I hate Saturday morning cartoons.

How silly is that?

Of course I watched them as a child. And I used to enjoy cuddling with the kids on Saturday mornings and watching them. But somehow recently they have become the bane of my existence. (The cartoons, not the kids. Today anyway.)

We have to get up early every other day of the week and get ready to go; all I want on Saturday morning is to sleep in, wake up when my body decides it's ready, and enjoy the sound of the autumn breeze rustling through the trees outside, brew myself a strong cup of coffee, and have a nice, relaxing start to my day.

Remember how we hated it that there was no talking in the coyote and roadrunner cartoons? Just some dorky classical music playing while Wile E. Coyote opened his latest delivery from the Acme company?

Yeah. I'd love some classical music and a few "meep meep's!" right about now.

Clean Slate Sunday: 9.26.10 edition

Whew. Back in the school routine, back in the quiet Sunday night meditative routine, back to sitting down and making plans for the next few days and trying to get the calendar situated before the week begins.

Steve has been around all weekend and it feels great to have him here. He was able to take Sam out hunting yesterday and today for the special youth hunt weekend. I smiled to myself when Sam came in to kiss me goodbye before heading out to the woods with his daddy Saturday morning. That kid was on Cloud 9. Poor Steve, he can't even get up out of his chair without Sam asking him where he's going. Uhhh, to the bathroom, kid. Just out to the truck to get something. Over here to the kitchen for a beer. 

And Rachel. At church on Sunday mornings we're always asked if anyone has any good news to share during announcements. This morning when that request came Rachel looked up at me and whispered, "Yeah! Daddy's back in Michigan!"

Good news, indeed.

Steve is on standby now. He expects to get a call to go to work before the end of this week. He'll still be working a couple hours away from home, but two hours of driving versus 10 hours of driving to get home is a big difference. Plus, I think just being in the state of Michigan boosts his morale a bit. When he came home from safety orientation Friday he said he has a good feeling about this new job. I like to hear that. I feel ... I don't know ... safe when it's obvious to me that Steve is feeling confident.

So it's been a great weekend topped off by hearing a message at church that really touched my heart. There are Sundays when I feel like the sermon was written just for me, and today was one of them. Today we were reminded of how rich we are, that if we have food and clothing and a roof over our heads, we are rich beyond measure. We were also reminded that it is our duty as Christians to be good stewards of all God has given us, and to use our good fortune to touch the lives of the poor - poor in belongings, poor in health, poor in spirit. We must be willing to identify and acknowledge those people in our lives who need a boost and do something for them.

Amen.

That seems like a good note to end on tonight.

Have a great week.

The times they are a-changin'.

It never ceases to amaze me how life can turn on a dime.

Last week at this time I was happy to have Steve here at home providing some much-needed backup in the parenting department and taking care of some other business, but the recovering anxious control freak in me was a little concerned that we didn't know when he would leave.

That is, when he would go back to work.

And no workie = no money.

Ugh.

Not that he didn't have a plan. He did. There for a while, though, I thought the universe hadn't gotten the memo outlining the details of his plan.

And by "a while" I mean two or three days. Eternity.

But sometimes the memo getting stuck on the server turns out to be a good thing.

I suppose the details don't matter now, but I can tell you this: This pipelinin' thing? This lifestyle of constant change? This hurry-up-and-wait business? It's not for sissies. It's not for the faint of heart. Over the past week Steve kept reminding me of a Bible verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, "we walk by faith, not by sight." That particular passage is also mentioned in the movie The Book of Eli which Steve and I both watched recently, myself just Wednesday night. It's a great (albeit somewhat violent) story about having faith, pushing forward, following God's voice, and not allowing yourself to be overcome by worldly things along the way.

It was a timely reminder.

Today Steve is drug testing and attending safety training for a new job. Once again he is making the shift from the construction side of the pipeline to the inspection side, which is what he had been doing in 08'-09'. It will provide a nice boost in income, but the even better news is he will be back in Michigan. I can't even put into words how happy that makes me.

The Pipe Life is all about change and being flexible. It's not always easy for me to go with the flow, but with every change and every bend in the road and every dip from the hills to the valleys, I learn. It sometimes means riding a roller-coaster of emotions. It means never getting quite comfortable with how things are. It means making a point to enjoy every day because we just don't know what struggles tomorrow might bring.

And yes, it means walking by faith and learning to give up a little of that illusion of control. For a gal like me, sometimes that's the hardest part.

Quiet Monday.

Wow. I had big plans for the blog last week. Lots of pictures, updates on projects around the house, and perhaps a little waxing poetic about the change in seasons and the beautiful fall weather we've been having.

How quickly life gets in the way.

Tuesday morning I met a friend for coffee, met another friend for lunch, then made my fall trek to Sam's Club. Wednesday and Thursday mornings I had the pleasure of babysitting for my friends' 5-month-old baby boy. I had so much fun with him, but boy had I forgotten how exhausting it is to entertain, feed, rock, sing to, bounce, change diapers for, and ogle a baby for a few hours! So in the afternoons I chilled out at home and did pretty much nothing. Thursday night Steve came home, between jobs and waiting for A Phone Call.

