October!

Good morning, friends!  I've been missing blogging, but there just hasn't been the time in the mornings.  And, when I get home at night, I'm too pooped to pop.  Or write!

It's October already, and we're experiencing mild temps.  So, I haven't even fired up the Central Boiler yet.  A fire in the middle room's Kalamazoo at night takes the chill off enough for the house to be decently comfortable . . . as long as I wear a few layers.  ;)  One of the main reasons I'm putting off starting the furnace until the last possible moment is because I need new batteries for the electrical system.  They just don't hold a charge anymore.  And, with the 2 motors for the in-floor heat running 24/7, I know the generator will be running a LOT . . . which, in turn, eats up the propane . . . which costs money . . . and, well, you know!  But, aside from a dip down to 26 degrees this past week (when I DIDN'T cover the tomatoes - argh!), it's been, like I said, mild.  Nice!

Believe it or not, there are STILL a few mosquitoes out and about in the evening here.  Not enough to be more than a little irritating, but, man, what a year it was for the skeeters!

A while later . . . 

I can tell, this is going to be a post that takes all day to write!  Anxiety over What Needs To Be Done is preventing me from taking the big slot of time to sit down and write.

So far, I've gotten the kitchen almost all cleaned up.  Note, that's not CLEAN, just cleaned up!  Also waging full-out war on the cluster flies today.  It's so satisfying, vacuuming them up, but there NEVER seems to be an end to 'em!

I got to hang out with Baby Girl on Saturday.  The past three times I've nannied, we've built a fort in the living room.  All the dining room chairs get pulled in and arranged (my job) and then all the required blankets and dolls and toys and books and puzzles for the floor of it get pulled in by her.  Here she is on Saturday, hauling her "packin' bag" from her bedroom.  It took me a long while to understand what she was calling her little sleeping bag, but once I figured it out and asked her mom about it, the explanation made sense:  she uses it most when they're packing up to go somewhere!  Hence, "packing bag"!  ;)

 

While Baby Girl continues with the inside of the fort, it's up to Bopee to take the big, heavy blankets and create the fort's roof.  Here she is, getting ready to lay out her Dora blanket for our floor.  I really despise commercialism, but it's so darn hard when little ones fall in love with a character!  Do you say "no" to Dora sippy cups, Dora undies, Dora jammies?  I guess, in the Big Scheme, it's a little thing . . . and they WILL grow out of these stages.  If I were a parent, though, I know I'd struggle with it:  happiness of my child vs. that damned commercialism!

BTW, on Saturday I learned that nannying is a contact sport!  We were inside the fort, and Baby Girl was being squirrely and jumping around . . . when her hard little noggin connected with the tippy-top bridge of my nose.  She immediately knew something was wrong because Bopee suddenly said something that must have meant "Stop!" (I don't remember) while holding one traffic-conducting hand out in the air while the other grasped her face.  When I could open my eyes to the pain, the little peanut anxiously said, without prompting and 110% knowing the accident had really hurt me, "I'm sorry, Bopee!!!"


I said, "I know you are, pumpkin.  It was an accident.  How's your head?  Does it hurt?"


She brought her hand up to her brow and nodded.  I asked, "Does it need a kiss?"  She said yes, and I kissed it.  Then I said, "My nose needs a kiss, too."  She leaned over, and I felt the gentlest of kisses from her little lips.  :)  Kisses heal most all wounds.  That said, I have a new bump on my long-ago broken nose, and each time I forget to NOT rub my face when I'm tired or exasperated . . . I'm QUICKLY reminded of the tender cartilage there!

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Okay, it's 8:22 PM now, and I didn't get back to finishing this post.  So, I'll throw it out there, as is.  Oh, and did I say the mosquitoes were only slightly annoying still?  Ha!  They drove me in from the woodpile tonight once the sun went down!