perspective

There has been a lot going on lately at Chateau Notes. Life happens. And sometimes it is messy and hard. (we are fine...just normal stuff)

Recently we purchased new floors. Buy buy Bye-bye carpet and hello looks like wood vinyl planks. (Cali Bamboo LVP). I chose Cali because they are a pretty clean product with ultra low VOCs and that is important to me. But what an ordeal!

We spent about two weeks moving as much as we could to our dining room and kitchen..and even our extra bathtub..stack stack stack. It was crazy. But our installer called us dream clients because we did so much of the work for him. :) They ripped out all the old carpet..dust dust dust flying everywhere. GROSS. And they got busy installing our new floors. It took three days. We stayed two nights in a hotel.

And then we came home to a dusty dirty post reno MESS. But I couldn't get the floors looking clean. Major struggle bus. I think I figured out my problem today and used a different cleaner and they seem much prettier today..but its cloudy and dark out and I need a sunny day to know for sure.

But this whole thing along with a few other things going on, had me flaring with my breathing problems and just generally annoyed at life. Sometimes the everyday funk just gets me down, ya know?

I was scrolling and generally feeling sorry for myself when I stumbled upon a video from a local news personality. I knew she had breast cancer just three years ago. And then had a handful of 'state of the art' surgeries to rebuild her chest. Her latest video was announcing that she had metastatic breast cancer.  Her clock is ticking.

Y'all.

I had to stop and pray. And thank God that I feel great and can do things like left heavy furniture and boxes and that I'm dealing with everyday life..and not dealing with mortality.

It's hard to get flustered about smudges on floors when I could be fighting even harder for my life than I currently do.

So today I mopped my floors..again...with a new perspective. And Hope that goes beyond a better floor cleaner. 

Romans 15:13 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (italics mine)

on contentment

A few years back we thought about selling our house. But we never found something we liked. And then I got sick. So yeah..that was that.

Fast forward some years and we are thinking about it again. We need a little more space. Our daughter, while grown, isn't going anywhere. And we could use a tad more space.

I think about what I want style wise and I get overwhelmed. I look at my own house and begin to dream about all the ways I could change it.

But to what?

I started following a lot of home decor instagrammers. It just kinda happened. I followed Layla at The Lettered Cottage forever as a blogger and then followed her on insta. I guess she was the 'gateway drug' to many more decor accounts. But the funny thing is, their houses are all but identical. I'm not saying they are exactly alike, because they certainly aren't. But they have some serious similarities. And then I look around at my house, not looking a lick like any of them.

And I get restless.

My walls aren't gray. My cabinets aren't painted white. I don't have dark hardwood floors. I don't have hardwood floors at all. I don't have white slip covers. I don't have neutral, muted, soothing tones all over my house. And it was really getting to me. I kept thinking about going for 'the fixer upper look'.

But then I remembered what I have been saying for a long time about Fixer Upper...even though I totally adore Chip and Joanna, there is no way I could live in a black and white house. I need more color than a basket of apples or a vase of flowers. That is not a pop of color in my world.

So I am learning to look around my house and be content with I see. To be thankful for our house. It isn't photo ready or all grays and whites. It isn't 'all of the things', at all. But it is us. It has 'friendly yellow'..yes thats the actual color name..walls. And I love them. I have a dark red chenille couch..and I love it. I have simple antiques and things I have collected over time that mean so much to me. I made the curtains in my living areas..deep red with flowers and red, yellow, green and blue checks too. And I love those too.

I am so thankful that I have taken a pause from drooling over all things insta and looked around my own house and realized I don't need gray walls and white cabinets and wood floors and all of the things, for my house to be 'just so'.

It already is. Because it's mine and it was lovingly curated over many years. And I don't plan on changing it anytime soon. And that's good.

Be content today, friends. :)

Ice and snow

I'm sitting here waiting on my leftovers to reheat in the toaster oven. A salmon croquette...or salmon patty..or as we call it, CRABBY PATTY. There goes my 4th grade humor for the day. You're welcome.

We have missed two days of school for ICE. So that was fun. Hubs stayed home the first day but ventured out the second (and did ok..no wreck). And then last night they issued a snow warning. And despite my best efforts to warn the girl that school would probably happen, she set her hopes WAY high that today would be a triple play and we would miss yet another day of school.

