keljonma's Front Porch - Settling in and adjusting

[BeccaOH]

Kel, I took the morning off from the conference, and I'm easing into my day with a cup of coffee. I'll go to dinner and evening session. The gal teaching last night was Miss MI 2002. She used her Miss America competition experience to talk about how we are uniquely designed by God. It was good.

Now to decide what to do first. Grass really needs mowed. Will the rain hold off?

I did start some cards of things to do. I have cards titled poultry, lawn and garage, house, and garden. Feels rather cluttered to have mulitple lists going. Maybe I still don't understand your card box method. :/

We still welcome you guys down here. Mom will have a place for rent in a month or so. Got to get this guy out and the place cleaned up. Rent negotiable for a friend. Really, any rent will be better than no rent. :/

Can you move your church down here too? Those classes sound great. I'm not sure I know of any church with those kinds of resources close to us.

 

[keljonma]

Can you move your church down here too? Those classes sound great. I'm not sure I know of any church with those kinds of resources close to us.

Becca, I think we get most of our resources from the Ohio United Methodist Eastern Conference office in Lakewood.

 

[keljonma]

We had a great time on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Rail Road today. So even though we got hit hard by rain, we didn't care!

In Peninsula, there is a great used book shop and I found a neat little book for dh called That Quail, Robert. It is about a couple who found a quail egg and it hatched. DH just started reading it on the way home. The couple made a nest for the chick and used a feather duster as substitute mama. They named the chick Robert. Definitely our kind of book!

 

[keljonma]

I did start some cards of things to do. I have cards titled poultry, lawn and garage, house, and garden. Feels rather cluttered to have mulitple lists going. Maybe I still don't understand your card box method.

I'm sorry I did such a lousy job of explaining the card system. It is a rotational tickler file using 3x5 cards. I have been using this system since it started in the late 70's. It was developed by two sisters, Pam Young and Peggy Jones. They called themselves the slob sisters and their first book was called Sidetracked Home Executives: From Pigpen to Paradise. I think this book is a very funny read. They decided to use 3 x 5 cards for every thing they wanted done around the place. Then they decided if it would be done daily, every-other-day, weekly, every-other-week, monthly, (you get the picture). They put together a box of cards and moved the cards around to show up per how often they wanted them done. Each job is color coded... When I started using this system, I used white 3x5 cards and used crayons to mark the top edge with color.

About.com tells about Pam and Peggy
http://housekeeping.about.com/od/popularorganizingmethods/p/she.htm

Pam and Peggy's website
http://www.shesintouch.com/

Flylady - one of their students that has kind of taken over the program
http://www.flylady.net/pages/About_PamPeggy.asp

This woman uses the system, but uses the internet to sell you the stuff to set up the program...totally unnecessary, imo.
http://shesorganized.organizedhome.com/

 

[delia_peterson]

I have made up my own cards after looking at these sites...and they really have helped...If I did not have them I would still be slacking in chores. I have bright green,yellow and pink index cards--you cant ignore them when they are on your table! Thank you for sharing these sites!

 

[keljonma]

Thanks, delia! You are welcome for the links.

I agree - it is hard to ignore a bright yellow or orange card sitting on the table waiting to be put back in it's place in the box!

I love the jobs that can be done in 15 minutes or less (although Pam and Peggy favored the 5 minutes or less jobs). And when dd and ds were at home, it was easy to delegate cards so they learned the value of helping out. I used the "I have these 5 cards to do and then we can" (go to the zoo, go to the library, have a picnic, etc) statements all the time! Many hands make light work, especially if all the hands know what needs done.

 

[keljonma]

9/28/09 - Monday

Rainy and chilly yesterday, we never got above 55. Although the rain finally stopped and the sun appeared around 3 pm.

DH and I went to 8:30 service at church and then stayed for Sunday class before heading home. During the service, Mary and Jack did a little skit about ServeFest which was quite funny.

DH has signed up to be part of Jacks ramp building team. Jack and dh (and who ever else signs up) will be building ramp sections. This is something they do frequently. They build small sections, store them, and then when a ramp is needed, they pick the appropriate sections for that particular ramp.

