Sunday Sum-Up!
I haven’t actually *posted* in a week – the past seven days of blog entries were either re-posts or re-worked posts… so you have no idea how I’m doing over here. So I would have to say that it’s time for a summary of what we had going this past week, no?
We’ve gotten about THIRTY GALLONS of sap from the eightsix trees that we tapped (NoTe: apparently two were not maples). Still, I wasn’t expecting that much! So my stove has been on all day, every day, as we boil down the sap to syrup, with three BIG stock pots full of waiting sap at any given time. And this was just a trial year – just an experiment on a handful of trees! Do you know how many more sugar maples we have?? If we were to do any more, though, I would want to build an outdoor woodstove for it. Honestly? I’ve wanted one for years, anyhow. And I just found THE most beautiful one EVER. Could we build it? I’m thinking it doesn’t look too terribly bad… and my honey is REALLY good with metal. So… we’ll see if I can talk him into it. But syruping has been really effortless and fun, this year – the kids LOVE running out with a mid-size kettle to collect sap throughout the day.- I broke down my Pinterest a little last week. I thought if I added five boards and broke up the ones I had, it would make them easier to read… you know, instead of ‘Holiday and Feasts’ have a ‘Celebrations’ and ‘Feasts’… instead of a crazy-long homeschool board, have one for projects, one for useful links. Like that. But honestly, five boards did NOT make a difference. And it took a long time. Maybe I just need to stop pinning stuff to the dadgum thing, eh? Or I need five more boards… how many pins do you think should be the doable limit per board? I have a limit of 200 with a goal of 100, but… not sure.
- We have been catching up on our charcoal drawings – remember, I dropped poetry for faerie tales this year, and so we’re doing our art based on that, instead. But I didn’t do it until after the new year (2013), so we’re a bit behind. Still… it’s been fun to sit down and sketch together. As a ‘lighter’ week of school… I gave them off for the holy days, of course.
- For the first time in TWELVE YEARS, our bedroom is baby-paraphenalia free. This week, we took down the diaper-changing station that was the top of our dresser. I put away the box of diapers (apparently I had a few of each size left over as we outgrew them, and ended up with a full diaper box of diapers… all sizes!). I turned the wipe/diaper rack into a sock rack for the kids – since now I have two different sizes: big kid socks and little kid socks. But my dresser has LAMPS and a runner on it… it’s pretty! We also moved the wardrobe up from the basement (heavy mutha!) and set it in where the crib used to be. We cleaned it up, and had to build new shelves for the inside of it (not sure where they went during the decade or more it’s been in storage), but now we have room to put our clothes, again! And it looks SOOOO different in our room! Very spacious and nice.
- We also had to completely re-do the kids’ computer station. What. A. Mess. But there wasn’t room at the table for FIVE of them (or five chairs), so instead of having the table against the wall, I have turned it perpendicular, now. So two on one side, three on the other works better… but it eats up a TON more room. It will take some getting used to. We *really* need to add on a schoolroom. Another bedroom wouldn’t be bad, either.
For those of you on FaceBook, there has been a HUGE explosion of red equal signs all over the place. And in the other team’s profiles, a HUGE explosion of unequal signs (or red man/woman bathroom signs). I. Am. LOVING it!! I keep posting the same thing everywhere:
“The problem that *I* have with this is that I don’t like christians expecting the world to hold to Biblical standards. They aren’t going to – they’re THE WORLD, remember? The fact of the matter is that when you take away their choice, you only set up yourself for them taking away YOUR choices, later. Yes, I believe in the God-given relationship of man/woman. But I 
believe in His giving people the choice to obey or not. For these people to foist their beliefs on others is taking that choice away – and the Lord would NEVER condone that. It’s stripping people of freedom/free will/choice. And I protest that more than what’s being protested, here.”
Anyhow, I think this thing RAWKS, and for two reasons: First, the christians I post this on (who are protesting gay rights) all *like* what I write. WTHeck?!!?!? It’s freakin’ hilarious. And secondly, it has taken ALL of the attention off ‘the Ishtar/Easter week’. Nobody posting about Lent winding down, or Maundy Thursday, or how to make resurrection rolls or Tomb topiaries (<< big thing on Pinterest, I’ve noticed). The gay issue had totally eclipsed the Ishtar mess, and I’ve been BLESSEDLY free of having to slog thru Jee-zus and Easter pictures. Until today, of course, but I can vacate FB’s feed for one day. It’s. Been. Wonderful!!
