Solving problems by creating new ones

I feel that is the way things are going in our house right now.  Every time we solve a problem, I feel as though we create a new one.  For instance, we bought our new hutch cabinet, which we absolutely love.  The problem was that we had to move our baker's rack out.  We found a place for it by deciding it could hold things on our porch and it would like fine there.  But it would mean finding a place for everything that was on the rack.  We did manage to do that for the most part, after some books were moved around, etc., etc.  I am excited that our house is going to be even more functional and livable in just a couple of days, but we aren't quite there yet!

Our lives right now - it's been a lot

I didn't write much in February.  It wasn't necessarily that I didn't want to write, it was just that there was A LOT going on, and I spent most of the month being absolutely exhausted.  The good news is that it was mostly only work related, and for that I am grateful.

Our February at work was absolutely insane.  We have one employee who was hospitalized and has yet to recover.  We had one employee who had COVID, along with three family members, and her family is still fighting strep and other things, and her father is entering Hospice care.  We have one employee whose son needed to be hospitalized for suicidal ideations, and of course that is an ongoing concern.  We have one employee who had surgery two weeks ago, and the doctors did not handle some things well.  We have one employee who had surgery three weeks ago, and also developed strep this past week herself.  We have one employee who had COVID, and her daughter was hospitalized with illness as well.  We have one employee whose daughter was diagnosed with a chronic illness last fall and needed to be hospitalized again for a few days. We have one employee who lost her grandmother three weeks ago, her husband had surgery this week, and her step-father passed away Wednesday.  All of this was just in the last month!  I mention this because it means I worked extra hours to help clean, I covered classes as needed, and I worked to put pieces together so we had enough people working where they needed to work.

At home, it's been less crazy, but I can't call it peaceful.  The biggest challenge has been having Thomas's cat here.  She jumps on everything, and we've had to put away all of the picture frames, which I don't appreciate.  Additionally, she and one of our cats are constantly fighting, and the howling/hissing/running into things sounds are not remotely peaceful.  Our sweet pup has had her slipped disc issues again, although we caught it early and she's on the mend.  My grandmother was in the emergency room on Monday due to some reactions, and it's hard on her.  My mother was in the emergency room Thursday after taking a serious fall and doing a face-plant.  Thank goodness my kids were able to stay with her overnight Thursday so I didn't have to miss work.  I can deal with all of these relatively minor things, but it's hard after coming home from work which was challenging all day.

This past week we had a lady from church who was going to be evicted if she didn't get her apartment cleaned.  We were able to do some cleaning ourselves and get a company hired, and many generous members helped to fund that.  That was a blessing.

And we were thrilled that Catherine passed her state STNA exam.  She is looking for a job locally, and we are thrilled for her and proud of her.  It's a step in the right direction.

I'm hoping this week is much calmer, although I laugh because I thought that last week as well.  Monday brought a tornado warning where the students and staff all had to take cover, and Friday I had to clean up vomit at school.  So who knows what this week will bring??

I'm especially grateful that we have no students tomorrow, and that March and some lovely weather have arrived.  Looking forward to calmer times!

Finally putting away Christmas

I have been trying to put away Christmas for quite some time now.  Andrew insists it wait until January 6.  Unfortunately the first week of the year is the craziest week for me between year-end at church and progress reports at school.  We finally hit January 6th on Friday, but I still had a crazy amount of work to do.  Finally on Sunday afternoon I was able to get started, but then I spent the evening at church after Andrew returned from taking Thomas to school.  I then spent Monday and Tuesday evenings at church as well, and yesterday I worked on church things after getting off work (late) at school and then headed to church again.  Last evening Andrew and I decided to relax and just enjoy an evening together.  So today, I finally get to work on the trees...and I'm hoping to have things done by Sunday.  Isn't this ridiculous?!

I'm enjoying putting things away though as it gives me another chance to cherish the memories.  Our tree is full of them and I'm grateful.  I can't help but think though, that in a few years the kids will take their ornaments, and our tree will seem so empty.  I also love the decorations that we've purchased, especially lately, and I love the decorations that were made from family members.  I'd love to get my house put back together, but I'm so grateful for the time to remember.

