Burning the Candle at Both Ends

Small Successes

#1.  One thing someone might conclude about me in reading many of the posts on this blog is that I am not a very organized person. I have resolved more than once to work on this. It is not so much that I am not organized; it is more that I resist routine. I like to be flexible and be able to be spontaneous should opportunities more interesting than a pile of dirty laundry present themselves. (You can see that after 22 years as a homemaker, I have really honed my excuses!)

My first success for this week involves a way to get all the responsibilities, obligations and commitments I have swirling around in my head and keeping me up at night somehow consolidated into one place.

At the same time, swirling around my head was an idea I've resisted for awhile: a houshold binder... a sort of personal "Bible" where I can keep everything in one place. I finally got it all together yesterday.  I have a section for the wedding; a section for fundraising for World Youth  Day; SAT and college information for Ben; vacation information; a section for lists; daily to-do lists; my weekly calendar; important phone numbers (including the local pizzeria); and household projects. I can change out the sections as our family's needs change. After May 23 I won't be needing a wedding seciton, but I am sure there will be something else; there always is!

I am already sleeping better having accomplished this.

#2. WEDDING UPDATE: I found a dress. Not only that, I found a dress I love.  I found a dress that Dan loves.  This was a huge success. One of my least favorite things is clothes shopping.  I had many offers of help from friends and family wanting to accompany me on the quest.  I figured my first trip to the store I would go it alone, just to see what was out there. I never expected to find the dress of my dreams on my first outing. I never expected it to be quite as "sparkly" as it is either. My dear friend described it as "hippy-dippy". I'm not sure about the hippy part of that description... but some have described me as dippy!   I am very exicted and dare I say I am praying for the same good fortune when shopping for shoes next week? 

Speaking of praying... that is exactly what I did on my way into the store. God knows I don't enjoy clothes shopping and I asked Him to please make this as quick and painless as possible. Boy did He come through!

#3. Last year I remembered to clip all the dead flowers off the lilac bush in front of the house and I think that is why this year it is better than ever!  Lilacs are my all-time favorite flower, ever since I was a small girl playing in our family's yard. I could always be found near the lilac bush in the springtime. I brought a bunch inside and set in on my dresser near the Blessed Mother's statue. At night when I go to sleep, the scent of lilacs is beautiful!

Read the small successes of other bloggers at Faith and Family Live , I think you will find it encouraging.

Have a great day!

  

 

Mother Nature pays a visit

This past Saturday a freakish storm decided to hover over the south shore of Long Island for an incredibly long time; dumping tons of rain and blowing hurricane-like gusts all day and well into the night. We were one of the lucky who were only without lights for several hours. Hannah is sure we lose our lights every time she prays for a blackout! This is the second time that prayer has been answered so there may be something to her theory.

Sunday after Mass we headed over to the Bonny Blue House for bagels and coffee. Not half an hour later, Hannah came down with a stomach virus. YUK! That cut the visit short and kept us in the rest of the day. My apologies to anyone of the lovely Barrett family we may have shared this with!

On Monday my stomach was quite queasy and by the time I was fixing dinner, I could tell I was the next victim. Feeling lousy for the next few hours I finally spent from about 8PM til 11PM wishing the Lord would just come take me out of my misery! Double YUK!  Here I am almost 24 hours since I first felt that twinge and I am still not feeling "right".  On the bright side... I've lost over five pounds literally overnight. Maybe I could bottle this virus... .hmmm.

Anyway, yesterday , in between Hannah's sickness and my own, we did manage to take a walk around our immediate area to assess the damage form Saturday's storm. I got a few shots, and these are just around my immediate block. Our local paper says today that in our town alone there are over 200 trees down. I believe it. A boon for the roofers, gutter repairmen, and landscapers! And miraculously, I have heard of very few injuries, so that is a blessing.

We spent alot of Saturday evening watching this tree over our back fence listing. It finally came to rest on the poor guys shed!

And below is the new view over the fence! I'm gonna miss that tree!

  

Two doors down this is what they suffered, but I think it looks worse than the actual damage.

This oak has the road leading up to my street completely blocked still.

Thankfully, our own damage was limited to shutter and gutter...

