Home Alone

So, I'm kinda torn...On one hand I love baseball and I really enjoy watching my boys play. They are all so talented (and I'm not just being a proud parent here). On the other hand, as soon as Art leaves for the field with the boys, I feel like a teenager whose parents just left for the weekend!

Don't get me wrong, I don't just screw around the whole time. Mostly I clean but it's a different type of cleaning- with my music blasting and limited interuptions from children who need something or who want to tell me about the cartoon they just watched. I get so much done but I do it at my own pace and I actually enjoy it!

So...I figure there will be plenty of baseball. We have 4 boys on 4 different teams and with regular season, all stars then fall ball, I have until November to catch some of the games.

The first thing I did when the boys left today was put my ipod on the dock. I turned it up as loud as I could stand. I finished up some sanding on the trunk I'm restoring and put all my tools in one place so I can find them later. 

My house is a disaster! It seriously looks like a tornado blew threw it... where to begin? I knew if I thought about it too long I'd get discouraged so I decided to just jump right in and tackle some of the things I'd been putting off forever.

The upstairs hallway was getting to be kind of dangerous. Last night when I was heading up to bed with my arms full of baby gear (I'd forgotten how much stuff the little critters need) I almost tripped over a box of halloween decorations. I caught myself by grabbing the ledge but was then assaulted with random items that had gathered on the ledge over time- a pacifier, a cup half filled with an unidentifiable half-congealed substance and a shoe, to name a few... It's like a weird obstacle course up there!

Anyway, I decided I would put some of the stuff from the hallway into the attick. I can't remember the last time I was in the attick. It quite possibly could have been when we moved in. I assume the bulb on the light is burnt out because it wouldn't turn on. I thought about going and getting a new bulb but I really didn't have a clue where the bulbs would be and I knew if I went to look for it, I'd find some other project and get sidetracked. I decided to brave the dark. I was kind of curious what was up there. I couldn't remember one thing I'd ever put in the attick so I was pretty sure it would be mostly empty.

Long story short, the attick is filled with stuff! Yippee! It's like a treasure hunt in my own attick! There are also some creatures living up there. I could hear them scuffling around in the dark. I'm hoping it's mice...I don't want to think about the other possiblities. I never finished my task, the hallway is still a disaster zone. I figure I don't really want to confront any wild animals in my dark attick. So i guess I'll have to find a lightbulb and add another project to my list (go through stuff in the attick).

After my failed mission, I tackled some of the necessary tasks... I did half the dishes, lots of laundry, started dinner, cleaned the kitty litter and poured some wine.

Oh how I love being home alone!!

My Perfect Chaos

I'm new to this blog thing and I'm not sure that I'm even doing it right. But like most things in my life, I'll learn as I go along.

My daughter told me that her friend was making money writing a blog. Well, I'm not one to miss a money making opportunity. I mean, just last week, I broke open half the rocks in my yard, hoping to find precious gems. Sadly, I'm not even kidding. There's a rock on my dresser upstairs that I'm still not ready to rule out as a diamond. I'd know for sure but I don't know how to make a substance with a specific gravity of 3.52... I guess that's a story for another time. I'm getting off topic here.

My name is Becky Venable. Currently I'm 34 years old and I'm married to Art,  my husband of 10 years. (Uggh I sound SO old when I say that!) Together we have 8 children- his mine and ours. Art had a son and a daughter, I had 2 daughters and together we created four boys. I don't know if it's the shock from hearing we have so many kids but people tend to ask some pretty STUPID questions when we tell them. So, to answer a few- Yes, we have a television at home, we know what condoms are, we are not weird religious fanatics (I grew up in a large Roman Catholic family...but again that is a story for another time) We do not home school them (Seriously, how crazy would I have to be??) They all live with us, and we go through about 8 gallons of milk a week...

Truthfully, we are pretty normal people. We enjoy a lot of different activities and we are always busy. Sometimes we completely lose our minds because it's so hectic around here but we try to keep a sense of humor because it really helps. I'm not going to say life is easy but I will say it's never dull!

Art works from home now, which is nice. I don't know if I could handle all these kids on my own anymore. There are just too many of them and they out number us four to one!! The problem is, he's only making a quarter of the income he used to so that has forced us to start thinking seriously about what is next for us. We've been selling things ebay, and we've been kicking butt. We've even branched out and now we're selling other peoples' stuff on comission. The problem right now is that I have so many things I want to do and I can't see myself tied to a desk. I'm pretty good at finding things to sell, I just don't have the orginizational skills to pull off running a business. I can feel that we are going in the right direction, I just need to stay focused.

The other day I found an old frigidaire refrigerator and a trunk in an abandoned house that is going to be torn down. I sweet talked my friend into helping me retrieve them with his truck. It was a pretty sketchy operation but I won't go into that.

They are in pretty rough shape but I started to restore them. Its going kind of slow because I have no clue what I'm doing and since I don't have a designated work space, my tools are everywhere and I keep losing them.  It's really great, though! Every time I remove a layer of old funk, I feel like I'm uncovering a piece of treasure. Turns out, restoring vintage and antique things is something I could see myself doing everyday. I definitely need a shed first so I can turn the other half of my garage into a workshop. Which brings me to my next topic of conversation...

I won a THOUSAND DOLLARS! on a scratch off lottery ticket!!! I have always believed that we make our own luck and that things come to us when we need them. So, after many hours spent pondering while sanding down the rust on my old fridge, I decided that the money would be best spent building my shed. (My first idea of taking it to a storage auction seems a little premature seeing as I'm running out of places to put things...I WILL get to the auction...first things first.)

So, that is how I find myself on the threshold of my next adventure. It's always an adventure.

Right now, the boys are on their way back from the ball field so my short-lived quiet and solitude is almost over. I will write more when I can find time between laundry and diaper changing...

But in the meantime, can someone please tell me how to turn my pictures the right way?????