?Tuesday, January 22, 2013
I like lavender, but ...
See that? Is a lavender dryer bag that I didn't see while folding towels. And those bags? Are paper. And my daughter? Loves to rip paper. And now? I'm picking lavender flowers out of our newly folded laundry. And I? Am so glad this happened BEFORE I vacuumed. And my kid? Is a genius.
?
?
A day with no tears
Mile-long lashes
Hiking
Red dirt-playing
Rock throwing
Sea of glass
Warm beach
Whale spouting
Beach sunset
Sand in the ears
Sand EVERYWHERE
Jupiter kissing moon
Mommy driving, Daddy playing
Eat, play, eat, sleep, rinse, repeat
Taste of India
Spoon banging
Pancake crumbling
Sand in the tub
Sand EVERYWHERE
Jammies, kisses
Milk, cuddles
Sleep ... Daddy!
Awake, milk, cuddles
Sleep
Monday, January 21, 2013
Slinga da ink and pusha da pen
My senior year was the greatest year ever. I was in a great relationship, my classes were awesome (two core classes and five or six music classes? Yes.), my job was easy and fun, I carted my friends around in my Ford Aspire (The Easter Egg, aspiring to be a real car, etc, etc), I went to New Mexico, New York, and San Diego on music tours, I was the president of my choir, and thanks to Mononucleosis and a collapsed lung the previous summer, I was skinny and finally comfortable in my own skin. I had enough scholarships to last me a year and a half at the State college in my hometown, and two of my friends were planning to attend with me. The only bad part of that year was that my sister was serving as a missionary for a year half way around the world. It was my first Christmas without her, and she missed
all my performances and my graduation.
When she returned from overseas, we all went to a family reunion before she went back to Lincoln, Nebraska to start working and to take some summer classes at Union College. Every time we talked, she told me she was praying that I would go to Union. She also had the entire music department on my case. The band director treated my mom and me to brunch and the department chair called me twice. I told them thanks, but I already had plans to go to the State school, which was so much cheaper and closer to home. Besides, I had been to Union twice, and HATED it. The first time was in the blazing hot summer before my sister's freshman year, when the temperature and humidity matched each other at about 90. The second time was for her January birthday, when you could spit and an ice block would hit the ground. No mountains, miserable weather, and the Hot Topic in the mall considered Matchbox 20 hard rock. No thank you! I would rather spend my weekends skiing than cow tipping in some lame corn field.
But, I missed my Seester terribly, so I drove myself out to Lincoln one summer day to visit for a few days. I don't know what, but something about Union just felt different this time. It could have been the friendly atmosphere, it could have been the delicious vegetarian cafeteria food (... cue crickets chirping ...), but the thing that impressed me the most was that the dorm rooms had built-in desks, drawers, and bookshelves. Odd, I know, but the dorms at my college of choice had crappy WalMart desks and almost no storage. Practicality, people!
Anyway, I filled out an application. I told my sister that the only way I would go was if I didn't have to pay anything while I was there. I said a prayer, telling God the same thing. I was basically on my own for college expenses, and I could definitely not afford tuition plus room and board at a private college.
I went back home to continue preparations to go to the state school. I was fairly certain that my grades weren't good enough to earn enough scholarships to attend Union, so I was pretty confident that my plans wouldn't change. Then my friends who were both planning on attending with me each called me and told me they were going to other schools. I prayed some more. My sister worked with the Financial Officer at Union to find a way to get me there. She called me every day to tell me they had found yet another scholarship. I remained skeptical, but kept praying.
Then, a week or two before school was scheduled to start, I got a call. My sister said that my loan application had come through, and that with scholarships, loans, and on-campus work, I would not have to pay anything out-of-pocket until I graduated. God had worked it out, and I had better start packing. I turned in my resignation to my job and said goodbye to my family, friends and boyfriend. I still had to take my ACT since Union did not accept SAT scores, so without studying, I took the ACT when I got to Union, and I did a lot better than I expected.
