Back to the Busy

Good morning! It is sunny and lovely here. 54° and 94% humidity. Please remember that lovely is relative and that the only reason 94% humidity is okay is because 1) it isn’t 100% like it was the other day, and 2) it is 54°.

Amena and Cedric successfully got on the bus this morning. Third time in a row for Amena. That’s almost a record for her. Yesterday she told me that if you are late for school at QRHS, you get lunch detention. I asked her specifically what that means and she said it means eating lunch in the office and staying in the office for the entire lunch period. No socializing. I like that. If she misses the bus, there’s a good chance she’ll be late because I’ve started milking at 6:30 rather than 6:00 since I’m only milking once a day. Even though it usually takes 15 minutes or less to milk two goats, it does take a few minutes to strain and put away. I’d really prefer for her to not miss the bus. I’m thinking if she misses too many times, I’ll fill out paperwork to homeschool her and give her the option of homeschool, giving me $5 to $10 per trip to the school, or homeschool.

It seems that I don’t pay attention well enough or I didn’t get the information or something but other parents of 7^th graders knew about the athletic meeting on the 20^th and attended. I might have seen the information somewhere and just didn’t pay attention or let it go in and then right back out. Whatever the case, it’s nice to talk to other parents who did go because I can find out what I missed. I don’t think it was a whole lot.

On the other hand, had I known that soccer tryouts were yesterday and today, I would have been more prepared and yesterday wouldn’t have been such a fun day.

Cedric needed soccer shoes because he outgrew the largest ones we had long ago. So, after Seth’s practice Wednesday, we dropped pizza crust and baking stones off at church so the YW could make pizza and then hurried to Payless hoping they’d have some. They didn’t. So we went to Salvation Army hoping they’d have some. They didn’t. So we went to Marshall’s hoping they’d have some. They didn’t. They did have baseball shoes so we picked a pair that didn’t cost much and Cedric liked and got them. Yesterday morning, we cut off the toe cleat so he could at least use them for tryouts. If he makes the team, we can get him a better pair.

Amena was babysitting Wednesday night. We dropped her off for that and then went to Seth’s practice. Joseph wandered around and discovered that a couple of his friends were at practice as well. I told him we need to get their phone numbers next time. Cedric got to play in the scrimmage with Seth’s team.

Then we had our fun with pizza stuff and shoes.

Then we went to pick Amena up and while we were on our way, as in on the road the apartment is on, we got a call saying that she wouldn’t be ready to go for another hour. So we went home.

Paul got home just as I was leaving to pick Amena up so he went instead once I got some bags of stuff out of the car. He went. He tried calling Allison but had her old phone number. He called Kathy but she didn’t remember which apartment number Allison lives in. Finally Amena came out and then they needed to go to Kathy’s because I guess they were paying. Allison had told Amena that they were expecting her so it shouldn’t have been a big deal I guess. But when Paul called them, he said they were both in bed so Tom came out with his bathroom and slippers on. Then Amena wanted to go to Walmart (she wanted to get a new backpack because my awesome ones aren’t good enough). Paul said she said she knew exactly what she wanted and that she wouldn’t take long. He laughed. I asked how long she took and he said, “Fifteen minutes?” Two things about that: 1) Amena says it wasn’t 15 minutes (but she loses track of time in stores) and 2) sometimes Paul says he’ll be right back and it’s 15 to 20 minutes or more (he loses track of time in stores even more than Amena does).

Joseph on a rock while we were waiting for Cedric.

Yesterday morning there were morning things to do. I needed to go to the bank to deposit some money so that things could get taken care of like paying the registration for Cedric to try out for soccer, paying so Cedric can get lunch at school, paying the rental fee and deposit for Amena’s NJROTC uniform, and getting Cedric and Seth shin guards. I needed to actually get the shin guards. Also stop at Staples. And then get home in time to take care of the lunch money, registration, and make lunch.

Then Diana Chunn came over to visit because she is one of my new visiting teachers. She was running late so we had a very short visit because we needed to leave by 1:45 in order to get to Quabbin in time to get Cedric’s shin guards to him and pay Amena’s NJROTC fees.  Then it was hurry up and wait. Amena was done around 3:00 just like Captain Daniel Brennock (retired USN) promised she would. I happen to like him; he’s very nice and personable.  Still, we had to hurry up and wait for Cedric to be done. I think many parents expected them to be done around 4:00, I’m pretty sure I saw 4:30 somewhere, and it was almost 5:00 before we actually got to leave.

