Learning Curve

The Circle of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 19:09:00 +0000

Well, it's been a hot minute since I've updated anything here on the blog. I've popped over a couple times to write and have been sidetracked, I'm sure you can relate.

In my last update I told you I'd gone back to work. July 17, 2025 was my 2nd anniversary with the City. There has been SO MUCH drama and changes in those two years. Our director was fired and replaced and all of our superintendents have retired or been replaced. I've been promoted to office manager, and am currently trying to right the ship within the administrative team. Replacing people has been extremely challenging, partially because our salaries aren't competitive with the private sector and partially because people lie REALLY well on their resume and in interviews. The previous office manager hired, and lost, three differed part time people for the same job, over a 6 month period. I think the one I just hired is going to work out, fingers crossed on that one.

Olivia continues to thrive in the equestrian world. She's getting to do a lot of traveling with her employers, and has been to several World Shows. Her employer is very generous and includes her in their team photo shoots, magazine articles and posts.

She earned her purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in June. She's teaching several kids BJJ classes a week, has hosted women's self defense seminars and is on the adult teaching staff at her gym as well.

Additionally, she traveled to Australia in July of this year for grins and giggles. She spent a week in Melbourne and had a grand time. She had one of those delayed landing situations that required running through the Sidney airport with all of her things to catch her connecting flight. I was super impressed with how well she navigated things, especially after having been awake and traveling for over 24 hours straight by the time she landed in Sidney. She had a great time, and got to do some fun animal encounters at the Melbourne Zoo.

We added a son-in-law!! Lindsey married a wonderful young man, named Ethan, who we all adore. He is a federal forestry firefighter, and is often out west putting his life on the line in the fires that seem so prevalent there. They are very down to earth and don't like a bunch of fuss or fanfare, so the wedding was a simple, private event with only parents present.

Then in August, they blessed us with our first grandchild! Little Hazel Grace was born 7 weeks early, but is healthy and perfect, just tiny. Lindsey and baby are both doing well, and Ethan is completely smitten with his new little love. On a side note, someone in our area needs to open a preemie shop because it's crazy trying to find anything like that unexpectedly.

That's all my updates for now. I hope you're all doing well. I'm tossing around the idea of a new blog, so I'll keep you posted on that.

Big Changes!

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Mon, 04 Sep 2023 12:00:00 +0000

In my last post, several months ago, I told you all that I was looking to reinter the workforce. I'd applied for several part time positions and had ZERO response. Then I saw a full time position in my town's Public Works Department, and applied on a whim. Well within 2 days I got a call back, followed by an interview on a Thursday morning, job offer by Thursday afternoon and I started working within a week.

My hours are supposed to be Monday-Friday, 8am until 4:30pm, but there's only been 2 or 3 times that I've gotten out of the office on time. By the end of my second week, the office manager announced that she's already targeted me to be her replacement when she retires in three years.

We shall see how this all goes. I do like the co-workers, and I meet some REALLY "interesting" people. The family is adjusting and helping pick up the slack around the house. The dog seems to be taking my absence the hardest. so he's my shadow when I am home.

In other news, Lindsey turned 18! It's hard to believe the "baby" is now an adult. She's been doing a lot of house/pet/farm sitting and has a new thing where she's milking a couple of cows pretty regularly for a family that's traveling. All this in addition to her position at the museum. She finished a new 1850's outfit for herself and has a little traveling to Renaissance Faire's with a couple of co-workers.

Olivia's career is thriving. She's gone for the next several weeks, floating between several horse training centers while the owners are traveling to shows and vacations. She's also planning her next big trip. She's heading to Israel in March 2024.

I hope you've had a great summer! It's hard to believe we're in September!

Touching Base

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 01 Jul 2023 13:42:00 +0000

It's hard to believe it's almost been a full month since Lindsey officially graduated. Her graduation gift was finally completed, and I was able to pick it up this week. I'd sent all of her recital/sports/camp/youth group shirts off to have her memory quilt made. Here's the final project.

The month has been busy for her. She's working, did some additional pet/house sitting and has been going out with work friends to bowl, eat and do random things. She's back to physical therapy on her knee. She's mostly doing at home exercises and going to the YMCA to ride the recumbent bike and do leg presses to strengthen the knee. She goes back to see the PT for another evaluation in three weeks.

I'm wrapping up small projects around the house and sending out resumes for various types of jobs. Thus far, I'm not a hot commodity, but that's ok. The right doors will open up, at the right time.

I hope you're having a good summer!

Lindsey's Graduation

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Mon, 05 Jun 2023 18:19:00 +0000

This past weekend was the grand finale of Lindsey's homeschooling, and my homeschooling Mom career. She did not want to participate in the homeschool group's graduation ceremony. Instead we opted to have a small gathering here at the house. We invited family, close friends and such. We ended up with about 21 people spread throughout the house.

We did an evening event, with heavy finger foods (meatballs, sliders, side dishes and a huge cake). We ate, then I did a little speech and presentation of Lindsey's diploma and then had photos done with each family unit with Lindsey in her cap and gown.

It was low key, but a good time and it was how she wanted her graduation to be done. The beauty of homeschooling, it didn't have to be like everyone else! I was so busy preparing food and being a hostess, I didn't think to take photos of the food spread, and other than the scheduled photos (that my BFF was in charge of), there were few photos taken. Here are the highlights!

