another busy one...

 

I got to play with (babysit) Wulf and Tennyson for an hour or so in the afternoon.  Chasing a two year old around the playground is great fun, thankful I can still manage it.  Tennyson is very good about maintaining contact, he'll yell, "Grandma! Grandma!", whenever he can't see me from the climbing tower or whatever, it does sound more like Hamma, and it's adorable.  Wulf can swing all by himself, and told me he was taking a nap on the swing.

We worked on the house for a bit, takes so long to accomplish anything some days.  This is the floor of the little side porch:

I look at that and see the promise, cleaned up and painted a nice light gray...I'd love to do white, but...probably shouldn't.  The outer inner walls of this porch were raw plywood, and one of the windows is broken.  Darius helped Paul get a start on putting up a new wallboard, it will have all new trim, and a new pane of glass in the window.  

The new wallboard looks so much better.

A few weeks ago, Darius helping.  He's an actual carpenter, knows what he's doing.

This door that leads to the porch, we are reabilitating it, saving it, giving it a new lease on life.  I love it, love the old door handle...Paul filled in all the holes, and sanded it down.  We'll spray paint that original handle, and prime and paint the door...oh, and get new glass for it.  There is some satisfaction in seeing the results of hard work, transforming things.  It's not like the tv shows, and our budget is pretty slim.  

We want it neat and clean and livable, we want to give someone a nice home.  It's kind of discouraging though, one of the other places we fixed up so lovingly, and so perfectly, the renter just trashed.  He stopped paying rent, and left a mess behind.  It took us weeks to get it back in order.  We have three rental houses, one is rented, then this one, then one more in which the people have not paid in over a year.  We will probably never break even, due to unseen circumstances, way beyond our control, but we are trying to   at least get our heads above water.  

Life doesn't always go the way we think it should go, but what can you do about that?  We get to decide that part, how to move on, how to deal.  Holding grudges, having bitterness in your heart is a wretched way to live, and it won't be fun on that day of standing before God.  Life here is really such a vapor, but it's also a bountiful gift.  When you lift your head, and live with eternity in view, things aren't so heavy and important anymore, they're just trials...sent by a loving Father, who knows exactly what we need.  Let it go, forgive and forget, move on, bless the others, seek approval from only God, and you'll have such a happy life.    

thanking God for Friday....

 What a beautiful day, sunny and warm, like summer came back for a little visit.  Yesterday afternoon, we had some nice surprise sunshine.  We had gone to Kohl's, because I had $15 in Kohl's cash, which I had used to buy three towels, making them free, with the 30% off and all...but I didn't pick them up on time.  We decided to stop in just to see what they had.  Sonja found nice black shorts, and a sweatshirt.  I bought Declan a few things for his birthday (he's one year old!), and it was only $26.  

Anya, Elise, and Declan...my son Benjamin and his wife Ashley are are their parents.  

Anyway, we also went into Target for chicken, seltzer, two $5 t-shirts for the girls, shampoo & conditioner, and some cleaning sprays.  (I love lavender Method, and it was 15% off).  A quick trip to the library, then home...ahh, home.  It was so warm and sunny on the deck, I changed into my sundress, put my feet up, and ahhh...so nice.

Sonja K. and Sunny.  Sonja has lots of work to do, graduation is next month!

Camille...she hasn't been sleeping well, with this giant Robot Leg, as she told Achilles it was.  It hurts a lot during the night, she's been much more active during the days, and it's still healing.  She didn't look very comfortable out there, but said she was fine.  

We are enjoying the new $75 furniture, we really are.  It's so comfy.  

I'm headed the pool in a few minutes, then I'm headed up to Oswego to watch Tennyson and Wulf for a bit.  Then I'll be working on the house we're fixing up, with Paul.  I need to give those cabinet ends a coat of paint, they've been primed. I need to pickup gallon of paint from the paint store, too, for the trim on the porch.   We have to clean and paint the porch boards too, not sure if I can do that with my wonky back...unless I sit down and scoot and paint.  oh dear.  Keep in shape, girls.  Do your push-ups and planks, keep that flexibility.

