Tackling Tuesday

It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood, a beautiful day for a neighbor, would you be mine...I'm sure Mr. Rogers would have loved to be my neighbor on a beautiful day like today.  The high today was 69 degrees.  The sun was shining and the sky was the perfect shade of blue.  This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Living in South Florida means we don't get to be a part of the severe winter weather hitting the rest of the country.  And that's okay with me.  But it doesn't mean we don't get our share of cold.  Homes in South Florida aren't built for cold, or even cool, temperatures.  Our homes are built of concrete block and stucco.  They're made to hold in the coolness from the air conditioner.  There's very little insulation in our walls because for most of the year, we don't need it.  That means that whenever it's cold outside, it's even colder inside.  My house felt like an icebox today.  The windows were open so the air would circulate and the breeze would keep the house feeling nice.  I stepped outside a couple of times and it was warmer outside than in my home.  My hands were cold, my feet were cold, even my nose was freezing.  It was a reminder of why I love living in Florida, and why I would never want to live up north again.  Ever.

Both my son and daughter got up early today to get ready for work, which meant both bathrooms were occupied at the same time.  I could have gotten up and started breakfast, but it was cold in the house.  At least that's the excuse I'm using for having gotten up late.  E had his English class and collaboration at 10:00, so that's when his school day started.  It was nice to have that done and out of the way.  Afterwards he had his leadership class.  They went over one of his assignments for next week, so he's a bit ahead of the game.  He was able to get all the work for school done in 3 hours.  Thankfully we went for our evening exercise, which also counts for schoolwork.  One thing I'm also working on is finding a place where he can get CPR certified, since that's a requirement for his Hope class.  I found one city north of us that has the classes at the fire department, but I'm going to keep looking for something even closer.  I'm really glad he gets to learn CPR; it's one of those things you hope you'll never need but should always be prepared for.

I received my order of eyeliner pencils from Bare Minerals today.  I really like the colors, especially the green pencil.  The colors are not very pigmented, but that's fine for me.  I don't want anything that is too harsh or too bright; it doesn't work for me at this season of my life.  What I was really excited about was the samples of Complexion Rescue that were included with my order.  They sent 4 samples in 4 different colors: vanilla, natural, tan, and chestnut.  I didn't even look at chestnut - that one was clearly too dark for me.  Vanilla is probably too light, but my daughter wanted to try it out.  She uses a lighter shade than me in the liquid foundation.  She also needs something with a yellow undertone to offset the rosacea, and it looks like vanilla has that.  I tried both the natural and tan shades; tan is a bit darker but not so dark that I can't wear it.  Natural, however, looks perfect.  I put it on and found that it's light but also hydrating.  It feels really nice on my skin, and while it doesn't provide a whole lot of coverage, it does seem to be buildable.  It gave me light coverage which is what I need on days like today when I want something that I can put on quick.  I went ahead and added a little bronzer, and it went on smoothly.  I didn't put any blush or powder on; frankly, I didn't need it.  I'm gonna try tan tomorrow before I make my final decision.  I'm sure I want to use my 20% off coupon to get this wonderful tinted moisturizer, but I want to be absolutely sure of the color before I place my order.

Our running group was dressed warmly tonight; I myself was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie over a long sleeved shirt.  My son, on the other hand, wore a light hoodie and a t-shirt and insisted it was hot out.  And I thought I was supposed to be having hot flashes!  Anyway, we were out about an hour and a half.  It was fun, even when we walked past the cow pasture and "enjoyed" the smells (yuck).  All part of life in a small town.

That's it for today.  I'm gonna clean up the kitchen, then get ready for bed.  Goodnight ya'll.

Monday, Monday

The cold weather continues here in South Florida.  It didn't get above 67 degrees today.  (I can just imagine my sister's face as she reads this; it's 25 degrees in New York where she lives, and there is a snow blizzard coming through).  We should be having this kind of weather all week.

Today was the start of the second semester of homeschooling.  My son has a new teacher for his Hope class, and a new teacher in Algebra.  His previous algebra teacher is still his "official" teacher, but she has a new teacher that she tag-teams with to do live lessons.  It was a pretty easy day today; he had his Algebra lesson along with a couple of videos, music, Hope, and science.  Music and Hope were both intros, and science was a pretest which doesn't count towards his grade.  He did some reading as well.  We were sitting in the dining room going over his Hope lesson, when E says, "Oh look, it's raining."  I looked out the window but I thought he was joking.  It was kind of cloudy but I couldn't see any rain.  Then he said, "I think you should close the windows, Mom, it's raining."  I looked again but couldn't really see anything.  Then I got up and noticed that it was indeed drizzling, and the wind was picking up, so he and I went around closing windows.  We got done just in time - it started to downpour with a vengeance!  The wind was blowing hard, too; a couple of palm fronds came crashing down from being blown off the trees.  It lasted not more than 15 minutes, then stopped as quickly as it started.  Within a half hour the sun was out, the sky was baby blue and all the clouds were gone.  It did its job, though; it was cool and windy the rest of the day.

While my son watched his videos and did his live lesson, I folded laundry, tidied up the house, then made some spicy beef and black bean chili with cornbread.  Those types of hearty comfort foods are perfect on days like today!  E finished with his schoolwork at 3:30, and I took myself out to the jungle known as our backyard.  It doesn't take a whole lot of rain to get the yard overgrown.  I had cleaned up the garden area, but I hadn't had a chance to mow the lawn or get rid of some of the branches.  I didn't even think I'd get a chance to do it today, what with that sudden rainstorm, but everything dried up pretty quick.  The weather was perfect for being outside.  I cut up a few palm fronds and put them in the trash bin, then moved the remaining ones behind the shed.  After that I got to mowing, then sweeping up some of the leaves in the front yard.  All in all it took me 2 hours to get all the yardwork done, but it looks a thousand times better.  There's still some trimming that has to get done, but I was tired, dirty, and hungry.  Besides, two hours of cardio is enough exercise for this lady for one day :-).

