Winter is coming (nerd)

This bush was once green.... 

Fall approaches. The leaves are changing, the heavy, sweet scent of smoke and dead leaves hangs in the air.  Today was warm, but there's still that underlying knowledge that the colder days get closer.  It's nice to be in a place where the walls aren't likely to radiate cold.  (Big Guy complains that is an inaccurate term, but I disagree.  It's a perfect description for the trailer walls.  You could feel the cold winter air pour off of them, even when there were no windows.)

Hey, orang-ish ones!

In an effort to drum up more money for the home, I've thrown my hat into the tutoring ring.  Using Google, since they seem to have all the cool stuff, I designed a website and advertised on Craigslist.  We'll see what I can bring in. 

Other than the usual difficulties, we're settling in rather well.  Our oven went out, but our Landlord has already ordered a new one and it should be installed next week.  The cats seem to be handling this well too.  I was afraid Caitlin wasn't going to handle the stress of moving well, but she's handled it better than Tiger!  Caitlin got here, poked around the place, and then has settled in nicely.  Tiger, on the other hand, yowled non-stop in the car, hyperventilated when we got here, hid in our closet and has spent the days since then trying to get out of the house.

Caitlin wasn't aware Tiger was under her

Little Guy loves the house too...  But he's driving me nuts with the stairs.  He loves them.  He slides down them on his belly or he hops down them, one step at a time.  I am terrified he's going to break his neck.  Big Guy and I are still bumbling our way through boxes, one at a time.  At the rate we're going we may be unpacked by.... 2015. 

Even with the tightness of life, Big Guy and I are thrilled and happy to be moved out of Elkhart and into a house that doesn't threaten to re-enact the house scene from The Wizard of Oz.  Our library is close, we will have heat, and we always make it work.  We always do.

A simple Friday

My usual Friday plans have been interrupted by the "light dusting" of snow we were to receive.  Apparently, in Indiana weatherman parlance, "light dusting" means "huddle inside your house for warmth".  So, instead I am making more bread and we've got PBS Kids on the television for Little Guy. 

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to become more organized and manage time and money better.  The rapidly changing schedule is making it more important than ever to do so.  This month, I am working a split shift.  I teach one class in the morning and one class at night.  The week after next, however, my schedule changes for the next month.  I'll teach mornings and afternoons, leaving my evenings free.  I've been teaching nights for so long now, I'm not going to know what to do with myself.  Big Guy will get to be home during the day with our little monkey. 

If we can keep up the work we've been doing, we can survive just fine.  Big Guy and I need to take an opportunity to sit down and figure out a plan for the next few months, like what we'll do if I don't get two classes.  I've got a plan to save up money so that when the break hits, I'll be able to transfer over money to cover it.  Things may be tight and sort of complicated, but luckily we have the communication skills to figure it out. 

We're still looking at getting out of our current rental and, at this point, I am so done living here.  I'm sure some of it is just basic impatience on my part, but living here has not been the best experience.  This place had a purpose when we moved in, but that purpose has long since passed, and it's time for us to move to our new chapter of life.  Our life has changed so much since we moved in that our needs in a place have changed as well.  We're also not under pressure to move, which is a pleasant change.  We have been looking for a good place to live, price-wise and also life-wise.

We're not going to be able to get the perfect place, but we'll be able to find something that will serve us well.  And right now, Big Guy and I are in agreement that everything happens for a reason.  Hopefully the purpose of all of this will become apparent soon.

Finally! The end of April!

Today is the first day in a long while that I have had a chance to sit down and write. My class for April finished yesterday and I submitted the grades last night.  Whiteybare also moved in officially this week, so that has added to the busy schedule of the household. But, I now have a 3 day break before my May class begins. Whatever shall I do with all this spare time.

Well, today I made strawberry-blueberry muffins for breakfast.  Admittedly, they came from a mix, but Little Guy doesn't seem to mind too much.  I'm looking forward to making actual strawberry muffins when our strawberries start producing this year.  Provided, of course, that we get to them before the animals do.  I also have plans for an Italian Beef pizza at some point, on homemade pizza dough. 

The dough would obviously be made in our breadmaker (which has been a gift from the gods).  And requires the leftovers from the Crockpot Italian beef Sandwiches I made this week. (Thanks to eatathome.com!)  I had plans to do this whole homemade dinner thing, but our kitchen is a mess and I can't stand working in it.  There isn't enough room or clean dishes, and I end up getting all tense inside.  It's generally  Big Guy's job to do the dishes but, like everything else, dishes fell to the wayside with all the other chores. 

I am also going to work on the calendar and family room today and start getting our schedule back on track.  I want to get this place back to a point where I don't want to set it on fire and run screaming into the night.  Though, with a 4 year old hurricane running through the house, that may NEVER happen. I need to get done what I can today.

