Small Town Parades

I grew up in a small town, and, so, I get a special kick out of small town parades. We could have opted for the Huntsville parade, or even the Decatur parade, but those aren't our communities. We wouldn't recognize anybody in the floats. We'd have to wriggle our way through the throngs who've been parked there two hours before the parade began (and who are, as a result, cranky, cold, and unwilling to acknowledge you when you say, "Excuse me, pardon us, just need to get by.") We don't know the route, and would have no idea where to park to avoid a three-mile trek, uphill both ways. There'd still be large crowds, and, my biggest pet peeve with parades: grown people who must be in the Very Front and don't have the decency to let small children sit on the curbside for the candy. We might as well trek into NYC for the Macy's Day parade, for all that.

Nah, that's no fun. What's fun is to stroll to an empty spot along the parade route (because small town parades have empty spots along the parade routes), smile and get to know the folks on either side of you. What's fun is to laugh with them as their children or grandchildren asphalt dive for candy, just as they laugh with you while your children dive, as well. Granted, there's no curb to sit upon, but that doesn't seem to phase the children. Curbs are overrated, anyhow, I'm sure.

Do you see the look of concentration on each little face? They were like that the whole parade. Tensed. Poised. Ready for the pounce. I don't ever remember being ready for anything, and most of the candy I acquired at parades was the stuff that konked me on the head while I sat on the curb. (But then, for me, it was all about the bands. I love marching band music, and where else can you get a total fix of all the bands in the area? I still love that part.) These kids, though... they're ready, man. You can even see EmBaby's taking off to forage for more, just in case they missed some.

Obviously, Smidge wasn't ready for the field. He had a pocketful, and was ready to talk about it. But the other four? No way, man. There's a shiny black car with a red bow, and somebody hanging out of the window, winging candy at bystanders. Get ready... this is going to be good!

Did you SEE that? There must be enough for... for ALL OF US, there! WOW! (And see the nice folks in the background, laughing? Very cool people. We really enjoyed visiting with them.) The lady in the white hoodie offered to keep EmBaby, and I don't think EmBaby would have minded. But the boys were more efficient with the candy gathering than any of us slackin' adults, and so they kept her stocked up enough to prevent a full-on migration.

And even better? The boys shared their candy with the old and infirmed (AKA - those of us who stood, sat, or leaned our way through the parade and didn't get any candy.) How sweet is that?

Yesiree, I do love small town parades.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Afternoon Fun

 

You can't *quite* tell by this collage, but we went to the Christmas Parade this Saturday. We met Claudia and her kids there. Everybody had an absolute blast. It was so much fun that I'm thisclose to being forgiven for the library fiasco, which is quite encouraging.

I did take other pictures. I did. I like my other children, too. But the little ones are so much fun to photograph. They don't hold still for squat, but they also don't grimace or growl, don't make Frankenstein poses, and don't try to add sound effects to still photography.

And I swore I'd be in bed, um, an hour ago. So, uh, here ya go. I'll write more in the morning!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Random Injuries

Ah, the not-quite-coveted "Bad Mother Award". Most of us feel the shameful glory of needing it from time to time. It's part of the learning curve of parenthood, I'm convinced of it. And once in a while, I meet a kindred soul who knows *exactly* what I'm talking about when I have to admit to something like this (taken, in part, from an email I sent recently)...

...at least twice a week at supper, Zorak will look at one of the boys and say, "What happened to you?" And it's not until right. at. that. moment. that we all look at said child and realize he's got some gaping wound, or enormous goose-egg, or some other obvious bodily damage (my favorite was a series of scabs up his arm that looked like something with razored feet scampered up his arm - wth is that???) -- that I *never* noticed at all, all day, not once. Gah. I hate that.

Then Zorak looks at me, and I know his look says, "Wow, weird, huh? What is that?" But, filtered through my writhing guilt, it looks like a look that says, "What kind of mother doesn't notice that?"

Thankfully, I know my translation box is broken, so I'm usually able to refrain from leaping up and shouting, "Well, there are SO MANY of them! And they scatter! And I'm only a MERE MORTAL, Damn You! What do you want from me!"

I think it's good to know your limitations and boundaries...

And to marry a man who remembers what it was like to be a little boy. That is also a significant help. Yep.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Slackers

Well, not slackers. I prefer the term, "Creatures of Inertia".

