What I Haven't Done...and a Christmas Card

November 18th?  Was that really my last post?  Why didn't somebody tell me?  Let's just say it's been a crazy month.  We had some little illnesses, the usual crazy December stuff, college applications, the death of a dearly loved daughter of some dearly loved friends, some company, some back pain...you get the picture.  Lots of life and absolutely no writing about it!  

Can I join all the Christmas decorating parties and tours in January?  Is that allowed?  I had some great ideas for some posts as I was driving around town or at the kids schools or at the doctor's office. But no, those posts never actually happened.

Some other things that never actually happened: 

1. Teacher gifts.  Meant well. Bought darling red snowflake plates at Big Lots and planned to bake a scrumptious assortment of Christmas cookies, wrap them delightfully, and give them to all 1852 of my childrens' teachers.  Didn't Happen.

2. A Garland.  I was oh-so-inspired by the nester's garland party and I really wanted to make one. Didn't Happen.

3. Asparagus.  We had our nice fancy Christmas dinner tonight because my MIL and FIL are here and they're leaving tomorrow for my SIL's house in Virginia.  So I had a lovely dinner: turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, rolls....and I forgot the asparagus. I meant to drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper on it, broil it, and present it right as we sat down to dinner. But I forgot and it Didn't Happen.

4.  Exercise.  I was on a pretty good routine. Either walking (with a little running thrown in) or working out at the gym 4-5 times a week.  But I don't think I've done a thing since....well....since my last blog post on November 18th.

I could go on and on.  I love Christmas. I really do.  I love the decorating and the gift-buying and making, and the baking, and the entertaining, and the party-going.  But I'm tired.  That's why God made the New Year right after Christmas I think.  We moms are so exhausted by this point that we need to wipe the slate clean and start over.  A new year, a new exercise plan, a new chance.  A "do-over" if you will.

But before I get all carried away with the new year, let me share my Christmas card with you.  I scanned an old watercolor Christmas card that my grandmother painted years ago.  Every year she painted individual cards for her family and friends. My dad was an only child and there were four of us grandkids. We each got our own personal card.  Most of our cards burned in our moving van fire when we moved to Texas in 1976 (wow...that makes me feel old!) but we had a few. My grandmother died when I was in middle school.  My grandfather lived with us for awhile before he died and at his funeral a dear family friend walked in with a box.  In it were 34 years of Christmas cards painted by my grandmother.  He knew that ours had been destroyed and brought them to us.  That was one of the most thoughtful gifts I have ever received.

On the inside is I John 3:1 

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should 

be called children of God: and so we are.

One of the Best Men EVER!

Howard M is truly a hero. He's been a pastor for a million years and was a seminary professor for a brief time when we had the privilege of meeting him and his wife Nancy. You know when you just "click" with someone? I came home from a small group meeting of seminary wives hosted by Nancy and told my husband, "I met a woman tonight I could be really good friends with. Funny thing is, she's old enough to be my mom!" Well, we did, thankfully, become really good friends. My family spent hours on their deck and in their kitchen. Nancy took care of my kids the night we found out that we couldn't bring my youngest home from the hospital because he had some breathing issues and had to go into the NICU. They hosted my husband's surprise 40th birthday party. She taught me how to garden and dry flowers and make pesto. I was able to visit them recently and I burst into tears upon entering their home.  Even though it's a different home than when we first knew each other, so many memories came flooding back. All sweet.

But back to Howard. You see, he has a lung condition that causes scar tissue to form every time he gets an infection or a cough. Something about a missing enzyme. He has been on oxygen for awhile now and was awaiting a lung transplant.  Funny thing, waiting for a transplant. You are, in reality, waiting for someone else to die. You don't wish them to die, of course. You just hope and pray that if they do, their dna will match yours closely enough so that you can use the organs they no longer need. And Howard needed an "extra long" lung. Who knew you could order sizes?

Well, Howard got his lung. He is doing well. In fact, he was breaking records right and left in ICU, getting off the ventilator quickly and blowing impressive scores on all his breathing tests. So this is just a shout out to Howard and most importantly a thank you to God for his tender mercies and for literally breathing new life into this incredible man.

Laundry

Several years ago I felt I was drowning in laundry.  There is always more laundry to do. It is never finished.  And since my campaign to get my family to not wear clothes (and not eat for that matter) had failed, I decided I needed to get a handle on these piles of clothing taking over my life.

I used to do the "load a day" method. But the downside of that is that you feel like you're always doing laundry because, well, you're always doing laundry.  So I switched to a real, honest to goodness laundry day.  I try to stay home on Monday and not schedule anything like appointments, volunteering to drive for the school field trip, lunches with friends, etc. I use Mondays to restore order and sort of recover from the weekend. (I once shared that with a single college student and I loved the quizzical look as she said, "recover from the weekend?"  Just you wait till you have three teenagers going three different directions every weekend, sweetie!!!)

