Weekend Wittiness

Some friends and I had fun with alliteration last night, so in the spirit of prolonging the fun, here is some to describe the past few days:

bathtime buddies bonding over a Baby Einstein book


lip-smacking locked-out lunch with my lovely lady neighbor

rainy roundup of rad people relating over really good food while rowdy rascals play

sunny stroller strides and scooter stunts circling a sparkling lake

deceptively difficult dainty daisy-chain designs

silly samarai story making with a smiling soul sister

delightful digits of my dimpled, doe-eyed darling

pretty puffy pink peonies


Warriors with whiskers

harried hypnopompic husband hurrying home for a heavenly hibernation

I wish I had remembered to keep my camera with me all weekend because there were a ton of those perfect picture moments, and I missed them! Argh.

Garden Update

It's been just over 2 weeks (16 days) since we planted the vegetable garden, and all our hard work is showing promise!


(*Sidenote: Jed complained that I did not note how hard he worked digging out the gardening space and wheelbarrowing 3 yards of compost to it. It's true, he did most of the hard labor. I would never have gotten it done without him. Thank you honey!)
Everything, from the 24 day radishes to the 65 day corn has sprouted! Wyatt and Manny already helped me thin out the radishes and lettuce sprouts. Wyatt and I munched on the tender radish roots and slightly bitter lettuce seedling leaves as we worked. Manny wasn't so much into that... :)
We have just a few casualties where the birds pecked out some of our cucumber seeds, and the cats relocated part of the corn seeds with their digging so that there's a slight jog in the rows. Not bad, to start though! We'll see where the season takes us. (This week I plan to reseed the radishes and get to work in the front. No, I haven't gotten there yet. I will though!)
The garden looks neat and tidy this year with everything in rows, which is how I always assumed it was best to plant veggies. My sister Kerstin though, is reading Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway right now (a book I intend to borrow when she's done) and she said planting with a more natural order in mind is more conducive to a productive and healthy garden. Her garden this year is keyhole shaped.

Next year I think I will try something new. I do hate that we lose so much good soil space to paths between rows. Of course nature would present a more efficient flowing option! I would love to achieve a lush, fertile garden that doesn't seem so stiff and orderly! Even if I can change it up to a raised bed design like Jane's garden in It's Complicated:

*photo courtesy Google Images
(Can I just have her spanish-style ranch please? Oh, and her job as a wildly successful baker?!)
This year though, I am just happy to have a full kitchen garden growing successfully! I can't wait to start reaping the rewards - starting with those radishes! Yum!

A New Star, an end to an Era

Well, it took three weeks, but Wyatt's very first tooth that ever grew in fell out on Tuesday!

It was a bittersweet moment for Mama and Daddy as we realized just how much our little Sherriff has grown. When I held that little tooth in my palm, it looked so tiny! I remember thinking he looked kind of goofy as a baby when that first tooth grew in. It looked big and clumsy in his sweet little mouth, and it took me a couple days to get used to it.

Now, the tooth has been pushed out to make way for an even bigger tooth! Can you believe it? When Wyatt told us it was loose at first, we thought it was too early. We thought he must have damaged the root while rough housing at a friend's house, so we took him to the dentist, and lo and behold, the xray taken at the beginning of this year showed his ADULT teeth inching their way to the surface! At age Five!

(Wait a minute - WHAT?! Isn't it supposed to be a year or two off yet?)

Wyatt, of course, was ecstatic when it fell out! He and I had tried to pull it out with the whole string-and-door trick last week, but instead of pulling the tooth out, the string had just kept slipping off, which sent Wyatt (who was eagerly, and anxiously awaiting the big event) into fits of giggles every time. Then Tuesday, he just pushed on it with his tongue, and out it came.

POP!

Of course, the Tooth Fairy heard about it, and Wyatt discovered "Two monies!" this morning under his pillow! (Don't you love his innocence?) He spent the first 10 minutes of preschool yesterday showing everybody the new hole in his mouth. Hey, it's a big deal people!

This event coincides with another doozy - today is the Last Day of Preschool for Wyatt, EVER!

It's the end of an era.

No more will we walk (wagon-pull, or scooter) the 4 short blocks to play and learn and socialize. No more planning snack together when it's our day. No more "Mama, is it your work day or drop off day?" No more kitty hospital, dinosaur marching, or super hero family "car rides". No more of Teacher Anna's cool sensory table, or circle time stories and rhymes. I thought it was hard last year when Wyatt's best friend Kevin moved on to kindergarten ahead of him, but this year, sheesh... it's enough to make this mama cry!