When we got home, Amena and Cedric thought they needed to have some cereal because they hadn’t had any. It really was too close to dinner time but they ended up have some anyway and then didn’t eat as much pizza as they normally would have.

Seth playing with an Airjitzu LEGO thing while we were waiting for Cedric.

Today should be less busy. Unless Joseph gets a birthday card with either money or a gift card in it, we don’t need to go anywhere. We don’t need to even if he does but he will want to because you know he and his siblings don’t have nearly enough LEGOs. We do need to do more cleaning. I do need to get going with wedding dresses. Malley Black is coming over so we can have a quasi YW presidency meeting. I do need to pick Cedric up this afternoon around 4:30.

Speaking of that, Cedric informed me that I should go watch tryouts. He is already impressed with the coach. It seems that he’s nice, he’s knowledgeable, and he works them hard. Cedric is of the opinion that there were probably 35 boys trying out for the team and the coach said that there will be around 18 picked. I hope Cedric makes it. If he doesn’t, he said he wants to do cross country. Still, I hope he makes the soccer team. And I think it would be fun if Ryan, Jacob, and Paul all do as well. The middle/high school bus drops off at 3:00 this year so I can leave to get Cedric when Amena gets home. That way I could watch tryouts for about an hour.

And that reminds me—when we were on our way to the school yesterday, they were working on the roads around Barre Common. Well, they’ve been working on them for a while now but yesterday they had a section completely closed to through traffic and had a detour. Problem is, not everyone knows their way around Barre, like me, so not everyone knows where you are supposed to turn once you are past the obvious. So we were tooting along and I thought, “Wait a minute, we’re headed north on 32. We don’t want to do that.” So I turned around and turned another way and it turned out to be the right way and we got the school but five minutes later than I’d hoped to. What fun. At least if it’s the same today I’ll know where to turn.

Paul called last night to say that the silver Jetta was making an awful noise. He stopped at Hal’s to see what might be the problem and he told me but I’m not a mechanic and really don’t know what everything is that he was talking about. I guess it can still be driven but it would be best not to go long distances and it makes an awful noise.

When he got home, he said that he finally has the interview that was supposed to happen earlier this week. It’s at 6:30 in Acton. No date for us tonight. And he isn’t sure what vehicle he is going to take. I really hope not the white Jetta because I’m not going to drive the silver Jetta if it makes noise like he says it does and I don’t like driving the green car. On the other hand, if he does take the white Jetta, he’ll remember that he needs to look and see why the fan isn’t working because he has to have the fan running all the time. The only time he doesn’t have it running is when the vehicle is not running.

And I think I’ve been at this long enough so I’ll be off now. Have an absolutely fantabulous day!

First First Day of School this Year

Good morning! So far, so good. Unless you take into account the humidity which is 100% here. I think I’d gladly trade for Yreka’s which is 33%. Even Bonners Ferry’s which is 55%. However, I have to say I’m glad that I’m not breathing all the smoke from the fires in Idaho right now. Bonners Ferry actually has an Air Quality Alert right now and I’m sure it’s affecting Coeur d’Alene where Alisha and her family are. That’s not good. In fact, Becky told me the sun was red much like it was during the fires of 1987 in Siskiyou County. Something to think about for the east coast people who think a 50 acre fire qualifies as a forest fire. Yreka has Special Weather Statement (according to weather.com) to expect some precipitation this weekend beginning Friday. I hope they get it—the west needs water in the worst way. The worst Hubbardston has is a Local Pollen Alert. Bad enough for those of us with sensitivities to such.

Today is the first day of school for all Quabbinites. Cedric and I went to the 7^th grade orientation last night. It was so hot. I had a river running down my back. Aside from that, I think he has the same teacher for Science that Daniel had but other than that and the art teacher, and he doesn’t have art this grading period, there are none that Amena or Daniel had. Very sad. It is also sad that he doesn’t have a single class with any of his friends. I was hoping that he’d at least have one or two in each class but when he compared schedules with them, it looks like the administration did a good job keeping them all apart. I really think this is sad when it comes to Ryan because he and Cedric really work well together.

