Late Start Wednesday

Wednesdays are currently my least favorite day.  I know, most people see Wednesday as 'hump day' that point of the week when you start heading toward the weekend rather than away from it.  For us, it's that one odd day during the week when Nick's school starts late.  Instead of the school day beginning at 8:00, it begins at 9:30.  And while it's nice that I could sleep in a little longer, it throws my day off and cuts into the morning routine.  I'm sure I'll adjust, but I'd still prefer time consistency Monday through Friday!

We have a few clouds.  Very few, very high.  These will never produce shade, nor rain.

This Wednesday, after dropping Nick off at school, I had errands to run.  I had to run over to his former school and pick up his Epi-pen from the school medical office as we failed to do so before the Christmas break, and to order his yearbook.  His picture won't be in the one from his new school so he doesn't want it.  While there I spent time chatting with a friend who works in the office, and then cutting through the library chatted with another mom I knew.  

Upon leaving the school, I had to make a quick stop at a market for a couple loaves of bread, and then on to the Credit Union where I had to take care of some banking matters and then I had to stop to gas up the car before heading home.  All of that sure shortens my day for at-home stuff.

Wednesday, 11:30 a.m.

 Our winter weather is for the birds.  I'm sure there are a lot of "snow birds" from some of those super cold states that are wintering here and thoroughly enjoying these temperatures, but I'd like some rain; I pray for rain.  That 16% humidity reading is false.  This gauge never falls below 16%.  I'm sure we're somewhere closer to single-digit humidity.  It is very dry out.  You can see we're already at 82 (higher now I'm sure).  That was yesterday's high with a low of 48.  Indoors is the 66 temp with 16% humidity - which is also probably false, I need to dig out my humidifier and get some moisture into the air.

First 2014 daffodil.

I took a stroll outside to get that shot of the faint clouds in an otherwise blue sky and was pleasantly surprised to find some blooming daffodils in their pots.  I'm sure they need water, but I'll do that later, or tomorrow.  Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers, they remind me of the wet land where they grow abundantly, and often in the wild where perhaps they were originally planted by an original homesteader where the buildings have long since returned to dust.

10-day forecast

Our weather outlook through the end of the month is one of little change.  There is certainly no moisture on the horizon.  Our state governor has officially declared us to be in a drought and asked us to voluntarily conserve water by 20%.  We (us personally) are not big water consumers compared to the average household, so cutting back 20% may not be an easy task.  If it becomes mandatory, and they base it on prior consumption, we could have a real challenge on our hands, I may only shower once a week!

These Trying Times

I added a link at the upper right corner for Webs of Thread to make it easier to get there from here.  I'll probably add a quilty post over there later this evening. 

It's hard to believe it's been almost 3 1/2 months since Marty lost his job.  The reality of how that is changing, and has changed our lives hits every day.  For me, often in fighting off depressive moods.  His severance pay was only for 16 weeks and that's about up, and the added cost of COBRA insurance eats up just about every dime of unemployment.  

Today's depressive trigger was facing that it is time to begin the process of Nick's transition from his very small private school, where he's been since his first day of kindergarten, to his placement at our district's public high school, which is bigger than the entire town I grew up in.  It's a daunting thought that my sheltered son will be thrown into a lion's den.  My view, not his as he has wanted this since before school started.  But I'm the one who knows what's best for my son, not the 15-year old who hasn't been through all the ugly experiences of life.  And yet, I must let him go, and pray that my loving Father will watch over him.  As one of the ladies in the school office told me today, "God is there too."  And truly He is, and as his parents, Marty and I still have at-home responsibilities for his guidance and maturity in the things of the Lord. 

For now, it's advising one school, gathering info at the other, and in the few weeks between the Thanksgiving break and Christmas (or sadly as the new school calls it: Winter Break) we will make sure he gets registered and he gets placed in the necessary classes; that books get returned and new ones issued.  As the public school doesn't offer AP Biology until his sophomore year, I had to find out if he'd be able to continue with the Sophomores (he's a Freshman) or if he'd lose 1/2 a year of that study.  He can join them! Yay! 