Next year Wyatt will enter kindergarten. Don't get me wrong - we are very excited for this momentous occasion, but it certainly puts the last 5 years in perspective. My, how time flies! Before we know it, little Sweet Pea will be ready for preschool!

Oh boy.

It's true. Time stops for no man (woman, or child). No matter how hard we will it to stop; to go back, if only for just one sweet moment, please just one dear sweet moment, time keeps tickin' by. This is why I want to relish every memory, bittersweet or not. It's what life's about, right? It's too short not to, that's for sure.

You know, my dear driven sister Gab recently said to me that she was proud of an accomplishment recently made. That on her death bed, when she looks back at her life, making it to University is one of the things that she will be most proud of. I was so Happy, and PROUD of her that day. I have always looked up to her, and that day especially so. I thought to myself "You will make it there too one day, Jess". It's a good goal to have.

Then just yesterday, my Dad said to me that he realized recently just how much of life passed him by. How much he missed out on during all those years of working, working, constantly working... He is taking college classes now, and I think that's fantastic. He still encourages me to never give up on my education, and he's right.

Sometimes though I get tired of looking to the future, of constantly trying to be better, smarter, or stronger for some future I desire, while I am living my life right now. If I'm not careful, the best moments of my life will be over before I know it -

gone in a wink,

a breath.

I don't want to get to the twilight of my life and feel like my life was wasted wanting. I can live meagerly if only my life has meaning.

For me, that meaning comes in the form of building a happy, functional family. Of giving my children a solid foundation - all the love I have to give. I have to know that what I'm doing right now, being the best mom I can, is important too. I have to own that, truly feel it in the depths of my soul, because I never want my kids to feel resented, worthless, or unwanted.

"In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." Mother Teresa

...And how's that for a rambling post, huh?

Sticks and Stones

On Tuesday evening Wyatt and his cousin Manny were playing in the backyard while Jed and I prepared dinner. (As some of you may know, Manny has been staying with us to attend school up here. He is 14 and big for his age at 6 ft. and about 150 lbs. He is a good kid and Wyatt loves having him around to play with.) It was about 6:30pm. Wyatt was sitting on the deck when Manny, being a 14 year old, decided to swing a paver stone around that the boys had been using as a base in the yard. The stone was about 3 ft square and 15-20 lbs. Manny did not see his cousin and accidentally hit Wyatt on the back left side of his head. He immediately asked Wyatt if he was okay, but Wyatt was too stunned to answer. He did not lose consciousness according to Manny, though Jed and I have reason to believe he blacked out because Wyatt later said "When I woke up after Manny hit me with the stone". Manny carried Wyatt into the house and set him down, telling us we better have a look at him. Wyatt stumbled, so I set him up on the counter and immediately began looking for blood. Wyatt was sobbing and screaming uncontrollably, but I did not see any blood or cuts. I gave him an ice pack and tried to get him to take tylenol, but Wyatt seemed to have trouble with it. He kept freezing and then screaming in pain, and that is when I knew it was more than a headache and bump we were dealing with. We took Wyatt to Children's Hospital, and though I couldn't get a good look at his pupils, he was very sleepy. When we got to the waiting room Wyatt seemed to be doing a little better, but then he vomited. We were taken back right after this, and the resident doctor who examined Wyatt found him to be " very appropriate", with not much concern. She requested a CT scan because of the vomiting and because it was blunt force trauma. By that time it was about 9:00p and we were just beginning to think we might get home soon. Jed went back with Wyatt for the first CT which Wyatt did not take well. Besides having a splitting headache (literally, as we were about to find out), he was exhausted and starving since vomiting and missing dinner. Add to that being strapped down while a huge machine whirs and spins around your head, and you can understand why our poor 5 year old was hysterical. After that, we all waited with Wyatt while he dozed (the doctors said his pupils looked fine) until the scan was read by the neurologist. Wyatt began to complain of his head and stomach again, and it seemed to take them forever to get him some tylenol. When they did though, it did not stay down for long.
About 10:30pm the doctor returned to tell us (rather nonchalantly Jed and I thought) that Wyatt had a skull fracture with a "tiny" bleed on his brain. So small, she said, that they were unsure where it originated. The fracture apparently, is unconcerning to doctors. The bleed however, meant that Wyatt had to be admitted to ICU. The neurologist came in to reiterate what the ER resident had just told us. He said that it was going to be a long night of torture for Wyatt because they could not allow him to eat anything in case they needed to take him to surgery to take out the bleeding if it got any worse. A nurse came in and put an IV in Wyatt's arm. All I can say, is thank goodness he was so out of it, because when he complained of the lights being bright, she threw a gown over his eyes (smart lady) before she inserted it. It went in with a loud pop, not at all like a needle, and Wyatt screamed and tried to rip it out. At this point, toting an extremely tired infant, and trying to comfort my hysterical son while gruesome thoughts swam in my head, I have to admit I nearly broke down. I had been able to (mostly) hold it together while the doctors told us what they found on the scan, and when they said Wyatt was being admitted to ICU, but seeing Wywy so helpless, so exhausted and hungry, in so much pain, and knowing that things could take a turn for the worse in a matter of seconds, I had to call on all God's strength to swallow my own sobs. Jed had gone home to grab a few essentials, and my dad had come to pick up Manny. I prayed then, and tried to meditate to clear my mind, though pretty unsuccessfully. It helped though.
We were brought up to ICU, and went in for the second scan, in which Wyatt did much better. It was encouraging when the tech handed Wyatt some Spiderman stickers, and Wyatt said "These are for Connor" (one of his buddies at school, that he was okay enough to think of his friend made me smile and filled me with warmth). When we got back to his room, his night nurse Gina ran over hospital policy with me and informed me that Penelope was not allowed due to her age and all the infectious disease in a hospital. Of course. By this time it was past midnight. Gina asked me, as she was checking Wyatt's IV, if I had seen the pictures from the first scan. There was something in her voice that seemed slightly disbelieving. When I said no, she asked "So, Wyatt was playing with his cousin? How old is he?" When I explained that Manny is a large 14 year old, her face registered understanding. She offered to show me the scan and said "I didn't think a little cousin his size did this. It's a pretty good crack." Indeed. It started from behind Wyatt's ear and traveled to nearly the top of his head, where it tapered and hooked around toward the front. It looked thick and deep on the screen. (Not at all like the hairline fracture on Wyatt's thumb earlier this year when he fell out of the grocery cart.) The bleed, 6 mm across so really very tiny, was a light colored half moon shape just under where the fracture is. Not having the results of the second scan yet, and having nothing to distract myself from my son lying 5 feet away, I again had to summon strength I didn't feel I had. Strength to not become enraged at my nephew, strength to not let my mind rush to the worst possible outcome, strength to not let the deluge rise up and rush forth. None of this I knew, would help me through the next hours.

