moss and mud

We went on a family walk today. It was GORGEOUS out!

We had a high of about 63 today. Sunny and you could see bits and pieces of green moss everywhere. I love moss. I want to go on line and see when it blooms here.

Bing took his first official Walsh hike. I think he did ok, but he is not in the sporting category for a reason. Short stumpy legs, Bow legged, long dangly ears, and a Low under carriage.

Notice, if you will, the hair hanging under his belly, nice and muddy.

"Well that's done!"

Bing and his portable water bowl.

The Walsh clan.

They look like a fine bunch huh?

K~

Flute -The right instruction (A God Story)

C- Had the most beautiful flute lesson yesterday! I could have just cried right there.

She has been so frustrated about flute. She just started this year and the school band/instrument teacher has them working on 3 different pieces of sheet music!!! To those of you who are not musicians, that too hard! She's 9 and has been playing since October. He has expressed his frustration with the group.

She has been in tears many times recently over not being able to play. I have, from the beginning, been trying to guide her. I play the oboe. Together we have been trying to work on her progress to no avail. She just wants to stop and give up.

This weekend, I noticed that her sound was just airy and weak. I too, secretly, was frustrated with her, that she could hardly play a note! So, I called my friend in ECFE that graduated college in flute. I asked her if she did lessons. She does. I explained that we may not be able to afford many, but I would like her to evaluate C and see how she is really doing on flute. So we set up a lesson for Last night!

Meanwhile during her lesson at school yesterday morning, the instrument teacher told C not to play her flute, just to finger along. That there must be something wrong with her flute.

NO NOTE HOME TO US!! She just, "oh by the way", told us when she got home. I asked her if he said we should bring it in to be fixed, and she said he didn't say anything like that.

C and I go to her lesson last night with all this info. Joy listened to C and then Joy played C's flute. She said yes, there is something wrong with your flute. She fixed a pin immediately and they proceeded with the lesson. She was so kind and smart. She was so patient with me (the nervous -and annoying- stage mom) and C gabbing constantly (hmmm wonder where she gets that??)

She gave her concrete instructions for the week. She borrowed a CD of James Galway (supposed to be the most famous and best flute player in the world) and a easier lesson book!!!!
She also gave her constant praise on what she was doing right. AND written lesson instructions for the week!!

I left with my heart full of appreciation and joy! (funny her name is Joy) God and I just knew that she shouldn't quit until she learns to play and chooses for her self that she does not want to continue!

Amen!

K~

Blog reading

This is a moth from Madagascar. It is the size of a dinner plate!

I have been reading this EXTREMELY interesting blog from a couple who have been traveling around the world for almost 2 years. They are on day # 670+. I have enjoyed the blog so much. I made it part of my morning coffee and blog reading. It has been just neat reading about their adventures and looking at their photos. They seem to be such real down to earth people too. I can't wait to share some of the most interesting photos I have seen on my reading journey.

Nothing special is going on! That is kind of nice.

I have had an uneventful morning.

Just got a lot of things finished up and started that I needed to.

It is kind of nice to be able to say that once in a while!!

K~

The zoo

Body language: Notice the hand hanging down on the other side of the log. His foot is in the back and you can see his 4 fingers dandling there.

The Zoo:

Nala is still angry that her space has been invaded by a fluffy fuzz ball with an annoying habit of jumping for her tail and chasing her.

Bing is clueless. I call him a "mouth with legs". He is sweet and friendly, but is NOT potty trained yet!!

Puff is exhausted over it all. The noise, the chaos, the cold. Enough all ready.

Cleo is determined to push out one "live" egg. She is going to do it, even if she does cost Kirsten a fortune. (ICKY egg #3, removed by household tweezers. I actually got sick to my stomach and Lost my appetite. Now THAT'S bad!)

Clyde still hungry for any kind of food, and apparently ACTION! If you know what I am not saying! Or did I just say it?

Yuri is still trying to get around that leg of the table in his habitat. The water turtles sit above them, and he works on getting his shell past the leg for many many minutes. He must think, "my head fits, now what about the rest of me." He clunks for the longest time. You can even hear him outside!

Shelley just waits for water. She loves to sit in her water. She takes a nice long drink and then poops...... SO I need to clean it for her often! She is patient with Yuri (not the brightest bulb on the tree) or, she is deaf.

