Waffles

for breakfast on a chilly morning.
Made with real vanilla, courtesy of our friend the Mexican Flight Attendant Guy.
Made with whole milk, ’cause I’m picky.
Made with fresh-ground cinnamon.
Made with eggs from our own chickens (FINALLY)!
Yum!

Zombieland

OK, I’m not tech enough to do the link myself, but if you go to imdb.com, type in “Zombieland” and look at photo 39 (of 53), you’ll see Woody Harrelson and some guy named Jesse Eisenberg walking down the main street of OUR TOWN!! Whoot! (We cleaned up the trashed cars and tanks after they finished filming, so it’s quite nice now, actually.)

Then There’s the Cost of Ingredients…

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Tick, Tick, Tick…

Classes went very well yesterday. Since Mr Wonderful’s school is under water, he accompanied me and critiqued my teaching style. We also got to hear from the Robotics teacher, who used to be on the team that developed the Minuteman missiles. Talk about a dangerous job- it made teaching English seem all the more a cakewalk!

Sadly, los kiddos did not do well whilst Mr Wonderful and I taught. #2 was in charge, and somehow #1 rebelled so much that she slammed a drinking glass onto the table and broke it. Last night, whilst I was budgeting like a madwoman, she also gave a half-hearted attempt at her chore, washing dinner dishes. They are now her chore again, along with the breakfast dishes.

#1 was in pajamas when Mr Wonderful and I arrived home at 4 pm, in spite of reading the instructions I left to the contrary and hearing me spank #3 for the same infraction last week. Sadly for #1, Mr Wonderful was home to dole out the spanking this week- his arm is more than mine, to put it mildly.

#1 obviously needs Mom Time. I’m thankful I have a lot of chores to accomplish today, so she can be at my side.

As you can see, my internal clock is off a bit, too. I was exhausted by 7 pm and fell asleep until 2 a.m. That means #1’s Mom Time from 7-noon will be with a Certified Grouch. All the more incentive for her to learn good behavior and learn to avoid this particular brand of Mom Time.

Today’s chores include doing the monthly grocery shopping, cooking and portioning a turkey and a ham (and possibly a beef roast, depending on prices).

By God’s grace, we are halfway through our school year today. We will be taking next week to deep-clean and organize. Since the yard sale, there are 3 types of books in the house: 1.Keepers 2.Paperbackswap fodder and 3.AmazonUsed fodder. Must input ISBNs, donchaknow.

Other chores include prepping next week’s English classes and reading The Scarlet Letter, laundry, 3 meals, weedeating, vacuuming, and straightening up piles of paperwork and such around the house.

If you think of it, please pray Mr Wonderful (we expect him to have a dry school to return to on Monday) will get the Chicken Situation resolved today. He and I found a note on the front door yesterday: “Please come get your chickens out of my yard” from a lady two doors down. A couple of days ago, when Mr Wonderful was home, he had to retrieve the chickens from next door when the timid teenager couldn’t get onto her porch after work.

I do NOT want to be home next week fending of (rightfully) angry neighbors whilst Mr Wonderful, Mr “The Chickens Will Give us a Dozen Eggs a Day by September” (they haven’t laid 1 yet) is 2 counties away.

Oh- and have a good weekend!

jk

Went to visit a friend’s blog site, and she’s got Romans 12:1-2 posted. Hmm, thought I, wonder why more folks don’t include Romans 12:3?

I learned it in NIV, BTW: “As God’s messenger I give you God’s warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.”

Well, pat I upon mine own back, I think I’m a fairly faith-filled woman. (Being careful to credit the Lord with giving me said faith, of course!)

Faithful as He is, another verse sprang to mind, Matthew 17:20: “And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.”

My conclusion must be, since I can’t move a mountain (I tried it with the chicken coop this morning, which is the closest thing we have to a mountain around the Chick household, unless you count Mr Wonderful, who is sleeping so peacefully I didn’t like to try moving him), my faith must be very small, indeed!

Best use those hands in more productive ways than patting myself on the back, eh?

