Solving the library movie problem

There are some irritations in life that happen over and over again.  Once I've "had enough", I start brainstorming how to remove the irritation.  Library movies was one of those irritations.  The kids love to check out library movies.  There is a limit of 10 movies checked out per library card and it's not uncommon for several children to be maxed out.  That's a lot of movies to keep track of.  And, some of those movies are "educational" and cost about $80. 

With all those movies floating around the house, it's inevitable that movies go missing.  Once the children's cards are blocked by overdue movies, it's time to find them.  The kids look for a few minutes and throw up their hands in defeat, leaving me to scour the house in hopes of finding missing movies and cases.  I've spent hours looking for movies.  I've paid for too many missing movies.  And, I've had enough.  I got my old tool box that I used to fill with supplies when I was a cub scout den leader, added a padlock, and turned it into a movie lock box.  When the movies come home from the library, they go into the tool box.  The kids can have one movie out at a time.  When they want a new movie, they have to bring me the one that's "checked out" from the box.  I keep a small notebook and pencil in the box so I can write down what movie is currently out in the house.  The kids finally have motivation to find the missing movie. 

It doesn't take much work from me to keep it going.  I just have to confiscate the movies as they come home from the library and the kids do the rest.  Hooray for getting rid of one more irritation!  It's the next best thing to having our own personal Redbox in the house.  (Believe me when I say I really truly have contemplated it!)  Now if I could just figure out how to: always have a full gas tank, keep the hall closet door closed, get the milk put away immediately when someone is done with it, .............

10/17-10/25

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

William's class had a field trip to a local pumpkin patch on Tuesday and I went along as a helper.  There are nine children in his class and there were 7 adults helping.  It was almost enough!  William and I were paired up with one of his classmates.   They enjoyed the hay ride, bouncy house, meeting the farm animals, playing on old tractors, and finally picking out a pumpkin.  I was gone from home for a little less than three hours and Elizabeth (who was home doing school work in theory) called me five times!

William's class

His main teacher is the blond woman with a black shirt,

the other two ladies are para-educators in his class

Mexican Pack

I'm having such fun using the items we got in the Mexican Pack with the co-op last Saturday.  I made delicious green sauce chicken enchiladas, fresh pico de gallo, and tried chayote squash for the first time, first sauteed and then as a thick soup.  Yum!  I did learn a weird thing about chayote squash though (also called "vegetable pear" or "mirlitin".  I peeled a few for the soup I was making and the hand that held the peeled squash had a strange reaction.  My skin instantly felt hard and dried out.  It didn't hurt, it was just really really dry, like thick leather.  Lots of lotion that night and all day the next and my hand was back to normal.  I found this on google, "The skin of chayote contains a resin that can be extremely drying to the skin and is nearly impossible to wash off. The resin dissolves the oils of the skin immediately on contact. If you have sensitive or dry skin, take the precaution of wearing rubber or latex gloves before peeling and chopping the squash".   Dode says we really shouldn't be eating things that will do that!  So, if you ever cook a chayote, you've been warned!

Anastaya's Cross Country Race
On Wednesday afternoon, William, Elizabeth and I went out to River Meadows Park to support Anastaya in her cross country. The kids enjoyed cheering for her and it was fun to run into people from the area who I usually only see at day camp or the produce co-op.

Anastaya's coach made all the students tie-dye shirts for their uniform

1/2 way through the race

approaching the finish line

Anastaya's time for 1.62 miles

Piano Lessons
Last week, Anastaya and Isaac started up their piano lessons.  They are in a group class and attend at the same time.  It might not end up working out.  There is a lot of competition between those two and it can quickly turn ugly.  Then, this Thursday, Elizabeth and I started lessons.  One of my friends is teaching us.  It was funny because her son who is Isaac's age came home during my lesson and he sure did a double take to see me sitting on the bench getting a lesson!  Now I just have to find out how to squeeze practice time into my days.

Corn Maze
Saturday we went to Foster's Corn Maze on Hwy 530 between Arlington and the freeway.  We've been going for years.  I remember going while pregnant with Elizabeth and she's 10 this year.  As usual, the kids gave up before we found everything hidden in the maze but they still had fun.  One of the things the kids like at Foster's is their trained goat.  He has a ramp that takes him from his pen to the 2nd story of a false front building.  When you put his food in the tin cup, he'll pull up the rope until he eats out of the cup.  We had a few extra kids with us, Seth, Ellie, and Isaac Colson.  Jacob stayed home.

which way should we go?

the amazing goat

our group, minus the photographer (Dode)

Seth, Miriam, William, Elizabeth, Ellie

Seth peeking out

Busy Times
We watched Seth and Ellie for Sheri on Friday and Saturday.  Isaac Colson also came over Friday/Saturday.  So, we had nine children roaming around for two days.  It was a busy house, but glorious chaos.  Kids were playing everywhere, enjoying our circular floor plans, building things with legos, laughing, bouncing on bouncy toys, and doing a bit of crying. 

