Sweetness

I’m sitting here long enough to finish my smoothie and possibly tea. Then I’m off to the shower because I don’t like living my life in pajamas—or the sweat pants and shirt that pass for pajamas.

Speaking of smoothies, I met with success this morning in making a single-serving-size. Most mornings one is not enough because Paul, Amena, Cedric, and I almost always have one when I make them. Seth and Joseph sometimes do. That means I can’t just do it all in one go. That means I usually have to do two. The problem is that when I do that, I usually have extra left over the next day which means I don’t have to make quite as much but it’s sometimes hard to gauge. Anyway, I just needed enough for mine this morning for the second one and I actually made just the right amount.

Paul went to the hospital Friday to have his kidney stone blasted so he’s been pretty sore since then. Sore and sleepy. In spite of that, he really wanted to go shopping Saturday (I still hold with my opinion that he’s addicted). He did not go to church yesterday. In fact, when I left, he was in bed asleep. He’s supposed to call the doctor today and find out what is going on because they apparently didn’t give him any discharge papers.

Seth went on a scout camp out for the weekend and can’t keep his story straight as to if he had fun or not. I think he mostly did but there were a couple of things that were annoying. Such as the behavior of one of the younger scouts. Or maybe two. He did bring home an interesting story. He said, and I hope this is a joke, that Mr. Carrignan is going to step down as Scoutmaster next year and that the principal of Hubbardston Center School would be filling that role. If it is not a joke, Seth has my permission to quit scouts. Maybe not quit altogether, but certainly not continue with Pack 12. I hope it is a joke.

Tyler came over Friday night and we kept him Saturday as well. I think it was good for him and Joseph to be able to have time with Seth gone. Seth and Joseph are inseparable and it is good for them to have activities that don’t include the other upon occasion.

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening with Katie. There was an interview first which was lovely. Seriously. I love meeting people who are invested in having a good pregnancy and birth experience; people who are invested in giving their child the best beginning they can. Any time I begin to doubt myself and this path I have chosen to be on, I just have to think about all the amazing women and families I’ve met and I know it is right.

This is perhaps the sweetest gift I have ever received from someone to whom I am not related. It is the footprint of a sweet baby girl and a clear quartz crystal necklace. 

After the interview were two postnatal visits. Those are amazing things. Especially for first-time mama’s, the transition to motherhood and becoming a family of three (or more) is just an incredible thing.

I got home late—after 9:00—and almost everyone was in bed. Which is good. Once I did a few things, I went to bed as well and thought I was going to have to plug my ears in because Paul started munching away on some cereal and I can tell you that that is very loud when you want to get to sleep. I decided to attempt slumber without the aid of music in my ears, and was successful.

The only problem this morning, well, two really, was that I woke up with a headache. I rather thought I would because I didn’t have nearly enough fluids yesterday (hence the tea, which is my second cup) before a shower this morning. It wouldn’t have been that bad because I’d been really good Saturday with water and tea and hot chocolate consumption but Friday I’d been awful. Still, it is interesting that as soon as I left the bedroom to use the bathroom, it was better. When I went back to bed before waking up or checking on Amena and Cedric, it was bad again. Then when I left the bedroom to wake or check, it was better again. When I went back to bed for my extra 25 minutes, it was bad. Then I got up for good and it was better. I wonder if it’s the bedroom or laying down. I don’t want to experiment right now so I’m afraid we might never know. I do have my suspicions, though.

The other problem is that Amena missed the bus by about 30 seconds so we had to play catch-the-bus which is always a load of fun. It was raining (still is now) so naturally I turned on the wipers. Once we caught the bus and I was almost home, the wipers decided to stop working. I’ve got no time for this crap, let me tell you.

And now my tea is just about done and I’ve managed to fill up a page I’m going to be off to shower.

Have a wonderful day!

Cars and Driveways and Dreams

This is still the same day but tomorrow morning Amena has an appointment at 8:00 am with an oral surgeon in Worcester so I’m not going to have much time in the morning and I might not have much time in the early afternoon if she gets right in and it doesn’t take too long. So, I’m going to talk about the driveway.

