Fifty Shades

Well hello again dear readers. It has been a while since my last blog post, due to a lack of creativity, and appropriate topics.
I’m sure many of you have read the Fifty Shade trilogy, if you haven’t read them, I’m sure you’ve heard of them. I will admit, I haven’t read a single one, nor have I cracked the cover of any of the books. The Fifty Shades thing will come into play here in just a second…stay with me folks.
Recently, at the gym I attend there were many people training for shows, beautiful bodies on stage next to other beautiful bodies, being judged in multiple categories. Physique, bikini, body building, and figure were the categories. There is a woman, we will call her ‘Sue’  who trains hard, works hard you name it,  and she competed. A few weeks after the competition she and I were talking about the results, how she did ect. I told her that I don’t feel like I could even manage to walk on to that stage, I am lacking the confidence to do so in so many aspects. Her response: “Don’t go in, wanting someone else’s body.” I think I will hold those words close to me at all times from here on out. I work hard for my body, I do get insecure of mine, and jealous of the beautiful sculpted woman next to me. Sue’s words told me to be happy with who I am, the body and figure I have. No one else can have it, it is mine, and there is another woman wishing for what I have. There is a competition coming up in June, and pretrials are in March of 2014, she told me if I worked at a couple of things, I could compete for a bikini title. I turned a few shades of red, blushing at the fact someone thought that I am capable of not only competing, but placing!
Here is where this fifty shades comes in, fifty shades of green. Think about it, what comes to mind when the color green is mentioned? Grass, avocado, acorn squash. All these are green, but if you think green in terms of environment, green is healthy, safe and good. When “green” becomes a term in the working environment, it means you’re new, you’re wet behind the ears, you’ve got a lot to learn ect. I originally thought about green in the terms of food, which made me think about the Grinch for some reason. The underlying reason. Green for me isn’t good. Green for me is Jealousy. Fifty shades of Jealousy. How do you deal with that. So many people, women I feel especially, do so many things in terms of weight loss and lifestyle changes because of jealousy and what it is doing the themselves inside.
Why do you work out, are you doing it for yourself, or because you think you the man you wake up to wants you to? You have to do it for yourself. First, foremost, primary. You. You have to take care of yourself inside and out, being happy and confident with the who you are, then an only then should someone else become a secondary reason as to why you lace up your shoes or put yoga pants on. Ask yourself that. Why are you doing this? Below are my reasons, in no particular order.

I work out for:
Confidence
Stress relief
Health
Strength

To finish things up and touch base on a few goals, my squat weight is right where it has been at, not much for improvement there lately, however I am training legs twice a week now in order to help get that weight up there. Secondly, my dead lifts have inclined to #135. Which I am very proud of, I do however need to work on my grip. Lastly, I’m going to work on eating cleaner. Less microwave dinners and no stealing bites of mac&cheese that the mister is eating. Sodium, in large doses isn’t good for you.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, whether your LM is at home or you’re on the road with him.
Check out this inspired dinner, if your not willing to take on the actual turkey. I’d add a side of green beans and a little more cranberry sauce. Finish off with a baked pie!

What’s a Lineman? (From a wife’s point of view!)

Recently I got my butt chewed after my husband read a blog post of mine!

We started this journey in 2008. Since day one my husband has been my lineman! He always will be unless the day comes when he decides to walk away from this career by choosing a new path… I don’t foresee that happening though!

Anyway, I call him my lineman in every post I write. Okay, so what’s wrong with that? Well, on the job he is an apprentice, an AP, an ape, what every they want to call him! He’s not ashamed of that, and neither am I. He is a second year IBEW AP, and on the job he has not got the “street cred” yet to be considered a lineman. Once he receives that “ticket” that says he is a Journeyman, only then is he truly a lineman!

Okay, I respect all that! Woman and men aren’t much different when it comes to proving ourselves, our knowledge, and our abilities! But I want to look at this form a wives point of view- AP, Journeyman, Foreman,Troubleman, whatever their title.

The title doesn’t make the job any less dangerous. It doesn’t make the nights alone any easier. It doesn’t make the traveling or missed moments any easier either! To a Linewife (a wife whose husband has chosen a career in powerline work) – lineman is virtually a loose term which is ultimately interchangeable throughout industry titles! When he becomes a Journeyman, I will PROUDLY call him my JL! Until then he will be my LM, and for arguments sake when I blog from here on out he will be my hard working, money makin’, shit takin’ AP until the day he gets that “ticket”!

Furthermore, I want to add that this isn’t a topic that is new. I have read many post from wives and even other APs who question the relativity of this topic! I’m not arguing the respect behind the word lineman. Like I said- he and I both are proud to be an AP, and can’t wait for the day we journey out! I just think wives look at the term in a different respect! While I sit here and type I have all these thoughts on the topic, but if you have been reading my posts for a while you know I like to keep things light hearted and interesting so here is my “fix” for other LWs struggling with this controversial topic…

ONLY call your AP a LINEMAN when you are snuggled up close in bed 🙂

Trying to Impress My Mother-In-Law

Okay, I know I have already blogged about my plans to stay home with my LM for Thanksgiving due to him being on call! However, there is now a change of plans which I am super excited about!  My LM’s mother is going to be joining us for Thanksgiving! You know how it is when your mother-in-law decides to come over:  you want the house spic and span, the children bathed and well-mannered, your ducks all in a row, and most of all to make sure that she knows you are taking good care of her son.

Now, does this ever happen? I’d love to tell you yes, but more times than not it doesn’t happen this way. I always end up with a clean house at first. However, it never fails. Five minutes before she is supposed to arrive my LM comes tramping in with muddy boots. It isn’t just the house. You are so worried about the house that you forget to put your makeup on and so while you are rushing to do that the cookies burn because you were so busy that you forgot to set your timer! How many of us does this happen too?

I’ll tell you one thing though, if there is one thing that I have learned is that it doesn’t matter how the house looks, if the cookies or burnt, or if my makeup looks like my three your old niece tried doing it. The first thing she will do when she walks through that door is run straight for my son. As she is doing this, I will realize I should have put a different outfit on him. J I’ll remember quickly though that at the end of the day it doesn’t matter about these things that I think mean so much at the time. Because at the end of the day, the whole point is to spend time with each other as much as we can while we are together.

Now then, I know we all plan out our holidays. Even though I know I shouldn’t sweat the small stuff, I still do. I am trying to plan what to make for Thanksgiving. My family has always had certain things in the past for each holiday! So, I will probably incorporate some of that with some new dishes! SO let the searching begin!

So, here is the burning question. What are ya’ll cooking up for Thanksgiving??

Preschool Homeschool

I was recently asked about ideas for doing preschool at home. My first advice for teaching preschoolers is to just leave them alone. Let them live and learn through their play. That’s their job! I think the wonderful blogger over at A Magical Childhood covers it best in her article What Should a 4 year old Know?.  At the end of the article, she has a link to what children are typicaly taught or should know by the end of each school year starting with preschool. It’s just a rough idea though and you should always remember that your child is unique and will learn at his or her own pace. That’s one of the beauties of homeschooling!

Some fun ideas for enriching your child’s play can be found at Pinterest. Look up Preschool, Preschool activities, fine motor activities, etc and you will find a ton of suggestions. A few of my favorites are:

Learn about Shapes with Playdough – I love play dough! I shared a link to many play dough recipes earlier. Play dough itself is great for all kinds of learning. It’s a wonderful way to introduce sensory play and is fantastic for helping develop hand muscles for fine motor coordination.

Speaking of fine motor coordination, this link gives you three steps to preschool writing. The first step is the one to focus on though. Let your child draw in a tray of salt, cornmeal, flour, etc. Don’t worry about making them draw anything in particular. If they want to try some letters or numbers, go for it! If not, let it go and see what they create on their own.

Does your child love dinosaurs? This site has some great dinosaur activities. There are sensory bins, play worlds, crafts and even how to make your own hatching dino eggs!

I hope you can see how varied and fun learning with your preschooler can be. There is no reason to sit down with worksheets and workbooks and “do school”. Living life and playing are really all they need at this point.

A scatterbrained day….

I’ve been tramping with my journeyman lineman for a year. This is our second trailer. That we just got in august. And I am a PROFESSIONAL TRAMPER, at least I think so! I know what it takes to keep the trailer running, I can fix fuses, I know how to use the breaker switches (I think that’s what they are called! Lol). I know how to drain and flush the tanks, and add the chemicals to the tanks. I know how to do just about everything. And I can have this trailer loaded and ready to go in about 30 minutes (given it takes at least 15-20 minutes to drain all the tanks.) I would even hook it on the truck if my lineman would let me. 😉

 

