Vote.

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

I am waiting to vote tomorrow.

I am waiting to vote until I can bring both of my daughters with me, to the polling place, to cast my vote, my say for the future of our nation.

140 years ago today, Susan B. Anthony voted illegally.  She was later arrested and found guilty of illegal voting due to her gender. 100 years and about a month before my birth.  It wasn't until 1920, a single year before my old, historic house was built, that women officially received the right to vote.

I am voting tomorrow because it is my right, my privilege, and my duty.  _I_, as a citizen of the United States, have the opportunity to make my tiny voice heard. Sure, my single vote is an itsy-bitsy percentage of my county, let alone of my state, or of the nation as a whole.  Put that way, it seems ludicrous to bother.

Yet the direction of this nation is made up of all those individual votes just as the tide is made up of individual droplets of water.  Sure, I have my own opinion and hopes as to the results of this election and to the individual races being run, but what matters, in the end, is that I spoke up.  I had my say, made my choices, took part in our democracy.

Because one of the most important things is that I have the right and the opportunity to vote.  MY vote counts as much as any other, cast by anyone of any particular creed, gender, race, orientation, tax bracket, influence, BMI, political afflication or favorite football team.  

To not vote would be to throw that all away.  Please, if you are an American citizen, vote. 

 

NaBloPoMo, I guess

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Ok, until now I hadn't decided if I was going to do National Blog Posting Month or not.  I HAVE posted the last 3 days (& now today 'cuz this totally counts!) in case I decided I wanted to, and you know what? I think I do.  I've been so neglectful for my poor sad blog & my (few remaining) loyal readers that I think I should. 

So, anything particular you want to hear about? I know I've had a request for our Halloween costumes through the ages, and I've got some summer pix I can still post, but anything else about which you've been curious?  'Cuz you know, 30 days is a lot & I'm sadly out of practice!

Beekeeping

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

So.... Mr. Kluges and I have been playing around with the idea of keeping bees.  For the honey, for the pollination, for the educational aspects, and for the environmental aspects in general.  Bees have been having it rough lately what with the Colony Collapse Disorder and all!  

First we checked with our town to see if bees were even allowed.  They are - in the backyard, a certain minimum distance from property lines, if less than a different distance there is need for a fence/barrier, etc.  

Then we talked about it and talked about it and talked about it.  

Then I took a one-day beginning beekeepers workshop with the Brown County Beekeepers' Association. We'd visited with folks from there are a couple of events in the past, including Honey Sunday at a local nature preserve.  The workshop was informative and encouraging.

Then on our anniversary, after a glass of wine or two, Mr. Kluges convinced me that we were ready... and we ordered our first hive kit.

Currently, in our attic, is an assembled (empty!) hive - one big box for the bottom with its ten frames, two smaller supers with their 10 frames each, and assorted other bits, waiting to be painted.  In my wallet is a membership card for the BCBA, which is functioning as a mental security blanket - I have people I can ask for advice!

Once spring comes... bring on the bees!*

*What have I gotten myself into!? 

    

Three 5Ks in 2012 = accomplished!!!

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

WAY back when in January, I set some goals for myself.  One was to run in three 5K races in 2012. Well, I'm thrilled to say that as of last Saturday, I've accomplished that goal!  

In July, I ran in the 5K race that's part of the annual town celebration.  It was the first 5K I ever ran back in 2010, and I was nervous about it this year, thanks to the heart oddities I'd been having, but even in the heat I managed to keep my time under 30, so I was very pleased.

Then in August, when I didn't feel like running on my usual Friday evening schedule, I thought, "Hey, let's see if there's any 5Ks in the area tomorrow!"  Lo and behold, my across-the-street neighbor was in charge of one right in downtown Appleton!  So, of course I ran... and even placed for my age group  - did I mention it was a VERY small race?!  Still, I happily accepted the medal!

Finally on Saturday I ran in the area YMCA's fun costume-friendly annual 5K.  I'd done it in 2010, and figured if I wanted to make my goal before it got any colder, that I'd better hurry up and do so.  That meant I got all dolled up on a lovely middle-to-high-30sF morning and got my final 5K of the year done!  My 2010 costume was more flattering, I think, but here's how I looked this year:

 

You don't usually see too many mermaids competing in a running race, I think! :)

Happy Halloween

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Happy belated Halloween to you all!  I figured I'd better share a picture of my trick-or-treaters 'cuz they were darn cute, if I do say so myself.  Definitely my easiest year so far as a costume designer - they both wanted to be cats.  Well, they both did until Penguin saw a leopard print velvet leotard with long sleeves and legs at a second-hand store, when she promptly revised her wish to the larger, fiercer "cheetah!" version.  Fine and good, we visited a Halloween store where we found a suitable (actually quite nice) mask/tail combo... and then Pumpkin admired it so much I got her the matching mask/tail set in black rather than make her use the headband ears and elastic tail we had in the dress-up bin.  But they were adorable and warm, thanks to suitably colored fleece sweatshirts we already had, so it was all good. We even did an extra block this year in our quest for candy - my girls are getting big! :)

 

I don't think she learned that at Sunday School

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

At lunchtime today, I had this conversation with Penguin. She's been asking similar questions, putting things in order lately, so I wasn't too surprised by the beginning anyway.

