Creative Homemaker

My tired, old decrepit computer has rebelled. It has served me faithfully since we received it as a gift nearly 4 years ago. I love my Dell, I have kept fingers out of it, I have kept back the tinkering "mechanics" who would load this and load that, "Oh try this download Mom!" But alas, it can't stay on anymore. I keep getting a BSOD, nearly every morning. That's a "blue screen of death" for you non-techies. My DH purchased new memory for my Dell at Christmastime, but I think it is sick now, non-compatibility issues. I'm expecting a new computer in about 2 weeks, but I can't risk losing all my files, photos, (nearly 8000 of them,) stored on this computer. I need to slow down and limp it through this crisis, so I'll not be able to be here in bloggy land like I would like to be. Who knows, maybe this is God's way of telling me I'm spending too much time here. I'll be back, don't fret, we are well, I just have to take it ea...

I got nothin' today folks, so if you stopped by to reap some great and inspirational nugget of wisdom, you've come to the wrong blog. I've had a day of running around with two kids in tow, not too bad considering, but I didn't come up with anything witty, or inspirational or hope filled in my travels. Tomorrow promises to be just as weird, I'm driving an older gentleman from our former church to the military hospital for an appointment. He would have to spend a couple of extra hours getting a pass to the post, so I'm picking him up and dropping him off instead. I'll sit and cross-stitch, or read, or twiddle my thumbs until the appointment is over and I can drive him home. Then off to the grocery store while the kids are at the sitter. Ahhh! The freedom of it all! I had this saved on my computer for such a time as this, when funny is just not happenin', spiritual insight has gone out the window and intelligence is nowhere to be found. So here it is: If I ...

This is all I have to say today, go over to Praise and Coffee and read. Insightful, inspiring and oh, so important. Are you fully loving your loved ones?

My daily Bible reading has taken me on a journey of miscellaneous rules; God’s rules for His people. Much of it has been rather dry and boring, repetitive and seemingly unnecessary. After all, who would think about stealing another man’s wife, well, I guess that people do thing about it and that’s why God had to be so specific about the things He wanted the Israelites to obey. God was very specific about the offerings and tithes brought to the temple, this offering is for this particular feast time and this offering is for that time. Bring this amount if you are married, and bring this amount if you do not have a wife. Take head that you obey these things, and do all that I have commanded you. I came to the blessing today in my reading, Deuteronomy 28: 1-14. I’ll just quote verses 2 and 9. 2) “And all the blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God,” 9) “The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself just as He has sworn to...

Skinny girl, “I found a great new snack for us to try! Martha Stewart raves about it and Faith Hill eats them!” Fat Girl: “Yum! Let’s bake!” Thinking about those de-lish-to-die-for Oatmeal Toffee cookies. “We’re not baking.” Skinny says, “You eat this raw.” “Raw, you say?” Fat replies, “Mmm, I love raw cookie dough! Lemme at ‘em!” “No, it’s edamame.” Says skinny girl with pride. “Eda-whaty?” That sounds like some 60’s era knot tying plant hanger!” “Edamame, you know, soy beans! They’re full of fiber, and protein and healthy heart disease fighting stuff.” Skinny smugly replies. Fat Girl, “I’d rather die happy!” Skinny Girl, “Ain’t gonna happen, now have a soybean!”

Oh my! I think I may have unintentionally misled you all into thinking that those clocks were all mine! That is truly not the case, I just found a picture off the internet. While I would love to have all those beautiful antique clocks, I only have one wooden clock that hangs on the wall. We call it a grandmother clock, it doesn't stand on the floor like a grandfather clock, it is large, but not that large. I didn't have a picture of MY clock so I just searched on the internet for something close. I didn't mean to mislead you.

It’s quiet. Too quiet. In the solitude of my home, something is missing. The little boys are sleeping. The big kids are at school. The radio is off, but still there is a sound that I’m not hearing. Where’s the tick, where’s the tock. Where are the Westminster Chimes; top of the hour, quarter past, half past, three-quarter past. Yesterday was “Winds-day”, the day to wind the clock. I didn’t.

Last week, I made my daughter eat pound cake just so we wouldn't have leftovers. While that may not seem too bad, she doesn't like pound cake. I didn't realize she didn't like it, but I didn't want it hanging around, she obediently complied. Then immediately spit it out. I created this award for those times when we as Moms do those awful things we shouldn't! Like feeding your kids expired yogurt, Carla. This one's for you! Grab it and take it on over! If you see this and know of a Mom who could use a laugh, feel free to pass it around. All in fun, mind you, the Mom's I know are great!!

