Georgia on my mind

Joshilyn Jackson has written another gripping tale featuring memorable southern characters, including one more memorable aunt! While Bernese is different than Aunt Flo from Gods in Alabama, both women will remain in your thoughts long after you close the books!

Bernese and her sisters are all members of the Frett family who have raised Nonny, who is biologically a Crabtree. The Crabtrees and the Fretts have had an ongoing feud that began long before the story begins but intensifies after Nonny's birth and rages throughout the novel.

Set in the town of Between, the novel focuses on Nonny who is caught between the two warring families, the two towns of Between and Athens and between her husband and best friend.

Ms. Jackson's books are great for those of us who need that "southern fix" in our reading! (While I still get the argument that Florida is not really part of "The South," the part I grew up in is dern close to southern Georgia!) Having said that, I cannot wait for Ms. Jackson's next novel which is set in Florida!

Old Folks at Home

We returned from Florida on Tuesday. It was great to see everyone and spend some time at my mom and dad's "resort." (I'm not sure my parents see it quite the same way but for my kids--it's a bit better than many other vacations! True, there are no roller coasters but they get breakfast cooked to order, lunch and dinner with no wait--in fact, they're reluctant to get out of the pool to eat--and there is the pool! A pool in the backyard! No car ride, elevator ride, no keys necessary to get to the POOL!) As if all that weren't enough for a summer vacation, they have cousins to play with! So it's a nice break for them (on other vacations, they are each other's only peer). This summer they've met a few kids in our new town but don't have many friends yet so it was wonderful for them to have cousins around to play with all week!

While we did visit my folks at home, they are not yet old. The title of the post is of course, also the title of the Florida state song. The first line of that song, "Way down upon the Swanee river..." put me in mind of the other story while I was home. People boating and fishing on the Suwannee river in Florida are being hit by jumping sturgeon! Talk about some old residents! These ancient fish jump right out of the water--no one knows exactly why. The river is lower this year than it has been, more people are out on the river so the problem has become more noticeable.

We celebrated my mom's birthday a week early while I was there, which was nice. Her actual birthday is tomorrow so Mom: if you read this in time, Happy Birthday!

Never Enough

I am six months pregnant now and the kids are excited but it is not enough. They asked tonight if we could please adopt an eleven or twelve-year-old girl.

(N is tired of having to be the oldest; now she'll have TWO younger BROTHERS. So her life is unfair but the fact that we did not sit down and have a serious discussion--ending in her getting her way--helped her come to the conclusion that we are simply mean).

Whatever gets you through the night

It started with an alarm going off at about midnight. It seemed to coming from my son's room. After the second or third time that it went off, I went to investigate in the dark. It seemed to be coming from the stack of clean clothes in his room but I know I did not plant anything in there. It must be the watch he found today. I guess he had big plans for the middle of the night! I can't find the watch, of course, so I pray that whatever it's set for has passed and we're done. No such luck.

I listen to it go off a few more times before I decide to get back up and hide/destroy the thing. Except when I go back, the noise is not coming from his room--now it's coming from N's.

She has an "organizer" that she won from some contest that has an alarm that has been going off nightly. It has not seemed so loud on past evenings but I have heard it almost every night. Earlier today, I did ask her if she could find the thing and turn it off. She didn't think she'd unpacked that box yet. (So helpful). I asked her kindly to unpack the box, find the thing and turn it off before she went to bed.

Apparently, to a nine-year-old, that means move the box away from the closet at the far end of your room and move it near your door. Just to make sure Mom can hear it tonight.

I wrapped the box in towels and shoved it in a cupboard in the laundry room. But now I'm up.
I went back to bed for an hour, staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out if that is the baby's elbow or foot jabbing my right side and coming up with the new perfect opening for the on-going book. Of course, it's so perfect, you know I'll forget by morning. But I don't want to get up so I try to think of ways to help me remember. Right.

So...here I am. I've typed out that brilliant passage that seemed like it'd take a page. It's a paragraph.

I'm going with the egg sandwich now. When I was a girl and couldn't (or wouldn't) sleep, I'd get up and tell my Dad I was hungry. He'd make us egg sandwiches--scrambled eggs on toast with lettuce and mayo--and we'd watch Charlie's Angels. I've got pita bread rather than Sunbeam white bread but it's worth a shot! (I wonder what re-runs are on...?) ;)

Life in the fast lane

I told my daughter that she really need to work on having more patience.
The words were barely out of my mouth before she answered, "I already did."

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Fourth of July! Enjoy the cookouts and the fireworks and remember how lucky we are to be Americans.

As for me, it's also my birthday so I'm relaxing (though I've obviously been taking a break from blogging for a while now)! I'll have more to say soon!

Summer days

Our new home backs up to a cornfield. (We are in Indiana now!) As the sun sets on summer evenings, the sky is a hazy, purple-pink background for the dark orange orb slowly making its exit. As the sun sets, the backyard and cornfield behind it come alive--twinkling with a thousand fireflies dancing. One lit on the sliding glass window for a moment tonight as I looked out--as if to say goodnight--before it joined the blinking majority.


My kids had their first lemonade stand today. They made $10!

