House Guests

I must be crazy. I know some of you think I'm crazy because we have lived in a yurt with no electricity or running water, or because we have moved across the country a few times, or because we live in a house that is only 530 sq feet. But this time I know I'm out of my mind.

My mom and her husband are coming to visit next week. They are going to be here for a week or two and they are staying with us. Yep that's right, we are going to squeeze 2 more people into a house that is already too small for the four of us. I don't think my mom understands how small the house is. She visited when we were working on the floor, before we moved the furniture in, and I've sent pictures of the inside since we've moved in, but it's not the same as actually standing in the middle of the room surrounded by stuff. We have only 1 bathroom which presents a challenge on a normal day, I'm not sure what's gonna happen when we add 2 more people into the mix.

It'll either be fun or we will kill each other, I'm not quite sure which. While they are here we should increase the amount of space we have by 250 sq feet so that will help, unfortunately we won't be adding another bathroom. Malachi will finally have a room of his own, which makes me happy. He doesn't seem to care but I do because he sleeps 10 feet from the TV so when Paul and I want to watch movies that aren't appropriate for the kids we have to use the laptop in the bedroom and I'd much rather watch it on the big TV.

So we will see how things go. I wonder how long they can take it before they get a room at the local motel...

Breakfast

For those that know me, you know I'm not a morning person. So pancakes for breakfast is a rare treat for the kids. I will on occasion make them pancakes for lunch but my making breakfast is something special.

As I read through some posts on the homeschooling list I'm on, I was struck by a few off-handed comments about the time these people got up. They were mentioning that they didn't get up at 5:30 but *gasp* 7:30. Okay I'm gonna let you in on a secret, I don't normally get up until way after 8, sometimes as late as 9. That's right I like to sleep in the morning. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to get up early but I can't do it. Well I can and do on those Sundays we go to church, in fact I don't get up in the morning but the middle of the night, 4:30. But I spend the rest of the day feeling off and grumpy.

So yep, I'm a bad mom who makes her kids fend for themselves for breakfast normally. I like to get school started by 11, if I'm lucky, and my house is always a mess because of how small it is.

Oh and just in case you are thinking that I get points for making pancakes from scratch this morning, I admit that those are Bisquick pancakes.

Which Classic Heroine Are You?

Anne Shirley

The loveable redhead of "Anne of Green Gables." Anne lives on Prince Edward Island, and never ceases to astonish it's inhabitants. She's a writer, matchmaker, and can generally be found getting into some scrape or the other. Gilbert Blythe, one of her dearest friends, is in love with her, but she refuses to see it for many years.

Which Classic Heroine are You?

I'm not all that surprised. This is one of my favorite books right behind Pride & Prejudice. I see a lot of myself in Anne, constantly getting into trouble and being somewhat strong-willed. Besides, Anne is my middle name!

Working outside the home

This happens every once in awhile. A very well meaning friend will suggest that our financial struggle can be eliminated if I just got a job. I think this happens because most of our closest friends don't have children and don't think about the costs involved in working outside the home.

I don't think it's a bad thing that this comes up, it always gives me an opportunity to reevaluate what I already know, the costs are too high. So yesterday I was told that I could do this if I want to. This is, of course, assuming that the kids were put into the government indoctrination system.

Here is what I came up with:
The costs for daycare after school and school holidays $12,000-$15,000 per year
The costs for a second car including the payment, insurance, gas, and maintenance $8,000 per year
The costs for appropriate clothing and supplies for the kids $1,000 per year
The costs for work clothing for me $500 per year
The costs of increased medical premiums and copayments since we are currently on a plan that has the premiums determined by income $4,000
The costs of increased taxes $4,000
The costs of more prepackaged foods for lunch and dinner $2,600

Assuming I could find a job making $30,000 per year, the grand total that we would add to our current income is -$2100. That's right it would cost me to work! That's not even counting the costs that aren't monetary. So could I work outside the home? Sure but the costs would put us in a worse financial situation not a better one.

