Nuthin happenin. Must be that time of year.

Another week, another obligatory post. ;)

I swear, nothing happened this week. Honest -- I would have told you!

The Boy finished up Ancient Greece and can now tell you what fuels hurricanes. The Girl read me the caption of a magazine picture this week -- it was something she wanted me to know! That was weird -- but cool.

I made sausage and rice casserole last night. I asked my mom for the recipe she used when we were kids, and she sent me a scan of the recipe -- in my grandmother's handwriting!

Fry and drain a pound and a half of bulk sausage. Set it aside and fry a chopped onion, four ribs of sliced celery, a chopped bell pepper, and a can (?) of mushrooms. Put the sausage back into the pot with the vegetables and add a can of chicken and stars soup, a can of water, and a cup of rice. Stir it around once, and either bake in a casserole for an hour -or- cover and cook on the stove for a half hour.

This is serious comfort food. And the tiny carrots in the chicken and stars soup are pretty! The Girl LOVES it -- which means the boy can't eat it. He tasted the casserole, decided he "didn't care for it" (my grandmother's phrase, not his), and had PB&J.

I've started spring gardening about a month too late. Again. It's hot here today -- pushing 80 in the shade where they measure such things. In the sun, it's much hotter. And it could give me a farmer's tan, which is much more serious.

In case you're curious, spring gardening in Florida pretty much involves gallons of RoundpUp, preferably "Extended Control". It's not so much a problem to get things to grow (provided they can survive the heat, humidity, mold, fungus, bugs, and lousy soil) ; it's killing the weeds that's hard. 'Cause you KNOW I'm not going out there during the summer to do it again. No way. No how. If it's not done by the end of April, it's getting done in November. Between the fire ants, stinging insects, and the heat, I'm done from May until November.

My sister just called. My brother's 9-month-old twins have a stomach virus. And his wife is going on a business trip tomorrow. YAY! (Lent is coming soon, and I have to get all this cattiness out of my system fast!) My sister-in-law is moaning about it on facebook, but you know they'll be over it by the time she leaves town. At least they're not eating tuna casserole or anything gross like that. And they're not terribly mobile. Things could be worse.

This week in FlyLady land was Zone 4: the master bedroom and bath. I cleaned under the bed, dusted the suitcases that are kept under there, wrapped them with old ratty sheets that I was going to get rid of, and put them back. I cleared out a few drawers, culled the clothes in the closet -- the usual crap. I kept up with all my daily routines (bathroom counters/toilet, kitchen counters, laundry, clutter piles in the living areas), and even got most of my weekly chores done (dust, vacuum, mop). I didn't get the kids' bathtub cleaned on Thursday because I was having a new crown glued in my mouth. I always underestimate how tired it makes me to get that kind of work done. At least I'm done for a while with the dentist. Y'know, after I get the crown filed down a little on the side where it's still too high. I swear, I would have let her glue a rock into my head by the time she was done. I'm a little more discriminating now. ;)

Anyway, next week is about the same as last week, except FlyLady is on Zone 5 (living room) and Zone 1 (foyer, dining room). I get to get rid of VHS tapes and sort through the bins of homeschool crap that's clogging my work area. I'll probably also sweep the dead spiders out of the foyer. Whee. Oh, and in history, The Boy and I are going to let the Persians try to overrun Greece. Hey, you know it was bound to happen.

I'm starting to feel the need for a road trip. And I don't mean to Lowe's.

I'm a homeschool mom, not a SAHM. There's a difference.

Still nothing happening here. The weather has been glorious though. (You're welcome, NASCAR!) But not much is going on in my house.

My mom works for AARP Tax-Aide, so she does my taxes every year. (If you have reasonably simple taxes and are NOT using AARP Tax-Aide, what're you waiting for?! Go find them -- it's free! And you don't have to be old. My 28-year-old girlfriend from the IT department did hers on TurboTax, then visited them, and she missed something! These people are trained to use the software, tested, and certified. They're good.) Anyway, I'm getting about $4k back. I know it's my own money, and the government has been keeping it without paying me any interest, but dang. Real money. ;)

Homeschool is limping along. The Boy is going through another pitiful "you help me" stage along with a "but I hate school" stage. This is accompanied by a "I'm bored" stage, which is making me want to apprentice him out to the local cooper or something. Gypsies wouldn't pay much for him at this point.

The Girl is being weaned off of most of the most overstimulating television shows that she'd been watching. We disconnected one of the two PBS channels and coordinated her day so that she does NOT get to watch The Cat in the Hat. That show is major-league overstimulating. WOW. With less television, she's actually getting into more trouble, but that's good. Sort of.

I've been continuing to declutter the house. I took a kitchen-sized trash bag of junk out of the cabinets under the bathroom counters this afternoon. I also threw out all the expired Advil. We now have one bottle each of aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and naproxen sodium. Yeah, we're middle-aged. Why do you ask?

I've been trying to rearrange my schedule so that I can get everything done, and I've just realized that I work an 8-hour job. I have six hours of teaching every day, plus dance, therapy, playgroup, grocery store, library, etc. It's no wonder I can't get everything done that I want.

Still, I'm determined to get to the point where the house cleans itself. If I can wipe the sinks and toilets once a day, get the beds made every morning, run one laundry load a day, keep the kitchen wiped down, and keep the living rooms picked up, I just have to worry about dusting and cleaning the floors once a week.

But I work full-time, so it's going to be dicey. Wish me luck.

Is it nap time now? (How about now?)

