It’s a frigid and cold afternoon here in Ruralville.
And here are today’s top stories.
1) Homeschooling. Homeschooling shall be the death of me.
Rather, homeschooling Daisy Mae shall be the death of me.
Proof: Today when I asked her what month the 4th of July was in, she assured me it was April. And when I informed her that was incorrect, she was certain it was in the month of “fall.”
I am sure you all have confidence in my abilities to teach my children, yes?
No.
2) It is really cold here.
Things that haven’t changed:
Our thermostat is still going strong at 62.
Things that will hopefully change:
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:
But, who are we kidding?
3) I am hoping to plant a ginormous garden this year. I anticipate it will be simple and easy and I will bask in the awesomeness of all my freshly grown produce and my husband shall praise me and I will can away like it ain’t no thang and there won’t be any weeds or deer problems and it will be awesome.
But, first, we must have spring.
And I am slightly concerned that by the time spring arriveth, I shall have lost all interest in the aforementioned garden.
And then my husband won’t praise me.
4) I am a little bummed that no one thought “Owl Be Darned” was clever and humorous.
But I will get over it.
5) Many moons ago, I showed you this picture of the giant pile of brush that Sir Lumberjack created.
And then I asked you to tell me what you think he did with said pile once he had completed it.
And you all guessed he burned it.
Ha!
Foolish readers, he did not, he did not.
200 meaningless points to anyone who can guess what he did.
Oooh! The stakes are rising! Oh, for the excitement!
Oh, does anyone care?
Probably not.
6) We need to do a COW.
Erin was the COW this week.
Erin is uber hilarious and could, in fact, be a COW any day of the week.
Erin was nominated by another reader for her comment,
“Where can I get a manicure like that?”
And I was like, Erin is acting all looney again.
Cause Erin is kind of nuts, you know.
Anyways, after brief consideration, I believe she is referring to this photo:
And, Erin. I am a little aghast that you would think those were my nails. I do not paint my nails. My hands are ugly and I prefer to not draw attention to them.
No. Those are Daisy Mae’s. You know. The child who celebrates the 4th of July in April?
The child who writes the number “34” like this: E4 . . .
The child who spells “did” like this: bib . . .
The child who writes the number “10” like this: 01 . . .
The child who makes me feel confident in my ability to homeschool . . .
Yes. It was Daisy Mae.
Alright. Simmer down. She’s cute and I love her and she is the snuggliest and tells me every day that I am a “lubbely mudder” and she has uber cute dimples.
Happy Weekend!
Happy Weekend, Taylor. I’m sure Daisy Mae will be fine. 🙂
I agree Daisy Mae is super cute! I am sure you are awesome at homeschooling her, girls are just … stubborn! I am tired of the snow too, gosh it looks so pretty in pictures… until you have to go out in it!!!! 😀
So the pile…I didnt guess that it was burned, I guessed that he jumped in it or let the kids jump in it. That just seems like so much fun, we did that with leaves when we were little. Are you gonna tell us this time!? Or wait til somoene gets it right, you’re leaving us in suspense! Happy weekend to you too! Any big plans?
I will tell, but I am hoping someone will guess it so I won’t have to say it. Ha!
darn! guess I didnt get it right!
I’m a winner! I’m a winner!
🙂
Those nails are hilarious, unlike your “Owl be darned” statement, which took me a day to figure out. Don’t cry though, you can’t win them all.
Vegetable garden? Oh my. OOOOH my. Well, you should probably start composting. To which I say “Ew”.
I’m guessing he built a tee pee out of the brush.
I have no idea.
I would like to add that I voted for your blog again on the top blog thing, and I’m a little annoyed that it isn’t number one yet. Who do you have to kill? Owl be darned!
Joann, I find this devastating. If you didn’t get the Owl Be Darned title, than I fear there is no hope for me. 🙁
Thanks for voting!
You are obviously da-bomb-diggity.
He mulched them. 62 is toooooo cold.