Not the alone time we thought it would be

When Thomas decided to attend school that would be over an hour away, we knew it meant he would be living on campus.  With Catherine at her school apartment, it seemed to indicate Andrew and I would have these glorious evenings and weekends with endless hours, just the two of us.  Don't get me wrong, everyone knows I love my kids and I love having them around.  The thing is, I love when we are ALL together.  Having just one around feels harder.  And I love my husband so much and love our time spent together.

The day that we moved Thomas into his dorm, we were home by 3:00 in the afternoon.  Andrew and I kind of sat around that day and looked at each other...now what?  That day felt like it would drag on forever, and I remember wanting to go to bed at 8:00 that evening.  I thought that was what our evenings were going to be like!

Haha, not so much!  The very next day, Andrew played frisbee golf after school and then I had a church meeting that evening.  We had a fairly quiet Thursday evening, and I was looking forward to enjoying a quiet weekend after we got through Catherine's nursing induction on Friday.  But then Andrew needed to work two athletic events that Saturday, and I was asked to work one as well.  Sunday became the day that we drove to see each kid at school, which meant we were gone over seven hours.  Our Saturday late afternoon and evening were exactly what I was hoping it would be, but it was hours, not day.

This week was even less so!  Monday I went straight to church to work and then did our weekly grocery shopping.  Tuesday I had to work a bit late at work, then had a church meeting at 6:00.  Andrew also had dinner with Catherine.  Wednesday I had to drive to take Thomas his glasses, and Andrew had to work an athletic event until after 9:30.  That was also the evening that things fell apart with Thomas.  Thursday I ended up working an athletic event and it was 8:00 before I got home.  Although I knew Andrew needed to attend the football game last evening, my original vision was a quiet Friday evening at home for myself.  Instead, I was back to move Thomas and bring him home, AND he unexpectedly brought a friend.  That means that although I knew Andrew would be working athletics this morning, my expected quiet Saturday didn't happen either.  We have plans with friends this evening, and I think Andrew and I are going to need all day tomorrow to recover and prepare for another crazy week!  maybe we'll have a quiet evening together this week, although I know he's already working athletics two evenings!

The middle of July

I can't say that I'm a huge fan of July...it's that whole summer weather concept.  In fact, right now the heat index is 104 degrees.  Yuck.  Unfortunately, it's only going to get warmer for about the next week.  I'm grateful that I have little to no commitments that will require me to be outdoors anytime soon.

I'm really, really close to being completely finished with all of the band paperwork.  I'll make a separate post about that sometime, but I'm not going to lie...I am super excited about that!  I hope to be turning things over by this weekend at the latest...and maybe even tomorrow!

My stress level is a tad bit high right now.  We decided to make the investment and have a sump pump installed in our crawl space.  Of course, as is often the case with home improvement projects, things didn't quite go according to plan.  They found some pipe leaks in this process, and found out that box external faucets have leaks, so the already expensive projects are just becoming more expensive.  It is what it is though, and I'm grateful we have the money to fix what needs to be fixed.

We also have an issue with one of our cats.  Andrew and Catherine have taken her to the vet, and there is no guarantee she is coming home.  My heart breaks for Catherine, who adores this cat beyond words, and I know Catherine will struggle if she passes.  Catherine is having her own struggles, and we don't need to add this on right now.  I also feel sadness for our cat Lincoln, who still loves to cuddle with Rosie, even at age 10.  They've always been inseparable, and that was why the pet adoption place insisted they be placed together.

Next week we are attending orientation for Thomas, where he'll get registered for classes and find out things we need to know.  He'll be moving into the dorms in four weeks.  I can't even fathom that in four weeks I'll be spending the night in my house with Andrew as the only other person under our roof, and that will be our new normal until holidays.  Oh my goodness.

Lots of feelings and emotions happening right now, but also so much gratitude!

