Well, the first day of school was okay. Seth and Cedric like their teachers but they might be confusing. One is Mrs. McDonald and the other is Ms. McDonald. None of them had homework but they all had papers for me to fill out. That’s always fun. I just love filling out the same papers in quadruplicate. At least when Daniel brought stuff home after the first couple of days of 7th grade there were different things to fill out. And that year Joseph was still home so there were only four. There will only be four for the rest of the time until Amena is out. What an odd thought.
This morning I was looking at Facebook and saw a post someone had put on. They had just shared it and I have no idea if it is true or not but that doesn’t really matter. The jist of the story that went along with it is that a 14-year-old boy was shot several times by his stepfather while protecting his 6-year-old sister from the same man. Without proper treatment which his mother can’t afford, he is not expected to live. If the story is true, the stepfather deserves to be raped so he knows what it feels like to have done to you what he wanted to do to the girl and then shot several times without being killed so he knows what the boy feels like before being fatally inflicted with something. If it isn’t true, there are enough similar stories that it still makes my blood boil.
Depending upon what you believe, you may believe in the creation, you may believe the BIG BANG theory, you may believe something else. I happen to believe that we have a God and that he created not only the earth we live on but many others as well. I happen to believe that they are all beautiful and that they are all populated by people who look like. . . us! Sorry, no green or blue skinned aliens. I also have read that of all these worlds, we live not only on the most beautiful, but also the most wicked. I find this easy to believe, especially as I look around me and see/hear/read about some of the things that happen on this beautiful world. Life is precious. Anyone who willingly takes the life of a child deserves to have his/her life taken.
Anyway, busy day around here yesterday. Once all our small people left on the bus that was ten minutes late, Paul and Laura eventually left for work. Joanna eventually left for work at noon. I was, shhhhhhh, alone for the first time in a long time. THIS is what I expected my life to look like last year. However, although my life looked how I expected last year, it is only a surface thing.
First, I grated zucchini. I froze 18 cups for future use and used 2 for a zucchini rum cake and 4 for chocolate zucchini bread. After grating zucchini, I made yeast bread. I used all whole wheat this time and it didn’t turn out very well (which is not because of the wheat). It tastes okay but it collapsed so it looks funny. Actually, backing up just a bit, I had to grind wheat before I could make bread. As I think I’ve mentioned before, I do the grinding outside on the back porch. If I do it inside, it gets flour dust all over the place and I’m guaranteed to have to use my inhaler. By doing it outside, I avoid mess in the house and usually do not have to use my inhaler. I didn’t yesterday. The hopper holds about three cups so I put three cups in and go inside and do things, then I go back out and put in three more and go inside and do things, etc., until I’ve put a total of 10 cups in. Then I turn it off, bring in the bottom, empty it into the jar I keep it in, and then do it all again. Yesterday, once when I went out to put in more wheat, I startled a chipmunk which quickly scurried off the porch. Again when I went out, I startled probably the same chipmunk off the porch. This time it had been much closer to the grinder. Daring little buggers. I’ve given Nick permission to come shoot at them when he gets his new airsoft gun.
In the afternoon while I was waiting for bread or cake to bake, I worked on potato salad to go with ham for supper. Out of three bags (5 pound), there were enough potatoes to fill the 7-quart pot that I usually use. Rodents had gotten into them and done some damage and many had gone bad. Generally speaking, I do not like rodents. I had to dump a lot of potatoes in the ‘compost’ pile in the garden because I didn’t want to give all that stuff to the goats. Yuck.
So, yesterday saw the making of four loaves of yeast bread, a zucchini rum cake, four loaves of chocolate zucchini bread, potato salad and the cooking of two hams. Here and there I got some laundry washed as well and managed to strip and make my bed (which is fun because it consists of two sides so that the head and foot of each side can go up and down independently of the other side). Busy day.
Paul and Laura got home and told me that Laura’s hours have been cut way back so she’s pretty anxious to go apply for something else. Blair can still have her come in a couple of days a week but currently that’s it. Paul says there are orders that need to be put together to be shipped and he doesn’t understand why they aren’t being done but from how things are, I’m not surprised because there seems to be neither rhyme nor reason to much of what goes on there. More sales would mean more work for Laura but if she finds another job, she might not be able to work there also.
Joanna’s ITP has been acting up. About two weeks ago, I called the doctor’s office to make her an appointment. The soonest she could get in was last week on Wednesday but she ended up working that day so she couldn’t go in. I called to make an appointment for Cedric and told them that Joanna really didn’t need to be seen by the doctor but did need an order to have her blood drawn. Cool. I took Cedric in and asked about things for Joanna and the receptionist said I should talk to the nurse when Cedric went in. I did and he said that Joanna should be able to get in the same day I call but said nothing about any orders. I decided to wait until Monday morning to call because Joanna would know her schedule by then and we’d know which day she could go in. Well, she had Monday off so I called and she got to go in at 9:20. So I wouldn’t have to take all the kids, she took her scooter. When she got in, the doctor said, “What are you doing here? Your mom called and said you just needed a standing order so that’s what I did.” Well, that’s great, but no one told us! Anyway, there are standing orders at both labs now and Joanna had her blood drawn. Her platelets were at 11 and now she’s taking prednisone for a few days and is supposed to go have her blood checked today. It usually does the trick in just a couple of days.
Milking this morning was milking. Princess went first which I like and I’ve decided that I must resign myself to hearing the bus every morning while I’m out. Speaking of busses, the bus Daniel would have come home on yesterday was later than usual, probably due to it being the first day of school and the first day of a slightly new route. I was wondering if I’ll always hear that bus in the morning and just always know when it’s due in the afternoon or if that will stop when it would have been time for Daniel to be out of school. The fact that Amena will actually be on that bus next year is interesting. I sure wish she didn’t have to get on it alone. However, life is what it is and my wishing won’t change that.
Back to milking, I’ve been using a banana box to hold up the bucket for Snowflake. That’s been working pretty well but we’ve had some good dewy mornings and some rain so the box is getting pretty soggy. This morning Princess finished her grain and because I expected Snowflake to be first, had the box in place, so Princess was smelling the box and decided to take a taste. She ripped a piece off and chewed on it but did not find it to her liking so she spit it out. We’ve got lots of bugs around and many of them are particularly buggy during milking. I think this is so because I’m just sitting there and my hands are busy so I can’t be brushing them away constantly. One of them, I don’t know what kind, bite and then later where they bit is a little blister surround by red. The blisters are very small—the largest I’ve noticed is about 1/16 of an inch in diameter and the red is probably only about a quarter of an inch in diameter. The problem is that they itch and the blisters are very easy to scratch right off. Fun, fun, fun.
On the agenda today are fun things like making the sherbet I haven’t gotten to yet, looking for grapes down by the creek (they’ll be good for turning into juice and then jelly), taking Laura to look at a scooter, and more laundry. Pretty exciting.
Have a splendiferous day!
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