unhappy apple

Sarah had a toy when she was little that we called "the happy apple". The girls play with it now. It's weighted at the bottom, has a sweet face painted on it, and has a bell that rings inside it when you rock it.
The happy apple makes me smile to this day, but it is not useful in describing the past week. This week, I need something else to convey my mood.

the unhappy apple

I have no idea what my major malfunction is, but I have done absolutely nothing all week in the form of productivity to make my household functional or pleasant. Yes, I have done a few dishes, and since Cole is potty training, obviously I've done at least one load of laundry. I'm not a sicko. But other than that, blech.

And for the record, I did not physically harm this innocent apple in any way. It must have absorbed all my bad mojo and manifested itself into a harbinger of doom.

Happy Friday, everyone! (insert sarcastic smiling emoticon here)

While I was watering

While I was watering the garden (with Cole's help), and Gray was sleeping, Luke was preparing to "join the circus".


If he wasn't my child, and I didn't pay the ER bill, I probably would have paid to see this. Alas, I destroyed yet another dream of my second born. But not before I told him to "freeze" so I could go get the camera.

a bounty

Today was the first "harvest day" of my garden. My friend, Saenah was coming over for a playdate already, so by the time the garden crew arrived, we had 2 moms, 7 kids, 6 gardeners and a documentary film student in the back yard.

They set to work harvesting the radishes, lettuce, chard, kale and turnips. Some were pulled, others clipped and left to regrow. The videographer got good footage of all the kids helping out, and even trying some of the veggies right out of the ground. I'm "entitled" to half, but only kept a fraction, since I knew we wouldn't eat much this go-around. I gave Grand Pink some radishes and turnips, Melinda took turnips and lettuce, and I sent Brad to Fredericksburg with a bit of everything for Freda.

That left me some red and green lettuce and a bunch of chard. I visited with Hope Dyson this evening when she was on her daily walk around the block, and being the master gardener that she is, she told me the best way to cook the chard so I could enjoy it for dinner tonight. Brad and the boys spent the night in Fredericksburg, and I had fed Gray an early dinner, so I was on my own. A perfect time to experiment with my beautiful bounty.

I opened the fridge, saw that HUGE mass of leafy greens, and then decided to just eat some nutella straight from the jar instead.

Barbara and Pink had the radishes and turnip greens for dinner and said they weren't really that good. And I'm sure that velvety, chocolate goodness was made with local, organic, sustainable, fair-trade ingredients, so it's cool.

the habitat

maybe I should be a little more cautious about taking the lids off of icky-looking sippy cups, tossing them on top of dirty dishes piled sky high in the sink, and not returning for eight hours.

well, I'm guessing it was eight hours. is that about how long it takes a family of slugs to escape said sippy cup, slime around all the dishes, climb up the edge of the sink and cruise on over to the banana bowl?

and how messed up is it that I carefully collected the entire family, returned them to the sippy cup, and placed the whole kit and kaboodle in a potted plant on the front porch? who am I?

feelings

Sometimes I feel like my life is a runaway stagecoach. And it's not like I'm the driver who has simply dropped the reins and only has to reach down to retrieve them. Not even close. I'm like the lady hanging out the back window screaming like a crazy person, which only makes things worse, and probably makes the horses run even faster.

Happy Birthday Cole!

Our sweet, crazy Coley Bear is three today.

that baby is trouble

Daddy's working late

"go find something to do in the side yard"

why would I say that??!

Words no one wants to hear

"poop on lego"

*said in Cole's high-pitched, super excited, slightly questioning voice, making it hard to know if it's a declaration, or a question.

**in response to the many questions about Cole's above quote;
he said it while I was changing his dirty diaper, and he had been playing with legos, and after I let him down, I saw he had some legos hidden in his chubby little fist, soooooo, either he was saying that they were already contaminated (he's known to pull the occasional 'Al Bundy' and walk around with his fingers down the front of his pants) OR he was making a threat about what he could do with the hidden legos while I was in the middle of changing said diaper.

I really don't know.

Piano Lessons

Here are some lessons that needed to be learned today that, quite frankly, I can't fathom why they don't fall under the header of "inherent common sense if I'm your mama and you've ever met your grandmama."

"Remember, we only play the piano with FINGERS. Just a FEW at a time."

Louder: "FINGERS PLEASE. Not your entire arm."

"No, not with a fishing pole. FINGERS ONLY"

"No. No. No. Put the light saber down. FINGERS ONLY."

"No. Not with tinker toy drum sticks. FINGERS ONLY."

"OMG. What is that? Where did you get a surfboard? No! FINGERS ONLY."

"Luke! Where did Cole get daddy's screwdriver? No! FINGERS ONLY."

