RazNoggle

It’s inevitable I suppose…

Fall is here to stay, at least for a little while. I’m disappointed that I’m not excited about it actually. Autumn has always been my favorite, but this year I feel differently. I still don’t feel like I sufficiently thawed out this summer. I need to soak more sun into my bones before they start to freeze again! But the truth is, I wore a big sweat shirt most of the summer as well. I just can’t seem to get/stay warm!

But the other day, I tried my hand at making “apple chips” in my oven, and while it turned out a dismal failure, the apple cinnamony smell that was wafting through the house was lovely, and very distinctly a Fall smell. That kind of helped me with my “mood” a little bit, and at least resigned me to the fact that Autumn is indeed here. I think that once it truly cools off a bit more, and we can build a warming fire in the mornings, I’ll be more pleased. I’ve actually been longing for a good crackling wood fire for awhile!! Nothing makes me feel more warm and toasty…. except maybe staying snuggled under the covers when I should be up already. Ha!

I’ve been trying to prepare for the cooler weather by stocking up on some layering tank tops. I have to dress in layers in the winter. Even in the bulkiest sweaters I can find I’ll freeze if there isn’t more than one layer. So I found some on sale on Amazon, and I came across some at Costco too. I have a hard time finding them long enough and without that silly “shelf” that I can’t stand. But now I believe I’m all set with those. I still need to get some tights, because same goes with thick pants… they need help. And some good warm socks. All of mine are developing holes at the same time, sadly. I’m already very thankful for the warm lined Crocs that I scored over the summer!! I’ve been wearing them around the house and they keep my tootsies toasty. I love the new tile floor in our kitchen, but it IS very cold to walk or stand on.

So it’s come. School is in swing. Colors are bursting out everywhere. I was thinking yesterday as I drove home that in Autumn even the WEEDS start to look amazing. Really, the colors just can’t be beat! Cooler temps are being welcomed, by most. And today I am listening to Christmas music, and burning a “christmas tree” smelling tart in the house. If that doesn’t do it for me, pretty much nothing will.

Enjoy Autumn!!

This post is so late in coming, but I’m behind in everything right now…. oh well. Preschool has commenced. Qade is pretty excited about the whole concept. The other weekend when we were visiting my parents, he asked my mom why he couldn’t read, and she told him that he needed to learn all of his letters first. So since then he’s been pretty intent on learning his letters because he really wants to read.

We are doing a very simple school this year. I had given some thought to ordering the media that goes along with the Answers In Genesis curriculum, but after thinking it through, I realized that I really don’t want to make this preschool year THAT structured. My basic goals are to teach him the content of the alphabet, his numbers 1-20 and scripture memory. I’m not going to delve too deeply into the social studies parts, or PE, or whatever. We get plenty of PE out here anyway. I want him to start learning how to focus his attention on tasks and follow directions.

So far he is doing fantastic. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well he has applied himself to tracing. The child is OCD like his Dad, so I shouldn’t be amazed, but he get’s so intent on drawing exactly on the lines that I have to be careful not to laugh. A couple of times he has drooled on the table because he’s so into it that he forgets to swallow. LOL!! Last year he couldn’t care less about lines or tracing at all, so I realize now there there is a definite readiness factor involved. He is recognizing capital letters fantastically, not so much the lower case yet, but it’ll come.

Myles enjoys school too. He gets to do “worksheets” which are really coloring book pages. He participates with gusto in any art project as well. Today he “colored” his worksheet and then got to practice cutting. He would make one little slice with the scissors, set them down, and proceed to rip that piece off. It was a grand success. He also loves to do gluing! He’d probably sit there all afternoon with the glue stick if I would let him.

Myles sits in on our Bible story, and is learning the verses with us. Both boys also do the “days of the week” song that we are learning. They both also get to participate in moving the magnet on our calendar and crossing out the “used” days. That’s probably the funnest thing to do in this house! Seriously!

