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!

Life

Good morning! I really wasn’t going to write this morning because I did yesterday and the day before and I don’t want anyone to think I’m sick or anything because I’m on a streak of more than two days. Still, things happen and my mind changes and here I am.

This week we have been working on assessments for math for Seth and Joseph. It is interesting to note that neither one of them is proficient in telling time using an analog clock. It is even more interesting that Seth is behind Joseph in this. I started Joseph out in Saxon Math 2 and he it soon became clear that he was beyond the work. Yesterday I finally found the assessments online (because I hadn’t bothered to look any sooner) and this morning we finished. He should be in Math 3. Luckily, I have all of the materials we need so tomorrow morning we’ll be doing that.

Seth, on the other hand, I started at a 4^th grade level because he struggled with math so much last year. In doing his assessment, which he just finished, it appears that he can move up to the 5^th grade level. I thought he was going to have to jump to somewhere in the middle or second half of Math 4/5 but according to the assessment instructions, he can start 6/5. That’s nice. He does need lots of work in multiplication facts but we’ll start working on that more once MathIt arrives in the mail which should be any day.

It is just interesting to me that what these boys have learned is so spotty. Is this what public education is doing? Picking and choosing? My three oldest girls all took and passed their GEDs at 16. Granted, we didn’t get into higher math at home but they all did very well on the GED tests. I’ve used Saxon math from the beginning and it seems to have served us well. It is annoying that we can’t just begin and work our way through; we will have to concentrate on things that the boys have missed thus far. Still, I am glad that we’ve taken this route. It’s nice having the boys home; it feels right. And I can work with them to make sure they understand what they are doing and why.

I said I would add some pictures from Saturday's game (9/20) once I got them off my phone. I got everything off my phone yesterday but this is really the only good picture I got from the whole game. It kind of didn't help that we were looking into the sun the whole time and it was hard to see what I was attempting to take a picture of.

Yesterday was an interesting day. We started the assessments for math and because I didn’t want the boys to be totally overwhelmed, we didn’t finish. It was an early release day which is great unless you are attempting to get things done.

Amena had an appointment with the nurse practitioner yesterday at 11:30. Her asthma has been acting up. Partly it is because she’s had a cold but she’s been having to use her inhaler more often than it seems like she should. I’d love for her to be seen by an allergy doctor and maybe even a pulmonologist. I think the best course of action is to find the doctor myself and then get a referral. I know there’s a good one in North Boyleston but that’s a bit of a drive for us. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s another one nearer that is interesting in a more holistic approach. I suppose I should do a pro/con list because whoever she goes to, I’d like to see as well; I’m tired of allergies.

Cedric and Seth had soccer practice and we all had activities at church. We got to church right at 7:00. With practice ending at 6:30, that’s about the best I can do. Our activity was a baby shower for Mally Black and I think it turned out well in spite of the fact that we had to wait for her to get there. Amena made cookies for it and they were the hit of the party. I got to hold Colin for a bit and that was pretty wonderful. We had a nice little conversation and he smiled lots. Babies are pretty amazing.

This is the car Ray is selling. Just the body for $500. Yes, that is Joseph behind the car. No, he is not for sale. :)

Bit of a time lapse here, but I’m sure you didn’t really notice.

Busy morning here. Now it’s afternoon.

Imagine how annoying it is that I can find Part Two of the Saxon Math 3 Student Workbook but not Part Two. Grrrrrr!!!!!! Imagine how wonderful it is that we have such things as amazon.com, ebay, abebooks, and craigslist on which to look for these things that somehow manage to elude us. Ahhhhh!!! I’m not excited to spend almost another thirty dollars for something that I know I once had in my possession but glad that it is so much easier to come by these things than it was when we first began our homeschool journey almost twenty years ago. Back then I’d order things from a paper catalogue every year after we got our tax refund. Now I can just look things up online and it’s here in a week or so (when I get it sooner, the seller gets a really good review).

Anyway, today is the only day this week we get a ‘normal’ school day because tomorrow morning I have a dentist appointment. Yay! Yeah, not really. I don’t mind going to the dentist; I just don’t like yet another interruption in our schedule. I’m not sure how I survived doing this for fourteen years.

Such is life. I hope you have a terrifical rest of the day!

Fire and Ice

Good morning! Yesterday was a fun day. You know, any day can be fun with the right attitude. That’s kind of how yesterday was.

