Big dreams…
Posted by Candidly yours~ on August 19th, 2010 filed in SpackleComment now »
Anyone who has children knows that parenting can be tough. You want to support your children in their endeavors and be there cheering them on but sometimes it is just so hard. Our older son is always hatching a plan to make or sell something. When he was little we would listen to his plans and tell him what good ideas he had even though they didn’t always make sense. As he has gotten older he continues to come up with ideas that just don’t always make sense and it is becoming increasingly hard not to tell him that his ideas aren’t good ones. For example today he wanted to try to go door to door selling sea shells to people. I tried to explain to him that there was no way I was going to let him go door to door selling anything. The poor child didn’t understand why we weren’t supportive of his business venture. I explained that it wasn’t the sea shells but the idea of him going from house to house that didn’t appeal to us. We finally detailed to him that it wouldn’t have mattered if had loose diamonds, magazines, or electric can openers because children going from house to house just wasn’t safe. I believe he finally understood that part of the discussion but didn’t understand why he then couldn’t have a sea shell stand in the yard. Some days I feel like the bad guy all day long.
Not the same woman..
Posted by Candidly yours~ on August 19th, 2010 filed in SpackleComment now »
This weekend I was having a conversation with my mother about some of the things we have been working on around the house. Something she said about my wife struck me as funny because she said that my wife “is not the same woman” that I married almost 20 years ago. Usually when you hear this term it evokes negative connotations. When I think of my wife as not being the same woman nothing but positive things come to mind. She is no longer a woman who strives after a high powered career and things. Our lives have indeed taken a 180 degree turn from where we once were about 10 years ago. I wouldn’t change a thing because I love the woman she is today. Yes, there are days where I wonder if we really need a chicken coop and another raised garden bed. In hindsight I usually see that the things she is asking for or wants me to build are things that are part of a bigger picture she has for our lives. We are striving towards a simpler and more self-sufficient life that offers significantly more fulfillment that anything else we have ever endeavored to do.
Cleaning up.
Posted by Candidly yours~ on August 17th, 2010 filed in SpackleComment now »
This weekend we spent a fair amount of time cleaning out our garage and attic. I love having a clean house where I can quickly and easily locate the things I am looking for. It drives me crazy to go in the attic looking for a file or something only to have to move boxes of vintage t shirts, blankets, and keepsakes to find what I need. Having a clean garage just makes life so much simpler I can actually find my tools and have place to put them down now that all of the junk that was taking up space is now gone. We could have had a garage sale but it is so much simpler to just haul it all off to the thrift store and be done with it. Sitting in my yard all weekend hoping that someone might buy my junk just feels like time that could be better spent.
Why so fast?
Posted by Candidly yours~ on August 17th, 2010 filed in SpackleComment now »
We live on the corner of a dead end street. The entire length of the street spans maybe 300 feet. At the end of the street there is a family with older children that are in college. For some reason everyone that visits these kids feels the need to drive as fast as humanly possible up and down the street. I fail to understand the reasoning behind this. It isn’t like you can get anywhere really fast or need to. Tonight my older son was almost hit while trying to ride his bike in the road by one of these visitors. Thankfully he wasn’t but you can be sure my heart skipped a beat. I am now ordering a sign for our yard to remind these young drivers to take it more slowly. I doubt it will have any impact but at least I can hope that it might clue at least one of them to the fact that young children do live here and to be more aware.
On a mission…
Posted by Candidly yours~ on August 10th, 2010 filed in SpackleComment now »
We have a couple of friends who recently bought their first home. They are investing a great deal of time and effort to remodel this older home. I an envious of their enthusiasm because they are both actually working second jobs to pay for their various projects. If it were me I would just buy some cheap laminate flooring and forgo the second job. They however feel differently and want everything to be the top of the line. For some reason they think that spending more means a better quality product which doesn’t necessarily hold true for everything. We would love to remodel our house but have decided that this is something we are going to put off until the children are older. I don’t want to spend my days worrying about juice spilled on my wood floors and marks on the wall. I want to enjoy my children here and now. Nice things will hold up better later on down the road.
Chicken tractor…
Posted by Candidly yours~ on August 10th, 2010 filed in SpackleComment now »
I have yet another project that I will be building in the coming weeks. When I first heard the term I thought it was a little silly because it is called a “chicken tractor”. I just envision a chicken driving a tractor. It is not this but rather a type of chicken coop that is portable to enable you to move it about the yard. We recently found out that keeping chickens is legal within the limits of our city and we intend to now pursue raising about 4 of them. They are set to arrive at the end of October which gives me a couple of months to get the tractor built. My wife is pretty specific on how it needs to looks to keep our neighbors happy. I personally don’t care how it looks as long as it is clean and doesn’t stink. I also expect to see some eggs from these chickens given all the work they are requiring me to do for them!
Little student..
Posted by Candidly yours~ on July 30th, 2010 filed in SpackleComment now »
This week my wife asked me to put up some more shelves in our dining room. We received a shipment of school supplies for our youngest son and she needed space to store them. Along with his books we received his technology package which included a new laptop computer that looks similar to an Acer Aspire and a printer. The computer is labeled with the school insignia but doesn’t seem to be labeled to indicate the actual manufacturer. I think it is really cool that they give top quality technology even to the youngest students. For some reason I expected that he would be given a used laptop that had been turned in by a student who left the school but he wasn’t. He is so proud of his new computer and his own little space at the desk. I hope his enthusiasm for the process of being a student doesn’t fade anytime soon because it is such a joy to see.
I work for “Bones”
Posted by Candidly yours~ on July 30th, 2010 filed in SpackleComment now »
Since getting Netflix we have found a few television shows that we had never seen before that we really like. One of the shows that both my wife and I like to watch is “Bones”. The main character in the show has the nickname of “Bones” and aside from being a highly intellectual person is also incredibly socially inept. The more I watch the show the more I realize that I work under someone exactly like this character. I almost believe that the character was modeled after my female supervisor. What is weird to me is to realize that there likely is a reason why my supervisor is so socially inept much like the reasons behind the character differences of the people in the show. It makes me wonder if my boss is as socially awkward outside the office as she is inside of it?