Snow. Again.

Good morning! It’s a lovely rainy one here. Yesterday it was foggy much of the day partly owing to the rain we’d gotten Wednesday evening/night and the rain we got throughout the day. Pardon me, it’s just turned to snow. If I could send some of this precipitation west, I would. At this point in time, it isn’t like this area needs it.

Wednesday was Wednesday. I accomplished some of the things I’d hoped to but not all. I did get out for a walk; it was a lovely day for that in spite of the still icy spots on the road in areas that don’t get any sun to speak of. School was school. Amena called and wanted to know if I could pick her up from school. That was at about 1:30 when we were on our way to Friendly’s for lunch. It seems she needed to stay late to get some school work caught up. I hope she was successful because she missed the bus yesterday. We got done eating in time for me to drop Seth and Joseph home and go pick her up. That was pretty exciting.

We went to church in the evening as usual. The boys were in charge of a combined activity that turned out to be the West’s giving them instruction in swing and ballroom dance. I think they had fun. I had a nice evening watching Seth and Joseph (they didn’t have any activities) have races with chairs and visiting with Julia and Richard Troop.

Yesterday was a Thursday. We usually feed the sisters lunch. They were meeting with someone at lunchtime yesterday so couldn’t come over for lunch but Julia did. I did a couple of recipes out of the garlic book with a salad and I think it was quite nice and garlicy. We have leftovers for lunch today which is also quite nice and garlicy.

For dinner we went to Julia’s because she was having the sisters over for that. The conversation Wednesday at church went something like this:

“Tomorrow I have the sister’s coming over for dinner.”

“Really? I have them for lunch. You should come, too.”

“Love to. I was going to invite you over, too.”

It worked out pretty well in spite of the sisters not being able to come for lunch.

Two packages came for Paul during the day and no one checked the mail box until we were on our way to Julia’s for dinner. I don’t know why sometimes all of the mail gets delivered to the porch when we have packages and sometimes it doesn’t. In the mail box were two packages for me. They were both books I’d ordered Saturday which was somewhat awesome. One is Women of the 14^th Moon: writings on menopause edited by Dena Taylor and Amber Coverdale Sumrall. The other is Barron’s Essential Atlas of Physiology. The first looks particularly interesting; the second looks like what its title indicates it is. I will be reading part of them today.

I got a notice from the library saying that the book I requested last week is in. The Hubbardston Library is not open today so I finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire last night so that I can read the books today that I got yesterday and tomorrow I can get my book from the library. I’ll have to read it next week during our SSR time because hopefully I’ll get more books today and tomorrow that I need to read as well. And one to color. Should be fun.

Yesterday Paul came home with this wooden contraption and said I needed to take pictures of it to see if my mother wants it. I asked him what it was and he said it holds your quilting so you can sit and work on it. Hmmmm. I said my mother wouldn’t be interested because she does hers by machine and if she did it by hand she’d most likely have a quilting frame, not a hoop. Still, if anyone knows anyone who would like this thing, let me know. I personally am in favor of putting it in the fireplace because I don’t care how nice it is (and I really don’t know how nice it is because I don’t know much about them), it’s just going to take up space until we find a home for it and we have enough crap taking up space.

The flakes are big, now. Must be warm out. Sort of. I mean 33° is warm compared to 0°.

And that’s all for now. The goats need their breakfast and so do I. Have a terrifical day!

Short and Sweet

Good morning! Yesterday I thought it was today and earlier this morning I was thinking it was tomorrow; when I sat down and began typing this, I almost wrote Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Curious.

Yesterday Seth and Joseph did their math and then we had lunch and then we went to Walmart to get The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. And then guess what we did? But of course, we came home and watched it while we ate mini Reece’s Pieces. Amena got home and when it was past time for Cedric to come home, she asked where he was. He’d gone to the high school to help with Charlie Barbera’s Eagle project. I was going to pick him up at 5:00 but he called at 4:05 and said he was ready to be picked up then so I left and we were home before 5:00. On the way to Barre, I was behind a Barre Police car that was behind a bus so it took a little longer than usual but it was a nice drive nonetheless. I’m just glad the police car was in front of me rather than behind.

