| You Are 30% Weird |
 Not enough to scare other people... But sometimes you scare yourself. |
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Friends, friends and more friends
This weekend we will be having our third weekend of visitors. Two weekends ago we went to the regional OM competition to watch friends and former teammates compete and brought two friends home. They mostly played video games and played outside. Then last weekend Christian had a friend up. They also mostly played video games and played outside, but did manage to get to the pool for a few hours.
This weekend, my brother, SIL and adorable nieces will be visiting. We will also have a very late Santa Clause and early Easter Bunny visiting.
This week is spring break around these parts, so we have been hanging out with local friends. Yesterday we went to the park and our pool with A. Today we went to the park and our pool, went out for lunch, and played hours of video games with R, who is a fellow homeschooler. Tomorrow, M & D are coming over to hang out. Thursday Marty is off work, and Friday will be spent getting ready for our weekend company, since we have been to busy enjoying the 70° weather. Next week is spring break for the next school district over, so I am sure there will be friends here all next week.
Somehow, we have managed to get school done through all of this hanging out and doing nothing, too.
R's mom and I have decided that every Tuesday we are going to get the boys together to do something. Basketball at their church, swimming at our house, hiking, bike trails, museums... whatever can get them out of the house and away from the computer/video games! R's mom knows of a summer camp where kids can go and try out a career for a week, so we are also looking into that.
They are also going to join us for our homemade cheap summer camp. Cindy found this really cool site, and I think it might be just what I was looking for to replace the $75-$200 programs at the local nature center. We are going to do the Ecology Box first.
This weekend, my brother, SIL and adorable nieces will be visiting. We will also have a very late Santa Clause and early Easter Bunny visiting.
This week is spring break around these parts, so we have been hanging out with local friends. Yesterday we went to the park and our pool with A. Today we went to the park and our pool, went out for lunch, and played hours of video games with R, who is a fellow homeschooler. Tomorrow, M & D are coming over to hang out. Thursday Marty is off work, and Friday will be spent getting ready for our weekend company, since we have been to busy enjoying the 70° weather. Next week is spring break for the next school district over, so I am sure there will be friends here all next week.
Somehow, we have managed to get school done through all of this hanging out and doing nothing, too.
R's mom and I have decided that every Tuesday we are going to get the boys together to do something. Basketball at their church, swimming at our house, hiking, bike trails, museums... whatever can get them out of the house and away from the computer/video games! R's mom knows of a summer camp where kids can go and try out a career for a week, so we are also looking into that.
They are also going to join us for our homemade cheap summer camp. Cindy found this really cool site, and I think it might be just what I was looking for to replace the $75-$200 programs at the local nature center. We are going to do the Ecology Box first.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Schools out!
One of the benefits of having a mom who gets the winter blues is that on days like today we ditch school and head outside. There is still a little snow on the ground, but we will just pretend it isn't there.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Kitchen
I decided to cover the bottom part of my hutch with fabric, to try to cover up the fact that I just have too much kitchen crap.
Of course, I have no decorating skills so this is as good as it gets.
Of course, I have no decorating skills so this is as good as it gets.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning was supposed to start Monday, with my bedroom. Instead, it started today - with the kitchen.
It started innocently enough with me Foodsavering (yeah, I know it's not a real word) jars of various types of rice and beans. Then of course I had to find a better place to store them. I mean, freshly foodsavered mason jars in the pantry? Surely, you jest.
Of course, I do need to reorganize the spice cabinet. Yeah, I said spice cabinet. All three shelves in the cabinet and some pantry space, too. (I married a foodie, so what did I expect?) So anyway, the damn shelves were super-hyper-overly stuck in the cabinet with these clip things that involved me on a chair with a steak knife reaching over my head and blindly stabbing at the clips so they would release the shelves from their death grip. It's almost like I'm not supposed to move the shelves, or something.
The cutting boards and sheet trays are giving me a headache. Where do you store six cutting boards and three half-sheet sheet trays? I am still working on that one.
The good news is that I don't have much grocery shopping to do, because I found so much stuff I had forgotten about. The bad news is I just have too much kitchen crap that I was blissfully unaware of until today. Damn you Foodsaver.
It started innocently enough with me Foodsavering (yeah, I know it's not a real word) jars of various types of rice and beans. Then of course I had to find a better place to store them. I mean, freshly foodsavered mason jars in the pantry? Surely, you jest.
