Back on Track

The cold has finally passed. Ethan had it for the shortest amount of time and I'm thinking it's because he prepared for it better. He consistently took Echinacea tincture, Elderberry tincture, plenty of liquids and vitamin C. If I had been making sure all the children took those things before cold season even started we may have been able to avoid that cold! However, it's very difficult to get a 3-year-old to take things like that. She'll take the vitamin C without a problem, but the nastier tasting things are a whole different story. I took all of the above as well as ate fresh garlic and was able to avoid the cold all together. I'm very thankful for that! It's hard enough tending to 3 little ones with a cold without having a cold yourself!

With everyone well again we're back on track with schooling, schedule, and chores. Both Ethan and Madeleine have reading lessons each day along with beginner math, writing, and science. They're both doing really well! I had to include Madeleine since she couldn't stand for Ethan to get all of the "attention"! Robby isn't as quiet during lessons as he used to be. He is learning to get around better and better all the time. He climbs up onto the couch, climbs behind the couch into the bay window, then back down. He usually aims for Madeleine lap on the way back down right on her school books. It's entertaining, but distracting, so I try to get him to sit somewhat quietly with some board books on my lap.

With the season change upon us we're preparing for winter; ordering hay for the animals, my husband is finishing up a few summer project he had going, etc. Madeleine and I built a campfire pit yesterday so we can have a few campfires this autumn. I thought it would be a fun evening activity - gathering wood together, sitting around the campfire and baking potatoes or corn in the fire. I remember all the summers of camping from when I was a child and my favorite part was always the campfire. So, why not have that here at our own home?

Well, I should get back to work! I hope everyone is doing very well!

Not Much New

It has been a week now and I still can't seem to come up with a good post! I've been busy with the usual; children, household chores, teaching, crafting, etc. The children came down with a cold, so I'm more tired this week from interrupted nights. Other than that, not much is new. I hope everyone else out there is staying well! :c)

Brrr...

I had a feeling for over a month now that winter would come early. Little did I know we would get our first snow on September 1st, though! Brrr! Of course, since the ground isn't frozen down here in the valley the snow melted within hours of the sun rising. Still, when it isn't raining we've seen snow flurries today. It's chilly! It finally warmed up to 47 degrees, but that doesn't feel very warm and it's supposed to get down to 29 degrees tonight. The rest of this week it's supposed to get into the 60's. The warmest day of the week (Sunday) is supposed to get up to 71 degrees. I'm wearing layers today since I'm not used to this weather. I refuse to turn the heat on this early in the season! Especially since this place is heated with heating oil. Ugh. We're hoping to talk the landlord into allowing us to put in a wood stove. That would save us thousands! If that doesn't work we'll heat with the minimum needed, which would make it a very chilly winter.

Anyway, I didn't mean to bore everyone with a weather update! Still, it's on my mind since I sit here in a lightweight fleece jacket thinking to myself... it's supposed to feel like summer still!

Last night I made up a big batch of cake donuts (the ones covered in cinnamon and sugar) for my hubby who had a hankering for them. They sure are tasty. Especially if eaten along with a glass of fresh apple juice. I've made way too many sweets this week; huckleberry pie, cherry pie, oatmeal raisin cookies, chocolate cake w/homemade vanilla frosting, and then the donuts. Is anyone getting a sweet tooth reading this? Good thing I keep finding plenty of help eating these things or certain, unmentionable parts on me might be showing extra, unwanted gain right now!

Well, that's all I can think of for now. I really should get to cleaning since I have a friend coming over tomorrow to craft with me! I hope everyone is having an excellent Labor Day! Bye for now!

A Windy Day

The wind is whipping around this house, causing all sorts of creaks and groans. This sort of weather reminds me of when one of our temporary buildings was blown over. Still, as long as it's not destroying anything I enjoy it - storms, that is. It seems like an adventure hits when it's storming. I'm not sure why. It always causes this excited, awed, cozy feeling for me.

