I Finished the Curtains!

I just finished sewing the curtains for the living room windows and gosh darn it!! I am proud of myself! They look so good, don't you agree? I found some cool retro-style fabric and made four panels and then used some vintage ribbon from a yard sale to hold the curtains open. It's uncanny how well the ribbon matches the fabric colors, considering I bought the ribbon last summer and forgot all about it until I went searching for something to hold the curtains open. I like the contrast in the patterns and it makes the room look cool!

Then as a reward to myself for finishing the curtains, I picked some rhubarb and made a batch of Rhubarb Dream bars. You can find the recipe here. I substituted 2 cups of strawberries for the rhubarb so it is more like Strawberry-Rhubarb Dream bars, but whatever-- it's yummy!! I'd invite you over for a piece, but I don't think I can hold myself back much longer... Where's the knife and plate??

(*munching and chewing*) I hope you liked the pictures. I'm playing around (*swallowing*) and learning as I go. (*licking crumbs off the plate*) I'm being rude.. eating while I type, but the bars are just so good!! I'll save you a piece!

Homeschool??

We are seriously debating homeschooling the girlies. Sometimes I smack myself on the forehead and think I'm crazy (usually after a rough day with the girls) and then other days I think it is the best idea I ever had! It is something I have been thinking about almost since the day I gave birth to the oldest and now that kindergarten is just around the corner, I get panicky, thinking of her going to public school.

Hubby and I are the most easy going people you would ever meet. We wake up some weekends without a plan and say, "Hey, let's go to Berkley Springs for a drive." Or if friends call us up and invite us over at the last minute, we'll be there in a flash! We like to live a natural sort of existence, we buy organic meat from a ranch, grow our own food, try to buy organic at the food stores when we can afford it, and we don't succumb to the pressures of keeping up with the Joneses of the world. We always envisioned taking family vacations to historic areas and parks and throwing in a lesson while we are there. Visiting museums and teaching our girls about art and at the same time, teaching ourselves, too.

I think we live in an ideal location, we are 3 hours or less away from: DC with all the lovely Smithsonian's and historic districts; Mt. Vernon and Monticello, Luray Caverns and Williamsburg in VA; Gettysburg and Amish country in PA and more. Lots of farms and parks nearby to teach the girls about animals and farming. I don't doubt my ability to teach, but I worry about how I can juggle teaching and caring for the younger two.

Some part of me looks forward to Oldest going to school so I can focus more on the younger two, and then the other part of me fears that all our hard work in teaching her will unravel when she gets there. I know I must let go and let them grow, make choices and learn from their mistakes and successes. I just want them to be the best they can be and to grow knowing they can do most anything. Can they really learn all that being in a crowded class room with 30 other students? Can I really teach them to be independent and assertive on their own?

Oldest already knows how to write her name and writes all the letters of the alphabet. She knows her numbers and basic addition. She surprised me tonight with making pudding all by herself. She measured 2 cups of milk and mixed it all and came to get me after she made it. First, I was mad that she didn't ask first or come and get me for help, but when I saw what she did and that she did it right (and no mess all over the place), I was proud of her. Pudding is not something I make often, so I was impressed she had made it correctly. I have long suspected that she can read, but she doesn't realize she can. I let them help me cook from time to time and always show them and explain what I am doing next, why we measure ingredients and what happens when it gets hot and cooks. It must all be sinking in better than I thought it was. These are the moments that make me confident in homeschooling.

I also worry about taking on more than I can handle. The sacrifices I need to make in order to home school. Can we afford to buy the materials we need? Can I find a support group with the same or similar agenda I have? Do I have the patience? Maybe I should let her go to kindergarten and if I don't like it, I can always take her out and home school her. At least this way, she can make some friends and if I take her out, she'll still have her friends. Whatever we decide, we need to do it soon. Three more months before school starts for 2007-08 and we need to be sure and mostly, I need to prepare myself with supplies if we decide to home school.

