This is one of those days I don't feel like coming up with a title.

Good morning! It snowed during the night. Not much, really; just enough to give everything a coat of white. I don’t remember seeing snow in the forecast anywhere so I wonder where it came from (other than the sky). Our high for today is supposed to be 34° and snow is definitely in the forecast now. Not much, but I’ll take what I can get. Tomorrow we are supposed to have a high of 52° and a 100% chance of rain. I thought we were in the middle of winter?

It is half an hour later and the boys are all finally outside waiting for the bus that is usually here by now. Seth did his math homework but did not put it in his folder last night and we couldn’t find it anywhere. It really is a simple thing to put something like that away but so often it just doesn’t happen.

Yesterday was a quiet day at times. Jessica was out with Ryan much of the morning and part of the afternoon. Joanna was at work until Zak brought her home and then they left again. I got a bit of reading done and I ordered some soap stuff as well as some yarn. I didn’t really need it but I did need a new cable because mine broke and of course I had to get up to the amount to qualify for free shipping. About every ten orders, the money saved on shipping equals another order.

While I was eating lunch, I watched the first episode of the first season of Breaking Bad. I like it but not nearly as much as The Walking Dead. I’m glad the kids don’t like it because just in the first episode there’s a lot (all things being relative) of nudity and sex. I won’t be watching it when they are home, that’s for sure.

Last night when I went to bed Paul did, too. He would have gone in his office to see what there was to see on the computer (his laptop is too slow and freezes up a lot—I know it’s his laptop and not just the internet downstairs because I don’t have the same problem sitting at the same table) but we didn’t know if Jessica was awake or asleep (she was awake, we heard her talking on the phone later). He asked why I was going to bed so early; was I getting up at 2:00? Well, it wasn’t all that early to begin with, 10:00. And, no, I wasn’t planning on getting up at 2:00 but I do get up at 5:00 to make sure Amena is awake and getting up so she won’t miss the bus and Cedric likes to get up early as well. He actually requested that I dump water on him if I didn’t see him get out of bed when I went into wake him up.

However, at 2:00 in the morning, I did wake up. I had some of the worst gas rumbling around in my intestines that I’ve ever had and wondered if I’d be able to get back to sleep. I was and I decided that it’s time, once again, to take control of my diet and stop eating so much crap. It’s all too easy to eat when it’s everywhere in the house. I also need to drink more water, if you can imagine such a thing. It’s somewhat amazing how easy it is to stop doing something like drinking enough water and eating well to not. Human nature, I guess. Annoying all the same.

So far today, I had my rolled oats with ½ apple, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon molasses, ¼ cup milk. And I’m on schedule for water consumption. So far, so good.

Up for today is—life-like stuff. I need to call the chiropractor. I need to read. I need to cut soap. I need to do a little laundry which means folding two loads because there really isn’t much to wash at the moment. Unless I go searching for the dirty stuff which I might do at some point in time.

I’ve been reading The Complete Book of Pregnancy & Childbirth by Sheila Kitzinger. It is full of little tidbits although so far what I’ve read is mostly review. I’m not complaining, review helps to keep it fresh and that is a good thing. It is interesting to note that about asthma she has this to say: “Severe and prolonged asthma attacks are more likely to harm the baby than the drugs that are used to control asthma.” Imagine that. I remember my asthma being the worst, at least until I had the acupressure treatment by Grandma’s friend Laura, when I was pregnant with Joanna. That is when Dan just about had an apoplectic fit when he found out I not only was in possession but dared to use an inhaler. From what I’ve learned since, untreated asthma can have severe effects on the baby. I’d like to take someone’s bronchial tubes and give them a good dose of inflammation.

Well, have a terrifical day!

Just Another Day

Good morning! Joanna needs a ride to work at 7:20 so the boys have got to be about ready to go when we leave so I know they won’t miss the bus. It’s another cold one out today; 9° that feels like -2° with an expected high of 26°. A good day not to miss the bus; a good day to wait until it’s almost there before going out; a good day to wait to feed the goats until I get back from taking Joanna to work.

