The post where I have nothing to say....

because I really don't... and for for me that is something short of amazing.

Ever have one of those weeks where everything goes according to plan and things run smoothly? Nope, me neither. It stormed. Then it got to 60 and flooded. Then it stormed again and the 4 inches of snow and ice was....troubling.

All my spring bulbs came up. Now, they are covered in 4 inches of snow. The back yard is flooding- last night it was up by about 4 ft. The house is safe (built on a hill) but it always gets me thinking.

My vacuum cleaner sheared a bolt and is now dead. The washer is making a strange noise. The dryer is taking it's own sweet time drying things. My husband went to go see a specialist for a health issue only to be told that A) the other Dr.'s didn't know what the hell they were talking about and B) He's not the specialist he should see.  The boy has to go see the orthodontist on Monday to see what is to be done with his mouthful of adult teeth that are sort of here and there all over his mouth.  I cannot get the scum off of the shower stall. It's grossing me out.......

AND to top it all off...I spent yesterday, THURSDAY, thinking it was actually FRIDAY. I was really looking forward to coffee in bed this morning from my dear Mr. Didn't happen.

I'll be better soon. Maybe even this weekend. I have to prepare for an antique show we're doing St Patricks weekend so I might even have pretty pictures to show you!

Have a fantastic, wonderful day!

Hello March!

That's us in the beautiful magenta color-12/15 inches

Boy, did we have a storm. Heavy, wet snow...and it came down 1 to 2 inches per hour. It's pretty...but destructive. We lost power. You don't realize how much you depend upon electricity until it's gone. That goes double for us since I don't even have water or phones without electric.  We dug out and drove the 2.5 miles down to my Moms house (because she DID have electric) and dropped the boy off. At 7 the lack of lights, tv, and the Internet was more than he could bear. Add to that the temp in the house was falling fast and he's been so sick it was worth the trek down the street and up the hill to get him to civilization again.

The first restore time was Monday at 4 pm. This was given to us on Saturday at 9 am. Unacceptable. The power did come back on Saturday so we can't complain too much...and the boy ended up staying the night at Grandma and Grandpas ...and the Mr. and I got a much needed "adult" night in.

I'd have to say it was a pretty good weekend.....

I'll have more to say later I'm sure. 

Day 5......

It doesn't matter if they're 7 or 45.

The illness progression..... The boy got sick first. Only was down about a day. Congested and not a lot else.....then he gave it to me....I slept 42 out of 48 hours. Felt like crap but made myself go on...... Gave it to the Mr.(sorry)  He felt like crap. He was down for 4 or 5 days.... then I got sick again....headaches, earaches, tired....and now the boy has it again...... This is day 5 for him. Temp of 102+ for two days, congestion, tired. The worst is over now.....I might have been able to send him to school today BUT I don't want him to be exposed to other germs right now. And germs are everywhere. Seems every other person in this town has this creeping crud.

I have been out of the house for less than 1 hour in the past 5 freakin days. Tomorrow isn't looking any better. ICE STORM on it's way.  Soon you'll be able to see the crazy in my eyes.

Spring can't get here fast enough....

Because I don't have enough projects already.....

I am considering painting the brick wall in my living room.

Pros-

1. it's fake. The wall AND the brick.
2. There is a non working fireplace behind that sofa.
3. We are going to remove that wall and redo all the walls, the ceiling and the flooring. Just not this year. Or maybe not even next.
4. I have hated it since we moved here......almost 9 years ago.

Cons.
1. It really is fine the way it is.
2. It's a lot of work to paint brick...even if it is just brick facing.
3. I would have to paint that door the same color I think.
4. I am lazy.

Ideas? And yes, that mantle is too high. BUT, to lower it, or remove it would muck up the wall and again, that wall is not being removed and/or fixed this year. It must stay. But, I could paint it the color of the bricks (if I painted) to try to make it blend into the wall more....

Now I know why I love Ikea......

turns out, I'm kinda Swedish. My Great Great Grandparents....ALL of them on my paternal side, were born in Sweden and came here in the 1880's.  Why do I know this now? Well, that illness is still ripping through the family (the hubs has it now) so I'm sorta stuck on the computer all day. I don't want to make too much noise by you know, cleaning or tv watching...so that sort of leaves the computer or reading.  And my new lenses aren't here yet....so computer it is. I can only go shopping so long...so I decided to go searching around census records and marriage records for my family.