I like the freedom that homeschooling offers, too. That is the biggest bonus after quality education. To not be confined to a schedule Monday through Friday, September through June. To pack up and go on a trip anytime without having to get permission from a school. If there is an exhibit during the week, I can go and avoid the crowds on weekends. And with Hubby working the 3 pm to 11 pm shift, he will be able to see the kids during the day instead of kissing them on their foreheads while they sleep and a quick breakfast before they go. It seems I am leaning more to homeschooling and I'll have to do more research before I commit. If I see a school desk at a yard sale, it's going to end up in the back of my car, and my decision will be made.

Yard Sale Treasures

As some of you may know, it was Memorial Weekend here in the States. That means many businesses were closed for a 3 day weekend. Of course, the shops are open! So that means for those that didn't go out of town for camping or frolicking on the beach, you can shop your little heart out at the stores with all kinds of sales for Memorial Day. If you're like me, you head to the yard sales!

It was a whopper of a weekend for yard sales! Up here, I am not sure why, yard sales start as early as Thursday!! I got 5 days of yard sales!! So if I can't get to that one today, I'll get it tomorrow! Fridays are the best day because I get to shop before the crowds on Saturday and Thursdays are maybe 2 or 3 sales, many miles apart. Be prepared to drive for yard sales up here, because in the mountains, they are spread out. But SO worth it!!

We drive along the main road and I am the spotter of signs touting sales this-a-way or that-a-way, while Hubby drives. The girls are pretty good when we go yard sale-ing, and I have since learned to bring plenty of snacks, drinks and toys to amuse them with. And they have since learned that going yard sale-ing will sometimes reward their patience with a toy or two. I have also become expert at becoming a toilet of sorts for the oldest when she needs to pee. We open both doors on the driver's side and I will stand in between, facing the car with girlie in front of me, she will drop her drawers and I'll pick her up behind the knee with her back leaning on my chest, and then she'll pee and I'll aim her stream away from my feet. This takes all of 30 seconds or so. We pop her back in the car when she is done and we are off, leaving behind a small puddle.

On our travels, we discover new roads that lead to dead ends, circle back to the main road, or keep going and going until we feel it's time to turn around and head back. Here in the hollows, hills and valleys, sometimes the roads you are heading into will take you into the deepest woods, blacktop fading to gravel roads, well-kept homes and lawns change to rough looking shacks and over-grown yards and you feel it may be time to break out the bread crumbs. No phone signals here, so if something should happen, you can't call for help and knocking on a door is not a welcome prospect. People live remotely for a reason and there are tales of people answering their doors with a shotgun in hand. I've never looked down the barrel of a gun and I certainly don't intend to start now. A full tank of gas is first on our check-list before we head out the door to go yard sale-ing.

The things I have had such a hard time finding in the city is plentiful here. My reasoning is the people here hold on to things and don't tend to keep up with the fashionable neighbors, like in the cities. If something works, they keep on using it and if it breaks, it gets fixed. Only until they pass away and relatives decide they don't want this stuff, sell them at yard sales, estate sales and auctions. And prices are CHEAP! I have come home with the back of the car filled and spent $50 or less. One yard sale we stopped at was a bounty of 70's items-- kidney shaped coffee table, polyester clothing, mod lamps and melamine dishes. We snagged the table for $5, a 1973 Daffy Duck drinking glass for $1, a vintage card shuffler for 50 cents. I spotted a box of melamine plates, cups and saucers and when I asked how much, she said they were free. SNAG! She had garbage bags on the ground filled with old clothes and fabrics and a sign that read "FREE", so of course I went through and found some materials for a future crafting project. We left with a full trunk and paid a total of $6.50!

I am so glad that Hubby likes to go yard sale-ing with me! It would be no fun having to drag a grumbling husband along, or if he stayed home, I don't want to hear him complaining about the "junk" I am bringing home. We are of similar tastes and we know that the stuff we like can only be found in second-hand shops and yard sales. It also helps that the stuff is cheap and if one of the girls break a glass (they have), I wont be too upset (ohh, my flower power glass! Oh well, I only paid 50 cents for it.) and there is my excuse to go and hunt for another one!

