Well, not exactly alone. I still have 2 children and a dog at home, but Husband is gone. He had to go to Texas for work this week. I miss him already.
I know this is going to sound ridiculous... but it's stormy outside and I wish Husband were here to protect me. I really am not afraid of storms... in fact I actually enjoy them most of the time. What I don't like is when I have to be the brave one in the house. Say, if lightening hits the house next door to us (not likely, I realize) I don't want to have to be the only one to be brave and calm and round up the kids and the dog and all of the stuff you have to grab along with the kids and the dog after lightening hits the house next door to you and catches on fire. Do I sound nuts, yet?
When Husband was deployed I just about scared myself sick (literally) one night. Son was still very little and I was boiling his bottle parts and pacifiers (lovingly called "pluggies" in our house) after he went to bed. Well, I hopped on the computer upstairs in the office to do something and completely forgot that I had things boiling on the stove. I forgot until 11:00pm and the whole building fire alarm started going off. After I went downstairs to be sure that it wasn't me setting off the fire alarm late at night in the dead of winter when it was- honestly- 5 degrees outside, I realized that it was my kitchen on fire. The pot that I was boiling everything in had boiled completely dry and not just melted all of the rubber and plastic things in the pot, but literally set them on fire. I couldn't get the fire out by throwing a lid on the pot, so I ran upstairs to grab the baby and the dog (and all the stuff you have to grab along with the baby and the dog) and ran outside until the fire department came (from directly across the parking lot). Luckily, I was blessed to have a wonderful and calm neighbor who put the fire out with baking soda while I was outside completely freaked out. Thank you Olivia's Mommy!! After the fire department traipsed through the house leaving melted snow and black marks all over the first floor of the house (including on the walls- explain that!) things settled down a bit. I don't think I slept at all that night though!
Now you know why I like for husband to be here during a storm. Doesn't make a lick of sense, but welcome to my life!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
From Bunnies To Jack-A-Lopes
OK- I admit it. At times I can be a bit high-strung. Sometimes even a bit, how do I say this delicately?- anal. (Alright not so delicate, but truthful.) I also struggle a bit with perfectionism. I certainly don't expect other people to be perfect, but I tend to hold myself to a different standard. I can't remember if I have always been like this or if it is something that has developed as I have grown-up. Maybe it started when Husband deployed and I was the only mobile person in the house? (Son was 5 months old when Husband left... just a baby lump- though a very cute baby lump.) When you are the only one to "blame" when something isn't where it should be, it makes you pretty motivated to put things where they belong! At least that has been my experience.
Where was I going with this?
Oh yeah... high-strung. I have been pretty much on the high-strung side for the last... 2.5 months? We had a rather unexpected death in the family at the end of March that really seemed to throw me for a loop. I don't think that I have really been able to get my bearings back since then. My house has suffered the most, I think. I can't seem to keep up with the laundry, there always seems to be clutter out on the counters (not in the clutter basket where it belongs!!), we have progressed from just having dust bunnies to having dust jack-a-lopes. My whole cleaning schedule has really been off. Well, I lost it yesterday. The kiddos both went to hourly care on post and I got more done in the 3 hours while they were there than I have in the last 3 weeks. I attacked the house with a vengeance. I potted plants, I dusted, I cleared clutter from counters, I scrubbed bathrooms, I cleaned the stove, I cleaned floors (though not the garage floor, because Husband did that for me on Tuesday!!), I washed walls and baseboards, I finally got the house back into the condition that it belongs. And then my children came home.
For someone who doesn't like messes, and who truly doesn't function well in a messy environment, children can be a challenge. There's a part of me that wants my children to just sit on the couch and look pretty all day, that way they won't make a mess. But that's not what children are for. I have been blessed with 2 healthy, active children that really like to make messes, as children should. It's just finding that happy medium for me that sometimes causes a true internal struggle. Someone once told me to remember that the house "needs to be clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be happy". Maybe if I had that painted on a wall somewhere in the house it would be easier for me to remember.
