Here we still are, three weeks later, and an adventurous day it was! Peter and Joseph were gone to Maple Creek, cutting meat, Mark and Elena went to Swift Current with all their family, David was working for the Richmound RM picking rocks, Justin is not well, so that left John Sr. Gabriella and I to look after the farm. I remembered after several hours of doing laundry and making Lasagne that I had forgotten to check the stock tank. It was dry as a bone and there were a number of cows waiting patiently for water. So I turned the water on, then noticed a cow or two wandering around in the yard. Fast forward - help my Father-in-law mend fence, run back inside, check Lasagne, switch laundry, run back outside, stock tank is running over, turn off hydrant while wading ankle deep through muck in my sandals, eat Lasagne, do dishes, switch laundry, run hydrant again, cow knocks the pipe off the hydrant, barnyard gets flooded, turn off hydrant, run to town for Divine Mercy novena prayers, hurry home, pile laundry on bed.
Peter and Joseph came home after that, so things settled down nicely. Now to spend a nice quiet evening catching up on the pro life books!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Glug, glug . . .
Our slough has overtaken our lagoon. That means we have no plumbing in our home - we have to drain the sink very slowly after washing dishes. So, for the last two weeks, we have been living at Peter's parents' house. They have been very hospitable and accommodating. I've been enjoying getting up in the mornings and visiting with them over breakfast. Can you smell the "however" coming? However, I used to think that homeschooling and cooking dinner at the same time was a challenge. Homeschooling and cooking dinner in someone else's house is infinitely worse! I'm never sure whether I should just be cooking dinner, or collaborating with our hosts' dinner plans, or expecting that they will just cook for all of us. The last seems a bit . . . hmm . . . unreasonable. At the moment, the boys and I are reading "Euthyphro" and "Ion." Diverting! Peter has borrowed more pipe from someone so that we can pump our lagoon water SOMEWHERE ELSE. Finally, the run-off seems to have slowed down so that we can make some headway, so we may not have to live in two houses for long.
Friday, February 04, 2011
Help! I'm drowning!
Earlier this week, I got a phone call from the boys' regular voice teacher. She had asked me to accompany her students in this year's music festival and I did agree. She was going to leave me some music "for my practicing pleasure" in a green box in the United Church and could I please pick it up when I was in town?
Well, I should have brought a truck with me that day. There was an enormous pile of music there. There were only 5 voice students who needed me, so I thought maybe I'd get away with not too much. However, I do enjoy a little musical challenge. You can imagine my delight when I went to the boys' voice lesson, with another teacher, and was asked if I would accompany her students also.
Well, we went right home and I got the music right out and started practicing diligently. 2 1/2 hours later I hadn't quite finished running through everything once!
Do you know, the very hardest of it all, including the classical, Broadway musicals, folk songs and sacred - is the music from "Shrek." The notes are not at all difficult - it's the one AND two rest rest AND four that gets me every time.
Excuse me, I have to go. I'm a little busy until the end of March.
Well, I should have brought a truck with me that day. There was an enormous pile of music there. There were only 5 voice students who needed me, so I thought maybe I'd get away with not too much. However, I do enjoy a little musical challenge. You can imagine my delight when I went to the boys' voice lesson, with another teacher, and was asked if I would accompany her students also.
Well, we went right home and I got the music right out and started practicing diligently. 2 1/2 hours later I hadn't quite finished running through everything once!
Do you know, the very hardest of it all, including the classical, Broadway musicals, folk songs and sacred - is the music from "Shrek." The notes are not at all difficult - it's the one AND two rest rest AND four that gets me every time.
Excuse me, I have to go. I'm a little busy until the end of March.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
A year later
Today we were digging potatoes and I couldn't help thinking . . . "a year ago I wasn't well enough to do this." I also went through a bag of mail I got when I was sick, thinking that I should perhaps clean up our bedroom a bit. I had to keep this memorable note from my nephew Bob Hickey:
My mom tells me you've decided to stay in the luxurious Saskatoon City Hospital. Room service, house keeping, people fluffing your pillow. It sounds maaaarvelous.
It's really hot here in Taiwan. We've been up to 40. The humidity makes the air thick and so all one feels like doing is swimming and barbeque. Both of those activities are fine with me, so summer's been pretty swell so far.
I'll be arriving home very soon. 11 days! I'm sooo excited to see everyone. Is there anything I can bring back for you from Taiwan? Barbequed duck heads on a stick? 1000 year old eggs? Red bean flavoured ice cream? Let me know. I'll make a list.
I hope you're feeling well. I've been praying for you every day and am thinking about you often.
Lots of love,
Bobby
I was thinking I really should throw my last year's mail out already, but I guess I'll keep some.
My mom tells me you've decided to stay in the luxurious Saskatoon City Hospital. Room service, house keeping, people fluffing your pillow. It sounds maaaarvelous.
It's really hot here in Taiwan. We've been up to 40. The humidity makes the air thick and so all one feels like doing is swimming and barbeque. Both of those activities are fine with me, so summer's been pretty swell so far.
I'll be arriving home very soon. 11 days! I'm sooo excited to see everyone. Is there anything I can bring back for you from Taiwan? Barbequed duck heads on a stick? 1000 year old eggs? Red bean flavoured ice cream? Let me know. I'll make a list.
I hope you're feeling well. I've been praying for you every day and am thinking about you often.
Lots of love,
Bobby
I was thinking I really should throw my last year's mail out already, but I guess I'll keep some.
Tuesday, July 06, 2010
Raising Boys!