I use an old, white enameled chamber pot with a lid as a compost bucket. It still has the label on the side, only it says "Diaper Pail". My mom, when she saw the bucket on the kitchen counter next to the sink, immediately asked me why I have a "Poop pot" on the counter. Mom grew up in a 4-room house with no running water and an outhouse. At night and in the winters, they used the "poop pot" so they wouldn't have to run outside to the outhouse. With the invention of the toilet and more homes getting running water and bathrooms, the chamber pot company had a surplus of poop pots and decided to change out the labels and magically transform poop pots into diaper pails, saving themselves from bankruptcy. Even though my bucket is brand new (old, but never used) and advertised as a diaper pail, mom was grossed out by the idea of me having a poop pot in the kitchen. But I like it and it works for me. I have a bucket to put the day's worth of peelings and coffee grounds in and a lid to keep the stuff from smelling up my kitchen until I take it out to the compost bin.

It was a pretty good weekend for us. We didn't go camping or frolicking in the waves at the beach, no gathering with friends getting lubricated with alcohol, but we had fun! We worked in the garden, took a break and went yard sale-ing. Met some nice people, shared memories of the stuff they are selling, got some good deals and found some pretty neat stuff. More vintage aprons to add to my collection, the girl's Barbies have a new beach house to vacation in, Hubby got a few tools he needed, and even the outdoor cats got a cat house to live in. I'll let you know if disco lights suddenly flash on and off and music starts playing in the cat house. I assume payment will be made in the form of mice and birds....

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle!

I have just watched "An Inconvenient Truth" on DVD a little while ago and I take heart with what Mr. Al Gore is trying to say. I already do my part in recycling and reuse by taking aluminum cans and newspapers to the recycle center, going to reuse shops such as thrift stores, yard sales (I know it's not a shop, but you know what I mean!) and used book stores (why buy new when I can get a used book for $4 instead of $20) and by growing much of our own vegetables and canning the surplus. I know there is more that I could do to help save energy and reduce carbon emissions and I have visited the website: www.ClimateCrisis.net for more tips. You can click on the link and see for yourself.

I have always felt I was a bit old-fashioned and I actually enjoy doing things like hanging clothes out to dry on the line outside (*sniff* nothing beats the scent of clothes dried outside), growing my own food (you know organic foods taste so much better!), making and canning jams and tomatoes, etc., and making do with what I have instead of replacing something that could be fixed. I can appreciate the old mentality of saving scraps of cloth and using them as rags, or as part of a quilt or in my case, making a rag rug. 'Waste not, want not' was something I didn't fully understand up until a few years ago when I had started my own family and realized that if I threw something away that was still perfectly good, but had no use for it at the time, I would be wishing I had it later on and thinking "such a waste!" Hence- 'Waste not, want not'.

Before we moved, we lived in a town that was very gung-ho on recycling and encouraged it. We took our trash to the landfill and discovered the most wonderful thing ever and something I sorely miss to this day. Along with the usual receptacles to drop off your sorted glass, metals, plastics, newspapers, magazines, cardboard, yard waste, paint and chemicals, computer and electronics, used oil, clothing and fabrics, and finally household trash, there was also a shed labeled "Trash or Treasure." If you had a sofa that was too good to throw away, but you didn't want it anymore, you could drop it off in the shed and people could come by and take it-- free! You could drop off almost anything, and there would be attendants there to help you decide if it was worth putting there or to put in the trash bin. Hubby and I were there practically every weekend taking things and half our house was furnished with other people's cast-offs. I found a lovely antique arm chair with carved ball and claw feet and all it needed was re-upholstery. Hubby has found countless toy cars to add to his collection. We found play sets for the children to play on outside, including a barbie jeep for them to drive around in, in perfect condition and all it needed was a new battery. I also have what I consider one of my prized possessions-- a 1880's cupboard that was obviously kept in the barn (as in covered with poo, spiders and webs, and a mouse gnawed a hole through the back to make a home in the drawer) and when I cleaned it I found on the underside of the drawer a date and name. It is beautiful and I have gotten lots of compliments and I love to shock by saying, "I got it from the trash!"

