No Insomnia Here, Man

Good morning. I went to bed last night at 11:00. That is later than normal and later than I should and I was tired and I slept well all night until after 4:00 when I usually wake up at least enough to use the bathroom and check the time. Do you know why I slept well?

I slept well because no matter who won the election, my worrying about it would have no effect on anything but my own health. Am I happy with the way the election went? No. Would I have been had Clinton won? No. Would I have been had someone else won? Perhaps. Even though I did vote 3^rd party, I don’t know that Johnson or McMullin winning would have solved any of our problems. We’ve been working on our problems for a good many years and no one individual is going to fix them. Well, I take that back. I happen to believe that there will be a second coming and Jesus Christ will come and when he does, he will fix things. I also happen to believe that things are going to get a lot uglier before that happens and this election might just help that along.

So, last night I slept. Will I continue being able to sleep? Only time will tell. Ultimately, unless my being awake will in some way help keep my family alive, I think I will. A human can only stay awake for so many hours before there are negative consequences after all.

And although the future could very well get really ugly, for now I look out the window and see that the sun is rising. In less than an hour, I will have to go out and milk. Amena and Cedric will get on the bus and go to school in about fifteen minutes (unless they miss it, in which case they’ll be home today). Seth and Joseph will do their school work today and a civics lesson is in store as we will be discussing the election and later today when I should be doing something else, I’m probably going to take a look at the numbers because from what I see now, the race was very, very close. I’m sure that there were those who imbibed too much alcohol and they are or will be ruing this morning. I’m sure there were some who went to bed and had sex and perhaps in nine months I will be honored to be a participant in the birth of a baby.

Although the future could get really ugly, there will always be beauty in the world and I can do everything within my power to make sure my family is as safe as possible. When faced with trials and hardships, should we give up? No. We should get to work. My paternal grandma, Mabel Roper, and I used to trade quotes and quips and one of my favorites was and is, “Work will win when wishing won’t.” It might be time to get to work. Well, it was a long time ago, really, but we can’t go back to the past, can we? Since we are where we are, it is time to get to work.

In other news, yesterday was a beautiful day. I voted, I read a lot about problems that can occur during pregnancy, I had a fantastic salad with lettuce and spinach, garbanzos, avocado, broiled chicken, and homemade Italian dressing. I also went to the track at Mount Wachusett Community College and watched Cedric race and beat Dan at the 800. I do love watching Cedric run. Seth didn’t want to race but he did run after they did. We didn’t time Cedric and Dan but I did time Seth. He did the 800 in one minute and 17.97 seconds. I love watching him run, too. Joanna and Joseph were there, as well, and after the running we drove up to Ashburnham intending to climb Mt. Watatic. We got a late start, though, and only made it to the top of Nutting Hill.

Once I got home, I read more, did laundry, and kept looking at election results. Then Amena got home at 8:00. Then the boys got home around 9:00. After the fun of getting everything settled down, we had family prayer and Amena and the boys went to bed. Paul got home after the boys were in bed but before their light was off. And then I went to bed.

Interestingly, when I looked at the numbers an hour ago, Trump had 47.6% of the popular vote to Clinton’s 47.58%. Now they stand at 47.58 and 47.61. Will the final number be different? I don’t know but I’m certainly not going to lose sleep over it.

Instantaneous Communication

Good morning. It’s nice and wet outside. Inside I’ve managed to make hot chocolate, wash the leftover dishes from last night (but not those from making hot chocolate), fold two loads of laundry (which Cedric already put away [they were mostly his]), and correct Seth and Joseph’s papers from yesterday that I didn’t get to yesterday. I also managed to wake up a few minutes before 4:00 to use the bathroom and wasn’t able to go back to sleep quickly enough so rather than lay there thinking about things I need to do today, I decided to actually get up and start on them. There is a load of sheets in the drier and a load of darks in the washer. The fun just has no end.

This is what the sunrise looked like on the 23rd. It was very pretty.