Last night Joanna put a load of clothes on to wash because she needed some for work. Amena had a little fit because the jeans and hoodie she had on hadn’t gotten washed last time and needed to be washed this time. I went to bed because it was 10:00; Joanna was going to wait up until the clothes were done washing and put them in the drier. Amena got some bug in her bonnet that her jeans and hoodie HAD to be washed right away so as soon as the load Joanna put in was done, she put her jeans and hoodie in and started the load again. And got on my computer and wouldn’t get off. Joanna sent me a text and after the second one I went down to see what was going on. Amena had in the meantime stopped the washing machine. We have a front loader; you don’t just stop it. She turned the knob to ‘off’ and opened it after waiting for it to unlock and actually was putting the clothes into the drier. Really? They were dripping wet. Not just damp; they were dripping. I sent her to bed and put the clothes back in the washing machine and put it on to spin and had to wipe out the drier and mop up the floor. Amena certainly isn’t a bad child but she sure gets some strange ideas in her head. I guess it never occurred to her that sopping wet clothes might take all night to dry. Joanna was just incredulous that she hadn’t waited for another load of laundry to put the jeans and hoodie in—it isn’t like we don’t have other laundry. She didn’t even wear those jeans today; I didn’t notice the hoodie.

Yesterday morning and early afternoon I got my sewing project done. Now I can move on to some other things that I want to get done which will be fun. I’d love to say more about what I did but I can’t yet. I probably should have taken pictures but didn’t yet and everything is all wrapped up for Sunday.

Yesterday afternoon Joseph had to miss scouts because we didn’t have an operational vehicle in which to go. Hopefully he can make it up at home in the next day or two or so. Jessica, Amena, Cedric, Seth and I left as soon as Paul got home which got Seth dropped off for scouts early and got us to church before anyone else. Jeremy West and I talked briefly about where we think we are, where we want to go, and how to accomplish it. I really like that we have a lot of similar thoughts and ideas about how things need to be done. I like that he recognizes the need for scouting to be a stronger component for our boys and young men. I also like that they are going to at least going to have something for the 11-year-old scouts which they don’t currently.

We only had four young women there last night. I went prepared to talk about Personal Progress, to plan the upcoming New Beginnings, and to watch a movie. We took two bags of chips and Alicia Willard took two bags of candy for the possible movie. We ended up planning for New Beginnings and then coming up with ideas for activities for the coming year. We got lots of really good ideas; we’ve got some really thoughtful and insightful girls. When I got home, I had an idea for the theme for New Beginnings from someone who wasn’t able to be there so today my goal is to get it all arranged and organized so that invitations can be sent out and we’ll know what we need yet to do in order to be fully ready on the 19^th.

Right now I need to go supervise the boys. If Cedric’s lunch was in a bag, if Seth and Joseph had shoes on, if lunches were in backpacks, they would be ready except for jackets. I can deal with that level of readiness when I leave to take Joanna to work.

Well, it is now 7:48. The boys are off and Joanna is delivered. We had to wait a few minutes for the manager to get there and unlock which was fun. It’s so cold.

The goats are letting me know that they want their breakfast. I do, too. So, I guess it’s time to be off. Have a fantabulous day!

Another Day (Paul's)

Amena is off on time for the third day in a row. I don’t want to jinx it but I do like to acknowledge an accomplishment of this magnitude. The boys are in various stages of being ready; Joseph is eating toast, Cedric is eating cereal, Seth is upstairs hopefully finishing the dressing for school process.

Today is Paul’s birthday. He hasn’t ever told me what he wants for his birthday dinner and he never specifically says what he wants in the way of cake (he did say he wanted an ice-cream cake though) so there won’t be anything special today. One of the problems is that he didn’t grow up with homemade cakes and such and so he thinks the dross from the store is a delectable treat. He has finally stopped buying food items containing high fructose corn syrup but it is hard to change one’s palate.

Today is also a generally busy day, especially this afternoon. Joseph has scouts at school at 4:00.  Seth has scouts at the Pitney’s at 6:30. Amena, Cedric, Jessica and I have things at church tonight at 7:00 but I have to be there at 6:30. And all of this is completely dependent upon having a vehicle or otherwise arranging rides which for Seth will be relatively easy but for everyone else, not so much. We will see how it goes.

Today also is a half day for my students so I can’t count on getting a whole lot done this afternoon and must plan on getting anything done that I really want/need to this morning. We will see how that goes as well.

Yesterday was an interesting day. I got some sewing done in the morning and very early afternoon. Not much but some. Jessica went with me when I went to the church to help Kris Goguen and Diane Alexander with knitting two socks at once. Diane was late and neither one had all the needles they really needed to accomplish the task at hand but hopefully I provided some assistance. I know I got the socks I started a month or so ago from the double points to the circulars so it was productive for me. Jessica and I got there a few minutes early so we straightened up the Hymn books and picked up old programs and other little pieces of trash in the chapel. Jeremy West has the same habit Paul does of putting his check book in the slot for the Hymn books and it appears that he forgot it there last Sunday. I wrapped it up with a piece of paper and stapled it closed and wrote his name on it and left it somewhere in the church and later I sent him a message via Facebook letting him know.