I'll be leaving in two minutes, so goodbye for now, and have a really nice day.  

cloudy with a chance of...

meatballs.   Yesterday was Meatball Day.  A random chilly Wednesday, 35 degrees on the drive to the pool, full white-out snow on the way home, a good day for meatballs.  Grace was coming over with Grant and Ruth, because Sam had Wednesday night class.  Kathryn and Darius were coming over with Achilles and Rhys, and little Jamison, then Margaret came over with Wulf and Tennyson because Adrian was in class.  Then of course Paul and I, and Sonja, Charlotte Claire, and Camille were here.  

Meatballs:  one giant package of 88% beef from Costco, almost seven pounds.  I always use bread crumbs, old-fashioned oats, crumbled crackers...a finely minced onion, lots of garlic powder, coarse pepper, salt, onion powder, onion flakes, four eggs.  It made 90 meatballs, I sent some home with Grace and Kathryn, there are still some for us too.  I cooked 2 pounds of pasta, and made a big pot of sauce, with jarred tomato /basil sauce, and crushed tomatoes, and a can of petite diced tomatoes, with some Italian seasoning.  

And, there were brownies...boxed brownies are pretty good, I used one box of Ghiardelli and one box of Duncan Hines, in a 13x9 pan, so they were really thick.  I didn't have any, but they were well-enjoyed.  (I didn't have enough canola oil (that stuff is vile anyway), so I used butter, that may have made them good.

Anyway.  We had a warm cozy dinner, lots of noise and running around, and lots of lively conversation.

Tennyson, bless his heart, thought these were real.  He really liked them, thought they were from outside.

I think it's because he went on a long walk with Grandpa and brought back some other wild flowers.  (Isn't he so cute?)

I got to rock Jamison a bit, and Ruth wanted to sit with me too.  She loves her baby cousin!

Auntie Sonja holding Jamison, with Rhys...

I never take enough pictures, but I also don't want to be so intrusive.  

This fine morning, this rainy dark chilly morning, Sonja, Camille, and I are going to Target. Sonja needs a few things, and we need to drop off our library books.  I don't mind getting out and about.  Tomorrow is supposed to be 80 something again, wow, I love it.  

Okay, did I miss something, or what?!  I read that in some western state, the debate is ongoing about whether to stock the boys' bathroom with feminine hygiene products. Is the world upside down?  I do have a few thoughts about the whole trans thing:

1.  I would still be nice to you, as a person, and respectful, your choices are not my business.

2.  I would hope that the people who love you and are close to you would counsel you, and suggest that you are what you are, and you need to work from there to find happiness...

It seems like in this world, nothing is taboo anymore and behavior has to be more and more outrageous, nothing is even scandalous anymore, except to old prudes like me.  When I was young, even people living together before marriage was an eyebrow raiser.  

Again, I don't want to judge anyone personally.  We each have enough of our own battles to fight, our own ducks to line up, our own sin to say no to.  But when young people think that everything's okay...not so wrong...that is rather alarming.  Just because everyone is doing something nowadays doesn't make it right. My mother used to say, "Lady Jane, if your friends stuck their heads into their toilets, are you going to do it too?"  

It seems to me that what the world is lacking is hope...hope in a better future, hope in a peaceful eternity, hope in God.  (Another South Korean pop-star has died, no foul play suspected, another suicide.  My girls are really really saddened by this. What a mess! )

Ah well, the girls are getting ready to go and here I sit, digressing on topics no one wants to think about.  Some things really are like The Emperor's New Clothes though...but enough for now...this old stick-in-the-mud has to go change into bye-bye clothes.  

I flunked Costco....

 Okay, I didn't blow the entire budget, but jeepers, they get you.  It's not my fault I found two pairs of shorts that actually fit me, for $7.99 each, and a nice Calvin Klein jacket for twenty bucks, in my very favorite color, a nice shade of green.  (I always thought blue was my favorite, but this is so nice)

And these made it into the cart:

Do not buy them.  Three pounds of irresistible bliss.

