There’s some interesting reasoning for you.

Ruby was getting dressed this morning.

“Ruby, you forgot your panties.”

“Oh. Yeah. But it’s ok. I’ll wear some tomorrow.”

She has the “I screwed up today so we’ll just take a break and try again tomorrow” mentality.

We had plans to go to rummage sales today. My plans to get up early were thwarted with a fevered and crying Charlotte, and by the time I got up with her at 7:30 I wasn’t sure how fast we could get out of here. Milking goats, chicken chores, breakfast for 5 – it all takes a lot of time to get done and out of the door.

I hollered for Liberty to get up, and seeing no movement, headed up the stairs to rouse her. No Liberty. Her bed was made and she was not in the house. Remembering her sleepwalking toddler days, I had visions of horrible things, but I found her – outside, doing chores. By the time I made it up to the barn, she’d been up there for an hour, had the chickens done, Snow milked and all the babies fed. Amazing. She’s helped milk goats a handful of times but never done it alone. Something about selling the scary horned goat made milking the other goat manageable. I cringed and asked how much milk she’d gotten, sure I was going to have to get Snow back on the stand and finish milking her out, but she got just as much as I always get. I was speechless. And now I know who will do chores if I’m incapacitated in, say, late September. My baby girl is growing up.

www.yardsaletreasuremap.com is the coolest thing I’ve found lately. And today was profitable! We found a few new things for each kid, a $2 winter coat for Sterling and a few new things to fit my expanding what’s-a-waist-line and my favorite finds, a pair of Mary-Jane crocs for Ruby and Stride Rite sandals for a whopping $0.50 each. If this baby’s gender had been known, he or she would have had a whole new wardrobe. But I don’t, so it doesn’t. But all the kids are thrilled, we have a few new things for fall/winter and I’m exhausted. The kids wanted to keep going, but my energy level was gone before my day’s budget. They are hoping to head out again tomorrow. I’m thinking not…

They don’t write manuals for this.

They don’t write manuals for this.

We went to a rummage sale down the street (ok, the next farm road down, about 2.5 miles away, but it counts, right?) this afternoon. The kids all took their wallets, excited for the treasure they might find. Liberty bought, wait for it… zipper pj’s. You know, the really fuzzy footed ones. In a 10/12. Liberty is not a 10/12. But she’s excited – she can wear them when she’s, oh, 15. But in the 105 degree heat, they looked quite ugly to me. Quite. She tried them on at home… that’s a picture that would be worth a thousand words. I’ll take one… after I wash them. They smell a bit like someone smoked a whole lot of cigarettes in their near vicinity. Eww.

So, to get back to the manual I don’t have, Ruby found straw bowls. She’s always wanted one. You know, the plastic cereal bowls with the straw down the side. The ones I’ve never bought because, really? Why do we need bowls with straws attached? There was a blue one and a green one, marked $0.25 and Ruby was thrilled. She picked the blue one, Sterling decided he needed a green one, and off they went. 10 minutes later, when we were headed to pay for our $1.10 in merchandise and Sterling decided he did not want to green bowl. Ok… Ruby said she’d buy both. They charged her $0.25 for both.

So we get home and Ruby has two bowls. Sterling grabbed the green bowl, starting to scrub it and was really upset when I told him it was not his bowl. He exclaimed, “But I want it! I just wanted Ruby to pay for it!” Umm, yeah, but no. Ruby bought it, Ruby gets it. Sterling is moping, Ruby’s ready to give him the bowl – because when Sterling is sad, anyone who sees that face will want to cry with him. But that’s not the point. I told him if he wanted the bowl, he had to ask Ruby if he can buy it. Much moping later, Sterling asked if he could buy the bowl, the price was set at $0.15 and he gave her the money. And wailed. And wailed and wailed and wailed. He couldn’t part with his coins. In the end, he took back his nickel and dime, gave the bowl back, and declared “I really don’t like goat’s milk anyway, so I don’t want to drink it out of my cereal.” To which Ruby replied, “But I don’t need two bowls.” So now… nobody is happy. Perfect.

With the amount of fighting going on between Sterling and Ruby in my house these days, you’d think I’d get better at mediating. But I’m horrible at it. I will never, ever run for judge. Solomon’s wisdom, I have not.

And then there were four.

