It's almost Friday bullets

May 16, 2019

And short little stories are all I can manage at this point.

I'm feeling much better, but I'm afraid that J. now has what I had. I hope he can feel better by the time we leave on Sunday.
I crossed two major items off my to do list today: shopping for the next two weeks and paying the bills. It was a lot a of groceries, but I did the math and really it was pretty average for what I spend each week. They will not starve, though M. and I did spirit away half the food to the extra refrigerators so it would still be there next week. At the most M. will need to get more milk and fruit.
I am having a slight book crisis. First, the Kindle I have that was my father's doesn't seem to hold a charge anymore, so it is out for taking with me. So I decided just to choose a long book that will keep me occupied for ten days plus two long plane rides. I read fast, so this wasn't an easy feat. I finally settled on Middlemarch. I had read it before years and years ago and had wanted to reread it; this seemed like the perfect time. It's long and not a fast read. But while I was sick, I finished the book I was reading which I had though would last me until we left. Which gives me a gap of three days. Do I start Middlemarch now? Do I start a new book and just put it down for while I'm gone? I don't want to lug two books with me since we are going carry on only. I ultimately decided to start a different book and leave it at home while packing Middlemarch for the trip. These are the kinds of questions I spend far too much time over thinking these days.
Do not plant seedlings and then get sick, thus forgetting about them so they are in the ground for over 24 hours without water. They do not look healthy by the time you are well enough to give them some thought. I still have some seedlings I can replace them with, but I don't know if I'll get to it. I hope the seedlings survive until I can get them into the ground. It is not an auspicious start for the garden this year.
Y. is almost finished reading the first Harry Potter book. I think she has just a chapter or two left. She has been working on it for several months now, and has tenaciously stuck with it. It was very slow going for her at first. Since she doesn't like to be slow at anything this frustrated her. I assured her that reading is something that definitely gets easier with practice. Sure enough, the second half of the book has been read at twice the speed as the first. I'm so proud of her. She has been home three years, didn't speak or read English until that time, and now can read Harry Potter and understand it.
Did I tell you that TM got his first job? I can't remember if I did or not. He is working at Target and is doing well. I had to stop in the other day, and one of his co-workers, upon learning I was his mother, stopped me to say what a wonderful young man he is. I kind of love that, because I happen to agree.
The bees seem to be doing well. At least that is what is reported to me. I don't actually go open up the hive, I leave that to B.
G., my little barn shadow, can pretty much take care of Emmy all on her own. I go out to keep an eye on things, but she manages quite well, including putting on and taking off Emmy's halter and leading her around. This turned out to be a good thing when I was down for the count the past two days. An older person went along to be a supervisor, but she managed on her own.
Thunderstorm season in back, and Kenzie is not happy about it.
Today Y. and G. and L. were talking, and somehow the topic of what Y. missed about China came up. I was in the other room, but of course, I started to pay very close attention to their conversation. Y. mentioned that she missed the tea she used to have. Tea. I have tea. I have tea I bought in China. So I asked her if she had tried any of it, showing her where it was. She hadn't since she didn't know about it. Later on, she chose one and tried it. (Ginseng oolong if you're curious.) Nailed it. It was exactly the taste she was looking for. Oh, how I love it when I can fill even a small hole in my child's heart.
The baby ducks are getting more adventurous. They go in and out of the coop just like the others, they waddle around, and they don't huddle together as though terrified so much anymore. This is good and bad. We also discovered that they have been hanging around with the older ducks, picking up bad habits. Two days ago, A. looked up to discover all eleven ducks crossing our busy road to come back home. Thankfully everyone made it across safely. I'm afraid they were grounded to the pen yesterday for their poor choices. It would seem that we now need to figure out some sort of poultry fencing across the front of the creek because of wandering ducks.
I have our passports ready to go. I have checked that they are the current passports. I will probably check at least 1000 more times that they are our current passports before we leave. If you are confused about my little obsession with current passports, you need to go read about the last time we were leaving the country.
I have many duck eggs for sale. Just sayin'.
On Saturday morning, I am finally going to get something done with my hair. After a pretty rotten haircut six months after we moved here, I've been letting it grow out. This was partly because I needed to, but also because I didn't want to go through the bad haircut-thing again. A friend gave me the name of her person, so I'm going to give it a try. I'm tired of the ponytail by default look. I hope I like it since we leave the next day. Anyone else find getting haircuts a little stressful? I just don't find it relaxing even when I'm sure of the person cutting my hair.