Christmas Jams…for FREE

I’ve been enjoying the sounds of the season…in The Big Brick House, in the Periwinkle Princess (that’s my van), and in the many, many, MANY shops I’ve visited this year.  I like to keep a variety of Christmas tunes on my iPod, so I was really excited about this offer from Amazon.  It’s a variety of free seasonal music, with a new download available every day in December!  I’ve found downloading from Amazon SO easy, and the music is a great variety…not the stuff you’re hearing every day, all day…so you’re sure to like at least ONE of the songs.

It’s like Amazon’s little gift to me, and I can hardly wait to see what’s in store each new day!  (Yes, I’m a giant child…I’ll be the first one to say it!)

Confused Country Girl

I’m not so “citified” that I can’t respect a slow-moving John Deere in the road at harvest time.  I know that those farmers work VERY hard, and I don’t curse them or go road-raging when I’m stuck behind a combine in the fall.  That said, can someone please explain why I was slowed by THREE John Deeres today?  There’s a high temp of 30, and I’m looking at snow that’s about four inches thick on my front yard.  Is there really so much farming going on TODAY that I should see so many farm machines on the road????  I had a good, long drive home to ponder it.

Have I mentioned lately that I love the Midwest?  🙂

Trapped in a Snow Globe

When I sit and look out the windows right now, I feel like I’ve stepped beyond ‘Winter Wonderland,’ and am now living inside a snow globe. The snow is absolutely SWIRLING out there! Neat to watch…not so neat to drive in.

Stranger Danger and Santa Claus

Why is it that we teach our children not to take candy from strangers, to run away when someone tries to grab them, and to trust their instincts when someone makes them feel uncomfortable, only to throw them onto the lap of a large man with a mask of white hair with the promise of a candy cane if only they’ll take a picture or two with him? 

Poor L had an emotional breakdown when we went to see Santa tonight.  She completely forgot all about wanting to ask Santa about what treats he gives his reindeer when the Jolly Old Elf reached over and picked her up.  In the back of my mind, I was almost waiting to hear our “Stranger Danger” yell:  “This is not my mommy!”  UGH…

We talked about it afterward, and she was actually looking at the picture over my shoulder as I started writing this.  She politely informed me that she didn’t think she liked Santa anymore, and she was sorry but that was “just all.”

(sigh) As I always say…there goes my shot at Mother of the Year.  😉

A Crafty Reality

My family did a little crafting this weekend.  It was really nice for all of us to do something together.  I saw (somewhere….) a cute idea to paint little pumpkins white and make them into snowmen, and thought it would be a great way to use those little guys (it was so sad to think of throwing them in the trash).  We kind of did our own thing once we decided to make snowmen, so it was a fun demonstration of creativity for the girls (Not to mention that it was an adventure of felt-and-hot-glue-gun proportions)!  I added some finishing touches today, after the girls and I returned from play group. 

As I admired our handiwork, something struck me as funny.  Can you pick out the “Snowmomma” in this bunch?  She is the one who didn’t have time to get herself dressed up, because she was was busy getting the rest of her crew ready.  Her “hair” is up in a ponytail that’s been there so long, it’s like it sprouted from her head that way.  Snowmomma barely had time to fix her face before the picture, because she was making sure that all of the family’s noses were just so, with no hot glue (hmmm…snot?) running down their faces.  She’s the one who is sheepishly standing in the back, trying to hide from the camera.  Snowmomma is a little bit lumpy in strange places, and her Snow-girlish figure isn’t what it used to be.  Still, she smiles.  She’s proud.  She loves her family so very much.

Art imitates life, people…that’s all I’m saying.  😉

“Mailman Claus” is Coming to Town…

I get a lot of magazines.  Really.  A lot.  At times, I’m fairly certain that my mailman dislikes bringing the giant stack up to the door and trying to force it into the too-small mail box.  I found one of my magazines blowing around my porch last week (the mailbox was full, so I’m guessing the magazine started out on the chair just next to the box).  But I have to wonder how the mailman could hate bringing the magazines this time of year?  I love when I start to get all of the beautiful Christmas issues…I’ve decided that it’s my official start to the season.

The first one this year was the Southern Accents Christmas issue.  It had an elegantly decorated tree on the cover…Oh, Tannenbaum, how I’ve waited for this time of year!  Shortly after came O, with Oprah in a sea of red Christmas balls, Country Home with that handcrafted-looking tree, Family Circle with cookies that I wanted to pick off the page and eat, then All You with the soft glow of candles on purple.

I was inspired.