Congratulations Class of 2023!!!

Weekly Wrap Up - Big Adventures

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 27 May 2023 16:04:00 +0000

We are in our last two weeks of homeschooling. I'm basically just waiting for Lindsey to turn in her final report and we're done. Graduation is scheduled for June 3!

Lindsey finished physical therapy on her knee last week and we had the follow up with the orthopedic nurse practitioner, who has now finally decided that we do need an MRI. She said to "be thinking about which surgeon you prefer" so I'm guessing she's finally come to the conclusion that there is a problem. It's ridiculous that insurance won't cover imaging until after 6 weeks of therapy, which has actually made the knee worse. The MRI is scheduled for May 30.

Lindsey and a couple of coworkers decided to have a 19th century picnic in our local park this week. They wanted to enjoy their finer clothing, and mess with random park goers as well. So many people asked them why they were doing it, and they responded "Just to have fun", and people still kept saying "but why"?

They ate, walked around the park, played a few time appropriate lawn games and then decided to dance the Virginia Reel. A group of teens saw them dancing and came and asked if they couild show them how to do that. They danced for over an hour with this random group of young people.

Olivia is currently in London! It's been a great learning experience for her, learning how to navigate international airports, subways and the city itself. She's been to Westminster Abbey, Buckinham Palace, Queen Victoria Monument, London Eye, Big Ben, House of Parliament, The Tower of London, Tower Bridge, The National Gallery, The British Museum, Churchill's War Room Museum, Trafalgar Square and a plethora of other places. She also saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham, and just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see the United National Annual Peacekeepers Memorial Parade. She has taken literally THOUSANDS of photos on her camera, but here are a couple snippets from her phone thus far.

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Weekly Wrap Up - Senior Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 12 May 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Last week my BFF came out in the middle of the week to do Lindsey's senior portraits. Olivia was off work, so the four of us got to goof off together. Here are a few of my favorites. The lamb she's holding is one that she had to pull and tend to on her own. It was the third in a set of triplets, but was 5 hours behind the other two in birth.

It was very breezy and cool on photo day. Here are a few bloopers for your entertainment.

Lindsey has been away, house/dog sitting, since last week. It's her first time being away from home alone for more than a night. It's been a good experience for her. She's had to work out her schedule to have time in the morning to care for the dog and still get to work on time. Work is close by, so lunch breaks are spent tending the dog. She figured out it was best to put lunch in the microwave, walk the dog and then eat before going back to work. This is her last full week of PT, so she's had to keep up with those appointments on her own as well. I assume her school work has been completed, I'll be checking that this weekend. She's come home for dinner several evenings as well.

Graduation announcements went out in the mail this week. June 3 is the "official" date. I've ordered the cake and am planning the menu.

In other news, Olivia picked up her foreign currency at the bank. She leaves for England a week from Mother's Day!

Weekly Wrap Up - Goodbye April

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 14:12:00 +0000

The last two weeks of April have been busy and seemed to have flown by. Tom and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary on April 21, and Olivia turned 20 on April 25. Olivia no longer being a teenager seems very odd.

Our anniversary fell on a Friday, and Tom had to work. We did go out to lunch at a Japanese restaurant before he left for work. The food was really good (but far more expensive than it was the last time we went), and the sodium had me poofy for a couple of days, but well worth it.

We had Olivia's birthday party on April 23. We had family and friends over for dinner to celebrate. She was house sitting out of town, and working her regular job all week, but Tom and I were able to meet her for lunch on her actual birthday, and I sent cupcakes to jiu-jitsu as well.

Lindsey has been working at the museum and as a mother's helper on Wednesdays (her day off at the museum). She's picked up another house/pet sitting job for 10 days in May. She's on her last stretch of homeschooling. All she has left is to finish reading The Count of Monte Cristo and write a 10 page analysis and then it's a wrap.

Senior portraits are scheduled for May 3! I can't wait to get that done and share those with you.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap Up- Easter, PT and Travel

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 12:34:00 +0000

We celebrated Easter/Resurrection this past weekend. Olivia was house sitting elsewhere, and working at the farm, but was at home for dinner and egg coloring in the evening. However, there is no photo of her with her Easter basket.

Lindsey injured her knee back in October playing volleyball. It gets better, then every now and then it will flare up. We went to an orthopedic back in March and while they are "pretty sure" she's torn her meniscus, she has to do 6 weeks of physical therapy before insurance will authorize imaging. We were finally able to get her in for a PT evaluation on April 5, and she started therapy this week. The good news is that it's close to her job, so she can go directly there after work on Tuesday and Thursday, and I don't have to go.

Lindsey is also doing some cross training at the museum. She's learned to shear sheep, and is training on several other farms/time periods. She's supposed to also learn tinsmithing and blacksmithing.

Olivia's been working and teaching jiu-jitsu, and is also planning a trip to Europe in May. We've got her flights and hotel booked, as well as travel insurance. The last thing we need to do is go to the bank and order English currency and then she's ready to roll. I can't wait to hear all about her trip when she gets home.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap Up - The One With a Surprise!!

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 14:42:00 +0000

This past weekend, was my 55th birthday. I always make over other people's birthdays but don't really think much about my own...as the numbers slowly creep up. Saturday, my husband took me out for breakfast and then we did some antique mall shopping. We were gone for about 3 hours. The church directly beside our house was having a big Easter Egg Hunt, and as we pulled in, I commented to Tom that based on all the cars, they had a really good turnout, despite the horrible weather.