Raccoons

If you've read my blog for a few years, you know that we have outdoor cats that we feed.  Of course, we live in the woods, and that means other wild life also sometimes want to enjoy the food.  This time of year, it is often the young raccoons that make life challenging.  This week, they have been extremely challenging as they have been getting into our garage and refusing to come out.  Last night we had THREE of them, and although we spent hours trying to get them out, one stayed in all night and the condition of our garage right now is not good.  It was not at all how I had envisioned my Friday evening.  The good news is that we know all of them are out, and now we just have to see what kind of repairs need to be made.  Never a dull moment!

Just in case I loved it so much once wasn't enough

The day after Thanksgiving, we put up our Christmas trees.  We have a decent sized tree that goes in our living room, and then we have a smaller tree that goes in our family room.  It was tougher to find a place to put the tree since we've rearranged the room, but I was insistent that we have a tree since this is where we spend the majority of our time.  I am the person who puts all the lights on the tree.  It is definitely not my favorite thing, but I want it to look nice.

About a week ago, I was sitting on the couch in our family room, and I saw some lights on the tree flicker, and then the strand went out.  And of course, not the strand on top, not the strand on the bottom, but the MIDDLE strand on the tree.  Ugh.  I put it off for a week, but today I decided I couldn't take it any more.  I had to undecorate the middle of the tree, and then try to get the lights "fit" between the two strands.  It doesn't look as nice as I think it looked before, but it's done.  Ah the joys...just in case put the lights on was so much fun that once was enough, I got to do it again!

Complete dinner failure

I'll be honest, dinner has been less than exciting in this house lately.  For one thing, the chances of all three of us being home at dinner time is pretty low.  The chances of two of us being around for dinner is probably around 50%.  Secondly, when it is warm outside, I don't want anyone using the oven and heating up our house.  Not much sounds good either.  And of course there is the fact that I am usually the last one home each day, but that doesn't usually mean that anyone else has done anything about dinner.

With the temps finally dropping, oven usage is allowed again.  Wednesday was an incredibly dreary day, but I made a wonderful chicken stuffing casserole for dinner.  It was the kind of meal that is filling and sticks to you.  I had decided that today was a wonderful day for potato soup.  I had gone to the grocery after watching halftime last evening to make sure I had the ingredients.  Even though I wasn't home this morning, I left the "recipe" available and even called to make sure it had been started since it needs to be in the crock pot all day.  Catherine cheered when she heard we were having it for dinner.  An hour before it was ready, I added the cream cheese.  When it was supposed to be ready, it just didn't look right.  I let it cook for a little more, but the cream cheese just didn't seem to be right.  I found the box, and was so upset to realize the cream cheese had expired months ago.  While it was certainly no one's fault, Catherine and I were so disappointed!  She mentioned it had been smelling so good all day.  We ordered dinner in which usually makes me very happy, but it wasn't at all what I was going for.  It was a complete dinner failure in spite of my best efforts and planning!

Monday morning surprise

Monday is one of the days of the week that Thomas is able to be a swim practice.  There is no league, but they are able to practice twice a week for five weeks.  He wanted to ride his bike to practice this morning, which means getting up even a little earlier than normal.

For the most part, our house is pretty well picked up after hosting so many people this weekend.  As the swim practices was literally the only thing on our calendar, I was looking forward to a pretty relaxing day, even if it was starting earlier than I prefer for summer wake-ups.  I opened the door to our garage to recycle a bottle, when I thought I saw something move out of the corner of my eye as I was closing the door.  I opened the door again, and sticking its head around the corner staring at me was a young raccoon.  Yikes!  I quickly opened the overhead door, then shut the door to the house so it understood it was not invited inside.  I opened a few minutes later, and it was nowhere to be seen.  Andrew checked the garage when he got up and said we were really lucky it didn't do more damage.  We will have to be very conscientious about making sure the overhead door is down.  It was quite a surprise on this Monday morning!

Normal seems so long ago

A week ago today was the last day of anything remotely normal.  I worked, the kids went to school.  Baseball practice ended up being cancelled because the schools were ordered to close.  We could still find toilet paper in the groceries, and we could still go out to eat.  We could still get a haircut, and we could still renew our driver's licenses.  None of those are happening now.

