A boring clip of my 2 roosters. We’ll be trading Penelope the rooster in for a hen.
Author Archives: WoolyMama
Summertime…….and the Livin’s Easy
Okay, well maybe not easy per se, what with all the kid whining and animal caretaking and rainy weather and what not, but still. I have no shortage of pickles so it can’t be all bad, right?
Emily and Neve spent last week with my in – laws who showed them a marvelous time (and to whom I am eternally grateful for providing me with the break). I was quite productive, despite Oona’s attempts to keep me down. I got the girls’ room clean (and it took ALL WEEK). I got some sewing done – pj pants and shorts for each girl, sleep masks for each girl, a skirt for Neve, 2 dresses for me, and a purse. I know, right? Here’s kind of (some crappy pictures, sorry) what they all look like:
Oona’s pj pants, complete with grumpy morning face.
Sleep maskes, skirt, pj’s. Taken while half asleep at about 2 am.
Purse – I am really happy with how this came out. It’s an Amy Butler pattern and fabric. I love that it’s not a mass marketed, logo over – loaded, every-clone has one kind of bag. Sorry. I used to be addicted to Kate Spade handbags until I got back into sewing. Now I am addicted to one of a kind, handcrafted products.
We got the kids’ teacher assignments a few days ago and our supply lists and have everything just about lined up and ready to go for the big day when they go back to school. School clothes neatly folded, shoes carefully cleaned and checked for fit. I still don’t think it’s right that they are going back in the hottest month of the year, but who am I to argue?
Cucumber production seems to be winding down now, and the yellow squash and pumpkin production is just about to explode. If you’ll recall, the last time I showed you my garden it looked like this:
That was exactly one motnh ago, on June 30. Today my garden looks like this (same view):
It’s crazy. I can barely walk in there. But I am happy to see lots of pumpkins well on their way to greatness. It almost makes up for the fact that my green bean plants never produced, and half of my pea plants died off once the heat hit (note to self: plant peas and beans earlier next year). I also never got anything out of my butternut squash seeds. That’s a huge disappointment, considering my addiction to butternut squash. I also haven’t been taking the chickens out to the garden because I’ll lose them in the leaves! And then I’ll have to trample over everything to retrieve them. And I don’t want to get bitten chasing chickens. Darn rooster nipped me good on both hands the other day when I grabbed him. Drew blood on both hands – in the same spot, in that fleshy area between your thumb and first finger. Then Penelope the hen got feisty and bitey as well. But today we discovered what her issue is. She’s actually a damn rooster. Yup. I have two roosters. And they are both crowing now. I emailed the lady we got them from to see if I can trade one of the roos back to her for a hen. Hopefully that works out because we can’t be having cockfights around here. I mean really now!
Pickled!!!
Um, so anybody know any good cucumber recipes? I have 10 quarts of pickles in my fridge and about 50 lbs of cukes on the counter, PLUS probably another 3 dozen ripening on the vine. I’ve made (obviously) pickles, cucumber raita (which I love with samosas, tamarind chutney and naan, btw!) and I am thinking maybe some cucumber mojitos would be nice and refreshing……..but I am seriously buried in cukes here. Please send cuke ideas!!!!!
The tomatoes, while so promising at the beginning, are doing less well. In fact, I am having moderate luck with the cherry tomatoes, but the Mr. Beefy are going bad before they turn red. They just get huge and green and then……die. Between the weather and the slugs and goodness knows what else. I picked a few good green ones and have them sitting in the window in the kitchen. We’ll see how that goes.
I do have 2 big pumpkins out back getting bigger by the day and the zuke and yellow squash will no doubt be over producing before too long. And the bail has provided me with much opportunities for pesto, thanks to Ruby the hen eating all of the beetles for me. The bees seem to love the basil as well, but we leave them alone. They’re the good guys.