On the maternal side of my family I have the genealogy to the 1500 and 1600 hundreds all mapped out. We came from Germany and England mostly. Some Dutch. But, they came over here early-before we were a country. The paternal side was a bit slower in arriving. But, they came and I guess that's really all that matters.

I am having a bit of an issue with a few relatives though- their names were changed slightly when they were either naturalized or because they started going by their middle names. It doesn't help that my last name is like the most common one in Iowa during the Swedish influx in the  1800/1900's  and  there wasn't the attempt to give their kids unique names...it's all Charles and John and Mary not a Blue or Moondoggy in the bunch!

Well, back to the salt mines of handwritten census records....

Be healthy.

Drip, Drip, Drip.....

I was sick. So sick that I slept for 42 out of 48 straight hours. Now, I just have a leaky nose . On top of that I had to go see the eye doctor today because I'm nearly blind and he dilated my eyes. 4 hours later and I can sort of see again.
Even though I was going through all that- I still managed to get something done today!

The Mr. brought these home for me last night-

What are they? Two matching bookcases that originally came from the University of Michigan. Made in Holland Michigan. Rough, as you can tell. But they were cheap- 15 bucks each. We can ALWAYS use bookshelves. They are rough, but sturdy little buggers. Plus, the Mr. knows that I have skills.

Today they look like this....

How? Well, I washed them. That helped a lot. And then I used Howard Restor-A- Finish in neutral. Works like a champ. I tested a sample spot last night before going to bed....and when I saw the results this morning I finished them before my appointment.

I can't wait for the Mr. to see them tonight!

Have a fantastic weekend everyone!

Happy Valentines day!

Have a good one with the one you love!

spring hang out

spring hang out by thefarmersdaughter featuring a teardrop necklace

Things I want to do....

I need to rewire this....

To make it look more like this....

And I have to make an eye appointment because...

More about the lamp tomorrow.  My eyes hurt today.

Later.

I've got nothin......

Honestly, I would post something if I had something. But I got nothin. The boys were slightly sick at the beginning of the week so we laid about watching Thor and generally kicking back. 

I haven't cleaned anything. I haven't painted anything. I haven't organized anything. If I could get off my lazy ass I would at least do the dishes and run a load of laundry...but...odds aren't good. I might go back to sleep.

maybe tomorrow.......

The post about the room that never had a real function....

When we moved into La Casa Verde 9 years ago things we a lot different than they are now. I was pregnant, this house had no furnace so we were living in the basement where there WAS heat, and it seemed like we had a ton of room to spare. I had an office, the Mr. has a office and we had a spare room for crap.

Once the furnace was installed, the spare room for crap turned into the boys nursery , and the Mr lost his office so we could move upstairs too. Eventually, the boy got bigger, and I lost my office when we moved him in there-even though the rooms are the same size..... there's less windows and more wall space in that room and we figured that would be a bonus for him. That meant that his old nursery went back to a crap collector. Sure, I tried using it as an office...but it's small and it just ended up full of stuff with no real home. Besides...I don't really need an office. Not once in 5 years have I needed an office.....

So, last week I had this....

Just a few square feet of carpet area away from being on Hoarders!

And I had this...

I decided to paint the walls a blue so it would flow better from the hallway..

That gold was hard to cover up!

And now I have this...

This still needs art over the sofa.... but I can't quite make up my mind yet....and it needs more floor pillows for the boys to watch movies on!

and, although this isn't cute, it's organized and functional. The TV is huge. It's for my son to watch his movies on and for us to play Wii...but I'm considering buying a flat screen now since I spent almost nothing on this make over.

********

I spent......5 dollars making over this room. One gallon of mis tint paint that I had actually purchased for my sons bedroom but ended up not needing. I had everything else....the sofa was the old one from the living room, the denim cover has been living under my bed for a year..the curtains are the old ones from my blue bedroom that ended up being stored away when I painted that room green. I found the white linen curtain in my closet.

There is some changed I'd like to make. I would like a different sofa or chairs in here. Maybe this summer. The sofa works fine though. As I said before, I would like a new TV that takes up far less space. I would like a second chair in here...and maybe some floor pillows. I think I will wait though and see what I want in a week or two.

It's enough now that this room is clean, organized and useful. We have been in this room more in the past two days than in the entire year prior.

Pretty good for a gallon of paint and around 10 hours of work!

PS

Yes, that's a lot of stuff on those shelves. But I love it all. And I did remove 2 Rubber made tubs full of crap out of this already!

Yesterday was my birthday....

and I am now 46 years old.

WOW.

46.