It was also a day to head to Costco again.  There were times that was a bit discouraging as there were some things that I might have placed in my cart if Marty were working, but I didn't.  All the wonderful holiday foodstuffs are overflowing the shelves at the stores.  I did splurge on a tub of red vines.  I've been craving something sweet and we haven't had many sweets here other than the Brownie Bites, but I try to leave those for Nick's sack lunches that he takes to school.  One of the best deals at Costco is their rotisseried chicken.  We can get several meals from one $4.99 chicken, AND it's already cooked and seasoned!  They also had bottles of Johnny's garlic seasoning which I haven't seen since I bought some a few years ago and was nearly out of, so I bought another one.  It's yummy sprinkled on buttered bread for garlic toast, or occasionally on pasta or vegetables.

I'll be back later with my Webs of Thread post. See you then.

On Tap For Today

Nope, no beer here ;p

Today's the second day of school for Nick.  When I picked him up yesterday I asked how it went, his reply "I don't want to be here." groan.  Though an excellent student, he has never 'enjoyed' going to school.  Sorry kid, it's one of life's necessities.

The guy who will be fixing Marty's attempt at spraying the ceiling and then doing the 'knockdown' will be here soon, so finally some progress on the quilt room - there's been none since Marty worked on it in July while I was on vacation.  The guy said it'd take 5 - 6 hours...he has to sand down some of what Marty had done before he can respray and then do the knockdown troweling.  I had Marty tape plastic within the door frame of the stash closet to 'hopefully' keep the dust out of my fabric because it would have been very difficult to empty the closet.

At 12:30 I have a dentist appointment, and have to have an old filling drilled and refilled due to a thin spot in the old filling that's developed a cavity.  Oh joy, I still have issues with dentists thanks to the one that left a piece of her drill so far down in the root during a root canal, that it had to be entombed - even a specialist couldn't retrieve it.  I lost count of the hours of sitting in the dentist chair with my mouth propped open and the amounts of numbing agents used.  PTSD anyone?  I like my new dentist very much, but still don't like even having them cleaned any more.

If there's time, I'll swing in at my Padawan's (my quilt student) to see how she's doing, even if only for a few minutes to chat.  I've missed meeting with her.  It's been since April or May due to various things.

And by then it'll be time to pick Nick up at school - these days are going to pass in a flash.  Due to Marty's layoff, and being home 24/7, I rather enjoy my alone-time outings of sorts.  But at home, there's also paperwork I need to gather and submit by the end of 90 days from his termination (since I handle all that type of thing), so now within the next 76 days it needs to get done.  Nothing promising on the employment scene yet, but remaining hopeful, and trusting the Lord.

Passing Time

As in, time is passing far too quickly!  So, what have I accomplished this week?  Not much!

I anxiously awaited my Sew Ezi portable sewing table that I ordered at last Saturday's quilt show.  I was expecting it to arrive Tuesday so was disappointed that it didn't, but I was tracking it so I knew for sure it would be here on Wednesday.

Sure enough, about 3:45 p.m. on Wednesday, this arrived:

Sew Ezi !

 After putting it together, this is what I have: 

It will be perfect for my itty bitty craft room, as well as for folding up and taking along to quilt camp in July and to any other quilt class or retreat I may enjoy in the future.  

I've folded it up and put it back in its zippered cover and it awaits me in the hallway.  I need to make space in this itty bitty room, but that's part of a much bigger project, that ongoing, years long project, so it may stay where it is until August, except for traveling with me in July.  I also gained a small desk from a neighbor at no cost which will be perfect along the wall in said craft room, part of my original plan which I'll have to write about at a later date.

Progress has been made on one of the two 'bricks' quilts (project #016).  I've attached both borders to it.  The inner border finished at 1/2" and the outer border will finish at 2 1/2".  

#016a

This is the bigger of the two quilts in this project, and the 'bricks' are vertical to the width of the quilt.  It measures 70" x 93 1/2" without binding.

I'm also fighting off a late-Spring cold.  That tell-tale feeling in the back of the throat followed by a scratchy sore throat now changing into a cough.  The sinuses aren't bad, and I am feeling better today than I did yesterday.  In fact, yesterday I probably napped for more hours than I was up and about and I still slept pretty well, though not comfortably.  I think a new mattress might be in order not too far down the road.  This one is at least 15 years old and was only a basic set.  It's not comfortable.

