Monday, January 31, 2005

Rain rain go away...

It's raining, it's pouring
We've found new leaks this morning,
We went to bed
while the floor got wet
and the temperature was soaring.

Never, never buy an old house. Even with a home inspection that says everything's ok. Do not buy these things unless you have the wherewithal to completely renovate.

We had our attic spaces (all but one) worked on, insulated, roof vents put in, etc. a couple of years ago because of a leak due to ice damming. Now, the same space is pouring with water which is getting under the adjoining floor boards and leaking into our living room in several places. We've got buckets in the attic, buckets in the living room....

The other attic space had been used for storage. It needs a complete renovation. Fortunately we had moved out the majority of our stuff, but it's almost impossible to keep that space cool. Hence, that attic also has many leaks. We thought we had them contained until we found water coming through the drywall ceiling and one of the walls in Kelvin's room.

*sigh*

I've run out of buckets, ice cream pails, and margarine containers. We're having to raid the 3 cup yogourt containers, and that's just depressing. Kelvin's mattress got moved upstairs to the playroom (funny, there's no leaks on the second floor of our 1 1/2 story house...) for now. The roof guys come tomorrow to remove the snow from the valley over the attic with the worst leak (Doug can't reach it with the snow rake). And I'm expecting a call from a renovator/contractor.

And that's all I have to say about that. I hope.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

New Look For Me

Yes!

It is mine, alllllll mine!

Well, OK, technically I just played around with the basic template, and I couldn't have done it on my own to begin with.... so I still have to say a HUGE thank-you to Yvonne....

But I did it!

This is SO me !

I hope you all like it and can still read everything. I still need a new photo of me, but those are hard to come by, and the ones I took of myself were perfectly hideous, so we'll just have to wait until someone takes a decent photo of me. We could be in for a loooooong wait.

Bev, I hope this much change doesn't put you into shock.

Yvonne, I used a "div" command for the heading (in case you were wondering).

Sunday, January 23, 2005

Smartie Pants

I did it! I did it!

I figured out how to change my font size so I can have something large enough to read without looking like I'm shouting. And I did it all by myself!

Well, OK, I had some help from htmlgoodies.com . So much so that I can read the html code on my template and understand most of it. Hence the change in font size. I just learned what a "css" is.

Now, if I can only get myself to the tutorial on backgrounds I might even be able to change the knitting photo - to another knitting photo, of course....

Right,... and I need to take another photo of myself for the sidebar.... since I don't look like that anymore...

Doug thinks I should just go learn this stuff and go to work so he can stay home with the kids... Not likely to happen... I just like the powerful feeling I get from being able to manipulate this stuff. I don't want the pressure of having to develop with it. Takes all the fun out of it.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Learning Curve

Hey, guess what I just found....

It's a website that offers *FREE* primers and tutorials in html. It'll take me awhile to work through it, but at least now I have something to work from. Maybe I'll even get to modifying my own blog....

Gee, Yvonne, what would you do with one less blog to play with?

Well, no reason to panic yet. Let's not get the cart before the horse. First I have to read the stuff, then I have to understand it, then I have to use it, and in order to do that I have to find TIME.

Oh well, if anyone's interested in brushing up on it themselves, I found it here


Monday, January 17, 2005

HTML this!

Waaaaaahooooooo!!!

I couldn't for the life of me get any line breaks in that "wisdom" post. It was terribly frustrating!

So I went and took a look at some of the html code in my template and lo and behold, I figured out how to edit the stuff myself! I didn't even have to put in a call to my webgoddess! Of course, on this post I seem to be missing the buttons that let me pick my font and font size, but then I would just consider that poetic justice for my pride....

That or Murphy's Law...

Help....


Oh wait, there they are... don't ask me what I did, or where I was, but it's all better now...

Yvonne, where can I learn this stuff?

PMS anyone?

Ah hormones, what can't they do?

I've had a much nicer day today. I found time to eat breakfast before taking Matt to school this morning instead of waiting 'til later. I got my laundry washed and the kids' beds cleaned and remade before bedtime. I had supper ready on time. I had most of the supper prep. dishes washed before we sat down to eat. My menu plan was done in the afternoon, and the shopping list ready before 6:00. Doug even suggested that I take off right after supper to do the shopping instead of waiting until the boys were in bed. He'd take care of their baths and play with them. (And he washed up the dishes before I got home, too....)

