Again with this car!

Yep, car problems again!  One would THINK it would be passed time to replace it, but sadly, I can’t afford that at the moment.  So I’m stuck trying to keep this old bucket of bolts running for as long as possible until I can afford a replacement.  This time it’s the speedometer, which CAN be fixed, but as no one has the part in stock, I have to wait nearly a week for it to come in and get fixed.  🤦🏻‍♀️  But it is what it is, and I’ll manage.  I always do, don’t I?

Oldest Son made it down south around 6:30 in the morning on Friday, and basically went straight to sleep once he got into the house.  So he obviously didn’t see his Pop that day.  And with the approaching storm (which will probably be over by the time this posts), he’s not staying down there as long as he had planned, which means my little family will all be together when the storm does hit.  I’m honestly not expecting too much from it, but we’ll be prepared regardless.  We have a pantry full of pastas, so I’ll get some cans/ jars of premade sauce (premade means less to refrigerate), as well as some other staples and water, and we’ve been making ice and filling jugs for a little while already, so hopefully we’ll be fine.  Well, that’s all the excitement around here.  Have a great week!

Keeping on...

Hello out there!  Is anyone reading this?  I’ll admit, I’m probably not the most scintillating writer on the planet, and I’m not full of sunshine and rainbows all the time like a lot of blogs, but I do hope someone reads this and at least thinks, “hey, at least my life isn’t as bad as hers!”  lol

Had to make a decision last week, along with all 5 of my older siblings, regarding my dad’s health, and I feel very positive about it.  My brother talked to the doctors and nurses about it, and we all believe the right decision was made.  And shock of all shocks, all six of us agreed on something for once in our lives!  lol

This week, my Oldest is going down south to see his grandfather, and though he’s been told his car is perfectly safe to take, he’s still apprehensive about it.  But I totally understand why.  His main concern is that his grandpa won’t recognise him.  And, while I couldn’t tell him that wouldn’t be the case (because it is very unlikely his grandpa will remember him, sadly), I did tell him that his Pop didn’t recognise me or my other two kids when we were down there several months ago.  Which, oddly enough, actually made him feel a bit better about it, to that’s good. 

Anyway, that’s all that’s really happening around here lately.  Hours have definitely picked up, and things are looking a little brighter around here, even if it does mean I have to be awake far more frequently than I prefer.  lol  Hope you all have a fabulous week!!!

Cautiously optimistic

My hours have picked up a bit at work recently.  This is a good thing, because I need more hours, because more hours mean more pay, and more pay is always a welcome thing.  But I still need a better job with more stable hours, so I’m still looking for that.  I’m sure I’ll find it eventually, it’s just getting rather tiring looking and not finding.  But it is what it is, I guess.

This isn’t going to be a very long post, because there’s really not much that’s post-worthy going on up here.  The kids started back to school last Monday, and we’re settling in to a routine of little to no sleep again.  They’re not used to doing homework, and in truth E doesn’t like doing it anyway, so I have to get on them about that.  Oh, and then there was the hair incident on Friday...

You see, while stuck in Fort Lauderdale with her dad, Miss V bleached her hair on half of her head to blonde.  To even it up, we went out and got a 40-weight peroxide formula and doused that side to make it all the blonde she wanted.  Well, the Sunday before school started, we were staying at a local hotel because the AC in our house broke.  (It was a simple fix, which took less than an hour to repair, thankfully, but couldn’t be done until Monday, because everywhere was closed over the weekend.)  Well, the hotel had a pool, and when I got back from work on Sunday, I joined the kids in said pool and we all had fun swimming around.  However... V’s hair soaked up the over-chlorinated water, and turned a lovely shade of aquamarine.  But only PART of it, and only on the blonde/ damaged side.  

Well, last Friday, she whined and complained, and complained and whined, until I finally gave in and put more of the peroxide on her hair in an attempt to remove the now-faded green colour from her hair.  And that’s when disaster struck.  After just a few minutes, her hair was HOT, and her head was under the shower head, as she frantically tried to wash out all of the peroxide.  By the next morning...  she had lost a good 6” of hair on the left side of her head.  She was absolutely beside herself.  But, after some car drama (I’m telling you, I really need a new car, this one I’m driving is more trouble than it’s worth!), I was able to take her to the Walmart hair salon (the only salon open on Saturday around here) and get her hair fixed.

In the end, she probably lost a good foot of hair, but the stylist was really good about it, gave her some really useful tips on how to take care of her hair now, and the cut is SUPER cute on her.  So disaster recovered, and eventually she’ll get used to it.  Oh, and in solidarity, I had a good 6” cut off my own hair, and now it’s in a complementary style to hers, but one that looks good on me.  🙂

Well, that’s all for now.  Have a great week!

So...

Remember the issue I was having with my car?  Well, last week, before we did open house at Miss V’s school, she had to go a couple counties over to her hair stylist for a haircut.  I allowed her to drive there, since she’s been complaining that I don’t let her drive enough, and boy, oh boy, that car was ROUGH!  It really was SCARY being a passenger in it, to the point that I told Miss V I would be driving home, it scared me so much!

So we left, and I drove us straight to the mechanic.  I explained the problem, and he told me to come back in about 2 hours, so V and I ran some errands, and went back.  We sat in his office (a nicely air conditioned building with TV and everything!), and within less than an hour, he came in smiling, holding a little black thing.  It was a second coil pack (the car apparently had THREE of these little things!) that had gone bad.  Well, being skeptical, I said okay, and thank you, and headed out to my car.

