a birthday and a mother's day

Sassy had her birthday party this past weekend at the arboretum park. She had a wonderful time, as did I. Thanks to everyone who came! We’ve been busy making projects she received as gifts. So far, she has painted two of four birdhouses, made two cat toys, put together a doll, written some notes on stationery with her new art set, sketched in her sketchbook, fixed her hair with her new barrettes, played snake family, explored a photo album (wow – so many cute pics there), tied string to her new kite, helped Daddy build a Mother’s Day present for me with her new tools, and of course, rationed her chocolate to herself and us. What a great food sharer she is. So very unlike her mother.
















For Mother’s Day, Jeff built me a lean-to to help keep our lawn tractor dry. I had to laugh to myself, thinking how many mothers out there would be happy to have a lean-to for a Mom’s Day gift. I’m quite happy with it myself! I promptly put all my gardening tools under there along with the John Deere.








We worked and worked and worked on the garden Monday & Tuesday. I am still sore! I didn’t get much planted, but we have quite a bit of soil prepped for more planting on our next dry day. I planted all seeds, no starts, and got maybe 4 tomato seeds in, 8 beans, a few squash, a couple cilantro, a couple cabbages. We’ll see what comes up. We had to first lime the soil, since it’s a heavy clay soil. Then we mixed in some cow manure and finished with some leftover topsoil. I thought I’d be able to plant without tilling since the ground had been turned over last year when our septic field went in, but alas, no. So when I went out to plant, I realized how compact the soil was & decided I had to turn it all over first. Unfortunately, we don’t own a tiller, so I had to do it with the shovel. It felt good to go to bed physically exhausted – it’s been awhile, probably since my Magpie was born – and wake up with sore muscles.

What else this week? A woman from our new homeschool group is probably going to give us some older chickens. She said they are no longer laying every day, but usually every other day. She has 12 to unload. I don’t think I need a dozen eggs a day anyway!

We have to get a coop and a run set up within the next 2 weeks to take them, so I’ll be busy on that next week I’m sure.

I made cottage cheese for the first time this week and it turned out really well. I could see it becoming a regular task for awhile. Another homeschool mom up here made some farmer’s cheese that she brought to group last week and I’m excited to try it next.

I visited a farm about 2 miles up the road yesterday that had an organic asparagus sign out. There I met my first organic farm activist out here. The guy has to be pushing 50 years old – his youngest child of 3 is 20 years old, he told me -- but doesn’t look a day over 35. He sells organic veggies and grass-fed beef. He also distributes a newsletter and seems intent on educating the community about “nutrient-dense foods,” his words. Even better, he’s a native to the area so people likely trust him more. How wonderful it would be to get to know him better and do work with him when my Magpie is ready for it.

Oh, and the homeschool group up here had their planning meeting on Tuesday, which I attended. They decided my skills would be best used as a writing teacher for the high school age group. I am so excited. I remember first wanting to be a college writing professor (for English Composition 101) when I was around 12 years old. I’ve designed curricula in my head for years. I tutored English Comp when I was in college myself. I know most professors find 101 to be a burden, with kids in there that would rather not be, nary a writer in the bunch. I think that’s precisely why it’s always appealed to me. I’ve dreamt of turning an intimidating process into an easy one for them, and now I’ll get my chance! Many of the kids in the group are struggling with the essay component of their SAT’s, so I’ll get a chance not only to teach them and use my curriculum ideas, but to also be held accountable by their scores on the SAT test. It’s almost like I’ll be taking the test myself! (And now my true nature as a d-o-r-k shines through, hee, hee.)

I finally feel like we’re about settled in now. I’m back on cloth diapers. No longer allowing myself the convenience of disposables seems to be the defining point. :-)

Our house on James, dare I say, dare I say, is set to close next Friday. DARE I say. The buyers actually asked if they could come in this weekend and start cleaning up the backyard and painting inside. We said no to the painting but heck yeah to the backyard. Why not?

It sounds like they’re pretty certain it’s a go, dare I say.

Hope everyone else had a great week! I’ll be checking everybody’s blogs now to see how many other friends got lean-to’s for Mother’s Day. Ha ha!