Duck

DUCK

I do not endorse the jokes on this site, but this one is incredibly hilarious. Please enjoy!

Totally insignificant findings in my study today... maybe not all insignificant

Proverbs 30:15-16

	The horseleech hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:
	the grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.

How many times did you use your vegetable peeler this week?

What about watches? Is it really important that my watch have all the bells and whistles?

Dinner, was it alright? on time? done? did you have any?

For me, I used it enough that I had to pull out the second one because the first was buried in the stack of clean dishes not yet put away by my kids who never cease to amaze me in their skills used to avoid work. Don't worry, it's a new thing for us... perhaps it'll stick with us.

MM bought me a new watch today. Perhaps the face of this watch won't be decimated or removed as the last few watches I've had. My new watch isn't very big - some might call it feminine. It's supposed to be feminine. If it'd been up to me, I'd have bought the one with the dial on the face that shakes on your wrist at the alarm time. That'd be nice. However, I learned years ago that a gift received is not returned - love it or re-gift it, if you don't you'll never find one when you need it.

Note to MM, please don't ever ever leave me to tend to the smoking fire while you are gone for four hours. Most assuredly the meat will be no where near done as you think it should be and you'll be mad at me. I don't like it when you are mad at me!

I didn't write that for MM, he doesn't read my blog... neither does anyone else, for that matter.

I digress.

The point is this, I had a great day. I got to close the curtains in the house when I wanted to elminate radiant heat from turning my house into an oven. I enjoyed a great evening with my family. I got a new watch that makes me look a little more like a lady...

Now, don't get your hopes up, there's not wardrobe change coming any time soon!

Now for the rest of the story...

You were wondering, I can tell, why on earth would I blog about a silly salad spinner? It's true that it's wonderful and I really think every household should have one, but there's a behind the scenes story that I'm ready to share...

I bought my salad spinner late last year/early this year - I don't really remember. But I shop at Walmart. Things appear on their shelves today and tomorrow are gone - there' s no guarantee what'll show up next so I bought our salad spinner from the clearance price rack. I was thrilled to find it works well and is a good size for our family.

Since I decided that it works so well for my family and I'm always thinking of things for Clea in Uganda. I felt that she too should reap the benefits of my magnificient find. So since I've been back (yes it's been three months since I returned!) I've searched my regular Walmarts in search of the elusive salad spinner set. I wanted to be sure I could get another one for my self (Selfish, I know!) before I sent mine off and it wouldn't fit in the package I sent in May. I had looked online and found it available for site to store or home shipping but they also showed local stock in a few stores around town - but they were never on the shelves!

I know you know this because you are a faithful reader of my blog - even if you don't comment- but I live way out so searching through Walmart does not fit into my schedule. So I resort to strange ingenuity for such things as shopping. I inherit clothes from my neighbor because she lost all the weight I wanted to loose. I make many things from scratch rather than store ready mixes. I go to town as little as possible and still survive. I hate shopping. More than I hate shopping I hate calling Walmart. But I was desperate. I'd asked at two Walmarts and they couldn't imagine what I was talking about (shame on me for not having that UPC code - now you know what they're for!)

Finally I was getting things ready to get to Justine to take to Connie to take with her as she returns to Uganda next week (pray for wonderfully peaceful travel and smooth reunion of the whole clan!). The spinner was going - in fact Justine already had it. But I needed my new one. Clea already had the vegetable peeler and the knife. I wanted another one for my house. What do you do? You break down and call Walmart - but not the Tallahassee ones. They haven't the time to answer the phone let alone find what you are looking for - even if you have the UPC (computer nearby helps- who wants to write down all those numbers just to find out you transposed one or two!). So I called Crawfordvill Walmart! No one is housewares answered my call, so the operator put me on with the manager! Sweet relief. He not only made several trips across the store for me (I'm sure he used his time wisely along the way), but he made sure I got just what I needed.

But he's not the real hero of this story - It's Jessica! Knowing that she'd most likely visit her local Walmart in the near enough future I made the next phone call. It was Sunday afternoon and she was eating lunch- I was being lazy! I gave her the description of the item, the UPC code and the manager's name (sorry, I can't remember it now!). She dutifully wrote it down (or pretended to!) and said she'd take care of it for me. This is way better than site to store - this is site to door delivery!

I have my salad spinner, vegetable peeler and knife with sheath. Clea will have her set soon. Jessica is a saint. You are now enriched. Thank you all, and Good Night!

Wanna know what I like?

We'll start with what I don't like - I don't like wet wilted salad.

Now, the good stuff: I like a good salad spinner. Kinda knew that was coming didn't you?

So, I've priced the pricey ones and they are. I checked out the cheapies and they are. Then the clearance rack at W-M caught my eye - $10. There it was the perfect salad spinner. It was exactly what I wanted, for the right price at the right time. Not only that I got a bonus vegetable peeler - blades perpendicular, if you really want to know; I've never owned one like that - and a knife with a sheath (perfect for picnics!). Was any one item worth 10$ or the frustration of learning that it wasn't worth $10 or even $5 alone? No, never; but each of these was worth $3.33 each and they have proven themselves...

From our garden we pick fresh greens and drying them is a pain - we love the spinner!
From the produce departement we buy carrots - the garden hasn't rendered many worth eating - and my kids love the peeler better than my parallel blade zyliss version - therefore they can have carrots for snack... mmm tasty!

