Car Snowman

This is the car snowman that sits in the corner of our dashboard.  He has been there so long I really don't even see him anymore, or her I guess because she wears a necklace we found in a geocache. In the winter she fits right in with our below freezing temps and in the summer it makes us feel cooler. It's the little things that make us happy :)

The Great Worm Rescue

Dancer and I walked after it was raining and spent a good portion of the time rescuing worms from drying up on the road.  I know there are literally millions in the ground and saving a few won't matter.  I still can't walk by them though because I think of the story of the starfish where the person is throwing them back in the ocean from the beach. Someone says he is wasting his time because there are so many and he isn't even putting a dent in the numbers on the sand.  He in return says, it matters to the ones I throw back.  So, now on top of everything else, I have worm guilt.

Say What?

We were at a fast food establishment waiting for our food when the guy behind the counter looked at us and said, "Mosquito?"

Thinking I must be going deaf, although I understood everything else he said just fine, I asked in a puzzled voice, "What?"

 He repeats much slower, "For here or to go."

Not able to help myself I said, "I thought you said mosquito."

Spark pipes in, "I thought he said mosquito too."

Oh good, I can hear, but I think the guy was embarrassed because he went in the back for the rest of time we were at the counter.

 

Selfies

Dad and I didn't know this, but you are suppose to practice taking selfies.  I asked some friends if they knew that and they didn't either.  There must be an age cut off for this information, like under 30 you know about such things and over 30 you don't.  

Round And Round We Go

In 1961 in a Peanuts comic strip, Linus spoke the wise words, “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people...religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.”  What he should have said was, "There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people...religion, politics and fluoride." 

Yes, our dentist got a new assistant and she is a fluoride Nazi.  We have been through this before to where I almost walked out in the middle of an appointment with the little paper bib still clipped around my child's neck.  That assistant finally gave up on us once she realized I wasn't ever going to "understand" the importance of fluoride.  Just to be sure we are always on the same page, I remind them when we sign the form and tell the kids in front of them that if they try to put the little tray of goo on their teeth to tell them no.

Miss Fluoride Nazi (MFN) couldn't believe we would make such a grave mistake.  We don't "seek out those non-fluoride toothpastes too" do we?"!!!  Dancer goes back and they both come out after the appointment and MFN announces that by some miracle, Dancer's non-fluorinated mouth doesn't have any cavities. 

However, when MFN dried off her teeth she could see on the front teeth that there was a little wear and if she had had fluoride that would have never happened and if she just took her back now and painted a little fluoride on them she could save the day.  First off, you dried off her teeth?  What? 

I, not getting as excited as she must have hoped, said it must have been from the brackets of her braces, they warn you of that before they put them on, or the medal on her retainer might just be rubbing a bit in the front.  What?! She doesn't have a plastic retainer on top?!  We had better bring that in so they can look at it.  Yeah, I think we will ask the orthodontist, who we paid a crap load of money to and is an expert in this area, about it the next time we go in.

At this point MFN was being to see that I wasn't going to "understand" and she finished with instructions to Dancer to "rub toothpaste on her teeth and not rinse after brushing." Duly noted. 

She also showed me that she wrote, in all caps mind you, that "MOM SAYS NO FLUORIDE" in her chart.  Good, maybe we won't have to go through this next time then. 

When we got in the car, I asked Dancer if she brought it up during the appointment.  Dancer said she hadn't even reclined yet and MFN asked why her mom doesn't want her to get fluoride.  Dancer said she just said she didn't know - my kids are experts at blowing people off on these issues, dodging homeschooling questions will do that for you.  She did get quite the fluoridication for a good majority of the appointment though.

Had I known beforehand MFN was going to get so excited, I would have instructed her to put her mask on nice and snug because Dancer doesn't have all her immunizations either.

A Trip To The Village Well

 

We don't drink our water because of nitrates.  The test came back just under what the government thinks is a safe level, which isn't a safe level to us, so we trek to the grocery store to refill our water judges.  Whenever we go I always think that that is what it must have been like when everyone had to go to the village well everyday for their water.

