Busy, Busier, Busiest

Yes, well, I know I’ve not written much lately. I’ve been busy. More busy than I was last summer when I had the kids here all the time. I’m still looking for a job. I want something close by 2 mornings per week. Since The Teen takes my car to school I am driving the Green Bean so I won’t go far. What am I doing that is keeping me so busy? Besides cooking, cleaning, sewing, soap making, laundry, and other assorted stuff. I’m being very challenged by kid homework. I pick them up at 2:40 and on days when there’s no lesson, chorus, or other activates there’s hours of homework.

DH and I are taking the learn about being Catholic class each week. I am really enjoying it. I had no idea that the Catholic’s and Protestants shared so many similar beliefs. The people in the class are really nice.

I have a new friend Renee, today’s her birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RENEE! She is having a birthday bash on Saturday that I am looking forward too.

The Teen went to youth group last night and sang loudly for a long time. She is glad to have a voice today. She said she saw my friend who reads my blog there. Hi Friend!

My skirt is almost finished. It really came out nice. Not quite as random as I wanted it too but I guess random means it comes out however it does. I’ll post pix of it soon. It really challenged my sewing skills.

AAAAKK! While I am not apposed to Amazon doing advertising on my site I did not link that kid homework book. I have linked other stuff and now I know what they mean by that email that said they just made it easier for me. UG!

Carpet Cleaning

It's been awhile since anyone cleaned my carpets.

It went something like this. MIL has a carpet cleaner. I decide to clean the carpets. I borrow MIL’s carpet cleaner. I tidy up the family room and get it ready to clean the carpet only to discover that the machine doesn’t work. I call customer service and after discussing the problem I am told to take it to the service center. I call the service center and am told that it will be $45 to look at it if the cost of the repair is over $90 they will call me. Humm, I have the receipt stapled to the instruction book and the machine only cost $169. I know I can rent a machine from the grocery for $22. What to do? I was kind of siked (SP?) to clean the carpet even though only the family room carpet is all picked up and vacuumed. I decide to rent a cleaning machine. I stop on the way home from the silly’s adventure and the grocery is out of them. DH gets home and needs to run an errand. I ask him to see if the other grocery has any cleaners and they do. He picks it up at 7:00pm I clean carpets until about 11:00pm. I begin again at 9:00 am and work until about 12:30 when I need to take the kids somewhere. I get home around 4 and clean carpets until 6:50 when it is time to return the machine. In addition to paying to rent the machine I paid $18 for the machine brand carpet cleaner. It was AWFUL! The water it sucked up looked very dirty but the carpet did not look any cleaner. That was when I got the idea to look online. I found the dollar stretcher site and they suggested many things. I tried most of them. The formula that worked best was a combination of Tide HE and OXY clean. I had wanted to go over the carpet until the water being sucked out of it looked cleaner but even with all that work I only got the family room barely done, the hall done and The Teen did the living room. Than I remembered my good friends whom own a bunch of apartments, I bet they have a carpet cleaner. I also remembered that for $89 I could have had 2 rooms and a hall done professionally it would not have taken an entire day and I would not have blisters.

Another ADHD blessing!

The Teen and The Conference

Today is the teen’s birthday. We celebrated it yesterday because I had been invited to a conference today. Sadly I did not take the camera with me. I am typing this on DH's laptop and I am not used to typing here. I am making lots of goofy mistakes. Luckily for you by the time you see this it will have been run thorough Word and a spell checker. Word is not on this computer, so I will email this to myself than put it in word on the other computer after that I will put it on Blogger. Clear as mud. Good I thought so.

The Teen was blessed by her family on her birthday. She got a PS2. She has been increasingly frustrated by the way her siblings take care of the game cube. This new PS2 is all hers. So today when I get home from the conference I ask to sit at the computer and she is there. She doesn't want to give up her seat there. That is why I am at the laptop, which is not really on my lap it is on a small dinner tray that you would use if you were having a meal in bed. As I was wrapping The Teen’s gifts yesterday I thought about what she would do with her PS2. Her very good friend 'Tall Guy' is her favorite person to play video games with. I called 'Tall Guy' and asked him to come over and surprise The Teen and play video games with her. He did. It was very sweet. Anyway she did not tell me what she wanted to eat for her birthday dinner so she got spaghetti and meat sauce. So and I made her a nice cake. We used the white cake recipe from Cooks Illustrated. The link to CI is over on the right. It is my favorite place to for and about recipe stuff. Ya know how as you type stuff in word it automatically fixes the word ‘the’. Up to this point in this program every time I have typed the word the I have spelled it wrong. Weird. The Teen also got a button maker as a gift.

