Ticks, rabbits, and colds

Bobby found a tick in Robert's room this morning. Common dog tick, not typically disease-laden, and it hadn't eaten in a long while. Whew, and gross. Ticks give me the heeby-jeebies.

I spied a rabbit this afternoon trying to climb over the garden fence. It was up on its hind legs with its front paws hooked on the topmost rung in the fence and it was trying to pull itself up while half-hopping off of the ground. Clever, but in effective. He poked around the fence a little more near a hole I had just patched up.

Yeah, I know about that hole, you varmint. Your exclusive soirees with my strawberry plants have suddenly come to an abrupt end. What'cha gonna do about it?

The bunny hops over to one of my baby pear trees and stretches as high as his legs will take him. Leaning on the trunk that is now bowing halfway to the ground, he nibbles at the leaves just brushing his lips. That's when I open the back door and send him running.

I take a second look at my blueberry bushes and see similar bunny damage on them, too.

I wish...*sigh*...I wish I didn't have to turn my backyard into a chicken wire corn maze just to keep the bunnies out. Fences are a hassle to mow around, and maintain, and design in just such a way that they are kid-friendly and yet ruthless to varmints. I always knew I would need some sort of protection for these plants once they started bearing fruit. It never occurred to me that their leaves would be enticing enough as-is. Pbbbsh.

I will need to speed up the timetable on my rodent exclosure.

In other news, I'm sick again. It hit me in the head and chest: congestion, inflammation, exhaustion, a voice as deep as Barry White. I gave myself a "sick day" today, forcing myself to restrict social engagements, relieving myself from odious household chores, and giving the kids a bath and a movie for no reason. I got to rest a bit during quiet time, which would have been nicer with some decongestants coursing through my veins, but those are strictly forbidden during pregnancy. Tylenol, fluids, and bed rest are the tools I'm working with here :(

We're at 22 weeks with this pregnancy. I'm thinking the baby is a girl, now. No particular reason. We'll hopefully find out next week at the ultrasound appointment. Just for fun, we played around on the Baby Names Blog recommended to us by a friend. We laughed SO hard at the long list of nicknames for a names so simple as "Jill" and "Molly": Jillybeans, Jillyboo, Ta-Molly, Mollywog, Molecule. Heck, I love the nickname Ta-Molly so much, I might just want to call her that anyway...if this one's a girl at all.

That's the update I've got for ya'. Kinda random. No deep thoughts as of late. I'm starting to miss them.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Sorry I have been lax about this.  As Susan said I have been out of the country in India for work.  Bangalore India to be exact.  This post is a but long, so please don't think Susan wrote it.  Even though I tend to not write much I have 3 weeks to write about much of which was spent on the other side of the world.  After the last reorganization at work there are a number of projects that are moving from there to here, so I went with several other people to learn about them and "pick them up".

The trip started out Saturday morning.  We drove to Chicago and got to catch a plane to Paris.  We did not realize that there are NO restaurants behind security in the international terminal of O'Hare.  So we all had sandwiches sold from a news stand ($20 sandwiches).

On the way to Paris they had oversold economy, so I got bumped up from "Premium Economy" to Business Class.  That was very nice.  I got a chair that almost turned into a bed.  I got to eat stake.  And, perhaps because it was Air France I got the following.

I didn't eat any of it, I don't really like the perfumed flavor of roses, but I had to send Susan the pictures from the Airport in Paris.  The airport in paris offers 15 min of free wifi.  It was just enough to send out an "I am still alive" e-mail to Susan, with the pictures attached.

The Airport was funny.  We landed on one side of the airport and proceded to drive to the complete other side of the airport, turn around to be at the back of the airport and go almost back again to where we had landed,  Then, I have to assume because they were doing construction on one of the terminals, we did not pull into a jet bridge.  Instead we got off the plane on the tarmac and all borded busses to drive us back to the terminal.  Because I was bumped up I got on the first bus, that went a bit round about back past many of the places we had seen from the plane coming in, and over to a terminal where we had to wait to catch a bus to another terminal.  I waited for what felt like 15 min for the rest of my group.  It turns out that the second bus mad a wrong turn or something and instead of going back around the airport once, they did it twice.

