enough already

I'm about to start getting frustrated!

Now

my washer is messed up, too.

I put in a load at 4:06

which was really a bit late

'cause it'd be about 5 before I could get it on the line;

the line is in the shade by then, so things dry more slowly.

I figured it's hot enough, though, today

that the clothes would be dry by dusk anyways.

At 5:17

I noticed that the washer was just on the rinse cycle.

"Hmm."

I said to myself,

"That's funny.

I thought a load took about 45 minutes.

Over an hour? You'd think I would've figured that out by now.

Huh!"

13 minutes later,

I know.

I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.

13 minutes later,

it was still filling up to rinse.

"What the heck? We aren't using any water anywhere.

Hmm."

So I reset the load level to Lg instead of X-Lg,

expecting it to stop filling and move on to the actual rinsing.

Five minutes later

(I was busy, ok?)

I hear that the water is still going!

I went back to the washer

and looked inside.

No water.

It was just draining out

as it was filling.

There was a washer full of water

when I switched the load size

5 minutes earlier!

~

grrr

hmmm

So

we got this new store.

People

have been talking.

We

have been counting down the days.

Finally

today, at 9:00

they opened.

Savers.

~

Frankly

I was a little disappointed.

Yes

it is incredibly well-laid out;

everything is organized by size and by color.

I actually think it will do very well here;

there are people who would never darken the doors

of the Salvation Army Thrift Store

or Abilities Unlimited

who would certainly be comfortable shopping at Savers.

But.

I was expecting to find bargains.

Real bargains.

And I did not.

I doubt I'll be buying clothes there to re-make.

Which

I guess is okay

'cause I do have quite a stack already...

~

Perhaps

if I had gone looking for clothes for myself

- to wear as is -

I might have been more thrilled

but for once in my life

I already have all the clothes I need....

~

I'm not writing the store off by any means,

I just wasn't thrilled with it

like I was expecting to be

~

One good thing that has come of this

is that the folks at the Sal Army Thrift Store

have been cleaning up the place.

I just hope they aren't planning to jack up the prices, too.

It don't look that good!

a little trip down memory lane

We were taking our walk this evening

and I heard Lexi shout, "Mine!"

and it reminded me...

~

Back in the days of 3 children

public school

and a regularly relatively clean house

I would walk the half a block or so to my friend's house

most mornings after I'd dropped TJ & Lana off at school.

We'd have coffee and visit for about an hour

while our little ones played.

Jennifer did some babysitting

and one of the little girls she kept

would walk around saying "mine, mine" all the time.

We talked about how odd it was.

She was an only child

so it didn't make much sense

that one of the only words in her vocabulary was "mine".

While discussing this peculiarity

little Ashley toddled over to me and tried to grab my coffee

and I said,

"You can't have this Sweet Baby, it's mine."

passionflower

Have you ever seen such a unique flower?

Tyler took me to Mt Magazine four years ago

for our 19th anniversary.

My pregnancy with Lily was confirmed

on the winding drive up the mountain.

Actually, I'd already taken the pregnancy test

but if I hadn't

that drive would've been proof positive.

Speaking of drives & confirming pregnancy

that really is one of the ways we knew Lex' was coming;

1 week after Lana's wedding

we drove to Luke's parents home in Branch

to watch Luke and Lana open wedding gifts

and I was sick as a dog.

Never did take a test.

anyways....

Although considerably more gorgeous than my pictures

there

on the wall in the Lodge

was a huge picture

of the flowering weed we have all over our property!

Passionflower.

Who knew?

just beautiful

and good for ya, too!

guess where I went today

always something to learn

I'm working on a pattern

so I can make Tyler some linen pants for his upcoming trip to Belize.

It probably wasn't the smartest idea

to use a pair of knit jammies

as my guide....

Once I get all the wrinkles (haha - wrinkles - get it?)

worked out of his pattern

I'll get to work on Ton's pattern.

one thing at a time....

