Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

 

 

Nothing says 'Irishness' better than a Stormtrooper wearing a kilt...

 

?

 

 

And now for a round up of the rest of yesterday's festivities...

 

Mom's birthday lunch...

 

 

Rylan earned her brown belt...

 

 

 

 

And Jordan earned his green chevron (an extra step between green and advanced green)

 

 

It took some digging through the laundry piles (clean) to locate something green for everyone to wear today.

 

Which means that I have been washing/drying/sorting/folding laundry for the past several hours, in order to get caught up. But at least I am working at making it somewhat enjoyable - I've watched multiple DVR'd episodes of The Pioneer Woman. Which means now I am really, really hungry.

 

 

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Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

   

Outside my window... It is 6:55 am, just minutes before the sunrise, and the birds are waking up. When I let the dog out just a short while ago I sniffed the air and it smelled nice and clean. A wildfire began yesterday, just a couple miles northwest of us. It is right in the same vicinity as where a portion of the huge fire from last summer burned, and just mere hundreds of feet from where a homeschooling friend lives. I feel bad that she (and several others, for that matter) had to evacuate - again. As far as I know, though, no structures have burned. The smoke was extremely bad all afternoon and evening yesterday, so I am hopeful that the firefighters made good progress through the night.

I am thinking... How nice it is to be up when the rest of the family is asleep, so I can write in peace. I am in such a lazy rut lately.. it is so hard to pull myself out of bed! I had to, this morning tho', to get the whites through the washer and dryer. Rylan has belt testing/promotions this afternoon, and her gi was filthy because she played in the sandbox after karate on Thursday, before changing out of her gi and into regular clothes.

I am also thinking about my mom. Today is her 69th birthday. LOVE YOU MOM! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :) We will be celebrating with her in just a few short hours.
Today is the eighth anniversary of my first date with Dean. We went to Johnny Carino's. My spaghetti kept slipping off my fork, and to this day Dean reminds me of that every time my forkload falls to my plate before I can get it to my mouth.

I am thankful... that we have our home and each other.

From the Learning Rooms... Kinko's (a local copy shop) is becoming my new best friend. I finally got my act together and printed off the math practice sheets from both Jordan's and Rylan's remaining math lessons (there are a total of 175 in one 'year') and had all 175 spiral bound into a workbook. I passed Jordan's book to him when it was done and he was actually excited. Only a homeschool kid...

 

We just purchased a school subscription to Wordly Wise 3000 online based on a one-day special deal that Homeschool Buyer's Co-op was offering. The best 40 bucks I've spent in awhile... Jordan has completed workbooks 2 and 3 in the past, and liked it 'okay' but he is really turned off on anything that requires the physical act of writing. Last summer we had decided to pass on continuing with Wordly Wise since we were going to take up Shurley English. I am glad we are picking it up again. Vocabulary knowledge is something Jordan has continued to struggle with, so this will really help. The online version still requires a written response to the reading exercise for each lesson, so this is where Jordan can really work on his typing skills. (Which are nonexistent at this point, so I am thrilled that he gets more practice.)

In the kitchen... is a mess. But I do have hot, fresh coffee!!

I am wearing... pjs and a robe.

I am creating... a list of reasons why construction projects and food preparation should not occur in the same room, at the same time. (see previous post)

I am going... We are going to our city's St. Patrick's Day Parade this morning with my mom and my brother and his family. Then we are off to a nice lunch at a local Italian restaurant and then we have Rylan's and Jordan's belt promotions this afternoon. Then it is an evening full of sawing, hammering and most likely some cursing.

I am wondering... If it will actually rain today. The forecast calls for a 30% chance... boy I hope so. It will really help with the fire situation. Just... not during the parade.... please?

I am reading... Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon. I blew through the first three, and now I've backed off on my pace quite a bit - for no other reason than I was totally shirking anything else that needed to be done around here.

In the garden... Geez! It is almost time, isn't it? Not sure what my plan is yet this year because I know that watering restrictions will be in play this summer. I would really like to do some cool-season stuff like spinach and lettuce, so I guess I'd better do more than idly think about it.

