Now THIS I can handle

After reading the article about the church that kicked off the "Complain free for 21 days" program, I got to thinking. Could I do this? And then I really got to thinking. Do I complain a lot? Just how much DO I complain? Now I'm beginning to realize how complaining could very well be a habit shared by more people than any other known habit.

I woke up this morning, and the very first thought that came to mind, was a complaint. "Arrrggghhh, stupid alarm! I don't want to get up, I'm stiiiillll tired!" Then I walk downstairs, check on Ashley, and on a typical day, another complaint rolls through my mind, "Why can't she close her door when she gets ready! She's going to wake Alex up!" Hmmm, instead I suppose I should replace that thought with, "She's such a good girl, she's already up and dressed without me having to say a word." Goodness, the first two thoughts of my day are negative, I NEVER stopped and thought about it. I'm going to adopt this program for our family. I NEED to adopt this program for our family. (Mark, I know you're smiling right now, just imagining the road trip this weekend) Maybe this could stem off in to an ongoing program with sticker charts and rewards.

Today I will document my complaints. Just as an informative sort of here's what not to do journal. As I sit here thinking about how easy this will be, I begin to wonder if I just don't realize how much I complain. Here we go!

Barrel o' water

Well, we finally did it! This weekend Mark installed our first Rain Barrel! I have been researching this project for over a year now, so to finally have it complete is just so exciting for us. I could not have done this without my sweet husband. And the icing on the cake was watching the enjoyment he got out of building it. He had so much fun, and THAT, made it even more rewarding than ever.
After all the scattered information I found on the internet, I decided that I would document the process in hopes that someone else might try to create their own water storage system. If just one person read this and created their own and then passed on their knowledge to the next and so on, just imagine all the water we could save together. And imagine how happy our plants and our water bills will be! Pass it on!

The first thing you need to do is find a barrel. Now, there are several options for a collection container. They're all over the internet, and if you have the right connections, you might even be able to bum one off a manufacturing facility of some sort for free. If you want one with a spigot already installed your price will definitely go up, but if you're like me, and just don't want to deal with it, you'll spend the extra $25-$30 for the pre-made barrel. I did some reasearch and found some onCraigslist and Ebay. I chose to buy mine from Ecowise. I appreciate that their barrels are rescued from their journey to the dump and recycled, instead of being manufactured for the sole purpose of profit. Their price was one of the cheapest I found too. About $55.00. If you live in Austin (or even some MUD's) you can get a discounted Rainbarrel, or a partial refund. For more info. see the City of Austin website.

So now that you have your rain barrel, you need to find a location that will work for you. For me, I needed to a spot that somewhat inconspicuous since we do have a neighborhood association, and as silly as it seems, I would probably get a complaint for my "unsightly" barrel. We found the perfect spot right next to the down spout for the rain gutters that's hidden from the street by a red tip bush. This also happens to be a high spot on our lot, which will help gravity do it's thing.

Next, Mark leveled out the ground for a good sturdy foundation. He used rocks and square pavers to do this. He decided to have a slight slope to further aid in the draining of the barrel.

After he had the perfect spot created, Mark got to work building the stand. The higher you go, the better flow you'll get. I'm not even going to attempt dimensions right now, but I think each project will be different depending on the size of the barrel and the space you have to work with. If you want specific dimensions, feel free to email me and I'll get the measuring tape out there. Our barrel is 55 gallons, so we needed to create a structure that could hold up to 500 pounds. You will need to make sure your structure is sturdy enough for YOUR barrel. A gallon of water weighs approximately 8.34 pounds. Oh and FYI before your shopping trip, Mark ended up using about a pound of screws.



After the stand is complete, you can start working on the diverter. There are a few pre-fab diverters that I've seen online, like this one at composters.com
Or, you can go to a home improvement store and create your own, as Mark did.




















The top of the rain barrel is solid, so you'll need to measure and cut a hole for your tubing. Another important step you can't forget is to install either a screen or a trap that keeps debris from getting in to your barrel. HD sells a trap that fits in to the tubing perfectly, or you can install a screen before the entrance to the barrel.





This project took about 4 hours to complete, but a majority of that time was spent just figuring it all out with trial and error. If he had to do it over again, he could probably do it in half the time with the above information.

Now how crazy is this, within an hour or so of completion we got our first down pour. And 24 hours later, our barrel was FULL. Someday, I'd like to have the ability to store 500+ gallons of water. :)

Here are some more resources for Rainwater Harvesting:

Rain Barrel Suppliers

Garden Water Saver

Eagle Peak Containers

Global Issues

Texas Rain Water Harvesting Manual

Our next project is a compost barrel! Fun, fun!

Pass the Torch Tuesday

Busy, busy...I'm taking this one from the other day. See the next post below, titled "Grades".

