This and that...

So, there are a lot of spelling errors in this post.  I am using a tablet and I am technically challenged.  I cannot seem to figure out how to see what I am typing...



Our tree is up.  And I am pretty amused by the ridiculousness of the Christmas tree in the house of a toddler.  We had a small reprieve, but we are back now to mostly ornaments on the top.  Also, there are not actually enough branches to hold all of our ornaments.  I like making ornaments...so we may need to focus on giving them away this yezr.

And, on Friday we celebrated Santa Lucia Day, in fairly ridiculous fashion.  We made buns, and Elsa brought them to us in bed.  Then we read a book about Saint Lucy, and Elsa wrote an acostic poem an painted a picture.  The kids also wanted to make costumes, so, crafty mama that I am, I cut a hole in an old curtain for Elsa, and we tied a sash around her waist.  David was a star boy.  The book did not explain the custom, but David was into it.  He made a conical white hat, w(out of construction paper) with penciled stars, and glued a piece of paper with stars on it to a big stick.  Then we went to our neighbors and brought buns and sang Santa Lucia kind of lamely.  David has been pretty insistent about wearing hi starboy costume at all times, which is sweet, although it is a little odd looking and I have to resist explaining the whole thing in detail to everyone we meet, because, well, it might look a little Klan like...  This week we are mostly going to work on finishing up Christmas presents.  Elsa is making a book of poetry.  Also a calendar to give away.  I am not sure what to have David do.

I am feeling, as I often do, to get more Waldorfy in our homeschool, but I keep going off in weird directions.  I tried the Oak Meadow curriculum, but could not seem to stick with it.  Anybody know any good curricula?

I am baaacckkkk!

And I didn't even realize I was gone.  I am not actually talking about this space...Who knows if I will be able to keep up this blog with any routine.  Probably not.  But, last month when I was at my Ob/Gyn yearly, I mentioned that I was kind of stressed out.  Which seemed reasonable.  A mobile baby, homeschooling, small house, ADHD, heavily nursing baby....and she asked me if I wanted some help with that.  Help in terms of medicine.  And at first, I balked, because I didn't think I was depressed, just understandably overwhelmed.  But she pointed out that it was going to be hard to do anything about it in terms of counseling, or even to really lighten my load, and she said, "You want to enjoy your children, don't you?"  And so I took the prescription, and here I am, a month later, feeling myself again....and I guess I hadn't even realized I was depressed.  Instead of just being overwhelmed by my weed covered garden, and totally ignoring it, I have been going out there and just weeding it every day, remembering that actually, I hand dug the whole thing in the first place.  I am less stressed out about the mess--my house is always going to be messy, and it matters not while I am still trying to keep it under control, I am not paralyzed by the mess, as I was before, not allowing myself to do anything because it was too messy.  I am knitting again, and getting excited about projects, and enjoying helping my children make their Halloween costumes.  I have cooked dinner three nights in a row, and it hasn't been popcorn or cheesey noodles.  I have been baking our bread, and making stock, and just doing all the things that I used to like to do.  And I have been enjoying my children, which is pretty great. 

These babes

Sometimes it is only after they are in bed, asleep, and I am thinking back, that I realize how sweet and delightful they really are, and wish I could go back and appreciate it more...even when David was singing lustily about how we needed more penises at the grocery store early this afternoon. 

Just checking in...

I want, to keep up with this just a little, but things are crazy for me of late.  I kind of thought it was manageable until Sammy started crawling, and then I started to lose my mind.  I am encouraging myself that it is not necessarily the number of children that I have, but just ordinary mobile babyhood that is chaotic.  Sammy is crawling and pulling up, and I am sweeping multiple times a day.  (This is abnormal behavior for me.)  He just crawls along, stops, picks up some random thing off the floor, sticks it in his mouth, and keeps going, making weird sucking noises.  Sometimes the weird random thing is one of those incredibly expensive baby puff things that I swore I would never buy, decrying the whole baby product industry, until I had him and could get fifteen minutes to do the dishes by sticking him in his high chair and feeding him those, but some of the weird random things are, well, not.  So, my floors are relatively clean, but the rest of the house isn't really, to some degree because we are having the rainiest summer ever, and to some degree because I feel like I am managing only the bare minimum here.  I have been falling asleep, fully clothed, when I nurse Sammy to sleep at night, and he is a morning nurser, which is really lovely, so I am not getting up early.  Also, I am by no stretch of the imagination a morning person.

