epic songs for a not-so-epic update

I have been trying to blog a little update for over a week.  Every time I sit down at the computer I either have work that I need to do on it, or I manage to completely fritter away my few uninterrupted minutes doing something completely inconsequential, like looking up long-forgotten songs on youtube. 

(And sharing them with my children.  Which is why, just now while my children are at the table finishing lunch, they burst out with, "Uh, uh, ah-uh-uh.  Uh, uh, ah-uh.  Uh, uh, ah-uh-uh, the right stuff."  What can I say--DH and I introduced them to the concept of boy bands the other day.  All in the name of education.) 

I'm not really a boy-band girl.  I'm way more swayed by big bands and big voices (sometimes with big hair) singing dire, colossal ballads.  Singers belting out their hearts with complete gravity, persuading us that their song is Important.  Pretty much any James Bond movie song falls into this category*--same with "Rocky" songs.  And pretty much all 80's glam-rock power ballads, although I'm not a fan of that genre.  Last weekend DH started pulling up songs on youtube to motivate me while doing dishes, and he found some great stuff--so I made a little playlist of some of my favorites. 

So, if you are in the mood for some Epic songs, or just want to see in my head a little more while you read about the nether and dither of my recent life, here you go.

---------------------------------------------
So, after the New Years' weekend with DH's parents, we had a quiet few days of starting school back up, and the girls jumped back in with remarkable vigor.  We are "behind" with Sunny's math, since the original goal was to finish her current grade's work by March, in time for the state testing.  Her current math program requires our computer (another reason I am not blogging as much--I have to share!), and we had spells this past holiday season when DH was upgrading our system and she could not do her work.  So I psyched her up about doing two math lessons a day, in order to get back on track--and she has been doing it, getting it done quickly, and all with a fantastic attitude!  YOU ROCK, eldest girl! 

Merry and Happy are ahead of schedule, almost done with their current grade math books.  Whew!  Merry is close, but got bogged down with long division. Happy in particular is only a few pages away from the end of her 1st grade math book, and will be rewarded with a green-themed math party sometime this month (green is the color of the math book cover).  When her sisters finish theirs, we are going to have a rainbow themed math party and invite all our homeschool friends, since we never celebrated the math books we finished last year. 

So, our school goals these past couple of weeks have been super simple, but focusing on the most important things to me right now: lots of math, reading in the "What Your ___ Grader Should Know" books, and finishing the fun chapter books the girls received as presents this holiday season (I hate to push them in their pleasure reading, but we will be neck-high in class reading starting next week, so want to have those books finished).

-------------------------------------------
Another thing that has been going on just the past week--blooming acacia trees.  At least, that's what my fellow allergy sufferers are telling me is responsible for my chronic tiredness, stuffiness, and headaches.  Seriously--allergy symptoms greeting me in the morning, headaches for most of the day, and sleeping very poorly at night (oh, for one good nostril!), are all really hindering me being my most effective around the house.  Another good reason for the streamlined schooling we have been doing these days.  I don't take allergy medicine, because what I have tried in the past just makes me feel worse (and one brand I am sure caused my allergies to turn into a full-fledged sinus infection one year), but I am thinking of trying a neti pot to see if it helps.  But in the meantime, I am just not being as productive as I was even at the very start of the year, and the wear of allergies also explains why often when I find myself with free time at the computer I can only muster enough brain power for youtube. 

-------------------------------------------
Oh, and while DH's parents left the 2nd of Jan, FIL was back just a few days later to work on our mini-van, which we noticed was leaking coolant on New Year's Day.  FIL is a retired electrical engineer and is very handy with all things mechanical, and so he spent a good 5 days here working in the driveway, replacing the water pump and the timing belt and doing all manner of important and necessary things.  MIL did not come back this time, since she was needed to help care for her mother, but it was still a sacrifice for her to give up her husband for those days, since he only had a few days with her afterwards before flying out to Colorado, where he will be for the next 3 weeks.  DH's sister, Auntie N, needs helps caring for our preemie niece Sweetness while her husband Uncle S is away on business in India for a couple of months.  Sweetness is doing great overall, but is so vulnerable to germs that the drs won't let her go to any public places, like groccery stores or church, so you can imagine it would be really hard for Auntie N be a single mom for that long, and FIL is going to work on Auntie N's car while he is out there.  Then MIL will go out and swap with him for a few weeks, with only a few days overlap.  So, seeing as how she is going to be parted from her husband for the good part of two months, those 5 days MIL sent him down to help us out are even more meaningful.  The whole thing is another great example of What Love Looks Like.

