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<\/a><\/p>\nNow you might think my kids don’t appreciate this kind of thing.\u00a0 But, actually, they are pretty used to it.\u00a0 I am a rule making Nazi and list making maniac at heart and they realize there’s no fighting it.\u00a0 Besides, homework is getting done faster now that it is done in the bedrooms without distractions.\u00a0 Dinner prep is peacefully quiet or done along to tunes on the radio instead of the blaring of PBS cartoons.\u00a0 This evening they even decided to choose helping with dinner as an activity instead of a chore.\u00a0 Since it involved knives.\u00a0 Oh, the beauty of men making dinner!<\/p>\n Plus, the kids have rediscovered the joy of their toys and the outdoors.\u00a0 They have been happily scootering until bedtime the last few nights.<\/p>\n When they are all out scootering together they play some game they call “scooter pooter.”\u00a0 I don’t know why and I don’t want to know why.\u00a0 Some questions are better left unasked.<\/p>\n As if that wasn’t enough, the other day Middle checked the new activities list and decided he would<\/em> bake a cake.\u00a0 Since there was no yellow cake, he and The Other Half decided on brownies and made some together.\u00a0 Which means when I came home from work in the morning there was a pan of brownies on the stove.\u00a0 Brownies for breakfast, people!!!\u00a0 Ah the just rewards for a mother who believes in order and discipline!<\/p>\n In another sign of exemplary childhood behavior, Big has decided against the expensive birthday party he originally wanted that involved rock climbing.\u00a0 He was aware that the money spent on the party would be his actual present and he was happily planning it all.\u00a0 Until he came home from school, announced he had more friends to invite than this funds would allow for the expensive party, and decided on a home party instead.\u00a0 So we’ll be taking him and his friends to the cheap outdoor movie theater for the night and then letting them sleep over at the farm and have a bonfire.\u00a0 I think the bonfire was the real deciding factor.\u00a0 This is the stump we’ve saved and charred up a bit in preparation for the festivities:<\/p>\n Hmmm, rock climbing or massive fire.\u00a0 It is <\/em><\/strong>a hard choice for 12 year old boys.<\/p>\n As another treat, this week the hot weather finally broke and we were rewarded with warm sunny days and cool fall nights.\u00a0 The windows have been open for days, the air conditioning is off, and the house is filled with fresh breezes, roosters crowing, and the pings of acorns hitting the tin barn roof.\u00a0 So despite the fact that the solstice isn’t here yet, we have been rewarded with fall weather.\u00a0 And those dependable fall perennials have sprung into action.<\/p>\n Things are running smoothly in the barn, too.\u00a0 The Other Half finished the electric which means we have lights.\u00a0 Real lights!\u00a0 Not Death Lights AKA shop lights plugged into extension cords that run from the house through the back yard through the fence into another extension cord through mud holes and underneath dripping gutters and into the barn.\u00a0 I do not even have to be wearing my rubber boots to keep from being electrocuted or my safety goggles in case the light bubs explodes into 1,000 shards when I turn the new lights on.<\/p>\n This will the first kidding season where we aren’t sitting in the dark shining flashlights on a goat to see how she’s progressing and hanging lanterns from the rafters while we milk.\u00a0 Little House on the Prairie was an awesome show but as a farming style, it stinks.<\/p>\n The last of the year’s ducklings were sold through just one ad on craigslist.\u00a0 Oh, aren’t they cute?!<\/p>\n Eh.\u00a0 They are not as cute to me as they are hungry.\u00a0 Like eating-through-a-bag-of-crumbles-a-week hungry.\u00a0 Also, they are not really cute when they are swimming in the automatic waterer making it filthy for everyone else.\u00a0 So long, farewell, don’t let the barn door hit ya on the way out.<\/p>\n And in addition to the ducklings leaving, the abandoned dog found himself a new home with an ex-neighbor of ours.\u00a0 He left to be the only dog to a great guy whose last dog passed a year or so ago.\u00a0 He had been looking at puppies but once he met our visitor he was smitten.\u00a0 Just like we had been.\u00a0 So we said our goodbyes and they left together, driving off into the sunset.\u00a0 Happily ever after.\u00a0 Which was a close call because the kids had given the dog a name.\u00a0 And moved a blanket into the greenhouse for him.\u00a0 And “accidentally” let him in the house a few times.\u00a0 Whew!\u00a0 Was almost the owner of 4 dogs but made it out right under the wire.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n