Thursday, July 29, 2010

Zinnias



Zinnias are a favorite plant for my garden. Here is a photo of them as seedlings. I love starting flower plants from seeds. One thing I like to do is study what each phase of the plant looks like so when I'm in my garden I know what is a plant that I want in my garden and what is a weed. Each spring my neighbor and I will walk about our gardens and say " Do you think this is a weed" Most of the time I will know. "Yes, that plant is a Black Eyed Susan, they have hairy leaves, or no, that's a weed, you can see them down by the railroad." It is fun to do this with my neighbor.






Here are the babies planted in the garden. They are growing out of their baby leaves and starting to have their regular leaves "I wonder would you call them their adult leaves?" I'll have to study up on that. In the back ground are my Dianthus plants. I thought they were annuals, but they came back this spring. Which was a wonderful surprise. My garden at one point was very pink. It is so nice to look out the back window and see all the color.


Here they are all grown up and in full bloom. These are Thumbelina Zinnias. Their flowers are smaller, but they actually grew taller than I had thought they would. I have to admit that I'm not good at measurement, and visualizing what measurements will look like. So I'm sure if I was better at this I would have known that they would be tall with small flowers. I was expecting them to be short with small flowers. My neighbor said that it is more my gift of growing things than what they are supposed to be. She believes every thing I grow becomes much bigger than what it should be. She told me she tells all her friends about my gardening abilities. She thinks I should start a plant nursery. I'm not sure I'd love it as much if I did it full time.

I also love that one pack of seeds can give you so many different colors. Light pink, red, orange, white and purple all mixed together. Zinnias also begin small and continue to open for weeks. They also bloom all summer and into the fall. I love how the tops almost looks as if the flower has a crown on it. I had two butterflies dancing around in them this afternoon. It was a beautiful sight. Unfortunately I was watching from the window and didn't get any photo's.




Here is a close up of the orange/yellow thumbelina zinnia. They are so beautiful. For those of you with a resident "Peter Rabbit" They don't seem to like to eat zinnias. That is a nice thing you don't have to put any thing around them they just don't taste good. One thing I keep track of in my garden (with the flowers) is which plants "Peter" eats and which he ignores. I try to plant the ones he ignores. I'm lucky because we don't have to deal with "Bambi "or his mother in my garden.






Light Pink. This is a pretty young flower. You can tell by how small the middle of the flower is.









Purple. This one is older, see how the middle is larger and the yellow ring of flowers are open around the middle. I always think of the little ring of yellow flowers together as being like a little crown.
Unemployment World: Today was a busy day for my husband, he was out and trying to get face time with lots of Auto Shops. He has a shop in Somerville that is interested in hiring him. He has an Interview on Tuesday at 11:00 am. On one hand I would love for him to get a job, and this place would give him paid training, which is a great plus. BUT he would have to work Sundays and we both really don't want that. In this economy though I'm not sure you can be that picky.
The other thing is well it's just so nice for us to have time together. I was planning things for us to do together once the kids got back into school. Even our son commented about how nice it was to just have him home. If anything we have had a lot of peaceful summer days lately. So as much as a job would be good, I guess I was hoping for a few more weeks of unemployment vacation. That is the good thing about having no debt, no car payments, and lots of food stored up in your house. You can live at a comfortable level even on unemployment. But OK you do need to have a job.





Wednesday, July 28, 2010

A BOOK YOU NEED TO READ IF YOU ARE UNEMPLOYED!

I have been reading a great book, for me at least. The book is "The Wild Water Walking Club" By Claire Cook. I really love this book, because it takes you through some of the stages that you go through as you are unemployed. The stage of not wanting to get out of bed, the stage of wondering who you are once your title has been taken from you, and what it is like to go to a unemployment help center and visit with other people who are going through the same issues as you are. I haven't finished the book yet but I'm hoping for a good ending.
The book also has a lot about walking and setting walking goals, and using a pedometer. This is something I've been trying to do since spring. Unfortunately my pedometer has died. I bought for cheap so what can you expect. I have decided I will buy myself a new one, that can also track how many steps I've taken for the week and month.
The book also has gardening in it. I'm so going to plant lavender in my garden next year. This book is just so close to home I'm glad I bought it as I know it is one I could definitely read again!
Unemployment world report: We are still waiting for it all to fall into place. As you go about and talk to people you find that others are right where you are, so you don't feel so bad. You keep your chin up, and you enjoy the day you are in. It has been nice to have my husband home. It almost feels like we are on a mini vacation. I'm actually planing things we could do together in September if no permanent jobs turn up. One thing would be to walk some of the cemeteries that his ancestors are buried in. I still have some gaps in our family history. Maybe we'd take a trip into the city together too.
One thing I've heard people say about the bad economy is that they are having more family time. Might as well make the most of it while we can, as once we have jobs it will be hectic again.
Well if you like walking and have employment issues check out the book "The Wild Water Walking club." It will make you smile. Oh if you have wild teen issues it covers that too...

