Last one for today.

Saturday

April 8, 2017

10:13 pm

I should be in bed but I really, really wanted some hot chocolate so I washed some dishes, plugged my ears in, and made some hot chocolate. I’m going to attempt reading shortly but wanted to write a few words beforehand.

This is a wheel (say, what?!) from an old mill along the Burnshirt River in Barre. All pictures in this post were taken along said river or the Ware Rail Trail on April 13. Do you see the evidence of beaver? We also saw a frog but he (or she) didn't show up in the picture.

First, let me briefly tell you about my evening. I’ve been working with the boys to get them in bed by 9:00. It has been a real struggle in past months and there have been nights when I’m on my way to bed not before and often after 10:00 when one or more of them has been perusing the kitchen for a snack or making that one last trip to the bathroom. For the last couple of weeks, I’ve done better at having dinner ready for them as close to 6:00 as possible. That gives enough time after to get some things done. It isn’t perfected and there are some nights when we don’t eat until 7:00 but there are some nights when we just browse. Dinner time is a work in progress.

Still, we’ve met with a fair amount of success in three boys in bed by 9:00. Cedric has had a couple of nights when he stayed up later getting help with homework. Last night I don’t know when they were in bed because I didn’t get home until after 11:00 but the night before, they were in bed by 9:00. Tonight, I was leaving at 8:00 to pick Amena up in Hardwick. Seth and Joseph actually wanted to be in bed by 9:00 so I set the timer for 8:50 with instructions to turn the timer off, brush teeth, and get to bed since I wouldn’t be back yet by then. When I got home around 9:15, not only were they in bed, they were asleep!

Beaver dams like you wouldn't believe! There were four although you can only see two here.

Now let me tell you about my day yesterday. It was LONG, but good. I got up at 5:00 to make sure Amena and Cedric were getting ready then went back to bed and got up for good at 5:30. I made smoothies but no hot chocolate because both Amena and Cedric left the Thermos-type containers they use for it at school. I made bacon cheddar chive muffins so there would be some ready-made food in the house while I was gone. I milked and took care of the goats while the muffins were in the oven. I showered and got ready for my day including two 5-gallon (which are never completely full) containers of fuel in the car (that was before the shower).

I gave Seth and Joseph instructions for the day and then took off at about 8:10 am. After approximately five hours and forty-four minutes of driving approximately 253 miles, one prenatal, two postpartum, and one initial visits (which took at least an hour each), a quick stop at Chipotles for dinner (very late at 9:30), and a couple of hours of paperwork, I arrived home at about 11:30 pm. LONG day. But good.

River debris made for interesting ripple patterns.

Let me tell you about Wednesday. It was a good day, as well, although different. There were two postpartum visits that day which required a bit of driving as well but not as much as yesterday although we visited two states rather than all in one. The really interesting thing about Wednesday happened on the way home. Katie got a flat tire. It wasn’t in the greatest spot but not the worst, either. She has AAA which is nice and we basically just got to sit and wait for a truck to come. While we were waiting, I espied a tree that looked like the perfect candidate for a letterbox. It looked like it had a hollow at the base with a large rock guarding the front. Finally, I said, “That tree is calling to me. I need to go take a look.” And I opened the door to get out.

Katie said, “No, you can’t go.” She explained, “I’m afraid I’ll get hit while I’m in the car. It’ll be like one of those reports you hear when the person survived because she felt like she needed to get out of the car. I’m getting out, too.”

She got out and I was on my way up the hill to the tree when she spotted the truck and it was time to get ready to leave.

Sometimes I just have to wonder what might happen if the choices we make were different. What if I’d just have gotten out of the car and gone up the hill? What if I’d driven to that appointment as I’d considered doing so I could plant a couple of letterboxes on the way home? It might be a silly game but it’s an interesting silly game nonetheless.

When I got home, I had taxi duty to do. Amena to pick up in Orange so she could leave her car to be worked on again and then to take her to work. Cedric and I had a mandatory meeting for the DC trip which is next week. Then picking Amena up from work. When I got home for good, it was around 8:00 and I had a headache because my water consumption was far less than it ought to have been. I had some tea and lots of water and by 9:00, the headache was almost gone.

Then Paul got home. As soon as he walked in the door, the headache was raging again. I washed a few more dishes and then decided I’d had enough and went to bed. The boys, as you may recall, were already in bed.