It was raining when I woke up way too early to potty. I was all see I told you so.

And then a bit later she got up all excited that it was snowing. But grumpy that school was indeed happening anyway. And I was all see I told you so.

So it was dark and very cold and snowing early this morning. I was also grumpy about having to get out in this awful weather. But I tried to keep it to myself.

And then I needed to run a couple of errands. So I trudged out in the gray skies and wet snow flakes.

But then a funny thing happened. It stopped snowing and the sun came out. I ditched the coat for the rest of my errands and ended up enjoying being out and about...with less grump and a little more spring in my step.

Let's hope spring weather isn't far behind.

snow day

It’s snowing. I think a list is in order today.

1. Hubs had a wreck a few miles from home on the way to work this morning. (he’s fine!)

2. He called to tell me.

3. Calls not long after he leaves the house are NEVER a good sign.

4. But the fact that I was talking to him was a start in knowing that at least HE was ok.

5. It was only a fender bender. But he’s been on the phone all morning getting things in order to get it fixed.

6. He ended up driving the girl to school…and will pick her up when it’s over later this morning.

7. I was supposed to go to the grocery store this morning…but we can make it. I’ve got enough fresh stuff to get us by.

8. I am making a vegan broccoli ‘cheese’ soup for lunch. (for the girl and I..he will likely have a PB&J)  I made it for myself the other day to test out the recipe and it was soo good. Surprisingly. Pinterest is a wonder, that’s all I can say.

9. I’m not a winter girl. I’m ready to start shopping for real estate in Florida for my ‘winter home’. And I guess I can shop for my summer home in Colorado while I’m at it. ; )

10. When I woke up this morning, I checked WeatherBug on my iPod and it said our ‘feels like’ temp was –1. All I could think of was..what the hey??? This is Texas. It’s not supposed to get ‘minus’ anything here.

Dear Winter…I’m done.

paint clothes

The water issue yesterday was short lived. My walls are patched and look perfect. And this morning I went to THE Home Depot with my old paint buckets with the label on them to get more paint.

The guy that’s worked in paint FOREVER wasn’t there so I ended up with a young girl..bless her heart…and she thought Evermore was the color, not part of the Glidden name..as in Glidden Evermore..so she had to remix my paint. Oy. But she got it to be the right color and I came home and started priming and painting.

Glidden can’t recoat for four hours, but Behr is only two. So right now, Behr is my favorite paint ever. : ) Hoping to get all the coats done and furniture back in place by the end of today. *fingers crossed*

It will be nice to have that done. But then I want to do some deep cleaning and dusting. That’s always fun. ; )

something to frame

So I had the cat to the vet yesterday. She is definitely feeling better. They thought about bringing in the clear box with the air tube to just put her in it and gas her to get some blood. But I suggested we try to get blood out of her without the gas. Thankfully she did great. She hissed at the very end…I would hiss too if that’s what I did. Getting stuck with a needle hurts! But it’s done and over, unlike getting gassed. She acts drugged and unhappy for hours afterwards. So it was a win.

And I thought we’d have to wait until today to get the results, like last time. But last time she was looking for more things in her blood and it took longer. So, the vet and I chatted, she with arms crossed relaxing against the counter and me with elbows rested on the cat’s carrier. Within 15 minutes the results were back.

And she said her labs were fairly nearly perfect…something she wishes she could frame. : )

Every bit of her blood except one little part is completely normal. She now doesn’t think she had kidney failure as much as she was sick and it caused her kidneys stress. Her blood rebounded that much!

So for now we will do fluids only twice a week this week and next. Then once a week for two weeks and then blood at that fourth week. She will recheck that one little thing that is still off kilter. Hoping it corrects itself by then. Not sure what will happen if it doesn’t. But for now, she seems to think she is on track for a normal life expectancy again. Strange to hear after having to have the discussion about maybe having her put down just two weeks ago.

