Last Thursday, I woke up at 5:00 am, took David to his early morning religious class and worked on my blog answering comments. It was a friend’s birthday and so he stayed for the other, later class that starts at 7:00 am. We left the church afterwards and got home about 8:30.
I then started to do stuff on the computer and the dentist office called. David’s appointment wasn’t until 1:00pm, but they had a cancellation.
Could we go in at 10:00 am?
Rebeca and I quickly bathed and the three of us made it to the dentist’s by 10. They had to make new impressions for a night guard for David and check Rebeca’s retainer. While we were at the Dentist, the wind was blowing so hard, it kept blowing the door open. We made it home before the storm hit. (It is always nice to have your car under the carport when it storms in Oklahoma as we have so much hail here).
While at the Dentist, I worked on my book. At home I went back to the computer, paying bills, taking care of miscellaneous items, and so forth. We did some laundry, cleaned the kitchen, swept and mopped, and made dinner.
David made Spaghetti, and although he added too much sauce, it tasted really good. David checked on the chickens later in early evening after the storm.
Friends of ours were going to a convention and we watch 5 of their children Thursday evening and all day Friday. Of course, I had to cook a lot. It reminded me of the days when I had all nine children at home. At times, I marvel that I ever raised (am still raising) nine children. It definitely is much harder now at 52 to have nine children in the home than when I was in my 30’s.
Friday, I cleaned my mom’s room and made sure she took a bath. She received flowers from my sister, Shannon, for Mother’s Day- a really pretty bouquet. I had sent Ary and Maria flowers as they are the mothers of my grandchildren. It was an online promo and they also received a “Best Mom” magnet, some bath stuff, and some chocolates with the flowers. On-line specials are great!
I worked part of the day on my book, went to work, and when I came home, the children had surprised me and had cleaned the kitchen.
In our church, we do not have a preacher who speaks to us each week. The members take turns giving talks. Wednesday evening, one of the leaders called and asked our family to be the speakers for Mother’s Day. I spent some time looking for articles on our church’s website for our talks.
I also weeded one of the back gardens. It rained two times this week hard enough that the roof leaked. We had to put towels and buckets down in the hallway to catch all the rain.
We thought this problem was resolved when we put on the new roof, but apparently when the west wind blows hard enough, it pushes the rain up against the wall at the top of the skylights and the water then finds a way in between the wall and roof.
I believe we are going to have to raise that portion of the roof to eliminate the wall, take out the skylights in order to correct the problem once and for all. I suspect the insulation is totally ruined in that part of the attic and who knows what other damage is there. One of the joys of home ownership…there is always something to fix.
This week, I have been washing towels. Do we really have that many towels? Every towel was used and wet. I haven’t had that much laundry since the older children left home. Plus Elizabeth usually does laundry for me and since she has been at Maria’s, I am left to do the laundry with a very unwilling David.
Saturday, I was on the computer, trying to finish some work when Fito came in and reminded me that Monday (our trash day) was the day designated to haul away big items. I gathered the three younger ones (Felipe had to work), we all put on work clothes and we went outside to work.
It has been a month or longer since we have all worked together and worked so hard. We hooked up the trailer to the truck and parked it by the very back shed.
Now you need to know, my husband it a pack rat. I think it is because he grew up in El Salvador and was so poor that he feels he has to keep everything in case we need it someday.
We had started to burn two different burn piles of debris. (We have 5 acres of land even though we live within city limits and are allowed to burn if we get a burn permit first).
It was a perfect day to burn as it had just rained. Whenever we weed, or as we clean brush, etc., we put the debris in our “burn pile.” As we cleaned behind the shed, stuff that was burnable went to the burn pile and other junk was loaded into the trailer.
After a couple of hours, the trailer was full. Just then some men showed up in their pickup. They were scrounging the neighborhood to take metal to be recycled. My husband talked with them and they almost emptied the trailer. Good news for us…now we did not have to unload as much from the trailer.
We then went on to the carports, behind the other sheds, etc. We filled up the trailer two more times. What a great feeling to clean, organizes, and de-clutter. I told them that this was my Mother’s day present- the best kind, too.
Elizabeth made us lunch: tomato soup and toasted cheese sandwiches which we ate outside on the porch. We worked hard all day long and it was such a perfect day. Warm, but not hot. With a nice breeze.
In the evening, we went to clean the church; it was our turn to volunteer.
This apron is one of my Mother's day presents. My granddaughter's hand prints are the flowers.
Sunday, we spoke at church and I believe it went well. Rebeca, Elizabeth, and David all gave great talks. Fito’s talk was really sentimental, too. He spoke of his grandmother and how she raised 3 different families and was such a godly woman.
Tuesday, we had my students from my Spanish classes over for dinner. I made Pupusas, Spanish rice, and beans plus we had slushies. Again, it was a beautiful day, so peaceful, the perfect day. We had such a nice visit.
It seems you can never have enough friends and there are so many wonderful people in the world…I just need to meet them all…
May all of you be blessed with such friends and such peaceful evenings.