I got myself cleaned up, then decided to give myself a manicure.  My nails grow, but they are so thin and fragile that they break constantly.  Even with me taking vitamins everyday, they still chip and break easily.  I'm thinking I have to look for something that will strengthen them good.  I've tried Sally Hansen but those products tend to make my nails brittle, which in turn makes them break even faster.  Maybe what I need is a nail oil or something.  I'm gonna have to look into that.  Anybody got any suggestions?

The day is just about done; well, not quite, it's only 8:30.  I've cleaned up and all, so I think I'll take it easy the rest of the evening.  Goodnight ya'll.  Pleasant dreams.

Tackling Tuesday

It's late.  Like past 11:00 pm late.  Like, I'd already gone to bed and remembered I hadn't posted, late.  It's been one of those days, to be sure.

I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail (at least I hope not) because I'm pretty tired.  I got a text from my daughter this morning (who was in her bedroom) asking me to take her to the doctor because she hadn't gotten any sleep all night due to the pressure in her head and how miserable she felt.  So I got up early, ready to take her to urgent care because I figured she was in that much pain.  When I asked if she wanted to go to urgent care, she indicated that I should try the regular doctor first and see if they had any available appointments.  They did - at 1:15 pm.  She chose to wait and go to the doctor, since urgent care has a much higher deductible.

I took advantage and made food early, bourbon chicken with rice, so that we could eat before going to the doctor.  I was sure we'd be there for hours because that's how it always is with doctors, but I was pleasantly surprised.  We were called in right away, and within about 20 minutes the doctor was there to see her.  They took blood, did a strep test, and a nasal test too.  No infections, but she has a lot of fluid in her left ear, which explains her earache and all the pressure in her head.  Her sinuses are pretty swollen and congested as well.  The doctor says she's pretty much headed towards an infection in that ear, so she went ahead and prescribed antibiotics and a host of other stuff to help her feel better.  We were home by 3:00, which in doctor's terms is record time.

I didn't really do much else today.  Since my daughter's voice is gone, I had to go with her to the doctor to explain what she had, then to the pharmacy to pick up her meds.  At 7:30 my running buddy, son and I went for our evening exercise with our running group.  We didn't actually run; we walked for 2 1/2 miles, but it's exercise all the same.  Once I got home I took a shower, then gave myself a manicure and pedicure.  And that's pretty much it, in a nutshell.  I could go into more detail, but I'm too tired.  Maybe tomorrow.  Good night ya'll.

Thoroughly Thursday

"One of the most important things we adults can do for young children is to model the kind of person we would like them to be."

Carol B. Hillman

My kids aren't young anymore.  My youngest is 15, a full-fledged teenager, and the other two are adults.  Still, I think it's important that I be the person I ask them to be.  Kids can spot a hypocritical parent a mile away.

I tell my kids that I'm a morning person, but this week I've been anything but.  It has been so hard getting out of bed in the morning!  I was going to bed at about the same time, and I couldn't figure out what the problem was, till this morning.  I actually woke up at 6:00, but it was so dark out I just rolled over and dozed off again.  The mornings have been dreary, cloudy and foggy.  Who wants to get out of bed on days like that?  No one.  At least not me.  I've been dragging myself out of bed at 8:00, then wishing I'd gotten up earlier.  Maybe tomorrow I'll make a bigger effort?  Maybe.

It was cooler out today; 63 degrees when I got up in the morning, and it's supposed to follow that trend the next few days.  Yippee!  Even though it was still kind of humid, it didn't feel nearly as bad thanks to the cooler temperatures.  As I went to the cupboards looking for what I was going to make for breakfast, I remembered that I have grocery shopping to do this week and I hadn't worked on the menu.  I hadn't worked on the menu because I had no clue what I was going to make.  I had no clue what I was going to make because I couldn't find any good sales in the circulars.  Since E didn't have any live lessons to attend today, I decided he could start school in the afternoon and I'd stop by Winn-Dixie and see meats what they had.  I like going to Winn-Dixie on Thursdays for meats.  Since it's almost the weekend, they need to stock up the freezers.  They don't want anything in there that has a sell date of that weekend, so they reduce the price of meats to about half just to get them sold.  I got to the meat section just as the butcher was stamping the new prices on.  I didn't want to hover around him too much (don't want to look like a stalker) so I checked around the store for some other items I needed: canned and frozen vegetables, canned beans, Gatorade, and canned tomatoes.  When I came back I had a field day.  I found one pound packages of ground turkey, buy one get one free.  They had the same deal for chicken tenders and chicken wings, so I was set with poultry.  Then I checked out the red meat.  I got a nice piece of London broil which I like to make in the crock pot with potatoes and carrots, reduced from $12.99 to $7.21.  There were also a couple of packages of steak, big thinly sliced steaks, at $3.95 and $4.81.  The last thing I picked up was a package of boneless pork chops, 10 chops for $5.92.  I spent a total of $122.33, and saved $73.28.  Now I can prepare my menu!  There are still staples I need to pick up at Walmart and Costco, but that'll be tomorrow's adventure.  I'm very satisfied with my grocery shopping trip today!

After getting all that food, what do you think I made for lunch?  Frozen pizza and breadsticks, LOL!  They were on sale as well, and my kids like them.  I ate, then kept repeating the food over, and over, and over again.  I finally had to take a couple of Tums to try and calm my stomach because the taste of the food was not better the second time around, believe me.  

After lunch I sat down with my son to go over every review class his algebra teacher posted.  We took a million notes on every example she did, pages and pages of notes, so that he would be ready to take part 2 of his test.  He felt ready; I felt he was ready.  He took the test and got a 72%.  There are still problems the teacher has to check, but I was floored.  I was sure he would get a way better grade.  I looked over the exam, and noticed one problem that he'd done.  He'd done the math and it looked right, but it was marked wrong.  I sat there and did the math myself.  I got the answer E got, which the computer says is incorrect.  We've had the computer mark things wrong before that were right, so we emailed the teacher.  I know she probably won't answer right away, since she's grading tons of papers, but I was so upset at seeing that score because we had just spent 3 1/2 hours going over everything.  I voiced my frustration, but remembered how important it is to keep my cool.  After all, it's my responsibility to be a good role model (see quote above).

