Expect the unexpected...

I didn't blog about losing the brake pad off my car this weekend while pulling out of the ATM, and turning past a pond (which I would have gone into if I hadn't been just starting) because, while it's an unusual event, it scared me so badly that I don't think writing about it occurred to me. FIL has been working on it, but because of the cold he was planning on finishing tomorrow. So I took David's car shopping tonight.

BUT

After finishing my expedition at the bright and cheerful hour of ten p.m. I discovered my front, right tire was flat--not merely deflated a little--this tire had a nice straight line of compressed rubber just crossing the base of its rim. Well, FIL came over and very kindly assisted me by freezing while he put on the spare.

The spare was flat.

We used our little emergency air compressor and pumped it up to tolerable levels, and I pulled out with FIL following to make sure the spare would bring me home. The car felt mighty strange, as if I were driving through a foot of molasses. We turned onto the street, and I decided enough was enough. I might be paranoid, but I'd rather look idiotic and drive FIL's van while he drove the car. FIL pulled over again seconds after starting the car.

The LEFT front tire was flat!

We gave up and called AAA.

All things considered ... this is blog-worthy. I'm very glad to be home, and not to have been in any car crashes. Good night.

Memorizing Philippians...

Ok, so I memorized the whole thing in 8th grade or thereabouts... but it's been a while. I figure if I memorize something that should at least have a brain map in there somewhere, then it'll get me into the habit of memorizing without the agony of never remembering what I was memorizing.

I'm in the general area of Philippians 1:15 so far, and I say as much as I remember most nights as I'm going to sleep after trying to add a few more lines right before turning off the light, then try to remember several times during the day also. So far, so good.

I'm also planning on studying some of the key words and thinking about why Paul put the content in the letter... his circumstances, what he's talking to the Philippians about, how the things he says show his relationship with the people and Christ, what things I learn about God. I'm also using the verses as I pray for people, thinking of ways Paul's prayers apply to people I know.

It's very interesting. I like it, and I think once I get the habit going I'll probably say the verses to and eventually with the kids in the mornings. I figure it won't hurt them, and maybe they'll decide they want to be able to say whole books of the Bible too. There's something to be said for knowing the whole story when you're picking verses out of your head in a stressful situation.

Ice!

The gravel is ice. The windshield is ice. The path is ice. The snow is ice.

I stomp on the snow.

There is almost no mark.

Our yard seems to be covered in nature's rendition of styrofoam, rather inflexible and prone to chip off in chunks or squash flat.

BUT

We still have snow.

I was afraid the rain would wash it away.

It didn't.

Lovely.

Well, meaningful takes more time, so...

Here's a brief update to fill some of that time-gap.

I dipped many, many, many chocolate pretzel sticks for David's work last weekend, and made a few discoveries.
1. Crockpots do very well to melt large amounts of chocolate.
2. If you add butter or margarine to your chocolate (in an attempt to make it smoother), it chunks up instantly. Turns out they both have water in them.
3. White chocolate won't melt as well as dark, for some reason. Please explain! I wanted to drizzle the white and ended up having to paint it onto the sticks and drizzle with milk chocolate instead. Not that it turned out badly... but I wanted to drizzle the white!
4. Those Heath chips are really good mixed in with leftover chocolate, as are walnuts.

It's a good thing David decided to limit the banana bread loaves to just his key people. After waiting for all those bananas to turn brown, then mashing them, etc, it made just enough, plus a few gifts for the kids' co-op teachers. Next year, I'll get the bananas a week early, and buy twice as many. The baking part wasn't too bad. The new pans David bought me are great and the mini-loaves just popped right out without oil.

The kids are building a fortress in the snow pile left by the guy who plows our driveway. They are finishing their schoolwork in record time these days, with the snow luring them.

Next week I'll have to print out everything Princess and Munchkin have done and mark any bad grades that need to be improved and check if we're on track for January. They won't like it if they have to do more, but I think Munchkin will be fine. Princess, on the other hand, will likely have to add at least one more assignment per subject per day. She won't like it, but usually they take less time than she imagines they will.