So about the conference; about a week a go I received an invitation to it. I did not commit at that time. Thursday night I was talking to my friend and she reminded me about it and asked if I would come. I have been in a very dry place lately so I agreed to go. I am so glad I did. It was really a beautiful thing. It started with yummy treats, than prayer and worship. After that was a speaker on contemplative prayer. I have researched contemplative prayer before, so I was familiar with the concept. There have been times when I have heard things from God so clearly, today was one of those days. We were all sitting there and had been instructed to picture a large vessel in front of us that is full. This vessel is full of all our busyness, laziness, anger, resentment, fear, what ever is keeping us from praying and hearing from God. Than imagine you are reaching into this vessel and pulling out something that is keeping you from God. How about several things... Now ask God to fill that space you have made. What is he saying to you today? These times can be scary. It is a very vulnerable place to be. "OK, God what are you saying to me?" What do you want me to change in my life? I was thinking about lots of things I could change for God. I heard so clearly. Something I did not want to hear. I knew it was not my thoughts I was hearing. SIGH... "Get off of sugar” WHAT? Oh come on God, not that one. I mean I know I feel better when I don't eat sugar but I really like baking and I have so many recipes I want to try. What about the brownies. I really like brownies. When it was time to share I said "I feel like I want to act like a 2yo. I want to throw myself down on the floor and kick and scream. I want to throw a total fit." My dear friend MS said to me "you can do that Marla, God doesn't mind." Than the clincher "he will just treat you like you treat your own children when they throw a fit." AAAAKKKK!!!! That is very much not how I want to be treated. When my kids threw a fit I calmly and gently said "get over it" "You are not getting what ever it is you are acting like that about" If the fit continued they got some cold water dumped on them. Much later in the conference another speaker made this comment "ain't no fight like you and the Holy Ghost and you are not going to win." Again, sigh! Well, I guess sugar is gone. Just like that. I will quit cold turkey. Funny the last two days I have drank my coffee with out sugar just because I wanted too.

Other things from the conference were "you have a tomorrow!" For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

They saved the best for last. First there was a worship leader who had the most beautiful soothing/smokey voice. She talked and sang about how I have value. When we know our worth to God we open ourselves up to letting him do amazing things through us. I am the best God has created. I am because he created me to be me. I am the only one who can be me; therefore I am the best that has been created to be me. The keynote speaker was Lucreta Bowman. She is an amazing woman who chose to listen to God and let him work in her life. Her message about breaking free from our incarcerated minds was very powerful. She had been to prison 5 times. While in for the 5th time she heard God and choose to listen. She spoke about not living on the sidelines of our lives and examining if we are conditioned to remain in the position we have created for ourselves.

I'm so glad I went to this conference. I went up for prayer at the end. I told MS I seem to always choose the hard road. I am coming to a major cross road here and decisions need to be made. I will have to get a job to pay for the kids to go to school this year. Since I don't have one of those nifty pieces of paper that says I am worth more than $cheap per hour, I am feeling challenged. Part of the hardest thing is some of the people I encounter with those nifty pieces of paper who seem to be worthless at whatever job they are doing. A friend said I should apply for a receptionist position. At his company they start people as receptionists and if they show intelligence they are quickly promoted to another job. Part of the difficulty is that I am looking for a part time job. It is VERY important to the kids that I am home when they arrive home from school.

It was Lucreta who prayed with me. When she walked up to me I told her she was beautiful (she was). She told me how cool it was that I was an encourager. Who, me? She told me stuff about my being joyful, um, never mind the fact that I can't seem to function without Lexapro, and it was that joy that had gotten me through the tough times. Anyway she was really all over me about not letting go of the Joy. She said I had been through a hard time, um, YEA! Pause and you are still going through it. "Just when I thought it was safe to go back into the water." I mean I guess I was thinking we were about done with this hard time stuff. I've been thinking about going back to school much more seriously. Right now is season for me to pay for my kids to go to school. I was looking into this nursing school near me and actually its not that expensive + you can work off part of the tuition at the hospital.

Just Rambling

Twenty something years ago I went to college. I studied culinary arts. I was within an inch of graduating when I quit (ok, it was really 2 inches). I had taken almost all the core classes and lots of the other classes. I have the transcripts to reflect on. It was a hard time in my life. I had just spent a summer working in a Major Summer Resort Hotel Kitchen. I realized that I did not want to spend the rest of my life doing this kind of work with these kinds of people. If you work in the food service and read my blog I am probably not talking about people like you. I’m talking about the folks who swore worse than sailors. The ones that partied EVERY night and talked and talked about it. They were obnoxious and chain smokers who took constant breaks... I was too immature to realize that people were the same everywhere you go. I thought it was just like that in the restaurant world. So I quit college. Neither did I realize at the time that any piece of paper from a school of higher learning is a valuable thing to have and will make it easier for you to get more pieces of paper from schools of higher learning. There is no way to finish what I started; now it's the Midwest Culinary Institute and they don't even offer the same courses. Plus I’d have to take accounting 2 and even though I took #1 twice I never understood it.