We had leftovers for dinner which means I have to think of something else today because we are about out of leftovers and then Cedric and Seth had scouts.

So, some of our days aren’t nearly as exciting and full of fun as others as you can see from the above paragraphs. This is a good thing.

Still, other than that, I read some Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, in the morning I wrote over 2,000 words for my blog post, while I was waiting for the boys at scouts I wrote over 1,000 words for Hywel and Cailín, I finished reading “The Female Sexual and Reproductive System” in Holistic Midwifery by Anne Frye and started “The Male Sexual and Reproductive System”. It is much shorter and I will finish it today. Also, since I read The Red Tent by Anita Diamant recently, I think I will write a book report for it. But that is today. Yesterday I also spent some time looking at my email to see when the books I ordered Saturday will be arriving. Not soon enough, I’m afraid, but only because I’d like them right now rather than waiting until Friday or later. So, all in all, I feel like yesterday was a pretty good day.

I also learned some things about Idaho but I’m not going to tell you about them yet. Maybe not ever.

Anyway, have a fantastical day!

La Vida

Good morning! Amena’s lunch is ready; I’m hoping she is getting that way.

Not much going on lately. That is, of course, relative. Someone posted an interesting thing on Facebook yesterday about stress and children. Stress and babies might be more accurate. With the first, there’s a long list of things that parents tend to stress over and with the second, that list is somewhat shorter. With the third there are only three or four things on the list. So I’m thinking by the time you have eight, you should have no stress left in your life. Right? It’s a nice theory but not very accurate. I spent a lot of time awake thinking about one of mine last night. Stress, baby, big time.

Yesterday I thought about the notes that I took from the Michel Odent books I read while I was without the computer and the blog posts that these notes were taken to generate. Perhaps I will get to that today sometime. It is possible that my thoughts might be of help to someone out there and at the very least should be food for thought. I still think about what I read. Probably will for the rest of my life. And then some.

I last wrote Friday. Not much out of the ordinary happened. Well, now that I think about it, maybe there was more than immediately came to mind. The day itself wasn’t too out of the ordinary. Seth and Joseph and I went to the library and they each checked out some books. I requested a book that I started some time ago but didn’t finish. If I have time now I would like to because the few pages I did read seemed rather promising (America: Imagine a World Without Her I think is the name of the book).

Cedric was going on the scout campout so he needed to be over at the Carrignans before 5:30 because that was the target departure time. Getting him there wasn’t much of a problem—he got home from school and got ready to go and when it was time we went. I was driving the Jetta in spite of the tires that aren’t that great and it had been snowing. There wasn’t much snow so I figured we’d be okay. And we were. We drove really slow, however, because the road over there is AWFUL. I mean, Pitcherville is in a terrible state of disrepair but parts of the road that direction is worse. That and the fact there was snow combined for slow driving. We got to wait for a train, too, which was unusual for here.

Anyway, Cedric and his gear were dropped off and I went home. When I got to the bottom of Morgan, I noticed there were three or four cars pulling over to the side of 68 and then I noticed a police car with flashing lights headed toward Gardner. That was a bit unusual because we don’t often see police cars driving by with flashing lights when we’re stopped  there. I actually didn’t then, either—I didn’t see anything approaching that would prevent me from crossing 68 so I did and that’s when I actually saw the police car and not just the lights.

I drove slow on Pitcherville, too, just because I’d been driving slow and I wasn’t in any big hurry or anything. Then I got to the end of the driveway I usually turn into and the car didn’t want to turn because it was very slippery but it did want to slide. Still, no harm done and the trip was only slightly more eventful than normal.

Amena went home from school with a friend because there was a dance Friday evening. She was going to see about getting a ride home with a friend but that didn’t happen. I didn’t really want to drive the green car because of the funny noise it makes when you use the gas and I didn’t really want to take the Jetta because I knew how slick at least some of the roads would be. So I asked Joanna if she’d be willing to get her and she was. She came over not long after I got home from taking Cedric to Carrignans and said that she had to wait on 68 for a while because someone in a car had managed to launch (there were no tracks to the car) the car up onto a snowbank on the side of the road and there was a tow truck and police cars and they were stopping traffic. At least I knew where the one I’d seen was going.

