Schmorganization

All my best intentions for clearing out my house prior to baby are evaporating in a sea of potty training and recalcitrant attitudes from my children. My four year old is continuing her nasty streak of bad attitude plus disrespectful talk, which is really wearing me down. My husband is now stepping in when she backtalks to me repeatedly, because it's like she just turns off her ears. I have put toys in time-out and she's lost shopping privileges in her store, plus she has been THIS close to losing a swimming lesson. And she's started egging on her brother in naughty behavior. "But I didn't do it..." She still gets in trouble for egging him on, but this represents a new level of sneakiness in being naughty.

Our son is well versed on using the potty to pee, but has now regressed significantly with his other business, to the point that I am having to clean out his underpants several times a day. It's a rarity for him to actually POOP on the potty and the toilet. I hope part of it is some dehydration that's contributing to a bit of constipation, so we are pushing water and reinforcing "use the potty for pooping". Still, it's more than a bit grinding to have him come in at 7:00 in the morning to tell me that he has literally JUST pooped in his underpants, not two minutes after I dressed him. THIS is the definition of frustating, folks. He's only two and a half, he's only two and a half. This is like my new mantra of sorts. That and my husband's favorite, "This, too, shall pass."

The problem is that I am already pretty cranky from being pregnant, and dealing with both of these kiddos on a daily basis is just using up 90% of the energy reserves. I am almost to the point that I don't actually care about my vegetable garden. Meh. Grow, don't grow, whatever. My corn looks incredibly pathetic, I am not hopeful about results there. My tomatoes are being stunted by our cold nights, and have I even thought about re-rigging my greenhouse? Meh. And still no carrots planted. I did re-sow the french beans that didn't come up, because my FIL specifically requested them for their visit. But everything else? Whatever. Weeds everywhere. Our lawns, which were well-watered last summer, are brown and infested with broad leaf weeds. My apple & pear trees, host to some good looking immature fruit, are probably all going to be eaten up by apple coddling moth larva because I haven't painted them with Tanglefoot or put footie nylon socks on them. I did get DH to spray my cherry trees, which were infested by pear slugs (aka sawflies). Purely a pragmatic move on my part to save my $70 investment in them, as those things can kill young trees. Still, it's a measure of my supreme indifference to the situation that I still say, "Meh."

My house is just...*sigh* I don't know how to describe it. It's hard enough to keep the living areas and the kids' bedrooms tidied. My floors haven't seen a mop in a month. Decluttering and organizing is sooooooo not happening. Bathroom? Tub is DONE! Huzzah! In working order, and I had the first bubble bath to confirm it. This is the one bright spot in the project. Installed the shower curtain rod? Em... Removing excess mortar from edges of tub surround and retexturing? Erp, no. Painting? Not so much. Trims & crown moldings? Uh, no. Linens all restored to their rightful places, with newly painted door in place? No.

Our bedroom is still a mess. I've been slowly digging out from that, as the linens get put back. However, still have baby clothes in boxes that need to be put back in the cottage until baby is ready for them. Where we had placed the pack & play previously, we now have a bookshelf. So books & bookshelf need to be moved, to make room once again for the cot. There isn't any alternative--this is the only place that it will fit in the room. Of course the baby will probably end up in bed with us, but we still need the cot for crib training. This means I have to find a place for all those books...which in turn means I need to go through ALL the books in the house, winnowing out the ones we don't need to keep, and then making a trek with them to the library to donate them. Yeah. LOL! Like THAT will happen!

I know my MIL will help me with all of these projects. My FIL is keen to get out and help clean up the garden (I didn't even mention the front flower beds...disasters!). However, we can't just put them to work 8 hours a day, every day that they are here. They are coming to visit us, not help us catch up on our crappy household management. And I'm going to have a newborn--really, how likely is it that I'm going to be all full of energy and ready to tackle decluttering and reorganizing, even with another pair of hands to do a lot of the heavy lifting? I'm quite pessimistic about the whole thing, actually, and it's depressing me.

This is just not a happy place for me right now. I'm surrounded by reminders of how much needs to be done, and every time I try to do something the kids get into something else and make a huge mess to be cleaned up. It does not help that I have a stinker baby in utero that is currently in a footling breech position, meaning a repeat c-section is on the cards instead of the VBAC I am hoping for. Baby could still turn, but right now it is just the crappy cherry on a sundae of aggravations. Wah, wah, wah! Thank you for joining my pity party.

