Working at It

I've been doing a lot of thinking about blogging, ever since one of my fellow doll bloggers made a post about the benefits of it. I enjoy the doll blogging, but most of the regular bloggers from when I first got started on this blog aren't around any more, and the Lutheran blogging world is pretty much non-existent. However, not only do I still enjoy blogging, it still seems to be the best platform for me. Besides which, as my doll friend's post pointed out, blogging can make you a better communicator and writer. That's always a good thing, so even if I never had a huge following here, it will help me provide a better doll blog too! Don't worry, I won't be blogging about dolls here, but doll collecting truly is where a lot of my time, blogging and money goes, now that my daughters are starting to make their own way into the world.

Both of my daughters and I each have several YouTube vloggers that we like to watch, although I'm waiting for some of my favorites to be shut down any day now. However, what the most successful vloggers seem to do is provide regular content. Even if it's crap content, they get something new up one or two days a week. So for now, I'm going to try Mondays and Thursdays as my days to blog here. Even if I have nothing that seems exciting to say, I'm going to try to put up a new post every week on those days.

For this post, let me tell you about what Mr. BTEG and I were able to do with some of the "crumbs" we received in our tax refund this year. For starters, this past Saturday we drove down to the IKEA in Columbus, Ohio, and picked up a cart full of items that we've been needing for quite some time, like a mattress, a set of dishes (most of our old plates got broken or chipped during the child-rearing years,) and a bookcase with glass doors for my doll collection! The IKEA warehouse makes a Costco or Sam's Club look like a little mom-and-pop operation.

The BTEG family has not taken a vacation in many years, partially due to commitments like school, but largely due to finances. Mr. BTEG and I both suffer from seasonal depression, which seemed especially bad this year. So this past Sunday, Mr. BTEG and I were able to spend the night at one of my favorite places, Great Wolf Lodge indoor waterpark in Sandusky, Ohio. I'm not a strong swimmer and not really up for large water slides, but there are enough water attractions at GWL to keep me happy, and it's got a very nice restaurant and a few other in-hotel food options handy, so Mr. BTEG and I were able to wind down and relax. Plus, I got some swimming in Sunday afternoon and evening, and Monday morning.

The first time we took a vacation at Great Wolf Lodge was all the way back in 2004. Mr. BTEG was working a contracting job in Chicago during that time, which meant that the girls and I didn't see him as much as of course we were used to. Fortunately, we were already homeschooling, so there were a couple of weeks the girls and I drove out to Chicago and stayed at his apartment there with him. It was even educational, since we visited a lot of the family attractions Chicago has to offer. But we wanted to spend some serious family time at Christmas, and on a contractor's salary, Mr. BTEG was able to afford a couple of nights stay at what I believe at the time was Great Bear Lodge.

Honestly, it was probably one of the best times we had as a family. The girls were young enough that somehow "Santa" managed to sneak all the Christmas presents past them, so that they were truly surprised when they woke up on Christmas morning.

Our eldest had brought some "reindeer food" that she'd made with her Brownie troop. We put that on the balcony the night before, and I scuffed the snow around after they went to bed, to look like the reindeer had come by and snacked on it.

We had a Kids' Cabin room, where the girls had their own little cabin with a bunk bed, a twin-sized bed, and their own game console and TV (the two pictures below are from another Christmas that we spent there.)

Most importantly, we got to spend that Christmas holiday together without worrying about dealing with annoying family, making food, washing dishes, or even going out in the very inclement weather that we were having at the time.

It's one of those times that as a mom of two adults, I still look back on with fondness, and they do too. (They *still* don't know how we managed to sneak all their presents past them.)

So yes, Great Wolf Lodge has wonderful memories for me, but Mr. BTEG and I still found it a very relaxing place to recharge this past weekend, so we can hold on until spring weather gets here to Northeast Ohio (Spring Training notwithstanding, Scottius!)

And I'm going to do my absolute best to put content up here every Monday and Thursday! It might be crap content ;), but it won't be doll-related. And no, my doll stuff is not crap, thankyouverymuch! :)

Starting Anew

I find that I love beginnings, of the year, month, even week. It gives me motivation and opportunity to look at my goals, and try to improve my habits to get to where I want to be. I've learned over the years not to try to make huge changes, but to move a little bit in the direction that I want to go. Once I get that in place, I can move on to a further step. Although this is the beginning of a new week, for liturgical Christians, it is also the start of a new church year. This is the first Sunday in Advent, a penitential season leading up to the feast of Christmas. It's definitely not the time to make grandiose proclamations about being a saint in future, but if God's mercies are new every morning, then it can be possible to make a new start!

