I love this season. Actually I love this time of year beginning from about the middle of November when it starts getting crisp (remember, I live in California...it's still hot right before Halloween) until the end of February when I celebrate my birthday. That's also usually about the time that I slack off on my New Year's Resolutions and I start feeling guilty...
We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. My brother and his family came to visit. I love having them close. We took our annual trip to Apple Hill where Christmas tree farms abound. We trekked around for a few hours looking for the "perfect" tree. I saw several which I proceeded to point out to my husband only to be given "the look" complete with "the rolled eyes". The poor man really needs a different house, one with a 20 foot ceiling. I kept having to remind him that it could only be 9.5 feet tall because our ceiling is 10 foot and I wanted a star on top of the tree this year. Oh, and I'm so excited because I finally talked him into getting a Cedar tree instead of a Douglas Fir. I love it because it doesn't have needles! I love a fresh tree...no artificial one at our house, but I hate the needles all over the place.
I haven't done a smich of shopping yet. Well, actually that's not true. I was going to say what I had done, but remembered that sometimes my kids read my blog so I guess I can't tell you! All I know is that I want to keep it simple this year...very simple kids, in case you are reading this...don't expect anything big at all...really....the stocking stuffers might actually fit in the stockings this year!
One of the reasons I love this time of year is because of the color red, which happens to be my favorite color. It is EVERYWHERE and I am in heaven!
Oh, in case you were wondering...I did get my rank back. It was only a simulation after all. And guess what. I have memorized the entire Declaration of Independence! Yessiree Bob, my girls and I can recite the whole thing! Can I just say, that it was really hard to do. At my age. Which is 42. That rhymed.
Well this was just a random post to let you know that I have not dropped off the face of the earth. I have been busy...memorizing.
I'm tired of my best friend. She's been all up in my face lately. Usually we have fun together, but this time I haven't enjoyed her company so much. We're going to have to give each other some space. Next time we get together it will be on my terms.
(My girls are in a Shakespeare play and I am on the costume committee.)
I have 565 items in my email "inbox"...
All my blog feeds are highlighted, with multiple posts to catch up on...
I haven't the foggiest idea for a post in my brain...
On Wednesdays I am gone from 9 am until 6:30 pm...
Just taxiing people around in my gas hogging SUV...
I'm teaching a Literature class and we are studying Shakespeare...
It's the first time I have ever studied Shakespeare...
The teacher wasn't able to keep teaching...
I volunteered...
My two oldest kids are taking an intensive writing course...
My two middle are taking a writing course...
My two youngest are watching lots of TV...
I just started a NEW & IMPROVED job chart...
It's about the 129th one in my 16 years of child rearing...
It's 12:46 AM...
I was waiting for my two older kids to finish one of their writing assignments...
I think I'll go to bed now...
Breathe in...Breathe out...In...Out...
Oh hello. I'm just coming up for air after being deep in the throes of decluttering my kitchen for the last four days.
OK, well that's not all I've been doing. I did go to church on Sunday, and did the usual chauffering of the troops. I even stopped to make a couple of dinners (sadly, an unusual phenomenon).
It's an interesting feeling walking into a newly decluttered kitchen. Even though the outside appearance hasn't changed much, I feel a difference (just knowing I can open my cupboards and nothing will fall out on me is exhilirating!). My kitchen is clean from the inside out and I can feel it, in fact I feel clean when I walk into my kitchen. I have five grocery bags full of items that I decided I really didn't need. Only five you say? It's amazing how many things can fit into a grocery bag! My criteria was such that if there wasn't a place for an item, it was gone. Some things were harder to part with than others, and some were down right agonizing.
Well, the pantry's next. Time to dive back in...
It's midnight and one of my goals this year was to get to bed by 10:00 pm...
But I haven't been able to get around to all my favorite blogs lately, so that's why I'm up, only I've not been able to read them all so I guess I will have to catch up on the rest tomorrow.