It may not be a Physics problem, at all, actually. The best way to explain it is that when a day develops the equivalent of that "funky meat smell" (you know the one, where you think the meat is good, but you aren't sure, and you don't trust your nose, so you do what any rational human being would do -- you shove the potential biohazzard under the noses of everyone you care most about in this world and ask them to smell it), it's best to make a quick decision: turn up the heat and cook the snot out of it, or scrap it. Don't leave it on the counter and try again in a couple of hours.

Inertia determined I'd leave it on the counter. Yes, I know, probably not the best call.

However, we got our lessons done. We made it to a Cub Scouts pack meeting to check it out. And... well, that was about all we accomplished. The rest of the day just pretty much sat on the counter.

I realized yesterday that I need to make some changes to what we're doing in school. James needs more one-on-one, *gentle* guidance with his problem solving skills, and with learning to step back from an issue to take in the overall picture. A little work on retention wouldn't hurt, either, but right now shock therapy is the only thing that comes to mind, so I'm shelving that particular point until I have a better view of the big picture, myself. Someday, he will appreciate that. For now, though, it's my job to make sure he doesn't hear that inner dialogue.

John needs to get back to a more Spalding-based structure on his spelling and writing. (I know. I know. I love it. I just haven't been using it as I should.) He's also got to learn that when your brother is making Mommy pull her hair out, your sitting there actively trying to emit, Look at me! I'm being soooo good. I'm your favorite son! vibes... Well, that's probably not going to have a positive impact on the general dynamic of the day. If he was eight years older, I'd have likely thumped him on the back of the head and told him to quit being a suck-up. As it was, though, I just filed this away as a note to self to pull my hair out after they're in bed, thus avoiding the whole issue.

I've got to find Smidge's secret caffeine stash. He's got to have one. Nobody can be that squirrelly unless he's... ohhhh, yeah, four. Well, okay, so he probably just needs more outside time.

So, this weekend's planning will be all about integrating a new structure that will meet all our needs. Or attempt to. Or perhaps, even if I miss the mark, I can muddy the waters enough that they'll be forced into finding a new direction out of sheer self-preservation. (I jest. You know this. Or at least I hope you do. You should, anyway.)

This life, it's an exercise in attention to detail, stamina, and fortitude, isn't it? Oddly enough, I wouldn't have actually applied for a job that required any of these traits, and yet, here I am, absolutely convinced that I wouldn't want to be doing anything else, anywhere else, for any amount of money. I guess that's a good thing, and so, even if the meat is bad, eh, it's just a day here or there. The big picture truly is absolutely beautiful. And so, to kill off the rest of the mixed and mangled metaphors for the day, it's lovely to be able to change the composition of the frame when we find it's simply not working so well. A little higher. Focus a little deeper. Improve the lighting. Ah, yes, that will work for now. Beautiful.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

A Day, Part 2

I never did get around to writing up the afternoon portion of my Day in the Life post. That's probably a deep mental block, on my part. Afternoons haven't been my most active portion of the day for, oh, perhaps a decade. Admittedly, it's worse when I'm pregnant. Which, I've also been, off and on, for, oh, nearly a decade. So. There ya go.

School's going well. The boys are doing well. It's difficult, sometimes, to really recap what's taking place, and what's being learned. I forget that what we do seems so foreign to so many people -- for us, it's just homeschooling. It's not a radical shift in any cosmic alignment. Perhaps it was, at first, a radical shift in our internal processing of "how things are done", but that time is long since past. Now, it's our lifestyle, where what we do is just... what we do. The fact that I forget this is actually funny, considering we live in an area where the second question strangers hit your children with (after whether they're rooting for 'Bama or Auburn) is, "What school do you go to?"

But, this is our "school", in the deepest sense of the word. Home is where we learn. It's where we prepare for all the Tomorrows. It's where we teach and share and grow. This is what we do. We get up, we eat, we read, we talk. We think. We play. We read. We work. We haggle. We take a break. Other than the fact that the vast majority of our learning and daily activity takes place here, at home, we're just like most normal people. (Insert all appropriate caveats, here.)

And so, where were we? Oh, yes, the children are outside burning off energy they'll wish they could have back when they're in their 30's. I gather my wits and get the kitchen ready for lunch. Gather some things to read, try for the umpteenth time that day to find EmBaby's sippy cup. Someday I will learn not to put milk in those things. Or I'll get a dishwasher-safe homing device for them. Something's gotta give in that department. When all is set, I sit down to read my own stuff until they begin straggling in, begging for food.

