Visiting

I love Christmas time.  I've spent the last week baking... Oreo truffles, muddy buddies, apple bread, fudge pie and of course, geiba (a polish sweet/nut bread).  The Imp decorated the house the first weekend of December, before she had to start studying for exams.  The pictures tell it all.

This is her favorite gift from last year: a set of silver bells with the gifts of the 12 Days of Christmas depicted on the handles.

 She may actually love Christmas-time more than me.
Here's the Advent calendar I made for her this year.

Of course, her birthday being right before Christmas adds to her excitement.  I was a little apprehensive about her ability to settle down in study with her exuberant decorating, but she rose to the occasion and  aced all her exams.  Physics was her hard one and she spent hours and hours at home studying and met with a study group for 4 hours the day before her exam.  Her diligence paid off and now she can enjoy Christmas vacation.  Going into exams she knew she needed a high A on the physics exam in order to pull an A out for the semester.  Having not done that well on most of the tests, she wasn't sure she could do it, but she told me "I know I might not get it, but I'd like to really try...then if I don't get it, at least I won't wonder, "If I'd studied more could I have gotten the A?".  That she was willing to try even though the odds were against her made me proud.  That she was rewarded for her efforts just makes it better.

And what do math geeks do for fun?  Make snowflakes of course.

Look closer... what does that say?

M-A-T-H of course and to make it really fun, we threw in a pi sign.  Yep that's what we do for fun in my house.

We're enjoying a visit to Sumter to see my parents.  They've moved into a retirement facility that has independent living rooms and assisted living.  They have a nice apartment, but it's hard on my mom leaving her house and all her space.  There is a dining room in the facility so the kitchens in the apartments are tiny (and that's being generous).  My mom really misses her kitchen.  I think the place is great and can envision Hubby and I in a similar place when we reach our 80's.

We got to spend time with Gwyn and her husband tonight.  I really enjoyed that.  Hadn't seen Gwyn in quite a while.  She looks happy.  I'm glad she found Michael.

I'd promised some people more pics of the Imp as coxswain.  Here they are.

That's the Imp with her back to the camera.

Here she is yelling, oops I mean encouraging, her team on.

And here's just a pic of my two girls.

Gold Medal in Crew and Recovering

The Imp went to Augusta Georgia for a big southeastern regatta, Head of the South.  Her varsity 8 won gold with more than a 20 second lead on the silver.  She's been the coxswain this year and has loved it.  Her varsity 8 boat also won at a regatta in October.  That regatta was great because it was local on the Hillsborough River and Hubby and I could stand on a bridge over the Hillsborough and watch them coming down the river and row right under us (just a few yards shy of the finish line).  They looked really good at that race.  I'm so happy for her.  Here's a picture of her team holding her up after the win in October.

My girls continue to entertain me.  This is from the Imp's facebook page written on the Singer's wall. 

"you used the word "harrowing" in your voicemail to me today.  i did not know what it meant...so i had to look it up XP (–adjective: extremely disturbing or distressing.....in case you were wondering).  stop being so smart because in the future i may too languid to go look up words i do not know.

ILOVEYOU."

Hubby has been working extreme overtime.  It's a little rough not having weekends, especially for him, but each night we remind ourselves how fortunate we are he has a job...a well-paying job...a pretty secure job.  So a few weeks of 7 days of work 10+ hours a day are tolerable.  But I am looking forward to Thanksgiving week when this overtime is supposed to be finished (I'll believe it when I see it) and Hubby will be home.  He's supposed to have the whole week off, but I have the feeling that he'll be working at least a few hours most days, but that's such an improvement, it will seem as if he's on vacation.  


A few weeks ago I had 2 'questionable' moles removed for biopsy.  They both came back 'atypical' so I had to go back in for full removal.  As Hubby has had this happen multiple times, I was expecting a similar experience: a slightly larger and deeper cut than the original with one maybe 2 stitches.  However, my results were 'moderate to severe' abnormalities...apparently close to being classified as melanoma.  In fact they had the biopsies tested twice to make sure it wasn't melanoma.  So when I went in today, the procedure was more extensive then I'd anticipated.  I'll have pretty large scars (there were multiple layers of stitches) and in the mean time I'm pretty uncomfortable.  The moles were removed from my left upper arm and the back of my left upper thigh.  Sitting is nearly impossible right now.  (I'm half-laying, half-sitting on my couch...where I've been since 11:00 am).  I hadn't planned for being out of commission today...I had plans for working on some of the hand-made Christmas gifts.  Now, I'm not even sure I'll be up and around tomorrow.  Ugh.  
The up side (if there is one) is that Hubby and the Imp have been very attentive to me.  Hubby, working from home, took me to and from the doctor's and got my prescriptions filled.  When the Imp got home, she gave him a hard time for not getting me a milk shake (what she gets after harrowing doctor visits).  She couldn't believe he hadn't even thought to ask me.  So she made him stop and get me a HOT Krispy Kreme on the way home from her voice lesson.  Now that was the up side to this day.


