532 (appears to be the first year in which the Anno Domini calendar was used for numbering years)

Good morning!

We had a rainy day yesterday. Rainy and humid. The rain part was pretty okay. The humid part was pretty not okay.

School was school. Rain was rain. Thursdays are really low key days around here at the moment. They are the one day that we don’t have to go anywhere. No art. No PE. No scouts. No soccer. No church. Just school work and whatever else we feel like doing. Yesterday that included a lot of Legos and jumping on the trampoline in the rain. The boys were so wet when they came in that they made lakes in the dining room while they were eating lunch and puddles in the kitchen.

Today I have a doula shift so last night I got as ready as I possibly could with the minor exception of taking a shower before I went to bed.  I did do that once but generally I don’t like to shower at night for the following day. As is typical, the more prepared I am, the less likely it seems that there will be need for me to go in. There are two more Friday’s this month; we’ll see how they go. I think I’m going to do Friday 11 to 7 next month. That way I don’t have to worry about anyone watching the boys and if I do go in, I can sleep Saturday morning.

Today has already been more interesting than was yesterday. Cedric apparently didn’t shut the gate to the goat pen well enough and all but one of the kids got out. Seth and I got three in and I let Cedric get the last one.

Paul has a doctor’s appointment at 9:00 this morning and is still in bed. I think he leads a charmed life, or something. He likes to wait until beyond the last possible moment to leave and arrive on time and still he gets in and no one yells at him. I do my best to take into account anything that is likely to take time and usually am early or at least on time, but sometimes am late. No one ever really yells at me but still. And on the other hand, at the orthodontist office the receptionist did yell once over the phone when I was making an appointment for Daniel. He was tired of having to miss the last class of the day and all I wanted to do was make an appointment that would work with us leaving as soon as he got home at 2:30. She didn’t seem to understand that for me to go pick him up earlier meant that he would miss at least an hour and a half of school and would cause me to be driving more than two hours. You cannot tell me that there weren’t enough patients who lived and/or went to school closer who wouldn’t be missing so much school and wouldn’t have been driving so much. I’m really glad that I don’t have to deal with her any more. Daniel would be out of braces by now and so far no one else needs them.

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful day.

843 (Kenneth I [Cináed mac Ailpín], King of the Scots, becomes King of the Picts as well, making him the first monarch of the new nation of Scotland)

Good morning! Lovely wet day here. We’ve already had a couple of squalls but Cedric took the goats out already anyway.

Yesterday morning was a fairly typical day school-wise. Joseph, because it was taking him longer to get his work done than Seth, declared that it was not fair that Seth’s work was easier. He had a plus 2 sheet (you know, 9+2=, 2+3=, 5+2=, etc.) with twenty-five problems on it and I time him for 1 minute to see how many he can get done in that amount of time. Then he can take as long as he needs to finish the rest. Seth has a similar sheet but he’s been doing subtraction and his sheets have 100 problems and he gets timed for 5 minutes. I was actually just thinking about that and the 25 in 1 minute is faster than 10 in five minutes. I wonder what that’s all about. Anyway, Seth got in and got his work done and Joseph was dilly dallying and I think his problem boiled down to the fact that he didn’t want to spend any more time than Seth was.

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Yesterday afternoon was nothing out of the ordinary. I guess I shouldn’t say that because I did give Misty a haircut and bath. And this is one reason why I will never like dogs as much as I do cats. I don’t like bathing dogs. It’s a nasty job, fun for no one, and makes a mess all over whatever room you use. I also do not like giving dogs a haircut. It’s also a nasty job, fun for no one, and gets dog hair all over the bloody place. However, it needed to be done because she did have fleas and stunk. She looks like a new dog now. Smells better, looks better, and I think feels better. She really needs more attention with the clippers but they were beginning to get dull so to really finish the job we need new ones. It is interesting to note that when Paul attempted to give her a trim weeks ago, she would not sit still. I was helping but still it did no good (doesn’t help that I didn’t want to be holding her, though, either). I think it must be either that he started with her head and I started with her bum or in spite of the fact that he loves her and she loves him, he is still a big, mean, scary, man and I’m not. Anyway, I don’t plan on making this my life’s work and I’ll be happy when we have no dogs.

