Thursday, May 31, 2007

An overall pretty good day

At only 2:30 in the afternoon, I'm inclined to say it's been a pretty good day today. Actually one of those days where you stop the thoughts you're having and a new one pops in ... "Wow, this is really nice, just being" ... and then jump back on the original thoughts you were having.

We got up this morning and couldn't have breakfast because we finished the milk at dinner last night, so we improvised and had cheerios and raisins, then some applesauce and sliced peaches. Pretty healthy, at least it wasn't jelly beans.

Went to the bank, paid our property taxes. That's not so fun ... The second payment isn't due until September 1st.

Then to the other bank for a deposit. The kids got suckers at this one. She even gave us the same flavor ... she's probably a parent.

Then to get Q's haircut. He actually likes going and getting to sit in the big chair for this ... and now I have my handsome boy back ... not so shaggy now.

Then to Hobby Lobby. I really like this store, and I like their philosophy - closed on Sunday for family, friends and worship. Too bad more businesses couldn't be like this. I picked up the fabric for my nieces tote bag for her birthday next Sunday.

After that we walked down to PetSmart (this is when I had my thought) to see the puppies and turtles. I don't know what they fed them, but they were all in rare form this morning ... lots of playing through the glass today. We were all sad when we left, especially the kids since they are really in Puppy Mode. If only their Dad and I could agree on what we want in a dog.

Then to Oberweis for milk. We love their milk, even if it is crazily expensive.

Then home, only to turn around again and go out for pizza for lunch. I do admit to calling it in though, so our wait in the restaurant wouldn't be too long. I was pressing my luck taking them for lunch at 12:30 ... they were already hungry, and I didn't know how they would handle the wait. Maybe I don't give them enough credit, I don't know. But, they were great in the restaurant. Q ate five pieces of pizza, The Bee ate one. We brought the rest home. I normally balk at the idea of spending $25 on lunch, but you know what, I'm tired of that. That's not to say I'm going to do it daily or even weekly. I don't care if I can feed us lunch for two weeks on $25 ... we had pizza today and we had fun.

The Bee is sleeping now, and Q is playing Putt Putt on the computer. We actually just came in from outside, playing in the rain. We found our umbrellas and took a walk up and down the sidewalk. I haven't actually walked in the rain in a very long time ... it's usually run to the car, run to the train, run to the store ... enough running. It's water. There's no lightning, no thunder, just a nice steady rain. We had nowhere to be but in the rain.

It's nice to say yes.

Maybe we'll make it to the grocery store later, maybe we won't ... we'll see what the rest of the day brings. I hope it's as good as the first part was.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

We're halfway there!

The garden is halfway there ...

Today we finished the border, and got all the mix ins into the dirt and got tomato plants planted. Actually, it was The Husband and Q that finished the border, The Husband turned dirt, I mixed and planted. The Husband and Q also planted 24 marigolds in our (feeble) attempt to keep rabbits away. I was at the store buying dirt, mushroom compost, new hand trowels and spades, the previously mentioned tomato plants and marigolds while they were busy in the dirt.

We also uncovered a rather large ant colony, complete with lots of larve. Very interesting. Not wanted in our yard, but interesting.

So on Tuesday, the kids and I will go out and buy the rest of our pepper plants, probably at least one more tomato plant, a cherry tomato plant, some borage if I can find it, and maybe some beans. I attempted to start some of these things from seed this spring, but it didn't work. I think my watering assistants were a little too eager.

So far, I've got growing:

  • 5 tomato plants
  • 1 jalapeno plant
  • 1 red pepper plant
  • 1 zucchini plant - if this produces like everyone tells me it's going to, it will be an interesting summer, full of zukes and whatever you can make from them. I'm going to attempt to get it to grow up a trellis. My husband is already skeptical of the vines and what not.
  • 1 bay plant

I've got hopes on some pumpkins on the north side of the house, but no vines yet

Lots of cone flowers, lots of black eyed susans, and one purple poisonous aphrodisiac.

