Christmas Break Life Hacks

We are enjoying a low-key, chill break here in our household.  Savannah had the week off work, and it has been nice having her home, but I wouldn't really call it a break.  She has worked daily on her portfolio and polishing her grad school applications.

Today we saw the final installment in the Star Wars movies.  The first movie I remember seeing in a theater was Star Wars.  I remember being intrigued by the whole theater experience but not the movie so much.  I think my parents must have really wanted to see it but had no sitter. I ended up loving the movie and saw all but one of the nine main films in theaters.  So much has changed since then. I never would have guessed that someday I would watch the last of the movies on a 3 story screen in a recliner.  Nor would I have imagined that I would one day attend a church where the service is shown on screens that are probably as big as, if not bigger than, that original screen where I was first introduced to the only sci-fi I like.

Every year we have a household Santa who brings us a Star Wars gadget of some sort.  We now have a toaster that imprints R2D2 on your toast and a waffle maker that makes waffles in the shape of Darth Vader's head.  It's a fun little tradition.  I think our other gadget was an air popper.

Our movie fun today was followed by catching our Wildcats defeat their state rivals in basketball.  Woot! Woot!

Aside from the Christmas break fun, I have been working on some little life hacks.  In case you have the same problem, I will share them here.

Heavy, breakable ornaments:  The football jersey ornament of Zach's that broke last year did not break because it was not secured well to the tree.  It broke simply because the ribbon holding it on the tree came undone and slipped off.  We have somehow accumulated many breakable ornaments.  While wandering through Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago, I found clips to hold ornaments to the branches.  I decided to give them a try.  While securing our ornaments with the clips, I came up with an idea to stop the possible loss because a ribbon loses its security - zip ties.  I have worked my way through our breakable ornaments (at least the ones we put on the tree this year) and have secured them with the clips and zip ties so that treasured keepsakes have a bit more security.

The zip tie is not necessary on some of the ornaments as the clip is enough.  This ornament does not have a  hole that is small enough to slip the clip through thus making the zip tie necessary.

slippery pillow cases: This is not a problem for everyone in the family, but my pillow case slides a third or more of the way off of my pillow every. single. night.  It drives me crazy.  I don't have fancy, slippery pillows or cases, but this still happens.  I looked into zippered cases, but it is hard enough to find regular, quality pillow cases that match the bedding without adding a zipper to the requirements. Yesterday, I finally broke down and sewed a two-inch velcro set into two pillow cases, so that I can lock my pillow in its case.   It worked! Fortunately, this is not a problem for anyone but me in this household, so I shouldn't have to do this for every pillow case.

Now I need to work on the stench in my van.  UGH!  When we were rear-ended months ago in a hit and run, we were able to track down the other driver because we got the license plate number.  Of course he ran because he had no insurance.  I figured the damage was mostly cosmetic, and because I didn't want to take the hit to my insurance rates, we didn't get it fixed.  Turns out I was wrong.  The back of the van fills with water every time it rains.  That water, of course, turns stagnant and causes the van to really smell.  Of course nothing can be stored in the back of the van now either.  UGH!  So I have to find an easy way to dispel the stench and get rid of the water quickly.  My charcoal bag isn't cutting it.  I am afraid that I will have to buy one of those expensive, custom trunk liners.

So my next Christmas break project will be to figure out the van situation and then fix a kitchen cabinet.  Julia wants to paint, but I am not so sure we will get to that one as we may be hosting family for New Year's.

Family Pics 2019

After we failed to get good family pics at the beach this summer, I was determined to make fall pictures happen.  Fall pics of families are typically my favorites, and I can't recall ever doing them before.  I knew it would be a challenge with Zach working nights and doing school while Savannah doesn't even live in town. The best date we could get was in early November, and after a dry summer in an area where fall foliage only lasts about a minute anyway, this was going to be tough.  I used to have professional individual photos made yearly of the kids and then didn't buy school pictures.  When our favorite photographer retired, we were already struggling to afford him, and I had already moved on to a new favorite, but I've neglected to follow that tradition with Wyatt and Julia, so it was important to me to get some good individual photos of them.  The arrival of better phone cameras and my own purchase of a decent camera also curtailed all the pro pics, but I just can't capture my family like a pro.

