The End

And thus ends my experimental August Blog-a-Day. I don't think I'll be writing something every day in the future. Some days there just isn't anything worth writing about.

This week is a busy week, as we have piano lessons starting up. The time of the year when we have soccer overlapping with piano is always a busy, busy time. This week, after school we have Tues: scouts for Sam, soccer practice for Ruby, Wed: piano for me, piano for Sam, soccer practice for Sam, young women's for Squig, Thur: piano for Squig, tutoring for me (actually, by me, I'm doing the tutoring), soccer game for Ruby, soccer game for Sam, parent's club for me (which I have to miss due to the soccer games) and on top of it, I have to try to get food into the kids in a timely manner, and get them all washed and in bed at a reasonable hour.

It's only Monday and I'm already behind!

Maybe I'll write if I have a chance to breathe. We shall see, we shall see.

And now I need to go and unpack and put away all the groceries I bought today, but to do that I need to clean out the fridge and re-arrange the shelves in the pantry. It was stock-up day and I have a lot of stuff to find a home for. I think I need to build some shelves in the pantry, but I might just head down to Lowe's and see what they have for shelf expanders. The shelves in there now are too tall, and I can't stack stuff that high and still get to it easily. If I had shelves about half as high, that would be just right for arranging cans so you can see what you have, and be able to get things out easily. There's a lot of wasted space in there.

Thank you very much for joining me on my Blog-a-Day journey.

Good-night.

Food Storage Muffins

So, this afternoon I decided to make some muffins to go with dinner. Don't ask what else was for dinner, today's a throw-something-together-when-you-forgot-to-go-shopping type of Sunday.

I started to assemble my ingredients, and discovered that I had about a half cup of flour. Not sure how that happened, since I try to keep bags of the stuff around. Anyway, not enough flour. So I went out to the garage for a can of the old standby: food storage flour.

Now, this food storage flour is of unknown age. A lady in our ward lived down the street when we moved in here and she moved out soon after we moved in (we didn't chase her out, we promise) and she gave us all her food storage. In my mind it was about five years old when we got it, but I can't remember if she told me that or if I made it up. Hard to say.

I opened the can and checked the flour and it smelled very metallic. Very Metallic. I couldn't tell over the metallic smell whether or not the flour was still good. It looked fine, nice and floury and I tasted a bit, and it didn't really taste at all (which is how white flour is anyway). So I called up the ward food storage specialist and asked her about it. She looked up flour in her stuff and said it's good for 10 years. Well, I've had it for three and a half years and if she had it for the five in my head, it's about 8 1/2 years old. Should be fine, I guess. I decided to go ahead and use it.

I made the muffins and changed them to spice muffins to try to hide any taste with the spices. They just came out of the oven, and I'm going to go taste one. Please hold on.

-------------------------------------

I'm back.

Well, they taste funny. Not rotten funny, just sort of blah funny. They have sort of a weird taste in them that seems like it's hiding the spices. The kids, however, like them. I should confess here, that I've never made this muffin recipe before, so it could be that I made them wrong, or that I wouldn't like them even if I made them right. I'll have to buy some flour tomorrow and make them again and see how they come out.

As far as the rest of the flour goes, I'm inclined to toss it along with the other two cans I have in the garage and get new cans. I suspect the hot garage (they're in a cabinet, but it's warm in there, too, but not hot) is not the best place for canned flour. I expect that things like beans and rice would fare better because they don't take up tastes and smells like something powdery like flour would.

I should probably open up a can of each of the things from this lady and test them all. Back when we were first married, we used cannery flour, rice and sugar all the time and never had this kind of a problem. I need to find a cooler place for our food storage stuff. Maybe the back of a high up cabinet or something.

Oh well.

I figured out how to insert a poll on the page. I posted a poll about the flour.

Saturday Morning on the Football Pitch

As today is Saturday, we spent the morning at soccer. Ruby had pictures at 9:00, and we got out of the house late and got there just as the team was lining up to go in for their picture. I scribbled an order form together and am pretty sure it was matched up with the correct kid. We'll see whose picture I get back in a few weeks.

