785 (establishing direct control, Mercian King Offa re-asserts control of Kent deposing rival Egbert II; Charlemagne is also involved in the middle phase of the Saxon Wars)

Good morning! We had another busy day yesterday. In the morning we had school, as usual. Joseph was having trouble getting things done but Seth sailed through without any issues. After lunch the boys played with Legos for a while which isn’t a huge surprise around here. If school were nothing but playing with Legos and occasionally stuffed animals, it would be a breeze. Except when they decide to fight about them. That is never fun and at such times it is tempting for me to take them away and not let them play with them for weeks or even months or even years.

More water but less color now than there was last month.

About 2:30, we went out on our first letterboxing expedition. In the morning while the boys were working on school, I worked on our stamp. The first one I didn’t do so well and it was facing the wrong direction. The second one turned out better and was facing the right direction (which happens to be left). Emily and Adelaide West came over and we went with them. Emily had never been to Barre Falls Dam so I think it was fun for her to not only go letterboxing but to see something new. Adelaide seemed to have fun, too, and I know the boys liked having her along. They like to entertain her and everyone is entertained by her.

I love old cemeteries.

There are two at Barre Falls Dam and there were a couple of others that I printed the directions to but we really didn’t have time to look for them because we had a full rest of the day. One of them is supposed to be at a Warren Cemetery but where the map shows it is I really wonder because it’s right in the middle of some houses across Elm Street from the Center School. I might have to do some investigating on it. The other is on New Templeton Road. Maybe we’ll look for that one this afternoon.

Opening the first box.

After that, we got Cedric and went to Joanna’s to carve jack o’lanterns. That was fun in spite of the fact that we kind of had to hurry because Cedric had scouts. The funny thing is that Cedric is the one who needed to go somewhere and he was taking the longest to get his done. Joseph finished first although I scooped most of his innards out and Joanna did his cutting. Seth did his all by himself. Cedric had Joanna cut out his nose and mouth.

Cute (not so) little mushroom. It was about an inch and three quarters across and three high. There were some others that were about seven or eight inches in diameter.

On the way home to drop Seth and Joseph off and get Cedric’s book, I remember that I still needed to milk the goats. So I hurried (as much as you can hurry with such things) and got ready to milk and then went and did it. You can hurry to get ready and you can hurry in with the milk but you can’t really milk any faster than you can and the milk will not strain at a faster rate just because you’d like it to.

In spite of everything, Cedric was only fifteen minutes late and did not miss the night hike they had planned. I had managed to get my laptop and ear buds but instead of using them, ended up visiting with Deb Trottier (Ryan’s mom) the entire time. Paul Farrel and his mom arrived after the boys had left on their hike so Deb and I got to visit with Donna. That was nice. I now have a couple of people who either will or might be interested in milking goats for me when I need to be somewhere. Donna said she would be willing because it would be an occasional thing which she would not mind (they have male goats which you do not milk J) and Deb suggested that Kyle who lives next door to them might because he loves animals and would love to have a farm. He’s in 9^th grade.

I got the next campout paid for and then we went home. Except that Cedric was climbing a tree and Dillon Charland thought that our lovely green car was his brothers. That was kind of funny. When we got home, Paul had a bunch of stuff that needed to be put away. And I hadn’t had anything for dinner so I ate some Wheat Thins and yogurt dip. And a yogurt. And a handful of some spicy bean things that are kind of like poofy Cheetos. They are mostly flavor and air and I’m not terribly impressed. Unfortunately, Paul got about six bags of them for me; there is no way I’m going to eat them all. Another example of a good deal that isn’t.

And that is all for now. Have a terrifical day!

2828 (hasn't happened yet so I can't tell you anything that did)

Happy Birthday, Laura!!! Hard to believe that it’s been twenty-three years since Laura made her debut in this world. Wow. What an interesting twenty-three years it has been. I will be making a cake later and will have a picture on Facebook after that. I mean, really, we have to have cake, right?

Friday. Holy cow—seems like about forever ago. It was in the early afternoon that Seth and Joseph went outside and came back in to report that the runt (she really needs a name) was laying on the ground moving her legs but couldn’t get up. I’d heard her out there crying but hadn’t gotten out to check on her so I went out and there she was, the poor little thing. We brought her in, wrapped her in a towel and Seth held her while I fed her some warm milk with a dropper and then got a plastic tote fixed up for her to be in. We but a blanket in the bottom and then another to line the whole thing. I warmed a rice pack and put it under one layer of blanket and then baby goat and then a small quilt over her. She fell asleep eventually and slept for quite a while. We fed her again around 3:30 and got the crate ready on the front porch for her to spend the night in. Cedric held her for a while while he and his brothers watched something. That was pretty cute. When the goats came in, I had her suckle without competition from her brothers but decided it would be best not to let her sleep out with them all because she was doing better but I didn’t think she was quite good enough to completely fend off the others. We put Misty in with her and that worked out pretty well. Seth did end up bringing her in for a while in the middle of the night but in the morning I found baby goat asleep with Misty in the crate and Seth asleep on the porch by the crate.

I'm still not sure how this is better or easier than just dividing 3/4 by 6. Any ideas?

Because there was a school dance that Amena wanted to go to, Paul and I could have gone out but because I needed to pick Amena and three of her friends up, we couldn’t. Paul therefore was going to bring home Chinese for us and pizza for the boys. Amena got off to the dance fine and everything was going along fairly according to schedule and then Joanna called on Zak’s phone. They had gone to get his truck full of stuff and on the way home, the truck died. Joanna asked if I would get some oil and take it to them because they were stopped near exit 26 on route 2. I left to get it but then decided to call Paul and see if he thought oil would fix it because it didn’t really seem like it would to me. Paul agreed and I called Joanna back. Paul stopped there on his way home and Ray went with his truck and trailer to get the truck (although it took an hour and a half for him to get there). At 8:30 I called Paul because I needed to leave to get Amena and her friends and I didn’t need to take the van but if he was still too far from home, I would because the green car didn’t have enough gas to get to Barre and back. At that point he was still with Joanna, Zak and Ray and didn’t stay on the phone long enough for me to even tell him what I was doing so I left with the boys watching a movie.

Boys watching a movie with out new house goat. Isn't she cute? In spite of her cuteness and the fact that her hair is soft, Cedric reports that she still smells like a goat. Gosh, that's a hard one to imagine.

I picked the girls up and Paul called. The original deal was that I’d turn the oven on when he called. Well, can’t turn the oven on when I’m in Barre and have no way to contact the boys at home. So should he turn the oven on? Sure. When? As soon as he got to the house. We needed to drop off one girl and then the others came to the house to sleep over. Joanna and Zak were here cooking pizza. Paul was eating Chinese. I ate some Chinese. All other boys and girls had some pizza and then Cedric wanted some of my Chinese. Then Joanna said that their wonderful plan was for me to take them to Ray’s so they could get their stuff out of the truck and then we could take it to their apartment. By this point it was pretty late but that’s what we did.

Seth in action. Also, Tom and Jacob W.

Earlier in the afternoon, I’d gone for a walk because I’d already eaten three cookies that Amena made a couple of days earlier and then Joanna brought over lemon bars and I had one of them.  In other words, I needed to go for a walk because while I love Pilates, doing them doesn’t really burn that many calories and I needed to burn a few calories. Because I was walking, I went up Birches and turned east on Ragged Hill. Because I had my phone, I went until it told me I’d gone a mile and then turned around. On the way back, the bus passed me. Amena said she was sitting on the other side and didn’t see me.

Cedric in action.

Saturday morning I decided that I wanted to stay in bed as long as possible because I was tired of getting up early so I did. It was about 7:30 or so before I got up and while I wasn’t asleep, I wasn’t up. It was nice, but only sort of. I really don’t like just lying in bed doing nothing but

One heck of a U12 team.

sometimes it’s better than getting up and doing the same old unexciting stuff that needs to be done.

Cedric and Seth had their last soccer game at noon against Barre in Hubbardston. It was a good game. I think Barre is my favorite them that they played because they’re good and the coach doesn’t yell constantly. Of course Hubbardston won. The score was 5 to 3. And of course the game was good. After the game was the end-of-season pizza party at the Hubbardston Pizza Palace. The boys all report that the pizza is good so maybe we should try it sometime. I think they provided pizza for Daniel’s funeral.

After that the boys all needed to get to Mount Jefferson for the Haunted Hay Ride. Seth and Joseph were supposed to help with the pumpkin carving and Cedric needed to help get ready for the spook alley. Seth carved a pumpkin and I guess he came in 3^rd although we never went to check on that. After we checked out the telescopes and rocket launching, we went home. The plan was to go back about 8:00 and catch the last haunted hay ride of the evening at 9:00 and then gather Cedric and go home. It’s always nice to have a plan even if they don’t work out as expected.