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Long Walk




For what seems like years now my children and I have walked down to the free pool at the park by our house. When the children were 4 and 6 we would call this the "LONG WALK TO THE POOL" , for their little legs I'm sure it was a long walk. One day we actually counted the steps and it's about 225 little children steps. Yesterday I commented that we were doing the long walk, and they said "Mom, this walk isn't long!" Shows you how much they have grown. We only have a few more years of this walk and then they will be too old. When they were little we would go down at 10:30 in the morning stay until lunch, and then we would go back at 1:30 do the craft and stay until about 3:30. We always came back very cold and refreshed. Way back when they were little I had a bag that I kept all their stuff in, now they carry their own towels. I used to watch their every move and now I sit and read, and just look up now and then to make sure they are not fighting with each other. I will miss our pool days when they come to an end.








Here they are walking back from the pool. I used to make them change, now we just walk back with our towels wrapped around us.

I always take a photo of them holding their towels in the wind too. I think it's cool to watch the towels fly out behind them. This year they fight over who gets the pretty blue towel. No one seems to want the purple and pink towel. I find it very annoying!





Here are some of the tomatoes that I picked from my plants. I had a really yummy tomato sandwich yesterday. At the 4-H fair they have a fruit and vegetable creation contest, where you make figures out of fruits and vegetables. I think it would be fun. My daughter though is not interested.
On the unemployment front: Yesterday I went on line to do my second unemployment benefits claim. Can I say "CONFUSING!!" I went in and re-applied for benefits instead of doing what I was supposed to do! UGH! Then I went in and did the correct thing, only to find they are still not going to pay me! UGH AGAIN! So I went down to the "One STOP Unemployment Center" I waited in line, not that long, and got to talk to some other unemployed people, some were filing for the extension, and then got to talk to a very nice unemployment agent. I have to say the person was very kind to me which was nice. When you are at the bottom so to speak and people are kind that is nice. My problem, the state has decided review and check each person who has worked for a school, to be sure that you do not have a contract for September. Because if you get a contract, then you are not supposed to collect unemployment. I hope this does not take them all summer to do. My worry there are a ton of unemployed school employees right now in our state.
Tip for anyone in New Jersey who has a local "One Stop unemployment center" near them and are doing the call ins for your benefits, it is quicker to go in and see the unemployment agent, than it is to do the call in on the telephone. Also if you go in you know that everything is done correctly, where they sometimes have issues with the phone lines and the Internet. I hope no one has to do this, but if you do and you are close to the center, go to the center. That is what everyone I spoke to yesterday said.
I hope next week to get in for reemployment services. I would really like help with my resume, and I would like to see if I could get some schooling too. I would like to get schooling in accounting, or book keeping.
I am finished with my last Vet assistant course. Just have to take the final. I really enjoyed learning and I know that being a receptionist at a vet clinic might be an option for me. I'm praying about it. I have a lot of praying to do. In fact my morning glory plant that has grown all the way up to the roof of our house reminds me of this daily. It needs to be watered three times a day, and each time I water it I'm reminded I need to pray at least three times a day. I know the answers will come.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Swim lessons are over!


