Farm Day Again

And my produce is still in the van. At least the van is in the garage, and it is not so different a temperature from the barn. I can get it in the morning. Another sunny day, after a stretch of grey.

I have lots I could write about, but I am pretty engaged in actually living it all instead of reflecting on it enough to have something germane to say. Even my pictures of late have been boring. Or maybe we’re just so busy that I don’t focus on them just now. I miss lunch on Wednesdays.

All I want to do is write about the kids’ accomplishments and the days we spend with our friends. This week I got to intentionally see three different friends three days in a row. When I was in Toddler Land (the lifestyle ruled by playdates with other Moms with toddlers and babies, no dayplanner required), that was a pretty standard happenstance. In Taxi-Land (Reeciebird has congratulated me on graduating to the time-honored status of Mom-Taxi), time with my friends is much more precious. It has been worth it in the trade-off, though. I am watching my kids bloom yet again, and that’s a sparkle I like.

Babies. Maybe I can write about babies. I wrote “sparkle,” envisioned G’s face, and saw her glowing. Not because she got her third black stripe in karate, or passed her swim test or finally conquered her fear of The Big Red Slide, but because she was holding a baby again. This family desperately misses babies. We love them so. I am really happy where we are in our own family, but I told that Baby’s Momma that it was a curious feeling. Before I had the desire to stop procreating, I assumed that once I was done having babies, I wouldn’t like babies anymore. That’s so not the case. I love them just as much; love rocking, diapering, dressing, singing to them etc. They’re just as precious, just as wonderful as they ever were in my eyes. How amazing to me, then, that all the cuteness of my baby and others doesn’t set my ovaries to fluttering anymore!

Onions have layers

Like ogres. Like marriages.

The onset of the season has come full force. I can relax into October –autumn– and feel the contentment I always feel this time of year. P-daddy is coming around, despite the weather change tossing him into a cycle of despair. I called his bluff about being miserable and wanting to move. I found a job for him in Chattanooga– same pay, same title– that is so interested in him that they emailed and called within hours of receiving an email resume. Chattanooga is on my very short list of acceptable places to move, so I was willing to call this out. He was taken aback and said, “No I think I am staying where I am for now.” Well good, then. Your family loves it here.

October is also G’s favorite month, but for a very different reason: Halloween. Living here has made it even more cool because of our town and because of our neighborhood. The town we live in has a downtown waterfront and the merchants all open their doors to trick or treaters. It’s like a scene from that movie childhood I never had, where it’s still light out and the little kids are swarming the streets, Moms in tow. Of course, in our real life, the Moms are toting umbrellas and sipping coffee, which is even better. Furthermore, there is usually a tall ship docked with a crew dressed as pirates, handing out gold coins, argh. It rocks.

Our own neighborhood is dark dark dark, but the people are mostly older. They genuinely love it when the little kids come through and give out the GOOD stuff. It’s a lot of welcoming fun. Our personal traditions about Halloween, begun out of necessity, have served us well as the kids have grown. The Great Pumpkin who takes their offering of collected candy delivers a gift in return, usually sneaking in while they are taking their after-TOT bath. He makes lots of noise and flashes the lights. It’s somewhat frightening if you ask me.

Having said all that, the amazing this is this: G is not excited right now that it’s Halloween month. She is beside herself, checking the calendar every day, already packed and tingling, because Camp Seymour’s overnight is coming. I can’t tell you how happy that makes me!

Speaking of happy, our church had the Blessing of the Animals last night, and G sang in the children’s choir while holding her hermit crab. So cute. Following, P-daddy took the kids home and I stayed for my best rehearsal YET in this state. Vivaldi! Luther! Hal! Oh yes! That SOUND that choirs make when it’s right– that SOUND that embodies worship of the great spirit for me– that is what I have been missing. It draws me, addicts me, it humbles me and makes me feel grateful to be able to participate. It was a very good day.

We had such a nice day yesterday….

and I don’t even have to blog about it!

See here: http:\\xidama.blogspot.com

and here: Nikay

Lunch on Wednesdays is a spectacular homeschool program, let me tell you!

She liked it!

I thought she might. I’d go so far as to say I knew she would, but that would be a lie. Girlie can surprise me, for sure. Her choir starts first, then they break and the adult choir comes in.

I am considering having Dad come pick her up after her rehearsal though, because that is just too long for her to be there, I think. She was pretty haggard by the time my choir rehearsal was over. She did rally at the last song the adults learned, however, and came up and sat next to me. She clapped in rhythm to the Jamaican inspired music and I didn’t know until the end that this is a piece the kiddies are doing as well. Fun!

I finished the kids’ learning plans for the homeschool year last night. I didn’t want to just bang it out and I took the time she was in choir to finish it at a desk in the lobby. Under fine arts, I included a passage about experiencing and participating in the arts in the community at large, not restricted to being with other children. It’s funny to me; I didn’t expect her to do it an hour later.

Lunch on Wednesday was an impromptu trip to IKEA where we met the C-family and the Dafeelyas. Every time I swear I won’t go back en masse, and yet still I go back, every time. Must be something about it we like!