Where was I going with this?
Oh yeah... high-strung. I have been pretty much on the high-strung side for the last... 2.5 months? We had a rather unexpected death in the family at the end of March that really seemed to throw me for a loop. I don't think that I have really been able to get my bearings back since then. My house has suffered the most, I think. I can't seem to keep up with the laundry, there always seems to be clutter out on the counters (not in the clutter basket where it belongs!!), we have progressed from just having dust bunnies to having dust jack-a-lopes. My whole cleaning schedule has really been off. Well, I lost it yesterday. The kiddos both went to hourly care on post and I got more done in the 3 hours while they were there than I have in the last 3 weeks. I attacked the house with a vengeance. I potted plants, I dusted, I cleared clutter from counters, I scrubbed bathrooms, I cleaned the stove, I cleaned floors (though not the garage floor, because Husband did that for me on Tuesday!!), I washed walls and baseboards, I finally got the house back into the condition that it belongs. And then my children came home.
For someone who doesn't like messes, and who truly doesn't function well in a messy environment, children can be a challenge. There's a part of me that wants my children to just sit on the couch and look pretty all day, that way they won't make a mess. But that's not what children are for. I have been blessed with 2 healthy, active children that really like to make messes, as children should. It's just finding that happy medium for me that sometimes causes a true internal struggle. Someone once told me to remember that the house "needs to be clean enough to be healthy and messy enough to be happy". Maybe if I had that painted on a wall somewhere in the house it would be easier for me to remember.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Chickens Or A Hedgehog?
We have been inundated by grasshoppers. The new flower bed that I mentioned in a previous post is taking the brunt of it. Each day the lovely hydrangeas that I planted look slightly less lovely than they did the day before. My daisies are beginning to look like they will soon be "pushing up daisies" of their own. I am nearing my whits' end.
I decided that I need to take some drastic measures here- measures other than going out into the backyard and squirting the grasshoppers while yelling at them to GO AWAY and leave my plants alone. I hopped online to see what type of grasshopper remedies I could come up with. (Because there you have the world at your fingertips.) Believe it or not, the most common suggestion I found was to get a chicken. Then there was the guy that suggested getting an hedgehog. A chicken. Or a hedgehog. For my backyard. Where my children and dog go to play. Give me a break.
Upon further research, I came upon a couple of yucky sounding concoctions that may do the trick. Then I remembered that we have a bug man. He is a man who gets bugs to stay away from my house professionally. I am happy to write him a check to make the grasshoppers GO AWAY and leave my plants alone. He will be here on Thursday morning. He might even be able to make them go away without yelling.
I decided that I need to take some drastic measures here- measures other than going out into the backyard and squirting the grasshoppers while yelling at them to GO AWAY and leave my plants alone. I hopped online to see what type of grasshopper remedies I could come up with. (Because there you have the world at your fingertips.) Believe it or not, the most common suggestion I found was to get a chicken. Then there was the guy that suggested getting an hedgehog. A chicken. Or a hedgehog. For my backyard. Where my children and dog go to play. Give me a break.
Upon further research, I came upon a couple of yucky sounding concoctions that may do the trick. Then I remembered that we have a bug man. He is a man who gets bugs to stay away from my house professionally. I am happy to write him a check to make the grasshoppers GO AWAY and leave my plants alone. He will be here on Thursday morning. He might even be able to make them go away without yelling.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Summer In The South
Summer in the south includes lots of sun in the morning, humidity all day and thunderstorms in the late afternoon and evening.
Today was the first BIG thunderstorm we have had this year. The black clouds rolled in very quickly and the thunder started in fast. We lost power a couple of times... not enough to really throw things off, just long enough for us to have to reset the clocks. The thunder literally shook the house. The lightening was close enough at one point that I thought there was a chance of it actually hitting the house (not that I can be at all dramatic or anything). It did hit one of the neighbors fields. The rain was torrential... we actually watched the rain head to our house. It truly is a bizarre thing to see. Of course, I spent 45 minutes watering plants and bushes this afternoon before we got the 1/2 inch of rain. That's OK- we're all about letting God water our lawn for us. In fact, it is not unusual to hear Husband, Son or I saying "Thanks for the water, God!" during a rain shower.