"No more piano today. No, I can't put the lid down. Because we got it free off of Craigslist and the little handles fell out. No, I do not need you to get the screwdriver again."


and here's a bonus quote from this afternoon:

When I told Luke (again) not to climb on the unfinished fort and jump off when he is in the yard alone, lest he break a leg and lay there until someone noticed he was missing, he replied:

"Listen. I am a forgetter. And a dangerous kid. It's just gonna happen."

Lovely. Is he just speaking of the disobedience, or the actual broken bone?

March

Brad and all his ducklings

Reid with yet another complex tinker toy creation.
This is Captain Tarpals riding his kaadu.
That would be a Star Wars Clone Wars reference.

eating frozen blueberries

special "baby sign" for
get.me.out.of.this.highchair.

awesome attempt, baby gray, but incorrect tool.
check other hand.

Sunday Feb 28

The group that put our garden in (Mobile Loaves & Fishes) is working on a little booth to use around town to promote their garden project, and asked if they could profile our family. They also needed staff photos, so a large group came over to the house a few weeks ago and did a photo shoot with a photographer who had donated her time. She just sent me one of the pics tonight:


There are five total, so maybe one of them has everyone's eyes open. But if not, this one's pretty good!

snow!

I'm not sure how it can snow ALL DAY and only accumulate half an inch, but the boys had fun playing, nonetheless. Brad got to come home at lunch, and they all watched Star Wars IV.

Feb 20, 2010

I think I forgot to post something yesterday - sorry for the downtime. Well, one day's not a big deal.....and I'm so on top of everything else, I don't feel too guilty. ahem.

when it was super-crazy-cold, brad iced down the porch ON PURPOSE.
I thought it was the worst idea ever.
the boys thought it was the best idea ever.

So - here's a few nuggets from this week:

Cole loves to sing and dance. And really loves to sing in the car. So on the way to school on Friday, we were listening to the Praise Baby CD, and I realized that every time they sang "holy", Cole was singing "Coley". As in, "Coley, Coley, Coley, Lord God Almighty." Really.

Gray seriously will not stay off the tables. Dining room table. End table. Desk. Coffee Table. I try to stash stools and chairs and other climbing things, but he drags the time-out stool from the dining room to wherever he happens to be climbing that nanosecond. And Lord knows I can't get rid of the time-out stool.

the bench went UNDER the table after I took the picture.
then he used the chairs five minutes later.

Luke is diggin' the Olympics. I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm going to need to get "ahead of the curve" on his inclination to all things gravity defying. Like go ahead and build a skateboard half pipe in the backyard so he stops building his own ramps with 2 x 4s. (he said he was practicing his "dangerous kid stuff" when I found the ramp up by the compost pile.) And Sean White is the coolest, most gracious kid ever, so at least he'd have a good role model...

prediction: Luke at the 2020 X-Games

Reid has started drawing again. He was just coloring for awhile, but now he's back to drawing space things and bugs. And he's been asking to go one more play dates with class friends - and he asked a quiet boy who gets picked on in class to come play next week. In the car a few days ago, he said, "Mama, I know why so-and-so has started being mean to people." (this boy had previously been really sweet and was friends with Reid, but then started acting mean.) "When he tries to pack his backpack, so-and-so#2 steps on it and laughs at him, and that makes him feel sad, and then he acts mean to other people to try to feel better, but it only makes him more sad." WHAT??!!!?? Have they really been listening to my "why people are bullies" speech. NO. WAY. And, apparently, Reid's been listening to my "you should be friends with people who don't have other friends" speech as well. And he ate his spinach on Tuesday. Is this for real?

the solar system Reid made just for fun in Fredericksburg last week.
yes, that is the asteroid belt represented along with the orbits.

And I actually stayed on top of laundry this week. Until Gray had the biggest antibiotics-from-massive-ear-infection-induced-explosive-diarrea-in-the-high-chair-catastrophe you've ever seen. Ever. Like had to throw the high chair pad away. Like had to wash that particular load of clothes THREE times. Like have to get the carpet cleaned SOON. It took Brad and I working like a well-oiled machine a full 45 minutes to contain and decontaminate all the people and objects involved. So now, somehow, there are 5 loads of dirty laundry stacked up in the garage. Oh well. At least Gray's ear infection is better.

OK - maybe I'll post again tomorrow. Or maybe in May.

the boys helping Tim with the garden.
Oh, did I forget to post about the 30x19 organic garden
installed by Mobile Loaves and Fishes?
maybe next time.....

Brad and Junior putting the garden in. Junior has Cerebral Palsy, and like Tim,
was very recently homeless. And they're going to sell our veggies to earn money
to pay rent in their new community. But that's another post.....