Joanna had some laundry to do so she just waited at the house until time to go get Amena. That was nice. I really like Joanna. I got Seth and Joseph off to bed and waited for Joanna and Amena. And Paul. Because Amena was gone and Cedric was gone, I told Paul I really didn’t want to go out to eat because when we do and we have boys with us, he acts like a really big boy and gets them riled up and that is exactly the kind of behavior I do not appreciate when I’m at a restaurant with my family from my family or others. So he didn’t hurry home and I didn’t have to wait to eat dinner.

When Joanna and Amena got home, Joanna said that for the most part, the roads were okay. However, they had a pretty intense few minutes when they were approaching the turn onto Pitcherville. It’s a bit of a hill going down to where Morgan and Pitcherville turn off before it flattens out toward Gardner and that was the troublesome area. Joanna said they slid sideways and ended up turning around and finally coming to a stop right by the stop sign on Morgan. They were able to cross 68 and get home fine but it was pretty exciting.

Not much happened Saturday out of the ordinary other than Cedric not being home. Amena had invited Nick, her ‘boy’friend over in the late afternoon so she spent most of the morning cleaning the front porch. I spent most of the morning cleaning the library, dining room and kitchen and making Seth and Joseph help. That was pretty exciting. Amena had been invited to a birthday party of sorts at the theater. Paul took her once she was ready and she was late for the start of the movie but she had fun and enjoyed it. After the movie they went to a frozen yogurt place and I was supposed to pick her up at 3:15.

At 3:15 I looked at the clock and realized I was late (I was ordering some books online) and left. I was ten minutes late and didn’t see Amena anywhere so I sat in the car waiting to see her. I finally did at about 3:45 and we went home.

Nick came over. I made spaghetti for dinner because I’d taken some meatballs out of the freezer (I’m working on getting rid of [did I say that? I meant using] things in the freezer—especially the older things) and they needed to be used. We also had some bread that I turned into garlic bread and a salad. Pretty exciting but it wasn’t bad. Seth and Joseph got their showers taken and then everything settled into a fairly normal Saturday evening routine with the exception of Nick leaving.

Sunday was not typical. I had a meeting before church which is not unusual. I went and was early and there weren’t as many people as there usually are due to some not feeling well and late Saturday nights, etc. Whatever. We’ve been really lucky, if you call it luck, that none of us have been really sick this winter. A couple of barely upset stomachs and Joseph vomited one night. That’s been it.

Anyway, Cedric needed to be picked up from the Carrignans Sunday  morning; usually that means 10 or 10:30. I thought, “Great! I can pick him up, we can stop at the house so he can shower and change while I get the corned pork ribs going, and we’ll be back sometime before noon.” Yeah. So didn’t happen that way. I actually had wi-fi most of the time Sunday morning and I kept waiting for something to be posted on Facebook and nothing was happening. 10:00 came and went 10:30 came and went. I sent a text wondering if I’d missed something due to spotty wi-fi. Not a minute later it was posted on Facebook that they’d be ready for pick up in 45 minutes. That put pick up time at 11:30 which worked well because I could leave right after Sacrament meeting and be right about on time. So I did. And I was. But they weren’t ready to be picked up. There was a line of parked cars snaking down the driveway and I wasn’t the last one to get there. Once the boys were ready to go, we had to wait for the two vehicles behind me to leave and then Cedric was helping put something else in the trailer. Then we got to leave. We had to back out of the driveway which isn’t short and was covered with ice and snow. Yeah. That wasn’t too hard, though, and we drove home. We got home after noon. At that point, I could just not do the ribs and go back to church for the very last part or I could do the ribs while Cedric showered and we could get there for nothing or I could do the ribs and we could just not go back to church. I chose the latter.

Until Dave Alexander and Rick Fernandez came over at 7:00 to visit, the rest of the day was pretty noneventful and Sunday afternoonish.

