Groovy's Ruminations

A Hot Topic

2012-01-13T16:05:00.012-05:00

Well, it's supposed to be a hot topic, but sometimes... Oh, you'll just have to wait and see.

For the past year, The BestHubbyEver has had a bee in his bonnet about rising fuel prices. We have a large house heated by an oil powered hot-air furnace. It's been getting plum painful to see the bill after the oil man comes to fill up our tank. Oy!

Accordingly, he (That would be the BHE, not the oil man) has been looking into alternative heat sources. You know - wood stoves, propane heaters, pellet stoves, Amish fireplace thingies, or insane amounts of aerobic exercise.

He discussed all of them with me and I smiled and nodded politely. He is not an impulsive man, so I knew a decision was going to take a while. In the meantime we could go on as we have been with me sneaking over to bump up the thermostat every time his back was turned.

A wife who's shivering in a parka in her own living room WILL do what she must to survive!

Anyhoo, he finally decided that a pellet stove was what we needed. He had me look them up online and compare their prices and ratings. He talked to everyone he knew who had one - they all love theirs - and he measured over and over again to figure out the best place to install it. Finally, he called a few stove shops and had them come out to give us estimates.

The short story is that we have had a pellet stove in our kitchen since November

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ARG! We interrupt this blog post to report another strong evidence of Groovy's mediocrity at blogging. She can upload pics. But can she arrange them and put them where she wants them in the post? NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Henceforth, the following pictures are A. out of order and B. not where I want them in the post. Just use your imagination to fix it all, K?

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Here is my sad, lonely, and COLD desk waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over on the far wall of the living room where it is always chilly. (Oh the irony! See all the blankets on the recliner??!!)

This is the only doorway opening in the-wall-that-cannot-be-removed. That round, brown hooey in the wall is the fan that presumably blows the kitchen warmth into the living room and bedrooms.

Here's one of the cozy spots the BHE set up. It's a lovely place to read or visit with friends.

And here's our pellet stove corner, complete with yet another comfy chair.

This is the model we own -a Napolean NPS 45.

And here is where I get to tell you how much I love/hate it.

First of all, after MUCH debate, we decided to install the stove in the corner of the kitchen, blowing inward to the rest of the house. I was a little worried about placing it there because there is a wall between the kitchen and the rest of the house. I was concerned that the heat might stay all bottled up in the kitchen and wouldn't make it adequately into the rest of the house, even though we did aim the blower toward the doorway. When I finally realized that the BHE meant for the stove to be our ONLY heat source (I was under the insane delusion that we still might use the furnace on occasion - you know, if we got chilly or something) I begged him to tear the dividing wall down completely.

Alas, it is a load bearing wall. Curses, foiled again!

Instead of tearing the wall down, we did some ventilation experiments. The final result was a fan near the ceiling that blows from the kitchen into the living room, and a cold air return vent near the floor.

The BHE moved some cozy chairs into the kitchen and then *gasp* moved my desk into the living room (It WAS in the kitchen. It's been there for the past 10+ years!) and we were in business.

Here's what I love about the pellet stove:

1. We finally have a warm spot that we can go to if we're chilly. (Not so fun with a hot air vent...)

2. I can hang wet clothes, etc near the stove to dry quickly.

3. I finally have a warm place to raise bread, culture yogurt, or start sourdough!

4. The flame is cheerful and cozy.

5. We all tend to hang out together in the kitchen/dining area instead of going our separate ways in other parts of the house.

6. The oil furnace is still functional so I can use it to fill in the heating gaps. Or at least, I can if the BHE is not here.

*gasp* Did I just say that?????????

And now, the reasons I Hate/Loathe our new pellet stove:

1. The reason we all tend to hang out together in the kitchen/dining area is because the rest of the house is COLD. ie. In spite of our best efforts, the kitchen area is significantly warmer than the rest of the house! Including bathrooms! *shiver* And bedrooms! *shiver* And the living room where my desk is! *shiver*

NOTE: It is very hard to type with numb hands and it is very difficult to enjoy watching movies together when we're SHIVERING! (We have no tv. Movies are seen on the iMac or they aren't seen at all.)

I'm just sayin'...

2. The pellet stove is high maintenance. We have to brush out the ash (particularly from the burn pot) and clean the glass in the door daily. This necessitates shutting the stove down, opening it up and making a mess. Every Day.

It has to be vacuumed weekly - either with a special ash vacuum or with a shop vac with special filter that will keep the ask from being regurgitated back into the air.

40 pound bags of pellets have to be carried up the stairs from the garage once or twice a day (depending on how many pellets we've been burning).

3. Like wood stoves, pellet stoves apparently attract dust. I have dust webs everywhere - from the ceilings, in the corners, on the floor. I can dust a room and then next day it is coated again. Blech!

NOTE: Max Tuttle, our chief dustbunny, loves this aspect of pellet stove ownership.

4. The pellet stove has an electric auger and blower. If the power goes out we will have no heat at all.

5. Hmmmm, I don't guess there actually IS a 5. I thought there would be because my feelings toward the pellet stove are much more negative than positive. (It doesn't show, does it?) I guess God is reminding me to be more thankful for #'s 1-6 in the "love it" department.

Ok, so there you have it. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to bring up another bag of pellets...

A Christmas Meme

2011-12-15T14:51:00.004-05:00

Author Tricia Goyer is hosting a meme this month so I thought I’d join in.

From Tricia: Here’s how it will work…post and answer the below questions on your blog or Facebook. Then either tag specific people or tag your readers/friends (so they will answer share and answer the questions too). Then hop over to my blog to fill out the linky. Easy. I’ll choose 10 winners to receive a 4 book Tricia Goyer prize pack***!

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Here are the MEME questions!

1. What’s your favorite holiday song?"Mary Did You Know"

2. What’s your favorite holiday tradition?

I really don't recall any "traditions" from growing up except that GrammaJ wrapped her gifts to me in colored wrapping paper and all the gifts (many, MANY gifts - see #6) from Santa in white tissue paper.

As for now, we have our last devotion of the Advent season with the whole family (including the folks and Uncle GrumpyPants and Uncle Pickle Nose) before we open gifts. We each read Scriptures about gifts God has given to us. Then we ponder the strange, selfish and bizarre fact that it is HIS birthday, yet we are the ones getting gifts - from Him and from each other. We take a few moments to pray silently, then we each write on a 3x5 Card a "gift" we want to give to the Lord for the coming year. We fold it in half, then write our name on the outside and it goes in a gift box under the tree.
After Christmas, I pack the gift box away (without peeking at what anyone wrote). The next year, as our devotion time starts, I pass out the old "gifts" so that we can all consider how well we kept our promises. (If someone is only with us for one year and not the next, I mail their card back to them.)

Once all the "gifts" are in the box, we sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. It is my favorite Holiday tradition because it really helps us all to focus on Jesus instead of on materialism and greed.

3. If you could travel one place with an elderly family member where would you go?

Travel with them? Ack! You're scaring me! :-O

To be perfectly honest, shopping in a nearby city is about as far as I'd want to travel with any of our 3 remaining parents... (No offense to them!)

4. What questions would you ask?

We're quite close to our folks now and see them all the time. I think they've told us pretty much everything by now. I never knew my grandparents at all and the BHE's are long gone. However, if the BHE's paternal grandmother (aka "Great Gram) was still alive I'd love to interview her about EVERYTHING. I got to know her in a small way when the BHE and I were dating and we visited her a few short times in the early years of our marriage. She was a cheerful, colorful old lady and we loved her dearly. It makes me sad that Girly-Girl and Silly-Head never got to meet her.

5. What is a non-tangible gift have you received from an elderly relative?

Wonderful examples of endurance and faith in God.

6. What is the best/worst/strangest gift you’ve received from an elderly relative?

Hmmm. Tough one. I've never really had any elderly relatives and the BHE and I didn't think of our folks as "elderly" until the past 5 years or so (They are, all three, in their early 70's).

Keeping that in mind: The BEST gift we've gotten from our folks (most notably from GrammaJ) has been date money for our birthdays (The BHE and I celebrate our birthdays only 3 weeks apart) and for our anniversary. It has been wonderful to be able to go out and enjoy each other sans kiddos even when the budget was tight. That's a gift we have determined to pass on to our adult children.

WORST? GrammaJ had an unhappy childhood with few, if any gifts. Consequently gifts mean alot to her. A. LOT. She likes to get them and she LOVES to give them. It makes no difference to her that the gifts she feels compelled to give are, at all, wanted or necessary. Over the years she has given the BHE a weird buttoning towel thing that he was supposed to wear after a shower. We use it to dry the car. She also bought him too small swim trunks (They were a "good" brand and she got a deal) and she has bought us, as a family, innumerable manicure sets, bath poofies (which none of us use...), and various other personal care items. She's also bought "toys" like model airplanes for the BHE or a baby doll for me. She still cannot fathom that we don't want gifts - and lots of them. She is sweet and generous and means well, but sometimes it borders on the ridiculous!

And that's not to say that she hasn't come up with some wonderful gifts over the years. It's just that she wants so badly to bless us all with what she didn't have that she tends to go WAY overboard!

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From Tricia: On December 22nd ten people who have filled out the linky will be selected at random to win one of the ten 4-book prize packs. You can either have it sent to yourself or a friend. To enter all you have to do is answer the MEME on your blog and then fill out the linky on this post. Easy.

Then be sure to pop over and read the other MEMEs on the linky – let’s celebrate our elderly loved ones!

Everyone who visits is tagged I hope you will join in! Have a wonderful day!

Groovy Has Won! Again! Woot!

2011-12-13T09:46:00.006-05:00

This past week I was ever so blessed to win yet another blog contest. No, not for my mediocre and neglected blog. What I mean is that Goatsong (My new goaty internetty friend) had a contest on HER wonderful blog (Hurry, go read it!) and I won!

(You can find proof of my blogging mediocrity in the underlined section above. It's not supposed to be underlined and I ain't sharp enough to figure out how to fix it!!)

Over the past year or two, my interest in vegetable gardening has been growing. Unfortunately, not much IN my vegetable garden has grown except for a lovely crop of tomato hornworms and a plethora of pesky slugs. So this spring, the Best Hubby Ever is planning to build me some raised beds. I can fill them with free goat compost and some lovely loam and maybe, hopefully, grow some real food.

Goatsong's gift to me was an autographed copy of The Heirloom Life Gardener by Jere & Emilee Gettle. It's a gorgeous hardcover book full of easy-to-understand and practical wisdom for organic gardening. It may even help a less than mediocre gardener like myself actually, you know, GROW something other than weeds!

Thank You, Goatsong!!!!!!

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Caprine Update:

A thousand apologies for not keeping everyone up to date on our goat adventures. We've been busy with raising the kids and milking Annika.

The boys, Rutherford and Ulysses, found a happy new home as pet wethers (a wether is a neutered male goat).

My grandkids loved to come visit the boys while they were here. Ji-Ji even gave them kisses!

In a quest to keep them entertained, Silly-Head became a human goat toy.
But all that attention was not enough. They wanted to GET OUT!

So we sold them to a very sweet couple who email me goat baby updates. :-D

At this point, Mindy has been bred (we think) and we just stopped milking Annika so she can rest up and be bred next month. After that we'll keep her on a fall breeding schedule since Silly-Head and I aren't overly enthused with winter milking. I already miss the milk, though. Hers is so sweet and creamy!! I made cheese and have taken it to a couple of Christmas parties thus far.

It. Was. Amazing.

Looks like I'll have customers lined up out the door once we get some more does (Oh PLEASE let Mindy have doelings!) and step up our production levels. :-D

A Quick Caprine Update

2011-08-24T19:50:00.004-04:00

Oh Mercy, It's been a busy summer! So for now, you'll have to be satisfied with with a few short words of update.

First of all, remember how we were going to breed Annika this Fall? Well, that sounded like a good plan, but God has a REAL sense of humor. As we were preparing her for a local 4-H show we noticed that she was a little on the chubby side. AND where she had been flat before, she now seemed to have a bit of an udder, AND she was dripping milk.

Hmmmmm.

After talking to her former owner (we bought her 3 weeks ago), it seems that she and the buck may have already had a tryst around the end of April.

Yep, we're having goat babies after all! Looks like I'll be milking this winter. In the basement! Where it's WARM!

She's actually due within a day or 5 of our next goat show in late September, so this could get interesting.

In the meantime I'm trying to get together a birthing kit, locating milking supplies, and "kid proof" our fencing. None of which I was planning to do until next Spring!

Nigerians usually have 2 or more kids. We're hoping for 2 does! Then I'll sign them over to the girls as their own goats and Annie will be mine.

Mindy, the larger, older doe, had a cough when we got her and several other health issues. We were able to deal with some of the problems by switching her feed and giving her some supplements (she had a copper deficiency), but the cough has gotten worse.

I finally called the vet on Monday and now we've got her on nose drops and antibiotics. Yes, folks, Groovy can now give shots!

I'm happy to report that she finally seems to be improving.

By the way, both the girls and the goats did a super job in our last fair. Girly-Girl got a 2nd for showmanship and fitting, Silly-Head got a 6th in the same age division and got a 1st (with a trophy!) in the Novice class. Mindy got a blue ribbon - even with her health issues, and Annika took a 1st AND made Junior Grand Champion!!!

By The Grace of God...

2011-06-20T13:50:00.015-04:00

(I don't know why part of this post is underlined. I can't figure out how I did it or how to undo it - so please bear with me!)

Pffffffffffffff. Tap*Tap Pffffffffffffff.

Is this thing on?

Good Day, Ladies and Gentle men! Welcome to my Groovy blog!

I guess I can extend that welcome to myself as well, since I haven't been here in so long.

Much has happened in the past few months. Since I do plan to begin writing regularly again, I shall give you a brief overview in photos and exclamation marks.

Hmmm, now where should I start?

OK...first of all, God has given me so many hugs lately that I am overwhelmed with thankfulness. I don't know why He is so good to me, but I do know that He is worthy of all my praise - in good times (like now) and in bad. He is my rock and my King forever! Lately, He has graciously chosen to bless me with several desires of my heart.

First, and most importantly, Funsocksgirl ca lled us with some very exciting news. She and J-Man are expecting a baby! Our first grandchild from them! (I have 3 other grandchildren that are my son's precious kiddos)

See, here's the proof!

Naturally we are VERY excited!!!!!!

Secondly, those of you who have been faithfully reading my blog for many millennia know that I love dairy goats. The girls and I have been involved with dairy goats in 4-H for 6 years now - other people's dairy goats. I have wanted my own for a very long time, but The Best Hubby Ever was opposed. Farm animals take too much time, cost too much, are too much trouble, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But over the past few years, as our passion has continued and as I've gained experience as a farm sitter and as the BHE has fallen in love with goat milk cheese, God has been slowly changing his heart. The final result being that we now have a small barn and pen and TWO goats of our very own!

Here's the new barn and pen that the BHE and our dear friend Pastor Jon built together.
And this is Miss Mindy with Silly-Head and Girly-Girl. Mindy is an older Nubian. She is supposed to be pregnant, but, unlike Funsocksgirl, she does not seem to be showing any signs thereof. We are leasing her for the summer. In exchange, we were supposed to get to keep her kids. But sadly, there are no kids.
So for a few days, she was here all alone and oh so stressed! Goats are herd animals and do NOT like being alone. She called and called and called and wouldn't eat. It was so sad! Fortunately, my friend EarlyBird has a goat farm. She said she lease us a companion for Mindy. See her in the back of the pen?

Her name is Annika (We call her Annie). She's a miniature dairy goat - a Nigerian. They didn't like each other much at first, but now they get along fine. We have the option to buy Annie in the fall after she has been bred. That way we can have her and some kids and finally get some goat milk.

By the way - and this is very hush-hush - so don't tell anyone: The BHE is totally smitten with this little goat. He-who-hates-animals LOVES her! He even likes our Mindy who is not pregnant and will not give us milk!

Isn't God good?

Here they are together. The picture is a little blurry, but I wanted you to see the size difference. They are both full grown.

And thirdly, I finally did it. I rode my bicycle 180 miles in the Trek Across Maine to raise money for the American Lung Association. I've been TRYING to do this for 5 years now.

