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Week in Review
Jul. 23rd, 2009 10:58 am-Friday we got the oil changed in the van. Which for whatever reason took approximately FOUR HOURS. I think maybe they had to pull the engine out and tip it upside down to pour out the old oil? Yeah. So the kids and I walked to my old chiropractor, to give him BirthGirlz propaganda to distribute and solicit him for sponsorship. I got them treats from a Cuban bakery right there and was rewarded for my own resistance to sugar temptations by their A-MAY-ZING chicken fricasse, I mean damn. We discovered a Hurricane Andrew Memorial I'd never known existed and then hung out at the bookstore until it was done, at which time Laura and Frank met us at my house so we could watch Brian while they went to see HP and the Half Blood Prince. Which they loved, and Brian was pretty darn good aside from a single injury-related meltdown (over the course of 4 hours I thought that signified progress).
-We had Paige/![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
likeinabook here with her three youngest kids for 3 days :) I think she really needed it, and it was nice to stay up super late talking theology, and go out just the two of us to the bookstore. That was actually hilarious; she hadn't previously been exposed to all the lustrous offerings of local, self-published Homestead authors with pixelated cover art (and I found French Women Don't Get Fat in the used section for $1). I think she also had the general reaction I do to City Church - moved by the message, impressed by the sincerity, enjoying the music a lot and then left feeling as though you still sort of need to go to church afterwards. Sidenote - I approached the cellist about the string quartet playing an upcoming BirthGirlz event and he is not only totally on board, he is apparently a "big supporter of natural birth and midwives" and thinks they may be able to do it for FREE! WHAT?!
I always love it when there are extra people here and we can bring extra chairs to the table and all sit down to dinner.
I do not love it when Elise is totally unhinged by insecurity in the prescence of a younger child and turns bully. She was seriously off her gourd that Paige's youngest was here to replace her, I was going to nurse her, Annie was going to be her sister - she actually expressed these concerns to me on a regular basis, and pushed 15 month old Clara down any chance she got. And then pulled her hair. And smacked her while she cried. She was trying to sneak off to climb in the playpen with her to abuse her, as though she were a threat from another room. I swear, she is the rottenest miracle I know, and neither lavish reassurance nor multiple timeouts were going to dissuade her.
-My Natural Parenting Group had another potluck and I. LOVED. IT. I love cooking a lot of food and taking it to appreciative people; I love having tons of yummy things OTHER people cooked with no refined sugar or white flour available, like amazing chocolate chip cookies, and seeing my kids tear into fresh homemade ice cream; I love catching up with Michelle and Kristin and feeling as though Dana and Jackie are becoming friends; I love all the kid friends my kids have; I love the FEELING of being in that house with all those like minded families laughing and talking with good music on and everybody relaxed. It's just great for me when there are strangers all around but everyone is smiling, friendly and easy to talk to. Michelle and Hubert, the hosts, are so freaking awesome and we think we're actually going to do a "whole family sleepover" soon wherein all 7 of us go to their house to spend the night, rather than just Ananda and Aaron (they have 6 kids ranging from 4 to 17).
-We got our new chicks in the mail! The mail lady was so exasperated with the chirping for the previous two hours in her truck, but seemed to think it was more worthwhile when we got the scissors and showed her the tiny fluffballs. She has apparently been driving lots of chicks around for years now, but nobody else has ever asked if she wanted to see them, which I think is crazy. Anyway I thought one of our 5 had a potentially serious problem, but with some e-search discovered she just still had her UMBILICAL CORD attached. From her yolk, in her egg, the day before! Who knew such a thing was possible? So far we've had them for 3 days and they're doing well. We've taken them outside for holding and are beginning to see personalities. I will probably post pics soon. It is way cooler, with this batch of chicks, to be able to just glance at them and tell exactly what kind they are and know what they grow up to be. Isaac has named his plymouth white rock "Rockstar"; Aaron is calling his "Harry, which is short for Harrietta and long for H"; Ananda's is Lily, I think because of Harry Potter; Elise's is "Blue" and she's being surprisingly gentle; and Jake is saying his "orpington is named Belina". Like the talking chicken in Return to Oz.
-A and A had their homeschool evaluation on Monday. It went well, they are "officially" in 3rd and 4th grades now. This particular evaluator is Catholic and sent me home with reading material (after I expressed my own interest, she wasn't being pushy). And Paige brought a small stack of books down to leave here, after reading some of my previous entries. So there is a lot of reading about all of this going down. This evaluation was An Event because Ananda, Aaron and I rode our bikes to it and it's the first time Ananda has really left our block on her bike (it's about a mile away). She feels like this whole world has opened up to her, because normally I go off on bikes with Aaron for 45 minutes at a time and she is just stuck here. Since then 1-3 long rides a day can barely satisfy her, and my legs hurt, in a good way (I pretty much always also have Jake or Elise on the back of my bike). She rides around our street half the day while I'm too busy to go. I think between being able to read really well and ride a bike the world is her oyster. ....So to speak? O_o What the hell does that even MEAN? The point is, she is experiencing what seem to her to be huge levels of independence because she can do these things.
-Grant has been what I can only describe as a surly motherfucker lately. Ok, that is actually said partially in humor and it's an exaggeration. He still does things like fix the a/c and garbage disposal promptly while we have company and babysit all 8 small children with grace so we can go out, he is awesome. But he is spending an uncharacteristic lot of time off on his own knowing he is impatient and irritable from caffeine and sugar withdrawal and not wanting to deal with things. I come find him playing video games or some other mindless distraction and say hey baby. And he acts grumpy. And I say, in a googoo gaga baby talk voice as I scratch his chin, "Ooooh, are you a surly motherfucker?" and he starts to reply back in kind and then we just laugh hysterically.