Then I saw a receipt blowing through the yard and grabbed it up. Briefly looked at it and said something like "wow, somebody ordered a lot of pizza". Then I walk into my sunporch and there stood about 30 of my closest friends and family yelling "Surprise!"

Ya'll, Lindsey spent the last 3 months planning a surprise birthday party for me, because I've never had a party, EVER. It was literally the best birthday ever! Friends from 2.5 hours (and 30 years of friendship) were here, family, in-laws and a few newer friends. I didn't take any photos, but did have a couple people send me a few snapshots.

The amount of coordination, sneaking and preparation that went into the whole thing was pretty amazing. All of my inner circle were so worried that they would end up being the one to let the cat out of the bag, but I was totally surprised.

The rest of the week has been a flurry of activities.

Weekly Wrap Up - Hello Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 25 Mar 2023 20:39:00 +0000

Spring arrived on Monday, and it was a frigid 17 degrees here. I'm not amused. I'm ready to be working out in the flower beds and garden. I will have to plant my lettuce and beets this week and hope for the best. If I wait too long, they'll be taking up needed space when warm weather planting time comes.

The girls have been busy little bees. Lindsey had her first overnight house/pet sitting job over the weekend. She enjoyed it, but was glad to be back home in her own bed when the weekend ended. She's been working 5 days a week at the museum trying to prepare the team for Military Through the Ages event at Jamestown Settlement & American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. Here is a photo of the team that went, in full costume. Each uniform, including the leatherwork was hand stitched, all within a four week window.

In addition to being an interpreter on the 1850's site, Lindsey is training to work the German site and the 1760's Settlement. Here she is in her settlement costume. She is so stinking adorable.

This week, I ordered her high school diploma and graduation announcements. We're wrapping up our homeschooling journey really quickly!

Olivia is busy with work and jiu-jitsu. She's been going to various seminars and is now officially an instructor. I edited her bio to take our where we live. I'm sure it's not hard to figure out if anyone really thinks about it, but no point in making it easier than necessary.

I share what the girls are doing outside of their education for several reasons. First, I'm a proud mom and I like to brag on my children, no apologies either. Second, for those who question "success" for homeschooled students "in the real world", I like to show that homeschooled students/graduates can be just as successful, if not more so than their peers. Being allowed to follow your passions, and not just be forced to fit into a cookie cutter mold is a wonderful gift.

Weekly Wrap Up - Exploring Nature

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 15:09:00 +0000

Last week I said I wouldn't be doing a weekly post, and yet, here I am. At least this week I have cool photos to share! My brother and sister-in-law flew in from Texas over this past weekend, and we took them on some sightseeing excursions.

Our first day we went out chasing waterfalls. I found one small water fall that I never knew existed just outside of our town, and so that was our first stop.

We traveled further south in our journey and visited Crabtree Falls, then drove north along the Blue Ridge Parkway. If you endeavor to go to Crabtree Falls, take a barf bag for the ride, depending on the route you take. If at all possible, take the Parkway to Route 56. Lindsey was not a happy camper, but thankfully she was able to hold it together (or at least choke it back).

In the first waterfall photo above, if you follow the line of "white" up to the top of the photo, that is all water coming from the top. There's a 2.5 mile trail that you can hike up the side of the mountain to get to the top, we chose to enjoy the beauty from the bottom. Interestingly enough, as you walk up the trail toward the platform we stood on, there was a sign that said 23 people have died on these rocks, so please stay on the trail and pay attention.

Back in the car, and up to the Parkway we go. It's still colder in the mountains and trees are still bare, but the views are always gorgeous.

As you can see, Lindsey is the more advernturous, and Olivia is NOT a fan of heights. I did this great photo op of Liz, as if she was falling (she's actually standing on a hug boulder below the one I'm on). But it still has that "help me brother" vibe from Lion King.

Day two of our adventures, we headed in totally different direction and ended up at Natural Chimneys. The park was "technically" still closed for the season, but the gate was open, so we took that as a "Hey, ya'll come on in here." Ahem.

We found caves to explore, and a tiny little bat habitat. In the next to last photo, if you look closely you'll see the family on the observation deck at the top of the formation. In the last photo, I'm the little blue dot by the fence line.

We also went to a little park in a local town and crossed their swinging foot bridge (I forgot to take photos), walked their nature trails and checked out their man made waterfall.

The weather was perfect. It was a great couple of days of exploring.

Weekly Wrap Up - Goodbye February, Hello March

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 14:05:00 +0000

Our homeschool journey is creeping to a halt. Truly, there's not a lot to report these days. Lindsey is pretty independent in her studies. As of this week, she's finished all of her subjects for the year with the exception of her Language Arts.

Having said that, my Weekly Wrap Ups will be likely moving to every other week, or less, depending on the excitement level of things. I know I'll have some posts coming in May and June for bigger things like graduation.

Our new dryer was delivered this week. I've got a buddy coming on Saturday morning to hook it up. Lindsey's currently working 5 days a week at the museum in a push to get costumes finished for MTA. Olivia is working hard, teaching jiu-jitsu and living life.

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Have a great weekend! Chat with you soon!