Cedric just kicked one in.

Seth and Cedric had soccer practice. For practice, they had a scrimmage with the U12 girls’ team. It was pretty fun to watch. I’ve never watched the girls play before so I don’t have anything to compare them to but I have watched to boys play. It was pretty obvious that the boys were taking it easy on the girls. They are usually very aggressive and they never reached yesterday the level they do during a regular game. I think it didn’t help much that the girls only had nine girls there and the boys had all seventeen players. They played with eight on the field so the girls only had one to sub while the boys had an entire team plus one on the sideline. The score ended up 6 to 1. The boys made one goal and then the girls did right away after. Then the boys just didn’t stop. They never got overly aggressive, but they never stopped.

The trees were great yesterday. And that is Joseph and his friend at the base of the US flag.

On the way home from practice, I dropped Joseph off at the Brinker’s for scouts. Jonathan asked if I could get him there before 6:30 so he’d have time to get to the school and get set up. Dropping him off on the way home was really the only way I could get that done because I needed to milk and get things together to get to church when I got home.

Once home, I milked (and got more than a half-gallon which isn’t a good measure of production but it was over 70 ounces and that is a good measure). It’s tasting good now, too, which is always a good thing. I really want to make yogurt and cheese.

Church was good. Jonathan said I didn’t have to pick Joseph up until I was done so I stayed the whole time. Cedric stayed outside the whole time—stinker. We got done early which was nice. I dropped Amena, Cedric, and Seth off at home and then went to get Joseph. Then I dropped him off and went to Walmart to get a couple of things that I intended to get earlier but had run out of time for. Paul was not home when I dropped the first three off at home but was when I picked Joseph up and wasn’t when I got back from Walmart. He’d just left to go see Ray.

And now we are in another day. Have a splendiferous one!

865 (Aethelred I, third son of Aethelwulf, succeeds his brother and becomes King of Wessex)

Good morning and haha! It’s been a bloody week? Wow!

I have been suffering terribly from a bad attitude lately that is partly dog-induced but not entirely. The problem with bad attitude problems is that once it begins, everything feeds it and it grows and grows something like a wild fire. I’m working on containment but there are still hot spots that flare up every now and again. Already this morning I’ve had a couple of them.

I've actually got the heels turned on both of these and the gusset on one done and in progress on the other. Honestly, the only reason I added this is because I wanted a picture because otherwise when I post it on Facebook you get a picture of me. Which is okay, just not very exciting.

Anyway, our past week has been...fairly typical. Not completely, but fairly. One notable exception has been The Walking Dead. The 4^th season came out on Netflix and this past Sunday was the season premier. That means that many of us watched an episode here and there and isn’t it interesting that a ‘season’ consists of only 16 episodes? That means 16 weeks. Some aren’t even that long. Call the Midwife has something like 8 episode seasons.  What ever happened to seasons lasting six months?

An interesting thing from the 4^th season that I finished yesterday (and the 1^st episode of the new season since Joanna is so wonderful and told us where you can watch it online) was a couple of girls. They were sisters that came with the group that were rescued from the Governor’s clutches. Mika and Lizzie. Lizzie was the older of the two and probably wasn’t more than ten or twelve. She was an odd duck but at one point she said that she could hear the walkers and that all they wanted was for those who were alive to be like them. Isn’t that curious? She killed her sister so that she could turn so that others could see what she was talking about.

So while I find it interesting that she killed her sister and said that she could hear the thoughts or emotions of the walkers, I think it even more so that there are people like that among us. They live and breathe and have somewhat normal lives but they just don’t get it. Something about the way they are wired is different and there is no reasoning with them.

Today, being Wednesday, we have all of our typical Wednesday things to do. That means school, soccer practice, church, Joseph scouts, etc. Should be fun. Soccer is almost over. Unless they reschedule the game that was cancelled last week due to rain, there are only two games left. That’s kind of sad. I really do like watching the boys play and I don’t mind going to practice. Still, it does free Wednesday afternoon’s up and I won’t be so rushed. Still, practices already were shortened to end at 6:00 so that’s better than 6:30.

