The Daily Spawn

I Dropped the Ball Before the Ball Dropped

2012-01-09T15:37:00.006-05:00

Yeah, I know, I was going to keep track of the kids' winter break here and I didn't. So sue me. Here's a couple fun photos from Christmas morning, though! We had a wonderful Christmas. It's always fun to have far-away family visit, and we encourage all of you to do just that - as often as you possibly can. That having been said, Christmas with just the 4 of us was mindblowingly nice. We were up at 6ish, well before the sun, and then it turned out that the sun wasn't planning to get up at all. It rained and rained and rained all day. We reveled in it! Sarah asked if we could wear our pajamas all day and we enthusiastically declared that we most certainly could and then went right ahead and did exactly that.

Santa brought each girl a My Twinn doll, and they fit into the household right away, especially that day, because we were all lounging about, only bending our arms and legs when someone positioned them for us. It was, as expected, really fun to watch them open those gifts. Big smiles! Kate changed the name of her doll at least 4 times in the first 2 days. I think she's currently named Chloe. Sarah named hers Sophia. We did not photograph the girls opening all the wonderful gifts everyone sent to them, but know this - they loved the goods. They were sugared up and from the word go, when they pounced on their stockings, which contained plenty of crappy chocolate, and ate most of their contents before Jeremiah and I had filled our coffee cups the first time. After that, it was a lovefest for every item they opened. So, if you sent them something this holiday season, I can assure you they said "I love it!" with house-shaking gusto upon unwrapping it.Christmas dinner was cooked in the crockpot. We spent the day chatting with loved ones via phone, eating everything in sight, and reading all our new books. Writing about it now, I'm wishing I could have that day again. Ah, yes, good stuff. The pets had a nice day, too, because there was a lot of lap-sitting opportunities for them throughout the day. I hope everyone's Christmas was at least as relaxing and snuggly.

Winter Break Adventures, Thus Far

2011-12-24T17:34:00.012-05:00

We've been very busy this week. There's been baking, shopping, walking around, playing at the park, ice skating, fist fighting, gift-giving, more baking and lots and lots of rain. Somehow I failed to capture our Winter Solstice celebration in photographs of any kind this year. It was lovely, though that day was very rainy, too. Here are some photos of other highlights from our week, for your viewing pleasure.
First, we baked for our neighbors, Steve and Joy and the mailman. The girls especially enjoyed making Oreos, but deserted me while I was making the sugared cranberries.

After all the baking we needed to get outdoors. It was my intention to make them walk into downtown Decatur (their exhaustion being my key goal) but we only got as far as McKoy Park, which is about 1/10 the distance. They then whined the entire, oh, I don't know, maybe half a mile, to Aunt Jo Jo's, then Aunt Jo Jo took them to Target. It's the hard knock life for them.

Then came the rain. We lasted all day Tuesday without much complaint, but when it hadn't even let up on Wednesday, we had some issues. I cheerfully forced them to make homemade puff paint with me. It turns out the fun of making homemade puff paint is in the making, not so much in the painting. Then, concerned that their little bodies had been mostly inert for nearly 2 days, I convinced them to play hide and seek, and was sure to add that the seeker must tag the hider upon finding her, before she can make it to base. This went well for a bit, but ultimately led to a knock-down fight. I was surprised. I opted to photograph the event rather than intervene and, happily, it worked itself out. Then we had homemade hot cocoa and marshmallows (yes, I made marshmallows too. It's fun!) and read Christmas stories by the Solstice tree.

I just thought this was cute.

When Aunt Jo Jo took the girls to Target, they got packets of facial masques from the $1 bins. So, we had to have a spa afternoon. Sarah went for the traditional green mud while Kate opted for the cucumber peel-off masque. She liked how gross the peeling off part looked.

On the Solstice, while the sky continued to weep and the temperature felt nothing like winter, we headed to the Rink at Park Tavern, where we met up with my friend Laura, who'd trekked to these parts with her family all the way from Paris, France, for a bit of ice skating and (more) hot chocolate. Laura's oldest, Irene, is Kate's age. Of course, all they really know about each other is that their moms are friends, but Kate and Irene skated together for nearly the full 2-hour session. Sarah, who started the session so terrified of skating she wouldn't let go of the wall and started to panic when she realized she's inched her way an uncomfortable distance away from the rink's exit, finished the day by dismissing me as her partner (a wise choice, really) and was merrily skating around in circles, not even touching the wall, by the time we had to turn in our skates. The whole thing wore the girls out so completely, they insisted on being carried to the car. Smashing success, and it's always a delight to see Laura and her peeps.

At long last, Christmas is upon us! It's Christmas Eve and since I knew what Aunt Jude and Uncle Kevin sent the girls, I allowed them to open that gift today. Now, they are the proud owners of a cookie decorating kit, food coloring and a book of fun cupcake (for later) ideas. We commenced ta' decoratin'. The kids consumed SO much sugar, I made them take a walk around the neighborhood with me immediately after the mayhem. They look kind of calm in these photos. They were not calm. They have not been calm all day. Who can blame them? We've been watching Santa's progress (thank-you Google Earth!) and he'll be here very soon. I can't wait! Now, I must wrap this up, because we have to eat dinner, so we can get on to sipping eggnog by the fireplace and reading Christmas stories, per Sarah's request.

The Goose is Getting Fat (I MIGHT be the Goose...)

2011-12-18T09:45:00.014-05:00

Apparently the best way to become unbelievably busy is to take a full month off from working. My days still begin around 5AM, and I haven't even taken a single nap. I really thought there would be some napping. So, all the house de-cluttering, Christmas-preparing, new website content researching and general errand-running have kept me from updating the blog. I shall attempt to catch you up on the the exciting lives of Kate and Sarah. Today, we will go waaaaaaay back to two days after Thanksgiving, when we took a scenic train ride on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway's Santa Train.

Grandma Provost contracted a rhino virus just before we were scheduled to head to the train, so she stayed home an knitted (like a proper grandmother) while we headed to the north Georgia mountains to meet the Grinch, Santa, Mrs. Claus, Rudolph, Frosty and some elves. I highly recommend this sort of thing to anyone with wee children. Dare I use the word "enchanting"? I dare. We sang carols and Santa paid a visit to each child, instead of all the kids having to wait in a longass line. The elves passed out jingle bells and candy canes and there was much drinking of hot cocoa.

After the train ride, we headed into downtown Blue Ridge for some grub. It's a cute little town center; the place was jam packed with revelers. We thought the kids would we tired enough to pass out during the long drive home, but sometimes you just don't get lucky.

Humming Supertramp's Dreamer

2011-12-02T19:27:00.002-05:00

After nearly a decade with my company, I left today for the last time. My co-workers, evidently hell-bent on making me cry, made me feel thoroughly loved and appreciated. It was horrible. Here I am, taking a big leap away from the world that feels all secure and predictable, and these people don't even have the decency to give me the cold shoulder and ignore me, so that leaving will be fun.

Indeed, instead, they took me out for a happy hour on Wednesday evening that lasted 5 hours, and they all asked me questions about Reiki, and listened, seemingly interested, to what I'll be doing, and were encouraging and wished me well and told me they'll miss me. Dreadful, with all the hugs and requests for my new business card and a going away card signed by my whole department and accompanied by a bottle of Shiraz that I'm drinking as I write this.

Then, today, I arrived to find a delightful card on my desk with a big magnet stating "Now is the Right Time", then there were those who stopped by to tell me good-bye and wish me well, some with gifts. Actual gifts! Oh, and the emails...and the IM's...I have to say I held up admirably but things started to go south in my final hour. I finally worked my way through, and deleted, every email in my inbox and when, for the first time in 9 and 1/2 years the inbox blinked at me, with nothing in it but a message "No messages to display", I felt a small knot form in my stomach. Then, when the time came to close everything down, and I had to take my laptop to Ivan, and Ivan hugged me and wished me the best, yes then, I pretty much lost it. I would liked to have stayed to give all my beloved IT'ers a proper farewell, but I was on the verge of blubbering so I sort of...ran away.

I thought I'd gathered my wits by the time I had my jacket on and my bag slung over my shoulder, but then I had to hand my keycard to Glynnis, and say good-bye to all the women in my department (it's not sexist, there aren't any men in there, which also isn't sexist, it just happened that way), and there was really no avoiding full-on tears.

I was forced to get things under control in the car when I realized there was truly nothing in there on which I could blow my nose. Then, when I got home, I found a card on the kitchen table from Steve & Joy, and it contained a gift card for 10 lattes at our neighborhood coffee shop. Then, when I stepped out onto the front porch, I found a bottle of wine from Stephanie, waiting there for me! Of course all these people are late-comers, as Rusty and Jen brought me a stylin' lunch box (since I'll be bringing my lunch to work most days, of course) at the beginning of the month, when I first turned in my notice.

So let's see, what have we learned? So far, I'd say it's pretty amazing, and annoyingly tear-jerking, how very sincerely people want to see the dreams of another come true. I think this is because, at the core of us, we recognize our essential connection to one another, and we all have to admit that too many of us while away our precious hours engaged in activities that don't make us feel happy. When we see one of us insisting upon doing mainly what does make us happy, the general happiness level goes up, and all the boats rise with that tide. Also, people are genuinely kind and supportive and that gets me choked up, too, but in a happy way, so I suppose it's alright. I'm feeling pretty good right now, sipping on my gifted wine. We'll see how things are when I wake up on Monday, and don't go to my office.

Sassy New Do's!

2011-11-20T18:14:00.004-05:00

Jeremiah's hair is unchanged, but he has grown a full beard this autumn. So there's that.

Finally Taking Devo's Advice

2011-11-04T13:41:00.004-04:00

In June of last year, I was attuned to Reiki (I & II). I made mention of it in some post around here, but I don't have the patience to find it and reference it now. I did it because it seemed fun, and because Ellen had caused the tenacious, painful, itchy eczema that had been on my hands for a full 9 months to go away completely by giving me 2 5-minute hand-specific Reiki sessions. I figured I could use it on friends and family. So I went to this guy, and had an amazing day of study/attuning. I came home that night and gave everyone in the house (including the animals) Reiki.

Shortly after my attunements, I began to feel like I was meant to be doing it; there was a not-so-gentle tugging to make it my occupation. I found that annoying and unrealistic. Most people I know don't even know what Reiki is, how was I supposed to just drop everything I was doing and start earning a living off it? Besides, it's so easy, how could I charge for it? Still, I quickly became obsessed with the topic of energy, the human energy field, quantum physics, the meaning and power of symbols (Reiki uses symbols), and so on. I don't know how long it's been since I've read a work of fiction; it's like a sickness.

I went on with my real life, but the universe refused to leave me alone about the Reiki thing. One day, a few weeks after my attunements, I was heading into the house through the garden, carrying some groceries. A female robin literally dropped out of the sky in front of me, and began a frenetic zig zag all over the garden, trying to fly, hitting something, falling to the ground. I heard myself gasp "Oh no!" like I was freaking Snow White and I hurried to put down my bags. I cautiously stalked the injured bird around the garden until she became paralyzed with fear, and I could reach out to her. Her head was bent to one side, like she'd dislocated her...neck, I don't know. I cupped my hands over her and gave her Reiki for a couple minutes, she even let me touch her wings just a little. When I felt like she'd calmed down enough, I attempted to move out of the painful position into which I'd twisted myself while trying to reach her. As soon as I lifted my hands so I could move, she took off, and flew across my neighbors' yard as if she'd never been hurt. I watched to see if she'd crash into a tree or their shed, but no, she was airborne. I stood there, alone in my garden, ice cream melting in my shopping bag, jaw agape. I resigned myself to at least going back to get my master Reiki attunement, and to my delight, the universe let up on me a bit.

It took a year, but last June I went to this chick (I just wanted to change it up a bit) and officially became a Reiki master. That was a lot of fun, but then the tug to do it all the time became something more like a violent shove. I'd been thinking I couldn't leave my job, couldn't make this my own thing, couldn't couldn't couldn't...but then, I thought, if I wanted to, why didn't I? My job, for me, isn't fun anymore, and Reiki is. What is wrong with me that I would think I have to do the thing I don't like? I decided Devo was right. Freedom of choice is what I have.

I had no idea how I was going to go about it, but I did know I needed a different job, as mine couldn't be done part-time, and I really, really didn't want to commute anymore. So I decided what elements I wanted in a new job, that would allow me to moonlight as a Reiki practitioner, and I wrote those things on post-it's which I placed in key locations around the house. They said:

More money

Bike/walk to work

Great environment

Quit (my current job) by 11/16

December off

What the heck, I figured, since I was asking, I should include everything. So each time one of the post-it's came into view, I would pause and read the whole thing.

A couple weeks after I put the post-its up, I was working from home, and had some cause to be adjusted. Since she was so close (a mile from the house), I called my chiropractor to see if she could fit me in during my lunch break, which she did. When I went in, she pulled me aside before my adjustment and said something along the lines of "I am at the point at which I really need someone to manage this office [it's grown a lot in the past 2 years]. I wondered if you'd have any interest...? It would include a free place to practice Reiki, but I won't have this position ready until the beginning of the year."

Sooooo...long story short, after some intensive budget review, I took it. Part time. And I'm taking December off. It's not more money right off the bat (oh, how it's not) but my thinking is that I am now embarking upon a journey with uncapped potential, whereas, if I'd stayed at my old reliable job, I would most likely never have made any huge leaps in my standard of living. So, it's a bit scary, but also exciting, and I am happy. I am really going to like being happy.

Sarah, the Love Fairy

2011-11-03T10:56:00.002-04:00

Found this on my pillow when I got home last night:

Catty Girls

2011-11-03T06:25:00.003-04:00

This was Halloween! As has become tradition for us, mad props to Aunt Jo Jo for the costumes! Not pictured are the black press-on nails she also supplied.

At the Garden

2011-10-23T20:04:00.005-04:00

The Atlanta Botanical Garden was celebrating autumn in a big way yesterday. They had pony rides, a parade of costumed children, scarecrows of various makes and models and cotton candy. While I was up in Marietta doing a Reiki session, Jeremiah and the girls partook in all this gaiety. He very kindly took ample photographs, so I could feel like I was there. So, here you go! Sunday at the ABG -

Another Reason to Throw Down

2011-10-22T21:37:00.009-04:00

Sarah wrote that note herself. She's getting pretty good at sounding out her words, plus, a few of those are sight words. I don't know why she stuck it to her face. I don't know what came over me, but the girls asked if they could have a Halloween party this year, and I said yes. I immediately began thinking of Halloween-themed foods I could serve. It's always about food. So anyway, today we partied. The girls helped me a bit. Sarah even vacuumed. Kate refused. I made scary ghosts (which also sort of looked like Klansman, but those are scary too, so I was alright with that), spiders (not shown for some reason), a pumpkin-shaped cheese ball, monster cupcakes, and mummified hotdogs, which are also not pictured, which makes me sad, because they were really cute. Jeremiah made chili for the grown-ups. Joy made guacamole because before they left town for the weekend, Brendan gave her 9 avocados. See that green icing on the monster cupcake? Made with avocados.

