Photo Blogging Challenge!

I may not have written much this past month, but I have been taking photos. The inspiration was the theme for PJ's Photo Challenge this month. Three, in celebration of the three years the challenge has been going. Congratulation, PJ, on three great years!

On to my photos...

Three boys.

The three non-high school boys with whom I spend the majority of my time having some french toast after school one day.

Three bananas.

Three over-ripe bananas on the counter means it's time to make banana bread!!

Three Pairs

There are always three pairs of boots (a variety of sizes) ready and waiting at the mud room door for someone to head outside to do some chores.

Three days.

Called the Triduum, it is the three days from sundown on Holy Thursday to sundown on Easter Sunday. It is a special time in the Catholic Church, full of special worship and prayer services and Masses. This was taken on Good Friday during the 8th grade's presentation of the Living Stations of the Cross. Giant had been chosen to play the part of Jesus, and this photo was taken when he was being carried to the tomb. It is always an emotional prayer service, but it was especially so this year, watching my own child up there on a cross.

Three dollars.

Two days after Easter Sunday, Easter lilies were on clearance. I snagged a couple of them for $3 each. For now they are decorating our newly painted front porch, but I'll be transferring them to the ground soon.

Whenever I see an Easter lily, I am taken back to Bermuda, where Bryan and I spent our first Easter as a married couple. Easter lilies were abloom all over the island, not just in pots at the grocery store.

There's still time to join in if you want to head out with your camera and take some photos. If you want to join in next month, PJ will be posting the new theme on April 1. (No joke!) He also started a Facebook group if you want to keep up to date on future challenges. 

Have a lovely day!

I'm Home with a Semi-sick Kid, So I Can Hodgepodge!

1. What are two or three expectations you have of yourself?

Well, this is a tough one right off the bat.  :)

I expect to put my family first when it comes to choosing how to spend my time and energy.

I expect to always treat people with kindness, regardless of the situation.

I expect to not just wait for opportunities to fall in my lap, but to search out ways to help and to serve others.

2. In what ways does your outdoor space need sprucing up this spring?

On a 150 year old farm, there are always, ALWAYS, things that need sprucing up. Trees that need taken down, barns that need repairs, animal areas cleaned up. We tried to get some landscaping done last year, but the dogs destroyed quite a bit of it. We'll see what comes up and what we can do to improve it. One thing that does not need done? House painting. Got that done already, so check it off the list!

3.  According to this site (Roadtrippers), six of North America's most wondrous waterfalls are-Webster's Falls in Ontario, Upper Whitewater Falls in North Carolina,Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon, Multnomah Falls in Oregon, The Lower Yellowstone Falls, and Niagara. Have you seen any on the list? Which one on the list would you most like to visit? Prettiest waterfall not on the list that you've seen in person?

Of the list, I've only seen Niagara, but I've seen it several times.  I'd like to visit all of them.  As for ones not on the list that I've seen...as far as I'm concerned, all waterfalls are beautiful. I find them to be mesmerizing. 

From last year's spring break trip, on the side of the road somewhere in Tennessee

poor quality photo of a poster-sized photo, taken on our 10 year anniversary trip somewhere in Maine

4. Looking back, what's something you wish you'd done as a teenager?

I can't say that I would do anything. The things that made my teen years less than ideal weren't something I could change. I got involved, I jumped at the chance to try new things, I had fun, I met Bryan. I'm happy with the choices I made back then.

5. Ham...yes please or no thank you? If you said yes please which of the following do you like best-baked ham with all the trimmings, a ham and cheese sandwich, prosciutto with melon, a ham biscuit, a bowl of split pea and ham soup, or a slice of pizza topped with ham and pineapple?

We raise pigs, sooooo pretty sure you can guess YES PLEASE!!  My favorite ways to eat our ham is grilled ham steak (Ever had ham on the grill? Delicious!) and ham and bean soup (no split peas).

6. Are you typical of your generation?

I don't thing so. Bryan and I have never been typical of our generation, even when we were teenagers. That's all I have to say about that. ;)

7. April rolls in at the end of the week, and in keeping with that theme...'act the fool', nobody's fool', a fool's errand', 'could have fooled me'...which foolish idiom most recently applies to you? Explain.