Year 1: I tried to ride, but I hadn't trained adequately. I was absolutely miserable and totally exhausted. I quit after Day 2 and ended up working as a volunteer instead.

Year 2: I jumped into training too quickly and strained my achilles tendon. I couldn't train for over a month, so I decided to volunteer for the whole weekend instead while the BHE rode.

Year 3: I did a super job a training and was in GREAT shape for the Trek. However, 2 weeks before the Trek I noticed some discomfort in my left leg after a lengthy ride. It went away and I thought all was well. On Day 1 I rode. It was pouring and many folks were hypothermic, but I love riding in cool weather. I was so excited at how easy it all seemed. Sadly, in the last 20 miles of the ride, the leg pain returned and got worse and worse and worse. By the time crossed the finish line it hurt so bad I had trouble walking and stairs were murder. We had a dorm room on the third floor... I took a boatload of ibuprofen and iced my leg and hoped for the best.

I only made it 12 miles on Day 2. By then I was in so much pain I had to flag a medic. A SAG van took me to the finish. I volunteered for the rest of the Trek. I was depressed for weeks after the Trek. I felt like such a failure!

It gets very disheartening to see folks who are grossly overweight or who never train who ride the whole stupid event like it's nothing. I kick my butt trying to be ready and just can't do it. I was in a depressed funk for weeks and weeks.

Year 4 (Last Year): I had a severe allergic reaction in March and ended up on prednisone. Prednisone completely wastes me, so training was out of the question for well over a month. I didn't even try to ride. The BHE rode and I volunteered. Again.

Year 5 (THIS year): I started training in the middle of winter by running on the treadmill and lifting weights. I increased my distance and speed little by little in an effort to avoid injuries. I started riding when there was still snow on the ground. Unfortunately, we had alot of rain. So I tried to fill in the gaps with walking, running, and weight lifting. When I did finally get to ride, I felt great aerobically, so I increased my riding distance too quickly and, guess what? I started feeling that leg pain again.

I immediately backed off and did some research. The Lord led me to a fabulous website that helped me figure out that pain was patellar tendonitis. The website also gave me some wonderful info on how to treat it myself and how to alter my riding style to prevent it.

I was just starting to get a handle on the tendonitis when I had a bad reaction to the sun. Which meant that now I could not ride in sunny weather. Which we now had alot of. Yee-haw. I was able to treat it with a prescription steroid cream instead of prednisone, but now I was becoming seriously concerned about the weather during the event. I knew I could cover pretty much all of me except my face and neck. Sunblock helps, but does not provide complete protection. After much MORE research I found the answer: Take mega doses of beta carotene and buy a UV Buff. I ordered one from the UK and it didn't get here until 2 days before the Trek!

AND my period was due JUST before the Trek. I am perimenopausal and my periods are ugly affairs that make me pretty much worthless for a couple of days a month. I literally cannot exercise during those couple of days...

Needless to say, I was on an emotional roller coaster. Could I actually do it this year or was I going to "fail" again. One minute I'd cry and want to throw in the towel and the next minute I'd have a calm assurance that God really was making a way for me. After all, I was already in great physical condition. He had helped me find the info I needed to work on the tendonitis. He had helped me find the Buff and the info on beta carotene. He actually put me in a position of forced rest from biking (hello! Sunny Days!) so my tendon could heal. He worked in my body so that my period started a full week early. He helped me raise over $1,000 so I could be in the "Winner's Circle". Many, MANY people prayed for me. And He gave me a Scripture - Psalm 20:
¹ May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble! May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high! ² May He send you help from the sanctuary And support you from Zion! ³ May He remember all your meal offerings And find your burnt offering acceptable! ⁴ May He grant you your heart’s desire And fulfill all your counsel! ⁵ We will sing for joy over your victory, And in the name of our God we will set up our banners. May the LORD fulfill all your petitions⁶ Now I know that the LORD saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven With the saving strength of His right hand. ⁷ Some boast in chariots and some in horses,

But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God.
⁸ They have bowed down and fallen,
But we have risen and stood upright.
⁹Save, O LORD;
May the King answer us in the day we call.

Wow...It still makes me cry to read this. I truly felt He was speaking to me and yet I felt guilty and unworthy. There are people going through cancer and earthquakes and floods and tornadoes and dead loved ones. Why should He care about my insignificant desire to ride a bicycle.

And yet, He did. Not only did I ride the whole Trek, but I never had any trouble at all with my leg. My hands never went numb. My feet never hurt. I had one minor reaction to the sun and one application of the cream stopped it completely. My muscles did get tired, but they never got sore. Even today, after riding 180 miles over some incredible hills, I feel terrific! In fact, if I wasn't just a tad saddle sore (some chaffing, you know!) I'd be thrilled to ride a few more miles.

God. Is. So. GOOD!!!!!

The Trek went right past our house on Day 2. See what the girlies made for us? Take special notice of the balloon bicycle. Silly-head is getting quite talented with her balloon work!

And here I am. At the FINISH. With my MEDAL.
Because, by the grace and goodness of God, I DID IT!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

MINE!! MINE!!

2011-04-11T18:28:00.002-04:00

This past week, the BestHubbyEver and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary. We went out for coffee on the actual day, but this past Saturday we went on a more substantial date. We left the girls with GrammaJ and headed south.

First stop was Augusta for a small lunch, then we headed to Freeport. Because we've signed up to raise money for the American Lung Association via the Trek Across Maine, we had coupons for 20% off any biking or camping gear at LLBean. We had some fun shopping and came away with a couple of bargains. We grabbed a couple of free coffees at a local gas station (more coupons) and wound our way south to Portland via the back roads.

We drove here and there wasting our $3.75 per gallon gasoline in a leisurely way. Finally we parked near the Old Port and got out to walk on the cobbled streets and enjoy the ocean breeze. After quite a bit of walking we were getting hungry, so we reviewed the restaurants we were passing. There were plenty of them and many looked quite good, but we decided to settle for familiarty. We got back in the van and headed up to Yarmouth to enjoy a meal at The Muddy Rudder. The restaurant has a classy, romantic atmosphere, decent food and a gorgeous view of a tidal river and marsh.

We came in to dine rather early, so there was no live music, but the entertainment on the marsh was first rate. As we ate and whispered sweet nothings to one another ("Pass the salt, please"), we watched the birds outside. There was this one duck who seemed determined to go fishing for his own supper. He'd go down for a long dive, then come up for air and dive again.

We were watching pretty intently, trying to predict where he would surface. Suddenly he popped up with a shining silver fish flopping in his mouth! The BHE and I practically cheered for him. However, we weren't the only one watching the action. A seagull who had been lazily perched on a post also spied him. He was in action immediately, swooping on the duck in an attempt to steal his food. I could almost hear him yelling out, "MINE!!"

The duck dove, but he lost his fish. A few minutes later he caught another. This time TWO seagulls attacked him, "MINE! MINE!"

The next fish he caught almost got him brained as a whole flock descended on him. After that he (wisely, in my opinion) thought better of fishing in that part of the river and moved on.

The whole incident got the BHE and I to thinking. What were we doing paying for a meal? We could each just perch lazily on benches or chairs in the restaurant and wait. As soon as a waitress emerged from the kitchen we could swoop and try to snag a hearty meal! If she could fight us off, then fine. But if we overpowered her - "MINE!! MINE!!", we could end up with some awfully nice meals for very little work.

;-)

An Honest Review of Time4Learning's Homeschool Website

2011-03-21T16:44:00.007-04:00

Well, you didn't think I'd give you a dishonest review, did you? ;-)

The website Time4Learning approached me to ask if I'd be willing to try their homeschooling website for a month with my girlies and then write a review on it. My month is up! Th girls and I went there several times, though certainly not every school day. I haunted the parent forums and had the girls try several assignments in each subject level.

But before we begin, you need to know about our typical homeschooling practices and philosophy so you'll know why I feel the way I do about Time4learning. We all have different styles of teaching and learning, so no one curriculum is right for all of us.

First of all, our Groovy homeshool is a Christian homeschool. I do not demand that all our resources be Christian based - ie. I don't need Scripture verses in my math texts and sermons in my history books - but I will exercise my parental authority to censor reading material that I find overtly offensive to my faith. If a particular book or series or curriculum continues to offend, I will ditch it.

Secondly, I am a strong proponent of unit studies. I firmly believe that learning is more solidly entrenched when one object of study is approached from many different directions. This puts us in the position of usually scheduling our schoolwork around historical events. We can study related events in the same time period, art of that era, science discoveries related to the time or person we're learning about and write papers related to those topics. Spelling words are from the vocabulary found in our studies. In short, everything, but math and grammar are related together by a strong central thread. Right now we are studying slowly trough the Presidents of the Untied States. As we do we are learning about food, dress, morality, science, language, major issues like slavery, reasons for war, the political systems of the world, and great literature.

Thirdly, I am also of the opinion that homeschooling allows us the freedom to have a child who functions at different levels in different subjects. Ask me what "grade" my girls are in and I have NO idea. When they are ready to move on, they move on irrespective of their age. So one child may be in 4th grade math, 8th grade reading, 6th grade spelling, and 6th grade science. I really don't keep track, so I find the concept of trying to mash a varied child into a cookie cutter "grade" of expectations where some things would be too hard and others would bore her in their simplicity.

Fourthly, let's face it, I am eclectic. I know...you are shocked. I don't like to be locked into schedules and preset expectations!!

So now, I humbly ask you to take all this baggage of mine into account as I give my review:

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Time4Learning is, in their own words, "a convenient, online home education program that combines learning with fun educational teaching games."

Let's look at the pros and cons of the program. Shall we?

From here on out, I'll highlight the Positives (as I see them) in blue and the Negatives (as I see them) in Deep Orange:

You pay for the program on a monthly basis and are given a 14 day money back guarantee. So you can try it for two weeks and bail out if, for some reason, it isn't a good fit for your family - and there are no return shipping fees because it's all online. THAT's a good deal!

We had to start out with Time4Learning by entering each girl in a "grade". As you can imagine, this was tough for me. But I slated Silly-Head as a 4th grader and Girly-Girl as a 5th grader.

Well, at least I think I did. ;-)

There is a WORLD of support for new users. There's a lovely "Getting Started" guide to help moms and dads navigate the website and understand how it works. It was a wonderful resource for me. You can also get help in planning out our school year.

There is the usual FAQ section, but there is so much more. You can email the administrators for help - and they do respond fairly quickly. You can pump more experienced T4L parents for help and advice on the forums. You can use the website itself to plan out your school year. You can preview your child's lessons before they do them and you can opt to have a child who "doesn't get it" do lessons over again as often as you like.

As a side note, each child registered has her own home page and records. This makes it cery easy for the parents to monitor each child's work You can keep track of all that has been mastered and what subjects still need work on your child's "Progress Report".

The program worked without a hitch on my 5 year-old Macintosh. That was a big plus for us since we're moving into the era where many online programs have hitches and glitches when we try them. Time4Learning worked perfectly, every time.

Unfortunately, we quickly ran into problems for Silly-Head. She is a poor reader and the fourth grade curriculum was far too verbose for her to handle. One short email and the Time4Learning crew moved her to a lower grade. Now, as I'm looking back over the parent info, I see that I could have just moved her grade-wise in one subject instead of all of them. That's a nice feature if your children, like mine exist on several grade levels!

We still had a conundrum though, in that while she is smart enough for advanced (in elementary school terms) science and social studies, I have to read the instructions and text for her or she gets frustrated. If we dumb the text down so she can read it herself, then it feels baby-ish and boring to her.

And there is alot to read. Onscreen text. At my desktop. Ugh!

I have trouble reading passages/books online and my girls didn't care for that aspect either. They'd much rather curl up on the sofa while studying! It was very hard for wither of them to stay focused while reading on the screen, so I had to divide their lessons into much shorter segments.

Girly-Girl is a much better reader, but still got fatigued more quickly than usual by reading onscreen. Also, in one particular lesson there was a flashing graphic right next to several paragraphs of instructional text. She actually had to hold a piece of paper over it so she wouldn't be distracted.

Speaking of animation - Time4 Learning uses high quality, entertaining animations in many of the lesson presentations. The girls really enjoyed those. The animated instruction seemed much more apropos for the computer screen medium than the more text heavy presentations. The girls laughed frequently, and retained what they learned. The lesson was then nicely enforced in follow-up exercises.

Sadly, some of the humor used was "potty" humor involving multiple manifestations of gas, etc. I noted on the forums that this seemed to start in the third grade curriculum. It wasn't horrible, but also wasn't entirely uplifting, if you know what I mean.

I also learned on the forum that that God's Name is used as an exclamation in some of the sixth grade Language Arts lessons. That doesn't sit well with me. Nor did the creepy story Girly-Girl was supposed to read in her Language Arts about Houdini's wife and her persistant attempts to call him back from the dead. The story reeked of the occult. Girly-Girl read a couple of paragrahs and then called me because she was disturbed by the direction of the reading assignment. I scanned the rest of the story and we decided to scrap that lesson.

Moral of this story? If you do choose to use Time4Learning you, as a parent, will NOT want to go on auto-pilot. You will want to review the lessons ahead of time so you can discuss or weed out objectionable material.

On the plus side, there were book and reading assignments given from real books with comprehension and discussion questions to be completed after each chapter. There are also worksheets and charts in various subjects that can be printed off and filled out to complete various lessons.

I must confess that we didn't look much at the math or science curriculum. We've been using Math-U-See since day one of school and our science is informally sprinkled throughout our year as it fits in with our unit studies. I didn't want to interrupt the flow of the girls' studies to try something totally foreign to them. I did look at the math and science lessons myself, though. What I saw seemed orderly and well presented.

One feature on the site that the girls truly loved was the "playground". There are a number of wonderfully fun games for the kids to play. Some reinforce problem solving, some involve educational reinforcement and many are just silly fun. And they all WORKED - which, I will stress again, is a HUGE plus for ancient Mac owners. Even better (at least from a mom's perspective) there was a built in timer. So when "recess" is over, the website kicks your darling child right back to their lessons with no nagging from Mom. :-D

One problem I would forsee if our family were to use Time4Learning exclusively is the issue of having one computer and two children. I think it would complicate our schedule greatly to try to find a way to schedule all the lessons for both girls so that they could actually have the computer time they would need. For a family with many children, this problem would naturally be multiplied.

I also don't like the idea of them spending THAT much time on the computer - even in a learning situation. I much prefer reading aloud and interacting with them!

However, I could see Time4Learning as a viable program for a single child family or for a family that is going through a stressful time and needs a curriculum that is simple to use and fairly complete. They really have done a good job of making the site and the program thorough.

So, as is the way of all curriculum, Time4Learning is a TOOL. For our particular family I don't think it is a tool I would use often enough to be worth the monthly fee. But you and your family may feel differently.

Perhaps you need the ease of a curriculum where everything is laid out before you. Or perhaps you have a child that needs lots of structure and visual cues. Or perhaps you just need something new and different to spur your homeschooling efforts to new heights. You may even find Time4Learning very valuable as an added resource to the curriculum you already use. We are currently studying U.S. Presidents and the history in each of their terms of service. Girly-Girl seemed to enjoy learning more about how government works in the Time4Learning Social Studies program. It was a nice addendum to what we were already doing.

Anyway it goes, Time4Learning is certainly worth a try. Remember, you can - more or less - try it before you buy it. So check it out, I'm glad I did!

In Which Groovy is Finally Ready to Whine About the Weather

2011-03-11T09:32:00.005-05:00

...But I won't because there are waaaaaaaaay worse things than winters that never seem to end.

Like the earthquake and tsunami reported in Japan this morning that now threatens the whole Pacific rim.

Or the ugliness of divorce.

Or abuse.

Or slavery.

Or__________________________________. You fill in the blank; There's plenty of gloom and doom in the world to choose from.

However, there is also Hope. There is personal hope for each one of us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know Him? More importantly, do you trust Him? In these very troubled times, we need an anchor that holds. After a multitude of years in His service, I can testify that Jesus is a rock we can cling to. None of the events in the world today take Him by surprise and none of the events in your life are hidden from Him.

He IS in control and He cares about you. Please, trust Him today - with your past, your present, and your future - and find PEACE!

