Seriously?

 It's barely 8am and all I want to do is just crawl back into my heated mattress pad warmed bed and pull the weighted blanket over my bedraggled head and my mascara smeared eyes... 

First off, what is it with me and electronics?  I only half joke that my magnetic personality is wreaking havoc in the world.  I know how to work the television.  I don't watch a LOT of television, but I know how to work the effing remote!  Alas, I turn on the tv to attempt to watch the weather.  Why did I do that? Who knows.  It's cold.  It might snow.  There might be wind.  Whatever, I truly knew that already - so why was I even trying to turn on the tv?  And why was the tv only working at I want to wake the dead level of volumes?  Literally.  The tv now has mute and I'M SCREAMING volume levels.  Mind you the screaming was when the remote showed it was on a volume level of ONE! Yes, one.  1. 

Fast forward to a teen on the phone when he shouldn't be (note to self adjust his downtime limits by another 15m), one grumpy pre-teen who has a paint splatter on her leggings and can't decide which shoes to wear to school when Jango comes out of the litter box with a piece of poop stuck to his butt fluff.  It's just a pebble Mom say the kids.  Ha ha ha.  So, I grab a Kleenex and try to catch the cat.  The cat is now running and leaping because the dog thinks, yay - my play toy is moving, I must chase it.  I sort of catch Jango and attempt to grab said pebble with the tissue.  Oh no, all I manage to do is smush it into his fluff and piss off the cat who's trying to get out of the way of the dog.  I pause briefly to yell at the kids to go brush their teeth.  One kid listens and heads upstairs, the other attempts to help control the dog so I can chase the cat.  I reach for the kitchen scissors thinking - screw it, sorry kitty - I'm just going to give you a wee little trim.  Dog is barking, cat is hissing, more cats come to see what the fuss is all about... I manage to snip the fluff BUTT (ha, see what I did there...) the smooshy, trimmed, poopy tush fluff is now hanging and not falling.  For Pete's Sake...I toss the scissors down and reach for another tissue.  The dog is now jumping, the kid upstairs is shouting for the other one to come brush teeth before the bus leaves them both, I'm chasing Jango with the scissors in hand AGAIN.  I've now trimmed even more fluff and I think I've gotten the majority of it... kid 2 runs upstairs and then back down about 45 seconds later.  Kid one now thinks they are the parent and wants to know why kid 2 only brushed for 30 seconds.  Dude.  If your teeth and breath stink then so be it... just grab your Chromebook (you know, the one you forgot to charge last night), some shoes - why are you putting on your OLD shoes?? Whatever, I give up... okay - shoo, go, up the street - go go go.  Why is Atticus halfway up the street without a jacket?  It's 20 maybe outside?  Insert eye roll... Oh, and I was also trying to order school lunches in the middle of all of this too because oh yeah, it's now a new month and I'm guessing the kids want to eat something at school because I sure as heck didn't get anything packed!!!  I need to wake up earlier - but that just sounds like a terrible idea.  

So now, it's 8:30.  I'm half caffeinated.  Queso is napping on the sofa.  Jango and his trimmed butt fluff is hiding, probably trying to make himself presentable.  The television is off.  My calendar just dinged.  I'm supposed to be at physical therapy in 30 minutes.  I'd better go throw on some workout clothes and brush my teeth!  Oh, and hope that work doesn't notice that I'm not logged into our big kickoff activities because I'm trying to revive a blog.  

And I should probably feed the fish.  I doubt anyone thought to feed them yesterday...

We Survived!

 I haven't officially measured the snowfall, but I think we got off fairly easy with a mere 18 inches or so.  The puppy is in heaven.  I'll try to add a quick video clip to the post so everyone can see Queso romping in the snow.  Give the girl a stick and some snow and it's pure puppy happiness.  

On Sunday, the kids and I tossed the sled in the back of the car and went to meet friends at the middle school.  There are some good sledding hills and several folks had the same idea.  If the wind wasn't trying to freeze our faces off, it would have been a wee bit more enjoyable!  Greg was stuck with the snowblower and the awesome job of shoveling out the 4 cars in the driveway!

Bomb Cyclone is Coming

 Batten down the hatches.  2 feet of snow is on the way.  Well maybe not.  Oy.  Weather patterns are so unpredictable....  Every few hours the weather predictions and forecasts are changing.  It seems like we will get snow, but I somehow doubt it's really going to be THAT bad.  Of course, snow is truly only useful when you find yourself at the top of a ski lift, but I digress... I do think it will be fun to witness Queso romping around in all the fresh powder.  She may be the most excited out of all of us.  I'll be sure to get a video or two of the pure puppy joy.  

There is enough snow predicted that Atticus's track meet in Providence, RI has been cancelled.  Not that I'm all that sad about not driving close to 2 hours each way even if the experience is good.   Alas, we still have New Haven, CT to look forward to.  

So... I sit here at the kitchen table trying to think of all the kazillion things there are to update you on.  I mean obviously you know about the world's fascination with Wordle.  It's amazing how quickly that website has gone viral!  Apparently many of us have been searching for a way to use our brains and stretch our vocabulary skills.  Even Atticus has gotten in on the trend - so it must be sort of cool if the teenager is doing it.  He thinks everything is a waste of time.  Like coats.  Total waste of time.  It's only 4 degrees before the wind chill.  He'll only be standing at the top of the hill waiting on the bus for "like a few minutes max"... so why in the world would he wear the new Columbia coat that I bought him after he insisted that last year's coat was too small?  How dare I ask these logical questions.  

Follow up post to come with actual results.  :)

Long Johns

Oh for the love of goodness.. what in the world will I do with Atticus?

