Ordinary Time

Yesterday L. realized that she had saved enough money to buy the PS5 that she has spent many months working towards. So I was handed a very large stack of cash and I ordered the deeply desired item. Today it arrived. So now they have the gaming system, but do not have any games. It also turns out that the type we ordered does not have a disc reader for playing physical games. Now another ~$78 needs to be saved because they all want to purchase the physical copy of the games they want to buy.  So, step one (and the most expensive ) of a functioning gaming system has been accomplished. I foresee having some very clean pastures over the summer as that is an ongoing job that I'm willing to pay cash per filled wheelbarrow. 

There is a website that "helps" families who are struggling with their adopted child find a new home. I've written about my feelings (which are not positive) before, so won't go into that here. And as much as I try not to have anything to do with it, I occasionally come across a listing which inevitably has me gnashing my teeth.  Earlier this week I had that very thing happen, but what particularly bothered me was that the child had been in their new home less than a year. I am astounded that anyone would make such a drastic move in so little amount of time. It's unethical and potentially devasting for the child involved.  I was in the kitchen while expounding to J. on my feelings about this whole thing when Y. happened to pass through. She paused a moment to listen to what set her mother of this time (and possibly to judge the entertainment value). When I mentioned the less than a year piece, Y. was incensed right along with me.  I always find it interesting to t...

I actually have some things to share with you. The first is that I (finally) have a functioning 12-shaft loom! After a year and a half, waiting three months for the parts I needed, this past weekend I spend quite a bit of time threading heddles on to the shafts. That would be 1500 heddles. I got pretty fast by the time I was done. J. helped hang the shafts back in the loom last night.  Those silver things are the heddles. It is what each end of the warp is threaded through. I'm very excited to start trying it out. But first I'm on sampling attempt number two of this potential fabric I'm supposedly making.  I also finished the winter hat I have been working on for months. (I'm the world's slowest knitter because I don't knit for very long at any one time.) Here's one side, but it is reversible, so here is the other side. It's made out of all handspun from batts I made myself. It fits and I like the way it looks, but... what I was hoping for was a hat that...

Nearly everyone was able to come for the afternoon and stay for dinner. We were just missing A. and TM who were both out of town. And when nearly everyone is home, what do you do? Take turns learning to drive Chuck the Tractor, of course. The ponies weren't entirely sure about Chuck going up and down near the dry lot. Look how good Vienna looks! I was thrilled that she was curious about the tractor because for so many months she just felt too awful to care about such things. Well, Vienna wasn't sure. Buddy, being close to 30, just can't be bothered to be concerned about much of anything. P. also went and visited the big horses. Kenzie had a wonderful day. He jumped and played and was so happy to have all his people home. He's an older dog these days, so we don't see nearly as much jumping and playing as we used to. B.'s fiancee took the Kenzie pictures while they watched a badminton game. (And, yes, I need to figure out some blog initials for her.) It was a love...

A couple of times in the last few weeks I have had to put off cleaning the barn after feeding the horses rather than do it right away and being done with it. Something that feels very easy first thing in the morning then becomes this rather overwhelming task at other times of day. Then yesterday, which had a bit of driving people around in it, I realized what was going on.  I dislike transitions and don't do them well. I made that self-discovery years ago. I still don't like to transition from one task to another, but knowing that I can take steps to make it more bearable. One thing is to not plan too many transitions into my day. This is not always feasible, depending on what life is looking like at any given moment. In trat case I try to only do tasks that are short and have a definite beginning and ending when I have just small amounts of time at home. Doing some laundry, watering plants, cleaning off a counter... those types of things. You'll also note that they are fai...

Life has felt significantly calmer this week, which is good, if only because I might have a chance to get caught up with the laundry. And maybe read a book. When I was planning menus this week, G. really wanted me to schedule enchiladas. I like enchiladas, but am not a huge fan of spending the time to make them. G. volunteered to do the cooking, so on the list they went. With only marginal instructions, G. made some very respectable enchiladas.  K. liked to take pictures while he is biking to work and sometimes gets some really good ones. We have a large groundhog who lived under our front porch. Every so often, one of us catches a glimpse of him. The other day I was sitting in the living room and caught movement out of the corner of my eye near one of the sliding glass doors. I looked, expecting to see a cat looking out the window. Instead I saw a very large groundhog on the outside looking in with great interest. He scampered off when he saw I was looking at him.  A.'s cats ...

Today was the big visit to the travel clinic to get typhoid vaccines for the four going to Guatamala. I wish our PCP would just order them because it would be cheaper. Then finding somewhere that had four doses proved to be a bit challenging as well. (And can I just comment on the number of people I talked to on the phone who had no idea what typhoid was?) Anyway, I found four doses and it didn't require going downtown.  It did require taking the tollway, though. Which turned into a chicken and fox on the raft to cross the river problem. Our van is on its very last leg and no one wants to take it on the tollway. Usually J. and I just switch vehicles when this happens, but I had four children who needed shots which meant no one was available to watch H. and R. J.'s car only holds five people which meant that not everyone would fit. Enter my very good friend who agreed to take H. and R. for part of the day.  In the end, four children got their shots. It turned out to be a pleasa...