Barn Cleaning

 

Barn cleaning is the necessary evil of owning animals. We should have done this last spring but it isn't hard to find a reason not to.  This kids are smiling here, not because they love to shovel poo but, because we are done for the day.

 

 

Spark stood next to the pile to show just how much work we did and we aren't done yet.  Goats are great hay wasters and then they can really pack it down in their pens.  While this looks huge, in a year there won't be any pile left, it will compost down into a small mound.

 

Our beautiful llama girls, Marceline, Nora and Honey Bear. 

 

 

Finished the night with glorious skies. 

My Sweet Kiddos

Had my slipper socks warming for me when I got out of the shower this morning.

Everything But The Bathroom Sink

That is what I have in the bathroom and a sink is sort of a pivotal part of the room. 

How did this happen? 

Our pump has been going off and going off and going off to the point where even Dad was tired of hearing it and he called some guys to come out and check it out.  While they were here they had to turn off the water.  When our water is turned back on we often get a bit of sand that comes out of the lines from it starting up again. 

When no water came out of the bathroom faucet, we just assumed that the screen in it was clogged with a few too many grains of sand.  Dad got out the wrench to take the end off the faucet and it broke, not the wrench, the faucet, and there was still no water coming out. 

While he was fiddling with it, it was clear that we would need a new faucet.  It looks like the old one was original with the house with makes it over 40 years old.  The sink is also that old and the back of it is broken so I said that we should just get a new sink too.  Just a comment, and then I left.

The next time I walk by the bathroom, Dad is putting everything from the counter into a box and there is a big, gaping hole in it where the sink use to be.  I stopped him just short of ripping the counter off the vanity. 

Now, normally I would be all for Dad eagerly making all my home improvement dreams come true but, there were a few snafus standing the way of this one.  First, Dad was about an hour away from laying down for a nap because he works the next three nights.  Second, since our house is 40 plus years old we probably aren't going to waltz into Home Depot and find the right size vanity top on the showroom floor.  Thirdly, don't leave me with out at least a counter for the next who knows how long.  And lastly, a sink without water is still useful, you can at least brush your teeth there with a glass of water in hand.

So, now we have a board over the hole where the sink use to be and we are brushing our teeth in the kitchen.  Where are those bath crasher guys when you need them?

Role Reversal

When I needed to make my yearly eye appointment I was on the phone with the lady explaining that I couldn't make an appointment so far out, over a month, because I didn't know my husbands work schedule.  At this clinic you need to have a driver after having your eyes dilated. 

The lady said just get an appointment down so they quit calling you and you can change it when you know a day that will work.  Didn't quite understand how they didn't have any appointments for a month but call and I could get the day I needed?  So I made the appointment and hung up.  That was when Dancer reminded me that she could drive me to the appointment.  That's right!  She is a driver now!

So this week my daughter drove me to my eye appointment.  A bit of a role reversal, I should be the driver to her appointments.  I felt a bit, just a bit, geriatric.

German Buffet

We went to a buffet tonight that was all German foods.  Oh, so good.  We all left feeling like stuffed toads, I think it was the potato pancakes.  My new mission in life is to find a cabbage strudel recipe that mimics the strudel they had there.  Did I mention how good it was? 

The Waiting Game

I may be a professional waiter.  Not restaurant kind, the kind you become when you are a mom.  Why doesn't anyone ever tell you about that part of parenthood?  All you hear about is the sitting up all night with them as cute, little babies.  The hours I spent doing that was a drop in the bucket compared to the hours I have spent watching and/or waiting at dance rehearsals, basketball games, soccer, church functions, Frisbee, co-op classes, 4-H events, appointments (this is a fraction of the list) and today, Dancer's last behind the wheel session. 

 

I have gotten good at this part of parenting.  Actually it is easy now, doing it with a toddler was a test of my sanity.  I should give credit to Spark too, he has put in hours of waiting being a younger brother which has now made him a very patient kid.  When he was a toddler, Dancer danced at a facility with a pro shop that was open to the waiting area.  I swear I put that pro shop back together every single week because a toddler can take down a rack of shoes and leotards faster than Black Friday shoppers.  I think the place counted on me every week to straighten all their merchandise.

