I am posting from my iPod.

When we go and visit my grandma, it never ceases to amaze me the things she has seen in 91 years. Think about it for just a little bit.

Born in 1919 on a little homestead in haakon co, South Dakota, they didn't have electricity or running water. Reading her Pa's old journals, he writes about all the chores that had to be done on a daily basis just to survive.

Grandma eventually grew up and got married and started having kids of her own. She actually lived in a boxcar in Rapid City for a while with several of them while grandpa worked to help build the minutemen missile sites. I believe at that Pontiac in time there were only two or three or possibly four of my aunts and uncles.

Eventually they were back in Philip. Grandpa was sent to World War II, but he got call while in New York waiting to deploy that his fourth child had been born. He had the option to go back home. He went to Europe anyway. Figured he had gone that far...

There would be ten kids total. My dad was third from the end. But during Grandma's ninety-one years...
...running water indoors, indoor heating, television, telephone, cars, airplanes, computers, Internet... Unbelieveable.

Putty

The drive home from school today was a test. It was only a test, not the real thing. In the event of the real thing, we would have been given instructions on what to do next. In this case, no instructions were given.

Tiger must have had a rough day, possibly a napless day. He screamed nearly the entire way home (30 minutes). I HAVE TO PEE. I WANT MY ORANGE. I WANT MY BOOKS. I'M STANDING. I DON'T WANT TO SIT IN THIS CHAIR. I WANT TO GET OUT. I WANT TO GO HOME. Full force, with tears, at full volume, for the full ride. It was amazing. It gave me time to reflect.

When these events occur, one of two things happen for me. Either I get really irritated and ignore him or I just ignore him. Tonight I was able to avoid irritation and just ignore. I reflected on how much I have grown in the last 6 months. My travel companion asked me what I thought was the cause for all this growth... well, parenting two small children alone, working full time, and having your hand "forced" will pretty much do it. I had a character building 2010. I feel like a hunk of silly putty that has been taken from its container. Previously, it was too cold to do anything with. But after playing with it, squishing it around in my fingers, working it out, you can do a lot of cool stuff with it. That's me -- one of God's hunks of silly putty. I just hope that I am more supple now to do whatever it is He has sent me here to do.

Bright

Well, the day just gets more interesting by the moment.

I am sitting in my Jetta otside my house. The stark brightness of the fresh snow is almost more than my pale eyes can stand. I can barely see my laptop screen: the glare is obnoxious. But, things are getting done.

I just ran in my house to collect my computer after I drove up. The kids are both sleeping in the back seat... I dare not wake them by attempting to carry them into the house through South Dakota's 35mph breeze. When I walked in, I saw that my furnace had kicked on. Hooray! So now here I sit, outside, working on my $500 integration plan and listening to Glenn Beck (I didn't realize they ran reruns of him on Sundays). I almost forgot to mention that I just gorged myself on a gigantic chocolate-covered rice crispie bar as well as a venti vanilla latte. It was a lonnnng morning, but we pulled it off. I am so glad the babies are sleeping.

I am pretty sure that none of this is of any relevance at this time... but I am really enjoying keeping an "online" journal. Maybe someone will get a kick out of it, if I ever actually write something worth a toot! :)

January Chill

The three of us were lying in bed this morning -- early this morning, before 5:30 -- and Tiger whispers in my ear, "Mommy, I'm cold!" We pulled the blankets up higher, trying not to wake up Baby Sister. She began to stir, so we all snuggled closer. It was really cold in our room. Cece woke up, so we "played" camping, and we all cuddled under the blankets. Finally, I decided I better get up and go take a look at the furnace.

The furnace is in our basement. Our basement is cold. I stopped at the thermostat to see what the actual temp was in the living room: 60F. I grabbed my coat and put on my slippers to go downstairs. I had been "fixing" the furnace for a few weeks now. I try to make it a habit that whenever I venture downstairs, I take anything down that needs to go there, and bring anything up that needs to come up. I took a sack of canned food for my expanding basement pantry.
Once downstairs, I give the furnace its needed whack. This generally ignites something (and it scares me every time -- doesn't it seem like whacking something to make a fire start isn't very safe?) and the furnace kicks on. I hear all the familiar noises that indicate my whack was successful, so I move the laundry I started last night into the dryer. Then the comforting your-house-is-getting-warm sound ends. I whack the furnace again. Nothing. Crap.

So now here I am, back upstairs, in my winter coat, extra socks, slippers, and my warm laptop computer sitting my extended legs. I'm waiting for anybody to "Facebook" me and give me the names of someone, anyone, who might take a look at my furnace. Tiger has on extra pants, socks, and a jacket. Cece is snuggled up in two blankets and has gone back to sleep on the living room floor. I closed off all the doors to the outlying rooms -- our house is tiny, less than 1000sq ft -- and we do have a Duraflame space heater, so it should warm up in time... but it makes me think of all the people around the world who live this way every day. Although I am freezing by my standards, I am grateful.

It looks like it is warming up... 62F now. Maybe I'll fire up the oven and start that turkey pot pie I was thinking of making.