The dark clouds have been hovering over the mountains all day and I keep wondering if it might be snowing up there. It would seem a little early, but still beats having fires all over! As long as the snow sticks to the high peaks and doesn't come down here in August, I wouldn't be bothered. I always have loved how mountain peaks look with snow on them - so clean, white, sharp, and... cold.

Yes, a day like this makes me think of pumpkins, hot apple cider, autumn leaves & colors, a lightweight jacket, blue jeans, schoolwork, and outdoor fun. It sure beats the temperatures we had last Monday when it hit 103 degrees! Today it's 60 degrees, but is supposed to be in the upper 80's and sunny on Sunday. Although the warm weather will be back for a little while, today makes me realize summer is nearly over. We shall enjoy maybe a month or two more of warm weather before winter arrives, then it will be time to pull out the coats, hats, gloves, and snow pants. Bicycles will have to be put in safe places along with other summer toys. Hopefully this winter won't be so windy and we'll have enough snow to build snowmen with! Either way, there will be lots of learning. Ethan has been doing great with his reading lessons, but it's time to start working on mathematics with him. Madeleine, at three-years-old, is ready to start preschool this year and I'm sure she'll do great. She already has about half of the alphabet memorized, knows some shapes, all of her colors, and numbers up to 10.

Summer Fun

I have so thoroughly enjoyed this summer! The temperatures have mainly been 70's and 80's, which is just perfect for summer in my book - especially the 70's! I wouldn't mind it if the weather was like this all year around, except for maybe 2 really snowy weeks of the year!

Ethan and Madeleine are old enough now to enjoy new things - like the circus we went to (talked about in my last post) and the fair we went to today. I have learned how to multi-task even more than before (I always find it amazing how many things can be done in a day!) My hubby has been in fair health and able to get several things done. Things are good.

Well, I'll try to find a more "awake" moment to write sometime soon. I just woke up from a nap and am feeling all groggy. I shouldn't have taken a nap right after eating! It felt good, though. I've been spending two hours a day on house cleaning each day due to my husband asking me to. Cleaning the kitchen, cooking, and laundry time don't count towards those two hours, though, so I've been extra busy this week! I hope everyone has had a wonderful week!

Circus!

I had been planning on going to the circus as soon as I saw the coupons for it at every store in town. I had gone to the very same circus twice when my parents, sisters, and I used to live in this area. What I remembered from it was the elephants - mainly and the fact that other kids were getting to pet the animals, but not me. This time, I decided, I would pet those animals! What I didn't know was that although the petting zoo part included elephants when I was a kid it no longer does, but they had something even better now...

When the big day arrived Ethan and Madeleine had been looking forward to it for over a week already! What child wouldn't be excited to see a bunch of elephants for the first time?! We took our good friend, Ruby with us. It was super hot out - 90's and without air conditioning in my vehicle, we were all sweating. (Well, maybe not Ruby since she is so cool!) On our way there we got some fast food, then dropped by another place for chocolate malt shakes (for us grown ups - Ruby and I) before heading over to the big circus tent to buy tickets nearly 2 hours in advance. I wanted to get good seats. While I was standing in line for tickets a little girl turned around to me and said, "Watch this!" She proceeded to take a drink of soda, then blow it out her nose and front teeth. I wasn't quite sure what to say! I think I probably said something like, "Did that just come out your nose?" because I remember her saying, "Yeah, but I was just trying to push it out between my front teeth."

I was able to get a front row for us before we headed over to the petting zoo which wasn't exactly open yet, but they were allowing folks to look. Ethan sure was excited to see a zebra there, I was surprised to see a hippo, but what we all found interesting (my children and I) was the donkey eating his own manure. I hadn't ever seen anything quite like that before. I mean... I've seen dogs and cats do that, but not animals like donkeys, mules, horses, cattle, goats, sheep, etc. That was weird. I later found out from my husband that donkeys commonly do that (he has read about it...). Anyway, I found it strange!

