kids

  • cats,  chickens,  garden,  kids,  sustainable living

    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…

  • family,  kids,  summer,  Sun stuff

    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…

  • Catching Up,  kids,  yarn

    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…

  • family,  garden,  green,  kids,  Mr Husband

    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…

  • family,  kids,  photos,  The World as We Know It

    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,…