Nearly the End of March

 So as is, I guess, usual, March has been up and down a lot.

Mostly down, really.

We have had a cooler March than average and when the temperatures have heated up, they have generally been accompanied by wind and rain. Today it is supposed to be in the mid 50's with lots of rain and winds up to nearly 30 mph.

Miriam is groaning a bit at that. She works at Burger King but just one day a week, usually Saturdays. She is busy with college so one day a week works best.  Every Saturday this month (I think) the weather has been rotten when she works.  Today will be no exception; the BK windows are facing toward the west, where the winds come from. So winds will be whistling through the drive through windows, and maybe some rain as well!

In other news, I worked on organizing, decluttering, and cleaning a lot this week.

An explanation is in order.  The wicker basket is where I throw papers of dubious provenance. That is to say, I put random paper items which I think I might want sometime, but am not certain of.

It fills and fills and fills, and then every three or four months, I go through and basically throw it all out.

Of course, you have to wonder, why don't I just throw the papers out immediately? Well, because I am not CERTAIN. MAYBE I will want to look at the papers later.  I generally don't, but this works for me because I can just make decisions once every three or four months and in the meantime, all those random papers are confined to one place.

Angela has cute hair.

Rose is funny and big.

This bookshelf is a lot clearer than it was but I don't have a before picture.  I moved a bunch of books downstairs and donated some others.

This ... this is my life.  

Kevin and I have produced a bunch of really creative children. They like to draw and make things out of paper and mess around with boxes and it is great!

However. Every horizontal surface set aside for art ends up looking like this. Rose, in particular, doesn't care if she is working in a four inch by four inch space. She has no concept of "tidying up" the art table. She makes stuff, shoves aside the refuge, and keeps working.

 Now she cleans other things and so do all the kids. I could not keep the house in decent shape otherwise!  

But yes, the art tables always get really messy in a short time, and then I need to sweep in and work on cleaning things up.

Which is Ok. It is just a little weird to me because I am pretty tidy and always have been.

I am also not artsy craftsy at all so maybe that is part of it?  

I distinctly remember hanging out with a friend when I was like nine years old. She was really good at drawing faces.  I tried and failed to do something remotely decent and gave up.  So I wonder -- if I had persevered, would I have been a reasonably good artist?  All the girls have persevered in that area and are now good artists.

Or was my giving up a sign that I just don't really care about creating art?  I have been a bookworm since I was able to read well, which was like age 7 or so. I had my nose in a book a lot.  I still adore reading books. And I write them too, of course.

Anyway.  That was our week.  Cleaning a lot, along with the other normal stuff.

Sarah Made These!

Seriously. She asked for a pattern. She asked for the appropriate material. And she did this with a little help from Angela, probably. Not me. I can't sew to save my life!  I am so proud of my sewing girls!

Two more cat plushies!  And a photobombing Dad!

Speaking of Sarah, she has been battling an ear infection. The drops were $330 without insurance. Wow.  Thankful for good insurance.  It was still $36 but that is manageable.

 

Yesterday was a DAY!

 So ...

Ten years ago I had 8 children under the age of 14.  Daniel was a baby and Sarah was a very, very busy 2 year old.

Ten years ago, and fifteen years ago, and even twenty years ago, I woke up early and hit the floor running. I was busy most of the day. There were always a million things to do and kids needing me for a myriad of reasons.

The last few years have been way easier in terms of sheer physical requirements. All the children can get their own water and they are largely independent in terms of putting clothes on and off and they even do a lot of the work around here.

Which is good, because I couldn't do it all myself.  Impossible!

Of course, older kids have needs too!  I spend a lot more time talking about life and also the teaching is more strenuous. By that, I mean, that when I need to teach something, it is usually harder stuff.  Most of the kids are fairly independent.

Anyway.

