Friday already ??

This week flew by.  Partly because I spent my Thursday driving back and forth to see my new great nephew and his folks about an hour and a half away. He's 8 weeks old now and absolutely precious. Holding his head up and smiling and just a wonderful big baby boy.  I made a tied fleece crib quilt for him and tried to get one finished for his big sister Moriah, but my hands hurt too much from doing the first one. I told her I would get it finished and mail it to her. She is probably more excited about getting mail than she is even about the blanket (which will have princesses on it).  lol  My nephew told me last night that she went around all day telling everyone that HER aunt is making HER a blankie of her very own. lol  She is 4.

  I also had to work a sleepover shift in the middle of the week. That was 15 hours, home for 7 and back for 5 more.  I was exhausted.  Anyway, I'm glad to get a chance this morning to get around and read some blogs and post a little too.

  We lost a chicken last night. One of the Buff Orpingtons was pulled through the fence and demolished. Spine, pelvis, feet were left. It was a horrible mess.  What upsets me most is that last night in the middle of the World series game, I thought I heard something out there and muted the tv and strained to listen, but thought I was hearing things.  sigh....It's not the first chicken we've lost, and probably won't be the last. Part of the heartbreak of homesteading is losing animals in one form or another..such is life.

   I'm in the middle of chores...laundry, housecleaning and need to make a grocery run for a few staples like oatmeal and butter and brown sugar. The Irishman has a dentist appointment for a root canal this afternoon, so it looks like soup for supper tonight.  Hard telling what it's going to be like, they may do everything at once or they may do it in 2 appointments. Because of our dental network, he has to drive an hour away to do it.  It's ridiculous. 

  I'm moving slow...it got down to freezing last night and is supposed to hit 37 tonight. Then it swings into a warm-up again and night temps will be up in the 50's. The Irishman is out there cleaning up more garden spots, pulled out the last of the bell peppers.  The tomatoes are still showing and flowering, but the 'maters are small and most are green, though I brought in about 5 ripe ones (smallish) the day before yesterday.  Guess I'll go check the washer and think about some lunch for him before he leaves. Another day in the life of the hapless housewife...

  Been a "tough times at money high" these past few weeks. Property taxes, roof repairs, dental work and an outrageous electric bill from October.  Sigh...still, all in all, we manage to squeak through from one month to the next and I am grateful that we do it.  This is a time in history where lots of people are in a bad way, again.  I'm reading Independence Days, and she was talking about the progression of things through the Great Depression, and how, contrary to what most of us believe, it didn't happen over night. And that worries me, since the book was written in 2008 and so far, she's been spot on. And the Republicans have killed another jobs bill. And the world sits and watches and wonders.  And Quaddafhi has been killed. Or Gadhafi. Or Kaddafi.  How DO you spell that man's name? Everywhere I look, it seems to be spelled differently. I just read an article about the 7 weirdest things about him, one was that he had a huge crush on Condi Rice, and that she went to visit him in 2008 and he gave her like 200,000 dollars worth of gifts and kept a photo album of pictures of her. Now, baby...THAT is weird.  And the GOP is pissed that the Dems want to keep the Bush tax cuts only for people making under 200K a year and none with higher incomes.  And there's a baby girl missing in Kansas City. And I am ready to hunt down and kill whichever cat keeps peeing in my laundry room on the new floor.  And the earth moves around the sun. And so it goes.

    Well, another Friday lunch over with, tuna fish sandwiches with fresh ripe sliced tomatoes on the side. O.M.G.  Were they ever good.  I will miss summer with it's bounty and fresh smelled grass smells and flowers blooming everywhere. I'm going to take a little drive today, just me and Roxie, and the way home I will stop for some groceries.  I'll take in some fall colours and I'll mourn the passing of the season of play and move into the season of hunker-down.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that we don't have to pay more than $400.oo for this root canal and  that things will continue on the way they are supposed to...me in the thick of it, working and playing, living and loving.  Trying to keep my place in the balance...and being ever grateful for the things I have and more compassionate to those who don't have what I do. 

  To have the chance to live with a giving heart, a sunny countenance and the love of family and friends.  To be able to make my way in this mine field of a world and still see the beauty of it.  To live well,  love much and laugh often. 

  Namaste.