Clarification

Since my last blog, I’ve had two offers for childcare, and lots of big, warm hugs. Those are great, but Craig said it sounded like I was having a nervous breakdown, so I thought I should let everyone know that I’m okay. When I wrote it, I was having a rough day, but it wasn’t anything that doesn’t happen at least once or twice a month. I just usually know better than to write it down! The next day was much better, as have been the few following, so please don’t worry about me. I did schedule a massage and date night for Craig and myself next week, so that should help. Really, it’s just that time of year for me, too. About every July and January, I have a little bit of a meltdown because those are the times of the year when our schedules have run amuck, and I’m having trouble keeping everything straight. I think this one just came a little late. Plus, I’m pretty sure those caramels did send me into a bit of a blood sugar imbalance, which accounted for the complete loss of focus. Hence, the rash decision to blog in the middle of it!

Today is a beautiful, sunny Saturday, and I’m itching to get outside. Craig is already out there tearing up one of our back porches in order to screen it in. Of course, the current dimensions of the porch would put the screen right across the middle of one kitchen window, so he has to remove all the railings and extend the deck out a couple of feet in order to avoid that. When it’s all done, though, we’ll have a covered, screened porch, as well as a temporary brooding pen for the chicks.

My outdoor goals for today include taking a soil sample in the garden to send to TAMU for analysis before planting my heirloom seeds next month, and take stock of our chicken supplies. It’s been so long since we’ve had any birds, I’m not sure if we still have enough waterers and feeders for the new batch. I’m getting pretty excited about being a chicken-keeper again, and I’ve been reading up on homesteading to refresh my memory. If I’m going to take on a project, whether short or long-term, I like to be well-informed and do it right. It’s just not worth my time, money, or effort to undertake something that fails because I don’t know what I’m doing. With our last batch of chickens, I did all the research and was very meticulous in keeping the chicks, and managed to raise all 40 without losing one. That’s not counting the dog killing them later, of course. If our new broiler experiment goes well, I’d like to keep a running cycle of broiler chicks going and keep the freezer full of chicken every month. THAT would be a good project! I envy the days when people knew how to keep animals and gardens because that’s what their parents and grandparents did and passed on… not because they spent hours reading literature on how to return to the basics of raising your own food. But, boy, am I thankful for the people who are writing those books!

The kids have had a wealth of funny remarks lately. Jake has become quite the one-liner spout in our house, next to me and Craig, of course. Here are a few recent good ones.

The boys and I were comparing muscles one day during lunch, and Jake pops his micro bicep out and says, “These babies are so hard, I have to use fire and a hammer to work ‘em!”

Last week, Jake was sitting shirtless in front of the space heater that I keep pointed at my desk all day, and he asked if he could get a tan if he sat there long enough. I told him no, but he might get burned. He looked disappointed and said, “Man, I want to be that tan, handsome bodybuilder that I KNOW lives inside me!” I told him later that I’m pretty sure there wasn’t one in there, because there is no way he’d fit in that small, white shell.

Finally, this morning, while Craig was carefully cutting the ‘ripe’ skin off several pieces of good cheese that we were preparing for brunch, Levi walked up and got a disgusted look on his face. “Eew, what’s that?”
“Mold,” Craig said.
“What’s mold?” asked Levi.
“It grows on food and can make you sick,” answered Craig.
“Or it can make you well, like Penicillin,” I added.
“Do you know who discovered Penicillin?” Craig asked Levi. “Have you learned that yet?”
Levi looked at him unsurely, and answered, “Mom?” It was more a question than an answer, but to him, I guess it could have been possible.
We both laughed, and Craig said to me, “Well, I think instead of homeschooling, you’re doing a lot of brainwashing.”