Snapshots: A Sleepy Butterfly

Our Sundays start pretty early, because Mass at our church is at 8 a.m. We don't have time for anything elaborate for breakfast before we leave, so this is the one day of the week that the kids have cereal. I do make a second breakfast when we get home around 9 a.m., though. Last Sunday, I made biscuits. I set out all the available biscuit toppings on the table when they were ready.

Butter, honey, plum butter (thanks, sis!), strawberry preserves, and apricot jam. There were enough biscuits for everyone to try every one of these things. On separate biscuits, I mean.

I recently used the last of the rendered tallow I had in the refrigerator. I need to render some more of the many pounds of suet in the freezer. It's difficult to find the motivation to do this sometimes, as it's a tedious and greasy job, but this jar of tallow I saw at the grocery store is a pretty good motivator.

Twenty dollars for a pint certainly made me think WOW!!, but not because I was amazed at the low price.

This is the time of year the Monarch butterflies are migrating to their warmer overwintering regions. I'm not sure if we're on the route for the butterflies that are going to Mexico, or the ones going to California, but in any case, there are a LOT of Monarchs floating around right now. I spied this one in the planter outside the bank last week.

A pretty rest stop during a long trip.

Jasper hasn't taken any long trips lately, but he still feels the need to rest.

Sleepy dog.

We are definitely coming to the end of fresh flower season. We could get a freeze at any time now, which means every week might be the last week for flowers. But for this week, I still have some.

On the table (look at those wee sunflowers).

And on the bookcase.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Snapshots: First Fire and Flowers

It's the shoulder season of fall, and that means that we have both fresh flowers:

On the table.

And on the bookcase.

Plus the ones I put together just yesterday.

And fire:

The first fire of the season, yesterday morning.

I had a heck of a time getting that fire going, thanks to the fact that it looked like this outside.

That's not fog. It's a cloud, and our elevation is high enough that we were just in it.

Everything was damp, there was no draft, and every time I opened the stove to check on the fire or add wood, it just billowed smoke out. It was very unpleasant. I did get it going eventually, though.

The morning before, it was 59 degrees in the house. That would have been a good morning to have a fire, but all the wood was wet from being in an untidy pile outside on the ground, where it was dumped when it was delivered unexpectedly on Monday. 

The kids went to work yesterday afternoon, though, and had it all stacked within a couple of hours. They were helped in this endeavor, amusingly, by our priest. He came to dinner and was very eager to help stack wood. I suppose he appreciates such a straightforward, physical task, that is so unlike what he usually has to do.

We are happy to oblige him by providing the opportunity for labor. Never in short supply at our house.

On Michaelmas, we had fire and flowers together at breakfast. Our usual candles were joined by our St. Michael candle--these are readily available at any grocery store in New Mexico--and the youngest boy's St. Michael keychain that he carries in his pocket every day.

A very liturgically appropriate breakfast table.

Continuing the religious theme, I was amused to see that Poppy's brown scapular that she wears every day under her shirt was perfectly framed by the opening in the back of her shirt yesterday.

I spy with my little eye . . .

Another back shot for Poppy so I could show her what her hair looked like before Mass on Sunday:

Big bow on a looped braid.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Snapshots: Rain!

Friday's homecoming football game was slightly delayed because of lightning. Coincidentally, the game the week before was delayed for the same reason. Very cool sky once the storm started to clear, though.

There was a rainbow between the trees, which looks in this sunset photo to be a tongue of fire rising from the ground. Dramatic.

The middle part of this week featured rain, and a lot of it. We have not had significant rain in months. We got 2.5 inches over a couple of days.

The proof is in the rain gauge.

Thankfully, our soil is very absorbent and was also very dry. Since the rain came steadily, rather than in torrents, it soaked in without any flooding or anything.

When I went to pick up the football player on Wednesday evening from the post office, where he's dropped off after practice, Poppy came with me. It was pouring rain. Her best friend was there with her mom, waiting for her brother too. The girls were thrilled to be able to play in the rain.

Our rainstorms are typically thunderstorms, and the accompanying lightning means the kids don't get to play in the rain very often.

