Jury Duty and Sewage!

Last week was a Big Week around here. I had jury duty for the first time AND we had a disaster in the basement. I've been called for duty before, but I've never had to go because I had small children or was homeschooling. Most recently, I was called during the school year, and I probably could have gotten out of it again, but my husband said I could defer it online to a better date,  so I chose Tuesday, the first weekday of Summer Vacation.

Normally, I'm on standby and call the night before to find out if I need to appear. This time, I had to go and was in Group 1. Many of the jurors I conferred with agreed that if you use the website and defer your service to a convenient date, you have really just let the Court know that you ARE available and they WILL call your name for the voir dire process!

I was paneled for the jury and had a very interesting 4 days learning lots and lots about what to look for when buying property, water runoff, creeks, and, best of all, sewage backups. The whole process was fascinating and educational, tedious and exhausting, and I wouldn't mind doing it again (after a nice, long rest) (and because I don't have a paying job, so, unlike many of my fellow jurors, I wasn't losing vast amounts of money by serving!).

You know what the unexpected blessing from this jury service was? Because of "recent events," as I told my husband (since I couldn't tell him about the trial), I was inspired to look further for the cause of the basement toilet overflowing, and I discovered the sump pump had stopped working and the utility room was flooded with an inch of dirty water that was starting to seep out into the next room.

Fortunately, I looked, because, unfortunately, we had moved many, many boxes of books and other items down to the basement in preparation for new floors upstairs. All of those had to be moved to safety, and some had to be unpacked because that carpet and padding is the Quicker Picker Upper! I got to leave for court while leaving my dear husband to contend with the plumber (Norm!). At the end of the day, we had a new sump pump (which my civic service does not cover the cost of!), and we tore out all the carpeting the water had touched---one large room, the hallway, and part of a bedroom. The basement is a complete disaster with boxes and stuff piled everywhere.

I'm pretty sure I won't get to do the sewing projects I had planned this summer. Lack of time is one thing; lack of access to my sewing room is another. No sewing, no ironing. No grown children visiting and sleeping in the basement. :-(  I think this is the Summer of Home Renovations and Decluttering.

Sometimes, I want to cry when I think about it, but it's really fine. It's all good. Nothing was damaged that is vital or irreparable. It's all just stuff which we have too much of. It's the amount of work that overwhelms me, if I think about it, but I just won't do that. I'll just do the next thing that needs to be done----choosing paint colors for the living room?----praying?----because it's really all about doing whatever God asks in the moment. Sometimes, that's mopping up nasty water and letting go of the desire to do your own will.

1st Monday in Advent Musings

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We made some progress on Advent prep this weekend.  I put up the Jesse Tree which I just love with it's purple and pink ribbons awaiting its ornaments.  Stockings are hung, nativities are out, and my St. Nicholas collection.  And that is quite enough to make me cranky and the house a mess.  :-/

Simplicity is my new mantra, and I'm going to figure out how to simplify the decorating this year.  ....well, I say that, and then I immediately think that there are things I love and can't do without---like garland and lights on the bannister---but I can take all of Advent to put those things out, and all of the Christmas season to slowly put them away, as I normally do.

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I'm kind of neutral on the subject of outdoor lights, but the weather was super-warm yesterday (in the '70's!), so my dear DH grabbed an idle boy and got to work.  It looks rather festive out there, I must say!

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I sang with the church choir in their annual Christmas Gala on Saturday.  It was with a local symphony, and it was not at all what I expected.  There was a variety of music:  Ave Maria, songs from Home Alone, and the GaTech women's a cappella group.  Even a reading of The Night Before Christmas.  It was fun for me to sing with an orchestra for the first time.

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One of our family traditions is for each of us to choose a new patron saint for the year at the beginning of Advent.  For the past couple of weeks, after our family decade, I've reminded everyone to choose a new saint.  Before bedtime, we pray a decade of the rosary, our family consecration prayer, and then pray for the intercession of each saint.  When I got to my saint, I'm last, we all looked at each other and said, "Fail!"  Oops, I mean, "Amen."  We had all forgotten, so we immediately went to the computer to Jen Fulwiler's Saint's Name Generator to help us out. Now we're all set, except for Pippo who didn't want a random saint, but a patron for a specific intention.

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And after repeated online reminders to go out and buy candles for the Advent wreath, which smug blogger who bought large boxes of purple and pink a few years ago is now forced to use used candles?  Me, that's who.  

But I'm going to drop in the Catholic shop that is conveniently located next to Tom's school, today, to see if they have any left!

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Is your Advent off to a great start?  What did you do this weekend?

Monday, Monday

What's a blog without pictures? 

 B.O.R.I.N.G.  

At least to me; I'm a very visual person and a lot of uninterrupted text bugs me.  Not so much in a book, but definitely in a blog.