Friday I took the kids rollerskating. I found some muscles that I forgot I had. I had a ball though and thoroughly enjoyed skating with my kids. The sweetest thing happened. My six year old has never really skated aside from trying out his siblings rollerblades a couple of times, so it was quite the experience for him. So much so that he decided that he needed some extra help so he found a little corner, three times, and knelt down to say a prayer...my heart melted seeing him kneeling there! He said that the first two prayers didn't work, but the third one did! I agreed as he was able to make it around the whole floor without holding my hand and only falling, oh say, four or five rather than 20 times!
It's been raining here for a week, on and off, but mostly on. I love it, but today I decided that it really makes me tired. I don't know how you people who live in Washington do it. I love the rain, but all I want to do is curl up in front of the fireplace and read a good book...only I have six kids and a husband who need to be fed, clothed and educated and carpooled around (educated and carpooling--meaning the kids, although there are some things that I would like my husband to be educated in...won't go there).
I've been washing my face lately at night. I've never been a face washer at night, and don't know why I'm even telling you that, except that my face feels really nice and I'm wondering why I didn't do it before. The other day I found myself in the skincare aisle at the market looking at all the anti aging creams...I guess I'm starting to worry about the tiny lines around the eyes, not to mention the big dark circles underneath. I bought myself some anti aging eye cream that makes the skin tingle around my eyes, and Ponds Cold Cream (only it's not called that anymore). I've always wondered what it was like and I've always liked the name, so I bought some and also some Ponds facial wash. Now I know what it's like, and I like it.
Today I was standing in the kitchen and I started to smell something and thought it was a nice smell, but couldn't fingure out what it was. I left the room for a bit and then came back in and the smell was a bit stronger, but still a good smell. Then it got a bit stronger and I looked over at the toaster oven and remembered the english muffins I had put in there several minutes ago...black. It drives my husband crazy, the penchant I have for burning toast. I think I have only NOT burned toast like 5 times in my whole life, and I eat toast several times per week! I put it in a just forget about it. Last year I joined Toastmasters so that I could improve my public speaking skills (then I found out you had to write speeches and after only writing one in six months I decided to quit and will only go back after I have four prepared speeches...I think it will be awhile). ANYWAY my husband's only comment when I told him that I had joined Toastmasters was that now maybe I would learn how to properly make toast. Nope, didn't happen.
Well, that's all I can think of for now. I do have another Isaiah post I've been working on and I finally thought of an ending for it today, I have such a hard time with endings. Hopefully I can get it finished and up here in the next couple of days.
Going to bed now...do you think that staying up late and dark circles under the eyes have any connection?
Ok, I'm done with feeling sorry for myself. Today was a good day. My daughter was happy, my house is fairly clean (that's about all it ever is, so that's good), and my laundry is almost caught up. What I mean by that is the big pile at the end of my bed is gone and the couple of overflowing baskets in the laundry room and the others sitting out in the adjacent hall are all folded and put away. I still have a couple of loads to wash and dry and some socks to sort, but they are contained in laundry baskets and will be run through tomorrow.
Tomorrow I might actually get to sew. I bought the fabric for my kitchen curtains and got them cut out a few days ago (before sickness) and tomorrow I will buy the lining and get that cut out and hopefully by the middle of next week my kitchen windows will be sporting curtains.
This evening I spent reading a book that I couldn't put down, so I finished it and then played "Phase 10" with my girls whom I beat handily, or at least by one phase.
Not really an extraordinary day, except for the fact that I am able to walk up the stairs without getting winded...and I finally have a bit of an appetite. Not sure I'm happy about that as I have lost 7 pounds from being sick. There's a silver lining in every cloud!
I was just going to type in here that I have a 13 year old daughter who was unhappy today and that would probably have been enough explanation for my title.
And maybe I should leave it at that rather than spewing forth venom and ruining all of your evenings.
