I've been struck lately by how happy having some little things repaired has made me. For instance, a few days ago we had the carpets cleaned. I bit the bullet and called Stanley Steamer. We've been in this house 10 years and have never had the carpets done professionally, and it was time. I knew they wouldn't be able to restore the carpets to a brand new appearance, but, boy, they sure came close! I had them do the living room, dining room and kids' bedrooms. The plush carpet in the living room and bedrooms really does look nearly brand new aside from some wear (to be expected)! The berber in the dining room is not quite as nice, but it's also a cream color and has taken the brunt of a lot of animal stains from when we had cats. In any case, it still looks a ton better. It's been so nice to look at the carpet and smile and feel like we can actually have people over and not be embarrassed by the carpet! (now, if I could only replace the living room furniture.....!!)
Our vehicles.....both the van and the Ford were in the shop at the same time earlier this month. The Ford is 18 years old, and the folks we bought it from had done an excellent job in maintaining it, but there was just 1 itty bitty problem that needed repaired. The windshield wiper mechanism. Our friend had rigged up a switch that was working fine....until the switch went out. He tried a different switch, but it got to the point that every bump or pothole we hit, the wipers went on and stopped halfway up the window - right in your line of sight! So with the kids driving and DD stressed enough just getting behind the wheel, I got it fixed. Boy! Is it nice to go over a bump and not have wipers suddenly blocking your view! :-)
The van....oh, the van....! It has this little "service engine soon" light that just churns my stomach! haha It came on right after I left the Ford in the shop. Of course! Turns out there was something with the gasket or valve at the gas cap that needed replaced. No big deal, but while checking it out, they found something in the front suspension was cracked. I kinda figured something was wearing out up there because, again, as we would go over bumps or potholes, there was a squeaking, and as long as the thing drove, I didn't really want to spend the money to find out! (yeah, I know, ignorance is not always bliss, but I was keeping my fingers crossed!) So, since that's kind of a safety issue and, again, since the kids are driving and DS drives the van occasionally and it's the vehicle we usually take on longer trips, and now that I knew what it was and could no longer ignore it :-) , I got it fixed. I do have to say, it is really nice to go over speed bumps and railroad tracks and not hear squeaking! Makes me smile! :-)
My nature is to replace things rather than repair, even though I know repairing is usually cheaper. I also know that getting rid of something that could be fixed and continued to be used is not being a good steward of what God has given me. So I'm working on the fix-and-not-replace attitude and am happy to see the benefits. Now if I could just work on the procrastination aspect, we'd be good!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Back to School
Well, both kids are back to school and getting into the routine of early mornings and schedules and homework. This will be a very different year for us because for the first time ever, from preschool until now, the twins are in different schools. Different buildings, different classes, different classmates and, gulp!, different calendars! So far things are gong well. DS is driving this year, letting his sister off at her school and then picking her up after he gets out. Once she gets her license, we'll have to work on a car schedule so that it's "fair share," but as of right now, he has about 40 minutes to wait for his classes to start in the morning, and she has to wait about 25-30 minutes in the afternoon for him to get her. She actually could ride the bus home and be here before he could get to her at the high school, but it's so not cool to be a junior and still riding the bus. :-)
Besides the logistics of 2 different schools, it's apparent right away that their days are very different. DD has 6 accelerated academic full classes this year. Right now she is also a library aide one period and next semester will be taking a fun elective - Food for Life. She had wanted an art class - Jewelry - but it didn't work in her schedule, so hopefully she will get that next year. She has been in school 3 days and has had homework for all 6 classes each day. Her chemistry intro letter home stated that students should plan to spend 6-10 hours outside class every week on chemistry and that forming study groups or having a tutor would be a good idea. I didn't take chemistry in high school, so this will be completely new territory for all of us. She needed enough 3-ring binders for her classes this year, that should she need to bring them all home some night, they will not fit in her backpack! I think I spent $25-30 to get her supplies that first day.
