The daily grind

There is still an awful lot of stuff going on here. Both of the kids are back in school, only one of which is still here, and it seems I STILL have some house cleaning to do from all of the renovations we have done in the last month. The laundry is finally caught back up and the dishes are getting done every day.

Today, I got the joy of sitting in the doctor's office for three hours with an IV stuck in my arm and had to give them large sums for the privilege. But in a day or two, I will not hurt so much. But it is looking like I will be having surgery on my wrist at some point before the end of the year. Won't that be fun?

And to top everything off, my husband's uncle is in a coma and has hung on almost 48 hours longer than the Hospice folks said he would. So, the black suits and dresses have been dry cleaned and are ready to be packed for a quick trip to Fort Worth any day.

We were given a bag of tomatoes and jalapenos yesterday, so I made salsa and I dried the majority of the peppers. Not really sure what I will do with them. We don't eat a lot of jalapenos, but I am sure I will find some use for them, sooner or later.

I guess it is a good thing that , along with everything else, I have some easy meals either canned or frozen. I do not feel like cooking tonight.

An Era Ends

Things change. It is a simple fact and there is not a darn thing you can do about it. Children grow up, people get old, and pets die. We do not like it, but there is nothing anyone can do about it.

We buried our family pet of 14 years this week. Katie was a Border collie/Miniature collie mix and turned 14 this month, before she quietly laid down and stopped breathing. She had been ill for a while and finally stopped eating. We all knew that the end was near, but that didn't make it any easier to bear. She is buried in her favorite sleeping spot, by the back fence, beside the bench. We will be building a raised flower bed over her resting place so that it will not be disturbed. She was interred with a bag of her favorite Pupperoni's and her favorite blanket was her shroud. She will be greatly missed.

My daughter had her final orchestra concert this week as well. After 7 years of concerts, rehearsals, fundraisers, practice sessions, private lessons, and lost music, my daughter will be packing away her viola. She is convinced that she will still play occasionally, but her life will be filled with new things now, and I doubt she will take the time. Another end of an era.

Graduation is on the 21st of this month. And my daughter will be an Honor Grad with a Beta Club sash. And she will be 18 in a couple of weeks. I am not sure I am ready for her to be grown up. No more groundings for staying out too late or not doing her chores, no more making her go with us to places she has no interest in(like the grocery store), no more telling her that she "can't" do something. If she asks, I will probably give her an answer like always, but if she doesn't ask, I have no authority to tell her to be home by 10, or that she can't go to a concert in Little Rock with her friends. All I can hope is that she heeds the lessons we have taught her and acts in a responsible manner. I have faith in her, she is a good kid. But it is a Mother's job to worry, so I do.

All in all, this week has just sucked. And I feel old.

Home again, home again...

Well, we are back from the Northeast corner of the state not too worse for wear. This was the first time we had been home since Christmas and everyone was more than happy to see us. We couldn't stay anywhere long enough to satisfy so we wound up having short visits with everyone, and no one was happy. So what else is new.

Our oldest didn't get to go with us since she was on her very last school trip, an orchestra contest, in Dallas. They did bring home 2 trophies so that is good. We got to hear about how everyone really missed her presence, which was sad. My sweet little bald-headed baby will be leaving the nest, probably for good, in August, so we will have to get used to making the trip without her. I won't enjoy that.

I got to visit with my dad about various things, like chickens, cows, goats, asparagus, fences, greenhouses, and genealogy. Mostly genealogy.

All in all, it wasn't a bad trip. Everyone mostly got along, and the meals were good. We got to see everyone, at least for a little while, and the visits were mostly pleasant.

Maybe the trip in June will be just as nice.

Experimental Holiday

Well, Thanksgiving is finally over, for which I am truly thankful, and now it is on to thinking about Christmas.

This year, it appears, will be something of an experiment with my husband's family. The annual sniping and bickering was more intense than normal that, in turn, caused a rather explosive response. Feelings were injured and regrettable words were spoken. Fortunately, we were not there to witness the event, so we have been able to distance ourselves from the fray. But it threatened to pull the family apart completely.

My husband's nephew finally had enough. He declared that Christmas would be at his house this year, that he would do the cooking, and that everyone would have a good time, or else. I am so very proud of him for that. He has been the only one willing to take a stand to keep the family from falling apart. The other family members I have talked to since the "announcement" are taking a wait and see approach. They don't think he will be able to pull it off. I, on the other hand, think it is wonderful. And I volunteered to help him with the preparations. Not only because he really has no idea what all it will involve, but he has no clue how to cook. At least not an entire meal for 14 people.

I will do my dead level best to make sure that he has a fair chance to pull this fractured family back together. As much as these folks literally make me crazy, I love them all very much. And all of the constant backbiting and petty remarks should be put behind us.

It gives me hope that maybe the next generation can do something good.

