tidbits and babblings...mostly on the never-ending battle for sanity...

*Never-ending feeling of being behind. On everything. Same old-same old. I get overwhelmed, barrel full-steam ahead in one area to make myself feel better, end up feeling worse because I'm then even farther behind on everything else. I know this is largely a problem within my own head, as opposed to outside of it. Ana put it perfectly yesterday when she said, "...I should know that holding on to 'shoulds' is the bane of my life..." 

*I started thinking about Christmas a couple days ago...and I nearly broke down. I'm already feeling like I'm way behind, and I just can't stand the thought of so much stress coming around as it does every year. Self-imposed stress, at that. So I made decision...and I'm going to try so damn hard to stick with it. I am taking this Christmas off. No, not from Christmas itself, of course. But from the "I have to do everything, and I have to do it all by my own hands" mentality. In other words, I am not making our Christmas cards this year, I am not making gifts this year (well, maybe just a couple...but not a couple hundred!), I am not making a dozen different kinds of cookies, etc. I'm just not. I'm not. I'm not.

*My physical health has, well, pretty much sucked the past few weeks. Even here I am my own worst enemy...I constantly do things I know I shouldn't do. I don't know when the very real fact that my stubbornness is doing me no favors will ever truly take hold in my head, but I know it needs to. 

*I am excited as all get out over the fact that there is now less than a month left of the school year!!! I only wish there wasn't still so much to do. :(  And of course, as soon as this year is over, it's time to start working on next year...but the pressure doesn't feel as crushing during that first month of summer vacation and I am greatly looking forward to that. :D

*I feel awful that I haven't been participating in Saturday Farmers Market as of late. (Just as I feel awful about not yet having sent a thank you note to my dear friend Jean for the wonderful surprise that arrived from her in the mail a few days ago, and about all the as-of-yet unreturned emails sitting in my inbox, and...) But hopefully next week I'll have a post up, as things have definitely changed since my last garden update. 

*I can't believe May is almost over, which means medical/psychological theme month is almost over as well. I didn't get all that many "theme" books read, but I enjoyed all the ones I did read, some more than others. And I have one I'm still hoping to finish as well, one I'm really enjoying. I didn't post about a cool moonlight by Angela Johnson, but I really liked it. It was sweet, but not saccharine. It had a unique feel to it, almost magical though it was set wholly in the realistic world. It was the first of Johnson's books I've read, but it definitely won't be the last. And happily, I know I already own a couple others. Another I read but didn't post about for this month's theme was Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante. What a unique voice this book had! And I enjoyed it, but honestly not as much as I thought I was going to. I think that may have been a matter of false expectations though, as I really thought it was going to be more of a mystery. I was blown away by the author's ability to pull off this story from Dr. Jennifer White's point of view though. Which is the point of view of an intelligent, fiercely independent woman falling further and further under Alzheimer's grip. It was impossible not to feel deeply for this woman, and yet, I can easily say she wasn't a person whom I would have been friends with in real life. It's not so much that I disliked her, but we're two very different people. To be honest, I didn't feel like I would have been close to any of the major characters in this book, except maybe the policewoman (and she wasn't really a major character). Anyway, that means I read four books (Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance, A Cool Moonlight, Turn of Mind, and Silent to the Bone) for this theme (five if I finish The Fever in time). I am really looking forward to next month's glbt theme, and hope to read many more books than I did this month (but I make myself no promises). 

tidbits and babblings...

So on that half-assed blogging schedule I made myself, Mondays are supposed to be book days. And while I did actually finish a book this weekend, I just don't have a ton to say about it, so I figure I ought to wait until I have a couple of books under my belt. Normally when I don't have books to talk about on Mondays, I just don't post...but I soooo hate leaving a projects progress post as the first post for too long because I really do realize how utterly boring they must be to anyone else. (Sorry, that doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing them though--I love them for myself.)

Ha! But here we've reach another problem...I don't have anything else to talk about either. Life is just humming along with nothing major going on...lots of homeschool prep, lots of stupid pain, lots of dreaming of spring and all the goodies that will be planted, lots of laundry *sigh* always lots of laundry, lots of laughing.

I do have a few new crafty-ish things going:


And the book I'm currently reading for food and gardening month is so so so so so soooo good--it's called Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity (by Lester R. Brown).

