In the artsy mood.

Do you ever reflect on how different your life is from what you originally thought it would be? I've been doing that lately. Nothing like three days of a low-grade fever to give you some time for reflection.

When I think back to the days when my oldest was getting to "school age", I had visions of a household with no TV, music constantly playing (various types but plenty of classical of course) and a plethora of books laying about to be picked up at a whim. Let's not forget the availability of art supplies and the possibilities of creating at a moments notice.

That's not my reality. My house is cluttered well filled but with toys, dvds, and other miscellaneous objects. And for someone who is musically inclined, my home is rarely filled with music. What about all of the piano proteges I was going to give birth too? Or that family orchestra I was sure to have? Or the four part harmony I envisioned wafting throughout my house as we so joyfully did our chores? Where are the "Von Pevensie Family" singers?

At first glance, one could consider this a travesty and fall into a deep depression. The thing is, this current reality could change at a moments notice. It's about choices, right? Everything in life is. Just because a television actually resides in my home, it doesn't mean we have to turn it on. So we haven't done Art in a long time...we can start today...or rather tomorrow since it is 11pm at night. Tomorrow is a new day!

So I've decided to make a change tomorrow. It may last for just one day or perhaps for a week or longer. For sure we are going to "create" something new tomorrow. I have several projects in my mind but I think we will start simple. I will choose a card from the Usborne Activity Cards, 50 Things to Draw & Paint, that I dug out today and just "go for it". Nothing fancy, nothing exotic, simply a little painting activity. It's a start, it's a new beginning.

So is anyone out there reflecting on things they would like to change in their lives? It's not too late to make a change. Anyone want to join me in "moving in a new direction"? If so, leave me a comment. Tell me what it is you are changing for at least one day. I would love to encourage you!

Too Hot.

I wish I was just talking about me. I would love to say, "I'm too hot!" but wouldn't care for all of the snickering in the background.

My hot experience would be the extremely warm weather we had last week...or was that the week before last? Time has been flying by because I took up a new...shall we say...interest. Hobby isn't the right word. I'm making money and will probably be making enough that it can't be considered a hobby. There are rules to how much you can make and be calling it a "hobby". I remember from when I used to do my business taxes...a business or two ago. And now that I'm totally off topic, let me redirect you...

Apparently, 108 degrees is just a little much for my poor red van. It was acting up a bit the days prior...of course those days were 106 and below. The day I was running around trying to get stuff for Susan's birthday...that was the hot day. I was trying desperately to leave the Dairy Queen parking lot. I had just ordered Susan's cake and we were all out of water and Jake was with us. He was so hot, he didn't even want to get back into the van to go home. He much preferred the cool grass (if you can call it that) in the shade although I'm pretty sure it was still blazing hot there too. Susan, Edmund, Jake and I piled back into the van and attempted to get home. I was having difficulties even getting out of the parking lot. That van kept making clunking noises and stalling on me. Didn't it know I had to get home?! I had stuff to do before the party the next day. I threw that baby into neutral, revved it like never before, threw it back into gear and...

...I made it into the street where it promptly died. "Holy Smokes it's too blazing hot for this thing not to work!" I really couldn't imagine having to push it back into the parking lot and sit there in the blasted heat while waiting for Mr. P to come bail me out. With no swearing (I swear!) and much prayer, I tried again. Thankfully it did actually attempt to run enough to get me moving down the street. I just kept praying that I wouldn't have to stop at a red light because I wasn't sure I could get it going again. I did make it home. Told Mr. P all about it. We decided it was just the heat. The next day was a bit cooler and it seemed to run okay...
...until the check engine light came on. I decided to just drive straight to the mechanic. Ended up getting off of the freeway because the thing wouldn't shift down. I'm no mechanic but I'm pretty sure someone of average intelligence could figure out that the vehicle should not sound like a jet engine if it is not in fact a jet. Decided it wasn't worth risking an accident or something. So there the van sat for several days and even over the weekend. Finally Mr. P called the mechanic to find out what was going on. They didn't know. Couldn't reproduce the problem. Sheesh. Apparently I need to order up another 108 degree day to get that to happen. Unfortunately we have been having some pleasantly cool weather.

I called a friend to take me to get the van. It just doesn't make sense to have that thing sitting down at the mechanic when I could be driving it right? I have fallen in love with Mr. P's new 4Runner though. It's the same year as the van but doesn't seem to have issues with the heat. I think it's way more stylin' too. I guess poor Mr. P would like to have it back though. He has been stuck driving "the beast" while the van has been gone. The beast is his little '87 Ford Pick Up. It has definitely seen better days.

All of that said so that you all know that I was suffering in the intense heat we had. I'm so grateful for central air and vehicles with air conditioning. How did our forefathers survive?

Elite Club?

I am now officially part of an elite club. Oh yeh, I'm cool. (Do you hear me snickering in the background?) I'm part of the BGs. No we have nothing to do with the BeeGee's. Nothing in common at all, I'm sure. The BGs are the "Bad Girls".

Someone please run over and resuscitate my mother. Don't worry mom, we're not really bad at all...are we girls? Actually...I can't really remember why we are "The Bad Girls" except that I told them I wanted to blog about our time together but I knew no one wanted to be mentioned by name. I told them they had to come up with a pseudonym so I could freely talk about them. The Bad Girls it is. Wait, someone remind me why we are "bad". I forget.