^{Psalm 46}

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”

The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

A Random Explosion of Groovy Thought

2011-03-07T10:07:00.007-05:00

Ah, my friends, it has been much too long since I posted here. I've been busy, but not that busy. It's more that I've been in a writing funk. I've not even had any wandering thoughts that begged to be pinned down.

In other words, I've been more boring than groovy.

Fortunately, that's about to change! In fact, this post will probably be so chock full of flying thoughts that you'll need a butterfly net so you can catch and examine them. Maybe TWO butterfly nets!

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First of all, The BHE and I are trying raise money for the American Lung Association again. We're both planning to ride in the 180 mile Trek Across Maine - and this time I. AM. GOING. TO. FINSH. THE. RIDE!!!!!!!!

You can make your tax deductable (USA) donation with a credit card by clicking one of the donation links in my sidebar. You can also read more about our Trek preparations on my other blog: Groovy Trekkers: Suffering Pain for Others Gain

Training thus far has been limited to weight lifting, the treadmill, and snowshoing due to the copious layer of snow that is still on the ground here. But we'll get the bikes out soon. I promise you!

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I suppose, since I've started off by mentioning a hugely athletic event, this would be a good place to talk about dieting.

I hate dieting.

I love food. I hate limiting food and living by rules that say, "Don't eat this, Don't eat that, yadda, yadda, yadda..." I've eaten low fat, low carb, vegetarian, Mediterranean, "Flat Belly", no sugar, no processed, and all organic. I've counted carbs, counted calories, counted MUFAs, and counted fat. I'm "good" for about 3-6 days and then BAM, I'm back to me - eating what I want, when I want it (and too much of it). Twice I have lost 11 or 12 pounds (on low carb and Flat Belly) and been oh-so-proud, then....You guessed it. I got sick of eating by the "rules" and gained the weight back.

I know, I know, it's not about a "diet" it's about a "permanent lifestyle change". The problem is WHICH lifestyle? If the science keeps changing and the rules keep changing as to what's the healthiest way to eat, then how am I supposed to keep up?

They have told us that fat was evil. Now they tell us that fat is good, though there is some debate over which types of fat are beneficial. Some of them say, "Mono-unsaturated fats from nuts and olives ONLY". Others say animal fat is best. Now grains are evil (I've even recently read that corn is gonna kill us all) and sugar is worse. But I found this awesome ad in a 1968 edition of Woman's Day magazine:

I'm told that I should count calories -spend more than I take in and voila, I'll be lythe and lovely. Then moments later I'm told to NEVER count calories.

It's all starting to get to me!

I am working out quite regularly now, but the eating - OY! Truth is I'm only 15-20 pounds overweight. That's not bad, really. But those extra pounds DO weigh me down in long distance biking and in hiking with heavy gear for Search & Rescue. I'd really like to see them go. Permanently.

Sooooooo. I made donuts this morning. And they were yummy.

;-)

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And now, on to puberty. Not me, I've already been there. But both my very young girlies are there now. Silly-Head, at 9 and 1/2, seems unphased thus far - except that she has quit wetting the bed AND quit sucking her thumb. We are all doing the dance of joy on her behalf! (And fear not, she will not be embarassed if I write about this here. She does not read my blog.)

But Girly-Girl is 11 and she is in turmoil. She is asking questions of deep, emotional amd spiritual import pretty much every day. She struggles constantly with a HUGE sensitivity to sin - real or imagined. ie. She is constantly "confessing" to us. Little things, "I touched the kitchen counter, but I'm not sure if I washed my hands first." (???) and big things, "I was rude to so-and-so at my birthday party last August." or "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening to anything you or Dad just said."

I'm glad she has a tender heart, but she worries WAAAY too much. We've tried to reassure her and redirect her. We've looked up Scriptures on sin and confession and repentance. After all, when there IS sin, it needs to be dealt with. But most of her issues are with false guilt and mistakes and imperfections, not sin. We've prayed with her and remind her constantly that she's loved just the way she is and that we are proud of her. Nonetheless, she struggles.

She reads her Bible VERY faithfully and makes sure we all read ours as well. The BHE and I don't mind being reminded - we want to read the Word every day, but Silly-Head was starting to balk at her sister's well-meaning legalism and we had to tell Girly-Girl to back off.

Girly-Girl and I did go away for 24 hours or so. We stayed in a Bed & Breakfast and listened to Dr. Dobson's tape series Preparing for Adolescence. We also shopped and ate out and watched all 3 of the original Star Wars movies - though now she wants to know why we watched them when we believe young ladies should dress modestly and Leah was NOT dressed modestly in the scenes with Jabba.

I still have to deal with that one. But, the tapes and our ensuing discussions about thoughts and crushes and feeling insecure, etc. did help alleviate some of her thought tornadoes.

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Man, those donuts were GOOD!

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It's raining today. It rained most of yesterday and all night long as well. The trees and powerlines are covered with ice. I am praying we don't lose power. Without power we have no heat or water. We've looked at generators, but it seems like a lot of mony to spend for insurance against a possible power loss...

The ice is so beautiful and yet, so treacherous!

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OK, enough fluttering thoughts for one day. I need to work out and get the girls rolling with some schoolwork. I'm reviewing an educational site called Time4Learning. I need to plug the girls in so my review will be more thorough. I should be writing that quite soon, so stay tuned.

Oh, and before you leave, Have a donut. They're really yummy!

I Get to Review Fun Homeschool "Stuff"

2011-02-10T19:51:00.003-05:00

And by "stuff" I mean online curriculum.

I've been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning is an online educational program that can be used in many ways including as a homeschooling curriculum or afterschool tutorial. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

So stay tuned and Groovy will let you know what she and her groovy girlies think of Time4Learning.

Never Give Up...

2011-02-08T18:23:00.005-05:00

Recently I got an email from a dear Christian friend asking for my help. The following is his request, and my response:

We've been bringing a bunch of young needy kids to our Church for several years now in the belief that that is what the Lord would have us do. But we're getting burnt out. The kids are difficult and starting to drift away. There is only a little positive response on the part of their parents. The kids can be a real distraction to others at Church and in worship and we're just not sure that it's worth the effort. Would you be willing to remind us that it is?

D.N.

*******************************************************************************************

Here you go, D. I pray that God will use this to accomplish His purposes:

*******************************************************************************************

Greetings to the folks of _______Church in the Name of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. A few weeks ago, my husband and daughters had the privilege to visit with your congregation when you had the missions' luncheon for P. I shared a testimony with his parents that day that they thought might encourage you all.

My father left our home when I was eight years old in order to date a married woman. In the meantime, my mother - who was angry at God for the feath of her sister - had to raise me on her own. My dad sent no child support and she always worked 2 and sometimes 3 jobs. Needlss to say, I was a latchkey child. My mom had a bad track record with men and dated men who treated her poorly or who couldn't stay committed. We moved around alot. In fact, Over my 12 years of schooling, I went to no less than 10 different schools in 3 different states. Though my mom is a believer now, she was a quite a drinker during my childhood - often getting drunk to escape her own emotional pain.

Now, during all this time, God was working in my life. How? Well, it seems that every new place we moved, He would raise up some nice old lady, or a loving couple, or a friend and her family, or...well, SOMEONE who would invite me to church. My mom would not take me, but she figured it would be good for me, so she let me go. And each place we lived SOMEONE took me to church. I didn't go every week. And in some places I only got to go a time or two before we moved. But God always had SOMEONE there to take me. Many of those people also tried to reach out to my mom, but she wasn't ready. I'm sure they got discouraged trying to share Christ with us!

But they DID share Christ with us. Some of them just provided rides to services, others invited us to their homes and reached out in other ways. When I was in 7th grade all those seeds began to grow. I surrendered my life to Christ and started to live for Him. Not long after that, my mom also accepted Christ. We were baptised on the same day!

Today, we both love and serve Him wholeheartedly. We are involved in ministry and in evangelism.

How I wish I could go back and thank each and every one of those precious folks who took the time to take a bratty only child from a dysfunctional home and loving on her. But I can't. Truth is, I can't even remember most of those people with any real "memory", if you know what I mean. But God used them to bring me into His kingdom - even though they never actually saw the fruit. Even though we were unpredictable and unreliable. Even though I'm sure they got discouraged.

I think of Hebrews Chapter 11 where God praises the saints of old because they remained faithful, even when they didn't see the promised future.

Please don't give up on the children you have ministering to. Please be the SOMEONE in their lives that shares the seed of Christ's love. Don't just endure them, pray for them. Pray for their sad and confused parents. Love them. Even if it is only for a short time, God can and WILL use your efforts for His glory.

Thank you!

Groovy

PS. I hope you will all be able to listen to this song by Ray Boltz. It is from my heart to those who reached out to me when I was young...

'Twas a Hairy Situation

2011-02-01T08:05:00.009-05:00

Warning: Groovy is ill today. She shall strives to spell coreectly and use verbs that agree and punctuate properly but no promises. Her brain are mush!

Yesterday morning I opened the drawer in my bathroom and pulled out a brush to address a critical bed-head situation before the Bad Hair alarms went off and local Hair Rescue Units descended on our humble abode with tv cameras and bright lights in tow.

I wasn't in the mood for drama at 6am, don't ya know.

What was this? This was not our hairbrush...

... it was the girlies' brush. Somehow it had migrated from their bathroom to ours.

Oh well, it was our best brush, so I would use it. But it seemed rather heavily laden with hair - Silly-Head's hair is rather thick and long - so I decided to pull some of the excess hair out before addressing my own salt-and-pepper locks.

I pulled out alot of hair. A. LOT. OF. HAIR.

And that's when I noticed the lint. From stem to stern, the bristles of the brush were loaded with little wads of well packed lint. Every Bristle. WADS of lint. Loads and loads of disgusting lint.

Being the good mother and housekeeper that I am, I decided to redeem the time by cleaning the brush now, instead of later. "Now" became "one and one half hours of prime entertainment for my much bemused husband" as I scraped and tweezed and grumbled and eeeeewed.

Why did it take so long? You might ask. Is it because Groovy is an OCD perfectionist?

*snort* Hardly!

It took so long because every stupid bristle has a little knobby on the end - presumably to prevent careless brush users from piercing their scalps with sharp bristles. That's all well and good; I am certainly a proponent of bloodless brushing, BUT those little knobbies also trap the lint so you (and here "you" means "I") can't get the lint off the bristles! Instead it collects and mats together so that there is no easy way to pull it off past the knobbies. Worse yet, it is a round brush, so it has more bristles than the average flat brush. At least, it seems that way.

I had to snip and pull and scrape and tweeze and mumble and gripe before it was done. Then I put it into a sink filled with hot water and shampoo. I let it soak while I was at a doctor's appointment, then scrubbed it when I got home. Now it looks like new.

I don't want anyone to use it!

Ok, I know what you're thinking: You're thinking, "Why am I here reading this lame blog when there is chocolate out there calling my name?" That, or you're thinking, "So why doesn't Whiny Gal buy herself a brush sans knubbies?" Well, Groovy has one. A very nice one, in fact. However, it is so soft that no one likes it; It won't go through hair with any substance or body. ie. I, sole Groovy owner of thin and wispy hair, am the only one who can use it. The only reasons keep it are 1. It weren't cheap and 2. It's easy to clean!

So, the moral of this story is we should all be bald. Then, like Larry, we wouldn't have to bother with brushes at all!

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In other Groovy news: My mediocrity continues... Not only am I having brush issues, but I am also having blog issues. I went o deChristmas my page and make it more Springlike. Alas, all I've managed to do is add a new header. All the Blogger gizmos for changing colors, etc. seem to have disappeared! So my readers are cursed with red/blue/green weirdness until I get this figured out. Many apologies!

Must. Write. On. Blog.

2011-01-17T13:03:00.005-05:00

Hiho. Groovy here.

At least now I'm here. I was there. And there and there and there. We also would have gone there, but we ran out of time.

We got back from the big trip last...um (Groovy gets up to look at the calender) Tuesday night. Yeah, that's it.

I wanted to write about the trip as soon as we got back, but we took a bazillion photos and I can't download (upload?) them onto my computer because my hard drive? She is overloaded with more than 6,000 photos. The photo program is starting to shake her head and screech at me if I even try to look at what's already on there. Kinda makes me scared to try to add more.

And when I try to upload (download?) photos from my 'puter to an online photo developing store, my browser freaks out and shuts down. Not a good sign.

So we ordered an external hard drive to keep out pics and music on. It should be here very, very soon. I will move all our photos over to the new drive and organize them so I can remember what the heck they are pictures of. But until then I shall have to go on without showing you all photographs of our fun and exciting trip.

Instead, I shall give you this highly condensed recap of our trip:

4,500 - the approximate number of miles we traveled ( 7242 kilometers!)

9 - the number of different hotels/motels we stayed in. (We stayed in the one near D.C. for 2 nights.)

1 - the number of motor homes we saw hauling helicopters behind them on trailers. ;-)

Entertainment of Choice? Hours and hours (and hours) of Adventures in Odyssey. We never get tired of them! For variety we also played the alphabet game and did a scavenger hunt that I had printed up prior to the trip. Silly-head also tried to get photos of every state "welcome sign" we passed. Sadly, there wasn't one in Texas...

Items I forgot to pack: Our family devotion book (That was OK, Girly-Girl led us in a Bible study every day in the car instead.), my make-up (Had to buy more before the weddding!), bandaids (Good thing they have them at most hotels), paper plates (we brought alot of our own food), bread that does not crumble (Vacuum time!), laundry soap (Those little one shot dispensers are expensive!), a fanny pack for touristy walk-abouts (This would have effectively prevented the BHE's Washington Monument fiasco...)

Sights and Experiences: Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, Scout's and LittleMiss's (now LittleMRS!) Wedding, href="http://www.thealamo.org/visitors/overview.php">the Alamo, the River Walk in San Antonio, the amazing Aquarium in Dallas, the Hermitage, and, of course, Washington DC where we rode the Metro in to see Ford's Theater, the International Spy Museum, the Washington Monument (yes, we went up...), and the Air & Space Museum (part of the Smithsonian)

Food Fun: (None of these restaurants are located in Maine, so they were a treat for us!)

- Eating gator at Razzoo's

- Incredible BBQ at Rudy's

- Cracker Barrel!!!!

- Sonic burgers

- Milk shakes at Steak and Shake

- Krispy Kreme donuts! We got them at gas stations both times, but they were fresh and oh-so-heavenly!

Surprises:

- There are no yield signs in Kentucky or Maryland - at least, not on the interstate on-ramps,

- an orange teddy bear riding on the side of a dump truck,

- Charades is (are?) very difficult to play in the car - especially at night,

- Girly-Girl threw up on the night after our DC visit.

- I slept incredibly well every where we stayed (except or the night Girly-Girl was sick)

- We had no car trouble whatsoever on the trip, but the tire went flat the day after got back. =O

- All of us had good attitudes for the entire trip!

And that's about it for now. More on the wedding once I have my photos available! I'll catch you all later!

Blizzard 2010!!!!!!!

2010-12-27T17:51:00.009-05:00

It's snowing like crazy out there right now and the wind is a-whipping. Not everyone is thrilled, but I'm loving it. The BestHubbyEver had to work today, so he went up to Bangor last night and stayed in a hotel at the hospital's expense. And, since the storm has lingered, he'll be staying there tonight as well. I'm SO glad the hospital is so supportive. I'd be a nervous wreck if he had to drive in these white-out conditions!

His brother, Uncle Pickle-Nose, was supposed to drive to Boston today and then fly back home to California. Guess who's still here? Yep. And it looks like he may be here for a couple more days before there are any flights available. That was quite handy today since he could use his manly muscles to help me clear our loooong driveway. He shoveled and scooped and I wrestled with Mr. Snowblower.

But it's been blowing and drfiting like mad out there, so we'll have to start from scratch tomorrow morning before anyone will be going anywhere.

Tha grandkids are all supposed to be coming over tomorrow morning for our Christmas celebration. I'm kind of bummed that the BHE can't be here, but I'll make liberal use of the camera for him and for Scout. Scout and Little Miss sent presents for his kids and I'm sure they'd like pics and videos too. Hopefully the roads and the digging out won't delay our get together too much...