Building Teepees? A treehouse? Making a new tree stand? Crafting ratan furniture for the Barbie playhouse? Being a cheapskate and making his own toothpicks? Making new bunny hutches? How many guesses do I get? E4? Sharpening the ends of them and learning to joust? Oh yeah!!! He should totally do that. That would be so hot! No? Um…..fashioning fake antlers out of them to hang on the wall of your bedroom? Whatever, I don’t even care anymore.
Ok, I care a little bit, what’s he doing with it?
owl be darned, I figured he burned them! Did he make a duck blind? Oh yeah, I know what that is, I am rural too.
My guess is that he took the pile to the dump. Going to the dump is major business for both my husband and my dad. I think they actually get excited about it. Personally I don’t see what the big deal is. I liken it to me going to the mall only you and I both know the mall is WAY better!
i got it!!!he made them into wood chips for lanscaping or a playground area for the children…..yeah, i bet thats it!!! happy weekend!!! :o)
Owl be darned IS clever and funny. good job, you punny girl, you.
Interesting that your Daisy Mae is not the stellar student you may have hoped for. Is Sweet Pea? My girls, also 2 years apart, have vastly different approaches to ‘school’. For the elder, it is a thing of beauty and her books and shelf are neat and she has her own little schedule that she enjoys keeping. For the younger, it is a rare day that she is not still in her robe asking for coffee at 10am. (I do not let her have coffee, but Grandpa does when we visit. She is persistent.) And though I believe we have completed and learned various lessons, recall of said material is both difficult and entirely uninteresting for her. She has other, excellent qualities. They are just not in the area of academics – that we can see so far. I think it is a birth order thing. I hope it’s not an accurate reflection of the teacher!
shoot . what would anyone do with a pile of sticks if not to burn it? Maybe he was giving dam building lessons to orphan beavers. Do you have beavers at your ‘lagoon’?
Taylor,
Don’t worry about Daisy Mae, she’ll get it. Princess is also reversing d’s and b’s…it’s developmental. I do remember at least that much from my education degree. The rest is sometimes a blur.
I loved your “Owl to darned!” In fact, I laughed out loud. The problem is that I read it on my phone and I am not so good with commenting from the phone and then I forgot to hop back on the computer and tell you how clever you are. So sorry to disappoint.
Spring has arrived here. It is supposed to be a high of 84 today…did I say Spring? Sorry, I think we are skipping that season this year. It’s gonna be hot and feel like the beginning of summer. Perfect beach weather though.
As for LJ, did he let the kids build a house out of sticks like in the 3 little pigs? I’m stumped as to what he did if he didn’t burn them. Get it? Stumped?
My guess is that he made that huge pile of sticks and then…wait for it…he left them laying there in a big pile and did absolutely nothing with them! And then that big pile got snowed on… so it will be a while before it ever leaves your yard! I am sure that is what happened. Because that is what would have happended at my house! All that hard work to pile the brush up, then just leave it there as an eye sore. Yep, that has to be it!
First, Owl Be Darned was pun-tastic. I didn’t think to comment on it because I just took it in stride that you are punny. Get it? Like what I’m doing there? 🙂 Sorry, got mesmerized by my awesomeness. Where was I? 🙂 Oh, yes. Daisy Mae. I must tell you that my sister solidly believed no matter what anyone said that the Pope was Methodist. She believed this until she was in middle school. And she turned out all right. Well, mostly… Daisy Mae will be fine.
Lumberjack is lucky to have found you. I would have abandoned the 62 degree house weeks ago and holed up in a warm hotel room until he agreed to raise the thermostat.
Chopped them into kindling? I saw the cutest tee pee ever made out of branches like that. They were stood on end and the tops all tangled together. I’ve also seen peas and beans grown up stakes to make a kids tee pee. I however, do not seem to possess a green thumb. I do tutor kids in reading and the backwards thing going on with Daisy Mae I fix with index cards. I make the letter or number with an arrow pointing the direction it faces. For D’s and B’s, I draw arrows for the lower case, then for a capital B, add the top. I have the kids place the card in front of them for an easy referral. It’s worked in every kid that had this problem. But, I have never tutored a truly dyslexic child.
