Sunday Night Highlights 12.20.15

Weekend Adventures:

• Bert had to go to town yesterday, and he took Wacey with him. They stayed overnight at his parents' so he could work on a pair of chaps with his dad, so I had a whole 24 hours to myself! What did I do? Went to the store for the ranch sans bebe, and spent most of the afternoon cleaning out the downstairs--a project that's been on my to-do list forever! It feels so great to have it cleaned out (as in an entire dumpster load of trash and four trips of stuff down to the root cellar) and ready to decorate. It's also Wacey-proofed, so he has a great area to play with all those toys Santa is going to bring him! 
• Last night I watched Christmas movies, wrapped presents, and cleaned the house a little and it was perfect. If you're a mom you know how novel it feels to be able to focus your whole attention on one thing, not five hundred, even if that one thing is sweeping the floor or unloading the dishwasher. The simple things. 

• I missed my boys, though, so I was glad when they came home this afternoon. Bert's watching the football game, and Wacey and I are downstairs playing in the newly cleaned out play area! This space has always been treated like a storage unit, so the fact that it's cleaned up, baby-proofed, and entirely usable makes me feel like we just doubled the size of our house. 
• The best effect of having all this time to check huge, looming items off of my to-do list? I feel like my mom batteries have been completely, 100% recharged. BRING ON CHRISTMAS. Maybe this can be an annual tradition? 

Agriculture: 

• Cattle can see almost 360 degrees and have thus very good peripheral vision.
• Cows can't see the color red. It's the motion of the flag that a matador waves that catches the animal's attention, not the color. 

On the Ranch:

• Cows are sorted! Yay! I'm excited because our inventory and counts came out almost perfect, which means I'm doing my job. 
• Most of the crew is gone for Christmas, so we're running on a skeleton crew until after the holidays, when everyone will come back and it's full swing into getting ready for calving. We'll also get extra help in for calving, so it's going to be downright populated over here!
• Last year, our first calf was born on December 27th, so Bert will sort the cows and bring in the girls who are due first. That way, they're at the barn in case they have any trouble. 

On the Home Front:

• CHRISTMAS. Can't wait can't wait can't wait. All the presents are wrapped or on their way, I mailed out Christmas cookies, and I am so so so so excited. Can you tell?? Christmas with kids (even if they have no idea what's going on) is SO GREAT.   
• We'll do Christmas Eve with my parents, and Christmas Day with Bert's family. It's Wacey's and his cousin Evelyn's first Christmas!
• I killed a black widow spider in the downstairs bathtub last week. So there's that.
• Snow snow snow. I think this is the first Christmas that I haven't been wishing for more snow, because we have PLENTY. It's always nice to start calving with dry pens, but I'm not sure that's going to happen this year. It does make for a very Christmas-y landscape though, so I can't complain too much.