 

Over the years I have knitted and crocheted a few afghans, read, walked miles and miles (although you would never tell it by my back side), window shopped, geocached, had crazy conversations with other moms (like the one where the mom explained to me that they don't really kill chickens for chicken nuggets, they just cut a piece out of their thigh or breast and sew them back up when she thought it was barbaric that we clean and eat our own chickens).  On the flip side, I have made some wonderful friends while waiting.  If it can be done while sitting on a hard bench, or in a car, I have probably done it. 

 

Today we perused the aisles of Walmart. I often wonder if they think we are shop lifters since we can spend a couple hours in there and not hardly spend a dime. You can usually find Spark in the video game section.  If he isn't looking at the games he is at the demo game they usually have set up to play.

 

McDonald's is also our friend (that could explain my back side).  Spark played Yu-Gi-Oh and

 

 

we take advantage of the Wi-Fi.  The Kindle is definitely the waiting mothers friend.

I was happy to have Spark with today because since he has gotten old enough to stay home alone he doesn't like to come with as much.  I keeping thinking about how soon it will only be him to wait for and then I will always be by myself.  

This, That, and the Other Thing

Dancer got her driver's permit on Monday.  She is doing quite well driving but I do have the urge to grab the wheel once in a while.  I am able to hold back........most of the time.  I thought it would be weird to be in the passenger seat with her driving but it isn't.  Now that she has her permit, she wants to drive everywhere we go.  Her wanting to drive is a surprise because we had to push her to go and take the written test.  A teen has to have the learners permit for six months before they can get an actual license and I have heard plenty kids that wish they had gotten their permits earlier because when their 16th birthday rolled around they hadn't had their permits long enough.  The mark to six months to her 16th birthday is July 14th so we finally just said, we are taking you in and if you pass, great, if not you have a couple more weeks to study before we take you in again.  Thankfully she passed on her first try.  

I found out that sun screen really does work.  I also found out that your shorts are about three inches shorter after you sit down.

If you hold a baby bunny long enough it will pee on you, for being so little they sure do go a lot.  I knew this because it happened to Grandma Pat once, tonight I was reminded of the fact.

We had our first dinner of sweet corn for the season. 

The goats had their first dinner of corn husks for the season.

If you drag the garbage cans all the way back up to the garage, it is best to realize that they are still heavy and full while out on the road.   The garbage man was late today, guess how I know that.

When Grandma Shirley and Grandpa Bob say they will be here at 12:30, be ready for them at 11:00 because that is when they showed up.  We were ready because this happen every time, that or they are a couple hours late.  Why my dad and I have trouble communicating about time is beyond me, we don't have trouble with any other topic. 

It has been 4-H project central around here.  We have been working feverishly on projects over the last week and are getting the list whittled down.  It is still three and a half weeks until the fair but to me it feels like crunch time.  A good thing this year is that the kids have had projects in aerospace for so many years that we now have enough spare parts to make rockets without having the buy anything.  Rockets tend to be expensive.

We have spent a lot of time sitting out in the yard under the trees because it is cooler than in the house with the airconditioning on.  Unless we sit in the basement where it is so cold a blanket is almost necessary.  Our cat, Vidalia, has been panting we think from the heat.  When Dad looked up cat panting on the internet he found the symptoms constatute an emergency and the cat should be taken to the vet immediately where it needs a complete blood panel, chest x-ray and EKG because they probably have heart disease.  We love you Vidalia but, that is just so not going to happen.  Tonight she was on the steps eating and looking perfectly fine.  She is at least nine so it is possible she does have heart disease.

We have a rule, or strong suggestion, that you wear shoes outside at all times and never, ever, ever, ever go barefoot.  Two reasons for this: chicken poo and thistles.  It does not put you in a good mood if you decide to break this rule, step on a thistle, get a thorn in your foot and have your sister give you a "why do you think you are suppose to wear shoes?"  Ahhh, older siblings, I have one too Spark.

Dancer took a swing/salsa class last night that another homeschooler is teaching.  She came out and gleefully said it was so great to be dancing again.  I thought so too since it was $3.00 for two hours instead of $10.00 per hour, there are no costumes, recitals, competitions, early mornings or, best of all, drama.  If you have ever seen that t.v. show "Dance Moms" it really is like that.  They may have stepped it up a little for the show but not much.  Dance is a cut throat sport where the girls and moms eat each other.