So she is happy now. She will be glad to leave those daily vet visits behind. She was out of sorts this morning because I had to lock her up in the office because we are having some dry wall repairs done. We had a slab leak in the summer and they had to cut a hole in two walls. And we have a busy contractor. So today is the day. She has cried a river wanting out of there. I feel sorry for her. She thinks she’s locked up so I can take her to the vet later. I wish I could just tell her it’s ok but it doesn’t work that way with kitties.

And within minutes of the workers arriving this morning, I rinsed out my tea cup and realized we have almost no water coming into the house right now. So I called the city. There is a problem but they aren’t sure what it is yet and not sure how long we will be without water. That’s really made me rethink that “good to the last drop” cup of tea I had this morning. Good times, y’all…good times.

lotsa life

Life feels like it’s been hitting us coming and going the past few weeks. Just about the time the girl got over having her wisdom teeth removed, the hubs walked in the door from work announcing that he had a tooth ache. So I had a couple of weeks more of cooking soft foods and odd meal prep. And nursing somebody else. He ended up taking some days off work because he reacted to one of the antibiotics he was on. Figured that out after he lost a fair bit of his cookies in the Home Depot parking lot…and immediately came back home after thinking he was good enough to go back to work. Uh-huh. But he’s getting better now.  Still has to do the crown and all that jazz. But not in pain anymore.

And the other day I saw something sad on Facebook and thought the name sounded familiar. Sure enough…a couple that we have known (of) through a couple of churches lost a son suddenly in a car accident in Oklahoma. It has just thoroughly saddened our little area. There are ribbons tied to the trees in our neighborhood. As IF I need any help remembering this sweet family in my prayers. I finally watched his memorial online…sobbing through the entire thing. Both parents and the young man’s sisters spoke…very eloquent. Amazing grace of God at work in this family’s life right now. Blessed my heart to watch it and see God at work in them.

And then we figured out we have a slab leak. The plumbers left about 30 minutes ago. And I am feeling overwhelmed. The house is a disaster area! I need to clean EVERYTHING. Sigh….. So I’m blogging instead.

It has just felt like one thing after another for the past few weeks.

I’d like to stop this merry go round and get off please. : )

I’m glad tomorrow is a holiday…happy 4th, y’all! : )

spring break in our rear view mirror

We all survived spring break. It was a pretty low key non-event around here. But we managed to squeeze in a little fun. : )

My girl turned 18. She had a small get together with her besties.

I made cupcakes. And there was no licking involved on my part. For the first time. Ever. And I didn’t eat one either. These aren’t the prettiest cupcakes but they are a recipe of my mom’s that this bunch seems to enjoy. So instead of a bundt cake, I made cupcakes. And I sent the leftovers home with everybody so they weren’t staring at me. Crisis averted. : )

One of the girls made her this pretty bookmark. This girl is a reader herself so it makes me smile that she gave my girl a bookmark for her birthday. It’s very pretty. Good job!

She could use it in Pride and Prejudice. She was having to read that for school. And this sort of book is not her thing really. (even though she finished reading it last night and ended up liking the ending, so it’s all good) But the girls also gave her this…

…which I think is a hoot. The light is awful because the flash is so obnoxious that I shot a lot of pics without it. : / But the book on the left is P&P and the book on the right is P&P and Zombies. Cracked us up! A fun little gift while she was trudging her way through the real thing. : )

They also did some things you can do now that you’re 18 kinda stuff. One of the things they did was a mock-wedding. This is the ‘bouquet’ being tossed. The girls made tissue paper flowers for fun and used these in their ‘wedding’. It was a hoot!

The party was fun. She had a great time getting together with the girls and I had fun planning it and listening to them laugh. : )

Also during spring break, my girl went for her driving test. Well, nerves got the best of her and she drove into a parking lot instead of making a right turn. And got so flustered, she didn’t do well on the rest of the test. She did not pass. (she went again a few days later and passed with flying colors, justsoyaknow) She was crushed and a little embarrassed but handled the situation with grace. I was thankful for her attitude and it was a learning time for her…even though she was disappointed at the time.

We drove to a podunk town near us to order her a class ring. It is one of the things about school she was missing and really wanted one. So we found a company that could make that happen even though she home schools. So that was a fun little outing.

