No Longer Bamboozled! And June Books

First things first:

1. A Good Dog, the Story of Orson who Changed My Life by Jon Katz. This one is a little sad, so be warned! I've read other books by this author and they are very good.

2. The Christmas Letters by Lee Smith. This one was interesting, it's written as if it's letters and post cards between family members.

3. Life is Good, Lessons in Joyful Living by Trixie Koontz, a dog and Dean Koontz. Life lessons from a labrador! Really fun.

4. Grasses & Bamboos, a Practical Guide by Ian Cooke. Not too much in the way of a practical guide!

5. Hamster Care. General info and a lot we already knew, but we did learn a little bit.

6. The Shack by someone whose name I forgot. This one is controversial and I see why. There were some things I didn't really agree with but it also had some things that I thought were good.

7. Quintons by Maeve Binchy. Rerun, always good.

8. Between Good and Evil, a Master Profiler's Hunt for Society's Most Violent Predators by Roger L. Depue with Susan Schindehette. Good, but could have been much better. But maybe that's not fair, I tend to compare true crime books to anything written by Ann Rule and she's pretty much the best there is. But I did enjoy this one.

9. The Joker's Last Laugh. Batman comics. What more can you ask for? :)

10. So Simple Crochet by Melody Griffiths.

11. Say it With Stitches, Embroidery Designs by Sharon & Kristin Jancowicz.

12. South Park Guide to Life.

13. The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau. The movie was ok, the book was pretty good.

14. XMen 3, Making of the Movie.

The bamboo is gone! The fence is finished! We have privacy! And we didn't have to put up the fence ourselves. Bill dug up all the bamboo, some of it is planted in 3 pots on the deck but most of it is pulled, dead and tossed. As an experiment, it was working. But I'm glad that we don't have to deal with it anymore. The fence was finished in about 5 days. Bill pulled the chain link up and took out the posts. Then he used the gate to block the one side where there was a 4' gap so the poochies can't get out.

And now, I'm going to concentrate on slowing down again. It's been a whirlwind few weeks. We have had a lot of company and enjoyed all of it, but we're tired! Of course, we ran all over the place today so that might have something to do with it.

Bill took my rain barrel down today so we could clean it. The water was suddenly green. I painted it a couple of weeks ago, to keep the sunlight from allowing mildew/mold to grow, but it was too late. So Bill took it down today and I cleaned it out. Then he removed the paint, at least what was left after the cleaning. We bought some special paint for it and it's now been repainted. Green! But hopefully the water won't be. However, it might not have any water in it for a while. We need a good rain.

Movie review: Monsters vs. Aliens. We saw it today at the dollar theater. It was pretty good, very funny and we really enjoyed it. But it was also short so we're glad we saw it at the cheapo theater. But it was a good movie.

Frasier is demanding my undivided attention now.

Sunday's Installment

I have been making an effort to slow down lately, we had simplified quite a bit but then things started to get busy again and we nearly allowed ourselves to get overwhelmed. But we realized it, so we took some steps to get back to the point we were at. I've made an effort to reduce the time I spent on the computer and I think I'm happy with that. I'm not a Luddite, by any stretch of the imagination! But I do think that we can become too dependent on the computer.

Same thing for tv. As a family, we have reduced the amount of time we spend in front of the tube. It's an outgrowth of our no-tv Saturdays. We watch a couple of religous/church shows we record during the week and we take turns chosing a movie to watch on Saturdays. But we don't sit in front of the tv all day long and it's not on other than the taped shows & one movie. Well, during certain times of the year we will turn it on to check for weather reports. But that's a possible survival technique, and if we have no weather warnings then it's turned back off again.

I do have a movie recommendation. It was Otter's turn for the movie yesterday, she picked Night at the Museum. We missed it when it was originally released. But since she wants to see the second one, she decided that she'd better see the first one. It was really cute. It was funny and it was just a nice movie. Family safe entertainment and one that I would recommend for anyone. It also has a lot of good actors in it, a few that I haven't seen in years.

Maggie has a new trick. She has always seemed to like wearing bandanas. I thought it was just because she was getting attention from Otter, which she loves but she gets a lot of attention from Otter aside from just the bandanas. Or manandadadas, as Maggie seems to say. Well, sometimes she calls them amamamandas. Or banananandas! Anyway, back to the point - I did have a point with this! Maggie went into Otter's room yesterday afternoon, then she came back with something in her mouth that looked like fabric. At first, we thought that Maggie had been into the laundry room and raided the dirty clothes pile! But she took the fabric she had, and dropped it in front of Otter. Then Otter picked it up and realized that Maggie had brought one of her bandanas. As soon as Otter picked it up, Maggie leaned back until she was still sitting but was upright. Then Maggie stretched out her neck towards Otter, and we realized that the dog was asking to be dressed. So Otter obliged, and Maggie was very happy about it. Sometimes we think that Maggie might be just a little smarter than she lets on.