Pixie is reading as well as Munchkin. I've been assured that sometimes boys just take longer with the same information. We shall see. He does KNOW more. He simply needs constant assurance when he's reading. "You know that." "See? You did know it!" Heh. I figure one of these days he'll get tired of me saying it, and will just read. Can anyone think of a can't-put-down book that would persuade a seven year old boy to persist in figuring out the words? One problem is that the software we're using will read to him the first three times through a story ... hmmm ... I wonder if I can turn it off ...

In all, I am blessed. Life continues on. Snow is a beautiful creation. Time to finish cleaning so I can decorate with the kids today.

DH and His Reputation

I got an email from DH today, which he said I could post here. This is his temps. talking about him. (EDIT: to change DH's name back from initials. He thinks I'm going too far with the whole hidden name thing. "Scary 'D'? What's that mean?")

----

David(DH) was on the other side of a high cube wall and overheard the following conversation between a new temp and a few of his original temps.

... paraphrase here …

(new) So what is Dave like / what do you think of Dave?

(old1) He is okay

(new) That is what I thought. He seems pretty nice and friendly. (DH says hi to everyone when he walks the floor first thing in the morning and goodnight on his way out.)

(old2) How long have you been here?

(new) A little more than a week.

(old2) Then you have not met Scary Dave...

(new) Scary Dave?

(old1) Yes, that is what we sometimes call him.

(new) Why?

(old2) Every once in a while he gets very quiet and marches around.

(old1) If you don’t hear Dave in the morning don’t bother him.

(old2) Yeah, if you do you will get fired.

(new) What?

(old1) When Dave gets mad he fires people and boxes up all their stuff and has them thrown out of the building.

At this point DH was laughing so hard he had to walk away or get discovered.

----

Needless to say, the referred firings were because the people weren't following the job rules. It's times like these I get a better idea of his work atmosphere.

And WHEN did we learn we were different?

DH just took the MyPersonality.info test that I took a while back. If you look in the side column below, you'll see his results under mine. (I changed the link because he used his whole name, so clicking on it won't make his bigger.)

We're just a bit amazed at the results. Well, he is. I took the test for him a while back, and this was what came up, so I'm just glad I know him so well. *grin*

Time flies when you throw the clock...

and sometimes even when you stuff it under a pillow.

Not much has happened this week.

Munchkin discovered that the reason we don't throw things in the house is because glass light covers will fall on your head eventually, but he didn't need stitches.

I made a costume for Princess to wear to a birthday party. She had lots of fun. Her friend really gets along well with her, and I think this is someone who likes her better than just an acquaintance who happens to be nice. Yay!

Pixie is doing really well at school and seems to have a natural aptitude for reading. Can it be true? We shall see.

I cleaned a lot already this week and I can't tell I did. *sigh*

Maybe I should just throw half the house into the dumpster and hope we don't miss it later?

DH is very busy. It's the week of the beginning of the rush, or something like that. His boss is also away for a conference, so he's dealing with any of her stuff that has to be done. He's also finding that being the boss of a lot of women puts him in the position of having to intervene in petty disputes. Not that it's merely the realm of women to have petty disputes, but he usually understands male pettiness ... *laugh* I find it amusing that he is being stretched in that direction. I wonder what God is preparing him for?

We also just received a whole box of early issues of Backwoods Home Magazine. DH breaks out in theoretical hives every time the word "country" is mentioned, but he loves this magazine. Because of this, I feel safe in recommending it to anyone who likes the idea of "living off the grid" or farming or living in the woods in a log cabin built with your own hands.

Yep. I have hopes that one day we may actually live in the country, now that this magazine has entered our lives. And if you want hints on how to make your barrel stove heat your home in the winter, just let me know. I recently read a really interesting article on that one.

I'm a facebook person now...

If you know me well enough to email me, then you can ask to befriend me at facebook.

I got lured in because it's a way to keep in touch with my cousin, who is a lovely and very busy person. Connection is GOOD! I'm very bad at maintaining relationships, so maybe this will help...