Her game started right after pictures, so we all headed over to her field and set up our chairs. Ruby played well, but she gets worn out, and I'm thinking she needs to run around more. Build up her stamina. She's doing better at getting right in the thick of things and fighting for the ball. She was really cute in her little pigtails.

Sam's game started while Ruby's was still going on and I walked him halfway and went back to Ruby's game. After it ended, we went to watch Sam's game. Sam was playing defense when we got there, which was just after halftime, and apparently we missed him playing goalie in the first half. Just before the end of the game, he got hit in the face with the ball, and since he was wearing sunglasses, it was doubly painful. He sat out the last minute of the game. It hit him just on the side of the sunglasses where they hit his eyebrow. Ow. He cried.

The kids had fun, but it was a hot and sweaty morning. It was 80 in the shade when we left the house at 8:45 a.m. I remembered sunscreen, and no one seems to have gotten any sunburns. Soccer's funny. When it starts, it's boiling hot and everyone's dying, but by the end of the season you might find yourself playing in the cold and rain, which is an adventure all its own.

Squig went up to the lake with her young women's group today. I think I'll take the other two to the movies, since they don't get to go to the lake. And then we'll go swimming, because it's already over 90 degrees and it's just barely 1:00 p.m.

Surprise!

Well, Sam brought home a violin today. I guess he got one of the school ones. He doesn't know how to play it, as they seem to have just handed them out today. I can figure out how to tune it, but I have no clue about where you put your fingers.

Oh well, this is a new thing for all of us. I really don't like the feeling of having no clue how to work something. I might have to get on the internet and learn how to play the violin myself!

And there you go.

Soon-to-be-Squeaky Sam

I asked about having Sam go in the 5th grade band next year and was turned down. Either he has to do strings in 4th grade, or wait until 5th grade for band. I've decided that if we can get a free violin from the school, he can do strings in 4th, but if we have to rent one, he'll have to wait until 5th, when he can play an instrument that he might stick with. They have a limited number of school violins and it's first come, first served. We got the forms yesterday and I took one in first thing this morning and they already had a pile of them. So, it depends on how many are for the violins and how many are for the band kids. We'll see.

The band teacher said that if he put Sam in the 5th grade band in 4th, what would he teach him in 5th? I'm thinking, just keep teaching him new music, but it doesn't work that way apparently. Too much trouble for the teacher. I'm really appreciating our private piano lessons--the kids can go as fast or as slow as they need to, and don't have to wait for an entire class to catch up. But, I suppose that's the price you pay for free lessons at school. And I really shouldn't complain, at least we have music in school at all.

I suppose it won't kill him to learn the violin for one school year and then switch to trumpet or whatever in 5th grade. I'm just not looking forward to having a novice violinist practicing in the house. Ugh. Better start researching noise-blocking headphones!

Sax & Violins

Squig came home from school today and announced that she joined the jazz band at school. They meet during lunch three days a week. So, now she goes to the before school 6th grade band class to help out, she has a band class during school, she'll be joining the drumline after school in November and now she's doing jazz band during lunch. It includes a "front of the line" lunch pass, good for the whole year. A most coveted item at the middle school. She might be more excited about that than anything else.

100% Pure Band Geek. Gotta love her.

Sam brought home papers to sign up for 4th grade orchestra, which is just violins. In 5th grade they can do more instruments. I'm going to see if he can get in on the 5th grade band since he has an extensive music background (you know, extensive for an 8-year-old kid). He said he'd like to play the trumpet. We actually have a trumpet, but it's old and I'm not even sure if it's any good. Anyway, it can't hurt to ask!

(Five points to whoever can tell me who sang the song referenced in the title to this post, without googling it)

A Busy, Busy, Bizzy Day

Oops, almost forgot to post today. It's been one super-dee-duper busy day.

I started off getting everyone up and dressed while also getting my self up and dressed becuase it was my day for helping out at the school, which is always an adventure. Fortunately, today was free breakfast at the schools, so I took the kids in early so they could eat there. One less thing for me to deal with.