We did go back a few minutes after 8:00. However, no one was parking on the field, I guessed because of the mud and that was correct, but it meant we needed to park on the side of the road. I drove down a bit and then went to turn around and, not taking into consideration the muddiness of everything, went too far off the side and proceeded to get stuck. Jay Guertin, one of the coaches for soccer, happened to drive around us and park and went to get someone to pull us out. I don’t know who it was, but someone with a truck came and we got pulled out and parked and everything was good and I’m really glad that it was dark. It still wasn’t 9:00 but Jay mentioned that he hadn’t seen a tractor go by for a hayride since he’d gotten there. As it turns out, they’d stopped some time earlier due to the aforementioned mud so we missed out on that. Instead, we were going to search for Cedric. Laura Foley had called me saying she had him and could give him a ride home but since we were already there, I attempted to call her back to see exactly where they were but she didn’t answer.  And then I discovered that Seth and Joseph were not where I was. And it was dark. And I had no idea where they were. Then I spotted Cedric and Scott Carignan so I had Cedric but not Seth and Joseph. They turned up shortly and we went home. What an unexpected adventure; so different from what I’d imagined.

Paul worked on the barn in the morning with Brock Miller and Rich Goguen. In the afternoon he was going to get hay but his plans kept getting changed. At one point he called me to see if I knew where the tie-downs were. Honestly, I don’t keep track of them. He’d looked in every place he remembered putting them and came up with nothing and said that if he couldn’t find one, it meant no hay. I wanted to say that it wasn’t my fault that he couldn’t find one because I hadn’t done anything with them so he’d better not talk to me like he thought it was but I restrained myself. I really have no idea where they might be. I looked every place I remembered having seen them but they weren’t in any of those places. Such is life. Everything really does need a place and needs to be put in its place when not being used.

Sunday morning I had a meeting before church. Then was church. Then we came home and ate. I put a roast with potatoes and carrots in the oven and took a picture of the knob indicating temperature so if it got turned up I could at least say, “Look, this is where I left it.” But it was the same when I got home. Paul left church early to put the hay in the basement because the weather report had changed to a chance of rain and it had begun to look like it might. He got done as we were getting home.

In the afternoon I went with Paul to visit the Fuller’s. I like visiting with them. They are quite interesting and I really like Mary. Then we went to the church because I’d forgotten the zucchini bread that Joyce Horne had given me. Then we did all the typical Sunday afternoon things that we do at home. Then it was time for bed. I had Amena keep Kitty in her room because she wasn’t supposed to eat after midnight. She started making a fuss while Amena took a shower and Paul let her out as he was going to bed but after her shower, Amena got her back inside so all was well.

Monday morning I got up and made sure Amena was getting up. I got dressed and ate and got ready to take Kitty to Sterling for her spay appointment. Seth and Joseph wanted to go so I got them up and they got ready quickly. We took off and other than Kitty pooping on the passenger seat and wanting to help drive, the trip was fairly uneventful. Check-in time was 7:30 and we were there just a little after. There were lots of other people there dropping off cats and dogs so we weren’t late; there were at least two others after us.

We got home about quarter after eight so we had plenty of time to get ready for school and such. School was school. When the boys were all done with their work, including reading The Hobbit, I went for my walk/jog and when I got back from that, we had lunch. Then I took a shower and then we took off for Leominster.

We still hadn’t been able to get out and get the supplies we needed to make a stamp so that’s what we wanted to do. Our first stop was the bank to cash a check. Our second stop was Michael’s. We found unlined notebooks and finally all agreed on one to use for our log book. Then we wandered around some more and found ink pads. Then we wandered around some more and close to where we’d found the notebooks, found the stuff we needed for making our stamp. They had a kit with two cutting nibs, a handle, a sheet of rubber, instructions for transferring a picture to the rubber, and some pictures to use. Or we could get a sheet of rubber and a set of cutting/carving implements with five or six nibs and trust that we can come up with our own design and find out how to transfer it to the rubber online. We went with the latter and I read up on the procedure when we got home.

After Michael’s, we went to Walmart and got the things there that I wanted. Cedric wanted CO₂, I wanted some paper lunch bags for soap, Seth and Joseph wanted some Legos. I also wanted to look for a lunch box for Cedric and containers for Amena and Cedric to take juice in their lunches. We scored on both. There was a bin of lunch bags and back packs marked down to $5.00. We struck out on those but did find a lunch bag Seth and Joseph thought Cedric would like (they were right—he did). One woman looking through the bin looked at a price tag and said, “$4.88. Marked. . .” she looked at the sign on the side of the bin, “down? to $5.00.” Yeah. Go figure. In the kitchen area, we found some containers for juice. Not only were they a price I could handle, they were made in the USA. Double score, that.