Now about this knife. Knives have been the ongoing struggle in our kitchen. We love a sharp knife. We've had our knife set for nearly 9 years now (don't ask me how I know!). We work hard to keep our knives sharp; as everyone knows, a dull knife is a sure ticket to the ER. So when I acquired this bonus item I declared all other hands off as I intend to use it to it's fullest potential. It's not the sharpest knife in the drawer - but it will be soon. Since it has a sheath, it'll be the only knife in the drawer. Which leads me to the question of the day:

How do you store your knives and are they safe?

Now on with the rest of your day... happy blogging!

PS. I'd post a picture but I'm afraid of the giant chain, so here's a link to their picture.

Wanna know how much I like my spinner set? I had to buy two. One to keep and one to send to my DF Clea. Visit her blog and check out the latest snap she took of her firstborn!

Guess what's a treat after our work is done?

Today our boys surprised us:

They finished weeding part of the garden, all their lessons, and lunch. Then they dove into the river for a few hours. They've been busy!

It just goes to show that with appropriate motivation, your kids can do most anything.

When they started the day, diving in wasn't on the list of things to do. If we had then they might have never gotten the work done. Instead, It was after weeding that the river was offered and they buckled down to do all their lessons!

I'm happy. They're happy and we'll all sleep good tonight!

Sorry, I was too busy having fun to take pictures.

Oh, and there's nothing to update about the deck, except that it's coming along via behind the scenes work.

surefire things...

Wanna know my surefire secrets for everything?

Surefire way to prevent clogging the WWW with comments - don't post to your blog.
Surefire way to prevent leaving for vacation on time - don't pack until the day you are leaving.
Surefire way to win friends and influence people - look them in the eye when talking to them.
Surefire way to eliminate stress - look at newborn babies!
Surefire way to overwhelm yourself - bite off more than you can chew.

OK, I haven't surefire ways for everything, but I tried. At least one person has let me know they keep checking my blog for updates. Well, we've been busy. You all know about the flood after my trip to Uganda. What you might not know is that we are having a deck built - I have pictures... I'll share them... Right now! There are pictures with explanations, but in the end we'll have poured over 40 cubic yards of concrete for the foundation and pillars. So we've been a little busy.

The best part of the deck you ask? Well, it's hard to pin it down to one thing. First there's the low sloping stairs - the old stairs were awful. These are a marked improvement. Then there's the roof - decks aren't much good in FL without shade. Then there's the sundeck which makes it possible to sit in the sun and grill without roof cover. But best of all - the crane. Yes, that's right folks, a crane. I know what you're thinking - a crane, why on earth would you want a crane? Well, in a word - groceries! Ever since we moved in here 9 years ago I've wanted a dumbwaiter. With the floods and all it just wasn't practical - besides all they lift is 100 pounds our less. My crane will lift up to 1/2 ton. And just what will three boys do with a crane? The world may never know - especially if their Dad trains them to fear the crane. It will also lift our 1/4 ton generator up during flood events and make living here during floods more practical.

So there you have it, dear friends, an update from the river.

If you check out the Best of Uganda album there are the best pictures from my trip to visit Clea and Isaac. Oh, BTW, the program Clea made for me - it still works! So far, I have all but three windows clean in my house. The 7 fans aren't faring so well - only two of them are clean, but they're clean!

Three boys, all in a row...

Apparently I can't catch a good picture fromt he bow of the boat. It's fuzzy but here's a picture of the house on the second day after the peak flow during April Fools' Flood - that's my name for it. For a brief moment we pondered whether or not Meteorologists across the country would conspire to play such a joke as to tell the entire SE that they would be flooded during the week of April 1 and following... During this picture it's actually about a foot lower than the peak, but none the less, it's quite dramatic to realize the amount of water that flowed past my house.

I scheduled an appointment for my boys to visit the Pediatrician today. It's loads of fun to haul all three together and hear them place bets on who will get shots. This time it was L. He took them both in stride as M and S watched in wide eyed wonder. I totally respect our pediatrician. He is acquainted with my dad and all that we've done over the years as a family. He's the kind of guy that I'd want watching out for my kids health. I won't get into the vaccination debate. I'm a wimp and uneducated in such matters. Please comment all you want about it, but don't expect me to respond... Any way, that's not what prompted me to post tonight. Tonight it's all about boys. On FB I did a silly quiz about "how many kids will you have". Based on my answers, 3 girls. How could the 5 question quiz be so off? I'll never know. I talked with another mom - she has 5 kids- all but one are girls. They talk all the time. My boys wrestle and fight all the time. The fights aren't about anything real, just about anything that doesn't matter so they can get it off their chests. Then as I walked out of the office with the official estimate "L, if he keeps going, might grow to be 5' 8" or so by the time he's done." a nurse commented "all in a row" and made the motion like stair step kids. Before we left the house his friend came to visit and we discovered he'd grown by several inches (or so it seemed) since we last saw him - how could this be? Now he's a head taller than L now and taller than me.

I also realized today, as we travelled around town that I have been really stressed lately. I had no idea how stressful flooding is to the victims - you think I'd know by now after 2 major (although they call it officially moderate) and several minor floods! This one really took it's toll on us and we are all as a neighborhood recovering as best we can. If you know someone who's been through any kind of flooding, lend them a hand - even a batch of cookies (even from the store) would make their day a little brighter. Reach out and touch them with a gesture of warmth and love. My folks wouldn't have us stay anywhere but their house in our time of need, but I know it's hard on them both. Hug someone who's helped displaced people.


Pray for a couple of teen boys who need a stable home before DCF places them in a foster home.

For the record, that's our mailbox on the left side of this picture. Yes - the water was over 3 feet above our road! Also pictured are two of our neighbors who kept our generator fueled up to keep our fridge running for Saturday - Tuesday!