Provoke Not Your Children

I looked up the word provoke yesterday afternoon on Meriam-Webster online. It is a transitive verb meaning:

1 a archaic :  to arouse to a feeling or action

   b :  to incite to anger

2 a :  to call forth (as a feeling or action) :  evoke <provoke laughter>

   b :  to stir up purposely <provoke a fight>

   c :  to provide the needed stimulus for <will provoke a lot of discussion>

   — pro·vok·er noun

Before that, I looked up a couple of scriptures. My search was for, “provoke not your children.” What I found was this:

Colossians 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

And this:

Ephesians 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Those both seem pretty clear to me. Parents should not provoke their children to anger. For one thing, it is very hard to learn self-control when you are being provoked. Not only provoked, but by one of your parents. Secondly, if we want our children to learn proper behavior, we ought not to provoke them. Thirdly, it seems to me that a provoker is also a bully and we don’t love bullies, do we? In fact, I think our natural tendency would be to fight back (although this is discouraged at school).

Why did I look these things up? You would ask.

It is because we had kielbasa with onions and peppers.

Yesterday was a fairly low key day filled with, as you might guess, sewing and school and that’s about it. The boys took forever to get their work done, well, that’s not really accurate. Seth got in and did his. Joseph was dragging his feet; for math we would discuss a problem, he would tell me what the answer was, and it would take him a full minute or two to actually write the answer down. That’s no way to get through the day. By lunch we were only half done and in spite of not wanting to keep at it, I knew we needed to.

At 1:00 I was looking at sitting with Joseph to make sure he got his work done and I was seriously contemplating not working on Laura’s dress. I wanted to start right after lunch to be sure I had enough time to finish what I wanted to do and that was just not going to happen. Fortunately, Joseph got through his afternoon work much more quickly than his morning and I actually got to start on the dress before Amena got home from school. Barely.

We took the goats out in the afternoon and I took a shower before working on the dress. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure how I fit finishing school, goats and a shower in the two hours between noon and 2:00. Especially since I had to move all the stakes for the goats because Paul got some new stakes and cables. And I can tell you that staking out eight goats is not a fun job. They need a fence.

In the morning I also made bread because I didn’t get it done Saturday. The regular loaves didn’t rise as much as usual because I kind of forgot about it when it was rising in the oven so it overachieved which means it underachieved once I made the loaves. Still, I didn’t put in too much flour so they aren’t crumby.

Today looks like more of the same. I was going to get the dress done this morning until I started looking at it. The gussets didn’t come to the points they should have so I do need to fix them all so they do; otherwise, I’m afraid it would look funny and we don’t want that. So, it will wait until the boys have finished school. I think. I might just do it as soon as I’m done here.

Have a wonderful day!

Monday Morning

5:46 am

Good morning! I woke up before 5:00 this morning in anticipation of the alarm and I don’t think I went back to sleep. Once the alarm went off I did get up to see if Amena was awake (she was) and if Cedric wanted to get up (he said yes but his actions did not indicate such). I went back to bed after and even stayed in for about ten minutes after my 5:30 alarm but did not sleep.

I had some pretty interesting dreams. They were kind of zombie apocalypse only it seems that the zombies were pretty much dead. There were two major factions of people alive: the good ones and the bad ones. The good ones were constantly hiding and running and just trying to stay alive. The bad ones were constantly hunting the good ones. Not a good thing. But then the bad ones captured one of the good ones and they thought they were using him to as a spy against the good ones but he was actually passing information to the good ones. All kind of strange and far out.

One cool thing was that a family had managed to stay mostly intact (the father was no longer there but I’m not sure why) and their house was right in the middle of bad guy territory in a town. They’d managed to keep their house from detection and were actually something like a safe house. The mother was a chiropractor and the father had been a veterinarian. I think the son must have been something of an idiot savant because he didn’t seem to be mentally all there but he was able to save people when they were hurt, even helping to perform surgery. However, he was captured by the bad guys and they managed to find out about the house. The daughter wasn’t careful enough in a personal celebration and the bad guys managed to video her dancing around in her room. So the safe house was no longer safe and mom and daughter were on the run.

