It has been a year.....

Since it has been almost a year since I started this blog,  I thought I would do a short update on the projects I started and the ones I am still working on. I have been working on being more organized....... then I started watching a show called Hoarders, and realized my condition will only get worse. I can no longer just call myself a "collector" although I would love to be able to use this definition for my illness. Fortunately for me, I am not a hoarder yet. There is still hope. That being said, I spent several days cleaning and organizing my attic that I started this time last year, and it looks WAY better then it did, you can actually walk around up there now. There is still alot of work to do but it is a start and after watching the show I have been watching, Im even more motivated to get it done than I was before.
(Insert picture here...I was gonna put up a picture but decided against it.)

The other project I was/am working on were containers for seasonal clothes and kids things. Again, my intentions where good, but I lacked motivation. You know when you look around, have no idea where in the world to start, so you just give up? Thats me. The containers are a great idea but I have been using them as a catch all for everything else, which I suppose is okay, at least most of them have made it to the attic at this point, which I did mention is looking more organized every week. I still need to get to the ones in the boys room, which are under like a 2 foot pile of clean clothes. Did I mention my kids are stacker's like me? This does not bode well for their future spouses. Hopefully they wont marry someone like them or they will never be able to walk around their homes!

As with any good collector, we need to have several projects going all at once, and no one can accuse me of being a bad collector! At this time I have no fewer than 5 projects I have started, maybe even more, if you count the attic and the containers. But for now I am only going to mention 2 that I actually finished. Yes you heard me I FINISHED a project! Dont ask me how, but I did. The first one was a set of placements, and the second one was re-covering an old chair I bought at a yard sale. I also have 2 rag quilts in the process of being done..hopefully I will finish them this year!

Yes I know the picture is sideways...I cant figure out how to get it to go right side up..On the funny side of this everyone who looking at it has their head tilted to the right making everyone in the room wonder what in the world are they looking at.

The biggest thing that has happened this year, for me anyway, is the installation of a Iron filter and water softener. For the past 5 years we have been unable to drink the water, do laundry, use the dishwasher, have an icemaker, and any number of things I took for granted when I lived on the city water system. This past month we were able to get a grant to pay for the installation of the filters and in the space of 3 days I was able to do all the above things . Have you ever heard of someone being actually happy to be able to do laundry??? Just ask someone who has been doing it at a laundry mat for years, being able to do it at home is awesome! You can get up in the middle of the night and get a glass of water, from the faucet not a jug. My tubs and sinks will no longer look like someone has been bludgeoned in them! This is even better than when I got my dryer, which was pretty awesome in itself. It is truly a blessing from God!

Well thats it for this years update, I have alot more to do to become organized, and I will probably NEVER be as organized as most,  but at least now I have a little more motivation to do it. Oh, did I mention that after nearly 25 years of marriage I have finally started a weekly menu? My husband just about had a heart attack!

Sundays Rant

Today is Sunday, and I have decided this would be a perfect opportunity for a rant. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to rant about but it should be good. Lets start with the definition according to Wikipedia:
#1)A rant is a speech or text that does not present a calm argument; rather, it is typically an enthusiastic speech or talk or lecture on an idea, a person or an institution. Compare with a dialectic.

#2)Rants can be based on partial fact or may be entirely factual but written in a comedic/satirical form.

#3)Rants can also be used in the defense of an individual, idea or organization. Rants of this type generally occur after the subject has been attacked by another individual or group.

For our purposes today, we will go with definition #2. Since I do not have a specific topic in mind and am feeling slightly weird, this definition will fit perfectly with this post.

Lets start with dryers, socks  and laundry. This past week I was fortunate enough to obtain the use of my brand new 8 month old dryer. I was totally excited about this as my previous dryer had broken and we had been hang drying our clothes. Have you ever used a towel that was hung dry?? Although this practice is more cost effective, it is definitely not more pleasant. I just told the kids if they wanted a little more loofah action to use a hung dry towel. I mean my goodness when I get out of the shower I would like a nice soft, fluffy towel not sand paper. I'm sure everyone feels the same way about this as I do. Anyway, I was saying my new dryer is awesome, its propane and energy star compliant ect ect, but the awesome thing about it is it DRYS! No more sandpaper towels, no more shirts that walk off the rack by themselves! Just wonderful soft, fluffy FOLD-ABLE clothes. I'm totally happy with my dryer. 

New dryer, sideways, dunno know why

 Now for socks. What is it, even with a new dryer, my socks are disappearing I just don't understand it. I have only dried about 20 loads and there is at least that many socks missing, still. I have determined that the culprit is the Sock Fairy. Oh I know you are saying to yourself, there cant be such a thing as a sock fairy but it is the only explanation I can find. The biggest disappointment in this is the sock fairy doesn't leave any money for the socks he takes. I mean jeesh if your gonna take the socks LEAVE SOMETHING! At least that way I can buy new socks to replace the ones he has confiscated.