I'm going to have to go with "act the fool". I've never really given two sticks about what people think of me, and that attitude, coupled with an impulsiveness I possess, has led me to do many silly, ridiculous things. If you've read this blog for any length of time, you've probably seen it. This past weekend was one instance where I totally acted the fool, but I can't expand on it. While I am all about making fun of myself, this instance includes another person who wouldn't appreciate my telling of the story.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

A little update on Star's tooth pain from the Easter weekend: Star will be getting a root canal on Friday. Four years ago, playing tag at recess, he tripped, face-planted, and his front tooth took the brunt of the fall, cracking it in half. The nerve inside is now dying. Until Friday, he is living on high doses of ibuprofen and at night, Tylenol with codeine.

Turken has had a fever since Monday afternoon. He has had no other symptoms of illness except a mild stomachache. He's still eating, and he's not vomiting or getting a rash or collapsing in exhaustion. Basically, he's just starting his spring break early, sitting around doing nothing all day. 

You can thank him and his desire for me to be sitting with him, if not necessarily holding him, for my ability to write this post AND the post that will publish tomorrow. (PJ's Photo Blogging Challenge. The theme is "three" if you want to join in.)

Have a lovely day!

Ten Things of Thankful, Easter Edition

Happy Easter!!!

So much to be thankful for these days...

For our active parish, which has plenty of opportunities to make Lent and the Triduum a prayerful, contemplative time.

For the youth of the parish who get involved and make Good Friday one of the most emotional days of the year.

For our freedom to pray and worship and celebrate any darn way we please. It is all too clear lately that this is not so for many people in the world.

For my mom's good health in her retirement which allows her to spend these last three days with us.

For the many people who were baptized and Confirmed at the Easter Vigil. We knew many of them this year, including two boys who are in Turken's class and the husband of Turken's teacher.

For the beautiful weather we had this weekend. We were able to spend a good amount of time outside, working and playing.

For the abundance of food available to us.

For pain medication to help a poor teen with major tooth pain make it through the weekend until the dentist office opens on Monday.

For a family who makes me laugh on a daily basis.

For Turken, whose birthday just happened to fall on Good Friday this year. Celebrations were postponed until a non-fasting day, with absolutely no complaints from him. It helped that he knew I was going to make the blasted red cake for him. :)

This is where I would insert a family photo of all of us in our Easter finery. Except we never get one of those. We always go to the Easter Vigil, and besides the fact our family isn't all together (at least one of the boys always serves, thus having to arrive over 2 hours before Mass starts) in that Easter finery until 10:00 at night when the Mass ends. A photo of 8 people is hard enough. A photo of 8 people at 10:00 at night after a 2 and a half hour Mass is not going to happen.

So, no photo for you.

Or me.

How has your week been? Let me in on the things for which you are thankful!

Have a lovely day!

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The Madness Is All Up in My March, and I'm Thankful, Week One forty-something or other

Ya'll. Seriously. Not only did I not write a single post this week, I didn't even READ one! I barely had time to flip through Facebook on my phone while I waited for one kid or another to finish one activity or another before collapsing into bed early each night.

Bryan has been out of town since 5:40 am (Yes, capital A capital M. aka in the morning, before the sun and normal people should be up) on Wednesday. It's his annual guys' trip to Vegas for the start of March Madness. (For you non-'Muricans, that's the college basketball championship in which 64 teams are whittled down to one over the course of 3 weeks. Non-stop basketball from Thursday afternoon until Sunday night this first week. (Which makes one wonder why Bryan left so early on Wednesday morning, doesn't it? (It does.))) I'm glad he takes some time to do guy things with his guy friends. He has been working way too much lately, and he needed this break before his brain exploded. I don't begrudge him one minute. (OK, so maybe I begrudge him a few minutes (which add up to a couple of hours) on Wednesday morning, but other than that, not one minute of begrudging.)

And here I am, screaming in at the last minute to let you know I am thankful...

1. for a Monday night get-together with my Bible study. Sadly, one of our group has to move to Michigan in two weeks, and we wanted to get together before her husband had to start the new job this week. Everything has happened so fast, this was our first chance to actually sit down with her to get the details. Bonus thankful, one of our group had a ridiculously hilarious incident immediately before we met, thus giving us a reason to laugh our full heads off instead of crying the entire time.