This is my favorite time of year.  I love planning and making and baking around  Christmas.  The Imp is gearing up, too.  With her birthday December 22, she'll start the official countdown on November 22.  She loves Advent calendars, as she views them as not just a count down to Christmas but also her birthday.  I'm glad she hasn't lost this childish side to her, even as she's almost 17.

BY YOUR SIDE - TENTH AVENUE NORTH

This song just makes me feel better about life...I love the image of me being a tiny child and being held in God's hands.

Silent Solidarity

What A Game!!!

Rays lead their division! Half a game ahead of the loved-to-be-hated New York Yankees. The game was fantastic! That we play them 6 more times in the next 10 days means anything could happen. The game surely had the feel of a play-off game. Having David Price...PRICELESS! And who knew that Crawford's uncharacteristic blow-up at the ump would allow the young Brignac to win it for us. Here's hoping the other 6 games are played as well (and have the same outcome).

Financial Fast

Hubby and I started a financial fast on Sept 1. Michele Singletary, a writer for the Washington Post wrote a book, 21 Days to Financial Freedom. For the 21 days, you only buy what you need (that means no eating out), and use cash to purchase whatever it is you're buying. It's been tempting to use the cash card at the gas station and other places, but it really does make a difference, for the way your brain processes and absorbs information, to use cash. The fast is not about saving money, per se, but instead is to focus on God and where all things come from. Each day, there is a theme, a Bible passage, and an activity [sometimes the activity is to write about your observations, others it's to actually do something, like create (or modify) your budget]. In the comparison game, I always congratulated myself for my sound fiscal decisions. Hubby and I have a budget (I am always amazed at how many people don't...no wonder they're in debt). So I tended to pat myself on my back, telling myself how good I was doing. But just 6 days into this endeavor and I am amazed at how 'loose' our budget really was. And even though I knew using cash would make a difference, I didn't realize the true impact of it. We pay so many of our set bills (mortgage, car payment, tuition, etc) electronically, I don't even have the activity of writing out a check. It really removes you from the process of watching your money go out. I highly recommend this for anyone.

So Hubby and I are cruising along, enjoying the process, even if we have had to say no to some things we'd normally splurge on. At church yesterday, we had a visiting priest from Haiti speak about supporting the missions. The man was an awesome speaker and how I'd love to have him run a retreat. He was funny, but he also told it like it is. He challenged parents to be willing to their children not like them, challenged retirees to give back to the community with their time, challenged college students to not be so self-centered (the world doesn't owe you anything), challenged our American consumerism. He also described his parish in the heart of Port-au-Prince. As he was describing the conditions, I assumed he was speaking post earthquake, but he wasn't. He's speaking of deplorable conditions and says "and then the earth began to shake for 38 long seconds..." Conditions are worse now. Hard to fathom amidst our prosperity. He (plus the mindset we're in with this fast) has us giving more to the missions than we have in the past. And funny, he never directly asked for money.

The hardest part of the fast are the 'gray' areas. What is a need? And how far are we willing to take this fast? The Singer's last pay check came in the mail, and she wanted a few other things from home sent to her. Well...is mailing the package to her a true need? We decided to send it. But what about our lawn mower's fuel line breaking? Is it a need to get it fixed immediately? Back in the days of 'no-money' as we like to describe our early married years when we were both college students, we would wait until we had the cash, now we tend to charge it without really thinking (we pay it off at the end of the month, as the rule). But it is spending without thinking. Online purchasing is also an area where it is easy to spend more than you realize. The business section yesterday had an article about that very thing. "It's only $.99 for a song on iTunes." But that's still $1 you don't have to spend on something else...including the missions in Haiti.

We're enjoying the long weekend. The Imp has a get together with friends from St. Leo's peer ministry group...it's WAYYYY up north (about 70 miles). So Hubby and I will drop her off, then head to Crystal River State Park to walk and talk. Not a bad way to spend Labor Day, just hope the rain holds off.

