Time Flies

Wow!! Where has this week gone? I cannot believe that it is already Friday! TGIF, I guess. I wish that I could say that the week went by quickly because something fun or eventful happened. Unfortunately, that is not the case. We were just busy.

It was also one of those weeks where the small things are catching up to me. You know, those little bad things that happen sometimes. They just keep piling up and eventually kinda get you down. I have the "Service Engine Soon" light now greeting me when I start my car. It's been there for a few days and I have no idea what is wrong with the car. Just got next year's tuition rates. (I dont' even want to think about that one!) Gas has finally jumped over $3 a gallon by us. Ouch!! Not to mention a couple other financial dings and dents that I don't want to grumble about because I should really be counting my blessings instead of fussing about my perceived hardships.

We had some nasty weather out by us yesterday. Fortunately, it was all far enough away that we didn't get any storm damage and there was only a medium amount of damage for the folks who did get hit. No one was hurt, and that is the main thing. The weather service said that the tornado that hit our village was classified as an EF0. It was a small one with about 65 - 80 mph winds and width of about 5 yards. Nope, that's not a typo. It was just a little baby one that kinda skipped around over about a 10 mile long path. My daughter was at church practicing for their first communion when the storm rolled in. They had to stop and move into the hall to duck and cover, but the mini-twister moved in the other direction and didn't even come anywhere close to the church. All in all, we (and everyone else in our area) were very blessed. It could have been much, much worse. A horrible tornado went through our town in 1991 (an F5) and did incredible amounts of damage and took some lives. Yesterday did remind me that I need to clean out the basement and re-stock it with some emergency supplies for those times when we need to run down there. My parents just bought us a wonderful set of shaker flashlights and a handcrank radio so that I no longer have to worry about keeping fresh batteries in those things. Just shake, crank, and be good to go! :-) Perhaps I'll have to do a post sometime about what else I am going to do to make sure that we are prepared if we have to stay in the basement during nasty weather. Ahhh, spring in the "tornado alley" of our state!

Hope that eveyone has a wonderful weekend! Take care! :-)

And I'm still behind

Alas, it seems that I spent a great deal of our beautiful weekend doing something really silly - enjoying myself and my family. Oh yes, I did get some things accomplished. Mainly because I had to. Our next door neighbors told us on Saturday that they were going to put their home up for sale. I hurried to try to spruce up the front yard so that we would not look like the "scary neighbors". I am very sad that we are losing neighbors in that house again (They've only been here 2 years. The folks who lived there before were wonderful, but the husband got a job transfer.)

I am always nervous when a house around ours goes up on the market. We have been in our home for almost 9 years, and the housing market EXPLODED around us. Lots of folks used their equity to trade up, but we have stayed. I am a creature of habit, and I like knowing who I live by. We have been very blessed with good neighbors in the past. There is a certain comfort in having a history with the people that you live around. When we first moved in, we all shared the experience of building a new home. Many of us had wee little ones, were expecting (like we were), or were just married and looking to start a family. Now, more often than not, we end up being the older and wiser neighbors to the fresh new faces that move in. I guess that I just have to get used to it. Life does go on, ever so quickly.

I have to go and do a weight loss update over by Brandy's Variety Garden Blog. (Listed on my blogroll. I'll add a link in this post later. I need to do a post about her weight loss group, too.) I haven't been doing great, but I did shed a almost 2 pounds. It's a start.

I'm so behind on my to-do list!

The weather here today is finally beautiful! Yea!! The sun is certainly bright, and with all this sunlight I can finally see just how horrible my yard and garden look. :-( So, to give myself some motivation I am going to post my outside to-do list. (I won't even get into my inside list. I am behind on that as well. *Sigh* But at least folks driving past our home can't see the inside. Just as long as they don't ring the doorbell..........)

1. PLANT MY VEGGIES!! I am planting broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas, green onions, spinach, and lettuce for the spring season.

2. Get my strawberry patch back in order. It has a mind of it's own and is now invading the spinach. (If anyone is interested, strawberries and spinach grow well together.)

3. Weed and edge flower and shrub beds. Add more mulch where needed.

4. Trim all bushes, shrubs, trees, and ornamental grasses.

5. Put the rocks back in the rock beds. We have a Siberian Husky who loves to run through my rocks. What a mess!

6. Fill places where the Husky has tried to dig under the fence and plant grass seed. (Yep, the Husky loves to dig out and go for her own walks. It gives me fits.)

