Wow, Sunday Already!

This past week really flew by. The boys and I did school work, cleaned, did round 2 of the flea bombs. Work was very busy, and a trifle aggravating.
On the plus side, I did find out yesterday I will be off Tuesday! Woot! I found out by calling the warehouse, after Boss said he didn't know whether the truck ran Tuesday morning or not. Boss suggested I just show up and see if the truck came.

Yeah, right.
Get up at 4:30 am and get ready, go in to work and then WAIT to see if the truck showed up? I figured calling was a better solution. Now I KNOW the truck isn't coming, and I therefore have the day off. Much better than standing around waiting for a truck that isn't coming.

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One thing that I have really thought on this week is how we influence people. Especially our children. Am I being a person my children want to be like, or am I being a person my kids will strive to avoid being like?
We only have our own actions that we can control. With grace, discipline, and patience we can shape our young children. Ultimately, though they must learn self control. Are my children learning to disrespect others because I show others disrespect? Are they learning to scream and rage and break things as a way of expressing ire? Are they learning when to speak up, and when silence is a better answer?
I see so many young people who want to do things differently than their parents did. They hated the way they were raised so much, they determine that they will do things differently with their own children. Some succeed, while others lack the self control and end up doing the things they hated in their own upbringing.
With every generation, it seems the gaps are widening. There are those who knowingly or unwittingly, become more the demonstration of Christ in their lives. They LIVE the life, they personify HIM. Maybe not all the time, they are still becoming. They emulate peace, joy, compassion.
Others embrace, and pass on, the traits Christ would have us to overcome. Greed, self centeredness, selfishness, and dissatisfaction.
I rejoice when I see in my children MORE of Christ than can be seen in me. I look at my Mother, and my Grandmother, and see all good, wonderful things that I hope to attain.

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Have a blessed day.

Library day

The twins are volunteering, and I am just cruising the 'net. Tom and I were on our way to town to buy groceries before 8 am this morning. I had already done more than a mile on the treadmill and showered by then.

I did find the tooth filler stuff at WalMart, and have 'patched' my broken tooth. It says it sets within half an hour, but not to eat for two to three hours. I had a snack of dried fruit mix on the way home from the store, so at least I am not ravenously hungry.

When I got dressed this morning, I figured, just maybe I would see if any of my shorts fit me. Last year, I had to lay on the bed to zip these shorts. Today, I just zipped right into them, without looking like a sausage! So I wore them to town. Normally, I don't wear shorts at all- especially out in public. But I am hoping to get some color on my legs, if only by osmosis, before vacation. At the moment, people need sunglasses to shield their eyes from the blinding white glare of my pale legs. These legs haven't seen the light of day since.... when? Did I even wear shorts camping last summer? So it has been a year or more since they were bare.

So far, I haven't found anyone to watch the TSD when we go on our trip. I may have to take them to Becky's for Tommy to look after. Any volunteers out there?

Guess I will say goodbye for today. The boys have finished up their mission for today. Have a blessed day yourself!

well drat!

After working for several hours on this cute little dress, the sewing machine decided not to co-operate any further.
I have been looking for awhile online, trying to find free repair help, but to no avail. In a few weeks, perhaps I will have a bit more 'disposable' income, and can pay a site to walk me through the repair. Or maybe I can find out how much my Son In Law's adopted Grandmother charges to fix machines, she is a sewing machine repair expert.
It seems the timing went out on it. (The bobbin thread won't pick up.)
(Mommy, I promise I didn't abuse the machine!)

Meanwhile, my efforts have come to a screeeeching halt. Right in the middle of the little dress. (If you look at the pattern on the fabric, the little girl bear in the blue dress... that is what this dress will look like when it is finished.)

My first real sewing project in YEARS

When the kids were little, I was too busy to try to sew. All I have done, since a baby dress for Becky in 1986, is sew baby blankets and curtains. So I would say these are not bad for an amateur!

These shorts are for Tyrel.
These two fabrics will someday be incorporated into baby dresses.
For this simple pair of shorts, my labor was 3 hours. At O'Reilly wages, that is $23.75 in labor... with pattern cost, fabric, thread, and elastic... these are a pair of $30 shorts!

