The joys of small town living

Huge wind storm last nite. Mix rain and below freezing temps and what do you get? A whole lotta yuck.

Pair that with staying in a rental property and all your stuff is packed in boxes that are scattered about everywhere.....a mess. So, when the power goes out last nite who gets to be stuck in the darkness with 3 kids? MWAH. And hubby, too.

I have one candle that is readily accessible. Oh, and some birthday candles in the cabinet. Which actually turns out to be a good thing since we have only a little teeny, tiny lighter that is pretty much on E. We light the one candle and then proceed to carry it around the entire house looking for the big, brown box marked candles. Eventually find the box and now we have more candles to light. That is where the bday candles some in handy. Light them and then pass the torch.

During all this we do have one flashlight that is a rechargeable gem. We do take turns using this while we are scurrying around looking for things. We do not, however, want to use it often for fear that it will use all its juice and then what. Of course, we have no idea how long this outage will go on.

I did manage to scrounge up many useful things in my hunt. Several candles, matches, some gum. Never know when I might need that over the course of the evening. I gotta keep these kids quiet somehow, right? Never did find the battery powered radio. One of the main things on my search list. It would have been nice to know what was going on out there, how long to expect it, was there school in the morning? Those kinds of things.

Needless to say, this began about 6pm or so. By 8 the house was getting a little cold. Its time to get the little guy down to bed. I am fearing a huge blow up on his part. He will not get to listen to music, he will not get to have his fan on, he will not get to have his space heater making his room all warm and cozy. Mind you, I have kept him up a little later on purpose. Hoping that he will be so sleepy that he wont notice all the things that arent right. I pull out his long footed jammies, a long sleeve onesie, some socks and his diaper. He is all nice and cozy. I grab him another blanket, get his teeth brushed, read Itsy Bitsy Spider by candlelight and then lay him down. The whole time I have my fingers crossed. Night, night, the whole deal.....He falls fast asleep and we never hear from him again till morning. I still think I sealed the deal when I let him carry the battery powered lantern up the stairs. He even asked for it this morning.

The power came on, I think it was like 11 pm last nite. Not so awful.

So, today...on the honey do list.....emergency kit supplies....another storm brewing tomorrow..I dont want to have to do this all again without the things we need. What do you have in your emergency kit? I am for sure thinking I need some chocolate in there. Im just saying.

Are you In or out?

I am so thinking about having a covert backyard chicken operation when I get into the new house.

Are you in or out?

Think I could win the neighbors over with fresh eggs? I have only begun my research. It appears that I have a lot of reading to do.

The question is how much trouble could I land myself into? I get a fresh egg share now. Its affordable and convenient. (and legal) But, its not the same as having your own chickens.....

Rain barrels

I was actually just out meandering in my normal blog reads. And like always I come away with such useful information. You know how it is. You get to reading one and then they link to somewhere and then you follow and then..well you had better had your initial one bookmarked because before you know it you cant seem to find your way back home.

Rain Barrels. My husband and I have talked of them. The idea of them. The conservation of them. Being green and frugal. They almost just fit in like we should have always had them. Never once in my mind did it ever occur to me that I couldnt use the water I collected to water my veggies. Now, I dont know that I would drink it, but my thinking on that was not really that thought through either, I guess. I just didnt want the extra protein from all the bugs and stuff....and who knew how long it had been sitting there.

So, when I was reading one of my fave blogs this morning she led me to another blog of my liking and she had written a blurb on rain barrels. I commented and she replied and led me to this great blog.

Did you check it out? Their water system? Isnt it just amazing. Now, I dont know that I need all that. But just imagine what you could do with all that water. How much your veggies and fruit trees would just love you to pieces. Because for some reason they just love that rain water over the hose water.

I will do all the research and then, of course, come to my own conclusion on how to handle the rain barrel issue. What about you? Do you have an opinion? Would you water your veggies with rain barrel water? Or do you think it is too risky?

Breaking out the big guns

So, I got to take my sexy man of a husband out to get some new clothes. A much needed event. After seeing him still sporting clothes from high school....he was due! We, well okay, I, picked out some great things for him to wear. New zapatos, too!

Fast forward to today. I was catching up on the laundry. Something I seem to do every day...altho it seems I never actually catch up. There is always something in the hamper. I have lessened the craziness of it by really going thru alot of the families clothing inventory. Purging, if you will. How many clothes must one have, really? That has helped tremendously. New things that my husband and I are purchasing are of a higher quality in hopes that they will last longer. The kids...we still hit the sales racks and the resale shops. They grow so fast....