Of course, I do need to reorganize the spice cabinet. Yeah, I said spice cabinet. All three shelves in the cabinet and some pantry space, too. (I married a foodie, so what did I expect?) So anyway, the damn shelves were super-hyper-overly stuck in the cabinet with these clip things that involved me on a chair with a steak knife reaching over my head and blindly stabbing at the clips so they would release the shelves from their death grip. It's almost like I'm not supposed to move the shelves, or something.
The cutting boards and sheet trays are giving me a headache. Where do you store six cutting boards and three half-sheet sheet trays? I am still working on that one.
The good news is that I don't have much grocery shopping to do, because I found so much stuff I had forgotten about. The bad news is I just have too much kitchen crap that I was blissfully unaware of until today. Damn you Foodsaver.
Ouch!
I have realized a few things lately. Some of them are things I didn't want to realize, such as...
1. I hold grudges. I mean, I really, really hold grudges. I am still holding some grudges from elementary school. I won't say how long ago that was, but believe me when I say it was a long time ago.
I am going to try to let go of all of those grudges. The only one I seem to be having a problem letting go of involves my kid. I don't know if I can ever "let go" of what was said and done to my kid, KWIM? Does that make me a bad person?
2. I am very judgmental. You know, anyone who does things differently than I do. Sheesh! Why do I feel I can pass judgment on other people? Now, before I am too hard on myself, I will say that everyone is judgmental. I know that. I stopped going to church years ago because it was just one big judgementfest. But I really think this is something I need to work on. Maybe I should just pick one or two things to be judgmental about, and let the rest go. :-)
3. Number one and number two are intertwined. If I am holding a grudge, there is surely some judging going on there.
4. My children learn more when I don't get into their way. Yeah, it's true. I am the one who usually kills the joy of learning, because we have to do this worksheet, or fill in the blanks of this book, or whatever.
My children would have been perfect unschooled kids. They are constantly trying to learn - whether it is the math needed to build something or the proper sentence structure needed to write a letter to someone - they are always trying.
I am the one who can't let go of the checklists and lesson plans.
Geeze. I think that is enough self reflection for today. I am off to heal my wounds with chocolate.
1. I hold grudges. I mean, I really, really hold grudges. I am still holding some grudges from elementary school. I won't say how long ago that was, but believe me when I say it was a long time ago.
I am going to try to let go of all of those grudges. The only one I seem to be having a problem letting go of involves my kid. I don't know if I can ever "let go" of what was said and done to my kid, KWIM? Does that make me a bad person?
2. I am very judgmental. You know, anyone who does things differently than I do. Sheesh! Why do I feel I can pass judgment on other people? Now, before I am too hard on myself, I will say that everyone is judgmental. I know that. I stopped going to church years ago because it was just one big judgementfest. But I really think this is something I need to work on. Maybe I should just pick one or two things to be judgmental about, and let the rest go. :-)
3. Number one and number two are intertwined. If I am holding a grudge, there is surely some judging going on there.
4. My children learn more when I don't get into their way. Yeah, it's true. I am the one who usually kills the joy of learning, because we have to do this worksheet, or fill in the blanks of this book, or whatever.
My children would have been perfect unschooled kids. They are constantly trying to learn - whether it is the math needed to build something or the proper sentence structure needed to write a letter to someone - they are always trying.
I am the one who can't let go of the checklists and lesson plans.
Geeze. I think that is enough self reflection for today. I am off to heal my wounds with chocolate.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Score!
A total score at the thrift store today. I found a canister set for my FoodSaver, a coffee carafe to replace the one my brother broke, a pair of pants for Alex and some 45¢ coffee mugs so everyone can drink coffee tomorrow. I don't know how I manage to do it, but I manage to break all of our coffee mugs... and I don't drink the stuff! I didn't find any cast iron, but it was worth the trip.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
An embarrassment of topics
Grocery shopping for the week is done,the house is clean, laundry is done, frozen food is re-vacuum sealed (more on that later) and I am exhausted! It is 9:45 and I am ready for bed.
I bought a Foodsaver today. The one I picked up from Freecycle wasn't working right. I thought it was, but after things were put into the freezer the air would slowly seep into the bags. I am so pissed. Another thing I drove a hell of a long time to get and the damn thing doesn't work. And honestly, unless she was an idiot (which I doubt she was) there is no way she didn't know. Why would someone offer something they knew was broken??? I have given away so much on Freecycle (it all worked and was in good shape, thankyouverymuch) that it pisses me off even more. Of course I didn't give it away to get something in return, but I guess now I know why people would drop off of our local Freecycle list like flies. I have left as well.
End rant.
