It's Monday!

We don't sing choruses very often at church...mainly because a lot of them are just fluff. But last night we sang "I Will Call Upon the Lord", which I hadn't ever heard before. Our regular music leader takes a Sunday off every once in a while and our elder leads the singing instead. So he had us sing this, and he explained how when he was up in Maryland at John Reisinger's church, Pastor Reisinger had them clap after the line "the Lord liveth" and managed to shock all the Reformed Baptists by doing that...and holding his hands up! :p

So he had us clap (remember I said we don't sing choruses very often?) and what an anemic clap we all came up with! I've got nothing against clapping, but you can't just clap once like that, especially if you're not used to it! We need to be clapping more like in this recording where they're clapping through the whole refrain (wow, what cheesy graphics!):

I Will Call Upon the Lord


So anyway...we apparently need to clap more. As I said, I've got nothing against clapping, we've been at other churches where clapping during choruses was quite common (although the sermon was fluff which is why we're not going to those churches), and I've clapped at camp...very badly...because I can't clap in time to the music very well. :(

Last year at camp I drove one girl crazy with my clapping. This girl apparently decided she wanted to be my buddy all week and wouldn't leave me alone! I mean, it's nice that she liked me, and I generally get along fine with people, but she was rather annoying. Anyway, during one of the chapel meetings she was standing next to me and finally grabbed my hands and made me start clapping in time, after which I tried to just keep clapping at the "proper" rhythm she'd set for me...and the guy on the other side of me decided he'd just try to follow my clapping because he had been struggling as much as I had. Ha, camp memories...and one reason I didn't go this year, but if I'm not busy I want to go to the "Extreme Weekend" in the fall. The Extreme Weekend is for 18 and up...so adults...which will hopefully mean there won't be all the "drama" of the high-school camps. :p Not the clapping, that wasn't drama...I meant all the other silly stuff that usually was going on.

Wow, that got off-topic! Okay, that's my rambling for Monday. I was trying to read about some tax stuff while drinking my tea, but it wasn't making sense, so I thought I'd blog while I waited for the caffeine to kick in.

I'm also wondering how long I can keep my room nice and clean like it is now...

Back to work!

Saturday

Ahh, I had a nice nap! :) I think I've recovered now from staying up late...although we actually were asleep by 12:45ish last night, so we weren't really up all that late.

The girls and I took some books up to the library this morning, and went to some garage sales. Rebecca almost bought a sewing machine like this one:












Uncle Jim took us back to the garage sale after lunch so we could test it. It turned out that it didn't work very well at all, and it sounded like the people were sticking to a $40 price, so she didn't get it. It was $45, and when we went back the guy said everything was reduced because it was late....so the sewing machine was $40 now. Woo-hoo! :p

Then we came home and played some Dutch Blitz before they left around 2:30. Here's some pictures from this afternoon.

I seem to be very good at blinking right when someone's taking a picture and ending up with my eyes closed...pretty good that Andrea did too:











John and his camera:












I couldn't get over how much different my cousin John looked...like he went from looking 11ish to looking 13 almost 14 (which he is). He's taller, thinner, older-looking, and his hair is redder!


John and Rebecca with Colin getting very hyper (oh wait, he was pretty hyper all weekend):












Uncle Jim!!!:












I got a text message from Uncle Jim about 3:50 saying they were stuck in a virtual parking lot in Virginia...lovely. I'm not sure why there would be so much traffic, but I hope they were able to get out of it fairly quickly.

So...now we just have to put the house all back together tomorrow! :)

Last night

Pictures from last night...the chocolate we were eating is 70% dark chocolate, so it doesn't really have much sugar in it, but it's pretty intense. We were cracking up, but we got tired pretty fast. :)

Awesome dark chocolate from Aldi...and it even has my last name on it!:












Funny face...I have chocolate on my hands!:









Problem solved:









"This piece of chocolate is the same size as your head":












My shirt...exactly what I did this afternoon:









I think the chocolate was getting to Andrea:









Andrea laughing:












Wow, flash is brutal...makes me even paler!:












There's only two left!:









Actually, there were five in the box and only one of those last two got eaten...I won't say who ate them, but I didn't have tea this morning, and yet I don't have a caffeine withdrawal headache... *cough, cough*

Rebecca trying to look emo eno:












Long story there, but basically we thought Grandma said someone was "emo" and we were wondering how she'd even heard of people being emo, unless it was something she watched on "Dateline", but it turned out she said "eno" because she misunderstood what we were talking about...anyway...

Of fabric and groceries and...I don't know what

So we got up this morning and after breakfast...well, after breakfast, and getting ready to go, and printing coupons, and looking for coupons, and Mom looking through grocery store ads, the girls and I left for the fabric store and grocery store.

I found some fabric at Hancock Fabrics for an apron...I have some fabric already that I was going to use for one side of a reversible apron, but I found some really awesome fabric for $1.99 a yard, so I ended up getting that, and now I need to get something else for the other side of it:









Then we went to Lowes to get the stuff Mom wanted us to get, but we couldn't find the guacamole and we didn't get chips, so we ended up going to Harris Teeter too.

