Morning

The morning dogwalk was spectacular, bands of slatey-blue-gray clouds highlighted with electric pink were faffing about the eastern sky and the snow was crisp. Dogs were happy and zoomie(y). I took the compost bucket out to dump it, took warm water to the chickens, and checked the water trough in the pasture (not icy.) It was a very pleasant 25°F (-4C), which is my favorite winter temperature. Cold enough that there's no mud around, without being too cold. Hopefully I'll be able to find energy for some outside farm work this week. Those new overalls need to get broken in!

At mid-day K packed up her clothes, books, and two small terrariums of pet jumping spiders. Back to school. Her schedule got complicated late last week, when she was dropped from a vet class unexpectedly. I hope she can get that resolved with her advisor on Monday. I'm going to miss her a LOT.

I have practically the whole dining room table covered with paperwork that I need to deal with or file. I'd MUCH rather stomp around outside cutting brush back from the fenceline or paint. Eugh!

Mom's cooking

Nothing can top having your kid walk into the house, sniff cooking aromas in the air, and say, "That smells amazing!" Seeing your kid enthusiastically putting a ridiculous, teen-sized serving on their plate. Yes. That's a good feeling.

Fractured Friday

Yesterday was a bit tough and seemed to cover a lot of different emotions. Two main points, though . .

The vet came midafternoon to check Hero. Hero stood very stolidly while being poked prodded, having a blood sample drawn, and also a fecal sample taken. His teeth were checked, and deemed acceptable Horses need dentist visits sometimes, and have trouble eating if their teeth need work - but apparently that's not the issue. We'll have to see what the lab results turn up.

After that, K went down to Home Farm, and called me from the pond to come hang out with them. When I got there, Three young adults and one dog were enjoying the ice, while Rosalie was puttering around close behind K in bafflement. The water is? hard? and the humans are standing on it? I must closely monitor my human? Who is standing on the hard water???

She also decided that anyone who fell on the ice (which was happening frequently, because the kids were engaged in an impromptu pushing and shoving battle), must need a dog snoot right in their face. At one point K fell, and Rosalie rushed over to stick her little dog snoot in her face - while standing right on K's hair. The issue in question required zero dog snoots, but. You know. A dog snoot was offered anyway.

After a while we moved on to the 'sledding' portion of the event. Featuring an abandoned, beat-up kayak that somebody left on the farm years ago, a long tow chain, a Subaru Crosstrek, and a semi-flat pasture. The guys were jubilant about hitting speeds in excess of 40 mph (64 kph). "We'll take it slower for you," my son assured me. You darned well better. It was fun and also scary. Mostly fun.

Snow Day

When Christmas and New Years fall on Wednesday, it gives the school kids the longest possible holiday. I can remember feeling like a stressed-out pile of goo, back in the day, when my kids went back to school on Monday the 6th. And they were good kids, mind you, not little hellions - but Christmas gets Very Intense.

So it is with some sympathy, this snowy morning, that I consider the plight of parents who thought their kids would be back to school today.

Christmas Craft

I guess the events of Christmas day left me a little tired and forgetful? Because when we went down to visit my son and his roommate, I took a gift bag with three little packages of kids modeling clay. Yes, my kids and Roommate are all college-age. However, sometimes a fun, low-stakes little craft is a good thing for a long winter evening. While we were there I just . . completely forgot to give it to them. Walked away at the end of the evening and left the bag sitting there. K asked me a few days later Why? had I left a bag of craft supplies there? I explained; maybe a Critter Creation night at the farmhouse would be fun.

So they did that, and it was fun. Son showed me all pix of all the Critters afterward. (a mushroom counts as a Critter for purposes of this event) You never outgrow the joy of a little project. Fun for all ages.

Hot

The wind is whipping and it's getting colder out there. Hot oatmeal!

About half an orange worth of zest and juice

oatmeal, I use Quaker quick one-minute

A sploosh of vanilla coffee creamer (the vanilla is important)

milk

Sorry, I don't usually measure stuff. All the above in a bowl with plenty of extra room, because it's going to boil up. Microwave until it boils. Keep an eye on it because it will want to boil up out of the bowl if you leave it 2 seconds too long. Orange creamsicle oatmeal.

Pros: there are so many ways to make different flavors with fresh, frozen, or dried fruit. Apples, peaches, berries of all kinds. And cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, ginger. Those (relatively expensive) little packets of flavored instant oatmeal cannot compare.

Cons: Rinse that bowl when you're finished, or the little bit that's left will set into cement.

Love means listening

Him: SO, I've been watching a lot of coal mining documentaries lately

Me: Oy vey

Him: and here's what I {long, long series of coal mine facts}

Me: {trying very hard to hold up my 20% of the conversation}

K: Curled up on the other end of the couch, slowly drifting into a really great nap, lulled by the sound of Coal Mine Facts™

Me: {now getting really jealous of K}

Him: . . not storing the slurry properly! Fortunately, . .

K: zzzzzzz

Me: Oh, dear! / Ok, then / My goodness!

Christmas

The wrap for our Christmas day was getting takeout food* and going down to Home Farm. A lengthy, quarter-mile commute! Gone are the days of spending three hours in the car on Christmas day. Son's roommate had returned from visiting his family. We all sat around the table down there and had a nice meal; the first time we all ate together down there since Grandpa was alive. Tabby, Grandpa's cranky old queen cat, begged for pets and attention.

The boys' tree is lovely, decked as it is with a selection of my/my mother's ornaments and, of course, shrimp. One of my father's better decorating attempts was putting a large mirror across part of the living room wall, in a nook beside a chimney. The tree is right on front of that, which looks amazing. Twice the sparkles!

It was a lovely end to a lovely day. Who knows what next year will bring. In this moment, though, we are at peace. Nutmeg bossing Hanz and Juniper around in the red barn, pigeons roosting in a shed, Hero and Leo standing quietly their pasture waiting for their dinner. Five dogs and five cats between the two houses, which I will admit is a bit much.

My hopes for next year: College success for the kids. A better way to sell art for me; online, gallery shows, something. Better health for me (not likely, but I can wish). A good year for the garden and the various tree plantings. A return to full mobility and farm-dog hijinks for Rosalie. And a good working relationship for Hero and Leo.

'* In the earlier years of our marriage, we went to see my in-laws at midday on Christmas, and spent the evening with them. When Husband's older sisters started having their own grandchildren, that tradition died a natural death, and we were on our own for Christmas day. I, a person who cooks A Lot, put my foot down on the topic of cooking a dinner on Christmas day.

Shrimply Christmas

There are TWO origami books here; I got them when the kids were young. Unfortunately, neither of them had instructions for a shrimp. I spontaneously needed to fold an origami paper shrimp late yesterday evening. (the whims must be obeyed)

I was able to find a slightly blurry set of instructions online that matched with what I remembered (why - really - do I remember folding an origami shrimp about 40 years ago? Why is that a memory that stuck?).

What my inscrutable soul really wants is to sew a couple of shrimp plushies for Son's Christmas tree. Shh, don't worry about it. However, the plushie designs I've seen don't have that neat, folded/curved outline that I remembered from the origami. Would it be possible to, basically, do the origami from fabric, then stitch the folds in place?

I do have a paper version folded. I think I can see how it would work in fabric. I could really use some googly eyes, but if I have any at all they'd be in the craft cabinet behind the Christmas tree. Hmm.

Do I have glitter? Do I have pipecleaners/chemille sticks? tbc

My son and I had to take a trip to the pharmacy in person to work out an issue with an anti-viral med. We were told by the Dr's office that our regular pharmacy couldn't source it, so we went to a larger pharmacy (CVS). CVS filled it last month, but then told us they were closing at that location, and would be forwarding the scrip to the local pharmacy. We thought, before he needed a refill, that we'd better check with them to see if they could do it. They said, somewhat ambiguously, that they could fill it, but there's a "process." Would not elaborate further. What? Is the process? Drat.