Along with school I have instituted “responsibility time.” I dislike the word chores, so in our house we have responsibilities. The boys think it’s great! I have an envelope and a sticker chart for each lad. After breakfast each day, I lay the cards with pictures of each responsibility on them on the table. They get to put them in the envelope as they finish each one. Once they are all done, they get a sticker. I think their favorite to do so far are feeding the cat and dog (oh you should see the picture I drew for that one, ha ha ha!!! You’d think that there would be a graphic for that!) and brushing their teeth by themselves. They LOVE brushing their teeth with no help. Qade even puts the toothpaste on, and he has finally started to use his spinning toothbrush. He wouldn’t let us get close to him with it before, but now he loves it! Ha!

So there you have it. It’s still not sinking in that we’re facing the school years and that homeschooling has actually begun, but all in all I think we are off to a good start.

I’ve been telling myself for quite some time that we’d start “school” the day after Labor Day, tradition ya know. Well, Labor day came and went and Tuesday morning I realized that I was NOT ready for school… mostly because I had done NO prep or planning. Duh!! I’ve mentioned before that I’m a reluctant Homeschool Mom, but I know I have to do it and just need to well… do it!

So this week I hunkered down and started plotting and planning. Now I believe I’m ready (except for the supplies I need to pick up at the store today) for school to start on Monday. Qade is happy and excited about it. I’ll be letting Myles participate as much as possible, but also having some one-on-one with Qade. It’s going to be a challenge, but I think we’ll all end up enjoying it.

I’ll be getting some posters for scripture memory cards and sticker charts for verses and “responsibilities.” That’s what we’re calling our morning “chores.” I have little chore cards for both of them, and we will be competing those together each morning. But I don’t really like the word chore, so we’re going to call them responsibilities. Nice, huh? Ha ha!

I’m going to Zumba tonight. We switched this week to accommodate some other plans. I’m really enjoying the class! It’s a fun workout! I have to say that I believe I’m gaining some ground in my personal battle of the bulge. I don’t know that it’s obvious to the world, but I can certainly tell there’s a difference! Yay!!! Keeps me motivated to keep on going. I’ve also noticed that I don’t really crave snacks or sweets much any more!! How lovely! Still, I think I will enjoy the red velvet whoopie pies that Stu is going to make me for my b-day this weekend! Anyway, the interval training has been good for me because it’s short enough to be doable any day, and it really does work me out! Nice!

I’ve been crocheting like mad recently to get some hats ready for my nephew’s arrival! I’m hoping to get to do newborn portraits for him, but I realized I didn’t have many boy-flavored hats! So this is good. Now I’ll have a few in my arsenal and I have to say they are adorable!!! Can’t wait to use them on the lil guy!

I’ve recently discovered a radio station that we actually get way out here, that broadcasts Christian programs, like Pastor Greg Laurie and Dr. David Jeremiah. It’s been refreshing to get to listen to some of those programs through the week! I’ve missed that! I just wish they played Odyssey during the week. I think the boys would like it. They do play it on weekends at some point, so I’ll have to figure out when that comes on exactly.

The menu has been working well! I like that I don’t have to think about dinner as much! Just glance at the menu in the morning, and pull stuff from the freezer, if necessary. I only plan dinners, because our breakfasts and lunches are pretty standard.

Well, I feel like I’m boring even myself. I do have some more ‘exciting’ posts planned, but they require a little more effort, so you’ll have to wait. Ha! I’m not into effort today…. hence the title. Have a great lime green Thursday!

Ta ta!

I’ve been in a bit of a blog funk. Dunno…. Kinda bored… not motivated… allergies, that kinda thing.

Oh well, I decided that today I would do a blog anyway. The best way to get energy is to give energy! Right?

Qade and Myles have been cracking us up lately with their own special takes on Spiritual things! Oh to have the faith of a child! This past Sunday their teacher told me that while the lady was reading the story, she said, “God can set you free! Do you want to be free?” and Myles piped up, “I want to be four!” LOL!!! I’m glad she told me about that. It made me smile! Qade went on to inform us that “Gothrow painted the lamp with blood” keep in mind they have been learning about Moses and the plagues. We really couldn’t understand what this was, so I asked him, “Was it a lamb?” (thinking passover, ya know) Qade said, “No, it was a lamp.” Hmmmmmm?????