In some ways, with something closing each day, the week has flown by.  At the same time, that sense of normal feels forever ago.  Someone pointed out that we are almost 1/3 of the way into the mandated school closure.  Reality is though, that we are not.  I think it is very unlikely we will be in school at any point during April.

We are doing lots of cleaning and lots of laundry, along with school work and family board games.  We would love to walk, but it is pouring rain an awful lot right now.  We WILL get through this, and I'm hoping and praying that humanity will be stronger on the other side.

Am I going to have a Friday off tomorrow??

It really doesn't seem possible that I could have tomorrow off.  Other than the very last day before the end of the semester that was a Friday when I was off, the last Friday there was school and I was off was September 6.  However, the only job available tomorrow is half day phys ed job, and I'm not taking that one.  I'll be honest, a Friday off would be awesome, but I'm currently only scheduled two days next week so I don't love the thought of that kind of paycheck.

The upside about this, though, is that we are supposed to host 40 students tomorrow evening for a swim team meal.  If I am off tomorrow, that would give me all day to relax and get ready.  Realistically though, we are going to get ready this evening because I'm not going to take a chance.  We might be watching TV from our bedrooms when all is said and done, but that is the way it will be tonight.

Saturday will be full of the swim league meet, and Sunday there is a church fundraiser before Andrew and Thomas head out to take care of some metal scrapping jobs for Thomas.  This time of year isn't very much fun, or terribly relaxing, but the time sure is flying by!

Lost power in the night

I wasn't sleeping particularly well anyway, but at 3:30 I was awakened.  I'm not sure if it was a crashing noise from outside because of the wind (very possible) or the if it was the lack of noise coming from my fan.  Regardless, the power had gone out.  It was no surprise given the wind noises outside.  Andrew got up to get his cell phone and set an alarm (the kids have swim practice this morning), and he also called the power company to make sure they knew about the outage.  I couldn't go back to sleep, and when I checked it was 5:15.  I still had over 90 minutes until I had to get up, but I was still awake at that point.  I did finally fall back to sleep, and of course now I feel a little crappy from the lack of sleep.

I am very grateful for the temps yesterday though.  The house was still plenty warm, and overall the power was only out for about three hours.  No damage done really...other than to body clock!  Thank goodness there is no school and work today!

Two weeks into our summer

It really is hard to believe that school has been out for two weeks.  We have done absolutely nothing fun and exciting as a family.  After being sick for a week, I finally began to really feel better on Sunday...just in time for Thomas to start to cough and hack.  With today being a solid day 4 of that, Andrew took him to the doctor.  He has a sinus infection, which I suspected.  However, I am not one that rushes to the doctor for such a thing these days because I am not in a huge rush for antibiotics that may not be necessary.  His cough was getting to be such though, that I thought it wouldn't hurt.  Andrew and I both had clear lungs through our entire illness, but not Thomas!  They are on their way home with antibiotics and steroids.  That child always manages to get it good!

We also had an interesting moment earlier today.  Andrew had been out on a bike ride and came home to tell us about the water in the street.  Sure enough, a water pipe had burst and was gushing everywhere.  It started out about four feet high, and quickly grew to gush around 30 feet high.  I have no idea how, but they managed to fix it without creating a huge mess or turning off the water altogether.

Andrew was supposed to be on his way to his parents today for a quick visit.  However, we weren't sure what was happening with the water, and Thomas was supposed to go along but obviously didn't feel well enough.  Not sure if he will feel well enough tomorrow or not, but Andrew decided it would just be better at this point to head out tomorrow.

Hopefully we get to start doing fun things soon!

We had a productive weekend

This past weekend was very productive.  Extremely busy, but that was part of what helped us to be productive!

It started Friday afternoon when Andrew and I headed north to attend the visitation of my cousin's ex-wife.  Neither of us particularly wanted to go, and for the most part, our side of the family wasn't particularly welcome.  However, three children are involved and we felt it was important to make an appearance.  While we didn't love being there, it was nice that Andrew and I had an hour car ride each way.  It was just he and I, and we had nothing to do but chat with only each other.  We don't have a lot of time for things like that these days.