So my story actually starts two nights ago, [fair warning this a long detailed story!] it started raining slightly we got a whopping .3” of rain. yes 1/3 of an inch in 9 hours [although people in California are like “OMG ITS RAINING” and I am sitting here like oh it’s kind of misty maybe a few sprinkles outside, being as I just moved from Kentucky and we got about an inch a day some days 2-3 inches. When it rained it poured!! So this California rain is nothing to me! And reminder I was born and raised in California, I only lived in Kentucky for the last year but that changed everything I knew about weather!] Lol ok so it was slightly sprinkling, and our power was flickering. Which is weird because we have a voltage regulator, protects the trailer power whether it’s too much or not enough. And then out of nowhere it shuts off. Which I will tell you now made us slightly irritated. We know it couldn’t be our trailer. Its only 15 weeks old! (Yes I’m counting because I love this trailer like a baby) so we go outside to hear the electric meter “arcing” at least that’s what my lineman called it. It was making a weird noise. And the voltage regulator said the voltage was low. Well we tried everything to fix it. We unhooked the trailer, flipped the breakers a few times, unhooked and rehooked the voltage regulator and then all of a sudden there was just not a problem anymore. All the power was fine. So we decided to just go to bed. The next day I got up as usual, got my lineman breakfast and lunch made for work, and sent him on his way. So I am sitting watching tv its about 7am, the furnace kicks on, and everything turns off, and then of course everything kicks back in about 5 seconds later. So I didn’t think much of it. Except the TV wouldn’t work! So once again I tried everything. Couldn’t get it to work. And the office at the Rv park doesn’t open until 9am!! So I realized the trailer was running of the battery, not bad, but you don’t want to drain the batteries! So I turned the generator on, get in the shower, get out and start getting ready. Then the generator shuts off, quickly realized it was either 1. Out of propane and I needed to switch tanks, or 2. Telling me that “service is required” after the first 30 hours of use it will tell you, to have it serviced. Which turned out to be the reason, so I turned it back on and finished getting ready. Well as soon as I was done it shut off. And I figured well that one propane tank is now empty. So I was going to switch the propane tank over to the second one, when all of a sudden I realized that all the outlets and the tv were back on. So I no longer needed the generator! I reported the weird power problem to the office, and im not sure if they ever fixed it. I had to leave to run errands. But I haven’t had a problem since. So when I got back I realized I needed to drain the tanks. So I drained the black tank (the sewer tank) and then 30 minutes later I drained gray tank #1, and then gray tank #2. Shut them all after I was done, and filled the sewer tank half with water as I always do! I’m going about my day everything is going like normal, dishes, cleaning, laundry etc.

My lineman comes home about 330 off early due to more rain. About 530 im getting ready to make dinner, and he checks the tanks. He asked if I emptied them, I said yes, filled the black tank with water, and then he asks the most obvious question “did you put chemicals in it?!?!” FACE PALM. HOW DO I FORGET THAT?!?!?!?! I felt bad, it wasn’t a big deal but I felt bad, after the last trailer where we had a clog before and had to snake the pipes, GROSS!! [because I didn’t know you needed chemicals everytime and had been draining the tanks and not even filling it up with water, which when he found out I had started draining the tanks he taught me how to properly!] He just laughed and said “you will be the one snaking the pipes if it this gets clogged..” I almost threw up at that thought! Hahah. So then he for some reason, probably because I told him I ran the generator, checked the propane to switch it over. BOTH TANKS ARE EMPTY!!! I wasn’t aware of that. I didn’t know that we had already gone through one, and that I had just used the last one! FACE PALM AGAIN!!! Now I just feel like an idiot! Although I can barely lift the tanks when they are empty. They weigh 30lbs empty and 70lbs full. So he does the propane usually. I used to do it when we had seven gallon tanks instead of 14 gallon tanks. But I didn’t know I would go through the propane that fast! Although it has been a month since they were filled so that’s pretty good! Well we looked at the time and realized the place we get them filled is closed. Not to mention it is actually raining pretty good at this point. We have space heaters and a fireplace so we weren’t worried about it! But how was I going to cook dinner?!? This is where I learned ALWAYS have a plan B. and thankfully my plan b was a grilled chicken Caesar salad with left over grilled chicken from the night before! Which was actually supposed to be tonights dinner (thankfully I am learning to plan ahead!) No cooking involved and it was delicious! I also had a plan to make a delicious apple pie for dessert with vanilla ice cream but I forgot to buy ice cream!!  Although my lineman was now not happy with the fact I forgot to tell him we might need propane. Understandable because that’s the only job I have! I like to make sure everything is taken care of so that when comes home he doesn’t have to think about anything and can just relax! I know his job is stressful at times and I do not in any way like to add to that. Lol. And don’t take that wrong he was not really mad at me. Just a little bit questioning my scatterbrain that day! I don’t blame him! I forgot the two biggest [but also smallest] things that have to be checked and done regularly when you live in a trailer!! So we sat and laughed about it, because this ONLY happens to us. I will say he was really only upset that we were out of ice cream!!! haha gotta love him for that. he only cared about not getting pie and ice cream! lol! Only I can be that scatterbrain and forget little things like this. And we are thankful that we aren’t living somewhere that gets super cold at night. Its only been in the 50’s at night and it was raining so it was probably about 60. We make it through the night just fine. Now I’m sitting comfortably on the couch next to the space heater typing this, waiting for the propane place to open so that I can go get the tanks refilled!

