Life Just Keeps on Happening

Good morning! It is cloudy and 61° with 91% humidity. I really like the temperature. You can probably guess what I’d like to do with the humidity.

It’s been a busy week. Lots of soaping going on.  Monday I cut Pacado and poured Holiday Spice, Tea Tree Shampoo, Outrageous Grapefruit Bars, and chunks for Creamy Honey Oat Bars and did phase 1 of some Berry Bayberry liquid soap. Tuesday I’d intended to cut those poured Monday but they weren’t ready because I actually got them done in the afternoon. I did get phase 2 of the Berry Bayberry done and it’s a good thing that I was okay not getting anything else done because we got to watch María in the afternoon.

This frog traveled all the way from Gardner to home on the hood of the truck with Paul last Saturday (the 13th). Long trip for a little frog. I hope he adjusts well to his new life in Hubbardston. 

At 1:00 I went to pick María up and take Elizabeth to work. We came home and just generally had fun. María was pretty content for the most part. She ate almost a whole jar of food and had some water and had two poopy diapers. One of them was not long after we got home. The other was just before I went out to milk. Cedric said, “Mom, I think she has a poopy diaper.”

I said, “I’ll take care of it when I’m done milking.”

Sure enough, I’m not sure if he heard her do it or could smell it, but she had a second one.

Before that, María and Seth went with me to pick Amena up from Nick’s. She fell asleep on the way and slept all the way there. She woke up once we got there and was awake all the way home.

We left to take her home a little after 7:00. Seth and Joseph wanted to go with us because they think she’s so cute. We stopped again at Burger King for milk shakes and took the long way and got to where Elizabeth works about five minutes early.

This turkey was in our front yard Monday. There must have been another female somewhere with all the babies because this one didn't have any with her.

Wednesday I cut the soaps that got poured Monday and went to the temple with the Petzold’s. That was a much needed break from everyday life. Joseph and Seth stayed with Joanna and they watched movies all day. We stopped at Arisu for a late lunch/early dinner on the way home which was nice. The hot chicken dish that I often have seemed hotter than normal which was nice until yesterday when it was coming out.

Wednesday evening Seth and Cedric had a Court of Honor. It was nice. The only problem was that I was going to actually make cookies for it but didn’t have time. Still, Seth got his Tote ‘n Chip and earned his Scout rank. Cedric was elected Assistant Patrol Leader. He only has one requirement before he earns his 1^st Class rank so the Court of Honor in September will be a good one. Especially since that will be after Camp Wanocksett and a couple of boys I know should earn some merit badges while there.

Seth just got his Scout rank here. The boy is growing. I sure wish he'd learn to tuck his shirt in. (I didn't have my camera or my phone so I had to 'borrow' this picture from Facebook and didn't get any of Cedric.)

Yesterday I poured Creamy Honey Oat Bars, Rose Petal Cream, Calendula Cream and the grass for LemonGrass and the chunks for Joanna’s Huckleberry Bars. Also I did phase 1 for Clearly Citrus liquid soap. That was pretty much my day yesterday.

Except for lunch. We had a fire in the goat pen and cooked sausages over it for lunch. Then we had s’more’s. And the sisters were here for lunch. I’m not sure they enjoyed running from the smoke but the sausages were good and the s’more’s even were (I don’t like marshmallows).

And then Julia invited us over for pizza but I didn’t get the message before I made smoothies for dinner so I’m the only one who went. The sisters were there as were the Petzold’s and Bethany and her girls. That was nice even though I was there longer than I anticipated and Paul tried calling eleven (11) times. My phone was in the house, I was outside. When I went in as I was leaving, my phone told me that I had all these calls and then died. Amena had sent a message as well saying that Paul said I needed to get home. I didn’t know what the deal was then but now I do. He wanted to go pick up the Jetta. Joanna and I took it to be looked at when she got off work and Paul did say we’d go pick it up either last night or this morning. I guess I’m in the habit of being home all the time. Anyway, I can imagine that he needed to eat, I wasn’t home when I usually am, and he wanted to do something.