And speaking of chickens, our rooster has begun crowing. At first he sounded like a cat being strangled, but he’s been finding his voice more and more and getting more of the “cock-a-doodle-doo” sound. It cracks Oona up, and it cracks me up when she imitates him. So far he only does it during the day, which makes me quite happy, thank you very much. I don’t want to bug the neighbors. I do find it amusing to listen to and am surprised to find I rather enjoy the sound. He is kind of a territorial little brat, though. Today I went to get Ruby for her daily bug eating and when I grabbed at her Mr. Roo pecked my hand pretty hard. It didn’t hurt too much (it’s kind of like being pinched) but it left a mark. Then he proceeded to crow the entire time I had Ruby away and didn’t stop until I brought her back. They still all run from me when I go to transfer them between tractor and coop. Dummies. Their herding instinct is pretty good, though so they don’t wander too far and always head for the safety and familiarity of the coop.
Right now the older girls are with me in laws so Oona and I are on our own this week. It’s been lovely and quiet. I’ve completed a few sewing projects (will show in a future post) and begun cleaning the bedroom of horrors since Emily and Neve aren’t here to stop me. I also went and bought their school supplies today. And no, I don’t mean their clothes and backpacks. I mean the $200 list of supplies the school demands we send in with each child every year (crayons, tissues, paper, glue, hand soap, scissors, dry erase markers, ziploc bags, you name it). This of course does not include the many times during the year they’l be hitting me up for more money and other items. What actually makes me mad about this is that on top of this the school board still doesn’t pay the teachers enough and all of the special programs and extras (like music!!) keep getting cut out and everyone keeps voting “no” to raising school taxes even though the school gets very little aid from the state. Ah, don’t get me started. Let’s just focus on the fun part of today – I brought home a new dvd – “Coraline” in 3-d. Hooray!!!
Now With Knitting Content!!!!
Yes! I have been knitting! I haven’t mentioned it really because it really gets done in bits and spurts at a snail’s pace these days. However, I have gotten a sock and a quarter (almost). It’s not a huge accomplishment, and boy oh boy I cannot wait for it to be over because I am SO OVER this yarn now (though it is quite lovely and soft, just, you know. Months of the same barely progressing project doesn’t engender much charity towards it for me right now).
I’m slogging away on the second sock. I’ll let you know if it gets better.
In other news…..
We had a nest in one of the trees lining our driveway – I had suspected it was a Killdeer and turned out to be correct. They’re pretty plentiful out in that portion of our property. I dared a peek a few days ago and saw a little open beak craning up for mama. I hadn’t even realized there were eggs in it yet. I dared to venture back with the camera but had the weather working against me (it was way steamy out and the lens kept fogging over) and the mama bird kept screeching and diving me so I got in a few blurry shots with the camera held way away from me. Only one is worth showing, and it still sucks.
Can you make them out? Anyway they are gone now – mama taught ’em to fly and they’re off. It was cute while it lasted.
Also in avian news, we now have a chicken tractor. This is not an actual tractor in the heavy machinery sense, but a bit of moveable daytime housing for the chickens. You move it to a different spot each day so the birds get to eat all of the bugs in your lawn without pecking the spot muddy, as they have next to their permanent coop. They really seem to enjoy being in it, but they really do NOT like it when we gather them in the morning to be put in it. The girls are having a grand old time of it, watching the poor dumb things run around like, well, you know. They don’t enjoy being held. Except Ruby – she’s my buddy. She’s our golden colored Brahma/Cochin mix. She also loves to eat the Japanese beetles off of my basil plants, which pleases me to no end. I may have plenty of pesto this year after all!
Paul put handles and wheels on it so I can easily move it to whatever spot I fancy.
See? Chicken tractor. Grand idea!
Hopefully they’ll be happy enough to give me a decent amount of eggs once they start laying.
Paul also completed the bead – board facing for the window bed he made in the playroom.
I recovered the back pillows with some upholstery – weight black and white toile I had and covered the mattress top with some black and white stripe cotton knit I had. I’ll make two roll pillows to go on the sides. I’m thinking this may be my favorite spot in the whole house. Jasper loves it, too. If only the girls didn’t consistently destroy the room in which it is located. They are wild ones, those girls. But that’s ok. My in laws are coming this weekend to take them away for a week. A week!!!!! Hooray!!! I’ll still have Oona to contend with, but with the older girls away I may actually get some cleaning and organizing done in time for the new school year.