Then we came home and had lunch. (People were driving really slow today, too...)

After lunch we sat around for a while trying to decide what to do, and finally ended up watching some Jeeves and Wooster. After which it was time for supper...okay, we must have sat around for a while before we decided to watch anything!

We were going to go to Starbucks tonight, but we were too full after supper, so we played a few games of Dutch Blitz and then got everyone but Mom to play Apples to Apples.

Andrea and John:










Dad and Rebecca:









John looks tired:












And then after two mildly hilarious games of Apples to Apples, we all (that is, my cousins and I) went outside and "danced" in the driveway, and considering we had no idea what we were doing, it went fairly well and was fun...or maybe it was fun because we didn't know what to do. And John actually kept from crashing into or stepping on us...amazingly! :p After our weird, Jane Austenish contra hoedown as Rebecca called it, we walked up the street and back, trying to not wake the neighbors up. No, we weren't really making that much noise. :p

Oh yeah, Rebecca's been blogging about what we've been doing too...so be sure to check out her view of the visit!

Now I think I'm going to go get some chocolate...because we need more sugar...and Rebecca is reading over my shoulder going "Oooooooooo...." because she loves the chocolate I'm talking about! :p As do I...

And my computer is driving me crazy because it keeps putting little boxes around the icons on the desktop, or various things in the browser window. I'll have to have Dad take a look at it later this weekend.

Thursday stuff

Okay...I've probably had too much sugar and caffeine...but I'm going to blog anyway!

• This morning, my cousins and I all went to Goodwill. Even John went with us, and was very helpful by pushing the cart around, and occasionally voicing his opinion of clothes we were looking at. Andrea and I found some stuff, and I found some t-shirts for Colin. Tomorrow the girls and I are going to go to the fabric store, but we won't persecute John by making him come too. :) He was asking us this morning how long it would take, because depending on that he might go... "HOURS!!!" my dad said....John decided he'd better not go with us. ;)

• Because we had some leftover coffee, and I felt like trying this, I just drank some iced coffee...it was really pretty good, which I wasn't expecting.
  

• My legs are apparently longer than I realize...I was just saying this morning that I'm tall, but my legs are short because I move the seat up really far in the car. But then this evening we were playing Apples to Apples, and I kept accidentally kicking Andrea and John. Then I was trying to say that I have a hard time moving my feet under the table without kicking someone, except it came out "I can't keep from kicking people!!" which sounds like I go around all the time kicking people! :p (I don't, btw.) ;)

• And now for something completely different...there was lots of Monty Python quoting going on during the game. Oh wait, that's not different. We decided there should be a Monty Python set of Apples to Apples cards...except it would just lead to lots of dialogue and people not playing because they were too busy quoting. I was having trouble playing, because I kept singing various things that I thought of because of the cards. (And have I ever mentioned that I find the use of the word "dialoguing" annoying? Well I do.)

• We made smores tonight...city smores...over the side burner on the grill. :p Me trying to light the burner...the lighter wasn't working very well:

Rebecca and her burnt marshmallow:









Rebecca and her smore (smores?...what's the singular of smores?):

• BTW, Rebecca and I ended up matching today, we both had greenish/khaki shorts and black t-shirts on...and we didn't plan that at all!

• We did manage to squish the air beds into my bedroom...and I mean squish! And then we had to flip them over because the plastic was very noisy right against the floor. So we had to flip them so that the fuzzy part was touching the floor.
  

Squished:









Andrea...she actually decided not to sleep with her head under the desk and run the risk of hitting her head:

• Grandma cooked supper tonight, and part of it was a salad which she had added parsley and basil leaves to...a regular lettuce salad. Uncle Jim was eating his salad and stopped all the sudden and asked WHAT she had put in the salad.

"Oh, I put some basil and some parsley in there...whatever green stuff I have growing on my patio I add to the salad."
"Don't you have mold growing on your patio?" asks Uncle Jim.

Anyway...there was lots of other randomly hilarious conversation during the Apples to Apples game, and during dinner, but you kind of had to be there to get it! :p

Randomness

*yawn* I'm TIRED!! And I don't know why even.

My cousins are here! Or rather, 3 out of 4 of them, Jim is visiting his uncle in Illinois.

We played baseball after supper, but it wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be, a. because we only have four people, and b. because it was horribly hot outside! I wish we had more people to play, it would be fun that way even it was still hot out.

So...sometime tomorrow or Friday we're going to go to Goodwill, and the fabric store, and probably Starbucks.

And we tried to sing this afternoon, but that didn't...um...go so well! :p If we come up with anything good, I'll post it, but I'm not sure if we will.

A bug Andrea found on her flip-flop:









John and Rebecca tossing the tennis ball:








John:

Ooof...ouch.

