surgery tomorrow

Have been far too busy preparing the house and the pantry and the children and the gardens and the lists and the watering schedules and the classes I am teaching and so on to even think about blogging. I do tweet now-and-again and will try to tweet again tomorrow, on the other side of surgery.

love notes

I've been writing love notes on the children's napkins each day. This morning they made their own sandwiches and finished packing their lunches, including the napkins. As they were finishing up I came in to do the love note part. Too late. They had already written the love notes, from one to the other, and apparently in secret, as they wouldn't tell me what they had written.

full report later . . . pics to tide you over

it's so quiet

I get it now.


I get why people send their kids to school now. It is so quiet here. And in an hour it will still be quiet. And an hour after that? Quiet. I can breathe. I can take a long bath. I can clean the house and in a couple of hours it might still be clean, at least until 3:30. Wow.

This could be dangerous, like a drug is dangerous, you try it just once and then . . .

What a Mother's Day

Twas a lovely lovely day.

I started the day with the my 12-year-old bunnies tucked under the covers with me for a long snuggle. Did you know bunnies purr?

Then My Gift and the kids brought me a latte and presents. Dandy made me a very pretty wooden tissue cover in woodshop, as well as a cheese board. He was so pleased to give these. My Gift and Chickadee went in on some bath salts and a spa gift certificate. Yum.

Then, as I sat in bed sipping my latter and snuggling the bunnies, they proceeded to start rearranging the bedroom furniture at my command. We are moving everything so that I can look out the windows to the back yard whilst I am in the bed-rest stage.

Then I got up and cooked, as really, I prefer my own cooking over most restaurants. We had salad caprese, bacon, grilled polenta, scrambled eggs with feta, toasted bagels, and mimosas.

Then there was some loafing about and some chicken watching and a visit from Grandma and Grandpa. We ended the day in the vegetable garden. The kids framed, filled, and planted a sunflower patch and Jamie built me a new raised bed for beans and potatoes (can I interplant these?).

For dinner Jamie BBQed oysters for me. It was productive happy day. How was yours?

home-school drop-outs

Well we did it.

We enrolled the kids in the local public school. They start Wednesday. They'll ride the bus and go to PE and eat lunch in the cafeteria and do all the schoolish stuff. They will spend their days with strangers. I hate this part of it.

On the other hand, I will be able to get a haircut and go out to lunch and do errands in peace. I like this part of it.

The best part -- and certainly the most important part -- is that they will still be learning useful things (and probably, alas, a few un-useful things) whilst I am sleeping and healing.

Dandy took a math skills test earlier this week and guess what? He is doing 3rd grade math. Which is nice as he is in 3rd grade and we skipped 1st grade altogether and learned a whole new language and changed countries and learned about being a family and endured all sorts of traumas and ordeals.

the kindness of a stranger

A few weeks ago I had an ultrasound done by a perfectly nice person who attempted to make a little light conversation with me.

Apparently, a little light conversation was too much for me and I burst into tears and shared some of my challenges. I remember trying to say stoic brave things with a wobbly voice and tears running down my face all the while thinking to myself "Hush, she doesn't need to hear all this." But apparently I needed to say it, so I did. She said some appropriate nothings and we parted ways. Me a bit embarrassed at having unloaded on her, and her with a nice picture of my innards.

Today I got a little box in the mail holding a kind and and thoughtful card and some 'pamper yourself' goodies and an amusing toy and I burst into tears all over again, though a different sort of tears.

Here she is, a busy professional woman, who took time to gather up and send to me some treasures and to reach out with some encouragement. How nice is that?

bye bye uterus

Who needs ya, anyhow? Just a big pain in the back as far as I am concerned.

Oh, did I forget to mention my delicate lady troubles? Well, even I have some boundaries and even this post is uncomfortable close to crossing the line. Nevertheless, later this month I'll be spending a little time with a surgeon and a lot of time with some pain-killers and will emerge from the other side as a new and improved woman.

The kids? We'll be putting them into a free daycare with pick-up and delivery aka the public school down the street. I can't home-school while I heal, and I can't heal while I home-school. The kids will get 5-6 weeks of public school and I will get about 6 hours a day of napping time. We'll have all summer to straighten the kids back out.