F this weather

The kids and Jim had a day off today.  It was a teacher development day, and a holiday (an imaginary federal holiday ahem).  I don’t get federal holidays - I can take them off, but they are not paid.  I got up early, and didn’t complain too much since my car has remote start!   So much better than the bus heat wise too!   I made it to work, but it is so cold that the salt they put on the roads isn’t melting the snow.  The roads were slick and it took me longer than usual to get to town.  This is day 8 of this polar vortex storm.  I think it is safe to say that everyone is done with it.  Today the literal temperature was -10.  The wind chill made it feel like -30.   Freeze the snot right in your nose weather.  Every single livestock producer in this area is suffering.  It isn’t unusual for us to get a day or 2 of cold weather here, but this long stretch of this sort of cold hasn’t happened since 1983 I heard on the morning news.  I hate the cold. I am not interested in Kansas being colder than the dang North Pole.  I certainly don’t want to set records for cold.  And they say tomorrow is going to be worse. Honestly, I don’t want to even know how it could be worse than today.  I was thrilled when they called off school.  I don’t want to deal with driving a bus in this junk.  My dad, mom and brother are in the middle of calving season. I cannot imagine being born outside  on a day like today.  I know they are working their butts off to keep everything fed, watered, warm, dry....I am sure nobody is sleeping.  It is miserable.  

And added to the cold weather, the power grids are being taxed beyond what they can keep up with. Our area has been given several warnings to turn your furnaces down and turn off any lights or electrical things you can do without.  They were shutting down power to parts of the state for 30-60 minutes at a time.  I do not know how that helps, seems like when you turn it back on every furnace in the area will turn on and tax it all over again.  We are doing what we can, watching tv in the dark.  We have shut off everything possible except the tv and the furnace.  The girls took their baths by candle light.  I’m ok with that, but I sure don’t want to be without heat right now.  My heart goes out to Colin and the rest of the people working to keep us all warm, safe, streets cleared, etc in this mess.  I appreciate their work.  

We don’t have any livestock right now, as we sold our goats last summer.  I am thankful for that.  We do have some poultry though, and they are suffering. Today Quincy, Harper and Jim spent quite a bit of time pitching a tent in our feed shed and then they caught all of the birds and put them in there.  Getting them out of the wind, and protected from critters we hope.  Luckily, Preston bought a few tents a few years ago on some weird sale.  I’m sure this tent will never be used again by people but it is hopefully saving some chicken lives.  We also have a few outdoor cats.  One is friendly so we let her inside, probably not a good idea, since she’s not potty trained but I just felt so bad for her.  The two wild cats are still out there, but they have hay in a shed with the chickens and have been fed a feast of tuna and eggs.  I would probably let them inside if I could  catch them.  I’d Be sorry later, but it isn’t fit for man or beast out there.  

Valentine’s weekend

Ahhh Valentine’s Day.  A day or weekend  for romantic get aways, candlelit dinners, flowers and hearts. Unless you have kids.  This year is an improvement over what usually happens (think cold and flu season).  This year, I drove a bus to basketball to watch Preston’s team take on Osawatomie.  The weather was so cold that we could not shut off the buses for fear of them gelling up and not getting home.   I am on record with saying that somehow leaving a bus running while I watched a game made me nervous.  I guess all those lectures about responsibility when I was a kid are still in there.   I watched Preston and the girls game and then I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I sat on the bus and  read a book.  We made it home and I was very glad.  Polar vortex  weather and diesel vehicles are just not a good mixture.  

Lack of concessions at a lot of the places (due to covid) means packing dinner.  I discovered my new favorite snack.  I’m sure they aren’t healthy, but they are easy to transport.  

Preston (#10 in blue) has a hard time seeing the good he does, and instead focuses on how he messed up.  That is just his nature.  He played well though and I am not just saying that because I’m his mom!  I’m glad I got to watch him! 