The kids painted their own coffins, enjoyed temporary vampire fangs, ate a lot of sugar, and bobbed for apples. There were only a few kids here, but they made an amazing mess, and a surprising amount of noise - so I consider the evening a huge success! We couldn't forget the camera, since we were at home, but did forget about the camera a lot, so this is only partially documented. We're missing entire people here. Still, you get the idea...

No one was instructed to give me the thumbs up, but I guess everyone really wanted the camera to know all was well.

Fresh Air, A Billion Stars and Two Billion Daddly Longlegs

2011-10-18T06:44:00.011-04:00

Our camping trip survival rate was 100%! Remember how I was so excited about car camping that I opted to bring everything? Cast iron reversible griddle? Don't mind if I do... We arrived at our campsite (very late, which I will passive-aggressively mention here, in reference to why we didn't make the hike up the falls), only to discover what the map of the campground really doesn't show - topography. We parked in our allotted spot, then we trekked up and down a daunting cliff to our designated site. The good news is, we can now crush our enemies to death using only our calves. And maybe by wielding a cast iron reversible griddle. The two powers together would be unstoppable. Here's what it looked like, walking down that hill:

But then, the payoff!

We were right on a point, and there was a nice-sized beach we could walk along, to take in the views along the lake. The girls couldn't wait to wade in and get their only clothes soaking wet just in time for the temperature to drop to right about hypothermia-degrees Fahrenheit.

They were so happy, though, we decided to risk death and let them frolic. We skipped some stones; it was a shale beach, so there was more than enough stone-skipping fodder to be had by all. I used to be pretty bad at this feat, but things were going pretty well for me that windy Saturday afternoon. Every time I managed to get a rock to make a few hops across the water, no one was watching. So finally I took the kids' approach and demanded Jeremiah's attention. I had a sweet stone, it was going to go clear across to the next outcropping. I took my stance, stretched my arm behind me, wrist ready to flick, then went for it, failing to release the rock at all, until it was much too late, and instead hit myself (with impressive velocity and precision) in the other hand. The bruise didn't even surface until Monday evening. Jeremiah was impressed, of course. I was really glad that was the one everyone got to see.

While we awaited the arrival of our friends, we located a wonderful campfire ring, right on the very tip of the point. Since our tent didn't fit on the nice tent-pitching spot, we'd had to set it up directly next to our site's little fire pit. It was pretty windy, so the campfire ring seemed like a better spot for flames and kumbaya'ing. I am much better at building campfires than I am at skipping stones.

Once everyone arrived (I have no pictures of our group because I was using my phone, and it was dying), we cooked a delicious dinner, then set to work on s'mores straight-away. The children ran through the woods with their glo-stick axes (compliments of Aunt Jo Jo) screaming at the tops of their lungs for what must've been 4 days straight. We did finally get them all into bed, cozied up with their glowing axes and dreaming of roasted marshmallows. We went to the beach and our friend Jerry set up his telescope so we could see that Carl Sagan was right, there truly are billions and billions of stars. It was cool, but also cold, and I had to go crawl into my own bed shortly after looking at moon craters.

The next morning, we made pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs and coffee and ate like kings while packing out all our stuff. Up the hill...with the cast iron skillet and all the other stuff. Up and down, up and down. Then, we headed to the apple orchard. It's an apple-pickin' jubilee, y'all! We saw contra dancing (I thought this would have something to do with Nicaraguan rebels, but I quickly saw I was either mistaken about the dancing, or about Nicaraguan rebels), picked some apples, slid down a 50-foot slide that looked as though it had been constructed by frat boys on a jello-shooter bender, ate some grease, milked the cow and jumped on the jumpy-thing until Kate melted down and we agreed we were getting all funned-out.

At last, it was time to home. We settled into the car with our peck of apples, 1/2 gallon of cider and collective stink and pointed ourselves toward Atlanta. It was a beautiful ride home through the mountains, but the girls didn't notice.

To the Woods!

2011-10-09T09:33:00.004-04:00

Next weekend, we are going camping. This will be the girls' first camp-out. I am very excited. We're heading up to Carter Lake on Saturday morning, where we will engage in the first bit of car-camping I've done in years. I'm used to backpacking. I love backpacking, but the mindset is different. When I'm going backpacking, I throw everything I want to take into a big pile, then cull the herd based on weight and collapsability and absolute necessity. But for this trip, we'll be right next to the car. I'm bringing everything.

We only have our little 3-person tent, so, after deciding that renting from REI wasn't all that, we found ourselves the perfect family-sized tent. It arrived in the mail yesterday. It's this tent. I was in the middle of doing several other things, but I stopped everything when the box arrived, and I set the tent up in the living room. Well, sort of. It's a 3-room tent. I was able to set the main part up, but the thing is larger than our living room. I am giddy. I left the tent up because I thought the girls might want to sleep in it last night.

Not only did they sleep in it, they slept in later than they ever do. That would've been awesome, except I was up at 6 for a bike ride. Too bad they didn't get to sleep in the tent Friday night. I rolled the thing back up this morning, and the pets were very, very sad to see it go. Rex the cat kept diving into the folds. He might still be in there now, come to think of it. I haven't seen him in awhile...

Anniversary Weekend

2011-09-28T08:35:00.013-04:00

We ditched the kids again. This time only for 2 nights. For our anniversary this year, we rented a little cabin just outside of Helen, GA, in the North Georgia mountains. It. Was. Awesome. Perfect weather, wonderful cabin, plenty of good food and wine, kidless time...aaaaaaaahhhhhh.

We forgot our camera again. I don't know what's wrong with us. I have a few shots from my phone I'll share here, but when I bemoaned the lack of camera Jeremiah said "good, I don't want to post a bunch of pictures of this place and then, when we go to rent it again, find out I've been cock-blocked by one of my friends".

We had a nice drive up Friday afternoon, and when we arrived, and took a moment to get our breath back upon seeing the view, we became reasonably sure that it was, indeed, an eagle we saw swooping around in the distance. I always think it's really a turkey buzzard or vulture, but I've seen those things in flight...pretty sure that was an eagle. The cabin faces due east, with an entire wall of windows that look out over the mountains. There's a hottub out on the deck, there, and we sat in it and drank wine while we stargazed. On the second evening, we watched Jupiter rise over the mountain. The moon, nearly new, made its appearance in the wee hours of the morning, and when we awoke, without even getting out of bed, we had a perfect view of the sliver of moon remaining, while the sky was all purple and star-filled.

Saturday morning, as we prepared to take a short hike, we got to watch 4, no 5, no 6 hawks downright frolicking just above the cabin's roof. They were circling at various altitudes above us, allowing us to just hang out and watch. Then we saw a bluetailed skink on the front wall of the cabin. Lots of little lizards out there, too.

We spent some time in Helen, which, if you're not familiar, is a funny little town. Originally a mill town, things started to go south when all the trees had been cut down (they're back), so a few guys got together and made themselves a tourist attraction out of their town. It's a little German village that sort of looks like the ski resort in Hottub Time Machine. There is, indeed, some very cool stuff there - a great country store called Betty's, an outdoor adventure company that does tubing on the Chattahoochee River, a wonderful coffee roastery, a grain mill that still uses the original parts...but we spent about an hour in the town and we were pretty much done. Why bother when there's that cabin filled with wine and food waiting for us?

Cake Helpers

2011-09-23T11:13:00.004-04:00

When we were in Virginia, working on the 50th anniversary cake, I put Kate and Sarah to work. They colored some of the marshmallow fondant for me. I know Sarah looks annoyed here, but I swear, she was having fun. You just have to take my word for it. They slowed me down a lot, but it was well worth it to have their happy presence all up in my workspace.

Not it!

2011-09-15T09:40:00.002-04:00

These days, when I say things like "the shoe basket is empty, but surrounded by shoes, please clean it up, girls" to my children, they invariably say, in turn, "I didn't do it!" I don't need that at home, I get enough of it at work.

Yesterday, I was setting up a movie for Sarah to watch while Kate was finishing her homework. When I found the DVDs out of their cases and spread all over the place in the TV room I commented that we all should be more careful to put these things away when we're finished watching them. Sarah said "I didn't do it!" and I heaved a heavy, end-of-the-day-tired sigh. "It doesn't matter, Sarah" I tried (again) to explain. "It just matters that we take care of our stuff, all of us." Then, because it was bugging me, I threw in "I'm so tired of you girls constantly shirking responsibility for stuff." To that, Sarah replied "I didn't do that!"

The Big Par-tay

2011-09-12T08:36:00.002-04:00

We traveled to my mountains to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary and somehow managed to forget a camera. So, I've been stealing photos from other, more responsible participants in the festivities and I will slowly add them here in the way of updates. Here's an adorable shot of Sarah and Ro* at dinner that Friday night. Feel the cousin love!

A Brief Conversation With Kate

2011-09-09T10:04:00.002-04:00

Kate: [While getting dressed this morning] Hey, this skirt is actually a skort!
Me: Great, now you can just play with reckless abandon!
Kate: Or with the monkey bars.

Girls' Night

2011-08-20T21:14:00.008-04:00

Jeremiah left us all to go see My Morning Jacket with Steve way the heck up in Alpharetta. 'Where's Alpharetta?' you non-Georgian types might ask. It doesn't matter. It's OTP. Usually people just schlep out there to sit in a big, glass box all day so they can enjoy one another's company for an extended period of time on GA 400. Reportedly, though, this venue is very nice. I may never know.

We left a killer birthday party early so that Jeremiah could then leave our house early enough to get to the show. Neko Case is opening! Anyway, we'd explained to the girls ahead of time about how we might have to leave while the party was still going strong and they did, in fact, take our departure in Spartan-like strides. So, because we had to leave to GIANT Waterslide of Delight before cake and ice cream happened, I told them I'd make them cupcakes at home.

And so, when it was just us gals, after dinner, we threw on some Go-Go's (here's an entertaining side note: the Best of the Go-Go's? Jeremiah's purchase), and pulled out all the fun baking tools and ingredients. I had a lot of help compiling the cupcake ingredients, and still more making frosting. (In these photos they're singing "we got the beatERS" and dancing on the chairs). It was decided the frosting should be purple. Here, you'll notice, the frosting has a sickly gray tinge to it. Suffice it to say, there was a minor incident with the blue food coloring that resulted in this particular hue. The crowd was not dissuaded.

Why is Kate wearing long sleeves, boots and a fur vest? She's been reading Neil Gaimon's Coraline, and was also watching the movie this evening, and she felt this attire was her best Coraline look. She did complain of being warm, but was unmoved when I pointed out that her discomfort could have something to do with its being 90 degrees outside. I noticed, later, she did remove the vest. Anyhoo, we finished making our cupcakes and we all retired to the TV room, with a glass of milk, to watch the rest of Coraline together, along with the dogs.

On an unrelated note, Sarah likes to use my camera. Here are some examples of her photographing prowess:
(I'm fond of Chihuahua with Coffee myself)

Yes, We're Still Here

2011-08-17T08:36:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile. You know what? Sometimes we're busy! Now is one of those times. I will post real news of the kids again soon, I promise. Meanwhile, know that they are fine, doing very well in school, getting cuter in their sleep at night, tormenting the pets, singing and dancing in the kitchen...it's all continuing but at the end of the day the thought of facing my computer is making me cringe. So, once I build up the will, I'll publish real news, with photos. I swear!

New Cousins

2011-07-31T10:34:00.013-04:00

We've been away from home for a week, because we were busy meeting Kate & Sarah's new cousins, Milo and Elliott! Some of us use up nearly 3 years having two children, while some of us are highly efficient and have 2 at once. Milo and Elliott arrived on July 21st, weighing in at more than each of my children upon their birthdays. That's a heck of a lotta baby right there. I was dismayed to discover nearly all the photos I took while we were in Williamsburg came out very blurry, but here are a few.

Jazz hands!

While in Ye Olde Virginia, we celebrated Sarah's 5th birthday. I tell ya, these kids are just gittin' too big ta cuddle. Since turning the big 0-5, Sarah has spent a lot of time explaining to us that she is now very mature. She's been sitting with her legs crossed, drinking with her pinky out and purposely dressing like me, which I think is funny, because I never really advanced beyond the sheer basics of covering all the important parts, in the art of dressing one's self. She poured over "You Can Count on Monsters" because it is a rather long book on the topic of math and she held a dead cicada in her bare hands, just to show us all how very sophisticated she really is now.

As a bonus, we got to visit briefly with the Druekes of Miami. I took a bunch of photos, none of which came out properly except this one of Grandpa Drueke with all his grandchildren:

While we did spend a lot of time cooking and cleaning, in an effort to help the sleep-deprived new parents, we also managed to have some fun playtime. The girls made it to Water Country USA twice, we hit a Bouncy Place on Sarah's birthday, there was a multitude of treats (you can tell by a quick glance at my current largess) and Jeremiah and I got to enjoy the awesome bike trails covering the area. Although Chris and Sonya refused to take us up on our offer to help with midnight baby soothing time, we returned home more exhausted than we've been in quite some time. Even the kids were wiped out. Kate slept until after 9 this morning, which has probably only happened in the past when she's been ill.

Tomorrow is the first day of school, and the first day of our diet to try to reverse what I guess is best described as sympathy post partum weight...? For the time being, don't look at us, we're hideous!

Get Us Out From Under, Wonder Woman...

2011-07-17T20:53:00.003-04:00

It's not Sarah's birthday today, but when it is, we'll be in Virginia and I have no interest in attempting to create a requested specialty cake for a birthday girl in a kitchen that isn't my own. So today we sang Happy Birthday and ate some Wonder Woman cake. It was just a taste of what's to come in just 9 days, when my youngest turns five. Yowsa. FIVE.

Yeah, those are Halloween paper plates. Don't hate, it's what we had on hand. Sheesh.

Art in the Garden

2011-07-17T20:48:00.008-04:00

Something died in one of the rain barrels Jeremiah and I made last spring. I'd been noticing a bad smell when I watered from that one, until it became a full-blown stench and then, when it finally eclipsed bong water in wretchedness, it dawned on me that I was smelling decomposition. So, I had no choice but to do what I needed to anyway, dump the barrel. They both needed a good hosing out, as I'd fallen off the schedule of throwing in the mosquito larvae killing doughnuts and things were sort of out of hand out there.

