All over the place lately...
I was thinking I would start with today's story and work backward. That way, all the overreacting and worry that I had as the weekend progressed will be a sweet reminder that everything will work out...not necessarily as I would want it to...but it always does.
Tonight, I am sitting here at my desk, looking at the window which has at least a foot of snow on the bottoms. It started snowing last night and hasn't stopped. The house is quiet, dinner was "little bowl" night and Jim was so cold from plowing the driveway for 4 hours that he is already in bed. Howie is watching TV and all is well.
This morning, we all got up and went to church. When I say "we all", I mean all of us...The Queen, Mac, Jim, Howie and I. I talked my college girl into coming home to hang out with me on Saturday while the boys went snowboarding. The Queen is a busy girl and stays away from home. She's too busy to come home and hang out. I don't know that she is so busy but she is making her way in the world and sometimes it's hard to come home and listen to Mom's wisdom.
Anyway, they needed to get home today and since the snow was falling hard, I asked Jim to drive them up to college and of course, he did. Howie and I came home from church, hit the grocery store and came home. We couldn't get up the driveway and I got the car stuck on the side...so we had to walk up. Howie got the tractor, drove it down the hill and it ran out of diesel! No more plowing and no more digging the car out...
We walked up to the house, made lunch, strapped on our snow boards and rode down the driveway for a while. It was pretty snowy and it seemed like it wasn't going to stop. The big question is...will they cancel school tomorrow? I am sure if the roads are plowed, it will be on.
After a while of riding down the driveway, Jim showed up. There was no way he was gonna be able to get up the driveway because we had a tractor and a car in the way. He walked up the driveway, put on his plowing clothes and started working on it. I headed into the house, shed my snow pants, grabbed the Sunday paper and got into bed with my cat...
It was a little piece of heaven. He snuggled up to me, I read as much as I needed to so my eyes got heavy and settled into a fantastic nap...while Jim was out plowing, freezing his "you know what off" but also loving every minute. I maintain that for Jim, there is nothing better than driving that Kubota tractor around.
I woke up almost 3 hours later and put my snow pants on and joined Howie sledding down the hill and playing with the dogs outside. I have three dogs, but one of them absolutely loves the snow...Bailey is our snow dog!
So that was and is today. Not too bad, I guess. The sermon at church was relevant to me and made me think about how I live my life...nice.
Yesterday, not so good. Let me qualify that when things happen that don't include death, I usually brush them off and say, "at least someone is not dead," and Jim tends to agree but tells me that I have a warped attitude and you can't measure everything against death. Fair enough...
So, Saturday morning was glorious and the boys loaded the subaru, screaming at each other in the garage, and headed off to Keystone to snowboard all day. When I say "all day" I mean exactly that. These boys try to get the last lift of the day which some days is 8 pm...I don't know where they get the energy but then again, they are teenage boys.
So, lunches packed, capri sun loaded in pockets and they were headed out. About an hour and a half later, when Christie and I had made our plans for the day, the phone rang and I heard Jim saying, "oh, great, OK, get it off I-70 and I will come and get you guys". I wandered down stairs and hoped that I was not hearing what I thought I heard.
We drive cars with lots of miles...lots of miles. That Subaru had at least 220,000 on it and let's just say, maintaining cars is not our strong suite. When Howie would drive out of the garage in the morning, the poor thing would scream and if he wanted it to scream louder, he would turn the wheel. I would laugh every day when he was pulling out. I guess that scream came back to bite us...it was screaming because it needed attention. I guess because they hear me yell and scream so much, we all ignored the poor car too!
Anyway, Jim went to the rent a tool place, got a trailer to hook up the poor car and got the boys, hooked up the car and brought it home. I suggested they put it by the edge of the driveway where there is a big hill, take off the parking brake, put it in neutral and shove it down the hill. That didn't go over too good with my husband.
You see, Jim can fix anything, especially when he has time to think about it. Last night, with a Coors light in his hand, he got on the internet and figured out what happened to the car. Something about the timing chain breaking, shooting metal shards all over the engine and blowing a hole in the top of it..."an easy fix" I heard him saying...
The Queen and I went to Flying J and ran the loop...and she acted so proud of me that it got me through the whole run. I could hardly move after but it was worth every minute to have my first born who will be 21 next week...proud of her mother. After that, we had our eyebrows waxed...and home for lunch. While she was making me the best spinach salad I have ever had, "You always say that, Mom", we talked about her plan for her 21st birthday, about what she is gonna drink, if much, and I gave her tips. Since I am and have been a seasoned drinker for many years, I wanted to let her know how not to be like me...but I have to say, she has her head screwed on way better than I did at that age...
