Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week felt fairly normal, but we did do some fun things yesterday. After we cleaned the house, we went to the store, had quiet time, picked one of our sunflowers, went to the local Children's Museum, had dinner, and watched a movie.  It was busy but not too busy.

The best part about the day was the movie, not because it was an amazingly good movie, but because of Alice's reaction to it.  It was Cinderella, and all throughout it Alice was enthralled.  At the end when they got married and kissed, she let out a sigh like you wouldn't believe.  It was almost like it had fulfilled all her dreams of what a movie should be.

I also liked it a lot at the museum.  Buddy has started noticing when things "match".  Notice how he sorted the blocks.  He then made a bit more advanced pattern.  In the movie, Alice and Robert are playing on some large blocks that we used to make an arch, which they then knocked down.

Phase Two...Mwah ha ha haaaaaa

BoGah and other life-altering "unpredictables" permitting, these are the major yard/garden projects I have slated for next year (refer to the pale boxes in the above diagram). Wahoo! You'll have to click on the picture to get a better look, but here's a summary from top to bottom:

1) New raspberry and blackberry trellis along the north sideyard. We'll (i.e. paid professionals) have to take out those two trees on the left side first. We'll be planting everbearing varieties of berries, of course, since our family overwhelmingly prefers those fruits fresh and continuously :) Frozen and jam forms are tolerable, I suppose, if we grow more than we can consume or give away...um, yeah.

2) Rock "garden." It's an area riddled with utility boxes and underground lines. Useless for planting anything in the soil. I'm thinking we might park kid toys here, or perhaps an above-ground cold frame for season extension, or a work bench for farm/garden tasks. We have an enormous pile of gravel and river rocks we've gathered from other portions of the yard, so this seems like a nice place to deposit them. This is also where the rain barrels are situated.

3) Grape trellis over the patio. Provides shade and delicious fruit. There's enough surface area to support 5 healthy vines at first. Maybe up to 7, if I learn to love pruning. I'd like to have table grapes as well as juice, but 5 vines just doesn't seem like enough to satisfy both desires. I'm pretty much insatiable when it comes to garden dreaming.

4) Shady edibles garden. Lettuce, spinach, cilantro, asparagus...plants that tolerate/prefer less sun. This is also where Alice's garden is right now. She's planted shade-tolerant edible flowers and hostas.

And it looks like the front yard will go completely neglected yet again. So sorry, front yard neighbors. I just can't muster enthusiasm for shady, shadier, and super-shady horticulture. Nothing delicious grows from it! Nothing stunning blooms in it! It's a veritable sea of subtle shades of green, punctuated with bitty specks of white and yellow. Blah. Unfulfilling. Ask me to try caring again in 2014.

Looking for a Theme

BoGah’s room is almost complete. He has a bed, a dresser with clothes, and a changing table. I’ll throw a comfy chair in there soon for all those nighttime feedings. I’m looking for one last thing to finish the job, though: a mantra.

I need a short phrase or quote to pull me through the darkest post-partum times. You know, on those days when it takes every last ounce of humanity to get out of bed and nurse the baby one…more…time. Times when the older kids are clamoring for attention and the baby just won’t let me put him down, or sit, or stop bouncing for two minutes. Days like that, I want to be able to look at BoGah’s wall and read a short quote, a few words from a song, or something else that 1) acknowledges how hard and lonely that moment can be and yet 2) reminds me that things do get better. Preferably something that doesn’t throw responsibility or guilt at me (i.e. "Child of God" and "Love at Home"…those phrases/thoughts aren’t uplifting and helpful until I regain my sanity at about 6 months of age).

So! Please send me your ideas. What are some of the inspiring ideas you’ve found lately?

Tea Party with Hats

My friend Marianne is friends with an avid hat collector, Mrs. Potter, who recently invited all the kids to her house for tea and a hat fashion show. Here are a few of the hats Alice tried on:

 

Yes, that's a figurine of the Queen Mother on their table. Quite fahn-cy! Alice has since decided that she would like to throw a tea party of her own with three kinds of juice. We'll see what we can do the next time Julia comes for a visit. She's my English Tea go-to girl. 

That's Alice

Can you find Alice in this picture? She's the only child in all of Nature Day Camp who thinks a complex contraption designed to squash a banana with a brick will make a deafening sound. Yup, that's my Alice: