Cloudy October Day

And a good morning to you all! So far a good day other than a little tiff between Amena and Cedric caused by Cedric invading the girls’ room and the subsequent overreacting by both of them. Such is life. Joanna just got home. She usually gets home before this but I think this morning was a slow one for the seminary kids. Nick and Jared have their ROTC overnighter at school tonight and did not get ready last night. They both waited until this morning. Joanna said that they (she and Ruth) waited for Jared until 6:00 which made them VERY late for seminary. Nick ended up not going because he didn’t have time to finish packing. Had I been driving, I would have left them both for not being ready.

It’s been a little slow in other ways as well. Which is not always a bad thing. Everyone (everyone being Amena, Cedric, Seth and Joseph) got up and got dressed and ate. Everyone more or less cleaned up their messes and did their dishes. Seth should have wiped the table where he sat and Joseph should have washed his bowl. They all got out and were waiting for the bus on time so it didn’t have to wait. The only thing that did not happen is Cedric and Seth getting their shoes and socks ready for soccer. Hopefully I’ll be able to find them.

Today I need to get eggs at noon. I have to take Joanna to work and she starts at noon. From there, I’ll go straight to the egg place and hopefully be able to buy lots of eggs. Then this afternoon Cedric and Seth have soccer practice. Other than that, I’ll be working on accounting until it’s done and then I’ll be working on marketing until it’s done. Then I’ll be working on English which should be pretty easy and then phlebotomy. Then I have a couple of assignments from Anji for when we meet again on the 8^th of November.

We are supposed to possibly have the ‘perfect’ storm this coming week. If hurricane Sandy, a cold blast from Canada and something from the west all hit at the same time as is predicted, we could have footage of snow in the ‘mountains’ and inches elsewhere, a billion dollars of damage, and no electricity for upwards of a week. I believe that we are going to spend much of Saturday getting ready for it. If it happens, we’ll be ready. If it doesn’t happen, we’ll be ready for the next one.

Yesterday morning Adam came over for a bit. He got here just as Paul was leaving for work and said he’d unload the truck. He left just before 11:00 and forgot to unload the truck. Paul wants to get one last load of stuff from Sha Nan’s before this storm hits so that he can get it out now rather than waiting for spring. I think it’s a good idea. The missionaries ended up unloading most of the stuff that was in the truck when they came over so that worked out okay.

Nick came over yesterday as well. His grandma was babysitting for his uncle and he came over here rather than staying home alone or staying at his uncles’ house. We fed him and the missionaries burritos/tacos because we had lots of beans, rice, and hamburger cooked and everything else that we needed and we needed to get some stuff used up in order to have room in a refrigerator. There is no point in getting eggs if there is no room in the inn. We were successful in using up lots of stuff. Not quite as much as I’d have liked but I didn’t really want people to eat so much that they’d be sick either. I didn’t have time to make dessert and Laura didn’t surprise us with any so we didn’t have any.

My meeting with Anji yesterday was nice. We talked for 15 or 20 minutes before Lucinda and Robyn joined us. They were actually there (at Panera) but were catching up on their things first. Patti is the other member of their team. She is the L&D nurse and she has got a head full of dreadlocks. Dark, dark ones. Naturally dark, from the looks of it which is cool. Considering she just had three grandbabies within the last three months and must therefore be old enough to be a grandmother, I would say that turning grey is not in her genetics. As I mentioned, I will be meeting with just Anji in a couple of weeks. She wants me to think about how far is too far to travel which for a midwife attending homebirths is a legitimate concern. I will also get to go through her bag and enlighten her as to how much I do or do not know. I think I need to do some reviewing. I know I need to do some reviewing. But that will be fun.

Have a wonderful day!

Beautiful October Day

My bumper sticker.

From where I sit, the day looks pretty good. I have a plate of heart and onions in front of me (which I like even more than liver and onions), I have a manageable amount of things to do today, children were successfully gotten off to school, I have some cool pictures to intersperse with the words (Grandma, I need to get you caught up with the printed version so you can have the pictures, too), there weren’t any poops or puddles on the floor this morning, I get to go to New Hampshire to meet with Anji Church, and so it goes on.

What does this look like to you?
It's fungus that looks like nanny berries.

I'd like to find out what they are called.

Yesterday was an okay sort of day. Nothing spectacular or terribly out of the ordinary happened. I went to class in the morning and most of the students had colds and no one was in an overly garrulous mood. The subject matter was art as propaganda, particularly in regard to the Harlem Renaissance but also in general. Specifically we had read a couple of essays. One by Alain Locke called “Art or Propaganda?” He was basically saying that we should have art for art’s sake, to create or express beauty and truth, not as propaganda although sometimes art becomes propaganda which is okay, as long as it wasn’t created with that in mind. The other, “Criteria of Negro Art” was by WEB DuBois. His premise is that we need to create art as propaganda in order to make the world or society aware. If it happens to be beautiful and true, fine, but that is secondary. In spite of the fact that both men wanted the same thing, recognition and equality for blacks, I have to say that I agree with Locke. Art created for propaganda is advertising or marketing and although it may be physically beautiful, the message it represents might not be and I do not think it should be considered in the same category as art created by someone wishing to express the contents of the heart.

Waxing moon taken on the 20th.

After class, I went to Winchendon to get grain for the goats. I got two bags of sweet grain, as usual, for milking. I also got a bag of crimped oats because they make more milk when they have more grain and I don’t want them eating up all our rolled oats and granola (just the extremely outdated ones). They really liked some really old wheat that we had. It was from 1978 I think and I ground some of it. The resultant flour was so dry that it really didn’t work well in any recipes without serious recalculating. The wheat itself was very dusty which I do not like. I fed the rest of the wheat to the goats over the course of about three or four days and they loved it. At the bottom of the bucket was a layer of caked dirt in which there were a few dozen grains of wheat stuck. I really don’t like the idea of eating that much dirt with my food. Anyway, I also got a couple of boxes of bulbs to plant down at Daniel’s grave. They are deer resistant they say which is good because I know we have some.