School Begins

Cutest Nephew Ever





Adoration Chapel at Belmont Abbey



The last few weeks have been busy with summer ending and school starting. Hubby and I got to spend a night at the beach before school started. The tourism industry has taken a real beating between the depressed economy and the oil scare (there is no oil on our beaches)and many hotels have been having Florida resident specials. We took advantage of that 2 Saturdays ago. It was great sitting out on the beach and watching the sun set and getting up and going out to the beach in the morning. I love the beach and the sound of the surf.
The Imp started school on the 9th. Things are going pretty well, just AP Calculus has her on the run, already. She may end up dropping down to Calc Honors, and then take AP next year. As I topped out with Trig in high school, I'm impressed with the math she's doing. I've been both girls' math tutors through Algebra II. Calc is beyond me...I did okay taking it, but tutoring in it is a whole different ball game. Crew starts tomorrow. With AP English, Dual Enrollment Am Hist, Honors Physics, and Honors Spanish, she's got a full load.
This past weekend we all drove up to Belmont, NC to drop the Singer off. We got to stay with my baby brother, Brian, and his wonderful family. The campus is gorgeous and I think she's where she'll do really well. She starts classes tomorrow. She already called me today :-) Life is good.
I start teaching my homeschool group Geography and Government on Friday. I'm really excited about that. I really am pretty blessed. I love teaching. I love geography. I love staying home for the most part. I love making a little bit of money. I love working with parents who share my faith. And I get enjoy all those loves by teaching for the homeschool group.
I've started my fall garden plants. I'm trying to get rid of some red ants from my raised bed before transplanting them. I don't want to use pesticide, so have been trying various home remedies. Our large amount of rain, is making my raised beds very appealing to the ants as the soil in the bed is drier than the yard. Ugh. I refuse to complain about the rain.

Home Alone

The Imp is gone to work a retreat this week. She left Friday afternoon and I go to pick her up this Friday. Saturday we hosted our couples' prayer group, and I was so focused getting my house and food ready, I didn't really notice she wasn't here. Sunday the Singer, Hubby and I all just relaxed and read books. She would have been doing the same, so her absence was not keenly felt. Yesterday, however, as I had the house to myself from 7 am till 6 pm, her being gone screamed in the silence. I sure pray she's having a good week. She is actually facilitating the retreat (running it with other teens to train kids to facilitate weekend retreats). Some of her cohorts really enjoy Drama in their lives. The Imp has limited patience for that and I'm sure she'll come home ready to hole up in her room for a day or two for some alone time of her own (and some sleep).

I can't believe school starts in 5 weeks already. Somehow the summer always flies by. I'm ordering the Imp's textbooks this week. I'm also attacking her bedroom closet. I hope I survive. It will feel good knowing it's cleaned out and getting rid of some of the little girl stuff she no longer uses/wants.

My House Is Back

The house is finally 'put back together'. We've finished the floor and moved the furniture back. And we've even sifted through all our stuff before putting any of it back. We got rid of a number of books (very hard to do...but keeping every book bought when the girls were 9, 10 and 11 just isn't practical), some old VHS tapes, lots of magazines and just some junk. The living/family room looks great. It took longer than I had expected (and I thought I was giving ample time to complete the job). So I am soo over the whole job. We still need to get a throw rug for the middle of the floor, but other than that we should be good. We have our kitchen back and actually sat down, all 4 of us, for dinner together. With the Singer and Imp taking a Bible Study on a different night than Hubby and I, and with ballroom dancing classes and the Singer working out two days a week on her way home from work (putting her home around 8) we haven't had a many family dinners as I would have liked. But we sat around the table and enjoyed good spaghetti and fresh green beans (alas, not from my garden). Yep, the house and home are finally back together.

I get to scrap again today. Always a good day. I'm a little tired, which sometimes makes it harder to be creative, but friends are coming over so all is good.

Yesterday I got to teach my crochet summer class. I had 5 little girls (ages 10-15) and I thoroughly enjoyed, not only teaching crochet to others, but just the girls themselves. They're just a fun group and they all friends with each other which just made for a fun atmosphere.

Lack of TV Appreciated

The man who shot and killed two Tampa police officers during a traffic stop has been arrested. The memorial for the two men is taking place right now. My heart goes out to Officer David Curtis' wife and four young sons and to Jeffery Kocab's wife (who is nine months pregnant).