Okay, I'm back. Apparently, there is no cure for learning to clean the house. Between hurling clutter from the house and teaching school, I've been swamped.

I've gone through everything in the kitchen. I dumped, cleaned, culled, and re-loaded the silverware drawer, utensil drawer, and the junk drawer. I did the same for the spice cabinet, the dishes, mugs, pantry, tupperware cabinet, pot cabinet, and pan cabinet. *whew* Oh, and under the kitchen sink. Apparently, I have TWO leaks under the kitchen sink, but I haven't gotten around to doing anything about it except put some tupperware under it. Oh! And I cleared the breakfast bar. I feel naked in the kitchen now, without my protective barrier of junk. ;)

I've gone after The Girl's magazine "collection" in the family room, and found THREE partially-empty bags of sunflower seeds for the bird feeder in the process. I've thrown out three bags of old toys and garbage from The Girl's bedroom, and the room looks... well... about the same.

The process continues.

This morning I spent an hour killing the lawn. Yes, for all you people living in the Cold Frozen North, this is lawn maintenance time down here. See, the grass is perennial, but the weeds are annual, and they're sprouting like crazy right now. (The oaks are also blooming, and everyone's allergies are going gonzo!) The front lawn is completely dead on one side, so I'm killing the clumps of weeds so I can re-sod it. I think I'm going to try to do it myself. I wonder how much money I'll save doing it myself. That's important, because rightfully, I should get a cut of that money to spend on myself, right?

Hm. Well, it looks like I've chosen a good time to step up to the plate and try to develop some housekeeping habits. The Husband has been working 60-hour weeks this semester. Developing that first-year class has been proving a pain, despite the fact that he's taught both the second- and third-year version of the same class. He's been muttering something about "teaching fluid dynamics to students who don't know calculus". Or something like that. All I can say is, I get a vacation when he's done! It's not like I'm not working a full day either -- I just happen to be home. And my commute is REALLY short.

Oh well, The Husband is grading papers, The Boy is playing loud, irritating computer games, and The Girl is writing in her latest InStyle magazine. I should get up and clean something while I have the time. Maybe the kitchen floor. Or maybe it's nap time...

Quiz time!

Well, it's homeschool quiz time. Can anyone tell me what THIS means:

2011/02/05 18:53 KDAB 051853Z 22013G20KT 10SM BKN036 BKN050 BKN150 26/17 A2989 RMK AO2 SLP122 T02560167 $

Well, the date is today: 2/5/11 and the time is in GMT -- 1:53 pm, Eastern time. KDAB is the local weather station: Daytona Beach. Hmm. What else does it say? Southwest wind, 13 knots, gusting to 20 knots, 20 miles of visibility, broken clouds at 3600 feet, 5000 feet, and 1500 feet. BUT whatever could 26/17 mean? 79 degrees with a dew point of 63? Oh yeah...

;)



UPDATE: The weather changed -- it rained and dropped 10 degrees! Looks like I posted just in time!

2011/02/05 20:53 KDAB 052053Z 25008KT 7SM -RA BKN016 OVC045 21/19 A2991 RMK AO2 RAE03B20 SLP126 PCPN VRY LGT P0000 60002 T02060189 55000 $

By 3:53, we had southwest wind at 8 knots, light rain, overcast, 70 degrees with a dewpoint of 66 degrees. If you don't like the weather (or even if you do) -- stick around, and it'll change...

Dag! That's cold!!

First, I'd like to offer my condolences to my northern sisters. Sorry, chicas.

Weather.com says that our forecast for tomorrow is, "Cloudy skies. High 73F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph."

I'd also like to thank you for making my homeschool science unit on "air masses and fronts" more interesting for my kid. We cut out the newspaper forecasts for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of this week. Damn, women -- it's frickin' cold out there. (Can you say "continental polar air mass"?) I just hope that the superbowl is going to be indoors.

And if it makes you feel any better, the last three snowstorms coincided with tornado warnings here, so there you go...

Hang in there!!

Just do it.

Okay, so maybe that last post seemed a little ambitious. Lemme splain.

Most of those things take no more than 30 seconds. Think about it:

Every morning, I get up, clean the cat box, shower, dress and put on shoes, wipe down the bathroom sinks, make the bed, empty the dishwasher, fill the dishwasher, feed everyone breakfast, clean the kitchen again, make the kids' beds (so they don't go back to bed), check the calendar, and start a load of laundry. *sigh* Then I start my work day.

I always clean the cat box, shower and dress. The bathroom sinks take 8 seconds, the bed takes either 30 seconds (straighten the covers) or two minutes (re-make the bed). The kids' beds just take a dash through the room, flinging stuffed animals into a bin and pulling the covers up under the pillow: 30 seconds each. I have to empty the dishwasher anyway, and I was just sick and tired of working around the dirty dishes that couldn't be put in the dishwasher until I emptied the fricking thing. Seriously, the dishwasher only takes three minutes to empty, max. The laundry load takes two minutes to start, because the dirty laundry is chucked into one of three bins when it is taken off: hot water, light colors in cold water, and dark colors in cold water. I just grab the bag and chuck the contents in the washer. Seriously, I can get a TON of work done in a short whirlwind first thing in the morning. It's kind of fun. ;)

Today, I had a whoooooole 15 minutes before I left for dance, so I dumped the silverware drawer, cleaned out the crumbs and grime, and put it all back (minus the eight coffee scoops and six plastic spoons). Man, that had been bugging me FOREVER! It's pretty now.

Truly, it doesn't take much extra time to do it right.