For A Season…..

Halloween is huge in our subdivision. Whether you agree with concept or not, it’s best to pass out candy to avoid being targeted by the mass amounts of unsupervised “cherubs” that have been dropped off by their parents to canvass the neighborhood like little beggars. If you feed them….they will leave peaceably.

This year however, we passed out candy. We withheld comments when “too old” youth showed up begging for candy without a costume on. We didn’t call the cops or even complain when they milled around after the close of trick or treating blowing a whistle (so my daughter couldn’t sleep) and leaving candy wrappers in our yard. (While waiting for their negligent parents to pick them up.) We even scrounged up a handful of candy for a little girl that rang the doorbell after 10pm, even though the outside lights were OFF! (I let hubby handle that one, which he did with more pleasantness then I could muster, since the child just woke up all 3 of my kids.)

This morning I got up and headed out to clean all the trash and wrappers out of the yard…..only to find that one of the little darlings left us some artwork in white spray paint on the back of my truck! I. AM. SO. STINKIN’. MAD!!! The truck is just stuff and Hubby got the paint off after wasting several hours of our family time with nothing good to say about wayward youth and the parents that enable them……. It’s the fact that we fed the little brats and made a point to be neighborly and not cause a fuss over a stupid holiday, only to get vandalized! UGH!!! I need to move out to the country where children are too busy tending critters and garden plots to get into that kind of trouble! Grrr!

Another busy day. We’re going to have to catch up on school tomorrow! This morning we were up to make daddy’s breakfast, pack his lunch, and see him off to work. Then I threw in a load of laundry, wiped down the kitchen, started the kids on their devotions and morning chores, and whipped up a batch of brownies for the PE party today. While those were baking, I made a couple batches of Chex mix and threw together some things for a friend that is going through a lean period and waiting to find out if her husband will be employed much longer. (More cutbacks) The kids wandered in and promptly ditched their schoolbooks to help find things that would make their friends smile. Nothing major, just a way to let our friends know that we appreciate them.

By the time the brownies were out of the oven, we were packing up the truck and swapping out laundry loads. I threw what dishes I could into the dishwasher and left the kitchen in only a miniature disaster. We made the haul across town to arrive 2 minutes late at PE, only to be told that the church had forgotten to let us know that the gym was set up for their Harvest Party and we couldn’t use it.

Our fearless leader rerouted everyone to a nearby park to play and have our party. The kids ran wild and ate lots of goodies and finger foods while the mom’s visited and kissed skinned knees. The Imp has grown since we were there last and as she ran through a doorway at full tilt, she misjudged the height and smacked her forehead on the lintel. Now she has a nice little goose-egg that should be a lovely shade of purple by tomorrow. Sigh. After general singing and merriment, we headed out with rosy cheeked children. It was such a beautiful day to be at the park!

On the way home, we picked up a pizza, since we had another friend meeting us for lunch and pumpkin painting. The kids weren’t very hungry, but we had a couple minutes to straighten the kitchen and pile the clean laundry up so that I could swap out loads again. With the dryer humming warmly, we visited, ate lunch, and made these neat little pumpkin creations with paint, googley-eyes, and foam cut outs. The girls had a great time and the boys worked a bit on their reading work for the day. Painting completed, the kids all hooked up the game system and played a level of Little Big Planet together. (The Gremlin saved up all his “job” money for it… that’s a LOT of cat box cleanings… and has been chomping to play it.) The kids were playing well together, after such a busy morning, that the afternoon just FLEW by! When our friends headed off on their way, we were sad to see them go.

I straightened up the kitchen and living room and checked my e-mails. Then trotted out to the mailbox to get my books that were showing a status of “delivered”. Hubby came home and we ate leftover pizza and chicken enchiladas for dinner. Yum! Hubby spent the evening playing with the kids on their new game while I sat and looked over my new books with a cozy fire burning and our family all together. It’s been a good, but busy day. These are the kind of days that you fall into bed feeling exhausted and very blessed.

We voted today. Hubby has been encouraging us to go during early voting time so that we can take some time and let the kids ask questions and check everything out. (Yes, we’ve brought them every time we vote….but they are getting older now and showing more interest in the process.) If I had known how easy it was to do early voting, I would have done that every time!

I thought I had to have an early voter’s form. Nope! We just showed up at the proper location (which was different from our regular voting place) and showed my voter’s registration card and a driver’s license….that was it! NO LINES, the workers were all extremely friendly and LOVED the fact that we brought our children to learn the process, and many of the Seniors made over the children, as well.

Sarge had all kinds of questions on the way home. My baby is growing up too fast! We ended up discussing the difference between socialism, a mandatory tribute, and self determined charity and how each results in a different response from citizens/subjects. He can hold his own and is beginning to work out the issues from all sides now. It is way cool to watch the wheels turn as he works through the pros and cons of different concepts.

Oooh, it’s my favorite time in Florida! The weather has turned cooler, palm trees don’t have beautiful leaf colors, but it is still nice to be out of the humid and hot season. My grass is also starting to “hibernate” ……this makes me insanely happy, because I won’t have to mow for a few months and the jungle of tropical plants growing in the backyard should slow down too. We have been able to shut off the air conditioner and open up the house every morning, this saves on electric bills, which also pleases Hubby considerably.