Poppy asked for a big blue bow hair tie to be put in her braid for the day they were supposed to have on school colors. I ended up looping her braid up with the bow, which was kind of neat. I always have to take a picture of the back of her head whenever I do anything different with her hair, so she can see how it looks.

This of course did not stay put through recess, but that's okay.

And last, I randomly came across this terrible poem online. I appreciate the sentiment, but the rhyming and meter are really unfortunate.

 "Thou who didst love to give men food, in room or by the sea." In room? Is this referring to the Last Supper, perhaps? Who knows.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Snapshots: Flowers and Flame

We have far too many boxes of macaroni and cheese, thanks to commodities. I tend to use the pasta from the macaroni and cheese and not use the packets of cheese powder. So the last time I dredged pork chops in egg wash and flour, I mixed the extra egg and flour with some of those extra packets and microwaved it quickly, topping it all off with some nasty grapes. For the chickens.

Surprisingly colorful. They loved it.

 It was quite cloudy and dim on Wednesday morning when I woke everyone up for school.

And that means breakfast candles!

I like it when I can have both fresh flowers and candles on the table. The light from the candles is much more mellow and orange than it shows in the photo, and it lights up the flowers very nicely.

The next morning, the older two boys left at 4:15 a.m. to go with their FFA chapter to the New Mexico State Fair. I didn't have to get up with them, but I can't sleep if there's movement and light in the morning, no matter how early. So up I got to say good-bye to them. And then I had a LOT of time for my coffee.

No sign of dawn out that window.

I am pleased to tell you that Odin's gross wound that he kept licking has healed. It required several sessions in the dreaded t-shirt. He kept getting it off, and then we'd have to put it back on and try to pin it more securely. Eventually, everything healed up enough that he stopped fussing with it.

The great Odini, happy to be wearing no clothes whatsoever.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Snapshots: Very Away Football

If you've ever wondered what it might look like if you forget about eggs you're hardboiling for over an hour . . . 

Do not recommend.

Those went to the dogs, who did not complain.

I subbed at school for one of our special ed. teachers on Thursday. I thought these were funny.

I think the administration gave one of these to every staff member during last year's difficult move into the new school building.

This is in the math classroom. Our math teacher is a man, which makes this make more sense.

Yesterday was the first football game of the season. It was an away game. VERY away. Exactly 223 miles, one way. I went mostly so our junior high player could come home after his game, instead of waiting to take the bus after the varsity game and getting home at 2 a.m.

The first 100 miles of my drive looked like this.

The last 60 miles looked like this.

The intervening miles didn't feature much more of interest. New Mexico is a startingly empty state.

I did stop once in a random village to look at their church.

Unfortunately, it was locked, so I couldn't go in.

Cool stonework on the outside, though.

The athletic facility at the school I was going to was surprisingly nice for such a small school.

I particularly liked the roses that were planted all under the stands.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Snapshots: Ranch Wedding #2

I have gone years without going to a wedding, but now we're in a Wedding Season for sure. There was the giant ranch wedding in June. I'm going to my niece's wedding in Vermont in October. And just last night, we went to another (slightly less giant) ranch wedding.

This one was also for a young lady who works at the school. She married our Superintendent's son, and the wedding was on his family ranch. It was a little over an hour from us. This one was slightly less formal than the one we went to in June. However, given that the dress code is always just varying degrees of formality in Western dress, that mostly meant that it was the women who didn't dress up quite as much. The men still wore their carefully ironed jeans, button-ups, hats, and boots. 

Ironing in progress. Thankfully, the boys can all iron their own clothes now.

The women wore more-casual dresses and cowboy boots instead of heels.

I wore a long denim skirt and espadrille sandals. Boots would have been better, though, because there was no paved surface anywhere to be seen. Anyone foolish enough to wear thin heels would have been in big trouble.

The actual wedding service was on the edge of a river canyon, which required driving a bumpy track from the dirt road we came in on.

The track was very fine dirt, which kicked up a lot of dust and would have turned into an absolute quagmire had it rained at all.

There was no rain in sight, however, just a lot of sun. 

