I Blog Today

...because I know my mother will come looking and be disappointed if I don't. But here's your warning, Mom: I'm not going to do this every day thing for the rest of my life. ;-)

It was another great day around here, only slightly more productive than yesterday. This morning we got up, James took one look at the dog, and decided enough was enough--he must be groomed. Today. James wasn't too awful fond of the hack job I did on Charlie's head poof while he was away. Agreed, he looks dumb. But he's a poodle, for goodness' sake--there's no way to avoid it, right?! I thought James would get used to it after a few days (I did), but he didn't last long enough to get used to it. I called the groomers and they said they could squeeze him in this morning, so James took Katie (somebody has to hold the dog and feed him ice cream and peppermints--HA!) and headed to town with the Charles.

So I had devotions with the boys this morning, then we got right in to school. I worked on the puzzle here and there in between helping with school stuff. I love having a puzzle out. It's so relaxing, even when you just work for a minute or two at a time.

I also used school time to try to fix Joe's helicopter. Mom & Dad had gotten each boy one of those helicopters that you see people selling in the mall. You know, where they pull a cord and the chopper goes sailing up through the air and then comes back and lands right in the guy's hand. They're heavy plastic and much more substantial than the remote controlled one that we got for Sam for Christmas--that broke and had to be replaced and then the second one broke, too. Anyway, these were the gifts that the kids just opened up when James got home on Monday night. On Tuesday afternoon, after several crashes of the same nature, Joe's chopper landed wrong and a propeller blade snapped in two. I felt so bad for him. Not just because his helicopter was broken, but because he felt so bad that he had broken something Grandma and Granddad had just gotten him. I told him there was no chance superglue would do the trick, but it only seemed right to try.

So I spent 30 or 40 minutes this morning working on it. I used a razor blade to gouge notches into each of the broken pieces (that I was hoping to meld back together), then "skinned" a twist-tie down to just the thin little wire, wrapped it tightly around and through the notches of the one piece, onto the other piece (while supergluing them together at the broken joint) and then through the notches on that piece. The notches were to ensure that the wire wouldn't slip loose. I covered the whole thing (plastic, wires--everything) with superglue, then used electrical tape on top of that. Slid the whole piece back into place, glued the top cover back on, then taped it once more. We let it dry for a little while before Joe headed to the porch to give it a try. In the end, we got a flight and a half out of it before it broke again. Ha! It flew just fine, but the crash at the end was just more than the superglue could handle. The wire and tape held so the blade didn't actually fall off, it just dangled loosely. In the end, I still feel it was a great success because I have a son who knows that his mom really cares. :-)

After lunch Joe wanted to play Scattergories again, just me and him since Katie was still gone with James. I made him help me finish up my puzzle first, though he really wasn't much help. We played four rounds of Scattergories, then I send him to finish up on school while I played two rounds of Battleship with Sam. By then Katie and James were home with a dog who in my opinion looks no less stupid than he did before. But he feels and smells sooooo much better. :-)

I told James I was making spaghetti for dinner tonight. He didn't say much, but I could tell he wasn't overjoyed at the thought. I wasn't the least bit surprised when he brought home some chicken breasts so we could have chicken parmesan to go along with it. He sliced the breasts in half, then beat them with a knife the way Grandmother used to do with deer and elk steaks. I must say they were very, very good. I would've been satisfied with the spaghetti personally, but the chicken was a nice addition.

I did another load of laundry this evening. It's really my way of stalling with the ironing. I can't make myself do the ironing unless I'm all caught up on the laundry so I'll know that there's not anything left to be washed and ironed and I can really and truly be "caught up," if only for a day. Of course, I'm not doing the ironing tonight either. Have some other things I need to attend to. Thank goodness. ;-) Maybe tomorrow will be the big ironing day. Or maybe not, because...

It looks like we're supposed to have two showings in the next few days. One lady saw the house online and really liked it and wants to come look at it on Saturday or Sunday. The young couple who were here at the Open House a couple of weeks ago went and looked at four other houses yesterday and have decided that they'd like to come and look at this one one more time, sometime from Thursday to Saturday. That's a good sign, right?! I'm in a strange state of mind, not daring to get my hopes up over anything, but not wanting to be faithless and just expect that nothing will come of any of this! There's a delicate balance somewhere that I struggle to maintain. ;-) Either way, please help us pray for God's will. That's all I'm interested in: God's will, God's way, in His own good time. :-)