The last two weeks I have spent my mornings sitting by the pool while my kids take swim lessons. They are now in the level 4 swim lessons at the pool. They did not pass up to the next level, but I didn't expect them too. I'm glad their instructor told them the day before that no one would be moving up. The end of Swim lessons always means the end of July for me. Usually we go to Vermont for a week in August, but this year it is not going to happen. We are going to go up for my reunion weekend but we will only stay a day or two. If August goes by as quickly as July seems to have gone by, we will be having the first day of school very soon. Both children go to new schools this year. My daughter is going to intermediate school and my son is going to middle school. How ever did he become a seventh grader??
Unemployment: Yesterday was not a good day for me. I went for a walk and as I was pondering our situation I realized this scary fact.... right now my husband and I are living at the below poverty level. We both have no income coming in... That for me is such a weird thing. We have always lived on a shoe string, but to have no string is scary. I will be glad when I know that both of us will be getting at least unemployment. But the whole thing is odd for me. I have worked since I was in 7th grade. Once in high school I worked every weekend and all summer for a grocery store. I started as a part time bagger, and worked my way up to part time bookkeeper. I moved from working in the grocery store to working at a bank when I began college. I worked every day but Sunday through all my college summers. In college I had work study programs, and I was also a resident assistant. College was very hard, taking 18 credits a semester and also working, I wish I'd been able to enjoy it a bit more now looking back. But I did make deans list most semesters and I got an award and graduated top 13% of my class. I had 4 graduate schools write to me that wanted me to apply to their schools. Unfortunately my parents did not see the benefit of going to more school, and told me to get out and get a real job.
So I moved to New Jersey and got a job as a part-time temporary teller, with in a week I was working full time and in 3 months I was Manager of a supermarket branch.
My husband has worked for the last 14 years for the same company. We are thankful that I could stay home with the kids, and that we had time together as a family. I enjoyed staying home with the children but once they were in school full time I had to get out of the house. I loved my little job as a library assistant. It is hard to believe it is over. Now I need to decide what I want to do, and how that will fit with everyone else.... I feel as if I'm walking in a mist of darkness and that I'm not sure what to do.
Yesterday my husband went to reemployment services. He has a meeting scheduled for the 4th to enroll in a program to help him get a grant to go back to school and get more career training. There are many colleges listed for him to choose from. He also has an appointment to meet with a career counselor on the 14th of August. That will be very good for him as I think he could use help with his resume and some guidance on how his skills and knowledge could lead to a different career. He also went to a friends shop, and asked if he could work for free so he could learn how to use the new computer diagnostics. The person said that he would help him out.. So that he could get his feet back into the business. One good thing we learned was if my husband goes back to work and he gets paid less than what he would make on unemployment, he would be eligible to get the balance paid to him. This is very nice to know as most places that he has interviewed at tell him that if they hired him they would start him at the bottom of the pay scale.
We are also working on getting health care through the state program our children are on. Since we are at the poverty level we should be able to get in. With budget cuts they changed the amount you could be making to have low income health insurance. I guess with making at this point nothing we should still get in.
The book I'm reading has another great quote: " When you're in transition, structure is key. Put yourself on a schedule and adhere to it. Without a routine, it's a slippery slope. Too much freedom and before you know it you've lost control of your day and turned into a slug." (The wildwater walking club. By Claire Cook.... One thing I do for structure is getting up at 6am and walking, then working on my garden until 7:30 when the child we help watch gets dropped off at our house. Yesterday if I did not have to watch my friends child I think I would have just gone back to bed and stayed there the whole day.
A blessing..remember the computers I told you about. Well both needed a little work and my husbands friend came and he found that one was pretty much finished, but he was able to take the good parts out and make the other computer much better, and then he got another computer and put more of the good parts into that, so we now have two working laptops. And the kids even can go on the Internet with them.
Tomorrow is Saturday and I hope we travel back to Heaven (the beach). I may refuse to leave. I may just stay forever.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Our Artist.





Last week the kids raided my poster board supply and each tried to draw a pokemon character. This is the poster my son made of Mew Two. The girls were not as successful and wanted him to draw them pictures also. I'm amazed at how well my son does with drawing. He did this free hand. He also plays the violin and I have to say I love hearing him play.















MewTwo.








Cookies: Have you ever made cookies and they come out all flat and hard? I found the way to make them so they come out as a circle and also nice and thick. Instead of cooking them on a flat baking sheet cook them in a muffin tin. I read this somewhere in a magazine. I tried it today and it worked! Round, thick and yummy cookies.
My new book : The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook. I just started this new book, and get this the main character has lost their job and as a way to get back on track in life starts walking with a pedometer. I have for the last couple of months been counting my steps. Last week I had a low of 917 steps. (My goal for the week is 5000 which is not high as you need to be at 10,000 to be considered active and actually have it help you lose weight.) Yesterday I did make 10,000 and today I'm over 5000 steps. So I think I will have fun reading the book. The character in the book had one day where she only walked 17 steps. If you are at all into pedometers you know that is not very good at all. She must have gotten up had breakfast and gotten back into bed. I will let you know if it is a good book to read soon. So far it seems good.
Unemployment: Yesterday my husband went to a friends auto shop to ask if he could help him learn the new computer programs needed to be a top mechanic. Another shop owner was there and his friend told that person he should hire my husband as he is a sober, hard worker. I guess the other person is having employee problems. Tomorrow he goes to the reemployment services to be signed up for reemployment help, get a counselor, and begin to look at what type of career training he could get.
I have started to look at different job options. I'm going to start down loading applications for some retail stores to fill out. I might also see if I can get applications for the 24 hour vet offices and try to get a job as a evening receptionist. I feel I need to really start putting applications out there as soon as possible. This way my husband can watch the kids while I go for interviews. I may also go to the reemployment office and try to get help with my resume and see if there are any classes I could take to help me. I'd like to learn bookkeeping and accounting and also Spanish. So that is where we are, slowly moving forward.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

