Squealing Like A Little Girl

We just checked the weather, and it's supposed to be 89 degrees on Thursday! I know this doesn't sound exciting, but it is. It's exciting is so very many ways. Summer's on the downhill slope!

The sunflowers are hanging in the basement to dry. The okra's floating in jars. The beans are done, and we've learned a lot about those. The pears are thinking about ripening, and we found another pear tree we never knew we had!

The chickens are a little fickle, and we still have no idea what we're doing, there, but we're learning. Slowly but surely.

But Autumn is coming! Soon we'll spend time outside without our hair sticking to our necks, without the mosquitoes sticking to our arms. Soon we'll need jackets in the evening, and can enjoy bonfires in the twilight.

OH, yes, Summer's days are numbered, and as they drop, so do the temps! WOOHOO!

Kiss those sweaty little babies!
~Dy

It's Springtime, Y'all!

Why didn't anybody tell my 17-yo self that THERE IS STILL SO MUCH TO LEARN!?! Well, someone probably did. So why didn't I listen? Nevermind. There's still a lot I don't know, but I think I've figure that one out, at least.

So, we're gardening the garden of the Ambitious, this year. Cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, okra, okra, and okra. Kentucky pole beans and black turtle beans and sunflowers. Yellow squash, zucchini, watermelons, pumpkins, canteloupes and okra. Cayenne peppers, bell peppers, Blue lake green beans, tomatoes, and some okra. Honestly, we're just hoping to get some okra out of the deal.

And there's baseball. And school. And Scouts. And baseball. (EmBaby *hated* t-ball, so we are down to only two players, now. It feels so manageable!) And more gardening.

We're expanding the tea garden into medicinal plants.

The boys keep asking if I've blogged an update on each of them, yet, "with my pictures in it, Mom". But then they won't hold still long enough for me to get pictures to post. (I'm guessing they may not listen when we tell them how much there is still to learn, either.)

Did you know you have to have register with the State of Alabama to grow ginseng here? Not only to sell it (that's a more expensive license), or to harvest it (though they charge you less if you're collecting someone else's ginseng), but just to GROW it. Something that grows wild, without your help, anyway. Unbelievable.

We've got chicks. Yes, little birds. They're in the basement, with the Basement Frog, for now. This was our impetus to get the coop done. (Ya think?) The kids are ecstatic. I'm trying to find a way to develop a full-body second skin dip that will provide prophylactic support against salmonella, mites, and the willies.

EmBaby had her first major tricycle wreck, which also earned her her first shiner. It looked absolutely horrific for the first four days (she was fine, but we all went around cringing and moaning in empathy), and then this morning, *poof* it's nearly gone. And she's still on the tricycle every chance she gets. May she always be blessed with that kind of healing ability and fortitude. If I were more Irish, maybe I could come up with a catchy way to phrase that.

The figs are growing! Or, rather, one of the figs is growing. The other one seems to be holding very, very still, in the hope that neither Jason nor Sally will ever make contact with it again. We've built cages for all of the balcony plants (the two figs, and the three earth boxes), but I think we may have been too slow on the draw to do that one any good. The other one, though (the one that hasn't been uprooted and thrown off the balcony more than twice), is thriving and putting out vibrant, beautiful green shoots! So exciting!

And, there is baseball.

And gardening.

And the smell of sunshine and dirt on little heads.

It's Springtime in the South, y'all!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Morning Comes Early

Jase got up incredibly early this morning. He came in and climbed all over us. We chased him out. He came back with a cookie and climbed all over us. Zorak chased him out. He came back a third time, with a cup, and climbed all over us. From under a pillow, I heard Zorak mumble, "He's an aggravating little cuss, isn't he?"

We had a busy, wonderful, fantastic Easter weekend. There just wasn't enough Sleep. There are pictures, but they're on the upstairs computer. (Zorak and I take turns on the Siberian exile station, down here in the basement - this computer is terribly slow, but I suspect come August, we'll be elbowing one another down the stairs, vying for time in the coolest spot in the whole house!)

We're enjoying a somewhat freakish warm, dry spell this week. Of course, I use "enjoy" in its loosest manner. Mainly, we're willing to take any temperature, as long as the humidity stays fairly low. After that, all bets are off and I'll be counting down the days to November.

And now, I must either get to work on some Velcro footie pajamas for Jason, or get to bed so Morning doesn't feel like it comes quite so early tomorrow!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Blame it on Lent

Well, maybe not. I'm not sure how God is with the whole Striking With Lightning bit these days.

However, I did decide to stop vying for time *alone* in the evenings. Something had to give, but what? Reading time with the boys? No. We're not giving that up, and we can't really shorten it. (They keep adding to the stack, anyway. I'll be reading to them from my death bed if I shorten our nighttime reading.) Time spent tidying the kitchen? No, that one is a sanity-saver come sun up. Time with Zorak, alone, together, speaking in full sentences? Somehow, I don't think sacrificing that is the best thing in the world for a marriage. And I like Zorak. I want to keep him, always.

