Category: kids

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yeah, well, so it’s Monday.

So what has occurred since last time I posted? The Tax Man. We’ll leave it at that.
Meanwhile, we spent the weekend digging up dirt (not on the neighbors, but for the garden). Planted more strawberries (8 new plants), and one new artichoke. Next spring will be crazy with plants. Will we still be here? At the current rate of attrition of children-leaving-the-nest, one wonders. We’ve been thinking about how long to stay in this dreamhouse as the nestlings fly away. A 5-BR house was perfect when we moved in in 2006. Now there is one empty bedroom, an office, and the other two girls make noises like they might go live their lives elsewhere. How many offices and sewing rooms can a family use? Thus, when we get down to one Boychild and two adults, we shall have to reconside the living space. The garden and chickens will come along or stay behind, and we’ll see when that day comes.

The tomatoes are in bloom, and I will not pinch any more blossoms to promote growth. I want some fresh tomatoes, dammit. Celery is lush; so are sage, parsley, oregano and even the straggly basil has perked up. Onions are green and prospering. Beets are popping up, as is the rocket (aka arugula). I planted a plotful of mustard greens, which I found growing rogue at an empty house last week. The mustard will feed the chickens or mix into salad greens, but solo, is too bitter for me, raw or cooked. The corn is doing nothing — not a single sprout yet, and it’s been at least 2 weeks, if not 3. All of the squashes/pumpkins/cukes are sprouting second and third sets of leaves, and I think, barring hailstorms and slug-hordes, they’ll all be fine.

Just now I have pegged out a line of sheets and pajamas to dry. They are flapping in the breeze. Yesterday the cats got fed canned cat food twice (Mr,.Husband and then me, not knowing that anyone else would do the morning job). Today there is no canned food left, so I am cooking up a batch of cat food. They also have kibble, which they eat only as a snack. It isn’t real food to my fussy little stinkers.

Tasty Treat
Cat food = the carcass of a chicken plus an extra scoop of gizzards and hearts (on sale, frozen), stewed with carrot, some salmon oil and kelp (vitamin tablets), and later, a whole egg (shell, too) and a cupful of either oatmeal or brown rice. Cook together till the bones are mushy-soft, then puree in the blender with a scoopful of plain yogurt, cottage cheese or powdered milk. It is more nutritious (organic) than canned, and actually cheaper, with no recycling or trash (I reuse plastic tubs to refrigerate/freeze it). This batch will make the equivalent of about a month’s canned food (1/4 cup per day per cat). I could also add spinach or another mild green. I don’t have any spinach on hand, though. I don’t give them pork or beef as a rule, and I once tried cooking a fish variety but it was too nasty to cook a fish’s head for several hours. The bulging eyeballs made me ill. Plus, boiled fish = stinky house. So chicken is our only flavor.

Note: The kids love the smell of this cat-food soup when they think it is our dinner. When I say it’s cat food, they gross out. It is the same stuff, either way, and just smells like chicken stock cooking — kinda chickeny with a little herb scent. It’s perfectly edible, without the bones or eggshells.

Speaking of chickens, but in a different way altogether — we finished raccoon-proofing the henhouse, and the girls slept in their coop last night for the first time. They got freaked out when night fell and were cheeping and crying for some time. They have never been outside at night. It was sad to listen to them, but I had to do the mommy thing and let them cry it out. Eventually they nestled down and shut up. And this morning, they are all safe. Yesterday Patrick spent most of the day drilling and sawing and screwing in hinges and locks. The new door, made of salvaged plywood and a piece of the Ikea dresser we cannabilized, features 2 locks and 2 hinges, with 2 carrabiner hooks to keep the locks closed. The hinges and hasps required a trip to the hardware store but we had the hooks already. Glad to have that task out of the way, and no longer have to shuttle the chicks back and forth to the garage at night, have 2 cages to clean, etc. I am very grateful for that reduction.

Today’s chorelist also includes ironing a few more shirts out of the mountain of ironing. Bills to pay. Clean off the dining room table, which has become my downstairs desk. Cookies? Maybe snickerdoodles. Dishes, some kind of dinner for 5, same as it ever was.

Feels like as good a time as any to say I am glad to be alive. Not a very exciting life, but a good one. Peace out, y’all.

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It’s toot-toot-Tuesday, don’t cry!

Tuesday is deadline day at the Sun, so if there’s a day to cry, it would be today. At one of the last places where I was an editor, a magazine, on the first day I bet my fellow editor lunch over which of us would be the first to cry. And I lost! It was I who cried first! I was shocked. But the stress of the day can break you sometimes.