Then we came home. I had time to learn how to do stamps and Seth and Joseph had time to put their new Legos together. Amena had gotten home before we did and Cedric got home later. Everyone had some ice-cream and at 4:00 I went out to milk. Between then and about 8:30 I wouldn’t have time so I decided that an hour and a half to two hours early was better than an hour and a half to two hours late. I left to pick up Kitty when I was done milking and ended up almost 20 minutes early. So I waited.

At 5:05 the gate was finally opened and in spite of the fact that I was the first one there, I was the third one to actually get my animal. Poor Kitty! With no boys in the car, I wasn’t going to let her out of the carrier. She needed to poo and had a hard time moving around in the carrier because they put a cone collar on her. They kept calling it an e-collar and said she needed to have it on for 7 to 10 days. Right.

We got home, Kitty got fed and loved, I took off to the hospital for Meet the Doula Night and Doula Recognition. In the last year I volunteered over 100 hours and Greg and Kathy had some really sweet things to say about me in my role as their doula. For those of us ‘newer’ doulas, we got nice canvas bags. On one side it says “La Chance Maternity Center Heywood Hospital” and on the other “Doulas: Changing the World One Birth at a Time.” Inside are an assortment of things a doula might find useful including a package of tissue, a journal, pony holders, etc. Very  nice.

Then I got home. Paul called a couple of times while I was at the hospital and my Yoda ringtone got a few chuckles. He wanted to know about the dog food situation. He got a bunch a few months ago but it is almost gone and he thought it shouldn’t be yet. He called once I got home about something else as well and the call was lost. Every time that happens, he blames my phone. The problem is that there are places in the hospital that just don’t have cell phone reception and at home it depends on where I am. I don’t think it’s my phone.

When Paul got home there was lots of stuff to unload. No dog food, though, and more than what was on the list I’d given him. He mentioned that he thought he’d only be getting milk and was tired from shopping. I think it’s almost time to mention that he doesn’t have to do the shopping.

And that leaves us where we are. Tuesday. Laura’s birthday. Yeah. Got to make a cake, carve a stamp, get ready to find our first letterbox. Should be a fun day.

And I hope you have an absolutely splendiferous one!

799 (looks to have been a fairly uneventful common year starting on Tuesday)

Good morning! It is another rainy day here. According to weather.com, it is only supposed to rain this morning for which I am glad because the goats want to go out and after two days of rain, it would be nice for a break.

This morning I read an interesting blog post about New Englander’s and the temperature and turning the heat on. As with almost everything, New  Englander’s seem to think that they are unique in this. It seems to be, here, a matter of frugality (cheapness) and pride that they wait as long as possible before turning up the heat. Granted, it is expensive. However, New England is not the only place in the country that gets cold. It isn’t the only place in the country where it snows. It isn’t the only place in the country where the weather changes sometimes by the minute (or faster). I don’t remember our house being overly warm in the winter although it wasn’t terribly cold either. Unless you went upstairs because the doors were shut and NO heat got up there. I do remember Grandma keeping her house cool; you had to wear long sleeves, a sweatshirt or sweater. And, for those of you who don’t already know, I didn’t grow up in New England but rather that state where everyone here thinks everyone there lives in a city and the median temperature is 70°. Hate to burst your rather inexperienced bubbles, but your view is very limited.

One thing that I found curious is the averages listed on city-data.com. According to it, we have the following:

	McCloud, CA		Hubbardston, MA
	Average temps	Average snowfall	Average temps	Average snowfall
Nov	Mid-low 40’s	1”	High-low 30’s	6”
Dec	Mid 30’s	2.5”	High-low 20’s	14.5”
Jan	Mid 30’s	3.5”	Low 20’s	16”
Feb	Mid-high 30’s	1.5”	Low-high 20’s	16”
Mar	Low-mid 40’s	1”	High 20’s – high 30’s	9”
Apr	Mid-high 40’s	.5”	Low-high 40’s	4”

I think the information for Hubbardston is fairly accurate from what I’ve seen since we’ve been here. However, I don’t think the information for McCloud is unless the climate has changed that much since I was growing up. I mean, really, with snowfall amounts such as this shows, how on earth did I regularly walk to school on top of the snow that was as high as the fences? Looking at various cities near both places, I really have my doubts. Worcester is almost identical to Hubbardston and what I’ve heard is that Hubbardston is usually ten degrees cooler than surrounding areas. McCloud and Mt. Shasta are practically the same and Redding’s reported snowfall is less than an inch less than either of them. Yeah. Don’t think so. I’m not sure where the information is collected from, but McCloud being a little tiny town with no noteworthy (and I mean this from a who’s who in Hollywood kind of perspective) citizens, I don’t think most people care. Sad. So very sad.