Yesterday was a pretty typical Monday. School. School. Fire. Dishes. Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Joanna came over to do some laundry and asked if I had any plans. I did have something but it wasn’t something I couldn’t miss so I told her so and she asked if I wanted to go out to eat with her. Well, heck yes! Joanna and I almost never do anything just us so I thought it would be nice.

It was nice. We went to Arisu, the Korean restaurant, and the one woman who works there said, “Ladies night out?” They’re very nice and they know by now that Joanna and I like hot. On the way home Joanna told me something that I’d suspected but didn’t know for sure (just for those who are curious or nosy, no, she’s not pregnant). She told me something else as well. Nothing earth shattering but both provided food for thought that kept me awake for a while this morning.

Last night after Joanna and I got home, Paul opened a couple of packages that had come in the mail. One of them was a pair of cowboy boots for each Seth and Joseph. They love cowboy boots but all the ones that they’ve gotten in the past couple of years have been the really cheap ones that have the soles just glued on rather than sewn on. They look good for a week or two but then the soles begin to fall off and no matter what kind of glue I tried, they didn’t stay on. The boots Paul ordered are nice. They have sewn soles and are pretty. Cedric got a pair of shoes as well, but they are for gym. When he opened the box, you could tell he was pleased. He’d been trying to talk Joanna into getting him a pair of shoes Thursday when she takes him out shopping but the shoes he got far exceed what he wanted to get. Good purchases on Paul’s part.

And that brings us to today. So far Amena did not miss the bus and Cedric did not miss the bus and the goats are fed in spite of the fact that it is cold and I didn’t want to go outside. I think Seth and Joseph aren’t feeling well because they’re sitting at the table to draw rather than playing with Legos. Very unusual behavior from them, especially considering that it will be time to get school going in about 35 minutes.

Have a spectacular day!

Schedules

Good morning! Yesterday wasn’t quite as fun-filled the day before but that isn’t to say that it was dull or boring in any way. I have decided that all the technology we have is making people boring, though. I mean, sitting around and playing with electronic devices all day long? How exciting is that? It might be fun for the person doing it (although I suspect in the long run it may not) but it certainly is not for those around the person.

Amena did not miss the bus this morning, which is always a good thing, but she is going to a friend’s house after school and then to the dance at school and she didn’t tell me if she got a ride home after the dance or if I need to pick her up. Always something.

The goats were enjoying the sunshine yesterday.

Cedric is ready and has more than half an hour before the bus comes. He has a camp out for scouts this weekend and needs to be to the Carignan’s by 5:30 this evening. Right now he’s doing the homework that he didn’t have last night. It is a good thing it isn’t terribly difficult, just more parallelogram areas. For this page they give the area and the base, the area and the height, or the base and the height, and you have to figure out the missing information.

Yesterday the boys did school in the morning and in the afternoon asked me more than once when the third Hobbit movie will be out on DVD. That was pretty exciting.

Joanna came over in the late afternoon to take Seth out shopping. They only had a couple of hours because he and Cedric needed to be at Hannaford to help with the shopping for the campout. That was interesting. They gave each group of two or three boys a list with instructions to get what was on a part of the list. The parents and leaders stood around in the produce area near the door and visited. That was actually not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I got to visit with Deb Trottier and Cindy Plouffe. Actually, it was quite interesting and watching the boys in action was rather entertaining.

When we arrived in the parking lot, there was a yellow Camero that Cedric had to drool over. Joanna pulled up behind us with Seth when we’d been there about a minute and since we noticed other scouts and their parents, we went ahead and went in the store. When we were all done, the Camero was still there and Cedric had freed up some space on his iPod so he could take pictures of it.

When we got home none of the boys wanted to go to bed. Seth actually told me a few days ago that he thinks because he and Joseph do homeschool, that they should be allowed to stay up later because they don’t have to get up as early. That was funny. I informed him that his older sisters and Daniel had to go to bed at 8:00 even though they were homeschooled. He wasn’t too happy about it.