In other news, I actually did get to work on Laura’s dress Friday and Saturday. Putting gussets in seemed like such a good idea to add fullness to the skirt. I don’t know what I was thinking. Adding gussets to the skirt means adding seams to the skirt and I don’t know why I didn’t do the skirt first because I do know how quickly sewing nothing but long, straight seams gets not fun. I figured that each layer (there are only two, thank goodness) has about forty yards of seams because I’m doing French seams. Oh, boy. The organza layer is done. The satin layer is in progress. I had to stop at about 9:00 Saturday night because I really wanted to go to bed and didn’t want to start having problems. Today the skirt will be finished, the sleeves will be taken off and put back on, and the bodice will be attached to the skirt. Then I just have to sew on the lace and do the loops (which I need to get some crochet thread for) and hem it. The lace and loops I’ll get done before Laura gets here, the hem will wait until she is. And I really need a high enough ceiling for her to be able to stand on the table so I can do the hem but I don’t so I’m not sure what we’ll do.

In other news, I need to find food for Amena’s lunch. I didn’t get bread made Saturday because I was sewing so there is no bread that she likes (Paul did bring some rye home from the store but it’s disgusting—both because it’s rye [and therefore has caraway] and because it’s from the store).

6:18 am

And I’m back. I don’t think the lunch is much to write home about but it’s food and it’s not even bad food. Well, the chocolate candy might not be so great but it is edible. Currently she has about five minutes to finish getting ready because I am not interested in catching up with the bus and am even less interested in driving all the way to Barre.

Saturday for dinner we had chicken noodle soup. Seth and Joseph helped make the noodles. It had been so long since I’d made them. I know I hadn’t since we’ve been here and I’m not sure how long it was in Idaho since I had. A long time. I used all whole wheat flour and forgot to add salt. Next time, I should probably do half and half whole wheat and white and need to remember the salt. Paul liked the soup better without noodles but I think that’s because he has never really had whole wheat noodles and we didn’t cut them short—they were some of them longer than 12 inches. Some of us used forks for them. Still, making noodles is something I’m going to have to add back into our currently nonexistent weekly planning of the menu.

Cedric and Kitty chillin' on the front steps Thursday, April 23rd.

And Amena missed the bus. I will probably just stop writing when she finally managed to get her butt downstairs and will post when I get back from however far I have to go. She can’t really afford to miss any more school; she spend almost her entire week off doing homework that she should have done weeks ago. Some of it she had to wait to do at school so it isn’t even all done. I am not pleased.

In other news, I have some little baby lobelia’s and St. John’s Wort sprouted. That is exciting. Some arnica sprouted last week and that was exciting, too. I just love this stuff. I think everything that’s been planted has come up except some of the stuff planted last Tuesday and I need to check it. Almost everything is up. Plants are amazing.

The chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles.

And it’s ten minutes later and Amena still is not downstairs ready to go. Honestly, I don’t know what she thinks when she gets up; or rather fails to.

There really is more that I wanted to touch upon this morning. One of them was about parents provoking their children.

But now it is much later, almost time to start school, and there is no time. Have a spectacular day!

Cacophony

I just noticed the clock stopped at 5:54 this morning. It’s really a cool clock but there are times when I don’t mind a break from its chiming, if you can call it that, every half hour. Paul has quite a collection of clocks and most of them are very cool. He has mentioned that if he could afford to have them all fixed, he would love to have them all operational. That would be a cacophony and I would not be able to handle it. Therefore, I’m willing to just look at and admire the clocks. If they were all in working order, they would spend most of their time idle.

Yesterday, as is the case most days, I spent some time thinking. I have lots of time to think when I’m doing things like ironing patterns and laying them out to see how exactly I’m going to do whatever it is I’m planning on doing to/with them.

Yesterday I was thinking about how inconsistent people are. They tend to say one thing and do another. Or one person will say one thing that is supposed to apply to a whole group and then another will say something indicating something else. Thank goodness for good friends who are only a phone call away. I have family, too, of course, who can fill this roll but the thoughts yesterday needed one particular person. Thanks, Diane.

This is pretty cool. All the lines are from water collected around the edge that followed the path of least resistance when Seth started jumping.

