Spring Cleaning

Woohoo, I was able to get a LOT of my sewing/craft room cleaned up yesterday finally. That has been hanging over my head like the taxes I was able to get done this week, too, so I'm on a roll! I gathered up a bunch of little things I've collected at sales, etc, to work on for listing on Etsy. I seem to be good at stockpiling treasures and then I forget they're there and they add up after awhile. Well, now, in my "spare" time while at Grandma's, I can work on listing some of these things.
My little bunny I had made and listed on Etsy did leave home last week. He was adopted into a great home, so it wasn't so hard saying goodbye. I don't know why, but I enjoy making those and have sold a few on Etsy.
I'll show you a bed my daughter is going to sell, probably on craigslist. It is just adorable, I don't think it could be more than 2 1/2 feet wide, and is pretty short. When we found it at a sale, the lady said it was a "firemen's" bed???? Since then, we've had people tell us it could be a dorm bed?? I don't know for sure why it is, but I do know it's a lot smaller than a single bed. I just love the design, don't you? I'd probably have helped her sell it on Ebay, but I really HATE shipping big stuff. I've had awful experiences doing that. It seems like with big things, you state a shipping price, I always think it will be easier to find a box that it ever really is. You go to town at least 3 times to get it shipped. Just way to much work. But if you live close to Clatskanie, you may fall in love with this sweet little bed. I've thought it would make a darling little bench, too, but I'd never have the heart to change it! We had put it in the Vintage Winter sale we had in the old church, and have actually never moved it back into storage. At this point, it would be easier to sell it on craigslist right from where it is.
I think I've convinced my daughter of an idea I came up with. I am in desparate need to strip my house and clean it from the ceiling to underneath the fridge, stove, washer, and dryer. 10 years ago, I could rip the curtains off the walls, start them washing, and in the meantime, wipe down down the walls, wash all the knick-knacky things, the windows, the lamps, polish the furniture, wax the floors,..... You name it, I would have the place looking like a hurrican hit it, and by about midnight, I would have it all put back together, nice and fresh, knowing you wouldn't find a cobweb on the beams above, or a speck of dust on the light shades. Well, those days seem to be gone, at least for doing it in a day. So, I've talked Kristin into a proposal I had. We'll spend one whole day, with her kids and mine little ones, doing what it is that is driving her crazy. Flower beds? Outdoor stuff, indoor stuff, whatever. In trade, she will come and do a whole day at MY house. I think I've hit on a wonderful scheme, don't you? I used to think it would be awesome if ladies from my church would do this together, all get together and do something huge at each other's houses. Like putting bark dust on every flower bed or whatever. It never has happened, though. But I definitely think I've got my eldest daughter sold on this idea, whoopee!

Loving Plain, Simple, and Ordinary

Lately, I've spent a lot of time helping out with my MIL, who has experienced failing health. I keep teasing my own kids to pay close attention, b/c that's what they're going to be doing when it's my turn. I don't know how all that will work, when my turn comes, but a girl can dream, right? Actually, my kids are pretty good, I think they'll be there.
Anyway, I digress. In spending quite a lot of time with her, it's been.....a big change in lifestyle. In our home, we have internet, we have a television and dvd player, but I haven't had television reception in my home for nearly all my adult life. My kids weren't raised to watch TV. We'll watch movies, but, I sure am NOT used to having a TV on all day long. So, I now find myself sitting with her, becoming an authority on Judge Judy, People's Court, Judge Joe, Judge.......you get the picture. Are these old people shows? I do sometimes find myself enjoying it, trying to guess what the judge will decide. I've learned that you should NEVER co-sign, you should have everything in writing, you never want to co-habitat with a friend....well, stuf happens. Then, I'm wondering who will win Dancing with the Stars????? A few months ago, I had hardly even any idea what Dancing with the Stars was! I've almost figured out how to play Deal or No Deal. I know all kinds of celebrity gossip, when two months ago, I didn't even know who the celebrities were! Where have I been since the 70s?
One night, my family was out to dinner, and one of my 10 yo sons asks my husband, "How many Abbot and Costello movies were the Andrew Sisters in?" I just burst out laughing, asking Randy, "How many 10 year olds know who the Andrew Sisters are?" We hardly know anyone's name who is alive today in movies, but the oldies, yes, they do know them. My grandsons are eve into Gilligan's Island now, and Caleb (6) couldn't believe it when I told him that Gilligan's Island was a show Grandma and Grandpa used to watch as kids!
Now, keep in mind, I'm a very naive person. I used to think that movie were real life. For some reason, I never noticed that John Wayne was the same person in the next movie I watched. I used to wish I had a talking horse, or a dog that jumped out my window to go be a hero. And I was the kind of kid who drove everyone crazy because all the way through a movie I would keep saying, "I don't get it? What's this about?" Maybe they would have thought I had a little ADDHD? I confessed to my husband the other day that I used to think the wind came from trees. A few were blowing one direction, then they made the next ones down the road blow, and so on and so forth. I thought flowers on Apple trees were just a preliminary enjoyment to the next thing God was going to put on the tree. No kidding, I didn't know it was part of the growth of the apple! I am amazed at my world!
So, here I am, watching TV, at this point of my life. It reminds me of highschool when I was addicted to soap operas. BTW, Erica hasn't gotten any older since I was about 8 years old, and now I'm almost 50! What's up with that? And I think I've decided that television kinda depresses me.
One thing I've been thinking about a LOT: I love a simple life. I love cooking things from scratch. I'm sick of Campbell's soup! (that's what MIL likes!) I sooooo enjoy going into my greenhouse and pretend it's sunny out! I love the quiet of no television playing! I'm very anxious to get out in the yard and do some much needed weeding. Just simple stuff. I get a little lump in my throat when it 's my turn to take off for Grandma's, and when I leave, I get another lump in my throat, b/c for this season of life, this is how it is. I just need to really focus on thankfulness. On being grateful for what I have. I can't tell you the relief I feel when I think to myself, "This is not permanant, it is not a job!" I don't want a job outside my home! I love my family and I'm hoping Grandma gets better soon, but we are all in this together. I love living in the country, away from our small town. Indeed, it is so small that it only has one stoplight! I am almost starting to feel Amish when I get back home, after all this TV! From the pictures you can see I have my work cut out for me already at home; winter storms have wreaked havok in my yard, and it needs a lot of attention! Good therapy!

