DUMA KEY by Stephen King

I said I'd never read Stephen King again, after finding myself SO scared while reading one of his books that I threw the book across the room. That was a long time ago -- it may have been CUJO or one King wrote shortly after that. I swore I'd never read him again -- but here I am, reading his newest book DUMA KEY. I'm about half way through the book, and so far it's OK. Not too scarey and really well written. You get completely enmeshed in the lives of the main characters, and I'm a sucker for really good character development. There's been a few hints that darker things are coming, and I pick the book up each night with a bit of trepidation... like waiting for someone to jump out at you and yell "BOO!"... but that person is never behind the corner you think they're going to be behind. I'm pretty sure I'm being lulled into a false sense of security and that the darker side of King will leap out at me at any moment. But my goodness, you have to admire this man's writing, whether you enjoy horror books or not. I often visualize him sitting at a typewriter (not a computer!) and plunking away, picking the words one by one. I just can't imagine how anyone is given that much talent -- how anyone can use the same words you and I know, but put them in an order that just sweeps you away into his world. It's brilliant stuff. I'm not sure what will happen when I do reach the scarey parts... I'm SO enjoying the book and I SO hate to be scared. But I'm already so involved with the two main characters that I doubt I'll be able to put it down without promptly picking it back up again. Maybe I can just read the scarier parts quickly -- kind of skim over them to get the jist, but not the details... So far, it's a wonderful book -- totally engrossing. I just hope I can finish it.

Snow and ice and ice and snow...

We got hit by a fairly unexpected storm last night. Weather forecasters, of course, had not said we were getting 3-4 inches of snow (a LOT by Cincinnati standards), but had predicted freezing rain, which we got after the snow. By 6pm last night, schools were cancelling like crazy, despite the fact it had STOPPED snowing and raining by 10pm! Road crews had all night to clear the roads (have they not heard of overtime??) and honestly, I just don't see why schools were closed today. The saddest part of all this is, is that when Summer approaches and the schools have to decide about all the snow days they've missed, they usually elect to make up one or two, but never all of them. My question is: Which day in school is "disposable" and WHY? I have a history of fighting with the schools my kids were in when it came to making up snow days... I could never understand why ever minute in school wasn't important to the administration. Which day should my 4th grader miss? The day they were to learn to multiply by 5? The day they were to learn about commas? The day they were to do a diarama of the Plymouth landing? The day they were to learn how to spell "enunciate"? Just tell me which little piece of the puzzle was it OK for my child to miss? Ah well.. it's up to the parents with children in school now to fight the good fight for their child. The same weather than cancelled schools today also cancelled Brayden's and my "Gym Class" we had scheduled for 10:15. I am enrolling him in a 2 yr old gym class that will meet every Friday morning for 20 weeks. I know he'll be shy about joining in at first, but when he watches the other kids walking the balance beam and doing other fun stuff, I know he'll join in eventually. The class size is only 7 children, which is great. I think he's going to love it! Besides giving him something fun to do, it will also get us out of the house every Friday, which we both need. (Of course, all this is still dependent on my getting a car eventually!) Once he turns the big TWO on March 1st, I'll also be signing him up for our local public library's Two-Year-Old Story Hour, which I know he'll love. Mary's running late this morning, so I had time to put a pot roast in the crock pot for dinner tonight before Brayden arrives, and get a little housework done. Our plans for the day will include Play-Doh and going down to the basement to play in the Sandbox I've set up down there. Should be fun!

Another beautiful sunrise

Another beautiful sunrise at my house this morning. I'm delighted to find that the sunrises are coming earlier and earlier -- which means Spring is just around the corner! Yay!

These colors are my "dream quilt" colors - that beauitiful turqoise blue with the salmon-pink and butter-yellow. These are MY colors. They remind me of the colors found in Maxwell Parrish paintings, which I love.

And a picture of Brayden Lee playing "Bump bump" on Jeff's recliner. He loves to run his car (notice, it's a NASCAR car) over anything with a bump to it. As I've mentioned before, Brayden loves his race cars and knows them all by name -- Kevin (Harvick), Terry (LaBonte), Bobby (LaBonte) and Dale (Earnhardt Sr.). He can identify them when races are on TV as well.

The best laid plans...

