pooped!

My day started at 4:33

when a certain little bed thief screamed, "Papa! My earring is stuck!"

(That child has gotten her earring caught in the sheets about a dozen times,

starting with the very first night she had pierced ears.

Only, that time, the girls ended up pulling her earring clean out

and Tyler had to re-pierce her ear.)

I couldn't get back to sleep, so I finally got up at 6,

after I'd gone to snuggle with my hubby in the girls' bed,

where he went after they both came sneaking into ours and crowded him out.

So he missed the whole screaming earring thing....

I had coffee and admired the kayaks in the grass by the pond (while ignoring the lifejackets)

then checked my e-mail and a few blogs

then finished up the quilting on the white sections of the quilt,

which, surprisingly, I managed to work on over the weekend after all.

Then I woke up kiddos and we got ready to leave the house.

(I'm always glad we homeschool when we have to leave the house in the morning.

I'm not a morning person.)

Brandon had an orthodontist appointment, where they decided he didn't need any more treatment after all.

Then they refunded the money I'd paid 2 years ago

when the elder Dr U told me we should start treatment right away.

But then two weeks later, the younger Dr U thought we should take a wait-and-see-how-he-grows approach,

which, of course, was more to my liking.

(and cheaper)

Apparently he grew quite nicely,

'cause even the elder Dr U thought it was time to deactivate him as a patient.

After that, on the way to the post office to buy more stamps

so I can mail a few more letters 

to my boy who will be home in thirteen days, :-)

I dropped that refund check off at the bank.

I never cash checks the day I get them - seems greedy,

but I was right there, so it seemed stupid not to.

After buying stamps

and then running back in with my letter to actually mail it,

(because I'd forgotten it in the car and using the outside mailboxes would have required me to leave the parking lot and turn left, only to have to turn left again to get back in the parking lot so I could drive my vehicle in the double one way lanes to drop off the letter in the box)

I took a quick trip to Aldi

because the children thought that the bananas that I'd had the foresight to have Brandon grab before we left the house

weren't enough food and they were yammering that they were hungry.

After a quick snack in the car

we went to the Dallas branch library,

where my children were absolutely perfect.

Quite possibly the first time ever that this group of kids has been perfect at the library.

Lexi was so cute,

I would have taken a picture, except I forgot my phone at home.

She was wearing a red dress with white polka dots 

and Lily had fixed her hair in two low ponytails;

she was sitting on the floor in the middle of a row (aisle?) with a huge stack of Spot books,

 thoroughly engrossed in the book on the top of the stack.

(She'd already read the others, and just kept adding each new book to the stack.

We didn't bring home all of the Spot books.)

I didn't get any books for myself - I've got way too much work to do to be reading right now.

Plus I couldn't find anything that grabbed me ;-)

After the library we ran to Lowes

where, of course we needed things from opposite ends of the 10 acre store.

(My feet were really hurting by then)

By the time we got home it was after 1:00

and while the kiddos read,

I fixed lunch.

(scrambled eggs with cheese, cucumber slices and puffed corn.  

aka dissolve in your mouth fake popcorn that we used to buy little ones and those in braces)

We ate had a picnic in the LEM

'cause Brandon and I just couldn't stomach Andy Griffith,

and my sewing machine and quilt were using up most of the dining room table.

WhIle the boys cleaned up the kitchen, I got Lex' down for a nap

(The past few days she's done well lying down by herself, with me peeking in on her every few minutes.

The down side of this method is

I miss out on my 'put my feet up' time. which is (was) my hand-stitching during the day time)

and then did some schoolwork with the kids

while Brandon did his school all by himself.

I renewed the tags for the Excursion, but that hardly counts, since I was able to do it online.

The fact that I remembered to do it - now, that counts!

Then I started quilting the first colored row.

Then I spent 50 minutes unquilting what I'd quilted in the previous 5 minutes,

because, darn it, I didn't have the tension quite right after all.

Then we picked up the house for Papa

and I got back to my quilting (better this time around) and the kids got back to their books.

Library days are so wonderfully quiet!

After Tyler got home

we all headed outside to get to work.

But Stephen came over, so the kids played instead.

Brandon and I put up a wonky wall section

(it sounds special, but every wall is wonky)

while Tyler worked on nesting boxes.

Brandon got the hinges on for the door

while I lent Tyler a hand now and then and raked crap into piles.

I felt like my time wasn't best utilized by that task,

so I attacked some stumps and roots so that the gate to the former dog run would close.

Brandon and Tyler continued working on the nest boxes and rear access panels.

I broke the shovel trying to dig out the stump,

so went back to going after it with an ax.

By then, Stephen had gone home,

so I had Jeremiah (and then later Josiah, too) help me tear down the overgrown-with-honeysuckle-and-small-trees chain link fence
on the north side of the dog run.

(we'll be adding field fencing to the remaining 3 sides of chain link fence, and connecting it to the barn)

We cleaned up in the run just a bit

and attacked a few more stumps and roots.

When it was almost dark,

I set Jeremiah, Josiah, and Lily to work loading up a tarp with debris and getting it to the (HUGE) burn pile

while I headed in the house to make dinner.

(A creamy chicken and veggie dish that we ate over cabbage that I'd cooked just enough that it wasn't crunchy)

Josiah and Lily came in to help when they were finished with their job.

(real help. They peeled carrots (and got peelings all over the floor, but Josiah retrieved them and put them in a bucket to save for our chickens :-)  and gathered ingredients - which saved my poor feet and back from the pain of walking around any more than I had to.

After dinner I read a book to the girls, a new one to us, The Library,
by the same couple who wrote and illustrated The Gardener which Lily especially loves. 

Lily had wanted me to read a different book (with twice as many words in it - I just wasn't up to it) and was a little pout-y.

After I finished the book, she said, "I actually liked that book better than I thought I would."

Which is what I expected ;-)

Then we had dessert (1 1/2 coconut macaroons each, and a glass of milk)

and Tyler and I cleaned up the kitchen

while Brandon put away leftovers

and the little ones got ready for bed.

Then I let Tyler beat me at a game of backgammon (again) before he went to bed

and I plopped in this chair with the computer.

Pooped.