I am hoping... That we get at least a portion of the kitchen floor done by the end of this weekend. The new fridge comes next Saturday. (We purchased it last night at Home Depot - great sale that ends on the 20th!) We already know that the cabinet that is currently above the present fridge will have to be moved upward by at least an inch to accommodate the new (bigger!) fridge.
I began physical therapy for my shoulder this week, so I hope I get some pain relief soon. This all started with my weird chest pains early last fall. We ruled out heart attack after my doctor ran an EKG, did a chest xray and I wore a heart monitor for two weeks. My heart felt like it was squeezing and I was having episodes where I felt like my heart was racing. Then it all just stopped - except for the pain. My doctor seemed convinced that I must have pulled a chest muscle at some point, and the rest was just plain ol' stress. Then the pain gradually moved upwards and outwards. The entire chest wall on my right side is now in a constant state of soreness. My pectoral muscle is tight and tender to the touch, and now my entire rotator cuff is involved. I experience occasional numbness in my right arm, I can't raise my arm above my head or reach back behind me. Carrying small children is excruciating. The pain and the number of muscles involved has been slowly increasing since the fall. It's like new muscle groups keep trying to compensate for everything else, and then they start to show the strain.

I am looking forward to... The parade! We've had to miss it for the past two years, due to karate testing. It always falls on the weekend before St.Patrick's Day, and testing times have traditionally been in the morning. They recently changed up the schedule so that adults go in the morning, followed by the kids in the afternoon. So as luck would have it this year, the parade falls on my mom's birthday, and we have the morning free!

I am learning... more about sub flooring than I ever wanted to know.

I am hearing... Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. And the bird accompaniment from outside.

Around the house... (I think I have covered this is in incredibly boring detail)

I am pondering... what to have for breakfast...

One of my favorite things... my new Keurig! The downside is that I miss that tantalizing brewing coffee smell - the anticipation is an important of the whole coffee 'experience'! The upside is that your coffee is ready before you can even extricate the creamer from the fridge and locate a clean spoon (okay, so maybe not everyone has that particular challenge).

A few plans for the rest of the week... the usual schooling and activity schedule, a meeting for me, an ortho appointment for Jordan and then he leaves for OKC on Friday for his Spring Break visitation with his mom. We will celebrate the Spring Equinox on Wednesday - I intend to write more about that in the next day or two.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

This was what was happening at this time, last week. Crazy Colorado weather!

A blizzard one week, a heatwave and wildfires the next...

 

 

 

 

 

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Ahhhh...the smell of mold in the morning.

Good morning to you, nasty kitchen floor!

 

Let me back up a bit, and present to you how our kitchen was...

 

This is our kitchen now...

Or should I say that this is how Dean left it as of 10:30 last night. I've got about 300 staples to pull out of the subfloor before I can put the stove back. And I need to use the stove today. Well, every day for that matter..

 

See, it all started with a leak. (isn't that typical?). A few weeks ago we noticed that quite a few of those ugly laminate tiles were starting to bubble up near the fridge. (They are the ugliest tiles e-ver. They may hide dirty smudges well, but they're MAUVE). The bubbled-tile radius began to expand in all directions. If you walked across the floor barefoot, you risked getting seasick. So, with a plan in mind (we were ready to replace the kitchen floor with Pergo anyway), this past weekend we took a deep breath and pulled out the fridge. Then we pulled up a tile. And then another one. And then another one. Demolition is fun!

 

 

Owen was worried that we were tearing the house apart. Rylan pulled on the work gloves and got dirty. (Atta girl!) Colin stepped on staples. Barefoot. Jordan asked if he could play Minecraft. Sigh. In very short order the kitchen and hallway was tile-free. That blue underlayment smelled nasty - like dirty wet socks. And look! Ugly laminate flooring that the previous lazy-ass owner left in and just threw the ugly mauve tiles on top of! Now that explains why the ground floor is not level! BUT it also saved our ass with this leak. It protected the subfloor from moisture damage - everywhere but right beneath the fridge, as you can see in the top picture.