And I'm having a lot of fun with #estellagram.

And I'm totally in love with Ali's Popcorn Bowl! I really think Rich and I going to try it too...we'll just have to do it without a cool brackets chart like Ali's because ummmm, I have zero idea how to make something like that. Might just draw us up one on paper or something.

And yeah, that pretty much sums up my less-than-exciting-but-just-the-way-I-like-it life right now.

tidbits and babblings...

*Winter break has come and gone. It was not quite the relaxing week I'd imagined. High highs and low lows. The highs were freakin' awesome and the lows sucked royally. Duh. We took the kiddos to my parents on Sunday. Monday morning Rich and I took off for what was to be 3 days and 3 nights to ourselves. But Tuesday, Gray had the meltdown to beat all meltdowns, and Rich ended up driving all the way back to pick up the kids...our vacation cut to one day and one night. Then Wednesday, while we were out taking Gray to a "you're in luck, I had a cancellation" doctor's appointment, Annie called to inform us that the toilet had overflowed. This not only made a mess of the bathroom, but proceeded to make its way to the basement soaking my sewing machine and a table full of fabric for various projects. (Good news: Sewing machine appears to be okay after drying out. *fingers crossed*)

Look--I made a bar graph:

Sorry, I'm in a flakey state of mind.

*Welp, I turned 49 on Thursday. And I'm still determined to make this year one of the best of my life! Fibro--you will not get the better of me! Nor will you, Anxiety!)

*I know I've said it a gazillion times, but I *love* the view out our bedroom window!!! Of course, that is about to change as they're building a subdivision behind our little swamp. :( :( :(  But dwelling on the positive--for now I LOVE IT! Just this morning, I got to watch a herd of 8 deer browsing, our rascally suet feeder obsessed little squirrel, geese on the frozen swamp, and quite a variety of other birds.

*I fear I'm not going to finish The Shining by the end of the month. I must learn to accept the fact that I suck at read-alongs...please remind me of this when I'm tempted to join another one, okay? You know, like when the #domealong comes around. No Debi, no.

Okay, I guess that's enough procrastinating for one morning...

Happy Tuesday!

tidbits and babblings...

*Today starts the spring semester for Rich and Annie. (Though Annie's homeschool and college class schedules don't align perfectly, so at home we're still in the first half of the year for another week-ish.) Ms. Annie has five college courses this semester, but overall I think it will actually be an easier semester for her than last when she only had three. She's looking forward to her creative writing class (duh!), her psych class, and her art class. She's neutral at this point on her statistics class. And she's not exactly looking forward to her economics class. She's still taking Aikido three times a week for her phys ed, and we're still working through our post-1945 U.S. history at home. (Personally, I will miss that class when we finish.) Anyway, the point I meant to make here was that I already miss having her around all day after being spoiled for the last few weeks. *sigh* It scares me to think it might not be all that long until she's not even living here anymore. Though maybe she'll go to school somewhere close enough where she can still live at home??? I can hope, right? She just registered for the SATs...so yeah, it's hitting home just how fast time is flying by.

*This stack of comics--all Lu's fault!!!

See, I was all content to "read from my own shelves!" for graphic novels month in February. That is actually part of this whole theme motivation, the fact that it will finally see me knocking down the old TBR mountains. But then Lu went and talked about all these great comics she'd requested at the library...and well, monkey-see-monkey-do, I had to head straight to the library to pick up a big old pile of my own. Me = hopeless. :P

*The bus stop this morning--brrr...definitely feeling that 13 below wind chill. But I shant complain, as there's plenty with 13+ below as their before wind chill temps this week.

*I did almost okay at getting caught up on blogs for a few days there early last week. But once again I'm ridiculously far behind. There really is no such thing as staying caught up, is there?

Well, I suppose I should go pretend to myself that my brain is working and try to be productive here...

Have a lovely Tuesday!!! And a lovely rest of the week as well!!!

it's been a while...

Okay, so I could talk about how crazy the past month+ have been with the endless gift making and Christmas preparations, and the horrendous stomach virus that visited us, and the flooding of the basement with sewage followed by the digging up of our yard to have a septic line replaced, and the aggravating cold virus that visited us and still refuses to go away, and the loss of our internet for over a week and... But I'm sure you've all had your share of crazy, hectic, and sometimes sucky life as well over the past month, so we'll just skip going into details about all that.