- I cut my finger this week. You know those apple do-hickeys that you push down on an apple, and it slices and cores them at the same time? Well, I pushed it down into my thumb, accidentally. It takes real talent to do what I did. The good news is that the slice was so thin, the skin kind of seamed back together, so it didn’t bleed out, much. The bad news is that it was pretty deep, and bled a lot internally, so the end of my thumb is REALLY, really bruised and sore. It’s amazing how much you need a thumb for, and don’t realize it until after the dadgum thing is out of commission. Take brushing teeth for example. Ever try to do it without a thumb? It gets reeeeeeal interesting.
- Our Pesach was a TOTAL hit, this year. Brian presided most smoothly over our dinner, the food was delicious (even Ellie got a treat – we gave her the shank bone when we were finished), and we had a really good time.
My mother wanted us to come to her Pesach Seder, but I don’t regret our decision in the slightest. I wrote about several things that went down in that whole fiasco protectedly, yesterday – there’s just no point to getting into the gory details out here. I just feel that the Seder is one of the most holy times of the year – and it’s my life, too. I can choose NOT to have it defiled. And I can be clear to my children as to why it’s so important to be obedient and honor Yehovah. And while they can consider me ‘the brat’ for not cooperating all they like, calling and asking to bring doughnuts to my house during an unleavened week just solidifies my allegation that they DON’T keep the feasts in obedience.
- We lost a bunny this week. R.I.P, Moe… he was one of the first
New Zealands that we got, and we had him for five years – that’s good, for a bunny. But it means that Ruthie is going to go soon, too – she’s his sister, and we got her at the same time. I’d be sad, but they’ve had nice, long lives and have been well cared for. We almost lost two goats, too – Aaron (5) and Owen (3) wanted to visit the does, and left the gate open. Brian headed them back my way, and I managed to get them back in the pen, but… wha, it was exciting, for a while, there!
- I told you that we had to have a tree taken down, half of which fell on the goat pen, the other half of which was totally rotted and likely to fall on a) rabbits, b) chickens, c) goats, or d) my daughter’s room. With it being ‘March Winds’ season, I wasn’t keen on that thing being up in the air like that. So we had it taken down… and as a major tree-hugger, I had issues. So imagine my issue-full-ness the next morning when MORE tree hackers arrived – these ones NOT hired by me? Yeah. They mowed, and what they couldn’t mow, they buzzed with a chainsaw, and what they buzzed with a chainsaw they shoved and crunched and smashed with a front end loader. Brian is happy – he says it’s less maintenance we have to do. I… have issues with it. Yes, it’s clear, but I happen to LIKE my scrub, thankyouverymuch. And I was still recovering from the loss of the big tree (and shade) in Critter Corner. Having them come RIGHT on the heels of that? Not so good timing, for me.
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Lydia has informed me that I play TripleTown wrong. Apparently it’s all about getting points, and dying instead of buying is the name of the game. She wants points to get horses and cats and dogs and sheep and weird backgrounds… I just want four floating castles in a row, so I can see what comes next, dadgummit! But she mocks me for spending money on trees and bushes instead of getting cash. I had no idea that came was competitive until my daughter looked over my shoulder and ‘tsk-tsked’ me because I only had 4K in cash, and *SHE* has 23K. Yikes. So apparently, I had to stop trying to stay alive and just die for the big bucks. I did that, for one day. Got 35K in coins, bought the winter background, and… realized that I don’t want critters mucking up the game. 
So I’m back to spending my cash, again. PS: Nobody TOLD me ‘Cut the Rope’ was so fun!! I found it this weekend, and now I know where Om-Nom came from. TOO fun – better than PuddingMonsters, which I’ve yet to figure out. The pudding monsters are fun to listen to, but I canNOT figure out what they want me to do. At least have a shadow on the board of what shape you want me to make out of the pudding, for pity’s sake, no??
- I had to re-figure-out Firstfruits, again. Because every year, I forget when it’s supposed to be. The wording in scripture is… funky. It says it’s the day after Sabbath, according to Lev 23. So in case you wondered, that DOESN’T mean that Firstfruits was Easter Sunday – that’s like SIX DAYS from Pesach, and Messiah rose in three days, right? So in case you were wondering, here’s the skinny: Pesach is a Sabbath, and Unleavened Bread is a Sabbath… they’re feastly Sabbaths, so they count. Messiah arose on Firstfruits, and that’s the third day… so if Pesach is the first day, and Unleavened is the second (and that’s the Sabbath right before Firstfruits), then Firstfruits would be the third day. So… okay. I got it. Finally. Yeesh! Apparently I just have to talk it thru, out loud?
Anyhow, this is getting long, so I’ll stop, now. But as you can tell, we have been VERY busy! When are we not, really? What is it I always tell my kids, “only boring people get bored”? And we never have a dull moment around here!
I saw this chart at 
