We have some big doin’s about to happen around here.

Effective today this blog is now defunct. I will be blogging at www.bread-of-angels.com. Still have some tweaking to do over there, but let me know what you think.

Please update your bookmarks, your feed readers, or however you find me. Don’t want to miss any blathering or yet more pictures of my kids, right?

You may have noticed an abrupt change in my blogging rhythm. That’s because I have had the stomach flu; Principesa has it too. It’s the kind where everything you’ve eaten for days is forcefully expelled via the nearest exit. I think this is the most I’ve thrown up since I was pregnant with Princepesa. (Too much information? Sorry.)

So anyway today is the day I know we’re not going to die, but now I’m going back to bed.

We just had some generous grandparents in our congregation pick up both kids for a sleepover with their granchildren. We get a date night! (Or we will as soon as my Beloved quits frantically typing some notes on Board agendas…)

The problem is that Viking is going to tell them everything he knows. No secrets with him. I’m trying not to worry about what he’ll say.

I have great plans for handiness and craftiness today.

Handiness:

• The hot water handle is leaking in our shower. After some judicious time with Google, I believe this is something I can fix. (One of my mottoes in life is, “How hard can it be?!”) I went to Home Depot to get what I needed and talked to Joe in the Plumbing Dept who was remarkably helpful. I was trying to figure out which size valve wrench I needed (see how I sound like I know what I’m doing?) and he recommended I get the set that has all sizes in it. It was $23 and I objected to that since I only needed one. Much to my surprise he told me to just save my receipt and “rent” it for $23. Huh? When I asked if he was really telling me to do that, he asked me how my portfolio did last year. I snorted (or something equally ladylike) and he said yes. So I did.
• The light is out over my stove. It’s part of the microwave that is over the stove, so hopefully that will be an easy fix.

Craftiness

• I have needed some flour canisters for a while and although I looked at these, I balked at $16.95 and besides – they just look so…. food service. Then yesterday at Walmart I found some glass canisters with screw on metal lids for $5 each. I’m going to fancy them up and put them into service!
• I found some four inch square picture frames at the Target Dollar Spot  a while ago. They were three to a package so I bought 3, for a total of nine frames. They are plain pine so I am going to fancy them up and put them into service today too!

So – now I’m off to play. If I don’t flood the house or short out the electricity, I will report back on my progress!

Can I just say that I love online billpay? The fact that I can sit down with a pile of bills and in ten minutes, click, click, click, I have paid all the bills for the month – well, that’s just one of the great developments of our time. No licking nasty envelopes. No looking for stamps. No late payments. If only there was a click, click, click way to do taxes.

So, I’m done with that chore. And now I’m off to build a model of a ziggurat with my kids.

(By the way, if you haven’t heard of Financial Peace University, and you could use a little financial peace right about now, you should look into it. It’s a fabulous program and well worth the time and money to do it.)

Toys don’t last long with her. She butchers them. She systematically pulls the eye balls out, then rips a seam open, then pulls all the stuffing out.

We had a guest come over and call her “Killer.” Little does he know…

We’ve discovered a chink in her armor, though. Snow. Not wild about it, especially today when it’s up past her belly. She keeps trying to figure out how to keep all four feet up at once. Nothing like some tough weather to show your true character.

Get him a 10 oz hammer, some scrap wood, and a little box of nails.

Viking’s talking to himself in this picture, giving instructions and reminding himself not to smash his finger. LOL

You can see how prolific he’s been here:

He told me if I’d buy him an axe that he would cut down a tree and cut up some more firewood for us.

I think we’ll wait a while on that one.

It was a cold weekend here, and while I don’t mind winter, I’m looking forward to Spring. This is the first time in years that I have had a place to garden to my heart’s content and I’m eager. I ordered a pile of gardening catalogs and can’t think of a better way to spend a cold evening than to flip through catalogs and dream.

Until I can actually get my fingers in the dirt outside, I decided to play in the dirt inside this weekend. Well, not dirt exactly, but stay with me. I had several boxes of flower bulbs that I got for a dollar a box because they were damaged cartons. So I gathered up the clear vases I had and decided to force some bulbs inside, just to keep the dream of Spring alive.

I took the kids on a field trip to the local park where we collected rocks to fill the vases. (Nevermind it was about 20 degrees on Saturday. We had tissues for the cold runny noses.)

We took the rocks home and filled the vases halfway, then arranged the bulbs and added more rocks. I had enough bulbs that I turned my fruit bowl into a bulb bowl and used the compressed soil that comes with the bulbs to fill that up too. A little warm water and a sunny window, and hopefully we’ll be enjoying fresh flowers in a few weeks!

Your grace, O Lord

Without which our own merits are worthless

And the gifts of nature without value -

Truly comes to us from heaven.

Beauty, strength, riches,

Talent, ability, eloquence -

None of these are any value to me, Lord,

Unless accompanied by your grace.

–Thomas a Kempis

Note to self – do not use a feather duster near a burning candle.

And now, if you’ll excuse me I need to go sit down for a minute.