Spray Paint is Hard

Today I found out that spray paint is hard.

In the (one) small area it has gone on well. But in the big expanse area - which most of the lockers will be - it is really hard to do well.

The angles are awkward, being small little locker cubbies. you can't get 12-18" away. It's hard to spray in even strokes when you're running into walls. It's hard even when I'm not running into walls.

I thought enough coats of blotchy might magically add up to an even looking finish. But no.

Plus, it's taking a lot more cans of paint than I thought. Maybe because the bottom was so rough, even after sanding and wiping down. Maybe because the trendy colors cover less per can than ugly colors? I've never tried to spray paint anything big, but it turns out 25 square feet isn't very big.

So ...

it's hard.

I really hope they don't look horrible when I'm done.

I took the whole herd out to buy more yellow paint, when I realized one can was far from enough. I forgot to buy blue painter tape. Which I guess is okay because I think I have some around here. But now I have to look and see where I might have put it. I'm sure I put it somewhere that seemed logical at the time. Which might be harder than the painting itself.

We'll see.

You can't see it because I didn't take a picture ... in which I overuse the imaginary word "thingie"

I didn't take a picture because it looked too good to wait.

But I told you this summer was my "summer to learn to grill" right? So I've been buying things and bravely grilling them. I bought one of those charcoal chimney things, to begin with. That's a big help. I wasn't so good with the pyramid thing. I'm really pretty unclear on the whole how to regulate the temperature thing, but thankfully the only grilling mishap all summer has been that I flipped one burger exactly sideways, between the bars on the grill, and into the charcoal.

So anyway, back to dinner.

Tonight I grilled steaks! I flung together a marinade first ... and I did goof and forget to open the venty thingies when I first put them on. I do think in the 2 minutes it took me to realize the vents were closed that I "killed" some of the charcoal. But it was hot enough for long enough, anyway, to cook the steaks very tastily. They were juicy and tender and the family was quite pleased. I also grilled some veggies to go with, and the grill cooling off was a little more apparent in the veggie phase, but I found a "hot spot" to finish them off and they turned out good, too.

So ... no pictures, no recipes, but a happy experience. Too bad you missed it!

I do still have 2 slabs of ribs I bought recently, the last ones I cooked in the oven but I am toying with the idea of doing these on the grill ... I'm not sure.

In other news, I also built ... well, assembled ... some shelvie thingies. Those 9-cube things that you can get the bright colored canvas drawers for? Yeah. Those. I bought one 9-cube set the other day, and then decided I needed two. I put them across from the piano, in that funky little alcove/hallway/whatever area by the kitchen. Last year Buzz kept pulling down all the books and I got tired of it and I packed them all in big totes. But no one reads books in totes, and Buzz is getting bigger. So I tried to arrange the books in the cubie thingies and put some of the littler kid toys in the canvas drawer bins. It looks pretty nice, although I need to finish off the area before I can take a picture.

and then I need to get to work on the toy cupboard. the bins on bins in a cupboard is a great idea, but I have made the mistake of assuming, time and time again, that when someone cleans up they are putting things where they go. No, instead, they have just been shoving things in. So the good news is that things do get picked up and out of sight. The bad news is that the cupboard is pretty much an avalanche of totes and toys.

Maybe THIS time, when it gets done, it will stay nice?

I have one more neat thing to blog about, but you'll have to wait ...

I'm such a doofus

So you might be wondering, what is Kim doing blogging on a Sunday morning?

Well, here's the thing.

First, we decided I should only take the children to 2nd service. The Grand Lunar is running the Big Screen, so he's always up early and long gone and unavailable for directing traffic and getting kids to their proper classes and all that on Screen days. And then our church is doing some sort of ... family adventure ... today.

Do you ever have an idea that you think would be really great ~ say, for example, a day (or month, or season, or long-term plan) where your family not only worships together in the service, but also has a class all together, geared towards whole families?

And then you hear that other people would like that, too.

And then you hear it's actually in the works -- just one Sunday, sort of as a trial.

And then you hear that ... the plan is ... to have a whole bunch of different classes and 'adventure activities' and that during the Class hour you'd choose not one class but three separate activities and shuttle your entire family from class to class not just once but three times? In busy hallways filled with other entire families doing the same thing?