I had planned to use today to start prepping for the BIG road trip of insanity, but I didn't accomplish very much. I did manange to type and print a packing list and to pile all my bills up so I can pay them...tomorrow.

I've been so busy and so stressed that I'm pretty much loving being useless and lazy yesterday and today. Tomorrow I MUST get my groovy butt in gear. Seriously! We're leaving Friday (I think) and I'd really like to have the house clean and GrammaJ all set and everything packed.

Oh, and buy and wrap the wedding gift. I do not want to go without the wedding gift!

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Update for Tuesday. So we made it through the storm alright but our plan for Christmas with the grandkids underwent a sudden change. PrettyMom called me quite early in the morning feeling quite ill. She called her doc and he wanted her in the hospital ASAP so I threw the gifts in the car, grabbed 2 mugs of coffee and headed over to her house. Fortunately the driveway was driveway-able and the roads were road-able. I had to go a bit slower than usual, but I got there safely.

All the kids were still sleeping when PrettyMom headed out. Unfortunately, the quiet lasted all of 5 minutes because their little dog Cooper-Pooper raced into the girls' room and leaped onto poor little sleeping Cookie. Within minutes she and Fireball were up and grilling me on where mom was and when could they open all the presents?!?

We waited until Ji-Ji was up and at 'em, then I let them open everything. Scout and LittleMiss had sent them each a stocking. Being oh-so clever, I videotaped the stocking opening fun. Then I switched to regular photos for the rest of the gifts. Alas, my cleverness was thwarted by dead batteries. Apparently the exciting video had been too much for them!

Suffice it to say everyone had oodles of fun and they kept me QUITE busy until PrettyMom called from the hospital for us to pick her up. She still wasn't feeling well, so her mom took her and Ji-Ji out to her house and I took Fireball and Cookie to our house to play with Aunts Girly-Girl and Silly-Head. They played dress-up for a while, then we all went outside to play in the blizzard aftermath. Very groovy!

Now I'm sitting here trying to recover. I am SO. TIRED.

And yet, I have things I need to do. To get ready for the trip, etc.

Remember the trip?

Yeah.

Currently, my house is a mess, most of the Christmas decorations are still up. The bathrooms need attention, there is dust everywhere and the floors are icky. Tomorrow I need to take GrammaJ shopping. She has been woefully neglected these past couple of days...

Happily, the BHE thinks he may be able to get down-staffed tomorrow so he can hang one last day with Uncle Pickle-Nose (I think it's time to come up with a better blog name for him since the kids don't call him that any more). I hope so. We haven't seen him in ~~2 weeks~~ 2 days!

Don't know if I'll bang out another post before we go or not.

Trying to get psyched for this road trip. Instead, I am just putting off getting ready for it.

Remember the trip?

Yeah.

OK, I'm off to clean the kitchen bar. I know it's under there somewhere...

Tween Twouble

2010-12-18T06:13:00.007-05:00

I thought it would simple. After all they are bright, homeschooled children of 11 and 9.

Silly me!

Girly -Girl is definitely pubescent and Silly-Head is on the fringe thereof. Consequently, they've both developed something in the way of oily skin. This has necessitated more more parental encouragement to shower and many admonishments to wash their heads not once, but twice while bathing.

This vigilant parental oversight has helped to keep the hair slicks to a minimum, but they are both still having issues with mild acne. You know, just a random pimple or three on Girly-Girl and some rough pimply like patches on Silly-Head's cheeks.

So yesterday I decided to step up their hygiene regimen and bought them some face wash. 'Tis a mild one for oily skin and it comes in a pump. I set it on the sink and, last evening, announced that they needed to start washing their faces each night before bed.

Girly-Girl just kept reading her book, but Silly-Head bounced into the bathroom. She eyed the pump bottle skeptically, "What do I do?"

So I explained the routine, "Pull your hair back out of the way, get your face wet with warm water, squirt the stuff on your hands, rub your hands together, then rub the soapy stuff on your face (but not on your eyes). Rinse and you're done. Easy Peasy!"

Then I left her alone, confident she could handle these simple ablutions.

Moments later she called from the bathroom, "So, I have to get my face wet first?"

"Yes. Wet your face, wash with the soapy stuff, rinse it off."

"Do I put it on my hands first?"

"On your hands, then on your face. Wash and rinse. Simple as pie!"

"Which part of my face do I put it on?"

*twitch*

"All your face except for your eyes. You don't want to get the cleanser in your eyes."

About this time Girly-Girl joined her sister in the bathroom to watch the proceedings.

"OK..." Silly-Head's voice called out, "Now, do I rinse it off?"

*twitch*twitch*

"Yes Silly-Head, rinse it off. You don't want to leave soap on your face all night!"

Girly-Girl came back out with a curled lip and raised eyebrows, "I don't need to to that too, do I?"

"Yes, my darling child, you need to do it too. You need to wash your face. Every night. Wash, wash, wash! You are an adolescent. You have oily skin. WASH!"

She went back into the bathroom, lips set in a tight line. A moment later she called out, "Do I get my face wet first?"

*twitch*twitch*TWITCH*

Practicing great self-control, I walked calmly into the bathroom and spoke in a tightly polite voice of command, "Pull your hair back out of the way, get your face wet with warm water, squirt the stuff on your hands, rub your hands together, then rub the soapy stuff on your face (but not on your eyes). Rinse and you're done. Easy Peasy! Do you understand?"

She looked at me like I was nuts for giving such a detailed explanation, nodded, then proceeded to splash water on her face. That's when I noticed that Silly-Head was standing, leaning slightly over the tub, face dripping.

"What are you doing, Silly-Head?"

"Well, I wasn't sure if I should dry my face or not..."

A Christmas Story Written and FINISHED by my Groovy Self

2010-12-15T12:20:00.004-05:00

I know, I know...I'm shocked too.

Enjoy!

But first, a disclaimer: The characters in this story are entirely fictional. Any resemblance they may bear to relatives in your (or my) family are strictly coincidental!

By the way, I really don't have a good title for this story, so I am open to suggestions.

*********************************************************************************************************************

Jessie had Christmas all planned. Everything would be perfect! On the day of Christmas Eve, Todd only worked a ½ day, so they'd have the cozy supper that evening. None of them were thrilled with "traditional" holiday foods, so Jessie was planning a seafood spread with potato-leek soup and garlic biscuits with pumpkin swirl cheesecake for dessert.

After supper there was the Christmas Eve service at church. Then they'd watch a couple of their favorite Christmas movies and, just before bed, open one gift each. She was looking forward to finding out what was in that small box with the elegant purple wrapping paper. She had a sneaking suspicion it was those stunning dangly earrings she'd admired at a local gift shop.

On Christmas Day she and Todd would arise early for coffee and devotions in the light of the Christmas tree. After they had cleaned up and dressed in festive clothing laid out the night before, they'd rouse the children. Jake and Celia were late sleepers and even on Christmas they needed a nudge to get going.

Everyone would open their stockings while sipping eggnog and listening to Christmas music. While the children dressed, Jessie would make pumpkin muffins for breakfast. After eating they would read the Christmas story, open their gifts and then spend the rest of the day playing together and relaxing and enjoying one another's company. Of course there would be the requisite phone calls to their parents and to Todd's sister. But otherwise it would just be a warm, cozy, happy, relaxing holiday for the Tessler family.

And that was the plan. At least that was the plan until exactly three days before Christmas when Jessie's mom, Nana Tate called with a surprise.

"Honey, can you come and pick me up or should I get a taxi?"

Jessie felt a weird sinking in the pit of her stomach, "Pick you up? Now? Where are You?"

The sinking feeling was rapidly moving into a mildly queasy low grade panic. Nana Tate lived near DC, over 12 hours away. If she was asking to be picked up there were only two possibilities -either she was senile or…

"I decided to surprise you all with a Christmas visit! I'm at the airport!" The color drained from jessie's face as she stared blankly at the cookie dough rolled out on the counter.

At the airport. Jessie felt like the room was spinning. She loved her mother dearly, but the truth was that NanaTate was a rather eccentric and forceful old woman. Having her with them for Christmas would be neither peaceful nor relaxing.

"Honey, are you there?"

"Um, I'm sorry Mom. This is just such a surprise. I'm in the middle of making cookies right now and I'm supposed to fix supper and then take Jake and Celia to choir practice at church. It's a good 45 minutes to the airport..." Jessie's voice trailed off.

"Well, then I'll just take a taxi, Honey. I wouldn't want to spoil your schedule! Can you give me directions, though? I get up here so seldom that I can't remember exactly how to get there."

Jessie cringed at the subtle guilting as gave her mom directions. The truth was that her mom wasn't asked to visit very often because she drove them all nuts! Jessie hung up the phone and closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose. Nana coming tonight, perhaps in the next hour. She'd better warn Todd!

And so it was that Nana Tate arrived an hour later, just as Jessie pulled the last pan of cookies from the oven. In that hour she'd had Jake clean the bathroom and Celia put sheets on the sofa sleeper. In between cookie batches she flew about the house clearing clutter. Nana was a real stickler for a clean and organized house. Fortunately, Jessie had started soup in the crockpot that morning!

Todd had arrived just moments earlier and wasn't on hand when she came. He'd gone upstairs to regroup first. After a supper of tense, but polite inquiries and forced smiles, it was decided that Todd would run the children to their music practice and Celia would stay home to visit with Nana.

Apparently Nana still needed to do some shopping, so she convinced Jessie to take her to the mall the next day.

"It'll be fun!" she cooed, "Girl time for just the two of us. I'll even buy you lunch!"

The mall was crazily crowded on this next to last day before Christmas. Jessie had to circle the parking lot several times to the tune of Nana's cheerful, well-intentioned advice, "Oh look. There's one! No, wait. Let that old man have it. He looks so stressed, he probably needs it more than us." Seconds later she pointed enthusiastically, "There's someone pulling out right there!" but as Jessie approached that spot, "Oh Honey, that one's too narrow for your van." Jessie gritted her teeth and bit her tongue. Nana was actively searching the parking lot which was mercilessly full. Finaly she sank back into her seat with an "Umph" and put her hand on Jessie's arm. "You know what, Jessie. Why don't we just park out way on the edge of the lot. The weather is nice and the walk will do us good."

Once they'd parked, Jessie found it very difficult to slow her walk to Nana's pace. She was fuming and just wanted to storm along to blow off steam. She'd finished her Christmas shopping over a month ago and always went out of her way to avoid the crowded stores during the holiday rush.

"Lord," she whispered under her breath, "PLEASE help me be patient with Mom and please help her to find what she wants quickly so we can go HOME!"

But Nana stopped even before they got inside. There was a family outside the mall entrance ringing bells for the Salvation Army and Nana wanted to donate. Her tongue ran the whole time -asking questions about the family and dispensing Christmas cheer - while she was pulling off her gloves and digging through her capacious purse. Before they left she hugged each one and prayed aloud over them.

Jessie was so embarassed! She smiled an apology to them all, even though they didn't seem at all offended. Inside the mall, it was no better. Her mother chatted with people in the store aisles, freely dispensed hugs, gave out shopping advice and prayed over two more folks who, in her estimation, seemed lonely or stressed.

By lunch time, Jessie was exhausted. They had expended tons of energy and her mother had only bought 3 items from her list. Even in the line at the Asian eatery where they bought their food, Nana kept on. She told the server how much God had blessed her and her daughter, "Hasn't He, Jessie?" she prodded. Jessie smiled the plastic smile and nodded. Then, just as we was dishing up the pork fried rice she asked, "Do you know Jesus?"

Jessie was mortified. She was all for evangelism, but that was something you do in private, after getting to know someone well - after lots of prayer. You couldn't just dish out Jesus over greasy Chinese food! She was so absorbed in her indignation that almost missed his answer, "No, but I would like to hear about Him." Next thing she knew Jessie found herself writing down directions to her house because Nana had invited him and his wife to spend Christmas day with them!

In fact, by the time they headed home, Nana had invited 5 people to join their warm, cozy, happy, relaxing holiday with them. She had even talked Jessie into helping her buy small gifts for all of them, including an inexpensive Bible for each one.

How was Jessie going to tell Todd and the kids? And where would she seat them all? Her table only had 6 chairs! And now they needed more food! And who was going to pick up the single mom and her son? And...and...and…

To her surprise, after a few moments of dead silence while he pondered the rather sudden invitation of 5 strangers to their home, Todd sighed deeply. Jessie noticed his eyes were moist as he said, "This is such a God thing. God has been really laying it on my heart that Christmas is about Him, not us. That it's His birthday, not ours. That somehow we should be giving gifts to Him. I just wasn't sure what to do or how to do it. I mean, we gave some money to that missions group, but that didn't really give me peace. Honey, God wants more than our money. He wants us to share His love with others. The only way we can do that is to spend time with them."

Jessie felt her own eyes filling with tears. All her Christmas planning had been about herself and her family. Oh, they had thrown a 20 in the Salvation Army bucket and they had written a check to World Vision, but mostly so she could cross "charitable giving" off her list. The truth was she had been completely centered on having a Christmas celebration that was all about the Tesslers. A selfish Christmas.

God was using her own embarassingly eccentric and annoying mother - no, scratch that - her own loving and godly mother to shake things up a bit. To turn Jessie's faith upside down and force her to face her own selfish heart. She was so ashamed! Todd held her as she sobbed and, once the first strong rush of pain was passed, they prayed together.

Then Jessie left his arms for a long heart to heart talk with Nana Tate. She needed to ask her forgiveness!

**************************

Jessie and Nana Tate, with input from Todd and the kids, had Christmas all planned. Everything would be perfect! On the day of Christmas Eve, Todd and the kids helped prepare most of the food that would be eaten the next day. There would be seafood and ham with potato-leek soup and garlic biscuits with pumpkin swirl cheesecake as well as a couple of pies for dessert. They set up 2 card tables and decorated them festively.

After simple bowls of cereal, the Tesslers drove 2 cars to the Christmas Eve service at church so they could pick up the single mom and her son as well as their elderly neighbor on the way. They set their movies aside for later and spent the evening playing board games with their new friends. Just before bed, they wrapped the gifts for their company and prayed together for a wonderful Christmas day for their company.

On Christmas Day Jessie and Todd would arose early for coffee and devotions in the light of the Christmas tree. After they had cleaned up and dressed in festive clothing, they roused the children. Jake and Celia went with Todd in the van to pick folks up for the celebration.

Once everyone arrived and introductions were made they read the Christmas story and prayed. Then they opened their gifts and then spend the rest of the day playing together and relaxing and enjoying one another's company. Nana Tate led the young mom to Christ in the den while Todd planned some future dates to answer the Chinese man's questions about God

It was, indeed, a warm, cozy, happy, relaxing holiday for the Tessler family made all the better because God was glorified.

Mediocrity Strikes Again...

2010-11-26T07:33:00.004-05:00

Well, at this point in time, I should have written 43,000+ words on my novel. I have not. Currently I am at 16,178 or 16,104, depending on which word counter you choose to believe. Either way, I would have to write about 8,500 words per day to get caught up.

Ain't gonna happen.

I'm a very busy and distracted person. I am SO not a focused, drive-'til-it's-done personality. I'm the same with almost everything from dieting to writing to guitar playing to remembering to drill my girls on spelling.

I'm pretty good at flossing and brushing though. And I work very hard to keep myself reading the Bible and spending concentrated time in prayer. Unfortunately, everything else is pretty much a crap shoot...

I'm a little disappointed, but not overly discouraged. I will write some more today and I AM making real progress on my story. Not only that, but I just received a challenge to write 250-500 words per day. 250 words is nothing. It takes 10 minutes on a tough day. I can DO that! And on a good day I can keep on writing. One thing I have learned from NaNoWriMo is that I can write for extended periods of time when the conditions are right. So I am not quitting. I'm going to keep plugging away at Molasses Swamp until it is FINISHED. Then I'm going to edit it and submit it for publication - even if it takes me two years.

So there.

In other news, we postponed our family Thanksgiving celebration until tomorrow because the BestHubbyEver had to work yesterday and today. If you see a fireman, policeman, medical worker, EMT, paramedic, or convenience store employee, be sure to thank them for working through the holidays!

