Personal
Madison grows up a little more...
19/01/10 22:55
Here is a shot of my little girl about to get her ears pierced at Claire's in the mall. She turned 10 years old this month, and we decided that it would be okay to get her ears pierced. We talked at length about our bodies and what we want to project as women. There is a big difference between piercing your ear and piercing all the other parts of your body. And they are done for totally different reasons. I wanted Madison to see that it is okay to want to be pretty and feminine, but it is not okay to put holes all over your body to get men to look at you. Yes, I wax protective, because I want her to grow up to be confident of who she is in this backwards world.
Anyway, she was very brave, even though we teased her that it would hurt so bad she would scream and cry. She said it hurt but not that much. Her choice of her first earring was her birthstone, the amethyst. Many people believe that wearing your birthstone brings good luck, health, or wards off bad luck, however, birthstones really have their origins in... you guessed it... Scripture! Another thing taken by the world and twisted into folklore. In Exodus 28, the priests of the 12 Tribes of Israel are instructed to make a breastplate of sorts, called the breastplate of judgments or the breastplate of decisions. It contained one jewel for each of the 12 Tribes and was worn when the priest made a judgment call on something. Pretty cool! Of course, over time, this was taken to other cultures and eventually came to symbolize the 12 stones for the 12 months of the year. Eventually, the Jewelers of America came up with a standardized American version of the 12 birthstones. That is the chart we use today.
Enough history lesson... let's see her with her new earrings...
There she is! She looks great, and she is busy cleaning them 3 times a day for the next 6 weeks. She's already acting older and more mature... we'll see how long that lasts! LOL!
Christmas at the Homestead
31/12/09 16:51
Well, we don't really have a "homestead" per se, at least not yet. But we did have Christmas. It was a little un-traditional, which is normal for us. We went to service on Christmas Eve. It was very nice. We opened stockings and had a very quiet evening. We were done with all the baking, so we all sat down to learn to wood carve! I bought us all blocks and knives, and we sat and worked on wood. It was so much fun! I am making a heart, but I haven't had time to mess with it again because I began painting my living room and dining room.
Christmas Day, for the first time ever, I think, I actually got up and had a cup of coffee, and got to get dressed and fix my hair before we opened presents. I was beginning to wonder if everyone would think I live in my pajamas since each Christmas is filled with pictures of me shrinking away because I am in my jammies. LOL
So, Madison got a German Shepherd Webkinz, her favorite of the toys. She also got rollerblades, Littlest Petshop and other toys.
Roman got rollerblades... they are twins, you know! He also got a video game, and his favorite: a Star Wars blaster gun. The dog says, "Hand over the treats and nobody gets hurt!"
Noah got a dragon video game, which he is very excited about. In fact, Meg is driving him crazy to play it all the time! He also got iTunes cards and a woodburning kit.
Don got a new truck... LOL! He bought himself some toys for it. Noah also bought him a remote controlled helicopter. And I got a printer and a digital recipe filer.
Afterwards, Don and I went for a long bike ride, then we took a ride in his new truck. We went to the truck-stop and got a hot dog... I'm not kidding! Seriously! We watched movies and played with our new toys. We walked our dogs and talked about the upcoming move. We ate ham and green beans for dinner. It was a really relaxed day. PERFECT!
Christmas Day, for the first time ever, I think, I actually got up and had a cup of coffee, and got to get dressed and fix my hair before we opened presents. I was beginning to wonder if everyone would think I live in my pajamas since each Christmas is filled with pictures of me shrinking away because I am in my jammies. LOL
So, Madison got a German Shepherd Webkinz, her favorite of the toys. She also got rollerblades, Littlest Petshop and other toys.
Roman got rollerblades... they are twins, you know! He also got a video game, and his favorite: a Star Wars blaster gun. The dog says, "Hand over the treats and nobody gets hurt!"
Noah got a dragon video game, which he is very excited about. In fact, Meg is driving him crazy to play it all the time! He also got iTunes cards and a woodburning kit.
Don got a new truck... LOL! He bought himself some toys for it. Noah also bought him a remote controlled helicopter. And I got a printer and a digital recipe filer.
Afterwards, Don and I went for a long bike ride, then we took a ride in his new truck. We went to the truck-stop and got a hot dog... I'm not kidding! Seriously! We watched movies and played with our new toys. We walked our dogs and talked about the upcoming move. We ate ham and green beans for dinner. It was a really relaxed day. PERFECT!
