7 Quick Takes - 2021 So Far

 

 Happy New Year!

-1-

Like most, I’m not sad to see 2020 end, but I have clenched teeth about 2021.  I am pleased to say that I am feeling even better than I did after my last post, in which I described my COVID-19 experience.  It certainly was a strange illness for me.  For weeks, I had some fatigue and serious brain fog.  My hormones went completely wacko afterwards, also, and so did my moods.  I told my friends that I was either pregnant or post-COVID.  Well, it certainly wasn’t the former as those days are behind me now (sadly).  Things are slowly coming back to normal, and I’m planning to resume running again this coming week, which will probably look a lot like walking.  My husband had an antibody test done two weeks ago and oddly enough, it came back negative, which amazed me because he certainly was exposed to the virus many times while I had it.  I attribute it to either the virus not being as highly contagious as we had thought or God’s mercy.  Probably both.

 -2-

As we usually do, my husband and I welcomed the new year in while we were sound asleep. For the past 20 years, we have helped with a local Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on New Year’s Day and this year was no exception.  This was the 25^th year for our particular count, and I have been helping since the beginning.  Back then, I was a single, energetic, eager-to-learn young woman and now I’m a married, worn-out, been-there-done-that mom. Yet, a love of birding has remained constant in my life and it always will.  I hope that someday, I am an eighty-plus year-old woman still counting birds on New Year’s Day. Hopefully some younger birders will join me and drive me around while I peer out the windshield counting starlings and turkey vultures, which is all that may be left.

The intrepid birder.

-3-

We had an epiphany!  We wrapped up our 12-Days of Christmas celebration with a sweet little Epiphany party at home and invited a couple of friends who also were now post-COVID to join us.  I made my first attempt at a charcuterie and it was a lot of fun to put together, even if not Pinterest worthy.  We also made our own chocolate coins, something I wished I’d thought of doing years earlier.  One of our kids reacts to soy lecithin, so I always have to make our own chocolate candy or buy the very expensive allergy-friendly variety.  Finally, I had my own little epiphany and realized that for the price of two bags of the allergy-friendly coins, I could buy a candy coin mold, a bag of Enjoy Life chocolate chips, some gold foil and make my own!  It was super easy and the kids enjoyed doing this as one of their “12-days of Christmas” activities.  At our 12^th Night party, we hid the coins and the kids searched for them.  Whoever found the baby in the king cake got to keep all the gold coins (if they were an Evil King) or they could choose to share their gold (if they were a Good King).  Turns out that Daddy found the baby, and while he was on the fence for a moment, he decided to be a Good King and share his wealth of soy-free chocolates.  Long live the King!

King Dad

-4-

After a much needed 2-week break, we resumed school work this past week.  The first day was as bloody as I expected it would be, and it was painful realizing that even sending them to school right now would mean still having them at home.  LOL!  But day 2 went much better after a few motivational speeches (aka, threats) from mom, and I think we are back in our groove again.  I still long for the day that I can have both boys doing schoolwork in the same room, but I have accepted that that day may never come.  For now, we are making homeschool work by having each kid in their own space and I wear the floor out going back and forth from one to the other.  You wouldn’t think I’ve been doing this for six years now based upon how every day feels like day one all over again, but I am hopeful that by the time they start high school, I’ll have a system down.  Maybe.   Strange enough, however, our kids continue to learn despite my (and their) imperfections so something must be working.

-5-

Added to the stress of homeschooling, COVID, and holidays has been my ongoing plight in trying to kill a deer this winter.   Crossbow season opened on September 19 and continues through January 18 and it looks like I will be out there in the deer blind freezing my thumbs off until the very last sunset of the hunting season.  It has been both extremely rewarding (read, time alone outside) and frustrating.  In the almost one-hundred hours now that I have spent hunting, I have seen exactly one deer.  That one deer walked up to my blind, looked at me and turned around, all within about 10 seconds.  I think they’ve got my number.  This is the second year in which I have been unsuccessful with deer hunting, and our freezer is empty of venison now, leaving me with a primeval feeling of failure. I am applying this year for a Kentucky elk permit, and my odds are about 1 in 100 in getting drawn, which I find strangely encouraging.  

One of too many sunrises I watched from the deer blind this season.

-6-

For southern Kentucky, it’s been a snowy winter.  I think we’ve had a total snow accumulation for the winter of about 5 inches.  God likes to tease us with snow down here, giving us just enough to get us excited and eager to build snowmen, but then turning off the snowfall just before the grass is covered.  So, the kids have instead turned to other snowy outdoor pursuits such as jumping on their trampoline and watching the snow fly up as they land, and throwing miniature snowballs at their grandfather as he unsuspectingly steps out onto the front porch, and tricking the dog into eating snow fluff stirred into her bowl amongst the dogfood. I am taking the boys into the forest today for a “snow hike” which is exactly what it sounds like.  The boys love to look for animal tracks and deer trails in the white stuff and sabotage their mom with snow balls down my neck collar when I’m not paying attention, then they’ll come home and muddy up the floors and toss wet clothes all around the woodstove and beg for supper.  I aim to please.

 

-7-

Christmas often brings gifts that keep on giving and such was the case with us.  A couple of weeks after Christmas Day, a friend messaged me asking if we’d like more chickens.  Did we need more chickens? No.  Do we have space for more chickens? No.   But like the homesteading gateway drug that they are, I just couldn’t turn down free chickens, especially when I found out they were Jubilee Orpingtons, a breed I’ve really wanted to raise.  So, with about 30 minutes notice, I went to pick up 7 baby chickens and built a make-shift brooder pen in our laundry room.  They are adorable and really growing fast and making me ever so grateful that my sense of smell that I lost from COVID has not completely yet returned.  My husband, who now is tasked with building a “chicken box” this weekend that will become base camp #2 for the new chickens when we move them outside, was not thrilled, but I just reminded him that thankfully, our friend didn’t offer me a free goat.  Yet.

 

Meet "Black-eyed Pea". His name comes from New Year's Day.
If you're from the south, you'll understand.

And that’s about it for 2021 from here so far.  Is the year over yet?   Just kidding. 

If you’ve made it this far, I encourage you to head over to Kelly’sblog and check out some more Quick Takes much more worthy of your time!