Blizzard

Last night, my oldest daughter spent the night. Her two boys were already here as I was watching them all week during Christmas vacation. They live in Marion, about 45 miles to the west. It had misted and sprinkled during the day and then decided to freeze so it was slipperier than snot. She doesn't get off work til 6:30pm so when the weather is bad, she spends the night. We were supposed to get a huge blizzard today on top of the ice. Winds were supposed to be bad and the temps were to drop to somewhere around 30 below zero. Her husband called this morning and said if she wanted to get home, to pack up the boys and head out so they could make it before the storm. She was probably around 7 miles out of her town when it turned into almost white out conditions, but thank the Lord, they made it home safely.

We did get the blizzard. My goodness did it snow! Haven't heard how many inches but it really came down. I don't think we got anywhere near what they said we were going to get though. I was disappointed. I was hoping we'd get two feet. Of course, my husband wouldn't have liked that at all. Our snowblower won't stay running so he is having to shovel by hand. After he did our place, he went to my sister's and shoveled her out.

Me....I sat in the computer room all day and watched a movie - Young Victoria. I love period pieces. I thought it was good. Now tonight, I am going to sit here an watch a mini-series that I bought a while back and never got around to watching - John Adams. I love history so I think this will be good - at least I hope so. My son is going to fix supper (yay!!!!) so I am just going to sit here and enjoy myself - until I have to go clean up the mess he will leave in the kitchen!

Christmas Break

It has been quite the week. The kids have all been out of school for Christmas break (a total of 8 school days plus 2 weekends). Needless to say, (That really is an odd phrase, isn't it? So, why do we say anything when we have just said it was needless to do so?).....anyway, back on track....5 of my grandchildren have been at my house for this break from school. The oldest is an 11 year old girl who will be 12 in January and acts like she's 16 in the "mouth/attitude" arena, and 2-3 when it comes to her cousins and little brother. Then there are two 8 year old boys - both have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and one of them also has ODD (oppositional defiance disorder). - (my opinion is that all 5 act like they have both, at times). Next, there is the 5 year old boy who is an Indiana Jones JUNKIE, and finally a 4 year old boy. That makes one girl, and four boys in one tiny house, during the winter, all day long, with nothing to do except fight and bicker when they are not watching movies or playing Nintendo DS.



It's hard to entertain kids nowadays. When I was a kid, we didn't have things like computers, cell phones, IPODs, Nintendo, XBox, Playstation, or any of the stuff they have today. We had to make our own fun. (And this topic can be reserved another day!) It's even worse when you have a tween girl standing very precariously on the precipice of puberty. Let's just say she is pre-PMSing. I remember this sweet adorable little child who totally had my heart and now I look at this girl, who can be sweet when she wants, funny, helpful, and totally amazing, and then turn into this.......thing.......that I don't even recognize. And guess when it happens - for the most part, when she is around her cousins - all boys.



So, we have had a week of electronic games, Home Alone 1, 2, 3, 4, Despicable Me, Toy Story 3, building forts inside the house and outside in the snow, playing box games (like monopoly, etc.) and special agent forces with them chasing each other through my little house with nerf guns and the like. Total chaos, laughter, and tears (when they decide to pound each other).



Me....I have sat at the kitchen table with my lap top inbetween cleaning the kitchen, picking up, fixing meals, doing laundry, and all the other endless things that need to be done. I even mended a coat for one of the boys because their St. Bernard had ripped holes in it and tore both of the sides open, mended two gloves, hot glued a ribbon on a "Indiana Jones" hat so it wouldn't keep falling off, duct taped a play shotgun that broke in half, and super glued one of the tail fins on a helicopter.



Such is the sweet life of a grandma.

Bleh

I am sick. Started getting a cold on Saturday (Christmas Day) afternoon. By Sunday evening, I felt like I had been hit by a tsunami. Chills so bad that heating pads set on "high" wouldn't even dent. I was even covered up with a fleece blanket besides and wearing sweats! Body aches, horrible sneezing, headache. At 1:30am I woke up to this awful "whoo, whoo" of both of my tmjs' throbbing. Such a weird feeling. I've never experienced that before. Shooting pains - yes, but not throbbing like I had a heartbeat in each joint. I got up and took 3 Ibuprofen. When I got up this morning, I felt awful but at least the chills and body aches were gone.

They returned this afternoon and have gotten progressively worse, only to bring new cold symptoms along with the old ones- hurting ears, sore throat. Even my gums hurt! I don't think I have ever had a cold (at least not one that I can remember) where the original bad aches and chills returned for a second day. So, I have been sitting here on the lap top (when I should be in bed), with two heating pads draped over my body. Actually, I don't think I will sleep in bed again tonight either. Would just as soon stay away from that close of proximity to my husband in the hopes he doesn't catch it. He hasn't been at his new job long enough to build up sick or vacation time. No workee - no payee. Since we are a one income family, that can be disastrous.

Interestingly, I have 5 of my 6 grandchildren all week as well (4 boys, 1 girl) for Christmas vacation. Needless to say, all they have done today is fight and bicker, yell, and cause chaos. It truly is hard to take care of kids (ages 4 to 12) when you are sick. Add the age of "going on 59" to the equation and poor health and it gets a whole lot tougher. Love to have them - just not all at the same time.

I can safely say that I am "feeling more than my age".

