Monday, August 10, 2009

Hangin In there!

Things are pretty crazy around here. To say the least.The past weekend was really nice and QUIET. Ardyn went to school on Friday, and when I picked her up from school, she went to Grandma Deb's, and was gone for over 24 hours. It was marvelous! Soooooo quiet here, and peaceful, and I could actually HEAR MYSELF THINK! My brain DOES Still work under there! Unbelievable. Friday Marek and I had to run to Peru, because I needed some boning (sewing notion, not sex) and a few fasteners to make a nursing cover. We wandered around JoAnn's pretty heavily, choosing what to spend the few dollars that we had... and the 40% off coupon, on. I got two books, one about organizing your life, that actually has a PLAN OF ACTION for each week. I also got a book about Wool Animals (needlefelting) and I am excited to have some money again soon so that I can buy a few supplies. I figure I can get started for about $20-$30. I have. Then I ate lunch at Jimmy John's and I went home and we napped in the afternoon, and then packed up Ardyn's bag for grandma's house before we picked her up from school.

Saturday I spent the day cleaning and organizing. All I really got accomplished was picking up the living room, working on the dining room table, and completely cleaning the Computer Desk, which took the majority of the day. But instead of just making piles of things I needed to do, I actually DID those things. I found my Christmas Cards from 2008 and wrote down who sent them in my Christmas Card Book. Then I was able to throw them out (whew!) I filed. I purged, I filled an entire garbage can just off the desk! (yeah.) Then I organized all the electronics that we owned, pairing them with their chargers, cables, books, and software, and putting them in labeled ziploc bags. I cleaned out the ONLY drawer on the desk, and put all those electronics in there. Accesible, organized, but OUT of my sight (and Ardyn's!)

I have a stack of CD's (in their cases, out of their cases mostly, and some that I don't know if they are blank or used) that is literally a foot tall. I haven't synched my iPod since right after Ardyn was born, so nearly two years.... and so I installed iTunes on the home computer, and set everything up, and linked it to the music library on my portable hard drive. Then I started checking all the CD's and throwing out old ones. I moved all the pictures on the computer and on the CD's into organized folders by month and year on the portable hard drive. Then I started importing music CD's from the stack into iTunes. I synched my iPod! Yay!

Pardon me, I just had to take a break and feed and rock Marek for his nap, during which time Ardyn was supposed to be pottying with daddy and ended up pooping ON her bedroom floor, stepping in it, tracking it all over her shaggy rug, and all over the bedroom floor, bathroom floor, and bathroom rug. All of which floors and rugs ,are WERE all freshly vacuumed, mopped, and/or laundred. UGH!

Okay, where was I? Oh yes, peace, quiet, and actual accomplished thinking. A thing of the past. To sum it all up, I bascially feel like I am living in a house with fifty untrained animals. Sticky food, dirty floors, spilled juice, and animal waste.... everywhere. It boggles my mind how others can live in the same house as I do and NOT EVEN NOTICE how disgusting their habits are. Like, how can you BE 29 years old and not put your gum or your garbage IN the garbage? Seriously? How can you be 29 years old and think it's cool to put a BANANA PEEL in the living room garbage, which doesn't get regularly emptied and doesn't even have a BAG inside it, because we usually just use it for waste paper. Seriously? Oh. Boy.

So, I also got my new cell phone setup to sync to the computer also. Yay! I was able to lookup my Nikon Lens online (it's in the shop for repair under warranty and I can check the status online) and I was also able to check EVERY pen and marker in our three pen cups and throw out every single one that doesn't work. That was an accomplishment in itself. Evan picked up Ardyn's room at my request, and vacuumed it on his own (yay!) and thgen he offered to clean the bathroom and mop it also. That was wonderful. I am keeping my mouth shut (to him at least) about the fact that the icky spot behind the toilet seat brackets never got cleaned, and about the fact that the toilet bowl itself is not respectable. But I think I will just do those myself and be happy that there was something nicely accomplished that I didn't have to do.