During pizza, Brother Petzold said something about kids and I said, “Baaaa baaaa.”

Sister Garcia started laughing and Sister Riggs thought it was something she was doing. We had a good laugh.

Today I would like to get phase 2 of Clearly Citrus done as well as some lotion. Other than that, I need to make some cinnamon rolls and bread for the auction tomorrow evening. I need to get some of that done today because if I wait for tomorrow, I won’t have time due to the bottle and can drive in the morning that Joseph and I will be at from 8 to 10.

And that’s about the size of everything.

I was going to say that people are silly when I started but thought that I’d get all the stuff out of the way about what we’ve been doing and now I don’t remember what I was going to say about silly people. It was relating to something I saw on Facebook but I didn’t find it just now looking so I guess you’ll just have to guess. Although I can tell you Paul is pretty silly. He was asleep last night when I went to bed at 10:30; he usually doesn’t even go to bed until after I’m asleep. He is still in bed now when I’ve been up since 5:30. He was up later than usual Wednesday night doing some online training for scouts so I guess that is why the early to bed last night.

Have a wonderful day!

Today: Rain

From Friday:

Good  morning! Busy day (mostly afternoon and evening) yesterday, busy day today.

Yesterday morning Cedric needed (broadly defined) to go to Walmart and get some things for Field Day at school. That didn’t take too long; we left the house at 7:14 and could have made it back in time for him to catch the bus at 7:45. However, he had many things to carry and it probably would have taken five minutes for him to get it all on the bus so we just went to school and I helped him carry it up to his room.

For lunch we had the sister missionaries like we usually do on Thursday. We had chicken and leftover macaroni salad.

When Cedric got home, he needed to get some stuff for a project at school. He and his group (consisting of Ryan, Chris and I’m not sure who else) are making a bottle rocket launcher. Cedric had a list of things that he needed to get but it wasn’t very clear on a few things so we did the best we could. Then when we got home, I watched the video showing what was needed and some things became more clear. However, I needed to milk the goats and take Seth to a patrol meeting so I couldn’t go back until I’d milked the goats and delivered Seth.

Then I went back to the second hardware store we’d visited and got a few things. Then I went home and watched the video that tells how to construct the launcher and some things became more clear and we discovered that one of the items needed wasn’t on the list but by that time it was too late to go back because the hardware stores would have been closed by the time I could have gotten there.

So I told Cedric I could get that stuff today and I went to get Seth. Had kind of a long wait because one of their troop had a baseball game in Westminster and they wanted to make sure he participated in the making of their patrol flag so once he got there, they finished up and that was that and we got home at almost 9:00 rather than the 8:15 or so I was expecting. Still, that was okay; just not quite what I’d been expecting.

When we got home, Amena was finishing making brownies and had just gotten the macaroni and cheese going for Joseph’s dinner. Needless to say, it was a late night getting everyone to bed. And that just means that I didn’t have any time for any of my stuff (think writing) before I went to bed. Not cool. But life.

This morning I’ve already milked and Amena already didn’t miss the bus. Two good things. I took water out to the goats and they drank most of four gallons so I brought the bucket back in and refilled it but haven’t taken it out yet. Soon.

Seth and Joseph have dentist appointments beginning at 8:15 this morning. Then we will come home and then leave to go to the Troops in time to be there at 11:00 so Julia and I can visit Amy. Then we will leave at noon so we can go pick María up because Elizabeth asked if I could watch her today from 1:00 until 6:00. Happy too! Hopefully I won’t be changing my tune about that.

There is a wedding at 5:00 but since I have to milk at 6:00 and get María back to her mama, I’m thinking the wedding just isn’t going to happen for us. It would be nice but there are only so many things one person can do. Sometime in there I’m going to have to go back to a hardware store to get things for Cedric. I want to wait until he gets home from school so I’ll know if we have to get any of the stuff that Chris has. It seems he may have it at home or he may have it at school. If it’s at school, great, Cedric can bring it home. If it’s at home, not so great, I’ll have to pick up some nuts, washers, and a couple other things.