Much to my surprise and delight, it was running perfectly again!  No stuttering, no smell of gasoline, nothing!  It even accelerated like a DREAM!  I was SOOO thrilled!  So now my car works properly again, yay!!!

Well...

I think I’m getting better at this whole blogging thing.  It takes time and patience, and sometimes I don’t get that time until it’s 3am, but even that is okay.  It means I’m still trying.  And I am.  So that’s what matters.

So, Oldest Son and his love have hit a bump in their road to eternal bliss, and are currently not together.  I don’t know how long this will last, but I have a very strong feeling they’ll be back together before long.  We had a play date with my Little Flower the other day, and she seemed to enjoy it greatly.  After clinging to her mother and father for the better part of the first hour we spent there, she opened up and started playing with Miss V, which pleases Miss V to no end, as before she went south in May, Little Flower would barely even look at her without hollering at her.  She even went to Miss V when her popsicle slid down the little tube thingie it came in and she couldn’t get it anymore.  Miss V was THRILLED by this turn of events, as you can imagine. 

Then, because it was excessively hot outside (it IS still Florida, after all), Little Flower and her older cousin decided to play on the trampoline with the hose shooting at them.  Miss V played with them for a while, and they all had a TON of fun!  However, somehow I neglected to take a single picture!  I was so upset with myself!  But then, on the way home, her mama sent me this sweet picture of what happened less than 10 minutes after we left.

Yep, she plain tuckered herself all out, and was asleep on their couch!  lol

So, that’s all that’s happening around here,other than work and cleaning, both of which need to be done more than they’re getting done at the moment.  But it is what it is, and that’s that!  Have a great day!  🙂

And the hits just keep in coming...

So, the day we FINALLY got our dryer hooked up, the boys and I spent about 3 hours outside with my neighbour, cleaning up the property around the house while he mowed the yard for us.  This was a HUUUGE deal, because it hadn’t been done in over a year, since our mower(s) quit working.  So about 8pm, on the Tuesday before the 4th, I went to take a shower, because working outside is gross and sweaty work.  So there I was, standing just outside the spray from the shower head, with my hand in the stream to tell me when the water is ready, and it NEVER warmed up.  Shit.  So I wrapped up in a towel, and went to check the display in the kitchen.  Now, I should probably mention here that we have a Rinnai tankless propane water heater that has served this household well these last 13 years since it was installed.  This will be important information later. 

However, on this day, the display was blank.  I hit the power button.  Nothing.  I had Oldest Son go outside and unplug it, wait a few minutes, and plug it back in.  STILL nothing.  So, I ended up taking a very short, and very COLD shower, determined to call a plumber to come out the next day to fix it.  So that’s exactly what I did.  I left a message that night for one of my local plumbers, and he came out the following day to check out my problems.  Because of course, if I’m having a plumber out, I’m ALSO going to have him check the leak in the dishwasher as well.  So he came out the next day, and... he couldn’t help me.  With either of my problems.  

The dishwasher, he said, was a problem with the solenoid, which in theory should be covered by the warranty (that’s a whole other post, that is!), and he couldn’t figure out the problem with the water heater.  It had power, the problem was that said power wasn’t getting where it needed to be.  He suggested I contact the company that provides our propane.  So, since the farmer’s co-op provides our propane, I called them.  It was 5:03 on the Wednesday before the 4th, and they were closed the following day.  

And, did I mention their technician only works at this particular location, and in this particular county, on Tuesdays and Thursdays?  So I waited until Friday, figuring I would hear something, at least, by then, and I get told the tech wouldn’t be able to come out until the following Tuesday.  So, yay!  More FREEZING cold showers!  But still, ever optimistic, I figured it would be an easy fix, and things would be back to normal on Tuesday.  Boy, was I ever wrong...

So Tuesday arrived, and I eagerly awaited the tech.  He met me around back, fiddled with a few things on the water heater, and told me it’s the PC board, which is basically the brain of the hot water heater.  So it was effectively brain dead.  🤦🏻‍♀️  That was NOT what I needed to hear...  So I messaged the ex, to get his opinion on what was going on.  The tech told me the new board would be about $300 for him to get, then another $100 to install, or $1500 for a new system, plus the $100 for the install, so I told him I would call and let him know what we would do.  So now we’re already at a week with no hot water.  We couldn’t run the dishwasher, and hand-washing dishes involved filling pots/ pans with water and heating it on the stove/ in the Instant Pot to get water hot enough to clean with.  The following day, the ex and I agreed that we should have the tech order the part.  Now, he had said it would take 2-3 days for it to come in.  And do you remember what I said about the tech’s hours at this branch?  That’s right, Tuesdays and Thursdays ONLY.  So yep, another WEEK of cold showers for us.  So much fun!  

I’m not sure when the part arrived, but that second Tuesday morning, I had alarms set from 8am-9am to make sure I was awake to call and make sure he would be out to fix it THAT DAY.  I called over, and was told he was on another job at that moment, but that he would call and let me know when he would be out to fix it.  I did not get that call, simply because I forgot to turn off my Do Not Disturb after I hung up the phone with them.  And I’m not sure how, but apparently even the dog didn’t react when he knocked, because next thing I knew, it’s nearly 11am, and my phone was ringing.  Knowing it was the repairman, I answered it quickly, and he told me he was all done, and it should be working.  So I ran out of my bedroom, and sure enough, the display was all lit up again!  So I adjusted the temperature, turned on a faucet, all with this very kind gentleman still on the phone with me, and yep, hot water!  Yay!!!  I took a shower almost immediately, and even allowed my 17yo the rare treat of using mama’s shower to bathe himself.  (I don’t generally let the boys use my bathroom for anything apart from taking the occasional pill at my sink, lol)

So at least that’s one problem I don’t need to worry about.  Now I just have to figure out how to pay it off. 😫  And, on that note, I’m going to leave you with some of my favourite pictures, those of my sweet Little Flower, this time with a very large, very PINK ice cream cone.  lol

Can’t win...