Well Owl be darned, I am surprised he didn’t burn them!!!!!!!!
I am thinking he just left them there to “dry” yup, I am a “born rural-er”, the wood needs to sit out and dry for it to be good for “kindling” or “starter” wood, I think it needs to dry for at least a year, so that the sap and such dries up and is easier to burn. Boy, I cannot believe that I admitting that I know about this stuff!
62 in the house is a little too cold for me, but then I would tell my significant other to either turn the heat up, or take me shopping for designer warm clothes and shoes so that I can at least freeze in style. The good thing about the low temperature is that there isn’t a big contrast when you go outside so your body temp won’t be shocked when you go out. It also keeps the germs away… I’m just sayin’, you know, gotta find the perks of a quirky husband!
The pile of sticks is housing for an unknown animal? Perhaps you are to break them into smaller sticks for the wood stove you will be getting to keep the house warm?
The reason I thought Erin deserved the COW is because all the readers comment on similar aspects of your posts except Erin. She always hones in on some obscure bit that has nothing to do with the post and I think that’s funny. I do believe Erin is smart.
Lubbely Mudder is absolutely too precious. You should def get that on audio!
Man, I saw that pile of brush and my first thought was that he turned it into mulch with some new mulcher that he either a.) bought or b.) made – but rats, everyone beat me to it! I can’t believe you keep it at 62, my poor husband would freeze. He moaned bitterly when I had it on 70 the other day. Granted, the oldest kid was running buck naked (we’re potty training) and doesn’t he know that if it’s too cold, the kid won’t pee on himself but instead he’ll go to the toilet????? It’s all about logic.
I am glad that I am not the only one who lets my children run around naked to learn how to use the potty! My mother-in-law gives me looks when she comes to my house and one of them is naked, but hey…it works!
The Owl Be Darned comment was in deed something I had intended to comment about. My hubby says ‘I’ll be darned’ ALOT. One day as my 6 y.o. and I were in the rabbit/chicken hutch, she asked, ‘Mommy what is that ‘r’ word daddy says all the time?’ Confused, running all ‘r’ words fast through my brain, wondering how I would explain it to her, if I ever figured out what the word was. I finally had her ‘say’ the word. She said, Rrrlbedarn. YEP! You got it. My hubby has a bit of a ‘cuntry’ accent. He says ‘I’ll be darned’. SO cute how a 6 y.o. hears things. Poor child. I can’t wait for spring either. I’ve got big plans as well for our garden. Rabbits were bad last year and we had to fence our garden in. Life here in our ‘Ruralville’ S.E. MO. has been a long winter it seems. It makes it worse that it was our first winter without cable. Yes, I thought it would be such a great family thing to do, spend more time together and all, last April (the month 4th of July is in) to cut out tv. The pile of brush for us would be a bonfire for making s’mores. Do you have a wood burning stove?? Is that what it was used for? OR……is it just still sitting there, looking like brush.
Um… I cannot believe I neglected to comment on the “owl be darned” thing-I totally meant too, as my family on my momma’s side is the biggest group of punners EVER, and they would have found that one hilarious.
Hmmm. Let’s see. Your husband decided to pack soil and dirt over that whole pile, and turn it into a landscape birm. Just trying to come up with something no one else has yet. 🙂
You are, indeed, a lubbely mudder. 🙂 Your children already think you’re wonderful. Most moms have to wait until their kids grow up and have their own kids before they get told they were/are a good mom. So you’re ahead of the game, right?!
So many guesses about the brush pile have been made. I am very behind. My hubby suggested he dumped them in the woods somewhere. That’s what he would do. If he had some woods to dump it in. Which brings up that question about bears… Do you have bears in your woods in ruralville? Or cougars, or other scary creatures?
Another guess, did he use the brush pile for backfill?
I would be very uncomfortable at 62 degrees, but my mom would love it.