pickin a good one

A lot has happened in a week-ish. My brother, his girlfriend, former roommate & his girlfriend came to visit for 3 full days (2 travel days). The kids loved the extra audience, I loved having adult-type-peoples to talk to.

Adrian has 2 weeks left in school...and I am trying to figure out how to keep him just busy enough. He will be spending his first 5 days of vacation in DC with grandparents. After that we have camping, birthday parties (fiona turns 3!), and a tentative trip to the beach. Who knows.
I think we'll just roll with it. That's a good life skill, too--right?

fiona's new favorite activity: glue & glitter.
my house is sparkly!

Happy Monday After

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all!

Mine was good, how was yours?

Top 10 things about Mother's Day 2010

1. Foxgloves!

2. Hydrangea (hopefully this one will survive)

3. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (FYI: this wins over chocolate)

4. BBQ!

5. Tball meets volleyball in a bizarre combination game

6. Somebody I know & love is pregnant & I was finally allowed to share the news (it's been trying to slip out for WEEKS)

7. Handmade presents from little kids. Awesome. Every. Time.

8. Fiona getting over her fever and sleeping in!

9. Glueing & glittering with enthusiastic kids.

10. Mrs Plummers Chocolate-Pudding cake. (I think I'll invite her to EVERYTHING. That cake rocked my socks)

can anybody explain to me why a 5 year old would have 46 shirts shoved into one drawer?
(and have 10 more hanging in the closet?)

me: fiona, i am mad.
fiona: you not mad. you spicy!

Hooray for May!

We are 2 weeks from our last frost date. And my gardening pants are getting antsy!

The windows are open, and the house is filled with the smell of fresh-cut grass, spring blossoms, and vanilla crepes (our latest breakfast of choice).

I am slowly introducing the kids to french cuisine, so that when we take our trip to Paris they will be able to order food with comfort. Although I can tell you now that lapin is going to be a hard sell.

I am struggling with my own dilemma. I watched Food, Inc. and then I watched This American Life season 1, episode 6. And now I can't buy meat from the grocery store. I was in the meat aisle yesterday and I just couldn't do it. It's about more than the treatment of animals. It's about all of the chemicals that go into raising quick-sell meat. It's about the fact that homes around industrial pig farms have water that is undrinkable because it's contaminated with pig feces. It's about unethical treatment of employees by industrial food companies. So, I am in search of a halal butcher or a farmer who does it the way it has been done for centuries.

me: fiona, did you draw all over you?
fiona: yes. i've got skills!

Workin Hard

Working harder this week to keep Adrian busy enough that terrorizing his sister doesn't seem like a good way to spend his time. So far we have finger painted, dug in the dirt, and observed local wildlife (bunnies! birds!bugs!)

Any more suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

today was the kind of day that makes you want to call all your single friends & tell them not to have kids.

It's April!

And I am so FAR BEHIND on yard work it might as well be November. Also, I need a rain barrel (or 4) and it turns out the easter bunny doesn't deliver those.

The kids and I dug many many many dandelions out of the backyard this afternoon...and we still have many many to go. I just got tired of looking out the window & seeing dandelions where other things are supposed to grow. But I did notice hostas peeking up through the ground AND the daffodils have started to open. I think I am going to plant a million of them in the fall.

Also, I need to dig out last years worm bin & set up a for real compost pile.
And direct-sow my cold-weather crops. And pre-order my strawberries.

So much to do! You would thin with the kids getting up at 6, I'd be all over it.

Pictures at some point in the future.
Now bed is calling.

Updates

Fiona: got to pet a Uromastyx today. (It's a lizard from somewhere very very hot & very very dry) At one of the local pet shops there is a wall of amphibians & reptiles. We go there frequently to admire all the animals. I took Fion today while Adrian was at school. We didnt see the lizard who is usually doing all kinds of attempting to escape, so we figured he was gone. But no! The friendly pet-store-lady fished him out of his hiding place & let Fiona pet him. And then there were introductions: Hi uromastyx, I'm Fiona and this is my brother Mommy. (Everyone is Fiona's brother. Her actual brother, the cats, the dog, the birds that nest in our yard)

Adrian: has been spending A LOT of time in the time out spot. I can't decide if he's just not listening, or if he is listening and choosing to ignore me. Either way it's infuriating. When he is behaving he's a regular Prince Charming. He starts T Ball on Thursday. And they are required to wear protective gear. Where am I supposed to find a cup for a 40 pound 5 year old? I already told Aaron he has to be the one to explain how to put the thing on.

Me: The antibiotics seem to have worked (hurrah!). I have a follow-up appointment on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to getting the go-ahead to resume regular activity so I can get out into the garden and walk the dog.

Round 2 of antibiotics for pneumonia, as round 1 didn't work. I feel like a science experiment.

fuuuuuh.

It's kinda like being hit in the face with a porcupine...

I got a call from the doctor's office today. The radiologist finally got around to looking at my chest x-rays and hey! I have pneumonia. Back to the doctors on Monday. With another co-pay.