Afternoons are reserved for History, Science, and Random Other Things I Decide They Need To Learn *Right Now*. Occasionally, we have a fantastically productive morning and get History/Science done in the AM. That doesn't happen frequently enough for me to post what it looks like, though, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

We're using Story of the World, Vol. II for History. I read it over lunch. Then we talk about tangential issues until we've finished eating and cleared the table.

I put EmBaby down for a nap if she hasn't given up and passed out at the table. Yes, I know, routine and all that. The boys have an hour to read whatever their wee hearts desire while she settles into a really good sleep, and I get my prized "Quiet Time". I don't remember who first informed me that all mothers need naps, but God bless her, for this has saved my sanity in numerous ways. Even if I don't nap. Even if I lie in bed with a book and a cup of coffee and loosen my bra. It doesn't really matter what you do, as long as it's rejuvenating.

Sometimes, Smidge falls asleep during this time. It's like a special gift, just for me. Sometimes, (ok, most of the time) he doesn't. And that's okay, too, because he's at least had an hour where nobody's touching him and making him irritable. That, too, is a special gift.

Science this term (and probably next) is the Periodic Table of the Elements study from How To Teach Science. We supplement with James' Usborne Illustrated Encyclopedia of Chemistry, and more discussions about things-connected-with-chemicals. The boys really want to set things on fire and do more lab work. My brain translates that to "let's do something crafty and messy and chaotic" and, well, I veto it. When the basement is no longer a hazmat zone, we'll set up the lab down there and spend a glorious summer avoiding the heat by blowing things up in the basement. For now, though, I tow the "theory first" line, and they still seem to buy it.

Have you noticed I don't have time stamps on any of this? That's because time is rather fluid for us. I've tried sticking to specific time slots, and perhaps when the boys are older -- or, more accurately, when the littles are older -- that will work. For now, however, we must work within the whims and fantasies of a preschooler and a toddler, and soon, another infant. That's a lot of fantastical whimming, there, and flexibility is my creed.

We read some more. Some of it aloud. Some of it quietly. We fill in the afternoons with chores, writing, drawing, playing. Most of the time, the kids do go back outside. I go out with them when EmBaby awakes, and we sit and play some more.

If Zorak calls before he leaves work (and he usually does, which I appreciate deeply and tremendously, as it helps us recalibrate that whole fluid-time thing), I know to get supper started. We do a quick tidy, "for Daddy, because we missed him". And by the time he pulls into the driveway, the kids are happily engaged. The sentries announce his arrival (Paul Revere style - Daddy is coming! Daddy is coming! DAD'S HOME!), and I've almost got the kitchen cleaned up.

From here on in, our home looks like any poorly organized home. Zorak gets pounced on and loved on. Sometimes he's brought home a little treat for the kids. Sometimes he plays with them a bit and makes plans for the evening (movie? snap-circuits? pictionary? video games?) We talk and catch up on the day, the plans for the week, the general glue that binds each day to the next.

We eat. We do our thing. We get ready for bed, usually later than I think we should. We tidy the bedrooms, and then finish out the day with more reading. Right now, we have three read-alouds going: Treasure Island (the original - it's a riot!), On The Banks of Plum Creek (one of the Little House books), and a new series - The Young Jack Sparrow (we're near the end of book eight... but wait! there's more! *sigh*).

Zorak reads to EmBaby while I read to the boys. Smidge is torn between the two worlds, so he hangs with Dad until he sees me head into the boys' room and then he follows me in there. When it's quiet, and the last of the bathroom trips, water breaks, and "have you seen my *completely not bedtime related item*" inquiries, we grab some coffee and sit down to talk, play, read, or just watch a movie.

And tomorrow, we get to do it over again! Good stuff, really. I certainly can't complain.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Not the Crocs!

Noooooooooooooooo!

I have some ugly shoes. I love my ugly shoes. They're so ugly, they're cute. Sort of like E.T. But, well, uglier. Still, I wear them, and love them. With a few exceptions, where they'd have been wholly and inexcusably inappropriate, they're all I've worn since I bought them. And now, I think they're trying to kill me.

For the last week or so, it's become increasingly painful to walk. Move. Sit. Stand. Lean. Breathe. I'm average-for-gestation in size, but because of the pain in my hip and tailbone, I walk like I'm eleven months along. With triplets. Probably elephants.

Both of my arms have taken to going pins-and-needles numb at random times, from the shoulders to the finger tips. Five or six times a day, this happens. Once I realized I was most likely not suffering from roaming gangs of blood clots, I figured I just needed to find a chiropractor and have a little adjustment.

