The Miller Country Adventures

It's time for a blog post! I finally broke down and purchased a prepaid Verizon JetPack so I could get online. It's been driving me crazy. The phone company has to run a new line to our house and that was supposed to happen 2 weeks ago, and I haven't heard a peep from them. I wonder if we will ever have a home phone and Internet access?

Did I mention that I painted a chalkboard wall in one of my bedrooms? I turned it into the kids "playroom", it's where I put all of their toys and books and stuff and I let them mess it up during the day and we clean it up together before we go to bed at night. I just think this wall is so cool, and I kind of wish I had done this in the kitchen, or in my own bedroom...

Take a look "Before"...

And now "After"...

I will also admit that I have been kind of struggling without my dryer, and here is my pitiful attempt to hang a clothesline:

Even with repeated attempts to tighten my lines, they just keep a sagging. Some day I will do some real research and learn how to do this correctly with pulleys and all that, but for now, this will just have to do.

I'm still trying to grasp the concept that we are living in the country, I just can't believe it. I love it!
The children have been outside more in the past 2 weeks than they have been in the past 7 years in our old home.

The only 2 really negative things so far is that it is horsefly season, and these bugs are everywhere and they are nasty. They chase you and they are BIG. This one wouldn't leave my car door this morning and it was as big as my THUMB. Gross.

 

 

The other negative is that many of the people (and moms in particular) that I see out and about, have tattoos and smoke. Not that I'm trying to make sweeping judgments, but I'm slightly worried about exposing my kids to the "redneck" element and having them think that underage smoking and tattoos are in anyway "cool". I'm also worried that I will have nothing in common with anyone that I meet (as in too-goody-two-shoes for the neighbors and not-Catholic-enough for the Catholic homeschoolers that I haven't met yet, but hopefully can find them around.) Hopefully I will get this figured out. I'm pretty much a loner and one local Christian friend (who has small kids and is not 20 years younger than me) who can put up with me and my rosaries and my hyperactive kids and Ohio State loving, sports-fanatic, beer drinking husband, would be a Very Good Thing!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

(And I can't resist a few more shots, I just love this...)

Unplugged

Well, we've been really busy these past few weeks... we moved our house-full of stuff into our new house out in the country (a whole ordeal in itself), and we have been working diligently on getting our old home ready to sell and listed (another massive ordeal), driving back and forth each day to drop the kids off for their last few weeks of day care for the month of July. It has been busy indeed!

In our new home we currently have:
1) No Internet
2) No Home Phone
3) I lost my smart phone before the move so no Internet Phone Access, using a prepaid dumb phone
4) No Cable Television (I don't watch TV, but my husband is catching a few stations on his rabbit ears)
5) No Clothes Dryer (ours started smoking...) been drying them outside on a makeshift clothesline and wherever I can.
6) No Oven (I've been using a crock pot and microwave to cook family meals).
7) No Dishwasher (We've been doing it the old fashioned way!)

We are also a good 10 miles away from all the fast food places and convenience stores that we were so accustomed to hitting up and we have a big 'ole gravel driveway with an old rusty gate that we keep locked up now to prevent strangers driving down looking for things to run off with... (apparently this can happen occasionally out where we live if you invite it, so we keep the gate closed, which is what the neighbor we share our driveway with tells us we should do) It is a pain in the butt to unlock, so we've been spending our evenings at home unpacking boxes, cooking at home, and trying to get settled in and organized - it is kind of a deterrent from driving anywhere you don't really have to go. But I truly feel "unplugged"... no Internet, no phone. I realize how much I have missed being able to surf the Internet, google interesting things, get on Blogger, and read and respond to email, or drive a mile down the street to go to Starbucks, Panera, or Goodwill. I'm checking email right now in our vacant old house, which still has our access temporarily... It feels so good to be able to do this right now because it has been so long! It's going to take me a while to catch up with everyone.

All in all, we are so blessed, even though still stressed and maxed out financially, hoping that our old home will sell quickly, but very very thankful to be in our new home and looking forward to a simpler lifestyle, more privacy, more nature, and more time with my kids. I want this move to bring me closer to my husband, my family, and to God, and lately, I think we have been in over drive mode, it's been having the opposite affect, but today, my husband and I got to go to confession together alone, (only 2 more days before full time kids = crazy mode :-) and a nice relaxing lunch and walk downtown. It's an amazingly beautiful day today. Going to catch up on my email now... while I have a chance to do it!

Saying Goodbye to the Corporate World

A week ago on Friday was the last day of my full time job as a Software Engineer at GE Aviation. HOLY COW, YES-I-DID-JUST-QUIT-MY-JOB!!!!!!!!!!!  It's been such a surreal head trip, I haven't had a chance to really process it or sit down and write about it until just now. This wasn't really officially planned or thought out very well... it was a decision made more on emotion, than logic... The "smart" thing would have been to:

a) finish our home renovations
b) move
c) sell our current home
d) move the kids into the newer (much more affordable daycare in our new area) and work for another year so that we could begin to pay off the large amounts of credit card debt we are quickly racking up.