I learned a lot making my first muslin

- actually out of muslin, ironically -

most importantly

I learned that you should

sew your muslin with basting stitches.

nunya

so I snuck an m&m

or rather

I tried to sneak an m&m

Josiah:

What was that?

What was that you just put in your mouth?

Me:

nunya.

Josiah:

??

Me:

Nunyabusiness

Lily:

I want some 'none ya business'!

momma made medicine

The hardest part of making 'medicines'

is figuring out what combinations of herbs you need

and how much you need of 'em.

Once you've done that

the rest is easy.

Fill a clean jar 1/2 full with dry herbs of your choice.

(I like to sterilize the jar first

by putting it in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes)

Boil a bit of water

and use half as much water as you used herbs.

(let's say you've got a pint jar: you used 1 cup of herb

so you'd need 1/2 c. boiling H20)

Fill remaining space in jar with glycerin

Put a lid on the jar and put in crockpot.

Fill crockpot to neck of jar with warm water

(I just use the water left over from sterilizing my jar)

Turn crockpot on low

and

let that glycerin pull all that goodness out of your herbs.

Shake your jar once or twice a day

and smile to yourself

all giddy-like.

~

told you it was easy!

After 'cooking' for 3 days in the crockpot on low

my potions were ready to be strained.

It took me two more days to finally get to it.

no biggie.

I use circles cut out of old t-shirts

as my strainer

liquid gold.

really!

I would have paid hundreds of dollars for all this goodness.

Scratch that

I wouldn't pay that kind of money;

everyone would just suffer through their ailments

like we used to do.

I get real creative and fancy with my labels.

A little bit of time

+

not very much money

and we've got

one to two years worth of

Cold Care

(good for whatever ails ya)

Comfrey Plantain

(works wonders on mouth wounds)

Calm Cool & Collected

(formerly called Restful Sleep)

oil for Green Stuff - I'll make it into a salve later

Muscle Rub oil

I haven't decided if I'll make a salve or use as is

and

Tension Tamer

Thank-you, Lord

for all the goodness that grows on this earth

and for wisdom on how to use it

to benefit my family.

a surprise picnic for my sweeties

When Brandon saw the delivery guy

he figured he was at the wrong house;

it's happened plenty of times...

The little kids didn't even know that you could get 'pood'

'brought to your house'

so it ended up being a bigger treat than I'd planned

The boys wanted to be sure to save some for Papa & Ton'

too

"This was a pun day, Mom!!"

I'm going to be sad when Josiah starts saying the 'f' sound!!

braggin' on my boy

Can I just brag on Brandon a minute??

How many 11 yr olds do you know

who can make this??

not a smidge of brown ~ just the way I like them

He made those perfect eggs

after making omelets

- to order -

for all of his younger sibs.

and

right after I took that picture

he went out and changed the filter in the pool

and then a few minutes after that

he changed Lex's diaper.

What was really sweet

was

when he grabbed Lexi

he said, "Com'ere Lex', I get to change your diaper."

get to!

~

You see

that

is

Brandon.

The boy just gives and gives.

Not always cheerfully (he's not perfect, ya know)

but never complaining.

~

Brandon, I am so proud of the man you are becoming!

I love you!!

yes, I know,

it's 1:30 in the morning.

What were you doing at 1:30??

another good helper

Ironic that I'm posting this today

being without a working dryer and all....

but I was reminded of it

when I asked Lexi to pick up a pair of her sister's shoes

and she cheerfully picked one up

then asked, "More?"

to make sure I wanted her to get the other one, too.

~

The other day

while the dryer was still working

and we were catching up on vacation laundry

this little girl unloaded an entire dryer

one piece at a time.

By her self!

Sunday summer sunset

chocolate dipped cones

delicious

but

oh-so-messy

there was nothing romantic about grandma's drawers

strung out on a line.

~

I read that awhile back.

Guess who's drawers are strung on a line between two poles??

Yep

that's right

our dryer is on the fritz now.

That brings it, among a myriad of other small things, to

minus 1 vehicle, my beloved caravan

$180 in towing (three, yes, three, tows)

over $1,000 in auto repairs

1 computer on the blink

leaving me using this blasted laptop

with no mouse.

