Thursday

My, oh, my.  It seems like it should be at least Friday.  I'm really not one for hoping days pass quickly.  Although this week just seems like a long one.  I'm just tired I suppose.

Today the family and I are taking a trip for a couple of days down to Baltimore and DC.  Robbie needs to work on some activities for his Weeblos badge and Arrow of Light.  We're very much behind schedule with only about 7 months to finish nearly everything.

I'm finding that the Weeblos requirements are quite confusing.  I'm sure that's why we've been so slack this year.  I like checklists and to know exactly what I need to do.  I find the Weeblos book to be all over the place.

With that said, one of the things Robbie needs to do is have a working knowledge/understanding of the government, the history of the flag and the National Anthem.  So, we're taking the kids to Ft. McHenry in Baltimore where the Star Spangled Banner song was written during the war.  We've been there before but the kids were much smaller.  Six years ago in fact.  If you visit Ft. McHenry, you can actually buy a Star Spangled Banner flag and have the park rangers fly it up the flagpole there at the fort.  They will then fill out a certificate saying that your flag has been flown at the fort.  It's a very cool gift idea and heirloom as well.

A Star Spangled Banner flag can be identified by it's 15 stars and stripes.  But, instead of trying to count the stars look at the stripe right under the field of blue.  If it's a red stripe, then you've got a Star Spangled Banner flag.  Cool huh?

After we visit Ft. McHenry, we'll head down to DC to the Smithsonian to go and see the actual Star Spangled Banner flag.  I'm quite excited about that.  After that visit, we'll probably wander the Mall and visit some other museums.  

It's my hope that through little trips like these we'll be able to instill in our children a love for the country that so many have fought and died for.  In our case, we're going to need to live for it in order to return it to the way the Founding Fathers & Mothers envisioned.

My Addiction

OK.  Most of y'all know that I'm a self-reliance addict.  I guess it's better than being addicted to tobacco or alcohol.  

Within the last month, I have added a fourth pressure canner and at least another 100 jars to my arsenal.  

That's it.  That's all I have to write about it.  I know I have issues.  I can admit them.  I just don't think there is such a place as Self-Reliance Anonymous.  I don't think I'd go even if there were.

July 4th, 2009

We had a nice Independence Day. It's wasn't slammed and packed but we did do a couple of nice things. Believe it or not, watching fireworks was not part of it.

We started a new tradition this year. We will be reading the Declaration of Independence on Independence Day. This is in the same vein as reading the Nativity Story on Christmas Eve. This idea was actually suggested on one of the Yahoogroups I belong to. As soon as I read, I knew it had to be part of our family.

I can honestly and ashamedly say that I had never read the entire Declaration of Independence. I was quite amazed and the difficulties outlined by Thomas Jefferson that the colonists had been enduring. What is most unfortunate is the fact that we seem to be in the same boat 233 years later....this time at our own doing. Very sad!

But, I have hope. I have hope in my posterity that as I teach them about our Founding Fathers and what they did to deliver this nation to us all, my posterity will rise up and take it back. I will do my part, but I do believe a lot of it will come with the generation that is being raised now.

Teaching my children hard work and self reliant skills will be the backbone of their success. We all need to reinforce goodness in our children and gratitude and kindness.

One of the "signs of the times" before Christ comes, is that men's hearts will wax cold one toward another. There may be very little I can do to change the course of my country and the leadership that is elected and the selfish decisions that are made and what happens as a consequence BUT I can commit to being kind and full of love and service. I do not have to be part of that "sign". I can also teach my children to do the same thing. The more we all commit to a more loving and service oriented way of life, the more prepared we will be to meet our Savior when He comes.

Moving on. We also went to the Phillies vs. Mets game over in Philadelphia. Last year we went as a family and discovered that the Phillies organization goes to great lengths to honor the armed forces. Sam and I felt that this was so patriotic and fun at the same time. So very "American". We decided that we would continue this as a tradition as part of our Independence Day celebrations.

This year was no different. When we got to our seats which were just under the giant scoreboard, we saw a HUGE flag being held together by dozens of national guardsmen/women. They seemed to have stood there forever. Finally, the announcer directed our attention to this giant flag at which time the military wo/men started to unfurl it. It was gorgeous. The wind caught it a bit and it waved across the ball field. It did take up about half of the ball field. It was beautiful.

