Archive for July, 2003
Our baby, just moments ago, rolled front to back on his own for the first time! 
Wow. Another one of those “where does the time go?” moments… He’s 4 months 3 days. It doesn’t seem that long too I guess because I’m still experiencing postpartum healing. My midwife reminds me, “It takes nine months to grow them…it takes at least that long to *begin* to feel “normal”…especially the more you have. Well, off on a tangent. Actually, it was really exciting to see that milestone achieved! Good job little son! 
Wow, another week blows past… Actually, it’s a little over a week since I’ve been here. Let’s see if I remember any of it…
The plan I had was totally blown apart. Last Wednesday, I spent mid-morning to early afternoon cleaning and cooking Hooligan - small fish my father had dipnetted and given to us. My count was above 60 before I lost track. They had been frozen but I wanted to use them up. Long story short. I had a foul smell in the refrig I had to find and clean up. Thought it was from some Halibut that had leaked at the bottom of the fridge a couple of days before but hadn’t noticed until Tues. night. So, cleaned that up. Still smelled something rank. Must be the freezer which had it’s door slightly ajar a few nights before all night long. (Don’t ask…) So, that means one of the packages of fish or the whole Red Salmon must have partially thawed and leaked in there. Freezer needs to be defrosted anyway (cheapy one as our very good but 20+ yr one died last year and we’ve been making do w/ the “extra” one). Pulled everything out and managed to get most of it into the frig portion but thought I’d thaw the above mentioned fish and use them like I said. The children were eating them as fast as I could clean and cook them!!! LOL When all those were finished, I moved on to the Red. That went faster of course but by this time I was growing fins and gills and looking for the nearest river!!! LOL I composted all the scraps in the garden box. Looking over my shoulder the whole time waiting to be accosted by one of the bears! LOL
Then, we had picked up the co-op order Tues. night and that had to be dealt with which spurred a semi-cleaning/rearranging of the pantry. I was burned out real fast though and only got partially through that and then it was time to get dinner. What?! I have to cook again after all that I did already?! Yes. As the children were growing fins themselves and were looking crossed eyed at the Red. Don’t worry, I made it easy on myself. Canned soup and crackers! LOL
Thurs. I thought I’d finish up the pantry and the co-op stuff. Wrong. Husband Dear wanted/needed me to do business stuff. I knew I needed to do it and had been putting it off…for what I don’t know. Oh yes, I do. That “laundry list” mentioned a couple entries back! Anyhow, Thurs. was spent most on the computer with breaks to cook and direct a few chores.
Fri. I tried to get the pantry/co-op stuff finished AND get back on track w/ that other list plus get outside because I can feel Summer coming to a close and I’m feeling desperate to enjoy the rest that’s left.
Sat. more of the same because Fri. I just didn’t have the cooperation I needed or something. We also learned we needed to go to Seward as W. grandmother has cancer and is not doing well at all. She’s been fighting it many years and the body is showing the toll now…
Sun. was spent in Seward. Words just don’t describe at all how it feels…
Mon. recovery day. And, it rained. So, we all slept in and spent the day reading or doing piddly chores and enjoying a fire in the fireplace. I did finally get the co-op stuff taken care of even if the pantry still isn’t organized how I want it.
Tuesday, again rain and another toasty fire all day. I was on the computer most of the day again too.
Wednesday, yesterday. A little chores, a little business. We went to the park in the evening. That was a very nice break. The two younger children (not the baby) are finally of the age and agility to enjoy all the equipment as their older sisters do. I never tire of watching each one reach these milestones. What a joy to see my younger daughter climbing the monkey bars with her sisters! What a joy to see our eldest son tall enough to get up the steps! LOL And, to shout “whee” as he discovers each of the various slides! It was a little windy but what a joy to see the baby blinking and shaking his little head as his wisps of downy fuzz are blown about and he tries to figure out why! I need more times like these! And, so does my dh. He missed it this time because he was still working…at home. That’s nicer than the alternative. Anyway, eventually that’s what the home business is supposed to bring… I pray God will be in it..through it..all about it…so that it will come to fruition.
So, we’ve had some rainy days. Yesterday was a nice day again weather-wise. Today it is overcast again with sprinkles here and there. The wind though…agh! This has been the windiest summer I can remember! My poor tomatoes are getting hammered! I’ve got 6 or 7 nice ones still green in various stages. If those reach full maturity, I praise God from whom all blessings flow! Really! They’ve successfully been grown from seed, etc. but right at about at the point of enjoying the fruit of our labors natural forces are working against us. Ah, the age old curse of man.