La Cat

It occurs to me that we have a Fine Cat, something to be thankful for.
Her Impressionist coloring pleases the various Francophones around the house, myself included.
She only approaches me for one reason: food. In this, she is usually quite polite: if I choose to pretend we are going to delay her mealtime, she will play along for as much as 10 minutes. During this time, petting is acceptable and even reciprocated.
We have a rule in the JerseyChick household: if La Cat meows, you must take your hands off of her. As Alpha female, I retain the perogative to use those last seconds of hand-time to throw her out the back door, but all other Chick Household Critters simply drop her. Because this rule is mutually satisfactory, La Cat has never scratched company, even irritating 2-year-olds.
La Cat has never scratched the toilet paper or curtains. She eschews, but never chews, the new furniture. She has created her own pet door in a corner of the screen leading to the back porch, but that was more ingenuity than malice.
Many creatures around the Chick household would do well to emulate some of these characteristics, IMHO.

Water, Water Everywhere

We’ve been known to panic a little over the weather down here in the South. When I lived in Orlando, a tropical storm was cause to stand in line at a grocery store for 2 hours in order to buy flashlight batteries and a loaf of bread.

The local homeschool co-op, 2 years ago, cancelled classes because snow was predicted. (It didn’t fall.)

Today is the most amazing, however. Mr Wonderful’s school was shut down for possible flooding. Mr Wonderful happily rolled over and went back to sleep.

However, I just checked yahoo!news- in that school district, a man drowned this morning as his car was swept into water by the flooding.

Mea culpa, Douglas County- thanks for keeping my hubby safe!!

Recovery

It has become apparent that we at the JerseyChick household need to take the weekend off.

The local sports league is having a sputtering start for football, and it seems the first game (Saturday) will be rained out. #2 will either cheer during basketball season instead, or we’ll try to get better info next week.

There is a headache, fever, and congestion going around our peeps, and since I am showing those symptoms, Mr Wonderfully has assigned me an early bedtime until I look and feel rested. Not that my being strung-out and stressed affects the rest of the family, mind you- I’m sure I keep the tiredness well hidden. Really.

Thus, no AWANA conference again this year.

This week and next are Science and History midterms at our homeschool. The need for time off has been building for a while, so a week off entirely from school will happily follow.

There are only a few ‘needs” outstanding, then: Grade English essays. Plan essay-writing lessons. Cook & do dishes. Direct los kiddos in finishing the laundry. Call Mom.

And two “wants”: I want to own a pair of jeans that fit, and I want to buy $100 worth of meat with the extra cash we got this week. Odd, yes, but still true.

Have a great weekend!

That was Then…

Mr Wonderful asked me about a buddy I just caught up with on Facebook. The guy’s name is Joey, and he’s been in and out of my life for a couple of decades now. Not as close as a brother-sister, more like cousins….

Mr Wonderful promptly fell asleep after my answer, but now I’m trying to piece together my past. I truly don’t remember it, you see. If I begin to ramble, feel free to doze off!

I met Joey at Auburn (Alabama) about my senior year of college. I was not a Christian, he was. He introduced me to his friend Danny, and we talked a lot about religion and philosophy. Both of them tried to convince me to become a Christian. (Pretty amazing, considering Danny was Jewish at the time.) Joey was dating a girl named Theresa that year.

My graduation was set for June 3 (1986?), and I was planning to marry a guy in the Air Force on June 4. He was flying in from Belgium, where he was stationed. My car insurance policy lapsed around May 15, and I didn’t bother to renew it.

About May 20, I got into a major accident where I demolished another car. It was owned by the daughter of a state trooper. He called a couple of days later to let me know that, if I didn’t make good on the cost of her car, he was going to have me put in jail.

That night, I put everything I thought absolutely necessary into a backpack and caught a flight for Belgium under an assumed name. I called Joey to give me a ride to the airport and told him he could use my car as long as he kept up the payments on it. He was living and working in Auburn, so a car was a happy convenience for him.

When I realized the guy in Belgium wouldn’t make me a very good husband, I snuck back into the States, caught a bus into Auburn, showed up at the shoe store where Joey worked, and told him I needed my car back. He handed me the keys and I moved to Orlando, Florida.