So for the sake of argument let's consider all those non-monetary costs:
The kids would have maybe 2 hours a day with their parents
Lorna's medical condition requires her to take a steroid medication which suppresses her immune system, how many times a year would she end up in the hospital? From past experience when she was in daycare, twice a year. That's not even counting how often she got sick and didn't require hospitalization.
How would Malachi deal with being in a classroom, he has a difficult time now because he spends much of his time in his own little world.
Who would do the laundry and clean the house? Who would take care of the animals? When would I have time to cook?
I could go on but I think you get the point.

I do not have the ability to be a wife, mother, and worker. Something has to suffer and it would be the first two because if you let the worker part suffer you lose your job. So how is working outside the home going to solve our problem? It isn't. In fact I think it would just cause that many more problems.

So thanks to the friend you brought this up! You have helped me to remember why I quit working in the first place.

Washer repairs

They won't be happening today which means I will be outside using the washtubs since we are out of some necessary clothing.

I didn't get a confirmation call last night which should have tipped me off that there was a problem. I took the phone with me everywhere I went this morning so I wouldn't miss the call from the repairman. But the call never came. Instead Paul got a message on his cell that the repairman went to the house but we don't live there and they don't have our updated home phone number. What?!!? I gave all that info to the woman who I made the appointment with, she obviously got Paul's cell number added. We had a long coversation about our new home phone and address. I distinctly remember because I explained that everyone has a different city listed. It seems she forgot to update the screens or something.

So I called the appointment center only to get a rude young woman who claimed it wasn't her problem because she didn't make the original appointment! My thing is that it is her problem to fix because someone where she works dropped the ball. After getting very upset I was able to speak with someone who apologized and set up a new appointment for tomorrow.

I just want my washer fixed, why is this so difficult? To top it all off the guy who helped me today was too busy to update their records properly as to the fact that we have a maintenance agreement on 3 large appliances so now I have to fix this so I don't get charged. I'm just glad I have all the receipts handy!

Pipes and Laundry

Our pipes made it through the low temperatures of the past few days. We did have a slight problem yesterday for a few hours but got everything thawed and working.

My washing machine didn't make it though. It started spraying water out of the back panels and when we opened it up found a break in the water inlet. It's still under warranty until August so the repairman is coming tomorrow. Unfortunately we have laundry piled up everywhere and it looks like I'm going to have to break out the washtubs and wringer.

I would love to take it all to the laundromat but I can't since I don't have transportation during the day and they close at 6. Not only that but looking at the price to do a small load of clothes I don't think it would work anyway. My only fear is that the repairman will have to order a part and we will have to wait for weeks before he can fix it.

Laundry

Well our infestation turned out to be something more serious than I thought, so yesterday saw us spend $200 at the doctors getting prescriptions for ourselves. Now I get the task of stripping everything again, I started yesterday. I now have enough laundry to keep me busy for weeks. Seeing as the temps are hovering around 30 this morning I need to wait until the booster pump thaws before I can start any of this glorious work. To top it all off, everything is supposed to be washed in hot water and dried on high. Problem is we only have cold water to the washer and no dryer. So in lieu of all of that I can soak stuff in the bathtub before washing it or I can let it sit for a week before washing it. I'm doing a little of both. The most important stuff is getting soaked but it's very difficult to wring out bulky items like the pillows.
I'm starting with the oldest stuff first, which has been sitting outside for a week already. Maybe by the time I get to the newer stuff it will have sat long enough and I won't have to soak it. The worst of all of this is that we have exposed our friends to this nightmare since we were unknowingly contagious up until this morning.

BTW, they are projecting temps of 10 tonight, this does not bode well for our pipes or drying laundry. At least I can never complain about my life being boring!