Lastly, when it is this humid the clothes on the line never get fully dry.  Dissappointing since we had three loads out there and three loads of even partially dry clothes do not fit in our dryer all at once.  It also means hauling them all back downstairs and up again.   

Murphy's Law - Lawn Mower Gas

Q:  Where does your lawn mower run out of gas? 

A:  As far away from the garage as possible.

That is Spark there at the end of the arrow way behind the apple trees.  I guess he could have been behind the pine trees, that would have been farther from the garage.  There were but a few drops of gas in the gas can so Dad had to run into town to get some more.  He wanted me to go with but I had Desdemona out grazing and the kids were mowing so I didn't want to leave them alone.  This was a good thing. 

While in town Dad tested out another Murphy's Law:  Your truck will break down on the holiday weekend, not conveniently on a week day morning.

Then he tested out:  Your family will be outside when your truck breaks down and won't hear the phone ring until you have called a minimum of eight times.  He was able to limp the truck to the repair place, walk to the grocery store, shop, walk back to his truck and still had time left over before we learned he was stranded and got there.  I had a great joke for him, well I found it funny anyway.  Right before we got there to pick him up he called again wondering where we were.  "What do you mean?" I asked him.  He went on, quite nicely I must admit, to explain that his truck broke down and we needed to come get him and how did I miss that in our previous conversation and where were we.  By now I couldn't hold it together any longer without laughing and had to tell him we were just rounding the corner.  Here he is getting out with all his groceries and he is actually smiling to see us. 

Okay, enough Murphy's Law today, let's not have anything else happen.   

Woosh Went The Weekend

Dad worked the weekend so it was just the kids and I.  Sometimes these weekends drag and seem like he has been at work much longer than three days, but this one just flew by.  It came on the end of a busier than normal week so I think that made it seem faster too.

Friday night we started out by going to the play "A Midsummer's Night Dream" put on by a local children's theater group.  One of the cast members was a girl in our homeschool co-op so we went to support her.  There were a few other homeschoolers we knew and then a girl that Dancer danced with when she was a preschooler.   Funny where people resurface in your life. 

Saturday, after trying to get some cleaning and laundry done,  was the first of the graduations, another homeschooler.  It is interesting in the homeschool world that kids don't seem to segregate themselves by ages, they all just get together and mingle no matter the age.  Dancer has friends that range from 3rd grade all the way to kids that have already graduated.  Spark's friend that he talks to the most is a 7th grader.  In the school world I am sure that a 7th grader would not be hanging out with a 5th grader, they would think they were to old or too cool to be seen with a "little kid." 

After the graduation we were off to church as it was our weekend to be greeters, usher and nursery. 

Saturday night we had storms roll through.  I worry now about water getting in the basement since we have already had it twice so far this year.  I stayed up really late so I would be able to plug in the pump, that is now a permanent fixture outside the basement door, to do it's job should the need arise.  I also worried what I would do if the electricity went out as then we could be in the dark and have water coming in that I could do nothing about but hopefully move furniture out of the way.    When I finally did go to bed Dad has strict instructions to keep an eye on the radar and call me if it looked like it was raining hard here and I should get up.  Thankfully, the phone never rang.

This morning was back to church.  Our church has just started Sunday morning services the last few weeks and so there isn't usually a lot of people there, but you never know so we are ready for the time when there is.  This morning though there were only 13 people, two of whom didn't attend the night before.  Instead of a sermon the pastor lead a sort of small group discussion.  It reminded me of when the church just started a little less than two years ago and we did spontaneous things like that when there weren't many in attendence.  Saturday nights are now full so I am sure before long Sundays will be too. 

After church we were starving, we slept until the last possible minute because we were up late wondering about the storms and none of us ate breakfast.  To appease our rumbling stomachs, and because we needed to go to the grocery store and you aren't suppose to shop on an empty stomach, we stopped for lunch at a taco place.  All during lunch we got to hear the loud conversation the workers were having about how lazy the night shift was that they didn't do their job, complete with what was going to be on the list they were going to give the boss.  I thought it was less of a crime to leave the taco seasoning jar empty than announce over the dining room company grevances, but maybe that is just me.  I actually got a chuckle out of them and how excited they were. 