There are some things I like about the instantaneous communication of today and some things I do not like. I got an email last week from Cedric’s science teacher asking about a project. I knew he’d worked on it but had no idea why he had not turned it in. One day he said the room was rearranged and he couldn’t find the bin it should have gone in and the next day he just forgot. I knew he had it, because I looked through his back pack, and I mentioned this when I responded to the email. This morning I read another email she sent yesterday. This time she was asking if I’d seen another assignment when I went looking and no, I did not. He really had no response when I asked him about that this morning so he gets to work on it today after school unless he finishes during flex block of some other time during school.

This is what Joseph and Maddie looked like on the 23rd. Aren't they just the cutest little uncle and niece?

I also got an email from Amena’s English teacher. They are reading The Crucible and had a quiz. The email was a rather generic one and a mass-send to all the parents of students who got less than 70 on a quiz. Personal emails I don’t mind from teachers because I know that they are actually aware of my student and have a concern or something specific to say. When I get mass mailings, I have no such feeling and I’m not a huge fan of them. Especially when I hear from my student that only ten people in the class of over twenty scored over 70. Amena doesn’t like the way this particular teacher grades things and I have to say that grading in high school should be fairly uniform, especially within a school. Amena also said that there was another high school English teacher who was well-liked by students (I think that says a lot for any teacher, personally) but her teacher went to the administration and the other teacher ended up getting fired. Granted, this is what she heard from another (now graduated) student, but with the way the world is today, I believe it is very possible. Quite likely, even.

Just another view of that awesome sunrise since we didn't get to see one this morning.

To this email from the English teacher I have not responded. There are so many things I could say, so many directions I could go. If more than half the students did not do well on a quiz, is it possible that there is something deficient in how the material is being presented or taught? Given that Amena also reports that there is an attention-never-brought-to-board on the side wall of the classroom which at least occasionally has information that might be found useful by students, I think this is likely.

And just another view of these two because I don't know how anyone can get enough. Please note that I did not post this to either Instagram or specifically to Facebook.

Never having been to this classroom and never having met this particular teacher, there is a lot I do not know. I do know my child, though. I hope that no teacher ever thinks that I will take the side of the teacher over my own child just because the teacher is the teacher or is an adult. I also hope that no child of mine ever thinks that I will take the side of my child simply because my child is my child. There are always two sides to the story. That all said, based on what I do know, I have my thoughts and opinions in this particular case.

In other news, I looked at the clock at 7:09 and realized I needed to go milk. Once I got out to the barn, I realized I needed to take care of the grain before I could milk since I neglected to do it yesterday. In other words, it wasn’t a ten-minute operation; it was a twenty-minute operation.

Cedric has a cross country meet this afternoon unless it is deemed to be too wet. Then I’m not sure if he’ll have practice or not. We will have to wait and see. As of right now, it is still on. The weather is supposed to clear up, or at least the rain is supposed to stop. Weather reports are only so reliable, though.

Seth and Joseph have school stuff to do. I have school stuff to do but no appointments and other than going to watch/pick Cedric up and take Amena to and from work, no reason to go out and about. I’d love to go out for a field trip but I’d really love for it to be a hiking field trip and I’m not sure I really want to do that until this cold/cough is gone.

Unless I write a very short blurb next time, this will be it for this 100 pages as I’m on page 100 of 100 and word 64,033. Not that the number of words has much to do with anything.

And that’s about it for now. I hope you have a fantabulous day!

What does your day look like?

Good morning! Lots of interesting thoughts running through my mind this morning. For one thing, it’s amazing to me that something like R2D2 can have so much stuff stored on/in it. I mean, I have two full-length manuscripts stored on it plus a whole lot of other stuff. Just an incredible thing that we have at our disposal today.

As I was milking Zoey, I was thinking about the different things I’ve walked into this morning and comparing them. These things happen, you know, when you are sitting and milking a goat. For example, the humidity this morning has been palpable. The humidity and the spider webs are very present this morning; the only real difference is that the fog is diffused and while you can feel and see it, it easily moves and you are able to walk through it as opposed to the spider webs which are very concentrated and must break in order for you walk through them. I don’t purposefully break spider webs, by the way, but if they build their webs where I must walk, something has to go and it isn’t me. Or, in another way of looking at it, I do have to go and therefore the web does as well.