As we headed out to the vehicle to leave for WalMart (I needed more diapers for town days - I normally use cloth) we noticed a sign with a price for elephant rides, camel rides, pony rides, and I-don't-remember-what-other-kind-of rides! I suddenly realized my mistake. I had chosen a skirt instead of pants for our outing! I exclaimed, "We must check out the capris on clearance at WalMart!" I normally just buy my clothes at a thrift store or garage sales, but we had limited time for shopping, so I decided to do the one stop shop thing. I also decided everyone who needed to go to the bathroom needed to try using the potty at the store since the circus only had those stinky porta potties, which are no fun to use, but especially no fun to use with short people (young children). When we got there I grabbed the diapers, some bottled water (our mason jars full of water probably wouldn't be allowed in at the circus, I figured), capris, and a couple of others things on my list before we paid and headed back to the circus. I changed into the capris before heading in. After carefully avoiding the clown walking around out front we got in and bought elephant ride tickets. We stood in line for the ride when I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I squatted down praying I wouldn't have to throw up (the porta potties were busy, but even if they weren't I didn't want to have to use one for THAT!) I told Ruby to go ahead and ride with Madeleine on the elephant (Ethan didn't want to). I took pictures of their ride and started feeling a bit better. We headed into the big circus tent after their ride and found our seats. I started feeling much better once we were seated. I'm guessing I felt sick from drinking a bunch of water too quickly, then being out in the very hot sun on top of too much excitement and not enough sleep. I don't know. What matters is I felt just fine sitting down! :c)

I totally splurged and bought a thing of cotton candy for all of us to share, snow cones for Ethan, Madeleine, and Ruby and a thing of popcorn for Ethan. It was quite the event! It was only the second time in my life that I ate cotton candy and the first for all three of my children! I didn't want my own snow cone, but I tried Ethan and Madeleine's. It was the perfect treat for such a hot day, because although it was cooler in the tent than out in the hot sun, it was still hot enough to perspire.

Here are a couple of pictures of my children eating things I normally don't allow (pictures didn't turn out great due to lighting):

The show had just started as you can tell by the excitement in Ethan's face. Not to mention how happy he was over the snow cone!

Madeleine trying not to make a mess.

Robby having fun with the cotton candy.

It was so cute, when the circus began Robby forgot all about the cotton candy he was trying to get and started happily laughing and squealing at the ponies and poodles doing tricks. He stayed entertained the whole time, which was a big surprise for me! I figured he would possibly need to be walked around or carried out during parts, but he did great! He especially loved the parts with the animals - ponies, poodles, elephants, camels, and snake. For me it was fun just watching his reaction to things - his bright eyes, giggles, laughs, even screams of delight! The only thing I really didn't like about the show was how loud it was!

At intermission Ruby paid five dollars to have her picture taken with a giant snake in the center ring! If I had had five dollars left I would have done the same thing with the children, but maybe another time. I think next time I'll take a camel ride, too!

When the show was over (it was a 2 hours long) we left the tent and Ethan, Robby, and I took our elephant ride before heading home. That was really neat and I'm happy I can now say I've rode an elephant! I'll try to remember to add a picture of that here later. I have to get it from Ruby first (my camera had gotten something on the lense by then.)

Later on that evening I asked Ethan and Madeleine what their favorite part of the day was. Ethan said it was the silly clowns and Madeleine said it was the elephant ride. I think mine was probably watching Robby's reactions to the cotton candy and animals in the show.

Training Oxen

My husband has patiently been training a team of oxen for the past 9 months and it seems to be paying off! When we (our whole family) went on a walk with them the other day we had them pull a chain with a few things attached to it (for a little weight) for the first time. It took them just a couple of minutes to get used to the sound of the chain dragging and weight. They did great following the commands, "Gee, haw, back, giddup, and whoa!" Here are a few pictures I took on the walk:

Our Scottish Highland oxen team (not yet full grown).

Hubby walking his oxen.

Little Bill and Curly Sue taking a break (we didn't name them ourselves).

Me watching them munch.

I'm so proud of my guy training these oxen. He even made his own yoke from scratch! I always find it amazing what my DH can train himself to do. He never saw anyone train oxen or build a yoke before, he just figured it out himself with a little help from some books and did it. I wish I were more like that! I tend to learn much better seeing someone else do it first.