Shoes for Fun and Work

Last week I found these three pairs of shoes at the thrift store.  They were all cute as a button, in my size, and in great condition, so I snapped them up.  I didn't have to feel a bit guilty since all three pairs together cost me less than $13.  I wasn't particularly looking for shoes, I was looking for jackets (no luck), but when shopping at thrift stores you always have to keep an open mind -- and open eyes -- because you never know what you are going to find.

I love all three pairs but I have to say that I don't necessarily have anything to wear with them (although I have already worn the brown suede pair with the tiny bows).  I am far from a fashionista, and other than church I have a very minimal social life.  But I can afford to be less than practical at the thrift store, and take a little more style risk.

If I want to be totally practical, these are the kind of shoes I really need for my day-to-day life:

In my real life I mostly wear jeans and tops and I am mostly busy doing work around the house, grocery shopping, and running kids hither and yon.  I also spend a lot of time cleaning up messes.  When you live in a house with this many people and two horribly-shedding dogs, it's a job.  This past month has been particularly busy.  My mom had emergency heart surgery, so I flew east to stay with her a little over a week, and since I've been back it's been hard to catch up with everything. (I do have to give my kids credit:  they kept everything going while I was gone and actually did a great job:).

Also this time of year is fraught with birthdays at our house and holidays that have to be prepared for.  My kids requested we have Thanksgiving here this year (last year we went to a friend's house), so I will be doing all the cooking (you people with all the relatives nearby don't know how good you've got it during the holidays).  And I am just not great with the holidays because no matter how old I get, I am always slightly surprised they are already here.  While many of you are happily working on Christmas gifts, I'm still not finished with my summer projects.  Sigh....

 I have to remind myself not to compare, because the reality is I have to make sure there is something to eat and something clean to wear and somewhere semi-clean to be for seven people every day.  And try to keep everyone on an emotional even keel.  It is unrealistic of me (and others) to think that that is not going to take a lot of time.  And that is okay.

Anyway, despite being a perpetually-behind kind of person, and despite being envious of you people who are always prepared :), I have mostly kept up with exercise, I have still done some sewing, and still am plodding along.  I have a little more leisure this week, so I will try to catch up on blog posts and blog reading.  I look forward to seeing what you all have been up to.

I was going to say that my mom is now doing pretty well, but I just got a call that she is back in the hospital.  Prayers are appreciated.  Thanks.

***Update***  11/20/2012 -- My mom is now out of the hospital.  All her heart tests came back good and they think her pain was caused by abnormally tightened muscles in her back, probably due to her surgery and recovery period.  Thank you so much for your prayers. -- Angela

February Sum Up

February was a difficult month at my house.  Lots of health concerns, some mine, some others.  Lots of my time was occupied in worry, then trying to turn that worry into prayer.

I made a recommitment to being healthier, which for me -- right now, at least -- means exercising at least an hour a day.  I pulled out our trusty P90X workout DVDs (can you tell that I live in a male-dominated household?) and am now finished with the first three weeks.  So challenging (that's an understatement), but I do feel myself getting stronger and able to do more. However, it does eat into my creative time.

I'm also trying to eat lower on the glycemic scale.  I haven't gotten a cookbook on that yet but just checking things on line.  Basically trying to eat a higher protein breakfast, and finding ways to increase protein and fiber and decrease (but not totally eliminate) carbs.  It really hasn't been too bad.  And I found out I was very low on Vitamin D, so I am now taking a large supplement.  This shows me I don't  spend enough time outdoors, something else I need to work on.