The Fava Bean Breakfast

Much to my delight, when we came home our vegetable garden was producing abundantly. Apparently none of the neighbors took us up on our offer to help themselves to anything they liked, as we have a full crop of peas (some of which are drying on the vine), fava beans, and lettuces. Perhaps they had a few ripe tomatoes, but otherwise it is untouched. Thus I have been busy picking & shelling peas and beans, plus figuring out how to serve them up for dinner in a way that my DH might actually eat them.

I had forgotten from my childhood exactly how tiresome a process shelling peas is. In the youthful exuberance of a five or six year old, I simply remembered the fun of picking and shelling your own peas, eating a few as you went. I did not remember having to pick off the little bits of stem still attached to the pea, nor did I remember the annoyance of pods that wouldn't fully separate, so you had to peel them around and around like an apple to get the peas out of the pod. Nonetheless, the "Little Marvel" peas that we ate with dinner on Saturday night were really sweet and yummy. They tasted a lot like sweet corn to me, except with a creamier texture. I ate them until they got cold on my plate, and then I wouldn't touch them (ditto with sweet corn, I'm afraid--just not as appetizing). The kids loved them and even our possibly-picky son enjoyed eating them raw from the pod, and then ate some cooked peas. My DH mixed them in with his spaghetti and ate them, which is a huge step for him. He did rib me about the peas I left on my plate--I don't think he believed me about them going cold.

Anyway, I also picked a bunch of fava bean pods and they were sitting there, waiting to be shelled. I did that last night, and had a bunch of fat fava beans sitting in a bowl to be cooked. However, we forgot to cook them and after I read that I had to peel the beans after cooking, well, I just wasn't too enthused for that chore last night. So when I got up this morning, I was confronted by my bowl of shelled fava beans, looking for a home. I figured the best thing was to cook them and eat them! I am not sure of the shelf life of shelled fava beans, and some were already discolored from their 12 hour time outside of their pods...so I forged on with cooking them for...breakfast! Hey, it's a high protein food, low fat, right? And my kids probably won't care, they will eat them anyway.

It took about five minutes to cook them in some salted water, and about fifteen to shuck them out of their outer skins. The kids ate some and I ate some, but I have to admit that a fava bean breakfast isn't so hot. As a side dish to a meal, yeah, these things would rock. But as a starring starter for the day...hmmm. I am going to cook some oatmeal now, and my cooked fava beans might be reintroduced in a salad later today. Or they might be tossed out. I haven't decided yet. Flavor, good. Looks, good. Timing, bad. My bad.

I Am a Slow Learner

So, I moved from a state with sunshine about 95% of the time, to a state where rain is the prevalent weather condition and when it's not raining, the kids think the sky is normally gray because blue skies only happen for maybe one month in the summertime. You'd think that, knowing this empirically, I would have learned last year to let the children OUT dabnabbit whenever it's somewhat nice outside! But no, I spent last year keeping poor DD cooped up on perfectly fine (if somewhat cold & windy) days during early spring and early fall.

"It's too cold out," I would say.
"It looks like it's going to rain."
"It's too windy to play outside."

Really, what was I thinking?? It ALWAYS looks like it is going to rain here. And "too windy" to play outside? *Guffaw!* Puh-leeze! If they're not getting blown over and trees are not crashing to the ground, it's not too windy.

There are so many benefits to letting the kids gambol about the yard. For one, I can get some gardening work done. Yes I might be interrupted by having to help get DS in and out of DD's Jeep, or helping him down steps, but I can still get a decent amount of work done.

The kids also get a healthy dose of vitamin D, thanks to the (sometimes weak) sunshine, which they need. They run around and explore and generally enjoy the freedom to get into most everything without having DH or I say "no!" a bazillion times. DD rejoices in every worm I find, and watches bugs, follows spiders, and rhapsodizes about any green tree frogs we find. DS loves feeling the dirt, and will happily plonk himself near me with his little blue shovel, digging away in a pile of dirt.

They come in exhausted and ready for a good nap or good night's sleep. Yes, baths might be a bit more frequent, but exhausted kids are good, because exhausted kids sleep deeply and well. Not many bad dreams or quibbles intrude on the sleep of the truly exhausted child.