We went to the school for Seth to do PE and then came home. I’ve decided that Monday and/or Tuesday would be good for field trips because our schedule is already messed up. Tuesday probably is best because it messes up the schedule worse than Monday’s Art. If we just pack a lunch, we could go almost anywhere within an hour or so and do some exploring. Especially now while the weather is nice. Once winter hits we’d have to find indoor places to go like museums. There are enough of those around that it shouldn’t be too difficult. Maybe one day we could do the tour of local cemeteries like I’ve been wanting to do for a while; I’d love to go and take pictures of gravestones. I’m not sure how excited the boys would be about that but I would like it. I think we could make some games up that might help them out.

After school, we came home and did school. I’ve been having Seth and Joseph do the tests/assessments for math so that I can make sure they are where they should be. So far, they’re both breezing through the work. I thought we’d just do it Monday and be done with it but we’re still going and I really don’t want them to stop until they’ve reached a point where they can still do the work but don’t already know it. Honestly, I really kind of wonder what Seth’s problem with math was last year because he’s not having any this year. Some of the problems he will look at and say, “I don’t get it,” but when I have him read it slowly, he does. I guess I don’t really wonder what the problem was last year: it was the lack of someone sitting there making sure he did the work and explaining when necessary. Reading, on the other hand, he just doesn’t enjoy; we are working on that.

While we were at school, Paul called and asked if I would stop at Ray’s and take pictures of an old Chrysler Ray wants to sell. Since I’d already said I would but had forgotten, I said I would. We did. Ray had it up on a lift but got it down and drove it outside. If anyone knows anyone who wants it, he mentioned that he’d like to keep the engine but wants to sell the rest. I had the boys get out of the car while I was taking pictures and Seth was having a fit because he thought that Paul wanted to buy the car and we already have enough junk. I explained that I was taking pictures because Ray wants to sell the car and Paul said that he’d put it on Craigslist for him. Then Seth asked, “Why can’t he do that himself?” Well, Ray has no computer and no internet access so it would be really difficult for him to. Besides, putting things on Craigslist is something that Paul can do when he’s on hold with customers. That satisfied him on that count.

In the afternoon, Joanna and Zak came over for cake and ice-cream. That was nice. I like Joanna and Zak. Twenty candles, though, make a lot of flame and sure do brighten a room up. Cedric couldn’t wait half an hour when he got home and left to go to Ryan’s. Stinker. I told him he should have asked Ryan if he needed a ride to scouts but he didn’t think that was necessary. As it turns out, they didn’t even know there was scouts last night so Ryan ended up not there so Cedric asking if he’d like a ride would have at least alerted them to the fact that there was. Such is life.

See what I mean? There was so much light from the candles that it made the rest of the house look dark.

And in the evening, Cedric had scouts. I took my knitting thinking I would do that until it was too dark and my computer thinking I could use it after it was too dark to knit. Well, I knit one row and decided I needed to fix the chart so I did that. It was really too dark to see without a light already anyway and when I printed the chart, the squares were really small because I wanted to fit it all on one page. I think it’s all fixed now and I’m going to print it out in two parts but the same page I think.

And that was kind of that. Sort of. I actually had done four rows of the pattern I thought I was going to use for my socks but I didn’t really like it that much so I decided to do something else. What I ended up doing is a combination of two ribbing and two cable patterns. It is now a twenty-four row by eighty stitch pattern repeat. And the eighty stitches are why the graph is pretty small when I made it fit on one page.

Other than that, I managed to write over 1,000 words on my Hywel and Cailin story, fed up a decent lunch and a decent dinner, and worked on my bedroom. Seth took the screen protector off my tablet and I won’t let anyone use it until I find the extras so I can put one on. I thought they were in the box the tablet came in but no, they weren’t. The bedroom is such a mess that finding them isn’t an easy task so, since I wanted to clean anyway, I’m doing that in the search. I haven’t gotten very far but I figured slow and steady doing a good job would be better than fast and furious doing a crappy job. And I’ve already gotten rid of two good sized bags of clothes for Salvation Army and I’m working on a good sized bag of garbage. The best part is that I’ve found missing socks galore and yesterday I found the missing fabric stash that I hadn’t found in the attic last week. It has some awesome stuff in it including some brocades and a piece of organza I got that I love (well, why else would I have gotten it?).

When I first showed this picture to Cedric, he thought it was a tornado. Imagine that coming at your house with 45 mph winds blowing. Yikes!