The only thing left was my late night foray to stay up and blog. It wasn't working, anyway. The Bigs' read-aloud time lasts longer than the Littles' does, so Zorak gets done first and beats me to the computer. (My grand plan to hook up the old computer in the basement fell tragically short because I can't get it to connect to the internet. I seem to have misplaced... the modem. Yeah, not sure how that happened.) Zorak and I are both night owls, so in order to get time alone and on the computer, I'd have to stay up until well past two in the morning. Even then, there was no guarantee. After falling asleep on the couch several nights in a row, waiting for the computer, I realized I was being silly. Very Silly, Indeed. *sigh* That's always embarrassing.

Lent just happened to be an excellent opportunity to quit being Silly. So far, I've been a'bed by eleven six nights out of seven. The extra rest helps. I'm more productive in the morning, able to spend time in study more often. I'm a much nicer mother before noon, too. But boy, does it make for a dull blog. And no photo editing time, either. I'm not sure why I feel pressure to include photos with blog entries, anyway. (Yet I do! Just a peek into my weirdness, I guess.)

So here's a quick recap of the last week or so:

~ We fed a stray. Turns out my Mother was right. They do stay if you do that.
~ Jase is LOUD. I mean, unbelievably LOUD. ALWAYS.
~ Baseball kicks off today. (*whimper*) It will be in the low-low 30's at practice tonight. One kid has practice, another, a meeting.
~ James is anxious (both excited-anxious and fretting-anxious) about taking golf lessons this Spring. No clue what's up with that.
~ The Pinewood Derby is this Saturday. The boys have done amazing things this year. It's not unusual to go to the basement and see a boy with a torch, melting weights, or a boy with a drill press, making holes. They may not win, but they will have learned a great deal, and had a lot of fun, and that is, for us, the point.
~ Netflix really needs to get Season 4 of Big Love on DVD. Seriously. This is important.
~ EmBaby knows where to find, and how to use, the shut-off valve on the toilet! I don't think I've ever been so proud of the sense and composure of a four-year-old in my life.
~ We've had company every Saturday for the last month. As of Monday, the boys have officially petitioned that we re-define "Company Clean". They say this pace is killing them, and that someone will figure out The Truth, eventually, so why not just use that to help weed out the weak ones. (Yes, I'm both proud and horrified at the same time. Parenthood will do that.)

And, I think that's it.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Quick Check-in.

The basement's coming along. It is very, very yellow. This is good, in that we meant to paint it yellow. It's just that it's... well, there's a lot of yellow down there, now. I'm hoping some furniture will help disperse the visual before the children start having nightmares about hanging Sesame Street hides on the wall. It does look great, though, in general. Very clean. That won't last, but for now, there's that.

Unfortunately, as with any (every) project, the finished portions only highlight (and not in a good way) the Rest of the Stuff. And so, we either need to buy the stuff for acid etching the floor and hanging a dropped ceiling, or we need to remind someone (me) that we're still saving up for the kitchen window and the range vent. We want the window, and we need the range vent (the ceiling above the stove is in danger of looking much like we must cook over a peat fire).

So, it's true that, at some point (or every point), the project list is just a titch bigger than the project budget. But it's all good, because we will never (ever) be bored.

The boys are completely on board with the work, though. They got the grand idea that it would make a *fantastic* playroom. Then I mentioned that I'd like to get some hanging chairs. "Like the ones at IKEA?" They asked. The very ones. That was all it took. Although, mixed in with their help, they've logged a lot of time on "joist appraisal", so they'll have located Just The Right Spots picked out for hanging the chairs, when the time comes.

Yeah, this is good.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

It's February?

Wow. Didn't see that coming.

I've given in to the fact that although I crave time ALONE, I function better and am a much more civil human being if I actually get some sleep. So far, I haven't convinced myself that time asleep counts as time alone, so we're still hashing that out, my inner Introvert and I. Also, no blogging. No picture editing. No writing. No building-of-interesting-things. Something's gotta give, or there'll be a mutiny of bizarre proportions. Unfortunately, it seems winter is the time that it's hardest for me to carve out that time to myself.

February bring daffodils and buds on the dogwoods. It brings pruning time and planning time. And, eventually, the sun will rise before noon, which will help. The master bedroom only gets the very early morning sun, and that only comes through the window in the door. So, when the sun comes up later, it's a lovely little cave. A sensual hidey-hole, perhaps? Well, not with five kids. With children stealing the covers and emitting body heat in exchange, I open my eyes just long enough to peek at the window and tell myself it's still two in the morning, then roll over and go back to sleep, never quite registering the digital display that proves my sense of time to be so poorly calibrated.