We went to Heaven!



This weekend we went to "Heaven", well "as close as you can get to Heaven on Earth. We went down to the beach. We always go in the late afternoon. We started this because my son and I have that good Irish/Scottish fair, freckled skin. My son also when he was young could not have sun tan lotion on as it caused him to break out. We arrive at the beach around 5pm, walk to "Gee Gee's" the pizza/ hamburger stand. We get some greasy pizza and fries. Then we go out on the beach. The kids play in the water with my husband, and I walk the beach looking for shells. Actually this time I sat and read a book. Lately I've been thinking how nice it is that my children are older. I don't have to be constantly watching them. They don't need my constant attention. I have been reflecting on this a lot as I'm out in my garden at 6 in the morning. I can get up and go out and work in my garden and they take care of themselves. This has been the first summer that I've had this time just to myself. I have to say I love it. I also can go out in the evening, or I can just get in my Papasan and read. The kids they take care of themselves. When they were little I always had to be watching them, or playing with them. Now they do their own thing and I have more time to focus on who I am and the things in life that I want to do. Of course I still have to do stuff for them, but it's not like it used to be. In fact the other week my husband and I took a walk and the kids stayed home and it was just a wonderful moment.
I wanted to find a good beach book to read over the summer. If anyone has a suggestion of a good summer beach themed book let me know. I just finished my second book of the summer.
The book is called " I Remember You" by Harriet Evans. It was a good book. It took awhile for me to connect with the characters and I think that was because it is based in the UK. One thing I noticed was that there were 3 generations of making poor relationship choices. It had three generations of summer love gone bad, and how each affected the other. Thankfully the last generation figures it out in the end.
I did find some connections to the characters. One of the characters worked at a bank and had left for the country because they were burnt out. (Most of my college and my young single adult life was centered in the banking world. It was so stressful. I will never go back!) The character spent 5 months doing pretty much nothing and then figured out that she really needed a job and order in her life. I know this is something I desperately need in my life. I need things to be in order, and I need a schedule. Even in the summer where you kind of relax and go at a slower pace, I'm finding I like to keep a schedule. I have told my husband that despite the fact that he is unemployed he should still set up a schedule for himself. Have a schedule of things to do every day. One of the things I'm starting to do this week is get my life and house in order. I'm working through each room in our house and cleaning and organizing. No more piles. The kitchen is almost done.
A quote in the book that I really liked was this " Sometimes it's harder to watch and be powerless than to be in the eye of the storm, at least you know where you are when you're in the eye of the storm..... Being on the sidelines, watching someone and not being able to help them, if you truly love them- that's hard."
It is a very hard place to be, watching someone else struggle, but not really being able to help because you know that person has to figure it out on their own.
I'll warn you if you decided to read this book it does have some language and some descriptions that are not very virtuous.
Change... If I could give you one word that describes the course of my families life it is "Change"
2010 is to me "The Year of Change". Both my husband and I will be looking for and hopefully finding new jobs. Both my children are changing schools in the fall. My son has moved from primary to the Young Men's program in church. Many of our friends in church have or are moving. My in laws are trying to sell their house and move.... I think that the list of change will get bigger before it gets smaller. In fact I'm not sure the change will ever end. But to me today, it seems a little too much. I'd like to go back to the beach and just sit there forever... or for at least what would seem like forever!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Wanted for questioning: Peter Rabbit!