So this year, we are going outside whenever it is not pouring. Jackets will be zipped, hoods will be deployed during sprinkles, and we will all enjoy the garden while we can. I know that all too soon fall will be nipping and it will actually be too cold to be outside. In WA our slogan will be, make garden fun while the sun shines.

25 Lbs of Flour

In case you hadn't noticed, grocery prices are climbing through the roof. All dairy products have gone sky-high, eggs have gone sky-high, and now flour and wheat products are skyrocketing. And buckle up, kids, because the ride isn't over yet. Whether it's the fault of increasing demand for biofuels or global warming, we can all expect to continue paying record prices not just for our gasoline, but also for our food. When you're on a limited budget and trying to stretch your food dollars, it makes you consider how much milk your family consumes on a weekly basis and whether you could cut down a bit.

In an effort to assist our bottom line, I am breaking out some new frugal techniques to get the most bang for our food buck. I've already stockpiled a supply of frozen loaves of bread, good enough to last our family for at least four more months. I'm seriously considering buying powdered milk and using that in recipes instead of regular milk, but I've put the idea on pause for the time being because honestly I don't have that many recipes that call for milk instead of water or cream. We use a lot of cream and we drink a lot of milk. I am thinking about switching to mostly soy milk, but that's not any less expensive and would really be for my own health. It would do nothing to help our grocery budget.

I have also eliminated the mental 'necessity' of a weekly trip to the grocery store. We are pretty well stocked up on most things, so I've just been coasting along on what we have instead of gleaning bargains from the Grocery Game. At this stage of the game, unless I know we will consume it in the coming month or so, I am not buying it. This will force us to use what we already have, as opposed to switching to the new thing just because it's new in the pantry and we want a change. This should lead to less waste, in theory. I've also been re-purposing things like leftover Easter candy. I had a lot of chocolate eggs left over when our neighborhood Easter egg hunt was cancelled due to rain, so I packaged them all up in two gallon size Ziploc bags. Instead of using chocolate chips in cookies, I'm pounding up the mini Cadburys eggs and using those as sort of broken up M&M chunks. I will probably break down and unwrap all the Hersheys eggs to use in a similar manner.

And I finally yielded and bought a 25 lb bag of flour at Costco, along with a 10 lb bag of white sugar. I was tempted by the bag of organic sugar, but to paraphase the words of Marge Simpson, "We can't afford to shop with a philosophy." I'm not sure how I'm going to store the flour yet. I have a shelf open in the second freezer, so that will probably become the receptacle for at least 10 lbs of flour. I don't have designated Tupperware containers, which could prove problematic. I have a couple of large ones though that I can designate as the freezer flour containers, seeing as I hardly use them anyway. Or I can stick with my popular gallon size freezer bags and just scoop away until I've whittled down the in-house supply. Even with the 25 lb bag, I received a sticker shock with the price tag of $9.79. I remember contemplating the flour purchase a month ago and it was only $7.99! That's a 22% increase in a month--ridiculous!

I also bought an enormous quantity of yeast. I am going to go forth with yeast breads and such to see if we can avoid paying exorbitant costs for French bread and plain sandwich bread when we finish up our frozen supply. I have copied Tamarian's blog about her current favorite bread recipe, and I plan to play around with it once I get the hang of it, adding other grains to try to mimic our favorite (but pricey) 8 grain bread from Costco. If I can get the hang of making flour tortillas and naan bread, I will be golden!

I'm also going to be deadly serious about our vegetable garden this year. I am not keen to pay for things which I can grow myself, and fortunately DS is old enough this year to play outside for a bit while I do a bit of maintaining the garden. Hopefully DD will be helpful in keeping him entertained, if not actually helpful in maintaining the garden. I will have to wait a few years for our fruit trees to yield fruit, so I am just going to have to hope for some scores on fruit from eastern WA this summer and fall, or perhaps at our local farmers markets. There are always our neighbors' fruit trees, too. I am asking for the Ball Book of Canning, so I can learn how to safely put up some of these goodies. And I hope to get enough tomatoes from the garden to make some basic marinara sauce and can that, saving us on some pricey Trader Joe's pizza & marinara sauces.