Because of these plan changes, the girls ended up spending all day and last night with GrammaJ. They're making memories by decorating her tree, making gingerbread houses, watching Christmas movies and probably eating way more sweets than I want to know about. ;-)

I'm supposed to pick them up this morning, but the weather is quite slickery. I may have to wait until this afternoon to go get them.

Since the BHE worked all day and the girls were gone, I had the whooooooooole day yesterday to myself. My original plan was to use that time to write. I cleaned instead. My house is all sparkly now! That way, it'll be all ready when the girls and I put up the Christmas decorations on Sunday/Monday.

I have also learned that I talk to myself when I am alone. I talk to myself ALOT!

In still other news, Scout is engaged and plans to be married on January 6. In Texas. And we're supposed to go.

No, we don't have a plan yet.

The original wedding date was going to be the end of January. The BHE got the dates off work and I was researching ticket prices when Little Miss (soon to be Little Mrs!) messaged me to say Scout's deployment date for Iraq had been bumped up, sothe wedding date was accordingly being changed. Right now the new date falls during an already scheduled busy work week for the BHE. He's trying to get the time off, but the hospital where he works is going through a BigUgly with nurses striking and Admin hunkering down and everyone snarling and baring teeth - Not a good time to ask for favors!

At any rate, I have to hold off getting plane tickets, etc. until we see if he can actually get off work or not. Either way Scout and Little Miss will be coming here before Christmas to see Scout's kids and visit the rest of the family. Hopefully, Funsocksgirl and the J-Man can come too, if finances allow. They're also wanting to attend the wedding in January...

So, December and January are looking quite fun and adventurous right now!

Alrighty, enough rambling from this mediocre blogger. I need to fix my pretty blog decor *cough* and actually do some writing on my novel. Hopefully I'm not going to have to shovel snow...

By the way, Many Thanks to Tara for my pretty blog header!

Grab an Analgesic and Come See How my Groovy Brain Works (Or Doesn't, as The Case May Be!)

2010-11-13T18:21:00.008-05:00

And now I have no clear direction on where I want to go with my novel so I am going to ramble, amble, ramble. Hopefully some more cohesive ideas and plans will formulate as I do so.

Somehow, someway I need to get Jason inside the Timmons' house to realize they have a menagerie (Sarah copes with goth, her dad copes with pets), have him interact more with Gabe and Lydia leading to an invitation to youth group and church and finally a Gospel presentation, Have Mrs. Collier met with Mrs. Pierce and come back "changed" because she's accepted Christ. Have Sarah start hanging with Lydia and slowly start to morph into colors of hope, especially pink. Insert the sleeping bag scene, have Jason land a date with Dina and find he doesn't like her after comparing her worldly attitude with Lydia's, have Jana recover from anorexia? Or should she tragically die? That might destroy Sarah - or Sarah could turn to her new friend Lydia and Mrs. P for help. Hmmmm. I also need to add in a murder by the traveling-shovel-of-death, the weilder of which shall, for a time, be falsely believed to be one and the same with the Pink Panther - the mysterious person who vandalizes farm machinery by coating it with pink spray paint. And how does this story end? Will Carl and Celia get married and move into the menagerie house? How weird would it be for Jason and Srah to live in the same house as siblings? Would all the pets get on Celia's nerves, or will she love them?

Oh my word. Horror of horrors: Will Mr. T's python eat Mr. Jelly Belly?

Oy!

Must. Move. On.

But wait! Jason needs his next writing assignment for the magazine and needs to come up with a noble use for his money. Or should he waste it? Or should he secretly use it to help Jana's family cope with her illness/death? Who should be the victim of the traveling-shovel-of-death? One of my characters? Mr. Pierce, the father of the eight children next door (or is it nine - I still need to go back and deal with the wailing baby that doesn't exist)? One of Jason's teachers? Or...oh...............HER. Oh, how per.fect.ly. awful! Yes, definitely her. They will kill her to steal her ______, though it will make me so sad I'll probably cry. And now that I'm going to knock her off, I think Dina needs to live or do I mean Jana? Oh yeah, Jana. Whatever.

And what else do I need to work in here? Ann P.? Oh..no, sorry. That's a new friend on FaceBook that I'm supposed to ask about rats. Let's see, Istill need to find someone who loves/prefers homemade oatmeal. I think Mrs. Pierce is the obvious choice, much to her children's chagrin. Bad poetry. That should be Jason responding in a "fun" way to Sarah's goth diatribes. (I was not excited about writing tonight, but this is really fun! AND it's giving me fodder for the class I'm teaching for the writer's group in January. I shall entitle it "Overcoming Writer's Block the NaNoWriMo Way".

As Jason would say, "SCORE!")

I think Jason's friend, Rose, shall be a chocolate fanatic who pays no attention to fashion and doesn't wear any make-up or spend hours doing her hair each day. Nonetheless, she is pretty and winsome. Oooo, maybe she can develop a crush on Gabe. Of course, first I'll have to figure out how to get her into Jason neighborhood. Maaaaaaaaybe Jason needs to have a party. Yes...OR he could invite his friends to his Mom's wedding. OR people can meet at one and develop crushes at the other.

And why is my stupid (STUPID) word processor typing everything in italics? Need to fix that. There. Done.

And I had planned a Search & Rescue component that hasn't even begun to materialize yet. It is essential to Sarah's healing…

Woodpecker wars seem likely at the landlady's house. She'll have wood siding and will burst in at obnoxiously serious moments demanding that Jason come help her beat the beasts away before they ruin everything. EVERYTHING!

More children. Who wishes they had more children? Jason's mom? Wouldn't it be funny if…

If I'm going to assign someone to be a non-germaphobe, it should be someone who has ample opportunity to exasperate a true germaphobe. Kind of a GrammaJ meets Funsocksgirl echo. There can be some rewashing of dishes and spraying of air freshener and…….I've……...GOT IT! With 8 children (nine?) the Pierces are reasonably tidy and organized, but Mr. and Mrs. P do NOT believe in anti-bacterial soap. They firmly sunscribe to the "dirt builds immunity" philosophy. Enter Gramma Pierce. Heh-heh-heh.

I like it!

I also need to firmly establish whether it is Fall or Spring (I'm leaning toward spring), how many children the Pierces actually have, and straighten out Celia's school and work schedule. Is she in nursing clinicals or not because that will really make a big diff in her schedule…

I think I need a snack - maybe some ice cream because my throat is sore. That's not good because Ken and I are 'sposed to do music in church tomorrow. Of well, if the Lord wants me to sing, I'm sure I'll feel well enough to go and to sing. None of this has anything to do with my novel except that...maybe school is about to be shutdown for ove r wekk because...everyone's been hit by a flu epidemic! Except the Pierces! Because they homeschool! They can bring soup and cookies 'round to the sick neighbors. Then maybe one of them will get the flu - *gasp* - it will be little Michael - *double gasp*

Sheesh, all this drama is killing me.
Worse yet, I STILL don't know what the end will be. I detest stories with weak endings. But I so seldom finish a fictional story, I have no idea if I CAN write a good ending. Do I want to leave it a little open ended for a sequel? Maybe I could meld some of this story into Linear Equation and use that as a semi-related sequel.

Groovy, I like the way you think, girl!

All the rambling thus far has added over a thousand words to my total (and this sentence bought me even more). I will not make 50,000 words by the end of November unless a miracle happens, but I WILL finish Through the Molasses Swamp and then I WILL finish Linear Equation and I will start Hold the Mustard.

Suddenly it occurs to me that - hey, why did my stupid (STUPID) word processor switch colors on me? Gotta fix that…

And now it's back to italics for no good reason. Stupid, Stupid! Gotta fix that too. I think the word processor is jealous because the photo program is currently holding almost 6,000 photos, but my document file is soooooooooooooo much smaller.

Dang. Now what occured to me? Oh yeah. I've called my novel Through the Molasses Swamp, but the Candyland game has not yet………………...oh my word! I see it plain as day. Never mind. I see where the game will be played and who will play it and, even better, I THINK I JUST GOT A GLIMPSE OF THE...well, you'll have to wait and see.

1241 words. SCORE!

My FaceBook Friends Made Me Do It

2010-11-09T07:34:00.002-05:00

Recenty, I put out a plea to my FaceBook Buddies for some input into my novel. I wrote a "note" on my page there listing 25 random things about myself. My readers were to the choose 10 of those characteristics or incidents for me to work into my novel. It really shouldn't be much of a stretch. Even though my novel is not even remotely autobiographical, it already contains so many elements from my own life that I wonder if I'll have anything left to write about when I'm done!

Jason highlighted a few in my/his last post on this blog. He forgot to mention that I have him positioned near the trashcan as a scavanger each day in the school lunch room, salvaging the food the other kids are throwing away because he never remembers to bring money or his own lunch.

Not that anyone would actually do anything like that. Ever.

Especially not in Jr. High.

Ahem.

Anyhoo, here are the ten new ideas to incorporate into my novel:

1. a character who is NOT a germaphobe, who loathes antibacterial soap and hnd santizer and who (though I did not mention it in my "notes" - heh-heh-heh - sometimes runs the water so other people will THINK he/she is washing his/her hands, when in fact...

2. and 3. A character (probably female) who has no interest in fashion, nail doings, hair styles, make-up or any of that typical vanity/pampering stuff, but who is still reasonably attractive (at least most of the time- or so she is told).

4. The sleeping bag incident. Zip two teens (opposite sex, naturally) up in one sleeping bag on the floor then urge them to stand up together with their arms trapped inside. There will be a fall. There will be an injury. There will be embarassment that results in no adult ever hearing about said injury. (And there will be permanent damage as I can well attest.)

5. There will be bad poetry in this novel. (I'm glad they didn't clamor for good poetry or I would have had to plagarize.)

6. Someone will lament never having had more children.

Ooo. That gives me an idea!!!!!!

7. I need a widow or widower who has turned their empty house into a menagerie - and I know just who!

8. Someone needs to really love homemade oatmeal.

9. Woodpecker wars. This will involve a persistant and fearless hairy woodpecker, wood siding, a broom, rocks, and loads of neighborhood disrupting screaming...and suddenly I am envisioning some indignation (and possibly trouble) from the menagerie owner.

10. And lastly, I'm supposed to write in someone who prefers email to the phone. This won't be my main character or his mom. They have dial-up!

And that's it for now. I need to go back and add in Jason's rat's name (Mr. Jelly-Belly aka Mr. JB) and get busy moving this story along.

I'm sure my procrastinating nature will have me back here soon!

In Which Groovy's Blog is Taken Over by a Fictional Character

2010-11-06T16:37:00.004-04:00

Hi, Jason here.

Groovy can't come right now 'cause she's busy pounding out a novel. So she sent me here to update you on her progress.

First, she wants you to know that, as of this posting, she's only 42,931 words away from chocolate.

Secondly, she plans to write another 2,000 plus words tonight.

HA! That's a good one. To be honest with you, I have no idea how she's gotten this far. She spends way too much time doting on her family and fulfilling her responsibilities while my mom and I and all our friends are just hanging out in limbo. You'd think people would just leave her alone so she could attend to business. you know what I mean?

By the way, it's really amazing (and egotistical) how much of her own life she's managed to meld into my story. So far she's written in dairy goats, homeschooling, the hideous trailer that was her first adult home, bicycling, hiking, and search-and-rescue. She's also sneaked (snuck?) in some references to mixed families, anorexia, "goth", and a green Mini Cooper. I think she lifted those ideas from close family and friends. What's she going to come up with next?

Oh never mind. I KNOW what she's doing next. She's going to do some dumb challenge on FaceBook where she lists 25 random things about herself. Then she's gonna let people - strange folk who don't know me from Adam - pick ten of those traits/quirks/oddities for her to work in to the story.

Man, I thought this story was about ME!

Oh well, if she asks you people to help her out, do me a favor and don't pick anything dumb. It's hard to be cool when some old lady keeps throwing crazy curve balls into your life!

Oh, I know, maybe you folks could talk her into getting me a date with Dina Swanson. That'd be sWeet!

Oh, and Thirdly? She hasn't lost a single ounce because writing makes her hungry. (I say it serves her right!)

NaNoWriMo Fever

2010-11-01T08:24:00.003-04:00

Groovy is WRITING. Trying to figure out how to get from drama in the classroom to dramatic confrontation with dark, weird Sarah. What will she say about the fact that her dad is dating Jason's mom???

Aiming for 2,000+ words today, even though it will be a busy day.

And I'm hoping to lose 8 pounds by month's end.

Keep checking in to see my word totals and cheer me on. As of this posting I am only 49,377 words away from chocolate.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Wriiiiiiiiiiiiite!

2010-10-30T07:27:00.003-04:00

A Day Off! Woot! Groovy has a day off!

No obligations, No plans, No cleaning, No phone calls, No school.

Groovy must use this time wisely. Therefore, the bulk of this day will be used to prepare for NaNoWriMo and to research our local candidates so's I'm ready to vote on Tuesday.

NaNoWriMo starts this Monday. I have labeled myself a "rebel" because I am not going to use the month of November to start a new work. Instead, I am going to finish (God willing) Through the Molasses Swamp, a Christian young adult novel I started 3 years ago in my NaNo debut.

The goal? 50,000 words in 30 days. I'm not sure how much I will be here on the blog or on the ever time-sucking FaceBook, but do check in because I may need your help if I get stuck! If I finish Molasses Swamp and still have month and words left over, I will then apply them to moving my other well begun, but never finished Linear Equation down the road.

Groovy actually has goals. Aren't you proud?

And here's the kicker. I've participated in NaNoWriMo twice before in 2007 and 2008 and I've never reached 50,000 words. Not even by using verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long chapter titles. ;)

So this year there's an added incentive: NO CHOCOLATE IN ANY FORM UNTIL I TYPE 50,000 WORDS ON MOLASSES SWAMP (and/or Linear Equation, if necessary).

Drastic, I know, but necessary. Groovy does not finish well without strong motivators!!

Today I'll be assembling a notebook with character sketches and plot blurbs and anything that will help me keep things moving quickly as I write. I'll also be perusing a writing book that I've heard much praise for of late: The Way of the Cheetah by Lynn Viehl. You can find a free download for it at Paperback Writer.

And now, I'm off to actually do some work. FUN work! (And to eat some chocolate BECAUSE IT'S NOT NOVEMBER YET!)

Tag, Groovy is it! (And YOU are next!)

2010-10-22T08:56:00.005-04:00

First, many thanks to my sweet friend, Tara for the new blog banner. If I wasn't such a mediocre blogger (and if Blogger.com didn't hate me), I'd probably be able to center it and actually change some of the colors, so my blog would be pretty and Fall-ish.

I've been tagged by Susan of Penless Writer. I'm to answer the following 8 questions made up by Susan, make up 8 questions of my own, and then tag 8 of you to answer my questions. I don't usually tag, but I may make an exception this time. ;-)

Sooooo, ready......... set .......... let's GO!!

#1. If money were no object what would you like to do that you've never been able to do or have always wanted to do? Tour Africa for several months -maybe even a year. I have friends in Morocco, Kenya, Botswana, and Swaziland. I would love, Love, LOVE to see them all and spend time in their world for a while.

#2. If you could have "do overs" what is the 1 thing you would never do again? And why? I've been married for 28 years to a wonderful man. I'd be ashamed to tell you, though, how many times I have not honored him but have, instead, undermined his authority in our home becasue I thought he was "wrong". After many years and MUCH prayer and study, I now know that God promises that He IS my husband's head and that when I don't trust my hubby, I am not trusting God to lead him. Even when my BHE makes mistakes or is rebellious, God can use that and the consequences that follow to correct him without my reminders (ie. nagging) or my secret disobedience, disregard, or disrespect. I must trust God to do what He says He will do!

#3. If you could have "do overs" what is the 1 thing you would want to be absolutely, positively sure you did again? And why? Spend a summer canoing and fishing with my son when he was 10-ish. That special summer was one of the best bonding times with Scout I've had to date!

#4 What is the worst fear? That the world's chocolate supply will fail entirely due to an alien invasion.

JUST KIDDING! My worst fear is actually that grandparent care will overwhelm us at some point. A silly fear, because I know that God will enable us to do what needs to be done. So hmmm, maybe that's more a dread than a fear. My biggest FEAR is death by suffocation. *shudder*

#5. What is your greatest joy? Seeing my children who do believe following the Lord.