So, it's a season of life, and all that jazz. I get it. Still, there's got to be a way to get sleep, tend to the needs of the Zorak (this week, he needs me to paint the new wall in the basement -- quit being dirty-minded), keep the kids fed and relatively tick-free, the house below DefCon 3, the education going, and still be left alone long enough to write, think, read. Don't have a *clue* what it is, yet, but it's got to exist. That's what keeps me going, sometimes.

But most of the time, what keeps me going is this:



And if I blink, let alone wander off too much, I'll miss it!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Project Blogging: Christmas '09

The kids worked like Roman galley slaves all morning, took a break at lunch to watch a movie and hang out a bit, and then went back to the rowing-rowing-rowing. They laughed and worked, ate like fiends, and crashed like the dead come bedtime. I appreciated their work today, as we got the house ready for Christmas and company.

Sometimes, (like right now), when two-thirds of the house is clean all at one time, I feel like we've accomplished so much here. Other times, (like when someone comes to visit for the first time), I look around and see only *all that remains to be done*.

And then, there are times when we're discussing one project, which is dependent upon another project, and that's tied to a third (or fourth, or fifth) project... and I realize, we will never be done. I guess that's a good thing. It'll feel better in the morning, I'm sure.

Tonight we worked a bit more on the play kitchen. Then we worked a bit on the wall in the basement. Yep, brand new project, six days before Christmas, when there are still myriad other things to be done upstairs, in the climate-controlled portion of the house. On the surface, it seems silly, I know. But in the Grand Scheme of Things, that wall will make a number of other projects (some of which await upstairs, yes) so much easier. And so, we do it.

The plan is to build a wall separating the water heater & HVAC unit from the rest of the basement. This will alleviate some visual clutter. It will also give us a Christmas Closet. It will create an entire 20' wall with electrical outlets, and a guaranteed space for sewing and other projects. AND, it will give us (because we designed it that way) a little half-bath in the basement. But of course, in keeping with tradition, the half-bath will remain an unfinished room which we'll use for storage, for the foreseeable future.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Holy Mackerel!

Just when we thought we had it all under control, we got hit with the gentle (*snort*) reminder that we're not really at the helm. Sometimes I feel that if life came with an instruction manual, the "Quick Start User's Guide" would look something like this:

1. Kiss those babies
2. Say your prayers
3. Hold on tight

Obviously, there's more to it than that, but that's what it takes to get started, isn't it? And sometimes, to keep going.

We've got to back up a bit. Let's see, I got sick Sunday (the 18th). Thought it was nothing big. Nothing a little rest and some cranberry and water couldn't fix. Stayed home from church to pound the liquids. (Didn't help.)

Monday (the 19th), I thought I had cramps (sorry - no cute or euphemistic way to put it), and we learned we have what Melissa calls, "A Runner". Yep, we now have one that, given the chance, will bolt swiftly and silently, leaving the whole ball of wax for one glorious shot at freedom. Thankfully, he is safe and came to no harm. My knees still hurt just thinking of it. However, he is now on a lock-down the likes of which no child in this house has ever seen. He will probably never be allowed to watch Blade Runner, or Logan's Run until he moves out, or can explain where he's going. And we spent a harrowing week, holding our breath, keeping the house Company Clean, in fear of a visit from The Authorities. Adrenaline does wonders for pain relief, by the way.

Tuesday (the 20th), I realized I wasn't fighting a mild UTI and cramps, and started to worry that this was, perhaps, appendicitis. That's a scary thought. (It was a scary pain.) Nothing touched it - not asprin, not hot baths, not the gazillion gallons of water and cranberry I imbibed, not the hot pad, not massage; not walking, not laying, nor rocking nor crying. At that point, with the severity of the pain and the lack of relief, we called the nurse line and she recommended I be seen "within six hours". Blink Off to the ER, where I was diagnosed with, but not treated for, a rather severe kidney infection, and blood, most likely caused by a blockage. We're voting for "stone sludge", as whatever it was, it passed during the five-hour wait in the ER. Yes, FIVE HOURS. And yes, they had a sample. Oh. My. Word.

It seems that the confirmed presence of a raging infection (the lab was quick), a "9" on the pain scale (figure there's always room for it to hurt worse, right?), chills and swelling just don't cut the triage scale if you have somehow managed not to spike a fever. The poor Triage Nurse took my temperature every way she could think of, but there was no fever. No fever, no check mark. No check mark, no spot at the front of the line. She was very apologetic about it, and begged me to stay, because, obviously, there was something Very Wrong. But still, back to the lobby.

What's with that, anyway? Nevermind. I am currently trying not to think of the myriad reasons I had no fever. Just. Not. ThinkingAboutIt. If I'd known, however, that they would not give me antibiotics at the end of that wait, to be honest, I'd have gone home to writhe in the comfort of my own floor while waiting for the urologist's office to open. Away from the lady who likes to hang out in the ER, being obnoxious to other patients; away from the guy who came in for a cough; away from the three other guys who came in to hang out, catch a nap, and then move on. As it was, we got home a little after 7AM Wednesday morning, mildly re-hydrated and just a little bit stoned on pain killers.