Well, I had my day planned. But as Jeff got ready to leave for work he flipped on the news and discovered that I75 is at a dead stop and he's decided to work from home today. Because his office is upstairs and he will be on the phone most of the day, it's not feasible for me to clean upstairs today. OK - twist my arm. LOL! So, I find myself something new and fun to do. I went to RINGSURF and try to find a blog ring for homemakers. There isn't one?!?!? What is THAT about??? So, of course, I have to start one. Surely, there are other homemakers out there. Homemakers can work outside the home, of course, but their heart is with their home and their family. To me, homemakers ARE the heart of the home. We keep things moving. We make life easier for our family and we make our homes a safe place and an escape from the big bad world out there. We clean, we cook, we do laundry. Yes, we have outside interests (obviously, mine is quilting)... but our home and family are what makes our hearts go pitter-pat every day. If you're reading this and are a homemaker at heart, please join my Ring! All it really does is increase the traffic to your blog or web site. Once you sign up, I'll come visit your site (I'll take my coffee with Sweet n' Low and Cream, please!) and see that it's homemaker related, and I'll give you my stamp of approval (for all it's worth) and poof! you put a little web ring thingie on your blog or web page and off we go! I guess I should go do some laundry or soon I'll find myself lost in the land of the Internet for the day! So easy to find things to do on the 'net!

Cleaning Day

Yesterday, Brayden and I did some cleaning upstairs. He's entering his "Terrible Two's" stage (although he somehow manages to do it in a very SWEET way!), and the busier I keep him, the better behaved he is. (He learned the word "No" last week, and he's now practicing it a lot.) So, though hard to believe, one of his favorite things to do when we can't get outside is to clean! Yesterday he and I cleaned upstairs. We gathered all the trash (he brings me the trash baskets, I empty them into a larger trash bag, put in a new liner, and he puts the basket back), dusted, and he windexed toilet seats and sides of tubs while I windexed mirrors and windows. He LIKES to clean toilets, but I'm just not comfortable with exposing him to germs like that, so he's happy if he can just windex the tanks and the top of the seat lids. He also helped me put away laundry (he can reach the shelf in the linen closet for clean towels and washcloths). He didn't want me to vaccuum -- for some reason he's scared of my upstairs vac, though it's exactly the same as the downstairs vac! Last, he helped me make the bed. Downstairs, he vac'd the family room and kitchen for me. Because I have a big heavy cannister vac he can't move around, I stand behind him and hold the hose and move the vac - but he does all the manual labor. The child has a "thing" about vac'ing under furniture and wayyyy in the corners! He does a great job! So today, I need to get back upstairs and finish the cleaning. My To Do List is: -- Vac upstairs -- Vac stairs and wipe down staircase sideboards -- Finish cleaning both upstairs bathrooms - tubs, toilets -- Wash both bathroom floors -- Put clean comforter and pillowcases on guest bed -- Clean sheets on master bed -- Clean towels in bathrooms In addition, I'm trying to do a major quilt room re-organization, so I'll work on that today for the afternoon. This morning Jeff is running a little late, so I made him a breakfast burrito he can take with him on the drive to work. One of his favorite breakfasts. I buy ONE 1/4 inch thick slice of "cooked ham" (called "boiled ham" in some parts of the country), and cube this up to have in the refrigerator to use in omelettes, on salads, and to throw in bean soup when I make it. This ham is actually the least expensive lunchmeat we can buy here, despite the fact it's "pure" ham. Far more popular in New England than in Ohio. So here's my recipes for BREAKFAST BURRITO 1 tsp diced onion* 1 tbsp diced green pepper 1/4 cup (or so) cubed ham (1/4 inch cubes) 2 eggs 1 tbsp milk or cream 1 slice American cheese Dash salt, dash pepper 1 flour tortilla In a lightly buttered small fry pan, cook the onion, green pepper and ham until the onion is cooked through. In a small bowl, mix the eggs and milk as in scrambled eggs. Pour into the pan over the ham, onions, pepper. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir just like scrambled eggs until eggs are cooked through. Cut cheese slice in half and lay end to end on tortilla. Scoop cooked egg mixture on top (the heat of the eggs will melt the cheese). Roll up like a burrito and wrap in aluminum foil. *I use only a small amount of onions because I know Jeff doesn't want "onion breath" at work!