Other news. The humers are here! I put up a feeder about Wednesday, outside the dining room window. Then the next day, I saw a rather large female hummer on it. Then sometime after that, there was another hummer on the feeder. The tiniest one I have ever seen. It's a male, and it might be one that has a black throat - I can't remember the specific type at the moment. It's too early for babies, so I don't think it's just a fledgling. I put up a second feeder and then yesterday I saw an entirely different female so I put up a third feeder. I still have two more feeders, which will probably be put up soon. Also, there are two other birds that have been raiding the feeder by the dining room window. Orioles! There are two of them, one is pretty big and the second one is smaller but I think it's also an oriole. We saw one on the feeders several times last year, also.

The cardinals have abandoned their nest that was inside the trellis. So we are going to go out and tear down all the remains of last year's vines. The morning glories have come up, Otter decided to skip the black-eyed Susan vines this year and just let the morning glories have the trellis. But we need to get all the debris vines down. Which we might get to today, but since it's been raining almost non-stop since about Wednesday I'm not sure if we'll actually get to it today or not.

Maybe after we get back from this afternoon's errand. I'm taking Otter and one of her friends to the movies. It's one I want to see, so I'll stay with them instead of dropping them off this time. XMen Origins: Wolverine. Let's just say that Otter is her mother's daughter in many ways!

Update, Otter's Birthday, March Books

Otter very thoughtfully shared the cold-type bug with me, the one she had last week. I'm coughing my head off, and my throat felt like it had been attacked with brillo pads for a while. My throat is better, it's now more irritated by the cough than actually sore. I have gone through a lot of kleenex! It seems to last a couple of days, I'm on the mend but not fast enough to suit me. The sore throat started Monday, I went to work yesterday but left early. I thought I would feel better this morning, but I actually felt worse than yesterday. When I called in, my 92-year old boss told me that I needed to go buy some bourbon because it would cure the cough - or if it didn't cure the cough, I wouldn't care! He's funny.

Otter enjoyed her birthday. She got her presents from us yesterday morning, and an envelope from Nana. We gave her Itunes $, the ear bud head set she wanted and a Sims game for her computer. (But I think her favorite birthday present is still the one she got 3 years ago - Maggie!) Our dinner plans got changed a little bit, Sweetie wasn't feeling too good so they were not able to go with us. So Otter decided on Chinese food instead of Golden Corral. I picked her up from school yesterday and we met Bill at the Chinese place we like. It was a good meal and we all enjoyed it. We had birthday cake when we got back to the house. The cake was good, WalMart does have a good bakery at least. Otter will get to see Sweetie and Grandpa in the near future, she is looking forward to that. She'll just extend her birthday celebrations a little while. :)

Here's my March book list:

1. Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder.
2. Scarlet Feather, Maeve Binchy.
3. Warman's Carnival Glass 2nd Edition, Ellen T. Shroy. Research!

4. Collectible Glassware from the 40's-50's-60's 7th Edition, Gene & Cathy Florence. More research.

5. American Pattern Glass Table Sets by Gene & Cathy Florence. I think this is about the 3rd time I've read this one, I'm researching specific things.

6. Heart & Soul, Maeve Binchy. This is a new one at least!
7. Batman: Snow.
8. Jeff Foxworthy's Redneck Dictionary. This one is really funny.
9. Ultimate CSI by Jerry Bruckheimer. Stuff about the tv show.
10. Batman Detective by Paul Dini.
11. Woodstock, a Bird's Eye View by Charles M. Schultz.
12. Mayberry Memories by Ken Beck & Jim Clark.
13. Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy.
14. The Return Journey by Maeve Binchy.

Lots of reruns in March, I haven't had a lot of time to hit the library.

I cleaned out my kitchen cabinets! I have two cabinets that have pots & pans, these were the big cabinets. I pulled everything out of them and sorted through everything. The dogs were a big help, Frasier watched over me and Maggie had to sniff everything. I literally filled up the trunk of my car with stuff for Goodwill! I now have two cabinets that are organized better, and not full of stuff I don't want, need or ever intend to use. Some of it came from auctions, there were 3 plastic pitchers that I know did. Two broiler pans, 2 steamer baskets, cake pans that were all from auctions. I had a pressure cooker that I bought, sometime shortly after we moved into our old house so about 15 years ago and I think I only used it once or twice right after I bought it when we had a garden. Also a meat slicer that I did use quite a bit, but not in the last several years. And a whole bunch of other stuff! It's all gone bye-bye now.