Jaba (the toad) wonders why the dirt end and he can't bury himself enough. He has hit a glass bottom!!! (as apposed to the glass ceiling??) I need to add more dirt. I actually know he is a girl. Why am I calling her a him?

The tree frog just sits in the corner. Doesn't move much. Seems content. I do check if it is "with us" still. And so far so good.

Irene the anole loves it under her log. She suns during the day and has been eating the crickets, but mostly she sits under her log.

The mouse ( I think it's name is Milly or Tilly or something like that) is still hanging around as the last rodent allowed to live in our house. She still "does her thing". Runs on her wheel, eats, drinks and sleeps!

Pebbles still has attitude. She loves her worms! Although, I don't think she knew I was watching, but I saw her eating some broccoli!!

Snaky the snake (duh!) is happy to eat and eat and eat!! He loves his night crawlers and his feeder fish. He like to hang out under the rock and comes out usually only for food. But sometimes you can catch him sunning.

Maxwell is still "enjoying" his friends.

Magellan is still quite passive and patient.

LuLu seems to separated herself from the action and finds her own quiet retreats away from the craziness.

The dozens on fish seem to be happy. The ones the turtles don't eat, anyway. 3 tanks full and they keep getting added to. Turtles can be very picky.

Well that's the ZOO!

K~

MOM

MOM = Many Overwhelming Moments

If there is anything for sure, being a mom is filled with many overwhelming moments.

If you are person who thrives on the unpredictable/predictable events of life, become a charge of 3 humans. I tell you, it is never dull. I wish I had a specific situation to write about this morning, but, I was just reflecting over what happened 24 hours ago. Nothing special, just a normal school morning in the Walsh home.

Yesterday - 7:30 am

Kids get up, grumpy, loudly and unwillingly.

Bing is the WORST alarm clock ever! He licks them a bit, snuffs some, and then does a twirls around and lays down to nap!

D can't make it. Screaming his breakfast order, screaming at S, screaming because it's too bright, screaming because it's too cold, screaming because he "CAN'T MAKE IT TOO SCHOOL, DON'T I UNDERSTAND!!!. Then the screaming and crying continues for the next hour and 10 minutes.

C has the sniffles and her belly hurts. She's going to make it to school though (her lunch is made). She can't make it to school after all (Her lunch is put away). She needs breakfast. Now her stomach hurts. She needs to lay down. She need kleenex. Her clothes hurt her. She goes back to bed.

S is fighting with the dog. He is too cold. He is not dressed. He is not going to eat. Then he is hungry. He needs to be dressed by mom. Then he can do it himself. Then he is really sad. He cries and cries that HE doesn't want to go to school. I need to wipe the tears and get him out the door.

Nala is hissing continually at Bing. Bing is continually bugging Nala (and S). Bing gets his butt swiped and goes back for more. Nala sticks around to show she's the boss of this house. Bing is put in his kennel. Nala grumps off.

I DON'T FALL DOWN THE STAIRS..... It's a miracle.

After a long frustrating hour+ of crying, screaming, consequences, and loving coxing, the 2 boys head to the bus stop. Don't see D get on. I worry until I hear from school to see if he made it, or if he is wondering the streets and I need to go look for him.

Then it is off to a 10 am appointment. To Target to get prescriptions picked up that they called me about, and they are not ready!! Come home to greet S at the door from the bus. Check on C and start to make lunch for S, Cora's is already made. Bing proceeds to eat S's peanut butter sandwich. So S has a bag of fruit snacks instead.

All before Noon.

Phew........

This morning..............No screaming, crying, fussing or consequences. Just smiles, eating, dressing and on the way.

K~

Cleo is home and find

Photo taken at the end of January. Cleo is in the back and Clyde is in the front.

Well I just came from the pet hospital. The egg had to be removed, camera inserted, area washed out, and a shot of antibiotics given.................Wow. She is fine, but I am not feeling so well. It is kind of hard to spend $137 on a natural process. Although, I know better then anyone that babies just don't come out, at least not at this home!!

The Farm in the City

Still NO EGG! I am becoming increasingly impatient! I am sure she is too. I need to call the Exotic Vet today and see what I can do. Maybe this just takes time, but WOW!! Talk about the mother of all hemorrhoids she is going to have!

Puff has been out and about more and more these days. After the bitter cold snap I have been more inclined to put him on his pillow/stufty pile. He is so happy there.