This guy (or girl--I don't know how to tell the difference) was sitting there when I was driving off for the first appointment (which I found out had been changed to 12:00 rather than 11:30 while en route). Just sitting there. Cute little bugger. But I couldn't help but wonder where Kitty was because she needs to take care of this thing, cute or not.

Lastly, if you have only two children, you really have nothing in common with me. Perhaps that is harsh. Perhaps I should say you really have very little in common with me. Especially if you have a husband who is willing and able to help provide taxi service. Say you have two children, a boy and a girl, you have a job, we’ll say you work from home to make the comparison easier, and you are involved with other things such as scouts and sports.

Let’s talk about that husband first. Does he work? Hopefully. Does he work from home? Does he have an office job? Is he on the road a lot?

Working from home can make life easier or more difficult depending on what exactly his work entails. In general, I’m going to make the assumption that the reason he works from home is because he has some kind of an office job that can either be done from home or is self-employment. This being the case, he can most likely take a few minutes to an hour or so to take children to the doctor or drop them off at school or take them to practice or scouts or what-have-you. If his job requires being on the phone and he sometimes is not able to get off, well, that puts a kink in his helping you with taxi service. A kink, however, is not a permanent issue. Unless he’s on the phone all day long which is possible but does not seem likely. At least, not for the same call.

If he technically works from home but his job happens to be construction or something of that nature, he will of necessity have to be away from home for extended periods of time from an hour or more to weeks. If his jobs are near enough to home that he is able to return home every night, he still can most likely help with transportation to scouts and practice at least some of the time. If he is gone for days or weeks, well, that is something else entirely.

Let’s talk about those children. Your son is in Boy (or Cub) Scouts and your daughter is in Girl Scouts (or Brownies). Hopefully you have a division of labor and your husband can be involved with your son and you can be with your daughter, or vice versa, whatever works. Hopefully you aren’t the Cub Master for you son’s pack as well as the den leader for your daughter. But maybe you are. If you are, we may have more in common than otherwise.

Both of your children are involved in sports. Your daughter plays soccer and runs track. Your son plays baseball, basketball, and football. Poor you. This is practice every day of the week, and I get that. It is also most likely more than one practice at least some days of the week, depending on what grades your children are in. I get that. And then there are games and meets and conflicting schedules and I hope your husband is able to help out or you can work out some carpool deals with fellow parents.

In spite of scouts and sports, at least your children attend public school. They get on the bus in the morning and you don’t have to worry about them (even though you do anyway) until they either get home on the bus or you have to pick them up from school to transport to scouts or practice or you pick them up after practice.

Your job. You work from home. Because you work from home, people assume that you have all this time on your hands. “Oh, you’re home, you can do this, right?” Please excuse the eye roll here. Your schedule is fairly flexible but because you have to be available for clients from different parts of the world, you have to be available at some really odd times. And while you can generally schedule your work load around the schedules of other family members, there are times when you are just absolutely inundated with work.

I get all that. I really do. But you really have no clue what my life looks like.

For one thing, I have three full time jobs.

I am a homeschool mom to two boys. They are not twins which means we cover two grade levels. I am grateful it is only two at the moment, because it has been up to five in the past, and I would absolutely love it if the two in public school would chose homeschool even though it would increase the work load. Each grade level is like a job. It means individual lesson plans. It means that even though we may cover the same topics for science or history, they are working at different levels. It’s a lot of fun and I love watching them learn and grow but it’s a lot of work and a huge responsibility.

I am a student. I have a full work load of my own studies which includes a heck of a lot of reading and studying and assignments. I usually do not get everything done in a day, or even a week, that I would like and often I wish I could add a few hours to the day in order to finish. Hasn’t happened yet.

