House, Chapter 3?

In which I am defeated by three layers of wallpaper,
Or, abandon Hope, all ye who enter here...
So this morning, while dear Hubby was at work, I started ripping lovely 80's hunter green and mauve striped wallpaper off the kitchen walls. It came off easily, like it really wanted to be torn down. Except that underneath it were two more layers of wallpaper. Wallpaper that did. not. want. to. come. down. Ever.
I have hated that wallpaper since the day I took my first glance at it. Which would have been fine, except that it was attached to the house I wanted. Bought the house, made plans to re-do the kitchen. (Hubby, for some reason, would have preferred a newer house, with no electrical- leveling- foundation- plumbing-leaky windows-wallpaper- yards of wood to refinish issues. Go figure. ) So while my fantastic husband was at work,( did I mention how wonderful my Husband is? ) I started in on the kitchen. Only, like, it won. Because under the three layers of wallpaper is a lovely shade of green. We're talking Martha Stewart in the early 90's, neon, aqua green, here.
Not that I plan to leave it that color. It's just that I have to live with it while I scrape the rest of the wallpaper off of those walls. Did I mention that I hate green as a house decorating color? Or that the floors in my kitchen are a lovely shade of hunter green? Um, yeah. I hate green.
So my kitchen is temporarily that lovely shade of green, while I destroy the rest of that wallpaper. Destroy, because it's all coming off in tiny little bits. But I promise, I plan to simply annihilate that wall paper, and remove all vestiges of green from that kitchen. *shaking fist in the air* "I will win!!!"

The Real World

When I was young(er?), I pretended to be lots of different things: A career woman in an office, the perfect mother, a missionary, and many other things as well. One of the things all those pretend careers had in common, was that I never knew want or need. Even when I pretended to be a misssionary, God always provided.
When I got older, and got a boyfriend I actually considered marrying, I never thought of where the money would come from. I just knew it came every week in the form of a paycheck.
It never occurred to me, that even though I was willing and able to work, I might not be able to make ends meet.
After I got married, it was a couple of years before the real world intruded upon my life. It was after my first child was born, that things got a little dicey financially. At one point we had our phone turned off. But I was always able to eat, and have a place to live.
Now that I'm older, and run my own business, I see others who are struggling every day to make ends meet.
One in particular, is a single mom of one, who got pregnant at 19. She went on to nursing school, became an LPN. After a few months of working as an LPN, she realized she would never be able to make ends meet on that salary, and she applied to a school with a reputation for turning out fantastic RN's. She got a scholarship, and financial aid for housing, etc. Her first year went well, and she's back for the summer.
Here is where the real world intrudes: her financial aid, transferred to the county her college is in, is not good back in her home county. Even though she qualifies, it would take 4 to 6 weeks to transfer the financial aid back here, and then another 4 to 6 weeks to transfer it back to the county her school is at. Um, that's the whole summer. So, what is she supposed to do for daycare?
As for me, I'm faced with two options: tell her to make other arrangements for daycare, or reduce my prices for daycare so low that they don't cover expenses. I already know what I'm going to do, of course. Been in that situation myself.
But it really rubs me the wrong way to see someone who is honestly trying to make it, being screwed by the system of the wonderful government of Illinois.
I suppose that there's nothing anyone can do to fix the messed up club of money-hungry, greedy, do-nothings we here call a state government, but I'm sure gonna try next November.

Look! A New Post!

OK, so it's been awhile since I wrote a post here. But really, I've got some fantastic reasons. Like, my children shook up a Mountain _ew an_ it explo_e_ on the keyboar_. (In case you haven't figure_ it out, the "comes after c in the alphabet" key, no longer works. So, any time you see a _ , assume it's a "comes after c". ) An_, I've been working like a crazy person. I can have 8 full time enrolle_ chil_ren, an_ that's what I've got. Plus a part-timer or two. Plus my girl, with a broken ankle, an_ a house that's almost a 100 years ol_ , in constant nee_ of remo_eling, an_ what you've got is one very busy mama/wife/_aycare provi_er.
So, the blog has gone by the way for awhile. I still love writing, it's one of my first passions. I'll be back when I can. In the meantime, may I suggest a goo_ book?