So-called Otter River at the bottom of the hill. Not far from where Paul had to pull the Jetta from yesterday. I go right by this when I do my walking/jogging on Pitcherville.

Anyway. We had a rainy day yesterday. It was a good day. The boys didn’t do any school work Wednesday so they had double yesterday. And they got it done in very good time and with the exception of Seth’s grumbling at the very beginning, with a good attitude. Very, very nice.

Seth and Joseph had a pack meeting after dinner. I asked Cedric if he wanted to go and he said he did. When we got there, he told me that I told him he had to go. Nope. Sorry. Not buying that. There was no need for him to go so it mattered not if he wanted to go or stay home.

Joanna came over but it was after we left for the pack meeting so I didn’t get to talk to her.

Paul doesn’t like to drive out the lower end of the driveway because if you don’t hit it just right, the Jetta’s scrape bottom. He goes instead down the hill between rows of trees and at the bottom meets the place where you can go in or out along the creek. Well, yesterday, being our second rainy day in a row, it was rather wet and slippery so when he went to turn, the car wouldn’t turn. He got stuck and had to come back up to the house to get the truck to pull the car out.

This morning I had to mop in the living room. I want to do Pilates this morning because the chances of walking are pretty slim with the boys today and I did my walking/jogging yesterday afternoon in the rain. I made the boys do some picking up and I swept and then mopped. It was pretty exciting and I won’t go into my feelings about dogs right now.

Have a fantastic day!

1025 (Boleslaw I Chrobry was 1st King of Poland from April 18 to June 17--pretty long reign)

Good morning! This is our second day of me getting up at 5:30 to make sure that Amena is getting up and ready for school and so far I like it better than the 5:00 and 5:55. I don’t mind getting up at 5:30; it’s amazing the difference that half an hour makes. As I was eating and checking email, etc., I looked at the time and decided that 5:30 is about perfect for doula shifts beginning at 7:00 in the morning as well because I’d be able to get done everything that I need to by 6:00 and then would have half an hour to get ready and go. Does that mean I won’t get things together tonight for tomorrow? I’m not sure yet. We do have a pack meeting this evening  and by the time we get home from that, I might want just to get boys to bed and go there myself.

So, what have we been up to the last couple of days? Well, I will tell you. More than we had to but not as much as we could have. With that in mind, have a great day!

Just kidding!!!

Tuesday Seth, Joseph and I went to Dunn Park after lunch to have our second field trip. That ended up being fun. At first the boys weren’t all that excited and several times told me that they wanted to go home. But it did get better and we had a nice hike and we all took some good pictures. I chose Dunn Park rather than Tully Lake because it was supposed to maybe rain and I didn’t want to be out walking in it without proper preparations and Dunn is both a shorter hike and closer to home so in my mind, it was perfect. This coming Tuesday is supposed to be nice (although that’s from when I looked yesterday so it may have changed) so if it is, I’d like to head to Tully Lake that day.

Yesterday was a half day. The younger boys (I can’t call them all the little boys anymore because they aren’t all so little) and I went to Julia’s so I could cut out animals for YW in Excellence decorations so we could glue them together at church. Julia hadn’t gotten home from work until 2:30 or 3:00 and was wasted. She finished a Monster and had breakfast while we were there and was still falling asleep while we were visiting and I was cutting things out.

By the time we got home, Amena and Cedric were both already there. Paul had been expecting a package and it arrived sometime between the time we got home close to 2:00 and when we left for church at 6:30. I was supposed to take it over to Ray when it did arrive but whoever delivered it didn’t knock or honk or anything to let us know it was here and when I saw it on our way out, there was no way I was going to take it then because I detest being late and it was already late in the day and it seemed unlikely that Ray would do anything with it that night. So I put it on the table and we left.

Paul says that he called several times beginning just after lunch to see if the package arrived but that the calls went straight to voice mail. My phone didn’t register any of them and I just looked to see if I could find anything on the Verizon website and there is nothing. So, it isn’t just that my phone didn’t register them, it’s that Verizon didn’t either. Why? Well, because either he didn’t really call or the weather was interfering with connectivity. Or maybe something else like they aren’t listed yet; it was just yesterday and today isn’t very old yet. Whatever the reason, there is only one call registered for yesterday and it wasn’t from his phone.