In other matters, I’ve been thinking about Siskiyou County a lot these past couple of weeks. They’ve been through the ringer this summer. Lots of fires. The fires around Happy Camp, as of yesterday, had consumed 131,996 acres and cost an estimated $86,700,000 with 85% of the perimeter contained. There were several other fires this summer as well, including the one last week in Weed, and that is just Siskiyou County; Shasta County was hit and at least one of the fires that affected Siskiyou was partly in Oregon as well. The dry, hot weather has not helped. On the other hand, there are trees with seeds that cannot germinate without fire so even tragedy has within it the hope of life.

This is just one section of town after the fire. The devastation is just incredible.

Other than fires, the glaciers on Mt. Shasta have been compromised this summer and a chunk of the Konwakiton Glacier (I’d heard that part of the Mud Creek Glacier, too) broke off and caused a flash flood watch for Mud Creek. According to a blog post I read (http://blog.sfgate.com/stienstra/2014/09/22/fractured-mount-shasta-glacier-triggers-flood-pics/#26942101=0), the largest mud flow event in the past 100 years was 90 years ago in 1924 in the same area. There’s a reason why it’s called Mud Creek, you know.

And check this out. You can see where it is and where it was and gosh that is a LOT of mud. (And you know that if we were in Siskiyou County, we would be there checking it out in person.)

So, in other words, Siskiyou County has experienced fire and ice this summer. I really hope they experience a little more ice this winter; they need it.

Have a splendiferous day!

Day

Good morning! Yesterday was Joanna’s 20^th birthday! How incredible! It would be another two and a half years until I have another child reach that milestone but since Daniel isn’t with us physically, it will be five years, three months and two days. And, if you want to be more technical, seventeen and a half hours. If you want to be even more technical, which Amena often is, it is nineteen and a half hours because she was born in the Mountain time zone. Anyway, it will be a few years and at that point more than half of my children will be twenty or older. One of them will actually be over thirty. Crazy thought.

This is from when Laura was here when the boys were dressed up like Hobbits. Not sure Hobbits would have a trampoline but they would have a nice goat.

Yesterday was otherwise a good day which was fitting since Joanna was always a happy baby and most often a happy child. In the morning Seth had Art. Because we went to school for that, our schedule was messed up and having our schedule messed up really makes for a cranky Joseph; he thrives on a set schedule.

Someone was flying a kite at the soccer game in Hubbardston on the 13th. It was pretty windy but a nice day nonetheless. 

After we had school work done and Amena was home, I went to pick Elizabeth up. She’d asked me the day before if I could take her to the hospital for a doctor’s appointment and I’m happy to do that when my schedule allows. Because it was a 3:30 appointment, it worked out perfectly. She had already arranged for another ride home so I didn’t even get to get any knitting done while I waited for her.

Joseph was having a blast.

Because it was Joanna’s birthday, I wanted to make her a cake and ice-cream so I went to work on that when I got home. Joanna came over to put the soft top on her Jeep. It’s been getting cool enough that riding without it must be a chilling experience. The boys had soccer practice. Cedric went with Ryan because he’d ridden his bike over. I took Seth and dropped him off.

Hubbardston was playing Barre. I like these pictures of the boys in action, so to speak.

Joanna was here still so she went to pick him up and then we ate some of the leftover chicken from Sunday. I cut up about half of the chicken we had and warmed it up with some of the sauce and the noodles and then warmed up the green beans as well. Joanna took all the rest home so that Cedric and Zack could have some. Ryan’s dad brought Cedric home with his bike. I think in the future, Cedric needs to be home before practice or he can just not go to Ryan’s on practice days. It isn’t like they are every day and it isn’t like they’re going to last forever.

Kind of a blurry one of Cedric but I still like it. Maybe tomorrow I'll have one or two from last week.

Once we’d eaten, Joanna took the boys to her apartment. Amena fell asleep and didn’t eat until she woke up not long after Joanna left with the boys. I need to call the doctor about Amena. Her asthma is not well enough controlled by using the albuterol inhaler. I would love to try more natural remedies such as essential oils and such but I can’t currently afford them and it needs to be gotten under control now. Between not breathing as well as she ought and staying up too late every night, she hasn’t been sleeping well enough so it wasn’t much surprise that she fell asleep before dinner. At least she didn’t have much homework.

The tops of the Fred & George socks. Pretty cool, eh?

Joanna brought the boys home about 8:30 and Joseph and Seth both wanted to know if they could sleep with me. I guess they’d started watching a scary movie that Cedric had wanted to watch. Joseph I guess said he wanted to as well but it is obvious from their reaction that Joseph didn’t really want to and that none of them probably should have. Anyway, the boys went to bed and by the time I did, they were asleep.

