A Lazy Day

9:30 a.m.
Finally awake after playing spades into the wee hours of the morning. John thinks he may have time to take much of the old fencing wire to the county recycling center before the weather gets bad. Looking forward to the big snow! Forecasters have predicted a 90% chance for 5 inches of snow to hit our neck of the woods. For us middle-Tennesseans that's a lot. John-Heath is watching cartoons enjoying his extended break due to having had the the flu this past week. Thankfully, he's much better. Ren complains (that a large breakfast feast has not been prepared). She's 14. When is she not complaining?

10:30 a.m.
John decides not to take his little trip and goes to the local grocery store instead. Comes home and decides to surf the web. I decide to improve on my terrible rating in spades. No snow yet.

11:30 a.m.
Spades rating is worse. Still no snow. Time for some Raisin Bran.

12:00 p.m.
Ren comes down for the stress relief bath therapy gel. Oh, the aches and pains of the young. John has headed to the local farmer's store for his newly sharpened chain saw blade. John-Heath has crawled beside me on the bed (where I sit as I write). His eyes are closed. Time for a nap. So sweet. I have now counted 23 snowflakes.

1:00 p.m.
I decide to roll myself into a hot shower.

1:05 p.m.
I quickly get out of the not-so-hot shower. Ren, it seems, has mostly drained all the hot water from our 85 gallon hot water heater during her therapeutic bath/shower combo. Luckily, I was able to rinse the shampoo from my hair prior to the water turning completely cold. At least some more snow is starting to fall.

6:00 p.m.
John-Heath has been awake from his nap for about 3 hours. John and I matched wits in two highly competitive games of Skip-Bo. I won the first. I'm feel certain he must have cheated during the second game or else I would have won it also. Vegetable beef soup is on the stove for tonight's dinner. Heavier snow is finally falling.

10:56 p.m.
John and John-Heath watched "Up" in the media room. After trying to teach Ren how to play spades on Yahoo and further damaging my rating I have decided to give it up for the night. A thick blanket of snow has now covered the ground. I don't want to jinx anything but it looks as if we might just get another snow day on Monday from this most recent gift. Good night. Sleep tight.

Where did all the mercury go when you really need it?

Between Christmas, MLK Day, and the snow days it seems we've been out of school more than in over the past few weeks. This week seems to be more of the same. It is Wednesday. There have been three days in this work week and I have missed two of them. John-Heath has the flu so his dad and I have taken turns staying home with him. Actually, this all started this past Thursday night. I stayed home with Friday. So, really I've missed 3 of the last 4 work days. I have never complained about a day or two (or three) off though.

What I have been complaining about a lot lately is how much I miss a quality thermometer! I miss the good ole days of actually being able to read an accurate temperature. If my child had a fever of 102 then it read 102. That's not the case today.

I know the makers of all the digital thermometers on the market would disagree but, sadly, they are wrong. I have yet to find a thermometer that is consistently accurate, and I have bought several lately.

Of course, since the powers that be determined several years ago that mercury is too harmful an element to be used in medical thermometers we're stuck with these little crappy ones that are said to take an accurate temperature in a fraction of a second. The not-so-funny thing about them is they are never consistent. John-Heath, who has been so hot it was uncomfortable to even touch him, fevered out below 100 on a recent purchase. And when I took mine I had a body temp of 92.4. Wouldn't I be dead? Maybe I am and this is all just a dream and John and the kids are having a rip-roaring time spending my life insurance. Anyway, back to my story.

I don't know who this little girl is but her mom sure is fortunate.

The typical "fever thermometer" contains between 0.5 to 3 g of mercury - too small an amount to be poisonous, but potentially problematic if one were to inhale it. I have broken a few glass thermometers in my time. I can assure you no one, not even my daughter who was very young at the time, tried to sniff the stuff. The biggest concern I had was figuring out how to clean up those little silvery beads. The are quite slippery.

Oh, well. It looks like it's time to start looking for someone who might be bootlegging some mercury. Thank goodness for eBay.

The Sweetest Little Prayer

Children learn all kinds of things when they go to school. John-Heath, our 4-year-old, has learned this year at Pre-K his abc's and all his letter sounds. He has also learned some things that I highly doubt are in the Pre-K curriculum.


However, by far the most precious thing he has learned is the little prayer they say at meal time. And he makes sure that we don't forget to say it at home - sometimes two or three times. Of course, this could be to make sure the food is properly blessed but I think it may also have something to do with the applause he always receives after his recitation (especially at larger family gatherings).

God our Father

God our Father

Once again

Once again

We bow our heads to thank You

We bow our heads to thank You

A - men

A - men

(sung to the tune of Are You Sleeping?)

Ren 10 Mom 8

Tonight Ren and I took our places along side each other on the couch for one of this season's award shows, the 67th annual Golden Globes. Regrettably, we missed the People's Choice earlier this month.

Watching these award ceremonies has been a ritual for us since she was just small. She has always had a passion for watching the performances of actors and, I know in her heart, would love to be among them. What young girl wouldn't, right?

Her first acting tendencies were noticed by her dad and me when she would spend hours watching Little House on the Prairie episodes on dvd and would pretend she was a character in the show, all while wearing a prairie-type costume I had had made for her for a 3rd grade oral presentation.

Fast forward from the 3rd grade to tonight. We love these shows. It is so much fun to ooh and ahh over what everyone is wearing and, of course, sneer at those dresses we don't like (more on that to come). Then there is the contest...who can correctly guess the most winners? Neither of us did so hot this time but Ren came out on top. Although she somewhat cheated and rules had to be clarified...you can only choose one when guessing a winner.

Here's the breakdown of our evening...