Bill's nearly through with the garage clean out project. He's now worked his way around to the shelf between our work benches. He's thrown out so much stuff, and also donated a boatload. Or at least a couple of trunkloads! As soon as he's through, Otter and I are going to tackle our areas. I cleaned off & reorganized my work bench a couple of months ago, but I'm going to hit it again and we are also going to clean out Otter's shelf and work bench at the same time. I don't think that there is much from our areas that we'll get rid of, but we haven't really been able to get to her bench or shelf for many months so neither of us are really sure what's there. That might be Sunday afternoon. But soon, Otter is itching to get out there and craft!

The dogs have not had access to the big part of the yard since sometime last week. We didn't let them out there when it was raining, then we had the snow and now it's muddy season. They will probably be let out there in a couple of days. There is a very brave squirrel that we've seen in the back yard. He's obviously looking for Frasier, but he seems to be getting braver. I saw him jumping down from one of the (empty) birdfeeders yesterday, then I saw him leap onto the deck. We saw him Saturday, he jumped down from a tree and went into the dog house. We don't think he was nesting in there, it was raining and starting to snow and we think he was just seeking shelter. I hope that he doesn't get to complacent, because Frasier will be out there in just a few days and he's come very close to catching this squirrel more than once.

Run, rodent, run.

Rainy Friday

It's been raining pretty much non-stop since yesterday evening. It rained off and on yesterday and today has been alternating between a nice, slow rain and thunderstorms with lots of water. Lots of water! And a few bouts of striking lightning, but nothing bad in our area. But we need this rain, so I'm not complaining. However, there has been a little hail mixed in with the rain at times and I could do without that.

I'm home with a sick Otter today. She is much better but not quite school-ready so she stayed home today. I've been doing laundry and cleaning, I also made bread. I think the dogs have enjoyed Otter being home, they got to stay inside. I did put them out for a little while, they were not amused! But they got a treat and got to come back in soon.

I've realized something. I set out to simplify and slow down, but it's been the opposite for about the last month. I have been busier than I have in a long time. I think it's time to get back to slowing down. I have a tendency to overload myself and I think I did it again. Gotta work on that!

Bill has had a big project, the garage cleaning, and I've been helping him with that. He's just about done. He has a new project that he's nearly through with: insulating the attic over the garage. He has done most of it, but the part that's left is the area where he put wood down to make flooring and there are shelves & boxes there. Those things have to be moved, the wood has to be taken up, the insulation will be put down and then the boards will have to be put back down. They are nailed down so it will take a few hours. I think we'll work on that Sunday afternoon. It's something we can still get done even if we do get the cold, wintery weather that is forecast.

Then I think it's time to work on calming down again! I actually prefer a slower paced life, we all do.

I noticed something at WalMart last night. They have nearly done away with the fabric department. A year or so ago, WalMart announced that they were going to close that department. Then there was an outcry and they backtracked. But at the same time, the fabric department in the stores in our area started getting smaller and the clearance area got bigger. There was an announcement made around that time that new stores would not have a fabric department. One of the local stores did away with their fabric department several months ago, and also most of the craft stuff as well. Then last night at the store by our house, there were clearance signs all over the fabric area and most of it was already gone.

I hear Cute & Stinky (also known as Maggie & Frasier) in the living room, sounds like they might be into something so I'd better go check on them. They are good dogs, but they are also sneaky sometimes!

Gentle Weekend

Gentle weekends are so nice. We have pretty calm Saturdays, but Sundays have been filled with errands, running around, chores and so much that by the time Monday rolls around we don't feel like we've had any weekend at all!

This weekend has been different. Bill found a part for the White Lightning, so I went with him to get it this afternoon. Then we went to Grandpa and Sweetie's house for a little while and had a nice visit, although it was short. Bill's been out in the garage, he moved the other saw to the cleaned out side (he's got two saws on tables and I don't know which is which). I swept out quite a bit of sawdust and then loaded a bunch of boxes in my car to recycle. I vacuumed the house this morning and I've been doing laundry, but it's been nice to have to time at home. Otter had a couple of chores she did without complaint. It's just been a nice, relaxing day, even with a few chores and a couple of errands.

I think I could get to like this slow & relaxed lifestyle. Fast.

The Road Less Taken or the Beauty of Back Roads

Otter and I ran a few errands this afternoon. We stayed off of the highway, we went all over our small town and the neighboring bigger town (the one we used to live in). We hit a couple of thrift stores with sucessful results, we went to Michael's but didn't find what I was looking for. We had a wonderful time. We went down a few streets that we have not been down since a few years before we moved, we drove past parks & places that we used to go when Otter was little and when we still lived at the old house. In each place, there were fun memories and we both enjoyed remembering. Otter even made the comment of how she was just enjoying the drive itself. I agreed with her.

It got me to thinking. I've been working on simplifying our life for the last few months. We've calmed things down considerably. It's been a good thing. I wonder, when did society's expectations of what is normal or the right thing to do, to cram our lives with something every second? There has to be an activity every day and the weekends have to be filled. We have to be on the go constantly. Everything has to mean something or be part of something, or just be busy. Rush, rush, rush. Busy, busy, busy.

