Charlyn’s Web

I glanced out the kitchen window as I was making dinner and saw the sun shining on the trees with the dark sky behind.

I thought that I had better not stop. I had better fix dinner. Then I thought- what kind of photographer are you?

Those are robins in the tree.

So I turned the burners down, grabbed the camera and went out the door as I checked my ISO and F-stop settings. (Oooo! sounds like I know what I am doing, doesn’t it? Ha!)

The sun was cooperative for a few more minutes and I shot away.

The kids can starve.

I’m not chained up…the van is in the front….my people are getting into the van…the doors are open!

Road Trip!!!!

Don’t leave me!

Get in! Get in fast! Squeeze between the people!

I’m in! I’m in! In!

Hello Boy! Love, love.

Happy dance! Oh, lay down. Head on paws. Look cute. Maybe they will not notice.

Dog! Get out!

Ignore him! He doesn’t mean me, I’m sure. Flatten myself to floor. Look cute. I’m in!

Dog, get out NOW!

Humm dumm ditty. I can’t heeeaaarrr you. I’m in!

Dog! Out!

No! No! Don’t leave me! Oh no! Not the collar! Not the collar!

I’m out. Sniff. Droop tail.

Bye Mom and kids.

Wait- Dad is still here! Dad is staying with me! Oh joy! It must mean I am HIS dog!

Joy, joy. Love, love. Happy Dance!

Col. Panic had a doctor’s appointment in the city but he wanted to make a fast trip of it and wasn’t going to go to my favorite store. He decided to take the older two with him and I was left at home with my little Sunshine. As an aside, I wonder why I thought things were tough to get done with just one kid? Now, when I have just one it’s so easy! (Yes, KN it may seem overwhelming now but you too may think this someday.) So now I had time on my hands and I actually did something! As opposed to sitting here on the computer the whole time. I tackled a project that needed to be done and had been bugging me for quite awhile. Now, you who are sensitive in nature and are OCD in the cleanliness department might want to skip the rest of this post. It’s not pretty. You have been warned!

I tackled the mess in the Girl’s room. I am showing you horrible things- please don’t think less of me.

Before-

Awful, isn’t it? See the path? I cleared that the night before so that if they got up in the night they could have a place to walk. Or if I had to go in I wouldn’t step on a musical toy and have “Have a Happy New Year!” blaring out. I had picked it up recently but they had so much stuff that it got out of hand pretty fast.

See the brown bowl with the pink shoe in it? I was looking all over for that last Sunday to put a salad for potluck in. Silly me, I looked in the kitchen and the family room but didn’t think to check the Girls’ room. When I tell them to put things away in their room, I usually tell them a specific place to put it. The shoes are supposed to go in the closet. I guess they are close. The stuffed animals and dolls are supposed to go under the crib.

I went to work. And after two or so hours, and Pixie had returned home, it looked like this-

I got rid of some of the dress up things they were not using so there is less in the dress up box under the window. I think it may have to be trimmed farther but we’ll see how it goes.

I vacuumed under the crib too! I didn’t move it but just reached under it with the vacuum wand with an attachment. I thought of trying to get a photo of that but, besides the fact there was no one here to take it but a three year old (I know, she probably would have done well) I decided I didn’t want the Internet to see my bum sticking up in the air as I stretched to get to the back. I know you thank me. You can even see the vacuum marks!

I didn’t get the shelves organized. I think I need to do something else with them. The seemed like a good idea at the time but, as with anything, things just get thrown around. One shelf was for Pixie and the other for Sunshine but now they get all mixed up. They both can wear some of it but their tastes are so different they don’t often mix it up. Also, I think there isn’t enough room on the shelves.

It’s a start. Now we need to work on maintaining it. That is where my cleaning prowess breaks down.

Look at this face! Hard to believe the messy monster that lurks just under the surface!

There has been a group of mothers meeting on Friday afternoons and I have been invited to attend. It’s nice because they are all homeschool families and one of the families has older daughters who take the kids downstairs to play while the mothers talk upstairs. To give you a hint as to how many kids are there- I will just say we have the smallest family. I am so excited that I am included- old fuddy duddy me who was starting to wonder about her friend shortage. It’s easy to take that kind of thing personally. So, as you can imagine I’ve been enjoying these times.

Last week, we had company coming for dinner but I really wanted to go to the Mom’s meeting. It’s in the afternoons and we don’t get home until 4:30 or so. It was great incentive to get the house all clean on Thursday and make up the Enchilada casserole and bean salad (and clean up) on Friday morning. I made Spanish Rice and a lettuce salad after I got home. It turned out well and I was pretty puffed up.