Oh, and come to find out? A whole LOT of family is hanging out in facebook! So I'll be checking all their pages for the next few days. I'm looking forward to it.

Mom, you want to join facebook? I'm sure P. will tell you how, he's been there longer than me.

Feather Pillows carry sound... and other small events

Come to find out, I don't have a mouse chewing the bedframe, though I woke up the other night convinced that was what I heard. I'm sure I was dreaming about mice before I woke up, but even after awakening, I still heard what sounded like rustling and chewing. Considering last fall's bumper crop of mice, it wasn't too much of a leap to the conviction that mice were eating my bed. It was a rather terrifying dream and sound combo. I ended up abandoning DH to the mice and sleeping on the couch so I wouldn't wake him up with my jumpiness.

After several explorations beneath the bed and some experiments with the pillow, I have come to the conclusion that my imagination put together the sound of my heart-beat, my eyelids twitching against the pillow fabric, DH twitching in his sleep, the bed jiggling just a bit and scraping against the wall and an assortment of other sounds into a convincing sound-based fantasy. *sigh*

DH is exceedingly busy, as the company had another snafu in communications that affects the income of the employees he manages. I swear, the entire US economy is slowed down about 50% by all the mis-communication and poor planning that goes on within the upper management. If they put one low-level employee on each committee to monitor progress and throw in practical things like "it's a cool program, but it doesn't hold the info that it's supposed to handle" or "better make an accessible and practical info. sheet for the sales-people" or "we'd better make sure everyone is up to government standards before we give the go-ahead on this one...." I mean, I'm not the most organized person on the planet, but even I can see that the way it's done doesn't work. Go efficiency consultants! Your work is cut out for you.

You'll note I didn't even mention the poor work ethic of the upcoming working class.... *grin* That's another rant.

So DH's birthday-ish party went well. He thinks he's too old for them. Hmmm... *shrug* He'll survive another one next year, I guess.

My friend from Mom's Life may start coming to our church! Yay! I've been wanting to get to know her better. AND--bonus--her kids are the same age as mine. We'll see if it works out.

My cold is turning into sensitive allergies, so it's pretty much over. I expect to report the traditional, seasonal voice change, wherein I sound like a frog ... sometime soon.

The Miracle Cure

Well, if you read at all regularly, you will know that DH was practically diagnosed diabetic ... has it been a year already? I don't think it has... Hmmmm.

Anyhow, he's been very bad at following his diet. He has scandalized many service-people by casually mentioning that he's borderline diabetic as he accepts massive icecream cones and other anti-health food. Not only that, but he's been guilty of bringing home those rolled up, icing-filled chocolate cakes of death--the ones that aren't biodegradable.

Today his doctor was amazed at his levels on everything *rustles around for the paper*
Triglycerides went from 801 on 4/07 down to 136 (14 below the highest allowable level)
His total cholesterol went from 215 on 7/07 down to 151 and his LDL"bad" is now 87 (they couldn't read it before because his numbers were... *shrug* confusing to the docs, I guess. His HDL"good" was 31 on 7/07 and is now up to 37.)

So his doc made a more distant followup than usual and says he may be able to stop taking the gemfibrozil if he maintains this for the next four months. Now he's no longer at immediate (within the next few years, anyway) risk for diabetes!

So here's how to eliminate diabetes from your immediate plans.
Seriously, these are the only changes in his eating habits I've noticed during this time, though I'm sure he'll explain it to me more clearly once he reads this, so maybe there will be an edit tomorrow.

He stopped eating McDonald's french fries! And he stopped ordering fried foods as frequently. Does this mean he still eats at McDonalds? Yes. It's one of the closest places to work where he can get a quick lunch. He eats a burger or few off the dollar menu. (This is the main reason I try to make him lunches.) Does this mean he still eats fried foods when we go out to eat? Yes, though not as often as he used to. He also started drinking soda with fake sugar... constantly.

I can't explain it. He shouldn't eat like he does, and his health improves anyway. Go figure.

Anyhow, I expect God knows exactly what happened. I'm just glad DH is healthier.

