Quiet Night, Homey Night

Spending a quiet night cruising around on the internets a bit....kids all exhausted from baseball, marathon Lego creating and endless summer light...its just Elizabeth Mitchell and I in the house tonight. There are lullabies in the other room that I can't quite hear and a steady computer buzz in here....and giant stack of paper teetering on the desk next to me. Tomorrow is the day I sort every piece of paper we own and cull it all down into neatly arranged file boxes (or maybe even one!) and turn the office into a haven of neatness and order.

Today was the day that I painted more trim, washed more laundry and managed to actually re-hang the mirror by the front door....every little bit helps. So much to do around here. I am thinking maybe I'll throw one more load of laundry in before I head to sleep. I love the amazing modern magic of having in-house appliances that do chores for you while you are away. Brilliant. I've just started experimenting with the delayed cook settings on my oven. Its really kind of fabulous to stick a roast in there, add seasonings and set it to turn on an appropriate amount of time before you roll into the driveway from kid events with a bunch of whiney littles who are all starving. God bless the dude who invented that idea.

The garden has had a lot of rain and I am woefully behind on trimming, weeding, edging and mowing. I have to get the mower up and running tomorrow and get the lawn in decent shape. I think the pansies in the front planters have finally run the race too. Time to swap them out for some lobelia and marigolds or some other heat lover. They did their best...and now its on to the sweltering set.

The rabbits in the backyard have raised one baby and appear to have hatched the next one. The previous "baby" likes to munch clover in the backyard by the kids sandbox while we are out and then bolt in a panic when we all pull in the driveway. The newer, tinier fluffball of a kit is spending its time hiding out under the giant, lush hostas at the front of the house and runs in a manic dash whenever I do scary things like walk past on my way to turn on the hose. Love seeing them grow up in our yard and also love that the tax they take from our garden is tiny. They sometimes eat the leaves off of our bean plants but mostly they seem to prefer the clover in the lawn. (Yay for lawns that are more than just grass!!!!) I love this about city gardening. No deer. No woodchucks. No chipmunks. No moles. Just a couple of rabbits with a refined palette.

We have come into the weather where a quick run down to the beach after dinner sounds super good. Last night was our last night with A before he flew out this morning and we took a picnic of fridge leftovers, two towels to share and one boogie board and just ran out to the beach in time to take  short dip, eat dinner on the rocks of the point and watch the fishermen haul in sea robins. Then we poked around in the shore debris and collected shells to carry back to the car with us as we hiked up the beach path in the glow of fireflies. It was a great last night together. I hope the sunsets in California make him think of us, we're thinking of him over here. In my empty house tonight I'm thinking of little notes that we can send, ways to stay in touch and things to remember to tell him about tomorrow when we're chirping texts back and forth and having our Good Morning Talk over coffee and sausages. Lots of love, lots of connection, lots of dedicated energy. May you have the same!

Seashore Cure

Well, we have....as I tell the boys....only two more sleeps until our family is all back in one location again. We're all good and ready for A to come home.

Today the weather was still insanely gorgeous. The day started off with a misty, fog that was stunning against the beautiful fall colors we still have and the fog burned off into a beautiful, if sometimes cloudy day. It almost felt like spring...the air was moist and warm and smelled of leaves and green things.

We worked in the yard a little. I raked leaves into the hen's new pen which made them tremendously happy. We finished the stone garden borders in the front of the house which I have been working on for about two years. SO AMAZING to have it all done! I keep looking out the window again to enjoy the accomplishment. I also laid a little more of the brickwork (mortarless) that I am using to edge our front walk. Should have taken a picture...didn't think of that. I am using salvage brick that is all red and the standard size but otherwise varies in style and design and mossy character. I love how its turning out. I have maybe one third of the walk left to finish although at the moment I am out of brick and need to keep my eyes peeled for more being thrown out somewhere.

Poor little Nib was sick again today. This is his second illness in the course of A's travel. I let him sleep in a long time and then we did some gentle things around the house and read a bunch of story books and then it was time for something cheering. The boys and I took a cloth bag for beach combing and headed to the ocean.