#6. What is your life verse, or if you don't have one, your favorite Bible verse?

There are SO many, but Proverbs 3:5-6 ranks right up there: Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.

#7. What church do you attend? And why? If you do not attend a church, why not? We go a small, independant church in Podunk, Maine. We started coming here last November after sending over 17 years in another local fellowship. We still love that body of believers, but God was changing some of our ideas of worship away from the "big stage" of that large church. Our new fellowship is small, proactive, humble, and very centered on the Word of God. We love it there!

#8. If you knew you only have 1 year to live, what is the first thing you would do? Pray for God's wisdom on how to use that last year for HIM!

That was very fun.......now for the hard part....thinking up 8 questions I want answered.

1. What do you think are three top qualities to look for in a politician?

2. Which do you read more of, fiction or non-fiction? And please give us one awesome book recommendation while you're here...

3. What is your go-to outfit for dressy occasions? Describe it for us!

4. What song(s) do you want sung at your funeral? Why?

5. What is your favorite way to unwind?

6. Do you think you could live contentedly in a 2 room home (plus a bathroom, of course)? Why or why not?

7. What is your all-time favorite breakfast? (Come on now, make us drool!)

8. And lastly, are you gonna join me in participating in NaNoWriMo this November? (I hope so!)

Now comes the next hardest thing to do: picking 8 people to tag.

Ummmm, uhhhhhhhh, Oh fiddle, I HATE tagging. Tell ya what, if the questions intrigue you, help yourself. The only caveat is that you let me know you used the meme!

HELP! Please!

2010-10-15T17:42:00.003-04:00

I know, I know, Groovy pretty much ALWAYS needs help, but this time I ain't beggin' for myself. I'm begging on behalf of my dear missionary friend and blogger, Rita Vernoy of The Jungle Hut.

Rita has a chance to win a Kindle - an item that may be a missionary's best friend (next to a Bible and antibiotics). Please go to her blog and find a post you truly enjoy (it won't be hard; she's a fabulous writer!) Then go HERE and enter on her behalf.

May God bless you richly for helping!!!

I HOPE YOU WIN, RITA!!!! :-D

In Which Bad Karaoke Can be a Good Thing (Sort of...)

2010-10-04T19:10:00.006-04:00

Hiho. Groovy has returned safely from the wilds of the woods and her much anticipated BASAR (basic search and rescue) Class.

I anticipated the class. What I did not anticipate was the pouring rain. Or the c-c-c-c-cold classroom. Or that I would forget my sleeping bag.

So much for being prepared!

However, I did remember blankets and we were uber blessed in that the campground owner felt bad for us and allowed us to divvy ourselves up into 3 cabins with beds and electricity. Since I am a member of the host team I got to stay in the big cabin, aka "The Palace". It had a kitchen, full bath, 2 large bedrooms and a loft with many beds and couches sprinkled throughout. It also had heat.

SCORE!!!!!

Of course, we did have to sort out how to separate the boys and girls, but it all worked out in the end. The first night I slept on the couch. The only problem with that is that this groovy gal is not a night owl. I am usually ready to crash around 9pm. Since I was out in the living room, it was a little awkward "going to bed". Around 10:30 I donned my modest jammies (aka long johns), plugged in my i-pod (aka my sanity saver) and actually went to sleep.

The second night I got to sleep on a bed/pallet sort of set-up in the "girls"' room - very comfy!

Most of our course work was classroom style: Lectures with Power Point slides and a few search or safety scenarios to work through. We took several breaks and I got to know people from all over the state. SAR draws out a facinating array of interesting folk. There was "Military Mike". He's ex-military (duh!) and has all the grooviest equipment - and he has so. many. stories. I followed him around like a puppy dog and hung on his every word. When I grow up, I wanna be just like him! (Except prettier...)

There were several college students (one of whom was a young lady who had finished the A.T. last summer), an ex police officer who wanted to train search dogs, several firemen and EMTs, a construction worker, a guy who wanted to be a forest ranger and the A.T. girl's dad, who did managerial stuff for a large company. There were also dogs there. Ripley was 1/2 beagle and 1/2 jack russel terrier and loved to eat yellow jackets. *snarl* SNAP*sting*YOWL!* He was just there for fun and we all enjoyed his company.

The former police lady brought two german shepherd puppies with her. They were 14 weeks old and SO CUTE!!! I was smitten. Alas, she was keeping one to train and was selling the other for $800.

My dog budget is, like 80¢. Ya know what I'm saying? *sigh*

Anyhoo, we did do some practical training outdoors in addition to the classroom work. We packaged pretend patients (aka "volunteers") and practiced transporting them in various types of litters and stretchers and what have you. We carried people up and down and over and around. We joked about leaving them strapped there...

;-)

On the last day we split into two groups. 1/2 of us learned how to build shelters and start fires (aka survival skills) and the rest of us practiced grid searching. I was pleased to find myself in the second group since I need more practice there. I've only grid searched once - and that was on an actual search. So a lengthy practice with much explanation and correction was quite welcomed.

Our team also added in an optional skills session on night navigation. That was the grooviest of all! We were sent out in teams of 2 or 3 into the dark night woods. We were given compass bearings and distances, patted on the back and sent on our way with the hope that we'd come out in the designated spot in a reasonable amount of ti

me.

I was paired up with FiremanB. This was most fortunate since he was an experienced navigator and I can't find my way from point A to point B in broad daylight with a guideline and a map.

Yeah.

Happily, FiremanB was big and strong and, best of all, very patient. He had to be very patient because, while Groovy can set her compass and decide which way to walk, she absolutely CANNOT remember how far she has walked. EVER.

Is this important? Well, it all depends on where you want to end up. I can go west and get to the mountains of Maine or I can go west and get to the Rockies. Ya know what I'm saying?

At any rate, distance is measured by paces with each double pace equalling a certain distance. Keeping track of paces is every bit as imperative as following the right compass bearing. Needless to say, our woods outing was punctuated by FiremanB telling me how many paces he walked, then a moment later, after we'd reset our course, asking, "So, how far have we gone?" and my groovy self answering, "Ummmmmmmmmmmmm."

To his credit he did not roll his eyes and give up on me. He just stepped up the quizzing until I was able to bark back the right answer at least part of the time. Our conclusion? Groovy must needs carry a pen and paper when using a compass. Or...I could buy one of these:

These are "Ranger Beads". You use them like an abacus to keep track of your pace counts. Though I haven't yet figured out how they help you remember that our last count was, oh, say 27 since they work in increments of 10.

In reality, all of this was moot because, my dear friends, there was no way under God's beautiful sky we could have EVER gotten lost in those nighttime woods. Yes, there were streams and a bazillion look-alike birch trees and marshy areas and little hills and ridges that all seemed the same. But none of that matters when you have karaoke.

Bad Karaoke. LOUD Karaoke. Because, as you may have surmised, it was karaoke night at the campground. And the coveted karaoke campsite was located directly across from the picnic table where we both entered and exited the woods. They started caterwailing at 7pm and that's precisely when we started reviewing proper navigational procedures.

The karaoke started out with a fellow singing some rock and a whole lotta country in what was a moderately tolerable voice. But as the beer consumption continued, the singing quality suffered a marked decline. Other patrons began grabbing for the mic and it was a good thing there were no hunters out that late in the evening or someone may have been tempted to put those karaoke fiends out of our misery. It was extra special when several folk went to the mic together and belted out emotional tunes. In "harmony". Brought a tear to my eye.

No, really. It did.

At any rate, FiremanB and I came out of the woods EXACTLY where we were s'posed to. I was so proud! Nonetheless, I am far from confident enough to go out and try that in the woods alone.

Unless I have Ranger beads AND there's Karaoke...

In Which Groovy Is Hoping Her Readers Are Not Too Shocked...

2010-10-01T06:55:00.004-04:00

....After all, this is TWO posts in ONE week. What next?

The truth is I'm all pumped up with adreneline now. In fact, I awoke at 5:30am all psyched up. Coincidentally, an unidentified idiot neighbor started up some VERY loud power equipment (!!????!!) about that same time, but I'm sure that had nothing to do with me rising so early and suddenly. Nothing at all.

This evening I head off to another SAR training. This is the one where I get certified as a searcher. Naturally, the weather today and tonight is nasty...heavy rain and wind!

I hope we're doing the night navigation course tomorrow night! ;-)

Since I'm going sans family, I think I will just leave my cute little tent in it's snug little storage bag and sleep in the van. The BHE already helped me rig some plastic rain sheilds so I can leave the windows open a bit for ventilation. Tonight will be warmish (50's) and dampish, so if I leave the windows closed it could get very stuffy inside. Tomorrow night is supposed to be much colder and dryer... This is definitely going to be one of those be-prepared-for-every-eventuality weekends!

So, my agenda for today is to pack.

Wait. Scratch that. I was packed before 6am.

Ok...so, my agenda for today is to make some yummy goodies for my family to eat while I'm gone so they won't forget that they need me, to homeschool the girls, to clean up and put away some "stuff" that is still laying around from Tuesday's tea party, buy a pair of groovy mechanic's gloves for my back pack (They're great for grabbing trees and climbing rocks), and lastly, making sure GrammaJ is all set for a weekend with me away.

In other news, a particular promotions team apparently likes my groovy blog and wants to host some giveaways of "stuff" here. I am not opposed to this idea, but want to check out their wares first. Maybe I can get them to send me samples to review first, ya think?

And that's it for now. The oven just beeped. That means it is time to bake some biscuits. Then I'm making pumpkin pie from the pumpkins we cooked yesterday. Mmmmmmmmm!

I WILL report back on how my weekend went - hopefully on Monday. Catch you all then!

In Which Groovy is Pretty Much Numb From the Sonic Boom of Passing Time

2010-09-27T12:22:00.007-04:00

Hiho! Long time no Ramble. But I'm back.

Again.

It's been so long since I've been here that Blogger refused to recognize me. The Nerve!

This summer has shot past me at the speed of sound. I think the sonic boom thereof just hit me, but I won't have time to react to it until...oh....some time in 2013.

Seriously, I have been BUSY. I know, I know, other people are busy too, but they still have time to write. I'm a slacker, I admit it! I am also too much of a slacker to make a long list of all the activities I have been involved in. Suffice to say there were mystery parties and tea parties and WAY too many fairs (4-H, anyone?) and 3, count 'em THREE mountain top experiences (literally). Factor all that in with active kids, grandkids and 3 needy, elderly parents and you might see the tip of the insanity.

I'm looking forward to a nice, peaceful, stay-at-home Fall - right after I spend all of next weekend away on a major Search and Rescue training! Then Grandma Dawn will be stopping by for a visit (Wooooot!) and NaNoWriMo is looming on the scene.

School - as in textbook work - is off to a very slow start this year, but the girles have been learning, learning, LEARNING all summer long, so I'm not too worked up about it. We do need to get on the ball, though, or they'll never master their spelling and math!

I gained back the weight I lost. Thus, I need to lose it again. You'd think it would STAY OFF considering how much energy I burn up, but when I get busy (and when am I not busy?) I get lazy about what I eat, so those calories creep up and up. *sigh* By the time I finally lose this last 20 lbs, I will have lost (and regained) 200! Just call me Yo-Yo girl. At any rate, I aim to tackle the weight again after the SAR training is over. Of course, the fact that I am planning to teach the girls how to bake this year should make that a challenge!

Maybe I should write a book entitled "Losing the Last 20 Pounds For the Very Last Time"...

Since I hadn't blogged in a while, I decided to check the search "keyword analysis" for my site. Many of them were expected, like Groovy's Ruminations. Others? Not so.

I find it interesting that one person came to my blog looking for Girly Armpits. Hmmm. While my armpits are certainly girly - especially in the Summer when I actually shave them - I don't typically post them on my blog. I'm just sayin'...

Someone else came to my Groovy site looking for subway 24hrs baxter state park. I was just at Baxter State Park last Monday when BHE

and I climbed Mt. Katahdin (Altitude 5267 feet - the highest peak in Maine. Thank you! Thank You!) and I can tell you for certain that neither the ride-on-it Subway nor the eat-in-it Subway are in Baxter

State Park. Not for ANY hours. There is not even any potable water. Ya know what I'm saying?

And now I interrupt this totally disjointed blog post to fume about two things:

1.) I hate, Hate, HATE mouse-overs. I do not like having pictures jump out at me from my computer.

If I want to see it bigger, I will double-click it myself. Thank you!

2.) Blogger is doing some extremely weird formatting things right now while I type.

I have decided to write the rest of this post without looking at the screen lest I lose my temper!

End of Rant.

Another, more specific searcher found themself here after googling "baptist church" "long hair"

"blogspot" "growing out" I'm not sure what that is all about, but let me reassure you that God does

indeed love Baptists with long hair or with growing-out blogspots, so have no fear.

OK, enough of this drivel. I'm supposed to be teaching the girlies how to make braided bread

loaves for yet another tea party tomorrow. Hopefully they'll keep their girly armpits out of the dough...

************

Edit: The goofy formatting totally ruined my entry, making me rather grouchy. I've fixed it the

best I can. So there.

Double Edit: Did I really use the word "themself"???

Do You Measure Up?

2010-08-23T17:26:00.007-04:00

I just came back from helping to dismantle our 4-H club display at the Skowhegan Fairgrounds. EarlyBird met me there and one by one we took down each child's craft item, removed their prize ribbon and then retagged the item for next weekend's fair.

The pile of ribbons was pretty amazing. 4-H is really geared toward encouraging kids. The younger bunch (ages 5-8) all get green ribbons and small premiums for every entry because they're not allowed to compete. The older kiddos (9-11) can earn blue, red, or...Hmmm. I only saw blue and red. At any rate, the older children are competing and earn higher money premiums and fancier ribbons for a well done project.

But there's a catch, while the older 4-H members do compete, their competition is not against each other. Instead, each judge is encouraged to look at the child's project in light of a standard set by the 4-H Powers-That-Be. They look at the child's age and experience level in that particular project area, then try to decide if the child measured up (blue ribbon) or if there is room for improvement (red or whatever else they have). Thankfully, the judges take time to write comments on the kids' entries letting them know both what they did well and what they could do better.

The hope is that the child will tweak their entry for the next fair and make it just a little bit better. (One of 4-H's themes is To Make The Best Better.)

As I've gone through this process twice this year with my co-leader and 12 kids, the Lord has shown me something; 4-H operates alot like He does.

God wants to take my best and make it better. He does not compare me to my best friend, to my next door neighbor, the cashier at the Mart, or "that lady" I admire. He does not place me in competition with Mother Theresa or Hillary Clinton or Meryl Streep, or Oprah, or Martha Stewart, or the ever intimidating Proverbs 31 Woman .

God only compares me (and you, as well) to a standard. Not an imperfect, subjective standard set by a committee, but by the highest standard of all - Himself.

I am to be perfect as He is perfect. Sadly, on my own that's impossible. I am like 3 year-old trying to build a 3 story house that will WOW the folks on TV - It ain't gonna happen. I'm gonna stack together some Duplo blocks and then wet myself on my way to steal a cookie.

So God steps in and helps. Not even once does he shake His head in despair and roll His eyes at my ineptitude and foolishness. Instead, He teaches me, He guides me, He writes His comments on my heart through the Bible and through His Spirit speaking through others. Sometimes His chastening is painful, but always, ALWAYS it shows me the way to be better, to be more like Him.

He is so Groovy!

You know, I don't care how many ribbons I get or how many pats on the back from others. What I really long to hear is from Him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into your rest."

In Which Groovy CANNOT Contain Her Excitement! (Or Her Illicit Punctuation...)

2010-08-16T14:05:00.015-04:00

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See? That's how excited I am. I am using the exclamation marks before I even begin to write!

And just why is Groovy so excited? I am so glad you asked! (and so amazed you took the bait...)

First of all, Groovy is excited because she got to go camping at Bradbury State Park this past week.