Grades

Ash brought home her report card today. Once again straight A's!! And she even got a 100 in Language Arts. This girl is just something else, she's in all GT classes and still, she keeps those grades up. I am just so proud of her!

It looks like she's decided on which classes to take in Middle School next year. She won't commit just yet though, she's planning on turning in her schedule request on the due date to allow herself time to change her mind. Smart thinkin! So far she's pretty stuck on taking an extra semester of PE and one semester of Languages. She really did want to do either Band or orchestra, but was to afraid to commit to the full year, which is required. I think her choices are great and I just know whatever she chooses she will do well.

Pass The Torch Tuesday - Chores

I'm proud of both Ashley and Alex for being such big helpers around the house. They have their weekly and daily chores and most of the time they do them without much fuss. This weekend we were out of town, so chore time was crammed in to Sunday afternoon when they would have much rather been playing outside, especially after the long drive home. I told them if they got their chores done quickly they could play outside the rest of the evening. In order to accomplish this quicker, Ashley come up with the idea that they could help each other and get done faster. They spent the afternoon working together without fighting, and ended up accomplishing their goal without me having to nag.

What a weekend!

We made our first trip out to dads in months this weekend, a trip was way overdue! With basketball and baseball, we've been busy every weekend and just haven't found the time to make the trip. They've already begun construction on Ruthie's new bathroom and bunkhouse!! (I suppose that's what we'll call it) So exciting! They've poured the foundation and framed most of it, but with all the rain last week they're a tad behind schedule.
It was a nice trip and Ruthie force fed us entirely too much food. I say "force" in hope that I can admonish some of my guilt for consuming mass quantities this weekend. How can ANYONE pass up ribs and cracker crumb fried shrimp? It's just not American to use portion control when presented with such tasty homecooked meals.

Saturday morning Ruthie and I made the trek back to Austin for Barb's memorial service. It was a beautiful service and I'm so glad that I was able to sit next to Ruthie and take in all of the beautiful stories that were said about Barb. It was so touching to see friend after friend go up and tell about how their lives were impacted by something Barb did or said. It was truly eye opening for me to see how something as simple as listening can change someones life and touch them in ways that we will never really know. A lot of people talked about her energy, since Barbara was in to Reiki, and I really do think I'm understanding more and more about this "energy". I realized how that energy that we create just keeps moving on and on, whether we're in our bodies or not. Her energy passed not only to those that she touched, but even to those just listening to their stories. We are all continuously learning and growing and on Saturday Barb was a big part of that growth for so many of us.

After the memorial Rutie's "girls" and I went to lunch at Brick Oven, where I learned even MORE from these ladies. It's just so beautiful to me that they have continued to have a friendship after all these years. It's neat to hear how similar their relationships are to mine and my friends. There really isn't much difference, the topics change over the years, and they have grown much wiser together, but the friendships really are the same. Age has no impact on what a friend means, although I do think we become more and more accepting and forgiving as we age together. It was nice to see what a difference their little circle of friends has made in their lives.

Ironically enough, after lunch we went to Seton Northwest to visit a new Grandbaby of one of the "girls". Talk about coming full circle! Renae had a precious baby girl, named Emily just after 1am on that same day. She is just beautiful, and Carol was just as proud as she could be and Renae just glowed!




















We came home Sunday afternoon to find our yard and driveway buried in oak leaves. This is our first year with trees that actually produce enough shade to be called "shade trees". We love them, but are now learning what it's like to deal with their foliage. We got to work right away raking and blowing and sucking up leaves...and three-ish hours later, here's what we have (my sweetied worked his bum off and did most of the work):

Photo Hunt #9 "Drink"

Wordless Wednesday

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Pass The Torch Tuesday

Ashley has always been the most patient big sister with Alex. At times, I wonder if it's more than he deserves (the little toot!). They slept together just about every night, up until just recently, and still do at times, they still bathe together at times, and she's even allowed him to spend the night with her at a friends house on more than one occassion. She has been and still is, to me, a perfect example of what a big sister should be. Lately though, Ashley has been going through what we knew someday she would. Adolescence. Now, so far this has been nothing but a positive experience for all of us, different, but positive. She has done an amazing job of communicating her needs, which is essential in getting through this time. She's becoming less and less dependant upon me, and more and more she's becoming her own person. This is good. This brings me to my proud moment. My son. He can be a major high maintainence pain in the patootie at times, ESPECIALLY to his ever so patient big sister. Lastnight, Ashley communicated to us that she needs some privacy from him. We sat down and had a talk, Ashley, Alex and I (and daddy listening in from the kitchen). Ashley established her needs and we set some new ground rules for Alex, which are ultimately just common courtesies that Alex has somehow managed to dodge with miss patience. I was so proud of her for expressing her needs in a way that Alex could understand, although in the back of my mind I was seriously doubting that he would follow through any time in the near future. He proved me wrong. Shortly after our conversation I hear little Alex knocking on Sissy's door and ASKING to come in. Write it down, mark the calendar, this has never, ever happened. Yay Alex.

