Strange Days

How is it that I got more crossed off my list today, a work day, than I did in an entire three-day weekend without a minute of job-related time?

I suppose completion of a task isn't the right way to measure it though. It took me several hours and visits to three different hardware stores (one of them three times) to get the "universal" trailer hitch mounted on our truck. But it all seemed like wasted time until the thing was finally done. And from the directions, it looked like an hour's worth of work, tops. I guess I need to adopt the Zen mindset that "the obstacle is the path."

Speaking of paths (sort of), why is it that the strip of grass that has sprouted down the middle of our gravel driveway is so pleasing to me? I'm sure I should be dowsing it with Round Up or something, but I like it.

Speaking of obstacles (sort of), we've come to an uneasy truce with Chaos Girl. She's welcome to get up in the middle of the night, turn on her light, and play with her toys until all hours, as long as (A) she doesn't expect us to be in the room with her while all this is going on, and (B) she doesn't expect to nap much during the day. This has been working fairly well most nights, but every once in a while, she decides that (A) is not acceptable. And every once in a while she decides that an entire jar of lavender scented vaseline needs to be flung and smeared all about the room, including in the carpet, on the doors, on the walls, on the toys, on the bed, on the pillows, on her feet, and in her hair. It's taken about half a dozen shampooings (is that a word?) to get her hair free of perfumed petroleum jelly. It does give it a nice sheen though.

She's been attending special needs preschool, which includes a ride to and from school on the school bus. She's happy to see us when the bus gets to our house, but she tries very hard to stay on the bus. I think that's her favorite part.

The other advantage has been that it's kept her from napping in the afternoons, which has helped the sleep problems a little. We've decided to eliminate e5's naps too, which has helped immensely with bedtime. Lori and I were actually able to sit down together and watch an actual movie the other night!

Out in the pastures, the animals are thriving. We had to dry off Betsy because we couldn't find anybody to milk her while we go on vacation at the end of this month, and I miss the milk. So does our daughter. She's turning her nose up at the store bought stuff now. The goats are getting bigger and bigger, and all are healthy. At least we think so. I'm starting to wonder if this turkey buzzard knows something we don't thoug. He was hanging around our pasture all day today...

I did see quite an array of critters while mowing out there the other day, including several frogs, toads, rabbits, mice, and moles. I also saw a wide array of butterflies, from monarchs to swallowtails, to some butter-yellow variety that I don't know, to a small blue type that it's hard to get a look at.

I was also fascinated by the giant thistles that popped up here and there. I think they are Canada thisle, but I'm not sure. From what I understand, they're a nightmare for farmers because they spread underground as well as by bajillions of fluffy little seeds. (And despite the name, they're of European origin.) They look like some science experiment gone wrong. We had some that were about five feet high, four feet wide, and covered from top to bottom in half-inch thorns. I'm not too worried about them at this point, because they thrive in tilled fields, and I plan on tilling very rarely if at all. And goats will theoretically eat them, though I'm not sure how. The flowers were really pretty, and covered with all kinds of beetles, bees, and butterflies.

So that about catches you up with all the things I haven't been posting about lately. Somehow I've still got a blog backlog in my head though. Where do all these words come from anyway?