Defluffing the Pig

Sometimes a pig just gets too furry . . . his shaggy hair picks up woodchips and hay . . . he doesn't smell his best . . . and for the price of a carrot, he gets a 50 percent removal of accumulated fluff :) It is also a good time for a bath, nail trim, and eye brow trim. Spa day for the piggies! And Chauncey :)

Heroic Publishing

Last Christmas, I saw these cool book kits online. The author/illustrator designs a comic book on the special paper included in the package and then the completed project gets shipped back to the company for publishing. It took Gabby a year of on-and-off attention to complete her comic book. It was interesting to see the way her artistic style changed and her skills grew during that time. Her Chibi art phase was apparent mid-range :) 


I have a hard time following the storyline of any and all comic books, because the little word blurbs are really background information to the pictures, and I don't do a great job at reading pictures. However, Gabby's pictures showed a lot of motion, action, and expression, so for the most part I could keep up with what was happening. She chose bright colors and interesting characters. I think it was worth all the hard work!

Another cool feature is, if you absolutely love it, you can order additional printed copies of your book or comic book. She found a few mistakes here and there (I didn't notice them), so I'm not sure we'll be doing a bulk reprinting, but such a cool memento of her enjoyment of drawing and writing!

Fashionable Finishes

I'm a bit behind in updating--I say that all the time, don't I? :) Caelan found this fabric on sale and couldn't wait to make it into a dress for herself, with sleeves and everything! It turned out really cute and several of the ladies at church complimented her on it.



She also finished the (yet-to-be-delivered) blanket project! I think she had five giant rolls of blanket yarn and it took her about one day per roll . . . one loooooong day per roll. Caelan liked the finished product so much that we went back for more. Technically the sale was over, but they still had the same signs up, so they honored the discounted price. They even threw in an extra $5 off since her other coupon wouldn't work due to all the special price adjustments. She chose yarn that matches her bedroom, so that will be fun! She also bought some more washcloth yarn for an additional order. Those things have been pretty popular this season :) 

Pleasant Pheasant Hunting

Hello! Guest blogger Gabby here to document our pleasant pheasant...hunt.:)

Last year we went pheasant hunting with our neighbors, but we didn't see much, and didn't harvest anything. Also, it was bitter cold. 

The same neighbors invited us to go again this year. We looked at the 50 degree forecast, and we said, "YES PLEASE!" 

We were invited the day before they planned to hunt, so we didn't have to wait too long! Brennen, Graysen, and I were all excited for the hunt, but Caelan decided to stay at home.




We didn't have to get up too early (6:30) so that was nice! We bundled up in layers even though it was projected to be nice, and hit the road at 7:15. We followed our neighbor to pick up a friend of his, and then on to his family's property. We brought the boys' friend 'I' in our car, and they were laughing the whole drive. Dad and I were still not fully awake, so we just listened to them, and tried to wake ourselves up. 




Our first pheasant hunting spot was a grassy field with a strip of trees down the center. There were three hunters and four kids, so we spread two kids between each hunter in hopes of kicking up some birds. And we did! We saw three hens (of course we can't shoot those...) which was as much as we saw total last year. Graysen and I picked up a few interesting things on the tromp through the woods; hence this mushroom! (It was orange, and I liked it! I didn't eat it of course;)



We went to a couple more spots, but still only saw hens, so we tried a new strategy. The boys and I stayed with Dad and posted while the other three people we were with went down and around the field to try and rustle something up. They didn't rustle up the hoped for roosters, but they did take a couple shots at grouse! And they scared three or four deer which bounded quickly away before we could get a good look. 

We had a couple minutes before we went to the next spot, so we hung out in the Nitro and ate our snacks. Graysen was our snack packer and he was not stingy! The food was very much appreciated, and so were the waters. He made good food choices!

The second to last spot we were in seemed promising. There was water, tall grass, and movement. We scared a few pheasants up, and tried to sneak up on them. However, the dog that was with us got away and scared the pheasants even further away. I grabbed the dog a little too late, and we tried to find the birds again. We only scared hens. 

Our very last spot was a swatch of tall grass in the center of a cornfield. We were all pretty warm, and didn't really expect to see anything; it was more of a companionable walk than a hunt. 

