Happy Friday!

Happy Friday! So far, so good.

Actually, I was going to start this morning off by saying: I HATE BUGS!!! Which, generally speaking, is true. I used bug spray this morning before I went out to milk. I use it on my arms and hands and face and hair and neck. I haven’t had a problem with legs or any other area covered by clothing so I don’t bother with that. I did not do my feet and guess what? A stupid mosquito got me on the right one! If all bugs were useful OR stayed the heck out of my way, I would be much happier about their existence.

As this week draws to an end, I’ve set upon a general morning schedule. I get up and take Joanna to Gardner. When I get home, the canine girls and I go for our walk. When I am back from that, I get ready and go out to milk. Milking is a routine unto itself which I may expound upon at some future point in time. After milking, I go upstairs to make sure all children who are expected to go to school are at least looking awake and getting up. Then I go downstairs, strain milk, and cook eggs if it is and egg day which is every other day (such as today) and maybe toast (which I also did today). If it is a cereal day, I ask who would like rolled oats and make enough accordingly. For those who do not, I get out bowls and the cereal. Then, I call children to the table and they eventually all arrive and eat their food. While they are eating, I get their snacks ready. They’ve been having grapes and something else. Today the something else’s were cherry tomatoes for Amena, zucchini bread for Seth (because he didn’t eat it yesterday), and banana bread baked in the Cars 2 pan for Cedric and Joseph. As they finish eating, they are reminded to go brush teeth and wash their dishes and if there is enough time, they are given something to do. Today Seth had clothes all over the bedroom floor because he and Cedric traded beds and Seth had developed the habit of shoving his clean, folded clothes between the mattress and the wall. At some point in here, Joanna gets home and Paul comes down to get his breakfast and if Laura is going to work, she does as well, and if she’s not going to work, she might come down if there is food for her to eat. Finally, it is time to go out to the bus. The bus comes and takes away half of my children and then the rest of the day begins.

Yesterday was an okay day. I got done almost everything on my list of things to do. I didn’t finish reading my accounting chapter or doing the online study guide thing but that’s fairly minor for yesterday. If it doesn’t get done today, it’s more problematic. I fixed Elder Shim’s pants. He’d tried using super glue to fix them. I told him to never ever use super glue again to fix his clothes; he should find me instead and I will fix them. I fixed a couple of teddy bears. One was Seth’s and one was Joseph’s. Joseph’s is special; he told me the other day that a fireman gave it to him in the ambulance after the accident. I hope he keeps it forever.

Adam came over for a while because it was Ryan’s first day of preschool and he needed to pick him up at 11:20. It is hard to get reading done when someone is here who wants to visit so that is when I did the mending of pants ad bears. Adam happened to have a pair of dress slacks in his car. I told him to bring them in and I would take a look at them. The problem really is that the fabric is giving out in an area but it is such that I can make the seam go around it. It won’t be a long-term fix simply because the fabric is going to wear there and give out but at least he’ll get some more use out of them.

Just before children arrived home yesterday, I made a quick trip to Walmart because, can you believe this?, we ran out of dish soap. The last time we bought some was about two years ago and I thought we had one more left but I guess someone went down and got it without my noticing. Crazy. Other than that, while children were gone, I did school work. I think I am going to really like the Harlem class because it’s going to provide much subject matter for me to write about in my other blog.

Once children were home and I was home, I worked for a while reading and responding to some posts for my marketing class while I was helping Seth and Cedric with their homework. Then it was time to begin supper. We had a potato salad and a green salad with thick-cut pork sirloin steaks or chops or whatever. It all turned out good but I think I prefer the pork cut less thick because by the time the inside is done, the outside is too dry and pork definitely needs to be cooked all the way through. No dessert—I didn’t really have time to make any and Joanna didn’t really feel like it either. She did make the banana bread that Joseph and Cedric took for snacks today.

It being Thursday, we had the missionaries since we’ve changed from Tuesday to Thursday as of this week. That will last until the latter half of December when I’ll be done with phlebotomy. They were late but that was okay; they did call to let me know they would be.

This morning I dropped Joanna off at Nick’s because he needed the back pack he’d left here Sunday. The one he’d been using for school broke. Since I needed to drop that off, Joanna just stayed there and waited for Ruth and Jared. That was nice in a way because I got home ten minutes earlier than normal so the girls and I went for our walk earlier. It was quite foggy earlier. Now it is just cloudy. I took my time getting ready to milk and all proceeded according to schedule.

Paul is already gone. He needed to go early today because someone will be there he needs to talk to. Joanna is asleep. She didn’t sleep well last night and has work today from 11:45 to 9:00. Laura is upstairs reading or some such thing. She is going to a friend’s at noon for a photo shoot. The friend is a budding photographer (her father is very good as well) and wants to get in lots of practice so Laura and another friend (who will be Laura’s ride) are going over. They would all like to go to Nashua, NH, this afternoon because Mitt Romney will be there. Lots of the Young Men, Young Women, Young Single Adults and adults think everyone from church should go. It might be interesting, but I’d rather go out with Paul and Paul said he’s seen Mitt Romney and isn’t interested in seeing him again (he’s met him and talked with him as well). Paul knows fairly well the man who gave the opening prayer on the final day (I think that’s when it was, anyway—I didn’t watch it but I read about it) of the Republican Convention.

I am going to finish up here. The sun is coming out and it looks to be a beautiful day. I hope you all have a wonderful one!