I am so ready to have my house put back together. Climbing over furniture to simply walk from my bedroom to the front door is annoying. Having no table to gather around at dinner time is frustrating. But, there are positives of this situation. Without a TV in the living room and tiny ones in the front computer room (with nowhere to sit except at the computer)and my bedroom, the house has been very quiet this week. I kept waiting for the girls to complain. We did all climb on our queen bed to watch "In Plain Sight" Wednesday night, but other than that, the TVs have been essentially quiet. At dinner last night (and we did go out to eat because I hated eating in shifts) the Imp said she enjoyed the lack of TV this week. Both she and the Singer have devoured books (although they are both avid readers, so that isn't too unusual for summertime) but the Imp said we've talked more as a family. The Imp, Singer and Hubby have all sat together on the couch in the kitchen just being silly. So at dinner I said we could institute a no-TV night each week, fully expecting resistance along the lines 'it was fun, but we really don't need to go that far...' but instead got a resounding "Good idea, MOM!" If I had tried to institute a no-TV night last week, I guarantee the girls would have fought it, complained, and then would have worked to make those nights less than enjoyable. They had to live through it and feel the positives before they'd buy into it. Hubby and I hope to have the furniture back in the living room tonight...definitely by tomorrow night (even with going to his cousin's to celebrate the 4th).

Fallen Heroes

The lead story of every news outlet in Tampa, is about the man who shot and killed two police officers during a traffic stop. I can't imagine being a "first responder." Whether a policeman, or firefighter, or EMT all these people face dangers all the time. There doesn't seem to be the proper respect given to these workers. The shooting happened early morning Tuesday, the killer has not been apprehended...yet. There is a $100,000 reward for his capture. Someone knows where he is and as our police chief has said, that no one has turned him in is as disturbing as him killing 2 officers. The "honor" of silence among the lawless is mind-boggling. Prayers go out to the families of Officers David Curtis and Jeffrey Kocab. I've purposefully omitted the killer's name from my blog. He doesn't deserve the ink.

*@#$%* and other not nice things

So much for making good progress on our laminate floor project. Tonight as we were working, we decided we had made some errors in putting together the first rows, so....we took it all apart. We're now where we were Sunday morning. The tension was palpable and for a few moments I thought Hubby might lose it. But, it passed and we started singing "If I Had A Hammer" only changing the words to fit our circumstances. The girls looked at us like we were crazy (and maybe that's the secret to doing home improvement projects together...don't take it too seriously). But with the song, and some laughter the tense moments passed and we are still speaking to each other.

Hubby spent an hour on the phone with our wireless provider trying to get a $260 charge removed. Someone ordered a phone on our account and had it delivered to Indiana. We've been working this problem for about 2 months. We were told, yet again, that it would all be taken care of, but somehow it keeps reappearing on our phone bill.

I'm happy for the rain we've been getting every night the past week. Our lawn is green (even if most of it is weeds) and my rose bushes are healthy.

I can't believe it's already July. My summer is flying by. It won't be long before we're taking the Singer up to Belmont Abbey. I'm reading a book about mother-daughter relationships and it addresses the fact that our society holds fast to the myth of perfect mother love. And that this is detremental to both mothers and daughters. Somehow, mothers aren't suppose to have conflicting feelings towards their daughters. Well, I've got plenty of conflicting feelings towards my daughter, just as I have contradictory feelings towards my husband, my friends, my siblings, etc. Relationships, by nature, involve ups and downs, and as a relationship involves two flawed people, I figure having more positive feelings than negative is doing pretty darn good.

Laminate Flooring

Back at the library, but only 2 times this week :-)

Hubby and I have made great progress on our laminate flooring project, but are not finished. With Hubby having to work, we won't finish until Saturday. But what's done looks pretty good. I've waited a long time for this and I can't wait until it's completed and I can sit back and enjoy it. We were talking last night, and the Imp offered her assistance this week and suggested she and I could make significant progress during the week. This would involve one of using the electric saw. Hubby commented that we hadn't been "checked out" on that equipment and the Imp replied, "What? You turn it one and cut. How hard can that be?" At which point Hubby turned to me and said, "Don't let her go near it!"

Trying to plan for next school year. Teaching once a week with lots of independent learning requires a different approach than conventional classroom teaching. But I'm excited for it. I'm also looking forward to utilizing the internet more. I'm thinking of having work sent to me the day before class, so I can simply go over what there is confusion on and then have some sort of activity, instead of going over the questions everyone 'got'.

The Singer's 20th

The Singer at 1



Celebrating her 2nd Birthday with her cousin.