This weekend we're going out of town, though things aren't going to be nearly as pressed as I thought they were. Saturday we're heading up to Holland, MI to see my sister-in-law.  Sunday is NOT Mother's Day.  I say that only because I trule thought it was for the past month.  It's a welcome surprise though because now I'm not trying to figure out how to fit everything in. 

Monday starts my May class and I am teaching Fundamentals of English again.  It will give me a good ten minutes at the end of class to write something while the class does their freewriting, so I hope to get back on the blogging track as well!

Weekend's end with guns and bread

I love weekends with my family.  This weekend has been an excellent weekend in terms of recharging the batteries.  We've been clearing out space for Whiteybare which required  moving much of Little Guy's stuff into his room.  We moved his car table which holds his collection of Hot wheels and his train set into his bedroom.  We also moved the TV and PS2 into his bedroom.  I'm feeling kind of torn about that one.

On the one hand, we are now one of "those" parents.  The ones whose four-year-old has a TV and PS2 in his bedroom.  On the other hand, this effectively limits what he can watch.  When the TV was in the front room, it was hooked up to cable and Little Guy discovered Cartoon Network.  I wasn't too thrilled with him watching it since I prefer that he watch good programming.  I became even less pleased when this new programming he had discovered led to him actually punching people and laughing about it.  That was a swift trip to no TV for a while.  However, now that he has the TV in his room, it's not connected to the cable and I know exactly what he can watch. 

But moving the rooms around wasn't the only thing we did this weekend.  We also picked up our Mosin Nagant rifle from the gun store.  Big Guy and I spent the evening yesterday cleaning it off, wiping it down, and learning how it works.  It's a beautiful bolt-action rifle that we've polished and cleaned up nicely.  We're looking forward to target practice out at my mom's place and maybe even hunting.  We were talking about how great it would be to have a Thanksgiving turkey that we just caught ourselves.  Yum!  Needless to say, it was pretty cool getting a gun made in the 1930's all cleaned up.  Big Guy and I Were talking about how cool it would be to find out the history of our gun in particular, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. 

This morning we woke up too late for "church", so I made coffee and waffles instead.  I added powdered sugar and vanilla and made a large batch of waffles.  Little Guy ate about 5 waffles and Big Guy and I decided we could not find better waffles even in a pancake place.   I put the pack of uneaten waffles in a ziplock bag in the freezer.  It will make a great breakfast throughout the week.  This evening, I even dug out an old jar of strawberry jam that hadn't set to use in bread. 

We got a breadmaker off of Cheapcycle for $25 and have definitely gotten our money's worth.  We've made loaf upon loaf of bread, spending only the money needed for the flour and the sugar.  It's been working out extremely well.  Currently, I have the batch of bread with strawberry jam in the breadmaker in an effort to produce a good breakfast bread. This will leave our day-to-day bread free for sandwiches and give us a good, hearty fruit bread for breakfast.  I have plans for cherry bread and perhaps even berry bread.

List of things to do

Final exams for my class were yesterday.  There's always a lightening of the spirit in the air when the class ends.  It's an end to routine, an end to the day-in-day-out.  The students are happy and excited because, for most of them, they've come to the end of their first class in college. 

For me, the end of the month means a three day break before I go back to school.  I always fill those days with grand plans that never seem to come to fruition.  For example, right now, I'm thinking that I'll get the laundry completely folded, the laundry room swept and mopped, the kitchen swept and mopped, and the family room picked up and vacuumed.  I'll also work on the blog and finish reading my book. 

Now, I know that two of those items will definitely happen.  Two others, I know, realistically, are only semi-likely to achieve completion, and the final two items are not likely at all and will take a miracle to happen.  Hey, at least I'm being honest with myself.

What I need is a plan. I need to put together a list of things to accomplish.  So, here goes my list for today:
1 - Get up (This does deserve a spot on the list because, dammit, it's hard sometimes)
2 - Make coffee
3 - Do my blog stuff - write and post the entry, EC stuff, etc
4 - Little Guy's breakfast (or lunch depending on his wake-up time)
5 - Make grocery list and menu
6 - Pick up the family room and vacuum
7 - Give Little Guy a bath and fold Laundry

The hope is, if I make a list, I will follow through.  And I am nothing if not a constant lesson in "hope springs eternal".  I admit it, this is all probably a pipe dream, but some day I will not get distracted.  Some day I won't wander off halfway through a task because something else caught my eye. I just hope it's not because I'll be old and blind. 

Now, obviously I've accomplished #1 and #3.  Little Guy is working on #4 and I still need to do the second item on the list.  So, I feel like I'm off to a good start!  I think, once I get caffeine in my system, following through the other items will be easy!  Wish me luck! 

Original photo by D. Sharon Pruitt