I Voted

Now all I can do is pray.

Quick Update

Yea, I know, there are still no "catch-up" posts. We've had a house full of sicky germs. The boys came down with a nasty cold last week and now Anna & I have it. But I have still been busy cleaning out my kitchen cupboards. It has only taking me three, going on four days to finish. I don't know why it has taken me so long, other than I haven't felt good and my children are major distractions. I have wiped them all inside and out and re-organized. It was overdue. I cleaned out the fridge yesterday, wiping it all down. I have one more cupboard to go, then I need to oil the outside of the cupboards with orange oil. I cleaned out my oven, which is easy since it is self cleaning, but when I was wiping down the door inside and out, a piece of a sponge fell into a vent hole on the top of the door and I could see it through the window. I tried to bang on the door hoping to dislodge it out of sight, but no luck. This thing was going to drive me crazy every time I looked at the door. I had no choice but to take the door off, which took awhile to figure out how to do, directions and all. Then I had to remove the screws holding the door together so I could get to that sponge. That accomplished, I put the screws back in and had trouble doing that. Although all the screws appeared to look alike, they weren't and I of course put the wrong screws in the wrong holes and couldn't get the last screws to go in. So I had to unscrew them all and redo that. This all took way more time than I had expected it to. But my kitchen is feeling good now. I should say, I am feeling good in my kitchen. I can ignore dirt for awhile until I can't stand it anymore and I don't feel "good" in a room with all that dirt that I know is lurking. Dom has this same problem although he can not ignore it as long as I can. I'm good at procrastinating, like right now, I should be emptying the dishwasher and wiping out that last cupboard, but I'm writing in my blog and drinking coffee instead.

The kids are so excited about today being Halloween. They have been counting down the days and can not wait to go trick-or-treating tonight. I hope Anna and I are feeling up to walking around. Hopefully it won't be too cold. We've had a cold snap this week with it getting down to freezing at night. It's nice to have a change of season compared to living down in Melbourne where you don't notice the change quite as much as up here in North Florida.

Dom's parents are coming for a visit and will be here next week. It is a nice motivator for me to clean those things I like to ignore, like kitchen cupboards. They will be here for Ethan's 5th birthday. Dom will be having surgery while they are here, so it will be nice to have babysitters available for me to go visit him in the hospital. I don't know if he really wants me to broadcast his surgery, but prayers for his well being are appreciated and if I didn't tell you about it, then you wouldn't know to pray. ;)

Well, I guess that is all for now. My cupboards are calling. Until next time.....

Momentary Insanity

Did that title get your attention?


I'm doing better, it's only been 4 days since my last post. I know that I need to do "catch-up" posts, but this isn't one of them.


This one is about my momentary insanity. You see, I have this cute little 7 year old boy. Pictured here.

If you notice he has a butterfly (a real actual living butterfly) on his head.

Well, he loves animals, all shapes and sizes, even the butterfly variety. He has been wanting a bird now for a couple of years and we have this wonderful porch on the front of our house, that for some reason attracts birds. A week or so ago, a bird flew onto it and got trapped as usual, and of course my sweet little boy wanted to keep it. He even called his dad at work to ask him to bring home bird seed for his new found pet. Well this poor little wren didn't last long, only a couple of hours. Unlike the times Quinn has caught hummingbirds in the same manner, trapped on the porch, whom lasted a least a day.

Here is one he caught. He made this elaborate "cage" for it from a sheet attached to his bedroom ceiling.

