It's Monday

I've spent more time than usual watching the news today, hoping Hurricane Katrina won't be as bad as predicted. I was born in the midwest and spent most of my life there. We had tornados, not hurricanes. Now I live in an east coast state, and since I've seen a few remnants of hurricanes (the worst was Hurricane Isabel--we had tropical storm force winds here--I'd never seen anything like it and never want to again). Hurricanes or the threat of them put me in a panic. When I lived in the midwest, I barely paid attention to them. Fortunately, Katrina isn't supposed to come here. At best, we'll get tropical temperatures and humidity from it.

Right now the news is updating the condition of the coast. I feel so bad for the people who live there and own property there.

Tomorrow I have to spend half the day at my husband's office. I need to learn some new software his corporate office is requiring us to have. He'll stay home and watch the kids.

I made a beef/pepper/onion stir fry for dinner. It was pretty good. Both kids have been sent to their room for refusing to eat any. Cooking dinner for them is frustrating. If dinner has nutritional value, they'd rather stay in their room than eat it. About the only thing I can make and be quite assured they'll both eat is pancakes and bacon.

Playdough trouble

The kids were using playdough on our picnic table this afternoon. I was inside, glazing a blueberry/raspberry coffee cake, when my kids began pounding on the sliding glass door. I thought my husband, home between appointments, was in the room with that door. They kept pounding, so I went to the door.

My husband had been outside because he caught the kids feeding playdough to the chickens. I know it doesn't hurt kids to eat it. We are hoping it's okay for chickens, too. The kids had been yelled at and told to go back in the house while my husband was gathering and dumping the playdough.

Anyway, my husband had to put $1 in the "cuss jar." It's something he recently made from an old Pringles can because my son has been nagging him about using foul language, and my daughter has been copying it. I think it's supposed to be 25 cents per word.

When I got the kids inside, I found my daughter had become lazy and had peed in her clothes at the picnic table. I didn't bother cleaning the picnic table because I figure it will rain one day. I did re-dress my daughter in dry clothes, though.

Tomorrow we are supposed to go to the zoo with some friends. Hopefully that will keep the kids out of trouble.

Garden, etc.

I now have cucumbers and tomatoes coming out my ears. It's great! I push them off on anyone who will accept them.

Some of my pumpkins are turning orange. While I'm glad they're working out, they are ripening two months too early. I had hoped to have pumpkins for Halloween, not Labor Day. The plants themselves seem to be suffering from powdery mildew.

We've harvested a couple watermelons. They are very good. They open with a loud POP! when the first cut is made.

Our blueberry crop is nearly over. K has a lot of them in the freezer now. I'm hoping someone will feel like making a blueberry pie one of these days. I have a recipe for a butter pie crust perhaps we can try, but I think it's a lot of work. I think it gets returned to the refrigerator a lot to keep it firm. Crisco crusts are pretty easy except I find the concept of Crisco a little disgusting. Butter is much more pleasant to contemplate.

I think I'll spend some time today cleaning the house. K and I cleaned the kids' bedroom this weekend. It wasn't a great job, but we got all the junk out from under their beds. I was amazed how many food crumbs they had under their bed. We threw out a lot of broken and junky (McDonald-type) toys, too.

My husband is having his contractor meet him at our neighbor's house today. The neighbor will probably be moving since he has no income and can't pay his mortgage. He's let the house fall into major disrepair. The contractor should be able to estimate what it would cost to bring his house into good enough condition to use as a rental. After hunting around for a rental house to buy, our neighbor's falling-down (slight exaggeration) wreck looks better than ever. At least it would be in the county, which has better schools and is safer, so it would rent for more. It just might be far too expensive to return the house to a usable state. The place is nasty! Also, I'd rather not live next door to our rental. I imagine we'd be hearing about every little problem all the time.

House hunting

We've spent a lot of time house hunting this weekend. It's not as bad as it sounds; we are looking to invest in rental properties. We already have a house we like. We got our house in 1998, and I can't believe how much the prices have increased since then. It's scary.

I had hoped we could find something in the county we live in. The prices are more than we had hoped to spend, though. The house we live in is not one of the finer ones in the county, but it has apppreciated greatly since we purchased it. We'll probably have to purchase a house in the city near us to use for a rental since the county prices are so high. Unfortunatley, the city has a LOT of crime. The places in the city where the crime isn't as much of a problem might still cost more than we can afford.

We did find a neighborhood in the city where the houses were modest but cared for, and we are hoping something there has potential for us.

Real estate seems to be the only investment with a chance at keeping up with inflation.

J Pooped in the Toilet!

That's what we had written on the cake we got last night from a supermarket bakery. For probably a year, we've been promising J a party with a cake and a stuffed bear if she'd just poop in the toilet. Last night, it finally happened. We had to go out in the rain to the supermarket to get the cake, but it was worth it. She pooped again in the toilet this morning. I think she's FINALLY potty training. She'll be four in December, and I have been getting a bit worried and very frustrated. I can only imagine what the person behind the bakery counter was thinking as she wrote the message on the cake.

Why can't it be the weekend?

I'm tired and would like to get to sleep in. That only happens once in a while on Saturdays.

