And now....a poem entitled Hands

Don't ask me why, but I felt like writing a poem. Now I really must get back to work. ;)

HANDS

I look at my hands

They are always in front of me

I see them clutching the steering wheel

on the way to the grocery store

or to school

or work

I see them when I type

or write

or fold jeans

sometimes they look youthful

smooth

sometimes the nails are long and red

or pink

most times the nails are short, ragged

clear

Sometimes they look old

the ligaments beginning to create ridges in the skin

the skin, beginning to show signs of wear

More and more lined

Sometimes I look at my daughter’s hands

so youthful and smooth

holding her iPod

or a pencil

or her lunch bag

her long nails painted black

or green

or blue

And I wish my hands looked like hers

that my nails weren’t bitten

and I was brave enough to wear those colors

but then I look at my hands

and I think

of the work these hands have done

the laundry

the dishes

the writing

the driving

the grasping

the hand-holding

the soothing

the tear-wiping

the poking       

the tickling

the braiding

and I think

Thank you, Lord, for hands

There's a reason I decorate with words

I don't usually decorate for Halloween, but I really wanted to get into the spirit this year.

I got my inspiration from a candelabra I bought at a Civil War re-enactment. It's wooden and wrought iron (I think), and it looks pretty cool with white candles. I usually keep it on the top of my microwave, because I don't really know where else to put it. Sometimes I'll use it as a table centerpiece. I thought, it looks spooky enough.

I put a fall-themed tablecloth over a stack of round totes and put the candelabra in the center. Then I commandeered "Joey," the skeleton from my son's anatomy project, and a couple of cheap plastic jack o'lanerns.

So here's how it turned out.

Looks awful homespun, don't it. It looked so much better in my head. :(

Ah well.

I'll redeem myself at Christmas! :)

Groceries and stuff

I'm supposed to be getting ready to go to the grocery store. Instead I am blogging, 'cause its more fun.

I told you I have been trying to do the couponing thing, right? Well, I just took the last three Sunday papers out of their plastic wrapping. What I've been doing is cutting them out and putting them in baseball card protectors and putting them in a binder. They're supposed to be easier to find. However, this requires time and effort. I devote maybe an hour a week to clipping them but they're like bunnies! They mulitiply faster than I can clip them. So now I have a stack of coupons I refuse to look through and a binder full of clipped coupons that are probably close to expiring. If a coupon I want isn't in there, I don't use them. Extreme Coupon people make this look so easy!!

My freezer is officially bare. Normally I see what I have and go from there, but I'm kind of starting from scratch. So now I get to figure out what I want to make for the next month or so. Then I have to figure out what I need in order to do it. Then I have to go through these coupons to see if I can save 35 cents. (I may just go ahead and pay the 35 cents and save that step!)

Have you ever noticed how grocery shopping eats up an entire day?? Well, it's not the grocery shopping part so much as it is the planning to grocery shop. I end up getting 3/4 of my meals planned and saying "the other 1/4 will come from somewhere." Which, believe it or not, they always do.

I'm off today, which is good. I spent Sunday at church, shopping for compression shorts for Catie and catching up on some office work. Yesterday I spent cutting bushes and cleaning my car, and I did go have coffee with some friends.

That leaves today to grocery shop, clean the house and do laundry. Relax what?? And I had considered going to the lake with my Kindle today. Bahahahaha what was I thinking??

I have determined that maybe next year, I need to just use up all of my vacation time by making every week a three-day weekend. Maybe I actually catch up. Which I'm not doing now, so back to it!

Y'all have a great day!

Growing up

My  son is 17. Which means he's a senior. Which means he's thinking about things. Life things. Big things. Like college. Career. And moving out.

A few years ago, I'm thinking about life without the kids and I'm thinking "Wooo hooo!! I'm gonna have money and I'm gonna travel and I'm gonna do all kinds of cool stuff."

(I don't know where I think all that money will come from, but that's another blog post.)

Now that we're almost on the threshold I'm thinking....wait a minute. How did this happen?

This is weird. I remember being 17 and thinking I needed to be making $500 a week to move out. I don't think I realized you could live on a lot less than that until I saw my sister do it. I, on the other hand, got married before I tried to make it on my own and, well....I guess I did learn pretty quickly you could live on less than that. And raise a family on less, too, but that, too, is another blog post.

Last week we had a college recruiter at our dining room table. We have now formally applied for college. In Tennessee. It's what he wants. I'm hopeful for him. But it's Tennessee. I'm thinking "Lord, if he goes, I hope he remembers to wash his clothes once in a while," and "You know, I don't think I like this not letting me know where he is when he leaves the house business." We need to back up a minute!

