Photos by Saige

A couple of times a week, Saige likes to take my phone and practice her photography skills.  I never quite know what kind of stuff she will photograph, but there are usually a few that are pretty cool.  You might notice how everything is muddy.....a solid week of rain has happened.  Needless to say, with outdoor stuff kind of off the table, this hasn’t been our most amazing week with entertainment or adventures.  We have done a lot of cooking, the girls did clean out the spare room downstairs and set up a guest bed.  They did a great job.  Today, while I was at work they cleaned out the entryway closet.  It is nice to have a couple of those things marked off our list.  It looks like next week will be better for outdoor activities.  

Experiment phase

This week, we have watched as the president mocked people for wearing masks, despite the mask wearing being recommended by the CDC (a government agency overseen by who?). We have seen the federal government decide that despite 100,000 people dying from covid 19 in 3 months time, we should plunge ahead with reopening because the economy just cannot take much more.  And while I do not possess the answers for this crisis, it feels like it has become more of a political issue than one of public health and safety at this point.  The president (aka giant petulant child) has handed the control to the governors.  Here in Kansas, the legislature has tried to pass a bill which limits the governor’s power.  The governor vetoed this, however she followed the veto with handing the control over to the county.  In other words, a giant pass the buck.  I don’t know how I expected the reopening to go, but this was not a well thought out plan.  More of a caving in and giving up.   Osage county, where we live and work, fast tracked to complete reopening, with the only restriction being groups need to be less than 90 people.  Why do I write about this?   Well because this is my family’s scrapbook, and our story.  I think someday we might want to reread how this went down.   On a personal level, I feel like this is a giant experiment with the American people being the game pieces.   Open everything back up and hope for the best feels to me like open the gate, let the animals free and see how many get smashed on the road.  Oh, and then blame the animals because they damaged your car as you hit them.  And so, we are not playing along.  We have already had most of our plans for summer cancelled.  We are making our own fun, staying home when we can, avoiding crowds, and learning some new skills along the way.  If we catch coronavirus, we will hope the healthcare we need is available.  We aren’t living in fear, but more like trying to take an intelligent approach.   In all fairness, I approach cold and flu season the same way.  Lots of soap and bleach and a whole lot of avoidance.   

In other news, Quincy has purchased a harness for her phone and is now videoing everything.  The girls are trying to enhance their YouTube channel.  It amuses me, although I think Jim somehow worries we will end up on the 10 o’clock news for something they post.  

Memorial day

We are thankful for those who sacrificed so that our country can be the greatest place to raise a family.  Usually, we would have attended the cemetery mass and the opening of the city pool.  The mass was cancelled due to weather, and the city pool isn’t opening just yet.  Instead, we did a few projects around the house, and watched some tv.   The girls were a little too house bound and sort of squirrely, but they are also pretty funny and good helpers!  

Didn’t get to see all the kids this holiday weekend, but I did hear from them all.  Cameron and Lauren were  fishing at Tuttle.  

Colin kept me supplied with photos of  his and Spencer’s new puppy. (Seriously isn’t he cute?!?!).  

Mallory and Olive came to visit and brought cookies. 

And we feel blessed that we have a grandkid to go among the grand dogs.  

It was a restful day and I am thankful for that!  Of course, the rain made it hard to do any outdoor projects.  Always sad to see a 3 day weekend come to an end.  

All work and no play? Never!

On our way home from church this morning, I told the kids we had to do some cleaning.  They asked if they could try out this slip and slide Quincy found on clearance last winter.  I said they could, just as soon as they helped me clean and we got the back yard mowed.  This turned out to be quite a good bribe, as they worked really hard and we got all the cleaning up done rather quickly.  Sort of makes me wish my list had been longer!   The girls had a lot of fun playing around in the water in the back yard.  They were also reminiscing on how many Memorial Day weekends we have gone to the opening of the city pool.  Overbrook is opening their pool, but not until June 15.   We did get a message saying our pool is finally being shipped, so we were also excited about that!  

We had our weekly Sunday dinner, and then Andrew and Preston decided to go fishing.   The girls wanted to go.   Harper caught a pretty large drum.   Everyone else caught some smaller fish. They were using some bait that Andrew made.  

We got a lot done today, but managed to squeeze in some fun as well.  I love Sunday the most!  

Madison and Andrew got Evie a fish tank.  I thought this was hilarious - her with the net!   She is such a great kid.   

Little projects everywhere

Madison has a second job couple nights per week.  This week we had Evie most of the day,   We all got a huge kick out of feeding her a snack of ranch dip and crackers.  She ate the dip and threw the crackers on the floor while yelling “dog! Dog!”   We didn’t have the heart to tell her Blitz doesn’t like crackers!  She is awesome. We all just love her.  

When Madison goes to work, she drops Evelyn off at Mallory’s house.  Jim and I then stop and pick her up, and she goes to work with me.  Jim was telling Mallory how much he loved the paint on her front door.  Mallory gave him the rest of the paint!   I started out the weekend with a list.  Painting the door was on the list.  Never mind how much stuff on the list didn’t get done, we still managed to get a lot done today.  It didn’t help that Jim also had a list.    We love how the door turned out, but now I want to paint the lights and I’m afraid the cement will never be clean due to the dogs always laying by the door.  I guess having a never ending list just goes with life.    