As Belle, on her 5th Birthday



As Barbie, on her 7th Birthday



At 16



The Singer turns 20 today. I can't believe it. I got up early and made her some beignets from the mix from Cafe du Monde.
Although, nothing compares to the fresh beignets made at Cafe du Monde, in New Orleans. Those are simply heavenly.



She was super excited. We aren't really celebrating her birthday until Sunday due various social conflicts, and even then it may be a small celebration due to the laminate project, but that's okay, there have been many years where she's had numerous birthday celebrations. If we've been with extended family (which we often are) around her birthday, they always give her a cake and presents. And she traditionally has a party for her friends and then a separate get-together with her in-town cousins.

I feel great contentment over the Singer transferring to Belmont Abbey and in so many ways she's growing/grown up, but in her day-to-day dealings with her immediate family she is still very much a teenager wanting lots of privileges with little or no responsibilities. If she successfully completes her tasks (chores) for 4 days in a row and then totally ignores her responsibilities on the 5th day, she gets the "I can't believe how unreasonable my parents can be but I can't talk back" look on her face and says in a saccharine sweet tone, "Yes ma'am, I'll make sure I do that." then proceeds to NOT do it. UUGGGHH. This isn't a dorm, this isn't simply a place to stay...this is home and being part of a home requires a certain amount of GIVE not just take. The Imp has suffered the most, as I see the Singer taken advantage of her. The Imp doesn't want to see the Singer get into trouble and has picked up the Singer's chores on more than one occasion, and has tried to warn the Singer of impending catastrophe. The Singer seems very unappreciative.

Back in January, the Singer's plan was to be in an apartment now. I was so for that. In some ways she is too old to be 'parented' but I won't let her live here as a simple boarder. I know she thinks she should be able to do whatever she wants...last summer was rough around the edges, this summer is better simply because her work schedule has her sleeping and waking during normal hours. I know, August 19th will be here before I know it and with her in NC instead of across town, I will miss her. But I'm complaining, anyway.

My garden is not in good shape. I'm still pulling a few onions, and my green peppers look okay, but I got cucumber worms and the heat and sun are doing their damage. So I'll harvest what I still can, but then am waiting until mid July to start seeds for a fall crop of cukes and beans and more peppers and lettuce and new onions and potatoes.

Contents Under Pressure May Burst

A science lesson up close and personal. The Imp and I were putting cans of coke into the refrigerator and 2 were knock over and began rolling to the edge...I grabbed one and tried to yell to the Imp to get the other, but before I could form coherent words...wishing she could interpret my, "aahghh, ahhgha, aaahhhh" to mean, "Grab it!"...the can rolled onto the tile floor. And yes, it exploded. Quite impressively. The Imp found the whole thing interesting and amusing. Me? Much less so. I was spared the full impact of the explosion, as I was on the other side of the counter. But the explosion was rather impressive. Coke splattered on the wall 15 feet away! I took about an hour to wash everything down. I mused, "I guess this is a sign to stop drinking coke." And the Imp quickly told me she didn't see that message in the event. She thought it was a message to not sweat the small stuff and relax and laugh. We did have a few laughs as we were cleaning and she was a trooper in helping get rid of the sticky stuff. She kept the can. [It looks so cool.]

Hubby and I are taking the laminate plunge this weekend. We purchased the 300sq ft of laminate that we need and are letting it acclimate in our home so we can install it Saturday. The idea being that even if everything goes wrong we should be finished by the end of the July 4th weekend. Of course, I'm hoping for a much quicker completion date. Our house isn't really big enough to move the furniture out of the living room without impacting every other room of the house. With the Singer home from college already using any available storage space, it will not be comfortable to be in the house until we can move the furniture back in the room. As the couch has to camp out in the kitchen during this process, I was very thankful it wasn't already in the kitchen when we had the coke explosion.

I started teaching a crochet summer class. Just 4 weeks...a true intro class. I had 5 little girls (10-15 years old...they wouldn't appreciate the terminology) yesterday and I enjoyed myself immensely. I may have to start a crafts club for the school year with the homeschooling group. It really is fun.

Father's Day

Father's Day was great! The girls made another T-shirt for Hubby. They've made about 10 shirts in the last 15 years. This one was exceptionally cute. I love the back, "Guiding Our Footsteps Since..." The first shirt they made in 1995 had their handprints all over the front (but the handprints were so much smaller).

Hubby always has "world peace" as an item on his wish lists. It drives the Imp crazy because she hates that she feels an item is unattainable. So...this is what she gave him..




