1215 (King John signs the Runnymede Charter aka Magna Carta)

Good morning! No one in labor at the moment, at least not at 5:00 this morning so no one has gone in or I would have gotten a phone call, so here I am. I’m afraid I’m in a bit of a complainy kind of mood because I came downstairs to find four loaves of ‘honey wheat’ bread on the counter. I know that marketing does this to sell perceived healthier foods to unsuspecting customers. Whole wheat is sixth on the list of ingredients. It ‘looks’ good because of the wheat bran that is third on the list. And, honestly, when the first ingredient is composed of about eight things, I’m not sure about the whole order anyway. I’m going to do a cost comparison later and see how much it really costs to make a loaf of bread compared to the stuff from the store. I’m sure the homemade stuff won’t come out on top but when a loaf of bread only costs 50 cents at the store, I really question the quality to begin with.

Yesterday. It was a day. Goldilocks’ kids did well overnight and Seth and Joseph went out at every opportunity to play with them. This is good; I want them to be very used to people.

School went well. We were all done by lunch (except reading which we ended up forgetting to do after) which was nice since the sisters came over for lunch. We had latkes and eggs for lunch with apple crisp and applesauce cake for dessert. After we ate, they went and pulled weeds in the garden with some help from Seth. I cleaned the living room including mopping with some help from Joseph and a little from Seth. I wanted to get it cleaned because it needed to be but also because I wanted to do Pilates before the end of the day.

The sisters had to leave and I finished the living room and did my Pilates. The walking and jogging didn’t kill me but I thought the Pilates might. Once I was done, I figured it was because I haven’t also been doing the daily stretches that I ought to have been so I’m going to have to add that to my daily regimen. Stretches every day, walking/jogging every other day, walking/hiking with the boys once a week, Pilates the days I don’t do anything else, and Sunday off.

Joanna came over and went out to see the kids. I told her and Seth and Joseph to kind of take it easy because I suspected Snowflake would be having hers soon. She’d managed to squeeze herself into the goat shed for the first time in days and I thought that was a sign she wanted to be in a protected area. She’d also been pawing at the hay on the floor every time I was out to check on Goldilocks and her kids and that is something they do but not usually continually. She was actually probably in labor and that’s probably a coping mechanism for goats. Maybe people should try it.

Joanna left about the time Cedric got home and I finished up Pilates about then as well. It wasn’t long after that Seth and Joseph came running in to tell me that Snowflake had her babies. I asked how many and Seth said, “Two!” So I went out and by the time I got there, number three had been born. Three kids! Wow!

I helped clean off the last one and put it right in front of her so she’d finish. That one is the runt and I told the boys that we had to deal with the fact that runts sometimes don’t make it. After all, when she had Fred and George, there was another one but she didn’t make it. She was the runt. So what did they do? Run to the trampoline and say a prayer for the little runt! I haven’t been out this morning yet to see how they are doing but as of the last time I was out to check on them yesterday, they were all three doing well. In fact the bigger black one (there are two blacks, one being the runt, and one brown) was already outside less than two hours after being born.

It’s incredible to think that our goat herd just doubled in size. And even better to think that at least two of the kids are girls. I really hope that one or two of Snowflake’s kids is/are as well. I’d really like another black goat. If we have up to three girls, we will likely keep them all. Four I’m not sure about. Any boys we will not keep unless one of them is for meat or a pack animal. A pack animal would be cool. Wouldn’t it be fun to take a goat on hikes with the scouts to carry all our stuff? Anyway, I’d like to keep one of the boys we got from Libby because she had good form and the buck was registered for breeding purposes. The doelings we just had have good mothers (assuming Snowflake had at least one girl) but I’m not sure of the bucks. They were nice but nice does not equate good genes.

Snowflake doing what mama goats do. Seth and Joseph were somewhat disgusted by the fact that she was eating the afterbirth and had to leave a couple of times. They thought it was strange because she's not a carnivore. I told them that animals, even when they don't eat meat, do eat the afterbirth.