I didn't make it

That last cross stitch is still sitting here unfinished. To top it off I didn't get the frame for the first one in time to give it to the people it was intended for, maybe next time I see them. My life of crafting was interrupted on Saturday morning by needing to tear the house apart. We had an infestation of little bugs throughout the house. I had to not only clean the house thoroughly but I decided to strip the beds and wash everything. I'm still washing everything, I'm down to about 6 loads left. Maybe I can get it all caught up by the end of the weekend. This is one of the few times I hate not having a dryer, it makes a large chore huge because I can only do so many loads a day. But at least it looks like we got rid of the critters.

I did manage to find inexpensive frames for both the olive wreath and the one I'm currently working on. That was an accomplishment in itself. Hopefully I'll have both of them finished and framed soon.

One down...

I finally finished the project I blogged about yesterday

Now to find the right frame and get it all together quickly. It's an odd size, 6.5 inches in diameter, so I'm hoping to find a square frame 7 inches or larger. I can always put a mat around it if the frame is larger than needed, that might actually make it look even better.

Now to finish the other one.

Still catching up

This is how far I've gotten on what should have been a Christmas gift but I'm hoping will be an Epiphany gift.

It's supposed to be an olive wreath but as you have noticed it doesn't connect together yet. I'm still not finished! The sad thing is, I have another slightly larger project still in the works and both need to be finished by Saturday afternoon. Can I do it? I hope so but my hopes are starting to fade.

We have all been sick for the past few weeks. I think we are on the downhill side with just the lingering coughs holding on. I still am not caught up on everything that needs to be done and I'm trying desperately to finish all the outside work by this afternoon. We have a large storm headed our way that is expected to drop a few inches of snow tomorrow night. It's amazing how these things require so much prep. I need to get all the laundry finished and dried before it hits since we hang everything on a line and I can't have wet stuff hanging out there for days after. I need to get the firewood covered as we just filled the wood holder. I need to get all the cardboard under the carport or there will be a soggy mess outside. I don't have time for all of this, I need to finish these gifts! So instead of doing anything I'm hiding in my bedroom updating my blog.

Maybe I'll get a chance to finish these gifts on Thursday evening and Friday since it'll be too messy to do anything outside...

Catching up

I've been trying to catch up on everything the last few days and I've finally got some of it under control.

Paul spent all of last week in Cleveland for a training seminar for his new job. He said it was very informative but the best thing was being able to see Pastor and Barb Kavouras and attend the Advent service. That made the week away from home bearable.

The kids and I stayed home part of the week. The kids spent Wednesday through Friday with Paul's mother and I went to spend time with friends. It was great for me to get away and not have to worry about the kids. For my birthday they took me to a great sushi place, I had the most incredible food! I had such a great time I didn't want to come home.

Ever since Paul got home it feels like we have been running to catch up. On Christmas afternoon we cleaned the house, as best as we can considering we do not have a home for the stuff the kids received. I admit I procrastinated too long on a couple of Christmas presents. They are sitting here half-finished. My goal is to get them done this week. Can I still give them out, maybe as Epiphany gifts? One way or another they will be given to the people they were meant for, I put too much effort into them at this point to not finish them. I've learned my lesson, I need to start these projects in October or earlier. 2 moves this year have really put me behind in everything.

There is no way to catch up on school, we will just have to start up again and go from there. Even though we started the year last June I still feel like we are behind. Maybe we will actually get an entire month of school in without interruptions next year.

Snow

This is what we woke up to yesterday. Since the rain turned into snow the roads were solid sheets of ice. Of course we had to leave at 4 am to take Paul to the airport for his business trip so it was a bit frightening until we got down to the highway where it hadn't snowed. By the early afternoon most of it was gone. The kids didn't get to play in it much since it was so short lived but Malachi did manage to throw a few snowballs at his sister.


Who says it's always sunny and warm in CA?

Marshmallows

For once, there isn't much going on here. That's a really good thing but it feels a bit odd.

