Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Tuesday

Met the neighbors today. You know, the ones whose horse we've been taking care of now for, 1, 2, 3, 4...17 days now.

Funny thing though, they didn't mention the horse, but I did.

I am being a bit overly dramatic about the horse. Quite honestly it's not been a bother. It's not like I've been feeding it, because I wouldn't. We did realize Sunday though she was back on her own property and neither of us put her there. She'd need to be taken through the goat's pasture to access it so we figured someone finally came and got her. She's not too happy about being there. I never did call them, figured eventually someone would come and call on her or we'd sell her and say we didn't know a thing about any horse. We financed cats, not a horse!

Speaking of cats, I've seen them a total of probably 5 times. They come around for sure, their food bowls is emptied. Suppose it could be wild critters but I doubt these cats are ever going to come around.

Guess what? Remember how I said the school bus picks the children up on the road? Well, get this, she's now driving up in the driveway and dropping them off (and picking Rachel up) practically at the door step! Mrs. B. was having quite a hard time from the looks of it backing in every morning and every afternoon.

I had been working in the basement, came up stairs thinking the children should be home soon. Hadn't heard the bus back up beeping so decided to go out front and wait for them when I opened the front door and there was a big yellow bus in the wraparound drive! How's that for door to door service?

We'll see how that goes this winter. She said she doesn't like to pull into people's drive because it can make ruts. Our driveway seems to drain just fine (the whole property does in fact) so hopefully it'll be fine for her to just pull around twice a day for the entire year. It seems kinda funny to have a big yellow school bus pulling around our driveway!

Jeremiah says the kids are being a pain in the rear end this evening. I told him I'm taking the night off meaning he gets the bathing and teeth duty.

I wrote a list today of all the things I'd like to get accomplished. Sad to say most of them are household duties! I marvel at the fact that anything around the house gets done with both Mom and Dad work. I just don't see how!

I made a super easy, super delicious homemade bread today. Jo (my friend) has been following the recipes from Artisan Breads In 5 Minutes A Day for a while now. I've known about the book and technique for some time, just haven't gotten around to doing it. I changed my recipe from their master recipe a bit but overall it's the same basic principle. It has yeast, so it isn't a quick bread BUT it doesn't require kneading. There is logic behind why it doesn't need it (no pun intended), and I can't remember exactly why, but if I remember right it had something to do with the fact that the dough is much wetter than a traditional kneaded dough.

I made enough for 4 loaves and really, it was just so quick and easy. NO KNEADING REQUIRED. I baked 2 and I'll be honest with you. I ate practically a whole fricken loaf all by myself almost as soon as it came out of the oven. The whole reason I made the bread in the first place is because I ran out of bread for lunches and here I was eating what was supposed to be for dinner and lunch tomorrow! Oops. I say that like it was an accident, it wasn't, not at all.

The rest of the dough will sit raw in the fridge. It should pick up a bit of a sourdough-y zing. I'll bake those tomorrow into loaves or maybe turn them into pizza dough for dinner. Wish I had tried this technique long ago. I put eggs and a bit of sugar into my dough, something the recipe didn't call for. It turned out a bit like brioche (a french buttery eggy bread). After I we got a hold of it for dinner, there is just enough left for tomorrow's lunch. Phew!

I didn't get as far on my "to do" list as I would have liked today. I did manage to finish getting the popcorn crap off the basement ceiling yesterday. I tried to start priming it today but I should have wiped it down with a wet cloth to remove all the dust because the primer isn't wanting to stick. I'm just making a mess of it so stopped 1/4 of the way through and will pick it up again tomorrow.

I did start tearing off the paneling on the walls though today. Fortunately for me it's just nailed and not glued. I had thought about just priming and painting it but hell, if I am going to do it, I may as well do it right. Oye, why do projects always turn into something so much bigger than they originally start out as!? Now I am thinking of faux painting the concrete floor to look like tile. I don't know how ambitious I'll be about that by the time I get done with the ceilings and walls.

Jeremiah is doing well. Coming along with a totally unique, totally personalized lesson plan has been a bit challenging. I know there's so much I should catch you all up on in regards to that but I'm not real sure exactly how to explain it.

Long story short is that his entire morning from about 8 AM to 10:30 is taken up by a single class with a short break. He has those same students all morning. They are a mixture of totally green to welding to 2nd year students. It came as a total shock to him! He is working with someone who specialized in lesson planning (I think that's her job) and they've devised a way to teach to such a wide variety of levels without talking over anyone's head or boring any one else.

Jeremiah's spent a lot of time putting this together and I am sure after this year it will be a lot easier for him. I am also sure that as time progresses he'll revise it, add to it, take away, etc. The first year is the hardest.

We just realized the phone we plugged in over the weekend had the ringer turned off! God, I swear I feel like such an idiot! The school nurse called my cell phone today and left a voicemail. For those of you who don't know, our cell gets horrible reception at the house. So I called her back and left her a message to call me at the house and that I would be in all afternoon. I had wondered why she had called the cell when she had the number to the house. Well, gee wiz, NO WONDER!! I think the people at the school from the school bus driver to the school nurse thinks I am an idiot because it appears that I haven't got a clue on the phone issue!

Time for bed in middle America.

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