As I gain experience, and re-use the patterns, my time/labor costs will go down significantly... and the clothes will look better. I'm so proud of me!

I hope I can make shorts for Gavin and dresses for Nickole and Kimber soon!

No Pictures

And I am sure you will be glad.

Yesterday afternoon, Daniel was cutting up potatoes for supper, and chopped the tip of one of his fingers pretty close to off. It was at an angle, and from the underside through the nail. It remained attached. No way to get it sewn back on, just impossible due to the small size of the area cut through, and that it would of required sewing through his nailbed.

So we direct pressured it, cleaned him up good, and bandaged it. At this morning's bandage change, it looked remarkably good. The portion we were afraid he would lose seems to be sealed back into place and may even heal without losing any flesh.

Unfortunately for supper, Dan and I dashed out of here for a second opinion without giving Sam adequate details on cooking supper. When we returned, we had charcoal slices (formerly potatoes) and crunchy steaks, which not only had cooked too long, but had been started a good 45 minutes too early. It was probably just as well that the taters burned... I noticed as I was looking at Dan's cut, his hands were black with filth. He had started the grill, then forgot to wash his hands before starting to cut off his finger up the potatoes.

While crunching down my steak, I chewed a sliver of bone. I spit it out... only to discover it was not a bone, it was half my molar. Fortunately, that tooth has had a root canal, so I am not in pain.

See, I knew you wouldn't be disappointed at no illustrating pictures, once you had read the story!

The Perils of the Treadmill

Two of my grandchildren stayed the night with us Saturday night. It was a terribly rainy day. We live out in the country, and when the kids can't go out and play, there isn't a whole lot for them to do at CowGranny and Grumpaw's house. They brought a few video games along, and played with Samuel and Dan. Then, we watched a couple of rented movies. One, "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", was VERY funny. Much better than I had anticipated.

After growing bored with watching TV and playing computer games, the kids asked to walk on the treadmill. The treadmill is NOT a toy. Alana had only flip-flops... and I wouldn't let her go fast on it. I had to forbid them to both be touching the machine at the same time, as Connor wanted to set it so fast Alana would be flung off.

They played, strictly supervised, on the treadmill for awhile then lost interest. Later, without asking, they returned to it and turned it on themselves. Since they seemed to have the hang of it, I wasn't watching them as closely, only making sure they stuck to one at a time and didn't try going too fast. Connor decided to try walking backwards on it. He narrowly missed being flung off the end... which is quite near a large piece of heavy furniture. I discouraged backwards walking.
Next, I see him about to go off the end once more and spoke sharply to him.
He had his eyes closed!

It wasn't long until we hear a terrible crash and moaning and whining. Connor had fallen off the end of the treadmill, into the furniture, and was wedged in a heap with the belt abrading him. He had tried the eyes closed bit again. I shut it off and demanded they both stay off it. Connor dragged himself in a dramatic crawl over behind the couch. He said he wasn't hurt. He laid in a heap behind the couch for 20 minutes or so, until I asked him what he was doing. He said he was waiting for me to take him home!

He reminds me SO MUCH of his Dad at this age. Not only spitting image in looks, but the same temperament. Very dramatic, very needy.

He may be a bit bruised, but wouldn't let me examine him. I think it was his dignity that took the worst hit.

I have pictures of them up at Moocrew2.

It's a Rainy Day

Though not so wet as yesterday was. It came down by the bucketful yesterday and the day before.

I am supposed to have grandkids Connor and Alana come stay the night tonight. I don't see them nearly as often as I would like.

Work went by quickly this morning. I was home shortly after 8 a.m. Laundry is under way, as well as the general Saturday housekeeping. I did a mile on the treadmill. (Which is nothing next to Tom's hour and a half!)

We are thinking of perhaps renting a movie or two, since it is so wet that the kids can't do much playing outside. And picking up a cheese pizza... since the grands don't eat any other toppings on theirs!

It is VERY humid. Like 98%... now that the sun is peeking through the clouds it can get too sticky in a hurry!

