The Great Mouse Proofing of 2023 is now complete. We hope. The struggle against the mice in our mountain house has been ongoing and we have tried various measures to stop them, all seemingly to no avail. Last weekend we discovered that they liked to take food out of the trash and carry it into our multipurpose drawer, leaving it there along with lots of poop. I cleaned the drawer well. They repeated their process the next night. Carl put a camera in the drawer so we could check on them while we weren’t at the house and the mice went into the drawer every night! Before we left last weekend I put Mice Eliminator Packets in some of their favorite places, including under the kitchen sink. We closed the live trap as we always do when we leave. Yesterday Carl found the live trap completely open, devoid of food, and moved. The part that normally has the bait was sitting next to the Mice Eliminator Packet! Yesterday Carl and Sarah emptied and cleaned all of the drawers and cabinets. They put wood strips in to seal the passageways the mice were using to get into the drawers. Carl also put all of our spare bedding in plastic bins, after throwing away yet another sheet that had been shredded extensively. I brought out 8 new live traps. We set four last night and caught one mouse. More than ever we relate to A Visitor for Bear by Bonnie Becker. It is about a bear who keeps trying to stop a mouse from coming in his house and no matter what he does, “there was the mouse! Small and gray and bright eyed!” We are hoping our measures are more successful than the bears. Otherwise, if we follow Bear’s example, next Christmas we will be exchanging presents with the mice and going sledding with them. To that end, Carl is already softening as he plans to take a snack to put next to the trapped mouse when he sets it free.
For a few days, Sarah’s trademark braids were nowhere to be found. After a bath she often puts her hair back in a very messy do with a plastic comb clip. She also wanted to have me use the bird’s nest hair holders my mom gave us to hold a bun or ponytail for going to school. All of these new styles point out how much of a teenager she is, with sweet 16 on the horizon. She also likes to jam to her favorite music while holding an inflatable guitar. Unfortunately, her timing for this is usually on a school morning when she really needs to be eating breakfast. Her favorite song of late is “A Color Just Right” from the Bubble Guppies show.
Sarah has started rehearsals for her school musical, High School Musical Jr. On the second day of rehearsal, Sarah and one of her classmates went down before their resource room teacher was ready to assist. Sarah was upset that rehearsal was not like it was for Peter Pan Jr and she wanted to be done right away and started screaming about her feelings. Her teacher hot footed it to rehearsal as quickly as she could. From now on Sarah will only attend rehearsal if her teacher is there. I don’t yet want to tell Sarah that the whole thing is optional. Of course she doesn’t have to be in the musical if she doesn’t want to. But she loved it so much last year and I hope that once she gets more used to this musical she will love it too. We watched the movie on Friday and Sarah watched maybe a third of it. I will also play the music when we drive places so she can get used to the songs.
Amy’s leggings arrived and they fit!! Old Navy and Gap for the win!! Still size 14 of course, but now Amy’s leggings come all the way down to her ankles, which is a relief.
Amy has been creating lots of art using a light-up tablet tracing thingie that at first resulted in many tears. She claimed it was not as easy as the box made it look and it was pointless and way too hard. There were at least two big crying sessions about that. And then she persevered and made beautiful art. She uses the template of an outline of a person and adds stickers that provide the outline of clothes. Then she traces the completed person and then colors her creation. Unfortunately I haven’t taken a picture of her work, but I have been impressed as I always am by her sense of how to combine colors.
The closer I think I am getting to the finish line regarding my book, the farther away that finish line seems to move. I know each step along the way is necessary and that I’m only ready to learn more of the steps as I move along the path, but it can be discouraging. I’m realizing now that I need to cut some portions out entirely and rearrange others. I am feeling like Amy did when the tracing kit seemed impossible. I know it’s not quite impossible, but it feels unwieldy and hard. The more I work on this whole venture the more in awe I am of people who write full-time and get published. I had two talks with such people this week and it was quite helpful, even if simultaneously daunting.
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