The past few weeks, my car has been acting strangely. Hesitating, not accelerating properly, having difficulty starting, and generally giving me a hard time actually letting me drive.  Well, the other night, as I was to Walmart (about 28 miles away and off the highway), while on I-10, my car just stopped accelerating altogether.  Then, it started slowing down.  Finally, I pulled off the side of the road (into the grass, because I don’t believe in stopping on the pavement when I’m on a major highway) and stopped.  And freaked out.

Thankfully, I have friends in the area who were able to come rescue E and me, and my mechanic towed it in the next day.  But the problem now is, the mechanic keeps saying there’s nothing wrong with it when there is very clearly BUCKETS of stuff wrong with it!  So, until I can afford to take it to a different mechanic, I’m stuck driving a half-broke car.  🤦🏻‍♀️

And on that note, because there’s really not much else to say, here are some pictures of my sweet Little Flower from the 4th!  Ooh, her sweet smile just makes everything right in my world...  ❤️🥰

It’s official!!!

So, for months now, as we’ve been cleaning up the house, I’ve been going through all of the clothes and sorting out stuff we’re keeping from stuff we’re donating.  And my biggest problem has been the baby clothes.  Naturally, in the normal course of things, all of these sweet little baby girl clothes would have been donated, either to other ladies having baby girls or to the local Humane Society thrift store.  But, naturally, this doesn’t happen when mama is expecting number two, so we’ve been holding on to them, all over the house, waiting to find out what gender this newest baby actually is.  And, as it turns out...  *drumroll, please*

IT’S A BOY!!!  So the baby girl clothes are going, and now we get to welcome baby boy clothes, yay!!!  Naturally, we’re all VERY excited, and can’t wait for him to get here, but of course we WILL wait, because he’s not ready to be here yet.  lol

So that’s our newest news!  Have a wonderful day!!!

FINALLY!!!

That’s right!  It ACTUALLY happened!!!  The parts for the dryer arrived the other day, we got someone from our local co-op, the nice people who provide our liquid propane, to come out and now we have a working dryer again!  And I absolutely LOVE it!!!  It’s so efficient, and even has a timer that lets me know how long it’ll be before the clothing in it is dry!  It is SOOO good to have a working dryer in my home again!!!  Now we can REALLY work through all the old clothes so they can go to the local animal shelter for their thrift store.  Do any of you have an animal shelter with a thrift store attached?  I much prefer to donate there, knowing that the proceeds go to helping our local no-kill shelter be able to support the animals they’ve taken in.  It’s a great idea, in my opinion.  But that’s all for now!  I’m so happy to have a dryer again!!!  Obligatory dryer picture!!!  lol

Dryer Update!

Missed a call from Home Depot the other day.  Turns out, the part that we have been missing is FINALLY no longer on back-order!  So he had the company ship it directly to me, and as soon as it arrives, I’ll be able to make arrangements to have my dryer hooked up.  And it’s about bloody time, too!!!  I can’t WAIT to have a working dryer again, being without one has totally sucked!  And of course, obligatory baby photo!

Dryer Disaster

We’ve been without a dryer for over 2 years now.  So, when I got my tax money this year, among other things, I got us a new dryer.  However, I was stupid and listened to Big E and got a gas dryer.  I honestly don’t know WHAT I was thinking, doing that.  The dryer we had before that was a gas dryer, and it did a lovely job, but it stopped working, so it needed to be replaced.  So the kids and I make a trip up to Valdosta to go to Home Depot.  We find what we need, and THREE TIMES I told the lady helping us that we had propane, not natural gas, and would need an adapter for this.  She apparently didn’t get it right in the system, and I was charged for I honestly don’t know what, but they didn’t drop of a natural gas to LP tank converter like they were supposed to, so I’ve effectively had a large paperweight in my laundry room for the last nearly four months.

Well, I called them today, and told them, it’s time.  I’ve been more than patient, but it’s now been nearly 4 weeks since I was told the part “should be in any day” and no part has arrived.  So I’m done.  The very nice and patient manager that I’ve been dealing with told me he would come out and get it next week, so once it’s gone and my money is returned, I’ll be getting a nice, used electric dryer for my house.  And I will _NEVER_ let anyone tell me I should get gas again, UGH!  

This has been awful!  We’ve been taking our clothes to the laundromat for MONTHS because we have no dryer, and it’s really cost us a lot!  So I’m hoping to have that all settled and nicely tied up by Friday, so that we don’t have to worry about it anymore!  Wish us luck!  Oh, and gratuitous baby picture, of course!  lol

Life keeps moving along at a slow, steady pace around here.  I’ve spent the last few days that I haven’t been working gathering information and trying to find out how to get things done on our little farm.  Sadly, most of the help I’m trying to get depends on ME owning the property, which I currently do not own.  So, though I was hoping for a grant to do so, I may have to settle for a loan to buy it from my dad’s estate.  Which I don’t necessarily want to have to do, but it is what it is, and if that’s all the “help” that I can get, then I guess I have to go with that.  At least then the property will be MINE, and no one, except the bank, can take it away from me.