Joanna’s cake got done yesterday but the ice-cream wasn’t frozen so she and Zak are going to come over this afternoon after 4:00 when they’re both done with classes. That will be nice. We all like Zak. Not as much as Joanna does, but that’s okay.

Just after Joanna left with the boys, Jamie Pitney called and asked if Seth was going to make it to scouts. I just said, “Ahhhhhhhh.” I’d completely forgotten about scouts and by the time I could have gone to get him from Joanna’s and to scouts, it would have been nearly 8:00 and I didn’t really think that would be worth it. I can’t believe I did that although I can.

Because the boys were gone and it was quiet and I’d gotten an email from Grandma, I called her not long before 8:00 (here—there it was almost 5:00). We had a good visit; we always do. I don’t know why I don’t call people more often. I can’t even use only having a cell phone because I’ve never been good about calling people. Anyway, it’s always nice to talk to Grandma even though every time I do I wish I was physically closer so that I could visit in person every now and then.

Today Seth has PE at 9:15 at school. That makes for another fun day today, I’m sure. Other than that, Cedric has scouts.

Saturday the boys played Hardwick in Hardwick and had an awesome game! Hardwick scored first but that was their only goal. Hubbardston made six goals and one of them was by Cedric. It was his second goal of the season and it was completely and totally awesome! He and Seth both played really well. I did not take my camera but did get a couple of pictures on my phone.

The rest of Saturday I didn’t do much. I kind of didn’t feel that great and didn’t feel like doing much. It was pretty unexciting. Friday night Paul had gotten Chinese take-out because I didn’t feel like going anywhere. We had Seth and Joseph home without any older siblings to watch them anyway. I requested hot food to burn the snot out so that’s what I got. I had it for dinner Friday and for brunch and dinner Saturday. Saturday night Paul got me some hot Korean take-out and that’s what I ate Sunday for lunch and dinner. It was somewhat awesome.

Paul went to a junkyard to look at something in the morning Saturday. When he got back, he took Amena to the Trivett’s and picked up Hans. He and Hans worked on the barn. Cedric helped some but not as much as he could/should have. Because I didn’t feel like doing anything, I watched King Arthur. That was interesting. It explained Arthur by saying he was one of the Sarmatrian horse riders who served Rome for a period of fifteen years because they’d been subdued by Rome many years previously. He and his knights spent their fifteen years in Britian and when they returned from what was supposed to have been their last assignment, they were given another one. While they are securing the safe passage of a Roman nobleman and his son, they are surrounded but not killed by Woads, of which Merlin is one, and pursued by the Saxons. They end up rescuing a couple of Woads who had been tortured by the Roman nobleman’s priests and of them turns out to be Guinevere. At one point, Arthur and Merlin meet and Merlin tells him that he thinks Arthur might be the one man who can unite the Briton’s. Once this last mission is accomplished, Arthur decides that he is not going to return to Rome but stay and fight the Saxons with the Woads. All of his knights end up staying and of course Arthur ends up marrying Guinevere and King Arthur of Britian.

While I like the movie, I don’t think it’s completely historically accurate although there are aspects of it that I find to be at least as believable as others I’ve seen or read.

Sunday I stayed home from church. I was going to watch a movie and kind of take life easy but that was not to be. I ended up eating Korean food, knitting, and making chicken alfredo for lunch. The chicken required defrosting and while I don’t normally like to use the microwave for that duty, I didn’t have time to do it the slow way. Each package of chicken required three ten minute sessions on defrost so that took forever. I made lots because Paul had mentioned bringing a couple of people home. They didn’t come so we have lots of leftovers. That’s why we had it yesterday and are going to again today.

Danny Ainge was speaking in Worcester at 7:00. Quite a few people from church wanted to go so Paul took a vanful down. I think it would have been interesting but since I only remember him playing baseball and he was going to mostly be talking basketball and I did not, like Julia and Amy, have a crush on him at any point, I wasn’t too disappointed to stay home. Besides, I got to knit more and watch Catching Fire (not the greatest Sunday movie maybe, but I wanted to watch it Saturday and Amena took it with her to Trivett’s) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader which I had never seen all the way through. I had, in fact, only seen two very short parts of it very near the beginning.

And such is life. The bus just stopped to pick Cedric up and I need to get on with things.

Have a fantabulous day!

In Which...

Good morning! I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Obviously I haven’t been acting much. Such is life sometimes. Especially when life is busy.