“And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the gound for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of they life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field: In sweat of the thy face shalt thou eat bread; till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 3:17-19
As our children often lament…I wish Adam and Eve hadn’t sinned! LOL The raspberry patch is a jungle still by the way… Perhaps, despite the wind, I get in there today. I really must if we are going to enjoy any this year…
That said, I better get moving!
Actually, I just realized it has been way over an hour already! I’ve been back and forth typing this as I did lunch prep/serving and some other things. Now, as I’ve been typing this, we’ve had a brief unexpected visitor. Ah, multi-tasking…it’s a wonder sometimes I ever keep a coherent train of thought at all! LOL I said I was going to check the temp. in an hour…it’s been over that…it’s now about 78F and the thermometer still isn’t in the direct sun yet. Again, a bit of wind makes it feel really nice. Ok, I’m really out of here now!
This lung congestion is for the birds. I’ve haven’t had such a rattling, hacking cough in years. Mostly colds…with sinus stuffy head stuff. That’s miserable enough. This…well, this is just…bleck. 
Today seems cooler…or I’m just getting used to it. Yesterday, W. said it was 89F in the part of town he was in. 10 degree difference. The official temp. is taken at the airport which is down by the coast so there is sea breeze. W. was in the flat “city” part of town w/ concrete and such absorbing heat. We (the rest of the family) were up on the hillside w/ trees, vegetation, etc. which helps cool things down. So, 79F, 89F and 84F all on the same day in various parts of town. It was 75F already when I looked a hour ago and the sun hadn’t made it directly south yet beating down on the deck/backyard. We’ll see what the temp. reads in about another hour. I suspect it will be quite toasty! Although, it is a bit windy today so it doesn’t feel bad. In fact, it feels quite good. I think the ole bones are feeling quite thawed out now! LOL
I managed to get the guest/sewing room cleaned up yesterday and a wipe down of the bathroom. The bathroom is so hard to keep clean this time of year…lots of dirty little hands and feet coming and going. I wouldn’t trade that for anything though…even a clean bathroom!!! Summer is so short here that I know I have months upon months for a nearly pristine one…so I can let it go and simply enjoy the moment. As long as hygiene is maintained what’s a little dirt? Things can be clean and still “dirty”…kwim? Or, as we say around here, “It’s clean dirt.” 
The schoolroom…I just shut the door for now. It’s mostly just toys scattered around. We know who should clean those up right?! It does still need a good organizing from the “fall-out” that happened when Q. was born…I’m embarrassed to say I still really haven’t taken care of it 3 mnths later. Most things are put away…but not put away. I know in another month though that we’ll have to get back to our serious school schedule and that will give me the motivation I need. Again, the summer is so great and we are busy w/ other things right now…what are some toys scattered around especially when they are contained in one room?!
Really, all this is a pep talk to myself. To overcome my perfectionist tendancies and to not be too hard on those I love most. It’s all true though…too bad I need to remind myself continually. Like right now, I’m “obsessing” about the typos in my previous entry…but, you know, I’m going to “let it go.” I’ve got some more important things to attend to…namely getting those said chores out of the way in an efficient not obsessive way and then going to ride bikes w/ my dear children!!! What’s that poem? “Settle down cobwebs. I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.” Something like that… Can insert bike riding, etc. in there too!
It’s been in the 80’s the last two, three, four days…something like that. Wowee - it’s hot!!! The radio is reporting 78-79F. Today, our thermometer reads 84F. It’s not as hot today as yesterday…a bit of clouds today. Yesterday must have been close to 90F. With all the doors and windows open, it was very uncomfortable in the house which is usually a relief when it’s hot outside. We are most always warmer than in town where they “officially” get the temp. reading because we are away from the ocean up the in the “hills.”
We have been miserably sick this last week and weekend. We got sick around the 4th of July last year too…what’s up w/ that! The children came down w/ it one by one and I started feeling bad Friday night. Saturday and Sunday, I was really not well. Today there is not much of a headache but the chest congestion, hacking cough, sinus and clogged ears are holding their own still. Argh. A couple of the children are almost done, one is midway, another is the same as me and the baby seems to have missed getting it…must be all the antibodies.
If my entry before the last one (about the bear cub on the deck) seems to been cut short, it was. I don’t remember why at this point. One of the children needed something or a couple were arguing or something…
Needless to say, the house is still a wreck since the previous entry. Busy w/ business and sick children and then being sick myself. My goal is to have at least the guest/sewing room, bathroom and the school room clean today. Tomorrow, the kitchen, dining and living room. The next, my office area and the laundry. Then there are the never-ending misc. projects. What day does that put my at…about Thurs. or Fri. Just in time for the weekend!
