Catching Up

No pics for today.  It's quite late as I write this (everyone else is abed).  I've been trying to cudgel story words out of my brain, but they don't seem to want to come.

I've finished a quilt that's been on my sewing machine in various stages for the better part of a year, and got the next one lined up to baste.  It's a homely top I got for $3 at the thrift store, but it spoke to me and there's lots of room for quilting feathers and such.  Homely quilts are nice to snuggle under, and you never really have to worry about staining them or anything.  Jazzy actually took a couple hours' nap with me under my favorite homely quilt today!  Which never happens anymore now that my babies are big boys.

The boys are off school this week, which they're enjoying.  Squiddle, now 8, has tested into the district's Highly Capable program, but it will mean him changing schools next year.  After his eye exam today, he and I drove by the (potential) new school and looked around a little.  I think he's willing to make the switch.  The only downside is, Jazzy was really looking forward to riding the bus with Big Brother next year, so we'll probably request (and it is not guaranteed that we will receive) a transfer for him to go to the same school.  Which I think will work out with his IEP?  But I want to talk with his teachers about that.

The weather has been something of a yo-yo lately.  In the seventies one day, frost on the roof another.  And it's windy!  There's pine/fir pollen all over the driveway, and my A-frame pea trellis has been blown down twice.  I've finally banged four stakes into the garden bed and tied the trellis to them.  I need to get on the ball about building this year's addition of three more garden beds and getting them in place.  I bought starts at the store!  Though I was virtuous and did not get the three or four more chickens I want.  The neighbors are going to borrow the brooder setup later in the month when they get chicks, and if I get more, I'll need to build a bigger coop.  OTOH, if the boys and I have scrambled eggs for breakfast, that's six eggs, and I only have four hens, so it's a case where I'm having to be mindful of consumption versus production.  Sigh.  Next year.  The potted dwarf peach and nectarine trees I bought have all started leafing out, as have the in-ground cherries and blueberries; I need to check the in-ground apricots and persimmons to see if they're going to break dormancy soon.

I guess the last thing for now is, I've decided against attending Costume College this year.  Attendees are required to be vaxxed and masked, but there's also two long plane trips in there, the cost, and the imposition on others around me for child care.  It was immensely more affordable when I lived in SoCal and it was literally day-tripping the con and putting up with horrible miserable no-good traffic on the way home on Friday.  Living 1100 miles away greatly increases the cost - roundtrip airfare plus hotel room plus meals plus either cab fare or car rental.  Yeesh!  Plus the social pressure of rooming with people I don't know because I have difficulty making friends.  (And, yes, I know, not going doesn't help with the making friends in the community thing.  But.)  So, not this year.