Wednesday was supposed to be our Preparation Day. The day we washed the car, did the groceries, made up the guest room, finished the basement work, took the kids to music and did all the things one normally does on a Wednesday. Or something like that. Obviously, that's not how it went down. I'll fill you in on that, tomorrow. It just hasn't slowed down in the least.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

The Days Roll By

We probably ought to start a new project soon. It's been terribly quiet, here. Actually, the guys did build an HD antenna the other night. It's mounted on the wall (and needs some aesthetic support...) but now we get a few channels on TV. I celebrated last night by falling asleep watching My Name is Earl.

Scouts is a little wonky, at the moment. Everybody who is supposed to move up to a Boy Scout Troop has been holding off to see where the Den Leader and his son are going to go (so that they can all go elsewhere). The entire Den. In retaliation, he's refusing to declare until everybody else does. So, we have all these boys in limbo, who should be in Boy Scouts, but are, instead, stuck at the Pack meetings. *sigh* Last night, we broke the standoff and declared our Troop and made arrangements for James' crossing over ceremony. What we didn't do was mention that it's a one-year trial, and if this guy ends up being "the adult in charge" at any point, we are out of there. The leaders of the Troop know our stance. We'll see how that works out.

In the meantime, the Cub Pack is really growing and changing, now that this guy has released his hold on it. The Pack Master has grown into his new role so beautifully, and all the parents are stepping up to assist him and support him. I think the Little Guys are in for a Spectacular Year.
Smidge loves being a Tiger! I love the Tigers! Oh, my, they are adorable. And enthusiastic. And cute. And just oh-so-precious. And did I mention adorable? It really is like a big ol' litter of fuzzy little puppies, all tumbling about together. Except they don't bite your toes, or pee on your lap. And they're funny! So really, they're better than puppies. Plus, they grow up into fine young men, and that is encouraging, as well.

We've got a busy day ahead of us. The boys start guitar lessons today, I think. (I hope. It's one of those things that crept up on me.) Groceries and cleaning out the car and working a bit more in the basement. It doesn't sound like much, but it's all good stuff. A clean car feels fantastic. Food is always good. Always. And the basement is rather exciting because Zorak initiated this particular project, so I have hope it will stick! The boys have already made great use of their new work area, and they're loving the new "space".

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Project Blogging! Master Bath

We've been camped out in here...
"Somebody" was supposed to send for help, but we suspect they got distracted. Netflix Watch Instantly and a box of Cheez-Its, and hey, who needs parents, right?

We think we'll be done tomorrow. If not, I may just move the computer back there, so we can keep in touch. We have wireless; the kids won't miss a thing on Netflix.

In the meantime, we've also finished up most of the remaining (OK, "neglected") details on the house. Baseboards painted, door trims painted, ugly basement door in hall painted, previously painted doors re-hung (doors are over-rated, really). I even had John take the air return grille out and scrub it off with a brush and the jet blaster on the garden hose! Evidently, it's white. Huh.

And, we've taken out the Ghetto Adobe Pink in the kitchen (we love it, but it's too close to Kraftmaid's "Toffee Maple" finish, so there wasn't the *POP* we wanted) and replaced it with a creamy creamish cream color (which is not "white", okay? and yes, cream can *POP*. Really, it can) and green. Both, on one of the walls! I got a little nuts. Zorak still isn't sure if he's going to leave me unsupervised with the paint cans, again. But I *love* it! I used KathyJo's method of painting -- literally, called her up and begged her to hold my hand and walk me through it -- she is very patient with slow people. And I *LOVE* it.

I'll get pictures later, when the fridge is back in place, and all the other random things are not in the middle of the floor. Things always look worse right before they look better. Or, that's what I tell Zorak, anyway.

Kiss those babies!

OMGosh, where have I been?

I've been sorting, washing, and tagging clothes for the Kids' Swap Clothing Sale in Decatur. I've been sorting, washing, and boxing up things for the thrift store donation, the "gotta get this MAILED" stack, and the "REALLY need to get THIS mailed" pile. I've been to the dentist. I've been to the car wash. I've been going-going-going non-stop for a week!

Mice found the pantry shelf in the basement. Naturally, we don't have doors on it, yet. We will soon, though. Nothing motivates us quite like urgency, does it? Yick. Spent a lot of time reconfiguring that. Thank God for the compost, or I might have cried.

Jason yells, "Maaaaaamaaaaa" all. the. time. now. It'll be darling once we have a bit of space between the event and the memory. His inflection is fantastic, though. We can tell what he wants from clear across the house.

EmBaby just yells. I think she's feeling pressured to keep up with the noise level now that the older boys are doing their studies during the day. I'm sure they appreciate that.

