Homegrown Thoughts

Maybe I’m just in a weird mood due to every part of my body but my right ear being in pain from a brutal kick-boxing workout last night…but this is the kind of thing that cracks me up.

Don’t let the website address worry you - it’s worth the visit. Note the ‘unforeseen circumstances’ reference. HA!

http://www.astrologicalmagazine.com/

I saw this article today and I just love it!

Blogging Granny a Hit With Surfers

Go read it.  The last line in the article…hahaha.  How I wish my grandma had blogged!

My dear friend and sister-in-crime, Dianna, has awarded me with the You Make Me Smile award. Isn’t that nice of her? In fact, it made me smile, but I guess I can’t award her back with it. Rats!

I will sort of copy her post so if you aren’t familiar with the award, you will be now.

“This is what the person that created this award says about it- the thing that I love most about blogging is that I learn so much about a person just by reading their blog. I have met MANY wonderful people with wonderful stories to tell,and I am grateful every day for each person that I have the pleasure of crossing paths in life with.

I wanted to create something special for the top ten people who have inspired me through their blogging; the stories they tell, and the lives that they lead with grace and dignity. I visit their blogs for inspiration and encouragement.Although there are MANY people I want to give this award to at this very moment, I am going to choose ten bloggers:

Please grab your badge and wear it(with a smile) proudly, and pass it on because you inspire and encourage me, thank you. So, now it is my turn to pass it on. “

**Don’t forget to pass it on to 10 more bloggers.

So now I’m supposed to find 10 other bloggers to award this to…who haven’t already received it. Now I’m going to pay for not being up on my blog reading!! I’ll do my best.

I have chosen, in no particular order…

Heather - Okay, I’m sort of cheating here right off the bat. This is supposed to be for people who have inspired me through their blogging, and quite frankly, Heather is NOT blogging on a regular basis. But I know she feels bad about that and if she didn’t have 100 other irons in the fire and a (fortunate for me) addiction to online Scrabble, she would blog more frequently. But I have to give her this award because she makes me smile almost every day. The only days she doesn’t are when I don’t chat with her! Then I am sad. :-( But seriously, I don’t know what I would do without my best friend who is always there for me whether I’m smiling or not.

Maggie - While I’m giving this award to those who are not exactly blogging like clockwork, I’ll give it to Mrs. Maggie Hogan, too. You guys, she is a riot. She, Melissa (see below) and I are that fun kind of weird that we can share with each other and we totally get it. She has been very supportive and patient and just a joy to know.

Melissa - Thanks to Maggie (see above), I also have the joy of knowing Melissa. She is also a crazy nut in our tree of weirdness. Boy, I hope she and Maggie don’t take that wrong - I mean weird as a good thing! As in, interesting, fun, able to laugh at ourselves! AND - she actually blogs! More often than I do, even. Check out her adventures in moving and the pics of her nice new house. She is now a Michigander now, like half the homeschooling population, it seems. :-)

Nancy C - Nancy is now my Boss Lady, as I like to call her. But we have worked together for a long time and it is great to have her as a friend. Even though we don’t have time to ‘chit chat’ very often, we do manage it every once in awhile. Check out Nancy’s homesteading adventures on her blogs. :-) She is one of those people I look at and wonder how in the world they get everything done that they do. Also, she may still have a couple of kittens available as she seems to keep getting adopted by mama cats!

Nancy B - Of course, I also want to include my dear friend, Nancy B. We have also worked together for a long time and shared many trials and tribulations. She was such a blessing to me during some of my ‘down’ times and I think we really understand each other well. She is a blessing during ‘up’ times, too! And her family is so talented. You should go read about them on her blog - and maybe she’ll start posting some of her beautiful photographs for us again soon.

Well, that’s half of them, anyway. I’ll try to add the others later. I have to stop now to make dinner. I hope I remember to tell them all that I’ve given them this award!

I just happened to look as I was signing in and it says I’ve made 99 entries at HSB, so I guess this will be #100. Wow, it seems like I blog so infrequently, how did I get that many posts? Apparently I don’t remember all the stuff I write. :-)

So, again, it has been awhile since I last posted. I tell ya, life has just gone crazy. Granted, some of it is due to choices I’ve made, but other things have been going on, too.