I requested a book from the library. It is called Hard Choices by Hillary Clinton. I read 32 pages the first day and haven’t been able to touch it since. Every time I touch it I feel like I need to wash my hands. The scary thing is that if anyone else had written it, the words wouldn’t be that bad. However, it is really hard to believe something written by someone who has such a propensity for telling lies. I don’t think I’m going to get very far before I have to return it to the library. I think it will be the first time in a very long time that I couldn’t finish a book that I started.

Anyone who knows me has probably heard about the fire in Weed. How tragic! It happened so quickly and caused so much loss. I realize that what was lost is nothing more than material goods but it is still a loss and people do mourn such loss. I have lost material possessions over the course of my life and I know that in spite of the fact that these things are not alive, they still have meaning to us. My heart goes out to all who lost anything: homes, clothes, money, vehicles, whatever. Just tragic.

In other news, life has been kind of busy. Laura went back to Utah. It was nice having her here and since she left, I have discovered that it is much nicer to have someone to share hot chocolate with. Not just any hot chocolate, you know. I can make hot chocolate and share it with the boys and Amena or Joanna but they don’t appreciate the hot chocolate with chipotle powder in it.

Yesterday I went up in the attic to look for fabric and yarn and decided that the attic is not appropriate storage for either. It wouldn’t be so bad if 1) it were easier to get to, 2) the temperature wasn’t so drastic, 3) it was more organized. I expected it to be cool because the house was cool and it was rather warm. It was too warm to be comfortable and when you combine that with the fact that you can’t stand up straight most of the time up there, it makes for a very uncomfortable journey.

Amena and Cedric are cheating: they kept piling sand under their feet and standing on tip toes.

Monday we went to school so that Seth could go to Art at 8:30. Tuesday we went to school so Seth could go to PE. Joseph wasn’t interested in either of them so we don’t go for him. I like the fact that these things are available but I don’t like how much going disrupts our schedule. Wednesday morning at 9:30 Cedric had a dental appointment which was also a disruption. Yesterday I had to go to Shrewsbury to talk to the attorney who is helping out with all the legal stuff regarding the accident. That was a disruption. After that, we went to Julia’s so I could help her with a pattern. While that was a disruption, it was a more easily dealt with disruption and might happen again; it’s pretty easy to take school work with us there because there is somewhere to work on it. Yesterday Joanna came over just before lunch and we had the sister missionaries over for lunch and that was a good disruption. Today is the first official meeting of a writing group that I would like to go to but I have really kind of had enough of disruptions this week; not sure I can take another.

Other than that, it hasn’t been a bad week here. I didn’t write a single word in my Hywel and Cailin story but Monday I wrote some, Tuesday I wrote 1,780 words, and Wednesday I wrote 2,607. I don’t feel like that’s too shabby considering how disrupted the week has been. 

My goals for today include: knitting (I took out what I had done on the socks I started earlier this week because I’d miscalculated how many stitches I needed—that was a bummer), writing (I would like to get at least 2,000 words done [on my story] which isn’t, in my opinion, really very hard because just what I’ve written here is more than 700), school (boys done and next week prepared for).

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Less

Good morning! It’s a beautiful day so far. Yesterday was pretty nice as well but Saturday was brutal.

Yesterday Seth and Joseph (or maybe it was Seth and Cedric) were complaining that we have boring Family Home Evenings and that other families we know do more fun things. While I fully believe that true boredom is the sign of a boring mind rather than boring surroundings, I thought we could combine my desire to watch Star Wars with something that we can learn. For example, are we not all confronted with choices every day? I’ve already faced several and I’ve only been awake for less than an hour and a half. So, we watched Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith. In it, several of the characters face choices but perhaps none of them are so life changing, even galaxy changing, as Anakin’s are. And he doesn’t always make bad ones, just mostly bad ones.

For example, my list looked like this (those marked with asterisks are good, or decent choices, even if not the best):

buzz droids

not leaving Obi Wan*

killing Dooku

not leaving Obi Wan behind*

not telling Obi Wan about the baby

talking to Yoda*

anger at not being granted rank of Jedi Master

devotion to Palpatine

apologizes to Obi Wan*

not attempting to kill Palpatine

tells Mace Windu that Palpatine is a Sith Lord*

does not wait at Jedi Temple

remorse*

go to Jedi Temple

kill Younglings

chooses ‘the Republic’

‘takes care’ of Separatists

remorse after*

refuses to go with Padme

That’s quite a list and it isn’t even remotely complete. So it is with our lives. Each day, each hour, even each minute or second, we face choices. Sometimes we make good ones, sometimes we make bad ones. Sometimes those choices we make are good but could be better. Sometimes we don’t know at the time how good or bad they are but find out later.