We got home just after the boys did. Seth forgot his agenda at school. No one reported having homework. Cedric wanted to go to Paul Jepson’s house. He’d asked Paul if he could ride his bike over and Paul said he could. It was 5° that felt like -14°. I know that riding his bike over probably wouldn’t kill him and that if he was dressed properly he would be fine but I can also see someone along the way having a problem with it and making an unnecessary phone call and making my life more difficult so I said, no. Zak and Joanna ended up giving him a ride there and picking him up after dinner.

For supper/dinner we had artichokes, broiled cauliflower and left over ham. I had a scout meeting at school at 6:30. As I was ready to leave, Paul said I needed the registration so at least five minutes were spent looking for but not finding the registration. I am glad that the meeting did not begin on time because I would have been late. As it was, I was the third on there.

When I got home I discovered that Jessica had done most of the dishes. That is always a wonderful thing. It was 8:20 so boys had to be herded off to bed since they hadn’t been.

Once the boys were abed, I played Phase 10 with Joanna and Zak. That was kind of fun except that I won and Joanna got grumpy. She wanted to keep score so when she was writing the names on the top of the paper, she said, “Should I write Zak or Cutie?” She wrote “Zak AKA Cutie.” I told her she should have written “QT.” She said they do that but will write “QT 3.14.” Cute. Very cute.

Have a splendiferous day!

535 Word Day

Good morning! It is a bit dark out yet but it looks like it should be a pretty day. And that in spite of the fact that it is currently only 5° and our expected high is 11°. It is quite windy out as well and according to weather.com, it feels like -14°. I haven’t spent any appreciable time outside yet so I can’t confirm that but it is cooler in the house than it was yesterday morning.

My neck was feeling like I did something to it and I couldn’t think of what. I just remembered my little crash and burn yesterday morning on the ice. Oh yeah, that’s what did it. Although we did get some snow yesterday (just enough to make everything white) it didn’t last and what snow we already had pretty much was washed away by the warm temperatures we had yesterday (I think we got up to 56°) and all the rain. It felt more like spring yesterday than winter but we are definitely back to winter this day. At least there isn’t any ice for me to slip on today.

Yesterday was a fairly uneventful day. I went out and about with Joanna and Zak. Joanna wanted me to cash the birthday checks for Amena and Cedric that she gave them money for so they could go shopping. I also had one from Laura that I already spent on postage. Speaking of such things, have you sent anything recently via USPS? It isn’t cheap. Anyway, I also wanted to go to Walmart and get The Hobbit because I haven’t seen the first part of it but we didn’t see it anywhere. Joanna also needed to get her blood drawn.

I did get some sewing done. I’m working on something I plan on giving to Paul for his birthday. Other than that, a bit of laundry and changing sheets is about all I accomplished. Pretty exciting. Well, I did a book report for the doula program as well and I started reading a new book. I actually was reading the book I just started for the toLabor doula certification but sort of gave up on it at some point in time. I like having to complete a book report rather than just report that the book has been read.

Up for today? Not entirely sure. I’m not sure if Paul is going to go to work or work from home. If he works from home I might go to Diane Alexander’s. If he does not work from home, I won’t be going anywhere. This evening we do not have the missionaries for supper because the West’s signed up for tonight. That’s okay because this evening I have a scout meeting to go to at the school. I can probably get a ride to it with the Foley’s because they just live down the street. Hopefully the truck is fixed, or will be soon. Only having one vehicle operational is really not that great.

And someone got a crumb under my right ‘shift’ key which is rather annoying since every other time I want to use it, it doesn’t work. Grrrrrrrr. . . . . .

Have a spectacular day!

Sunday in Review

Good morning! It’s a bit foggy and wet outside but Amena didn’t miss the bus and the boys are well on their way to being ready to go so it’s a good one.

Yesterday Jessica, Cedric and I left early for church and no one was there and I forgot my keys. Jessica looked at her calendar and discovered that our presidency meeting was actually scheduled for next Sunday, the 12^th, and not yesterday, the 5^th. I’m still not sure how I missed that. I haven’t looked yet but it would be funny if I actually wrote it down on the 5^th rather than the 12^th. At any rate, we were early and Diana Chunn was as well. I did learn that because she arrived at 8:58 and the meeting was scheduled for 8:45 that we need to say that it is starting at 8:30 in order to get her there on time for the meeting.

