Garden Play

David is washing his toy car in the "hot tub" (what they call that tin tub where the kids make yucky soup (throw dirt and leaves in it and stir)  and climb in to warm up after "swimming" in the larger kiddie pool.  At this point, I have moved the chickens all the way across the yard. 

Strawberries from our garden.  Definitely not enough to make jam with, but enough so that Jesse and I also get to eat some.  We did make strawberry jam with strawberries from the strawberry guy.  Actually, now it seems that most of them are rotting...not sure if it is the rain itself or maybe slugs.  I am trying to be calm about it, but it does kind of fill me with anxiety.

David wanted to make a scarecrow for his garden to keep his peas and strawberries from being eaten.

These pictures have been taken over some time.  Suddenly I was unable to place captions, but that is Elsa's scarecrow.  Very cute.  I am making slow progress in getting everything planted in the garden, but progress is happening.  I have planted 18 tomatoes and about six summer squash.  I still need to get the beans and winter squash in, but it will happen.  David is very excited about planting pumpkins in his garden...I do get a big kick out of all of the toys hanging out in the garden.  Whatever it takes....

The Chickens Are Roosting

The chickens are roosting.  I never got around to creeping out after the kids were asleep and flinging them up on the roost.  They just figured it out their own smart chicken selves.  I love chickens.

Alfie Kohn

I have figured out why I like Alfie Kohn so much.  He wrote Unconditional Parenting, and does not believe in rewards or consequences so much.  I particularly agree with him about rewards-philosophically because I think children should learn to do the right thing because it is the right thing.  Also, I can't get it together to provide reward charts or anything like that.  Elsa's violin teacher is always suggesting ways to help me get Elsa to practice, like putting stickers on her practice chart, or playing some kind of Jeopardy game where she gets things put in a jar for every good thing she does while practicing and then when the jar is full gets some kind of prize.  The thing is, it is not that Elsa is that reluctant to practice, it's that I have a hard time finding the time to sit down with her and conduct a practice session, which is very much required of the Suzuki parent.  I can't just tell Elsa to practice, I must sit with her, refrain from getting irritated when she fools around (I wouldn't mind, but there are certain things she is supposed to do each session, and I want to get it over with as quickly as possible before she gets tired) and remind her of all the things she is supposed  to do.  She actually likes to practice, once she gets started, she just doesn't want to stop whatever else she is doing to practice.   I have to admit that I am glad that this is the last lesson before the summer.  I can just tell her teacher thinks I am the worst mother.  I often don't have a pencil, by four o'clock in the afternoon Elsa is usually in some outlandish outfit that is maybe a little dirty, and her hair is not looking too neat.  Long ago I lost the folder she gave to me, and I certainly can't get it together to go out and xerox the practice sheets like she wants me to, or buy moleskin for her bow. 

I want to say to her, look, my children love to read, play outside, and know a lot about the garden.  I may not be great about the details, but they are happy and loved and okay.  But, I know that I am going about it in the right way, and if her judgement sits squarely on me, I can take it.  She doesn't get irritated with Elsa.

Today...

Today was a good day.  It really was.  I had an OB appointment this morning.  It's always nice to hear the baby's heartbeat, and I am loving my doctor, who smiles so genuinely when she gets it, and seems to trust that I know what I am doing.  Then back to quickly clean up the house...it was a terrible mess, and then pick up the kids at noon from school.  We had lunch...I am realizing that we way over-rely on cheese for protein--I need to figure that out, but later.  Then a friend of Elsa and her mother came over for a play date.  Elsa, Emily and David played together, doing I don't know what, but it is so nice that he can be included in their play so easily now, while Diane and I watched the bunny and then fed clover to the chickens (which is funny, since I move their chicken arc everyday so they can have more fresh clover, but they seem to get a big kick out of it when I hold out clover for them to eat) and chatted.  It has been fun getting to know her.