Smidge is happy as a clam, and about to get happier: he gets to be acknowledged as an official Tiger Cub tomorrow night. Woot! (He doesn't know this, yet.) We'll swing by the Scout Shop tomorrow, after yet another dental visit (man, am I just the burgeoning medical butterfly, or what?), and hopefully get the proper dodads glued onto the proper spots in time for the meeting tomorrow.

Don't know what happened with the Pack, but there's been a total 180 lately. It's been fantastic. Even Zorak, who had begun to contemplate semi-spontaneous road trips for Thursdays, looks forward to going. They're *doing* things now. The attitudes have improved. The meetings are more organized. There's a plan-of-sorts in place. Even the kinda-scary-problem-child has been a totally-different-child. Everybody's enjoying the differences.

All this makes for good living, but lousy blogging. How have you all been? Fill me in!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Accomplishments, Big and Small

Big:

The pickets are up on the balcony. Changed the *whole* look and feel of it. Will try to get pictures. Someone's going to have to remind me to post before and after pics, though, because my brain isn't working properly. (I'm also working on obtaining grant money to prove my hypothesis that humidity clogs the synapses.)

Dad's old desk - circa 1940's, awesome, Ed Harris as a gov't agent, heavy, wood desk - has now been cleaned, refinished, runners sanded and waxed, and reassembled. Due to The Way I Do Things, it is already covered in stuff.

Basement progress is picking up speed. Zorak headed to the recycling bins with an entire pickup bed (long bed, at that) full of flattened cardboard boxes. The erstwhile contents are now shredded compost material, loaded up for a trip to the donation store, or filed away neatly.

AND, I vacuumed the basement.

Yeah, no kidding.

FOUND the disk for the camera upload software. Thankfully, as that model has been discontinued and Fuji no longer has any disks in stock. Big old vampire-killing silver bullet dodged, my friends. *whew*

Uploaded the 422 pictures we've taken since switching computers.

Most of them are blurry nostril shots, courtesy of the SmidgeCam.

Little:

Um, still can't figure out how to use Photoshop Elements. Not for a lack of trying. Must push harder on that grant money.

And, on a rather obscure note, we (the kids and I) cleaned out "the pen boxes". Picture, if you will, 70 years of writing implements shoved into desk drawers, all collected and bound in cardboard during various moves, just waiting for us to one day be so desperate not to have to go outside that we scrounged up scrap paper and plunked ourselves down on the floor to doodle our way through the pile. A surprising number of pens still worked. The totally, irrationally exciting part, though, is that we found two fountain pens!! You may not know this, but I have a teeny tiny obsession with stationery products. So, when I discovered they still have ink in them, and they work, and learned the histories behind them, and fondled them, and figured out that you can buy ink pots, and, and, and...

well, you just can't end a day of cleaning on a better note than that.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

So late! Not sleepy!

It is a sick bit of humor, this whole technically not being nocturnal thing. Gah. And it only gets worse as summer approaches. (Although today, I had to give kudos to Zorak and I. It is the end of May, and there we sat, side-by-side, out in the yard, not complaining. Four years ago, by the end of May, we'd stopped venturing outside at all, let alone for leisure.)

Thank you for the great food ideas! I'm excited about trying some, and y'all got me lookin' for fun and feeling groovy. (I'm also trying desperately to get another song out of my head, so please forgive any further random lyric placement. It's all I've got, unless I want to go wake up one of the kids and make them talk to me of other things until it goes away.)

Zorak is the KING, folks. He rocks, and somehow, some way, managed to get the mower running. (And, as an added bonus, it now seems to be impervious to my diabolical efforts.) I mowed for two and a half hours. My butt is still numb, seven hours later, but the lower meadow looks almost great! Best. News. All. Week.

In his spare time, he has also been building me a pantry shelf for the basement, to replace the plywood and plumbing tape one we scabbed together two years ago. That one served us well, but it's a little ugly. And, being comprised mostly of scrap, it's a little saggy at this point. This new one's purty. And strong! It has a metal screen back, and doors up top, and will fit everything from coffee cans to five gallon buckets to coffee bags to canned goods and even those little sacks of coffee beans. To celebrate, I think I'll do groceries tomorrow!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Weekend Warrior - Project Blogging

This weekend, we have several projects to complete. *Edited to add a detailed shot of the tie-backs. They set off the denim on the couch, and pull in the cranberry from the futon chair. I am happy with them, and they were SO easy. Yay. Didn't get pics of much else this weekend, though, so this is it./edit*

The first: tie-backs for the living room curtains. Because nothing says, "I have completely given up trying" quite like using your couch to hold back the curtains. But have we given up? Well, not yet. So, I bring you the first completed project of the Warriors' Weekend Work:

The second: cull through the art in the basement and decide what gets hung. Then hang it. It is fortunate for me that Zorak forgot that was *this* weekend, or he may have had an emergency something-or-other to do up at Me-Wa's today. And tomorrow. Oh, and it might have taken 'til Monday. We're about 2/3 of the way through this one. I have six empty boxes and a pile of ready-to-hang framed things. But no pictures. Will do that tomorrow, when this project is complete.

