Project….

Well when you have a day off you do some work, you do some relaxing and you do some crafting. So I did the work…shoveling and shoveling and shoveling …. well lots of that. I cleaned the kitchen. I watched a full hour of the news. And than I made these….

a sun catcher ….

  

A cake plate….

Don’t look to close to the bottom of the cake plate, I didn’t have a big enough cake pan so used my cast iron skillet and it burned a little bit. But the top turned out awesome.

And I popped me some popcorn and I found a bunny.

  

And I made the birds and squirrels some food. Per usual money is short so that means they don’t get sunflower seeds but they sure do love the mixture I made up for them. Peanut butter, corn, apples, cranberries and oatmeal and a tiny bit of bacon grease.

It’s only 3:30. I never have time for just me, now what should I do. I could color my hair.

Blessing my friends!!!

A tale of a Minnesota winter morning….

It’s Friday, yea!! the weekend is coming I’m going skiing, it’s going to be a great day. Yeah right, as I look out and there’s 13” of new snow and it’s blowing to beat the band. Well they did say  some 1-5” and it was suppose to be a bit breezy. Get up, it’s 4:45 time to get dressed. No calls from work so we are on for the day. Get dressed, brushed teeth, phone rings ….. Good morning, school is two hours late this morning (I did check wcco to make sure just in case they forgot to call me). Look at clock, look at snow, look at bed….heck it’s an hour more sleep. I get back into bed (mostly dressed) and dream stupid dumb dreams I can’t remember but do remember them being stupid. Get up a tiny bit early cuz I know the roads aren’t nice and now that it’s light out I can see this….Gotta dig the cars out (notice the thermometer? It’s zero. Notice the windsock sticking straight out? It’s windy). Jim goes out and starts them, I get dressed into my santa suit (that damn red snowsuit I really hate but it’s warm), and move the cars down the driveway and clean them off. Les calls, he’s stuck in his driveway can I come get him, okay gotta run…good thing I got up and ready once.

Jim said he’d go first to clear a path but than stops at the end of the drive way to clean his windshield. I scoot around him and head up the road to find 2 cars stuck in a drift in the middle of the road and 1 being pulled out by a pick up truck. I slow down and figure I can squeeze pass them, I have a little blazer. NOPE!! NADA!! Opps the ditch pulled me in like sticky paste. There I sit and fume because I have places to be, things to do and there’s a couple of cars that were in my way and now there’s three. Jim comes up behind me, looks at my car says I can’t pull that out and say he has to get to work and leaves me there. He’s smiling knowing that if I had waited for him to just clean off his windshield maybe it would of been him instead of me. I walk 1/3 mile back to my uncle, up hill both ways in snow that’s up to my butt in places and wake him up. I get his truck started, the chains and tire ready and he comes out with a “I’m saving you, you owe me” smile. It’s now a bit after 8:00 and I leave the bus garage at 8:30 today (usually 6:30) and I haven’t even got my bus pre tripped or started. Mark saves me and make sure I make it to the highway and I call in to find out ….SCHOOL IS CANCELLED!!!! UGH!!!

Went to my parents on the way home and shoveled for an hour just so they can get out the front door and down the steps safely. Came home and shoveled because I have another load of coal to unload (that’s what’s under the blue tarp on the red truck). I did 5 loads, enough for today/tomorrow and Sunday morning. I’ll deal with the rest later.

 

My shovel job. It’s not wide by any means but at least a path to the back shed where the coal and fire is.

This is our coal elevator, the metal thing going parallel to the snow (the other is our dragline). Couldn’t use that anyways, can’t get the snow out of the way.

The snowdrifts is as tall as our 250 gallon fuel oil barrel. Nothing in there but it’s there in case we have an extra grand just sitting around to fill it up. That little building is the playhouse and slide. Don’t think the kids will be using that for a few weeks.

 

Don’t think we’ll be using out camper for a few months either. Oh winter, I wish you’d just go away.

Now no skiing tomorrow either (I was taking new scouts skiing and with the snow and wind and cold tomorrow figured I’d rather take them when it’s nicer out so they’ll want to go again, than when it’s not and they may not have fun), I’m taking an activity to Pierz. Need the pay, no work Monday or today….UGH again!!!!  Bus driver, no hands on the wheel, no pay.

Oh well, the life of this Riley. Hope your Friday is safe and awesome. I’m really not complaining cuz no one was hurt, I got more than enough exercise for today, my mama made me breakfast, I got extra coal done before I even knew I had a trip tomorrow, I have a trip tomorrow, I have this afternoon to just putz and do a craft if I want too. And the snow is pretty though I really would prefer some green grass sooner than later.

 

Blessings!!!!

Help….

Does anyone know how, have a pattern, know a website, can teach me …. how to take a hooded sweatshirt that chocks me and open it up and either put a zipper in it or at least open it up and have it look nice.

I did one a long time ago by just slicing it opened and sewing in a placket but it really didn’t look that great.

I love sweatshirts, in fact I wear one just about every day in the bus because you know that door opens and closes 50+ times a trip and out goes my heat each time.

I’ve been looking at pinterest a lot and have found a couple sorta ideas but not exactly what I’m looking for. I’ll keep looking but thought just maybe one of you guys have done this and have a pattern or something to share with me.