Then I dug another bed where I think a few more tomatoes and my summer squash will go, and helped Elsa plant some more flowers in her garden and helped the neighbor girl pick strawberries.  Then (then, then, then) we made some graham crackers for a snack, and ate them while reading a book...which seems like a nice ritual for four o'clock.  I decided to bring Jerry, our bunny in to play as there was a humongous rain storm, at which point I proceeded to get irritated with the kids for being, well, kids.  I wanted them to be calm and soothe the bunny, but of course, they are excited about him and are, you know, small children.  (That part wasn't so good--I am finding myself anxious about this bunny, kind of the way I was about the chicks. I have calmed down about the chickens, so I am confident that I will calm down about him, as well, but right now I worry. I just really need to talk to some people who own them, and get some books, so I can have some good ideas about what to do. I like the idea of farming, but I don't have a farmer's toughness.).   They were dashing about, bringing all of their bedclothes into the living room to make him a "cozy nest" and then jumping around to convince him to get in it, which really didn't convince him.   Then, dinner, after which the kitchen was trashed again from the graham crackers too (and the dishes are still waiting in the sink for me), bath, stories and bed.  I am typing this while I wait for Elsa to fall asleep--the kids have a bath, I read David a story and nurse him to sleep at 7:30...Elsa practiced a little, then we read for about 45 minutes, and I sit in here and wait for her to fall asleep.  At some point that will need to change, but right now, I like it as it gives me a chance to write here, or just cruise around the Internet.

And my point, I suppose, is that there are lots of other ideas for things to do swimming around in my head.  I need to make bread.  I want to make yogurt--homemade is really so much better than store bought--I would like to join the final sleeve for David's sweater.   I would like to cast on for a sweater for my friend's baby girl who is coming in July.  I need to get to the knitting store to get help with a little hat I am knitting for another friend's baby girl who is coming any day now.  I want to do more crafts with the children.  I want to meal plan and figure out ways to eat less cheese and more other things.   I need to get the kids (and obviously myself) to the library to get myself rabbit books, and them new books.

And I know that there are things that could give--I don't have to read to the girl for so long, I could have bought graham crackers at the store...but I don't want to.  I am attached.  And I wonder how these other amazing mamas do it all...with more children and more farm.  I am realizing that this is mostly just a kind of processing of what feels like a very busy day for a very tired mama.  The dishes are not going to get done tonight.  Neither the yogurt nor the bread will be started. The chickens are not going to get placed on their roosts tonight.  Tomorrow there will be time enough.  Or there won't.  We will see. 

The newest addition to the Quam family...

Here is Jerry, our new Angora rabbit.  Jesse got him for me for Mothers' Day.  I had been talking about maybe getting him, and I think he just decided to circumvent my slower process.  We love him.  He is incredibly cute.  I need to go to the library to learn how to take care of him.  I need to learn how to spin.  I think we may need to get another.  Right now there is a baby letter block and some legos in his hutch, so he has toys to play with.  It wasn't my idea.

Tailgate

The local Tailgate Market opened last Saturday.  We have gone religiously every Saturday May through October since David was in utero.  Generally, we get there early, and stay for the whole thing.  I pick up vegetables, sometimes a chicken, sometimes other sustainably and humanely raised meat, and eggs.  In the spring, I can get starts.  And I can always get advice--the farmers there are remarkably generous about sharing their gardening knowledge with me, sometimes at great length.  It's great fun in the beginning, saying hello to people we haven't seen since the market's closing in the fall, seeing how much our children have grown, and sharing news from the winter.

The kids just run around the big open space like wild things.  We give them a dollar each, and usually they buy a cookie.  Everyone knows them, and they run around on the wide grassy spaces, eat peas from my basket, and climb in and out of the farmers' trucks, while Jesse and I shop and chat.   Also, it makes me realize how much my children have grown.  Today, when I went to talk to one of my favorite vendors, a sweet older couple who raise chickens, lamb and heirloom turkeys in Fairview and have grown children my age, they were wondering where my "appendages" were.  (They do know Elsa and David's names.)  Last year, I usually still had David on my hip or on my back as I shopped, as he was overwhelmed by the crowd.  This year, he is off, doing his own thing, playing with a posse of other little boys, while Jesse or I watch from afar.  Anyway, as we were chatting, they got to talking about a goose they had that would chase cars (he got hit eventually) and were telling me about how they needed some turkey hens.  They have one tom (the others ran off to the woods to nest and got eaten by coyotes), and as Susan, the wife said, he needs a girlfriend.  Apparently, he is in love with her Subaru--there are peck marks all over it.  It just makes me think how much I love where we live...it's not that you can't find community wherever you are, it's just that it takes time, and I am enjoying the benefits of the time we have put in.