We had a lovely Christmas with my parents and brother joining us here for a few days. The view was beautiful out our sliding glass doors with snow blanketing the yard and trees and swamp. If not for the overwhelming horror that unfolded a few short miles from here on Christmas Eve morning (you may have heard about the murder of the firemen and the loss of seven homes to fire), I might have been able to describe it as the perfect two days in our little world.

I've been counting my blessings a lot in these past few days. And grappling with ways to make life a little more sane within my own frazzled head. My blogging has been next to non-existent lately, as has been my reading. I've missed them both immensely. I'm not really making resolutions for next year, but I'm going to strive for change nonetheless. Last year, I proclaimed it was to be my year of "just because." There were moments when I lived it, but far, far, far more moments when I failed to. Hopefully this year I'll tip that balance to more successes and less failures. And "just because" still fits neatly into my plan for 2013...where the goal is to "simplify, de-stress, and be just a little bit more selfish." I don't know if that means I'll be blogging more or blogging less myself. But if I succeed in my goals, it will mean I'll be reading and commenting on blogs more often and yet feeling far less guilty when I can't. (I just hit that damn "mark all as read" button after our week+ without internet, and I am determined to make that the last time I feel guilty about having to do so.) Anyway, lots of pondering yet to do over how exactly to accomplish my goals, but ponder away I shall. (Any suggestions would also be greatly appreciated.)

My sincerest wishes to you all for peaceful days ahead, and for a bright, joyful, and full-of-awesome-opportunities 2013!!!!!

an attempt at a happiness project project...

Yes, I said attempt. I honestly don't know if I can pull this off, but I'm going to try. The ever-delightful and oh-so-adorable Heather challenged me to NaNoBloMo on my List of Fun/Challenging/Interesting Things to Do. (Actually she challenged me to NaNoWriMo, too, but I'm not nearly ready for that challenge yet!) And truth be told, I'm probably not up for this one either (though I'm going to try my goshdarn hardest!), which is why I'm not not officially signing up. I do hope, dear Heather, that it's okay with you if I go the unofficial route.

Now whether this is a good year to attempt this, I'm not sure. On the plus side, we will be home over Thanksgiving, and that rarely happens. (We cannot go to visit either of our families because our minivan has an exhaust leak that is getting to the inside of the van. Even if it wasn't cold in these here parts in late November, the windows don't work. Our car guy said fixing the problem would cost far more than the van is worth. We've known for a while that its days were numbered. It's been a great car for us for a long time, so we really can't complain. But, as we cannot afford to get a new-to-us [we always buy used cars] minivan at the moment, we're stuck close to home where we can use Rich's little car--no way it will hold the five us plus Bacon--for the time being. Aside: When we do get a new car next year, we will likely be getting rid of both of our current vehicles and learn to live as a one car family. Environmentally smart, money smart, but potentially stressful at times...we'll manage, I'm sure. /tangent) On the maybe-this-isn't-a-good-year side is the fact that Eva dear will be here for a few days. I'm not sure blogging is a hostess-friendly thing to do. But then again, maybe she'll let me post pictures of her, and it will make for easy posts. :)

Okay, since I've gone and babbled on for so long, I think I can consider this good for Day 1, right?

tidbits...

(A draft for when I just want to say something, even though I'm supposed to be on a blogging hiatus.)

*Do you have a go-to response for those everything-is-too-fucking-overwhelming-right-now-and-I-just-want-to-give-up-and-cry moments? Do you stop and take deep breaths? Make yourself a cup of tea? Scream bloody murder and punch the ever-living snot out of your pillow? Or are you like me, and you sit yourself down and make exhaustive lists? What is it about making a list that is so damn calming anyway--is it just the fact that all those myriad tasks are now sitting neatly in one place and don't have to fight for attention inside one's brain? (10/25/12)

*What is it about "Passing Afternoon" (Iron & Wine)? Why does it make me cry every time I hear it? It's just beautiful, and it has such a melancholy feel to it, but if I'm being entirely honest, I couldn't tell you exactly what it is about. I mean I have my own little story in my head, but I've no idea if its what was intended when written. But I guess that is one of the wonderful things about art, huh, in that it can become to every person something different. (10/25/12)

