Theme from Jaws playing in the background......

In case you were wondering what we do when daddy is working late.....

I was cleaning out the winter gear, washing and storing, I left to put in a load of coats in the laundry (in the next room) and I came back to this.....Yes, they are wearing face masks, ski googles, gardening gloves and jammies while they play "Wrestler Guys" in the living room.  I don't know where they come up with this stuff but points for creativity.... or I need to have a talk with the father-figure about what he is letting them watch on tv when I'm not around.

Breakfast May 2010

Yes, they are eating chicken nuggets for breakfast.

Yes, the winter coats are still out... mid-May.

Yes, there is a carpet sample on my table.

Yes, my countertops are pink.

I should also point out there are TWO weather systems sitting on the shelf back there.  One for each side of the house.... so you can triangulate with the one outside the kitchen window to see what the weather is really like.  Because I am a farmer at heart.
Any questions?

Spring might be here.

It might just actually finally be spring. 

Maybe.

We've been trying to do more THINGS AS A FAMILY here at the homestead.... so to document....

April 23:  Dinner at Pizza Hut with daddy to celebrate his last day of work (Turns out we should have been mourning...).  Then a play "Charlotte's Web" with Nana in "our" theater.  Then Little Dipper for ice cream.  (Ginger candy... yum.) 

May 1:  Daddy's treat.... popcorn and a movie at the big theater.... How to Train Your Dragon.

May 8-9:  To the farm. 

May 15-16:  An armed forces day parade, checking out the machines, then to the Holter for some live music (Tuff's favorite), checking out sculpture (Sweet's favorite), and free ice cream (Bugsy's favorite).  Daddy's darn job took him away on Saturday and twice on Sunday....  A bbq party/playdate on Saturday night... my chocolate chip cookies were a hit....  Sweet went with his buddy to jump on the trampoline and Tuff went to Nana's for a bit.  Sunday the neighbor boys came over to play squirt guns and we rode bikes and dug in the dirt and prepared the fairy homes. 

I love spring.  I feel so renewed and ready for anything.

If I use the finest drill bit can I just drill holes in my face like Donald Duck??

So I had sinus surgery (and my tonsils removed) in the fall of 2008.  I had been having chronic sinus infections since I was a teen.  (Originally blamed on allergies to pine.... which I've been tested for... I'm not allergic to pine.) 

The summer of 2009 I was worried the sinus thing hadn't worked because I was getting headaches and odd feelings in my head.  Turns out it happened every time I got in the car.  The car with air conditioning.  I was, essentially, giving myself an ice cream headache by running cold air over sinuses that hadn't seen air flow in about 20 years.  The doc had warned me it would take about 18 months for them to heal.

Fast-forward to a few weeks ago.  I felt kinda bad but not terrible.  I was having some headaches but didn't think much about it.  I spent so many years just living with daily headaches that it didn't occur to me that it wasn't normal. 

Then I stopped and listened to my body.

And I realized I had a sinus infection.  So I got a z-pac.  I felt better for a few days.  Then I felt worse... much worse.  So now I'm on another round of drugs, fingers crossed, hoping to feel better in a few days.

I'm so proud of myself for not just soldiering through.  I'm so proud of myself for going to the doctor.  It's a tiny victory to actually do something for myself.

I'm so pleased with this little bit of self-help momentum.... I'm seriously considering scheduling myself for a haircut... wouldn't that be the ultimate in self-care luxury????

House Update Early May

We got the bid back from the contractor.

We are over budget.

WAY over budget.

And I pretty much picked bottom of the line stuff... so there isn't a lot of cutting room.  And there will be other costs we aren't yet aware of because we are tying an old house into a new addition and you just never know what you will find.

So we are rethinking our options.

At first I was very sad.  So very sad. 

But I moved on the wistful.

And then resignation set in.

Then determination.

And alternate planning.

It's just how I work.

So I started planning some other things... like making some changes in the existing house to make it more pleasant and easier to live in. 

Like new flooring.

And better storage.

And finish painting.

And on and on.

And I was ok with it.

And Hot was not. 

He wants to go forward with it. 

So we've discussed cutting options and how to get the budget down. 

I think he wants the space but I also think he wants me to have something to make me happy.  Which is sweet and I appreciate that he realizes I often put myself last but, honestly, I think tossing about half of our possessions and simplifying our life would make me just as happy.

And now we are at a cross-roads.

And I don't know what we are going to do.

I feel like it will be fine either way but this is a big decision in our lives.... at least right now.

So for now I plan to return all the samples I've been hauling around in my car and just go into a thoughtful mode on the whole thing.

Put it out to the Universe (as my mother-in-law would say) and see what happens.