My Own Personal Secret Service Men

I thought I'd share and maybe brag a little that I have my own personal squad of secret service men. They're kinda young, but they're taking their job very seriously. My twin sons, Seth and Ethan, who turned 10 last week (wow, everyone in my family is in double digits, now!) wanted to have their party where everyone dressed as secret agents. Well, we don't have huge parties, but their cousin and 4 nephews (my little grandsons) came dressed for the part. My son's boy, Steven, has the long yellow shirt with the extra small vest. His dad told me he tried to get him dressed, and no way, he wanted to do it himself. He's 5. My other grandson, Caleb, 6, came pretty much dressed like a regular spy, but my youngest grandson, Aidan, 5, thought he'd be a spy for the fire department. There must be some corruption in our local fire department? My great nephew, Brenden, 9, joined in, after my boys kinda forced him into it. My son's, Seth and Ethan, were so excited to get everyone together. I actually have been so busy helping with my mother-in-law, that I didn't really have a lot of time to work on this, but my sons took over on their own, and had a blast.
They made their own banner, that read "Spys Welcom". Actually, I couldn't get all the detail, but they really did a good job on their banner. They love to draw, and on all the letters of the sign, they had cute little spies doing different spy things. Pretty creative!
When Randy got home, he was pretty grubby, from the house he's building. The plan was, that he would take the boys for their famous dinner, chicken gizzards and joes at our local mini mart. Yuck! But, he's got the grandsons thinking this type of dinner is the greatest now, much to their mother's delight! Before they left, he told me, "I'm pretty grubby, I need to change first". I say "What???" "Are you kidding?" You're going to worry about what you look like, when you've got six secret servicemen going with you to mini mart for dinner? He could have dressed like a clown and fit in! I made him take the camera, but since I had to go through town anyway, I ran in and got the photo with him in it with them. Good memories. They came home to get in the hot tub and splash, and then had a Gilligan's Island telethon. It amazes me that my my own kids are growing up with my grandkids. They're all good friends LOL. Life is great, and I love all my own little secret agents.

Life has it's twists and turns

Haven't had a lot of chances to blog lately. I have had lots going on, life's been different, with my MIL not doing well, trying to take my turns at helping care for her. During all this, my daughter had what she thought was kidney stones (b/c she's had that problem several times, and all through her last pregnancy). Well, she dealt with the pain for almost a week, before she became aware that she might be pregnant or miscarrying. She took the home test, and yes, the chemicals were there, but extreme pain. When she called the doctor over the weekend, they said to get to the hospital right away, and they did an emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy. Her tube had ruptured, and she had extreme internal bleeding, so she ended up with a transfusion. She found out later she had a 50% chance of making it. Needless to say, it's been a stressful time for her and for us. She's on the road to recovery. With all that's going on, I have been so thankful for my family. Appreciation and thankfulness are a theme for me right now!