Andrew was gone literally all day, and then again all evening Saturday.  I got Thomas to school for set construction and then ran a bunch of errands.  After attending the memorial service Saturday, my day was just getting a few things done around the house...and nothing major.

Sunday we had a meeting after church, then dropped Thomas at school again, before heading out to my aunt & uncle's house with the chainsaw.  They had hoped we could help with yard work last fall, but that never happened.  After more damage to trees occurred from an ice storm, we really needed to get out there before spring really got started.  Another cousin met us there, and it was really nice to be able to get things picked up for them.  It was nice to have that done!  We stopped at the grocery on the way home for a couple of dinner things, and then we headed home.

This was the most important part of our weekend...Andrew fixed our dryer!!!!  The part had arrived Saturday and Sunday late afternoon was the first opportunity Andrew really had to work on it.  Fortunately, it worked exactly as it was supposed to, and when we plugged it in and pressed "start", it did exactly what it was supposed to do!  I don't know the last time I was so excited about doing laundry!  Because the dryer was fixed I was able to get all the drying racks taken down and put away.  I was then able to organize and pack the storage tubs that had been sitting around.  That isn't completely finished, but major progress made.  It was wonderful to have such a productive weekend!

Sunday afternoon in our house

Our exciting family meal at our favorite restaurant has been postponed again.  Thomas is sick.  I could tell Friday evening that a cough was beginning to happen.  The good news is that at this point, it doesn't seem to be anything more than a cough/cold.  He does though, not do well with respiratory things.  We left the decision up to him, and he just doesn't feel up to it.  At this point, I would say the chances of him going to school tomorrow are less than 50%, but hopefully the cold medicine will continue to work and even if he does stay home, he'll be able to stay home and Andrew and I can still go to work.

Our house is cluttered.  Because our dryer isn't working, we have drying racks throughout the house.  Yesterday I had to wash towels, and it is especially difficult trying to dry those.  I can't help but feel it is difficult to avoid having a cluttered head and a cluttered heart when our house is this cluttered.

We have another busy week, and next weekend is going to be even crazier!

Another weekend behind us

I have four more days of the this medication that I am on.  I am hoping once it is finished, my emotions will even out again.  One of the side effects is weepiness, and I feel like I have plenty of that in spades!

The moment that most sticks out in my mind was Friday evening.  None of us had plans or anywhere to be, and although I ran some errands, I was home by 5:30.  I was so pleased to spend the evening with my family!  We all decided we wanted to watch a movie, and Andrew decided we should watch my favorite, Bull Durham.  I was pretty sure the kids wouldn't like it, but it turned out they really did.  There was one moment when we were all sitting their laughing, and I vividly remember the thought I had at that time.  I was so incredibly grateful to be sharing that moment with my kids, and yet I was heartbroken that on a Friday evening, my kids had no plans with friends.  It still makes me emotional to think about it.

I am frustrated that the Christmas tubs are still sitting in our sunroom.  That's right, the second full weekend of March is upon us, and Christmas is still not completely put away.  I also need to work on boxing up other things that belong to Robert, but it's really tough when Christmas takes up the entire space.  I've been trying to hang things in our hallway for over a month.  The problem is, I need Andrew's help, and he is ridiculously busy.  I'm not angry, but it makes me feel like I can't accomplish things.  Again, my emotions get the better of me.

We got the estimate on the permanent fix for our flooding crawl space.  Unfortunately, (and we don't know why yet) the estimate came in triple what the original guess had been.  That means in order to not have to think about this, it would cost us $3000.  That is not happening right now!  We have a fix that works just fine, it just means we have to make sure we are paying attention and take care of it ourselves.  The bill for them coming out in the first place was also twice what we thought it would be.  And now the dryer has issues.

Should I go out and get a full time job?  Andrew and I both agree that isn't what would be best for our family.  He even agreed there was no way I could've started subbing earlier than I did.  We had to deal with Robert and his decisions, and unsupervised time because I was on a different schedule than him was not an option.

