Bi And Large

Sorry so quiet recently. I know, I have been ignoring everyone and I am sorry!

I have been REALLY sick the past few days. I don't know with what but it isn't pretty. Also Friday morning my car finally self destructed and its engine is no longer with us. And will cost more to replace the engine than it would to just get a new freakin' car, basically. Not that we have the money for either. So my time has been taken up recently with looking at cheap used cars that will fit my giant ass while hauling kids + giganta-dog and still be reasonable to drive and of course safe and reliable; plus looking for a job so I can afford to have a car. Said job, of course, needs to be on a part time schedule that is worked around Pete's schedule, Amy's school schedule, and when I can fit Iris into daycare around her nap times. Which doesn't leave me much. And it has to pay enough to cover the cost of a car AND childcare so I can even be at work. Yeah. So pretty needle in a haystack there.

Wish me luck! I think I need it.

Images, images everywhere!

Yes, yes, at long last I have updated everything image-wise. Every album. Everything. It took me a while, apparently, since I had pics of the girls at Halloween up as the most recent! But there ya go. Enjoy!

Lots of kid centered activity around our house these days, which is probably as it should be - and which is certainly fun! We have headed full throttle into summer, giving spring mostly a miss. Pity as spring is so delightful around here, and we only saw it for a week or wo before jumping right from winter to summer. But, summer is good, and we will take it. Days at the beach building sand casles and wading, laying out in the grass and sun; and spending every evening after dinner out in the yard with the whole neighborhood, adults chatting around a bonfire and swatting mosquitoes while the kids yell from the swings and play soccer.

On Thursday I picked up bikes for the girls. Finally! We really should have had one for Amy last year or the year before and we were slack about it, so now all the kids in the neighborhood who are a year or two behind her are good riders and she is kind of half able to manage her little trike. I *love* craigslist for kids stuff, I have had some excellent experiences there, and I found two bikes in great shape for $10 and $20. I hit the toy store and bought new helmets and a set of training wheels and we are set! They look adorable in their helmets on the bikes and they are getting the hang of riding. At the park on Friday Amy was able to mount, ride down a path and across the basketball court, turn around, come back, and get off again, all by herself. It was very slow going, but she could do it. Iris can't quite get the idea of pedaling forward, but she will. She's got time to figure it out and I bet by next summer when she is 3 she will be zipping all over the neighborhood.

Then this weekend the county fair is on here, which I love. Nothing says summer quite like the fair. Our state one is in August and it is enormous, supposedly the biggest state fair in the US. Fun and I love it too, but it can be overwhelming. The county one is right up the road, is more rural, and much more intimate. You see your neighbors there, and you see adorable artwork that local kids drew and cookies the people at the church down the road baked, you know? And while it is VERY fun and has enough quality stuff that you can spend all weekend there and never get bored, you can also see the entire fair in 2 or 3 hours. So it's perfect when you have 2 kids that get tired of walking.

We arrived this evening around dinner time and started off with fair food dinner - pizza slices for the girls, foot long corn dogs for Pete and I. We sat on a bench under a big oak tree and while we were eating (our girls are slow) we shared the table with a few other people. One of the families we shared the table with was a traveling performing family that did a music show at the fair, and coincidentally we had met them a couple days ago over lunch in town and talked. Small county! Anyway it was fun to chat with them.

We headed down past the 'sights' ("See the world's smallest horse!" "See the world's biggest pig!") to the animals and the girls got to ride ponies, which was a HUGE hit. Iris had never been on a horse before and she did great and was so taken with it. We went and spent at least an hour in the farm / petting zoo after that. Goats galore! Sheep! Pigs! Cows! Donkeys! Yaks! A cebu! They had longhorn cattle and buffalo and more ponies and angora goats and ducks and geese. There was a huge incubator of eggs hatching and of course, the resulting fluffy little chicks! The girls brushed a cow and then they learned how to milk. (I LOVE rural fairs!) I was impressed Amy could actually get a pretty good stream going - and impressed at a very patient cow! They spent some of their pocket money on cups of feed and went around feeding the animals and laughing at the tickles when the goats and sheep nibbled their fingers.