The wood pile. It needs to get a lot bigger. This is the side nearest the house.

After I got home, there was time to make a couple of burritos (of which I could only eat one) and a tiny bit of school work before going to get Cedric and Seth for soccer practice. I took my accounting with me and got some of it done. I really do like doing the work in the book before I do the work online as it makes it easier to get the online work done faster. When we got home, it was time to take Joanna to work. When I got back from that, it was almost time to take Joseph to soccer practice. I don’t bother taking anything with me for Joseph’s practice. It’s shorter and the field is too far from the parking lot for me to sit in the car so I’d have to take not only whatever schoolwork I decide to take but a chair as well. I find it much simpler to just take me and stand and watch him. They’re fun to watch anyway (so are Cedric and Seth, and I do, between problems and napping). Yesterday, the coach divided the team in two and they played a practice game. They were supposed to be practicing passing and they are so darn cute. Joseph was good at protecting the goal. He blocked a couple really well and when someone kicked the ball and it missed, he said, “Awesome!” At one point they were headed down the field and a boy from the other side got the ball and started kicking it the other way. Joseph got in there and took it away, kicking it far enough that the other boy couldn’t get to it causing him to say, “That’s not fair!” To which Joseph said, “Yes, it is!”

The center of Amena's art project.

When we got back, Laura was in the shower. I wanted her to have warmed up spaghetti to get everyone fed so we could head to church. Ha ha ha. Her shower was fast and I stuck the spaghetti in the microwave. I had one of the shakes I’ve been having for one or two meals a day. Amena ended up staying home because she had a project for art that she was working on and needed to have finished to take to school today. Since she was staying home, I had Joseph stay as well. Laura, Cedric, Seth and I took off for church. I dropped them off and went to Staples. I needed to get a couple of things (and ended up getting more—I love Staples but it’s annoying because there’s always something that I want) and it’s close to Friendly’s and Joanna was supposed to get off at 7:45. I finished up at Staples at 7:30 and went to the Friendly’s parking lot where I put together the new planner I got for next year (which is so nice and awesome and cool and groovy [well, maybe not groovy] I want to start using it NOW). I looked at the time at 7:54 and wondered where Joanna was. She was greeting and said she was training someone so she would be done at 7:45. It appears the manager wanted her to do a couple things before leaving so she was nine minutes late. Such is life.

The whole thing. She used pastels to add color.

Back at church, Joanna went in with the Young Women, the boys finished up Scouts, and I was talking to various people. Nick and Jared are in the ROTC at their school and Saturday are doing a walk/run to raise money for I don’t remember exactly what. I want to say veterans and an animal shelter but that seems a bit odd. Anyway, I pledged some money to both of them. I talked a bit to Sheri Brimhall and Amy Troop. I got some money from Rich Gougen for potatoes. Then Joanna was done and since we were leaving Laura, we left. Paul beat us home by just a few seconds. He was driving the truck around to the other side of the barn as we drove up. Joseph wasn’t in bed yet so I sent all three boys to get ready for bed quickly since it was almost an hour past bedtime. Amena had finished her project and it turned out good. The boys went to bed without too much fuss. I worked on the online part of accounting homework. When I got to the part I hadn’t done in the book yet, I gave up because I was tired and went to bed. Pretty darn exciting.

Our sunrise this morning.

More sunrise.

Today I get to go to New Hampshire to talk to Anji again. I am hoping that goes well. Other than that, we have missionaries for supper tonight and I’ll be getting done as much accounting and marketing as possible and studying tubes for phlebotomy and perhaps coming up with an outline for the English presentation I did Monday. Currently it is sunny outside and beautiful. Sunday we are supposed to get slammed with a cold front from Canada, the hurricane, and a storm coming from the west. If they all arrive at the same time, we are in store for a duzzy of a storm that ‘they’ say could be a billion dollar storm and leave us without power until just before election day. Holy crud. Paul just drove Jonathan’s car up to the front of the house. I need to take pictures of it so Paul and sell it on Craigslist. It’s a Mercedes and a nice car, but a gas hog (at best 15 mph—I wouldn’t drive it for that). Paul thinks Jonathan and Elizabeth would be better off with a smaller car that has better fuel economy. I agree.

I think this is my favorite from today.

The last one. It was fading fast.

And now I’ll be off. Have an absolutely splendiferous day!

Paul and Senator Scott Brown

This is Paul and Senator Scott Brown. He is the man who was successful at helping us get our tickets refunded after the accident last year. Paul reports that they were on the news but since we don't get television at the moment, we weren't able to watch it. Pretty cool.

Well, you may have noticed that I did not get anything posted this morning. I don’t think I’ve had writer’s block because all I ever do is write about what we’re doing and what I think. Well, sort of. Sometimes I don’t really feel like writing but it isn’t because there is nothing to say, it’s just because I don’t feel like writing. Sometimes I just sit down and write whatever the heck I feel like for no particular reason and that sometimes turns out quite interestingly.

Yesterday in English I had a presentation. The material I was covering was two very interesting essays. One, “The Negro-Art Hokum” by George S. Schuyler and the other “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” by Langston Hughes. Hughes is a well-known poet and I have read and like many of his poems. These essays were interesting in that Schuyler wrote his and it appeared in The Nation in 1926 and in the next issue was Hughes’ reply. They are almost polar opposites and both make points that I agree with and that I disagree with. What I did, is divide the class up into three groups. This worked well as there were thirteen of us in class. The first group got to argue Hughes’ point of view and the second group Schuyler’s. The third group got to come up with questions to ask the others. It turned out pretty well. Some good points were brought up.

I’m trying to remember what else I did yesterday and nothing is really coming to mind. I took Joanna to work. I took Amena and Cedric to Walmart (so Amena could get something that she ended up not finding) and Friendly’s (so Cedric could get a free one-scoop ice-cream cone). I got some school work done but not a whole lot. I need to get some stuff done one of these days because I haven’t gotten much done today either. I picked Joanna up after work. I went to bed.