Saige and Harper were excited to spend the night at grandma’s house.  They were hoping to help with calves.  It has been a terrible time to have babies, and grandma has been very busy blow drying babies before they go back with their moms.  They were not disappointed and they even gave a new calf a name I was told.  I wish this weather would go away. It’s too hard on everything. 

Colin and Spencer cancelled their trip up this weekend.  I am sad not to see them, but happy not to have to worry about them traveling.  I hope I get to meet Cash before he’s a full grown doggy!  

Quincy had regional wrestling yesterday.  It was the first time this season that Jim and I got to both go at the same time.  Quincy wrestled hard and ended up in 3rd place.  She is learning and  getting better all the time.  She is also pretty hard on herself.  She advances to sub-state next week. We are tickled for her.  

Where there was not any real romance, we are extremely blessed.  I am surrounded by the best Valentines all the time.  

Mallory and Madison are 25!

Today is Mallory and Madison’s 25th birthday.  Mallory has followed her dreams into teaching and I am consistently told what an amazing teacher she is.  She is good with the kids, genuinely loves teaching, and has a passion for doing it well.  It is really amazing to watch her in her dream job.  Madison is rocking wife/motherhood and although I don’t think lunch lady was her dream job, she does take great pride in making good food for people.  She is always looking for ways to do things better, and I know she works very hard because I am told that she is a great asset to the school.  I love that they get to spend their days working in the same place.  

These girls have always made my life easy.  They were good kids and now they are good adults.  I love them both so much and am very blessed to have them as my daughters.  

They were both hoping for a snow day today.  That didn’t happen.  Although I wish it would have.  Today was not, by far the worst road day I have ever had.  It was absolutely terrible anyway.  There was freezing drizzle.  The bus heaters, defrosters, fans all blowing as high and as hot as I could set them did not even come close to keeping the windshield cleared off.  I had a hard time seeing.  At one point, I got out of the bus, and since I can’t reach the windshield I used my broom to shake the wipers loose of their ice. Unfortunately, the driver’s side wiper flew off.  Luckily, I was only a mile or so from home when this happened.   I just turned in our driveway, took the kids on a small detour and  begged Jim for help.  Thank God for giving me a tall husband!!   Jim got me back together and I was only about 5 minutes later than normal. It all worked out, but I hope I never have another day like it.  

Sorry you didn’t get you snow day girls.  Happy birthday anyway.  

Super Bowl weekend

GG got a new puppy.  After she lost Reggie, she wasn’t sure she wanted another dog, but when she found out that there was a litter of siblings, and she saw this face, she couldn’t resist.  Of course, my dad is a breed snob, so this is a full blooded Aussie.   His name is Rusty, and we are all in love already!   He’s so cute.  

Friday evening, Quincy had district wrestling.  We are to the place in the season where she has to win to move in.  Her entire team (all 5 girls) all placed, so they all live to sub-districts this week.    Quincy got second.  I was thankful that it wasn’t far, and Jim was able to go cheer her on!   

Saturday, Preston’s team had a tournament in Burlingame.  I drove the bus and was happy to spend the day with Preston.  They ended up taking second place. 

When I came out of the basketball tournament to warm up the bus, the weather had changed.  It was snowing the most perfect little snow flakes.  I am no fan of the snow, but in this part of the country we rarely get anything that isn’t just wet blobs.  I had to take a picture!  Or several.  

It is Saige’s month to be the sacristan at church.  After we finished, the girls had to stop and snuggle Rusty!  He seemed like he was excited about it.  

We were so happy to have all the kids home for the super bowl, except for Spencer.  Colin is doing an apprentice class this week in Topeka, so he came by himself since he was staying.  The super bowl didn’t go as we would have liked, however the food was good and the company was great!  

We even got to meet Lauren’s new dog, Bella. She’s a gentle giant and we all love her!  

I felt extremely blessed this weekend.  Seeing my people, loving on the grandkid, and watching folks do the stuff they like.