Hassle

Please forgive the delay in new posts. The problem isn't lack of material; I'm fairly sure I'm just experiencing an id10t error. That means "user error". That means me!

I don't speak computer. My brain tends to run like a spider web or a fiber optics still. Computers are happy to find things for you provided you tell them what you're looking for and where to look. Alas (and at the same time thank goodness) my laptop can't seem to read my mind when I'm yelling that I want it to upload the pictures I just imported so that they could be added here. Then I realize that I just did that process while in the Guest User designation on my own computer, which means that everything will be lost when I log out and log into my own account. The reason I didn't get into my own account in the first place is because Damon is working on his Honda project for school and has several tabs open that he/I don't want to have to re-find. Ugh. Technology strikes again.

In the meantime, I'll try to figure out what to do about the photos I have from the art show for which Carrie entered both drawings and pottery, the first of three karate black belt tests, random Ohio sunrises, and our feathered friends at the feeder. 

That will go down around picking Liam up early from school to whisk him to the orthodontist because part of his let's-bring-your-lower-jaw-forward appliance came unglued on one side, and the laundry and grocery shopping and spring cleaning attempts and so on and so forth. I've already run around like a chicken with its head cut off this morning, trying to find items which will be dropped off at school when I hang out with my first graders on Friday morning. For each thing I found, there was something next to it that didn't belong there, so I played one of a mom's most often played games: Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me. Thank you, Mike Wazowski. If you have no idea what I'm talking about and need a tangent, click here and you'll understand my brain a little better. Maybe. I claim no credit for the Disney/Pixar/Billy Crystal/John Goodman brilliance; all I did was copy and paste the link. 

Anyway, I'm trying to round up clothes and shoes to be donated at the school, old sun- and eyeglasses to be dropped off at a business downtown close to where I'll also be donating used books; in general, I'm all over the place. To make things that much funnier, as I'm rummaging around to find old glasses, a handle of my great-grandmother's end table fell off. After three vain attempts to put the darned thing back together by hand, I realized I needed a screwdriver, which also was not where it belonged as it had migrated into the not-quite-put-back-together fireplace room. Found it, fixed the handle, found the glasses, thought, "I should be uploading pictures while I do all this since that takes awhile..." and here we are. Stuck. 

Now the dryer is done. Oy. Round three, ding ding!

Spring fever

I keep hearing Michael Franks singing in my head about, "April is not the cruelest month..." but my brain keeps changing it to "Feb-ru-ary's the cruelest month..."

How can it not be spring yet? I have been drinking kegs of coffee and tons of tea and yes, the light is changing, but we still have a month of winter to go! Grrrrr! Mommee, I know you believe March is the longest, but I adamantly maintain that this ridiculous month is never-ending! It just c.r.a.w.l.s. past......... and then backs up to run you over again. 

Since returning to school from Christmas break on January 9th, the kids have had two delays which stayed delays and seven snow days. Damon has had eight, because last Wednesday the big kids went but the younger kids had to stay home due to worsening conditions. I think there's been a total of two weeks in which the kids have had school all day, every day, and one of those weeks Carrie stayed home sick for a day. Am I complaining? I think I'm complaining.

Last Monday, they had scheduled no school for Presidents' Day, the fireplace guys were here working every day of the week, and we all had karate. Tuesday, they went to school and Carrie had karate and staff training that evening. Wednesday was the day only the big kids had school, but everyone had karate that night. Thursday I was getting my IV meds during the late morning and early afternoon and Liam had a band concert that evening. Friday, blessedly everyone had school (including me, as I'm back to having first graders read to me in the hallway of the elementary school for my third year running) but Carrie didn't go because she and Dada headed off to winter camp for the weekend. I had a meeting in the afternoon, and had the boys by myself all weekend. We watched "Father Goose" on Saturday and went to church yesterday. We hardly saw Dada at all last week because he was helping lead some training at work. Saturday, I washed the walls, wiped down the furniture, then vacuumed and mopped the "library" to get rid of the stone dust which was covering everything. Damon especially loves having that room mostly open and empty because he can slide across the hardwood floor, not in his socks as his sister does, but whole body slides. Mopping was a matter of survival if he wasn't to repollinate the entire house with stone dust.