But spring is coming, and soon. I refused last week to acknowledge any snow, it was just a heavy frost LOL. Or at the least, just winter's way of trying to make one last blast b/c it was losing to spring! I love spring, summer, and fall. Spring is best, b/c there's still summer and fall left, right?

I have been able to keep my greenhouse going. I have some giant lima beans outgrowing their pots, I've never tried those. Tomatoes, green peppers, cilantro, pumpkins, cukes, some flowers, but not enough. A friend told me she grew and harvested watermelons in her greenhouse; I'm thinking that be fun to try. I do enjoy the greenhouse. I went out there yesterday and just enjoyed the warmth, the sun....you just close your eyes and imagine summer!

I haven't had a lot of time for crafting. You'd think taking care of Grandma would give me some time, but somehow, I stay busy and haven't had a lot of extra time. But, I did manage to get another rabbit done. I seem to be doing once in awhile, and I've sold a couple on Etsy. I get kind of attached to them, they have a Peter Rabbit kind of look about them, don't you think?

Do You See What I See?

I love sunsets, like most people. We all have different views of the sunset. Mine, is looking toward the ocean, which is about 40 miles from home, down a valley and the Columbia River. I never get tired of the view, and each one seems just a little different. This is the one I looked at just a couple nights ago. Yes, near us is that gorgeous little house, pretty isn't it? I've always loved it. I think the Northwest is so pretty, although I admit I haven't seen a lot of other areas.
I also thought I'd share some pictures, a couple of the house my husband just built, and another couple of the one he recently started. It's actually going pretty quickly, which in our economy, is making me just a little nervous. He was supposed to build a home from a Street of Dreams model over in Washington Sate right after this one is finished, but the people aren't sure now if they want to build. Getting all the paperwork, county permits, working with the engineers, etc, takes a lot of time, so we won't know until mid spring if this house will be getting up right now. Besides me bragging LOL, about his work, he actually has never advertised. He doesn't even has his name in the phone book, and hasn't had for 15 years! People just have seen his houses and have gotten in line for one of their own. So, needless-to-say, we are wondering what we'll be doing this summer. I really don't think it's going to be advertiing so much as "who can spend the money?" right now at least. We'll see how that all goes.
I've been trying really hard to save for a rainy day, or a bad economy, you think I should? Anyway, if you've ever heard of Dave Ramsey, that's what we're trying to work on. We have jokes around here when we aren't spending money on something, or getting by with what we have, that we are on the "Dave plan". Today we had a Dave plan moment. We were getting ready for homeschool to get going, but I was still finishing some kitchen stuff. My refrigerator isn't all that old, BUT for some reason the gasket/seal on fridge door had slipped, and it hasn't been shutting very well. That makes the fridge run harder, costs more money, etc. I was frustrated thinking I'd probably have to have the repairman come fix it. But guess what we did? I went on line, found a website that showed how to replace the gasket. I thought our gasket was still in pretty good condition and didn't really have to buy a new one. I got some soap water and made sure I had it really clean. Then, following the instructions I got from the internet, one of my 10 year old twins got his tool kit out, followed the directions, finally got his older sister involved, and do you know what? He got that gasket back the way it was supposed to be. I don't know how much he saved me, but thankfully, it's fixed.
So here we are working on Heritage Studies (history) in school, and he's watching his teacher (dvd), but his mind is wandering. He's wondering if he should be a carpenter, a mechanic, a pilot, or ??? It is obvious to us that his bent is in the fix-it department, that's for sure. Whatever he does, it will be good for him to know how to fix his own stuff.

A Valentiine Gift for You

I'm so slow lately, I've

been meaning to copy some of my favorite Valentines to share with you. Here are a few from my collection. My personal favorite Valentines are from around the 50s and 60s. I just love the rounded faces of those. A lot of these are quite a bit older/not sure how old, but more of a Victorian era. The verses are quite poetic, kind of a culture shock compared to nowadays. Feel free to use these in your Valentine projects. I have a lot more that are mounted on cardstock that go on my old window hanging in my dining room, but I didn't get those scanned.