Amena got home late yesterday because she went to a cross country meet that the triplets were running in. It was scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed until yesterday due to the rain. It turned out to be quiet a nice afternoon for it.

We had chocolate pancakes for dinner (made with whole wheat four) and Seth wanted to know if he could have some applesauce cake. Well, what do you think? Pancakes, even with sausage, and then cake? How about, no.

This is the bigger black baby.

Cedric is getting ready for school. He has to have a shower almost every day. I don’t know if he sweats more than Daniel did or if he’s just more concerned with his appearance, or what, but Daniel would shower twice a week compared to Cedric’s almost every day. It’s funny how similar Cedric is to Daniel in so many ways but how different they are, too. I sure do miss him. Amena is, of course, by now either at school or almost. Seth is on the couch and Paul and Joseph are both still in bed.

Snowflake and the three kids!

I was tired at 8:30 last night and I knew I might potentially have to get up at 5:00 to get ready, so I emailed Paul a message filled with all the stuff that I really wanted to tell him when he got home. He gets home at such irregular hours I never know when to expect him. Then I took a shower because I hadn’t had one all day and so I wouldn’t have to take one in the morning if I needed to go in to the hospital. Then I went to bed. Paul did call while I was in the shower but my phone isn’t waterproof and I didn’t hear it.

Not much else to tell about at the moment. I did have some strange dreams but don’t really remember much so there isn’t much to tell. They were very strange. And repetitive. But not much to tell about.

Have a fantabulous day!

1673 (January 1st regular mail delivery between New York and Boston begins)

Good morning! No question about whether or not to write this morning—you’ll find out later (and I’m not putting any clues in the title or subject either).

Yesterday morning was school as usual. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are history days each week so we had history. Joseph really liked the puppet making for the ‘play’ that his lesson was yesterday. We’ll finish the story tomorrow. Seth isn’t as excited about his because there’s a lot more reading to it and he really dislikes reading. One of my goals is to see if we can’t get him to like it at least a little better. It would be really great if he ended up loving it.

After reading, we went to the rec field in spite of the fact that it was raining. It wasn’t a hard rain or we would have stayed home. I wanted to do my walking/jogging C25K and figured the boys could kick a soccer ball around or play in the gazebo if they didn’t want to get wet. Still, had it been raining too much, we would have stayed home and I’d’ve done my Pilates video. I’ll probably do that today since I don’t have a C25K thing to do.

Joseph finishing up his puppets.

About that, Joseph asked why I have to go walk or run.

I said, “I don’t run.”

“Well, why do we have to go?” he wanted to know.

“Because I’m tired of being fat,” I answered.

Seth working on spelling.

I know some people might tell me I’m not fat but when I look in the mirror and I don’t like what I see, there is only one person who can do anything about it. And I realize there is more to calculating a BMI than height and weight but if I’m in the ‘obese’ category (which is interesting because I wouldn’t say I’m THAT fat), AND I’m not happy about how I look (or feel), then it’s time to do something about it. The ‘ideal’ range for my height is 116 to 154 pounds. I’d be quite happy to be in that range. And it is happening. Slowly. Which is okay. As long as it’s steady.

Speaking of not happy with how I feel, someone asked me about my back recently. My back is usually pretty fine. Once upon a time when we lived in Idaho (think preaccident), I tweaked my back when I was helping a child clean a bathtub. I thought I was going to die. The part that tweaked is the same part that had the fractures. Anyway, I’ve tweaked it twice since the accident so I’d say it is something that could happen if I’m stupid so the key is to not be. And part of not being stupid is to not weigh too much and to not be too out of shape.  Sometimes my back will be stiff (so will my hips but I’m pretty convinced they respond to both weight and tone as well AND they only started bothering me after Daniel was born and I’m pretty convinced a chiropractor could have helped) but that usually happens only when I’ve been doing one thing for too long including sleeping. Especially sleeping on my back when my feet are not elevated. And since I only like my feet to be elevated so I can comfortably sleep on my back and not when I’m on my side, I don’t usually elevate my feet.  Anyway, all this just means to me that my back will be a problem if I allow it to. I’m not going to.

