Hope In Winter

I thought it important to take note of the date today.
January 30, 2006.

That means it's currently winter.

And here at the beach that I enjoy so much, warm weather abounds.

So much so that my daffodils are in bloom.

Oh My Word

Big News!

We're moving! So much has happened this week and the biggest of events is that we are moving. We'll still be on the east coast, just a little further up and away from the beach (very sad about that part).
My husband has a job offer and decided to take it. The good news is that I'll be a little closer in distance to my mom.

So yesterday I started packing and packing and packing. I'm tempted to torch all of the boxes and start afresh once we get to our new home.

In other news, earlier this week three people (including me) in my family had food poisoning.
Now, I've had that one other time in my life about 7 years ago and it was none to fun. But this time was about three times worse. It was terrible. I'm just now starting to work my way back to feeling normal.

Y-U-C-K

A Glimpse Into 100 Years Ago

Baltimore Burns 100 Years Ago

Baltimore is my hometown and I believe this was more like 102 years ago but here's the story anyway.
The flames began in what is the present day 1st Mariner Arena site and devoured everything in site from the harbor to the south to Mt. Vernon to the north.
This shot was taken from the Shot Tower on Fayette Street and is courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society. You can clearly see the destruction. Also visible is the Power Plant, home of Barnes and Noble and the Hard Rock Cafe (far left just below center). Also visible in the shot is old City hall (far right center) and the Alex Brown Building at Calvert and Baltimore Streets (just to the right of City Hall).

The fire allowed Baltimore to grow into the 20th century and beyond. The landfill from the fire was used to create the land that the Inner Harbor, World Trade Center and Convention Center sit on today.

Also 100 years ago...

The Ford Motor Company introduced the Model N automobile; it sold for $500.

The first voice was broadcast by radio.

The Chicago White Sox defeated the Chicago Cubs in the World Series.

Grocery stores began to carry Kellogg's cereal.

One of the first patents for an apparatus for treating air - an air conditioner - was issued to Willis Carrier.

A Flood Of Concerns

Here is my story, all of it is absolutely true. No names have been changed to protect anybody.

Thursday evening I decided that it would really benefit my family if I could get up early Friday morning and get the grocery shopping done before everyone else gets up. I set my clock for 5:45 a.m.
I had a fitful night - hardly any sleep but I woke up one minute before the alarm went off (which is a good thing because I really hate that buzzer beepy thing).

I got the shopping done and was back at the house by 7:30 in time to feed everyone.

As I was unloading the car I noticed a puddle in the driveway just in front of the garage. I couldn't figure out how it had gotten there, it hadn't rained. Oh well.

Once I got all the groceries in the house I put my husband's soda into the garage where it normally goes and what do I see?
The garage is flooded! Our water pipe in the wall burst AGAIN!
Not much got damaged but we sure did have a tough day. MIL took the baby so that we could clear out the garage and get the pipe fixed. Our den is in shambles and we are going to have to put up all new panelling.

We decided to just get rid of a good deal of things in the garage. Instead of having a yard sale it was going to benefit us just to give it to the Salvation Army.
They said they'd come by today to pick everything up.

Since the garage floor was wet we had to leave all of our belongings in our driveway. Nobody looted us.
Morning comes and the Salvation Army hadn't called to say they were on their way or anything, we had some errands to run so off we went.

Then it started raining. We got back to the house and found they still hadn't come. By that time it was raining harder. The garage floor was drier than the driveway at that point so we had to move EVERYTHING BACK IN. We tried calling and calling the S.A. but nobody answered.

About two hours after we packed it all back into the garage here comes the S.A. truck! But wait there's a problem. We have more stuff than what they thought. They thought we only had four boxes of things for them. They said they wouldn't take it and we could call to reschedule. I went out to that garage and said, "What's the problem here?"

They had this huge truck and those two strong men weren't going to lift more than four boxes because that's all the receipt had on it?

"Ma'am we have another lady who is irate that we have to get to. She has a good deal of things."

Well you have a large truck, I'll help you load these things on."

And so I did. Boy were they mad.
Ask me if I care.

heeheehehee

I Got Da Bwooz

My husband was kind enough to take care of the baby for a couple of hours this evening while I did some desk work (grocery list and menu planning, taxes, bills).
This helped so much, I feel so undone when I don't feel like I'm organized...but just a few things at a time - I'll make it.

In the morning when I go downstairs to fix breakfast my son and I like to listen to the Blues - Jeremiah pronounces it "Bwooz", which is adorable.

Well all this to say that I was a bit suprised to see that Wilson Pickett died today. Well he was a soul singer - not exactly the blues but close. He sang one of my favorite old songs "Mustang Sally".

I've always wanted a mustang and so I just felt some sort of connection with that song. Is that weird?

So in honor of the song and the singer here is a picture of my dream car...

1966 Shelby Cobra GT 350

I Don't Like Fives

Ok ok ok, now I'm finding this a bit laughable.
All this week the 6:00 Club has been working out (with the exception of a couple hits to the snooze button).

As I'm spending some quiet time with God and then working on desk work - I'm finding that I still need more time.

So will I really need to join the 5:00 Club? Perhaps for a season. So what I'll try doing is setting my alarm earlier by 15 minutes each week, I've got to move into this thing slowly.
I think I must be crazy.

It ain't easy being the CEO of this house. But if the Lord gives us more children I believe this habit will greatly increase my productivity and effectiveness.

HA! If my father could see me now. He always was an early riser. I remember that his body just woke him up naturally at 6:30 every morning. Now I think he gets up even earlier like 4:30.

I still think I must be crazy.

YooHoo!

YooHoo! I'm over here!

Life has been so busy the past couple of months - I didn't have room for everything on my schedule and when those times come around blogging is the first to be put on the back burner.

During Christmas my cleaning schedule went out the window which is fine because I truly did enjoy the holidays, but now I'm seriously treading water. With taxes to be worked on and invoices for the next year to be sent out (for my husband's side business) I'm frantically trying to find a few more hours in the day.

Some old acquaintances from my old church recently blogged about their 5:00 Club.
Well, I've decided to start my own chapter with a single exception: 5:00 a.m. will be changed to 6:00 a.m. That seems a little more doable to me.
Now the funny thing here is that when I was working outside of the house full time I didn't even get up earlier than 6:30 a.m.
Some people have asked me if I'm just absolutely bored being a SAHM. ARE THEY KIDDING? I have so much work to do that I'm considering giving myself a pay raise!