Last night, I found myself sitting around the dinner table, in our "old seats" having home made spaghetti and meatballs. I noticed the kids waiting for Jim to sit down, sneaking food off of their plates but trying to be polite. He sat down and we prayed our usual, "Father we thank thee" which we have been doing since the Queen was in a bouncy seat on the table while we ate. Then I heard Jim say, " okay, now we have to say something we like about the person two seats to the right" and we all started to laugh and blew him off. You see, when we had three middle school/teenagers at the dinner table and they had just finished a "knock down -drag out" fight, that is how we would break the ice at dinner...
I wanted to take a picture to commemorate the gathering since we have not all been together since Christmas, but I was told that I take too many pictures. They just don't get it...
The gospel reading today was about the hen who gathers her chicks under her wings to protect them and would lay her life down for them... they even brought a live chicken named Patsy that I got to touch! After the service, Mac, my middle son, went up to the Pastor and the lady with "Patsy" and let them know that when he did children's sermons they never brought live animals...
Listening to the sermon, I thought about how I loved being a mother, the magic and struggle of each child's personality, about how it went so fast, and how I love when they are all under the same roof...about how I worry about their safety at college and the world and about their choices and decisions. I love when I can be the mother hen and take them under my wings. Usually, when they all come home, and I have gone to bed (because I am not on college time), Jim will come upstairs and say, "Well, honey, all your chicks are home" and we look at each other with a knowing look of parents that are proud but tender at the same time. They are supposed to leave the nest and go out in the world, right?
Okay, so let's recap. I say that little sentence when I am bored at meetings and want to get moving along...
We are down another car...the Durango died, the green truck died and the now the Subaru died. All three, if you listen to my husband, are an "easy fix, but we need time." I say we line them up and push them down the hill. The kids came and went and are back at college...baseball tryouts start tomorrow for the youngest and it is pleasant to watch him play ball...
We got a ton of snow...it will help fire season a lot. The tractor has diesel for the next storm, my jeep is in the garage and Jim's truck made it up the driveway and I got to play with my youngest in the snow...
The rest seems to be a cash flow problem and with Jim and I and a junk car problem and to be honest...I am not going to solve this here!
We'll tawk tomorrow,
I love you all,
Terry
Tonight, I am sitting here at my desk, looking at the window which has at least a foot of snow on the bottoms. It started snowing last night and hasn't stopped. The house is quiet, dinner was "little bowl" night and Jim was so cold from plowing the driveway for 4 hours that he is already in bed. Howie is watching TV and all is well.
This morning, we all got up and went to church. When I say "we all", I mean all of us...The Queen, Mac, Jim, Howie and I. I talked my college girl into coming home to hang out with me on Saturday while the boys went snowboarding. The Queen is a busy girl and stays away from home. She's too busy to come home and hang out. I don't know that she is so busy but she is making her way in the world and sometimes it's hard to come home and listen to Mom's wisdom.
Anyway, they needed to get home today and since the snow was falling hard, I asked Jim to drive them up to college and of course, he did. Howie and I came home from church, hit the grocery store and came home. We couldn't get up the driveway and I got the car stuck on the side...so we had to walk up. Howie got the tractor, drove it down the hill and it ran out of diesel! No more plowing and no more digging the car out...
We walked up to the house, made lunch, strapped on our snow boards and rode down the driveway for a while. It was pretty snowy and it seemed like it wasn't going to stop. The big question is...will they cancel school tomorrow? I am sure if the roads are plowed, it will be on.
It was a little piece of heaven. He snuggled up to me, I read as much as I needed to so my eyes got heavy and settled into a fantastic nap...while Jim was out plowing, freezing his "you know what off" but also loving every minute. I maintain that for Jim, there is nothing better than driving that Kubota tractor around.
I woke up almost 3 hours later and put my snow pants on and joined Howie sledding down the hill and playing with the dogs outside. I have three dogs, but one of them absolutely loves the snow...Bailey is our snow dog!
So that was and is today. Not too bad, I guess. The sermon at church was relevant to me and made me think about how I live my life...nice.
Yesterday, not so good. Let me qualify that when things happen that don't include death, I usually brush them off and say, "at least someone is not dead," and Jim tends to agree but tells me that I have a warped attitude and you can't measure everything against death. Fair enough...