In kindergarten, I had the Color-Cut-Paste table. My table took a long time, so long in fact, that I only got through three groups before recess, when they usually get through four. When one of the girls had to go to the bathroom, I took her down there, and waited outside the bathroom, but she wanted me to come into the stall with her and help her and she cried when I told her I couldn't do that, but that I would wait outside the stall for her. She decided that she didn't want to go to the bathroom if I wouldn't help her. When I took her back to class and reported back to the teacher, she told her the same thing--she had to go by herself. I think that along with immunizations, they should also require that your kid know how to go to the bathroom alone before they can start school. I mean, really.

Anyway, after I got four groups through Coloring-Cutting-Pasting, I took off for the 4th/5th grade, where I corrected reading worksheets. Seriously people, if the word list is written on the paper, you should not misspell any of the words. And by 5th grade you should have that figured out. I also corrected, I don't know what they call them, but it has a paragraph with grammar, spelling and capitalization errors and the kids have to find all the errors. The teacher tells them how many there are, and they have to figure them all out. I think it's a good exercise, but they're really hard to correct and take forever. Not only do I have to make sure they got all the corrections, I have to correct any extra corrections they make. By the time I finished that, I had just enough time to calculate percentages and alphabetize some math and reading homework and then I got out the door in time to get home before Ruby's bus got home. Even thought it would be easier for me to just get her at the school, she's still getting into the school routine and I think she just needs to keep taking the bus.

I pulled in the garage about 10 minutes before I had to leave to get her, and as I was sitting the car listening to the end of a thing on the radio, two big dogs came sniffing into my garage! Well, I'm not fond of big dogs, and wasn't sure how to get them out so I could get out, so I pushed the garage door control, and it was so noisy, it made them both jump and take off. I went in the house and watched them sniff at all the doors as they ambled down the street. I was a little concerned because I didn't want them around when I walked to the bus stop. Did I mention that I don't like big dogs? I took a big stick with me, which I left at the bus stop. I didn't notice until we were part of the way home. Fortunately, the dogs seem to have gone the other way.

After we got home, Ruby finished her lunch (she's still learning to eat fast and not chit-chat at school--an important skill to learn) and we went grocery shopping, and we were still putting groceries away when Sam got home. I got him going on some dishwasher unloading, then Squig got home and I got her going on homework, then I took Ruby over to her friend's house, then I sat down to rest for a minute.

But only for a minute, because Sam had to get to his cub scout pack meeting, which was a swimming activity. We left on time, but because of the stupid construction traffic, we were 10 minutes late. I'll be so glad when they get this new road finished, because it's driving me nuts! I do need to take a minute here and be grateful for the right turn lane which helps us get to school on time now. And the left turn signal which will help us get to piano lessons on time when they start.

While we were stuck in non-moving traffic, bumper-to-bumper, Sam noted that he forgot his towel. And because the kid is skin and bones, I couldn't just let him get hypothermia because he's easily distracted. The poor kid shivers when he's wet and it's 100 degrees out. So, after I dropped him off, I had to battle traffic to get back home and get his towel, stopping to help Squig with a math problem, and ran back to the scout activity. That took 45 minutes round trip. I'm not kidding. It should be about a 10 minute drive, one way. If you hit all the red lights. Can be done in about 5-6 minutes if you hit all green.

Got back from delivering the towel, and had about a half hour to make dinner for Squig and myself while Ruby soaked in the tub (Ruby had dinner with her friends, thus saving me a lot of stress--thank you neighbor B.H.!) I threw some fried rice together and Squig and I had a nice time eating and chatting together. She actually did most of the chatting and I stuffed my face as fast as I could. Then I pulled Ruby out of the tub, threw a towel around her, offered a reward to the girls if they got their night time routines done before I got back and ran off to pick up Sam, and when I arrived, they weren't done with the meeting, so I had to wait for them to finish.

Then back to the house, to help the girls finish their routines (need a bigger reward next time), get Sam showered and toss everyone in bed. I put my jammies on and read a couple of articles from the BYU alumni magazine (excellent article on the personal and societal economic benefits of charitable giving) before tackling the kitchen.

And then I realized that I had forgotten to take out the garbage with tomorrow being garbage day. So, I got on the computer instead of dealing with that.

Now, I must go and take out the garbage in my jammies so we'll have room for next week's junk. And then I'll try to tackle the kitchen, which is still not done.

Sigh.