Part of being a student is being an apprentice or student midwife. I get to go to prenatal appointments and am to the point where I will be going to the births as well. I did spend most of two nights at a labor a few weeks ago and had she not transported, I would have been present for the birth and another birth is looming ever present that I will be present for (unless she has her baby before I arrive which is always possible) but these are not currently the norm. The norm is about to become me being present for every birth. Currently that will be in a mostly observational position but that will change over time as I learn more.

Let me paint you a picture of what this looks like.

Yesterday, I went to a Massachusetts Midwives Alliance meeting. I am not a member right now but by the next meeting, I expect to be. This doesn’t mean much because I will be a student and as such will have no vote, but I will still be present and will be learning. This meeting was four hours long and was held in Jamaica Plain. This is what it really looked like:

Left the house at 7:45 to meet my ride in Gardner. She was running late so we didn’t leave Gardner until about 8:20. Traffic was terrible (I thought it would be better since it wasn’t what I would consider to be rush hour) and a trip that could take an hour and 19 minutes actually took almost two hours which got us there late.

The first half of the meeting was business. Honestly, I thought it was going to be much longer than two hours the way the conversation kept going back and forth. It sounds like I missed a really interesting meeting in June.

At noon, the business portion was over, it was time for lunch, and it was agreed that people would talk and eat.

The second half of the meeting was peer review. What that means is that a midwife or two gives the details about a particular client (details such as what happened and when, not name and address information); typically a birth that was difficult in some way. The case is discussed and comments and suggestions are made and discussed. The idea is to bounce ideas around and help everyone improve quality of care.

Everything was done by 2:00 and we left. Traffic was bad again but we arrived back in Gardner around 3:30 or so and I was home by 4:00ish.

That was that part of the day. Amena also had work and needed a ride there and home. Seth had scouts and needed a ride there and home. I can’t really be in Gardner at 8:15 to pick Amena up and then Pinecrest Lodge at 8:30 to pick Seth up so I asked a fellow parent if Seth could get a ride home; he could.

Today, I kept Amena home hoping I could get her in to see the doctor this morning because her asthma has been really bad due to the high humidity and the fact that she also caught a cold. No luck. They had an opening at 12:30 but Amena didn’t want to miss the whole day of school. So I made her an appointment for Monday at 3:30 (because that’s the next available opening) and took her to school. That worked out well because I could also drop Cedric’s shoes off for cross country today even though it added 45 minutes of driving. Which isn’t bad considering we may have been sitting at the doctor’s office for two hours had we gone.

Then I came home, formally started the school day for Seth and Joseph, took a shower, continued school stuff for the boys, and continued working on this.

At 11:15 I need to leave to go to a prenatal appointment in Gardner at 11:30. Then there is an appointment in Winchendon at 1:30. Rather than come home beween, I’ll take letterboxing stuff with me and see if I can catch a couple if I don’t have something else to do (which I already know I do have but might decide not to do it). After that appointment, I will come home. Seth and Joseph need to go to the library and then I will need to pick Cedric up. Then Amena needs a ride to work and I’ll have to go to Winchester to meet and carpool to the next appointment at 6:30. Amena has to get a ride home from someone else because I won’t be back in time to pick her up. Well, probably not. I might be.

By the time I get home, I’ll have to make sure stragglers are getting to bed and then it won’t be long to bedtime for me.

Somewhere in there I need to find time to read, study, and work on assignments for my own school work. And make sure my children have food for lunch and dinner. And everything else that needs to be done.

Other than my three full time jobs, I am the Committee Chair for Hubbardston Pack 12 Cub Scouts, seminary teacher for Amena, a married single mother (which is another conversation altogether), a soapmaker, mother of a cross-country running, mother of a Cub Scout, mother of a Boy Scout (I’m hoping Cedric will change his mind and decide to do scouts this year), etc., etc., etc.