This morning I took a shower so I could go to kindergarten. Actually, I had to dry some clothes so I could take a shower so I worked on accounting for a while before showering. Then I went to kindergarten which was fun. Then I went to get a sticker for the Geo (are they more related to Toyota or Chevrolet?). It passed after having the wiper on the passenger side replaced which was good. Then I went home to get some paper so that I could work on more accounting while in Worcester waiting for Joseph. Then I got home in time to get ready to go to class this evening and went. While there, we went over the second half of last week’s lecture. That was exciting. I was tired. When it came time to draw, I was again bloodless and being tired showed; I hit gold (so to speak) but didn’t go in far enough so the needle came out when I was changing tubes. So, not bad altogether. I’ve hit blood 100% of the time and I’ve been successful at getting my tubes done right 75% of the time.

Right now I should be getting on to something else. I have much I need to do and need to spend all day tomorrow and Friday doing it. I will be off right now. Have a wonderful evening and whatever part of tomorrow happens until I write at you again!

Disjointed

Well, I thought I would get something done Saturday and didn’t. I thought I would get something done yesterday and didn’t. Well, it’s not quite true that I didn’t do anything Saturday. I didn’t post anything. I did upload some pictures and I was going to do some more but couldn’t find the cord for the camera so I didn’t. I think this will be relatively short in words but there are some pictures from soccer.

Paul and I went to an estate sale in Oxford Saturday afternoon because they had canning jars. They had quite a few of the wire bail type that I would not use for canning (but would use for keeping sugar, popcorn, etc.) and almost as many of the more ‘modern’ type (that use a lid and screw band) that I would use for canning. I thought the guy said we could have 15 for $3 which would have been a really good deal. But no, it was 15 for $3 EACH. Are you kidding me? I know that the square ones (of which there were about three out of a total of about 50) can be worth a few dollars and that the colored ones can literally be worth up to thousand but there were no colored jars. If I were the betting type, I would bet that most of the ‘modern’ jars were no older than I am and I happen to know that my grandma bought jars in my lifetime for less than $3 for a dozen. Heck, I can buy them for less than $12 a dozen new. I told them this and said the most I would be willing to pay was $1 per jar. No, that wasn’t good enough. “They’re old,” they said. “Yeah,” I said, “not THAT old!” Why do people think that they can get so much for something that isn’t worth it? I’d love to be there tomorrow when the person comes who supposedly is going to take what’s left. If they buy quart jars for $3 each, I think I have a few things to sell them, too.

Since writing that last paragraph, I did more research and I think some of the jars may have been from the 20s to 40s. Why do I think this? Because there were so many zinc lids. It’s possible that the lids were on newer jars but it’s also possible that the jars are as old as the lids. That still does not make them worth $3 each so I’m not unhappy that we left them. I am happy that we did not get them.

Saturday morning Joseph’s team lost their game. Funny thing about that is that Joseph and Luke both said that they won. They’re so darn cute! Cedric and Seth’s team won. They had a really good game. I enjoy watching them. They didn’t have a game the Saturday before and the week before that their game was cancelled due to weather. This past Saturday was beautiful—a perfect Indian summer day. Seth and Cedric both were really good at getting right in the lump of boys around the ball to get it out and they both like to run. I didn’t realize that Seth is actually faster than Cedric. That isn’t to say that Cedric is slow at all, Seth is just faster.

Yesterday was yesterday and I’m going to have to do what I’ve got because I feel really disjointed this morning and there is a lot on my plate for today.

Have a great day!

Clouds on the way to Oxford.

Clouds on the way to Oxford.

What a morning!

What a morning! Yesterday afternoon I got an email from Cedric and Seth’s soccer coach saying that due to expected rain for today, practice was cancelled. I hadn’t checked any forecasts so I had absolutely no idea what we were looking at for the next few days. While Paul and I were sitting at the table, I asked him if we were supposed to get rain and he didn’t know but he said Walter had said it was supposed to be in the 80s and he checked a forecast. It wasn’t going to be in the 80s but there was a huge storm heading our direction. He hoped it didn’t arrive during the night because the wood and log splitters were all uncovered. Well, guess what? When my alarm went off this morning, what is the first thing I noticed? Rain. I do not know how long it had been because when Joseph came to get in bed with us at 2:33 it wasn’t. Between then and 5:20, it started. I so did not want to get up. I almost sent Joanna a message saying, “Are you up? Because I so do not want to get out of bed.” But I didn’t because I heard the rain and knew that it would take Paul a few minutes to wake up enough to cover the wood and it just generally is a good idea to get up when you need to.

I went outside after using the bathroom and decided it was too dark to do anything. I didn’t have a flashlight and the light provided by my phone was not sufficient. I figured I could park the car with the headlights shining on the wood pile and I could cover everything when I got back. Joanna came out and we left. We only had to wait a minute and then I was on my way home. I covered the wood mostly and the log splitters. I would have covered all the wood but I was working on the far side and couldn’t really see the side nearest the house. I knew I’d gotten at least two thirds of it.

When I came in, it was time to wake people up and get ready to milk so that’s what I did. I had to wash the bucket for milking and since there were a couple of dirty jars as well, I filled the sink up with hot bleach water (with dish soap, of course) and washed the bucket and filter and jars and lids and two plastic buckets and one lid for storing wheat and flour in. Then I went found a hat to wear so my glasses wouldn’t get too rained on and went out to milk. Snowflake was first, as usual. I don’t usually latch the gate when I give them their scraps and today Snowflake pushed it open and jumped up on the stanchion and began her breakfast before I got out. Not too big a deal since she’s not giving much milk and I finish before she does. Princess is usually the next one out but today Goldilocks beat her so our order was a bit off. Goldilocks was taking forever so I went out to the trampoline to make sure Seth hadn’t left his shoes out there. He hadn’t.