There was no soccer practice due to the rain yesterday. That just diminished the craziness a little which was nice but I’d have dealt with it.

Minion in a basket in the house. How did she get there?

Before school even started, though, Joanna called because Zak had had to leave for school and she’d forgotten that she needed a ride over to get her Jeep so she wanted to know if I could go get her. I did. That was pretty uneventful, just a quick trip to Gardner and back.

I made an apple crisp and an applesauce cake yesterday afternoon. We needed to use up some apples. As it was, I sent the boys out with a small cardboard box full of spoiled apples and other things of that nature I’d found in the refrigerators to the corner of the garden where I deposit such things. I’d really like to make a compost box there but haven’t managed to do that yet. Anyway, I always triple the crisp recipe and I did this time but I put 2/3 of it in one pan to keep home and the rest in a smaller one to take to church for the girls who remembered their Personal Progress books. I made the cake in two pans as well; one to keep home and one to take to church for the girls who remembered their Personal Progress books last month because I didn’t have anything to take and ran out of time to make something.

Paul actually got home before we needed to leave. I’m not sure how he managed to leave work in time to do that with Blair but he did. I took all the children with me and we went to drop Joseph off at the Brinkers house and then we went to pick up Hans. I didn’t realize that he had Jose at his house or I would have had Paul pick them up just because I only had one available seat. They squeezed in back with Cedric and Seth and we were only about five minutes late for church.

Before we left, I went outside and took a blanket and a tarp and put them over a fence panel we had leaning against another fence panel so that Snowflake would have shelter from the rain. Her belly is so big she can’t fit into the goat shed right now.  That really wasn’t the smartest thing to do when we needed to leave in less than half an hour but it wasn’t hard and I finished, I just also got to squish around in the mud and got a little wet and probably a little smelly. While I was doing that, it seems that Paul tried calling several times on his way home. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do about that: live by the phone or take it EVERYwhere with me? Neither one is a good idea. And his idea of downgrading wouldn’t work either because phones still have to be charged and I do it when the battery is low, not at any particular time of day. Yesterday it happened by be about 4:00 when I started and it charges faster when it’s either turned off or to airplane mode so that’s what I do. Then I went outside and no one heard it ringing so all I can say is such is life. Or get a landline again.

I talked to all of the girls and challenged them to start something that they can finish by next month so they have something to show at Young Women in Excellence. A new girl moved in during the summer and her aunt brought her to church last night. It was nice to actually meet her. Gabby and Mally were both there so I was able to leave with Seth to go pick Joseph up from the school.

We went home and Seth had apple crisp and Joseph had a root beer Italian ice. Paul called when he was leaving to say that Jeff Beaudette was going to come over and help fix a larger lean-to for Snowflake. Of course, that meant Rachel and Neal as well which was fine with Amena and Seth. They mostly played with the kittens. That was fine, too. I was getting things ready for school for today while all this was going on which was also fine.

Yesterday the Math 3 workbook and flash cards I’d ordered arrived. That was nice because it means I don’t have to look in the book and create worksheets. I can do it, but it’s a lot easier to just take a page or two or three out of a book rather than making everything fit on the page just right. I’m all about taking the easy way when I can because it leaves more time for the times I can’t.