It's all going to be part of the continuing education curve for the whole grocery budget, but there is nothing to be gained from just seeing a larger part of our budget eaten up by rising food costs. I can try my best to save us some money and get us a little more self-sufficient in the process, which I think is a good lesson in frugality in and of itself. The more flexibility in the budget, the faster we pay off debt and get really rolling with retirement and other savings vehicles. It's all part of contributing to our bottom line.

So, how are you coping with the food price pinch?

The Back-burnered Life

One of the things that I find the most striking, in a curious, wannabe-sociologist observational kind of way, is how many parts of myself get back-burnered by this phase of my life. I don't mean just staying at home, but also being a parent as opposed to a young married gal. It's like we pack away parts of ourselves and put them on the shelf for the time being, hoping that someday we get to come back to them and remember those bits again and delve back in to that part of our personalities.

Take my love of music and learning to play the harp. I had been taking harp lessons for a good few years before DD was born. I was getting to that tricky intermediate stage, where I really had to force myself to step away from writing in notes and put some real effort into music theory and learning to sight read music. I was involved in that, I was progressing enough with my playing to be ready to get into trickier pieces, and then I had my DD. That put a burp in my playing, and when I started to re-engage slowly, we moved away. I have to tell you, harp teachers are not thick on the ground, so I am somewhat out of luck, and probably will remain so until I am willing and able to travel into Seattle at least weekly for lessons. I am guessing that I am not going to find a harp teacher anywhere on this side of the water, so I'm thinking I am going to be waiting until my kids are significantly older.

Likewise I was very fond of singing in the choir at church. I really enjoyed singing and was one of the 'powerhouse' altos who could help others out with finding the right notes and blending well. I had some difficulties with the choir time commitments and some political issues that were taking place, so I quit shortly before we moved, and was happier for it. But I still miss it. And our church here doesn't have a choir, so I'm SOL unless I want to commit to being part of the worship team. Er, no thanks...and again, the kiddos are a concern. We are not able to commit to extended stretches of time with the kids, because they simply aren't old enough to handle it. That, too, has been packed away and put on a shelf until I have time for it again.

On the other hand, I get to unpack some things that were on the shelf while I was working full-time and being a single-minded career woman. I really didn't get a chance to indulge my love of baking when I was working full-time. Nowadays I regularly whip up new recipes and tweak old ones to make them better, and I actually use all of my expensive gadgets. I'm venturing out into the worlds of bread-making and candy making, and I find it's very enjoyable to be so domesticated on the kitchen front. Knowing that, after eight years of marriage to the capable (and catering trained) DH, I could probably handle a celebratory dinner for family by myself is tremendously empowering. I don't use recipes for cooking any more, either, which DH views as a sign of his successful influence. I might not be Gordon Ramsey, but I'm no slouch either.

I also am really getting to indulge my love of gardening. I loved Arizona, but choices were rather limited in terms of plant varieties. I also was not really able to grow many vegetables, despite my best efforts. Strawberries were annuals, being routinely turned to crispy brown in the summer, despite our installation of a great watering system with its own timer for the veggie area. Here in Washington, I have beautiful loamy soil to work with, a large yard in which to do so, and plenty of scope for plant variety. There are actual seasons here, with pretty fall color not just a possibility but pretty much guaranteed. And the native plants aren't usually covered in thorns or spiky bits, nor do they produce pollen with protusions the size of the Empire State Building, microscopically speaking. My nasal cavities and sinuses are much happier amongst the friendly plant denizens in Washington. I find worms in the soil on a regular basis, and when I plant things, they are likely to LIVE! This is great stuff for a gardener, I'm telling you. And the veggies I can grow, well, that I should be able to grow...it's good stuff. I do miss my spring crops of young praying mantids abounding in our garden in Arizona, but I can live with their absence. Finding a salamander in my yard and encountering green tree frogs has its own special charms.

ANYWHO, before I continue to rhapsodize about my garden and its wildlife, let me return to my original point, which is this: it's okay that bits of you get set aside sometimes, even if it's for a long while. Because eventually, you will probably get back to them, and if you don't, then they are probably not bits you wanted to keep anyway. It's kind of like a garage sale for your psyche--you clean out the stuff you haven't used for a while and know you're not likely to use again, you box up the stuff you like but don't have time for right now, and you find new bits that you didn't know you had and hey, this is kind of fun here! Sort of like making some big changes when you become a parent, or you move. It's hard to see how it will all pan out, but eventually the good bits you had to back-burner will re-emerge, and for the time being you can enjoy all the other good bits. Or something like that.