On the flip side, DS has been back to school for a week and a half and has just 3 academic classes at the joint vocational school (JVS) he is attending - English, math and science. The rest of the time he spends in the classroom for his field of study - culinary - or in the kitchen. He wears his uniform to school every day, consisting of a school T-shirt or sweatshirt, his chef pants and work shoes and wears his chef coat and hat while in the kitchen. We qualified for financial assistance with his uniforms, so I spent around $100 for that back in June when we pre-ordered, and all he needed otherwise was a 2-inch binder and the usual paper and pencils, and that totalled around $6. So far he has not brought home any homework, and I'm sure he won't in the future if he can help it! His school is also providing each student with a notebook/laptop type of computer to be used in conjunction with schoolwork, so he's looking forward to that.
It's hard to believe they are juniors already. We've celebrated each "survived the first week" by going first to the root beer stand for dinner for DS and to Dairy Queen for ice cream for DD. Each time they have compared notes as to what classes are like and who is in what class that they might know.....and what colleges they want to take visitation days to and how at this time 2 years from now they will be getting ready to move into dorms.....I was okay until that last part! haha These last 2 years are going to fly by, and all I can do is pray, encourage them to work hard and leave the rest of up them and God!
Besides the logistics of 2 different schools, it's apparent right away that their days are very different. DD has 6 accelerated academic full classes this year. Right now she is also a library aide one period and next semester will be taking a fun elective - Food for Life. She had wanted an art class - Jewelry - but it didn't work in her schedule, so hopefully she will get that next year. She has been in school 3 days and has had homework for all 6 classes each day. Her chemistry intro letter home stated that students should plan to spend 6-10 hours outside class every week on chemistry and that forming study groups or having a tutor would be a good idea. I didn't take chemistry in high school, so this will be completely new territory for all of us. She needed enough 3-ring binders for her classes this year, that should she need to bring them all home some night, they will not fit in her backpack! I think I spent $25-30 to get her supplies that first day.
On the flip side, DS has been back to school for a week and a half and has just 3 academic classes at the joint vocational school (JVS) he is attending - English, math and science. The rest of the time he spends in the classroom for his field of study - culinary - or in the kitchen. He wears his uniform to school every day, consisting of a school T-shirt or sweatshirt, his chef pants and work shoes and wears his chef coat and hat while in the kitchen. We qualified for financial assistance with his uniforms, so I spent around $100 for that back in June when we pre-ordered, and all he needed otherwise was a 2-inch binder and the usual paper and pencils, and that totalled around $6. So far he has not brought home any homework, and I'm sure he won't in the future if he can help it! His school is also providing each student with a notebook/laptop type of computer to be used in conjunction with schoolwork, so he's looking forward to that.
It's hard to believe they are juniors already. We've celebrated each "survived the first week" by going first to the root beer stand for dinner for DS and to Dairy Queen for ice cream for DD. Each time they have compared notes as to what classes are like and who is in what class that they might know.....and what colleges they want to take visitation days to and how at this time 2 years from now they will be getting ready to move into dorms.....I was okay until that last part! haha These last 2 years are going to fly by, and all I can do is pray, encourage them to work hard and leave the rest of up them and God!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
How Much Do They Need To Know?
I struggle with this question on a daily basis....finances, neighborhood goings on , my work issues, just my plain issues!.... How much do I tell my teenagers? What do they need to know and what don't they need to know?
The struggle came up again 2 nights ago in the neighborhood category. I live on a corner, and the lady who lives on the other corner beside me is our mail carrier; thus, she is privy to a lot of what is happening around us that I wouldn't normally know unless she told me. We're not an overly friendly neighborhood (or maybe it's just me), to the extent that I have been here 10 years now and don't know the names of the people directly across the street, 2 houses down or the lady catty-corner behind me who comes over every once in a while to see if I have seen one of her cats, all of whom have been here longer than me. Anyhoo, back to the subject at hand. J, the mail carrier, calls to me as DS and I are unloading groceries to tell me that there has been a rash of break-ins in the neighborhood the last month or so. She had her back door kicked in while she and her son were at home getting ready for bed. Other people have had break-ins through the back door while they were at home late evenings. It's apparently a group of older male teens, hopping fences and then taking lawn mowers, bikes or anything of value from the yard and trying to get in the house and grabbing what they can before getting caught, if someone is home. If no one is home, they go through the house to get stuff. So she wanted to warn me. And DS overheard.