While we were studying, my Ulta order came in.  I'd ordered some primer because mine is running low, and the Stroke of Light eye brightener, which is a concealer as well.  Ulta was having some promos and I was sent some pretty nice extras.  I was most curious to see the Too Faced samples I'd received.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that two of the items were deluxe samples, and the third looks like a full sized lip product.  They call it a melted liquified long wear lipstick (though I don't think it can legitimately be called a lipstick once it's melted, but that's just me); it comes in a tube with a sponge applicator.  The color is called Peony; it's a light pink sheer color.  It's very creamy, but I didn't put enough on to determine if it's really long wearing.  I'm gonna test it tomorrow when I go finish my grocery shopping.  The two deluxe samples are a mascara and bronzer.  The mascara is called Better Than Sex; rather awkward, in my opinion.  My daughter doesn't care for the name either.  I will say this: it made my lashes really long and curly.  What I didn't like is that it transfers to my upper lid and under eye area, which my Bare Minerals Flawless Definition mascara doesn't do.  Still, I did like how my lashes curled up.  I'll have to try it with eyeshadow and see how it looks.  The last item, the bronzer, is called Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer and it's a light to medium shade.  I feel like it's a bit light, but I have to try it out.  I like the fact that it's matte, because along with my order I got a sample of the Bare Minerals matte foundation to try.  It's a good sized sample, too, and while I like my Original foundation for its luminosity, I'm curious to see how I look in a matte foundation.  Who knows, I might like it even better.  

I'm hearing my daughter exercise.  She's trying the Daily Burn app for a month to see if she likes it.  I believe its $13 a month and they have all kinds of daily exercises, recipes, and other stuff that she's still looking into.  Her leg is still sore at times, but she has an appointment to see a sports doctor next week to see if maybe what she has is shin splints.  In the meantime she's working her abs and upper body, and it sounds like it's quite a workout.  I can hear her huffin' and puffin'.

My son R got medicine for his pink eye, and already today the difference was noticeable.  I am so thankful for the doctor that cared enough to tell him what he needed to do and saw him the very next day.  Praise God, he is feeling much better from his cold too.  He's started purchasing components to build his own computer.  It's his new project, and he's really excited about it.

Well, that's been my day.  I'm looking forward to the end of finals tomorrow: part 3 of algebra, and science.  It's been a good semester, but I'm so glad he's got 3 days off next week.  Time to get caught up on other projects - stay tuned!  Good night and God bless.

Tackling Tuesdays

I don't understand why people complain about Mondays so much.  Seems to me, Tuesdays are way more dramatic than Mondays.  Everyone's too tired on Mondays to start any trouble.  Tuesdays the energy level is back and the weekend is far off.  That's when I usually expect the unexpected.

Today was a less hectic day than we should have had, considering it's semester finals week.  We couldn't do any of the exams until after class, and his first class was at 10:00, so E didn't even get out of bed till 9:45 (I woke him up at 9:30 but he went back to sleep).  His first class was English: a review for their final.  The teacher explained everything that they could expect to see on the test, and was very thorough.  Afterwards was his leadership class, and that was pretty exciting.  The class read the book Of Beetles and Angels by Mawi Asgedom, and he was skype'd in to the class to talk to them.  That was so neat!  Like I told my son, he wouldn't have had that experience in public school.  The kids were able to ask questions, and be both inspired and encouraged by the wonderful stories he told.  My son also used this book when he did his book report for English.  I highly recommend this book, especially for teens.  Mawi Asgedom's story is incredible, and it teaches that with faith and perseverance anything is possible.

While my son listened to his classes I kept busy.  I cleaned the kitchen, swept the floors (I was amazed at how much dog hair was on the floor again), did a load of laundry, cleaned the hall bathroom and started lunch.  Today's menu was meatloaf patties with mashed potatoes.  Meatloaf patties are basically meatloaf that, rather than being baked in the oven, is made into patties and fried.  They look like Salisbury steaks but they taste like meatloaf.  My kids love meatloaf patties.  I prefer to make regular meatloaf because it's less of a mess, but to please them I made the patties.  As I was stirring the gravy, it bubbled and landed on my hand, on that flesh under the thumb.  It hurt so bad!!  I now have a blister there after hours of putting an ice pack on it because it was burning so bad.  I put aloe lotion on it too, to help it heal faster and to soothe it.  Cooking can be hazardous.

After lunch I had my son take his English final.  There were 24 questions: 21 multiple choice and 3 short essays.  There was a lot of reading comprehension questions but I think he did pretty well.  I say I think, because usually when he takes a test, the program will tell him how many of the multiple choice questions he got right, and he has to wait till the teacher checks the essay questions to get a final grade.  This time when he finished the test, he simply got a message that said, "Responses Saved."  Apparently the teacher set the exam so that she has to review it completely.  He's still waiting on his grade for his thesis.  His English teacher told the class she would work as quickly as possible but it would take some time to go through all the papers and get them graded.  So I don't know when E will get his grade, but for now, he's finished with 4 finals and has two left:  science and algebra.  The two hardest exams.  Lord help us.

When he was finally done I sat down to relax a bit, then decided I should go ahead and do my nails.  I took my old polish off, then remembered today is Tuesday.  Tuesdays are running days.  I knew the pastor that leads the group wouldn't be there; he's out of town at a conference.  I also hadn't heard from my running buddy, so I thought I'd just continue doing my nails.  I'd just finished painting them when my running buddy called.  It was 7:00, and she wanted to go out at 7:30.  I knew my nails would be dry by then, and I also knew E needed an extra half hour of school to finish off his day, so I told her we'd go.  I huffed and puffed on those nails till they were pretty much set, then changed into my running gear and we left.  We actually didn't run; we walked for 2 1/2 miles.  It was breezy out, which was good because it's also muggy.  I was glad I went.  I haven't been exercising as regularly as I should, and I really need to get back into a regular routine.  Right after finals.