After milking, I was helping Seth look for his school shoes. They’d been missing since Tuesday and yesterday he came home wearing a pair he’d gotten from the school nurse. I am SO tired of this. He either loses or can’t find or hides (like he did last year when I got him a pair of shoes he said he liked but then changed his mind) his shoes and runs out wearing crappy ones that are falling apart before I realize what he has on his feet. Last year, he actually would put on the pair he didn’t like inside and once he was outside, he would change. I swear, the nurse must think I don’t buy shoes for the kids and I am tired of it. Granted, it looks like he needs a new pair almost already, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, that took some time and I finally found one on the floor between the wall and the bottom of the bunk bed he and Joseph share. I figured the other one couldn’t be too far away but it wasn’t on the floor so I looked on his bed. I didn’t see it there put looking from underneath, I could see laces hanging down and . . . behold—a SHOE!!!

While looking for shoes and making sure that people are eating, Joseph is having issues with getting dressed and Cedric bothering him (I made Cedric look for Seth’s shoes because Seth had been wearing one of Cedric’s sweat shirts and he told Seth he would tell him where his shoes were if he gave him his sweat shirt. I made Seth give Cedric the sweat shirt and Cedric said he didn’t know where the shoes were. Since he’d blatantly lied, I made him then look for Seth’s shoes.) Cedric left the room and Joseph finally got dressed and then went downstairs. He did not have shoes or socks on because he didn’t have socks in his drawers. I don’t know where they’ve all gone. We got new socks for all three boys and twice as many for Joseph as Cedric and Seth. Cedric and Seth have all their socks. Joseph’s have all gone AWOL. At any given time I can find about five socks but no matches and that’s out of about twelve pair. Amazingly, I actually found a pair in the dryer so he had clean socks (even though one of them didn’t look it –what is it with boys and socks, anyway?) and he knew where his shoes were (another amazing thing).

Somewhere in all of this, I took the payment for the electric bill out to the mail box and after they all went out to get on the bus, I borrowed another hat (the first one was Seth’s which he wore to school, this time it was Paul’s) and went out to see how well I’d gotten the wood covered. I somehow managed to do a fairly decent job and just needed to pull the tarp (which is actually a pool cover which is actually a round tarp to cover a pool) over the row nearest the house. Then I came in and realized I’d forgotten to strain the milk. Oi! So, I did that and then decided to do this and now Paul is downstairs and Laura is feeding the goats some hay because they won’t be going outside in the rain and Joanna is in bed because she stayed up too late last night as usual.

Now it is time to think of something to eat. I am not sure what I want because I am not sure what to eat to avoid feeling icky like I did yesterday. After eating at Friendlys, I felt full all afternoon and didn’t really feel hungry for supper. I felt more bloated than anything. That has gone away and I had some water and I feel fine but not too hungry.

Yesterday afternoon and evening I managed to get done almost everything I wanted to for school. The only thing I did not do was read a chapter for accounting. I will do that today along with reading something for English and most likely posting something and taking a marketing quiz and then going on to whatever I think I should do. I have a phone call to make and I need to do a run to Walmart for salt for the water and toilet paper (Grandma, remember all the toilet paper we got while you were here? There are just two rolls left which is nice because now I know how much we use in four months). I also need to get some things for the thing I use to floss my teeth.

Have a wonderful day!

Better Late Than Never

Good afternoon! It is quite a bit later than usual but at least I’m here. I got just about nothing done yesterday school wise. I did manage to finish reading a marketing chapter but that was it. Terrible. Complete lack of motivation and too much other stuff to do. I think the lack of motivation is partly due to the lack of sleep. This morning, once the younger half of the children were on the bus, I went back to bed. Paul was still in, attempting to wake all the way up. We talked for a bit and then he got up and showered, etc. I fell asleep. An hour later, I heard voices downstairs and realized it was Adam and Paul talking. I was kind of surprised that Paul was still here but was still tired enough not to give it much thought. Then Joanna sent me a text message asking if I could go pick her up as she’d spent the night at a friend’s. So, Laura and I went to do that since Laura had been there and knew how to get there. Joanna sent directions that were very good as well so I would have been fine without Laura but that’s okay. Just before we left, Paul said that when we got back, the truck would need to be emptied out and if Adam was still here, he and I could take the truck back to the mechanic because the transmission fluid leak was very bad. When we got back, Adam said that Paul had gone ahead and unloaded and he and Paul had taken the truck because Paul said it was so much worse just driving it down the hill that he didn’t want us to have to deal with it.

Yesterday morning, I took Joanna to Gardner. That was the first of many little trips. We took the Jetta because the plates weren’t on the ‘new’ car yet. It is not a Toyota, as previously mentioned. It is a Geo which I guess is more closely related to a Chevrolet. So, no Toyota. Laura put the plates on and then Joanna and I went to Hubbardston town offices so she could register to vote. That took about five minutes and we came home. Then I went to class which was very interesting. Hubbardston had an early release day yesterday so children were home when I got home from school. Seth and Cedric had soccer practice at 3:00 so we went to that. Laura and Joseph went as well. Laura so that she could make sure she was registered to vote and Joseph because he wanted to play. I took my marketing book and did read some but slept more. I was so tired. We came home and did this and that which included taking Joanna to work and then started making macaroni and cheese for supper but then it was time for Joseph to go to soccer practice. Laura and Amena finished making the macaroni and cheese and the boys and I went to the rec field. Joseph had his practice while Seth and Cedric (who had gone because Laura would be leaving before we got home and I was not about to have them home with Amena and no one older to supervise) played at the playground. We got home, ate, got ready to go to church and left. At church, I managed to finish reading my marketing chapter and one page of a phlebotomy chapter.

Laura got home later and Paul got home even later. I was so tired. I went to bed and fell asleep and was still tired in the morning.

After my nap and picking Joanna up this morning, I put some whites on to wash so I could take a shower. After my shower, Laura and I took Joanna to work and then went to the bank and then went to Friendlys for lunch. Joanna has got to be the cutest server ever! Oh my goodness! Anyway, we got too much food and had to bring home most of our actual lunch. We ate our appetizer and ice-cream though. Well, most of it.

This is Laura's mint ice-cream. Notice the whipped cream and cherry on top. Joanna had to do the ice-cream herself I guess because noone else was in fountain.

This is my Hunka Chunka Lava Cake Sunday. Or something like that. I don't know why the pictures turned out so yellow. Laura took one and it was fine but I can't seem to open it on my phone to save it.