We didn't see anything at this spot, but total bird sightings tallied about 16. 15 hens, one rooster. And the "rooster" might've been a hen. That's approximately 5x what we saw last year. Pretty good!

We had a lot of fun! It gave us a chance to hang out with our neighbors, take an extended walk in the outdoors, and I got to learn how to walk in heavy duty boots.:) (but really though; I'd never worn real boots before and it was an adjustment!) I sure hope we can go again next year!



(This random Nitro picture is brought to you by watching too many car commercials ;) I saw the Nitro parked on a rise, with the sun shining dramatically on it, and I thought "Oh, that looks like a car commercial!" So I took a picture :D)

Knitting Night

Our home group for church has a pattern of meeting that is sometimes very sudden. Like, "We're not meeting until the second week in January for Christmas break. Just kidding! We all want to hang out, we've got about eight hours to put something together, let's invite everyone we can think of and see who shows up." For this reason, we keep our Thursday nights open :)

There has been a lot of interest among the ladies in the different circles of church, homeschool, and small group who want to learn skills from each other. There are jewelry makers, paper crafters, embroiderers, painters, sewers, crochet-ers and of course, knitters.

As the text went out for the guys to gather at a deli in town, a similar text went out to lots of ladies to come for crafting night number one--knitting! I gave myself a refresher course earlier in the day, because I haven't knitted in a long time. Buck and I drove separately (he was giving several other guys' night fellows a ride), because I didn't intend to stay very late. We'd had a youth leaders' meeting the night before and it went an hour longer than I expected. Normally, I enjoy diving into all the social stuff, but I had a lingering headache for about three days (probably because I ate sugar on New Year's so my body had to go through the detox process again). Expecting a packed house full of sick kids (there is sooooo much ill in the hood right now!), I had my exit strategy pre-planned and the kids pre-informed of expected departure time.

But then just a handful of ladies arrived to learn to knit (probably due to the last minute invite), and it was so calm and chill. The kids all separated into their pockets of age range. The girls were upstairs playing, the boys went outside to play football on the trampolines, the littles watched Justin Time on a video screen in the room next to us . . . very different than what I was expecting! I didn't want to start any projects and Caelan's current project is huge, so we were on hand to help teach. I made myself a cup of very berry tea (I don't really like tea from a tea bag source, but this was pink and cute and I actually drank maybe half of it :), and sat down to chat and teach and cheer for the learners (who were pretty excited, like I was to accomplish making fabric!)

Mrs. K and her kids were there, too! This was fun, they aren't part of our current small group, although it sounds like Pastor D is recruiting them :) Mr. K went with Buck and the guys to the deli, and they talked for a couple of hours. Buck got home about 45 minutes after the kids and I did.

I think these craft nights will continue once each month while the guys are meeting and the ladies are not, but now are :) Ha! Tricky, but it works. Super glad we've found this friend group. Again, one of the reasons I didn't want to switch churches was because I have enough friends. Well, God knows better. You can never have too many friends in His family :)

Chauncey's Silent Plea

No, you may not have a little brother . . . I don't care how cute that puppy on your Christmas card from Grandma is or how long you stare at it from your bed. No puppies, pal! Lol :)

Happy New Year

Our friends invited the Crew--all four of them--to spend the night and ring in the New Year at their place. This was decidedly odd for Buck and myself, being home alone with no kids for the first time since the kids started arriving. We dropped the Crew off at 4 p.m. and then were like, "What now?" What do people with no child care responsibilities do on a holiday known for excessive celebration?


So, we drove to the new home décor store in town and wandered the (messy) endless aisles. Wrapping paper was 50% off; I got some with lamas on it, wearing Christmas lights on their backs. Oh, and we bought this super cool Mr. Clean toilet plunger/brush combo for our bathroom. No more carrying dripping ick down the hallway between cleanings!

So far I think we're killing it on this whole NYE thing! Lol :)

Buck, wisely called for reservations at the restaurant at which we'd decided we wanted to eat . . . but they only took "call ahead seating." Uhhh . . . this secured, not a reservation mind you, but call ahead seating, we finished looking at pillows and overpriced furniture, and found a few organization things for our pots and pans situation (and it IS a situation) in the kitchen. The nice lady with no teeth who did not fit the "vibe" of the place gave me a January birthday in her computer system so I could get a 10% off coupon faster :) I never give my real birthday online anyway, so I was fine with this.

