Game Night at Grandpa's

Dodger, Dancer, the boys and I went to my dad's yesterday afternoon for some food and game time. Dancer dressed Zavi in one of her old shirts from when she was that age. So cute!

Zavi got sucked into the TV a time or two.

Zavi got his own 'playing cards' and tried to shuffle like we were doing. 

Both boys did a wonderful job regulating. 

Slow Sunday

It's been a lovely day here. The sun is shining and the windows are open, which the cats love. I think it even neared 50 degrees today. That's quite unusual for weather here in February. I can't say that I mind. The only thing I missed this winter was there was no good snowfall. I like a good snowstorm that drops a bunch of snow...like a winter wonderland. There's something very special about freshly fallen snow. The world sounds different. It's so quiet and serene. It speaks differently, and I love it. It's a whisper saved only for those who find the snow special and beautiful.

Today has been full of recovery work. I spoke with my sponsor this morning. I then went to my weekly OA meeting. I connected with an OA fellow after the meeting. Then I also had the chance to attend a BBA meeting this afternoon. Mixed in there was reading the Give God a Year book, catching up on reading the blogs I enjoy, and piddling around the house.

Dodger helped Dancer most of the morning with putting a new door on their garage, and he snapped a picture of the new cabinets in their kitchen while he was there. Uncle Stacey should be able to come over within the next week or two and help them get the cabinets secured to the wall or whatnot...I'm not really sure what he's coming over to do. I just let her do the upgrades as needed, and she takes money off their monthly rent for what she's spent on materials. Their rent doesn't add to our income...I only charge her what it costs to keep the place with services. There is no mortgage on it anymore. Thing is, I don't really track it. The cost of the services there has likely gone up since they've moved in, but it's whatever. It's just how I help them get on their feet financially and know they live in a halfway-decent neighborhood just a few blocks from us.

I will finish up this day looking over some workbooks for some worksheets to bring to recovery group tomorrow, and maybe finishing up an assessment and treatment plan and notes. I prefer to have some time away from work, and I'm not all that far behind; so, I might just wait until tomorrow to tackle the work stuff later in the day, when I have some open time to do so.

Right now, though, I am going to listen to another BBA recording and do some BBA transcribing in my big book, so that I have a jump on the next assignment and not wait until the last minute to get it done.

I Won Alice Cooper!

Winner winner tofu dinner. Look what I won today! Looks like I'm getting the Alice Cooper experience tomorrow evening. It will be a Happening. ☠

Dodger can't go... too much work. Dancer can't go... she has to work, too. So, I asked my mom. She loves Alice Cooper. So, we're leaving work a little early tomorrow and heading south to watch the legend rock out.

Dancer is 23

We celebrated Dancer's 23rd birthday today. We gathered most of the extended family at Sports Zone for dinner, then went back to mom's for cake, ice cream, and games.

Her actual birthday is just a few days away... it will be her Golden Birthday.

An ear ache... on her birthday

Dancer has a horrible ear ache (most likely an infection from swimming over the weekend) on her birthday today. booooo.

A nap... because staying up till 4 am to be sure my sick birthday girl finished up her psych final and got it submitted was not in my plans.

She has an outer ear infection.  Her doc prescribed drops that include a steroid.  Hoping she heals up soon.  The drops are helping.  She was miserable and now she's not. :)  They gave her a steroid shot at the office and the drops are a mix of steroid and something to work on the infection.

January 2 2014

It snowed last night but it was like powder, so the only areas I shoveled was around the autos and on the sidewalk. Dancer went ice skating with some dance friends this afternoon. I dropped off a bag of books at the library, stopped at the dollar store to get a 2014 calendar, and at Kroger to get bread. Dodger got home around 8pm and brought pizza, which he and Dancer ate. I caught up on paperwork and cleaned the hub except for the pocket, which I'll do tomorrow.

January 1 2014

It is step-dad's birthday. Dancer and I went to their new place to celebrate. Joyce, Bob, Jon, and Veronica also came. Dinner was chicken, green beans, and fresh cut veggies. After gifts we watched a little TV and played a few Wii games. By the time we left, at about 8pm, there was about an inch of snow on the ground. I filled the rest of my night watching Arrested Development with Dodger.