I posted the pictures from our Dunn Park experience on Facebook and Emily West asked if I’d ever heard of letterboxing and posted a link. I hadn’t ever heard of it but checked out the link and read lots about it. For those who are familiar with geocaching, it is similar to that, but different. It was begun in Dartmoor, England, 1854 by James Perrott. He was a guide and placed a bottle with his calling card along the banks of Cranmere Pond. In 1888, the bottle was replaced with a tin box and visitors left self-addressed postcards. In 1905, a logbook was added and the tin box was replaced by a zinc box. In 1907, it was suggested to use a rubber stamp. Now, people have their own trail name and stamp and it appears that most people make their own stamps which I think is a really cool idea. Letterboxers can hide their own boxes and provide clues to find them and can go out and look for boxes left by others. I think it sounds like a lot of fun and Seth and Joseph agreed so yesterday we decided to have Pitcherville Hobbits for our trail name. We are going to start looking for boxes as soon as two things happen: one, we have our own stamp (and of course I’m not satisfied to use one that we already have because they’re all store bought or go buy one because it would be store bought) and two, the rain to stop.

Yesterday afternoon wasn’t a good day to go buy things we need to make our own stamp because it was busy with other things but today might. I’m kind of hoping the boys want to get their work done quickly so we can go check things out.

And right now, Amena is gone, Cedric will be within half an hour. Cedric and Seth are still abed as is Paul. Paul said he’s been trying to get up earlier. I’m thinking he isn’t going to have much luck today because it’s dark and the bed feels nice. I am going to sign off for now.

Have a fantabulous day!

1069 (William the Conqueror founded the Norman Selby Abbey--I guess he needed to atone for the over 100,000 deaths caused by his actions in the north)

Good morning! It still is morning even though it somehow seems like it should be afternoon. I’m glad it isn’t, because the boys are still both working on their math, but still. . .

Yesterday for soccer practice the boys played a game against the parents. Some parents didn’t play (like me) but a lot did. Seth was bummed because the parents won something like 6 to 1. Still, I think they all had a lot of fun.

It was interesting as well because a hot topic for the parents was the game Saturday and, more particularly the Petersham coach. One mother was saying that her husband didn’t believe her that he was so bad. Last year she went to the games against Petersham, this time, he did. The team this year is comprised of three from last year. The U12 boys had two teams last year and several of the boys were U10 last year. This particular coach the U10 parents wouldn’t have seen in action last year but both U12 teams would have and did. One parent sent an email to whoever is in charge of town leagues. I hope it does some good.

Cedric told me that it was Dominic that the Petersham coach told his players to take out and several players reported that he called them losers when they were at his end of the field and near enough for him to say it without yelling too loudly. Seth says that he was running and he accidentally stepped on the toes of a Petersham player and said, “I’m sorry, are you okay?”

The player said, “Oh, it’s okay.”

But the coach said, “Loser!”

The field was wet, they’re kids (children, actually, if they were kids it would be another game altogether), and they were playing soccer. Toes get stepped on. Seth said he wanted to say to the coach, “We’re just kids and you’re an adult and we’re okay with it.”

Several parents commented on how quiet the Petersham parents are and wonder if maybe they’re cowed by the coach. They don’t yell or cheer or clap nearly as much as any of the parents of other teams the boys have played. Most parents of opposing teams even clap when a goalie makes a good block or an injured player gets up or someone makes a good play. The Hubbardston parents do. But the parents of this Petersham team do not. Sad.

A cool tree at Camp Collier.

Tomorrow will be the last practice and Saturday will be the last game. It is sad because I really do like watching the boys play but it is also nice to have a break from practices as well.

Other than that, the day was pretty uneventful other than the usual things that we do. The silver Jetta did decide to have something go wrong like a broken alternator belt. Paul’s hoping that’s all it is and so am I because that means he gets the white Jetta until the silver one is fixed which means I get the van. From an economic standpoint, it makes sense but I do not like driving the van. At all. The only benefit is that the CD player works. That’s it.

Groovy.

Today has been a ssssssssssssssssslllllllllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwww day for Joseph. Recess at 10:15 has come and gone and he is still working on his math. Seth is almost done with his handwriting which is all he needs to do other than reading and we’ll do that once they are both done.

I would like them both to hurry and get done but it doesn’t often go the way I would like it to.