I showered once we got home, then I checked to see if Shelbey had posted anything on her blog about a new Bare Minerals product I've been interested in called Complexion Rescue.  She had!  Since Shelbey works at a Bare Minerals retailer, she sometimes gets access to products before the public does.  She did a great review on this product.  It's a combination BB cream, CC cream, and tinted moisturizer.  So it gives some coverage while also being good for the skin.  I love this idea for days when I don't want to wear a lot of makeup but I also don't want to go out looking like a troll.  Complexion Rescue is supposed to be released in stores on January 22, but it looks like Ulta already has it.  I plan to wait till it's available on the Bare Minerals website.  The lotion costs $29, but I have a $10 off coupon from Bare Minerals, so I can get it for $19 if I order it from the website or purchase it from one of their boutiques/authorized dealers.  I'm willing to wait if it means getting a bargain!

My son R was feeling pretty bad again today.  Not sneezing, like before, nor even coughing so much.  His eyes, however, were red and swollen.  It looked to me like he'd popped some blood vessels from coughing so hard.  He texted me from work, saying that an eye doctor had stopped at the store, took one look at him and told him it's pink eye.  She wants to see him at her office tomorrow, but he has to be at work tomorrow at 9:45 am.  I don't know how he's gonna work that out, but if it is pink eye he needs to take care of it right away.  I really don't think he should be working, especially since he deals with the public, but the guy that is in charge of the liquor store is on sick leave, and the only other people that can work in the liquor store are my son and another lady.  I hope the store will be understanding and let him go see the doctor.

I guess that's it for today.  Hmm, now that I think about it, it wasn't such a dramatic day after all.  Well, except when I got burned.  I'll admit, I was pretty dramatic.  But it hurt, it really did!  I think I'll go get some rest now.  Good night and God bless.

Tackling Tuesday

Don't you just love appliances?  I think appliances are awesome.  I love that I can sit with my son and do school while the dishes and our laundry are being washed.  Even my meals can be cooking in my crock pot - if I remember to take the meat out the night before so it isn't frozen in the morning.  As my kids would say, epic fail.

The funny thing is, I checked the kitchen last night to make sure I'd taken care of everything.  I was satisfied that everything had been cleaned up, but I totally didn't think about the next day.  The first thing that I thought of when I woke up was, "I didn't take out any meat, did I?"  So there went that plan.

I went to the kitchen and looked at my meal plan for the next two weeks.  I decided I could make empanadillas, which are Puerto Rican style meat pies, similar to Jamaican patties but the pie crust is pastry dough.  My kids are never gonna complain when I make empanadillas.  They are E's favorite food.  He has mentioned it to me on multiple occasions.  Whenever I say we're having empanadillas, his face lights up.  I put the ground beef package in warm water while I made breakfast.  I've been having cereal and an English muffin the last couple of mornings; keeping it simple now that school is back in session.  I knew it was gonna be another busy day, so I prayed for wisdom and patience and got my morning started.

First up was music history.  There was a recorded review he had to listen to, then he took his unit exam.  He got 100%.  Woohoo!  Next was supposed to be his English live lesson, but it was cancelled.  Instead the teacher did a Q and A for kids who need help with their English thesis.  Since E's sister is an English tutor we decided it was more important for him to get caught up with his other classes.  He still hasn't finished his PE assignment, and he hadn't even started on science.  I decided he needed to do science next.  He says he hates science.  He enjoys the material, but it's a lot of reading, and kids with dyslexia read slower, so it takes him longer.  I usually read the material out loud for him because he's more of an auditory learner, so that's what we did.  It was really interesting stuff, on soil and soil formation.  He took the quiz at the end; he has an 80% so far, and there are two essay questions the teacher has to grade before he knows what his final grade is.  Two down, two to go, but it was lunch time.  Time to make the empanadillas.

I made white rice and black beans to complete the meal, then sat down to rest awhile.  I'd put some clothes in the wash, cooked, taught, and I needed a little break before continuing.  The break wasn't very long.  We got started on his Leadership final exam after lunch.  There were 3 review classes he had to listen to, and a review worksheet to work on, then he did his test.  He got 100% on the multiple choice, and now he has to wait to see how he did on the essay questions.  It was a relief to be done with that.  He worked on his PE assignment some more, but then it was time for exercising.  We hadn't run with our running group since right before Christmas.  The church had a service on December 23rd so no one was running, and December 30th I had my cousin over at the house.  The group runs on Sundays at the park across the street from our house, but I was sick the week before and this past Sunday was the funeral.  So I wondered how I was going to do any running when I'd been on hiatus for two weeks.  Well, I actually jogged quite a bit, and fast walked the rest.  It was over a mile when all was said and done, and I felt great.  Thankfully it wasn't too hot; it's a bit humid but nothing like the summer.  We're supposed to be getting a cold front sometime tomorrow, probably in the evening.  It'll be a welcome change from this weird weather we've been having.  It looks cloudy and dreary most of the day, it's hot and humid but we've only gotten rain in the early morning hours.  I appreciate the rain but I sure would like to see the sun a little more.

Back to the running.  We met up with the group and the pastor that leads the group came over and gave me a hug, expressing his condolences.  He asked how we were doing, and I told him we were fine, since we'd known for some time that Grandma wouldn't be with us much longer.  I have not truly grieved her death, because she was in so much pain during the last months of her life, that it's a relief to know her suffering is over.  But as he started talking to me about his own experience when he lost his father a few years ago, and I saw him get teary-eyed, I thought I was going to break down.  I know that Grandma is with Jesus and she is in the best hands, but I also know we loved her very much and she will be missed dreadfully.  I hadn't thought about it in that sense; all I could think was that I didn't want to see her living so miserably.  She'd always been so active, and suddenly she was in terrible pain and confined to a bed.  She is dancing with the angels now, and I'm thankful for that, but I have to accept that it's okay to grieve.

We came home and I quickly jumped into the shower.  I was sweaty and sticky, but also energized.  I hope that doesn't mean I won't be able to get to sleep!  I'd better make sure I take chicken out tonight before I go to bed.  Good night folks.