Yesterday Amena missed the bus. She didn’t miss it by a little bit, either, she missed it by a lot. She was so not ready that she wasn’t ready until after 9:00 and since that messed up Seth’s going to PE schedule, I decided at 9:14 that we weren’t going to PE and I wasn’t taking Amena to school. If we’d have left right then, he would have been late and I wouldn’t have been able to get back in time to pick him up after. If we’d gone for PE and taken Amena after, she wouldn’t have gotten there until 10:30 which would have had her at school for two and a half hours which included lunch and we wouldn’t have been able to get school going until 11:00. There just wasn’t any way to make it more attractive. I think the way we ended up doing it was fine. We started school twenty minutes late, Amena did her homework while the boys did their school work, and the boys were almost done by lunch.

Monday was a holiday for the students but not for Paul. We watched a lot of The Walking Dead, Arrow, and Ice Age. The weather wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t terribly warm either. There were some forays out, just not many and not of any great duration.

Sunday was Sunday. I had a meeting before church. Cedric, Amena and I had a meeting after church. Paul got to come home and put together lasagna. Other than the onions being in slices rather than chopped and the fact that some of the noodles were crunchy, it was pretty good. I had some for lunch yesterday and the sitting for a couple of days really helped the noodles. We had some people over for Family Home Evening and brownies in the evening. Kind of a busy day.

Saturday there was no soccer game due to the rain and Paul didn’t get as much accomplished on the barn as he’d’ve liked for the same reason. Still, it did clear up in the afternoon so he was able to go back out and work on it.

Friday was Friday and Thursday was Thursday. Thursday afternoon the boys and I went to Julia’s so I could help cut stuff out for Young Women in Excellence which is coming up next month.

And that is that. I’m going to sign off for now and probably get this posted after I have breakfast.

Have a fantastical day!

1450 (Machu Picchu thought to be under construction)

Good morning! It is a lovely rainy one today. This storm blew in about 5:40. Just before that there was a lovely rumble of thunder and the wind was howling around the house. Then the rain let loose. Some days I really wonder what the purpose of going back to bed at 5:00 is because there are many days that I do not go back to sleep. Today was one of them. At least I got to witness the coming of this storm. That really was pretty cool.

This dog is driving me nuts. She used to be content to just lay down wherever I was. Now she has to walk around and around my chair and touch me constantly. Can’t dogs tell when someone would like them to leave them alone? They can tell when someone doesn’t feel well and needs some added comfort. I don’t. Actually, the problem isn’t that I don’t like being touched by dogs, I just don’t like it all the time. I don’t even like it most of the time. In fact, I think dogs should be outside. What purpose do they serve in the house?

Saturday the boys played Barre in Barre at Felton Field. It was a good game with a score of 2-2. The first goal Hubbardston got was as much thanks to the Barre goalie fumbling with the ball but still, a goal is a goal. The second Hubbardston goal was by Cedric! He was especially pleased that he used his left foot to kick it in. I think that Hubbardston might have done a little better if they’d had practice during the week but Monday it was cancelled due to the 5^th grade being gone to Nature’s Classroom and Wednesday due to rain. Still, it was a good game and I like watching at Felton because there’s a little bank to sit on that affords a better view of the field than the sidelines.

This past weekend was General Conference. There were some really good talks and we managed to listen to/watch every session. Laura actually got to be at the Sunday afternoon session in person. That must have been super cool.

Saturday and Sunday Paul worked in the barn when he wasn’t inside. The end wall is almost done. I need the inside done because I need to be able to milk inside out of the weather. I also need the inside done so that I can keep the does separated from the kids. I don’t know what the perfect system is but I know what mine is and that it works and that it doesn’t work when the weather is rainy.

Monday Seth had art at school. He didn’t want to go but I told him the reason he was going is because he said he wanted to and once you commit to something, you need to carry through. I know it’s a work in progress and I know I’m not perfect at it, but now is the time for him to learn the lesson; the earlier, the better.

