Pushing the Limits of Poor Planning

With the two youngest in tow, I ventured out into yesterday's frigid morning to run my errands. I knew that I was quite low on gas but never imagined HOW low my reserve was. With snow crunching under the tires, I drove to the end of our gravel road. As I turned my left indicator on, I began to feel the engine losing some power, like it wanted to stall. "I'm gonna run out of gas....." was my thought as I quickly made the left hand turn onto State Road (Witch Spring Rd). I prayed that I would make it to the New Meadows Market about a mile away. The thought of walking back to the house in the bitter cold with an eight and four year old was not very appealing. I was relieved as the gas station came into view. With brakes applied, I neared the middle pump. I was preparing to come to a complete stop but as it turned out, there was no need. As the van's gas tank came parallel to the pump nozzle my engine gave one last gasp and stalled. "No way....That's funny..... It would not have been funny a minute ago, but it is now." I'm quite sure God has a sense of humor.

Winter Blitz and Worn Bearings

I've finally uploaded my photos from Winter Blitz to Facebook. I took them with my new iPhone app, Hipstamatic, that my photographer friend Chris Fawkes alerted me to. It's been interesting switching between the films and lenses to find the different effects. I found that I like photographing subjects close up with the "accidental photo" feel that it gives. That is quite appropriate, as any of these photos that came out well were almost completely by accident!

Winter Blitz, is a kid's weekend retreat at Camp Good News that Jim and I look forward to each year. We enjoy the investment into the lives of the children and of course the shared laughter with friends that we don't see nearly enough. Jubal and Nolan have been many times but this was Atira's first year. She loved it! Tell stayed back home and hardly missed us, relishing having his Mimi (my Mom) to himself.

Our van had been making increasingly loud clunking and rattling sounds so we thought it best not to use it make the trip up to Camp for the weekend. As it turns out, it was a very wise choice. We picked it up tonight after leaving it at the garage for repairs and not only were the wheel bearings on both sides VERY dangerously worn but the brakes are working much nicer also!

What time is it?

5 am came early this morning as I awoke to a pounding sound in the darkness. With disheveled hair and clad in my Bean flannel nightshirt I opened up the front door to find a very apologetic police officer who was going house to house attempting to find the residence from which a hang up 911 cell phone call came from. After informing him that it did not belong to us, I verbally helped him find his way through the maze of our dirt road to our two neighbors. (He could have walked there in 30 seconds but if you're going to drive, assistance is helpful.) He apologized again for waking me but I assured him that I have no trouble going right back to sleep, which I did until the alarm woke me up at 6:30. I shut that annoyance off and was up by 8 to begin packing for Winter Blitz. With two hours to spare, all that's left is to run to Wal-mart and pick up some toothpaste and shampoo!

Cake, Finally!

Nolan turned 11 on Tuesday, but due to all the snow we've had, we postponed his party until this evening. He chose China Rose for his birthday supper with Dad and then came home to enjoy a Lego cake made by Mom. Tomorrow afternoon, it's up to CGN for the weekend Winter Blitz. This translates into frantic laundering and packing in the morning.

Pared and Bared

With all this snow and an impassable drive, my schedule has been significantly pared this week. This allowed me time to finally finish my first book of the year, Pride and Prejudice. I anticipated completing it last week but neglected to calculate all the NFL playoff games into the equation. At the same time, the weather has kept me from the grocery store and the cupboards have been bared. Consequently, my streak of 6 (week) days in a row with an actual cooked meal came to an end yesterday. I had to resort to eggs yesterday and pancakes tonight. Nolan, who high fived me for my efforts on day 4, will be quite happy to see me returning from the grocery store tomorrow!

Snow Day

Pajamas all day......plenty of time to catch up on some organization...enjoying hot cocoa....ending the day with a great book. I love snow days.