The goats were all excited while Paul and Jeff and sometimes Cedric were out working in the goat pen. Paul took a look in the shed before he came in and said he wasn’t sure, but there were a couple of small goats in there and they looked smaller than the boys. I took a light out to take a look and, sure enough! There were a couple of kids in the goat shed with Goldilocks. I knew she was pregnant but I didn’t expect her to kid before Snowflake because Snowflake is so huge. I’d been expecting something to happen because of how the goats were acting yesterday. Part of their behavior I attributed to the rain but part of it I just didn’t think so which is why I put extra hay in the shed. After I saw the kids, I put more in the shed and more in the new little lean to. Ah, goats! The kids are both girls. One is light colored like her mother but has Alpine ears which leads me to believe that Leroy is the daddy. The other has coloring like Leroy but Nubian ears. Seth and Joseph think we should name them Vanilla and Oreo. That would be appropriate so we might just stick with those.

Vanilla? She has waddles too!

And that was our day yesterday. This morning Joseph has already been out three times to see the kids and Seth has been twice. Amena is at school, Cedric is on his way. Seth and Joseph are upstairs playing with, of all things, Legos. Paul is still abed and I’m sitting here thinking I should have some breakfast.

Oreo? Vanilla? What do you think?

Have a splendiferous day!

916 (the year Anarawd ap Rhodri died)

Good morning! It is a beautiful rainy day out thus far.

After I woke up at 5:00 to get Amena up (which didn’t work), I fell back asleep and had a dream. In this dream, someone I know (from Massachusetts) was going to be in a movie with Mel Gibson as his wife. The movie was set in the past and required this girl to speak with an English accent (not to be mistaken for Irish or Scottish). In the movie, she and Mel had two young children and she became quite fond of them. So much so that she convinced someone else I know (from New Mexico) was going to help her kill the parents. For some reason, I had been living on the movie set with this girl and one morning I had to leave to go somewhere. This other girl from NM was sitting in a car near the entrance and another girl was sitting in another car at the end of the driveway. She had a sniper rifle. I just waved at them as I drove by and I was thinking that I was going to go report this activity and I woke up.

I just want it to be said that I’ve never watched any of Mel Gibson’s movies that take place in the past like Braveheart or The Patriot , there is no way on earth these two girls know each other, and in spite of the fact that the one in the movie wants children, I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t stoop to murdering the parents of some to get them, and the girl from New Mexico wouldn’t help kill someone like that. Gosh.

Our first field trip of the year was a success. I posted pictures on Facebook but will be sure to add some to the blog as well. It was a lovely day for a walk. There were at times a few sprinkles but they were so fine I could have said we were having a heavy mist. We took our lunch and next time we will take our lunch in a back pack so that we can eat it when we want it rather than when we are done. Although we could have gone back to the car and then done more exploring after we ate. Still, it worked out well the way we did it and the boys had fun and it was a nice day.

After that I went to visit Amy Troop. I think we will have some combined field trip/walk/hikes with them. What we walked on in part yesterday was the Midstate Trail and the same trail goes fairly near the Troops house. I’m not sure it could be likened to the Pacific Crest Trail (which I have been on parts of and would LOVE to take the boys on for a field trip) but maybe it could. It does traverse the middle of Massachusetts but you have to keep in mind that the entire state only 4,207 square miles larger than Siskiyou County (but the population is approximately 150 times greater [the population density of MA is 629.71/square mile compared to Siskiyou County at 6.96/square mile]).

Before we left for our field trip, the boys did school. That went well. Already I’m seeing changes in attitude and that is a wonderful thing to watch. They are both doing well with their new math levels and everything else is going pretty smoothly. Maybe I shouldn’t say that but overall, things are. We have our ups and downs but they vary from day to day and that is the way life is. Overall, I’d have to say that life is going pretty well in spite of the ups and downs. And that is the way it is.

Cedric had scouts last night. Two of the boys who did Cub Scouts with his group have rejoined and are in Boy Scouts now. That’s really a wonderful thing. Cedric and Ryan are working on Paul and there are some parents I guess working on his mom and/or dad so maybe he’ll be rejoining the group soon, too. Cedric really likes going and I’m glad.

While Cedric was there, I sat in the car like I usually do and worked on my Hywel and Cailin story. I did 1,675 words there and when we got home another 425. Then I went to bed because it was already too late.