I had also invited Master Bill and his lovely wife over for a meal after Church on Sunday. Just feeling that hospitality spirit, I guess. I was having troubles figuring out what to fix. It needed to be fast, as we all would be hungry. Also, since we hadn’t made it to the store in ages, it had to be made from stuff on hand. Hmmm. Well, there was lots of Enchilada casserole and Spanish Rice left over… it would be quick to heat up. So it was settled, I fed my Pastor and his wife leftovers. It does not in any way reflect how much esteem I have for them. Except for the copious snowfall it worked out pretty well. As he ate our leftovers Master Bill kept saying how good it was. I didn’t take it to heart because I knew that I could feed that man slop with a side of swill and he would compliment me on it.

This Friday we didn’t have company coming but I did plan ahead and loaded up one of The Col.’s favorite meals into the Crockpot. When we got home we had tender pork chops and potatoes ready for us.

I have been so pleased with myself that my shoulder hurts from patting myself on the back.

KN asked the other day if blogging was addictive because she is finding that reading them can be! (Hold on a second while I figure out how to link to a comment. Oh that wasn’t so hard.) Is “be” a preposition and did I just end a sentence with one? Gosh! The things one runs into with Bloggy Stuff. (A copy editor reads this and, I am sure, cringes at each post- but fortunately, I think she’s becoming addicted.)

Back to the subject at hand, I wouldn’t call the actual blogging part addictive. It can be quite difficult to think of catchy titles and figuring out which category to put things in. (One blogger I know doesn’t put anything into categories but I have used it to find things on here before.) Plus, the really important part is actually having anything worthwhile to say! I have posted about having nothing to say (now, where is that? Oh! Here it is.) But one can only get away with that a few times (Hmm, it’s been almost a year….). The kids only say so many cute things and as they are getting older, there is less of that and I only do so many dumb things, thank God! A bright spot is that the weather has provided some blog fodder but that only goes so far too. The actual writing part takes time and thought. I am thankful for Spell Check.

But, the part that is addictive is getting comments. That part is fun! It says someone has read what I’ve written and has thoughts on it. Then, it’s more of a conversation than a monologue. I like the sound of my own voice for only so long.

Last night, I went to the Church’s Monthly Soup and Prayer meeting. I drove the Suburban because our driveway and lane were still snow covered and there were areas on the roads that have snow, ice and slush on them. On the way home, I was on a bad stretch and things were going well. I was thinking about KN’s comment and composing a post in my head when I noticed I was sliding. Towards the ditch. I slammed on my brakes.

Ha! Got ya! Did I hear you slapping your forehead and saying “She didn’t!?!?!?” I’m not (quite) that dumb. I eased off the throttle and steered it out of the slide. I paid more attention and went slower after that.

So…. blog writting may not be as addictive as reading them (I know, I am addicted to reading several) but it can be hazardous to your health.

Now, I am off to check my favorite blogs- think they’ve posted anything yet today?

We don’t usually have a very severe winter here. If we have snow it would be anywhere from a skiff to 2 inches. The people here are pretty hardy and it doesn’t paralyze things like it does in a certain large city I know. Unfortunately, I am not one of those “hardy” folk due to growing up close to that certain city and prefer to just stay off the roads. Col. Panic, however, loves the stuff- loves driving in it, loves watching it fall and loves being out in it. This year he is getting plenty to play in. We are actually getting a winter!

Last week there was a snowfall with about a 2 inch accumulation here at our place. Then yesterday it snowed all day and so we have a grand total of 10 inches in the yard. It’s very pretty. Especially now with the sun shining and blue sky, at least on one side of the house- the other side is still gray. This year the snow is sticking around for more than a few hours and sometimes it stays around a week. The weather forecast says there are chances of snow showers everyday this week. But they have been known to be wrong before.

The Col. moved things around in the shop last night so he could get the Suburban out this morning. He was very disappointed that the snow plow got to the road before he did. Gasp! That is an unheard of event, normally our country roads are the last to be plowed. The kids did their usual things. The Boy wanted to throw snowballs and his sisters are too wimpy for that. I had to go out and lob a few around. He needs a boy to play with! Pixie would walk around in it but wasn’t interested in being too adventurous. TG stood on the porch and played with the broom. Ah, that scary snow! She’ll declare she likes it when there is none to be found but once there is a trace on the ground she’ll refuse to leave the porch- and I have to (not so gently) insist she go out that far.