And now it’s time for a shower. Have a great day!

From today:

Good morning! It is a lovely rainy day so far. Currently 55° with 92% humidity. I could do without the humidity but considering that it is raining, I think it’ll be with us for a while. Wet dog, however, does not smell good.

Friday was busy enough that I did not get a chance to post what I had written. Saturday was Saturday and yesterday I just never did it.

Friday did not look quite like I thought it would because Julia and I did not go visit Amy.

The boys did have their appointments with the dentist. We got home from that and didn’t have to leave until noon to get María so we had an hour and a half to do things around the house. That was nice, actually. I made cheese and Julia came over to get the whey and help me move the hospital bed that’s been in the way of getting outside from the back room for about three and a half years. It is now on the back porch.

We picked María up and I’d told Seth he could ride in the front because it would be crowded in the back with a car seat but he decided he didn’t want to because she’s so cute. We dropped Elizabeth off at work and went home.

Once we got home, María was fussy for an hour or so but then she fell asleep and when she woke up, she was fine. She ate a little bit of her mango and had a little bit of water and played. When Cedric got home, he said, “Oh, no! Not her! She was at the West’s Wednesday and she wouldn’t stop crying.” I confirmed this with Emily who said María did indeed cry the entire time she watched her Wednesday. Thursday she only cried half the time. I don’t know if we only got fussy for an hour because she was finally getting used to the idea of being away from Elizabeth and Jonathan or what but I am glad we only got an hour.

At five I was getting ready to milk so that I could milk at 5:30 and then we’d take María to pick up Elizabeth but because it would mean Seth watching her and possibly having to attempt consoling a crying baby, I decided that I would milk late and we left to take her home. We were early so we stopped at Burger King and got milkshakes. That didn’t take too long so we took the long way and drove slow. Even with that, we were ten minutes early. María didn’t care; she fell asleep on the way and when she woke up she was happy and then she got her mama back so she was good.

Joanna says that we can watch María any time. Even Cedric thinks she’s cute and kept poking her little rolls of fat and grinning (he says his babies will be born with six-packs). Seth and Joseph are in love, I think, and Amena seems to like her alright, too. I am not interested in watching María every day (because I’m selfish and like to do what I like to do) but once in a while is completely fine. She is a very cute baby and it is nice to have one around sometimes. Joseph actually told me that he’d like a baby brother or sister. I told him he can have all the cousins he wants.

Saturday Cedric and I had to make two trips to hardware stores to get what he needed to finish the project for school. Finally everything was collected and was the right stuff and I helped him put it together. Then he launched a few times. It’s pretty cool.

Yesterday was Stake Conference. It was good. I really didn’t want to go because I don’t like driving with three boys in the back seat and I was dreading the possible heat of the day and having to drive home in it but that part wasn’t too bad. As is usually the case, I’m glad I went.

Today is rainy and I have to get some lotion and liquid soap made. Should be fun. Got to get some work done in the kitchen first because the counter that I cleared off last week hardly looks like it today.

Have a fantastic day!

Time

Good morning! So far, it looks pretty nice although I’m sure the humidity is off the charts. Just a slight breeze, no clouds that I can see, 55°, and I was right about the humidity: 91%. Yuck. Supposed to get up to 81° which is warmer than I would personally like but as long as it does not get any warmer, we’ll be okay.

I got Amena’s lunch together and Cedric’s partially done. Everything is ready to go out and milk. I put a load of laundry on to wash, another on to dry. And I had a few minutes so I thought I would get some words in here.

Seth and his very large balloon. He and Joseph learned that if balloons are that large, they pop very easily.