Hope that all is well with you. No school here tomorrow so I have daycare. It’s Abby’s birthday next week so we are celebrating it tomorrow. She wants pancakes for breakfast, spaghetti for lunch, chocolate cupcakes and the activity….ice skating. I’ll share pictures.

Take care my friends. Have a blessed night sleep.

P.S.

This is kind of what I have…

 

This is what I’d like….but with a hood

Or this…

Wordless Wednesday….

 

Monster Bobby and no teeth brushing tonight. :-)

Ouch!

The coal is done, 3688lbs shoveled and wheeled to it’s resting place until I burn it up. My neck and shoulder are screaming but it will pass since other than just filling the furnace twice a day I don’t have to touch a shovel. However, yesterday I fell out of my bus.

It’s ice, cold, snowy so my steps where slippery at the end of my run yesterday morning. I salt and chip away the ice at the end of each run so safe for the kids at the next run but for me it wasn’t soon enough. I was filling the bus with fuel and decided to just wait inside the door cuz it was –17* when I got back and just as I was stepping back down the 1st step I went down. No one saw, thank goodness, and I didn’t report because….well who wants to say you slipped and fell out of the bus? Not me (it’s on camera so if a problem later it’s recorded, just not verbal). Anyways, last night I couldn’t breath without pain so just took some meds, a heating pad and went to bed. Today, I can’t move without pain but my daddy brought me over a pain patch which seems to be helping and I’m sorta almost doing nothing today. I did of course have to do the chores (coal fire and chickens) and I’m making a loaf of banana bread and ribs but none of that is going to kill me off and they say if you hurt to keep moving so you don’t get stiff. But heck, why does it seem I’m so klutzy? Jim just shakes his head and goes on (he’s not the sympathetic kind) but daddy came to the rescue.

Oh well like my grandma always says, “this too shall pass” but ouch!

Hope you’re having a great weekend. I think, just maybe, I’d like to go to the ice fishing and Scorpions celebration this afternoon. Just to look at the old sleds. There usually are a couple hundreds. A long time ago our town produced Scorpions. A long time ago my daddy owned a Rupp shop. Heard of them?

 

This is just like the one I grew up riding. My daddy fixed them and restored them and so much more and hated them as much as he loved them. Our shop was Bill’s All Season Power. I’ll have to look and see if I can find some old pictures.

Anyways, time to take the bread out. Take care my friends and have a blessed day!

More for wordless Wednesday…

 

Blessings!!

Wordless Wednesday … my boyfriend …

Well a few words. This goose lost his mate about 5 years ago. I am now “his”, just ask him. Where I go, he goes. He’s even come into the shed with me. He’s learning to ride in the wheelbarrow too.

Blessings!

Oh goody….the start of my 5k’s for the year … well 10 of them here…and…

Kyra is awesome. She has set up a 5k challenge for the full year. We start in March (gives us time to work up to starting) and go through the full year. There’s friendships to be made, support to be giving and gotten, there’s prizes and the fact that you can walk/jog/run any of these races so anyone can do them. I’m excited. I hope you’ll take the time to check out Kyra’s blog and sign up (just click on the picture and it’ll take you right to the post for this).

Here’s the weekends that are scheduled for the races…

1. March 22-23 
2. April 26-27  (my 52nd birthday and our 34th wedding anniversary weekend)
3. May 24-25
4. June 21-22
5. July 19-20
6. August 23-24
7. September 20-21
8. October 18-19
9. November 22-23
10. December 20-21

Let’s do this together.

What’s most excellent, I’m going to be signing up for a race here in Crosslake it’s the

And it will be just the weekend before the beginning of these races and a great start.

It’s just time to get back into the distant. I’ve been getting out and moving but it’s so cold here, today –35 when I went out but I did get out and moved my butt. Than I also shoveled 5 wheelbarrow loads of coal and hauled that back to the wood shed. There’s too much snow to bring the truck out back so each load has to be hand unloaded, 25 wheelbarrow loads full. I got started.

Okay, warm up coming so 5k training can start. At least something with some distants.

Okay, go now, look up Kyra and sign up for her races. Remember you can walk them if you want. A start, any start is good.

Blessings my friends!!

I am sharing my devotional with you today …. thinking points….

DEVELOP THE RIGHT (SELF) ATTITUDE

Here are 10 suggestions to help you develop and maintain a healthy self-image. Read them slowly.  Meditate on them regularly.

1. Hate your sin, but never hate yourself.

2. Be quick to repent.

3. When God gives you light, walk in it.

4. Stop saying negative things about yourself.  God loves you and it's wrong to hate what He loves. He has great plans for you, so you're in conflict with Him when you speak negatively concerning your future.

5. Never be afraid to admit that you've made a mistake and don't always assume that when things go wrong, it must be 'my fault'.

6. Don't meditate excessively on what you've done, right or wrong; both of these activities keep your mind on you!  Center your thoughts on Christ.

7. Take good care of yourself physically. Make the best of what God gave you to work with, but don't be obsessed with your appearance.

8. Never stop learning but don't allow your education to become a point of pride. God doesn't use you because of what's in your head: He uses you because of what's in your heart.

9. Realize that your talents are a gift, not something you have manufactured yourself; never look down on people who can't do what you do.

10. Don't despise your weaknesses they keep you dependent on God.

I am learning to meditate and what better points to think about than developing the right attitude.

Blessings my friends!!

Wordless Wednesday…Nap time…