Windshield time

 

Madison and the girls are watching their friend’s little boys during the day. 

One of the  daycare providers is a little bit bossier than the others.  

Today, while I waited for my bus para, I snapped a couple of pictures of the fall leaves out the window.  Then I decided I wanted to take a few more as I go, because the countryside is full of fall colors, and beautiful scenery.  I waited until I was on my way home, with zero children on the bus with me.  

The down the road neighbors raise Dexter cattle.  They are a smaller breed cow from  Ireland I believe.  They are cute and it is a small herd and they are basically pets. If you stop, which I admit I sometimes do, they come right to the fence.  Why do I sometimes stop?  No reason other than I just really love cows.  Doesn’t everyone stop and talk to the cows for a minute?   I am also guilty of naming the neighbor’s cattle. Do they care?  I have not asked and  figure They don’t have to know!   I drive 115-120 miles a day. I actually enjoy that.  I see the same cows, same horses, same roads every single day.  It amuses me and it is harmless.  This bull I call Bad Bart.  I am sure you can see why.  Go ahead and call the men in white coats, but I feel like it is a harmless thing to do.  

My favorite sight of the day - the road home with empty seats behind me!  Daylight savings time means when I get home, there isn’t much time before it is dark now.  Have I mentioned my disdain for moving the clocks back to standard time?  

One thing I love, and it is ridiculous - is sumac in the fall.  Yes I know it is an invasive weed, but seriously it is beautiful!  If you have to be poisonous, at least be beautiful! 

The hedge apples (monkey brains, Osage orange balls - whatever you call them)  numbers are massive this year!   This isn’t even a big tree!   I wish I knew some useful thing to do with them.  I tried putting them in the basement a few years ago, to keep the spiders out.  Yea, that was a waste of time!  Ideas welcome I guess.  

Every single time I pull in, Maude comes running.  She is so happy to see me.  It is stupid though, and I legit worry she is going to be run over.  This is a source of mild contention between Jim and me.  He thinks by letting her come running and load up on the bus (don’t tell my boss) I am encouraging the bad behavior.  I understand what he is saying, but I’d rather load her and insure I don’t hit her.  Plus it makes me laugh when she jumps her short legs up the stairs.  She also runs around while I park and eats all the crackers, cereal and probably candy the kids drop.  It helps me! 

Such a good girl. 

Saige wasn’t feeling well after school today, so I went out to do her chores for her.  We went from 12-15 eggs a day down to 2-3.  The chickens and I had a discussion about soup tonight.  The pullets I got in June have not started laying yet either.  There was a lot of lecturing done this evening.  

Chickens don’t listen. But Zoey does!  

Blitz listens but doesn’t care what I say.  She is old and opinionated.  Like her owner I guess.  

Wednesday randomness for you. 

Midweek hustle

Ok maybe hustle isn’t the right word for all of it!  At the end of the day, when we are all finally home, Maude needs attention. She is so happy to see us.  She still has a lot of puppy in her. We are working on it.  On her not jumping, on her not eating our shoes if we aren’t watching and definitely on her not getting on the furniture.  She’s a mess, but she’s our mess and we love her. Zoey seems like she has settled in fairly well.  She has definitely bonded with Jim.  He is currently looking for a job, and I keep wondering if she will be sad when he isn’t here all the time.  I’m sure she will be fine, but she has definitely endured a lot of changes her short life.  

This kid.  I guess Halloween candy was her dinner. 

Once in a while Facebook memories crack me up.  I had forgotten about Cameron forming a dodge ball team he called “The Lumberjacks” and about the argument I had with him over whether he could take a chainsaw to school.  He thought since the saw was broken it was fine.  I only had visions of Mr. Graham having to call me again. 

Ok - so I had a lot of babies.  I remember complaining because boy clothes were so awful.  Tons of cute girl stuff but boy stuff - blech.   I remember the struggles of trying to find plain clothes - without footballs or dinosaurs on them.  I also struggled with girl clothes but it seems like there were just more options.  I have a new grandson coming. I am excited and started looking online for some baby shower gifts and Christmas gifts.  Omg things have changed for the better!  I filled a cart.  Filled.  I am overjoyed with the cuteness!  Look at this little cammo swaddle and bat!   I then looked at my cart when I went to check out.  Let’s just say I didn’t check out and choices are going to need to be made here!  

Jim has been attending his fraternity bbq night.  This week, they ate at The Blind Box.  He said it was really good, and a few of the brothers showed up.  He seemed like he had a good time.  After the dinner, he ran by Cameron's house to visit for a bit.  He delivered the turkey door decoration I made.  Cameron was overjoyed and excited about it!  (ok that might be an exaggeration, but I am going with it anyway).  Jim did ask me if I wanted to go with him, however the girls had a 4-H meeting.  Saige was elected as the club secretary again this year.  She was sick the night of elections, and was not amused with Harper's nomination nor with her win.  She really does do a good job with it, and I don't mind helping her out with the minutes.  They also sung to the November birthday 4-Hers.  She was not overly enthusiastic about that either!  Harper and Saige are supposed to be splitting the council office - but Harper went to the first meeting and got elected to an office there as well, so I am not sure how that will work out!  

Madison fills my day with pictures of the girls.  Which I am thankful for.  But sometimes, I wonder if maybe I should go intervene.  Or help her or something.  I did laugh - Wren has dry skin I guess.  Or she thought she needed a LOT of lotion!  That ought to do it!

We are just working for the weekend at this point. 

 

Learned some new stuff

This morning we went to mass, and then stopped off at grandma’s house to help aunt Stephanie poly the newly painted cabinets.  We got that done fairly quickly. The cabinets look really nice. They will need to dry for a few hours before we can add the pulls.  We came home and had Sunday lunch with the girls.  They were animated today!  I enjoy hanging out listening to their tales of insanity.  They make my day. 

After lunch, Harper had.a CWF meeting and community service night.  They had a guest speaker who talked about learning how to network and the importance of that.  It was very interesting.  Following that, they had some networking activities.  I can see Harper cringing when they were describing the activities, but she continues to rise to the challenges and is doing a good job of overcoming her quiet nature.  

These kids are held to a pretty high standard of civic engagement, leadership and citizenship.  Tonight, they learned the proper way to retire a flag,  had collected several for retirement, and then physically retired the flags they had collected.  They opened this up for all of the 4-Hers in the 4 counties in our district and served anyone who showed up dinner. 

I was aware that old flags were burned in a ceremony.  I was not aware that they had to be cut apart first in a certain way that separates the blue square from the red stripes.  They also had a lot of flag type information that they read during the ceremony, and I learned a few things.  It was a very cool thing to be a part of, and I am so proud of Harper and her dedication to this project. 

This was a good weekend.  I didn’t accomplish much at home, but it is still good.  And over (dang it).