January 29, 2009

• It’s a Dog’s Life

  We are plodding along here, watching the snow/ice melt, taking advantage of the time spent indoors to do “indoor” projects,  and hoping tomorrow it will be safe to get in our car and leave our neighborhood for Annamarie’s medical return visit and the therapy appointment. 

  Temperatures in the 40′s today should melt much of the major roads coverage.  I’m not sure about the back roads in the country – where I have to drive to my child classes on Thursday nights.  I’m a little skittish, because I’m the only one I see on those roads on Thursday nights.  Lots of chuck holes, gravel roads, and deep ditches! 

  Our backyard began to thaw and melt yesterday.  It was like a rain storm pouring buckets of rain off of the back eaves where we have no guttering.  Sushi was VERY reluctant to step outside the back door until I showed her how she could run along the side of the house, where the dripping roof was less profuse.

  Once she got past the waterfall coming from the roof, she had a ball . . .

  . . . No, really, “she had a ball.”  LOL!!!
   

  The girls said Daddy bought this huge oversized ball for them last fall, and Sushi found it yesterday.  I vaguely remember seeing the girls play with it.
   

  The snow/ice was soft and she got good traction as she rolled, head-butted, and bounced the ball (that was bigger than her whole body) all over the yard.
   
  

  The mess freezes over at night and in the morning is like an ice rink’s hard glaze.  Stepping on anything that slopes downward is treacherous.  You slide with absolutely NO CONTROL.   When Rissy went for the mail yesterday, I told her to walk in the grass (not the driveway) and stamp down hard to break through the hard glaze.  This is the weather people fall and break bones, etc., in.  A young mail carrier is in a coma after sliding on a driveway and hitting her head.  VERY DANGEROUS.

  You can see the round patch of grass that was protected from the falling ice.  The spot where the big silver ball had been resting . . .

  and waiting for someone to play with it.
   

  We got through the basics in school yesterday – math & English – and nothing else.  I was busy before (and, again, after) teaching lessons.  I’m making great headway in preparing paperwork for our income tax filing.  I talked with our CPA friend who still feels I can do this without his help.  He is under the misconception I am “VERY SMART” – his words, not mine – and thinks I shouldn’t need to call him until I get to “file return” on Turbo Tax.  He said I should call him before electronically filing and he will take a look at our return.  That’s a huge amount of misplaced confidence – in my opinion!!!!

  

  The little girls just woke up and are rustling around in the kitchen.  I put the tea kettle on to boil and they are having instant hot oatmeal.  I look at Quaker Oats in a canister and the instant oatmeal in those paper packets we have and have to wonder if there is any REAL nutritional value in those instant packages.  I’m sure it’s better than eating candy for breakfast; but, I’m not sure how MUCH better!

  Preparing income tax information papers, yesterday, caused me to clear a great deal off of my desk.  There are very few piles left and only one short pile of “to be filed” papers.  The rest are piles/stacks of school books or school book catalogs.  Not bad.  The girls walked out of the hallway, saw my desk and all three said something like, “Wow!  Look at Mom’s desk!”  Pathetic, isn’t it?  I also found the registration papers for Sushi’s microchip, filled the information out, and added my check.  Jesse put it on the mail box this morning.

  

  I had weird dreams last night.  More like, one LONG weird dream.  Basically, it was every person’s nightmare topics.  I moved and couldn’t find things in the new house.  I had more children who came to live with us and all had to be enrolled in public school the next day.  I couldn’t find the bathroom in the new house (I got up every 2 hours needing to use the restroom last night – I’m not aware of drinking that much water before bed time!).  Eventually, I found a bathroom, but couldn’t find my hair styling products or make up (I don’t use *any* in real life) and I was going to have to go out wearing only my undies and a half slip, because I couldn’t find my own clothes.  Finally, I decided to go back to school (high school) myself, so I would make a better homeschooling teacher.  If I went back to school, that meant the youngest children (my 3) would also be in public school: something I didn’t really want to do.  The oldest children and I took off on foot to go to the high school and enroll ourselves.  That’s when I realized I didn’t *really* know where the school was located. AND, Jesse had remarried someone “more emotionally mature” than me.  His new wife gave me directions to the school while Jesse stood there shaking his head at my stupidity.  The dream went on and on until I refused to go back to sleep and got out of bed!!!!  What a nightmare!

  That dream contained
  1) another move,
  2) my not being able to find things,
  3) needing a restroom but not being able to find one,
  4) not being able to fix myself up to make an appearance in public,
  5) going in public half dressed,
  6) going back to school because I wasn’t smart,
  7) having that confirmed by my husband’s new wife, and
  8) getting lost

  See what I mean?  All the components of a nightmare.  The only thing my dream didn’t contain was my body flying or a montrous being!!!

  Today’s To Do List:
  *  Finish gathering tax info and start to enter it in Turbo Tax
  *  Teach
  *  MAIL MY MOTHER’S B-DAY CARDS!!!!!!! (her b-day was on the 18th)
  *  Pull something from freezer for dinner (I’m thinkin’ chicken)
  *  Laundry (kitchen rugs in washer now)
  *  Have girls dust/me vacuum

  Well, I think play time is about over for me and I need to get off of here!
  

  
  Be Blessed  ~

  • 10:40 am
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