Waffles!

Last weekend we had the first Saturday morning was have had together in the new house without having any place to be!

So we decided to make waffles!


And Adam insisted on taking a picture of me in my PJs with no makeup.

Anyway...

We had a blast cooking eggs, bacon and homemade waffles in our new waffle iron! I wish that we had more time to spend together in the mornings. Most Saturdays I have Religious Ed and on Sundays we head to church. Not only do I have Religious Ed on Saturdays, but Adam also is usually up working around the house. Having this time together is so precious and I just love it!

Taking Down the Garage

When you have a really old house (say like it was built in 1886), you cannot get homeowners insurance without them inspecting the property and giving you a long list of things that have to be done. By the end of the October. So. Yeah. That is coming fast.

One of the items on the list was taking down the garage. The garage is old and useless. It was dilapidated and didn't house anything of any value. Adam, his dad, and brothers have been working on pulling out all of the junk out of it and then taking the old barnwood off the sides. (We are keeping the barnwood!).

Then this Saturday the official garage taking down happened!

Getting started on it.

The inside

Taking the barnwood off the sides

Here is the video of the garage coming down!
(Please ignore my obnoxious voice and laugh. Mental note: do not talk when you are the one videotaping!)

"Aunt Stephie! Take my picture on top of the garage!"

Right now the munchkin garage is still sitting on the foundation. But once it is gone, it will look really open there! We are saving up to try to build a real garage near the house....but we'll see when that actually happens!

My Cold

Ok. It is really cold in this house. Like seriously. And I have been complaining a lot about it. Especially on Facebook.

We haven't turned on the heat yet because it is like $400 a month to heat this house when it is set at 52 degrees (which doesn't do much good anyway).

And you can't just turn the heat on a little to get the chill out because it takes so long to get this old house heated up

When I complain other people are all, "Yeah, Steph. I know what you mean. My house is cold too." And I want to be all, "Oh yeah? Your cold is no where near my cold. Do you have a house built in 1886? Do you have no insulation in your outside walls? Do you have old old old windows that are drafty when you stand in front of them? Do you have a CELLAR underneath that doesn't keep the weather out? Do you? Then don't compare your cold to my cold!"

Normally I believe that people shouldn't compare because everyone has different things that are hard.

But seriously. Don't compare your house built in 1980 or your townhouse with buildings on either side to my cold old house! It just isn't the same. My house is cold.

AND...I know it isn't even COLD yet. But the nights have been cold. And I have to walk around here in a sweatshirt, gloves, and sleep with an electric blanket and space heater!

And many days it stays so cold inside even when it is warmer outside!

Crazy old house.

And my cold is worse than your cold.

So there.

=)

Overheard in Preschool

Me: (Talking about germs, coughing into your hands, not putting your hands in your mouth, nose, etc)
Student 1 (who is very shy usually): "Miss Stephanie, My dad picks his nose."
Me: "Oh. Well that probably isn't a good idea."
Student 1: "And then he puts it in his mouth."
Me: "Well. That really isn't probably a good idea. There are a lot of germs when you do that."
Student 2 (very earnestly): "Miss Stephanie! My grandpa farts....when I pull his finger."
Me: "Oh......Wow.......Actually, my dad used to do that too."

Depression Mentality

So I decided recently that in my past life, I must have been a housewife during the Great Depression.

Seriously. I'm not sure what it is. I have a serious problem getting rid of anything or throwing it away that I think is useable.

I keep telling myself that I need to go through my closet and collect clothes to donate. Anything I haven't worn in a year should go. Yet...? I take it off the hanger and think, "But it is perfectly fine. I could wear it this year". I need to change my attitude to one that it would be better used for someone who needs it than sitting in my closet, but I just can't help thinking that "it is perfectly fine". It feels wrong to get rid of something that doesn't have something wrong with it. I seriously have clothes from high school in my closet.

I also HATE to waste food. It makes me really crabby when there are leftovers that aren't eaten. Doesn't matter if they are from something I cooked or from a restaurant. That is perfectly good food that would make a meal. I really really get frustrated when food is wasted.

Even this week with the sugar. I opened the sugar to bake and there was only a little left in the container and it was clumpy. And I had a new bag. And I could have dumped the old stuff and put the new bag in there. But did I? Nope. I crunched up the chunks of sugar and used it. It was perfectly fine!

Another point came up today. Candy. I don't even really like candy. I rarely eat any candy, but I seem to always acquire it anyway. I will eat dark chocolate once in a while or something dark chocolate with raspberry (yum!), but most of the time, I can easily leave it. Adam, on the other hand, loves candy. So I have a basket with candy in it. But then sometimes he won't eat it for some reason. But I won't throw it away. It is perfectly fine candy. Even though I won't eat it (give me Cheetos over candy any day) and Adam isn't either....I just can't toss it. "It is perfectly fine!" Maybe someone will visit and want to eat it?

This came up again tonight when my parents, uncle and cousins came over for dinner. My cousin Elizabeth who is a senior in high school grabbed a piece of chocolate from the basket and asked "How OLD is this?" when it looked like...you know...like old chocolate. I responded that it wasn't THAT old and it was perfectly fine and then she started going through my basket. She promptly decided that anything from Christmas definitely needed to be tossed. And Valentines Day, "Look! There's hearts on it!" and Easter. But come on? Easter? Easter wasn't THAT long ago!

But in my heart? I know it is for the best. There is no reason to keep candy from almost a year ago that no one is eating.

So this weekend? I am going through my closet.

Seriously.

I hope.

I am going to try.

Elizabeth going through my candy basket
And her showing me the candy with Christmas trees on it

Does anyone else do that? Do you save stuff because "it is perfectly fine"? Or are you good at tossing? What about with clothes? It is hard!