Pooh Considers Light

Being stuffed with fluff, Pooh is expected to need instruction from time to time, and Princess is glad to help out. They stood at the top of the stairs, just out of my field of vision.

Pooh notices something. "A light-switch!"

*Click*

"It's on."

*Click*

"It's off!"

*Click*

"It's on!"

*Click*

Mommy says, "Pooh isn't allowed to play with the lights either."

Pooh says, in a rather squeeky voice, "What's a light bulb?"

"It's a place light likes to come out of," Princess says.

"Can I play with it?"

"No. Let's go downstairs."

"Too bad! I wanted to have a honey party with it," Pooh mumbles.

The Return

I highly recommend the East Park Inn B&B should anyone be looking for a relaxing getaway in Racine, WI. This was my room.

I talked to the owner a while this morning at breakfast, and had to laugh. Her neighbors were concerned about "this woman on a retreat to do research and write." They felt I must be one of those insidious creatures who visit B&B's in order to find out the bad stuff and trash their reputations in the news. While it would be nice to be published or (better yet) "read," I'm glad I'm not one of "those people."

Without further ado,... a great deal of gratitude I now offer to DH, who came up with the best birthday present EVER. ***applause***

I stopped by the library to collect about six books studying intelligence and the workings of the mind to broaden my current fascination with how people think and the way their world-view shapes everything from the way they learn to the way they deal with the unexpected, etc. I also stopped for groceries because I had no intention of leaving my room on Sat. So, with my books, food, Bible, notebook and sundry items I proceeded to ensconce myself in comfort and submerge without interruption. Lovely!

In general, I have reaffirmed my desire to live life, not merely by the flesh, but in the Spirit. What this means for the future continues to remain ambiguous, as I am a weak-willed person when it comes to changing habits and approaches to life. Therefore, I assume that one day the resolutions I've made will somehow come out in evidence of God's work within me. I'll trust Him to manage creating resolution where there is merely a vaporous wish, then furthering the effect into actual action of the sort He would have me accomplish. In summary. If positive change happens, it'll be God's great ability and none of my own.

And now it's bed-time. For those who stop by, you can pray for me tomorrow during the early afternoon. I'm supposed to sub for one of the Spanish teachers in the Monday home school classes. I was sick most of last week, so I'm not sure what I'll be doing because I wasn't able to meet with the other teacher.

You didn't hear from me...

and now you won't again for a few days.

This weekend I get the rest of my birthday present! *grin* Two nights at a B&B all by my lonesome! This means I can gather my thoughts without interruption and maybe actually complete the mental gearing up I've been working on for months. "They" say it's good to keep track of goals and such by taking time out every year to assess how it's going. Haha.

Now I get a full day of prayer, thinking, and study... along with time to do some completely unrelated study on how scientists and sociologists think brains work, just because it interests me. I keep finding all these secular sources who are overwhelmed by the "design" of our bodies, or of the world, or of the universe. I have to laugh. "It's GOD!" Well, I see it anyway, even if they don't. Isn't it wonderful how intricate God made His creation? Now the scientists are saying that 70%+ of the universe is "dark matter." I think this means they don't know what it is, but it's holding everything together. *slightly mocking tone*...and here they thought they'd figured it all out, and God wasn't there... Heh. I think everything will keep getting more complex, the more they search. God isn't less creative than we are, no matter how easy it is to think He might be.

Oops, random thought train derailed the original purpose of this blog!

Ok, I was sick all week, which is why you didn't hear from me. If I had posted it would have been very focused on stomach issues and crabbiness. Aren't you glad I didn't post?

So, thanks to DH for this amazing and unexpected break from real life! I'll be back Sunday... maybe. Monday, certainly.

Unexpected Weekend

We had an ordinary weekend launch. DH came home from work and we got the in-laws to watch the kids so we could go see Elizabeth. Interesting movie. I didn't like a couple of the scenes, but they were there to build the conflict and not just for ratings. (Heh. I think they could have built conflict without actually showing nudity, but... that's me vs. "the world" I guess.)

