So much to blog...

so little time. I've been limiting my time online, since I limit my kids' time online, it seemed a little unfair that I could jump on at the drop of a hat/chore, while they had to complete all day's worth of works before they can get on. I would love to blog lots more, because goodness knows I have a lot to share and I'm sure it's all worthwhile!! ;)

Raining slop here today. Lovely, as usual. I have my little beach calendar hanging nearby so I can gaze upon it and go to my happy place. My poor kids look at it and say "what's that?" It's a beach, Honey. Where the wind always blows and the sun is out, a lot and there is no snow or big, dripping boots.

Handyman cut my hair yesterday. What a scare/relief. It turned out fine, just what it needed. But the process was a little stressful. His fingers barely fit into the scissors and he was determined not to hold it flat between his fingers like a real hairdresser but to just press down and cut straight across my back. He did do two layers, so that was a help, and it does look much better. I wanted to put the hair out for the birds, but we've done that before and watched hair (ours and the dogs') rot in the flower bed for months.

I have almost paid off our Menards bill--it only took a whole month of sending some amount of payment every day by online bill pay. It's kind of fun and very motivating to check the balance every day and watch it trickle down. It will be paid off this week and then I'm onto the next highest one. I have Dave Ramsey's smiling face looking down on my computer, encouraging me to push on. I can't wait to be out of debt and it will be awhile, but I think about the things we will be free to do when we are not enslaved anymore. I am looking forward to buying flowers for my gardens. Not hand-me-downs (which are great and appreciated), but specific items that I would love to have. With our situation, we should be buying one evergreen a week for the next ten years to get our perimeter more established. We will buy a bigger ATV with attachments too. We could certainly use that. And it will be fun to buy it without signing our lives away.

#2 passed her Hunters Education test last week. I am so proud of her. It was 100 questions, multiple choice, the same test adults take to get their hunting licenses. She did not go out in the hall to have it read to her, but did the whole thing herself and passed with an 85! I had a moment of homeschool mommy-panic when I realized she had never taken any test like that, let alone that long, but she was a trooper!

4H will be gearing up soon and we've signed up for several new things, foods, cake decorating, gift wrapping and this year we'll have two dogs in the dog program. Gift wrapping sounds like a "sport" for the grossly precise but #2 wanted to do it. I love to wrap, myself, having been a wrapper for a book store for many years at holiday time. But I don't know if it's necessary to be judged on the basis of straight edges, seams and corners...

I have been working very hard to not leave laundry in baskets, sitting around for--weeks. It's my downfall. I don't mind doing laundry one bit. I like the warm clean smell when it comes out and I don't even mind folding. But I have some kind of completion issue. Flylady says not to even start a new load before unloading the previous one, but I can't go that far. I have too much piling up. So I've been through about a week without stalling out.

We are getting ready to stake out the riding ring, whenever the slop isn't hip deep. It will require cutting down several old, overgrown apple trees, so I want to get that done ASAP, or I will hear "we can't cut down apple trees when they are blooming..." and then it will be June before we even start. We were going to get bees this year, but held off to get our debt paid downs some more. So there isn't a bee excuse (they need the blossoms). Of course, I love apple blossoms too, but I want a place to ride more, sooooo, they gotta go!

Homeschool convention is coming up too. I always look forward to that. I think I am taking #1 with me this year, for the first time ever. I think she will enjoy the exhibit hall, a lot.

Well, it's time to feed, again. Reno stood out in the rain for too long last night and is still a little damp. I don't want him doing that again. I put a new bale of shavings in their stalls last night because we're about out of sawdust. This morning both of them had shavings stuck to the sides of their heads! So cute--it lets me know that they were laying flat out in the new bedding. I love to see that. Resting peacefully lets "mommy" feel good.

Snow's flying again, but I read a post at Kate's blog where she talked about spring arriving in South Carolina and how she was enjoying the flowers and that gave me a little hope. Now that the eyesore is gone from our "backyard", I am hoping to get some lilacs planted in that spot. Handyman and I sat down in the living room last night, gazing out to the north, watching the snow and it was so relaxing not to see that icky reminder of what our home used to be.

Well, this turned out to be quite the hodge podge of a post. I'll try to be more together next time. Time to eat!