I kept waiting for winter to arrive, but it never really came this year (unless it's hiding around the corner waiting to do a sneak attack in mid-March).  Instead, our winter was more like spring.  We've never had such green grass (although most likely by summer it will be turned back to brown).  The bad thing about no winter is that the bugs don't get a chance to die out, so I expect my fly-swatters will be getting a workout this spring and summer. (I have one friend who doesn't even own a fly-swatter.  Somehow flies know not to go in her house!)  But I have too many pets and too many people going in and out, in and out, all day and the insects (and sometimes geckos) wait by the doors for their opportunity!  Right now the insect of choice is the mayfly or mosquito hawk, which is harmless but somewhat annoying when they are everywhere:

Mosquito Hawk

The problem of spring (and fall, for that matter) in Texas is that it comes and goes so quickly that if you are not careful, you will miss it.  Mostly we just have 3 parts summer, 1 part winter.  Here are a few pictures of spring to remind me:

Blue skies

Underneath our live oak in the front yard

The golden rain tree is leafing out

Loropetalum blossoms

A rogue petunia that escaped from its pot

I didn't complete any projects in February, but I did work on some.

I'm still adding to my ripple blanket:

Getting closer to a finish

Working on a giant granny (surreptitiously):

Made with acrylic self-striping yarn

Got two or three more blocks done on the flower garden quilt:

Mostly completed while waiting for basketball games to start

I totally neglected my big quilt and MUST get back to it.

My daughter began a pompom blanket, which is very fun and feels SO soft and squishy!

She does not plan on sharing this :)

Even though I posted very little in February, I did read lots of your posts.  I found lots of encouragement there.  Sometimes good advice, sometimes a little mini-vacation as I visited some of you who live in such a different place than I, sometimes inspiration.  I still feel a little bit odd occupying the blogworld, but there are lots of good things about it, and number one is getting to know some kindred spirits :)

Winter Garden

Every year my husband and I put out a little garden.  It always begins with great optimism, but the reality is that we are not very good gardeners and we live in a climate that really requires a spring and fall garden -- the summer is just so hot everything dies.  Let's just say the learning curve is steep.  But we refuse to give up!

It's now time to plant onions and other cold weather crops.  So last weekend we started. It was a bit chilly, mostly because of the wind, but we bundled up and were close to the ground, which offered a little protection.

Onions ready to plant

Putting them in

This year we are doing our garden a little differently, making little boxes to keep it organized.  We are terrible at keeping the long rows straight.  Much easier planting in the box than crawling on your knees along a long row.

filling up this box with onions

It's not necessarily the optimum time to plant garlic, but the man who runs the seed store said it would be okay to plant them now.

The cloves have to planted with the right side up

This doesn't look like much, but it's full of garlic cloves.

Our garlic bed 

There is an overflow box filled with the extra onions and garlic cloves.

One box is for lettuces.

Lettuces

Miscellaneous greens:

Sugar snap peas, broccoli, brussel sprouts, a cabbage

A couple of the reasons we need to keep the garden inside a fence:

Latte and Mocha

Snake Tales

There's been some talk on Vee's blog about having a dislike of snakes (even cartoon snakes on a calendar :) and that made me think of some of our family's adventures with snakes through the years.  So if you're up for a few snake stories, read on.

About ten o'clock one night several years ago -- we hadn't been in this house long -- my daughter went outside to tell some company good-bye and she almost stepped on a snake.  My husband went out to investigate, using his cell phone for light (we can never find a working flashlight around here), and found the snake in our front yard.   It was a copperhead!  If you've never seen a copperhead, they are easily recognizable -- the first one I ever saw in person was in Georgia and I knew what it was immediately.  So my husband killed it -- probably with a hoe -- and we left it on the front walk to show my boys the next day (one way you can tell that I am a mother of boys).

The next day we showed everybody the copperhead that my daughter almost stepped on, and then I went about my business and forgot about it.  That evening I thought, "I've got to dispose of that dead snake first thing in the morning." So the NEXT morning I got up and went outside to do just that. Well, the snake was lying in the exact same position as it had been the day before, but there was absolutely NOTHING left of that snake but the skeleton, picked perfectly clean!  Now, there's no bird, cat, dog, coyote, or other little animal that could do that. The only creatures that could have done such a tidy, precise job were ants, and around here that's probably fire ants.  To think that they totally removed that snake in under 12 hours -- to me that was almost more scary than the copperhead itself!