Spring Greening

Today is the day DH has been Dreading...the first lawn mowing day of the season! Yep, it's time to change the blade on our riding lawnmower, and get out there and cut the thatch that is currently masquerading as our lawn. In addition, there are noxious weeds attempting to grow in certain areas, including (but not limited to) thistles and stinging nettles, which are verboten on our property with the young'uns running about. Therefore, after lawn mowing is completed, DH is charged with Round-Up duty for the seedling nettles, and I am spading out the thistles. Good times!

On the plus side, we have the fun of cleaning out the flower beds, which is always a happy occasion. I always discover new shoots coming up when I clear away the dead leaves from the crocosmia and daylilies, and I am also likely to find more cheery spring bulbs about ready to flower, which I forget about during their dormant season. I spotted a happy pair of pink hyacinths ready to open up, and the white narcissus that pop up in a neglected corner of the garden are in full bloom. My tulips are up and the Russian tulips are blooming, with their fancy Dutch cousins to follow in a few weeks' time. The daffodils are starting to nod with their bright yellow heads, and my Sparaxis (at least I think that's what they are) are peeking up with their starburst purple blossoms. *sigh* It does my heart good to see all these lovely blooms in my garden.

I also bought four fruit trees (bare root) that must go in the ground today. I have bare root strawberry and blueberry plants to get in the dirt, too, in addition to transplanting all my existing strawberries to their new location. Once the strawberries are gone, we can finally give free rein to our neighbors with the plow and tiller, and we will have a large (for us) vegetable garden plot of about 30' x 30'. I have some stumps that termites and fungus have happily chewed up, so I will be putting the wood chips in the north end of the veggie garden, to make the soil a more fungally dominated one for the satisfaction of our corn. I will keep the rest bacterially dominated, which should keep everyone happy. See all the good little nuggets of information you can get from good regional gardening books, as well as a few nursery classes? And I am going to buy polyethylene sheeting to make "grow cones" to extend our growing season, hopefully keeping our veggies happy well into the fall. Maybe I actually will have a shot at growing some watermelons this year!

We will probably let the kiddos cavort around in the yard while we work, although DS will require a bit more supervision. He is still at the age where tasting everything seems like a good idea, and until we get rid of the thistles and nettles I have to make sure he's not wandering into any of them. Soothing nettle stings is not my idea of a fun parenting moment, and needless to say DS would not be too happy either! Fortunately I have already purchased yard toys, which will provide ample diversions for them. Also, DD will get to help plant more flower seeds, which is always a favorite task. The long flowerbed along the back walkway has been designated as "hers", so anything that goes in there she has to plant herself. We have plenty of sunflower seeds, saved from last year's crop, in addition to sweetpeas, purple coneflower, Shasta daisies, and a grab-bag of 'wildflower seeds'. That bed was gorgeous last summer, a happy confluence of rainbow hues and big and small flowers. Kids are perfect gardeners, because they use the same lackadaisical sowing pattern as the wind. Jumbles of flowers are always welcome in our yard, as are garden experiments with melons (soggy Pacific NW here, this is a long shot, let me tell you) and lilacs (not doing well, I am close to declaring them 'slacker plants' and yanking them). It's all a grand learning process for us all, but I love it. Greening up the garden = fun!

Is It Supposed to Work This Way?

I have this fungal infection of some sort going on in my thumb. Something that's been bugging me for nearly the whole summer, which finally festered over and emerged as ugly dry, cracked, bleeding skin that hurt like h3LL whenever I had to push the carseat buttons or do anything else with my thumb.

So I finally dragged myself to our family practice doctor for the first time, and she diagnosed it as some type of fungal infection and prescribed an antifungal and steroidal cream to apply three times a day or whenever I get a second with 2 preschool children. (She's a mom to a preschooler--she knows how often handwashing is occurring around here.)

That was nearly a month ago. She casually suggested I might also soak the offending digit in a diluted vinegar solution twice a day. As can be expected, I was quite vigilant about applying the cream and skipped the vinegar for the first week, and it appeared to be clearing up. I thought, "Hooray!" and became less vigilant about applying the cream. Lo and behold, a week later, there I was with cracked and bleeding skin again, and a very sour outlook on this whole "unknown fungus" that my skin is battling against.