We came home to pull some weeds that are having a good year.  Seemed like we were crusing right along and making great headway until I stood up and looked around.  If you didn't know better, and see our large weed pile, you would have thought we napped all afternoon.  What a daunting task.  Tonight we got the lawn mowed with only one lawn mower misshap, one is good for us.

During milking tonight I think our doe, Caliope, has mastitis on one side of her udder.  She let me hook the milker up but she keep looking at it and flinching her foot on that side.  When Dad gets home tomorrow we will have to decide what to do, treat her and keep milking, or treat her and dry her up.  I hate to let her dry up, she is the only one who is in milk, but she has had such a rotten year so far that I want to do what will be best for her. 

New Debit Card

My debit card expired and so I needed to activate the new one sent to me.  I called on the phone and got it all ready to go and then said, "I think I should go see if it works."

The family asked where I was going to go.

"Anywhere they take money."

"I take money," exclaimed Dancer as she held out her hand.

I swiped the card through her fingers but nothing happened.  Maybe I needed to enter a pin number or something but she had no keypad.

The really sad part about my new card is that by the time it expires Dancer will have graduated.  That time is coming fast enough, I don't need anymore reminders.

Satisfying Sunday

What a long but fun day we had. 

This is our weekend to be usher/greeters and nursery at church for both the Saturday night and Sunday morning service.  Right after church we had to run into town so that Dancer could go to a planning meeting for 4-H camp. 

Since we didn't have time to drive home after church and get her to the meeting on time we ate in town at Five Guys - love that place.  One of the things I love about it is that they have the sign in the bathroom "Employees must wash hands."  I saw a thing about waiting for the employees to come and wash your hands and now I chuckle every time I see one of those signs.  Also think their fries are hard to beat.

Spark, Dad and I bummed around town doing a few things to pass the time until her meeting was done at 3:00 and then went back to pick her up.  Wrong, her meeting was done at 4:00 we found out after we waited a bit for her to come out and then finally called her. 

Since we had a good hour to wait Dad suggested we go to McDonalds and have shakes and use their WiFi.  Spark used the WiFi while Dad and I read the Sunday paper.  This is a treat because we don't buy the paper.  It is our protest after the raised the price to an insane level but I am not against reading it if it available at a restaurant.

When we got home Dad cleaned some of the garage, which after we took a bunch of stuff out for the 4-H garage sale it is actually starting to look pretty good.  I mowed the lawn, one, so that the dog doesn't get lost out there when she goes out to piddle and two, hopefully with the grass shorter the lawn will dry out faster after all the rain we have had this past week. 

At 9:15 we still hadn't had supper so I gave the kids the choice, oatmeal or popcorn.  They chose popcorn - that is what I would have chosen but I felt better at least offering the oatmeal even though it was supper.  Since they chose I have no mommy guilt :)

Also got a couple loads of laundry done and a game of 500 Rummy with Dancer.  Can't ask for more than that out of a day.

Courageous Movie

A local church, the one we go to for AWANA, had dinner and a movie last night.  Dinner was pizza, can't go wrong there, and the movie was really good.  Plenty of humor, action, drama and heart string tugging to make it, in our opinion, a superb way to spend the evening.  Dad had to work so he missed out.  Dancer went on the library website and requested it but we are number 214 so we may see if we can rent it at the Redbox or just pick it up the next time we are at the store.

Our Walk

Still plenty of snow in the woods, but now that it has been rained on it is more like a glacier than snow.

A quarter mile hill, our calves were burning by the top. 

The neighbors picture perfect farm.  The cows were out, a sure sign of spring.  It is a Kemp's Select farm so if you drink that milk it could have come from here.

Way down at the bottom is the school bus the kids don't ride.  Two buses went by us because we are right on the school district line and of the three houses on this road one family goes to one school and another goes to the other school even though they are neighbors.  Open enrollment is very popular here so both buses cover the same area.  The other house, the farm picture above, doesn't have kids, three bachelor brothers live there.