Yeah, you heard me. They go back August 10. A crime, right? Makes us feel like summer is over when it really is nowhere near being over. We’re trying to live it up as best we can. Emily got an early birthday gift of Rock Band 2 for the Wii and they are loving it. We also roasted marshmallows again last night. Over the weekend we had my parents, my uncle and my grandmother for the day (Neve plum wore out my grandma, I can tell ya that) and ate lots of summer food (burgers, potato salad, peach cobbler, fresh homemade pickles). Oona made grandpa very happy by hangning with him on the swingset and giving him lots of baby love.
I took her out on the swings again today, and let her run around in just her onesie while I was moving the chickens. Since being a mom is my job I often forget to allow “vacationey” things. I get too caught up in trying to get things done! that I forget it’s a good time for Oona to play outside and for my older girls to enjoy chasing chickens. It’s summer, and for a few more precous weeks we’re not on anyone’s schedule but ours. If we want to take time just to look at the stars or watch the bats we can. We may still be home, I may still be on the job, but you know what? It’s still vacation.
Summer Turns to High
Good song, good song. Double points if you can name that artist.
It’s not really been too hot around here. Not the kind of sweltering, energy sapping, kill-me-now heat that I am used to us having at the height of summer, but then summer really did just start, didn’t it? Which is why it feels so not right that in 4 more weeks the older girls are headed back to school. August 10 is the first day – just when summer is at it’s dog days best. The pressure is on to soak up every bit of summer relaxation and enjoyment that we can before homework and early morning alarms rear their ugly heads again. In that vein, this week we spent a few days camping at the almost local KOA. My in laws pop-up camper has been conveniently parked in our driveway for a few months so we thought maybe the kids could use some fun time away from home, and the KOA has clean bathrooms and a nice pool. Ordinarily I am not much for camping – at least not with little kids, since they tend to get every bit as dirty and sticky as possible and stay that way. We had pretty decent accommodations, however, so it was rather fun, even with Neve’s embarrassing outburst upon stepping into the pool the firs time. Jesus that’s cold!!! she yelled for all to hear. Ah, Neve. My inappropriate child. Sigh.
I brought my knitting and a David Sedaris book, but neither got touched. It’s rough wrangling an almost 2 year old when camping. Every 11 seconds she was yelling BUG!!!! and had to be convinced that it was OK.
Our temporary home. Next time I am purchasing an outdoor rug for Oona to walk around on. She kept skinning her knees on the gravel. And yes! We brought Pippa! She of the very loud mouth and too much barking!
Our not-so-roughing-it quarters.
Poor cute little skinned knees. She kept making Paul walk her all around the campground, which was funny because her shoes squeak, so all you heard while we were there was that squeak squeak squeak squeak……
When we were not in the pool we were playing cards. Uno was the favorite of everyone but Neve, who cried when we didn’t let her look at all of our cards and then demanded we play Old Maid instead. Despite the outbursts she won several rounds.
Paul and Oona napped. Notice his not-really-camping clothes? This is how he is dressed at all times. No matter how hot it gets. Button – up shirt, pants, shoes. Even at the beach. It’s one if his quirks.
Maddie got plenty of boy attention. She even got “asked out” by one fellow. She politely declined. The only love she was after on this trip was some Oona love.
I think we’re all after a bit of Oona love.
They had maps there listing all of the KOA’s across North America. It was a lot of fun to look at. Maddie was especially excited by the one in Port Angeles, Washington, not very far from the town of Forks (that would be where Twilight is set, for those who dont’ know).