The Learning channel

Some things just don't come in the parenting manual. N is excited about this whole baby thing. She has always loved children younger than herself. (Including, on occasion, her own brother!) She especially loves babies and toddlers. She has discovered "A Baby Story" on TLC. I watched the first part of one episode with her--because the mom was in labor. Though she knows the doctor was "looking at her bottom!" (both kids giggled at that) the camera didn't show the gory details so I let her continue to watch. (She does not yet need TOO much information).

She oohed and aahed at the infant they brought home.

The next episode however, featured a same-sex couple--two women--who had just brought their baby home. N tells me that two girls had a baby and they didn't have any boys. I stated quietly that a man was involved at some point but she shook her head with conviction. "Nope. They have been together for 8 years. NO boys!"

OK.
(She does not yet need too much information.)

The joys of home ownership

Well, my relaxing day of bliss included the delivery of my new washer and dryer--even though I'd inadvertently ordered two appliances that do not quite match. We thought ordering online would be easy but it's hard to tell that some washers have a shiny, mirror-like finish on their door while some dryers have a finish that matches my chrome refrigerator. Oh well, no one will notice but me--and any of my blog readers who come to visit! ;)

That was also the day I first discovered the water stain on our ceiling. It's under our shower. We had the exact same problem in the last house, so we have evidently done something to upset the plumbing gods. It faded the next day (when the plumbers were here) and they sealed things, tested things but could not re-create the problem. It has been fine--until today.

Our radon test has finally come back with an acceptable (low!) number! It was high when they initially tested, so they sealed the sump pump and tried again. When that did not resolve the issue, a radon mitigation system was installed. They retested this week and that has been resolved.

We've unpacked a little more, N will have her new dresser on Wednesday so she can finally stop living out of a box. (She and C had divided a bunk-bed set but C has the whole thing now and she is getting a new, more feminine bedroom set. The rest of her set won't arrive until August but at least she'll have drawers!)

We have found the pool nearby so we've got the important issues covered!

Settling in...

Most of the boxes are unpacked, the furniture is placed and my new washer and dryer should arrive today!

The hubbie and kids are taking a day trip to visit Notre Dame so I have the quiet house all to myself.
(If you look up the definition of bliss, you might find the above sentence quoted--or at least the last five words!)

Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore!

We have arrived and are in our new home in Indiana! It's empty but we ahve time to figure out exactly where the "big" items will go. Our truck is due to arrive Monday or Tuesday so it'll start feeling more like home soon!

I was a little worried that it might take a while to meet other kids--there are only a few houses on our street. However, the next street over has many more houses and one of the kids my daughter met at the playground told her that there are at least 2 kids in every house!

When we chose N's name, I was trying to find something that wasn't too trendy so she would not have 4 other girls in her class with the same name. Since then, I don't think I've met another child with her name. Until now. There are 3 other girls in this small neighborhood with the same name, though one is visiting! The house at the end of our street has a girl with the same name and her mother's name is the same as mine! I can't decide if that is a good sign or slightly creepy...

Otherwise, everyone has been incredibly friendly so I'm sure that our new town will feel like home in no time!

Winding down?

It's the last week of school--which means it is the busiest--in regards to parties and activities, anyway! Just in case that wasn't enough, we've tacked on a birthday party for N right after school lets out tomorrow and she's having a few girls over for a birthday sleepover tomorrow night!

The packers/movers arrive on Tuesday!

My husband checked the downspouts, etc. before the thunderstorms last night--and found the one he'd fixed was not totally fixed and another was not functioning at all! So he fixed those during the light rain, then kept checking the basement and the downspouts and sides of the house several times during the downpours during the night! (So I got a little more sleep than he did but between the lightning and checking to see if he needed help, I'm ready for a nap, too!)

Maybe I'll just let the movers pack the dirty laundry.

Sunday Soul-searching

I found an intriguing post over at SweetViolet's this morning. I enjoyed her comments and her challenge to take this religion quiz honestly, answering truthfully about what you believe rather than what you have been taught to believe.

I thought I understood her point and took the quiz. However, after I sat back and thought about the answers I'd given, I realized that there were still one or two responses I'd made out of fear or guilt. What if that isn't true?

So I went back and took the quiz a second time, honestly answering each question. Lightning did not strike and the results were interesting!

In college, the Jesuits taught us to always question everything. I think that's a good approach--even if my Belief.net score shows only a 58% rating for Roman Catholic!

1. Orthodox Quaker (100%)
2. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (97%)
3. Liberal Quakers (90%)
4. Unitarian Universalism (85%)
5. Mahayana Buddhism (81%)
6. Theravada Buddhism (77%)
7. Hinduism (75%)
8. Reform Judaism (72%)
9. Seventh Day Adventist (69%)
10. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (68%)
11. Sikhism (67%)
12. Jainism (66%)
13. Orthodox Judaism (64%)
14. Bahá'í Faith (63%)
15. Neo-Pagan (61%)
16. Eastern Orthodox (58%)
17. Roman Catholic (58%)
18. Taoism (58%)
19. Islam (57%)
20. New Age (56%)
21. New Thought (47%)
22. Secular Humanism (46%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (43%)
24. Scientology (43%)
25. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (34%)
26. Jehovah's Witness (33%)
27. Nontheist (29%)

Take the Belief-O-Matic quiz yourself!