Today we had another bit of an awakening when Ash and Alex were both invited to spend the night with Kel. Alex loves to spend the night at Brian and Paula's, they adore him almost as much as we do and he is fully aware of that fact. Ashley expressed her need to have some "girl" time without Alex, and without missing a beat, he says "I really want to go Sissy, but if you want me to stay home, I don't mind."
It is now several hours later and he has yet to retract that statement. Looks like we have more than just one kiddo growing up on us. Could our kids be any more amazing?

Wittle bittle Keller trip

Nana and the kids and I drove to Plano this weekend to visit the Rogers. We left our house by about 4:00 and finally arrived in Plano just before midnight. It was a V-E-R-Y long trip. Apparently, every college student between Dallas and South Texas was out for spring break and decided to hop on I-35 and head North for home (?and not the beach?) at approximately the same time as us. Most of our drive was stop and go, bumper to bumber foot cramping traffic. Thankfully, the kiddos are old enough to succumb to bribery and did fairly well in the backseat. I think next time we take a trip the kids will be praying for traffic jams after the loot they scored in Waco when we decided to "stretch our legs" at Wal-Mart. (Thanks to Nana)

We had a wonderful visit and enjoyed hanging out with Mr. Keller Beller. He is just the sweetest most precious little guy and really couldn't be any more easy going. David and Cara were at a wedding most of the day on Saturday, so we got to babysit. We spent the day at the park playing with the kiddos and enjoying our time with Keller. It was a gorgeous spring day and perfect for being at the park and taking a bazillion or so pictures. I really need to make an album on picassa since there are soooo many pictures to share, but for now, I have to post at least a few.

We also got to see David's office. He started his own business, and has the copy machine loan to prove it. Ha! He told us that he has 3 bills...the mortgage, the car, and the copy machine. That thing is huge though, no telling what it can do. I fully expect it to spontaneously roll to your desk and ask what it can do for you.
But really, I was just so impressed and happy for him. He really has turned out to be such a go getter. It's just amazing to see how much he's grown and changed in the past few years.

Ok, now on to the pictures.

Saturday Photo Hunt #8 "Architecture"

I spied this while driving down the road, I just fell in love with the design...and this isn't even the best angle, but it's the best I could do driving 40 mph down a busy Dallas Street. In the second picture, there's a huge opening, it goes all the way through, the building is completely open right there, it's amazing and I sooo wish I could have got a picture of it.

TAKS Test

What's that you say? These are the results from the state mandated TAKS test that all fifth graders are required to pass in order to be promoted to the sixth grade. As much as I despise this type of testing, and the effect it has on teaching, we are so proud of miss Ash!

Along with this information we also received notice of a middle school parent meeting that's coming up on the 20th. After reading the "Middle School Parent Meeting" headline, I set the paper in the trash stack and moved on to the next flyer in her Monday folder, when suddenly it occurred to me that this note WAS actually for ME to read. After the screaming alarm in my head stopped, I calmly accepted that YES, I will in fact be a middle school parent in approximately 5 months time. How did happen so fast and where is my little girl???

Wordless Wednesday # 7

Pass The Torch Tuesday

I'm a little late today, I got a little carried away with designing my new banner and just realized it's TUESDAY! Soooo, I could either take the time to write about one of the many incredible moments my children have shared with me recently, or I can copy something from the past and get busy cleaning this house.

Alright, I'm pulling this one from January 5th, 2004.

Sweetest Words
January 5th, 2004

Mark and I tell our children many times a day how much we love them, with only one intention, letting them know that they are loved. Up until recently, those words have never been uttered back to us by our wild and crazy toddler. I'm not sure what took so long, maybe it was because this was the one phrase in which he continuously heard, that he was never propted to echo back to us. Or maybe the time just wasn't right. Well, Friday night those three words made their debut out of his sweet little mouth, unprompted and unexpectedly.

I woke up that morning with a fever and an upset stomach and spent all day in bed away from my babies. By Friday evening, I had had just about enough of staring at the accumulation of dust on my ceiling fan blades, and trying to decipher the echo of little voices outside my door, so I made my way to the living room couch. I must have been laying there for all of 30 seconds before I was turned in to a human jungle gym. Although this may not sound pleasant, believe it or not, I was feeling slightly more human than I had all day. I was being distracted and no longer wallowing in the aches and pains that a fever can cause. So, in the middle of Alex's mommy-acrobatics he paused, looked me in the eye with his devilish grin and said slowly and precisely, "I-love-you." As I took down my toddler defense shields (the palms of my hands) my little human numchuck followed through with the BIGGEST toddler hug imaginable. He didn't get me over my bug by doing so, but he sure did help get me through it.

