To Boldly Go . . .

That iconic split infinitive has been such a part of my families' lives over the years . . . .

I remember watching Star Trek on a color TV with my Dad on WESH during its first run, and then a few years later on WTOG 44 in syndication.  As a matter of fact, my Dad insisted on a color TV as soon as we could afford it just to watch Star Trek in color!  In the years between its original run and reemergence as reruns, my parents had some difficult times. Daddy had to spend some time in the hospital as doctors tried to regulate his medication for his epilepsy. Moma and I would watch the reruns every night (on our little b & w tv) at 7:00.  She would pop some popcorn, and we would spend that hour together.  It was a means of coping with Daddy's absence. It was just a couple of months, but it seemed like forever. 

Fast forwarding many years to the point where Columbia House was producing the 2-episode VHS tapes, my Dad decided that since I would be foolish enough to try to purchase those, he had better make me my own set. He videotaped every one of the original episodes for me, writing down the episode title and the "star date" Captain Kirk mentions! I still have those precious recordings. He would be amazed that now you can buy all three seasons for what two episodes would have cost back in the day.

 Yes, our color TV's were always these major "cabinet"- jobs.  They were major pieces of furniture,weren't they?

If I have time this week, I will sit down and enjoy some more Trekkie things--fortunately for me, there are three other ENTHUSIASTIC Trekkies in the house, and 1 who loves me enough to go along with it anyway. 

Happy Golden Anniversary, Captain Kirk!

A Happy Kitchen

Yesterday was a great day in terms of accomplishments around the house.  My pantry has been getting me down these last few months, and I just couldn't get it together to clean it out the way it needed to be.  Friday afternoon, I came home after my classes and cleaned it out.  I had cans that had expired 4 years ago! Everything that was suspect was ditched or save for the outside dogs (who will eat anything with relish). It felt wasteful to toss things, but it is more wasteful to keep the space occupied with things we can't safely eat.  Everything was getting lost in the chaos of the cluttered environment. My long term motivation was to clean the thing out so that I can better plan and prepare meals for the family. My short term motivation was that hubby was going to take me to Kroger where our dollars stretch sooooooo much further!  I had been looking forward to that for some time. I got to know Kroger when we lived in TN.  Their prices are really outstanding--much better than Wally -World; and their store brands are always great. The bread box you see in the photograph was part of hubby's mother' s collection. We are blessed to have her canisters and bread box as part of our kitchen.  As you can see, there is Sunbeam bread--dear daughter's favorite. Bagels, peanut butter and Rama-noodles are all present and accounted for. I bought the Sunbeam for little more than the store brands here in town. Same thing with the bagels.  Our oven has passed on to its reward, and we are making do without one for a while. So a lot of the meal planning has to be around non-baked items. This planning has been much easier since I purged and organized the pantry.

Another source of saving is purchasing my household cleaning supplies through Grove Collaborative. (I still get my detergent, dish soap and fabric softener at Sam's or WW).  At Grove, the prices are really, really good. Free shipping is available, and they are always helping with little discounts here and there. They only sell those products that are environmentally safe--I have used bleach and comet for so long--I thought I would try something a little less harsh. I have loved using these products. They can be pricey in the grocery stores, but through Grove, the prices are comparable to any other product. Plus, they smell so nice and clean. Yesterday, I cleaned the sink and counters til they sparkled. The happy scent of lemon verbena was everywhere.

A Different Kind of Day

No, this isn't me or my house, but it's an idea! Ha ha!

Today, I am home doing housework and some schoolwork. It has been really nice. I am working in our bedroom and on laundry. I left that big box of pressure back in my office.

When I get some more things done, I might just sit down and try to finish that afghan.

Great News!

Our family has some wonderful news to share!  DS 2, our precious middle-born sweetheart, has landed a part-time job (paying!) at the University's library!  This is marvelous for many reasons: he wants to be a librarian and hopes to go to library school next year. This job will surely help with that all the way around. He loves being in the library, and has in fact, grown up there. Important to mom's heart is the fact that this job opportunity will boost his sense of purpose and identity. It is an answer to prayer beyond human measure or description. He will be a blessing to the ladies in the library, I am sure. He can be the go-to student worker for shelving the high stuff!

Thank you, Miss J, for your prayers. 

A Good Day . . . Making Progress

When you see this picture on my blog posts, you know I have just had a great day getting some housework done.  With the back-in-school schedule (five different ones, to be exact) in full force, we haven't had much time to work on long range projects. DS 2's room is beautiful (and we worked on vacuuming, dusting and steaming it yesterday).  He continues to enjoy it, and has done a GREAT job keeping it clean.  It is his brown, blue and gold haven. The other day when he was at school, I stretched out the afghan to see how much it likes being large enough. A few more rounds to go, I am afraid. I did buy to more skeins of the Heartland "Big Bend" color pictured below. Each of the colors in this Lion Brand series is a beautiful blend into itself. See the variations of brown in this one? Anyway, I am going to do about a 4 or 5 row border in this color to finish it out. He has a new brown comforter, and this will be the perfect addition to the look. 