Of course I am critical of photos.  I don't like the way I look, wish I'd been on the other side of the photos (my better side), but I can't stop aging.  Wyatt was not particularly cooperative.  He wasn't that way on purpose, but big smiles on him cause him to appear to have closed eyes.  I've really had to blow some up to make sure his eyes are actually open.  That being said, the colors worked even better than I expected.  The setting was great, and of course we love the photographer.

We actually liked the unedited version of this photo better.

I think I thought turning my head slightly would be a better look for me, but the one photo where I didn't do that his so much better, but it is not a good one of the rest of the crew. Lesson learned.

So it was a chilly morning.  Our photographer warned us that we had to keep warm because we would look cold in the pictures if we were cold.  Savannah struggled the most because her nose turns red when she gets cold, but we don't have any Rudolph pics, and he said that he doesn't remember editing that out.

photos by Derrick Dixon Photography

May your heart be light...

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas...

From our house to yours - May your blessings be big and your burdens light in the coming year!

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. - Ephesians 3:16 NIV

Just a side note - our Christmas cards are primarily virtual this year.

December is for...

a birthday

We celebrated our birthday man-child a bit late so that Savannah could join us.  We used to celebrate early so that our family who consists of many who work more during this season could be there and to give a little more time between a birthday celebration and Christmas. As you will see, pretty much everyone made it this year...so, success!

The flu has struck.  Kinsley (right) was the first to go down.

This guy had me cracking up and feeling the loss that we don't get to see Mom and Dad react to him. He shared with us a story about how he was holding a girl's hand at school.  Another kid tried to chop their arms apart, but Isaac raised his finger and used those fantastic eyelashes and in a very proper accent ordered, "Don't cut our love!"  Hysterical

As I type this, Ira is fighting through double whammy of flu and strep.  It hurts my heart that he might miss the family Christmas celebration tonight.  I would have moved the celebration to this weekend, but Jonathan says we should all go on with it.

Then there's this girl who went down second with the flu.

Surrounded by his fan club

 On Wyatt's actual birthday (which always happens during finals week), we celebrated at home with his favorite Chinese meal and strawberry rhubarb pie.  He's been trying for months to fix his Switch controller, so we replaced it.  I asked the gamers in the family for help with choosing a new controller and chose what I thought was a good one, but Wyatt wanted the game cube style controller like he had before.  He opted to keep the new one and seems to like it, but he did still have time to add the other one to a Christmas wish list.

So December = a family birthday party, finals, more finals, and did I say finals?  Then there's that other major holy day :)

Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room

Christmas season found me in a funk this year.  Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I was working on a family project and was tiring of the process.  I couldn't decorate until said project was complete, and by the time it was complete, I saw no point.  I learned a lesson in this that I hope to remember.

While Christmas always seems to be a challenging time to find the quiet and peace that we all crave, failing to decorate did not change that.  What I found was that when I wasn't preparing my home, I was also neglecting to prepare my heart for this beautiful season.

So last night - yep December 15th- Andy and Julia picked up a tree.  It is drier than a fresh tree should be, and we are trimming it tonight.  It's a smallish tree compared to some of our past selections.  I doubt we will even put half the ornaments on it.  A few shopping trips this weekend combined with pulling out the decorations lightened my heart, and here we are.

I stopped to take a break and let the kids take over.  I jumped on the computer to order a replacement for the ornament that Zach received his senior year.  It broke last year, and the company was sold out when I tried to replace it.  They have upgraded to a newer option with personalization on the front and back, so I added his nickname and the highlights of his senior season and then jumped on the blog.

It's yucky outside here - really yucky, but Christmas music is piping through the kitchen and two of the kids and Andy are in there trimming the tree and chatting about this week's finals. Zach is resting and preparing for another night shift, and I am hoping Savannah fought her way through three essays and a review today and has a clear enough head to prepare for the rest of her finals which take place tomorrow.  While I would love to have her home on Wednesday, I think she should just go ahead and sleep through Friday.  She's had it rough, but the end is in sight.

 My heart is lighter.

PS. And the tree skirt wasn't on the tree for three hours before the little dog peed on it.  UGH! Welcome to the Grizwald's Christmas.

Life Hacks, Restoring photos, and the Swedish Death Purge (sort of)

So, I've had a little project going on here...