So anyway, I bought a Foodsaver. The best $100 I have spent this week! I resealed everything I had done before, and blanched and froze some veggies that were on the verge of "You want me to eat that??" I can't wait for the Farmers Market to start!
I also have good news on the monitor front! Yesterday when I went to pick the boys up at their friends house, I was chatting with the mom and her husband and mentioned that I had to buy a new monitor, and it should be here in a week or so. Turns out they have 3 or 4 monitors sitting around as back-ups! (Their middle son started a computer building business - he is a senior in high school.) So long story longer, I came home with a Dell 19" monitor. They refused to let me pay them for it, so I am going to "pay it forward" by giving a bunch of scrapbooking stuff away. I have decided that I just don't have the time, patience or talent for scrapbooking and was planning to list my stuff on ebay, but am going to send it home with my mom, to give to my SIL.
Tomorrow while the boys are working on school I will finish up a few things in the kitchen (The Great Breakfast Experiment of '07, for one thing) and then will probably head to the thrift store. I am looking for a large cast iron skillet (really, any size cast iron) but don't want to pay for the new stuff. Both thrift stores in town are just a few minutes from my house, so I can run to both, check real quick and be home in 20 minutes. The pool heater is not working, so no pool this week. Darn it!
I bought a Foodsaver today. The one I picked up from Freecycle wasn't working right. I thought it was, but after things were put into the freezer the air would slowly seep into the bags. I am so pissed. Another thing I drove a hell of a long time to get and the damn thing doesn't work. And honestly, unless she was an idiot (which I doubt she was) there is no way she didn't know. Why would someone offer something they knew was broken??? I have given away so much on Freecycle (it all worked and was in good shape, thankyouverymuch) that it pisses me off even more. Of course I didn't give it away to get something in return, but I guess now I know why people would drop off of our local Freecycle list like flies. I have left as well.
End rant.
So anyway, I bought a Foodsaver. The best $100 I have spent this week! I resealed everything I had done before, and blanched and froze some veggies that were on the verge of "You want me to eat that??" I can't wait for the Farmers Market to start!
I also have good news on the monitor front! Yesterday when I went to pick the boys up at their friends house, I was chatting with the mom and her husband and mentioned that I had to buy a new monitor, and it should be here in a week or so. Turns out they have 3 or 4 monitors sitting around as back-ups! (Their middle son started a computer building business - he is a senior in high school.) So long story longer, I came home with a Dell 19" monitor. They refused to let me pay them for it, so I am going to "pay it forward" by giving a bunch of scrapbooking stuff away. I have decided that I just don't have the time, patience or talent for scrapbooking and was planning to list my stuff on ebay, but am going to send it home with my mom, to give to my SIL.
Tomorrow while the boys are working on school I will finish up a few things in the kitchen (The Great Breakfast Experiment of '07, for one thing) and then will probably head to the thrift store. I am looking for a large cast iron skillet (really, any size cast iron) but don't want to pay for the new stuff. Both thrift stores in town are just a few minutes from my house, so I can run to both, check real quick and be home in 20 minutes. The pool heater is not working, so no pool this week. Darn it!
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Is it summer yet?
I mean really. How much more of this weather am I supposed to deal with? I know I live in Michigan, but it is Michigan, not Wisconsin. Sheesh!
We are already planning our spring/summer. We have farmers markets to visit, parks to play in and after spending last summer exploring Midland county, we have whole half a mitten to explore! Stupid buckeye that I am, I never realized how much there is to do outside of Detroit. We will be exploring the UP late this summer when we spend a week at a resort in St. Ignace.
I am still deciding what to plant in my ugly but functional homemade EarthBoxes, other than tomatoes.
I would like to use the small planting bed on the side of the patio for herbs, but the complex has a bug guy come around and I am just too afraid he might forget not to spray. I am opting for a butterfly garden. I know, butterfly gardens shouldn't be sprayed - and of course I am going to do everything I can to ensure he doesn't spray - but I would feel much worse if he sprayed our herb garden than a butterfly garden. As for the other side of the patio, it gets partial shade so I haven't figured that out yet.
My mom and her husband will be visiting this Tuesday. This will be the first time she has been here, because of her car accident. (She had a blood clot and had to go to the Doctor daily to have blood drawn, so she couldn't go anywhere.) We are going to take them to Marty's work for dinner one night, but I have no idea what to feed them for the rest of the meals. Her husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, and we just aren't. Maybe I will make a big pot of TVP chili.
Well, the boys are standing at the door waiting for me to take them to a friends house, so have a great Saturday!
