Distractions

 

 

 It is very hard to sit down and write cheerful things on this blog when my heart is left mute by unthinkable, unfathomable things. 

We don't have 'television' so we don't have opportunity to watch the news every day and this is intentional.  This is not because of an ostrich approach, with our heads in the sand, but so that our time will be spent on real news and so that we can get the news without the banter of talking heads.  We still very much follow the news, even when we wish we didn't.  The news from the nation is telling OF the nation, and the non-news is just as telling. And when crime is ignored and non-crimes are punished severely one must wonder what is wrong with people?  But I know what is wrong.    Despair is what fills my skin these days.

I planted two raspberry bushes, two blueberry bushes and a thornless blackberry bush under the looming gray sky yesterday.  My in-laws said I could dig up some baby huckleberry starts from their property to start our own patch here at Hopestead too so that will be next. 

The perennials need attention, the flower circle a good mulching.

Schoolwork still needs to be done and Haydn listened to and a certain little boy still needs to be reminded to go potty before it is too late.

We have had company on Monday night for dinner, a family over on Tuesday for lunch and will have most of my side of the family over on Sunday for a belated Easter gathering...

 and for these little distractions, I am very thankful.

Sycamore

Since we moved into this house a year ago, I have had to prepare many a meal on laminate flooring.

And I don't mean the fancy modern laminate WOOD flooring.  I mean that vinyl-y, bendable flooring that was so hot in the 80's.

I kid you not.

My children have incredible flexibility. 

Why a person would put that on their counters I will never know.  But there it was.  And there is stayed-for a year.  Ugh.

That is, until my handy hubby had his way with it.  (That sounds bad.)

He built me a beautiful wooden countertop from a sycamore log that had fallen into the creek at our old house, that he had sawed up for a "someday" project.  I know nothing about wood but apparently good sycamore logs floating down the creek is a bad thing.

So now, thanks to him, I have a lovely (and free!) new countertop to work on!  And thanks to my in-laws, I have a new dishwasher hooked up that I can stow away dirty dishes in so I can actually SEE the beautiful counter for most of the day.

I do not, however, have cupboard doors that will shut...as  you can probably surmise from these photos.

Even still, I count myself a lucky lady.

Wandering Heart

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A little secret about me is that I don't actually go outside in winter, if I can help it.  I stay holed up inside willing the winter away right from the beginning.  If I MUST, I bring wood in; if I MUST, I take out the garbage; if I MUST, I survive the walk to the car to get groceries or go to church.  But only if it is an absolute necessity.  It isn't that I don't love to be outside.  It is only that I don't love to be cold.  In fact, I rather hate it.

Needless to say, spring can never come soon enough for me.  March is a particularly hard month to endure.  I am constantly on the lookout for some sign- some hint that spring is coming again.  The first redwing blackbird call.  The first crocuses.  The first beating of returning wings from Canada. The first rusty red belly on the lawn.  I heard the first peeper song yesterday!

 It all makes me ridiculously happy.

From now on, it will hard to keep me INSIDE. 

We have gone exploring every day since the the crocuses popped.  We took Skeeter the pony with us and tied him up at the edge of the woods.  He liked that.  Ruby the dog, too, loves our adventures.  The other day Judah climbed up on top of a forest stonewall and just screamed at the top of his lungs.

It was glorious.  Just exactly the right thing to do.

 

Birthday Weekend

We celebrated Andrew's birthday over the weekend and what a beautiful weekend to do it.  Ahhhhh, spring....I can feel your tip-toeing.  I can hear your whispers.

I do feed him, by the way.

Andrew has been a cowboy for so long,  I thought a change of perspective might do him some good.  I've wanted to make him a teepee for so long and really intended to for Christmas, but then never did (as usual).  I knew if I didn't do it soon he might outgrow the coolness of it before he could ENJOY the coolness of it.  Seven seems like such a teetering age, teetering between young and old.  But I just won't think about that right now.

Instead of unwrapping a present, he unwrapped his eyes.

The whole tribe.

 Since there are other little indians running around this place, I wanted to make it large enough to accommodate a whole tribe and/or some REAL play and not just sitting in it.   A great thought- but, it turns out, not very practical for a bedroom that is nearly the same size as the teepee!



 


I used these two teepee tutorials.  This one for the size/construction.  This one for the lacing/opening.  I used just over one canvas dropcloth...if you made it even the tiniest bit less huge, you could get away with buying just ONE dropcloth.

I made a fleece fire pillow, too, using the fleece supply that never-ends.

 

No underage pipe smoking happened during the taking of this photo.  Ps.  I love Corynn's expression.

We ended the night with another bonfire.  The edible kind.