*Awww...our beagle baby turns 10 today! Which pretty much means I shouldn't call him a "beagle baby," huh, seeing how that translates to 70 human years. :P He is having a banner day, too--a car ride, singing "Happy Birthday" to him (his most favorite song ever, and he cannot stop himself from singing/howling along), canned food mixed in with his kibble, and of course, getting to open a present. He shall be bummed tomorrow when all the attention switches to Gray. (10/26/12)

*Happy 12 to Gray!!! Original plans fell through, but we have made the most of it, and our young man seems to be having a wonderful day! 12 though? 12. Sheesh. (10/27/12)

*Thinking about everyone in Sandy's path, and hoping so much everyone stays safe!!! (10/29/12)

*We were barely affected personally by Sandy in our home. Much of the county was/is without power but we never lost ours; several roads closed due to flooding (the waves on the Lake were 20+ feet) but since since schools were closed (including Rich's) even that didn't affect us; lots of trees down but we had nothing but huge limbs fall and mostly in the wooded swampy area that we won't even have to clean up. Rich's Mom and brothers' families in Philly area are all fine (trees down and no power but physically fine), as is my aunt and uncle and cousin in Baltimore and Frederick areas (again trees down and no power but fine). But we're worried sick about our dear friends who live in New Jersey, about a mile from the ocean. I last heard from Kim around 1:00 yesterday afternoon and everything was fine then, but of course that was before it reached them. We haven't been able to get in touch with them at all today--not through email, or phone, or text. I keep searching for news on-line about their area but it's just making things worse, as I'm reading and seeing pictures of how bad it is without being about to tell anything about them of course. There are so many people in our shoes, just waiting to find out about loved ones. Like Lu, who is waiting to hear about family and her Grandpa's home...Lu, I so hope you've heard something by now!!! And of course, there are the thousands upon thousands upon thousands who are now trying to actually find a way to deal with the devastation that this storm brought to their lives. They will be in my thoughts, as I'm sure they're in yours. (10/30/12)

ETA: Haven't gotten to talk to our friends, but found out they are okay! Wish the same could be said for everyone.

*I guess since my brain is completely unable to focus on anything school prep related, it's a good time to catch up on some blog reading. Of course, I should be cleaning since Eva will be here in a few short days. :) Maybe I'll even write a wrap-up post for Trish's Pin It and Do It Challenge. (10/30/12)

a short break...

Too much on the plate right now, some good, some decidedly bad. Don't worry, we're all fine. But our dream house is sort of becoming our nightmare house. And Annie seemed to have fooled us about how easy it was to transition to adolescence...because it is turning out to be far more challenging with Gray. Being his teacher and his mom feels more than I can handle at the moment. I just need a little time to regroup, to figure out how I can do better for Gray, to do all we can to keep this house from literally crumbling around us. And I also have a very special guest to prepare for (though I hope she won't just turn and run when she sees first-hand the chaos that is our lives right now).

I envy those you who seem to handle all the five million things going on in your lives and yet still manage to blog. I think that accepting that I'm not one of those people is a step in my striving for balance though, so I'm just going to take this short break. In the meantime, I hope to pop in on your blogs here and there when I can, because that truly is a pleasure I don't want to give up entirely.

See you soon.

this past week...

...celebrating ten awesome years on Earth with this guy

...feeling the temperatures starting to occasionally dip into the 30s at night, and having the furnace starting to kick on from time to time even though we keep it set at 62 degrees

...getting a bit fatigued with all the canning, yet still keeping my fingers crossed that we can eek out a couple more weeks of produce before the weather calls an end to things

...finishing one crochet project (for Gray's birthday), abandoning another (just decided it wasn't the look I wanted), and starting a brand new one (which I have very high hopes for)

...staying immersed in the 1960s through both books and films with Annie's history class

...reviewing quickly all things fractional, slogging through the U.S. Constitution, diving into discussions of Something Wicked This Way Comes, tackling human reproduction, among many other things with Gray's homeschooling

...practicing patience with an internet connection that is out more often than it's in and an operating system that's "too old"

...giving Rich a few extra "my hero" points for fixing my glasses...as I couldn't see well enough to fix them myself, a fact that is somewhat disconcerting as I never even had to wear glasses until a few years ago

...spending far too much time stressing out over the ugliness of politics, and strongly considering simply deleting all emails without reading them from extended family members until after the election