I’d really like to go back to college. I waver between wanting to do nursing and acupuncture. Our area is pretty saturated with nurses. Maybe the hospitals don’t show it but I know LOTS of nurses. Our area is very underserved with acupuncture. The classes I’d have to take before entering either program are the same. Algebra (I don’t understand this. I mean this is something that neither job will require to perform and it may be the one thing that keeps me out) English (sigh! at least now there is Microsoft word) A & P, biology, chemistry, and I don’t remember what else. The educations will cost about the same. There is only one acupuncture school within 100 miles, it is not accredited. They have only graduated 2 classes so far. I could supplement with classes from Chicago (I love Chicago). I could help so many people. Acupuncture helped me so much. But, if I did the nursing thing I could do those cool medical missions trips my friends keep going on. The acupuncture program is full time for 3 years. They don’t have a part time tract. I think it is unrealistic to think I could study 70 something hours each week for 3 years. They say you need to study 3 hours for each class hour. That is for people who don’t have ADHD.

What I need right now is a job so I can pay for my beautiful kids to go to this nifty private school.

This is very aggravating to me. There are no good options for affordable Christian education in my area. There are lots of options for parochial school. Since I am not Catholic I am not eligible for any discounts. No multi sibling, no church member, and no the fundraising was so successful that everyone gets $200 off, NOTHING. I am not anti Catholic folks. I just don’t believe its right for me to stand up in front of the church and say “I agree with you and I want to be a member”, when in fact I don’t agree with them. Granted the differences are small, but they are big enough for me to not be willing to lie about it. So, Marla, what do you believe that is so different?

I am a Pedestrian. I carry the Love and Good News of Jesus where ever I walk.

I believe the Bible is the final authority. Period. There are not times when we listen more to traditions than to the Word of God. The Bible does show us that sometimes it's OK to lie, however, lying to get the discount in this situation is unacceptable in my opinion.

I believe where it says “confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead and you will be saved, it means what it says. I confess Jesus is Lord, therefore I am saved.

You can’t out give God.

When Jesus said “when you pray say “Our Father” “he did not say “Our Mother” So we should pray to The Father. Well there’s more but I’m done rambling.

Contact Sports

Easter egg hunting is a contact sport. I mean really! Since I am a mean mom I don’t do Easter baskets or gifts. I never wanted to have to explain about the Easter Bunny meeting Jesus. Usually we get together with my family on Easter but it did not happen this year. Dad took some of the kids to church and that was it. We had a nice quiet day at home, the kids dyed some eggs. Since we did not get together with my family and my kids were rather disappointed. So, I decided to be a nice mom and went out the day after and bought discount eggs and candy. Tuesday dawned beautiful and sunny and everyone was acting nice to each other so I decided it would be fun to have an egg hunt. The Teen and I went out into the side and back yard and dropped or hid eggs. I made sure to look around for those pesky neighborhood kids that I did not want close by for this. Since I was buying the candy at a discount I only bought the kinds I like. When all the eggs were down and the 3 littles had baskets I opened the door and let the carnage begin. I must admit I was shocked at the violent way my kids went after not only the eggs but each other. If 2 of them spotted an egg at the same time they just shoved the other one out of the way. Than 1 of them having just missed the egg took an egg out of the offending sibling’s basket to make up for it. So the offending sibling took an egg out of the offended’s basket and on it went. Finally all the eggs were picked up, (I had counted them ahead of time so I’d know if some were left in the yard) and we headed back into the house. OK really they were not that violent because I have exceptionally nice, patient, kind and gracious kids, but this is really something that should only happen once a year or 2 or 3. After choosing a space they opened their loot and agreed on how much hommage, tax they would pay to me. Than they sorted out their candy and started playing with it. The dang camera is still not working but they built the cutest cities with a Hershey’s kiss on top of a Reese’s cup that was an adult and a plain Hershey kiss was the kid the Kit Kat bars were the castle gates the snicker bars were the castle walls and I don’t remember what the peasants were. The town hall was the plastic egg stack in the middle. The game went on for a long time and was very fun to watch.

Another Busy Day

It's Tuesday!

