Another race

Tuki & Ve wishing Mim good luck before her race

Mim's unofficial time was 14:03 for 3100 meters (100 meters less than 2 miles)

Pitting, Coring, Chopping, Slicing........

Today was beautiful outside, warm, sunny, color in leaves, a perfect day for a stroll outside and other incredible outdoor activities.. But I wasn't outside to enjoy it but for an hour or so in the early evening.

Instead, I and Mim were pitting, coring, chopping, slicing, blending and cooking up our two big boxes of fruit. We ended up by the end of the day with 11 pints of plum jam, 6 quarts of applesauce, 1 jar of canned plums (would have had 3 but two of the plum jars broke immediately upon touching the hot water!?), 2 one-gallon zip lock bags of pureed summer squash (lost count of how many bags we have frozen of this, the squash just kept coming all summer) and we also made 8 pies, 4 plum pies and 4 apple pies. We baked two apple pies right away since they wouldn't fit into the zip lock bags for freezing. I also froze 3 one-gallon bags worth of apples for 3 more pies.

I still need to process the acorn squash we picked this and last weekend, and I still need to dig up the turnips and carrots. I love doing this, but boy it takes time. Mim asked me today if I like to cook. I replied, not really but I do like to know that what we make is healthier than the store bought version of the same item.

The girls also pulled some of the plants from the garden and gave them to the chickens while I finished canning.

Some photos that I took today


Half a wheel barrow full of egg gourds and today's eggs from the girls. I guess the rain and flooding didn't slow them down.

Heathcliff playing in the water in my flooded back yard

see how close it is to the bird structures

a swing set given to us, my brother dismantled it and brought it over, but now everything needs to be stabilized before the girls can play on it. Our church will send some guys over to do this for us.

the 3 Barnvelders; Robin, Julia, and Millie

ClaraBelle and Harriet

Bridget, the Salmon Faverolle pullet

Inez, the one-eyed rescued silkie

Today's canning

Two of the 8 pies we made today. These are the apple pies.

Week in review

A hectic and busy week.
Monday - not too bad, but I did go in for a thyroid blood draw. I will find out the results this Monday

Tuesday: usual busy day & night except now Tuki & Ve's Awana started tonight so yet another activity to fit into this night.

Wednesday: Again the usual busyness; day & night, except we traded Mim's youth group at church this week for the Golden Dragon's Acrobats..THE RAIN STARTED TONIGHT

Thursday: IT IS STILL RAINING.ALL.DAY.LONG..The chicken's pen has 2 plus inches of standing water, the chickens are SOAKING WET, and by noon my basement started to flood. I have standing water ALL OVER MY YARD!! After school, we shove all the dumb, soaking wet chickens into the dry Coop to dry off. Basement isn't worse, but it isn't any better either..THE RAIN CONTINUES.

Friday: IT IS STILL RAINING IN THE AM. The chickens, and chicken pen is dry, the yard is still wet but the basement is starting to dry out. Found out at work that our little water was nothing compared to others who live nearby. One family had 10" in their basement..boy was I lucky that the water was never more a few small rivers never reaching an inch flowing from each of the side walls.

Saturday..The basement is a little better, drier. This morning is cool and eventually sunny. We drove to Mim's CC meet, came home 9 hours later, ate supper, found out that my cabbage that I picked last weekend rotted before this weekend, so I couldn't process it. Tonight went to the town's attractions (small town) and saw the high river...my yard is still wet, but obviously by the speed of the moving river, the water will be drained within the week.

Mim on the start line

racing on the course; unofficial 14:31, a 14 sec PR

Tuki and Ve standing near Lake Michigan. The race course ran along the lake. The CC meet was 2 1/2 hours from our home. It was a long drive

Tuki on the way home.

Tonight's big entertainment; going down to bridge on HH, bike riding distance from home, to see the overflowing river

Mim explaining why the road was closed for traffic

a flooded walk path

the posing beauties

the fast moving river

look closely you see how how close the river is to the road on the far side of this picture

flooded woods

a spider close-up while watching the water

School Photos - Mim and Me

Ve and Tuki to follow once we receive them. Teachers always receive a yearly photo along with all the students.

Golden Dragon Acrobats

We went to see these acrobats last night. It was a late night, well past everyones bedtime, but is was so so worth it. The girls loved the show and stayed awake and was well behaved through it all. Thanks Kiki!!!

Modify, Modify

The first few weeks of school have been busy.

Tuki LOVES 4K, but she is picking up some snotty girl behaviors. I don't know where it stems but I can sure tell Tuki is experimenting with it. I, of course, attempt to squash it out as soon as it appears. She is loving her jazz class and can't wait for it to come around every week.

