02 September, 2011

This week

 School started for the year yesterday- finally.  After 3 days of cancellations and a delayed start in the morning.  So I played.  Some stuffed mushrooms. Little painted decorations.  Lots of fun to do; there will definitely be more of these
 Ella started middleschool.  She has been stressing over the whole of the summer, and yesterday her fears were realised; her locker got stuck, she was late to lunch (therefore couldn't follow the crowd), got lost, got to lunch really late and in tears, didn't have a chance to eat, got flustered, went to the wrong class after lunch because she was looking at Monday's time table, not Thursday's.  Fortunately for her, big brother Kit rescued her at lunch and had her sit with him- they are not allowed to sit by themselves, but the last thing Ella wanted was for people asking her why she was crying.  She said that teachers tried to help her in the hallway, but that only made it worse.  But she went off today with only a few tears in the morning.  And I know she will be fine.
 We are still without hot water...and will be for the foreseeable future.  The YMCA where I'd hoped to shower is still closed from the storm, so we are doing it all the old fashioned way- boiling pots of water for dishes and "showering" with a jug of warm water.  Fortunately for me, I had plenty of experience of living with tank water as a child, and learned these skills when the water got low.  So I guess you could say it's a good learning experience for the kids.  Having said that, we're hot footing it up to VT for the long weekend and I will be enjoying some nice hot soaks in the tub up there, yes I will!
And just to clarify- only our basement flooded.  I know those pictures of the house look pretty insane.  We had cleaned out the basement before we left, and put all our lawn furniture in the cellar stairs to stop them flying/floating away.  So although they are covered in a silty kind of muck, they are ok.  Our neighbours kindly tied our hammock stand to a tree for us, and of course, that's the only thing that was damaged- by a branch falling on top.  We will have to bring our chainsaw back from VT, as there are plenty of downed branches.  Yesterday we had to set fire to a bloated maggot infested musk rat that had been washed up by the storm- too icky to try and pick up.  The stench was pretty bad.  Yuck.  But our "gardeners" had come before we got back and cleaned up most of the other mess.  So really, we were lucky.
Have a good weekend.

5 comments:

  1. "Living with tank water...?"
    love
    Dad

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, dad, in south arm. I remember those days very well, even if they weren't for that long...also all the time I spent with nan and pop growing up- they often had tank water and we often had to be really careful about how much we used. Can't BELIEVE that was your only comment. Really?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi honey, have tried to ring for a couple of days to see how things were, but keep missing you, and I guess you've already left for Vermont - enjoy the bath and hot showers!! Poor little Ella, she sounds so distressed about her start in Middle School. I hope she was okay on day 2. Give her a big hug from me. They really should assign a buddy to each of the kids for the first 2 days like I've heard of here.

    I hope it's okay that I'm still coming - Colleen and I can cope with 'washes' - remember I go camping several times each summer. I wish I was arriving at an easier time for you though.

    Enjoy the weekend and we'll talk next week, love mum xxx

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  4. Anonymous3:52 PM

    Ohhh poor Ella, I am sure she will have it all worked out by now. How wonderful of Kit to help her. Your mushies looks great. We just used calico and painted the whole thing with white paint, let it dry then did the colour layers. Once dry I always used coloured pencils to add a bit more. Then a layer of clear medium to finish.

    And big gross on the musk rat!!!
    x

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  5. I had to try to add something this morning as Google has OKayed my password yet again. Could we have more Ella stories please for this week?
    Liz
    My emails cover other comments.

    ReplyDelete

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