Tackling Tuesdays

I'm kinda wondering what's going on.  It's December 30.  This is supposed to be the dead of winter.  Just last month we had cool temperatures, enough to only open the windows halfway in the middle of the day so that all the cold air wouldn't come inside the house.  That was in the fall.  Why is it now that it's winter our temps are so high?!  It's 82 degrees outside!!  Something just ain't right.

After my simple breakfast of cereal and toast, I decided it was time to work on the donate pile.  I've had clothes ready for donation for months, and I have been putting off going through it and dropping it off at the Goodwill.  Seeing as today is December 30 I figured I couldn't keep putting it off any longer.  I gathered up the pile and separated it on my bed.  There was a lot of clothes.  Then I went through my boy's closets.  There was a whole lot of clothes.  Then I went through shoes.  I'm not buying anymore shoes.  This is ridiculous.  Going through my clothes reminds me that: 1 - I am a very blessed woman, and 2 - I need to stop misspending my blessing.  I mean, I do try to spend wisely, but there's times when I miss the mark.  Like, why did I buy those cream colored shoes when I have a pair already that work perfectly fine?  I got them at Payless because they were reduced to $10, that's why.  I thought I was getting a bargain so I bought them.  Truth be told, they've never been outside my house.  I would put them on, be ready to leave, and I'd go change them because they squeak.  I'm not even kidding, they sound like a pair of worn out old shoes and they are brand new.  I added clothes to the pile that no longer fit me and they are like new as well, but at least I got some use out of them.  I have to pay better attention to what is a bargain; spending $10 on a pair of shoes that I'm never gonna wear isn't saving money.  All in all I filled 3 kitchen trash bags with clothes and a large box with shoes.  My daughter also packed 2 bags full of clothes and accessories into the car.  We are all done donating for the year.

I took fish out for lunch but my youngest son invited us to have sushi.  For some reason he has been on this "I want to try sushi again" kick.  We had it once before at a buffet style place for R's birthday and he didn't care for it.  For some reason the soy sauce that was on the table was making him sick.  He was wheezing and having an allergic reaction to it.  I use soy sauce for cooking and he's never had a problem with it, but the one at this particular restaurant irritated his bronchial passages.  That was almost 3 years ago, and he didn't want sushi again for a long time, but now something peaked his interest and he's been begging to have sushi for weeks.  We went to the same buffet style restaurant because for $11.95 you can have all the sushi you can eat, and let's be honest, you won't find deals like that anywhere, plus the food is prepared right in front of you so you know it was just made and not sitting there for who knows how long.  I confess I didn't expect he would eat any of it.  I figured he'd try one or two pieces and decide he still didn't like it.  He proved me wrong.  That boy ate a bunch of different rolls, and even had sashimi!  I guess my baby boy is growing up.  These are things he never would have eaten before, but not only was he willing to try them, he was open-minded about trying new things and really enjoyed his meal.  We all did.  It was really good.

After lunch we drove to the outlet mall, where my son purchased his first longboard.  He convinced his sister to take him with the sushi meal :-).  The longboard is made of bamboo, is very sturdy and a nice design.  He was so thrilled to finally have his longboard that he has been wanting for months.  He's even happier that he still has money left over after spending $200 on it.  Yeah, I didn't realize those things were so expensive.  Glad he paid for it out of his money!

I went ahead and made the fish for dinner.  It was kind of weird; I typically don't cook late in the day.  We eat leftovers from lunch or something quick like a sandwich, but I wasn't going to let that fish go to waste.  Afterwards we took Molly out for a walk.  She's been limping lately, and we aren't sure if the problem is her hip or her leg.  American bulldogs need lots of exercise or they can have hip problems.  Taking Molly out is a mission.  She is a powerful 70 pounds of muscle, and she can yank a person's arms off.  I have my own issues with arthritis; walking her causes my joints to ache because of all her pulling and sudden stops.  No one else likes walking her for the same reason.  Today my daughter decided we'd all go out, so out we went.  Molly could not be more excited.  She loves going out and exploring, but she pulls so hard on her leash she starts wheezing, which gets her tuckered out fast.  Good thing too: it was humid out, so none of us wanted to be out there longer than we had to!  We did enjoy seeing the houses with all their Christmas lights.  Might as well take advantage of it, since the lights will be going down soon.

I'm gonna clean up the kitchen now, then take a shower and hop into bed.  I think I might read tonight, or watch something on TV.  Not quite sure yet.  I hope everyone has a pleasant evening.  Good night ya'll.

3 Days Left

Last night I went to bed at 10:30 to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas DVD which is an all-time favorite.  I dozed off through most of it.  I finally gave in, turned the television off and went to sleep at 11:30.  At 1:00 am my son E wakes me up because he has a nosebleed.  No biggie, I thought, kids have them.  I told him to pinch his nose and it would stop.  After all, he's almost 15 years old, not a baby.  Within minutes I hear him in the bathroom saying, "Mom, it won't stop!  Ugh, what is this?!"  So I got up to see what was happening.  There was blood everywhere - on his clothes, on the floor, in the sink, on a hundred tissue papers.  It was a lot of blood, and he was freaking out, which only made the bleeding worse.  When I looked up at him I could see the blood gushing from his nose and I knew I had to take action.  I got a clean tissue and had him lie down, since he said he was feeling woozy.  I then pinched his nose myself.  He wasn't really pinching the part of the nose that was bleeding; he was holding his nostrils shut, so whenever he would let go all the blood would come rushing down.  I got him to calm down and kept the pressure on his nose for a good two minutes.  When he said he couldn't taste blood in his mouth anymore, I had him get washed up.  As he went back to bed it started up again, but not as heavy.  I pinched his nose again for another 2 minutes, and that time it did stop.  All along I kept telling him not to worry, calm down, everything was okay (though I was concerned seeing him in that state), and he would tell me he was fine.  Once the bleeding had stopped he admitted that he was pretty worked up and the amount of blood had scared him.  He asked that we pray, and I prayed for him to be healed and get rest.  He lay down and, even though he was still a bit worked up and headachy, went right to sleep.  Mama, on the other hand, was awake for another hour checking on him and making sure he wasn't bleeding anymore.  He woke up fine, praise the Lord.

