I hate trying to lose weight!

Pictures like this do not help me whatsoever!

WW1 (Weight Watchers Week 1)

Yesterday was weigh-in day at Weight Watchers after my first week. I'll admit I was a bit nervous. I stayed on program all week, but was only able to do a slight bit of exercise as my hip is absolutely killing me. I starved all week. I don't remember this program being this difficult last time, and, frankly, I think that's because it wasn't. The program has changed since the first time I went on it and I don't get to eat as much daily...although there's a weekly "allowance" of extra points you can choose to use or not use. I tried not to use them, which is probably not going to happen again, because if I'm this hungry every week, I'm not going to last very long on this. I decided, instead, to divide my 35 bonus points up over the seven days in a week, and give myself an extra five points a day. It may slow my weight loss down, but if it keeps me on program and losing weight, it'll be okay.

So? The results...I lost 3.6 pounds. Seems rather anti-climactic. It's a long journey, that begins with a single step...er, pound, I know. But, somehow, I thought that I would have lost over five pounds, as hungry as I was all week.

So I had to rethink this whole thing. I'm not going to be able to lose the weight fast, I have to realize that. It's a process, a journey, as I said before, and if I can lose something, ANYTHING, week to week, I'll be headed in the right direction. I turn fifty next summer, and I intend to look fabulous! (Just call me Oprah. Well, okay, don't.)

Something to be thankful for...

Last night I was able to visit with my four granddaughters again; my daughter's step-daughters. Although it was only for fifteen minutes, each and every minute was fun, treasured, and appreciated. All four of the girls greeted me with big smiles and a "Hi Grandma!" It was bittersweet when their mom came to pick them up and they had to leave. They clung to their Papi, "Please let me go home with you, Papi!" They gave me hugs and kisses and said "Goodby Grandma! I love you!" Definitely something to be thankful for.

Not Buying It

I finished reading "Not Buying It, My Year Without Shopping" for the second time a couple weeks ago. It's an interesting book written by author Judith Levine about the year she spent attempting to not make any new purchases with the exception of "necessities". In the author's words, "it's the confessions of a woman any reader can identify with: someone who can't live without French roast coffee or SmartWool socks but who has had it up to here with overconsumption and its effects on the earth and everyone who dwells there."

Although I found the author's political and religious viewpoints pretty much the extreme opposite of my own, and had to work hard to look past them, I still enjoyed the book enough to read it twice. She and her mate's views and attempts at defining what is a necessity and what is a luxury are humorous, yet give the reader much to think about. Are Q-tips a necessity? They have a diabetic cat which requires insulin...a total necessity in their eyes; to me, who even needs the cat?

No Impact Man has taken on a similar experiment, choosing to only purchase socks, replacement shoes, and under garments new for an entire year. The Compact, a movement begun in the San Francisco area, also has a similar goal. It's an interesting experiment, one which I might like to try some day, although I believe the author had more luck bringing her mate on board with the idea than I would.

Random Ramblings

I went to REI today while the hubby went to Fife and got new cables for the headsets on our motorcycle helmets. I found THE most awesome, comfortable shoes which I didn't buy, but intend to, next payday. I'm justifying the expense because my doctor says I need better footwear.

I need better footwear because I have tendinitis in my hip. Actually, this hip has bothered me for years. Yep, years. It's gotten so bad lately that I can't walk or do any exercise without it really, really bothering me. Now, after just about paying off my physical therapy bill for the tendinitis I had in my elbow, I get to start more physical therapy. The good news is I've paid the deductible on my health insurance. The bad news is it's the end of October. Hopefully, I'll be done with physical therapy by January 1.

I seem to have an issue with 'itis's...as in tendinitis in my shoulder, elbow, hip...I guess it's an inflammation issue. I'm doing some reading on changing my diet to try to eliminate it. We'll see if it helps.

Tonight we went to see the movie Dan in Real Life. Basically, I loved it. It was sweet and funny and just an all around good movie. No one got shot. Nothing got blown up. Some might call it a chic flick...I just thought it was a good "date movie". I especially liked the music.