 

So the source of the leak was the shut-off valve on the water supply line for the ice-maker. Dean had moved out the fridge a while ago to look at something, and when he pushed it back into place, it must have put just enough pressure against the valve that it started a slow leak, right at the floor level. After we had moved the fridge out away from the wall, there was another small puddle under the fridge when we moved it again a couple of hours later. Not sure if the fridge is leaking itself.. We had a copper supply line that looked like it was in decent shape. Then again, the fridge is seventeen years old, and the valve was probably 22 yrs. old. Dean replaced the valve and got a flexible braided steel supply line to replace the copper one. Now we are contemplating replacing the fridge. We weren't exactly budgeting for that. It will take a good portion of what we had budgeted for the floor, which means we will be replacing the floor in piecemeal fashion over the coming weeks. (Months). Ugh.

 

Well, I'm off to vacuum the layer of moldy, wood and laminate dust that has now covered every surface on the ground floor, and throw open the windows to let in some fresh air. Ahh.. behold the smell of mold.

 

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Happiness in a cup

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that I have been struggling in the coffee-making department. First my Mr. Coffee died about a year ago. That's okay - I had a French Press that was feeling pretty unloved and was only too happy to step up to the task. Then, a couple of months ago the glass carafe for the French Press got knocked off the kitchen counter and it shattered. So then I was reduced to taking desperate measures by using just a coffee filter stretched over the top of the cup.

 

This was my coffee I made this morning...

 

 

It has been a long couple of months of extremely bad coffee.

 

My $tarbuck$ expenditures have been atrocious.

 

 

And then...

 

(Cue up the choir of angels! With lots of sopranos! And harps! And sunbeams! And glitter!!)

 

*~*T H I S*~* was delivered by a very nice FedEx man just a few hours ago!

 

 

The wait has been long, but sooo worth it.

 

Thank you Honey! ;)

 

 

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A Boy Turns Three...

 

Colin turned the ripe old age of three on Feb 5th. In my ripe old age of 41, I'm just now getting around to writing about it. Hummph.

 

This was an easy birthday for me to handle, emotionally. I am so glad to leave the two's behind. You have no idea how glad. I am totally torn up inside that our babyhood days are long gone, but I am tired. Bone tired. Colin is the two year old that broke the mold. He defined the terrible two's, and I will forever have the gray hairs to remember it by. But now, after (almost) seven looooong years, the end of diapers, booster chairs, cabinet locks and sippy cups is near. In the past year we have already bid a fond farewell to the diaper bag, stroller, and most triumphantly - the binkie.

A few months ago, after several repeated attempts to encourage Colin to give up his binkie, we just let the issue rest. It was not worth the tantrum that would ensue, or the late night visits from Colin - in search of his binkie. He would fall asleep without it at times, and we would put him to bed. Then sometime in the night he would wake up, and search for it. When he couldn't find it, he would either sit up in his bed and howl until Dean or I came to help or he would take matters into his own hands and come find me to help him. Then, one morning, I heard Colin get up. I was still pretty groggy with sleep, so I dozed a bit, even though I did register that Colin was the only one up, and therefore unsupervised. Sure enough, when I found him downstairs, he was putting the scissors that Rylan had left out the night before to good use. He had taken the scissors and lopped off most of the silicone part of his binkie. He looked stunned, and a little sheepish. He wanted me to fix it. Ah-ha! A teachable moment! That afternoon, at nap time, Colin was beginning to understand the deeper implications of his actions. No binkie. It was now useless, and he would have to throw it away - AND there were no more in the house. He was going to have to go without. He looked sad, but he didn't cry. He accepted this new reality with adult-like resignation and went on with life. He never asked for it again.

At Christmastime, during a final search of the grandparents' house for lost toys as we packed up to go home, I found one of his binkies under the tv cabinet. It had been left there most likely during our previous visit last summer. I pocketed it rather quickly so that he wouldn't see it. When we got home, as I was cleaning out the kids' travel duffle bags, I found another binkie tucked away in a random pocket. Then I found a third one the next day, as I was searching through an seldom-used cabinet for something else. Weird - all of a sudden it's raining binkies! So many nights,at bedtime, Dean, Jordan and I would have to turn the house upside down in search of a binkie. We would even have to strap on a headlamp and go out to the backyard and search... most often it was left behind in the sandbox. It was imperative that we find it, for the little urchin would not go to sleep without one. Yes, this is one vestige of babyhood I was only too happy to see fall by the wayside.