And then there’s Pippa. Pippa who got to ride in the truck with her man (and tried to jump out the window at the first stop light), got to go camping with her family, got to sniff at all kinds of new smells and meet all kinds of new people. Pippa who got to sleep in style in a very comfortable, clean, dry dog house (the ginormous back of the box truck – all for her, complete with her food bowls, a cot and a carpet for her). Pippa who got treated with bacon the last morning we were there. Pippa the dog. Who peed a stinky 2 gallon pee all over my living room carpet our first day home, 10 minutes before our neighbors stopped by, so that I couldn’t invite them in for a nice visit. Pippa who just woke up the baby with her loud mouth barking.
Ah well. Can’t win ’em all. At least the kids had fun!
Back Porch S’Mores
It’s officially gotten even slower around here. The girls and I have been felled by some nasty virus that starts with a cough and sore throat and progresses into some nasty chest congestion and general crapiness. I can’t imagine that the next few days will be very exciting considering we all feel like crud. At least we have a pool party on the 4th to look forward to at the house of Paul’s best friend.
Last night before Paul left for Charlotte I got him to get a fire going on the back porch so the girls could make s’mores. This has been sort of a summer tradition for us since we moved into this house. Hanging out at night, looking at the stars, roasting marshmallows. It’s been so rainy so far this summer so last night was the first real opportunity we had and we took advantage early in case we unexpectedly (but not surprisingly) got more rain.
It didn’t take long for Neve to get into it.
She tends to be one of those kids that you can only get a good picture of if she’s not paying attention.
Emily found it difficult to relax as she was worried that Oona would burn herself (for the record Paul and I were there the whole time, so….. yeah). The funny part is that Oona kept saying what we thought sounded like “Suck it!”. Over and over. We thought maybe she’d overheard Aunt Maddie insulting someone and decided she needed to tell US all to Suck It. But we realized that what she was saying was in fact Chocolate. Our bad. I guess we need to get our minds of out the gutter. We also though that when she was saying “What’s That?” that she was saying “Oh shit!”
Beyond the back porch s’mores we have little to report fun-wise. Hopefully things will be more exciting around these parts next week since we’ve got the holiday on SAturday and then we’re going camping for two days right after.
The garden is starting to show signs of life finally! I poked a bunch more seeds in out there and mercifully it’s been hot and sunny for about a week now so they are all sprouting. The pumpkin plants in the back are getting HUGE.
I also spotted so tiny little pickling cucumbers starting to form!
Check those little nuggets out! I can’t wait for that crop to come in so I can make some fresh pickles!
And….. remember those pesky Japanese beetles I was lamenting before? Eating my basil? I found a solution that has worked so miraculously I can’t even believe it. A zero chemical, enviromentally friendly, relatively low effort solution. Remember these guys:
Every day when I go out to water the gardens I collect the beetles (easy – just pluck them right off the plant) in a bucket, shake it up a bit to stun them, and dump them all in the chicken feeder. I’ve never seen a chicken go so insane over a bug. It’s like crack to them. I’ve been doing this for about 4 days now and every day there’s been about 50% less beetles on the plants. Today I plucked a grand total of 4. Totally worth the 10 minutes of effort.
And now since my brain is tired and I have nothing else amusing or interesting I will leave you all with two pictures of my cute little baby who is no longer a baby but a cute little girl, and these photos clearly show that.
Sigh.
Oona Tries the Waterslide
I am not sure she likes it. At first she kept saying “Fun” and “Again” but after a few tries she just started crying. Oh well.
Enjoy.
The Summer Slow
There’s not a whole lot going on besides the usual craziness. Paul bought yet another box truck so he wasn’t home this past weekend and I barely escaped Saturday and Sunday with my sanity intact. The kids have been bugging me non stop to take them over to the community pool, but I just don’t have the energy to pay $25 and haul all of our crap over there; especially when we are not allowed to have floaties (not cool when you have a toddler to wrangle) and there’s really only about 30 minutes of swimming per hour (they make everyone get out every 15 minutes for 15 minutes for these awful “rest breaks”. Waste of money and makes for cranky kids. We need our own pool.
The chickens continue to grow at an almost alarming rate. They should be laying eggs by September sometime – we are looking forward to it! We have also determined that the one we named Prudence is in fact the rooster, and Homer is a hen. They’ve been re-christened “P-Roo” and “Homie-D-Hen”. We also really really need to get our butts in gear and make them their movable run; they’ve picked the earth clean next to their coop.