So after that overnight adventure, I woke up at 7:00 in the morning because, when you're a morning person like me, there is no sleeping in.  I checked my little monkey and he was sleeping soundly, no more bleeding.  I went to the kitchen to make breakfast and realized I'd forgotten to take out the ground beef for today's chili.  I reminded myself repeatedly that I had to take the ground beef out, but I still forgot.  I put it in a pan with warm water to defrost, shaking my head at myself the whole time.  I kept breakfast simple today, cereal and toast.  I had decided yesterday that today I would update my iPhone to the newest version.  I still had version 7.1 on my phone because my daughter had insisted that upgrading my 4S would not be a good choice.  When I read all that the upgrade would fix I showed it to her and she agreed that I should update.  I had tried to back up my phone first, but my computer was so bogged down with unnecessary files that it wouldn't even recognize the phone connected to it.  That's when my son R cleaned up my computer and took all the junk out, making it super fast and efficient again.  At 8:30 am I plugged the phone into the computer to back up.  It couldn't; one of the files that my son disabled was needed to recognize my phone.  Thankfully my daughter was awake; she knows more iPhone stuff than I do.  She fixed the disabled file and the back up got done.  Then we tried to update.  Well, that wasn't happening because I didn't have enough space on my phone, so I had to start deleting stuff.  Ugh!  All in all, it took 2 1/2 hours to update, but at least that's one thing I can knock off my to-do list.  

After taking care of the phone, I got to work around the house.  I had all the laundry to fold and put away.  Right after that it was time to make lunch.  Along with the black bean and beef chili we had white rice and cornbread.  We all love chili, so I make a big pot, enough for lunch and dinner.  At least that's my goal.  We ran out of rice and chili, and there's less than half of the cornbread left.  I can't complain about no leftovers ;-).  While I ate lunch I watched a really old version of The Christmas Carol.  This one is with Reginald Owens.  It's in black and white.  While it isn't faithful to the actual book it's still a classic as far as I'm concerned, and it's one of those movies that I have to watch every Christmas season.

Then after lunch I ran to Winn-Dixie to buy a couple of things I needed to finish making cupcakes.  I thought I had vanilla pudding in the house, but it turns out all I had was chocolate.  I'd also run out of frosting, and you can't decorate cupcakes right without frosting.  So I ran over to the store, and for some reason I felt the need to go check the meat department for ground beef.  Good thing I did - I scored 2 packages of about a pound and a quarter each for under $3.00 per pound.  It's the meat that has to be sold or thrown out because of the sell-by date.  There's nothing wrong with the meat, but government regulations and all, they either get it sold or get rid of it.  I was so glad that God pushed me over to see that bargain - we never have enough ground beef in my house!

I baked 2 orange streusel loaves, one for my next door neighbors who are an older couple, and the other for my daughter's coworkers at the church office.  Then I baked chocolate cupcakes because, who doesn't love chocolate cupcakes ya'll?!  I was pleasantly surprised that I got 27 cupcakes out of the one batter I made.  It meant I could get 3 plates with 8 cupcakes each, and one left over for each of my kiddos.  It also meant I was able to take cupcakes to 9 homes with just 3 boxes of cake mix.  My son R had to work so once again it was A and E going to the neighbors with the goodies.  The first neighbors we went to see have lived here just over a year, and I have to admit I'd never met them.  I saw the wife recently going to her mailbox and saw that she was expecting.  So I knew a chocolate confection would be welcome :-).  Come to find out she'd had the baby just last week, a gorgeous little boy.  They're a young couple with another little boy who is about 3 years old.  They were so grateful and so nice!  We then went to the folks next door to them, who I've seen from afar but have never spoken to.  The husband was very surprised but also very thankful.  The third house was a little more intimidating.  The folks have lived there since we've been here, but they've always kept to themselves.  They have a daughter who is handicapped and in a wheelchair.  When we got to the door the husband seemed a bit bothered, like we were coming to ask for something or complain.  I think out of everyone we visited, he was the most surprised that we were bringing a gift.  He didn't even know where we lived, and they are literally two doors down from us.  It made me sad to think that we've lived here so many years and yet we don't know our neighbors, but at the same time I'm so glad that we showed kindness to those we don't know.  It was quite an eye-opener for me about how our culture has changed.  People used to be so much friendlier towards their neighbors, but now everyone is either too busy to be bothered or too distrusting.  I hope our neighbors will be more willing to reach out to one another with this small gesture.

My daughter has encouraged her little brother to work out on her Wii Fit.  I think it's good for him.  We haven't gone out this week, partly because A and I weren't feeling well, and partly because it's been so warm out.  E went to the park with his friend yesterday but he was home all day today, so Wii Fit it is.  Whatever works to keep him moving.

It's early still but all I'm gonna do now is shower and maybe watch a movie or something.  That's it for today (at least I hope it is; don't need another episode like last night).  The day is approaching - is everyone excited? :D  Yeah, me too!  Good night.

6 Days Till Christmas - Party Time!

Not Christmas party, birthday party.  My daughter's long awaited, long planned, long talked about, long stressed over party.  After 2 months of prepping for her quarter century celebration, the day has arrived.

I got up at my regular time, and started on breakfast.  I have my prayer and devotion time before I get out of bed, so that I start my day on the right foot.  I let my son sleep a little longer as my daughter came over to get her Christmas bark out of the fridge where it stayed setting overnight.  We had to break it apart, which lent itself to taste-testing (you wouldn't want to serve something to your guests that you hadn't tried before, right?).  I like that it's sweet and salty at the same time.  I don't like that every bite has about 1700 calories.  Why must birthdays and holidays be so fattening?

I was glad to see that my son's PE teacher had put last week's live lesson recording up, finally.  His teachers usually post them the same day, but apparently his PE teacher thought the lesson was up.  We emailed her yesterday and she posted it, so he was able to watch last week's lesson and right afterwards he participated in this week's lesson.  That really helped with getting his time in.  He still has to do his exercises today and tomorrow and record them.  He was so glad that his teacher said they could use Wii Fit for resistance exercises.  Work-outs and video games are my son's preferred combination.  He managed to do 4 hours of work today, leaving one hour to get his week's hours in. We'll be able to get that done tomorrow. 

