Dreams, Gratitude, and the Neverending Mom Job

It’s been a hell of a week (what, it’s only Tuesday? My week is wonky).

Ruthless Rose (Girl #1) – Retarded Reindeer (Girl #2) – Spiderman (Boy) – I didn’t pick their names, they did.

Anyway – so Rose and Reindeer are both in girl scouts, plus Rose has Volleyball and writing club and is thinking about getting into band and Reindeer is a cheerleader and Spiderman is in flag football and boy scouts – plus I clean the bungalows every morning and bartend Fri, Sat, and Sun. It’s been crazy – super crazy.

Mondays is and house cleaning day, Tuesdays Spiderman and Reindeer have practice, Wednesday is errands and bills, Thursday Reindeer has practice, Friday Rose has writing club and I bartend, Saturday Spiderman has practice and boyscouts and Rose has Volleyball and I bartend, Sunday Spiderman and Reindeer have football games and Rose and Reindeer have girlscouts and I bartend – rinse and repeat. Plus bungalows every morning. If Rose gets into band – that’ll be an everyday thing. I am constantly running like a chicken with its head cut off xD I finally broke down and started a day planner. It just had to happen. Especially since Reindeer’s cheer coach is president of the PTA and goaded me into joining and volunteering two hours a month – after all it’s only two hours right?

**Reviews schedule** where oh where, can I squeeze in two hours??

On a different note… Last night I had that dream. You know the one, the terrible stupid one that you have no idea why it pops up and it always makes you feel anxious when you wake up? I had… the High School dream.

I’m back in high school, I can’t find my locker – when I finally do find it, I have no idea what the code is. So I go to class, but wait – what’s my first class again? Oh right it’s math… no is it english? Wait, it’s gym right – so I wonder aimlessly down corridors looking for the class that says my home room teachers name, for seemingly hours – when finally my alarm goes off and I awaken chalk full of dread and anxiety. Yay.

I am tired, and worn down – but it’s alright – I didn’t leave the house once yesterday and it felt amazing.

Sooo Gratitude Journal 9/13/2016

I am grateful for a Surprise visit from my best friend this past weekend, that left me exhausted, exhilarated, and broke – and really quite happy. I was sad to see her leave.

I am grateful for being able to do almost nothing yesterday – other than my normal quick It’s Monday clean the house panic that lasts about two hours. I didn’t leave the house. I watched two movies – Age of Ultron and Guardians of the Galaxy – hell yes thank you Marvel.

I am grateful for my husband for going out and getting the supplies and fixing our bed that he totally broke.

❤ Krissy

Gratitude Journal 9/6/2016

Quick little note to self::

Today I am grateful for the strangest things;

My amp energy drink that I’m not supposed to drink anymore but I hadn’t had one in two months and so I bought one and it is fantastic;

Kesha Radio on Pandora for keeping me hopping while doing my Autumn Cleaning, blessing, and smudging;

My littlest kitty, Mrs Lovette, for keeping me constantly on my toes during said Autumn Cleaning.

Well Hi there

Hey there,

So, I just found this again – after several years. I went through and deleted most of my posts, because I sound so pompous and childish.  I only kept two posts, one of delicious caramel that I have to make again and one that I kept only because it had the cutest picture of my son on it.

I’m hoping that maybe I will actually use this now that I have found it again. I’m rather fond of the name.

I want to post about my religious studies and whatnot – with Mabon coming up it will be a good time to make an actual post.

Eh, we shall see.

Krissy

The best homemade caramel ever!

I stumbled upon this awesome recipe for caramel the other day, and thought I’d give it a try and oh  boy is it fantastic! I wish I had taken pictures… oh well will next time, and yes there will definitely be a next time.

“Once you go homemade, you never go back.

I love the process of making homemade caramel. Getting the caramel started, pulling out a bowlful along the way to use as homemade caramel dip, then dipping apples just a little bit further along the way. Then reaching the end, where it’s ready to be candy, real homemade caramel, the heavenly stuff. For a week after I’ve made caramel I melt one piece of caramel in each cup of hot cocoa I have. Try it. You’ll like it.”

Get the recipe here!!

It doesn’t even take a lot of ingredients.

Homemade Caramel (or caramel dip)
Yield: about 60 caramels
Prep and cook time: 1 hour (not including time to cut and wrap caramels, save extra time for that)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, unsalted
1 cup light corn syrup (11.5 oz)
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk (or substitute two cups half and half or light cream, I almost always use sweetened condensed milk b/c makes for shorter cooking time)
2 1/4 cup brown sugar (14.5 oz.), white sugar is also okay, but I prefer brown
1 tsp. vanilla

It’s even good for making caramel apples!!

If you love caramel, you should definitely check this out 😀

 

Volunteering (plus a tiny little bit at the end about books)

One of my life list goals is to volunteer at least twice this year. I was never raised to volunteer. I think I can count on my fingers the number of times I’ve volunteered in my life.

My Son picking up “trash”, while helping me with my psychology volunteer project in 2012.

Last year I took a psychology class (that by the way, I adored); and one of the requirements for the class was that we volunteer anywhere for at least five hours and write a report and do a presentation on it. At first I really thought it was a stupid requirement and also practically impossible for me because anytime that I wasn’t in class I had three kids under age six attached to my hip. I eventually asked my professor for ideas on ways to volunteer with the kiddos. She suggested that we walk around the neighborhood for an hour a week for five weeks, picking up all the trash in the roads and in the parks. The kids had fun, and it turned out I actually liked helping the neighborhood out. Really made me think about some things in my life that were… well… Lacking.

So I decided I needed to volunteer more often and since I’ve never really done much of that, I figured volunteering twice this year was a good start; and I started today.

An older woman in my community needed help cleaning her apartment to pass her yearly inspection. She has some medical issues that makes it difficult to keep the place as clean as it needs to be. A friend of mine offered to clean the apartment for her, and I jumped in and volunteered my services as well.

We spend the vast majority of the day cleaning her apartment with no expectations, no reserves, no judgement. Just went in, got it clean, and left. Neither of us had ever met the woman before. It feels good to be giving back to the community, even in such small ways as this.

This is my first of two necessary volunteer adventures for this year, but I’m willing to bet that I’ll be doing quite a bit more than two in the coming months. I’m really happy that I decided to really start volunteering. It’s like Volunteer Maryland says in a recent post How Volunteer Work Benefits Everyone; “Volunteering allows us to get out of the house and do well by our community.  Working for something you care about enables you to feel a sense of accomplishment and purpose.  This can boost self-confidence and give you a stronger sense of identity.”

A few articles about Volunteering that I really enjoy…

• Why I Volunteer – In Under 100 Words (livingsocialjustice.com)
• How Volunteer Work Benefits Everyone (volunteermaryland.wordpress.com)
• Ways to Keep Your Neighborhood Beautiful (apartmentguide.com)

 

Best of all, I’m now one step closer to completing one of my life list goals. 😀 Oh and speaking of my life list… The part about my book list. I read “The Little Prince” by Antoine De Saint-Exupery today. It is the first book from the list that I’ve read, but it’s one step closer than I was, so I am excited. ^_^

❤ Krissy