2. for my dad's continuing recovery from a nasty bit of surgery. He has been in pretty good spirits through it all, even making jokes about there being a sad face in one of the wounds. If you could, we'd appreciate some prayers that everything heals up nicely and quickly so he can get back to golfing.

3. that spring is officially here!

4. for a fun indoor soccer season for Giant. For a variety of reasons, this is the first time we've let one of our kids do indoor soccer in 8 years. For a variety of other reasons, we did let Giant this year. They were in the championship game on Tuesday night, and they won quite handily.

5. for the start of track and field season. For 5 years, Star has been debating running on a track team instead of playing soccer in the spring season. Each year, we decided that if he wanted to play soccer in high school, he should choose soccer. Soccer has skills that need to be learned, but anyone can jump into track at any time. This year is the year. He finally gets to run in high school. The first meet was on Wednesday night. First off, it was so much fun to watch one of my kids actually doing a sport that was such an integral part of my life for so many years. More fun, though, was to see how much Star is enjoying it and how well he is doing. It's going to be a fun couple of months.

6. that high school volleyball games started this week, too. I didn't know until Phoenix started playing 2 years ago that volleyball is a great spectator sport. We were able to see his team play and win two matches this week.

7. that Cuckoo is finally, FINALLY, getting old enough and mature enough and patient enough to sit through a volleyball game or track meet and actually show some interest in such things. Bryan and I used to rock/paper/scissors to see who had to take Cuckoo to whichever game we were going. The boy couldn't make it through 10 minutes of any game. (As opposed to Turken, who loved to watch every minute of any game since the day he was 7 days old.) This week he was put to the test, and he passed with flying colors.

8. for March Madness. I'd explain why it's so much more exciting than regular season games, but I'm in a hurry and I've already spent 10 minutes trying to write this one paragraph.

(That's Giant, the Keeper of the Brackets. This is his absolute favorite time of year.)

9. we (and everyone we invited) had a free Saturday to have Turken's birthday party. The poor kid has a terrible time for a birthday. It's always either over Spring Break or Easter. This year, it falls squarely on Good Friday. Yup, poor kid has his birthday on the day we fast and focus on the day Jesus died. We took a gander at the calendar and discovered that we had one completely open day (except for Bryan, who was still in Vegas) just 6 days before his birthday. To make it even better, all he wanted was to have some kids over to play football. And to top off the awesomeness of this party, Turken just happens to have 2 teenage brothers who were happy to go outside and play football with 9 little kids. All I had to do was make lemonade and bake brownies for the brownie sundaes the boys gobbled up after the game.

10. Bryan made it home safely.

Bonus thankful!! For my fabulous blogging friends. Within 10 minutes of publishing this, two friends I met through this blog were texting me to let me know I had accidentally used one of the kids' real names. You all are wonderful.

Well, it's not likely that anyone will be finishing a post after me, but just in case, here's the linky if you have one!

Have a lovely day!

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Ten Things of Thankful Week 143

We were very fortunate to have had a pretty mild winter here in Indy. We never had enough snow to even delay school, let alone cancel it. Which means...

1. A short week this week! Monday was a built-in snow day. Since we didn't have any snow days this winter, we didn't have to use that built-in make up day. Gotta say, it is way better to have a random day off when the weather is warm than a random day off when it is freezing cold outside. I'm extra grateful for the shortened school week because this was one loooooong feeling week. On Wednesday afternoon, I was astounded to find out that it was in fact only Wednesday.

2. I am thankful for teachers and attorneys who volunteer hours and hours and days and days over months and months to help a group of teens practice for Mock Trial.

3. I am thankful for the Geometry teacher at our high school who makes up goody bags for groups/teams in the school who don't get the attention that other groups/teams do. Out of her own pocket, she supplied each person in mock trial with a big bad of candy and snacks.