And, this afternoon, after our Build a Bear adventure at the mall with our niece, we stopped to pick up our kids at my in-laws house and I came home with probably twenty stalks of fresh rhubarb. So, after this, I'm heading back upstairs with my canning equipment and making some fresh strawberry rhubarb jam. Yum! I've already made a rumble with some of the rhubarb, I'll see how many half pints of jam I end up with. If I did this right, I could easily end up with 12 - 14 half pints of jam! Yum!

I love coming downstairs and seeing all of the things that I've made on the shelf. The colors are so pretty.

I love spring! Love it, love it, love it!

Saturday, May 26, 2007

I don't want you to rip my body off

This was what was being yelled in the bathtub earlier this week.

I gave the kids a bath, and when I was drying off Q's hair, I noticed a black something in the hair at the back of his neck. Upon closer inspection, it was a tick. Lovely. I hate ticks.

So, I yelled for The Husband, because I forgot what we're supposed to use to get a tick out, since they breathe through their butt or something like that. He said that on camping trips they would use gasoline or turpentine or something. I told him that I was not putting something flamable on my sons head. I thought that you could use nail polish to suffocate it so it would back out and go away. So, we did what everybody does, called our parents. His actually.

So, all Q hears is his Dad's side of the conversation, which is:

"So I pull the body straight out. What about his head?"

"I've got tweezers, so I just pull, right?"

"What about Vaseline?"

"Okay, we'll let you know what happens"

Q's response: "I don't want you to pull my body apart. Leave my head alone, I don't want you to rip it away."

So we had to explain how ticks work at a level that a five year old could understand, and The Husband managed to pull the body out, and I guess the head does something, I'm not sure what. I do know that once you pull a tick out of a person, their body keeps moving for a while, even if they don't have a head. Sort of like a chicken with it's head cut off theory.

The tick is currently in a small jar in the kitchen, floating in some alcohol, just in case Q ends up with a rash or a fever, or blows up like a puffer fish, I know what kind of tick it was.

And, because we put some oil on Q's head before we attempted to pull the tick out, I get to clean the bathtub of a dirty oil slick. You've gotta love sand and oil in the tub.

I will note, thought, that The Husband just straight out poured the oil on the back his neck, where I would have done it in a more controlled and not so messy fashion ... I don't know if it would have reduced the oil slick in the tub or not, but man it made a mess. Q ended up with his 2nd bath of the night after that.

The boy is clean and so is the tub.
The tick is floating.
I'm itchy just thinking about it.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Sassy

We've got a new dog. Sort of. She, Sassy, looks remarkably like my Daughter, the Bee. Imagine that.

The funny thing about Sassy is that she has this uncanny ability to change places with the Bee on less than a moments notice. If The Bee is supposed to be (or not supposed to be) doing something, it's Sassy in her place. If I need Sassy's help with something, the Bee is there. It's very strange how this works.

Even stranger is the fact that I'm talking to Sassy/the Bee about this, and going along with it. I never did this with Q, so this is entirely new to me. I've had several people tell me, "it's a girl thing".

So I guess I can say that I have one husband, two kids and a part time dog named Sassy.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

pre Mothers Day post

Tomorrow is Mother's Day ...

This is an interesting time of year for me ... I celebrate the birth of my son - his birthday was last week - and I am the parent of a 5 year old! That is another post all in itself.

There is also Mother's Day. I celebrate the joys, heartaches, frustrations, laughs, lessons, hugs, songs, kisses, stories, dirty knees, runny noses and questions that being a mother has given me.

I celebrate my Aunts. My Mother in Law. My sister. My grandmas. Myself. My Mom.

But, she's not here, with me, by my side in the physical sense, where I want her.

This is a rough week for me, it has been for a few years now.

It's hard to take the joy from what you've got when the day seems to weigh so heavily at times.

I am thankful that I had her for my first 25 years. I only wish I could have had her for 25 more.

For all the Moms out there, for all the important women in your life: hug them, thank them, love them, honor them. Contrary to the Marketing Machine, it doesn't have to be anything fancy ... just let them know that you care, that you appreciate them and that you love them.

Happy Mothers Day.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Another reason I love spring

This is the tree in our front yard.

I love it ... it blooms like this every year, and then on one good windy day, all the blooms are off and our front yard looks like it snowed again.

And it smells so good!