To Everything, There is a Season

I have a lot of big changes coming in 2014.  I will share them as the time seems right.  One at a time.  See, I keep secrets... I keep secrets in a sacred place.  It is important to not have people piss all over your dreams.  It may surprise you, or not, who will be your biggest supporters and who will question why you even bother.

I was reminded, once again, of this at Xmas time this year as I let one of my secrets out to my family and got lukewarm to cold responses.  It was a mistake to tell.  It's a mistake that I'll never, ever, make again!

I was warned by a mentor and by my husband to keep it quiet but I went ahead with it anyway.  I think sometimes we just need to see one last time who's on our side.

Check out this post on The Proper Care and Feeding of Dreams.

I have HUGE dreams.  Big huge dreams that scare the living shit out of me!  The season of raising a family is coming to an end and my focus can shift elsewhere now.  Dancer is nearly 18, will be driving soon, and will be starting her drive towards her dreams soon.  I finally got clarity on my path.

I shared this on Facebook a few days ago, "And so, she finally recognized herself and where her passions want to take her. There are seasons in life. Sometimes we have to be focused elsewhere for a time... watering and caring for the roots that need to grow deep... before we are able to reach for the sun and bloom. - LJM"

I waited, sometimes very impatiently, for my path to get clear enough to start down it.  I needed time to change.  I needed time to raise my daughter and do right by her.  I needed time to grow my marriage.  I needed time to bloom where I was planted.  I came to, dare I say, enjoy domestic duties and taking care of my family.  But I knew there was more waiting for me, I just had to wait for the right time, the right season, and now that season begins.

Getting Quiet

I am a part of this wonderfully supportive online group of women.  When everyone else is being "bah humbug" and negative, these women are always sharing positivity and love.

Yesterday, I listened to one of them give her last online radio show for Hay House.  Her shows have always been great but this one was so spectacular.  I'm in an inner space right now where the inner gnawing is coming to the surface and I'm inclined to really listen this time.

Dancer is getting older and will be starting college next fall.  Being a "housewife" isn't all that fulfilling to me, even though I have developed a decent love for housework... except the toilet cleaning!  Ick.

It's time to break open the dam and let my creativity take hold again.  I need to surround myself with creative people and spaces again.  I used to work around it all the time before needing to change jobs because of Dancer's dance schedule.  Then I worked at a place that not only sucked the creativity out of me but also started to take my health.  I still, to this day, have a serious back problem from that last job.

I also want a way to help financially support my family that uses my creative energy without working for someone else again.  I refuse to have anyone else dictate my time and my life ever again.  It would take a serious financial hardship to get me to set foot in retail again or to have anyone tell me when I have to work and what days I can or cannot have off.

So right now, I'm working on getting quiet and really listening to my inner callings.  I need to listen and then get out of my own way so that it can flow.

The Past Two Months In As Few Words As Possible

Let's see if I can summarize the past two months of my life into a post that isn't miles long so that I can feel ok with getting back to regular blogging.  Those two months happened and I can't feel ok with just letting them slip by without saying something.

So...

At the beginning of June, I helped Dodger with a job for 10 days.  It was nice to get to spend that time with him.  We finished listening to Robinson Crusoe via Librivox on an iPad app (we started it way back last August on the FL job).

Here are a few pictures.

Entertainment center (before).
The primer didn't stick so we had to sand the entire thing! Ugh!

Entertainment center (primed).

Entertainment center (after).

Kitchen (during). I, unfortunately, didn't take any before pictures.
Everything was an ugly off-whitish faux finish before painting.

Bottom part. My job.
Screwed up my wrist and forearm doing this job. It still hasn't healed.

Lovely brown.

During that time, Dancer had summer dance lessons, tennis lessons, and dance company practice.  So, many days I was helping Dodger, then running home to take her to her things, then going back to help him when they were done.  She even helped us on the job, the last day we were there, after one of her practices.  (He is, by the way, still working on this job as of 8/3.  There have been unforeseen issues with the top cabinets and the "clear" coat that was put on them to protect them.)