Our dishwasher is broken, and I miss it so.  Also, the chickens are going to be penned up in a run very, very soon.  The last straw was when I caught them eating my unripe blackberries.  They already get into the garden regularly, scratch up and "harvest" the potatoes,  make it impossible to plant new lettuce, and such, but I certainly cannot tolerate them eating my blackberries because, well, I am not getting much out of my garden and I want the berries.  So Tara, our awesome cleaning lady who is also a handywoman, is going to come out and help me set it up, and then I will learn how to do it.  Neither Jesse nor I are very handy at all, and I want to become more so, so I am hoping to just work with her and learn things. 

The big kids are both at Farm Camp, which they are both enjoying--and it is from 9-3.  David really wanted to do it, and is doing pretty well for such a long day.  So I have a bit more time.  But I should be putting laundry away while Sammy sleeps.  (He sleeps for so much longer when they are not here....)

Bike success

Oh, by the way, guess what, big milestone over here...Elsa learned how to ride her bike without training wheels.  So, I am wiping the sweat from my brow--a major parenting fail averted.  She can swim, too, so my work is done.   Well, I ought to buy her a helmet that fits.  That might be on the agenda as well. 

And while I don't want to get all deep about it in terms of homeschooling, I did not teach her how.  I made space and encouraged a bit, but she was ready and did it.  (I didn't teach her to swim, either, competitive swimmer that I was...but I did sign her up for lessons.)

Bunny poop tea

I made some bunny poop tea yesterday, while Elsa played endless games with her friend from farm school and David and Sam played with Eemah (Jesse's mom).  I also had to tell Elsa and her friend several times to get out of the bucket that I use to throw the chicken poop that I  scoop from the yard in my occasional  bursts of fear about chicken born illness inspired cleaning frenzies.  (This did not help these fears.)  I told them to get out, and they did, although proceeding to completely cover their six year old selves in mud.  Luckily, said six year olds can also hose themselves off adequately all on their own, leaving me to continue to make bunny poop tea.  As  you may have inferred, it is warm here now.  Today was kind of hot, which is sometimes tough in these mountain days before the trees have leafed out.   And suddenly everything is brilliant and bright.  I am unconcerned with homeschooling...I mean, I am unconcerned with nervously comparing Elsa's progress to her friends who are in public school.  We do what we do, then she goes outside and picks flowers or digs in the garden or wanders a little in the neighborhood (I am trying as hard as I can to allow this--it scares me but I think the benefits outweighs the risks) or we go for a hike or we make plans to get up early to watch some animals.  David has been in seventh heaven with his Eemah here, who is willing to play with him non-stop, running around, pretending to be characters from Pippi Longstocking (those books are lately huge hits around here.)  Jesse has two conferences to go to, so he had his mom stay with us for these weeks.  It is lovely to have her, but I do miss my little husband.

But the bunny poop tea....I don't know if it is a good idea or not.  It sounded like one.  I just put some poop in a bucket and let it sit for a while, then poured it on the strawberries.  There is a guy, belovedly known to most Black Mountainers, as "the strawberry guy," who comes to the parking lot of the gas station near the grocery store, and word gets out and you GO and get some amazing strawberries.  Anyway, my friend told me that he told her that the strawberries were fertilized with liquid turkey poop and that's why they are so delicious.  I don't have any turkeys (nor any plan to raise them), but I do have bunnies.  I have also heard of making bunny poop tea, and compost tea, so I decided to give it a shot.  Lord know, there aren't many strawberries left--the chickens scratched them all to hell.  So, I will keep you updated.  I think I should also probably start consulting books...maybe testing my soil.  I wish I had a garden mentor....

New Workout Craze

Shovel the compost, shovel the compost...
Lift the buckets (because your wheel barrow is broken)...
Walk it out, walk it out....
Heave the buckets over the (inadequate) chicken fence...
Dump, dump..
Whoops, forgot the shovel at the compost heap....walk it out, walk it out....
Mix in that compost....shovel the beds....

Repeat...

I am sore but happy.  Today we are going to plant potatoes and carrots....

I have started **zero** tomato plants.  Excellent work.