Long Overdue

This post, as you can probably figure out from the title, is long overdue. It's been on my mind for awhile now, but life, you know. It kind of gets in the way. The minutae.
See, this post, it's all about honoring God. There's a verse in the bible, in Luke , chapter 6, verse 38, " Give and shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom."
Well, I've recently (and forever back), seen the proof of this. You see, when we moved into this house, it had a huge, old, people-eating size deep freeze in the basement. We had our own, but for some reason we left the older one powered up and used it instead. For awhile it sat nearly empty, in spite of my usual stocking-up ways. But last year, when Mr. GraceandPeace was off work for awhile, I noticed something a little, well- odd. It started to fill up. Not due, mind you, to anything we were doing.
But odd things started to happen. Like one night Mr. GraceandPeace called me and told me not to buy any bread. So I didn't, but didn't know why. (He'd been given the extra's from a food bank.) When we met up, he had a trunk full of bread products. And I don't mean just white bread. I'm talking about wheat bread, croissants, doughnuts, danishes, muffins, cake, and on and on. And this is what he had left after he opened his trunk to everyone he works with and said," Take whatever you want!" So, the extra's went in the freezer. And then, the holiday meat parade started. Both my husband and my son get holiday hams. But it didn't stop there.
Oh, no. Mr. GraceandPeace brought home extra hams from co-workers who don't eat meat. And my simply darling mother-in-law, who is retired and volunteers her time, brought two extra food baskets to us, that she hadn't been able to deliver.
And I began to find some really unbelievable deals at the supermarket. And so the freezer began to fill up. But not just the big deep freeze. Also, the 'fridge-top freezer, and the pantry.
And when things got really, really rough, we got a check in the mail from a relative we never expected to get one from.
And so, I guess I just want to honor God with this post. To say thanks to all the people who've been open to being His instrument of good measure. Because things here, while always abundant, have lately been, "pressed down, shaken together, and running over!"

Four Days Off!

Well, the first time off I've had since last April is over, and let me tell you, it was wooonnnderful.
I cooked like a maniac last week, until Thursday of course. Then I ate like a maniac! After which I did not cook again all weekend, unless you count Saturday night's chili, which I mostly don't count.
The weekend was full of blankets, internet surfing, crossword puzzles, leftovers, and pondering lots of nothing at all. (Do you think that Hidden Valley Ranch is attempting to take over the world by addicting us all to Ranch Dressing and then lowering the supply? Hmmm....)
It was a great weekend, but now it's over, and back to the daily brew. Before 11 a.m. this morning, I did five loads of laundry, endured two fits thrown by a four year old, and had three conversations with business people regarding money.
Love those Mondays, really.

Veteran's Day

Just want to take a moment to remember the vets in my life:
My dad, who served in the Korean war.
My grandpa Bayer, who was drafted during WWII and didn't even make it through basic before the war ended.
My Brother in Law, Bob, who recently retired from a career in the army.
My grandfather-in-law, who doesn't always remember his family. He served in WWII, and if you ask him about it, he'll talk for hours about it. What he did, where he served, how he played basketball with "John F ". (That's JFK, to the rest of us.)
And to all the rest of the veterans out there: family, friends, acquaintances, and people I don't even know. The ones who will know I remembered them, and the ones who won't. The family of those who gave their lives so I can sit and watch TV in my living room and talk politics in public. Thanks. You'll never know how much you've done for us. God bless you all.

Waiting for the Butter!

Sometimes, the days of life slide by like buttah, one after the other in a haze of easiness, all things going smoothly. Everyone gets along, no one is sick , all the bills are paid on time. To slightly mis-quote JRR Tolkien in The Hobbit, it's a strange thing, but times that are easy and days that are good don't make very good tales.
So the tale of our lives this year should read like a novel. A seven month layoff, an accident that injured my dear husband's back, my mom in the hospital for months, my sister's grandbaby in the hospital with cancer. And I , who am the Official Stresser Over of The Budget - well. Lets just say that that particular part of my job description has kept my very busy lately.
And my slight heart murmur, which can be triggered by stress and caffeine, is going like a freight train some days. Dear husband is getting impatient with being off of work. Our children, who get along with one another very well for brother and sister, find reasons to be in their rooms alot.
So I'm taking a step backward, thank you very much. I'm loving the autumn rain, detoxing from all the caffeine I've ingested lately, spending more time enjoying my family, and making time for my quiet time with God. I know all this is for a season, and then things will change.
I know that no matter what happens God will use it for good.
I also know that we are extremely blessed to have an extended family that cares about us enough to help when we need it.
So, I'll work on focusing on the good things I have in my life instead of the problems. But I'm still waiting for the Buttah days!