And then you read the list of adventure opportunities and find that, for the most part, they are either entertainment-geared-for-little-ones, games, or lessons geared for older children. You can't find three that seem to be good teaching times geared for the whole family.

So anyway, between being one-parented for the day and also having two extra whole-family-shuffles to do, plus not really feeling the need to go to church to be entertained, you decide just to go to second service ....

Although I do feel kind of bad, having advocated for the family-integrated class idea, and then bailed out on it when it is being attempted. But, to be honest, getting everyone to church and keeping them paying attention and trying to teach them to delight in it not for it's entertainment quotient, but for the value of the Word and the Spirit in our lives, is difficult on a normal Sunday. I just do not have the energy to add complexity and entertainment to the mix.

Aaaannnyway, that part doesn't really explain why I have time to sit here blogging. Because, in any normal given case, if we don't have to be there until late, we'd sleep in, dawdle, scramble, and still be late.

Which is what I thought we did.

Somehow I got it in my head that something-fifteen was when the first service/classes ended, and that we should arrive around what became, in my head, 9:30 so as not to be late. And of course we had no time for that. The last minute scramble, as usual, put us about 20 minutes later than I intended to be getting in the car, and despite the extra whole service we'd had, we were buckling in late, with only 8 minutes to get to church and settled in.

Until iCat came in and said, "if second service starts at 10:45, why are we getting ready to leave at 9:40?"

huh.

good question.

Turns out that running 20 minutes late isn't bad when you're a whole HOUR early.

Of course, once buckled in, Buzz was not happy about not getting a car ride out of the deal, much less leaving his beloved bag in the car. So I bribed him out of the car with a short video, and ... here we are.

Seems like I could do something productive with the time, but that risks being actually late, as well as late for a second time in one day.

So I opted for blogging, instead.

How's your Sunday?

snippets and stuff

Oh, I see I'm not really back to blogging much. Boo, me.

But here's some snippets.

On the last post ~ I am feeling better. Thank you for your prayers. I am sure they helped. Perhaps, too, some of it was hormonal. Sometimes I still have waves of the stress and anxiety but not as bad as those few dark days.

On life in general ~ The Grand Lunar has helped me choose a curriculum direction for next year. It may not be ideal, but it eases the weight of fear of failure I was carrying, yet still allows us to stay home and together, which we all enjoy.

On food ~ the other day I cooked pork ribs. Lunar's mother's pork ribs were renowed, but I do not have her recipe. (Linda? Do you?) But I hoped to try some on the grill. It rained a lot, and I ended up opting to do them in the oven, instead. Someone sent me a link to Alton Brown's recipe for ribs, and of course I made some kimodifications. But in the end they were both tasty and photogenic.

On fun ~ today we watched two children for our friends. I made playdough, and then baked cookies. The cookies taste quite a bit better than this picture looks, really.

The children also noticed that our wild plum tree's plums seemed to be ripe, and there were a few branches they could reach, with minimal climbing effort. The plums up there turned out to be small with tart (!!) skins but very sweet insides, and there was much plum eating to be had.

Overall, not a bad day, really.

uphill climb

today's been a hard day

sometimes I get little notions in my head that discourage me or cause me anxiety and they take root and grow and bloom into ugly things ...

I know the Bible tells us to cast our anxieties on the Lord, and that we are not given a spirit of fear.

I've been struggling to root those things out today. I know God is able to root them out.

In the midst of that struggle, He sent someone, out of the blue, who has never called me before, who spoke encouraging and sweet and Biblically grounded words. I'm clinging to that call as a whisper from God that He is helping me to uproot the fear and discouragement and anxiety

but it's still hard to feel like they're not winning today.

So.

If you would pray for me, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks. :-)

SweeTart, and Sweet

SweeTart

Friday Morning's Muffins are brought to you by the letter, um, lVl

These muffins were inspired by a discussion with a friend named lVloose ... they are as buttery as overpriced fancy lipstick, but without the excessive cost. As shiny as lipgloss, but sweeter and less slippery on the lips. And if you don't follow all that, that's okay, just enjoy the muffins.

