Funday Sunday

Heh, you can mock. I couldn't think up a decent title. I'm beat. Happy, but beat. We had such a great time today. Ben and Claudia, et al., came over to carve pumpkins and have supper! I had helpers in the kitchen while we got ready for company...

Once they got here, the kids got to get messy and gross, and they worked quite diligently on their pumpkins...

And in the end, we had a lovely evening by the fire(s)...

Food, friendship, life... it's good.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy
(P.S. I figured out the watermark feature, but it seems to be a bit of a PITB to use. Bummer.)

Busy, Busy

Has it been four days? Sorry 'bout that. With Zorak out of town, and new schedules all-around, I lost track of time. However, he's back, we're all rested up, and we just had the best Saturday!

James and I headed into town early for his Citizenship badge service project. He picked the project, and put it together on his own - making contacts, getting all the legwork done. It was hideously difficult for me to let go and let him handle it all (and I didn't hit it spot on, at first, but eventually I did my part and got out of his way). He did his part and pulled it off splendidly.

We arrived in time to help unload the truck and set up (this was for Angel Food Ministries). Then we spent the next three hours putting together food boxes and assisting customers with hauling things to their cars. I didn't take any pictures because we were too busy learning the ropes and trying to stay helpful. Well, James stayed helpful. I hung out in my corner, drinking coffee and hauling heavy things when needed. He was the brains of this organization. He just took me along for the muscle and the driver's license.

From there, we headed to the downtown Fall Festival in Decatur. Nothing like sugar, costumes, sugar, music,

and a little more sugar, to make a day fun!

Yes, those are basically Pixie-Sticks, but the tube is the diameter of a Sharpie, and as long as a twirling baton. WEEEE! Interestingly, it was the church we've been attending that had this set-up. I think we may let the kids have their sticks for breakfast before church tomorrow... just as a thank-you to the Children's Minister. ;-) (I jest - she planned for the kids to eat them on the spot and then just ping up and down the street until the effects wore off, I'm sure.)

The weather was gorgeous, just cool enough to necessitate a hat for Jase. You know, those just don't work so well once they've been chewed on for an hour or two. Ew.

Ben and Claudia brought their kids. The sheer mass of children vibrating around created some serious momentum, so we adults just wandered along behind - it was like a cattle drive, but without horses, and it smelled better. Just as noisy. But, oh-so-cute!

Kiss those babies!

~Dy

Teamwork

The "help" was entirely Em's idea. Smidge went along with it. They're pulling vines off one of the persimmon trees down by the barn.

And Em made her own chopsticks to handle the persimmons. I don't know if it's a textural thing and she doesn't like touching them, or if she just thought it seemed like a fun idea to try out. She's pretty good with those chopsticks, though.

Why we do what we do, no?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

He Has Your Quirks

Ever notice how much time people spend analyzing babies? ~ Oh, he looks just like his Daddy! ~ Aw, she has your thinning hair. ~ He's built just like great-great-granddaddy's side of the family. It's like playing with those build-a-creature books. Remember those? The head of an aligator, torso of a hippo, legs of an emu. You could be the next Andy Warhol, or the next Dr. Moreau. Either way, it's fun.

But what about temperament? Y'all ever parse that one out? Zorak and I do. And not just to blame each other for the more interesting qualities that emerge in the children, either. We're both honest enough to willingly chuckle and say, "Oh, yeah, sorry 'bout that." But it's not really something we give much thought to until it's staring us in the face (or mortifying us in public).

Zorak's gone right now, and I miss him, but the day-to-day is not as challenging as one might think. For when one of us is away, the other one is free to get it done (or blow it off) according to his (or her...) own natural bent. It's not ideal. I'd much rather spend the next eight decades compromising, and for the most part, we do it so well that I forget about some of the differences until he's gone.