...getting ridiculously excited about the return of "Christmas prep" weekends, one for each of the remaining months of the year...thank you so much for putting a dose of giddy in my outlook Chris :)

...swirling in a whole whopping pile of mixed emotions, including a nice share of happy, about Dewey's Read-a-Thon

...washing loads of fabric for upcoming sewing projects

...refusing to feel overwhelmed by google reader...sort of...well, okay, I'm trying

...being so very inspired by my dear friend Kara's journey towards balance and simplicity and happiness, and knowing I *need* to start down that road myself

...relishing the changing of the seasons, and feeling incredibly blessed this first autumn in our new home

milestones...

My baby turns 10 today. Ten! Which means all the munchkins are now in double digits. They're definitely not LITTLE KIDS anymore.

It's so cliche, but so very true--it seems like Max was born a lifetime ago and yet somehow it really seems like yesterday. Rich and I were talking about it last night before drifting off to sleep...and I think that "just yesterday" feeling remains because of how vividly that time still lives in our heads. What should have been a time of pure unadulterated joy, turned out to be a very rough couple of weeks. But that's a story for another day.

Today is a day to wish this rambunctious, athletic, cat-passionate, affectionate, can't-sit-still, always-eager-to-help, reluctant-to-read, hot-tempered, messy-roomed, speedy, impulsive, shy, hands-on, goofy, and oh-so-handsome young man a very happy birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAXIDOODLE!!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

completely random tidbits of non-importance...

...there is something about Matt Berninger's voice that melts my insides into big wet puddles

...same goes for Mark Kozelek's voice

...sadly, I realized after the fact that I forgot to put lime juice in all the salsa I canned this past weekend

...from Neil Gaiman's story "Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire":

Above her, and away in the deep forest behind the house, night things whooped and skrarked.

never heard the word skrarked before, but I find it be such a perfect little word

...came across this picture as I was searching for something way back on the original incarnation of this blog

while I adore Gray as he is today, I have to admit that I miss this little peanut

...a huge note of thanks to the oh-so-helpful and very kind woman at the jury office

...the move itself and the money-pit-personality of our new home are making money tight around here...which is fine...except for the fact that I'm really going to have to cut back on Christmas gifts this year, and that makes me sad

...the smell of the herb baking is making me salivate...perhaps it's time I make some lunch for Gray and me

babblings...

*It's Book Blogger Appreciation Week. I'm not participating, because, well, I'm not a book blogger. :P But that doesn't change the fact that I appreciate book bloggers very much!!! In fact, "appreciate" doesn't seem nearly a big enough word. Many of my dearest, closest friends are book bloggers. Seriously, like the pour-my-heart-and-soul-out sort of friends. And the be-silly-without-being-slightest-bit-embarrassed sort of friends. And the can-I-ask-your-honest-advice sort of friends. But I also appreciate book bloggers that I hardly even know...because holy crap, has my reading life blossomed and expanded since I started reading book blogs! And honestly, not just my reading life.

*So I've already added about 15 new book blogs to my reader this morning. But I really shouldn't have. Because tears will eventually flow. Yes, I literally cry sometimes when I look at my reader. This world is full of so much awesomeness, but days are only so long, so it's impossible to read and comment on everything one wants to. I know I'm not alone in feeling that. But it makes me so very, very sad...because I want to have the time to thank everyone for every incredible post they write. Know what I mean? Of course you do.

*I started making Halloween cards this morning. Well, if you count pulling a few odds and ends out of bins and making a list of people to send the hopefully one day completed cards to, that is. I think it's the cool temperatures that have me inspired...we even had to close the windows last night. And Max and I could see our breath at the bus stop this morning. :)

*I'm getting a bit tired of tomatoes. Okay, not really. But our garden is starting to wear me out with all the canning now. And yes, this is a good thing, of course.

*After today, we will have our first week of school under our belts. One massive meltdown. (Not me.) Otherwise pretty darn good. Might just bore you with a quick little look at our first week of homeschooling for the year tomorrow...or maybe I'll be kind and skip it. ;)

*Tomorrow is the start of the best library book sale in the county! And we now live very close-by. We don't really need any more books...we will, however, come home with many. It's a given.

fall fun to-do list update 1...

