Sunday morning ...

when "sleeping in" ended at 5:45 a.m.

Have I come to that new stage of life?

Not really. Just volunteered to give someone a lift to work bright and early.

A look at our week here where the wind has started again this morning

and we could use some fresh snow.

Wednesday morning Brock fell asleep driving. He gave Alyx a ride to work and was

on his way home when he hit the ditch and rode it for quite a length at 55 mph.

He says he caught some "serious air". I nearly had a heart attack.

Thank goodness for seat belts and teens that wear them.

Between the seat belt and being asleep ... he was probably saved from some

serious injury.

This guy looks like he might have a more comfortable place to lay his head

than on a steering wheel.

At least the steering wheel isn't going anywhere now .. the car is toast. 

Friday I started working on these buggers. I think, between Friday and Saturday, I spent about 12 hours working on numbers and paper piles. I'm still not done.

I do have a hint at this point that includes ...

at least a little of this. I have played with my deductions on my paychecks this year. To the point that TurboTax asked me if my income and my federal withholding had been entered correctly. Um, yes. I sort of needed the money all year long.

Money. A necessary evil.

So is laundry soap.

In mid October I went to Costco. Pretty bad when I can tell you when I went to Costco! Actually, I just saw the receipt in my tax quest. 

Please come on this little journey with me.

If you purchase 2 large boxes of Tide from Costco and they say 180 loads on the side of the box, how long do you think they ought to last?

I'm no longer washing wet little people bedding in the morning.

I don't have littles changing clothes every 15 minutes

after jumping in a mud puddle or just because they feel like it.

It is winter and the clothes are much bulkier and layered more,

but 3 months later I was out of laundry soap and there was still a full box with

63 loads written on the side when I bought these.

That means that we have supposedly washed 423 loads of laundry

in 3 months. 35 loads of laundry a week. Once upon a time, yes.

Not anymore. Simply impossible.

Out came the measuring cup and the calculator.

317 loads/180 loads = 2 oz per load

Take out a measuring cup and check where 2 oz is.

It is 1/4 cup ...  if 8 oz is still 1 cup and new math hasn't changed that too.

I'm going to help you out. 2 oz measured against my finger is about the height of my finger nail when I pour detergent in that green scooper.

Unless you are washing the delicates or an itty bitty load of laundry,

who uses 1/4 cup of laundry soap in their wash?

The box doesn't even recommend 1/4 cup for a full load of laundry.

Now I know why the boxes are empty. It is more like 90 loads instead of 180.

Tide has some explaining to do.

The things I come up with when my hubby is gone for weeks on end.

I've come to the point of complaining about laundry soap?

Gotta love a girl ....

who loves her Carharts ...

enough to add them to her Christmas wish list.
Now we just need to find the time to wear them!

An ode to court(ing) and love.

I'm awake and the time is only 5:37 a.m. I've already hit the e-mail box and FB for a quick check. Nothing that I'm looking for in the e-mail box.

Just recently I've put my nose back in The Five Love Languages book. Do you know that there is also a book for teens? I've seen, or heard of, the one for kids. Now I want to read the one for parents of teens. Life's learning curve sometimes throws me for incredible loops. I'll be the first to say that I have a difficult time with teens. Love 'em to pieces, just found it much easier to diaper bottoms and clean up puke. I am trying. That's all I can say.

While I'm on the subject of teens .... Brock has already posted something on his FB about court and the likes. I figure that gives me free reign. If he hadn't, I'd keep my mouth shut. It is irrelevant what he managed to get himself into, the path to correcting the mistake is what I find fascinating. His misdeed is certainly not irrelevant to life. He isn't the first to fall into this trap and won't be the last. It is irrelevant to this topic. Yesterday we met with Youth Court. I had no clue that a "jury of his peers" meant exactly that. I hope your child is never found in this position. I really want to expose you to the other possiblities available. Youth Court is found nationwide, in every state except Connecticut, from what I was told yesterday. High school students train to run the entire court room. They play the positions of judge, defense and prosecuction (with first and second chairs) and everything else. They have the case file before the court date. The defense "attorney" will call his/her "client" and discuss the case. Following the evidence in court, they deliberate and they pass sentence according to guidelines given them. I just took a quick peek at the site and must correct something. It looks as if there are different variations of the Youth Court, with adult judges in 51% of the courts. Whether or not a high school student is headed for law school, or something in the field of law, this looks absolutely fascinating! What a great way to learn about our justice system and see it work first hand. A fantastic way to be involved in your community, to positively influence your peers and make a difference in today's world. Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Conner is very active in the organization as well. If you have a teen, or know a teen, gander over and take a peek.

..... and in other breaking developments around here ...

**I am not only doing our income tax return, but the kids' returns as well. That means we have 5 of them to do. Thank you Tia for not working yet. I got one done last night and was rewarded with a major look of relief on someone's face.

**Manged to move 3 months of cd pictures to an external hard drive. This counts in the pitch 25 things a week category and I need to play catch up.
**The temp this morning is 30 degrees. We saw rain yesterday.

Saturday project.

I think I've got it.

Don't make a plan. Just wing it.

If you're in the mood to do something .. go for it.