4. I am thankful for the teen who took it upon himself to wash, dry, and FOLD two loads of laundry while his parents were off watching two other kids at their mock trial competition. *cough*Giant*cough*

5. I am thankful for the teen who took it upon himself to take the little boys to the church half a mile away from our house, on foot, to play on the playground and shoot some hoops. *cough*Star*cough

6. I am thankful that we aren't dead. The vent/chimney issue will be fixed on Friday the 19th.

7. I am thankful my kids like to play sports and sometimes play in super exciting games. Giant's team played on Tuesday. At half, they were down 2-5. Two minutes into the second half, the other team scored again. It was the last time. Giant's team came roaring back and ended up winning 7-6. It was great fun watching his team work together and come back from such a deficit.

8. Somehow, we got away from reading to the little boys before bed. Last week, Cuckoo asked me to read a chapter book he had found on the shelf. We have read a chapter each night, and even a couple in the middle of the afternoon just because they love it so. You'll never guess which book it is, so I'll tell you. I wrote a horrifyingly funny post about it once.

9. I am thankful for the PTO fish fry, which just happened to occur on the day I had to begin scrubbing my house from top to bottom (more than once, because plaster dust is worse than sand, ya'll!) and did not feel like making any sort of dinner.

10. (I will be surprised if this one doesn't make just about everyone's list this week.) I'm thankful for the warm weather we are having. Sure, it was rainy for two of the days, but at least it was warm. And the other days were absolutely gorgeous.

How was your week? Tell me all about the things that put a smile on your face!

Have a lovely day!

(A bit of trouble with the link tonight. It says it doesn't open until tomorrow night. We'll get that fixed ASAP!)

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A Little Hodgepodge to Keep My Mind Off of CO2

March is National Women's History Month. In that vein, who are three women who've been influential in your life? How so?

I can look back and see a whole line of women and men who have influenced me. I don't know if it's possible to not learn from everyone we come across. But I was asked to name three...

1. My mom. She is a fun mom who is quick to laugh and quick to forgive.

2. My best friend in the world, Amy. For many years, we practically raised our kids together. We taught each other how to be better moms, we helped each other be better spouses, and we talked and debated religion, which helped me begin to really hammer out what I believe and why I believe it.

3. My grandmas. (I know, that's two. I can't just name one!) One who lived far away and passed away much too soon, and one who lived down the street from me in Ohio who is still have alive (91 years old!) and well. There is no question where my mom got her sense of humor. Her mother was fun, fun, fun. She could laugh in the most difficult of situations. I spent a large portion of my childhood at my dad's mom's house. We'd play cards, I'd go to Bingo with her, I'd help her get stuff done around the house, and sometimes we'd just watch TV and talk. I just talked to her today, as a matter of fact.

In what ways do you think women have it easier than men?

I don't know that they do. Men and women are different. We aren't made to compete, but to complement each other. We have different roles, but both are difficult. Bryan is the sole money maker in our house. I know there have been times where that weighed on him mightily. I am in charge of all things house and kids and schedules. There's plenty of weight in that role, too.

But, I have to answer the question. I have it easier than Bryan because doing my job means going to the zoo and hiking through the woods and playing board games.

What do you need most right now: Faith, love, hope, or peace?

Well, I've got plenty of love, surrounded by my family who are good at showing it. I'm going with faith as my answer. There's a lot of things going on in the world and a few in my home that I just need to trust God to take care of. It may be hard to get to the other side, but I have to have faith that it will all be right in the end. Knowing that, I'll have peace.

Do you have a collection? If so, what do you collect and why?

I actually wrote a post about this a couple of years ago. Before then I would have said I am absolutely not a collector, but I realized I am. You can read about them HERE. Good news, we no longer have the koozie collection. I donated them. But, we now have a gigantic plastic bag collection overtaking the mud room.

Plaids, checks, polka dots, and stripes...your favorite?

I'm not opposed to any of them, but I do only have polka dots and stripes in my wardrobe, in both shirts and dresses.

In what ways are you the same as your childhood self?

Pretty sure my personality hasn't changed, but you'd have to ask my parents or even Bryan, seeing as how we met when I was only 15. I'm the same, but I've learned to tone myself down. For example, I still have opinions and am not worried about expressing them, I've just learned to do it in a better way, or not say anything at all if that is the best way to handle a situation.

You're a contestant on the game show "Jeopardy". What category will you ace?