Not that I've done that, mind you. It's all about identifying the problem. Solving it goes onto another list, entirely.

The boys tried to help yesterday. Their efforts made me smile, but they just don't have the body mass to fight this kind of inertia. Smidge almost fixed it, inadvertently, when he pounced on my back. I thought I would die. If he'd been just two inches farther down, and a little to the right, I think he'd have done it. But I couldn't stay relaxed enough for it to work when he did it again (he caught me off guard the first time - let's face it, if you know you've got a 50# cannonball careening toward your back, you won't be relaxed, either). That hurt. I took a Motrin and called it good. I also begged one of the boys to become a chiropractor, even if just for a hobby. I'll pay for it, and you can pay me back with adjustments. How can you beat a student loan deal like that, eh?

So last night, unable to so much as sit without contorting in pain, I put on my sexiest voice ("sexy", being relative, in this situation. Obviously.) and asked Zorak if he wanted to play Gumby and Pokey.

I'll be Gumby. You just start pulling on things until something pops into place.

He wrestled me into all sorts of hideous positions. Lots of popping. Just a little screaming. It helped. And I'm 5'8", now.

This morning, I awoke almost pain-free. yay! Until I put on my Crocs to go make coffee. I only made it out of the bedroom before the grinding sounds and the clicking pain kicked in. Crap. It's these shoes! I'll bet it's these shoes!

Well, my only defense for wearing them was that they're comfortable, and I think it's safe to say they've betrayed me on that level. So, it's probably time to ship them off to Valhalla of the Shoes, buy me some good orthopedics with arch support, and maybe find a good chiropractor. Yep. But man, I'll miss those shoes!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Hey, Look! It's a girl!

 

Thanks for all the tips on EmBaby's hair. We bought some little bands. We propped her up on the counter. We basked in how incredibly patient she is. In the end, Smidge looked at her and said, "She looks like a little doll." Zorak and I looked at her and laughed when we both said, "Look, we made a girl."

Thanksgiving's 'do didn't hold up too well, but yesterday's (pictured here) fared quite better. And best of all, she loves it!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Children's Song

I seldom do this, because it's right up there with forwarding emails, but I laughed - quite literally aloud - until I cried. There is a little language, so just a heads up. This is the same guy who had every WTM reader in stitches over the Pachelbel Rant a few months back. This time, he tackles kids' videos.

What got me about this one is that sometimes there's just nothing that's going to make Embaby happy other than watching the *one* Dora video we own. Again. Even the boys mock Dora, now. But there are times when I hear James whispering to her, "Do you want Dora? Dora, Emily? Want me to put Dora in?" and I know they've had it, too. So we pop in Dora, sit at the breakfast bar, and watch her watch Dora. It's quiet, if only for fifteen minutes. And we can regroup. If only for fifteen minutes. But when it's over, we're all refreshed and ready to tackle the rest of the day. The chorus is my favorite.



I want a brother like Rob Paravonian.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy
(*Edited to fix the spelling of his last name. I should know better than to botch something like that. Apologies to Rob.)

Domesticity

Do you know why I don't oil my cabinets regularly?

I do. Now.

I spent a multitude of hours today, cleaning and oiling each and every cabinet door, drawer face, and all the frames. HOURS.

In the end, I do have clean, glowing cabinets. And they are completely overshadowed by the butt-print track on the floor around the perimeter of my kitchen.

That's NOT what I was shooting for with this whole thing.

Thankfully, Orange-Glo wood oil smells fairly nice, because I may never get this stuff out of my hair.

But you should see those cabinets!

I may not get much else done tomorrow, but I'm guessing if I do the floor, it'll be a drastic improvement.

God bless the children. They stayed outside most of the day, playing, reading, biking. They let me clean in peace. I appreciate that more than I can say, but it was nice to repay the effort with extra reading tonight at bedtime.

Yup, it's good to be a family.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Houston, We Have Contact

Almost 22 weeks along, now, and tons of movement. Nobody's been able to catch it other than me, but I have connections. Smidge got to both see and feel the baby move yesterday. He was thrilled. He also wore this accomplishment as a badge of brother-irritating honor for the rest of the day. Heh. Sometimes it's nice to do something "first". I get that.