I’ve been reading a lot about different aspects of female reproductive cycles and other pertinent topics. One project I’ve been working on is a chart of sexually transmitted infections (which is the fairly new, politically correct term and I only use it because some of them actually are infections and while some are diseases, they are passed from one to another by an infected individual). Guess what? You can say what you want about sexual freedom and protected sex but I’m thinking the only good way to prevent this stuff is abstinence and even that isn’t a 100% guarantee you won’t be infected. Yikes!

I’ve also been reading (as some of you are aware) about menopause and the cycles that women go through from birth to death (of which, menopause is one). In one book I’m currently reading about The Pill. Stay away. Stay far away. The Pill, whatever form you use, is bad news for your body. It typically, but not always, prevents a woman from becoming pregnant but it has other effects as well. I’m not going to take the time to discourse on it right now because it would take more than the few hundred words I want to use. If you are interested, keep an eye out for something in the near future.

Today is going to be a busy day. I’ve got Laura’s dress to work on. I’ve got an STI chart to finish (and I am going to do so today). I’ve got a book to read at least 30 pages of. I’ve got sister missionaries coming for lunch and the Petzold’s and Paul’s aunt and uncle (who will be here for the aunt’s funeral who died a couple of weeks ago) coming for dinner.

Just a little aside, did you know that if you move your right hand over to the left one key, you get judy instead of just? Interesting. That’s not what I was going to say but it is what I just discovered.

Yesterday Paul sent me a you-tube video indicating that we’ve, and I use that term loosely, been serving pasta wrong. When you drain and rinse the pasta and set it aside while you do the sauce and then dish up the pasta and then the sauce, that’s wrong. You should not drain, and therefore waste the cooking fluid, the pasta but keep it in the water and you should be preparing the sauce while the pasta is cooking. Then, you add the pasta which you scoop out of the water to the sauce. If necessary, you can use a little of the cooking liquid to the entire dish and if you want to add herbs and/or cheese, you do so to the pasta and sauce and combine all together.

Why is this interesting? Because I haven’t been doing it all wrong. Only partly. Until I moved here, I NEVER, and I do mean never, dished up my pasta and THEN my sauce. We always had them together and I thought it ridiculous to do it otherwise but that’s the way Paul did it so I started doing it here. I do drain my pasta, but have never rinsed it. Guess what? I’m going to start doing it my way. It’s a heck of a lot easier and actually makes fewer dirty dishes. So there.

Have a fantastic day!

Growing

Good morning! It is a lovely, sunny day here. Cool so far, there was frost during the night, at 37° and humidity at 76% with an expected high of 59°. So far, I’ve only seen evidence of life from animals and two children. And plants. the peas and garlic stayed outside all night last night and I’ve got thyme and other things sprouting.

Monday night we got a Tyler for overnight and most of yesterday. They played with Legos and outside and did their best to stay awake until the wee sma’s. Didn’t work. They were in the living room and because I didn’t have to get up early Tuesday, I could stay up later if I wanted to. So I did, working on soap stuff and reading. They were asleep before I went upstairs.

They were also awake before I went downstairs, but that doesn’t bother me. Cedric spent Monday night at his friend Chris’s house. His plan was to take some of his friends to see a movie so Joanna picked him and Chris up and then they went to pick up Zack and so I didn’t see him until late afternoon. Sounds like he had fun but was sleepy from his overnighter and had a hard time staying awake during the movie. Did he learn anything from this experience? Probably not.

My friend Margaret came over in the morning with her two boys. They had fun playing with the boys I had here and we were able to get some seeds planted. I filled up five more milk jugs (astragalus, dill, strawflowers, Irish lace, and yarrow) and ten egg cartons (with tomatoes and peppers). That was fun. We had a good visit and I got things planted that needed to be which probably would not have happened otherwise because I would have gone straight from breakfast and cleaning off the counter in the kitchen to soapy endeavors. Thanks, Margaret.

Garlic and peas.

