2012 Blue Jeans Week 6

 Welcome!  Hope you have had a good week!  Here is what we have been up to . . .

Sunday:  For Christmas Miss A got the Settlers of Catan Cities and Knights edition.  It has taken us a while to figure it out and play it.  Today Ben and Miss A were determined to figure out how to play it.   Now they just need to teach everyone else :)

Monday:  A Valentine's tradition at our house is the Family Valentine's box.  Remember making a Valentine's box for school for your friends to put your Valentines in?  Well, we do that as a family on the first Monday in February.  Then everyone makes Valentines for each other and we open the box and distribute the cards on the evening of Valentine's Day.  Everyone gets to decorate a side of the box.  Miss O got to decorate the top this year.  It is a tradition my kids love.

Tuesday:  Snapshot from our lives--our job chart.  This is probably one of the most important pieces of paper in the house.  I had tried several different approaches to dinner dishes and kitchen helping over the years, but 2 years ago we visited my sister-in-law, and she had a system like this--one kid, and one kid only, was in charge of all the dishes for that day--empty dishwasher, set table, clear table, wipe it, sweep floor, and load dirty dishes.  I thought it was a great idea, then there is only one kid in the kitchen, and usually fights about who is supposed to do what do not break out when only one child is responsible and one person in a room.  It took a while for my kids to be converted.  They didn't like having do to everything for the whole day, but I loved no one fighting and complaining about someone else not getting their stuff done so someone else can do their job :)  The care and feeding of our chickens are separate from the dishes.  I have another chart for Saturday house cleaning jobs.  I just printed off the chart and put it in a page protector so we can write and erase it with dry erase markers.

Wednesday:  In case you didn't know, we are getting a new power line installed down our country road.  It has been a mess.  Today I had 7 trucks and about a dozen guys in my front yard trying to get this huge new poll ready to go in the ground.  So glad when this will be over with!

Thursday:  A relaxing evening with nothing scheduled, so we watched  Planet Earth--or at least Ben and Mr J took turns watching as they took turns playing Tiny Towers on Ben's i-touch :)  Boys and their toys.

Friday:  Usually for Valentine's Day at school my kids don't get to make their own boxes--the teacher will have the whole class make the same type of box/bag thing in class, so Mr J and I were excited when his teacher sent home the note that he was supposed to make his own--any way he wanted.  Miss A was such a nice sister and helped him find this cool monster design in an old Family Fun magazine (yes, I keep all my old issues) and they made it together today.

Saturday:  Mr J got his class Valentine's made today.  We went with really traditional ones this year--red and white doilies with another heart glued on top with a mini-candy bar glued on that.  Of course, we had to all try the candy bars to make sure they were good :) 

Thanks for visiting and hope you all have a great Valentine's Day this week!  Share the love!

Our trees

So as I mentioned in my last post, the power company is putting in a new power line down our street--a transmitter line that goes through the country where we live and then weaves its way into the town to provide them with their energy.  Now, I have no problem with energy, power lines, and power companies--besides the fact we need to conserve more and use less, but I will be the first to admit that I love my A/C, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer, computer and lights to just name a few, but I love my trees too!

They are telling us that the new poles will be 5 feet closer to the house than the existing one and that these 2 trees have to go.  These trees are not in their current eastment/right of way, so they want to buy a bigger easement/right of way, and then the trees will be in it, and "company policy" is no trees allowed in the easement/right of way.  We are not happy about it, but I don't know that we have much choice. 

Of course they have to pay us for the land and trees.  They had the trees appraised and offered us what they are worth--and, again, how do you appraise the value of a tree???  How do you appraise the shade they provide?  The swing in them?  The climbing in them my kids do daily?  The blocking of the house from the road, the privacy they provide?  and we aren't even scratching the surface of the environment aspect of the trees--the oxygen, the bird's nests,--I mean how do you appraise that??  We have gone back and forth and back and forth with the company over the last 2 months trying to come up with a compromise to keep our trees, but I have to admit the company is not very easy to work with and has rejected everything we come up with.  I think we are to the point where we either accept it or go to court and be forced to accept it.  Neither sounds good to me.  Historically and legally utilities are given the right of way.  Not fair, but we all like our modern conveniences, and so do I, but can't we still have them and keep my trees??