We finally borded a bus to the other terminal.  We passed by our plane, and many of the landmarks we had seen from the first bus, and from the plane to get to the new terminal.  There they forced us to go through security yet again.  After that we had a smal break to use the wifi and then we borded the next flight to Bangalore India.  I leaned why business class was twice as much as premium economy.  The food was horrible.  The seats were almost like a roller desk, and did not really recline.  I did not sleep at all during that leg of our trip.  The only good part about it was the movie selection, oh but wait, the headphones on my seat and the built in headphone jack put out static so loud that I could hear it just sitting next to it, so I did not even bother with trying to watch a movie.  Instead I listened to an audio book I had checked out from the library before I went.

When we landed in India it was midnight.  We made it through customs and found our driver.  I am sorry to say that I did not take a video of him driving that first night.  They were doing construction on the road from the Airport and the roads were relatively empty that time of night so for a good 20 min we were swerving on and off of dirt roads avoiding light poles and other things in the middle of the street at 40-50 mph.  The was quite the ride.  I have a few other videos of driving tere though.

These videos are mostly of us going to dinner or leaving work, well because that is what most the rest of our week was like.  We got to the Hotel, which is a very nice hotel.  We slept in and then went off to work in the morning.  We had lunch at work in the Cafeteria there, and then we picked a restaurant for dinner.  That was the routine for most of the week.

I do have to say a few things about the Hotel.  We stayed at a very nice hotel.  They had a very nice doorman.

Who would open the car door for us, and put our bags through the x-ray machine with a smile.  Yes, every time we went into any nice Hotel in India there was a metal detector for us to walk through a an x-ray machine for our bags.  It was a little odd, but I got used to it.

I also have to talk about the food.  Because of the difference in the exchange rate or whatever, a dollar goes a lot further there then it does here.  We went out to fancy restaurants every night and the food was amazing.

The first night we went out to the Pink Pompanon.  I think that is what it is called. They first served us a lentil soup.

Half of the soup had beet juice in it so it was red.  They poured it into to bowl right in front of you to make the yin yang like pattern.  It was very good.  I had the lamb biryani.  I love biryani rice to begin with and this was very good. They served in wrapped up in a bannan leaf, and let the leaf unroll.

After dinner we were so full we did not want any desert.  So we asked for the check, instead they brought us out a complimentary desert.  A shot glass with kind of an ice cream smoothy thing in it that you were supposed to eat with a sugar encrusted rose petal. It was a little odd.  How much did this al cost?  about $20 per person, and tasted a whole lot better then the airport newspaper stand sandwiches.  The other nights were equally amazing for the food.

We finished about noon on Friday and wanted to go sightseeing, because we had no idea when would be the next time we would be in India.  The first place we went was a 3 hour drive away at Mysore.  On the way there we went through several small towns and saw lots and lots of coconut and mango orchards.  We went to see the Palace of the Maharaja at Mysore.  Outside we were waiting to get in and saw a sake charmer.  

 I don't have any pictures of the inside of the palace.  They don't allow you to take pictures in there.  If you are interested just do an image search for Mysore Palace or Mysore Palace Interior.  It is rather amazing.

That night we stayed at Mysore and then the next day we drove to Halabeb and Belur.  These are two very ancient Hindu Temples. I have lots and lots of pictures of carves soap stone now.  Here are a few of my favorites.

We then drove 4 hours back to bangalore.  Went to the Airport and did everything in reverse that we did to get there.  Except this time I did not get bumped up to Business class, and I hardly got any sleep at all on the way back.

Graceful

Alice in her dance pose, showing off the dress Bobby brought her from India.

Buddy in his dance pose. He does love to follow his sister's lead...for now.

And she decided to wear this...

I asked Alice why she needed to consult with E. She said she just wouldn't know what to wear until she knew what E was wearing. Alice's friend's mom did not pick up the phone. Alice left a voice mail and got busy on her own ensemble. The last day of school was "Pajama Day" and Alice was not about to let this opportunity slip by.

