I may be reaching the critical “I can’t keep up with all of this on my own” point.  Good thing vacation is near.

The weeds have completely choked out the herb garden, the veggies are so overproducing I may never eat meat again, the hanging baskets are dead.  And we’re not going to discuss the kids’ rooms.   I’ll be completely redoing Emily’s room soon – different everything and clearing it out totally – as soon as I have the go ahead from the boss (I’m guessing it should be okay to do right around when she’s ready to leave for college).   The great laundry mountains continue to defy me with their awesome size, and the fur has kicked up with a vengeance now that the temperature outside has risen to nuclear.  I gave Emily chores – including dishes – but that doesn’t seem to be working so well.  Despite all of my efforts it takes her up to 8 hours to wash one small sink full of dishes.  And then I usually have to re-wash them anyway.

All this frustration is definitely taking its toll – my will power and ability to avoid McGriddles has been severely depleted.  So sinful.  SO very bad for me.  But soooo yummy.

Anyway I’ve gotten some sewing projects done that I’m pretty happy with and the baby is doing great.  She’s now saying mama, dada, kitty cat, puppy dog, uh-oh, no, ow, and peekaboo. She’s 25th percentile for her height and 50th for her weight.  Little chunky monkey baby!

And then there’s Neve, who’s also doing great, except that she greeted the nurse at her well – child check-up by saying “I don’t want to see you pull out anything sharp.”

Well I’ve been husband – less for the better part of the month, and as we prepare for his imminent return I’ve been taking stock of how things have held up over the past couple of weeks. I think I’ve done pretty well, if I do say so myself. The house looks pretty darn good for only having one responsible adult and 3 small children (plus all the pets).

I’ve gotten a lot accomplished as well, given the circumstances. I painted the play/craft room and moved all of my “stuff” into it. I even got some stick – on “stained glass” for the palladium window over the kids’ toys:

Check out that color!!!

I’ve gotten the kids to the pool twice – I would have gone every day but it costs $20 every time we go. Each time when we left I had 2 screaming girls who wanted to stay in the pool “forever or at least every day”.

I’ve managed to feed them all decent meals and I’ve gotten to do yoga on Wii Fit every day (I make Emily help with Oona….)

And I’ve taken a break from knitting to do some sewing. Yep. I’m hot into sewing right now. I made quite a bit recently, including an orangey shirred – top dress for Neve:

And I had to make one for Oona to match:

I’ve also made a few things for me but I have no pictures yet. 8 and 5 year olds don’t make the best photographers unless you want a more “abstract” theme. I also have a quilt I am working on with some awesome fabric that has cute little VW buses on it. It’s perfect for us, of course.

In other news:

The vegetable bed has exploded in the last week, since we’ve had tons of humidity and rain:

I have a few yellow squash coming in, and the tomatoes are budding like mad. Unfortunately the japanese beetles are also back, and swarming like you wouldn’t believe. One of them traveled into the house in my hair yesterday and nearly gave me a heart attack. Speaking of which – we seem to be working on a 2 spider per day average. Happily they have not been too large, but they have been quick and I don’t like them either way. They’re probably after the colony of fruit flies that has taken up residence in my kitchen sink, despite all efforts at total cleanliness.

I’m happy to see that Ice Road Truckers is back on. The only disadvantage to being up in the craft room all the time is there is no satellite up here. I will be needing to remedy that. Can’t miss my Discovery and History channels, after all.

All in all things have been busy and active despite the lack of going anywhere much and pulling in all the spending reins to save cash. Gas and food prices being what they are has had me budgeting much tighter lately. I don’t go to the grocery store without a list and a full out plan for how we can eat well yet cheaply for as long as possible. It seems to be working fairly well – today was the first day I did a big grocery shopping in two weeks and we were still in decent shape. It does mean eating hot dogs for lunch and spaghetti for dinner more often than we’re used to, but hopefully we’ll get a bumper crop of squash and tomatoes this summer to throw on the grill!

You know, once a year we see all these commercials and sappy cards about how much mom means to us.  And I do buy into it – I think the mother/child bond is a pretty strong one – stronger in most cases than the father/child bond.  (Don’t get me wrong – I think dads are just as important for kids as moms, and I don’t ever want to imply that all moms are better than all dads at the whole parenting thing.  I am generalizing because this is Mother’s Day so forgive me. )

What gets me is that it’s a holiday that seems to say Wow, mom – it must be hard raising kids – thanks for being so graceful at it! The truth is, I don’t know anyone who feels very graceful at it.  And I think the hard work involved gets kind of glossed over in the name of making us feel like a crappy card and some flowers once a year makes up for all the pain & sacrifice.  And since we already know all the reasons why motherhood is worth it, I’d like to make up a list of some of the more painful truths of motherhood that not everyone may realize (hello fathers/husbands – listen up!):

Your body gets weird. Losing the weight from having babies is HARD.  And unless you’ve got the money or support to get childcare and a gym membership/personal trainer/weight set to rebuild your muscle tone…..well you’re going to be all lumpy.  And you will feel like your belly has become some sort of flabby empty pouch.  And the boobs?  Forget it.  If you’re lucky, they’ll just sag a bit.  Most of us end up with droopy skin sacks that look like they belong in National Geographic. Plus there’s stretch marks, and for many of us that nurse, the various bruises and welts that we will sport on our arms and chests from babies who like to squeeze and scratch while they eat.  You also can’t count on getting a regular shower.  So add sweaty, stinky and greasy to the list of how you feel.

