Raising our little ones: Mud and Manners: Day # Free Treasures? (One man’s junk is another man’s treasure!)

Free Boards!

A whole pile of “treasures”!

Friday! Somehow the day has lost the excitement that it carried back during the days when we remembered which day is which! Nevertheless today is Friday! Today is the last day of “spring break”, and while we did not really do anything exciting or go anywhere, it was very nice to have the week off of emails, “google meets”, teaching, preparing, and trying to educate our own tribe! All of our children have said that they would be a lot more excited about school work on Monday if they were going back to actual school at the school building! Yeah, me too! Bu wishing doesn’t make it so! Onward we go back to “google meets”, emails, packet learning, and trying to finish up the school year with some measure of sanity!

We had an online Bible study and prayer time with some of the ladies from our church last night. I’m still not a huge fan of online meetings, but this meeting did go so much smoother than the last meeting we had online! We are learning! We had six ladies “join” on the meeting, and what a special time we had of prayer and fellowship. I had not really realized how much I had missed these dear ladies, but last night was just a very sweet time together. It was refreshing to me to hear the other two mamas with children at home also stating how long the school year seemed to be- so it’s not just me! Whew!

Lunch at the airport

Today Roger was working, and while it wasn’t exactly warm, it was not raining either! I was able to get in a quick run this morning while the kids worked on their chores and played outside. Later in the morning we took Roger some lunch at the airport so that was a nice change of pace for all of us. Sometimes a change of scenery can help put things in perspective. I took the children on a hike, but I’m not sure which one! There are SO many land trusts around here with various trails, which is great! However, often times it seems like the trailhead is not clearly marked with a trail map. I like the maps that are posted that state “you are here” and how long the trail is and whether or not its a loop or out and back, etc. All that was on the board of information was about three signs stating that social distancing is in effect, please move to the side of the trail, please watch out for ticks, please be safe, etc. So, I sent Roger a picture and our coordinates, and off we went. Sometimes I think the Mainers don’t realize that we didn’t all grow up around here, and a map would be great! The sign at the parking lot states “Ragged and Spruce Head Mountain Trails”. Great! And which one is which? And where is the trail map? Anyways, we hiked anyways! We can definitely follow color-coded trees and a trail that is well used. We hiked for about a mile or so, but since we didn’t know how long the trail actually was in length, we decided to turn around. Or rather, I said we were turning around! I’m pretty sure the boys would’ve kept on going for much, much longer, but as my dad always used to say, “It’s better to quit while everyone is still having fun!” Definitely!

One of our neighbors had a free pile out by their driveway on the way home. Free is Chandler’s middle name! Okay, not really...but he loves to scrounge through a free pile! He walked down to the neighbors, and he came back with a whole pile of “treasures”. A fire extinguisher that did not work (he wanted to see what was inside), a bunch of outside faucets, a can of copper fittings (for his scrap pile). Oh and “Mom, the lady said that she has a bunch of old lumber if I want to have it. Can I go back and get some lumber for my fort and the trails?” Ooo...Roger is going to be thrilled! (That’s an exaggeration, but we do not buy stuff for the boys forts or projects. They have to figure all that out on their own.) So the four boys trotted back down the road to the “lumber pile”. I let them go down on their own, but then decided that I should walk down and make sure that the lumber was free and that the neighbor was fine with four boys hauling off her stuff! I walked down the road, and it was so nice to meet another neighbor. She was quite pleasant to talk with, and I would love to visit more with her...but these social distancing rules are hard for people to visit together! Anyways, she was delighted to let the boys have her lumber, and she even borrowed them a wagon to haul all the lumber home. The boys proceeded to spend most of the entire afternoon pulling nails out of the lumber and dividing up their stash evenly. Roger never knows quite what to expect when he comes home from work, but I’m telling you, he’s a good man! If we didn’t have children we would probably have a perfectly manicured lawn and some nice landscaping. Instead we have lumber boards, a pile of bikes (for parts), a scrap pile, trails everywhere and lots of other random things. The kids pick up the yard about once a week, and we hear often “but we just did this”...um, yes! And somehow all this stuff is out everywhere again! Ah well, it’s good to hear them laugh, yell, and work (or fight) together outside.

Maine news: 28 new cases of Coronavirus, with an additional three deaths. The statewide death toll stands at 47. Meanwhile 499 people have recovered! We will rejoice in that, and we will also pray fervently for our governor to have wisdom and good counsel. I certainly do not agree with her on many, many things, but regardless of that, she is our state governor and we need to pray for her.

I have a lot of pictures from today.