Once we got inside the church, Jess decided that she needed to use the restroom and did so. She discovered that there was no water in either of the sinks and reported it to the bishop. As it turns out, there was no water anywhere in the building (except what was already in the toilets). Due to this set of circumstances, we only had Sacrament Meeting and then went home. That was okay but it really throws my whole schedule for the day out of whack. Cedric did at least get sustained and ordained so that was good.

For lunch we had ham with mashed potatoes and gravy, beets and corn. Paul had some pie for dessert. It is an four-berry apple pie which sounds really good but the crust looks disgustingly thick and I doubt from trying the apple and blueberry pies he brought home that I would like it. The apples in the apple pie were in huge chunks (think apples cut into eighths) and they were hard. The blueberries were nice and small which I like more than the gargantuan ones for pies but the filling was too sweet and otherwise bland. The apple filling was as well. I really have a hard time understanding how anyone can eat that and think it is good.

After we ate, Joanna got ready for work and Zak got ready to leave. Joanna doesn’t usually work on Sunday but one of the servers who usually gets the most hours fell and broke her arm and is going to be out for at least six to eight weeks. I guess someone else is out as well so people have to pick up the hours. Paul and Seth went out looking for discarded Christmas trees for the goats and Joanna got called in an hour early to work so I took her to work. We saw Paul and Seth on their way home with a truck full of trees. They were driving along the side of the road with lights flashing though so I kind of wondered what was up. When I got back, Paul was at the end of the driveway looking at something under the truck. He left though, so I didn’t know what he was looking at.

When Paul got home, he said that the drive shaft went which I guess means a u-joint went. He managed to limp to Ray’s and Ray brought him back. They got a new battery in the green car and jumped the van although it still has whatever problem it had. Ray looked at the Jetta and it was discovered that it needs a new starter. I guess there is a copper wire that connects it to the engine or whatever and it is supposed to be covered with plastic. The plastic is completely missing and the wire is not attached to whatever it’s supposed to be. In other words, a new battery would not make the Jetta go. In other words, the green car is really the only one we have that will go so it’s a good thing Joanna didn’t pick up a shift today because I wouldn’t be able to get her to work.

We did Family Home Evening and I sent Seth and Joseph to bed at 7:00. Their behavior indicated that they needed to go to bed even though they didn’t want to. Cedric had taken a nap. He was half lying on the table while he was eating so I told him if he was that tired, he could go take a nap; he did. He still had a few bites of mashed potatoes left but I figured he could eat them when he got up. He got up while Paul and Ray were out looking at vehicles and ate his potatoes as well as an orange and some chips and dip. Because Cedric had had a nap, he wasn’t really quite ready for bed so I let him stay up to read until 8:15 at which time he was sent off to bed.

Amena was working on homework (it’s amazing that they had two weeks in which to get this reading and homework done and they procrastinated until Sunday after 6:00 pm) and I was reading waiting for Joanna to call so I could pick her up. She was supposed to be off at 9:00 so we figured she’d be ready to go close to 10:00. She actually called close to 9:00 so I went and got her. Jessica was back but was sitting out in the car with Ryan. She was in when we got back and Amena was still working on her homework but she was about done. I wanted to finish the book I was reading, Spiritual Midwifery, but didn’t want to be rude while people were still up and talking so I was patient and I did finish.

This morning I got up at 5:00 to wake Cedric up so he could read more (he currently has a chapter and a half of the book he needed to read) and Amena so she could just get ready. That was fun. I made sure they were both actually getting up and went back to bed until 6:00. Cedric was in the living room eating and had already had some breakfast. Amena was just coming out of her room. I fed Kitty and got Amena a lunch ready. Amena ate some breakfast (one of the advantages to getting up early enough!). I got ready to take grain and water out to the goats. Amena was walking to the bus as I was walking to the goats. I told her to be careful because it was slippery, especially in front of the Jetta. I took another step and WHAM! landed on my back. I decided I’d go through the basement. Then I decided that they were only getting the one pitcher of water and grain for now because I was very wet.

And there you have it—our Sunday in review. Have a spectacular day!

Sleepover

Time stands still for no man. It is hard to believe that it is already the fourth day of the new year. And when does the new year become the old year? Oh, well. Such is life. It is a beautiful day outside in spite of the fact that it is very cold; currently 10°F (it was about 0°F when I went out to feed the goats) with an expected high of 22°F today. We’ll see how that goes.

So far this morning, I’ve emptied and filled the dish rack twice and it is waiting to be emptied again. I made pancakes and bacon for eight girls and then the rest of us. There are lots of extras because pancakes are easy to have warmed up. These particular pancakes have lots of protein in them because a single batch calls for four eggs, half a cup of cottage cheese, and half a cup of milk. I made five batches. Scooter and Kitty got fed as well and I fed the goats. I had to do a bit of shoveling where Paul plowed my trail yesterday and their water had a layer of ice across the top of the bucket. I’m not sure how that happened because the water itself was not frozen.