Wonderful Neighbor from MD called me yesterday (I think it was yesterday...) to say she's having "a baby with two arms, two legs, and one head"! I'm glad she knew I'd get how exciting that is. Sometimes people mistake my lack of organization, or, um, the fact that I forget I'm pregnant until I drag my belly through the bread batter, for a lack of enthusiasm. It's not. It's still very exciting. And it would be fun to be pregnant in a vacuum, where the only thing to focus on is the baby growing inside. The closest you will ever come to that, however, is your first child. After that, life is a whirlwind of activity, needs, love, perpetual motion, and stolen moments of peace and quiet. It's good stuff, but certainly not a baby-centric environment. Hopefully, we'll be able to schedule an ultrasound soon. And if we can find out what we're having, that would be nice, too. I hate referring to the baby as "it". As if we'll be having a non Homo sapien offspring this time? Bah.

We'll finish up school for the week today. I figure I haven't had an Inservice Day in a while, and there's no sense in asking the boys to pay attention to that when there's so much else going on. Actually, we may even cut it short today, since the weather's supposed to be beautiful today and tomorrow, and then cold and wet on Thanksgiving. If I let them out for the next two days, I can get the house set up for playing indoors and then Thanksgiving Day will be a lot more fun for everybody -- big and little, alike.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

We Made It, But It Hurt

Hey, that's a re-tread title! (And I can't remember what it was about the first time...) We made it to church. On time, even.

Why, though, WHY, does it take children an HOUR to eat a cup of oatmeal and a slice of peanut butter toast? Why? Without that, it would have been a lovely, relaxing morning. Well, that and the whole, "This is not what you laid out to wear last night. Where are your clothes? Why are you wearing that?" routine. *sigh*

We had to leave about 3/4 of the way through the sermon because EmBaby was *done*, but that's okay. Not bad, considering the early morning. We wanted to stop by Me-Wa and Me-Tae's, but Smidge and Em both fell asleep the minute we started the engine. So we came home and stared at the walls for a while.

John needs a new bike, and we're not sure if that's a good Christmas present. Right now, he's not quite Circus Clown status, but he's getting there. He does actually need a new bike. However, isn't it a bit cruel to give a child a Christmas present like that when January brings the cold-cold weather and ice storms? Seems a little mean, to me, to say, "Hey! Here's a present you won't be able to use until Spring!" I don't know.

On the holiday front, I'm starting to get excited about the food. It's all about the food. Zorak and I are looking forward to trying a few new things this year. We do love the food. And we love to feed people. For us, the holidays are just a win-win, all the way around.

Oh! And the Nutcracker is coming! I get to take the boys!! (Or, as Zorak would put it, I'm going to take the older ones and he gets to stay home with the two littles. Another win-win. Heh.) We're going to an evening performance, and then out for ice cream. I cannot tell you how very much I'm looking forward to this outing with the two eldest. Good stuff.

OK, and for some unexplicable reason, two of them are up right now. So I should get off the computer and go be productive. Hope you're having a lovely Monday!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

A Quiet Sunday Morning

Well, I had a plan. We'll see if it worked. I went to bed the minute I'd finished reading to the boys last night so that, even if the alarm got turned off, I'd be able to get up in time. I'm up. Clothes are laid out, dishwasher is running (I forgot to do my nighttime chores in my hurry to get to bed - oops). I'm going to wake up a bit, gather our notebooks and Bibles, and then start getting the kids up and ready. Man, I hope this works. We haven't made it to church in ages, and we need to be there.

We weren't horribly motivated on the house yesterday. Well, *I* wasn't. I read (finished Last of the Breed, wandered through Barbarian Europe a bit), cooked (chile, yum!), played with the kids and then hid for a while. Zorak, however, got the rest of the front eaves and soffits painted. The difference is, once again, drastic. I can hardly wait for the windows and storms to be painted!

We did run into a problem with the storm windows, though. The paint on the wood is all "Antique White", just a good, old-fashioned "Antique White". It's not white-white, not yellow-white, not off-white. (There should NOT be this many shades of white.) The "Antique White" spray paint looks fantastic on the storm windows. It's not the same shade of "Antique White", though, and when we put the storms on the painted windows, we ended up with storms that look more "old, yellowed plastic" than "lovely new aluminum". Now, I know we do some things a little differently than others, but let me assure you, that is Not what we were shooting for. They aren't even plastic! We tried Plain White but it's too stark. And this stuff is too yellowy. Hmpf. I'm wondering if we need to see if we can find a green, which would tie the storm windows to the porch, or if we need to cough up the extra money to have a spray paint mixed to match the Antique White paint we've been using. So far, our answer has been to talk more about the den addition and hope an answer to the windows comes to us out of nowhere. :-)

And other than that, it's been a quiet, quiet weekend. Kind of nice.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Photography & Holidays

I lied. No pictures. It was too cold to go out and too dark to take indoor pictures. I can't figure out how to take decent indoor photos with our digital camera unless the sun is shining directly in one window and the full moon is showing in the other, and I set up mirrors down the hall to reflect the light from the bathroom. When I try to use the flash, it's like photographing Gollum in the cave: total darkness and big eyes protruding from it. *shudder* I have to sleep with these images in my head, and so, I avoid creating them.

