7 Quick Takes

Today I'm linking up with Kelly  and trying my hand at 7 Quick Takes.  I always have a hard time with this because 7 seems like a big number...lets see how many I can come up with!

-1-

The Cat

Cooper remains with us despite my husband's daily demands to call the Humane Society for a "surrender".  Cooper's greatest fault is eating food off of the kitchen table.  Aragorn is diligent in his efforts to keep the chairs all pushed fully in so that Cooper can't make his way onto the table, but, well, Aragorn is just one boy and there are about a dozen chairs to keep pushed in at all times.

So, why haven't I followed my husband's requests?  Well, I haven't really had the time to call the Humane Society and schedule a surrender appointment (and yes, they really do make it that complicated around here), but...also, he's just so cute!  Look at him all sitting in the corner of our couch for an afternoon nap.    I'm sure I'll find a new family for him soon.  In the meantime, I appreciate his visit in our home. 

-2-

The Fish

Bilbo has been chasing this fish for two years, and finally on Wednesday, he had his great victory!  It is a sweet sweet Large Mouth Bass and we're getting it mounted for him (yes we are--$12/inch).  Funny story:  My husband called the taxidermist and left a message.  She called back when I was the only one home.  She asked what kind of fish it was.  I said I thought it was a Bass.  She asked if it was Large or Small-mouthed, because they WERE taking Large, but NOT Small-mouthed bass. I said something about the mouth looking pretty large, but asked if a small-mouthed bass might look like it had a pretty big mouth to the untrained eye.  She explained something about bronze vs. green and horizontal vs. vertical stripes...all of this was lost on me.  However, we googled images of the difference between the two and indeed it was a Large-mouth.  Huzzah!  Bilbo gets to have this pride of the local pond mounted after all!  Very important to a 9-year-old fisherman.

-3-

The Garden

I am fulfilling the desire of a decade of dreaming: I am planting a vegetable garden!  Why have I not done this for a decade?  Because we used to always go to my in-laws for a month or two during the summer.  Last summer was the first summer that we did not go, and I was 9 months pregnant in June, had Sam in July, and skipped the garden.

But you have to understand, I really really love gardening!  I have a collection of books on vegetable gardening.  I have been planning my plot.  So, this week, I dug a space.  But first I had purchased some flowers for the yard.  Bilbo and Galadriel had come with me and bought a flat of flowers.  My children were SO EAGER to plant their flowers and could NOT decide upon a place for them in the yard, so I let them line my vegetable garden with them (certain flowers will deter rabbits, these are not of this variety, but I may add some marigolds to the mix when I am finished.

Lest I bore my readers to death, I know it will not be only the avid gardeners among you that will be able to foresee that planting perimeter flowers BEFORE planting rows of vegetables must not be the wisest of strategies in the order of operations in garden planting.  Alas, it made my children very happy and they have stopped clamoring, so I am now waiting for a free day to make my seed purchases and get that garden up and running!

  

-4-

The Haircuts

"before":

First, my baby.  Oh how I hate cutting my babies' hair!

But Sam's bangs were hitting his eyes and making him blink, so...I buzzed him.

Then, Galadriel:

 Before: Galadriel's hair was approximately...three feet long!

So I whacked off a bunch.

And she saved her hair to donate!

(Ok, I see that it looks incredibly uneven in this picture. That's just the picture. I promise!)

-5-
Baseball

The season has begun!  My husband is coaching Bilbo this year, much to Gimli's dismay.  We didn't let the girls play softball just because we have to keep the numbers down in terms of schedules t o keep.  And joy of all joys, after much pleading on my behalf, Gimli consented to playing up a league with Aragorn.  Being 18 months younger, Gimli should still be in the middle league, but he can keep up with the oldest league, and it saves us a separate practice and game schedule, bringing our total number of schedules down to a mere TWO for the summer!  This is record-breaking and incredibly helpful.

-6-

Homeschool

I am more ready than I think I have ever been for summer to begin!  Unfortunately, it is clear to me that several of my children have hit a "stride" in their learning, suddenly really making great progress.  I am going to give it a final "push"--and then, I hope, have a little plan for summer "maintenance", which, we all know, will amount to nothing after about the first week of vacation, and we'll pick it up again in the fall.

-7-

The Three-Year-Old

Rosie is officially potty-training with success!  (Judge not, ye early trainers!) It was the new pack of undies I picked up that did it.  She declared to her big sister that they were "gorgeous" (a word I did not know was in her repertoire).  

She got my camera and decided to try her hand at selfies.

What a nut.

Hey, it's FRIDAY!!! Have a great weekend!