On a funny note…we have had trouble with our potty flapper for ages. I can’t tell you how many we’ve gone through. But his time the hubs came home with something different.

Isn’t it cute? It’s kinda like being at a bed and breakfast every time I flush. Or not. ; )

My garden seems to be taking off. I have baby strawberries.

And the kale is getting bigger. And everything is really doing well and growing. And the squirrels are doing their best to dig it all up. Will be making a fence’y kinda deal pronto!

I had to take the cat to the vet Monday. She had a weird tummy. Come to find out she had lost THREE POUNDS. Gah. So the vet did a bunch of blood work on her and she’s got high thyroid. So we’re doing meds for that. She’s acting better but not eating as much now. I may end up trying to find something herbal for her if she doesn’t start eating soon. She is on antibiotics also which can cause her not to want to eat. The thyroid med doesn’t taste bad and it’s not hard to get it down her. But the antibiotic tastes bitter and she foams at the mouth with every dose. Which is gross, in case you didn’t know. ha. So it will be a long week or so til that’s over. Ugh. Poor kitty. Aaaand in a strange move I still don’t understand, she slug slobber onto my lip last night. Poor me. : p

Well I think that about covers all the major activities of spring break and beyond. Hope you are all doing well, my friends. : )

a chance meeting

A while back during my hiatus here I went on a little trip. I don’t like to fly. I used to but not so much anymore.

But I flew.

I found my seat and waited for the rest of the people to find their seats. I sweet lady sat down next to me. 

I’m so thankful.

Her name is Natalie. (see her comments on this and this post)  Gasp…yes I gave her the url to my blog…first IRL person EVER.  Anyway, we chatted much along the trip. She is recovering from a surgery that has left her arm in a sling and I am recovering as well. So we bonded over our surgeries and struggles to get better.

I gave her gum and offered to help fasten her seatbelt and get things out of her bag.

But she offered up prayer for me on the plane before it landed. Such a treasure. Makes my gum and simple assistance seem like a pretty small gift.  But I know we were both in the right place at the right time. I’m so thankful we had more to bond over than the things going on with our bodies.

So if you’re reading Natalie…thanks for befriending a girl on a plane and being such an encouragement to me during an unsure time.

Hope you are well, sweet new friend.

Hugs and love! : )

Where was I?

With the ten year anniversary of 9-11 there are so many tv specials about it going on. And there have been a few Facebook conversations about it as well.

But the most striking one was a simple question. Where were you when the towers fell? (how did you find out etc)

And for the life of me, I cannot tell you the answer. So the hubs and I discussed it at the dinner table last night. And he doesn’t know how I found out either. Did he call me? I don’t know. Did I see it on the internet? I don’t know.

But watching these images and hearing these stories has been like living it all over again. But the longer I’ve thought about it all, the more I realize that even though I knew it happened and was riveted to the tv and the news the way everybody else was, I am now wondering if I didn’t really take it all in like I thought I did.

And then I remember…this was the time we also found out Landon was a much sicker little boy than we had hoped at that time. I can’t even tell many details about the exact dates on those things either. It was all a blur.

I do remember still going to clinic and still seeing the faces of the parents and the kids…even as we stumbled through life after 9-11 in shock.

But seeing these things on tv and reading new info about the things that happened that day has stirred in me a new grief for people I never knew.

And a sadness for America…who she once was..who she should be.

*Both photos taken by me at Arlington National Cemetery.

it finally broke

It finally broke…the heat wave, that is. We had 60 something days over 100*.

That’s about 60 something too many!

I like summer and I really like warm weather, but that was stifling. We spent much of our summer indoors as it was just plain old sickening to be outside for any length of time.

As I write this, it’s still in the 60’s. We haven’t even SEEN the 60’s in several months….so let me just say Aaaaaaahhh! : )  I’m so thankful that maybe we are over the 100* stuff for the season.

But we really need rain. I am beginning to notice our troubles in the national media…we are having wildfires all over the place. It’s very bad. Several friends know people that have been touched by the fires. And they are still raging out of control.

Anyway, I’m enjoying it being just a little chilly in the house this morning. And the a/c not running continually for hours on end. So this is what quiet feels like. But as nice as this is, we are having wind and we need rain desperately, so please pray for our state.

the jury is out

Today was the day.

