Just bits and pieces

Shameful how little time I spend here these days, but I will be back eventually.  For the nonce, an occasional post just letting everyone know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth will have to do!  Just thought I would stop by and give you a few bits of what's been up the last two weeks...

The top two photos are of some of the guys who put a new roof on our house.  6-8 men, two days of pounding and loud southern drawls (I actually relish it) and the two layers of old roof were off and a new one on.  Just in time, too, as we had some really big winds--tornado warnings in the area--some days ago, and it was nice not to spend the next day picking up shingles from all over the yard.

Veterans Day in a very small town...a handful of people, a little parade and some nice speeches from local vets.  It was worth going to just to show our support, but really--the 'parade' was a little embarrassing...

Una is in the throes of NaNoWriMo, and halfway into the month, chucked her initial novel and began something else.  I'm not sure how it's going, but I told her that it's supposed to be fun, and if she's not having fun, she needs to rethink her reasons for participating.  My own writing has slowed a bit as I try to overcome some plotting problems.  I've not tallied my words lately, but I'm guessing I'm at about 36,000--halfway through?  Or maybe more, if it wraps up sooner.  For better or worse, it has become an obsessive pursuit, overtaking my reading and knitting time.  If I'm not writing in my free time, I'm editing, tweaking, polishing or at least thinking about writing.

Dominic put a pitchfork into his foot.  Very Dominic of him to do so.  He sticking it into the ground repeatedly and somehow missed the ground and hit his foot.  Luckily the boot and sock slowed it down, and the wound wasn't too deep.

I can now run one and a quarter mile on the treadmill without stopping!  6 weeks ago I couldn't go a quarter mile without feeling as though my chest would explode and my thighs catch fire.  So we are making progress!  I am inspired by my midwife, who never ran at all before 52, and is now 56 and runs marathons.  Not that I want to run marathons, but I'd like to be fit enough to do so if I chose.  Being 50 and having a 4 year old is good enough incentive for me.

And on the topic of being 50:  I turned 50 on the 15th of this month, and had a nice day of it.  Bret got me a little thing to rest my laptop on with a built-in fan so that it doesn't overheat.  I needed one of those, because my laptop is generally on my lap.  And my mom and sister pooled resources and are financing my camera upgrade!  I'm so excited.  Ginny, of Small Things--who takes some of the loveliest photos on the web, in my opinion--took time from her crazy day, complete with new baby, and gave me some great advice on what to buy within my budget, so I'm all set.  By this time next week, I may be fiddling with a new Nikon!  Maybe that will inspire me to get back to this blog.  And yesterday I received a lovely reliquary crucifix in the mail from my dear friend, containing the relics of several Passionist saints, including St. Gabriel Possenti and St. Gemma Galgani, for whom two of my children are named.

I also got lots of wine.  My friends and family know what makes me happy...

Bret, along with a dear friend, have gotten about 1/3 of the new Patch O' Dirt farmhouse wired.  This is a Big Deal, as we are going on 3 years in March since breaking ground on the property.  It's slow going when building a big house on your own.

Today Bret's working for chickens.  He's trading labor for 7 new hens, which is a good thing since our 4 ladies seem to be molting and we are getting about 1 egg a day.  Yes, we are buying eggs right now.

Well--it's time to get on with this day.  I leave you with a recipe we made this week which was really delectable:

Coconut Baked Oatmeal--you need to make this.  I altered it slightly, in that I made it with milk instead of cream, organic sugar, added about 1/3 cup melted coconut oil and used almond extract.  It was soooo good!

Frosty morning. And overload.

This morning has been the start of One of Those Days.  It began with my computer locking up--couldn't get anything but a black screen and a cursor.  I am grateful I spent the $9.95 for the Rescue Disk from Avast, as it got me back on track.

As if trouble with one computer isn't enough, Una couldn't get into her Teaching Textbooks this morning, and we had to call up the company for assistance.  We followed their suggestions, but in the end, we had to uninstall and reinstall the program.  We lost her grades from the last quarter, but I'm pretty sure she has a B average, as she always tells me what she gets on her lessons and quizzes.  We are now keeping a notebook for her grades, just as a backup.

It has been the unpleasant tradition in this house for several years now to have some major expense during Advent.  The oven needs replacing; the van needs a major repair; our freezer dies.  It seems we are getting an early start this year: Bret's truck has a bad leak, and I can tell he thinks it may be something major, because he is normally blindly optimistic, and this morning he was very quiet and morose.  He rode the motorcycle to work in spite of the cold weather after spending a couple of hours under the truck.