Someone sent me this quite a while ago and I really enjoyed it, so I thought I would re-post it. If anyone knows who wrote it initially, please let me know.
You learn interesting things when you have sons:
1. A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.
2. If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.
3. A 3-year-old boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.
4. If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound boy wearing batman underwear and a superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20ft. room.
5. You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.
6. The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.
7. When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh," it's already too late.
8. Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.
9. A six-year-old boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year-old man says they can only do it in the movies.
10. Certain legos will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year-old boy.
11. Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.
12. Super glue is forever.
13. No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.
14. Pool filters do not like Jell-O.
15. VCR's do not eject peanut butter and jelly sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.
16. Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.
17. Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.
18. You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.
19. Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.
20. The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.
21. The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.
22. It will, however, make cats dizzy.
23. Cats throw uptwice their body weight when dizzy.
24. 80 % of women will pass this on to almost all of their friends, with or without kids.
25. 80 % of men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.
You learn interesting things when you have sons:
1. A king size waterbed holds enough water to fill a 2000 sq. ft. house 4 inches deep.
2. If you spray hair spray on dust bunnies and run over them with roller blades, they can ignite.
3. A 3-year-old boy's voice is louder than 200 adults in a crowded restaurant.
4. If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound boy wearing batman underwear and a superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20x20ft. room.
5. You should not throw baseballs up when the ceiling fan is on. When using a ceiling fan as a bat, you have to throw the ball up a few times before you get a hit. A ceiling fan can hit a baseball a long way.
6. The glass in windows (even double-pane) doesn't stop a baseball hit by a ceiling fan.
7. When you hear the toilet flush and the words "uh oh," it's already too late.
8. Brake fluid mixed with Clorox makes smoke, and lots of it.
9. A six-year-old boy can start a fire with a flint rock even though a 36-year-old man says they can only do it in the movies.
10. Certain legos will pass through the digestive tract of a 4-year-old boy.
11. Play dough and microwave should not be used in the same sentence.
12. Super glue is forever.
13. No matter how much Jell-O you put in a swimming pool you still can't walk on water.
14. Pool filters do not like Jell-O.
15. VCR's do not eject peanut butter and jelly sandwiches even though TV commercials show they do.
16. Garbage bags do not make good parachutes.
17. Marbles in gas tanks make lots of noise when driving.
18. You probably DO NOT want to know what that odor is.
19. Always look in the oven before you turn it on; plastic toys do not like ovens.
20. The fire department in Austin, TX has a 5-minute response time.
21. The spin cycle on the washing machine does not make earthworms dizzy.
22. It will, however, make cats dizzy.
23. Cats throw uptwice their body weight when dizzy.
24. 80 % of women will pass this on to almost all of their friends, with or without kids.
25. 80 % of men who read this will try mixing the Clorox and brake fluid.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made!
I'm starting to get a little fur on top.
I was talking to a friend of mine at Karate a few weeks ago, and her little daughter noticed my eyes looked quite different. I explained to her it was because my eyelashes were gone. I said I was rather looking forward to having them back. Then her mom said, "Oh I don't think eyelashes ever grow back!"
Well, this was alarming!
We're both homeschooling moms, so we decided to make me into a science project - a sort of a unit study on hair growth.
Fortunately, I have since been able to prove her wrong, as I am growing eyelashes and all kinds of facial hair again. In fact, I think my face is a little furrier than it was. I hope the hair on my chin knows when to quit!
This brings us to another interesting question. How do eyelashes know when to quit growing? And other types of facial hair? Isn't it amazing that we grow hair everywhere, and even after some trauma, our hair knows to grow just a little above our eyes, a lot on the top of our heads, and a little on the chin if we're female, but a lot on the chin if we're male. Is this really the result of some big cosmic bang?
I was talking to a friend of mine at Karate a few weeks ago, and her little daughter noticed my eyes looked quite different. I explained to her it was because my eyelashes were gone. I said I was rather looking forward to having them back. Then her mom said, "Oh I don't think eyelashes ever grow back!"
Well, this was alarming!
We're both homeschooling moms, so we decided to make me into a science project - a sort of a unit study on hair growth.
Fortunately, I have since been able to prove her wrong, as I am growing eyelashes and all kinds of facial hair again. In fact, I think my face is a little furrier than it was. I hope the hair on my chin knows when to quit!
This brings us to another interesting question. How do eyelashes know when to quit growing? And other types of facial hair? Isn't it amazing that we grow hair everywhere, and even after some trauma, our hair knows to grow just a little above our eyes, a lot on the top of our heads, and a little on the chin if we're female, but a lot on the chin if we're male. Is this really the result of some big cosmic bang?
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Busy!
When a person is healthy after a bout of illness, it's hard to sit still! The boys are back taking voice lessons and preparing for the music festival, we're all going twice a week to Karate, and trying to do some visiting when we get a chance. In the fall when I was not able to get out and about so much, I asked my 11-year-old niece Rachel to teach me violin lessons. I didn't actually do much practicing at the time because I was too tired to hold the violin up, but I've been practicing regularly now. Justin was inspired by a Ben Beveridge concert to start violin lessons also. So, whenever I have a few minutes, there's always violin practicing to do! It's getting maybe very slightly less painful to listen to me. I told Elena, Rachel's mom, I'm really happy Rachel doesn't laugh at me.
Today is our only day mostly home this week. Tomorrow we leave for St. Therese to visit Daniel for the weekend.
Today is our only day mostly home this week. Tomorrow we leave for St. Therese to visit Daniel for the weekend.
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