Mother's Day 2016

When my daughters were little, Mother's Day had a certain poignancy, a celebration of a mother's love and care for little beings who were too young to take complete care of themselves. Now that my babies are just about all grown up, it's also a time to look at our relationships with each other. We want to try to remain close to each other, even though we are now three individuals who are scarily alike in some ways, but amazingly different in others. We have misunderstandings, and we frustrate each other sometimes, but we don't want disagreements to drive us apart. The girls' father and I have stresses and sufferings and worry because of them, but our daughters are also their now to share in the difficulties that Mr. BTEG and I encounter. I hope I can give my daughters guidance and encouragement and support as long as I am on this earth, and I hope they remember fondly what I have given them, and are able to give to children of their own.

Blessed Easter!

He is risen!

Jesus lives! The victory's won!
Death no longer can appall me;
Jesus lives! Death's reign is done!
From the grave Christ will recall me.
Brighter scenes will then commence;
This shall be my confidence.

Christmas Gift Sewing

One of the things I love about sewing is being able to make gifts for others. This Christmas, I decided to make an ice skating dress for my niece, who is taking skating lessons. I used a Jalie pattern, because they offer so many active wear patterns in so many sizes. I had already used one of their patterns to make some dance shorts for the Dancer, too. This time, I ordered directly from the company, and bought some patterns as PDFs. Putting all the pieces of this pattern on 8 1/2" x 11" paper together was a pain, but the pattern did sew up wonderfully. We have a large format printer at home; I would love to be able to get patterns that will work on it.

Anyway, here are two pictures of the outfit. My niece loved it, so I'm happy.

Happy New Year!

As I write this, it's just turned December 31st. One more day until the New Year! Don't be fooled by my "new" header. It was taken many years ago, during a winter where we actually had snow. Supposedly we are going to get real winter weather in January and February, but I certainly enjoyed the mild weather of December. I'm looking to blog again regularly in 2016. Hopefully I will have some readers around. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Although we're not doing anything special here to celebrate it. Was talking to someone the other day that grew up on the east side of Cleveland. She said St. Patrick's Day was not a big deal until she moved the west side. Interesting. We have a parade downtown every year; of course the year I took the girls, it was bitterly cold and that's probably all they remember. The ups and downs of homeschooling. That was also the year St. Patrick's Day was on a Friday, and the leader of the Cleveland Catholic diocese gave a special dispensation to partake of corned beef. :)

2015

This may seem obvious, but I had a revelation over the Christmas break as to why so many of my plans for a new year seem to fall so flat, so quickly. That two weeks around Christmas and New Year's Day are ones in which not only does the Dancer not have school, but she also does not have dance, or other activities. I can stay home all day, if I wish, and I have plenty of time to accomplish things. Once we get back to regular life, I find myself not only with less time, but with less energy to do things when I am at home. I need to temper my expectations realistically.

On the other hand, getting the Dancer her driver's license sounds like a very good goal for 2015.

Happy Fourth of July!

Just about to run out and go see fireworks. The girls are out with their friends at the local Bay Days fair. Hope you fellow Americans all have a happy and safe holiday! I'm putting up a new header featuring my girls with their cousins, from a Fourth many years ago.

2014

Happy New Year to all my readers, and I do hope this year is happy. Politically, it's looking like it's going to be a real train wreck, but I hope as many of us as possible can find happiness in our families and friendly communities.

I do have things I'd like to accomplish this year, but I'm balancing that with the fact that life tends to get in the way quite a bit with me at the moment. If the Musician can get her driver's license this month, that will be a big help. I like having plans and goals to strive for; it keeps me motivated. But I'm going to keep them secret for now.

What's going on with you for 2014?