Anyway they keep us on our toes. I’ve been reading the boys Bible stories from the Jesus Bible Story Book (love that one!) and the other day we got to the story of Jon the baptist, and the boys were all enthralled with the concept that he ate “hoppers” and honey! Ha ha ha!! They might not have caught the part about him baptizing Jesus, but they know he ate hoppers!

It’s funny that when we listen to the Jungle Jam story of “Nermal and the Ark” Qade always goes to the bathtub and brings out the boat that they play with in there. He’ll park his cars along the “deck” and drive the boat all along the floor as he listens to the story. It amazed me the fist time we listened to it when he said to no one in particular, “Jonah said no, but Noah said yes!” !!! Truth sinks in even when we don’t think they are paying attention.

Yesterday I hunkered down and got 3 monthly menus planned. Sept Oct and Nov are done!! Woo-hoooo!!! It was a little on the depressing side for me as I realized that Summer is done, and Fall is on it’s way. *sigh* I just started to get thawed out, what’s up with that!? In fact for the most of summer, I still wore a sweatshirt all morning inside. Oh well, ya can’t change the weather I suppose.

Anyway, it was a bit of a challenge on that many menus, but it really wasn’t THAT hard once I got into it. I had my “leftover day” which I switched from Thurs to Tues since I’ve been doing Zumba on Tuesdays! (more on that later) And I worked on having “Meatless Monday” each week too. Then I threw in a “crock pot” day for each week, and a “soup day” for nearly each week. It starts to get really easy then. There are, of course, repeat dishes, but if you think about it, you probably eat the same things over again anyway. So I threw in the favorites a few times, sprinkled in some “new” recipes and had my “breakfast for dinner’ a couple times a month, and voila! It’s done!

It really is amazing how much pressure it takes off to have the menu there and know exactly what will be for dinner. It also takes a lot of stress out of shopping. On grocery days, I just look at that week’s menu, check the cabinets/freezer for ingredients, and add what I need to the list. Easy-peasy! It also helps me know what I may need to do ahead of time. Like if I see “crock pot chili” on the menu for the next night, I’ll know I need to soak some beans overnight. I like to keep it simple, and then do my experiments on different and new baking items or special stuff.

We eat different foods in the fall/winter than in the summer, so the first thing I did was sort the recipes that I wanted to use from the ones I wouldn’t. Then just plugged them into the menu. I simply LOVE soups and stews and chili in the fall and winter, so that worked out well to have at least one “soup” day a week. I’m so glad that Stu loves those foods as well!! (Except for the corn chowder fiasco, but we don’t have to drag that up! LOL)

The last 2 Tuesdays I’ve been going to a Zumba class in ‘town.’ I have a friend who has been going with me, for moral support so that I don’t feel like the only clown in the class. It’s a great exercise!! The class goes about 55 minutes, but it really doesn’t feel that long. Last night I felt like I was catching on a bit better. I could certainly tell when I was in the rhythm, but I have a long way to go! Ha ha! But it’s fun, and exercise and a way to get out of the house and a break from kiddos too! I think I’ll really enjoy it!

Stu took the monkeys and our Punky Munkin for a hike last night while I was gone. They all seemed to have a really good time, though Ella seemed a bit more “ready” for her nap this morning. Guess that hiking really did her in. Ha!

SO that’s kinda what I’ve been up to. The Fall-time allergies have kicked in, so that is NO fun, but I’m thankful for the little white pills that are supposed to help…. they can start helping any old time too! Hope you are having a fun week!

Toodle-oodles!

I wasn’t talking about our current church, or any particular church at all, in the last post. Yesterday we had a GREAT day at church. I’ve just noticed over time, that it seems churches (some that I have been in) tend toward the “bad news” side of things. It’s something I’ve thought about for a long time and it just kinda bubbled out.