We took three goats to the sale barn last night. Then we sat for four hours waiting to watch them sell… we didn’t have to stay, but where’s the fun in that? 10pm and five kids and Daddy and one pregnant Momma and no supper later, it wasn’t quite so much fun. But we saw them sell, learned a few things about goat auctions – and about raising goats. Namely, we cannot afford to eat goat meat. We can raise a goat, sell them, and buy a lot of steak with the proceeds – far more meal’s worth than we got from the one goat we butchered! All in all, it was a great experience. And the goat meat in my freezer is the most expensive meat we’ve ever had.

We did not come home with any more goats – despite one dear child stating that we ought to buy more.

Charlotte turned 10 months old yesterday. My due date is 2 months from yesterday. Liberty informed me that she’s now a month past her birthday (also yesterday) and still has not gotten a birthday cake. Ruby will be three years old in a month and a half.

Sterling and Ruby modeled for Bass Pro (again) Monday. Ruby eats it up. Sterling loved the cork gun he got to hold. (And the fleece he had to wear outside in the 95 degree temps – or not.) This is the sixth time – that I can recall – that one or more of my kids have modeled. I would have never pursued it, but it’s padding college savings accounts and in those few hours on Monday, Sterling and Ruby earned more than Blaine did all day. Amazing. They should be in the Ladies’ Collections fall catalog.

All wit is gone…

My weekly email regarding all things pregnancy asked if I’ve toured my baby’s birthplace yet. I laughed. I’ve been scrubbing (what I hope is!)baby’s birthplace, does that count? Sweeping, mopping, picking up toys… pretty sure I know this baby’s birth place inside and out better than anyone else.

Sterling got a new toy trailer in the free bin at the local farm supply store. It was without it’s truck. He spent ten minutes trying to find a truck here to pull it with and when it just wouldn’t work the way he wanted it to, he announced, marble run in hand, “I’m going to play with this instead. That fixes the problem!” It’s a band-aid fix, I’m thinking.

Yesterday, it rained. It was beautiful. The temps broke, and Blaine got downpoured upon. He said he was actually cold for a little bit there. Today, the humidity has it feeling hotter than it’s been. But it was worth the reprieve and the cooler sleeping weather. Major bonus would have been if I could have slept – but still.

On the agenda for tomorrow: sell three goats. That will cut us back to just four. Sweet. Beyond that… my kids get to see a goat auction tomorrow. Should be fun! And no, we will not be bringing any home. Please, no.

Night and Day

Nine and a half years ago, I met my husband. We’re about as different as night and day from each other. We married quickly and had babies one right after another and slowly learned the intricacies of the other. But still, it amazes me.

I’m not a perfectionist. I’m so ridiculously far from it, I’m amazed Blaine puts up with it with such grace. I do a great many things, but few things well.

Once I asked Blaine to fold the towel laundry in preparation for company coming. It took him 45 minutes to fold six bath towels. I rearranged the bathroom closet before I put them away. I could hardly stuff them in with the others when they were folded so… perfectly. I never asked him to do it again. I do not like cleaning out the bathroom closet.

Blaine takes beautiful pictures. He’s a great photographer. I shoot in auto mode. I have a very nice camera. Blaine has an even nicer camera. He really wants me to learn to shoot beautiful pictures too. But I like auto mode. And using the photos he takes.

When the garbage gets full, I push it down to see if more will fit. He takes it out.

When there are dirty dishes, I cannot cook. I cannot do anything until I take care of the messy kitchen. When there are no clean bowls, Blaine will eat out of a saucepan before he’ll grab dish soap.

When the flies were particularly bad the other day, I shooed them away and wondered where they were coming from. When Blaine got home, he had himself a fly massacre. And then… I mopped to clean up the fly massacre.

We make a great team. I love our life together. I love getting to know each of our children – and seeing the tendencies of myself and Blaine mirrored in our children. And while I’d love to say that my rush to just get things done is born out of sheer need to deal with life and children and homeschooling, it’s probably just laziness. It’s survival. And someday, I might have a perfectly arranged linen closet. But probably not.

How did that happen???

A new record around here:

I opened a new pint jar of raspberry jelly on Monday. Today’s Thursday, and it’s gone.

I didn’t eat any of it. Neither did Blaine.

Really?