You may think it is harsh that I say you have no idea what my life looks like if you have only two children. If I had only two children, they would be Alisha and Laura. Laura will be 25 next month. If I had only two children, I would have only three grandchildren, I would have no children still at home, I would not have as much on my plate as I currently do. I would certainly not be a Committee Chair, I would probably not be teaching seminary, I would certainly not have to worry about homeschooling two boys aged 10 and 12, I would not have to worry about taxi service for the 14- and 16-year-olds.

In short, you may have a small idea of what my life looks like, and now you may have a better idea, but you still don’t know what it’s like to live it.

In spite of that, life is basically good. I’m basically happy with where I am (other than physically) and I’m happy with where I’m going. I just don’t have any extra time to do anything so don’t be disappointed if I don’t drop everything else and do whatever it is you don’t have time to do. I’ll do what I can but other than that, please don’t hold your breath.

PS I did not write this in response to any one particular request. There are many things I would do if I had more time and there are many things I wish I had the time to do. I expect that in about ten years I may have more free time. Until then, we’ll just see.

In the meantime, have a fabulous day on this beautiful one!

Time To Get Busy

7:57 am

It is raining. Which means it is also wet. I have three loaves of bread in the oven and the milk is almost strained (because I weighed it and then forgot). I did three Spanish lessons in Duolingo and got my Irish notebook out. I made Amena tea to drink on the way to school.

Yesterday I did not walk a mile but I did walk. I ate a green salad. I drank almost 96 ounces of water. I also had a Sunday headache in the morning that was exacerbated by major stress and turned into a massive headache by the afternoon. I finally broke down and took an ibuprofen before bed with a decent amount of water hoping it would be gone in the morning. I even was in bed not long after 9:30.

Okay, I lied. Well, not really. I don't have any new pictures for you so I borrowed a couple from Laura and used another one from Saturday. This is Elias with his toes peeking out. Isn't he a cutie pie? I need to see him again. I need to hold him again.

When I woke up to use the bathroom, the headache was still there. When I woke up to make sure Cedric was awake (Amena was already up and showering), the headache was still there until I walked out of the bedroom. I went to lay back down until 5:30 and the headache was back. When I got up at 5:20-something, my headache was still there but went away when I left the bedroom again. Currently, I’ve finished my first bottle of water for the day and doing what I’ve done so far downstairs has not brought it back. However, I just helped Joseph take Misty upstairs so she can have a bath and the headache was right there.

Right now I’m going to go grate some zucchini to stick in the freezer. I’ll be back. I think.

9:20 am

I grated zucchini. When I am fairly certain I’ll be grating more to freeze, I’ll put two cups grated in a quart freezer bag and squish it down in the bottom of the bag and fold the bag over and then freeze it. Then, when I have more to freeze, I add two more cups grated and freeze the whole thing. When I don’t think it’s likely I’ll be freezing more, I put four cups grated in a quart freezer bag and freeze it. Currently, I have about ten bags full plus a couple small ones left to have for lunch.

And here he is again. These were both taken earlier this month. If Laura took them the same day she sent them, this one if from the 14th and the first one the 11th. At any rate, I need more pictures.

The bread is also out of the oven and we have begun school although the boys are taking their sweet time actually doing their math since that’s what they decided to do first today.

It is no longer raining but it is still quite wet. The humidity is probably quite high although perhaps only 99% rather than the 100% it was while it was raining. I just checked. I was correct. There are times I would like to be wrong but I’m afraid that as long as we remain in Massachusetts, I probably won’t be when it comes to things like this.

Now the boys are doing their timed math for math.

And this cutie! Just look at that little hand in the corner. Baby dimples are so stinking cute!

I need to find the PiYo DVDs and mop the living room floor so I can do that. The dog peed and pooped in the living room this morning. I’m sure you can guess how happy I am about that.

Paul lifted one of the bags of garbage and said, “This is heavy.”

It should be. It’s about ten pounds of chicken. I took it out to thaw Saturday night and when I cut the plastic packaging yesterday morning, the stench was awful. No chicken for Sunday dinner. We had stroganoff instead. It was good but just added to the stress of the day.

And now, I’ll be off.

Have a fantastic day!