Hubby said that was his favorite gift. He is quite the punster so he loved that part of it. But there is also the fact that he and the Imp share a connection over the Veggie Tales' French Peas
The French Peas

The French Peas tend to play roles where they are enemies or are running things behind the scenes. They are small green peas. They do not quite understand instructions perfectly. The main two peas are Jean Claude and Phillippe, who are voiced by Mike Nawrocki and Phil Vischer, respectively. They also voice the others peas, except for Christophee Pea who is voiced by Chris Olsen.

So if you look real close you can see that the Imp named her peas with French (sort of) names. It was definitely a feel-good time.

Then after presents we went to see Toy Story 3. It was great! I'd go see it again (if it weren't for the sticker shock at the theaters.. We all agreed we need to purchase it for our DVD library when it's released. I've always been a fan of the Toy Story characters...I still am.

Back at the Library

I'm back at the library, but fortunately only until 2 pm today. I've managed to get a little work done, but have spent most of my time looking at laminate flooring online. I think Hubby is going to be going to home improvement stores for Father's Day. We need to make a decision and get going on this. The worst part of the whole process is moving the furniture out of the family room so we can do the work. I'm sure ripping up the old carpet won't be pleasant, either. I did find neat online resources through the library site and am looking forward to using them in the future.

I spent time yesterday reading old posts on The Happiness Project. It's fun to look at lists/hints/tips of others. I almost always find exceptions with at least some of them. At home, I talk back to the computer but here in the library I must remain quiet. Gretchen, at the Happiness Project, is an advocate of de-cluttering, and so am I. But I am also a person of moderation. De-cluttering does not mean never having anything out in the house. She talks about putting away small appliances (coffee pot, toaster) so de-clutter your counter. I leave them out to simplify my life. A tip to decluttering is to avoid souvenirs when travelling. But if I have a shell for souvenirs, then why not? Avoiding souvenirs that you don't already have a place for in the house...got it. I'm sure my the outside of my refrigerator drives my OCD and clutter-free friends crazy. It is covered with magnets (lots of business card/advertisements) so it's not a 'clean' look and then I have all sorts of important papers held up by those magnets. I do 'clean' the outside of my refrigerator and throw out out-dated stuff, but have the girls' schedules, my Jo Ann's coupons and the Rays' schedule so easily accessible is very important to me. When is stuff too much stuff? I don't know...I'll know it when I see it...in someone else's house. I have been trying to simply/downsize. We really don't have much storage room in my house. No basement and no real attic (very few things can survive a Florida summer in an attic). So I am forced to limit my stuff to a degree. I know I'll never be like the people on hoarders who climb over stacks of trash to get through their homes. The hardest thing for me to part with is a book. The Imp is the same way. I was in her room the other day (usually her room is primarily her domain) and I noticed she had a stack of books on her dresser...at least 3 feet high...no exaggeration. I told her she needed to put some of them away on one of her 2 bookshelves. She told me there was no room. I told her she needed to weed through some books. She doesn't know how to get rid of books. Having me as her mom doesn't help. But the 2 of us will be going through her books next week. I just got rid of 2 boxes of books. I let my friends rummage through them then give them to the library.

I wish I could stay home tonight. But Hubby and I have our marriage ministry group tonight. Once there I'll be fine and have a good time, but after 1 1/2 years of running the meetings, I'm ready for someone else to step up, but I know there isn't anyone who will. I think it's an important ministry, so Hubby and I will continue for a while longer, at least. When we started out we said we'd do it for 2 years. 2 years is up in February. We're both disappointed that it hasn't drawn more people. I guess lots of people see their marriage that as something that just IS, and not something that needs nourishing. Oh well.

Staking Claim at the Library

Well, I've made my claim on the carrel in the back corner of the library. A teenage boy had his i-pod music so loud I could hear his music over the music from my ipod. Guess he won't hear much in the future. The librarians are pretty good here, and someone came over to have him turn it down before I could finish my internal debate on how loud was too loud. This library is not large and older...so there are limited number of outlets (our new library in Town and Country has outlets everywhere for us laptop users) and claiming a carrel with an outlet is a feat. I got my Bible Study done and since I'm a prisoner of sorts here, I spent more time searching background material than I normally would. I learned quite a bit about the Pharisees.

