Tuesday Ten: ???

Tuesday Ten: I Wonder...

1. ...what is for dinner? As soon as one day is over and I no longer have this question burning in my mind, another day starts and there it is again. I hate cooking dinner. I don't eat it, I don't like it, and I don't want to have to cook it. Especially for a bunch of ungrateful, whiney children who would rather eat macaroni and cheese seven days a week given the chance. Hey, what a good idea. Mac-n-cheese it is.

2. ...when the garage is going to be done? I would love to post an update on our garage progress, but NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE. For weeks. I am feeling like just giving up on the whole idea, but then there would be this large unfinished building right out my back door. Wait, there is now. Maybe when the weather warms up my husband will thaw enough to get a little work done. Or June will roll around (expiration of permit) and that will light a fire under him.

3. ...why some people wait until the last minute to do anything? It isn't like you don't KNOW it needs to be done or anything. No, you have to wait until the deadline is looming and there is stress and pressure. Uh, speaking in general terms here, of course. Not pointing fingers at anyone in particular.

4. ...if I am coming down with another cold? If so, this will be the 3rd time in a row. As soon as I got over the first cough/cold, I got it again. Now I have a bit of a sore throat and a runny nose today. Actually I have a runny nose every day because of allergies so it is difficult to tell the difference between a cold runny nose and an allergy runny nose, but there is that little bit of a sore throat. I think I am going to boycott church until cold and flu season is over. Sick people, STAY HOME, YOU IMBECILES!!!

5. ...if anyone liked my close up pictures? I can't decide if my favorite is #4 or #6. I like the darkness of #4 with the glowing waterdrop, but there is something about #6. I think they both need a little more depth of field. Number 5 is set as my desktop background. Did you like them? Anyone?

6. ...about the panhandlers at the street corner. Specifically the ones with the signs that say "Why lie, I need a beer." Do they think they are being funny? I find that incredibly sad. Do they make more money than the ones that say "Please help. God bless you."? I really wonder about that. I think the dancing for dollars guy is quite funny, by the way. He seems to get quite a lot of money. Is it enough to live on? More wondering. I saw a sign once that said "Will take mild insults for pocket change." I did think that was funny. I even laughed. Is that bad? To laugh at a panhandler? I wonder.

7. ...if my son will really choose working at a "snack shack" as a career. Today during our science lesson I mentioned to the boys that one of them could become an astrophysicist or some other scientisty thing and discover new things about the planets. My 10 year old son said, "Not me, I want to work at a snack shack."

Huh? Did he really just say he wants to work at a snack shack? I think he did, but I am going to pretend he didn't. Moving right along...

8. ...if anyone noticed that every time I spelled refrigerator in this entire blog I spelled it WRONG. Not only am I a grammar snob, but I am also a spelling snob and I was spelling refrigerator wrong. Horrifying. Mostly because the four people who read my blog are also spelling snobs. And grammar snobs. Yes, you. Don't deny it. By the way, if I spell anything else wrong, don't tell me. Eventually I will give in to the niggling feeling that it just doesn't look right and then I will look it up in the dictionary. Until then I would rather be blissfully unaware. Anyway, who is to say that I didn't just spell it wrong because I knew it would annoy you?

9. ...why I agreed to take charge of the store for the parent's club at the gym? WHY?? I am not an in charge type of person. So why???? Everything is in a mess and I have only 1 1/2 weeks until the largest meet of the year to get it all organized and put together or whose fault will it be that the store is lame? MINE.

10. ...why I am so crabby today? In the space of the last 30 minutes I have called my children ungrateful and whiny, the people at church imbeciles, my family snobs, and crabbed about my husband not working on the garage. Sorry. Wait, no I'm not. But maybe I will be tomorrow. We'll see.

Six Close Ups and A Horse

Taking pictures at the ranch

Last weekend my husband and I went to the ranch to take pictures. Actually, he went to move hay and I tagged along so I could go out into the woods with my camera. I dawdled enough so by the time I was ready to go he was done unloading hay.




We rode the 4 wheelers because it is almost 3/4ths of a mile to where we were going. And it is muddy. And hilly. And we bought the 4 wheelers so we could ride them.

We went to the area that we want to build our house. We probably won't build it there because the location is a bit hard to get to, but it is so pretty down in that particular clearing. There is a seasonal creek running through and lots of oak trees and fir trees.






Having an assistant is nice.



He moved sticks out of the way.



He let me lean against him so I could take a picture of a tree.



But it worked better to lean against the tree.



Tip: Don't let the assistant hold the camera while you go through the creek on the 4 wheeler.



