The boys are with us this week and Susanna’s classroom is short an assistant. That means tired nights, and not much workshop time. But it is worth skipping the workshop to spend time with the family.

Friday was pizza/movie night. I made homemade pizza dough. Twice. The boys and I took a quick trip to the store to pick up cheese and left the dough in Tupperware containers on the counter. In the 30 minutes we were gone, Targa got the dough off the counter. Targa and Tucker ate most of the dough. The boys are now much closer to knowing how to curse like a sailor. I mean, it was only thirty minutes. I came home early and let them run outside for an hour or two before the boys came home. And raw pizza dough. What the f**k is wrong with the dogs?

Today was the boys’ second to last soccer game. They lost (again). But they had fun. Ben twisted his ankle during the game (okay, I think that part wasn’t so much fun), so he decided to hang out at home this afternoon. 

I took will to pick up a costume for Halloween, and then to the submarine base for a haunted house. It was much scarier than I had expected – I’m pretty glad that Ben skipped it this year. It was nice to have Will for the haunted house – he was brave enough to lead the way. However, after we left the building (and thought the scary stuff was over), an actor came out from another door with a chainsaw and Will ran as fast as he could. We both got a good laugh about it, and stopped and picked up pumpkins on the way home.

We finished the day with friends over and time playing outside. It was a beautiful New England fall day. Brisk, but not too cold, windy and sunny.

Susanna and I took a short escape to the Berkshires this weekend. We spent last night in Lenox, MA and enjoyed a tour around western Massachusetts today.  Here are some pictures from the trip.

Maybe they got their fighting out of their systems yesterday. Probably not. But at least the boys are starting the day off by playing. It gives me time to do chores.

While the weekend may be almost over for Susanna, the boys and I have one more day off. The boys even had a half day of school on Friday, so it is an even longer weekend. Although, Will and Ben spent most of Friday afternoon fighting, so it wasn’t really much of a gain in that department. I, at least, got to enjoy an extra afternoon off of work spending quality time with both of them. Mediating the fights. Maybe they are just trying to emulate our elected officials in Washington. Okay, the fights weren’t that bad.

The boys had soccer Saturday morning. They lost. Again. But only 3 to 1. They had friends over in the afternoon, and only spend about half of it fighting with each other (hey, still doing better than Congress). I even took all four of them (Will, Ben plus two friends) on a short bicycle ride around the corner to a local cemetery. I was very thankful that none of them crashed (or was hit by a car). So, overall, it was a successful bike ride (i.e. no one killed, and not all of my hair is gray – yet).

By this morning, I think they had tired of fighting with each other (mostly). After breakfast, Susanna, the boys and I all bicycled up to Norwich. The boys got a snack (second breakfast) from Dunkin Donuts in downtown Norwich, and we returned home by late morning. Again, a successful bike ride (for the same reasons mentioned above).

In the afternoon we headed to the Connecticut Renaissance Faire (again in Norwich – but this time we drove). We enjoyed the shows and the boys did a little shopping in time for Halloween. I was surprised that the boys sat through three of the shows. I was even more surprised that Susanna made it through the “Cirque du Sewer” show – a rat carnival. Of course Susanna and I sat near enough to the back that she didn’t have to get a good look at the rats.

We rounded out the day with a game of “Settlers of Catan,”, which I finally won. Hopefully the boys will sleep in tomorrow morning. But who am I kidding. They are up at 6am on the weekends, but need someone to kick them out of bed in time to catch an 8am school bus during the week. I’m sure it is some sort of karma for my own childhood.

I had to pick Will and Ben at school a few minutes early today so we could make Ben’s annual physical exam. In order to pick up the boys, I had to check in with the main office and sign them out there. As I was waiting for them both to come down, a teacher I hadn’t’ met before was in the office. She introduced herself as Will’s teacher.

While talking, she mentioned that she wanted to meet Ben. She said that she had heard that Ben looked a lot like Will, but wore glasses. I said, “Oh, Will wears glasses as well.” Will promptly walked into the office without glasses on. He had left them at home this morning.  Of course, a few minutes later, Ben arrived wearing his glasses.

That was today’s hint that Will isn’t wearing his glasses at school as often as he should be. Or just chalk it up as another one of those ADHD moments (though this one was Will’s moment).

Today wasn’t as productive of a day as I had hoped. But it seemed busy enough. I did get some work done on the chicken coop, including adding a new watering system. Susanna and I also cleaned the house and did other house chores. Not much fun, but needed projects.  In the afternoon we went out to look at cars and visit a vineyard for a wine tasting.

Too bad that most car dealers are closed on Sundays. At least we could look in the windows, even if we couldn’t open the doors.  We then headed to Priam Vineyards in Colchester, skipped the wine tasting and just got a bottle of wine, crackers and cheese. It was too nice of a day to sit inside and do a tasting. We decided to enjoy our food and drink on the patio.

This evening I let the chickens out to range. I think for now we will have to keep the dogs and chickens apart.  However, the chickens do seem to enjoy exploring the yard, and Tucker does enjoy spending the time after the chickens are back in their coop searching out where they have wandered.  I’ll bring Tucker back in sometime before bedtime.

The summer is over.  The boys had a full week of school, Susanna started her job full-time, furlough is over for me, and the mornings are cool enough to need a light jacket.

I haven’t been posting much on this blog. I haven’t had much time to sit down and reflect on things this week. Nor have I had much time to do anything interesting in the workshop, or around the house. But hopefully things will settle down. We will get used to the schedule with school and with Susanna working.

The boys have started soccer. They are both on a U-11 recreation league in Griswold. Thankfully they are on the same team, which means 1/2 the time spent at soccer this year as opposed to last year. They had their first game of the season yesterday (they lost, but had fun).

We even let the chickens free range yesterday afternoon. Tucker was a bit too interested in the chickens, so I have to work on getting him to ignore the chickens when they are out before we let them spend more than an hour or two free ranging – it is too much work to leash Tucker for a whole afternoon.

I still have a few projects around the house that need to be finished this fall:

• Run power to the new outlets in Will’s room.
• Finish replacing door hinges in the kitchen.
• Add an outlet to the study.
• Finish the trim on the chicken coop and paint the coop.
• Clean the workshop (okay, that is an ongoing project).
• Fill all the holes in the yard that Tucker and Targa have made looking for moles. Maybe I should stop feeding the cats for a few days so they will have incentive to catch the moles.

I am sure there are more, but that list should keep me going for a little bit.

Today the boys go back to their mother’s house as we shift schedules to move into a week-on/week-off schedule with the boys. I plan on working on the chicken coop this morning, and maybe one of the doors in the kitchen. This afternoon we are going to head out and look at cars and maybe a wine tasting.