I went and looked at a house the other day. (The day I got the ticket, which is where I was headed when I got pulled over.) Can't believe I actually went and looked at a house that was for sale. The house was nice: 2000 sq. ft. give or take, on two acres, but LOUD. It was just off the main road and every logging truck that went by hit the brakes on the corner and you could hear all the traffic. Exactly what I don't want. My hubby says he'll never move into a house that's already built. If we want to move, it has to be into a house we have built for ourselves. I know it's only because he has to have his "media room". I don't really want to sell my house, but if I could find something that was nice on some acreage, I might consider it.

Finally, we closed at the laundromat tonight for my daughter so she and her hubby could go "out". Their first date in almost a year. A misunderstanding over who was supposed to work ended up with no one showing up, so, being the manager, it was left to my daughter to go in and cover the closing shift. She was so disappointed after having found babysitters for all three kids and having planned this night out, so the hubby and I offered to go in when we got home from our movie. It was fun, but hard work. I never realized how long it takes to clean washers and dryers. Got a little freaked out over the guy sleeping in his car in the parking lot, but around 10:00 an apparent friend of his showed up with a beer in his hand, climbed into the car, and drove off.

I am so happy at the weather this week. It's been gorgeous out. Chilly, but oh so sunny. Perfect autumn weather. The leaves are changing and the neighbors have been having fires in their fireplaces. I love, love, love this time of year!

Grandma H.

My grandma never wore pants. She always wore "house dresses" with an apron over top and usually a pair of slippers. My mom told me a story once about my grandma that makes me smile every time I think about it. It was snowy and cold outside and my grandma put on a pair of my grandpa's overalls to go outside, I think to hang out the laundry, and the preacher came to visit. She was so mortified at being seen in my grandpa's overalls by the preacher, that she never wore another pair again, ever. I remember grandma having two "good" dresses. One was black and the other a silvery blue suit. If I remember right the suit was bought for her and my grandpa's golden wedding anniversary party. The black one was worn to church and funerals, the blue one to weddings. I don't really recall my grandma ever leaving the house very much. My mom or my aunts brought most of their groceries to their house after my grandpa retired. Grandma was always putzing around in the kitchen, baking bread, or cooking. Noon time was the big meal, "dinner", and as many relatives as were around would come to their house and gather 'round the big square table in the kitchen and eat. The youngest grandchild always had the seat of honor next to Grandpa and at least once a meal he would manage to pass the butter to someone in such a way that they stuck their finger in it. My grandpa died when I was 18 and my grandma when I was 23. They never knew my kids, nor my grandkids. I think about them often and hope they look down on me and watch over my family. I miss them a lot.

Note to self

Never, ever, ever, ever ever! put up wallpaper ever again!

Weight Watchers

Last night I started Weight Watchers. Well, let me rephrase that...I joined Weight Watchers, after which I promptly came home, bbq'd a steak and made a great, big, green salad smothered in ranch dressing. It was SO good! Today I started Weight Watchers.

I initially joined Weight Watchers six years ago and lost almost 35 pounds. I followed the program faithfully, and once I was to goal and became a lifetime member, I was asked to join the staff at our local meeting. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake. I no longer attended the meetings and the pounds started creeping back on. Within a year I had gained back about ten pounds. Eventually I went to work at another job and quit my Weight Watchers job. Now, six years later, I weigh more than I ever have in my life, even when I was pregnant. I'm not real happy about that.

So, once again, I'm trying to make some changes in my life that will be to my lasting benefit. (Lasting, that's the key word here.) It hasn't been an easy start. After that huge meal last night I woke up feeling puffy and achy and just generally lousy. I did good today, though, and stayed on program and right on my "points" target. I'm a little hungry, but I'm going to bed early, so I'll be fine. This isn't going to be easy, but I keep telling myself I have to do it, for my health. Maybe someday I'll even post "before" and "after" photos.

just dandy...