She selected bright, colorful leggings, 5 white t-shirts (1 shirt was a loose collar and 2 of the shirts were worn upside down over her pants), and her bright green running shoes. The picture truly doesn't do it justice (she's showing off her grumpy face, her graduation medal, and a random preschool craft from this month):

To be completely honest, she has actually worn that exact outfit to bed once. She selected it back then to get a reaction out of us, and she selected it today to get a reaction out of her classmates and teachers. It REALLY paid off today. She was glowing with all the shocked attention.

As a side note, her friend E ended up with princess PJ shorts and a regular t-shirt since the princess PJ top was lost.

This girl...she cracks me up.

Already?!

Alice called her friend this morning to see what she was wearing on the last day of preschool.

Really?!

It's official: she's more social and girly at five years old than I had ever prepared for in a child of mine. We're in big, big trouble.

Doctor Success!

Robert had his 2-year checkup today...with a new doctor. My experience with Alice's last doctor's appointment forced me to act, finally, and make Robert's appointment with a new doctor I could write glowing reviews about. Sigh. First try? Success! Dr. Helton.

Buddy was completely compliant with all of the measuring going on. Prenatal visits have already become routine for him, so the scales and the measuring tape were no surprise. He measures in at 34 pounds (95th percentile) and 35.3 inches (50th percentile). Still a bit of a hulk, that boy :) Dr. Helton came into the room and instantly starting talking to Alice and Robert. Good move! I had forgotten to bring the Ages and Stages Questionnaire with me, so we chatted a bit about his recent developmental milestones. Robert was completely at ease climbing all over the chairs and tables, moving the step stools around, and talking up a storm. He's recently taken to speaking in complete sentences. It happened all of a sudden while Bobby was in India. He's trying new word combinations and making silly jokes on purpose. For example: I'll ask,"Where's the big stool?" and he'll reply, "At Yahoo! with Daddy *giggle giggle*." Another example: He brings me a cup and asks, "More milk-woobah, please." and I reply in an exaggerated and silly way, "Milk-WOOBAH?! Huh?" and he just laughs and laughs at his own silliness. He's got a sense of humor, this one.

Back to the appointment...Buddy eagerly climbed onto the table, laid down, and let Dr. Helton measure and squeeze and look and listen. I was completely at ease asking questions about the whole process and she answered my questions in a clear, friendly, and conversational way. She answered Alice's questions, too. It doesn't hurt that she also has cloth diapers for her 2-year-old son and she grew up with Strawberry Shortcake and she liked my explanation of a "heart murmur" when Alice asked me about it ;) Yes, I am a bit vain. When Dr. Helton got ready to leave, Buddy asked if it was Alice's turn. I told him we were all done. Then he asked if it was time for a cookie (like our last visit with the midwives). Smart kid.

When it came time for the shots, Alice got tense and asked to go into the hall. She remembered Buddy's last appointment when the nurses took pity on her and showered her with stickers and coloring pages even though it was Buddy enduring the actual pain. Another smart kid. The new nurse popped in and Buddy immediately said, "Uh-oh." Was it a coincidence? We all laughed anyway. The nurse talked to Robert the whole time she was prepping the shot site. And boy, she was quick. Robert literally didn't even seem to notice. He didn't realize he had an 'ouchie' until she had the band-aid in place, and then he wanted to show Alice the band-aid right away. He hopped down, opened the door on a very surprised Alice and said, "All done! Ouchie band-aid!" Alice couldn't believe there was no crying. None of us could. What a strange and wonderful experience. Alice was a little disappointed that no one took notice of her in the hallway *sigh*, but such is life. Cinderella stickers don't always fall into your lap at someone else's misfortune ;)

Dr. Helton works part-time, so she's sometimes hard to get in to see. We only got in today because there was a cancellation yesterday. Otherwise, we would have had to wait until July. Yikes! I'd like her to be this new baby's pediatrician. We'll see if we can swing it.

Garden Update

It's raining tonight. A good, hard rain. Lightning, thunder, huge drops of water splashing onto my whole life and garden. It's been a long time since we had rain. This one will soak in deep. Sigh of relief.

Two friends this week have independently marveled at how much I have done with the backyard in such a short time. I feel like it's been an eternity...each step in the process has been a baby step. Do something, wait a couple weeks, do something else with it, wait a while more, do something else, and then BOOM five months later it adds up to this:

See? It's still mostly dirt. The potential is there, though. Friends and neighbors have helped with key projects, propelling the work forward when I just couldn't do it on my own.