Self-Expression

I'm going around to my various social media sites updating my headers and profile pictures and so forth, for Christmas! It brought to mind something I just read recently about how wrong it is that women feature their children so often in profile pictures instead of themselves or something related to their own activities. How absurd. I've made the choice to make my children a huge part of my life. And because they still live at home, they are involved in every important time in my life, as well as the everyday ones. I enjoy seeing them happy, just like I enjoy seeing my husband happy. My husband doesn't like having pictures taken of himself, though. And I think my daughters look far more attractive in pictures than I do. :)

Thanksgiving Break

This Thanksgiving, I will be most thankful for a break from everyday life. I drive my husband to and from the bus stop, I drive the Musician around to her college class and her student teaching and the high school, and I drive the Dancer to and from the high school and all her dance classes. In between, I'm trying to keep up with household chores and all the things involved in having a high school senior, such as getting senior pictures taken that we can afford to buy, and preparing for her graduation party. I also need to make time to do things that interest me, such as sewing and other hobbies. And at the moment, I'm just about at the end of my strength. Mr. BTEG worked from home today, and both the girls have started the holiday break, so they were all home today and I really let things go. I'm hoping that on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I'll be able to accomplish what I want after this rest.

I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed holiday weekend.

Back to the Future

In lieu of something more serious, which I'm still mulling over in my mind, I present another one of my Christmas gifts -- an old-school headset for your cell phone. I absolutely love it, although I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet. I imagine it will be very useful if I am forced to spend a lot of time on hold with some stupid company. Much easier to hold under your head and use both hands for something else than a cell phone. Heck, I ought to just have one of my daughters call me just so I can try it out.

The box proclaimed it to be both retro and trendy. I mean, I guess retro is currently trendy, but then the "style" has been to recycle stuff from both the seventies and the eighties for quite a while now, years actually. Behold this preppy folder from 2006, with adorable little whales all over it. Currently, day-glo is back in style. When will they start recycling stuff that has been recycled from the seventies and eighties, tweaking it just the slightest bit again?

Blessed 2013

This year will see the Musician start her senior year of high school, and the Dancer start as a high school freshman. I pray that Mr. BTEG will continue to prosper at his current job; it is the best one he has had in many years. I hope that I can make some of my plans and dreams come true. I hope that all of my friends and blog readers have a blessed 2013.

Blessings

Before I get into any other kinds of posts, I feel it's important to put up one of thankfulness for the wonderful Christmas that the BTEG family had. There were wonderful gifts, good food, and enjoying being with family. Now we are enjoying being home together, including Mr. BTEG because of the inclement weather. I pray that there have been no great losses due to the blizzard.

Here's a picture of one of the nice gifts that I received, a new bicycle, in pretty blues and pinks. Come spring, I can be walking or bicycling!

Random Bits

Mom: "Whichever girl's turn it is to scoop the litter box, needs to do it."

Dancer: "I can't remember whose turn it is. It's hard to keep track."

Mom: "That's why I put up the chore chart months ago, with all the days and the chores."

Dancer: "But we never use it."

Mom: face-palm

That look a cat gives you when she is rolling around in some sort of almost-catnip-fueled type abandon and sees you watching her. "Oh. Hai. Didn't see you there."

You know your best friend is your best friend when you give each other the same Christmas gift. And when you can't actually wait until Christmas to exchange gifts.

I'm really tired of having to put paragraph breaks in by hand because Blogger doesn't seem to recognize the return key anymore. Especially when I forget and then go to look at my blog post actually on my blog.

Kinda Sorta Here

In my effort to post more, I am here to bring you this short post of Nothing of Any Substance Whatsoever. You see, on Saturday, the Musician got sick. Every member of the family followed. I was the last to get sick, and am just starting to feel better today. I'm hoping we can get back to normal now. Between Christmas and the Musician's birthday, this is the craziest time of the year for me. And even though most of the chaos ends with the holiday season, I then have to prepare for the Dancer's birthday in early February.

Oh, and I also opened up a huge can of World War III with my inlaws over the weekend.

Belated Fourth of July post

I hope all of you that live here in the States enjoyed the Fourth of July celebrations yesterday. I know a lot of us are concerned about losing freedom, but at least we still have a chance to work toward restoring this country as our Founders envisioned it. Or do you think an amicable divorce of the United States might be in the works? Do you think that might be feasible?

How do you celebrate the Fourth? When I was a kid, like Karen's family a carnival came to my hometown, and still does, every year. We would buy the all day wrist string and ride the rides all day long. At night would be the fireworks over Lake Erie. We would sit in the large grassy area across the street from the carnival area with our blankets and chairs and watch the show. Somewhat unenjoyable was the way the loudest fireworks would echo off of the middle school building behind us.