I was able to clean Puffs, the 3 water turtles (LuLu, Maxwell, Magellan and the sunfishes) tank, as well as the 8 gold fish and 1 catfish tank, the other day. They are so nice and clear.

The next task is my land turtles (Yuri, Shelley, and Pebbles)! They are SO itching to get out and roam! Still to cold on the tile floor.

Then it's the toad (Jaba), frog (no name) and anole (Irene) tank and the snake (Snaky) tank.

The one I am dreading the MOST is the Salt water tank. That sits by a window, and MAN is it hard to keep that clean.

Lastly, it is our tank. This is the most discouraging!

I do try and keep up. I just fall so behind. I am working a lot at the computer, and frankly, I like to stay here unless I am sleeping or running errands. I think I am making progress, however. I am going through stuff little by little. Throwing, donating and organizing.

I do a little everyday and that is enough, I think!

K~

Thought for the day.

Where did I leave my 200+ tires????

This is a view from my friends breeze way! It took all day for them to haul them away. But the real question is, why did they have all these tires in there back yard, in the middle of the cities?

This sounds familiar.......

Obviously the person who wrote this particular Spongebob episode has had some experience with children......

Gary is Spongebob's pet snail (he meow's like a cat)



Spongebob to Gary: Gary! Looks like it's that time of week again: bath time. Come on, let's go get the water started. You're gonna have to get in that tub, Gary. Now, Gary, we can do this the hard way, or the easy way, or the medium way, or the semi-medium-easy-hard way, or the sorta hard with a touch of awkward-easy-difficulty-challenging way. So that's how you wanna play it, huh? Gary!

Spongebob on the phone: Hello, Fancy French Restaurant? I've got a naughty snail here who won't take a bath. What? Can you say that again? Slow down. It's like your speaking some other language. hangs up


Spongebob to Gary: I am really not amused, mister. You are going to take a bath, and you are going to get clean right now.


Gary: Meow.

Spongebob: I am so the boss of you.

Gary: Meow.

Spongebob: It may be a free country, but you live in my house under my rules.

Gary: Meow.

Spongebob: Don't use that tone of voice with me. You will do what I say when I say. What are you doing? I am talking to you, mister. Do not go near that mud puddle! Gary, the snail, do you hear me? I am giving you three seconds to get away from that mud puddle. One, two, two and a half...don't make me say three. Gary leans over the puddle Gary! Gary! Gary! Gary! Spongebob falls in the mud puddle.

A day of midwifery

Today turns out to be a day of midwifery at K~'s home. Sitting next to me, I have a tub with warm water in it. Cleo is soaking her egg ladened bottom. I also need to apply to petroleum jelly to the region. Hopefully this will get things going. If not, off to the vet I go for shots!! AHH the thought of taking a turtle to the vet........K~

Ramblings.........

The snow is coming down. I love it when it snows. It is so pretty. I don't even mind driving in it. I DO however, mind going out, it seems, no matter the weather.

I am going to try and embrace "new" self. At least for today. I am inefficient, late, slow, lazy, non responsive, couch potatoee - LOVE my nest!! and down right just love to sit!! I think that is OK?? I am working on accepting myself and being the best me I can be (today). I will soon want to be kicking my butt into gear, but my butt still hurts WAY TO MUCH!! and my neck, collar bone, back, leg, and rib cage. It seems my right pinky has healed nicely!!

I actually have my devotional out today. My candles on, my coffee next to me, and I am ready to 1st, read my blogs, 2nd send Pampered Chef evites to people for catalog shows, and 3rd enter my next things up for bid on Ebay! That should be a good days work.

My hip (butt) is killing me from the fall, and it is hard to sit on my desk chair too long. I wish I could blog a photo of my bruise. Anywhere else, and I might. It is a good 5 inches long and 1-2 inched high, black, red, brown, yellow and a bit green now. Just thought I would share!!

I am also watching my mommy turtle closely so she doesn't lay her eggs in the water, or that she lays them at all. I am worried now. I have questions into the turtle experts. I feel like I am waiting for toast to toast or water to bowl. She does look a little uncomfortable. Poor girl!

We here are some miscellaneous photos to go with my miscellaneous ramblings.

Have a great day, y'all.

K~

"I observed that the basic motive for success is the

driving force of envy and jealousy!"

Ecclesiasties 4:4 LB

HHMMMMM... Now that is quite insightful I must say!!

Man....

What a difference one glance makes.