I mean, is it fair that I do a good thing, trying to improve our yard by gardening, and am attacked by some virulent pathogenic fungus from my soil for my efforts?? It just doesn't seem right! Now I am tossing out my gardening gloves in case they are harboring these nasty spores, and eyeing the rhododendrons and weeds with an evil eye lest they are responsible for this calamity. I was actually trying to play my harp on a semi-regular basis here! I was getting reasonably decent with some easy Christmas pieces! And now this! I'm liable to split my thumb open if I touch my harp, spewing venomous fungal spores all over its strings!

*sulk* SO, here I sit, with my thumb in vinegar. It stings like h3LL and after I can't take it any more, I will lather it with cream that will make it sting in a whole new, semi-numbing way. Is this how the cure is SUPPOSED to work? Hmmm? And at what point am I going to be sick of having a thumb smelling of vinegar? Since I'm still breastfeeding, oral antifungal medication is out. So I guess I will continue to have a stinging thumb, smelling of vinegar, and hope eventually whatever this nasty little single-celled organism is, it DIES and leaves my skin alone! Harrumph.

Fitting the Pieces Together

There are days where everything in my life comes together in a neat little wholesome package and I can look back at my day and see a neatly compartmentalized, well carried-out day that included time with the kids, time for myself, some project work, some Bible study, some housework, and some gardening. They are the kinds of days I strive for every day, but they are not regular occurrences. I would not call them rare, but they aren't regular.

Today is emphatically NOT one of those days. Part of the problem with today is that I did not have a clear plan laid out in my head as to what I wanted to get done today, and how I was going to do it. I find that having a mental map of the day helps enormously when I really want to be productive--an old trick I learned about myself in grad school. However, I am doing my version of running around like a chicken with its head cut off, which is, I am ignoring the big Elephant in the Room...our vacation! Yes we leave in a week. No, I don't have any lists made. No, I haven't talked to the neighbors loaning us the RV to arrange when we will take it to get the oil changed, etc. Yes, I need to do all of those things!

The fundamental problem is that I don't want to do any of those things. I am not sure *what* I want to do, but it's definitely not that. No, no, ignoring the work required to get ready for our vacation is a much more appealing choice. Today is an overcast day, too, so that hasn't helped me feel oh-so-sunny and ready to tackle some projects. The only thing I've got a real yen to do is to get out and weed the veggie garden with the hula hoe, because now that things are sprouting I can see my rows again and I can clean it up a bit before we leave it for the week to the arbitrary nature of a neighbor's watering. It's okay, my garden, I will be back to love you and pamper you with fertilizer and pull those nasty weeds and keep the slugs off you, strawberries...yes I am not abandoning you, I promise!

Ok, so maybe I am getting a bit obssessive about the veggie garden. *LOL* Hey, I want to have produce coming out my ears, that is my goal. Instead I have a son with a red, red butt, which I have discovered is from our favorite brand of diaper rash cream. Not so favorite any more, I guess! And I have my DD, pouring her strawberry lemonade into her yogurt smoothie...how...appetizing... Hmmmm. And sticking the pretzel sticks from her trail mix into her mouth like teeth. I wonder where she gets that from?? (DH!)

And I am tired. I think dealing with the kids by myself non-stop for 48 hours is kind of wearing. I don't know how single moms do it. DH was a pet and brought me ice cream and french fries last night when he got home at 9:30...so what if I used up half my weekly WW points in one sitting?? I finally got to EAT something resembling dinner, that is good! DS was conked out on my lap at the time, so that makes 2 kids asleep and 0 face time with Daddy yesterday for either of them. Fun.

I hope tomorrow is a better day. I really do want to get some things done before we leave, and I've only got 4 more days to do it. On the plus side, we got our first mystery shopping assignment for a restaurant, so that's a meal out that is paid for by someone else. Woohoo! Criticizing or commenting on restaurant service is something we do for fun anyway, so we might as well let someone else pay for our meal for a change.

I really ought to do some more homework on our route, too, and start printing up maps or go to AAA to get free maps. Hmmmmm, I've just realized I don't even know where our local AAA office is...surely we should get some value out of that membership. I think I have a plan shaping up for tomorrow!