Isaac and Anastaya spent hours riding around on the motorbikes with Big Isaac.  Seeing them out there riding around, it's hard to believe we live inside the city limits in a light industrial area.

Miriam found a new use for her play food.

If you look closely, this spells "Miriam"

(the "a" is backwards and the last letter is a little "m" with an extra tail in the front)

                                                        It was also time for pumpkin carving.

Dode hard at work babysitting Ellie

Oliver

taken a few days before he died

Our cat Oliver died yesterday.  We've had him for over 12 years.  He was fully grown when we got him, free as a cast off left at a local vet, so I have no idea how old he truly was.  Dode picked him out because he was big and fat, figuring he'd be a nice mellow cat.  He was nothing special to look at, just a black cat with a white spot on his chest.  But, he's been a fixture around the house all these years.  Yesterday I was gone for about an hour, and when I came home he was really struggling to breathe and had lost the use of his left from leg.  Later that night at the emergency vet, I made the decision to euthanize him.  Such a hard thing to do!  We shouldn't have to make decisions about things we love based on finances!  He was always around, I could hardly sit down without him jumping into my lap.  I keep catching myself looking for him.  Sweeping up the cat food, throwing away the food bowl, it was tough.  I found quite a few photos of him.  He was our "prayer cat" who always joined the family for nightly prayer.  The kids are grieving.  Miriam says she's just not going to think about it.  Elizabeth says she never wants another pet (Oliver was our only pet.).  William doesn't really understand what dead means.  I worry most about Anastaya and what feelings Oliver's death might bring up.  But, I also know that having her go through the grieving process again is healthy.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.

There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.

There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

10/10-10/16

Hot Tub
Last weekend, Dode was able to get the hot tub up and going.  We used water from the stream to fill the tub.  This makes a huge difference because our well water is full of iron.  When we put chlorine in the water to sanitize it, the iron turns brown.  With the stream water, it stays clear.  Hooray!  Unfortunately, we were having a big rain storm over the weekend so the water we used has quite a bit of debris in it.  At least it's not the color of root beer!  Now we get the fun of a trail of water from the hot tub to the bathroom and never being able to find a clean towel because they've all been used and thrown in a heap by the kids. 

 Shots
Monday I took three of the kids to the doctor.  Two well child appointments plus a tag-a-long equals 5 shots.  (3 flu + chicken pox + Hep. A)  I was feeling like quite a pro as I deftly contained each child in turn in a "teddy bear" embrace for their shots.  Wednesday, Anastaya and I got our flu shots while grocery shopping.  I was back on Friday with Jacob for his shot.  Isaac has a bad cold right now so I can't get him his until he's better.  At our house, each bandage from an immunization yields $1.  This helps on two fronts.  1.  The kids get a bonus.  2.  The kids give me their bandage in order to get their money so the used bandage can go directly in the trash instead of being left somewhere waiting for the unwary to find it, yuck! 

Cross Country

Thursday, Jacob had a cross country meet in Marysville.  He knew the family was coming to watch him.  When we got there, he announced that he would not be running because he couldn't find his running shoes.  I let him know that he would indeed be running.  We did not drive all the way out to see him stand around.  The shoes he had on were a couple sizes too big but that's how he likes to wear them.  He decided to just run barefoot.  He did pretty good barefoot and even beat his last time by a few seconds. 

waiting for the race

for some reason, he didn't think these shoes would work

our barefoot runner

even barefoot on the slippery wet grass, he beat his old time

Produce Co-Op

I'm sure you're all bored with reading about the co-op, but here's some more information.  This has been a week of intense learning and study for Dode and I.  I've never played around much with spreadsheets but this week, I've been doing it a lot.  Using formulas, formatting pages, sorting spreadsheets, none of it comes easy for me.  Thank goodness for google.  When I get stumped, I can just google, "How can I make the header print on each page?" and I'm back in business! 

We're using google's new store gadget on my website and as an early adopter, have encountered a flaw.  An individual can place an item in their cart and leave it there.  The next day, they can come back to my site and order the item, even though my site says it's out of stock.  In this way, three people ordered after my inventory reflected zero amounts.  You might wonder why it matters as I don't order the produce until I receive all the orders.  Well, produce divides out really well in groups of 12.  The cases often have 12 or 24 items.  If I have 72 baskets and get one more order, I need to buy an entire box of lettuce just to get that extra person a lettuce, and now have 11 lettuces left to divide out among the 73 participants.  That doesn't work!  "Here's your three leaves..."  So, I need to be able to cut people off at a certain point.  I'd put my count at 70 so I was able to absorb two of the extra orders but I had to call the last one and let her know it wasn't going to work.  She knew it was out of stock when she ordered it so she was understanding. 

