Seven Quick Takes - Rotting beans, teenagers and tender mercies

Visit This Ain't the Lyceum

1.  If you read any of my other posts you will note that on Monday I proudly stated that I was soaking some beans and lentils for a homemade soup.  On Thursday I announced that on Wednesday I realised I'd forgotten that I was soaking the beans.  Thursday I went out to go give my Grandma a shower and clean her flat, on my return G announced that he had found the beans in the microwave and the slimey bean-water had overflowed all over the microwave.  He refused to throw the beans away, such was the smell.  And he was right - they smelled like feet and vomit.  How on earth did I manage to recount the beans tale and then forget to actually throw them away?  How?  It's a mystery to me to be sure.

I think I need to point out that I am not disgusting, we just don't use the microwave much and the beans were hidden. I do clean! :D

2.  My plans today are to do some cleaning and some ironing whilst I wait for a friend to let me know that she has the keys to their new house and then I'm going to go and help scrape some wallpaper for them.

3.  My eldest daughter has reached a peak of teenageryness.  Anyone who has teenagers will understand what this means.  But G and I mostly look like this:

Well, especially G what with him having a beard and all...and the fact that I would be wearing a top... haha

4.  I am waiting in trepidation for the washing machine to finish.  It has our bedding in and I just KNOW that it is not going to like it.  We got the washing machine with the house.  It's a small top-loading machine and for some reason, especially when it's doing our bedding it decides to announce that it needs servicing (well it doesn't announce it, a little red light comes on) and then it seizes up for half the day.

5.  We visited some friends at their caravan on Wednesday.  We had a lovely time chatting whilst the girls played with their daughter and some other kids from the campsite all day...well except for a time of teenageryness from Chatterbox who sat in the car for about three hours reading her book.  She did emerge when they announced they were going to play hide and seek.

6.  Whilst we were chatting we talked about various things and one of the things is forgiveness.  If Jesus died 'once for all' do we need to keep asking for forgiveness?  I say, "Yes".  I won't go into a big theological treatise as to why I believe this, because this is seven QUICK takes and would defeat the object of this meme.

7.  I've been thinking a lot about selfishness, self-less-ness, etc.  I read this Gentle Selfishness.  I'm not sure but they suggest that the Spiritual fruit of Gentleness can 'kill' gentle selfishness because it is 'not weakness but controlled strength'.  I always think of godly gentleness more like tender mercy, I think if I look at it like that, then mercy does kill selfishness.  Something to ponder.

Happy weekend!  

Really late seven quick takes -

I decided that I was going to really get back to some serious blogging and regularly post etc etc and one of the things I wanted to do was to do a Seven Quick Takes every Friday.  But here we are Saturday...anyway...

This Ain't the Lyceum

1. I've been so tired and headachy and grumpy this week

What is that?  Is it early menopause?  I keep dropping things and tripping up and banging my elbows too!  So frustrating.

2. Said tiredness and headachyness (haha I'm just making up words now) caused a minor meltdown

You know, one of those where your husband tells you what he thinks is good news and somehow five minutes later you're shaking your fist at the sky at the unfairness of it all....I'm going with early menopause

3. I'm in that horrible place between boredom and apathy.

I'm so bored, I think because I was ill for a couple of weeks and then it's school holidays and Bible College is on summer programme (only three days a month lectures).  So instead of getting up and proactively finding useful and absorbing things to do I've been surfing the net and generally procrastinating about all the things that need to be done.

4.  No, not menopause, I've decided that this must be a virus

The hubster feels exactly the same.  He's back at work after his gallbladder op and has a similar 'can't get motivated no energy life is dull' thing going on.

5.  Next week is going to be better

Next week I am going to be wonder woman, super-mum and Mrs Amazing all rolled into one.

6. Prioritise

Prioritising is what I need to do.  What do I want to get out of my week?  So I'm going to make a list of what I want to get out of the week in order of most importance.