I got a speeding ticket yesterday.
Just dandy.
In 33 years of driving I've gotten two tickets, including the one I got yesterday.
Lame.
A state trooper, driving on the Matlock Rd.; doesn't he have anything better to do, like patrol the highways? hello? He's a highway patrolman!
Almost as dumb as the article in the local fish wrap about the sheriff deputy sitting on a logging road because people had been dumping garbage there.
Huh?
Someone used our rental truck to rob a local farm store, they have it on camera, and the sheriff's department is too busy to do anything about it, but they can sit on a logging road in case someone happens to come along to dump some garbage.
Oh my gosh.
Taxpayer's dollars at work.
The trooper said I was going 60, my speedometer said I was going 51 or 52, seriously.
I thought the speed limit was 50. It was 45.
The first time I got a ticket, I cried.
This time I got mad.
I argued with him.
I don't think it helped.
But he did write it for going 50 in a 45.
So maybe it did.
Whatever.
It's still gonna cost me $98.
How dumb.
I try to obey the law and this is what I get for it.
and what is it with cops...are they all trained to be rude?

Done, at last!!!

You may have noticed that something on my blog has changed. That's right...my to-do list! Last weekend, while I was out of town, my hubby finally installed our laundry tub in the laundry room and now my laundry room is finished, at last! He did an awesome job with the caulking, which I feared would end up a mess, and it looks so professional. The new faucet is really nice, much better than our old one, but best of all is the fact that I finally got to cross that job off my to-do list!

Now it's time to finish scraping the wallpaper in the kitchen.

I purged...

my closet, that is. And it was ridiculously painful. I'm getting rid of the clothes I own that I don't like. Not the ones that don't fit, just ones I don't like. What was painful was thinking about the amount of money I spent on all of those clothes. The really ridiculous thing is that I have more clothes left that don't fit me, than those that do. Weight Watchers, Tuesday night, I'll be there.

I think sometimes that blog postings can make our life appear rosy and perfect, when they aren't. My post yesterday wasn't intended to make anyone feel bad, especially my dear, sweet daughter. It's just that this week was an especially hard week for me.

Most of my adult life I've been a stay-at-home mom. It wasn't always an easy choice. I have often wondered why God gave me the desire to work, when I've always felt his calling on my life was to stay home and raise kids. All around me my friends are working, most of them at really interesting, challenging jobs that leave them feeling fulfilled and valued. At nearly fifty years old, I often think I missed the boat somewhere.

I truly think that being a stay-at-home Mom is one of the hardest jobs in the world. There's no one to pat you on the back and say, good job! You changed three poopy diapers today! Way to go! You're such an awesome mom, you changed the baby's clothes twice today after she spit up all over them, and you! No one gives you a pay raise for doing a particularly good job, or just because another year has rolled around. This isn't meant to be a put down of women who work outside the home. Staying home and raising kids was a choice I made, for me. It was what was right for my family, and in no way do I think I am capable of, nor do I have the right, to say what is right for anyone else's family. One lesson life has taught me the last few years, however, is that nothing in life is certain. One minute you can be on top of the world and have everything you ever wanted, and the next minute it can all be gone, in the blink of an eye. I want to cherish every moment I can with my kids and grandkids. I don't ever want to look back and wish that I'd spent more time with my family.

It's just, like I said, that this week was a hard week. The grandbaby is sick and teething, and she cried all week. (Like Jeremy said, no fun at all.) I love watching my grandkids and spending time with them, but I'm not their mom and I'm not young, like she is. When the baby cries a lot, I can't comfort her the way her mom can. I get frazzled and tired, and by 5:30 Friday night I was done in. Twelve hours of sleep last night and a day out with my hubby has made a big difference in my attitude. Another twelve hours of sleep tonight, church and a nap tomorrow, and (hopefully) getting my hair done Monday, and I'll probably be a whole new person. Or maybe, just the old me. :)

My week

My week=baby crying, crying, crying, crying, crying, crying, crying...well, you get the picture. :(

My closet

I've been thinking a lot lately about clothes. I have a closet full of clothes, most of which I don't wear. Some of which don't fit, some of which are out of season (winter/summer), some of which I don't particularly like, but which are still in good condition, and some of which I just really don't need. I also have a rubbermaid tub full of clothes that are mostly too small. Most of them are in really good shape, because they were only worn a few times (!), and I don't want to get rid of them, just in case they ever fit again.

A while back I came across a blog called Little Brown Dress. The author designed and sewed herself a brown dress which she wore EVERY DAY for a year, with various accessories to mix things up a bit...a shirt underneath, tights, a sweater over the top, you get the picture. She found it liberating to not have to dig through a myriad of clothing to decide what to wear.

