A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

I consider myself fortunate to live in the mountains. The scenery is gorgeous, and it’s nice and peaceful. But as with anything, it does have certain disadvantages.

One of those disadvantages is how crazy the weather can be. Especially this time of year. Like yesterday, it was warm and sunny. Today it’s a little cooler, but still pretty. But tomorrow it’s supposed to turn much cooler, and for the next couple of nights it will be cold enough to frost. I like having all four seasons and all, but these wild swings in temperature are hard to get used to, not to mention rather rough on my sinuses.

But right now what’s really driving me nuts is the wind. We get some high winds around here off and on all year long. I’m talking gusts that are the equivalent of a minor hurricane. It’s not at all unusual to see stuff blowing around everywhere, even heavy stuff like metal buildings. I remember one time when we were driving down the road and saw that the wind had picked one of those up and put it in a field a good 50 to 75 yards away. And it had apparently rolled around quite a bit in the process, because it was all twisted up.

I know, I really shouldn’t complain. At least we don’t get actual hurricanes around here. The rain sometimes makes it this far inland from the coast, but we rarely get any serious winds from them. Still, the residents of the area are no strangers to the damage that the wind can do.

I was listening to the weather on the radio this morning, and if what they said was true, we’re going to have one snowy weekend. They’re calling for 3 to 6 inches tomorrow, and by the time it’s all said and done, possibly 10 inches or more. Nooooo!!!!

I hate the thought of snow at all, but if we have to have it, I wish I could push it back a few days so it would be on Christmas. I don’t really care if we have any snow on Christmas myself, but Hubby’s dying to have some then. And I’m sure Pumpkin wouldn’t mind it either. Of course, if I had my way, it would just miss us altogether. They’re giving a 100% chance, but I’ve seen snowstorms miss us with those kind of odds before. I can hope, anyway.

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was already starting on my Christmas shopping, thanks to some free stuff I’ve scored. The only problem is that I’m running out of people to give it to!

My mom’s gift is already taken care of. The only other adults on my list are Hubby and his parents and brothers. He said he was just going to buy everyone in his family cigarettes, because they’re always bumming for them. Now, I’ve got a free photo book offer that I need to redeem, and I can’t figure out who to give it to. Hubby wouldn’t appreciate it, and I doubt my siblings and I will be exchanging gifts. We quit doing that a couple of years ago, when they stopped taking frequent Orlando vacations due to budget concerns. So I’m thinking about just getting one made for myself.

It’s not like I haven’t done it before. The one year when Hubby and I did pretty well for ourselves, I bought myself a stereo for Christmas. I wanted one, and he wasn’t going to shell out for it, so I decided I might as well go for it. I think I at least deserve a photo book this year, especially if it’s free.

I’ve also got some gift certificates for photo canvases that I need to distribute. I think I might have found one taker, but there are still four more left. Hmm, maybe I’ll have a giveaway. Stay tuned if you’re interested!

I’ve known that I was a night owl for many, many years. When I was a kid, I often lay awake in bed until 3:00 in the morning. I just could not sleep. When I got old enough to stay up by myself, I sat up until the wee hours watching TV on Friday and Saturday nights. And I would sleep in on the weekends until my mom or brother practically dragged me out of bed.

Not much has changed. Well, I have been spending more time asleep, because I haven’t had much energy for a long time now. There for a while, I could go fall right asleep no matter what time I went to bed. But for the past couple of weeks, I’ve had trouble falling asleep before 2:00 am.

I know, because I got in bed at 11:00 a couple of nights ago, hoping to be able to stay up after Hubby left for work the next morning. And I lay there awake until nearly 3:00. If we had satellite TV, I might have gotten up and watched infomercials for weight loss supplements or something. But we don’t, and I didn’t feel like watching the same old DVDs or getting on the computer. So I just lay there trying to make myself sleep.

Last night, I stayed up and worked until 1:00 or so. It took me a while to go to sleep, but not nearly as long as it did the previous night. I guess I’m just going to have to quit trying to fight it. I hate trying to sneak in to bed without waking Hubby, but it looks like there’s no changing the fact that I’m a night owl.

Hope everyone out there had a fun and safe Independence Day. I did.

We started celebrating on the 3rd, with a cookout and fireworks at my in-laws’ house. On the holiday itself, we went to a festival in a nearby town. They had lots of craft vendors, a Civil War reenactment (which we didn’t get around to watching), music and lots of food. We resisted temptation for the most part, though. Pumpkin bought a string puppet with the money she earned doing chores, and we bought her some popcorn. Hubby and I bought nothing but a bottle of water to share (which was actually free but we gave a donation). The food smelled awesome, but the prices were a bit outrageous. If I had to pay that much for food all the time, I wouldn’t need Phenphedrine to lose weight!

After we left the festival, we went to the park to play softball. That part dragged on way too long for my tastes. I couldn’t participate much because I was having trouble with my knee, and I ended up having to witness the horror that is my brother-in-law’s kids. They have a way of driving anyone in the general vicinity nuts. And their parents don’t take care of them or make them behave at all. But I’m just going to shut up about it all for now.

They set off fireworks at the park, and the show was very nice. I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t been all cramped up from sitting on a very uncomfortable metal bench during the whole softball thing, but it was still nice. Some friends came home with us and spent the night, and we stayed up until the wee hours playing Monopoly and talking.

All in all, it was a good holiday weekend. But we’ve already decided that next year we’re staying as far away from my brother-in-law and his family as possible.

We’ve been getting even more rain here. We got a slight reprieve from the heavy stuff for a week or so, not a complete stop to the rain, but considerably less of it. But now it’s back full force.

