Ordinary

It's 9 am and you demand I cover you with a blanket
and bring you a pillow.
You like to play night-night.
You haven't even gotten dressed for the day yet.

You are very ordinary.

You have cereal on your face.
Your hair is starting to need a trim.
Your fingernail is still missing from where you smashed it in the garden.

Just another day. I want to take a picture.

I reason with myself though.
If I took a picture, I'd have a million very ordinary pictures.
Over a million, maybe.

I force myself to memorize the moment
and I wipe off the cereal.

Hats

No school photos yet, but here are pics of some hats I made for the kiddos.

To my dear kiddos,
Don't say Mommy never did anything for ya. Those are fantastic hats.

See the little wooden rocking chair in the background, with ducks on it?
It's a "Teeter Tot", made by Delphos Bending Company in Delphos, Ohio. I don't think they make them anymore.
I always tell F that they would have stayed in business even longer if they had put chicks on it and called it a "Tweeter Tot".

Fall Soccer

I now have J's Fall soccer schedule, if anyone would like to go to his games.

Fur ball

Hero

Mom.

Mom came.

Mom saw.

Mom found all the flaws.

Mom conquered.

Yay Mom!

Happiness can begin again.

A Love Poem

You, old and for sale house, I both curse you and love you!
You will never be mine! I want you,
and yet I do NOT want you.

Yes, you have a long and rich 89 year history,
but you also have the possibility of creepy ghosties.

Yes, you have a secluded and lovely country setting,
but you are also further from work.

Yes, you have a 2 story barn,
but it is just ramshackle and could fall down and kill us all.

Yes, you, old house, have three wells,
but why? Do some wells not work? Does one well work only in the summer and not in the winter? Why would one lonely house have that many wells? Is one well bound by tree roots and on the constant brink of disaster? Is one well too near your septic system?

What age is your water softener, anyway?

You are a nightmare rather than a realistic dream.

Yet, I pine for you.

Oh, house, Yes, you have a circle drive,
but your garage is unattached and atrocious. How could one even conveniently live with these children without an attached garage?

Yes, house, you have big woodwork and artful built-in cabinetry.
It surrounds your leaky and drafty fireplace. And what is a flue anyway?

Yes, you have charm. Yes, you are beautiful. Yes, you have an attached and fenced pasture. Yes, You Are the Devil's Snare!
You are plaster and lathe. You are knob and tube wiring. You are push-button switches. You are hidden and corroded plumbing. You are drafty windows and high heating bills. You are debt. You are divorce. You are disaster.

Oh, house, how I love you.
But I have no handy skills with which to update you on my own. My skills are of a more bookish nature.
Or if you were bleeding or in cardiac arrest I could fix you right up.
Certainly, it seems I do have plenty of skills that are very useful and handy, but none that would help me with your potential ELECTRICAL, PLUMBING OR STRUCTURAL ISSUES.

Canning--I CAN.

Mom came over today to show me how to can our tomatoes. I'm gonna be honest with ya'; I really had some low expectations. I told Mom that if we just had one pint jar, then I would be very happy. I just want to learn the process. We had a few little baskets of tomatoes, and they very well may be the last of the year. The tomato plants were never braced enough, and they are enormous, and threatening to rip themselves out of the soil in their effort to overtake the world.
They are some big, big plants.
Anyway, we ended up with 7 pint jars. It wasn't too bad at all. We used the water bath canner. Mom had given me all the tools already, like the lifter thing shown in the picture. It lifts the jars out by the lips when you take them out of the boiling water.
I don't know if the lids have sealed properly yet. I haven't heard any popping noises, but there are other people in the house that make lots of noise and distract me from my little hobbies. Darn kids...
Actually, during the canning process they were pretty good kids. They both got a little jealous of all the attention that the tomatoes were getting and became clingy, each at different parts of the process. Taran carried the tomatoes to the sink for washing and Mardella ran around like a nut.
All in all, a good learning experience!

Big 3

Photos are a little late, but as my Mom pointed out, he's still 3.

And quite charming.

Cowboy

F did this. I had no part in this.