Wednesday, May 30, 2007

SCHOOL!!!

Remember when you were a little kid, and the first day of school came ... you were so excited!!! Oh, and how about all of us homeschool moms ... the minute we crack open that new curriculum, we breath in that "new" school year smell - better than new car smell.

My first day of college - in 8 years - was yesterday. Funny, I didn't get that childhood rush, or that palpitation from the new book smell - even at $300 - those books just didn't do it for me.

Why you ask???

FEAR ... FEAR that I couldn't do it. FEAR that I can't keep up. FEAR that I am too old (oh, yes hubby would SO smack me for that one). But still they are my fears and all very real!!

So, here it begins ... my journey back to college.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Attention Computer Friends

If you ever find yourself networking computers, especially ones that run Vista and XP, together along with printers and routers and other such non-sense ... do yourself a BIG favor, do a search and find Network Magic. Download it, and install it on your computers. SOOO much easier!!!

After tearfully trying to re-install, re-configure, and all the other gymnastics that I tried to perform getting the computers to come together ... I downloaded Network Magic, and in about 2 minutes I had everything connected!! I went and took a shower ... it was too much for me!! ROFL!!!

So now I have happy children on computers doing lessons ... and mom ... not stressing out!!!

Now if I could just learn to look for the grace of doing these types of things where I don't stress out and then look for the answers. Why is it I won't let Rooster put anything together until I read the directions, but yet I tried to do this yesterday without research!! DUH DUH DUH me!!!

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

All the Curriculum in It's Place

Well, I went to bed last night thinking, and praying about this disorganization. I joined a new group yesterday. It is based on the workbook by Cynthia Hancox. It is called Goodbye Chaos, Hello Peace. I already like the sound of it. Her demeanor has given me such a feeling of peace and tranquility!! I have barely started reading my first few pages, and I have a can do spirit. It is still hard to believe the work she has poured into this first unit and isn't charging a dime for it.

And not only has this given me the spirit to organize my home and get it under control, but it has shown me where I need to seriously dedicate my efforts to my other endeavors.

I train Border Collies to herd. Shamefully, since our two pups died, I have not worked with my best friend not one time. And I know he is SO FRUSTRATED!! Yes, he loves to come in the house and be with me, but he also needs to be outside, running, jumping, herding, fetching, and doing the Border Collie Hustle!! Right now he is curled up around my feet as I sit here blogging. His love for me is so evident ... so, I ask myself "what have you done for him lately?"

I am trying to lose about 45 - 50 pounds. It is so hard to not get discouraged. I was down 10 pounds last week, but this week since I have increased my work out I have gained 5 pounds back. I am riding my bike 8 miles a day (at 20 mph), and am doing abdominal workouts with the new Bender Ball. Today, I could barely bend over my abdominal muscles hurt so bad. I have had to stop and stretch several times today. BUT, I can tell a difference in my waist line already, under my ribs there is an indention instead of another lovely jiggly roll. ((SIGH)) Glad my hubby loves me!! Otherwise these love handles would be soooo depressing!! BUT, there again I am not going to allow those five pounds to deter me from my task at hand. I am going to work out everyday whether I lose ONE POUND or ONE OUNCE. THAT's it ... no getting out of it!!


Now for today mission of "In It's Place", all of the curriculum that I have been so carefully sorting by subject, publisher, method, etc. has finally been laid to rest in the filing cabinet. My shelves have been sorted also, so that our school books have a shelf instead of being moved from spot in the floor, to spot on the table, to spot on the chair, to ... well, you get the idea. And I found a place for all of our reference materials that we use frequently in our classes. There was also room for each one of the children's notebooks that are used daily. So, there notebooks have a home now too. I have two more tables that need to be cleaned off, but I am taking them one day at a time, one step at a time. BIG plus to all of this, I separated out our financials from the curriculum when I finally was able to get all the curriculum filed away in the new filing cabinet. Plus all of the boxes that Roo has so graciously hauled home from the office have given me a place to neatly store our notebooks until more shelves are built, the children's drawings & loose papers, and other misc. filing that we don't have drawer space for right now.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Organization - A Place for Everything

A Place for Everything ... hmmmm ... Okay so everything needs to have a home of it's own.

Let's me think ... let's start in the kitchen because it is probably the most organized.