I’ve also been battling a fairly deep depression lately.  It makes me want to sleep all day, and makes it VERY difficult to get ANYTHING done around the house, but I’m still trying.  I have a friend coming over to help me set up my laundry line, which will mean we can start doing laundry at home again, instead of having to go to the laundromat all the time.  We’ll still need to go to the laundromat for some things, like comforters, and maybe the king-size sheets for my bed, but it’s better than having nothing, and that’s what we currently have, is nothing.  I own a dryer, but the part I need to hook it up to the propane was never sent with it, so it’s basically useless, as I can’t hook it up.  But I’m fine with a clothesline, and we have PLENTY of sunny days, so it’ll be fine.  

Other than that, really, there’s nothing more going on.  So here’s a few pictures of my Little Flower to appease the cuteness factor.  🙂

Ooh, she is such an angel baby!  ❤️🥰

Glasses Update

I mentioned the problem with my glasses to one of the techs when Oldest Son went to his appointment.  She looked at them, said they’re definitely too high, marked them up, wrote down a bunch of stuff, cleaned my lensss, and told me they’d be ready within two weeks.  I got a call on Wednesday that they were in, and so Friday, when I was off work, I went in and picked them up.  MUCH better!  So at least I have that going now.  No more blurry driving, or walking, or, really, much of anything!  Yay!!!

My house is not the cleanest place on Earth.  Far from it, in fact.  However, when BE and Miss V left to go down south for the weekend, a trip that it seems may be extended an unspecified amount of time due to familial issues, I was suddenly struck with the urge to rearrange the living room.  But in order to rearrange, first we need to clean.  So, that’s exactly what we started to do, and then by Sunday, we had enough done to finally move the furniture.  Now we just have to clear up the remaining debris so that the living and dining rooms are completely clean.  And boy, oh boy, I can’t WAIT for that to happen!  

We’ve been working on it little by little every day since Thursday, and already it looks SOOO much better in here already!  With the furniture moved from where it was, in the middle of room the way it all was, the living room looks positively huge by comparison!  I’m so glad I decided to do this!  Once it’s completely done, I’ll be sure to post pictures!  🙂

Our Home...

Our home is in danger.  Not from invaders or wildfires, or natural disasters, but from a much more insidious villain.  Money.  You see, in order to keep our home ours, we need money.  Pots and pots of it.  My siblings are talking about selling it, and I’m simply not in a position that I can buy it at the moment.  And I really, _REALLY_ want to be able to buy it.  We’ve started a GoFundMe (link HERE) to try to buy it, but so far, we haven’t even made 1¢...  its really disheartening, and I’m seriously afraid we’re going to lose our home, and have nowhere else to go to live.  It’s really scary to think about...

But on the bright side, my old man still loves me, so I have that going for me.  lol

Wow!

So.  Remember the embroidery stuff I’ve been working on?  Well, someone asked me to make her one that she could then appliqué onto a pillow.  I gave her a price, she was happy with it, and off I went to start working on it.  It wasn’t terribly difficult, I don’t think it even took me 2 hours of total work to complete it, and when it was done she LOVED it.  So I’m glad of that!  And here it is, in all its glory.  It really is a simple project, but it made her happy, and that’s what matters.  🙂

I hadn’t unhooped it yet when I took this picture, as you can tell, but I’m glad I could make someone smile with something so simple.  It really is the little things that can make all the difference.

Finally!

Well!  I’ve been working on an embroidery project for several weeks now, and I am pleased to say that I am FINALLY finished with it!  It was much more detailed than the simple ones I made for my sister and friend, but SOOO worth it!  And I’ll admit that several times I put it down and didn’t touch it for days/ weeks at a time, but now that it’s done, I can show it off!

It took so much to get this done, but I’m so proud of it, too!  I just hope the intended recipient likes it when she gets it!

Glasses

So, among other things, I wear glasses.  This isn’t unusual, a great many people do these days.  However, when I went for my exam this year, I found myself admitting to looking under and taking off my glasses entirely so as to see things up close.  So the eye doctor recommended I get... bifocals.  😳  I was not best pleased with this plan, but at the same time I kinda understood the need for them.  I do a lot of up-close work, especially when I’m working on an embroidery project, so it kinda made sense.  

Well, I picked them up Monday afternoon, and have been attempting to adjust to them.  They’re WEIRD!  And I find I keep running into “the line” at the top, where they change from regular glasses to readers, and that just makes things worse.  But I haven’t gotten a headache from them (yet, lol), so I suppose that’s a good thing.  It’s just adjusting to them that’s taking me some time.  I had to drive to Tallahassee on Monday, so THAT was certainly an interesting experience.  I kept trying to look through the reader portion while driving, but everything just looked blurry.  lol

But having decent vision up close is slightly surreal.  I don’t think I’ve had that in ages, not since before I started wearing glasses, in fact. So here’s an obligatory picture of me with my new specs, what do you think?  🙂

Cooking

I have to admit something.  I absolutely _LOVE_ to cook.  And I’m not too bad at it, either.  Before Big E moved back in with us, I did about 85% of the cooking, with E doing the remaining 15%.  That boy LOVES to cook, though it takes him forEVER to put a meal together and get it on the table!  Anyway, I also like using my slow cooker for cooking, because, well, it doesn’t use propane or a lot of electricity, it doesn’t generally heat up the house, and we have dinner at a reasonable hour when I manage to get the food into it at the proper time.  

I also like the IDEA of slow cooker freezer meals.  The problem I have with most of the most of the ones I find?  They’re written to serve 2-4 people.  That’s IT!  Not only would a meal that small burn up in my slow cooker, but that wouldn’t feed my family!  Not even half!  There are currently 7 of us, with number 8 due in the latter half of October (yay fall birthdays!!!  And yay more grandbabies!), and 2-4 servings just will NOT cut it!  