It was fun to create my baskets and I hope people like them.  The produce company salesman had to call me and clarify if all my orders were going to be that big (over $2,000).  I told him, yes and that I even turned people away.  I think when he heard what I was doing, he thought I was a much smaller co-op.  Not so!  Then, he had to call and ask me what time the truck drops off my produce.  "5:30", I say.  Incredulously he asks, "In the morning?"  When else?  He said I could keep that delivery time, lucky me!  I'm really hoping that now that I've built my spreadsheet templates, processing the orders and printing out all the paperwork for Saturday mornings will be easier.  We'll see!  The best thing is, we're sleeping in next Saturday because the co-op is now every other week.  If you're interested in seeing some of what I've been doing, my web site is Arlington Produce Co-Op. 

Misc.

Elizabeth and I are learning about immigration this month in history.  I read her the book, The Memory Coat, and found it very touching.  Apparently Elizabeth did too.  I came back after about 20 minutes to find her sobbing on the couch.  When I asked what was wrong, she told me she felt so badly for the Russian Jews and the children who were conscripted into the army at 9 and 10 years old. 

Saturday was Isaac/Dad day.  They were able to get the two Trail 90's running well enough to go trail riding up in Anacortes.  Isaac can't enjoy anything without trying to talk to you so Dode spent a lot of time smiling and nodding, but not hearing anything.  They road the trails for about 15 miles.  There's still some work to do on one of the bikes, now it's an electrical problem.  Isaac is learning a lot about motorcycles while helping his dad get the bikes going.

Yesterday was "one of those days".  Dode left the house at 7:45 am and basically returned at 9:15 pm.  During that time, I sat by him for 30 minutes at church, talked with him between meetings for about 3 minutes, and fed him when he popped in for dinner.  But, it was worth it because he fulfilled his responsibilities at church and got to catch up with his cousin, Greg.

October 3-9

Cross Country Feast

Monday night, Jacob came home from Cross Country practice to announce that he'd told the team it was ok to come to our house the following evening for a spaghetti feed.  (They have a carb loading fest every Tuesday to prepare for their meets on Thursdays.)  I asked what it would require.  Nothing much.  Just providing spaghetti, plates, forks and seating for 40 of his team mates.  Tuesdays nights are pretty busy around here because that's when we pick up and stuff 1,200 Arlington Times newspapers.  Tuesdays are also youth night at church, and while the children are attending their activities, Dode and I usually deliver 500 papers.  Jacob had told his team that we would host the spaghetti feed on a Tuesday night and had given us 24hrs notice!  But, this is our child who has spent years keeping his friends away from his embarrassing family.  If Jacob is willing to bring his friends around, we're willing to make adjustments to our schedule.

We have quite a bit of food storage so I knew it wouldn't be a problem to whip up the spaghetti but when I went to cook, I found that we only had 4 pounds left of our 20 pounds of spaghetti noodles.  (Time to go to Cash and Carry!)  We have noodles stored in #10 cans, but I hate to use them.  So, to supplement the spaghetti, I made a way too large pasta salad and cooked a frozen lasagna.  Practice is over at 5:30, the high school is a five minute drive from us,  and when no one had shown up by 6:00, I was starting to think it wasn't happening.  Food for 50+ people was out on the counter, ready to go, but there was only our family to eat it.  To make matters worse, we'd had spaghetti for dinner Monday night.  The thought of eating all that new spaghetti was not appealing to anyone but William.  Jacob had neglected to tell us that practice that night was at River Meadows park, a 20 minute drive from here.  When the youth started arriving, I heard lots of exclamations of how cool our house is.  Jacob, who thinks our house is boring, outdated, and filled with too many small children, got to see it in another light.  Elizabeth complained that everywhere she went, there were teenagers. 

The kitchen, living room, tv room, hall, tree house, zip line, basketball hoop, porch swing, fire pole, trampoline, deck and tetherball were all overtaken by youth.  The youth enjoyed themselves and say they want to have another party here.  I told Jacob they are very welcome.  I brought 75% of the pasta salad I'd made to school the next day with a sign to "please help me out and eat some" and most of it was consumed.  It only contained about $5.00 worth of ingredients but I HATE to throw food away. 