The gardens look like crap thanks to the almost non-stop rain we’ve been experiencing (along with everyone else up and down the east coast). The front vegetables seem to be faring the best of all of them, though the tomatoes are taking over and the Japanese beetles are eating my basil.
My hanging baskets look awful. I can’t seem to keep them watered well enough – it’s that straw – like lining their planted in.
The front herb garden is choking in weeds and the herbs have been all but drowned to death. I’ve decided that come fall when the tomatoes die out I’ll transfer all of the herbs to the raised beds and I can plant the tomatoes out back next year. That way the herbs will be happy. And speaking of the back garden – of the approximately 832,000 seeds I planted I have barely anything sprouting to speak of. I think it was just too wet and cold for them (except the peas – they are doing gangbusters). Out of frustration on Saturday I poked a few dozen zucchini and yellow squash seeds just barely into the soil and now they are all sprouting – thanks to it being sunny and hot for the last several days (finally!). I think a trip to Lowe’s for more seeds is in order.
I also got me a new Le Creuset stock pot, courtesy of Paul getting a bonus from work for all of his hard work. I fit about 8 corn cobs in it comfortably!
Of course looking at this site made both Paul and I think of a good seafood boil. You can really tell how different we are based on the fact that he was thinking “crawdads” and I was thinking “Lobsters”. Alas I had neither so we simply had corn on the cob with our dinner and I made my famous blueberry gateau. This has been a favorite seasonal recipe for at least 10 years now. I can’t even remember where I got the recipe, but I make about a zillion and a half of them while blueberries are in season. After that it’s just too expensive.
See? Two cups of fresh blueberries tossed with sugar and flour and tossed on top of a nice cakey batter before going in the oven.
Then it comes out like this:
It’s Paul’s favorite dessert ever.
Anyhoo, now that I’ve made myself hungry……that’s all I’ve got. It’s summer, and it’s slow. Hopefully there’ll be more to regale you with soon!
A Day In The Life
12:30 am – off to bed finally.
1:30 am – Wake up to pititful cries of Juice! Juice! from little Oona. Administer sippy cup (full of water, not juice), briefly fall back to sleep before waking to DONE!!! and having said sippy cup smacked rudely into face. Put sippy cup back on nightstand.
2:00 am -Wake up to whining and cries of Cuddle!! from a very restless Oona. Attempts to cuddle are met with cries of Stop it! Stop it! Hey!! Wrestle for 20 minutes trying to get her into a happy and sleepy place.
2:30 am. PACI!!!! Fumble around in the dark looking for paci in the sheets. Check under pillows. Roll over and squint through the darkness on the floor. Give up and turn on light, ignoring increasingly louder screams for paci. Pull apart bedsheets and blankets lookng for GD paci. Concede defeat, grab Oona, go downstairs in search of paci.
2:45 am – back to bed.
7:00 am. Aware that Oona is wide awake and crawling over to side of bed to get down. Stop her. Get rewarded with crying.
10:00 am – Unhappily roll out of bed after enduring 3 hours of restless baby crawling all over and pulling at hair and trying to go downstairs by herself.
10:05 – make coffee while holding Oona, who has begun to scream Oh-gook!!! Grab yogurt out of fridge, sit Oona on bar stool in kitchen with her yogurt, sit down and attempt to drink coffee.
10:10 – finished with her yogurt, Oona throws herself face first off of stool onto floor and cries.
10:15 – cuddling on couch with Oona.
10:20 – Oona throws her weight around and spills now cold cup of coffee all over lap and couch. Grumble loudly and get up to clean self off and make new cup of coffee. Neve begins whining campaign in attempt to get her oatmeal made for her.
11:00 am – pull small tick off of belly while getting into shower. Shampoo while Oona chants Shake your Butt and destroys a roll of toilet paper.