Then I thought I should title it "Thank You Fellow Bloggers", because I needed something to take my mind off my day, so I surfed around to all my favorite blogs, and laughed and shuddered and sniffed and laughed some more and generally got uplifted.
I didn't leave any comments, because I was afraid of writing anything in my current mood that might offend or be taken in the wrong way, but I did thoroughly enjoy all of your posts and when I get caught up with my life (see below) then I will delight you with my enlightening comments (cough, cough).
I've learned my lesson too many times that when I'm in an especially emotional mood that it's just best to keep quiet.
Remember the stomach flu I had?
Well it went away and was replaced with another flu.
One that zaps all your energy.
I've been laying around since Sunday.
Let me rephrase that: I've been trying to lay around since Sunday, but every day this week (and usually more than just once per day) someone(s) had to be somewhere and since I am the chauffer and I don't have a backup, then I had to drive kids around, and while my charges were in doing their various fun activities, I layed around...in my car...until I could finally come home and either get in the bathtub or on the couch.
I think I am finally on the mend and tomorrow I don't have any places to be or things to do except my appointment with the washer and dryer.
I have piles of clothes, both clean and dirty, laying in various locations throughout my house.
Why doesn't life stop when I do?
A couple of days ago my husband spent the whole night upchucking the contents of his stomach. He attributed it to food poisening as he had eaten a hamburger on the way home the night before and assumed it was the culprit. Well last night I spent part of the night crouched over the toilet bowl...apparently it wasn't food poisening! My oldest son and my youngest son threw up last night as well, so me and the little guy are hanging out in my bedroom and we're getting ready to curl up together and watch "Toy Story" to try and distract our minds from our queasy stomachs and achy limbs.
Hope your day is going better than mine!
I've been busy today. I'm putting up curtains...finally. My mother-in-law gave me money for Christmas so yesterday, while I was at the department store, after talking to my friend (see previous post) I took a gander over to the curtain aisle and found 4 sets of matching drapes for my living room. I was at Ross Dress for Less and four matching sets is quite a struggle to find! It took some digging, but my do they have good deals on curtains, so it was worth it. I brought them home along with some curtain rods and today I proceeded to hang them. Then I wasn't sure if I liked them so I went back and bought a few different styles and have had a good ol' time changing them around and trying to decide which look best.
I've lived in this rental for almost three years now without curtains because I thought we'd only be here a year and didn't want to spend the money or put in the effort. But seeing how the good Lord has not seen fit to sell our property so that we can build our "dream" home, I know I'll at least be here for another year, probably more, and dang it if I'm gonna sit around staring curtainless windows for another year. I'm movin' in...finally.
The kitchen will be next and is compliments of my best friend from high school. She sent me a JoAnn's gift card (fabric store, she knows me too well!) for Christmas. I'm going to buy my favorite fabric, Norfolk Rose by Waverly, for that room. There are already curtain rods up in there thanks to the previous renters, but I'm going to put up cafe curtains, so I'll need to purchase those. My birthday comes up in February, so I'll get a new dose of money from my mother-in-law then and will proceed to the family room. Hopefull by the end of March I'll have the whole house done.
I'm sitting in my living room right now with my beautiful curtains in view. They still have wrinkles in them, I didn't want to iron them until I knew which ones I was keeping, but nevertheless, they sure do warm up a room.
Coulda, shoulda, woulda done this three years ago...
PS. Don't go see "I Am Legend" if you are a big scarety cat like me. My fingers were numb by the time I left the theater last night because I was pushing them against my ears so hard trying to drown out the sound. I would have gotten up and walked out, but that would have meant I would have to open my eyes and might see some hideous mutant "dark seeker" jumping out from some dark hole and I don't think the other theater goers would have appreciated me falling all over them as I scrambled my way out to the aisle. I took 5 Lindt dark chocolate truffles with me to savor during the show, but I couldn't eat them because that would mean I would have had to take my fingers out of my ears and move my jacket from in front of my face to get to the pocket they were in...
