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This afternoon was filled with the joyful glee of harvest time. It began with an innocent mention of the fact of many ripe tomatos on the vines. Kiki snatched this bit of information and went a-harvesting. Patches, Gleek, Link, and a neighbor boy all went with her.

I was downstairs deep in concentration on a sewing project when I became aware of the sound of children very close to my window well. They had discovered that tomatos shoved through the window well grate made a satisfying splat sound upon landing. At first it was only rotten tomatos, but by the time I ran upstairs to call the game to a halt every tomato their hands touched was being declared “rotten”. Even the green ones.

I chased the swarm of children away from the nigh barren tomato plants, but true to the nature of most swarms, it didn’t disband, just settled in a new location. This time the focus was the Walnut tree.

For those who may not know, Walnuts form slowly over the course of the summer as green balls on the tree. These green balls are half again as large as you’d expect because there is a thick green outershell to protect the walnut shell which in turn protects the nut itself. Apparently nature herself has learned the art of over packaging. This green outershell has the ability to stain fingers and clothing black. If boiled it would probably make an excellent dye because it doesn’t wash off. Late in the summer some of these green shells turn black, soft, and squishy because small maggots have moved in to eat the outershell. Gleek calls them “cute little worms!” everyone else in the whole world calls them “EEEEEEW!”

Fortunately our walnuts are past the wormy stage. The outershells have dried and curled back and the walnuts have begun falling from the tree. Kiki discovered that shaking the tree would bring down a rain of walnuts. (Don’t get hit. They hurt!) Then the swarm would gather the walnuts and hand them to Kiki through our back window. I don’t know why the window. The door was right there. In fact they developed an assmebly line. Neighbor Boy would peel off any remaining outershell, Patches would deliver the nut to Kiki, Kiki would sit inside and place the nut into a bucket. Link and Gleek had wandered off to play something else.

I like this kind of game. Now I have a bucket full of walnuts that need to be shelled and dried so that we can use them.

I used to have largish blocks of contemplative time. Time in which I was taking care of children, but my brain could wander whithersoever it wished. I haven’t had that lately. Instead my hands and my brain are much busied with projects. Some of this is the result of the influx of yard work which was imposed by the arrival of flower bulbs in the mail. (They’re all planted now. Yay!) Some of it is the natural consequence of needing to trade some of my time in order to save money. I’m doing lots more dishes these days because I’m actually using dishes to cook stuff instead of buying convenience food. Some of it has disappeared into organization projects. I need to be organized so I know what my resources are. We have lots of useful stuff in storage, but if I don’t know where it is when we need it, we’ll have to spend money to solve problems.

Hopefully I’ll soon be through the glut of business and I’ll have more contemplative time.

Gleek has informed me that there is a bad guy named Arnon. He is the one who sneaks into our yard at night and plants mushrooms. He is also the one who puts the “ooogies” in her nose.

Just thought I’d share.

Howard came home at 11:30 pm yesterday. He and I were up until 1:30 am talking about stuff and doing some unpacking. It was fun, but I paid for it today.

I did accomplish the necessary bookkeeping, balanced all the accounts, created reports for Howard’s perusal, did budget and debt analysis, and paid bills. I’m supposed to do this every Monday so that nothing has the chance to spiral out of control. The weekly bookeeping is even more critical now that the budget has less wiggle room.

It got done and I’m beginning to see how “tight budget” is going to work for the long term.

The afternoon and evening disappeared somewhere. If anyone finds it wandering around let me know.

Early to bed tonight.

I guess I’ve already gotten used to having Howard here at home. Since he left yesterday morning zero housework has gotten done because he isn’t there to wander through and keep me company while I’m doing it. Or to do it for me. Or to admire work that has been done.

Tonight I’ve got to get the dishes done and mentally prepare myself for tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is Saturday. With it comes “Saturday Work” each child is responsible for cleaning their room and one other room in the house. I’m responsible for making sure they actually get the work done. Usually the work is done by noon, frequently by 10. Saturday afternoons are full of clean house and relaxation.

Walking the kids home from school was a bad idea. It seemed like a fun idea early this morning when the weather was cool. Kiki and Link were enthusiastic and left the car happy to know that today was a walking day.

Halfway through the morning I remembered that I’d promised to watch a neighbor’s children at 4 pm. I did some mental math. Bell rings at 3:30. Kids take 10 minutes to gather stuff and find me by the playground. The walk takes 15 minutes. It was tight but do-able.

Things I forgot to account for:
Gleek needing to go potty
The school bookfair with candy for sale
Kiki and Link walking slow because they were eating candy
Kiki and Link both tripping and skinning their knees

I got to watch the neighbor drive away from my house while I still had a block to go. She didn’t see me. I rushed the rest of the way home, dumped all the kids into the car and drove to the church building where the neighbor was setting up for the activity she was in charge of, apologized, and took her two boys home with me.

Now I’m hot, sweaty, tired, smelly, I have a headache, and I need to appologize to my own children for venting stress in their direction. On Monday I’m DRIVING.

Busy day all day long and the list of Things Which Need Doing doesn’t appear to be much smaller. That part is a little discouraging, but when I look at the list of Things Which Got Done I feel much better.

Things Which Got Done Today:
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Kids went to school
Kids picked up from school
Gleek to class
Me to library
3 loads of laundry
2 rosebushes cut down
2 filthy duffel bags washed
Patches put down for nap
dishwasher unloaded
dishwasher reloaded
dishwasher re-unloaded
dishwasher re-reloaded
kitchen counters wiped clean
kitchen floor swept
2 chapters of book read
kid made to do homework
4 kids put to bed
garbage bins to the curb
garbage bins back from curb
1 large garbage bin washed out
brushed hair

The above list is in no particular order and is not all inclusive. I’m not going to write a list of Things Which Need Doing. In my current state of fatigue such a list would only make me cry.