treeskin

Just finished reading "Poky Little Puppy" to The Miss, while The Boy revved up the toy chainsaw. Odd, odd combination.

The Boy correctly named the parts of his face this morning, and then he did it again, pointing at the parts of my face. Yay for increasing vocabulary, and finally starting to use it. Now, if I could justget him to sit down and pay attention when I'm reading to The Miss.


Today's to-do list includes, in no particular order:
* put away clean dishes, reload dishwasher
* make a batch of soft breadsticks to go with dinner (I have a new recipe that's supposed to be similar to Pizza Hut's breadsticks)
* 2 loads of laundry, washed AND folded (I always have trouble with the "and folded" part) 1 down, 1 to go
* feed kids and get them ready for school, and to the bus on time
* take out compost, water greenhouse, move last pot of petunias into greenhouse
* finish the crocheted snowflake I started last night, and do at least one more


I had thought, yesterday, that I'd spend this afternoon cleaning out the other pantry cabinet, but now I don't think I will. My hands are cracked and irritated from cleaning chemicals yesterday, and I'll be happier if I give them a day to heal.

Did manage to finish the piece of sweater I was crocheting on yesterday. That makes the back and both front pieces finished, and I started the first sleeve this morning. With 8 1/2 balls of yarn left, so I ought to be good. (I was worried when the back took a third of the yarn I'd bought for this project.)

Edited 2:12pm, to adjust list.

Also, am waiting to hear from Sis, who watched a shoot-out somewhere near her home last night. Which is WAY out in the boonies, so this is a rather odd incident. Hoping she'll respond soon, with details.

Never did make a formal list for the day. Got a fair few things done anyway.
* cleaned out old aquarium, bleached it, and set aside for planting as a terrarium tomorrow
* took carload of old clothes, blankets, and other stuff to Goodwill
* found lightweight coats for both kids at Goodwill, along with a shirt for The Boy, jeand for Yhe Miss, and several things for me
* did light grocery run @ Walmart, also got myself jeans
* put all the shopping away
* took more of the trash out
* baked pumpkin muffins for breakfasts for the next couple days
* started a batch of soft pretzels for snacking; they're on first rise now
* ran clothes from Goodwill through the wash to get all the awful fabric softener scent off of them
* handwashed 2 sinkfulls of dishes
* made up the rows on the sweater that I didn't finish yesterday, and then a few; am halfway through the shoulder and neck shaping on the right side of the back piece

And, my biggest accomplishment this afternoon and evening, I have kept the kids fed. Monsters haven't stopped eating since they got home from school. A bowl of soup apiece right after school (by request, believe it or not), then 5 bananas between, since. Which was the entire hand I'd bought, thinking it'd last until we left for Mom's on Friday. *shrug* That's what I get for thinking, I guess.

HOr, is it Monday *again* ???

The Boy barfed last night, but seems ok at the moment. No fever, which counts for a lot. Am trying to feed him easy-on-the-tum foods, so he'll be ok to go to school.

The hub barfed in the wee hours of the morning, but is on his way to Neosho anyway. Even though he was skipping his morning coffee, because his tum and throat were still unhappy. Because...

By's mom called yesterday afternoon. They've got an offer on the farm, which needs an answer or counter-offer by 5pm today. There were a few tractor parts By and I had never made it down to retrieve, so he's after those, plus whatever tools and household items survived the depridations of partying teens. According to the guy who rents the pastures, the local kids have broken into the house and used it for parties a few times, and it's pretty trashed; part of By's trip is to take pics to send to his mom. There's also damage from an ice storm a few years back (flattened outbuildings). Our understanding is that the potential buyers want to bulldoze the house (maybe outbuildings too) and build new. So, he's got to go, and he's got to go today. Bleh.


In the column of "news we don't have to act on immediately", Sis has set a time and date for the wedding, even if she hasn't gotten around to sending invites. People they want to see are getting phone calls. Friday, Oct 5, in McPherson. We'll probably go out that afternoon and crash with Mom, do a little cake to celebrate The Miss's birthday a week late while we're there.

By's dad is still in Greece, trying to herd cats. His mom said he's calling this the "ground hog day" project, and he's not happy. He's tenatively scheduled to come home Oct 5. All this dinking with his schedule jacks with the paperwork to close on the farm.

Last I'd talked to Mom, the siding and new windows are done on her house, and she was waiting for them to come back and do the garage. And she's thrilled with the results.

