Commander and I enjoy Homeschooling boys (Herogian, Hawk and Gluten), raising chickens, ducks, and dogs ( Penny and Casey), eating gluten free, surviving breast cancer, coach track and field, and loving God for every minute that He gives us to cherish our family.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Thoughts and happenings

Angie Webb and her sister over at www.moonjoggers.blogspot.com are looking for walkers, joggers, and runners to help them log the miles needed to 'run to the moon'.  You can join up as a team or individual. Do the 1000 miles or the ultimate challenge of 2013 miles for the year. That would be 5. 6 miles a day. That will definitely be a challenge even splitting it with the Commander.

*****
This is the last full week of homeschooling three. We register for classes on Thursday at the local high school for the older 2 boys. I haven't heard from the school yet as to how many classes they have accepted for credit from the portfolios I put together, but I expect all. I want them to accept all the classwork we have done. Now, I'll hope that I'm not living in a dream world. It still feels right. I wonder what other plans God has in store for this coming year.

****
I've been asked to be a coach/demonstrater at an Oklahoma Track Clinic this spring. Yahoo ! trip home. Anyone want to drive to OKC with me in April?

Saturday, December 8, 2012

twenty and plans

When we travel, we plan. We plan vacations. We plan house improvements, painting schemes, school lessons and this time we worked on garden plans. Especially raised gardens. So if you are a Pinterest buddy, you now know why I just inundated the page with different ways to make a raised garden. There are a lot of great ideas on Pinterest.

I'm ready to hit H.D. and buy the lumber. It will be nice not having track practice next week so I can work on projects around the house, to hopefully include a raised cold garden. THis is a small greenhouse type garden for first plantings. I'd like to make two. One on each side of the door to the shed. These would be on the south side of the shed, therefore protected from the north.
Next, I need to plan out the placement of the raised gardens in the yard. It would be fun to put them into a pattern like a quilt. They will need to be far enough apart for easy mowing, facing north to south on a slant so the plants dont shade each other, and out of the shade of the large trees and house. Now that I think of all the obstacles to work around, hmmm, the back yard might look like a giant tossed his lego building blocks in our yard.
This will be a fun project to work on.

THis weekend had us traveling to Aimes, IA, for a coaching clinic. It was just the two of us. The boys stayed home with the dogs and chickens. Penny started coughing - (kennel cough) and needed medicine. I called the vet from Missouri. She finally called back in Iowa. Our wonderful Youth Pastor was kind enough to drive Herogian to the vet to get the medicine. Not the medicine she wanted to give us, but one that hopefully wouldn't send Penny into seizures as before. Please no seizures, especially while we are not there! Thanking our Lord for looking after the boys and dogs, and thanking our wonderful Mr. C.C. for helping them, and our neighbor D.N. for checking on the boys.

THis week will be twenty years for the Commander and I. On our return trip today, we stopped at an Amish Country Store. I spotted the perfect sign for our anniversary. "Marriage is like a deck of cards. When you get married all you need is two hearts. After twenty years you wish you had the club and spade." A HAAA HAA. Couldn't resist showing it to Commander.
 He was wonderful to take the day off and drive me to the coaching clinic. It was a very long day with little to eat. I about lost it during a late afternoon class- sugar drop for sure. Commander immediately drove me around town until we found a place we knew we could trust to get Gluten Free Food - WENDY'S.

Here's to twenty more years. I told him all I wanted was a kiss every night before bed. That's doable for us. Love you SweetHeart. 12-12-12.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Gotta Love those trained boy scouts

Let me first say, I'm glad I wasn't here, only because the boys seemed to handle it a lot calmer than I ever would.

 I don't like fire.I don't have fond memories of fire.  I can remember back to my fifth year, or I might have been younger. We were camping as a family with either a tent (that's if I was younger) or the pop-up Star-craft camper. There was another family camping not too far from us. They had a daughter about my age. I remember playing with her during the day, then later that evening watching her running around the campfire with her siblings. Something happened, causing her to change directions in their game. She went right through the fire ring which had some type of metal grill over it (remembering that far back loses some details). She fell over with her foot caught in this metal. I don't know if the flames licked her leg or boiling water or baked beans spilt onto her leg. I know there was a lot of commotion with my parents trying to help them. They took her to the car wrapped up in a blanket.

Later in life the "evil beast of fire" was the bathroom heater. It was a gas unit built into the wall. Turn the gas valve on, strike a match, and POOF.  No thank you. I didn't strike a match for that beast until I was 15. I took quick baths, or finagled Mom or Dad to "just light it while your in there, please."

I do better now that we have an inclosed fireplace. I enjoy the heat, the lower electric and gas bill. AHHHH, warmth.

BUT, here we go. I don't like the burn permit in our neighborhood. And I'm definitely not going to have a burn pile in our own yard. So you can imagine the shock when I get a call from Hawk asking, "when are you and Dad going to get back from the PX?"
"We are just leaving post, now. Why?"
"Oh, we had a fire in the back yard. But it's out now."
"What do you mean you had a fire in the back yard. Why would you have a fire in the back yard?"
"Well, I guess Dad asked Bradley to dump that bucket of old ashes out in the composter when he needed to clean out the fireplace earlier and wanted a clean bucket."
"Yeah, those ashes have been outside for a couple of days."
Well, there must have been some hot coals down in the middle. Herogian said he touched the top of the ash pile and they were cold. But when I looked out my window after you guys left, there was a fire as big as the bonfires Mr. Henry likes to make."
 *** Mr. Henry is the boy scout leader who makes big bonfires at Winter Campouts.***
He continued, "I hollered at Gluten that there was a fire in our backyard, but he didn't believe me until he followed me outside.  We grabbed the water hose and dragged it down there, then got the hose from the front yard. Herogian came out with a bucket of water from the kitchen. We doused it really good. The yard is a swamp down there now. Tell Dad the composter is gone."
Those smart, calm, trained boys knew what to do. When we got home, they walked me down there (in muck boots) to show me that everything was wet. The composter - plastic - was indeed gone except for the bottom layer covered in dog poo and mud. The pile of kindling 2x4x4 was gone, and the corner of the woodpile was toasted. There was a trenching line curving from the garden gate, around the corner, cutting the spread of flames off from the rest of the garden area. They saved our asparagus! They wouldn't have if they had known what it was.

Commander took the boys out for Chinese food the following Sunday as their reward. Thank you boy scouts troop 167 for training the boys up right in this matter.