So....I need to give some serious thought to this whole Picasa issue now that I've run out of photo space.  Even after deleting a kajillion pics they're still telling me I'm over my 1GB limit.  Grrr.

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So it's Monday.  And it's the First Day Back after spring break.  Why does that always have to occur on a Monday?  It doesn't help.

It also doesn't help that we were expecting the delivery of a new fridge today.  The excitement of that coupled with the necessity of cleaning out the old one to try to save some of the food makes it really hard to get our schoolwork done.

Fortunately, I seem to have planned for Mondays when I planned our school year!  Mondays are fairly light workwise and we should  be able to finish.  Yay!

The fridge is in and we're anxiously waiting for it to cool down so we can load it up.  Opening the door constantly probably doesn't help that process, does it?

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I didn't blog after Wednesday evidently because I was busy with household projects.  

Peeling the ridiculous laminate off my bathroom cabinets to repaint was one.  Pics to come whenever Evil Blogger allows.

Cleaning out and reorganizing my basement so we can have an empty bedroom for a college graduate who is moving home for a year.  

That's a long sentence for a long project.  This job is going to take a long time and will mean getting rid of a Lot of Stuff.  Which is a good thing.  So is having her home.  So I'm not complaining, just saying.  It's a big job which seems to grow as I do more.

I should have some giveaways of homeschooling stuff---because I'm going to get pretty tired of listing it for sale on Cathswap and selling it in bits and pieces.  At least giveaways might be fun!

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Time to hit the books for a little while before Quittin' Time.

Have a great Monday!

Monday, Monday

What's a good title for Mondays?

Monday Misery because another busy week is starting?

Monday Madness---same reason?

Monday Management because that's what I want to do today: take control of my life?

We'll go with Management today.  Next Monday might be completely different.

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The weekend was fairly quiet, unless you count the coughing.  Dh took the boys to the parish clean-up party and I took Little Princess to the doctor because she was still coughing until she gagged.  And I'd had enough.  And Sarah told me to.

Sarah thought she might have bronchitis, but I didn't think so.  In her defense, Sarah wasn't here to hear her cough!  I was a little surprised to hear that LP has pneumonia.  I expected a fever with that.  Or maybe a child who didn't feel like playing with her friends at all.  Dh asked if it was walking pneumonia.  We agreed that running pneumonia might be a better term!  So she's on antibiotics and much, much better yesterday.

The doctor though it might be a good idea for me to be seen, too.  So I signed in and she listened to me as well.  No pneumonia for me, but another prescription.  I did feel pretty lousy all weekend but I could feel the energy coming back last night.

The other news is that my dad is in the hospital in Missouri in ICU.  Evidently, there have been some very scary moments since Thursday.  My sister is there.  My brother is driving out from Virginia.  Being sick, I know that my place is here, but as that changes....well, we'll see.  I hated leaving my family when my mom was dying, but it was clear that I had to.  I can only pray that my dad gets better and that my duty becomes clear.

So, on that note...whenever life is like this, and there is so much happening that is out of my control, I turn to cleaning.  There are few things I can control in my life and cleaning is somewhat therapeutic.  This morning we're starting our pre-Advent housecleaning.  We have 10 available days to clean and declutter the entire house---God willing and the creek don't rise.

Monday, Monday

I'm sitting here this morning, cold and unwilling to start the day week.

My dreams were filled with my gigantic TO DO LIST for this week.

We have a full week of school ahead of us, as usual.

It looks like I'll be back and forth to the garden twice a day for a while.  It froze last night and we had to go cover the seedlings.  Since it's a community garden, we also have to go back over first thing this morning to remove the covers.  And go back tonight to re-cover the seedlings, et cetera.  It's supposed to warm up again later in the week, thank heavens.

So, it's cold and I need to get dressed.  That means I'll probably put on my favorite sweater to stay warm.  It's actually my Dear Husband's sweater.  Of course.  It's a gray wool cardigan that my mom gave him years ago.   Very Mister Rogers---except with buttons, not a zipper.  I guess he gets too warm in it, but he never wore it much, so I "borrowed" it a couple of years ago.  I wear it all the time in the winter.

It's funny....it's his sweater.... She gave it to him, but I feel so close to my mom when I wear it.  I think of her all the time.  I think of how much she loved my Dear Husband.

And the really sad thing is that it's wearing out.  The cuffs are all frayed.  I'm afraid I'm going to have to retire it soon.  Actually, I'll turn it into something else....I don't know what yet....but I can't just toss it in the bin.  I'm unreasonably attached to this sweater.  I'm not nearly as attached to the clothes she wore, herself, just this.

What would you do with an old sweater????  I think it will felt very nicely, but then what?

Monday Madness

Dr. Mike Eades' blog post yesterday was full of observational studies and randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies, but he wrapped it up with this fun video which made me smile on a sleepy, no more swim-team, 2 of my kids have gone to summer camp, Monday.



It kind of makes me want to go play the piano!