The UnThanksgiving

Wake up - wander downstairs - step in warm cat yack
Let dog out- clean up strewn trash
Turn on coffee - go back 5 minutes later to set pot properly - have a cup of slightly over extracted coffee
Make breakfast for Logan - burn finger
Listen to Logan whine
Let Andy dog out - let Andy in - pick up more trash - again
Find shirt I want to wear - find cat has peed on it
Make espresso - grind, tamp, shake loose grounds off - drop portafilter and coffee everywhere - start over.
Lash out at cat (yes, I know I shouldn't) - catch finger on snagle tooth - blood everywhere (note to be thankful for - burned finger - at least I didn't injure a 2nd one)
Feed goats - find they ripped latch off - gorged on feed - opened two bags because the open ones were not enough
See goat ripped wall out of the barn - have to fix that
Roasted coffee - burned hand
Hoping it can only get better....

--John

note from p: now we're out for the rest of the day, errends, holiday market, thing at logan's school. john says "sometimes life isn't idyllic out on the farm!"

Rose Kindy Lantern Walk

We were all in town yesterday, for tooth cleaning appointments (no cavities for any of us, which is standard for John and Logan but a real gain for me, unless my getting a crown recently excused me from my usual cavity,) and the Rose Kindergarten was scheduled to have their Martinmass Lantern Walk. (No, I'd never heard of it before either.) (can't find an easy link for it at the moment.)

The kids had all made paper lanterns, and had tiny tea lights set in sand in them, as well as a parent or two and sometimes a sibling going with them. We walked a short, but hilly, block or two around the school's neighborhood. The kids sang songs about carrying their lights, and gave cookies to neighboring families that were home. Sort of like roving Christmas carolers, only, at the five year old level. We came back again with the same number of kids that we started with, I think.

I learned that I'm not the only mom of a Waldorf kid who nursed past four years old. And that a mom with a 2 (?) year old nursling can still keep up with zippy kids, while walking and nursing! I don't think I could have managed that when Logan was two. But one of the other moms said the more you have the more versatile you get.

I like doing these outside-of-school-hours things, although even with John driving, the drive home was late and long, and Logan slept the night though from before 7 (in the car) till 7 just now. Other than about an hour's intermission at 4AM.

My night vision absolutely sucks. Time to check in with the eye doctor again. My blood pressure being wonky this year, at the least, has screwed with my vision some more, so I strongly suspect I need new glasses already, despite having gotten them about a year ago.

Life as we know it

So it's a fairly regular Sunday. Laundry to fold, wool to card, spinning equipment to assemble. We have between one and four extra entities in the house. At the moment it's Just Aidan, since his mother, brother and dog have gone to doggy school. With luck this will calm Logan down, eventually, or at least wear both of them out.

Logan and John roasted a honkin' big amount of cocoa beans this morning, (20 lbs he says) now I get to taste the praline (hazelnut goo!) that John's been making. And eventually the house will cool off enough from last nights fire (wood stove!) that we might have to build another one. It's cool and drippy outside, and nice inside. If it were a little cooler I could settle somewhere with a cup of hot tea and a spinning wheel -- until one of the kids detonated again.

For mom, Taylor is now wearing a hood that you knit for Logan. Andrea and I printed the same two patterns that I sent you, way back when, and one that reads as more of a discussion of knitting than instructions. Maybe we'll manage to make some more. Oh, and the needle felted things, that I mentioned to you, can be seen on ebay: karine's_woolcrafts . The store (and the felting) is done by the mother of one of Logan's classmates.

Now that it's started raining again, we are daily finding ourselves very happy for the choice of linoleum on the floors. Wet human and dog foot prints can be easily swept or mopped, and the floor dries quickly when the stove is burning.

I have a feeling that the wrestling kids I can hear in the other room are on top of the pile of clean laundry I hope to fold, so that's the end of this. I'll keep trying to get back here more often. Maybe one day it will work.