As Jeremiah and I aborted thousands of unborn mosquitoes, I decided it was time to do something more interesting with the plain, gray, BRUTE barrels I had accidentally placed in focal points of my garden. Then, I decided this improvement should be left to the children. Mostly. When they left for the beach I sanded and primed the barrels (now mosquito and carrion-free) and then I added a field of blue. Now the girls have returned to us, and today was a beautiful day, made right for barrel-painting. Here are a lot of photos of the artists and their work.

Kate & Sarah Vacation Sans Parents

2011-07-17T20:45:00.004-04:00

The girls are home! We missed them, but we had a relaxing week. Here are a few shots of what they were doing while we were enjoying some peace and quiet.

We're Starting to Get the Hang of This

2011-07-12T13:24:00.004-04:00

We miss the girls. Yesterday was fine until it was time to go home, and I didn't get to go pick the kids up. That time of day is often more stressful than my entire workday. Sometimes they're fighting with each other, or just petulant for no clear reason. They don't want to do this or that, but they do want to whine. One day last week, when I told Sarah what I'd made her for dinner, she wept inconsolably until I just sent her to her room. Sometimes they're king-ka-maya-maya adorable, though. Often. So, just going home to a quiet house was a bit of a downer.

However, I had some quiet time, which is rare. Then Jeremiah came home and we celebrated the fact that we could just, go for a walk at 7PM instead of the usual "winding down" ruckus in which we must engage, by going for a walk. Much to our delight, the new Oakhurst Market has finally opened! Just down the road from us, less than half a mile away (oh-oh-oh-wuh, it's just a, it's just a...) is a market that sells exciting meats, cheeses, local veggies and various baked goods as well as ice cream! Local milk, local yogurt, and some well-traveled beers and wines. After chatting with all the neighbors we bumped into there, we picked up a Pine Street chorizo salami and some ice cream we'd never seen before and rushed home before our dessert could melt. Then, we made a caprese salad with basil and tomatoes from our very own garden, picked moments before going on the plate, and mozzarella cheese we'd gotten at the Decatur Farmer's Market. It all was a mighty fine dinner that required no application of heat. All that deliciousness coupled with the fact we were able to Skype with the girls earlier, made for a great evening. Not bad for a school night.

July's Garden

2011-07-10T08:43:00.003-04:00

That Aint Right

2011-07-09T17:24:00.005-04:00

Today the kids left for the beach with Steve and Joy. They were all hugs and kisses when they got up this morning (at 6AM) but when that car pulled into the driveway, Kate stopped mid-sentence and said "Gotta go" and ran out of the room. Sarah was waiting for them outside, and actually had herself all buckled up and ready to roll without even kissing me goodbye. I kept a stiff upper lip.

So today was our first day of freedom from kids! Whoooooo-hoo, party! We...let's see here...we got adjusted, hit a couple farmers markets, had a training session with the dogs, cleaned the kitchen and the girls' bedroom, did some laundry... Yes, it's been a non-stop throw down. Here is what our children are doing now:

And here's what we've been doing this afternoon:

Next, we'll go feed Steve and Joy's dogs and pick my bike up from the shop where it spent an entire week getting a tune-up. We did decide we'd go out to eat. And we have been cussing loudly right in the middle of the kitchen a lot. Well, I have, anyway; it's fun!

The Countdown

2011-07-06T07:51:00.002-04:00

This Saturday Steve and Joy will take my children with them to the beach for an entire week. This will be the first time we've been away from Kate and Sarah for this long. I know a lot of parents for whom this sort of thing is old hat and they unanimously assure me that this is a blessed event about which I should be fully giddy. While I am looking forward to the time alone with my husband (who's that guy in my house? He's kinda cute...), I will miss my girls an awful lot. So I've been vacillating between making ambitious plans and feeling wistful.

Meanwhile, Kate and Sarah are beside themselves with excitement and are counting the hours until they launch. We will probably begin setting things aside to pack this evening. Sarah is very concerned that I will miss her far too much, and end up crying all week. Yesterday she explained to me that she will leave Piggy, with whom she sleeps every night, here with me, so that I can sleep with her and if I begin to miss Sarah too much, I can just kiss Piggy.

Monday evening, as we sat with Steve and Joy and the girls at the dinner table, toasting the birth of our nation, Kate demanded the floor. "Quiet please! Quiet please!" she said, holding her hands up in the air to silence our prattle. "I have something to say." We'd just taught the girls the Interrupting Cow knock knock joke, so it took poor Kate a few attempts to speak without us mooing at her. "First, I apologize for interrupting your conversation. I just wanted to say that I am very excited about next week and, I wanted to say, Aunt Jo Jo and Uncle Steve, thank you for inviting me to go to the beach with you." That's right. That's my kid right there. Never mind that she'd been in time-out just an hour earlier for disobeying me, now she was a super star. Between leaving me Piggy and being gracious (un-coached), those girls are just trying to make me not want them to go. They're tricky that way.

You'll Dance to Anything

2011-07-01T18:03:00.005-04:00

Joy took the kids to the book store today, before she took them to the pool, and allowed them to pick out one CD and one book for their upcoming trip to the beach. They picked out some truly horrific stuff. Steve and I decided someone put a bunch of monkeys in a room with Auto-Tune for a couple hours. Voila!

Let me tell you whippersnappers something, when I danced like that, it was to Billy Idol (it really was. Sarah looks like a Drueke, but her dance moves are pure Provost). This stuff you kids listen to today...it's just NOISE!

The Gardener's Spa, Junior Edition

2011-06-29T12:20:00.005-04:00

At the beginning of the month I volunteered to teach a class on making skincare stuff. I had a small group of adults come to the Oakhurst Community Garden to learn how to make sugar scrub, body butter, lip balm and facial grains. I loved it. They were a really engaging group and it helped that there was a fridge full of wine left over from the Martins in the Garden event 2 weeks earlier. Joy took my class and decreed, as a member of the Garden's board, that it was a good idea for us to enjoy a glass of wine while we made our goodies. It went well, and I felt good about being able to give something to the garden, an organization I love. I never show up for garden clean-up days, so this is what I bring to the table. A few days after I taught the class one of the interns at the garden contacted me to say she'd heard it was a great class, and ask if I'd teach it to a bunch of middle school girls. I have to say, when I was a middle school girl, I was hard pressed to think of a segment of the population I liked less. However, now the thought of making this sugar scrub with a bunch of silly kids seemed so fun to me that I was undaunted by the fact that the class would have to be from 10AM - 12PM on a week day. Indeed, I took a personal day from work to do it.

Today I had seven girls, and much like having a second child is something shockingly more than having twice one, teaching 4 wine-drinking adults is to teaching seven 11 - 13-year-old girls as performing in a coffee shop to a few of your friends is to being the Blues Brothers in the redneck bar. I definitely had to break out my Stand By Your Man.

I made a few mistakes. First, kids are a lot like puppies. Can an entire bottle of essential oil be spilled? They will find a way. Is that a full bag of flax seeds for the facial grains? Yeah, not anymore, but the birds will be very happy. Does an 11-year-old know what "one drop" from a dropper is? No, she does not. Do middle school girls like the natural scents and textures of dried herbs? No, they do not. GAWD, no.

I did some stuff right, too. I chose to eliminate things that required melting. No body butter, no lip balm. Instead, we did sugar scrub and facial grains, but I moved out the melty things and moved in Fizzing Bath Bombs. Also, I brought finished examples of everything we were going to make, and showed them what the bath balls do when you drop them in water. That, friends, is my Stand By Your Man. They ate that up. Most importantly, I conducted the class outside. This may be have been the best decision I made...well...possibly ever.

All in all, it really was a lot of fun. Delightful group of kids, too. They seemed to have fun; the fact that they had scrubs and bath balls to bring home made them very happy. They plan to make and sell their wares at the Decatur Farmer's Market on Wednesday evenings. I'll have to stop by one week and see how it's going. And now, I need to attempt to get the myriad essential oil scents off me. I'm just covered.

The Bed is NOT Too Big Without You

2011-06-17T14:27:00.002-04:00

See how these wee children as sleeping ever so sweetly in the middle of this bed together? Isn't it adorable? Yeah, no it's not adorable. Those two decided at around 4AM today that they "were scared" and needed to crawl into bed with us. See the tiny spaces on the edges of the bed beside each girl? It was to those tiny slivers of mattress that Jeremiah and I clung, hanging partially off the bed, stubbornly refusing to admit defeat or to acquiesce to the dogs' demands to be let out until about 5:15. At that point, I finally slid entirely off the bed and was no longer able to pretend I could sleep under those conditions. But there the sisters Drueke snoozed, unperturbed by lights or noise, until we literally dragged them out of the bed at 6:30. Monsters.

She Would Not Have Known, If It Weren't For Those Meddling Kids

2011-06-14T08:33:00.004-04:00

Last night we were watching The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe with the girls. Kate received it for her birthday from the Miami Druekes (shout out, Miami!). I read the book to the girls a couple months ago and it was fun watching them anticipate what was about to happen. As the mighty battle is imminent, a scout griffin swoops in to give Peter the lay of the land.

"That's a griffin." Kate Informed us. This book was the girls' entree into fantasy, as a genre, so we were surprised she could so readily identify this mythical creature. The unicorns, yeah, I mean, if you have 2 "x" chromosomes, you enter this world familiar with the attributes of unicorns, but a griffin? I was feeling impressed with that school of hers.

"How do you know that?" I asked, wondering what they'd read in class. "Scooby Doo" she responded, definitively. "A griffin is half eagle, half lion", she explained. Cartoons. Is there nothing they can't teach us?

Seven!

2011-06-12T19:51:00.010-04:00

Kate was so excited for her birthday that she got out of bed at 10PM, when I was writing last night's post. Then she got up and came into our room again at 3AM, and I had to walk her back upstairs and tuck her back in and then try for 45 minutes to get back to sleep. Then she was up for good at 5:5oAM. I thought I was tired last night, but that was really nothing compared to how I feel now. Today, I have officially been exhausted for seven straight years.

It was a fun day. We hide the girls' birthday presents all over the house and the birthday girl has to hunt them all down. They love it. So, at 6AM, even before there was coffee, we were following Kate around the house with a big trash bag as she discovered each gift, tore it open, threw the paper carelessly in her wake and carried on. Then we went out to breakfast with Margie, Steve, Joy and our friend Bob. Then, all us girls went to get our nails done. Then it was time to fill up the pool Gram & Gramps gave Kate for her first birthday (it's still going strong!), and frolic with a couple friends. Then there was pizza. Then there was cake. Per our usual, we invited more adults than children. The adults allowed the kids to swim while we stood around drinking beer and the mojitos Jeremiah made using mint from our garden. We'd check in on the kids from time to time; it seems they're actually pretty adept at not drowning.

Kate wanted a Scooby Doo themed birthday. Joy made her a Daphne outfit, which I regret not getting a better photo of, but perhaps I can add one later. I made a Scooby cake (The Mystery Machine). Most of the photos we took are of that because for the rest of the day, we all forgot to pick up the camera.

Below are all the monster High dolls she received today. She's decided she's into those now...guess we're finally really done with princesses. Whew. Can't wait to drag myself into work in the morning. I feel a little sorry for Kate, I always hate the morning after my birthday, when I wake up and realize it's just an ordinary day.

Rite of Passage

2011-06-11T21:19:00.007-04:00

Tomorrow, Kate will be seven years old. In many cultures, seven was traditionally considered the Age of Reason. More was expected of people at this age than in our own culture. At seven I rode my bike all over the place, all by myself. In fact, at 6 I did that. I did a fair amount of wandering in my neighborhood. I was a free range child, and so were all my friends. Free range children are somewhat scarce these days, it seems, but I think that's a shame. Kids need to go out and explore on their own, how else will they develop the confidence to strike out alone when we want them to? I feel strongly that if we can help our kids develop a sense of themselves as individuals in the world, they will fare better when we insist they behave as such. There's nothing magical about turning 18, it's just that it takes 18 years to train for it.

So, in an effort to really begin this foray into autonomy, today Kate walked by herself from our house to the coffee shop where her Aunt Jo Jo and Uncle Steve met her, and bought her an iced chai latte. She bought her own bagel. We'd trained for some time for this. A lot of my friends seem to think a child on her own in the city will most certainly be abducted by a stranger who will do unthinkable things to them. Sometimes that happens, but statistically speaking, that sort of event still rates as random, and I see no point in fretting over random. What good would do anyone? We've talked about not getting into cars with people, finding a trustworthy adult if you feel unsafe, that sort of thing, but mostly, I fear traffic. So, we've had a lot of practice dealing with traffic as pedestrians. We put Kate "in the lead" when we take walks as a family and she has to tell us when it's safe to cross streets, etc. She'd proven her knowledge of this topic to our satisfaction and so, today, away she set on her .3 of a mile adventure.

She made it to coffee shop in roughly 5 minutes. No matter, she still beamed when we followed suit and joined them there. She'd done it alone, and I could see her pride, her confidence being built and I feel that is worth celebrating. Next time - she'll go the .9 of a mile to Aunt Jo Jo and Uncle Steve's house.

The People Under the Stairs

2011-06-03T18:28:00.006-04:00

Things have been eventful here, what with Jeremiah's birthday and a trip down to the Wild Animal Safari and the limb falling on our cable line and me misplacing the camera we used to document the fun parts of those happenings. It's around here somewhere, I'll find it. Meanwhile, they finished the stairs today! These new stairs are solid. We can run up and down them without feeling the treads bow beneath our feet. The treads are, in fact, firmly in contact with the risers and there are no alarming cracks running the length of any part of them. That is exciting to me. Also, they are beautiful. Here, enjoy some before and after photos (before is on the left, after on the right, unless Blogger does that thing it likes to do with my pictures) while I search further for the little camera...

A Hole In My Life

2011-05-24T15:28:00.009-04:00

The hole to which I refer is in the middle of house, thereabouts, and is where the stairs to our finished attic used to be. It's OK, they didn't collapse. In fact, we hired people to come and remove them prior (just) to a collapse. Still, there's a bunch of stuff up there that I need. The stairs came out slightly sooner than I'd expected. This is what I get for expecting the unexpected. I should have gone a more logical route there. Really, 'expect the unexpected' is terrible advice. We should absolutely expect the expected, but, should the unexpected arise, be ready to adapt.

I have pictures of the progress on the stairs, which I am sure you are dying to see. I have pictures of our weekend in Williamsburg, and pictures of some other stuff. I can't put them here, though, because the computer to which I upload them is...what do you call "upstairs" when there are no stairs? Above me.

So, while you wait for these pictures, here's a shot of Lydia I took with my phone while writing this post. Look at those eyes. Can't you see she loves you? Don't you want to pet her? WHAT? You're petting [insert the name of any other pet here]?!? Oh no you didn't! Lydia will bite you! This is Lydia time, hoss, you better recognise! You think you're going to ignore Lydia and go back to your little laptop? Lydia will poop on your clean laundry. Lydia don't play. Well, unless you're playing with Lydia. Did you want to go play? Lydia will bring you a toy. Sit tight. Lydia will bring you one of the kids' toys, which she has improved by removing the eyeballs and chewing off the feet...