I think we need to embrace the hope that we have in Jesus and not get so caught up in the bad news of the society and world in general.

There’s enough REAL bad news out there, we don’t need to borrow trouble.

That’s all.

The other day while my dad was out for a visit, he took the boys for a “hike” before lunch. They came back all rosy cheeked from their hike, and both proudly holding a fistful of “flowers.” They actually were rather pungent weeds, but they did have pretty flowers! Purple and white, just lovely! Qade informed me that they also had “pea pods” on them. Instead of pea pods what I saw was this….

Do you see it? I was holding a bunch of weeds full of tiny hearts! That’s when my heart melted of course! I’ll take my pea pod hearts over any bundle of fancy flowers any day!

Ugh…..

That, in a grunt, is how I feel about mornings. EVERY morning. I’m not a morning person. So many people say that, but I say it and MEAN it!! I wish I was a morning person. I wish I could rise early, enjoy some quiet moments before the day and the family start to stir, wish I reveled in the sight of watching the sunrise. I’ve always said that there’s no big deal in a sunrise, it’s just a sunset in reverse. I LIKE sunsets. I’m awake at sunset time. Sunrises only serve to remind me that I’m awake WAY too early! LOL!

Can you change the “morning person” “not-so-morning” person part of yourself? Do you think? I don’t know. There have been stretches of my life where I did indeed have to get up at a wretched pre-dawn hour for various reasons. Believe me it wasn’t because I wanted to. I went one semester at college, or maybe it was the whole year, getting up at 5:30 each morning. It was awful! Then my work hours changed and I was working 12am to 3am or 3am to 6am shifts and that was bad too! I’d rather work the 3-6 shift because then I was awake already for first hour. The other one left me very very cranky because I still had to wake up by whatever time 7:30? to have my bed made for room check. Silliness….

But that’s neither here nor there. I still despise mornings. I often resolve to change my grumpy-got-out-of-wrong-side-of-the-bed self, but the resolutions usually only carry me through till bed time and by morning I’ve lost them in my sleep.

I haven’t been sleeping well recently. I’m usually ready to go to sleep at around 7pm, seriously I get so tired right after dinner! Just about the time I’m wrastlin’ with the kids through their bed time ordeal. Well, not Ella, she LOVES to go to bed, and I so enjoy that stage!! But the boys put up a monstrous fuss every evening. So by the time they are down-ish, I’m more than ready for some quiet evening time. But then I get my “second wind” and I’m wide awake. I’ve tried recently going to bed earlier like 9 something, but then I lie in bed and toss and turn till I think I’ll loose my mind! Trying to find sleep, when sleep isn’t trying to find you is the most useless waste of time! Bah!

However, the past couple of mornings, I’ve been staying away from the computer more and spending a bit more time interacting with the lads. Really all I want to do in the morning is nurse my coffee and stay curled up in a fetal position in the overstuffed chair, or escape into cyber land! I can’t do that though. It, much like the witching hour, is a time of day when the boys really REALLY need me. Even if all I’m doing is helping them put away toys that were left out, and pretending to “hide” behind my hands till they get close enough to grab and tickle, it makes a HUGE difference on their daily outlook. Mine too, if I’m honest. How can you not be happy when you’re causing your children to shriek with laughter because you’re tickling their tummies!?!

I’ve been convicted about my lazy, irresponsible reaction to mornings. Yes, they are a challenge, I’ve grappled with that fact my whole life. BUT they aren’t going to go away, and I can’t just pull the covers over my head and ignore them. As much as I’d love to!! I have an e-book on my computer called “Maximizing Your Mornings.” I’ve had it on there for awhile, but haven’t got around to reading it. I don’t like reading stuff like that on my computer, so I’m going to attempt to put it on the Kindle. I’m sure there are some brilliant ideas in that book, but what it boils down to is me choosing to NOT be selfish, and think of my kids instead of myself.