The fact that I wrote, "thank you that Feb is almost over" twice in my journaling today is telling. Zita left for two weeks in India, Janet is spending all month long in Arizona, some people went to winter camp, another friend left last week for Arizona also... clearly it is time to either go stir crazy or get out of Dodge.

So what am I doing? Perusing seeds. That's right. I realized I'm already behind schedule and am picking out garden and flower seeds. I'm also picking up sticks and limbs that are down after our ridiculous winds the last two days. Bosley keeps eyeing them as I set them by the fireplace, and I keep reminding him to not even think about it. Thankfully our power stayed on throughout and our spiffy new fireplace is working well. I don't think I can even call it spiffy as it is way fancier than that; I like it even more than I expected to! I can't wait to get the holes drilled for the curtain rods to go back up, move furniture where it belongs, and call it good. 

Usually when I'm busy I feel like time passes faster. Last week I felt like a single parent and the time just did not get the memo that it was supposed to speed up. Where is that groundhog? Someone get a message to him that spring, not summer, had better hurry it up before some of us end up on the news!

Fireplace 101

There's a meme circling around Facebook about "30 days has September, April, June, and November", yadda yadda yadda, "except January which has 937." Naturally January in Ohio is freezing at best. So, whaddaya do when one finds a two inch crack in the back wall of your fireplace? You call the fireplace experts and cross your fingers that it can be welded.

Then they politely snigger at you and inform you that no fireplace company worth their salt would weld that as it would be unsafe and that you need to replace the entire thing. 

Hello, 2019, here is our checkbook...

This is the official Before photo. Stone hearth, brick fireplace, framed photograph Dada took of me while on our honeymoon in Jamaica. Seafoam green walls. Striped curtains and curtain rods already removed because... you guessed it. #FarmhouseProject.

Yeah, all that needed to come down. 

For those of you wondering what #FarmhouseProject means, let me give you a for instance. Once Upon A Time, not quite two decades ago, a certain family had members moving back east from out west. Said movers would be living in the family farmhouse on the old homestead, essentially, and the family up the hill thought the farmhouse could use a screen door. What should have been a straightforward project turned into a humungous mess and way more work than originally thought as it was discovered that the threshold wasn't in the best of shape and, oh dear, the wood under that isn't either, and oh my, neither are the railroad ties under that, and...

"Um, what's with the six foot deep hole outside the back door?"

"We tried to put on a screen door..."

(We did eventually get the darn screen door affixed. And the hole filled. After the last of the coal from the old coal furnace was tossed out of the basement. And after discovering that not all cement blocks are the same size. True story. And a new furnace later. But anyway, back to the fireplace story.)

So the guys set up their tarp to minimize the dust flying everywhere from the fireplace demo. All the brick needed to be removed and the firebox itself had to come out. 

It works! The stone we selected to replace the brick isn't in yet, but the fireplace is functional and we're allowed to use it. Good thing too, as the Deep Freeze set in and the kids had no school for three days. Grandmama noted that the lowest temp we had with windchill was -37F. So glad we had the fireplace fixed and that it could help out the poor furnace! 

Dada saw a slab of stone he felt would be perfect as a mantel. The stone supplier initially balked as the slab was too thick to cut safely, but upon reconsidering and refiguring they managed to slice it just right. It is every bit as heavy as it looks, but unbelievably it cooperated and was placed completely level on the first try. Even the guys doing it couldn't believe it. After examining it from every angle and distance, they proclaimed their amazement and informed me, "if there's ever a tornado, just hold on to the mantel cuz it ain't going anywhere!"