Did I mention that The Teen um, lost the privilege of driving? Her mean anal retentive parents took away her drivers license. Thankfully she is on spring break this week so I am able to get some stuff done. Sa and So are going to the symphony today with Grandma. I still need a two way zipper for this harp case. I found out yesterday where to get one, duh the foam store. Anyway I need to get this harp case finished before I call about picking up Sa's harp. The learning curve on making harp cases has been really steep. I am hoping the harp store will want to sell them. When I pick up Sa's harp I will make sure the owner is in. I finally got to Costco yesterday and now there is food in the house. Did I mention that I am really challenged when it comes to writing in complete and proper sentences? Did I mention that I did not get that spelling gene? Thankfully there is usually a kid around who can tell me how to spell stuff. I made 3 loaves of bread yesterday, 1 is already gone, 1 is in the freezer and the other is out on the counter. I'll try to make some more today. Since I've been making bread I really don't like the smell of the bread isle in the grocery. It just smells so stale and artificial. I did buy hotdog buns and some small hoagie buns. I will fill them and put them into the freezer. I already have half size steak hoagies in the freezer. It is so much cheaper than buying the ready made ones. I was buying the ready made steak hoagies at 3 for $6. If I buy a package of 6 buns and a bag of 6 already cooked JTM's and I assemble them with mozzarella cheese and some sauce I get 12 half hoagie’s for less than $8. I’m not too good with math but I think that is better than 6 for $6. The Teen likes them for lunch and the boy likes them as an after school snack. This spell check does not have the option of adding words and that is frustrating. Even more frustrating than that is that Blogger kindly rearranged my words for me 3 times. I’m thinking it may be time to go looking for other blog hosting sites. I pasted this into Microsoft Word to finish and so when I paste it back into Blogger it likes to make my words bold, italic, big, small or another frustrating thing. Sigh!

It’s 11:00am and it feels like I’ve already had a busy day. I forgot to give Grandma the voucher to get into the symphony. Thankfully The Teen was home and answered the phone the third time I rang her. She read Grandma the numbers off the voucher so they were able to get their seats. The foam store did not have the zippers and they sent me to a shoe repair store. I got 16 hotdogs in buns in bags in the freezer and 18 small sub sandwiches in French rolls in the freezer. I was going to mix up cookie dough but AAK! I only have 1 package of the right kind of chocolate chips.

This Crazy Life

Today will be interesting. The teen will attempt to drive herself to school, its about 20 miles each way. She will take my car meaning I will drive the VAN. I've not actually driven the VAN since last fall but DH put a new battery in it last weekend. I will take Sa to CHMC because she and I got into an ADHD study and it pays very well. YEA! I am so happy that we got in. I did not know that nicotine was a stimulant but they will be testing me to see if a patch gives me the same results that adderall does. That will end with just enough time for me to pick up the boy and go get his best bud from school, drop them off at home, than get my self to the DR for more Adderall which I find indispensable and must beg for. Where is Sa when I need her. I just don't get this grammar thing. I mean I just write like I talk but I can never figure out where to put the commas and periods. I really believe it is a gene. She got it from her dad. I ripped out the bottom of the Princess Peach dress yesterday and have not fixed it yet. I have almost all the fabric cut out for the cover of the harp case, but I miss placed the camera card when I was using Grandma's camera to take a picture. I really need to get to the grocery store the pickings are slim here. Now I need to go light a fire under the teen. Oh, Yea and if you remember my friend Flower from my party, she had the babies. The ones that are not hers. Twins ,and everyone is doing fine. Congratulations Flower and family and the other family. Hey The Teen just got moving on her own. I think I'll go check out Ree's Page.

The Elephant Project

Hallelujah! The elephant project is done! It started innocently enough, I was going to get together with another family and do a fun project. We were studing elephants they were studing Africa. I said lets make some paper mache elephants. I inquiered about building big things out of paper mache and sadly asked the wrong people first. I even reaserached things as best I could on the net before begining. I started before the person who really knew what to do got back to me. We started with chicken wire frames. The chicken wire was not as sturdy as I expected it to be. So we stuffed the frames with news paper and they got really heavy, also the legs got wobbly. So we stuck wooden picks in the legs. Than we coated the elephants with news paper and began to put mache paste on them. I learned lots of things.

Some things I learned along the way...
1, chicken wire and small kids is not a good mix
2, large structures built out of chicken wire should have a sturdier frame inside
3, small projects can easily become overwhelming (oh, wait, I already knew that one, just add ADhD to any project and it becomes TOO BIG)
4, the best way to make paper mache is to mix 1 part flour to 5 parts water, heat and stir until thick and smooth.
5, this mixture will rot if left on the counter over night
6, if it rots it smells worse than your old gym shoes that you wore all day with no socks than it rained
7, 3 gallons of rotten mache paste is really hard to dispose of (if you live in the city)
8, the best way to apply mache paste to a surface is to brush it onto newspaper and than stick it to the object
9, its a good idea to let 3 coats dry overnight before attempting to add more

Pictures of the process can be seen here.
This posting word program sucks! Where did I put that HTML book???