Monday was also soccer practice and scouts for Seth. Amena stayed home from school because she didn’t feel well so the boys stayed home when I went to the rec field to walk/jog in the afternoon. While the boys had soccer practice, I knit. The socks are really coming along which is something of a miracle for me. We left practice early so that I could get the boys home and get to the Foley’s so I could go to the roundtable with Laura Foley. The new Tiger Den Leader (sorry, I forgot his name) went as well. There was a lot of good information there, I thought, and it’s a potentially huge source of ideas and networking. Joanna agreed to take Seth to scouts and bring him home so that saved me in that department.

On the way home from the roundtable, we saw something falling from the sky. It was very bright and flared as it got closer to the ground and then again a couple of seconds later. I googled everything I could think of to find out what it was but nothing turned up.

When I got home Paul was already home. The boys and Amena were all in bed. I sat down to check my email and guess what I discovered? The Jury Duty I had was Tuesday! I knew it was this month but for some reason, I thought it was next week. Ha ha ha! I don’t mind Jury Duty; it’s a good excuse to sit and do nothing but read and knit. Goodness knows I don’t usually spend hours on end doing either at home. Anyway, thank goodness Paul was able to stay home and work yesterday.

I left about 6:45 and walked into the courthouse at about 7:50. I would have been there earlier but when I was attempting to get in the parking garage, I made a wrong turn and ended up taking a detour. Still, it wasn’t a bad deal because it only took about ten minutes and I really wouldn’t have wanted to be any earlier than I was.

The trial I was part of the pool for was a malpractice suit. A woman was suing the doctor because her baby ended up with cerebral palsy (I think that’s what it was) and the woman felt the doctor caused it. This is entirely possible. I almost wanted to be on the jury but given my views of those in the medical profession and birth, I did tell the judge I felt I had preconceived thoughts and feelings that would affect my judgment in the case so I was excused. They had a hard time filling the jury. It was filled and then the attorney’s conferred and three were dismissed. Then those were filled and after conference, five were dismissed. I was called up at that point. I don’t know if they dismissed a slew after that because those of us who had been excused were let to go back to the Jury Pool room but I do know that once they went through fifty potential jurors, they called up fourteen more. Before they went up to the courtroom, the court officer or whatever he is told us that the judge was talking to the attorneys. My guess is that he was telling them to get with the program because there were only so many people to choose from. I think I might have not mentioned anything in order to get on the jury had the trial not been scheduled for two weeks.

Anyway, I was home by 1:00 and the boys were just sitting down for lunch. I ate a little but not much. Paul had warmed up some Indian beans. They’re good but have an over processed texture that I don’t particularly care for. He cooked up some Oriental noodles as well. They taste good but are made from overly processed grain and I really want to stay away from that.

Joanna and Zak came over. They had some laundry to take care of and ended up staying for dinner. We had eggplant parmesan and salad. Seth tried talking all involved parties into letting at least some children go over to their apartment but it just didn’t happen. Amena asked if she could go stay the night and I said no. She wanted to know why since it’s a half day and I said because she already missed school Monday. Not to mention the fact that they stay up all night playing games and watching movies which is probably part of the reason Amena didn’t feel well and missed school Monday (she spent the night Saturday and didn’t get to sleep until 6 am and got up at 7:30—really?).

Today, as mentioned is a half day. Seth and Joseph are still abed. It’s amazing how when there are Legos all over the floor, they’re up and playing with them. So, Legos being put away before bed is important for boys to get all the sleep that they need. Interesting, that.

I suspect soccer practice may be cancelled today due to the weather although I haven’t looked to see how long this rain is supposed to be with us. Today is my next walking/jogging day. I think I will look at the weather and see how it looks before deciding to either wait or postpone until tomorrow. I can do Pilates today if it’s supposed to be rainy all day but if it’s supposed to be rainy all week, I can just go get wet.

And that is all for today. Have a wonderful day!

