Random Life Events

 Tired of moon pictures yet?  Ha.  The moon was even bigger last night.  So huge!  I love a good Fall moon :)

Things continue to be crazy busy around here.  Only one more week of daycare and just until the end of the month to get the rest of the little stuff moved and everything cleaned up.  Then begins my long-hoped-for life as JUST a wife and homeschooling Mama again - Woohoo! Counting the days!

Meanwhile we're all exhausted.  Getting up early to head to town for daycare is catching up with us all - especially when we also have preschool for the 4 year old, football and swimming for the nine year old, and staying up late to put things away or visit with Grandpa who has been a huge help to us with this move.  He headed out this morning to see my niece before heading home.  It's been a great visit.

Last night we squeezed in the last of the moving with his truck, and brought out the toy cabinet, stuffed animal zoo, and kids' book shelf.

So the boys now have toys in the play room.  This area is a sunken room off the living room that we're pretty sure used to be an enclosed porch.  Lets hope it was well insulated :/  Someone painted a fun mural and put up a chalkboard, so they must have used it as a play room too.  It's perfect for us, and I'm enforcing a strict "no toys in any other part of the house" rule. You know me... mean old Mom.

 I'm not sure where the bookshelf will end up yet - somewhere we can easily sit and read (meaning probably near a rocking chair) but I have to think about it.  For now it will be in the play room.

 My daughter let us know that she would be singing in chapel this morning at her Bible college.  That's at 9 am Eastern time, which is 7 am here.  We don't have internet at the new place yet so I had to rouse the troops early to get to town in time to see her.  (She is in the front row - dark hair, red shirt, standing next to the girl in black and directly behind the professor seated on the front row. Don't feel bad if you didn't spot her. I didn't either until I asked her where she had been standing.)

I just loaded them up in their pj's.  The boys watched and tried to find her in the crowd.  The two year old hummed the whole way through the song. :)  He does that all the time. He's very musical and holds a tune very well.
 

We do finally feel like we're starting to get settled in.  I still need to get a few things put away, but for the most part I'm unpacked.  Sure would be nice if the kitchen were a little more "finished."  Unfortunately, this kitchen is considerably smaller than my last one, and I'm having issues finding a place for everything so that I can put everything in it's place.  A lot of what I've already done will have to be re-done.  But one thing at a time.  I've got to finish cleaning out the old place first.

Snow in the Mountains, and a Great Big Moon

 We had a really big full moon last night.  Hard to tell in the pictures but it was so beautiful, and the sky was pink and the mountains blue.  I never get tired of the scenery out here.

When I left home yesterday morning, the clouds had the mountains all socked in so I couldn't see the snow.  That big thunderstorm that knocked out our power dumped quite a bit of snow on the peaks.
 

Looks like it's all still above tree line.

 

 When I went to leave this morning, the moon was still out, just in the west now.  Still huge and beautiful, but this morning there isn't a cloud in sight.  Maybe we're finally done with this wet weather?  Who knows but it definitely "feels" like snow could fly at any moment.

Concentration.  The four year old played with this crane, just sitting quietly in the same place for almost an hour yesterday. He was studying the way the cable works on the bucket.

Well, I better get back to packing and cleaning :(

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

 What crazy weather we've been having!  It's been raining heavily every day and seems to just want to continue.  Last night, we got back home to the new house just in time to have the power go out.  And it stayed out until the wee hours this morning.  I think somewhere around 4 am, but can't swear to it since I was sound asleep lol.

We got home around 6 and thankfully my Dad, who has been visiting to help us with the move, had said before we left town, "Why don't I go by the grocery store and grab some fried chicken for dinner."  So glad he did, or we would have had to go to town for dinner.  As it was, I had a challenging time finding something the two year old could eat (as he is allergic to everything) that didn't require heating, or a can opener (mine is electric. I do have one that isn't ... in one of those yet-to-be-unpacked boxes).  Already at 6, the clouds were so dark that we needed a flashlight to get dinner on the table.  After dinner, my husband ran across the highway to our storage shed where our camper is parked, and picked up our propane lantern.

We stuck the kids in bed early :) and had a nice quiet evening just visiting.  I wanted to get a lot of unpacking done, but I guess God knew I needed a break :)  Anyway, it's still stormy this morning.  Last night we just sat and watched the lightning pop nonstop in all directions.  Pretty awesome fireworks...

Monkey Business

The four year old is doing really well in his preschool.  He got to be the class leader yesterday, and he actually did really well.  This is a huge accomplishment for him.  Being the class leader means you get to be first in line, and you get to lead some activities. The only thing he told me was "She (the teacher) put a tag on me."

A Little Bit of Nature

 We're still in the crazy busyness of moving, so I don't have much to show.  I don't want to reveal home pictures until we are all settled.  And I haven't had time to do anything that isn't moving related (well, aside from the daycare, the nine year old's football practices/games and swimming lessons, carting the four year old to preschool, etc. ha).  So here are some of the few pictures I've taken lately.  Mostly I've taken pictures of things I'm trying to sell as we move.  Not real interesting for most of you.

 The sunrise was beautiful this morning.  The little boys and I headed into town a little earlier than usual and so I snapped a few pictures on the way. I never go anywhere without my camera :)

These last two were from last night.  We've sure had some interesting clouds lately - and interesting weather for that matter.  Tons of rain.  So unusual for us, especially at this time of year.

Pockets, Crazy Weather, and I'm Tired!