But I digress.  Back to laundry.  So, I thought if I'm focusing on my home on Mondays, why not do ALL the laundry on that one day. Get it finished and folded and delivered to the kids' rooms (they put it away) and be done with it.  So that's what I have done for about 5 years now.  But being the second-guessing ninny that I am, now I'm wondering if I should go back to the load a day, or load every other day method.  Then it's not so overwhelming and it works if I can't be home all day on Monday for one reason or another.

Hmmm....to laundry day or not laundry day. That is the question!  Any thoughts?

A Little Before & After

This summer when my oldest son was away on a mission trip I took a good hard look around his room.  He has high shelves running across two walls in his room. A great idea for kids' rooms btw! But the poor kid still had teddy bears up there and he was 17 years old!  And letmetellya I'm not a big one for cleaning things I can't reach or don't notice often so everything up there was dusty and gross.

So I got out the vacuum and some rags and went to work.  Everything came off the shelves, got cleaned and de-grossed, and I took a good hard look at all the stuff  before I put select items back.  I tried to de-clutter and keep sentimental things at the same time.  Here are the Afters....what do you think?  A little more fitting for a senior in high school?

The Right Shade of Green

We've been working on our kitchen for 8 years.  I am not exaggerating!  When we moved in it had the obligatory flowery and viney wallpaper below the chair rail and textured yellow (kind of bright) on top.  I knew I wanted it a soft buttery yellow and I would hang my collection of blue and white plates.

But over the (8) years this project has been underway I changed my mind.  I started thinking green.  I saw green and blue combinations and thought the plates could still work. I got some green paint from a friend and painted a few sample patches.  Not quite right.  I looked at colors at the paint store but I just couldn't find the right one.

And then in Illinois I walked into Suzanne's kitchen.  I knew immediately that color was what I wanted!  So we painted a white piece of paper for me to take home and wrote the name and number of the paint on it.  I marched into the Benjamin Moore Store and said I wanted Seedling Green.  They mixed it, shook it, handed it to me and I left.  Why in the world I didn't look at it or have them paint a little on top of the can I'll never know.  It was most definitely the wrong color.  Sort of a yellow with a green tinge with a hint of flourescent quallity to it. Not What I Was Looking For.

So I went back.  The Benjamin Moore paint guys are my heroes because they found the color I wanted, refunded my money and mixed me new paint even though the mistake was my fault.  The color I wanted was "Seedling" not "Seedling Green." Oh.  So happily I skipped home with my new paint.

I started painting.  Hmmm.  It was close, but not the same. Too blue. Or something.  I stopped painting and let the patch dry.  My daughter came home and commented, "It's a little seafoam, isn't it?"  Now letmetellya....I got married in 1987.  I've done Seafoam. All my friends have done Seafoam. I am NOT doing Seafoam again! Back I went to my new home away from home, the 

paint store.  Here's the deal.  Every once in awhile they change something in the base of their paints. When they do this, they have to change the color formula so it will come out the "same" as before. But this time it didn't. Not even close.  But those great paint guys looked at the formula they had used and they looked at the formula that Suzanne read me off of the side of her paint can in Illinois and they fiddled with it.  We made little swatches on the edges of the original sheet of paper that we painted at Suzanne's.  Eventually, we got pretty dern close.   I brought it home, painted it on the walls, hung my blue and white plates. And I love it!

The only thing left to do now is get cabinet doors and drawer fronts.  Maybe by 2009??? 

Lost and Found

 

This is one of my favorite things.  It is an 18k gold Elgin lady's pocket watch that belonged to my great grandmother, Amalia. She immigrated from Poland, met her Polish husband in Kansas, and lived the American Dream.  My grandfather carried this watch when my dad was a little boy.  But one day he lost it.  It was missing for a long time.  Months. And then a child was kicking the leaves along the edge of the sidewalk in their little town and he found it.  Being a little town, everyone knew my grandad had been searching and searching for this watch and of course it was returned to him.  He promptly placed it in his safety deposit box at the bank and never again took it out.  At some point he went in there and put it in a small manilla envelope and wrote my name on it.  He gave it to me.

Now, I love old things.  I actually walk into antique stores and look at all the stuff and wonder why in the world people would get rid of it.  I know it's weird.  But I do.  So anyway, I really love this watch.

We travel alot and I often hide the few little valuable things I have in an unlikely place around the house so if, by chance, a thief came, they would never find it.  Problem is....I have more than once hid it so well that I can't find it.  For a long time.  Twice I've been convinced that I would never see it again.  My family absolutely could not believe that I had done it again.  But I did.  This last time it was actually with a few other pieces that belonged to my grandmother.  I felt so stupid.  Tore the house apart. Finally gave up.

