Sunrise, Sunset

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted anything here.  Swiftly flow the days.  They get away from me.  When I'm behind on anything (and I always am, just peek in my laundry room for confirmation of that), all there seems to be to do is to jump in where I am.  Trying to catch up is futile. So I won't review events around here, other than to say that yes, we did go to Missouri for my brother's wedding and it was wonderful to drive to some spring and hang out with all the far-away family who we miss so much.  The actual "driving" wasn't so much fun, but we/I didn't actually die. A post about that doesn't seem to be forthcoming, so check out the several good posts (each of those words is a separate link) on my Mom's blog for more.

Around here, spring is springing...

~As I type this, Jonah is carrying three baby chicks in his shirt after he took them outside for a run in the grass.  We have house chicks again.  This trio showed up in  a duck nest where a crafty hen hid her eggs and they got sat on by a duck.  We're still waiting for duck babies, so we removed the chicks to the house.  But now these insistent little peepers are living (actually, it's amazing they've made it, considering all the "love" they get) by the woodstove.

~When the fire dips below 85ish degrees, they peep.  A lot.  So we feed the fire, even if it's 65 degrees outside.

~They're like little fluffy thermostats.

~Jonah and I just took a rambling walk through a farmer's field and woods.  It was lovely, and we feasted on the new wild mustard greens.  I just can't get enough of those when they're new and tasty!

~Andrew is showing great interest in going potty lately, at 18 months old.  Well, Evan does it (sort of) so why not?  But  I'm feeling greatly ambivalent about starting that with him.  It might be easy, yes, but...  I'm having a baby, very soon, and I'm slightly traumatized from the last 8 months (!) of working on potty training Evan.

~But what's worse, two potty training and one in diapers, or two in diapers and one potty training?

~It's probably a wash, that's what.  No difference.

~The thing about a long winter is the inverse proportion of the gloriousness of spring when it finally arrives.  We don't even have leaves and blossoms yet, but it's glorious.  Sunshine and grass go a looooong way toward lifting all our spirits.  (I'm thinking you don't get that in California.)

~ Apologies to those of you in Minnesota.

~It's like someone opened a pressure-release valve in my living room.  All of a sudden, everything is calm and peaceful because my children are outside.

~I keep forgetting that what comes after pregnancy (which I sooo want to be done with) is newborn.  I can't seem to wrap my mind around that part.  It's exciting and wonderful, yes, but I keep thinking like life will just go on as usual and I won't be enormous anymore and oh-what-a-relief.  I just keep forgetting about the time-vortex of survival that I will be sucked into and that life is going to change again and THERE WILL BE A NEW PERSON.

~It's kind of mind-boggling.

~There WILL BE. a. new. person. HERE.

~I still have a couple weeks, give or take, ya know, a month.  Really, it could be anytime, but probably won't be.  I have a stationary panic when I think about that because, well... I don't even have baby stuff out yet or birth supplies put together.  I'm working on getting to that, really.  But there is much to be done.

~I have a baby who needs to turn 8 (EIGHT) (!) (8) (!) before we add another baby in.

~EIGHT.

~Evan is at the height of contrary.  It doesn't matter what you say, what it is, or how much he understands about it, he will want the opposite.  Nathan was deciding between black and brown spray paint for some project or other, and opted for brown.  "No, Daddy, you not use brown."  "Uh... I have to, Evan." "No, Daddy, you not use brown." ad infinitum.  "Evan, it's time for you and Andrew to go take naps so that Mommy can have a nap."  "No, Mommy, you not take nap."  Sigh.

~My laundry room is going to eat me.

~My Amish friend brought me fresh chocolate chip cookies this morning.

~How did she know I've been craving them for days and resisting making them because I'm trying NOT to grow a 10 pound baby? (Want cookies?  Too bad.  Go eat some cheese.)

~But what is there to do when someone hands me a box of my deepest craving other than eat the whole box myself?

~(Okay, not the whole box... I let the kids each have one...  Only because they were standing there when she brought them.)

~I am now going to go hide from my laundry room by going upstairs to sort kid and baby clothes some more.

~Maybe my Mom will make me chocolate chip cookies when she comes for the baby's birth.

Easter Egg Hunt, 2013

(If you haven't fished plastic eggs out of a toilet, you haven't lived.  Hand sanitizer, anyone?)