Unfortunately, things were a bit tense for an hour or so the first evening when the fellow in the campsite across from us started swearing profusely and verbally abusing his wife/girlfriend. I was tempted to go over and give him the Hey-knock -it-off-you-loud-mouthed-creep lecture, but it occurred to me that if he were truly abusive, I could be making things worse for her by butting in. I was glad the girls were too busy riding their bikes to notice the broohaha. The BHE was on a trail ride, so I used the time to pray for the couple and to ask the Lord if I should say anything.

Things only flared up once more and we had the kids pray with us for the couple. Finally, the guy quieted down. It was an awkward situation, but I am happy to report that the next morning, both the loudmouth and his wife/girlfriend came over to our campsite. He apologized to us most humbly and profusely - in fact, he was so ashamed of his behavior he was almost in tears. It was super groovy! Needless to say, we thanked them and forgave them.

So, what'd we do for camping fun? We got introduced to trail riding on mountain bikes. BHE is a big fan. He rode our older tandem (it has mountain bike tires) with Girly-Girl while Silly-Head and I gutted it out on individual bikes. The girls and I aren't quite on board. Frankly, I'm not overly impressed with a bike riding style that requires me to pedal slower than I walk! Still, it was fun to try something new.

We also did alot of hiking and playing. We climbed Bradbury Mountain (pretty easy) and dug groovy rocks out of a quarry. We also ran into town (Freeport) to visit LLBean and go to our favorite beach. Alas, Silly-Head had taken a spill on her bike and had a shredded leg. So we had to ditch the beach idea when they attendant told us there was a high bacteria count in the water.

What-oh-what should we do instead? The answer showed up in moments as we tooled down U.S. 1. We've lived in Maine for almost 20 years and yet have never stopped to see Eartha in Yarmouth. Eartha is THE largest rotating and revolving globe in the world. Clearly, it was time for a Semper Gumbi (Always Flexible) moment. So, on a sudden whim we turned into the parking lot. We had a very fun time looking at the globe (it. is. amazing.) and perusing the DeLorme Maps Gift Shop. It was so groovy we had a hard time dragging the girls away!

After that we went on to Portland for an exciting time at Chuck E. Cheese. Silly-Head and Girly-Girl played one particular driving game SO MANY TIMES that I am postive they could just jump behind the wheel of the van and go. Of course, they do still have to learn that crashing into things is not the object of real driving...

Secondly, Groovy is excited because she got to see her grandkids and their PrettyMom for lunch as soon as we got back from camping. Seeing the Grands is always a wonderful thing! And THEN I went to the farm with Girly-Girl so she could finish trimming her goat whilst BHE and Silly-Head unloaded the car at home. They came back with some sandwiches from Subway and there was much swimming and kayaking (we didn't check the bacteria count of the pond; Sometimes it's better not to know!) before we went home and settled into post-camping zombiness.

Thirdly, Groovy is excited because she got to attend a Christian Writer's Conference this past Saturday. It required rising Waaaaaay too early after our exciting week, but it was so worth it. I learned so much about how to avoid neophyte writing mistakes such as overusing exclamation marks and elipses and CAPITAL LETTERS. Of course, I NEVER do any of those things in my writing...EVER!!!!!

I also got the opportunity to read some of my YA novel aloud. The reactions were quite encouraging! Yes! I am using MORE exclamation marks!! Seriously, several people approached me tell me that they liked my writing, that they wanted to know what happened next, that they thought I was creative and funny. I really do believe that this conference has given me the inspiration to get back to some real writing - writing that moves beyond the occasional pithy comment on FaceBook.

Right now the plan is to set aside 15 minutes a day to just brainstorm and write. That doesn't sound like much time, but it's manageable and right now that's what I need. Besides that, I know me and once I start writing, that 15 minutes will turn into more, hopefully much more.

I'm going to focus on Through the Molasses Swamp for now. That and on creating a few new Squidoo pages. I have so many ideas right now that my head is spinning!

Fourthly, Groovy is excited because Girly-Girl just told us she is ready to be baptised next Sunday. Woot! We wanted her to be baptised, but strongly feel she must do so because she loves God and wants to follow HIM, not because she wants to please us. God is so good!

Fifthly, Groovy is excited because Girly-Girl and her friend Peanut got to show goats at the State Fair yesterday. They took fourth and sixth, respectively. They had wonderful attitudes and both were very open to learning from the judge so they could do better at the next fair. They helped other kids move goats and show goats and all-in-all it was a wonderful day!

Girly-Girl and Peanut are the two on the far right.

Silly-Head did not show this year, but she was a terrific helper. She ran errands, held waiting goats, cheered, and encouraged. She said she definitely does want to show next year. (Little does she know we'll have our own goats then!)

And Finally, Groovy is excited because she won a prize! My dear internutty online pastry chef friend, Jenni Field, had a contest. And my entry Won! The prize came today. Whatcanitbe? Whatcanitbe?

Oh Groovy! It's a book on "high fun, low stress dinner parties for 6 to 12 people". That's right up my alley. I am going to have a lovely time reading this new addition to my kitchen library and trying the author Bob Blumer's suggestions on guests. :-D Thanks, Jenni!

Whew! I think that's enough EXCITEMENT for one blog post, don't you? It's also enough elipses, CAPITAL LETTERS, and exclamation marks! *wink* (And let's not mention the overabundant use of the word "groovy", K?)

Now I'll use the rest of my exciting day off to read and write. In the meantime... tell me one or two exciting things that have been happening in YOUR life! (Dang. Did it AGAIN!)

*wink*wink*

In Which Groovy Vows to Write More Often

2010-08-07T15:10:00.010-04:00

What is it with me and writing lately?

I love to write and I love to blog, but lately I've been so in the midst of ~~Facebook~~ the busyness of life that I've had neither the time nor the focus for blogging or Squidoo. This is a very sad state of affairs because I love to write and create and research and learn and - let's face it - I'm addicted to my reader's written applause. Or I was.

(Groovy sits and ponders deep thoughts for a minute - which is pretty much her deep thinking limit.)

Nah, I still am. I love to be silly and make people laugh (or at least snort and roll their eyes) and I like honing that skill/talent/ability/immaturity here.

Yes, you are my guinea pigs. (You have my permission to snort).

I am aware, however, that blogs with infrequent posts tend to lose readership. In fact I have always maintained that a blogger should write at least once a week. And I live in steadfast admiration and awe of those who write daily! My friend Marianne posts pretty much every day and JungleMom ranks right up there for posting frequency - even though both of them are on Facebook (How do they escape the FB time-sucking vortex????). Better yet, they are both interesting to read (not something that can be said of every blogger).

I guess the difference is that they both more driven and committed to writing regularly while I am....lazy. Oh yes, Groovy, but lazy.

*sigh*

Anyhoo, I am going to a writer's conference next Saturday; I spent money on it and everything. I reckon I'd better get my writing butt kicked into gear and crank out something worthwhile to read aloud for the peer evaluations. I also plan to meet with other local writers once a month over this next year. It would be so nice to waltz into the meeting with some songs or poems or skits or CHAPTERS in my hand that I had actually, you know, written and all. They're a NEAT bunch of writers that range from closet poets to published authors of several novels. There is so much I can learn from them! Perhaps seeing their thoughful faces and getting their feedback on a regular basis will give me the push I need to write regularly and to write better.

And 10 Points extra if I can make them laugh...

(20 Points if I can make milk come out their noses!)

In Which Groovy Mulls Over the Mundane

2010-07-17T15:45:00.012-04:00

Reading other blogs, I have gathered that many women have an intense dislike for doing laundry. They've posted amazing pictures of their piles to be washed and mounds to be folded and lamented how it all never ends and the stains didn't come out and only one sock of a treasured pair is missing.

I've never quite understood this because I LIKE doing laundry. It's one chore that doesn't overwhelm me or make me cranky. Of course, the BHE (Best Hubby Ever, remember?) does help me by doing the laundry for me on Mondays. But even when he can't help, I don't mind doing it at all.

On Mondays we wash all the towels and washcloths from the kitchen and bathrooms as well as whatever goodies ended up in the hamper. On Thursdays we wash all the sheets and jammies as well as the hamper contents. With four of us here, we usually only have 4 loads a week unless we've been camping or farm sitting or something like that.

The BHE and I like to hang our laundry whenever possible. In the winter, we hang them on the clotheslines in our basement. The air is nice and crisp and dry from the furnace, so they usually dry within 24 hours.

In the summer, we hang them out here on my much loved pulley clothesline.

There are pulleys for two lines, but BHE didn't get the second one strung up this year. We have to take the lines down in the winter because the snow falls off the roof in incredibly powerful avalanches and breaks them if we don't remove them.

(Note: Our neighbor said that the first time he heard an avalanche off our steep, high roof, he thought we were having an earthquake! See how steep it is?)

The lines are so long that they can sag quite a bit, so we bought one of these for each line to ratchet up the slack:

And one of these spacers to keep the bottom line from drooping too much.

By the way, my FAVORITE place to shop for laundry accoutrements is Lehman's. I love that place - we're talking 3 thumbs up! (and I only have 2 thumbs!)

At any rate, I miss having two lines this year. It slows things down considerably!

Naturally we do have an electric dryer, but we only use it in ultra humid or inclement weather.

I use all natural, unscented laundry soap and a very little bit of unscented liquid fabric softener. I absolutely DESPISE scented laundry items. *shudder* When someone is kind enough to give me their freshly washed hand-me-downs, I usually have to wash them 2 or 3 times to remove all the smell before I can wear them. Ironically, my mother-in-law, who shares our laundry facilities with us, ADORES highly scented detergents and softeners and air fresheners. It is my least favorite part of sharing the house with her. (Which says alot. She's a tremendously wonderful lady and if the only complaints I have are scent related, then I am one seriously blessed daughter-in-law!)

Neither am I a fan of stinky laundry in my hamper, so I took a nylon knee-high stocking and filled it with about a cup and a half of baking soda. Then I tied a knot in it and put it inside another, slightly thicker knee-high and tied another knot. It sits in the bottom of the hamper and keeps it fresh smelling for months! Of course, the first time I put it in there the BHE almost washed it... ;-)

As for folding the laundry, the girlies do most of that. When they don't I just quickly fold each piece as it comes off the line or out of the dryer, then put it all away immediately so it doesn't sit out forever.

All done - Easy Peasy.

And that's how Groovy deals with her laundry. Just DON'T ask me about sheets.

*shudder*

For while I enjoy doing laundry, I loathe making the bed. Not the making of the bed where one makes it look nice and pretty each morning - I don't mind that at all - but the bed making where one has to put on all new sheets and pillow cases. It's not hard to do and it doesn't take long and oh-how-wonderful clean sheets smell and feel, but I can't stand doing it. I will actually throw the clean sheets atop the bed and then ignore them completely until I am very tired and want to crawl in bed but can't because I never made it. It totally makes no sense.

Oh well, what's your favorite housework chore? Surely there's one (or more) that gives you a pleasant sense of accomplishment...

Change is in the Air...and in the Heart

2010-07-09T10:47:00.009-04:00

1. The first changes relate to my groovy self: I am losing weight (remember all that weight I lost a while back? It came back. With friends), buffing up, and have bad hair.

Oh wait, I guess I always have bad hair...

It's just that Mulletman said he wants me to grow my bangs out, so now I have worse hair. I try to do cute things with clips, but it's a thinly veiled attempt at hairstyling that always seems to fall flat - literally. I, personally think I look older sans bangs, but the man looks at me more than I look at me, so I'm going for it!

2. Next change? Mulletman's name. I will no longer be calling my beloved "Mulletman" on this blog. Henceforth he shall be known as the BHE. ie. the Best Hubby Ever.

This is NOT because he is growing his bangs out too. Au contraire. He still has his wonderful curly mullet. However, mullets tend to get a bad rap and I want nothing negative associated with the Best Hubby Ever. (For the record, his curly mullet is very becoming and I love it! His uncle hates it and his parents barely tolerate it, but that's another story...)

And what, you may ask, qualifies him as the BHE? Many, many things, not the least of which is...

Are you ready?

If you've been reading my blog for long, you might want to sit down...

Are you sitting down?

'Cause if you aren't sitting down I will not be responsible for your reaction...

He said...

(No, we're not pregnant.)

That...

HE'S BUILDING ME A GOAT PEN AND SHED SO WE CAN GET DAIRY GOATS OF OUR VERY OWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woooooooooot!!!

Needless to say, I am PSYCHED! I have been farm sitting all week and he's been most interested in all the milk and milk products I've been making. He's been pumping our goaty friends for feed prices and equipment requirements and has been discussing breed preferences.

It's all very dizzying! Especially when you consider we're talking about ~~Mulletment~~ BHE, the animal hater! The opposer of pets! The slanderer of all things furry and soft!

Naturally I will keep you all updated. Right now I am busy researching so we will be fully prepared when our new furry family members move in. We'll either buy pregnant does this Fall or get baby does in the Spring.

*Squeal!!!!*

3. The third change is my attitude toward GrammaJ. Having my mom move up here to be near us has been one of the greater challenges of my life. We've never been particularly close and when I moved away from home - I'm just being honest here - I never missed her even one iota.

No. I am NOT proud of that.

I am from a disfuctional family du jour and have always gaped in wonderment at people with close families. Folks who still missed their deceased parents years after they died totally befuddled me. People who moved back home because they missed their parents or siblings confused me. Adults who actually know they're cousins names and get together with them "just because" seemed quite alien to me.

In theory, BHE and I had always said we'd "take care" of our folks when they got old. That's what good Christian kids are supposed to do. In reality, we were hoping things would never get to that point. Frankly, we LIKED our isolation and the simplicity of only having to deal with our own children.

Then the Folks moved up to be near us. They live in an apartment attached to our house.

Then GrammaJ came up. She was a in poor physical shape, poor financial shape, and in poor emotional shape. BHE and I were torn. She is quite eccentric and got on both our nerves on every visit we ever made back home. She's opinionated, she talks too much, and she tries so hard to make our family relationship perfect that she makes us want to scream and run away. It was hard having his folks here, but at least we can get along with them. It seemed caring for GrammaJ was going to be rough ride.

And it has been. The move here was hor.ri.ble. I can say, without exception, it was the most exhausting and difficult thing I EVER did. Her living situatiion was stressful: She could have lived with us and taken her time finding a place to live, but we can't have her cats here - BHE is allergic to cats. But she wouldn't give them up or even let me locate a temporary home for them. That put us into rush-to-find-an-apartment mode.

And the one I found here wasn't all that spiffy. At all. Then she had TWO surgeries and we got the flu and I hated taking her shopping and I was embarassed to be with her and BHE and I were both rude to her and often hard on her. I dreaded every moment with her. It was awful!

Ok, ok...I/we was/were awful.

And God, being good like He is, said That won't do. Because, unlike us, He didn't see her as an obnoxious, embarassing little old lady. So He started working on our hearts. And some of that work was painful - He had alot of selfish garbage to cut out!

And He used many of you. You left me the weirdest comments whenever I wrote about her saying how "cute" she was. How "fun"! What a "character"!

I thought you were all nuts!

In the meantime, the girls and I, and sometimes BHE were visiting the nursing home on a regular basis. God started convicting me that I thought it was enjoyable visiting other people's obnoxious, eccentric parents , but that I chafed at visiting my own.

A shift started, almost imperceptibly, in my thinking. After 3 years, I suddenly realized that my mom is...a cute little old lady. She IS eccentric, but she is also smart and funny and, in many ways, quite wise. She is actually FUN to be with and I LIKE doing things for her and WITH her.

No, it is not always convenient to take her shopping or fix things in her house or weed her garden, but it also no longer a loathesome burden. Rather, it is a privilege to be able to serve her.

So, thank you, Lord for changing my dark and selfish heart to make me just a wee bit more like YOU.

Change is Good when it comes form God!

In Which Groovy Waxes on and on About Goats and Kids

2010-06-30T19:50:00.009-04:00

*whack*whack*whack*

Is this thing ON?

I guess so...

Hi All. I am back from the nether reaches of goatdom - at least until Friday. On Friday I start farm sitting again. That's right, my groovy self milking 9 (count 'em, NINE) does and choring about a dozen others - not to mention adorable barn kittens and 2 herding dogs (one of which I love and the other of which I hope gets sucked up in a passing tornado). Happily, this time I will be milking by machine instead of by (*OUCH!*) hand. I'm also going to make a social event of it by inviting several other ladies over to learn how to make goat cheese.