DS 1's room has remained a mess downstairs. The room is an unfinished basement room.  It has studs, and DH has been working on adding the paneling. One wall is concrete block, and we had to get a special masonry paint to use.  I started painting yesterday with my roller brush and saw very quickly it wasn't going to work at all. I asked hubby to run up to the hardware store to get a brush for that particular surface. He brought back the PERFECT roller brush and another regular brush for the nooks and crannies. It took an entire can of paint to do the wall, but I had enough to finish. I think another coat would be beautiful, but we will stick with this one. It is a pretty sage green. The paneling is the standard warm brown, and I plan to use forest green to decorate.  I have started an afghan for him that should be done when it starts to get cooler. This picture doesn't capture the beauty of the color. It is called "forest heather." It is a wool/acrylic blend and will help keep him warm in the winter.

Michael put up most of the paneling that was left to be done yesterday after I finished painting. The boys moved some of the heavy furniture pieces into place. One of DS 1's friends gave him a desk the size of Rhode Island. The miracle was that we were able to get it in the basement.  Be that as it may, the desk is now in place with a lamp on it that we have had for some time that is the same color as the walls. It looks so good. I washed clothes like a crazy woman yesterday and got all of the bed clothes cleaned from pillows to pillowcases, blankets, sheets and mattress pads. His home-made book shelves (bricks and planks) covers one entire wall. He loves that. 

The room is far from finished, but we made a lot of progress yesterday. He has a good place to sleep, read, and study that is his. DS 2 has his own space.  They shared a room for over 20 years, and never had any "get along" problems, but I think they are enjoying having their own space. They still spend a lot of time together, and that makes me happy. 

Last night, after all the hammering, washing, folding and painting, we sat down to our Saturday night supper.  This time, although we had planned on a western, we watched our "go-to" favorite, The Andy Griffith Show. That was just what we needed. I love to hear everyone laughing out loud.

Hope your Saturday was lovely, too!

Kids Are SO Funny

Our children never cease to amaze me. Now, they are 17, 21 and 22.  All are in college (the 17 year old is primarily completing her senior year of high school), but we have the BLESSING of them all still living at home. We spend a lot of time together at home, church and school. But despite all of this familiarity, they sometimes still surprise me.  In Bible school this year, we had LOTS of juice drinks--Sunny D's and Capri Suns.   I don't usually get these things because I think of them as younger kids' drinks, and I usually like to get Hawaiian Punch.  We had some Capri Suns left over--tons of them, in fact. Our "kids" have relished having those to drink after Church.  Since they enjoyed them so much, I decided to get some for the fridge here at home. Our local grocery store had them at $3.49 or so the other day. At that price, we needed to drink them carefully and sparingly. But I thought I could find them cheaper elsewhere. We happened to stop by Kroger the other day and lo and behold, they were $1. 49   a pack--all of the flavors.  I loaded up the cart, and there are 3 very happily hydrated young adults in our home!  Haha!  I love it. They act like those little pouches of juice are the latest, greatest thing since TANG! They sit around and talk about which flavors are the best, and we have speculated that some of the flavors are marketed toward certain regions ("mountain cooler" and "pacific cooler"). This is the greatest thing!  I have trouble getting Dear Daughter to drink enough.  Dear Son 2 is trying to cut back on his diet Dr. Pepper habit, and Dear Son 1 doesn't drink nearly enough either. I am so tickled.

Good Night, Martha.

 

I love this painting of George and Martha Washington. The children are most likely grandchildren. I chose this picture not only because it is so lovely, but because it seems to capture the beauty of life--family, home and time spent together. This week has been a whirlwind--I am so behind in EVERYTHING; as we used to say, "it is not even funny." 

But, DS2 and I have had a great night working through a Bible study together (Rod and Staff) and then playing a game.  DD practiced her piano, and I am not sure what DS1 is doing--probably homework. I had probably an entire hour today  with him, and we were able to talk about so many things--nothing important except the time together. Hubby is reading. Bedtime is near. Tomorrow, I will probably be even further behind than I am today, but Martha encourages me! Did you know that she went to winter quarters (during the Revolution) with General George Washington anytime she could?  She mended and sewed for the men, and her motherly presence was a balm to all. 

Wishing you all a good night's rest and a peaceful day tomorrow.