Mom and Dad's Sports induced coma

I guess with the kids getting older we need to get use to weekends like the one we just had. I, for one, could definitely get use to it. Mark, on the other hand may end up divorcing us all. It started early Saturday morning with Alex's first T-Ball game. 8:30 AM Sweet Mark volunteered to take the boy, while the girl and I slept in a bit. Ironically enough, that happened to be the coldest and windiest morning we've had in a very long time and daddy has the chapped face to prove it. Dedicated daddy battle wounds we'll call them. Fortunately, some very thoughtful mommies brought blankets for the boys to cuddle up under while they sat in the dugout waiting for their time at bat. Too bad I wasn't there to snap some pictures, I can only imagine how adorable that must have been.

Immediately after Alex's game, we packed up some snacks and toys for the boy and headed out to Ashley's basketball tournament. Grams and Pops came and watched every game of the tournament, including the one on Thursday night, and Jason even came to watch one too. Ash's team ended up playing 4 games, and made it to the championship game, where they lost in overtime by 1 measley point. I have to say, if you're going to loose a championship game, that was the way to do it. I think I pumped out more adrenaline on Saturday than I have in years. Now that the season is over, I'm a little bummed. I really looked forward to those Saturday morning games. Fortunately though, Ashley is hooked. This was her first season to play, and the experience could not have been any better. She went from not knowing how the game was even played, to scoring 8 points throughout the season. She didn't even know what a layup was 2 months ago, and now she has it down to a science.

So, we ended up getting out of there at about 7:00 Saturday night, which meant Ashley was 2 hours late to a birthday party, and they were all waiting for her so they could head over to Dave and Busters. Wonderful. While we were ready to just throw in the towel, we still had this one last sprint before our day could officially end. We raced home, Ash packed her bag, I wrapped the present, and Daddy made her a sandwich. Teamwork baby! In 5-ish minutes we were all back in the truck high tailing it over to the party. We dropped her and the 50 pounds of luggage that came with her off and headed home. We crossed the threshold of H.S.H. (home sweet home) just before 8:00, where our adrenaline deprived, flat tookuses immediately turned to lumps of lifeless flesh. A few cereal bowls later, we had dinner on the table, and shortly thereafter our flesh then became one with the leather recliners. Mission accomplished.

*A few pics. to follow soon*

Photo Hunters #7 "Salty"

These were taken 1 year ago this month at Sandfest in Port A. Only 27 more days and it's Sandfest or bust!

Pass the Torch Tuesday

For this weeks PTTT, I'm taking an entry from November 9, 2005:

Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Our little Free Thinker

I will never forget the words of Ramona Cain...the wife of the Preacher that married Mark and I, and one of the most selfless women I've ever met..."Ashley is an old soul." At the time, I was only 21 years old and only had half a clue what she was talking about, and quite honestly I thought she was a bit KooKoo for saying that, but over the years that label has come to mind quite often, and I now see so much of the "old soul" within her. I don't know what I believe when it comes to statements like that, and I'm quite comfortable with not knowing what's real and what's not, it's an ok place to be actually, but when I see some of the things Ashley says and does, I wonder how on earth she could possibly have learned to be so empathetic and so in tune with human kindness in the short 9 years that she's been alive. Whatever it is, I sooo hope that she keeps it for life, and that she is able to share her "old soul" with people who can appreciate it as much as her mom and dad do.
Ok, so I'm rambling....the whole point of this entry to was to document another one of those genuinely sweet moments where Ashley made my heart pitter patter.
Yesterday, Mark and I went to vote and when we returned Ashley was curious about what we were voting for. I told her that most of it was boring stuff, but that the big issue on the ballot was Proposition 2. For the first time in our household I explained to her what the Proposition was, and I kept a 100% neutral explanation. After my explanation I sat there for a minute continuing what I was doing, waiting for her to respond, but acting as if the conversation was over... I was curious to hear how an unbiased 9 year old would respond. Slowly, her forehead wrinkled, her head cocked to the side and she said something that I will never forget, "But Momma, aren't gay people humans too?"

Photo Hunters #6 "Soft"

This one was taken in the whirlpool tub on our trip to Devils Den this summer. Alex is buried in there somewhere.

Poor Dud. The little people just don't seem to go away, do they.

It's hard to tell, but he's completely covered in down fluff.

Shine on Sunshine

It was just absolutely gorgeous today! I couldn't help myself, I had to play while Alex napped. Here are a couple of pictures of the roses Mark gave me for Valentines Day. And then a few of my hammock view. Just IMAGINE what these would look like if I had my Cannon Rebel. I NEED A NEW CAMERA!!!!