Joanna, with and without Zak, was in and out getting papers and doing laundry yesterday. She left a plate of brownies once and they were very good. Her Jeep is still here because one of the wheels was really loose so she left it here until she could find a star wrench to tighten lug nuts up with. When she and Zak came back last night and finally did that, she forgot her keys so she couldn’t drive it home. I imagine she’ll be back sometime today to get it.

And today looks to be a fairly typical Wednesday. Unless practice is cancelled due to rain I’ll do my C25K while the boys are there. If it is cancelled, I’ll go do it once the boys are done with school. Joseph has scouts tonight so I’ll need to communicate with his den leader, Jonathan Brinker, about when and where I’ll be dropping him of and picking him up. It is also church so it should be a fun filled evening. Looking forward to the craziness.

Have a terrific day!

1066 (a few words and a busy year in England)

Good morning! I wasn’t going to write today but the day has already been one that begs to be written about. It was even at 6:00 which was an hour and eighteen minutes ago. I can’t say that it’s just been ‘one of those days,’ because it hasn’t. It has been, already at this early hour, a day unlike any other.

It started at 5:00 when my alarm went off. It isn’t often that I go to bed tired but otherwise fine and wake up with a headache but that is what happened. I got up and noticed there was light downstairs. I made sure Amena was getting up which was easy because she got up and went in the bathroom and told Cedric it was 5:00. I waited for Amena to be done in the bathroom because I didn’t want to go downstairs because I didn’t have any shoes on and if there was pee or poo on the floor I might step in it and I didn’t want to have that added to whatever else the day might bring. So I waited. And when I was done, I went back to bed.

While I was in bed, I could hear at least one boy downstairs eating and talking to a cat. Big surprise, that, but I managed to mostly ignore it and lay in bed willing my headache to go away. It mostly did and I can’t say that headaches will be all that uncommon perhaps in the next few weeks but more about that later.

I got up at 6:00 and Amena was getting ready. Cedric was still in bed. Seth and Joseph were downstairs. Not only were they downstairs but they had a blanket and six pillows on the kitchen floor and had the dog’s water dish and food dishes in the kitchen with both entrances blockaded. Not only that, but they had two cats and seven kittens in the house. Honestly, I don’t know what thought processes possess their minds at times but it was a quickly returned to the way it should be.

I made lunches, made too many trips up and down the stairs because I kept forgetting to get and/or do everything at once, took a picture of my feet on the scale, cleaned up a dog pee puddle, got dressed, etc., etc., etc. And then sat down to eat and finish reading an article. Amena got off in time and Cedric came to me and said, “Can I watch five minutes of a video called ‘Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Volcanoes?’” It appears they’d watched most of it in class and he just wanted to see the end. We actually watched the last ten minutes which was about Yellowstone and wasn’t anything that I didn’t know but there was some good footage and since it was a BBC production, the narrator had a lovely accent. I think I’d like to watch the whole thing; even if I know all ten things (which I don’t know that I do), I do love volcanoes and it might be a good thing for the boys to watch Thursday or Friday. Or maybe even tomorrow.

And that’s just today. So far.

Yesterday there was no soccer practice because most of the 5^th graders are at Nature’s Classroom this week. There will still be practice Wednesday, though. Too bad it wasn’t yesterday and not Wednesday. Oh well.

Amena did have a follow up appointment for her latest asthma issue and as I suspected, we took care of the symptoms but won’t look at anything further unless she has to use her inhaler more often in the near future. Is there not something that could be done? Could we not examine the root cause rather than just deal with the symptoms? That’s what I would like to do. That’s what Amena would like to do. I guess it’s time to begin the search for a doctor or doctors who might be a good fit and then get the referral(s) we need to be seen. I wish essential oils were covered by insurance.