Career Day

2011-05-17T13:36:00.002-04:00

Here is a bit of conversation between Kate and her Uncle Steve we all enjoyed last night:

Kate: So how was your day?
Steve: It was busy.
Kate: Did you design anything?
Steve: Well, you know, no, I didn't today.
Kate: [mildly judgemental] I thought you were supposed to be some kind of architect.
Steve: [Sighs...sips beer]

Garden Tour

2011-05-15T18:24:00.016-04:00

This year the Decatur Garden Tour switched things up and had their event in spring instead of autumn. I know, you're thinking garden tours are for the snooty, but you're only sort of right. While one of the gardens is owned by a designer of that sort that might end sentences with "dahling" and does, in fact, dress as eccentrically as he can manage and did think it was gauche when Steve and Jeremiah brought their own beer with them when they volunteered at his garden taking tickets a few years ago, that dude's in a very lonely minority. I love the garden tour because I am politely voyeuristic (I won't look in your medicine cabinet, but I want to see your crown moldings). I love to see what plants grow well in spots similar to my own yard so I can steal other people's creative ideas. (I learned in college that good artists borrow, but great artists steal. Oddly enough, that was in my physics class.)

Jeremiah and I always volunteer to take tickets for the tour because in so doing, we score our own free tickets, but also because the homeowners are almost always really fun. The last time I volunteered, I ended up with a time slot that coincided with a tremendous storm. My eye doctor and his family came through, but that was really about it. The owners of that house were also preparing to have a little gathering with their neighbors (why waste a catalogue-beautified yard?) right after the tour that day. Since things came mostly to a halt with the storm, they started their party early. I was given a great deal of wine and food, and I met all the neighbors on that street and every one of them was delightful and interesting. No kidding, they really were. I was a little buzzed when I got home. How often can you say that after a garden tour?

This year we volunteered at the home of a couple who are also extremely kind and fun to chat with. They have an awesome Teardrop camper, big enough for two to snuggle in, with a little kitchenette in the back. Everyone who came to see the garden lingered to admire the Teardrop. Matt, one of the owners, made us lattes and had baked muffins for the volunteers. We learned all about the process they went through to build their little garden, which is filled with love and general peacefulness. This is the feeling you get in most of the gardens - the care with which each gardener has created a space that allows them to relax and feel good about life on earth. Only one garden this year kind of blew, but they can't all be winners, right? The thing that wasn't right in that garden was that it had clearly been thrown in when the house was built (last year) and it was devoid of spirit. The homeowners had not lovingly tended to it. No plant in that garden had been gifted to them by a friend who had fun stuff to split. It was just there, having previously just been at Home Depot. How very sad* but at least for this tour, it's also very unusual.

*It turns out those homeowners were talked into being on the tour against their will. Reportedly they said "it's not even really ours, it's our landscaper's" and...it's a flood plain, they're just trying to put something there to keep the water busy. Why someone would think it was a good idea to put that space on tour, I do not know.

Oh, And a Few Things Kate Said

2011-05-08T20:08:00.004-04:00

We usually walk to places like Sweet Melissa's but this morning I was hella-hungry and I wanted to get back to the yard to start moving rocks and sacrificing venomous spiders, so we drove there. On the way, Kate took out the little panda notepad and pen I'd gotten her at the zoo on Friday and began to take our orders.
Kate: Sarah, will you be having pancakes?
Sarah: Yes! And sausage
Kate: OK, how do you spell 'pancakes'
Me: It's a compound word...
Kate: Oh right, right right. Mommy, for you?
Me: I will have some eggs, and I'd like some coffee to drink
Kate: OK. Daddy?
Jeremiah: I'd like juevos rancheros.
Kate: Er...how do you spell...you'll be having French toast.

Kate comes from a long line of proudly ineffective wait staff.

While at the restaurant, the subject of math came up. I began to explain that we need math for pretty much everything we do. "Without math," I was saying "this building wouldn't stand up around us, these chairs wouldn't hold us and this table wouldn't be right, either." Kate nodded at me, looking serious and then began to look around her. "And without math, " I continued "we wouldn't have a working car to get us here..." to which Kate replied, "we'd have to walk, like poor people."

Later, this very same day, we were having dinner. Kate had a fit of sweetness and gave me a biiiiiig hug and a kiss. She said "this has been the best Mother's Day! Even with you." Not sure what she meant by that, but I definitely feel loved.

Movin' Rocks like a Muthuh

2011-05-08T16:32:00.004-04:00

Mother's Day around here is primarily about breakfast, which is awesome. I was greeted, still in bed, by my very excited children, who handed me gifts! And Jeremiah got me a copy of Tina Fey's Bossypants along with some of the best chocolate I've ever tasted, and we all headed to Sweet Melissa's for grub. Then, I got the gift I requested - I was left alone to work in the yard. I built a walkway! I also tilled the living daylights out of the space that will be my next shade garden. Someday. For now, I have a new walkway that leads to nowhere, but is cool-looking. The kids love it. Kate ran up and down it roughly 100 times, to break it in.

To build said walkway, after all of yesterday's tilling, I moved gigantic rocks from one side of my yard to another. I met a black widow spider who was very nearly 70's B-flick horror movie sized. That was the 3rd one I've encountered in the past few weeks; they've increased in size exponentially with each meeting, so I'm getting nervous now. Then, shortly after I, very apologetically, murdered the black widow (I'd have let her live, but I have retarded dogs and curious children and a rock pile seems hard for either to resist), I met a brown recluse. I kid you not. We stared at each other for quite awhile and there was the little fiddle on its thorax. I used to confuse the word thorax with Lorax. Very different. Anyway, I tried to take her out, too, but she made a break for it and now I'm wondering if spiders have the capacity for vengefulness.

Finally, I showered and everyone was relieved. I headed out with the girls to a fairy birthday party for their friend Alexia at the Community Garden, while Jeremiah mulched my walkway for me. Cedar. Take that, weird little yellow and brown moth infestation! The party was very cute. The kids had their faces painted for the second day in a row. Yeah, it's like that here.

The Day Off

2011-05-07T20:34:00.006-04:00

6:30AM - Up and at `em! Head out on the new bike route to Grant Park that is very hard, but very satisfying.
7:30 - Forage.
8:20 - Walk to downtown Decatur for the weekly family adjustment and the market, where we learn there's a "Green Festival" on the square in the afternoon.
10:55 - Arrive home, dump market goodies on the kitchen table (eat one of the strawberries), turn around and head over to the ground breaking of the East Lake Community Learning Garden. Say hello to the goats, and all the people, too. Also, hit the East Lake Farmer's (ELF) Market. Chat with the new vendor who is selling Alpaca Llama wool and yarn. Sniff soaps. Buy more fresh veggies.
12:00 - Head out into the yard with the dogs (and the kids, but they keep disappearing) and begin to till what will be a walkway and a new shade garden.
12:37 - Figure out how to take most of the tiller apart in order to remove firmly wedged in rock.
1:00 - Back to tilling
3:45 - The husband and children, who left me to do "some very boring shopping" return and I finally stop tilling (and removing rocks from the tiller) so we can hit that Green Festival.
4:00 - Visit with neighbors who are also getting their Green on, surreptitiously purchase a couple birthday gifts for the girls, stand around in the hottest part of the plaza while the girls get their faces painted, meet the neighbors of neighbors. Reflect upon the awesomeness of our little community.
5:30 - Head home, hungry. Vacuum master bathroom because - gross. Wash bedsheets for the same reason.
7:00 - Finally showered, eat dinner. Clean kitchen, give girls Reiki. Begin to fade. Make bed.
8:48 - Finish little blog post about my relaxing day off. Contemplate an early bedtime...

This Morning in My Garden

2011-05-03T09:51:00.003-04:00

Easter - Sugar Madness

2011-04-26T19:34:00.007-04:00

When Treat Day is just a full-on bender. I can't believe this collage doesn't end with all these kids washed up in a flop house with nothing but a couple dirty mattresses and some candy wrappers scattered about.

Earth Day

2011-04-19T14:05:00.021-04:00

"Who's birthday?"
"No, Earth Day"
"Alexia's?"
"No, not a birthday. Earth Day"
"Daddy's?"

They figured it out. We hit the community garden for Earth Day fun on Sunday. The weather was perfect for just such an outing. We took a look at the cakes entered in the cake decorating contest (next year...next year...) and we said hi to the chickens. The place was packed, and they had live music. My very favorite part (and I think everyone else's, judging by the crowd at the tent) was the birds of prey guy. He had several owls with him, and a couple falcons. When I first wandered up he was holding the baby Eurasian Eagle owl, Tzar (or maybe Czar. Could be Tsar, I didn't ask). The Eurasian Eagle owl is the largest owl in the world. Did you know they live to be about 70? I did not. Anyway, he was asking a little kid who his favorite pet was, and the kid said his dog or something and the bird guy said "this is mine." When he said that, he touched Tzar on the chest, and Tzar gave out a little hoot that caused the me, and the woman standing right next to me, to involuntarily say "Awh!" and for a moment, wish we had an owl. It doesn't take long to realize that is probably not a good pet to have. I do love owls. I'm a fan of most birds, but owls are my favorite. Yeah, I said it. I like them best. Chickens, you're still the funniest, but , perhaps it's their unattainably that makes owls so seductive. You know how that goes. Here's a couple shots of the owls that put in the Earth Day appearance. Tzar is in the 2 on the right. Don't even try to tell me these birds aren't beautiful; I will pop you right in the mouth. For a $5 donation to whatever educational outfit this guy was with (I know, I should have found that out, but I was too taken in by the birds) you could hold one of the birds and have your picture taken with him. The girls both insisted they wanted to hold Tzar, but when she had the chance to pet him, Sarah was too terrified to touch the giant owl. So I did. I was a little giddy about it.

By the time we left we had two very hyper children. They giggled and yelled the whole way home. Then they swam some more in the freezing cold pool. Silly girls. Yes, that is underwear on Kate's head. I don't know.

I can't get all this extra space to go away. I should really just learn html and stop my whining.

Determined

2011-04-16T17:47:00.005-04:00

Last weekend, with all the sun and highs in the 80's, it felt like full-on summer. I worried our spring had occurred on Friday between 2 and 3:45AM and I'd missed it. Kate, as she had the previous weekend, begged us to set up her pool. Saturday was very busy and we didn't have time so we said we might do it on Sunday. Sunday we became engrossed in our respective activities and it was so late by the time we were ready to stop doing what we were doing, that it was just a bad time for pool set-up. We promised a crestfallen Kate (and a mildly disappointed, but less invested Sarah) we would set the pool up today.

Today, it is mostly cloudy, windy and around 67 degrees outside. Kate did not care. She held us to our promise and so, we pulled that old thing out, gave it as good a cleaning as possible, and filled the shallow part of it. Both girls were thrilled. Both girls swam. Indeed, Kate even went entirely under water. I stood on the patio, holding a couple towels, watching in disbelief as two shivering girls refused to get out. They actually seemed to be having fun, but they were blue. When Sarah decided to swim with her winter jacket on, I just set the towels down near-by and got a few chores completed. I mean, who's going to reason with that, you know?

Braves Game

2011-04-10T09:24:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we took the girls to Turner Field to see the Phillies crush the Braves in a humiliating 10-2 loss. It was a character-building exercise. The nice thing, I thought, was that since the girls refused to enjoy our seats with a clear view of the pitcher's mound and easy access to the dugout for catching balls, at least I wasn't watching the awfulness unfold in real-time.

OH! check out Kate's short hair! Isn't it adorable? Couldn't you just die? She insisted that Aunt Jo Jo, who very kindly undertook trimming split ends on Thursday, cut it short like Sarah's so they "could be twins". She looks so grown up now, especially when you see how her little legs have taken off with a mind of their own. I love it. OK, moving on:

So we wandered the stadium. We sat in the giant chairs with the view of downtown. We admired the giant Coke bottle and watched the Chick-fil-A Cow do the tomahawk chop. Then the girls ran the single baseline up there. Kids love that. Sarah ran it, like, 5 times. Especially impressive since her shorts were, in fact, Kate's, and didn't fit her at all.

On our way back to the car we met a beautiful boa constrictor named Boss. The girls enjoyed petting him and Jeremiah decided it would be a good idea to hold him. Boss strangled Jeremiah to death and ate him, just as I warned him he would. So, it's really sad, and I had to drive home, but at least Jeremiah died knowing I was right.

Literacy Shocker

2011-04-07T08:13:00.005-04:00

This might not blow your mind the way it did mine, because you're at a distance. It doesn't seem like I've been keeping this blog all that long, probably because since I had kids time not only flies but breaks the sound barrier. Anyway, I often update it while the kids are getting ready for bed now, which is what I was doing last night. Here's what Kate looked like when I started this thing:

Last night, as I was tucking Sarah into bed, Kate came out of the office and climbed into her own bed. I moved to Kate's bed, and I commenced ta' tuckin'. Kate said to me "what do you mean you broke the treat day rule*?" The day has come. Kate is reading my blog. I don't know, it just sort of felt like the end of an era. I then thought of the cartoon Mikey posted for me on facebook:

Oh well, girls, we all have our cross to bear.

*Treat Day was initiated as a once-a-week event when the begging for, whining about and in general expecting of daily treats drove me to distraction. Once a week, people. You pick the day (spoiler alert, they always pick Saturday) and that's it**.

**Some exceptions may apply, case in point, mommy wants cookies on a Monday.

Oh GOD, Spring Break

2011-04-06T19:57:00.006-04:00

You know what? Not everyone can take off the same week in April, OK? I hate spring break. I don't have this kind of time to figure out what to do with my kids while half my company heads to the beach with theirs. Jeremiah couldn't even take a single day because someone else in his department already had the whole week. Lucky for us neither of our companies has a "What is, this, a daycare?" policy and we have Joy. The combination plus my taking off Monday gets our week covered, but let me tell you something, trying to work while your kids are in your office is exhausting. It's like doing 2 full time jobs simultaneously and I just can't hack it. I'm not Jamaican! Anyway, Monday was really nice. So let's focus on that.

For starters, more sunshine, more temperatures in the upper 70s. The girls and I walked to Sun in My Belly for breakfast [as I write this, Lydia, ever faithful, every vigilant, ever flatulent, is by my side. The whole room smells like a big turd. We really need to address her diet]. I gave Kate the camera while we walked to breakfast. Here's the work of my starving artist:

Breakfast was delicious, as always. We wrapped that up so we could scoot to our next exciting activity. A visit to the park with friends! We walked from breakfast to McKoy Park where we met Dean and Kennedi from Sarah's class. They laughed. They cried (literally). They grew together, individually and as a group.