A field with corn stubble.  I always think fields look like they need a shave in the spring. 

We walk to the stop sign and turn around.  This is one mile away from our house so we get a two mile walk in.

The half mile hill.  Yes, it really is up hill both ways just like your grandparents use to say they walked to school.  On the flip side it is also down hill both ways.  This hill isn't as steep as the other one so it feels like we just zip right up it.

Here's looking at you.  Spark making an eye shadow, always makes me think of the CBS logo.

This pond usually has something wildlifey (yes, I made that word up) going on, be it tadpoles, water fowl or cows.

Another view, there are duck nesting platforms and houses but they don't show up in the picture very well.

The only green we saw, but it's a start!  A few more days and green should be abounding from everywhere.

What's Up?

The last few days we have not really done anything "blog worthy" but I will make a quick list so that we remember this week as we look back. 

• Dancer was sick and slept for about two days and is still sort of laying low.
• Our co-op was cancelled on Tuesday because of sick families and other obligations.  Dancer was happy because she would have missed for being sick, Spark was disappointed because he missed seeing his friends so it was a toss up between the two.  I was sort of glad to have a week off.
• Dancer also missed her church youth group that meets at the same time as AWANA on Wednesday.  She stayed home but Dad and I took Spark and we were asked if we would like to sit in on her class.  They were having a speaker about evolution and all I could say was "wow."  I am too old to have been taught evolution (and why they say the bible is a lie) in school and since we homeschool I haven't paid much attention to it except to edit it, or say that the dates are wrong, in some of our materials.  Kids are really being hit hard with this in schools and I now see why churches are working so hard to fight back against it.
• Thursday Spark was invited to play at a friends house and he was beyond excited about it.  I am horrible about calling people for the kids to play with, glad other moms aren't.  It's not that I don't want to, it just seems that it is always Friday because our weeks go so fast as it is.  I need to work on that. 
• Dancer and I went to town when Spark was at his friends.  It took us three hours to go to the library, Walmart and the pharmacy.  That was about 40 minutes of errands and over two hours of driving and traffic.  Now I know where my weeks go.
• We found a new geocache when we were in town.  When I went to log it I saw that it had been a month since the last time we had been on the caching trail.  Need to work on that too since it gets us outside and hiking around.  The weather has been really nice so it has just been being busy that has kept us inside. 
• The kids ran out to do chores that night and found that one of the goats had chewed out a board on their pen, stuck her head through the hole into another goats pen and got it stuck.  The other goat took advantage of her being stuck and gave her some good butts to the head.  She was bloody, had a swollen lip and eye, but is okay.  Spent the night deciding if her jaw was broken, Dancer hand fed her some chicken food (they are in 7th heaven when they get into the chicken food so we knew if she was going to eat anything the chicken food would entice her), and going out to check on her multiple times all night.  Also spent a good hour fixing the hole between the two pens. That was a whole night gone.
• Tonight we went to play based on Pilgrim Progress put on totally by homeschoolers, adults only helped the kids did the rest.  Dancer, Spark and I saw it last fall when they did the play but Dad wasn't able to go because of work so we went again this time so he could see it too.  It was phenomenal.  There was a few hundred people there and they are doing four evening shows and a matinee on Saturday.  There have been over 1100 people to see the first three of the new shows.  If we didn't homeschool, and I saw what those kids were able to do, our kids would be pulled out of school on Monday.
• We did get a good amount of school work done.   We are reading Swiss Family Robinson and the kids and I are getting a good chuckle out of their supposed survival skills.  If something moves they kill it and if they don't kill it they bring it back to their tree house and have it tamed in less than a day.  So far they have managed to tame a buffalo, monkey, jackal, eagle, ruffled grouse, a penguin and they charmed a swarm of bees.  We can't get the dog to follow directions unless she feels like it.
• Last, but not least, each cat has snuck in the house no less 20 times.  Once they get in, the dog chases them downstairs (she how trained she isn't) and we have to go down there, find them and throw them back out.  Once the weather turns nice they give this nasty habit up which hopefully will be next week.