Well, I was able to get some reading done last night...woo-hoo. There were other things that need to be done, but I all I could do was lie flat on my back and read.

I hurt my back last night, just pulled it or something, nothing worse, but oh boy did it hurt!! I've been doing a lot of sewing, so my back's been sore after bending over cutting things out anyway. Then yesterday I was cleaning my room and bending over vacuuming, and also carried the heavy sewing machine out of the room...anyway, right before supper I was bending over working on something and as I tried to straighten up my back spasmed. So it was hurting horribly all last night...it's a little better this morning, more just stiff and a bit sore rather than excruciating pain. Soo...I guess I'll be moving slow today, and I'll be getting Colin to pick things up for me because I still don't feel like I'd better be bending over much. Thankfully I got my room all cleaned yesterday, so I mostly have stuff I can do sitting down or standing up straight. Which is fine, as long as I'm not in a ton of pain, I can keep going...just without bending over!

My room was a mess too...dust bunnies everywhere...I think they probably had fangs! :p But I got the floor cleared so other people who don't have the map of my room in their heads can walk through without injury! :) And I vacuumed and dusted everything thoroughly...I even gently vacuumed out my computer because it was getting pretty bad. Yes, you read that correctly, I vacuumed out my computer. My computer has to be open to work, so it gets a lot of dust inside it and I have to get the dust out every once in a while.

It's set up as wireless, so there's an (airport?) card so that it can connect to the cable modem which is out on the other computer. Anyway, the only card we have is the one that used to be in our now-dead laptop, so it's not made to fit inside a computer, and it sticks out and the body of the computer can't be closed. Sometime we probably need to get the right kind of card for it, but we already have this and it's free, so I guess I'll just keep vacuuming my computer occasionally! :) The purple and black thing is the card...and the black part that says "Orinoco" on it is the part that won't fit in the computer:









See? now you can see the floor in my room! Amazing!!! :p








I didn't really offer much explanation for those links I posted yesterday, obviously one of them is applicable to me and the other is not right now, but the one about wives staying at home, even when they don't have kids yet, reminded me of a thread on a message board that Mom was reading.

The ladies on this message board were talking about how they can't understand this big deal about young ladies staying at home and learning to keep a house, because it can't possibly take that long to learn how to cook a meal and take care of a baby. Some of the other ladies finally ended up saying that, no, just learning to do that stuff doesn't take that long, but if you have time to learn to do all of that nicely and in an organized fashion, you'll be able to be a good housekeeper without feeling stressed about it, and you'll be able to other things as well, outside of the absolutely practical and necessary stuff. There was more to it than that I think, but the article I linked to yesterday made the same point. I think a lot of it boils down to what you get used to as well. If you've been out working until you have kids and then you're suddenly "stuck" at home with a house and a crying baby to take care of, unless you hated your job, you're probably not going to immediately like being home so much better. Anyway...I just found that article interesting, even though it's not applicable to me right now.

So...I'd better go figure out what to do next. It was nice to have a chance to just read some, or rather, it wasn't so much reading, but I had a big pile of magazines that I flipped through, and I read/looked through four organizing books from the library (and didn't get much out of them) so I can put the magazines in the recycling and send the books back to the library. And really, that's a good thing, because both of those things were taking up space in my room.

Oh, and so that you can hear what my midland accent sounds like (and also because I'm quite pleased to have figured out how to do this)...an mp3! I figured out how to record onto my iPod, change the file from WAV to MP3, upload it to a googlepages site, and link to it through an mp3 player. The only thing I can't figure out is how to link to it directly, because when I do that instead of playing in a browser window, the only option it gives you is to download the file and play it with Quicktime (or iTunes, I suppose)...like this. Oh well, the mp3 player works alright.



If you've ever heard your own voice recorded, you've probably had the same experience of realizing that you sound totally different than you sound to yourself. Because that sounds so different from how I think I sound! :p

By the way, I'm not sure how loud that really is, and I probably could have adjusted that while I was changing it to mp3, but I wasn't sure if it needed it or not. I have headphones plugged into my computer, so everything sounds loud enough that way. It's probably not loud enough if you don't have speakers on your computer though. Edit: I fixed it, so it should be loud enough for everybody now...I just had to figure out some of the controls in Audacity.

My cousins are coming tomorrow! What fun! I sure hope my back is completely better by tomorrow (or sooner!).

Monday links

Two articles I've liked recently:

20-Something Reasons to Live at Home

and: The First Year At Home ...found off of: Domestic Felicity

Wow...it's right!

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
North Central
The West
Boston
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I'm not sure about the whole "you don't have an accent" thing...obviously I don't think I do, but wouldn't people who talk differently think that I have an accent? Or is the "Midland accent" somehow perfectly right? I don't see how that could be. I'm confused...