As he did schoolwork, I did housework.  My daughter had several errands to run, so it was up to me to get the floor swept, the bathrooms cleaned up, furniture cleaned, that sort of thing.  I stopped to help E a couple of times but mostly he worked on his own while I took care of the house.  I decided there was no reason for lunch to be complicated, so I whipped up some spaghetti and shrimp.  Then back to getting the house ready for party time.

The menu is more about desserts than actual food.  Pizza was finally decided upon, along with my daughter's popular Buffalo chicken dip.  She decided to have a hot chocolate bar with whipped cream, Andes candies, candy canes, graham cracker crumbs, marshmallows, that sort of thing.  There's also gonna be cake (of course) and cookies shaped like snowflakes that her friend is baking.  If it were up to my little girl there would be a menu to rival Denny's, but I had to reign her in; we don't have the space or the time to make 100 different appetizers, meals, snacks and desserts.  I think what she has planned is enough and then some.

We got ourselves ready early. I had to take my nephew and niece to their karate class, so before I left I showered and did my makeup. I used the new Delight set I got from Bare Minerals. It's gorgeous! Since I was gonna wear a top my kids gave me that is an orange or rather melon color, the peach tones of this set were perfect. I left, got the kids to karate, and when I got home my package from Bare Escentuals was outside my front door. I'd hoped it would get there before I did my makeup, but it's okay. I still look great ;-). I'll be taking pictures and posting what I got in this shipment, probably over the weekend. 

I'm gonna be leaving in a few minutes to pick up the pizzas. I know I won't have any time to post later on, so I'll say goodnight now.  Have a great Friday night y'all. Details of the party will be posted tomorrow Lord willing, so stay tuned!

Tackling Tuesday

Did you ever get the feeling you were the last person to find out about something?  Like everyone is in on the secret but you?  That was me this morning.  The world is progressing forward and I'm stuck in neutral.

Last night my computer (which is pretty old, by the way) started acting up as it sometimes does.  I shut it down multiple times but for whatever reason I could not get internet access.  At all.  It wouldn't recognize our wireless network or any other wireless network in the area.  I was concerned because this is the computer my son uses for his schoolwork.  He can't get Java to work on his computer so he watches all his live lessons on mine, and today he had two. I prayed this morning that my son would be able to figure out what was wrong with the computer before 10 am when E's first lesson started.  As soon as R woke up I told him what had happened last night.  He walked over to the computer, pressed a button on the top of the keyboard, and all the wireless connections came up.  I sat there in amazement and asked what he'd done?  His matter-of-fact answer:  "I turned on the wireless."  I couldn't do anything but laugh my head off at what an idiot I was.  I must have turned the wireless off without realizing it.  Even funnier, I pointed to another button and told the boys I'd thought that was the button for the wireless.  My 14 year old said, "No Mom, that turns off the mousepad."  I shook my head and wondered when I'd left the prehistoric era and landed here in the 21st century.

Breakfast today was pretty basic:  one fried egg, 2 strips of bacon, honey wheat toast with homemade apple butter, and coffee.  Lunch will be tacos, with lettuce from my backyard.  I'd started a garden months ago but had given up on it when the caterpillars waged war and were winning.  Still, without even trying, my lettuce seeds sprang up and I have large gorgeous lettuce leaves ready for the picking.  Not only that, but I was watching our dog Molly and happened to look at my tomato plant.  There's a tomato growing!  The first one on this plant!  I stopped watering this plant because I was sure it was a dud.  It grew and grew but never gave me a single tomato.  Now it has a small tomato and 2 more little tomato buds.  Proof again that I plant, I even water, but it's God who makes things grow.

I watched Alexandrea Garza's new video this morning and had to tell my daughter about it.  She goes over her evening skin care routine, and there were some really good pointers.  For instance, why hadn't I thought of using Johnson's Baby Shampoo to remove eye makeup?!  Oh my goodness, that is genius!  It's gentle on the eyes and cleans really well, plus it's way cheaper than any makeup remover on the market!  She also had some advise for people with extra dry skin which my daughter suffers from.  Especially now that the humidity has gone down, our skin gets drier than usual, and her skin gets downright flaky.  Her regular moisturizer isn't doing a good enough job; hopefully she can find something that will work for her.  My daughter has started using Michael Todd products which are totally organic, since she has sensitive skin.  Hopefully a good moisturizer regiment will also help improve her complexion.

I thought today was gonna be another busy school day; after all, E had a couple of assignments to do, and 2 live lessons.  He went in for his first live lesson, English class.  Except it wasn't a class per se, it was review and question time for their end of semester assignment.  The class is writing a thesis on Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter from Birmingham Jail (which is an inspirational read).  They've done the thesis statement, introduction, body paragraphs, and today they were writing the conclusion.  It took all of half an hour.  So he read his book till his next live lesson, leadership.  Turns out the teacher had cancelled the class because they are just about finished with the semester.  So he did his reading for leadership, wrote his conclusion paragraph, and was done in 3 hours.  Great.  He needs 5 hours of work per day.  We went ahead and started working on his music history lab, but I don't want him getting to far ahead of himself; the rest of the week is really light, and if he does all the work today and tomorrow he'll have nothing to do the rest of the week.  I'm looking forward to Christmas break so I don't have to figure out what schoolwork to do.