Aaron found out that his gracious employers might be cutting his salary by 15%. If that happens, we'll have to sell the house...

but we can't do that because the upstairs bathtub has drainage problems that include water running down the wall of the bathroom below. And our newly installed roof in the upstairs bath seems to be leaking.

The glory of antibiotics!

Hello!

I am back (mostly) to the land of the living. The past 15 days, I have been brewing a nasty case of bronchitis! I saw the doctor! I had to have chest x rays! (And who doesn't love a big ol' dose of radiation when they are ill?) The good news: It's not pneumonia! The bad news: It's bronchitis!
I exit with a steroid-based inhaler, a prescription for antibiotics, and the desire for a nap.

I am on the mend, and don't sound so much like a phlegm factory. In my downtime, I haven't really kept up with the laundry (just doing enough to get by--underwear? who needs it?!). And wouldn't ya know it? The snow has melted, the weather is warming, and my yard & garden beds need some serious tending to. And the dog needs to be walked. And my mom is coming for a visit in 5 days.

I am trying not to fret over that and instead enjoy getting better.
With that may come more blogging, but I promise nothing!

Good times...mostly

A Fiona update!
Anybody who knows me well knows I have a million nicknames for my kids. Lately, Fiona has taken objection to all of them. It goes like this:
Me: Good Morning, sunshine!
Fiona: I'm not Sunshine, I'm Fiona!
or
Me: Hello, my love!
Fiona: I'm not a wove, I'm Fiona!
(repeat, ad nauseum)
But she's always so cheerful about it, I don't mind much....
The other one, however, has been carrying around his own cloud of doom & gloom. Last week he was off sick and sprang a wicked case of hives one night. And in the midst of his sickness, he completely forgot his manners, or how to talk to people.
He wasn't poor, pitiful Adrian, he was mean & ugly Adrian. It didn't endear me much to him, and put a damper on any sympathy we had for his hideous cough.
Today he is no longer sick, but the nastiness remains. In the course of this morning he has been banished to solitude twice for being awful.
Aaron keeps reminding me that he will be going to school this afternoon, but all I can do is worry about sending the beast into a classroom of 4 & 5 year olds....
Is this just a phase? Or is this hideous behavior Adrian-specific?

The strangest girl

I thought that I would forever be the strangest girl wherever I lived...however my beloved Fiona is making strides to best me even before she turns 3.

Tonight we were waiting for our potatoes to finish baking so we could sit down to dinner and I asked her if she wanted some bread or some chicken.
Her reply?
"No thanks. I want broccoli!"

How you know...

How you know when the sick day is over:

Adrian: I want to watch Dirty Jobs!

Me: Ok. But first you're going to eat some chicken soup.

Adrian: What? Why?!

(note that all of adrian's communications are at MAXIMUM VOLUME. Sore throat? I think not.)

it is negative 7 degrees with the wind chill. without the wind it is a balmy 9 degrees. ferenheit.
I HATE YOU, OLD MAN WINTER!

Busy little bees are we...

So I missed posting last week. Could have been that every time I went to sit at the computer I had 2 kids at my side with a whole list of "Mom can I...", could have been that I needed a week to recover from a VERY LONG 4 day weekend. Could just have been that I forgot.
I honestly don't remember much these days....
But I do know that our time has been filled with dress-up, art projects, books, and as much silliness as a body can handle. Because if you are going to get a little cabin fever, it's best to get the silly kind. The best-loved silliness here goes like this:
Me: (sneeze!)
(look around until I catch eye contact from one of the kids)
Was that you?!

That is the funniest thing EVER, according to our resident 5 year old.

Anywho, I'm off to do my 1 hour of art for the day. Enjoy the pics.

This was 2 weeks ago. Today we hit 43 degrees and are currently enjoying a light drizzle. I am considering breaking out the short sleeves & having a hula party.

Turning a corner

Maybe it was just openly admitting a case of the blahs, or maybe it's that Adrian craves to know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING but I have gone and decided to make the best of the next 10 weeks of winter. (10 weeks--gag!)
Thus far we have

1. Created a question box. In it, we put questions he has that I don't have answers to. (Currently I need someone who knows about porcupines and someone who knows about bees--Nessa I'm looking at you)

2. Caught snowflakes on black paper & examined them w/a magnifying glass. (EVERY household should have a magnifying glass)

3. Tonight we are timing how long it takes for ice to form outside (it's 22 degrees). We also put animal-shaped cookie cutters into the tray of water--I'll let you know how that pans out.

4. Looked up craft projects for later. I reeeeally need to restock the kids craft bin. We are all out of pipe cleaners, pom poms, and googly eyes. I learned that with wax paperas a non-stick surface you can make a whole mess of stuff out of stuff from your kitchen.

5. This coming weekend is a 4 day weekend for Adrian. I thought we could get crafty, get cozy, and learn a little bit about Martin Luther King, Jr. And if I can get Fiona into snowpants (or newspaper bags) we can go out into the yard and make some snow sculptures. Our current accumulation is about 6 inches (measuring will come later)