Now he is three. He's contemplating toilet training, but only seems mildly interested. He can't distinguish the difference between pee and poop yet, so I don't think he is totally ready yet. In his own time... He is done with sippy cups, but whenever Kool-aid is served, you can bet a sippy cup will be pressed into service. Did I mention that Colin has a mean throwing arm?

 

He is bright, funny and he laughs at his own jokes. He argues constantly with Owen and 'stupid' is his favorite word. He loves to wear Rylan's princess dresses as equally as he does a Spider-Man costume. He Loves, Loves, Loves trains, cars and playing in the sand box. He pays rapt attention whenever Dean is working on a building project and then 'builds' his own stuff when he plays. Of all of the kids, he - by far - is the most dramatic with his imaginary play. His favorite characters to use are our vast collection of Cars - I think we have something like six different Lightning McQueens alone - and he creates very elaborate story lines. His favorite place to play is on the stairs. That was my favorite place to play too...

 

Colin's favorite meal is a banana, followed by an apple, followed by another banana. Even having been through these strange eating phases three times over now, I still don't understand how toddlers/preschoolers survive on what little they eat... Colin is also my coffee buddy. He will sneak a sip (and polish off the whole cup) when I'm not looking.

Colin's favorite book is a Thomas book that has noises. His favorite tv show is Team Umizoomie. He loves music - we've got another Coldplay fan in our midst... and his favorite movie is Cars2.

 

Colin has no reservations about talking to people. He will introduce himself ("I'm Colin!" - as he taps himself in the chest) - and all of his other family members - well, to anybody who will listen. I feel sorry for the store clerks who must suffer through his long list of the people who live with him. I am an introvert, so I have to work hard at not squelching his desire to be social with any and every adult we come into contact with in a given day.

 

Colin gets up early with me and quietly watches tv as I launch into the day. He loves to snuggle and he still likes to rock to sleep - although the past few nights he has gone to sleep in his bed on his own, so those days may be over. That is the one vestige of babyhood that is the hardest for both Dean and I to let go. We love those quiet, peaceful hours of rocking. Colin is a good rocker, he doesn't (usually) squirm, and he nestles right in and goes to sleep. I got to do the afternoon nap, and Dean got to put him down at night. We are both sad that our rocking days are practically over, but then again it meant that the entire bedtime process for all of the kids pretty much dominated our evening and we never got that quiet time to attend to bills, budgeting, mail, to do lists and so forth. We have been some very nonproductive people for quite some time, so it's nice, in that respect, that Colin has reached this stage.

 

Remember the many faces of Colin? Here are a few more...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Snip!

Okay, so this wasn't quite in the plan for today (especially if you read my earlier post today). It all started because Dean wanted his hair cut this morning. Since I cut everybody's hair around here, this involved me too. And since Colin's hair was growing out and was starting to look goofy, it involved him too. And since Owen's hair was starting to creep beyond the tops of his ears, he got involved as well. And, so as not to be left out, Jordan was due for a trim as well. Rylan wants to grow her hair out, so she was good.

 

As for me? Well.... Yeah. It was time.

 

Locks of Love? I have something for you...

 

Four good lookin' dudes...

 

See what I mean by Colin and Owen looking exactly the same from behind??

 

Miss Rylan, who may not be missing any hair, but she is missing two more teeth today!! :)

 

 

And then there's me...

 

Feeling about 10 pounds lighter! Lol...

 

 

Now, what was it I said I was going to get done today???

 

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Simple Woman's Daybook Entry

 

 

Outside my window... Snow! And LOTS of it. Most of it is blowing sideways right now... We are supposed to get around 6 -12 inches, but the garden beds are already partially buried because of the wind. We live on a corner lot, and because of the way we are situated, when the snow is accompanied with wind, it whips around the front of the house and we get a nice 3-4 ft drift up against the garage door, yet the bottom of the driveway is mostly swept clean. I conveniently forget this fact, and since I am always running late, whenever we load up the car to dash out of the house, I raise the garage door to find the drift waiting for me and I have to dig us out before we can go anywhere. It's sad that it ends up being a 'surprise' every time. Maybe that is the gift of a terrible memory... life is continually full of surprises!