The third: these stoopid little spots over the doors, one over the back kitchen door, and one over the hallway opening. We'd planned to do something interesting with wood there. Please don't ask, though. We don't remember what we were thinking. Which is probably why, three years later, they still aren't finished. However, we've decided we'll probably never remember what we were going to do, and so, the sheetrock is up and the mud is drying. Yay. (I took a picture, but Zorak pulled an Executive Order out of thin air and asked that I not post it.)

So, I will leave you with a photo from one of last week's project that didn't get blogged: balcony top rails. Wide enough for coffee cups, yes indeed.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Documents and Care

I'm here. Actually, I've been in the basement, sorting papers, looking for birth certificates. But nobody was willing to drop food and coffee down the stairs, so I had to come back up. Found one. Have two official copies ordered. No clue where the second one may be.

I plan to look into the mail order bride thing and see if there isn't someone who would be willing to come just as a personal assistant and doesn't really require marriage. That might be handy.

I called my doc to see if I could get in to see her this week, rather than waiting until the 20th. My thought was that I'd like to be proactive about the stone the u/s found in my kidney. The conversation was a bit odd. She started off by telling me that everything looked absolutely perfect. No problems at all.

*blink* What about the kidney stone?

What stone? What tests did you have done?

We sorted that out. She called the lab, which hadn't faxed the results of the bone density or the u/s back yet. Then she called me back.
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Nurse: There is no stone. You're perfectly healthy. You don't need to come in.

Me: Well, what's that large mass in my kidney?

Nurse: That's just a calcium deposit. It's nothing you need to worry about.

Me: What's the difference between a stone and a calcium deposit?

Nurse: Well, it's not a stone. Really, this is nothing to worry about, at all.

Me: So a calcium deposit of that size won't impair renal function?

Nurse: Not yet.

Me: *I am screaming in my head, but not on the phone.* Well, won't it have to come out, at some point?

Nurse: I don't know why you're upsetting yourself over this. It's nothing. I've spoken with the doctor about this, and it is absolutely nothing. You just have that. And a simple cyst.

Me: *thinking I do not want to look up "kidney" and "cyst" on Google...* A what? A cyst? On my kidney?

Nurse: Yes. It's nothing. You don't need to come in earlier than your appointment. *tsk* Honestly *deep exhalation* Where ARE you getting your information from?

Me: So what does The Doctor say might be causing my pain, since absolutely everything else looks completely healthy and clear?

Nurse: Oh, we don't know what that could be.

Me: You don't think it could be that, um, calcium deposit?

Nurse: No. Not at all.

Me: You know, that's fantastic news. But, uh, I think I'd like to talk to Dr. D about all this, anyway. You know, just to make sure we're all on the same page.
*************************

So, I go in Thursday, but the nurse isn't happy about it. And I'm trying to figure out the best way to get a copy of the u/s to take to someone else. Because if I have a long-lost twin living in my kidney, I'd like to know.

And the best I can figure, a 1cm "calcium deposit" sounds an awful lot like something more than nothing. I know I'm not a doctor, or even a radiologist. But I also know that anything that large that shows up that clearly from *inside* an organ that ought not have solid things lodged in it probably isn't "nothing".

I'm not worked up, but I am also not feeling overly confident in my current doctor, who is, to be perfectly honest, probably busy being torqued that my bone density test didn't come back with full-blown osteoporosis. Because that means her argument that I am - quite obviously - an osseous sponge (because I nurse my babies longer than six months - her words) just might not be exactly it.

And that's... about it, this week. Documents and Care. I need more time playing with the kids. They're a lot more interesting and a whole lot more fun.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Weekend Warrior - Project Blogging - Updated!

Amy inspired me. OK, she shamed me. She's putting in toe kicks this weekend, and her kitchen hasn't been together long enough to get the stove top dirty. Mine's been in so long I've had to take a putty knife to it (twice) and I still haven't put the toe kicks on. Gah.

So. Fine. I have a semi-legitimate reason for the lack of finishing touches in the kitchen, and they are not all based on our Functional Trumps Finished approach to home decor. However, they aren't going in this weekend, either. So, I had to come up with something else...

Anybody remember the Futon Chair project? Yes, over a year ago, I commented that we'd need another cushion... obviously, that wasn't a driving Need, like unfrozen pipes, or armadillo food a salsa garden in the upper meadow. Whatever. But it was U-G-L-Y. And the more the kids crawled around on it, the worse it got. Oy.

We'd taken to storing papers and notebooks on it, just to try and disguise it a bit. (As you can tell, that didn't work.)

So that was my project for this weekend.

I started by dragging up old foam mattresses that had come with the boys' bunk beds. They've been living in the basement, awaiting some kind of new life or Viking Burial, whichever came first. (The boys were hoping for the fire, to be honest.) Sized it up, measured it... ok, no, I didn't measure it. You knew that. Eyeballed it.

