Friends & Family in NewEngland

Trip back to NewEngland

I spent 8 days visiting from Maine to NewHampshire to Massachusetts. I had a good time, in spite of the bad weather and cold, and some plans not falling into place.

4 Wheeling in Sedona

Friends of ours are sort of letting us share a jeep and she said to go use it and try out some jeep trails with it - so we did. Tim, Adam and I drove to Sedona and had a great time! We're trying to do things to get Adam to be more involved with the family. He generally has been a "loner" all of his life, but realizing how few years we have left with him before he's out on his own, we want to create some family memories before it's too late. He had a good time.

A Successful Saturday project!!!

As I mentioned, with my 2 youngest gone, I have uninterrupted time to complete cleaning projects that just otherwise would never get done. Today I tackled the small storage area under the stairs. The doorway is only about 18" wide or so, which makes it hard to keep stuff organized. It's barely as wide as a storage bin or box. Most things get thrown in, on the floor, literally!

Today I pulled out everything, went through every box and bag. Found better places for a lot of it, threw out what I didn't need, and then vacuumed the floor. The blue shag carpet is what we had in our living room before we put in wood floors.

The last step was to put back the things that really needed to be stored there, which turned out to be nothing but my photos and scrapbooks. That's all that's really important anyway, right?

now MY summer vacation begins!

This is the 3rd summer in a row where some, if not all of my kids, head to Nana & Papa's house in the White Mountains of Arizona. Up there, it's cooler, the air isn't polluted, and their tap water tastes better than bottled. There's lots of space and the boys have their own rooms for a change.

This week, Logan & Jordan left for the summer. They won't be back for 6 or 7 weeks (they'll get back just a week before school starts in August). Adam could've gone, but he's got a job here at Chick-fil-A so needs to stay. That means he gets his own room too, plus space for a friend to stay over.

So with two gone enjoying themselves, MY vacation begins. This is the time of year I plan and figure out the next school year for all three of them, I catch up on my scrapbooks and family heritage stuff, I read lots of books that I want to read (instead of just having time to read what the kids are reading for school), I get to swim laps in the pool when it's convenient for me, I write, and get to spend some time with friends.

It's also a time to clean the closet under the stairs, rearrange furniture, throw out the last year's worth of clutter, donate old clothes, clean the house - no, I mean REALLY CLEAN the house, and without interruptions, I actually enjoy it and look forward to getting it all done.

This year, I'm also going to try to eat more organic and healthier than ever before since I only have to cook for three. Adam & I don't eat much - I live on mostly fruit and salads - and Tim wants to try some new mealtime habits - so we'll be able to afford to eat healthier.

How will the end of my vacation wrap up? With a week-long trip back to New England to see friends and family. As for Tim & the kids, they get to go camping. I'm sad to miss out on that, I love camping, but I'm happy to have my trip, too.

Trying to get healthy!

I made an appt. with a new doctor recently. My old one closed down a while back. The first appointment went smoothly, she ordered a few xrays and blood work, an appt. with a specialist, and a return appt. a month later to discuss it all. Here's what happened:

1. I first scheduled the specialist appt. They said on Monday, can you make it here Thursday morning? I said yes, they said I was all set, first thing Tues. morning I get a call saying I was supposed to be there. Had to reschedule for 3 weeks later.

2. I got Xrays done. It was to see if I have rheumatoid arthritis in my right thumb. Everyday tasks are becoming difficult and my bottom knuckle is double the size it should be with more "bones" than it should have. I get the results back from the dr's assistant and she says, "Good news. It's not broken. Keep taking your medication." I explained I didn't do xrays to check for breaks and I have no medication. She just told me to wait a month to discuss it with my doctor.

3. The lab blood work was set up in the computer at the original appt. They'd said just show up and it'll be in the computer so we'll print out paperwork then and you'll be all set. I show up on the right day and I'm not in the computer. I had to wait an hour just for the doctor in the next room to say, "yes, do it."

4. I get to the specialist. The appt. was made just to talk about what tests may or may not be necessary, what they involve, and how soon to do them. The doctor there said nothing to worry about immediately, I could wait a few months if I wasn't ready. Then I get home and the pharmacy's going crazy because I didn't pick up my prescription and they want to know why I'm not already scheduled for the procedure.

