Monday Musings

It's been a quiet few days in my little corner of the world.  The weather has been cold, wet, and miserable.  We had snow over the weekend. Lots and lots of snow squalls.  The house got so cold we had to fire up to wood stove to get warm.

This weekend was also the final Smith College Alumni Association Used Book Sale.  Daughter and I went and bought a few books.  She bought a handful of paper backs.  I bought the three books you see on the right - the top one is the more modern book of my all time favorite Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book from 1982.  This one was published in the late 90's.  I've already found 5 recipes that we are trying out of this book this week!

The middle (blue) book is a Spanish Grammar Reader.  I got this as a present for a friend of mine.

The bottom one is fascinating!  Recipes from 10 Ancient Cultures that no longer exist!  Wow, I can't wait to try these!  I'm thinking I might put together a dinner party and ask everyone who comes to bring one of the dishes from a specific culture.  Educational, and (hopefully) tasty!

I spent a long time in a planning meeting on Sunday afternoon.  Anita Gutschick will be performing at our church on Sunday, and we are planning out the decorations - and food.  Biblical food.  This should be a hoot!  I'm really looking forward to the event.  On Friday, I'm helping to mix up some of what we'll be serving.  Who knows?  I might find something new and tasty to eat!

Skyping with the boys last night was fun.  Oldest child could get audio to work, but not video.  Middle child could see us and hear us, but had to type back his replies on the side bar.  Once again, another fun and raucous conversation with the kids!  I really enjoy these calls, and I am eternally grateful for the technology that allows us to talk with all of our kids at once.

I attended an online webinar on copyright last week.  It was free, I found out more about copyright law, and I got a chance to hear the thoughts of my peers from around the country on Fair Use.  Of all the webinars I've taken on copyright this week, this was my favorite!

Today is another cold and rainy day.  Thank goodness there's no snow!

I'm ready for spring.  How about you?

Easterm Shore of Maryland

One of my goals for this year is to catch up on my scrapbooking.  I am working on 2011 right now.  2011 was a crazy busy year, and we took a break from everything and spent a week on Maryland's Eastern Shore in the Neck District.  I was looking at the pictures today, and I have to share them.  It's such a beautiful place!  Unfortunately, it's been 5 years since we were there, so I don't actually know WHERE some of these pictures were taken other than "Eastern Shore".  Enjoy!

Lip Sync Battle with Melissa McCarthy

This has been shared a lot over social media since Monday night.  If you've seen it once, it's still worth watching again!  I love Melissa McCarthy - she is just so full of energy!

Xenia, Ohio

On April 4, 1974 a tornado destroyed Xenia, Ohio.  Absolutely flattened the town.

42 years later, I still vividly remember that day.

My Dad was stationed at Wright Patterson AFB, and we lived north of Fairborn.  Xenia was not all that far from our house.  That had been a particularly wicked couple of days for weather, with several tornado drills in the school. I remember sitting on the floor in the downstairs hallway, with the entire school, sheltered with our knees up and our hands behind our heads.  (*note here - this was the LAST day I ever wore a dress to school, or anywhere else.  Dresses in the 70's were short.)

School let out at 3:00, and I remember walking home with friends, looking at the odd color of the sky.  The clouds were weird, too, chasing each other around in circles as things looked more and more ominous.  We moved home faster than we'd ever moved home before, and stood outside for a while, watching the clouds.  Suddenly, Moms everywhere popped out of houses and started screaming at us to get inside.  "RUN HOME NOW" was the predominant theme as the clouds began forming funnels. 

I ran inside and turned on the television.  I remember watching the footage of the "hook" on the radar, as the weather guy attempted to pinpoint where this thing was going next.  It was frightening to an 8 year old. 

Word quickly came out that Xenia had been destroyed.  People had been killed.  We drove through town over the weekend - and I remember the devastation.  It was horrific.

What made the devastation even worse was that there was no real advance warning on these storms.  A tornado warning meant that someone had spotted a funnel cloud in your area.  No tornado sirens, no weather alerts, nothing.