Not much new going on here. Hope to have Grandkid pix up for tomorrow!

Attitude

Is it ever all right to despise people, as a class or group?

I don't think it is.

Some of my facebook friends joined a group (which even misspelled its own name) that believes it is better to use prisoners, rather than animals, in laboratory tests. I just don't understand the thinking.

Prisoners are locked up for committing crimes. They are being punished. To suggest that they be used in place of test animals is so... so... I can't even come up with a word to convey the wrongness of the idea.

Once you head down that path, saying this class of people is only worth using to experiment on, you are headed down the road that led to the concentration camps in Germany. Who decides which group of people goes next?

I read a little snippet somewhere the other day, You are judged by the quality of your enemies. If you have really, really BAD enemies, you must be a really important person, is what the statement was implying.

I got to thinking about it. As far as I know, I don't have ANY enemies. Maybe a few "frenemies" (just saw term yesterday, thought it was a good one!) ... but I can't say there is anyone I actively hate.
Not even Whatshisname, my ex. I am pretty well indifferent to him.

To hate someone gives them power over you. It requires energy to maintain. It keeps you thinking about them. It isn't worth the effort.

Having lived for many years unforgiven, I can say that it takes a toll. Reciprocating the unforgiveness would have destroyed several lives... rippling out like waves from a stone in a pond. Knowing God is my ultimate judge, and having obtained His forgiveness, I have tried to keep the damages as small as I can by not striking back against those who do not forgive.

We should judge ourselves. Perfecting ones own heart takes a lifetime.

Mother's Day Fun

Yesterday, I got up to a pile of loot! Flowers, candy, cards, and...

a rock.(I also got poetry, phone calls, and love sent from the kids not represented in these pictures!)

Then Dan, Sam, and I drove to Russellville to see my Mom, who is doing her annual helping hand at her cousin Ruth's cake shop.

We had lunch with Ruth and her family at a Chinese restaurant. Then Mom and the boys and I spent the day sightseeing around the Russellville, Arkansas area.

Click on the link for more pictures at Moocrew2!

Nominors

While we fumigated the house today, the boys and I went for a drive over to Spavinaw State Park in NE Oklahoma. It was a nice drive, very beautiful. We enjoyed walking the spillover from the dam. Much to my annoyance, I discovered the memory card from my camera was left at home!

After a short walk, we left Spavinaw SP and headed to another SP, Cherokee. It wasn't so great. As we passed through a little touristy town, which was mostly abandoned during the week, during Spring, I saw a hand lettered sign on a doorway. "NOMINORS".

What on earth is a Nominor?, I wondered. Then I realized the door was an entrance to a bar. It really said "No Minors". The painter just wasn't any too great with spacing!

After we left the Cherokee State Park, we never found the entrance to the Disney State Park, which is also in the area. We ate sandwiches from a convenience store, as the one BBQ place we stopped at first of all refused to acknowledge us at their drive thru window, and we then saw that their BBQ sandwiches were $7.00 EACH! Egads... now that would be a tourist trap meal for sure!

We headed for home, and as we neared, still had a good 45 minutes to kill. So we stopped at AD Distributing... a giant made in china outlet store. It is a lot of fun to walk around there. We arrived home just moments after our 4 hours expired. After a quick run through to open windows, we sat out and enjoyed the gorgeous day some more while the house aired. If it is as nice three weeks from now, when we are due to repeat the treatment, perhaps we will go to Spavinaw again... this time prepared with all the camera components and a picnic! It had a great creek for wading... but none of us were prepared to wade.

Anyway, I hope you got a chuckle from the NOMINOR story. Wish I had a picture to go with it!

happy dancing

I got permission from Mr C to go down to Russellville to see my Mom on Sunday!

It still hasn't been determined if he and the twins are coming along or not. I had thought it would be the ideal day to bug bomb the house. (The annual fighting of the fleas!)

Since Mr C isn't sure what he wants to do, he said go ahead and bomb tomorrow. Tomorrow is Oil day, so it may be close to noon by the time I get home. Not sure what we will do to kill 4 hours. Possibly go antiquing. I'm blessed with kids who love to go poking around in old antique and junk stores.

