Friday bullets, 12/9/16

It's that day of the week where I don't need to write coherent paragraphs.
  • Over Thanksgiving, when B. was home, he spent a lot of time using a new app he had downloaded to his phone. It allowed him to take our actual photos in our photo albums and digitize them. He got through two or three albums, and I cannot tell you how satisfied this makes me. To know these photos are backed up and can be replaced allows me to sleep just a little bit better at night. I'm hoping he can get through even more at Christmas. Plus, it allows me to share some older pictures with you. How about these? Ack! We were so young! (A. is the baby in this set.)




  • In our perpetual search for mindless television, J. and I are really enjoying The Librarians. We had seen the first movie years ago and liked it, but somehow missed that there were now two other movies and a television show. It is silly and over-the-top, but fun. Only one episode did I have to close my eyes for most of it because I found it too scary. Of course, I am also the person who had nightmares from watching Fantasy Island when I was younger.
  • There is nothing like being allowed to do real, grown-up work to inspire children. We are doing Project Feederwatch this year, and have had our feeders up for a while, so the birds had time to find them. I wasn't sure how successful this would be since, there was marginal interest in staring at the feeders. And then our count days arrived and I explained how we were to count, and that our results would be sent to the scientists who run the program. Oh my goodness, what I difference it made. There was avid bird watching and counting going on for those two days. We identified birds that we didn't know even came to our feeder. This was suddenly important and not just something to do because mom decided it was good for them. Proper motivation is everything.
  • I live with gerbils. At least that what it seems like... large, human gerbils. We are back into major craft-making by raiding the recycling bin. While this is wonderful, it also means that the floor of the kitchen is littered with scraps... everywhere.
  • I have a gift-wrapping station set-up in a room where people are generally not allowed to go. It also is a room that has little temperature control, so kind of like wrapping gifts in an unheated garage. Actually, I am wrapping gifts in an unheated garage, just the second floor of one. I also have my own personal stash of tape stored there. See the above comment for the necessity of this.
  • I am not getting sick and not developing a head cold. I'm just not.
  • My children are not running around feral, some still in their pajamas, because I am not getting sick.
  • G. and L. had a big day yesterday. At the spur of the moment, A. swung by to pick-up her littlest sisters and took them back to school. They had a grand time and even got to eat dinner #1 in the cafeteria with A., her friends, and also B. It's hard, sometimes, being the youngest of 12... so neglected, so left out, so overlooked. (Where's that sarcastic emoticon when I need it?) I'd like to see the person who could ignore or overlook either one of these girls. They would have to be in a coma.
  • The cats still ignore the Christmas tree. Phew.
  • Tomorrow is my big semi-annual trip down to Dwight, IL, two hours south, to pick-up the bulk order. It was particularly large this time around and my portion will be at least two hundred pounds of food. (That sounds pretty outrageous when I actually write it down, huh?) I look forward to this every time. you see, it's not just about going and picking up pounds and pounds of wheat and oats, it's about four hours in a car with friends and no children and a lunch in a restaurant thrown in to boot. 
And now I will take my not-getting-sick self and get dressed so that I can work on getting the not-feral children dressed. Or I will throw in a load of laundry first, so the not-feral children can have "clothes what they like" to get dressed in. Hey, it's December, what can I say?

Comments

Csmithfamily09 said…
It's so funny when you mention children in large families being neglected, as if! My daughter's Sunday school teacher wanted to discuss with me the problem of my daughter interrupting in class, "I know she might not get a lot of attention at home...", she began. The real problem is that she gets entirely TOO MUCH attention at home. There's always an older sibling to help her, a middle sister to play with, or a younger one to show off to.
12/09/2016 1:05 PM
Kristy said…
That's a great app! can you share the name? Love your blog!
12/13/2016 7:55 AM
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