I'm trying to figure out how to handle the Imp's work schedule. When we gave the okay to work with the iWait program, we were naively unaware that she would have to get to Plant City every day she worked. Ugh. I'm sure I'll get more of my planning done for next year's classes than I would have, but it really takes the low-key approach to the summer away. Fortunately, she doesn't work 5 days a week, so we'll have one day that we can not wake up and hustle out the door with me having to pack a lunch and a book bag filled with things to keep me occupied for 7 hours. I wouldn't mind doing some shopping...but I don't want to spend money and if I spend hours shopping, I know my resolve with not last. There are some antique shops in historic Plant City (right here) that I might meander through. Not much temptation of buying there....most is too expensive and doesn't match the decor of my house. And I use the word 'decor' liberally. I like my house...it definitely has the lived in feel to it. No one would feel like they'd walked into a magazine layout.

Even though the Singer is home this summer, it seems I rarely see her. She's working from 8-5 about 45 mins from home and she's started stopping at the gym to swim on her way home. So she's getting home around 7 or 8 each evening, and is gone by 7 the next day. I guess we'll all get to see each other this weekend for Father's Day. I think we'll go see Toy Story 3 on Sunday...maybe Karate Kid. Then Hubby wants me to make bacon-burger-cheese-dogs for him. You take a hot dog, split it down the middle and put in some cheddar cheese, then form ground beef around the dog, then wrap 2 pieces of bacon around it. Throw it on the grill, and you've got a dinner only a guy would want. We were telling some other people about this, and the women all said..aaahhh a little too much, and all the guys said "Oh I want that, too." Go figure. It's his day, so I'll make them and he'll grill them...

The Singer's birthday is next Friday. She's turning 20...a big deal because she's no longer a teen, but not really any milestone. Don't know yet what we're doing for her birthday. Guess I'll spend my afternoon planning her birthday.

Ballroom Dancing

Last night was a blast! Hubby and I took our 3rd class in ballroom dancing and we were actually dancing! It was fabulous. And more of a workout than it sounds. And we were complimented by the instructor...she asked if we'd taken classes before because we picked up the dances so well. Yea. I can't wait to go back again next week.















I'm reading a couple of different books right now, and they're all good. Two that are especially intriguing and thought provoking are
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink and Back to Virtue by Peter Kreeft. Here's a great summary of Drive on Youtube. Drive has me thinking of how to run my homeschool courses next year. I'll be teaching High School Geography, Government and Economics. It's a unique situation as I only meet with the student for 50 minutes a week. So much of the work is already done on their own. But, the gears in my mind are churning and I'm getting excited for the school year. Back to Virtue has me thinking about soooo much. Here's a quote, "We have reduced all virtues to one: being nice. And, we measure Jesus by our standard instead of measuring our standard by Him." The whole idea that today people spend more time than ever before in history TALKING about ethics and doing the right thing, but little time in pursuit of virtues or Truth. In fact, many today don't believe in an objective Truth but that Truth (hence right and wrong) are subjective. Anyway it is quite interesting.

The Imp has a summer job working with the iWait group, going around to Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCA summer camps to put on skits and such about abstaining from sex and drugs. I think she's perfect for the job and the varied structure of the job is perfect for her. The training is this week...32 miles from home. So I find myself sitting in the library not far from her training. Yesterday I worked on the scope and sequence of my government course and realized I need to learn more about the history of Florida before I try to teach about its government (state government is only 1 part of one unit and there are 15 units, but still...I hate not knowing some depth to what I'm teaching). Today I've been reading Drive and playing with my blog and searching for good swing music to download so Hubby and I can dance at home.

While surfing around on Daniel Pink's site, I came across the Happiness Project, and got caught up in reading many of her posts. In some ways it ties in with something Cindy mentioned in her post the other day about a woman making a new piece of clothing from an old dress each day for a year. Her budget for the year only $365. If you've got some time, it's fun...not near as 'heavy' as the other things I've mentioned thus far. If you sew, you should definitely take a look.

I'm also gearing up to teach a crafts course this summer. 3 weeks of intro to crochet and 3 weeks of intro to knititng with a "catch up week" at the end (no new material...just trying to finish projects). I'm pretty excited about that, too. Although, since I'm mainly self-taught in these I am spending some time online making sure my technique won't teach my students any bad habits.

