One of THOSE days

David and I really have a lot of free time.  We are looking for something to do to while away the hours now that the kids are all in school.

 

He has said for many years that we should/could sell the bulletin boards we made for the kids' rooms.  I have always laughed it off as a crazy idea.

 

When we took down John and Emily's bulletin boards during their room makeovers, David again said we should try and market them. 

 

Let me stop right here and say that forever David and I will be the best and worst partners for each other.  David can find us more than our fair share of crazy things to do, and I can usually find some crazy way to do it.

 

With the internet being today's market to the world, I spent an evening setting up an account on the Etsy website to sell bulletin boards.  See?

 

Bulletin Boards For Sale!!

 

Sure enough.

In a matter of a few short weeks we sold one.

 

David jumped right up from the couch, threw down his beer and TV remote and got to work.

Soon he had a lovely bulletin board ready to ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wanting to keep our buyer up to date, I sent him a picture of his new airplane bulletin board.

 

His response?

 

 

 

It was supposed to be green.

 

 

 

 

Sigh.

 

 

So I cancelled my spa treatment and my tennis lesson for today.  I'm off to Lowe's for green paint

Because the customer is always right.

 

 

 

Who comes up with these brilliant ideas anyway??

Computers Compulsions and Celebrations

We are here and we are EXCITED to think spring is on its way!

Never mind that white stuff blowing around outside my window as I type.  I refuse to acknowledge anything that looks like snow.

 

 

So

the computer is completely dead.

I am grateful to have David's Surface to work on while the computer is off being fixed.  I just wish my eyes were better or the Surface was bigger.  We aren't very compatible in the visual department.  I'm old, and it is not!

 

 

 

 

We have been busy around here the past couple weeks.

 

 

 

See?

 

 

It would appear there is more than one person in this house with OCD tendencies.  I promise I did not sort the M & M's according to their color.

 

 

In the time I have NOT spent sorting M & M's I have helped a certain little girl celebrate a birthday.

Grace is now officially nine years old.

 

She celebrated by having a sleepover with a few of her friends Friday night.  They played outside and made bead pets and suncatchers then finished the evening watching the new Disney movie, FROZEN.  They talked and giggled themselves to sleep by eleven that night and were up bright and early the next morning to play with Grace's new American Girl doll accessories she received as birthday presents.

 

Saturday evening we enjoyed visiting with Cale and John who helped David clean up fence rows at the farm all day Saturday.  Thank you guys for all of your hard work.  We really appreciate you taking the weekend to help and to visit.

 

Grandma and Grandpa joined the fun Sunday for a birthday lunch and cake in honor of the birthday girl.  What a nice visit!  Thanks for coming.

 

Lots more to catch up on now that I have figured out how to post on this teeny tiny computer.  Right now I'm off to sort some more M & M's.

 

 

Not really.

 

Goodnight!

 

If you give a kid a knife....

Grant has pestered his dad for a pocket knife for many months.

David recently decided a seven year old was old enough to carry his own knife.

Rules were laid down about

when to carry the knife

where he could NOT take it - like school

when it was okay to use the knife

and how to operate it by himself

Grant listened attentively to all of Dad's rules 

then accepted the knife 

and all of the grown up responsibilities that came with it

then he carefully slid his new knife into his pocket and trotted off to play.

I know this will not end well.  I fear for the well-being of little fingers and probably my furniture too.

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Grace proudly displaying her science fair medal

She is mighty proud of it.

Spring is fast approaching.  Grace helped me start seeds for the garden.

 I always save this chore to do when she is home.  She loves helping plant the seeds.

She will eagerly watch them sprout and report how big they are getting each day.

Speaking of getting big....look at the long legs on this little girl.

The kids played outside quite a while Tuesday evening when the temperatures were hovering in the seventies.  I was shocked when I saw Grace.  Somehow during the winter she has morphed into this lanky creature that is all arms and legs.  Hopefully the rest of her will catch up to those long limbs this summer!

And John, who is not signed up to play baseball this spring, has been throwing a baseball every chance he gets. Mom's intuition tells me he has some very mixed emotions about retiring the baseball cleats this year.

Sap to Syrup - A Tale of Two Weeks

My computer is in a good mood today, so I'm going to see if I can get some pictures loaded. 

Wish me luck!!

Some of our forty taps

'

We had great luck with weather conditions this year.  Sap was running great with buckets overflowing at times.  The trees were running as much as a gallon each day on good days.

Collecting was the part the kids enjoyed most.

You would assume correctly if you guessed this bucket ended up on Grant's head.

Clown!

After collecting sap, it was off to the house to begin cooking it down.

I refused to cook it at home this year after last year's experience, so we moved it to the garage at the farm.  David brought a stove from ECO's breakroom to use.

And since we had it to use, we took the stove out of the house we just bought and used it as well.

If we cook this much next year, I hope we can get something more efficient.  Even with eight burners, this was SLOW.  We cooked through the night the second weekend taking turns watching it boil.

I'm proud to report that during my shift from ten to two thirty in the morning I not only boiled off almost twenty gallons of sap, but I managed to flap my way to level thirteen on Flappy Bird on my iPhone before it died.

I'm pathetic at that game.  Don't judge.

Once the sap was boiled to an almost completed state, we pulled it off and hauled it back to town where I finished it in my kitchen on Monday.

Jars ready to fill

Not quite done yet!!

Finished product from first week

Finished product from second batch

Pancakes, anyone?

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Emily called me just as I put Grace and Grant on the bus this morning.  She was not feeling well and is now asleep in her room.  One more perfect attendance gone for this year!

Grant is still clinging tenaciously to his perfect attendance.  It has not come without its own share of challenges though.  As I was getting in carpool line Monday morning to drop off Grace and Grant, Grant told me his bracket had come loose on his tooth.  Sure enough in less than one week a bracket was already off.  Of course it was the fourth and last bracket in line which left the wire poking right into his lip.  The orthodontist could see him that day, but Grant was more upset about ruining his perfect attendance to fix the bracket than he was with the wire cutting his lip.

What is a mother to do?

I called David to the rescue.  He showed up with wire snips and we did a little dental procedure of our own right outside Grant's classroom.  David cut and bent the wire for Grant.  

Now Grant refuses to get it fixed.  He insists he will wait until school is out in July June to get it fixed since he would have to miss school to get it done sooner.  Now THAT is dedication accomplishing his goal of finishing the year with perfect attendance!

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It would appear I have succeeded in getting this post finished!  Yeah!!

Happy Humpday!