I put in a load of laundry, made tea for my next batch of kombucha, made a batch of butter, went out to take a few photos, wrapped up a couple of Etsy shop orders, made a card for my Godson (he and I have birthdays on the same day) paid the phone bill and helped the boys with their math.

I am going to make Dominic and Gemma lunch, make them take their naps, have a cup of tea and then get on with school.  I don't think we will tackle more than reading and vocabulary today.  I want to  fold laundry, finish the butter, try to make a couple of things for the Etsy shop and get dinner started early.

I'm hoping that the rest of the day is just normal busyness and not angst-inducing craziness.  I know that God isn't sadistic, so I will try not to fret and just...thank Him for this opportunity to grow in grace.  Through my clenched teeth.

A busy Monday--but all is well

Bret and I made it out to vote this morning, and I managed to pray an entire rosary while standing in line.

Yesterday was exhausting--my friend Cindy spent Sunday night with us so that she could drive us to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.  We left at 4:45 and made it there by 6:00 a.m.  Dominic was chatty and interested, right up until he put on his hospital gown and we were left to wait for the tardy surgeon for 45 minutes.  He became increasing quiet and still, and it wasn't until we had waited 40 minutes that a nurse brought him a video game to play with.  Well, that changed everything, let me tell you!  I could barely get his attention long enough to give him a kiss before they wheeled him off into surgery.

All went well.  He came out of the anesthesia beautifully, and didn't need any pain medication last night.  He is back to normal today--with frequent reminders from me to take it easy.  No horse-play for a couple of weeks (try telling that to a kid with 3 older brothers!)

As for Sebastian's dental appointment, it turns out that the broken tooth was actually a baby molar, albeit a very large one, so that was good news.  The dentist pulled three baby molars that ought to have fallen out ages ago, and although he was a bit sore last night and needed a little ibuprofen, he hasn't needed anything so far today.

Ack! The Ants are Back!

And ant baits are doing nothing.  They are in my kitchen and in my pantry, and I need something that works!  Right now I am just spraying them with whatever I have in a spray bottle and wiping up their little ant corpses, but as of this afternoon, I seem to be doing it every 15 minutes.  Any useful suggestions?  Anyone?  Please?

Waldorf doll cleaning tips, anyone...?

"Baby" is looking decidedly grungy, which isn't surprising in the least, seeing as "Baby" is carried around and cherished by a 19 month-old throughout much of each day.

Aside from the monumental difficulty in prying "Baby" away from Gemma long enough to clean her, I am at a loss for the best method of doing so.  She is stuffed with wool, so that pretty much limits me to a surface cleaning I think.  Has anyone out there had much success with the cleaning of these babies?

Welcome, readers from Poland!

I am somewhat amused to find that I now have more page views from Poland than I do from Canada!  This because someone on a Polish forum gave my blog a recommendation.  I am thinking that it may be my cousin's ex-wife, who is Polish, and whom I always liked very much, although I have not been in touch with her since our move to Tennessee (if it is you, Renata, do email me!)

46 feels okay!

Celebrated a bit after Mass--mom came over with one of my favorite cakes (a German "Haselnusskuchen") and a bottle of champagne. And my sister gave me a long-desired knitting book!

Thank you, Marilyn, for the virtual birthday party. I was awaiting your call--I should have suspected that the phone was out when I didn't hear from you!

I'll try to do a Daybook entry later, but the phone and internet were out this morning (maybe last night as well, but I didn't notice since I didn't approach the computer all evening), and so I missed my window of opportunity.

AAARRRGGHHH!!!!!!

Dratdratdratdrat! I was fiddling about, trying to figure out how I could make my blog template a three-column one without losing all my widgets and graphics and such, and when I came back to my blog, my list of Favorite Blogs had disappeared!

Excuse me a moment while I bang my forehead against the keypad...

Will try to restore my list ASAP. But it is nearly bedtime, so it may have to wait until tomorrow after Mass.

Grrrrr.....

If you have a little girl...

...and you do this to her, your parental rights ought to be revoked!

Mama Told Me There'd Be Days Like This...

...as the song goes.

I can't post the Small Successes this week as, to be frank, there were none. Due to extreme tiredness, I did next to nothing (Survival Mode: keep kids fed, keep up with laundry, do core subjects, pay bills).

With everything else I have had to play "Look at the Bright Side" with myself. Here is how I played it:

1) We have a sick heifer. She has been unwell for a couple of weeks, seemed at one point to rebound, but now is acting very odd and I am concerned that we may have to call the vet in.