Jed came back shortly after, and I called my sister Ker to ask her to meet me at my house and stay with Penelope. Jed walked me out to the car, and as we passed the ER, we saw the medic helicopter on the landing pad. Jed and I looked at one another and we both realized then how lucky we were that Wyatt wasn't any worse off. There are so many for which this is not the case, and as I drove home I sent up my thoughts for those parents and children. My anger and my fear seemed to lift as I did so. When I got home that night, I laid Pepper in her crib and my soul danced with thanksgiving for all that I have. Because my children are the greatest gift of my life. I would be, quite literally, lost without them. For it has been in becoming a mother that I have discovered my true self. God has entrusted these perfect, sparkling souls to me to nurture, to care for, to take joy in. But mostly to love; to teach love, to learn love. God is great.

Back at the hospital, one of the other rules at Children's is that both parents cannot sleep at the same time. Jed let me take the first shift, but when I realized Jed was falling asleep, I let him sleep instead. In the early morning hours I heard Gina laughing with a colleague over Jed's snoring, which mind you, wasn't nearly as bad that night as it can get. Gina was coming in every hour or so to make sure Wyatt was still responsive and check his vitals due to the concussion. At about 6:30am, the neurosurgeon came in and told me (Jed was still asleep) that the bleed had not progressed. At 8am I went home to feed Penelope. When I got back Wyatt had tried to eat some crackers and water, but it had come up. It was then we were told that he would be transferred to the floor (out of ICU) for monitoring because of the concussion. However, by the time I went back home at noon to feed Penelope, we were still in ICU waiting for the attending doctor to show up. My sister went home to pick up her own kids, and I got Penelope to take a nap. I took the opportunity to talk with my nephew at that point. I could tell he was pretty shaken up, and I knew in my heart that it was truly a careless accident. I could not be mad at him for being a kid. More so, I was beginning to be mad at myself for allowing the boys to have the stone in the yard at all. But most important of all was that it could have been so very, very horrible, and it wasn't.

Wyatt ended up being discharged directly from the ICU, and we were all home by early evening. He will have concussion symptoms for 2 weeks, and headaches for a month, but no lasting damage.

That's all folks.

Black Gold

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Well, we're about a month late for our area according to The Farmer's Almanac planting table, but on Thursday we finally got our vegetable garden in the ground! It's a good thing we didn't wait until the weekend because the F.A. says any seeds planted May 15-16th will tend to rot!