All of the doors got put in the trunk of my car and brought home so we could work on them here instead of taking up space in the clients garage.  So I got my garage cleaned up even more so that there would be space to lay them all out while they dried.

The rest of June and the first part of July was filled with more of running Dancer around to her classes and dance company performances.  During the summer, her dance company performs for daycares in the area.  The kids really seem to enjoy seeing them dance.  There is, on rare occasion, one little boy or girl who's just not into it but for the most part I think they all have a good time.

Dancer has also been helping my mom and step-dad fix up the house they just bought.  So many of her weekends have been filled up with that.  She also been golfing with my dad on the weekends, too.

Towards the end of July, Dancer turned 17.  She had a bowling party at Spare Time Lanes on one weekend, thrown by my mom and step-dad.  She chose a bowling party this year because it's always so darn hot on her birthday and she wanted something inside and something for everyone to do.  My dad got her a bowling ball as an early birthday present, so that she could have it and use it at her party.  Then the next weekend, we had a birthday party for her at my dad's place.

 

She also had math club on Tuesday afternoons a few times in July (we still have one more scheduled this Tuesday).  Math isn't her favorite thing but I asked her to do it for a few reasons.  1. it was helping out another homeschooling mom who is using a specific program for this and is doing it to test it out and give feedback to the creators of the program.  2. she hasn't seen this group of friends since Halloween and that's just crazy because they all get along so well.  3. she needs to get out of her comfort zone and better to do it amongst friends.

Right now we're on a break from activities until dance starts again in a few weeks and tennis should start up again soon, too.  I've only had to leave the house to grocery shop or run to the back and that's been really nice.

Dancer is going golfing with my dad this afternoon.  I cleaned up the pile of books and folders that were on my recliner a few days ago but now it's filled with a stack of fabric, so I think I'm going to set up the sewing machines and do some sewing this afternoon.  I've got some clothing repairs to do and fabric from my friend, Sarah, to make her cloth pantyliners.  I told her that I'd make them for her because I think the prices online for them are just ridiculous.  I think I'm going to have to print off the pattern again, though, because I'm not sure where I stuck the one that I already printed off.

Daily Photo: Remnants of a Tiny Girl

I found these two in the backyard yesterday while I was working.
I found a little green dinosaur earlier in the week, too.
So cute.  Dodger and I just laughed and smiled when I found these.  :) 

I Got Up Off the Couch... and I'm Getting Stuff Done!

Since I'm still trying to figure out what to do with myself today, I thought I'd work on a blog post.  It's been a week since I last posted and I've resigned myself to the realization that for the time being, once a week is most likely as often as I'll be posting.  I've been keeping busy with doing work on outside projects daily and it actually takes more thought and energy to put up a blog post than it does to just throw on my work clothes and gloves and head outside for some hard work.

Right now, It's too sunny to pull off siding.  I don't like to be in the sun very long.  Until the garbage comes on Tuesday, I can't really pick up any more shingles because I'm out of old 5 gallon paint buckets to fill up.  I could fill up more grocery bags, though. I don't yet have a blade for my sawzall, so I can't cut up any of the old wood roofing.

Here are some pictures of what I've been working on all week...

A small pile of shingles bagged up in grocery bags.
They are just too jagged and heavy to put into garbage bags, as is.

More trash and bagged shingles piling up and ready to set out on the curb for Tuesday's trash pick-up.

All of the clear space was covered with old shingles and wood.

Got even more done.

Some of the old wood from the roof.

The neighbor behind me needs to do some work, too!

The space behind my garage is now clear.
Remember what it looked like a few weeks ago?
The space back here it perfect for a garden!

The mess of branches I cleared from what was hanging over into my yard from the back neighbor's yard.

The mess along the side of the garage that still needs cleaned up.

Dodger pulled off some siding on the side of the house to get me started.
I have pulled off more since this picture was taken.

