My only regret today is that my body gave out before I got to the brook with the kids! We had a lovely day here, got up late after lying in bed & reading to the end of my book, Miss 10 was into making chocolate chip muffins so I let her go & washed up some dishes that had been left from last night while keeping an eye on her muffin preparations, laundry was already being dried & the last wash (until 17 brought down a full basket from her room) was beginning to wash through. While the muffins were baking I went intoMr 7’s room & rearranged his drawers, so the shorts & t-shirts were more easily accessible & the pants & long sleeved shirts were underneath. All the while trying to get him to clean up his room- to no avail of course.

After muffins & much discussion of who deserved the most muffins we went outside to consider the baby trees, I’d read the instructions which were enclosed with them but had not retained enough information to remember that they needed to soak in water for 3-6 hours. This played right into my restlessness. I didn’t want to stay home, it was a beautiful day, the car is running well, we even discovered that the broken power window was fixed by the garage (without my even asking or being charged for it- if that’s not over & above I don’t know what is! They are truly world-class customer service & I am thrilled with them still)

Off we went, stopped for gas & sodas & drove up by Buffalo Mountain, we went by our old house & I took a picture this time. the 3 kids & I were all moaning ‘I miss that house so much’ Even Mr 7 who other than being conceived there has no connection with it whatsoever. It was a nice house, beautiful views, breezy in summer, quite a bit of southern exposure so it wasn’t too cold in winter, nicely set up & we had a great 19 months there. However, it did leak, it was cold & drafty & only heated with wood-stoves (Not a drawback at the time but I don’t think I’d want to do it again) There were snakes in the basement & the attic & the landlord was a pain in the neck. Nice to drive out there & reminisce though. We drove up to the parkway for a little but mostly just drove, didn’t get out & walk because I did some walking last night & am still a little rough.

We came home, had some lunch, I settled in the hammock with the local newspaper & my phone for an hour or so while 17 caught up with a friend from up the road & her BF & 10 & 7 came & went, miss 10 eventually settled down in the hammock with me to check out the paper- there was a write up about a trip she, & all the other 4th grades in our county, took to our local Jacksonville Center for a speech on diversity & was quite pleased to find she hadn’t realized they print the school breakfast & lunch menus in the paper every week! I was really enjoying the view from the hammock, of my untilled garden, my shed with the roof that needs patching, the brambly mess behind my garden where the ground is too rough & bumpy to run the ride on lawnmower (when it’s running at all) The sunlight through the trees was lovely though!

Then of course, someone had to dig the holes for the trees! I actually only did 1 or 2, 10 & 7 were really enjoying digging them & Miss 17’s BF did the rest. Planting the trees though, that fell to me, I had some help from 10 & 7 but 10 was in a funk & kept getting mad & yelling at everyone. She’s got a career as a micro-manager ahead of her somewhere I just know it. The longest tree they sent was about 2 feet tall, most of the others were considerably smaller than that. We planted them across the front yard & I got very frustrated because the trees are all packaged together & not labeled, I can’t tell a Hawthorn’s twig from a Redbud twig (I mostly got these because I wanted redbuds & dogwoods I don’t even know what a Golden Raintree is other than that Liz Taylor vehicle movie Raintree County)

We just planted the trees randomly, I tried not to plant any that had similar looking bark (looking up close the barks on the twigs were different, there were two which had silvery looking bark especially) near each other. We inherited, with the house, a bunch of wire fencing & tree cages to protect them, we set them all up but if we get any more crazy wind like the week before last I’m not hopeful that we’ll still have the tree cages. I’m not holding my breath on the trees in general, I’ve got so much going on all the time, running out there to put boxes or blankets around my trees during an early (or late) frost is very likely not something I’m going to get done much. I’m envisioning that if half the trees make it we’ll be doing well. Given my in-laws experience I know trees can be really sensitive & I know some of us in this house can be really rough!

Speaking of rough, miss 10 has been a real pain in the neck today, hitting people, bellowing when she doesn’t get her way, carrying on & being generally unpleasant, then, at 7 o’clock a friend called & wanted her to go spend the night at their house! As if! an early bedtime is what this child needs. She’s currently got me so mad from the carrying on since I said no about going to a friends house that I’ve set her to vacuuming my living room & I’m getting ready to send her to bed right after that. Mr 7 hasn’t been so fussy but was quite annoyed when I didn’t feel up to going to the creek at the bottom of our hill. I can only do so much in a day & I’m not really the picture of health, he was even more annoyed when I first said we could go Tuesday after school but then remembered that I have all 3 kids scheduled for well-child doctors appointments in tandem this Tuesday, starting at 3:45 & we very likely won’t get home in time to go to the creek then either. The kids are well aware that this Friday is a payday (since I got my most recent raise, at the end of March, I’ve been giving them a $5. every 2 weeks, allowance & they’re very conscious of when it’s ‘due’ to them.) So I had to promise for next Saturday, then I had to convince mr 7 to let the worms go. He got this idea in his head when we were digging holes for the trees & saw the worms in the holes that he could save them, take out his fishing rod & go fishing in the creek while miss 10 & I sat on the bank & watched. Not happening at all, let alone today buddy! This creek is 18 inches deep at it’s deepest & only about 2 feet wide, nothing larger than a minnow is living in there & if there are any minnows in there I’m sure they’re mutant since the name of the creek is ‘Greasy’