Weekly Wrap Up - Valentine's Week

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 14:17:00 +0000

Monday was a regular school and work day for everyone. I did laundry and then ran by the laundromat to get everthing dried. I'll be working on getting a new dryer, hopefully in the next week or so.

Tuesday Lindsey had school and worked, Olivia was off. Tom and I went out to lunch for Valentine's Day. There's this cool little 50's style drive where we live. They actually have the little booth's you pull up in with your car, and the bellhop brings the food out on a tray to your window. There's a juke box inside that plays only 50's music, and at each table there's a phone to call the kitchen to place your order. We got there just as it opened and had the whole place to ourselves. The food is good, burgers/foot long hotdogs and fries and shakes, that type of things.

The girls had jiu-jitsu in the evening. Olivia is really enjoying her new role as a coach in the kid's classes. I'm shocked by this honestly, but let it roll on!

Wednesday was a regular school day. Both girls were off work. Lindsey did have a 2 hour babysitting gig in the evening. Church wrapped up the day.

Thursday was the usual, grocery shopping, school and jiu-jitsu.

Friday both girls worked and it was laundry day. In the evening, Olivia had rec league volleyball. Lindsey went to an indoor trampoline park with a friend.

I realize these wrap ups are bland, and repetitive. But we're in a season of normalcy, and that's ok.

Weekly Wrap Up - Stepping Out

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 14:59:00 +0000

This past weekend was busy. Lindsey went out with friends from work to a live show. Olivia scheduled Saturday off from work, and traveled to a 4 hour seminar for kids BJJ instructors. Olivia and the coach/owner are the two official kid's class instructors at her gym now. She came home with so much information and so many good ideas on how to improve their program.

Monday and Tuesday were regular school and work days for Lindsey. Olivia was off work both days. Regular jiu-jitsu classes were on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday both girls were off work. Although Lindsey added a 2 hour baby-sitting gig in the evening. I believe this will be a weekly, Wednesday evening thing, until she goes full time at the museum. livia traveled an hour away with her coach to teach BJJ at another gym.

Thursday morning I went to the chiropractor. I'd changed from Friday to Thursday to accommodate the girls' schedules, and then they both ended up having to work. I didn't make an appointment for next month since I found that our insurance doesn't cover chiropractic work this year. It amazes me that every year the cost of insurance goes up, but covers less. We're in a position where we are paying over $7,000 a year for insurance that we can't afford to use because of the ridiculous out of pocket amount that must be met before they cover expenses. Anyway, I did grocery shopping after my appointment then came home to putter around the house on small projects. Jiu-jitsu wrapped up the evening.

Friday both girls worked and I worked on laundry. Lindsey had a babysitting job after she got off work at the museum, and Olivia went to play volleyball.

I hope you all had a great week.

Weekly Wrap Up - Hello February!

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 14:11:00 +0000

Monday morning Lindsey was up early to work on her school work before heading to work. We also had a plumber come by first thing to take a look at our shower and determine what needs to be done to get it back in proper working order. He will be back Wednesday morning with all the parts and hopefully get it fixed without issue. I worked on laundry, and Olivia went with me to the laundromat to get things dried and folded.

I forgot to tell you last week, but Lindsey got her official "state employee" badge. Since she works at a state museum, she now has free access to the other state operated museums, AND...she has online access to the Smithsonian and Library of Congress for research purposes. Not bad for a 17 year old!

In case you missed it, I posted a recipe for Baked Chocolate Chip Oatmeal on Monday.

Tuesday morning Lindsey was up early to work on lessons again before heading out. She finished up her government class for the year. She's starting to wrap up her senior year. Olivia had to work as well. Jiu-jitsu finished out the evening.

Wednesday morning Olivia had to work, and fill in at another farm on her lunch break. Lindsey was off work, so she doubled up on some of her school work. The plumber arrived around 8:30, and by 11am all the new parts were installed and the shower was working, and the bill was outrageous. Hopefully we'll start saving enough on the water bill to offset the cost of the repair. Church wrapped up my evening.

Thursday both girls were home. I did my regular grocery shopping trip. Housework and bill paying filled my afternoon. The girls had jiu-jitsu in the evening.

Friday Lindsey was up early to get her lessons done and then it was out the door for another day of work. She's really doing a wonderful job of balancing everything. In the evening, she is attending a formal event at one of the local performing arts centers with a couple of her co-workers. I'll try to get a photo this evening and post it next week. I'll be doing laundry later, then heading to the laundromat to dry everything before it gets too cold, we're supposed to be back in the single digits tonight. Olivia has volleyball this evening.

Have a great week!

Baked Chocolate Chip Oatmeal

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 12:00:00 +0000

On Sunday mornings, we're all headed in different directions, and sometimes breakfast is a cup of coffee, or just a glass of milk. This week, I decided to try something different, and thought I'd make some baked oatmeal ahead of time that could be warmed up as needed, on an individual basis. I found a yummy recipe and fine tuned it a bit and it turned out to be a big hit. The fine tuning is listed in the "notes" below.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup quick oats (See notes below)
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 - 1 cup of brown sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 cup milk (dairy or non-dairy)
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted (or coconut oil)
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Melt butter, and stir in all ingredients except oats & chocolate chips. Stir well to fully blend.
2. Stir in oatmeal and chocolate chips, stir well.
3. Pour into greased/buttered 9inch baking dish.
4. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until edges are lightly brown and center is set.