1215 (King John signs the Runnymede Charter aka Magna Carta)

Good morning! No one in labor at the moment, at least not at 5:00 this morning so no one has gone in or I would have gotten a phone call, so here I am. I’m afraid I’m in a bit of a complainy kind of mood because I came downstairs to find four loaves of ‘honey wheat’ bread on the counter. I know that marketing does this to sell perceived healthier foods to unsuspecting customers. Whole wheat is sixth on the list of ingredients. It ‘looks’ good because of the wheat bran that is third on the list. And, honestly, when the first ingredient is composed of about eight things, I’m not sure about the whole order anyway. I’m going to do a cost comparison later and see how much it really costs to make a loaf of bread compared to the stuff from the store. I’m sure the homemade stuff won’t come out on top but when a loaf of bread only costs 50 cents at the store, I really question the quality to begin with.

Yesterday. It was a day. Goldilocks’ kids did well overnight and Seth and Joseph went out at every opportunity to play with them. This is good; I want them to be very used to people.

School went well. We were all done by lunch (except reading which we ended up forgetting to do after) which was nice since the sisters came over for lunch. We had latkes and eggs for lunch with apple crisp and applesauce cake for dessert. After we ate, they went and pulled weeds in the garden with some help from Seth. I cleaned the living room including mopping with some help from Joseph and a little from Seth. I wanted to get it cleaned because it needed to be but also because I wanted to do Pilates before the end of the day.

The sisters had to leave and I finished the living room and did my Pilates. The walking and jogging didn’t kill me but I thought the Pilates might. Once I was done, I figured it was because I haven’t also been doing the daily stretches that I ought to have been so I’m going to have to add that to my daily regimen. Stretches every day, walking/jogging every other day, walking/hiking with the boys once a week, Pilates the days I don’t do anything else, and Sunday off.

Joanna came over and went out to see the kids. I told her and Seth and Joseph to kind of take it easy because I suspected Snowflake would be having hers soon. She’d managed to squeeze herself into the goat shed for the first time in days and I thought that was a sign she wanted to be in a protected area. She’d also been pawing at the hay on the floor every time I was out to check on Goldilocks and her kids and that is something they do but not usually continually. She was actually probably in labor and that’s probably a coping mechanism for goats. Maybe people should try it.

Joanna left about the time Cedric got home and I finished up Pilates about then as well. It wasn’t long after that Seth and Joseph came running in to tell me that Snowflake had her babies. I asked how many and Seth said, “Two!” So I went out and by the time I got there, number three had been born. Three kids! Wow!

I helped clean off the last one and put it right in front of her so she’d finish. That one is the runt and I told the boys that we had to deal with the fact that runts sometimes don’t make it. After all, when she had Fred and George, there was another one but she didn’t make it. She was the runt. So what did they do? Run to the trampoline and say a prayer for the little runt! I haven’t been out this morning yet to see how they are doing but as of the last time I was out to check on them yesterday, they were all three doing well. In fact the bigger black one (there are two blacks, one being the runt, and one brown) was already outside less than two hours after being born.

It’s incredible to think that our goat herd just doubled in size. And even better to think that at least two of the kids are girls. I really hope that one or two of Snowflake’s kids is/are as well. I’d really like another black goat. If we have up to three girls, we will likely keep them all. Four I’m not sure about. Any boys we will not keep unless one of them is for meat or a pack animal. A pack animal would be cool. Wouldn’t it be fun to take a goat on hikes with the scouts to carry all our stuff? Anyway, I’d like to keep one of the boys we got from Libby because she had good form and the buck was registered for breeding purposes. The doelings we just had have good mothers (assuming Snowflake had at least one girl) but I’m not sure of the bucks. They were nice but nice does not equate good genes.

Snowflake doing what mama goats do. Seth and Joseph were somewhat disgusted by the fact that she was eating the afterbirth and had to leave a couple of times. They thought it was strange because she's not a carnivore. I told them that animals, even when they don't eat meat, do eat the afterbirth.

Amena got home late yesterday because she went to a cross country meet that the triplets were running in. It was scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed until yesterday due to the rain. It turned out to be quiet a nice afternoon for it.

