Saturday, July 31, 2010

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


Thursday, July 29, 2010

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!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

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.

Friday, July 23, 2010

nunya

so I snuck an m&m
or rather
I tried to sneak an m&m
Photo of Peanut Butter M&M'S® candies
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'!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

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.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

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??

Monday, July 19, 2010

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!




Thursday, July 15, 2010

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!!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

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

Monday, July 12, 2010

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!!