Our laundromat offers drop off laundry service. People can drop off their dirty clothes and we wash, dry, fold and bag the clothing, charge by the pound, and it's ready to be picked up later that day. We have several regular customers, mostly single men who don't like to do laundry. My daughter, who is the manager, was telling me last week about one of our customers who comes in once a week and always drops off the same clothing: six pairs of pants, six pairs of socks, six pairs of underwear, and six shirts. It's his laundry for the week, and I guess it's all he owns, plus the outfit he's wearing. She says it's the same thing, every week. Now how easy does that sound? Kinda reminds me of the underwear you can get with Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...etc. printed on them.

Although I'm not looking to go to those extremes, I'm thinking that it's time to clean my closet. Do I really need to keep all of those clothes that don't fit? Do I really need to keep all of the clothes hanging in my closet that I don't really even like? I tend to be fairly neat and organized, and usually I keep my closet the same way, but, I think maybe it's time for a purge.

Laundry

The other day I wrote about ironing. Today it's laundry. I love doing laundry. Weird, I know, but there's something about doing laundry that I just really love. I hate cleaning bathrooms. I hate doing dishes. But I love doing the laundry. Especially when I can hang the clothes outside to dry. I actually don't even have a clothes line, but in the summer I lay my wet clothes out on the top of the hot tub, across the backs of lawn chairs and along the wooden benches lining our back patio. The hubby doesn't really like crispy towels, but whatever!

When the kids were small, my hubby used to try and help me out once in awhile by doing the laundry for me. It just drove me crazy. Everything would get crammed into the machine and nothing would be sorted. Pockets wouldn't be checked, and socks would go into the machine inside out. I always told him I appreciated the help, but if he really wanted to help me there were plenty of other things he could do, just leave the laundry to me!

When I was a kid and we lived in Iowa, my grandparents lived in an old house in town. I would estimate that the house was probably 100 years old. There was a basement, like most houses in the Midwest have, and if memory serves me right, it was made out of stone and was white-washed. (Do I remember right, Dad?) Anyways, my grandma had a wringer washing machine and I used to love to help do the laundry, although that only happened on rare occasions. She would fill up one of the big tubs and put the dirty clothes and soap in it and it would churn around and around washing the clothes. Then she would turn on the ringer and we would run the clothes through the ringer into the other tub, filled with rinse water. Again it would agitate and bounce around, rinsing the soap out of the clothes, and then the process would repeat itself...back through the ringer and into an empty tub. I don't think my grandma ever had a dryer. It seems like all of her laundry got hung out on the clothesline, summer or winter.

I have a really nice front load Maytag washer and dryer. They're really good machines and I really like them, but sometimes I think it would be fun to have a wringer washer like my grandma had.

Stupid is a mean word!

Last week McKenzie and I went to see the movie "Game Plan". I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed it. One of the lines in the movie I liked the most was when the little girl would say "Stupid is a mean word!". Reminds me of a rule we always had in our house when the kids were growing up...they were never allowed to call someone stupid. I liked that rule.

The only thing I didn't like about the movie...well, Disney seems to have a recurring theme throughout most of it's movies and I'm really not sure why...don't want to spoil this one, but if you see it, you'll know what I'm talking about. Someone really needs to have a talk with Disney.

Random thoughts...

Random thoughts...

1. I don't feel good. I felt "icky" Sunday night when I got home and I had trouble falling asleep. I finally went to bed around 1:00 a.m., unusual for me.
I was okay yesterday, but woke up this morning at 5:45 a.m. and again, feel "icky"...you know, foggy head, upset stomach, kinda dizzy, slight headache...not sure what's up with that.

2. Does anyone know anything about pruning roses in the northwest? Are they supposed to be cut back this time of year? Our rose bed has been neglected for so long, half the rose bushes are dead, the other half look awful. I think they're supposed to be cut back in the fall, but I don't really know.

3. The neighbors sprayed the morning glories on our joint property line and in the process half-killed several of our lilac bushes and a tree. I'm hoping they come back but not keeping my fingers crossed.

4. I love the northwest but wish it didn't rain so much. We were planning on going to Seattle to go out on a sailboat this Saturday and it's supposed to rain. Not my idea of fun. It would sure be nice to be able to plan an outing and at least have a good chance of having nice weather.

