Frustration here, Frustration there, Frustration EVERYWHERE!

This week my Facebook has decided to act funny. I can get on, I can see just the first few status' of my friends, I can't go beyond that, I can't push any buttons. That's the problem, I can't push any buttons. I'm Frustrated!

I wanted to get the pictures out of my camera and start posting them here ...well the camera is not talking the computer. I've tried to mediate but they just won't recognize each other! So the pictures are still in the camera. I'm Frustrated!

I'm Frustrated with my schedule last week, someplace to be EVERY day, very little home time. So today I'm giving up! I'm staying home ALL DAY! I'm going to just curl up with a movie or a book and pretend everything is working fine. This is my favorite place to be .... Denial!

I promise an update soon!

I just rushed in the door from subbing, I'm waiting for G to get off the bus. I just wanted to let you know that this week has been seriously busy, I am amazed at just how busy and filled up it has gotten.

I have several pictures and several ideas to post but just no time to sit and process it all enough to blog it.

I don't think I've been home more than a few hours (and awake) all week ... amazing! I'm usually more protective of my time than this, but somehow things just got piled into this week. This morning I just wanted to scream when someone called to request that I do some training Friday right smack in the middle of the day! I knew all week that they were trying to arrange the training but seriously from 11:30 to 1:30?

Gotta run now .... only time I could get a haircut!

2010 Book Review #3 "The Art of Racing in the Rain"

What a unique little book.

This book is written from Enzo's point of view.

Enzo is a dog, a dog that belongs to Denny.

I liked this book.

It won't be in my all time favorites just simply because I found the book too predictable.

It was a quick enjoyable weekend read.

it gets a 3.75 out of 5

2010 Book Review #2 "In His Holy Name"

Hmmmm, I don't know what to think about this book.

I really looked forward to getting it, reading it and enjoying it.

I love to hear this author speak, he is truly one of my favorites.

BUT this book, well I'll be honest

is over my head, at least that time being!

I don't know if over my head is the right term, it addresses questions that I simply don't have.

I thought it was going to be more of a self help book whereas it was a teaching manual.

It discusses the uses, meaning and concepts of the name of the Savior. How we use the name of the Savior through the scriptures, prayers and in our church meetings.

Interesting in the latter chapters of the book, but too technical for me in the beginning.

If you in the right place in your life (and have questions of why we use the name of the Savior in the ways that we do) then by all means read it (you can borrow mine), but if you're looking for entertainment this isn't your book.

should have just stuck to my one thing!

I went to the city today to run errands, plain and simple.

My friend called me to ask if she could tag along, she a had couple of errands and then we'd have lunch. Sounded perfect to me!

One of her errands was to Hobby Lobby. There was one thing I'd been wanting to get there, no big deal I'd just run get my thing then I'd tag along with her.

She stuck to her one thing .... I didn't!

I got my one small craft item and then I saw it ......I'd been wanting a black mirror to replace my wood mirror ...they didn't have a black one but a very dark one ...AND at 50% off.... in the cart it went.

I got home worked at getting it up before hubby got home. I worked and worked, stupid screws won't hit the right spots! Ahhh, there it was hung perfectly .... I step back to marvel that the beauty I'd just hung and things went blurry!?!
JUST HOW CAN THIS BE?

The mirror was terrible. As long as I was close up it was fine, but when I stepped back a few steps it was horrible. I left the room, refusing to look at it, but when I did ~ carnival style mirror re-appeared.

I took it down and put the old brown one back up. I'll return it tomorrow.
Should have just stuck to my one item!

Wise Words

"Faith is taking the first steps,

even when you don't see the whole staircase."

Martin Luther King

Sunday Thoughts

The talks were all on the Love of God today.

They were all great.
I enjoyed them and they gave me things to ponder this week.

The lady that spoke had me confused for a bit ....

She kept saying that "We should love others as we love ourselves"
I just kept wondering about how sometimes I'm very critical of myself. If that's how I feeling, that shouldn't be how I treat others.... confusion....BUT then she said what she meant .."We should love others as Christ loves us" WOW, now that's a whole other concept! One that I'm not confused at all! We should love others unconditionally, not with conditions.

Then the most enjoyable speakers (in my opinion) spoke. He is just easy to listen to.
Some of the notes I took from his words ....
~ Our Father's work requires love
~ When we are asked to do a calling (position) in the church we should do it with Love
~ There is a purpose for that position at that moment
~When we're obedient to our callings we'll be blessed
~ What do we really love?
~What is foremost in our minds? What do we seek?
~ We should seek after the spiritual not the material
~ Keeping the commandments allows us to grow spiritually
~ Our Father Wants us to grow ~ this means that we'll be tested
~ These test will become easier as we grow
~ We should listen for answers/guidance from the Lord

Dinner Date with my Baby

This week G and I found ourselves in the city at supper time.