When we got home, I was so full I felt sick and, since I was still tired, I went upstairs and went to bed. I actually fell asleep again too. Then the phone rang and I got up to see who it was. It wasn’t anyone I wanted to talk to but it was getting latish so I got up. It was really nice out so I got my phlebotomy book and took it outside and started reading. The phone rang again and it was Joseph’s Primary teacher. Sunday she asked if I would sit with her class during the Primary presentation because she’s going to watch her grandkids do theirs in Greenfield. I said I would and she said she’d bring me her copy of the program sometime this week. She was calling to make sure I was home before she came out. She and her husband came on his motorcycle and we visited for a few minutes. The bike scared Trista which would have been funny if she weren’t so scared. I had almost finished my chapter when the bus arrived and life became chaotic again.

Right now Laura and the boys are somewhere between here and the sand pit nearest the house. I won’t let them go alone so they love it when someone older will go with them. I need to get supper going so I will be on to that.

I hope you have had a wonderful day so far and that it continues to be so!

This is What Happens When You've Been Sitting at the RMV Too Long

Today is the last day to register to vote in the presidential election next month. Guess what Joanna will be doing in a couple of hours?

Well, did anyone watch the second presidential debate last night? I actually did in spite of the fact that I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Seriously, I usually cannot stand listening to Obama’s voice. Last night wasn’t so bad, I think because he was not using a teleprompter and therefore wasn’t having pauses in odd places. I liked the moderator for this debate much better than the woman for the VP debate. It was hard to get these guys to shut up upon occasion but generally, I think she did an okay job. I really would like to read a transcript of the whole thing before I make further comments because I don’t want to fall into the same trap that we heard last night of saying that someone said or did one thing when in reality, something else was said or done. In the very least, it was interesting as is much of what happens in life.

Cold morning today. There was frost all over the Jetta. Not thick, though. It was nice to have the heated seat. We were going to take the Toyota BUT Laura didn’t get the plates on like I asked her (which is understandable because I asked her to after I arrived early at school yesterday evening which would have been a very busy time here). Not to mention we may have taken the Jetta anyway because I’ve only driven the Toyota once and that was in the daylight. I really don’t like driving an unfamiliar vehicle when it is dark.

Yesterday was better than the day before. I had a phlebotomy test that I didn’t do as well as I’d have liked but at least I did better than on the accounting test I flopped. Jonathan and Elizabeth were going to come over after his appointment with a chiropractor in Hubbardston but then ended up coming over before. They got here while I was taking my test. Then I needed to shower because I needed to take Joanna to work and my plan was to continue on to the RMV. Laura went with me so she could see the Navy recruiter and get her birth certificate back but he wasn’t there and is transferring out soon. Hopefully they’ll have someone to take his place very soon; I don’t like the idea of leaving something like a BC anywhere. Oh, AJ, we saw a car that made me (and Laura—she actually pointed it out: “Hey, Mom, it’s a car your aunt might like”) think of you. It was a purple Charger. Funny thing is that on my way to class yesterday evening, I saw another purple car; looked like a Toyota but all I saw was the back. The Charger was much cooler as it was older and just generally a much more awesome kind of car.

Sitting at the RMV was a blast as always. We only had to wait for about an hour so their estimated wait time of 55 minutes wasn’t too far off. Paul said the Insurance Place told him it would be less expensive to get new plates than to transfer but Adam’s had been less to transfer so when I got up to the window, I said, “I need to register a vehicle and transfer plates or get new ones and turn in old ones, whichever is less expensive.” Well, that’s not exactly what I said, but you get the general idea. As it turns out, because the registration was due this month, it was cheaper to get new ones so that’s what I did. They’re still waiting to be put on. I should go bug Laura about that. I’d like to take Joanna to register to vote before class but at the rate things seem to go around here, it will be after.

THIS is what happens when I have run out of other things to do while waiting at the RMV.
Awesome socks, eh? Grandma made them.

 

In spite of being a better day, I did not get done everything that I had hoped and right now I need to get ready to milk.

Now it is 7:39. The bus should be here at any moment. Are all children ready? Heck no!

Fast forward: the bus is gone and unless someone is hiding upstairs, everyone managed to get out there. No snacks today though. Half-day though. Fun times.

Phlebotomy was fun last night. Sort of. I printed out the lecture slides and then somehow managed to not get them with me to class. I’m not sure where they are but I’ll have to find them today and transfer my notes to them. Drawing blood is always an experience. We were supposed to draw two people but they kept slipping out so I ended up only doing one. We also were supposed to do two tubes, in the correct order according to color (different color tops, different additives) and mix the blood. I think I did pretty well. The woman I drew said it didn’t hurt and was smooth. I remembered to take the tourniquet off once the first tube was on. Once the second tube was on, I gently mixed the blood in the first. It’s actually kind of fun.

Today much to be done. Lots of reading. Lots of studying. I do not want any repeats of these two bad tests. In my defense, I never seem to get the short answer questions right for phlebotomy because if the exact answer isn’t supplied, it is wrong. For example, on the one before this one, I didn’t but an ‘s’ on a word so it was counted as wrong. Fortunately, the teacher goes through and gives credit for things like that.

Have a wonderful day!

Things Can Only Get Better

Shhhh! Only positive thoughts!

Good morning! All I really want right now is to go back to bed but at this point, I would probably sleep in and we’d have another morning similar to yesterday which we do not need.

Sunday was Sunday. We went to church in two vehicles because as you recall, the van wouldn’t start last Wednesday and the battery charger decided to stop working and Paul hadn’t taken the time to jump it and I certainly wasn’t going to add that to my list of things to do before leaving. Laura had spent the night at the Beaudette’s because the YSA had gotten back late and no one was coming this far west (it’s a common problem). Paul was still in the shower when the rest of us were ready to go so we all went in the Aries. Paul followed in the Jetta when he was finally ready. After church, Amena had a meeting so Paul waited for her and the rest of us, minus Laura, went home again in the Aries. Laura went to the Beaudette’s again because there was some kind of a fireside in Boston at 7:00 and if she was already that far East, she wouldn’t have to find a ride. I’m not sure how she got home, but she did sometime around 11:00. Everyone six to eighteen had BLTs for lunch and Paul and I had steak with peppers and onions.