Yesterday Amena went with Lincoln and Joanna to get her first car. That’s a pretty big deal, in my book. It is my belief that it will make my life much easier because I won’t have to perform taxi services for Amena anymore. If she misses the bus, she can drive to school. She can take herself to and from work. If she needs to stay after school to work on something, she can do it. If she wants to go visit someone, she can. It won’t matter that I won’t be home; she’ll be able to do what needs to be done and I won’t have to worry about finding or helping her find a ride. Believe me when I say I am totally and completely okay with her having a car.

Amena's new car from the shovel path. There is room for another car.

She got home yesterday and parked in the driveway. She and her brothers went to bed.

Paul got home. He called me while he was outside still to let me know there was a car in the driveway. “It’s Amena’s,” I said.

“Oh. Well, she’s going to be blocked in.”

“That’s okay.” She wasn’t planning on going anywhere until after school anyway because it still needed an inspection.

“I’ve got groceries. I can’t bring them all in.” He isn’t supposed to lift anything heavier than ten pounds.

This one I took from the driveway by the mailbox. I suppose it probably looked much different in the dark. Especially to someone who admits his night vision is not good.

“Are they perishable?”

“I can bring almost everything but not…..” I didn’t hear what the not was. “I just don’t want it to freeze.” Understandable. It was supposed to get down to 27° last night; I’m not sure it did but if not, it was pretty close. This morning I went out to see what didn’t get brought in and it was a gallon jar of pickles. There’s so much vinegar and salt in those it would take colder temperatures to freeze it; they were fine.

He came in and I already knew he needed to eat because he was grumpy. That’s the way it works. He expressed doubts and misgivings about Amena having a car, especially in light of the email from her teacher a few days ago indicating that she was failing English.

It is very hard to talk to him when he is in one of these hunger induced moods. Nothing is good enough and I always make excuses for the children. I try to listen to what he’s saying and respond as best I can but I’m afraid I fail because, as I mentioned, nothing is good enough.

He said that she needs to learn how to park and that if people want to park, they need to shovel so there is room because “there isn’t any room to park down there.” I admittedly hadn’t gone out to see exactly how she parked but I knew where I parked the white car and I knew that when he left for work, he moved the silver car to the other side of the white one so he could take the blue one. Even with an additional car, there should have been plenty of room. I did go out later to get something I’d left in the car and it didn’t seem to me that there was any lack of space or that more shoveling really needed to be done. Of course, different people do have different perspectives.

Anyway, just a rather unpleasant late evening.

I went to bed once I had submitted an assignment for Third Stage Management and took (and got 100%) on the quiz for that unit. It didn’t take long to get to sleep because I was tired.

Just before my 5:00 alarm went off, I had a dream and I'm pretty sure in was very influenced by the verbal exchange before I went to bed.

We had moved into a different house. It had a long hallway and all the bedrooms were off it. Amena had just painted her room so that it was white at the top by the ceiling, blue at the bottom, and they blended together a little higher than half-way up the walls. It looked really cool. There was one room that was a cluttered mess and from the looks of it, the mess wasn’t anything that belonged to me, Amena, or the boys and it didn’t look like anything that would be Paul’s either.

I was out in the garden one afternoon (that looked very much like the one we had in Greenview the summer before Laura was born) and was picking some carrots and asked Amena if she could get one particular one for me. It was out of my reach and I think I had Maddie with me. Amena said she couldn’t get it because she had zero specific gravity. I have no idea if that actually means anything but in my dream, it meant that she was pregnant but was probably going to lose the baby. I wasn’t about to tell anyone else, though, even though I wanted to at least tell Joanna and Laura.

Later, we were in the house and Paul was upset. He was really letting Amena have all kinds of heck about getting a car. He said that although she may have earned the ability to get the car, that didn’t mean she had earned the ability to drive it. I don’t really remember Amena saying anything but she was certainly getting angry and she ended up leaving with Lincoln and Joanna who were both at the house. My mom or Laura was there as well, but I’m not quite sure which one it was.

At that point, I needed to use the bathroom and if I have to in a dream, it means I have to for real. My alarm went off and I got up. Amena was already in the shower so I went downstairs to use the bathroom. I made sure Cedric was awake and then I went back to bed for a few minutes.