We had chocolate pancakes for dinner (made with whole wheat four) and Seth wanted to know if he could have some applesauce cake. Well, what do you think? Pancakes, even with sausage, and then cake? How about, no.

This is the bigger black baby.

Cedric is getting ready for school. He has to have a shower almost every day. I don’t know if he sweats more than Daniel did or if he’s just more concerned with his appearance, or what, but Daniel would shower twice a week compared to Cedric’s almost every day. It’s funny how similar Cedric is to Daniel in so many ways but how different they are, too. I sure do miss him. Amena is, of course, by now either at school or almost. Seth is on the couch and Paul and Joseph are both still in bed.

Snowflake and the three kids!

I was tired at 8:30 last night and I knew I might potentially have to get up at 5:00 to get ready, so I emailed Paul a message filled with all the stuff that I really wanted to tell him when he got home. He gets home at such irregular hours I never know when to expect him. Then I took a shower because I hadn’t had one all day and so I wouldn’t have to take one in the morning if I needed to go in to the hospital. Then I went to bed. Paul did call while I was in the shower but my phone isn’t waterproof and I didn’t hear it.

Not much else to tell about at the moment. I did have some strange dreams but don’t really remember much so there isn’t much to tell. They were very strange. And repetitive. But not much to tell about.

Have a fantabulous day!

1673 (January 1st regular mail delivery between New York and Boston begins)

Good morning! No question about whether or not to write this morning—you’ll find out later (and I’m not putting any clues in the title or subject either).

Yesterday morning was school as usual. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are history days each week so we had history. Joseph really liked the puppet making for the ‘play’ that his lesson was yesterday. We’ll finish the story tomorrow. Seth isn’t as excited about his because there’s a lot more reading to it and he really dislikes reading. One of my goals is to see if we can’t get him to like it at least a little better. It would be really great if he ended up loving it.

After reading, we went to the rec field in spite of the fact that it was raining. It wasn’t a hard rain or we would have stayed home. I wanted to do my walking/jogging C25K and figured the boys could kick a soccer ball around or play in the gazebo if they didn’t want to get wet. Still, had it been raining too much, we would have stayed home and I’d’ve done my Pilates video. I’ll probably do that today since I don’t have a C25K thing to do.

Joseph finishing up his puppets.

About that, Joseph asked why I have to go walk or run.

I said, “I don’t run.”

“Well, why do we have to go?” he wanted to know.

“Because I’m tired of being fat,” I answered.

Seth working on spelling.

I know some people might tell me I’m not fat but when I look in the mirror and I don’t like what I see, there is only one person who can do anything about it. And I realize there is more to calculating a BMI than height and weight but if I’m in the ‘obese’ category (which is interesting because I wouldn’t say I’m THAT fat), AND I’m not happy about how I look (or feel), then it’s time to do something about it. The ‘ideal’ range for my height is 116 to 154 pounds. I’d be quite happy to be in that range. And it is happening. Slowly. Which is okay. As long as it’s steady.

Speaking of not happy with how I feel, someone asked me about my back recently. My back is usually pretty fine. Once upon a time when we lived in Idaho (think preaccident), I tweaked my back when I was helping a child clean a bathtub. I thought I was going to die. The part that tweaked is the same part that had the fractures. Anyway, I’ve tweaked it twice since the accident so I’d say it is something that could happen if I’m stupid so the key is to not be. And part of not being stupid is to not weigh too much and to not be too out of shape.  Sometimes my back will be stiff (so will my hips but I’m pretty convinced they respond to both weight and tone as well AND they only started bothering me after Daniel was born and I’m pretty convinced a chiropractor could have helped) but that usually happens only when I’ve been doing one thing for too long including sleeping. Especially sleeping on my back when my feet are not elevated. And since I only like my feet to be elevated so I can comfortably sleep on my back and not when I’m on my side, I don’t usually elevate my feet.  Anyway, all this just means to me that my back will be a problem if I allow it to. I’m not going to.

There was no soccer practice due to the rain yesterday. That just diminished the craziness a little which was nice but I’d have dealt with it.

Minion in a basket in the house. How did she get there?