Jane Austen quilt

I want to make one of these! It would take a long time, but I really like it. Of course, the only quilt I've made was a doll quilt and it was made from plain squares...not fussy little diamonds and rhomboids. But I want to try this sometime! :)

Wizard of Id

I'm not a big fan of the comic strip "Wizard of Id"...but it's pretty good today! :)

Stir-fry

Supper tonight was stir-fry...great for using stuff up! I saw we had the leftovers of a bag of these in the freezer that we hadn't ever finished because they are just too sticky and filling to eat by themselves. We usually get the popcorn chicken in a big bag from Costco for a Sunday night dinner, but we had decided to try the bourbon-glazed ones instead.

Anyway, we had some of those left, so I got the idea to use them as the meat in a stir-fry, because they're basically like the chicken pieces in sesame chicken that you get from the Chinese restaurant. So I sliced up some carrots, celery, found some green pepper and green beans in the freezer, and also added a handful of chopped swiss chard at the end. I put soy sauce, sesame oil, red pepper flakes, and sesame seeds in it...I really wasn't sure how it was going to taste. I knew it would be okay, but I wasn't sure past that. So I was pleasantly surprised that it worked wonderfully! Yummy! I think we should keep some of those chicken nuggets on hand just for stir-fry!

I didn't tell Mom what I was making, and she was trying to figure out what I was making that didn't need to have any meat thawed! (I thawed the chicken nuggets in the microwave right before I added them)...I told her it wasn't going to be vegetarian, but I think she was still rather worried about it! ;)

I can't do anything about it!

We've had problems for years, ever since we moved here: the phonebook has not stopped listing the name of the people who used to have this number. They also list their new number, but despite calls to the company, they still keep listing the other people twice. Once with our number, and then with their new one. So when we get calls for the other people, we usually tell them they have the wrong number and if the caller gives us time, explain that they need to call the other number.

SO, Mr. I. (the person who used to have our number) just called. Without even asking for any of us, he just started in with, "I'm 'Mr. I.', WHY can't this phone company get these numbers straightened out??! They still have me listed as this number, and you're listed under that number too, right??"

Me: "Yes...I don't know why they can't get it right..."
I. : I haven't had that number for years, and they still have it listed wrong!"

He just went on and on, and finally finished up with telling me that if we got any calls for him, to tell them to call the other number that's in the phonebook! But he sounded the whole time like he thought I should be doing something about it! It's not my fault they mess it up, and I certainly don't know why it's messed up! And if we have a chance we explain that to the people who try to call him here.

It's not a big deal really, but his manner of addressing it irked me...I wouldn't have minded a polite, "could you please tell them to call the other number if they call there?" Good thing he didn't dial the number wrong either...if he'd started in like that to someone who didn't know what he was talking about, they would have thought he was crazy!

Hmph.

Last Friday

Last Friday, mandolinartist of the comments, a.k.a. Amanda took pictures of me (as sort of graduation photos...more on that later). It was really fun, it was a bit hot out, but not too bad, and we just turned the AC way up when we were in the car. I had taken Dad to work that day, so I met her down at Old Salem, and after we were done there, we went to a couple other places as well.

It was a bit...exciting. ;) There were some flowers right by an exit off of the highway, and instead of going off the exit and then walking back down there, we parked (on the opposite side of the highway because we were going that direction) and ran across the two two-lane sides of the highway. Those guard rails in the middle are higher than they look, and 65 mph traffic seems faster when you're standing still, I'm just saying. After we got back to the car, I realized I'd left my sunglasses in the grass where we were taking pictures...shoot. So I had to go get them...
My Dad was a bit horrified when he heard about this... "That's illegal!" Uh...hmm...well, we were in Stokes county where mandolinartist's husband works as a sheriff's deputy...so maybe...oh never mind.

Then there was the little junky cafe with tons of decorative junk around it. It was closed right now, but it was a little creepy to walk up to it and hear music playing...the outside sound system was still turned on! Um...okay! I guess maybe it was to scare people off! Note: we did ask the people at the business next door whether it would be a problem for us to take pictures at the cafe, and they said it would be fine.

We also went to an old train track and town hall and stuff, and then we finished up at a coffee shop up in King, NC. And we took some pictures there too...great fun!

I'll post some of the pictures on here when I get them, mandolinartist is out of town on vacation this week and next, but she said she'd try to get them to me after the 29th.

Okay, about graduation...I decided I didn't really want a graduation party after all...so, no party! I guess it seems like graduation's all about getting done with highschool and moving on with your life, but I really feel like I've done that already, so it would feel kind of childish to be like "Woo-hoo! I'm done with school! Now I'm grown up!" because I'm kind of past that already. That probably didn't make any sense...but anyway... In more simple terms it would seem like a regression, rather than progression...and that just sounded weird. Just forget it.