I spent entirely too much time attempting to download a program so that we could watch The Walking Dead Sunday evening. We still don’t have television service, which I’m still not unhappy about, so we couldn’t watch it on the television. There were a couple of places to watch it online, but you had to download something and I should have known that wouldn’t work because the connection is so slow. It didn’t work and we ended up not watching it. I even downloaded Netflix because somewhere it said The Walking Dead was watchable there. Well, it is, but only season one when I was looking. Since Laura and Joanna were up until almost two this morning watching movies on it, I’m going to get rid of it. I don’t have time to watch movies and people around here don’t need any more ways to waste time.

Yesterday was perhaps the epitome of crappy days. It started out okay but with a kink as I got to take the seminarians to Ashburnham since Ruth didn’t have her car. It isn’t bad taking them and I don’t really mind but it makes me very late for milking and makes me gone when the kids should be getting up and ready for school. Laura was supposed to help with that but she’d turned her phone off and was still asleep when Joanna and I got home. Paul was up though and all the boys were in various stages of being ready. They all managed to finish eating and getting ready and I got snacks out and then I headed out to milk. The bus came while I was milking and I thought everyone stood a chance of missing it but when you are outside, you hear it really well the two stops it makes before here. They all got on safely and were away. I finished milking. Because I was late, there was more milk than the day before but other than that, it was uneventful.

One thing about yesterday morning was the temperature. I put my jacket on when Joanna and I left and it was way too warm for that. The radio said it was almost 60 degrees which is rather warm for the season. It was warm all day. It would have been a nice day to go outside and get things done if I didn’t have so much other stuff to do.

After I ate, I took a shower and got ready to go to school. Forgetting how warm it was, I dressed for the temperature in the house (which was substantially less than outside) which means a turtle neck and sweater. Joanna wanted to practice driving so she was going to drive me to school and then wait for me to get out of class and then drive home. Well, we got in the Aries to go, and it wouldn’t start. I guess one of the boys or Amena didn’t get a door shut all the way or something and the battery was dead. Again. Major annoyance. I’d been planning on leaving early to put some gas in since it was very low (we’d taken the Jetta to Ashburnham because it was so low and I didn’t want to take the time to get gas at 5:30 in the morning). Even though she didn’t drive it, Joanna went with me in the Jetta. Class was good, we talked about a couple of poems that I like by Langston Hughes, but I was overdressed and way too warm. Hot, even. After class, Laura found a jumper cable and we used the Jetta to jump the Aries.

The plan was to go to get Adam, let him get done what he needed to for insurance, go to the RMV so he could register the Aries and I could register the Toyota. Well, in order to do this, the Aries had to be running. I tried starting it a couple of times and it wouldn’t so I decided to take my accounting test because it had to be taken yesterday. I got on Blackboard and went to the test and it informed me that it had expired as of 11:55 am.  What!!!! They’re supposed to be good until 11:30 pm the days they close. I called the teacher, she said she was working on it, give her five minutes. I did and went in and decided to take it. As soon as I opened it and it was too late to go back, I wished I hadn’t decided to take it. Oh well. Only one way to go and that was forward so I did. What I did not do, is well on the test. Worst score ever. Not happy about that.

The Aries finally started. I called Adam and Laura and I left. Laura went because she’d been to where Adam’s living and I hadn’t so she was my navigator. We picked him up, I let him drive, we went to Hubbardston because that’s where his insurance is, dropped Laura off, left for the RMV. By the time we got there, it was 4:30. I really didn’t feel like going in although perhaps I should have. My day wasn’t turning out to be a very good one and I didn’t really want it to be worse by going in there and everyone knows that going in the RMV could. It’s just a fact of life. Anyway, after Adam got the Aries registered, he stopped by his house to get Ryan’s car seat and then took me home. It was not sad watching the Aries leave.

Supper had already happened and the kids were just about done with reading scriptures. In spite of the fact that they’d been watching too many movies lately, I let them watch one. I did cut it short though and made the boys go work on cleaning their room. They need that to be done before any more movies get watched. Cedric came downstairs almost in tears about 8:30 because Laura and Joanna were watching movies. We told him that they are older but when they were still watching movies when Joseph came to me at 1:30 in the morning, I decided that enough is enough. They didn’t get the dishes done so they certainly ought not to have been watching any movies.

On the AMC website, they had a link where you could watch Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead so Paul and I did. We were done by 10:10 though and in bed by 10:20. I was asleep before 11:00. Wow. It should be an interesting season. I don’t generally like much that is on television but I do like The Walking Dead. It gives a person much to think about. I didn’t watch the first few episodes of the first season because after watching part of one, I thought it looked too strange and somewhat gross. Paul liked it though and kept watching so eventually, I gave it another try. Now I really like it but mainly because it gives a person a lot to think about (I know, like I need more to think about). I like Breaking Bad for the same reason. However, I understand that the ‘stars’ of it think they need more money and so the very short season that just ended may be all she wrote. If they get more money, there are supposed to be a few more episodes. We’ll see. It’s things like ‘stars’ wanting more money that kind of turn me off because if they need more money to do what they do, what do I need?

And that brings us to today. I took Joanna to Gardner. The dogs have been out to do their thing. It’s time for me to go wake everyone up and then milk. The goats are letting me know that it is time. Today almost has to be better than yesterday.

Have a wonderful one!

Fun and Excitement

7:41 pm

Well, it’s a bit later than I usually write, but that’s okay. We had a cold, busy morning and the day continued busy until supper-time so I have a little time now and thought I would utilize it.