So I’ve decided I need to search out a bunch of slow cooker recipes to feed 8+ people, then figure out how to freeze them for later use.  That way, I can test them out one by one, and link them all together in one place, so that if anyone else needs something like this, they’ll have a whole list of recipes to choose from.  And just because I can, here’s a picture of my Sweet Little Flower.  🙂

Ooh, I love those sweet cheeks to PIECES!  ❤️🥰

I know no one reads this.  I don’t really write for anyone else.  I do it to keep track of what I do, because sometimes my brain doesn’t let me remember things properly.  But just recently, I got a crafty bug going on, and I started making stuff again.  This time, it’s embroidery projects.  I made one for my sister, and a couple for some friends.  So I thought I would share them so I don’t forget about them.

This is the one I made for my sister.  It’s a bit wonky, and completely uneven, but I like it.  It’s my first foray into larger embroidery projects in quite a while.

I backed it very simply, just a circle of purple felt, and now I need I mail it to her.  

This is one I made for a very dear friend of mine, who is going through quite a lot in her life, and I thought she would appreciate it.

Again, it’s backed with just a simple circle of felt, this time in white.

And this one...  this one I made for a friend in another state, but now I’m thinking I might send it elsewhere.  It just doesn’t feel right sending it there anymore.  Does that even make sense?  lol  But here it is anyway, and I do have to admit, it’s one of my favourites so far. 

And as with the others, this one is backed with felt, this time black felt.  It wasn’t backed yet when I took this picture, though.  And as I said, this one is a bit of a favourite.  I might have to make another one like it for myself.  🙂

I have another one in my head to make, for the same friend I mentioned above, but it’s going to take quite a bit more work, so I’m not posting anything about it just yet. 

Food

We love tacos and burritos in this family.  I mean, LOVE them.  Even though I know everyone loves “Taco Tuesday,” we generally only have them on Fridays or Saturdays, since they contain beans.  But we’ll go through 2.5 pounds of meat/ protein easily in one meal, and still wish we had more.  

I found a recipe for a very basic shredded chicken cooked in the Instant Pot (found here) and have adapted it to work for taco/ burrito/ whatever nights, but we also like ground beef, carnitas, and even chopped up cremini mushrooms when we’re wanting to lighten things up.  And, provided I don’t mix up the measurements for cayenne and paprika in the taco seasoning mix (I’ve only done it once, but they’ll NEVER let me live it down!  lol), they always turn out amazing.  But not tofu.  I just can’t bring myself to eat it.  It’s a textural thing.

However, the past 3-4 times we’ve had burrito night, Miss V has fallen asleep before it’s ready, and slept right through it.  Which is SUPER frustrating, since she LOVES making herself burritos.  I honestly just can’t understand HOW she does it!  She’ll be wide awake and messaging me one minute, then BAM!  Fast asleep the next.  

Then she’ll complain about having missed it until we have them again, which typically isn’t that often, though thanks to Lent and “meatless Fridays,” we’ve had them fairly frequently in recent days.  But it’s such a simple meal to put together, especially when you only have to cook the mushrooms and heat the beans, sometimes cook rice, and then you’re done, that I think maybe we should have them more often.

She used to be like this with “circle steaks,“ which was something my mom taught me to make ages ago.  It’s just ground beef, garlic, salt, and pepper, then you form it into little circular patties, smaller than the palm of your hand, that you cook in a little butter in a pan.  We always had them with mashed potatoes and veggies, but like clockwork, she would pass out early on nights we were having them.  It was the weirdest thing!

So what about you?  Are there any meals you make that people in your family skip like that?  Or maybe you’re the one who falls asleep while eating?  Tell me about it!

Water Woes

I may have mentioned it before, but we live on 40 acres in the middle of nowhere.  We have a well for water, and most of the time that isn’t a problem.  When the house was first build, my dad had a whole house filtration system installed, and it does a fairly good job of making the water taste really good.  However, back when we had cows, and they broke through the fencing all the time, we had a TON of water troubles.  

It seemed I was always fixing this or that line because the cows had busted it open AGAIN.  Well, this past Friday night/ early Saturday morning, somewhere about in the 2am range, I went to take a shower and BAM!  No water.  So I went outside, and discovered water EVERYWHERE.  It busted AT the well.  So I killed the water at the breaker, which is the only sure way to stop it running, and discovered the source of the leak.  I *thought* it would be an easy fix, just glue two pieces that had somehow slipped apart back together.  So I did that, and went to bed.  The next morning, around 9am, when I went out to turn the water back on, I discovered an even bigger problem. 

That part isn’t a 2-piece fitting.  It split the piece itself in two.  So, being as how at that point I had only gotten about 4 hours sleep, I did what any sensible exhausted person would do.  I went back to bed for a few hours.  lol  And then I got up, got dressed, and went to the nearest home improvement store and got the parts I needed to fix it.  The one thing I lacked, however, was a pair of channellocks/ vice grips, so I called a wonderful neighbour of mine to borrow the necessary tool, and instead, he came over and helped me fix it.  Yay good neighbours!

So then, of course, we had to wait the requisite 2 hours for the glue to set and cure, but in the end, we had working water again.  You don’t really appreciate having water until you don’t have it for an extended period of time.  Oh, and because we run on well water, when the well isn’t working, the toilets don’t work either.  Because there’s no flow to move the water in/ out of them.  So we _ REALLY_ appreciate it when we have water!