Due to the nature of the dream, there was no way I was going to get back to sleep so I got up for good at 5:20. I started the whole smoothie and hot chocolate morning routine and waited for Amena to be done in the bathroom.

I did want to tell Amena about this dream because she figured so prominently in it so once she was dressed, I did. When I told her she was pregnant I said, “And that wasn’t the worst thing,” and she made an entirely appropriate face which is somewhat beyond description. That was funny.

Other than the strange dream, it was a pretty good day. The boys got their work done pretty well. We started reading a book for science about Marie Curie. The introduction wasn’t that exciting even though the author attempted to add some humor.

Seth and I did do a bit of shoveling. It was so nice out that the three of us agreed it was too nice to be inside.

When Amena got home, I went with her for the inspection. The car failed but she ought to be able to take it to the place she got it and they ought to fix it for her. If not, she now knows what she can do about it. Then we went to the credit union and then home.

Seth had scouts tonight and is all set to go on the campout this weekend. It sounds like fun to me and I need to remember to email someone something about that.

And now it’s time for me to get myself to bed so I’ll be off and hopefully this will be posted in the early am tomorrow.

Have a terrifical day!

A Bit of Catching Up

My last post was written the day before a huge blizzard was expected. Now we are a week post huge blizzard.

That Sunday Paul stayed home, Cedric had spent the night at Jacob’s. I was going to pick him up at 8:00 like I usually do Sunday morning but I wasn’t home at 8:00 am. He stayed at Jacob’s until around 5 that afternoon. Seth and Joseph got a ride to church with Jeremy West. Amena wasn’t ready in time and thought that if Cedric didn’t have to go to church, she shouldn’t have to, either. At least, that’s the story I heard. Her version was similar but she’d planned to go with Joanna to look at a car so she left sometime between 11 and 12.

I got home relatively early. The labor ended with a placental abruption and trip to the hospital. I did not go to the hospital but did go home. I had to milk a poor Zoey and feed and water the goats. Then I took a shower. By the time I felt sort of human, it was pretty late and so I didn’t get to church at all.

I like to take the leftover wax and make new candles, if you recall. Sometimes it wrinkles up and looks really cool. This is from the 15th I think.

Monday not much happened. Because of the expected huge blizzard, school was cancelled for Tuesday and a two-hour delay scheduled for Wednesday. Because of this, many plans were made for sleeping over here and there. Cedric went to Jacob’s. Amena and a friend went to another friend’s. I warned both of them that if roads weren’t good Tuesday evening, I wouldn’t be picking anyone up. Of course, they were both okay with that. I think roads were possibly passible by the time it was five or six but it was dark and the driveway wasn’t plowed or shoveled and I wasn’t going to go out and do that then.

Tuesday morning I got up at 4:30 and shoveled enough to get the white car out of the driveway. My plan was to pick Amena up in Hardwick at 5:30 and Cedric up at Jacob’s at 6:00. However, it took longer to shovel than I realized it would so I started almost 15 minutes late. The roads weren’t bad, except in Barre, but they weren’t good enough to drive very fast so it took the whole 45 minutes to get to Hardwick. By then it was 6:00 and it took about 30 minutes or so to get back to Hubbardston. Still, even though everything was slower and later than I’d wanted, it was still pretty okay.

All five boys playing Risk. Ryan was actually just playing with the pieces but still, it was pretty cool.

Tyler and Ryan spent Tuesday and Wednesday nights here so we still had four younglings around. They had a two-hour delay as well, but their mother decided to let them skip school. I wasn’t even going to attempt having Seth and Joseph do school work with Tyler and Ryan acting as distractions so we had two days off school.

Paul almost didn’t go to work Wednesday but ended up going after all. The roads were pretty decent by the time he left.

I think there was something up Thursday and something up Friday but they were so long ago I don’t remember for sure and I just finished printing out my planner for this year this morning so needless to say I don’t have anything written down for them. Lame, I know, but it’s what I’ve got so it’s what I’m going with.