I decided to let loose, and I’m not ashamed to say that Christmas is already creeping into our house!  The girls and I sat in a rocker together (by the fireplace, no less) and read “A Star for Jesus,” and “J is for Jesus,” which are two great Christmas books for little ones.  I even found and watched the animated Grinch movie on TV the other evening.  I’m listening to Christmas music on iTunes as I write this.

Some (possibly my mailman included) might think it’s too early to haul out the Christmas cheer.  I’ve decided to embrace the Christmas-ness of it all and do it up right!  So, it’s my official welcome to Christmas to encourage you to deck the halls, readers!  (Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la–la–LA!)

I’m Going to Find That Tree!

We found ANOTHER dollar in the same leaf pile today.  I’m going to scour my neighborhood tomorrow, in search of this magical tree that drops dollars in autumn…and then I’m going to dig it up and plant it in MY yard!  🙂

Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees…

But, evidently, it DOES fall off of them.  This is (no kidding) how I found a dollar in the leaves on our driveway yesterday.  Hooray for the wind!  I love dollars…so it was a good day.  🙂

Finding Character in Odd Places

I don’t like my basement.  It has a lot of spiderwebs, it smells funny, has a creepy crawlspace that is full of old lady junk, and just generally makes me feel icky when I’m down there.  That said, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the amount of character I’ve found as Dave has been cleaning and sealing everything.  It’s nice to see that some aspects of the home weren’t touched (destroyed, in my opinion), as the house was “modernized.”

First off, there’s the brick.  The Big Brick House has brick virtually everywhere (it’s a shocker, I know  😉  ).  But the brick in the basement is really old.  There is some huge, textured brick at the very back of the house on four of the basement walls, and there’s a smooth brick floor in one of the back rooms, as well.  Prior to Dave cleaning back there, I wouldn’t even walk close enough to SEE those rooms, let alone take pictures or go in them by myself, so to say he’s done a fantastic job cleaning up would be an understatement. 

I like how the old brick is mixed with the “newer” brick.  I also like the giant copper pipe that runs through the room…I’ve just never seen copper pipe this big, or this MUCH of it!

I also found that there are some cool doorknobs on the simple doors in the basement.  Most of the locksets are intact, and we were discussing the other day how much we wish we could find keys (or have some made) for the locks in the basement and in the rest of the house (any suggestions would be welcomed).

There’s also a really fantastic utility sink in the basement.  We talked about bringing it upstairs, cleaning it up, and repurposing it as something else, but it’s just SO DARN BIG.  It’s a solid sink…REALLY solid, but I like the two basins, the depth, the lines of the faucet, and even the fact that it stands on these spindly-looking legs.  It’s definitely in need of some concentrated elbow-grease, but the great thing about elbow-grease is that we can always afford it!

Empowered to “Do-It-Her(My)self”

So, the Home Depot workshop was good.  I actually learned a lot, and came out with some EXCELLENT hand-outs afterward.

To start out with, our instructor, Chad, told the group (only four of us, which was nice) that Home Depot has decided to actually LOWER some prices on a lot of items around the store because of the economy.  That was really the only sales pitch we got, so it was no-pressure.

Chad took us around the store and showed us a lot of the energy efficient products, and products to help winterize homes.  He explained what the Energy Star rating means, and also showed us the Home Depot version known as Eco Options (turns out it’s pretty much the same thing).  He answered questions from the group, and used his knowledge as a plumber to really go in-depth about tankless and standard water heaters (a lady in the group had a lot of water heater problems).  In the area of doors and windows, as well as appliances, we heard from employees who specialized in those areas. 

Each employee took a very budget-friendly approach to the methods they explained.  Rather than just selling the idea of “buy all new windows,” we were presented with the idea that we could replace windows a few at a time, or even purchase the shrinking window film to decrease heat loss in our homes.  The same thing was true for fans – we were never told that only new fans would help with energy efficiency, but that ANY fan will help with energy efficiency by moving the air around.  It was refreshing to just learn, instead of having to be on-guard to sort out what was a selling tool and what was real information I could use.

The brochure that we were given to take home was wonderful.  It expanded on what we were shown in the store, rather than just being a summary of what we’d just learned.  It also included some project supply lists for different projects around the house.  I sat and read the brochure the same night that I got home, and kept poking Dave on the arm to say, “Ooh, we should do this!”

It would have been nice to have had some demonstrations.  I had hoped for a demo on how to apply some weatherstripping or how to maneuver that crazy window film.  But, that was really the only thing lacking.

Stay tuned for details on the projects that we’re undertaking as a result of this workshop!  First up is sealing the basement, then realigning and weatherstripping our front, back, and side doors!