But I decided that I just didn't want to. I wanted to stop working.

So I put in my 2 weeks and resigned. It's insane really, but I want to throw financial caution to the wind and be a stay at home mom and the sooner the better. After years of praying about it, my husband is finally on board. I know there will be a lot of lifestyle changes. We eat out all the time. We buy most of the groceries and misc. household items that we need (want) without really a second thought or discussion. We don't have a tight regulated budget. We are going to have to figure out how to live off of less than 1/2 of the income we are accustomed to. I'm not exactly sure how we are going to make this work... but there is no turning back now.  (OK, well, I do know actually, and that is with Epic Withdrawals from my 401k plan and a lot of prayer, that is how.) I'm also going to have to figure out how to be WAYYYYY more domestic than I am now... and that, my friends, is a scary thought, but I am really excited about learning. I'm going to have to develop a heck of a lot more patience when interacting with my children also, so I'll have to take that day by day. I'm going to have to cook and clean and all that stuff that does not come easy to me.  I'm about as opposite of a "Martha Stewart" type as they come...

Right now I feel very humbled and extremely blessed to have my family's support in making this very huge transition in my life. I want to thank every blog reader who ever said a prayer for me when I needed it. (And there were many times when I really needed it!) Thanks to every family member and friend (Nova and Lisa) who listened to me complain for hours about my job stress.  Thanks to a few amazing co-workers (Barb and Char) who sent me off with kind words and the perfect parting gift, and for my Spiritual Encouragement group (Pat, Mike, Jim, Mike, John, and the rest of the gang) who prayed over me for "success" in my new "job" and gave me a very touching card.

And most of all, thank you to my husband, James. You are my best friend. I love you! I know I am a very lucky woman to have you and thank you for putting up with all my crap.

Anyway, the coolest part of all this was coming home last week to a "surprise party" my husband and kids put together for me.

SURPRISE!!!

I mean, how can much better can life get than walking home to a welcome like this???

My kids don't know what they are in for...

Check out my cool sign!

And I even got an Ice Cream Cake! :-)

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you all enjoy your 4th of July weekend with family and good friends. God Bless!

 



Two lines of GOOD NEWS

A completely 100% ALL CLEAR night for thorough lice checking the entire household. Woo Hoo!!!

We were finally able to get to CONFESSION last Saturday!!! FINALLY!!! Thank You, God!

The best remedy for self-treatment of Lice

Two posts ago I lamented about finding a head full (and I do mean a head full) of lice in my daughter's hair. It has been a rough week, folks... Going through all the "traditional" treatments... The NIX shampoo, the lice combs, the rosemary essential oils preventative shampoo, handpicking out every single lice egg I could find... I think I've already spent over $200 on specialty lice removal items. My goodness.. changing everyone's sheets daily... combing out every strand of hair, cleaning like a mad woman, it's just all a bit much, after a 10 hour work day. At last things are getting better. We are having "Lice Wars" to see if we can find any evidence on any of the kids' heads at night time bath. 1 point for a nit, 2 points for a nymph, and 3 points for a fully grown bug. (It's the game you really want to lose, trust me.)  I search and search and after very thorough nit-picking, I can usually spot one egg and/or one baby lice on a head. Now I really freaked out after finding a single bug on the baby's head! (We are still co-sleeping.) Great, yes, I checked myself and found a microscopic bug and a nit or two. I was so thoroughly disgusted. I just don't have time for this! It's gross. And you want to hear something crazy??? I washed my daughter's down comforter that was quarantined after the initial finding... and had stuck it in the dryer to "kill any remaining eggs" it was ever-so-slightly damp when I pulled it out, so I spread it out and left it on top of the dryer to air dry. In the middle of the night, I went down to put in another load of clothes, and when I flipped on the light I saw what must of been a dozen lice crawling around on this white comforter. What the .... ? I have no idea where they came from (did the eggs hatch after taking them out of the dryer or did they crawl off the other clothes from my daughters' hamper?) Who knows. I put everything in garbage bags and tied them up and I am still trying to wash and vacuum, wash and vacuum, and not caught up yet.

As if that is not enough, today at work I was in the ladies room, and I glanced down on the linoleum floor.. and... I saw a small little bug the size of a pin point.. I had to focus to see it, and I recognized it right away, as a single louse crawling around in a circle on the bathroom floor.. whoa.. this was there before I walked in, so it wasn't from me... I am just paranoid now that these guys are everywhere. Please be on the lookout! I cannot be alone in dealing with this.

