Small Success Thursday - May 28th

Happy Thursday from a short week.

Hubby is due back from a business trip late tonight. And it is not him who is waking me up about 3:30 AM every morning.

This weekend we managed to complete a project of coating our wood desk together without getting upset at each other. Now Tuesday morning I went upstairs to pack up my computer at the same time he was getting ready to leave. I barked at him when he teased me about not wanting to kiss him goodbye. And I have been doing so well....

I made some progress on the quilt I have in progress.

I asked for help in picking up the teen from school at his early dismissal. Of course my parents have to come down for 30 miles north, but they are willing to do it so I can go to the office twice this week.

Linking up with Catholic Mom.

Small Success Thursday - Last full week of School

This is my youngest's last week of classes. Next week he has exams (and early dismissals). However, neither of us gets a big break as he is taking summer school for Gym and Health so he can take Band and double up on math cases next year. I am looking forward to him being able to drive himself to the places he needs to go.

This week we got my older son, Daughter-in-law and Grandson moved. The new apartment was supposed to be ready Friday, but it was not. Fortunately we borrowed a trailer and were able to lock their stuff in there until the were assigned a new apartment on Monday. Of course Hubby sprained his wrist. The doctor at urgent care told him to allow his teenage/20 Yo sons to do the lifting.

I am amazed at how this current job, while high paced, is not stressing me out. It allows me to roll with the punches so much better. Case in Point this post where I reflect on a recent situation where Hubby and have often snipped at each other, but we were able to express our feelings calmrly and gently. LOL! I wish it could always be like this.

Linking up with Catholic Mom.

Wow, we got it right for once

I was reading an article and reflecting on my relationship with my husband. We have been married for over 22 years. During this time, we have both worked full time outside the home. Our division of chores tend to get divided close to the traditional line. But he does the yard work becaseu he is rather particular about it. He has a hard time turning it over to the teen age sons. (and the youngest takes advantage of it).  I cook more often because I enjoy it and I am a bit better about timing it so it all get's done at the same time. I'd say laundry is a shared task. He does most of the folding. I clean the bathrooms because I don't mind it as mush as him and I leave floors to him. but in general, he is happy to let me do a task when I start it.

That said, we had an incident the other night that we both handled well even though we did  not want to.  I was rushing around to get dinner on the table after a long day. Hubby comes in a sits in his recliner. I think "Really? I sure could use some help so we can all eat. I sooo want to sit and relax a bit too." Then I actually listened to the part of the brain that said "Getting dinner on the table is not his priority right now. But maybe if you asked him nicely, he'll come help."

So I said "Hey Honey, can you come and put together a salad while I work on the rest of dinner?"  So he eases out of his chair and comes in and starts to make the salad. After a few minutes he said "You know, when you first asked, I thought to myself "Really?""

Somewhere I found the grace to laugh and say "Yeah, I though the same thing as I was rushing around and you actually sat down. So tell me about your day."

This is not my typical posture. I admit to being a yeller. I don't like being wronged. I have to admit that this has a lot to do with my current job. I am enjoying my current job. I work form home half the time and feel like I can take care of my family by dropping off and picking up my son from school. No busing) and putting home-cooked meals on the table.

Our marriages are under so much pressure. I wish I could be more like this more often.

Small Success Thursday - May 14

We are coming up to the end of the school year. My teen son finished playing with the pit orchestra for the school spring musical, Tuesday was the band banquet. (He got the "Outstanding Freshman" award.) Tonight is a cookout and final band concert/recital. So it has been a busy week.

Sunday I had my folks, eldest son, his wife and my grandson over for a Mother's day brunch. I kept it simple and everyone said it was delicious. Thankfully Hubby was able to install my new range since the delivery guys would not do it since they would have had to take a fitting off the gas pipe. Sigh. Another team came to pick up the old range yesterday, asked why they had to come back and just shook their heads and said the first team was wrong. Ah well, they can take care of it.

Yesterday was a day where mt plans were blown to smithereens due to a miscommunication. Hubby forgot to tell me he had to take  a day trip for work. I had made appointments to have his car in the shop for ac repairs and to have my old range picked up. I work form home on Wed., but I was counting on Hubby to take the teen to school. Luckily the mechanic is a walk-able mile from home. so I took the teen to school, drive to the shop and walked home. at lunchtime I walked back over to the shop and brought the van home. So I handled that with a fair amount of grace.

Linking up with Catholic Mom.

Small Success Thursday - Summertime weather

Good Morning folks,

Here is SW Ohio, we are supposed to reach 90 Degrees today. Very warm for us in May.

It is that time of the week to reflect on those little things we accomplish as Mom's when so much or our world is 'Lather, rinse, repeat."

Last week, Barb, aka Franciscan Mom requested pictures of my home office, so you will find that post just prior to this one.

We had to narrow down our project list. We started planning to remodel our powder room. We picked out and purchased tile for the 25 sq ft room. Then we took our Grandson on our deck and realized it is in such bad shape that he could get splinters. Then, on Saturday  afternoon my oven would not heat up. Fortunately, May and June are months I am not making a High school tuition payment. Hubby promises that the cost to refurbish the desk will be minimal and then he strongly requested we buy a new range. Ours has drip pans and grates that are in constant need for cleaning. Newer gas ranges have dishwasher=safe grates and no drip pans, making wiping up spills a bit easier. We also got one with a convection oven. It will be delivered tomorrow. The powder room will be on hold until we get bad weather.

The toddler Grandson likes to wear blankets as a cape. I still have a black cape I made for his Daddy. We brought it up and it is way too big. So I whipped up a smaller cape for him. As an aside, I had a funny observation, his Mamma calls it his "Prince M." Cape. His Mamma has a sister, no borhters. I am the Mom of boys. To use it was a 'Super Hero" cape.

Have a great week,

Linking up with Catholic Mom.

My Home Office

So Sitting seems to be the new Smoking as far as health goes. So I wanted to fashion a stand-up workstation. This is not my first time around the block with a stand up desk. In 2012 I had a job working from home where I got an Ikea tall table and made it my desk. That job turned out not to be a good fit. Working from home full time was not for me at that time, but I liked the standing desk. My next Contract was with a company who's newly remodeled office features desks that could easily be converted to standing by holding a level and lifting or pushing the table. I would flip between the two positions rather regularly.  And actually, with that contract, I worked from home occasionally due to inclement weather or or a need to be closer to home for some reason. Since my older son moved out, I have a dedicated office rather than the home's dining room. That makes a huge difference.

This contract I can go downtown to an office or work from home. I am currently working in the office 2 days and at home 3.  So the point of this post is to show my office. I cleaned it out and re-arranged it last week.

View from the door: A Trundle bed, the small closet, my workstation and a traditional desk. Hubby and my son will use the desk on occasion.

The bed with stuff that still needs a permanent home.

Bookshelf, TV/Printer stand and night stand.

 My stand up workstation.

The traditional desk, file cabinet, printer and Bookcase.

I still need to do some clean-up. I don;t know if I can make it Toddler-Friendly so our Grandson can sleep on the bottom trundle when he spends the night. Too many things for the 16 Month-old to get into.
And I detailed out my stand-up desks in my project blog.