Here he is "Peter Rabbit"! He has just finished eating one of my plants. I'm not at all happy about this. There is plenty of clover in my yard, so when he sneaks about eating my plants I get very angry. I'm not sure if the plant will make it or not.
I have two garden books that I have been reading. If you have a bug that is eating your plants you might try reading " The organic gardener's handbook of natural insect and disease control." Rodale Garden Books. It tells you plant by plant what diseases and insects could be destroying your garden. My big problem has been Japanese Beatles and the Flea beetle and the June/May beetle. They eat holes in the leaves of plants. I have had the good luck of being able to find them and get rid of them. bugs are easy to get rid of, but little bunnies are not. Bugs really only come out to eat in the evening. Bunnies come out at all different times.
My other book is "The curious gardener's Almanac centuries of practical garden wisdom." by Niall Edworthy. This books is full of little quotes about gardening. It has been fun to read. Here is a quote that I really liked:
" The more one gardens, the more one learns; and the more one learns; the more one realizes how little one knows. I suppose the whole of life is like that."
And isn't that just so. The more you live, the more you realize how little you know and how much more there is to do and learn.
One of my favorite songs about being in a garden is called: " I come to the garden alone" I love the rendition done by Brad Paisley. It is such a beautiful song. I often think about it as I'm quietly working in my garden early in the morning.
Well another week has gone so fast. My daughter has healed from swimmers ear and will be able to finish her swim lessons next week. We have gotten some of our different unemployment issues squared away. My husband has been looking for work and will continue next week. I have been contemplating what places I would like to apply to for work, and I've been finishing my last Vet. Assistant course. I would love to either work in a vet clinic as a receptionist, or at a books store as a book seller. Soon we will see what is available and who will hire me.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Nature photos from our morning walks



As a way to get my children out of the house and away from computers, Wii's and DS games I try to take them each morning for a walk at the park near our house. At first they sulk and protest. Once we are there though they enjoy themselves. We first stop behind the Ranger station to look at the fish and turtles. We bring bread to throw in. It is fun to see all the fish go after the bread. We have seen some very big snapping turtles and some very big fish. Most likely Carp. This is a photo of one of the big turtles that we saw.












One morning we saw two fawns. I took a bunch of photo's but only two came out nice. This is one of them.























Here is a photo of "SCAREDY" Squirrel. He is happy up in his tree eating a nut and looking at the view. There are a lot of squirrels at the park.




















This is some type of lily. I'll have to check my guide books and see if I can find the proper name. It is just beautiful with the yellow in the inside and deep red color.












Here is a little bird. It was feeding it's baby, but the baby flew away.
Again I need to check my guide book and find out what type of bird.



























Here is a Cardinal. I love these birds; they are so beautiful. This is a male, the female has a greener body. They are usually very close to each other.













One thing I have learned is to always take my camera with me. The one time I did not on our Vermont trip I missed a beautiful rainbow over my favorite spot near my parents house. So when ever we head out on a walk, I always take my camera.
























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Wild life photo's form our trip.



Here are some photo's I took on our 6 1/2 mile walk up the dead diamond river. There are two rivers that are in this part of New Hampshire/ Maine, the Diamond river and the Dead diamond river. The Dead diamond is named this because it is slower than the Diamond river. This is a photo of an Osprey ( Fish Hawk, Pandion haliaetus) and it's three chicks. What a big nest!







To get this photo, I had to chase this little butter fly around for awhile, but it finally settled down on a flower. This is a Greater Fritillarie butterfly. I love the orange and black coloring, and that it landed on an orange flower. We call the flower "Indian paint brushes" But in looking them up in my field guide I found that it is an Orange Mountain Dandelion. My mom says she will always call it an Indian paint brush. In one article they do say people call them Orange Paintbrushes.



















This is a photo of one of my favorite birds the Red-Winged Black Bird. We used to have one that lived near our house, but I have not seen it this year. I love the red feathers on its wings, and it has a beautiful song. When the kids were young I used to sit outside and listen to all the birds as they sang. I can tell pretty much what bird is singing without seeing it.

Unemployment: Well yesterday we got all our paper work in the mail. My paper work is pretty straight forward. I call in next week and begin receiving my benefits. I have a few papers to fill out and send in. My husband though has to wait until July 30th for a call in appointment. He also has to go to a reemployment course. He will get an advisor who will help him choose a training program so that he can get free training for a job. We are very excited about this. He can get 6 months of training and also be able to collect unemployment while getting the training. Then he can have his unemployment extended while he applies for jobs. I just hope we don't go to long with out his unemployment payments. We have some savings but could go through it very fast.