The point of this story to me at least, is 1. DON’T FORGET CHEMICALS!  2. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR PROPANE TANKS before 5pm! And 3. ALWAYS HAVE A PLAN B!

Thinking about it now, makes me realize how lucky I am to have a lineman as awesome as mine, who doesn’t fret the little things. And understand that even after a year of doing this, I still have off days where I forget everything.

This is just two of the many things we go through living life on the road, in a trailer. And even though sometimes it is crazy, I wouldn’t change my life for anything. Things go wrong, and things don’t always go as planned. You learn as you go, and even though I thought I was a professional, I’m still learning. And at the end of the day instead of being mad at yourself [which I was for a moment] he wasn’t even upset, but I set such high standards, and goals for myself, and I felt like I let him and myself down, by not doing something right especially because I am a perfectionist with these things, at least I try to be, I pride myself in doing things the correct way and taking care of everything I possibly can at home, since I don’t work and he does. He always tells me I don’t have to do all this, I can just let him know and he will do that stuff, but I am so stubborn and strong willed, I try to be absolutely perfect which I know I am not, and never will be, and I am ok with that. sometimes I go to fast and I get scatterbrained, and I don’t stop and think. Which leads to situations like this. But sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself. Especially over little things like this. And from now on I am going to slow down a little bit. And really think about everything.  But we always remind each other everyday that we are A TEAM. Life doesn’t work without both of us. And we have to help each other, I try to be superwoman sometimes and do It by myself. Maybe its because I Love him too much, and I want to do everything for him, but now I know, its ok to ask for a little help every once in a while. And its ok to remind him to check on things for me, instead of trying to do it all on my own. This life is not always easy, but it is always worth it.

 

Line Sisters Against Domestic Violence

A picture of a lineman’s wife with a badly busted lip greeted me this morning of Facebook. 

Stop, back up and read that again, please. 

If your mind has now been flooded with memories of a close friend, family member, or even of looking at yourself in the mirror in the early morning hours, wondering what you did to deserve this, you know just how I felt at 5:15 am Eastern time on November 20, 2013.

This story is not about me. 

Way back when, I had “a friend” who found herself in a marriage to a man who only thought of her as a possession and a punching bag.  And a kicking bag.  And an object to scream at, berate, taunt, and belittle to the point where she had no self-esteem left and believed that she was unlovable and unwanted by anyone.  She was literally barefoot and pregnant standing in a phone booth in front of a restaurant on Central Blvd in Albuquerque when she called my husband and myself to come for her.  It was her birthday and it was very late at night in November and close to freezing outside.  She waited at the phone booth with her 15 month old son because she was embarrassed to go into the restaurant where it was warm, being barefoot and disheveled. She didn’t want to attract attention to herself.

She told us that her husband had come home after drinking with his brother and friends and something she said or did made him mad.  He knocked her to the ground and started kicking her repeatedly in the stomach and groin area.  He told her he was going to make her lose the baby.  She curled up into a ball and he continued to kick her in the back and legs.  He eventually had to go relieve himself and she ran out the door with the baby and to the nearest phone two blocks away.  We later found out that he kicked her so hard that he cracked her shin bone.  And she went back home to him.  Several times.  It wasn’t until he started on the kids that she left for good.

This story is really about so many women.

Today it’s about all those women who are part of the Sisterhood that develops among linemen’s wives and girlfriends.  I know that women in many walks of life suffer from violence, but I didn’t wake up to their story this morning.  I woke up to the story of someone I might run into next month; someone I might be at the same RV park with. Her husband might work with my husband; her husband could be sitting at the table having dinner with us some night soon. 

A picture of a lineman’s wife with a badly busted lip greeted me this morning of Facebook, and then, it suddenly disappeared.

One comment made this morning before the post disappeared struck me. The comment was that the house was in her name but that he makes the money. As we know, linemen are notorious for making good money but having bad credit. Their life is hard; there are ups and downs to their work situation; there is often an ex-wife involved. Looking at the Violence Wheel at http://www.domesticviolence.org/violence-wheel , I can guess that’s also part of his line of control, by saying, “If you leave me, the bills won’t get paid and your credit will be ruined.  You can’t do anything without the money I bring in.”