This afternoon after lunch we are going to go to Dunn Park and walk around the lake or pond or whatever the body of water is called. It is only about a mile so we’ll do the other trail that is there as well. Sunday or next Tuesday I'd like to take us to Doane’s Falls again and do a hike I was looking at this morning.  There are so many places to go and we need to go to them and do some walking and exploring. I’m not sure how much we’ll do during the winter but until it snows and even some when there isn’t much we can do some exploring. I love winter, anyway, and water does wonderful things when it freezes.

For some reason Paul felt the urge to cut up and stir fry the pork chops I thawed out Sunday. I was thinking about cooking them for dinner because I really only like them cooked one way and that’s the way my mother did them when we were growing up. I don’t like them grilled. I don’t like them fried in a frying pan. If you chop them up it’s another matter but whole, that’s the long and short of it. Anyway, because he was doing that, he didn’t leave for work until almost 10:00 which is later than he usually does.

So, I was going to end with that but it gave me the same word count (843) as a recent post and I just couldn’t have that. Especially since the event I chose for that year is my favorite one. I supposed I could have settled for something else but I didn’t want to. If I come up with 843 again, I’ll use something else. Probably.

A few months ago I had a conversation with someone about whether Massachusetts or Siskiyou County was farther north. I was pretty sure they were about the same and a few days ago, I looked it up. Just FYI for four places I’ve lived in four different states:

McCloud, CA                      41.254°N              122.1364°W        3,271 ft elevation

Hubbardston, MA            42.4736°N            72.0067°W           993 ft

Bonners Ferry, ID             48.6922°N            116.3175°W        1,896 ft

Bloomfield, NM                                36.7108°N            107.9828°W        5,500 ft

Just for fun, I thought I’d look up the average humidity for each place but that’s easier said than done.  What I did find is that McCloud is 190.0 miles away from the nearest city of 200,000 or more (Sacramento) and 536.7 miles to the nearest city of 1,000,000 or larger (Los Angeles). Hubbardston, however, is only 65.1 miles away from Boston which has a population of over 600,000. I imagine if you add all the cities around it, you’d have something quite a bit larger.

And that’s about it for today. Have a fantastical day!

1513 (Juan Ponce de Leon becomes the first known European to sight and visit Florida)

Good afternoon! Busy couple of days and not sure I’ll get this posted today but at least I’ll get some content going.

Friday ended much as it had begun—interestingly. That’s . . . interesting, don’t you think? Interestingly so.

Cedric during the game (and Paul as goalie and I think Dominic as well as Jacob Halfrey behind Cedric).

School went pretty well. Joanna came over in the morning with Zak to do some laundry and for a short visit including filling out the medical forms for camp. I filled mine out as well and printed a copy of Seth’s from scout camp this summer. That was pretty exciting.  I needed to get a couple of loads of laundry done as well so that Cedric and Seth would have everything done that they needed for camp and for their soccer game Saturday. When Cedric got home from school, he and Seth got their stuff ready. Seth was only staying one night so his packing was very fast and easy.

Seth as well as Riley, Paul, John, Joe, a referee and a Petersham player.

Joanna came back around 5:30 and she took the boys over to the Carrignan’s where everyone was supposed to meet at 6:00. From there they were going to leave and arrive at Camp Collier at 7:00. Before they left, I fed them some tortellini soup.

I went out to milk about 6:00. Joseph let one of the mama’s loose and I milked her and then he let the other one loose and I milked her and then he let the rest loose and they actually all came and got put away without any incidents. It was really quite amazing. Snowflake and Goldilocks are usually good because they want their grain and then they want their babies but the other three aren’t always so good, especially when it is still light outside.

Cedric lighting the briquettes.

Then Paul, Amena, Joseph, and I left to go to Julia’s. Her brother was up visiting and she’d invited some friends (me and my family, Amy Troop and her family, and another friend whose name I don’t remember but she is Olivia’s mom) over for a dinner party. There was lobster, shrimp, steak tips, salad, and three different Norwegian desserts. All very good in spite of the fact that a) I ate too much, and b) I spilled butter all over myself.

When we got home it was bedtime and in the morning it was time for me to go relieve Joanna from camp.

Seth being a scarecrow.

When I got there, breakfast was in full swing. I’d eaten so much the night before that I had a glass of milk before I left and really wasn’t hungry. Once that was all done and cleaned up, it was time to go down for the flag ceremony and whatever else they call all the announcements and such. I really wanted to be there for the pumpkin launching but at about 9:40 I overheard one of the guys in charge say that they wouldn’t be starting for another fifteen or twenty minutes. That being the case, we just left because we needed to stop by the house to get the rest of what Seth needed for the game which included his shoes and shorts.