In other news, my cousins are coming next week!!! Either Tues.-Sat. or Wed.-Sat....that's what I heard from my grandma anyway. So, cousins!! And Uncle Jim...*sigh* ;) No, actually Uncle Jim is who makes family gatherings so fun, or crazy, or stressful; any of those depending on who you are. Grandma, as usual, is feeling stressed...but that's nothing new. Hmm, that sounded a bit harsh...that's not how I meant it, I just meant that she always frets...she likes fretting. She's one of those people who gets through things by worrying about them. :)

I think maybe it's supposed to be a little bit cooler next week, so hopefully my cousins and I will be able to go outside some without melting! Other than that, I'm not sure what we'll do...lots of games of Apples to Apples and Dutch Blitz I'm guessing...and crazy pictures (and maybe videos) to post on the blog! And probably a trip to Starbucks. Maybe some "singing" if Rebecca brings her guitar (hint, hint).

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to that...AND I have a ton of stuff to get done before next week!! Which I'd better get started on...bye!

I'd hate to know...

...what today would have been like if I was clumsy.

Me vs. shovel= shovel: 1~me: 0
Me vs. oven= oven: 1~me: 0
My knee vs. the dryer= dryer: 1~me: 0
My arm and shoulder vs. the wall= wall: 1~me: 0
Me vs. the pot of applesauce for apple butter= applesauce: 0~me:1...or 6. (six pints of apple butter that is! :)

So I started out the day by cutting my right index fingertip on a sharp shred of metal on the shovel while I was out gardening and also got bug bitten. Then I burned my arm on the oven getting the pan of apple butter out. Hit my knee on the dryer while straightening laundry closet. And finally crashed into a wall at some point after that. And I'm not a clumsy person! So as I said, I'd hate to imagine what today would have been like if I was clumsy! :p I already feel like I've been through a battle...owww...and I have a nice bright red crayon bandaid on my finger because that's all we have left in the way of bandaids. It's, um...noticeable! :p

But, I did get the apple butter made and canned...it smelled lovely in here, like some sort of Christmas potpourri or something (with the cinnamon and all)...delicious! The batch made more than I thought it would too, the recipe said it would make 5 pints and I got 6 out of it.

The apple butter ready to be canned:









The jars processing (don't worry, I put the lid back on!):









Six pints of apple butter:









I also made a tote bag today...it's basically done, but I'm thinking about adding some other stuff to it, so we'll see. It might not be done yet.

Um...napkins...that's it!

Okay, I'm going to blog right now, because I have other things I need to do today, and if I don't get this done now it's going to get pushed to the bottom of the list. Which is fine because it's not really that important, but I have a blog, so I really should blog on it! And I want to anyway, I just have other things to do as well.

I'm trying to remember what I did last week...oh yeah, I made twelve cloth napkins...not the same napkins that I mentioned cutting out before. Those napkins, sadly, ended up being strangely shaped rectangles, instead of the 13 x 13 squares they were supposed to be. :( So I had Dad cut me a 13 x 13 inch piece of matboard and I used that to cut the squares out...it worked much better! The only problem is that I was cutting the squares out with the rotary cutter and the cutting mat we have is 12 x 18 so I had to keep moving the fabric around. It worked, but it was a bit of a pain.

We got lots of rain Wednesday and Thursday, which is great! We really needed the rain, and I didn't have to water the garden for a couple days (note to self: we really need to get a rain barrel set up, or at least have some buckets on hand to stick out in the rain!)

It was storming so much Wednesday night that the power went out! Went out right as I was 2/3 of the way through with my twelfth napkin! Argh! So I grabbed my iPod and using it a flashlight went and found the battery-powered lantern things for everybody else because nobody else had any flashlights nearby...not that I did either. iPods are really bright...stop laughing!

And then I went back and finished the top-stitching on that last napkin by turning the wheel on the side of the machine by hand...because I'm stubborn like that. My arm was pretty sore after that...









I tried to take a neat picture of the napkin hanging on the clothesline, but those didn't turn out very well...and it just dawned on me that I hung it up there and then was trying to take a picture while squinting into the sun. I should have walked around to the other side of the clothesline and the picture would have looked better too! *smacks head* Ah well, next time...

Okay, I need to take some pictures of the sweater I'm knitting, I haven't taken any since it was about three inches long, I think. I'm almost done with the back of it now...so I'll try to get some pictures today and post them tomorrow, as well as tell you what else I did last week.

But right now I need to go hang some stuff up (I helped Mom with some re-decorating yesterday) and then cut up a bunch of apples for apple butter. We got some more apples at Aldi, and I'm going to make them into applesauce today, and then finish cooking them down and can them tomorrow. And I should get some sewing done...and reading.

By the way, are the colors on here bugging anyone? I changed the colors for summer, but something's looked off ever since then...I'm not sure if the type's the wrong color for the background, or the header doesn't coordinate, or what it is...maybe it's just me. So I was wondering if anyone else was looking at this and thinking "what did she do to the colors on here?!!" :p

I know, I know!

Sorry y'all, I promise I'll write a real blog post sometime soon...I've just been rather busy. I thought summer was supposed to be relaxing, but there seem to be more things to do! I am enjoying the summer though; I like accomplishing things. I may get worn out doing a bunch of stuff, but it makes me happy to have gotten a bunch of useful things done. :) And there are still so many things that need to be done!!!

