Rainy Review

We had nearly 2 weeks of rain, it was so dismal. We're very thankful to have the sunshine back again. We were in a Carolina drought, which is nothing like a California drought. As far as I can see, it just means we couldn't get our usual 3 cuttings of hay, only 2. The day before the rain fell there were bed accidents galore, I don't know what happened but there were 8 sheets to wash. I don't have that much line to dry on but at least the drips got out enough so it could finish overnight in the house. Our well pump has been cutting out & leaving us w/out water, Mike replaced it before the contacts before the rain & asked me to dry up the goat, so I did before the storm hit. Neither she nor I fancy milking in the rain.

I was alarmed at the amount of vacation looming ahead of us. We were only able to purchase one semester of curriculum at a time this year & we have been so steady & on schedule which never happens; it looks as if we'll be done by the end of Oct. We use Christian Light Publishing for the backbone of our curriculum. 10 workbooks that cover 3 weeks each. The first one is more like a review after a summer off, so we skip it & have a shorter first semester of 4 books but I usually have more field trips for the fall w/ cooler weather & lesser crowds.

With only 1 light unit remaining us for math, I took a week off that coincided w/ the rain. It was the least fun week of vacation. I did a lot of cleaning, but we were mostly tired of each other & tried to avoid one another. Arguments & strife would erupt if siblings weren't rotated. I don't feel like I got much done, but typing it out, I change my mind. The hours it only sprinkled I had them in the garden pulling the last of the tomatoes & corn. I weeded as I could but I have too much acid reflux going on right now to handle that. I'll cover the beds w/ straw for winter as it comes, the greens that came up are doing beautifully.

I got my 2 biggest dumping grounds de-cluttered, baby clothes & car seat gathered, sorted through, washed & put away. All of the seasonal clothing was rotated through & organized in a new clothing system w/ file boxes a la' Large Families on Purpose. I got the dining room walls scrubbed & shampooed because the cat decided to quit being housebroken awhile back when we were dog-sitting. She's decided to use a litter box instead of scratching at the door like she used to, but she won't share w/ the other cat & needs her own. I gave her a dishpan.

The last Fri. was spent at the apple orchard because I was determined we would go this year & do SOMETHING fun. It was raining. Apples littered the ground. We were the only ones there to pick & I had the feeling they didn't want to give out the wagon, though I think the storm caused a financial hit for them. The orchard is hilly & I under-estimated my wagon-handling abilities at 8 months pregnant in hilly mud hauling a (HEAVY) 2 year old & 40ish pounds of apples.

I think they look back at the whole day fondly, though they were cold at the orchard. We had cider doughnuts, which are always fun. We hit the library up first, then the orchard & ended w/ Pizza Hut because it's Book-It season & I didn't want to cook. It's nice having 3 of them in Book-It, I buy a family size cheesy bread for the rest of us as a soup side & call it good. We'd like to get the zoo in sometime this month, but the roof beam of the root cellar cracked & caved in so we need to budget for that repair.

It doesn't seem fair but now that there is plenteous sunshine, we are back to our school work. I'm catching up on laundry. I've baked up all of our pumpkins into pie, muffins, rice pudding & frozen yogurt as they weren't keeping. It's only Tues. & we've managed to get science & history started for the week. Not milking the goat & less sunshine has me waking up at 6:30 to have breakfast ready for them before morning chores, though now everyone wants a nap by 10:30, lol. I see more smaller post ideas in this lengthy one, so stay tuned.