The boys did school and school went well. We got everything done that needed to be and other than a bit of grumbling about handwriting practice, it was a good day. The article I finished reading this morning is titled “Effects of Technology on Writing” and is very interesting. I’m not going to tell you about it right now but it reinforced my thoughts that writing needs to be across the board. I’m sure there might be some grumbling, more than there was yesterday, but ignoring language and writing is detrimental to society, not just the individual. And what good is a good brain if the person who has it can’t fully express the thoughts happening in it?

Before lunch, we went to the rec field. My plan had been to do my C25K thing while Cedric and Seth had practice but since there was no practice, that wasn’t going to happen. I could have gone on one of the roads here but didn’t really want to due to the lovely hilly nature of them. It’s amazing what a difference it made going to the rec field. The trail there isn’t completely level but it isn’t as hilly as our neck of the woods so I was able to go farther without feeling like I was going to die. Interestingly, the GPS worked at the rec field but not going down Shady Lane (I think there’s something shady about that).  Yesterday I went 2.31 miles in 30 minutes which broke down to 1.55 miles walking at an average pace of 14:09 minutes per mile and .76 miles jogging at an average pace of 10:27 minutes per mile. Pretty cool, pretty cool.

I think the headache was related to the C25K and the fact that I’ve been eating less. And better. When you start cleaning things out, and just drinking lots of water, eating less better quality food, and exercise will help do that, everything is set in motion. All that bad stuff that’s been being stored in the fat has to go somewhere and sometimes it causes headaches. I guess I just need to be sure to drink enough water and yesterday I didn’t. Moral of the story: remember to do what needs to be done.

Have a fantastical day!

Such

Good morning! I am very tempted to complain long and loud (I believe some would call it vent) about some things. I might actually do it. I might.

Saturday I went to Elizabeth and Jonathan’s shower. It was nice and there were a lot of people there. They got a LOT of stuff, which was nice. I got there early (at least 10 minutes) because that’s what I like to do and it started late (about 30 minutes). In spite of the fact that it was nice, I was ready to go home already at that point. There were too many people and, I think mainly because it got started so late, it seemed to drag on forever. Jessica wanted to know if she could go home with me in order to )watch the General Women’s Broadcast and I was fine with that but as 6:00 approached, I said she needed to finish eating because I was leaving.

We picked the sisters up on the way to church in the morning. This tree is just across from the entrance to their building.

I have to admit that I was a little annoyed as well because Elizabeth was convinced that I gave her my cold when I took her to the doctor Monday. It is much more likely that she picked it up from church on Sunday because people are actually contagious for days before they exhibit any symptoms and Monday all I had was a stuffy nose. Sigh. People just don’t seem to understand colds and contagion.

Church yesterday was okay. Sacrament meeting went long which meant that Sunday School ended up going long which meant that Relief Society started late and there were quite a few announcements and so the Young Women didn’t get to class until late and Emily West was taking more pictures and so we had very little class time. Which was actually quite fine because my lesson was extremely short.

This was our sunrise this morning. Very pretty.

We got home and the ham I’d put in the oven before leaving according to package instructions was obviously overdone. When Paul got home, he said he’d looked at the temperature the oven was set to and wondered why it was so high (he said it was at 375°) and considered turning it down but thought I  must know what I was doing. Well, this isn’t the first time this has happened. I specifically recall one other time when I put something in the oven and specifically remember turning the oven to 375 and then down because it didn’t need to be so high. That was annoying.

The afternoon was beautiful and there was a fireside at 6:00. We didn’t go. It was the second fireside covering the same topic and we didn’t go the first time. I’m sure there was some good stuff presented but I really just wasn’t interested. Yes, I know we should be supportive of others but the whole premise was annoying to me and so it would not have done us or anyone else any good had we been there.

Minion this morning. She was playing with her siblings.

Okay, so here it is.