I picked up the Sub , ran to Wal-Mart and then “treated” the kids to a drive thru car wash! Complete with triple color foam, thankyouverymuch! As we pulled out of the car wash, I flipped the wipers to rid the beautifully clean windshield of the remaining drops the high-speed jet engine didn’t blow away, nothing! I flipped again, back and forth, nothing! No wipers! I tried pulse, delay, spray, low, high. Not a movement! Dead! What else can go wrong on this bucket of bolts and hyper-sensitive circuitry!? I drove back to the mechanic, and lovingly told him, I’d like to send him on a cruise, or put a kid through college, because indeed, I’d be whipping out my Debit card again for him to swipe! Turns out, some knucklehead who has earned the term of endearment, Idiot Previous Owner, had a little trouble with the wipers and instead of replacing the bad electrical board, (which he should have done,) he had it re-soldered, making big leaden globs of goo all over board inside the housing, which...

Why is it, after a week of feeling like crud, I just can’t get motivated to even lift a finger, the house is gross, laundry is piling, kitchen sink is just nasty, N-A-S-T-Y, nasty. I have gone through four rolls of toilet paper just blowing my nose. And it isn’t even the soft kind; my nose is just raw. I have asthma, so every time I get a cold, it goes right to my chest and hangs on forever. I don’t sleep well and I’m so tired during the day. I can’t think of anything amazingly witty or profound so I’ll just sit here and wallow in self-pity. On a positive note, the gremlin-esque hiccup in my Suburban’s engine has now been routed out and repaired. (I hope!) In the past 2 months I have spend nearly $2K on repairs. I keep trying to remember what Larry Burkett says, “the cheapest car you will ever own is the one you own right now.” We still owe too much on it to warrant selling it and getting another, so we just keep plugging along. I’m hoping that once I get this stuff done on it, it w...

I was going to do 60 questions for my 60th post, but that was 2 days ago. (How did that happen?) Then I thought of adding some more and doing it at 100, but my brain is fried because I'm sick, so you get it now. 1. What is in the back seat of your car right now? Three car seats, French fries, a bottle of windshield wiper fluid, my beloved denim quilt from my sister Nin and my emergency kit. 2. When was the last time you threw up? Food poisoning episode in August of last year, I seriously thought I was going to die! 3. What's your favorite curse word? Crum 4. Name 3 people who made you smile today? Boo, Robby and God. 5. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? Standing in the cold with my children at the bus stop. 6. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? Dozing on the couch with Boo. 7. What will you be doing 3 hours from now? Who am I, Nostradamus? 8. Have you ever been to a strip club? Never. 9. What is the last thing you said aloud? “Robby stop squishing your brother.” ...

Yesterday I received a sweet email from my distant husband. Eleven heartfelt words, short and sweet, to the point, told me all I needed to hear. He loves me and wishes I were with him. I have read and reread it over and over. Why wouldn’t I? It’s from someone I love, someone with whom I have a deep and meaningful relationship. Someone who loves me back, more than anyone else in the world-- in this world. There is someone who is outside of this world who loves me ever so much more than my sweet Bear could ever love me. It’s true. I have a letter from Him too. It’s a big one, 783,137 words total in the King James Version. It has 1189 chapters and 66 books. It’s sitting over on the end table next to my cozy chair . It’s in pretty good shape for how old it is. The pages should be creased, and wrinkled; the spine should be broken with pages falling out. It should be dog-eared, and written in, highlighted and full of sticky notes, but it’s not. Is it because I don’t love Him? No, I do. Is...

Skinny girl , “Do you realize that this stomach is only the size of your two fists put together? About the size of a grapefruit.” Fat Girl, “Grapefruit!” She replied incredulously, “You’ve seen me pack, you wanna see how much pizza I can stuff in that space?”

We’ve been sick, sick, sick with the flu; achy, hurting, fever and some (gross) vomiting. It started with me 3 weeks ago, then Chels got it, Ace was next, then Miss Busy was down for about 5 days, just this morning went back to school. Yesterday, Robby and Boo caught it; at the same time, thank you very much! They just have fever, and aches. Well, Boo nearly threw up all over my keyboard yesterday, I was able to scoot back out of the way and he only got my lap and his sister’s homework. (Terrific!) Please pray!! I’m so sick of this, literally! This morning, I’m sneezing, and have a runny nose. This is how my allergies start so I think that’s what I have. With Daddy gone, I’m the only caregiver, and I get pretty worn out when everyone is calling Mommy! Thanks, I knew I could count on you!

I am officially the worst mom ever. I was cleaning up the kitchen and there were two bites of pound cake on a plate. I asked Chels to just eat them, why stick them in a bag, it’s just two bites, come on. She obediently starts chewing a little bite and then runs to the garbage can to spit it out. We have a yucky tummy sickness in the house right now, so I was very concerned, “Are you ok? Are you sick, too?” “No,” she replied, “I just don’t like pound cake.” Sigh…then why on earth did you eat it?