To me, that is the ultimate in recycling-- instead of throwing away something that is perfectly good, you are just merely tired of looking at it, take it to the Trash or Treasure shed and let someone else have it. The landfill here, in our new town, in a new state, doesn't have a Trash or Treasure shed. Doesn't even have an aluminum recycling receptacle. All they have is one big bin you dump everything into, and they will then use a bull dozer to transfer the trash into a dump truck and then take the trash and dump it into an abandoned coal mine somewhere in the mountains of West Virginia. I am appalled.

Hubby took the trash one day, and when he got there, he saw a great looking wooden rocking chair. He asked if he could take it and they told him he couldn't. They weigh your vehicle before you go in, then weigh you again on your way out. They calculate the difference in weight and tell you what you need to pay. So if you took something from the trash, your weight would be different and you'd pay less. But what if you were to take said rocking chair out before you get weighed on the exit, the answer was still "no". How maddeningly frustrating that is!!! To see something that could be rescued and save a little room in the landfills and not being able to do it. The only option I can see is to lobby the county and demand they set up a Trash or Treasure site, or to stand outside the gates and inspect each passing vehicle for worthy items and ask if I can have it before they go in.

This is why I want to open my own thrift shop, because there is no place here that takes perfectly good rocking chairs and sofas and books and then offer them to the public at low prices. I want to catch those items and breathe new life into them and let other people fall in love with your old Pyrex dishes or dining room set. I love seeing something that has been around for 50+ years and seeing a new generation "discover" it and updating it in fresh style. I'll take your cracked plates and smash it and use the pieces to make a mosaic top for a scratched-beyond-repair table. I'll take that sheet with a hole in it and rip it up some more to make a rug. Make something new from something old. Ask around before you throw away your dishes-- maybe someone knows a young couple just starting out and don't have the funds to buy all they need. If you can, put it out on the curb with a "FREE" sign and I guarantee you, it'll be gone by the end of the day. You will have made space in your home, but more importantly, you'll have recycled and helped someone out.

Country Living

Living in the country requires a certain acceptance of things:

• It will take you longer to go places, because the drive is now 45 minutes instead of a quick 5 mile run.


• It is wise to stock up on pantry items in case you get snowed in, because country roads are the last to be plowed.


• Making friends will be harder because 1, they are harder to find and 2, you have a limited selection.


• Bugs, bugs, bugs!

This last one is something I am not too crazy about. In this, I am afraid I have the mentality of a city girl and I hate bugs! I can handle the gnats (they are ferocious up here and fly about your head bonking you over and over until you give up and go in the house) and the flies. I can even handle the daddy-long-legs (literally, I have to pick them up by the legs to rescue screaming girlies), and the occasional beetle (john, paul, ringo and george they're not!). But the 2 bugs I despise the most, are spiders and ticks! As long as the spiders are outside, we are not going to have a problem. I like to watch them spin their webs and have even watched them catch prey and then proceed to suck them dry (c'mere girlies-- look!). But if there is a trespassing spider in my house-- it dies! No questions asked, no interrogations under bright lights-- It. Is. Dead.

Ticks. I can't express enough how much I hate ticks. They attach themselves to the cats we have outside where no amount of tick repellent seems to work. I'll be petting the cats and feel a bump and my fingers automatically go back to that bump, trying to figure out what it is. A scab? A piece of twig? A tick!!! My hand recoils in horror and I am wiping my hand on my pants trying to erase all trace of touching a tick! **shudder!!** I'll call Hubby and tell him there is a tick on the cat and he'll tell me to go get the tweezers. "You do it!" I'll tell him. "No! You do it!" He'll tell me. I have discovered that when it comes to ticks, Hubby is a yellow-bellied chicken! So now I've got to sit the cat down, clear away the fur, hold the cat with one hand and with my other, tweeze the tick off. But Hubby is perfectly willing to take said tick (wrapped in a tissue and held by forefinger and thumb) and burn it! (What is it about men and fire??)