Nick graduates from 8th grade this Thursday night, and he has finals on Tues through Thurs.  Tuesday's finals are for two classes, and each of the other days are only a single class each day so I'll probably end up spending my time somewhere, somehow on the other side of town where his school is rather than drive home only to spend a half hour before having to go right back to pick him up, unless Jay's mom plans to bring him home.  I usually take the boys, and she brings them home.  He's been asking if he can go to the public high school rather than his private school.  It would certainly save a big chunk of change moolah, but the public schools here are not so great, and he'd go from having 50 in his grade level to over 500 with an entirely different value system which admittedly scares me.  The particular school he'd have to go to, also has a larger 'gang member' group.  We've already re-registered him at the private school, so I may stand my ground and leave him there at least through this new freshman year, and in the mean time really educate myself, and him, in what to expect and how to avoid the danger areas.  He's not a team sports kind of kid, so that's not his reason for wanting to switch.  I think it comes more from that his friend Jay will be going to a public high school, but he lives in a different area so it would not be the same high school.  Talking with Jay's mom though, even Jay is still waffling as to whether that's what he really wants to do.  The private school has been a bastion of love and blessings with teachers that really care individually for every child, they pray for them, they have close relationships with the parents, and the students are for the most part bonded and have been for those who've been there since kindergarten, as Nick has been.  Unfortunately, the private school does lose about 40% of its high-schoolers to the public schools because of the programs and sports that the public schools are able to offer.  It's a big decision, one requiring a lot of prayer.

The Earth is Still Here...and So Am I !

Whether you've been wondering where I've been or not, I truly haven't been far.  I just haven't been focused on trying to get anything together for the blog, except for the funny kitty post yesterday.  It's going to be that way through the end of June. 

School is nearly out.  Nick has had one more final tomorrow today.  ONE.  For ONE final, I had to drive 11 miles one way across town.  Because it's only ONE, and lasted less than one and a half hours, there was no point in my driving all the way back home just to turn around and go back to pick him up.  So I stayed.  On Tuesday he had TWO finals, so I ran some errands that I could do on that side of town, then parked myself at the school to wait....but no, my cell phone rang and the contractor had LOST our house key, so I had to drive home and let him in and then return to the school.  Today yesterday was ONE class also and I parked myself and worked on crossword puzzles for the time, which thankfully was cool enough to leave the car windows down.  Afterward, we stopped by the bowling alley where Nick began the summer league, to pre-bowl four weeks of games as we'll be heading off on our annual trek north next Tuesday a.m..  We headed to Costco after that ONE final...perfect timing though as Costco doesn't open until 10:00 and it's on that side of town.  I haven't been to Costco since probably early February.  I won't say how much I spent, but it was a lot...for one visit, but had it been broken out into two or three visits, it wasn't bad.  Since Nick & I aren't going to be home most of June, I didn't buy any fresh produce, nor any fresh meat as Marty usually finds 'quick' things to eat while we're gone.  I picked up a few things he could nuke in the microwave.

Nick was sick all last week though he went to school that Wednesday.  Sinus infection = 10 days of antibiotics! Thankfully he was well enough to get back in time for his finals.

The bathrooms are 'officially' done! I just haven't gotten those darn towel rods & toilet paper holders = procrastination!   All else is done and the city inspector has signed off : ) .  I am well-pleased with the results.  Now I need to clean the windows, wash the tile dust from the freshly painted walls (painted before the tile went in), mirrors & doors, 'wax' the shower doors to help repel/prevent the hard-water spots, buy the new linens and I'll be feeling like I'm at a luxury spa every time I step into one of these bathrooms.  And all we wanted was to fix a leak we couldn't find and buy new linoleum...who knew, huh?

Both bath cabinets have the same knobs, glass with brushed nickel bases.  Raven was checking them out too.  Actually, she was just hoping I'd turn the water on so she could play with it in the sink.

....and a close-up of the handles on the cabinet doors.  The off-white cabinets (Swiss Coffee by Behr Paints) and the glass hardware help 'tone down' what I think is an otherwise very contemporary look.  I'm still a country girl at heart.

I have a LOT of cleaning to do with all the dust and such that's accumulated throughout the remodel process throughout the house.  When I return from vacation, I'll be packing up as many non-essentials as possible from every room downstairs in anticipation of the kitchen remodel we're planning to begin in early 2013.  I'll be in my planning phase as soon as I get back.  There are a lot of things to consider, almost more than I want to think about. 

 I'm not sure why I titled this post with "The Earth is Still Here..." ...probably had something in mind to say yesterday when I intended to post this, but here it is today, and yep, the earth is still here and so am I and I'd be really pleased if my lower back would stop being a pain...literally!