Grasshopper Days

Grasshopper Days

For today, April 16, 2012

Outside my window...  dark clouds and rain.  Spring?

I am hearing...  rain gurgling through the gutters and downspouts, the boys stirring (time for breakfast), and the furnace blowing.

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Breakfast accomplished, dishes washed, and the boys are in the living room reading, or in the family room practicing guitar before school...

I am praying...  about a curriculum purchase, for friends about to come home from Solomon Islands, for work for Kerry, and peace and goodwill in the house.

I am thankful...  for my family - the ones under this roof and the ones I grew up with, for our wonderful house (perhaps even more thankful lately, as we've been reading about the pioneers and the westward expansion, and the conditions they endured), for health, and for Tate's upcoming surgery.

I am wearing...  jeans, blue t-shirt, blue sweater... *sigh*

I am creating...  I'm in the middle of making some baby gifts, but can't show them yet!

I am going...  to fold laundry (the never-ending task), to buy Tate new "play shoes" as his completely fell apart, and to try to finish the last gift.

I am reading...  with the boys - finished By the Great Horn Spoon and all of us recommend it :D and we're beginning Little Britches which I've read but the boys haven't (GREAT book for inspiring kids, boys especially).  For myself - reading through Weapons of Mass Instruction.

I am learning...  some new ideas for sewing projects - like!

I am hoping...  for some dryer weather to work in the yard, and that the deer will be deterred from eating my plants.  Though I appreciate some of your suggestions (venison!) in this location that would be poaching.  But if the deer could meet with some providential accident, now...

I am thinking...  time to get school going...

In the kitchen...  still enjoying leftover turkey :D

In the learning rooms...  we are counting down - nine more weeks of school.  (Remember, we took three weeks off last fall, for vacation.)  Actually, I don't mind going well into June, as it's usually a very wet month here.  I'd rather have the time off in September.

Around the house...   I'm ready for a change - time to move the furniture again.  Do you do this?  I grew up with that being normal.  The living room gets a fresh look and feel for no cost :D  But other people, like my grandparents, never change things around.  (In fact, they left their furniture in the same place for so many years, that when they died and we bought the house we realized that they had actually painted around some pieces.)  Do you move your furniture or leave things like they are?

Noticing that...  oh my.  It's definitely time to do some rearranging.  Everything is so dusty!  (Easier to clean things when you're pulling it all out and away from the walls.)

Something I want to remember for later...  I made muffins yesterday, which made Tate very happy.  Years ago I found a recipe for Brown Sugar Muffins and thought the boys would love them, so I made a batch using my grandma's old smallish muffin tins.  They came out a nice, golden brown and about as big around as a silver dollar.  I piled them on a plate and waited.

Tate came downstairs in a bad mood.  Grumpy about something I have no recollection of.  Ignoring the wonderful aroma he cast a suspicious eye at my pile of muffins and announced:

I don't know what that is, but you can't make me eat those poo poo balls.

Of course, he loves them.  And begs me to make them.  Even though they do look remarkably like something a horse dropped.

And the boys call them Poo Poo Balls.

A favorite quote for today...
     The Lord replied, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.
          Exodus 33:14 

One of my favorite things...  we all love "pinch bites" (eating the dough/batter before it's baked).  You?  Do you let your kids have pinch bites?  Or are you worried about the raw eggs?  We throw caution to the wind when it comes to pinch bites ;D

A few plans for the rest of the week...  Gunnar has Boys' Club tonight at church, CAP tomorrow for Wyatt and Tate, and that's about all on my agenda besides the ordinary.

On the Mother Load this week...  finishing the other gift (I'll show you later), planting two rose bushes my sister gave us (and trying to protect them from the deer), organizing a couple of trips to gather manure to enrich our dead soil, cleaning out my work space (never ending), and gathering financial information to renew the boys' medical insurance.

A peek into my day...

Gifts from Kerry,don't remember the occasion.  Cute, yah?  (Though not in proportion to each other... a ladybug as big as a chicken might be disturbing!)  Just don't look too closely at the dust!