This picture made me laugh my head off, because they're just so cute.  They had a sample of something that had chocolate, a granola bar I think...they were waiting with me at a table, because why not get some lunch at Costco when the hot dog and drink are only $1.50?  (Rhys has the extra diaper-bag outfit on, because she had fallen asleep in the car seat and her bottle leaked all over the cuteness she was wearing.). Here's the sweet thing though:  Lots of older people seem to eat there in Costco, and they would smile at the kids.  This one old couple kept smiling at them, then the man came over and said how cute they were.  This man looked...not to be mean, but a little...scary.  He had a wandering eye, and he was very old.  But when he stood there and said hello to the kids, they gave him mega-watt smiles, full on joyous greetings, and just made his day.    It was so very sweet.

So Costco...it was too much fun. I was rumpling through the piles of these cute skorts, only $9.99, looking for...xxl, there were only smalls and mediums...this nice little tiny lady who worked there came over to offer assistance, and to minimize the wreckage of her neat little piles, although I was being careful.  She asked me what size I was looking for.  I wanted to say, "What size do you THINK I'm looking for, look at me!"

I bought the dozen pack of croissants, and frozen pierogis, and a bag of chicken wings.  I bought a new swim trunk/shirt/sun hat set for Achilles, and one for Grant.  

Oh dang...gotta go, to water aerobics!!!! oops...late!

when it snows on the tulips....

 ....I'm eyeing the red tulips that just bloomed, thinking to lop some off to enjoy in here before they freeze tonight.  I just got back from bringing Charlotte Claire's lunch to school, a luxury the older kids wouldn't have dreamed of. Well, maybe occasionally, but they knew I would have to put all the at-home kids in that 15 passenger van...so they didn't forget things very often. I had just read an interview with Dave Ramsey, about parents supporting their adult children.  He mentioned helicopter parenting, coddling, not letting kids suffer consequences of their actions and therefore not learning from their mistakes.  I had JUST read the article when I got the text from Miss Char.  But I couldn't let her go hungry!   :)

This fine 40 degree rainy day, I'm going to Costco with Kathryn.  I don't know what she needs, but you always find something you didn't need in Costco, and usually in the huge-0 pack. I am already telling myself to avoid the chocolate covered almonds. They come in a jumbo plastic bin, and are fresh and crunchy and the milk chocolate is just right.  You get a sugar rush, a dopamine hit, and general satisfaction with a handful of those.  But, all that has a cost, and one can't properly weigh the cost, once those deadly little nuggets are IN the house.  

Costco has good clothes.  My nice snuggly winter coat was only $12.99, and they had joggers for cheap, really comfy ones. They have different things on special at different times, of course, and if you're not careful, you'll blow your monthly budget in one fell swoop, because each thing you put in your cart is over ten bucks.  The cash register Rude Awakening at Costco is REAL.

Yesterday afternoon, Paul and I headed up to the house we are working on.  I primed the new cabinet ends he put on, and primed the window frames on the little porch, along with one of the doorways.  It's an old house, and the doorway edgings and window edgings are lovely, the outside ones, and a few of the inside ones are still intact, although most have been replaced.  It has character, but also slant-y floors and tilted ceilings.  Emily ripped the old carpet from the stairs, and sanded them. Paul painted them, gray on the top and white fronts.  They don't look bad, better than the carpet.  All the floors have new LVP, and all the walls have been repainted, as well as the ceilings.  New light fixtures, mostly new trim, "new" stove and refrigerator (really nice ones from Marketplace!), ect.  We've replaced some doors, painted them, and replaced some heat registers, spray painted one so far.  The outside needs the trim repainted, and the front porch needs painting, as well as some boards replaced.  I'm working on the little side porch, it needs the floor cleaned and painted.

I actually like doing this work, but my back has to be babied.  There's something that catches when I lean over, and I have to be careful.  It's hard to remember, so I usually remember by forgetting, ha.  I sit in a chair when I paint low things, instead of leaning over.  I feel like a drama queen, but ha, I think I AM a drama queen.  I can't help that everything hurts!  Standing on the step stool/ladder thing when I'm painting up high, ugh, don't like it, but...I survive.

Anyway.  I won't go help today because I have Activity Club....Lydia is coming over and going with me!  

Off I go, to not buy chocolate covered almonds....

Sunny yawning...

(just because they're dopes, so cute)

welcome SPRING!

April showers DO bring May flowers.