So tonight, after an early supper, a quick house tidy, a short movie and/or story, the lights went out with all the children kissed, snuggled, and tucked in, at 8:32. (My i-d-e-a-l evening, lemme tell ya!) I've had time to think back on the kids, who made me laugh a lot today. They are funny, witty, quirky. They could make the Pope think dark thoughts, and they could make Scrooge feel warm and fuzzy and generous. All in one fell swoop.

I can see myself in them, and I can see Zorak in them. Uncle Creighton, Aunt Sally, Granny, some cousin I vaguely remember meeting when I was 12. It all comes together to make distinct, unique, amazing people.

And then, because I had WAY more time on my hands than I normally do, I started wondering about my parents. How did this happen? How did I happen? What will pass through to the kids, and what will get filtered out by more dominant genes?

My mother was a pack rat with the kind of kitchen table that you were welcome to sit at, but there was no guarantee you could set your coffee cup there. Same thing with the counter tops, the washing machine, dressers, shelves. Oh, the woman loved her horizontal surfaces and paper goods. She wrote beautiful letters. Every morning began with a cup of coffee and a letter. She loved to laugh, even at herself. She loved to cook, and by extension to feed people. She didn't have to know who you were, just show up around meal time. Or earlier. Or later. If you left her place hungry, it wasn't going to be her fault.

My father, from what I've heard, was a strict disciplinarian with a firm belief in order, self-discipline, punctuality, (Yeah, I know. If it weren't for the whole genetic combination feature, I would have inquired about the personality of the milk man, just out of curiosity), fortitude and self-reliance. He valued integrity above sentiment, loyalty above whimsy, and honesty above all else. He wasn't so hot with keeping in touch. He was fiercely devoted and doting, but also set the bar pretty high for those around him, as well as for himself.

But what do you get when you cross those two? You get a person who disdains clutter of any form, has no emotional attachments to things that require dusting, yet harbors an utterly irrational fondness for stationery products. Paper, pens, envelopes. And stranger still, can't seem to put a stamp on something and part with it to save my soul.

You get a control freak who wants things done "Just So", yet wings it, herself, every time. There is no recipe I cannot alter, no process I cannot botch, no system I cannot over-analyze. But if I'm going to make it up, then I'm going to make it up "my way".

You get a scheduling list-maker who was late to her own wedding. (HOW does that happen?)

You get someone who is totally, utterly, completely loyal and devoted, who loves wholeheartedly. But more directly, you get someone who gets that to put up with me can be a challenge that deserves rewarding. And then some, I'm sure. My parents seemed so normal. I guess you just never know what you'll get.

So while it's nice to have things all Spartany and done once in a while, I much prefer the compromise. I hope the kids got a good lot of Zorak to carry them through. A little quiet humor to counteract the hypertension, a little easygoing sway to balance out the rigid spontaneity (in itself, an enigma), a touch of gentleness to overlook the control issues.

The double dose of fortitude, loyalty, love, and integrity won't hurt. But when it comes to organization, punctuality, or attention to detail, well, they'd best hope they marry into those qualities. 'Cuz they just didn't get those genes from us.

Kiss those babies!~Dy

Autumn Joy

We're breaking out the flannel sheets! That means the temps will probably be back in the high 80's at night sometime in the next two weeks! heh. I hadn't even thought of it, until James asked tonight if we could turn up the heater, and I realized we don't have the heat on. Uh, come to think of it, why don't you try wearing warmer jammies? Oh, and hey - warmer bedding! Ta-da! We don't need to turn on the heat yet, at all.

Zorak took all the kids to work on the barn and lower meadow Saturday, leaving me in relative peace and quiet (so there were no witnesses, should the whole experiment go horribly awry) to put up four jars of persimmon jelly and eleven jars of pear jelly. They haven't set yet, and that's okay. The pathetic level of enthusiasm I garnered just hearing the little "pop" of the jars as they sealed, one by one... that was worth it, right there. (I was somewhat certain the whole canning thing may be the homemaker's parallel to snipe hunting.)