Yesterday I gave away two bars of soap and sent gift certificates for two others. I also gave someone 25% off her order of soap. I posted a question on my soap Facebook page and everyone who responds, gets what they’d choose. The options are 10% off, 15% off, 25% off, free shipping, and a free bar of soap. I’ve been asked to provide coupons for grab bags at a fundraiser and I wanted to know what people would prefer. So far, the free bar of soap is gaining the most but I’m thinking people at a distance might prefer free shipping or 25% off. Go to Pitcherville Soap Co. on Facebook and let me know what you’d like. And while you’re there, like my page if you haven’t yet.

Baby thyme.

Today is going to be a wonderful day for making garden boxes. However, I really need to work on Laura’s dress more. I’m sure Cedric is going to want to go to the West’s but I really can’t stay there with him and if no one else will be there, I won’t just leave him. If I get enough done on the dress this morning, I might consent to taking him this afternoon because I can read. I have a LOT of reading to do and am running out of time for that, too.

Anyway, such is life. I need to do a post for the soap blog now so have a fantastical day!

Ducky Day

Good morning! It is a lovely cloudy day and we are supposed to get rain today. At least, weather.com says a 100% chance and it certainly looks it outside. Currently we are at 87% humidity so rain would be nice. We’ll see how it works out and how it affects Cedric’s plans for the day. Yesterday was beautiful.

This morning I woke up at 5:15 and my back was killing me (good thing I don’t have to be absolutely literal whenever I open my mouth or express myself using the written word). I know it’s my own fault because I haven’t been doing stretches or walking or anything like I know I should be and I have been doing a bit of reading and working on papers that require a lot of looking in the book while I’m typing stuff up. I supposed I could write it out and then type it but, you know, that takes longer. Maybe today. Still, my back hurt, so I told myself I’d do my stretches when I got up for good. At 6:18 I woke up for good and did my stretches after feeding the goats their grain. They still need their hay and pine branches but I have to put on long pants and a jacket and gloves and some kind of shoes with no holes (think Crocs here—as an example of with holes).

Why?

Because I was outside Saturday for less than 30 minutes moving Christmas tree skeletons and brush. It was a beautiful day and I was wearing capris and a short sleeve t-shirt. I woke up yesterday with a rash all over my lower arms and legs and neck. An itchy rash. When will I ever learn. I asked Margaret what essential oils were good for itching rashes because I didn’t remember and was too lazy to look it up and she said lavender, frankincense, and tea tree. So I got them out, added them to some coconut oil, and slathered them on. And they did the trick. One place on the back of my left hand is currently itching and the oil is upstairs by the bed.

I do wonder about this, though. I have had seasonal allergies for as long as I can remember. I didn’t develop asthma until I moved to Scott Valley and was exposed to freshly cut alfalfa on a regular basis. I never experienced contact dermatitis until I moved here. So what is the difference between the other places I’ve lived and here that walking in grass makes me break out in an itching rash? I’ve been exposed to poison oak before and it had no effect on me. Why now? Why grass? And, no, I’m not complaining, I just really would like to know.

Saturday Paul took the boys out to look for shoes and pants and said it would be a quick trip. I’m not sure he knows the meaning of those words. I’m not sure when they left but it was by 10:00. They didn’t get back until after 3:00. A quick trip means I’ll be back in two hours or less. He asked if I wanted to go and I said no. I’m glad I did because that would have driven me nuts.

Yesterday was pretty good. Kind of Sunday-like, you know?

And today is cool and cloudy and my goal for the week is to get Laura’s dress done. Not an impossible task by any stretch of the imagination so we’ll see how it goes.

Hey, Joanna, you asked about turkeys the other day. This morning, when I went out to give the goats their grain, I noticed that Kitty was watching something intently. When I was done with the goats, I saw what it was: I big tom turkey showing off his finery. He had some friends down the hill.

And, Laura, you need to get blogging. If you want to successfully market using social media, you need to be doing about three blog posts each week. They can be short, but they need to be done. You can do it! I have faith in you! Even just a quote or something small would work.

Have a ducky day!

Nice (as in no humidity) Day

Good morning! It is a rainy one which is just fine other than the goats being vocal again.