This past Monday I began a new venture.  Level 7 courses in the UK are the equivalent of post-graduate study. This is going to be a research heavy year long course which will also require that I design and complete an action research project. Pinning down exactly what that project will focus on will be my focus for the next few weeks. The topic needs to be rather narrowly focused, but I'm not really good at narrow. I have a vague feeling that defining the topic will be the most challenging aspect of the whole thing. Research and writing are two of my strengths, so that part doesn't seem quite as challenging.  I'm sure I will be writing more about this as I go through it. I will also need willing volunteers at some point as well. I have a few ideas, so of course the first thing I did was to out a stack of library books on hold. (And librarians are wonderful when they find titles you need that are outside of the system.) Because every new venture should begin with a stack of ...

Accidents happen and I needed a moment. Or two. Maybe three.  Last week I took a three day weaving class on turned twill. I loved it! The teacher is fantastic and I feel as though I have a really good handle on the weave structure. I can't wait to get the rest of the shafts on my loom working so I can play around with it. (Turned twill needs a minimum of eight shafts and currently I just have six shafts functioning.) I chose to make a gamp which is a sort of sampler that shows the different patterns the various combinations of threading and treadlings create. They are a great reference tool when you are thinking about what you want to weave.  Yesterday I threw it in the wash after I hemmed it. When I moved the wet laundry from the washer to the dryer, I discovered an ink pen in the bottom of the washer. (It must have gotten caught up in the dirty laundry.) The cap was on and I created a sigh of relief that nothing horrible had happened to the laundry. The laundry with my weavi...

Today we hosted our church's youth group's end of the year party. We had lovely weather and everyone enjoyed playing together outside, visiting the horses, playing on all the toys, and making s'mores. As you know, some of my children have had less than stellar experiences at other youth groups, so when my child who is least inclined to socialize announced afterwards that it was a lot of fun, it makes me happy. When they add, "We have a great youth group!" it makes me even happier. It is an exceedingly nice group of teens and adult leaders.  G. decided that Vienna needed to be dressed up for the occasion, so headed out to the barn to detangle her mane and added braids. And some flowers. 

While I no longer have cute little toddlers anymore to provide blog fodder for slow blogging days, I do still have L. who is often good for the random comment at dinner that makes me laugh both because of its sheer randomness and for its precocious language.  The other evening at dinner, during a conversational lull, L. announces," I think the most under-appreciated cardinal direction is East." She then proceeds to expound upon the topic of appreciated and unappreciated directions. If you're curious, L. believes the direction of North to be highly overrated.  L. is not the only one to spout random comments. G. has been spending a lot of time recently learning about Tasmania. We are guaranteed at least one random Tasmania fact at dinner each night.  Sometimes I worry that dinner doesn't have a conversational thread and is more an exercise in stream of consciousness monologues. 

It's been a busy week mainly because I was in a weaving class all day Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Trying to squeeze all my usual stuff into just two days was challenging and not terribly successful. I'll show what I wove on Monday after I get it hemmed and washed.  The people here had a very relaxing week. All they had to do was some math, keep R. fed and occupied, and to go out and feed the ponies every so often. I don't think they were terribly sad about any of this.  Since I don't have much else to talk about, I'll give a brief pony update.  Vienna is so much improved!! She is moving nearly normally and isn't standing in the funny, unbalanced way that she was. She is off all pain killers and the abscesses seem to be gone. More and more she is acting like the Vienna we were used to before the laminitis.  Buddy is beginning to settle in. He now nickers with everyone else when he hears me walk in the barn and seems to understand a typical daily schedule. Whil...

The last thing we needed to do to finish biology was to dissect the buckets of specimens I had bought. I could do it, but I also knew W. could do it infinitely better. He agreed to be the dissection teacher and this afternoon was the first of three sessions. They started with a mussel (which was not overly exciting) then moved on to the worm and the crawfish. You can see that not everyone was fond of the smell of the preservative. But W. is an excellent teacher and here everyone had gathered closely to see better.

A few years ago TM bought some tablets for his younger siblings. H. has used hers the most and it has been a good substitute for a phone. She has been able to play music and watch drawing videos and whatnot. She has enjoyed using it. She has enjoyed using it until a couple of weeks ago, that is. As these things will, Minecraft has come around again as the popular screen activity for some of her siblings. This time, though, H. has been aware of it, asking J. to get her some library books about Minecraft. She was also interested in getting it put on her tablet. J. explained that he wasn't sure it would be compatible, but wouldn't know until he tried. H. was willing to take a chance and pay to buy it. Sadly, as J. feared, it didn't work. H. was disappointed.  For a couple of years, H. has been earning money by doing some daily jobs around the house. (One of those jobs is to fix R. breakfast, which is an immense help.) She doesn't spend it on very much, so just saves it. Th...

Today was the first day of the weaving class I had signed up for months ago. I've been very much looking forward to the class. It was so wonderful to be back at Find Line. The class is about weaving turned twill. I'm pretty sure that 99.9% of you aren't interested in hearing the technical aspects of this weave structure, so I'll just show a picture of what I'm working on.  The other thing I've been working on... and finishing! ... is the card weaving I was working on. I think it's pretty good for a first attempt.  A close up of the pattern. Even though my inkle loom is small, it's about 1.75 yards. It's a narrow band, as you can see . What am I going to do with it? I have no idea. It's pretty sturdy and would be a good strap or handle. I'll add it to my stash until a need for it arises. 

From Y.  From H.  And a lovely day with many children spent outside. D. even planted my tomatoes and peppers, though I forgot to take a picture.  From W. and MC