When did it become strange or abnormal to relax? When did it become unusual or even wrong to live at a slower pace? I've often heard the phrase about marching to the beat of a different drummer or swimming upstream. Well, we are no longer marching to any drummer's beat except our own. As for swimming upstream, I'm no longer inclined to fight the current. Which does not mean that I am just going to "go with the flow", I'm not one to go along with anybody else just because it's easier and I certainly am not afraid of confrontation. But I'm thinking that simplification can and should apply to other areas besides recycling for example, and I think we'll be working on that now. In many ways, that is just my Texan independent streak showing. But I think it's time to slow down and see what happens.

Anybody care to join me?

A Few Quick Thursday Thoughts

1) Thursday is still not Baby Friday!

2) I read that the pregnant man is pregnant again. See my previous post where I commented on SHE not being a man. Born one way, die that way - surgery doesn't change anything!

3) No new car yet. The one at the auction went for $1,100.00 which was a decent price. But Bill said that there were a few problems that were not obvious last night so he decided against it. But he's looking at a few others and we might go car shopping Sunday.

4) My rain barrel is working wonderfully. I have been watering my plants using water from it and they seem to be doing well. It's about 1/2 to 3/4 full. I don't think we have any rain expected in the next several days, but there is still plenty of water since I don't have a whole lot of plants that need watering at the moment - lots of cactus!

5) Duct tape has many wonderous uses. Otter went to the library's teen program today. They made things out of duct tape. She now has a pair of sandles and a small purse. All made out of duct tape.

Be warned - political comments coming very soon.

Hopeless!!

Our dogs are hopeless. They are really dense today. Otter has been home all day, she's had an asthma spell that started last night so she stayed home from school today. Because it's asthma related, I've been home with her. The dogs should be well aware of that fact, since they've spent a lot of time visiting her for affection. But for some reason, they both apparently forgot. Because at 3:20ish when the bus went by, they both got very bouncy. Otter talked to them a couple of times, but they kept getting bouncier and bouncier. About 20 minutes later, I headed into the living room and they just about went nuts. They went to the front door and stood where they normally do when they greet Otter! And they stayed there. I finally had Otter walk to the front door, open it, close it and then greet them - that is what it took for them to calm down! Are they silly, or what?

Since I've been home today, I am now caught up on all my laundry. There wasn't much, just two loads. But it's all done and put away AND I've also ironed all of Bill's shirts he wears to work so I don't have to do that particular chore for about a week and a half. I also cleaned the kitchen, counters - sink - floor - scrubbed the stove type of cleaning. I also went through my sewing stuff, I really only found a couple of things to put in my donate pile. Mostly, I just needed to reorganize it a little bit and now it all fits on the two shelves with room to spare. I did get out into the garage this afternoon and did a little organizing. Otter's work area was getting cluttered again, which was certainly not unexpected with Wild Bill on the loose, and I fixed that problem. For now, anyway.

Otter spent most of her day on the couch with her inhaler and a blanket. She's much better now, she had a long hot shower and the steam helped quite a bit. She should be able to go back to school tomorrow. Which means that Maggie & Frasier will get to greet her for real tomorrow! And I'm sure that they'll be just as excited as they were today. :)

We have a little bit of stuff to post on eBay. I did manage to get one lot of Otter's books listed, but I think we are going to get more posted tonight. Shirts mostly, although I think it's probably time to get the gloves listed that we got in June at the Army Surplus place's going out of business auction.

We also need to get back on the pirate pants. It shouldn't take too long to get them finished. I'll probably do that after supper. Then the fashionably dressed Pirate will be ready for the costume party on Saturday.

I probably should also think about painting the frame for the rain barrel. I thought it would be a little warmer this afternoon than it actually is, so I might still wait until this weekend when it is supposed to be in the 70's.

Simplifying Update: Reducing the amount of paper products we use. We don't use paper plates all that often, although I do have them for times when we don't have any electricity such as last December's ice storm. However, I realized how we seemed to go through a great deal of paper towels. So I tried something. I started leaving a kitchen towel out on the counter and strongly suggested that we use it to dry our hands off on. It can be used several times before it needs to be washed, and it doesn't add to my laundry load because they are so small. It took a little time to get used to the idea, but we only went through two rolls of paper towels in the last month. As opposed to about 12 rolls in a month before the switch.