Maybe a quarter of an inch, last night, plus a bit more this morning. Enough to damp down the dust for the day, and soak in an inch or two. I still watered the new things and the pots.

Not much blooming the past couple weeks, everything's too dry. The stuff I'm not watering is wilting and going dormant, and I'll probably let some of the watered things go too, because it's just too much to keep up. I di have some annuals, mostly zinnias, in flower, and the queen anne's lace is still going. One stalk of surprise lily bloomed yesterday, but I think it's too dry to get a show from those this year. My maypop started blooming last weekend, and I've had one or two flowers from that every day since.

According to the drought monitor page I've been haunting, we are 11" down from the amount of rain we ought to have had, by this time in the year. That's about half. My mom, in central Ks, said last week that her area is 21" down for the year--that's 75%, and that's scary.

I've been redoing a path in the garden the past week, a little at a time in the heat. Trying to make it wide enough for the big wheel barrow or the riding mower, and level. Which means cutting into the uphill slope, which is being turned into a flowerbed with a low limestone terrace. I'm only doing an hour or so on it a day, so it's slow going, but it'll be nice when it's done.

Indoors, it's canning season. My neighbor left for a family visit out of state, and gifted us with bags of peaches and apple. Plus instructions to finish harvesting her trees and the grape vines. I started canning yesterday. Two batches of peach jam with granny smith apples. Today's project is peach butter in the crock pot. I've got a notion to do a batch or two of peach pie filling, with my great aunt's recipe, and to try a "fall harvest jam" that I found online. That one blends peaches, pears, apples, oranges, and a lemon. And then we'll see how much fruit I still have to deal with. By's contemplating cobblers, perhaps enough to freeze for later.

D's about half moved. We spent part of Sunday at her place. The kids and I helped pack the basement, and By worked on the tools left in the barn. She's got until the end of August, and she's had other folks with trucks helping, so it's going well so far. Only thing we're really worried about is moving her garden; we'll have to water heavily, just to be able to dig.

Had put off doing an updatey post, because LJ buggered my cross-posting from DW, and I didn't want to have to type things twice, and then I got bogged down into where the heck would I start anyway.

So, starting from beginning of December, in more-or-less the right order:
* Grandma spent from mid-September until just after her birthday in the hospital, trying to get her glucose stabilized and her meds in order
* Grandma very nearly put herself back in the hospital a week later, the Wednesday before Xmas, by taking her non-diabetes drugs wrong. If the home health aide hadn't gotten there when she did.....yeah.
* After several days of long tearful talks, Mom and her brother decided to move Grandma into the nursing home. It was past time, and she finally admitted it.
* Mom and Uncle M moved Grandma to the home the Friday before New Years. We went back for that weekend, and I helped them clean the apartment and spent time with Grandma.
* 10 days ago, Grandma went **back** to the hospital, for a fungal skin infection that's taking some very serious drugs to treat. Mom suspects she'd had it for a while, and just wasn't telling anyone.

Grandma is supposed to get released today. Last I talked to her, she sounded like she was going back to her apartment, and I know she's been telling her nurses that. She's very mad at Mom for moving her, and taking her stuff (she's too blind to be using a sewing machine or iron, really), and taking her money. Mom's been gritting her teeth and doing what needs to be done, and Sis and I are giving her pep talks as best we can. It was the right thing to do, but it certainly wasn't an easy thing.

There's a lot of details left out of all that, but that's the important bits.


In non-Grandma news, The Boy was officially enrolled in preschool on Jan 4, and has been riding the bus since. Both kids like the bus, and I like not having to make two trips into town 4 days a week.

I'm working on another order of tatting, which has is another thing cutting into my posting time. Same pattern as before, 200", plus the same length of a second pattern. Still in silk. That's given me too much time to daydream about projects I want to do for myself. Let's see, I think I'm at around 130" on the first pattern, and about 45" on the second (slower) pattern.

I started sewing on a just-for-me doll project last week, because I just had to get the idea out of my head. I'm sewing a dragon, in shades of red, and eventually he'll get a Joan-of-Arc styled rider. As soon as I figure out how to get something that looks armor-ish on a 6" doll. Gotta make the rider too; the ones I've done recently all have the wrong coloring. Except for the one I did for The Miss for Yule, and she's attached to that one.

