it's been busy!
tuesday, december 21, 2010


i can't even begin to tell what all has happened over the last month. i know i've been busy on getting through the last of my goals for the year, the ones i can make anyway. and there's been the usual domestic stuff keeping me going most days. the big focus writing wise has been quest for ehlarayn, the book after the novel i just finished have out on submission. done a few other bits here and there, but am trying to get the rough of quest done so i can cross that last goal for the year of my list. since i don't have as much computer time, that's been my biggest thing. i don't even have a new layout figured out yet (just started working on that).

thanksgiving was brilliant. the kids LOVED saxy's new kickin' collard greens, and they're going to be a thanksgiving tradition from now on. the homemade cranberry sauce? oh. my. freakin'. gawd. i really was rethinking making it again, but it is just too damn good, and worth the price (esp if i can find cranberries on sale). i'll be serving it for company this christmas and probably keep it as a christmas dish rather than doing it for both thanksgiving and christmas in the future. and when the food was plated, it LOOKED like a harvest festival with all the lovely colors. i think we've pretty much found our final thanksgiving menu. the tree and decorations all went up on time, just in an odd place. it's usually down in the living room, but this year it went in the office. we just didn't have any space in the living room—it was taken up by the ferret cage. lol

speaking of which, this is my official notice that i'm not saying "we're not going to have much of a christmas" ever again. the girls decided we were going to have something, and the gifts under the tree have names on them other than baby cat's. not as many as usual for the rest (and we did try explaining this to taz, but he seems to have a hard time with the words "not enough money"—which makes him more normal than one would expect! lol), but they're there! so, no more of me saying it's not going to happen because someone always seems to pick up the slack somewhere.

was sick for a week or so, not badly, but enough that i didn't want to do much of anything. so i pretty much didn't. which actually is a sign i'm REALLY sick. i don't sit still for long too well, so if i do, then i'm really not feeling well.

the weather hasn't helped much of late. not too much going on with headaches, thank god, but the cold is crazy. we've been trying to keep the heat down to save on the gas bill, but there've been days when it's just too damn cold to do that, esp recently. everyone has blankets piled on their beds, but that doesn't help most of us during the day. the baking i've done over the last few days has helped, but that draws on the gas too.

i've actually given up on my core rhythms for the time being, but i've been doing some stretches at night before bed, and i'm still losing weight. not sure why i'm still losing weight. i'm not doing anything all that strenuous. but i'll take it. i'll get back to core rhythms sometime next year. i have a plan i think will work a little better for me in terms of helping me build up.

and, yes, i do have my goals for next year figured out, i'm just not posting them yet.

hubs did really well in classes again. all a's except for one b+. an a in MATH! i am sooooooo proud of him! :D next term will be busy and hell on our finances, but we'll get through it. the only other option is to quit, and i won't let him do that.

i made youngest a birthday cake from scratch. not a box, SCRATCH. we usually go for a box or buy bakery, but she was quite happy with the cake. we couldn't do much else, but she seemed pretty content. course she always seems content and still acts out in ways that indicate otherwise, so it's anyone's guess if she was really okay with it. she also was looking at moving out and that got tanked. turned out the mother of the family she was supposed to move in with had no idea what her daughter was planning. so, yea, that got nipped pretty damn fast. lol

the mother did say she and i should start a support group since we're having similar issues with our kids. lol

we did manage one small gift for the kids: harry potter. the deal was that kitten and jewel had to take care of their own, but kitten's ride bailed last minute and her bank account went into the red. to keep the tradition, and because, really, the girl has helped keep us afloat for most of the year, we paid for her and baby cat. now we just have to figure out how we're going to manage to get us all in for the last film, and we would have seen all the hp films as a family in the theaters. and, yea, it was pretty well done. there were a few things i wasn't overly thrilled with, but overall the film worked. they kept it moving and ending in a good spot. no dinner with that, but we did buy sodas and pop corn. even that was pretty pricey.

and it's a good thing we managed the movie. we had the idea of picking up some inexpensive gifts (spending no more than $10-15/kid), but that's been killed by the washer, which just died and flooded about a fourth of my living room. i'm glad this didn't happen in the summer because the smell is already beyond annoying. we suspect there might be another problem as well, but we can't get a hold of the landlord and can't do anything about it until we replace dead washer...friday. in the meantime, we're picking up as much water as we can with the steamer and the towels that go in the dryer to get dried only to go back on the floor. everything we've used is going to be ruined from the mess, which upsets me, but there's not much i can do about it. the used washer will probably cost us about $125, maybe more. add on the bills and other things, we're just not going to be able to buy gifts on top of all that.

the other huge issue is that friday is christmas eve. in addition to finishing up all the prepare ahead stuff for dinner, i'll be doing laundry...and still won't be sure it'll all get done so saxy and i have some decent clothes to wear.

then i have the added stress of the older girls' boyfriends coming over for christmas dinner when my house stinks from the mildew.

*head desk*

i'm just glad this didn't happen in summer. this disaster started last night, and i can already smell the mildew. could you even imagine if this were in the middle of SUMMER?

i also don't see the landlord replacing the carpet even thought he carpet is now 7 or 8 years old and this is at least the third such spill we've had in that location (and not all from the washer; irritates the hell out of me that the the water can so easily flow into the house from the GARAGE). this is the same man who told us to use newspapers on our walls as insulation when we were paying rent relatively on time. now we struggle to get the rent in by the end of the month. i try not to call him for anything, if i can help it. but seriously, if there's a bigger problem than the washer, we're going to have to call. we just can not pay for a plumber. period.

so the house will smell on christmas day. don't think there's any way around that. but the food will be good! finishing up cookie baking today and tomorrow, making cornbread for the stuffing, making the cranberry sauce (and providing saxy and anyone else who can't handle whole berries with a can of cranberry jelly), making an orange-chocolate cheesecake and a peruvian fudge cake for dessert, plus all the usual foods.

but for now, some dinner and some more baking.

like i said, busy!