Do you want some caffeine with that?

P-daddy had surgery last week Thursday. It was both elective and medically necessary, meaning he could have chosen not to seek it out but the condition (which I will decline to broadcast here) would have continued to grow and cause him pain. We’ll find out the results of the biopsy tomorrow, but we are not worried.

He did well after surgery, during which he was put under general anesthesia. The multi-care presence at Allenmore was amazingly efficient and friendly–it was a day surgery machine, I tell you. The funniest bit was the anesthesiologist, who offered P-daddy some caffeine in his IV. “You haven’t had your coffee, have you? Do you have a withdrawal headache?” Not two minutes prior, P-daddy had said he felt one coming on. He declined the extra jolt, though.

Niki had the children while we were gone all day for this procedure, and then stayed over to watch them again the next morning for the 8 AM (!!!) follow up appointment at the dr’s office. While I recognize this is a beneficial trade-off (in our eyes anyway) for an inpatient stay, it still was somewhat overwhelming. Paul and I commented how wonderful it was to not even have to think about the kids.

Anyway, what that means in terms of my online life is that well, I am not here. Not like I usually am anyway! P-daddy is a terrible, terrible convalescent and when I am not enforcing bed rest, I have the children away from the house.

We had a last huzzah at the Renny Faire last weekend with some dear friends (see Niki’s blog for some pix) and it sounds as if we have infected both those families with our madness. I am already looking forward to next year. Cruelly, my peasant Renny costume arrived moments before we left to go to the fair. The thing is, I bought it a size down because I knew I wouldn’t be receiving it in time to use this year. OOOOOOWWWWWWWCH! Oh the whining my friends heard that day! (Not to mention the flat-out, cackling, laughter from my dd when she saw me try it on anyway.)

~D~ got lost at the Renny Faire. ~G~ got lost at the Renny Faire. It was a tough day at the Renny Faire, but as fun as ever in retrospect! I was somewhat sad for P-daddy when we returned and he said wistfully, ” I wish I could have gone.” This guy never wants to do anything like I do, so I am really happy about his affection for it! There are a lot of these in WA and OR, not to mention the ones that aren’t quite Renny, but have to be just as smashing!

The local YMCA opened and omigoodness. It opened yesterday, and we spent several hours there yesterday and today. (G even had their first first-aid call, when she spontaneously burst into a heavy nosebleed in the pool. YUM!) The facility is actually better than I expected and everything I hoped it would be. We even got to meet another homeschooling friend there today. Day two of the facility and we already had a swimdate! I guess I will count that as our lunch-on-Wednesday date, cause I am retentive that way.

After the pool, the boys and I took to the gym and shot hoops while G ran a mile on the track. Not kidding, she counted. 9 times around is a mile. After that, she joined us and we left with promises to return again tomorrow. This is going to be a very good thing.

All my homeschooling homies are gearing up for the non-year to begin. It’s fun talking to each other and comparing notes. I have two ladies coming over on Friday to talk homeschooling and pick blackberries. I am crazy. I know that I am.

Too much to sensibly update.

Especially since it hurts to sit at the computer right now. Lots good, some bad. It’s life, you know?

My friends and I officially decided to pretend we’re a homeschool group since, as Niki points out, we already are. But we’re really an exclusive group. Totally selective. You must have three children, live in the Puget sound area and have an ongoing struggle with food allergies. So far there are four of us families, all of whom have tongues firmly planted in cheek.

3/4 of us attempted IKEA earlier this week. We’re nuts, I guess.

My back is on the mend after deciding to go on strike. I went speed-hiking in the woods with Birk clogs but no socks. I expected to only venture a little ways in, but Neighborgirl hijacked one of mine and two of Mack’s boys on our Wednesday lunchfest and took them to the &^@ beach cliff. SO out of her boundaries, SO out of my boundaries, and completely on the down low from her mother. I was livid when I finally found them– coming down the path from the cliff and past the turnoff for home. She was leading them on to the gulley in another far off section of the woods. I don’t usually yell at other people’s children but I did that day. Our boys were in the back picking berries– Pickles didn’t even have on shoes or a shirt– when she said she’d take them to “see a waterfall.” I am growing more than weary of Neighborgirl issues.

Can’t go to Renny fair today because while I have range of motion 70% back, I won’t risk that kind of event with a toddler and G-girl. P-Daddy has N off fishing with buddies from work, so I am happy to see that happen. We did however, go to the GH Farmer’s Market for a trial run of my back. I made it through, but just, and the kids got their faces painted. Very cute. the artist was an artist, so the pictures on the little guys were very good. D-baby didn’t move at ALL while he was being painted.

One of G’s crabs died, for no explainable reason, and she was heartbroken. She doesn’t want a replacement crab because these crabs were from Santa, and the ones from the store are just too mean.

Plucked another zucchini from our bush in the dry garden, and a spaghetti squash from the big garden. The acorn squash are coming along nicely and apparently I forgot to plant cucumbers.

I am excited to try to win Jubilant Tulip over to the world of stove top espresso makers. I am making a latte now as a matter of fact.