The umbrella has seen better days...I never even put it away for the winter because it was so bent, I knew I would be replacing it.  It has a big rip too, but we got some years out of it. I don't want to put the brand-spanking new Aldi one up yet...until it gets really nice again.  And the toys strewn around:  they add a certain we-have-grandkids look, it's all the rage.

This forecast is as dismal as last week's was fabulous.  But, at least it's not snow.  

I started this post this morning, then went to the pool.  Oh, was nice.  Splashing and moving and laughing with the old people, it's a good time.  

This afternoon, Paul and I are going to work on the house we're renovating.  We're painting some doors, and I'll be painting the ends of the kitchen cabinets, as he had to replace the boards on them.  I scrubbed spray painted one of the heat registers, it looks brand new.  The finishing details are plentiful, but it's so nice to be in the home stretch...we're too old for this!  

Ah well, for right now, a cup of Peet's medium roast, a pour-over, with a splash of cream, in my comfy chair, as the birds sing and the sun tries to peek through the clouds...ahhh.  
 

still pretending....

 April, you say?  86 and sunny, not a cloud in the sky? The birds singing, the splash pool filled on the deck?  Bare feet and sunburnt?  Pitchers of cold brew coffee, and buying bags of ice?  hmmm.  Sounds like a dream come true, a dream that we're all going to wake up from tomorrow...when the sun hides back where it belongs, in April in Central New York, and the rain comes back.  Oh, it'll get warm again.  But not THIS warm, for a while. We just skipped spring and went right to summer, like a little gift.

There's this thing called Marketplace.   It's like Craigslist, but better. It's addictive to scroll through, and anything you ever consider buying,  you can check there first.  If you buy something new in the store, you buy it knowing you could've gotten it cheaper on Marketplace.  When something good goes on, you had better claim it quickly, too.   I think to say that I haunt Marketplace would be just a tiny bit of an exaggeration, but I do scroll through it frequently.  I'd love new living room furniture, but it's so expensive, and I'm super picky, and it's something I hesitate to buy used.  It has to be just right, not very old, not very used.  Our coffee table is from Marketplace, I really like it.  Anyway...

On Friday, Paul was up in Oswego working on the house we are fixing up.  He had to meet the guy from the power company for an inspection.  I was home scrolling through Marketplace, and lo and behold, a patio furniture set, for $75!  Now, in Real Life, aka in stores, you'd pay that for just one of the cushions.  A loveseat, two chairs, and two ottomans.  It's hard to tell in pics if it's really nice or not, but for $75, go for it, right?  So I sent Paul to go for it.  I asked him, ever so nicely, to drop everything and go pick this up, it just happened to be a few roads down from where he was.  The owner had several-everal interested people, but so nicely said she'd hold it for me.

Anyway.  I hosed it down, sprayed it with Dawn, hosed it down again, sprayed it with carpet stain removal, hosed it down, then scrubbed it with Arm and Hammer detergent, hosed it down again.  It isn't perfect, but the frames are really nice and in good condition.  I think I'll try to steam clean it to get the rest of the stains out.  It's totally usable though.  I like it, and it's comfortable. And there, that's how you write a mini-novel about acquiring patio furniture from Marketplace. Well, I was so excited! And, I'm sitting out on the deck now instead of in my comfy chair! 

(the shadows of the trees, not stains)

  It actually came out quite clean!  And it's SO comfy!

Kathryn needed a few things from Target yesterday, and would I like to go?  um, yeah?   Camille and I accompanied her.  I pushed the cart with Rhys in the front, and baby Jamison in the back...we took him out of the car seat and carried him. He's so sweet.   Then Rhys fell asleep in the cart!

(In Target I also got some Cadbury eggs, those little candy coated chocolate Easter ones...70% off...)

(I was in the middle of hosing off the "new" patio furniture, and Paul said, "Let's go get ice cream!"  I ran in and grabbed a dress, quickest thing to change into, ha )(Going to get ice cream with Paul is also driving along the back roads, so fun!)

Char drove us there, but Paul decided she wasn't driving home with her ice cream, but I think he also wanted to meander a bit)

Sonja was at the hospital all day Friday and Saturday, so it was just the four of us.

The newborn baby leaves, just unfurled, love that color green against the sky.

And so for today, we're going to keep pretending it's summer.