Before I knew it the weekend was here and we had things to do. We visited with friends Friday night, Rachel walked in the annual Harvest Festival parade with her Brownie troop on Saturday, then Sunday we all went to church followed by an ice cream social, then we stopped by for a quick visit with my mom, and Rachel had her Girl Scout meeting Sunday afternoon. We finished up the day with dinner at my in-laws'.

Whew! I was so glad to fall into bed and get a good night of sleep last night, but sleep wasn't in the cards, apparently. I woke up at 3 a.m. sneezing and with so much pressure in my sinuses it made my teeth hurt. Stupid allergies! I never did get back to sleep after that.

So I was really happy to send the kids off to school this morning.

Check that. I was happy Steve was still here so he could wake them up and get them off to school this morning.

God bless that husband of mine.

Tonight Steve and the kids got to spend some fun time together making apple dumplings from scratch. I know Sam and Rachel enjoyed that time with their dad; they don't get to do that very often. And bonus - the dumplings tasted awesome! The perfect end to a quiet fall day.

Progress report.

I had a pretty productive weekend.

Saturday it rained much of the day, so what better time to sit indoors and sort through mounds of photographs?

Boxes, albums and frames, oh my! You can't see it in this pic, but there is a pile of discarded photos on the floor next to my chair that just about equals the number of photos on the table.

Seriously.

I am happy to report - thus far, with about 85 percent of the sorting complete - the stack of photos for Child #1 is not much larger than the stack of photos for Child #2. Most mommies of two or more children will understand my relief.

The sorting continues today, with the goal of clearing this stuff off the dining room table as quickly as possible.

Onward!

Bargain bin(ge)

I am on a mission.

As I work on this ongoing process of getting rid of clutter and all the extra "stuff" we don't need, I find myself looking around the house and thinking a table here or a corner there could use a little something. Not just anything (because wouldn't it be silly to get rid of stuff just to fill the space with more stuff?), but something pretty ... something useful ... something that would add to the beauty and comfort of our home.

So I have this mental list of things for which I keep my eyes open as I'm out and about. And of course I'm always looking for a deal.

Yesterday I hit the jackpot.

I found a slip cover for our couch marked down to $54 at Walmart. And it fits! And it looks OK enough that I can stand to put off buying a new couch for a while. Score.

I also found a hurricane candle holder marked down to $5 (from $21). I'm using it as a decorative item to help me hide the phone cords in the kitchen. Another score! (I'll post pics next week.)

At a garage sale I picked up a few more picture frames for my picture project ($4), and a cute lamp for $5. Oh, and some math flashcards for Rachel for 50 cents - perfect, because earlier this week she asked me to make some for her out of construction paper and I hadn't made very many before I got bored.

But the best deal of the day (*squeee!*) was this small dresser/chest of drawers for $22.

 

Charming! OK, not yet, but she's got potential!

(Pictured with aforementioned lamp.)

I have no idea how old this piece is (and it makes no difference to me). It's not solid wood, but the drawers are dove-tailed, which is a nice little detail. I am so pysched about giving it a makeover and putting it to good use in our home.

The chipped paint on top has two layers: light green, then this light blue ... it was well used and then it got stuffed in the back of somebody's poll barn until yesterday.

It's cute! I love the legs and the simple detail.

Three of the four drawers will need some sort of repair with wood glue, some tacks, and maybe even replacing the bottoms. I'm going to let it sit here for a few days and dry out; I have a feeling there's a little moisture in the wood because the drawers are a little sticky.

Oh, it's fine. I've got plenty to do to keep me busy in the meantime.

Like planting all these perennials I picked up on clearance. Score!

The picture project.

One of the projects on my One Of These Days When I Get To It to-do list is sorting through and organizing our family photographs.

Fortunately for me, I did a partial sort and organize when I cleaned out the master bedroom's walk-in closet a year or two ago, so there is not a metric ton of photos and they are at least stacked somewhat neatly in boxes on a shelf in the closet. It won't be a monumental undertaking.

Oh, who am I kidding? When is sorting through boxes of photographs not a monumental undertaking?

I'm actually looking forward to it, though. OK, not the sorting part so much, but that part is just a means to an end and what I hope will be a really cool decorating project.

Instead of leaving all these great pictures in boxes on a closet shelf, I'm going to choose the ones I really love and display them as art in our home. I'm going to start with a section of wall space in the dining room. It's a long, narrow, vertical space that is just perfect for what I have in mind.

 See that empty, sad-looking space? Like a blank canvas, isn't it?

And even after I swore I would stop getting ahead of myself on projects like this (Right. That was sort of an empty promise to myself anyway), I went ahead and visited Goodwill yesterday to start collecting picture frames.

I can't wait to get after them with some spray paint!

I'll keep you posted on my progress.