So...

Next week, my son and DIL (daughter-in-law, for those who don’t know) have their first official meeting with her midwife.  My DIL and I went last week to check a birthing centre out, and she made the decision that she wanted to go the midwife/ birthing centre route with this pregnancy instead of using an OB/GYN and a hospital.  She didn’t really like how the hospital and nurses made her feel with her first pregnancy, and feels the birthing centre is a much better option.  We met with the midwife, who seemed super sweet, and discussed different options available to her.  So if they want me to go, we’ll be going with them, and I’ll watch Little Flower so they can talk with the midwife. I know they’re excited this time around, and Oldest Son is impressed that they encourage dads to be involved as they do.  But the best part about this birthing centre?  The front garden!

They had so many flowers!  They even had violets, from what I could tell!  She DID say that she didn’t have any mums, though, and I think I understand why.  They’re mainly annuals, and her garden looked to be mainly perennials.  lol

After the midwife, we took Miss V to the dermatologist to have a wary dealt with.  She was hoping they would burn it off right then and there, but instead they tried freezing it, and she’ll have to wait several weeks to know if it worked or not.  But oh well, such is life!

I really do t know why she took this picture, but since it was there, I added it.  lol  Hey, you can’t see my soda-stained roof in it!  But that’s a story for another time.  lol

Then, after the dermatologist, we decided to satisfy our sweet tooth and went to a frozen yogurt place.  It was good, and the baby enjoyed it.  But we all agreed that it was not likely to receive a second visit.  It was SUPER expensive for the little we got, and none of us really felt it was worth the price.  🤷🏻‍♀️

Of course, I took pictures of my sweet Little Flower eating her noms while we were there, because I just can’t resist a chance to capture her precious little face on camera.  I love her so much!

And, of course, no trip to Tallahassee would be complete without a stop at Trader Joe’s!  We got some apples, some cookies, and a whole lot of good stuff.  I got a bag of “autumn glory” apples, and they are SOOO good!  I could have eaten the entire bag by myself, they were so good!  I was good, though, and didn’t buy a bunch of stuff I didn’t need, so I’m sorta proud of myself for that.  🙂

Well, that’s it from up here in rural north Florida.  Not really all that much going on, but we still manage to get by.  🙂

Whoops!

Oldest Son had a birthday on 8, March.  His 22nd Day of Life’s Gift, to be precise.  So of course, we had cake.  However he is lactose intolerant (though he gets upset with me if I try to make foods that can accommodate his ailment.  He just loves dairy products.  🤷🏻‍♀️), so the traditional Carvel ice cream cake was out of the question.  Instead, we just picked one up at the local grocery store, and had that.  It was a good cake and all, but it never occurred to me to NOT to hand a number 2 birthday candle to the little Flower.

Can’t see the problem?  Try this one.

Should look more like that.  NOW do you see why this was a bad decision on my part?  Yep, little Flower ATE THE CANDLE.  😂🤣  I don’t know WHAT was going on in my head when I did that, but we all laughed when we saw it!  Things only a 2yo would do, right?  Gotta remember not to do that until she’s a bit older.  But good for a laugh, and we can all look back and have a chuckle over it, especially when she’s 22 and having her birthday.  🙂

I suffer from terrible insomnia, among other things.  I believe it’s a side issue related to the bipolar disorder, but I haven’t proven that yet.  For example, right now it is 3:12am on a Thursday as I’m laying in bed writing this, and I find myself completely unable to sleep.  It’s a terrible affliction, insomnia, and it gets really old, really quick.  But there’s simply nothing I can do about it, since I can’t/ won’t take sleeping meds, due to my history with them not working and the horrible side effects they have on me.  So I’m trying to find more productive uses for my sleepless nights, but so far Netflix and Bejeweled have been my only companions on those nights when sleep alludes me.  

The problem with having insomnia is, though, that that’s also when all these thoughts start jumbling around in my head, and I just can’t make them stop.  And they get worse when I have no one to talk to, which is frequently the problem at times between 10pm and 8am.  Because once I’ve FINALLY fallen asleep, the next day I don’t generally remember any of what was going through my head the night before.  Not that I really have anyone to talk to during the day, either, but at least there are a couple better options than nothing and no one.  

So I’m thinking I might start writing here when I get these insomnia-driven thought-tornadoes going, and just save them until I feel like posting them.  Maybe it’ll be good for me to at least get the thoughts out, even though I know no one actually reads this thing.  So I’ll start now.

Earlier tonight, as I was sitting on the loveseat, which is my usual position when I’m not at the dining room table or in my bed, covered in kittens, and I started thinking that I want to start sewing again.  I used to sew all the time, but once I started working, I just lost track of it.  I still bought loads of fabric, I just never made what I bought the fabric to make.  So as I was sitting there, being used as a bed by Rocky and Lilum, I realised I miss sewing.  Oh, obligatory photo of cute kittens.  Because reasons. 

Rocky is the little black one in front, and Lilum is the calico behind him.  They both believe my chest is the best bed in the world.  lol

He wanted me to stop talking, I guess.  lol

Now back to what I was saying.  I’ll get these ideas, and then, the next day, if I actually remember them in the first place, I don’t want to do them anymore.  My sister says it’s the bipolar, that I’m having these manic moments when I can’t sleep, and then, the next day, the depression keeps me from accomplishing any of it. I guess it could be worse.  Creative tendencies shouldn’t be too difficult to handle, right?

Oh boy...

... here we go again!  Or at least, we think it’s here we go again.  It seems, despite vigilant attempts to prevent it, Oldest Son’s dog may have managed to knock up Miss V’s chihuahua.  This is said chihuahua, the crazy thing.

