Ice Cream and Junk

Here I sit at the computer....

and joining me is a big ol' bowl of Neopolitan ice cream.

Mmmmm.



It's the cheap stuff, but that doesn't matter. It tastes good tonight.

With each mouthful I am very careful to move the ice cream around in my mouth just the right way, for fear that the coldness will hit one of my teeth that need desperate attention from a dentist.

The cold ice cream sliding down my throat into my stomach is refreshing. The hot and humid weather has taken it's toll on so many of us that anything cool is refreshing.

The cool breeze tonight (yes.... there was actually a cool breeze!!!) at Jared's baseball game was SO cool and refreshing that I actually got chilled! Can you believe that? I had to go to the car and get my jacket. I sat there thanking the Lord that I actually had to go and get it! The Wellington air is almost always fresh; but in the last few weeks with that humidity, the air wasn't much different than here at home. That's very unusual for Wellington.

('Scuse me while I take a bite of my melting ice cream.......)






Rain is predicted for the next few days. It will help to cool things down, I'm sure; but unfortunately I didn't get the lawns cut today. Oh well.... what's a few more days, eh? Just means the mower will have to work a little harder.

The last few days have been filled with me trying to "get organized" here in the house.

When you live with your "junk" "stuff" for so long, I think you don't even notice it. You just work around it. After being in hospital with Blake, I come home and the "stuff" just sort of jumps out at me.

I feel that way right now about my office. It used to be the boys' toy room. We converted it to an office a few years ago, and I gave away many of their "baby" toys. The closet, however, is still full of some things, and this week I have tried spending a few hours sorting.

I have been extremely successful and am proud of myself for giving many things the ol "heave-ho". Not to the garbage bin, of course; but rather putting it in boxes; then I will be calling my sisters and saying, "Get over here and get what you want before I put it out at the edge of the road with a big FREE sign."

Oh I did that last year and it felt sooooooooooooooo gooood!!!! The stuff we had wasn't bad enough for the dump, but wasn't anything we were using here, or else the boys had outgrown it; so I thought, "Why not GIVE IT AWAY?". I couldn't believe how happy people were to receive things for free.

I thought about having a yard sale and giving half the proceeds to an organization, such as Samaritan's Purse; but I couldn't imagine sitting outside all day for days on end, watching for "customers". I felt led to "give it away", and that's what I did. I had over eight small and large tables FULL of "stuff", along with numerous coats and snow suits..... oh it felt so good to watch people put it in their vehicles and drive it away.

When last summer was over, I only had one small box of items that were left. I decided to set them out again this year rather than send them to the dump. I also had only one small garbage bag of things that I sent to the dump.... some stuff had gotten rained on and was mildewed. I think that's pretty good for eight whole tables!





(Mmmmm.... my ice cream is gone now.... I've been sneaking bites in between paragraphs. It was deeeeelightful!).






Back to my office..... the closet is likely going to be as full when I'm done as when I started; but at least the stuff we don't use anymore will be gone. I'll be replacing the empty shelves in there with stuff that's been stacked up here in the office.

I had three boxes of books in that closet and I've weaned them down to one. One box I will keep; one box is going to the roadside for 'give away', and one box is going to the recycling centre.

On the floor of the closet is a whole bunch of remote control items that the boys have received over the years. They either don't work, need batteries, or just aren't interesting anymore for the boys. I'm sure my nieces and nephews will enjoy them. My one brother-in-law is good with electronic stuff, so maybe he'll be fixing some of these items so his kids can use them.

I've got lots of paperwork to sort through as well...... I keep so much stupid stuff. It doesn't seem stupid at the time, but after twenty years you look at it and you think, "What in tarnations did I keep THIS for????".

It's funny, eh? Things that were so important to us at one time..... now it's just junk. And why does it take us so long to realize that?

I heard a good quote the other day from Everyday Cheapskate: "BUY WHAT YOU NEED, WANT WHAT YOU HAVE".