Then it was back home with my girls for lunch. From there, we were off to REI, where Kate and Sarah became the proud new owners of some summer shoes. The fact that these shoes are waterproof is a huge hit with them. Once home from REI, I broke the once-a-week treat day rule and baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for them, and we snacked on milk and cookies while watching Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (again) together. A very good day.

They spent the last 2 days at work with Daddy and Mommy, respectively. What a pain. I'm so tired I don't even know I'm typing this.

(I Wish) Every Day Is Like Sunday

2011-04-03T21:12:00.009-04:00

After a full week of stormy, raw weather, we were granted a reprieve in the way of a stunning, sunny, warm weekend. Yesterday was very windy, but it was warm and the sun was out and, subsequently, so were we. Today we decided we should hit the trail to celebrate the less windy, even warmer weather. So we headed west to Sweetwater Park, a mere 2 and 1/2 hours after declaring we were leaving. I remember when I used to decide to do something, and then, moments later, go do that thing. Those days are gone. Anyway, off we went.

Last year, in her 3-year-old class, Sarah had a good friend named Lily. This year, Lily went to a different school and we haven't seen her since last summer. Until today. We were headed toward the trail when I heard Sarah say "I see Lily." She still talks about Lily a lot, often naming worms and other exciting bugs after her, so I thought she was kidding. Lily lives a little over a mile from us in Kirkwood and we never run into her, but I turned around and sure enough, there she was with her family in parking lot at the trailhead at Sweetwater. So we hiked with them. It was a lot of fun.

Then we came home and the girls played with little Aiden next door, in his sandbox, while I found new homes for my hasta and lamb's ear around the garden. I don't have pictures of the kids playing, but I think my neighbor Charlie, who was also working in his yard, did take a couple.

Then Sarah built this castle with her blocks.Then Steve and Joy came for dinner, and threw the children about like badminton shuttle cocks.It was, by nearly all accounts, a good day. It turns out Lily has a cat named Max, so it was touch and go for a few moments there, but we all pulled through.

Rough Week

2011-04-01T20:21:00.004-04:00

Last Friday and Sunday nights it stormed so dramatically it woke us up. I love a good storm, but Sunday, especially, the lightning was so incessant the room was brightly lit. Monday night Kate had a nightmare and climbed into bed with us, where she immediately spread out like ink on a paper towel. That kept us awake, too. Tuesday night it stormed again, and woke up the dogs. Wednesday night Sarah had a nightmare. Thursday night Kate wet the bed.

So it was with heavy lids as well as heavy hearts, that we had to say farewell to our beloved Fluffernutter, Max. Maxie hadn't been doing well for some time. She had cancer, in the form of a tumor on her back. The vet said it's very common for pets to develop cancerous tumors there, because that's the choice spot for injecting vaccines. Then she said, to my dropped jaw and wide eyes "so now we vaccinate them in the leg, because if they get cancer there, we can just remove the limb". Anyway. They removed the tumor once, but assured us we were just buying her time, which we thought was a great idea. Max had stopped cleaning herself. She's stopped hanging out with us at all. She would occasionally hang out in the hallway and cry. It was time.

Jeremiah took the day off work, because he didn't want to be all up in Vampire Diaries' business while mourning his Other Woman. The one who preceded me, in fact. I went to work, so I had to say goodbye to her before I headed out this morning. She purred and nuzzled into my forehead, like she liked to do, and then I cried the whole way to work.

Most people knew Max as Evil Max, and it's true, she's drawn a lot of blood in her time. To us, though, she was sweet. She'd leap up on my chest at night as I tried to read, and make biscuits on me while purring away. Then settle in, right where my book should go. She loved crinkle fries and if you threw one to ground for her, she would stalk it like cunning prey until the time came to dismember and devour it. She used to love to beat the crap out of Lola. I'd like to think she's doing that right now.

Sarah took the news stoically, but Kate cried and cried. Having to explain to the kids that a beloved pet has died is just insult to injury. We miss Max, the world's most beautiful feline. I'm sure she's got a sweet paper bag coated in catnip somewhere now.

Fightin' for Your Rights, In Your Satin Tights...

2011-03-24T20:11:00.010-04:00

Last weekend was a busy one. Saturday was downright hot, just a hint of what's yet to come. We spent all of it outside. We walked to the farmer's market in the morning. Then, after a tiny bit of clean-up in our own garden, we hit the Botanical Garden. The tulips were all in full bloom, but the girls were more fascinated by the frogs and tadpoles.

Sunday was a good 20 degrees cooler and gray. So, it was a perfect day to hit the Zap! Bam! Pow! exhibit at the Breman. They were showing the pilot episode of Wonder Woman at 2:00, so we met our friends Kim & Jerry and their offspring, Alexia and Simone, for a campy viewing. It's 4 days later, and the kids have not stopped pretending to be Wonder Woman yet. All we have to say to either of them is "Quick, Wonder Woman! Bullets and bracelets!" and they strike the pose seen here. It reminded me of how, when I was just a wee lass, I liked to put on my Wonder Woman Underoos, sit in the spinny barstool at the kitchen bar, twirl until I felt a little sick, then burst forth to dizzily make the kitchen safe for democracy! Usually, after all the spinning, I just went and laid down on the couch in the family room and watched the ceiling spin. I don't know how Wonder Woman took out all those Nazi sympathizers with her inner ear fluid sloshing around; she really was a wonder.

Friday night in Excitingville

2011-03-18T19:59:00.003-04:00

Until Jeremiah has finished utilizing the massage gift certificate I gave him for Christmas, there will be no sushi before me. Meanwhile, I'm watching one of those creepy Barbie movies with the girls. They tricked me into joining them by telling me they were going to watch Despicable Me. Total bait and switch. Big changes with little Kate this week. She's taken to using an alarm clock to get up for school all on her own. She's been getting up and getting herself dressed all by herself every morning. Well, every morning except yesterday. Yesterday Jeremiah had to go wake her up. When he asked Kate if she'd set her alarm she said she had, but "when it buzzed, I wanted to keep sleeping, so I turned it off". Perfectly logical. Kate and Sarah have been bathing themselves, which is also new. They do a good job. Faces, hair, even necks are noticeably clean. It's a whole new freedom. I put them in the tub dirty, go make dinner, and they emerge clean and dressed in their pajamas. The bathroom is usually trashed but it's totally worth it. Lately, Kate's been asking if she can join the Girl Scouts. I was a Juliette Lowe follower myself all the way from first grade through junior high. Back then they didn't have Daisies but now, Sarah could join, too. I quit Girl Scouts because I hated selling cookies, and I still don't want to sell cookies but I do have a lot of fond memories of my time with my troop, so I have been looking into local troops. Looks like we'll have at least one cookie peddler in the house soon. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:TV Room

Progress Report

2011-03-10T08:04:00.003-05:00

Kate and her asthma are coming along. We're treating her with pharmaceuticals and homeopathic remedies and chiropractic care and tender loving care and if one of those doesn't take I give up. Her blood test came back from the allergist earlier this week. She shows enough antigens in her blood to be considered highly allergic to cats and dogs. A blow to the home team, no doubt, but we haven't even met with that doctor yet, so we will discuss this with her on the 25th of this month. We told Kate that since we have 4 pets and only one of her, we'll probably just get rid of her. I think she knew we were kidding.

In more upbeat news, the seeds the girls and I planted the weekend before last are looking like this right now!

I'm going to move those sugar snap peas and probably a couple of the basil plants to slightly bigger pots this weekend...and then maybe plant more seeds. We've had to move the bathroom step stool into the guest room, where these plants are hanging out under their grow lamp, so the girls can climb up and see them several times a day.

Spring Fever

2011-03-04T19:51:00.001-05:00

Kate is in the ER again. She started looking rough last night and today she had to leave school early. As I headed out of the office I found myself inexplicably angry at all the cars on the road. I ruminated on the work I was not finishing. I felt guilty for leaving early. My mind wandered to people from my past who had wronged me or irritated me in some lasting way. I smoldered. About halfway home I realized, and I should point out here that it was 20 minutes into my drive but it's 38 years into my life, that this vexing feeling I always call anger or irritation or hunger was worry. It was worry. That is unpleasant.

When I got to school she was curled up on a tiny couch mostly asleep. The alder and the cedar are filling the air with their pollen right now. It's making a lot of people sick. Kate looked pollenated. The problem with Kate's allergies is that they literally cause her not to be able to breathe. She napped for awhile but I woke her up when I checked on her because she was rattling and wheezing in her sleep. We tried the inhaler a lot. We tried the Zyrtec. I even tried Reiki. Finally Jeremiah arrived home and he took her to the hospital and I stayed home with Sarah. Now I'm sitting here with Sarah, still worried, feeling momentarily defeated by this stupid asthma. I know she'll be fine, but few things in this life suck as much as seeing your child in pain and being powerless to fix it. And now, as if that's not bad enough, I just have to sit here and wait for Jeremiah to call.

It does help that I have a sweet little blonde dressed all in pink and wearing a cat headband cuddled up next to me, watching Bolt.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:TV Room

Something Sweet

2011-03-02T09:43:00.002-05:00

Last month I made a cake for Glynnis, whose baby boy is due on the 13th of this month, and whose nursery is all underwater-themed. I also made some cake pops. Our co-worker, Yanwen, took some lovely shots of the results, much better than the one I took with my phone, so I thought I'd share them here. The cake pops have no real theme going, except deliciousness, but the cake is meant to go with the deep sea theme. She'd originally been shooting for a more specfic Yellow Submarine deal, but that proved too challenging. I could've done something around that, but opted for the Octopus's Garden instead. I don't know why, I just thought it would be fun. And it was.

The Kids Are Growing

2011-02-27T19:58:00.004-05:00

Spring is upon us! You can't make that pronouncement here without someone assuring you there will be a freeze in March. I know, there usually is. Still, when the temperature rises and the sun comes out again as February draws to a close, I just want to spend all my time in the yard. You'd never guess it if you looked at the barren wasteland that is our front yard...baby steps. The back yard is still a nightmare; we'll get to the front yard when we can pay someone to make it less horrifying.

So today, the girls and I planted some seeds of their choosing for the children's garden, which I think will be a container garden. As I pulled out all the seeds, Kate told me "I'm really into gardening, mom". She is. She's taking a gardening class at After School and has successfully grown sprouts, which I've been eating.

After a walk/bikeride/rollerblade into Oakhurst and back, it was time to prep a new bed for the exciting plants we'll have this year. The girls were less into that, they really only wanted to engage when the hose came out. They disappeared for a bit, while I continued turning earth and throwing out some seeds with high hopes, and they magically reappeared in bathing suits. I had a bad feeling about how the seed watering was about to go. It was, indeed, a bit of mayhem but eventually, all the new seeds got a hefty drink. And so it begins! Hopefully something good will grow this year.

Further Vigina Monologues

2011-02-26T08:57:00.006-05:00

Sarah sings almost non-stop. Today, while standing in line at Home Depot, she invented a song and dance that went with the sound of the beeping scanner at the cash register. Prior to the Home Depot Wiggle, she was making up a song at breakfast. It went like this:
In my VAGINA!
In my VAGINA!
In my VA...

You get the point. Given the frequency with which grown men talk openly about their members, I did not think it fair for me to squelch Sarah's early love for her womanhood. Still, I didn't want to let that song become her first big hit. I always felt a little embarrassed for Madonna's dad, along those lines.

So, as I handed her a muffin (the irony was not lost on me...) I explained that in public, it's not generally considered acceptable to speak or sing of one's private bits. "Why not?" she asked. I have no idea. "It just isn't" I said, perpetuating my American Puritanical roots. "You could sing about your more public parts, you know, like your ears or fingers or your nose", I offered.

She paused thoughtfully for a moment, then launched into the same tune with new lyrics:
Picking my nose!
Eating it!
Picking my nose!
Picking my nose!

At that point, I just went with my favorite go-to parenting technique and pretended I didn't hear her by becoming instantly engrossed in a book.

Lydia lives!

2011-02-24T08:15:00.003-05:00

Well folks, Lydia's had her muzzle off since Monday and her e-collar off since yesterday. She's doing fine, attacking Monkey with obnoxious abandon. That sort of behavior could well be what got her into this fix, but we're keeping an eye on that. Monday evening, we discovered a gaping hole in Rex the cat's side. So it was back to the vet with us. He's fine, too, but we're ready to get rid of all the pets at this point. We don't know what caused Rex's hole. It was not, as I feared, a disease akin to that which killed my brother's Oscars - Hole in the Head disease (it's a thing!), it is more likely the dogs played too rough with Rex, who is entirely too tolerant of their shenanigans.

Kate took these photos with my phone this morning, to prove Lydia's fine.

A Morning at the Opera

2011-02-24T08:00:00.007-05:00

Kate's class is headed to the Opera today. She was allowed to wear whatever she wanted, no uniform! Yesterday she said "what do people wear to the opera?" and I said "They dress up!" and she flew from her seat in the kitchen up the stairs, nary lighting upon a single one, where she selected her outfit for the event, and laid it neatly out at the foot of her bed.

Then she insisted I curl her hair. Jeremiah and I convinced her to bring her bright orange binoculars with the caterpillar for an arm as her opera glasses. No one in our home knows what opera she's going to see (a technicality, this is about the attire!). I hope it's a rock opera. Jesus Christ! Superstar! Do you think you're what they say you are...

Lydia

2011-02-16T21:41:00.002-05:00

We had some dog drama over the weekend. It's about Lydia, hence the post's title. Whenever Mom wants to let us know about the demise of someone we all knew, she very efficiently breaks the bad news in a mass email. The subject is the deceased's name. Sometimes she has good news about someone, and she'll place the honoree's name where the dead person's name typically belongs and so naturally, hilarity ensues. Anyway, Lydia isn't dead, but it's not really good news.

We made a brief run up to Virginia over the weekend. The dog's, and the children even, didn't join us. We took our puppies to the doggy spa. It was to be Lydia's first sleep-over. She had her lovey and her Monkey so we weren't worried. However, we received a call from a distraught doggy babysitter, who placed Lydia in her delux suite with Monkey the prior evening, and found her broken in the morning. There was no real evidence of a tussle, but she couldn't close her mouth. Somehow, and we will never know how, Lydia broke her own jaw. I assume this is a fight club sort of thing, and am resigned to the fact that she'll never talk about fight club.

After much drama involving potential surgery and having to transport her from our very conveniently located vet to an animal hospital that is wildly inconvenient and so busy they can't be bothered with you for at least 45 minutes once you're in the exam room, it was determined her fractures (yes, plural) were so hairline she'd be fine. A youngster like her, we were told, will heal up lickety split. So now miss Lydia is strapped into a bit of headgear. We have to grind her food into liquid. That bit makes me gag a little, not in the funny way. Still, after all the hullabaloo and what not, it looks like this pup will live. On Monday, she may even be declared healed by the vet.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:The boodwar

Fire! Mind your booty.