We stopped at home quick and then took off to Petersham. We were five minutes late but at least we were there. On the way, it started to rain and really poured for a few minutes. We all agreed that someone would be sorry if the game was cancelled due to rain since we were missing out on the pumpkin launching to be at the game. When we got there, it was overcast but not raining so it was all good. It actually got rather warm while we were there and then got cooler and it was overcast and then it cleared up a bit and then was overcast again. It was that kind of weather that people say, “If you don’t like the weather, wait five seconds; it’ll change!” and think that it is unique to their area but it really isn’t. (The most drastic weather changes I’ve ever personally witnessed were in New Mexico.)

The game was incredible. In more ways than one. The boys played well. Petersham got one goal just as we arrived. I had to use the porta potty and I heard the commotion that indicated a goal but wasn’t sure whose it was. Then they got another one. Then Hubbardston got two. Then it was half a game. Then Petersham scored and then Andy got a penalty kick and scored. Then Hubbardston got two more and it was a game. The final score was, as you can see, Hubbardston 5, Petersham 3. Good game.

The Petersham coach, on the other hand, is something else. Holy freaking cow. He yells at his players continuously. At one point, I heard the assistant coach, a woman, say, “Well, if they’re going to play dirty...” I have no idea how that fit into whatever conversation she was having, but Hubbardston wasn’t playing any differently than they usually do and if that’s dirty, it’s only because they’ve been in the dirt which isn’t likely because most of the fields are pretty covered with grass.

However, the Petersham coach was something else. During the second half, he instructed one of his players to “take out” one of the Hubbardston players. For one thing, these kids (or children) are mostly ten and eleven years old. They also are playing to have fun and learn; not to win big trophies or anything. After his instruction, Hubbardston’s coach, Jay Guertin said, “That’s not right.” And the Petersham coach said something about the Hubbardston players stepping on his player’s feet. And I didn’t hear anything else but we could all see that we came pretty close to having a fight between the coaches. Paul Jeppson’s dad went over because he didn’t want Jay to “beat the crap out of” the Petersham coach. I don’t doubt that he could and I think he’d deserve it but I’m glad it didn’t happen because it would not have been a good thing in spite of deserving it. After this, the Petersham coach yelled at our goalie that he couldn’t do something and after that, it seemed like he was almost afraid to do anything. I don’t think coaches like that should be allowed to continue to coach. It’s just not right.

I am incredibly glad that our boys won.

After the game we went right back to Camp Collier and got there in time for lunch which was sandwiches with white bread. I was hungry by then but one sandwich was enough. I really don’t like white bread.

After lunch the boys built scarecrows, had a first aid station, and had to tie a pumpkin in a rope and lift it up successfully without it falling. It started to rain about then and kept it up for an hour or so. Then it was back to camp and time to start dinner things. I thought there would be a couple of goats for me to milk because I’d told Amena not to let them in until I got home because I’d be home by 6:30 to milk. So, Seth and I left about quarter to six so we’d have time to walk to the car (.62 miles) and actually leave by 6:00. That meant that we left about half an hour before dinner was ready so we didn’t get to eat it.

When we got home, the goats were in because it had been raining and the kids crying. That’s normal. The kids like to make noise. It’s part of what they do. I was a bit irritated and had I known they’d been let in, Seth and I would have stayed long enough to eat at camp rather than coming home and eating leftover lasagna and tortellini soup.

Seth and Joseph took showers and voluntarily went to bed. At 8:10 I went up to listen to their prayers and they were both quite happy to be going to bed.

This morning I went to get Cedric because I let him stay at Camp Collier. I left at about 7:45 so I’d be there a little before 8:30 which is when I wanted to leave by so that we’d have time to get everything done and not be late to church. They were in the middle of breakfast when I got there and Cedric wanted to eat and I decided to just go with the flow and be late if we were meant to be late. He didn’t finish eating and we left and got home and got ready and Paul didn’t take everyone who was ready but waited so we all got there when the opening hymn was being sun. Which really wasn’t bad considering that I thought we’d be much later.

And that’s that. I’ve got to get ready for milking and such and might not get this posted until tomorrow because we’ve got a fireside at church and I have some pictures to get off my phone from yesterday and there probably won’t be time for everything before we have to leave at 6:whatever-time-we-actually-leave-at.

Have a fantastical day!

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.