The world was white with frost when I got up. Laura needed a ride to Princeton this morning so she could go to Boston for a Young Single Adult Temple Conference. Since Joseph had a soccer game at 8:30, we had to take Laura early enough to be back to Hubbardston in time. That meant leaving at 7:45 which meant no dilly dallying about getting goats milked. Milking wasn’t a problem, it was just cold. If you recall, I use wet paper towels to wipe off their udders before milking. Well, this morning, being so cold, the paper towels were frozen by the time I needed them. I tried warming one up in my hand but that didn’t work very well. I tried breathing on one and that didn’t work very well either. At the soccer game (of which I got no pictures and Joseph’s team lost 4 to 6), everyone was cold. Most of the kids had hats and mittens or gloves. Joseph will next week. I was fine other than my hands. When I got my new phone, the guy at the Verizon store said that if I could handle going to a completely touch screen, that’s the way of the future. I said, sure, no problem but the reason I like the physical keyboard is because in the cold, the touch screens don’t respond if you have gloves or mittens on and sometimes my fingers are so cold that they don’t work.

I need to go pick Joanna up now so I should be back relatively soon.

8:23 pm

Joanna is home eating her supper from Friendlys. The other day she worked until 12:30 in the morning for the dishes person. Because she’s never been trained to do that, she couldn’t clock in for doing it so she had to clock in for doing fountain which is about $2 an hour less so the manager for the night gave her certificates for seven free meals because she said Joanna did not get paid enough.

Time flies when you are having fun. Paul got home and had a few bags of stuff that Joanna and I brought in and I put away. That was pretty exciting. Now Joanna has gone to bed and Paul is waiting for water to boil for tea. Laura still isn’t home and the boys and Amena are all abed. Amena is probably reading because that is what she does, but at least she is in bed.

Today was a dish and clothes extravaganza. The dishes hadn’t been completely finished since Tuesday and clothes just pile up with as many people as there are around here. Amena folded five loads. Four were washed yesterday and the day before. One was dried today. I folded two loads that were washed and dried today. Right now there is a load of towels in the drier and a load of delicates in the washer. More excitement.

Paul went this morning to pick up the missionaries so they could come help split and stack wood. They did that for about three hours. I used an entire gallon of milk to make hot chocolate so we had quite a bit. We fed them leftovers for lunch. Adam has committed to buying the Aries so Paul got the Toyota out from the corner of the field where it was hiding. Once we have money from the Aries, we can get the Toyota registered. I’m pretty sure it needs a sticker as well which should be more fun and excitement.

I think there was more I was going to say but by now, my brain is telling me that it is time to go to bed. That means more fun and excitement. A little reading. A little music maybe. A little sleep. Oh yeah.

I hope you all sleep well and have a peaceful night.

JB (I just realized could be Joe Biden OR Joker from Batman)

Good morning! I have only a few minutes before I have to leave in order to be to an appointment in Worcester at 9:30 but since I haven’t gotten to this yet, I thought I would at least start now.

Did anyone see the vice-presidential debate yesterday? I really don’t like watching such things but Paul does and he couldn’t get it on his laptop and I could on mine so I watched it with him. Very interesting. By far the most interesting thing, in my opinion, was Joe Biden’s resemblance to the Joker of Batman fame. Also interesting is that they constantly were interrupting each other. And, I didn’t think much of the moderator. I think she should have exerted more presence and made them stop interrupting and stay on topic.

All children who should be at school, are. Laura and Joanna are upstairs. Paul just finished eating and will be on his way soon. I will be leaving in a minute. WAYL (write at you later).

1:03 pm now and I think I’ll be short. The appointment in Worcester went well and Joanna was delivered to work and I retook the marketing quiz that I missed one on the other day. Today I got them all right and I can live with that.

Yesterday I managed to get almost everything done I wanted to. That really isn’t saying much. I took that quiz. I finished my essay for English. While I was waiting for Jonathan and Elizabeth at the chiropractor, I read everything I needed to for English for next week. The only think I didn’t do is finish the Samsung case study and since all I need to do for today is that and post on Monday’s reading for English, I don’t think it will be a problem. Although I probably should print out the essay or I might forget to do it Monday until time to leave. Which would be fairly typical.

As you may have surmised, Jonathan and Elizabeth were here for a few hours. I picked them up in Gardner, dropping Laura off at Walmart on the way and picking her up on the way home. After lunch I took them to the chiropractor and read (and napped) while waiting. I brought them back to the house to finish preparing some eggplant for supper and then took them home.

When I got back, I cleared my stuff off the table and got busy with the rest of supper. We had eggplant parmesan and green salad. Laura made brownies (not from a box!) and we had them and ice-cream for dessert. Joanna called as we were finishing up so I went to get her. The missionaries left just after we got back and then it was time for children to scuttle off to bed and such fun stuff.

Not a bad day yesterday and today has been a good one so far (getting better too). I hope yours has been and continues to be good!

 

A little PSish note. AD, just got your email for the day. The cones are delicious! Especially the mohair. I just like to sit (or stand) for a minute and feel them. Ahhhhhhhh! So nice.

Peace in the Middle East?

Good morning! Guess what today is? 10/11/12! That won’t happen again.

Have you ever wondered what people in the Middle East really think about the presence of the US military? We get gas from a place in Leominster operated by a man from Afghanistan. As Paul puts it, “His English is better than my Afghani,” but you have to pay attention when he speaks or you might not quite catch what he’s saying. Would you like to know what he thinks of the presence of the US military in his native country and our Commander-in-Chief and the chances for peace in the Middle East? He said that we had the opportunity to take care of the problem and didn’t so there isn’t likely going to be any peace. He said, “Obama,” and spat on the ground. Hard to mistake that. I thought it was rather interesting because we are fed a load of crap by our very biased media so all we ever hear is their version of what may or may not be the truth.

In other news, there are times I absolutely hate having dogs in the house. This morning, for example, when I came downstairs and discovered poop on the floor by the table and guess who gets to clean it up? It isn’t like they didn’t have the chance to out last night and it isn’t like they were let out any later than usual this morning. It may be due to the fact that Joanna got home from work at 12:30 this morning; they tend to get excited when someone arrives which often leads to the need of relief.