I also have a couple of reusable "fabric" bags to use at the grocery store instead of the plastic bags, but so far I have only used them once. The clerk at WalMart simply could not understand that I did not want plastic bags, even though I told her, then she finally figured out that I wanted to use my bags - however, she kept trying to put the stuff in plastic bags and then into the reusables. I gave up on WalMart, but I will use them at other places if I can. One of the local grocery stores uses paper sacks, and they are recylcable. I reuse those quite a bit. I also have two of them that are full of WalMart's plastic bags - WalMart has boxes set up that you can put the used plastic bags in, then they get recycled. I'm going to take my two full paper sacks with me the next time and empty them into their bin. But I'm going to wait a while before I try using my reusable bags at Wallyworld again! They do sell the bags, right at the registers. But I have never seen anyone actually using them there. At least the other grocery store that has the paper sacks does seem to know what to do with the reusables, I've seem people use them there.

Blogger is acting strange again, it's not separating paragraphs!

Just Stuff

Lots of stuff on my mind today! And I might even remember it all. Yeah, right.

Puppies: They are parked beside me right now, Frasier is grooming Maggie. She will pester him until he starts playing, but what she really wants is to get him so riled up that he'll start grooming her to make her stop playing. Which works, because getting groomed seems to be her real agenda but Frasier hasn't figured it out yet. Which is a switch, usually he's the smart one.

Both doggies were in disgrace this morning. Seems that one of them figured out how to get into the trash bag and the contents of the bag were redistributed all over the kitchen. And even into the living room, where there was a dusting of coffee grounds on the carpet. Otter also noticed that one of them had taken some of the trash half-way out the dog door into the back yard. I have my suspicions as to which dog did what. And they are both guilty! Frasier would not even look at me this morning, he stayed on the opposite side of the room from me. Maggie would at least look at us, but she was a little less bouncy than she normally is.

Also on my mind: Otter. At the moment, she is at school. The try-outs for the school play are this afternoon. It's about 4:30 as I type, try-outs started at 3:00 and last until 5:00. If she gets out earlier, she'll call me. But since I haven't heard from her yet, I think I'll get the doggies leashed and loaded into the car then head up there about 20 minutes from now.

Simplification is next on my list. I'm still working on it. We have quit using paper napkins, I have a boatload of fabric napkins so we've started using them. They get tossed in the laundry and they don't make any more work. I have been cleaning out a lot of stuff, I took a trunkload to Goodwill to donate today. Still need to get my rain barrel set up, but it will need to be cleaned and scrubbed first.

Yard work! I am going to move a bunch more iris bulbs this fall, I'm just not quite sure where I'm going to move them to yet. I know where I'm moving them away from - around the trees. I think I'll probably put a third row behind the house, there are two rows already but they are farther out from the house than I would like them to be so I'll probably put a row closer to the house. There will still be quite a few around the trees, I just want to thin them out a little bit. Possibly I might put some of them beside the shed in the back yard. I'll figure that out a little closer to time to move them, it depends on how many I actually dig up. Also, I'm beginning to see bulbs in the stores so we need to start thinking about the tulip bed. I think Otter wants to plant a variety of colors, like we did last year.

Crafting. I have been in a crafting mood for a while now, and I generally always have several projects in various stages of completion. I have finished up quite a few lately. I still have several waiting to be worked on, and I spent a few hours on Saturday working on them. I love having the time on Saturdays to do things like that. Froggy, I'm nearly through with the ceramic tree. I thought I was finished with it, but I've discovered a few spots that I think need to be touched up again. Then when I'm satisfied that all the spots have been painted, I'll seal it. Also, Otter and I have a sock monkey waiting on us! It's mostly done, but the limbs need to be attached. Then I think we're going to redo the face, it doesn't look quite right.

Fall/Autumn. It's still August, but I kind of think we're in for an early Fall this year. I hope that we do not have to go through more bad ice situations like we did last year. We need to get the fireplace checked, when we had the chimney swept last year the guy said it was going to need some work. I need to get that scheduled, but it has to be on a day that Bill can be here so they can show him just what it's going to need.

Driving lessons. I have scheduled Otter's driving lessons through the driving school, she has four 1 1/2 hour sessions scheduled. Two the week after next and two the week after that. We are also going to continue to work with her and teach her, I had planned on that tonight but she's later due to the try-outs and then she'll have homework so it's probably not going to happen tonight.

Ok, that's it for today's installment! I will be posting my August book list in the next few days.

Some Monday Thoughts & Stuff

Otter's enjoying 10th grade so far. She has Drama this year, which is what she was hoping for. I think she'll really enjoy that, seeing as she's quite the Drama Queen already. (I'm going to pay for that comment, I know.) They were supposed to get the locker assignments today. Which they did. However, the locks were apparently mixed up somewhere along the line because none of the kids in her class they were assigned in could get their lockers to open. The locks are the removable kind, and somebody goofed somewhere.