Then I cut the mattresses to size, removed the outer fabric (not that I didn't dig the space theme, but it would have clashed with the Prometheus theme we already have going in the living room), and used spray adhesive to stick the two mattresses together. (Had to do that part, because they are thin, cheap foam mattresses. One would not be comfortable. That would be why they live in the basement.)

I covered the foam in muslin. This makes a nice, firm, smooth cushion. Keeps everything together. And when you take the cover off, you don't have exposed foam for the children to peck at and decimate during the dry cycle. Total sanity saver.

Dry fit one. last. time. (Probably not a necessary step if you measure, to be honest.)

And... then make everybody wait for tomorrow to see the Finished Project, because the light was too bad in that room to get a decent photo by that point. Sorry.

But what about you? The weekend isn't over! Pop on over to Amy's place and join in the Weekend Warrior fun!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

And here is the mostly-finished project:

It still needs velcro closures along the top back, but I ran out of good light and so, that's where I had to stop. The kids don't seem to mind at all, though...

Sandwiched Between the Days

Well, folks, as we are motivated by urgency, I can finally say we have re-insulated the water line where it crosses the creek. This sounds great, doesn't it? Except for that bit about urgency. Yeah.

Thursday night, the low was 8 degrees. The first thing I heard that morning (around six) was Zorak announcing from the bathroom, "Bad news, sports fans." Ugh. I guessed (correctly) that didn't mean we were out of coffee. Turns out, eight degrees is cold enough that even leaving two faucets going doesn't help. Gah.

Since the weather wasn't looking to go above freezing anytime in the next two days (it had warmed up to a sultry nine degrees by seven-thirty), he stayed home that morning, we relegated the children to the wolves that raise all children-who-live-in-renovations, and we went about fixing the pipe.

We couldn't use flame to thaw the pipe because it's PVC. So we took the stockpot down to the creek and filled it with water. (Yay for the creek!) Then we boiled the water (yay for the camp stove!), cut an old towel into strips (yay for the rag bin!), and proceeded to strip the old insulation away from the pipe (boo-hiss for whoever insulated it that way to begin with).

Then it was just a matter of dipping and wrapping the towels around the pipe, refreshing each towel as it cooled. That took quite a while, but it worked beautifully as we went up and then over the creek. It was at that joint leading downward that we ran into a little glitch.

The pipe popped right out of the joint! It fell into the creek, and immediately cleared itself of residual ice, along with a few gallons of water, until we could find the key and turn off the water at the meter. Ah. Lovely. Turns out, it was never glued in. Well, not only was the pipe not cut at right angles, nor did it run at right angles, but it was jammed into 90-degree fittings and just sort of held there by a mixture of God and gravity.

It's not like whoever did this didn't know you should glue the pipe joints in a pressurized line together, as the various bits of wildly different lengths that were all stubbed together at random points were glued (though not w/ PVC glue - not sure what that was all about). It reminded both of us of Cinderhenge, in the Scary Room (the cinderblock pillars stretching up to nothingness, spread out through that room).

By then, it had warmed up to a balmy 19 degrees, and we figured we might as well put it back together properly. OK, Zorak figured we should put it back properly. I was all for just slapping it back in for now and thawing ourselves a bit before the frostbite set in. But for all my bellyaching, he was the one standing in the creek (the makeshift bridge kept giving way, and he finally just quit trying), and he wasn't wearing gloves (once they got wet, they were useless, anyway)... and HE wasn't complaining. So. Fine. We fixed it.

One trip to the basement for pipe and a hacksaw; one trip to the feed store for fittings and fresh glue; a whole lot of self-deprecation on my part for being such a total weenie when he's so stinkin' tough... and it's back together, with everything that goes into a 90-degree fitting actually running at a 90-degree angle, better insulated, and - most importantly - no longer frozen. Yay.

That set us back considerably on our weekend plans, but it was worth it. We have water. Yay.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Project Overview and Fun Winter Days

Zorak took pity on the children after watching them play with the wagon remnants for a few months. They just couldn't accept that it had died. (Is there anything more pathetic than seeing a child stand in the bed of a wagon with no wheels, waiting for a sibling to come pull the wagon?) A few metal straps, some new bolts, and a can of Rust-Oleum later...

...and another generation of children will know the joy of riding Calvinesquely down the hill.

We've also finished the linen cabinet door, Smidge's bed, another coat rack/bookshelf, and some other project I know I'm forgetting. But my camera has cried Uncle! and needs some TLC. Unfortunately, TLC for a digital camera runs almost enough-to-make-you-want-a-new-camera-instead. But not quite, as it turns out, once you start pricing replacement cameras. So. Pictures lately haven't turned out well enough for Project Blogging.

Outdoor shots seem to be least affected. Which is why I bring you Charge of the Light Brigade, recast starring Smidge... (I missed the charge up the hill with his sword drawn - too funny, that one is.)

