Pool Maintenance for Dummies

I'm sure there must be a book with this title.  If there is, I need it.  First thing this morning we started reading through all the instructions on how to start your filter and all the things to make your pool swimmable.  We even watched the 'instructional, interactive DVD".  I did not have enough coffee in my system to make it through that one!  I ended up having to go to the pool store and admit how dumb I am to the guy who sold us the pool.  He asks the obvious, "Did you read the instructions?"  Duh, of course we did!  I made him show me on the floor model how to put the filter in the water-purifying unit.  Easy, just unscrew the lid, drop in the filter and screw it back on.  No problem, we can handle that.  Have you ever tried to screw a lid on when 20,000 gallons of water is trying to escape from the little cap you just took off?  Not as easy as you'd think.  Now Phil and I are standing in a very large mud puddle, trying to decide what to do next.  Next is shoveling all the dirt back in the 4 foot trench around the pool.

I am on my lunch break, and we told the girls they could swim when the movie they just put in is over.  So, it's back to shoveling for me!

Did I mention that this huge pile of dirt is mostly large clumps of clay?  Oh well, looking at the sunny side, I will have a great tan and some nicely toned muscles!

Goals and Challenges

The other day I was talking to a good friend about goals.  Last year she wanted to run in a marathon.  She set that goal, and worked her way to success.  She didn't start by going out and running for miles, she started walking and then conditioned herself to the point where she finished that marathon.  I am so proud of her!

I don't think of myself as a 'goal oriented' person.  I've always seen setting goals as more of a challenge, and I'm not much for challenges.  I blame it on my non-competitive nature.  Go ahead, challenge me to see who can do more push-ups, or whose house is cleaner...I will gladly hand the title to you, uncontested.

During our conversation I was saying how I think it's a weakness in me that I don't set specific goals and try to obtain them.  She encouraged me by telling me she thinks I do set goals, I just don't label them as goals.  She then went on to tell me how she sees certain things I do with my kids as goals I've set that I just enforce on a daily basis.  I never thought of it like that.  For instance, dressing modestly is a big deal in our home.  We don't allow the girls to wear anything that is too tight, or would show their stomachs.  We have a great resource hanging on our fridge that has some 'tests' to do before you leave the house to see whether you pass the modestly-dressed test (you can find this at Secret Keeper).   It's made me think about the things I do every day, that I just do without much thought, that will eventually take me to a place I want to be.  I guess that is the definition of a 'goal'. 

How do you define 'goals', and how do you work toward them? 

Splash!

Here it is, our new pool!  It was amazing how quickly those guys got this thing together.  In about 4 hours they had the yard leveled, and the pool was (and still is) filling.  I took a picture documentary of the whole process.  I am so thankful Phil and I did not attempt to do this project ourselves.  I think this is the first time we've ever paid for professionals to do a job.  Wow!  It was awesome to watch people who know what they're doing work on a project.  When we remodeled our kitchen, we got it done, but it took an entire summer. 

For the rest of this summer we will be working on the landscaping in the yard.  There is the pool, the trampoline, and mounds of dirt.  The dog didn't quite know what to make of it.  When he went out this morning, the yard was empty.  When we let him out after they left, he looked a little confused that most of his yard was gone. 

The only problem is that I do not have a green thumb (or even a pinky finger).  It will be interesting.  If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Extreme Home Makeover: Operation Organization

I have three daughters, one of whom is mostly neat and organized, and the other two are 'messies'.  They try, they really do, but their packrat nature is inherited.

My Grandfather saved everything!  If a hairdryer broke...don't throw it out!   You try to to fix it.  If it's beyond repair, save it, you might need a part off of it.  He was alway tinkering away in the basement, fixing something or making some contraption.   I have similar tendencies.  Like the coffee cans I keep saving because I know one of these days I will need them for a lesson plan I teach. 

 In order to teach my children, and myself, to stay more oraganized, we are going room by room and doing a clean sweep.  Have you ever seen that show?  It's on TLC and basically, someone comes in and helps people organize their stuff into 'keep', 'toss, or 'sell' piles.  It's amazing how much stuff you keep that should really just be tossed.  