I will keep writing here, even if there is no theme really....

It's ten o'clock, and I just crept out and flung two of our chicks (Rhoda and Sassafrass--the Rhode Island Red and I am thinking Black Australorp) into the top part of their coop.  They have not figured out how to go up to roost at night, and spend the night at the bottom of the coop, huddled together for warmth.  I do remember reading that you are supposed to usher the chicks up to their roost at night when you first put them out in the coop, as normally the mama hen would, but that is pretty impossible with our chicken arc set up. I am hoping wishing that putting them up there tonight will help them to figure it out that they are supposed to go up to the coop.  I am frankly not too hopeful, as the two girls up there seem thoroughly unimpressed with being up there, whereas the other two on the bottom seem very content.  Oh well. 

On a positive note, I have wanted to get chickens for a long time, but the thing is that I have this thing about birds, at least in the house.  Last year, Petunia, our very fat cat, brought in a bird.  I clapped my hands and she dropped it, and it scuttered under the table.  This is embarassing, but I huddled on the couch and made Elsa go look for it.  I thought it was a hummingbird (it was a sparrow) but couldn't bring myself to look at it.  Then I called my neighbor (actually, I called all of my neighbors, but only one was available) to come and help me get the bird out of our house.  She came over with a broom, and together we managed to get the bird out gently.   Anyway, I was a little worried that I would not be able to touch our chickens, but luckily, I can, and actually like cuddling their sweet feathery bodies.  Maybe I will be calmer about birds in the house, as well...but, probably not.

Elsa had her violin recital a while back.  It was so cute--she played her monkey song (basically going up and down the e-string), and did her rhythms, and was inspired by the little boy who has been playing for a few years, as was I.  We haven't practiced much since, though, except when I showed her some You Tube clips of the amazing Carolina Chocolate Drops, with whom I am currently obsessed.  They are an African American group, playing roots music, and the woman is a completely amazing musician, playing the fiddle, banjo and kazoo and singing amazingly.  Anyway, Elsa was inspired, and got out her violin on her own and began playing.  She did some of her rhythms, and then she began some frantic bowing along with singing a long made-up song about a mama and her baby rocking in the old oak tree, upon which I think her Suzuki teacher would have frowned.  I, as you may imagine, did not frown upon her playing that way at all.  I still can't find a good time for daily practicing.  I have been feeling kind of frantic about all of the things I feel like I need to do--the house constantly feels out of control, I want to get down to the garden...and I want to read to the children and actually, check FB way too often.  It's a problem.

The garden is kind of sucking right now....My kale will not grow, which is discouraging,  the peas have made slow progress, and the broccoli is bolting.  I think it is time to amend the soil and get our summer garden going.  Our strawberry patch is booming though, and I have planted four blueberry bushes, so things are not all bad, I just have higher expectations about what I had to accomplish.  When I was pregnant with David, it would have never occurred to me that I should have a big garden, and chickens, and make stuff...as the kids got older, space has opened up in my life to do other things, which I think is important and good for the kids, but I find myself frustrated by my low energy and sore back, and just not able to accomplish what I want to.  I try to remind myself that it is one season, and that I will be able to do it again next year, albeit with a tiny person probably on my back or rolling around in the dirt....but it is not always effective. 

I finished one sleeve on the sweater I have been making David since January...I only seem to knit when I am at yoga class with the kids on Thursday.  They both completely love it--I have never seen David so sweetly serious about anything.  He is totally focussed and loves the poses, and talks a lot about doing yoga.  Elsa loves it as well, although she is hoping that there will be a recital soon.  I am by no means a yogi, but I am pretty sure that there won't be a recital.