5. Pumpkin patch. Again. Mud. Yuck.

6. Our son is tearing down an old house on a piece of property for us. Rain. Mud. Cold. Yuck.

7. Why is it that some of our employees think it's okay to spend five hours cruising Myspace rather than actually work?

Maybe I need to go back to bed.

Weekend away

I'm home. From a wonderful weekend AWAY. I journeyed two hours south of this little hell hole town to the big city of Portland last Thursday to attend the Women of Faith conference. This is the second year I've attended this conference and I just love it. I ended up staying an extra night and spent a beautiful, sunny Sunday wandering around downtown Portland's "Saturday Market", until my friend Susan's feet hurt so bad we finally HAD to leave. I didn't realize how relaxing the weekend was until I got home and found myself not-so-relaxed again.

The best part of the weekend? I laughed. and laughed. and laughed. like I hadn't laughed in over 3 years. Anita Renfroe was at the conference...you may remember her "mom song" that I posted a few weeks ago. I didn't know she was going to be at the conference and didn't even realize she was the one who did the "Mom Song" when she first started speaking. She is absolutely hysterical. I believe she's going to be on Good Morning America, or one of those morning shows, tomorrow morning, AND she's also filming a Dr. Phil episode this week. I intend to buy her books so I can keep on laughing.

Got beef?

We got beef. 1/4 beef, actually. 110 lbs. I figure there's enough beef in my freezer to last me for the next year: 25 pounds of hamburger, a dozen or more packages of t-bone steaks, a couple pot roasts, a dozen or more packages of sirloin steaks, some stew meat, and some rib steaks. YUM! all locally grown. After it was butchered and processed it averaged out to $2.96 lb. I can't even buy decent hamburger for that at the store anymore, and even better, it's locally raised. I'm trying to eat more "local" foods and less processed, prepackaged foods from outside the Pacific Northwest. Next year I even intend to grow a garden! It'll be nice to make some use of the greenhouse that's been sitting in our side yard for the last ten years; other than as a storage shed for the patio furniture! It feels good to have a freezer full of meat for the next year, supplement with some "grown in Washington" chicken, and maybe a few fish out of the local river, and we're good to go! (More on that fishing thing later!)

I'm off to Portland today to attend the Women of Faith Conference, and I am so excited about going; partly because I love the conference, partly because I love getting out of town, and partly because I enjoy getting to spend time with my girlfriends! I'm especially touched by the fact that my son is coming home from work for lunch, just so he can get a chance to tell me goodbye before I leave.

Kenzie

Monday morning my granddaughter was helping me dump the recycling.

"Grandma," she said, "I pray every night when I go to bed. "

"You do?" I asked. "That's good!"

"Yep," she said, "and I help my mom with her work. Don't work, don't eat...that's what the bible says, right Grandma?"

Ha! She does listen!

2 Thessalonians 3:10 (New International Version)

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."

Toe Car

Has anyone else who lives in the same town I do noticed the little lime green electric car that's been running around lately? My granddaughter, McKenzie, and I saw it the other day as I was driving up Mt. View. It's so cute! Seriously! It has room for one person and it has two wheels in the front and one in the back. We deemed it the "toe car" cause it looks like a big, lime green, toe. After doing some research on the internet, I've decided it must be an NmG (as in No more Gas!) It's manufactured by the Myers Motors Company and sells for around $36,000 new. It's completely electric and can be plugged into a 110-volt outlet to recharge it. Imagine no more having to purchase gas...no carbon emissions...only $10 of electricity (in our town) will get you 1000 miles of driving and it can go at speeds of up to 75 mph. The website states that while it drives like a car, its considered to be a three-wheeled motorcycle. I wonder if that means, as in Washington state, that you don't have to have insurance on it? While you may not get to Seattle and back, it would sure be fun running errands around town in it. I'm not sure I could handle all the attention, though. I about threw my neck out trying to look at the little green toe car when it pulled out behind me the other day!

Learning...

I've been experimenting with some different formats and learning how to change things up a bit. Hope all my editing and reposting isn't driving everyone crazy!! Sorry about that...it's kinda like rearranging the living room furniture...you get it set one way and it's good for awhile, then, sooner or later, you just gotta change things around a little bit, or a lot!

