Everyone is doing better. I am hearing less coughing. I do still have a couple who haven't been sick yet, so they may be on the way down. My throat is stiff and I have the occasional flash of soreness when I eat or drink anything :-(

Began going through some drawers from the bedroom in preparation for moving the furniture out. I will sell it as soon as I can get it cleaned out. Hubby and I are very much minimalist in our clothes and mine are already out of the bedroom. We have a big storage cupboard built into our bathroom, and it is just so much more convenient to keep half my clothes in there. The half that can hang up takes up about 4 feet of closet space. I have 8 feet. Hubby has less clothes than I do. I will just have to find an arrangement for his none-hanging clothes. some sort of small drawers in the closet?

Everything else stored in our bedroom is there more because I don't have anywhere else in the house, so how about just getting rid of most of it?

I have rediscovered that I like to spin. Very relaxing.

I may have the leak fixed. The bed is totally dry!

Work day at church today. This is the day each month when we clean the church real good, pull weeds, fix things, etc. Only problem is, it snowed last night and is supposed to continue all day. Nothing I know of is in need of repair. So I may call my dad and see if he really wants to go ahead with it.

Though, he had to cancel lunch yesterday, so it would be nice to go just so we can have lunch with him today. We'll see.

Oh the calm and peace of waking up to the sound of running water. So lovely.

Everyone is doing better. I am hearing less coughing. I do still have a couple who haven't been sick yet, so they may be on the way down.

My Joe and I went to Reno and picked up another waterbed frame.

1. When we pulled the old bed apart it was aparent that the base wouldn't have lasted much longer, even if the sides hadn't collapsed already.
2. This bed is very much taller. It may end up being too tall :-(
3. The headboard now covers most of our window :-(
4. I now realize how much is stored in the drawers in my bedroom that we don't actually use. 

History: my parents bought this bedroom set for me when I was 10. It has served Hubby and I well for our 32 years of marriage. It is old and fadded and scratched, but quite functional.

But as we have become more and more minimalist and as the plague of mice has invaded, we have already emptied half the drawers.

The other half are full of things that are either categorized as "keepsakes" (i.e. Mom's day cards from my kids), and things we likely will never use again (i.e. the wool I collected when I was into spinning, something I haven't done in ages)

I could easily empty almost every drawer, move the things I can't dispose of (such as Hubby's underwear, lol), and sell my furniture (and spinning wheel?) But can I really bring myself to do that?



Oh the calm and peace of waking up to the sound of running water. So lovely.

Unless you live in the deserts of Nevada.

And sleep on a waterbed.

Then, not so much.


Sigh, Yes, I didn't quite get the leak fixed. One final try today, and then I don't know what; buy a new mattress?

New Bed

Everyone is doing better, though I am hearing a lot of coughing. I do still have a couple who haven't been sick yet, so they may be on the way down.

Hubby and I bought a waterbed years ago, just as they were beginning to go out of fashion. We have been through two frames and 3 mattresses since then. This last couple of weeks our frame collapsed (honestly, it wasn't a surprise. We saw it weakening and tried to fix it). The pedestal is fine. It's the side boards that fell off, puncturing the mattress while it did it. I have fixed the mattress, though I'm not at all sure I got all of it. The floor is still awfully wet.

I worked on it yesterday, fixing the leak better. I hope I got it this time.

Found a new (to us) frame on craigslist, so even though  most of the family is well enough for school, I'll be driving into the city instead, to pick it up. Honestly, this one is so much better than what we have had for years! It has a bookcase-headboard and drawers underneath!

The Flu

The flu is running through our home. I've had three children I almost took to urgent care because of it (I believe in letting nature heal the way God designed whenever possible, but using er's when things are beyond what nature can safely do.) In all 3 cases, the child ran a high fever, was lethargic, and looked horrid. 2 of them got to the point of me thinking "If they aren't better in x hours we are going to the dr." Both were better in the time frame. Not well, but obviously improved.

Last night the 3rd kind of scared me. She was breathing weird, lethargic, high fever. I gave her ibuprofen* with the plan to take her to ER if there wasn't drastic improvement in 1 hour. Her fever broke 20 minutes later. She's still kind of out of it today, but has moved from the recliner to my bed. That's more moving than she did yesterday, other than bathroom trips. I haven't checked her fever in a while, but early this morning it was still gone. So, Yea!

The sum total is, we all missed church yesterday and won't be doing school today. We'll just vegge, watch the snow (winter appears to have finally arrived), and watch some movies.

Hubby and I bought a waterbed years ago, just as they were beginning to go out of fashion. We have been through two frames and 3 mattresses since then. This last couple of weeks our frame collapsed (honestly, it wasn't a surprise. We saw it weakening). The pedestal is fine. It's the side boards that fell of, puncturing the mattress while it did it. I have fixed the mattress, though I'm not at all sure I got all of it. The floor is still awfully wet.

It is so very tempting to go to a normal bed. So much less hassle. I know I could adjust easily, since I nap on the floor occasionally. But I am not at all sure Hubby can. When I'm done here I will be checking out Craigslist and see what I can find.

I did the minimum of my morning routine this morning.

Did school. Otherwise, though, no energy whatsoever. Just didn't accomplish anything.

Friday is my 2nd son/3rd child's birthday. Normally I take the birthday kid out for lunch, just the two of us. But this son has a job where he works during lunch hours. So, We are fixing to leave for breakfast out. Should get back in time to walk around the block.