I checked the weather online (which isn't surprising as I check the weather about 5 times a day... maybe I should be a weather girl?!) and we have thunderstorms and rain in the forecast for the next 10 days. We are super excited about that! We desperately need the rain around here... until today we hardly have had any rain for the last month. If we can take some of the rain for the poor folks in the Midwest right now, we'll do all we can!
Today was the first BIG thunderstorm we have had this year. The black clouds rolled in very quickly and the thunder started in fast. We lost power a couple of times... not enough to really throw things off, just long enough for us to have to reset the clocks. The thunder literally shook the house. The lightening was close enough at one point that I thought there was a chance of it actually hitting the house (not that I can be at all dramatic or anything). It did hit one of the neighbors fields. The rain was torrential... we actually watched the rain head to our house. It truly is a bizarre thing to see. Of course, I spent 45 minutes watering plants and bushes this afternoon before we got the 1/2 inch of rain. That's OK- we're all about letting God water our lawn for us. In fact, it is not unusual to hear Husband, Son or I saying "Thanks for the water, God!" during a rain shower.
I checked the weather online (which isn't surprising as I check the weather about 5 times a day... maybe I should be a weather girl?!) and we have thunderstorms and rain in the forecast for the next 10 days. We are super excited about that! We desperately need the rain around here... until today we hardly have had any rain for the last month. If we can take some of the rain for the poor folks in the Midwest right now, we'll do all we can!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!
It is hot here.
We decided that to escape the heat here at home, we would take a trip to the beach for the day. The kids and I went to the store on Wednesday morning and bought all things beach related... beach towels, beach umbrella (really a patio umbrella because Wal-Mart doesn't sell beach umbrellas here), beach floaties, beach pails and shovels, beach whatever else we could think of. We were ready! Only 2.5 more days until we left! (Try to explain to a 3 year old on Wednesday morning that you are loading up on all this fun stuff so that on Saturday you can go to the beach... but you can't play with any of the fun stuff now because Mommy doesn't have anywhere for you to dig with your new shovel and pail except the flower bed that she just spent the better part of a long weekend digging and planting and mulching so that it would look pretty...)
Saturday arrives... we get up and are packed- new beach accoutrements, beach blanket, picnic lunch and more snacks than we know what to do with -and on the road by 9:00am. Only an hour later than we had hoped for, but whatever. We decide mid-drive that we are going to try a beach that we have never been to before, but is very popular not only with fellow South Alabamians, but with people all over the world. Since we have never been to this particular beach we decide that it would be a good idea to stop at the Visitor's Center to see just what we have in store for us (and because I really had to go potty!). After making the necessary first stop, I chat with the nice ladies that are there to give you info about where you should go, what you should see, etc. Only after finding out where the best "family" beach is, how to get there, where to park, yadda, yadda, do they mention that there is a "double red flag" posted for the day. Meaning that the water is closed. Yes, after driving in the car for almost 2 hours with Son asking (for almost 2 hours) if we are at the beach yet, the water is closed. As in, don't get in the water or the horrific riptide will suck you all the way to Cuba.
What the heck are we going to do now?
The nice ladies suggest a few alternatives... all of which we explored and decided against for several reasons:
1- Cost lots of money
2- The water is closed, so everyone else that drove almost 2 hours to go to the beach is trying to find something else to do too.
After all agreeing that so far this trip had not been fun, let's just all complain about it loudly together and get it out of our systems now we decide that we will go to the beach, not get in the water and at least have some lunch and play in the sand for a while. Turns out that was a good decision. The weather was perfect for a day at the beach. We found a great spot to lay everything out and dig in the sand (while eating sandwiches for lunch). We decided to try our luck and get in the water, a little. Neither of the kiddos really wanted to spend much time in the water. Son only wanted to get his calves wet and Daughter really didn't want anything other than her big toe to be wet, so this worked in our favor for the day. (It was nice to know that we wouldn't have to worry about any last-minute trips to Cuba.) The amount of water play was just enough to cool off when we got too hot and just enough to rinse off when we got too sandy.