Reality- there's nothing little about this project.  Months ago my brother showed up for a family gathering and dumped three big boxes of pictures in my foyer.  They ultimately landed in the living room, and I had no desire to sort them or deal with them.  Then we had out of town guests followed by soccer season along with an estate that I still had to settle.  I begged for help -even hosted a party with the idea that several people could knock out this project in a couple of evenings- not so.  These pictures represent four generations (sometimes more) of family from both my parents' sides.  Mind you, that means the pictures that both sets of my grandparents as well as my parents collected over a lifetime are sitting in my living room.  They have not been organized and are merged in this mess of boxes.  After days of work, I think there may be a light at the end of the tunnel, but here's some of what I've faced.

• Apparently, there was a leak in my parents' basement where the photos where stored - so many photos are glued together because they've been wet (more on how to fix that later).
• Multiple photos of people I can't identify.
• Photos that I needed to mail across the nation to distant cousins and then more found after mailing a bunch
• memories
• minimal organization
• the deeds/loans for every property my parents owned spanning four states- to think they started buying houses at under $20k
• that my paternal grandmother kept every card or letter sent to her when my grandfather died along with her drafts of the thank you letters she would send
• that my dad carried a picture of his maternal grandfather and his parents in his wallet as recently as 21 years ago - I know this because a baby picture of Savannah is in one of the sleeves
• the names of my paternal grandmother's grandparents

What I haven't found:

• a single picture of my sister who died at 17 days old, I know they existed at some point, but they are not in these boxes

Life Hack

Many years ago I had several photos that had been water damaged.  I cannot remember what caused it, but I remember reading online that because photos are processed in water, you can salvage wet photos by getting them wet and peeling them apart. This is what I've learned...

• Use room temperature water
• Stay with them, and keep trying to gently peeling them apart - eventually they usually give.  I did get distracted and left a batch in water unattended for about 45 minutes, and those were a complete loss.
• Dry them vertically as much as possible.  Don't wipe them off.
• Finally, this actually works very well for snapshots.  I haven't had much success with professional photos.

Memories

I found an envelope simply marked "Memories" that was clearly compiled by my mom.  It's full of tickets, pictures and even includes receipts for my parents' wedding bands.  Of course I can't part with  it - yet!

I don't remember the note below written from my brother to me.  I am not sure if it will survive my purge, but the evidence is right here ;)

Facebook Help

When I come across photos of people I can't identify, I go to Facebook for help.  In the case of the picture below, my uncle identified this subject as my paternal grandmother's brother.  Interesting fact, she was one of like nine kids, and this brother's children are close to my age.

Surprises

My dad's baby book is among the photos.  I am pretty sure my own baby book is long gone.  It looks like my grandpa was off fighting WWII when my dad's second birthday was celebrated as a "telegram from Daddy" is listed among the gifts he received.

I also came across a picture of my great aunt taken when she was a young woman.  I showed that one to my siblings, and they couldn't identify her.  We had never seen a single picture of her when she was young.

Organization

You may be asking why these photos have been in my living room for so long.  That's fair.  I knew they had to be in my way so that they wouldn't end up being shoved in a basement corner and ignored for who knows how long? until we move? until my kids are stuck with them?  

As much as possible, I have sorted them by my dad's side of the family, my mom's side, and then each of my siblings have a bag with pictures of them that I've sorted out.  Ultimately, I may revisit the bags and take a few to scan and share, but I'm so done with this project that I may just let that idea go.

Eventually, these will be organized in marked, big envelopes and stored in marked plastic storage boxes.

Swedish Death Purge

These are dumped on brought to me because I have always loved pictures.  In fact I have said at times, "everything in moderation except pictures."  I've spent a fortune on professional pictures of my kids and can't remember a time that I had film developed where I didn't pick up double prints.  If you had said to me 30 years ago that I would simply toss pictures taken of me in college clad in a bikini that I could wear well at that time, I would have said, "Oh, HECK NO!"  As I sorted pictures, I can't even count how many were tossed.  How do I decide what gets tossed, "do I want my kids tasked with this job later?"  So among the pictures lost to the purge...