Oh I wish I had heard that one many years ago! I'd be cleaning less junk stuff out of my house! hahaha

Well, I've spent enough of your time blabbering on about nothing at all. Just felt like sharing all that with you, I suppose.

Blake has spent the last few days visiting my parents just up the road a few kilometers. He's feeling much better. Still experiencing some back pain, for some reason; but the Remicade is doing what it's meant to do and healing up those intestines. It's so good to hear him laugh again.

I thought the other day that perhaps Blake's face looked swollen.... then I realized he was just actually putting his weight back on! hahahahahaa. His cheeks looked so chubby. A few weeks ago I thought, "If he doesn't start gaining weight soon, I'm gonna have to go to the toddlers clothing section and buy him some underwear!" hahaa

Jared already went through his closet and gave Blake a couple of pairs of summer shorts that he [Jared] had outgrown. But they're still too big for Blake.

Wannett said she'd go through some bags of clothing that I gave her a loooong time ago (clothes that were too small for my kids now but her kids would grow into them). She said, "There must be some shorts in there, Blake, that will fit you!" hahaha.

It won't be long, though, and our oldest boy will be a pork chop once again. (Sorry, Blake, forgot that you can't eat pork! hahahaha)

OK, folks, I need to bring this post to a close because I'm just ramblin' on.

Maybe tomorrow, if I have the chance.... after finishing off that closet..... I will write a post about my new great niece. Yes, that's right. I'm a great aunt. Too young, of course, to be a great aunt [snicker]; but extremely proud. That's all the details you're getting for now.

Now go scoop yourself a big ol' bowl of ice cream... and enjoy!

Creepy Crawlies

Today was lawn cutting day. And "I" cut the lawns! I cut our own property as well as our neighbour's lawns. It's something I enjoy doing, despite the fact that, after four hours of cutting, I'm filthy and my back & neck hurt from all the jolting and bouncing around because of uneven ground.

But, I still enjoy it because I like the gratifying feeling when it's all done! (I like straight lines and no big hunks of grass laying in the lawn! I'm particular that way.)

However, today I was a little grossed out with some 'characters' that I came in contact with.

To begin, the humidity here is extremely high, so it feels like everything is sticking to you. Cutting under trees is really becoming annoying this time of year because, as the title indicates, the Creepy Crawlies are out! I thought I might share some pictures of these creatures that I found on the internet. But let me assure you, I DID come in contact with these creatures today.

So this is what I ride around on for four hours every week: (This is not a photo of our John Deere tractor, but it's very similar.)

My first Creepy Crawlie was a fellow that looked like this:

He was stuck on my shirt and I tried to flick him off, but he was literally stuck to my shirt. So I had to grab him and pull him off, and when I DID, he STUCK TO MY FINGERS....... [insert scream here with hairs on my back standing on end!] Grrrrrrrross!!!!!! Yucka!!!!!!!!!! Freaked me out.

Then I came into the house for lunch. I asked Jared to check my back for any Creepy Crawlies. He said there were not any. Two minutes later I feel one of THESE little guys crawling on my lower leg:

... a little tiny inchwormy-thing-a-ma-bopper. Again..... YUCKA! [Good checking Jared! .......said typed with MUCH sarcasm!]

So I eat my lunch and head back out for some more cutting. About half an hour later, lo and behold, one of THESE guys is crawling on my foot:

It normally wouldn't have freaked me out because I usually wear my sneakers while cutting the lawn; however, today I wore my sandals to get a bit more of a tan on my feet...... so Mr. Danny Long Legs was crawling on my foot and he BIT me! I didn't know Danny would bite, but he does! Yucka! So I killed him! (Now it's supposed to rain, right?)

Of course, grass cutting would not be complete without your wonderful army of mosquitoes sucking the very life right out of you!

When I was a little girl, I remember them only coming out at night! NOW they are out all day long! Sunshine, rain, cloudy, humid, hot, cool, dark,.... doesn't matter the weather conditions.... although I do find they don't bother much with me on a windy day. Bring on the wind!