I was telling Hubby the other night how it was kind of nice that we had no real summer plans and that I was looking forward to just staying home. He then told me he thought we should finally replace our living room carpet with laminate. I'm super excited to have it done, less excited about the actual doing. We're trying to get it done within the next month. (We have our couples group to our house the 3rd week of July). So I've also been spending time researching laminate flooring. Any advice is welcomed, although not necessarily heeded.

memorial day weekend

Our trip over Memorial Day Weekend was fun and packed with activity. We got to Sumter on Saturday afternoon. Got to see Kevin and Lauren (and meet Patrick) and my mom and dad. Brian's boys were spending the weekend with my parents so we had fun with them, too. Sunday we drove the boys home and got to spend Monday and Tuesday with Brian and Tracy. The rain tried to put a damper on things, but couldn't. Tuesday we toured Belmont Abbey and it was absolutely gorgeous. The student who was our guide said he'd try to keep us in the shade as it was so hot. We all laughed. It was beautiful...about 86, sunny and not too humid. Arriving back in Tampa, we have mid 90's and humidity so high you can cut it. The school is obviously small. Only 1400 students. Compared to USF's 40,000+ it's bite-sized, but it felt like a perfect match for Megan. Now if she can just get her transfer credits situated. Enjoy the pics.
Pictures from Sumter
Pictures from North Carolina

'Nuff Said

Florida bishop recalls how mother considered aborting him :: EWTN News

Florida bishop recalls how mother considered aborting him :: EWTN News

Dinner? Again?

I like to cook, and have become a decent cook in the last few years. I enjoy planning meals for us to sit down as a family to share. I don't like planning dinners day after day after day after day. I especially don't like planning (or making) dinner on nights I have to go back out to do something. Tonight is our marriage ministry meeting, last night was Bible Study. I'm preparing for the meetings in the early evening and am rarely hungry before I leave the house. In fact, I usually pull something together for Hubby and girls and don't eat anything myself. It seems we've been having a lot of evening meetings and I just don't want to even think about dinner. I know I'm complaining about something which many people wouldn't...I'm a baby.
My house is a mess right now. With the Singer home from college our front room is full of boxes with her dorm stuff in them...blankets, sheets, dishes, cleaning supplies, printer... The family room is full of my world history class' end of the year project of a timeline (3000 BC thru 2000 AD...and yes I still say AD and not CE). Our counter, which is a paper magnet by design has birthday cards, college loan info and just plain junk mail strewn across it. If I'd taken these last 10 minutes to work on it instead of complain it'd look a lot better, but I'm having much more fun complaining.
Had to run to the store for last minute items for tonight's meeting and so the Imp wanted to drive. We're driving home and she's inching closer and closer to the right side of the road (which borders a ditch). I finally comment on how far to the right she is. Her response is "I knew exactly where I was." Now does that mean she thinks she was not as close to the edge as I thought OR does it mean that she meant to be that close to the edge? Either way is a little scary. She's actually not a bad driver, but is still in the learning stages since we've given her such little time to practice.
I feel like after this week (that is by next Friday) I'll be done for the school year. Of course, I always get my hopes up for a restful summer, but as Hubby keeps pointing out...I spend much more time with the kids during the summer than during the school year...but I'm holding onto my dream for a little while longer.
The Singer is working 40 hrs/wk this summer and they're 'regular' hours (8am-5pm). Last summer she worked odd hours and missed dinner each night, stayed up late and slept till 10 or so. It's so much nicer having her on a schedule similar to ours. It's still an adjustment to have her home. She's simply not used to living as a family and the considerations that entails.

A Happy Birthday

Here's something a friend sent me. I think it's great. Might have to try to memorize and perform it myself.



Had a great birthday. Hubby took the day off of work and we went to You Do the Dishes a place where you paint pottery and then they fire it and you pick it up a few days later. I made a deviled egg plate to match the serving bowl I'd made another day.




I love going and painting things there. Some people are amazed at how much time I'm willing to put into painting these things. In order to make the deviled egg plate, I cut 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch squares from masking tape and place them on the plate to create the checkered pattern. I really didn't mind at all. I find the whole experience therapeutic.











One of the best parts of going to You Do the Dishes is getting a chocolate moose frappe. There are all kinds of goodies but my tradition is always a chocolate moose frappe. One time I got a strawberry smoothie...not the same thing.


I first went here 12 years ago. A friend took me there as my birthday present. What a great present as I've been going back once or twice a year since then. Here are a few of the things I've made.












In addition to that great experience, I'm waking up to my Christian radio station and hear that my daughter has sponsored the day in honor of my birthday. Now that is a neat present.

There was a slight cake calamity, but I won't go into it as I'm still mourning the ruination of my chocolate meringue truffle cake that I spent 45 minutes putting together.



My family tried to make it up to me with a Carvel ice cream cake. It was nice, but not close to the chocolate meringue truffle cake I'd been planning on having for the last 2 months since I found the recipe.

Another great birthday present was the return home of my nephew from Afghanistan. Glad to know he's no longer in a war zone and is safe on American soil.