• any landscape I don't recognize
• any blurred pictures even if you can tell who it is
• any picture of friends I had 30 years ago who I can't even name now- even if I am in said picture, even if I am rocking a bikini body I would like to have back, even if said friend's name is noted on the back of the photo
• all frames (emptied first, of course)
• and of course any damaged pictures that I don't believe can be restored
• any pictures of people I can't identify that appear to be part of some mass mailing to family and friends

So the project continues...

and I believe it's too late to decorate for Christmas, so we are truly going minimal this year.  

Thankful

Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make his deeds known among the peoples.

I Chronicles 16:8 (ESV)

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours.

Our plan for the day is to gather at my brother's house, play games, and eat lots.  First, I will earn it by working through an hour of Jazzercise :). This will make my third class this week and 151st this year.  I feel the results and see them.  I may not be a size 6 again, but this certainly helps to keep me healthy and to combat things like neck pain.

photo courtesy of Derrick Dixon Photography (Derrick also provided the photography for the pics of Zach, Savannah, and Julia on the side of the home page)

Hiccups

photo by Derrick Dixon Photography

This past Wednesday Julia had her wisdom teeth removed.  She's the first of my kiddos to face that procedure.  We had the moments of hilarity as she awoke from the anesthesia.  I do have some video footage that I won't be posting :)

I had to promise to keep her under the care of a parent for 24 hours post procedure. Her initial recovery appeared to be going well. On Thursday I scheduled an appointment to pick up family photos including the one on this post (more to come later).  When I arrived home from said appointment, Julia indicated that her chest hurt.  When I asked where, it seemed to be too high to be indicative of lung issues, but she mentioned a few times that it hurt to breathe. So we ended up in the ER for four hours.  She checked out just fine and came home still determined to return to school on Friday.

Friday morning (we were warned this would be the hardest day) proved to be rough.  Julia's first words out of bed were that she was in a lot of pain and needed something for it.  So we knew right out of the gate that she would not be able to do a full day of school if she could do any.  I was already on my way out the door when this hiccup came up, so I had to go to work.  You can't just call in 1/2 hour before your day starts on a Friday.  She slept most of that day and then rallied that night.  

Now here we are on Sunday, and she's spent little time out of bed and is fighting pain - on just one side.  I know she will return to school tomorrow, but oof - still trying to figure out if maybe a visit back to the surgeon is in order especially with a holiday on the horizon.

All of that being said, this was done to take advantage of the end of year leftover HSA funds and the fact that we met our deductible.  We consulted with the oral surgeon over the removal of an extra tooth, and he recommended getting this all done at once so that Julia won't likely need oral surgery again in her lifetime.  So it felt like an elective thing which is a real struggle for me.  However, when I asked in front of the surgeon just prior to the procedure if Julia really felt so strongly about removing that extra tooth, the surgeon intervened to say that she needed it out and that it would likely be a problem and harder to remove 10-15 years from now.  He then said the magic words, "I would definitely do the same thing for my own child." Sold! Just what I needed to hear.

I will just end this with a bit of humor.  The nurse brought a band-aid to remove the IV.  By mistake she picked up a superhero band-aid.  She asked Julia if she should go get a plain one.  Julia said, "It's fine......I AM a SUPERHERO."  Julia then proceeded to tell me several times that she is a superhero -LOL.

Case Closed?

Has anyone closed an estate before?  I have submitted the final form, receipts and all the details to the probate court?  What happens next?  Do I go to court to be relieved of my duties as executrix, or will I simply receive the court order in the mail?  How long does it take?  Is there a waiting period for the heirs to contest my work if they choose?  If you know, please tell me.

It has been an emotionally, mentally and physically tiring process.  Relationships have been severed, and that court order closing the probate and ending this process will be welcome.

P.S. So this did not close the probate...I did additional paperwork and took a trip to the probate office, and now I wait for notification that all is finished.  

11/24/2019 update - yesterday marked the third anniversary of my dad's home going.  On Thursday (the 21st) this week, I retrieved the mail after spending four hours in the ER (long story for another day) and held the motion to close the probate in my hands.  It is finished.

It's college visit time again - up first, a trip to Charlotte

We have reached the point where we have two kids starting to consider college choices, so the visits are starting.  Savannah has long had UNC at Charlotte on her radar. They have a strong architecture and urban planning program.  Her passion is urban planning.  We paid them a very quick visit during her fall break.  Savannah could not stop talking about the studio space and equipment.  She talked about how studio space that was truly designed for architecture students instead of re-purposed for them makes all the difference in every way - the lighting, organization of space, desks, chairs - all of it.