As far as I knew, there was a warrant out for me in Alabama.

I got a job in Orlando and lived with my mom and paid off student debts. Then I heard about some friend getting married back in Auburn, and I went to the wedding. I stayed with Joey’s ex-girlfriend, Theresa, and became a Christian. On the way back to Florida I visited RootieToot. That would’ve been 1988.

(I definitely became a Christian 8/18/1988. I definitely got a degree from Auburn University in December, 1987.)

Back in Orlando, I was attending a great Bible study and got to know a guy who had a friend in the (car) insurance business. “I’d love to know if there’s still a warrant out on me”, I admitted. They checked- no warrant.

Somewhere in those months/years (I really don’t know which), I had paid off the state trooper’s daughter’s car, BTW.

Just about that time (1990?), Joey joined the Navy and they stationed him in Orlando. I don’t know how I found out he was there, but I invited him to Bible study. I’m sure I picked him up at the base- wouldn’t it have been ironic if it were in the same car? Maybe it was, I don’t remember.

Then Joey decided the Navy was not the right career for him, and went to South Carolina to attend a seminary. Now he’s married to a fine lady named Mechelle, and does HVAC work. I *think* I went to Joey and Mechelle’s wedding. Was it their wedding where I became a Christian? I’d say yes, except that I seem to remember him being single in Orlando.

Did he finish seminary? Dunno. We lost touch when Danny tried to tell me I’m not a Christian. Are Joey and Danny still close? Dunno. I’m trying to remember why Danny was so sure I hadn’t actually become a Christian…. It would’ve been around 1991 or 1992…

In 1994, I met Mr Wonderful; we got married in 1996, and life got hectic…Now, 2009, here’s Joey on Facebook!

I’m actually kind of looking forward to Alzheimer’s, in the hope that some of this stuff will come back into my memory. There’s a ton of garbage from my first 25 years I’d like to be sure are permanently forgotten, though, so maybe Alzheimer’s isn’t such a good idea. (Like I have a choice…)

Meanwhile, I have to be up in 8 hours for class. Goodnight!

Country Stream (of Consciousness)

Hoorah! I didn’t miss the AWANA conference after all! (Mr Wonderful was supervising detention at his school last Saturday, and so wasn’t available to take #2 to cheerleading practice.) Saturday, 7:20 a.m., I’ll be climbing aboard a bus to get more training on how to help young teens in the AWANA program- I am glad!

Meanwhile, tonight is Mom’s Night Out. I wonder if it’s too late to call my friend Tracy and invite her?

We invited our new neighbors to Celebration Sunday at our church last weekend. Since our schedules don’t seem to mesh, we left a note on their door about 4 days previous to the event. No call, no reply, no show. Mr Wonderful says he thinks they may be a little “High Cotton” for us- meaning we’re a little too Country (to put it politely) or not sophisticated enough for them to feel comfortable around us.

Bummer- they missed some serious good bluegrass/old-time hymn sing, fried chicken, and good, clean fun!

As a student of history, I also get to laugh a little at how things change, even lifestyle fashions. There are times when “sophisticated”, “modern” and “city style” are compliments. There are times when “natural”, “country”, and “relaxed” are compliments. I’ve seen both, lived both, and don’t feel like someone is insulting me personally when they prefer one or the other.

Now, there’s food for thought: When we choose, do we feel insulted when people we like/love choose differently? How big a difference does it have to be before we squeak (at least inside) a protest?

I’m so proud of Nettie, who let her daughter get a shorter haircut- it really looks good, Nettie!- because my #1 kiddo, who has always prided herself on looking “just like Mom” (readL brunette curls), just mentioned that she’s like to dye her hair blonde someday, and it shook me.

Freaked my mom out when I talked about having the Goth and Alternative Christian girls from our town over for a Bible study. “As long as your own kids are already in bed- you don’t want them around That”, was her caution. Um, around polite young ladies who want to come to my house to study the Bible?

Now, folks who think it’s funny to tease my girls with, “Don’t you have a boyfriend yet”? I’m gonna squeak.

When do you squeak?