What needs a home:
bags of pasta that slide off of the shelves
bread that gets lost on top of the deep freeze
sack of pecans
cooking utensils
cleaning supplies under the sink
cleaning tools
gallon jugs when not filled with tea and fruit drinks
medicines on top of the refrigerator

Solution:
see thru containers for pasta set them on the pantry shelves
checked the sack of pecans and chunked them
cleaning tools need a rack on the South wall
cleaning supplies under the sink in a tote bucket with handle, gallon jugs in larger tote
install shelf in big cabinet on north wall for gallon jugs on top and sodas, unopened juices and coffee on bottom
meds on top of refrigerator need their own tote/first aid station
bread needs a bread box/extra loves go into the freezer
rearrange freezers - upright deep freeze: meats, chest deep freeze: veggies, refrigerator freezer: bread & ice
shelves on north wall that are deep enough to sit my crock pots on, along with my mixing bowls, measuring cups, and maybe my pretty baking dishes that belonged to my mother

This is more entailed than I believed ... so I will work on another room tomorrow. If I am going to do this ... I need to follow Colossians 3:23 - And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, nowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward fo the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. I need to work for my family as though I am working for God. If my work is done in honor of Christ, maybe organizing my house will bring an eternal reward. Ah, to dream of a home in heaven that is self cleaning ... tee hee!!

Monday, May 14, 2007

Organization of the Disorganized

Disorganization ... THAT is what my mother should have named me. It would have been much easier, much more REALISTIC instead of naming her little girl Jessica Jean ...

SIGH

Oh, well, here goes! As I quipped this morning on a homeschooling list that I belong to, "I really need to lapbook Flylady and my routines!" Well, honestly, instead of a lapbook, I need a poster. I have seen a calendar at Office Depot that was a Post-It Note on a pretty colorful calendar. http://www.3m.com/us/office/postit/products/prod_notes_sn.html LOL, I need something where I can SEE what I need to do, physically check it off, and NOT have to make this list again or have it stuffed away in a notebook somewhere. That notebook while VERY useful for keeping track of all seven of us at home, is a problem when it comes to cleaning house. WHY??? I don't know ... please don't ask me, I've asked myself this question over and over ad nauseum!!

THEN, I get an article in the e-mail from Maria Gracia. The 7 Habits of VERY Organized People the VERY was my emphasis ... it is the way the article made me feel. This is it ... these are the very organized, they can do it ... you can't. And as I look around at my piles, I see that I can't. So, here goes ... starting in the morning (since today is GONE). I am going to tackle ONE habit a day. And as each day progresses I will add a habit. Now, I am not saying that I am going to adopt this habit immediately, but with each passing day I am going to blog my game plan as to how to implement these HABITS in my life. I figure one a day and I'll have a plan by next week. ROFL ... I may be stretching it ... but hey MIRACLES have been known to happen.

So, now as to why my blog is SO LACKING ... I clicked the feature to EMAIL my blog in and guess what ... I am the dufus that put the wrong address in the box. So there ... I am the goob, the dufus, the gizmo ... it has been written on the internet. Confessions of a disorganized woman!

Happy Mother's Day & Happy Anniversary

Not only is today Mother's Day, but it is also my grandparent's 62nd Anniversary.

... My Rooster called me from work about 5:30 am asking if I needed anything, I sleepily told him that all I needed was some ice ... I don't think I was interested in talking and I am usually not like that. ((Giggles)) I had a very short, very mule-like bed partner that couldn't get comfy. So, I didn't sleep really well. Back to sleep I quickly went after hanging up with Rooster. Then, around 7:30 am my neighbor called to check on my kiddoes, since they have all been sick. Okay, two hours more nappy for mommy made her a bit more responsive to the outside world. So, I chatted with my neighbor while I made a pot of coffee. By this time I have little children creeping out of their beddy-byes.





G. Wolfie is still in bed however. This virus has hit him the worst this time. I don't know ... poor little guy, he is just BLAH!! I just hate when they get sick!! Well, of course Miss Hollywood-Georgia Peach-Baby Girl is still in bed too ... she is so cute in her new shades that I purchased for her yesterday on girl's day in town. The girls and I went to town all by ourselves, pretty scary for three girls that usually have an escort of at least three, usually four farm boys. ((WINK)) They are definitely the protectors of the milk maidens of the Rocker A Bar J. I went to get my nails done, and pick up my reader glasses (blind old bat that I am). Oh, I stayed a little longer and had a pedicure, too. Then, I took the girls over to the jewelry section of Wal-mart and let them pick out some play jewelry. Sarah found them each a butterfly necklace in each of their favorite colors. And I found them a pair of necklaces that had Big Sis on one and Lil Sis on the other one. I so want them to be close!! No rivalries, minimal fights ... I want them to have NOW what Auntie TC and I had to wait many, many years to achieve.