Friday night Seth and Joseph stayed at Tyler and Ryan’s and Cedric was at Jacob’s so when Maddie arrived Saturday morning, only Auntie Amena was here. That was okay. And, actually, Amena and I went to Friendley’s to meet Joanna and get Maddie because Joanna was running late. Amena drove Joanna’s car and Maddie home so, like most Saturday’s, she could drive Joanna’s car to work.

Is she not the cutest? This and the next are from Saturday.

Maddie is super cute, as always, and we always have fun with her when she’s here. She’s getting so big!

She's getting really good at picking up small objects and getting them to her mouth. These small objects were food so it was all good.

Sunday was an interesting day. There were three prenatals I wanted to go to but I felt somewhat sick to my stomach with a bit of diarrhea thrown in so I ended up not going. Amena wasn’t ready to go when I was and Cedric was being difficult and basically refusing to go so they were left at home. Paul hadn’t been sure if he was going to go to his meetings or not but ended up leaving in time to get there only a few minutes late.

Going back just a bit, Paul and I were asked to help chaperone a dance at church Saturday evening. We ended up not and that’s an interesting story in and of itself. I might elaborate another time.

Paul instead went shopping even though he didn’t have to. That is kind of part of the same interesting story so perhaps more another time.

Amena and I went to Hardwick to pick up a friend so she could sleep over (which is partly why Amena wasn’t ready to go in time on Sunday). We also picked Cedric up from Jacob’s on the way home. We got home close to 11:00. Joseph was still wandering around, Seth was in bed sounding a bit like he’d like to be asleep. Paul was in his chair. By the time I figured this all out, it was 11:00 and Paul said he’d asked Seth to bring in groceries half an hour ago. At 10:30? Really? Yikes! That’s really when I figured out that Seth was half asleep. I decided to just bring stuff in myself and mentioned on my way out that I’d told the boys to go to bed at 9:00. I got the perishables put away but left the rest on the couch in the living room.

Then I went to bed. I think. I’d wanted to go to bed as soon as I got home from taxi service but that didn’t happen. I’m glad that I don’t have to get up at 5 or 5:30 on Sunday mornings.

Sunday afternoon, Seth and Joseph helped to varying degrees to make lemon bars, lemon pie filling, lemon poppy seed muffins, and lemon sherbet. Except that none of them were exclusively lemon and some were exclusively lime. Still, good stuff, you know? We had tacos for lunch and I made hot chocolate for dinner. Except for the intestinal problems, it was an okay afternoon.

And that gets us almost caught up to date. I was going to do that but I think it might happen later. Not now.

Have a splendiferous day or week or year or whatever!

If you think it is cold in the house...

This is from a week and a day ago but some of it I felt needed to be out there so that events coming up make more sense.

March 13, 2017

8:14 am

If you think it is cold in the house…

…go spend some quality time in the barn with the goats.

If you think you already feel like crap and want to live on smoothies and tea all day…

…go out to the barn and remember that you need to move the huge round bale of hay to get to the remnants of the last one from last year before it’s only good for bedding. While you are doing that, make sure you breathe in lots of the dust from the hay so that you are assured of coughing and possibly having an asthma attack.

Good morning. Other than the cold and feeling like crap, which I can’t really admit to because everyone else either feels worse or has other things going on, life is okay. Not fantastic or even great, but okay.

My smoothie is good, albeit cold, and my tea, which I have to share with Kitty, is hot. Actually, it is no longer hot. It was hot before I went out to milk. Now it’s tepid at best. It is still good, though, and my smoothie is still cold. It’s 50 degrees in the house. Not much that is warm is going to stay that way for long. At least, well, never mind that thought.

In other news, Paul went to the doctor last Tuesday because he was having some pretty good pain. The doctor sent him in for a cat scan. That revealed a rather large kidney stone (9 mm). Heywood in Gardner sent him to UMass Memorial in Worcester. He had a stent put in Thursday evening after laying in the hospital all day Wednesday and most of the day Thursday. Friday morning his boss picked him up and took him to work where he worked for a bit. Devon brought him home Friday evening.

