Homemaker Chronicles

For this week’s challenge at I heart faces I immediately thought of this picture…

Adia, my 3 year old daughter decided to lean over and give her 18 month old brother, Salem a smack on the cheek.  That was right before she pushed him out the door and onto the ground.
But hey, I caught the cute part on camera…that’s all that matters.

Go see more smooching at

~Angie
Homemaker Chronicles

Hi Homemaker Chronicles readers!

Just so you know, I’m taking a “snow day” from blogging today.
See…

And yes, that is my high school letter jacket.   I am a dork on many levels.

~Angie
Homemaker Chronicles

You’re turn!

~Angie
Homemaker Chronicles

Click on the button below to participate in..

then come back here to participate in our Blog Frog discussion (on the sidebar)!

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

In the previous bit of our story, I was wondering if Todd would ever actually ask me to sing with him in our school’s pageant. I was so nervous just thinking that he would walk up out of the blue and pop the question.

But he never did…

However, in January of my senior year Todd called me up to see if I would sing with him in our yearly Beauty Review Pageant!  He sounded nervous and like he would do anything to get off the phone, but I was already prepared to say “yes” to whatever he asked.  The weight of “will you sing with me at Beauty Review” didn’t really hit me until we actually started practicing the next week.

We only had about two weeks to come up with a song, learn how to sing it, practice it relentlessly and perform in front of the entire student body and their parents.  Oh yeah, and it would be airing on a local television for the next few weeks afterward too.

So there was that.

Our very first practice was at a friends house.  That same friend that asked me to drive he and Todd home after registration when Todd fell madly in love with me. That same friend Todd hung around on the weekends with and sported his cowboy hat.  That same friend that I had a crush on in the seventh grade because he looked like Zack Morris with the wave of blond hair.  That same friend who lived just down the road from what I would later learn was Todd’s house.

You know the one.

Todd and I met at our friend’s house and sat across the room from each other in awkward silence. It wasn’t well lit in that upstairs loft room, so I couldn’t see Todd’s face very well.  Plus the light from the window was so bright in comparison to the darkened room.  I tried to look around and notice other things in the room to avoid having to look at Todd’s face, but that darn window light was blinding me.  The silence dragged on forever as Todd and I sat staring at opposite walls waiting for our friend to come in and save us from ourselves.  Thankfully, he finally entered and broke the deafening quiet.  He was also willing to mediate.  Whew!

“Okay, let’s get down to business.  Did you have a song in mind, Angie?”, he asked.  I could totally tell he was eating this up.  It was him that did the match-making…I could feel the giddiness oozing from his big bright smile as he asked me.

“I don’t really have anything in mind.  I was just asked to be here, Jacob”, I said cleverly.

What a stupid answer! “I was just asked to be here”.  HOW UTTERLY STUPID!

I recall drifting off in my own head, “Todd probably already thinks I’m a big fat dufus, but it doesn’t matter because I have a boyfriend three hours away at college.  Ah oh, I hope my boyfriend doesn’t find out about this completely innocent gig!  Oh my gosh, what IF he finds out?  How can I prove that I have been more than loyal to him.  Unlike his sorry self that cheats on me all the blasted time.  Why am I with him again?”.

Jacob interrupted my logical line of thinking with the same question to Todd, “Hey bro, tell me you have a song…”.  I remember Todd looking like a deer in headlights- he sat there so quietly on Jacob’s bed.  Yeah, he didn’t have a song either.

Very productive is what we were not at that first meeting.  Maybe for the next “rehearsal” we would be though.  For that was the day I would visit Todd’s house for the first time.

That winding road that led me out to Todd’s house felt like driving all the way to Canada, but when I finally arrived it was his sweet mom that let me in.  Todd must have grown a conscience the minute he saw my headlights in the driveway which was when he decided that he needed to clean his room.  I mean I can’t think of a better time to start cleaning up to impress a girl than when she is pulling up into the driveway!

Seriously?  He couldn’t have done that over the last three hours since school had been out?

Looking back, maybe he did that on purpose so that his mom could draw me in with her great cooking.  Fell for it I did!! I walked right in, said hello, was offered some food, and sat right down at the bar to scarf.  It was the best stew meat and potatoes I’d ever had, and ever since had…I’ll never forget that!  I don’t remember the conversation specifically, but I do remember Kathy’s hospitality, sweet smile, and mouth-watering food…hang on…

Let me just run get a snack really quick and I’ll be right back!

I’m baaack!  Homemade coconut cream pie outta do it, and now I can concentrate.   Okay, fork in hand, and back to my story.

Kathy, Todd’s mom, was so soft and gentle with her words and so attentive to me.  I remember thinking that she would make a great mother-in-law, except that she was ripped to shreds and skinny as a rail.  I felt a little intimidated by her muscles and I refused to stand by her for fear of being compared.

But before I could think too much deeper into the future, Todd emerged from his room and greeted me with a flashy smile.  My heart jumped when I saw him, but I managed to refrain from melting and I followed him to his room.  Finding my way to the couch while Todd got his five-disc changer ready, my palms started getting sweaty.

Was I nervous?  Why?  This guy was just a friend and this was just a gig.  No biggie!  I had sung a hundred times before and had many rehearsals in the past.  This was no different.  Except that it was a very cute guy, who I knew was interested in me, and there was something so suave about him…a cool meekness that I wanted to figure out.

Snap out of it, Ang!

He had picked out a song…what could it be?  I was still busy daydreaming when the slow music began filling up the room.  Todd introduced it to me, speaking in a soft voice and walking to his bed that sat adjacent to the couch, “have you heard of this song by Bryan Adams and Barbara Streisand- ‘I finally found someone’?”.