So, what creature is left? How about this one........

Yes, good ol' Mr. Fly. However there are so many species of these guys, I don't know which kind he was, but he was very annoying. Landing on my legs, buzzing around my head....... leave me alone! I'm cutting the lawn!

The only creatures that didn't bug me today were the barn swallows. They usually get upset and will dive right at my head while I'm out cutting. But they were no-shows today.

So when all is said and done, after squashing the Creepy Crawlies or tossing them in the air because they're stuck to my finger, again... yucka!, it feels good to see what I got accomplished. Here's a portion of the area that I cut: (it's a view from our back yard)

Photo of "Found Estates" - taken Summer 2008

No more Creepy Crawlies on me today......

...... but rest assured, they'll be waiting for me NEXT week! YUCKA!

I'm Baaaaaack.......

I'm baaaaaaaack..........

and I have very much missed the opportunities of making posts to this blog! I can't believe it's been over two weeks! I have been so extremely busy.



I need to get some batteries for my camera and then I need to download some photos to the computer so I can show you what's been going on in my life.



I've spent the last couple of weeks at a construction site working with my husband and his friend. Sometimes I amaze myself as to how tough I really am. hahahha.



I also have lots of photos of my youngest son, Jared, at his Grade 8 graduation last week. He was soooo handsome. My niece, Carley (my sister and I call her "Margaret"), graduated as well from the same school as Jared. She looked so pretty. I just about cried because my babies are all done at Athol Central Public School. boo-hoo-hooooooo. Time goes on, life changes, I get older! What's up with THAT?



So, I really need to get to some household chores. I have a messy kitchen to clean up and need to get rid of some laundry that's on my bed waiting to be folded. I'm covered in dust from the construction site (today was our last day at that location, the demolition part is finished), and I just want to clean up and get comfy in my pajammies. Mikey and Jonny and Jakey & Jarey are all sitting on the deck (I can't imagine they'll be there for too long.... mosquitoes will be moving in shortly!), and Blake is at a Bible Study at the church. I splurged on pizza tonight for supper because we didn't get home until well after 6pm and there was nothing in the fridge to eat. Oh man, that pizza tasted great.



Let me wish all of you a Happy Canada Day for tomorrow (which reminds me...I'd better get a flag put up outside!). I think Jon & Mikey will likely go to work for part of the day. I'll stay home and see if I can get the floors swept and some laundry done and then Blake & I are supplying music for a friend who is singing at a Canada Day celebration in the evening.



So hopefully you should have some interesting posts to read coming up soon. I just hope I remember to buy batteries for that camera! Probably I can somehow insert the memory card into the computer, but I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Danielle? Why isn't my card the same as yours???? Technology = confusing.



Have a happy holiday everyone.

Laundry Mountain

There will be NO EXCUSES today for not climbing Laundry Mountain. I have slacked at it for over a week now, and I can't stand it any longer.

This is how it begins:

These items are supposed to go in here:


Add a little of this:

And THIS is what you should end up with:

Actually, I usually don't have too much of a problem getting the laundry to this point. However, getting it to it's proper destination is usually a problem.

So, the kids are searching the piles of clean laundry to find something to wear. Why can I not just put it in their dressers and closets after it comes out of the dryer???

Maybe if I had a closet like THIS, I'd be more inspired.

Naaaah, I doubt I'd be any more organized. But if I WERE organized, I'd have more time to play with my laundry and do things like THIS:

I can't get the clothing simply folded and put away; so, honestly, how on earth does someone find the time, or even the idea, to come up with this kind of stuff??????

'

So, I'm posting this, then heading to Laundry Mountain. I WILL succeed. I WILL conquer the Mountain. I WILL fold and I WILL put away.

'

But then I think of this quote:

“I believe you should live each day as if it is your last, which is why I don't have any clean laundry, because, come on, who wants to wash clothes on the last day of their life?” Anonymous

'

[sigh]

'

OKaaaaaaay.... OKaaaaaaay.... I'm going! I'm going!