Last night Cedric and Seth had scouts. It was the last regular meeting of the year and Seth managed to forget his book. We’ll be able to get it next week as long as we don’t forget. Anyway, the bugs were awful so I had to have all the windows shut although I did open the sunroof just a crack and that was okay. When it rained, I had to close that as well anyway. In spite of talking to both Diane and Laura, I managed to get out over 2,000 (2,875 to be specific) words which was pretty awesomely cool.

And right now it’s 6:00 so this is an indication of what I can get done if five minutes. Sometimes it’s easier when I’m making things up, sometimes it isn’t.

And right now I’ll be off to milk. Seth and Joseph have doctor’s appointments this morning so I’ll be back here if I have time.

It looks like I have time while I’m eating. We currently have more milk than we really can deal with since we’ve got three people who basically won’t use goat milk. I don’t know why Paul won’t but if he won’t he then gives fuel to Amena and Cedric. Parents really do need to teach and lead by example.

Fresh, just salted Farmer's cheese.

Other than doctor’s appointments this morning, I have an IEP meeting at school about Cedric. Then those of us at home were planning on a picnic for lunch. Given that the IEP meeting is at 11:00, I’m not sure how that is going to work out.

I put another load of laundry on to dry and another on to wash. The one in the drier has what I want to wear today. Amena did miss the bus but she was basically ready and just didn’t know it was here. We took off and caught up before it got to Jeppson’s which was nice because I was back home by 6:35. I even managed to get all the dishes done with the exceptions of milking stuff (which I like to wash with bleach) and the pot I used for making cheese yesterday which needs to soak.

Yesterday I thought Cedric wanted to go to West’s after school but I went to take a nap and kind of forgot until 3:00. Amen needed to go to Walmart and I needed to go to Staples so we waited until Cedric got home when he said he’d actually wanted to go to West’s today. So Amena and I went. All I needed was the mat under the rotary cutter on my paper cutter which I bought at Staples and which I have always bought the mats at Staples. Well, guess what? They don’t have them in store any longer. They don’t appear to have them online any longer either. I can get them from other places online but unless Joann’s had some in store, I’d have to order and that would take too long. So I looked critically at mine and decided there was one side of one side that was almost good enough so I used it.

I cut all the sheets of gift certificates in half and got maybe one third of the way through cutting those in thirds. My goal is to have them done and ready to mail today. I really wanted to have them done yesterday but that didn’t happen. Might have if I’d have gone to Staples earlier to find out they didn’t have the mat I needed. Such is life.

Right now I’m going to go shower and get ready to go. If I get back in time to add more, that’s great, if not, I’ll just post this sometime later.

Gift Certificates and Lasagna

Good morning!

We are having another cloudy and windy day. That would be great if the grass were not in seed. Yesterday I went out to move stakes for the goats and it was not good. I came in and used my allergy eye drops and just closed my eyes for a couple of minutes. Then I took a shower and after that used the allergy eye drops again and an hour or so later, I finally started feeling somewhat normal. I would rather have to wear long pants and sleeves when I go out because there really isn’t anything I can do about my eyes other than wear goggles and it’s hard to find any that work over glasses. And throwing contacts into the mix is not something I care to deal with at all. I would love to be working on the garden and other things outside more but it’s very hard to get excited about such things when it’s so not exciting when I come in and am itching to beat the band.

In spite of that, I managed to get a few things done yesterday. A few like 250 gift certificates. Other than that, not a whole lot other than starting some yogurt and changing sheets. Pretty darn exciting.

This morning I measured out milk to make cheese. Speaking of cheese, I made lasagna for dinner yesterday and I used the farmer’s cheese that I made with the goat milk. Turned out pretty good but I think it (the cheese) needs more salt. I’ll fix that today when I get it made.

Speaking of lasagna, when Paul got home (early because he wasn’t feeling well), he asked what was for dinner (except he probably said supper). I said, “Lasagna.”

“Homemade?”

“No,” I answered. “I went to the store and bought some.”

“Well,” he responded, “it could have been something I’d bought.”

“Yes, but in my opinion anything premade from the store isn’t worth eating.”