--------------------------------------------
You can imagine how having FIL here also made me less productive around here.  (I'm coming up with lots of good excuses for my blogging absence, aren't I?  Do these excuses cover the state of dust everywhere too?)   But the last big thing taking up my time and mental energy these last two weeks: everything falling apart around our ears home improvements.  For example, I finally made the calls to get someone to come make a routine maintenance call for our water softener system, so we have soft water again and I can finally have hair that actually feels clean.  We had the system put in when we bought the house about 7 years ago, and, um, have never in those years replaced any filters or had any maintenance to either the whole-house softening system or the reverse-osmosis tank under the sink.  Hey, it all seemed to be working fine, and we didn't want to pay for unnecessary service calls, figuring we could replace those filters ourselves.  Except we never did, and oy vey! the incredulous looks and scornful words we got from the technician who came out last Thursday.  He kept trying to make sure we understood what complete idiots we are for not having these things properly cared for.  Although he tested the water from the RO tank, and was amazed that it was still filtering quite well--to which I could not help but point out, with a wink, that it looked like our plan of non-maintenance had been working out just fine for us.  Same when he checked out the whole-house system, and found that other than the cycles being timed bizarrely (from when the system would start beeping at me every now and then, and I would randomly push buttons until the beeping stopped, and then congratulate myself for having so effectively negated that problem) it was all working fine--I could not help but suggest to him that this also proved that mainenance housecalls every three years is a bit excessive.  ; )

Then this past Friday through Monday has been a whole drama of getting the septic "system"  (i.e. ancient hole in the ground covered with a few boards and a bunch of dirt) emptied, because we started getting signs (i.e. whiffs) this past fall that it needed attention.  And after several afternoons of poor DH muckety-mucking around back there, digging to uncover it and then helping the also incredulous septic-drain guy drain it (what is it with technicians these days?  Sure most people empty their septics out on some regular schedule, and have actual tanks to hold the poo, and leach fields created after 1928 and enviromental codes--but what's with all the judgement? It was like this when we bought it.), we get the report that the septic "system" and leach field have officially failed.  Which we had guessed, from the little gush of water that last week started pouring out onto my calla lillies in the backyard everytime we flushed.  (And which, now that I think about it, helps explain their untimely burst of beautiful bloom this past fall.  Mmmmmmmmm. poo.)  

Just so you know, we knew when we bought the house that we would have to replace the septic.  We had it drained and inspected while we were in escrow, and I'll never forget the two guys in their early-twenties standing over the uncovered hole full of muck and the most gorgeous earthworms, casually stirring the swill with shovels and musing about how there should be three more walls over here. . . .  They never did find the leach field--which is why I never allow the kids to play in the creek below our house. (shudder.)  Anyhoo, we were buying the house "as is" and knew it was only a matter of time before the s--- would hit the, um, wallet.  It is amazing we made it this long--but now are looking at likely $15 thousand for a new system.  Yikes!  We are now officially "in the hole."  

So, now to research the septic options. . . .
----------------------------------------------
And too bad, too, because we had just started fanticizing about building on to our little house and increasing it by about 480 square feet--enough for a bedroom and bath for me and DH!  Those plans will have to wait, but they won't be able to wait for too long.  The current sleeping arrangement of the kids is quickly becoming less and less workable, as Sunny's legs have grown several inches this winter and she has just started sleeping poorly and thrashing in her sleep (ah, puberty).  I'm afraid she's going to give one of her sisters a black eye or something--so while the girls have not complained and remain content with their shared bed, it is time to work out a solution, and quickly.  I'm researching options for that too--such a tiny bedroom does not leave much wiggle room at all for beds and clothes and storage, so I'm doing my best to figure out how to make every inch count while not making the room jammed full of furniture. Built-ins will be the way to go, but so many things to consider. . . the design is taking time.

Another reason why it's a bummer we can't add on to the house any time soon: the other night DH and I were finally a little too noisy in our, ahem, midnight quality time and heard the quick clamorings of children climbing out of bed and running into the kitchen to investigate.  Add this one to the above list of things we are lucky to have gone this long without, without a bedroom to ourselves or any internal doors and all that.  So, it is now the end of a relatively carefree era in our marriage, and I guess the bright side is that quiet quickies under the covers might inspire DH to build us a real bedroom addition faster than any other form of persuasion I could employ.

Oh, and the kids are untramatized.  Two key points, if you ever find yourself in such a situation: 1) have thick covers handy.  2) don't show any embarassment.  In our case, the kids ran back to bed, and after I was done laughing and laughing, I went and assured them that all was well and sternly reminded them of the rules of bedtime (keep laying down, be quiet, and stay in bed).  And then DH and I quietly finished our business, because after this many years with this many kids in this small of a house, we are practical like that. 

--------------------------------------------
Ok, so maybe that last tidbit was a little Epic. 

Anyway, overall things are good here in the Little House in the Woods, and even the hard or negative stuff does not faze us.  Life is good overall, and I hope to blog a little more the rest of this week.  With pics!

Oh, and if any of you have songs to recommend for my Epic Ballads playlist, please feel free to recommend them!

Hope all of you have having a good week so far. : )



*Nobody in the whole world can make any song sound Consequential like Dame Shirley Bassett.  Perfect example--she took a catchy song by Pink and remade it in full post-Bond glory into something Big.  Just the first 30 seconds of each will prove my point.  (If you do listen to either video in its entirety, be warned of brief coarse language half-way through.)