Another family member
17/11/09 07:07
This is the newest member of our crazy family! His name is Colonel Shepherd. We have been looking for a companion for our insane German Shepherd female for a while. She is very energetic. We say she either in trouble or about to be in trouble. Sunai, which is Hindi for “to listen,” is about 1.5 years old. She loves to wrestle and play tag, so we looked for a pal for her. And here he is! A rescue group in Mississippi found him at the animal shelter and took him in. They called him “Scooby,” which I think is not very appropriate for a Shepherd.
Anyway, we met at a dog park and they liked each other, and we brought him home... on Halloween. We decided to name him Colonel Shepherd. We watch a TV show called Stargate Atlantis and the main character on it is an Air Force pilot named Colonel John Shepherd. We figure since our new pup, who is probably about 3 years old, is a German Shepherd, the name fits well.
What kind of personality does he have? SO SWEET! He is about 90 pounds and he has these monsterous paws and a huge block head, but he just leans on you and wants to be petted and loved on. He will put his head in your lap and let you pet him forever, he’ll lean on you and then melt on the floor to be petted some more. Very obedient and wanting to make his master happy. Not much prey drive for balls and tug of war, but he likes to wrestle with Sunai. They play forever in the back yard wrestling and then chasing each other around the yard. He is great!
Colonel had heartworm and he just got over his treatment. Otherwise he is in great shape. I can’t imagine why someone would give up such a sweet dog. I will try to get some video of him and post it as soon as I can. Oh, and a picture of my female:
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Rain Barrels!
11/11/09 17:32
We bought 2 rain barrels at the recycling truckload sale sponsored by our city’s recycling center. They sold rain barrels and compost bins at a fraction of the cost we would buy them at. We think they are very attractive and they were easy to put in. DH had Veteran’s Day off, but we put him to work on honey-do projects. He cut the gutters down and put the barrels on a concrete pad so they won’t get hit by the weed-whacker. They look so awesome! Now, we have to wait for rain!!! I’ll be interested to see how much water pressure there is in the barrel.
Why in the world did we put in barrels? 1 main reason: hurricanes. Sometimes we get hit by hurricanes and we wanted a source of water if ours gets knocked out. We won’t drink this water, but use it for our toilets, and washing dishes; things like that. When there is no storm coming, I’ll use the water to water our lawn and garden. It will save a little money on our water bill, which is always good.
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Have hot dogs changed shape?
11/11/09 07:23
I saw this at Albertson’s. Did I miss something? Am I supposed to cut my hot dogs to lay flat?
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Bible Kids!!!
10/11/09 06:08
Here are my Bible Kids! They had a theme night in Awana called Bible Character and they were supposed to dress up as a Bible Character. So, Madison and I got a pattern and went to work. I’m not sure how much money it saved my sewing our own costumes, because it wasn’t super-cheap. If I had thought it out more, I probably could have saved a little more money.
Madison is Mary, and Roman is a Roman citizen. His name is HANDSOMUS MAXIMUS! We died laughing at that one!
We have a section in our school called Skill Time and the kids work on a skill for 6 weeks at a time. They are required to show me progress on the skill. Last 6 weeks it was skateboarding, and they have improved tremendously. This 6 weeks, Madison is sewing, and Roman is learning to play the Flutophone. Noah is working on an animated video parody of Veggie Tales. It is really funny. ANYWAY...
The costumes were done right at 6pm on Wednesday night, 5 minutes before we left for church. SHEW! We cut it pretty close. But they were the best dressed kids there, and it made me feel good that I had spent time with them and making something for them. It was stressful because it was last minute (my fault) but fun and we learned a lot. Now Madison is working on a bath robe.
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Items you can COMPOST
10/11/09 06:07
What can you compost? Well, we purchased a compost bin called an Earth Machine this past weekend, and I learned about what you can and can’t compost. The list for what you can NOT compost is so much smaller:
Items you SHOULD NOT put in the compost pile:
1. dog or cat poo
2. meat and bones
3. large quantities of milk, cheese, and other dairy products
Items you CAN compost:
1. Used tissues: like Kleenex, yes it sounds gross, but you can recycle a used tissue!!! We have a lot of that around my house.
