We lived! (I expect N. was exhausted in our wake, because SO MANY CHILDREN, but thanks! It was so nice to see you all!) Some poor flight attendant eventually bribed Sweetpea with a free snack box ("If you'll stop screaming, I have some snacks for you! No... you have to stop screaming first.")
I resisted the urge to move back to the Land of Cheese and Sausage by reminding myself that all my stuff and, more relevant, all my plants are here.
We spent some time with my parents. My mother Had A Sad At Me over my youngest sister. We came home and... Bug and Sweetpea got packed off to camp! She ran off the first day without a single look back. I think preschool is going to go great.
Tatoe and I are having two weeks of Fun With Mommy, for variable values of fun. So far, we've picked blueberries, met up with friends, and done some gardening together (he loves plants). Tomorrow, we're going to take out the whole house vacuum.
Having been inspired by N's house decorating, I have conceived a scheme to:
A) Rip out a large, useless closet (and whole house vacuum) and turn the resulting hallway into a large mudroom/ shoe storage area/ small closet
B) Rearrange my furniture to make it useful
C) Finally fix the shelves on the cedar cabinet
D) Do Something about my kitchen storage
E) Actually clean the damn house on a regular basis. (This is greatly aided by how as I finally feel about 95% better. Turns out correct diagnosis is key to recovery, who knew?)
F) Acquire and plant some gooseberries to control weeds below my grapes (I know, but the spouse asked me to buy more plants).
Next up: another round in the endless What Am I Doing With My Life (aside from all the plants).
It was lovely to see you all! 5 children is a LOT of children, but we all managed to have fun anyway :) C2 has mailed Bug some pictures because he misses him. C1 has been revelling in the quiet. They're both off to summer school half the day, 4 days per week. I was actually bored for 30 minutes yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited to see the results of your home improvements! It is, indeed, much easier to tackle projects when one feels healthy.
Gooseberries aren't great for suppressing weeds. They're more of a shrub than a groundcover. Ok, so the more prostrate varieties will root where they touch the ground, but that makes them difficult to harvest. Also, consider whether you want thorny bushes under pruning and harvesting areas. By all means plant gooseberries! They're perhaps the easiest thing I grow. Just consider placement ahead of time.
Patrick's grandma is a neat freak. (Did I mention that Patrick spent a LOT of time with them as a child?) She visited us for a week last year and asked, "What day do you do the floors? Friday?" Yes, Grandma... certainly I clean all the floors once a week. On a specific day. It's much easier now with a robot vacuum to do my bidding.
We're going to move the desk out to the living room and give the boys the old Unix computer! Which reminds me, I am going to set up an email address for Bug so he can write to yours.
DeleteHmm, maybe not gooseberries. I have lots of yard though. Something else shrubby and medium-short! Or... lots of comfrey. Or something. Needs more work.
Wooo! Congratulations on being alive. I'm so impressed that A-D are things anyone could actually do. I mean, I know lots of people are very capable, but not meeee! I am thinking of planting raspberries. But everything just dies in my yard. SO WHY BOTHER. Sob, sob.
ReplyDeleteI can mail you some raspberries in the fall! Plants, not berries. Hardy to zone 4! Spread like mad, mow to the ground yearly... (They're Heritage.)
DeleteAvoid gooseberries! I don't know anything about growing them, but the summer I spent in Germany, we had tons of them, and the woman I lived with thought they were edible. I did not. I can't think about gooseberries without remembering pots of them filling the kitchen and anxiety about how I was going to get rid of them surreptitiously.
ReplyDeleteThose were Very Bad Gooseberries! The modern dessert varieties are really tasty. I have eaten all of Nicky's in various states of ripeness! They were sweet and delicious and flavorful! (Wild gooseberries are both prickly and VERY sour; maybe she was growing an old green pie variety?)
DeleteMine taste like seedless grapes, but are larger.
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