N's been at vacation Bible school all morning. He may only go for an hour tomorrow. They're having a mass and then a potluck after the first hour. I went to both last year and hated it. Maybe I'll just go for the mass. Since I'm not Catholic, though, it is rather pointless. Last year's potluck was a nightmare. I couldn't manage both kids and getting food. I vowed to never take the kids to a potluck alone again. Even the mass went poorly last year. My daughter wouldn't remain seated.

J and I went to Target this morning to get some cleaning supplies and diapers while N was at vacation Bible school. I sure hope she potty trains soon. It's getting very expensive.

The kids are watching the library's DVD of Sleeping Beauty. Once it's over, I'm going to try to get them to go outside to play. It's humid and about 90 °F so I'm sure they'll resist. Maybe if I offer to put the sprinkler on for a little while they'll be tempted. Yesterday they used a slip-n-slide at N's friend's house. Unfortunately, I didn't realized I should have bug-sprayed the kids, and the mosquitos chewed up my son.

Rain

It spent most of the morning here raining. I don't think it amounted to a lot, but we could use any that we can get. I had planned to run the sprinkler on my garden this evening, but that won't be necessary now.

K was home this morning between appointments, and he took a nap on our bed. That's very unusual for him. I don't think he's felt well lately, and he hasn't been sleeping well. I didn't sleep well last night, either. I woke up just after 1 a.m., and was awake for a couple hours. I got up and watched Glimore Girls, which happend to be the best thing on in the night. I don't think I've seen it since I was up feeding my three-year-old in the night when she was a newborn. It's definitely gone downhill.

Tomorrow after vacation Bible school, I'm taking the kids to a friend of N's from preschool. I'm not sure if I'll just drop them off for a while or if I'll hang around and talk to N's friend's mother. She said I could do either. I'm not sure how my daughter will take my leaving. She's afraid of N's friend's little sister--with reason. About a year ago the little sister clawed up my daughter's face, and she hasn't forgotten. The little sister is two-and-a half. She and my daughter share a birthday except my daughter is a year older.

Life and laundry

I'm doing laundry. I'm also making pizza dough in my bread machine. The bread machine usually screws up bread, but it does a good job on dough. My dough might not come out right, though, because I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for some of the all-purpose flour.

N went to vacation Bible school this morning. I guess he liked it. He remembers some of the kids from last year.

While N was busy this morning, J and I washed my car. I'm afraid it's been over a year since I've washed it. It no longer comes clean; there are just too many things dried onto it. So far N doesn't know we did this; he'll be mad when he finds out since I did it without him. It's much easier to keep one kid from running in the road than two.

I think one of my outside spigots need the valve replaced. The water runs unless you turn it off VERY hard. I imagine soon it won't go off at all. I think this is past any skill I have; I'll have to call the plumber. If it's not one thing, it's another.

I'm hoping for some rain this afternoon, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I'll need to run the sprinkler this evening to keep the gardens going.

Chicken processing

K figured out which of the chickens he hatched in the incubator this spring we are going to keep. We are keeping what we think are four pullets and a cockrel. The other three are now in our refrigerator. We'll have one of them roased for dinner later this week. One we'll give to our neighbor, and one we'll freeze.

My son has vacation Bible school this week. He'll be gone for nearly half a day each day. I think the story of David and Goliath is the theme this year. I'm also supposed to send bug-catching equipment. I'm not sure there is any connection.

My son is snooping over my shoulder. Every day his reading gets better. It won't be long and I'll only be able to post when he's in bed or otherwise occupied.

Rabbit--lost and found

I had company this morning. A friend of mine and her three children came over. She went to look at the two new rabbits we just got, and she came back asking where the other one was. I said they are both in their own cage, next to one another. I went to see.

My boy bunny had pushed out his food dispenser and squeezed through the hole it had left. His cage was empty. My friend and I tried to find him but had no luck. I figured my husband would set a trap for him, and if we were really lucky, he'd catch him. Otherwise, I'd be on the phone ordering a new male meat rabbit tomorrow.

When my husband came home from work, I told him about the missing rabbit. He wasn't happy, and didn't have much hope of catching the missing rabbit. After dinner I was watching my husband feed the young chickens. I was just standing around watching them eat and drink while my husband re-filled the water jugs at the hose. I looked up and saw the little white rabbit. I called to my husband. He immediately went to his truck and got his net. I kept an eye on the rabbit. In one swoop, K had the rabbit in his net. Now the rabbit is back in his cage, and K wired the food holder on better to keep him from getting out again.

Sofa woes

The sofa I got at the end of June had a pulled and broken thread in the weave of one of seat cushions. I took the cushion back to the store Saturday, and the store set up a work order for me. The repair guy came this morning and was able to push the thread in and glue it in place. He also fixed a pulled and broken thread in the sleeper love seat I got last October at the same store. I hadn't noticed that problem until Sunday. I guess the kind of fabric I like on my furniture doesn't hold up well.

My tomatoes are ripening faster than I can eat them. I've given some away to neighbors, and I'll have more to give away in the days to come. I adore fresh tomatoes.

Wednesday we're having a friend of mine and her kids over. I think we'll go outside and use watercolor paints at our picnic table. J and N did that today. We need to get the house picked up better tomorrow. The places the kids play are especially trashed.