As most of you should know, we are what many people call Mormon. We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I believe that religion is important and I believe that whatever church you belong to, you should live up to the standards that are taught by the church. I believe that in order to keep the Sabbath day holy, there are certain things we should not do on Sunday. We should avoid shopping, we should not attend sporting events, we should not do anything that requires anyone else to work. The argument that “Well, the store is open already, so what difference does it make?” doesn’t fly with me. It is only open because people shop on Sunday. If no one shopped, it wouldn’t be open. So, sorry, I do happen to think it makes a difference.

That said, this fireside was for someone who competed in an Iron Man race. I think that’s fabulous! I mean, the work and effort put in to training for such a race is incredible. I don’t care that this person didn’t win, I just think it’s amazing the time and effort spent to be able to compete. What I do care about is that the race was on a Sunday. And that we are supposed to support it.

If I do that, I guess it’s perfectly fine for us to start missing the last hour or two of church so that we can go on hikes with the scout pack Seth are Joseph are in. I mean, it’s a family thing, not just the boys would be participating, the whole family would be. And not as spectators. And yesterday was such a beautiful day I would much rather have been out hiking than sitting in church.

If I do that, then I guess it’s perfectly fine to let the boys play soccer on Sunday because that would be a family event, too. I mean, only the boys would actually be playing, but we’d be there for support and I really do love watching them play.

Anyway, that’s it in a nutshell. Maybe a coconut shell, but still.

Have a spectacularly wonderful day!

(Soccer, Soccer, Soccer)

Good morning! By the time I get this posted, it will not be morning here anymore but it will be for some of you so I don’t feel bad saying that. Even though I’m going to be eating lunch while I work on this.

Seth and Cedric on the field.

This morning the boys had a soccer game against Petersham in Hubbardston. They get to play Petersham three times this year and this was the second time. Becky asked some good questions while we were there. Because I’d rather be watching the game than making up long texts, I thought I could address some of them here.

Cedric going for the ball.

My first comment of the game was, “Got all 17 today. Playing Petersham. Don’t like their coach.” I should be tweeting this stuff. Seriously; one tweet and everyone can see it. Of course, that requires internet access and I’m too cheap to do that at the game.

And again.

Becky’s response, “Bad attitude?”

My answer, “And loud mouth.”

What I would have also said is that it seems bad attitude goes with loud mouth. At one point, one of Hubbardston’s coaches said something and Petersham’s said, “You take care of your team and I’ll take care of mine.” Well, yeah, duh. I don’t think Hubbardston was trying to control anything but whatever.

Seth's turn.

Hubbardston scored two goals in the first half. Honestly, they were both almost accidents but the boys were working hard and they managed to go in and they counted. Becky said, “Are the boyos really that good or do the other teams just suck that bad?”

Both boys again.

Well, it’s a combination, really. Last week they played Hardwick and won 6 to 0. Hardwick played really well. I don’t remember the score when they played Barre but the Barre team is good. I would say that they are young, but they are good. I don’t think Petersham is as good but still, there were no goals in the second half. And, like Becky mentioned, “Course they’re getting old enough to really figure out the game & teamwork.”

That is very true. This is the third season Seth and Cedric have played with Hubbardston. The first year they were on the same team, last year they were on different teams, this year, of course, they’re on the same team. Last year, the team Cedric was on included boys he’d played with the year before and the other team was the same way; they’d all been playing together. This year they’ve got most of the same boys that were on those two teams plus a good amount of boys that Seth played with last year. There was some good footwork and some good team work. I honestly love watching them play.

And just think, this season is half over. So sad. I kind of hope one of them wants to play Quabbin in the spring. There are some conditions but still. . .

In other news, last week, due to specials and appointments and early releases, was a mess. This week should be better. We have only one appointment and it is for Amena at 5:20 on Monday. I can take the boys to practice, take Amena to the doctor, pick the boys up from practice, and all will be good. Kind of puts a kielbash on the other thing I would have liked to do Monday evening but I’ll live.