7. Powerwash the patio.

8. Touch up any rust on my garden fence.

9. Clean out planters, wash, and refill with fresh soil. Replace planters that silly me left out all winter so that they would crack. (Yes, I really did that. We had a really early frost and cold snap last fall. I just kinda forgot about them until it was too late.)

10. Fix outdoor lanterns so that they are standing up straight again. Add fill under edging blocks that have sunk.

Oh if only that were all that I have to do outside! But this should be enough to keep me very busy this weekend.

Have a great weekend everyone!! :-)

I played "Three Questions!!!"

I don't know if anyone else out there is able to get "Relevant Radio", but the morning show is called "Morning Air" and it is on from 6am - 9am Central time. I always listen to this show in the morning when I drive my kids to school. They have a game on the show called "Three Questions". I called in, was able to get through and won myself a beautiful orange coffee mug. I was actually on the radio. Wow! My fifteen minutes of fame happened today! Maybe someone actually heard me. :-)

Humble Pie tastes icky....

But I am going to serve myself up a slice. Before I type anything else, I am going to scroll down to my post from last Sunday about "A better use of your time" and take my own advice........

Ok, I'm back. :-) There is a blogger who is going through a very scary ordeal right now. I'm not going to link to it because I don't want to exploit her sorrow and because I strongly disagree with most things that she has been posting over the past few months. If you know who I am talking about then you will understand that I became especially angry with her a few weeks ago when she was going on an anti-Catholic rant and she didn't post my comment that said simply "*****, I am sure that you are now aware that your blog has readers that span across many Christian denominations. We may have different religious beliefs, but we all share the desire to be the best wives and mothers that we can be. Perhaps we can all find common ground. I am not asking you to change your beliefs but to simply consider that your attacks of other denominations could hurt some of the very people who read and support your blog." My comment was NEVER posted. Whatever. It made me angry, but I just stopped sending her comments. Why do I still go there if I find her site disturbing? There was a time when I was able to sort through the stuff that I didn't agree with and leave the rest. I guess I keep hoping that she'll head back in that direction. I also have an old friend who goes there and posts. This friend has become an IFB and won't talk to me anymore because I am seriously considering joining the RCIA program in the fall. It's how I check to make sure that she is still ok.

Anyway, this blogger is going through something terrible right now involving one of her children. I have been debating whether or not I should leave her a comment letting her know that she is in my prayers. But a funny thing happened when I was reading through her comment section. I saw the names of people who I know are Catholic (from reading various blogs) who let her know that they are praying for her. (In case you didn't know, this blogger is very hostile toward the Catholic religion. She doesn't consider them Christians and has gone out of her way on several occasions to make folks who tried to defend Catholicism look like horrible people. Now, she won't even let Catholics comment in their own defense because she considers it false doctrine.) I'm not even sure if she or her loyal followers are aware of who they are. I was truly humbled when I read what these kind ladies had to say. (Don't worry, I won't reveal any identities!!)

I'm going to go now, put aside my pettiness, and let her know that I have been praying for her. I am a mother, and I know that a mother's heart bleeds for her children. I pray that she can find peace and strength.

So many beads, so little time.

As I mentioned before, my DDs attend a Cathlic grade school. My oldest daughter belongs to the Rosary Club that is available as an after school activity. I am an "Adult Helper", which simply means that I end up tying about 100 knots in 2 hours. But the kids love this club!! I love it too. The basic idea is this: grades 2 - 8 kids get together for about 2 hours and make missionary Rosaries. This year we are making them for Africa. One year we made them for the tsunami victims. The kids always get to learn about the living conditions, etc. in the country where these Rosaries are being sent. Now, some folks reading this might not understand the Rosary, and that is fine. I am not trying to convert you. I am just always touched at how loving these young club members are. They want to do something kind. They want to give other people something to love and cherish. They love making these gifts with their own hands. I think that "society" today underestimates the empathy and willingness to serve that children posess. They can be good, productive, and joyful. But too often, we hand them things that allow them to serve themselves rather than others.