And most importantly of course:

Blueberry

~N~ is improving drastically. He spent the entirety of yesterday looking and acting normally. The rapport between the children continued until the evening, when he started being really annoying to his sister, and she finally started screaming back. I noticed then (around supper time) that few hives were returning and his eye was red again. I dosed him with benadryl, and proof positive that the reaction is abating in total, he went to sleep quickly. I have noticed in massive reactions like this, the benadryl doesn’t help them sleep if it’s so busy fighting the hives.

Speaking of ~N~, who I call “Blueberry” after his pretty eyes, we spent some time yesterday at the Blueberry farm. It made for an odd Lunch-with-friends because we neither lunched nor spent much time with them, but we saw TheGreenMama and B and barely missed Mackattack. Blueberries rock, man. We all decided we had to stock for the winter, like NOW. As far as I know we all plan to go back as well. (I am musing now whether I should just pack the car while the children sleep so we can get it out of the way.)

The children were extremely excited to go berry picking, and they refused to believe I meant another farm besides Terry’s. We would have left an hour earlier had they not been making arts and crafts projects to give their favorite farmer. Unfortunately as we entered Puyallup, they both realized they’d left them.

After the farm, where we picked 6 pounds of blueberries together, G spent the afternoon making bendie people for their castle and treehouse. They took this class from the Freelance Mama one year ago on an MDC campout–One YEAR!– and have shown little interest in it since. Now G cranked out 7 of them in three hours, very specific to the pattern FM showed them. Kids and their minds amaze me. She made an entire cast of little people based on a story she had written in her head about a farmer and his son who turned out to be a uper hero. She then had to create a supervillain, of course.

Knee-high by the 4th of July

That’s how tall the corn is supposed to be, said P-daddy’s step-daddy from Michigan. I have never planted corn before so I had no hope of it actually working out that way. By the end of June, the little stalks were, well, little. But darn-tootin’ if it didn’t so happen that by the 4th of July, they were even as tall as Niki’s dh’s knee. Very cool! The sunflowers are already as tall as the kids, and the fruit trees we planted in early spring are now over 7 feet tall.

We had a little tent city going on for the 4th, where the C-family and the Mack family came to celebrate the beach fireworks. Unfortunately, it was a blisteringly hot 4th and by the time they arrived, I’d been cooking in an 85 degree kitchen and was embarrassingly cranky. My friends are good friends, however, and they forgave me; we went on to have a nice time.

The tide was too high this year for us to repeat last year’s sprawl, especially with three times the people, so we settled for perching on the rock wall. Unfortunately this unduly confined the toddlers and by the time the best of the rockets were going off, they wanted none of it. They revolted so most of our party left early, but I stayed behind with Niki’s dh and one big kid from each family to enjoy the big show. I kept chanting for Gandalf’s dragon, while Mack’s older son kept telling me it didn’t exist! That gave me my opening for the quote of the day, where I said “Nonsense! There haven’t been dragons around these parts for years…..” but I deviated to finish with “there might be one any day!”

Sitting with G on the blanket, watching the explosions reflect in her eyes, made the entire endeavor worth it for me. She sat there, face glowing in the night, with an expectant smile on her open face which broadened with every sparkling detonation.

On July 5th, the Mommies plotted against the nine children we had collected together in an attempt to wear them out. We fed them a carb-heavy breakfast, led by chocolate chip cookies, and then took them on a small hike before leading them down to the sunny-hot beach where most of them actually swam (in Puget Sound. The very idea makes me shiver). We finished them off with a sprinkler fest in the back yard with chilled leftovers from our cook-out the day before. There’s something awe-inspiring to me about a 5 year old gnawing on a cold BBQ rib bone.

Has summer finally arrived????

Today is Happy G-day

My eldest turns 7.

7 years old.

Seven.

Lunch with friends Wednesday?

She chose Daddy.

then she made my son cross dress. again.

Busy as a Bee

Today I had to cancel our lunch-on-wednesday date so as to make up for my poor planning of this weel. I crammed an awful lot in, most of which is getting cancelled because I also scheduled our family camping trip this weekend. That trumps everything but the Mother Blessing this weekend, which is pretty important, hey! The sad irony, and what really bothers me, is that the Wednesday family was the preggo for Sunday, so that bums me out.

So today-tomorrow it is this:

• finish the laundry
• return library books
• clean the bathrooms
• put in the potatoes, romano bush beans and sunflower house
• bake ahead for camping treats
• store runs for camping supplies
• prep camping meals and
• load up the stuff for camping

I am beyond excited. P-daddy wanted this to be a just-us thing this time, which I am fine with actually. At first I really wanted to bring people along. The memories of the disaster from last year (disaster only because of the location, which none of us expected or could have anticipated), have faded and I think about the fun we had with our friends instead of the yuckiness. That’s a nice happenstance.

I think we need to spend some time connecting as a family though, in a very low-ley manner. I like this plan all around, because I believe it will be a nice break for all of us. The work involved in camping is something P-Daddy and I both like to do, and the park, while awesome, is close enough to home for us to book it if need be. I hope the weather holds out. It’s been beautiful lately.