I won't be needing Faith

I thought it would make a good baby name but that just would not be fair to a boy!

Wrong Holiday

Happy Mother's Day!

This story is about an amazing father--but it is too inspiring not to share! (And between the move in a few weeks and my fading memory, I won't remember where to find this again next month!)

I found this on Chosha's site. Take a look!

For my writing friends

Many of you have participated in NaNo in the past, so you have likely already heard about their latest offering: Script Frenzy.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about NaNo is National Novel Writing Month and takes place in November. The challenge is to write 50,000 words in a month.

Similarly, Script Frenzy is a challenge to write a script during the month of June.
I am not going to try this one this year but I thought I'd share it with you if you're interested! (I'd love to go see your life story played out on the big screen--complete with any aliens, ghosts, pterodactyls or lottery winners that might appear!)

8 Things You Probably Didn’t Need to Know About Me

[Added 5/11: Eep! I forgot to let you know that it was Rene who tagged me to do this Meme! (Stop by and read hers!)]

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.
Here we go:


1. My lucky number is 8. (That must be why I was tagged with this meme!)

2. I was born on the Fourth of July.

3. I’ve been a blonde all of my life (it was natural when I was a child).

4. I am the oldest of five children.

5. I have a habit of apologizing for things that cannot be helped. (Weather, natural disasters, the fact that you have a cold…)

6. I smoked at the age of 10.

7. I don’t purposefully wear sunscreen. (There may be some hope for me as they’ve gone and put it in my moisturizer and makeup).

8. Many days I don’t wear makeup—so there really is no hope for me.

Okay, now I have to tag 8 people: Kellie, Margaret, my brother-in-law, Laurie, Aaron, Tracy, Angela, Sarah

I must be doing something right

My daughter thinks I don't love her and just wanted her so she could be my slave.

My son was very upset this morning because I would not let him skip a day of school. (He is in kindergarten).

I'm not the best mom in the world but with sentiments like these, once in a while, I feel like I'm on the right track! ;)

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Disclaimers
I don't enlist my children in slavery. My daughter was cleaning her room and filled her trash can. She asked me to empty it and I asked her to do it. The next day, she had more trash and asked me again to empty her trash can. I explained that I empty all of the other trash cans in the house and she can empty hers. This was met with the constant complaint that she has to do everything and I treat her like a slave.

My son is smart and has lots of friends in school but was very tired this morning. He tried to tell me it's too hard because he always "gets his papers wrong." I reminded him that he comes home with papers with smiley faces and nice comments on the top. Then he explained that they are working on "clocks" this week and he keeps getting them wrong.
My poor children do live in a house full of digital clocks. The one antique pendulum clock is not always wound but when it is, he knows what time it is by how many "gongs" he hears.
It seems we need to practice telling time when he gets home from school today!

The state we live in--Part Two

We live in the state of Kansas. While many people's perceptions of Kansas as a large prairie constantly threatened by tornadoes comes from L. Frank Baum, reality can be more threatening than fiction at times.

Last night, a tornado lifted not just one house but many. The entire town of Greensburg, Kansas was almost lifted after a monster tornado raged through last night.

We are just to the right of the purple covering the middle of Kansas. I am not overly concerned about our safety; we have a basement and a few cases of fresh water down there along with plenty of toys, coloring books and games. In light of recent events however, I have moved some candles down there as well and am paying a little more attention to weather forecasts today.
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UPDATE: We're still fine but the rains were heavy again last night. The basement is flooded. No posts today--I'm going to finish bailing water...

The state we live in--Part One

If we pay to much attention to the headlines, we could live in a constant state of fear. More and more random violence seems to be occuring in or around schools, with no specific age groups or types of communities excluded. It is unsettling but so far, has not been too close to home.

This week, my children's school was in "lockdown." No student had presented a threat. Rather, a man in a neighboring town stabbed two people and has not been apprehended. From internet and newspaper reports, and the "reports" that my 3rd grader brings home each day, I have gathered that the alleged perpetrator(an ex-con) is going through a divorce. His wife had a restraining order against him but he broke into her home on Tuesday and stabbed her and the man with her. By all accounts, this seems to be a domestic issue. However, in light of recent events in our nation--combined with the fact that he has a relative that works at my children's school--the school is on heightened security, locking all doors, escorting children to recess and Mass, etc. The school has offered that we may keep our children home but has not canceled school. I went ahead and sent my kids to school but of course, ran through "what if" scenarios a few times in my mind!

In light of events such as Virginia Tech, I realize that they have to take all scenarios into account and they have said that if this man is not apprehended by Monday, the school will be in lockdown again.

Sending my children to a small, Catholic school in a small, midwestern town does not guarantee their safety. I do not believe this particular individual is an immediate threat to my children. In light of events such as Virgina Tech however, perhaps the school--all schools--should follow more of these security measures on regular basis.
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UPDATE: They arrested the man on Sunday morning! The kids are thrilled (and I feel better, too)!