So, after this little wren died, I told Dom that I think we need to let him have a bird so that he will quit harassing the wildlife. Dom then told me that someone offered him a couple of gerbils that day at work, cage and all. I was thinking, "hmmm, maybe that would sustain his love for creatures for a little while and, better yet, they're free." So I said to Quinn and the other kids, "how about some gerbils, instead." Alex was all excited about the gerbils, he definitely wanted those. Quinn wasn't so sure. He still really wanted a bird. So, being the clone that he is of his father, he came up with this idea. "How about I get the gerbils, keep them for 10 days, then sell them and get a bird," he says. Anyone who knows Dom, knows that sounds awfully familiar and at the same age, no doubt. (Dom & I have this running joke where everything he did as a child, he was 8 years old. Because when he would tell stories about his childhood, he would always say that he was 8 years old, and I would say "oh, come on, you couldn't have always been 8." So now, it is a joke between us.) Anyway, Quinn still really wanted a bird, and now Alex really wanted the gerbils. So what are we, as parents, to do?

We let them have both. See my moment of insanity! I had a bird as a child and I always told Quinn, "no, you can't have a bird." Not because I don't like birds, but because I don't like the mess that they cause. But I just doubled my mess. Two cages, two sets of messes to clean up. What was I thinking? I know, I was thinking that I love my children and I want to give them some pleasure and memories in their childhood. I guess I will survive the mess.

BTW, the two gerbils have been named London & Maddie (think Disney's Zack & Cody show) and the birds are Bella & Bud.

I'm Baaaacccckkk!

Did you miss me, again? It wasn't my "fault" this time for not posting for so long. I have been without internet for about three weeks now. I really missed my web during that time. It is amazing how we get so used to something that is not a necessity of life, but seems like it is when it's not around. How many times did I think, "I'll google that," but I couldn't. I survived though and I wanted to send out a post letting you know that when I said that "I would do better about posting," I meant it.

It all began when our phone company decided to turn off our long distance. We had unlimited long distance, but they said we could not use it for our dial-up internet. Well, we didn't think we were dialing a long distance number for our internet. They said it was a "local" long distant number. HUH?! You see, Ethan loves to download games on the internet, but with dial-up, it takes forever. So we were connected for long segments of time and it must have flagged our account with the phone company, because all of a sudden, we couldn't dial-up anymore. What other options do we have for dial-up? None. There is no "local" number to call and we are not about to pay long distance charges to google something. So, we went back to our satellite service.

In some ways that is nice, but our satellite provider has the worst customer service, ever! Dom was on the phone with them practically every day for a week or two, before they finally reactivated our account and sent someone out to re-point our dish (it must have moved in the year it was turned off). The guy who came out to our house to reconnect us, was at our house for about four hours. He left and said we were up and running. Great, but when I went to the computer to check my email, it wasn't working. Not great! So back on the phone Dom went to talk to someone who could "help" us. Hah! Nothing they had Dom do was working and they said they would have to send a technician out again. Well, we knew how long that would take, forever. In the meantime, Dom kept fiddling with things trying to figure out why it was working, only to stop. My Knight in Shining Armour came to my rescue yesterday, and got me reconnected with my 915 emails. Isn't he smart? Yes, he is. He figured it out, and when I asked him how he did it, he said, "I can't explain it to you." And that is fine with me, as long as I have my internet. It had something to do with polarity? Enough said. So, you mothers out there, if you have children who want to take things apart to see how they work, let them. That is what Dom did as a kid, and it paid off, he can fix things, a great asset.

Stay tuned for "catch-up" posts.

I'm Still Here!

Have ya missed me? I have been busy. Sorry for no recent posts! Meg in Tally finally prodded me into, at least, sending a short post to let you all know I'm still with ya. Thanks Meg, for showing that you care! I was waiting for someone to poke me and say, "hey, where ya been?" I don't know what is with me today with all the "ya's."

I truly haven't meant to let almost three weeks go by with no post. I can't believe it has been that long. I won't have time to write all that has been floating in my head during all this time, but I wanted to write a short post. Now, if I could telepathically write my blog posts, we would be in business. I can draft a post in my head, while in the shower, but can't find the time to physically sit at the computer and regurgitate it back out of my head. (I think I watch too many sci-fi shows, Dom's favorite.)