Our town installed tornado sirens that summer.  Fundraisers were held throughout May and June - picnics, bingo, and people just going door to door in order to get the money together to install tornado sirens.  I remember when the siren went in next to the fire station down the street from us.  I'm sure it's been replaced several times over since 1974, but there is still a siren on the pole next to that fire station.  (I last drove by there in 2012.) 

I have a weather app on my phone that belts out an alarm whenever serious weather approaches.  It's tied into the National Weather Service, and it helps me to sleep on nights when I know that severe weather is approaching.

With the volatile spring weather pattern beginning to build, I wanted to put this reminder out there.  Spring storms can be deadly.  Be prepared for a storm, and designate a safe spot in your house as a retreat should the weather take a deadly turn.  Make certain it's stacked with some blankets and a few emergency supplies. 

For your own peace of mind, consider investing in a weather radio, or pick up an APP for your smart phone that will alert you when wicked weather is headed your way.

Monday Musings

Monday Musings or Manic Monday?  Which one seems to fit better?  I might have to change this to musings.... that is what I tend to do on Monday mornings.  I get into a thoughtful fit after the weekend is over!

I got my hair cut last week.  On the big mirror across the back wall, one of the shampoo techs had written across the top "You are beautiful.  You are fierce.  You are kind.  You are a warrior.  You are wonderful.  You are amazing.  You are gorgeous".  Wonderful, life affirming messages that I think we all need to see and be reminded of.  All of us tend to be too hard on ourselves.

During the children's sermon on Sunday morning, the children's minister was talking to the children about relay races.  She asked the children who had run relay races before?  One of the little boys answered "I've run them!"  What happens when you run them?  "I always lose!"

We had a very impressive windstorm Saturday night into Sunday morning.  Wow - that wind was phenomenal.  Wind gusts up to 60 mph.  We had a lot of trees come down in the neighborhood - and a house in town that burned to the ground before the fire department could get there.  The wind whipped the fire up and engulfed the house within minutes.  The family was lucky to escape unharmed.

We had one of my favorite meals this week - vegetables that were cut into spaghetti strips, and fish.  I sauteed the vegetables in a little olive oil with a lot of pepper.  I fried the fish in the cast iron skillet with a lot of Old Bay.  It was a quick meal - ready in less than 30 minutes, and it was so healthy!  Spring green season is coming up fast - I'm looking forward to fresh kale and spinach! 

If you can spare some energy to toss my way, I'd appreciate it.  I've been searching for jobs, putting out resumes, and trying to find the best way to write a good cover letter, and I'm not hearing anything back from anyone.  I'm more than a little discouraged.  I'd appreciate your thoughts.  I desperately need a change of pace.

Sunset on Friday night!

Go out and conquer the world!

Thought of the Day

Believe in love.

Believe in magic.

Hell, believe in Santa Clause.

Believe in others.

Believe in yourself.

Believe in your dreams.

If you don't, who will?

-Jon Bon Jovi

Love, Dreams, Hell

Believe in love. Believe in magic. Hell, believe in Santa Clause. Believe in others. Believe in yourself. Believe in your dreams. If you don't, who will? Jon Bon Jovi
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jon_bon_jovi.html

2016 Resolutions - April Update

Can you believe it's April already?  Things are springing up everywhere here - flowers, flowers, and more flowers.  It's beautiful - unless if you suffer from seasonal allergies!  Today is also April Fool's Day.  My father married his second wife on this date in 1988.  Irony?  Who knows?

Onto my resolutions for the year!

1) Remodel the Hall Bathroom
This is the third year on the hit parade for this one.

2) Improve My Health
I'm no longer looking at just the number on the scale.  I'm looking at the big picture numbers that reflect more of my overall health.

a) Lose inches off of my waist.
My goal was to lose 3 inches this year.
I'm down 2 inches.  ONE MORE TO GO!!!  I would love to hit this marker before June 1. 

b) Get my blood pressure down into the normal-normal range.
Check up coming at the end of the month!  I'm looking forward to seeing my numbers now that I've gotten healthier!

c) Go down at least one clothing size.
This is a pretty phenomenal accomplishment.  I've spent a lot of time working this off!  I'm very proud of myself!
The next goal?  To get OUT of the plus size section and buy clothes in the "normal" section.

