Posted in Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Coffee-ism, Homemaking, Inspiring, Photos

Weekly Photo Challenge – Path

AT LAST: A PATH!

Well, it’s not the prettiest sight in the world, but it represents GREAT progress: a path to my sewing machine. Now it calls my name every time I hang up a shirt or walk to the coffee pot.

a view of the path
A View of the Path

I will be crafting several hand-made eye masks for sleeping, with lavender between the layers of fabric. Cannot wait to begin. 

You know, that uberhuge closet had been the dumping ground for anything we were unsure about where to store it. Now that certainty has guided the clean-up, we still have the unsure things, but they are elsewhere.

It reminds me of the Cat in the Hat, which constantly flung pink stuff somewhere ELSE, but never actually got rid of it until the very end of the book.

I don’t want to wait that long.

But I surely enjoy strolling down that closet path.

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Coffee-ism, Homemaking, Inspiring, Photos, Wisdom

LOST AND FOUND: One Large Closet.

Yesterday, I finally launched a work I meant to do last year.

And the year before.

Today I actually dragged half the contents of the master closet out into the bedroom and kitchen.

Kitchen? Yes; it’s a walk-through closet connecting the kitchen and bedroom. My side of the bed is exactly ten steps from the corner of the stove where the coffee pot sits each morning. Heh, heh.

just ten steps
Just Ten Steps from Zzz-land!

 But I digress . . .

There used to be no terrific place to put all my sewing project business. However, there was this enormously gigantic closet in the master bedroom. And we are the type that has a normal amount of clothing. So . . .

One new electrical outlet later, and voila! I had a lovely galley sewing room, with space for zillions of yards of fabric to hang on coat hangers around me. Excellent!

Except it was also still our closet and sometimes I put outgrown or off-season kids’ clothing in there. And schoolwork that needed filing. And large skeins of yarn for crochet projects. And gifts I’m hiding until someone’s gift-day comes along. And stuff-Mart bags stuffed with stuff I needed to deal with. And back-logs of un-ironed items. And a multitude of craft supplies.

It was becoming unnavigable.

So yesterday, I hit it.

However, I also needed to wash a couple of intricate loads of laundry, hard-boil a dozen eggs without ruining them, and fix myself breakfast and lunch on time, since I had a tutoring appointment in the afternoon. So I did all of it at once, listening to the washer while watching the eggs come to a boil, and taking bites of my breakfast and sips of my juice, between trips in and out of that closet, loaded down with boxes, etc., and at the same time, sorting contents according to what was throw-away, storage, or put-away. Also re-charged my cellphone, did chicken chores, and made a new pot of coffee.

We call it multi-tasking, and we are good at it because we do so much of it. So many aspects of keeping a peaceful home depend upon it.

Our home is not too peaceful, right now, though, but rather torn out and scattered, waiting for me to finish it. Oh, the worst is over; just have to fit a few things back in, the right way, then enjoy it again.

And when it comes to the soul, aren’t most of us also in that shape?

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Homemaking, Husbands, Inspiring, Photos, Rain, Sayings, Wisdom

Weekly Photo Challenge: Up

THINGS ARE LOOKING UP AT OUR HOUSE

looking up
Looking Up!

Ever have a day when your plans vanish? I’m there. It is good, though.

Today, I assist my carpenter. UP there.

You see, in our world, snow hardly ever falls, but last winter, we frolicked in lots of it. And our guttering suffered from lots of it. It sagged. It bulged. It pulled loose.

Then we learned the rest of the story.

Rot.

In our world, rain usually falls in buckets. Torrents. Sometimes, rain so furiously dumps on us in sheets and waterfalls, that we have seen it splash against a neighbor’s roof with enough force to make a wave that actually rains UP a few yards before surrendering to gravity again.

We need the guttering.

So, today, in firm belief that someday rain will actually fall on us again, we are removing the guttering, removing the siding, mending the rotted places, and re-attaching everything.

It’s a little like other problems: Have to deal with the cause of it to really stop it.

“GREAT DAY FOR UP!”
–Dr. Seuss

Posted in Believe it or not!, Home School, Inspiring, Pre-schoolers, Wisdom, Womanhood

Missing Children Found!

How many children would you guess are homeschooling in the US, today?

Two Million.

Two Million.

That’s one in every 25 kids of school age.

empty deskWhat this means is that in every classroom that holds 25 children, one is missing. And it’s because of homeschool.

The schools don’t like us home educators very much because of it.

They feel they are losing too much money because of it.

But they forget two things.

  1. They forget we don’t get that money. Their argument is with their own bought-and-paid-for legislators, not with us, if anything is amiss or missing in public education.
  2. They forget abortion.

Abortion has killed far beyond 55,000,000 since Roe vs. Wade.

That is more than EVERY child in EVERY classroom currently in America.

Missing.

Dead.

We’ve killed that many.

Look around you.

Every child ages 5 – 18 has at least one counterpart who is missing. because he or she was aborted.

They could have doubled their money, had they thought about it.

 

Posted in Believe it or not!, Blessings of Habit, Good ol' days, Home School, Inspiring, Recipes, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom, Womanhood

Postaday Challenge – January Favorites – 2

Snowflake
Snowflake

I look out my window and see dead trees, grass that’s brown and crunchy like Wheaties, cat dish always needing water . . . with all the heat we’ve had, isn’t it hilarious to read these old posts! Enjoy!

DAY OFF #2

Repairmen of streets, wires, and buildings will get our roads safe and everyone back in their places eventually.

In the meantime, we play in the snow.

The day begins with Dad shoveling snow and bleary-eyed offspring wandering into the kitchen to ask, “What is that noise?” We so seldom have the pleasure.

Now our snowman stands watch. Our cars are decorated with snow objects. Lots of hot cocoa has slipped away. I enjoyed the crazy antics of our two home-bound adult kids, playing in the snow as if they were grade-schoolers. How thankful I am for the snow! Realizing they can still find joy in each other’s company is bliss to this mom.

ALSO (here comes the fun part) THEY CAN PUT ON AND REMOVE THEIR OWN WRAPS!

THEY CAN HEAT THEIR OWN WATER AND STIR UP THEIR OWN HOT COCOA!

THEY CAN HANG ALL THEIR WET THINGS TO DRY!

THEY REMEMBER TO SHUT THE DOOR!

THEY THINK ABOUT NOT TRACKING THE HOUSE WITH SNOW AND MUD!

I get all the same fun as when they were younger, with none of the work.

Another amazing thing: No one grumbles today that the Internet is “down-ish”. We all have decided to do traditional snow-day fun and forget about the rest of the world. I love it. Board games, non-electric musical instruments, laundry hanging on wooden racks by the wood stove, homemade food, and wild birds have risen to the top of our most-selected interests list and everyone is content.

And I wonder: How is it in other homes? I hope you and yours enjoy a great day, today. I pray God grant you peace and contentment.

And snow.