Jumbled Mind

There is still a lot going on around here, so I'll just lump them all together so you know what's on my jumbled mind.


Every season I can't wait for the next season to come because it will be "so relaxing". Umm, yeah, that's not really the way my life works.


I order seeds and plan the garden and finally get it in all in a rush in May. Once the garden goes in, I'm busy with summer camping and maintaining the garden. Then I wait for school to start so that I can relax. But that's when the canning and preserving and getting the garden out starts in earnest and I anxiously wait for snow to fall and things to slow down. Then I take on a project (like the lovely bathroom) and Christmas prep is in full swing. Yes, the snow gently falls and the sounds outside are lovely and muffled or non-existent, but my mind is so loud it doesn't register. Once Christmas is done, maybe things will slow down. Well, no. I've got two birthdays in January and a host of other birthday parties that the kids attend. And the plants get started under the lights. With spring comes the garden again and all of the end of school activities and the year starts all over again. And so on and so on and so on....


It's interesting that I started this "year" with spring and the gardening activities. I guess that's where my mind is even in the middle of a snow storm.


Anyway, here's a bathroom update. The floors are down and with it came new knowledge of compressors and hardwood flooring, tile adhesive and grout. It's lovely though. I've got some paint touchups to do, seal the grout and put up the baseboards and buy a new heat register. Next week the fixtures go in and bath gets out of the living room! Yay!

This wall of the bathroom has slipped to the back of mind to do after Christmas.

I have a door that needs some work, aluminum backing to go in and shelves to figure out. And it's only been primed so far. It's not a show stopper though, so it doesn't stress me out at this point. It'll happen and it's much-needed storage space.

Yesterday Beth made me this Christmas card. (See the upside down bath in the background? It's a suitable illustration for this segment of the post!)

And this is what it says inside. At first I thought it was a copied poem from some cards the teachers might have offered as examples, but no. This is a Beth original.

Dear Mom,

Have a wonderful Christmas and a great time.
I hope you enjoy this little rhyme.
Have a wonderful Christmas, I did the math -
14 days til you worry about the bath!

I'm not sure when she did the math, but I think she's referring to the fact that I was going to get a bunch done on the bathroom this week, but then I'd stop until after Christmas.

Christmas stuff is going on as well though. After all, life's not all about the bathroom.

We had two concerts going on at the exact same time on Sunday. I went to Alice and Beth's musical play while Yvon went to Laura's choir concert. Both were awesome! Laura's is definitely of a more serious nature and I'd heard every recital since September, so I let Yvon see the real thing.

However, while Alice and Beth rehearse I'm rehearsing with my own choir and hadn't seen much of theirs. It was very professionally done and really good.
Beth sang a lovely solo and Alice was just Alice. I heard lots of comments about them after the show. Typical comments: "Beth has a great singing voice. She's perfectly in pitch and not nervous at all" and "I love watching Alice - her big yawns just make the show and her hat covered her eyes through most of it - so cute!" She's still the second youngest in the show and she knew all the words and actions and did actually watch the director throughout the show (when she could see!), so I was pretty proud of her. Do you remember Amy Grant's "Fat Little Baby" song from the 80s? That was part of the production and Alice got to dance with a feather boa through it.

This week was also the school's choir concert. I went to the afternoon one and Yvon went to the evening performance while I went to my own choir rehearsal. Logistics of this time of year are getting to be a lot of fun. Or a nightmare, but we're making it work.

This weekend is my choir concert and party, and we cancelled Beth's piano recital because it was at the same time. We can't do everything and it start taking away from any enjoyment in the holidays.

Today is the kids' last day at school until the New Years, so we spent some time last night making gifts for all of their teachers and student teachers. They had so many student teachers this year. We made marshmallows (using this recipe) and hot chocolate on a stick. And then Beth joined the scene a bit later and dipped some of the marshmallows in melted chocolate for her teachers. Although I vowed not to buy any gift wrap this year and use cloth bags for everything (using stash fabrics only), I did find these cellophane bags from many years ago in the house.


I didn't take any pictures, but Beth gave me very late notice that she was supposed to provide something for the bake sale at the school concert, so on Tuesday night we made a bunch of very yummy caramel. We packaged some up in some gossamer fabric bags and some were sold individually.

And I will leave you with this picture of the cutest Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus I have ever seen. For some reason, my eyes well up whenever I look at them.