It kind of hit me last night as I was going to bed that today would have been Daniel’s first day of his senior year. That is something of a milestone for a child going through the public school system. I guess I’m getting used to him being gone because it didn’t automatically register a month ago as something to be prepared for.

I actually had a dream about Daniel last night. I like those dreams because they don’t happen very often. This one was pretty short and he only figured briefly in it. The entire dream was just about life-like things happening with the exception of travelling to a secret base. It was so secret that everyone going there had to be blindfolded and the people there had no fear of falling great distances. When someone fell, I found out the reason why is that there was some kind of a force field that prevented people from slamming into the ground. Pretty cool. Daniel had been at a scout-like camp all summer and at the end, he qualified for some ranking that was had to achieve; he was only the second one to do so. It was when we were picking him up that my first alarm went off.

Soccer has begun for Seth. He has practice on Monday and Wednesday every week from 5:30 to 7:00. That’s great other than Wednesday when I need to be to church at 7:00. I’m either going to be late every week for a couple of months or he’s going to have to leave early. Or a combination of the two. The first game is supposed to be this Saturday in Holden but the coach doesn’t know more than that. As of last night at about 10:30 the game schedules hadn’t been posted. One of the other mom’s said that she’d heard that six of the ten games were supposed to be against Holden in Holden. At least it’s not too far away but I still would prefer Hubbardston. I’ll be checking soon to see if anything has been posted.

Last night I registered Cedric for soccer at the middle school. I don’t know how much to pay for registration yet because I don’t know if we will qualify for reduced lunches or not. The difference is pretty drastic--$120 if you don’t qualify, less than $20 if you do. And if you qualify for free lunches, you don’t have to pay anything. I’m sure we won’t for that and I am doubtful we will for reduced. Still, there’s a chance and I’ll be able to figure it out today when he brings the papers home.

School is starting fifteen minutes later this year but the bus is only supposed to be nine minutes later than it was last year. This year school starts at 7:20 and the bus is supposed to arrive at 6:33. Fun times. At least Cedric and Amena are on the same bus so if Amena is running late, he can tell Mr. Hale. Hopefully she doesn’t do like she did last year and run so late that she missed it upwards of a couple dozen times.

Right now there is a goat letting me know it is time for breakfast so I suppose I should be off doing that.

Harry Potter

Good morning! Since I was here last we had a couple of birthdays. My mom’s on the 18^th and Andy’s yesterday. I hope they both had a good one. Joseph’s is tomorrow and is not letting any of us forget.

I took this when going on a foraging walk in New Hampshire on the 9th.

I just finished reading Harry Potter and I can’t stop thinking about all the people who thought the Harry Potter books were so awful when they were just coming out. I avoided reading them for a long time; the first one was published the same year Daniel was born and I didn’t read it until Daniel was 13, three years after the last book was published. I thought it was just a book, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal, so I didn’t read any others until after 2011. Even then, the only reason I did is because Daniel said they get better after the first three and I had to find out for myself. Also, I needed the connection.

This is one of Cedric's targets from Scout Camp.

Now, I’ve just finished reading them for the second time. There is a lot more to them than first meets the eye. Thinking about about the people who thought they were so terrible, I realized that many of those people had never read the books themselves; they were basing their opinions on what they’d heard from others. That is the other reason I forged ahead and read all seven books. Guess what I found out? They’re not that bad. They’re not evil. They don’t push witchcraft and wizardry. They are at the very least a good read but beyond that they tell the story of friendship and love and sacrifice and ultimately good overcoming evil.

This is another.

I had heard that they are dark. Well, sure, there are dark times. Do we not face dark times in our own lives? I had heard that they encourage witchcraft. Hmmmm. Well, witches and wizards ARE the main characters but I never got the idea that the author was pushing anyone to delve deeper into that kind of stuff; more that she was using them to tell a story.

This is one of the ones that earned him King of the Range one of the two days he got it.

