The Pumper's Wife

Life gives us TONS of frustrations, right?  We start learning about frustrations at an early age with things like: homework, flat tire on a bike, rained out baseball game, snow day that should have been, spilled milk, you know the stressful list.  Then we get a little older and those frustrations become a bit bigger:  broke down car, sick kid, washing machine on the fritz, etc.  Oh, just writing these things down makes my stomach upset!! So what do we do about these frustrations?  We work through them.  We deal with them.  We wish they wouldn’t ever happen again.  But here’s the thing…they teach us.  We become better for them.  Frustrations make us appreciate when things go good.  If not for frustrations, everything would be hunky-dory all the time and we’d never really appreciate how wonderful life is!! I know personally, being the wife of a septic pumper this means calls when I don’t want to be called or a working husband when I don’t want him to be working…like on Christmas

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas (break)… Everywhere you go…there are dishes left out from snacks Toys cluttering up walking paths And Mommys fighting kids on sugar over load!! This may or may not be your current home condition.  I have to admit there is a reason those words popped into my head as I started writing this post…they rang a little true for me!!  Now that I am a home-based business mom, conducting business as normal while the kids are home on break can make Christmas a little more interesting!  If the phone rings, I must answer in my normal business tone despite the cat running for it’s life from the latest hunting game that just ensued upstairs, or the misplaced Lego piece that I didn’t see as I walked around the office.  (Seriously, I swear those tiny little things are the MOST painful toys when stepped upon…) So, this week will be an interesting one.  And it’s not like my boys don’t understand our home business situation, but they are 8 and

It’s that time of year that comes with some wonderful cinema favorites!  I don’t know about you and your family but we have several Christmas movies we like to watch… The Christmas Story Miracle on 34 th Street Elf Charlie Brown Christmas Frosty The Snowman White Christmas A Christmas Carol We love all of these listed above, but my all time favorite Christmas movie is “It’s a Wonderful Life” – in my opinion it just doesn’t get any better than that movie.  And it’s not just because of some of the great lines… “You look like the kind of angel I’d get” “Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people” “I’ve been saving this money for a divorce if I ever got a husband” CLARENCE: No, we don’t use money in heaven GEORGE: Well, it comes in real handy down here, bud! Yes, the lines are great, but more importantly is the message it sends.  We don’t often see characters like George Bailey anymore.  Those types of selfless people truly are becoming a thing

So as we all know, Christmas is upon us!  I truly love this time of year.  I love how everywhere you go there is the air of Christmas all around.  There is Christmas music, Christmas decorations, Christmas candy, Christmas everything!  No matter where you go or what you do, there’s a little bit of Christmas everywhere.  Even grocery shopping is filled with the Christmas spirit as baked good ingredients seem to scream “buy me and the smell of Christmas will permeate your house!”  Everywhere it’s Christmas.  There’s just something different about this time of year that really does sing, “it’s the most wonderful time, of the year…” But as fun as I find Christmas it never ceases to amaze me how fast my December fills up with things to do, attend, and prepare for.  It can get overwhelming!!  And, being overwhelmed can get me grouchy making my “bah humbugs” ring out louder than my “Merry Christmas’s.” I will even go as far to admit that there have been Christmas seasons when I started o

Did you know that septic systems make for an AWESOME science project topic?  You didn’t?! Obviously you didn’t have a science teacher who knew how to incorporate the word “poop” into ordinary classroom conversations….ha! As I have mentioned before, I used to teach middle school science.  (BEST. JOB. EVER.)  And though my body may not be in a classroom anymore, my heart and mind still are.  FORTUNATELY, I still get to play teacher with my own children when they bring their homework home at night, but what thrills me the most are SCIENCE PROJECTS assignments!!  Yay!! Seriously, this is my addiction in life.  (Well, that and coffee…but I digress…) My oldest son in 5 th grade recently had a science project assigned to him.  He brought home paperwork describing what he could do to fulfill the requirements of the project.  In that, he was told he could research something or perform an experiment.  As we were reading through some of the ideas or examples his teachers listed, one