A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

It has been a long week. I’ve been trying desperately to get caught up from when I had the flu, but it hasn’t been going well. I spent the weekend struggling to finish a report that should have taken no more than a day to complete. I was concentrating reasonably well (for me anyway), but I had the worst case of writer’s block I’ve had in a long time. I ended up in tears on several occasions, but I forced myself to keep trying.

I finally finished that up, but I’m still way behind. I don’t think the best HGH releasers in the world could give me enough energy to get this stuff done as quickly as I need to. I know they couldn’t, because I should have had it all done days ago.

Has anybody out there figured out how to turn back time? Cuz I could stand to go back about a week. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about getting all this done in time to get ready for Pumpkin’s birthday party. It’s going to be another interesting week, to say the least. So if you don’t hear from me for a few days (or longer), you know what’s up.

My brother and his wife returned from Pennsylvania a couple of days ago. My mom called me to let me know they got back, and that things went okay. They won’t know much about her prognosis until she goes back for a checkup, though.

She had to stay in her room for four days because of the radiation thingie they put on her eye. Apparently it made her rather weak, because my brother was doing the housework and helping her take care of herself. Of course he treats her like a queen anyway, so maybe she’s not feeling as bad as I imagined.

I hope everything turns out okay. It’s not like she has severe mesothelioma or anything - it’s unlikely that anything worse than losing her eye would become of it. But that would certainly be bad enough. I know I wouldn’t be happy about that possibility, even if I was thankful that it wasn’t anything more serious.

I had hoped to go up there for a festival this weekend and see how she’s doing while in the area, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. So I suppose I should at least give them a call. I know they would be checking in on me if the situation were reversed.

I’ve been having Internet trouble again. This time I called tech support, and we established that I was getting an IP address, but I couldn’t ping anything. It’s not the modem, because I tried two different ones. And besides that, they both work when I hook them up to my old computer.

I managed to get a couple of things done on the old machine this morning, and in the meantime I ran virus and malware scans on the new one. Both found nothing. I had installed Firefox on my old machine and downloaded Open Office so I could get some work done on it, but then I decided to try the new one again because it’s so much faster. That time, I connected with no problem. Strange.

I don’t know what’s going on here, but it’s driving me nuts. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if I were just using my Internet to compare acne products, but I need it to work so I can make a living. I guess I’ll try to get caught up on my work, and then do some more searching online to see if I can find out what the problem might be. Maybe I’ll see if someone at one of those tech forums can help me. And if all else fails, maybe I’ll contact the computer manufacturer.

If there are any computer whizzes out there who have any ideas, a comment would be much appreciated. I’d be happy to link to a site or do some writing for anybody who can help me get this straightened out.

My brother and his wife set out on a plane today. This time they’re not enjoying one of those lavish Miami vacation packages, though. They were headed to Philadelphia so she could be treated for melanoma of the eye.

The last time I went to see my mom, my brother mentioned that she was having problems with one of her eyes. She was going to a doctor in Charlottesville, so I knew it was something out of the ordinary, but they hadn’t determined what yet. Then last week my mom called and told me what they had found. I always thought melanoma was always on the skin, but apparently not.

From what I understand, they’re attaching some sort of radiation device to her eye, which she has to wear for a few days. Then she will get to come home, but she’ll have to go back for checkups every few months for a while. If all goes well with that, she should be able to see a doctor that’s not so far away for periodic checkups after that.

I really hope everything goes well for her. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers, and I’ll post updates as I get them.

Now isn’t exactly a good time to be obsessed with this, but I can’t quit thinking about ways to get more light into our living room. There’s only one light fixture in there, and there’s a whole side of the room that is very poorly lit. I’ve known that I eventually wanted to do something about it since we moved in, but for the past week or so it’s been absolutely driving me nuts.

What I’d like to do is put another fixture in the ceiling over there. We’re planning on replacing the cheap tile on the ceiling with sheet rock anyway, so if we do it at the same time it shouldn’t be too hard. But that probably won’t happen until at least next year. So I’d like to come up with a temporary solution in the meantime.

My first thought was a tall floor lamp. My mom has one, and it throws out quite a bit of light. But the optimal place to put it would be in the corner next to the front door, and there’s no working outlet there. Hmm.

I wonder if wall candle sconces would put out enough light to suit our needs? Maybe if I could find a couple that took several candles and were mirrored, it would add enough light to be able to see fairly well over there. And I could get nicely scented candles to go in them and make the house smell good in the process.

I’ll have to check the yard sales for candle sconces. If I can’t find any there, maybe I’ll save my pennies and buy some nice ones later on.

I read the news this morning that Patrick Swayze was no longer with us. I know he had cancer for a couple of years, so I wasn’t really surprised, but I was sad.

When I was young, I had a mega-crush on Patrick. I think the first movie of his I saw was Dirty Dancing, and my eyes were glued to the TV. I practically wallpapered my room with posters of him. He was the first movie star that I could really call myself a fan of.

I swooned when I saw him in Ghost, and cheered him on when he was beating up the bad guys in Roadhouse. I can’t say that I’ve seen every single one of his movies, but I have watched most of them. I never watched The Beast, but I’m not sure I could have handled it anyway. It was all I could do to keep from tearing up when I saw pictures of him looking so frail in magazines at the grocery store checkout.