DH and I had scheduled for the in-laws to watch our kids Sunday so we could go see Design Homes models here, but DH woke up earlier than he planned on Saturday and suddenly we were all going. After eight hours of driving up, looking around there, and heading back, we stopped by the in-laws' to talk about what we'd seen.

Looking at the catalog, DH suddenly realised that we could have gone to the factory and seen all the models at once! Well, his time off is pretty nonexistant till a couple months into next year when we're planning on buying and there was nothing he could think of to do but leave, at once, for the other side of the state! The inlaws were gracious enough to accept the kids overnight. We stopped by the house for a change of clothes and were off, thinking we'd get a hotel room in the area.

We didn't look around much for a hotel in Madison as we figured there would be plenty more further along. Not so. About an hour from Prairie du Chien, we started seriously looking. Every hotel was full. Well, not to worry, we would just look there. It's a city, right? Plenty of room?

Typed paper signs were clipped on every lobby door--No Vacancy!
Gleaming neon signs radiated--No Vacancy!
"Sorry!" the hotel people said, "The trees are supposed to crown." "There are festivals in the area." "People come to pick apples."
All I could think was, "No room at the inn." I have greater sympathy for Mary now.
(If anyone has a longing to start a hotel business, south-west WI needs you.)

It was already one in the morning. We were both exhausted. He wanted to just stop in the Design Homes parking lot and sleep, but I was a little concerned that maybe we'd be hauled off to jail. I've never thought about the legality of sleeping in a car. Where does one do it without getting in trouble? I'm afraid I second-guessed DH, which was really wrong of me, and asked him if we should go ask the all-night gas station if we could sleep there. It occurred to me later that he'd been robbed working at a gas station before, so it was probably not too safe an idea. He rejected it and decided to find a hotel for me to sleep in.

Maybe there would be a room in La Crosse? At 2am we arrived. At the second hotel we checked, the girl at the counter was very helpful. "If you go south on I-90 about fifty miles, I think they might have vacancies. I've called everyone here and there aren't any." I told her we'd just sleep in the car and asked if she knew of a safe place to do so. "Well, you can park here if you can find an open spot." Grateful for the permission, I went out and told DH the bad news.

DH managed to sleep a little in the back seat. I don't think I slept at all. Every time I thought I might be comfortable, my nerves would warn me that they were being pinched (I have a hereditary nerve thing, if pressured too much, they go to sleep for days-weeks) or a draft would find its way under DH's jacket, which I was using for warmth. It was a great opportunity to pray, but I think I spent most of my time asking God to help me sleep... not too profitable.

Finally, at about 6am we decided drive back toward Prairie du Chien in hopes of seeing a sunrise over the Mississippi. It was drizzly and the clouds merely lightened as we drove, so we stopped at several historic notes along the way and drove up to an overlook to see the view. It was beautiful, despite the clouds.


We drove over the bridge to Iowa and saw an eagle perched in a tree, delighting DH. He snapped a shot just as it decided to fly away.
After a buffet breakfast and some coffee, we got cleaned up and explored the area till the Design Homes open-time at eleven. We spent three hours examining their displays and narrowed our options down to two. If we find a reasonable plot of land, we will seriously consider buying this house, modifying the kitchen and dining room (see photo of alternate layout below) and moving the basement stairs to a better location.

The second house is a cape cod and we would have to complete the upstairs as it is shipped with a completely unfinished interior (because of the roofline and complicated shipping reasons or something).

The drive home was occupied with trying to stay awake. I went straight to bed, and DH waited up for the kids, who had gone to evening church with the in-laws. I woke up about midnight with what I think is DH's stomach flu from last week. *sigh* I did sleep for most of the night in spite of it, and am still hoping it was just too much fast-food.

And that's our little adventure.

More bento

I'm going to have to stop posting these here. Hmmm... Maybe I'll put them on my accountability forum... or just post them once a week. LOL One salad and sandwich and one box of snacks, including peanut butter and apple.