I made it all the way through Halloween without eating one piece of candy! Everytime I'd hear a knock at the door and I'd have to carry the bowl over I was tempted to just take just one, but I knew that if I gave in to one, then I'd give in everytime the doorbell rang!
So my husband took the little one around the neighborhood tonight and they came back with their pillowcases half full. Time to bargain. "I'll give you five bucks and you can keep 10 pieces of candy, but if you choose to keep all the candy it has to be gone by Sunday," says I. Last year it worked, but this year, no go. The 8 year old...he's good. He haggled his way to a better deal. The going price? $10 bucks and 15 pieces of candy, with two bite sized bars counting as one.
Seems silly to pay them to go out trick-or-treating, but the payoff is mine in the long run. They get to dress up and have fun. They get money that they can use for Christmas presents. The doctor and dentist bills would add up to far more than the $$$ I had to fork out right now, and best of all, the candy is out of the house. I pack it up and send it to work next day with my husband for all his employees.
Happy ending to a Spooky Day!
I had 4 nightmares last night. I'd wake up from one and fall back asleep right into another one.
This morning I stepped on the scale and it was up 4 pounds from yesterday. Could it be one pound for each nightmare? Or it could possibly have been the donuts from the ward party, or perhaps the cheesecake from yesterday that my chef husband made for me just because he loved me. Or more probably that monthly thingie that started yesterday.
This morning for breakfast I had a piece of toasted homemade bread, spread with butter and apricot jam, a glass of orange juice, and a small glass of eggnog. So I announced to my two older girls that I had had my grain, fruit and protien, after which my middle daughter chimes in "and your fat!" She was, of course, referring to the contents of the eggnog, but the look on her face was priceless when she realized what it sounded like! We laughed ourselves silly for a good 4 minutes!
It's that time of the year when the treats start to roll in and if I'm not careful I will acquire a few rolls myself!
I've gotten pretty good about passing up the candy, it's the homemade treats that do me in. Not store-bought-homemade. I don't know about other areas of the country, but here people are so busy that instead of bringing homemade items to ward events, they usually run by the store and pick up some cookies from the bakery section so as to appear homemade. But you can always tell that they aren't (That is my husband's pet peeve. This is a man who has his own cookbook and whose favorite store is William Sonoma!).
So when I prepared myself mentally for the ward Halloween party tonight I figured it wouldn't be too hard to keep away from the treat table... that is, until I walked into the gym and saw this cute little grandma making donuts...yes, homemade donuts... right there in the gym! She had a whole little set up with a big bowl of dough and a rolling pin, and a cute little donut cutter. She had a pan of oil right there and she'd fry them up, dunk them in glaze and pass them out to the eager crowd that was continually around her table. That's what saved me; the fact that I had to keep getting back in line if I wanted another one and that the line was always pretty long.
Talk about not playing fair, they go from not ever having homemade treats to making them right there--fresh and piping hot!
Well I didn't do too bad considering. I got away with only eating three...or was it four...
I'm still here. Just been playing wife, mom, chauffer, teacher, librarian, hairstylist, cook, butler, therapist, etc...
What's been keeping you busy?
I came here to do a little posting and found that my background has disappeared! And if I want to put that one back on all my little widget thingies on the side will disappear, and I don't want to have to redo them all...it's a pain being technoligically illilterate.
Well this is just a sampling of how my day is going so far. I actually had something else to post today, but it will just have to wait until tonight. I'm taking my ball and going home...oh yea I am home. And dinner needs to be fixed and the house straightened up and kids picked up and...
I liked my template... I'm bummed!
“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.” ~Bilbo Baggins to Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings.
Happy Columbus Day!
I guess most of the public world doesn't celebrate this day, but my son's private school does. I know this because I drove him over there today (40 minute round trip) only to discover that it was closed.
Which is a good thing because he had a 2000 word report due today that we stayed up working on last night until past midnight and of which he only had 864 words. Guess what he is working on right now?