Tuesday Cedric might have scouts. Wednesday evening will be fun but the day is empty. Thursday and Friday are so far blank slates. Saturday we play Barre in Barre at Felton Field. At 9:00 am. After that the games will be at noon, 10:30, and noon and that’s all she wrote. So after next week, I won’t be disturbing anyone quite so early with game updates.

Anyway, yesterday I began doing what I should have done before school official started: creating lesson plans. We’ve been muddling along and doing alright but I think we’ll do better because I’ll have a master plan in place rather than having to come up with something each week. I mean, a master plan is the only reason we survived homeschooling for fourteen years even though it took probably ten of them to really refine things to the point where they worked really well. I almost finished the master plan yesterday and pretty much did this morning. Now I need to get ready for next week which I did a little of yesterday but have to finish today.

Yesterday morning I had my dentist appointment. That went well. I dropped the boys off with Joanna and Zak and then picked them up on my way home. Amena had Abby and Charlotte spend the night last night. Paul and I went out to eat at the Thai place we’d only been to once. I don’t remember the name of what I had but, boy! is it good. Could stand to have a little more heat since it had three little chili peppers by it which indicates it’s supposed to be hot but the flavor was fantastic.

Right now I’m going to call this good. I need a drink and I need to sign Cedric up for the SCOUTStrong program and I need to go out and get my 30 minutes in for the day. Then I need to report on everything that we’ve all done and take a shower and go to a baby shower and whatever else I need to do. In no particular order even though I did use the word ‘then’ which indicates order of some kind.

Have a terrific day!

Is

Good morning!

I don’t really have to say much about yesterday because you already got the excitement of the math books.

The day was pretty good other than the fact that I wrote less than 200 words and knit less than one stitch. Still, I wrote more than 100 words and at least took my knitting with me and had it on the table near where I was most of the day. So at least something is better than nothing, and potential is good, there just wasn’t any extra, ‘free’ time to speak of until when we got home from the Pack Meeting.

I took this at the place where Cedric has scouts a few weeks ago. The clouds were really pretty.

I didn’t tell you that the MathIt I ordered arrived yesterday. It actually came while I was writing about the whole ordeal (if such it can be called) of figuring out where the boys should be in math but I didn’t say anything about it. It’s awesome. I don’t want the boys to actually use it until I get some contact paper to cover the cards with because it is used and I don’t want it to be destroyed. I haven’t decided yet if I want to go down to Spencer today and get stuff or if I want to do it Monday. Children aren’t allowed in so I can’t really take Seth and Joseph so today might be better when Joanna can watch them but she’s already watching them while I go to the dentist this morning. And if I go today, not much in the way of school is going to get done at all. Anyway, MathIt came and that is cool.

Cedric asked me to spell ‘hospital’ for him and I did like this: “h-o-s”

“Yeah.”

“p-i-t”

“Okay.”

“a-l.”

It was during the “p-i-t” that I thought, and I realize this is completely just the imaginings of my mind, “Oh, that’s why they use Pitocin so much at the hospital: because they call Pitocin ‘pit’ and p-i-t are in ‘hospital.’” I know, pretty corny. But that’s just the way my mind works.

The Pack Meeting was good last night. Any scout that helped sell popcorn during Field Day got a set of axels to build a Lego Pinewood Derby car. Sweet! I mean, really, how cool is that? They’ll have a separate race just for the cars made with Legos. I can’t wait to see what they all come up with.

With Seth starting Math 65, he will be using the first Saxon math book I ever got. Alisha, Laura, and Joanna all used this book. Since Daniel went into public school in 4^th grade, he never got to it. Still, it has seen a lot of use and has moved with us from California to New Mexico to Idaho to Massachusetts. One of The Home Study Packet books, which includes masters for copying for various manipulatives and fractions, facts practice forms, and all the tests, has lost its cover but it otherwise intact. The other, which includes all the answers to facts practices, tests, and problem sets, lost its cover at one point as well but it got packing taped back on. What fun and adventures we have had.

Now I need to go get ready to go.

Have a wonderful day!