I know that these women are thinking that “it’s the holidays right now.  I don’t want to cause a lot of drama and ruin Thanksgiving and Christmas for everyone.”  Trust me, the holidays are already ruined for everyone who feels they have to walk around on egg shells, seeing what is happening and feeling useless to help.  As sisters, we wives, girlfriends, exes, and significant others of linemen need to reach out to each other as friends, acquaintances, and Facebook buddies and promise that we will be there to support our sisters who are trying to work through the hardship of violence in their relationships.  Let them know that they are not alone, understand and recognize that they have the power to leave or stay with their man and that we will be there to find help for them, whether it is counseling, a safe place to go to cool off, or legal help to get away from an abusive partner.

Some links that were helpful to me today:

National Criminal Justice Reference Service http://ovc.ncjrs.gov/topic.aspx?topicid=27

Domestic Violence .org http://www.domesticviolence.org/

U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233

First Ever Tramp Wives Cookbook ((Accepting Recipe Entries!))

UPDATE
We still need recipes from all you lovely tramp wives! We have decided to make this first issue an eBook version, and to donate the proceeds to The Fallen Linemen Organization!! You can check out more information about this organization at here!

ORIGINAL POST
We here at The Lovely Little Linewife are putting together a cookbook specifically for TRAMP FAMILIES! We all know how different it is to cook in an camper, RV, and even in a hotel room! So, what if we all shared our easy peasy LM approved recipes? The first ever Tramp Wives Cookbook!

We are accepting recipe entries for the cookbook at GeneralDelivery@thelovelylittlelinewife.com Subject: Tramp Wives Cookbook. Please include your First name and last initial along with your Tramp Life recipe. We will only be accepting them through December of this year so get your recipes in soon!

More info coming soon!

Math sites worth checking out

Are you looking for some ways to supplement your kids math? Maybe they need a little extra practice. Or you might be looking for a new way to explain a topic. I have some great web sites for you today that will do just that. (and they are all free!)

First up is XtraMath. XtraMath is a program meant to help kids (or anyone really) master basic math facts. When you sign up, it leads you through a few placement quizes to figure out where your knowledge level is. Then it asks you to spend about 15 mins a day on the site practicing the math facts. It covers both addition/subtraction and multiplication/division. You, the parent, get progress reports to see how your child is doing and what needs some more work.

If your child is ready for Algebra, Purplemath is for you. This site has it all. You can look up certain topics for a little extra help or use the lessons index to use it as an Algebra curriculum on it’s own. There are tips for homework and studying also. I love this site and I don’t think I’ve found all there is to it yet.

Finally, I want to share Khan Academy.  This is a site that many homeschooling parents use for teaching math. It is for anyone wanting to learn math. I’m even using it to brush up some of my math skills. You can pick a topic to learn about or just work on what they suggest. You can watch videos on any math idea that is giving you trouble. They start with “how to add” and move up from there. 🙂  You can earn badges and check out your stats as you progress also.  Khan Academy is not just for math though. They have a “library of content  that covers math, science topics such as biology, chemistry, and physics, and even reaches into the humanities with playlists on finance and history.”

Sunday Support

Saturday Science! (and spelling too)

I have two science and two spelling links to share with you today.

Our first science link is a list of fun Home Experiments. There is a wide variety of experiments on this site (from acids and bases, to gas, to electricity), so you and your kids are bound to find one that interests you. These are great to do on the weekend!

Next up is a site that has lots of recipes for Play Dough. PreKinders has a large variety of recipes to choose from. There are edible doughs, scented, textured, etc. All four of my kids love Play Dough (even my 14 year old!) and it’s a great activity any time. Save these for a rainy day or mix one up today!

I decided to include a couple spelling links this time. The first is from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas and lists 75 fun ways to practice spelling. No matter your child’s learning style, you will be able to find some really fun ways for them to practice their spelling with this site.

The second spelling site is what I am using for my middle two kids. My oldest is a naturally good speller. My second is not. He really struggles with spelling and has asked for help. My third is simply eager to learn how to spell. I didn’t really want to just grab some random spelling lists, so I was never real sure where to start. Then I ran across this free site. It uses what they call “Spell by Color”.  As the student learns the spelling rules, they apply a color to that rule.  They learn using that rule’s “color” to circle the words that follow that rule and underline the words that are exceptions to that rule. We are in week 5 and really liking it so far.