Teething, Weeding, & Mousing

I am pretty sure DS is teething. He is not sleeping well during naps now and he is generally complaining about his lot in life with increasing volume. I know he is at the stage where he wants to do more than he has figured out how to do, but the general crankiness on top of it all seems to tip the scales toward cutting those first teeth. I can't remember when DD cut her first tooth--I am a slacker when it comes to baby books or scrapbooking, all those cutesy things. Sorry, if it's not something that I can finish in one session, I am just not going to be up for it. Witness the half-done cross-stitches abounding in my sewing bag. Curtains, bedspreads, that sort of thing--I can see immediate progress, and I can finish those in a few days. All other sewing, knitting, etc--sorry, not quick enough for me! I lose interest before I finish them.

To get off my tangent, I am wondering at what point I should start giving this kiddo teething tablets or Tylenol or the like. I really don't want to medicate my kiddos unless it's necessary, but I haven't got a good feel yet for when it's "necessary" with DS. This is the disadvantage of having a new little person, only 4 months old--it's not long enough to know him real well yet! Oh I know his cries, I know when he's hungry, etc, but the whole 'in pain' part has not factored in thus far, thank the Lord. So I think it will be a month or so before I finally decide what the threshold is for teething, and it will probably be when the little dude is screaming his head off and I can actually SEE a little red swollen bump on his gums. Until then he will have to tough it out--sorry buddy!

We did a mammoth work in the garden last weekend, DS's booger-ish behavior during naptime excepted. DH mowed every corner of our lot and also weed-whacked all the areas that needed it, including some particularly fine specimens of thistle that really ought not to have been allowed to get that big. I did some weed whacking myself, but I have never gotten the hang of the "bump" feeding of the string and so I was quite often stopping to manually unthread some more line and keep going. It was very annoying, so after blasting away around most of the playset and fire pit I happily handed it over to DH and focused on weeding. I managed to remove a good deal of weeds from the shade bed, happily rediscovering all the plants I actually planted in there last fall. They are all thriving, and I even have some lily of the valley in bloom! *swoon* I LOVE lily of the valley, so to have my own little flower stalk of them nodding away under the shade of my cedars just makes my heart happy. I also discovered that one of the weeds is unexpectedly spiny and it likes to stick to my gardening gloves. I would not be happy weeding without gloves, I think, especially since I was pulling up thorny salmonberry sprouts left right and center.

Lastly, we had our pest control person back out again today to treat a recurring mouse problem. Hmmm. DH saw TWO running around the house last night while I was at Bible study. Needless to say, everything on the floor has been through the washing machine today, and I was insistent that the guy actually get down into the crawlspace and try to find where they are coming in. He couldn't find any obvious places, but we now have traps in the house, some of which I have to keep DD away from. Oh goody. No snapping sounds thus far, but hopefully as it gets darker we will trap a few of the buggers. I'm all for protecting wildlife but I draw the line at uninvited guests in my house, especially of the disease-carrying variety. At least they are not glue traps and so they should be dispatched quickly. I strongly suspect we have some holes in the subfloor under the kitchen cabinets, and that is where they are getting in. It's also possible they were crawling through the wide-as-the-Nile cracks around our old doors, which were replaced on Wednesday with much fanfare & trumpeting! Yippee, our doors actually close and we can't see daylight around them! Plus they are fiberglass so much better insulating value--and we have some lovely glass in the front door now so that hallway is no longer as dark as pitch all day.

HAHAHA! DD has discovered the sprinkler outside and is insisting on running through it "with Daddy, Mommy, I want to do it with Daddy." Sure thing sweetie, as soon as he gets home! Hehe. Of course I will have to vacuum & mop the floors when she is not underfoot...drat. Maybe I can have a strawberry margarita while mopping. I'd love to say it will be alcoholic but I think we're out of tequila. Oh well...a frozen margarita will still hit the spot!

Random Thoughts from Today

1. Gassy baby during the night means Poopfest the next day. DS has had WAAAAAAY too many poopy diapers today, and he doesn't have diarrhea. The kid was just storing it all up, causing the gas pain last night, and today it's like his body hit the "evacuate" button. Can I just say this is NOT my favorite part of babyhood?