Now my kids are 16 and old enough and savvy enough to know that this goes on. They know the people right beside me are drug dealers and are in and out of jail and have no business having the 5 little kids in the house that they do. They know I replaced our flimsy, original, 90+ year-old basement windows with glass block windows when we first moved in because of security issues. They know our doors have deadbolts and multiple locks because of security issues. They know we don't live in the best part of town and have to behave accordingly. But I struggle with wanting to protect them from thinking "oh my gosh, we're going to get broken into tonight!" because odds are, that won't happen. DS especially struggles with feeling safe. As a younger child, for a long time, he was "in charge" of making sure the doors were locked every night because he was afraid someone would break in and "steal one of us." For a long time - and he still might, I haven't checked lately - he slept with a steel crowbar under his bed, just in case. And for several years, since the drug dealers moved in (and they own that house, so they aren't going anywhere - except jail - anytime soon), both he and his sister have been pestering me about getting a gun. Uh, not gonna happen until they go to college at the earliest. Last thing I need is someone hearing a noise and a horrible case of mistaken identity.
Anyhoo (again!), I wish DS hadn't overheard and that he didn't feel the need to share this information with his sister. I have told them that we have multiple locks for a reason, that I am a light sleeper and will definitely hear someone coming over our fence (my bedroom looks out over the backyard and we have a 1-floor house), that the dog next door will bark his head off if someone comes in our yard (he barks at us until we talk to him and he recognizes our voice), that our fence top is spiky and can do damage to a fence hopper, that our fence is in not-the-best shape and will probably crash down and hurt the offender if they try to jump it, AND that I have been praying for many years that God will surround our house with His angel to protect us. I wish I didn't have to explain all this. I wish DS didn't feel the need to give me one of his golf clubs to have by my bed and a hammer on my desk, and to have another golf club by his bed. I wish DD felt able to spend a few early evening hours home alone, and I wish they could go back to sleeping well at night.
I wish I could just reassure them enough that they will feel secure again in their own home and that they could have the bliss of relative ignorance about this. But it will just have to take time, I suppose. And lots of prayer. Prayer for protection and security of house AND mind and prayer that the police will catch whoever is doing this. And mostly prayer that I won't have to "share" again more information about neighborhood goings-on that I would rather the kids not know.
The struggle came up again 2 nights ago in the neighborhood category. I live on a corner, and the lady who lives on the other corner beside me is our mail carrier; thus, she is privy to a lot of what is happening around us that I wouldn't normally know unless she told me. We're not an overly friendly neighborhood (or maybe it's just me), to the extent that I have been here 10 years now and don't know the names of the people directly across the street, 2 houses down or the lady catty-corner behind me who comes over every once in a while to see if I have seen one of her cats, all of whom have been here longer than me. Anyhoo, back to the subject at hand. J, the mail carrier, calls to me as DS and I are unloading groceries to tell me that there has been a rash of break-ins in the neighborhood the last month or so. She had her back door kicked in while she and her son were at home getting ready for bed. Other people have had break-ins through the back door while they were at home late evenings. It's apparently a group of older male teens, hopping fences and then taking lawn mowers, bikes or anything of value from the yard and trying to get in the house and grabbing what they can before getting caught, if someone is home. If no one is home, they go through the house to get stuff. So she wanted to warn me. And DS overheard.
Now my kids are 16 and old enough and savvy enough to know that this goes on. They know the people right beside me are drug dealers and are in and out of jail and have no business having the 5 little kids in the house that they do. They know I replaced our flimsy, original, 90+ year-old basement windows with glass block windows when we first moved in because of security issues. They know our doors have deadbolts and multiple locks because of security issues. They know we don't live in the best part of town and have to behave accordingly. But I struggle with wanting to protect them from thinking "oh my gosh, we're going to get broken into tonight!" because odds are, that won't happen. DS especially struggles with feeling safe. As a younger child, for a long time, he was "in charge" of making sure the doors were locked every night because he was afraid someone would break in and "steal one of us." For a long time - and he still might, I haven't checked lately - he slept with a steel crowbar under his bed, just in case. And for several years, since the drug dealers moved in (and they own that house, so they aren't going anywhere - except jail - anytime soon), both he and his sister have been pestering me about getting a gun. Uh, not gonna happen until they go to college at the earliest. Last thing I need is someone hearing a noise and a horrible case of mistaken identity.