Anyway, when we got home, Joseph was watching a movie and it was after 8:00 and of course no one was interested in going to bed right away. I’d managed to get Seth and Joseph there and get the light turned off but when Paul got home, the light was back on and Seth was sitting in bed playing with the Legos Joanna hot him. I went out to help bring things in and Paul said, “The boys should help since they’re up.” I’m not inclined to agree. If they’re still up with the lights on, they shouldn’t be rewarded by not having to go to bed. Cedric did help bring things in. Amena was working on homework.

I’ve been thinking lately a lot about schedules. It used to be that we had a schedule. We did school in the morning and afternoon basically from 9 to 3 but it was hardcore before lunch and easy after. We had breakfast at 7:00, or close to. We had lunch at noon. Dinner at 6. Everything wasn’t perfectly ordered, but things generally happened according the schedule give or take up to about 30 minutes or sometimes even an hour. Bedtime was at 8:00 and although all children were never in bed and asleep by then, they generally were by 9:00. I’ve always allowed about an hour after bedtime for things to completely settle down and expect younglings to appear and need something periodically during that time. What I do not appreciate is continued appearances after 9:00. It was from 9 to 10 that I had my hour of downtime in the past. Now I don’t get that. I don’t get it then, I don’t get it at any point during the day. Paul comes home, fixes something to eat, and goes to hide in his cave of an office. I’d call that downtime with very few interruptions. He lays in bed for an average of an hour in the morning before actually getting up with very few interruptions. I’d call that downtime as well. And I’m really not complaining, but I am thinking that our schedule needs to be reworked. Since Paul isn’t going to start going to work at 5:00 in the morning and therefore want to be in bed by 8 or 9, I think I’ll need to work around what he does do. The problem is that I can get up at 5:00 but in order to do so, I need to get to bed by 9:30 so I can be asleep by 10:00. Yeah.

Maybe if I get out and go for a walk every day I’ll get what I need. On the other hand, it’s really hard to do much writing when you are out walking.

Up for today is school, a trip to the library, a trip to the Country Chicken. Hopefully a fixed electric range. The part that the repair person brought yesterday was not the right part. He said the problem is that LG made about six different versions of the model we have. So far, he’s gotten the correct part for two of them but not the one we have. He was hoping that LG would be willing to overnight the right part. If they did, he said he could come tonight or tomorrow morning to install it. I’m hoping.

And that’s all. More or less. I’m thinking I want a fire earlier today because although we had some nice days last week, we’re cold again. Currently 12° with an expected high of 35°. I am not excited. Still, have a fantabulous day!

Allergy Attack(s)

Sunday

March 15, 2015

4:01 pm

Well, obviously having a computer is not a guarantee that I am going to write every day or that I’m going to post every day.

Right now I need hot chocolate. I think it’s really good thing that I don’t drink (you know, other than water and milk and sometimes juice or the occasional smoothie) because I think I’d like to make my hot chocolate strong. You know, it’s just one of those days.

Which isn’t to say it’s a bad day. Church was good. I got about an inch knit on the toe of the first sock for Seth. That’s nice because I really want to finish with it and start on the second sock. My goal is to finish them before winter is over so I really need to get a move on.

The lesson in Young Women was about faith and I think it was good. We talked about examples of faith in the scriptures and one of them was Hebrews 11. That’s just one long list of nothing but people who had faith. Then we read in James about not just having faith but needing the works to go with it because, as it says in verse 17, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” I used garden seeds as an example. You can hold a seed in your hand forever with all the faith in the world but that won’t make the seed sprout and grow. That seed needs us to provide some work and plant it in a place where it can have good soil, water, and sunshine. Works.

We came home and had chili beans that I’d done in the crock pot and salad that we brought home from church. That was nice other than the fact that I don’t like the way the beans turned out.

I finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy for the second time yesterday and now I want to watch the movies again so I can critique them more. Not really, but sort of. I actually went so far as to start the first one but then I got sidetracked with other things like checking my email and responding to one that needed it. And then Facebook.