The Best, the Worst, the Goals

Yes, I should be on my way to bed. Guess what? I don’t feel like it.

Do you remember ever hearing this: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”

That was my day.

See what I mean? I have a cute baby for hours and this is the first picture I put in here. Some of the ants in the driveway are making this for us. Aren't they thoughtful? It's soft and squishy and I didn't touch it with my hands; just my shoe.

It was the most incredible day ever! Maddie was here while Joanna was at work and she is so cute that my heart melts just thinking about her. (Just for the record, I feel the same way about Elias and Alisha has a couple of boys I love, too.) She slept most of the time, was awake part of the time, ate a little of the time, was terribly cute all of the time. Oh, yeah, it was good. Especially when she smiles and talks. Or sleeps. Or you get to change her diaper and see her cute little chunky legs. Or whatever she happens to be doing. She never cried. She was here from about 7:45 to about 3:30 and she was held for all but about twenty minutes. Heaven must have babies in it.

Now this! This is just about the cutest thing ever! She was asleep on Amena's bed for part of the 20 minutes she wasn't being held.

It was also an incredibly annoying day. Especially when I told Margret that I’d rather stack wood than be in the house and when I went outside to finish stacking wood, it was done. Or when I had to ask a certain boy about 500 times to wash the five dishes I asked him to wash last night. Or when I looked at the hot chocolate I heated up for myself and realized that drinking the stuff is not getting me where I want to be and that I need to further change my eating and exercise habits in order to keep making the right kind of progress.

I need some goals. See, I have this little Maddie and this little Elias (and these other two little boys) and I get to be their grandma. And that is a wonderful thing. But I don’t want to be an old, fat, frumpy grandma. I want to be able to do fun things. I want to teach these little ones to love the outdoors and letterboxing and hiking and skiing. And I can’t do that if I can’t do those things. So I need some goals.

And these little feet! One day in the not-too-distant-future they'll be running all over the place. Now they are just cute little baby feet hidden in socks and quite worthy of having their picture taken.

Here are those I’ve thought of in the past few minutes:

PiYo six days a week.

Walking at least a mile every day.

Walking at least five miles three or four days a week.

Eating a green salad a day, usually with homemade Italian dressing.

Drinking at least 72 but preferably 96 ounces of water daily.

Going to see Billy Idol by the end of 2017.

You may not understand why that last one is on the list but that is okay. I don’t even know if Billy Idol will be doing any concerts next year but the goal stands if he does. If not, I’ll change it as needed.

So, focusing on the best of the day, I intend to make myself better and I intend to make other goals in order to make life better.

Have a fantastic night!

Accidents...Never Happen

“Accidents never happen

In a perfect world…”

That’s a Blondie song and I want to know how I got it stuck in my head while I was asleep.

When I woke up at 5:00 to my alarm, there were a few things running around in my head. One, the dream I’d been in the middle of. Two, “Accidents never happen…In a perfect world.” Three, the fact that I needed to visit the bathroom. Four, the thought that I needed to make sure Amena and Cedric were awake.

So I got up, checked on Cedric, checked on Amena, used the bathroom, went back to bed, and turned my alarm on for 5:30. I need to get going early this morning but there was no need for me to actually get up that early. However, Cedric came in to get a towel and left the light on so I got up to turn it off and got back in bed before I realized that me being in bed was going to do no good so I got up.

This is a happy Kitty sitting on Seth's lap.

I think the song might have had something to do with the fact that I needed to use the bathroom. In my dream, I’d gone twice.

This dream was interesting. Paul and I went to the West’s for dinner. As we were walking in the house, he told me that they were moving. As in the next morning. I had a hard time digesting this because I’d spoken to both Emily and Jeremy within the past 24 hours, Seth was supposed to go do some work for them in a few days, and neither had said anything about moving. Not only were they moving, they were moving to Sanford. As in California. I couldn’t go in and face all the people who were there so I went for a walk in order to process this information. When I got back, everyone other than Paul, the West’s, and another couple were gone. There was no food left but that was okay because I wasn’t really hungry. Emily was trying to explain that they thought I already knew they were moving but once I process something, I’m fine with it (Am I really? Or was this just part of the dream? I’m not quite sure.). Conversation was cut short in any case because the other woman there was in labor and suddenly there was a bed for her.