When my own girls were young, my cousin and her kids, about the same age as mine, would come and visit her parents in the Wooster area, and my mom, sisters and families, and my family, would be invited for the Fourth. What was especially nice was that my aunt and uncle lived in a neighborhood with a private lake, and they had a boat, plus we had swimming and playing in the sand with the little ones. I never tried waterskiing or tubing behind the boat, but I did like riding in it. My cousin's husband, formerly in the Navy, was especially fun to ride with. After driving an aircraft carrier, he could make being in my uncle's little boat rather exciting. Now my aunt and uncle have moved to Virginia to be closer to my cousin and her family and those days are just memories. It's a shame my kids can't see their second cousins more, as they are a lot closer in age to them than they are to their first cousins. My Musician and my cousin's oldest son are just a few months apart.

My family has yet to create any new tradition for our Fourth of July celebrations since, but these are the years of flux, as my teens start getting involved in their own activities more and more. I wonder what will develop next!

Love, Marriage and the Patriarchy

This post has become very long. For those of you who already know about Eve Ensler and V-Day and the left-wing feminist agenda, move on to the next post above. If you want to understand the background of the above post, or you want to read my ramblings about the subject, keep reading!

Some hard-core leftist feminists apparently don't enjoy watching others celebrate romance and happiness on Valentine's Day. They had to come up with V-Day, to highlight violence against women. As the article I linked too describes, yes, violence against women is tragic, it is real, and it should be stopped whenever possible. However, linking it with Valentine's Day is seen by many women, like the women of the Independent Women's Forum, and myself, as an assault on normal, romantic relationships between men and women. My husband and I have a stable and loving relationship. I chose to get married, to have children, to be a stay-at-home mom. My husband and I made the decision for me to homeschool our children, and we ultimately made the decision to send them to public school. I'm not a victim of the patriarchy. Since most of my regular readers are also in stable marriages, I think you would agree that marriage and family can be a good thing.

Where the left-wing feminists go wrong in their V-Day approach, I think is two-fold. One, linking violence against women to simple, everyday loving marriages and male-female relationships. Two, thinking that constantly drawing attention to something will somehow magically end it. How much sense does pushing "Valentine's Day as V-Day until the violence stops" really make? I find it hard to believe that leftists really believe in the perfection of humanity, and yet the women that promote V-Day seem to. Welcome to real life, and real, fallen humanity, and a world where there will always be people who are violent, selfish, murderous, debauched, physically ill, mentally ill. I wonder if the Lutheran concept of vocation does not come into play here. I can feel sorrow for tragic events that take place far away, but my real vocation is helping my neighbor, the person that is here in front of me. Putting a sticker on my car that says "Free Tibet" will not free Tibet. Giving my out-of-work neighbor a bag of groceries will help feed a family.

Or are these women just pushing their agenda, that women are victims constantly in need of help, constantly need Daddy Government looking out for them? It's easy to proclaim you'll push X until Y happens, when you know Y will never happen, if your real goal is just to push X. Either way, their ideas and worldview are miles away from me, and I think they would realize that, and despise me for it. What I wonder about it is the people who think, or pretend to think, that this stuff is mainstream, and I'll explain why in my next post.

Slowing It Down

One of the things I'm learning to do in order to achieve my goals is not to get ahead of myself. It's very difficult to cook more, and perhaps even experiment with fancier dishes, when the kitchen is not completely organized. I'm still trying to find room for things; a buffet would be great, but it's not in the budget so I need to work with what we have. In the meantime, I shouldn't feel badly when the best I can do is just getting a dinner on the table for my family.

I also need to pace myself better with regards to sewing. I often look at the project as a whole and get overwhelmed, instead of breaking up into tasks. Maybe one day to find the fabric (because a lot of it is still in boxes.) One day to trace the pattern and cut it out (if it's a big project.) Then get the pieces cut out. Then the sewing. One of the hot ideas in accomplishing goals (at least looking at the Android apps) is simply taking, say, 25 minutes to work on something. That way, you've made progress, but the task doesn't bog you down.

I'll admit it's difficult not to be impatient to get a project done. Especially when there's a deadline you've created for yourself. For example, I really wanted to get the living room cleaned up more before the Musician's birthday party, and before Christmas. We have no attic and no basement in our current abode, so there are lots of boxes with no place to go. However, there was enough room for the Musician's friends to enjoy her party, and enough room for the Christmas tree to go up, and for the family to sit around it. No use beating myself up over it not being better.