April 26, 2008 Saturday

Mike took Marley to New Hampshire today. She's still not in heat but the weather is nice and Mike doesn't have any plans, so it's a good day to get some work done.

April 24, 2008

We woke up this morning and it was beautiful. Emily had the day off so I asked her what she'd rather do, go to Boston or go to P-town. She chose P-town and within 20 minutes we were packed up and on our way. There are a pod of right whales feeding off the beach at Race Point, so that was our first stop. It was amazing to sit on the beach and see whales, what a treat.

Then we parked and walked Commercial street. There were many people sprucing up, as the season hadn't really started yet, but it was quiet and warm...a perfect day for a little sightseeing. We picked up some food at an at the window cafe. I had a salad, and Dan had a slice of Hawaiian pizza. Emily decided to wait to eat at the Portuguese bakery, she had a huge apple turnover and Danny had his first cannoli.

April 23, 2008

Today is a day of change that set the events of the next few weeks in motion. I realized today that Emily will do ok, no matter what she decides to do. It's spring break and Emily is working nearly full time. She gets up, dresses, makes a lunch and off to works she goes. At the end of the day, she's tired but happy and no signs of the headaches that plague her at school. Could it just be coincidence ? I've tried for the past year to push Emily into getting a job, driven her around, helped her fill out applications with absolutely no enthusiasm from her at all. This past spring she asked our neighbor Janni about working with her, she filled out the application, set up an interview and was hired all without my help. Emily showed me early on that she wasn't ever going to do anything until she was ready, seems I forgot because when she was ready to get a job, she did. She's also been coming home from school and asking to be homeschooled for the last 6 months or so. I've always considered homeschooling Dan but didn't feel like I was qualified to teach this 9th grader, who probably knew more then I did. They make the "new math" sound very intimidating.

Emily was scheduled to work 9am - 4pm so Dan and I dropped her of at work, then went to Green Briar where Danny has a two hour class called Froggy frolic. On the way in I got stuck in line and noticed a woman I hadn't seen since Dan was a baby, I said Hi, asked about her little one, and if he was doing the same class. She said he was and mentioned that she wished they did class for older kids during the week. Curiousity got the best of me and I asked why. She said she'd recently started homeschooling her 13 year old. Hmmmm.....I had lots of questions, I'd never considered homeschooling Em, could it really be a possiblitity ?

I dropped Dan off at his class and decided I'd hike the trails around Green Briar and hunt for that elusive garter snake. I didn't find a snake but I did get to spy a very happy little boy with a net on the edge of a bog trying to catch frogs. Dan was having a great time and I suddenly felt happy and sad at the same time. He's been with me nearly every moment for 4 years so I was thrilled that he felt comfortable enough to be without me and sad for the very same reason. I enjoyed the next two hours with nothing to do. Motherhood is funny, there was a time when I knew what I liked, now I always do kid things and don't even think about it...of course we'll go to the playground on Wednesday, we'll always be at the library on Thursday, Saturday T-ball, Church Sunday. With two hours and only myself to please I forget what it was that I used to like to do.

April 21,2008

Today is Sampson's 13th Birthday. Mom, Aunt Fran, Susie and Holly came for a visit, and Emily had the day off so she got to spend the day with us. They arrived at about 10am and we immediately piled everybody into the van and went down to Green Briar to show them the Jam kitchen. http://www.thorntonburgess.org/Jam%20Kitchem.htm. We also noticed that the swans have 10 cygnets, their very small and we're guessing that they are probably only a couple of days old. Afterwards we went to Seafood Sam's http://www.seafoodsams.com/ for lunch, then to Twin Acres Ice Cream Shoppe in Sandwich. Dan had Orange Sherbet, and although Emily declined ice cream she sampled each of ours.
Our propane tank bird has 5 eggs now and the female sits on the nearly constantly. We've also had several more visits from the swans. I wonder if they'll make our pond their home. Dan and I planted three rows of sunflowers, bush beans and cucumbers today...I hope the weather continues to stay warm. We already have peas, radishes and lettuce sprouting.

April 20, 2008

All winter we've looked at this ugly oil tank in the grove across the street from our house. Since we've had some trouble with the officials about burning in our half tank, the boys thought that if we had a lid on it that it would be nothing more then a glorified chimnea and they couldn't bother us about it. They're also hoping that because there's a chimney on it we might be spared the smoke in our faces if we're sitting down wind. They finished cutting the windows but there was an inch or so of oil left in the bottom. After lots of thought and some discussion the boys decided it would be fun just to burn it off.....boys will be boys !

April 15, 2008

Tax day today- Happily our taxes are paid by this date and more happily we won the abatement to our property taxes that I filed. Our 2007 property taxes were asssessed at 237,000 our 2008 property taxes were assessed at 330,000. After the abatement we were reassessed at 225,000. 12,000 less then 2007. Hurray !

Our propane man came today, and I quickly ran out to ask him about the birds nest that I found inside. He said he'd noticed, said it was ok and asked if there were any eggs. There weren't any the last time I checked. This time there were two small red speckled eggs. Initially I thought it was a tufted titmouse, but after some researched I discovered it was a house wren nest. I decided to record it with Cornell university and look forward to seeing this new little family be born. http://www.nestwatch.org/

Marley still hasn't come into season and still no luck catching a garter snake, even though Dan and I have we've spent substantial time and effort looking for one.

April 13, 2008

Danny's feeling better today we went up to Cochran's to say goodbye to Chris again. He gave us a heather plant, that we'll plant under Emily's peach tree, to thank us for taking care of Bricky, it was a sweet gesture.