Me-Wa is back! He'd been gone the last four months. Long months, for the kids. (Probably a lot longer for Me-Tae!) And today we were able to head up that way to visit. It was good to see him, great to visit. We got to meet the newest member of their clan, little Katie (a golden lab - oh, so cute!) The older dogs are not so fond of her, but she's sweet enough that I'm sure she'll grow on them.

There's a little boy who lives just up the road from them who comes over to visit - he's a sweetie. They play outside, go in to play pool, and migrate to the computer after a while. He hit me today with a doozie out of nowhere, though, and I had to laugh at how it all turned out.

Boy: You still homeschoolin' them?

Me: Yes, we are.

Boy: What's wrong with y-- uh, I mean, why don't you just send 'em to school?

Me: *aherm* WELL, we like the education we can give them at home.

Boy: Hmpf. Well, they're lucky, then.

He left it at that, and we moved on to an in-depth discussion of Dodgeball. I'm not entirely sure what the converation meant from his perspective, but it made me chuckle.

There's an awful lot going on right now, not the least of which is that I can't seem to carve out time during the week to be left alone for fifteen minutes or so. Long enough to compose my thoughts, find something humorous in it, and write it up. I've been able to compose my thoughts, but I could sure use a few more minutes to find the humor before having to move on to the next thing. Hopefully, a little more rest, and a better schedule will help. I'm going to give that a shot this week and see how it goes. The kids deserve a Mom who can find humor in the daily things. I'm sure Zorak prefers that, too, over the rather irritable alternative he's been presented with lately. So. Yeah, gotta work on that.

And in that vein, I think I'm going to sweep up a bit, lay out tomorrow's plan, and try to hit the hay before eleven! (Livin' large, no?)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Playing With Pictures

The barn is fun to photograph. Plus, I have a thing for Autumn afternoon light. It's the best light in the world, I think. Makes me all warm and fuzzy. Gives everything a happy glow. It just whispers, "You made it through summer. Yay you."

One of these pictures has been sharpened, and the other had the "film grain" filter applied to it. I haven't had enough coffee, yet, to see a difference. May be the subject matter, though. Can you see a difference?

Also, can you see the watermark? Picasa added that feature in the last upgrade, and I've been wanting to try it out. Not because I think my pictures are just so awesome that everyone will want to steal them and enter them in their county fairs as their own (although the thought makes me chuckle - wouldn't that be a silly thing to do?) Just because I think it's neat. And it's a nice additional protector against people who steal pictures of children and claim that those are their own. (Did you know people do that? How weird. Get your own kids. Or send money to help feed these.)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

So, so true...

Demotivators



Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Fall Fun

Smidge took that picture. The SmidgeCam has come a long way in three years. I love digital cameras - the kids can take pictures til their eyes bleed, and we don't have to pay to develop the nostril shots. But we can enjoy the gems that come with progress, and with seeing the world through their perspectives.
Just as Smidge had his pear tree, John had his apple tree. He picked the first apple of the season (not counting the ones we picked and cut open to see if they were ripe yet...)
And we began collecting apples. (And a stray pear.) Man, that tree will be a lot easier to harvest from when we're done pruning it properly! (We have to move slowly so the tree doesn't succumb to Fire Blight while we restore it.) However, the metal bucket is about half-full now with fresh apples, and they will become, hopefully, (magically...) apple pie filling this weekend!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Hey.

Well, Ernie and KathyJo swear it's a mushroom. I'm inclined to think Josh is on to something, personally. Either way, I figure if we lock the doors and clean the air filters, we should have all our bases covered. Thanks for playing, guys!

Today we began week 10 of the school year. Ten-ish, anyway. Of the previous nine weeks, we've taken three off. That sounds so bad. I can hear NEA members puckering in their seats from here. And yet, the boys have worked up to the nine-week point in a couple of subjects, and worked beyond the nine-week point in all the rest. Heh. Yeah. I love this lifestyle.