The kittens are getting big now, especially Chase. Cats just live for food, don’t they? They come running whenever they hear food, even if it isn’t theirs. They like to steal food from the dog. Of course, the dog steals their food, too. I’m about to start feeding them each others food to start with. We’re working on getting the basement in enough shape so we can let the cats go down there. It is mostly finished, but the playroom is down there with all the little toys that the boys leave out and that the cats like to ‘play’ with. We also have an office, exercise area, laundry room…lots of places for curious kitties to get into trouble. I think I’m going to give it another once over, then let them go and just deal with any issues as they come up. I can’t possibly think of everything they might get into. And, quite frankly, I want my 1st floor half bath back! Their litter box is in there and that is where they stay at night and when we are gone. It’s really stinking up the joint! So they are being evicted VERY soon. They can earn their keep by getting the spider population under control downstairs.

My husband was offered a permanent position at the place he’s been a ‘temporary consultant’ for. He’s been there for a few weeks and was hoping he’d be able to stay. They did approach him about a permanent situation and offered him the salary he wanted, so it’s a go! I can really tell how much I’ve changed over the last year or so. I wasn’t worried at all about him finding a new job when he left the last one. I really felt that he would be offered a job where he is now and even if he didn’t, that just meant there was something better in store. This job isn’t perfect, but I think he’ll enjoy it and we’ll be able to loosen the belt just a little bit now that we’ll have a bit more security in that area. If this had happened even a year ago, I probably would have totally freaked out. I’m in such a different (better!) place now.

(Sidenote: It’s really hard to type when there is a persistent cat wanting your attention.)

What else? Oh yes, I got a guitar! I’ve been wanting to learn to play for a long time now. I was trying to decide between violin and guitar and decided a guitar was just more practical. So after the place I ordered from didn’t send it and didn’t send it, I called and switched what I ordered and had it in less than 48 hours! So now I’m trying to callous up my tender little fingers and practicing pretty much every day. I think I have about 5 chords down fairly well and I can play a few songs. :-) Hey! Skip-to-my-Lou and Jingle Bells are songs!! I’m having fun with it - even though I did NOT need another ‘project’ taking up time in my life. Still working on that balance thing.

I think that’s about enough for this post. I have another one to write, but I’ll keep that separate.

I did want to share this little picture and story with you, though. I think it’s the cutest thing!

The picture alone is sweet enough, but the story is gooey, too. I’ll summarize, but you can see more of the story here, if you like. Basically, this little macaque monkey was abandoned by his mother and nursed back to health at an animal hospital. But he wasn’t very perky or happy. Then a fellow patient, a pigeon, became his friend and they’ve been inseparable ever since. Isn’t that cute?? I wonder how long it will last. Talk about an odd couple, but that picture just does something to me. (”No, Jodi, you may NOT add a monkey to your menagerie!”, says the inner voice of reason.)

Okay, I need to get my other entry posted so that’s it for now.

It’s been awhile since I posted anything and my brain is too tired to think of anything too cohesive or clever today, so I guess I’ll just toss out some random bits and see if it makes any sense.

Today is Day 2 of the Air Conditioning/Furnace/Basement Vent Installation. Our a/c went out…oh…a couple months ago? Maybe not that long, but it sure has felt like it! Over a month, anyway. Most of the time it’s been fine, with fairly cool weather. But several days have been torturous with very warm temps and high humidity. Monday night I finally broke down and we invited ourselves over to my in-law’s house to escape the 80+ degrees and 61% humidity inside our house. So, anyway, I am very happy that they are here working. We’re getting a new a/c unit & condenser, high tech thermostat, furnace and some vents put into the finished basement area, which has none currently. We’re seeing this as an investment…and let me just say that we really need to sell a LOT of stuff at our upcoming garage sale!