So if you are not the writer, is pseudonym still the correct term? Inquiring minds want to know.

Twice a week I get to see some of the Bad Girls. Our children have lessons together and apparently I'm not allowed to tell you where we are having lessons or you may be able to figure out who some of the club members are. Does that make us a "secret club"? Ooooooh, this gets more intriguing all the time.

I decided everyone needs a club like ours to belong to. It's a safe place. We talk about everything from laundry to spiritual issues. Wait, no, I don't think we have discussed laundry yet but I know we have discussed mundane things before and laundry fits right in there. I guess we'll have to discuss laundry next week so that I won't be made into a liar. Someone remember that please.

The point was supposed to be (there was supposed to be a point?) about the importance of groups like these. Especially for the Homeschool Mommy who spends most, if not all, of her time with her children. We often don't have an outside career where we get adult interaction. Especially "safe time". That would be a time you can discuss issues, even disagreeing with each other, and not have to worry about being mistreated for your point of view. I so appreciate having intelligent discussions (or even non-intelligent ones) with other people who don't mind if I agree 100 percent or not.

So here's to the BGs! You gals are uplifting, inspiring and super-de-duper fun. Thanks for listening to my ramblings, checking in on my blog and for being my friends. Now, if I could only get you to come out of "lurkdom" and actually comment on my blog. Come on...just one little comment...I know you are there...

You get what you pay for.

If you are going to have your 9 year old and 3 year old paint, well, you just have to lower your standards a bit. Of course the good news is that their stamina is short lived and you will soon be able to take over and do the job right finish what they started. It doesn't help that the temperature would soon be in the upper 90s so that you kick yourself for waiting until 10am to start this project (actually I think it was 101 degrees that day). Having a puppy running about your project chasing the chickens isn't too helpful either. More good news...the puppy just likes to scare them to death, not actually eat them...yet anyway. Even more good news...the puppy only ended up with one red whisker and one small red paint splotch on his hind quarters. I thought that was pretty good.

I don't know what I was thinking. That chicken coop sure doesn't look all that big. I can finish it in no time...so I thought. I didn't count on the fact that OSB totally soaks up the paint. Yes, only minutes into the project I realize the error of not priming first. To top that off, OSB has all of these little nooks and crannies in it so that you can't just roll over it with the roller brush and expect it to be covered. NOooooo, you have to go over it 6 kazillion times with the force of a freight train in order to get the paint everywhere it needs to be. "It's only a chicken coop" I say to myself. "It doesn't have to be perfect." For the friends that know me and are reading this, you can stop snickering now.

The seemingly "couple of hours" job ended up taking ALL DAY. I finally got smart and had Mr. P bring me some water. "What?" you might ask. Why wasn't Mr. P out there painting alongside me? Well, Mr. P "doesn't do painting". I had to chuckle. I figured he spent time out there sweatin' while building the thing so I certainly didn't begrudge him not painting. In the end, he did come out and paint that part above the chicken wire pen. I was really grateful for that! I didn't want to have to balance on top of that to paint the top part.

So, I say I finished it in a day. Technically I didn't paint the inside of the windows but I wasn't sure if I was going to paint them red or wait and paint them white when we put white trim up. All in all, it looks okay although it would have been nicer had I started with primer. It probably would have saved me a bit of money because I wouldn't have had to send Mr. P back to the store for another gallon (did I mention that OSB totally soaks up the paint?). So what do you think? Do you think it looks okay "for a chicken coop"?Yeh, that's me...the Chicken Whisperer. I don't think that is all 22 but it sure is funny having these girls run after me. We have discovered that we do have 2 roosters. Yeh! I just love my chickens and I am happy that they have 2 roosters to keep them happy.

I fully intend on posting more regularly. First I need to get Susan her own laptop so that I don't have to "duke it out with her" to get some computer time. In the mean time, bare with me and I'll start getting more regular. Thanks for coming to visit and let me know how wonderfully my chicken coop is painted. HA!

Liar

My friend, Mrs. Hanigan, is a liar. Did you see her post for today? She says she is "off" at 5pm. No way sister! I've been to your house. There is always something or someone needing your attention. Wait, that isn't entirely true. When we were there blogging, all of the kiddos were outside or downstairs having a good time. Okay, so maybe you are off at 5pm. What did you do, send the kids outside for the night?

If you haven't explored Mrs. Hanigans blog yet, you really need to. That woman amazes me. She is creative, lovely and doesn't yell at her kids nearly as much as she leads you to believe. OR...maybe she just has the wool pulled over my eyes. :-) No, this is one of those women that seems to do a kazillion things and yet has time to pause to watch her daughter & friends "perform their song." Of course the song lasted about 10 seconds because one of the children ran off in the middle of the beginning and it all kind of fell apart. What did Mrs. Hanigan do? She proudly proclaims, "Bravo, good job!" or some such thing. Even though the whole thing fell apart, her daughter beamed with pride because mommy noticed. Then we ran back inside to our laptops. It only took a moment but I bet when that child grows up, she'll remember that mommy took time for her.

When I grow up, I want to be just like you Mrs. Hanigan. The problem is I'm older than her. What am I to do?