With the cooler weather, I have been baking up a storm. I always get the bug to bake and freeze when the weather turns cooler! This week we made cowboy cookies, Swedish ginger cookies, sugar cookies, banana bread, homemade enchilada sauce, and I have modified 3 different recipes for chicken enchiladas to come up with a restaurant-worthy Mexican dish that doesn’t take forever to make. Yum! Today we are making mass amounts of Chex mix and possibly figuring out how to make those yummy donuts that I miss from the cider mills up north. Mmmmm, the tastes and smells of Fall.

School is going much better now, the Imp is taking off in reading. I have solid hope that she will be an excellent reader before she heads off to college some day. The boys have stopped making excuses and have settled into a good routine. We managed to juggle a week of schooling, field trips, choir, co-op, play dates, and PE last week. This week we are happily just doing school, PE, and co-op. I needed a break after our insanely busy week!

It seems that the sinus infection that I managed to get over after Disney, never totally went away. I felt better for about 2 weeks, and then I started getting a tight chest and sinus related symptoms. I hoarffed the garlic, oj, and vitamins…..but alas, it is back…….with a vengeance. My head is exploding and I am living on Tylenol just to get through the day. I have also found that the Bed Buddy (heat pack that goes in the microwave) has become my best friend. I tie it around my forehead like a turban, and it helps keep my head from exploding from the pressure. Lights have become the bane of my existence, I live in darkened rooms or bury my head whenever possible, the kids are beginning to think that I am a vampire…..with really puffed eyes and a bed buddy turban on my head. Sigh.

Yesterday, I came to the conclusion that I felt like I was going to die, so I called the doctor. They were out to lunch, so I planned to call back later and continued schooling, before my head got any worse. By the time I was able to get hold of a live person, the soonest they could get me in was this morning. So here I sit, waiting to go in and find some relief from this pressure in my head.

The Imp informed me that Mommies are not allowed to get sick….because we have to be able to take care of everyone else in the family. From her mouth, to God’s ears! It may not be pretty, but I have been able to function enough to keep everything going. (school lessons, PE, laundry, and meals……the lawn needs mowing and the house needs vacuuming, but that involves noise and bending over….I don’t see that happening until I get the pressure to let up some.)

I’m being summoned to listen to the Imp read her lessons.
Blessings,
V

So now that we are back in the land of the living, we are ready to move quickly to get schooling into full swing. We’re joining PE class this week, Co-op is in its 4th week, most of our books for school have arrived and we have begun to jump into another year. Our relaxed schooling over the summer (reading and math only) has been ramped up to include Bible, History, Math, Reading, Spelling, Language/Writing, German, Typing/Keyboarding, PE, Choir, and Science. We are the poster children of educational alternatives.

In real life however, the Imp has been reading beginning chapter books just fine, but is now dissolving into tears about having to read the DIRECTIONS in her math book (or any other book) because she still believes firmly that she is not able to read unless I am sitting next to her holding her READING book. (What’s THAT about!?) She has also told her co-op teacher that she doesn’t write…..at all…..ever. (AARGH! When did this occur….we write every day?!) The Sarge has decided he does “not recall” any math steps that would require him to write out his work, so he guessed his way through and bombed his review test, which was supposed to spring board him effortlessly into the wonderful world of Beginning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus. (May the Lord walk closely with us through THIS math year!) The Gremlin has relegated punctuation and capitalization into an “optional” category, and has accused both of messing with his writing “flow” and handicapping him needlessly. (This child needs to study law some day. The fact that he explain these things with a straight face and without running for cover after presenting this audacity is disturbing.)

We’ve made it out of the starting gate with a flourish and good show…….and promptly……. landed on our heads. Please pray for my sense of humor to remain and lots of patience and wisdom……it’s looking like a really, really LONG year, and we’ve only just begun.

Almost 3 weeks later, and we are finally on the mend. After 2 weeks of house guests and Disney, we all came down with wicked versions of a respiratory-bronchial-chest gunk-cold. We hoped it was just all the public cooties that we were exposed to, but we couldn’t be sure. We also had an “incident” with some water that had sat too long in the water tank of the RV. We had treated it prior to storage….but apparently the treatment chemicals break down and become ineffective after time and extreme temperatures…..Who knew!?

When the offending water came through the pipes, we immediately cleared the kids to grandma’s trailer and Hubby and I vented the RV and purged the water systems…during the process, Hubby ended up sprayed in the face and I got hit by the black plague-water too. Within 2-3 days, all 5 of our family ended up with a respiratory plague.

Upon returning home, we rode it out until the two littles took a turn for the worse. We explained what we had been exposed too for the doctor, but opted not to use antibiotics……except as a last resort. The Imp cleared up with mass amounts of garlic, oj, chicken soup, Rx cough medicine, and a steroid that helped her lung rattle. The Gremlin continued to get worse and we finally opted for the antibiotics for him. I’m still not sure if that helped him much, but 4 days into it, he finally began to improve. Now, we are just coughing occasionally and feeling almost normal again. It’s good to be among the living.