Now, this is CUTE!!! I learned a new little tidbit that I didn't know about my grandparents!! My great-grandfather Bennett bought a cafe when my grandmother (Maw Maw) was a young girl (gasp) ... about 14 years old from what I was understanding maybe younger. She worked for him in the cafe. My grandfather at the ripe old age of 15 to 16 had already dropped out of school. Bless his heart, he had to do something to help support himself, my Great-Granny Wilkerson and his baby brother since his father had passed about 10 years earlier. He would stop in the cafe to flirt with my grandmother and ask her out on Saturday nights. They had met a few years earlier when my grandfather was in the 6th or 7th grade and of course my grandmother was a couple of years behind him, there is about two years difference in their age. They were married a couple of years later in 1945. Sixty-two years ... and they are so awesome still!!

I think it would be so wonderful to be married to my Rooster for that long. Will we make it ... hmmm, probably not because my dear Rooster would be 104 and I would be 89. That's okay ... if he doesn't make 104 and I make 89 ... I'll still have been married to him for 62 years in my heart!! I love him so much and whether or not I show it enough ... I appreciate him from the very bottom of my red painted toes!! The blessing of being privy to such an outstanding sacrifice it takes to make a marriage work and the blessing of being married to a man that WANTS to give his all to make our marriage work ... humbles me and fills me with such love!! I can't wait until he gets home in the morning where I can throw my arms around his neck!!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

A Day in the Life of Little Hands

"Just one day, just one day ... of no messes" that is all that I asked as I SCREAMED at 5 of my precious little gifts from God.

Not a great precursor to Mother’s Day tomorrow now is it? ((sigh))

Well, I know better, really I do … but sometimes at the end of the day … just ONE more mess is too many for me to handle. And a bucket of spilled rotten paint was too much for me to handle. We have had three buckets sitting in our house for about 5 years now … one had red, one had white, and one had a creamy yellow. Well, precious little gift number 9, Sir Hiss-a-lot, tipped over the white paint in the bathroom floor amidst the last pile of dirty clothes, wet towels from their showers and their shoes all because he wanted to play monkey in the zoo to show off for his brother. ((BANGING HEAD ON DESK))

So after I mopped up about 2.5 gallons of white paint that STUNK to the high Heaven and the deepest pits of Hades and listening to Big Lanky Bubba fuss about how bad it stunk, I went to sit quietly in my chair as my babies slunk off to bed. Not a great end to an evening that should have been joyous. I blew it … do you see a common theme running here … Momma blows it quite often. I have no excuse … I have very little patience at times and I just let loose. I don’t think before I scream bloody murder. No wonder my babies didn’t care if they got a good-night kiss or not … who would want a good-night kiss from a grouch like me!! Well, once I made it my chair I picked up a book that my precious baby sister had loaned me and started to read. There is where God comes into the picture … he picked that book right up and proceeded to beat me about the head for being such an evil wretch to my children. I was reading Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul. So, I had been in the habit of just opening the book and reading whatever. As blessings would have it … here is where I opened to …

Little Hands by Judith Peitsch

Thank you Lord for dirty hands
That touch my stove and fridge;
For sticky little fingers that
Try to build a bridge.

For careless hands that go astray
In search of something new;
For hands to hold and show the way
As mothers often do.

For precious little hands in which
Great faith so abounds;
For silly little hands that reach
To touch a mother’s frown.

And thank you for your guiding hand
That leads me to the light;
That lifts me when I stumble
And points me to the right.

As little hands reach out to me
To show them what to do,
I’m steadied, reassured, and loved
As I reach up to you.

OH, Lord how you remind me in oh so subtle ways of what I should be thankful for … so no matter what messes I have to clean up, I will be thankful today, tomorrow, and all the tomorrows that follow that I have little messes (or big messes) that my precious gift’s little hands make. Just another instance to motivate me into being a better mother ...

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Thursday Rants of a Selfish Wife

Call to order! or whatever we need to do to get this meeting started!!

My precious Roo has to go back to work today! I hate that ... almost as much as I hated him having to go back after his vacation last week. Selfish ... you better believe it!! I am extremely selfish when it comes to my love. I don't want to share him with ANYONE!!

Now that I have that little rant and rave off my chest ... I have another for you!!

Last week, we were at the office. One of the ladies that works in the office popped off a comment about my lovie being a PITA. Oh that flew all over me!! I think one of the kids could have thrown a five gallon bucket of liquid pig poo all over me, and it wouldn't have upset me near as much as that did.