We washed hands and moved on. There was a very loud and muddy demolition derby, and of course the games: you know, kids games where you pick a duck or catch a fish and win a prize. Another huge hit! We went on rides. Iris is now tall enough, thank you Pete's genes, to go on the kid's rollercoaster. So she went, and whoa! I don't know any other 2 year old who laughs through a really fast rollercoaster with their sister. They had a giant slide there, the kind that's like several stories tall and you go down on a sack of burlap, and the girls went twice it was so fun. There was a carousel and little rides that just spun around and a ferris wheel and one of those pirate ships that rocks back and forth.

We decided to break for some dessert - ice cream for Amy, cotton candy / fairy floss for Iris, and a caramel apple for me - and a bathroom break. We had a very brief rain shower as a cloud passed over and it created the most incredible full double rainbow right over the fair! After we dried out we heard there would be fireworks later so we spent some time exploring the exhibits. Amy's favorite was the exhibit done by the mosquito control people. *blink* That's my little budding biologist! She and one of the people there really hit it off and had a great conversation over a pan of mosquito larvae for like half an hour as they examined them and poked them with an eyedropper and things. We enjoyed all the crafts, avoided all the politicians, and had a really great time in the 4-H tent. This year Amy is old enough to join cloverbuds (the youngest group in 4-H) and I think she would love it so much - so we signed up for some more info on that.

Anyway we wound up the evening with a fantastic freworks display as we sat on the hill, sharing a cup of chippies. The girls were worried at first because the noise startled one of the ponies, so we went and calmed him down with some low voices and strokes and grass, and then when all was said and done we headed home. It's like 11:30pm now and the kids are exhausted, but it is worth it, the fair only happens once a year. The girls are getting clean in the bath, pajamas are waiting. It's been a really fun day.

The night before last, Amy had particularly pink cheeks when she came in for bath. But it has been warm, and she had been running around outside, and her fair skin gets pink very quickly. So we didn't think twice! Then the next morning - yesterday - after breakfast she turned REALLY red. She is a very reactive kid with eczema and multiple allergies, who gets hives frequently, and that is what we assumed. Like she had two huge hives on her cheeks. I gave her some Benadryl and went about our busy day. But the hives didn't totally go away, and that evening they were worse and were on her arms too, like a sunburn. This morning she and Iris both woke up with fevers.

I took them to the ped and they have Fifth's disease. Oy!! Now I have to keep them quarantined forever. Typical of my life!

Yesterday my work as a stay at home mom was demeaned and degraded as obviously unimportant. Someone close to me expressed shock that my work would take any real time or effort; and when I was talking about my day I was abruptly cut off in favor of the tv, with clear indications they could not possibly find my work more boring. Fine. I don't care if my day isn't for everyone. We don't all have to like the same things. But for the love of pancakes, a little deceny and manners please. Basic human respect. And can you please acknowledge that while you might not think that what I do is worth anything, that doesn't mean it is true. I actually do work all day. Big shock I know, but a stay at home parent doesn't just sit on the cuch eating bon bons and watching soap operas. And I actually have skills that I use in my work. My work is creative and actually brings a benefit to my home and my family and my community.

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Today I:

Woke up

Made coffee

Opened up the house for the morning

Made the kids a healthy breakfast, ensured they ate, and helped them clean up from it

Fed the cat and dog and gave them clean water

Showered and got dressed in a cute but practical outfit for my day

Changed my youngest's diaper and dressed both girls

Got everyone's shoes on, teeth cleaned, and everyone including the 130lb dog in the car (which is filled with gas in preparaton) for an appointment at the vet

Halfway to the vet on a country road through farmland, discover that my oldest really CAN'T hold it until we get there. Think fast, know my way around, find the closest place with a public toilet in a matter of seconds, and get everyone to it in time. Give in to the oldest's protestations demanding her privacy and independance in the bathroom while helping the youngest use a public potty for one of the first times. Watch the clock. Still make it on time, hands washed and everything.