Another rant

Why is it JC Penney's can spend a bajillion dollars remodeling their store, but can't afford to pay for more employees? The Penney's store in our local mall was just remodeled, and in the process they eliminated several customer service stands. I had to stand in line for ten minutes today to pay for two items, along with five other people waiting to purchase items. I can't imagine what it's going to be like at Christmas time. Ten minutes isn't really that long, except, you would think if they can remodel their store, they can afford to PAY people to work in the store. It probably wouldn't have taken nearly so long if one of the customers hadn't decided that she needed to save 15% by using her JCPenney's credit card, which she swore was in her name, but she didn't have with her. As it turns out, it was in her husband's name, so he had to come and show his i.d., then they realized it had been canceled, BUT (!) no problem (!) they'd just open another account. Simply fill out the application, show your i.d., AGAIN, and they'll make a quick phone call and get it all set up. Several weeks ago, I was there shopping for drapes. When I asked the lady at the desk in the drapery department for some help, she told me she only sold CUSTOM draperies, and I needed to find someone else to help me. I finally found someone in the bra department who pulled out a catalog and tried to help me. Furthermore, WHY does Penney's have a beauty salon? I mean, really, how often when you wanted to get your hair done have you said, Hmm..I know, I'll go to Penneys, I know SO many people who have gotten such GREAT haircuts there!

Maybe I'm just bitter after my experience with the bed.

Seahawks

Arghahghahghghghg!!!!!

have they EVER played SO BAD????

Sad

Today I am going to a memorial service. It's for a little girl, just 15 months old; the granddaughter of a dear friend of mine. This is the 7th time in the last 4 years that a friend of mine or my children has lost a child, ranging in age from 1 day to 28 years. It is impossible for me to understand the reason for all of this, it is also heartbreaking and terrifying. I don't want to go, but I'm going to go anyways. Because it's the right thing to do. Because I love my friend, and want to help in any way that I can, even if that's only just being there.

The farm

When I was a little kid we lived in a very small town in Iowa. Durant, Iowa to be exact, population at the time: 1,500. Our high school had around 300 kids in it, 75 of whom were in the marching band. It was a town of mostly German immigrants and their descendants. My grandparents, having immigrated to the United States in the 1920s, were on their way to settle on the west coast and never made it past Iowa, if I remember the story correctly.

This small town is surrounded by farms and in school there was a mixture of farm kids and town kids. We lived in the middle of both worlds; living on a farm for awhile and eventually moving into town. Riding the school bus when we lived on the farm was an adventure...we would see the dust it kicked up long before we ever actually spotted the bus. My parents didn't actually own the farm, we just rented the house from the owner, who was retired, while his son farmed the land. Our walk to the end of the driveway was short and on cold, snowy days we could stand in the kitchen or living room and look out the window to watch for the bus. When we saw it down the road at the bottom of the hill leading to our house, we would grab our books and run out to catch it. We had it easy, though. Often times the farm houses were built down a "lane" off the main road and those kids had to walk/run what seemed like up to a quarter mile sometimes, in order to get to the end of their driveway to catch the bus. Maybe it wasn't as far as it seemed at the time, because we were little kids back then, but it sure seemed like some of those lanes were pretty long; especially in those cold, Iowa winters. Sometimes the moms would drive the kids to the end of their lanes and sit in their cars so the kids could stay warm until the school bus came. If you missed the bus and your mom or dad wasn't too busy, they could usually drive you down the next road and catch the bus at a neighboring farm.

Bill, our bus driver, was a little crazy and often flew by our house without slowing down, only to slam on his brakes as he would see us running out to the road. One of our neighbors had a St. Bernard that was deaf and partially blind. The dumb dog would run alongside the bus, but wasn't able to judge distance very well and was hit by the bus on more than one occasion. He would bounce off the side of the bus and take off running, only to be back the next day. It was a good, simple life for a kid. We only lived on that farm for a year, maybe two, but I loved it.



Psalm 65:9 (NIV)

You care for the land and water it;
you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
to provide the people with grain,
for so you have ordained it.