Dancer's summer activities started this week, so I'm back to running her around 3-4 nights a week.  We're both glad that tennis was offered in the evening as well as the morning this summer.  Neither of us are morning people and it worked out that she was free to do Monday evening's lessons.

I've been working a few hours every day getting our property cleaned up.  I've even managed to keep up the cleaning inside the house at the same time.  When I first started in on the garage this week, I felt very overwhelmed but then I remembered that line that you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.  So I just started in, did what I could, and have been working daily to conquer the mess.

Time and consistency conquers just about every problem.  We've got to do something differently if we want different results.

Dancer is out golfing with my dad this afternoon.  Dodger is at work.  I'm going to throw on my work clothes and gloves and head outside to see what I can do today.

The Week the Bough Broke

I've had quite an interesting week so far.

Sunday, Dancer and I went out to my grandparents to visit since my aunt and uncle were up for a visit.  It was my aunt's 35 year high school reunion on Saturday and they stayed through Monday morning to be able to visit with us.  My grandparents just got back from a two month long cruise to the Mediterranean a few weekends ago, so we spent a good few hours looking at tons of pictures on the big screen and getting commentary on their trip, too.

Then Monday was Memorial Day here in the USA.  This week we have nothing planned.  All of Dancer's activities are done until next week, so I plan to go nowhere unless absolutely necessary.  Dodger worked on Monday and it was just a regular day around here... until that afternoon.  A storm came through, which didn't seem all that bad to me.  I heard a knock on the door around 3 pm or so and I just thought it was the mailman delivering a package (not realizing that it was a holiday and all and we don't get the mail then).  So, I threw my cover-up on and opened the door, looked in the mailbox to find a card for a tree-cutting service in there, and then realized who had been knocking on my door and why.

This is what I found outside my front door...

Yikes!

Massive limb broke off in the wind and rain.
It still didn't seem that crazy of a storm, though.  I guess it didn't need much to give way.

Thank goodness it didn't do any damage to the neighbor's roof!
The power line broke it's fall and kept it from going through her front windows!
Thank you Providence for being on my side!

The tree closest to my house had lost a huge limb and it fell across my driveway and onto the neighbor's roof!  OMG!

Just about at the same time, I notice the neighbor across the street come outside.  She had called the neighbor's daughter to tell her about the limb.  This is the house of the neighbor that died a few months ago.  Her daughter and granddaughter showed up just a bit later.  By that time I had already called Dodger, my dad, and my step-dad about what had happened.  Neither my dad or step-dad worked that day because of the holiday, so they both came over.  My step-dad brought his electric chainsaw with him, which is bigger than the electric one we own.

The neighbor's daughter was a little freaked out at first.  But after we talked a bit and I assured her that I would get it cleaned up quickly, she calmed down.  It was still raining and a little crazy to be able to assess any damage at first.  

See that yellow house in the second picture above?  That's where the tree guy came from.  I guess he was over at that house, his cousin's house, for a BBQ and when they noticed the tree issue, he came over to talk with me about it.  He had been drinking, I could smell it on him.  He offered to get it cut down and hauled off that day for $300.  I was about to accept after talking with my dad on the phone about it but a few of the neighbor ladies told me not to deal with him that he was a "bad seed".  See, the guy that lives in that yellow house is the one that's always getting arrested.  He's one of "those kind-of" neighbors.  So I politely told him that I would wait until my dad got here to see what he thought before accepting his offer.  Once my dad got here and we talked about what the neighbors had warned me about, my dad talked with him and declined.  The guy's face was all messed up.  It looked like he's been in his share of fights.  Not that I don't think that people who "live" on the wrong "side of the tracks" can do good work but I didn't want to chance it and I really couldn't afford $300 anyway, even if it was a good deal.

Part of the pile of limbs I cut up on Monday.

What was left of the limbs after my dad and step-dad cut off the
bunch of it that was laying on my neighbor's house.
We braced it with a 2x4 to take the pressure off the smaller limbs.

A few of the larger limbs that I drug to the back to be cut up another day.

What was left after Monday's hard work and clean-up.