There I found out that my Aunt Uwanna died last night. Or, if you ask Amena, this morning since it is three hours later here than in California. Still, after I went to bed and before I got up this morning. So, during the night. Sort of. I have some good memories of Aunt Uwanna and I’m sure that she and those of her siblings who preceded her and their parents are having a lovely reunion. It just reminds me of how much I miss some of those who have left us. You know. Like my dad. Papa. Daniel. The list goes on and on and on.

And the drumbeat carries on. . . .

Thursday

March 19, 2015

6:37 am

Good morning! I got up at 5:00 as usual to tell Amena and Cedric that it was 5:00 and then went back to bed. At that point I realized there was a Joseph in bed. My alarm went off again at 5:30 and I spent seventeen minutes waking up the rest of the way and getting up. Then I told Amena and Cedric that it was almost 6:00 and they both finally got moving. I fed Kitty and the dogs and got lunches together. I started working on the dishes and then went to stand as bus lookout. It got to the top of the hill and Amena came downstairs. I gave her her lunch and she went in the bathroom to brush her teeth. Are you kidding me!? There’s no time for that! The bus is approaching. The bus is here. She’ll have to go that way and run. She did.

Then I started working on the dishes again and Cedric asked for some help with math. He’s working on areas of parallelograms. I like that stuff. Since I was sitting here, I decided that I would get some words down here because maybe it’s partly because I haven’t been doing any writing at all that I don’t feel like doing any writing. Maybe if I get something done here, I’ll feel like getting something done elsewhere. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Well, most likely.

Yesterday was a fun day. Usually the Boy Scouts meet on Tuesday nights. This week was a Court of Honor and I knew that Cedric was getting his Second Class and that he and Seth had both earned a merit badge so of course I wanted to go (I always go anyway, but it’s always better when they have earned something). Tuesday night we drove up to the Pinecrest Lodge where the meetings are held and there was no one there and no one arrived during the ten minutes we were waiting. I checked my email and Facebook because I had a nagging suspicion that the meeting had been moved to Wednesday. Sure enough, it had. Wednesday?! Are you kidding me?! Yikes! I didn’t have enough to do already at 7:00 Wednesday.

Joseph had scouts and the Young Women were going to be watching Cinderella at the theater. Hmmmm. Now Cedric and Seth had a Court of Honor as well. I called Julia who had to call back and explained the situation. She was already going to pick Jessica Adams up but offered to pick Amena up as well. That was great and more than I’d hoped for; I just wanted to make sure there were going to be two adults there because I really like the scout requirement of two deep leadership and think YW should have the same. I could just drop Joseph off on the way to the Court of Honor. All was good.

Yesterday morning Cedric had an appointment with the dentist at 8:45 so the three boys and I took off about 8:15. We made it on time and Cedric got right in. We were out by 9:17 and I don’t know what the deal is, but it only took as long to get to the school (which is three miles beyond where we turn on Pitcherville) as it did to get to the dentist. Actually, it took longer to get from home to the dentist. We were going to stop at the Hubbardston Library but it wasn’t due to open until 10:00 and I didn’t feel like sitting and waiting for 15 minutes. It was cold yesterday. (It’s cold today.)

We went home and did some math and a little after 11:00 went to Gardner to go to that library. It was closed. It should have been open. At least I was able to stop at the bank and change the pin for my debit card. I didn’t feel like driving back to Hubbardston so we went home and had lunch. Then Julia came over and we visited and I made bread and she helped fold some clothes. Then Amena came home and Julia had to go home to get some things done before watching the movie because she was going to be going to her parents’ house after the movie because one of them has an appointment this morning with a doctor.

Then Cedric came home and Seth and Joseph finished their math and we read for 25 minutes. We have about 50 pages left of Laura’s book, Nightfall. She needs to get busy and finish the next.

That’s actually been interesting because I’ve been reading Nightfall to the boys for school and I’ve been proofreading the next one (is it Daybreak?). Sometimes I’ll forget which one I’m reading and think it’s the other and will think, “Didn’t he already go to the Lietha Well? Oh, yeah, in the book.” Fun.

