Hopeful Housewife

Today in my home, my senses are overloaded. Here are the 13 reasons why.

1.) Wow, Wow Wubzy. I dont get this show at all, but the kids like it. I’d prefer that they weren’t sitting there, but honestly, I’m letting it slide for today. We’re all feeling hot and tired.

2.) Box fans. They are loud, and there are two in the living room right now.

3.) The Neighbors peacock. He has been perched up on their roof all day, and he is sooooo noisy. He’s lucky he’s so pretty or I’d be tempted to turn him into Sunday dinner.

4.) My computer. Its one of those uber small towers that is supposed to be space saving, but it seriously sounds like a jet engine on my desk, preparing for takeoff. Its obnoxious!

5.) Whining. My poor son stepped on a bee yesterday, and he is milking it for all it’s worth. yes, I know it hurts, and I’m sure its really uncomfortable, but the occasional “oohhh the PPAAAIIN!” is a bit overboard.

6.) It’s hot. Everything is sticking to us. We’ll head out for a swim when the sun isn’t overhead.

7.) Sugar. I had a huge dr. pepper with lunch and I’m literally high now.

8.) Wow, Wow, Wubzy. Did I say that already?

9.) While we’re on the topic of tv, let’s discuss how sensory assaulting yo gabba gabba is, shall we? A simple commercial for it is enough to send me into visual and auditory overdrive. It’s also worth noting that it makes my brain hurt. One can only try to figure out that show for so long before your brain waves shut down completely.

10.) Hubba bubba gum. My MIL bought Piper some last night, and even though I think it borders on being a disturbing substance, somehow I cant resist it. I love the stuff. Good thing its not grape though, because I wouldn’t have any self control whatsoever if it was.

11.) “I’m hungry.” Seriously? You just ate. My ears are going to bleed if I hear it again.

12.) The parakeet. He’s having a nervous breakdown, I’ve decided. He is so manic right now, and I’m concerned about how much frantic squawking his little body can handle.

13.) The hubba bubba gum Piper just handed me. Pre-chewed. “here mama…you can have it.” I love the stuff, but not enough to chew a piece that is already broken in!

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I’ve had a heck of a time getting anything done this week for some reason. I just feel sort of out of it, and everything is happening at least a day off schedule it seems. I think its the fact that its been so hot and miserable. I also had a sick Trinity this week, and was feeling less than stellar myself. So, that said, I wanted to attempt to catch up.

I have my “blue monday” pictures ready to post, and darn it, I wanna get them up.

I was inspired on Monday by the blue I found in my back yard. My husband put up my clothesline this past weekend, and I am just so tickled by it. No more hanging clothes on the pool gate! :)  Here are a few blue things that caught my eye monday mornin’.

The pool. More of a turquoise than blue, but work with me here. I so badly just wanted to jump in as I was taking this picture, lol.

The pool, and the blue “easy up” that my dh put up this past weekend also. We waterproofed the picnic table that day too, and its a nice place to hang out in the evenings now.

Blue clothespins. Couldn’t find wooden ones, can you believe that?

A row of blue clothes. Total accident, but so appropriate.

My clothes line from a different view. You can actually see how my dh made it in this shot. He even put a little tension tightener thing on it so we can adjust as needed. I’m so tickled with it! Hey, the basket is even blue…

 So there it is…the backyard blue Monday, only three days late.

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Busy day today. It’s going to be 106 and I need to get certain things done before the heat of the day creeps in.

1.) bake bread, like NOW.

2.) laundry, as usual. Gotta get pics of my new clothes line up too…my hubs rocks.

3.) Make yogurt.

4.) See if the health food store sells Kombucha.

5.) Um, donate that bag. Yes, THAT bag. Yes, I still have it.

and to answer Jessica’s question:

Jessica, I will post some recipes that I have, and a few that others recommend.  Lemme dig em’ up for ya.

ok ya’ll. off to remove the clothes from the line before it gets too hot.

 Have a great day ladies.

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I really love DeNiece’s blog. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but I am finally linking it! She’s got a really cute giveaway going right now…and you can learn all about it here.

Take a look at her daily videos. She’s got a lot of great recipes and tips. I can’t wait to try her baked oatmeal.