I had a date. At the courthouse.

But it wasn’t my idea. I got called to jury duty.

I’ve never been before…that’s one of the perks to having small children. You get off the hook. But now she’s not so little. So much for getting off the hook. : /

I was not thrilled about driving “down town” either. I have never driven down there. Hubs took me around down there a couple of times so I would know my way around the crazy maze of one way streets and hopefully find my way.

I had the choice of a free lot a few miles away, which included hitching a ride on the public bus system. Orrrr, I could pay and park in the parking garage right next door to the courthouse..space permitted. Guess which one I chose!

Best $15 evah! (PTL for a parking place!)

So I got there and walked in and was greeted by airport style bins and metal detectors. Great. The buckle on my shoes went off so I had to go back through and take them off and put them in the bin also.

And walk through security barefooted.

After that, the same helpful guy that told me I would need to remove my shoes, also pointed out that I could get some booties to wear.

You’re a little late with that tidbit, dude.

I found my courtroom and planted myself on the pew in the hallway…along with the rest of humanity. I won’t even go there. And commenced to waiting. And texting. I informed my peeps that I had found the bathroom and been in there twice since I arrived. My daughter texted me back that I get bonus points for that find.

So they were having a good laugh at my expense. Evidently I’m here to entertain and to serve.

At some point the hubs and the daughter ran out of snarky things to say. But it took a while.

And the bailiff (???)…he was wearing a uniform and a gun..but whatever…”the guy” came out and gathered all our jury duty slips and we were told to keep waiting. He also made an under his breath comment about ‘this’ possibly taking a week. Soon he came back out and told us that the case had been settled. I guess that was his idea of “humor” earlier. Well, it was totally lost on us. Not a bit funny. And with that, we were free to go. That is..after we went to the dismissing area. That room is one up from the benches..these were real chairs with padding and everything.

I chose to sign over my ‘pay’ to charity hoping there would be less paperwork and I could get out faster. But alas that wasn’t the case. Oh well, maybe they’ll name a wing after me with that $6 donation!

And with that, I was on my merry way across the street, and up the scary steps to my van to whisk myself back to the ‘burbs!

ants

Called the bug man earlier this week because we have ants in our kitchen. About once every year or couple of years we get the same type in the same place. He comes. And then it’s over.

Yesterday afternoon the girl was eating a snack in  her room when all of the sudden I heard an AAACK sound coming from her room followed by a lot of spitting PPPHHHTT sounds. Come to find out that little snack she’s been stashing on her desk for a little too long ended up with some little teeny buddies.

Ants. So I called the bug man…again…this morning. After I explained what they look like, he paused and asked me if I kept one. He knows I always keep one if it’s something like ants, because he needs to know exactly what they are before he can treat them. So yes, I saved him some.

He thought for a minute and told me they don’t sound like anything he’s ever seen before. He read that there is a new kind just coming into Texas. So now he’s wondering if we’ve got them. Nice.

Leave it to us to be the first!

I also had to ask if it would hurt if she accidentally ate one. Very harmless. Protein.

Good to know. In case ya know, she ever decides to be on Survivor.

irons in the fire

There seems to be a lot of irons in the fire these days. And then throw in a “might” thing, and I’ve just been hopping.

First of all, Friday was crazy. By noon I had a blog post written in my head about how nutty the day had been. But it only went downhill from there and by the end of the day I didn’t even want to think about it, much less write about it. I was just glad it was over.

I was doing a lot of washing so the girl could go to Disciple Now weekend at church. In true Texas style, we knew the weather was fluctuating and she wasn’t sure what she wanted to wear.

And the cat was acting funny. It’s never good when you get a text while you’re at the grocery store telling you that the cat has been doing Toby’s new trick all over the house.  Things can only go down hill from there.

But I got the house cleaned up, killed a bug and got the cat to the vet. She needed some assistance, shall we say. They kept her for a while and then I went to pick her up. She had a little bit of litter on her tail and I thought I’d just wipe it off with a wet paper towel. Well..that would be my bad for assuming without taking stock in the situation.