However, it is time once again to start thinking of taking the family Christmas photo (that I will never get around to mailing). Important stuff, that. A friend, who also has four, passed on her tips last year, and I think I'm going to try them. She takes one child at a time to a pre-selected spot, and takes a gazillion pictures of that. one. child. Repeat until all pertinent children have been photographed (this step can be spread out over a period of, say, weeks, for the less stalwart). Then, from the relative peace and quiet of just before midnight, sit down with a cup of coffee, a bag of snacks, and pick the best photograph of each child to use in creating a collage. Ta-Da!

Think about it. Four children, all smiling, all looking at the camera, all clean. Nobody's crying. Nobody's touching anybody else. Mommy hasn't threatened to start drinking again. Daddy hasn't had to use the phrase, "Remember, two of you are spares!" Sounds like a win-win to me.

And we also need to create a good photograph area for Christmas. I've got the corner picked out. It just needs a few finishing touches to be *perfecto*. I'll need:
- about 12' of baseboard (so at least that particular section looks finished)
- another coat rack (so it doesn't look like we've abducted children from the bus route and piled them willy-nilly in the foyer)
- touch up the paint (because the stuff in the dining room hasn't held up well)
- finish the dining room windows (well, at least clean them and prop them back up)

Ta-Da! A Winter Wonderland Home, in a little corner of my unfinished world. Then I'll carve a little nook out from behind the tree, where I can sit and hide and sing Christmas songs to myself when things get a little overwhelming. If there are enough decorations on the tree, I can even hide bags of chocolate in the limbs of the tree. Really, it'll be quite nice. I think I can leave it there til Easter, too. Pretty exciting.

And what are you doing to prepare for the holidays?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Gak! Argh! Narrrrrr.....

Low tonight of 28?!?!? Did God not get the memo that our storm windows are s-c-a-t-t-e-r-e-d a-r-o-u-n-d t-h-e y-a-r-d? Oh, sure He's probably got more important things to worry about. And we should probably be more on the ball than we are. But let's face it, that's not gonna happen.

And so, I plan to spend the morning panicking, the afternoon digging around for plastic sheeting, and the evening baking things to keep the house toasty warm and the kids fed. Then I'll RUSH out to the fabric store when Zorak gets home, and stay up until sunrise (yes, yes, well after the fact, I know this - but I'm the kind of person who gets so anxious to be *doing* something about a situation that I'm likely to walk to the hospital rather than wait for a ride... uh, yeah, at least I *do* now understand that it's a ridiculous urge, but, well, that's the nature of urges. They don't have to be logical.) ...to line the curtains in the kids' rooms so that I don't feel like a horrible mother for letting them freeze.

Two more cups of coffee, and I'll realize I could just put them in the guest room, which has warmer curtains *and* storm windows already up. Uh, yeah. That's a possibility. We'll see how the day pans out. May logic triumph! *make little trumpet sounds with your lips, now, for the full effect*

It's Virtual Friday! WooHoo! This means we get another three-day weekend. More time to procrastinate and plan poorly for the jobs to be done. We're getting Very Good At This, I'll tell ya. We might go ahead and pull down another couple of windows, just to complete the look. Aim small, miss small, and all that. Er, something like that.

Wow, anyway, it's a little after seven right now. I'm up and dressed. I'm fed and caffeinated. I've got a load of wash going, kitchen tidied, and am feelin' good. Hyped. Excited. It's a fresh new day, and I'm already a bit slap-happy. God bless hormones. You just never know what little gift of the psyche you'll awaken to each morning.

OK, time for a to-do list. And today, pictures. I haven't taken pictures in a while. Mostly because the kids have been moving too quickly, and I've been either too sleepy to get to the camera, or laughing too hard to use it. It's all been good, but there's no proof of that, anywhere. Should get on that, no?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Two Days in a Row!

