June!

Oh, I am so thrilled with June's arrival. We've almost completed painting our exterior! Hurray, tho the basement is a total disaster and dishes seem to keep piling up, how does that happen? I emptied my craft area to sort it out, sorta, I'm in complete influx. It needs to be cleared out to move to the next project, installing the new hot water heater we've had sitting in the basement for over a year! Then too, I really hate to put everything back to just remove it later this summer when the basement remodel begins, but I'm afraid I will begin tackling it, hmmmmm, next week. The exterior will be done and classes begin again for B. so I can get some sort of a routine going.

Anyway, that and school ending way back in earlier May is what has kept me away. So What's happened since then??

Happy Mother's Day. I spent a wonderful day with my own mother and my sister and our significant others and Magoo, whom I've found I'm mostly calling Munch (as in munchkin) or punkin/punkin head as my dad taught me. We went on a great picnic and played a great round of mini golf. Munch thoroughly enjoyed it and described the day to us repeatedly since.
Hockey or Golf?

Very fun mini golf course

From Spring 2009

We also celebrated the 4th birthday of another friend and while I can't post the pictures of the kiddos at the party the decorations were so fantastic straight out of a magazine I have to share them here. This mom is amazing, her sense of style and art and how she herself and her creations including but not limited to her children can bring sunshine into even the darkest of rooms!

From Nina's Birthday

From Nina's Birthday

He's talking and saying such fantastic things lately, it's so fun, we're moving a little beyond the questioning everything phase. Today he read me a book. It was a new book we've never read before about a platypus, I'm not sure he knows this animal ut he looked at the pictures and told me a story as I turned the pages. I mostly remember that it was about a pududdle (platypus??) swimming and then "finding another pududlle but no it was a beaver but it was friendly and so he was happy . . .)

One more thing, I'll snap a photo next time . . . we rode on our favorite trail today to the creek and Munch has learned to lift his feet and coast while riding his skuut! But even more fun is his friend, let's call her Sweets, she rode up next to him and said "I love you, tingsley." He said, "Do you like my helmet, it has blue flames?" Such a guy already? But wait he redeems himself!

Near the end of the ride, and they rode a long way, he rides next to Sweets and says "I love you." To which she replies to her mom, "I need to get off my bike and give him a hug." So she dismounts walks the one step to him give him a hug, rather, they hug. As she steps away, wait for it here comes his redemption, he says, "I need to give you a kiss, Sweets." He bumps her in trying to raise her head and sweetly apologizes then gives her a kiss. This is a regular occurrence for the two of them, this kissing, don't worry we're watching them, though it's not a match we object to. Of course Sweets is well sweet but there's a few others we'd approve of as well, as if we'd get any say.

Is laughing outloud when no one else is around really a sign of insanity?

How are the pet rats?

Well, in a word, they're dead. So I guess you could say they're not doing very well.

Not my pet rats, another bloggers, I like her confidence, "I guess you could say. . ."

20 Minutes of Solid Curiosity or A new language boom I'm not so fond of!

What's this?
A parking lot.
Why's it a parking lot?
So people can park here.
Why do they park here?
To go to the store.
This store?
Yes.
Do you like this store?
Well, . . . we get stuff here.
What are we getting?
Ugh, pictures for Mother's Day and maybe some food.
What pictures?
The pictures you just saw on the computer at home, the ones you picked out (that we just discussed going and getting here at this store in this parking lot five minutes ago at home before setting out to this exact thing).
Can I ride on the bottom?
That's fine.
I'm hungry.
We're getting food soon.
Can we go over there?
No we're going to get the pictures.
Can I get a book?
No, we're not getting any books today but after we drop off the pictures you can look at one while you're in the cart.
What's that?
Nail polish.
What's it for?
For your nails, like on momma's toes.
What color is it?
I don't know, Tuscan something, like a pink red.
Is it cool?
Yes.
I'm hungry.
We're getting food soon.
Why's that sign green?
Because that's the color they picked?
Who?
The people who made the sign.
When is N. and F. coming over?
Later, maybe.
Can we go to their house?
Maybe.
Can I ride my bike over there?
Yes, if we go.
Where's papa?
In the cities.
What's the cities?
A town, like where auntie lives, it's kinda far but not too far.
Why's he in the cities?
To look at a van.
What van?
A new van, he might buy it.
What van?
A van.
Our van?
No a new van.
Why?
He might buy it.
What van?
A VAN, I DON'T KNOW. (Desperately), what van do you think?
What van?
I'm hungry.
You are eating (at this very moment) a pretzel.
I'm hungry.
You have food.
Can I have a snack?
You're eating a snack right now, and dinner as soon as we get home.
I'm thirsty.
I don't have anything right now, when we get home.
Can we watch a movie and have N. and F. over? And have popcorn?
I don't know, maybe, we'll see.

I used to think unbridled curiosity is a wonderful thing, and parent's should stop getting so frustrated with their curious little ones and answer their questions. But there is no answer. The questions do not end. They are unanswerable. I think it is the forming of the questions that is the learning not the answers so much, I hope. Because if you thought this was long, try being there for it!

Then I get home.