It was gorgeous. We saw a school of big silver fish, swimming and sometimes leaping out of the water. We found horseshoe crabs and ark clams and beautiful driftwood and more oyster shells than we could count. There are oyster beds right off the coast here so loads of their shells wash up. Some of them get to be enormous. I also thought to myself that maybe next time the chickens are getting low on their store purchased oyster shell, I could just take a hammer to some of the extra shells we bring home from the beach. Wonder if that would work?

By the time we got home Nib was feeling 200% better (there is no place better to recover than the seashore) and little Pom was taking his place with a clingy attitude and permanent bad mood. I have him draped across my lap right now while I type...his feverish little self snoring away on my knee.
Have to remember the seashore for the next time I get deathly ill...it seems like such a wonderful place to be sick. The air feels cheering, the sound of water is theraputic, there are shells for combing, there are birds wheeling over you and the endless water sweeping out in front.

Man, do kids get sick a lot. Good thing I have an immune system that can handle it! I can usually avoid getting sick and if I do fall prey I usually get a lighter version. I'm all for that.

Do lets learn invincibility!

I Got To Be A Rock Star

Dee is having his own little biological adventure. I enrolled him in a little class five minutes from our house once a week that is all about the life and micro-life in the ocean near our house. He spent a week before the class telling me everyday that he wouldn't go, didn't want to be part of it and was really put out with me for registering him. He cried real tears. He stamped his feet. He begged his daddy to get him out of it. Every day he got less panicked though and by the time of the first class day he was reluctant but willing.

I was pretty sure he needed the little push into a personal adventure but it was a little tense tipping him over the edge while he complained so vigorously. I took him alone, Lucy stayed with the other boys and my little introvert and I walked down the long sidewalk to the museum building and by the time we got to the end of the long path, as we walked up the front steps he peeked up at me and said, "Its my class, Mommy. You can't come." and winked.

And that's how he came to be having his own little adventure. I tip-toed out while after he got picked to hold the turtle for his class. He was glowing and never looked my way once for reassuring, he had launched into his own little accomplishment. He's been attending weekly now and talks at home between classes about his favorite teacher and the things he's learning about the local fauna:

 "Ru, do you know that flounders are standing up when they are babies but then they become lying down fish."

"Nib, that's a sea star. It has water inside and no blood. Cool, right?"

"We have only 16 nitrogen in our water, Mommy. It is below 20 it is okay so ours is good."

So fun to see him feeling like a rock star and expanding in his own confidence. Makes me feel like a really award winning mom!

Happy Hurricane!

Somehow it is Wednesday already and we are busily clipping towards the weekend which suddenly is inches away! Nothing like having a hurricane over the weekend to make time really fly!

A view down our street.

Hurricane Sandy was mostly, luckily for us, a very exciting story. We heard the most terrific wind I've ever experienced outside our house Monday night but besides a few trees down we have had very little to disrupt our daily function. A was off work and spent some extra time playing at home with us, we did some yard work we meant to catch up on anyhow and we have spent some time yesterday and today calling friends to be sure all our folks are safe and sound. We even miraculously managed to keep our power through the whole storm. I am still shocked that that happened. I carried a candle around with me all evening and went to bed with one on my nightstand, just waiting for the lights to go out but we woke up in the morning with the bedside digital clock blinking merrily at us (there were lots of brown-outs in the night so it went on and off and on and off) but still very much there and alive.

The new ocean-front in our fair city.

We had no major property damage and have been checking to see if anyone we know needs a place to stay or a hot shower but so far people are just toughing it out, waiting to see who will be in it for the long haul.

Halloween festivities have officially been postponed by our mayor to make sure they can get downed wires taken care of before kids take the streets. Still weighing what to do about that personally. Our waterfront was pretty walloped and is quite damaged and flooded I hear but here, one mile in from the shore our own street is pretty sound, we all still have power and the extent of the damage is just trees down in yards. We might check around with neighbors and see if people feel like letting the kids troop around or if we will all wait with the rest of the city. There's some merit to both options. Will see what I find out later today.

Siding off the side of our house that the wind blew down against our front door.

I am off to call and email more friends as I work my way down the list of people I am checking on. Lots of non-answering still...several I am still wondering about and still lots of hot water and food to share if people need the help.