Grandma Duty

[Suey73]

DGD  has been here since  Saturday evening.  (DS and future DIL) took care of her Sat and Sunday. )  One night while puting about  "smething"  she said,  "I don't want to stay here anymore".  Almost broke our hearts  but we held firm.   Today is her 6th day.   Grandma got kind of tired of whinny little girl  and they little girl that scream high pitched screams.   Should see her face when Grandma yelled at her     Yesterday we went to Jacksonville, IL  to visit my Mom and friends from HS.   Great grandma did okay.   It finally dried up enough she could go outside and slide.   Took a nap on the way home.   Must of screwed up her schedule pretty good.   We finally gave up and put her in bed at 10PM.   When we looked in at midnight she was still awake!   Trying to get her back on schedule today.    She's been trying to nap for about an hour...  I want to go check my little pigs.    I promised her ice cream tonight.  AL  has a social and community band come in  so we will go in.  

   Family due to start arriving tonight.   I'm ready for some backup... need a trip to bank and etc.   Tonight I have to go to the grocery store.   Maybe I'll go while Tom and she enjoy the concert....still going to get my ice-cream.   

Spent the whole morning trying to catch up on bills.  RE taxes are due Monday  and I want to pay them when I go to the bank.   RE  taxes are more complicated with  a trust and some ground owned by:  us, the trust and MIL. 

Getting a little POed at the  terminal corn buyers.    I've paid for 31 semi truckloads of corn to be delivered.   Still no check.   I'm sure there is no problem with solvency  but I'm just about ready to call corporate.   These loads were delivered  June 8th through the 12th.  And they knew they were the last loads because they were a special nongmo contract.    More corn semis are going someplace else right now, ethanol plant.      

Back to work. 

[turkey feather]

You are indeed a very special woman!!  Fifteen years ago I doubt that I could have handled a small child and got ready for a huge crowd and done my daily work. Or maybe you are super organized. Do they stay all week? Hope it all goes very well.

[Suey73]

First of all taking care of 3 groups of pigs without sows  frees me up.   I paid a 15 year old girl to help:  paint and clean next door.  While she did that stuff I could work on putting  kitchen together.   They will stay  3 to 5 nights.      DGD is 2 1/2,  terrible 2's,   but able to articulate pretty good.   Just looses that ability when she doesn't get her way.   Seriously,  I do not understand why anyone wants 2 houses.  And that does include Kay,   sorry.   It is exhausting trying to clean, and upkeep.. and mine are just across the yard from each other.     Time to get ready for  Ice-cream Social time. 

I'm not kidding   I've paid the girl  about  $500   excellent use of my money.   If you can find such a girl  hire her.   Not only did she keep moving but so did I stay focused on the task  before me.   Can't let some whipper snapper out work me.   But,  she did.  She climbed up and down the step ladder and stairs  with no trouble.    I kept getting slower and slower.   

Life is pretty good.   We feel blessed. 

[Kay/NC]

And don't forget the office and the studio house...it isn't as bad as it sounds, since I tend not to obsess about this one.  Jenna' house has no dust blowing up around it.  Everything is either grass or trees there, and we are the only traffic, mostly by Mule. '

When you have them fulltime, it is different than an occasional visit I guess.  That age is charming, bit infuriating at times, too.  Winn is hitting a phase where he wants to do everything himself.  It is my fault, as I have foiudn safe scissors and those kids' chef's tools and kinves, and let him sue them freely. I made the mistake of cutting open his popsicle wrpapper yesterday, adn thought he was going to stroke out on me.

I think you were quite wise to hire that helper.  Wish I could find a decent one.  Daughter found several househoidl help referral last week, and I may follow up on one or two of them, if just for a seasonal cleanup. 

New worker seems to be trying really hard, but the fulltime workload and tryign to fix up the trailer for his family is taking its toll.  Mike has one room to panel over there, and I paid for the carpet today, so it should go in next week.   I expect to hear about the brickhouse in VA to get ready after July 1st. 

Posted a blurb on a community FB page up there today, and got about ten inquiries, two wanting pictures.  Got to take a few this weekend, and referred them to the realtor.  I hope we get it empty soon enough to get tenants back for the school year, whcih starts the day after Labor Day there.

Store tenants are making slow moves, but say theyy hope ot open their business by July 1st.  I have done about all I can do there.   Need to enclose the well pump and drive termite stakes up there.

Biosolids going on my home farm now, and after we get potash on, on Mike's in a couple of weeks.  Cattle feeders arrive to assemble this week, so hoping we get most of greenhouse framing complete this weekend, move in graveel and set pots to start filling for planting. 

Severe thunderstorms all over the maps tonight.  Tornados in the county just to our east, looks like rough stuff hitting us in VA.  We keep getting the spits and sputers ahead of or behind a real storm...this one is right over Mike's place now. 