I may have time to post tomorrow, but we have a fellowship after church and then we don't have an evening service because of that, but I might be babysitting tomorrow evening...we'll see.

So in the meantime...ooo, exciting spam! :p

They're bringing serving back...

...with random acts of kindness.

Community Christian Church in Illinois made a parody of the popular Justin Timberlake song. Granted, I think there are many more important things they could have spent their time on...but.....it is pretty funny! ;p I was cracking up watching this!

Serving Back


"Go ahead, fill it up on me! (gas is on me)" Now that's an act of kindness with gas prices as high as they are! lol! :p

For Rebecca

Doo-Wop sheep

This is from a kids show called "Jakers!" that's on PBS...they're singing to the other sheep to cheer him up because he's going bald. Yes I have a strange sense of humor, why do you ask? :p

Sheep singing doo-wop:


I do have other things to blog about, but they'll have to wait till I can get my thoughts to make more sense. And I need to go figure out what I'm doing for supper...

Ba-baa-baa-ba... *hee-hee*

Why...

...are there no blackberry farms in this area? Do blackberries not grow well right around here? I was looking online for listings of places that sell blackberries or raspberries and a lot of them seem to be either in the Sanford, Fuquay-Varina, Smithfield area, or around Asheville...and one in Stokesdale. They also don't all have websites...which is not a big problem, but I like to be able to look at a website to get an idea of what the place is like.

I was thinking about planting some blackberries and raspberries next year, but if they don't grow right here that won't work. Although, now that I think of it, there are tons of the wild blackberries around, so presumably the nicer ones would grow, but nobody's selling them here?

On the other hand, there's a blueberry place just on the other side of town...hmm...we should probably get some of those. Since our blueberry bushes aren't going to have any blueberries for a while...little twigs that they are. :p Well, actually some of them are looking better and have leaves and all...but they're still not exactly about to have tons of blueberries.

I got up early again today and just gardened instead of jogging or something...I felt like I accomplished more with the gardening anyway, and it was a lot more fun! :p

The squash now has mulch around it and a nice dusting of Sevin dust, and I also mulched my tomatoes and green peppers. We have lots of weeds that need to be pulled, but the ground is so dry the weeds don't even come out. I suppose they might come out with a trowel, but I was just tugging on few by hand. Lovely...and who has time, or wants to weed anyway?! *sigh* But it'll have to be done sometime...our yard is going to be looking like a jungle soon. Fortunately Dad cut the grass really short last time he mowed, so maybe we won't have to be in a hurry to fix the leaky lawnmower at least! :)

I'm not fond of Mondays...

• I got up early this morning (well, not really early, but 6:50 is early for a Monday) and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

• I went for a run/jog...and remembered that I really don't like running/jogging.

• It's already hot at 7:00 AM.

• I think I'll stick to walking or riding my bike...they're both aerobic exercise as well, and you get a little breeze when riding a bike. Nothing was moving out there this morning.

• When I got back from my jog, I started watering the garden...when I was turning on the hose out front by the garage I noticed it smelled like gas out there, but since Dad had just left for work I assumed it was residual smell from the car.

• When I went inside I could still smell it...uh-oh...turns out the lawnmower is leaking! So I pushed it outside into the grass and took out the soggy piece of cardboard that had been under it out as well. Luckily Dad had stuck some newspaper-wrapped broken glass under the lawnmower so no one would run into it, and it kept the garage floor from being gas-soaked also.

• Now the paint is coming off the lawnmower because gasoline strips paint...lovely.

• While doing all this, I was still moving the sprinkler around to different bushes, and trying to get the breakfast smoothies made before I went and showered...and I wasn't going to be able to take it much longer! I wasn't hot because I'd managed to drench the back of my shirt (on purpose) while I was watering, but I still really would have liked a shower after jogging.

BUT...nothing can make a Monday better like a piece of toast made from cinnamon bread and a nice cup of tea to go with it. Mmm! (I need to put more filling in my cinnamon bread; it seems to melt away to nothing when I bake it.)








And after all, I have gotten a lot done this morning: I jogged even though I didn't like it, the watering is almost done, I got my shower, I had breakfast, and I really don't have a whole lot that has to be done today, so I should be able to read or work on crafts.

Maybe Mondays aren't so bad after all. :)

Light!

Dad fixed the ceiling fan by switching the light switch several times and pulling the chain on the light several times as well...which is exactly what I did yesterday. Oh well, at least it's working now! That is...the two light bulbs that are in it are working. We need to get some more bulbs.

Colin and I didn't end up going to the playground because I didn't get up till 10 this morning and it was hot already! I got the garden watered and got back inside as quickly as possible.

I'm going to get Dad to play Chinese checkers with me...that game with Colin yesterday was a bit boring. ;)

Now, where was I?

Wow, I've been busy this week! :) So, what have we all been up to?