Lemon Butter Muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh lemon juice
4 large eggs
2 tablespoons dried lemon peel + 2 tsp. real lemon extract (or 4 T. fresh lemon rind, freshly grated)
1 cup butter, melted
2 cups flour, unsifted
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt

glossy glaze:
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400. Grease 2 muffin tins well. Stir lemon juice, eggs and lemon rind into melted butter. In another bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder and salt; make a well in the center. Stir in egg mixture and blend until well moistened. Pour into muffin tins, filling each cup about 2/3 full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 24 muffins.

while muffins cook, whisk sugar and lemon juice together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. reduce to a simmer and whisk 2 minutes until slightly thickened. Brush glaze over tops of muffins while warm.

Notes: I reduced the salt to 1.5 tsp from 2 tsp and they were still a bit saltier than needed, so I reduced it more for this posting. Also ... the batter puffed right away. I'm sure it was some magic baking powder and lemon juice science. But they seem to have spent their puff a little too soon for the baking, they did not rise much beyond the initial puff, and some fell. So ... I'll have to ask my chemist father how to adjust that. But, despite those minor problems, these tasted great. The recipe was very similar to a pound cake recipe, only in quick-cooking muffin form, and with more liquid.

In other Sweet news ....

I'm washing my first load of laundry! Bedding from icat's bed. fun fun fun!

updates to follow!

My Sweet Woot ....

My sweet woot
Hm, my woot
Hm, my woot

I really want to see you
Really want to wash with you
Really want to touch you, woot
But it takes so long, my woot

My sweet woot
Hm, my woot
Hm, my woot

I really want to know woot
Really want to dry with you
Really want to launder, woot
And it won't take long, my woot
(hallelujah)

(and on and on she sings)

There's a light IN the dryer? What posh laundry world have I stepped into?
Will wonders never cease?

Laundry report to follow ... tomorrow, most likely.

Thursday doesn't even start, it's Friday I'm in love

Well, the good news is that my washer & dryer came yesterday. Turns out there WAS 'white glove delivery' on them. So I didn't need to arrange for someone else to come.

But then again, when they (the freight people) came, it seemed like they really didn't know what they were doing, they said they'd never delivered a washer and dryer before. There were no white gloves involved. There was some bickering between the two of them. They were trying hard to make me happy, but it was making me nervous. I didn't want my washer and dryer tumbling down the stairs. So in the end, I had them put them in the garage - my original plan - and wait for the installers to come Thursday morning. Since the installers are actually appliance installers, and local, as well.

But when I talked with the installer guy yesterday, he said the couldn't come out until 12-2 pm instead of our original plan of 9 am. So that messed up my park plans a little. We decided to go to the park promptly at 10 and come back home to be here by noon.

We hurried this morning to get ready for the park, and were in the van at 9:45, just in time to hear the van say clickclicklickclick instead of starting. The Grand Lunar thinks it's a low battery, nothing worse, and offered to come home and jump it, but since we already had to hurry home to be there early, and were by this time getting a late start, we just bailed out on the park plans.

So I came home, removed the basement door, and assigned the children to some basic jobs.

I really need to revisit the chore schedule and system, what we have been doing this summer has NOT been working. And, with school looming in our future, I really need to get busy.

If only I could figure out where to start.

In the meantime, I'm waiting for the call from the installer people, and fighting a bad cold. My head is congested and hurts and I'm coughing and feel rotten. So ... with that whining out of the way, I'm off to clean the kitchen.

WOOT!

I'm getting my new washer and dryer tomorrow!

The Grand Lunar found me a sweet deal on woot last week!

I've got a space cleared for the old washer & dryer until my friend can take them (hi esea!)

I'm so excited!

In other news:

Did someone ask about the shoes I wanted that I couldn't get so I bought the slippers?
Didn't I post about the great shoes here?

Here's a picture of them:

Aren't those kimshoes if you've ever seen such a thing?

But they only came in 9 and 10. Not my size.

So sad.

Anyway. I better get to bed, so I'm fresh and alert for my washer and dryer.

bleah

well, we're back.