So, my dad and step-dad cut the stuff down that was on top of the roof of my neighbor's house and I drug it over to the front yard.  That left quite a bit of it still laying against the power line that runs between our houses.  So the neighbor's daughter and granddaughter called the power company about it.  They said with all of the damage around the area that it might be a day before they could get out and cut it down.  So we left it at that.  We just braced the larger limb with a 2x4 to take the pressure off of the line.

It was still raining when my dad and step-dad left.  My step-dad left his chainsaw here in case I needed to use it.  Then I went to work on cutting up the limbs that they had just cut down.  Dodgers got home earlier than I expected because the power was out on the side of town where he was working.  He had to park in front of the neighbor's house because there was no way that his truck would have fit under the limb and the bit of driveway that was left open needed to be clear for the power company to pull-in to.

I got all of the limbs cut up with our branch cutter that night and as much of them as I could fit into our 5 yard waste bins as I could.  Any larger limbs that would have needed the chainsaw, I drug to the back to put with the other large limbs waiting to be cut up from the yard work I had previously done in the back yard.  I used our small chainsaw on some of it but saved the rest for later because there was no way I was going to fit much more into the yard waste bins that night and I was getting tired and was ready for dinner.

Dodger made Parmesan "breaded" catfish and green beans for dinner while I was out working.  He kept pestering me to stop and come inside but I thought it was silly for him to be trying to stop me from working when I was on a roll.  ;)  So he had to wait a bit to start dinner.  Aw, poor thing.  :P  I'm the one that couldn't even hold my iPad Mini in my left hand without sharp pain shooting up through my forearm muscles!

The power company only cut the limbs to the 2x4.
We were hoping they would cut it to the tree.
I'm still very much grateful for what they did do.

Everything cut off the house and the line.
I took this picture after I had drug everything the power company had cut down over to my yard.
It didn't do any damage to the fence either!  Yay!

Huge pile of limbs drug over from the neighbor's yard.

Tuesday morning, when Dodger left for work, he came back inside to tell me that the power company had been by sometime earlier that morning because the rest of the smaller limbs were now cut down but that they left the large limb attached to the tree.  I was a little annoyed by this but we have an extension pole for our small chainsaw and I figured Dodger could cut that down without any problem.

So after I got up and dressed, I went out and drug the stuff out of my neighbor's yard, around the front, and into my front yard.  There was no way for me to drag them from over the fence with the way they were laying in her yard.  I also picked up any sticks that might have broken off in her yard, too, and even pulled some weeds while I was over there.

Another one of that guy's cousins came knocking on my door.  I told him we would take care of it.  It really creeps me out that these guys have been on my property and I've opened my door to them two days in a row.  If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck... well, then... hmmmm... it might just be a duck.

Later that afternoon, Dodger stopped by between jobs to take the chain saw to what was left hanging from the tree.  I thought it might be good if we could get it off the 2x4 so that it would break more from the tree and give him less to saw through but neither of us could lift it from the 2x4.  Once all of the brush and smaller limbs were cut off all of the weight of the large limb was now on that 2x4 and it was super heavy.  So he suggested I push it off.  So after a few hard shoves forward and me jumping back from it as I did it, just in case it came flying back my way, it fell and snapped completely off from the tree.  Cool!  Dodger calls it "Boobie Power" when I get all crazy and do the hard work that many women won't do.  I like it, so I call it that, too.  :)

Boobie Power at work!

Snap!  Pow!  Boobie Power!

Dad came over after work and took my step-dad's chain saw to the parts of the limb that were laying across my driveway.  He left the biggest part for another day.  He's going to get his big gas-powered chainsaw going and then come in and cut up the rest.

Once he had that cut up and left, then I cut up the rest of the branches that I had drug over earlier.  The yard waste pick-up came by as I was working on it.  As soon as the barrels were empty, I filled them right back up again and set them back out to wait for next week's pick-up.

What's left of the huge limb after my dad cut up the stuff that was laying across my driveway.

All of the stuff my dad cut off of the huge limb.
We just drug it over to the other side of the driveway.

Waiting on the yard waste pick-up.
You can see part of what I was working on Tuesday
afternoon there to the left behind the tree.