* * * * * * * *

Fast forward to this past year.  One night I'm talking to my daughter while I'm working in the laundry room.  She and I, my oldest son and his friend were the only ones home, but we were expecting Son #2.

Suddenly she says to me, "I think I heard the garage door go up, he's home!"  But he never walked in, so I sent her to look.  In just a minute she came quietly back in from the garage, locked the door, and whispered to me: "There's somebody in the garage!"  She could hear them shuffling quietly.  I get my son, we frantically look for an elusive flashlight, we collect what weapons we can (a machete, shovel, whatever we could find) and we go out to investigate.  There are not that many places a person could hide, but my garage was very junky and had leaf debris on the floor, AND it did not have a working light.  So......my son keeps looking, my daughter and I staying closer to the door.  All of a sudden he goes "Get out! Get out now!"  I'm wondering if he saw a skunk (they are VERY prevalent here), but we get back in the house and he says it was snakes -- copperheads! He doesn't know how many.  What my daughter heard was the snake slithering around through the debris.

Well, when there are copperheads in your garage, you cannot just go to bed and ignore it.  He and his friend first put on big boots, one got a hoe the other a machete, and I drove the car around and shone the lights into the garage so maybe they could see a little better.  Let me tell you, when you are in a dark, cluttered garage looking for a venomous snake, your adrenalin is pumping.  They finally found it, but it took them several tries to kill it, finally chopping its head off.  There was only one snake, thankfully.  As we all stood in the driveway looking down at the source of our fear, now decapitated, the severed head suddenly opened its mouth wide, which was SOO EERIE!  It did it again.  Even though I knew it was dead, I still screamed. The next morning, after showing my husband what kind of havoc goes on when he's not here, we promptly disposed of the body (I did not want to have another show of efficiency from the ants).

Notice his distinctive markings

I have to add here that we did see another copperhead in the same vicinity a few days later, which we also killed.  I was very worried that the lovely couple had left a nest behind, but I found out that copperheads don't lay eggs, they have live birth.  It was a relief to know a bunch of little copperhead babies were not waiting to be born!

(I do know that snakes are still God's creatures and serve good purposes in the environment, but I have to say that copperheads in and around my house are not a safe situation for people or pets.  Also, I have seen plenty of other ones out on my walks, so they are definitely not in short supply around here.)

* * * * * * * * *

One more story:

One night we were at dinner and an argument broke out.  My husband was trying to remain calm but he was very frustrated with one of my children (no, I don't remember which one), and he jumped up from the table and strode out to the garage.  The kids and I just sat at the table quietly -- as you do when there's just been a bit of a scene -- and we hear the garage door go up (we don't have an automatic opener, you raise the door manually).  Immediately after that we heard my husband yell.  I tell the kids, "Just sit here and be quiet and give Dad some space"  because I think he's just yelling in frustration, like "ARGGGHHHHH!"  But he keeps on yelling, and finally we realize he's saying something:  "Bring me a bucket!"  ????????  We rush to check on him and find out that as he was raising the garage door, a snake fell on his head!!  He wants the bucket to catch the snake.  Thankfully, it was a harmless snake and we let it go somewhere away from the house.  We laughed and laughed, but I would not have been laughing if that snake had fallen on me!

Texas rat snake that fell on my husband

These are not all of my stories.  There was another snake in the garage a week later, there was the time a snake was INSIDE the house in the living room . . . . you get the idea.  And to this day, I am very careful to move away from the garage door when I open or close it.  One good thing came from these snake tales:  the garage got cleaned up and my husband installed a motion-detector light in there so now as soon as I go out to the garage there is light.  Hallelujah!

Shoeless Christmas

Front porch TODAY

Well, it was not entirely shoeless, but it was a Christmas when shoes took center stage.  Not Cinderella slippers, or ballet flats, or snow boots, just ordinary shoes.

