Sunday, January 03, 2016

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Not a lot happened today. It's Sunday so it's supposed to be a day of rest, right? Anyway, church was nice. I had the opportunity to voice the offertory prayer, something I had never done before. After church, we came home and had lunch. I wanted to do some yard work because it was so nice outside, but I didn't have hardly any energy, so I took a short nap. After the nap, I felt better and decided to start working on the riding mower.



It had been leaking fuel and I have needed to repair it for quite some time.  Once I removed the tank, it was easy to see where the leak was. The fuel line had become brittle and cracked. All I have to do is get a replacement fuel line and filter and it should be good to go.  I went ahead and washed the tank inside and out and let it dry upside down. By the time I put it back together, the tank should be plenty dry and ready for fuel.


Erin finished her desk and we moved it back to her room. We also almost finished up packing the Christmas decorations. That was something none of us was looking forward to, but it must be done. Catherine and I took a walk because of the nice weather. The girls went to youth band practice at church and after they returned we had dinner and watched some TV.  Tomorrow, we go back to school. I'm not looking forward to it, but I am ready for some routine back in our lives.

Saturday, January 02, 2016

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Today was a pretty relaxing day. My biggest accomplishment was cleaning the oven. It doesn't happen very often and so it was actually pretty nasty. The oven does have a self clean function, but it seems to get so hot, it almost seems a little dangerous so I did it manually.
Besides, it was so bad that I don't think the self clean function probably would not have been sufficient. Anyway after a few coats of oven cleaner and some elbow grease, it came out pretty nice.

I also painted a little on Erin's desk, but didn't last long, It was a little chilly on the porch.



The other cool thing that happened today was that I received my new leaf shredder.
I wasn't expecting it until Tuesday, so it was a nice surprise to see it show up on my front porch early this afternoon. I got to try it out a little and it really does shred the leaves very nicely. I will give it a better test when I have more time, a little more help and warmer weather.

The last and very least thing that I did was some very necessary grading of student work and planning for school next week.

Erin worked about 4 hours today and Amy went to a friends house to watch a movie. The friend happened to be a boy, but it was just a friend thing, so she says. Catherine cleaned out her side of the closet and studied her Sunday School lesson.

The evening was spent with a nice fire in the fireplace, eating frozen pizza for dinner and enjoyed a semi-old movie called "Radio Flyer", starring Frodo, I mean, Elijah Wood. We also spent a few minutes putting up some Christmas decorations.



Welcome 2016

Goodbye 2015 and hello 2016!  It's a new year with many, great new opportunities! Many people make new year's resolutions for many things such as lose more weight, save more money, visit more places, etc... I don't really like to make resolutions. I just try to make the new year better than the one before and try to make realistic goals that I could possibly reach. Here is my goal for this blog; to use it as a gardening/hobby blog and also a daily journal with the goal being "daily". That's the tough part. But this is a good year to make this goal. If I live to be as old as my dad, I've only lived half of my life, 50 years. That, to a teenager, is old, but to me, not so much. My dad is turning 100 this June and if everything stays the same, he will blow past this one like it's nothing. He is nothing less than amazing! We will probably do something big for him, but not really sure what. That's one reason this is a big year. Another reason for the big year is that my twin daughters will begin their senior year in high school next fall. It will be a big year for "last time" events; marching contests, homecomings, football games, etc.. It will be an emotional roller coaster for them as they prepare for the next chapter in their lives and I'm glad that I can be a part of it. Another reason that this year is big is I get the honor of celebrating 25 years with the love of my life. It's amazing that she has tolerated me this long. 25 years seems like two and with people we know divorcing left and right, this should be a wonderful celebration. Plans are up in the air right now, but I know that whatever we do to celebrate, as long as it's together, it will be fun.

So that's the big ones for this year, and since I want this to be a daily journal/log, there will be many days of entries that will be short and probably boring, but I hope to do at least one thing noteworthy every day to keep life exciting and enjoyable, so here goes.

Friday, January 1, 2015

Happy New Year! Today we went to my dad's house to celebrate the new year by eating ham, black eyed peas and cornbread.  My dad feels that he must have black eyed peas to give him good luck for the coming year. He's almost 100 years old! Who am I to disagree. We met my sister, Jeanne and her husband, Bob at my dad's house and had a wonderful lunch. I baked a ham that I purchased from a FFA fund raiser at school and it was yummy, especially after a honey and brown sugar glaze I put on it. Jeanne made one of her signature coconut cream pies that are the best!

My daughter Erin is redecorating her room starting out by painting her desk. She put the second coat on this afternoon.  This is a desk that has been in my family for as long as I can remember. In fact, this was my desk growing up and was dark blue. Now, it has taken on a more "Erin" look. She has to finish the second coat before she takes off to work at Cheddar's, her first official job that she has held for about 2 months now.

The weather was nice today, so Catherine and I were able to take a walk. It wasn't a long walk, but any little bit helps and is nice. We watched the Dove Awards from sometime this last October. It was a good show and I realized that if it wasn't for my teenage daughters, I would not have known the majority of the musicians represented on the show.