Disasters all around us

We only have another year before my daughter graduates and leaves for college. My son will be starting high school in the fall, but I am thinking that we will be very lucky to last out 1 year here, much less 4 more, so he will probably just be screwed. I hate it, but there it is.

We have been spending the last 6 months preparing for the worst. I have been gathering canning and preserving knowledge, learning to make butter, bread, and smoked, cured meats. I have been cutting our grocery and utility bills, and getting all of us used to making due on less money. Granted, there are still ways that I can cut us back even tighter, but there is no point to doing that until it becomes necessary.

I figured it up back in January that we have to have about $1300 a month to live where we are right this minute. That is with the kids still at home and in school. That pays the house payment, utilities, both phone bills, and a few groceries. Provided gas and groceries don't go up too much. That does not include my medical bills or medicine. I will just have to suck it up. My husband does not want that. That is his big stresser about the whole thing.

Fortunately, both vehicles are paid off, we do not have any credit card bills (paid those off a couple of years ago and cut them up) and we have some of the lowest utility rates in the state thanks to our city owned utility company.

Unfortunately, we live on a postage stamp lot that doesn't have room for a garden big enough to feed us. And with the work situation being what it is, I didn't want to plant everything that I can just for us to have to move before I can harvest any of it. The weather has not been cooperative this year either. It has been very very wet(the local river has been 1.5 feet over cresting 3 times this spring) and we have had 3 or 4 bad tornadoes tearing up the region so far. We have been very lucky in that all of the storms have missed us, but many others have not been so lucky. Just about the entire state is considered a disaster area. The farmers have either not been able to plant or their seeds have rotted in the field.

All in all, a rather bad year.

I am doing everything that I can to protect us in case the worst happens, but I just don't know if it will be enough.

Born too late

I think I am the only person I know who would do just fine without modern technology. I love my clothesline. I enjoy growing my own food, canning, sewing, crocheting, and cooking. We have been living with the windows open for the last 2 months so no heat or air going. I like making bread. I can pluck a chicken and butcher a hog. I can make butter and, sort of, cheese.

I cook with bacon grease and plain flour. My pie crusts are home made. I make my own soap and laundry detergent. My skirts are down to my ankles and my necklines to my collar bone.

I believe in punishing the kids if they smart off to me or someone else, and giving them hugs and telling them how proud I am of them often.

I was just born too late I guess. I should have been living in the hills back during the Depression or something. I don't need a bunch of Madison Avenue execs telling me that I can't be happy without...whatever they are trying to sell. I am perfectly happy with the things I have. I don't need anything else.

I hate Christmas

You know, Christmas really, really sucks. There is nothing quite like knowing that whatever you give someone for Christmas will be exactly what they don't want/like/need. So as a nation, we all flood into the shopping malls and MegaMarts, picking up things only to put them back, in a frantic search for the "perfect" gift.

I have decided that there is no "perfect" gift. Inevitably it will be the wrong color/style/size/ brand, break the first time it is used, or just be something that they cannot possibly use. Last year, I gave my husband a foot massager that he had been eyeballing every time we went into the store. He would rub on it, and exclaim over it, and wish they made it in bed size. I bought the last one in town. I couldn't wait for him to open it. It broke the first day. I was devastated. As a companion to the foot massage, I got him another massager that would fit his office chair that had heat and massage. Very nice for about a week until it too stopped working. It was at that point I decided that I would never buy anything that plugs into a wall as a gift again.

I gave my dad a bat house last year. As weird as it was, he liked it. He then proceeded to build himself about 5 more. It seems that the stranger the gift I give my dad, the more he likes it. At least he is kinda fun to buy for.

My kids, or at least my daughter, stress over what to give as gifts too. They never seem to have enough cash at hand to give the things they want to give. So the gifts always seem a bit lame. I remind them that Christmas isn't about the gifts, it is about the giving. They look at me like I have grown an extra head or something.

This year, my daughter, bless her pea pickin' heart, has decided to do artwork for charity. She has some talent for cartooning so she has been drawing anime' like pictures of her friends for a minimal amount of money. She said that every dime of it will be used to buy necessities for the teen shelter in our town. So far, she has collected $9 and has commissions for about $25 more. Somehow, I think I did good with that kid.

Then, of course, there is the whole Family thing to do. If you want to see just how much I am looking forward to that, see the Thanksgiving post. It will be all that and then some. At least this year we have managed to make a deal with almost all of the family members on both sides to not exchange gifts. Except for the kids. That works for me just fine. There is no reason for all of us to spend money we don't have just so we can swap crap. We had a small problem in that I had already bought a gift for my step-mom. My dad bought it from me to give to her. Problem solved. He got a gift to give her that he didn't have to shop for, and I got to give her something that I know she actually will like, even if it didn't have my name on the "from" tag on the box.

All in all, Christmas just sucks. I would much rather stay home, cook a nice meal for my husband and kids, watch a movie, and relax.