At this point, the basement has become the dumping ground for the stuff I need to mark for a garage sale.  I have never done a garage sale before, so this will be a first.  Ever the teacher, I'm going to have my kids help (making change will keep those math skills sharp).  Alisha is excited about it.  She says it will be like working in a store.  She even set up a 'sale' in the living room the other day.  It was so cute!  I couldn't afford to shop at her garage sale though, her prices were a bit high.  Like the Build-a-Bear princess crown for $15!  My kids want to see if they can sell enough of their old stuff to be able to buy a Nintendo Wii.  We'll see.

Pool Countdown: 1 more day!!!!!! 

Lumberjack

"That tree has to come out."  Crushing words from the pool installer, Chris.  Apparently, if you have a pine tree anywhere near your swimming pool, the little needles can rip up your pool liner, and at $400.00 to replace it, yep, the tree had to go.  They work us back into the schedule...2 weeks later!  The sad thing is it was a beautiful tree!  It was a 25ft. blue spruce (we're guessing).  Not wanting to spend any more money on this project, we decided to take it down ourselves.

Thankfully we have a friend in the tree removal business who gave me a quick course in tree cutting 101.  You need to cut all the branches off on the opposite side from the direction you want the tree to fall.  Makes sense; the weight of the branches will pull it that way.  So, in a typical display of Mongold ingenuity, I hold the 12 ft. wooden, ladder for my husband as he cuts off the branches as high as he can reach.  The neighbors had some great entertainment that evening!

We finally get to the point where it's time to start the chainsaw and cut that bad boy down.  Turns out, the chain on the saw is so dull, it won't cut a thing. Great!  Now what?  Wait, we have an ax.  You got it, my manly husband cut that tree down with an ax!  I have a new respect for those pioneers who had to cut down trees to build their homes.  It was a lot of work (for Phil, not me...I just took pictures and stayed out of the way.)  After an hour and a half a chopping, the tree fell down. 

So, now that the tree is removed, and the yard is ready, the date is upon us again.  This Thursday, Chris, the pool man, will return to dig 40'' of our yard to install our 24', round, 5' deep swimming pool. 

Summer Fun

In an effort to update our yard from the little-kid toys we've always had to the not-so-boring toys of tweens and teens, we bought a trampoline.  Today I sent them out to play while I cleaned out their desk.  They are pack rats!  I found school memos from 2 months ago!  They came in complaining that it was, "way too hot.  We want the sprinkler on."  Knee deep in paper airplanes, and a whole year's worth of homework papers, I was not in the mood to be the nice mommy.  So, I told them to fill a bucket with water and squirt each other with their water guns.  I went out to check on them a little later to see the trampoline covered in white streaks.  "What happened?"  I yell (now I am so not the nice mommy).  Apparently they thought it would be fun to see what happened if they added dish soap to the bucket of water.   They are supposed to be out there hosing it off with clean water, but the pipes are making a horrific sound.  I'd better see what is going on.  Oh my, what a way to start a week.

I, Me, Us, We

I wanted to write something clever and fun today, but honestly everything I've tried to write I've deleted.  I've had something that's been really been on my mind lately, and I know that's what I'm supposed to talk about.

It's this: I have a relationship with God as an individual first, and then as a member of His family.  When I am talking to Him one-on-one, I would speak from my heart, "I love You...I worship You...You are so good to me..."  When I am with other believers and we are worshiping together, wouldn't it make sense to say, "We love You...We worship You...You are so good to us...?  That's not how it typically is.  If you really listen and pay attention to the words, a lot of times we sing about ourselves and the Lord, even when we are assembled together as His body. 

I've come to a place where I long to get together with my family-in-Christ, and worship Him together.  That's a part of what "church" is.  I can spend time with my God, as my Father, my Redeemer, all through my  week.  But, there is only a small percentage of that time where we are all gathered together in the same place to come before a Holy God and worship Him.  I've noticed this longing grow stronger, the more time I spend with Him one-on-one throughout the week. 