While I was painting, Saige asked if she could practice photography.  She took some pretty good pictures!  I really like the shadow one!   She kept herself entertained for quite a while, and once again I am thankful that there is no film to develop because she took about 60 or 70 photos!  

Other accomplishments for the day were getting a lot of mowing done, getting a lot of the bottom of the pool raked and plucked out, fixing the captains nook on our deck, planting more herbs in the herb garden, starting more plants inside, and the girls worked on scrubbing cabinets and trim with oil soap.  A productive but exhausting day!  

Which is why when Harps and Saige asked if I wanted a pedi I readily agreed.  Spa night is always a huge favorite around here!  

And this happened today too.  Our new grand dog, Volt.   Colin and Spencer have been looking for a puppy for a few weeks now.  Apparently puppies are another thing that is hard to find during a pandemic.  I love looking for stuff on the farm pages.  I found these red heelers and I wanted one.  Luckily, they were not far from Colin and he got one instead!  I love him!  He’s adorable!  It was hard for me not to load up and drive to Wichita to meet him in person!   

Enjoying life

Luckily (or maybe unluckily) having a lot of life’s activities cancelled doesn’t mean we have nothing to do.   Jim and I are the king and queen of inventing things to do.   A friend from church was selling this awesome tiller.  I jumped at the opportunity.  We have turned all of the flower beds into lovely little vegetable patches.  Preston and Quincy working at the vineyard for a master gardener has come in very handy!   They know all about plants and have helped me a lot!   This week, they brought home some asparagus roots.  I have always wanted to grow asparagus but have been scared.  Preston not only knew how to properly plant it, but was extremely helpful!  Now we wait.  

We also planted more vegetables including pickling cucumbers which Harper is guarding like a hawk because she loves pickles.   

We all love having Evelyn back hanging out with us.   She might be one of the girls favorite projects.  They have so much fun teaching her new words, showing her stuff and just playing with her.  She is such a funny little kid!  

We also gave worm grunting a try.   Google it, and watch the videos of the people who know how it’s done.  It is fascinating.  We failed but had fun trying!   

Critters

Last weekend, my friend texted.  A friend of hers  has a son who is going into the military and they were looking to rehome his bearded dragon.  I’m not sure if I blogged about it, but PJ passed away last winter.  I think the average lifespan is around 10 years old and she was about that old.   The kids were really sad.  These creatures are sweet, friendly, curious, and like being held.  They don’t bite or ever seem to act aggressively.  Once in a while if you startle them, they puff out a beard, but it is rare.  Anyway, we jumped at the chance to have another one.  This is Diablo. He is 3 years old.  We are already in love with him.  He is super fast, super friendly and seemed to take a real shining to Jim.  He was chilling out on the couch, crawled onto Jim’s lap and took a nap.  So cute!  

Bringing him home, Preston once again told me I may have an addiction to bringing home critters.  He’s probably not wrong, but I promise they are all loved and well fed.  Diablo wasn’t the only animal we brought home today.  We stopped at the pet store on the way home for meal worms and parrot food.  I let Quincy and Harper go into the pet store with me (wearing masks -and practicing social distancing of course).  This lead to bringing home more fish.  3 Molly’s and a Cory cat that Jim named weezer.  

Saige decided she was going to take pet pictures.  She’s not too bad of a photographer either i must say!    

She didn’t capture them all, but pretty close!   She lacks a photo of the hedge hog.  Honestly, that thing has not been the best pet we ever brought home.  She isn’t friendly at all, and she Really just like rolling up in her fleece blanket and sleeping.  But Quincy loves her so she can stay!  

We also had a little accident with the parakeets a few days back. Somehow the cat had a snack.  At least that is what we think happened.   They are missing.   

I mentioned a few days back that because of the pandemic, I have allowed a few things that I wouldn’t have before.  One example of this is pictured above.  Quincy’s rooster, Barry is beautiful but mean.  The little girls won’t go in to gather the eggs and when Quincy goes in she takes an old ball bat.  Normally I would have put him in a soup pot.  But, when we ordered broilers a few weeks ago, there were big shortages of chickens.   We managed to get chicks but a full 6 weeks later than I would have liked them.   I have a fear that I may need to hatch out some eggs and We cannot do that if We don’t have a rooster.  That is why he is still here. The only reason.   

In addition to picking up dragons, and taking pictures we also planted more stuff in our gardens.  We now have 6 varieties of tomatoes, peppers, jalapeños, zucchini, crooked neck squash, yellow squash, cucumbers and spaghetti squash planted.  We only stopped because we ran out of room.  Tomorrow we will use the tiller to plow up a little bit more so we can plant a few more things.   The girls are a ton of help and love gardening.  Harper and Saige were helping me pull weeds too.  Harper told Saige to watch for snakes.  Next thing we knew, she came out in a “snake proof weeding outfit.”  She worked really hard, so whatever.  

After we worked on the gardens, mowed, and did a bunch of other stuff outside, Quincy asked if we could go for a drive with the windows down.   Jim said sure and threw her the keys.  She’s not too bad of a driver, she even has the Ollie stamp of approval.  

It was a fabulous day which I enjoyed.  We did learn that Overbrook has its first case of Covid 19.  We knew it was probably coming, but we hoped it would skip our town.  I hope we can make it a one and done.