Southern Morning, Northern Night

I enjoyed a very nice Saturday that began 45 minutes south of us in South Portland. We met Greg and Annah at IHOP a bit after 8:30 for breakfast, where all cousins enjoyed one another's company along with a hearty breakfast. After a jaunt up Payne Road to Cabela's we headed home and I spent the afternoon performing a much needed house cleaning. After 4, Atira and I drove an hour north to Camp Good News where I spent the rest of the evening visiting with one of my favorite childhood people, Mrs. Seeley. If the day had ended there it would have been perfect. Unfortunately, I arrived home in time to watch the Colts wrap up the Ravens in the 4th quarter.....I do NOT want to see that team in the Super Bowl.

Plodding Along

My training for the Appalachian Trail hike in April has been slow but consistent up to this point. With only 3 months left, I need to be a bit more aggressive so on Peg's advice, this week I switched from the elliptical at the gym to the stepper. It was very good advice. It's working the exact muscles I'll be using for uphill climbing and from the burn of my lungs during the workout, it's clear that I needed the strengthening. The plan for next week is to begin to wear my hiking boots at the gym......to break them in. I have one of them, just need to locate the mate...... darn vortex!

Hmmm.

I spent several hours tackling the daunting job of clearing off the mound of papers, photos, pencils, manuals, pens, and folders that have taken up residence on my desk in the past month. Near the bottom of the pile was a small booklet entitled "150 solutions for a clean and clutter-free home". Hmmm.

Supper

The Gilbert family is seated at their wooden table, each member's plate holding a meal of mashed potatoes, stirfry and boneless pork chop. Most of the family is adhering to the customary manners of the day. The middle boy Nolan, however, is not. The mother looks up from her meal and notices that the young lad has one knee at chest height, pressed against the table, his foot firmly planted on the seat of his chair. The chair's front legs are hovering slightly above the floor. In Nolan's hand is an upturned steak knife with which he has skewered his slab of pork. Dispensing with the fork he has opted to simply rip off chunks with his teeth. The mother regards this behavior as unacceptable and curtly calls his name. "Nolan!" The boy's eyes meet hers as she continues. "Nolan, let us not eat like barbarians." In the midst of familial laughter he delivers a quick reply. "Well, Mom, our ancestors were Vikings." This is true and the mother can do nothing but shake her head and wish that in those 900 years there had been some social advances that had been passed through the generations.

Normalcy

It was back to schooling the kids today after two glorious vacation weeks. They did not enjoy it, nor did I. By Wednesday I expect that all of us will be back into the natural rhythm of the school year and whinings shall cease. By tomorrow my eyesight should be back to normal as well, as my contacts are due to arrive in the mail. I've been swapping my one remaining back and forth between my two eyes, as my prescription is the same in both. My brain seems to compensate quite well with only one eye seeing clear, no headaches. The only difficulty I have is driving at night and I have to make sure that on Sundays I put it in the left eye so I can see the music for worship team. Can you tell I've done this before?yes......many times. At the gym this evening, Jim was on the Abduction machine directly across from me. There is a bar in the center that visually split his face in two. I found it quite humorous as I gazed at him and saw his right side perfectly clear and his left side so blurry that I couldn't have told you if it was my husband or a perfect stranger!

2010

New Year's Eve was spent at our house playing games, Wii and, as always with the Fishers, laughing hilariously. Combined with my chili, Deb's queso dip and Nate's stuffed mushrooms it made for a very nice end to the year, although I have never felt that my New Year's Eve is truly complete without a spirited game of Aggravation and some mini cheesecakes topped with cherries. That's what childhood traditions will do to you......

So here we are at the end of the first day of a new year. This is my friend/sister Beth Wilson's favorite day of the year. She always has very thorough goals for each new year. I have never been one to do this but this afternoon I completed a short list of things I would like to accomplish in 2010 and how I plan to go about getting them done. (Beth will be so proud.....) Most of them have been on my mind this past month already so all that was needed was to put them in writing. Some are short term goals, some long, some will require physical work and some mental stamina. Here I go!