We have rain again tonight. It's a driving, blustering, torrential rain. It's wonderful. It's the kind of rain that comes in waves, in sheets. First you hear a slight change in the background noise, and then, instinctively, you look up to see what it is that's coming. For something's coming, rushing, charging at you. It's the beautiful rain, bearing down on the grass and the trees, on the barns and the cattle, in ever-increasing rhythms. You can see it running up the hill toward the house, wall after wall of thick, heavy drops, until it hits and you're momentarily blinded by a wall of rushing whiteness, deafened by the pounding sheets against everything around. Oh, it's truly beautiful.

It was beautiful this afternoon, pelting through the Autumn sun. It was lovely at supper, providing background music. This long, deep drink for our parched and tired land... just makes me smile. Oh, we've needed this!

The rain drove us indoors sooner than normal, which left me with just time enough to read with the kids a bit and get supper on at a decent hour. We had time enough for Snap Circuits experiments, a little knitting, and pecan pie before we had to begin the bedtime routine. Norman Rockwell couldn't have provided us with a nicer evening scenario.

Now the children are down, and I have a coffee date with Major Joseph Makatozi, up in Siberia. I hope you each get a beautiful evening with your loved ones, and a date night with a well-written character sometime this week. It's really something we must do more often.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Wednesday Catch-Up

Ok, well, you wouldn't know it from my blogging lately, but we've had a very good week or so around here.

Forever Home Update: We spent the weekend winterizing the Forever Home. Well, mostly we spent the weekend mentally heaping hot coals on whomever painted right over the screws on the storm windows. Our goal was to finish all the windows along the North side of the house. (It was a 3-day weekend. That sounded reasonable.) With a bit of fortitude, a few extra screwdriver bits, and a whole lot of stripper, we got a whopping *two* storm windows apart. WOOHOO! Zorak stripped the dining room windows (because those show up in Christmas photos, being right beside the tree - priorities, people!), and I got one storm window stripped and cleaned. Then the humidity shot up and we couldn't prime, but that's okay. Nothing says "Work in Progress" like panes of glass and bars of aluminum lying around the front yard, right?

Pickup: The pickup transmission doesn't need a "full" rebuild, but it does need some lovin' and a little chiropractic care. This is wonderful. It's wonderful because it's not the Suburban transmission, which would have cost six times what this one will. It's wonderful because we'll get another 180K miles before we need to do something else major. It's wonderful because... well, because if I don't focus on the wonderful things, I may go set The Mistress on fire and dance nekkid around it while she burns. Um, yeah. So, heh. This isn't so bad.

Visitors: We had a visitor last week. You know when you meet someone for the first time, and you feel almost instantly that this person (and his family) could be Really Good Friends? Yeah, it was like that.

Kids:
* The anole leaped from James' back yesterday while they were playing outside. I honestly can't believe the thing stayed on his shirt for so long (several hours). He looked and looked for it, but couldn't find it. However, he did ask that we keep the set-up so that he could get better prepared and try again.
* John's been reading to me in the mornings while I pretend to knit. That's good stuff, right there. I forgot how much it takes to learn to read aloud with inflection and cadence that match the story. He's improving on it, though, and is encouraged. I'm looking forward to more of this.
* Smidge is branching out. He's doing his own thing. He's making games for Emily to play with him. He's cracking more jokes (they still aren't funny, but he's making them up and running with it). We've broached the subject of a bigger bed for him (because he's huge, and he's four, and well, we're going to need that toddler bed soon), and he likes the general concept, but is determined we need a three-high bunk bed for this purpose. Uh, not with 8' ceilings, kiddo. Can you imagine scraping your forehead on the popcorn ceiling every. time. you. wake. Yeouch!
* EmBaby is. a. riot. Oh, my gosh, she's so stinking cute, we can't stand it. We made cookie bars a while back, and for some reason, she latched onto that. "Cookie bar?" She'll ask, in her wee little voice. Zorak would do just about anything for the squeal and the happy dance that accompany the cookie bars. So, he made some the other day, while she was napping. I got her up and we strolled hand-in-hand into the living room, when I asked her if she's like a cookie bar. She said, just as matter-of-factly as possible in a voice that small, "Yes, a cookie bar... and coffee?" Mmm, that's my girl!

OK, I think we're caught up, now. What have you all been up to? I could go get dressed, but I think I'm going to go read and visit, instead. See you on your front porch!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Baby Girl Hair

What do you do with Baby Girl Hair? Zorak and I both keep thinking she really needs a haircut, but... well, the "classic little boy cut" probably isn't the thing to do. Yet, that's all we can think of. I need hair help, here. (Ha. Alliteration in the morning - sorry.)