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My first attempt at preparing a sourdough starter ended in catastrophe when my wonderful, loving husband accidentally spilled about 2 quarts of water into my starter bowl. I am pretty sure he was more upset about it than I was, although I am not certain if its because he wasnt going to have homemade sourdough or if he knew I had tended to it carefully.

At any rate, I’m trying a new way today. Candi’s blog has these great instructions. 

Come on…I need brewing buddies. Who’s up for it?

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One thing I have learned to really savor in my life is my relationship with women that are older and wiser than I. While it may be true that some of the advice we get from the older guard may be outdated, inaccurate, or just plain weird (in our minds), its important to remember that when we are the older guard, the youngin’s will think the same thing about our pearls of wisdom.

Now, that said, I have found that it is important to listen to everything they say to you. They really are wiser than you are, and sometimes the weirdest advice actually works. My Mother-in-Law has astounded me on occasion with suggestions and advice I have never heard in my entire life. There have been the simple, every day things, and the really important ones too. She always told Art that someday she’d have a Daughter-in-law and that she would treat her like her own since she never had any other children (thus, no girl.) In my younger years, I didn’t always understand the way of the older generation, but I’m amazed by how much I have learned in hindsight. Things about life, love, and even the kitchen that I would have had to learn through “trial and terror” without her motherly instruction.

So, here is my Thursday 13, written with much gratitude.

1. How to buy clothes that really fit. She taught me the value of fabric, fit, cut, and style. I think my sense of style is greatly shaped by her influence. She always looks like a lady, and I picked that up from her.

2. How to get volume in your hair. I remember VIVIDLY getting up early one day before work when I was 19, newly married to her son, and living in her home so that she could blow dry my hair and teach me the wonders of velcro rollers.

3. Turning your clothes inside out on the clothes line will help to keep them from being sun-bleached.

4. How to make incredible, incredible, incredible homemade macaroni and cheese. It’s the kind of mac and cheese that MY children will talk about and say “My mom said my grandma taught her how to make this years ago.”

5. Ironing really does matter, and starch makes all the difference. I was 16 when I met her, and I SWEAR I had never even heard of starch.

6. Good shoes make a difference. You only get one pair of feet. Take care of them. My MIL has really adorable feet, and I really think its due to the fact that she always buys good shoes, and takes care of them. (the shoes and the feet!)

7. Nothing in the kitchen should intimidate you. If you can follow a recipe, and know your kitchen terminology, you can cook just about anything.

8. Murphey’s oil soap is amazing.

9. Follow the manufacturers directions on all clothing. It makes a difference. She is proof that you really can have a dress for 2 decades and have it still look brand new. “Permanent Press” ..two words I had never heard before her advice.

10. Waste not, want not. My mother instilled this in me as well, but watching my MIL in action took resourcefulness to a whole new level.

11. Stock up on cake mix for those cold months. Baking a cake will heat up the house, and really, is it ever a bad time for Betty Crocker?

12. How to make incredibly tasty, authentic mexican food. The every day kind of stuff that is never on any Mexican restaurant menus.

13. She did a darn good job on my husband. He is a remarkable man, and the perfect example of “His Mama raised him right.”

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DUST. I didn’t get to it yesterday, and its only getting worse.

Starch and iron dh’s shirts.

2 loads of laundry.

Donate that darn bag of stuff.

Figure out dinner!

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I thought this was soooo sweet!!!

The Long Valentine’s Day

Somewhere in the courts of celestial justice, an error was made in my favor and I got to marry Ellen. She was hitchhiking in Berkeley, California when I saw her first. Slender, movie star beautiful, nearly six feet tall. I was walking back from classes to fetch my car and I remember thinking, Look at that gorgeous Amazon!I started running for the garage, hoping to start my ancient Dodge and get to her before someone else picked her up. I had to drive around the corner to reach her, and I went so fast I clipped the sidewalk. The minute she climbed aboard, I had the odd sensation that all the jigsaw pieces of the world had quietly snapped together. I drove her home and we talked for hours.

That was over thirty years ago. What followed has been a marriage so passionate and adoring that I’m the only old married man I know who is envied by young single guys. We’ve had exactly one serious argument, twenty years past, in a moment of crisis and exhaustion. The experts say it’s wrong not to argue. But Ellen wakes up smiling every morning and I rush home to see her every night so we somehow manage to live with the disapproval of the experts.

