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.

I love...

...it when Samuel turns toward me, still asleep, sticking out his pointy litte tongue, to nurse;
...how he smiles first thing in the morning, before he opens his eyes;
...his sweet, milky smell mixed with just a smidge of neck cheese.

This is the spring...

Where I am not going to start fifty tomatoes.  I am not.  I swear.  I promise.  At the most, one row of tomato plants.  Hold me to it. 

Also, I went to church!  Finally.  It's hard with a new baby.  I wept my way through the Palm Sunday service, as I usually do.  The triumph and the perfidy.  This year, Peter's humanity spoke to me.  He must have been so frightened, even though he wanted to be brave.  I can't manage a lot for Lent of late, but Holy Week remains special.  Also, the preacher preached from the pulpit that it is our Christian duty to stand up for the rights of our Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender sisters and brothers.  The Episcopal Church: Love God, Love your neighbor, change the world.  I love it.

Jesse stayed home with a recovering but epically cranky David and cleaned house.   I must say, he did a fabulous job, and the house was pretty presentable for a lovely visit with my best friend from high school, her husband and three children.  So, yes, he's kind of a keeper. 

Family and Baby Love

Still no pictures.  This morning, I woke up with Sammy cuddled up close, his hand around my breast.  This last baby is making my heart hurt...I love him so. 

We had sort of a dreadful day yesterday.  David is finally on the mend from a horrible sickness.  It may have been the flu...the day before, I took him to the doctor, promising him ice cream and candy if he would just cooperate.  It was terrible and innapropriate, but I didn't know how else to manage with the baby and him.  He did it, and was remarkably compliant, although chattering nervously the entire time, so that I couldn't discuss anything about Sammy with the doctor.  He did begin to freak out about the otoscope, and so I asked the doctor not to use it.  He didn't have ear pain.

Anyway, we were definitely housebound yesterday.  David still had a bit of a fever, and was incredibly, incredibly cranky.  And I was/am still incredibly tired.  It was back to newborn stage sleepwise with David waking up and really needing to sleep with his mama...and so homeschooling was uninspired, and it was incredibly cold.  I was counting on spring, but we are having below freezing temperatures all day long and it sucks. 

I read aloud a whole bunch of The Tale of Despereaux (it's so great), trading chapters with Elsa for No Fighting, No Biting...that is usually how I get her to read to me, by bribing with my reading something more compelling.  It is hard--the only books that Elsa can read yet are boring for a child who has been hearing complex chapter books since she was four.  Also, I made her do some workbook work which never really feels good.  I just felt uninspired, and well, nervous...am I doing enough? Would she be getting more in school?  I started this with some kind of conclusion in mind, but it got lost in the mess of a baby needing to nurse, and more homeschooling, and floor sweeping and chicken feeding.

Today, however, was awesome.  It was still cold, and we didn't go out, and Sammy is no longer content to stay in his bouncy seat, so Elsa and I are constantly trading off, holding him, playing with him...he is on the cusp of sitting and I think that will make things easier....I have to say that my body is no longer up for wearing a baby all of the time.  I just can't do it.  Anyway, Elsa decided that she wanted to make sculpey clay models of all the gods.  First, we tried to remember them--then counted them...then made a list.  Then she worked for at least two hours...I had to make her stop to go outside for a little bit.  It just felt right.  



Today was better though..