Plotting....

good morning to you!

Coffee is on, fireplace is on (as windows are open and summer has chickened out for a few days...)

This is turning into quite the text-heavy blog. I do own a camera, and I would love to brighten the posts up with some new pics, but that usually turns into a 40 minute photo-editing, selecting, uploading process. And if ya'll can donate a few minutes each....well, that would be about what it would take.

The Orchid House is in one of those frustrating...grooves. Although, maybe 'rut' is more accurate. I take out a few art supplies to work on an older project with my daughter, and one supply I need isn't working (spray bottle). I finally began to unpack the library, and realize that until *every* book is out of the box, I can't actually load the shelves in order, because I am loading them differently (starting with nonfiction, by subject) and don't know how many shelves are needed for each subject. I try to catch up on the laundry when the family is out for a bit, and realize Laundry soap is that thing I can't remember to add to the shopping list. Dinner planning gets pushed back daily, until I realize that it's that 'go to the store OR put my daughter down for a nap', binary-type decision.

When's the last time you've taken a 4 year old drama queen with an empty stomach and no nap to the grocery store?

Probably, it's been a while because you don't want to do it Ever Again. Who really wants to explain, out loud, to the sobbing royal that, "no one wants to kill you" while she gasps out...'yes. You are trying to kill me'. while sitting on the floor, looking heartbroken, near the blue cookies you won't buy.

I am so glad that stock boys are Not on the 'mandatory reporter' list.

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Plotting.....

We met with the landscaper last night to figure out where and what will be installed. While I am excited about installing the garden plot (especially after reading through Jamie Oliver's cookbook - title of which I am almost too tired to look up the link for... oh, heck. It's ridiculously readable, totally worth the effort....got it..Jamie at Home. :-) oh where was I .....Oh.

Thistles. While I am excited about installing the garden plot, there is a thistle forest that's come with the house, and that needs to be eradicated. And, your's-truly (having more at-home time than Jon) has been battling them for two days now. At first, the landscaper was saying....you know, you don't really have to spray them all, you can just get them if they come through. By the time we finished walking him around the yard, he was saying....'wow. There's a Lot of thistles here!' Mind you, this was after he was telling me to spray anything green in our dirt-packed yard, since it was likely a weed or at best, a nuisance. He had no idea.

I would love to bring you art, recipes, and photographs that are cool and fun and compelling.

But really, this week it's all about dusty books and dirty yards. Happily, it's also about making them into something new.

I hope your week is more insightful, more pleasant. That your summer is treating you kindly, and if it isn't, that you are treating yourself kindly. That if you go (as I do) to Pinterest for inspiration, that you come back with a project, and enough time to do it! As for me, I am just hoping to power through this last day of shelving, so I can get back to focusing on the kids. Some days, the time I take with them is the only thing I give them that really, really counts.

Thanks for coming!

S.

First Firefly

They are BACK!!

Tonight, the rest of the family is otherwise engaged, and I wanted to take a moment to tell you that outside, above the path between our backyard and the pond, I just saw a tiny flash  - sent, received, and returned.

The fireflies are back.

For some, fireflies are common as dandelions, but I didn't grow up close to the right habitat to see them much. Or, perhaps I am blocking out the fact that (unlike yours truly)my parents had some standards about not letting their children run amok outside past 9:30 in the summertime. Whatever the reason, fireflies are up there with falling stars in my childhood rememberance of natural rarities. Like my unshakeable views on the Divinity of Mary (look, I've tried to shake it at least once. It's stuck and I am fine with it :-), fireflies are forever bound to the magical moments that made me  believe - a little - in goblins, faeries, and wishing on stars.

I wished on a star once, fervently, and desperately.

It was the night before my 35th birthday. I was heavily pregnant, still four weeks from my due date, and I was finally off bedrest. In order to stretch our legs and take my mind off the baby, we set off for a near-sunset walk. Knowing that I had the stamina of a guppy, we didn't go far, and turned back home as the sky developed it's pure blue tones, and a few evening stars were out. We were crossing a bridge over a small stream, and saw a few fireflies flash. I was happily surprised, and we watched a few moments. Closer to home - and wishing I was already sitting, we turned up our driveway and flicked our eyes upward to the west at just the right moment.

A thin trail of silver headed northwest and I wished on that star, something along the lines of  'dammit won't this baby ever come!'.

We then headed up to the babies room, and I found our deck of 'dreamcards' - old illustrations from children's books with a verse about dreaming, to be shuffled and read to your child. I found the one showing two Victorian-era schoolchildren kneeling in front of a many-paned window at evening, frost at it's hem, looking at a bright evening star.

My husband and I kneeled down, and prayed that God would send this child soon.

The next day, we had dinner reservations at the (now-defunct) amazing Panne Vino Dolce. My cousin had come to spend my birthday afternoon with me, but she started looking less-relaxed when I asked her to start marking down the times of my contractions. Eventually, we called my husband home from work, cancelled dinner, and ended up in the triage center of our hospital. Eventually, we learned a whole lot about emergency c-sections, and the power of adrenaline.

And then we began to learn about my son.

To be honest, I'm hoping that the fireflies this summer presage nothing so momentous. But I am looking forward to pointing them out to my Godson tomorrow night, as we celebrate baptism for both him and my daughter.  We are hosting our first dinner 'party' for my brother-in-law and his family, and I am so excited - finally we have the room to pull something like this off - comfortably, for everyone.

I want nights like this to be much more common for our family.

Almost as common as flashing fireflies near a sapphire-blue pond.

Have a wonderful week!

S.

Muse

Something to muse on.

With all the brand-new house conundrums and calamities (large and small alike), I haven't been 'creating' much.

Unless you count to-do lists and an occasional dinner-plan.

I've been attempting to get through the days by 'knowing what has to get done'.

This has not been wildly successful. Nor has thinking things like 'I seriously need to drink more water', 'maybe I can fix my vacuum' and 'i wonder when so-and-so will be calling'.

Rubbish is the result. There are some small and specific tasks I have been forgetting - probably, in fact, because they are both small and specific. Not 'pack your son's lunch today or he will starve' important, but important nonetheless.

So, today, the paper to do list comes out. I'm not going the route of Cozi today - that ends up a distraction when I see everything ELSE I haven't got done. My daughter never fully kicked her strep throat, so she has to sit still today anyway. Maybe I can amuse her by zooming around the house and celebrating each 'to-do' wildly and differently every time!

Sometimes, the old ways are the best ways. I don't really want to pack a bag full of disgust and guilt to take through my weekend, so remembering all the little things today that DO make a dent, might be a way to save the whole thing.

Or not.

But I'll be happier for trying.

I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend too!!

Take care, and feel the sunshine, at least, for a little while :-)

S.