2011-02-05T11:20:00.004-05:00

As we waited for our coffee from Karvana, just across the street from the fire house, the hook and latter truck groaned into action and, predictably, I got excited. "Look girls!" I declared, as if they're the ones who get worked up upon seeing a fire truck in action, "there goes the fire truck!" Kate and Sarah gazed at the truck as it passed us, its lights whirling and sirens blaring. Sarah said "Uh-oh, something got on fire." Before I could correct Sarah's grammar Kate piped up with "I hope it's not our butts!"

Blogging on the iPad

2011-02-02T18:49:00.001-05:00

I have successfully located an app for blogging on the iPad! Now I am sitting in the kitchen with 2 very naughty girls. Kate was on red today for the very first time in her Drew Charter School history. Reportedly, she took up with a gang of first grade ruffians and together the pack were playing in the mud on the playground despite being told not to.

Sarah, not to be outdone, pinched her friend Willow. I asked why she pinched Willow and she said "she said she had my headband in her pocket". Wow, she goes directly to violence. I couldn't even determine if Willow really did have Sarah's headband. It was on Sarah's head by the time I arrived.

I declared a movie-less evening. Neither kid seems fazed by her own behavior or by having gotten in trouble for it. In fact, they are continuing to behave badly. Maybe I picked up the wrong kids from school...

Anyway, hooray, I can blog on my iPad!

Oh no thurz no spelcheque on here!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:The kitchen

Bathing Beauties

2011-02-01T08:50:00.004-05:00

The bubbles are best when you turn on the jets.

The Sweet Dreams Ritual

2011-01-20T20:14:00.002-05:00

Most nights, when I tuck them into bed, I ask the girls to tell me some things for which they are grateful, in hopes that their thinking about good things immediately before bed will promote sweet dreams. Also because, it's a good idea to take pause on such matters. Here's a smattering of tonight's lists:

Sarah's:

My immune system, Emily (they've both named their immune systems. Kate's is Samantha)
Max, even though she just bit me
"Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late"
Our house
The great, big sky and the moon that lives in it
All the green grass
Mommy, Daddy, Kate, Rex, Monkey and Lydia

Kate's:

All my books
You (me!)
My pink cowgirl boots
My lungs, because they help me breathe air
Air
Daddy
Birthday celebrations

Sometimes, I just have to get up and leave the room or I'd be there all night. This is one of those nights. I can still hear them both randomly listing things every now and then. I'm awfully grateful for them.

That's...Accuracy

2011-01-16T11:02:00.003-05:00

Icing, Sweetness

2011-01-14T14:41:00.005-05:00

This is our 5th snow (well, ice really) day in a row. When I saw, yesterday afternoon, that they'd already closed schools for today I begged Jeremiah to take the kids today. More to the point, I foisted them upon him and insinuated that if he didn't take them I was just going to leave them home alone while I ran (slid) screaming through the streets of Decatur.

So today he took the kids, their play tent, my iPad loaded with movies and various books to his office with him. I was elated to leave the house and go to my office. Cabin fever does strange things to a person. Nearly a week of trying to work at home with little kids running around squealing and often fighting resulted in some less than ideal mothering from me. Just when I was feeling relieved to have a kid-free day to get some work done, I received this scan from Jeremiah:

Now I miss my squealing, fighting children.

The Storm

2011-01-11T15:07:00.004-05:00

We knew this storm was coming for a couple days. Weather.com showed a 100% of precipitation on Sunday night, with actual accumulation of snow, turning into sleet and freezing rain (I still cannot explain the difference between those two things). It showed up on schedule an dumped a lot of snow on us and, as promised, a lot of ice. At first it was beautiful, but now we're 2 days into it, the temperature won't get above freezing, and there's no sand, salt or plows. Our roads are sheets of ice and after 2 days of trying to work with everyone home and everyone a little twitchy and stir-crazy, I'm ready to go back to my office. I miss my office.

Still, we did take a lunch break today and slide our way over to the park for some sledding, which we did on an inflatable pool chair that happened to be in the park. Happily, we ran into our next door neighbors, Charlie, Allison and Aiden, who'd come with their snow board. We sat on it and whipped down the tiny hill available to us there, and it was fun. Then we headed over to the coffee shop, making a stop along the way to bring Rusty and Jennifer out of their house, for hot cocoa. The entire neighborhood was there. The streets were teeming with people out walking, often dragging children along in makeshift sleds (garbage can tops, other large hunks of plastic they found lying around), because no one here actually owns a sled. Except that one family. We all paused and watched in awe as they sledded by us in style. It was fun, but now I'm ready for this stuff to melt. It's not going to, though. Not until Friday. I hope it doesn't get all The Shining up in here.

A Bunch of Photos

2011-01-09T08:42:00.006-05:00

I know it's been awhile, but after the high excitement of puppy adoption, December devolved into a series of illnesses and holidays. Those are two things you just don't want together. We would've given the sickness a miss entirely, but it wasn't up to us, turns out. We managed to have a nice time, including fun visits with family, but there wasn't a whole lot of photo-taking happening. Here's a bunch of random shots to sort of catch you up. I'll try to be better about this, but today I don't have a lot of time because there is a winter storm of epic proportions careening into town. It will probably be our End. The weather report shows a red "!" next to "severe" and a 100% chance of precipitation beginning tonight and promising to ruin any plans of productivity we have had for Monday, so we'll need to go fight our neighbors for the last of the bread and milk in town.

We saw REAL mermaids at the aquarium! They were just swimming around in there with all the other fish and some SCUBA divers.

While I took the girls to do that with some friends of ours, Jeremiah took the pets to the vet. Apparently that wore them all out.

Santa Claus sent video messages to both Kate and Sarah. He showed them each around different parts of his campus and talked directly to them about their behavior and what the elves might be working on for them. Here's Sarah watching hers for the 6th time:

Then, of course, Santa did come. And he ate all the cookies! The shot of the girls on the couch in the TV room is for their Aunt Jude. They are playing with their new fairy dolls and watching their new fairy movie. In fact, they were so into that gift from Oregon, they couldn't take a moment to actually talk on the phone with Aunt Jude or Uncle Kevin. "Can't talk. TV."

A Bit More Lydia

2010-12-12T21:46:00.001-05:00

Lydia Oh Lydia, Say Have You Met Lydia?

2010-12-11T20:16:00.009-05:00

The weekend lovefest with Veronica and sometimes Jake, too, convinced us that Monkey really, really needs a friend. Someone to get up to shenanigans with while we're at work. So, we got him one. Today we trekked back to Madison to meet a few of the litter of 9 pups whose mama is a golden retriever/yellow lab mix. We met at the home of a woman who offers housing to many of the rescued pups for the Companion Animal Rescue, Inc. In addition to space for the rescue dogs to bed down, run and play, she has at least 4 of her own dogs, llamas, emus, pheasants, chickens, turkeys, burrows, ponies, a horse, some goats, a sheep and probably something I've forgotten. It was fun. Monkey got to play with the puppies, and we took home the one that seemed to fawn over him the most. This is Lydia. When we got her here, we hadn't had time to go to the pet store yet. Jeremiah plopped Monkey's favorite toy in front of her and we held our breath a little. Monkey seemed unperturbed, but the real cuteness came when Lydia lost interest, found her way to my lap, and Monkey brought the toy over to us and dropped it in front of Lydia. She brings balance to the household. Two adults, two little girls, two cats...finally, two dogs. We have lost our minds. Here are some photos of the day for your enjoyment. I am. Tired.

How horrific would it be if this shot of Sarah were with zombies instead of puppies?

Monkey insists upon riding safely. Fetch him his driving gloves and goggles, we're heading into town.

I realize there are very few actual puppy shots here. I'm amassing them, not to worry. I'll post more this weekend.

Never Kiss Your Honey When Your Nose Is Runny. You May Think It's Funny But It's Snot

2010-12-07T22:02:00.004-05:00

Grown-up bedtime. I can't sleep unless I've checked on the girls - kissed both their sweet heads and admired how angelic they seem when they're sound asleep.

Tonight I tiptoed into their room (yes, I'm aware of how creepy this will be when I'm still doing it when they're 14 and 16, whatever.) and listened to their noisy sleep-breathing. I bent over Kate, tucked in to her chin, still wearing her headband, and gave her a little peck on the head. Then I gingerly worked my way through the minefield of a bedroom to Sarah's bedside, where I admired her round little cheeks in the glow of the nightlight. I kissed her on the head, then laughed a little when I noticed the thin line of drool down her chin. I gently brushed it away with my finger. It was then I realized. That's not drool.

Don We Now Our Gay Apparel

2010-12-06T15:30:00.011-05:00

Yesterday Sarah got up, got herself dressed and began her day like most others. Until she started feeling a bit puny. She clung to me, burying her head in my neck and telling me her stomach hurt. Then, a little bit later, she threw up. After that, aside from seeming slightly groggy, she didn't appear all that ill. She didn't seem all that ill except when I told her we couldn't go to her friend's birthday part at Spa Kidz (yes with a "Z", they're Street like that, dawgs), she seemed not to care at all. Kate, meanwhile, wept into her pancakes.

Because Sarah was under the weather, it didn't seem like a good idea to bring her along on the planned family trip to the state farmer's market to pick out our Solstice tree, and then to the various stores we were required to visit in order to complete our day's errands. So I sent Jeremiah and Kate. Sarah sat, slack-jawed and grey-faced, in front of a movie while I cleaned and tended to various other domestic requirements. Then the other half of our crew returned.

Jeremiah and I placed the tree in the stand, and freed it from its webbing. We stood back and looked at it. "Maybe it needs some time for the boughs to, you know, relax..." I said, eyeing the thing with some confusion. Seriously, what was up with this tree? After it relaxed for awhile it became apparent, this was it. It looks as if it grew up on the top of Mount Crumpet, enduring ever-changing, harsh winds. I am grateful to have this tree to remind us of the ever-present life in the world, despite the cold winds of winter, but holy cow, this tree is going to make baby Jesus cry. Finally, unable to control my laughter I told Jeremiah that this was the worst-shaped tree I'd ever seen. Then, because the parallel was so painfully obvious, I called him a blockhead.

Kate and Sarah were just thrilled to have an evergreen in the house. They asked every 3 seconds if it was time to decorate the tree, while Jeremiah and I attempted to get this abomination strung with lights, with plenty of help from Monkey. Finally, the time came for decorating. Sarah had been puke-free since the initial incident, despite a scare right around lunchtime, and her forced afternoon nap, sorry, "nap", did seem to help a bit. It was her turn to place the star on the tree. She placed it up there and then, back at ground level, she said "that star is crooked." Neither of them commented on the rest of the tree.

While we decorated the tree, a chicken, purchased on Saturday from our local chicken farmer, roasted away in the oven, making the place smell highly edible. I made one of my favorite salads and post tree-decorating, we sat down to dinner, with the promise of homemade hot cocoa with marshmallows for dessert. Kate refused to try a bite of her salad. "If you won't take a single bite, " we threatened "you may not have any hot cocoa, and we will sit in front of the tree and drink it without you." She refused, which I really hate because then we have to follow through on the threat. She cried in the living room while Sarah, now seeming quite lively, helped me make the cocoa. By the time Sarah had a couple sips, she was bouncing. Literally bouncing.

She did somersaults on the living room floor while Kate cried on the couch. Kate passed me a note. It said "Mommy, please let me have some hot coco". I did not point out her misspelling because I felt pretty sad about leaving her out of the chocolaty fun, but seriously kid, take a bite of salad!

Who ARE you? I must know!...

2010-12-05T08:23:00.004-05:00

...Get used to disappointment.

We've commenced ta decoratin'! For quite some time now, the girls have been asking if they can go in the attic above the addition. Jeremiah had them convinced that a child-eating troll lives there, and they just had to see for themselves. So yesterday, when it was time to break out the Christmas decorations, there was much pleading regarding the attic. We decided it would be fine, and after Jeremiah cleared the troll out, he hoisted the children into the attic. They stood on the small section of floor space next to the HVAC unit, looking around.

"This is not what I expected", Kate commented. I wish the attic was more like whatever Kate expected.

Later, while I was putting the pine garland around the porch railings, I was caught up in the girls' enthusiasm for decorations and I sent Jeremiah to ACE Hardware for "lots more lights!" Kate joined him on that errand and when they pulled into the parking lot at ACE Kate said "I thought it would be taller. This isn't what I expected at all. That's the second time I've said that today."

Wait till Christmas morning, when she discovers Santa's only brought her new socks and underwear...

Bring an Umbrella

2010-12-01T08:14:00.005-05:00

Kate's class was tasked with creating a work of art to display their Christmas wishes. Most of the kids wished for things like video games, movies and toys. Santa will have a harder time with Kate's wish. This morning, after seeing the results of the kids' work posted on the wall at school, Jeremiah reported that Kate's drawing states that for Christmas Kate "wishes candy would fall from the sky".

Once the projects are no longer displayed on the classroom wall, I will share it here. Don't even try to tell me that's not crazy cute.

It Came Back Around on the Geetar

2010-11-26T09:01:00.016-05:00

Another splendid Thanksgiving has come and gone, leaving a trail of leftovers in its wake. Yesterday was wonderfully un-stressful. The weather was nice, the turkey took exactly as long to grill as expected (this is unusual) and was so juicy it induced culinary orgasm. In addition to a bevy of sides I made a lot of dessert. I don't know, I just felt like baking.

In addition to Margie, Chris and Sonya visiting, we have Jake and Veronica. Jake is thrilled Veronica has someone new to play with, and Monkey and Veronica are in love. We don't have any Jake photos, because he thinks the camera will steal his soul. Some of these photos were taken by Kate.

Kate Makes Plans

2010-11-22T10:21:00.003-05:00

Kate and Sarah are very excited about the impending visit from Grammy Margie, Uncle Chris and Aunt Sonya. They've decided a trip to Krispy Kreme should be involved. Kate created this work of art in anticipation. That's the Krispy Kreme factory, see all the doughnuts on the conveyor belt? The unlabeled person is Sonya. I'm not there because I can't eat wheat, and I don't know why Grammy Margie isn't pictured. Maybe she was in the bathroom.

Leaf Pile

2010-11-13T09:17:00.006-05:00

I wrote this post, published it, and went on my merry way, only to discover Blogger simply saved it at the photos only stage and now that I'm writing, everything is bold and underlined. WTF, Blogger? Happily, the HTML for underline is "underline", so I could easily find that and turn it off, because you don't get an option to do that in the GUI. Free blogs, I tell ya.