Before school even started, though, Joanna called because Zak had had to leave for school and she’d forgotten that she needed a ride over to get her Jeep so she wanted to know if I could go get her. I did. That was pretty uneventful, just a quick trip to Gardner and back.

I made an apple crisp and an applesauce cake yesterday afternoon. We needed to use up some apples. As it was, I sent the boys out with a small cardboard box full of spoiled apples and other things of that nature I’d found in the refrigerators to the corner of the garden where I deposit such things. I’d really like to make a compost box there but haven’t managed to do that yet. Anyway, I always triple the crisp recipe and I did this time but I put 2/3 of it in one pan to keep home and the rest in a smaller one to take to church for the girls who remembered their Personal Progress books. I made the cake in two pans as well; one to keep home and one to take to church for the girls who remembered their Personal Progress books last month because I didn’t have anything to take and ran out of time to make something.

Paul actually got home before we needed to leave. I’m not sure how he managed to leave work in time to do that with Blair but he did. I took all the children with me and we went to drop Joseph off at the Brinkers house and then we went to pick up Hans. I didn’t realize that he had Jose at his house or I would have had Paul pick them up just because I only had one available seat. They squeezed in back with Cedric and Seth and we were only about five minutes late for church.

Before we left, I went outside and took a blanket and a tarp and put them over a fence panel we had leaning against another fence panel so that Snowflake would have shelter from the rain. Her belly is so big she can’t fit into the goat shed right now.  That really wasn’t the smartest thing to do when we needed to leave in less than half an hour but it wasn’t hard and I finished, I just also got to squish around in the mud and got a little wet and probably a little smelly. While I was doing that, it seems that Paul tried calling several times on his way home. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do about that: live by the phone or take it EVERYwhere with me? Neither one is a good idea. And his idea of downgrading wouldn’t work either because phones still have to be charged and I do it when the battery is low, not at any particular time of day. Yesterday it happened by be about 4:00 when I started and it charges faster when it’s either turned off or to airplane mode so that’s what I do. Then I went outside and no one heard it ringing so all I can say is such is life. Or get a landline again.

I talked to all of the girls and challenged them to start something that they can finish by next month so they have something to show at Young Women in Excellence. A new girl moved in during the summer and her aunt brought her to church last night. It was nice to actually meet her. Gabby and Mally were both there so I was able to leave with Seth to go pick Joseph up from the school.

We went home and Seth had apple crisp and Joseph had a root beer Italian ice. Paul called when he was leaving to say that Jeff Beaudette was going to come over and help fix a larger lean-to for Snowflake. Of course, that meant Rachel and Neal as well which was fine with Amena and Seth. They mostly played with the kittens. That was fine, too. I was getting things ready for school for today while all this was going on which was also fine.

Yesterday the Math 3 workbook and flash cards I’d ordered arrived. That was nice because it means I don’t have to look in the book and create worksheets. I can do it, but it’s a lot easier to just take a page or two or three out of a book rather than making everything fit on the page just right. I’m all about taking the easy way when I can because it leaves more time for the times I can’t.

The goats were all excited while Paul and Jeff and sometimes Cedric were out working in the goat pen. Paul took a look in the shed before he came in and said he wasn’t sure, but there were a couple of small goats in there and they looked smaller than the boys. I took a light out to take a look and, sure enough! There were a couple of kids in the goat shed with Goldilocks. I knew she was pregnant but I didn’t expect her to kid before Snowflake because Snowflake is so huge. I’d been expecting something to happen because of how the goats were acting yesterday. Part of their behavior I attributed to the rain but part of it I just didn’t think so which is why I put extra hay in the shed. After I saw the kids, I put more in the shed and more in the new little lean to. Ah, goats! The kids are both girls. One is light colored like her mother but has Alpine ears which leads me to believe that Leroy is the daddy. The other has coloring like Leroy but Nubian ears. Seth and Joseph think we should name them Vanilla and Oreo. That would be appropriate so we might just stick with those.

Vanilla? She has waddles too!

