Struggling With Multi-Tasking!

I've been just swamped with life lately.  I've been finding it very difficult to get everything done that needs doing!  

Update on my knee surgery - it went well, all the hardware and metal has been removed and I'm on the road to recovery again.  The good part is that this surgery happened in the winter, so I'm not missing out on any nice weather!

Why does it seem like everyone has down time except me?!  I'm not even sure these are my kids, since the internet wasn't even down when I took this photo...

My schedule has been a constant stream of doctor appointments, physical therapy appointments, trying to get taxes done, kids' birthdays, hubby's crazy work schedule and a nonstop stream of kids' activities.  L is on the robotics team again this year, so they have had regional championships, then he made it to state championships last weekend.  I think that is as far as his team will go this year.  (Last year Loch's team, with hubby as coach, made it to the World Robotics Championship in KY!)  

L with his team's robotics design

F was selected to attend a Percussion "Master Class" for middle and high school percussionists, so that ate up 2 Saturdays, and now he has been selected for Honors/Festival Band, which entails frequent after school practices and a few competitions with other schools.  

Don't get me wrong, I'm super proud of them both but - yikes, sailing practice hasn't even started yet for spring!  I'm just exhausted to be honest.

I have medical appointments that require driving in DC traffic, yuk!

And... amidst all the chaos, it's already time for the military to tell us where to move next!  

Thanks for hanging in there with me, I have a lot of kinks to work out so apologies for being so sporadic with my posting!  I will leave you with this photo taken during the unseasonably warm weather we have been having... back to snow showers tomorrow!

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Odds and Ends

This week has had me busy doing all kinds of last minute chores and preparations around the house before I go in for surgery.  Yes, surgery!  By the time some of you read this, I will be under the knife getting a whole bunch of metal pins, wires and screws out of my knee.  This is the second part of a long process I have been dealing with since last summer.  Needless to say, I am actually looking forward to this surgery and being able to eventually (hopefully) get some type of normal back.  After my first surgery I was actually in an immobilizer for 2 MONTHS, and couldn't drive for 4 months.  It was awful, and very isolating.  After many months of physical therapy I was doing pretty well when my hardware started working its way out and became obvious that it needed to be removed in order for me to progress.  The shrapnel in there was never designed to be permanent, so I knew this was coming.  Just hoping that recovery isn't as long this time since it should mainly involve muscle and tissue healing and not bone.  In short, the past year has been.... challenging.  Also the reason why my garden didn't really happen for me last summer!

Anyway... in prepping for my surgery I've spent most of the week doing things that are going to get very neglected in the coming weeks - cleaning the house, cleaning aquariums, laundry, prepping freezer meals, grocery shopping, etc.  I won't be able to go upstairs after surgery, so I had to make sure the kids cleaned their room, bathrooms, etc. I shudder to think what it will look like up there next time I am able to climb stairs!  As for grocery shopping, hubby is perfectly capable and willing to do it, but I am such a bargain and sale/coupon shopper that I know he would spend more than I would so it's easier for me to just do it.

I have been working on refreshing my sourdough starter over the past month.  I was having some issues with the dough rising for a couple of weeks but I think I just needed to be patient while it revived, because last night, this happened!  Finally!

Crummy cold and rainy weather has had me doing lots of "one-dish comfort meals".  I'm hoping the boys paid attention so they can assume some of the cooking while I am down and out!

I will try and check in as soon as my painkillers wear off... I definitely don't want to blog while medicated, who knows what I might write?!

2-4-6-8...What can I depreciate?

This week is filled with things that are completely uninteresting to blog about!

Rental properties, a home daycare business, military stuff, 3 different states to file in plus Federal means I am a busy girl right now!

Of course before any of that can happen, I have to organize my files, shred old stuff, clean my desk... which morphs into cleaning the kitchen, bathrooms, etc.  Anyone else find themselves in "Preparation Mode" before tackling a large project, then feeling like all kinds of other unrelated stuff needs to happen too?  

Oh yeah... I believe it's called PROCRASTINATION!

I aim to please!

Thing 1 walks in from school and says "it smells great, mom" and proceeds to peek into the crock pot...

"too much celery"

Thing 2 takes a look and says...

"yuck, too many beans"

Glad everyone is happy, then.  

I've never frozen my bean & ham soup before but I'm going to try it.  Anyone know if freezing will ruin the texture of the beans?  Besides chili, what are your favorite soups to make big batches of and freeze?

I'm ready to get my feet wet again...

There is no graceful way to make a comeback, is there?

Somehow, I lost my muse.  One week turned into a month, which turned into many more.   To be honest, since the Big Military Move I felt lost about subject matter.  I had gotten way too comfortable living multiple military tours in the same home in Virginia, other than the deployments it didn't even feel like a military life because we had roots planted for so many years.

Proof of Life!

In retrospect, I think I boxed myself in by focusing too much on blogging mainly about gardening.  So much so, that when we moved and I found myself in government quarters living on base with a concrete pad for a backyard - I thought that anyone who was following me would no longer have any interest in what little ol' me was up to.

Yes, I was able to score a community garden plot on base, but that came with a host of issues that I touched on a bit in some previous posts.  The bottom line, though, is that my life completely changed. like the rug was pulled right out from under me!

New schools to deal with, little kids quickly became teenagers, new sports to travel to, higher cost of living to adjust to, and not the least of my wrenches thrown in was deciding that, after 12 years of being a stay at home mom, I would return to work.  After a few weeks of the initial shock of 50+ hour workweeks as a Navy certified childcare provider, the blog was a luxury item at the very end of a long list of "must do's".

Many things have happened, some very stressful,  some exciting.  Don't worry, I'm okay, the man is ok and the kids are great - but we are in for an eventful 2017 as well.  I will recap some of these events in future posts, but gardening in anything other than my wee raised bed in my tiny yard is a pipe dream for this year, anyway.

I still get dirty, just not as often as I'd like!

I have been wanting to post for about 2 weeks now, and really thinking about how much I miss blogging and how fulfilling it is to be able to write and connect with others in this way.  Facebook is no substitute for real journaling of what goes on in my life.  My focus will change somewhat, I expect that I will write about everything from kids to military life, paying down debt to cooking, gardening, sewing and the other things that I love to do.  Lots of photos and posts about what has transpired during my absence so these experiences can be looked back upon by my family.  I would love to document the process we go through as we deal with looming military retirement and that transition from military life to civilian life in hopes of connecting with others that may be in the same situation.  Life in general, really.  I even debated on changing the name of the blog, except that it's a nightmare to do that, and I have every intention of having my dream garden again, sooner rather than later.  We are getting very close to military retirement, which means... a "Forever Home" and all the things that come with actually being able to CHOOSE our home for once!

So, the name stays.  I hope you do, too - if any of my friends are still out there!  Even if it's just my mom reading though, I am back on the wagon!

A parting shot.... it's COLD here, 2º last night!

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