Anyway, it's officially autumn! The girls dived in headfirst on Friday afternoon over at Aunt Jo Jo's house. Later, they got even more leaf refuse crumpled in their socks and hair at the S'mores-making gathering at the community garden. I think we might have pictures, but I put Jeremiah in charge of that, and he was a little gripey about it, then just quit entirely. Free photographer, I tell ya.

Meat Lovers

2010-11-08T11:28:00.004-05:00

We often buy eggs from the poultry farmer at the East Lake Farmers Market, the Little Red Hen. We've ordered a Thanksgiving turkey from her, and the other day we purchased a little hen, whose original colors I never knew. At the Morningside Farmers Market on Saturday I picked up some sweet potatoes. It was cold this weekend, so I wanted foods we could roast, possibly while wearing our matching Snuggies embroidered with the family seal. (Note to self: find out if we can get Snuggies embroidered with our family seal, also, dog-sized...?)

Jeremiah rubbed that chicken all over with herbs I grew in my garden, then stuffed her into the oven like she was the witch from Hansel and Gretel, and it smelled the house up something wonderful. Usually, I prefer the dark meat from a bird because all too often, I feel, the white meat is a bit dry. When Jeremiah cut into the roasted chicken, and we sampled a bit of its breast, I remembered what chicken tastes like. I think the last time I had real chicken was when I was in, oh, maybe, 4th grade, and I spent the night at Jennifer Baker's house and her dad killed a chicken for that night's dinner. We got to watch as he literally gave it the axe and sure enough, the beheaded fowl leapt up and began running all over the yard and I thought "ooooh, so that's what they're talking about". Since then, it's been these huge-breasted chickens. No wonder the meat seemed dry. They're fake boobs. Chicken starlets. Chicklets. Tastes like a lot of stuff, but not chicken.

Kate rejected the roasted sweet potatoes out of hand and, when we insisted she eat a bite of potato, she declared "when I grow up, I'm going to become a carnivore". I later walked into the kitchen, where the remnants of the bird lay, awaiting our attendance, to find this scene:

Usually it's the pets caught doing this.

Weary and Annoyed

2010-11-04T07:53:00.008-04:00

On the ride home from school on Tuesday, the topic of conversation was toast. Kate wanted some. Specifically, with cinnamon. Not just "the brown stuff" but also "the white stuff you put in there, too." Sugar. Anyway, she was explaining to me exactly how she wants her perfect cinnamon toast and I was right there with her, some warm cinnamon toast was sounding like just the thing. She continued "...and please cut the crusts off. I don't like the crusts, Mom" she said. "Are you kidding me? I think the crusts are the best part of good bread!" I said, wishing I could eat a baguette fresh from the oven. Kate made an "iiiiccck" sound and said "we're different on that." Then she paused contemplatively and continued, "but we can still be friends."

Awwwhhhh!

It was Election Day, though, and in the spirit of the campaign and, indeed, the previous 2 years, I vowed to take her down. "Removing the crusts from your bread is bad for America! Why do you hate our troops?!?" I demanded, already seeing myself picketing her first grade classroom with my persuasive sign -

Ah yes, she's young now, all full of the spirit of compromise and tolerance, but we'll get that worked out and make her a Real American soon enough.

Before Halloween, Oakhurst

2010-11-02T19:51:00.007-04:00

The day before Halloween the neighborhood of Oakhurst (across the street from us, we're East Lake residents), celebrated its 100th birthday. They had a little festival in Harmony Park with bouncy things, munchies and horses to ride. There was live music, and the weather was very obliging.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T19:58:00.009-04:00

Time for a montage.

Of course, I couldn't leave out the best one. The one of Henry In Throes:

New Day

2010-10-28T07:48:00.003-04:00

Kate seems fully recovered today, because it is her class's fall festival (we can't say Halloween Party because of the Jehovah's Witnesses) and she gets to wear her costume (of a literary character, not a Halloween costume). We dosed her full of breathing drugs and crossed our fingers at bedtime. Kate, meanwhile, carefully laid out her entire Violet, from The Incredibles, costume, including the boots, at the foot of her bed.

The girls are usually rudely awoken at 6:30AM. We often literally drag them to the bathroom, while they cling to a pillow or blankey. This morning, at about 6:15, Jeremiah and I were in our bathroom when we heard the pitter patter of medium-sized feet. "You guys!" complained Kate as she approached "you forgot to come get us up!"

Since, at around 9:30 last night, I actually did cease to function, and since we'd all slept an entire night (!), I was lucid enough to tell myself that if she wasn't getting air, she'd let us know. I resisted the urge to press my ear against her chest again and helped her into her Violet costume (hand made by Aunt Jo Jo) instead.

Now Sarah's fighting a cold and was visibly annoyed at having been disturbed before it was time to get up. She stood, looking disoriented, in the bathroom doorway upstairs. She was holding her toothbrush and staring vacantly at the wall. Her class isn't having a party today. She does get to bring in her Aunt Jo Jo original Cinderella get-up for show and tell. Her Pre-K teacher was nice enough to let us have that, to help us avoid a morning meltdown.

Jeremiah dropped the girls off at school, and Kate joined the room of extremely hyper children and we'll just decrease our own oxygen levels slightly, hoping the day passes without incident. And so we beat on, boats against the current and all that.

A Need for Fresh Air

2010-10-27T15:58:00.004-04:00

I have some fun things to post here in the way of updates, but now it's time to complain about Kate's lack of oxygen.

The day before her 5th birthday, Kate took a trip to the emergency room because she could not breathe. At the time, the doctor and respiratory therapist said she didn't have asthma, she just had a nasty cold that was causing an inability to breathe. They did a breathing treatment and sent her home with an inhaler. Since then, the inhaler has come out now and again, but infrequently enough that we've misplaced it from time to time.

Over the past week, however, Kate's wheezing has picked up considerably. She's a bit of a drama queen, so when she'd start crying that she was wheezing, we'd give a listen, and if it didn't sound bad, we'd have her do some breathing exercises and send her on her way. She became increasingly dramatic. We rolled our eyes a lot. "Kate! It's past time for bed, go to sleep!"

Who's the a-hole now? Monday night was very rough. Kate did a lot of screaming. Her breathing sounded labored, but not in her chest, she was congested all up in her face. She refused to blow her nose. I mean, really refused. She literally pitched a fit, ran from us, wept...it was a disaster. No one slept much Monday. Tuesday morning we checked her temperature and it was normal, so off to school she went. That lasted about 30 minutes. When Jeremiah went to get her, we were concerned she may have a sinus infection, what with all the stuffiness and claiming she was afraid to blow her nose. The worst thing was, she was driving us crazy. We just wanted her to stop all the whining!

Jeremiah took her to the doctor around noon, and the doctor had her admitted to the ER at Egleston. Her oxygen was around 87%. She spent the next 7 hours doing a multitude of breathing treatments. There was much talk of not letting her go home. Finally, she got her O2 up around 94% and we were set free, after we promised to have her looked at first thing this morning. She slept last night! She had color in her cheeks this morning. I took her to the doctor right at 8:00 and they kindly fit her in. Her oxygen was 89%. They did another breathing treatment. Then, the doctor sent us home, telling me "At this point, we've done here all that we can. Just keep an eye on her today, and if she gets any worse, she needs to go back to the ER."

This has been the most stressful day of motherhood for me to date, including all those days during her first 6 weeks of life when she never stopped wailing. I took her to the chiropractor, because I knew they'd be sure to get everything situated where it belongs, which will help with breathing. But, I thought she looked great this morning, and she was at an oxygen level that would have kept her in the hospital last night. What did "keep an eye on her" mean? I've spent this entire day asking if she's OK, examining her face...is she ashen? Why the circles? Is she just tired or is there no air? Why can't she focus on her homework? What does she mean she's 'dizzy'? Why does her head hurt? Why does her stomach hurt? I am so stressed right now I feel like I might just fall over and stop. Just stop functioning completely.

I suspect her complaints about being dizzy, headachy and stomach-achy are largely related to the alarming intake of steroids she's endured during the last day, but still, those are also things that could be caused by not getting enough air. The medicine has also made her hyper and crazy. The more hyper she gets, the more I panic she's expending too much energy and will get tired and stop breathing. I need a nap, but I'm afraid if I allow myself to doze off for 20 minutes, that's the 20 minutes during which she'll die. So instead, I made cookies. Homemade Oreos, for her class's fall festival tomorrow. I think I made, like, 60 of them. It took awhile, because I kept stopping to make sure Kate felt OK, to try to force fresh vegetables on her and to try to stare at the rise and fall of her chest without her noticing.

I guess we'll send her to school tomorrow. I don't know why tomorrow will be any different, but I do know I'll probably be over-tired, unfocused and mildly grumpy. I just want my kid to be healthy.

Farm!

2010-10-18T15:57:00.013-04:00

Last Sunday, with our friends the Breaults, we drove out to Carlton Family Farms, the place that grows the cows that make the milk that we drink. They also grow the chickens that lay the eggs that we eat. They have a pumpkin patch, too. And a corn maze. That day, it was about 80 degrees out and sunny. The corn maze, it turned out, was a poor choice. The sisters Drueke whined and whined. I considered leaving them there.

The hay ride, however, was worth the wait. The farm really is family owned, and has been since it was established way back in 1919. It's been a dairy farm since 1946. They have 40 cows, each of whom are milked twice a day, every day, all year round. The cows spend their days out in the pasture, munching on grass. They aren't fed anything else, especially not hormones, antibiotics or swill. Am I sounding preachy? Sorry. So anyway, the farmers hook a very long flatbed onto a big ol' tractor. The flatbed is fitted with benches all the way down the center, and a nice rain and sun-blocking pavilion-style roof. The floor is covered with a foot or so of hay.

The farmers drove the lot of us out to the cow pasture and the cows recognized us as the portable hay buffet. They sauntered up to the trailer and we all fed them hay. Sarah got a loving, wet kiss from one of the cows. The kids loved it, and as a city girl, I found it thrilling (yes, thrilling) to get to feed the same cows the make the milk we drink. The bovine ladies were also very receptive to some rubbing on the forehead. Among the herd out in the field, Kate spotted one Holstein and declared from the diaphragm "Hey, I see a real cow!" I sighed when I realized all the kids considered the black and white cow the real one, because she looked like the Chick-fil-A cow.

When we exited the hayride, we went directly to the little barn where the baby animals live. They had pink piglets, 2-day old calves, turkeys (those weren't babies, they looked big enough to be concerned about the upcoming holiday season...) and Kate's favorite, the chicks. She was captivated by them. Sarah seemed to favor the pigs.

They'd once done a stint as a commercial dairy, the Carltons, but it wasn't for them. That left them with a large grain silo they no longer used. They were planning to tear it down, but the neighbors protested, stating they would have no way of directing visitors to their houses if the "big silo" disappeared. So, the cut a door-shaped hole in the bottom, connected it to a small building and made it a little store where we bought some eggs and milk, and then wandered around in the empty silo. Trying to imagine it full of corn was amazing. I mean, that's a lot of grain, right there.

Then it was off to the playground, with it's mini-hay bale maze, big slide made of the stuff that's used for drainage pipes (rubber, not metal) and a lot of chickens just waiting for us to feed them. Those birds never seemed to fill up. Finally, a place where the attitude is - Yes, Fat Chicks! After all that excitement, we were tired. It was time to make the hour long drive home. We wearily loaded the children into the car and realized.... we never picked out pumpkins. Ah, forget it, we'll get them at the grocery store.

See that one gap in Kate's teeth? Now there are two! The day after our farm visit, the tooth to the right of the gap, finally fell out, at school. This time, she kept it long enough for the Tooth Fairy to come buy it. That left the Tooth Fairy wondering to herself "what do I do with these teeth?" After she overcame that initial sweetness of her child's baby tooth, she realized it was kind of gross.

Rain Dance

2010-10-13T09:13:00.004-04:00

It won't rain here. I don't want to diminish the delightfulness of the cloudless blue sky, the lack of humidity and cooler temperatures, but we really, really need it to rain. Yesterday, my head started throbbing and some big clouds rolled in, and I became hopeful. My rain barrels are completely dry and my plants are withering in their beds, despite my hosing them down every other day. I eyed the sky, hand on aching head, wishing for the clouds to give me something I could use.

All day, promising clouds, but no action. It was like watching C-Span. That evening I stood outside on the patio with Sarah, waiting for Monkey to do his Monkey business. I stared at the sky. Then I stretched up to the sky and sent it a little reiki, out of desperation. Sarah looked at me quizzically. "Mommy. What are you doing?" I dropped my hands to my sides and sighed heavily. "Sarah, I'm trying to convince it to rain. The plants are dying for it. Literally."

Sarah bounded up to the flat surface of Jeremiah's Man Space. "I will do a rain dance for the plants!" she declared. She stood completely still for just a moment, commanding the attention of the heavens. Then, she launched into a little performance art piece involving a pantomime of rain, followed by returning sun. She repeated it a few times, mouthing words to herself (possibley the Itsy Bitsy Spider, but I can't be sure) and then stopped, falling just short of an "Annnnnnd Scene" and looked at me. It was so impossibly adorable that I thought it would rain maple syrup on us. Instead, very late last night, we got a little sweet rain. That's my girl!

Friday Night

2010-10-08T20:31:00.004-04:00

Popsicles, made fresh locally by The King of Pops. Blackberry Cream. Yum.

Monkey thought the self portrait idea was stupid.

Halloween Well Wishes From Kate

2010-10-04T08:22:00.003-04:00

Kate made me this Halloween card the other day. I watched as she was drawing it. I complimented her on the good ghost and she held up a finger, then put crayon back to paper. First, she drew the dark line across the ghost's midsection, then she started the on down the middle. At that point I said "are you putting pants on that ghost?" but she quickly shook her head, without pausing, and said "Pogo Stick." Then she gave the ghost little arms to hold himself up on his Pogo Stick.

Old Love

2010-09-30T06:52:00.020-04:00

On Thursday, September 23rd, this year's autumnal equinox and September's full moon, Jeremiah and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. In honor of all the time gone by, we dumped our children on Steve and Joy for 4 days and fled to near-by Tybee Island for some us-time. We were badly in need of the break.

We stayed in a pink cottage just 99 steps away from the beach. On that first night, when the moon was just shy of full, we laid in the sand and saw 2 shooting stars. The cabin, which was all one room with a couple divided segments, also had a second building right out back named The Roost. We slept there, in what used to be a ticket booth, surrounded on all sides by windows, some of which looked out over the ocean.

On Friday, we spent the first half of the day on a sea kayak, taking a guided tour of the creeks in the marsh, and a beach walk on the uninhabited Little Tybee. That rocked. We weren't even half way through our tour of all the creeks, listening to our guide tell us all about the Georgia coast (which is tiny, but amazing) when we realized we should have signed up for a full day trip, instead of half. But, since we did have half a day left, we went to the beach and lounged like snakes on rocks in the sun. Then cooked some fresh seafood and did more lounging, this time with wine.