Yesterday was not bad. It was cold. Paul got the driveway plowed and then the van wouldn’t start and neither would the Jetta or the green car so he couldn’t completely finish. He eventually got the green car started and went to price batteries for it. Batteries are awfully expensive—which isn’t really a surprise because everything is more expensive than it used to be. However, I remember when you could get a relatively good one for $50. Now you can get a relatively good one for $90. So, we’ve experienced almost 100% inflation in the last twenty years.

All of Amena’s friends that were coming for her party arrived by 6:30. I got them pizza done around 7:00 and they only wanted one pizza. If they were boys, they would have needed at least another one, maybe two. Or more. They were loud but well behaved and warned that lights out would be at 11:00. Amena wanted to know why not 12:00 and I told her that I’d told one mother that we would have lights out at 10:00 or 11:00. Alli said, “It was my mom, wasn’t it?” Smart girl, that one. At 11, I went out and turned out the lights and one girl said, “If it’s time for lights out, does that mean we have to go to sleep?” Yep, that’s pretty much the idea.

At 2:00 I had to get up and use the bathroom so I thought I would check on the girls. Amena and two others were still awake (only one was a triplet) so I told them they might have better luck falling asleep if they stopped talking. When I got up to feed animals at 7:00, they were all asleep. Shortly after that Jordyn got up because she had to leave at 9:00. I got pancakes and bacon going and the girls ate at about 8:40.

Pretty exciting and amazingly everyone is still alive.

Have a great day!

Snow

Good morning! I just now realized that I forgot to say Happy Birthday!!! to my most favorite Auntie Deb. Sorry. I hope you had a good one.

It is a beautiful day outside here. Cold, but beautiful. When I looked it was a whopping 3°F here. But, it is white and there are tiny flakes floating around in the air. I think if it were a bit warmer, we’d’ve had more accumulation and our tiny flakes would be somewhat larger. It has also been somewhat windy so the roof of the screen house has relatively little snow on it and there are drifts all over the place—especially around the van and the truck.

Taken at 8:32 this morning.

Joseph is eating his breakfast. He just finished an egg and has another piece of toast. I think he ought not to have taken the second piece but, as is often the case, the eyes are bigger than the belly. Seth would eat two pieces of toast but didn’t want an egg. He really didn’t want to eat at all but I told him it was too cold outside to go out without eating something. Not completely logical, perhaps, but it did the trick.

Paul mentioned not plowing today but waiting until tomorrow. That would be great if not for the possibility of Joanna having to go to work this morning. She ended up not going yesterday because it was so slow due to the snow. Zak was here and he ended up not going for the same reason. I would also like to get Amena’s birthday party out of the way tonight and that won’t happen if the driveway isn’t plowed. I suppose we could plan on another time; we are going to have to do that or completely cancel her church friend party from last night.

The hot water is frozen to the kitchen. I put a heater downstairs to thaw it out but so far it’s still frozen. I had to shovel a path out to the goats which wasn’t hard because the snow is light and fluffy. Goats being goats, they, particularly Snowflake, stood in the way when I was working on a path for them to get out and to their water. Silly creatures.

Last night I had to get up and use the bathroom (I was having dreams about it). I noticed that the light was on in the boys’ room so I went to investigate. Cedric was not in bed but there was a pile of stuffed animals on his bed and there was a broom and everything was swept into the middle of the room. I went downstairs and there he and Amena were on the couch watching something. It only had six or seven minutes left according to Amena so I told them they’d both better get to bed when it was done.

Later, Joseph came to get in bed with me and said that Cedric was cleaning the room. I went to investigate and sure enough, the light in the boys’ room was on and Cedric was cleaning. He had all the dirty clothes taken care of, four or five bags of trash, and a pile of Legos in the middle of the floor. I told him to go to bed. He asked if he could put the Legos away and I told him that could wait until morning (technically, it was morning but I wasn’t going to point that out).  He’s still asleep right now. I told him he should come eat some toast and he said he was really tired. Imagine that.

In other news from yesterday, not much happened. I did a little laundry and a little cleaning. The dining room is in my sights for today, as well as the counter in the kitchen. And more laundry. Drying clothes really helps warm up the house which is a good thing, especially when it’s as cold as it is out today.

Julia and I were going to go visiting teaching this afternoon. I’m not sure that is going to happen. We shall see. In the meantime, have a splendid day!