We were outside playing yesterday, after dinner, having a grand old time in perfect Spring weather, not too hot, not too cold. We looked for worms in the dirt, searched for Mr. Toad, looked at azaleas in the front yard, while I inspected the flowers on my raspberry bushes. I saw a tick climbing baby girl's shirt and swooped down like an assassin and promptly pulled it off her shirt and smashed it to oblivion between 2 rocks. I immediately went into strip search mode and marched all the girls into the bath and inspected every nook and cranny for enemy infiltration. None were found, mission accomplished.

At lunch today, while eating pizza and chattering away, middle girlie brushed her hair away from her face and I caught a glimpse of something dark-- A speck of dirt? A bit of mushroom from the pizza? A dab of pizza sauce? *GASP* A tick!!! I grabbed her and rushed into the bathroom and of course I scared middle girlie into tears and she ducked her head and tried to fight me off. I had to tell her there was a bug on her ear (Bug? BUG! AHHHH BUG!!! she starts to scream and bat her ears trying to get the bug off her) and mommy needed her to sit still so I could get it off. And then, of course, she sees an evil, shiny metal pincher coming at her and she falls all to pieces again. I finally grab that tick and pull and it has only just attached itself to the inside of her ear and was easy to pull off. I washed her ear with alcohol and praised her bravery and told her if she got a little zippy bag, we could put the tick in the freezer (in case any symptoms of Lyme disease show up and we can test the tick) and turn it into bug ice.

I don't know where that tick came from. Did we bring it in on our clothes last night and it fell off, wandering the house, looking for a victim? Did it sneak in on the cat, the one that escaped to freedom and came back in, tail tucked under, a prisoner captured and returning to finish his sentence? Or is there a crack in my house and it followed a spider? I'll have to be more vigilant with my strip searches now; check the beds, wash the clothes as soon as I have enough for a load, get Hubby to strip search me (of which he will gladly do!). Lyme disease is a very serious illness and it's amazing a little bug like that can cause such harm to people and other animals.

The girls have no interest in going outside, even though it is another beautiful day. I know the tick is still on their minds and they run to the freezer every now and then to inspect his frozen carcass. I took out the medical book and showed them a picture of a tick, and they compared pictures with our frozen tick. I explained what a tick does and where they come from and to call me if they see a tick anywhere. I think tomorrow, I shall ask them if they want to play at the park, where there are slides and swings and a rocky creek to play in. That should get their minds off ticks for awhile.

I DO love the country, even if I have to put up with the bugs.

Scrambled Thoughts

Having to think up 8 different things about myself while doing the tagging games took me down a path I haven't been down in awhile. It was nice to sit and think about what I've done and where I've been. It isn't something I get to do much of, since chasing 3 little ones around the house, and we can't forget Hubby, take up most of my time. My mind is constantly in motion, always thinking about one thing or another, and even Hubby knows that my head is a never-ending stream of thoughts and ideas. Before I can close my eyes at night, I have to shut down my brain by reading a book, doing a crossword puzzle or something that helps me turn off for the night. If I don't, I end up tossing and turning, my thoughts leading to a jumble of other thoughts.

Here is an example of how my mind works: I'll be thinking of what I need to make for dinner tonight and I head to the pantry, on the way over, my mind is mentally picturing the items on the shelves, when I step on a lego block, my mind zips over to *pain* and I kick it away, and now my mind is thinking I need to get after the girls to start picking up their toys, which leads me to thinking about the basement playroom and how it looks like a toy bomb went off, which is why they are banned from the basement until they learn to pick up their toys which leads to why they were banned in the first place which leads to the oldest biting the middle on the cheek and leaving bite marks 2 days later, which leads to feeling bad for the middle one and hoping she is feeling better and hoping it won't be noticeable tomorrow when we go to Walmart which leads me to thinking I need to buy more bandaids and neosporin>>>gotta write that on the list>>>seeing the grocery list makes me think of dinner again>>>going back to the pantry now>>> and all this in the space of a minute or 2. See how my poor mind suffers??

