Man we need a doggy door!!

It's a fine Spring day for sure! It's so warm and breezy out and the flying bugs have come with the change in the weather. So we can't leave the door open all day, now what!? We HAVE to get on the doggy door job! Yikes!

What have I done today?
I read for 20 minutes in each of my books I'm studying.
Made breakfast, did a load of laundry, made a new batch of laundry soap, went to the grocery store and the Farmers Market, made a ham and eggs breakfast for my sweet family, filled more of the corn patch, picked up the dog stuff, fed the chickens, fed the dogs, watered my plants, cleaned the back bathroom, made 5 quarts of canned chili, made a big pot of chili to eat today and tomorrow with the left over sausage from spagetti night, made a batch of refried beans with the left over kidney beans from today's chili, vacuumed the living room, watched Cops with Tom, helped Jake buy Blockland online, read my friends blogs, washed the dishes, ate lunch....

The boys went to the movies to see Rango with Grandma Ann. I'm taking a breather and then we are off to baseball practice as soon as they get home!

A Maturing Moment

Yesterday on the way to Cub Scouts, I told the kids that we wouldn't be going to the Demolition Derby this Saturday night. They were disappointed (loudly) but when they asked why I told them it was because two people (children) were hurt in gun fire in the same neighborhood last weekend and I wasn't willing to risk my family just to see smashing cars. They understood. Tom was quiet for a bit and then said that he used to think people getting killed was cool. He didn't really care, unless it were someone close to him, like when great-grandma died. But lately, he was concerned about it. It was sad when anyone died. He is especially disgusted by how many different ways people can die. My baby has discovered his mortality. It made me tear up a bit, but in a way it is better than the alternative. He could continue to not care about. I think that would worry me a lot more.

Both by baby boys are growing up so fast. I miss their toddler games and chatter. But they are turning into such wonderful men, just like their Dad and it makes me proud.

New Book New Day

Today has been a pretty awesome day. After getting both the boys baseball practice schedules, I realized that we have something to do right at our usual dinner time every night of the week until June. Wow! So today we tried a new dinner time, 2pm. Crazy. But it worked out nicely. Dishes are done. We're almost ready for Cub Scouts.

I got my new book in the mail today too. "Cooking with Food Storage Made Easy" by Debbie G. Harman. It is a beautiful book and has lots of recipes and ideas. I'm very excited. So now, I'm going to try canning chicken!

I know, not a very exciting post but that what is actually going on around here.

An Afternoon in Joshua Tree National Park

We spent the afternoon climbing rocks last week at Hemingway Buttress. The boys did quite a bit more climbing than I did. I spent about thirty minutes just laying on a rock and taking pictures. The sky was so beautiful. White puffy clouds zoomed by in with high winds. We were sheltered by the rocks so the wind wasn't bad for us. It was also very warm in the sun but where we were it was cool and damp.

We watched a couple guys climbing the rock faces and were amazed at their skill. There was a pair of hawks being harassed by a raven up on top of the rocks. Tom brought up the trees and bushes growing the cracks of the rocks. It was a first hand experience with the parable of Jesus about the farmer and the seed. I'm still high from the wonderful and relaxing couple hours!

Treading Water

Do you ever feel like you are treading water? It's as if I'm just keeping my head above the water and the river is rushing along and taking me with it. I'm not getting anywhere but where the world is taking me and I'm not liking the feeling.

Beautiful Night!

It's Thursday, so after we watched Beck, we took our weekly date. We took the trash out to the road! I know, aren't you jealous, but tonight was special. It's warm and very clear out and dark, no moon. Everyone has their Christmas lights on! It is beautiful. Dan is working on getting the telescope out!

Shopping Day

We drove down to Redlands today to get the last few pieces of Jake's Cub Scout uniform that we couldn't find here in town. It's a nice shop! I'm going to make that a stop more often. We also went to Michael's because Jake made ornaments at his meeting last night and wants to make more for his friends and family. We picked up some beads and pipe cleaners. When we got home he immediately broke into it and made Nikki and Tom make a few ornaments. I got a bracelet!

We also stopped at the San Bernardino County Museum. We checked out the birds and eggs. Very cool. Jake found this huge egg from an extinct bird called the Elephant Bird. When we got home he looked for it online and found more information about it. It looks like an ostrich. Tom was fascinated with the exhibit about hydro-electric generators. I love watching them at places like this. They really show their true colors. Bit by bit we build up our knowledge base without worksheets and boring videos. It's amazing! We even got into scientific classification!