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.