I dropped the kids at school for their early morning club - Bagels and Board Games.

I went to school just after lunch to help out with the 3rd graders Halloween parties.

I collected Wren and went to the office to wait for Atticus at the end of the day.

He walked up carrying his backpack and wearing - no joke - his long johns and his jacket.  I laughed out loud.  I mean, what in the world was he doing?  Why was he wearing his underwear and no clothes?  Why was he wearing long johns in the first place under his clothes?  I tried explaining to him that what he was wearing was unacceptable but he totally didn't get it.  Just kept telling me that he was hot in school (no kidding dude - what were you thinking)!

Goofball.

One Apple, Two Apples, Green Apples, Red Apples

This year's apple picking expedition included friends!  Many thanks to Jen M and her awesome family for joining us for a morning in the orchard and then lunch.

This year, we went to Boston Hill Farm in North Andover.  It's a small family owned farm relatively close to us.  (It's closer than gymnastics anyways!)

Our drive over to the farm was a bit of an adventure as power was still out to much of Andover and North Andover meaning the street lights were OUT.  Not even flashing.  OUT.  As a public service announcement before I even go any further -- dude, people, we need to talk.  When you are in a car and approach a light that has no power what's the proper way to proceed?  Treat the bloody intersection like a 4 way stop!  Do not blow through the intersection thinking woo hoo -- no light for me!  Because let me just tell you that some other idiot going the other direction is thinking the same ***** thing and while I'm a firm believer in the Darwin theory, there's no need for me to witness a massive traffic accident when I'm on my way to the farm!

Backtracking a bit... WHY was there no power you ask?  Well, there was a bit of a commotion on last Thursday afternoon.  Columbia Gas starting experiencing explosions all over Andover, North Andover and Lawrence.  It was chaos.  It's still chaos.  70+ explosions all over town.  And no one knew what was causing them or how to stop them.  We were fine at our house - we have our own propane tanks, so we're not on the city's gas line.  There's now a lawsuit and so many people still don't have the gas fixed at their house.  The neighbors are all jumpy every time they think their house is going to explode!

So - in an effort to return to normalcy and still spend money at small local businesses, we decided to go ahead and meet friends at the orchard.

We now are the proud owners of a half a bushel of Courtland and MacIntosh apples.  That's a LOT of apples folks.

Unlike the orchard we went to last year in Westchester, this orchard didn't require any crazy tools to reach the apples.  It merely required Wren to climb onto Greg's shoulders a couple of times!

We got really lucky with the weather and while it was warm - it was overcast and we didn't melt!  Yay.  

It was a great morning and lunch and I hope we're able to make it a tradition with our local friends!  

Sprinkler Woes

One of our sprinkler heads hasn't been rotating properly.  It's been on Greg's to-do list for a while -- ever since the company we had come to turn on the system and check the heads did a crappy ass job.  Ugh.  But anyway...

We ordered some new parts and Greg set off to change the head this afternoon.  He ended up digging a freaking trench trying to get to the base of the thingy.  Then water and dirt were everywhere.  Greg was using the cleaning tool from the fish tank trying to siphon (syphon?) the water out from around the thingy so we could put the new part on - and that was working about as well as you'd think.  Not at all.  So, he trudged off to Home Depot to purchase a shop vac!  I suppose on those rare occasions when something is overflowing, we'll be really really glad we own a shop vac?!?

Fun times at the Badens.

On the upside, the sprinklers are now all working and hopefully the reseeding of our lawn will take hold this time!

Knock Knock.

Funny how feeling emotional makes me want to spew everything on paper.  Or virtual paper as the case may be.

Ugh.  Some things that aren't shareable are really getting under my skin at the moment and we're working on a resolution.  Hopefully it's water under the bridge soon and not even worth a mention.

In school news, the kids have begun the 2018-2019 school year.  This is Atticus's last year in elementary school which I can hardly believe!  How is it possible I'm the parent of a 10 year old?  I mean - wow, time flies when you're adulting.

We've begun the process of getting Atticus evaluated at school to see if there are other things we can do to help his learning.  He's a smart kid, but has difficulties getting this thoughts and knowledge out of his head.  I say he's more of a slow cooker kind of kid.  Things go in -- and they just need to stew about for a while before he's ready to discuss or give you an answer.  Nothing wrong with that, it's just how his brain works.  So, we're looking at different solutions and options that may help him learn to manage his expectations.

Atticus has also decided that he'd like to play the trumpet!  Oy!  He was playing the baritone in NY, but that wasn't an option here - so I'm currently researching where to rent/buy a trumpet.  Music class for him will be on Monday mornings at 7:30AM.  Oooof.  Although I suppose this will help prepare us for the 6:30AM bus once he's up in the middle school.

Wren was not thrilled with her teach assignment for 3rd grade.  From what I hear, the parents love her and the kids not so much.  She's strict.  Personally, I'm okay with that.  It's good for the kids to have guidelines and rules and structure!

Since Wren has also been complaining of being bored at school for the past year, we've opted to enroll her in a local after school program called Russian School of Math.  She claims to not enjoy math, but she's good at it and this will ensure that for at least 2 hours a week, she's not "bored" and "not learning anything".  The results from the students as they age is impressive.  Is it weird that I wish I'd had Russian Math as a kid?  I mean, I took math classes for easy A's at the University of Texas!  Math is awesome.

The after school programs are also starting back up with a vengeance.  Track, gymnastics, ninja classes, Hebrew School, chess -- and we're just getting started.  :)

Here's to another trip around the sun...

Here's to consistency and knowing that we're not changing schools...