Also intend to take child 5/daughter2 to test for her learners permit. She took the test last week and missed it by one question.

My kids are Giants
What everyone should know about living on a farm
The Table of Abraham
Sunny and Eve
They said it would get better- It does. You haven't even got there yet, Dear.

The Plague of Mice

I did the minimum of my morning routine this morning.

Today's schedule includes lots of arguing with myself. I should do school, but an just really Not in the mood. That doesn't usually stop me. I do it anyway. But last week we had an outbreak of spiders in the girl's room, and though we got a lot of it cleaned up, we didn't get to all of it. Specifically, I need to pull another bed apart and vacuum it and under it. That particular daughter has been sleeping on the day bed we use for a couch! So, yeah, that needs to be done.

Also, we have had a horrible increase in our already bad mouse problem (see the noted "snow" above. Anytime the weather changes more mice come in the house) So, I have bought some caulking and "big gap filler insulation" and really want to go around the house pulling out all appliances and filling in every teeny tiny crack I can find. I know of one big (for a mouse) hole that needs filling, though I want to save it for last so they can go out that way (hopefully).

While preparing to do this sealing work, I began to pull out all my stored jars. Mice have definitely visited them, so they have now been washed (well, the 2/3 I could pull out before everyone was running for the allergy medicine.) And another homeschool family from church gave us some things they don't need anymore that is on the dining room table waiting for me to go through. Long story short: we can't get to our table and we need it for supper.

Oh, and I'm still behind on work for the church.

So, yeah, we may need a work day more than a school day today. If we all work together we can probably get this all done by lunch time, leaving the afternoon for my normal work.

Need to list some more books on eBay as well as things on craigslist. I'm not really so concerned with the money as the fact that our local thrift stores are simply getting too selective with what they will accept as donations. These things are too good for me to be able to throw them away and I can't give them away, so I'll sell them.

Saturday Hubby took us to the Sparks city museum and train museum. Very interesting. One of the best trains talks we've ever heard.

Then we played Archery Tag. This is held in a warehouse of a Archery store, where they normally offer lessons. We used foam tipped arrows and wore head protectors. It was a lot of fun.

Today's schedule includes housecleaning, school, and rewriting my routines/housecleaning schedules to be Flylady adapted to my house. I am realizing my problem with really following Flylady is that I am doing better already at house keeping than I thought. I need to sit down and really think about what a completely "caught up" and clean room looks like and how close I really am. Honestly, in my bathroom, I need to do the floor for this week and finish scrubbing the hard water deposits off the walls of the shower, but otherwise, I don't think it could be much better than it already is. Wow!

Time Management for Homesteads- I'm not, technically, a homesteader. But I am a "wanna be." These are some great tips for running any household. Home management doesn't get the credit it deserves. It is the basic "enterprise" that makes life work for everyone. All other enterprises exist to support Home Management in one way or another.

Death is not the worst enemy.

Another cold

I think we have another cold coming on. Hubby didn't feel well last night, and I'm having a hard morning. Everyone else slept in.

Yesterday I only did around 2500 steps. This is not unusual for a Thursday. It's simply harder on days I don't have time to go around the block to get enough steps in.

Nice lunch with Dad and visit at his house yesterday.

I've done most of my early morning routine. I'm achy, so I skipped the Swish and Swipe in the bathroom. Still need to do emails and correct yesterday's school work.

Today, as soon as I'm done with my computer work, I will get the shopping lists ready and we'll go grocery shopping. May go to the thrift store and Walmart, too. I haven't decided yet.

I may or may not get extra housework done.

I did get the powerstrip fixed and the microwave shelf cleaned up. The nails holding the strip to the wall came out. So I put drywall reinforcers in and added screws. If that doesn't hold (as it might not in this house) I will have to do something besides hang the strip.

Still need to finish picking the music for church, and catch up on some paper work in my Control Journal

New Mattresses

One of my sons came to the conclusion his mattress was worn out and that was the cause of his backaches. So, since he has a job, he ran to Walmart after work one day and bought a new mattress. Unfortunately, he didn't call me and ask what size his bed was, and ended up buying a full for a twin sized bed.

So, Hubby ordered a twin mattress from Walmart to trade with him. It arrived yesterday. So during my housecleaning time, instead of doing what I had planned, I took the full mattress, and since its a Memory Foam type, I cut it up to make new mattresses for my two youngest kids (both of whom were using crib mattresses, though the 10yo had to extend it by adding padding under her pillows off the mattress. She now has a almost twin sized mattress. She sleeps on a bottom, full sized, bunk, but all her toys are also on her bed in shelves. We added plywood to the bed to make a sitting room type of arrangement. This was fine when she was little, but now she is taller and was really needing the bigger mattress.)

We've decided to go ahead and replace all the mattresses that need it. This may end up being as many as 7. It will take some time.

Yesterday I topped 5000 steps again. :-)

I've done my early morning routine. Still need to do emails and correct yesterday's school work.

So, today I will still do my late morning routine and school, but since I'm supposed to meet my dad for lunch, we will start school early instead of walking around the block.

I may or may not get extra housework done.

Ideally, I would clean under my microwave and fix the powerstrip/surge protector it and the coffee pot plug into (extra protection, over the GFI already installed. Besides, I can't reach the plug behind the dresser they sit on. My dad is an electrician and approves this set up as long as we don't overload the powerstrip) For some reason the strip fell off the wall where I hung it. I need to figure out what happened, remedy that, then clean everything up from the mice (have I mentioned we have a biblical-level plague going on here?)