Last week my son was looking for his dad's old guitar tuner.  He couldn't find it anywhere.  He looked and looked.  He walked up to me, held out a small jewelry box and said, "Is this what you've been looking for?  It was on top of Dad's bookcase!"

The watch is now in my safety deposit box at the bank.

Tears

As you know my eldest is eighteen years old. A senior in high school. Such an exciting time in life. Such possibilities. Such plans. Such aching in a mother's heart. I'm proud of him and happy for him and I can't wait to see where he ends up next year. I want him to go to college. Of course I do. But the thought of packing him up and dropping him off. Well, let's just say tears are never far away these days.

But last night we were all taken by surprise. He got a new guitar amp and he was playing guitar and letting his little brother (13) play too. They were having fun. Enjoying each other. Sister was in her room doing homework. DH and I were downstairs. We walked up the stairs and Little Brother was standing in the hallway, his face twisted up, his eyes closed. DH said, "Buddy, you've got to get to bed. You're exhausted." And then the tears came. Not just sniffles, Sobs. We wondered what in the world was wrong. Everything was so jolly a minute ago. But then he said, "I was just in Big Brother's room, playing guitar, and we were having fun together. And then I realized he's leaving soon!" Oh my. Much crying (I of course had to join him!) and many hugs later he went to bed. Big Brother responded very well, saying things like, "Oh we have a long time before I leave" and "But I'll be home to visit alot." But the reality settled down on our house like a cold fog. This distant future event that we all knew would someday come is upon us. This is Big Brother's last year at home.

Here's a picture of the kids as we were saying goodbye to Big Brother this summer before a mission trip. It was only 6 weeks. And yes, Little Brother had been crying then too.

Eighteen

How in the world did this boy get to be 18?  He seriously was born just a few years ago! He now towers over me, a mature, funny, smart, responsible young man.  His sister and some friends threw him a surprise party tonight and I marveled at these great kids who are all now seniors in high school.  It sounds so cliche....but seriously, enjoy those babies while you can!  They grow up fast!

Look What I Did!

OK, so I've gotten off to a slow start with this blogging thing.  But I've been really really busy.  Doing this....  It's not grouted yet, and obviously we will have electrical outlet covers, but I just couldn't wait to show it to you!  It's travertine 3x8 subway tile with an inset of 2x3 subway tile in a herringbone pattern set on the diagonal over the cooktop. 

This should rightfully be titled, "Look What WE Did" since my DH rented and set up the tile saw, cut a whole lot of tile, mixed mortar for me, and cheered me on.  I laid ALL the tile myself though.  Can you tell I'm very impressed with myself??

We are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with our kitchen remodel.  After grouting and sealing the backsplash we just need to order the cabinet doors, paint and install them and paint the walls and trim and BE DONE!  Oh, did I mention wiping the gritty dust out of all the cabinets and drawers?  Yeah, that could take awhile!

MamaDog

Grandma's Bookcase

Ok, so I got off to sort of a slow start with the blogging thing.  But I've been very very busy.  I had a sweet little bookshelf that used to sit on the back porch of my grandparents' house. The last few years it's been in the garage, collecting dust and assorted junk.  I wouldn't let my DH get rid of it, but I admit it was looking pretty sad.  But I have a bunch of children's books that are way too young for my dear ones, but that I wanted to keep for little ones that come over, for my daughter to use when she babysits, or for, I don't know, the grandchildren I hope to welcome some day far far in the future!

 It started out like this.

But now it looks like this.

I smile every time I walk up the stairs and see it in my hallway!

66 Dogs

A couple of years ago animal control officers were called to a house in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina.  In this one home they found 66 greyhounds, starving, neglected, mostly in cages. The officer interviewed on the news stated that they were not bringing charges against the couple.  They were apparently well-meaning folks who adopted the animals to rescue them. Somewhere along the way they just got overwhelmed.  They couldn't take care of the dogs they had, but they kept taking more in.

I was relating this story to my book club and we asked the question, "How many dogs is too many?"  We didn't come up with a firm answer but agreed that somewhere between 3 and 66 there is a line which should not be crossed by one couple or family.  But then, we reflected, "Isn't life just like that?"  We add one little dog, and then another, and then one more.  Pretty soon we have too many dogs!  How many of you can relate to this?  The kids play soccer, we say we'll be the PTA treasurer, bake bread for our church welcome center, be in charge of the fall fling.....you get the picture.  We can wake up one day with 66 "dogs" in our house!

My book club named ourselves 66 Dogs, and we often rebuke one another when we're taking on too many "dogs" or we'll comment, "Now that's a Really Big Dog!"

I've often thought that running a home and family is a constant striving for balance.  A continual evaluation of how we budget our time, energy, money, and other resources. Figuring out if we're about to, or have already, added one to many dogs to the mix.  So as I put my toe into the blogging world the name that kept coming to mind was 66 Dogs. I'm just hoping this blog doesn't become dog #67.....