So, this morning during service the kind people sitting next to me probably thought I was a little off when I changed all the references of "me" and "I" in the songs, to include all of us.  It made me feel more connected, and more unified when I sang, "Jehovah, Jehovah, we cry, we cry.  Before we ask You say, 'I will.' You've been so faithful to us."  It might not have sounded as musical, but I know that's what God wanted me to do. 

So, that's the lesson I learned today.  I hope it wasn't too deep.  Now, I think I'm going to do what all good Christians do on Sunday afternoons...I'm going to take a nap!

How many cups of coffee does it take...

I'm already into my third cup of coffee, and I'm still only slightly awake.  I stayed up way too late reading last night and had crazy dreams besides.  Godzilla-like creatures took over the world, but they let us pack up some things before they shuffled us off to prison camps.  What was I doing in the dream?  Stressing over whether I should pack my eye drops or not!  I need to go to bed earlier tonight!

Last evening we went to see a drama put on by our church's youth group.  It was called Baggage Claim, and was a modern-day parable about salvation.  It was funny, and the music they used was good too.   The neatest thing to me was that the guy who had the lead roll is like a nephew to me.  The sofa they used as a prop was one that was in his house, when he was a baby.  So, I spent some of the time fighting back tears (good ones) remembering when he was a baby and how far he has come.  He's serving God, helping to raise money for his youth group to go on a misssion trip to Honduras this summer, and is a great actor.  He had so many lines!  My favorite part of the play was the bellhop (Jesus) who would ask if he could help with the baggage, and then would proceed to toss it out the window!  My friend David did a great job in this roll.  He didn't have many lines, but he gave his character that gentle/strong/always there presence that Jesus is in our lives.  I think I'm going to go see it again tonight.  It was that good!  If anyone is interested in more info. and would like to come as well, just let me know. 

Saturdays

Saturdays are so full of possibilities.  We don't usually have any plans on Saturdays, so my morning is spent over two cups of coffee (lilberally laced with chocolate caramel creamer today) trying to decide what to do.  It's raining so that narrows it down a bit.  We were going to go to some garage sales today, and put together the trampoline we bought for the girls, but it's raining harder now.  Oh well, the grass needs it. 

My kids are monopolizing the other computer playing RollerCoaster Tycoon.  Oh, and they're arguing over something that happened  last summer. 

Current Events

I always hated current events in social studies class.  I never wanted to know what was going on unless it directly related to me.  How selfish was I?  I've never been one to watch the news or keep up with what's going on, but lately I find myself wanting to know.  I've been glancing through the newspaper almost every day.  When I stop to think about why I never wanted to keep up with current events, I realize it was fear.  I was afraid to hear about all the horrible things going on in the world around me, as if ignorance would keep it far from personally affecting me.  Thank God He has helped me mature and grow to the point where I do not fear the world and it's deeds, but rather it causes me to reach out to others. 

For a long time I've felt like my family has been living in a protective Christian bubble.  Everything we did was somehow related to our local church.  There's nothing wrong with that I suppose, except when it get's to the point where you exclude all else.   I mean, we've been in our house for ten years, and barely know our neighbors.  How sad! 

Recently, I've been asking God to help us break out of this bubble, and He has.  Within days of coming to this conclusion, I had opportunities to talk to the neighbors directly across the street and on either side of our house.   During the last bad storm, the tree on the side of our house lost a large limb which fell on the neighbors fence and into their garden.  Ok, that's not necessarily what I had in mind when I wanted to reach out to my neighbors.  I'm not sure how it went (I'll admit it...I hid in the house and let my manly husband wield his chainsaw to remedy the problem), but I know God is doing something.  Phil says they weren't upset, and at least it gave them a chance to talk.  I plan on spending as much time outside as I can this summer, in the hope that will bring more opportunity to get to know my neighbors.

Poochy Dog Update

Patches seems to be perking up.  He is back to his normal begging when I'm working in the kitchen.  I guess it was doggy flu or something.  Someone told me it could be the cicadas making him sick.  Has anyone ever heard of this?