7. But first...I'm going to do some internet surfing and general lazing around...

7 Quick Takes vol 228

--- 1 ---

My cat, as my blog-friends will know, has mental issues.  She drives my husband mad.  I often wonder what a pet psychologist would think. I talk to her about her issues. Oh yes, I talk to my cat, it's not as bad as talking to plants!  Anyway, applying psychology, I think she is suffering from separation anxiety.  Yesterday we went for a short walk and she followed us to the end of her little territory and then started making the weirdest noises (which Boots is rather good at), sort of like, "A-ROW-ROW-ROW, A-ROW-ROW-ROW", in a deep sort of possessed cat-voice.

--- 2 ---

Speaking of pet psychologists, this clip from Frasier is hilarious:

--- 3 ---

Our latest favourite comedy programme is The Big Bang Theory.  Don't you just love Sheldon? Jim Parsons plays the part amazingly well.  I love the Rubik's cube tissue box, I saw it on eBay. WANT! But we're a bit skint at the moment so it'll have to wait.  I had to look up how to spell Rubik's...I thought it was Rubix, but obviously it was a cube designed by Rubik, hence Rubik's cube.  See? Apostrophe for possession, so helpful.  Just saying. :P

--- 4 ---

One of my favourite Big Bang episodes, Penny takes Sheldon to Disneyland and comes up against some custody issues with Leonard. :D

--- 5 ---

Speaking of Leonard. Sheldon calls him homunculus, which generally refers to a small perfectly formed human. This is now Squidge's new name.

--- 6 ---

The girls have been enjoying themselves at a church holiday club all week. They love it. Chatterbox is helping to look after the younger children. She just loves it, and they love her. She has a real gift with little ones.

--- 7 ---

Speaking of Chatterbox, she is 12 in just under 2 weeks. Twelve! Where did the time go? They grow up so fast. These school holidays are such a blessing, to spend lots of time with them because it goes so quickly. *sigh*

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 227)

It's late here, but here's a post!

--- 1 ---

As I'm doing Jennifer Fulwiler's 7 Quick Takes Meme I'll also mention one of her other posts from this week that I rather liked: Organizational hacks for the rest of us you know one of those posts that makes you sigh with relief when you realise it's not just you that struggles with perfection - LOL.

The notion that I have a medical condition (Housework ADD!) that prevents perfect housekeeping was just the excuse I needed for my chaotic ways.

I am unable to stick to a schedule, but I LOVE putting them together. A Home Management Binder! It will be beautiful.  I like making the folder, spending hours picking the font colours, working out how long each task should take, colour coding each task dependent on its nature, etc.  Such fun.  I never finish it though. I think I have about 4.  Equally, I am unable to stick to my perfectly thought out schedules.

Here's why:  Say I decide to clean my kitchen, it can go one of three ways...

1) I start off cleaning, then I notice my cupboard is a bit dusty inside, so I take all my pots and pans out, but then I notice that some of the pans at the back of the cupboard are grubby with rust spots, so I then get on the internet to see how to deal with rust spots on cooking equipment, I find an article but notice that it links to another article about learning to crochet and I would like to learn how to crochet, but I wonder how much hooks are on eBay so I look them up, then I remember I need to finish off in the kitchen, as I get to the kitchen I notice the time! It's 3.25pm and I am late for picking Squidge up from school, I leave the kitchen in a state of devastation, messier than it was before.

Or, 2) I start cleaning the kitchen, I notice the light fitting has cobwebs, I clean the light fitting, whilst I'm up on ladders I notice the top of the cupboards are a bit mucky so I start to clean them, but because the kitchen air is greasy the tops of the cupboards aren't just dust - I need some Vim, so I get more cloths out and a bucket to start cleaning with that and then notice that mucky water has splashed on the cupboard fronts, so I start to clean those, as I'm cleaning the doors I notice my cupboards are really grubby inside, so I empty them all out, I then notice the clock and it's 3.25pm and I am late for picking up Squidge from school and I leave the kitchen in worse devastation than it was before.