The difference is astounding. The last couple of mornings, the boys have played together better than they have in weeks! Seriously! And I think it is in part because they’ve had a bit more real mommy time in the mornings. Sometimes that makes all the difference.

Here’s the long awaited post. Before’s and After’s, but please don’t judge the photography. There are a lot of pics so I’m going to keep words, to a minimum. I’m sure you can appreciate that!

This was the original kitchen. This house began it’s career as a double wide trailer, which my inlaws gradually added to, changed and basically rearranged while they were living here. The kitchen, however, had kept it’s old original self complete with 70′s style wall board, and plywood cabinets. This is how it looked.

Shortly before Myles was born, I had this fit of “I can’t take it any longer” so my bro, James came over and hugely helped me paint it. Except we didn’t bother with INSIDE the cabinets so you could still see the old wall board. It was a sloppy job, but the colors were vastly improved. And I knew that my Dad-in-law was planning to redo it all someday, so it was a temporary fix.

Here’s us painting.

And here’s what it looked like painted.

Now let the reno begin! I have to say again and again just how grateful we are to Curtis and Tiffany for ALL the hard work they did on this kitchen. Curtis is a working machine, and you’d better stay out of his way, or you might end up tiled. BUT I was simply amazed with what they did in the time they did it!! WOW! So you wanna see, huh? huh?

This is what Curtis had to start out with.

He got it sheet rocked, moved/built a couple of walls, taped and uh.. mudded? Oh yeah, he makes it look easy. I know one thing, construction will never be my gift.

New plywood on the floors, some carpet removed, sorting out where the cabinets go.

New light fixtures, sink, AND (ta-tum) garbage disposal!!! Oh, and Curtis did the rewiring, plumbing and all of that too!

Tile work begun. They built a bar from scratch, and tiled the WHOLE countertop and the floor!

Tiffany did all the painting, bless her! She also worked out those strong muscles and helped Curtis hang the upper cabinets! Lookin’ good!

THE BIG REVEAL

It’s beautiful!! I absolutely LOVE it!! It’s so fun to be in there and cook in the “new kitchen.” Even Ella loves to squirm across the tile and sit and watch while I work in it! Ha! It’s an amazing space! We’re still slowly sifting everything into it’s new home, but these cabinets are amazing!! Couldn’t ask for a better kitchen!

Thanks so much Dad Noggle!!! You’ve got great ideas! Perhaps your next career could be an architect! And thanks SOOO much Curtis and Tiff for your work! You guys amaze me! I get tired just watching you, ha ha ha!!

I’m so incredibly behind! I have a million things to do today and the list just keeps getting longer. I already have that “stressy-panic-y” feel, but instead of relieving some of that by just getting it done, I’m blogging. Yes, I’m a completely messed up person, but you love me anyway. Actually blogging, for me, is therapy of sorts, and I’ll be much better capable of dealing with the rest of today if I spend a few moments here. Besides, I blog fast. Thoughts just leak out through my fingers and I can hardly type fast enough to keep up. Glad for spell check, now if only they could put a “think twice” check on here too, THAT would be something!

Anyway, here is what happened to me yesterday. I think I’m still spinning from it all and that’s why today’s loops have thrown me a bit more. But no big deal, I’m going to roll with the punches, and leave some laundry in the dryer till a more convenient time, and I’m NOT going to make my bed, so there! Ha!

I was telling Stuart recently that I’m interested in taking a Zumba class that I saw a flier for in “town.” I don’t know much about Zumba, but I do have some FB friends who rave about it, so I’m interested. Besides it’ll be a good way for me to get out of the house and away from the kiddos once a week. I tacked on the added perk of getting our shopping out of the way so that it won’t have to be done on our busy-enough Sundays. Stuart likes the idea, so last night I was going to go check out the Zumba class. Just keep in the back of your mind, the fact that “town” is nearly an hour away…. K? That figures in just a touch.