That’s why it’s good to go into D-Day in fighting shape: don’t have too much, or any, writing to do that day. Don’t try to plan lunch or meetings. Just rub your hands together, eat a good breakfast, and jam, baby, jam. It’s worked for me so far.

I’m glad school is ending for summer. That means the beginning of summer interns for me — which means a lot more features and assignments to give. I’ve got three interns starting in a week and look forward to their arrival.

I wish the weather would warm. It doesn’t feel like summer. I know we have June gloom — I was remembering swimming lessons when I was a wee girl, in Terra Linda, in the TL pool, and how gray and overcast it was on those mornings, and how cold the pool, or getting in and out, was. My mom used to buy us some kind of Planter’s Peanut toffee bars — can’t remember their names, but they were packed with nuts and energy, and it was a novel treat to be given a candy bar after swimming.

It was the same when the girlies were small — swimming lessons seemed to begin in chill weather, but by the time we got home, the sun came out and they could go and play. But getting the kids into the pool for a 9 a.m. lesson in foggy weather — not easy. I think I bribed them with candy bars, too, come to think of it.

Chlorine eyes. Tan lines. The blue of the water. A whiff of bleach still takes me there.

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mayday, mayday

… or day after May Day (happy birthday to sister Carolyn, aka CJ).

I’m playing Compactor Fun at my house today even though it’s raining and I can’t hang out laundry. I had a bunch of herbs hanging to dry in the sun but they got rained on and now are perfuming my compost pile. How annoying and wasteful. I also have a bit of the creeping crud, cough, etc, that isn’t enough to be terrible or go away. So inside I stay.

I’ve been refilling soap dispensers and lotion pumps from various other sources — I have so many half-finished tubes and bottles of lotion that I have been squeezing them into one pump (a decorative one that matches some of my china). It doesn’t really matter that they are different scents, I guess — the purpose is to soften skin. So that’s a reuse.

We had a roasted chicken earlier in the week,. and it’s now becoming chicken soup for our dinner.

Recent online talk of T-shirt “yarn” sent me to the scrap bin/rag bag, where there were several perfectly cut-up-able T-shirts. Daughter #2 and I are cutting them into strips, and I will make a knitted bathroom rug. Then I notice the cutting hurts my wrist, so I will put this in the TV room and have family cut strips while they watch TV. Must keep idle hands busy!

We continue to sort through our clothes and hand them around to others in the house. I think I’ve mentioned before that we’re mostly all the same size. When one of us gets tired of a shirt or jeans or belt or purse, it goes next to the giveaway pile — then instantly gets snapped up by another. This happens over and over again. I was cutting up a pair of pj pants this morning for T-shirt yarn that were once Daughter #1’s, then mine, then D #4, the D#2, then got cut into sleep-shorts (I have leg bits in the scrap bag. Someone is still sleeping in them and I think it is D#3). This process also works with the Boy, because super-small shirts are the rage for your emo-punk-rockr-teen — so the Boy’s tiny shirts fit D#4 perfectly. He loves her R&R T-shirts and may be seen in them. D#2 and the boyfriend of D#3 often switched jeans. Because skinny boy jeans are in for girls, and skinny girl jeans are in for the skinny emo guy.

See? Everybody wins.

This morning I offloaded a pretty item that was too small but hardly worn to D#3, and picked up 5 scarves from D#2 — for tying up my ponytail, tying on purse, etc — not woolen scarves. These are so pretty, and are probably right from Goodwill. Another good purchase, well used.

We watched the Kentucky Derby at 3, and everyone got to pick a horse or two. If our horse wins, we get $10. Mr Husband is a big fan of the Derby, since he used to work in gaming and racing. BTW, I will now share with you my sister Nancy’s mnemonic for remembering the order of winners of horse races: Wear Plaid Shoes = win, place, show. I know — it’s genius. Stupid but effective. No charge, friends.

There ended up just four of us at home at the time of the race, so we each took 6 names and Mr Husband took one. I set 2 of mine aside, so that if they won, I would donate their money to the Food Bank. Otherwise, right into savings. But my best shot was Papa Clem, and he came in 4th. Daughter #2 and the Boy split win, place and show. Alas. It was fun to watch the winner, though. 50-1 odds! Major KD upset!
(LOL — as I sit here typing, D#4 just passed the giveaway pile, picked up a sweater, looked at it, tucked it under her arm, and moseyed away. Free shopping!)