This has been on my list for a while and we got it done yesterday!

I was trying to get Tia to go on a photo shooting jaunt with me,

but she wasn't buying the idea. Hmph!

Will try the sales pitch again today and see what happens.

So, off to other things.

I'm cheap. I love to reuse things and remake things. Sometimes out of necessity,

and other times because it is just so much fun. Repurposing has forever been my life ..

long before it was anything trendy or fashionable.

Last Mother's Day the kids made me flower pots that were chalkboard painted.

When Blayde bought the paint, he really bought paint.

The extra has been sitting in the closet downstairs, just waiting to be put to use.

First I took a chalkboard off the wall. It was rather difficult to write on. I had picked it up at a yard sale a long time ago and repainted the frame from a nasty orange to an antiqued red. Yesterday I took some sanding blocks to it and smoothed out the chalkboard finish. Then I started painting. Three coats of chalkboard paint on it .... 

as well as Tia's closet doors. (Hubby is probably going to have a comment at this point!) Her closet has a total of four doors in 2 sections separated by a space of wall for an outlet. They aren't anything small, but they were nice and smooth.

If you're going to try this, I highly recommend spending the money on the brand of paint that I used. Rolls on nicely and dries incredibly fast.

 

After everything was dry ... up they went.

Will see what happens when we clean these up.

I have no clue if they'll be just as brilliant looking the next chalking session.

The rails on these doors are a bit tweaked. Tweens, teens, frustration, impatience and closet doors don't all work together very well sometimes. They're on tho' ... with a little help from Fred. And let me tell you something. My youngest daughter has screw drivers that live in her room. Just for days like this when something needs a little tweaking. She wields them with quite a hand. I'm impressed. 

I hope I don't live to regret this.

Next we need to get some paint for the walls ... pink.

This way she gets her touch of black and I flat refuse to paint a wall black.

Out of the question. Not going to happen.

Then we get to be creative in the bedding department.

Cheap. Good quality. Probably sewn because I'm not buying comforters.

Pink and black polka dots? Pink and black stripes?

Gonna be fun!

For my husband ...

whose feet are sweating.

 The chickens are loving the warmer weather and lack of wind.

Makes me want to run out and put candles on the cake!

Peace.

Beauty.

At 6:29 a.m. on a Saturday morning ....

snow is falling ... lot's of it!
The kind that made a fallen tree continue it's final descent to the ground.
I really had a nightmare last night that it was raining.
When my eyes popped open this morning I had to run and check.
Thankfully, my subconscious had confused the forms of matter.

Today I'm off to a Skills Lab (I really don't remember what it is called.) at work for about 4 hours. This is my mantra. "We are so fortunate to have this opportunity to increase our learning and skills ... especially on a Saturday morning." I missed it last year. I happened to be enjoying a bridal breakfast in Minnesota that same morning with some very special people. Today, I'm going to don the Smurf blues and be thankful.

My bills are paid.  (Refer to above "thankful".)  I haven't sorted the last week's mail yet, but we'll just pretend it doesn't exist. Delusion, denial and delirium are working very well for me at the moment. And to be perfectly honest, my little cheatbook of online bill paying serves me very well. It makes life so much simpler .. as long as you don't happen to forget things like the internet bill. Then it might get a wee bit challenging.

Enjoy your Saturday! The boots and the broom are calling my name.

I wish I was a journaling kind of person

I have often tried, and just as many times I have failed, to start the journal. Record what it is that I am going through in my life so someday later I can look back at it. Perhaps to learn from it. Perhaps to celebrate that it no longer exists. Perhaps to be thankful that I survived it.

Yesterday I was cleaning paper in a different corner of my world and came across something that was written in late July of 2008.

I love reading Real Simple magazine. Maybe I enjoy it so much because the simple life is what I crave. The article in front of me is: What are the top three things on your lifelong to-do list? What would I put on my list today? After reading other folks' lists, I had to sit and ponder a bit. Then I had to look back at where I've been and where I am today. When I go home in the next several days, I'll be able to sit on my porch, look at the green, breathe the cool clean air, enjoy the quiet and be thankful. So much of life is about dreams and hopes. Dreams of "someday" and of "other places". Some days carry us through very stressful times of life. Hope for our children. Hope that what we have taught them will remain with them. Hope that God will remain the center of their being. Hope that they remain humble. Hope that after the children are grown and gone, there will be a quiet time to sit side by side with the love of my life. We can putter at our own hobbies. At peace with each other and ourselves. So, what would I put on my list? What would I want to do? Someday I want to walk the moors of Ireland with my husband. I want to watch the fog swirl and feel the moss on my feet. I want to finish my children's Christmas stockings. Someday when I'm no longer here, I hope they can feel the love in every stitch. Lastly, I want quiet moments. Quiet moments are the life blood of my soul. They settle, calm, rejuvenate. They make me whole so I can love, teach and enjoy all the beautiful people in my life.

We have beautiful freshly fallen snow today. The world yesterday was that flat light sort of day where you really can't tell if the small road in front of you is plowed or not. I took the camera and had few moments of quiet rejuvenation while marveling at the beauty of it all.