She needed a bath. Just let that settle in, won’t you. The CAT needed a bath.

I didn’t have any cat shampoo because cats usually take care of this sort of thing on their own. I had some cat wash stuff that you just put on a cloth and rub all over her, but that just wasn’t gonna cut it. So I sat her in some water in the sink. I thought I’d have less chance of losing her in the sink rather than with me hunched over the tub. I’m getting too old for that kinda stuff. She sat there with the offending end parts in the water while we splashed her and cleaned her paws with cat wash. We left her in the bathroom for quite some time hoping she would finish the job and get herself presentable. But I guess she was traumatized. She just sat there on a towel staring at the door.

Finally I let her out of the bathroom and she settled on her spot and got herself prettied up.

I am still giving her wet food with medicine mixed in. We’ve never given wet food. It smells. That is all I have to say about that. I’m still watching her intake and her box to see that she gets all straightened out.

And now for the “might”..we might sell our house. We have to find something we like first, and that is proving to be anything but easy. I’m picky. But I think everybody is. So I am trying to be patient. I’m not very good at it.

And I’m calling to get prices on a few fixes here. If we do sell, everything will be updated and pretty. And if we don’t sell, WE can enjoy the updates ourselves. This not what I call ‘the fun part’. The fun part is fixing up the new place and the old place selling easily. The selling part doesn’t always happen easily in this market. I’m a little skeert.

And I bought some cat shampoo.

snow 2011

So it’s snowing. I think it started late last night and it’s still snowing late this morning. But at least it’s tapering off.

Let’s hear it for tapering off!

You can see bunny prints in the below pics. This first one was in my front yard. When I was taking the picture, I was noticing that the sidewalk is gone. And then when I looked at it later, I noticed the tracks.

Here’s a close up of some tracks. They were fresh and easy to see, but by the time I grabbed my camera, they’d been snowed on. Not quite as clear now. : ( 

There’s nature out there!

Snow days are fun. Don’t get me wrong. I love how pretty it is. I’ve enjoyed chatting way too much on Facebook. And seeing everybody’s pictures of this crazy weather.

But I am very ready for sunny skies and warmer weather.

And regular programming on tv.

another ice day

We’re still iced in. It’s 13 degrees. And it’s supposed to snow tomorrow.

Yay. (not really)

Hubs went to work yesterday. Someone almost slid into him about a block from the house. And then the rest of his trip in was uneventful. It took him an hour and a half to get home last night. And then it took almost a dozen tries to get up the driveway.

I’m making a mental list of all the things I’d like him to pick up from the store on his way home from work tonight. It may get above freezing on SATURDAY.

**********

All of this snow and ice has made me remember some of the fun ice/snow stuff we’ve done through the years. One year we put Miss Boo in a laundry basket and let her slide down the driveway. She loved it until it fell over at the bottom. And then she didn’t want to do that anymore.

She cried.

We laughed.

Parents of the year.

We’ve been threatening to send her down the driveway again, what with all the ice we’ve got.

She remembers and doesn’t really want to do that. But she doesn’t fit in a laundry basket anymore, so she thinks she’s safe.

Ya know, she might fit in the recycle bin. : )

in weather news today…

Remember when I said it sure was cold.

Well, I was only funnin’ then.

Because it’s REALLY cold now.

Like setting records.

We had rain, sleet, ice and snow within just a few hours. The schools are out today for the second day.

And today we are starting to have rolling power outages.

Yay.

I’ve already told the girl to hop in bed and cover up if the power goes off, because even though the power company says 15 minutes, it’s likely to be longer.

She and I are both sick with a sniffy, scratchy, viral something or other.

She’s a little bummed that “snow day” doesn’t have the same happy ring to it these days (since she does school online at home now).

But it’s too cold to go out or do anything anyway.

As in 14 degrees. And they were talking wind chills of 0 last night.

We left all the water dripping in the house last night and the cupboard door open under the sink since that’s an outside wall. So no problems there this morning.

But the water in the door of the frig isn’t working and I don’t know why.

I’m skeert.

more bling, Walmart and a busy week

So I’m supposed to be working on the grocery list so I can get in and out of Wallyworld early tomorrow and be done with it.

