Lancelot Lost His Sword

On the drive to school I cranked the heater to warm our frozen hands.  The cold weather (40 degrees) is a nice reminder of the season.  We arrive at school a little bit early and as I pull in to the school I hear a scratching noise on the roof of the car.  As I turn to park, more scratching.  I open the sunroof and Brett jumps on the top of the car announcing, "Oh!!!  There's my sword!!"  Luckily it didn't fly off on the expressway and strike another unsuspecting commuter.

After drop off I visited a friend of mine to catch up on her week off.  Somehow we managed not to see very much of each other during the holiday and needed a visit.  I returned to school to grade papers and to teach.  Classes were fine and everyone was much more focused today.

We drove home from school stopping at HEB to buy a few groceries.  When we got home I noticed the horse barn door was wide open.  I sent Chloe over to close the door and she runs back to the house huffing and puffing and struggling to catch her breath.  "MOM!!  MARSHA CAUGHT A MOUSE IN THE BARN!!!!  IT ISN'T MOVING SO WHAT DO I DO?"  I follow her back to the barn to inspect the mouse.    The mouse has been played with for too long and is struggling to breathe.  I save the mouse the agony and end it's life quickly and without prolonged suffering.  Maybe I should leave the door open every day so the cats can get the rest of the mice.  Wait, if I leave the door open then more mice will come in, right?   I don't spend much time thinking about the mouse and return to the house to cook dinner.  You will be happy to know, I washed my hands.

We, of course, had turkey in the form of gumbo tonight with some fresh sautéed okra.  I still have approximately half of a twenty pound turkey in my fridge.  I did the usual turkey pot pie and just plain ol' Thanksgiving dinner again for the third time, then I started to get more creative with turkey tacos, turkey/sausage/shrimp gumbo, and tomorrow will be turkey chili.  After tomorrow I think I might have to freeze the remaining turkey.  I'm not sure I want turkey for any more meals until July.  The question of what to do with the leftover pies seems to be a no-brainer with the presence of an ice cream maker.  I'm still not sure if I should attempt to make the lemon meringue pie in to an ice cream.  Any thoughts?

At dinner tonight, Brett offered more entertainment.  After about four bites of food he says, "I like the making of the food, but the food tastes pee-yuck.  I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I really don't like the taste.  Now, can I have dessert?"  I reply, "You don't have to eat all of it, but eat the turkey, shrimp and sausage and then I will give you some ham."  "Wait, I don't like that ham ever since the last time and when I was a baby." he whines.  "Sounds like it is an apple and a bath kind of night.  I am not making anymore food for you tonight."  "So, does that mean I can't have dessert?" he asks with his head turned sideways and the biggest puppy eyes you've every seen.  "Yes, that is exactly what it means."  He mopes out of the room and goes to take his shower.  Meanwhile Chloe is sitting next to me writing about King Arthur and making comparisons between a boy she finds attractive and Lancelot.  She asked if it would be appropriate to write the boy's name where it asks to describe what Lancelot looks like.  I thought it was perfectly fine, but mostly just for my entertainment.  I said, "Write his name and also describe what Lancelot's physical attributes are in case she doesn't find your answer to be sufficient."

Tonight while trying to remind myself of the things chickens can and cannot eat, I happened upon a wonderful blog about backyard farming.  Her blog design is lovely as are her pictures.  Click here to check out the blog.  As I looked through her blog I found great ideas of how to be even closer to my chickens and how to make chicken oatmeal.  Delicious warm oatmeal loaded with meal worms, raisins, and blueberries.  Yum!!  Think of all the protein from the meal worms!

Let me know when you would like to come for a breakfast visit.  As I finish writing this evening I hear Chloe coming out of the shower singing the Thirteen Days of Christmas.  It includes one furry guinea pig, two barking puppies, three fuzzy hamsters, four 20 X 12 saunas, five furry kit-tens,  six fluffy fluff balls, seven fluffericious cats, eight scoops of ice cream, nine iTunes cards, ten nice cars, eleven good report cards, twelve elves to clean my messes, thirteen different colored nail polishes...all at a volume I wish I could control with a knob.  All of the festivities remind me of how thankful I am to have joyful and creative children (Day 6).  Tomorrow is my day off and I will likely be at work finishing all the projects in process.  Have a wonderful Wednesday!  Goodnight Friends.