Ok, so, finishing up about the bear. I got the regular camera and had my face pressed against the glass of the sliding door to get a better look as he went to the far end of the deck to smell the tomato plants. As he came back my way, he stopped at the sliding door and smelled all around the base and side, etc. In the midst of that, he gazed inside and as I bent to take his picture, we stared each other in the eye for a good long pause. As the bear cub checked out the playhouse, W. was plugging the video camera in in the kitchen since I had the sliding door open already and tried to get some footage that way. But, the cub was ready to move on, so W. raced to the garage, plugged in there and flung the door open to get shots that way…he got a brief one.
We hadn’t seen hide-nor-hair since then until yesterday. The children were all out making mudpies in the front yard when B. looked up to see the cub standing in the driveway watching them. Of course, all kinds of blood curdling screaming and screatching and clambering up the front steps ensued and the cub sceedaddled into the bushes lickety-split! I told them they probably gave the poor thing a heartattack…I know they nearly gave me one!!! ;-P
Gardening - The raspberry patch is totally over-grown w/ weeds. I haven’t been in there except to smell the lilac blooms in, oh I don’t know, must be at least 4 wks. Argh! Totally needs my attention. (Maybe that’s what I’ll be doing this weekend after I’ve caught up the house this week.) We have some really pretty yellow flowers growing in there…don’t know what they are. The fireweed is also starting to bloom. So pretty! It also means, so “they” say, once the blooms reach the top, that we have only 6 more weeks until winter… Waaa! Oh gee, I better cut-n-paste my list here because I forget what I’m supposed to be doing:
Front yard - raspberries, rhubarb, irises, lilac bush (planted at the edge of the rasp. patch) (soon to have: Forget-me-nots [AK state flower!] and Hollyhocks)
The rhubarb I harvested for the first time when we got back from our long 4th weekend. It’s still in the fridge. I get my co-op order tomorrow and I’ll have my baking supplies restocked and I’ll use it to make rhubarb crisp, etc. Irises…don’t know where they are. They obviously haven’t bloomed. The lilac bush is about bloomed out. They few blossoms we had were so pretty and smelled so wonderful! I think I said that before… The Forget-me-nots and Hollyhocks are growing and growing although I don’t think we’ll get flowers from them this year. I did take some Forget-me-not transplants from W.’s grandmother’s house on the 4th weekend that I need to find a permanent place for. I just love their little flowers that are so perfect and delicate and the colors are so defined.
Back yard - crabapple tree, strawberries, chives, mint, lilac bush
The crabapple is busy making apples, the strawberries I had in the box that got moved onto the tree stump mound are establishing themselves…read no fruit this year. However, there are some strawberries on a hill that were there when we moved in that have some ripening fruit on them. Not many…but enough that the children always enjoy picking a few to munch on right then and there. Chives…zilch. Mint…lots and lots. Lilac bush…has blooms too!
Garden box (in back yard) - squash, peas (soon to have: radishes, turnips, carrots, scallions, lettuce, fennel [never have grown it before but mil sent me some seed so we’ll give it a go], cauliflower and green beans.)
Squash…going strong! Peas…been getting huge pods. Still, I didn’t plant enough to “put up”…just enough to enjoy at the moment. No radishes, turnips, carrots, scallions, fennel. Just didn’t have the room w/out my second box. Lettuce, cauliflower and green beans doing good.
Deck - tomatoes, geraniums.
These are all doing wonderful! Blossoms upon blossoms on those tomatoes. Does that mean tomato upon tomato? Hope so!!!
Wild berries in the Fall…mainly blueberries and cranberries. (thinking of seeking out currants…)
Only one more month before we harvest these…
We went hiking again the weekend before last. It was hot! We made it to where we had the previous time. Desperate for shade. The wildflowers were wonderful! I counted 5 or 6 different varieties. Also, that many different butterflies! B. had one land on her hand and hitch a ride for a good long way as we were coming back down. It was a good lesson in camoflouge (sp?) too as when it left her hand and landed on a leaf, we almost didn’t find it again. It looked so much like the leaves when it’s wings were folded up. It was a mix of green/yellowish green. Neat!
Well, I’ve been long-winded enough. I know I’ve forgotten something but it will have to wait for now. All those chores I listen are waiting…
