The summer night is like a perfection of thought. Wallace Stevens (1879 - 1955)

Sunday, a summer day. I can hear a lawn mower in the distance. No kids playing yet, but I am sure they will be out later, screeching and calling to each other. The robins have found another home to lay their second brood and sometime tonight the town will shoot of the fireworks that were canceled by rain last night.
I have been busy the last few weeks. I painted Meghan's room while she was away in Florida. She had a great time with friends and came home to an orange room that had been planned for 2 years. I only had a gallon of paint, my mum and dad had bought it when they came to visit in 2007 to thank her for letting them stay in her room. It was only enough for 3 walls so instead of trying to match the color I did one wall in a blue/purple color. It was difficult to move around the room with her furniture in the middle of the room, the mattress and box spring leaning against a wall that I wasn't painting. I managed though and she was surprised when she got home, I think that the Jonas brothers poster was the thing she enjoyed most though. I had put it in a poster frame and it is up on her wall, so she can change the poster when she gets tired of them (hopefully soon). One of the things I am most excited about is taking off her closet door, which gives her a lot more room. Now just to find a beaded curtain to cover up the mess inside. I saw a wonderful glow in the dark one that I want to get.

Unfortunately I have been plagued by back and neck pain for a few weeks now and it is hard for me to do much of anything. Sitting in the computer chair is only comfortable if I lean back, which doesn't help with my typing and sitting in the recliner is OK, except for getting in and out. Turning over in bed is almost impossible and sitting on the hard kitchen chairs is not too comfy either. I have managed to get a few things done, but mostly I have been reading and feeling lazy, not wanting to bend over for anything I don't have to.

I sorted my photos. I know I have more somewhere but the ones I had in plastic containers here in the living room I went through and sorted into categories. I tried to go by the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid) and it seemed to work, just picking a few titles to start, family, friends, places, and of course the three kids. Troy and I had one category together as there are a lot of photos with both of us in. It actually went pretty fast. Then I started sub-categories. Troy's family, Laura's family, Parents etc. I am not done with that part yet, but I am really glad to have the photos in some sort of order, now to find the rest that are hiding in the house in a dark corner somewhere. I think the hardest thing is going to be purging the pictures, letting go of something that I once thought important enough to take a picture of.


What started me off sorting the pictures was a list of things I want to scrap into albums. I found a starter on Plinky. "What values do you want to instill in your kids?". That got me to thinking and then I thought about others that I want to do. I would like to make a green book. Green in my favorite color and it would be easy to pull the things I have that are green together into an album. Also, suggested in an online magazine, Scrapbook & Cards today,I saw an article that suggested using facebook as a journal, expecialy those 25 random fact notes that I have participated in. Another great blog is Creativity Prompt that has lots of ideas for blogging and scrapbooking and jornaling, I don't think I will ever get through them all. There are so many resources on line that it is easy to get distracted from actually doing to just browsing. I really want to set a goal of 'doing' so I can get some real things done.

I will say that contrary to my quote for the title of my post I am not a fan of summer. Hot, sticky and buggy: my least favorite things. Spring and fall are much more my style. The mornings with the frost on the grass. The rustle of leaves sounding like the sea or the seemingly dead trees showing new buds ready to burst with bright green. I do enjoy the longer days and the summer fruits and vegetables though.



So off I go to do. Well maybe after a nap.

What a week!
Lets see where were we? OK, Friday I was looking forward to the weekend. Nothing much went on there. Sunday night I received my birthday gifts a day early because the kids had school on Monday. I got a really beautiful Stephani Pui Mun Law shadowscapes tarot print. Then Monday, My 11 yo, who had already been off sick since the 4th, was still off school and hubby and I had already planned to go out to eat and such in Bloomington. So as good parents we are, we left her home alone and went anyway. (She was fine and had neighbors close if she needed anything!). We had a nice meal and then went to Hobby Lobby, where I spent a lot of my birthday money. (always manage to spend a lot there). We had a nice time.
Tuesday I took her to the doctor, more to get a not for school than anything as she was feeling much better. She did have a little bubble in her ear so she got antibiotics for that. Wednesday I was all set to have my house to myself again, and I was actually over my cold but when I got up...you guessed it. Hubby was home sick. UGH
I had made a list of things I needed to take care of. I had a huge list of UFO's (unfinished objects for those of you that don't know) and was determined to take care of those before starting something else. There were 14 things on that list, and those were just things I could think of. I have only crossed of two things from that list so far, but that's two things done!
I have been so busy looking at the Burda style website that I found so many things I want to do, but I did find instructions for hemming boot cut jeans, I needed those instructions too, because regular length pants are too short and Long's are too long so yesterday before we went out I hemmed a pair of jeans and wooo hooo, it worked like a charm. I found at least 30 more projects for my list, but they are not started yet so they don't count.
Thursday I finally got my house back and it was so peacefull. No Hanna, Raven or Sonny were guests. (those of you with pre-teens will know who they are). No running around after sick people. Just me and the dogs, who are needy in themselves but at least don't talk.
So last night, Saturday, we had tickets to see Jeff Dunham and we were going with friends to eat dinner and then see the show. Our friends drove and we had a really nice dinner, then drove to the show, saw Guitar Guy and Hubby spent most of that in the bathroom. Yes he was sick, I won't go into details, but it was not pretty. He eventually asked an usher for the first aid room thinking he would lay down, then ended up passing out. We had a nice ambulance ride to the hospital, cudos to Bloomington fire and rescue, very nice EMT's and he was given an IV with fluids and anti nausia meds. He almost felt better immediately. They think it was the stomach flu. So we missed the show and had a wonderful Valentines day in the hospital, but he did get to come home. He is feeling better today, although not 100%.
Today is Sunday, I call my Mum on Sundays, we had a nice chat. Now I am going to work on some of that list. One of the things says "take pictures for blog" I am not promising anything, but I will try!

Short and Sweet

The kids did not go to school today because our wind chills were in the -30's. They are off tomorrow too for the same reason. Monday is Martin Luther King Day. So that makes 5 days in a row they have off school. Just kill me now!
Needless to say I don't get much done with them in the house. Even though they are 16, 15 and 11 it still makes more work for me. Essentially I make them get their own lunches, as they never all want the same thing, but it is a continual battle to get them to put stuff away, to help me out with my daily chores (I am sure hubby is laughing at that one, "what chores?") or to even help in any small way.
Today I didn't do much of anything really. I played on the web, I drew a few things in my moleskine, and took a nap (sleeping is getting harder for me since I have the sniffles). Yesterday I started a crochet purse and I am winging it, I will show a picture when it is done. I was thinking I might write the pattern but I have never done that before and I am not sure if I can. I have some fleece that I am making into toys/beds for the rats. They are very warm bodied and need to stay all huddled up and they love their blankies.
I have to go out in the cold in a little while and get milk. We could go without but then I would have to get some tomorrow anyway. Easier to get it tonight and have some for the morning. We easily go through a gallon a day. With the kids home I am sure more.
So that is my day today. Hopefully I will get more done tomorrow.