 I'd decided to paint the room while it was torn apart and almost everything was out of it. Of COURSE there would be no school! Good thing Grandmama was here to keep the kids in line while I was on the stepladder...

The stone should be in sometime in the next few weeks. Then a mason and the other guys will come back and install it all. Choosing it was a harder decision than I thought it would be. The floor in the "library" is walnut, taken from the first few trees to be felled on the property originally. It's absolutely gorgeous and I didn't want anything to overshadow it. I felt a lighter stone would be more complimentary while Dada fell in love with dark stones with veins running through them. We settled on an 85/15 compromise and once that all starts up I'll be sure to document that process. I can't wait to see the whole room when it's all finished! Stay tuned.

Spring cleaning...?!

Haha, not to worry, I realize it is only January. I haven't turned over that particular leaf as a New Year's resolution. However, when you have a room mostly torn up it makes sense to give it a good scrub while the furniture is moved/covered. There will be a detailed fireplace-turned-farmhouse-project post coming, but for the nonce let's just say that along with the scrubbing, we have decided to go ahead and paint the darn "library" while we're at it. 

I asked around and got advice for both sides of painting before the fireplace project is finished and after, so we're going to go ahead and do it midway. Since Ohio has decided to become part of the Arctic Circle and it's too miserable to be outside without blubber, might as well tackle inside projects of which there is never a shortage. 

Back to my hot bucket of Mr. Clean bubbles. Spiders, you better run for cover cuz I'm on a mission!

Not It

It's not that I don't love y'all or that there is nothing to write about, it's more where-in-the-world-do-I-fit-it-in lately. 

For instance, school is back in session, so yes, I'm clicking my heels and singing praises, but that also means I'm making lunches and checking backpacks and reminding and nagging and coaxing and dragging people about. Carrie has had a humungous biology project looming since the start of the school year that was due today and she isn't home yet to grill about how it all went down. She's been on my laptop about six times as often as I have been, and it even went to school with her yesterday like Mary's little lamb. 

This morning Liam reminded me that he has online math he needs to be checking into, ideally daily so that he doesn't get behind and have a ton to do at the end of the grading period, which means he needs the computer. 

Damon just wants to be on it and finds random games to play, haha!

Bosley is ever Underfoot and a general Stupid Beagle. Australian shepherd and lab mix, my never mind! He has yet to figure out that he's to use the brain which resides between his ears to think about sounds and what they mean instead of just letting us know he hears e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. and barking about it. Insert multiple eye rolls here. Grandmama calls him Cottonball Brain. He is all reaction and no thought.

Yes, I know that I have a tiny personal, portable keyboard which connects to my phone but I got a new phone and am not seeing the version of the blog that I'm used to using- ugh, technology! I'll try to do better.

In the meantime, in protest of Winter and precipitation, I've been busy making lemon sugar cookies and the accompanying mess. 

As a tidbit of what's to come, we will be having both our roof and our fireplace replaced (separate issues) in the immediate future. There will be no shortage of A) mess, B) process, C) people tromping through the house, D) money flying out the window, E) more mess... lucky for you, that translates into blog posts! Stay tuned.

Batty Bat

We had our first bat in the house. Dada, Carrie, and I were in the living room after the boys had gone to bed and I was reading out loud from Dreamsnake when there's a fluttery poof inside the fireplace. Everyone looks at the fireplace. Then there's another fluttery poof and Dada and Carrie get up to investigate. 

Sure enough, there's a small bat stuck inside the fireplace, flapping around in the ashes. Despite being armed with a colander and a myriad of other accessories, poor small bat streaked past the helpful humans and began swooping laps around the downstairs. Dada tried to block the two story hallway so that the bat wouldn't head up towards the bedrooms while Carrie and I opened the one screenless window and the back doors. 

Several laps later, the poor frightened beastie made it back outside, hopefully a little wiser about ceiling fans, chimneys and fireplaces than he was before his adventure began. I wonder how many more visitors we'll have here at Lalaith Havens while we're here...