Notes: I used3 cups of quick oats since that's what I had on hand. I leaned more towards the 1 cup of brown sugar, but did not pack it down. I used regular milk. I used mini-semi sweet morsels.

Serve plain, with milk or yogurt, or you could crumble it to use as a granola.

This was a huge hit with the family. I hope your family enjoys it!

Weekly Wrap Up - More of the Mundane

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sun, 29 Jan 2023 17:03:00 +0000

We're in a pretty good rhythm here with work and school for everyone. We've still not replaced the dryer, it's on my things to do list. There really wasn't anything noteworthy this week, so I'll share a few older posts.

When the kids were younger, we always ended our week with tea time. Tea time is one of the things I miss the most about our homeschooling/parenting journey. Join us in this blast from the past, for Tea Time With Emily Dickinson from 2014.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap Up - The One Where The Dryer Died

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 16:26:00 +0000

Monday was a regular work day for Lindsey. She got up early and completed her school work before she left. Olivia was off work from her regular farm, but ended up filling in at another farm. I did my usual Monday laundry day, until the dryer stopped working. I finished up all the washing and then headed to the laundromat to dry everything. I was floored to see that you can now use your debit/credit card to put time on washers & dryers now instead of needing to use quarters.

Tuesday, for Lindsey, was a repeat of Monday. Olivia worked a full day at her regular farm. I had an appliance repairman come by to look at the dryer and it's a dead soldier. Now begins the arduous task of trying to find and affordable, no frills, gas dryer that is in stock and can be delivered and installed same day. Jiu-jitsu wrapped up the evening for the girls.

Wednesday Lindsey was home, Olivia had to be at work. Thankfully, it was the last day of one of the dogs meds after last week's injury, so that's one less thing on my daily to do list. Mid-day, Lindsey and one of her new co-workers went hiking. Afterwards the co-worker came over and spent the evening and had dinner with us. Church wrapped up my evening.

Thursday Lindsey had training at the museum that ended up turning into a full day of work. Olivia was working as well. I ran errands and picked up groceries. In the evening, Olivia headed off to house/dog sit for the next several days and Lindsey went to jiu-jitsu. Olivia will still be working her regular job Saturday/Sunday even while house/dog sitting.

Friday, I spent the morning washing laundry and then headed to the laundromat to use their dryers. I don't mind going to the laundromat, but we were under a high wind advisory most of the day, and trying to keep the laundry in the basket from place to place was a challenge. I also see that going to the laundromat during the day is much better than the evening. I've got someone coming over in the evening to look at the dryer gas line. I can't find a shut off valve and I need to know what we're doing before I get a dryer delivered, so we don't get the house blown up in the process. Lindsey is supposed to meet Olivia at volleyball later, so the dog and I will be watching cooking shows.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap Up - Just Life

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 13 Jan 2023 19:21:00 +0000

Over the weekend, I was able to finish the great purge of 2023 and get the basement cleared of extra items. This also allowed me to get the Christmas decorations down and put away. I even purged some of the decorations while I was at it.

Monday I shared a tour of our Craft & Sewing Room on the blog. Olivia and Lindsey both worked. Lindsey got up early and finished her school work before getting to work at 8:15am. I have to hand it to her, she's good and keeping up with everything she's got going on.

Tuesday both Lindsey and Olivia were out the door early to go to work. This was the last day of Olivia's 19 days straight, she was happy to get home in the evening. Shalom managed to tear the ACL in his right hind leg. He tore the left last March, and they'd said the other one would eventually tear from over compensating. The poor guy is back on pain meds and muscle relaxers, and limited activity for the next 6 weeks. The girls had jiu-jitsu in the evening. Olivia earned her first stripe on her blue belt.

Wednesday morning everyone was home and it was a nice slow morning. Lindsey knocked out her school work and then went to meet a friend for lunch and shopping. Olivia decided she needed retail therapy as well, so she went shopping and grabbed lunch alone. Church wrapped up the evening.

Thursday was grocery and errand day for me. The in-laws stopped by mid-morning. School work was completed along the way, as was laundry. Jiu-jitsu finished up the day.

Friday - Lindsey had to work, and Olivia had to go fill in for the morning shift at another farm. Olivia took Tom out for lunch, to thank him for the work he did on the floor in her room. My friend Yvette stopped by late morning, and we had a lovely coffee and pastry snack. I knew she was coming, so I'd run to one of the local European bakeries to pick up a couple of surprise treats for us. The girls both have volleyball in the evening.

Have a great weekend!

The Craft & Sewing Room

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 15:34:00 +0000

When we decided to redo the basement, that of course meant that Olivia's room upstairs would be empty. I fully expected Lindsey to want to move, as that room is bigger than hers, but I was wrong. Instead, she asked if it could be her sewing room. I compromised, and we turned it into a combined craft (scrapbooking) and sewing room for both of us.

We didn't change the color of the room itself, because I loathe painting. We need to get a couple of window treatments, since we repurposed the old ones to fit into Olivia's new room. We also need a couple comfortable chairs for our work stations. However, here's a tour of our new creative area without those two items. These are the original hardwood floors that run throughout the main floor of the house. The flooring we picked for the basement was picked to match this and pull that same color/wood tone throughout the house.

There will be a large folding table in the middle of the room that we can both use for projects. It's currently being used in the unfinished side of the basement for purging/sorting purposes.