We are already planning our spring/summer. We have farmers markets to visit, parks to play in and after spending last summer exploring Midland county, we have whole half a mitten to explore! Stupid buckeye that I am, I never realized how much there is to do outside of Detroit. We will be exploring the UP late this summer when we spend a week at a resort in St. Ignace.
I am still deciding what to plant in my ugly but functional homemade EarthBoxes, other than tomatoes.
I would like to use the small planting bed on the side of the patio for herbs, but the complex has a bug guy come around and I am just too afraid he might forget not to spray. I am opting for a butterfly garden. I know, butterfly gardens shouldn't be sprayed - and of course I am going to do everything I can to ensure he doesn't spray - but I would feel much worse if he sprayed our herb garden than a butterfly garden. As for the other side of the patio, it gets partial shade so I haven't figured that out yet.
My mom and her husband will be visiting this Tuesday. This will be the first time she has been here, because of her car accident. (She had a blood clot and had to go to the Doctor daily to have blood drawn, so she couldn't go anywhere.) We are going to take them to Marty's work for dinner one night, but I have no idea what to feed them for the rest of the meals. Her husband is a meat and potatoes kind of guy, and we just aren't. Maybe I will make a big pot of TVP chili.
Well, the boys are standing at the door waiting for me to take them to a friends house, so have a great Saturday!
Thursday, March 01, 2007
My not so frugal day
Yesterday really sucked on the frugal scale. It was about a 5. Really, it was lower, but I am giving it a five because spending $382 ended up saving us $1200-1800 for a transmission rebuild in the near future.
When we came back from Ohio I noticed that when slowing down the van made a strange thumping noise. I thought it was the brakes, and didn't give it much thought because we were planning to get the brakes done next week. I did mention it to Marty, but only as a "good thing we are getting the brakes done soon" passing comment. He noticed the sound, but wasn't convinced it was the brakes, so we started to pay attention and noticed that it was always when we hit 30 MPH. Wonderful! The transmission.
Long story short (or is it too late?) our warranty doesn't cover the electronic part of the transmission and of course it was the solenoid pack (whatever the hell that is...) $382 later, it is fixed, the van is back to running great and as a bonus, the pesky check engine light that has been on since early January (that the handy dandy computer the mechanic has said was because our gas cap wasn't fitting right) is now off. We also got the motor of the passenger side window replaced, again. Thankfully, that is covered under the warranty, again.
Yesterday also meant the death of my beloved Freecycle monitor. She told me it didn't work right, but it worked fine for me so I thought she was loopy. Yesterday it showed me that it really doesn't work. Today, I went to hook up the other Freecycle monitor - the one I drove an hour to pick up, and got the other as a bonus - and found out that "Works great!" means "so blurry you will get a headache." Luckily, the one I was going to buy before I put my faith in humanity - and drove an hour to pick up two piece of junk monitors - was still available, so I ordered it. Nothing fancy, but much, much better than the tiny, old, dark one I am borrowing from Alex right now. Remind me later to buy this kid a decent monitor.
Also, remind me never to accept anything offered on freecycle ever again.
When we came back from Ohio I noticed that when slowing down the van made a strange thumping noise. I thought it was the brakes, and didn't give it much thought because we were planning to get the brakes done next week. I did mention it to Marty, but only as a "good thing we are getting the brakes done soon" passing comment. He noticed the sound, but wasn't convinced it was the brakes, so we started to pay attention and noticed that it was always when we hit 30 MPH. Wonderful! The transmission.
Long story short (or is it too late?) our warranty doesn't cover the electronic part of the transmission and of course it was the solenoid pack (whatever the hell that is...) $382 later, it is fixed, the van is back to running great and as a bonus, the pesky check engine light that has been on since early January (that the handy dandy computer the mechanic has said was because our gas cap wasn't fitting right) is now off. We also got the motor of the passenger side window replaced, again. Thankfully, that is covered under the warranty, again.
Yesterday also meant the death of my beloved Freecycle monitor. She told me it didn't work right, but it worked fine for me so I thought she was loopy. Yesterday it showed me that it really doesn't work. Today, I went to hook up the other Freecycle monitor - the one I drove an hour to pick up, and got the other as a bonus - and found out that "Works great!" means "so blurry you will get a headache." Luckily, the one I was going to buy before I put my faith in humanity - and drove an hour to pick up two piece of junk monitors - was still available, so I ordered it. Nothing fancy, but much, much better than the tiny, old, dark one I am borrowing from Alex right now. Remind me later to buy this kid a decent monitor.
Also, remind me never to accept anything offered on freecycle ever again.
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