Cat Question: Do you have a cat? The question at our cat club meeting was "how often should you clean your cat's litter box?" One family said that the father in the house cleaned the litter box several times a day. They also said they had friends who never cleaned the litter box (How gross!) The people were trying to figure out how to teach their friends about cleaning the litter box without insulting them. I think that we will be having a Litter box poster at our 4-H booth this year. We clean ours out at least once a day. Of course our house is small and you can't leave anything like that or it would smell.

Garden note: I have one tomato almost read to pick. I can't wait.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Vacation Photo's



Our vacation was a lot of fun. The kids favorite part was floating down the river in these inner tubes. The first day was cool and I did not go in, and the plot was that they must convince mom to do this fun event. The water was extremely cold! By the last day they got so brave that they just floated with the current with their life vests on.





Here we all are getting ready to finish our hike up the mountain. We had already hiked about 3 miles, and then we had to do about a 1/2 mile up to the top. We saw moose tracks, deer tracks and bear scat. The whole hike was 6 1/2 miles. I'm hoping it can be counted for something for scouts for my son.







The two boys off to fish. My son caught a rainbow trout. I didn't get a photo of that. Too far away when it happened. That is the nice thing of having older children, when you are camping they can go off and do things without you and then come back and share the adventure. You get time to relax, and they feel like they have had this freedom from you.






Here is my daughter in front of her tent. I bought the tent at Wal-mart for my son to take on scout trips. It says you can fit two people in it. I'm not so sure about that. My daughter thought it was even too small for her to sleep in so she slept in the Pop-up camper with us. She kept her stuff in the tent and would have quiet time in it.





So we are entering our first whole week of being unemployed. My husband had some interviews today, unfortunately they did not go as well as I hoped. My husband is a "Master" Auto Mechanic. But for the last 14 years he has worked for a small business that imported and exported specialty metals. With the bad economy the business has been failing, and so as a result his boss can no longer pay him. The really unfortunate thing is that the computer side of the auto industry has changed, and so you can be an excellent mechanic, but if you don't have the computer skills you are at the bottom. My husband is at the bottom for the computer skills. One place said in a year they would have a position. Another place said they would call when they have their oil change center up and running. But to me the oil change thing is such an insult. My husband has been fixing cars these last 14 years. He is always helping fix peoples cars, and if he isn't fixing them he is at least giving advice about what is wrong and the best place to go to have the car fixed. We have never had our cars in a garage to be fixed. When we drive down a road he points out all the problems that cars have. To be told you are only good for oil changing had to have hurt. It hurts me just thinking about it. I have to remember that this is only day one. Something will come up.
Blessings... In my church we are taught to pay tithing. 10% of what you earn. There is a scripture that if you faithfully pay then the windows of heaven will be opened up unto you and God will pour you out a blessing that you will not have room to hold. I have in the last few weeks and months seen those blessings flowing into us. We needed a newer car. My husband likes old cars but his car was just eating gas. He talked to a friend who had a car that we liked, hoping to buy it from him. The friend gave it to us. The next day another friend gave us a second car for free. Now with free there are always little things that need fixing, but one of the cars is running and saving us on gas bills. We right now have 5 cars, with no car payments. We will hope to sell two of them soon. In fact on the free car thing, the car I have had for the last few years was also a free car. You just can't get better than free if you get 4 or 5 years out of them its a huge amount of money not spent. We have not had a car payment since being married.
Our next blessing, seems silly. I help with my daughters 4-H club, and often teach about cat issues. I kept saying that I would love to have a projector and a laptop computer to do power point presentations. I think they are just so cool. I was talking to a friend about this dream and they said " I have a project that I don't use, I'll give it to you. And then just yesterday we got two free used laptops. Are they top of the line? No. Do they have some issues? probably, but hey they work, and will be good enough for the simple things that I and my kids want to do.
I see the blessings all around me. One more, we lost our health insurance in November, my husbands boss wanted us to get a new policy and promised to pay 1/2 of the payments. I did not trust this and so I signed the kids up for the states children's health care program. Today I had to take my daughter to the doctors, we had health insurance for her, and her prescription was free. If I had not thought ahead we could have had big bills to pay for her appointment and prescription. These are all recent blessings. But as I think on my life I see so many blessings, that I know despite the the trial, despite the struggle we are in, we will be blessed. I work hard to keep faithful and diligent so that I can receive the blessings.