We are frequently asked what our secret is. My wife says, “Never say no to sex.” I say, “Marry Ellen.” More seriously, we did make a conscious decision to ignore the diktats of feminism. I don’t prescribe this necessarily: to each his own. But Ellen made me the king of our household and the captain of our lives, and it worked for us. A female dinner guest was once so appalled by the way Ellen treats me, she burst out, “You cook and clean for him and serve him! What does he do?” Ellen smiled and simply opened her hands to indicate the roof over our heads and the food on our table and the happy, well-mannered children at our sides, and the guest fell silent.

Which is only to say: she made a man of me, and in gratitude, I made her happiness my northern star. I made sure she could stay home to take care of the kids and keep house when it was time for that and that she could go to grad school and to work when that time came. I tried to live up to her clearly overblown impression of my good qualities. I was faithful to her, which was sometimes hard.

But in truth, I don’t know why we got the happily-ever-after. It was a gift. Over the years, we’ve seen more than a few good marriages go under. We’ve seen husbands and wives do and say such terrible things, children so scarred and battered by divorce and casual cruelty and simple inattention, that we have sometimes clung fearfully to each other in our bed at night like orphans in a storm.

It took us a long time to understand how blessed we were and from whom such blessings flow. The understanding made us even happier and more grateful, but it also forced humility on us. If we could claim no credit for what made our union good, we could lay no blame on others whose unions went bad. We have been poor and rich together, crazy and sane, mournful and joyous, and I can think of half a hundred times we might have gone down the wrong road or, even worse, failed to turn back and find the right one. If we fared well, it wasn’t because we were wise - it certainly wasn’t because I was wise. It was only, I think, that the power of what we felt for each other schooled us to trust in love. Love over money, love over politics, love over fashion and philosophies of life: our love - and, in our love, God’s - over all.

Ellen and I came of age in a generation that often denigrated the strength and integrity of manhood, the tenderness and generosity of femininity and - I won’t say the sanctity - but the deep worthiness of marriage between the two. We didn’t have many examples to draw from. But I had one.

My father and I disagreed on just about everything and were sometimes at daggers drawn, but his steadfast love for and kindness toward my mother were a great gift to me. Shortly before he died near the age of 80, I told him so. He was a comedian by profession and by nature, and he joked, “I’m still chasing your mother around the room - but very slowly.”

I would be glad to be able to make that joke to my son thirty years from now. Even slowly. I would be very glad.

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Well, I suppose this isn’t anything monumentally groundbreaking, eye-opening, or earth shattering, but it’s what worked for me today.

I hate having dirty fans. I dont know what the deal is, but I just cant stand to look at a dirty fan blade. We dont have ceiling fans (booo) but we have 2 box fans that are working overtime right now. Today, instead of taking the bits and pieces outside or trying to wash them all in the sink, I unscrewed the front and back grates, etc, and soaked them in hot, soapy, bleach water in the bathtub. I used a bristle brush to get in between the grates, and then used my moveable shower head on the highest setting (you know, the oh my word, I think my shower is going to impale me setting) to rinse it off. Sparkling clean, and no water all over the floor or standing in the sun.

 Happy Summer!

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Todays to-do list:

Bagels! I need to get these done!! I gotta try that cream cheese. ;)   This one is NOT done, but I’m crossing it off because it is NOT happening for at least a week. We’ve got over 100 degree weather and its not letting up until next week, if it lets up at all. If I am able to get up before six am and get these done, then they will go back on the list at that point.

2 loads of laundry (how does this pile up so fast?)  Five down, and dried outside!

Wash my car. Kids will love this one.

Dust!

Make a trip to donate de-cluttering leftovers. No, but they are loaded in my van.

Change kitty box. Yep, both fish bowls too.

Change all bed linens. I reckon those 2 loads just grew to four. Four? Try five. Trin’s comforter is mega heavy I’ve discovered. I still have a load to go, somehow. I swear its multiplying.

Swim. Must.Swim. It’s going to be hot today. Technically I have been swimming twice today as I was in the pool just after midnight because it was too hot to sleep. We’ll get back in when the hubs is home.

Now to “quick clean” with the kids, dust while they tidy and then we’ll all go wash my van.

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