Spring Song

Good old L.M. Montgomery...the only author I've ever finished completely...every single thing she wrote. She's dreamy, her themes are hopelessly romantic and I have to admit a touch of lip curling amusement and slight condescension over her repetitive themes and naivete. And yet. And yet...really people. She invented Anne-of-Green-Gables, one of the most fabulous heroines of all time and like her compatriot Louisa May Alcott, this sort of classic, pure hopefulness may feel sappy but, there's something very lovely and basic and honest about it too. Her, Spring Song (although I'm a touch late since she was writing in April) makes a catch in my throat and is such a beautiful description of the romantic golden days we're drifting through at the moment that I can't help posting it to share with you.

The weather yesterday? Sun, light shower of rain, blue skies, fluffy clouds
The weather today? Golden sunlight, light breezes, blue skies, puffs of cloud
The weather tomorrow? Partly sunny, chance of spring thunderstorm, light breeze

*sigh* There is no end to the loveliness. The roses are budding their heads off (I think we'll have quite a garden show to welcome Baby!), and the black raspberry vines and honeysuckle are climbing madly all over their respective fences and even between the stepping stones I'm watching the Irish moss ripple industriously outward, greener, ever greener....

Spring Song  

by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Hark, I hear a robin calling!
List, the wind is from the south!
And the orchard-bloom is falling
Sweet as kisses on the mouth.

In the dreamy vale of beeches
Fair and faint is woven mist,
And the river's orient reaches
Are the palest amethyst.

Every limpid brook is singing
Of the lure of April days;
Every piney glen is ringing
With the maddest roundelays.

Come and let us seek together
Springtime lore of daffodils,
Giving to the golden weather
Greeting on the sun-warm hills.

Ours shall be the moonrise stealing
Through the birches ivory-white;
Ours shall be the mystic healing
Of the velvet-footed night.

Ours shall be the gypsy winding
Of the path with violets blue,
Ours at last the wizard finding
Of the land where dreams come true.

Coffee Break Breakfast

Made some lovely muffins yesterday...had to make some for a ladies breakfast event (MOPS) and so I used the excuse to try out three new recipes in one whack. Made carrot/currant spice muffins, allspice streusel muffins and then my new favorite, coffee break muffins. MMmmm....coffee somehow becomes extra yummy when you're pregnant and its on the restricted or complete taboo list. I'm not normally a coffee drinker, happily for A who avoids stringently in favor of drug-free purity. We don't even own a coffee maker so, any coffee I end up having is usually a special Starbucks treat drink. It has not been terribly helpful that we live right around the corner from a drive-thru Starbucks.

I tell people now that I never really understood why parents insisted that coffee kept them going....UNTIL I had two children. I get it. And friends, I was a stringent caffeine avoider with my first pregnancy and almost pure with Dee but this time around there have been mornings when I have made a beeline for that Starbucks with crossed eyes, knowing that if I didn't get a little coffee somehow, I'd never make it through using sharp knives, operating cars and other bits of daily parental life. I still am not by any means even a cup a day drinker but, I understand the value of the occasional upper and I've developed quite the taste for the flavor of our zippy star ingredient.

For those who are on their first child still....or morally object (like A)...you can of course use decaffeinated coffee in this recipe and look, they even sell decaf espresso powder. And that's what I used. Ahem. *cough cough*

But, seriously...these are really good. I like them best warm, split and spread generously with butter, eaten with a mug of milk. Very tasty and comforting. This comes to you from the fabulous Dorie Greenspan's excellent book Baking: From My Home To Yours.

Coffee-Break Muffins

2 c. of all purpose flour
1/3 c. of sugar
1 T. instant espresso powder
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1/3 c. (packed) light brown sugar
1 c. strong coffee, cooled
1 stick of melted butter, cooled
1 large egg
1/2 t. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Whisk together the dry ingredients, then add the liquids and whisk everything together quickly until well combined. A few lumps are better than overmixed batter. Divide evenly between muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes or until a thin knife comes out clean. Transfer to a rack and cool for five minutes before removing from muffin tin for eating! Yum!

Painless Monday

 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.