Our weather has been crazy mild this month, and very dry. No precipitation for 10 weeks, and except for a slight chance of a little drizzle tomorrow, nothing in the forecast for the next 2 weeks. I'm thinking of not putting in a veggie garden this summer, unless the weather pattern changes real quick. Figured it'd be easier and cheaper to mulch the garden heavily and let it lie fallow this season, and try again next.

By's working on the roof over the deck this morning. He's got most of the rafters up, and corrugated metal roofing is next. Don't know that he'll get it all up while the warm spell holds, but he's making progress.

Saturday, I started the trench for the electrical line that will run from the herb shed to the house. Basically, I got the trench dug to half depth, across my flower beds, moving things (or digging to replant after the trench is filled in) as I went. So now I've got several pots with sprigs of bayberry bushes and ajuga in the greenhouse; hopefully they'll be rooted enough to plant out in April or May. The iris just got replanted, and I've got a bucket of daffs in the cold end of the greenhouse that I need to divide before replanting.

I need to call and check on her today, but Grandma was doing alright on Saturday, and Sis said she was ok yesterday. The good news is, no broken bones, just deep bruises. The bad news is, the rattles in her lungs are pneumonia now, and she's on serious antibiotics for a few more days.

I day-tripped west on Saturday to visit, and spent the afternoon playing cards with Mom and Grandma. (Which doesn't say much...Grandma has to be on her deathbed before she won't feel like playing cards.). She was alert and followed the game well, and we had a good visit. Mom took me to dinner at the "Happy Days Diner", which is better tasting than it might sound), where she talked me i nto eating battered, deep fried cauliflower. Also better than it sounds.

Spent 2 hrs out at renfest yesterday, mostly to visit the people we know out there. Managed to wear both kids out. They and I napped in the afternoon, while By worked on framing walls on the shed. It's looking more and more like a building.

The Miss was sick last night--threw up all over herself, her bed, her pillow, her teddy bear, and the two walls by her bed--so she's home from school today. She just figured out that being home sick means she can't go to the tool store with Papa, so maybe this isn't so fun. I am the big bad mommy.

We had some light rain this morning, the first in weeks. Not as much as we need, but it did settle the dust and rinse the cars.

It's barely passed 60 degrees the past two days, and today is supposed to be the same. And it's kind of raining, just often enough and heavy enough to keep us inside for the morning. So of course, The Miss is bouncing off the walls. And it's Friday, so no school.

Put two more blankets on the bed last night, because we didn't want to turn on the heat yet. There's something very satifying about pulling a heavy pile of quilts over yourself on a cold night. And this morning, there are pumpkin muffins and tea to keep us warm.

The Boy and I ran errands while The Miss was at school yesterday morning. Took a pile of outgrown clothes and other stuff to Goodwill, shopped there for clothes (and had a good haul), Walmart for groceries, a quick visit with D. Then home, unload car, and hurry down to the road to meet the bus. He already recognizes that the bus means sister is coming home, and is very excited.

The Miss made it all day yesterday without an accident, which makes us all happy, and gave us happy news for the when both Grandmas called to check on her first week of school. Now we just have to keep her dry overnight.

The biggest part of the day's to-do list involves running the kids until they are too tired to shriek (because they are wild, shrieking little monkeys this morning), and a week's worth of laundry. Bleh. Hates laundry, we do. Also have to make hamburger buns (caraway rye, yum!) for dinner. And, if the kids behave enough for me to dig out all the ingredients, make up a batch of plaiting soap for By; one of his side-job clients wants a braided whip.

Got D through the funeral and reception on Saturday. There is still drama with J's daughters, and D is preparing to go to court. J didn't leave a will or "transfer on death" for the house, so who knows what's going to happen to that. And she's working on establishing their common law marriage, which one of the daughters will likely fight.

And that reminds me, I need to figure out where to put four more fruit trees, a couple peaches and I think the others are apple or pear. D and J were planning to plant them this fall, and since the fate of the house, and her residency there, is still fluid......I told her I'd find good places for them, and put benches under them so she could come visit. And there are three or four things I'd planned to dig for her this fall, that I'm just going to keep for now, until she figures out where she's landing.

On the up side, D heard from her mother Sunday, and her mother is all moved into her new apartment (assisted living, like Grandma is set up in). The facility had called D's mom a week early, saying the apartment was ready when she was, so she called her new church, and thwy had her moved, set up in the new place, and the old house clean in half a day. That is such a huge help for D; she's been trying to figure out when she could carve out time to go do that, with no help.