Sometime in the spring we HOPE to put new flooring in the sun porch and give that a fresh look as well.

Weekly Wrap Up - Hello 2023!!

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 12:00:00 +0000

Happy 2023!!!! The early part of our week was spent finishing up the basement makeover.

Monday was my husband's birthday. Much of his day was spent helping me moving furniture. I baked him a triple chocolate cake, with chocolate frosting, and we ordered Chinese food for dinner. You can tell the poor guy was worn out in this photo. Lindsey was off work since she's a state employee, so she helped us a lot.

Tuesday, Tom headed back to work and Lindsey had her first day back to school after a long holiday break. Olivia is still in the midst of a 19 day in a row work stretch. I spent most of my day working on phase 2 of the house make over (post to come later). Jiu-jitsu wrapped up the evening for the girls.

Wednesday was pretty much a repeat of Tuesday. In the evening, the girls stayed home, and I went back to teach a class at church each week.

Thursday morning, I had a job interview. Now that Lindsey's almost done with school, and needs my assistance very little, I'm looking at reentering the work force after a 20 year hiatus. This particular position is with a temporary agency, filling in in a payroll firm to cover for maternity leave. I also have an interview on Monday for a bookkeeping position with a small local church. I'm still planning to keep my part time job with the ballet studio as well. I've been the bookkeeper there since 2015. After my interview, I ran errands, got groceries and was home before 1. Jiu-jitsu wrapped up the evening.

Lindsey completed the rest of her school work for the week to accommodate her work schedule.

Friday Lindsey worked at the museum (her winter schedule will be Monday, Tuesday & Friday each week). Olivia and Tom had regular work schedules, and I began the arduous task of purging all the extra things from the basement. I found a great "Buy Nothing" group on Facebook and was giving away things all day long! So much easier than trying to make a run to Goodwill or other thrift store. I still have stuff that will go that route, but the bigger items left today!

The girls' winter volleyball league started back this evening. Despite being tired from a long work week, and a long day they were eager to get back on the court.

I hope you all had a great first week of 2023!! It seems like it was just yesterday that we were all freaking out over "Y2K"...and here we are, 23 years later and computers are still working, grins.

Basement Make Over

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 07 Jan 2023 01:42:00 +0000

My husband was off work for a 12 day stretch beginning December 23. We had decided to use this time to work on redoing the flooring in our basement. You may (or may not) recall, we had a flood in August of 2020 that required all the carpeting to be ripped out, and we lost much of the furniture that was in there as well. We'd just hadn't gotten around to it, mostly because we just don't use that side of the basement much since we quit having our school room down there.

Back in November, I realized how crowded Olivia's poor bedroom was, and had an epiphany that we could redo the floors and she could move downstairs to have more room. It does tend to be a lot cooler down there all year round, so she slept on the floor a couple of times to make sure she wouldn't mind. She actually sleeps better in the coolness, so there's that.

December 22 - we moved all of the sewing/crafting/scrapbooking supplies from this side of the basement to the storage side, where the furnace and hot water heater are. The room didn't seem to have "THAT" much in it when we started moving things over, but we soon filled up the unfinished side of the basement. I left a little path to the deep freezer, the washer/dryer and left a safe gap around the furnace and hot water heater.

December 23 - The tiles that are on the basement floor are asbestos, so we chose to encapsulate them instead of having to pay a company to come in and "properly remove" them. There are a few tiles cracked and missing. Tom and Olivia spent the day filling those missing areas in with floor leveler and cleaning the floor. As seen in the photos, I had to leave a few tables up until I finished packing/delivering holiday sweets.

December 24-25 I'd told everyone that there would be no working on the floor, mostly because I didn't want anyone getting stressed and causing havoc for the holidays. This is true in part, but it was also because Olivia had bought Tom and oscillating tool for Christmas, and we didn't want to risk him going out to buy one when he got to a place where he needed it.

Here are photos of the before, from several different angles. You can see the areas that were missing tile, or had broken tile (the black is the missing area).

December 26 the flooring began in earnest. This was a learning curve, since Tom had never worked with flooring. The original plan was Olivia would help him, but with her work schedule and having to work the horses that were at the barn, she wasn't here for much. Lindsey and I were the helpers.

This first photo was the beginning, and the second photo was where the day ended. I'll admit, I was not amused with the lack of progress. I am a results driven individual, but it was a learning curve and slow progress was to be expected.

Part of the issue was that Tom's wood working equipment is all in our outside shed. When he works with it, he moves it out onto the back patio. This meant every time he had to cut a piece he'd have to go up the basement steps, through the house and out to the back yard. Let's just say he put a lot of mileage on those steps during this project.

December 27 we started working at about 8:30 and got considerably more completed. Today's biggest hang up in progress was having to cut the pieces around the fireplace corners, the closet door and the door jam.

December 28 - For the most part, the flooring was straight with no cutting in. There was an area around the door way into the unfinished side of the basement that took a bit of time to get it fit properly. Then the last row of flooring had to be cut to fit a strip about 3.5 inches wide.

December 29 - Tom had to go pick up the trim, transition strips and nails for the nail gun to finish out the edges of the room. He ran to the store and picked up the needed supplies first thing in the morning, then we headed out to have our final Christmas get together of the year, with my BFF and her husband.

December 30 - The trim was installed in the main room, and the closet flooring went in.

