Ordinary Time

I'm very happy to be at the end of a busy week, especially because the business caught me completely off guard.  Tonight is the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. We made a beef and broccoli dish with pan-fried noodles, dumplings, and moon cakes for dessert. And by we, I mean J. made the dinner. In honor of the celebratory aspect of the day, I bought more then the usual amount of dumplings which made everyone happy. I have no picture of the moon for you, but the past few nights it has been huge. With only teens, we did not do lanterns. I'm actually not sure I could have added 'find or make lanterns' to my week even if I had wanted to, though. I was in an all-day natural dye class today. It was excellent. I can't wait to show you all the different colors we made when Monday rolls around. I went far outside my comfort zone last night and went to a networking event. I can mingle and make small talk when I have to, and I did pass out a few business cards to people who were inter

I've been out twice at night this week and  I have not had a day where I did not have to drive multiple places. I am running on fumes and the house shows it. Tomorrow I'm at a dye class all day, so no catching up then. Maybe the weekend? For the most part it's all been good stuff, but it's just been a lot. So this is your post this evening. I'll even through in a marginally decent picture of Fluffy checking out the teenage chicks to make it seem more substantial. Hey, at least your not paying for this content, right?

The fact that a package was delivered wasn't the surprise this afternoon. I knew the back ordered frog specimen still needed to arrive, so when the delivery truck pulled up during tea time I assumed that's what it was.  After we were done reading, we opened the box to see the frog. I pull out the contents thinking it seemed a lot small since I ordered a large frog. I take a closer look... And it's not a frog. It's a sheep's kidney. Which I didn't realize we were missing. It is definitely smaller than a frog... which is still backordered. 

I've learned that I do have a place that when I walk in, everyone does know my name. It's not a bar. It's not even a barn. It's... The eye doctor. We go to a small, one doctor office in our small town. Evidently when you and your many children cycle through on a yearly basis (meaning I'm in there every few months, it seems), you become known.  The best story happened this week. P. needed an eye appointment, and had one scheduled for yesterday afternoon. The previous night she had meant to grab an insurance card, but forgot. So, because I was driving right by there (it's on the way to the library, so I'm always driving right by there), I said I'd pop in and make sure they had the insurance information on file. So I did, and they did.  As I was walking out, the doctor saw me and asked if I had a moment. I said I did, so he asked if I liked to preserve things, like making jelly and what not. I said, yes, in a questioning sort of way because I couldn't f

I have threaded the loom, but that is where it has sat since last weekend. Because apples. All I have to do is to tie it on the front beam and I can start weaving. Maybe this week. I have also been spinning, mainly because it requires little brain power. I also needed a bigger project, so I decided to spin the pound of combed merino that has been sitting here for a while. I'm going to turn it into a three ply yarn and then decide if I want to dye the yarn. I have a lot of it, so that will be a ways in the future. It's lovely to spin.  I will spin three bobbins as full as this one. My second bobbin. Even spinning three full bobbins is barely going to make a dent in the amount of fiber I have. I'll measure out the yarn when I'm done and then figure out how much more I'll need to have a project amount.  Maybe I'll have more to share next week. One can hope.

I'm done canning apples. My totals?  21 quarts apple sauce 4 pints apple butter 12 pints caramel apple pie filling 6 pints curried apple chutney 2 gallons dried apples 6 trays of apple fruit leather Of course, when you suddenly have that many more jars  to store, you have to figure out where to put them. This is why I spent the afternoon cleaning out and reorganizing one of the pantries. I got everything to fit and I no longer have to avert my eyes from the chaos and grossness of that particular pantry. I have enjoyed putting canning supplies away. J., on the other hand, is just beginning his apple adventure. This weekend he figured out how to build a functioning cider press. B. had come over yesterday to visit, so he helped with the construction.  The basic frame as of yesterday. It looked even more guillotine like before they lowered that top cross piece. Today J. finished it and got it working. It took several attempts before he figured out the best way to chop the apples to get

I'm not entirely sure there will be much to report, because... apples. Planning ahead of time to take the week off from school to process fruit was the best idea I've had in a long time. I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner, but you know it will be on the schedule for next year. In year's past, we did end up taking off school, but just felt vaguely guilty about it instead. My apple crew was as energetic today as yesterday. We got another dehydrator full of apples done, a crockpot of apple butter started, and 7 quarts of applesauce made.  (That's 8 trays, by the way.) You would never know it to look at the trees that we've processed over two bushels of apples so far.  J. is trying to figure out how to make an reasonably priced cider press. In non-apple news, here was our resident frog enjoying the morning. Even with being overwhelmed with apples, I can tell that life is feeling more manageable with all the school planning and starting having happened.