What have I planted? A little bit of everything. The key term here is "a little bit." I have no plans to can tomatoes in the thick of the August heat when I'm 7 months pregnant. No thanks. Here's the planting list:

Annuals
shelling peas
butter crunch leaf lettuce
carrots
broccoli
Chinese cabbage
cylindrical beets
green beans
lima beans
dwarf sweet corn
Cinderella pumpkins
white onions
green onions
butternut squash
green peppers
giant cantaloupe
cucumbers
sunflowers
colossal tomatoes
cherry tomatoes
grape tomatoes
eggplant
basil
marigolds
cosmos
zinnia

Perennials
strawberries
blueberries
peaches
apples
pears
grapes

You'll note the distinct lack of summer squash this time around. I need a break from that watery goo. And except for a few fall strawberries, and a small harvest of grapes, we won't be seeing any of that perennial fruit for a couple years, yet.

I'm finally to the point where the biggest worries (i.e. the infrastructure projects) are almost completely finished. The garden beds and orchard and special soil requirements have been established. I'm just planting/transplanting annuals and maintaining now, mostly. In fact, I've had a little extra time to move other non-food-related projects onto the priority list. Revamping a shady flower bed, for one. A friend helped me remove layers of old landscaping rocks from the shady garden bed right under the kids' bedroom windows. I'm still in the process of tilling it all up and amending the soil, but Alice has already claimed it as her "own" garden. Our awesome neighbors have gifted her with oodles of colorful shade-tolerant flowers and hostas. She's also picked 'flowering plants' out of the mulch at her preschool playground and brought them home to put into her garden (they're actually a weedy clover, but she likes the itty bitty yellow flowers, and I love her enthusiasm for the work, so I'm happy to let her keep them). Hopefully I'll finish prepping the soil bed tomorrow so we can plant and arrange and fuss over her plant babies the rest of the week :) Sweet, sweet bonding time that will also significantly reduce piles of compost and mulch still sitting on our driveway :D

Buddy is also a fan of gardening. He loves the kid-sized shovel. He did a great job digging up the corner of my newly-transplanted carrot bed (ARGH!), and he's a huge fan of "Alice's garden" ("Mommy! Robert's messing everything up!"), but his favorite activity by far is the watering wand. He's strong enough to maneuver the handle and turn the spray on and off. He doesn't care for watering plants or grass, however, and spends most of his "turn" creating puddles on the back patio to stomp in...or leisurely pointing the wand in Alice's general direction so she'll run away screaming for Mama (Alice's buttons are easy to push, can you tell?). I do admire his passion for worms. I thought I liked worms, but this boy caresses and talks to "muhr-mees", cuddling them like pets.

Lawn care has been a bit tricky. I've tried to mow the grass according to all of the "ideal conditions," but it's never ideal. I'm lucky to have such a healthy lawn to start with...in the backyard, anyway. Maybe grass is more forgiving than I've been led to believe :)

Susan's "Bobby's Sunday Summary"

Bobby arrived home from India this afternoon. He's a bit of a zombie, but managed to squeeze in a shower and a wrestling match with the kids before heading off to bed at 6:30. I'll let him tell you about his adventures when his internal clock finally returns to our time zone.

5-year checkup

Yes, Bobby's still out of town. I'm sure this blogging spree of mine will settle down once I have him back to receive all of my day-to-day minutae.

Alice saw her pediatrician this morning for a checkup and Kindergarten physical. Three shots. She was a sobbing mess about the shots last night (i.e. "I wish this night would never end.""I feel like I'm sick.""Why do we have to have shots for Kindergarten?!"), but this morning she had a plan. She asked if she could 1) bring her Strawberry Shortcake band-aids and 2) have the shots happen first in the appointment. I said we could certainly try. Dr. Beck entertained the first idea and completely nixed the second idea, stating that most kids don't cooperate for the exam after getting shots. That REALLY disappointed me, especially since it was Alice's own idea for helping her cope with the shots. I didn't insist. I'm wishing I did. Now I am more eager than ever to find a new pediatrician :) One who actually talks to the kids and, well, is willing to go a little out of the norm to trust her patients. I completely understand that physicians are used to a specific flow in these appointments. Our request was certainly unorthodox. I just wish the doc in this case would have considered the notion or talked with Alice about it or something. The immediate dismissal was unnerving.