Um, maybe board games? Or picture books? I know how to play lots of different sports, but don't ask me who did any of them professionally. Thanks to my kids, I also know a lot about smells and burps and weird ways to break things (both household items and bones). I could do well in those categories, too.

Insert your own random thought here.

Is it normal for family members not to tell each other about medical issues or is it just my family? My dad had some cancerous cells removed from near his ear. It was done in a hospital because they were  going to have to take so much out, they'd need a piece of his leg to repair it. I didn't know it was happening until my stepmom posted a photo of him in his hospital gown lying on a gurney.

A sibling's spouse spent a night in the hospital being tested for internal bleeding. I found out from my mom, only because I happened to call her when my niece was getting picked up from her house.

A few years ago, my mom was fighting cancer a mere 3 months after having 2 heart stents put in. She had some major complications, but I didn't know a thing about it until she was on her way out of the hospital 3 days later.

I had oral surgery and a house that is poisoning us with carbon dioxide, and I haven't told any family besides my mom. My dad found out about it from my blog posts.

Yet, in just the last week I've talked with them about what size suit coat I should get for Phoenix and some things relating to my dad's life insurance.

Is this normal behavior for families who generally like each other and frequently contact each other about a variety of things?

Just curious.

If you want to join in, hop on over to Joyce's to link your post up!

Have a lovely day!

Awesome Song in This Post, But Only the Title Actually Applies

The previous owners of our house were...what's a nice way to say it?... creative (?) in their home improvements.

Their handiwork has been baffling professionals for a decade now.

The 4 layers of shingles on the roof of the house.

The two air conditioning units connected to one furnace that could not handle the load.

The cover on the porch, which was actually built around the old one, gutter and all.

The windows that were installed improperly, causing the windows and the siding to rot all around the back of the house.

And we aren't even blaming them for the now-illegal septic system that was on no government records and couldn't be found by two different septic companies. (Ended up, the tank drained through a single pipe right out into the corn field behind our house.)

This time, though, I'm pretty ticked.

We're lucky to be alive.

This is a terrible photo of the "fireplace" in the family room.

We've been wanting to see if we could get a gas insert, but it has been on the bottom of our to-do list.

Well, a couple of months ago, the mirror started crackling.

Odd, but nothing we were overly concerned about. Most old mirrors we've ever seen are crackled.

Two weeks ago, Bryan noticed that the tile-looking thing, which is actually just a thin piece of board, was warm.

That got our hackles up.

The chimney inspector came out today.

The moment he took the board off and stuck his head in the chimney, he knew something was wrong.
It should not be warm air.

I'll cut to the chase.

The chimney guy discovered that our water heater vents into the chimney, and the chimney has insulation stuffed into it, blocking any venting of the fumes.

Carbon Monoxide has been pouring into our house for an entire decade.

The only reason we haven't died is because the house has large, really drafty rooms.

I've never been grateful for cold, bitter wind blowing into our house until this very day.

The insulation has been pulled out, so the gases can now exit through the chimney top.

It's still not perfectly safe, though.

The chimney guy will be gathering supplies to properly line and vent the water heater.

This chimney guy has been in this business for over 25 years. He's a nice, honest guy who lives on a farm and raises dairy goats with his wife.

He has seen people improperly venting things through their chimneys before, but he's never seen anything this bad before.

How much has this affected us???

Are Bryan's and Buttercup's headaches symptoms of a decade's worth of carbon monoxide poisoning???

It's making me question every single health problem we've had over the years!

I just can't wrap my head around it.

It makes me want to say some very bad words.

I wonder how we'll be feeling once this is all taken care of and we're breathing non-carbon monoxide laced air.

Of course, as anyone who hears that there is a lice outbreak at school knows, the power of suggestion is real.

I've been feeling sick to my stomach and fighting a mild headache all day.

I'm just at a loss.

How?

How do people do things like this?!?!

In the end, though, I'm just glad it was found. I'm glad we are OK. I'm glad it can be fixed without too much trouble.

I'm glad it's not worse.

And I wonder, why in the world haven't I slept a whole lot better than I have these past 10 years??

I'll keep you posted.

Have a lovely day.