It’s been an interesting winter. Often we have an inversion that creates a cold fog bank that sticks around long past it is welcome but this year, due to winds, we haven’t had the fog. I am not sure which is preferred because the winds have, at times, been strong enough to cause damage. We are missing quite a few shingles and we got off easy. Since November about 19.5 inches of snow has fallen. Wow! Some of you may get more but it’s highly unusual for us. We also have had a low of minus 8 degrees Fahrenheit.

And the show isn’t over yet! What is nature’s equivalent of a Fat Lady singing?

Col. Panic. has been having adventures at work. They tried to implement something new and it ended up causing quite a few problems. Some of them effecting the 911 dispatch- not a good thing. He has been working late hours trying to get it all sorted out. Monday and Tuesday night he was there late and didn’t have enough food to tide him over so he scrounged around and found some MREs to eat. MRE stands for Meals Ready to Eat. Yes, the lovely things that our soldiers out in the field get to eat daily. When you are hungry- food, or anything slightly resembling food, is a good thing. He described the omelet and hash browns he ate on Tuesday night to us last night at dinner. (He made it home in time to eat with us last night! Yippee!) He said the eggs were kind of recognizable, using your imagination, and the hash browns were a soggy mass but he poured hot sauce on them and that covered a multitude of sins.

We had tortellini soup for dinner last night with fresh focaccia bread, celery sticks with cream cheese in them and salad. I was feeling rather good about our meal because I have been reading a lot lately about “local” food or “knowing where your food came from”. I didn’t make the tortellini (I’m not that crazy, but it might be interesting to try someday…) but the turkey broth was some I had made from our Thanksgiving Turkey and the green beans and broccoli (I chopped it up small and no one seemed to notice it was there. 🙂 was from my Parent’s garden. The rest of it was from who knows where but I thought it was a start. The Col. looked at it and his first thoughts were not that it was “local” food but that it was “identifiable” food.

Look a green bean! Look pasta! Look bread! And salad! Not this says it’s egg, I hope they are right.

I am very thankful we live in a place that has an abundant, identifiable food supply.

I was in the Beauty Salon a few months ago getting my hair trimmed. I’ve been trying to keep up on this. I have a tendency to get it styled and then let it grow out and then a year and a half later do it again. But in keeping with my new outward “image”, I’ve done well with the maintenance this time around. Plus with these long bangs, it has to be cut frequently and I am under strict orders to not cut my bangs myself. (Shhh! Don’t tell! But once in awhile I break the rules.) Anyway, back to the Salon. I was sitting there watching the other people about me in the mirror when I noticed a young girl get a pop from the machine. I put her about 10ish. And then I noticed the foil in her light brown hair. For those of us who are hair challenged, this means she was getting highlights- or lighter streaks put into her hair. I hope my jaw didn’t hit the floor too loudly.

I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked. But I was. Of course, being the cheap frugal person I am, I kept wondering about the cost of getting it done and upkeep- for a 10 year old! Now, if she was in a position to pay for it herself then that would be a different situation. But I bet her Mom was paying for it. I cut my girls’ hair (and all the men’s too) but I can see a day when my Fashionista will want a “real” cut and I can see us paying for that but I don’t think we’d pay for “color”.

Am I showing my Conservative roots again? What do YOU think?

I finally got all my Christmas stuff packed up. The tree is unadorned. The boxes are ready to go to the shop. I am just waiting for my strong Man to come home to help carry them out.

I am telling you this so you who have completed this task weeks ago can feel smug and competent. I am all about making you feel good about yourself. 🙂

When I circled the item in the catalog as an idea for my Mom to get Pixie for Christmas I had no idea. What was it that I so innocently thought was a good idea? One of those heads on which a child can style hair and apply makeup. Pixie is so into clothes and making her hair cute- I thought it would be a fun thing for her to have. Sounds safe enough. Little did I know.

Pixie opened it on Christmas morning and immediately found the button that made her talk. I hadn’t noticed that feature in the catalog description. OK, slightly annoying aspect to the thing but we’ll get by. Maybe by not replacing the batteries when they run down. But then we listened to what that dumb blonde in her best Valley Girl voice was saying, and I quote:

“Back to school, need to look intelligent!”

Excuse me?

“O la la! I need to look slick and chic to go with my new outfit!”

This was supposedly for ages 3 and up.

“I feel like a Princess get me ready to Party!”

And the final straw-

“Make me look wild…. grrrrr!”

Yes, the thing actually GROWLED!

Pixie’s Papa took the batteries out while she cried on her Grandma’s shoulder. It was a sad thing but one we felt we had to do. Who comes up with this stuff? Who thought that a doll that growls was appropriate for ages 3 and up? Not us. Sigh.