So I am sitting here (kind of walking around, actually) and I think I need to get some stuff ready for delivery for ebay and PC. I cancelled a dentist appointment because I felt too overwhelmed by all I need to do today. I go out to say good bye to Rick, who by the way was disposing our dearly departed Fluffy (our teddy bear hamster).

Bye Bye Sweetie

Who died 2 days ago, and the kids don't know yet.... and I glance over and look at the Water turtle tank and think "Oh man, I need to clean that thing.... and soon) Then I see an open egg shell. OH DEAR!! They are mating and she has no where to lay her precious eggs!! SOOO. I drop everything and begin to not only clean there habitat, and GOOD! but, I have to dig up the sand box in the yard full of snow, not enough there, I need to exhume the sand table... phew, there is sand. Then I need to find a container, reconfigure the tank, dump out all the bad water. By lifting an extremely heavy glass tank. That felt wonderful on my riddled body from the stair fall. Build this, scrub that, fill it up, and put in the filters. And Finally. It is done.

Then I see Puff in his habitat. He needs a clean too. So I put him out on his stufty pile.

But usually, you see him like this. Under his Vikings blanket.

While I am trying to get all of this done and figured out, Bing is sitting on my feet every chance he gets.

I have now just given up on the day and am sitting here, decompressing.

K~

All in 10 minutes

Yes. That is a doggy shirt on Bing. Grandma bought it for him.

It is cute and just the right color too. hhmmmm.

What a morning or I should say all in one ten minute period of the morning. It starts out with me falling down the stairs, and end with me having to drive the kids to school, because the buses couldn't get through. So I drove the kids in my MINI VAN.... to school. I proceeded to sleep most of the day. The pain is not fun. Now I am waiting for the "4th child" to go to sleep, so I can go to sleep! We didn't call him Bing - after the cherry, for nothing!!
K~

I love Sloths!

These photos are from our visit to the St. Paul Conservatory. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! We had such a good time. The donation cost is very reasonable (because it is a donation :-) If you ever get a chance, you must visit this wonderful place. It is right next to the Como Zoo. So we were able to amble through there too.

This little guy is not the same one below. He is in the zoo part. I visit him every time I go to the zoo. This is by far the best posing he has ever done.

This guy is just loose in the conservatory. If I wanted to pet him, I would have just had to climb the tree!

Here are my monkeys by the Coy pond in the pink blooming section. There are the most gigantic Star gazer lilies I have ever seen in this room!

Orchids are everywhere in the conservatory! You can smell them and touch them (if you dare)


Here are my apes out by a bronze statue at the zoo.

I remember I posed by this statue after Rick proposed to me.

My sisters and I went to the zoo on a girls day and I stood by this guy, flaunting my ring!
K~

Where to get a good chunk of time?

Ok! I need to scrapbook already. I have more supplies to scrapbook then to crochet/knit!! And that is saying something!! I just need a good chunk of time to get busy with it! Man..... Where to get a good chunk of time, Where to get a good chunk of time, Where to get a good chunk of time. HMMMM. Any ideas??
K~

Getting the shop open!!

Well I worked very hard yesterday. I got my Pampered Chef stuff in order. I got 4 catalog shows on my March calendar and will be mailing out my packets today!! I even took an on line training (it was very good)! I put my 7 items up for sale on ebay as usual. I did several emails for the kids and their school stuff. Worked on getting a site for a community project I am working on (at a VERY grass roots level yet). Started scanning Cora's illustrations for my ECFE book. I wrote it, she illustrated it. What else!! Anyway, this am I have a phone meeting and coffee with my husband. Then back to the computer for a couple of hours and play around with Sam and Bing. Meeting tonight and the day is pretty much over! Phew!

K~


Drawing by Cora for my book.

Quiet

The house is quiet. All the children are gone. The Zoo is sunning and sleeping. AHHHHHH!

Candles lit.

Coffee next to me.

Piles of WORK to get through.

Fun stuff to do too.

What a nice sunny morning in Minnesota!

K~

just a small eye scratch.

I am sitting here with a wet dog shivering, wrapped in a Sponge Bob blanket. He is in between my arms on my desk. PU. Wet dog just is a smell one does not get used to. It is a holiday for the kids from school. We went on a 35 minute walk around the neighborhood, with Bing. He came home a muddy mess and needed desperately to be cleaned up.