I’ve now read the Harry Potter books through twice, The Hunger Games books through twice, and the Divergent books once. If I had to put them in order of personal favorites, it would be Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Divergent, but all of them are good. (Ask me about the movies—same order, just in case you wanted to know.) Why do I like the Harry Potter books? Because I see in them similar threads as I do I The Hunger Games and Divergent. Because I think there are little nuggets to be found in all three. Because I do. Just because. And if you can’t understand why, I would suggest that you go and read them.

Not the greatest quality picture ever but these were in the front yard when we got home from somewhere. I just love baby turkeys.

I other news, I watched a movie that dealt with the Liberian Civil War recently and I am not going to comment on that at the moment but I probably will because it deals with things that are of interest to me.

In the meantime, have a wonderful day!

Urg!

Good morning! Today is my cousin Jeannette’s birthday. We’ve got a few more coming up in the next week so that means we’ve gotten over the bad part of the month. Unless you count the beginning of school which may seem bad or good depending upon your point of view. Since soccer should be starting as well, I think it’s good. You know, for the most part. By December I’ll be thoroughly tired of school but that’s life.

This is my patch of the two holes made by the door handles.

Joseph and I got the bedroom done. It was fun.

Joanna had a couple of big announcements for us but they’re good. The one requiring the most attention at the moment is that she’s getting married in October and so I’ve got some sewing to do. I can deal with that.

This should have been the first picture but I obviously put them in backward. This is what it looks like once I cut the holes out.

Seth and Cedric had fun at camp. Amena did too.

Last Wednesday Cedric was supposed to fly to Portland, Oregon, where Dan was supposed to pick him up for a week-long visit. We left at 5:00. We got the airport a few minutes after 6:00. This is am, by the way. We waited in line for at least 20 minutes before we could talk to someone and then she took our information, gave me a paper to fill out. I gave it back, she looked at her computer and said, “7:05.” She looked at her watch. “Twenty-two minutes. I can’t get this done in time.”

This is the patch with tape and gunk. I don't remember what the stuff is called so gunk is good enough for me.

Are you kidding me? I thought. Really?

Well, there was another flight that evening but it was full (and I was not about to drive in to Boston twice in one day) and there was another flight the next morning leaving at the same time with nine available seats. Would we like to take that?

This is the corner with the doors before painting (you can see my lovely patch)...

I called Dan but he didn’t answer so I said, “Sure,” while I’m thinking that if he can do it, great, if not, whatever. Maybe I could talk to my lovely Auntie Deb and she or Andy could pick Cedric up and transfer him to Dan (even though I know he’s not on their list of favorite people). So we left the airport and Dan called and he said he’d talk to his boss and blah, blah, blah.

...and this is the corner after painting. You can see I haven't removed all the tape around the door frames.

It turns out that he was able to stay in Portland and pick Cedric up the next day so we drove to Boston again Thursday morning. The only difference is that Joanna didn’t go with us and we left a few minutes after 4:00.

We got there and got Cedric checked in. The line wasn’t as long when we got there and we were in line for security within maybe twenty minutes. While we are in line for security, I’m seriously thinking Cedric is going to miss his flight again because it take so long but finally we go through and then get to wait yet again at the gate.

This is the meeting of three colors. The ceiling blue isn't as dark as I thought it would be. The wall blue is darker than I thought it would be. The green is just different than I thought it would. However, all in all, I'm happy with how it turned out.

Because Cedric is flying as an unaccompanied minor, he is the last to board and I have to stay at the airport until his flight actually pulls away. I waited a bit longer—until I could no longer see the plane from where I was standing.

All I can say is holy crud. What a pain in the patootie. I do not like the Boston airport. I don’t like the drive. I don’t like all the bloody lines. I don’t like the drive home. Going to Manchester is worth the extra cost. I have to go back Wednesday evening to pick him and if I never have to go again, I’ll be perfectly happy.

This is the Nerf basketball hoop Daniel put up. I took the hoop and backboard off for painting and then put them back and quite frankly, I think it looks really good with the new green background.

Friday I made a cake. It was the fourth anniversary of Papa’s death so I figured that those of us here needed something so I made a cocoa cake. It turned out terrible so I made another one Saturday. It turned out much better and we ate most of it yesterday.