What an interesting day yesterday. School was fine. Jonathan texted me at about 9:30 and said he was at the Mount. I told him I had class there from 11:00 to 12:15 and asked if he was going to need a ride. He said he wouldn’t mind but wasn’t going to ask as he did have his bicycle. I said that was good because I had a crazy day ahead. It was, just nothing like I anticipated.

School went according to plan and I arrived home. It was rather drizzly out and I expected an email or two saying that soccer practice was cancelled which is indeed what happened so I stayed home rather than taking boys to practice which was fine. I helped Seth with his homework. He had some subtraction for math. They’re borrowing and I know that he knows how to do it but he often hurries through and does not take care to get the right answer. Upon checking it, there were two correct out of fifteen and I’d helped him with one of them. So, we went over every problem until at the end, he was doing it correctly. I also helped Joseph get his homework done which was pretty simple. (The bus just arrived—Daniel’s bus.) Then it was time to take Joanna to work because the weather was supposed to be unpleasant. Interestingly, it was supposed to rain all afternoon. It actually rained in the morning and cleared up in the afternoon. Anyway, we went to leave in the Aries and it wouldn’t start. I’d forgotten to turn off the headlights when I got home from school. So we tried the van. It wouldn’t start because apparently someone didn’t get a door shut all the way Sunday after church. So we tried the truck. Paul said that the transmission has an issue so I wasn’t really crazy about taking it but Joanna needed to get to work. Well, the truck started but the transmission definitely has an issue. It slipped just going the short distance down the driveway so I decided not to take it and when it slipped twice more driving around and up the other end of the driveway to park, I’m glad we didn’t. So, Joanna ended up taking her scooter.

And now it’s time to wake up children and go milk so I will be back.

Well, what a wasted half an hour. I got less than half the amount of milk I did yesterday because the girls didn’t go out to graze and didn’t get any hay. It takes as long to get a little bit of milk as it does a lot because each goat takes the same amount of time to eat her grain and when there is a lot of milk, I get done about the same time, when there is almost none, I get done before the goat. So, even though I spend less time eating, the goats take the same amount of time eating. They need to get out the garden today.

Boys are in the process of eating. Cedric just washed his bowl and Seth and Joseph are just getting started. I’m not sure what Amena’s up to. When I came in from milking, she had just finished painting her nails. What is happening to my Amena? Snacks are ready to go. There was one dinosaur chocolate cake left and Cedric volunteered to take it. There are Rice Krispie Treats for the other three plus grapes. There are enough grapes for tomorrow because I think I’ve been giving them too many so instead of using up almost the whole thing of grapes, I only used half today. Amena still is not down here. That girl takes forever most days and I’m not sure what she does to take so long.

Grandma, your package arrived today. The socks are causing me to expand my wardrobe somewhat because I don’t like to wear socks that don’t at least somewhat go with what I’m wearing and I have to say that green and yellow aren’t colors I typically wear because generally speaking, they make me look sick. However, those colors go well with a couple of the tie-dyed skirts I have. It’s kind of fun putting things together in different ways. The pictures are nice too. And the card is hilarious! Hahahaha!!!

And now on with the day! Have a great one!

Headache

Good morning! It’s still dark out and it must be cloudy because it sprinkled on us all the way to and from Gardner (just enough to need to wipe upon occasion which is annoying because the intermittent settings don’t work in the Aries). I let the canine girls out before we left so they could do their thing so hopefully they’re set for now and won’t miss too badly a walk because I don’t feel like getting wet. I think a couple of boys wanted to be woken up this morning so I’ll go do that and be back for a bit before getting ready to milk.

It appears that they both wanted to go for a walk because when I went in that direction in order to go upstairs, they both followed and indicated that they expected to go out. I let them out but they wanted back in before I’d gotten all the way up the stairs. Silly girls. Cedric and Seth did want to be woken up. I’ll go do that duty for Amena and Joseph in about 13 minutes.

Class last night was class. I didn’t want to go just because I didn’t want to go. In spite of getting lots of sleep the night before, I was tired and tried to fall asleep during the video we watched after lecture. Waiting to practice sticking and being stuck wasn’t too exciting. We get to go home after we’ve done that so maybe I should have gotten right in there and done it. On the other hand, then I would have had to wait even longer for Joanna to get out of work. My biggest problem was the massive headache I had. I don’t usually get headaches but I sure had one yesterday. It started when I was looking at a book that smelled of cigarette smoke and got worse throughout the day until class when it worsened exponentially. When Joanna and I got home, we made fried potatoes with hot sausage because neither one of us wanted stroganoff and I drank lots of water (which I also did while waiting half an hour for Joanna to get out of work) and I took a headache pill. Then I took a quiz for phlebotomy which I somehow had completely forgotten about. Then I thought about commenting on the reading for English but no one else had yet and I didn’t want to be the first one two weeks in a row. We are supposed to comment by 11:30 pm the night before class so technically, this morning is too late. However, last week, everyone who commented other than myself did so the morning before class. I don’t get that. At all. This is an honors class and these people can’t follow directions.

Well, time to get ready for milking and then I’ll run upstairs and make sure Amena and Joseph are awake and getting up.

Joseph is now sitting at the table eating (it’s 7:14) but Amena is still upstairs; she has not yet graced us with her presence. Cedric is done eating and Seth is working on it. The goats are milked, the dogs have done their outside duty and either have or are eating. Well, almost. Trista has eaten because she’s something like a pig but Scooter’s is still in the bowl because she is like Seth: easily distracted. I don’t think she likes the food much, either. There are still four bags of grapes and four little cakes (two dinosaurs and two cars) waiting to be grabbed up. Paul is still abed as is Laura. Joanna should be home soon. I am eating shredded wheat between sentences. I love the original shredded wheat; the bite-sized, not so much.

Yesterday Laura and I went to Walmart to get the right stuff that she wanted. I was going to return the wrong stuff that I’d gotten the day before but didn’t have the receipt. I’ve been debating on whether or not I should just keep it because you never know when something like that might be needed AND I hate returning things.

Today I have, as usual, school work. Lots of reading. The essay that’s due next week. Fun stuff like that. And, of course, English to go to.

Have a wonderful day!