Mother's Home!: March 2009

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Spring Time?

We've had a lovely, sunny day today. The latest snowfall is melting - now all we need is enough warm sunshine to get rid of what was there before - another 25 centimeters...

Easter is coming too - just another week, and the Brats will be on Easter break. Good for them. For me, I wouldn't mind hopping off for a night or two at a nice hotel during the Easter break.

Perhaps not. A lovely, mellow week with the family, with sunshine, melting snow and budding crocus is probably just what the doctor ordered. I'll see if I can dig out the crocus bed tomorrow. I'm sure something is happening under all that snow!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Not Very Interested

Well, of course I'm going to get quotes from whoever is offering free insurance quotes. Well, really - are there companies that charge you for giving you a quote?

If there are, chances are they won't be staying in business very long. Reason enough not to go near them.

What would be interesting, when it comes to insurance, would be a company that offered to cover my insurance needs for a realistic, fair price. As it is, I'm paying for every idiot who lights candles under their curtains, drive their cars at neckbreaking speeds or build houses on the edge of ravines.

We pay exorbitant amounts of money every year for something that we'll very likely never need. Of course, we're also paying for the peace of mind that comes with the knowledge that if the worst comes to the worst - it could have been worse.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Me - A Laundromat

Have I told you lately that we're 8 people in this household? Well, all right - with #1 Brat temporarily out of here, we're 7 people who go through clothing as if... well as if nudity was going out of fashion.

This means that the old washing machine rarely has an idle moment. On average, it does 2-3 loads per day. What we don't have, however, is a dryer. Clothes are hung the old-fashioned way, and in the winter, that means indoors, on racks.

This probably creates quite a humid ambiance. Luckily, we've got a state-of-the art air conditioning system, that makes sure that the house doesn't mould from the inside, so we don't need a dehumidifier yet. We've had a couple of service stops to the air conditioning though, and after a day or two, the windows are full of condensed water...

The house is well insulated, and warm/ cool, as the case may be. Still, we never had condensation problems in our old house. It was - old. The wind didn't always stop at the walls, but it was breathing, without a device for moving the air around.

Does this scepticism for all things overly technical mean that I'm getting old? Mind you - take my dishwasher and washing machine away, and I'll bite!

Working From Home

I do work from home. More and more, actually.
Although the workload - and pay - are difficult to predict, I can't see "normal" work holding a candle to freelance activities. Not to me, anyway.
With my 6 brats, I'd be quite happy to not have a 9-5 job ever again.
We're getting ready to try out a venture that hopefully will create a job from home for hubby as well, but it's early days.
When and if it happens, it will most certainly be blogged about. Huge amounts of cash would speed things up, of course. But, as all the emails telling me that I've got loads'a euros, dollars AND pounds waiting for me in various parts of the world are probably rather dubious, we'll just have to get there in a normal, step-by-step sort of way. With the usual hickups, I'm sure.

Fingers are crossed on a permanent basis.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

A Great Gift

We rarely buy furniture. There has been no need to - we have limited space, and we're happy to accept hand-me-downs. Lately, we've been given a 3-seat couch, and just about the most expensive piece of furniture that's ever seen the inside of these walls - a recliner.
Hubby's uncle has recently recovered from cancer of the spine. He's in remission, but parts of his back have been eaten away, so finding a good chair to sit in is quite a challenge. He's also got a new perspective on life, so he's decided to spend his money while he's still around to enjoy it. Good for him! And good for us, as it turned out. He went and bought this fancy, super expensive thing before Christmas, but it wasn't good for his back, so he asked if we wanted it.
Of course we did... Hubby likes a doze in a chair from time to time, and we'd been talking about having a look at discount recliners, but there's no discount going on here... And hubby can doze off in front of the TV as often as he wants.
Don't tell him this, but the Brats like to spin in it, too.
While uncle was at it, he replaced his "old" leather couch as well, and as a result, we now have an extra one. Which means that we can all sit comfortably for our Friday night taco session. All we need now is a bigger table.
Anyone downsizing? We could swap!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

It's Been A While

- but here I am again... Life gets rather busy when you've got 6 brats, not to mention that I've been a snow widow lately.

Don't you know what a snow widow is? It's somebody who's married to someone who's been silly enough to volunteer for snow clearing duty in the most extreme snow-winter for years. He's been gone for up to 20 hours at a time, and now it's snowing again.

If you insist on seeing how much fun a snow widow has, look at my last blog post - absolutely toll free.

Yeah, I know. Fun for the kids.