3) Re-start my vegetable garden.

4) Learn to pressure can.
I've since discovered that a pressure canner will not work on my glass top stove.  It's back to the drawing board while I try to figure out how to work around this problem. 

5) Daughter's Quilt
The pressure is on with this one!  She's in the Community College now, but will be heading off to a 4 year school in the fall of 2017.  The quilt needs to be finished by then!

6) Clean Out and Organize the Carport
The weather is getting nicer!  I should have this checked off the list by the end of the month!

7) Exercise Consistently
HOORAY!  I am meeting this goal!  I have lost inches, I have lost a clothing size!
Keep it up!  Keep it up!

8) Clean out 23 Things a Month
Holy cow, I never thought this was going to be as easy and painless as it has been.  I'm feeling freer the cleaner the house gets!  Getting rid of junk is a great thing!  I've tracked down people who can use these items, so not everything has just been dumped somewhere.  This month, I found both a public library friend and a teacher friend, and gave them each a car load full of stuff that they will be able to use.  I took my clothes that are now 2 sizes too big on me - and I donated them to a women's shelter.  (When women run for safety, they usually take the clothes on their backs and their kids.  Nothing else.  Hopefully, somebody will be happy to have something to wear.)

Items out of the house this month: 300
Items so far this year: 1,148
(So close to  my goal for the year, and it's only April!)
Big Black Trash Bags (total): 6


9) Participate in the NoSpenduary Challenge
I originally found this on the Frugal, Debt Free Life Blog.
We continued with the challenge through March.  We have 4 wisdom teeth being extracted in May - so we're keeping up with the challenge until after that's paid for.  It would be really, really nice to pay for that with cash!

10) Visit One Place on my Bucket List
Phase One- completed (We know where we're going.)
Phase Two- ongoing, almost finished

11) Get at least half of the CEU's I need to keep my teaching  and my library certificate.
 I worked to hard to get those certifications to just let them lapse!  It's never fun to take classes, but it's even LESS fun to have to retake all of the classes for a certificate you let lapse.  (Or worse - to retake a mandatory test.  I'm thinking of the Praxis exams.  I took the NTE's back in the 80's.  I'm not sure how well I'd do on the Praxis exams if I were to have to take them now.  Especially since it's been more years than I want to admit since I've sat in on college classes.) 

12) Scrapbooking
I need to catch up.  I know I had years that I didn't do this.  I went through all of the albums this month and found the years that I have not yet finished.  These are the years I am in search of:
2006
2009
2010
2011
2012
2015

I had a rather harsh realization this month.  2012 was the year that my iPhone crashed and died.  I had not done nearly as good of a job with uploading my photos as I should have.  Daughter took over my camera in 2011, and I switched over to using my phone exclusively.  As a result, I lost almost all of 2012 when my phone self-destructed.  Fortunately, I have some pictures that were stored on Facebook.

On the plus side, the 2012 album isn't a very big one...

Lesson learned the hard way - back up your photos frequently.  And back them up to at least 2 online 3rd party servers, in addition to your own hard drive.

13) Walk or Bike a portion of at least 6 Rail Trails
The weather is starting to get nicer!  I can't wait to get out and hit a few trails soon!  I have plans for tomorrow already!

14) Pay off the big debt and one smaller one-
The big debt is gone.  It's nice to have one monkey off my back!  Before I go to work on the smaller debt, I desperately need to rebuild the emergency savings account.  If you remember, it was depleted over the course of a dental emergency and a car repair.  We have wisdom teeth coming up, too, so building up that emergency savings now is crucial.

15) The Recipes Tab
I nicely fixed up the recipe tab so that it is easy to find recipes that I've posted on here before.  For me, this is my online recipe book.  Some of the recipes are my own.  Some, I posted direct links to other sites.  You might or might not choose to use it, but I use it on a pretty regular basis, and I've found out that one of the boys does, too.  He likes the fact that most of what I've listed is food he already loves and that everything is fairly easy to make and budget conscious.

So, how are you doing with your resolutions this year?