I had an odd dream last night that J. and I decided to sell the house we're currently in and we're going to buy a very large house in the city. There was a lot more to it than that, because dreams are odd, but that was the main outline. In my dream I remember spending a lot of time wondering if that is what I really wanted to do.  We've been here over six years now, which seems crazy because it couldn't be that long. But I also have reached a point where it just feels like home and I need to stop a minute and remember before. I think the dream was a little bit of emotional house keeping. On Monday, earlier this week, I hadn't posted because I was out somewhat late with two good friends. We'd had dinner together without children. It was lovely. But I think it also dredged up a bit of stuff because having a group of mom friends to go out to dinner with (and not something that I felt the need to organize) was one of those last things that I had been missing. It fel

My to do list was stupidly long this morning. It was a combination of still catching up with life after ignoring so many things getting ready for school combined with far too many apples and a limited amount of time to get them processed. I just finished the last email, thus crossing off the very last item, right before I started this post.  Among other things we canned 7 more pints of caramel apple pie filling, 6 pints of curried apple chutney, and dehydrated about three quarts of apple slices. (It has not made the slightest dent in the apple supply. And by we, I mean me plus L., G., K., Y., and H. (R. watched.) They were extremely helpful and good natured about it all. I did cancel math for the day, so that might have had something to do with it. I know I promised there would not be endless posts about apples, but here we are. Tomorrow is our co-op so no apples will be dealt with, it should be safe to read.

Our apple trees are loaded with some really good apples. Because there's no way we can eat that many apples fresh, despite Java's help in working her way through the tree next to the pasture, we need to do some canning. This isn't just a few jars, but major apple sauce production.  Knowing this, I scheduled the rest of this week off from school so we can get through them all. I think Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be solely dedicated to apple sauce and apple butter. Today was dedicated to caramel apple pie filling.  My goal was 14 pints, figuring I'd do the recipe twice. At least that was the plan. I'm both annoyed at the Ball recipe book as well as myself. I've made this recipe before; several times, in fact. No where did I write down the yield for how many apples. (I've done this in nearly every other canning recipe I routinely use. I know exactly how many cucumbers I need for 7 quarts of dill pickles, for instance, because I kept copious records.) With

We had P.'s second birthday dinner tonight. She had really wanted lasagna for dinner but the ingredients for lasagna are not great for some of our older children. So last night we had tacos which ate much more accommodating to dietary needs and tonight we had lasagna. Y., who truly despises cheese with every ounce of her being used some of the non-cheese filling to create an amazing egg sandwich. The cheese lovers, however, we're thrilled and excited, one of them proclaiming, "We haven't had lasagna in years!"  And I realized that was actually true. A long while back, a friend had a connection with a local food prep service. You know, the kind that gives you pre-chopped ingredients and a recipe for you to do the cooking. Anyway, this friend would pick up unused ingredients from that week and distribute them among several friends. It was a great thing and often involved a significant amount of food even after having been divided three or four ways. The time we ende

P.'s birthday was last weekend, but we couldn't celebrate it until tonight due to various schedules. Everyone except A., who had to unexpectedly work, and D. were able to be here.  I managed to remove to take two pictures.  And then I forgot about pictures again. It was nice to see everyone and enjoy their company. It's lovely to really like and enjoy one's adult children and their spouses/significant others.  Happy birthday, P.! We love you very much!!

I'm tired. I think I am as out of practice with our regular schedule as my children are, who were also exceptionally tired this morning.  We tried one more attempt at finding an orb this afternoon, but no success.  The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. Not too hot, not too cold, and lots of sun. Our new trees are still alive and appear to be doing well. L. has been very good about helping to keep them well watered. As I was walking outside I noticed this growing on the side of the creek near the road. It's kind of pretty, huh? It's actually a huge patch of deadly nightshade which is also known as bittersweet. There's more than one reason we named the farm as we did, and this is one of them. Don't worry, this isn't anywhere a child or animal could accidentally eat it. Now that I'm done with my all-consuming planning, it would be good to remind myself I have a business with bills to pay and start networking again.  The past couple of weeks, I think the hor

We all survived the first day of co-op which went rather smoothly from my perspective. But we are all pooped. R. had a particularly difficult time when we got home and I think it was sheer fatigue.  I wanted to share a book with you. (That's actually relevant to the previous paragraph, even though it might seem somewhat random.) One of the classes I'm teaching is called Lost in a Good Book. (Thank you Jasper Fforde for the title as I'm borrowing it directly from one of his Thursday Next books.) Essentially it is a whirlwind tour through the novels of Western literature. (There's a few books from non-European countries as well.) We do one book per week. I introduce the book, place it in its chronological geographical context, tell a little about the author and the outline of the plot, and then I read. I start on page one and read until the class ends about forty minutes later.  What better way to get the sound of the story in your ears then sitting and listening to it fo

I was at a committee meeting all evening and tomorrow is our first day of co-op. Having spent more hours than I care to add up getting ready for the start of co-op, I'm relieved it's finally here and I can have some of my free time back. I love teaching, don't get me wrong. It's just that the preparation required is always so much more than I think it will be.  But like with our school planning, I like to have everything planned out in advance so I don't have to think during the school year. I open up my plans, so what I had planned, and then do that. I think this is where I've finally ended up.  And with that brief but scintillating post, I'm going to bed. 