Speaking of bodies….you lose your sex life.  It’s hard to get intimate when you have a barnacle hanging off you all the time.  Even when they’re not infants, most kids don’t understand the need for “personal space” or “private time”.  Then there’s the sheer exhaustion.  If all of this weren’t bad enough, many of us are insecure about our post – pregnancy bodies and don’t feel attractive enough (most men don’t seem to be bothered by our new bodies.  They just want to get naked and get it on.  The men that are bothered…well, they are immature jackasses and don’t deserve a baby mama).  No sex equals a lot of tension in a relationship…but it doesn’t matter because you don’t have time for a relationship now anyway.

You can lose your sense of self.  Your interests get subjugated to those of the family.  (no, going out alone to get your hair done does not constitute “me time” anymore than managing an hour without the kids to buy groceries or do laundry does).  You are, for better or worse, chained to creatures who don’t mind screaming and making a spectacle in public and will get in your way no matter what you try to do.  Again, only people with money for nannies or fabulous husbands get regular “free time”.  Even bathroom time is no longer sacred.

You spend great effort to clean/care for/ dress/ feed small people who will complain and fight you every step of the way.  They don’t want to wear that adorable outfit from Gymboree that makes them look sweet.  They want something garish and sparkly that doesn’t match, hasn’t been washed yet and most likely smells of pee.  And just try to brush their hair.

They also don’t want any food you make.  It’s gross.  They don’t care if it’s good for them, if it’s your specialty, or even if you prepared it because you just knew they would love it.  Just because they ate it at grandma’s doesn’t mean they’ll eat it at home.  And if they do, it’ll stain that adorable outfit 3 seconds after you’ve gotten it on them.

Forget sleep.  You’re on duty 24/7 now.  You’ll spend most nights in an awkward position, one ear open and waiting for the sound of being needed.  If you manage to nod off for a quick nap during the day you will encounter either your other child/ren making this almost impossible, a terrible crook in your neck, or your spouse remarking that you certainly don’t look overworked, what with all the snoring and drooling in front of the tv.

If you work outside your home, don’t think you’re getting off easy.  You’re still going to come home and do all the  housework and be mama all night.  It’s sexist, it’s unfair….it’s unavoidable.

The house will never be clean again.  Children are gross.  When they’re not bringing home germs and parasites they are  wreaking havoc on  any sense of order you treasure.  Books and toys scattered everywhere.  Food spilled and smeared on the windows, couch, floor and door knobs.  Crumbs and half – eaten apples under the beds.  An explosion of laundry from which you’ll never satisfactorily recovery.  And a nice little pair of poop stained undies sitting by the front door that you won’t notice until someone pays a visit.

Things you love will be ruined/broken.  It’s gonna happen.  Maybe it’s a cd, maybe it’s your necklace.  Maybe it’s your Kate Spade handbag.  Protect what you can, and be prepared to lose something.

Your patience and strength of will are continually under assault.  You will always be worried, and you will love them so much that sometimes it will hurt.  Like right now, when my 8 month old sweetie Oona is saying “Mama” and giving me kisses.  Looks like it’s payday.

We live in the country in Virginia.  That means lotsa critters!  I never saw this much wild animal/insect action growing up in upstate NY, I can tell you that……even when I stayed on my cousins’ farm.  Heck, I spent a lot of summers hiking around the Adirondack Park and never encountered enough to scare me into staying away from the woods.

Now that I live in a more mild (read: HOT) climate I spend most summers threatening to move to Canada.  But it’s not all bad.  Some of what I see around here is pretty darn cool.  Last August I had a flying squirrel that would come to my bird feeder every night.

Pretty cool, right???

So here is a smattering of what we’ve seen around here this spring.

As always, tons of venison deer:

(That was taken from my living room window)

There’s the territorial little finches at my feeder every day:

(I tried to get a good one of the downy woodpecker and nuthatches we also see, but no luck yet)

A few nights ago, we spotted what we think is a luna moth:

It was HUGE!!!!

This next poor little critter was long dead………we found this shell and bones down by the stream:

It was way cool, but kinda disturbing, too.  I found all of his little vertebrae and bones there.  There was a ton of little tadpoles in the stream so we’ll have some amphibian action soon!

Then yesterday when I moved the garbage can I found this guy:

What I thought was steel wool was actually a wooly bear caterpillar. After I made a call to the local wildlife and pest authority (mom) and ascertained that he was harmless, I went back out to collect him with a jar, but alas, he had gone. Freaky though, huh?

And now that we’re talking creepy / crawly, I found a redback spider in the sunroom yesterday, a lonestar tick on my living room window, and spent 3 hours picking live, crawling nasty lice out of Emily’s hair today.  No pics of those.

Canada, ho!!!!