Crows

There aren't many more irritating sounds when you're camping than a flock of crows greeting the morning.  I also don't appreciate it when they pick through our garbage cans waiting for pick up at the end of the driveway and scatter trash everywhere.  But, I have really been enjoying some crows I pass on the way to school.  There is something ripening in the trees along the street that the crows like to eat.  I can't tell if it's a fruit or a nut, but whatever it is, it has a thick outside the crows can't penetrate.  Working in teams, they drop their food on the road and stand on the sidewalk waiting for a car to run it over and squish it.  Then, they swoop in and pick up their prize.  I smile each time I see them.  They're using me as a tool to get at the tasty food.  Amazing! I've been tempted to pull over and steal their treat, just to see their reaction.  If I did it enough times, I could probably get them to consider every little white van the enemy.  Crows are one of the most intellegent species of birds.  Birdology by Sy Montgomery has an interesting chapter on crows.

Halloween Decorating
We used to do "Trunk-or-Treat" at the church.  Everyone would park at the church parking lot and hand out candy to the children.  We liked to decorate our van and had lights we could run off our inverter.  We aren't doing a trunk-or-treat anymore but still have the lights.  I decided to use them to do a little decorating at the house. Miriam and William are thrilled by it.

                         I pushed nails into a crack along the top of the cabinets and lay the wires on the nails.

These candy corn lights make the bathroom seem to be lit by candlelight.

                                                       Miriam chose to do this decorative element.

Produce Co-Op

Changes are coming to the produce co-op, instigated by me.  I've been frustrated from the beginning with the lack of communication at the co-op leaders.  When I have a problem, I have been unable to get anyone to call me back.  Then, for weeks on end, they shorted us hundreds of dollars each week.  That made me mad!  Then, it seemed that every week we were getting the same stuff.  The big reason I do the co-op is to get a variety of produce.

So, I decided to break away and form my own co-op.  Which means, it's time for Dode and I to learn all about e-commerce (buying and selling things over the internet).  Making a web site is easy, adding a shopping cart is a piece of cake.  Figuring out how to automatically control the ordering and inventory is taking a bit more study.  One of my concerns was how to keep too many people from ordering each time.  With forming my own co-op, I've dropped down to every other week.  There are over 200 people currently participating in the co-op, which has been operating weekly.  Some people participate every week, some every other, and some once a month.   I only have room for 100 each time.  (100 people is pushing it!  Everyone shows up right at 8:00 and there is often gridlock.  We've got lots of room for parking, the bottleneck is 100 feet of one way driveway.  Dode has found it quite entertaining to watch the jockeying and directing people do as they try to get in and out.)    I thought I was going to have to keep going in to my google account and web site  counting up my orders and somehow  disable my shopping cart once I'd reached driveway capacity.  Google just came out with a new shopping cart gadget which is a huge help.  I was able to create a spreadsheet at Google docs with my inventory (basket limit).  Each time an order comes in through Google checkout, it updates my spreadsheet.  Once the limit is reached, it won't let any more orders through.  I'm really excited about that.   

Now we need to figure out how to use the order information received by google checkout to automatically make a spreadsheet of who ordered and what they ordered.  Currently, I need to view each order and transfer the information to a spreadsheet manually.  So far, we're still looking for a solution.   I'd sure accept help from anyone who has experience with this!  Anyone? 

This will take only some of the work out of running the co-op.    I will receive an order sheet from the produce company each co-op cycle with current prices and availability.  I need to match up how many people ordered with produce to equal that amount.  Lots of people say that receiving produce from the co-op is exciting as opening a gift Christmas morning.  I have just transitioned over from a person receiving the gifts to getting to be Santa Claus!

Trail 90

We currently have three Trail 90 motor bikes at our house.  One runs great, one not so great, and one has been in pieces for almost the entire 14 years of our marriage and is now being used as a parts bike.  It's a big dream of Isaac's for Dode and he to be able to take them out to Walker Valley and ride the trails.  Saturday Dode and Isaac spent time in the garage removing the motor from the bike that doesn't run well.  When they got it on the work bench, they learned that it sucks air in through the carburetor (like it is suppose to) and then immediately pushes some of it back out through the carburetor (not the way is is suppose to).  Read that last sentence as, it has major internal problems that will require a great deal of work.  Dode and Isaac took the engine off the parts bike and put it on the other bike.  It appears to this engine itself is functioning correctly short of a problem of not having a spark.  They ran out of time and will have to fix that on a different day.  Dode wishes he had the time to really tear into the bad engine to show Isaac how an engine works and how to repair one but it's not on the "must do" list.

Misc.

Jacob had a cross country meet out at River Meadows park this week.  I wrote the wrong time down for when he was running so by the time I got there, he was already done!  Do I get points for trying?  Friday was teacher in service so we got a three day weekend.  It felt great!  An extra day to relax and enjoy,  too bad Dode had to work. Then, on Saturday I missed another of Jacob's meets.  One Saturday had a race time of 1:20 and another 11:20.  I was looking at the wrong Saturday when I mapped out my day.  Dode and I were stuck at the bank opening a business account for the co-op while Jacob was running his race.  We realized it when we got home.  Do I still get points if I mess up twice in one week?