My first bento

Bento is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. It can be very elaborate and aesthetically pleasing and it is considered an essential skill of a Japanese housewife to be able to prepare an appealing boxed lunch. Of course, like anything, we Americans massacre the concept, however, I shall call this a bento because I like the word better than lunchbox.
Above: An unpeeled carrot with the ends cut off, then sliced in half (the health is in the peel, apparently). Radishes, green pepper slices, tomato-basil chips, nuts, an individual serving of pears, a mini-box of raisins, wheat crackers with cheese in the green container, a beef sandwich and two caramel rice bites.

Below: Chef's Salad with low fat dressing in a snack bag. I think I'll buy those little jewelry zip bags at the craft store for this. They are a better size. There's no way I'm going to get around to washing the nifty containers sold for bento sauces, so I'm aiming for less-dangerous and disposable...yeah.

This is breakfast, lunch, and snack, which is why two boxes. I told DH not to get used to this yet because it's a lot of work (and he needs to remember to bring back the boxes...) but I hope making this into "art" instead of a "chore" will benefit his health and his appetite.

Thanks to my cousin, Hanna, for the visual inspiration in Friday Five.

A new day

It's been a while since I've been up at dawn, partially because I like sleeping and partially because it's been summer and dawn was really early. Sunrise is gorgeous.

I love the gradual coloration of the world. Outside a wild rabbit skips carefully across the lawn, head up to every chance movement. Above, the shape and color of the trees is emerging from black lace against the sky. Striking pink clouds mist against the brightening blue.

Today I go to AWANA leaders' conference for the day. I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but it's sure to be interesting.

May the greatness of God's creation illustrate His glory to you all today.

Sweet Memories

I just called Aunt Mabel after years and YEARS of neglecting to do so. When the general email went out with her new phone number, my first thought was to post it at our forum so everyone else could call her... so I called for permission. Well, she was so delighted!

She was my dorm-mom during my youngest years, and I know I must have given her a fair share of grey hair, seeing as how I was less responsible then than I am now. (Poor lady. 'Tis a wonder she survived.) She's sweet and strong. I remember spending a lot of time with her at school while growing up. She kept the costume department, doing a lot of sewing and general maintenance. I used to go in and play dressup while she worked. My memories of her are of the still-afternoons-with-dust-motes-floating-on-beams-of-sunlight type.

She taught me piano once, though I'm afraid I wasn't very dedicated at the time and have only improved a little since. However, I loved choir and learned a lot about singing from her. Those were good times... "Turkey Land, gobble, gobble, gobble, Turkey Land!" *laugh* There were many good old songs. It's been so long since I've sung them; I'll have to remedy the situation and share them with the kids.

I learned to hate gardening as much as she loved it because it was my job to pull the weeds and I'm not a bug and mud person. But I was always amazed at the beauty of her compositions all through the school property. She could do with plants what artists do with brushes. I did learn to enjoy water-rainbows while watering the patio garden, though, so 'twas not all bad.

Many, many of my best memories of childhood include her. I hope it works out to visit soon, because she's just across the water! Lovely. It's nice to think of her there, so close as the bird flies.

Siwy Wabbit!

Smudgikins has figured out stairs. Earlier he snuck up when my back was turned, but I saw him halfway up and followed to see what he would do. He hopped into my bedroom and was looking around, but the minute he realised I was there, he scampered back down the stairs as if he knew he was bending the rules. LOL Then he waited for me at the bottom to apologise.

Of course, that didn't prevent Smudgy from sneaking up again later...

I went looking and didn't find him right away, so I called downstairs to see if DH had found him. At the sound of my voice, Smudge came charging out of my room, behind me. LOL He headed for the stairs again, but I guess rabbits understand that laughing means what they're doing is ok, because he made a detour through the girls' room this time.

Ah, pets... So entertaining.

An Almost-Birthday Almost-Surprise

DH got lost on his way to pick it up, so I found out about my surprise when he asked me to look up directions. He's on his way home with my Baker's Square custard pie.... mmmm! How sweet is that! This is my favorite pie ever, and it's very hard to find, especially when Baker's Square is in another town!