Speaking of which, I am still working on the de-cluttering project. It’s kind of an ongoing thing, but I’m kicking it up a notch. I got about 1/4 of the garage sorted out and swept. There is still stuff there, but I know what it is and I got rid of a bunch of stuff that wasn’t needed. Like about 50 empty boxes. I may have found some other garage sale items out there. I also have about 8 boxes ready to be priced - mostly kid’s clothes. We’ve set a date for the sale, so I have some motivation to get that stuff done soon.

Let’s see…what else have I been up to? I did a lot of weeding outside and I have more plants I started indoors to get outside. I need to get some bunny proof fencing first, though! Our little robin family has left their nest. I think one of the babies might be the dead one in the yard. :-( Our dog went after one of the babies (just playing, he didn’t hurt it) and about 5 robins were swooping in on him. He was oblivious. Then a couple days later a baby was on our deck and my youngest got too close to it and also became the target of the robin Secret Service. He was also oblivious. I was the recipient of some bird glares as they seemed to be warning me to keep MY babies under control. As if I could. Instead, we put our gazebo up on the deck so I can control the bird babies, or at least keep them from roosting so close to the house. That’ll show ‘em.

I’m currently baking some banana bread which I can’t wait to eat. I made a small loaf last week on a cooler day (can’t use the oven on a hot day with no a/c!) and ate it very fast. So I’m making twice as much today. It smells soooo good!

I know there were several things that happened that I was going to blog about but I can’t remember them now. For your amusement, here is a sign that there is too much Star Wars going on at our house. This morning I gave my youngest a good-morning hug and he wanted a kiss. He gave me a BIG smooch and said, “That’s what Princess Leia does to Han Solo. Then at the end there is a big noise.” (enter smoochie noise here) I’m not quite sure what to make of that. I should probably be bothered, but he’s so cute…I’ll take Princess Leia kisses as long as he wants to give them to me. :-)

And now, for my last item, I found this little i-pod meme at Don’t Try This At Home, and I thought it looked like fun and was appropriately random for today. For the record, I don’t own an i-pod. I have a 4 GB Sansa. I don’t have too many songs on it yet, so this could be an interesting little exercise. I also have several music videos which won’t show up as part of the shuffle, so that also limits the responses.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn’t make sense. NO CHEATING!

How do you feel today?
Everything I Do, I Do It For You - Bryan Adams

What’s your outlook on life?
The Word - Sara Groves

What does your family think of you?
Beautiful - Bethany Dillon

What do your friends think of you?
Hold On - Nichole Nordeman

What do your exes think of you?
The Only Thing That’s Real - Sister Seven

How’s your love life?
The Alter - Nichole Nordeman

How will your love life be in the future?
Holy - Nichole Nordeman

Will you get married?
The Rainbow Connection - Kermit the Frog

Are you good at school?
Take On Me - a-ha

Will you be successful?
100 Years - Five for Fighting

What song should they play on your birthday?
Need to Be Next to You - Leigh Nash

What song should they play at your graduation?
Wherever You Will Go - The Calling

The Soundtrack of your life?
I Say a Little Prayer - Cast of “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (Movie soundtrack, ha ha)

You and your best friends are?
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths

Happy times:
More Than it Seems - Kutless

Sad times:
Take Me As I Am - Nichole Nordeman

Every day:
You’re the One - Chris Tomlin

For tomorrow:
Hero - Superchic(k)

For you:
Mercies New - Nichole Nordeman

What does next year have in store for me?
I Could Not Ask For More - Edwin McCain

What do I say when life gets too hard?
No Matter What - Boyzone

What song will I dance to at my wedding?
Healed - Nichole Nordeman

What do you want as your career?
All Out of Love - Air Supply (I knew having that on my player would cause me trouble someday)

Your favorite saying?
True - Spandau Ballet

How will I die?
Even Then - Nichole Nordeman

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Obviously I need to do this again after I get more of my music loaded up. At least you know I wasn’t kidding about liking Nichole N. :-) And yes, I am still slightly obsessed with 80’s music.

Some of these are quite accurate. Like my favorite saying. I don’t know that “True” is my favorite, but I *do* say it quite a bit as a complete sentence. Some are a bit odd and obviously not intended for a married mom…but they are still kind of cool.

If anybody else does this, let me know. I’d like to see yours!