December 31 - Honestly, it's a blur. I don't think we really did anything on the basement. We had folks over in the evening for snacks, games and fellowship, so I spent my day making food and cleaning the house. No photos...sigh.

January 1 - Tom got the closet trim installed and we assembled Olivia's new rolling clothes rack and shoe rack. She moved all of her closet items in between shifts at work.

January 2 - We spent the day moving Olivia's furniture into her new suite. I realized that Lindsey is a little stronger than I'd given her credit for, as she helped me moved some pretty heavy items. Olivia was able to get most of her things put away between shifts and at the end of the work day.

Here's a tour of the new "suite". You'll notice her horse motif throughout the room, I guess you'd say it has a southwestern flavor. You'll have to overlook her boots, they are apparently fashionable and decorative. First up is the stairway from the upstairs, complete with twinkle lights on the handrail.

As soon as you come down the stairs, the bedroom portion of the room is directly in front of you. Notice her t-shirt quilt on her bed. I saved all the shirts from camps, ballet performances and sports teams from the time she was little and had the quilt made as her graduation present.

To the left, directly by the stairway is her other dresser, and the close is directly behind the wall, under the steps.

Looking out across the room, the next portion is her "sitting room", complete with a working fireplace.

The back part of the room has a doorway that exits to the outside (beside the fireplace), and then her TV area and dining table and library/office run along the back wall.

This was a much longer process than I'd envisioned, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out. In case you're wondering, Olivia doesn't spend anymore time in her new room than she did the old room. She's rarely home during the day, and mostly hangs out up here with us like always.

I'll show you what we did with her old room in a later post.

Weekly Wrap Up - Goodbye 2022!

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 14:53:00 +0000

We had a frigid Christmas Eve and Christmas Day here. Christmas Eve morning the temperature was 1 (yes ONE) degree, with crazy wind chill factors. Poor Olivia had to work both days. She reminded me of the scene from "A Christmas Story" where Randy couldn't put his arms down.

Christmas Eve evening, we traveled to the in-laws. The drive to their place was a bit of a challenge, with more ice on the back roads than I was expecting. I took an alternate route home. We had a lovely dinner (albeit very loud). We stopped by the barn with Olivia around 9pm so she could check on the horses and closed up for the night. I realized when we got home, that nobody took a single photo.

Christmas morning, Olivia was out the door early. Lindsey slept in until about 9. I started cooking our traditional breakfast (eggnog french toast with warm cherry pie filling on top, and bacon). I had also ordered our tradition Santa's White Christmas coffee and had a lovely pot of that brewing as well. Olivia came home around 10am, and we all had a lovely sit down breakfast.

The plan was to go to church, but our service started at 11am, and by the time we'd had breakfast it was too late to get there. We took our time and opened up gifts, and allowed Olivia time to warm up a bit, the poor thing stayed huddled under a blanket until time to go back for the afternoon shift.

The good news, after opening gifts, she went back to work warm. Once I saw the temperature prediction, I'd planned to let her open this gift ahead of time. However, for the life of me, I couldn't remember what I wrapped it in, and as fate would have it, it was the very last gift under the tree.

After the evening shift, we packed up and headed out to my brother's house for Christmas dinner. It's a little over an hour drive, but at least the roads weren't as bad as going to the in-laws on Christmas Eve. We stopped by the barn around 9pm to check horses and shut everything down for the night.

The rest of the week consisted of the kids working, and Tom and I working on a project here at home. That post will be coming soon, just a few small things to finish up.

I hope you all had a great week! Happy New Year to everyone!

Weekly Wrap Up - Christmas Week

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 12:12:00 +0000

The weekend was busy with Olivia and Tom both working, and Lindsey was at Lantern Tours every night. Of course, technically this is now working for her now that she's an employee and no longer a volunteer. All of the shows this year are sold out, which is wonderful for the museum! This first week, Lindsey was in "England". Here she is with the cast from that skit. (I don't know who took the photos, but gosh I wish my phone was this good!)

Every year we get a photo of "the triplets". The two girls on either side of Lindsey are siblings, one a year younger, one a year older than Lindsey. But they always look so much alike they've been dubbed "the triplets" for the last several years.

Saturday I went to Christmas tea with my pal Yvette. We had a lovely time, and even got to decorate gingerbread houses after the meal was over. So much fun, and such a nice way to slow down from all the busy things of the season.

Sunday was the usual church and work, with everyone going their separate ways. Tom and I went and picked up supplies for a big project we'll be working on over the holiday break. He is off 12 days, so we're tackling something I've been putting off for a while. I'll post about it when we're done. I was able to have a sit down dinner with 3 of the 4 of us before Lindsey had to leave for lantern tours. Olivia had to warm her dinner up when she got in from the barn.

Monday was a regular work day for Lindsey, and the start of a 4 day break for Olivia. I worked on laundry, and baked more cookies to continue our elf project. I was short one batch of red velvet, so those needed to be done. Olivia ended up going to help at one of her farms, since bad weather is expected this week and one of the owner's is still not well. She worked on getting round bales of hay in for the horses and filling the wood shed in case of power outages.

Tuesday morning the kids slept in and I headed out to visit my brother and take Christmas cookies to him. He fixed sausage, gravy and hot bread for our breakfast and it was so yummy! He gave me a cute little light up gnome decoration. I put it by the tree to stand guard over the gifts, isn't it adorable?