5. The day I'm supposed to return to my original doctor, the lab calls and says they need me to redo the test. It's labeled as "lab error" in the computer. No explanation - just that I need to have blood drawn again. When I told her I was ordered to fast 12 hours or more first, she said it didn't matter, I could still do it today w/o a problem regardless if I ate or not.

This is state-funded health care. I pay my monthly amount, but this is what Canada goes through? No thanks! I'll take a zero! If we had more money to afford a better doctor, I'd at least like that option. Not forced into a system like this.

A Touch of Color

For a long time, we, well, actually "I" have wanted color in the living room area. I hate white walls - it says "cheap, rented apartment", not "home". Anyway...I had originally planned on painting the angled wall behind the TV as an accent wall, but out here in the southwest, all walls have what they call "orange peel" on it. It's a texturing spray under the paint to supposedly hide defects in the wall. Actually, it hides nothing, and makes repainting a nightmare. Like painting on stucco.

I had a leftover can of brown paint I never used after repainting our upstairs bathroom and thought, maybe if I just painted our stair railing, that would add a touch of color. It'd be easier than the wall, in the same general area, would break up the white on white walls, and the railing needed repainting anyway.

Tim started with a wire brush, Logan & Jordan hand-scraped (mostly Logan) the railing, then I primed and painted it. Where was Adam? He slept through the process. Anyway, the first coat made the rail look like it was made of wood. Logan & I wanted to keep it that way, but realized it would just look unpainted to those uncreative people around us. I added the second coat and touch ups.

Now we have a touch of color in the living room area. Glad we did it.

Radishes

A few months ago, I decided Logan could use a hands-on science project - and if it taught patience, too, that's even better. I decided on purchasing a Root View Farm kit. You plant seeds in dirt they give you, and using rope wicks, water gets absorbed through the bottom, up to the roots, and grows your root-type vegetables.

Typical Logan, he didn't follow directions. He planted all of 1 kind of veggie instead of the 3 different ones they supplied. We had to put in some carrot seeds after the fact. He also didn't plant them next to the glass for viewing, so we have no idea if our 2 carrot plants are all greens or are actually growing.

Either way, we did end up with a few radishes after about 60 days. The largest one was sort of dull-tasting. Maybe it stayed in the dirt too long. The others were spicy and good. We had them in our salad that night.

As for the 2 carrot plants, only time will tell if they'll turn out okay. Either way, I think we're going to do all carrots next time around.

Saguaro Lake

Yesterday was the best day I've had in a long time. The whole family went to Saguaro Lake, we had the place almost to ourselves, and everyone got along without arguing. I got to just sit under the shade tree holding hands with Tim, enjoying the cool breeze, looking out at the sun shining on the water, and watching the hawks flying near the mountain tops. It was a very good day.

Sleep America company picnic

We had a good time tonight. Tim's work had a company picnic near us. Free food, games and time at the indoor wave pool and waterslide. Here's some photos.

Easter baking

Although I love to cook and hate to bake, I find myself attempting baking projects so much more since I worked at Abbey Gardens. For Easter, I made pastel-frosted cupcakes and cookies (from scratch), we dyed eggs with regular old food coloring, and I baked something called a Cottage Pudding Cake with Lemon Glaze. It was more like cornbread with Lemon Curd on top - but it's gone, so it couldn't have been that bad, right? Next time I'll add something to make it more moist.

As for food, we don't do pork, so we had turkey ham, Tim's awesome mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, peas and rolls. The best part is that there were enough leftovers that I didn't have to cook Monday night.

What a roller coaster of a year!

Ever have a time of trials that just keeps getting longer and longer? Yeah? Me too! This past almost 12 months now have been horrible. It started with having to change churches, then for me to get a job when I've been a stay-at-home, homeschooling mother for 17 years, then the place shut down, I tried to plug into several groups at the new church and all attempts failed, we're down to one car and one motorcycle now and that has to go away in just a few months, then my husband's grandmother died, then my cousin found out he's got cancer at 37 years old, now our home-based business is growing, but so much slower than the little money we have is going out.

The highlights of the last year have been...well...hmmm...let me see.....my friends from bible study gave me a great Christmas gift, a wonderful gift and going away party at the end of our last study together, and some of them took me to lunch for my birthday and gave me cards and gifts, too.

Thank God for good friends, huh? They really help you get through the rough spots.

But I'm done with the downhill already! It's time for some mountain peak experiences again!