You enjoy your guests.  I think I am being downshifted to two days a week this fall, and those are his school half-days. Except when the other grandparents are traveling.  Somehow, I am the only one who seems to be able to get him to nap, which means he throws a bigger fit when I make sure he does.  That's okay, he feels and actsSO much better when he's gotten that rest. 

[Suey73]

I ended up rocking her asleep for the nap.  She just needed to be unfocused on anything else.  She is a busy little girl. 

[linda/IL]

Sounds like your plate is overflowing, Suey.  When mom leaves her home it will definitely be put on the market.  I/we do not want to have the upkeep/responsibility of renting.  Not unless some responsibile friend comes forward & even then-nope, don't think so.

I truly love my grandkids but sometimes it's tough.  They were here the day I sat on the phone with insurance.  I feel I should keep them busy & off those electronics but with packing, etc. I didn't have the time or the supplies for sewing or crafting.  And the rainy muddy weather makes it tough to function outside.  And then Ronnie had his preparations to do with chores so things were in place so he was not much help.

It's hard with age differences to.  Sam, 10, needs extra practice with pitching, etc. with baseball.  Emily, 7, plays softball too so she is right in there demanding her practice.  Doesn't work too well.  We have here nicknamed for years as "Me Too".  Not really fair to Sam.  And then the oldest, 13, wants to earn some money doing housecleaning, etc. but needs some training on that too.  And of course, "Me Too" is always chiming in also.  It would really be best to have one at a time.

Good luck this week Suey, I'll be thinking about you-Wonderwoman!

[Kay/NC]

Bless you, Linda!  Hard to render quality time when you are overwhelmed.  Trhee's a crowd, for sure. 

My duty this morning, was to say "yes" when Winn called to ask if hte new puppy could come over today. 

How can a MaMa say :No"???

This is the tiny puppy the hired man left for dead under his house last Friday, lying about it being in his car when daughter told him to get off the place.  SIL went back and foudn him, and he needed hydration, was covered with hundreds of ticks, and I doubt would have lasted another day. 

Our first job we agreed upon was to bathe him in the porch, and that was not too bad.  Winn really helps as much as a little guy can with things like that. 

He stole Winn's first snack, and we had to make sure he got walked and started training him to leash.  We are going to try basic obedience, which should help Winn learn a lot, too, I think.  

Last, I had to keep removing the ticks...I think I got fifty or more that daughter had missed.  She says she got at least 200 off this less-than-ten-pound animal.  He should be strong enough to put drops on now, so no fleas and get the rest if we missed any. 

Nasty job, and I always feel like they are crawling all over me when I get done with cleaning up an animal with a crop of them

The weirdest thing this week has been explaining to Winn where the hired guy that was here went...He was here two years, so is the only one Winn remembers. 

When I said the new man was going to live in thet house now, he asked where the other guy was, by name.  I said he cannot work for us anymore. 

Typical of a kid of three, he asked,"Why?" 

I asked if he took good care of the puppy.  Winn said, "No, he didn't give him food or water." 

I said we had to tell him to leave, because he let his puppy get sick by not taking care of him. He grasped that.  He knows we take care of our animals, and people who don't are bad.   

[Kay/NC]

Winn adores the cartoon "Caillou".  He cannot fall asleep to it, but does to "Tom & Jerry". They trained him to nod off to cartoons at night. 

I put the TV on that cat and mouse, and he stretches out in a big chair.  He gets no choice about naptime, but does get to choose bed or chair, which chair, blanket of no blanket, wiich blanket, cat or no cat in the chair with him.  He can be fussing his head off, and walking towards the chair the whole time....

If he gets too fidgety, I pause the TV screen.  That is his "settle down" signal.  As long as teh robo calls lay off for a while, and the family stops triggering door alamrs by coming in fo no good reason,he gives in and sleeps two hours or more. 

One day last week, they kept tripping the door signals, and he said, "In and out, in and out (complete with hand motions)  How they expect me to sleep?" 

Precisely!

[SLC]

Kay,   What a sweet boy for understanding how to take care of animals and learning to do so!    Every kid needs a dog.     You may want to try Nexgard as it is oral and will kill the fleas & ticks in a matter of hours.   

Suey, I so agree with trying to keep up with one house, let alone two.  It gets overwhelming. You are lucky to have found someone to help with the painting and cleaning.  I should hope you got your ice cream!

Linda,  Sounds like you are kept very busy with what you have to do, let alone trying to keep the extra help busy.  I hope you get some time for yourself.

[Kay/NC]

There are eight dogs at their house now, only two of which they actually meant to acquire. The other six, including the pup, are rescues. Let's not start talking about equine rescues there....

Mike and I have been sitting on the porch here at Jenna's, watching the young groundhogs and rabbits out foraging the fringes of the yard here. A wild turkey wandered through, and the woods and pond are alive with all sorts of birds, bugs and frogs singing their hearts out.

The cows started grazing their way up the hill across the path, all fat, slick and shiny. Came in for our showers. I think I am going back out in the lovely, cool breeze we have this evening.

Animals provide this living for us. We had better treat them right....