Ardyn came home late Saturday night after lots of fun with grandma and grandpa. She enjoyed her time there, and we SERIOUSLY enjoyed a bit of quiet time while she was gone. Evan, Marek, and I also met the outlaws and great great grandma at the Mexican restraunt for supper on Friday night, which was really nice, and we ran into lots of people that we know, including Ryan, Emy, and Presleigh... Amy Jo and Jackson... Uncle Sean and Jimmy... and Rich. Then I went to the County Fair Queen pageant for a tiny bit with Marek, and we watched Susan Brummel compete for a while, until he got tired and I realized that I needed to get ice cream before DQ closed up shop. I think I need to make my own ice cream. I love ice cream. On a daily basis. And I think I would be happy if I could just make it on a whim. I guess I should put that on my list of things to research! It sucks that I have to make a list!

Right now I can't even FIND the notebook where I have all my lists... and I am trying not to stress about that.

Another thing that I have learned, is that surivival of the fittest has taken over here. If I keep taking care of everyone else and ignoring myself, I am going to go bat-shit crazy. So I have been ignoring things as best I can, and trying to consider my own needs and sanity as best I can. It's working a little bit. But just when I am feeling good, and things are going well, I get a call from Evan that says "look out the window" and I see that someone came and mowed all the prairie grass and wildflowers in our ditch. Without permission. And they are all gone. It took years of establishment and the seed was very expensive, and before it was planted we were given clearance by the county (who owns the ditch) and we turned it into an established native prairie. and then this morning someone took it upon themselves (at about 6:30 or 7am) to mow it all off, which likely has done some serious damage and won't allow it to reseed. People piss me off. I could just cry looking at it. But it has now been relayed to me that we will be putting up prairie signs now and that we will work harder to see that it is protected next year.

Well, it's afternoon now, lunch has been had (chicken breasts, sweet corn on the cob, italian pasta salad) and both kids have been napping for a bit. I unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded it, cleaned up in the kitchen.... putting things in the garbage, recycle, and also washing all the stoneware and such. I have a new deal now, I operate by the mentality that if it doesn't make it through the dishwasher, it wasn't welcome in this house to begin with. I have only TWO Exceptions to this rule. 1. The Pampered Chef Ice Cream Scoop 2. Wooden Cutting boards. I don't use wooden cutting boards to cut food on, but there is NOTHING better to knead and rise bread dough on. I adore my wooden cutting board and antique wooden peel just for those reasons. I have a bamboo cutting board that someone gave me as a wedding gift, and it is beautiful, but I have only used it a couple of times because it is SO pretty It's like I am afraid of it. LOL.

I have a dozen freshly hard-boiled eggs cooling on the counter, and if i can get this done I assure myself that the next steps are to prepare and start the squash. I have a bunch of Zucchini that Mrs. Wiggim brought me today, and also 6 Yellow Crook-Neck Squash that I picked at the Timber Garden yesterday. I will have to beg Kyle to plant Butternut Squash next year. I love butternut Squash and so do babies! It makes a fabulous puree to hide in food, and Ardyn loved it as baby food. I think that and sweet potatoes were here favorites, hands down. I found a cool glossary for Squash online, which I really like. I wish that in addition to naming each type of squash and giving it's charachteristics and photo, it also discussed the best way to prepare and serve each one. These crooknecks have me confused, because while they are a soft squash, which I can use the skin on if I choose, I really don't think I WANT to, and so I am not sure how you could possibly peel a crookneck squash. I think I am going to have to halve them, bake them, and scoop out the insides to puree. With any other smooth skinned summer squash, I would peel them, chunk them, put them through the big-mouth food processor and slice them, and then steam them in my food steamer and puree them in the processor again. Sounds like a lot of work, but not once you get going. It all happens quickly. But with these bumpy ones, I am going to have to bake and scoop, I fear. Mom says you can leave the skin on the zukes and shred them as is for bars and cakes, but I don't think I can bring myself to do it that way. I think I will have to peel them. It just makes me feel better and I can't explain that.

Oh here's the webpage that I adored with squash identification info.... I even facebooked the lovely thing I was so pleased with it.

Speaking of which, if you haven't connected with me on facebook, now's the time. Just remind me who you are and where you came from, and if I determine that you are not a stalker and aren't after my children or my sexy body (ha!) then I will add you as a friend. I do much better with quick updates over there these days. I feel like I have betrayed bloggers everywhere, but I can't HELP it because I find myself either braindead or weighed down by two tinies every time I want to blog.