12:00 pm – Oona is total mess 15 minutes after being cleaned and dressed. Neve wants lunch. Oona is screaming for apples. Remind Neve she still has half full bowl of oatmeal to finish. Watch her stomp and cry. Manage to elude Oona long enough to get dog on leash and out the back door to relieve herself. Dog stands still and woeful, unwilling to answer her clearly pressing need due to the rain. Sigh, return to house, give Oona juice, turn on Spongebob, go to garage with Oona screaming and hot on heels. Listen to Oona scream on other side of door while getting chicken feed ready.
12:20. Fall face first into chicken coop while attempting to feed. Feebly swat away flies with poop – covered hands. Close up coop after finishing chicken duties.
2:00pm – Cleaned of poop, lunch made and eaten, dishes done, Oona cleaned up from her 4th or 5th meal of the day, relaxing on couch trying to knit. Oona believes this is “jungle gym” time. Become increasingly frustrated over arms and feet in face, elbows digging into belly, rancid poopie smell coming from her diaper. Oona grabs at knitting needles and rips sock in progress away and throws it across room.
2:30 pm – after much wrestling finally manage to convince Oona her diaper needs to be changed. She continues kicking while being cleanup up, and the dog is frantically asking to go back out. Throw out diaper, wash hands and grab leash with Oona hanging off of left leg. Take dog and Oona out in rain. Dog refuses to budge again. Walk out into wet and muddy yard with dog, wait full 10 minutes before dog finally does her business. Go back inside. EMily and Neve are screaming at each other. Break up fight. Emily stomps away in a fury. Neve wants to know if it is lunch time yet.
3:00 pm. Oona a total cranky mess, clearly in need of a nap. Oona pulls Neve’s hair and tries to rip keys off of laptop. Stop her and she yells HEY!! and begins throwing tantrum, still holding firmly to Neve’s hair. Emily yelling at Oona to stop and at Neve to stop. Yell at Emily to mind her own business. Emily stomps away in a fury. Oona lets go of Neve’s hair and demands a marshmallow.
3:30 pm. Oona still crying for marshmallow. Opt instead to put her in car and drive around the block to put her to sleep.
3:45 pm -Oona is asleep after a brief trip to the end of our road. Put her in bed. Neve asks for a snack. Emily wants help with making her bracelet. Neve can’t find her crayons. Clean up mess from lunch. Feed dog, finally. Emily begs to have coffee. Refuse. Emily begs louder and Neve joins. Give emphatic NO! EMily stomps off in a fury. Remark under breath that she will really get it if she wakes up the baby. Neve begins rough housing with dog. Give menacing look at both.
4:00 pm – Tidy up downstairs and water hanging flower baskets out front that are too sheltered to benefit from the rain. Send Emily out with umbrella to check the mail. Receive incorrect bill of $2,000.00 from insurance company. Spend half an hour on phone with them while Neve hops around singing and dancing, making too much noise and begging for a marshmallow. Emily still wants coffee.
5:00 pm Dog barks loudly at Fed-ex truck delivering our monthly coffee shipment. Neve screams Someone’s here!! and runs for the door, despite being told 800 billion times to NEVER do that. Emily comes down the stairs with a wide awake Oona in her arms, claiming the dog woke her up. Neve wants to know what is for dinner. Resist urge to throw box of coffee at her.
6:00 pm Finish cooking spaghetti while holding Oona. Find that her diaper has leaked. Change shirt and put new diaper and dress on Oona. Serve dinner to kids. Dog needs to go out again.
6:30 grab plate of food to eat. Oona screams Cuddle and demands to be held in lap – this makes eating difficult and pretty much guarantees she will be sharing. Find her juice cup and refill it for her. Allow kids to play on the Wii while attempting to gain some nourishment.
6:45 pm – Emily and Neve are screaming at each other over game. Refuse to listen to any instructions. Turn off Wii. Emily stomps off in a fury. Neve wants dessert. Dog still needs to go out.
7:15 – Clean pile of dog poop off of living room floor.
7:30 pm – clean up dinner mess while holding Oona.