So this morning, we sat on the balcony, re-working our plans that will take us through Christmas break. The boys opted to adjust some of their goals to reflect the progress they've made. We sorted, sifted, printed, and planned. Then they got to work. I got sucked into the Tanglewood site. *sigh* There ought to be something I could take for that. Really.

We're off to the library, where we won't find anything and I will return with a bigger Amazon list. (It is SO easy to justify book purchases when you know you'll use each book through five children. So, so easy. I'm going to owe Zorak big-time for this.) But it'll be nice to hit the library again. And, they've fired the wacky library lady and replaced her with someone from an organization we refer to as "The Northern Alabama Branch of the Illuminati" - so I want to be sure to stay on top of the library sale, as they'll be culling all the good books soon, and I don't want to miss out on those buys!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Oh, help.

WHAT...

ARE...

THESE...

THINGS?!?!?!?

Zorak found these near the cedar tree the other day, while we were picking apples. I'd gladly post the apple picking pictures, but we really want to know what these are. I don't even know how to begin Googling this...

The closed pods are bigger than a golf ball, slightly smaller than a tennis ball. The opened (exploded? bloomed? erupted?) pods are about 4 1/2" across.

I have no idea if they smell.

And, as with the other weird-ass things we find around here, no, I did not touch it.

The Magnificent Mere! (More Photos)

OK, so here we have The Mamas, hanging out and watching over the masses. My utilitarian, yet utterly futile, attempt at keeping my hair from the Wee One's clutches is painfully evident in this shot (thanks for the heads up on that, Honey...) But look at Mere - so poised, so pretty, so in shape - and that necklace? She made it. Herself. With fire. She rocks.

AND, she made this little gem of a dress, which I've had a hard time getting off EmBaby long enough to wash. (Bless you, Mere, for making it machine washable!) Oh, yeah, and Em does have different shoes, but, well, where there are goats, there is goat poop. Sandals, not such a good idea. Once again, function wins out over form in our little clan.

But oh, that dress! I believe the fabric on the bodice, or actually, all the non-solid fabric - with all the swirly, lovely, flowery designs on it, came from our Donna (Quiet Life Donna - Donna of the psychotically photogenic children and the sweet wit). And that plum color - it's a perfect match. It swirls, it spins, it feels good to the touch. It fits perfectly. *sigh*

(And at this point, I just stand in awe, and feel kinda cool by association. Yup, I know incredibly talented people. That doesn't make me talented in any way, but it does mean I have really neat friends.) Thank you, Mere!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Trip Pics, Part A

Of the 284 pictures we took, a surprising number were somewhat blurry and/or grainy. That bums me out, but I'm not terribly surprised. There's a lot of edible sticky stuff crammed into the nooks and crannies and moveable bits of the camera. Add in the lightning speed with which children change positions, and I'm pretty much hosed on photographing this trip. So, please forgive the grains and blurs, but here you go.

This is SJ and EmBaby. Birthday buddies with uncanny similarities in mannerisms and habits. They saw an airplane...

And then they both - without even looking at each other - stuck their arms out and shouted, "Airplane!" (Complete with sound effects.) It was pretty funny to watch.

We kinda-sorta semi-managed to get the kids all rounded up to where they'd fit in a frame. The tree helped. SJ and Em both decided to cry the minute we started to take the group photos. Em's not in this one because she'd already given up and was somewhere behind me, snuffling.

We did manage to get a few shots on the sly, though, when she wasn't looking...

And SJ was sweetly compliant for an individual shot. Oh, so much Cute! It was hard to leave.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

We're Back!

We meant to be back days ago. This is what happens when procrastinators marry.

Melissa got it right - we got to see Mere, from The Ugly Trunk. The trunk is so cute in real life, but it's abso-stinkin-lutely nothing compared to her kids! And seeing all eight of them running around, playing Legos, playing chess, playing some random ball-kicking game - oh, that was almost too much cute for me to handle. The kids could be cousins, they have so many of the same mannerisms. Mere is, of course, elegant and sweet and fun. And oh, so patient. And her husband, bless him, was such a trooper in letting the whole horde descend upon his house with all of our lateness and loudness and messiness.