He'd never been & he loves spaghetti so we went to

The Olive Garden. I taught him how to use his

fork and spoon to eat spaghetti.

(Notice the concentration?) He is a fast learner.

AND

He loved his spaghetti!

I loath Slush

I can handle snow, I can handle the cold ....but this slush is about to get the best of me!

Right at our driveway's end was a big snow drift (going across the road) the road grader has come by at least once a week (since Christmas eve) and pushed a snow mound right across our drive way. AAAGGRaaahh! it created a huge bump, that was over the height of a curb. I've scouted out the other driveways ....no one Else's just ours! It was so high that I would find myself bracing for the impact. This mound was firmly frozen so there wasn't much I could do other than pray it didn't hurt my van or give me whiplash.

WELLLLLL ~

The past couple of days it's been 40ish. Snow is melting. This bump has become a mound of slush. An impassable mound of slush! I got stuck going out this afternoon, stuck enough that I had to stop a farmer passing by to pull me out! Then about 4 mini stucks trying to get back in. OH that was fun as I now had G with me! Actually really stuck BUT I found a small pile of gravel that I could scoop with my hands and put rocks behind my wheels. 4 times! I was running out of gravel. Then driving up to the house, there is now a lake of water and slush ... no place to drain. I worked on a new drainage system there for quite some time.

SLUSH I could live without it!

School Spelling Bee

This morning was G's all School Spelling Bee.

He was one of two that represented his class.

He was so excited and nervous for this day.

He was one of 12 that made it pass

the first round by spelling

Suggest correctly.

But was out in the second round

with a miss spelled Beautiful

I am so proud of you!

Frozen Frost

This morning we woke up to a thick fog and freezing temps (20).

As the fog drifted away it revealed the beautiful frozen fog left behind.

Snowball in the Garage

Today I started out moving.
The Sun was shining it was already 22 at 8am.
It was going to be a good day to get things done.

I worked shipping things for Hubby.

I moved that car so the sun could hit the driveway. Melt melt away snow!
Then I went to garage ... and then things snowballed ....
I worked on the recycling for the school. I was able to ship off 2 big boxes of Juice pouches and chip bags. Cha Ching!

then I decided that my recycling could go too! I loaded the van full to take to the recycling truck in town. When I got there it seems like everyone in town had had the same idea. The truck was spilling over! That's a good thing!

then the Dog's blanket could be aired out, Skip didn't know what to think of his blanket outside.

I've now delivered all, put everything back in place in a more organized fashion!

A snowball of organization!

Sunday Thoughts

Well today was a long time coming. We hadn't had church due to weather issues for 2 weeks plus it marked a change.

Let me start off by saying that in our church we don't build buildings for all of our congregations. Thus we share buildings. Our building had only one congregation in it for umpteen years (since the 1980's). When we moved in 12 years ago we meet at 10am and continued at that time until last summer when we moved to 9am. That's when we added another congregation to our building. Today marked the first time our congregation met starting at 12:30pm.

WOW! this threw off my 'getting ready clock". Actually moving the time to 9am threw it off, but it just meant that it was chop chop, quick, quick all Sunday morning. Now it's quite the opposite. I got up, wandered around, showered, wandered around, blew my hair dry, more wandering, worked on my hair, wandered, put my jewelry on, ...... it was a long drawn out morning. AND it was still NOT time to leave. I felt like I could really relate to the Israelites wandering the wilderness for 40 years.

Needless to say we got there on time, sat in the chapel. About half way through the meetings I was ready for a snack and a nap. Then when I got home fixed supper it was almost time to bed.

OK on to the message ... "Hope in Christ"
I didn't take notes today, but I know from my own experience that when I feel like there is no Hope, it's really depressing. I feel like I need Hope to function, to move forward, to keep positive. In Christ I find all of this, the ability to function, the ability to move forward and the ability to be positive.

Words of G

A couple of days ago G came bounding into the room.

G ~ "Mom, when is your and dad's anniversary?"
Me ~ "in the spring"
G ~ "I'm thinking that you two need to go away on a vacation."

I'm thinking what a loving thought for this boy
to wish for his parents an anniversary getaway.

Me ~ "Ok, maybe we'll go on a cruise" waiting for hubby's negative response to a cruise
G ~ "oh, that would be great, then W and I can have the RUN OF THE HOUSE!"