 

Alice is growing well and meeting all the basic standards. She's 50-75th percentile for height and 75th percentile for weight. Her blood pressure matched mine from my last prenatal appointment. Cracks me up.

 

We were both delighted to hear that a physical for school would not be required again until 6th grade. Ha ha ha! The doc recommended she still get an exam every 1-2 years until then. Seems reasonable enough. Alice and I counted up all the vaccinations she's received since birth. A total of 20 shots covering 13 diseases. She was proud of how far she had come. The three punctures still hurt, but she was giddy at the idea of not "needing" any more until 6th grade...that's for-EVER away, right?

Touch a Truck Highlights

Today was Buddy's first experience with "Touch a Truck" (an annual event put on by our local park district where trucks, cars, and big rigs of every kind are open for kids to climb on and honk horns and peek around in). He thought it was "Ride a Truck", though, as he sat politely in the bus waiting for it to start up and take us somewhere. We found a big Ford passenger truck and Buddy hopped into the back seat before asking me to get into the driver's seat and "Drive. Go! Go! Go!" I told him that I didn't have keys for this car and he said, "Home. Keys at home. Go home get keys?"

We toured several vehicles before he stopped waiting for rides. His personal favorites were the race car (toured that one twice), the Park District cherry picker (he honked the horn with glee), and the free ice cream cart. He was also briefly startled by a person dressed up in a turtle costume who reached out to grab his head. Buddy kept asking where the turtle was after that experience. Creepy.

Here are a few picture highlights:

Wearing a fireman's helmet in the first fire truck.

Enjoying the horn on the cherry picker.

Not really enjoying the cherry picker bucket itself.

I want a "Rear Stealth" switch like this SWAT truck.

Alice fell to pieces when she returned home from preschool and learned that she had missed Touch a Truck. It didn't even occur to me that she would have liked a choice. I simply assumed friends and a preschool field trip would trump all other experiences. And maybe it would have, but since the choice was not presented, she's convinced that the other experience would have been much more fun. I quote her, "The field trip was no fun. We just learned about trees and stuff!" Um, yeah.

We came home, ate lunch, and transplanted a heap of things into the garden. I don't like to plant in the mornings and evenings (which are the ONLY two times experts recommend transplanting) because I have traditionally used that time for other important functions (i.e. getting something cleaned in the house and decompressing at the end of the day, respectively). Mucking around outside in the morning gets the kids way too messy, WAY too early. And I have zero energy after they're in bed at night. I wasn't getting anything done until I suddenly allowed myself to transplant when I FELT like it, not when the experts said I had to do it. We used excessive amounts of water (thanks kids!) and the transplants seemed to have endured the first day well :)

We had a very short quiet time today, only 30 minutes, but that was long enough for Buddy to fall asleep sitting up again:

The whispered conversation goes like this:

Alice: Mom
Me: Yeah
Alice: Can I wake him up?
Me: That poor guy. He wants to sleep. Let's lay him down.

I turn off the camera, move the books, and lay him down. He instantly wakes up and asks to leave his room :( Oh well. He was pleasant the rest of the afternoon and only resisted bed time a little bit :)

First Firefly

I spied my first firefly of the season tonight. It was hovering over my strawberries, wandering back by the chicken coop, and then off into the bushes. Just one. The sighting kinda made up for the screaming fits both kids had just during bedtime tonight. Not really, but it's a peaceful and exciting end to an exhausting evening.

Alice was wailing about fires destroying our home and Buddy was angry I wouldn't let him put on his own diaper...as if he could. It was one of those nights when the kids are crying in stereo and you're beyond caring. It only lasted 10 minutes, thankfully. Buddy cried himself to sleep while I was reading Alice a bedtime story. We're fortunate the bedtime story she selected had the protagonist's dead mother portrayed as a "guardian angel" watching over him through his joys and sorrows. Alice found it fun and comforting.