This is me with no make up, but with hair color. I am 100% grey. Have been now for 10 years.....and although I am ok with getting older...I am NOT OK with me having grey hair. My coloring is all wrong for grey hair.

My husband took the day off from work to spend it with me yesterday. We just hung out. Did a little shopping. Spent some time together. I threw my diet out the window and ate birthday donuts, dairy queen and pizza for dinner. A lot of pizza...all washed down with a pims and ginger ale. Bad for me yes, but oh so good.

But today...it's back to fiber cereal and laundry.

Oh, and that damn groundhog saw it's shadow.  But, since it was 50 degrees for the past two days....6 more weeks of winter seemed likely anyway. It's been mostly spring like this season- except for about 5 days....and that's just not right for Michigan. Yes, I know all about the jet stream and WHY we're warm. But still...it's just not right.

Have a great day!

PS

I got my office done...on a budget of 5 bucks. Yep. 5 bucks. More about it tomorrow.

Global Warming

It's going to snow here this weekend. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal here in Michigan in January. But this year it is. We've had to use the snow blower once this winter. We've had more ice days off than snow days off. Right now, the side yard has little to no snow .  We should have FEET of snow. Many, many feet. We have nothing. It was 40 degrees outside today.

It's really, really strange.

Battles....

Yup. We have an ice day today (and maybe tomorrow, although it's a bit early to know for sure) and the boy is trapped inside. Why? It's raining. Pouring actually. On a hard snow pack and ice....so it's like a skating rink out there. A wet, nasty skating rink.  The road is glare ice, the porch and paths are 3 inches deep in water. When it freezes tonight it's gonna be awful.

We put up new shelves in the boys room this weekend and so Max and I are putting stuff up on them today. They aren't exactly done yet- a cover still needs to be attached on the bottom supports- but I'm tired of the toys on my dining room table..... He's decided to put up his "precious" Star Wars stuff and some of the Lego's kits he's made up there....I wanted stuff that he didn't want to play with as much up there...but- again- pick your battles. He'll get tired of getting the step stool or one of us to grab a toy. I hope.

These are the shelves over his desk....

These are the shelves that just went up on the bed wall....the supports along the very bottom are going to be covered up with wood painted the wall color.  He won't be tempted to hang off them, I won't see them....win win.

Some of his masks over the door now....

So we still have work to do (including a lot of painting- both the shelves and the trim) but he was invested in this project so hopefully he'll start keeping his room a bit cleaner all on his own. Of course, if he takes after his father...all bets are off. ;)

Stay warm, dry and safe.

Some things you can live with.....

and some things you can't. It's just a case of picking your battles. I can live with dusty floors- even carpet with dead fern leaves on it for a while at least. I can live with a dining room table that has piles on it (not forever mind you...but a while) I can live with my sons room being a sty. He's 7, it's normal....but I CANNOT stand a dirty kitchen.

Last night I went to bed without cleaning it. I was tired, drained from taking care of the boys. I wanted to shower and sleep. So, this morning I was greeted with this....

I have to remember not to do that again-in a kitchen this small you just have to stay on top of things...... I just about heaved at 6 30 this morning. It was tough making breakfast and the home lunch for the boy. I had trouble getting to the coffee maker. I had no sink space. It was gross. At least all the food was put away properly last night so I didn't have to deal with garbage too....

1 hour later and I have this...

Counters, cabinets, walls and floors all washed and clean. Dishes in the washer put away and the machine re loaded. Sinks scrubbed out. Microwave cleaned out and stove top polished.  It would have taken me less time but I straightened out the pantry too, and re did the corner area where my calenders are AND did the filing!  A productive morning if I do say so myself....

now, on to the laundry!

Fantastic Friday everyone!

Happy Thursday

School is back in (although  in all honesty, the roads were so awful they should have called it off this morning) the Mr. is no longer throwing up loudly and often, and I have the house back to myself.  It's not clean, but it's coming back to life. It's amazing that one small child stuck in the house for two days and a sick husband can destroy an entire house...but it happened.

I am hopeful the weather clears by Saturday and I get out shopping. I have been trapped in this town since before Christmas and I desperately need to get out. Wish me luck.

Not again.....

Snow day....or maybe it was an ice morning. I don't know which one it was, but it's keeping us all inside- even the dog won't go past the porch right now. I haven't heard a car on the village main street for hours. I guess we've had another 4 inches? of snow with an underlay of ice on top of the other 6 inches on the ground. I know, it's not much for this time of the year...but last week I was walking around in a spring jacket and flip flops. I saw dudes at Lowes wearing shorts....and now....a freakin winter wonderland.