This morning I decided to check email and Facebook before I delved in here and I’m glad I did because I found this gem posted by Liz Stewart (she and my mom worked together for years in the currently politically incorrect Welfare Department):

“Grief never ends .... But it changes. It’s a passage, not a place to stay. Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith .... It is the price of love.”

~Author Unknown~

That perfectly sums up how I feel about Daniel, Papa, my dad, and others I’ve known and loved who have moved on. Without love, there is no grief.

Yesterday was a busy day but it did not include much driving around which was nice. It was a beautiful day and part of the reason it was was due to the lack of humidity although I didn’t realize that until later.

This is the window before the shelf-making fun.

In the afternoon, I built two shelves for two windows in the dining room so we can have more containers full of dirt for seed starting purposes. Currently, there are nineteen milk/orange juice jugs taking up residence. Of those, eight have actual plants growing in them. The others were just planted yesterday after the shelves were constructed and installed.

This is the window. I love that all these little seeds can use the sun.

In the morning, I did this and that, mostly laundry and dishes and moving boards to the basement to cut them and then cutting them in preparation of making shelves. I also thawed out some boneless pork ribs for lunch and while they were in the oven, the boys and I went to Gardner.

I needed to drop of a check for car insurance and then I’d promised Seth and Joseph drinks from the store and I wanted to borrow Julia’s cordless drill because I like working without cords. Those were all accomplished within an hour and there was actually time to spare (almost twenty minutes) when we got home.

Cedric was on his way down here. He would give Daniel some pretty stiff competition in tree climbing. Do you suppose it's genetic?

Joanna showed up. She had gone to work but they told her to go home because it was so dead so she came over. That was nice. She had lunch with us, which included the sister missionaries, and then took Seth and Joseph out in the Jeep. She ended up staying all afternoon other than when she went to get her hair cut and stuff to cook over a fire in the back field. I don’t generally like hotdogs but when cooked over a camp fire, they taste so much better. I even had a couple of s’mores and they were actually good (I don’t like marshmallows).

There was a pack meeting that we should have gone to but I was honestly not feeling like being around a lot of people so we didn’t go. We’re going to miss the last one because it’s on May 9^th and we will be going to Laura’s wedding and reception and such.

Right now I need to get Cedric a lunch together.

Lunch together, dogs fed, strawberry smoothie made for the boys. The really awesome thing about smoothies? You can put all kinds of stuff in them and the boys don’t seem to notice. Love it.

Yesterday late afternoon I decided to take the frosting I’d taken to church Wednesday night and that Julia took home after and alter it. It was pretty runny but I was in a hurry. Because it was runny, it was pretty perfect for adding cocoa to in order to transform it from vanilla buttercream to chocolate so that’s what I did. Then I smeared it on graham crackers and made sandwiches. I hadn’t made them for about ever and all three boys were quick to remind me of this fact.

Yesterday when I called Paul to find out who we are supposed to call about having a fire for cooking, he said that on his way to work, there were signs out indicating that the fire danger was high. I thought that was ridiculous so I looked online to see why it would have been. Reasons cited: lack of rain in the past few weeks (we’ve had some, don’t know where in MA hasn’t but I guess some places haven’t), wind (yeah, that one makes sense), and lack of humidity. Really? Lack of humidity? I had to look that one up too, and according to weather.com, the humidity was at 19%. Are you kidding me!!?? No wonder yesterday was such a nice day! Paul didn’t really want the fire to be in the field where we’ve had them before but Joanna and the boys had improved the pit. When I went out, I felt the grass and ground and yes, the dead grass on top was dry, but the underneath and ground were not. So, yes, the wind could have sent sparks into the dead grass, and yes, we could have had a grass fire and I suppose it might have spread if such a thing happened. But, having grown up around dry conditions all my life, at least compared to MA, I wasn’t too concerned although I do sometimes sort of attempt to be more concerned and feel for these poor people who don’t have a clue how to live in more natural circumstances.

Was that too thick?

This is the stuff memories are made of.

Anyway, while I was out with Joanna and the boys by the fire (Joanna took two four gallon buckets of water to have out by the fire, by the way), the school called to let all parents of QRMS 8^th grade students know that the buses should be arriving at the school by about 9:30. So I got the boys in the house and hopefully to bed and got in the car.