*whew* I think I'm just glad to have this week behind us. Not that it was a bad week or anything, just busy. Spent last weekend busting butt getting everything ready for the start of the school year. On Monday, my parents came up for the day. And since their garden didn't do so well this year, Mom and I made and canned some tomato juice for them to take home. Then Tuesday--start of the school year for all five of us! And a successful first day at that. When asked upon getting off that bus on the first day, Max said, "Well, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be." Believe me, that's high praise coming from him. And Gray, without even being asked, told me that school wasn't so bad with the exception of not being able to stay up as late as he wanted anymore. Annie's loving her classes at MCC this semester. Well, she's loving her lit classes (an early British lit class and a GLBT lit class), but "loving" is probably too strong a word to use for her calculus course. :P And on the teaching end of things, Rich and I are doing okay, too.

Anyway, while I felt like I didn't have a second to breathe, I apparently did, because I didn't do too horribly on my fall fun to-do list:

1. take pictures at least once a week documenting the change of seasons

Well, it's hasn't really felt all that fall-like yet, though supposedly that's supposed to change starting this weekend. Still, I took a couple of shots showing that summer was indeed thinking about saying goodbye.

Black-eyed Susans making their last stand...

...while mums start making their first appearance.

A few of those early "turners" changing colors and dropping leaves.

And Rich took this one of our new little resident making a meal of a stink bug.














3. get around to actually putting up our fall/Halloween decorations

Yep, did it. A teensy tiny taste:

5. listen to "Don't Fear the Reaper" once a day

Yep, so far so good. In fact, I've probably listened to it 20 times this past week. Which yes, I realize I shouldn't admit to. :P

7. cook/bake at least one autumn-ish goodie a week

Mmmmm...our first pumpkin waffles of the season. Heaven. Stumbled upon that recipe a few years ago, and we've enjoyed them many times since.










8. revel in the whole RIP experience

a. Peril the First--read at least four RIP appropriate books

Actually do have a start on this one--I read the first 2 1/2 volumes of Locke & Key this week. Will do a post on them once I get through Volume 5.

b. Peril of the Short Story--I'd like to read at least one RIP appropriate short story a week

Yay--I did this, too. Read a story by Stephen King from Everything's Eventual called "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away." Have slightly mixed feelings about it. Maybe I'll write a post about the short stories I read...but maybe not. I just have such a hard time with that sort of thing.

c. Peril on the Screen--I'd like to watch at least one RIP appropriate movie/show a week

Netflix streaming was acting up last night, I'm guessing because of the thunderstorms. So we ended up having to watch something on DVD. And even though Annie and I watched The Village not all that long ago, Rich hadn't seen it so we went with that. Totally not sorry about it either. Perfect for RIP.

home again, home again...

We just got back from a somewhat spontaneous mini-vacation. Hopefully in the next few days I'll be able to catch up with a little blog reading--it will be a way to reward myself with little breaks as I bust my butt trying to get all the school prep done that I should have gotten done long before this. Of course, I don't suppose I deserve any rewards for procrastination, do I? :P I'll be talking a little more about what we did on our little trip later, but here's a sneak peak at what we did yesterday:

We were here.

Recognize that kiddo in the blue shirt holding the "BAN" sign?

plugging along...

I suck.

Just opened google reader. So not pretty. Made me want to cry.

Of course *not* keeping up with blogs is not the only thing I've *not* been doing. In fact, I've pretty much *not* been doing anything of interest.

And therefore have nothing to blog about.

So why am I here? Good question. No good answer.

I've been in a school planning/prep frenzy. Of interest to no one, I'm sure.

Also trying to get more done on this house. But honestly it sometimes seems a two steps forward, one step back sort of thing. (Really more like a two steps forward, two steps back sort of thing, but that just sounds too utterly depressing.) Our appliances were delivered Sunday. Yay! The gas line was installed yesterday morning. Yay! But it turns out that we now also need to have a new electrical outlet installed. And not just a simple switch-out, so Rich likely won't be doing it himself.

*sigh*

I thought that was a big enough damper on things yesterday. But the powers that be apparently didn't. Gray came up to go to the bathroom at 12:30 last night. I was finally drifting off to a much-needed (after having less than three hours worth the night before) but somewhat elusive sleep. He called in our bedroom to tell me that there was a wet spot on the basement floor. And it wasn't a small one. (I'm guessing that was his way of saying that Baker had not peed on the floor.) Rich heard Gray's announcement as well, and we headed down together to investigate.