This is a super cute Maddie having tummy time.

She was squatting on the bed and once I realized what was going on, I went to her and said, “Hey, let me help. I’ve given birth to eight babies and I’m a trained doula.” She just smiled and then had a contraction. I worked with her to visualize through the contractions and everything was going well. I didn’t have a clue what was going to happen for the actual birth but I wasn’t worrying about that right then. She got up to use the toilet but as she stood, she had another contraction and as she was leaning against the wall she said, “So I want to know is should I homeshool or not.”

Really? I said, “Well, that’s something you need to discuss with your husband but my opinion is that you should. (I said more than that but I’m not going to tell you what else I said because it was way too personal—sorry but not.)”

She groaned and my alarm went off.

This is a super cute Maddie having a nap while Grandma holds her.
Grandma. That still seems so strange. But Maddie isn't. She's super cute.
And cuddly. And perfect.

Yesterday was a pretty okay day. It was an early release day for Amena and Cedric and Seth and Joseph were almost done with their work by the time Cedric got home. I really wanted to go out letterboxing and hiking, which I mentioned yesterday, but I also wanted to go see Joanna and Maddie (and Lincoln). We ended up going to see Joanna. And Maddie. And Lincoln once he got home. The boys were mostly interested in playing games and watching TV but I was mostly interested in Maddie. Well, and Joanna. I got to hold a sleeping Maddie for something like an hour. She drank a little bit of milk but wasn’t really hungry; Joanna said she’d eaten not long before we got there. She was mostly sleepy. And oh so cute! So, no letterboxing or hiking but still okay.

Joseph had scouts and it was blessedly short. I had a killer headache by the time it was time for scouts and didn’t feel like taking forever in the store so I’m glad it didn’t. There was stuff going on at church that Amena, Cedric, and Seth should have gone to but I was tired of arranging for rides for people, can only be in one place at any given time, and figured if Paul had time, he could stop by and get them. He didn’t so they didn’t go.

Right now I’m thinking I could actually go back to sleep but it’s approaching milking time and it’s a busy day. After milking, I’ll need a shower and then it’ll be time to get on with everything that needs to happen.

I need a million dollars. I just thought I’d throw that out there. So you know. You know?

Have a terrific day.

Postcards from Yesterday

Good morning. It is a beautiful day. The sun is shining; the temperature is nice. The humidity isn’t that great but the temperature is such that it somewhat mitigates the effects of the humidity. 

They had a pretty good walk on this particular day (which was Monday, the 12th).

I started to write yesterday but got interrupted by Amena and her need to go to Walmart before they opened and then Tops to see if they had what she needed and then back to Walmart. Then it was off to Hardwick and by the time I got home, it was time to start school for the boys and the day was such that nothing more in the way of journal writing or blog posting was accomplished.

Joseph counted over fifty mushrooms.

Some were quite colorful.

Some were like funnels.

Other than a fairly nice drive to Hardwick, a nice outing with Joseph, and an okay day of school for Seth and Joseph, the day was crap. Glad it’s over and cannot be revisited other than in my mind because that’s bad enough.

And, as usual, there were some interesting trees. We'd already planted the letterbox we'd gone to plant or it might have ended up in this tree.

Today is a new day. You know, Postcards from the Past is one of my favorite songs. You should listen to it sometime if you aren’t familiar with it. It’s very applicable.

I guess if people really are allergic to goldenrod this would not be a good place to go for a walk. It was very pretty and a bit on the warm side.

Anyway, today. Today is an early release day. Amena has driver’s ed this afternoon. There is no cross country practice. I would love to get outside and go for a hike. It is very hard to get Seth and Joseph excited about these things but I’m going to see what I can do about it anyway.

And so it is. Have a wonderful day.