Anyhoo (again!), I wish DS hadn't overheard and that he didn't feel the need to share this information with his sister. I have told them that we have multiple locks for a reason, that I am a light sleeper and will definitely hear someone coming over our fence (my bedroom looks out over the backyard and we have a 1-floor house), that the dog next door will bark his head off if someone comes in our yard (he barks at us until we talk to him and he recognizes our voice), that our fence top is spiky and can do damage to a fence hopper, that our fence is in not-the-best shape and will probably crash down and hurt the offender if they try to jump it, AND that I have been praying for many years that God will surround our house with His angel to protect us. I wish I didn't have to explain all this. I wish DS didn't feel the need to give me one of his golf clubs to have by my bed and a hammer on my desk, and to have another golf club by his bed. I wish DD felt able to spend a few early evening hours home alone, and I wish they could go back to sleeping well at night.
I wish I could just reassure them enough that they will feel secure again in their own home and that they could have the bliss of relative ignorance about this. But it will just have to take time, I suppose. And lots of prayer. Prayer for protection and security of house AND mind and prayer that the police will catch whoever is doing this. And mostly prayer that I won't have to "share" again more information about neighborhood goings-on that I would rather the kids not know.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
To-Do with Teens
Somehow it's already the middle of August, and DS starts to school next week, DD the week after. There were so many things I had wanted to do with the kids this summer. I knew June would be busy, but how did we get here so fast??? :-) And while we've been busy, not much of my original list was accomplished. So I borrowed ideas from 2 people - my friend in Cincinnati and Amy's Finer Things, a bucket list, written out.
I made a list of what I wanted to do the next 4-6 weeks and things I knew were scheduled and called a family meeting. We got the calender off the wall that we never use (I use a day planner on my desk) and started planning. Trip to Amish country - check. Visit to the Ohio History Center - check. Trip to the Neil Armstrong Museum - check. Visit to the root beer stand - scheduled on DS's first day of school. DD gets the trip to the local ice cream stand for her first day. OSU football game with DD - double check! All scheduled and written on specific dates on the now family calendar, where everyone can see and the kids can hold me accountable.
We've done so much since school let out in May - the kids have been to camp, Jamaica, Cincinnati; we've seen Kutless and David Crowder Band in concert, gone to the Ohio State Fair (for the DCB concert), Malabar Farm and Young's Dairy; DD has completed her formal in-car driver's ed and is getting closer to her license and DS has his.....yet it's nice to have a plan on what is coming next. It's also nice to not have to answer the question, what are we doing?, 10 to 12 times each week! In fact, we're headed out the door here in a few minutes to head over to Amish country. I'll never give up my day planner/organizer, but it's good to get back to using the family calendar too.
I made a list of what I wanted to do the next 4-6 weeks and things I knew were scheduled and called a family meeting. We got the calender off the wall that we never use (I use a day planner on my desk) and started planning. Trip to Amish country - check. Visit to the Ohio History Center - check. Trip to the Neil Armstrong Museum - check. Visit to the root beer stand - scheduled on DS's first day of school. DD gets the trip to the local ice cream stand for her first day. OSU football game with DD - double check! All scheduled and written on specific dates on the now family calendar, where everyone can see and the kids can hold me accountable.
We've done so much since school let out in May - the kids have been to camp, Jamaica, Cincinnati; we've seen Kutless and David Crowder Band in concert, gone to the Ohio State Fair (for the DCB concert), Malabar Farm and Young's Dairy; DD has completed her formal in-car driver's ed and is getting closer to her license and DS has his.....yet it's nice to have a plan on what is coming next. It's also nice to not have to answer the question, what are we doing?, 10 to 12 times each week! In fact, we're headed out the door here in a few minutes to head over to Amish country. I'll never give up my day planner/organizer, but it's good to get back to using the family calendar too.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Tuesday Blessings
1. Witnessing an ordination service for our pastor with more than 40 friends in attendance.
2. Having fun with friends and a good talk on the way to the ordination.
3. Rain.
4. A small yard that can be mowed on my lunch hour.
2. Having fun with friends and a good talk on the way to the ordination.
3. Rain.
4. A small yard that can be mowed on my lunch hour.
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