Critters

Well, I've already written about the snake, but I thought it was time to include pictures of the animals we choose to have around. First there's Lucky the toad. He's fairly low maintenance and very interesting to watch when he detects an insect nearby. It's also entertaining to watch him when he's caught something larger than his mouth. He's been fed cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, a moth, and maybe a katydid.

Fluffy is our outdoor cat. She's inside in the picture because we have an unwanted animal in the house- a mouse. Unfortunately, she has not discovered its whereabouts and is only interested in exploring the house or lying on our bed. She's a kitten so she has a lot of energy and will leap backwards in the air to try and grab her fur toy. She eats cat food. :)

The other animal we had in the house the other night was a tree frog. It hitched a ride in on the ladder and I startled Tartan when I shouted at him to stop; I noticed it just before he reached the rung the frog was sitting on. I had no choice but to scoop it up in my hands and then have Tartan open the door for me to let it loose. Ick; I thoroughly washed my hands and then used hand sanitiser as well.

On a completely different note: Abigail has her first loose tooth! She's a little bit anxious about it, but we all try to reassure her that it 'll be ok. It's really very loose, so it might be out in time for her Halloween birthday. She didn't like the jokes about resembling a jack-o-lantern though.

No dishwasher.

Trusting in the Lord,

Naomi for the Colliers

Death of a Snake

Several weeks ago we discovered that a snake found the underside of our paddleboat a nice place to hang out, but Tartan had not been able to get enough of a visual of it before it would slither into the water. A couple of nights ago when the temperature was rather cool, he went out to empty water from the boat and discovered it curled up under there and it appeared to be a young cottonmouth. Poisonous- not something we want anywhere near the children, or the cat. Wednesday night I bungled the search and destroy mission we went on, so Thursday before it got dark (and just before we were going to have a bunch of cub scouts over for a meeting), Tartan went out on his own.

I glanced out the window a few times as I was serving dinner and I suddenly noted a lot of movement and splashing going on so I hurried out to see if he needed assistance. I was told to bring the camera. I took several pictures, a few of which turned out. I thought about posting a pic, but thought some people might feel squeamish. :) The snake was then killed and disposed of. I hope it was a poisonous snake, but when in doubt, we just had to play it safe.

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers

The weather is getting nicer

I like October in Texas. The weather eventually starts to cool off and it's a comfortable temperature outside. The cold front that came through yesterday was a very wet one though. About the time to leave for ballet lessons, it was raining pretty hard- but I expected it to pass through fairly quickly. Instead it came down even harder; the umbrella hardly seemed to be doing much when we got out of the truck. It would start to taper off and then the next storm cell would pass over. The raingutters that Tartan installed over the back deck and next to our bedroom certainly got a trial...by flood! They need a little more work, but they kept most of the rain going down the spout rather than splashing onto the deck or outside the windows. Today was a beautiful day; the rain all gone, but the temperatures still cooler.

Saturday was the Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta, though fortunately without any rain. Aidan, Kyrie and Abigail decorated pinewood boats and Tartan attached the sails they had to blow on to race them in the raingutters. None of them placed, but they all were really close in their races and they were good sports. After hot dogs, crisps, and pink lemonade we went home and had a visit from one of my sisters and her husband. All in all it was a splendid day.

In case you're wondering (and you might)- no, we still do not have a working dishwasher. I still have no idea when it'll be fixed. Well- rejoice in the Lord always!- even without dishwasher. :)

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers

I wish my dishwasher was working

Our dishwasher gave up the ghost on 21 September. Of course, the part that needs to be replaced takes about 2 weeks to come in- so I should hearing something by the end of this week, but more likely early next week. I've had the kids do some of the wash up, but mostly it's me and mostly it piles up through the day until I can get to it in the evening. I guess there are worse things, but it's certainly not helping any.

I do praise God that though it looked like I might be coming down with the stomach bug Tartan had last week- it was just an annoyance yesterday (our really busy out-and-about day) and we were able to get everything done. Except dinner- I was too wiped out by then, so Tartan brought home fast food. Today I appear to be fine.

Time for lunch!

Trusting in Jesus,
Naomi for the Colliers

Pardon my contest entry...

I entered to win the writing instruction program MY Access! Home and the SAT Prep Pack on the HSB Company Porch!

It's October!

How did that happen? At the end of the month, Abigail will be six! She is planning on having a Spongebob themed party. I'm going to have to start thinking about when that's going to happen.

It has somehow come to pass that nearly all our extracurricular activities are on Monday and Tuesdays. On Monday, Kyrie has band and will be having ballet as well, Abigail has ballet, and Alex has boy scouts in the evening. It's not very difficult; there's a place for the rest of us to work on school work during band and Kyrie and Abigail will be doing ballet at roughly the same time. Tartan takes Alex to scouts and even if occasionally I'll have to do that, it's very close to the house.

Tuesday is the interesting day. After lunch, we pack up and head to the YMCA for PE class. The first half hour is fellowship time and they can run\walk laps to earn little, plastic foot-shaped charms and get ready for the presidential fitness exam in the spring. After the hour of PE (not including the fellowship time), we head toward home, dropping Kyrie off on the way for her 2nd hour of ballet. At home, the boys have enough time to freshen up and change clothes before I drop them off for piano lessons a little early so I have time to get back and pick up Kyrie. Yesterday I dropped the boys off a little earlier than I expected and I got back to the ballet school earlier, but that was good because Abigail and Kayleigh got 15 minutes to stretch their legs in the waiting area after being in the car since 2:40. The final bit of the day was to pick up the boys at 5.

We were well organized yesterday so it went pretty smoothly. Even Alex, who is the one who gets stressed with all this going hither and thither, didn't feel like it was a constant rush and he didn't have enough time. I think I'm going to make a list to post by the door of everything we need to remember to have with us in the hopes that that will help things to continue to go smoothly on Tuesdays. Yes, you can pray for us. :)

Trusting in the Lord (and constantly reminding myself of this),
Naomi for the Colliers