I am thinking... About how grateful I am for the snow. We have had hardly any snow - just a piddly dusting here and there. I love me a big whoppin' storm. (Well, as long as we have plenty of food, diapers and toilet paper...)

I am thankful... Okay I just said I was thankful for the snow, so now I have to think of something else. I am thankful for all of the good things that have entered our life lately... that update will be on my other blog - My 2 cents.

From the Learning Rooms... I am officially in love with Homeschool Skedtrack. It has made our life so much easier. Rylan has finished all 120 lessons of Reading Eggs, and has moved on to Reading Eggspress - which is just too cool for words. It is like having an entire library at our fingertips - fiction, nonfiction, all broken down by genre and reading level, complete with comprehension questions at the end of every book. LOVE THAT. Rylan is studying the water cycle, Jordan is researching different galaxy formations and creating some artwork with that, and Owen is finally showing some interest in working with letter sounds. Did I mention that I suspect he is a lefty? That might explain some things....

In the kitchen... Today has C*H*I*L*I written all over it..

I am wearing... Thermal pj's and my robe.

I am creating... A huge pile of shredded paper as I (finally) shred documents from 2004 and 2005. Does that count?

I am going... Thankgoodness we have nowhere to go today!

I am wondering...How on earth do birds stay warm and sheltered when it snows like this?

I am reading... Got two books going right now - Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, and The Year of Learning Dangerously by Quinn Cummings. I'm on a kick to finish the Outlander series. In the past two weeks I read Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber and so I am just going with it. I love history, so I am finding the story fascinating. The other book is about a family's experience with homeschooling. I've just started it, so I don't have a lot to say just yet.

I am hoping... That Dean won't have to drive to work tomorrow and get a work-at-home day instead.

I am looking forward to... Owen's 'birthday' on Thursday. He's a leaper, so in non-leap years we celebrate on the 28th.

I am learning... About the Jacobite Rising (due to Outlander) and other bits and pieces of Scottish history.

I am hearing... In a different sort of blogging mood today, so my musical accompaniment is one of Dean's Spotify playlists called Dubstep 2013 by Filtr Norway. I actually don't care for most of the list, but one of my favorites is Xception (Original Mix) by Starkillers & BL3ND, so I just end up playing it over, and over, and over....

Around the house... Rylan is curled up with Kitty on her lap, watching tv, Jordan is on his iPod, Colin is playing with two large paperclips and a small toy truck, Owen is sleeping in, Dean is sleeping in (or feigning it and actually playing Clash of Clans on his iPad), and Abby is curled up into a tight ball o'fur on her pillow. My goal for today is to finish up my financial recording keeping for Rylan's girl scout cookie sales, print off the Holiday letter (which is finally completed and why I can start blogging again without any guilt) and get through the last of the paper piles that have plagued our desk for at least the past six months. I have been working very, very hard on getting caught up - and it is so close now I can taste it!!

I am pondering... How deep the snow will get..

One of my favorite things... I know that it is totally bizarre, but I love the smell of Abby's paws. It's deep, earthy and complex. I give her a big hug every night before bed, and I just breathe in deep. My previous two huskies had the same sort of scent too. I don't really care for the smell of other dogs which is probably why I am reluctant to consider any other breed.

A few plans for the rest of the week... Jordan has a Court of Honor/Potluck night tomorrow night. And so it just dawned on me right now that I need to come up with something to bring foodwise, and that I have a bit of patch-sewing to do, in very short order. We have the usual activity schedule and a field trip on Thursday to the Garbage Garage (a recycling-themed classroom/museum place located adjacent to the county landfill). Thursday is also Owen's birthday, and I am planning on taking the kids to the new children's science museum in our city that just opened up a couple of months ago. I have to get his cake squared away, and figure out what else we will do that day. He is not really giving me any special requests other than that he wants a Thomas train cake and a Buzz Lightyear. On Friday Jordan will be babysitting again. Jordan has taken on a small job of babysitting for a homeschooling mom twice a month on a Friday morning. He basically gets to play Legos for three hours with a 4 year old boy and earns money by doing so - he thinks it is the most awesome deal in the Universe. On Saturday the scouts will be doing a snowshoeing/camping overnight - this snowstorm came just in time to put down an nice soft layer of deep snow for them.

Here is a picture for thought I am sharing...

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