2. DH & I watched a Nightline program we recorded a week ago, something like that, which had Kirk Cameron (you know, Mike Seaver from Growing Pains) on debating the existence of God with 2 atheists. First of all, it was a major cop-out by Nightline to not show the whole debate. Second, calling someone's argument stupid and not worth responding to and other names does not make you a good debater, it just makes your argument appear weak. The atheists' tendency to use cuss words or equally offensive names for the rationale put forward by Kirk and his fellow evangelist just made them seem ill-prepared and emotional. Grow up people--just because you disagree with someone does not make their beliefs or statements "stoo-pid". It was like watching two third graders try to debate. Third, come on Kirk, couldn't you do better than some crappy Photo-shopped pictures of "transitional" animals that belong in a kid's book about mixing up animals? There are plenty of good arguments about the limitations of evolution--witness biochemist Michael Behe's book, "Darwin's Black Box". There are molecular microbiologists with well respected careers who have put forward a standing challenge for someone to show evolution between 2 different bacterial species. That challenge remains open, 17 plus years later. You don't have to go to cartoon level to make a few solid points on that score. All in all it was an irritating waste of time.

3. Waterproof crib liners are *so* worth it. DD went down for her nap as usual, but insisted on no shirt. Fine, whatever. I go check on her two plus hours later because she hasn't asked to get up and I was worried--there she sits, naked as a jay bird, in a wet puddle! All her stuffed animals that she sleeps with were likewise enveloped in the pee puddle, as well as her blanket. Hmmm. One cleaned up DD later, and all of it was thrown into the washing machine. I meant to do laundry today anyway...

4. Note to self: planting vegetable seeds takes longer than you think it does, and it also causes the occasional back twinge two hours later. But on the bright side, we have tomatoes, corn, peppers, strawberries, onions, chives, potatoes, carrots, squash, watermelon, and pumpkins sown. Oh and peas too. Hopefully this will result in a bounty of fresh veggies in 3 months or so! And I'm sure that back twinge will benefit from the application of a few Cosmopolitans later this evening...yes indeedy I do...

5. DD is getting pretty good at drawing! Her faces have eyes, nose, mouth, all in the right place, and she is doing a very passable Larry and Bob from Veggie Tales, complete with stems! Not bad for 2 years, 4 months old!! She is now plonking away on the piano...when do you start music lessons anyway? Hmmmmm. Yet another thing to check on, along with preschool. I am such a slacker mom. Hehe.

Hey Little Booger

A general memo to DS, aged 4 months:

Ok little booger, you have succeeded in bringing your mommy inside when it's a beautiful day out--sunny, not too hot, just a little breezy. And you successfully lulled me & your daddy into thinking you were all snuggled up for your nap, at the appointed time, exactly when your big sister went down for her nap.

We know that you don't understand this, but it is the FIRST TIME in, oh, MONTHS that the weather has cooperated, our schedules have cooperated, and we are both *committed* to getting the yard work DONE, including all weeding, weed whacking, weed spraying, weed blasting, weed removal and general nuisance plant removal. Grass mowing is even now commencing with your father at the helm of the trusty lawn mower, and yet, you sit pouting in your swing and fussing at me as if to say, "Hold me Mommy, hold meeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Kiddo, you are very young, but you have to understand--we do not live in sunny Arizona any more, where it is always sunny and the weather is pretty gosh darn predictable, if at times a little too hot. No, we now live in the Pacific Northwest, where it will try to rain on you even when it is sunny, as if it has lured you outside and now must attempt to spit on you by its very nature. And in fact, it is even now attempting to do this and ruin the chance to get copious amounts of yardwork done.

We have weeds trying to grow on top of weeds. We have a huuuuuuge vegetable bed just waiting for seeds & water so we can grow lots of tasty veggies for you to eat later this summer. Just imagine, your very first fruits and veggies could come from OUR yard! Mommy can almost see the plants that are supposed to be there in her shade bed, which she created when you were growing in her tummy. It's all there kiddo, all this potential, and in order to realize our dream (ok I admit this may be a bit of hyperbole, but it's certainly a fond hope) of having a tidy yard, you HAVE to go to sleep now! Your sister is very cute but when it comes to helping in the garden she is of the "Let's go visit Miss X (neighbor) Mommy!" and "I want to dig Mommy, let ME do it" and frankly we just can't get a lot done with her help. So son, I'm afraid I am insisting that you go back to sleep and let me get back outside and back to work! Please? Pretty please? With a cherry on top?

DS's response: "Gah! Ah? Blurp." Wide eyed and still complaining at the end of this post. *sigh*