While my son was listening to his English teacher review for his assignment, I took our dog Molly out for her bath.  Molly is an American bulldog mix.  She acts very much like an American bulldog, except that lately she had gotten to digging in the backyard.  She comes to the door with filthy paws.  She also has taken to rolling in the dirt, causing her to stink to high heaven.  I was dying to get her cleaned up good but it had been too chilly out - we have to bathe her outside because she absolutely HATES getting a bath and she would not stay still for a moment to get bathed inside the house.  Besides, she sheds enough to build a second dog, and I can't imagine the damage her hair would do to our plumbing.  The weather has gotten nicer the last couple of days; 50's in the morning, 70's in the afternoon, 60's in the evening.  I had to wait till the sun came out so I could give her a bath without her freezing.  Now, normally I tie Molly up to the patio furniture to get her bathed because if I don't she'll run off.  The patio furniture is light, but she wouldn't move it because the sound it made against the patio floor would scare her (she's part dog, part chicken).  Today, however, she decided she wasn't having anything to do with cleaning or water or shampoo or anything.  I brought the hose out and started getting her wet.  All of a sudden, she bolted.  And I mean she was taking everything that was in her path!  She knocked down one of the patio chairs, a large planter, the glass from the patio table she was tied to went flying and only by God's grace landed on the grass and didn't shatter, and she ended up on the other side of the house, patio table still dragging behind her, where she turned and gave me that look said, "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"  Yeah, you better believe it!  I not only had to give her a bath, I also had to put the patio back together again.  She was in the doghouse, so to speak, after that little incident.

I got the email from Ulta today:  my order has shipped :-).  I'm glad; it's one less thing I have to worry about.  The Bare Escentuals orders are also supposed to ship this week, in time to receive them for Christmas, though none of the items we ordered are actually Christmas gifts.  Of course, there might be a birthday gift for my little girl, whose birthday is two days later ;-).

Tonight was our weekly group run, and I met up with my friend DS at the corner of our block.  We live about a mile away from the meeting spot for our running group, so DS and I sometimes go there on foot.  We took my son E since he'd been cooped up at home all day.  The night was brisk - 61 degrees felt nice for our walk/jog around the neighborhood.  DS and I don't usually run like the others in the group; we either walk or jog, so we lag behind and chit-chat the whole time.  Tonight we were walking along a path that is directly behind a bunch of houses, and there is a concrete wall separating the houses from the sidewalk.  My son E was a few feet ahead of us, running.  As we walked something along the top of the wall caught my eye.  It was a possum.  Possums are nothing more than giant rats as far as I'm concerned, and anyone who knows me knows I hate rats.  I let out a scream, grabbed my friend DS, pulled her away from the wall and yelled, "Run!!"  I hit my turbo button and took off like a mad woman, DS was trying to run but didn't know what was going on, and my son turned around and wondered, "What in the world are they doing?!"  He heard laughter and thought maybe we were laughing at a joke.  Then he saw us running and thought we were racing!  It wasn't until I'd gotten far enough that I told them what I'd seen.  It was so hilarious, we couldn't stop talking about it and laughing!  Even our exercise time is an adventure!

Oh, and I did change the background on my blog today.  The background I had was pretty but it was more appropriate for spring; this background is more of a winter theme, but not too wintery - it's not like we get snow or anything.  Hope it looks appealing!  Have a good night y'all.

It's Time to Tackle Tuesday

I woke to some chilly and refreshing weather today.  It was 63 degrees, breezy, and rather gloomy.  I'm glad the day became sunny later on.  I don't mind the cooler weather, and I certainly love the lack of humidity, but I don't care for dreary looking days.  My kid's love it; they say it feels more like Christmas if it's cold out.  I don't know where they get this.  They've lived their entire lives in South Florida.  They've never experienced a "cold" day - the coldest we've ever gotten is 38 degrees, and that's been in the mornings.  It quickly warms up into the 60's.  I don't know what my kids would do if they found themselves up north in a snowstorm, or on those days when it seems like the sun is never gonna come out.  Give me warm weather any day.

We "geared up" for another slow school day.  E had a collaboration project to do in his leadership class.  He logged on, did the project, and had to save it so he could submit it to the teacher.  When he tried to save, the screen went black.  He waited to see if it would come up again, but as he waited the teacher came on to see if he was still there.  He couldn't answer her because his screen was frozen.  Finally the screen came back, but his portion of the work had been deleted, probably because he hadn't answered the teacher.  My poor boy, he really enjoyed that assignment too!  He quickly emailed his teacher to let her know what happened.  Thankfully the teacher said he just had to write what had happened and submit that.  Apparently the system was giving other people problems as well, so she accepted that he'd done the assignment.  After lunch he actually went ahead and did one of his Wednesday assignments and listened to his English tutorial.  Then we went for a run in the park.  It was so nice to go running in the cool weather while getting school done.

Our meal today was comfort food:  meatloaf and mashed potatoes.  Add some green beans to the mix and we have a family favorite.  Honestly, we could eat this stuff for days.  What is it about meat and potatoes that makes us smile so much?

I had planned to watch a Christmas movie but I kept doing other stuff.  I got 4 baskets of laundry folded and put away, then put another load in the washer/dryer.  How do 4 people dirty so much clothing?!  After dinner we went running again, this time with our running group.  Some folks from the church where my daughter works have a running group that runs together twice a week, Sundays and Tuesdays.  E and I have taken advantage of the group for his PE class.  A couple of times we've walked to the meeting place which is about a mile from our house, but today I drove us there.  The temperatures were dropping: it was 63 this morning, and 55 by the time we finished running.  I didn't want to have to walk if it got too cold.  It actually didn't; or rather, we didn't feel the cold because we were walking.  My son E ran, but I walked with my friend since we'd both already gone running earlier.  It's a relaxing time of fellowship, encouragement and exercise.

My daughter is feeling a bit better today from her leg pain.  She's planning her birthday party for later on this month; my baby girl is turning 25.  A quarter of a century is a pretty big birthday.  She has quite a list of people to invite and can't decide on a menu.  I say give 'em pizza.  Everybody loves pizza.  And chicken wings.  You can't go wrong feeding people pizza and chicken wings.  They'll remember her party forever.  Besides, it's her little brother's birthday too. E turns 15 on the same day A turns 25.  His vote is pizza as well.  Problem is, my daughter has looked on Pinterest at all these food options, and at this point has overwhelmed herself to the point where she can't decide what she wants.  Oh, if they would only listen to mama.  She will, though.  I'm pretty sure she will.

It's past 10:00, and I'm getting tired.  It's only Tuesday and there's plenty more planned for this week.  God, give me the energy to get everything done!  Sleep tight everyone.