Saturday, at my urging, we took a death defying bikeride all the way from our cottage into Savannah and back. This really deserves its own post. We used the path that Google Maps suggested. Thanks, Google, for taking us through the nastiest ghetto in which I've ever had the pleasure of fearing for my life. When we reached our destination (lunch!) we could plainly see that if we hadn't taken that right turn on Skidaway, we could have instead sailed past rows of genteel homes canopied under Spanish Moss (which we learned on our kayak trip, is neither Spanish, nor moss. Discuss). At any rate, now that I'm nearly a week out from that adventure it seems like it was a lot of fun. Jeremiah was with me, so I had fun.

On the day of our anniversary, we did a lot of relaxing. That made us hungry. That evening we drove into Savannah and dined at Elizabeth's on Thirty-Seventh. It was lovely. We brought the bottle of wine we'd been saving for 10 years, crossed our fingers and popped it open. It was tasty! It was also very, very heavy and in the heat of the evening, down south in the swamp, heavy wasn't cutting it for me. Still, it was awfully fun to bust that thing open. We marveled at all we've done over the past decade. Then we marveled some more as we realized my parents have had nearly 5 times the years of marriage we have. Then we fell silent, both of us reflecting, no doubt, on the fact that we accidentally did it all in the first 10, now we're out of things to talk about. Nothing left for us but the heavy drinking and maybe some getting fat.

When Sunday arrived, it was time to pack up and go home. The truth is, we missed our kids an awful lot. Were it not for them, we might have just...stayed. On cue, the weather turned from sunny and hot to cloudy and humid, time to take our leave of the beach. We arrived at Steve & Joy's house to fetch our children, and they'd made us a Welcome Home Mom & Dad banner and hung it on the front porch. It was all very sweet. By the time we finally got them and the puppy home and began to unpack, the girls were fighting. Sarah hit Kate and later threw a DVD case at her. Kate pouted. Ah yes, home sweet home.

For my Midwestern Peeps

2010-09-29T14:41:00.003-04:00

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but sometimes the girls beg us to let them watch cheesy 80s videos before bed in lieu of stories and, this is where it gets embarrassing, sometimes we let them. I mean, they do read a lot of stories at school…

Anyway, enough about our poor parenting skills. The other night Jeremiah was allowing Kate and Sarah to watch Cindy Lauper’s Time After Time. I still love that song; it remains one of my favorite Sing In The Car tunes. In the video our protagonist finds herself opting to leave a familiar life, sadly, but determinately. If you lived with a guy in a mobile home somewhere in the woods this couldn’t possibly be such a depressing decision. The girls always want literary commentary and explanation on the events in videos, which is one of the main reasons I avoid Peter Gabriel’s hits. The deeper meaning of Sledgehammer? Yeah, you try telling them there isn’t any and see if they accept it and move on.

Kate, in particular, wants to know why the singer in Time After Time is so sad. Jeremiah explained, as have I (time after time) that she is moving on but it’s bittersweet. “What’s bittersweet?” Jeremiah, attempting to steer the conversation away from the visual of the video and on to the topic of Kate herself, explained that the singer is “off to see the world! Looking for new adventures in the big city!” then he asked where Kate would go to find new and exciting adventures in her life.

It’s obvious when a thought is yummy to Kate. Her eyes get wide and glaze over slightly while she savors the freedom to choose from seemingly unlimited options. In no time at all, though, she knew where she’d find her adventure. “Nebraska!” she announced.

Tales of the `hood

2010-09-17T09:36:00.004-04:00

Back when I was working on the Labor Day in May project for my company, I did some research on my own neighborhood, in which my small team would be doing a fence-building project. I knew a few things about the history of East Lake, but what I learned made me proud to be a resident, even though I didn't do a single thing to make the neighborhood what it is now, except buy a house in it. Which I suppose, one could argue, is a contribution in itself. Here's the little post I wrote about East Lake back then.

And here's the glowing story from last Sunday's AJC about Kate and Sarah's school, Drew Charter School. It makes up for a lot of the incredibly poor communication we endure there.

The Tealight Game

2010-09-11T19:51:00.010-04:00

After dinner, Sarah taught me a new game. It's pretty complex, this game. The name of it changed several times during the explanation, and I don't remember what she finally landed on. Here is how you play - it's pretty fast-paced so try to keep up.

OK Mommy here is the new game. Whoever ends up with both candles at the end wins. I decide who gets the candles and OH LOOK! I won the first round! So, here's what you do, you have to...slide the candles back and forth and I'll just...see here's what you...Mommy, you're cheating. I know because I made it up! Now's the time we add another candle. So here we go and...OH MOMMY YOU WON! I'm so happy for you. OK I'm going to win this round so pay attention.

From what I can tell, the object of the game is to, um, wait I had this, it's...I thought it involved sliding the tealights across the table at the same time and trying to smash them into each other but then she pulled out the blow-up cow that the guy at the cheese counter at Alon's gave her this morning, which she has named Dirty Diana. I'm not sure what Dirty Diana really brought to the game, but at this point, from what I could discern, I was no longer in the game. Stupid cow. I hate this game.

Spa Day

2010-09-07T19:38:00.011-04:00

Kate and Sarah have a copy of Fancy Nancy: Ooh La La It's Beauty Day! and they love it. I believe one of them received it as a birthday present and I am equally certain I never sent out a proper thank-you note for it. I apologize; I failed miserably at that this year. Anyway, we read this one a lot. Fancy Nancy sets up a spa in her back yard and treats her mother to all manner of pampering in it. Kate and Sarah decided they should host a spa day. This, of course, meant that I was to provide the pampering, but I was okay with that, as it promised to be easier to clean up afterward.

So, we made plans with Catherine, Margaret and Ella to have a special spa experience on Labor Day, in our kitchen and surrounding areas. I put together a Pandora station that included mainly Enya and Air to force us to relax. I dimmed all the lights in the house, and lit all the scented candles. I made a watermelon scented sugar scrub, a facial wash, mashed some watermelon and extra-ripe banana, decoratively arranged all the nail polish we own and we were in business. Kate was a customer but also a helper. She massaged Catherine's feet for her, and strummed her guitar in a relaxing (not really) manner.

We did facials with the watermelon and banana. We did foot baths and everyone got a mani/pedi. Everyone except Ella, who preferred to watch and leaf through the fabulous magazines in the waiting area. After the spa treatments, we repaired to the dining room where spa food (strawberry, granola and yogurt parfaits) was served, and I read the Fancy Nancy book aloud to our guests.

The girls then all agreed they should watch a movie while their skin glowed. Kore and I went back to the kitchen and drank the pitcher of mojitos Jeremiah'd made us. He uses fresh mint, you know. Jeremiah joined us for this portion of the day, as did Brendan. I enjoyed giving the girls facials (Kore did all the nail work for me), but I must say the mojito portion of the day was my favorite.

Later that evening, Steve and Joy came over for dinner and brought with them...wait for it...
the kitten Joy found in their back yard! He was not yet successfully named, though they're leaning toward Jimmy. This kitten is probably about 7 weeks old, and he is totally chill. Unfazed by all the activity and the other pets, Probably Jimmy would climb up on a shoulder and snuggle down for a nap. Monkey really wanted to play with him, and he let Monkey have it, as Kate said "Maxy style!" (Later, Probably Jimmy met Max and learned exactly how Maxy Style is really done).

Probably Jimmy in action. Here we see Kate bringing back the 80s.

Labor Day Weekend Updates Coming Soon!

2010-09-07T10:47:00.001-04:00

Oh yes, lots of excitement with gorgeous weather and new found friends and relaxation methods. I have photos! I have tales to tell! But right now, I have work to do, so keep your pants on.

Some Cool Stuff I've Seen The Past Couple Days. A List.

2010-09-01T13:48:00.009-04:00

1. A humming bird flitting around my next door neighbors' rose of sharon. It was right next to me while I was watering my rosemary.

2. A tiny lizard, right at eye level, on the boxes of fertilizer at Lowes in Edgewood. He won the staring contest, and dashed away the instant I blinked.

3. A squirrel scurrying up a giant oak tree while carrying a 16oz plastic drink cup, complete with rounded cover, in his mouth.

4. A black swallowtail butterfly who was keeping pace beside me as I rode my bike down Ansley Street.

5. Kate, unable to resist the groove while we listened to Jeremiah's Phat Beats Pandora station. She had the whole shoulder dance, head shake thing going unconsciously while doing her homework. She knows the words to Mary, Mary.

Kate's Really Into Super Heroes Now

2010-08-27T21:46:00.003-04:00

This afternoon the girls busted into the dress-up bin. I found them wearing all their dress-up clothes at once, they looked like Heidi in the fields. As Sarah sat yammering on to, I believe, the home's only remaining hermit crab, I reminded Kate of her declaration earlier this week. And I quote: I am done with princesses! I'm really into super heroes now.

At the mention of her edict, Kate looked sadly up at me. "Oh, Katie Lou, " I said, totally taken in, "you don't have to stick with that if you don't want to." She pursed her lips and reached up to me for the Lift & Hug. That move is getting harder and harder because she's growing like a weed, that one. She rested her head on my shoulder and sighed. "I'm going to miss the princesses" she said. Then, after a pause, she squeezed me tight and kissed my shoulder and said "you make me feel happy." At long last, I've discovered my super power.

Soundtrack

2010-08-25T14:56:00.006-04:00

I stepped outside with Monkey, into the still-dark morning and noticed a cool breeze for the first time in weeks and weeks. My brain puts everything to music and when I felt the cool, it sang "...summer's beginning to give up her fight..." as the song floated around in my head and I walked through the darkness with the pooch, I was transported back to the summer of 1994, where, in my brain, that song lives.

That summer Anni came to stay in my apartment in Richmond. It was that summer that my boyfriend moved out, and I realized all the furniture in the place had been his. While I was at work, Anni made me a "bed" using all the blankets and sheets (at least those were mine) on the bedroom floor where the real bed once stood. My parents, without ever once grumbling about how they never approved of my decision to live in sin, came to visit and brought a bunch of kitchen items for me. I still use some of those things they brought me to this day, and every time I do, I think of how grateful I was to get them back then. It was blistering hot that summer, as all summers in Richmond seem to be, and the apartment had no air conditioning. I frequently couldn't sleep because of the heat, and would get up and go sit on the front stoop, waiting for the infrequent breeze, thinking it was ironic that the air was so still in The Fan.

It's magical what the mind does for us, given time. The heat, the lack of furniture, the loss of love - those things troubled me back then. Thinking of it now, however, it stands out as one of my favorite summers on record. We went to see the Indigo Girls at Strawberry Hill; they'd recently released Swamp Ophelia. I worked double shifts at The Tobacco Company and Anni and I sometimes had beer and ice cream for dinner. Nothing about the time seems all that remarkable, but I remember it all so fondly. One year later, I met Jeremiah.

Sleepy Sisters

2010-08-24T21:28:00.002-04:00

Tonight's sleepy scene...
Reminded me of another one, not so long ago. The time, she flies.

Z is for Zillah...

2010-08-18T08:09:00.002-04:00

...who drank too much gin.

Disney Unwittingly Makes Strong Argument for Staycation

2010-08-16T08:16:00.006-04:00

I am relaying a conversation that Jeremiah shared with me, so I may miss some of the details, but you'll get the gist. Somehow, Kate came to view a television ad for Disney cruises. In it, the voice over explains that there are lots of thrilling things for parents to do on this outrageously huge ship, but that there is also a special place for kids 'where they can do whatever they want!'.

Kate's ears pricked up at that. "Oh!" she exclaimed to Jeremiah "does that mean we can do Inappropriate Things?" He didn't say as much to me, but I would bet that in the seconds before he responded to Kate, Jeremiah's whirring mind sounded the internal Emergency Broadcast Signal. I also can't remember exactly what he told me he said to her but I'm guessing it went a little something like this - "Er....".

And then he said something about there being limits

"But some of us might want to dance around naked!" she concluded, as if to say that if such an activity were not allowed in the kids' place 'where they can do whatever they want!' this was an example of false advertising. It is well known in our home that Kate is a big fan of dancing around naked (but not of peaches, she informed us last night. The rest of us just can't understand that). We let her do that at home, so you see, there is really no need to go on a Disney cruise, where she would not be permitted to do her naked dancing. So thank-you, Disney cruises, for the thousands of dollars you just saved us. I don't even need to a buy an outfit for dancing.

Cat's Out of the Bag

2010-08-10T09:06:00.002-04:00

Kate brought this picture home from school yesterday. I pulled it out of her backpack while Jeremiah, Steve and Joy looked on, as we were preparing Monday Night Dinner. "This is nice, Kate" I said. "Who is it?"
"That's my Dad!" she responded.

Some Stuff the Kids Said

2010-08-06T13:13:00.007-04:00

Last weekend, when we were out of food but hungry for breakfast, we took the troops over to Sun In My Belly for some deliciousness and, as it happened, some funk. As we were being seated Shaft! (damn right) was being served up with the coffee. As you know, that song's a sing-along, so Jeremiah took the Isaac Hayes parts and I sang back up. We'd gotten as far as:

-They say that Shaft's one bad mother-
-Shut your mouth!
-I'm talkin' `bout Shaft!
-We can dig it

when Sarah interjected. "You guys are creeping me out!"

**********************************

The pizzas I picked up for the girls the other day each came with a juice box. I forgot about those when I fed the kids, so they were still siting in the fridge the following morning. I was forcing an Emergen-C on Kate, who was still a little stuffy about the nose, so she didn't drink hers for breakfast like Sarah did.

Unfortunately, I failed to mention the juice to Jeremiah, so when he brought the girls home that afternoon, and Sarah promptly opened the fridge, pulled out Kate's juice box and said "can I have this?" Jeremiah let her. Sarah tossed that thing back like a shot of bad tequila because she knew. Sure enough, when Kate saw the crumpled shell of a juice box that remained she protested, Kate-style. By the time I arrived home the girls were slack-jawed on the couch in the TV room, watching Star Wars for the first time ever. I gave them the usual cheerful greeting with kisses, but when they're in that state you can't really penetrate it. Sarah broke her trance long enough to say "um, hey mom, where are there more juice boxes?". Then Jeremiah told on her. The painful reminder of the lost juice caused Kate to become upset once again.

This morning Kate came padding into the bathroom where I stood at the sink. We exchanged our good mornings and I inquired about her breakfast preferences. "I'll tell you what I want" she said flatly. "I want my juice box that my sister drank." I told her I would buy her another juice box. Just her. "Yes!" she agreed, because her real thirst was for justice. "And I want to drink it right in front of her while she doesn't get one!" Kate's drink is justice, with a splash of revenge.