It is a rare day when my mind is completely quiet and I have a moment to myself and not have to think about where the girls are or if they need anything or I need to tell Hubby something or there is something that needs to be picked up, cleaned up, put away..... Since I am a stay at home mom, or as I prefer to say, a housewife, I don't get to go out very often. Hubby goes to work everyday and my job is to care for the girlies. I relish the 2 hours I get to myself every week when I go to the food store by myself. The freedom of not having to always know where the girls are and to just walk around without a kid hanging from my shirt or tripping over a kid that stops suddenly and sees something on the floor to pick up. Which leads me to think about a memory I remember of doing exactly that to my own mom when I was about 3 or 4 and we were walking down the hallway and I spotted a penny on the floor so I stopped to pick it up and here comes mom, not seeing me in the dark hallway and she flew over me and went splat on her face! She chewed me out and told me never to do that again, to let her know I am stopping or to move to the side and let whoever is behind me go. Which leads me to thinking about tonight, after giving the girls their bath and sending them into their rooms all wrapped up in towels and turning off the light, making the hallway dark, and tripping over the middle girl ducking down to pick up the doll she dropped on the floor.

I'm looking at the clock thinking I need to wrap this up so I can skedaddle and watch "Lost" on TV which leads me to think that I need to get dirty dishes from dinner washed and a load of laundry tossed into the dryer and then a quick stop in the bathroom which leads me to think I need to get all those newspapers into the recycle bin which leads me to remind myself once again not to forget to take the aluminum cans to the recycle center on Saturday morning which reminds me I want to go yard sale hopping and then I remember it's memorial weekend and there might not be too many sales and leads me to think about the sales at the food store for memorial weekend and how I wish we had a new grill since our old one finally kicked the bucket and thinking that Hubby has a 3 day weekend and maybe we can go somewhere for the day and I should print out a map route and that leads me to thinking about "Lost" again and looking at the clock......

I'm It--- Again!

I've been tagged again, this time by: Dj Kirkby. I hope this will be the last time, as it gets difficult trying to think of things to share (read: what I am willing to share) about myself. In case you are a new reader... I have to list 8 things that you don't know about me and then I tag another 5 people to share things about themselves. I won't be tagging anyone else, but if you want to tag yourself, you are more than welcome to! Here we go...

1. I have a tattoo on my right ankle of a peace sign made up of flowers. It was an 18th birthday gift to myself during my hippie days in college. Parental Units were mad. ( And no, I don't regret it.. I still stand for peace and flower power!)
2. I sewed and made all the window curtains in our house. I am currently working on the living room curtains and am about half-way done.
3. A teacher once caught me french-kissing a boy in class! He was reading a newspaper and we decided to play truth-or-dare. I was dared to kiss the boy sitting next to me. The exact moment we kissed, the teacher put his paper down and caught us! No one got in trouble but the game was over!
4. I collect old Pyrex dishes and mixing bowls. I have too many to count and use them, display them, and sell off the extra ones.
5. When I was little, we used to live near some railroad tracks. I used to ride my tricycle back and forth over the tracks when the train was coming until I chickened out. (Sorry Mom and Dad!)
6. I dream of opening my own thrift or antique shop someday. My basement is filled with boxes of old stuff and furniture. We call it "the store". Until then, eBay will do.
7. Once, a friend and I were at a dance club, and we were dancing together. A very persistent guy wanted to dance with me, but he didn't pass approval in the looks department (yes, we judged by looks. we were 21!) and I told him to buzz off. Someone bumped into me and I fell and scraped my palm. Mr. Persistent saw, grabbed my hand and licked my blood! Ewww! I snatched my hand away and called him a vampire! Mr. Vampire wouldn't leave, so my friend and I kissed each other and he finally left. So now you know why girls always travel in pairs, to keep guys like Mr. Vampire away!
8. We bought a canoe about 6 years ago before the kids came along. We still haven't used it. sigh....

Alrighty! I am officially retired from these Tagging games!! If you want to tag yourself and say I did it, then you have my permission! Go forth and share 8 things about yourself, and let me know you did! Ta-ta!