Back to the laundry....the new things we purchase I also do not dry. Not only does it conserve on energy(and I am all about that) I am hoping that it will prolong the life of the items. After the items had dried I had to get out the iron. Okay, here's the thing. I really do not iron. I have never liked it. And in the past I had purchased things that I knew would not need ironing. I mean, I know how to iron. My big brother showed me how. He has always been in the restaurant business and has to look all seamless and fab. So, I pulled out the iron and the board...I began the process...fill it up with water so that the steam will help pull out the wrinkles. Let it heat up. Okay. Ready. Get the shirt all ready to iron. Its all nicely laid out on the board. Pick up iron. Move it around. The goal is to get the wrinkles out, right? This is taking forever. I mean forever. I am going over and over them and they still seem to be there. Ughhh.

Hubby offers to go out and get me a new iron. What? A new iron? Are you kidding? This one is an heirloom. I have had it since we were married. My ma got it for me. From the Goodwill. How can I get a new iron? That is just crazy. Okay, you twisted my arm. Go ahead.

He returns from the store. With this. The Sunbeam Steam Master 4214.



This is like the iron from the Gods. Or as my husband pointed out a saying from Wil Smith.

Old and Busted.


New hotness.

Did you know that irons arent supposed to leak water when you use them? Did you know they are supposed to get so hot that you cant touch them? And steam? They actually steam. That is amazing. Mine had holes to steam, but you pushed the button and the steam just came out at random moments in time....never one of them being when I actually needed it. More like after I had set it up and was moving my shirt around on the board. And it has a retractable cord. No more trying to figure out how to get the cord to stay all wrapped up on the iron.

Needless to say, I was in pure awe of the new appliance. As were the kids. Oh wait, maybe they were just in awe at seeing an iron. The mere appliance confused them. That's pretty bad, huh?

House update

I am totally amazed that in 4 days time my house is framed up. All of it. Is that insane? Next up is the plumbers and the electricians. We have walked thru and marked out where we would like to have outlets and where we would like to have the spigots outside. Pretty cool!



This is the kitchen all marked out. It sure made it easier for me to visualize what it is going to look like. Of course, its never the same as the real thing. The rectangle in the middle is the island. Where I am hoping to fit 5 barstools. All the markings on the back wall that you see are where the bottom cabinets and stove and such are going to be placed. I learned from the last house that it was too hard for me to get the window above the sink open without actually sitting in the sink. I wasnt able to reach over and have enuf ooommmph to push the window up. This time it is a casement window. All I will have to do it turn the crank. Then I can yell at the kids just fine!


This is just one of my archways into the dining room. I love the arch as opposed to the square. It somehow makes it seem cozier to me. Maybe it is the roundness in comparison to the hard corners....

So true

My husband sent me this.

I don't know about you, but this is strikingly true in my family. It really is quite interesting. When my Ma was younger she got to pretty much have the run of the blocks around her house. She got to walk thru the celery fields to go meet my grandpa at work. (Is that right Ma, or am I totally making that up?)

In my childhood I got to walk to the little shopping mall that was quite some ways from my home. I got to go to the swimming pool that was across the street from my home. I got to do this all by myself as long as I came home and checked in every once in awhile. There was a park across the street as well. It had nature trails and a nature center. This I went to along with a friend and we walked the trails and played in the creek. Looking for tadpoles and minnows.

My children....they get to play in the yard. They got to walk to the neighbor's house, like 4 houses down the street. We lived on a culdesac. They got to ride their bikes down to the beginning of the street and then turn around and come back. Now that we have moved we get to start all over again till we get things figured out.

It is amazing to me how much more sheltered our children have become. For reasons that makes sense and for reasons that don't. Things that happen in the world today make it so that our kids wont be nearly as street smart as they could be. The things that I learned along the way as I was able to explore and inquire. My kids wont have that. At least not as kids. In some ways I see that as a hindrance. In other ways I see it as a blessing. I mean, not being out there keeps them from being hurt, right? But then not being out there keeps them from learning. Keeps them from being able to see it all and know how to make the choices that they may need to make. It is a double sided coin.

Movies

Went to see this movie.

Totally hysterical and emotional and fun...all wrapped into one. I would see it again. I, however, do not agree with the rating. 13 is pushing it. Quite a bit. I tend to be very conservative on what I let my kids watch. This has a lot of good lessons and points, but the romantic scenes are too much for a 13, 14, 15, yr old in my opinion.