I tried to post when we were gone but had some weird problem logging in. Well, it claimed I didn't know my password, but I'm sure I had it right. Maybe it was a capitals issue.

we got back Thursday night.

I am very bleah today.

I did the Iowa Basic testing with my two oldest for the first time. A friend encouraged me to do it, saying it would encourage me. I should've known better. We got the test results in the mail on Monday, just before we got the phone call about The Grand Lunar's Father.

After receiving the results, I certainly don't feel any better. I feel like I stood us all against a measuring stick. They didn't do all that bad. The things that didn't seem great shouldn't have surprised me. And The Grand Lunar doesn't think the scores were too bad, nor does he think they're a measure of what's important.

But.

they sure knocked the fun out of me.

I was already down about some other things, before we got the results.

Have you read that pig book by Phil Vischer? Sidney & Norman, I guess it's called. I listened to my mom & sister read it to kids last weekend. It made me cry. Not to ruin the story, but the Sidney pig thinks he does everything wrong. When he meets God, Sidney is afraid God will yell at him for doing everything wrong. God tells him He loves him, three times. That's all God has to say to Sidney. It makes Sidney feel better.

The book made me cry because I know for a fact that God does love even losers like me and Sidney. But ... that doesn't make me feel any better. The book made me jealous of Sidney for feeling better, knowing that God loves him. What's my problem that it doesn't make me feel any better? I still feel like I'm doing everything wrong.

I'm really dreading the school year. I don't know what I'm going to do or how I can possibly improve on things, not because they're going too well to improve but because I have little hope I can change for the better.

Plus? My kitchen is a mess.

And although children should really appreciate blueberry pancakes, they don't. I would've been better off making regular pancakes.

Maybe my blog peeps will enjoy the pancakes more than the kids did:

And hey ... if those don't make you happy, maybe these $7.44 slipper/sandals I bought at WalMart will. They're terrycloth. Very soft, verrrry squishy. They might not be as great as those shoes I can not own, but they'll make a cheap comfy happy foot.

I guess I better go clean that kitchen.

More Stuff than one entry can hold

I had stuff to say

and pictures

and just didn't get to them

and then more stuff to say

and ponder

but it'll have to wait.

The Grand Lunar and I will be traveling to IL tomorrow to be with his sisters ... Lunar's father passed away today. We were actually finishing up plans for Lunar to go down and help provide care for his dad after what was intented to be a minor surgery turned out to be more major and his recovery wasn't going as well as hoped.

But we didn't see this coming.

If you could pray for us as we travel, and for the Grand Lunar as he processes and grieves. And that we might show the light of Christ's love despite our own failures and problems. And for my parents as they care for our children while we're gone.

Thank you.

Kim

I'm so blue I don't know what to do ...

Okay, I'm not blue as in sad.

I'm just up to my eyeballs in blueberries!

On Wednesday we went blueberry picking. We went way south of town, got to the place, and were told they were at the end of their season, early this year, and that the picking wasn't great for littles, all the remaining blueberries were small and high. They sent us another 7 miles down the road to a place that still had great picking.

we got about 18 lbs in around an hour, not too bad. It was hot, but early enough in the day we didn't bake.

Yesterday I made blueberry quickbread, only made it in a 9x13 pan because it cooks much quicker:

And that was well received and tasty ...

Today someone suggested scones. Scones??!

I've never made scones. I thought they were fancy. But I thought I could give them a shot. Turns out they're really just glorified biscuits! Who knew!

So this morning we had Lemon Blueberry Drop Scones:

The recipe I pulled from allrecipes.com -- Lemon Blueberry Drop Scones

I didn't make many changes ... I used dried lemon zest because it's what I had, no real lemons here. And I used plain fat free yogurt, rather than the lemon yogurt suggested, because it's what I had. I added about 1.5 tsp lemon flavoring, as well.

here is the recipe as I made it:

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup plain fat free yogurt
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup butter, melted
* 1 cup fresh blueberries*

GLAZE:
* 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients. In another bowl, combine the yogurt, egg and butter. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in blueberries. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned. Combine glaze ingredients; drizzle over warm scones.

*If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw before adding to batter.

Stay tuned for more blueberry fun!