Thank God its Monday, Maybe Now I Can Rest!!!

We worked our tails off this weekend and I'm exhausted from it! First, the boys went in the boat again and caught eight nice catfish. They are strictly catch and release fishing. We don't eat fish from area lakes because most are contaminated from various power plants and/or Pilgrim's Pride and US Steel run-off. There are warnings:

"Lone Star Lake (aka Ellison Creek Reservoir) in Morris County
Chemicals of Concern: PCBs
Persons should not consume any species of fish from this reservoir."

So we heed them.

Meanwhile, the girls culled their clothing and toys, and I spent the morning sorting through fabric and yarn, cleaning out the fridge, and cutting up eight ginormous bell peppers that I got on sale. I cut them up into a small dice and freeze in pint-sized bags. One pepper filled each bad so full that I could barely get them closed. After I got all the hard work done, I was able to sit down to work on hand-attaching the binding to my confetti quilt while we watched Cloverfield, which was good but not great. I didn't care for the "camera man" character, he was way overdone and it seemed kind of hokey in some scenes(ok, REALLY hokey). The binding got finished last night. I'll have pictures after I get my batteries charged.

Sunday we got up early and cleaned the garage. all. day.. long! Our garage serves as a catch-all furniture storage place for several pieces including at least two dressers, a few bed frames, headboards, bookshelves, lamps, end tables... you name it we probably have it, plus tools, pool supplies, sports equipment, items to donate, and other typical garage-ish stuff. So, we straightened all that out, putting some of it in the attic. On the other side of the garage I set up a station for the kids to bring me boxes and buckets for me to sort out. We ended up with several bags and boxes to donate. Ryan mowed as well.

After we got the garage put back together(around 5pm), the kids and I went out to dredge leaves out of the bottom of the pool. Ryan found a dragonfly larvae that he's going to try to nuture to adulthood.

I'm not too sure about this pool stuff. From what we saw yesterday it looks like they'll have to redo the whole floor of the shallow end and about half of the slope, and there are two big places on the wooden frame that are rotted so bad that its like paper. One of those places has a huge ant bed in it. I don't think it will be an easy job, that's for sure. They were supposed to come today for something but we're expecting rain for the next three days. I imagine that will put them a bit behind schedule. Not that its warm enough to swim yet at all, but Ryan was hoping to have it ready by his birthday on the 15th.


It was a good day but I am TIRED(and there is still more to do out there!).

Today's chores include more fabric and yarn sorting, cleaning my bathroom, laundry and cooking. First, I MUST pick up my bedroom floor and sweep. As I was putting the new quilt on the bed I moved a pillow from the floor and was attacked by a lint puff in the vague shape of a spider. I screamed so loud that it made the dogs bark!!

It is also Cinco de Mayo, which we'll "celebrate" by having pulled chicken soft tacos with guacamole. For what its worth, my chicken is NOT Pilgrim's Pride, not just for the illegal immigrant issues but because they inject most of their chicken with "up to a 12% broth(saline) solution" to "improve" the flavor(and make it heavier so you are actually BUYING WATER). Sanderson Farms doesn't inject their chicken and it is minimally processed. Anyway, back to the immigration problem, what a freakin' mess that is! The family who came Saturday evening to remove the pool liner is from the same area many of the Pilgrim's Pride workers are from and they are Hispanic. They had two preteen boys and a 6-almost-7-year-old girl, just beautiful children and very nice. The little girl's birthday is the day after Sarah's. They were all bilingual, which is helpful, I just hope they are not illegal. Sigh.

Later this afternoon I hope to have a chance to sort my WIPs and find all the fabrics for my unicorn quilt. It will be a Turning Twenty pattern, or maybe a Turning Twenty Again, I haven't decided yet. Either way, the feature fabric is a beautiful mottled purple and royal blue with a rather large unicorn on it, accented wtih silver metallics here and there. I've chosen about twentysomething purples and blues to coordinate with it. Pictures later, I promise... putting the batteries on the charger now.