This will be her second pregnancy in her 7+ years with us, and I am NOT looking forward to it.  Though admittedly, her last one DID mellow her out noticeably, it just didn’t stick around long after the pups were born.  And this time, the doggy-baby-daddy is a bit larger than the Pomeranian who was the first one.  He’s a sweet little boy, but he just couldn’t resist her feminine wiles, and I guess we’ll know for certain within the new couple of weeks, but I just...  UGH!!!  We don’t need this at the moment.  But we’ll deal with it, as we always do.  I just hope her pregnancy and delivery is as easy as her first one was.  We didn’t even know she had given birth the last time, she was so quiet about it.  So now I have yet another thing to deal with, but I’m not going to worry about it until I know for certain.  I’ll keep updating as we find out!

Aaahh...

Sometimes, after a day at work, my feet positively ache.  And so far, nothing but laying down with my legs raised above heart level for about 2 hours is all that has helped.  But the other day, I stumbled upon this recipe for a foot soak, and I fell in LOVE with it.  It smells wonderful, and actually helps my feet feel better in 20 minutes FLAT.  I just dumped the required amount into my foot bath (a Christmas gift from my daughter 2 years ago) and 20 minutes later...  aaahh...  no more sore feet and I can still smell the peppermint! I did add the essential oil to it, as I didn’t feel the tea had enough oomph on its own, and let it run.  Ooh, the relief was amazing!  I’ve had to make more because my kids are just as in love with it as I am.  lol

Ignore my messy floor, it needs a good cleaning, and I just haven’t had the time or desire to clean it.  lol  The only “problem” with it, and it’s really not even a real problem, hence the quotation marks, is that if you use the peppermint tea in it, you’ll end up with teensy tiny bits of peppermint tea in a ring around your feet.  So not really a problem at all, just a personal preference.  I’m going to make up a big jar of it to keep on-hand for days when I come home with aching feet.  So thank you, Erin at Suburban Simplicity, for a great foot soak recipe that has helped keep me from suffering from aching feet!

Surprise!

Well, seeing as how the cat’s out of the proverbial bag, and it’s been announced officially, I can post about it here.  It seems my son and his fiancée are expecting number 2 this coming October.  Of course, we are all excited, and wish her the very best, and hopefully she won’t have the same horrible hyperemesis gravidarium she had last time.  Oh, she was MISERABLE her last pregnancy, as she could barely hold anything down!  And she also didn’t even have the joy of a baby belly to show for it.  Even though my beautiful grandbaby was a healthy weight and a good length, her mama barely showed at all!  

But this time, it’s looking like she’s NOT going to have to deal with the horrible vomiting, and she might even show this time.  She’s only a few weeks along (6 or 7, to be exact), but already has a tiny bump going on.  And believe it or not, she’s excited to get a big ol’ pregnant belly.  She said she felt like she missed out on something not having one the first time.  lol

So, when she found out she was pregnant, as I did with my oldest, she said, “Baby, mama’s got a new baby in her belly.  Is it a boy or a girl baby?”  And my sweet Flower said, “Oh mommy, is girl baby!”  So now we just have to wait a few weeks and see if her prediction is as spot on as her father’s was.  But whatever she has, we’ll all be happy so long as s/he’s healthy and has no complications.  But that’s all for today from up here in the wilds of northern Florida!  Have a great one!

Sometimes I feel like it would be nice to have friends that I can talk to about anything.  As it stands right now, my one real friend lives over 300 miles away, and we rarely talk anymore, likely because of the distance between us, as well as familial and social obligations.  So I have no one to go to when I’m having a problem with one of my kids (lately it’s the Oldest I’m having problems with...), or when I just need to vent about something that’s just really irritated me.  Sure, I talk to people all the time, but I don’t always manage to do more than listen with most of them.  They call me to complain about their own lives, and the second I want to talk about my own life, they have to go and can’t talk anymore.  🙄

Makes it really hard when I’ve had a particularly bad day, or when I’m just not feeling quite up to snuff.  Not having anyone to vent to really is a problem for me.  So I might start using this space for that.  I mean, let’s face it.  No one actually reads this blog, so it’s really more for my own catharsis than it is for anything else, right?

Adventures in Crafting

My daughter is a wonderful young lady, she truly is.  She can be quite a handful at times, but for the most part, she’s pretty mellow.  But she’s also a great deal like my husband’s sister, in that she’s more interested in finding a way to make money than she is in finding a boyfriend or playing with makeup.  So tonight we started testing out recipes to make bath bombs and shower melts.  

Tonight’s recipe failed.  Epically.  Both the bath bombs and the shower melts.  But I believe the problem with the bath bombs was ours, and not the original poster, as I think she added too much witch hazel to it. But no matter, we’ll be trying again.  But, it’s also been fun, being able to just sit down with her, and not worry about what this person or that is doing/ saying, only looking at our phones to check the recipe instructions, instead of being totally consumed by social media and all of its “charms.”  

She’s excited to try again, to see if we can get the balance of dry to wet correct.  And then, if we can, we’ll invest in some soap colourant so we don’t dye ourselves pink or purple or whatever colour from food colour.  But it’s a learning experience for her, and that’s what I like.  It’s letting her know that it’s okay to fail, and that sometimes she’s going to fail, even that sometimes she NEEDS to fail, so that she can then appreciate when things work out and go her way.