I'm going crazy, I think you all should know lol.  Too much going on this month.  Looking forward to October :)  In case you don't know the story, we're in the process of moving from one house to another, still running my licensed home daycare from the old house through the end of the month, then that will be closed for good.  In the mean time, we're already "living" at the new house. Really it just feels like unpacking and sleeping.  I thought it would be nice to have a "leisurely" move over the course of a month, but honestly it's not that easy to pack and clean with a house full of daycare kids.  And I'm wishing it was just DONE.  So that's where I'm at.  I will say we're getting close to being done though, and about half of the daycare kids won't be back next week, so it will be a little easier.

 Meanwhile, Grandpa has been showing the two year old all the great things pockets can be used for :)

He would get the giraffe in his pocket (in a bunch of different ways) then run in circles until it fell out and then have Grandpa put it back in again. It was a riot.

The nine year old had a football game again last night.  The weather was crazy. We live in a desert but you'd never know it this week.  We've had a ton of rain and cool weather. It poured like crazy yesterday afternoon. I called to see if they cancelled the game but they didn't.  So we ran to our dollar store and bought a couple new umbrellas. We brought our lawn chairs because I didn't have a towel left at the old house to dry off the stadium seats.  I couldn't believe we made it through the whole game without getting rained on.

The clouds were really different than we normally see.

This morning the mountains were a beautiful blue.   If you look close you can see snow on the peak of a couple of them.  Not a lot yet, but it won't be long until they're all white.

I am as exhausted as the four year old was this morning.  (See the banana? He didn't even have enough strength to eat it lol).  I've been doing daycare all day, packing and loading stuff, then getting home and staying up late to unpack.  Up early to get all the kids up and ready to head to town, then get to the old house by 7:30 for the daycare kids to arrive.  In other words, burning the candle at both ends.  Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!  I hope I get to. I hear rumors of a Uhaul trailer in my near future...

Looking Like Fall

 It's been rainy and cool here.  In the 40's this morning.  Quite a lot of rain yesterday. This rainbow picture was taken from my porch :)

Back at the old house, the woodpeckers have been moving it.  Can you see this guy - he's got great camo. Look in the lower right of the picture.   The neighbor behind us must be having problems with them too because this morning he was outside in a bathrobe throwing big rocks at his house (a sturdy log cabin).

I love fall colors.

 We're having a lot of fun with Grandpa ... though he may say otherwise - ha.  We've been busy slowly moving from one house to another so he may not be having quite as much fun as he would have if we could have just visited instead.  It's a bit chaotic around here because I still have daycare kids through the end of the month, along with moving...

A Difficult Decision About Preschool

 My four year old started preschool this week.  I know this is a pretty routine decision for most people, but it was a huge thing for me.  We homeschool and I want to continue to homeschool.  But we found out this Spring that this precious little man has autism, and he has four therapists that were coming into the house every week.  I'm fine with that, but they thought he would make more progress by attending The Learning Center - a place where they specialize in special needs.  This picture was from day one.  He was pretty nervous, but excited.

He had a great day (and has had a great week) and it wears him out. :)  (Bonus!)  He has done so much better than we or the therapists ever dreamed.  Already I'm seeing huge changes.  Ultimately, I made the decision equally for my own benefit as for his.  At home he is very clingy and I can't even make dinner without tripping over him.  I don't mind him always being near me, but it does make it a challenge to get much else done.  And I thought that by doing this, his two year old brother could have a little space and attention too, and maybe homeschooling his nine year old brother would go better too.  Plus, he only attends for three hours four days a week, so he's mostly still at home.

 This morning I found him out on our playground equipment with his backpack on.  He told me "I like preschool" and he was ready to go.  Of course it's taking a little getting used to - both for him and for me.  For instance, today I had to come back home to get his shoes...  I still have daycare kids through this month, so we're having to load everyone up to get him to school.  His brother was supposed to get his shoes, which he did ... and then left them sitting in the house.  Oh well.  At least for now we're close to the school - ha.  It's been great having Bugga (Grandma) nearby.  She has helped by either staying with the daycare kids during nap time when I have to pick him up, or she picks him up and brings him home.  Things will be so much simpler when the daycare is closed.  For now, I'm appreciating the extra income.  Next week starts up our homeschool group's swimming lessons.  I had kind of hoped the daycare kids would all have new homes by then so I could take the two year old to the Aqua-Tot class, but it's not going to work.  The lessons are at the same time as the four year old's preschool, so it would have been perfect.  They are planning on doing another session in October though, so we should be able to join that group :)  The nine year old will attend the first classes.

By the way, in the picture above, little Tom Sawyer told me that stick was a fishing pole.  His imagination has grown by leaps and bounds even just this week.  He had a stuffed animal wrapped in his blanket this morning and told me, "It's a baby. It's a boy." (the blanket was blue).  And there's been a lot of talk about "I'll be the Dad."  Even though we have daycare kids here every day, they mostly don't play house.  So it's fun to see how fast he's adapting.  He even voluntarily washed his hands WITH SOAP!  I can't tell you what a huge accomplishment that is for him.  A symptom of his autism is that he's very sensitive to different textures - slimy soap being the thing that sets him off faster than anything.  They learned all about germs the first day and everyone else washed their hands.  He refused.  But later, he told his "inclusion specialist" (she is his personal shadow for the time being) that he needed to get the germs off his hands -and he washed them ... with soap :)  Such a big step.  And we're only on day four today!!