I laid in bed attempting to get comfortable but my head was not having anything to do with that. It was up and down to use the bathroom (all the water and tea had to get out), and then attempt getting comfortable again for about four hours. At 1:30 I got up and looked at my phone hoping it wasn’t too late because I still wanted to sleep. It wasn’t too late, but my head still hurt. Still, that was the last wake up until just before my 5:00 alarm went off. The headache was almost gone at that point so I went back to bed, I think, until 5:30 at which time I got up to do smoothies and hot chocolate because at that point, only Amena had forgotten her Thermos-type container at school.

They were not happy to have this taken but I wanted to compare it to one we took by the same sign last year or the year before.

And there you have a few interesting days. I was going to drink hot chocolate and read Darth Plagueis and listen to Billy Idol or Journey or something but this is taking longer than I thought it would so I’m going to call one cup of hot chocolate and almost 1120 words good for the night. Especially since it’s way past my bedtime and it doesn’t matter how much I’d like to sleep in, it never happens. 

Another month almost gone since

Friday

March 31, 2017

6:07 am

Good morning. My headache Monday was gone relatively soon. I had a cup of tea, some water, and then was fine. I also made sure to keep hydrated throughout the day because I knew the following day would be a long one and I did not want a headache all day while travelling about.

Tuesday was busy. First we went to Boxboro. While there, we got a call that a client in South Hampton was in labor and she is a fast one. That was fun. After mama and baby were all settled in, it was back to Haverhill for another appointment. I think there may have been something scheduled after that but I don’t remember for sure. If there was, it was rescheduled.

Wednesday was busy. Appointments way up in New Hampshire and Vermont and then diving down to South Hampton. There was a little break because one had to reschedule but then there was that appointment that had to be rescheduled from the day before. So, yes there was another one.

Both long days. Tuesday, I left the house by 7:45 because I needed to meet the sister missionaries to give Sister Chavez the log of soap she’d helped make (she watched it be made and paid for it which is huge help some days) and have her write in my missionary journal because she left us this week. She was only here for six weeks; I hope she gets to come back before she goes home.

The moon was really big and pretty. This is from April 10 (very early in the morning), when Cedric needed to be to the school between 5:00 and 5:15 am.

Katie was running late so I got a little reading done while I waited for her. The church parking lot is a good meeting place when we go east. Anyway, that day, I didn’t get home until after 9 pm.

Wednesday I had to milk early because I needed to leave no later than 7:00 which is when I’ve been milking as of late. I got to Katie’s five minutes later than I wanted because I left the house at 7:03 and there were a couple of slow moving vehicles in my way. It was another long day but I was able to get to Gardner in time to pick Amena up at 8:00 when she got off work.

Yesterday was a lot of catch up with Seth and Joseph. Seth had done some of his math but Joseph had done just about none of his. We got to have Maddie in the morning and early afternoon so Lincoln and Joanna could run some errands including a new phone for Joanna because hers was wigging out and being unpredictable.

Maddie is just getting cuter and bigger all the time. Do we notice these things in our grandchildren more than we do in our children? I am thinking that we do although those darn children just don’t stop. Maddie is almost an accomplished crawler which means we really need to clean house. She’s getting super good at giving hugs and loves animals. Joseph and I took her out to see the goats yesterday. Goldilocks didn’t come out but Zoey did. Zoey was curious about Maddie and Maddie was curious about Zoey. I wish we had some kids; I think Maddie would love to play with them soon.

Joseph wonders what kind of vehicles they might use without wheels. We decided it must be hovercraft of some kind. Or a sled. This is also from April 10, but obviously much later in the day.

My plan for the afternoon was to go get Cedric from school, stop at the library to drop off movies and get new ones, go to whichever town it is that we go to for Seth’s eye doctor (the one I thought was in Lancaster but discovered it is actually Leominster, I think) and get Seth’s new glasses, and then come home and relax. It is good to have plans but it is good to be flexible.

Cedric said he wanted a ride before Lincoln and Joanna were back for Maddie and I didn’t want to take her. Then Diana Chunn stopped by for a quickish visit. Then Lincoln and Joanna got back with a new phone. I just love Maddie’s reaction to seeing either of her parents. She is a pretty happy and smiley baby but when she sees one of them she just absolutely beams! It is beautiful.

Cedric ended up going to Jacob’s and wanted to be picked up first at 5:30, then 6:00. Seth, Joseph, and I went to the library at about 4:45 and I figured that we’d take care of the whole movie swap and then head over to pick him up. That worked out pretty well. When we got home, I cooked rice and sausages for dinner because they required very little thought.