Bright Side: She is not our milk cow, and as she was born here, she cost us nothing. The cow, on the other hand, is a thousand-dollar investment and provides our milk, butter, yogurt, cream and sometimes cheese.

2) Bret's hours have been really cut back recently. In fact, he has had Wednesdays off for the last three weeks. And the future of his job is up in the air.

Bright Side: He's had some time to take on some of the many things that always seem to need doing around a house and farm. And outside of God, the entire concept of "security" is really rather illusory, isn't it?

3) The kids have colds.

Bright Side (this is relatively easy): The colds are not on the severe side, and none of my children are in a hospital fighting for their lives.

4) I have been doing such a bare minimum with the kids recently that I fear public school kids are getting a broader education.

Bright Side (a no-brainer, really): There are a lot of parts of a public school education I really don't want them to get!

5) Our water pump wasn't working this morning and I spent a lot of time under the sink with my finger holding the pump switch in order to get the water I needed for drinking and washing a few dishes. My arm got sore and I bashed my head on the cabinet opening three times.

Bright Side: First off, the problem turned out to be minor--Bret left the faucet on the stock tank running this morning. Then again, I thought of what it would be like to have no access at all to clean water, as is the case with much of the world.

6) My washing machine, once the pump problem was figured out, filled and wouldn't stop filling. I turned the water off, but not before the laundry room flooded. This was sort of a breaking point for me. I was in tears as I cleared out the laundry room in order to mop it up (and, boy, was it a mess, as it doubles as sort of a mudroom), and I really had to fight the self-pity at this point.

Bright Side: as I stood with my bare feet sopping up water with old towels it dawned on me that there are folks in parts of the world like Haiti whose floors become a sea of mud every time it rains, and who have never known the luxury of a washing machine. How foolish the tears! I was able to remind myself that self-pity is indeed a form of pride, wounded pride, and that I shouldn't act like such a spoiled child.

I am happy again for my very blessed life. How good God is when He allows our eyes to be opened to reality.

Hope your day is blessed, too!

I'm gonna cry...

Here I am, at the height of the baking season, and my oven has just died. It has been going for a long time...the digital display wouldn't light up, the temperature knob was broken off and I have been using needle-nosed pliers for two years to turn it on and off, and the thermostat was off by about 100 degrees. But now it cannot be turned on at all without going up to 500 degrees.

This is not good timing. Christmas expenses aside (which we keep moderate), we bought a tractor this summer, we just replaced our crashed computer a few months ago, and our considerable property taxes are due in the new year.

Okay, Blessed Mother, it's not my money, it's yours. Now ask St. Joseph to find me a good deal on a new oven, and please, be quick about it!!

My sister's dog, nursing her kitten.

Her kitten? Yep, that's what I wrote. Her dog just adopted a stray kitten.

Souvenirs from Bavaria

A few things my mother brought back from Germany for us. She says she's putting a few items aside for Christmas, but today felt a bit like Christmas with her visit! Clockwise from top left: a candle from the Bavarian shrine at Altoetting with an image of the "black Madonna", Melissengeist, which is an herbal tonic, the main ingredient of which is Lemon balm. It is great for stomach problems, nervousness, insomnia and also improves circulation. The little box is Baldrian Perlen, little valarian tablets, also for nerves and stress (real mommy products here--or maybe just products for the time in which we live!). Next is a cloth tea strainer...have trouble finding such things here, and mine has been in use for nearly 20 years, but it is about time to retire it. Four kerchiefs, all very Bavarian, and a "platter" of marzipan cleverly disguised as a Bavarian lunch: two Weisswurst, two radishes, a pretzel and a blob of mustard.
For Una and Sebastian, a German-made porcelain doll in Bavarian garb and a little Bierstein with a pewter lid.
Adrian got a little backpack with a German cartoon or storybook character on it.
Gabriel got a little lock and key money box with five dollars in it.
And Dominic got this adorable little metal case with his very own set of silverware.

My mom is back...

...from Munich, the jewel of Bavaria, the "most northern Italian city", the home of our Holy Father, and of my mom. I lived there from age eight until age twenty one, and it will always seem like "home" to me.

Mother came by for a bit to tell me about what has changed and what has not since we left. The EUC has been good for Germany apparently: my mother says that quality goods are to be had at very reasonable prices. No wonder Wal-Mart went bust there and had to close.

I look forward to sitting with her to look at the 500-odd photos she returned with on her camera.