Ironing

Does anybody iron anymore?
When I was a kid my mom taught me to iron by starting out with handkerchiefs.
From there, I moved on to pillow cases and sheets, and then, finally to shirts, pants, etc.
I distinctly remember my mom standing in the basement of our house in Wildwood, Illinois, shaking water from a bottle with a cork in the top, punctured with little holes, onto my Dad's shirts and pants, then rolling them up, and getting them ready to iron.
I've never really liked ironing very much and avoid it as much as possible, except when it comes to handkerchiefs. For some reason, I really like to iron my hankies and bandanas and sometimes I still iron my pillow cases. I leave the shirts to the cleaners most of the time, though. Light on the starch, please!

Rant

WHY is it that my EX-son-in-law is in Mexico on vacation, for the 4th year in a row, while he owes my daughter over $8000 in back child support, which he refuses to pay. Coincidentally, she has not had a vacation in six years.

Someday

I wish I knew how to knit. It's one of those things on my "someday" list. I used to crochet, but I wasn't very good at it. It took so long to get anything made and nothing quite turned out the way it was supposed to. I see lots of blogs on the internet written by people that love to knit, and there's something about a pair of knitted socks that just looks so cozy!

I love to sew, but have had very little time the last decade or so! lol I bought my sewing machine over 23 years ago when my daughter was just a newborn baby. I sewed almost all of her little dresses. Lately I've been working on catching up some of my mending so my sewing machine has been getting some use, although not a lot. Still, it feels good to actually use it. I'm hoping now that I have all these grandbabies, maybe my machine will get used a lot more in the next few years. I even looked at new sewing machines at JoAnn's the other day...I kinda wonder if the feeling I had was anything like what my hubby feels when he looks at new electronics!

Self-employment

My husband and I own several small businesses and we also have some real estate investments. We have purposely invested in several different businesses, rather than putting all of our eggs in one basket, so that should things go south in one area, we don't lose everything.

My husband has been self-employed for most of our married life, and while that has been a blessing for us, it's also made some things in our life difficult. We have only taken one two-week vacation in the entire time we've been married. We seldom get more than one week of vacation a year. We have only had two pay raises in the last fifteen years. We have had one income tax refund in approximately twenty-five years, which totaled about $60 if my memory serves me right; but, we've been audited three times. My husband works an average of 10-12 hours a day, down from his average of 16 hours a few years ago, and it's not unusual for him to have to go in to work on Saturday for a couple hours. We pay for all of our own health insurance, (plus our employees) and have not had dental or vision coverage since I quit working for the State of Washington twenty-five years ago, when I was pregnant with our first child.

My husband says he wouldn't have it any other way. After having been self-employed for twenty-six years, he says he could never work for anyone else. He loves being accountable to no one and making all of his own decisions. His office is literally just minutes from our home, and he always says if he had to commute he would go crazy.

I, on the other hand, often wonder what our life would have been like had he continued working for someone else. Our entire lives are wrapped up in our businesses. I would love to leave this town and move somewhere else, yet realistically that will probably never happen, as it would probably take years to divest ourselves of our business and real estate holdings. I long for a simple, peaceful, country life, free of the stress and drama in this small (I'd like to say God-forsaken) town, and I'm not sure that's ever going to happen. My hope is that perhaps some day we can both have what we want...my husband, his businesses, and me, a home in the country, somewhere away from this small-minded community.

Grateful

Things to be grateful for today:

1. I got to see my granddaughters! Well, 3 of the 4, anyway. The youngest was sick with the flu, which seems to be going around. After not having seen them since June and having a bad week of missing them terribly, I was thrilled that their mom let me see them today, even if it was for only fifteen minutes. Oh, how they've grown!

2. Making plans to attend the Women of Faith conference in Portland next weekend with some of my friends. Yea, for a weekend AWAY!

3. A spur-of-the-moment trip to Cash and Carry to get supplies for our laundromat. Seems silly, I know, but I always get excited when I get to be involved in our business.

4. Time spent with my son-in-law, talking while driving, giving me a much better insight into his life.


Psalm 107:1 (NIV)

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Simplicity

Last night was interesting. My son and a friend were at the house and wanted to watch a movie they had rented, along with my husband. It took no less than 20 minutes for my husband to get the movie started. All his new-fangled equipment made it so complicated and difficult to start the movie. I, in the meantime, went into our bedroom, popped a movie in the VCR, turned on the TV and went to bed. Took me a total of thirty seconds. Ha! Simplicity rules.