After two years of planting in containers, and having only a strip of a garden to speak of, we now have 230 glorious square feet of beautiful composted gardening space!

In the ground are:

Tomatillos (75 day maturity)

Tomatoes: Early Girl (bush and vine), Juliet, and Sun Gold (all with a maturity of 55-60 days!)

Giant Mammoth Melting Sugar Snow Peas, and some left over heirloom Snap Peas from last year (65 and 55 day maturity)

Muncher Cucumbers (65 day maturity)

Early Sunglow Corn (65 day maturity!)

Hops (perrenial plant that gets better every year)

4 varieties of Bush Beans: Top Crop, Blue Lake, Yellow Wax, and Purple (52-60 day maturity)

Parisian Market Carrots (50-60 day maturity)

Bon Vivant Blend Lettuce (45-55 day maturity)

Chioggia Beets (60 day maturity)

Early Scarlet Globe Radishes (24 day maturity!)

Zucchini Squash: Caserta, and 49er (50-55 day maturity)



Wyatt and I also planted Mammoth Sunflowers and marigolds in our blue planter. We planted the sunflowers there last year, and they did really well. It's so fun to watch them grow, and grow, and grow! Last year the squirrels hung from the drooping flowers and harvested the seed heads for us, but this year we plan to harvest them ourselves!


In my other deck planters, my Bee's Balm came back, but nothing else, so I hope to plant new perrenials there. Also, if we actually get the gravel done this year I would love to replant my potted herb garden. If nothing else though, I have a packet of wildflower seeds I am determined to sow in the front flower garden. Of course that will require some back breaking cultivating, but with my trusty Ergo to pack the Pea and my hardworking son I think we can do it! Wish us luck!




Happy Gardening!

Kangaroo Farm Field Trip!

(Sidenote: I am still learning how to arrange everything on this blog. HTML code is foreign to me, so it took me about 5 tries to post this... any tips or tricks would be appreciated!)

On Wednesday we went to the Kangaroo Farm in Arlington with Wyatt's preschool class. It was our third time visiting in as many years, but it's a fun outing! Along with the kangaroos, the farm is home to wallabies, peacocks, chickens, donkeys, goats, llamas, alpacas, a shetland pony, an ostrich, and 2 emus. Whew!


Most of the kangaroos were little like this one, but there was one big one, Kangaroo Jack.

He was napping when we arrived, and decidedly did not want to get up, but the guide insisted. After a couple of proddings, Kangaroo Jack slowly, grudgingly rose with his eyes still mostly closed and hobbled (really, as much as a kangaroo can hobble!) like an old man over to where we waited. He was rewarded with some bread for his efforts, but I felt sorry for the poor guy!

There was one peacock there who was strutting and showing off the whole time.

I would be arrogant too if I looked like this!

Look! We both have babies in pouches!

My boy.

This Shetland nodded vehemently when asked "Are you a bad boy?"!

The farm's ostrich. It was a little scary being that close with all the kiddos. Did you know an ostrich can kill a lion with one swipe of its deadly claw? Yikes.

Feeding the donkeys.

Feeding the Llamas. The guide gave us alfalfa pellets to feed them. If you place one end in your lips, the llama will gently take it from you!

The highlight came at the end, when all the kids got a chance to hold a baby wallaby. Isn't he cute?! The owner adopted him and now takes care of him full time. He is 5 months old, and takes a bottle every 4 hours around the clock. So it's full time work for her, just like babies of the human sort!

After a little picnic with Teacher Anna's homemade oatmeal cookies (Yum!), we played under the coolest big leaf maple tree. It was about 4 people around, with big roots to sit on and long twisting branches - nothing like the young maples in my yard.

Mother's Day BBQ

It was a perfect day.  The sun was shining through the trees.  Music and laughter filled the air. We stuffed ourselves on Paul's amazing grilled caesar salad, and fresh berries and pound cake!  Fun was had by all.  Hope your Mother's Day was a glorious as mine!

Mother's Day

After more years than it is fair to say, Jen finally got family pictures with the whole clan!  These are a few of the best. 

Turning over a new leaf...

After so much trepidation, here I go starting a blog of my own...
In the past I have allowed my constant struggle with feelings of self-doubt and worthlessness overwhelm me.  Humbleness has been a profound lesson in my life. 
However, with encouragement from my dear sister, I have decided that my life is worthy. 
Worthy of noting. 
Worthy of sharing. 
Worthy of Celebrating! 
It's time to be proud of who I am, what I've accomplished, and where I am headed.
Here's to letting my well-spring rise!