Enormously less pretty than even the state of my google reader. Pipes leading from the shower drain had come apart. Yep, just totally separated. Annie, who is not known for her economical water use, had taken a shower about 11:00. And all that water, soap, shampoo...you guessed it--now flooding the basement floor.

Good news being that Gray discovered it when he did. Otherwise, Rich and I would have gotten up and showered this morning before realizing what had happened.

Other good news being that this was a home repair job that Rich could handle. And has.

Yes, our charming little fixer-upper needs ever more fixing-up by the day.

I'm still trying to get the basement dried out.

And still trying to get ready for this school year.

And not doing a damn thing of interest.

completely random babblings...

*We found a lovely organic fruit farm near us, and yesterday we visited for the first time. We already knew that the vast majority of New York's cherry crops were lost. The stupid summer-like weather of March had trees blooming way too early, and then when we went back to more seasonal weather of hard frosts and snows in April, the fruit was done for. The wonderful couple who owned the farm we went to lost not only all of their cherry crop, but also all of their peaches, apricots, plums, pears, and they figure at least 40% of their apples as well. So sad.

Their blueberries, however, were thriving. Seriously, they were just so beautiful! We picked 28 pints...and they shall be my big job for the day.













*Heard a story on NPR about how black lung is making a big resurgence among coal miners. One of the men they talked to just broke my heart. He was younger than I am, and he talked about how he could only hold his two-year-old grandson for very short periods of time. You could tell just listening to him talk, what an effort simply breathing was for him. I'm sure this story took my attention away from my reading because my Grandpa was a coal miner. He had black lung, and well, of course, emphysema. Anyway, I don't know I even brought this up, but it just made me so sad to hear--I thought black lung was largely a thing of the past.

*Had a doctor appointment the other day. Looking at the diagnoses list that is printed out on the patient plans she gives me after each appointment always makes me feel like such a mess...hypertension, fibromyalgia, chronic insomnia, iron deficient anemia. :P She was actually quite concerned about my blood pressure--it was rather high, reminding me of my old preeclampsia days. But I honestly think it was because I had a tad of a stomach bug that day...we'll see if my theory holds, as I have to take my blood pressure twice a day for the next week and call her with the results. She's thinking about adding a second blood pressure medication. She doesn't want to up the dosage of the one I'm on because one of the common side effects is fatigue...and as she said, I'm in over my head already with fatigue because of the fibromyalgia, insomnia, and anemia.

*Look what we have:

Actually we have eight luna moth caterpillars. A professional naturalist friend of Rich's gave them to us. We've raised painted lady butterflies a number of times, and once a prometheus moth, but never luna moths. I think they are just one of the most beautiful creatures on the planet.





Well, I suppose I should get back to my blueberries now. I think I hear their little voices out there calling, "Freeze me, dry me, turn me into syrup!" Sure, it's probably just my imagination, but I'd still better get back to work I guess.

a wee tad of a break...

Can't stop my heart from pounding. A nearly averted traffic accident. Max and I were out having a grand old time competing in our daily car counting competition while waiting for the bus. But as the bus pulled up, a driver coming from the opposite direction obviously wasn't paying any attention and had to slam on his breaks and swerve around, running completely off the road to avoid hitting the car in front of him that had stopped for the bus. Luckily no one was hurt. But it is a damn good thing that the directions weren't switched, or that car would have either slammed into the back of the other car at high speed, swerved one way and slammed headfirst into the bus, or swerved the other way and run over Max. *deep breaths Debi, deep breaths*

Okay. The real intention of this post is just let you know that I'm going to be taking a short break. Having a tough time keeping up with everything. No biggie, just trying to finish up our school year. Always a busy time, with not only finishing up the actually "doing" part of school, but with all the end of year paperwork and testing crap for the district and then the intentions and plans for next year paperwork for the district. Blah blah blah. And then there's still this whole trying to get this house in working order thing. More blah blah blah.

Anyway, blog reading has yet again fallen by the wayside. Which makes me sad, but there's no use pouting about it, is there? So I think I'm just going to close the computer up for a few weeks and concentrate on what needs done. Sort of a figurative closing up of the computer...as we pretty much use it all the time for school. :P And well, I'm really having with Fat Mum Slim's Photo a Day thingie, so I'll probably keep doing that on tumblr.