I’ve had a couple requests to hear the homeless-living-in-a-tent story . There is a bit to the behind-the-scenes part so if you’d like to check out now, be my guest, although there are lessons and blessing from God in the end, so I encourage you to stick around. My DH, Bear had decided not to reenlist in the Army back in 1996, so we packed up all our things and moved West. My parents lived in Utah at the time and Micron was building a new plant just a mile away from where they lived. We put all our things in storage and looked around for jobs. We looked and looked for about two months, we couldn’t find anything in the area and decided to head out for Idaho. We lived with Bear’s parents for a week or so then moved to a friend’s camper. Our stuff was now in storage in Boise. I found a job in Boise and we rented an apartment there. Bear was discouraged about not finding work himself. My sister Silver, forwarded our mail to us from Utah. It was full of God’s blessings, unpaid leave mon...

My new Blogging friend Jennifer tagged me to write 7 things about me, this was actually kind of tough, I'm a boring person, (I think) I'm glad I wasn't doing 100! Maybe in honor of my 100th post, I'll have to start working on that now. So without further ado... 1. I collect teacups and saucers; I love the old nostalgia of them. I display them on a lovely handmade wooden shelf, but I hate to dust. 2. I once memorized and performed Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on the piano, though now I couldn’t read the music to save my life. 3. I have two generations of children, a 19 year old who was an only child for nine years and the younger bunch, 5 kids in 8 years. 4. Twenty years ago my husband and I eloped in the middle of final’s week; we both had tests at 0800 the next morning. 5. We were homeless for one month in 1996; lived in Kansas in July during a tornado warning and roughed it in a 3-man Coleman tent, and lived to tell about it. 6. I grind my own wheat to make my bread;...

My daily Bible readings this week have been from the books of Leviticus and Numbers. I have been reading A LOT about duties, rules, feasts, regulations and conduct. I can't believe that God wanted them to only perform these regulations, but to remember why He gave them in the first place. He often told Moses to tell the Israelites, "When they do such and such, remember how I saved them from the Egyptians." The traditions were not all about the DOING of the thing, but rather they were to help them REMEMBER what God had done. When my husband was deployed to Iraq a few years ago, we started a tradition; movie and pizza night, every Friday night. The kids and I started it then to give them something to look forward to and to remember that even with Daddy not around, we were still a family and we would still celebrate special family times. I was pregnant during both of Bear's deployments and I often "cheated" with a frozen pizza, it was a break for me to not h...

My dear brother just informed me that placing a dirty diaper in the mailbox could be likened to Illegal Dumping of Bio Hazard Waste on US Federal Property. So if the Water Department guys decide to turn me in and I'm doing time in the Big House, will you all come visit me?

How hard can it be, I ask? I had two things to do before I put the boys down for a nap. I gathered my keys and the trash and out the door I went, hurrying so that Boo wouldn't be climbing on the baker's rack before I came back inside. Or maybe calling China on my cell phone. Run outside, do the jobs, come back in. Quick. I put the dirty diaper in the mailbox.

Last night I took Boo to the ER. We have all had some kind of crummy illness this week, mostly me, but I’m better now, thank you for your prayers. Boo woke up about 10 pm after everyone else was in bed and sleeping soundly. I had finished my reading and my tea and was heading off to bed. He was crying and when I lifted him out of his crib he said, “Ow, ow,” and started rubbing his right ear. Ok, no brainer, ear infection. He had been rubbing the left one the day before. I called my dear friend Ang and she came right away to sit with the other children. We arrived at 2300 at the ER, got triaged and checked in. We sat and waited; watched a little Rodeo and waited; we watched the Washington Huskies fight a good fight against the Golden Bears and we waited. Then we slept, sitting up in a rather squeaky chair and finally at 0330 we were called back into a room. Nearly 30 minutes later a doc, of sorts, came in and asked why we were here. I introduced my baby and said, “He has an ea...

I participate, (when I can) with a Thrifty Recipe Swap over here at The Grocery Cart Challenge . Gayle is a great thrifty Mom, and I'm trying to get the hang of being thrifty in the area of groceries too. Check it out for some great snacks for the kiddos. This weeks recipe swap is all about the munchies. What are some thrify snack recipes that are staples in your house? Ok, this isn't really exciting, but my kids enjoy this treat. Package of graham crackers one or two depending on how many munchkins have the munchies. Jar of peanut butter, we like Adams All Natural Spread the crackers with peanut butter, top with another cracker and split into rectangles. Serve with a big glass of milk to wash it down. Yummo!