I applaud Patrick Swayze for living life on his own terms and continuing to do what he loved to do, even after he was diagnosed with cancer. And one of these days, I will watch his last TV show. But for now, I’m happier to remember him the way he was when I was young. Rest in peace, Patrick.

It has been a rough month for the fam on the health front, and hence the financial front. I mentioned that Hubby had to miss some work a couple of weeks ago because he was sick. Well, last week he got sick again, and I got it too. The doctor called it the flu, but gave us antibiotics “just in case.” Well, we started on those several days ago, but neither of us is well yet.

Hubby missed the last two days of last week with it. He tried to go back to work on Monday, but the boss sent him back home. It’s just as well, because he never would have made it. He wouldn’t stay in bed, though. He went and worked a little on an ongoing side job in an effort to get us a little money. He was able to get in a little over an hour, then he came home.

He went in to work today, and apparently they let him stay. As for me, I have felt like crap and been extremely unproductive since last week. And that sucks, because I’ve got lots of work to do. It’s great that I have the work, because it will help us catch back up from all of the time Hubby has been out of work. But it won’t do me any good if I can’t get it done.

So if you’ve been wondering why my blog hasn’t been updated, it isn’t because we’ve been sitting in patio chairs soaking up the sun around here. It’s because we’ve been stricken by one of the many germs that’s going around so early this year. I’m just really thankful that Pumpkin didn’t get it this time.

I’m happy to report that Hubby has been feeling better, and he’s working on an odd job with a coworker from his regular job today. He has an appointment with the doctor at 1:15, but unless things take a turn back to the worse, I’ll be calling to cancel it as soon as they come in.

I went with him to his cousin’s house to look at some work that he asked him to do. He’s got a ton of it, mostly trimming and removing trees and bushes. Hubby had planned to start on it Monday, but then he realized that the landfill would be closed. If he can find somewhere else to put the brush temporarily, he might start on it anyway.

I’m trying not to get my hopes up, because if I do I know something will happen (like Hubby still being sick). But all this has taken a load off of my mind. If he gets some extra money, we’ll be able to pay the bills and have Pumpkin a birthday party. And maybe, just maybe, after this month, we can start working on some stuff that needs to be done around here. Like fixing the basement drain and getting a dehumidifier down there. I’ll have to learn how to operate it and change the dehumidifier filters all all that, but we desperately need one down there to get rid of the dampness.

I know, I’m getting ahead of myself. But it would be nice to get ahead instead of being behind all the time.

Edited over a week later to fix my boneheaded mistake of saying we needed a humidifier in the basement to get rid of the dampness. Duh!

Labor Day is coming up, marking the end of summer. The first official day of fall is the 22nd. But here in the mountains, we’re already getting hints of the colder weather to come.

It has been about 10 degrees cooler than what we’ve grown accustomed to all week. The mornings have been downright chilly. And I’m dreading the coming winter with every fiber of my being.

I had hoped to have a secondary heat source by this winter, but that’s not happening. So when it starts getting cold at night, I’ll have to start staying up late again, keeping a fire going. I’m a bit of a night owl, so that’s not really a problem, but lately I’ve gotten accustomed to going to bed a little earlier than I had been. Guess I’ll have to get unaccustomed, huh?

Besides the fact that it’s so much cheaper than any other kind of heat (especially for us since we get our wood for free), I’m not a fan of wood heat. But it does the job, for sure. The only complaint there is trying to keep it circulated. I’d like to put a ceiling fan in the living room to pull the heat down from the ceiling, but as low as our ceilings are, that would be a recipe for disaster. So I guess we’ll just have to stick with the floor fan. It does a good enough job to keep most of the house comfortable (and often hot).

At least winter hasn’t set in yet, and probably won’t for a couple more months. We should still have plenty of time to enjoy some warm weather.

Pumpkin’s birthday is coming up. She’s excited about it, but I’m worried that we’re not going to be able to do much of anything to celebrate, much less buy her a decent gift. She will get something, one way or another, but the way things are looking we’re going to have very little money to put toward it.

Hubby only got in 9 hours last week because he was sick, and now he’s feeling bad again. I’ll spare you the details, because it has to do with bodily functions, but some stuff is going on that’s got him (and me) pretty worried. He’s got some side jobs lined up for this weekend, but if things don’t improve, he won’t be able to do them.

And I didn’t make as much as I thought I would for last month’s work. I completed several projects, but most of them were just a little smaller than July’s, so it added up to less money. I’ve got a lot lined up for this month, but I’m worried that the stress that’s creeping up on me might hinder my ability to get it all done, plus the extra work I had hoped to do. I hope I can stay focused.

But even if I do get loads of work done, I won’t get paid for most of it in time for Pumpkin’s birthday. That really sucks. Before Hubby missed so much work and threw everything out of whack, I was thinking about looking at netbooks for her. But the way it’s looking, I’ll be doing well to scrape up enough cash to buy her a paper notebook. Our only hope is if Hubby starts feeling better. If he does, I can quit worrying quite so much, and he can make enough money to pay the bills and maybe have some left over for the birthday.