Again....

I wasn't going to post about the snow fall again, but when my boys look back on this winter I'll wish I would have.

Since just before Christmas there have been 3 significant snow falls. Each storm brought at least 3 inches of snow with frigid temps and blowing winds.

It is beautiful (from a inside looking out kind of way)
It is cold (zero was the high yesterday)
We couldn't find out Drive way
(until Farmer Bob came to the rescue)


It was blinding
(we couldn't see the tower lights that flash all night)


It was Christmasy (in a whipped frosting kind of way)

It left work to be done ....

The first snow obviously blew into the attic and on the one day it got above freezing melted.
these are only 2 of the water spots there are 6 right now, but the number may go up as the rest of the snow melts. Yes, the wind blew that hard that it got in our 'ridge cap'

Yes, I'll remember this winter for a long time (she says like the winter is over!?!)

Snowbow

Today hubby called home on his way home to tell

us to put our sunglasses on and look at the sun.

there was a Snowbow.

Can you see it?

it's there on both sides of the sun

way out at the edges of the picture.

We shot this shot through hubby's polarized sunglasses

and you can see the bow is larger.

In reality the bow would have gone all the way around the sun.

Pretty cool, huh?

Another night another new recipe

I can't believe that I haven't told you about this Christmas present yet!

(I didn't get permission for this picture so look fast it might disappear)

As you already know I love the Pioneer Woman

and now I love her cookbook, too

Tonight's supper is from this cookbook

(which you should RUN out and buy)

Chicken Pot Pie

(I don't think it would be right to give out her recipe on this one, sorry)

Very Tasty

Thumbs up all the way around table.

Another Yummy new dish

Can you tell that I'm tired of all the old dishes I was making? It's almost scary around here at dinner time. Chances are it will be new and never tried in this house before dish! Thus far I've only had one that was a "no go".

This breakfast dish I had Saturday morning when G had a church primary activity. It is wonderful, plus gluten and yeast free (if you need to know that) and YUMMY.

This picture is the recipe halved

Today this is Manipulation Breakfast casserole.....W and some of his buddies are suppose to work in the barn. They spent the night, this is my tool to getting them up (somewhat) early.

Amish Breakfast Casserole
Serves 12
Ingredients

1 pound sliced bacon,
diced 1 medium sweet onion, chopped (optional in my house)
6 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups small curd cottage cheese
1 1/4 cups shredded Swiss cheese

Directions

In a large skillet, cook bacon and onion until bacon is crisp; drain. In a bowl, combine the remaining ingredients; stir in bacon mixture. Transfer to a greased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.
Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 35-40 minutes or until set and bubbly.

Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Simple but oh so tasty ....

I found this super easy, super good recipe for Apricot Chicken .

After I shared/tried it with my family I knew I had to share it with you.

Hey, when I say simple, super easy, that's what I mean PLUS the ingredients are things you can keep in your pantry (aka always on hand)

My kind of meal!

Multi Tasking

Yesterday I think I took Multi Tasking to a WHOLE new level. I was challenged!

From 10 to 2 ~
I made brownie's on a stick
made supper for a woman at church that was sick
had friend day for G
laundry
made up a bank deposit
made supper for us
cleaned up the kitchen
worked for hubby
and made sure the boys got to the Y (thanks W)

After 2 and before 4
I delivered the meal
Delivered the brownies on a stick
went to the bank
went to the grocery store
took the boys out for lunch
went to the post office
still worked on laundry
and got back home before G's friend's mother arrived (but only moments before)

Shewww!

2010 Book Review #1 "Same Kind of Different as Me"

When I started reading Same Kind of Different as Me I thought it was a totally different book as when I finished it. Somewhere in the middle it took a turn for even better.

The combination of Ron Hall and Denver Moore is wonderful. One I found myself in and the other I found myself wanting to be.

This book certainly gets a 5 out of 5 stars from me.

quotes from the book .....

"I'll have to think about that"

this quote made me realize that somethings

(most things) should given more time to be thought about

"Catch and Release"

What kind of person am I?

"It is good"

I need to remember this one

"Just get out of the way and let God do His thing"

Stop worrying over things

"I worried that I was so different from them that we wadn't ever gon' have no kind a' future. But I found out everybody's different - same kind of different as me."

this one says it all

I recently read the notes of someone that had heard

Mr Moore and Mr Hall speak a stand out quote from her notes .

"Some people are Bible readers

and some people are Bible Doers"

wow if that doesn't give you something to think about!?

Happy Birthday Hubby

Happy 54th Birthday

2010