First I needed to drop something off at the UPS Store. Having done this, I realized that I needed a bathroom break, but I was also starving. Conveniently I located a Subway (my favorite fast food, because it’s not sopping in grease, not that it’s probably much better for ya, mind you, but it makes me FEEL better, ha) and made a bee line for the restroom. Wouldn’t you know it with 3 employees doing not much of anything apparently, there was NO tp in there. GRRRRRRRR!!! So now I was starving, had to go, and peeved. I was nice to the guy making my sandwich though, didn’t want him sneaking anything in there that didn’t belong. But I did tell him once he was ringing me up. Ha! Then I grabbed my sandwich and marched out. I scarfed it down while I was driving back toward Wally World, but I took the back road so I could find the place where Zumba was to be. While I was glancing at the buildings on that street I noticed that there were a lot of lawn chairs set up on both sides, and people were starting to gather. Uh-oh. Apparently there was a parade going to happen later for…. something.

Oh well. I made it to Wal-Mart and was crossing the parking lot, dreaming about the bathroom stocked with tp, and talking to Stu on the phone about which card I needed to put our purchases on. Now, here’s where things get really funny. We have recently switch from a “real” bank to an online bank, and all of this happened while I was in Albuquerque, so when my cards for the new accounts came in, they got put in my “in box.” In case you don’t understand that word, it’s a HORRIBLE contraption of torment and torture for those of us non-GTD-zelots. *sigh* Stu is working on me to become more of a compartmental organized person, but I think it’s uphill work for him for sure. Anyway, I ignore my inbox to the best of my ability till it’s overflowing and obnoxious and then I generally purge it by dumping most of the contents into the trash and stashing the rest in various “other” places till my procrastinating soul can manage to deal with them. (don’t tell Stu!) BUT right now it’s been quite some time since my last purge, and I never found, or activated my new cards. Since we had still been using the old accounts some too, this wasn’t THAT big of a deal until yesterday. I failed to realize that the old accounts had actually been completely transferred and canceled. Uh-oh! So when Stuart asked me which cards I had and I told him, we realized I’d have to come right back home.

Unfortunately the vehicle was on E! I did have a little bit of cash in my purse, which doesn’t go very far on fuel these days, so I figured I could get enough to make it home. I headed out toward our normal gas stop, and it wasn’t till I got on the road that I realized I’d never made it IN to WM to use their bathroom! Yep… one of those days, ha ha ha!

When I got to the gas station I did a thorough search of the vehicle to see if there was any loose money floating around. Hey, ya never know? And I happened to find my honey’s wallet since he had been driving that car to work! Yay!!!! He did have the new cards, BTW because he goes through HIS inbox very regularly. So I called and told him the good news, filled up the tank and planned to head back to WM to get our groceries! Yay!

However, when I left the station I was thinking about something. I can’t remember NOW what I was thinking about but I do remember thinking, because I was kinda driving on “auto pilot.” Safely, of course. But suddenly I “came too” and realized that I was traveling WEST on the interstate instead of back East to get to WM!!! Arg!! See, we stop at that station every time we have a “town trip” as the last thing we do before heading home, so it was just natural for me to get on the road home. And while the HUGE skies and open spaces out here are awesome when you’re jaunting down the road going somewhere, they also have drawbacks in that there aren’t very many exits, and they are FAR between. And while I may be a bit reckless in some ways, I’m not gutsy enough to use those “Official Use Only” crossovers. *sigh* So I had to drive miles… yes lots of them, down the road before I came to an exit I could take. LOL! Oh, but I had used the well stocked bathroom at the gas station, so this was quite a bit more bearable than it could have been.

After that things went more “normally” if shopping in that Wal-Mart can. Still it’s more fun to do by myself than with the monkeys, so I did enjoy the time. However by the time I got out it was already well past when the Zumba class would have been over, even considering they had one. I had heard several mentions of the “parade” while I was shopping, and wasn’t that willing to try to find parking and then walk all over down town to check on the class anyway. Oh well, there’s always next week.

Now I have the cards I need… though my inbox is still a hot mess, and I’m more prepared to face life… and grocery shopping.

The End