Tuesday Seth, Joseph, and I went to see the LEGO Batman Movie. It was worth the watch. It was funny and even has some good life lessons. However, while at the theater, my phone slipped off my lap onto the floor which apparently caused the screen to become unresponsive to touch. Paul called me at some point Tuesday but I couldn’t answer. My phone went nuts with calls and texts Tuesday evening; I could see who was calling and texting but I could not answer or respond.

Joanna finally let me know what was going on with Paul via Facebook Messenger. I went down to Worcester and ended up waiting for Paul at the wrong hospital for about an hour. That was fun. I was hungry because I hadn’t eaten dinner and was thirsty so I got a bag of CheezIts and a bottle of water. $4. Good grief. I was there so long because Joanna was under the impression that Paul was leaving via ambulance from Gardner when she spoke to him. He didn’t actually leave until much later. Finally, the girl at the information desk was able to tell me he’d arrived but at the other hospital. Great. I had to pay $3 to get out of parking there and then go park at the other one which would also cost $3 to get out. And then, I felt like my presence was pretty useless. There wasn’t anything I could do. It was late, I was tired, he hadn’t been seen by the urologist, no one knew yet what was going to happen. So I left. With $3 for parking and a debit card for fuel.

Wednesday was a busy day with taxi service. I went to get the boys from Joanna’s because they’d stayed there overnight because I didn’t know where I’d be or what was going to happen. I mean, the first report I heard about Paul was kidney failure. A stone, while painful, looks a lot different than failure. So, a trip to Athol, which was nice because it’s always nice to visit with Joanna and Maddie and Lincoln (he was only there for a few minutes before we left). Then I needed to pick Amena up from a friend’s house in Oakham. That wasn’t too bad; it wasn’t really much longer than picking up from Quabbin. Then Amena had work. While she was at work, I went to Leominster so someone at the Verizon store could look at my phone.

This is looking down the stairs. One trail to the left going to the barn, one to the right going toward the end of the driveway where the cars are parked. You can't really tell by the time I took this on the 18th, but Hubbardston made the news for snow accumulation. In the driveway we had between about 6 inches and almost 2 feet.

At some point during the day, I’d left my phone in the car while I went in the house; it was useless to me, after all. When I went back to the car, the phone was vibrating. It wouldn’t stop. When I took it in to the store, the first young woman I spoke to asked if I’d dropped it in water (um, no) because that was a sign it had been. Great. I retained my phone and waited until someone was available. When I handed it to the young man who would be helping me, he first managed to get the vibrating to stop. He didn’t think there were any signs of water damage and said it was still under warranty so if I was willing to wait, he could get me a replacement sent within 3 to 5 days. Well, what is a person to do? I agreed.

This is the trail heading to the barn.

Saturday my replacement arrived so I activated it and got the old one ready to ship back. I need to drop it off at Staples today sometime. Paul wanted to go shopping once Joanna and Maddie were on their way home. I thought he was nuts but whatever. I went with him. I hate shopping with Paul because he tends to like to stop at five hundred different stores.

We went to Aldi’s for milk. We also got a few other things. Not as many of the things I’d like to have gotten but not as many of the things he wanted to get. Then we stopped at Big Lots. I’m not really sure why because all we did was see if they had any graham crackers discounted. We didn’t need any. Then I walked to Market Basket while he drove. There we mostly got fruit for smoothies. Pretty exciting. Lastly, we got diesel in the containers and gas in the car.

This is the trail heading to the end of the driveway. It looks a lot different now.

On the way home, Paul informed me that he would not be going to church the next day because he overdid it. Well, imagine that! I could have gone shopping by myself. Except that I couldn’t have because he doesn’t really have a budget and wouldn’t have been able to tell me what the dollar limit was for the day.

Just before I went to bed, I got a call from Katie. A client was in labor. So I got ready and drove north into New Hampshire. The only problem with that is that I put the wrong address in the GPS and by the time I was half an hour away, I had to pee so bad I was seriously examining the side of the road for likely places to stop. But I was so close, I never did. Then I realized I had the wrong address. Then my phone didn’t have a strong enough signal for Waze to work so I had to rely on the GPS. By the time I got to the house, I had to go bad. Holy cow.

And then there was yesterday. Which is a tale for another day because I need to get some things done and get school going for the boys.