No glasses for Seth. The morning, however was pretty busy. Amena wanted me to take her to Joanna’s so she could pick up her car. When I’d picked her up the night before, she said I could take her then or in the morning. I’d already been in a car for hours Wednesday evening so I wasn’t really in any mood to be in a car for another hour. I don’t mind getting up early and I didn’t have to get up any earlier than I normally do. The problem is that because Amena was making the arrangements, I thought that she would have made arrangements with Joanna and/or Lincoln for the keys to the car. When we were on our way she said, “Did you call Joanna to tell her we’re coming?”

Um, no. Not my deal, dude.

So she called. And woke them up. They put the keys on the porch so Amena wouldn’t have to knock on the door and make Lucy bark. When Lincoln and Joanna got here with Maddie, we were talking about the morning and Lincoln was understandably annoyed that they’d been woken up when Amena could have talked to them the day before to arrange to have the keys on the porch already. Or something. Like, she could have been patient and then Joanna and Lincoln could have dropped the car of when they brought Maddie over. Amena had her plans all laid out but just forgot to keep everyone else in the loop. A common enough problem, I guess, and one we all need to work on to some degree or another.

When I got home and showered, I put two containers of fuel in the car and three in the house. Then we started on school for the boys.

Today the world (the northeast) is afraid of the storm that is coming and is going to drop anywhere from 3 inches to a foot of snow on us between now and tomorrow morning. Quabbin decided to go for an early release today and from comments I saw on Facebook last night, they aren’t the only school district around to do so.

In a few minutes, I will go milk and take care of the goats. Then I’ll shower and then the boys and I will go to get Seth’s new glasses. Then we’ll do school and see how the day progresses from there. Paul gets to go have another procedure done to/for his kidney stone. It is quite likely that all members of my extended family to whom he speaks on a more regular basis that he does to me or I to them know more about what is happening than I do so I won’t bother to tell you more since that’s all I know anyway and you probably know more.

Have a fantastic day! 

It's a good thing some people have hard heads...

Good morning. People around here can sleep through anything. It’s kind of interesting.

Last night I had a pile of towels on the floor in front of the upstairs bathroom. Last night I neglected to put the dog in her crate.

This morning I got up at 5:00 to make sure Cedric was awake and getting up to get ready for school. I knew the towels were there but did not know the dog would be, although I suppose I should have because she has a penchant for sleeping on dirty clothes. I did not turn any lights on because I like to avoid lights when I’m just getting up in the morning. If I have lights on, I usually have my eyes shut. No lights this morning.

Kitty and Maddie in the backyard on April 10th. I think it is safe to say we all had a good day outside that day.

Towels, dog, dark. Bad combination.  I tripped and fell and hit my head on the bookshelf between bedroom doors. I also landed on my left upper thigh which is going to have a bruise because I’m not sure where my arnica is. I need to organize my stuff.

Anyway, I had to change some clothes because I also often use the bathroom when I get up at 5:00 and I needed to today. Perhaps needless to say and perhaps TMI, I kind of didn’t make it to the bathroom. I kind of just went when I landed.

Pond at Lake Wampanoag Wildlife Sanctuary in Gardner. Joseph, Seth, Maddie, Tyler, and I went with the Brinker family for a Cub Scout hike on April 22.

So, I changed, got a washrag to see if I was bleeding (I was), and went to look up signs and symptoms of a concussion (my head hurts but no more than my leg and I have no other signs so I think it’s all good). Then I decided to see if I could somehow see through my hair to my scalp. I was successful. There is a gash there and although it’s about an inch and a half long, it isn’t gaping so I just held a washrag on it until I went outside to take care of the goats and then I just put a hat on (thanks, Grandma) to hold the washrag in place. No problem.

I did decide to not go to my business class this morning. I will read the material and do the activities and report to my action partner. And I’m sure we’ll have no trouble at all eating the chocolate zucchini rum cake I made to take.

I think this cutie pie had fun. I forgot the pack so I had to carry her so thank goodness it was only 1.26 miles and she is less than 20 pounds.

Still, I really, really, really want to go see Beauty and the Beast again today and Joseph and I should go to the Pack Meeting tonight.

At any rate, Cedric is the only one who heard anything that went on in the hall. Along with everything else, I also knocked over a folded fold-up table. And later, Joseph is the only one who noticed my bloody washrag on the table. He is also the only one who asked if I was going to my class. Yay for 15-year-olds who were already awake and observant 10-year-olds.

I took a shower after taking care of the goats but did not wash my hair. Currently the day is almost like any other. And yet very unlike any other. In other words, it’s uniform in its complete uniqueness.

I hope you have a uniformly unique day!