But I’m here.

Sometimes I just don’t want to think about what we’re going to eat. And on a week that celebrates the turkey it’s kind of hard for me to decide what I should make.

Cuz I cook with chicken and turkey every day.

But I don’t make cranberry salad and pumpkin pie every day. Looking forward to those.

There is just so much on my heart today. I just feel so full. But it’s a holiday week and I know you girls just aren’t going to be around as much. And I know it’s the stuff that can take it out of me..not grief stuff..God stuff. Perhaps I’ll write and wait to post. Perhaps I’ll just go for it. Or perhaps it won’t happen.

This week will be busy, even though we aren’t doing school. Well, we aren’t doing the academics. We’re doing PE. That gets us one more week closer to being done with it. On this schedule, we will be done with PE when we break for Christmas. We’re loving that.

I made a birthday present to send to someone I love. Look familiar?

I made mine and wore it out shopping yesterday and got so many compliments on it that I knew I needed to make one as a gift (so I ran out late yesterday, bought the stuff and made it so I can drop it in the mail tomorrow morning). I look at it and can’t believe I’m wearing something so cool.

And I made it.

Well, I guess I’d better get back to the grocery list. It’s not going to make itself. What are you up to this week?

week one recap and an observation

This is pretty much just a recap of week one of home school and an unrelated observation.

Let’s start with the observation. I was out the other day and saw a man driving a very big (Cadillac?) convertible with HORNS on the front of it. I know some people think evvverybody in Texas drives those, but let me set you straight. Ummm, no. This might be the first time I’ve seen one and I’m pretty sure J.R. Ewing wasn’t behind the wheel.

Well, we have completed one week of home schooling. And I’m here to tell ya…

• Seems a bit odd to watch Paula Deen dish out the butter and fat whilst walking on the treadmill. (We do gym work 3 days a week and the other 2 days are weight/floor work we can complete at home)
• Spanish class is interesting via computer.
• I am not near as tech savvy as my husband…and the ENTIRE younger generation.
• Did you know you can say all the vowels in Spanish??? Here, let me show you! Say “Pepe, taco, burrito”. There! You’ve just said all the vowels correctly. Spanish should be a breeze from here, right? RIGHT??? : )
• I don’t think Rosetta Stone is interested in her looking at the picture of the waving man and saying “he’s hot” after saying “hola” into the microphone. I overheard that little jewel as I walked past her room as she played around on RS earlier this week.

But overall, we had a good week. We are still learning the ropes, as they say. This week was a lot of procedures and learning the tech with a little learning thrown in. Next week we’ll be hitting the real stuff harder. I hope we can remember everything we learned this week about zips, downloads, mp3s and a million other little details. hold me.

I’m flying!

OMG(osh)! I can’t believe all the researching, planning and ordering of the books is over and we are down to the wire.

Tomorrow is the first day of school.

This is our first home school type experience. I’ve always sent her off to school in new clothes and a full lunchbox. But this is different. And it feels different. I bought a few spiral notebooks for her to jot down little notes. And a big container of mechanical pencils, which are a fave around here too. And that’s about it.

We’ve been joking that she can go to school in her pajamas! Just kidding though. She’ll have to get her act together a little bit to visit the gym several days of the week. Until January. And then she can go to school in her pajamas! : )

I’ve been thinking a lot about all my routines and how things will change with this new school set up. One thing I realized is that I won’t have uninterrupted days alone to ‘get things done’. And one of the easiest things to get behind on is housework!

So!

I was chatting with a friend the other day and she had nice things to say about Flylady’s system. During our discussion, I figured out that I was already doing some things “the Flylady way”. That made me happy. But I could still see a thing or two that would make cleaning easier.

My bathroom counters are always a mess.

Ooops..pardon the kitty. Flylady can’t help me with that. But you get the idea...mess-y! And it takes time to clean everything off and move it all around to clean. So I got an idea.

I put all my bottles and containers in another container, so I can move ONE thing instead of a zillion little things! I’ll let you know how it works out for me. I plan to do my counters the Flylady way and wipe them down daily so they don’t get dirty. Should be much faster that way.

Isn’t it pretty?

I’ll let you know how it goes!