Later we need to go to the eye doctor with Sam. He got between Nala (a 12 pound, angry (by nature) cat, fully clawed) and a puppy (less then bright - a very clueless when it comes to the cat hating him). Needless to say, warning Sam(4 years old) to stay away from the 2 during their conflicts, let alone getting in between the 2 during their barking - spitting match, falls on deaf ears. Sam ended up with a bit on his shoulder, a scratch above his eye and yes a scratch on the white of his eye!

I took him to the eye doctor and he does in fact have a scratch on his eye and now needs eye drops 4 times a day, along with his strep antibiotics! Man, that could have been REALLY REALLY bad. I am so thankful for the "little" injury. I just cringe thinking about how bad that could have been.

We are all fairing well and Sam is doing just fine. Thank goodness it doesn't hurt him at all!

K~

Strep... Very contagious

Well # 3 has it now. Poor little Peeps!! He is down for the count. Just got home from school said "my throat is as dry as a desert" and I took his temp. It's at 102! Oh man! So we have been dealing with this since last Friday at 3:30PM!! One solid week! I was just thinking that I have not been anywhere but my back yard, since Sunday from Noon to 2 PM. I have been home since then. Going a little stir crazy!!

K~

Lucky I have a happy place, too bad it's my desk area

I am waiting for a person to come and set up my "easy install" DSL.

You know what that means???

I am going to be able to actually get to my phone calls as they happen!!

I am so excited.

I am a bit perplexed, however, about the "easy install" "Oh, it is easy to do ma'am."

Yes, it is easy to install, but it doesn't work.

SO i have someone coming to do it for us for "FREE".

We'll see if it is my idea of free or their $25.00 free.

Well it took an experienced tech one hour to get me set up.

He was very nice.

This, however, was NOT "easy to set up".

Now at noon, I can start my day!!

K~

Repost of - Water dog

It kept bugging me that you could not see this post! So I tried AGAIN!!

Look at the size of those FEET!
He loves the water. Was I kidding??
I can hardly keep him out. He hears the water running and he runs to the tub. He paddles around and sinks ships. Then he takes a leisurely swim. We were going to get that Portuguese Water Dog, I mentioned in another posting.
We got a Minnesota Water Dog for MUCH LESS the price!!
K~

Hmmmm.... I wonder who did this?

Don't you wish

life was this easy to

figure out?? K~

Mother's log

Mother's log: Day 3

The ship has been overtaken with a mysterious illness. It affects the females different then the males. Everyone first feels tired and sick, followed by a high fever. This last for a day or two. The females tend to recover and move on. The males, especially the ones around 7 years, seem to carry the illness to another level of "wildness, followed by a convenient malaise" The males also seem to carry the illness with them for about 3 x's as long as the females. Lastly, the males only seem to be present symptoms more noticeably during school hours 7:30 AM- 1 PM, subsiding around 1 PM to 9 PM. Then oddly the symptoms present them selves around the bedtime hours..... HMMMM.

K~

Back to the books

My 40th birthday is fast approaching. I wanted to have a book written by my 40th birthday. I have accomplished this in a small way. I have done 2 books. One on Puff and one on ECFE. I really like them. They need small tweaking here and there, and the ECFE one needs illustrations. I want Cora to do them. But, I was hoping to be further on my longer book. Problem is, I can't settle on a project that I would want to work on for a while. I know it will be about my travels. That's about it. I have dabbled here and dabbled there. I have mind mapped and jotted, but I don't have a spark yet. I think I just need to be more purposeful. In the meantime, I am going to finish up my 2 small books and have them totally complete by July 31st!!

K~

Well I hope my last post that RE POSTED Came through! You all need to see the water dog. It shows up on mine now. Thanks for all of your Blog feedback. I am hoping to get my friend Cindy to start blogging. It would be neat to see what she has to say!!

I hope that today will go smoothly. So far Sam is at school and David, Cora and Bing are behind me in a "nest". I am working or I don't know if you can even call it that. I am trying to get something done here.

I will post a picture of Bing in the water on this so you can at least see him again.

K~

See it to believe it!

Look at the size of those FEET!

He loves the water. Was I kidding??

I can hardly keep him out. He hears the water running and he runs to the tub. He paddles around and sinks ships. Then he takes a leisurely swim. We were going to get that Portuguese Water Dog, I mentioned in another posting.

We got a Minnesota Water Dog for MUCH LESS the price!!

K~