When I turned to leave her room she said with a loving laugh, "I hope I have another nightmare tonight, 'cuz then I can kick you in the face again *giggle giggle*." (Last night, she ended up in my bed after a fire dream. Her flailing and tossing did put a foot in my face for a moment, which I told her about the next morning.)

Plans

What I planned to do today:
Menu and grocery shopping
Catch up on email correspondence
Put together the anti-rodent cover for my raised garden beds
Transplant all my seedlings into the (now protected) garden
Water everything
Feed/water the chicks
Mulch the strawberries and blueberries Clean the kitchen

  
What I ended up doing today:
Failed miserably at the anti-rodent cover...I hate these learning curves
Transplanted the most desperate seedlings...now unprotected from rodents AND Buddy
Menu and grocery shopping (barely accomplished with 2 kids in tow)
Watered everything (and then some, thanks Buddy)
Buried a dead baby opossum (of all random things to find in one's yard)
Cleaned out the car
Loaded the dishwasher AND remembered to start it
Finished the last few chapters of Hunger Games
Fed/watered the chicks and forgot to get them back into their pen for hours
Gently coaxed the chicks out of the neighbor's yard and into their pen
Mulched the strawberries and blueberries
Swept out the garage


Not a bad list, now that I look at it. It feels like it takes me a million years to accomplish anything on my to-do list, especially outdoor projects in the garden (it's all new stuff I'm learning out there, and the kids tend to interrupt and change my plans easily when I'm, well, terrible at the other thing I'm trying to accomplish).

Now I'm off to bathe the kids. We had more compost pile playing today and ripe strawberries with dinner...messy, messy.

When "Quiet Time" Gets Too Quiet

Buddy has started to stay awake during some of his daily "quiet time" routine. I'm okay with that. He plays and sings really well by himself, usually staying out of trouble. When it gets REALLY quiet all of a sudden, it's usually because of something like this:

Conked out right behind his door. I could barely squeeze my arm in far enough to snap the photo.

When Alice and I walked into his room, we thought he had disappeared. Kinda freaked me out for a minute. Turns out, he was asleep between the dresser and his big boy bed.

Susan's "Bobby's Sunday Summary"

Not much happened this week for Bobby. He ripped a tree trunk out of the ground (the main root was 10 inches across, I kid you not). He stopped by the pharmacy to pick up some anti-malarial drugs, potent antibiotics, and melatonin. He crammed 6 days of clothing and toiletries into a small carry-on bag and one personal item. He was served rose petal preserves with his breakfast on the way to Paris, France. His ultimate destination is somewhere in southern India where he will be working all next week. That's about it.

Wish I had a picture...

...of Alice and Robert coated in compost so rich that it stained their legs brown. I scrubbed a lot of it off, but they are now soaking in their own "compost tea" bubble bath to get the rest. Camera batteries were dead :(

We had a GREAT time on "the farm" today. Our farm :) I'm still working on distributing that pile of compost on our driveway. I mowed the front lawn, spread a thin layer of compost on top, and watered it thoroughly. It took me 2.5 hours. The kids spent that time mucking about on the compost pile and helping me throw dirt all over the grass. This was the first time I had let them play on the compost pile at all...hence, their excitement. I like projects where I can work uninterrupted next to my kids playing uninterrupted. I also enjoy freakishly messy play every once in a while :)

Robert called it a "mountain" and dug through it with his hands. He laid on his tummy and used his feet to kick compost down the sides. He turned his hands into imaginary spiders that were playing on the muck...one was a Daddy spider and one was a baby spider. Then he found a worm and cupped it in his hands to come show me. He did lose the worm again in the pile, but he had discovered a stick by then and proceeded to poke, prod, dig, bury, smack, and twirl the stick into the pile until it freaked out Alice.

Alice attacked the pile barefooted. She immediately began her fantasy play involving the most recent cartoon princess she's seen: Ariel's daughter, Melody. She fought off bad guys with dirt clods, discovered her true mermaid princess nature, and used magic to bring peace to the sea. Then she helped me chuck compost all over the grass. Her throwing method was actually PERFECT for distributing a fine, even layer of compost over a specific area. I praised her technique and she shared a few tips that cut my work time by 25%. No kidding. 

