Together for Life

When you get married it is because you want to spend the rest of your life with that other person. Spend every day of your lives together! I love being with my husband every day! After 23 years of marriage I sometimes feel like that young girl newly married when I see him and my heart actually leaps!

This week Mike had to travel to Texas for work and has been gone since Tuesday. Deep inside my stomach aches and my heart aches each day he is gone. I learned way back when we were first married, and Mike was in the Navy on submarines, you can't shrivel up and hide under the covers until he returns. No instead you have to carry on and you can't miss a beat. Especially now with kids!

As I lay in bed at night, while he is gone, and pray for his safety, my thoughts drift to my mom. She has been without her soul mate, my dad, for nearly a year. How she must ache every day. But, she is an incredibly faithful woman! She doesn't just shrivel up and stay under the covers, although I'm sure there are days she considers it. She continues on, showing her children how her faith keeps her strong to carry on without dad.

My prayers are always with her, but this week especially. Mom, you are truly an inspiration! I love you and thank you for the wonderful example you are and have always been to me.

What is making all that noise?

On Monday while the dishwasher was running, the kids I couldn't help but be stopped in our tracks. All of a sudden the dishwasher started making a horrible sound. After several attempts of opening the door and trying to figure out where it was coming from, I had to allow the cycle to finish and go on with the day. When Mike got home I mentioned it to him, but there wasn't too much he could do about it until he heard it for himself.

Now the appliances in our kitchen are only about 2 years old, so it would really burn my butt if we would have to sink any money into a new dishwasher!! Of course the warranty is only good for the first year. Thoughts ran through my head that night of how I could manage washing dishes by hand for a while, just hated the thought of spending any money on a dishwasher!!

On Tuesday I started the dishwasher, having forgotten about the "sound", as soon as it started again I called Mike in from working in the yard so he could hear it for himself. Being a machine mechanic, who fixes these kinds of problems for a living, he went right to work. But, he decided he really couldn't fix it then he would probably have to pull the unit out. He would deal with it when it was empty. Empty? In our house? Doubtful! He went back to work outside.

Then Wednesday when I started the dishwasher, the "sound" was still there. Mike happened to be inside and realized there was no way to put this problem off any longer. He was going to have to pull the dishwasher out! This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but he had realized the day before when the contractor put the floor in for our kitchen he did so after the dishwasher was in place. Making it lower than the flooring!! Not an easy slide it in and out.

Having been married to my wonderful husband for nearly 23 years, I've learned LONG ago to leave him alone when he is trying to solve such an issue. Being left alone to peruse the manual, and think things through, he decided to attack the issue from the inside first. Here he is working on the washer.

And this is what he found trapped in the oscillator. There was no way this was going to be shredded any time soon. Good thing he found it! No idea how it got in there!! Especially since we haven't bought store bought bread in several weeks.

Now we are up and running again! No need for hand washing dishes! My life is back on easy street!!

Putting My Best Foot Forward

Can't remember when it happened, or how it came to pass, but I'm not a big fan of Christmas. Aghast! I know!

There are several things I love about Christmas: the tree, the music, the cookies and the love and goodwill that can come from a complete stranger.

Then there are the things that bring me down. The commercialism, the wishes of "happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", the anxiety of getting all the gifts bought and wrapped, the added stress on a single income budget and etc..

Last year I believe I had an easier time with Christmas. Most likely because I was caught up in it being our first in VA in our new house. This year however, with it being our first without dad I'm trying to go into the season with my eyes wide open. Maybe if I go into it fully aware that it will be difficult and I need to focus on the true reason for the season all may just turn out well.

Mom is flying in December 22 and staying until January 4. I'm bound and determined to make this a wonderful Christmas for her and in order for that to happen I need to be in the right frame of mind.

Advent starts tomorrow. I already have the wreath on the table with candles ready to light. (Need to replace them with new ones, but they'll get us started.) After reading the blog of an online blogging friend, I'm going to use her ideas of incorporating the Jesse tree into the ornaments for our tree, and remember the saints who have feast days during Advent. As I did last year, I will celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas with a small gift for each of the kids and we'll read the story of St. Nick.

I expect there will be some days that will prove to be more difficult than others, but I'm going to put my best foot forward and make this a blessed Advent and Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

5mart Martha Monday

Well, from last week's list I didn't do anything. Hadn't realized it until this morning. Wow! This is why I hate making lists. If you don't get to the items on it you feel like a failure. Even though I didn't do the items on last week's list I was still very productive last week just in other ways. Also, there were extenuating circumstance why a couple of the items didn't get completed. I will not allow this to detour me! It's just a list! Right?

Thank you to Therese for the idea to create a list. Be sure to visit her blog.

This week's list:

1. Iron the "pile".
2. Work very closely with Jacob and Haley and their lesson plans for school work.
3. Bring the bag of dad's clothes to Goodwill. (This is difficult on many levels. Prayers please!)
4. Hang the dark clothes on the line. (Hopefully the weather co-operates this week.)
5. Work on getting an earlier start in the mornings. (Don't be aghast by this. I am a person who loves to sleep. It is an inherited trait, and can't be helped.)

Lord, please help me to be more Martha like in my duties, and not be ruled by a list.

Queen for a Day

This is what it is all about! The weather is picture perfect, the sun is shining without a cloud in the sky. There is a beautiful breeze coming through the trees over the mountain. I have my knitting by my side and I'm sitting out in my rocking Adirondack chair on the deck. Ahhhh Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is a day that I can do whatever I want without any guilt for not doing what I'm suppose to. As a stay-at-home mom I can't ask for anything more! I slept until I woke up, 8:30. Mike had the coffee made and breakfast cooking. No clean up for me!! My daughters each made me a lovely card. Haley's was a colorful butterfly card with a heart felt note inside. Faith's was a poem that she read to me herself, her signed name was perfectly legible and no one helped her.

Jacob wrote me a poem that I will share with you here:
I write this poem for my mom...
In gangster speak, "She da bomb."
She cheers me up when I am sad,
She yells at me when I am bad.
During hunting season, she is sad,
She tells me not to shoot my dad.
At the store, she buys nothing stale,
She takes advantage of every sale.
For piano lessons, she pays lots of cash,
If I don't practice, she whoops my ash.
She likes it when I play guitar,
Says someday I will make it far.
She cooks lots of delicious food,
She married my dad, he's a cool dude.
She cleans all day long, until the dust is dead,
She doesn't stop working until she's asleep in her bed.
She somehow manages to get us all to church,
I dread the day when she will ride in a hurse.
Even though she never gave me a brother, I still can say,
"I love my mother." Love, Jake

Now I ask you, "Who can ask for anything better than this?"

You Can Taste the Sunshine

Mom and Dad retired to sunny Florida about 8 years ago. Over the past several years they have sent us a package of oranges for Christmas. The oranges are always so appreciated, but I would have to say that this year's box was the best one yet!

As you can see the girls and I couldn't wait to dig into them while the men were out hunting. The box had 6 each, tangerines, red navels, navels and tangelos. They all taste soooo good!

Knitted Gifts

Mom & Laura, Do not read this post!

Here it is the sweater I made my mother for Christmas.

I bought the pattern and yarn back in April. Stored them, packed them, and then moved them to Virginia. Strated it September 10 and finished it yesterday. Hopefully she will get some use out of it in Florida!! Now that she is 70, she is cold more often than not! LOL

Now that I'm on a role with knitting and giving it away. I decided to make my sister Laura something for her 50th birthday coming in November. She apprciated her purse so much. I started this wrap last night out of a beautiful alpaca yarn. She should get plenty of use out of it in Utah!!