Call me old fashioned, but that female doesn't know my hubby nearly well enough to tell me he is a PITA!! IF anyone in this world gets to refer to his uhm, let's say demeanor - IT'S ME!! And I don't refer to him in that type of verbage. In my world, my hubbiness is about a breath away from being able to walk on water. This is the man that works somewhere between 94.5 to 108.5 hours in his seven day stretch - so I can stay at home, raise our children, homeschool, and sit here on my laptop blogging to my friends. Now, do I get a sharp pain in my seat ... every once in a while he surely puts a burr under my saddle, but that is for me to know ... I don't fight and tell. Besides I would be a liar if I said we NEVER get cross. We are two completely different individuals. So, of course we are going to NOT see eye to eye ... but I can tell you this, it isn't very often that we aren't tuned into one another. There may be 15 years difference in us, but there is usually only about 15 seconds difference in our thought process! I can't explain in words, even though I try, how much I love my husband. He is so precious to me.

And I, sure as the sun rises, do not tell anyone who will listen that my hubby is a pain!! That is just rude!!

Well, little boy is better, he is still rather puney though. That is hard for me to watch. I know how my G. Wolfie is - vibrant, active, and full speed ahead life!! I have been so tickled at him today. He and Roo have played musical chairs all day. He knows that it is time for his Poppie to go back to work. He is SO much like his mother in that respect. He abhors his Poppie leaving for work. They are watching tv together right now, "Growing Up Elephant" on Animal Planet. They would own a zoo if they could figure out how to get it done. G. Wolfie told his Poppie that he wants a barn where they can have an elephant ... I'm thinking barn for goats, cows, dogs, cats, chickens, and a horse or two ... he is thinking barn for a safari collection!!! Geesh!!

Okay, I am outta here for the day ... I need to go fix some hamburger meat and potatoes ... we are having tacos for dinner before love leaves!! Until the next time, much love and huggles!!

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Mandatory HPV Shot Swirling in Flames

Oh, listen to the joyous singing coming from Austin !!

YES!!

Texas has spoken quite loud and clear to Governor Perry of the Nanny Squad.

We do not want to be forced to give our daughters an experimental SHOT!!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4787541.html

Sorry, but I have to go hug my girls right now ... I am so tickled!!

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Three Little Pigs on the Road

Okay, so we didn't get up on time!!

But we did make it to Klempke's Sausage Haus to drop off the "little" oinkers.

We left home about the time the sun was coming up. Kids had no more gotten into the truck and they started hollering and howling that they were hungry ... geesh!! Of course, being the evil parents that we are ... we FED THEM Mc Donalds!! HOW DARE WE!! So, as Rooster Love filled up with gas, I took kidlets into the truckstop for a pit stop - yes, I know we JUST left the house 25 miles ago - drinks, sausage pancakes, and hashbrowns. None of which, except for my Diet Dr. Pepper and water were on my WW diet. Thankfully, I have been REALLY good so I was golden. Twelve pounds in nineteen days, I don't be thinking that is too shabby at all. So, anyway, we get food, drinks, fuel, and a pit stop. Oh, and I found my Aggie a huge Aggie mug. So, we finally got on the road while munching on our Mikey D's food. Our path took us from Midland, to Lamesa by way of Patricia, then a trip trop over to Tahoka, Wilson, and then Slaton. Being the ding dong that I am about little places like this I didn't have a clue where we were nor where we were going, nor how close to Lubbock we were actually going to be. DUH ... I could have planned a cool day in Lubbock for us. Oh, well, I'll have to do better next time.

Monday, May 07, 2007

A Tale of Three Little Piggies ...

Yes, family ... and friends that are interested ...

It has come time again to make the trip to the butcher shop!! I didn't think about it before we loaded the pigs up tonight - IN THE DARK BY THE WAY!!! but I should have taken pictures. One of the hogs that we loaded - I SWEAR to you I am NOT LYING - weighed about 500 lbs. I will post when they call me as to the weight. When, that hog stepped up into Mr. Joe's trailer, I just knew the back end of our pick-up was going to sink into the ground. That hog was longer than I am tall I bet!!

So, we finally got them loaded ... it took FOREVER!! Obviously no one had been loaded before and having had rain, the trailer was slippery, Roo was buried up to his gorgeous he-man calves in muck, mud, and goo. You know the kind of stuff that you step off in and it literally SUCKS your leg down into the murky, deep, dark! Then, he took a step and you could hear that sucking noise ... UGH!! I hate that feeling!!! Roo finally had to take the big gate and section off the feeder pen, where they would quit trying to go back to the back to lay down. Of course it was pitch dark by this time. So, we rounded them up in a chute type situation with the big gate to the back, a tall panel to one side, and a short panel to the other side leading into the gate of the trailer. BIG PIG tried to come over short fence once, but Mr. Joe had him under control pretty quick. Roo was still stuck in the mud, holding the big gate panel. And me ... I got to be the fearless, hide behind the trailer gate, gate closer!!

Okay, my Rooster is looking sweepy ... I'm off to beddy bye!!!