Daley Ponderings

Heather asked me to give her the monthly time logs for invoices today, so I took the opportunity to run my brand new script that shows how I've spent my time over the entire year.

I averaged:

13.7 hours a week on directly billable work

7.6 hours a week on maintaining the company, phone systems, servers and any time spent at our rental house

1.1 hours a week on LifeType

8.1 hours a week checking facebook and blogs and also email (lots of which is work related, but I don't differentiate between work and personal email, and I don't get paid for anyway)

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We bought a "new" minivan last year, and it had the lowest mileage, and highest cost of any car we've owned so far.  It is a 1997 Oldsmobile Silhouette, and it had 107,000 miles on it.  We did a lot of driving (I hit 135,000 today, after a year and a half).  Heather and I both take one trip to Pittsburgh each week, and we took a lot of vacation trips this year.

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Since we're now into the second year of using the woodstove, I thought I would post an update about it.

I bought five cords of wood this year, (we bought around four and a half last year, and used around three).  I got around one cord of black locust each year, and that wood is really nice for long burn times.  I think we've spent somewhere around $1300 on wood, and I expect (hoping at least, we've been using almost no gas heat so far, so we've been burning more wood than I originally estimated) that this wood will last into next year.

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If Heather hasn't been writing recently, that means I'm not writing at all...

First, the basement - after all of the ongoing water problems, and finding out this year that only fixing the gutters was not going to fix the entire problem, and if one is going to get water a couple times a year, you still can't use the basement very easily, and so fixing it is worth looking into.

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I haven't been writing things down much recently, but here are a few.

12/14 - Faith likes to "write" and rarely draws, but she asked me to make a guy for her, which I did.  When she asked for more and more I reverted to a quick stick figure.  Then she started drawing her own guys!  A head with two toes sticking out.  Her first time drawing people!  They are very cute people, and I have her assurance that they are toes and not legs.

12/15 - We watched an Alfred Hitchcock movie.  They are hit or miss and this one was a miss.  Faith got restless before it ended and said, "Me no wikey moonie."  Jonathan and Noah knew to keep still until the end but both were disappointed.  Hoping at least for some comic relief to redeem the time, Noah asked, "Daddy, can we please watch the outtakes?"  Jon just had to laugh out loud at that one.  They didn't do outtakes in the thirties...

12/22 - This morning Jon did some shopping after his meeting and as we were putting away the groceries, Jonathan asked, "Mom, are perogies panterable?"  What?  "Are perogies panter-able?"  He meant "able to be put in the pantry" as opposed to the freezer.

12/16 - Headed up in the snow for another midwife appointment.  I gained more weight this time, but Thanksgiving was in between visits...  My iron was low again, despite diligently eating that horrible molasses, but she was suspicious that her hemoglobin tester is off calibration.  All other stats are on track.  The one concern was that the baby was head up, which I had suspected for about a week before.  Since this one and Isaac were the only ones to be head up at this stage, I was tempted to worry and imagine scenarios.  But I kept repeating to myself, "Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition make your requests known unto God and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

C gave us some ideas for turning that I had not heard before.  The one we tried a few days later was placing an ice pack up on top of where his head is and a nice warm compress down low where it should be.  Our baby definitely moved a lot in response to the ice but did not seem to turn all the way, we think he liked his feet warm.  Then yesterday we prepared to try it again and as I was feeling around, it seemed that he had turned!  This morning, I definitely felt little feet kicking on top.  Praise God!  Those who pray for us, we would appreciate if you continue to pray that this little guy stays head down.

Actually, the only thing written in my pocket notes from all this time is that on 11/16, Jon solved the mirror cube with his eyes closed.

Jonathan's 7th birthday was a very fun time.  He got a lot of cool presents and had a lot of cool people over to play.  Grandma and Dad-o were there for the occasion and the next few days were also busy with fun. (More)