8:00 pm – Sit down on couch, feet aching. Oona screams for crackers. Ask Emily to get Oona one graham cracker. Emily gives her the whole box.
8:10 pm – Oona feeds entire box of graham crackers to the dog.
8:30 pm – fight Oona to change another poopie diaper.
9:00 pm – Yell at older kids to clean up their various messes all over the living and dining rooms. Neve whines and claims it’s all Emily’s fault. Put Oona in jammies. Grab Liquid antibitoics and dropper and begin hunt for Jasper cat. Put Oona on bed and ask her to stay put while Jasper gets his medicine. Lock self and cat in bathroom while Oona pounds on door and screams. Wrap cat in towel, jab dropper in his mouth, squirt meds. Cat becomes angry but swallows anyway. Feel bad for the best behaved member of the household and let him go.
9:10 pm. Open door for Oona who is now naked and wants to sit on her potty.
9:15 pm – re – diaper and dress Oona while Emily and Neve fight over something downstairs. Ignore it. Sit on couch with Oona and knitting and try to relax and wait for Oona to go to sleep.
10:00 pm – Neve running around like a wild hooligan and screeching with Oona. Every attempt to calm them down fails. Finally scream at Neve to sit quietly and watch tv or go to her room. Neve stomps away muttering under her breath but goes no further than the kitchen. Resumes wild behavior 5 minutes later.
10:05 pm – Yell at Neve and repeat warning. Neve argues she doesn’t want to go upstairs and wants to play with Oona. Begin counting to three. Neve stomps toward the stairs crying and screaming. Oona laughs and demands more “oh-gook”.
10:30 pm – Neve sneaks back down and begins roughing around with the dog and Oona again. Yell at her yet again and send her back upstairs. Hear crash from up there. Ignore it. Oona continues to careen around wildly and jump on couch, tearing away yarn and making knitting impossible. Dog begins barking wildly at thumping noises Neve is making upstairs. Give up on knitting and pour glass of soda. Bemoan inability to drink alcohol due to being sole adult in the house. Neve returns and begins crying about wanting to open dvd cabinet to pick out a movie. Oona immediately tries to get in the cabinet as well. Yell at Neve to go back upstairs while she throws massive tantrum. Oona demands soda while Emily tries to cuddle her, making her mad. Yell at Emily to let her go. Emily stomps off in a fury.
11:15 pm. Laying in bed with Oona trying to convince her to go to sleep. Dog is chasing the cat downstairs and Neve keeps wandering around, slamming doors as she goes. Emily joins cat chase and makes plentiful noise doing so. Both girls eventually settle into their bedroom and slam door. Presumably they have the cat. They begin lots of giggling and thumping around.
11:45 pm – Oona is finally asleep. Carefully make way downstairs to let dog out one last time. It’s pouring. Come in, lock doors, clean up and go upstairs. Tell girls to be quiet and go to sleep. Go into bathroom and change into pajamas. Wash face, brush teeth, give cats water and food. Attempt to sneak into bed with a book.
12:15 am – peer over edge of book at spider gliding down from ceiling toward the bed. Smoosh him between two books, waking up baby.
12:20 am – turn off lights, snuggle up next to baby, closes eyes, pray she falls back to sleep soon.
Passing it On and A Summer Flashback – A Blog in Two Parts
Marie Grace did a post last week where she mentioned me and a few other bloggers as a way to spread the Blog Love, so I figured it’s only fair that I pay it forward and mention some of my favorite reads. It’s really cool that Marie mentioned me because, as I’ve mentioned to her, she was my “gateway blog”. Back in the day I was poking around the internets looking for some free knitting patterns and stumbled upon her site. I was instantly hooked by her wool and child stories and not only became a regular lurker, but branched out to other blogs she mentioned, and others those bloggers mentioned, and so on. As it turns out, Marie has dome it again by mentioning this past Friday yet more blogs I hadn’t known about. So without further ado, here is a list of a few of the blogs that have provided me many hours of entertainment and vicarious living, as well as tips. tricks and crafting inspiration.