We also got to have lunch with Rebel, of The Looney Bin, while we were out there. She is so sweet and so gracious, and knows all the totally rockin' joints to eat at in her neck of the woods!

Granny came and met us in Waco, so we had two wonderful days with her. Then she drove with us to see Great-Granny (or, Granny the Younger, as she's a mere 94 years young - longevity seems to run in Zorak's blood), and Aunt Veda. It was fun, fun, fun. John contemplated smuggling a goat back with him. Thankfully, he had only his backpack and there was no way he could have hidden the whole goat in there.

From there, it was off to Arkansas, where we rounded off the trip with more cousins. Would you believe we were thisclose to New Mexico and I had to go all the way back to Arkansas to get chile rellenos? Oh, they were good. I'll be stuffed for another week, at least. This was the first time we've had to really spend any time with these cousins, and it was such a treat for us. They opened their home so warmly, and the kids were completely taken up with their lifestyle, even down to getting up early to work with the animals. (We emptied the van tonight when we got home and didn't find any puppies, kittens or chickens, so I think we're good.)

The children have named every animal they've come in contact with this week. And now I think they're totally on board with some of our more Out There projects, which is good, because I'm still mildly terrified of birds, so they'll need to be pretty involved.

It was a fantastic trip, but we're glad to be home. Jase didn't sleep the last four nights of the trip - which means I didn't sleep, either. And so, I'm going to finish this cup of coffee and see about rectifying that. I'll upload pictures tomorrow, while we recuperate.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Wanna Play?

We get to go play! Can you guess who we'll be playing with? I'll give you some hints...

Adorable children.

Cool parents.

WAY more creative than I could ever hope to be.

Probably WAY more interesting than I am, too. (They're so gettin' the short end of this stick - but I'm excited!)

Hmmm... ok, I'm going to finish packing and cleaning while I think up better hints.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Thoughts on Education

(I had a couple of things written out. But Zorak just made me laugh, and I forgot most of it. You get what's left. Sorry.)

...What I find even more fascinating is how our own definitions and goals change as the children grow and change. Education, or rather, the pursuit of education, is a dynamic enterprise that extends beyond the entries on a sheet of paper. Do we want them to know basic arithmetic? Of course. Do we want them to understand basic physical properties and laws of nature? Naturally. Do we want them to take an active part in their literary heritage (...and I think I just lost Zorak...)? OK, to at least catch references and nods to great stories in their reading? Yeah, I do.

Is that the sum of our goals for the children?

Not by a long shot.

And tonight, while Zorak tried valiantly to give me the indoc primer on RF attenuation (yeah, I know...) I managed to put my finger on a goal that's been there from the very start, although not always articulated this way. (I also put my finger on an Arby's coupon. I love Arby's.)

In some ways, I hope the boys receive a Jack-of-all-Trades education. I hope they know enough about a variety of topics to feel comfortable in any venue, to understand how much there is still to learn, and to have the ability and interest to articulate a desire to listen and learn.

...and, yeah, that's good for tonight. Listen. Learn. Want to. (Sometimes we have to work on that last one. heh.)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Can't Win Them All

Well, it looks like these babies are good for animal feed, and not much else. *sigh* Thanks to this site, we've figured out that this is C. cordiformis, which has a bitter kernel. The boys were looking forward to gathering and drying them. (I was kind of hoping to be able to bake with them.)

Maybe planting a couple of pecan trees would be a good consolation? Is it weird to console our kids with new trees? Well, they'll like it, regardless. They're cool that way.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

OK, folks, what is this?

This is a clipping of the fruit we found yesterday. For a size perspective - click on it (I hope it's clickable) and note the average 10yo standing beside the apple tree. The tops of the apple tree and the mystery tree. (Edited to add: the fruits are each about the size of a small marble. Definitely unripe, and seem to have seeds inside, not a stone. Maybe that'll help.)