So began four years of amazing classes, amazing friends, and amazing worship experiences. In fact, I'm still an Adventist because of Union College. College life was tough, and I missed my friends and family at home ALL THE TIME, but the great experiences I had there made the sacrifices worth it. I studied music, became a vegetarian, fell in love, spent endless hours talking with friends, learned how to play Rook, rehearsed and practiced four (or more) hours a day, swam many miles in the pool, explored Lincoln on my bike and rollerblades, attended hundreds of concerts, watched the Twin Towers fall, and changed my major six times. And never once did I go cow-tipping.
all my performances and my graduation.
When she returned from overseas, we all went to a family reunion before she went back to Lincoln, Nebraska to start working and to take some summer classes at Union College. Every time we talked, she told me she was praying that I would go to Union. She also had the entire music department on my case. The band director treated my mom and me to brunch and the department chair called me twice. I told them thanks, but I already had plans to go to the State school, which was so much cheaper and closer to home. Besides, I had been to Union twice, and HATED it. The first time was in the blazing hot summer before my sister's freshman year, when the temperature and humidity matched each other at about 90. The second time was for her January birthday, when you could spit and an ice block would hit the ground. No mountains, miserable weather, and the Hot Topic in the mall considered Matchbox 20 hard rock. No thank you! I would rather spend my weekends skiing than cow tipping in some lame corn field.
But, I missed my Seester terribly, so I drove myself out to Lincoln one summer day to visit for a few days. I don't know what, but something about Union just felt different this time. It could have been the friendly atmosphere, it could have been the delicious vegetarian cafeteria food (... cue crickets chirping ...), but the thing that impressed me the most was that the dorm rooms had built-in desks, drawers, and bookshelves. Odd, I know, but the dorms at my college of choice had crappy WalMart desks and almost no storage. Practicality, people!
Anyway, I filled out an application. I told my sister that the only way I would go was if I didn't have to pay anything while I was there. I said a prayer, telling God the same thing. I was basically on my own for college expenses, and I could definitely not afford tuition plus room and board at a private college.
I went back home to continue preparations to go to the state school. I was fairly certain that my grades weren't good enough to earn enough scholarships to attend Union, so I was pretty confident that my plans wouldn't change. Then my friends who were both planning on attending with me each called me and told me they were going to other schools. I prayed some more. My sister worked with the Financial Officer at Union to find a way to get me there. She called me every day to tell me they had found yet another scholarship. I remained skeptical, but kept praying.
Then, a week or two before school was scheduled to start, I got a call. My sister said that my loan application had come through, and that with scholarships, loans, and on-campus work, I would not have to pay anything out-of-pocket until I graduated. God had worked it out, and I had better start packing. I turned in my resignation to my job and said goodbye to my family, friends and boyfriend. I still had to take my ACT since Union did not accept SAT scores, so without studying, I took the ACT when I got to Union, and I did a lot better than I expected.
So began four years of amazing classes, amazing friends, and amazing worship experiences. In fact, I'm still an Adventist because of Union College. College life was tough, and I missed my friends and family at home ALL THE TIME, but the great experiences I had there made the sacrifices worth it. I studied music, became a vegetarian, fell in love, spent endless hours talking with friends, learned how to play Rook, rehearsed and practiced four (or more) hours a day, swam many miles in the pool, explored Lincoln on my bike and rollerblades, attended hundreds of concerts, watched the Twin Towers fall, and changed my major six times. And never once did I go cow-tipping.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Week 4: So much to do, so little time!
Alright, I think I set myself up for epic failure this week by overscheduling a 3-day work week. As a rule, since Robert works 10-hour days and we don't get to see him that much during the week, Friday through Sunday is sacred family time. I try to get everything done during the work week so we can have uninterrupted and unencumbered fun on the weekends. So this week I will have only 3 days to get my stuff done instead of the usual 4. And this week was a hard week to begin with, so now it will be impossible to get everything done. However, keeping my 12-week goal in mind, maybe I can adjust the time frames a bit for the other rooms later. I'm still going to put everything on the list for this week regardless.