At the vet, spend half an hour simultaneously helping with the procedure by holding and calming the giant dog, haggling with the vet over the cost, and watching the kids as they explore the room full of dangerous equipment

Get everyone home and unloaded, start a phonics project and a nature / science project for the kids, and while I am teaching them I sit down with 5lbs of apples to peel core and chunk. I can peel an entire apple fast without breaking the skin, in one long strip.

Start cooking lunch for the kids including protein, whole grains, fresh fruit and fresh vegetables. At the same time, start cooking homemade cardamon spiced applesauce, my own created recipe.

Feed the kids, get the applesauce mostly done, and start chopping vegetables for tonights dinner salad (already planned out and ingredients already purchased in advance)

Help the kids clean up from lunch and wash up, eat a healthy lunch myself of fresh veggies and cheese.

Start cutting chicken breasts (3lbs) while the applesauce cools and the veggies are in the fridge packed neatly to prepare for cooking dinner. I am doubling the recipe because I am bringing dinner to a family in need in my community tonight.

Start the chicken cooking, change diapers, calm children down, get them down for an afteroon rest.

Work with the chicken, vegetables, spices, milk, and create a delicious chicken primavera alfredo from scratch and my own created recipe. Start fettucine boiling.

While pasta is cooking, start a load of laundry and check on kids

Pack cooked pasta chicken primavera into plastic containers and bag up with salad, chopped veggies, dressing and pine nuts, and homemade spiced applesauce. Get the kids up from rest, get them back into the car with shoes on and deliver the dinner.

Help the oldest deal with one of the emotional traumas of being almost-5, which takes about 15 minutes of hysterics to work through.

While we were out earlier, the dog has messed up the kitchen, breaking a good bowl and scattering food and garbage all over the place. Including soup on the living room carpet.

Pick up the pieces of broken crockery, sweep the kitchen floor, wipe up the mess on the tables and counters, vacuum the carpet, then break out the steam vac to clean the soup out of it. Leave no spots and no soap residue to attract more dirt.

Get the kids a snack and sing songs with them

Put on another load of laundry, removing the previous one, folding it, and putting it away.

Start a load of dishes since a number of cooking pots were used this afternoon to make dinner.

Go outside and check on the vegetable gardens to make sure the baby plants haven't suffered too much from recent storms. Plant a new rosebush by the driveway to make the front of the house look cheerful and welcoming. Include root stimulator and the correct fertilizers and soil amendments. It took a great deal of careful consideration yesterday to purchase it as far as the exact color, height, bloom size, etc. and find the exact species I wanted on sale as well. I have worked hard to develop my gardening skills so that expensive and good looking plants in the yard can thrive in my care.

Come in, clean up, sit down with a cup of tea while the kids go outside to play with friends.

Check bank accounts online, manage funds, pay 2 bills that needed attention.

Change sheets on the bed and fluff out the down comforter

Call and make an appointment to take my car in for a service, as it seems to be burning oil

Start another pot of water boiling for the pasta for our dinner tonight

And that takes me to where I am now, at 4:50pm.

Is it glamorous? No. Is it high-profile? No. Do I earn top dollar for this work? No. But I do it and I put the effort into doing it well because I love it, and I think it is important. Screw other people who don't recognize that there is value in that.

A friend on another board shared this amazingly, surprisingly addictive pilot's geography timewaster today:

http://www.lufthansa-usa.com/useugame2007/html/play.html

You have a map of Europe, and you have only a few seconds to land a plane at various cities. Sometimes you have country outlines, sometimes you don't. It's a great test of your knowledge of European geography! I score about 25K on it. What's your score?