Roughly 4 hours after arriving at the beach we decide to pack it up and head for home. The trip home was much easier, mainly because we knew which home we were heading to (unlike when we decided to try the "new" beach and just decided that it was "that direction"- not really knowing it was "that direction"). After arriving home we were still hot- it was about 15 degrees hotter at home than at the beach- but we were all so tired and had such a good time that we didn't care how hot we felt.
Chalk one up for another not-so-spur-of-the-moment-change-plans-in-the-middle-of-the-trip kind of family trip.
We decided that to escape the heat here at home, we would take a trip to the beach for the day. The kids and I went to the store on Wednesday morning and bought all things beach related... beach towels, beach umbrella (really a patio umbrella because Wal-Mart doesn't sell beach umbrellas here), beach floaties, beach pails and shovels, beach whatever else we could think of. We were ready! Only 2.5 more days until we left! (Try to explain to a 3 year old on Wednesday morning that you are loading up on all this fun stuff so that on Saturday you can go to the beach... but you can't play with any of the fun stuff now because Mommy doesn't have anywhere for you to dig with your new shovel and pail except the flower bed that she just spent the better part of a long weekend digging and planting and mulching so that it would look pretty...)
Saturday arrives... we get up and are packed- new beach accoutrements, beach blanket, picnic lunch and more snacks than we know what to do with -and on the road by 9:00am. Only an hour later than we had hoped for, but whatever. We decide mid-drive that we are going to try a beach that we have never been to before, but is very popular not only with fellow South Alabamians, but with people all over the world. Since we have never been to this particular beach we decide that it would be a good idea to stop at the Visitor's Center to see just what we have in store for us (and because I really had to go potty!). After making the necessary first stop, I chat with the nice ladies that are there to give you info about where you should go, what you should see, etc. Only after finding out where the best "family" beach is, how to get there, where to park, yadda, yadda, do they mention that there is a "double red flag" posted for the day. Meaning that the water is closed. Yes, after driving in the car for almost 2 hours with Son asking (for almost 2 hours) if we are at the beach yet, the water is closed. As in, don't get in the water or the horrific riptide will suck you all the way to Cuba.
What the heck are we going to do now?
The nice ladies suggest a few alternatives... all of which we explored and decided against for several reasons:
1- Cost lots of money
2- The water is closed, so everyone else that drove almost 2 hours to go to the beach is trying to find something else to do too.
After all agreeing that so far this trip had not been fun, let's just all complain about it loudly together and get it out of our systems now we decide that we will go to the beach, not get in the water and at least have some lunch and play in the sand for a while. Turns out that was a good decision. The weather was perfect for a day at the beach. We found a great spot to lay everything out and dig in the sand (while eating sandwiches for lunch). We decided to try our luck and get in the water, a little. Neither of the kiddos really wanted to spend much time in the water. Son only wanted to get his calves wet and Daughter really didn't want anything other than her big toe to be wet, so this worked in our favor for the day. (It was nice to know that we wouldn't have to worry about any last-minute trips to Cuba.) The amount of water play was just enough to cool off when we got too hot and just enough to rinse off when we got too sandy.
Roughly 4 hours after arriving at the beach we decide to pack it up and head for home. The trip home was much easier, mainly because we knew which home we were heading to (unlike when we decided to try the "new" beach and just decided that it was "that direction"- not really knowing it was "that direction"). After arriving home we were still hot- it was about 15 degrees hotter at home than at the beach- but we were all so tired and had such a good time that we didn't care how hot we felt.
Chalk one up for another not-so-spur-of-the-moment-change-plans-in-the-middle-of-the-trip kind of family trip.
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