Our trip to That $1.99 Fabric Store was nice. Seth and Joseph even had fun because Julia let them play games on her phone. We stopped for ice-cream cones on the way home because they’d been so good. Each of us got some fabric that we are very happy about and we are looking forward to going again this week. Well, I don’t know if Seth and Joseph are looking forward to it but Julia and I are and I think Laura is although it might depend on how much money she has available how much she is.

No one can accuse me of being an exceptionally good photographer of soccer games but it's still nice to have a reminder of my boys when they are playing. Seth's shirt is his old one from Quabbin soccer because they were registered too late and there weren't enough shirts for Seth to have one. I'm not sure he'll get one to  match the team but that's okay.

Saturday, as mentioned, was brutal. It was hot and it was humid. It was a good day to do nothing. That, however, was not on our list.

I really like this one of Cedric. How do you like his make up?

 It was Field Day in Hubbardston and Cedric’s scout patrol was scheduled to help from 8:30 to whatever time so I dropped him off and then went back home to get ready. Then we all went about 9:15 ready to go to soccer in Petersham. Seth and Joseph didn’t do much more than do a little to help set up the Raingutter Regatta. That was kind of cool even though the boys didn’t make boats. Daniel made a wooden boat for one when we were in Idaho. Laura didn’t remember even though she did the design on his sail.

This one is good because it has both boys and the ball.

Laura went with us to watch the boys play soccer. Based on Joseph’s behavior (which wasn’t terrible but he wasn’t too excited about sitting in the sun doing nothing), he might stay home for the remainder of at least the away games. At least those in Hubbardston he can play on the playground. I really love watching the boys play and Saturday’s game was an excellent one to see.

Cedric running. He did really well this game.

I wondered how Cedric and Seth would be playing on the same team. I like that they are because it means everything is consolidated and I/we don’t have to be going constantly to practice and juggling game times. They were really good and worked well together. Cedric even got a goal, the second of the either three or four that the team got. Seth made an attempt but it didn’t go in. I really wish that I could record the entire game and then just save the occasional frame for pictures. I did get some pictures but not many. Anyway, it’s nice having a large team because the coaches are able to sub players often which helps the player stay fresh (if such a thing is possible on a sweltering day such as Saturday was).

Being goalie can be quite exciting. Seth played well, also.

And that is all for today; many things to do. Have a spectacular one!

Is

Good morning! So far, so good.

The fun has begun. Soccer practice two nights a week. Church one night a week. Scouts at least two nights a week. Conflicting schedules and chores and fun, fun, fun!

Currently, Seth and Joseph are taking the goats out. ALL of the goats. Yesterday Goldilocks and Snowflake didn’t seem too inclined to follow Cedric out so they didn’t get staked out. I told the boys this morning that they ALL need to be attached. Cedric is at school with his locker. More about that later. Amena is at school. Laura is in the shower. Paul is stirring.

This is the plate when Seth was done being creative with the paint Joseph used for primary and secondary colors.

This year, Cedric’s class has been making lockers for the classroom. It’s been kind of a fun activity from the sounds of it. He said that Ryan’s is pretty cool; his dad does a lot of woodwork and used pinewood. Because of this, he couldn’t paint his? I’m curious about that; must be the cut or something. Cedric’s is made out of pine as well and we painted it. I think it was Monday that we cut it all out and put it together. I had to get nails and hardware from Aubuchon’s because I didn’t feel like taking the time to go through the entire contents of the basement to find what we needed. I spent more than I wanted to but not by much so I was happy. It got one coat of paint Monday night and I was hoping that the wood would dry out some because the door was really hard to open but it was so humid out I really wondered if it ever would.

A kitten picture taken by Joseph.

Tuesday morning I gave it another coat of paint but not a very good one because the paint ran out. It was so wet I had to dry it off before I could paint it and once it was dry, it had some white blotches all over the place. I thought it would be good to get some paint in a can and brush it but when I went out searching for paint, there wasn’t much to be had in cans other than bases and I didn’t want to take the time to have one colored. So I got another can of spray paint. Tuesday it got an additional coat or two of paint.

It's blooming!