Or, 3) Knowing that my kitchen is a Pandora's box and quite possibly one of the seven circles of hell I avoid cleaning it and spend all day pottering about generally wasting time only to finally look up after getting distracted by the boxes of children's artwork, deciding to sort it out and spending hours reminiscing about their childhood and how cute their pictures are or some such nonsense to see that it is 3.25 pm and I am late to pick up Squidge from school and my kitchen is in a worse mess because I have, during the course of the day, contributed more pots from lunch and snacking, plus I now have artwork strewn about the living room that wasn't there before.

--- 2 ---

If you read all of --1-- and its excessive use of commas and never ending sentences, you deserve a reward.

--- 3 ---

So how do I manage my Housework ADD (or whatever)?  I set a timer.  15 or 10 minutes per room.  I put on some jolly bouncy music to motivate me.  My aim is to do everything as quickly as possible so that I get lots done before the timer goes off.  First I have to tidy the room (I have a box to throw things in that belong in other rooms, which I return to their correct location when I reach that particular room), if I still have time left after tidying I start to clean the room.  As soon as the timer goes off I have to move onto another room.  After I've been through all the rooms (I don't have a big house) I have a nice break.  I then do 15 minutes ironing, or something else.  If the house needs a thorough cleaning I will start again at the beginning with the timer.  I can use the timer on other projects that tend to get out of control, like filing or sorting photos, etc.

--- 4 ---

We've been in Cornwall this week.  It's been lovely.  The cottage we have stayed in is comfortable and roomy.  But I'm really looking forward to my own bed.  There's nothing like your own bed is there?

--- 5 ---

I have a new camera and have been playing around with various settings.  Here are some macros I took:

--- 6 ---

I'm looking forward to picking up Boots from the cattery.  I do miss my cat!  Sad I know.

--- 7 ---

It's Chatterbox's birthday soon.  She'll be 12! Moving closer to those teenage years.  I'm not sure I'm ready. :)

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 226)

--- 1 ---

This is my first ever '7 Quick Takes', I thought  I'd join in to help give me some inspiration for an easy and quick post for my 7 Posts in 7 Days challenge.  Because I'm on holiday at the moment I don't want to spend too much time blogging otherwise I will be exceedingly unpopular amongst ma famille.

--- 2 ---

I dropped red wine on the carpet yesterday.  Why?  Why do people carpet their holiday cottages with the palest of pale beige carpet.  Much scrubbing commenced.  I think I've got the stain out.  Otherwise that's one expensive mistake. :)

--- 3 ---

Squidge is constantly upside down.  She's always been upside down.  I've even found her on the stairs upside down reading a book.  She has now decided she wants to be a gymnast.  I think she'd be rather good at it for a number of reasons: 1) She is constantly upside down; 2) She's quite fearless, she'll climb to the top of the tallest climbing frame like a little monkey and then hang upside down and swing (I invariably have sweaty palms in playgrounds because she frightens me to death with her exploits); and, 3) She has a never ending supply of energy, she will bounce and jump and run from the second she wakes up to the second she falls asleep.  We have a video of her at the age of 2 leaping from one sofa in the living room to another - she flies through the air like those flying squirrel things

--- 4 ---

Squidge's new name is homunculus.  A homunculus is a perfectly formed miniature human being of folklore.  We first heard about it on Big Bang Theory.  It's Sheldon's name for Leonard.

--- 5 ---

Speaking of Big Bang Theory.  I love it.  So funny!  One of my new favourite comedy programmes.

--- 6 ---

I spent some birthday money yesterday.  I bought a GORGEOUS key box in a gift shop in Wadebridge.  It has the Tree of Life engraved on it.  Love it. Love it. Love it.  Plus it will hopefully encourage me to keep my keys in one place, rather than the daily rage around the house, "Where ARE MY KEYS!?!"

--- 7 ---

I also bought a book, 'A Dictionary of Celtic Saints'.  I know very little of Celtic Christianity and I would like to know more.  Hopefully the book is good.  I bought it in a little bookshop in Wadebridge.  The lady in the shop was having a bad day. She was rather cross about a busker who had been singing outside her shop since, "10 O'Clock this morning!"  Apparently she was going to make her complaint known to the council.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!