Last post, I mentioned my goals of getting things done with homeschooling. Well, I have been working very hard on that and I don't get much spare time after everything is said and done. I haven't even been reading my friend's blogs and there is some sort of "blogging contest" going on, so they are writing a lot. Good thing I didn't join that contest, although no one asked me too. :( No, I'm really not sad over that. Who has the time? Not me!

Our tenant finally moved out of our rental property, so any "spare" days that I've had, I was cleaning and painting over there. Cleaning someone else's dirt, really isn't any fun. Good thing I'm not a maid by profession. But wait, I am, but it's my own dirt and that of my family's. That's a little different, plus, I really do clean behind my refrigerator more than once a year. Oh, you wouldn't believe what was behind the tenant's fridge. Ick!

With Dom's furniture leasing business, we went to Panama City Wednesday. I think that is the only time since I last wrote. So there is another "spare" day swallowed up.

I have been meaning to post pictures from a "field day" that the Monticello homeschoolers had a week or so ago. But those pics are still on my camera. Hopefully, I will get those pics to you soon with Alex and Quinn coming in first and second in the potato (or really feed) sack race. They had fun.

We have more babies at our house. My mama cat had kittens again, making it twice this year. Which is a first, she usually only has them once a year and that is in the spring. She's been busy. We have three look-a-likes under the house (where kittens have always been born here). They look just like our current Tiger, Princess, and Friskie (which isn't a stretch since we have three solid gray cats. Make that four). The kids have been under the house to see them, I haven't. I really don't want to belly crawl under there, not a pleasant thought. But maybe, I'll get the kids to take my camera under there for pictures. See, another exciting blog post in your future.

Well, that is a quick wrap up for you. I really will try and do better! I just haven't figured out where to pencil that time slot into my day yet, but I will work on it.

Disappointment

I was so excited about having a brooding chicken. I put books on reserve at the library to read to the kids about the developing baby chick inside the egg. I went online to find out how long a chick needs to be inside the egg, 21 days, and marked the calender accordingly. I cleaned an old chicken water container and food dispenser, in anticipation for the chicks arrival. I "made" the brooding chicken safer by putting her inside a dog carrier, or so I thought.

She made her nest in the barn, not inside the chicken coop. It was open to any would be predator and I was worried something might come and get her. I even lost sleep one night with that worry (a little bit of sleep, I still slept but did wake up on occasion and thought about her). So one night, the kids and I went to her spot and moved her and her eggs inside a dog carrier. We placed the carrier into the same spot she had already chosen. By day, the door could be opened and left open for her to venture outside. By night, it could be closed to keep her safe.

Yesterday was an exhausting day for me. Let me back up, last week was an exhausting week for me. It was "back to school" week. I decided I would get up every morning by the alarm clock!!! I know, that is a novel concept! Being a homeschooling, stay-at-home-mom, has some advantages like not having to get up at a specific time each day. But that can lead to laziness and I have been prone to just that. So I decided to get up everyday at 7:30, get in the shower and actually get dressed before noon!!! I had the kids start setting their alarms also, so that they would be up and dressed to eat breakfast all at the same time and not staggered through out the morning. I decided to start treating my homeschooling like it is my job, so that maybe, just maybe, I will feel like we are actually accomplishing something this year. You see, I have all this guilt that I'm not doing enough with them. After Anna was born, I had this whole health issue with my thyroid, and it has been a struggle for me to get back on my feet. This just happens to coincide with our first few years of homeschooling. Anyway, back to my point. Getting up early everyday, and setting goals (I have never been a goal setter) that we would get certain things done each day, and then actually meeting those goals, well, it exhausted me. So after doing our school work each day, and making three meals a day (why do we need to eat so much) there really wasn't much time for housework. I managed to get a load or two of laundry done each day, but not much else. So I decided Saturday would be the day we clean the house. I had the kids help me (hard for the perfectionist in me, but I'm trying). At about 3:30 we were done with the house, and I knew I needed to go out and clean a spot in my car that had started to mildew. So outside I went with our small steam cleaner to clean the carpet in my car. I thought it was just one spot, but on closer examination, it was several spots. I ended up cleaning the entire car, even removing the back seat and a plastic strip that was under that seat, so I could clean the mildew that was growing under that. I wiped down all the seats, etc,. etc., etc. During all this, I kept running back into the house to finish making a batch of bread, and to start dinner. I had Alex and Quinn stir the Sloppy Joes I was making for dinner, while I went out to finish the car. I was truly exhausted by dinner time when we finally sat down to eat. I told Quinn to go outside and lock our hen in for the night, along with a few other requests. I just didn't have the energy to do it. And I don't think I will allow kids to eat in my car ever again (famous last words).