Yesterday I got a wooden knob for a handle and Cedric asked Laura to paint a Monster ‘M’ on the door. The locker got a last coat of paint yesterday; Laura painted the ‘M’ this morning and I put the handle on when she was done. Then it got some touch up paint in a few areas. I think by the time it was done, it looked pretty good. I was in the shower when Laura took Cedric and his locker to school but I instructed them to get a picture of Cedric with it first. Looks like they did. I’ll see about getting the pictures uploaded before I get this posted.

Cedric and his locker.

Home school has been going pretty well so far. It’s amazing how much easier it is to do two than it was to do four. Yesterday Joseph said, “Awwww, I want to do more math!” Seth still doesn’t like math but is doing well thus far. I know that less than a week really is not an indicator of how the whole year will go but still, it is off to a good start.

Today has the potential to be busy (heh, what day doesn’t?) so I will be off for now. Have a spectacular day!

More

Good morning! I was perusing Facebook just a few minutes ago and saw something interesting. It reads:

Don’t like gay marriage? Don’t get one.

Don’t like cigarettes? Don’t smoke one.

Don’t like abortions? Don’t have one.

Don’t like sex? Don’t do it.

Don’t like drugs? Don’t do them.

Don’t like porn? Don’t watch it.

Don’t like alcohol? Don’t drink it.

Don’t like guns? Don’t buy one.

Don’t like your rights taken away?

                Then don’t take away someone else’s.

While there is some truth to this, it is far too broad for me to agree with it as is. I’m going to pick on just three of these for now.

First, cigarettes. Secondhand smoke is more damaging to health than is actual smoking. You may have the right to smoke a cigarette, but you do not have the right to take away my right to breathe clean air.

Second, alcohol. You may have the right to drink, but you do not have the right to then get in a car and get in an accident and kill people because you are impaired due to your alcohol consumption.

Third, guns. There seem to be a lot of crazy people who buy guns but the actuality is that we only hear about them. We don’t hear about the sane ones. Furthermore, 443,000 people die annually due to smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke. 8.6 million more live with serious illness caused by smoking. 88,000 people die annually due to alcohol consumption. This includes those who actually die from drinking beer, wine and spirits and those killed in fatal automobile accidents caused by those who are drunk. It is hard to find good statistics on gun deaths but most numbers are between 31,000 to 33,000 each year. These include all deaths by gun, suicide, homicide, etc.

I’m not digging into the others because the arguments aren’t cut and dry and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t really in a writing mood this morning.

In other news, since I’m here, Sunday, August 24, was Becky’s birthday (gosh, she’s getting old!) and the day of Joseph’s baptism. It was a nice day. Many people asked if we’d be eating or having any refreshments after and I said, sure. I think I would really have rathered just had a small gathering of family and a very few friends but it was nice, nonetheless. However, it being what it was, I wish I’d’ve invited other friends as well. I did comment to someone that there were too many people there (you have to keep in mind that I am somewhat introverted and do not like crowds of people larger than about two. Okay, maybe five. Well, it depends on the people and how well I know them and like them. Anyway, there were probably thirty people there and I commented to someone that there were too many. She said, “They all love you.” Nope. Not  buying it. Not when one of them has never spoken to me in my life and a few others I know almost not at all. I agree with Paul: they were there for the food. Overly cynical? Perhaps.

Still, it was a nice enough day and we went home and had roast turkey roast and pork with potatoes. Then we had birthday cake and Joseph got to open his presents.  He made out like a bandit when it comes to Legos. Holy cow! The ice cream didn’t get to get eaten because it didn’t get frozen. The ice cream freezer isn’t working properly and takes forever.

Monday we went to the beach. We had to wait for Paul to get home from a doctor’s appointment but while he was gone, we got everything ready to go. Becky made potato salad, I made two kinds of muffins and ‘fried’ chicken and got watermelon and grapes ready to go. We made lemonade and Laura and Becky got three bags of ice, one for the lemonade and two for the cooler. And so it went. Joanna and Zak took Amena and Cedric in the Jeep. Everyone else went in the van. We stopped in Leominster for fuel because both vehicles needed it. Then we drove forever and finally got to the beach.

We didn’t see the wreckage that was there two years ago and there was a lot more seaweed and the waves were bigger. Paul lost his glasses. We didn’t do as much exploring amongst the rocks but did spend lots of time in the water. Seth, Joseph and Cedric all got buried in the sand. I skinned my knee when a wave knocked me forward and I’m not the only one. In the breechway the boys, Amena and Joanna were finding lots of crabs. Some of them were pretty good sized and Amena either got pinched by a couple or cut on something. I’m guessing she got pinched because there didn’t seem to be anything sharp around.