We’ve had more than our fair share of storms during the past few days. And when they get close, I always turn off the computer, cut off the surge protector and unplug the modem from the phone line. I know the surge protector is supposed to prevent any damage, but what can I say? I’m paranoid that lightning might damage my computer and leave me with no way to get my work done. It’s kind of like when I worked in retail or restaurants and was afraid to use their POS systems when it was storming. I’m sure they took precautions to prevent anyone from getting electrocuted, but it still scared me.

Our basement drain still isn’t functioning properly. I bought some drain cleaner yesterday and poured the whole bottle down it. I waited 30 minutes as the instructions said to, and went back down there with a bottle of hot water. But water was still standing. Hubby checked it this morning and it was gone, so maybe it just took a little more time to work. I hope so.

The window in my office is also leaking, because there’s something up with the guttering above it. They just replaced it, but something still isn’t right. Last night it was dripping all the way across, and at one point there was a steady stream of water running out at one place. I had to move my printer and modem to keep them from getting damaged and keep switching out towels so the water wouldn’t go everywhere.

And then there’s all the mud outside. It’s supposed to rain every day this week, and I’m having an Oscar Mayer House Party on Saturday. The forecast isn’t calling for any rain on that day, but I’m sure it will be seriously muddy by then. And Hubby probably won’t get to mow the yard, so the outside is just going to be a mess.

I wish all this friggin rain would just go away already! It seems like we either have a drought or it’s raining all the time. Can’t there be a happy medium?

I’m not one of those mommy bloggers who shares every single moment of their kids’ lives. I don’t suppose there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s just not me. But right now, I just have to brag a little.

First off, there was her awards ceremony that I went to this past Wednesday. For about the fifth time in her school career, she got the award for being the best behaved kid on her bus. As always, I was proud. The only other award she got was for commendable attendance (not perfect, because she was out sick a day or two). She was a little disappointed, because she thinks she’s supposed to get three or four awards each time. But as long as she’s doing her best, I’m happy.

Yesterday was the last day of school here, and she came home with her backpack full of papers and school supplies. After sorting through all of that, I found two things that made me smile. One was another award- this one for being the friendliest kid in her class. The other was her report card. And her grades have really improved. She’s doing particularly well in math. And on her e-assessment, she scored on a fourth grade level!

So let’s see what we’ve learned here: She’s friendly, well-behaved and good at math. Maybe she should go ahead and put in some applications for banking jobs. Or not. As far as I’m concerned, she should just keep being the awesome kid that she is (and that I’ve always known she is) for many, many more years.

I was worried that we might not get to go camping this year. But maybe we will after all. Hubby seems to think that the guy whose land we camped on the past couple of years may let us do so again this year, even though he has the land up for sale. We’ll see how that goes. But if it doesn’t work out, there’s another friend of his who said we could camp on his land.

I had thought about going to a campground if necessary. There are plenty of RV parks and campgrounds around here. I’d just rather take an RV or travel trailer to them than a tent, and for now a tent is all we’ve got. Besides, if we can camp out somewhere for free, I’d much prefer to do so.

I hope we get to camp out at least once this summer. Getting away from modern conveniences for a while leaves me feeling refreshed and energized. And I can certainly use that.

Yesterday my family was invited to a cookout. Not being ones to turn down free food, and knowing that our hosts were great cooks (the world’s best diet pills couldn’t turn me away), we accepted.

We knew it was supposed to be a little cooler than the previous couple of days and possibly rain, but that didn’t stop us. Spring in the mountains is notoriously unpredictable, and we kept telling ourselves the weatherman was wrong. Unfortunately, he wasn’t.

When we got there, it was sprinkling just a little, but it quit. We eagerly set up horseshoe pegs and started throwing. For the first couple of games, no more precipitation fell. But then it started.

I played one game while it was sprinkling, then I quit. Not so much because of the rain, because I don’t really mind being out in a light rain as long as it’s not too cold, but I was concerned about my wrist aching like it did the last time I played horseshoes. I even stood out and watched them play, despite getting slightly soaked.

Hubby, his aunt and our hosts played another game, and by the time they were done, the yard was a muddy mess. It had begun to rain fairly steadily, and they finally decided to wrap up and put the stuff away. But not before their hands were covered in mud!

They had begun cooking around the time we started with the horseshoes, and they continued to do so. Too bad they didn’t have a covered porch! But they were sports about it, and dinner turned out great. We played some cards afterward, and then we headed home.

I’m always giving people who don’t have enough sense to get in out of the rain a hard time. But I guess I don’t have much room to talk, huh?

I’ve been hearing those two words way too much lately. That’s right, frost and snow. Sorry to have such filth on my blog, but I just have to vent about this.

This morning, the Hubmeister looked out the window and informed me that there was a thick layer of the f word out there. I knew it was supposed to get chilly last night, but not that cold! I just hope it spares my little purple flowers and the apple tree. The apple tree has barely sprouted leaves, and the purple flowers are just starting to pop up in the yard. They’ll be gone when Hubby decides to mow, but I was hoping to enjoy them until then.

The weather forecast is calling for a chance of the s word this coming Tuesday. It’s not unusual to have that stuff in April around here, but I’d rather not. But since when does the weather do what I want it to?

At least the weekend is looking to be decent. Sun today and tomorrow, and chance of rain but still warm on Sunday. I’ve definitely got to get out and enjoy it. No sitting in front of the computer searching for diet pill reviews this weekend. I’m gonna put on some sunscreen and bask in the warm glow of the sun!