The campus itself was one of the prettiest I've seen.  I do have an affinity for college campuses as I loved my own undergrad experience and find many campuses to be very pretty.

A botanical garden exists right on campus.

The building that houses the urban planning studios is actually in downtown Charlotte, so we ventured to downtown to check out the building and a nearby artsy district. We found Charlotte to look very new for the most part - downtown buildings, campus, road infrastructure, etc.  Savannah noted that it seems to have a cultured identity.

We enjoyed lunch at the cutest, tastiest French cafe and bakery.

I am not sure I've driven through the mountains in the fall before.  Even though it has been a dry season, and the colors are not as brilliant as they would normally be, it was still gorgeous.

I don't know what Savannah will do.  North Carolina is out of state, and we are not sure she can get a reciprocal agreement there as we are not yet clear on whether the program is a true combination of architecture and urban planning.  We have schools in our state that have these programs solo but not in combination.

I love him. That's all.

I went on a trip this past weekend - more on that in my next post.  Within the past few weeks, Andy and I tried to ignore a dripping sink in our master bath. Andy gutted it and redid the inner workings, but it did not fix the problem, and he reluctantly agreed that we needed a new faucet.  This is a project that should take about an hour, but in our 50 year old house, plumbing is never an easy fix.  I left town after picking out a new faucet to replace the one that may have been the original, and if not, was a generic builder model.  Andy has some vacation time this week, so I didn't expect him to get right on it, but I came home to a dismantled faucet in the master bathroom.  Andy needed another tool to finish the job.  After much grunting and frustration over a one hour project that turned into a multi-day project, we have a nicer looking faucet that does not drip.

I love Andy's resolve to work through a difficult project that is not in his wheelhouse.  In truth our house needs a full renovation, but we have a couple of good things going here.

It Works!

As a teacher who works in an environment requiring professional dress, I was anxious to retire last year - not because of the kids, politicians or parents but because my feet were making me miserable.  My maternal grandmother had lifelong problems with her feet and cautioned me to buy good shoes. She used to say you could wear cheap clothes but should invest in shoes.  Our feet were the same size, so I was the recipient of her failed shoe choices which I never fully understood until my own feet started screaming at me over everything.  I really thought I was taking her advice.  No matter how cute, or comfortable shoes appeared, I avoided cheap shoes and sought out sturdy, lasting good shoes, but even those failed me last year, and I was miserable.  I then started dabbling in expensive shoes starting with Vionics.  I bought Vionic boots last year that I wore every single day from the end of sandal season to the return of it, and my feet stopped screaming and started whining.  Thinking I had found my ticket, I bought wedge sandals made by Vionic.  The foot bed worked for me, but the strap across my toes (another problem area for me), had me anxious to get home and out of my shoes on the daily.  I found a pair of Abeo sandals that I loved and made them my go-to work shoes, but they didn't match everything.  I found myself dressing for my shoes and determining how I would dress based on how much I would be on my feet.  I finally looked for life hacks to fix my shoes so that I didn't struggle so much.  I learned online that I could fill bags with water and stuff them into the shoes or under the straps then freeze them to stretch the shoe. It took a couple of tries, but this really works.  My feet only dislike me now.  When I bought the Abeos pictured above, they did not have my size in the store, so I tried on a similar style and placed my order.  They came and slid off of the backs of my feet, so I had to go down a size.  The area across my toes turned red the first time I wore them, and they hurt, but the foot bed was great!  It took three tries with water bags in the freezer, but these are wearable now.  I most likely won't find a perfect pair of shoes. I thought I had with some Taos sneakers until I logged 15,000 steps in them the first time I wore them for any length of time.  While the left one was great, my right foot suffered two painful blisters.  I can't wear orthodics because I have a  wide foot with a high instep and high arch.  This combination makes for very bad, no good days for my poor feet, so wearable is a huge plus on those days that my go-to shoes (Chaco sandals) aren't appropriate for the setting I am in.

So if you have some shoes that need a little more stretch...

Hiking

We came for this view.  I was having trouble with one of my lenses, so I didn't get the best shot.  

Can you see the double arch?