smelly dogs

Our dogs smell. Seriously. They're big,
hairy, smelly, smelly, smelly. Bathing
them is not an option, at least not until
spring. They are country dogs, not well
groomed pretty pooches.

Really, they're big. One weighs more than
I do--142 pounds! I remember when he fit
in the palm of my hand, sweet little puppy!
So cute. Now he's big. And with some
digestive issues, the smellier of the two smellies.
The other, Ralphie, has his moments, but usually it's
after he's rolled in something particularly putrid, or been sprayed
by a skunk. In any case, their large, stinky, dogness has made us
think thrice about investing in new carpet.

Mud+four children+two big dogs+3 cats=new carpet over.

pruning

Now I've decided it's time for some fall pruning. As in, cutting out some
of the stuff we don't need to be doing. For example, spending as much
time on the computer. Hmmmm. It seems as if the "oh my, we're
getting behind!" feeling came early this year, so that's it. No more
"stuff." It's hard, too, because we all have extra stuff we could do,
want to do. Actually, right now, it would suit me fine to sequester
myself for a few months and not venture out beyond my own fence,
but that would effectively eliminate my children's social lives entirely.
(Okay, it pretty much cancels out mine as well, aside from DH.)
Not to mention church. Therefore, church is still "in" (bear in mind
this includes Wednesday evenings, Sunday mornings, and Sunday
evenings), Girl Scouts, music lessons, hand chime choir. That's enough
for now. Sigh. At least 'til we get caught up again. Sigh again. Time is
not on my side.

The atcs are from a swap, of course, from swap-bot. Did them a while
back. Pink isn't my thing, so these made me step outside the realm of
what's normal for me. Somewhere out there is a site, or so I've heard,
with pictures you can use to illustrate your blog. Somewhere. But that
would take some more time . . .

time

So I thought I'd post on this pretty regularly,
hah, snort, hah. What a laugh. There's been a
lot going on, okay? We finished up our homeschool
co-op, helped set up for the Special Care
Homes sale, found out we're hosting Christmas
(oh-my-gosh, overnight guests! GASP!) for my side of the family, my
Grandpa and his dear wife (she is a dear, I'm not being
sarcastic in the least) is moving, it's taken me three days to
clean out my closet, there are mounds of laundry everywhere,
there are boxes of candle making supplies (umm, yes, we made
candles) in the kitchen and living room, we're picking up an
estate sale for the Special Care Homes today, and attending a
Sunday School class get together tonight. And tomorrow the
Girl Scouts rappel. Last weekend we went on an overnight,
and the GSs rode the horses. Somewhere
along the line, we need to concentrate a little harder on school . . .
the boys are working on making another movie right now, so
the youngest son's shouts are somewhat distracting . . . maybe
someday I'll read this and long for the activities . . . snort again!

AND I got a lot of books from ebay yesterday in the mail--a brain
candy mystery series--just finished up the last Potluck Club book,
and it was a delight. So what I really WANT to do is curl up in bed
with a hot cuppa tea and read. Sigh. Off to the laundry.
(Just to remind myself of funness, here's a pic of some atcs I did for
a swap.)