 
Penguin: Before there was cheese, there was.... 

Me: Milk? 

P: Yes, and before there was milk, there was.... 

M: Water?

P: And before there was water, there was...? 

M: Nothing really - water happened pretty early.

P: Before there was water there was? 

M: Well, water was around pretty early on the world.

 
P: What was before the world?

M: God. 

P: Before there was God there was? 

M: Nothing. Before God was nothing. 

P: Before nothing there was?  

M: God. 

P: No, before God there was? 

M: Nothing. 

P: Before nothing was? 

M: God. What do YOU think was before nothing? 

P: Unicorns. 

M: Unicorns?! 

P: Yup, space-traveling unicorns.

August's trip to Minnesota

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

 I know, I know - awful blogger, never updating, guilty am I. BUT skipping merrily over that, let me bribe you with PICTURES! Since I got my new laptop, it took us a while to figure out how to download our camera onto it, but now that it works, hooray! Let me share with you some pictures from our trip to Minnesota in August, featuring Pumpkin's 8th birthday, a trip to the MN Zoo and their featured Dinosaurs! exhibit, and, as the main reason for our trip, a wedding in the family.

The birthday girl with one of her two cakes that weekend thanks to the grandmas!

Us four with Grandpa Pet & Grandpa Pharaoh and a zoo statue of lions

Oh  no! It's a big ol' T. Rex!

We better run!!!!

I love Pumpkin's imitative face on this one!  Also, FYI, they're wearing  their Dino Girl dresses/tunics from Jusami 'cuz their mommy planned ahead.

I love that they had this at the end so you could see how the dino models worked... and control them yourself.

One of their favorite parts was touching the sharks & manta rays & trying to reach in to touch the anemones.  And yes, we DID see a child (not ours!) stretch and reach so far she fell in! The zoo volunteers keep towels at their station. :)

Hello, monkey!

We are fierce girls who ride on wolves!

The wedding

With this ring....

Mr. Kluges's side in a rare group photo - y'all look so NICE!

Us with the bride - doesn't she look gorgeous?!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The First Day of School

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

I have excellent news!  Mr. Kluges has gotten my camera to talk to my laptop!  Yay for pictures! Now, I won't go overwhelming you all with the entire summer's worth in one day, but now at least I can share the girls' first day of school photos with you.  Pumpkin, who recently turned 8, has started 3rd grade, and Penguin, 5 since May, is in half-day kindergarten.  When did they get so big?! 

 

Meaningful and Vibration-y

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

My (newly) 8 year old, who was just shopping for doorbells at Lowe's with her daddy, has informed me that she prefers our old, real-metal-chime one to the new ones because, and I quote...

...they're lighter, and they don't have as much meaning, and when you are close you don't feel the vibrations.

So, there you go. Good thing Mr. Kluges is working on fixing up our old non-light, meaningful, vibration-y real chime one!  

Catching Up

(c) 2012 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Hello, gang! I'm ever so sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  The summer days have been flying by and between swimming lessons and Vacation Bible School and weekends busy doing stuff I haven't found the time to sit down and write.  But today we've got a friend over for a playdate, so the girls are all busy together & I think I can sit down and say hello.

In addition to the general summer busy-ness, I had a bit of a health scare that at first I didn't want to talk about, then I didn't know how to talk about, compounded by the fact that I was having a hard time sitting down to collect my thoughts in order to talk about it.  I'm fine, but I'd been having some heart palpitations and skipping that were freaking me out.  Of course, when your heart starts acting all weird, and it's almost midnight, and it's doing more of a waltz with one-two-three-pause than a standard 4/4 beat, you become convinced you're going to DIE! And Googling your symptoms never makes you feel better... because you've definitely got some sort of rare and fatal disease.

But I don't.  After an EKG and a 24-recording of my heart's every beat and a sonogram/ultrasound-type thing, it turns out it's all just a minor bit of electrical misconduct and quirkiness - very minor, often symptomless, very very low risk.  In fact, even though I've been on meds to make my heart less electrically-excitable while things have been checked out, I should be able to go off them or just use them just as needed, depending on one more doctor conversation.

Of course, all this, especially the unknownness of it, and the it's-my-heart-I'm-going-to-DIE-and-my-kids-are-so-young-ness, and the I'm-not-ready-to-share-yet kind of combined into a big ol' metaphorical lump in my throat, the sort I couldn't get any other words around. 

But now I hope to be a little more chatty, and let you all know more about our fun and busy summer, the camping, the swimming lessons, the garden, and all!