It was about a hundred-yard walk to the service, with no path to be seen.

The service was at 5:30 p.m., when it was still at least 90 degrees, but it was pretty short. I was thankful for this, given that we were all sitting on boards supported by hay bales in full sun.

The service was performed in front of this cross. Note the aisle made of cowhides. 

The bride and groom actually rode up to the aisle on their horses, the bride riding side saddle because of her long dress. This was the most Western wedding ever. But it wasn't performative or anything. This is really just the life these people live.

The service was very nice, and then we all got back in our cars and drove back to the dirt road for the reception. 

Walking to the reception. Another hundred yards or so, no paths to be seen.

This was near the cattle pens, which were close enough to a road that there was electricity. They set up awnings for shade, the band was on a flat-bed trailer, and the dance floor was plywood.

Unusually for a wedding--or any event--the food was ready when we got the reception. After signing the guest book, we all just filed past a food truck and got our dinner. No waiting for speeches or whatever, which was great.

The food was delicious, too. They didn't have a cake, just giant cupcakes, which were also very good.

I discovered when I was dancing with the eldest that they had coated the plywood in flour. This was to make it easier to spin, I guess, but it also made it surprisingly slippery. Once again, I would have been better off in boots. Espadrilles are not made for the two-step.

Anyway. It was a very fun wedding and we all had a good time.

One quick shot of this week's flowers before I go . . .

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Snapshots: Some Misadventures

First, take a look at the fruit on this can of raspberry-lime Polar seltzer A. brought home.

Those raspberries look awfully grape-like to me.

I went into school to sub for just the afternoon. I was taking over for what used to be S.T.E.A.M. (science, technology, engineering, art, and math), and is now M.A.S.H. (music, art, Spanish, and health). 

I was reminded during the quiet prep period between classes how much I hate ticking clocks.

Ticktickticktick...haaaate.

I did like this sign outside the preschool room, though.

A. drove my Honda to town on Friday and had an unfortunate run-in--literally--with a wild turkey.

You should've seen the turkey. (It's dead.)

Odin had an unfortunate run-in of his own, with a dog that lives up by the post office. This very large dog is not usually out, but she was one day last week, and she beat up Odin pretty good. He had a wound on his shoulder that I was watching, hoping it would heal on its own. But of course, dogs are always licking at things, and that was making it worse, not better.

We don't have one of those cone collars that vets use to keep dogs from licking at wounds, so we had to improvise. After putting on the wound dressing liquid and a gauze pad, we wrapped it all up around his belly with vet wrap. And then topped it all off by putting a t-shirt on him.

A picture of a dejected dog.

Odin is not enjoying his experience with dog clothing. I do not think I will be buying him any cute little sweaters for the winter.

And last, this week's flowers.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Snapshots: Multiple Sunflowers

This first photo is one I forgot to post during county fair weekend:

These two are too old to nap anymore. Except during the county fair, which is enough to wipe anyone out.

A. and I both read a lot, although we don't read the same sorts of things. Occasionally my current book and his will get in close enough proximity to each other for me to be amused at how different our tastes are.

Bet you can guess whose is whose. Mine isn't one I would typically choose, but it was given to me by a friend, and it's good enough so far that I'm still reading it. 

In addition to having no cucumbers this year, I also have no summer squash of any kind. The calabacitas that I use in place of zucchini never germinated in the spring, and the very late planting we did manage to get growing is way behind. Luckily, the lady the older boys work for who has been sending cucumbers home with them has added squash to her offerings.

I know the joke is that you can't avoid being gifted squash in the summer by overzealous gardeners, but I was so happy to see this.

A relatively small knife, and a very large squash.

I don't know what kind of squash that is, but it had very small seeds even though it was large, and it was delicious, so it's a good one whatever it is.

This sunflower I found this week looks so much like an actual sun to me.

Something about the pointiness of the petals makes them look like rays.

Poppy found a several more sunflowers on her way home from the post office and thoughtfully brought them home to me, so we have a nice arrangement on the bookcase right now.

Four whole sunflowers! Impressive for this pathetic year of wildflowers.

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.