Mmmmmmm!

We just returned from our yearly adventure in 4-H at a local fairground. We camp in our tent beside the goat barn for 3 nights and lie awake listening to all the Nubians scream because they are in a strange place. If the Nubians aren't screaming, then kids are - human kids AND goat kids. Apparently the "Lights out at 10pm" rule is interpreted by many as a "suggestion".

Other than an extreme bout of insomnia, the weekend went quite well. The girls made tons of crafts and both of them learned to knit on circular knitters.

They also worked with goats. Of course. Naturally.

Silly-Head has no interest in showing at the fairs, but she still spent a little time working with and walking goats. Here, she is participating in a VERY small parade:

And here she is shaving one of our club's does to get her show ready.
Girly-Girl IS planning to show and compete. She worked on a 4 person "fitting team" where they have 45 minutes to completely shave a goat for showing. Her team didn't win (their doe still had a few rough spots on her armpits. I know, I know...ghastly, eh?), but they had a great time!

Later she did get to participate in a "mock show" as a practice for the fairs and SHE WON FIRST PLACE! Woooot! The win was made especially sweet by the fact that her goat was extremely unruly and difficult to handle. In fact, she was almost in tears and was ready to quit. Thankfully, the woman in charge of the mock show was graced with knowing exactly what to do and say to give Girly-Girl the determination to get back in the ring and handle her goat with confidence and skill. Her big turn around and subsequent win were the highlight of the weekend for all of us!

I was also quite busy during the weekend being the resident "Bike Nazi": Please, DON'T ride your bike in the barns! and by being an all purpose volunteer for the event. I even got ~~suckered into~~ asked to lead a workshop on shelter building in the woods. It was a little stressful getting ready on such short notice, but the class went well and I think all the kids had fun. Well, all except for Languid-Child who had no use for the woods or for shelters or for doing anything that resembled work. He just lay about and complained. He finally figured he'd get off the hook and go back to camp if he told me he had to poop. He was horrified when I handed him a couple of tissues and told him to find a bush! ;-)

OK, time for me to be on my Groovy way. Tomorrow promises to be another exciting day involving 4-H, grandkiddos and itty-bitty kittens!

Oh So Random...

2010-06-24T15:16:00.007-04:00

Well, we're back from the Trek Across Maine, but I'm off to an all weekend 4-H camping, goating thingy in a couple of hours. So, I'll take advantage of this offer from my friendMarianne.

She has challenged her readers to post one random fact about themselves on her comment section, then six more things on their own blog. So I'm in. If you want to play, just do the same; Post one random fact about yourself in my Comments and six more on your blog.

OK...Here's my six random hooeys.

1. There are supposed to be BIG thunderstorms this afternoon. My husband has called twice AND left me a note to remind me to check the weather and be careful and don't camp if it's bad and yadda, yadda, yadda. Problem is.......I LOVE THUNDERSTORMS! Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

2. I am on a quest to get to the highest fitness level I've ever been in. My bucket list for the next year includes peaking Mt. Katahdin, rapelling next month, a 50 mile group ride in July, speed walking a 1/2 marathon in November, FINISHING the Trek Across Maine next summer and ALWAYS being ready for a Search and Rescue call. This means LOTS of cardio and weight lifting!

3. I try to eat 1/4 cup of chocolate chips every day. :-D

4. I never apologize when I kill a Japanese beetle. (I'm just sayin'...)

5. One of my greatest daily joys (besides chocolate chips) is watching all the birds on my feeders.

6. I'm not terribly fond of t-shirts, but they seem to breed in my drawers. I have WAAAAAAAAY too many, but feel guilty getting rid of them because they all commemorate a ministry or sports event that I participated in.

OK...Your turn. I've got to get off this computer and go find my lightning rod.

BWA-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

In Which Groovy Fails in the Finish-What-You-Start Battle of Life

2010-06-16T15:49:00.007-04:00

HiHo My Internutty Friends,

This is my groovy blog where I am supposed to sound interesting and clever and witty and intelligent. Will you settle for hormonal?

;-)

Bleh.

I am on the tail end of a cold and dealing with my "time", both of which have drained the power right out of my inner transformer. My brain comes up with this great to-do list and my body says, "Naaaah."

Oh well. I sealed the seams on the tent yesterday and just got it all rolled and packed. So there's 1 to-do that I can completely check off! Huzzah!

Today I tried to do some yard work. I had lofty plans, but only managed to water the garden and transplant some sad, waterlogged bachelor buttons. The slug-eaten marigolds and limp sunflowers will just have to wait.

I squirted cleaner in the toilet and kind of swished it around, but still need to finish the bathroom.

I thought about making pizza for supper, but I don't feel like making dough.

I did get our clothes packed for the Trek and noticed some things Mulletman may have forgotten (Did you want underwear and socks, Darling? Tee-hee. No, I'm NOT kidding!), so I can't zip the bag shut yet.

I wrote checks to pay some bills, but haven't transferred the money to cover the payments yet.

I got the girls to write letters to the child we support through Compassion International, but haven't written my note yet.

Ah well, the evening is not yet over. I have 2 hours before we leave for a family worship service. Surely I can accomplish something before then.

Maybe.

Gee, I love to see the birds at my birdfeeder..... Huh? Oh. Yeah. I can hear ya, "Hey Groovy, get off your duff and FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED!"

Ok, Ok, I'm going!

I guess I'll catch up with you all again after the Trek Across Maine. We'll be leaving around noon tomorrow for 4 days of fun and work and adventure - assuming I actually get some of this stuff done.

Bye!

The Very Groovy Painted Ladies

2010-06-12T17:08:00.010-04:00

No. NO. Not that kind of painted lady.

Sheesh!

I'm talking about this kind of Painted Lady!

While we were in New York visiting Funsocksgirl, we spent one of our days enjoying the Lilac Festival in Rochester. There were bazillions of lovely flowers and booths of crafty things and foods and jewelry and plants. We were looking in the booth set up by the master gardeners of the University's Cooperative Extension when my attention was drawn to some little jars that looked like this:

Except these little jars had WAY MORE caterpillars inside. The very nice Master-Gardener-Lady-in-Charge said, "You can have those, if you'd like."

"Have?" I was sure she had mispoken. There were about 14,000,000 painted lady caterpillars in each jar. I've looked at ordering them before. A kit like the one in the picture above - from Carolina Biological is a whopping $28.50 and it only contains 5-7 pillars.

And this lady is talking "free"?

"Yes, free. Help yourselves!"

SO WE DID! Funsocksgirl grabbed pillars and food for her nephew and I grabbed a set for the girlies and I. Once home, we realized there about 35 caterpillars in each container. That's roughly (and I kid you not - check out that last link to see for yourself) $200 of caterpillars!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

We picked up some containers at a discount store later that same day and divvied them up into groups of 5-7 per container. They lived in our bedroom at J-Man's parent's house until we headed home; They seemed to fare quite well.

A few died, but most ate and ate and ate, then formed little chrysalids on the lids of their boxes.

Now we needed a safe place for them to emerge. Thankfully, a friend had just recently rescued a large and awesome cage from the dump for us. I bought some netting and made it into a temporary butterfly habitat!

We moved the Ladies to a smaller cage to carry them outside for release.

As of today we've released 14 Ladies. We're just hoping they all emerge before we take off for the Trek Across Maine next Thursday!

Yes, I Was That Groovy Blur You Saw Zipping Past You

2010-06-08T16:28:00.014-04:00

HiHo. I am back.

Actually, I was back from vacation a week or two ago. But now my brain is back here in Blogland too - very important if I am going to write.

So, what did you miss? Oh not much, just a funeral where I screeched into a parking place, sprinted across the cemetary and arrived breathlessly - just in time - to sing the opening hymn (Can you say "embarassed"?), followed by a looooong drive to a Navy military training ground deep in the heart of Maine to learn survival skills in a cold, steady rain (fire, anyone?), a looooong drive home for packing/Mother's Day/Silly-Head's preliminary birthday celebration (Look, Presents! and Pictures! and Insanity!) followed by a road trip to Rochester, NY, Silly-Head's next birthday party at the illustrious Chuck E Cheese (Yes, that LOUD, excited screaming that is causing all the patrons to stare would be my daughter; my 26 year-old daughter!), a road trip (Krispy Kreme - Woot!) to Richmond, IN to visit friends (Fun!!!) and buy a fabulous used tandem bicycle (Daisy, Daisy, Give me your answer, do...), a day trip to The Creation Museum just south of Cincinatti (I just KNEW the Garden of Eden was in Kentucky!), a road trip back to NY (more screaming and insanity), a visit to the Lilac Festival (the big butterfly scoop!) and Niagara Falls (Don't forget your cheap tourist sandals!) and a road trip home to Maine (Are we there yet?).

Let's see, then we were home and there were 4,000 urgent emails and a pile of snail mail that went to the ceiling and an ant infestation and a garden that needed planting and a husband who wanted (and still wants) help fundraising for the Trek Across Maine and the American Lung Association. There were families who needed meals and orthodontist appointments and piano practices followed by the big recital and there was, most exciting of all, an actual deployment for Search and Rescue. Yep. Last Saturday evening I got the call that our SAR team was on stand-by. I packed my gear and paced until we got a further call that were definitely being deployed. A hiker was lost in Baxter State Park and an all day search on Saturday had failed to find him. NavyGirl (AnnieOakley's teen daughter) and I met the rest of the gang near midnight and trekked out to the state park. We got there around 3am. There wasn't a ranger in sight, so we decided to try to sleep in our 3 vehicles (4 people to a car!) until the briefing in the morning. We had tents, but thought it would be too much trouble to set them up...

You may commence laughing now.

After about 2 hours of sighing, swatting mosquitoes, listening to classic rock, sticking legs out windows, growling at those who snored and shifting position every 12 seconds we all gave up and started patrolling Millinocket for anywhere open at 5am that might have bathrooms, food and coffee. It may have been the first time, as an adult, that I was glad to see a McDonalds!

The rangers and other searchers arrived around 7am. By the time we were all briefed and made the long drive to Mt. Katahdn it was 8:30am. We broke up into groups and basically scoured the area assigned to us for 12 hours. And by scour I mean scaled rocks and forced our way through puckerbrush while peering over, around, and under rocks and trees and stream beds yelling "Michael"!

35+ searchers on the mountain all day long and no luck. Not a sign of him. One searcher did get hurt and had to airlifted out amid much ado, but no lost hiker. We were exceedingly tired and somewhat discouraged when we plopped into our tents that night. The next morning we all headed home, glad there were fresh searchers to take our places.

I was so relieved when I got the news that he was found the following afternoon - injured and bug bitten and embarassed, but very much alive. I cried as I watched the video of him talking from his hospital bed. Hopefully, the publicity and Michael's humility will help other hikers to avoid his 3 major mistakes:

1. He hiked alone - never a good idea. Even if you are familiar with the territory, it is wise for two-three people to hike together so someone can get help if one hiker gets injured.

2. He left the trail looking for a "shortcut" and he had no map. Baxter State Park is ginormous and Katahdn is the highest mountain in Maine. You NEED to know where you are going!

3. Once he realized he was lost, he kept moving. Though it is OK to move to a stream or open area where you can be seen, in most cases it is better to STAY PUT and put out something bright colored that searchers can see. If he'd had fire starters with him (he did not) he could have started a fire. The rangers would have been able to use the smoke to locate him the first evening!

At any rate, this searcher is thrilled that Michael is alive and well. I'm looking forward to our team's debriefing tomorrow!

Now, Let's finish out this whirlwind review with some photos. Enjoy!

Tis GrammaJ and I on Mother's Day. I gave her a much coveted morter and pestle.

Mulletman and his mom celebrate Mother's Day witha spin on the old tandem!

(The new one is WAY nicer!

The girls gave me cards and homemade fairies and - oh joy of joys

-a rearview mirror for my bike!

This picture in Erie, PA says it all. (Sadly, there are no Krispy Kremes in Maine. *sigh* So we stopped here TWICE and bought a total of 3 dozen donuts!!!)

Oh Looky! Silly-Head is NINE!

Our beautiful Silly-Head.

The handsome J-Man with Funsocksgirl (at Chuck E. Cheese, of course!)

I think the birthday celebrations wore them out!

WE had the privilege of taking Girly-Girl's longtime friend, IndianaGirl, to the Creation Museum with us. The botanical garden there is outstanding!

There was also a petting zoo there. Mulletman made special friends with this camel.

Funsocksgirl had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction at Niagara Falls.

Yes, those top four VERY wet people belong to me. I was down below with cameras and belongings and dry hair. ;-)

The Lilac Festival in Rochester, NY was loads of fun. Mulletman bought us fruit smoothies to share. We had three different flavors and loved them all .

***************************************************************

And let me conclude with this happy news: Mulletman did it: He raised $1,000 for the American Lung Association!

Thank You to ALL who donated!!!!

In Which Groovy Presents You With a Clear, Concise, Focused Post

2010-05-07T07:16:00.005-04:00

April Fools!

Oh...It's May.

Sorry.

I am in a tornado of activity today. This evening I set off on another Search and Rescue adventure. This training is at a Naval training camp in Rangeley, Maine and the focus is on survival.

And it's supposed to be cold and rainy.

And it is primitive - lean-to and outhouse primitive.

And I don't own any raingear (yet).

Hope I survive!

(A moment of silence for Groovy who may or may not survive...)

(Thank you!)

Before I leave I need to bake a dessert for the SAR gang, make cookies for our 4-H fundraiser sale (which, thankfully, Mulletman is attending with the girlies, so I can pull myself together and not have a nervous breakdown), finish packing my backpack and sleeping gear, make a packing list for vacation, and NOT worry that Mulletman hasn't yet gotten his mother a Mother's Day gift.

Actually, I'm sure I have no reason to worry. After all, the man has stepped right up to the plate and done almost $100 of his own fundraising for the Trek Across Maine this year. This is a first! Usually I do all the letter writing and blog plugging and begging and pleading for folks to support him and the work of the American Lung Association, but this year he has been passing the hat himself. I am so proud of him!

Speaking of which, if you haven't sent in your support pledge, please, Please, PLEASE do so before the end of this month. Even $5 would be a tremendous help! Just click HERE to make your U.S. tax deductable contribution.

My hope is that the ALA will push drug companies to make asthma inhalors that are affordable (my current one is $30 a pop AFTER the insurance!) and that have counters on them so I don't still think I have medicine left when I don't.

The middle of an asthma attack is a very, very bad time to realize that your inhalor is empty!

Eeeeeek! I just looked at the clock... So this afternoon I'm singing at a graveside funeral service. I've never been to one of those before. Should be interesting. I hope they don't mind if I smell like a serious dose of insect repellent!

After that I'm off to the survival training until late Saturday. Assuming I live through that, Sunday will NOT be a day of rest. It will be day of attending church (which will be refreshing, if not restful) and celebrating our Moms and more PACKING because Monday we're hopping in the car for a road trip to New York to visit Funsocksgirl and then to Indiana to visit some close friends. On the way back to Funsocksgirl's we'll stop at the Creation Museum in Ohio.

It'll be a fun and busy two weeks.

And no, I won't be blogging.

Unless, of course, Funsocksgirl and J-Man are boring. In which case I can be counted upon to commandeer her computer and give you an update. Sadly for you, they are NEVER boring! ;-)

And this is where I'd love to tell you about my weird day yesterday, but will have to settle for summarizing. You know, due to the time and all:

- Accidentally took home another 4-H er's sweatshirt after club and left her family in a flurry this morning trying to locate it.

- Left my garden shoes and Silly-Head's windbreaker at the same meeting.

- Witnessed a just-barely-missed accident that left me revved up for hours!

- Bought a spice at the store and then realized the bottle was completely empty.

- Bought a treat for Funsocksgirl and realized the package was ripped open.

- Had a monkey wrench thrown into my schedule (a NICE monkey wrench that culminated in new tires and dinner out at Longhorn's .)

- Missed seeing a curb and twisted my ankle. (not badly - Whew!)

- Didn't accomplish ten+ different planned agenda items

OK, enough about me...

I'm outta here and moving on to baking and working out and packing and more groovy insanity and adventures. See ya on the other side!