deep thoughts

I am a planner. I have my calendar and I plan my weekends for travel, fun, family and obligation. My folks travel alot and I usually see them someplace other than their house. Actually I have not been to their house in a year, I am embarrassed to say. I have been yearning to go home, to sleep in my grandmother's old bed, eat oatmeal and drink my father's coffee. And I wanted to take Sweet Pea to stay at her grandma's. Even if traveling is hard, sleeping is hard and eating is hard with a 14 month old child. I had it all planned for next weekend including using a vacation day for travel.

Then an old, old friend of Honey Bun's called. He is getting married. In 3 weeks. In the same town that my parents live in. So that makes 2 long drives, lots of gas money and stress in weekends back to back. Do I cancel my personal trip home with daugther and without husband?

With state of the economy I hate to spend extra money. I think hard times are coming and I need to get my credit cards paid off and work real hard not to charge Christmas purchases. I am a horrible saver and I also just spent money on clothes for myself(and still feeling guilty about it) In my mind, I could just charge the gas and make the trips. But again I need to be saving and we will be traveling home for Thanksgiving and to the in-laws for Christmas. In the next week, I will have to brew on this issue and make a decision that I am comfortable with.

charcoal, my love

Honey Buns favorite kind/brand of charcoal is only sold at the grocery store.

And I know you all heard that the grocery store is closing, panic ensues at my house. I bought 4olbs of charcoal last night--4 bags was all they had. And both the manager and the local priest asked me about my purchase. I know I looked strange, a lady with a shopping cart loaded with charcoal, both wondered if there was a huge cook-out that they were missing. I told them with the store closing, this would give me enough time to find another store that sold his favorite charcoal. Honey Buns thinks our supply will last till Christmas.

BTW...favorite charcoal is Best Choice natural lump.

horror of horrors

Word on the street is our grocery store is closing. Walmart will be our only in-town option for food, drink and everything grocery. Most of you know that I was boycotting Walmart, before I moved here. Anyone got advice on online grocery shopping? How does it work and is it cost effective?

the things He says...

Sometimes Honey Buns amazes even me.

Friday we opted to have Pizza and Wings and I volunteered to go pick it up. As I was leaving...

HB: Wait, I have to go to the bathroom

me: What?

HB: I have to go to the bathroom, what do I do with Sweet Pea when you leave?

me: take her inside with you and go to the bathroom, she will be fine.

He's here

My brother had his baby! Saturday 9/20 at 6-ish pm. 8lbs 8oz 22in
The new dad is very proud and mother and baby are fine. Will try to post photos of Sweet Pea and her new cousin later this week. Sweet Pea didn't think much of the new baby and really didn't want her mom holding that baby. She inched and inched closer to me while I was holding him. We went to the hospital yesterday to see the new little guy. He is a looker!

Who knew?

For about a week, I have been thinking, wondering, worrying, avoiding and contemplating milk. Sweet Pea is going to whole milk, we tried this about 3 month ago and it was a huge failure. She didn't do well and her diaper was always full and her tummy was always rumbly. So we went back to formula. It is going good, she is doing good with the whole milk. Daycare lady has a HS senior and he drinks raw milk from a local dairy. She(daycare lady) has given Sweet Pea this raw milk and then tells me that she(SP) likes it and refuses the store bought milk. While I am processing this, I agree to get a gallon from the dairy also to give to SP.

At this point you can probably see that I am easily bullied by Daycare lady. But I know she loves my child and would do nothing to harm her and I too would bully someone that was just standing and staring, which is how I often look in her presence.

Back to the story

Raw milk...straight from the dairy...unpasturized milk...is this good? I brew on this about a week, but continue to give her the milk.

While talking to Daycare lady I deduct that she is cooking the milk for around 30 minutes in a double boiler. At home I research...as any good librarian should...and figure out that...it takes that long to pasturize milk at home. Then she puts it back in the fridge and my child is drinking it.

SO..........turns out that I am the only one that is feeding SP unpasturized milk. Who Knew?!

Note for you concerned about this: I am no longer feeding it to her and I reminded Daycare lady that SP can not drink the raw milk unless she cooks it for 30 min first...or she has to feed her store bought milk.
Also for those of you who think you know it all: SP has suffered no ill effects of the raw milk because she only drinks about 10oz for me daily. And in spite of me has started meowing like a cat and barking like a dog and can identify many body parts(nose, eye, hair, ear, mouth, teeth, foot, toe, tummy)
And one more thing: I have started researching vitamins, since she is off the formula and on her mother's cooking.

We be clean!

Cleaning girl did a great job and well worth the money.(since this time I took it out of Honey Bun's acct) I think the hardest part of actually having a cleaning girl is picking everything up and putting it away so she can actually clean. The bed was covered with clothes(clean and dirty) that were on the floor and toys were piled on the futon...just so she could run the vacuum. I ran home to let her in and spent the next 15 minutes running around the house picking stuff up, changing the bag in the vacuum and getting out all the cleaning stuffs.( because now I store it up high, so Sweet Pea doesn't guzzle down the poisons) I swear the cleaning girl just watched me thinking I was a crazy lady...and I totally am--but a crazy lady with a clean house! And Honey Bun even commented that the house looked great. Believe it or not! He noticed! Which either means...1. it really looked bad OR 2. it really looked good. I am leaning toward #2 because it makes me feel better.

We are surviving the rain. Games scheduled for this weekend, I expect will be canceled. We will know today if we are traveling to games or staying home. Cross your fingers that the games will happen, because I got shopping planned and will feel guilty enough to cancel and stay home if Honey Bun is home.