do it this year and just see if anyone gets it. 😄
Okay that’s it for the week!
See ya next weekend. Here’s what you can expect then:
book of Psalms project
Apple music vs Spotify
health / fitness update
Fall family checklist
the house is finished!! (okay, that’s just me being hopeful)
but really, nursery / Charlie room update
some fun apple and pumpkin recipes
updates: eyeglasses, skincare routine, bookshelf (Dewey??)
Have a good one!
❤️ Bethany