Nope, it's been more than a week! The calf is a week old, I've been milking Apple for a week, and Ben has been at Basic Training for a week! We figured out his address despite my grossly mishearing one of the many many numbers during his closely supervised phone call last Wednesday. We all wrote him letters on Monday and sent them off, so hopefully he will see them soon! The kids are handling all this really well. Every couple days Dilly asks, "Daddy? Daddy home?" And I have to tell her, "No, Daddy's at work." She'll talk about "Daddy work" for a couple minutes and then move on. The others are sometimes very helpful, sometimes very childish, sometimes very sweet and loving. We're working on making Daddy proud when he comes home by changing some of our bad habits--I'm still formulating a post about my family revamp plans, so stay tuned!
I've made cheese a couple of times now. The calf and Apple and I are still negotiating the terms of our arrangement; I barely got any milk at all yesterday because the calf had a sudden uptick in consumption, but today I tied him up from about 2 PM on and got almost half a gallon for our evening milking. Eventually I'll work up to tying him in the morning and getting a whole half-day's lactation, but for now this is fine: it lets him get plenty to eat for his early growth spurts, and it lets my forearms get strong enough to handle all that hand milking.
I've worked out at the Y a few times now. You may well be thinking, "What!? All those chores and she wants to go to the Y and work out!?" My answer is a resounding "yes," and here's my reasoning! I've had a lot of points in my life where I've changed from relatively sedentary work to more physical work and have had a hard time making that transition. On summer breaks from college I worked at a landscaping company, and between babies for a while I ran my own landscaping business. I'd be exhausted at the end of the day of work and barely functional. So you know what I did? I worked out! I took what little energy I had left and I burned it! Then I went to bed. And my metabolism got the memo: "We need alllll the energy up in here!" So I went into a new realm of metabolic burn, and as if by magic, within a few days of this self-torture, I found I had more energy for work during the day--and reserves left over in the evening. And you know what? It's already working. The other night I had worked out and had a long evening of chores. I returned to the house, got inside, and literally started crying because I needed to bring in firewood still. I was totally spent. Contrast that with today, when I also worked out, and also had long bouts of chores, but had plenty of energy for bringing in firewood and cleaning the bathroom sink and lots of other little things like writing another blog post!
All that said, I think it's bed time. I slept in this morning because I woke up at 3 AM convinced I heard pigs grunting right outside my bedroom window... it was probably the baby snoring but hey, I was asleep and it sounded really loud. Anyway, I couldn't sleep for a while after that panic, and I want to make sure I get more sleep tonight.
I've made cheese a couple of times now. The calf and Apple and I are still negotiating the terms of our arrangement; I barely got any milk at all yesterday because the calf had a sudden uptick in consumption, but today I tied him up from about 2 PM on and got almost half a gallon for our evening milking. Eventually I'll work up to tying him in the morning and getting a whole half-day's lactation, but for now this is fine: it lets him get plenty to eat for his early growth spurts, and it lets my forearms get strong enough to handle all that hand milking.
I've worked out at the Y a few times now. You may well be thinking, "What!? All those chores and she wants to go to the Y and work out!?" My answer is a resounding "yes," and here's my reasoning! I've had a lot of points in my life where I've changed from relatively sedentary work to more physical work and have had a hard time making that transition. On summer breaks from college I worked at a landscaping company, and between babies for a while I ran my own landscaping business. I'd be exhausted at the end of the day of work and barely functional. So you know what I did? I worked out! I took what little energy I had left and I burned it! Then I went to bed. And my metabolism got the memo: "We need alllll the energy up in here!" So I went into a new realm of metabolic burn, and as if by magic, within a few days of this self-torture, I found I had more energy for work during the day--and reserves left over in the evening. And you know what? It's already working. The other night I had worked out and had a long evening of chores. I returned to the house, got inside, and literally started crying because I needed to bring in firewood still. I was totally spent. Contrast that with today, when I also worked out, and also had long bouts of chores, but had plenty of energy for bringing in firewood and cleaning the bathroom sink and lots of other little things like writing another blog post!
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