I signed up to get a free oil change in the Saturn during ServeFest. And I heard that the painting team has already been contacted by some people to have some inside painting done.

So far, no one has signed up to be on my team to make applesauce and jam. I have a couple places to call today to see if they have some free or inexpensive fruit we can get for the canning project. I am also going to call the local food pantry to find out if the canned goods from the licensed church kitchen are acceptable. If they arent we will put the applesauce and jam in the pantry for Christian Caf. I was also thinking of canning and freezing some fruit (blueberries, peaches in light syrup, mixed fruit in light syrup). Along with the applesauce and jam, these are all items that are used to feed the community at Christian Caf.

There is a ServeFest team meeting at 7:30 tonight, so Id like to be able to have this information for the steering committee at that time.

We started our You Matter More Than You Think: What A Woman Needs To Know About The Difference She Makes, by Dr. Leslie Parrott study yesterday. Though very different from many of the studies we have done in the past, this one is off to a great start. This study is based on Leslies journal, and a bit of the study is a personal journal. I was the only one to admit to journaling on a daily basis. (I only post a fraction of my daily journal on ss.) I have some reading and homework to do for this class before next Sunday.

After church, dh got laundry done while I worked on updating my card file for the new place.

I had to put some cards in recycling, because I had already used both sides of the cards (for two different homes), and neither side is applicable now. An example of a card I just got rid of would be a white monthly card that said clean fireplace on one side and clean garage on the other. We have neither now.

Since we dont own this place, this is a definitely different set of cards. We rented in the past, but we always were able to improve the place in exchange for rent or a portion of the rent. It is in our current lease that we are not permitted to prune/trim hedges or trees, clean gutters, paint, or make any internal changes. We cannot even paint the bathroom (believe me, it needs it!).

So we only have upkeep and cleaning of our personal porch furniture and lawn care equipment and cutting and trimming the grass for outdoor or seasonal cards. My outdoor porch furniture consists of one small round table, some planters with plants in them, some concrete statues (Rodin's The Thinker, chickens, rabbits) and the milk crates, which we use for chairs. DHs lawn care equipment is a small push lawn mower and his weed whacker. All the rest of our outdoor stuff is still in storage. We dont have a place to put the porch swings here. We sold the tiller before we moved and we have no use for the rakes, shovels, spades, forks, gardening equipment, hoses, or the chainsaw here. We are still debating on whether to sell that stuff now, or wait until spring, in case we move and need it. I think we will most likely wait.

We had pizza for dinner Saturday after we got home from the train. We got home so late, we stopped and I bought some pizza at the grocery. We had the leftovers for lunch yesterday after church while we listened to the Browns game on the radio. I guess we should have listened to the Indians game instead. (The Browns lost badly; the Indians won their third game in a row.)

We had some of the natural casing wieners we got from Schwans for dinner before we went to church for a Christo Mission team meeting last night. The wieners were pretty good.

There are two mission teams based at our church. The Home Mission is for junior high kids through adults. They help people inside our county at no charge. Last year, they replaced a couple roofs, built and installed new stairs for home exit doors, painted a couple houses and cleaned up a village park.

The Christo Mission is for senior high kids through adults. This team travels to help people outside our local area. In the past, they have traveled to St. Johns Island, South Africa, New Orleans, Houston, Mobile, West Virginia, and Iowa. The areas the team has gone to have been hit by severe weather-related damage.

This was the first Christo Mission meeting of the year. The team has $3900 in the budget left from the last years trip to Iowa (which was really this past July, as the mission year runs September to July). It was voted to give $500 from the budget to the ServeFest team to help pay for items needed (car oil, food items) to serve the community on October 11. The team has not decided where to go this year for mission. It is possible that it will be an inner-city trip this year, as Jon, the youth director, made that suggestion, and no other ideas were proposed. He feels that inner-city areas are probably in more need than before because of the economic situation. The next meeting will be near the end of October. I think there will be a vote on the destination location during that meeting.