Three years or so ago, my husband and I decided at the very last minute that we should travel to see our families for the holidays.  He was concerned about his parents, they were getting up there in years and had sounded depressed over the phone.  So......we decided to bite the bullet and go.  This was TWO DAYS before Christmas Eve.  We told the kids (they didn't believe us at first), loaded the car with the presents, even purchased and stuffed a cheap artificial Christmas tree into the back (my in-laws had given up putting up a tree several years before, so we took one with us).  We made arrangements for our pets, then all seven of us crammed ourselves into our Suburban (winter traveling is much bulkier due to the coats, etc.) and we left at dawn, the day before Christmas Eve.

Travelling is slower in such a large group, and it's a long drive (18 hours or more), so we spend the night somewhere along the way.  We were hoping to make it to Nashville.  Everything started off well.  The kids dozed off.  About 3 or 4 hours in, we stopped at a gas station to refill the car and stretch our legs.  As we were getting out of the car, youngest son (8 years old or so) informed us that he had NO SHOES.  Not in his suitcase, not in the car, and certainly not on his feet.  I had not realized that shoes were forgettable when going on a long journey.  I had made sure they had packed a toothbrush, undies, etc.  but I did not know that I should have looked at their FEET before they got into the car.

By the front door TODAY

So I had the next brother up go into the gas station and use the facilities and then return to the car, loaning  his pair of sneakers to little brother.  (This brother had only brought one pair of shoes -- the ones he was wearing.)  Little brother took his turn, slipping his socked toes into the borrowed shoes.  Meanwhile, even though we were on the interstate, not near any town that I could see, miraculously there was a Goodwill store next door (Goodwill is a thrift store).  I ran over there to survey their shoe selection:  one pair of sneakers in the appropriate size.  I bought them and brought them back to the car.  Pshew!!  Crisis averted!

Once we crossed the border from Texas into Arkansas the weather took a turn for the worse.  In fact, it poured rain torrentially on us the entire drive across the state -- we must have been moving at the same speed as the storm.  My husband had to drive very carefully, and once it got dark, visibility fell to almost zero, which was very scary because the water was right up to the road's edge and you couldn't see if the road had been flooded or not.  It was EXHAUSTING!

There was no way we could make it to Nashville; we barely made it to Memphis.  My husband had a close friend who lived about an hour away and he and his family invited us to spend the night with them.  So our family of seven descended upon their family of seven!  (A side note here:  people with a lot of kids are better able to handle other people who have lots of kids -- the more the merrier, you might say.  I think that being in a large family may make you by necessity more flexible :) His thoughtful wife made a big pot of spaghetti to warm us up.  We ate, and while we figured out where everyone could sleep, the boys (theirs and ours) went outside to play.  Well, it had been raining there all day too, and number four child (the son who had loaned his only pair of shoes to little brother earlier) slipped in the mud and his shoes were totally ruined!

By the garage door TODAY

The next day -- which was Christmas Eve -- we left our friends' home  and set out, looking for a place to buy some shoes.  Finally we came to a town that had a Payless shoe store visible from the road.  We pulled off, my son walked in with his socked feet, and found a pair of shoes, which we promptly purchased, thanking the store clerk profusely for being open this Christmas Eve.  Second shoe crisis averted (or at least dealt with)!

The rest of the day was a race against the clock since we were several hours behind schedule.  Our goal was to get to my dad's in time for his Christmas Eve gathering, and then to head on to my in-laws'. Once we had gotten on the road I started worrying "What if my mom is planning to surprise visit US for Christmas?"  So I had called my sister to make sure that wasn't happening. She was the only one who knew we were coming.

We pulled into my dad's yard late, but everyone was still there.  We popped out of the car and walked in.  "MERRY CHRISTMAS!!"  The funniest thing was my dad's reaction.  He was sitting at the table eating his Christmas goodies and he did not act a bit surprised.  He took it all in stride, as if I walked into his kitchen and sat down every day of the week.  It was good to see everybody, even though we couldn't linger too long.