Tuesday I went to the dentist, strawberry farm, Aldi, Home Depot, TJ Maxx, and Lowes Foods...and Mom went with me to some of those places too. Mom and I found some baskets at TJ Maxx for storing flour in...we're going to put the baskets up on top of the cabinets and use them to store all the plastic bags of flour from the 50 and 25 pound bags from Costco. Mom also found a shower curtain for her bathroom.

We canned stuff on Wednesday and Thursday. Mom made a bunch of strawberry jam on Wednesday and canned it...it looks so yummy!:









Sorry for the picture lit purely from flash, the lights on the ceiling fan in the kitchen mysteriously stopped working tonight!
I'm really not sure what's wrong with it...the fan is working, and the light bulbs aren't burnt out, because they work in other light fixtures. In fact, one of the kitchen light bulbs is now in my bathroom light, because when I was taking out a bathroom bulb to try in the kitchen, I touched the metal end of it which was still hot and then dropped it on the floor...which effectively broke the filament and dented the bulb so that it wouldn't screw into any fixture. *hmph*

Anyway...on Wednesday I also got the big bags of flour decanted into smaller ziploc bags, and loaded up one of the baskets and put it above the cabinets. I also got the big fan down from the attic and set it up so it would blow into the kitchen, and it made the whole canning process both on Wednesday and Thursday, so much more pleasant! I must not have moved that fan for a while. Last time I remember getting it down from somewhere, it seemed so much heavier and hard to lift...so I must have been smaller! It was really easy to get down this time. Or maybe it's the getting it back up that's hard...hmm.

Here is one of the baskets (the smallest) with apples in it...don't they look nice in there?:










I had to put the apples somewhere, so I just dumped them in there, and they ended up looking really nice! I found all those apples at Aldi. They were $0.89 a pound...yes, *sigh* that is a good price! I had just the day before figured the price per pound of the 12-pack boxes of apples we can get at Costco, and they are $1.36 a pound...which is also a good deal. When I first calculated that I thought we could have been getting them cheaper at the grocery store, because aren't they on sale for 79 cents a pound at the store? Mom told me that, yes, they used to be, but not
anymore. Oh. So even $1.36 is a good deal...alright...so I was really happy to find those at Aldi for less.

I want to get some more to make apple butter with, as I used these for applesauce. I LOVE apple butter...delicious stuff. But the applesauce was faster, and that's what I had time for this week; I cooked it and canned it on Thursday. I got 4 quarts out of 12 lbs of apples...and it tastes so much better than the store-bought applesauce:








The fourth one is in the fridge because I'm not sure it sealed properly. ;)

I made oven-fried chicken sandwiches for supper on Thursday...mmm...chicken, mayo, and lettuce on a homemade hamburger bun...perfect summer food!

I also started cutting out squares for cloth napkins this week. I have almost all of one fabric cut up and then I can start sewing some napkins...hopefully I'll get some done before we finish up the bag of paper napkins we have!

Today I got my bathroom cleaned and finally got around to re-caulking around the toilet...after making clear that that toilet is off-limits until the caulk is cured! Just use the other bathroom...which isn't a problem because: Oh yeah, Mom and Dad aren't here...they went down to Charlotte today and tomorrow for their anniversary. :)

So Colin and I are on our own for a little while. I showed him how to play Chinese checkers this afternoon...it was an, um, interesting game...I won. ;) He played while I got chores and laundry done, and then we went outside and I set up the sprinkler. Oh, before we went out I was in the bedroom folding laundry and he was out in the kitchen looking at the thermometer and asking me "if it was hot enough outside yet to run in the sprinkler?" How hot is it? I asked him..."97..." Yep...I think that might just be hot enough... :p

Tonight we had pizza and watched a movie. We may walk up to the playground tomorrow, if we get going early enough and if I have time...we'll see about that. I told him to sleep in tomorrow, but I'm not sure how late that will be!

And because Dad's not home would also be why nothing has been done about the ceiling fan yet. Because in this case, I've done all I can towards fixing the thing. I'm not about to start taking it apart to see if I can fix it...not something that's on the ceiling above my head! :p

Um...

Okay, did I confuse anyone else with my last blog post? Mom said it didn't seem very clear what I was trying to say...that it sounded like I had plans for stuff, but from what I said it sounded like I'd be done with those in a week or so. I guess I didn't exactly say that I would be continuing to work on all this stuff, and working on setting up a business if that will work...

I don't know...I thought it made sense, but it was late last night, and unless something really doesn't make any sense, I can't usually tell after I've written it, even if I'm more awake! :)

If you're confused about it, maybe I can try to make it more clear. :p

Alrighty then!

Okay, so I've had some vague ideas swirling through my head as to what I want to do this summer and next year. And pardon me while I sidetrack, but while I'm mentioning summer, can you believe it's June already? It seems like it was just the first of May...and I was surprised about that! On the other hand, it certainly feels like June...ugh. I don't like heat!

Alright, where was I? Oh yes...

I've had various ideas and stuff going through my head, but I hadn't ever settled on anything exactly, or told myself "this is what I'm going to do" and set any goals to be working towards that.