I listened for a moment.

“No, but I’m sure we can handle it, right?”, I said with a nervous chuckle.

Oh my gosh that was the cheesiest song I had ever heard in my life!  Go look it up and listen…it was ridiculously cheesy!!   Which is why we “needed” to practice every night for an entire week.  To no avail.  We still couldn’t get that song down.  I don’t think either of us cared because it was only a means.  Maybe if we had done a little more practicing and a little less flirting we might have actually gotten somewhere with it, but it was too hard to concentrate what with all the fun we were having.

Continued next week…

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

Let’s take a few minutes and discuss this whole “cloth diaper” thing.

First of all it’s going well, thank you.

Salem’s diaper rash* is better although he had yeast breakout yesterday.  Yeast is a whole different monster and has mainly to do with Salem’s eating habits. Which consist mainly of wheat bread, potatoes and graham crackers.

Mmm!!  Yeasty!!

*Salem’s normal rash is due to the disposable diapers he has been wearing.

We will be tackling that ASAP or we’re going to have one naked little boy running around!

Back to the diapers:  the inconvenience of having a poopy cloth diaper while out-and-about is more annoying than I thought it would be.  Mainly because I’m not fully prepared for cloth diaper outings.  First of all, what the heck do you DO with the dirty diaper until you get home?  Do you rinse the poop at the restaurant/store/grocer?

If so… Yuck!

If not…YUCK!

There is no win-win, is there?  Everybody loses here…big time!  Do you guys have any suggestions as to how I should handle out-and-about diaper issues?

As long as we stay home, I enjoy using cloth.  It makes me feel homemaker-ey and like I’ve accomplished something that noone else in the whole world can do.  (Except that I know that most of the world’s population uses some sort of cloth diapering- I just like to imagine that I’m greater than I really am.  Geeze…maybe I do need therapy.  I’m rambling.)

The number one problem for cloth diapering at home is that I don’t have enough to last for two straight days. I actually barely have enough to last one whole day, depending on how much excretion my youngest produces.  Once I get a few more sewn I will be okay.

To answer a few questions that I’ve received:

1)  So far I have not seen an increase in laundry.  Neither the amount of clothing nor the amount of energy and water used has increase.  That goes back to not having enough diapers though.  Once I increase the number of diapers I am using that might go up.  Right now, we have high-efficiency front loading appliances so you can’t control the amount of water anyway!

2)  All-in-ones are not my favorite so far.  I do like being able to remove the “soaker”, but it doesn’t necessarily keep the diaper cover from getting soiled.  Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t depending again on amount and propulsion.  I like the diaper with the separate diaper cover.  Those tend to hold it all in better.  What have you found to work best?

3)  Salem loves his new plaid diapers that came from the material my dad had used to cover the props of his model airplanes.  (You know, the twirly things on the front of the plane.)  Salem loves all things grandpa, so he’s happy to flaunt that fleece.

4)  I’m still in search of a diaper company that will let me do a review on a cloth diaper.  I haven’t found any that are willing so far.  I think they’re afraid they might lose money if they give one away or something, but my master plan is to buy a few for myself!  If they only knew!

5)  Amy brought up a great website that provides a way to swap gently used diapers.  Brilliant Amy, thank you!

That’s all I have for now, unless you would like to start a discussion in my blog frog.  Feel free to join and discuss!

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

…sorry Vicky. He’s guilty!

…and he left evidence.

Any guesses to who this might be? Should I call the exterminator?

~Angie
Homemaker Chronicles

I have never been a huge fan of buying boxed curriculum for home schooling.  The number one reason is because of the cost involved.  The ones I have checked out can be upwards of $500!  Who the heck can afford THAT if you are surviving on one income?

The number two reason is because I knew that my kids wouldn’t be doing everything that comes with the complete curriculum.  I have too much on my hands to go through eight subjects with three separate grades and tend to the toddlers as well.  That’s just asking for stress.

What I opted for instead was piecing together our curriculum one book at a time.  I began using Saxon math books and I love that math. The kids seem to really do well in it too. Caleb skipped fourth grade math and is doing fifth grade with Regan. He is a little slower at it than she is, but Saxon is so gradual in nature that he is able to pick up on the concepts easily. Plus, the fifth grade books begin self-teaching…which I’m all about. Sometimes I do have to go back and do some damage control, but overall they understand it and do a good job.

So there’s my plug for Saxon math!  If you’re looking for a great math book that introduces new concepts slowly and logically they really are excellent.  I’m even learning a lot, again…twenty years later.

***

Check out this old Chinese proverb that I made up:  If your husband is not on board with cloth diapering, you will be changing lots of diapers- all by yourself.

***

You know how I told you forever ago that I’m writing a book?  Well, I am.  It’s just going to take the rest of my life!  No really, writing a book is one of those projects that is quite time consuming and requires lots of silence.  Frankly, I don’t have either of those.

My husband, Todd, is trying to get his business off the ground (requiring my help of course) while we live with my parents and that just doesn’t lend itself to lots of free book-writing moments.  I plan on picking back up the proverbial pen this summer when the kids are finished with school.

Until then, this is my book and I couldn’t ask for a better audience than you all!  Now leave me a comment…

just kidding!

~Angie

Homemaker Chronicles

Alright, I’ve shared my “day in pictures” with you for a long time now. I think it’s YOUR turn to join in! Here are the rules. Pick a day of the week, any day, and post your pictures on your blog. Come back here and link up so we can all see what’s going on in your neck of the woods!

~Angie
Homemaker Chronicles