The chainsaw hurt my ears on Monday night, so after I finished cutting up the rest of everything on Tuesday and dragging all but one of the larger limbs to the back, I called my mom and asked if she would bring me over some earplugs on her way to work so that I could cut up a nasty limb in the front that I wasn't able to drag to the back.  It was a crazy looking thing that was too heavy and had big/smaller limbs attached to a piece of the really big limb.  I couldn't do anything with it until I could use the chainsaw on it.

So by Tuesday evening, I had a big pile of limbs (like the one above) plus 5 yard waste barrels full from the work I did that day.  Nothing else was left in the front yard but the huge limb my dad left.

Yesterday evening, Wednesday, I went out and filled up two of my empty trash cans with more of the smaller limbs in the front yard and set them at the curb with the rest and then took the chainsaw to everything in the back that needed it.

Some of the larger limbs from my clean-up in the backyard last week.

Everything all cut-up.

I'm getting pretty good with wielding a chainsaw but I'm super glad that's all done.

So after all of that hard work, today I spent much of my day just vegging out and playing Castleville and Candy Crush Saga.  I did a little more work on getting my Charlotte Mason blog organized (I did a bit of that yesterday, too, before I went out to cut up limbs).  I've done some laundry but not much else.

Dancer just got home from hitting some golf balls at the driving range with my dad.  He took her to Cherry Berry, too.  Lucky girl.  I'm trying to be good and stay away from the sweets.  I still have a weight loss goal, you know.

Sewing Like a Fiend and Catching Up on My Week

So, it's been a week since I've posted a true daily account of my days.  Let's see if my brain can remember my week up till now.

Sunday was the last dance company performance of the winter season.  Here are a few pictures from that performance at Fair Havens Christian Home.  Dad came to watch.  He rarely misses a show.

Dancer went to my mom's afterwards for the evening, so Dodger and I had a lovely evening sans kid.  Dodger made fish for dinner.  It was super yummy.

Monday, mom dropped off some things for Dancer's gardening in the afternoon.  Some dance friends dropped off Dancer's tap shoes that she left behind at Sunday's performance.  I did a bit more work cleaning up the mess of overgrowth, shingles, and wood behind the garage.  Then Dancer and I went over to mom's to have dinner and play a little Trivial Pursuit on the Wii.

Tuesday, I got the sewing machine out.  I needed to get a few patches sewn on a uniform for my friend Sarah's son.  Once I got those done, then I started sewing on a project that I started last year before my machine got super noisy and I had to stop until I could get it serviced.  I'm making a denim bedspread for my nephew.

Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

Dancer's last tennis lesson of this session was this night, too.  She'll have a week off and then summer lessons start.

Wednesday, was more sewing and much work done on Dancer's next study term schedule.  That was the day I took the pictures of my piles around the house.

Thursday, it got cold and rainy.  I ran errands in the afternoon.  I needed to get a few groceries, make Dodger's truck payment, and get Dancer registered for summer dance classes and dance company.

I sewed and cleaned up my piles.  I also did some repair work on a few of Dodger's work pants and of some of my lounge pants.  I had some holes in my lounge pants and sewed patches in some areas.  Saving the money of buying new, the annoyance of shopping, and keeping the comfort of well worn items, was worth it to me to patch them up.

Dodger wears holes in the knees of his pants.  Well, in the right knee area because that's the knee he bends down on when he's working.  I put some old t-shirt fabric behind the worn out, thread bare, spots and then sewed zigzag stitches back and forth to patch up and reinforce those spots.  I got two pairs done.  I have two more to do.  I have to rip out the inseam a bit to be able to get to that spot, too.  He has some really worn spots on the back pockets where he puts his billfold.  I might have to take off the pockets to be able to repair them.

Knee holes repaired.

Today, I'll be trying to finish up the rest of Dancer's schedule for the next 12 weeks of study.  I'd like to get the third term worked on, too.  I probably won't finish the third term but getting it started would be good.  I will work on getting it finished next week, though, because that way I won't have to think about it again except maybe to make any changes before that term starts.