So, Saturday morning was glorious and the boys loaded the subaru, screaming at each other in the garage, and headed off to Keystone to snowboard all day. When I say "all day" I mean exactly that. These boys try to get the last lift of the day which some days is 8 pm...I don't know where they get the energy but then again, they are teenage boys.
So, lunches packed, capri sun loaded in pockets and they were headed out. About an hour and a half later, when Christie and I had made our plans for the day, the phone rang and I heard Jim saying, "oh, great, OK, get it off I-70 and I will come and get you guys". I wandered down stairs and hoped that I was not hearing what I thought I heard.
We drive cars with lots of miles...lots of miles. That Subaru had at least 220,000 on it and let's just say, maintaining cars is not our strong suite. When Howie would drive out of the garage in the morning, the poor thing would scream and if he wanted it to scream louder, he would turn the wheel. I would laugh every day when he was pulling out. I guess that scream came back to bite us...it was screaming because it needed attention. I guess because they hear me yell and scream so much, we all ignored the poor car too!
Anyway, Jim went to the rent a tool place, got a trailer to hook up the poor car and got the boys, hooked up the car and brought it home. I suggested they put it by the edge of the driveway where there is a big hill, take off the parking brake, put it in neutral and shove it down the hill. That didn't go over too good with my husband.
You see, Jim can fix anything, especially when he has time to think about it. Last night, with a Coors light in his hand, he got on the internet and figured out what happened to the car. Something about the timing chain breaking, shooting metal shards all over the engine and blowing a hole in the top of it..."an easy fix" I heard him saying...
The Queen and I went to Flying J and ran the loop...and she acted so proud of me that it got me through the whole run. I could hardly move after but it was worth every minute to have my first born who will be 21 next week...proud of her mother. After that, we had our eyebrows waxed...and home for lunch. While she was making me the best spinach salad I have ever had, "You always say that, Mom", we talked about her plan for her 21st birthday, about what she is gonna drink, if much, and I gave her tips. Since I am and have been a seasoned drinker for many years, I wanted to let her know how not to be like me...but I have to say, she has her head screwed on way better than I did at that age...
Last night, I found myself sitting around the dinner table, in our "old seats" having home made spaghetti and meatballs. I noticed the kids waiting for Jim to sit down, sneaking food off of their plates but trying to be polite. He sat down and we prayed our usual, "Father we thank thee" which we have been doing since the Queen was in a bouncy seat on the table while we ate. Then I heard Jim say, " okay, now we have to say something we like about the person two seats to the right" and we all started to laugh and blew him off. You see, when we had three middle school/teenagers at the dinner table and they had just finished a "knock down -drag out" fight, that is how we would break the ice at dinner...
I wanted to take a picture to commemorate the gathering since we have not all been together since Christmas, but I was told that I take too many pictures. They just don't get it...
The gospel reading today was about the hen who gathers her chicks under her wings to protect them and would lay her life down for them... they even brought a live chicken named Patsy that I got to touch! After the service, Mac, my middle son, went up to the Pastor and the lady with "Patsy" and let them know that when he did children's sermons they never brought live animals...
Listening to the sermon, I thought about how I loved being a mother, the magic and struggle of each child's personality, about how it went so fast, and how I love when they are all under the same roof...about how I worry about their safety at college and the world and about their choices and decisions. I love when I can be the mother hen and take them under my wings. Usually, when they all come home, and I have gone to bed (because I am not on college time), Jim will come upstairs and say, "Well, honey, all your chicks are home" and we look at each other with a knowing look of parents that are proud but tender at the same time. They are supposed to leave the nest and go out in the world, right?
Okay, so let's recap. I say that little sentence when I am bored at meetings and want to get moving along...
We are down another car...the Durango died, the green truck died and the now the Subaru died. All three, if you listen to my husband, are an "easy fix, but we need time." I say we line them up and push them down the hill. The kids came and went and are back at college...baseball tryouts start tomorrow for the youngest and it is pleasant to watch him play ball...
We got a ton of snow...it will help fire season a lot. The tractor has diesel for the next storm, my jeep is in the garage and Jim's truck made it up the driveway and I got to play with my youngest in the snow...
The rest seems to be a cash flow problem and with Jim and I and a junk car problem and to be honest...I am not going to solve this here!
We'll tawk tomorrow,
I love you all,
Terry
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