Saturday, July 10, 2010

How fast do Morning Glory vines grow?


Here is a photo of the top of my daughters Morning Glory plant. Her teacher gave her a pack of Morning Glory seeds. I told her I would not plant them in the garden, but we could plant them in a pot on the porch. As I've watched the plant grow I'm amazed at just how fast it climbs up the side of our porch. The tape is where I marked the plant the night before. The plants top was at the bottom of the tape, and the next morning it was two to three inches higher. This is just one vine of the plant. I am looking forward to seeing it take over. I do not like the plant in my garden for the exact same reason. It takes over very, very fast. Once it blooms I plan on taking some photo's and sending a card to my daughters teacher I think she will like to see it.
I finished my book "One Day At a Time" By Danielle Steele. It was a nice easy read. One interesting thing about the book was that the main character talks about feeling like she is Cinderella. After all the stories I read this year about Cinderella, I found it very fun to randomly pick a book and have the character feel like she was Cinderella. Cinderella is my favorite Fairy tale character! I also connected to the main character because she likes to live a very simple life. She is a dog walker, and lives in a cottage on the beach. While her family members are all high achievers. I'm very much into living a simple life. In fact I'm so glad to have a small house, and look forward to finding a fun job soon. I'm not the type of person who wants to be the leader, I'd much rather be a supporter, helper, assistant. Although I do like to do things on my own, and I have to have organization, and I don't like to not have a schedule. I could definitely see myself and my husband some day moving to a small little house near the ocean. We all have to have dreams right!
I started a new book " I Remember You." By Harriet Evans. I've never read any books by this author so I'm excited to read this book. I think I choose it because it is about two people who grew up together, then parted when they went to college and then meet again... I'm thinking they fall in love ... I guess the whole reunion coming up is making me nostalgic.... Although I have to say none of the boys I dated could ever come close to being as good a person or friend as my husband is. I realize now how superficial my teen life was, and how little I really got to know the boys I had dated. I hope I can teach my children to be wiser.
I do hope that my husband and I can go to my reunion though. Some of the people I grew up with will be there and it will be fun to see them and find out what their lives have turned out to be like. I have to say that I don't remember much of my young years, my husband has all these memories and everything is very foggy for me. I remember big things, but day to day things are just lost. Well it has been twenty years maybe that's normal.

Friday, July 9, 2010

2 hours of peace.

This morning I got up at 6:00am and spent two hours working in my gardens. I watered, weeded, fertilized and planted some baby plants. It felt like I had been out only a short while so I was amazed to find out that I was actually out for two hours. It was so peaceful. Here is a photo of my pepper plant. I'm so happy that I have some peppers growing. This is the first year that I have tried to grow peppers. My daughter bought them for me as a mothers day gift. My front porch is covered with potted plants. I have cat nip, peppers, cat grass, strawberries,morning glories, and tomato plants.






Here is a photo of my favorite garden shoes. They are called "Sloggers" I bought them at Target two years ago and they are the best garden shoes I've had. My feet never get wet, and they never feel hot and sticky!
Here is another photo of the shoes.
So we are on Day 3 of two people being unemployed in our house. Last night I filed for unemployment. I can't say I'll be getting much money, but anything is better than nothing. I filed online, and then my husband went to file and couldn't because we share an e-mail address. I don't understand why the world thinks every person should have their own e-mail address. I have nothing to hide from my husband, so why should we have separate e-mails.
Anyway today my husband went to unemployment service to apply, and guess what there is a problem. They have no record of him working for the last year. So, thankfully, being afraid of "identity Theft" I have kept all the pay stubs in my attic. I've been going up and sorting through to find all the stubs he needs to prove he did work for the last year. Ugh. I just hope everything works out before the end of the month! We will be OK for awhile, but not if everything doesn't kick in by the next month.
On a good note, my husband does have an interview with a shop on Monday at 9:00am. We will keep our fingers crossed. As I have studied the ways of interviewing, he has a good time at least. As you don't want an afternoon interview or so all the job hunting advice people say. I'm now getting ready to make dinner and relax. I truly believe a blessing will come at the end of this whole mess. I have faith that we will make it through this.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Flowers for the the hot weather!