Wednesday my mother, Becky, Laura and I went to Webs. Paul had made an appointment with an eye doctor at 11 so he needed to leave at 10:30. I was hoping we’d be ready to go before he was but no such luck. Amena and Cedric started school that day. Jay did stuff with the younger boys including a trip to Walmart and lunch at Subway.

Our trip to Webs was nice. We left late enough that we really needed to eat before going to Webs. I thought we could go to Bub’s but when we got there, we discovered that they don’t open most days until 3:30. Well, we weren’t going to wait that long so we went to Friendly’s instead. At Webs, we discovered that Laura has exceptionally good taste in expensive yarn (I think it must be hereditary).

It being Wednesday, we did not go to church. We could have, but with family visiting, I just didn’t feel like it. Not many YW showed up and I have no idea what the YM were doing. Missing one night isn’t likely to kill anyone, especially when the last time we’d seen Becky and Jay was right after the accident.

However, Cedric came home and told me that there was soccer practice at 5:00 and could we go. We did. Seth did not because he couldn’t find shoes. We went. They are on the same team and the main coaches are the same ones Seth had last year so they are good. Craig Halfrey will be helping out when he can but had a change in work schedule so he can’t do as much as he has in the past. They have a big team: seventeen boys. That is a lot for one but not enough for two so one it is. Seth is happy because Riley, Joey, Johnny, and some other friends are on the team and Cedric is happy because Ryan and Paul and Jacob are on the team. I think it will be a good season and am looking forward to watching some good games.

Anyway, there was some rain around but not at the rec field and there was thunder around as well so practice was going to go until it got too close. The coaches feel, as I do, that a little rain is one thing, thunder is another. Well, I sat in the car to read and saw out of the corner of my eye a flash of light but didn’t think much of it. A second later, KA-BOOM!!! Right over the field. Practice was over. We got forms for pictures but not uniforms. I guess my registering the boys late kind of put a kink in that—there were enough for one more but not two more.

Thursday we mostly took life easy. I told Laura how to get to get to the bead store across from the chiropractor in Leominster so that she and Becky could go check it out. I wouldn’t have minded going but I needed to stay home and find the rest of the books for Seth and Joseph for school. The letters arrived Monday or Tuesday saying that my requests to homeschool the two boys were approved. I didn’t want to do much beforehand to get ready because I didn’t want to jinx anything by acting prematurely. Silly, maybe, but the way it works. Wednesday after we got home from Webs, I started looking (I think, it may have been in the morning), and I wanted to finish. For math I found everything we need except the book of tests and homework for Seth. I ordered a new one from Amazon. I found most of the books we need for social studies. I think I’ll give a list to Paul and see if he can find them for good prices somewhere—he’s good at that.

Friday we had planned a trip to the temple. Paul actually got the day off mostly. Blair was not happy about it but Paul did work until ten or ten thirty and made two fairly good sized sales. At one point, Blair called and said that the phones were ringing off the hook.

There had been three calls. Anyway, we again left later than I wanted to but it was okay. Laura took Seth and Joseph to the Ecotarium because it was free, Amena and Cedric went to school. I gave Cedric the option of staying home to go with Laura or going to school and he chose school because he had gym.

The temple was nice. My mom, Becky, Jay, Julia, Paul and I got to go and we did lots. Jay got some pretty good pictures when we were done and on the way home we stopped at the Tandoori Grill in Fitchburg for dinner. When we got home, Tori Ladroga was here visiting Laura. I went to bed early (8:45) because I needed to get up at 3:00 in the morning to take my mom, Becky and Jay to the airport.

I got up and got dressed. We were all in the van and I was getting the GPS ready when Paul came out and said that if we could wait a minute, he’d go with us. I was willing to wait. I really wasn’t looking forward to driving up and then back by myself in spite of the fact that Laura and Becky had discovered my CDs in the green car. So we took off and got to the airport and dropped them off and took back off at 5:03. That’s just about perfect. We got home about 6:30 and I went to bed. The last thing I thought was that if I woke up in time to get ready and go to Adam and Kim’s sealing, I would go, otherwise, I wouldn’t worry about it. I woke up at 8:10.

Adam and Kim’s reception was nice. We did not stay to send off the bride and groom but that’s okay. It was still good and we got to visit with lots of people. The dress looked good although there are some things I would do differently if I had it to do over again. Such is life.

And that’s it for today. I’ve been at this on and off for entirely too long. Have a wonderful day!