What's for dinner, hun?
I don't know, quesadilla's.
No, I don't feel like that, what else?
I don't know.
Do you mind if I go fishing on May 15th? Is there anything going on then?
I don't know, look at the calendar.
What's on the calendar?
Nothing that weekend.
What are you doing tomorrow?
Garden stuff.
How long are you going to be?
1 or 2, hopefully sooner.
Which picture do you like?
Pick one, did you not just hear me complain about the 20 minutes of questions I just endured. Now you're doing it too, pick one.
Ok. Can you mail them?
Yes, fine.
Do you have an envelop?
Right there, by your head.

(Are you kidding me!)

see below

working titles of this post

Wow!
Birds
I'm Centered
Amazing World we Live in

I went for a very much needed walk/jog on the local State Forest Trail and am working on honing my bird id. Here's my list, I'm pretty impressed with this amateur ok, maybe not, but seeing so many birds and so many calls I couldn't id was amazing and just being outside this a.m. was so what I needed.


Red-winged blackbird
Chickadee--got to see coming out of a hole in a snag
Wild turkey--gave me quite a start as I saw something moving in the woods, then came running across the path and took flight right
Bald eagle being attacked (flogged, is that the right word?) by an American Crow
Red tailed hawk and by sound!
Downy woodpecker (95% downy not hairy)
Northern cardinal
American robin
?? wren, uniform brown color on the ground and in the shrubs/dried grass, very short tail, very small body.
White-throated sparrow, and oh my, I've been thinking this call was one of the variations of the chickadees! Wow, completely corrected my own misconception!
House sparrows perhaps, would they have been along the marshy section of my walk? What ever it was it made a chipping type sound was mostly gray with brown on the back, had little markings on the front, at most a faint necklace with pendant, distinct stripes on the head.


by sound only
blue jay
mourning dove
wood pecker??
and western chorus frogs

And in our yard lately there's been a large flock of Cedar waxwings and a few Ruby-crowned kinglets, along with the other typicals: robin, mourning dove, cardinal, chickadees, juncos, . . .

From Spring 2009

From Spring 2009

From Spring 2009

From Spring 2009

From Spring 2009

EEEEEEaster Weekend

Everyday, begins and ends and every possible moment inbetween with reading.

From Spring 2009

From Spring 2009

Exploring--note the 'struction (construction) hat, everyone had to wear one, looks remarkably like an eye mask? Oh, and chopping stick, good for chopping and sawing trees.

From Spring 2009

Exciting Rides!

From Spring 2009

Egg Dying

From Spring 2009

Egg Finding

From Spring 2009

From Spring 2009

Eggciting new games and a visiting dog.

From Spring 2009

From Spring 2009

Maple Tapping

Magoo and I visited a friend's cottage in Frontenac to check out how they make maple syrup.

We pull up in the car and he says, "I wanna go." He knew that at the conclusion of this new adventure there were chicks as I had promised a stop at Runnings to see them. They come in on Thursday and sometimes sell out so fast that if we don't get there that first day. We set off down the hill to take a peek at the trees and discover jelly bean deer scat along the way, he's an expert scat detector already! Then to the trees, we even got to try sap straight out of the tree, not too flavorful. Finally we make it back to the top of the giant mountain (Colorado influence still? it was just a little hill). Then campfire to watch the boiling of the sap was lots of fun, but most fun of all was getting to sample the finished product, boy did his whole body glow and his begging to go quickly ended, the photo I wish I had. Perhaps, next time I'll start with the sugar! We didn't stay too long, had to see the chicks!

From Spring 2009

From Spring 2009

Me

Once in a while I look at other peoples blogs and they're so sunny and cheery and their pictures are so perfect and their writing is so fantastic that I think, "You should start a blog just for yourself." Then I shake myself and say, forget it, you can't maintain the things you already have and besides you already have three blogs of which you barely keep up. So, I'm forced to add this part of me when it does happen here, because in my heart I'm a writer and writing really isn't writing unless you can share it. My great friend Amy's etsy site is filled with these beautifully crafted jewels oh and her jewelery is great too. She writes with such a marvelous sense of voice and self. This piece isn't meant to be a piece of "writing" more a piece of stream of consciousness inspired at least a little by Amy's and other's writing; I liked admitting my neuroses anyway. A reply to an email for the purse I bought on etsy, after she agreed to add more pockets and for free!

Thanks so much for the extra pockets, I've been dreaming about how to use them ever since I sent the email--yes I am just that obsessive that I day dream about more pockets in things! One for pens/pencils, one for my small ipod and microphone, one for my phone, one for my notebook, coupons, checkbook (nope big enough I can find it without a pocket, besides it will be the only thing not in a pocket, until I collect all that other crap) . . . hmmmm where can I stick an extra pair of underwear for my son who can't seem to get potty training? And where do I put the crayons and stickers, bandaids, handwash? The list is endless, my bag is a mess! You get the point. Obsessive with organization, perhaps, perhaps the only thing in my life I actually get to control and clean and it stays that way. I hope I didn't take too much time from your busy sewing life to share my OCD. Thanks for the pockets, you made my day.

From Life is What You Make it

Half the pockets that will be

From Life is What You Make it