We spent the weekend at a friend's home. On Friday they had a pre-Christmas party and we met yet another homeschooling family. This is the second one we have met at one of their parties, which I find amusing since they don't have any kids themselves. It is always such a great thing to meet people you have something in common with, especially as the kids get older and more and more people question how long we are going to do this.

I'm beginning to cringe whenever I hear that question. We plan on doing this through high school and although the idea of homeschooling is so much more accepted now it still seems odd to most people that we want to continue this all the way through. So when we meet people who we don't have to explain this to, people that understand and don't start judging our decisions, it is a relief from the norm.

Of course just as I'm extolling the virtues of homeschooling Malachi decides to show me this new use for marshmallows!

Boxes Update

I thought I would take a few moments and give an update on how the unpacking is going. I'm sure you are thinking that I should be done by now, but I'm not. There always seems to be something else that comes up during the day that keeps me from finishing. There are very few boxes left in the house. There are still a few boxes on the deck and a few pieces of furniture in the carport. I keep meaning to get more done but life gets in the way.

Here is what the living room/dining room/Malachi's bedroom looks like.

It's cramped but livable. I need to do a bit more organizing under his bed but everything is coming along.

Here is the kitchen. I'm just about done with everything I wanted to do. I have a few more shelves I'd like to build but on the whole it's serviceable.


Here is our bedroom. I finally got the shelves hung up yesterday and I'm slowly unpacking all my sewing stuff. As you can see I crammed a few bookshelves in our room. I just couldn't bear the thought of getting rid of books so I decided to sacrifice space to walk for keeping our books. Who needs to be able to walk next to the bed?


On the whole I'm pleased with how things are coming out. I like the inside of the house, it's homey and comfortable although a bit small. The outside needs some work but that will have to wait. We still hope to one day get a yurt but all of that is on hold due to monetary resources being tight. The area has turned out to be a good place for us. There are very few people in our immediate area, even though there are a number of homes. The few people that are right around us seem friendly enough for California standards.

Dog House

This was my project for yesterday.

Temperature here took a dive a few days ago and I was feeling really guilt that I had put off building the dog house. So yesterday I was able to almost finish it. The shingles will go on in the next day or so and we will paint it as soon as I can find some clearance exterior paint, but it will do.

This is the fourth dog house we have built in the past 6 years. Each time we have had to leave them behind because they are too heavy. Since we have always had large dogs, and now we have 4, the house has to be able to accommodate all of them. That size house has to be assembled in place since it can't be moved once it's done. This time I got smart. Each of the sides has the framing attached so we were able to move each of the walls, the floor, and the roof in pieces and put the last few screws in at the site. We should be able to dismantle it when we move. It's not as cute as the first house we built, that one looked like Snoopy's house, but it will work.

I felt guilty for nothing, two of the dogs spent the night sleeping on the dirt. I guess the cold doesn't really bother them.

Thanksgiving madness

As everyone around us is getting ready for the holiday, we once again are reminded how odd we are.

The kids haven't, in their mind at least, ever been to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It has been a number of years since we have done anything special for a holiday. None of us care for turkey or most of the traditional foods served during this particular celebration and because of circumstances we don't spend the holidays with our extended family.

A number of years ago we started the tradition of making a number of different appetizers and just eating throughout the day. That fell by the wayside last year in the yurt and I don't think I'm going to revive it. It's just too much work and I just don't care. Since we will once again be spending the day with just the 4 of us I don't see the point of doing anything special.

That's not to say we aren't thankful for the gifts God has given us. We have wonderful friends, a great church we attend as often as our monetary resources allow, and Paul is employed. Especially given everything we have gone through this year, we feel very blessed. Even though it feels as if we have lost some extended family this year we are thankful for the family we have in Christ.

Birthday Celebrations

Lorna's birthday was last Friday, the 17th. When we asked her what she would like to do to celebrate she asked to have dinner with friends. So she got her wish yesterday.

We had dinner at our friend's house where they invited over a few of her friends to celebrate.


Since we are not a normal family, this was not your average birthday party for an 11 year old. But my baby girl is happy and that's all that matters to me!

