Project 52: Week 4

Tired

Every time I drove by this truck two words came to mind. The first was Mater (Thanks for that Pixar.) and the second was tired, so I knew when I saw that this week's assignment was Tired, that the little blue truck would finally be my subject. I was really just fishing for a reason to take his picture.

Home at Last!

Friday night I was setting the boys up with my Mom so I could have a long awaited Mom's Night Out with my homeschool friends. Pizza plays a big part of my get away plan and while I was picking it up, Mom arrived at the house. When I came inside I started to put down the pizza when Austin said, "Mom, I think there is something in your room that you need to see." Oh, great. My mind started filling in the blanks with all kinds of messes little boys and furry dogs can make. I walked in the room and turned on the light, pizza in hand, and there stood my DH home three days early from his three week long desert trip.

Being the articulate lady I am when surprised, I said, "What are you DOING here?!" After all I was late for mom's night out. We both laughed at me and I ditched the pizza and got some long awaited hugs.

Being the sweety he is he insisted that I go right then for my night out while he kept the kids. So for the past few days we have had date night, watched movies together, hiked with the boys and eaten real meals at the kitchen table. It is SO wonderful to have my best friend around again! Poor thing is wiped out from all those 14 hour days though. He is asleep on the couch again! LOL!

Filing

I'm not sure it's quite common knowledge, but I have inherited quite the temper. I used to think it was a throw back from my Great-Grandpa on my Mom's side, who was quite the eccentric and used to do things like make a hospital break through a screen window with a butter knife or drive his tractor on the roads when they took his drivers license. He made an easy scape goat for most anything odd in my personality. In the past few years, I have tried to file away observations of my Dad's family since I grew up over 500 miles away from them. I have noticed a thread of similarity in the Beadle clan. In this case, a propensity for throwing things and being very grumpy when interrupted from tasks. Case in point:

Sad isn't it? All I needed was a sleeve for a CD. I knew some had been put in the filing cabinet, but I dread touching that thing. You see the drawers were meant strictly for hanging files. Any attempt to cram tons of crap in the bottoms of them results in said bottoms sagging and catching so that all the drawers open at once and none is accessible. Factor in a morning rush and voila spectacular temper tantrum.  When the bottom most drawer snuck out with the rest and smashed my toe, I threw the drawer in my hand on the floor and kicked the darn thing. My toe didn't thank me.

So today I spent hours going through the rats' nest of absolute junk in the drawers; warrenties from items we haven't owned in 8 years, the instructions for my toaster (I got that one I think) and electric bills from 2000. I also found the quirky; ACT scores and grades from college for both DH and me (found out that my psych prof gave me a D instead of the A I earned. Having died two weeks after exams and 15 years ago, I'm pretty sure it's a mute point.), some pictures of tombstones and a copy of Home Maintenance for Dummies.  At the request of my sweety, I made two bags of trash. The first was, well, just trash and the second was items to be shredded. I can not believe how many things before 2006 had my SSN on them! Yikes!

I labeled files for taxes from all 13 years we've been married (why do we have all those?), our current housing contract, the boys' school samples and records, insurance information and auto loans.

So after many hours of working on it, the dumb thing still looks like this:

Turns out those drawers were broken before I got a hold of them. Not as broken, mind you, but enough to make me feel slightly less pathetic. The flimsy bottoms were cracked and the corners were falling apart. So for now I'm filing that job away. Things to do Saturday: Guerrilla Glue the Drawers Together! I'm also planning to see if I can get my DH to let me burn the other bag or maybe rip it to shreds in a violent fit of temper. Sounds like so much more fun.... HA!

Today

Today....

I got to drive on my favorite road.

There was an unfortunate altercation between a giraffe and an evil T-Rex at Cracker Barrel.

We stopped for a few minutes at a pet store and this guy kept posing so I finally agreed to make him famous on my blog. World, this is Marcos. You owe me one buddy.

I also saw this van with an inexplicable dead bird on it. 

Only Eight Weeks...

In a short few weeks Spring will be here. The official start of the warm season and 12 hours or more of sunlight. For six glorious months the sun will favor the Northern Hemisphere and we only have eight weeks until it begins.

I'm looking forward to getting dandelion bouquets, to planting my flower boxes and to pulling out our flip flops.

I'm not sure what doors are going to open or shut for me. These next few weeks could bring happy changes or major disappointments. The housing market favors the repossessed houses of which there are many. Their heartbreak is our heartbreak too. Who wants to buy a full price house these days? Apparently no one.

If nothing else we will hopefully have some closure. I can hear several house project calling my name and it would be great to know whether to pursue them or not; whether to invest money, time or myself into this house in limbo.

These bleak days of winter uncertainty won't last much longer. Only eight more weeks until Spring.

Project 52: Week 3

My week in Macro:

Reading Displacia

I have created a name for what happened to me this week. I am calling it Reading Displacia. You see I picked up some AMAZING books a couple of weeks ago:

Some really wonderful books were sitting on my nightstand... and I could NOT read them. I started The Elegance of the Hedgehog with enthusiasm and delight and within 100 pages, but brain quit. I swear my IQ dropped to 80. I suddenly didn't understand and struggled through each chapter knowing I wasn't appreciating it as I usually would.