Lindsey was on the last site of lantern tours, and didn't get home until almost 11. The last tour starts at 8:30, but it takes a while for them to work through all the sites, and travel over to the new world. She was so cold, and tired when she got home.

Wednesday, Lindsey had a babysitting gig from 7:00am - noon. She got her school work completed before she left. I met Yvette for a quick coffee and then made the arduous trek to the grocery store. With an incoming winter storm, combined with being just a few days before Christmas, this was not a fun shopping experience...but it's done. Olivia made her rounds to her horse folks dropping off gifts and baked items. Lantern tours continued on through the night, with sold out shows again.

Thursday morning Tom worked from 6am until 9am, and then Christmas break started and he will be off until January 3. Sleet, freezing rain and rogue snowflakes started around 5am, but by mid-morning the temperature started to rise to a balmy 34 degrees, and heavy rains set in. We had a late breakfast then we all worked together to move items in the basement from the finished side, to the unfinished side. A huge project will be completed over the holiday break, there will be a post coming. I made a huge pot of potato soup for us for the next two days. With the temperatures hovering so close to freezing, and precipitation continuing to fall, I made the decision to have one of us drive Lindsey to and from lantern tours in case things got slick.

Friday here's what we THINK is happening. Olivia has to work. Lindsey has to go feed the chickens and other animals where she's pet sitting, and then is supposed to have lantern tours tonight. However, we have this mess of a weather situation expected. Temperatures are supposed to plummet by 8am, and a "flash freeze" of all the lingering precipitation is supposed to take place making travel impossible. High winds are then expected, causing possible power outages from downed trees. By 6pm, our temperatures are supposed to be in the single digits with wind chills of -16. The museum has to decide this morning if they are going to cancel tonight's performances (likely so, for the employees and patrons safety). So....having said all of that, I have NO idea what the day, or the holiday weekend will be like. I'm getting this post done early and that'll be one thing off my list.

Merry Christmas to everyone! Stay warm, stay safe!!

Weekly Wrap Up - Winter Arrives Early

noreply@blogger.com (Joesette) — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 19:40:00 +0000

Monday was a regular day. Lindsey was up early to work on school work before putting in a full day at the museum. Olivia went to work early as well. I went to town to pick up stamps so I could get Christmas cards in the mail. I also ran by the thrift store to pick up a couple of used pair of jeans for Olivia to wear to work. I worked on laundry when I got home. Then I moved on to Christmas food preparations, with my traditional fudge being my first task, then I moved on to gingersnaps.

Tuesday Lindsey was home, with the exception of play practice in the evening, followed by jiu jitsu. Olivia worked, and then came home to grab a quick shower before heading off to jiu jitsu. She ended up having to teach the younger kid's class and the older kid's class. The instructor for one class was stuck in traffic on the interstate, and the instructor for the other class was out sick.

I spent the day baking several batches of sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies. We had a late dinner when everyone got home.

Wednesday Olivia headed out to work early. She's learning new skills this week so she can work on training and exercising the horses. She will be fully in charge of the farm from December 23-January 8 and will need to work the horses who are left behind while the owners head out to Florida for a big show.

An ice storm was scheduled to move in late Wednesday through Thursday, so I spent the day getting things done in case we lost power. I finished baking all the cookies (red velvet cake mix cookies, and several batches of chocolate cake mix cookies). I also made three large batches of muddy buddy chex mix to use up extra cereal and chocolate chips. At some point during the afternoon, I ran out and picked up these cute little dog Christmas cookies at the dog bakery...yes, our town has a dog bakery.

Lindsey had dress rehearsal/friends and family night at Lantern Tours. She is in 3 of the plays, but predominantly is in the 1820's skit. The two rounds of shows for the night were over by about 6:30, and she was able to get home before any precipitation started. I've never seen her in this costume, so I was glad that she wore it home instead of changing into her normal clothes.

After another late dinner, the girls helped me to make peanut butter balls, which wrapped up my treat making for the year. Freezing rains started shortly before 10pm, but thankfully Tom was able to get home from work before it got back.

I was up and down several times during the night to check the weather and all was clear, up until about 6:30am Thursday morning. Sleet and freezing rain moved in pretty quickly. The museum closed for the day and rescheduled the night's Lantern Tours to next Tuesday. Tom drove Olivia to work since it was getting nasty pretty quickly. Her employer drove her home after the morning shift was over. By the time she was scheduled to go back for the afternoon shift the temperatures had warmed up enough that the roads were greatly improved, so Olivia experienced her first time driving in winter weather alone. She did ok, and I prayed the whole time until she texted me that she was there. She returned as it was getting dark, and I was glad to have her back home again. At least dinner was a bit earlier for a change!

Friday morning we were met with "freezing fog". Olivia drove herself to work, and forgot to text me she was there...she now regrets that, ahem. I went to get groceries, and now remember why I NEVER go to the store on a Friday. Lindsey rode along because she needed to look for a new pair of work boots. At store #1 we ran into one of the ladies she babysits for and chatted briefly. Within 10 minutes of being in store #2, we got a call from the lady at the first store, she'd locked herself and her 2 year old out of the car. Lindsey left me at the store and took my car to go pick them up and get them home, then came back for me. I guess it's good that your kid has keys to other people's homes, ahem.

I can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that Christmas is next week! Are you ready, or still working on items?