The boy is drawing and watching the Muppet's on tv. The Mr. is sick. I am bored. I've been windows shopping this morning and trying to get some inspiration for the office re do that is staring me in the face. I know that I want the office re do to come in under 100 bucks, and the smaller boys bedroom re do to come in under 50. So, budget in hand I need to get to work. 

stay warm and dry everyone.

The sun will come out.....

Today! It came out and suddenly everything just looks a whole lot better!

This is one of my latest projects. Behind my bed is a large window that overlooks our neighbors house- so no loss of view there! The Mr. bought a 6 dollar bed at an estate sale and we used the headboard here...attached it right to our frame- it stops the pillows from falling behind the bed at least!  Then I took the brown curtains that used to be in our dining room and hung them high over the bed. It's dramatic. It keeps the light and cold out. I like it.

The white thing on the floor is a pillow for my poor dying dog. He's failing fast. I'm just trying to make his last days on earth more comfortable....

I cleaned out my closet. I organized the tiny thing and got rid of a ton of stuff - 87 items so far this year (the entire list of what I have removed from our home as of right now is on my 5 a day page on the top bar).  I have found I have too many jeans and not enough long sleeved t shirts. All in all though, I'm OK. I stay at home and rarely go out except to go grocery shopping so I don't actually need a bunch of dressy stuff....just comfortable clothes that don't make me look or feel like a slob. Or 17. Because I'm not. 17. I might be a slob..the jury's still  out there...

Next project- the office. I know. It's only 8 years of reading about me planning this office. This year..it's gonna happen. Really.

snowmageddon!

Last night we went from nothing to.....

yea. we have 6 inches now on the ground. No school today. The village had no power (except our street...we had power but no cable or tv or internets...) all day until after 4pm.  You would think Michigan had never seen snow before the way everyone was acting.....

7 days and counting....

I have insomnia. Often. For many days at a time. Last week I slept 6 ish hours ( in 1 and 2 hour intervals) in 3 days. Then, over the weekend I actually slept on Saturday night/Sunday Morning (from 2am to about 8 am, then again until around 11 am) but last night (Sunday) I got no sleep. zip. I am dead on my feet...zombie type dead.  I'm not growling but it's close....

Now, before anyone mentions pills. I can't. I am not only an insomniac, but a sleepwalker. I would be one of those people who grab their keys, drive to the McDonalds, order everything on the menu and eat it all and never remember a moment of it while on those things. I have tried Valerian root, and it does work a bit for me..but I get very vivid dreams with it and that wakes me up....so the point of it is kind of lost on me.....

No matter what is going on....I do have work to do. Except when I had my  H1N1 infection last year, I have stuff I have to do almost every day.   I have to get the boy ready to go to school- pack his lunch, make sure he gets dressed etc... I have to do at least one load of laundry. I do a load of dishes every other day (today was that day). I don't "have" to do much, but I do need to get this stuff done, and I am just dragging.

The Mr. is going to pick up the boy at school today since I can't be trusted behind the wheel of a car right now, and I am going to try to go to bed, or at least lie down. Maybe put on "Ancient Aliens" and giggle myself to sleep....

2012- so far, so good.

Today is the 6th of January, so according to my self imposed rule of removing 5 items per day from my home,  I should have gotten rid of 30 items. I am actually at 42 items. I took a HUGE bag of karma to the Goodwill yesterday- kids clothes and mens dress clothes mostly. I haven't even started on my stuff and household extras. Bonus, I am finding out what we really need to replace. It's such a win-win.

The second part of my resolution was to eat better. That too, has been good this week. No fast food at all. No take outs, not even coffee so far, although I am not against that really- I drink regular coffee with some cream- no huge whipped frap things.  I have cooked all week long. Lasagna, hamburgers (with beef from our cow), pork chops (from our pig) and last night I cooked for my parents too and made beef broccoli stir fry (again, from our cow). Tonight I'm making us tacos. I am even going to make the pico...... PLUS my parents are going to visit my Aunt (today) and I sent them with 3 containers of home made food to give her- chili, beans and hocks and turkey noodles. My Mr. even took lunch to work with him one day this week (out of only three there...) so that's better than normal. He eats at the University often due to his work with groups so I know he eats very well there and they make everything from scratch too.... so really one or two days is all he needs and he can keep out of McDonalds....

Everyone have a great weekend. We're off to a hockey game tomorrow and to help the Mr. move into his new offices.....