Mundania 35

I've been using Blog2Print to compile the last seven years of our life in book form. The program is a little tedious to work with -- especially the photos on the front cover; apparently you can't choose "blank." But for the most part, I'm very pleased with how the books turned out. I ordered the soft cover, black-and-white pages, and it looks really good. Even the photos came out nicely. The most I've spent on one book is $45, and I consider it entirely worth the money to have my blog resting safely in my hands.

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It's been happening so gradually that I didn't notice it for a while. In fact, a few years ago, I was sure it would never, ever happen to us. But it has: my kids are getting really big. We ran out of seating in our living room.

The Old Couch, which we "stored" for the Hall Family for, oh, ten years. It was a great couch.

The "New" Couch, which we got from Salvation Army in September. It was comfortable and looked nice, in a too-small kind of way.

So Darren and I took the plunge and bought a brand-new spiffy reclining sectional couch. All kids can fit on it. They were so thrilled that it took fully seventeen minutes before they started bickering about who was touching whom.

The Brand-New Couch, delivered this morning. THIS is room for the whole family! Good thing we don't need too much living room at the same time. Okay, okay, I know you want to linger here and gaze at the couch, the new curtains, and the fresher wall color. But let's move on.

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My mother-in-law is the patient recipient of daily phone calls from Daphne. She's a good sport, playing along with Daphne's favorite "kitty" game. This morning, however, she decided to try her hand at taking the lead in pretending:

"How about Nana Kitty and Daphne Kitty have a race to the slide?" Nana suggested. "Okay, we're running now!" (Nana made "bumpa bumpa" noises with her voice. Daphne, on the other hand, loudly whapped a book to simulate HER stride.) "We're almost there! Nearly there! Oh! And Daphne Kitty wins!"

"Yay!" said Daphne. "I won!"

"Good job! You beat Nana Kitty by about four steps."

"Yes!" Daphne agreed. "And I was only running on three legs!"

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Daphne currently has a crush on the moon. (Or, I should say, it's a phase she's going through...) She was looking through a calendar that gave moon phases, and now chatters about crescents and gibbous and full moons. Somewhere along the line she discovered the concept of a Blue Moon, that is, two full moons in one month. Furthermore, the next Blue Moon is in August, her birthmonth. And in 2018, there will be two Blue Moons in the year! I don't think I'm communicating the depth of excitement and fascination going on here. Suffice to say that after a day's conversation with Daphne, this song is running a path through my head:



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According to Addi: Since a new moon is the opposite of a blue moon, then two new moons in one month should be called an Orange Moon.

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Stuart has joined cub scouts. He's taken to it as if it's been the desire of his heart ever since, I don't know, birth. His Webelos II troop has just formed patrols. He came home and said that their patrol name is The Dancing Bananas. He wasn't thrilled with the choice, but if he'd been in charge, he'd have probably named it The Protoss Zerglings of Terran. That's from Starcraft, for the 98% of the population who doesn't know that. At least most people have some idea of what a Dancing Banana would look like.

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Stuart doesn't like it when we say he likes Starfall instead of Starcraft.

-- SJ