Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I did once I got away from the problems at home. We had a great trip out to Phoenix and we had a very unconventional Christmas, but it was a lot of fun and no one was disappointed, particularly once we returned and opened the gifts from the local relatives. Suffice it to say, Grandpa was very good to us this year.

After much fiddling, a trip to Home Depot and another replaced faucet, I finally once again have a working washer and dryer setup. And I love my new machines! They are bigger, better, and work quicker. We finished all the laundry from our family of five in less time than I thought possible. One amazing little fact was the kilowatt hours used by the washing machine as compared to my old one. The old one was less than seven years old but it used 259 kWh/year. The new washer uses 161 kWh/year. I never would have imagined it would have been such a difference. They were both High Efficiency machines but evidently technology has improved considerably and the newer machines are much more energy efficient. Maybe I should see about a new refrigerator?

My tour around Phoenix netted me some very interesting tidbits for my writing muse and many notes have been taken so I don't forget the details. I am returning later this month to assist my mother-in-law when she gets out of the hospital after her double bypass surgery so I will be able to do even more research. The kids and hubby are staying here in Virginia so I expect it will be easier to take my notes without interruptions. In fact, as I think about it, maybe I should schedule a trip every six months or so somewhere for research purposes. Yeah, research, that's what I'll tell them.

Maybe I should get published first. Might help pay for these grandiose plans.

In honor of the new year, I'm trying on a new look for my blog. Let me know if it's too much.

The Chaos of the Unexpected

Well, this end of year is proving to be a challenging one for me, but that's not really that unusual. It often times is. This year however, I've tried to remain calm and not get spastic about the details. I fear I may have succeeded too well. Since for the first time ever we will be out of town for the week of Christmas and my husband has been traveling this month, we postponed our Winter Solstice Brunch, which we historically have held on the Sunday prior to Christmas, to the Sunday AFTER Christmas. That meant I didn't need the seven or eight boxes of holiday stuff out of the attic . :-)

We wouldn't be here for Christmas, so no tree. We wouldn't be here for Christmas so no holiday decorations , we wouldn't be here for Christmas so no holiday dishes or towels. Are you sensing a theme here? Or perhaps a lack of one? Oops. I seem to have accepted the fact that we won't be here and have completely blown off the holiday. Oops.

Now you may say, well, that's no big deal. If you aren't big on Christmas, so what? Except I have kids. And one of them is only eight. Big oops. Now I am sitting here stunned and wondering how I will be able to shift my thinking into the holiday mode while we are away. Because right now, I'm firmly in the day to day grind.

It doesn't help that various house and car problems keep popping up. My truck stopped blowing any hot air last night with the heat. Scared the beegeezus out of me. No heat would mean no water, no water would mean bad bad things for an engine that stays cool via a water-filled radiator. Especially since we're looking at freezing temps and sleet, etc for the weekend. Thankfully, I had a second car to drive. My husband's. Because he's on business travel. And he won't be back until 24 hours before we are due to fly halfway across the country to spend the next week and a half with my wonderful mother-in-law. Are you getting any clue as to how low the holiday is on my priority list? And I'm not even discussing the slow tire leak.

No? How about the fact that my washing machine made a noise today that caused the entire house to shake, the dogs to bark and the kids to yelp in fear? It's toast. Not a good thing when you need clean clothes for a family of five for a week and a half. Holiday? What holiday? I don't need no stinking holiday. Oops. Sorry, my bad. This too shall pass, as they say, but in the meantime I'm having a really hard time feeling merry or jolly.

As for my writing. Uh, what writing? I've been trying to get in all those end-of-year 'got to be done by the 31st' things. Did I mention that I have three kids? And they are probably still expecting a normal christmas. Guess I need to find that holiday spirit and let the numerous things that are not merry and jolly wait until later. I do keep carrying around my laptop in the vain hope I will get fifteen minutes somewhere to get some writing in, but it doesn't seem to be happening. Well, I guess fate has figured I've got a five hour flight each way for writing and that's going to have to be when I get to write.