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

~Pretty~
 


After taking a little Miss Adele' to the doctor for a terrible, terrible cough yesterday I had to stop at the store and get more honey.  (Honey, in case you didn't know, is just about the best cough suppressant in the world!  This last month I have used up my stores!)  The Easter lilies were gorgeous and the smell beckoned me straight from the entrance.  And they were marked down to $2.99!  I probably shouldn't have- but that didn't stop me! :-)    I have been in DIRE need of good smells!

I now have three Easter lilies- and I put one of them by my bed.  Having flowers by my bed is what I consider to be one of the greatest luxuries and on the rare chance that I do it, it makes me feel very much like a queen.  I LOVE waking up to flowers.

~Happy~



A new knitting project.  This one, in newborn size.  Not because I have a newborn coming (sniff) but rather because the newborn size is the smallest, silly- and so the fastest to finish!  Plus, I have a lot of single skeins that have been given to me that need to be used up on smaller projects because matching dye lots is near impossible and I feel extremely guilty going out and buying yarn for a project when I have so much already that needs to be used.

The worlds longest run-on about yarn.  You heard it HERE.  For free!  ;-)

~Funny~
 

Our dog Ruby treed a raccoon...and was she ever pleased with herself.  The coon?  Not so much.

~Real~

Poor little seedlings.  I bought the lights required to become a fancy-schmancy seed starter but with my husband out of town all week on business, the seedlings are going to have to wait for their shelves.  Hopefully soon!  In the meantime, the window is working out remarkably well considering how drafty they are.

Seven

 

Andrew, my panda, had a birthday yesterday.  He turned seven.  SEVEN. 

Since he has been lying listless on the couch for days, I knew it was going to be a dud birthday for him.  His Papa is out of town to boot, making it even more sad.  On the eve of his birthday, I tried to gently get him used to the idea of not getting a birthday cake on his birthday- or me cooking him his birthday meal.  He actually took it very well- the thought of birthday cake made him nauseous, which I guess was a blessing.  His birthday would be postponed until Saturday when he (hopefully!) felt better and Matt was home to share it.   He was too sick to be too disappointed that night but I was disappointed enough for the both of us.  He went to bed saying "I just hope I feel better for my birthday.  I just want to feel better..."

When he woke up the next day, we realized he got his first birthday present right away- his fever had FINALLY broken in the night!  He felt strong enough to walk, he actually SPOKE several times- and though he couldn't eat anything, he appeared much more the Andrew that I know and love, albeit a might bit subdued.




 

 

I wanted so badly to make the day special, so I hung some garlands and blew up some balloons and hoped he would enjoy.  Corynn made a few balloon flowers for him from her balloon kit.  And I wrapped up one of his presents so that he could have SOMETHING to open on his birthday.

 



My boy LOVES him some playmobil.  He is more than a bit obsessed!  His other obsession?  Cows.  (duh.)  So when I saw this cow and pig set at Wegmans for 75% off after Christmas, I knew it had to be his. 

He had about a 1/3 of a bowl of chicken noodle soup for dinner.  No school on birthdays, especially re-coup birthdays, so he played with playmobil the entire day.  (Any other mothers of playmobil obsessed children out there?!?)

Even with all the disappointments and a day that didn't feel at ALL special (in my opinion)- he snuggled into me that night with twinkling eyes and a sheepish grin and thanked me for making his day so special "with the balloons, and the pom poms and the COW playmobil, Mama!!  I can't believe I have a calf playmobil now!  I really liked the balloons too."  He was completely pleased with his one gift and had no thoughts about getting anything else.

It about melted my heart in a puddle right there. And made me so proud.  Instead of dwelling on what he didn't have, he was giving thanks for what he DID have.

I fully intended to give him a haircut before Easter-but then he got sick.  That's why he looks like a sheepdog.

 His real birthday with real cake and an edible dinner and a super-cool (I want it!) handmade gift will come on Saturday.  I can't wait to celebrate this boy of mine then and do it right. 

And I can't WAIT until he sees his gift...and he thinks playmobil and balloons are great!

Happy Easter!

 

 

 

No pretty pictures of egg hunts or spiffy Easter duds for THIS blog.  Instead you get sad puppy faces and enamel puke bowls.  (My apologies.)

An alternative blog post?  Everywhere the little boy went, the puke bowl was sure to follow.

Yep- the boys were next in line to Miss Addie Mae.

 Lots of all-nighters for this Mama, fevered foreheads, laundry loading and story reading (SO MANY stories).  Plenty of episodes of Petticoat Junction from the library too.  (Judah does a pretty good rendition by now.)  In fact, the beginning theme song of every Petticoat Junction episode has me watching my littlest guy who gets the cutest little half-grin of delight every time the train comes rolling down the track to the junction (petticoat...junction...)  So cute.

That was our Easter.  The house looked like a crochet-covered hospital ward.

Fevers have finally broken and appetites are s-l-o-w-l-y returning, so I am praying we are over and done this sickie season.  We've never had so much sickness before and I am (har har) SICK of it.

Hope your Easter was full of good things and precious Truth.