Orchids in bloom indoors, although most of the houseplants
have fled to the back patio at this point
The garden is growing on apace, I put in some perennials and some potted bulbs from this winter this afternoon and we had the most perfect gardener's rain this morning. Ru and I both have a square of peas in our raised bed veggie garden and both of them are growing happily, all teepee'd now and ready for climbing, the first tendrils reaching outward. There are lettuces, almost ready for harvest and broccoli that's getting its fourth set of leaves. And indoors there are velvety baby tomato plants getting their first set of leaves. I'm a little tardier than I would like getting those going but, hey....I have several varieties, they seem happy and they're started...that's the key. I am telling myself that they may have a mad growth spurt anytime now. I'm rather pleased that they survived a round of hockey stick throttling and overturning by a wee boy last week. I was on my hands and knees tenderly scooping soil back into the little peat pots, searching carefully with my fingertips for the seedlings, and then tucking them back in hopefully. We didn't have a 100% survival rate but, every variety I'm growing has at least one living seedling and that makes me very happy.
Tomato babies, post clubbing
The other big news around here has been the constant right hip pain I've been in. I made it through the California trip with just perennial discomfort but some nagging extra pain by the end and, I kid you not, when we drove into our drive from the airport I found myself suddenly in such unbearable pain that I couldn't make it from the car to the house without a lot of help. I braved it out for a few days, hoping to "sleep it off" repeatedly but, when I ended up in a puddle of tears because I'd tried to crawl up the stairs on my hands and knees and couldn't manage to pull it off any longer, I decided it was time to do something. So, a little handy googling and I found a chiropractor in our area who specialized in prenatal work and called her and got into her schedule for that very afternoon (this was Wednesday of last week). After a lot of painful wrenching and crunching noises, some illustration with plastic skeletal models and a signed debit slip, I was on my way again. Honestly, I've never been to a chiropractor and wasn't sure what to expect or how much it would help, I was just desperate. I was in such severe pain though and am also married to an utter alternative medicine skeptic that I really hoped it would help...at least in some small measure or else I might keel over and die of pain and/or endure social misery at the hands of my bitter I-told-you-so mate. Heh. After she worked on me, I thought when I stood up that I felt a little better but, on the short walk from exam bed to registrar to our minivan I lost all faith. I still really hurt and I held onto the building all the way to the very end of it, hobbling along miserably and then thought when I reached the corner and saw the parking lot stretching off between me and the van "HOW, am I going to make all the way to the car?" *sob*
This is what I look like these days
And then I slowly improved. And by the time I went to pick-up A from work I wasn't limping much anymore and wasn't holding onto anything to walk. It was just a slow burn. I wonder if my ligaments and tissues around the site of the pain were just so inflamed that once the bones were back in a better place the irritation just took a while to go down? Not sure what it was but, by evening I was sure I was going back for the follow-up appt. I'd booked for this morning. This appt. was similar...I wasn't sure it had helped at all until as the day wore on I noticed more and more of a difference and by this evening I was no longer limping at all and could even walk fast if I wanted to. I can officially say that I pretty much am no longer in pain. I am looking forward to one or two more appointments putting things in final position so I can begin the maintenance exercises to strengthen the muscles around the bones and hold everything where it ought to be. Whew. Not hurting feels really good. And chiropractors rock.
The big boys in the way-back!
New seat for Baby
We are also getting more and more ready for Baby. We're down to once a week midwife visits now and on Saturday we brought home the birthing pool that we'll use once things really get going. On Sunday, A moved the two older boys carseats to the backseat of the van and installed the carseat for Baby Bird to boot. We're almost completely ready. There is a short list of stuff I already have in the house that I need to lay out in a basket for the birth (receiving blankets, towels, the hot water bottle, a flashlight...etc.) and tonight we plan to take one more big bite out of our boy baby name list which, is still not finalized. We're getting closer!
My feet are only somewhat puffy, just enough to
legitimize putting them up while eat my bon bons. Heh heh.
I put all our regularly used eating accoutrements (olive oil, salt, pepper, butter, etc.) into a pretty basket that matches one for bibs and cloth napkins. When the meal is over the get cleared to the top of my cookbook cupboard which functions as a sort of sideboard. I also bought matching runners for the top of the bookcase and the dining room table to try to pull in the coral color inside the corner cupboards. And I bought a stunning ceramic bowl for a between-meals centerpiece.
Am madly in love with it. Am now considering painting the walls a soft oatmeal grey to set off the white and coral accents. What do you think? After of course, I finish all this crazy spring cleaning I'm in the middle of.