Overall, the weekend flew by entirely too fast.  They all do though.  Hopefully, the end of medication and the increased daylight will help to lift my mood.  Sometimes I think I am being tested in this season of Lent.  If that is the case, and these things are the biggest tests in my life, I think my life has been pretty good.  And I am working very, very hard on having faith that everything will work out!

Pretty much full time

When I get done today, I will have worked 38.25 hours this week.  That is pretty much full time, no matter how you look at it!  It is still probably 11-12 hours fewer than Andrew worked this week, and he has work meetings and practice again tomorrow...and of course planning for next week.  I understand this is what we do, but I also understand that this is why we are tired.  It also explains why there are loads upon loads of laundry to be done, and why our house could use a good cleaning and organizing...and why meals are a bit of an issue.

It won't always be like this though.  One day, we may be working as much or even more at paying jobs, but the laundry piles will be much smaller.  Dinners will be less of an issue, and we'll just have ore free time.  And I know when those days come, I'm going to miss this crazy phase of life.  It will be so quiet around home then...probably too quiet!

Our lives at the end of January

Only one day left in January.  Is it too early to say that the year is flying by?  I happen to know there are only 72 school days remaining this year.  Not ready to wish away time though.

Our weekend was every bit as busy as we knew it would be.  I loved being able to enjoy our ladies lunch Saturday.  I am blessed with an amazing group of friends.  We love each other, and make time for each other a priority.  Granted, it requires scheduling months in advance, but we make it happen.

Thomas completed a 500m swim Sunday at his meet!  His attempt in December ended with him not finishing the race, but this Sunday he did it.  He was so proud of himself, and his time was pretty decent.  I hated I couldn't see it, but we are so proud of him.

I haven't worked this week.  I am scheduled for tomorrow, and then again Friday afternoon only.  Tomorrow is cold again although not as cold as today so I'm not sure if there will be school or not.  We are due to get snow overnight into Friday morning, so there is no guarantee of that day either.  I am scheduled four days next week, and there is just nothing I can do about it.  And goodness knows as cold as it is right now, none of us want to be out and about.  I suspect the buses wouldn't start even if they had tried.

We've also had a major household issue.  Our crawlspace had nearly a foot of standing water in it.  We have no idea where it came from, but that is where our furnace is located.  Fortunately, we realized it and have had it pumped out, but the plumbers were here all day.  The bill is being sent, but I am sure that is NOT going to be inexpensive.  Everything will work out.

Temps this weekend are going to be in the 50's.  It's crazy!

It suddenly got very quiet around here

For the past seven nights, there have been seven people sleeping in this house.  Robert has already landed back in Texas, and Andrew is on the road taking his parents back.  That leaves only three of us sleeping in this house tonight.  Right now Catherine is at work so it is incredibly quiet.  I had to be up at 3AM to take Robert to the airport, and it's been an emotional few hours, so I'm grateful for the quiet.  I will definitely write another post soon about the rest of our week after Christmas, but right now I'm just too tired.  I am so incredibly grateful for the past week!

How do people decorate in a day???

On Thanksgiving Thursday, Andrew and Thomas took all the Christmas boxes down from the attic and put them in our garage.  I had no intention of beginning to decorate that evening, but I needed the boxes to be handy and they were leaving the next day.  I didn't get much done the next day either, between breakfast out, an afternoon of volunteering, and a quick after-dinner drink with some friends.

It then took me ALL DAY Saturday and Sunday to continue decorating.  Notice I didn't say finish...I don't think I'm there even yet!  Granted, I've also been working on Christmas cards and the band fundraiser chaos, and working basically full time, but it was yesterday before I finally put all the tubs back in the garage.  And it doesn't mean that things are all put together.  It just means the tubs are back in the garage.  I still have items that are normally up that need to be stored somewhere.  So the tubs came into the house nine days ago, and I'm still not living in a house put together. 

However, there are tons of people who seem to be able to decorate in a day...how is this possible?  I am sure that perhaps the entire family helps, but I still don't understand how it gets done in a day.  I am ready for less clutter, but not sure when I will actually get there!