I thumbed through The Ghost  Map and Thread of Grace with little interest and even less comprehension.What was happening to me? I needed distraction in the worst way and, for the first time in my life, my books were failing me.

Much of my new found Reading Displacia can be blamed on the departure of my husband on business for two and a half weeks but part of it was due to the snow that has been plaguing gracing the south lately. We are not accustom to long hours without sun light. Is this the winter the north dreads so much? I can see why now! My mind was in desperate need of distraction and these were, like the snow, just too deep for me to trudge through!

Wednesday, I got three new books. They are just "fluffy" enough to keep me interested and, as I have passed the half way mark of Lou's trip and finishing books, I am starting to feel myself again.

Hopefully my RD will pass and I will have my functional brain returned and check out my "smarter" books again, but for now a little book candy was just what I needed to get back to myself again.

Windy Wednesday

Yesterday we met friends at the library for a bit and thought we would go for a nice short hike. After all it was supposed to be almost 50* and sunny just after lunch. We picked up our respective meals and headed to Green Mountain to hike. As I opened the car door I realized that the temp had NOT hit 50, or 40, or had even risen in the least since 7 am. The Crawford crew was retreating back into their car after eating as quickly as they could. We ate in the car. Once a couple of other friends made it to the mountain top we began to consider our clothing situation. The past several days had lulled us into believing it was March and not mid-January. Most of the kids were wearing hoodies. We put together as many extra coats and hats and mittens as we could find and headed to the covered bridge. I took pictures, I promise, but I was shivering so badly that most didn't turn out.

The kids ran ahead, but were called back. That was enough hiking for me! My ears were frozen and I was feeling miserable. I wrapped a fringed scarf around my head and ended up resembling some kind of psychotic Tunisian. Poor Austin had a cold and here I was running him around on top of a mountain without gloves. Sigh. We opted out of the rest of the day and took our snuffly heads back home for some movie time and hot tea! The day wasn't a total loss. I did manage to find three new books and get in a few macro shots that didn't stink too bad for this week's Project 52 assignment.

Chai Latte

Being off caffeine and milk and drastically lowering my corn syrup intake has made me rethink what I drink. Most commercial sweet tea has caffeine and soft drinks are loaded with corn syrup so when I eat out I am usually restricted to water. Yes, it has made me much healthier thanks to lots of water, but a girl can't stand to drink cold water all the time when the weather is so cold out. Finding this box on my local Publix shelf made me VERY happy.

Decaf Chai Tea! Combine that with this yummy dairy free product...

and you have the perfect caffeine free, dairy free Chai Latte for a cold winter day. Yum! Back to enjoying my nice hot cup...

Thrifty Finds

Have you ever walked into a store and found the perfect item just waiting for you? Today was my lucky day. Not only did I find my new favorite shirt, but I found it on SALE for $2 at a thrift store. Score! It is just perfect for this weather and I can't wait to wear it!

It was menswear that had been miss shelved, but it fits like the perfect 80s ballet shirt.

LOVE!

My second purchase was athletic wear. I have been wanting a sweatsuit that was not as slouchy as good ol' Hanes, but not velvet or sequined. Surprise - they are hard to find. Today I found one like this by Reebok.

Yes. It is bubblegum pink. Not my usual style, but it fits well, is super comfortable and the pink might be fun for spring. At $6 for the set I couldn't resist.

My third find of the day was an Old Navy V-neck fleece. Those darn things sell out within a couple weeks in my size every year. Well today I got this one for $2. HA!

Anne Taylor would be shocked that her khaki pants went for $3.

I scored a like new black pencil skirt from NY and Co for $1.50. My old one was stretch cotton and had been through 15 years and three pregnancies with me. It was time to upgrade...

And one of these too.

I then I lost my mind and bought some of these...

They look SO cute on (thanks to the Bella Dahl label), but the color kind of scares me. I found four tops that matched in my closet so I think there is a chance I'll really like them. Hey, all the cool people are wearing them right? Right?

The real challenge comes when I get home. My closet is your standard double bi-fold door sized and I do not have a chest of drawers. The room I have with my closet organizer is the room I have. NO MORE. (I do admit to having a Space-bag in the attic with clothes one size smaller/larger as needed.) So when all this came in, I pulled out just as many items to go back out and I'm not sure what to do with them yet. For now I'll just enjoy my honeymoon with my new stuff.

Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies

My sweet tooth got the better of me today. I wanted cookies and badly.  I had a pouch of sugar cookie mix and several ideas for a "new" cookie. Here is what I came up with.

Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies

1 Pkg Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter, melted
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
6 oz Ghirardelli dark chocolate chips

Mix the first four ingrdients until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Drop onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake at 375* for 8-10 minutes.

Project 52: Week 2

Breakfast