I happen to like mice - of the computer sort.

An almost burned down house

complete with a now-mostly-repaired ceiling hole.

I'm sure I'm forgetting things.....

I told a friend yesterday

that if it weren't so darned inconvenient

and expensive

it'd be laughable.

There is a bad-a__ part of me

(admittedly small)
that wants to shake my fist at the devil

and shout, "That all you got?!"

But the (bigger) barely-hanging-on part of me

is far too chicken for that.

~

The good news is

if Satan is so worried about this upcoming mission trip to Belize

then God must be planning some amazing things

for my guys

right?!

SO

I will hang my big ole drawers (and everything else) on the line

and stay home

stranded

when Tony works

and continue to fork over the dough

to keep our two remaining vehicles running

typing up my posts

and attempting to edit pictures on this stupid computer

praying all the while

for strength

compassion

and the people of Belize

~

Pray with me, won't you?

My family is not the only one

- of those going on this mission trip -

under attack.

And while these are all just minor inconveniences

in the grand scheme of things

One on top of another

they do tend to wear one down.

thanks!!

pool boys

We have been having problems with our pool for weeks.

First

I was suspicious about our test strips;

the readings didn't seem accurate to me.

I was putting chemicals in

but they weren't showing up when I tested.

the water looked fine

but the test strips told me things were way off.

So I bought a new box

even though I still had 42 left in the old one.

The results from those weren't impressive either.

Things went downhill from there.

Once upon a time

I would've trusted my instincts

but here lately

my brain has been soo foggy

that it's easy to assume I was somehow mistaken.

So I would re-calculate

switch filters

add more chemicals

yada yada yada

but the pool started looking really cloudy.

Long story short

my new test strips were faulty;

I wasn't mistaken in my calculations.

I'd ended up adding about 4x the chemicals that I should have.

And pool chemicals aren't cheap.

I tried draining off part of the water and adding fresh

to try to balance things out.

Better

but still not quite right

so I messed some more

but I never could get the pool looking real sparkly again.

Then vacation

and lots of rain

and by Sunday

the thing was green.

I figured it'd cost less money to drain the whole darn thing

and start from scratch

than it would to correct with still more chemicals.

plus

there was all that green..... ugh!

So

yesterday we drained the pool

again.

Completely

this time.

Brandon & Jeremiah

spent about 1 1/2 hours out there scrubbing it this morning

so we could have a fresh start.

I was so proud of how they stuck with a hard job;

I didn't have to get after them 1 time to get back to work!

Shoot

I hadn't even really gotten them started on it;

I just told them to get a few rags

a scrub brush and a bottle of fabulouso...

Jeremiah told me later that he was tired

and he wanted to come inside

but then he remembered that we always tell him,

"L...'s never quit!"

so he figured he had to just keep working till the job was done.

~

thanks, Pool Boys!

I think this time

I'll go with my gut

oops - almost forgot

one of the highlights of the trip!

Date-night!!

~

In our 20 years of friendship

we had never gone on a double date.

Thanks to Ton', Nikki, and Brandon,

we were able to rectify that and had a very nice

albeit not very quiet ;-)

evening at an Irish bar & grill

summer vacation 2010

Sadly, there was some of this

but not nearly as much as we expected there would be;

the girl did soo good!

First stop: Tennessee

and a wonderful

but too short

visit with our dear friends

They took us to an awesome park,

which was just the thing

for kids who'd been cooped up in a car all day long

Lex' loved her Uncle Scott!!

She was pretty fond of Aunt Jackie & Nikki, too

but Uncle Scott was tops!

Mostly

we did some sightseeing

and birth - recording

(why the blue??)

and took some naps-on-the-go.

There was wayy too much of this!

but still plenty of this

I got all choked up looking at this

but maybe it was all those darn stairs....

but probly not.

Last but not least

there was lots

- but not nearly enough -

of this

We love you, H's!

Thanks for a wonderful visit!!