In other news, I have been working on an experiment this month. I can't tell you what it is until November 1st. But here's a clue.
Happy Thanksgiving to all you Canadians!
Did you know that there are only 77 days 13 hours 34 minutes left until Christmas?
It’s interesting how the Lord works in our lives. Yesterday I was feeling good; I was happy and life was looking up. I think my last post reflected some of my confidence in myself. Today…not so good. I had a bad morning, and after a couple of things happened to sour my mood I went to my room, got on my knees and proceeded to tell Heavenly Father all the things I was done doing, and he’d have to figure out a different plan for my life, because I was done with this one.
Then while I was in the shower I thought of writing a post detailing all the sordid details and making other people feel sorry for me and spreading my misery.
Then I had to take my son to school and on the way we had a decent conversation and my spirit lifted a little.
Then I came home and checked on my blog and there were two comments that made me happy.
Then I read this post and this post and this post and a few more and I contemplated some things, learned something new, and laughed my head off.
It makes me think of how the Lord knows what you need.
I’m in the Primary presidency in my ward and one of my duties is to conduct every couple of months and give a small message about the theme of the month. Usually I say a little prayer and then some experience or scripture comes to mind that I can speak about and all goes well. A couple of weeks ago I was getting ready for church and realized I hadn’t given thought to a message. I panicked just a wee bit, then said a prayer and waited for something to materialize in my brain. Nothing. I prayed again. Nothing. My panick heightened. Then a thought popped in, “check to see if it’s the bishopric’s week for the message.” I did. It was.
The next week I was getting ready for church and realized I hadn’t given thought to a message. I prayed. The message came.
The Lord doesn’t waste our time.
A few years ago I was taking my kids to see a play and needed to get money from an ATM. My bank had two locations, so I decided to go to the closer one, as it was more on the way. A thought kept popping into my mind that I should choose the other one, but I ignored it and went to the one on the way. It was closed for maintenance, so I had to go to another bank across the street and pay $1.50 to get my money.
The Lord doesn’t waste our money.
Once I was taking a walk and feeling very down. In my mind I started speaking to God and you know what? He answered. We had a little conversation right there. I knew he was speaking to me because I cry when I feel his presence and I had tears streaming down my cheeks. He told me to look at the leaves that I was passing by and to notice all the detail. He told me that he created those leaves down to the tiniest detail. Likewise he was in my life down to the tiniest detail.
I’m feeling better now.
I haven’t posted anything for awhile because I’ve been moving. No, not to a new house, that won’t happen for a long time, we haven’t begun building yet…still waiting…and waiting…actually I don’t let myself dream about my new house anymore, it’s just counterproductive, I get depressed and then don’t accomplish anything.
Why do they make master bedrooms so big nowdays? The master bedroom in this house is the size of two and a half of the other bedrooms in this house. I could have used an extra bedroom.
I have six kids, three boys and three girls. Yes, like the Brady Bunch, only we are not like the Brady Bunch. For one thing, I lack Alice. I need an Alice. The other difference is, they are all ours, together. Nice big Mormon family. My mom had nine and her mom had nine. They both had six boys and three girls, all in the same order except the first two. I could not do nine. Somedays I cannot do six. But here they all are so somehow I must.
The order of my family is: girl, boy, girl, girl, boy, boy. It’s been a challenge on how to cohabitate with this brood, the bedroom arrangements have changed over the years as we’ve moved and moved and as boys and girls got too big to be roommates. This house has five bedrooms, so when we moved here we started out with the older two having their own rooms, and the two middle girls sharing, and the two little boys sharing. The master bedroom became the master bedroom, the office and the sewing room. That worked for awhile, until the older/middle girl turned 11 going on 16 and decided that she didn’t want to share with the younger/middle girl and consequently made all our lives miserable for a while. What do you do? Anyone else have a tweenager? So we moved the boys into the master bedroom…with us… remember how big it is. I had a chaise lounge in there and we threw a mattress on the floor and made them their own little corner. Then the tweenager had her own room and life became peaceful again, sort of… the master bedroom was now, the master bedroom, the office, the sewing room and the two little boys’ room. Let’s just say that I know how Ma and Pa Ingalls felt in their little one room cabin!