There is a beagle asleep in the floor, right behind Otter's chair. When it was getting close to time for the school bus, Maggie was looking out the window. I think she was watching for the bus, she had a very intent expression on her little, furry face and as soon as she saw the bus she flew to the front door. Where she whined and wiggled so much she could hardly stand, and then when she saw Otter she was nearly delirious! She's hardly left Otter's side since then. Frasier is content to sit in the living room, with the new chewbones I gave them today. He's probably got both chewbones, he likes to take things like that outside but the last time I checked they were still inside. He's been busy, however. We have a large plastic barrel that we use to hold coke cans until it gets full. Then Bill takes the cans to the recycling place that buys them. We also put tinfoil in the barrel. We know it's full enough to take down, when Frasier can reach the contents. Two or three times lately, I've had to retrieve cans and clean up shredded foil that mysteriously appears just outside the doggie door from the garage. Frasier is denying responsibility, of course.

I've been doing a little Fenton research. I had been toying with the idea of selling the basket I bought when Froggy was here, the one I got for $3.00 at the thrift store. I have a good idea when it was produced, mid-1980's, and I have identified the artist who signed it. But I could not find the pattern name anywhere. But I asked the Expert on another site, and he identified it as Berries and Blossoms. Thanks, 'Keet! And I think I'm going to hang on to it, at least for a while. I might change my mind later, but I really don't think so. Froggy, since you left I haven't found any more Fenton like that. Just expensive stuff, but no good finds. You need to come back.

It's been mild weather the last few days. Much cooler than normal. It's been nice. We've had some rain, but not a lot. However, we could get rain starting tonight and lasting for a couple of days. So the cactus got brought back in today. They just went back outside yesterday! I probably should just move them inside for the year, but I will have to rearrange my indoor plants and I'm not really in a hurry to do that. My Pear is growing another leaf, I'm putting off re-potting it but I am not going to be able to wait much longer. It's going to need a much bigger pot. Soon. I think that I'm going to look for something similar to the big, pink pot that I got last year (when Froggy was here) which currently has two cactus planted in it. I still would like a cast-iron cooking pot to plant cactus in, but it needs to be small enough that I can carry it since it gets too cold here in the winter for most cactus. I might still buy a cast-iron pot and use it as an outside planter, something I replant each year. But that's just a thought at this point.

I still have a prayer request concerning Virginia's grandkids. There is a court date next week, she and her husband are trying to get legal custody established and I have to say that I am 100% behind them on this. Those kids have virtually been abandoned by their father and even when he did take them they were not safe with him. Long story, but there is a protective order in place against him now. The best thing would be for the custody to be placed in Virginia and David's hands, and for their father to be out of their life. It's a sad situation and the last thing that they wanted, but nobody is surprised that he's abandoned his children. The fear now is that out of spite or stupid macho pride he will contest it or possibly even try to grab the kids. So prayers would be helpful, for all concerned.

I have some other thoughts, but I'm not quite ready to post about them. Nothing to worry about, I just have to get my thoughts in order first. Simplification is a big part of it. I'm just not quite there yet! Toadly would probably say that I'm not all there anyway, but he's not far behind! :)

Simple Saturday

I spent a lot of my day watching hummingbirds. There are 7 that we know of, but it's kind of hard to count them! There might be more. I now have four feeders up, I put up another one today. I am probably going to have to refill at least one tomorrow, maybe two. They are such fun to watch. There are at least two males, the rest might all be female.

Otter is pretty much over the migraine and related symptoms. She didn't sleep too well last night, but she slept until about 9:30 this morning and took it easy most of the day. She did get in the pool with us this afternoon and I think she really enjoyed it. She had some tummy troubles last night, and her stomach was still kind of quivery this morning so we decided to change our plans for today which involved making pizzas. We'll make them tomorrow.

I forgot about another family curse, which also came from Mom. Asthma! She had it when she was younger, Dad said that she still had it when they were married but she "outgrew" it over time. Today we know that asthma is never really outgrown, it doesn't actually go away. It does sometimes go into remission, just like other bad diseases, but it's always there. I had it for years before I was officially diagnosed, and Otter was diagnosed when she was about 3. Although the first symptoms where when she was about 2 1/2. Froggy's kids have had it, too. At least two of the three. Possibly all three, I'm not sure. She'll tell me!

Anyway, back to simple Saturday stuff. We watched a movie, it was Bill's turn to pick. He rented the newest Stargate movie. It was pretty good, the series was very good and it went off the air a while back but there have been two movies since the series. I spent a lot of time on the couch, reading. I finished one book and read two others front to back cover. I also started another one. They'll be on my list at the end of the month. I think I'm up to about 7 or 8 now. I was going to work on some of my crafts, but I just never quite got around to it. Same thing with crochet - I have a few projects, but I'm not in the mood to crochet right now. I will be again soon, however!