We had tacos for dinner because Paul had gotten some hard shell taco shells (I don’t like them) that are nacho cheese flavor and have wide bottoms (I really don’t like these—they’re greasy and don’t taste that great). I got that all cleaned up and Julia called to say she’d missed the turn she needed to take and was stuck in Fitchburg traffic getting to Jessica and so she wasn’t going to be able to pick Amena up and make it to the theater. No problem. I could drop Joseph off, take Amena to Gardner, and get to the lodge hopefully before it started at about 7:10 (supposed to start at 7:00 but it isn’t just Mormons who can’t start on time).

I’m not sure how it happened, but we left to drop Joseph off at 6:15 by the time we got everyone and everything out to the car. We got to the Court of Honor fourteen minutes early. According to googlemaps, it should have taken 37 minutes and including stopping-to-drop-off times, it took less than 30. Wow.

And right now I’ve got to finish the dishes and feed the goats and take care of some laundry but I am not finished so I’ll be back.

8:21 am

Took a little longer than I thought to get here because the woman from the repair place called to say that the part came in yesterday and to see if I’d be home this morning. I certainly will and I do understand that yesterday was a long, late day. Anyway, the point is that I had to add cleaning the stove to my list of things to do. It’s done, the dishes are done, the goats are fed and watered, and I did what laundry I was going to do. Life is good. Which is funny because it’s an LG electric range that needs fixing and it’s an LG drier that is currently drying towels.

So, we got to the Pinecrest Lodge early enough that I got my pick of seats which was nice because I like to sit in the back by the door. It was an emotional night, and not just for me. Patrick was stepping down as Patrol Leader and he reminds me so much of Daniel. When his younger brother gave him a hug, I lost it. Quietly. Major allergy attack. That was bad enough. Also, Charlie is aging out on May 22 and is working to get his Eagle project finished before then. He doesn’t remind me of Daniel exactly physically, but he appears to have ruled the boys with a loving iron fist and that is very much like Daniel. Charlie’s mother did her best to lose it and I had another allergy attack. They can be really bothersome, especially when people look at me and want an explanation. No one did, so that was good.

Cedric got his rank and merit badge, and Seth got his merit badge and that was all good. Cedric is now as far as Daniel got. The only thing that kept Daniel from getting 1^st Class was the swimming and Cedric has that. Daniel would be proud of him.

And now is not a good time for another allergy attack because the repair guys could be here any time.

But that’s all I wanted to say so I’m good and hopefully you are, too.

Have a splendiferous day!

Here

Monday

March 9, 2015

6:32 am

Good morning! Should I start out with one of the old and typical complaints? It would be an absolutely spectacular morning if when I came downstairs I hadn’t found a stinky pile of poop and puddle of pee. I’m sure you can figure out who is/are the guilty party(ies). Still, Amena didn’t miss the bus in spite of her very long shower and Cedric found a pair of socks to wear to school.

While I’ve been gone (from journaling), I’ve read several good books. Some of them I’ll tell you about in the other blog but one of them you get to hear about here. Lucky you!

Garlic is Life by Chester Aaron is an excellent book about, of all things, garlic. If you even like garlic a little or at least a good story, you should check out this book. I would love to meet Mr. Aaron but will most likely have to be content with reading this book again (and perhaps looking for other things he has written) and trying my hand at growing garlic. I’ve read about it in seed catalogues and other books about gardening but in spite of the fact that I love garlic, that was never enough to make me want to plant some other than very briefly in passing. Part of my reluctance in the past was the fact that it needs to be planted in the fall. In the fall? Are you kidding me? And not see the fruits of my labors for almost a year? You’ve got to be kidding. However, I’m willing to do that now. In fact, I looked up garlic festivals and found that there is one in Orange in September that I plan on visiting. I might look into selling soap there as well although it is a Saturday/Sunday event and I won’t sell soap on Sunday so we’ll have to see how that goes. Anyway, excellent book; I highly recommend it.

Wednesday

March 11, 2015

6:16 am

The goal for this morning is to actually finish something for today and then to actually post it. Let’s see how that goes.