It turned out that we still had time to stop by another store (I won't name names :) because it's the only place I can buy my Sparkling Ice water in bulk--and it was on instant rebate, bonus! We also bought the frozen rolls we like that only seem to be sold there. The $15 splurge was a new blanket for the basement. It's cold down here, and we have a homemade quilt and a Christmas-prize blanket from a work event (both older than most of our children) that all six of us try to get to first. For my small group gift exchange, I found a super soft, fluffy, cuddly blanket for like $12. Why I didn't get one for myself, IDK. However, when said small group friend had sick kids and did not show up for the gift exchange, I seriously considered keeping her gift and trying to find her something else :) Buck said, "Just buy that soft blanket, right there for you." Oh, okay! That actually makes sense, and I don't have to dip into my new llama wrapping paper for a rewrap ;)

We arrived at the restaurant earlier than we intended, but for those who didn't have "call ahead seating" the wait was well over 1.5 hours (at 5 p.m.!) There were people storming out the door when they found out how long the wait was, and the poor hostess lady couldn't do anything about that. When we were seated about 40 minutes later (we arrived pretty early, as I said), the hostess lady said they'd had a wait since 3 p.m.! Whoa! Buck and I enjoyed our steak and potatoes (sweet for me) dinner, and then decided we had room for Starbucks--especially because we had Christmas gift cards with us :)

I think it was before seven when we arrived home and pajamaed it up. I started texting the children, who were oblivious to my checking in on them for hours. My friend S sent me updates and pictures . . . video games, baking, board games, movies, and of course, Caelan knitting (she was trying to finish the blanket the friend she was visiting had ordered--she was even working on it in school the other day!)









Because we were already in our pajamas and really didn't want to leave the house for a Redbox, Buck and I rented a movie from Direct TV Cinema--$5.99 was pretty steep for not even being in HD, and the movie was awful (The House with the Clock in Its Walls). I would NOT recommend it. Very spiritually yucky. We figured Jack Black would be funny, ummm, well, he had his moments, but so not my jam. We also watched football, and tried to understand the bits and pieces of music acts and revelry depicted in the New Year's Eve celebrations on TV. We might be old, but I was not impressed. We also missed the ball drop because we were watching Lin-Manuel Miranda talk about Mary Poppins Returns on a rerun of Jimmy Fallon's show. Oops!

The apartments up the road made sure we knew it was midnight, by lighting off some minor fireworks. This put Chauncey into a state of panic and required closeness. The whole house, literally the entire house, empty except for the corner of the couch Buck and I were sitting upon . . . and there was the dog too. Seriously :)

I'm told the Crew stayed up until 1:30 a.m. and then mostly (not Caelan) awoke by 7:30. Mr. M flipped pancakes for them to catch in the kitchen for breakfast (their favorite staying at the M's house tradition), and they were still there for pizza at noon!

(My interpretation of Graysen's face in the midnight picture was that he didn't like the Sparkling Cider, lol :)





When the kids arrived home, they all just settled back into their books and online story writing groups and I read one of the King Arthur books I haven't gotten to yet since last year. Pretty chill, pretty quiet, but I'm pretty okay with that :)

ADDENDUM: Chauncey has caught onto the pattern of "packing." When the bags and suitcases, pillows and sleeping bags appear in the living room, he knows he's either getting ditched or going on an adventure. He watched the kids' stuff piling up, but he didn't get called for a solo adventure in "dad's car," so he figured he was invited to the upcoming party. When the kids grabbed their gear and headed for the van, he did his usual joyful leap from house to garage . . . and almost face-planted into the closed van door. Buck said, "No, you're not going," and sent the dog back in the house. Chauncey again sprang for the door (he's not really a springer, he's usually very chill). Again, Buck sent him back inside. Poor dog, he'd never seen the combo of bags in the van, but *you're not invited* before. I think he was pretty happy when Buck and I came home not too long after. He kind of scowled at us though, like, "Aren't you forgetting something?" Then he would sit at the end of the hall and bark at the kids' rooms, like, "Yeah, remember the people who go in here? Where are they?!" Funny what creatures of habit and order animals can be :)