We decided to go to Ace and get Son some lights for his first Christmas tree away from home. I love Ace hardware. We picked out two kinda pricey strings of lights, only to be told at the counter they're 50% off, now. Yay? YAY! I felt like I was due some good luck. Later today we'll divide my Christmas ornament collection like a little amoeba splitting in two.

Hanging in there.

While I did get a few things done yesterday, it wasn't near as much as I hoped. I have a small mountain of clean laundry in my room to put away, more gifts to wrap, several farm chores, and we still haven't gotten our tree. We were going to get it yesterday afternoon, but it started pouring cold rain again. I just feel - like I could sleep for a full day. Can't seem to make any progress on regular chores OR holiday ones.

Yesterday K got her grades. She had a 74% in chemistry (required for her major), but her final exam dropped that to 71%. Unfortunately, there are stricter passing requirements for medical/veterinary classes than for ordinary degrees. To 'pass' this course, she needed a 73%. We are both really upset about that, given how HARD she worked all through the semester.

Chance is licking a hot spot on his front leg. I took him to the vet for that a while back, and Vet thought he had some mites. Treated for the mites (Bravecto) . . saw some improvement temporarily . . but now he's back to worrying his leg raw and Lady's doing it occasionally, too. I was putting Rosalie's (adjustable) cone of shame on him, but he seems to have found a way to ditch it while he was outside. It's a big, blue cone - I can't see it anywhere around the yard or pasture. He may, honestly, just be bored because of his limited mobility (arthritis, we're medicating as much as possible), and licking because of boredom. Oh, buddy.

Rocky has an odd spot on his ear that won't heal. I need to get him to the vet about that. Areas with white fur tend to have pink skin underneath, and where the fur is shortest there is some risk of skin cancer. Hero had cancer near his mouth, years ago, which is when I learned that.

Just not feeling terribly jolly right now, I guess.

In better news, Roommate got the go-ahead to pick up Leo the Frisian/Vanner cross (from somewhere in New York state) and bring him here. He will arrive sometime in the middle of the night tonight. That means three horses in the pasture temporarily, then Missile will depart in a few days. Roommate is going to Reverse-Horse-Rustle him; taking him to his real owner's pasture and dropping him off. The guy has been refusing to take Roommate's calls, and he can't figure out any other (legal, ethical) way to do this.

I will, of course, get photos of Leo for you as soon as possible. He is black and white.

Morning

Taken the dogs out, got the woodstove started for morning, cleaned up the kitchen and started the dishwasher. Can't really get started cleaning, yet, because my husband and K aren't up. I've been feeling pretty damned rocky the last week or so, and I sure hope today is better.

One thing I noticed recently; I go down to Home Farm to do a chore or drop something off, and my son and I get talking. However, I have to leave soon because I have something else going on, or I need to get home for dogs' potty breaks. Then I remembered being young(er) and how my parents never seemed to want to visit me. Come over for a quick visit or a meal, leave immediately. A whole LOT of my parenting strategies have been based on my reflections about my own parents (not surprising). Both good and bad, truly; they both did some thing very right and other things .. uh.

Anyway, I did have to go to HF yesterday, but the library/book-tidying job I was expecting was much smaller than I thought. When I was done I asked him, do you need some alone time right now (he had just completed some STRESSFUL finals) or would you like a visit? He was up for a visit, so I sat down and we talked for quite a while. Until I was sure he was finished. That felt good.

Both kids are so kind and caring toward me. I'm so lucky.

The key

One time my aunt was visiting and we were trying to figure out a time when we could hit a little museum in town that's only open 1-4 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We went Friday, right at 1:00. The docent who was supposed to open up didn't show. We waited patiently on the porch. Then impatiently. Eventually it occurred to me that a) I am a volunteer docent at this museum and b) I have a key. I could just open the door and go in there. It was really embarrassing to come to that realization.

This year, for their 'Art for Giving' Christmas show, someone entered a photo of my daughter (she did a little modeling when she was younger.) Sometimes this week we're going to go in there, just us two, and see it. Because I have the key ; D