Yesterday was a busy day. Seth, Joseph and I went out and about. They needed to look at Legos at Walmart and Paul left coupons for a free donut and free muffin from Price Chopper so we went there as well. I needed to pick something up from church so we went there and then came home because I decided that I would not go to Staples.  While we were at Walmart, I saw Mockingjay Part 1 and of course had to get it so when we got home, we had an early lunch and watched Mockingjay Part 1. Just FYI, I hate the way it ends and I need to add those books to my list of books to read. Again.

Amena did not go to school yesterday because she woke up not feeling particularly well. She had a stomachache and a headache. With the decision to let her stay home made, I turned my 5:30 alarm off and proceeded to fall asleep which is something that I almost never do. I didn’t wake up until almost 6:45 when I discovered Cedric still asleep in bed. Fun times.

Cedric and Seth had scouts last night and Amena wanted to get registered for track. That was also fun because the boys needed to be at scouts at 7:00 and registration for spring sports was from 6 to 8 at the middle school. Joanna had taken Joseph with her to go shopping because it’s boring, she said, to go alone and on a ‘date’ which Joseph thought was strange but I thought was cute. Paul got home early from work because Blair had been installing or upgrading software and Paul’s computer at work didn’t work after so Blair sent him home to work from home. Once he got home, the computer here wouldn’t work either. I guess I should say the software for work wouldn’t work because I don’t know that it wouldn’t work at all. Anyway, end result is that Paul was home and we left him home after we ate. We all went to drop Cedric and Seth off at scouts and once someone had arrived with a key to get in, Amena and I left for the middle school. I was pretty sure we would arrive by 7:30 but then we got stuck behind a car that would not drive more than about 35-40 miles an hour. If it had been doing more than a heavy mist, I would understand that. Or if the roads were icy I would expect to go slow. Or if it was snowing. But none of those was the case.  Still we got there a couple of minutes before 7:30 and it didn’t take long to actually get her registered once we figured out that’s what the people in the cafeteria were there for because we thought we were supposed to go to the high school gym.

On the way home, we got to the corner where I could either turn to go get the boys or go straight to take Amena home and because it was 8:00, we turned. My thinking was that I could take Amena home and then I could go back but I would most likely be a bit late and I do not like to be late. We got there at 8:10 or so and I went inside to give them some money for a couple of campouts and deposits for the two boys for scout camp. There wasn’t anything to do at that point because all the adults were busy with the boys so I went back out to the car.

I have to say that I really like Amena. She drives me crazy sometimes but she’s a one-of-a-kind keeper and she’s growing up. Anyway, she was telling me about something that she overheard on the bus Monday. A boy who lives was relating the incident and he heard it from his mother who works at the school sometimes. It seems that there either was a fire drill or someone pulled the alarm. Amena said someone pulled it, Cedric said (I asked him about the whole thing on the way home) that there was just a drill. At any rate, when everyone was outside, a boy accused another boy of pulling the alarm. The second boy, who Amena described as a one with special needs, denied that he had done it but the first boy kept saying that he did. Finally, tired of the badgering, the second boy hit the first so the first hit the second. At some point, the second boy ended up on the ground and lost either two or four teeth and ended up with a very bloodied nose and face. Wow. My response? Where were the teachers or other adults? How could this have happened? Regardless of if it was a fire drill or someone pulled the alarm, where was the order? Seth and Joseph are not going back to school.

Amena was also telling me about the troubles with girls at school. Girls just never change, do they? There is always drama and stabbing people in the back. I really am glad that my girls are who they are and manage to avoid this stuff for the most part and at least don’t take part in it. Amena did, it seems, say something that could be construed as backstabbing, I think, but I also think it was done unintentionally and it seems to have been worked out. At any rate, she was friends with these three particular girls and for a time wasn’t able to speak to any of them because of things that have happened that seem to mostly have been instigated by others. One of them sent her a message last Wednesday about it being Daniel’s birthday and how she just wanted Amena to know that she was thinking of her. That started a conversation and it sounds like that friendship will be salvaged and I am glad.

In other news, there is a lot of other news. That’s about all you will get for now, though, because it’s almost 7:00 and there are many things that need to be done. Have a fantastic day!