Note to self: Three weeks from tomorrow is May 28th, the day we repeat the bombing. (Also Becky and Stephen's five year anniversary!, as well as my brother Eric's birthday.)

One month from today, I get to go get my LG and Ty'ger and LG2! Whoo! They will be here a few days before we head to the Michael family reunion. I am already getting things together for camping. I have my master list of lists of stuff we have to take along. I began gathering things and organizing them yesterday. Other than food, and maybe one more storage tote, I think I might have everything together.

Any volunteers to doggy sit for us in June? I'll deliver!

Have a wonderful day! Be blessed!

May the Fourth Be With You

My DIL just reminded me of that! And since I love a good word play, I had to swipe it.

We had a bit of a 'scare' this afternoon. Tom's brother called me to asked when I had last talked to my MIL. (Saturday). He had tried to call her yesterday and she failed to return his call. Unable to reach her again today, he got a bit worried. He left work early to drive to her house, where he found her perfectly fine and wondering why he was showing up in the middle of the afternoon. Her phone may have been temporarily out of order, as it went to an unusual voice mail when Tom tried to call her. I am glad she is OK!

I need to get to town and get Mother's day cards. Sigh. I am so NOT together this year. I still haven't done anything more with my sewing stuff. I got new scissors, thread, bobbins... and did dig through my fabric box and decided I don't have any fabric suitable to make into any sort of baby/ toddler dress. Guess I should go to a fabric store as well. I am so disappointed that WalMart took out its fabric departments!

Nothing new and exciting happening here! Have a blessed day!

Once Again

At the Library. The boys are volunteering, and I am sitting here at the computer.

Mr. C went to the grocery store this morning. I was supposed to ride along, but after a rough night, I decided my knee wasn't up to it. I have no idea what is wrong with my knee. I haven't injured it... but it aches, deep in the joint. I know what an aching joint feels like- all I have to do is let my hands get cold and I feel it in my bones, my elbow joints aching to the point of tears. So I am thinking it may just be the creeping up of a bit of age on my knee.

While I am a bit overweight for my height, I don't think it is enough to cause joint problems. Tom got me some Osteo-BiFlex while he was at the store. It says try it for one week and I will notice the difference. I sure hope so. I started out walking on the treadmill yesterday, and quit after 15 minutes when the knee flared up. It has "come and gone" several times over the last few weeks, but seems to have settled in for a stay this week. I didn't push it... there are times when you push past pain in exercise, and other times when the warning ache means to STOP... so I stopped.

Yes, if it isn't better soon or gets worse, I will go talk to the Doc. Last time I mentioned arthritis to him, he said he didn't want to hear about it until it was keeping me from getting out of bed in the mornings. Since he is primarily a geriatric Doctor, I assume he knows there are more side effects and risks to the arthritis drugs than there are benefits, until you reach that point.

I suppose Mr C and I are seriously looking at losing some weight. He has now broken his all time weight record.

Hmm... I sound like an old person discussing medical conditions. Next thing you know, I will be talking bowel movements. Or NOT!

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Mother's day is this coming weekend. This year, I have totally let it creep up on me. No fancy picture books or calendars in the works for Mom(s). I have an idea of what to get my Moms... Tom got his Mom a fruit basket ordered when I went online just to look Saturday. I still have to find cards, do some shopping, boxing and mailing. Like, TODAY.

I don't have a nice wish list to make things easier on my kids this year. Gift cards to Amazon, or Borders, or even Shutterfly? Just a nice HI MOM card?

Once the twinks and I are done here, I suppose we will be off shopping. At least tonights supper is already planned. Roast beast sammichs... the au juis kind. Onions sauteed until they are browned, beef onion soup to dip, swiss cheese on grilled rolls. MMMMMM. I had to make my own roast beast this time, and threaten those who wanted to devour the second roast I had set aside for these. Mr C picked up some tasty looking rolls just for these!

Well, That's about all from me today. I have been working on a major blog post, but haven't finished it yet, and haven't hit the notes I want to hit with it... so it remains in my edit stack.

Have a blessed day! Thanks for reading.