Because I live in New Jersey, and because most of my gardens are next to my house near the concrete foundation, one thing that I look for when choosing plants are ones that can withstand heat. The perfect flower for hot weather is the Blanket flower. One thing I have found out is that there are two types of blanket flowers. The one in this photo is the "Flare" Blanket flower. I've added a link to this, the person who does the link has some great photo's and gives details about the plant which are really cool.
I love the color of this plant, yellow's and reds make me think of the sun. I also love the fact that this plant blooms all summer. Once a flower is dead you clip it off the plant and more buds appear. In the link you will see all the stages of this spectacular plant. Tomorrow the kids and I head to the library, and I'm getting some gardening books. I've really found a passion for my garden and flowers this year. I hope to share more photo's soon. I have to also say I'm thankful for my two neighbors who diligently watered them while I was away! I only lost a few baby plants and you can't get angry when the garden still looks good.


I love taking photo's with the bee's collecting pollen. I wonder if pollen has some drug affect on the bee's. Sometimes they seem to sit on a plant and act almost dead, then you touch them and they fly away.








Yesterday I also wrote about an article I read on Aol.find a Job. Slow Love: Can You Lose Your Job and Find Happiness?
My husband is the first phase listed in the story. The shock phase of losing your job. I find I'm out of that phase, even though my job ended only a few weeks ago I had months to come to terms with the loss. It is noted in this article and I quote " Psychologists have said that losing a job is the third most stressful event an individual can experience in their life (the first and second being death of a loved one and divorce.) And just like death or divorce, job loss may require a period of mourning. I think this is what my husband is going through. Even though we have known it was coming and thought for at least three years that he would either leave his job or lose it, the fact that it happened is a little shocking. I think mostly because the end just dragged on forever.
I'm at the phase of rediscovering my passions in this article, I love photography, gardening, using computers, reading, and learning. Now I need to think about what I can do that will lead me to a new job. I still hope for a job at a book store where I can work with people to help them find the books they need to help them grow, learn, or find some other world to dive into for awhile. I also need to sit down and write the children's books that are floating around in my head. My problem, I'm just not sure I'm the greatest writer... But I have a good and now unemployed editor right in the house. On day two of two unemployed people I think we are doing OK. I'm trying real hard not to nag, or bug my husband. Maybe going out in my garden often is a good thing. I'm also doing a total house clean out. Unfortunately I'm still stuck in the kitchen. But I still have weeks to go!!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

One day at a time.




We just got back from our annual 4th of July camping trip. In years past we went to Ricker Pond in the Vermont Groton State Forest, but this year we went to Aziscohos Maine. On our first day as we took a walk, we saw Moose tracks, talked to people who had just seen a Moose, and then heard the Moose in the woods grunting at us. I would have liked to have seen the Moose, but didn't want to press our luck and have a mad charging Moose.

We took a 6 1/2 mile hike by the dead diamond river. We did a lot of tubing. The kids did a lot of biking. It was a wonderful trip. We had a great time and I got lots of great photo's. I'll have to put more on as the days go by. I've printed out a few of the wild life photo's to make into thank you cards. I have some beautiful pink pond Lillie photo's, and some great photo's of butterflies. The butterflies were everywhere. One got onto my inner tube and rode on it from where we get out of the water all the way to where we were camping. That was a cool experience.
Now that I am home it is time to apply for unemployment, get my resume finished, and figure out what my future job hope is. Well I beat my husband on our race to be unemployed, but not by much. He called his boss today, and was told that he no longer has a job. So we will be filing for unemployment quite close to each other. I will keep you posted on the whole how unemployment works.
A book that I picked up and have been reading is "One Day At a Time" By Danielle Steel. I have always liked her books, my mom is also a big fan. I think I picked it up due to the title though. It so goes with my life. I'm taking it one day at a time. Wasn't there a TV show called that too? The book is very much a "Romance" type novel. I have quite a few books lined up to read. I'll put more in about them later.
Today on Aol find a job I saw a great article called : "Slow Love: Can You Lose Your Job and Find Happiness? It is actually an article that is written about a book by Dominique Browning. The article talks about the steps you might take once losing your job. I think my husband and I will both be reading this one. The book by Dominique Browning is titled " Slow Love: How I lost My Job, put on my Pajamas and found Happiness." It reminds me of what one of the teachers said after they lost their job this year .." my commute next year will be from my bedroom to my kitchen." It was a great article with some good points. One is to just take some time to yourself before you start your job search. So you get a break and really have time to think about what you want to do. I guess that is where my husband and I are. We are at the break, and isn't it nice that it's summer. I just now have to remember to focus just on the day.