All those glowing comments being said, one thing about Rosary Club is that the end result is worth everything that we go through to get said end result. We hand the kids beads in little trays and they are supposed to share. Sometimes, they don't share well. Sometimes, they share too much. Such was the case today when one of the girls dumped the whole container of beads over another girls head while trying to pass the beads to someone else. Needless to say, my group spent more time picking up spilled beads than we did actually making Rosaries. Oh well, there is always next week.

For the month of Mary (May) we are going to be making concrete steppings stones so that we can build a walking Rosary in front of our Church. That should be fun! ;-)

Warmth

At last!!! Today it is a beautiful 62 degrees outside. I think that I can finally sneak out to my garden and replant everything that died during our 2 week cold snap. I am trying to grow most of our vegetables for this year for both cost and health reasons. I'll trying to do a longer post later, but right now I hear my garden calling me. :-)

This was in our bulletin today

And I liked it so much that I had to share it. I think that I have a new personal motto.

A Better use of your time.........
Learn to give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you'll have no time for criticism of others.
-Anonymous

Could someone please tell me.....

just when it became acceptable to play "Don't cha" by the PussyCat Dolls at a roller skating party for 7 & 8 year olds? Or even "Sexy Back". Am I just getting old? Ugh!!! And yes, we did complain. :-) Heck hath no fury like a gaggle of Catholic school moms watching our children skate to stuff like that.

The funny part was, the kids had the most fun when they played Crazy Frog so it's not like they had to play the other stuff for the kids.

Rolling Away.....

My 8 yr DD has to go to a birthday party today. At a roller rink. Now, I loved roller skating when I was growing up. Keep in mind that I grew up before roller blades became popular. One of the most popular tunes played at 'the rink' back in my day was "One night in Bankok" or something by Berlin or Bananarama. They played some Metallica, Poison, or Warrant when I was skating in high school. Yep, it's been awhile since I regularly strapped four wheels to each foot and tried to maintain my balance.

Fortunately, my 5 yr DD went to one of these roller parties back in February. I gotta say, on my own I was skating pretty good. I still have it! ;-) Ha Ha!! Helping a wobbly 5 yr old who kept saying "I got it Momma!" (while sounding a bit like Animal from the muppets) was another story. My 8 yr old was also skating rather well. She gets it from me, of course. :-) LOL!! My five year old and I, though, moved ever so slowly around the rink. We were like a moving speed bump. I "roller walked" behind her with my arms outstretched trying to keep the 12 year olds from ramming into the back of her while she insisted that "I'm skating, Mommy!" She's so cute, but her skating style was really more like skate walking while causing the other skaters to have horrendous accidents as they swerved to avoid her. I'm hoping today goes better. She's had some practice. Maybe she can actually allow her wheels to roll this time. I love her spunk!

A quick intro

Now what kind of crazy person goes and starts a blog without a bit of an intro? Yep, you guessed it! I did! I'm the crazy person. I really didn't mean to ignore the intro and remain a woman of mystery. I was actually just going to use my login to be able to leave comments. Some recent events made me want to meet some more bloggers, and then I just decided that maybe I should start my own rather than hijacking other folks comment sections.

But onto a bit about me. I am a stay-at-home mom to my two wonderful little girls. One is 8 and one is 5. I would love to have at least one more child, but only God knows if that is in my future. I am not a homeschooler, although you homeschool gals just leave me in awe! I wish that I could homeschool, but I struggle with Hashimoto's disease (autoimmune hypothyroidism) and my energy is a bit low and my brain is a bit foggy. So, right now my girls attend a private school. Yep, it's financially difficult. I have to stretch that budget! That's why I would love to homeschool someday. It's a goal.

I was raised in the Lutheran faith (Missouri Synod, the much more conservative branch), but my husband is Catholic. I have been feeling a call to become Catholic for some time now, and am seriously considering joining the RCIA program this year. BUT, my blog is open to people of all faiths. I'm not out to convert anyone, and all that I ask is that everyone treats me and other commentors as they would want to be treated. :-) I want to be a happy blog!

As I mentioned before, I was diagnosed with a stage 1a melanoma awhile back. It will be 4 years ago this September. Now don't be sad for me! I am one of the lucky ones. Have you ever longed for that one moment in time where you felt that God really spoke to you? The day that I discovered that strange spot on my calf was that moment. I am lucky because if God hadn't pointed out that spot to me I NEVER would have caught it by myself while it was still in a curable stage. It was smaller than a pencil eraser, but something in my heart let me know that it was not right. I am blessed, and I wake up everyday just happy to be here.