I then spent the next few hours sorting yarn from various sources, into boxes and baskets, odds and ends, sock yarn, acrylic, wool, etc, so it’s easier to find when I want it. Ideas dancing in my head, only no time, no time…
OK, I think I’ve done enough damage for one evening. Everyone go about your business. There’s nothing to see here.
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mrs greenjeans

I had Compacty weekend, but I had it all on Sunday since I spent Saturday with my dear funny friend Lisa M and my parents.

We shoveled mulch and wheelbarrowed it around, and got through about half the giant pile. This was free mulch from when our neighbors shredded all their trees a few weeks ago. Free, delivered to our side yard, and it smells good. My favorite things! We definitely miss the trees, as it’s much brighter, louder and exposed than it used to be here, facing the Estuary. Free mulch = very good.

We weeded a lot and added dirt from recently delivered batch, and got a number of seeds planted in 4-inch pots that I owned already (a good job for the Boy– got him to fill them with dirt, poke holes, plant seeds, and label each with a Sharpie). He also planted a fence plot for beans — twice the amount of beans we had last year, and they won’t pull down the trellis or corn or anything growing nearby, since they can grow up the fence. He planted yellow wax beans and green beans mixed together. Just because. Made it exciting for an 11 yr old. He’ll have some ownership about the veggies since he planted them.

We moved a bunch of the raised beds around for better sunlight and put a nice layer of our own compost in, on top of dead leaves that mulched for the winter, then more new dirt on top. Last year’s dirt had compacted down to about 4 inches deep, so we’re back at 1 foot or deeper in the various beds. It was a dirty, dirty job. Very. There are lots of new wriggling worms that came in with the fresh compost. Wormy!

The cats, however, think this is the grooviest thing since Meow Mix. Thus, I have laid an assortment of screens, tomato cages and other odds and ends around the backyard, junkyard fashion, to keep cats out of the fresh clean dirt. They are plotting something, and I think I know what. Fresh dirt = too good not to poop in.

I had to harvest all our mustard greens, broccoli and lettuce to make way for the new dirt, so we have an abundance of all just now. I’ve gifted several friends with greens, we’re eating the rest; it was nice not to have to buy lettuce this week. My basil sprouted, in the pot in the sunny patio area. I’m feeling even more hopeful, as I’ve never gotten basil to even sprout before.

Mr. Husband, while driving around the Island, found a stack of green plastic garden chairs and a bunch of tiki lights. FREE.

I got my first mild sunburn, despite protection, big hat, etc. I know some of y’all have snow and rain. I’m wishing you warm thoughts and sprouting seedlings and gentle rains instead of Nor’easters.

Happy Baseball Season opener last night; our team, Oakland A’s, did not win, but oh well. Mr. Husband is very very very happy to see baseball on TV again. And baseball stadium dinner (hot dogs, nachos, Cracker Jack, sodas and beer, Drumstix, peanuts, popcorn) were de-lish.

Planned for the garden (planted in 4-inch pots):
pumpkins, zucchini, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, butternut squash, acorn squash, yellow longneck squash, loofah gourds, birdhouse gourds, red tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, French breakfast radishes, cilantro, feverfew, several types of peppers, and I think that’s it. Plus the beans along the fence.

We have five fruit trees now: orange, lemon, lime, plum and apricot. Two grapevines leafing out. Two raspberry bushes and a blueberry bush, just planted. A strawberry patch. Four artichokes plants. Sunflowers and hollyhocks mixed in with the strawberries. Carrots, chard and arugula still growing. Peas maybe coming up but they are very slow and stubborn. An onion patch, with garlic nearby. Mint, rosemary, thyme, sage, lemon balm and parsley.

There are wild blackberries out here on the base, and in the Beltline (old railroad tracks). My neighbors have an apple tree. If we get the chickens, we should be just about set. As in, semi-sustainable for feeding the crew.

I like it.

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ta-da!

It drives me crazy how I can’t get these to line up, but what do I expect from a free blog program? Grrr.
But anyway — ta-da, here is Ana in the satin sheath from wedding dress number 1 and the cummerbund from dress number 2. (Click on each photo for a larger view.)
Note the pretty red satin roses on the back of the cummerbund, and she chose flowered accessories for necklace and rings. She was going for glamour and drama, hence the red lipstick. She also has full length white opera gloves to wear, but she planned to wear them later. Or maybe not.
It’s junior prom. Like, whatever. 😉