*Sigh* He's growing up.

Today on the way home from school, his girlfriend was talking about an apartment she wants to get after she graduates.

Christopher asked me what I thought of him moving out.
I wanted to say "I don't!"

Just yesterday I was remembering him toddling across the living room, propping his elbows against my knees, looking up at me with that sweet little face and clapping his chubby little hands because he made it and didn't fall.

I said, "Well, I guess I think you need to stay home and go to school here where it's cheaper. Then when you have a good job, you need to move out. I don't want you living at home when you're 40. But no, I'm not exactly ready for you to go, either."

No, I really don't think I'm ready. But I am very fortunate. He is a good boy and I know he will do me proud.

Big thoughts about small things

Well, alright. So it's been a minute. Sorry for the disappearing act. I've been dealing with stuff and sometimes when you're dealing with stuff, it's the only thing you can think about. And I promise you didn't want to hear about it. And I don't do well hiding what's on my mind. So sometimes, the best thing for me to do is go away for a while.

I'll try to do better. ;)

Have you seen the weather today? I am so in love! I'm trying to hurry and get everything done so I can go for a walk before it gets dark. I got away from it for a while and I can tell it in so many ways. But it is way too pretty to be inside. I've got some cornbread in the oven, some chicken and noodles I made last week in the microwave, and I think I can do this!

The past couple of days I have had the migraine from hell. I normally only have to spend one day on the couch. This time it laid me out for two days. Yesterday I actually had to leave work. I have some meds that knock out the pain, but I was actually dizzy. I never get dizzy! (Shut up!)

The awesome thing about having a 17 year old is that when I have a migraine I can hand him $5 and say "Go get pizza for dinner." And he can! Then yesterday, he and his girlfriend heated up some leftovers I had in the freezer and did an awesome job of cleaning my kitchen. Awesome, awesome, awesome. That's all I can say. :)

I have my windows open. Oh. My. Gosh. How I love this! Okay....this is gonna sound ghetto but, I'm broke. My back screen door is in sad, sad shape. I cleaned it up because I love light and air, and I suffered through the summer keeping the back door closed. But I will NOT be able to live through the fall, too, with the back door closed. However, my screen is coming off at the edges. I have been meaning to tell the landlord about it so she can fix it, but they've been busy fixing other, more important stuff around the house.....like the air conditioner....that I hate to ask them to fix the screen too! So the thing is knobless, and it gaps, and the bugs are getting in. *sigh* I promise I will tell her about it. I promise! In the meantime, anybody got any duct tape??

Also, I have decided to start couponing. Three weeks ago. I researched how to organize it. Got a package of the baseball card holder thingys to put the coupons in. Found out I'll need two. Found extra coupons. They've been multiplying on my kitchen table. Two weeks ago (I think it was) I borrowed a binder from Cathy. Over the weekend I started clipping and organized them. I got through two coupon inserts. I have about a gazillion to go. I will try to work on it again some more tonight. I'm sure I'll have it done in time for the next batch of coupons. I wonder how many in my stack have expired? Anyway. Hopefully I'll get them all clipped and organized before the ones that came in the mail today expire. Next step? Find extra money to get started on that awesome stockpile. Hmmm....That could take another minute.

Ding! Time to eat and then walk. Later!


P.S. Here is my public service announcement for today. Jiffy cornbread expires. It loses a lot of its oomph after seven months. My son now believes  he's poisoned. Please check your expiration dates. You will thank me later. :)

Most people hate jury duty...

I'm kind of enjoying it.

Yes, I'm weird. We've established that. Moving on.

I'm 38 years old, been a registered voter most of my life and this is the first time I've been summoned. Y'all know how I love new experiences! Once I was in there, I was kinda soaking it up.

Naturally because I have that Anderson Thousand and One luck, there had to be a rare situation going on. I was called to come in on Tuesday at 8:45 a.m. We waited almost two hours, nothing happened, and we were excused and told to come back at 1:30 p.m. So we did. All 50 of us.

We suffered through two hours of Judge Judy and Judge Joe Brown (cruel and unusual? I think so! Who are these people?)  before it was finally explained to us that another trial had run late, causing this trial to start late, causing the jury selection for this trial to begin late, and well....now it's too late to select the jury by the end of the day, so we'll begin selection first thing Wednesday morning. Be back at 9 a.m.

So we did. All 50 of us.

I heard people complaining about losing two days worth of work. I've been off since Thursday. As of tomorrow, I've had a week off, only two days of which I requested. During that time, I've caught up on housework, laundry, done school shopping, grocery shopping, dealth with the kids' first week of school. I ain't complaining.

