Corn

This week felt crazy because of the Labor Day holiday on Monday. We all slept in a bit that morning, which felt like a heaven sent blessing. Around 11 am Justin and I rallied the troops to clean up the garage. Justin joked about helping out the effort by taking his motorcycle on a ride and skipping the task. I was 90% sure that was his plan, thankfully, he stayed and worked diligently for as long as I did. Justin worked to organize his tools and the shelves he uses for sprinkler repairs, automotive stuff, and tool storage. Phillip helped me to rearrange the bike side so we can access the camping gear. We discovered the space hogging car top carrier would fit standing up next to the larger garage door, installed a strap to keep it upright. The kids earned a trip to the gas station for a drink and a treat. I’ve not taken the kids to the gas station in about a year, I felt price gouged paying $35 just for 7 drinks and 5 treats. I noticed Ms Gingerich’s car still at the school around 4:00 pm, sent her a text inviting her over for dinner. We happily enjoyed dinner with her over. She taught us how to play tic tac toe battle, we all learned how to play our new game Cover Your Kingdom. I made mint lemonade, that tasted very refreshing after all that dusty garage work. 

The school week started on Tuesday with a very hectic day. Seems like most of the students forgot how to be students after a 4-day weekend. I heard at least 3 calls for assistance to chase down a student running out of the school. The lunchroom situation is a crazy, loud event. I feel like a Nazi trolling the tables yelling for the kids to lower their voices. I agree that students should be able to talk and enjoy lunch chatting with their friends. The problem lies here: when the noise level reaches a certain fervor I cannot hear my radio, students cannot hear me YELLING, and after that certain level kids lose their inhibitions (like throwing food, wrestling, and walking about unfettered). Second grade started sending in their home lunch students while kinder was still seated at the tables and the tables not yet cleaned. The turn around time is zero, I suggested the kinder staff move their students to one end of the table as students finish, clean the rest of the table and allow 2nd to occupy the rest of the table. I hope this works because the options are very slim. 

Everett tried running this week for cross country, the smoke and his diminished lung capacity made it quite a challenge. A slue of fires (over 100) started during a lightening storm in our area, Nampa was blanketed in a thick smog of fire smoke. Recess and sports were cancelled a few days last week per level 165 of unhealthy smoke. I admire Everett for trying and keeping his spot on the team. 

I had an early morning MRI on my knee at 7:00 am. It was challenging to keep my leg completely still. My knee started spasming because it was in a prone position that is very uncomfortable. I was 30 minutes late to work, thankfully got there in time to take over my front duty. Next week is another appointment to review the MRI and talk options. 

Thursday marked the start of homeschooling photos. I sprinkled 20 sessions over the next 2.5 weeks, hopefully allowing time to get some edited before the next batch comes. Jennifer Gingerich’s Aunt Rhonda invited us to come pick some field fresh corn Thursday at 7:15. I misheard the location, drove to the wrong school, headed to another school, still the wrong location, called Rhonda and finally got the right school location. Whenever I get turned around it is to shake off those darned spies following us. They were so confused I am sure the spies ended up in Eastern Oregon! Josie made us all laugh with her exuberance, picking corn was the best event of the week so far. We picked a trunk full of corn, enough to share with Sara.  

Friday was regular school day. If Monday is a holiday we don’t get Friday off. There are 5 Fridays during the school year we have a regular day. Friday dragged on and on. Phew made it. Amelia introduced me to DuoLingo, it is a super fun way to learn languages. I started using it to refresh my Portuguese. Evelyn was especially excited to finally get their birthday dinner out on the town. Phillip and Evelyn wanted the pizza place in Boise, I nixed that due to cost and distance. They finally agreed to try Red Robin. Their drinks are quite yummy, the food was meh. Evelyn and Phillip were quite satisfied so that was a bonus. Evelyn stayed with me the rest of the loooooong evening grocery shopping at Walmart. 

Justin heard about the Nampa airshow hosted by the Warhawk museum and decided to take the kids. Amelia had orientation at the Farmstead, she stayed behind to attend that. Everett had a conniption fit before bed, he did not want to go to the airshow at all. He went to bed crying and upset. I suggested to Justin that he could stay home without any electronic privileges if he wanted to make that choice. Everett did stay home, he amused himself making cookie dough for everyone, shucking corn, cleaning, and reading a book. I had several photo sessions so stayed home to get those done and work on editing baby Misha’s photos. I hear the kids had a wonderful time. Evelyn come home with a Rosie the Riveter hat and shirt and a toy airplane. She told me all about the "wasps" a female pilot unit that fought bravely during WWII and after. There are still 4 pilots still alive who are over 100 years old. Sounds like they enjoyed McDonalds for breakfast and the thrill of the show. Amelia and I went to run errands after my last session. I needed to fetch a library book, get Evelyn’s prescription, and Fergus treats. Amelia wanted to thrift shop for her Halloween costume and find some work jeans. She was thrilled to find her entire costume at Savers! That was a first for her. Justin surprised the heck out me…he set up a corn preserving station to get all that corn processed and frozen. He endured endless complaining and did his best to patiently repeat himself numerous times as he and the kids worked together. I watched the process from the kitchen making dinner and cleaning up. They processed about 12 quart bags of corn in just two hours. Amelia was having a moment over her photography assignment to photograph a dream scene from a real dream. We all know how crazy her dreams are…I was hoping she would choose the deranged flamingo dream. She was all emotional as I tried my best to help her brainstorm and come up with suggestions. She accused me of not listening to what she needed…cried and got all upset. She mentioned having a dream catching Japanese candy stars, while thrifting I found a bag of star beads. We worked together hanging strands of beads wired on fishing line to capture the scene in her head. Josie will represent Amelia in the dream scene. Phew, that was stressful. 

Justin and I taught the sunbeam class today. We asked what a prophet does, one boy responded he fights…holds a shield and uses a sword. Another little girl giggled behind her hands and said her Dad is bald too. The other response was the prophet is a cowboy…yep…he rounds up the cows like Jesus rounds up sheep. So funny.