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

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

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

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

Joseph finishing up his puppets.

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

I said, “I don’t run.”

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

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

Seth working on spelling.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Vanilla? She has waddles too!

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

Oreo? Vanilla? What do you think?

Have a splendiferous day!