Anyone sew? If so, or if you do any other crafty thing, like scrapbooking you know what kind of a mess that generates. How about an office, you know how messy they can become too, all that paper etc. not to mention, the computer was in my room, so people came and went as they pleased, and there was no door to my bathroom, so if I happened to be undressing for the shower and someone needed to use the computer (which was all the time 24/7…ok 16/7), anyway, you get the picture. CAN I HAVE SOME PRIVACY HERE PEOPLE?!?!?!!!!!
My husband grew up in a family of four. Mom, Dad, big brother, span of five years, husband. He’s had a hard time adjusting. His home was always spotless. His mother taught school, no one was home to mess up the house. I teach school, only I do it at home, so my kids are always here, so my house is always spotless, because they are such good cleaners…. hahahahahahahahahahahaha…(sorry, insanity moment there).
Anyhoo, he would get upset with the master bedroom…the whole house actually, but we’ll just concentrate on this area. He would tell me it needed to be cleaned up. He was looking at it as our bedroom… “You need to clean the bedroom.” I would translate it into, “You need to clean the office, sewing room, bedroom, bedroom and bathroom.” (remember, there was no door between the bedroom and bathroom). I could not keep up with it. Something had to give. I longed for my own little room, my own little haven. I hit upon a hairbrained idea. I would move. (I thought about Hawaii, somewhere far away, and warm and tropical….....ok back to reality.) I decided that the three girls could all move into the master bedroom, husband and I would take the back bedroom by the other upstairs bathroom, the little boys would get their own room and older son would get the other bedroom (he already had his own, but I wanted the one he was in, so he would have to move) and the downstairs would become the office/sewing room. Geat plan, just a few glitches. One: convince husband. Two: convince older daughter and tweenager. Three: Convince husband. Four: convince tweenager.
I started on husband first, just planting the idea into his head. Then I brought it up to the older daughter. She wanted a laptop in exchange. I agreed. I was desperate. (Actually, I wouldn’t have agreed had she been any younger, but she would be needing one as she will be starting online college classes next semester, so it was convenient to agree!) I waited awhile before I brought it up to the tweenager. I waited until she was in a really good mood. My shameless ploy worked. She said, and I quote, “I’d do it in a heartbeat!” ( I will remind her of it when she starts complaining later!) Was this really her talking? Yes, it was. She was excited at the prospect of inhabiting the master bedroom! Go figure. Actually the master bedroom has two ginormous walk-in closets. She would get one and older daughter would get one. Youngest has an armoire and doesn’t really care about her own space yet. She was just happy to be sharing with her older sisters. She’s my cheerful little sunshiny girl (who does whine a bit much, but is still easy to please). In the meantime I kept bringing it up to the husband, promising all sorts of things if he would agree. Finally, after two months, I got the go ahead.
So, that’s what has been happening this last week, the upstairs has been in an upheaval. So has the downstairs as all the unwanted from upstairs has been piled up downstairs. But, I have my own room! The last three mornings I have read my scriptures in my room uninterrupted! Life is sweet! My room is…my room, and it is clean! Actually there’s no room for anything except the bed, it takes up three/fourths of the room! But I love it. And by the end of the week I should have an office/sewing room. I will have a place for all the school stuff that is strewn around the downstairs. And, I can sew! I haven’t sewn forever. It was just too much trouble and stress to worry about cleaning it up after each session. Any sewer knows that you can’t really put a project away in the middle of it. I have a couple of quilts waiting to be finished and three or four waiting to be made.
So life is looking up. There is sunshine in my soul today!
Back to the moving, got to get finished so I can get sewing! Just wanted to let you know why I haven’t posted lately.
Have a great day!