After an hour or so, we left for the last 45 minutes of our journey.  We got to my in-laws, knocked on the front door, and began to sing.  I can't remember for sure, but it was probably "We wish you a Merry Christmas!"  My mother-in-law came to the door, and she was so surprised and happy.  My father-in-law's reaction was harder to read:  it was more like "Oh, no!  There goes my peaceful and quiet Christmas!"

Also on front porch TODAY

Anyway, we pulled the tree out, unloaded the presents, and the army tramped into the house.  At this point, Son Number Two (who was about 15 at this time), and whose wardrobe this entire traveling time had consisted of pajama pants and T-shirts and slippers, confessed that he had brought no other shoes with him except for the said slippers!  I was flabbergasted!  Three sons with no shoes?!  We were going to be there a week!  And sometimes it snows!  Lucky for him, this particular trip it did not snow and he just wore his slippers the entire vacation.

As you can see from the photos, there is no shortage of shoes in my house.  They are piled on my front porch, in the garage, in corners, under the beds, some are even in the closets where they actually belong.  This is partly why I could not believe that none of these shoes made it into the car for our trip.  What was in those suitcases, anyway?  There is no real moral to the story.  I just want to remember the Christmas of no shoes......

In the closet TODAY

Christmas Doings

Brenda at Coffeeteabooksandme had a helpful post on celebrating the holidays -- thinking about what things make them special to you or your family and trying to make sure those things are included in your activities.  I took her advice to heart and have tried to implement it -- not perfectly! -- but to have some intentionality to how we spent our time.  We live very far away from any family, so basically it is up to ME to make sure that there is some holiday spirit going on.  That is a daunting thought because I am not a take charge kind of girl.  But the Lord uses weak vessels, right?  Anyhow, here are a few of this year's holiday doings.

We have a particular tree we love to visit at Christmas time.  It is a single tree in a field, but the whole tree is covered in bluish-white lights.  There are no other lights to distract from its beauty, and it is breath-taking.  The photo does not do it justice.  It truly is magical.

Another thing I did was read A Christmas Carol out loud to my kids, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I'm not sure if they were as enthusiastic as I was, but all the same they won't forget it -- and it is fun to hear your twelve-year-old discussing what he imagines Mr. Fezziwig looks like :)

I kept my windowsill cheerful:

I think these flowers were called cretonnes (sp?)

We went to our downtown lighting festival so that SOMEONE could slide down the courthouse railings and the grownups could try some wassail.

We indulged in peppermint milkshakes from Chick-fil-A -- mmmmm. We had a cookie decorating party. We watched favorite holiday shows -- Rudolph, the Grinch, Elf plus more obscure ones like The Red Boots.  We'll probably save It's a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Story (two very different movies, but both favorites around here) for Christmas Day.

Is my house perfectly clean?  I wish.  Did I mail Christmas cards? No.  Have I mailed gifts to faraway family? No, in the interest of finances and stress I decided to do that AFTER the holidays.  Does everyone in my house run around with peace in their hearts to their fellow man?  That truly would be a dream.

No perfection here.  BUT.....this year I have decorated a little more, baked a little more, taken more care wrapping the presents, even been a little more thoughtful in present giving.  I have tried to plan some easy good meals and am looking forward to our church's Christmas Eve service.

I am hoping to carry forward some of this intentionality (for want of a better word) into the new year,  so that 2012 might have many small happy memories tucked in amongst the ordinary and even the worse-than-ordinary days.

Merry Christmas!

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not:  for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." -- Luke 2:9-10

Giving Thanks

From Psalm 145:

"Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.  One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts......They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.

The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.  The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works."

This sign, a gift from my mother-in-law, hangs in my dining area.  It's easy to ignore it or take it for granted, but the words are words my family and I need to hear.  How blessed we are by God every single day!  It's so, so easy to keep quiet about our blessings and only voice our complaints.  And it is our children who most need to hear the ways the Lord has kept us and led us on our journey to "Beulah Land", as an old hymn I love puts it.

May thankful hearts surround our tables today.