Correctly guessed winners: Ren 10 Tyla 8

Best dressed: Ren liked Fergie's dress while I thought Drew Barrymore's dress was very pretty and feminine. I might mention that I just saw where both these were on somebody's worst dressed list. Oh well, what is it they say? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And our eyes beheld lovely gowns.

Worst dressed: Ren found some little presenter's short black dress with the silver stripe (not sure who this person was) rather yucky while I thought Cher's dress was...well too Cher"ish".

Hottest actor of the night: Ren went for Mr. Clooney who "always looks so put together", she said. I just think Ashton Kutcher is just so darn cute - makes me want to go out and buy another Nikon.

Actor we hoped would win: Ren was pulling for George Clooney while I just love Tobey Maguire.

Actress we hoped would win: Ren thought it would be nice for Gabourey Sidibe (the Precious lead) to win in her category. We were both pleased when Meryl Streep won for Julie and Julia.

Biggest disappointment: Ren and Tyla - Avatar (because it won). Please don't send hate mail.

Bring on the Oscar's!

My Little Ladies Man

My heart was momentarily grieved just a little today as the strings that connect me to my son were loosened.

It seems he has a girlfriend.

I shouldn't worry too much I suppose. I mean, he's only 4. But I have to admit I was somewhat taken back by his insistence ALL day long that I call this little girl and ask her to come over and play. He did not take "But baby, I don't know her number" easily and contended I did too know her number. As he put it "You do know it. You know everyTANG."

My

little boy
believes

I know everything.

Ahhh... music to my ears.

Thankful

Tonight I am thankful. I have a roof over my head, clothes in my closet (even if some are in the dirty pile on the floor waiting to be washed), food in my pantry, clean water at my disposal with just the slight turn of a knob, and, most importantly, those I love safe and sound around me. Life is sweet, comfortable.

As I close my eyes on this day, thankful for my blessings, I will remember those in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - our neighbors down the road so to speak - whose lives are not so sweet and comfortable tonight and whisper a prayer for them, especially the children.

Fajitas and Fried Chicken

Ren seems very excited about her Spanish class, even though she and a friend are the only two freshmen in this particular block. To celebrate, I insisted we eat a celebratory meal at the local Mexican restaurant. The kids had soft tacos, John had steak fajitas, and I had chicken nachos. Okay, okay. Actually, I had been thinking about eating out during the day and this was an easy excuse.

I would love to fill my little blog with all the wonderful cuisine I serve my family but the truth is I rather detest cooking. I can cook. I'm not horrible at it - usually. But day-to-day cooking is not something I've ever really looked upon as an enjoyable pleasure. And I must admit that John does more than I when it comes to meal preparation. I did have high hopes when we first married, though.

One Sunday, one of the first after we were finally able to move into the old family home place which had been remodeled for us, I decided to make my darling husband a traditional Sunday-after-church lunch - fried chicken. Yum! Yum! I called my mother Betty, an EXCELLENT cook, and asked how to make it.

She gave me the very simple instructions....

1. rinse off the chicken legs in some running water

2. heat some grease in the iron skillet

3. break an egg and dip the legs into this

4. coat the legs in some flour

5. fry until done in the skillet

5 easy steps. But what momma did not know was that she had a daughter who could always find an easier way to do something. And I did. I would mix my egg and my flour and viola...I would satisfy my husband and do it in less time.

Mental picture of the end result...think pancakes in the shape of a chicken leg. Mmm. Mmm.

We still have Sunday chicken after church. We just have it at the Corner Cafe for $5 per plate.

My daughter's closet

It is just shy of 1 a.m. and I need to go to bed. I can't sleep though. For one thing I have REALLY, REALLY, REALLY messed up my sleep habits with these glorious days off from work due to the Blizzard of 2010. If you realize I live in Tennessee you'll know I am just joking about the Blizzard. Although the 2 inches rocked!!!

Another thing causing tonight's insomnia is my daughter's bedroom closet. My 14-year-old Ren (she rocks, too) came down several hours earlier this evening and exclaimed, "I don't have anything to wear to the movies." Of course, she only just received several nice items this past December 25 (one of which was a red shirt and I have seen her wear said red shirt at least 3 days since then).

Anyway, I went to her closet a few minutes after the typcial mother-daughter exchange and we were able to put something together. But while there I realized I should probably take time to help her organize the whole menagerie of fabric.

Organizing my closet was much easier when I was growing up and lived at home. 1.) I was very spoiled in the chore department so my mom always did it for me and 2.) There wasn't as much to organize. A few pairs of Levis (oh how I wanted a pair of Jordache or Gloria Vanderbilt just like the ones worn by the girls who worked for my orthodontist and tightened my wires each month), a few button-up shirts, and a pair of Cuga tennis shoes.

I do dread this task at hand. I'm sure she does too...NO WIRE HANGERS!!! Just kidding...well sort of.

Snow Days

You gotta love snow days! No matter how old I become I will never cease to get excited at seeing snow fall over our county on the Snow Bird map. Why, you may ask. Well, Snow Bird is the mascot for a local news station (he's a penguin, I think) and when there is snow in the forecast the station will show a map of the counties in its viewing area - called the Snow Bird Report - and if there's snow afallin' on your map you will be having yourself a snow day. And in Tennessee it doesn't take much to get one. A good inch or two will do it.

I haven't decided which type of snow day I like best, though. Is it the surprise snow day? The one where you go to sleep and wake up to find that snow has fallen in your fair corner of the world and, lo and behold, school has been cancelled. Or is it the know-about-it-in-advance snow day? The one where you are anxiously watching the six, nine, and ten o'clock newscasts to see if your school district makes the cut. And then your hear it...Sumner County Schools will be closed...and visions of staying up late with board games, movies, and popcorn begin to dance in your head. I'm really not sure. What do you think?