One member of the team always provides the team with their first fundraiser opportunity. He has a huge home with lots of trees. He donates money to the Christo Mission fund in exchange for the other team members coming over to rake his leaves. He also serves a cook-out or barbeque dinner as thanks. During warm spring and summer months, Christo Mission members hold car washes (free will donation) every Saturday at the church. They also have a couple dinners during winter that they sell tickets for in the community. I am not sure what else they do for fund raising.

Last night, Rev Tom and his wife Kathy were guest speakers at the Christo meeting. Rev Tom was the minister of the church before Pastor Meredith was assigned to Jefferson. (I think it is an interesting contrast, he wants to be called Rev Tom, and Meredith prefers Pastor , but they both have very vibrant personalities.) Tom was the pastor that started the Christo Mission at the church, although it was not called that at the time. They went to St Johns Island for a couple of years. It was interesting to hear the history of the mission.

I personally have no particular interest in this mission, but my dh has been talking about it for a couple years, but never went to any of the meetings. I felt maybe that he felt I wasnt being supportive in his interest, which is why I went to the meeting also.

This morning our low was 47. We had terrific thunderstorms and the power was out for some of the early morning. It must have been pretty bad, as Titan was in the corner of the bathroom when I got up this morning. His experience with tornados has scarred him. As of 11 am, we are at 61 and the sun is starting to come out. It is still pretty windy (30 mph) and so I have most of the windows closed.

Tonight is the Alpha celebration dinner at 6. DH and I havent decided whether to go, but probably will, since we need to be at church 7:30 for ServeFest anyway.

I also have some homework to do for Wednesday night's Back In The Box study. So I better get a move on...

 

[keljonma]

9/29/09

Last night we went to the Alpha celebration dinner. The food was great and we met some new people and got to catch up on what has been going on with some old friends. I only stayed until 7:30, when I had to go down the hall to my ServeFest meeting, but dh stayed to watch the dvd presentation.

The kitchen is going to be a busy place during ServeFest on October 11! Sandy and Penny will be cooking hot dogs and making lemonade to give away at the two local groceries. Debbie will be making soup and sandwiches for the workers and to serve to shut-ins. Her team will be delivering, visiting, and eating meals with the 20 or so people who have signed up to get a free lunch.

Plus I will be in the kitchen making applesauce, and maybe canning or freezing some fruit. I couldnt reach anyone at the food pantry yesterday and got busy and forgot to call the blueberry pick your own farm. Last year at this time, we were still picking blueberries, so I am hopeful. If not, I will just make the applesauce. Mary is going to get apples this week and the committee is also paying for the jars, lids and rings. I will be using my water bath canner, funnel, etc. Millie has a large food mill I can borrow. I told Mary to get 2 bushels of mixed apples.

As of yesterday, there were 10 people signed up for free oil changes (dh and I are 2 of them), two houses are getting rooms painted, one house is getting the outside painted, 20 people have signed up to get their gutters cleaned out. Plus a ton of other projects are going on at the same time. The ramp section project that dh is on will be in the garage or storage building, so they will be able to work rain or shine.

47 and raining when we got up this morning. Today weather channel is predicting 40 mph..... with a high of 55. The extended forecast is calling for 39 as our low on October 1. Brrr Get out the hot cider! I guess I will have to go to storage and get winter coats soon! I love autumn and am not ready for winter yet!

DH Is working today and then has his mens meeting afterwards. Im baking bread and making chili or soup - depending on which I feel like making in a couple hours. I might make a cake too. It seems good weather for baking and cooking.

 

[keljonma]

Made peach crisp and making Yankee Pot Roast for dinner. Good weather for hot food - we have reached our forecast high temp of 55, but it has been pouring down rain all day and the wind is going 30 to 40 mph!

I asked my landlord where the storm windows were. He said the shed. DH found them - all but one is broken. The one that isn't broken doesn't fit any of the existing window. So I have been winterizing windows that don't open.

 

[BeccaOH]

You are always good for a recipe. Did you enter any in the BYC cookbook?

Wouldn't a SS cookbook be great? Think of all the unique recipes SSers come up with. All practical and wholesome, of course.