Valentine's Day has always been very special to me. It brings the kid out in me more than the sweetheart thing, although I do have very a "very fond affection for my dear love". I think part of it is I love the red color, the cheerfulness of a Valentine. I love the old paper doilies, too, although I'm not a real prissy Victorian type. It just brings me back to the days when I was in grade school and we traded Valentine's with our classmates. We would work really hard on huge envelopes that were attached to our desks on Valentines Day. Then, party day, we would all go around and put Valentines in each others envelopes. It would have been unheard of to miss someone, though I do admit to wearing out a few, reading them over and over, pretending that the boy really meant what he said in my Valentine. I never stopped to think that he probably gave all the girls the same Valentine! And yes, I always did save my favorite for my favorite boy. My mother was always my room mother! She and one or two other moms came and brought games and cakes and candies, and oh what fun we had. As I remember, my mom went to nearly every field trip I ever went on! I was always proud that she took the time to be our room mother. (In fact, before I was in school, there were some classes who couldn't get volunteers, and my mom was THEIR room mother!)
Do you watch "Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown"? I get kinda sick feeling when poor Charlie Brown doesn't get a Valentine. What kind of class room would have a party and let one kid get left out? It just makes me mad. But there is a lesson in it. There are people in our lives who are not the prettiest, not the smartest, not the most popular. Maybe other people think they're weird. Maybe THEY think they're weird! Everyone should have a Valentine, right?
I actually learned this lesson in second grade. There was a girl in our class who smelled. She didn't have cute clothes (I wasn't always crazy about my own home-made clothes or Tony home perm my mom put me in, either). I was never what you'd call "mean", but I was friends with some girls who were not really very nice. I learned a trick from them, and to my shame, I followed along. This girl would bring these star-shaped chocolate candies to school, and us "other" girls told her she had to give us some or we wouldn't play with her. I still feel bad for doing that. As long as I live, I will always remember having done this, and all my life I've made it a rule not to be that kind of person ever again. I had my share of being made fun of because of my last name. I remember being yelled by the kids on my schoolbus because I always forgot where I was and started singing when the motor would run (I still do that LOL) I know how it is to be teased, but I think it's more shameful to be one who would be so mean. My confession, LOL.

So, in an effort to make sure everyone gets a Valentine, here's my Valentine to YOU!!!!

Cleaning For Spring

No, not the in-home kind this time, but the outdoor kind. It's way past time to have my greenhouse cleaned out, but today Chantel and I went out and got all the pots stacked and sorted, the shelves swept, just general housecleaning, and NOW I'm anxious to get seeds in the ground. I had to go to town today, so got some heirloom tomato seeds and I already have some others to get into the dirt.
Here in Oregon, we've had the weirdest weather. A few weeks ago, we had record snows, then ice, then a quick thaw, and some people got flooded, and now we've been having beautiful sunny days! The whole family was out taking advantage of it today.
I didn't spend the ENTIRE day doing this though. I had to go to town to get some groceries, and happened to check craigslist for sales. I'm having withdrawals from garage and estate sales and today I did find one estate sale. One measly sale, but I found some cool things. I found some neat German maps, a Scrabble game that uses wooden dice, kinda neat, and a few other things. I love the poodle cards, and those high bidder cards are pretty neat, too. Plus, it was half price day, so that was a little extra fun. I can see beautiful things being made out of them all! Sorry the pictures didn't come out very good.

I've been doing my baking for the lady down at "Quincy Store" down the road, not a lot, but just enough to be fun and not a job. I like it. I'm needing very much to work on my Etsy shop and get some things listed. I started another embroidered rabbit which is a fun project, and my other two sold already. What else?? We're plugging away at school of course. Been spending some time visiting with my MIL, as she's not doing real well. I've got to get the whole tamale thing going so I can get the canning class going. Oh yeah, last week, the kids and I are Kristin went to a friends for getting together to do crafts, etc. I was so surprised at the work she put into the day she had planned. I never did get my handwork out! She had gone to a lot of work to make the day fun, she had us enter our names, etc, into her address book, she had some notecards with packets of seed inside. The seed packets had stickers on them and we put our names on them. Later, she had a drawing and gave out prizes! They are vegetarian, and had some really good veggie trays set out all pretty. She even made my kids a frog made out of a pickle!
I told her I felt mesmerized, she put so much work into all it. Do you get like that when someone does something really special? I feel kind of in a daze, just enjoying it all. Kinda like if I was having a message LOL. I know, I'm weird, but I love to appreciate things like that. We all sat around drooling over seed catalogs, too, which was a BIG push for me to get that greenhouse going. Last year, I started my tomatoes in February, and I told myself to start a month earlier this year.
I've been trying to budget, like in having FUN doing a good budjet, getting by on less, etc. I am seriously thinking of going to THIS Frugal Living class this week. I wouldn't ever get "really" serious about coupons, but saving a few dollars is nice. I'd like to hear the tips and tricks of serious budgeteers. Tis the season, right?
What else have I been up to? Well, I did reformat my old lap top for my kids, couldn't find my original operating system disk, ended up using a Millenium disk and upgrading with the XP, and basically, finally got it running, but now am missing some drivers, etc. So of course they're bugging me about that, but it sure is faster now! I just can't for some reason get adobe flash installed and some other things. Well, that's for a day when I have a clear head!
Hope everyone has had a great start for the year! I've got big plans and I'm sure you all do, too!