This morning, Quinn comes in with all these broken eggs, saying, "you are going to be so mad." Yes, I was very disappointed to learn that my hen's house had been broken into last night and she and her "babies" were gone. I was very upset. I'm not sure Quinn managed last night to close the door to her carrier securely and I think a raccoon got her. So my attempt to keep her safe might have been the exact thing that got her killed. I had such high hopes for those baby chicks and their brooding mama. I was surprised at how upset I actually was about losing them. I have told my friend Tammy, who is new to chicken raising, not to get too attached to them, because they are easy prey and many get eaten by wild critters. But here I was, all upset over my hen. I had to remind myself, that it was just a chicken. My children are all well, my husband is all well, I'm all well. It's just a chicken.

This afternoon, I saw a raccoon on the back porch eating the cat food. I hollered "there's a raccoon on the back porch" for anyone who was in the house to hear. Alex said, "why did you say that so loud?" I hadn't realized that I had said it any louder than usual, but I replied, "because I could spit nails at it if it's the one that got my hen." Then Alex said, "Mom, there are three babies." And as I turned to look, not really all that interested, we've seen raccoon babies before, there was one that was tinier than we've ever seen before. It was so cute and adorable. I tried to get a picture, but they ran off before I could. How can something so darn cute, be such a nuisance when it comes to my chickens? I guess that is the cycle of life.

Birds, Birds, Birds

Today, was for the birds. Turkeys, humming birds, and chickens, that is. This morning, I looked out the kitchen window, because that is where I'm at most of the time, and I saw turkeys. I counted about seven of them. I, of course, called everyone over to the window to see them, Dom included. We all ohh'ed and ahh'ed, then Dom walked into the family room and said, "there's more out front." So we all moved to the family room window to see more. The ones from the back had met up with the ones in the front. I then counted about 19. As I was watching them, and Quinn was wishing he had a net to be able to catch one (which he does have, but I did not remind him about it), I remember my loyal readers (that's you) and went to grab my camera to snap a picture. By then they had made it over to the gazebo, as you can see here.


Not long after all that excitement, Quinn gets all excited again and runs out to the front porch. We now had another hummingbird trapped there.


Yes, we still have Christmas lights up. I'm not sure why, but Dom will take down all the lights from outside and store them until next Christmas, but has left the ones that border along our front porch, up. They have been there for about two years now. I guess we are not trying to impress the "Jone's" anymore since moving to the woods.

Of course, Quinn grabbed the first empty ice cream bucket he could get his hands on, and caught the little bird. I reminded him about what happened last time he caught and kept a hummingbird (see Joy of Living in the Woods) and Dom has told him, by the end of today, he will be letting the bird go.

Then to add even more excitement to the day (how can we contain our ourselves?) Alex tells me that he found the nest to my favorite laying hen. Since adding the chicken run to our coop, we have some chickens that fly the coop. Sometimes they go back in the coop on their own, some we catch and put back in, and some stay out most or all of the time. One of my best laying hens has decided to stay out. I knew she had to be laying eggs somewhere, but we hadn't found where yet. Until today. And not only did we find the eggs, but she has decided to brood.Here she is on her eggs inside the barn. Maybe we will have some baby chicks running around here soon. I'm glad God has provided my science for this homeschooling year! For a little while, anyway.