Yesterday reminded me of a decade ago.  I got up and spent some time with the Lord, and then it was one thing after another.  Sarah needed help with math, and Daniel needed help with writing. I am finishing up one of my own books and I was working on final edits. At 11 or so I got hungry and made myself my usual salad. I reached into the refrigerator and grabbed the salad dressing, and it was wedged in with a container of barbecue sauce.  Barbecue sauce fell out and hit just wrong, sending barbecue sauce everywhere.

Well, I guess the floor had to be washed?

A lot?

Kevin had to move the refrigerator so I could get in there and get the last bits.  Ugh!

The kids have game time on the computers after lunch every day, and I worked away on final edits for my book. Then I worked with Angela to get her sorted out for College Credit Plus. She took a placement test on Wednesday and did well enough to be accepted for normal English classes.

(No surprise there.  She is a smart cookie.)

Naturally nothing was easy.  We needed an acceptance letter to submit to the College Credit Plus site. It took us a long time to find it because the Clark State website, which is actually very good, was either not quite helpful enough or I was too frustrated to make good decisions.

Eventually, we got the acceptance letter, and I uploaded it and hit submit so... the CCP app is done for the year. Hooray!

By evening, I was a mass of stress.  It was weird really. Just SO stressed. Too much hopping from one thing to another all day, struggling and battling stuff...

Life is usually easier these days, and I am grateful.

Life

 

Our younger girls love making plushies

They made a little shop.

Sarah bought this lion which is part of Webkinz, which is an online game. So she has a physical lion, and a corresponding lion in the game.  Which is cool!

I moved the younger girls bunk bed. It used to be against the far wall. Basically I switched the table and bunk bed around. The girls were not excited. They don't like change.  I do like moving furniture around but ... the girls get by their views honestly. Kevin is of the view that basically there is one logical way to have furniture, and he doesn't want it moved from that logical place.  Hey, he's an engineer!

So am I, but...

Anyway, we usually don't move the furniture around because ... if I am being honest, usually there is one logical place for a piece of furniture. I like the bunk bed where it is now, though; it means the far window isn't blocked!  So I think this is better.

Eggy. Another plushie.  Tell me that's not cute!  I dare you!

Cocoa s...t...r...e...t...c..h..e..d out on the deck!

March!

 

The weather has been a bit wild and whacky lately. Today is nice though; currently 53 and partly sunny. The cats are really enjoying the warmer weather. You can see that both Cocoa and Moonbeam are quite pleased with life.

Two days ago we were absolutely deluged.  It rained and rained and rained and rained. And then it rained some more. We got more than 2 inches of rain!  It was also very windy and the wind was gusting. Obviously our porch got wet!

A few days ago, before the rain, I took the three youngest kids to a local park. It has a boardwalk.  It is beautiful in spring and summer. Now it was frankly a bit on the dull side because not much is growing, but we got some exercise so that was awesome.

A tree!  With buds! Spring is coming though we have some cold nights coming up.  That is March in Southern Ohio for ya!  My parents and one brother live in southwestern Michigan and they got pummeled with snow while we got rain so I guess I shouldn't complain!

I know this looks weird. It is low carb fudge.  It is a mix of cocoa, peanut butter, stevia, monk fruit, and margarine.  I love it.  I love it so much. So tasty!

What else? Well, the last couple of weeks have been light on appointments outside of the house which has been nice.  I didn't have to go in for jury duty, which  made me happy. This week, I am taking Angela to a local college so she can take a placement test.  I am signing her up for College Credit Plus this year and there are hoops she has to jump through as a first timer.  Miriam and Joseph did the placement test thing in previous years so they are easier. 

After Angela, we get a three year break before Sarah will be ready for CCP.

I am closing in on finishing another book. This one was written in conjunction with a friend who is a brilliant author.  Together we managed to write it very quickly! Well, it isn't done yet, but it is super close.