Right now I am really working on what I can do for ME. Evan says that he thinks it's a good idea if he watches the kids for a night a week so that I can get out and get some ME time. I agree wholeheartedly, but I also need a night a week where they all just GO AWAY and I can work in the house to get things done. When this place overwhelms me, it's all I can do to not have a nervous breakdown. And the answer to that (temporarily) is to get away from it, but it's always there when you come back... therefore you never can get away.

My "ultimate goal" for this fall is to register myself for classes at the local community college. And I don't mean "I'm not happy/unemployable/having a mid-life crisis/want to make more money and need to go back to school" classes. I mean "I'm going to go crazy if I don't get some me time and so I am going to take some FUN and creative classes." I researched and there are several that I am looking forward to, one on RAW Bead weaving, Peyote Cuffs, Silver Clay-Making Jewelry, A cooking class on Sauces, a SOAPMAKING CLASS (which I could just pee my pants over I am so excited) and there are a few more jewelry classes, but I have them written in the notebook that I can't find right now (the one that I am TRYING not to panic about) and so I can't recall them all. They basically boil down to a $25 class that is one session long. So I would get to go about once a week and each week I will take a class that will teach me a new technique, and bring home a new piece of jewelry, or loaf of soap, etc. I think it will be fun. I am also thinking I will take more time to scrapbook, which I haven't done in about a month. It's been hard, because I just can't scrapbook and watch both kids (especially Ardyn) while I am doing it. Its too much. I am ALMOST done with her invitations for her mermaid birthday party...

Oh shit the loud one is awake, that means that Marek is not far behind!

But the issue is that I have just a few things left to do, and haven't had time to go finish the invites. Now I am behind schedule (I wanted to have them out by the 1st of August) and so I am kinda cranky about that. Then I heard that a good portion of Evan's family is planning to be out of state that weekend.... which makes me a little cranky, but at the same time, I'm like, aw, she's two, who cares. If they come, they come, if they can't, they can't! I considered pushing it back, but I don't think at this point that is the best decision to make. They all know when her birthday is. If they think that there is something else they would rather be doing, then that is their decision and I am fine with that.

Oh now Marek is up. Geez!

So I cut the stupid bumpy yellow crooked neck squash. Those damn things were hard as a rock and the insides were mostly seeds. Now I am baking them. And they stink. They smelled kinda like pumpkins, but as soon as they started to bake.... ack. This had better be worth it. I am gonna bake three, and if they are crap, I will just give the last three away. LOL. I will definitely have to recommend (ask nicely) that next year there is Butternut Squash. Or I can probably plant them there myself? Then later friends on facebook told me that once they get bumpy, they are past their prime and way too woody and hard. Ha. All that work for nothing.

Wow, if THIS Isn't the blog post that took all day? The clock is telling me it's 7:45pm and I started this at 1pm. Holy CRAP. I guess that in order to blog nowadays I will have to start a post in the AM and just keep adding to it. But I am afraid that nothing I am saying makes sense, because I keep getting interrupted! ha.

Well, I am almost through the 1 foot stack of CD's. There's literally a few inches left. This is good. I have imported all of them into iTunes, and only have a few more to go. I found an old CD that wasn't labeled, and when I played it, it had Alan Jackson and Tim McGraw songs on it, mostly from the early 90's that I didn't have on any other CD. Not sure if someone had made it for me or what, so I searched out all the information and entered it in, and imported it. I probably won't ever listen to them, but they just reminded me of things, and I knew every word.... except to Set This Circus Down.... I forgot about that song! Sweet. What good is having a husband who plays guitar and writes songs if he never writes a song for his wife. Ack. I must have gave it up too quickly. LOL.

Okay, well... now it's 10:15 and I have things to do now, since Ardyn is asleep and Marek needs to get woke up, changed, in PJ's, and into HIS bed. Take Care.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I read your blog quite frequently and would like to join your facebook. However, I do not have your last name to search for you on facebook. Any chance you can point me in the right direction? Thank you, Susan Reynolds

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