“But it’s a quick, easy meal.”

“Not when you have to thaw it out ahead of time or it has to be in the oven for an hour.”

Quick and easy in my book is something I can have ready to eat in fifteen minutes or less. I guess we just have different ideas of what “quick and easy” is. I’m pretty convinced I’m right although I will concede that from Paul’s point of view, he is. And, ultimately, all it really requires is thinking ahead far enough to have something ready when it’s time to eat.

Today I would like to finish my gift certificate project. I need to 90 for a free bar of soap and 135 for free shipping. Should be pretty exciting. I know the ones I did yesterday were extremely exciting. At some point, I need to go to Staples and get a new mat for my paper cutter so I can cut these things apart because I printed them out six to a page.

It was a lot of fun, you know, writing the same thing over and over again. I would like to say I didn't make any mistakes but I'm afraid I've wasted the equivalent of probably three sheets of paper. At least I haven't messed up my name yet. :)

I also have a wedding dress to hem up. Other than that, Seth and Cedric have scouts tonight. I’m looking forward to that because I haven’t worked on Cailín and Hywel since Friday. I really am very close to being done with that—probably a chapter or two and an epilogue. To me, that’s kind of exciting. And a little sad.

In other news, Amena missed the bus yesterday by a long shot. Today she missed it by a hair. Yesterday she needed a two-liter soda for science so we went to Walmart and got one and then to school so it took an even bigger chunk out of my morning. Today we caught up with the bus by the end of Ragged Hill Road but it didn’t have another stop until reaching Hale on Barre Road. The good thing is that there weren’t any cars between us and the bus. Also nice was the fact that I was back by the time we’d left yesterday. Yes, I do time travel.

Right now Seth and Joseph are out with the goats. The kids are awfully cute. Cedric is upstairs. He asked if I would pick him up from school to take him to the West’s to work and that’s fine. He just has to be ready to be picked up from there in time to get to scouts. And he needs to find his book.

And that is it for now. I could blather on forever about nothing but would rather not.

Have a splendiferous day!

No Title

Joseph being silly.

Good morning! As you can see, I just have not been getting around to anything here.  That does not mean that I have not been writing anything at all. Monday I wrote over 6,000 words, Tuesday over 6,000 words, Wednesday over 4,000, Thursday, over 2,000, and Friday over 3,000. That’s a bit of writing, just not here.

Kids exploring.

Saturday was extremely busy and yesterday was Sunday with a busy morning. We didn’t go on a picnic but had it at the table instead because I needed to milk at 6:00 and I don’t think we’d have gotten back on time and all children agreed that going in the morning would be better. So guess what happened? I forgot to milk until 8:30. Oh my.

Water in a tree.

I do have some pictures to post on the blog so imagine there are 1,000 words for each one.

What my life feels like as of late.

And, have a wonderful day!

Hello

Good morning. It’s been one of those mornings. It’s been one of those mornings every single day for the past week. You may have noticed as there have been no blog posts for more than a week. Such is life. When you can type. Sometimes it’s such if life.

Yesterday we had a rainy day. Today so far we’ve had a rainy day. Sunday afternoon it rained. Yesterday we got over an inch of rain which is approximately one quarter of what this area typically gets in June so if anyone tells me about the drought here, I might do something drastic. In the meantime, I can tell you that Yreka could get a quarter of what we got yesterday and have their full quota for the entire month. However. More would be nice because it’s been so dry for so long.

While I haven’t been writing anything here, I have been writing. Yesterday I finished two chapters and started another for a grand total of 6,436 words. That isn’t too shabby. Having a rainy day helped because there wasn’t much that I wanted to do outside in the rain. Today might be similar although the rain is supposed to slack off and possibly even stop this afternoon. We shall see.

I also managed to make bread yesterday and it actually turned out the way it’s supposed to. That was nice. The last four times it’s been crummy and that is very annoying.

Right now I do not really feel like doing this so I’ll be off. Have a splendid day!