I started my holiday gift project production last week, while I was sitting with D. Done so far are a hat and scarf set for Sis, and a cabled hat for her youngest boy. And there is yarn in my bag, waiting for me to start another hat, as soon as I've typed this. I've got a pile of stitched pieces that are destined to become ornaments (and gifts), if I can just make myself sit down and do the finishing bits. It's worse than weaving in ends or sewing on buttons.

Speaking of sewing on buttons, I need to do that for some doll dresses. I'd finished a couple that I'd meant for presents for D, and I should get those done and to her. Completely frivolous, but she needs a bit of that right now.

By got more done on my shed/studio this weekend. The rest of the posts are set, and sqaurw, and plumb, and he's started peeling off the floor joists that Salvage Guy did so messily, and redoing them right. I'm so excited about having a space that's just mine.

The kids have been watching, and helping, and picking up new tricks. The Boy watched Papa use a hammer to pull nails out of a board. As soon as Papa put the hammer down, he snagged it, found nails sticking out of another board, and used the hammer to pull them. And succeeded, which scares me a little. He is also learning to use a shovel to scoop up dirt and put it in a wheel barrow, though he's still a bit clumsy on that. He gets excited, and tends to spill. But it keeps him occupied while I'm doing other things.

The heat finally broke, it's held at around 88 today. Thank the gods. My garden looks burnt and crispy, and most of the things that were blooming when we left are withered now. Makes getting The Miss's morning bouquet more difficult--most of what's still blooming are things I want to save for seed.

Everything being so dry did make mowing go quick this morning. Dusty, but quick.

I need to take wire cutters out to the garden tomorrow morning, so I can cut hand-holes in the tomato cages and start picking tomatoes. We picked the first armenian cukes a couple days ago; I think the heat is slowing them down.

Had a tree come down day before yesterday. A 6" caliper, 25' (ish) mulberry, nothing special, just weird that something bent it over and broke the trunk enough that it stayed there. It was on my list of "maybe remove", and now it's on the "definitely remove" list. I cut enough of the canopy off to get at the flowerbeds underneath and water; the rest will have to wait for weekend and a chainsaw.

Grandma had an "incident" a couple days ago. Her home health nurse (who checks her weekly as part of her assisted living facility care) noticed she had a sinus problem and tried to admit her to the hospital. When Mom got down there, the nurse and Grandma's doctor needed a referee. Doc said he knew about the problem, gave Grandma something a little stronger than the OTC meds she was taking, declared her basically well (for her age and condition), and sent her home. Mom says Doc and the nurse don't get along, haven't since the guy moved in (he's foriegn, you know), and this isn't the first time the nurse has pulled one of these stunts with Grandma. Mom's pissed because the nurse got Grandma all riled up, which reqired some effort to soothe over.

Haven't heard how Nephew is doing. He's home from the hospital, but that's all we know *crosses fingers*

By found an old UFO in the closet the other day. He'd started stitching Teresa Wentzler's LPeacock Tapestry" years ago, but not gotten far. All the threads and pattern are together in a bag, the fabric's on a scroll frame. If I didn't have so many things going right now, I'd dive in, because I love that design. Maybe that'll be my winter project. Or maybe he'll pick up stitching again.

The BoyChild's safety pillow is in the washer this morning, and I am the Big Bad Mommy, because I put it there in front of him. He's even managed to rescue it from the washer (through the child safety latch!!!), but Papa held him while I confiscated the pillow and locked it in the washer again. Sometimes, it's terribly hard being two.

We had planned to go out and be social last night, but The Boy threw up at lunch, and again an hour later. So, we decided to keep him home. Think he just got overheated, then ate too much, but we'd feel terrible if it was contagious, and he passed it on.

Because we didn't go out, all the baking we'd done to take with us and share is here. We've got caraway-rye buns, some oatmeal bread, and miniature apple pies. The pies were a little fussy to make, but fun, and very cute. We filled them with pie filling that we canned last August.

My mom and sister are trying to seduce me into quilting. I went looking for fabric for Sis on Sunday, when I was shopping for floss. And left with a handful of fat quarters. I'm telling myself that they're for doll clothes. And then Sis started sending me quilt patterns, telling me that those were easier than they look, and she could put on together in a weekend, and it's so much fun........Says the junkie trying to get someone else hooked.

There's been no more news about my father this week. I'm guessing that means there's a warrant out, maybe more, and he's gone to ground somewhere. It gets him away from Mom and Sis anyway, so I'm not sure I care.