(Maybe I'll post something else on my melanoma story later. It's a bit too long to get into now.)

I love to garden, clean, cook, craft, stretch a dollar, listen to music, and spend time with my family.

These are some of the many topics that I may touch on in my little corner of the internet. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope that I never bore anyone to death. ;-)

A stitch in time

Last Thursday, I had to have a little minor "surgery" to remove an atypical mole on my stomach. (I have already had a small stage 1 melanoma, so they remove any funny looking moles that I have right away. I'll have to put a little post on this later.) Anyway, it was just abnormal cells, no cancer yet. But I did end up with four stitches on my belly. I have had a busy week with Easter and spring cleaning. I have been feeling really good, no pain in the stitches or anything so I just kinda stopped paying attention to them and went about my cleaning frenzy. Imagine my suprise this morning when I looked at my tummy and noticed that 2 out of four stitches had popped!! Yikes!! I've never popped stitches before. My hubby kept warning me not to overdo it, but I just chuckled and kept on going. Guess I should have listened! I don't have to go in to get more stitches, but now I have to be extra careful until I go to get the rest of the stitches out so that I don't stretch the new, thin skin bond that is still healing. When will I learn???? :-)

Links?

If anyone reading this doesn't mind doing me a small favor, could you please click my links and let me know if they work? I just copied and pasted the link from my browser when I set them up. They work for me, but I just wanted to be sure that they work for eveyone else. Thanks! :-)

Let it snow??

Early this morning, I heard the gentle sound of rain hitting the side of our house. Or so I thought. Imagine the look of shock on my face when I opened the blinds later and saw SNOW! And a good amount of it too. I'm not sure how much more of this crazy, icky, unseasonal weather my poor little early spring garden can take. I'm not sure how much more I can take. I want spring..............

Well, at least the dog was happy this morning. She's a Siberian Husky, so this was a dream come true for her.

Comment moderation

Since this blog is relatively new, I haven't turned on comment moderation yet. I am hoping that I never need to. If there are any other bloggers reading this, would you mind letting me know if you find this tool useful or tedious. :-)

Age and Wisdom

I am reluctant to even comment on this issue, but it is something that has been eating at me for the last few days. I'm going to be 34 later this year. And a funny thing happened after I jumped over that magical and dreadred number, the big 3-0. I got a little less eager to spout my knowledge out to whoever would listen. I got a little less sure that I was correct ALL of the time and in all things. I can honestly say that I know more now at 34 than I did at 29. That's just 5 short years, but so much has happened in that time. My knowledge of all things has indeed grown, but that also makes me stop and think of this: I know that I have learned more since I was in my 20s. If this statement is true, then although I know more now at 34 than I did at 29 I am afraid that I know less now than I will at 39. And so on and so on. Does that make sense? It certainly makes me a bit more careful in what I say and do. I certainly don't want to embarass future me. I did that enough in my 20's. :-)

In my 30's, I have been striving to remind myself that humility is one of the best ways to build your knowledge because it helps to keep your mind open. In my 20's, I had something to prove to both myself and other people. I was breaking free! And sometimes hurting people (inadvertently, of course) in the process. In my 30's, I have less of a need to prove to other people that I am correct and more of a need to prove to myself that I am correct. And "Correct" has also taken on a different meaning in my 30's. To me, correct also means "Kind". "Gentle". "Nice". Not just "Right".

Now I actually waver less in my own beliefs, but I am much more likely to let things go when when someone holds a different position than my own. I do admit, though, that I have made some mistakes in this area during the past few days. It is very difficult to see someone younger than yourself writing things that you know are untrue and NOT say something. That certainly does make me feel the gusto of 24 again. :-) But, I am trying to make sure that future 39 year old me can look back at this currently 33 year old version of myself and be proud that I was trying to grow in mind, spirit, and humility.

It's been a long time...........

Wow! Guess it's been quite a long time since I started this blog. I am trying to figure out what direction to take this blog in. Do I want to have it be about my family, religion, current events.......... I just don't know. I guess I'll have to see where my blog takes me. But right now I'm too tired and too full from Easter Dinner.