We are settling into our school schedule without any difficulty. I think people are a little relieved to have some structure to their days again. As I mentioned before, with R. stabilized, I an back to doing school with her. My very modest hopes were that should would be able to count and write up to the number three and to be able to write her name.  Well, based on three days of work, I may need to modify those plans. The name writing? I might need to change that to recognizing the initial consonant of her name. Letters and sounds and words just have very little meaning for her.  But numbers are a different story. She has been pretty good at the number one for a while. The past few days we've been working on the number two. Here's what we ended up with today. That would be the numeral two written freehand without help, just looking at the example, and two circles she drew to show what "2" meant. This is possibly the most advanced work she has ever done. You can also

First, the Sheep and Wool Festival. I loved it... all the sheep, all the yarn, all the fiber, all the spinners. I was actually pretty restrained in the vendor hall. I had thought I wouldn't buy (another) fleece, but would instead buy a sweater's worth of nice yarn for my next project.  But ten or twelve skeins of nice yarn is jaw dropping expensive. And having just purchased a new alternator, it didn't seem financially wise to also spend a lot on yarn. (If the budget would have allowed, I would have bought yarn at the Green Mountain Spinnery booth. Gorgeous yarn.) Instead, I spent far less money on (another) fleece.  It didn't help that there had been a fleece judging as part of the festival, most of which were for sale, plus at least a third of the vendors were also selling raw fleece. And then you see people walking around happily carrying the bags of raw fleece they had purchased. Then when I ran into a woman I know who is a spinning teacher and she was buying a fle

This morning G. and I left bright and early to go meet some friends at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. It was a beautiful day and we were excited.  Last weekend, I didn't mention how J. spent the whole weekend getting a new battery in his car. It was kind of a saga for such a relatively simple thing. I'll spare you the details, but the short story is that the car was all ready to go with a brand new battery. G. and I are driving along, having crossed the state line and figuring we'd be there in another half an hour. And then I notice the battery light goes on. That's not good. I turn off the radio which has been getting softer and softer, which also seemed odd. And then I realize that all my dashboard indicators are in the resting position. That's really not good. So I have G. call J. to tell him what is going on... even though I know there is and nothing he can do about it. I decided that I should perhaps move over to the right lane in case I need to pull ov

Last night, G. and L. were out in the craft shed and I was inside, upstairs. Out of the blue, I hear an immense amount of prolonged shrieking coming from outside. I vaguely wondered if maybe I should go outside and rescue people from whatever carnivore happened to be attacking them.  But there ended up being no need, because the shrieking came to me. It then broke into marginal communication where I caught the words "Goodwill" and "special outfits" and "craft store" and "friendship bracelets". Clearly something very exciting was going on, but I still hadn't sorted out what. After a few breaths, G. and L. were able to tell me that TM just texted to say he had bought them tickets to the Taylor Swift movie and would be taking them. (I didn't even know there was a Taylor Swift movie coming out.) It seems when you go see T. S., whether in person or at the movies, it requires the creation of special outfits and friendship bracelets. It is absol

I honestly don't know what happened to this week or what I did to fill it, but it felt a little to hectic. And now that I think about it some more, I'm realizing we started school and went to a museum, so we did do something. It still feels a bit of a blur, though. Today was our first real day of school. It went well and everyone seemed to fall back into our rhythm.  We also had orientation for our co-op this week. It officially starts next week. I also spent some time (quite a bit of time, actually) finalizing lesson plans for the classes I'm teaching. And finishing up organizing the volunteers which is my board position. The volunteer portion still has a few to-do items, but the lesson plans are completely done. Those well child visits also happened today. J. actually took everyone because after the various extended phone conversations I was feel far outside my margin of tolerance. (See? Not amazing just pretty average and I'm not always at the top of my game.) So J.

I have read a lot of fluff over the past month. I think I reached my limit, because this is what I picked up to read next.  It's not totally random because I'm teaching a literature class this fall and it is one of the few books on the list I haven't read.  I do realize that I move between extremes much of the time. It's not really a new thing, and I'm more amused by the often odd juxtapositions than anything. However, after another thirty minute (or possibly more) phone call to get these three well child visits to happen, I may need to press pause on Moby Dick and read one more fluffy mystery. I've been keeping track, and I am at well over two hours of phone calls for what should be simple appointments. This afternoon, when the person I was talking to mentioned (again) that it had been a long time since these three children were seen, I finally said, "You probably don't mean it to come across this way, but every time you say that, it certainly comes ac

We made it to the museum today. Everyone's choice was to go to the Field Museum of Natural History, so that's what we did. We have been there many, many times, just not since 2021, based on when my last membership card expired.  We got up, got a lunch packed and headed out the door at a time which should give us an hour or so at the museum before lunch, but still miss the worst of rush hour traffic.  At least that was the plan, and it has worked well before, but not today. The highway the heads directly into the city from the west (290) is bad under the best of circumstances. We just plan for those fourteen miles to take at least a half an hour. (That would be non-rush hour times, and rush hour begins well before 5:30 am which we discovered when we were stuck on it heading to the hospital for one of K.'s surgeries. We've never spent so little time in pre-op ever.)  Today it took a lot longer than thirty minutes. It seems that some genius decided that scheduling pot hole