In the front, it's starting to get into her eyes. She's got that Detroit Rock City thing going.

From the back, she looks like an albino Rastafarian.

She has a moderate amount of hair (well, more than any of the boys at this age, anyway). And it's made of silk, I think. Other than the dreds, it's not going to hold anything like clippies. Not terribly long, yet, although it's hard to tell sometimes.

So... uh, do I just trim the bangs (fringe, whatever - the part above her forehead) and call it good for now? Keep brushing it to the side and hope it'll stay? Ignore it and pretend I don't know what people are talking about when they say we've got to do something with that child's hair? What do you do with Baby Girl Hair?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Long Time, No Blog

Sometimes, it's just not funny. Sometimes I can't find the words to be encouraging.

I look at the beetles coming in under the door, again, and think, "That's it. I'm setting this place on fire and moving into the barn." Not that that would reduce the beetle intrusion, but at least one would expect beetles in the barn.

I listen to someone pass along to me that somebody hurt someone else's feelings -- a situation I wasn't involved in and had no knowledge of beforehand -- and am yet expected to make-it-all-better, and I think, "Come ON, people! I can't even keep my stove clean enough to meet Waffle House standards! What makes you think I'm capable of dealing delicately with other people?!?"

I look at the sad, sad situations of people around us, and want to scream, "Stay away from me, you freaks!" Yet I know, in my heart, that we're all freaks, and we're all deserving of leeway and grace. And I know, above all, that if we want to make things better at all, we have to roll up our sleeves and do something to make it better. (Screaming and running generally doesn't do much to further that goal.)

I see that the dog got out of his pen. Again. I see that he not only chewed apart the slat woven into the wire, but then actually *removed* the pieces, set them aside, bent the wires out of the way, and *then* worked his way out from under the fence. And I start to really fear that he's not just a dog, but perhaps a very angry, very intelligent, very devious being who is planning our destruction for trying to keep him in the pen.

But the thing is, even when it's hard to find the humor, and it's challenging to find the grace, it's worth doing. It just doesn't necessarily come tripping off the tongue in a way that I think anyone would connect with. So I sit, and stare at the blinking curser, and think, "I'm going to bed."

On the upside, I've gotten quite a bit of sleep the past few days. But, sadly, not much else accomplished.

So, today we'll be putting in thresholds and weatherproofing doors and windows. We'll be reminding others that people enjoy participating in wonderful activities with other wonderful people. We'll be making plans to reach out in our community. And we'll be keeping far, far away from that scary dog. Erm, we'll work on the fence a little more and see how he outsmarts us this time. But more than that, hopefully, we'll show the boys that sometimes it's not the length of the stride, but the fact that you keep putting one foot in front of the other, that matters. (Right? I mean, they *will* get that, won't they? I sure hope so!)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Something New!

Well, it seems we have a new interest in the house...

um...

yay?

I don't know. James asks for so very little, and he is so happy with what he has. When he finds something that really makes his beanie twirl, I'm hesitant to say no.

And so, today we've been reading this, and this, and this...

*sigh*

Now to break the news to Zorak, who would have been happier to have an indoor cat.

Who Would DO This?

When we returned from our October travels, we noticed our lower meadow (between the barn and the creek) had been bush-hogged. We assumed it was our Bush Hog guy who had done it, perhaps as a thank-you for fostering his tractor while it was dead.

I talked to him last night, though, and guess what? His tractor is still in the shop. He didn't do it. He asked if whoever it was had perhaps baled it, but no, they didn't. Just mowed it down. (Not that having baled, and taken, our alfalfa would have been better, but considering how dry it's been, it would have made more sense, at least.)

The Ghost-Hogger didn't leave a note, a phone call, a crop circle. Nothing.

I suppose it's certainly better to have kind strangers stopping in to do odd things, than to have some of the other bizarre encounters we've dealt with. There's that. And thankfully, the barn's still standing. But this is still our property, and with everything else we have dealt with, I'm just not too tickled about having strangers on our property doing anything at all. Let alone major maintenance.

And above all, why would someone do that? Would you ever randomly mow other people's meadows? Is there someone with OCD issues about grass height roaming the county with a tractor? Is it one of the men we'd contracted with *back in the Spring* to come bush hog, who finally showed up and... why only do part of the job, then? Why not leave a note? Why not call?

Curiouser and curiouser...

Kiss those babies!
Dy