While it was unfurled, we stood with hands over our hearts and repeated the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the National Anthem. I spoke and sang as loud as I could. I wanted somehow for the Founding Fathers and Mothers to hear my voice as I committed as passionately as they did when they said, "And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."

The baseball game was a good one.  Phillies beat the Mets 4-1.  We sat up on the scoreboard porch with a whole bunch of drunks.  At one time there were about 4 security guys and an armed police officer making sure a potential fight didn't actually happen.  Lots of foul language.

It was a beautiful breezy day.  I'm so glad we went.  I love doing stuff like that with my family.  

Kitchen Odyssey Continues

So, we went to the Ikea yesterday to buy the kitchen. What we thought would be about a two hour trip over the bridge turned into a five hour nightmare odyssey.

Sam and I took Joey with us because he needs some time away from his siblings. Put him in the Smaland to play. We went upstairs and finished tweaking our plans. Done.

Sam stays upstairs to have the girl key in the order. She's very abrasive and I left to go get Joey. I should've had a clue that with abrasive girl things were not going to go well after that.

I get Joe and head back upstairs. Sam tells me after she keys in the order (without doors for the cabinets, mind you, because they don't carry them in stock. I'll have to go pick them up at the warehouse in a week or pay $159 for delivery.) that it'll take them about an hour to "pick" the order so we can take it home.

Sam and I wander around the store for about 1/2 hour - 45 minutes. Then we sat down to wait. And wait and wait and wait and wait. All in all...we waited for them to pick the order for THREE hours. They then said that most of our order was picked but they were still looking for a couple of other pieces. Sam and I took the list with us and checked everything off as we loaded it in the truck. We were missing a few things and they packed something wrong as well. Back in the store we tell the chick Bianca of the wrong and missing parts. This is where I start to lose it.

Bianca then takes our list and tells us she had to go through the items to make sure we didn't miss anything. Well, I was greatly offended and put out. EVERYTHING is loaded. How the heck is she going to see what's missing in there???? After she goes around and around my vehicle I just left and went to find the manager.

Now, that's another story. I find him on the floor and say, "They tell me you're the manager". He turns around and looks so haggard and worn out. I continue with, "doesn't look like you want to be the manager today." He agrees and asks me what the problem is. I explain. Unfortunately the haggard manager didn't really care so much for my plight. Seems like he tried to move things on a bit but really, that didn't work either. They finally come out with a couple of other parts and break the news that they don't have three of the pieces we need but they'll UPS them to us from the warehouse.

Again, I did raise my voice a wee bit and explain that if I didn't DESPERATELY need a kitchen I'd have them unload it all and I'd find myself another kitchen. They didn't really care. They were haggard also.

While Sam was giving Bianca our name and address for the UPS shipment, she told him to please call the main store manager and complain. She said that the employees complain all the time about the lack of staffing but they're not heard. Boy oh boy! What a day.

We did get home, unloaded the old nasty kitchen from the Ronald House out of the kitchen with the help of Jen's boyfriend Brandon. He's a nice young man. That was helpful.

Today Sam starts to build the new new kitchen. Let's hope it goes well.

Happy Independence Day!!! We'll be heading off to the Phillies game later this afternoon. It's one of our new family traditions. Since last year, that is.

I'm still hoping for a kitchen sink this weekend.

Yesterday

I had a nice day yesterday. Nothing spectacular happened it was just a nice day.

We've been trying to install a new kitchen. The story goes... The Ronald McDonald House is one of Sam's clients. A couple of weeks ago Sam was over there and found out that they were getting a new kitchen and that their old kitchen was up for grabs. So, we put our name on as many cabinets as we could get our hands on. The cabinets were not all in good shape but we figured we'd be able to piece them together to make one good kitchen for our house.

Last Saturday we spent the day gutting the old nasty kitchen. Those of y'all who have been in my house know that the kitchen was nasty. I've hated it forever but have done the best I could with what I had. So, knowing we'd have to pick the "new" kitchen up on Monday, we got rid of the old one on Saturday. Rested Sunday.