I did have to treat Frasier's ears today, but that's something I have to do pretty often anyway. He tried to get around me and go out his door, but I caught him and he plopped down in the kitchen floor and waited with his head flat on the floor. It's so much easier when he cooperates! Of course, he knows that there is a treat waiting for him at the end, so that might have something to do with why he's been so cooperative lately. And Magginator gets a treat when he does, so she was right there waiting. Each one gets a treat when the other dog gets medicated or claws clipped. Maggie got a claw trimming today, which she did not like but we were able to get most of them this time.

We watched most of the opening ceremony of the Olympics last night. We missed about the first 30 minutes, so we saw most of it. The lighting ceremony was amazing! I don't see how this one can be topped, it was spectacular. Like someone said, this was China's "coming out party" to the world and they were going to do it right. China has been a strong force in the past, but now they are going to be a very strong force to be reckoned with. They did the ceremony right, it was very good.

It's only 9:30, but I am going to be heading for bed in a few minutes. I did not get a lot of sleep last night either, listening for Otter! Also, I slept on the couch so I could hear her if she had any more tummy episodes, and I woke up a lot because the couch wasn't very comfortable. The last time I slept on it for any length of time was when I had my surgery and I figured out pretty quickly that I couldn't get out of the bed once I managed to get in it. I don't remember it being so uncomfortable, but then I was still drugged up then from the surgery, anti nausea pills and pain pills. Which is probably why I slept at all then!

Hippos & Birdies!

It's Froggy's birthday today. She's older than I am, but she'll still never be as OLD as Toadly!

I just realized as I was typing that my family has a lot of animal nicknames. Like bordering on an obsessive amount! I'm Cricket (yeah, I know it's a bug and not an animal!), or Ottermom, my sister is Froggy, our brother is Toadly, his grandkids call him Duck (and he's also known as the Monkey's Aunt - long story), my daughter is Otter, or insane kitten, or Monkey. It's our mother's fault. Not fault as in a bad thing, but I think she's probably responsible. She loved animals and she passed that on to us. Which I think is a good thing, by the way!

Speaking of Otter, she and I just got back from walking the dogs. She rode her bike, I got dog detail. She probably got more excercise than I did, since she had to keep circling back to me because walking is slower than biking. She has driving class starting tomorrow, but she will probably always enjoy riding her bike. I certainly enjoy mine.

A few simplifying thoughts: When I run out of paper table napkins, which might be a while considering that I just stocked up - I'm going to switch to using cloth napkins. Less waste, less trees cut down. No, I'm not turning into a tree hugger! But I am trying to make some wise choices. Same thing about plastic, we're going to be using less plastic to store things in and more glass. I'm not going to completely stop buying baggies, for example. But I'm going to reduce the amount we use. I have a boatload of tupperware-type storage containers, which will last for a long time and they usually just sit in the cabinet. It's so much easier to just grab a ziploc instead. We've been working to reduce the amount of trash we produce, and we've also been recycling what we can for several months. I have a few other things I'm thinking about.

Otter's eBay stuff is starting to get bids. Very good sign, bids this early. She's hopeful that she'll have a good final price like she did the last time she had mold-a-rama animals. She put them on eBay and they went very high.

It's still warm, but not as hot as the last couple of days. It's in the 90's and will be for a couple of days, but the weekend is supposed to be back over 100. Just in time for the major shop-a-thon!

More Thoughts on Simplifying

And maybe a few other thoughts as well!

I've been thinking about a simpler life, which I blogged about several days back. I'm still thinking about it. But I have come to a few conclusions. For one, I think I/we spend too much money. Mostly me, but part of that is because I'm in charge of our finances. I have started taking steps to economize in terms of groceries. Now I think I need to start being careful in other areas financially. (Froggy - keep the comments to yourself! Vacation spending was budgeted so I could have fun and not worry! And it was fun.)

I used to use coupons, but I quit for many years. I'm starting to use them again but only if they really do save money. For example if I buy a name brand with a coupon but the store brand is still cheaper, have I really saved anything? There are some things that I can not compromise on, such as clothes detergent, soap, etc., because of allergies. So I'm not going to worry about that too much. But if I can cut a corner, I will. I try to consolidate car trips as much as I can, but that is not as easy as it sounds. But I do try.

I figured that is a good place to start. So that's where I'm starting.

Otter went to work with me today, which I always enjoy. Bill was able to meet us for lunch, which was really nice. Otter and I went to Hobby Lobby to look around after lunch since we had time to kill. She is very much her parent's daughter, she has the crafting gene and it's dominant! We had to stop at Wallyworld for a couple of grocery type things after work, I left her in the craft section while I got what I needed and she was very well occupied when I came back to her. She said that she could probably live in WalMart's craft section, and that she now has a lot of ideas for projects. A woman after my own heart! :)

Bill has a joke about how he always knows when I'm going to redecorate, because I always start with the bathmat. He says that when he comes home and there is a new bathmat, that it's time to hide! I'm not quite that bad, but I do like to change things around once in a while. I've had palm trees as my decor in the bedroom since shortly before we moved, and they have been decorating our bathroom since shortly after we moved. So I've had them for about 4 years, in other words. Which is actually a long time for me. But you know what? I have absolutely NO desire to change them. I like my palm tree stuff. BUT I am probably going to get a new bathmat. The one I have is slowly coming apart, each time I wash it there is less and less of it when it comes out of the dryer. I've already told Bill that if he comes home one day and sees a new bathmat that it is not a reason to panic!