The top of that tree is absolutely laden with berries/fruit...

And here's the trunk, to show you the bark of the tree...

Do we have something edible? (Please say yes.)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

This is wild.

I dragged the family around the property today to help assess the things we have growing. They went somewhat grudgingly, but soon got into the spirit of it. Me? I'm like the guy who thought he was going to starve on the island and suddenly found an orchard. This is really exciting stuff!

We found another new, seemingly edible thing growing. No clue what it is (as usual) - look for a photo and a plea for help identifying it tomorrow! It kind of grows like cherries, but the tree shoots straight up and it's a good 50' high. It's also shading the smaller apple tree, so if it doesn't pony up with something edible, then it's going to get some serious pruning this winter.

The soil in the salad bed desperately needs more compost for next year. Even after two years of amending it, it's hard as a rock. Poor John's carrots never have grown longer than 1cm, tops. We've increased our composting contributions, now that we have the tractor mower. Hopefully, we'll have plenty of compost for next season.

We got three gypsy peppers from the armadillo-torn upper meadow beds. (The one w/ the snake.) Weird. We gave up on those beds back in July.

The apples are ripe, and they're *fantastic*. They have a complex flavor, starting out slightly tart, but turning sweet pretty quickly. They're psychotically juicy, and have a delicate crisp flesh. Ohhh, they're really good. It's exciting to be receiving from all these plants, now.

The Black Walnut trees are laden with big green balls right now. We gathered some and tossed them into the driveway to help crack the outer hulls. I'll go down in the morning to rake away the debris from around the tree so we can collect the nuts as they fall. Zorak's not sure there's enough meat in any of them to make it worth the work. I just want to try. It's part of the adventure. And, if it doesn't work, well, we've learned something along the way, right?

The persimmons are ripening unevenly, and between the height of the fruit and the birds, I don't think we'll get anything salvageable from them this year. Never did hear back from the County Extension Office, so I'll give them a call or swing by this week, sometime. I hate to give up on the persimmons, since there are three of them - if they can be saved and restored, I want to do it.

We enjoyed okra and cukes from the barn garden with supper tonight, and a late season watermelon this afternoon. That's always kinda fun. Perhaps the novelty wears off when you're an accomplished gardener. If so, we have decades of enjoyable side dishes ahead of us. ;-)

The kids finally decided pear jelly would be preferable to pearsauce for this year. If the trees stay healthy, though, we can do more next year. Tomorrow is canning day. (Someone hold me to that!)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Cute goes a long way!

I will probably get lousy customer service when the kids are grown and I have to shop on my own. Thankfully, the entire staff of the fabric store was completely enamoured by the children. Jase was oh-so-darling with his finger hooked over his nose, leaning into people as they talked to him, his smile arching up to his eyes. It's nice that he doesn't mind having strangers in his face. EmBaby melted every ovary in the store as she cuddled with the bolt of fabric and chit-chatted with Smidge about all the pretty fabric. Smidge was Quite Helpful, incredibly polite, and surprisingly non-jittery. *yay*

Hey, did you know it's less expensive to buy an IKEA armchair than it is to buy foam to make a cushion for the futon-chair? Wow. So, I figured I'd sew horizontal channels with the muslin, stuff them with the innerds of the existing cushion, and then cover the new design with the corduroy. In theory, the channels will help prevent the stuffing from shifting and bunching. But theory and practice don't always mesh, do they? I'll keep you posted.

The boys had a good time at the Beltloop Jamboree. I offered up the camera, but Zorak declined. I think it was all he could do just to get up and going so early, and I think I really should have offered him coffee, instead. Ah, well, I didn't think of it until I was halfway through the pot and he was halfway to the Jamboree.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Of the five, why these three?

I thought I was in for an easy day. Then I had coffee. Now, I realize that if I have to go to the fabric store and take three of the five with me... these are not the three I would have picked...

One more cup, and then we'll give it a go.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy