I Will be taking a much needed facebook, blog, computer, tv break for the next few days, maybe weeks. I just feel the need to take some quiet time for myself and my sanity over electronics right now.

Blessings,Joann

countertop cleaning

Okay I got a little energy and did make some progress in the kitchen. Here are some pictures of my progress.

Countertop on the sink side all cleared off~

Can you see the sink at the end all overflowing with dishes, how sick is that?

Countertop on the stove side all cleared off~

this is the place everything went while I did the cleaning~

My favorite cleaner for the countertops and the grout~

I have found after many years of trying most anything I could find that this type of cleaner works the best on my tile countertop with the white grout. Most other cleaners would never get the white, really white and I like it to be really white looking. This is really great as you just spray it on leave it for a while and then go back and scrub the grout lines with a grout brush and it looks like new.

The stove top cleaner~

I got everything cleaned up real good and put things back on the stove side, you may notice the new electric can opener next to the toaster. That is one of my new servants in the kitchen, I also have a new knife sharpener and does it sharpen a knife like new!

On the sink side it is much cleaner but the putting things back will have to wait until later as I have things drying on it right now~

And you may notice that the sink is now empty, I loaded and ran the dishwasher and washed everything else by hand including my canister set, everything just sparkles and makes me feel so good to get something done.

This is what my two little helper dogs where doing while I was working(the picture is from a few weeks ago but basically this is what they do most every day)~

While waiting for the Tilex to work on the countertops I made a quick trip to Joann's, I had 2 more 40%off coupons that I didn't want to go to waste so this is what I got~

A package of real pretty embroidery floss~

And a nice book of counted cross stitch patterns~

It is now almost 6PM and Roger is on his way home, he left Oakland around 4:30 and will be here sometime between 6:30 and 7PM. I hate his commuting but for now it is what he has to do for a job. I am not sure what we are having for dinner maybe a trip to Subway yummy!!

Have a wonderful evening everyone

Blessings, Joann

i

the first official day of the Good Morning Girls and how it is going

Today was to be the first day of the GMG's and it started out very badly due to my badly started day!! I woke up with one of the worst Charlie horses I have every had. I was crying it hurt so bad. I just a few minutes ago sent my e-mail to everyone and basically told them my day isn't going too good so for my quiet time today I was planning on reading the proverb for today (after I figured out what day it is ) and that would be it. I haven't been feeling well all week and don't really know what's wrong. I took everything off both of my countertops in the kitchen to clean the countertops and so far I haven't done anything. I will get the countertops done but the way I am feeling it may take all day...

I also found out that Mattie will be coming home on July 31 but he told Jennifer he will NOT be seeing me and that he is no longer talking to me. Isn't that just lovely? I guess that may be part of why I am not feeling well.


I have still been working on my stitching but when my head is hurting badly the last thing I want to do is work on embroidery. Boy years sure do change a person and for me that is not a good thing. I was thinking yesterday about when I was oh 26 years old, I was married to Mattie's dad and Jennifer was 7 years old. We had a small 3 bedroom 2 bath house and every day I cleaned the entire house including doing laundry and mopping all the floors. I cleaned both bathrooms and I was usually done by 11AM now I am lucky to be awake by 11 AM we also had 5 people living in the house and I made a dinner every night that would feed at least 6-8 people as we always had someone stopping by. Now it is just Roger and I and a few pets and I can't seem to get anything done. If anyone out there reads this and has any extra energy please send it my way and any and all prayers for me to well Get my act together and start being a good homekeeper again!!
I am praying that everyone has a wonderful day and that I get my countertops done!!
Blessings,Joann

Good Morning Girls...anyone out there interested???

Was just over at CourtneysBlog reading about the groups called Good morning Girls and I would love to have anyone who is interested in being in one to e-mail me. I would like to find people just like me but anyone who is interested is invited too. Go over to her blog and read what it is all about (didn't want to steal her post) if you think it is something you would be interested in doing with me send me your e-mail address- you can post a comment and leave your e-mail in it since I moderate all comments I can edit it out of the comment so it isn't published. This is something that sounds like something that would be very benificial for me and anyone else who has quiet time problems...Please come join me, anyone interested???


My plan if I can find some people is to start on Monday July 19th and do it Mon-Fri but not on the weekends, also I live in Ca so even though I get up early around 4:30AM that is already 7:30 on the East coast so my posts may seem kind of late but they really wouldn't be at least not for me.
Blessings,Joann

The story of two children..

I want to tell the story of two children child A is now 22 years old and child B is 20. They both had very different upbringings. Child A was a bratty little kid and always got what he wanted by throwing tantrums and by calling his parents horrible names. Child B was also bratty at times but was raised by a single mom most of his life and she thought the bond between them was wonderful. He was very quiet at home but sometimes did have tantrums too. When child A was in his teen years, he had his own cell phone (paid for by his parents) and was allowed computer access. child B was not allowed a cell phone (parent did not see a need for one).Child B also had no computer access at home. Child A basically did what he wanted and parents just let him do whatever he wanted including driving him to many places just to ride his bike, some were over an hour away. I remember a couple of holiday get togethers where child A cussed his parents out calling them every name in the book and on that same day they were at his beck and call to take him places. Child B was taught to respect his parents and was not expected to talk back. Now come to where they are now. Child A and B are both in the Army, Child A when he comes home on leave wants his parents to pick him up at the airport and spend time with them. Child B gives orders to his Mom to not be at the airport or he won't come by and see her at all. Child A does well with his money and has enough to pay for his plane ticket home. Child B spends all of his money and more I don't know what on but he is always broke! Child B is supposed to come home at the end of July for a couple of weeks but he can't because he has no money for a ticket! He calls his mom because he knows how to make her feel guilty and explains that once again it is someone else's fault he has no money so he won't be coming home. He doesn't actually ask his mom to buy him a ticket but he knows her and she would do anything to see him, even though he had already called a few weeks back and let her know that he won't have much time to visit with her as he has too many friends he needs to visit. I am sure you have guessed by now that I am talking about my son Matthew and my Nephew. Child B is Matthew, even though I feel that I raised him well I guess I was a horrible mom and did not do a very good job at raising him. I look back at all the mistakes I made and I wish I could go back and do everything over again. I tried to raise him to be responsible and a man of God. But right now he is so far from that it just breaks my heart. I now question everything I did as a Mom and why did things turn out this way. My sister raised her son totally different from me and now it looks like I was the stupid one!! She let her son walk all over her and her husband and never made him work for anything and yet he grew up way more responsible than my son did. I am acutally embbarressed by the things he does sometimes. Like right now I am trying to decide what to do, we really don't have any extra money to send him a ticket home but that means I won't get to see him. On one hand I really want to get him a ticket so I can see him and then on the other hand it just makes me so mad that even if I do get him a ticket I may only see him for an hour or two. I have a big decision to make and it is not easy. If I don't buy the ticket I know he will be mad, but he only wants to come home to see his friends not me. I know one thing for sure and that is that if I don't buy his ticket and I don't see him and he does end up deploying I will never forgive myself for not seeing him before he leaves. I am having a hard time right now forgiving myself for the type of parent I was. I have so much guilt about the way I raised my children it is all I think about somedays.

Sorry for this long post but I just needed to vent for a while.
Blessings,Joann

MY "Me" day and how it's going...

This morning after my post I got out my pretty red file box that I wanted to use for my files, I was wanting to get some really pretty colored hanging file folders but I guess they only come in ugly green! That's okay I don't like the green but I will deal with it.

Here is what it looked like this morning~

Now this is what it looks like after all my hard work~

I also finished up the 1st stitching project last night~

I started on the 2nd one~

This is what my wonderful pets were doing while I was doing the filing thing~

The rest of the day and evening I will be reading in this book~

I have 3 people whom I consider my favorite authors, Beth Moore, Stormie Omartian and Elizabeth George. I have many books by all of these authors but this one about adult children is just what I needed right now. The first part of the book even before there is a chapter 1 is a part called What every parent of an Adult child needs to know and then it goes on to list 7 specific things

#1~You need to know it never ends

#2~You need to know you can't fix them

#3~You need to know God can change everything

#4~You need to know you must stop blaming yourself

#5~You need to know you have to forgive

#6~You need to know there is only one perfect parent

#7~You need to know you can Wholeheartedly say, for this adult child I prayed

After reading just this part of the book I think I have used so much highlighter it has run out!!

Last but not least I picked out some fabrics to go with the things I am stitching~

A different kind of Thursday for me today~

Thursday is the day I usually do things like go over the pantry and freezer etc. to see what to put on the grocery list (Friday is Grocery day) I also like to clean out the refrigerator to have it all ready for new items, but today I have decided to take a Just me day, I plan on doing some reading, some organizing of papers and of course stitching. I of course will still do my daily things and make dinner but today is a "JO"day

Have a wonderful Thursday
Blessings,Joann