On to, you guessed it , laundry. I had a friend post on Facebook about how their  laundry stack was as tall as a stool they had. I was like I have to use a stool to get to the top of mine. I just dont understand it, I did no less then 15 loads of laundry Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and I STILL have no less then 6 loads to get done. I said once I had to "get my laundry together" and a friend of mine told me I shouldn't do that because it breeds. I totally believe this as I have seen first hand the breeding habits of laundry. No matter what you do or how many loads you wash and put away, it is still an overwhelming, never-ending chore. I know throwing a load in is no big deal, but when you have to do it continually for 3 days straight and you only make a dent, there is something terribly wrong. I'm pretty sure we just have to many options in our closets, therefore it makes for oogles of clothing that can get dirty, although Im thinking the breeding theory seems to hold alot of weight at this point. Oh well, at least I have a washer and a brand new 8 month old dryer:)

My next rant will be on Sundays.  Almost every Sunday for the past 11 years we have attended the Fernwood Community Bible Church . When we first started there were 2 services and we went to late one because we had lots of little kiddies to get ready. The drawback for this is, we didn't get to meet or know any of the early service people, which was okay I suppose if you don't consider the church part of your family or only as a means to an end, you know like pew warmers, or just getting some fire insurance if you know what I mean.  We however have decided that the church body is part of our family and as such, wanted to try and establish relationships as much as possible. When we went down to one service, oh man, its was not a happy time for all those gotta have 2 services people. Just goes to show that Christians are sometimes totally unpleasable. I guess my rant on this is at people (church people in particular) who just cant seem to get a grip. What does it matter if we have one service?? And for goodness sakes why in the world does it matter if we meet at 9 or 10 or whatever time we picked. As long as your going and fellowshipping it should not matter what time the service is. Sunday is Family day for us, and we choose to spend it mainly with our Church Family which, my goodness people,  is only like till 12:00 noon. Now I know some of you out there may get offended thats okay it just means that you know I am speaking the truth. It does not matter what time you decide to go to church on Sunday, it really really doesn't. What really matters is if you choose not to go at all simply because you can not abide the time or that there is one service or its to long or whatever reason you may use not to go.

Alrighty then, I am finished ranting for the day. It sure does help to be able to get some of this off my chest while I'm thinking about it. Its been a pretty good day and I'm excited about the week to come,doing my taxes, oh yippee! Thats a whole other blog post though, so will let you know how that one goes.

God Bless

The Awesome Lumix

This year  has been a study in life. Almost anything that could happen , did at some point or another take place. As our year draws to a close, I am reminded that even though things that are not so great happen, there are plenty of things that are fantastic that do. Through all the vehicle issues, the shed issues, the work issues, people issues, kid issues, friend issues and everything else that goes along with it, I can still find a couple high-lights to look back on in 2010. Two of my favorites are the birth of a friends baby girl and my best friends pregnancy. I am sure if I tried hard enough, I could find dozens of instances where God has blessed my family in one way or another.
Most recently would be the acquisition of a new digital camera thanks to my daughter and son-n-law in Australia. My cannon camera has been gong on the fritz for a while now, and my constant complaints of blur and battery replacement must have surely influenced their decision to impart to us such a cool gift .

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FH1

At first it looks like your average normal digital camera..don't let that fool you! It is a truly awesome bit of technology. First of all, everyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I drink lots of coffee. As a result I suffer from shaky hand syndrome. This syndrome does not help my  picture taking  in the least. Thanks to the Auto-Stabilization feature on my new camera and I can drink as much coffee as I want and still take pictures! This has me totally psyched as my syndrome was slowly dwindling away my ability to be able to take a picture that was not blurry thereby ruining those "once in a lifetime moments". Here is one such example:

Yes..this is Joshua flying through the air with the greatest of ease.

 Yes, I know you are saying to yourself right now, that's awesome! I was a bit to far away, so was a tad bit blurry unfortunately,  but it is one of those "one time only deals" because as you can tell he was jumping on my couch, and that isn't gonna happen again any time soon. Here is another one of Joshua.

Joshua..again

The only thing in this picture that is blurry is him. This picture was taken before I discovered the next cool feature of my new camera, Intelligent Auto Mode! No more do I have to try and figure out what setting will give me the best picture for that situation, my camera does it for me! Although I am not totally technologically challenged, IA mode is now my new favorite setting and as easy as a push of a button.

Picture taken, in the dark, of my tree in IA Mode.

 As you can see, even with "hand shake" the Lumix takes great closeup pictures in the dark even! Here is another one of the tree in IA Mode with the Flash Turned off manually.

This looked so cool to me..look mom no blur!!!

 Another wonderful feature  my new camera has are ..RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES !!! You got it, no more running around looking for double A batteries because the kids used them all for yippy little toys, and now we have to steal from one toy to make another one work! Just plug the battery into the provided recharging unit, wait till it charges and you are good to go! I can not tell you how many times I had to change out batteries in my old camera because the kids wanted to "take pictures" of "EVERYTHING". I did manage to almost kill the battery the first time around as I was busily playing with my new toy, but I still have some battery time left, so I will be taking more pictures as the day goes on. Thank you Ashley and Aaron for the awesomely cool camera, now I can accessorize!

Coals in my wood stove.

*Disclaimer: Panasonic had nothing to do with this blog post..and this is not an advertisement for Panasonic, however if you decide to go get a Lumix after reading this I'm sure they will be happy, and Im pretty sure you will be to.
May God Bless you and yours this coming year with every good thing from above!