I am making a few changes to my palm tree decor. I have a set by Spring Maid which I never was really wild about, but it was the only thing I could half-way stand when I decided to go with palms. The pieces are ceramic and kind of awkward. The bathroom cup is square and tall, and it's the same size/shape as the toothbrush holder. More than once Bill's tried to fill the toothbrush holder with water in the middle of the night! So when we were in Walgreen's last week (getting his prescription), I noticed that they have a palm tree collection on their clearance aisle. The drinking glasses are short, but they are round and much easier to hold. They are also plastic and harder to break, so that is one less concern. I bought two glasses, one is to drink out of and the other one is now holding the toothpaste & toothbrushes. They are still the same size/shape but I don't think Bill will get them mixed up in the dark because he'll be able to tell that there are toothbrushes in them, which was hard with the other one. While I was at it, I also bought one of the dinner-sized plates (also plastic) and it is now hanging on the wall in the bathroom. So I'm going to put my ceramic set on eBay, sometime in the near future. It's a drinking glass, toothbrush holder, lotion pump & soap dish. Oh yeah, there is also a small rectangular candy dish with the set that Walgreen's has. I bought two of them - one has q-tips in it and the other one has soap. Part of the Spring Maid set was switchplate and outlet covers. I don't like them any better than the rest of the set. I came across an unpainted switchplate cover and outlet cover in a box from an auction recently, and today I bought two more switchplate covers at Wallyworld to match. I'm just going to paint them a neutral color that matches the bathroom walls and put the palm tree ones on eBay at the same time as the bath set. Also, the Walgreen's set was all on clearance and I spent less than $2.00 for all of it.

Yes I know I spent money today that I probably could have avoided on the switchplates. But I'm pretty sure that I can make it back when I list the bath set.

I think that's enough for today.

Complicated. Need to Simplify.

I'm talking about life in general. There have been plenty of times when Bill and I both feel like we were born to the wrong generation - like maybe we should have been born a couple of generations ago. We have discussed simplifying our life at times and we've been taking some steps to do that.

Most women of my age range read the Little House on the Prarie books when they were younger. I loved them, I have a set now that I re-read at times. (It will eventually go to my future grandchildren). But when I was a kid, I kind of wanted to BE Laura. Or at least live the life she led. It still appeals to me to basically live off of the land and not have to depend on anyone else. I have my mother's Cherokee lessons to thank for that, although we didn't know at the time that it was Cherokee. It's also part of the Texan mind-set. I'm not complaining, I think it was a good lesson she taught me. I'm not afraid of hard work, and niether is Bill. And Otter has been taught to be a strong woman as well. She might occasionaly gripe when asked to do something, but that's mostly normal kid stuff. When she needs to, she works just as hard as we do. And we can (and do) work pretty hard.

Toadles, I'm probably talking your language. But I think we are on the same page.

Did you ever stop to think about how many different chemicals you come in contact with during any given day? Go read a label sometimes, you'll be surprised. Food as well as non-food items. Chemicals can make life easier, some of them I don't want to do without. But there are a lot that we don't need. There are some cleaners that I am not going to compromise on, but I am going to look into more natural cleaners. (Kim, you reading this? You've been talking about that for months now! I'm finally listening.) I have been reading food labels for years now, due to certain food allergies that I have to contend with. And since my illness last year, I have had to read the labels to check the fat content and I'm also reducing the salt intake. I haven't added salt to anything or cooked with it for years, but there is a LOT of salt in most processed foods. Salt is at least a natural chemical, just not one that we need all that much of.

We've been slowly taking steps to eat less chemically enhanced foods, but that one is not as easy as it sounds without a garden. Which we might have next year. But there are things that can be done, it takes some organization (my calling in life!) and a little time, not to mention attention to detail. I learned to cook from scratch, from the time I was little. I still use a lot of mom's recipes and techniques. And Otter has been taught like I was, she frequently spends a lot of her Saturday Sabbath rest day baking or reading a cookbook to find something to try.

We are not tree-hugging environmental wackos by any stretch of the imagination. I do work for an oil company, after all. But we are taking steps to reduce the amount of "stuff" we use, and we recycle as much as we can. Newspapers, plastics with 1 or 2 codes, most glass, tin cans, aluminum cans and cardboard are all things that we can recycle locally.

This is a work-in-progress. I'll post periodic updates or comments as I think of them.