Dog Days of Summer

Thursday: Tamale Pie (a standby favorite for a weeknight quick meal)

Reflections from the Backcounter

The blog has been very quiet this week and is a testimony to my utter and complete exhaustion. The combination of the first week of school and a new puppy is threatening to sink my proverbial ship. What is with the school? Why do I have to repeatedly fill out the same forms year after year....hasn't the school district heard of going green...I have filled out enough paperwork to wallpaper my bathroom. I believe that I have single handedly deforested a heretofore shady glen! (Now a sunny vale!) In the course of all of this form filling out exercise I have come to recognize that I have post traumatic application disorder. Truly....these forms always give me a flashback to the gut wrenching anxiety associated with college and grad school applications. I don't suppose I will ever be truly over it...I start to fill out the form for my seventh grader to participate in the science lab and suddenly the room begins to swirl and I am transported back to another decade ( I refuse to identify the year as ..on a blog I can be ageless) and begin to experience sweaty palms and a headache....

On to my next challenge...sleepless ,dog howling ,cage rattling, midnight pottying the dog ..nights...How can such a beautiful, fluffy, sweet darling little puppy go so far to the dark side at night? Just as I am drifting off into a deep and dream filled (ok ok nightmare filled: school application flashback) slumber, I am rudely startled back into a conciousness filled with the howls of a puppy turned werewolf crossed with a howler monkey. And...she will not be deterred from her goal of prying one of the adults in the house (all children have dog barking deafness at night) from the warm bed. This pup is a master...and just to reinforce our well trained response, she shows us the desperate need she has by running to the yard and after sniffing for at least 15 minutes does her full and complete number one and number two business and then returns to collect her praise.

Needless to say...I am pooped.!!

Nocturnal werewolf howler monkey cross

Don't be fooled by this innocent face. Beware the darkness......

More on this later

Peace and puppyhood,

Julia

Ceres: The gorgeous CCI puppy

Ceres
Ceres and O'Hanna

Reflections from the Backcounter

"Don't hate me because I am beautiful." This puppy is a looker and she has a personality to match. There have been a few sleepless nights so far as I think she is still suffering from separation anxiety from her littermates and mother. We are in the full throes of new puppy raising and are very excited to have her. O'Hanna is home and is still a little stressed. She had some hot spots on her legs from licking. We are thrilled to have her back.

Tomorrow we start the Kinderpuppy classes and we are on our way to training this latest CCI puppy.

Tomorrow menus are returning to the Backcounter as I need to make them to keep my sanity, keep the troops fed and protect my budget. We are T minus 10 and counting to the first day of school. Today, I was able to make a great purchase at the used uniform sale so there is another plus for frugality.

Please feel free to offer suggestions and leave comments for:

1. Varsity dog hair management. I have used the dustmop three times this morning and can practically weave a rug with what I have gotten off my floor. This will be an ongoing challenge...maybe I need to lower my standards?

2. Nighttime strategies to stop the howling. How one small puppy can make so much noise at night is beyond me. She sounds like a wolf howling at the moon and the sound reverberates off of our tile floor bounces off of our ceilings and pierces our eardrums. I have purchased some ear plugs...

3. School prep countdown..
4. Vacation reentry laundry marathon.
5. Any strategies for to help with post vacation blues

Wow ..I better get busy...the laundry pile is taller than me....I would much rather write.

Peace,

Julia