2. Chicken and bird poo
3. Cage cleanings from birds and hamsters
4. Vegetable matter from kitchen (chop into pieces if possible), including banana peel, other peelings, apple cores, and unusable veggie pieces, fruit cores and peelings including rinds, potato peelings (my daughter says to “be mindful of your peelings,” for all you Star Wars fans out there).
5. Freezer burned veggies and fruit
6. Veggies that have gone bad in your fridge
7. Paper and shredded paper
8. Hair and pet hair
9. Small pieces of light fabric (cut into small pieces)
10. Bread
11. Canned veggies gone bad
12. Cardboard and newspaper in small pieces
13. Tea bags and coffee grounds
14. Egg shells
15. Paper Napkins and towels
16. Post-it notes (be sure to use it first by writing something romantic to your spouse and sticking it to his mirror)
17. Wood chips
18. Lint from dryer, dust bunnies, etc.
19. Popcorn, corn cobs (need to be cut into small pieces or they take a long time to decompose)
20. Fish (in small amounts or you may attract critters)
21. The collection of stuff from your vacuum and hand vac. You may have to cut up the bag if you use one, but of course, we ALL have a Dyson, right?
21. spices, herbs and garden clippings
22. waste from a home brewery or wine kit
23. Invitations to office parties
24. Ashes from wood fires
25. Sawdust
26. Houseplants and trimmings
27. Pasta, cooked or not
28. Jello
29. Lime or limestone, fish meal, blood meal, dolomite
30. Water and materials from your aquarium (not rocks)
31. Old flower arrangements
32. Potato chips
33. Leftovers from dinner like rice, veggies, bread. NO MEAT or BONES!
34. Old cereal. You can even compost that soggy stuff your kids never eat, but only a little milk, not a lot of milk.
35. Nut shells, like peanut or walnut, etc.
36. Electric razor trimmings (now you have no excuse to shave your legs in winter, ladies)
37. Toenail and finger clippings, if you feel the desire.
38. Shrimp shells... and for you bayou folks, CRAWFISH shells (personally, I’d put the whole nasty crawfish in there, but I’m not a bayou native).
39. Pie crusts
40. Leftover hot grains like oatmeal, bran, Grape Nuts, Scottish oatmeal, etc.
41. My children suggested composting their chore list, but I reminded them that I may have to compost their allowance. No deal.
42. Mac and cheese (this sounds blasphemous around our house).
43. All the receipts you hide from your spouse.
44. Soil
45. Leaves, small sticks and grass clippings
Like all things in life, balance is the key to compost. Dry leaves and green grass should be balanced out so they compost well together. Not too much paper. You can get lots more info on composting at your local extension office, or Google composting.
We already recycle in our home. Our city has a program to pick up paper, metal, plastic and glass. There are a few things we decided to do after we bought the composter to “reduce our footprint.” We bought a second trash can for the bathroom to put tissue and cotton swabs in to compost. Other trash goes in the regular can. My children, being the apples that did not fall far from my tree, immediately asked if they were supposed to wipe and throw the TP into the compost can. Uh, no. Since I’m six feet tall, I leave a pretty big footprint as it is, but I will only go so far. I placed a kitchen pail under the sink and already I have filled it 2 or 3 times. It’s amazing how much we toss that can be composted; most are veggies peelings, eggs, kleenex, and paper napkins. My pail directions said to place a piece of paper in the bottom of the pail so everything slides out. It works.
Like everything else, this will take some time getting used to. But I think our world is worth it.
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Earth Machine Composting
10/11/09 05:50
This weekend, our recycling center for Baton Rouge held a compost bin truckload sale. Earth Machines are neat plastic containers that hold tons of compost-able materials. They run about $100 online, but at this sale, we got them for $30. They also have a compost turner to stir your compost, and a kitchen pail for your kitchen scraps. I’ve been waiting over a year for this sale, and there was a bonus, 55 gallon rain barrels for $50! We had some rain barrels but they were quite ugly and we never installed them. These are very attractive and they have a large screen on them to allow rain in and bugs out.
But, back to the composter. Why did I want one? I wanted to have a compost pile, because I am getting into gardening. Compost makes sense and is great for my garden. I have the materials on hand, why put them in a landfill? So, I bought 2 bins, figuring I’ll use them both. My daughter helped me install them and rake the back yard. We have a small yard, but we filled them both up (before wetting the compost). Here are some pictures:
My small backyard and the grass that is dying. They put sod on top of a clay bed, and the rain has eroded all the sod and soil away. Now we have a dusty or muddy mess.