Anyway, of all the crazy remedies, this is the cheapest and was extremely effective for self treating myself. I found this on the Internet and it really works! Here is what you do...   Wet your hair with hot water. Douse your hair with baby oil... work it in everywhere and saturate your entire head with it. Get a high quality inexpensive vinyl shower cap and put it over your hair. I put this on and let it sit for several hours. The heat from your head combined with the oil with suffocate the lice. After a few hours, you can remove the cap, and sit down in the shower and begin to comb out your hair with a lice comb. It will be extremely easy to comb out because of the baby oil. Any bugs or eggs just slide right out effortlessly. I would comb once and then wipe with a tissue to check for any evidence, then repeat until I have touched every hair on my head at least a few times. Once you feel that you have gone over everything, wash your hair normally with shampoo to get out all the oil. The added bonus is that your hair will be extra soft because of the baby oil "conditioning treatment". This worked better than using the harsh chemicals and the bottle of NIX. I'm posting this, not to gross you all out, which I probably already did, but in case you ever have to deal with this, you will have an inexpensive and safe alternative for dealing with these horrible bugs. Hopefully, you will not need to!

My biological clock is still ticking...

Well, 2 days ago, I was really surprised when I started my cycle again. I guess I should have expected it, but it's been a very very long time since I've had a period. (Only 1 in the last 4 years). Actually after the surprise wore off and I scrambled for a quarter to hit up the machine in the ladies room... I felt a sense of relief that it actually arrived! I'm going to be 39 very very soon.. and while this is still young (kind of, er, well, maybe not.. ), And I'm just sitting here wondering where the time has gone and where it is going. The past year I've had some health issues.. mostly minor, but annoying. My under active thyroid is getting worse, I have gained weight, my energy level is not so good.  Back in April I started experiencing really strange new pains in my hips. I tried to tell myself that it was because of carrying my heavy 1-year old on the sides of my hips too much, but it just felt more like... arthritis starting to set in. It hurt and ached almost every day for a month and a half. Wonky things were going on with my body, I felt nauseous one day and actually ran to the drug store to take a pregnancy test. (negative.) My sciatic nerve was so painful another day that I was afraid to hold my baby while walking.
.
Now I'm looking back and wondering if some of this wasn't just my old worn out body kicking itself back into gear for ovulation, and having a hard time getting going? Who knows. But I'm filled with ambivalence about getting pregnant. Of course, I also feel like my window of opportunity is quickly closing, and I've safely waited the 2 year mark that I needed for healing after my recent C-Section so there is no really good reason to stop this from happening.  No time like the present, right? Besides the fact that we own 3 houses at the moment and are in a state of turmoil and flux and I want to quit my job! And the fact that my husband moved into the spare room because I've been working such late hours and keeping him up with my typing on the computer. Who knows what will happen, I just have to trust God on this one, which has worked well for us in the past. I only hope I can physically and mentally handle "it" and everything "it" comes with - good and bad, if something does indeed happen in the future. And if our family is complete now, well, I think that would be OK also, almost relieving in a way, but would make me a little sad also. 

Anyway, just musing about all this.. nearing 40 and all.. geesh... it has its own special set of problems and concerns. So it's nice to know I'm not alone.  

Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite

We have been working very hard on getting our new home "ready" to begin moving into it. A lot needs to be done. Installing a mailbox, new carpet, painting, cleaning, scrubbing, power-washing, electrical work, carpentry work, siding repair, concrete repair, septic pumping, and the list goes on and on. We've been driving out to the country several times a week after work to check up on things and get started. It's taking a toll on everyone, and every time we go, we don't get home until late and the kids are up way past their bed time.  I'll try and take some pictures eventually and post them because we are going to do a complete transformation on this house so I want to capture some "before and afters". I signed up for Angie's List. So far it has been an awesome $20 well spent. We have found some great contractors from recommendations on the site, and it is so valuable to read the feedback and see the ratings. I wish I would have known about this years ago, it could have saved us a lot of trouble.

Last night we drove out to the house to check up on the (new and better) painters from Angie's List. They were an excellent choice! 1000% more professional than the last crew that stole my paint. (We decided they were not going to be doing any more work for us.) I picked a gray color for my house.. actually.. a cross between a gray and a beige.. apparently this is the "new" thing.  It's called "Greige"... The color I picked is Sherwin William's Perfect Greige. 

Do you want to see it?

 

After we got home last night, the kids were exhausted. They were so dirty from playing outside, I had to give them baths even though it was 2 hours past bedtime. That is when I found a whole head full of lice on my oldest daughter's head. Ewww yuck! :-) My 3 year old had a few of 'em too.. Let's just say, I spent almost 3 hours last night trying to de-lice the kids and I'm going to have to probably do it again just to be sure I got them all. My daughter's hair is so thick and brown it is extremely hard to see and get to them. It was no easy task. Poor kids... I feel terrible for not noticing earlier.  Lauren said she wanted to go to school and tell her best friend all about it. She loves nature. Aren't kids funny? I suggested she keep this one to herself, so people don't start making fun of her. Now I am wondering if home-schooled children have to deal with this? Perhaps, but I doubt it.

Thanks for reading my blog!