Ve is doing fantastic!! I had been telling her all summer that she needs to be well behaved this year, and that she needs to tell herself to focus so that she is a leader of good behavior and not a follower of bad behavior. So far, she is getting complimented by her excellent behavior. She has yet to go yellow, always stays on green and works hard. She has even been told by her teacher that she is a good reader, and she is too. It comes from all those flash cards that I have her do daily. I am still adding new ones, one card each day and she sounds the new words out so quickly it even makes my head spin. We just may be turning a corner after all. She not only loves gymnastics but is very gifted in this sport as well.

Mim loves school and CC running, but I had to request some major modifications in her assignments for school by the second week,. It was painfully obvious to me just how lacking she still is in her English vocabulary and understanding. She doesn't seem to notice, but I sure do, so I went to her ESL teacher and said we need to modify sooner rather than later. It has been much better since then. She is getting more friends thru the CC team and her youth group at church. I would say she is a happy young lady. We also enjoying seeing each other throughout the day as well, since we are at the same school.

Tuesdays and Wednesday are crazy busy, and then the weekends that Mim has a CC meet gets busy as well. This past weekend, she didn't have a meet, so I managed to can 10 quarts of pears, 6 quarts of pear sauce, and 8 pints of grape jam. Plus, we sold 14 dozen eggs. I feel like I had a real homesteading weekend. My friends just dropped off two more boxes of fruit tonight. One contains plums, and the other apples. I guess more canning is in my future this weekend.

Our freezer is full, and our canning shelf is nearly full. We will eat well and pretty inexpensive this winter. Life is good.

EXTRA EXTRA LONG DAY today

We woke early for Mim's home CC meet, watched Mim's race in which she finished with a time of 14:47, finishing 10th for the team and 25th overall, helped on the course, and finished with a 1 mile race for wee ones. Ve runs faster than Tuki, so she finished far ahead of Tuki and me.

Then we dashed home, took showers and drove 45 minutes to our extended Family Reunion, stayed for 2 1/2 hours, won a game of beanbag toss, drove home quickly, changed our clothes, dropped Ve & Tuks with a babysitter/good friend W & family, picked up A and arrived at my nephew C induction into our high school's Athletic Hall of Fame. Way too busy of a day for me, especially since I have a bad cold, and am beat from working full days again...WHEW!!

Mim racing time 14:47 (2 Miles)


Nephew C & Mim

Tuki & Ve petting nephew C & wife A's white golden retriever, Tucker

Ve running the wee one race

C at the HOF with his two high school coaches

C giving his speech

Mim and cousin N saying bye to Cousin C

Mim's first race

The wee ones goofing around while waiting for Mim's race. As you can tell it was COLD!!
Mim on the start line removing her warm-up jacket

The start, just after the gun. Mim is way to the right, left of the guy in the white shirt
Mim during the race. She was only one running in tights and white long sleeves and she said she was cold thru the whole race. She hasn't quite adjusted to the weather here.
The finish. Unofficial time on my watch 12:45 for 2800 meters (1.75 miles) Her official time will probably be faster by about 4 -6 seconds. She finishes about mid-pack for her team.
EDITED: Mim's Official time 12:43, 11th for her team

Yesterday, 1st day of school

FIRST A QUESTION

A Question--Why is it OK for home schooling parents to constantly criticize and complain about public schools and public school teachers YET, it seems we, the public school and teachers can't even utter one word of disdain for homeschooling for fear we will offend homeschooling parents, yet we teachers have to stand and take it, and shut our mouths when we are bashed....so again why is this the case? IMHO, If you want to be critical in nature, then believe me you can find something or someone to criticise. If have an open-minded, accepting nature, then you will find many things/people to be open-minded, and accepting about, it is all in how one decides to view their world.

In my opinion, there are positives and negatives for both types of schooling, so please let's not always rag on school teachers, I happen to like what I do, and work hard on being a good teacher. In addition, I know MANY other teachers who strive to be good teachers as well


A photo before they went into 3 different directions

Ve had a great day, well behaved, walked home without a hitch, loved her teachers and classmates. Ditto for today

Tuki's bus ride to and from 4k was less less desirable, an hour long each way, late for school, yet she enjoyed every minute of it. Today's ride much better, only 30 minutes long each way. She is a ALOT crabby when she gets home because the last few days have been the first ever that she is going without a nap, and it wears her out, crabs her up, yet she is loving going to school and riding a bus.

Mim had a rough day yesterday, she missed her 1st hour completely, late to many classes, and I helped her get onto her bus to CC practice at the high school. Luckily we as a school are very understanding of 7th graders the first few weeks. It is a hard transition, especially for one who only has 10 months of English under her belt. Today was better, tomorrow hopefully even better, but I won't be there to help since my endocrinologist appointment is tomorrow morning.