In the meantime, you all have the most awesome June imaginable!!!! Can't wait to catch up with you all later...and sheesh, I sure hope my heart has stopped pounding by then...

mysteries from the laundry basket...

First let me beg your forgiveness. I must leave for a dental appointment shortly. The hours before a dental appointment are never pretty. They are filled with nausea and incoherence and a good bit of babbling. I realize that I should just keep this all to myself, but I think these hours are also filled with lack of judgment.

These hours necessarily must also be filled with mindless tasks because concentration is sorely missing. Folding laundry fits the bill nicely. But I noticed a couple of disturbing trends in the laundry basket today.

For one thing, I'm pretty sure my daughter owns more knee socks than the population of many small nations. But I still don't understand why that means she needed to wear 13 pair in the past five days.

Maybe odder still, and definitely a tad more disturbing--why did one son have only three pair of underwear to span those five days, and the other son have eleven? I'm keeping my lips sealed as to which son was which...but frankly I'm not sure which extreme is worse.

one of those days...

One of those days. Not the bad variety of "one of those days" but the really good variety. The kind where I wake up and am just so blissfully thankful to be alive...

...Rich and I got to watch two flickers performing a courtship display in the backyard earlier this morning...so awesomely cool

...I thoroughly enjoyed my shower this morning...which might sound like a stupid thing to say, but I usually hate showers (though not as much as baths)...because I hate being wet period...which I realize makes me odd, but there you have it...thus why those rare times when I actually enjoy my shower seem a reason to celebrate

...my oh-so-very-much-loved friend Chris sent me the new Edward Sharpe album...he's just sweet that way, you know...he's sweet in just about every way there is to be sweet for that matter...yep, love him...and love this album...how can one listen to Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and not find oneself with a happy bounce in one's step

...the weather has turned rainy and overcast and cool...not that I haven't adored the beautiful, warm, sunny days of this past week, I have...but this is a nice curl up nice and cozy with a mug of tea and pile of books (because distractible me can't seem to stick with just one book) kind of day

...and speaking of books, I've got one of those pleasant afterglow things going on...Max and I finished The Search for Wondla last night...ended up surprising me by how much I enjoyed it...Max and I shall write a little post about it later

...so excited about starting project life again...yes, this is the fourth time I've started it...and possibly the fourth time when I will fail to follow it through for any length of time...but if that's the case oh well...for now I am happy and excited and eager to see our weeks being documented in this simple lovely way

...it's June 1st...as shocking as that is in many ways, it's also very welcome...we're almost to the end of the school year...just a few more weeks...I can nearly taste it

...two posts that made my heart swell with joy...for very different reasons...Ana and Jodie's incredibly awesome post on seasons 2 and 3 of Avatar: The Last Airbender...and Carl's beautiful post about his lovely daughter

Suppose I ought to run and be productive. Or maybe just say "to hell with productivity" for a day. So hope you're all having "one of those days" too!!!

good stuff...

Feeling frustrated at feeling overwhelmed. What's new. Feeling doubly frustrated because I can't seem to get fibro pain back under any semblance of control. Feeling triply frustrated because my brain has left the building. Or possibly the planet. But I am not trying to complain here. Honest. In fact, aside from the fact that I feel like I've been so out-of-touch with my much, much, much loved friends, I've been quite happy as of late. Seriously...so many things to be happy about...

*There's a beautiful Baltimore oriole that comes to visit the tree outside the dining room window every morning now. Cannot help but smile at his gorgeousness.

*I've been baking sourdough bread every few days...and it is so delicious that I think I sometimes audibly moan when I take the first warm bite every time.

*It will soon be time to start planting the garden. There is still much work to be done in the garden bed, but our tomato and pepper seedlings are growing wonderfully and will soon be craving the out-of-doors.

*The house gets a little closer to being unpacked every day. Only the library, the pantry room, one corner of the unfinished part of the basement, the garage, and the itty bitty sunroom to go. Then the repairs and redecoration can begin. :) Though I am still planning on taking a much needed break before tackling what I've dubbed Phase 2.

*The school year is nearing an end. Just six-ish weeks to go. *happy sigh*

So what's making you smile these days?