As I mentioned before, she wants to try to earn money for herself, and this is one of the ways she’s trying out to do that before she’s old enough to get a real job.  And I’m going to encourage her to do exactly that.  She is bound and determined to be a successful, independent woman on her own.  This is definitely going to be an adventure with her.  🙂

Two for two!

So Monday, after my labwork in the morning, and a nice long nap after arriving back home, I took my car to the mechanic, who couldn’t look at it then.  I had lunch with the husband instead, and went to pick up V.  And she did it, she got her permit, and couldn’t stop smiling for HOURS after!

She was SO proud!  She didn’t get to drive immediately, as I had to take the car back to the mechanic, but I let her drive after we were done with getting it serviced.  I’m realising just how much my sister taught my Oldest to drive, because I don’t remember EVER being as high-strung when he was driving as I was Monday while she was!  lol

We went to an unoccupied parking lot to practice parking, and she... promptly mashed the gas instead of the brake, and ran up over parking bumper and ALMOST up onto the sidewalk in front of it.

I laughed, as I had done this exact same thing when my sister (the same who taught the Oldest to drive, in fact) was first teaching ME to drive!  But she got upset, because she thought she was going to get in trouble for it, and started to cry a bit, until I assured her that it was fine, and she could continue driving, but only if SHE wanted to keep going.  She did, and we went on.

This was taken as we were on our way home.  So far parking and turns seem to be her biggest problems, naturally, as she is just starting out, and she understands that this is the reason she won’t be driving all the way home from my work yet, but instead will be driving from a gas station much closer to the house instead.  And NOW she’s okay with that.  So she’ll continue getting practice each day, and Sunday, when I’m off work, we’ll go to a local community college and she can, once again, try to work on her parking and turning skills in a lot where she can’t do much harm to anything important.  lol

Otherwise, things are going well.  We’ll see if I can manage to continue keeping up with this blog.  Not that I expect anyone to be interested in it, I’m not a very interesting person, but I’m still going to try!  I have to work today, unfortunately, but it’ll be fine, and as usual I’ll get through it, because what else is there to do?  The husband leaves early Wednesday to work at a festival, and will be gone until Sunday, so it’ll be a nice, quiet end of the week and weekend for the rest of us.  Hope y’all have a great week!  🥰

Hmm...

It seems 2 years is the span of time I like to go between posts.  Or rather, nearly 2 years.  It was the end of March, 2017 when last I posted, so I guess a bit of catch-me-up is necessary.  Well, let’s see...

The Littles (neither of whom is very little any longer, lol) completed their first year of high school together at the same school.  They both were promoted academically, but my son, E, just barely.  So we spoke to the ESE counsellor for the district, and she strongly recommended we enroll him in the “regular” high school instead of the charter school, because they can give him much more help.  And that they have!  He started his sophomore year in August, and so far is only not doing so well in one class, and that one is, to the consternation of his father the certified chef, his culinary class!

Miss V is just astounding.  Every day there’s something new I notice about her to marvel at.  Despite coming from me (total tomboy, can’t do hair/ makeup for ANYTHING), she’s a wiz at both hair AND makeup, and has even started a blog to showcase her cosplay stuff.  She has her days when I want to strangle her, what teenage girl doesn’t, but most of the time she is the sweetest thing I could ever ask for.  And she’s even getting her driving permit later today, if you can believe that!

  

Oldest Son and his fiancée are planning a big move within the next 1-2 months, and will be taking my sweet baby girl away from me.  A whole 18 hours away from me, in fact!  But it’s for the best, and I know that, which is why I’m not going to cry too much about it just yet.  

As for that sweet baby girl, well!!!  She has just grown and grown!  She turned 2 at the beginning of this month, and is just the sweetest, smartest little thing!  She calls me Nonna, though sometimes she messes up and calls me mama, because that’s what the Littles and her daddy call me, and she calls G-pa just “Pa,” probably because her other grandfather is papa.  And other than mommy, who is her absolute favourite person in the world?  If you guessed me, you would be WRONG!

Her absolute favourite person in the whole wide world is her Uncle Squishy.  She ADORES him, and he her.  They are so cute together, it’s not even funny!  He’s sometimes the only person who can get her to calm down, even when mommy’s around!

As for the rest, well...  April of 2017 my father got into some trouble due to his dementia, and spent a couple months in jail before being put in the memory care ward of an assisted living facility down south.  He’s been there almost 2 years now, and is doing well.  Healthy as all get out, just with almost no memory.

We went and saw him while we were down there for my stepson’s wedding back in January, and though I’ve no doubt he didn’t remember any of our names, he did seem to know that we were related to him, and seemed genuinely happy to see all of us.  He kept saying “look how big you are!” to E, who is roughly 6’5” tall now, and kept hugging V.  It really was very sweet.  I’m trying to find the time (and money!) to go and visit him again in a few months, so that it’s not always a year between visits.

As for me, well, I let the husband, who had moved down south in October 2017 to deal with some family issues that arose in April and July of that year, move back in with us this past December.  It’s been difficult adjusting to having him around again, but it’s also been nice to have the extra help getting things done.  I suppose I should include a picture of myself in here, since I’ve never put one up, so here ya go.  This is from my stepson’s wedding back in January.

Thrilling, no?  I have a face, after all.  lol  Well anyway, I’ve been at my job,which is still only part-time, for nearly 2 years now, and I was moved from cashier to bakery, and I must admit, though it takes me quite a while to convince myself to leave the house every work day, I still go and even sometimes enjoy being there.  Which is better than how I felt as a cashier, believe me!  lol

So, I think that’s about it.  I have a busy day planned for today, so I should probably get to it.  Hope you all have a great one, too!  🙂