Thursday Beads!

I'm putting up these beads in the Boutique today.  What do you think of the mossy background?  I dug it up from around the roots of the oak tree in our yard and put it in a terracotta saucer.  Let's see if I can keep it alive!

Can't stay and chit chat - Davis' field day is tomorrow (eek!) and I've got shirts to tie-dye!  (procrastinaaaaaation - it's a killer!)  I'm taking pictures of the process to bore you with tomorrow morning.  Am I not thoughtful???  ;-)

Busy Weekend

Elinor is part of a singing group at her elementary school and this past week and the next couple of weeks marks the "busy season" for her. They've had their Concert on The Square last week and yesterday went to the Governor's mansion and sang for Sonny Perdue and guests at the lighting of the Christmas tree on the mansion property. (I'll be scanning the newspaper for photos, as she said there were several journalist taking pictures.)

We made a family outing-type evening of the Concert on The Square, going early to eat pizza and window-shop in all the stores that had holiday expanded hours. We had a blast and took oodles of pictures, of which I've shared the 2 shown above.

Playing Catch Up

I'm feeling much better now. Whew! You know, I was in bed, absolutely miserable, for a whole week! The first day I started to feel human was yesterday (which by the way, was my birthday - wahoo!) and now I'd say I'm 85% recovered.

I've got a lot of work to make up for now that I'm a week behind schedule. So, I'll pop in and update the blog daily but they the posts will be short and sweet so I can spend most of my time torching.

Glad to be back!

Busier Than I'd Like To Be

I think the title says it all, don't you? Yup. Although I am happy to report that today was the last day of the kids' first swimming lesson session of the summer and now we have a few weeks until the second session starts up!

I've only just now gotten to take a breather and try to snap a couple of quick pictures before I have to start dinner. Unfortunately, I'm waaaaaaaay later in the day than normal when trying to get decent pictures and so neither the sun nor my camera were especially cooperative. Grrrr... I guess I'll try again tomorrow morning!!

Yep, Definitely Monday

Now that we've got power again, I'm trying to get a quick update posted - just in case. We had some storms earlier this morning with high winds that downed trees and branches in addition to knocking out the power lines. I was worried, not for myself, but for the box of baby chicks we have that are still using the brooder bulb to help regulate their body temperature. No worries, the chicks are all fine!

The funny thing is that we were more concerned about the storms that passed through this weekend than the ones moving through today and tomorrow. There were reports of hail the size of apples, several tornadoes and a few twister-related deaths in Tennessee - awful!

Anyway, now that I've got a working water heater and am not navigating with a flashlight, I've got a lot of catching up to do so I'd better run!

Can I Have a Break Now?

Whew! It's been a loooong day. It isn't even 4 p.m. and I'm feeling like I could go ahead and go to bed already. I don't even think I'd bother eating supper, just collapse into a boneless pile on top of the bed.

We let the chickens out into the coop yard this morning after it had warmed up a bit. They'd been outside in the coop since Sunday, but confined to the hen house while the cold front rolled through. We actually had SNOW yesterday. It didn't stick, but still. Snow? In Georgia? In April?? If I liked cold weather I wouldn't be living as far south as I do, now would I? If this is what global warming means, color me completely unimpressed. Talk to me about it when I'm wearing Bermuda shorts in February.

So, what did we do that wiped me out so much? Now that I think back, it doesn't seem like a whole lot. The most draining part was dragging the kids from pillar to post, trying to find coordinating clothes for them to wear on Friday. Every Spring, I take the kids to have their picture taken so that I have some photographic evidence of their childhood other than the twice yearly school mugshots they bring home. It's that time of year again, so - shopping we must go! Taking my kids clothes shopping is a lot like trying to herd cats; once you get one going the right direction, the others have veered off course again. It doesn't help that we never find the right thing at the first or second (or third or fourth) store we look in, either. By store six, I had almost completely lost their cooperation and only wrested it back by offering to spring for lunch out if they would stay focused. (Eating out is a big deal to my kids, most likely because I offer to do it so seldom. Why pay someone else to make food I'm perfectly capable of making at home?) Turns out that was the perfect carrot to dangle and we bagged our outfits very soon afterwards. Outfits in hand and with full bellies, we hopped back in the car.

What I didn't tell them was that I also had planned to take them for haircuts before heading home. All four of us got our ears lowered, as a matter of fact. Bwahaha! Because we were walk-ins, we had to sit for quite a while before any of the stylists could get to us. Davis got his usual all-over clipper cut. Tilly had about 2 inches cut, while Elinor had her bangs and dead ends trimmed. I went for the more radical change, adding long layers and cutting about 4 inches off the ends. My head feels about 8 pounds lighter now. Summer hair - I love it!

Tomorrow I'm taking the kids to see Monster Vs. Aliens. They're really looking forward to it and so am I! I think I will go to bed early tonight, so there won't be any chance of my zonking out during the movie...

Nearly 5 P.M.

Yikes - the day has really gotten away from me! But then again, it always goes by quickly on the days I'm running errands and reading at school. I've got tons of stuff still to do, homework to check and dinner to plan and cook, so this sad little fly-by update is gonna have to do it for now!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Back again! Whew - last week was a killer! Between working on orders and trying to get Tilly's class schedule fixed, I haven't had a moment to myself. Word to the wise: Trying to get your kids re-enrolled in school (and in the right classes) after pulling them out to home-school for a year is a royal pain in the tuchis (pronounced "took is". Many thanks to Kate for correcting my poor Yiddish!!) and should not be attempted unless you have a high tolerance for both pain and phone/e-mail tag. What can I say, I'm learning...