You can see my Earth Box garden in the back. have 12 boxes that I planted in for the first time this year. It did not go really well because we had a horrible drought and it got blistering hot early, which damaged my tender plants. Next year will be better, or I will be re-locating my boxes. It was a perfect spot for them in my small yard because we have a drainage ditch across the back forty (feet) of our yard, and they were on the other side of it.
Compost girl! She put them together, staked them down, and also raked and filled them with me. She was so awesome!
My bins installed. I wanted to find a place out of the way, convenient to dump household waste in, but a place that had good drainage. Can’t ut your bin in a mudhole! We think we found a good spot.
This is one of the bins after I wet it and turned it. I think it is about 2/3 full. I have dry leaves, green thatch grass, and some household materials in the bin. I turned it, wet it, and sealed it up! Now we need some hot weather! LOL! I’ll post a list of things you can compost soon. What do you think?
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But, back to the composter. Why did I want one? I wanted to have a compost pile, because I am getting into gardening. Compost makes sense and is great for my garden. I have the materials on hand, why put them in a landfill? So, I bought 2 bins, figuring I’ll use them both. My daughter helped me install them and rake the back yard. We have a small yard, but we filled them both up (before wetting the compost). Here are some pictures:
My small backyard and the grass that is dying. They put sod on top of a clay bed, and the rain has eroded all the sod and soil away. Now we have a dusty or muddy mess. You can see my Earth Box garden in the back. have 12 boxes that I planted in for the first time this year. It did not go really well because we had a horrible drought and it got blistering hot early, which damaged my tender plants. Next year will be better, or I will be re-locating my boxes. It was a perfect spot for them in my small yard because we have a drainage ditch across the back forty (feet) of our yard, and they were on the other side of it. Compost girl! She put them together, staked them down, and also raked and filled them with me. She was so awesome! My bins installed. I wanted to find a place out of the way, convenient to dump household waste in, but a place that had good drainage. Can’t ut your bin in a mudhole! We think we found a good spot. This is one of the bins after I wet it and turned it. I think it is about 2/3 full. I have dry leaves, green thatch grass, and some household materials in the bin. I turned it, wet it, and sealed it up! Now we need some hot weather! LOL! I’ll post a list of things you can compost soon. What do you think?blog comments powered by Disqus
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Coping with the loss of a pet
26/01/09 18:36
3 days ago, I lost a dear friend. She was my friend from the moment I met her nearly 6 years ago. I didn’t realize until I stood in the vet’s office on her final day how very much I loved her and how much of a friend she was. Furry, sweet, a little attitude, smart. She was my diva dog and I am so very thankful that she came through my life. Through ups and downs, she was always there. When my husband was away, she slept between me and the door. When I cried, she sat beside me until I could re-group. When I came home, she greeted me with howls and dancing. When I went for a walk, she was ready, tail wagging and howling like a wolf.
I suppose I didn’t know how sick she really was until the day we decided to put her down. She had stopped wanting to go for walks long ago. When I would ask her if she wanted to walk, she would bow her head and walk away, as if embarrassed. If I pressed, she would go, but only out of duty or loyalty, or maybe just the promise of a treat afterwards. Every second of the day she died, I wanted to stop and say no, to hang on another day, to figure out some way to make her better or to “live with her sickness.” As we stood in the vets office, husband, children, dog and me, we all wanted to shout for it to stop. But I knew deep down that I only wanted her to live so I wouldn’t have to choose her death. My DH and I both commented frequently that the only reason not to let her go is because we didn’t want to do it. That was when we knew it was time.
I know some people will go to any length to keep their pet alive, and I didn’t understand it, but when you have to make an appointment to put your dog down, then wait all day for that horrible moment, you become very aware of why people don’t want to make that choice. It was awful. And the day after was awful, and so was the next day. Today, tears have come to my eyes many times, and I have thought of her often, but I am coping. My DD went from crying and asking her to come back, to telling me that she thought of Emma very little today. The grieving process is happening. And tomorrow will be easier, and the next.
Emma, you took a part of my heart, you comforted me in dark times, you made me laugh, you got on my nerves at times, you walked with me rain or shine, you were a true friend to me. I may not cry tomorrow, but I will not forget you, your sweet soft fur and your sad brown eyes will stay with me forever.
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