A Work at Home Mom’s Blog

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!

Spring in the mountains is a crazy time. The weather fluctuates wildly from sun to rain to snow and back again. This week is looking like it might be a case in point.

Today was beautiful. Abundant sunshine and a variable breeze were the themes for the day. Hubbs, Pumpkin and I got out and enjoyed it, and two out of three of us got a little sunburned. Mine is a little ouchy, but I’m not complaining in the least.

But according to the weather forecast, we won’t have another day like this for a while. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy and windy, like most of last week, but with a little twist: in the afternoon, there’s going to be a drop in temperature and a chance of snow. Yuck!

But wait, there’s more! They’re also calling for snow on Tuesday, and by the time it’s all said and done, the possibility of 4 to 8 inches for parts of the area. My neck of the woods is only supposed to get a dusting, but dang!

This time of year is always a bit of a roller coaster for me. I get a glimmer of hope when we get a nice, sunny, warm day, and then winter comes back for a while. I know that I shouldn’t let the weather dictate my moods, and I try hard not to. But I’m not a fan of cold weather, so when it starts to go away, I get all excited. Maybe one of these days I’ll learn to be more patient with Mother Nature.

I know I’m one of many, many people across the country who’s saying this lately… but man, is it ever friggin cold! We’re used to cold temperatures during the winter here in the mountains, but this is the coldest it’s been since I moved here. I remember one winter up in Virginia when it got this cold, but I’m just not accustomed to temperatures this bone-chilling.

I can’t imagine how shocking this weather must be to people who live in more temperate places. Hubby’s cousins are up here this week from down the mountain, and they have just been flipping out over how cold it is. It’s colder than what they’re used to down there, and coming up here and experiencing winter in the mountains is just blowing their minds. It’d be kind of funny if I wasn’t freezing my butt off every time I walk out the door, too.

I’m just glad we haven’t gotten any snow to speak of. Just a little skiff here and there. It was enough to get them to close the schools early yesterday, but by the time they would have gotten out normally it was all gone anyway.

I just hope it isn’t like this all winter. We’ve still got a good two months to go, and maybe more. I’m just glad we have wood heat now. As much as I hate it, I can’t imagine having to pay for oil when it’s this cold.

Things are always kind of funky on a holiday week. But this past one has just taken the cake.

Hubby went to the doctor with a sinus infection late last week, and the doctor gave him some antibiotics. All well and good. Then on Sunday Pumpkin’s stomach started hurting her really badly. She was in tears at one point, and we almost took her to the emergency room. But the pain subsided somewhat, and it wasn’t in her side, so I decided just to take her to the doctor on Monday.

I sent her to school, only to get a call around 1:30 from her teacher. Her stomach was hurting again, so I went and picked her up. Her appointment was a few hours later, and I took her in. She said the only thing abnormal she could find was a lot of gas, and told me to give her half of a chewable Mylanta as needed. But she also told me to make a follow-up appointment for 2 or 3 weeks later, and if she was still having problems she would refer her to someone else.

I thought I was done with the doctor for a while, but I was wrong. Hubby woke up on Wednesday with his sinuses much worse than they had been, he was weak, he had the runs and his back was hurting. The first thing that crossed my mind was the F word: that’s right, flu. He refused to miss work to go to his doctor, so I called the urgent care place where my and Pumpkin’s doctor is working now and made him an appointment for after work. And of course I had to pick him up from work and take him up there so I could help him with the paperwork.

Fortunately it wasn’t the flu. The doctor said that he needed different antibiotics for his sinuses, because those weren’t doing the job and they were probably causing the stomach and back problems he was having.

All of that combined with only one day of school this week (one snow day and three days out for Thanksgiving) has not been conducive to me getting any work done. Once again I’m behind. But I’m only half a report away from getting caught up, so I guess I can’t complain too much. I’m doing better than usual I suppose.

Oh, one more thing: I’m going to be having some giveaways very soon. I’ve never done this before, but I’ve been blessed with some stuff to give away to some lucky readers. So stay tuned!

So much for my hopes that winter would start late this year. It appears that it has already arrived.

Temperatures haven’t gotten out of the 40s for most of the past week, and according to the forecast, they won’t for the next week, either. And it’s been intermittently windy. School was closed on Tuesday due to snow (which we didn’t get much of, but they didn’t bother doing much if anything to the roads, and they were slick in places).

It has been interesting trying to keep enough wood to keep us warm. We have two respectable piles outside, and they should last us a while. The problem is getting it cut up and busted into pieces small enough to fit in our tiny stove. Hubby has had to work on it when he gets home from work, and by then it is dark. For the past week or two we’ve just been busting up enough to make it through that night and the next day and carrying it in. Then lather, rinse, repeat the next evening. I hope he will get to work on it this weekend and get us enough ready to burn for a week or so. Then we won’t have to worry about it so much.

I want summer back! It gets hot around here, especially when you don’t have air conditioning, but I rarely complain about it. When I feel like it, I just think about the cold winters and get over it.

The weather here has been downright wintry the past couple of days. We’ve had snow flurries off and on all day. It has been very light, not enough to accumulate, but snow flurries in October??? Come on!

So as you can see by my change in themes, I’m trying to enjoy autumn in hopes that it will come back to stay for a while. I would prefer to have summer temperatures intermittently well into November like we did a couple of years ago, but I’ll take what I can get. So fall, I’m begging you. Please come back!!!