WOW! I couldn't do that last week. But then last week I had PMS. Not so today. Today I am not superwoman, but I don't feel quite so "out of control".

And no,..... I am not going to start wondering what hormones will bring for me tomorrow.... I'm not done enjoying today, yet.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Oh Wisdom, where art thou?

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
Proverbs 4:7 (NIV)

Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom!
Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding!
Proverbs 4:7 (Message)

My brain is mud. So much of the time I find myself listening to the stuff coming out of my mouth and I hear in my head "What are you doing? Don't you think you're overreacting a bit here?" Yet I don't seem to be able to stop. I know that's not entirely the case - I'm probably buying into some lies here, or at least only partial truths.... but I just feel out of control. I don't understand. I really need some wisdom.

I've spent the last four months or so in a constant state of high stress. I thought things would get better after the women's retreat, but I jumped right into Christmas stress. Now that's done and I thought I might feel better, but I don't. I can't believe how much time I spend feeling this way. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm having panic attacks. It's a strange sensation in the middle of my chest whenever I think about the stuff that isn't done and I can't go to bed until it is. I'm not talking about putting away the laundry, or vacuuming. I mean I can't go to bed until the breakfast table is set (Doug's been doing that one for me lately - thanks honey), and the lunches are made for the next day. There just isn't time in the morning for any of that. It HAS to be done before I can go to bed. And I can't do it until everyone is home so I can get the containers out of the lunchboxes and wash them. It's not a huge job, but I'm sooooo tired most of the time that it's hard to make myself go back downstairs to do it. (I have to wait upstairs until Matt falls asleep).

I'm trying to get to bed at a decent hour, and I even started getting up a bit earlier to do some Pilates until my shoulder/neck started to hurt. I need wisdom. I need understanding. I need to get a grip and stop complaining. And now, I need to go to bed.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Friday, January 07, 2005

What am I....stupid?

Curiosity is a good thing for kids. It may kill the cat, but it's how kids learn. So why do I get so bent out of shape when my kids ask me questions?

Ok, let's be honest now. Matt's questions seem to have an intelligence to them. I can see where he's going. Maybe I just know him better, or naturally connect on a "first-born" level... I don't know...

Kelvin is a bit more foreign to me. I don't know if it's his language issues, his memory issues, or just my desire not to have my every move questioned.... I have trouble answering his questions. Not that I don't know the answers, but they just seem so obvious to me...

So here's my struggle: How do I keep the "what are you, ...stupid?" tone out of my answers?

Yesterday I was getting lunch ready. We were having the fresh bread from the breadmaker that morning. As I went to get it Kel asks "Can we have french bread?" I said: "No, we don't have any french bread. We're having this bread."

K: "Can we make french bread with that?"
me: "No, french bread is it's own kind of bread. You can't make it with another kind of bread."
me: (thinking that maybe he's got the wrong word....) "Do you mean french toast?"
K: "yeah, french toast."
me: "I don't make french toast, Daddy does"
K: "But you used to make it all the time!"
me: (getting really confused now, since I NEVER make french toast... What do I make sometimes....?) "Do you mean grilled cheese sandwiches?"
K: "yeah, can we have that?"
me: " I'll check to see if we have some cheese...."

*sigh* Ok, so that was a case of him not knowing the right word, but how DO you react when someone asks you if you can make french bread out of another kind of bread?

What about when they ask you where Daddy is when he's in another part of the house? Sorry, but I'm usually a bit snotty when I tell them I can't see through walls, why don't they go look for themselves. Hmmm.... maybe part of my problem is that I see an underlying laziness in my kids to search things out for themselves. They just want to be handed the answers, not actually work for them. Not that there's anything wrong with asking a question when you don't know something. I find it a good trait in my babysitters when they page me to ask how to deal with something.

So perhaps I need to find a balance. I don't want to stifle their curiosity. Sometimes I want to stimulate it. I guess I need to work on my responses in order to get the result I'm after. A "what are you.... stupid?" tone will shut them down and that's definitely NOT what I'm after. I want them to ask questions, but I also want them to work for their answers, and think about their questions. Why are they asking me things I can't possibly know? Why don't they know that I can't possibly know that?

I guess I just need to deal with my own irritations, and be prepared with a pleasant tone when they occur. Yeah, be prepared. After all, what am I... stupid?