WHERE AM I?

Just thought I'd let everyone checking out this blog of mine, that I am on a temporary leave of absence for three weeks (for this blog that is), while I travel to Joplin, Missouri to volunteer in the tornado relief efforts. In the meantime, take a look at my Joplin blog.

http://theresalandthativeheardof.blogspot.com

I'll be returning around the 10th of July. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer

HOW TO USE THE WORD "SHARDS" IN A SENTENCE!

This morning I was picking up clutter in the back entry and wiping off fingerprints on the kitchen door when it hit me that I have almost forgotten about the lack of glass in said window. And don't get me started on the ever-present fingerprints in my house..... that's another blog in itself!  NOTE TO SELF:  replace glass before winter rolls around again.

~ this is the back entryway looking toward the kitchen ~

Let's go back 6 months. Reminisce with me. We had just been living in the new house a couple weeks and the boys and I were on our way out the back door to go to their Boy Scout meeting. On the way out, Spencer shut the interior kitchen door..... the one with the window in it. What was that noise? Oh, the sound of breaking glass. Seems the motion of shutting it too fast for an old door caused the lower left corner to crack and break some glass out..... also sending a long crack all the way to the top. We picked up the glass that had fallen out on the floor and off we went to scouts. Two hours later, we walked back into the house and having momentarily forgotten about it, there was the broken window to greet us. Of course everyone had to leave their shoes on when we got home because you never know how far glass will travel when shattering out of a window. It was close to bedtime when we got home from scouts but I couldn't just leave the huge jagged pieces hanging there in the window, in differing degrees of attachment (todays made up phrase).

~ the windowless door seven months later ~

What to do? Gotta break it all out I guess. It was going to take some work. So I got a towel and had to go to the neighbor to borrow some duct tape to hold the towel in front of the window. I still didn't have all the important things at hand since the move. Found the hammer but it took a little courage to start hitting. A little tap.... nothing. OK then, maybe try a firm, well -placed tap....and there goes a tiny little piece about the size of a matchbox. Stand back boys, mom's gonna put some wrist action into it. Wham and crash..... there goes a chunk. With each hit, more fell to the floor and with each piece that fell, the glass under it broke into smaller and smaller pieces.

~ lovely damage to the door ~

Now once the glass had all fallen out, there were many small pieces still embedded into the window frame. I had to hack and chisel away at that for about an hour. When all was finally free of the window, I looked behind the door and there in the corner were hundreds of SHARDS of glass. At this point it was midnight and do you think my sleeping brain could figure out where to find the dust pan. OK, several minutes later I found it in the bedroom that I had decided to demolish the previous week..... which all started when I lifted up some carpet and then just kept going. Anyway, with dustpan, broom, and vacuum finally at my disposal, I had to begin project Hazmat. By 12:15 a.m. I was taking a drawer full of glass..... SHARDS of glass, out to the garage. A pile of shimmering shards.

If I remember correctly, I had planned to go to bed early that night, magazine in hand, as I had just the day before gotten the mattress off the floor (I am so happy to have children..... young men..... who can put things like bed frames together). But isn't a magazine a bit boring when you can be having fun with glass mosaics......SHARDLY!

ATTENTION ALL BATS IN THE AREA

Winter finally seems to have left us alone here in Michigan and after a wonderful spring lasting all of a week or two, we find ourselves enjoying the hot, humid, makes-me-kinda-lethargic summer weather! Grrrrrr!!! Of course things sometimes cool down nicely during the heavy thunderstorms laden with lightning. So today's beautiful sunshine was accompanied by 90 degree temperatures.

Our wonderful new "old house" does not have air conditioning. This is actually good because I need a break from my large heating bills and I figure we can manage the heat. We have plenty of fans. However, after this afternoons' brief rains somewhat cooled things down, the boys went around the house to open as many windows as possible. Keep in mind that The Old Girl (house) has over 50 windows but many of them are either stationery, painted shut,  or need to have the storms changed out for screens. I reminded Spencer not to open the ones where the storms just swing out. He said, "I know that". Of course he does, he's 16 you know.

Flash forward 4 hours to when we start closing things up for the night. All set....."boys, go to bed." I grab my computer and get all settled in bed, pillows propped up, a soft drink on the nightstand, fan on, and  the  remote control for the light/fan at my side. I can relax. Oops, there's a couple books I want down the hall in the laundry room so I get back up for a quick interruption. I switch on the light, walk over to the table just past one of the windows. Well, well, well...............SPENCER...........GET UP HERE NOW!!!!!

~  come on  in all nocturnal species  ~

WHY SO SERIOUS?

One of my little secrets was that I wanna-be living with Heath Ledger (oh come on now, a gal's gotta have her fantasies....you know he was cute.)..................BUT,  little did I know that I AM living with a Heath Ledger wanna-be!

Every now and then, I'll be sitting at the computer, doing laundry, making dinner, reading a book, or just minding my own business..... when I look up and see this........................





WAIT FOR IT.....






GET READY.....

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR!

MOTHER'S DAY MADNESS

Mother's Day can be many things, but certainly it should include some relaxing moments right? I think I may have missed that part. I didn't get breakfast in bed (WHY NOT BOYS?), but I did manage to sleep in a little longer than I expected to. Of course that made my back hurt so not such a good choice. Things were moving right on schedule and at 10:15 Spencer went out to start the van so we could go to church.

Side story about the van. I have this not-so-user-friendly battery in my van that has a mind of its own. My brother bought me a battery booster  for Christmas this past December which is the best thing ever. So when my battery is asleep, I hook up the booster and I'm good to go. It takes about 30 seconds. I also have an electric battery charger that I have used a couple times when the booster itself didn't have a full charge (gotta  have a back-up plan). For that I have to plug it in to the electrical outlet and wait 20-30 minutes.

Well at 10:15 Spencer comes back  in with the news that the booster is doing nothing. We wait  five minutes and try again. Nothing. Instigated Plan B.....used the charger but 20 minutes later......nothing...... no church today.

Grabbed the cell phone. Hello Bob (helpful brother), "Didn't we just test that battery yesterday?" "Didn't we conclude the battery was weak but still had some life?"

Cut to two hours later.....bought myself a new battery for a Mother's Day present. Luckily, I received a credit on my bad  battery so I only had to spend about $60. OK, so now I have a reliable battery....money well spent I guess.

I decide to buy lunch for my brother (who drove all  the way across town, drove me to Auto Zone, and put in the new battery), as well as my youngest who went along. Jimmy John's...... good subs..... although not quite the Mother's Day brunch that would have been lovely (MAKE A MENTAL NOTE BOYS). I said goodbye to another $20.

Now it's mid-afternoon and the weather is beautiful so I decide we should spend some quality mother/sons time outdoors. Let's pull some weeds, mow the lawn, place landscaping bricks around a tree, and head to Lowe's for some garage organization supplies. Well what the heck, I spent $70 on some very exciting mom stuff. Who wouldn't want a 4' by 4' sheet of pegboard, sawhorses, stripper for the wood floors, and  miscellaneous garage stuff to show for 16 years of motherhood. Well now with all these goodies, we have to pull everything out of the garage and rearrange everything. Oh look, let's use that tallest ladder to climb up to  the clogged dryer vent. It was so nice of those birds to place all that straw in there. OK,  clothes are drying nicely again so let's get back to the garage. Darned if I didn't realize that I still had not bought a drill. Only the pegboard could be nailed up so some things will have to wait.......thank  God......two hours of rearranging and sweeping was enough.

Hey, I needed  to spend more money so it was fortunate that the cupboards and frig were bare and I was off to the grocery store for $30 worth of essentials. Once home for good, I told the boys to get ready for bed while I tried out my new scraper for the 4 layers of porch paint I'm removing. Money well spent there.....works quite well and I am so looking forward to getting back to that  project. Seriously I am so I can enjoy my porch.

Finally it was time to sit back and relax. I told  the boys to queue up the movie I bought for some family time while I quickly straightened up the kitchen. Well, that turned  into more than a half hour and I believe it was almost 10:00 when we sat down in front of the TV with our cheese perogies and  Reeses Peanut Butter Cups (pretending it was something a bit more gourmet).  I had splurged the day before with $5 for a 23-year-old Dan Ackroyd/John Candy comedy (The Great Outdoors)..... I didn't think the boys would spend the evening watching period movies or French movies with Gerard Depardieu.

I would  have to say in all honesty that although this Mother's Day was not too relaxing, was devoid of material gifts, and was a checkbook buster, I enjoyed it anyway. I enjoyed it very much actually. I spent time with my boys and they didn't complain, they never mentioned the X-Box, the Wii, or Airsoft guns, they helped with some projects that really needed attention, and they watched a goofy movie past their bedtime just because I wanted some family relaxing time. I also have the things  I need to proceed  with other "new house" projects, and  I don't need to mess with that darn battery anymore. A good Mother's Day indeed.

BLOGGER GONE AWOL FINALLY RETURNS!

I told myself when I started this blog that I would post on a regular basis. I lied. Well not on purpose. Like all new bloggers, I had the best of intentions but sometimes life overtakes our intentions. Seems that I was out of my mind to start a blog right after the holidays when I had to concentrate on getting my mother's condo in shape to put on the market as well as finish moving years of belongings and assorted "stuff" from my old house to the new. Throw in looking for a job, home remodeling projects (never-ending projects), and doing all the things that single parents need to do (three boys.......KILL ME!). I should have myself committed for starting a blog but I am not a quitter so the blog is coming back to life. Truth be told, I am starting a second blog as well. Two different platforms so hopefully from one or the other, you'll find some reading enjoyment. My other blog is in the development stage but will be up and running soon.

So perhaps you'd like to have an idea of what I mean by years of belongings and assorted "stuff". Here are some photos of what's been crammed into the basement awaiting the sorting stage.

site of my future studio space

when I can get to it (physically and time-wise), the door with the green paint (lead paint I'm sure) needs to be scraped so Cooper can  have a door on his bedroom

I'm sure there's something in there that I needed yesterday!

The assorted furniture department

HAVING CHILDREN JUST TO ATTAIN MORE GIRLFRIENDS

It occurred to me recently that since I have three boys and no girls, some day, God willing, I will have three daughter-in-laws. I don't want to be a mother-in-law that is thought of with a frown, so of course I hope my boys will have discriminating taste in women so that I will love the DIL as well as the son. So anyway, as I pick up yet another pair of dirty socks, underwear, wet towel, or wipe up some kind of "what did you get into" muddy mess, I plot my speech to the offender of the moment about how this is in no way acceptable. I come up with some kind of extra chore to grind it into his head that it is HIS RESPONSIBILITY..... not mine, his brothers', or his future wife. Someday he will have to function in the fine art of grooming, cleaning, and general good manners without me, so I have to be hard on them, tolerant to an extent, but consistent in my "lessons". Will my boys be happy about this.....I extremely doubt it. Will they have moments of pure disgust towards me..... yes, I imagine they will. Will they thank me years later? Who knows about them, but I am sure each wife will be ever so grateful, and she and I will get along well. We will become friends. We will shake our heads about the "man" habits that they developed along the way, much to our chagrin and with no bearing on their upbringing, and we will laugh and have a great relationship. I will have three new girlfriends, albeit from a generation younger than myself.......but more girlfriends just the same.

IT HAD TO BE A COMA

I've been thinking lately about how quickly the boys are growing up. My youngest just turned 12, and 8 months from now two out of three will be in high school. Now I know for a fact that I HAVE NOT aged 16 years since that first foray into parenthood. I insist that statement is true and I will not be swayed into thinking otherwise. As I ponder over photos of those toddler years like they were truly yesterday, I wonder (I'm good at wondering and pondering) and then I ask myself, what happened?



Was I in a coma for 8 years?

I think back..... it's 2002 and they are ALL in school - one in preschool, another in kindergarten, and the oldest in second grade. They had entered academia. They were scholars...men of letters. I had begun my role as transportation engineer. Now you see, the boys attended a charter school and there was no bus transportation, Therefore, it was my job to get Spencer to school around 8:15 and then, if it was Tuesday or Thursday, I had to get Grady to pre-K around 9 am. and then I would have a leisurely 2.5 hours to be a mom of one. Before I could sit for more than 5 minutes I was off to pick up Grady and head back to the the other school to take Cooper to afternoon kindergarten. Again, a one-child mom for another 2+ hours when I would go back and pick up Cooper and Spencer. Was I getting into the van or out of the van? I had no idea. There may have been some nap time in there for the little guy but more likely errands, lunch, laundry and back to the school. Now it was me and the three until daddy got home from work. This was less than a year before he would leave the marriage. If only I would have known that at the time, I would SO have enjoyed that year of leisure when I actually had a few moments to myself in the evenings.

Anyway, two years later it got easier because Grady was in kindergarten and the school had recently gone to full-day kindergarten. I had the day to myself but was taking classes at the local community college so that I could get back into the workforce. This is where I seem to jump ahead to the present..... where my boys have gone from watching Disney movies and VeggieTales, from chunky Legos and kiddie pools, from PlayDoh and puzzles, to Harry Potter and war movies, XBoxes and the Wii, Airsoft guns and collecting knives (oh how I shudder at this one). And my personal saddest change..... from believing in Santa Claus to "really mom, get serious" and wanting mainly gift cards from everyone..... not this mom. I want to wrap something real!!!

Is there no more innocence left? Why did I wish for the PlayDoh years to be over with? I miss making forts with them with every possible piece of furniture that could be moved. I want them to pop that Reader Rabbit pc game into the old desktop computer and ask me a million questions. I think those things really happened. I'll have to go consult my photo boxes and scrapbooks to make sure.

I admit I love, love, love the fact that they can put a pizza in the oven, scramble their own eggs, help with the laundry, MOW THE LAWN, SHOVEL THE SNOW, and I cringe..... back the car down the driveway, but if only I could have one day a month to rewind the years and spend a day with my little goofballs.

I get through these moments of nostalgia by reminding myself that it will be all too soon that I will be looking back to 2011 and wishing I could have this time back. We all know this is true don't we? I guess so. When they get home from school today I'll try yet again to work those XBox controls and kill me some Russians or ghillie-suited marines. Better yet, I'll get out Spencer's knife collection and enjoy that.

WELL HI THERE ..... COME ON IN

I have a moment.....do you? I don't know if you were wandering around in Blogland and stumbled across my page, or if you are a friend of a friend who recommended you take a peak at my yammering, or if you already know and love me (it's ok, admit it). Anyway, here you are and so I guess I need to capture your interest so that you'll come back for more repartee, amusement, torture, or laughs.

You'll have to understand that as this is my first post here in Blog-What-You-May Land, I have to get into my stride, find my niche, get my blog on, or dare I say it.......figure out what the heck I'm doing. Are you still with me? Good.

So here's the skinny ~ I'm a single mom, I have three boys (all teenagers in less than a year), and I have many interests that if I can find time for them, keep me sane in this crazy world of wearing too many hats. It's go, go, go trying to keep up with the boys, and yet I continue to take on more "stuff". Oh and then I recently did this little thing which may add to my list of projects. If you don't already know, I bought a new house. Let me clarify that statement. I bought an 82-year-old new house. It's actually in pretty good shape, but oh the ideas I have bouncing around in my head! There will be plenty of posts where I hope to astonish, amaze, and impress my followers with my restoration and decorating talents. Or if I am to be a bit more realistic, I may bore you, frighten you, or just make you shake your head in amazement. Now see, I guess I can amaze you no matter from a positive or negative point of view.

So please come back to my blog and enjoy if you will, my musings, observations, rantings, photography, artwork, home ideas, and whatever else I can throw your way whilst I run in many different directions. SEE NANCY RUN!!!

Truth be told, blogging will give me a reason to take a load off, take a seat, take a breath, and take the time to relax.....well we'll see about that.