My assistant...er, husband, with his horse, GH. Gentle Heart. She is a Thoroughbred almost racehorse and she stands 16 1/2 hands tall. She has Seabiscuit and Seattle Slew in her bloodline. My husband is 6 feet tall so you can see GH is a big horse. It is a beautiful picture to see this horse run. That's her normal horse sized 2 year old daughter Lily--short for Easter Lily since she was born on Easter--in the background.

Preview:




Guess what I now have? A. Macro. Lens. Oh yeah.

Cake

Usually for my kids' birthdays I make a cake in a 9x13 pan. I may or may not put some frosting on it. Poke in some candles and I am done. I used to attempt fancy cakes in different shapes, but I haven't done it in a long time. Now I remember why.

For some reason, probably having to do with loss of brain cells from so many pregnancies, I decided to get a little fancy this time. "How about a round 2 layer cake?" I thought. Huh? I never make those.



You should have seen it before the frosting.

First of all, I made the cake from scratch. I don't know if that is why it didn't want to come out of the round pans or if I just didn't grease the pans well enough. The entire bottom of one round stayed in the pan and the other one got all chewed up from the spatula. It was pretty sad looking. But I persevered and spread the middle frosting and put the top layer on. Crooked. Taller on one side than on the other. With really awful looking sides.

Oh well, we must push on. Too late to turn back now. I spread the lemon frosting on the whole cake, getting surprisingly fewer crumbs in the frosting than I thought I would, given the state of the sides of the cake.

I should have stopped while I was ahead. But no, I had to get even fancier. I decided to decorate it with some red icing as well.



Great, now it looks like a drum.

Now the good part. The ego boosting part. The part where my children PRAISE the cake as if it is the most beautiful thing they have ever seen. The part where Good Mom Cristy has to beat back Sarcastic Cristy to keep her from blurting out "Yeah, you guys wouldn't know a good looking cake if it bit you in the hiney. You just want to EAT it!"

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11 year old daughter: "Mom that is a very arTEEsta...arTIStical...uh...

Me: Artistic?

Her: YEAH...artistic looking cake!

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13 year old: Where do people learn to decorate cakes like that?

Me: Oh, they can take a cake decorating class, or read a book...or some people are just born with the talent, like me.

Her: I want a cake like that for my birthday. But I want to decorate it myself.

Hey, am I detecting a little somethi...no, she is just in awe of my talent and wants to emulate me.

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10 year old (whispering to his brother when I am not in the kitchen): Look at that cake. Doesn't that look so neat?

Heh.

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Six years old

Happy birthday, my sweet six year old.

Sweet and silly--who can resist him?

Tuesday Ten: Future occupations for my children

Look at them--so fresh, so innocent, so...talented. And so much bigger now than when that picture was taken.

Ten future occupations for my children

1. Video game designer.

My oldest has mentioned in the past that he thinks this would be his ideal job when he grows up. I was very supportive in my reply: "Yeah, you and 90% of the rest of the teenage boys in America."

2. Professional home organizer. I think this would be the perfect job for my 13 year old daughter. She loves to organize things. She could go into a person's home, organize it, and then leave--giving them the responsibility of keeping it organized. Something she doesn't do as well.






3. Acrobat. My 11 year old daughter is a very flexible and bouncy person. If her chosen career as a horse trainer doesn't work out, she could always join the circus.



















4. Comic book artist.
My second son, age 10, loves to draw. He draws cars and other things, but mostly he draws robots. And super heroes. And things that blow up. Perfect comic book material.


5. Paleontologist. What is it with little kids and dinosaurs? My 8 year old son has been fascinated by them for years. For a long time, the only books he would check out at the library were dinosaur books. I can see a possible conflict with the creation vs. evolution issue, but I suppose he can work it out.


6. Cowboy. My 4th son, age 6, has informed me that he would like to be a cowboy. But he doesn't want to ride a horse. I guess they are too big and scary. Instead, he will ride a 4-wheeler.

7. The boss. My 3 year old daughter will be The Boss. I don't know of what, who, or any other details, just that she will most likely be in charge. There is no doubt in my mind.

8. Astronaut. My littlest guy needs to learn that the world does not revolve around him. Becoming an astronaut would be just the ticket. Not only that, but then there would be no need to potty train him. I could just get him some of those astronaut diapers.

9.Engineer.My oldest son's teacher is pushing him to go to college to become a mechanical engineer. My son isn't too interested in that, since he just wants to be a builder (if the video game thing doesn't work out).