In the kitchen, I am going to clean the window well (from last week) and organize and contact-paper the spice cabinet. I have an idea for the spice cabinet that should be inexpensive if not free, and it will look fantastic. Details to come.
Our kitchen has this little alcove which, way back in 1934 when the house was built, was intended for a laundry room. It currently houses my stove and refrigerator, an inaccessible cabinet and sink, our toaster oven, a shelf for small appliances (I think that shelf was designed for a microwave ... Obviously not original to the house), and a couple of upper cabinets.There's also a door which I never use but Robert's mom likes to open it tolet the flies in keep the kitchen cool when she cooks. So my plan is to wash all the walls, the door, and the ceiling, clean underneath the stove and fridge, clean the coils on the fridge, clean, organize, and re-contact-paper the cabinets, deep clean the stove and fridge, and deep clean the toaster oven. Oh, and clean and organize our plastic recycling area. And clean the trash can. And the dog's bowl. And I'm sure I'm forgetting something. And I'm positive this is NOT getting done in three days. I think I can make up some next week, but I shall do my best to finish the alcove of doom this week.
The other goal for the week will be to not eat any processed sugar. I try to do a sugar-fast for one week every month, so this will be it. Fruit, of course, doesn't count.
My monthly goals of cooking and keeping my head on straight will be challenging with a short week, but by God's grace, I can so handle this!
Quarterly goals are still on track, though spring cleaning is falling dangerously behind. The Bible readings are going quite well, though. Such amazing stories!
And so begins the blessing and the curse of the short week. Today we are celebrating a birthday in Loma Linda, and tomorrow will hopefully be a lovely beach day.
As my choir professor at Union used to say: Gird your loins, folks, this is gonna be tough!
In the kitchen, I am going to clean the window well (from last week) and organize and contact-paper the spice cabinet. I have an idea for the spice cabinet that should be inexpensive if not free, and it will look fantastic. Details to come.
Our kitchen has this little alcove which, way back in 1934 when the house was built, was intended for a laundry room. It currently houses my stove and refrigerator, an inaccessible cabinet and sink, our toaster oven, a shelf for small appliances (I think that shelf was designed for a microwave ... Obviously not original to the house), and a couple of upper cabinets.There's also a door which I never use but Robert's mom likes to open it to
The other goal for the week will be to not eat any processed sugar. I try to do a sugar-fast for one week every month, so this will be it. Fruit, of course, doesn't count.
My monthly goals of cooking and keeping my head on straight will be challenging with a short week, but by God's grace, I can so handle this!
Quarterly goals are still on track, though spring cleaning is falling dangerously behind. The Bible readings are going quite well, though. Such amazing stories!
And so begins the blessing and the curse of the short week. Today we are celebrating a birthday in Loma Linda, and tomorrow will hopefully be a lovely beach day.
As my choir professor at Union used to say: Gird your loins, folks, this is gonna be tough!
Saturday, January 19, 2013
God's Day
Yesterday was a lovely day. Robert and I planned to hike our brains out, but little miss K had other plans. Like playing with trees, rocks, grass, flowers, and DIRT. I told Robert on the way back to the car, "I think this is gonna be us for a while, Daddy. We may not get very far, but we are going to PLAY." Have a wonderful Sabbath, y'all.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Week 2 Sum-up
ED: I wrote this last Friday but just got around to taking after pictures today. Sorry 'bout that.
Well, this week was an interesting one with all the faucet drama, but by 5:00 yesterday I had my cleaning goals finished for the week. I still don't know how to imbed pictures into the text, so you'll have to look at the pictures at the bottom of the post.
First, I vacuumed and washed the walls in the kitchen that don't have cabinets on them. I also scrubbed the baseboards, which, with a dog who chases his little snack bowl all over the kitchen when we give him table food, get pretty nasty. And, sad to say, I have not been good about cleaning baseboards ... But they are sparkling now.
Then I started on the far wall where the window and sink are. I cleaned out two drawers and two cabinets, though technically Robert cleaned out the one under the sink. I haven't put anything back in there yet since we're not quite done with the faucet drama. The other cabinet houses two 5-gallon buckets for dog food and organic beans, which we buy in bulk. I also keep my canning jars, plastic food storage containers and lids, and extra foil, baggies, parchment paper, etc. And there was a lot of junk under there too, which has been there for a LOOOOONG time. I don't know if you can see the date on the baking soda box, but it expired in 1996. I don't know what the normal shelf life for baking soda is, but I'm pretty sure that box has been there for at least 20 years. It's now in the trash, and there's a lot of plastic silverware, used but clean (sort of) plastic bags, and old dirty paper plates and cups, in the recycling bin. Now the cabinet has the two (cleaned) buckets, a pared-down collection of canning jars, my plastic containers, and the extra baggies, foil, etc.
I cleaned the cabinet doors on both sides, as well as the edges, and cleaned the cabinet frames and inside the cabinet as well. I also cleaned the two drawer faces and edges, and reorganized/purged the drawers. The first drawer was easy as I had organized it in my nesting frenzy last Spring, so all I had to do was clean the utensil holders which collect crumbs like nobody's business.
The other drawer ... Oh, gracious. I obviously haven't cleaned it in the five and a half years I've lived here, and I don't think it had been cleaned out for a good long time before that either. We use the drawer for plastic wrap, foil, and wax paper, but hidden back in the way back of the drawer were about nine million twist ties, some used and some new, cracked and broken rubber bands, packets of chile flakes from some restaurant, tons of used but clean (sort of) bags and foil, and years and years worth of crumbs and general grunge. It now has a packet of birthday candles, a roll of plastic, a roll of foil, and a roll of wax paper.
Ahhhh, it feels so good to purge. I'm looking forward to cleaning the rest of the drawers and cabinets. A place for everything and everything in its place. And sometimes that place is the garbage can.
My other goals: I didn't waste any food (Hallelujah, thank You, Lord), I prayed each day though not for my designated 15 minutes (why can't I keep focused for 15 minutes? Seriously, it's not that hard!), and I read a little extra in the Bible readings this week since February is a short month. This week was a BAD sleep week for Karlina, but I managed to keep my head from exploding. And for that, I thank God for my husband, who helped me put her back down twice this week even though he had to work. Why is it that K can scream and scream for almost an hour when I try to put her back down, but Robert can get her back to sleep in fifteen to twenty minutes? Daddies are magic, that's why.
Okay, you ready for a whole slew of before and afters? Sometimes this mobile Blogger app switches the order of my pictures. Blogging from a phone because you don't own a computer is lame. Sorry.
First, I vacuumed and washed the walls in the kitchen that don't have cabinets on them. I also scrubbed the baseboards, which, with a dog who chases his little snack bowl all over the kitchen when we give him table food, get pretty nasty. And, sad to say, I have not been good about cleaning baseboards ... But they are sparkling now.
Then I started on the far wall where the window and sink are. I cleaned out two drawers and two cabinets, though technically Robert cleaned out the one under the sink. I haven't put anything back in there yet since we're not quite done with the faucet drama. The other cabinet houses two 5-gallon buckets for dog food and organic beans, which we buy in bulk. I also keep my canning jars, plastic food storage containers and lids, and extra foil, baggies, parchment paper, etc. And there was a lot of junk under there too, which has been there for a LOOOOONG time. I don't know if you can see the date on the baking soda box, but it expired in 1996. I don't know what the normal shelf life for baking soda is, but I'm pretty sure that box has been there for at least 20 years. It's now in the trash, and there's a lot of plastic silverware, used but clean (sort of) plastic bags, and old dirty paper plates and cups, in the recycling bin. Now the cabinet has the two (cleaned) buckets, a pared-down collection of canning jars, my plastic containers, and the extra baggies, foil, etc.
I cleaned the cabinet doors on both sides, as well as the edges, and cleaned the cabinet frames and inside the cabinet as well. I also cleaned the two drawer faces and edges, and reorganized/purged the drawers. The first drawer was easy as I had organized it in my nesting frenzy last Spring, so all I had to do was clean the utensil holders which collect crumbs like nobody's business.
The other drawer ... Oh, gracious. I obviously haven't cleaned it in the five and a half years I've lived here, and I don't think it had been cleaned out for a good long time before that either. We use the drawer for plastic wrap, foil, and wax paper, but hidden back in the way back of the drawer were about nine million twist ties, some used and some new, cracked and broken rubber bands, packets of chile flakes from some restaurant, tons of used but clean (sort of) bags and foil, and years and years worth of crumbs and general grunge. It now has a packet of birthday candles, a roll of plastic, a roll of foil, and a roll of wax paper.
Ahhhh, it feels so good to purge. I'm looking forward to cleaning the rest of the drawers and cabinets. A place for everything and everything in its place. And sometimes that place is the garbage can.
My other goals: I didn't waste any food (Hallelujah, thank You, Lord), I prayed each day though not for my designated 15 minutes (why can't I keep focused for 15 minutes? Seriously, it's not that hard!), and I read a little extra in the Bible readings this week since February is a short month. This week was a BAD sleep week for Karlina, but I managed to keep my head from exploding. And for that, I thank God for my husband, who helped me put her back down twice this week even though he had to work. Why is it that K can scream and scream for almost an hour when I try to put her back down, but Robert can get her back to sleep in fifteen to twenty minutes? Daddies are magic, that's why.
Okay, you ready for a whole slew of before and afters? Sometimes this mobile Blogger app switches the order of my pictures. Blogging from a phone because you don't own a computer is lame. Sorry.
Week 3 Sum-up: Losing steam
This week was a good week, and I'm tired like I worked a lot, but I don't have much to show for it. I lined all the cabinets and drawers on one wall of cabinets with contact paper and each drawer is organized and purged of unnecessary or unwanted items, including our hand-me-down silverware. The picture is of the "new" hand-me-down silverware that all matches. It's lovely, slim, elegant, and simple. Just my style. Robert was complaining that the forks were too narrow for him to eat fast enough. Sigh. I also threw a bunch of old tupperware into the recycle bin, along with the lids. There are two pictures of that cabinet below, but I'm sure they're not in order, so you'll have to figure out which one is before and which is after. The contact paper looks good, but I chose a green contact paper with white designs inspired by Heather over at Golden Reflections, which looked much nicer in her lovely white cabinets. The green is pretty close to the awful minty-green we have on our cabinets, but not close enough to avoid clashing. So, I think I want white cabinets, whenever we get around to painting.
I cleaned the wall and windowsill yesterday, but the window well is still hideously dirty. Perhaps I can clean that out today, but Robert wants to go adventuring this morning, so I'm not sure it will happen today. I still need to clean and re-contact-paper the spice cabinet as well, but I feel like I need to go out and buy matchy-matchy spice containers, and that's just not in the budget right now, nor do I have time. So, it'll be clean, but it'll still look like a disorganized mess. Sad face.
My other weekly goal of not blaming others was pretty successful, I think. Writing about it helped a lot, and hopefully having it written down will help me remember this place I'm in right now next time the Crazy creeps back in.
I successfully cooked every day this week so far. And it was good food. We have a few leftovers, but all of them together will make one meal for Robert and I today. So I'll still need to cook for today and tomorrow. My one new recipe was gluten-free vegan pancakes. We saved some for K since she loved them so much and she's been lunching on them all week.
My head stayed very firmly in place this week. Again, I think writing about my anger helped so much. I feel so so happy this week, I could just bubble over. I won't, don't worry.
Bible reading is still going well. I just started Numbers this morning, and I'll be finishing up the readings for February tomorrow. I've been reading during our early-morning nursing sessions, and this week proved difficult to stay awake, especially through Leviticus, but I persevered and made it through by God's grace.
Spring cleaning is running a bit behind now, but hopefully I can he caught up before Monday. Monday starts the gross and hard part of the kitchen, so I'm expecting that to take all week.
And just like that 3 weeks are up! I'm looking forward to Sabbath rest, as I always do, and looking for another surge of motivation.
Enjoy the weekend!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)