And that was our day yesterday. This morning Joseph has already been out three times to see the kids and Seth has been twice. Amena is at school, Cedric is on his way. Seth and Joseph are upstairs playing with, of all things, Legos. Paul is still abed and I’m sitting here thinking I should have some breakfast.

Oreo? Vanilla? What do you think?

Have a splendiferous day!

916 (the year Anarawd ap Rhodri died)

Good morning! It is a beautiful rainy day out thus far.

After I woke up at 5:00 to get Amena up (which didn’t work), I fell back asleep and had a dream. In this dream, someone I know (from Massachusetts) was going to be in a movie with Mel Gibson as his wife. The movie was set in the past and required this girl to speak with an English accent (not to be mistaken for Irish or Scottish). In the movie, she and Mel had two young children and she became quite fond of them. So much so that she convinced someone else I know (from New Mexico) was going to help her kill the parents. For some reason, I had been living on the movie set with this girl and one morning I had to leave to go somewhere. This other girl from NM was sitting in a car near the entrance and another girl was sitting in another car at the end of the driveway. She had a sniper rifle. I just waved at them as I drove by and I was thinking that I was going to go report this activity and I woke up.

I just want it to be said that I’ve never watched any of Mel Gibson’s movies that take place in the past like Braveheart or The Patriot , there is no way on earth these two girls know each other, and in spite of the fact that the one in the movie wants children, I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t stoop to murdering the parents of some to get them, and the girl from New Mexico wouldn’t help kill someone like that. Gosh.

Our first field trip of the year was a success. I posted pictures on Facebook but will be sure to add some to the blog as well. It was a lovely day for a walk. There were at times a few sprinkles but they were so fine I could have said we were having a heavy mist. We took our lunch and next time we will take our lunch in a back pack so that we can eat it when we want it rather than when we are done. Although we could have gone back to the car and then done more exploring after we ate. Still, it worked out well the way we did it and the boys had fun and it was a nice day.

After that I went to visit Amy Troop. I think we will have some combined field trip/walk/hikes with them. What we walked on in part yesterday was the Midstate Trail and the same trail goes fairly near the Troops house. I’m not sure it could be likened to the Pacific Crest Trail (which I have been on parts of and would LOVE to take the boys on for a field trip) but maybe it could. It does traverse the middle of Massachusetts but you have to keep in mind that the entire state only 4,207 square miles larger than Siskiyou County (but the population is approximately 150 times greater [the population density of MA is 629.71/square mile compared to Siskiyou County at 6.96/square mile]).

Before we left for our field trip, the boys did school. That went well. Already I’m seeing changes in attitude and that is a wonderful thing to watch. They are both doing well with their new math levels and everything else is going pretty smoothly. Maybe I shouldn’t say that but overall, things are. We have our ups and downs but they vary from day to day and that is the way life is. Overall, I’d have to say that life is going pretty well in spite of the ups and downs. And that is the way it is.

Cedric had scouts last night. Two of the boys who did Cub Scouts with his group have rejoined and are in Boy Scouts now. That’s really a wonderful thing. Cedric and Ryan are working on Paul and there are some parents I guess working on his mom and/or dad so maybe he’ll be rejoining the group soon, too. Cedric really likes going and I’m glad.

While Cedric was there, I sat in the car like I usually do and worked on my Hywel and Cailin story. I did 1,675 words there and when we got home another 425. Then I went to bed because it was already too late.

Joanna, with and without Zak, was in and out getting papers and doing laundry yesterday. She left a plate of brownies once and they were very good. Her Jeep is still here because one of the wheels was really loose so she left it here until she could find a star wrench to tighten lug nuts up with. When she and Zak came back last night and finally did that, she forgot her keys so she couldn’t drive it home. I imagine she’ll be back sometime today to get it.

And today looks to be a fairly typical Wednesday. Unless practice is cancelled due to rain I’ll do my C25K while the boys are there. If it is cancelled, I’ll go do it once the boys are done with school. Joseph has scouts tonight so I’ll need to communicate with his den leader, Jonathan Brinker, about when and where I’ll be dropping him of and picking him up. It is also church so it should be a fun filled evening. Looking forward to the craziness.

Have a terrific day!