Side note: We went to the school for an open house last Monday night. I talked to my son's teacher for about 5 minutes--in which time I learned that the teacher doesn't know how to do Algebra II so he can't really help my son learn math. Uh, this is what, FEBRUARY? And we are just finding this out? Five minutes and that is ALL I got out of it. I asked several questions and didn't get much of anywhere. When we got back in the car I told my son: "I will never doubt you again when you say your teacher is hard to get information from." He chuckled. You may remember me mentioning the teacher before when I talked about the rocket project. Now I have an even lower opinion of the teacher than I had before. We are looking into other options for next year.


10. Drama Queen. I actually have 2 or 3 children that would be right for this job. Not to be confused with drag queen, by the way. My three year old said to me this morning:

"You didn't come into the kitchen to see why I was crying!"

Heh, that must be why she cried so long and so loud. No, and this is why: 1. This happens every morning for one reason or another; 2. It was probably because her brother was staring at her; and 3. I was busy and she didn't seem hurt. So sue me for being against drama.

New boots

Remember red cowboy boots go with everything? Well, apparently turquoise cowgirl boots with red and yellow butterflies go with everything as well.

They are great for doing housework.

They are great for wearing to bed.

You can even wear them to the grocery store as long as you "carry me, Mom, so my boots won't get wet."

Happy Valentine's Day

The kids were all mystified about why I was making cookies.

"It's Valentine's Day," I said.

"But what are the cookies for?" someone said.

Valentine's Day, dangit.

You would think (correctly) that I don't make cookies very often.

Tuesday Ten: Ten things I want to do

Life is so fragile--I think we don't realize it until a tragedy hits us or someone near to us. These kinds of events make me think of all the things I would like to have a chance to do in my life. Not necessarily huge world changing things, just things that I would like to do. Things that may seem frivilous on the surface, but does that really matter?

Ten Things I Would Like To Do Before I Die

1. Move to the ranch. My inlaws own some property near us and our plan is to build a house and move there someday. I would like my forever house now, please. When we move there then I can do most of the other things I want to do.

2. Have an orchard and berry patch. I am tempted to just plant some fruit trees here, but we will probably move before they start producing. So I don't do it. I am planning on planting some strawberry plants this spring, but I want raspberries and blueberries too. The plan is to grow enough to sell.

3. Go back to school. I would like to get my accounting degree. Actually, I am torn between accounting and computer something. Probably will go with accounting. Someday.

4. Visit a foreign country. Not Canada or Mexico. Other than that I don't really care where. Australia might be nice, or Italy, or Spain. Or Hawaii. Just kidding.

5. Clean my refrigerator and mop my floor. Well, I am busy. Maybe I should write "hire someone else to clean my refrigerator and mop my floor." That seems more likely to happen.

6. Take the kids on a vacation. We are actually going on a vacation this spring, but I keep thinking something will happen to prevent it. I am afraid to make the reservations and buy tickets because I don't want my money to be wasted. Erg.

7. Go on a vacation myself. Maybe somewhere with white sandy beaches and coconuts. Or a skiing vacation. An Alaskan cruise? This is different than #4, by the way. In #4 I would be a tourist in a foreign country, seeing the sights. Here I am talking about relaxing and recharging.

8. Become a better photographer. I am learning, and this spring or summer I would like to take a photography class.

9. Have a beautiful yard and garden. Right now my yard and garden are...not beautiful. Part of the reason is that it is winter, the other part is because I suck as a landscaper. Hopefully I will be able to change that.

10. Go for a hot air balloon ride. This sounds so scary to me, yet very intriguing.


In reading over my list I can see that I have a little trouble with thinking big. Also, most of them are focused on me. I am tempted to go back and change the list, but instead I will ponder a while. Perhaps I will be able to think of something that will affect not only me, but also help someone else.

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Look! Megan decided to join in! And although Cathy wasn't feeling peevish last week, she is back this week with her 10 things to do.

Nest Boxes

After waiting for a long time, my chicken house finally has nest boxes where the chickens can lay their eggs. Chickens enjoy a nice quiet dark space to lay eggs. Previously, they had spot behind a piece of plywood leaned up against the wall.


About a year ago I got the bright idea of giving the job of building nest boxes to my then 15 year old aspiring building contractor. "Think of this as your first building job," I said. I suppose I should have offered to pay him in order to make the whole thing seem legitimate, but I didn't. Neither did he. Build the boxes, I mean. Actually, to be fair, he did start on them but he never finished. Apparently, he asked his dad (the man with ETB Syndrome) for help and then got frustrated and gave up. So finally a few Saturdays ago my husband set out to complete them.


This is about the only time in my life I am glad for a pile of junk wood out in the field

This is the part that oldest son did--chickens have been using it as a roost. Nice.

I think they look nice, but the chickens seem unimpressed. They will only lay eggs in the bottom middle box. One or two each day. I will be really glad when winter is over.

Trampoline