I am, however, incredibly curious. While everyone else was concerned about the work they're not getting done, I'm wondering what the inner workings of a courtroom really look like. Yes, I'm a reporter, but a general assignment reporter. Feature stories don't take you into very many courtrooms.  Yes, I've met judges. Yes, I've met lawyers. I've just never actually seen them work together. And I wanna know if it really looks like Law and Order in there.

Yeah, it kinda does. "There's like a judge and everything!" (-- Legally Blonde)

So anyway. They broke us up into three panels. I was on the first panel. We had to tell the court about ourselves. I always hated that part of first dates, by the way. At least the judge gave us a list of questions. All we had to do was answer them. I think this should be adopted on first dates. (Tell me your name, which side of town you live on, occupation and how long you've been there, and what do you like to do for fun. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, what kind of dressing do you want on your salad?)

When we got to the part about my occcupation, I thought, "this is it! He's going to dismiss me right now!"

Instead, the judge said "Have you ever written anything bad about me?" I smiled sweetly and assured him I had not.

The assistant DA asked the same thing....just to make sure. I should have had more fun with that, but....shoulda, coulda, woulda. LOL

Then we were dismissed for another hour and a half while the other two panels were examined. I was thinking Arby's...and that when I came back at noon I had no idea when I'd get to see lunchtime so I'd better eat now. And that I would probably see lunchtime five minutes after noon, because there was no way they'd want a member of the media on the jury.

A Thousand and One.

I was one of the chosen ones.

I can't talk about the case. Y'all know that. I will say it's a sad one. And I am taking it seriously. I am just savoring the new experience. And now chilling on my comfy couch, 'cause those chairs are definitely not.

We listened to some testimony, had some mechanical breakdowns, and I had a bit of a panic attack. Well, the one time I took my purse to the jury boxwith me, I started kinda freaking out about my cell phone going off. Because with my luck, I was afraid I had forgotten to silence it and the judge said he'd fine anyone in his court $100 if that bad boy goes off! So I'm trying to pay attention while nonchalantly bending over to turn my phone off and "OMG please tell me I didn't accidentally turn the sound back on instead!"

Thankfully, 10 minutes later he exused us for the day. And my phone did not go off.

We have to be back in the morning. I will be there with bells on....notepad in hand, cell de-batteried!

I have a new addiciton...

 It is called the online yard sale, and it has taken over what little free time I have left.
Really!

Like I'm not on the computer all day as it is, I come home at night, flip open the laptop and start grabbing piles of clothes. I have two more piles right now I have to work through before I can delve back into anybody's closet for more.

Let me back up. I found it a while back but didn't pay it much attention. Then Cathy says, "I made like $250." That kinda got my attention. So I started with a few things in my room. Namely, the jewelry left over from my Premier business. There were a few pieces that have been occupying space in the jewelry bag in the bottom of my closet. I wasn't gonna wear 'em, and nobody at my shows bought them.

So I drug them out for the first time in over a year, snapped photos of them, posted them online and they were gone in a week. Every. Single. Piece. And I was about $30 richer (I sold them really cheap) and very happy.

So I sold the bag, too. And the trays. And a dress or two.

And then I got an idea. Maybe, if I let them keep the money from the stuff we sell out of their rooms, the kids will get excited about cleaning their rooms.

It worked. Sort of.

Christopher started pulling stuff out of his room. He made about $12 and then he stalled. Catie and I spent one whole evening going through her closet. I pulled stuff out, she said "yea" or "nay," and we made piles. (Her closet looks great now, by the way! :) )

I took the piles to my room and thus began two weeks of selling. Not every night, but most nights, I come from work, snap photos, upload them, post them to the site and if I'm lucky, I get a few nibbles. Then once or twice a week, I take the things people want, put them in bags, put tags on them, record the transaction in a notebook, and load it up for the Shop and Drop, a consignment store where I can drop the whole shoot and shebang and a few days later, go get my money.

By the time I'm done, it's bedtime!

One night early on, about 10:30 p.m., I got tired of the piles of stuff in my living room and dang it, I just cleaned my bedroom so I wasn't about to start piling it in there! So.....I cleaned out the coat closet. Now everything in there except the vacuum cleaner is up for sale. When someone is interested in something, I just go pull it out of the closet.

Bonus points: The money I make is helping me buy school clothes. Double bonus points: if I buy clothes off the site and I just sold something, no money actually leaves my pocket!

The only problem is, when you give most of your attention to something new, another thing suffers. I won't be showing you any pictures of my house anytime soon! ;)