Monday morning Sam and I went out looking for flooring. We were so not prepared for this adventure. Not even a little bit. Found the flooring at Lumber Liquidators. It's a nice floor. I'm very happy with it. I finished painting the kitchen with "help" from the children. Sam and Jen made THREE trips to the Ronald House in Camden to get the cabinets. Once we got them to the house we realized how incredibly dirty and disgusting they were. The kids and I did our best to scrape and scrub the grime off of them. So nasty!

Long story short. Sam was moving around some of the cabinet pieces yesterday morning trying to figure out how best to use them and lay a design of sorts so we could get a counter made because I still don't have a kitchen sink. I was downstairs at my computer when Sam came down with a very sour look and said "talk me off of the ledge". I smiled and even giggled a little. We talked about the cabinets and how nasty they were. I told him that I would make the best of the situation. He said he didn't want to give me a nasty kitchen. So sweet!

We talked about it a little longer and then decided that we would go to Ikea and see if they had a kitchen that we could afford. We stuck the kids in the play place and started to lay out a new kitchen. To our utter delight and surprise a new kitchen wasn't going to cost as much as we thought. Especially since we were going to have to replace doors and buy a sink cabinet for the Ronald House cabinets anyway.

It was as if a major burden had been lifted. We both recognized that the Ronald House cabinets were a blessing in disguise. We've needed a new kitchen for forever but the thought of the effort and the cost just turned us off and we were never prepared to pull the trigger. Having a deadline to get the Ronald cabinets made us pull the trigger. We painted and put in the new floor before we realized that they weren't going to work. But, all in all, it's working out and I'm happy and excited to have a new kitchen.

After we left Ikea, I drove Sam to work and then took the kids on a little field trip to the Betsy Ross House in Philly. It was a nice little jaunt. Only took us about 45 minutes. With the kids along, they're not into museums and historical sites just yet but we've been learning about Betsy and the American Revolution. They had a storyteller there and the kids really enjoyed her a lot. If you're in Philly and have a few minutes, the BR House is just a couple blocks east of the US mint on Arch Street. I recommend it. Nothing spectacular but just a nice filler. They have a little courtyard set up where you can sit and rest in the shade of the trees and get a little something to eat. The tour is self guided because the house is so very small. It's only $3 for adults and $2 for children.

I enjoyed be a little spontaneous with the kids. They wanted to stay in Philly and do other things but I needed to get back home with holiday rush hour looming.

I just enjoyed yesterday. Today we're supposed to go pick up the cabinets at Ikea and spend forever putting them together and hanging them. YAY!!! But it's been a very long adventure so far. I'm hoping to have a kitchen sink in the next couple of days. That's my hope at least. We did order a new dishwasher to go UNDER the counter. YAY!!! That'll be here on Wednesday.

Random Ramblings

I need to blog. I just don't think I have much to say lately. Life is just in autopilot right now. That's certainly not a bad thing.

Robbie finished his baseball season finally. With so much rain, the games had to be postponed and postponed. He's playing in the All Star Game tonight. I hope they give him a good chance to play. He also got to go to baseball camp last week. That was a good thing for him. I think it helped to realize he can always get better.

We're busy trying to put in a new kitchen. We got the old kitchen from the Ronald McDonald House in Camden. The cabinets are pretty nasty from really never being cleaned for 11 years. Hundreds of people have used that kitchen and it shows. We've been busy scrubbing and washing trying to make them look like we actually want them in the house.

I painted the kitchen a really pretty green. I think the name of the paint is Winter Hedge or something. It's a hunter green color. We got new flooring from Lumber Liquidators. It's a "hand shaved" look dark teak patterned snap together floor. It's very pretty so far. The white cabinets should look nice in it.

We really weren't prepared to redo the kitchen even though we knew when we'd have to pick them up from RM House. Thermafoil coating on the face of the doors is pulling away from the wood on the doors so we'll have to get new doors. This may not be a bad thing cuz I'll be able to get the style I actually like. We just don't have a sink. I can manage without countertops and even cabinets but not having a sink is starting to get on my nerves.

We've been eating out a lot. That starts to wear thin after a while.

The best part of the new kitchen is that I will have an UNDER THE COUNTER dishwasher. I haven't had that luxury in about 11 years. I am so excited!!! More excited than all of the new storage space I'll have. YAY!!!!

I'll post pictures of the progress and final product once I have a final product.