We also released an audio book of one of shorter books, A Fortuitous Fall, this week.  I don't listen to audio books at all; I am super visual and easily distractible so listening to things doesn't really work for my brain. But I know some people love audio books which is great, but not me.  But I am glad we have options for the auditory fans out there.

Last, but not least, we spied a new cat out by the barn a few days ago. We haven't seen him again so I don't know if he belongs to a neighbor and just stopped by, or what.  He is large, fluffy, and orange and white.

Update on Moonbeam

So I mentioned in a previous post that Moonbeam, the big cat in the foreground, had a tooth problem.  We took him to the vet and the surgeon removed three teeth, one of which had snapped in half and the root had the be extracted.

We put Moonbeam in the barn and for several days, showered him with love and affection and lots of wet cat food. He was very happy to see us, very happy to accept pets, but he wasn't eating much at all, which worried me.

Finally I decided, Ok, he probably was feeling good enough to be out with the other cats at least during the day, though I intended to put him in the barn again at night so I could give him soft, wet food away from the other greedy cats.

We carried him around to the front porch where the dry food was.  Moonbeam leaped out of Miriam's arms and rushed over to the dry cat food and started eating it like he hadn't eaten in days.

Like, really, Cat??

I go to all this trouble to feed you soft wet food and dry is your favorite food in the entire planet?

Needless to say, he did not return to the barn.  He is out and about and very happy now that his teeth aren't hurting.

 

Lurching Toward Spring

 

I know it is not warm today, but we have had a couple of warm days recently. Yesterday it was almost 70. And windy, of course, as a front blew through.  Very windy.

We missed a major winter storm to the north of us so I am happy.

Much of this week has involved the cat on the right.  Moonbeam is our oldest cat.  We were not confident how old but came up with him being at least 13 and maybe even 15!  That is old for an ourdoor cat.

Kevin noticed he was slobbering and I checked him and discovered a tooth was broken.  I took him to the vet and they extracted that tooth and a couple of others that were barely hanging on.

Then they dosed him with pain meds and antibiotics and we put him in the barn for a few days.

Like all but one of our cats, Moonbeam is a stray/rescue. He and his mother and fellow kitten showed up on our porch many years ago. We found homes for Mom and Sib, but Moonbeam stayed. He is a very very nice cat.  I know he is very old too, and don't expect him to live a lot longer.  I am going to keep a close eye on his quality of life. He seems happy now.

Kevin bought our children a new "Active Life" mat. The Wii has games where you jump up and down on the mat and get exercise.  The old mat was not working right.  There is great happiness regarding the new mat.

We got our Universal Yums box from Brazil a few days ago. It is a subscription service where every month, we get food from a different country.  The kids really enjoy testing out different items. 

I finished this fun puzzle.  In addition to being spiritually encouraging (names of Jesus) it was also easy.  All those letters made it easy to put puzzle pieces in the right places.  A few months ago, I started a Monet puzzle and gave up.  I love Monet's work but it was SO hard to find the right spots with most of the puzzle full of tans, greens, purples, and pinks.

I found Wiki Stix living in a random box.  

Much of the family has been sick this week. Kevin has been the worst, poor guy.  Four of us helped at our church's food pantry last Saturday and on Monday, I got a text from one of the leaders that he tested positive for COVID!  We already had some people feeling funny on Saturday (no one who went) and three of us have tested negative for COVID since then. Which is to say, we tested at home. I am nearly certain it is just a cold.

Daniel has been sick all week but today felt well enough to make lemon muffins.

Oh, this is one last "funny".  All last weekend I was thinking I needed to wash the dining room floor but didn't get around to it.

Monday morning, Rose was sick and asked for some 7-Up. I said yes.

She then spilled it all over the dining room floor. I was glad I waited on washing the floor!  

Then a few hours later, we brought home groceries and Daniel dropped a bag with a giant container of yogurt.

Which then smashed and spread yogurt all over.

Sigh.

So now the dining room and kitchen floors are clean. Because I had to deal with them!