So my friend J. asked me on Sunday what my plans were for next year. And my usual answer to questions like that is something along the lines of "Well, I'm not planning on going to college, so I'll just be working on stuff around the house, and studying some stuff" (wimpy answer, isn't that? Oof...I can sure be shy and unassertive as much as I can loudly state my opinion...) Because usually people ask me straight out, "So, where are you going to college?"...in which case I feel like I'm not likely to convince them anyway. I know, I know...I should get a spine! :p I'm not really sure why while I can defend other things I believe, I crumble when someone starts asking me about college. I guess I've just gotten too many terribly negative reactions to that. (Which reminds me, I have a letter from a relative to reply to, please pray for me that I can come up with the right words to say. *sigh*)

Anyway, instead of saying that, J. just asked my what my plans were...at which point I proceeded to tell her! :p

I still have things I'm going to be studying, and after all we never really stop learning, but I'll mostly be reading stuff. I want to really work on my meal-planning, and get that figured out so I can help Mom more, since she's going to be busy with teaching Colin. And I had plans to sell baked goods at the farmers market, but I need to scope that out and see if that's still an option. I need to find out whether people are still willing to pay more for homemade bread, or if that's not likely to sell because of the economy the way it is. And if that does seem like it will work, I need to get plans in place for next summer. Plus I always have loads of craft projects waiting to be worked on! Etc., etc....

And after I told her all that, I was mentally gaping at myself, wondering where on earth that all came from! I didn't realize I had anything definite figured out! :) But, after all, I think I do...and I think that's what God's leading me to do, vs. the other options I've mentioned. All this is certainly part of the training that I need to be a wife, mother, and homemaker.

Anyway, I'm glad I've sort of settled that in my mind, so to speak! I work better with a goal, that's for sure! :) If I don't have a good goal in mind, I tend to dilly-dally and never accomplish much....yay for goals! :p

And speaking of goals, I'd better get to bed because tomorrow's my night to cook supper, plus I have other things planned to do tomorrow...I shall be busy! And maybe I'll get around to blogging a bit about what I did today (and yesterday), along with whatever I get done tomorrow!

Please excuse all the sidetracks and exclamation points...that's called "I feel hyper because I have a weight off my mind and a clear track ahead of me!" lol! Well, not clear, there are still parts that are foggy, but I just have to trust that whatever the Lord has planned for me is awesome! :)

Okay, sorry, I'll shut up and go to bed now...

Today

I had an orthodontist appointment this morning, so I took Dad to work, went to the dentist, and then went and got strawberries.

Seen on the highway this morning:

• A big white bulldog sitting in the passenger seat of a car. He looked very happy...I'm not sure where he and his owner were going, not to work I assume?
  

• A guy tying his tie while driving...note to self: stay away from the burgundy jeep. Surely it would be more efficient to tie it in the parking lot when he got to work?

• A Xerox van...which looked like it had been taken off-roading. There was mud splashed all over the back of it.
  

On the radio: The Promise ~When In Rome ...and other songs of course.

Accomplished:

• Retainers tightened...ouch.

• Four baskets of strawberries

• One small vole buried in the woods...I'm getting really tired of taking all the little vole carcasses out to the woods. The neighborhood cat, Lucy, keeps leaving them on our porch and patio...cause she's so generous like that. They must taste bad, or she'd just eat them. *sigh* I'm just glad she's not bringing anything bigger....and that Gracie doesn't leave her lizards lying around.

Speaking of wildlife, we saw a deer right at the edge of our woods yesterday evening!! I've seen deer tracks back in the woods before, but never seen the deer and certainly not that close. Now we know what ate Mom's hydrangea...

Heels=pain...sometimes

I'm kicking myself...no, actually I'm not, I don't think I would be physically capable of that right now. That would involve either standing solely on one injured foot, or kicking myself with said foot; neither of which sounds pleasant right now.

Okay, I'm mentally kicking myself for wearing stupid high-heeled sandals for church. I haven't had problems with them before, I've even run in them, but while hurrying around getting ready to leave yesterday morning, I managed to pull a muscle in my right ankle. Owww... It's not exactly sprained, it's just one spot on my ankle and it's not swollen or anything, it just hurts when I bend my foot. Plus I walked around Costco yesterday in the stupid shoes, after I'd hurt my ankle...and I'm not blaming anyone but myself for this either! SO, I'm limping around today feeling very grateful for my hi-top Converse that I have laced up very tightly. I even ran the laces through the very top holes, which I don't usually do. Ahh....ankle support...much better! :p

So I think I'll be looking for some nice white, flat sandals. Maybe I can find something cheap at Payless Shoes, or someplace like that. That's where I got these and they've lasted long enough, I only wear them on Sundays anyway. I'm not quite sure why I got these in the first place, they're not exactly my style even. I like them, but they only go well with maybe two skirts I have, and some more practical sandals would probably work just as well.

Weathervane