And, true to our Apathetically Organic label (or, it would be a label, if KathyJo would quit gasping in horror at the thought of being Organic out of sheer laziness and make me one)... *edited to add - we're lazy. She's not. She works hard. We just don't, really.*

ANYway, we've been working on the land a bit, too.

What? That doesn't look like farming to you? It's, um, it's a tension resistance test. Very important for those... I don't know what that is. Maybe it's a Dogwood? I'll tell you in May, when it blooms. OK, actually, we were flying gliders and one got caught in the tree. So James retrieved it. And what's more fun than shaking the tree your brother is in? I don't know. Looks mighty fun from John's perspective, though. (And yes, I know he's barefooted. I figured if he fell from the scrawniest tree on the entire property and actually broke something, shoes would be the least of our concerns.)

Oh! Oh, now I remember the other project. But we didn't finish it. We began it today. We're clearing rubbish from the Scary Room so that we can build a storage pantry back there. That'll free up the actual basement-y area to be completed. Then we'll have a family room. Or a room I can escape to, where I can hide snacks. And books. And perhaps a coffee pot and a mini-fridge...

Busy season!
Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Oh, my.

Well, we are home. Three of the five were sick, starting Thursday morning and continuing into Saturday evening. We had a lovely time, illnesses aside. Still, it felt good to pull into the drive. No matter how much you love someone, it's just never comfortable to throw up at their house, is it?

Today, Zorak got hit with something nasty. We'll call it the Productivity Bug. Urngh. He'd been coming down with it earlier, but I didn't realize just how bad it would be. When we hinted to the boys that we had some work to do when we got home, I jokingly told them we were switching to a 12-hour school day. Ha. That would've been a breeze, in retrospect. But really, I've nothing to complain about. We accomplished quite a bit, and are back on high-octane fuel around the Forever Home.

The boys helped Zorak work in the basement. That seemed to movitate everybody on some level. (James said he's just so thankful we aren't doing the 12-hour school day, he'll work as much as we need him to!) The basement is once again functional. The Mistress has been evicted. (She's living in the carport now. Yay!) Tools are back in their proper homes. Trash is in the trash bin. Recycling is... well, it only made it to the carport. But that's out of the basement, so I am a happy camper. The boys split and stacked wood, ran errands, and in general really pitched in beautifully. I cleaned, culled, and sorted. Swept, swept, and culled some more.

Zorak helped me get the door to the linen closet built. This is one of those projects where he isn't convinced it's going to work, but he goes along with it because he loves me. (That, and because he knows that without his input, I'll do it anyway, and someone may end up impaled by the fallout of a failed joint.) He made do with my not-so-precise directions, though, and went along with the crazy scheme. I guess I could have done it, but he doesn't take pictures and I wanted to document the process, in case it worked. I'll get it painted tomorrow and he'll pick up some dodads and then I'll post the pics when we've got it hung. Or when we decide to scrap it and start over.

I culled and re-organized Em's room. Then Zorak moved the crib in there. It is, once again, "The Nursery" - and now EmBaby gets to learn how to s-h-a-r-e a room with somebody. She's lucky it's just Jase. He's the most easygoing of her brothers. But we do think the new arrangements will work well for a while.

And THAT (*trumpets blare from offscreen*) frees up the guest room/nursery/library for the pending transformation into a playroom, complete with toy bins, books, puzzles and a puzzle table, comfy chairs, music, and whatever else they decide to put into the room. We'll work this week to clean it out, empty the closet, and get things lined up so that this weekend we can lay carpet and baseboard and then furnish it with the kids' things.

Hopefully at some point, we'll break out the Christmas decorations. Maybe we'll even get around to hanging pictures on the wall this month!! (What? It's only been three years. Like y'all haven't ever taken that long to get around to unpacking... *grin*)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Getting Comfy

They never had dentists like this when I was a kid... The dentist is so good that I would take the kids to him even if his office was in an abandoned basement from the Inquisition, to be honest. But the added perks, and the psychological benefit they provide, are definitely worth whatever this man wants to charge.

There are TVs mounted on the ceiling, and the kids can watch anything they want. There's always a movie playing. James got to watch The Price is Right while they worked on him. Plus, it's so cheerful and friendly. The whole tone of the office is that this is a great place to be. They even allow siblings (or maybe it's just our kids who do this - but the staff allows it) to come hang out with the one being treated...

They refer to the nose piece as "Mr. Nose". Em didn't have a visit today, so she stole John's and headed back to hang with Smidge. As an aside, does he look like a child who is about to have two huge cavities filled? No. Or, at least that's not what I looked like in that position. Not thirty years ago. Not last month.

Anyway, she tried something different...

...but that didn't work, either. And then, she found The Sweet Spot.

This is where she remained until someone brought her a blown up glove...

Kiss those babies!
~Dy