Christmas Eve 2010

What a day. I've had better Christmases. Why does everything bad happen at one time? The old saying, "When it rains it pours" is so true. Seems like it's just one bad thing after another. I'm beginning to feel like Job - or at least my son probably does. Poor Job lost everything - all his family (except for his nag of a wife), and all his possessions just because satan told God that Job would curse him if he (satan) did anything to him. God, of course, knowing all things, and knowing Job, knew Job would never do such a thing, but God needed to prove to satan that Job was a bigger man than he (satan) thought. Anyway, I'm off track here - Job's servants kept coming back and telling Job that he had lost this, then they came and told him he had lost that, and then lost his family, etc. etc. and not one time did Job curse God. Good for you, Job! Well, I feel like my son is Job right now although he doesn't recognize that perhaps all these trials that he keeps going through just MIGHT be brought on by God to teach him something. The problem here is that his poor mother (me) suffers right along with him and gets just as depressed. I'm such a "what if" person. I hate that. I want to be able to take my burdens to the Lord and LEAVE them at His feet. Instead, I tell Him what's wrong (as if He doesn't know already) and then I get up, pick up my sack of burdens, and walk away still carrying the heavy load.

Perhaps God is trying to teach ME something?

Dehydration

Honeyville farms has a great giveaway going right now. I just found out about it today. I love to dehydrate and it looks like they have some great tips and things on their blog.

Christmas Goodies

Friday night (Dec. 10), I procrastinated. I needed a new spritz cookie maker as my old one was broken. Why I decided to make spritz cookies and fudge this year after not baking for years and years for Christmas, is beyond me, but I just HAD to have a new spritzer. I went to two stores and neither of them had one so I gave up and went home, all the while thinking that I had the whole evening ahead of me and I could just as easily get out and go look for one. Instead, I sat in the recliner and did nothing. When I woke up about 4am to go to the bathroom, I thought it was awfully light in the house - not really dark at all. Needless to say, there was a blizzard and the snow was reflecting in the windows. I went back to bed.

When I got up, I got cleaned up and just had to get out in the bitter cold, wind, and snow to see if I could find a spritz cookie maker so I went to Walmart. They didn't have one, so I got the stuff to make fudge and then came home. I made two batches - one with walnuts and one without. I messed up the first batch with the walnuts. I put in 3 sticks of butter instead of 1 1/2. I really didn't think it would set up but it did and tastes wonderful. Both batches are in the freezer. Now if I could just stay out of it until Christmas! I'm not succeeding very well. On Monday morning, I went to Ace Hardware and they had a really nice spritzer so I bought it, along with a new snow shovel because my husband broke ours on Sunday. I came home and made two batches of spritz cookies. Currently, they are in containers in my closet since I haven't managed to walk them downstairs and put them in the freezer yet. I guess because I am afraid that my son and grandson will be sneaking them out of the freezer and come Christmas, I will take the containers out of the freezer and they will be empty. Still want to make some homemade carmel corn out of the puff corn but plan on waiting on that because if I do make it, I KNOW that I will eat it all up before Christmas gets here.

Today, I didn't do a thing but sit in the recliner all day. It was so nice. I haven't had a day like that as long as I can remember. I think I may try and bake some interesting breads on Saturday for the holidays. Hmmmm......now I just need to find some really yummy ones.

Sunday

It's 3 below zero (22 below with the windchill). I hope my car starts. My husband is parked behind me so I hope his truck starts so he can move it. (a couple of minutes pass.....) Well my car started. Thank you Lord! I have to pick up my granddaughter for Sunday School. They have their Christmas program tonight and they usually practice during part of the class.

The sun is supposed to come out today but be very cold. Another good day to stay home. However, it IS Sunday. It is the Lord's day and so I will bundle myself up and venture out into the bitter weather so that I can go to church, worship the Lord, and fellowship with other believers. Is there really any better life?

New Blog Name

Well, I managed to come up with a new name for my blog. Since I love fabric, love quilts, and love to quilt, I thought it needed to have something to do with quilts in the name. I have a lot of fabric. I had lots of scrap fabric. At one time, I sat for what seemed like weeks, cutting all my scrap fabric into useable squares - ready to use. Since our lives are like scraps of fabric that God stitches together, it just seemed fitting to use the idea in my blog. My family, my trials, my joys, successess, and failures are like the scraps of fabric in my scrapbag. God is taking all of those scraps to create something beautiful for His glory.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Brrrrrr!!!! It is bitter cold outside! Last week, we had a couple of days that were in the high 40's. One day it was 48 and it's December. Well, winter has arrived. Some time during the night, the wind picked up and swirling white stuff - called snow - decided to descend on the midwest. It was white-out conditions today. I don't know what the "official" total of inches of snow we got but we had more than 8 inches in our yard. Tomorrow, it is supposed to be 30 below windchill!

Mallory has her Christmas program at church tomorrow night. I wonder if it will be cancelled. They cancelled practice today because of the weather. I doubt that church will be cancelled though. I can't remember that ever happening. Of course now, our church is out in the middle of a field off of a highway and there are no windbreaks. Should be a right chilly morn tomorrow! I'm not even going to Marion to pick up Jamison and Jaxson. I'm sure all the country roads will be drifted in. I will have to drive to Baltic to pick up Noah after church though. I should have kept him home this weekend, knowing that the weather was going to turn nasty. Just didn't expect it to get as bad as it did.

Still trying to come up with a new name for my blog. Wish I could think of something clever..........