And, you know, I think that’s about it in the way of news around here. Sort of. Amena is currently gone to the cape with a friend from school. Paul is at work. Cedric is in California. Seth is in the library. Joseph is in the bedroom. I am in the dining room thinking about what I want to use for work samples for school last year for Seth and Joseph. I’ve got the Notice of Intent filled out and ready to go (well, I do need to print a paper but it’s ready other than that) so I just need work samples.

And that’s about it. Have a lovely day and I’ll attempt to do the same (although with a current temperature of 79° with humidity at 58% and an expected high of 88° I’m not holding my breath).

Quiet

Good morning! It is pretty nice so far. More or less, you know. For some reason, after upgrading to Windows 10 yesterday (which I had to do upstairs), I can’t connect to the internet at the table. Honestly, since Paul got his new router, the connection has been terribly slow but at least it was there. Now it seems to be much more temperamental. Also, I can’t scroll using the side of my touch pad. That’s annoying because I use it often. At least, I used to use it often. I guess I won’t be if it doesn’t work.

Joseph and I have been having fun with the boys’ room this week. Monday we cleaned. Tuesday we finished cleaning. Wednesday we bought paint and most of the supplies we’d need, got things out of the room or piled them up in one pile, and started patching holes in the walls. What an adventure that has been. Just when you think all the holes are patched, you find ten for every one you’ve done. Daniel didn’t make holes in walls. He covered them with silly string but didn’t make holes in them. Holy crud.

Yesterday we finally started painting. We got the ceiling done and Joseph wanted to do more so much that we did the first coat of blue on the two outside walls. For an almost-nine-year-old, Joseph does an excellent job. He did the ceiling above the pile of Cedric’s bed and the mattresses and bunk bed frame we stacked on top of Cedric’s bed and then did quite a bit of the walls. Today we’ll finish the blue walls this morning and then start on the green walls. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the closet done as well.

Tomorrow the quiet will end. Cedric and Seth will be home from camp and Amena will be home from camp.

Yesterday I made the executive decision to just milk the goats in the morning. I think it was a good decision. It means the does can stay out longer eating grass and whatever they can reach and frees up my evenings considerably. I should have made this decision a day earlier and Joseph and I should have gone to Family Night at Camp Wanocksett to be with Cedric and Seth.

It is amazing how much milk we are not going through right now. Joseph and I haven’t even used up an entire gallon. Of course, part of that is due to the fact that whenever I drink milk I cough like crazy. Very annoying, that is.

There has been much else going on but this is all you are going to get for now. Perhaps I’ll add pictures when I get around to telling you how the bedroom turned out. That will not be today and probably not tomorrow or Sunday. Please don’t hold your breath.

Party Thoughts

Good morning!

As some of you know, I spent a few days in the past week getting a letterbox ready to plant in memory of Daniel on the fourth anniversary of our accident. Yesterday evening Paul, Amena, Joseph and I went to a cemetery (I can’t tell you which one because it would be cheating) in Hubbardston and planted it. We walked all over the cemetery and found some interesting things including a headstone indicating the man buried there had served in the  military but he had no flag. I told Joseph to remember where he was so we could give him one next May. Anyway, it was good and this morning I was thinking. . .

Log book, stamp, box, paper towel for wrapping the stamp in, and plastic bag all ready to go. Yes, we did make the log book and carve the stamp ourselves. Because that's just what we do.

I’ve been reading the Harry Potter books and watched the movies last week. If you have read the books or watched the  movies, you may recall that Nearly Headless Nick invites Harry to his Deathday Party. Harry goes with Ron and Hermione and they don’t have a particularly good time because everyone else there is dead, the food is all rotten, and it is in a cold dungeon.

Log book, stamp, etc., in the bag.

After planting the letterbox yesterday, I got to thinking—what a brilliant idea is having a Deathday Party! I mean, it doesn’t make us miss the person any less, but it does take away some of the sadness and it certainly gives us something to do to get our mind off being sad. Then, I was thinking more. We celebrate birthdays so celebrating a deathday really isn’t much different because they’re just flip sides of a coin. I mean, when a person is born, they are just moving from one plane of existence to another and when they die they are doing the same. Do they celebrate deathdays as birthdays in the spirit world? I wonder.

Letterbox ready to be planted. Honestly, it was as much fun planting as it is finding others so I think more planting will be in our future.

Anyway, the next one coming up is Papa; I guess we should start planning.