Marie Grace Designs. Obviously! She lives on a budding farm in PA with her kids and chicks and geese and goats. You had to know I’d love that. Check out her original knitted designs – very classic and elegant. She’s also the one I blame credit for getting me back into sewing – she mentioned the Favorite Things patterns. I checked them out, and the rest is history. My sewing bug came back out of retirement and bit me. Hard.
The Pioneer Woman. Not really a crafting blog, but way inspirational nonetheless. Ree married an honest to goodness cowboy, got married, moved out onto a cattle ranch and had some kids. The pictures are breathtaking and her stories are always fun to read. My friend Melanie recently alerted me to her site knowing I would love it. And I do!
Coal Creek Farm. Another recent find – she’s mentioned on Pioneer Woman’s Page. Lots of great stories and pictures. Her chicken butchering story made me realize I do not want the mess and hassle of raising meat birds. She doesn’t take herself too seriously and I imagine she’d be a hoot to hang with. Highly amusing!
Maine Island Knits. She lives (and knits!) on a tiny island 8 miles off the coast of Maine and is married to a Lobsterman. Dudes. Need I say more? You know I was a salty New England sea dog in my last life, right? I just found her thanks to Marie Grace and I am remembering why I am still such a Yankee despite 12 – odd years in Virginia.
Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm Blog. Martha’s Vineyard. Fiber. Farm. Blog. Sheep, wool, Martha’s Vineyard. Hudson Valley, too. That’s all I’m sayin’.
If you check out my blogroll you’ll notice a lot more links to fabulous blogs, some very well known ( you all know I love the Yarn Harlot, and who doesn’t?) Check ’em out if you’ve got the time.
And now to part 2 – where I salivate over pictures from summer 2007, when I was pregnant with Oona. Reading the Maine Island Knits blog made me all heartsick for Martha’s Vineyard and I don’t think I’ve ever posted pictures from that trip here. We only had 2 days – but it was a glorious 2 days without children (except the one in my belly!).
There’s Oona! Hanging out, about a month away from her debut! And those stupid shoes, let me tell you. I got me some Birkenstocks because everyone always says how comfy they are, and don’t they make orthopedic shoes? Anyway I needed all the comfort I could get at that stage so I bought some. Not only were they NOT comfortable (still aren’t, despite 3 years of trying to break them in) but during a bout of bad judgment trying to quickly cross a busy street one of the shoes came off and tripped me. I fell face first into a bush. On a busy street. Eight months pregnant. People stopped their cars to ask if I was ok. I actually cried of embarrassment. Not my best moment. It was the only bad part of an otherwise perfect weekend.
People, this is somebody’s back yard. I kid you not. Their house is to the left of this picture. I could just about die of jealousy. Check out that fog.
It was pretty overcast and grey our first day on the island. I loved it. The beaches were EMPTY. It made exploring and picture taking that much more fun.
Martha’s Vineyard is covered in blue hydrangeas. They are everywhere. I wish I could get them to grow all around my house this way. They must love that salty sea air.
Menemsha fishing village. I heart Menemsha.
We went early in the day to check out that little nugget of a village when it was still pretty overcast and foggy. We had heard that it was kind of the “thing” to go back in the evening and sit on the beach to watch the sunset.
Lucky for us the sun came out right around the time it needed to in order to make it’s nightly descent.
We got to the village with plenty of time to spare – though the beach was definitely getting crowded by then.
I love the boats. I checked them all out before picking a nice spot on the beach to watch the sun go down. Families and couples were having evening sand picnics – chilled white wine with steamers and lobster, courtesy of a little sea side shack called The Bite, that must have been fantastic, given the amount of traffic it had. Had I not been pregnant (and with better planning on our part) I would have totally done the wine and clams. (We did end up going to the Black Dog Tavern where I unwisely ordered a 3 lb. lobster. Oy. )
As the sun went down a fishing boat put out to sea, gulls flocking all around it. People toasted the end of a beautiful day.
Just about the most romantic thing ever. When I win the lottery, I am totally buying a second home there.
Merry Magpie Farm 