Trees, Power Lines, and Water Tanks

We learned an important, although obvious lesson, a few days ago. These 3 things don't go well together in high winds.

The wind knocked down a tree that had the power lines strung through it. The tree didn't break the line because the water tank broke its fall. The tree and tank duelled but although the tank fought well, it lost. The tank now has a hole the size of a large orange in the top. That would have been bad enough without the rest. The power line is the main line into the house. It is attached to a riser that goes into the main box. So as the line was pulled down it pulled the riser with it.

We called the power company out to fix the line. They unhooked it but told us the riser had to be replaced before they would reinstall the line. We called every electrician in the valley and finally found one who squeezed us in. By 2:30 pm the riser was replaced. Upon replacing the riser the electrician found a problem with the main box. It's old and since the home inspection a wire has come loose, it got hot and welded the connection in place. We need to replace the box asap. It's a bummer because it will have to wait as I don't have that kind of money laying around.

Once the riser was replaced we called the power company out again. They arrived at 9:15pm to rehook the lines. Amazingly it was the same guys who came at 8 that morning. So the power is reinstalled, our bank account is much lighter, and we have a new riser.

We have 2 more trees in that area that need to come down. Unfortunately one has the phone lines run through it. Both will have to wait for a ladder to be purchased because they need to be taken down branch by branch since they are in between the water tank, dog run, and tool shed.

Oh and just so you don't think it was that easy, in cutting up the tree to remove it from the water tank a branch fell on the clothes line and ripped the support out from under the carport. I could really use 6 months of boredom right now.

Searching

I was reading through the blogs I like to visit and found the following comment from traininup3:.

"My soul is searching for something, but I doubt "it" will ever be found. I mean, I've felt like this for so many years that I've forgot what it feels like to be whole. And how exactly does one find something when one isn't even sure what that something is?"

This really hit me. This is exactly how I have felt over the past few years. We left CA because we were searching for something. We tried living a more self-sufficient lifestyle because we were searching for something. We found things we loved while searching but nothing that ever seemed to fill that void. I thought this was just something Paul and I felt!

But here's the problem, what if you find that something? Do you then dare let yourself have it knowing there is always the possibility of losing it?

I have no idea if we have found "it" but we have found something that makes us feel whole. In moving back here to, once again, follow a job, we rediscovered the feeling of being "near" the people we love. I'm not talking about our biological family but about our church family and especially a few dear friends. They may be 3 hours away but we are closer than we were living out of state and have the opportunity to be involved on a regular basis.

But do you really allow these relationships to fill that void? Every time I think of how much I've allowed these people to touch my life I freeze wondering if this is such a good idea. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and it's probably more than anyone wants to know about me but... I think I've found the thing that makes me feel whole but it's something that makes me feel vulnerable at the same time. So now instead of searching for it, I struggle with it.

Boxes are still everywhere.

Just in case you are wondering, yes boxes are still everywhere. I'm not even going to bother to post a picture, it's too depressing.

I hate the sight of them, they depress me since they are a reminder of what a failure I am as a wife and mother. I just can't get excited about unpacking anymore. There is no more room. We still have the deck full of boxes, although the house and carport have been taken care of. I have bills that are MIA, they are probably in a box on the deck. I really need to find them so I can pay them as they are the few that can't be paid online.

So I feel like a complete failure. My goal was to not have boxes everywhere since we were going to unpack things as they were moved here. My goal was to have my kitchen completely in order by now. My goal was... I failed at all my goals. The shed still doesn't have the roof fixed, it's supposed to rain tonight, I can't find any of the tarps...

To top it all off, I'm in email withdrawal. It's been 24 hours since I've received anything. I usually have so many it's hard to keep up, I like it that way! I rely on my IM partner and email lists to keep me sane, it's hard when those things are taken away even if it's only temporary. Besides, what excuse am I going to have to keep from unpacking anymore?