New Drawings from Sandy

Our neighbor Sandy is ridiculously talented. A few years back she drew the kids' photos for me. I got them framed right away and have cherished them every day. 

This past year Sandy suffered a heart attack and had to undergo quadruple heart surgery. She is doing amazing now, by the way! She said to help pass the time during recovery, she drew like crazy. Luckily for me, this meant new photos of my kiddos....and my dogs! EEKK!!!! 

I am totally in love with the new photos she has gifted us! As a thank you (we truly could never thank her enough!!), we bought her tons of new drawing paper and a new set of sketching pencils, so she can keep at her talent. 

Thank you, Sandy. I have them all framed and on the wall. They bring me so much joy every day! 

With love,                                                                                                      Mama Hauck

Country Living: The Skunkapades

Oh my word. I have never, in all my life, smelled anything worse than our dog Daisy, with eyes streaming, snotting all over the porch, begging for help at 9pm after being sprayed by a skunk. 

I was in some pretty heavy disbelief for a second. What is going on? Is this really happening right now? This can't be real. This happens to other people, not us, right? We have smelled skunks a handful of times in the area, but we certainly don't have any living here! Is this a nightmare?

Yes. It was a nightmare all right.

Daisy got sprayed by a skunk right in the face. Thanks, 2020. Damn all these country critters!!

Sam and I grabbed the dawn dish soap and scrubbed Daisy like she had never been scrubbed before. Of course, this first wash hardly did a thing. Little did we know (as I do now), that you should try to wipe and blot up the skunk oil with paper towels first. Otherwise you are literally just scrubbing the skunk oils deeper into the hair. *sigh*

I have learned so much about skunks recently. Against my will. 

Needless to say, poor Daisy had to sleep outside in the kennel that night. The next morning I was desperate to rid her of the smell. Sam went to work (how dare he leave me in this time of need! HAHA), so I was flying solo on this deskunking mission. I tried everything except for tomato products (she has sensitive skin and I couldn't bare the thought of hurting her delicate skin with acidic tomatoes!). I was a mess. I was crying, cussing, and smelled like skunk myself. After 3 more washes, I finally had to give up due to exhaustion. I needed to wait until Sam got home from work with an actual skunk wash. Thankfully, the skunk wash finally did the job with a 95% satisfaction rate. There was a little bit of a linger, but that's just the way that it goes. 

After that drama, the paranoia of a repeat spray was more than I could take. I was on edge. The dogs were not allowed to go outside between dusk and dawn. They were not allowed to be outside alone. And they were certainly NOT allowed to go down to the barn, which, as it turns out, was where the skunk was living. 

And where it would die. 

We set a trap and waiting patiently. Turns out it helps if you set the trap correctly. After a failed attempt on night one, we caught a skunk on night two! I was able to ever so carefully walk up to it with a kiddie pool in front of me to throw/place the pool over it until Sam got home from work to shoot it. 

We repeated this process two more times until the trap sat empty for a good 5 nights in a row. Ok, so 3 skunks down. I am thinking that's it. Do you want to know how many skunks my neighbor has caught? 16. SIXTEEN!!!! Isn't that just insane!! I can't even imagine having to deal with that many skunks. 

Time to concrete the hole under the barn. I do not wish to go through this process again. 

With love,

Mama Hauck

Gearing Up For Online Schooling

School is just around the corner! In true Covid-19 fashion, we will be starting online at home. 

I went back and forth for a long time deciding whether I was going to home school the kids myself or follow whatever program our school offered.  Ultimately we decided to follow whatever the school wound up doing. Spring time wasn't the most fun, but we managed and the kids did really well with the distance learning. Also, they really want to be back in class, and I know eventually that'll happen this school year, so I didn't want to take that away from them. 

.....And to be completely honest, having the kids home 24/7 was hard and incredibly taxing. It was just a lot for 1 person to take on 3 kids and all their schooling. Yes, we survived, but there were some causalities along the way. I got zero of my own work done and fell behind, I got extremely tired of playing referee and turned into a bear of a Mama, and my health issues left me without the energy to be as present for them as I'd have like. That left me feeling defeated and completely inadequate. Yes, I love my children, and yes, I love spending time with them. But as kids do, they bicker, they procrastinate, they don't listen, and so on and so forth. You know, normal kid stuff.  24 hours a day, 7 days a week of constant with no end in sight is some rough stuff. 

So distance learning it is. Because eventually they will be able to go back to school. And that's what everyone in this household wants. 

This past Wednesday we met with all their teachers and checked out chrome books and other text books. Having those meetings reaffirmed to me that we made the right decision for our family. I love the teachers, the kids love the teachers, we all feel comfortable talking with each other, and I'm confident that the kids will receive good instruction from them via online. It might not be easy, and we might not like absolutely every aspect of distance learning, but we are prepared to make it work until the kids can actually be back in the class room. 

In the spirit of preparing for school, we got the kids desks! 

I scored Timothy's at a garage sale 2 weeks back. It was a mess. I peeled the top wood off, sanded all over, and gave it a fresh coat of paint. Sammy even sanded the inside, which was pretty rough and rusty. The result is a beautiful desk that Timothy is excited to learn at! I even fit all of his books and such inside the desk. He is pretty pleased with the end result. 

We ordered Anthony and Molly wall mounted desks off of Amazon for their bedrooms. We were happy to have them arrive a few days earlier than expected, so we already have them hung and ready! I had a fun time picking out items to decorate their desk with. I got Molly a cute little knitted cactus set, and Anthony a fun Spongebob pencil holder. I love that the desk has cubbies and the actual desk part folds up and closes when not in use. The desks fit perfectly in their bedrooms! I think having their own space to log onto school and do their work will help them stay focused and work better. I'm looking forward to seeing how well this works out. 

Some simple "getting to know you" assignments have already rolled in for them, and they've been completed and uploaded, but school doesn't officially start until Tuesday the 8th. 

I'm looking forward to taking their back to school photos sometime soon. 

Wish us luck for a successful start to the 2020-2021 school year!

With love,                                                                                                          Mama Hauck