        
  
Oh, and this poor little tree out back. Thomas thinks he can re-root it.

       

Overall the last few days haven't been the greatest... storms, sickness, setting those blasted clocks ahead an hour... still recoveirng on all counts, yet at the same time thankful we are all safe and sound and on the mend!

Have a blessed day!

 

 
  
 
  

 

What we've been doing...

Enjoying Ben's Christmas Eve birthday dinner. Every year he chooses twice baked potatoes and meat... this year we slow-roasted yummy ribs in the oven for about five hours. Delicioius! Happy 17th, Ben!

Dan spent a good part of the week in the garage buliding this hope chest for Kate's Christmas gift. It turned out beautiful! I stocked it with some Christmas movies no home should be without; a starter Willow Creek Natvity; a sewing basket; and a book on home organization ( I could use one, myself!)

Not ten minutes after Hannah opened her American Girl doll, she was asking if she could give her a haircut! I realized that it wasn't necessarily the doll's hair that was at issue... she just wanted the same haircut as the doll. So I gave her bangs, just like Ivy's the next day!  Now I need to find a 12-step program for moms who insist on cutting their own kid's hair when they have no idea how to do it!

 OK, so this would have been the family picture on our Christmas card , had we sent Christmas cards this year. A little mix-up with the CVS website where we planned on having them printed  in one hour... one hour became 5-7 business days, and we have yet to get the cards! Good thing there are twelve days of Christmas!

Kate and Matt in front of our tree. Next year they will be posing in front of their first tree as a married couple!

 
 
   

What do you do...

When you spend an entire day gleefully thinking your calendar is clear for the first time in several weeks? Then, on the way home  from a leisurely visit with your friend, you realize your six-year-old should have been at ballet class thirty minutes ago.

Two things:

#1.. Blame the six- year-old for forgetting to remind you that this year dance is on Wednesdays.. not Thursdays!

#2.  Spend the first hour and a half of the next morning cleaning up your desk and updating your appointments on Outlook!

I feel so much better.  I can see my desk once again. It needs dusting.

School Days

Well , I have decided that our first day of school will be September 8th.  A certain dear friend of mine once said it is a nice thing to start the school year on a Marian Feast.  Since I can also make a brithday cake for the Blessed Mother for her birthday on September 8th, it seemed like a good day to start!

For some reason I got it in my head that Thomas and Hannah should come up with a name for our school this year. We've never done this before and I think coming up with a fitting patron saint  or name for our homeschool will help build some  homeschool spirit here in our house.

Here are some of the options we came up with:

St. Thomas Aquinas Homeschool

Holy Family School

Academy of the Guardian Angels

St. Thomas Academy

St. Anne's School

But then Thomas came up with this perfect name and I knew the decision was made:

The Wannabe Holy Family Academy

 I love it! On the first day we are going to design some kind of banner with our school's name.  Maybe t-shirts or caps would be fun to do. I love this title, not just because it is  tongue-in -cheek funny, but also because it is a reminder that we all "wannabe" holy and it is something we will strive for together, as a family, throughout the year. 

Exciting Stuff!

A new door...

 

We have color!!! It's called "cricket" . It is the new Home Depot line of primer and color in one. We were able to go right over sheet rock in just two coats total. Truthfully it looked great after one coat, but the second coat was for touch-ups.

Well, I could wax poetically all afternoon about dimmer switches and outlet covers, but this is probably about all the excitement you can stand for now, so I'll stop there. Tune in one day very soon, when I will post my final picture including, rug, window treatments and shelving. Exciting stuff... don't miss it!

Progress Continues

OK, so we are not quite done with the bedroom yet, but I am learning so much about myself through this project.  First and foremost, I am not as much of a trooper as I used to be! I like need to have four walls surrounding me when I sleep at night! With that in mind, you may understand why I prefer to sleep in a room that looks like this:

 

 

 

rather than in my nice, neat and tidy living room.  With teens coming and going at late hours, I just don't feel comfortable sleeping out in the open on the living room floor!  I realize this may sound snobbish, but that's just what it has come to around here!

Second, I can be a pretty big whiner and nag when I don't have four walls around me when I am sleeping, but I won't get into that again!

