[Insert Lloyd’s empty promise of “I’ll write a post” here.]
Last Friday I was carded. That means I must look 21, right? Then on Saturday I got A Haircut and on Monday Katie told me that it took off 10 years. Ergo, I now look like an 11 year old.
by Lauren 8 Comments
by Lauren 2 Comments
A few days ago Brad mentioned that he’s been waking up in the middle of the night refreshed and ready to do some work, but he goes back to sleep. I happened to find an article that talks about how people in the old-timey days used to sleep in two chunks: four hours or so, then get up and do stuff, then back to sleep until daylight. At first it seemed like they were super-human go-getters, but now I realize that it was just dark.
See, Tuesday night Lloyd was at Bad Movie Night and I was home alone. It started to rain – and actually thunder! – and I lit a candle hoping we’d have a power outage in case the electricity went out.
Well, you light one candle- you gotta light two.
Maybe three.
Maybe four.
… and maybe an oil lamp
Maybe you throw a dish towel over your computer screen until it goes to sleep and it’s nice and dark in the house with just (squeee!) candlelight.
Ahh…. it was very relaxing. There is a website I like where a couple lives in a tiny cabin with no electricity and just light their house with beeswax candles and their fire. I love looking at their house, and it brings me a sense of peace.
I puttered around the kitchen, tidying up and hand-washing a few dishes and feeling very Little House on the Prairie.
Then I started to tidy up the dining room table, but it was too difficult to read if envelopes were junk mail or Important Mail, and it was making my eyes hurt. I went back to the kitchen to do a little more work – like taking a looooooong time to fill the soap dispenser.
Then I was sleepy. Really, really sleepy. I think only ten minutes had elapsed. Zoinks!
Can you imagine living in a house with no bright lights at night?? Good grief! I’d be passed out by 6 every night! No wonder those people got up at midnight to do some work – they’d already had a full night’s sleep. They’d go back to bed after knitting a sweater or whatever? They weren’t over-achievers – they were people who took a long nap after their solid night’s slumber.
And that is something I can get on board with.
by Lauren 8 Comments
Brad talked about taxes and the trouble he had with how long to keep the old records. Last year I did the absolute worst job keeping track of our bills and papers. I didn’t even try to file them or keep them in the same spot – I’d just set them down in one of four areas and would say, “I’ll get to them later”.
Well, tax time is nearly upon us and we’re probably going to have a problem. In past years I’ve recycled an old accordion file from 10 years back or so, but this year I needed two – one for 2011 and one to get it in gear for 2012. I found one from 1996! Zowie – 16 years ago!
It was fun looking through the papers – I found out we used to have a Visa card that I have no memory of owning. We had receipts from stores in Seward that don’t exist anymore: Hinky Dinky (a little grocery story), Pamida (a discount store) and the old little Wal*Mart that used to sell boxes of Kleenex for 62 cents. 62 cents, I tell you!!!
I was at risk of being lost in memories, so I bagged the papers and receipts up and am looking forward to a date with the firepit sometime in the future.
by Lauren 6 Comments
Before we begin, two quick things:
1. My mom gets her biopsy results back today, so I’m praying for her. 2. Today is Christina’s 40th birthday. Happy Birthday!
Well, I never got around to cooking the rest of those Brussels sprouts, but they’re still in the fridge and I have every intention of using them up this week. Last week we were gone, so the ‘new vegetable’ thing didn’t happen, but this week we’re a regular fruit & vegetable stand. Aside from stocking up on canned stuff at Sam’s, we have giant strawberries, grapes, red bell peppers, avocados, apples, bananas, and a jicama.
If you are unfamiliar with jicama (hic-a-ma), this site can tell you more. A friend at work has brought it sliced raw on a veggie tray, and I like it quite a bit. It’s very mild and wonderfully crunchy – the texture of watermelon rind but the flavor of pea pods. I like jicama, the vegetable, but the downside is that it reminds me of Jicama, the cat.
Long ago when we lived in Maryland and had moved to our second apartment, we felt that our lone cat, Cricket, was becoming a little….uh… mean. We figured it was because she was all alone for 11 hours a day, and maybe she needed some company. We went to some shelter place (I am fuzzy on the details because this was 17 years ago) and picked up a very, very shy cat called Jicama.
This was a complete mistake. I had no idea how to socialize cats, and Lloyd’s only information was from his sister’s childhood method, which was to smack the head of the cat who was being mean. We each sat on either end of the sofa, one of us holding Jicama and the other one repeatedly smacking Cricket on the head whenever she growled. (I am laughing as I type this, yet still horrified at how badly we handled the situation. We were dumb kids.) I think I lasted through 20 minutes of the cat-smacking and then burst into tears, insisting that we take Jicama back. The lady at the shelter must have thought we were the biggest flakes to pass through her doors, and she’d be right.
A couple of weeks later I looked up how to introduce new cats to each other and bought Pfennig at a pet store. (You keep them in separate rooms for a few days and slowly let them get used to the idea of each other.) It worked out much better and after a while Cricket took care of the head-smacking all by herself.
Sorry, Jicama. Sorry, Pfennig.
I believe that I have said before that I am not a fan of fabric softener. I have a whole laundry system that I won’t go into again, but it does not involve fabric softener of any kind.
On Mondays when I get the kids’ cots ready, I have a couple of nap bags that I open up to get to their blankets and things and am overwhelmed by the smell of fabric softener. I almost choke as I remove the dryer sheets. I commented to my student teacher that I don’t like fabric softener because then the clothes aren’t really clean – they still have stuff on them.
He looked at me like I was crazy. Being busy with the cots, I couldn’t fully explain my argument. Lucky you – you get to hear it.
Point One: Clothes that are dirty may or may not have a smell. If they have an odor, it probably comes from the unpleasant substance (dirt or sweat) that is on them.
Point Two: If you wash your clothes with a small amount of soap and enough water, it should remove all substances that may cause a smell. Ergo, the clothes should smell like nothing.
Point Three: If you put a substance on the clothes that makes them have a smell after laundering, that substance is Still On The Clothes, even if it makes them have a nice smell. Ergo, they are not ‘clean’.
Point Four: I am not absolutely sure if I am using ‘ergo’ correctly.
You can see my point, yes? See, people only like fabric softeners because the chemicals in them smell like flowers or teddy bears or whatever, so people smell it and think, “Ahhh. It smells so nice, it must be clean!” If the chemicals smelled like burnt onions or skunk, they would smell ‘bad’ and you would say, “Gross. Why does this Downy smell like tacos? I gotta wash this again.” Same thing with a detergent that leaves a smell – you probably haven’t rinsed all the detergent out.
However, I am not saying this to sway you from your decision to use fabric softeners if you so wish, I just want to be right.
I always want to be right – eggo, we have a problem.
The week kind of got away from us, and this weekend there are many things to do. I wonder how many of these will actually get done?
*fix truck (It won’t start)
*haircuts
*laundry (almost done)
*sort 2011 papers
*sort 2012 papers
*menards
*finish book (This one I want to do)
*call parents – I heard from them. Dad is ok! 40% blockage that they will handle with medication, diet and exercise. Thank you, God! Now if you’d pray for my mom who gets her biopsy results back on Monday, that would be wonderful.
*ribbon – for a project at school. meh.
*look up that stuff for school
*Call that lady
UPDATE
* Sleep until 7:30
* Make breakfast
* Wear the hood from your new coat on your head all morning and make Lloyd call you Little Red Riding Hood.
* nap
I’ll cross things off if they get done, but I also reserve the right to update this post with the stuff I actually do.
What are you up to this weekend?