Then I pulled out the hose to water all that good compost deep into the soil. Robert took a shower in the spray. Crazy, funny, awesome little kid. Alice liked her turn with the showering wand, but only as long as Buddy was accepting showers. Buddy's turn with the wand consisted of filling up a leaky bucket over and over again.

When my work was done, I offered them a bath and they came scrambling indoors. Buddy got a hose-down, Alice got a hose down and a pre-scrub, then into the bubble bath they flew. Delighted. 

Now to tackle the backyard.

In other news, I've been feeling the baby move a little. No emotional analysis to accompany that development, oddly enough. I am eagerly anticipating the ultrasound in June, thinking that will somehow stir me into realizing this baby is really going to happen. I can see and accept the birth/newborn transition in my future. That's something I have accepted since the pregnancy test was positive. It's the rest of my life that's hazy after October 5th. How on earth do I fit the newborn reality into the life I will have then? I haven't given that a lick of thought. That's the grey area that worries me a bit now and I do hope I will have time to ponder that before he/she arrives ;)

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well it is allergy season again, so my nose has been going kind of crazy.  And when that was combined with the vaccination I got on Friday it was not fun.  I guess I am the lucky one in one hundred that gets to react to it and have a fever.  Lucky me.

On Saturday we got a new piano, well at least new to us.  It was free on Crag's list and all we had to do was to move it.  Seeing how the elder's quorum moved the last piano both in and out in the mater of a few months we figured we had already used that resource up, so susan hired a moving company and bing bang boom it was here hassle free.  All we really had to do was open the door for them.  It wasn't that expensive either.  Now all we need to do is have a piano tuner come.

Thoughts on Time

Last night, for the first time ever, the chickens moved up into their coop on their own and went to bed. Until last night, they would sleep in a heap on the ground or I would come out at 9pm and throw them into the coop together (it would be so dark that they wouldn't/couldn't resist the forced relocation). Something finally clicked for them. We're still months away from collecting eggs.

The fruit trees have leafed out a bit, but they're still mainly sticks. We won't harvest fruit for years.

Seedlings take several weeks inside before they're ready to transplant outdoors, then several weeks more before they produce anything worth eating.

Organic methods of lawn care take weeks, months, years to fully blossom into a well-maintained and healthy landscape. You can plant grass seed whenever you want, but if the soil isn't healthy, or the weather is too hot, you'll be wasting a lot of time and money.

There is a lot of "waiting" in this farm/gardening game. It's a period of gradual, yet continual growth towards some specified end point.

Like earning a degree.

Like pregnancy.

Like raising healthy, responsible adults.

Like caramelizing onions (medium heat for 10 minutes...do NOT use HIGH)

You can't "cram" for these kinds of end products. They take time. It's a progressive journey...layers of understanding and experience building on each other. The chicks' instincts kicked in one at a time: social connection, eating bugs, scratching on the ground, eating grass, and finally going "home" to roost every night. The chicks did not come prepared to do all of those adult chicken things at once. It makes sense that they wouldn't, but I kinda thought they would. So here's my point: I feel like several aspects of my life are on the same gradual, yet continual growth that the chicks have demonstrated. My garden, my family, and my personal relationships can not be rushed. I used to be frustrated in how long these things took. Friendships don't pop up for me. Not the ones that last, anyway. Until recently, I thought there was something wrong with me. Well, there ARE several things wrong with me, but now I can see that that's not always the "limiting reagent" in the reactions I'm looking for. Time is excrutiatingly essential. I can't turn a tomato seed into a ripe tomato in less than two months. Kids learn responsible behavior one boundary at a time, one day at a time. My job is to nurture that seed and hold those boundaries until gradually, progressively, my effort produces the end product I have worked towards.

And it's not an unpleasant sort of "waiting." I take great pleasure in sitting on my back patio watching my plants grow and my chickens scratch and my kids play. They are strangely in harmony. My life is moving forward more harmoniously than it ever has before because finally it's all on the same time scale. I can use the same patience and planning skills for each in turn. It's important to pay attention. It's important to keep vigilant and intervene as necessary, but the interventions are rarely huge. Small, progressive changes make the ultimate difference in these time-heavy pursuits. I. Love. That.