FInally, when I do have four walls surrounding me at night, I can be a very forgiving person and stop the whining and nagging, too!

Hope springs eternal... we have chosen paint colors, new bedding and almost have the window treatments nailed down, too. Of course, none of that happens until the spackling and sanding are done! But my perfectionist husband (I say that with nothing but love...he completes me!) promises he's done tonight! Thank goodness for his attention to the details ... it really looks great.

But it's all good, now that I have four walls surrounding me at night!

Bedroom Re-build...update

The clock is ticking and our deadline gets nearer.  The weekend was productive, in spite of some commitments that took us out of the house for much of Saturday and some of Sunday.  Some structural work was completed on Saturday.  Also he made a Home Depot trip so Sunday work could begin early without having to run out for materials.  Windows were installed Sunday early in the morning , then we had to go to the ballet recital. But by Sunday night the lighting fixtures were hung, though not yet wired.  Dan has never installed this type of lighting before, so it is a learning experience for him.  Luckily, the instructions are fairly simple (says Dan) so he is not running into any problems so far. Here are some pictures of the progress.

 

  At this very moment he is wiring the lights (and giving lessons to 16yo on how to do this). I think if he gets the lights functioning tonight that will be it for tonight.  If we were twenty years younger and in our first house, he would probably throw up the insulation tonight as well, but we move at a bit of a slower pace these days.  But back in the day... a whole different story!

Be Careful What You wish For...

As mentioned in a previous post , here is the low-down on my birthday gift:

As he does each year, Dan called from work a few days before my birthday to get some ideas for a gift.  I truly could think of nothing.  There didn't seem to be anything I NEEDED at that moment. Lately my mantra before making any purchase is "Do I really NEED this, or do I just WANT it?" I believe this has saved our family quite a bit of money as it forces me to distinguish between needs and wants. We are blessed to have our needs pretty well taken care of, so it is difficult for me to buy something, just because I want it.

After giving Dan no help whatsoever, I realized that with June being chockful of gift-giving days, perhaps we could combine the occasions into one big gift.  Perhaps that big gift could be a low-cost facelift for our bedroom?  Our room had probably not been touched since the early '80's.  The decor consisted of yellowing pink floral wallpaper; a faded, musty, mauve, shag, wall-to-wall carpet; the original windows; large, dark wood-toned furniture,which overpowers the room; and a ceiling which no longer leaks, but shows evidence of every leak and repair for the last twenty years.  Not pretty. Not a room where parents of six, running a busy household could find an oasis in the midst chaos. Surely peeling off the wallpaper, ripping up the carpet and painting would amount to a weekend project.  I could go shopping for paint and new bedding and curtains while Dan and the kids spruced up.  By Sunday night we would be relaxing in our "new' room! It would be great!

Well, many wives already know this, but after 23 years, I am finally getting it. Most husbands could care less about colors, wallpaper, rugs, and bedding.  As much as the decor irritated me, it really didn't bother Dan at all. Many wives I've spoken to say the same about their spouses.

So for Dan to get really involved in the "facelift", this project has to interest him, as a man.  This means, a significant amount of ripping out, knocking down, and of course lots of power tools! So here is the first stage of our anniversary/Father's Day/ Birthday gift:

 

Added bonus: a bit of father-son bonding. You know men don't magically gain the knowledge of how to install light switches, sheetrock walls, and tape and spackle once they become homeowners. Hopefully they have had a Dad who is willing to share his own knowledge!

I am going to try and post some pictures here and there on the progress.  Our formerly flat, boring ceiling will now have a nice slope, making the room feel more spacious; we have replacement windows ready to install; hi-hat lighting; and if Dan has his way (and after all this work I think he deserves to have his way) there will be some kind of projection television which we will be able to see on the wall where the ceiling drops (right where you can see that duct running).  In 23 years we've never had television in the bedroom, so this will be different.

There is only one constraint on this project... family visitng  from out-of-town starting on July 4th!!!! Talk about a deadline!  This is going to be one busy week!

I better get out and choose that paint and new bedding!  Stay tuned!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

I crack myself up sometimes!