Not perfect, perhaps, but not bad. They didn't get rid of all vegetation around the rocks but did the dry, dead stuff from the top. 

And Paul called and was telling me all about the class he’d taken yesterday morning which seems to have had a lot of good information for selling soap via social networking. I couldn’t sit there and keep talking so I took off and the call was lost on the way to Barre while I was on Elm Street, or whatever it turns into before reaching 62.

I actually got to the school at the same time the buses were arriving so Amena and I were home an hour after I left. Pretty exciting. Amena didn’t really have a terribly good time but such is life.

Now I need to get the goats fed and watered.

Have a splendiferous day!

The Way it Rolls

Good morning! It looks so far to be a good one. The only problem with that is that these days are beautiful and mean that something worse is going to be here all too soon. I hate summer. I greatly dislike most bugs. I love the garden but that’s about it.

Yesterday. It was a day like no other. To begin with, the goats were being really vocal. Did I already mention that yesterday? Good grief! They’re doing the same thing today. I don’t know what’s gotten into them other than they must want more fresh food. I wish there was some for them. Too bad we can’t teleport them to Grandma’s yard. It seems she’s got some good stuff they could eat. At the rate things are going, there should be something for them soon but not today.

Joseph had a dentist appointment at 9:45. That means leaving by 9:15. We left a little early and got there a little early and he got almost right in and was out close to 10:00. We went home. Of course, we went home. What else would we do?

Joseph and one of his Lego creations. Pretty cute kid (did I really say that? Of course I meant child) even if he does need a haircut.

Once home, we made a lunch which consisted of ham sandwiches, chocolate bread with chocolate peanut butter, grapes, fudge, and juice boxes. Then we cleaned out the truck a little; enough for two boys to sit in the back and Julia to sit in the front and us to put some wood in the back. While we were getting ready, Joanna and Zak showed up to wash the Jeep. Joanna went offroading with the boys the other day and the Jeep got very covered with mud. So did Joanna.

Then we went to the bank, picked Julia up, and were on our way out of Dodge by quarter after 11. The trip was fairly noneventful. We were going to Everett which is northish of Boston but because it is so close, you cannot tell where one ends the next begins. There are quite a few cities in the area that just run together and make up one huge mass of humanity. I am so glad I don’t live any closer than I do.

I was quite surprised at how awful the road is that we ended up on. It was way worse than Pitcherville Road which is saying something. The guy I got the wood from was really nice and I got a good deal. The boards are all pretty nice; I got 100 14-foot 1-by-4’s for less than $200.

And of course Kitty. She loves to roll around in the driveway. You can see Misty's foot hair and nose up at the top too.

Of course, Paul emailed me some links for some others yesterday. One was for a total of over 300 linear feet of 1x5’s for just a few dollars more than what I paid. Other than the fact that that extra inch would have posed problems doing what I want to do, it would have been a good deal. Especially since it’s in Athol which is less than half an hour away. Another is for some free stuff that I might still look into for the future or for some that I can make closer to planting time.

The trip home was fairly uneventful. The only problem is that everything took a little longer than I was anticipating (and we left a little later than I wanted to), so we didn’t get home until almost time to go pick Cedric up from school so he could go to the West’s. Still, I took the truck home and got the car and picked Cedric up and took him to the West’s and went home.

Once home, Seth and Joseph helped unload the wood into the barn and then I had enough time to make some cupcakes since the official cupcake-maker wasn’t going to be able to make any. I also made frosting and discovered that I had an entire thirty minutes unencumbered before Joseph was picked up for scouts. Oh, my! What to do?

Dishes. I made a pretty good dent in the pile that had accumulated. Then it was off to church where I had to leave by about 7:15 in order to pick Cedric up and get to the school in order to pick up Seth and Joseph. Done and done.

Then it was home again, send the boys to bed, and go to bed myself.

Yeah, baby. What a day.

Guess what’s up for today? Nothing.

Ha ha.

School for the boys. A chart of STIs for me. A pack meeting tonight.

And that’s it. Relatively speaking, of course, because there are always more things to do.

Have a terrifical day!