Life really is challenging for him right now, though, and I'm proud of how well he's doing. And happy to see him getting SOOOOOO many less headaches, the migraines were coming like 3-4 bad ones per week before he changed his eating, and lowgrade headaches were just constant. He took the day off yesterday and it was the first day that it was back to being just us in the house, and it was just great. We walked the four blocks over to Grant Sr's like some kind of traveling performance group...Ananda on her bike riding circles around everyone, Aaron on his unicycle, Jake riding Elise's tricycle with her standing on the deck and holding onto his shoulders, and Isaac on his scooter. I got to catch up with my old across-the-street neighbor Aracelia, who rushed out when she saw us all in what was our front yard with $25 for us to buy the kids treats with and a pen and paper for my new number and ridiculous stories of how she planted yuca in the backyard and the neighbors thought it was pot and called the police. So this 79 year old Cuban lady with her freaking garden and trees has a bunch of cop cars out front ringing her bell at 6 am. I don't even know. Two of the cops were cuban so they recognized yuca right away. So silly.
-I have craft opportunities galore. Melissa brought my sewing machine back (she had borrowed it, and then it was in her trunk when they were rear-ended by a large truck so I was afraid it would be beyond repair, but it seems fine), and my next batch of yarn for Isaac's ripple blanket came in the mail last week. I was on fire about that blanket before I ran out of supplies. But I feel as though I should resist both. *sigh* ....aside from my kids needing to be educated and sleep I should be getting at night, I am just haunted 24/7 by the obligation to write. Because I get so much urging to from birth-type people who think it's important; because it's been my life-long dream; because with the settlement long gone and Grant's job making a lot of changes and his side-jobs scaling back, we could use some extra income. Also because in the scant two hour time slot I'm allowed to write uninterrupted each week - while I sit in Starbucks with my laptop near Dance Empire as Ananda and Aaron take two classes in a row each - what gets done is really good. It's flowing. I can make this happen.
I always know I can make journal entries or fiction happen. I even feel confident about nonfiction with a poetic license and dry humor and a generally informal tone. But I was getting intimidated about the c/s book, because it has to be different. I know I can do it now, though, it's slower going but it is going.
-Perhaps the biggest thing to happen this week...my Nana has moved the fingers of her left hand, and then moved her whole left hand, and then been able to pick her left arm up and move the left toes...she's actually done the knee, and scratched her nose, and done a boxing motion of throwing punches on both sides.
THIS IS HUGE.
It gives me goosebumps. She is not all better or anything like that...they are still feeding her, she is still not seeing everything and still confused about reality. But her disposition has improved mightily and SHE'S USING HER LEFT SIDE.
I am totally giving thanks to St. Jude and Jesus Christ about this.
.......and feeling almost scarily boxed into a corner about converting to Catholicism, with regards to what is right, what is real... G and I have been talking about it a lot.
I feel scared in general that anytime I have ever been on a spiritual high, it's generally preceeded Terrible Things. I found God, and like 2 months later my mother moved away and I was left at my Nana's house. Or I just get back into studying scripture regularly, and suddenly I'm having nightmares again. I really believe in a spiritual war, and there is a certain (cowardly) comfort in "laying low", for me. This time at least I feel scared in an at peace with it, this is how it's supposed to be sort of way.
That's doins, folks.
-We had Paige/
likeinabook here with her three youngest kids for 3 days :) I think she really needed it, and it was nice to stay up super late talking theology, and go out just the two of us to the bookstore. That was actually hilarious; she hadn't previously been exposed to all the lustrous offerings of local, self-published Homestead authors with pixelated cover art (and I found French Women Don't Get Fat in the used section for $1). I think she also had the general reaction I do to City Church - moved by the message, impressed by the sincerity, enjoying the music a lot and then left feeling as though you still sort of need to go to church afterwards. Sidenote - I approached the cellist about the string quartet playing an upcoming BirthGirlz event and he is not only totally on board, he is apparently a "big supporter of natural birth and midwives" and thinks they may be able to do it for FREE! WHAT?!I always love it when there are extra people here and we can bring extra chairs to the table and all sit down to dinner.
I do not love it when Elise is totally unhinged by insecurity in the prescence of a younger child and turns bully. She was seriously off her gourd that Paige's youngest was here to replace her, I was going to nurse her, Annie was going to be her sister - she actually expressed these concerns to me on a regular basis, and pushed 15 month old Clara down any chance she got. And then pulled her hair. And smacked her while she cried. She was trying to sneak off to climb in the playpen with her to abuse her, as though she were a threat from another room. I swear, she is the rottenest miracle I know, and neither lavish reassurance nor multiple timeouts were going to dissuade her.
-My Natural Parenting Group had another potluck and I. LOVED. IT. I love cooking a lot of food and taking it to appreciative people; I love having tons of yummy things OTHER people cooked with no refined sugar or white flour available, like amazing chocolate chip cookies, and seeing my kids tear into fresh homemade ice cream; I love catching up with Michelle and Kristin and feeling as though Dana and Jackie are becoming friends; I love all the kid friends my kids have; I love the FEELING of being in that house with all those like minded families laughing and talking with good music on and everybody relaxed. It's just great for me when there are strangers all around but everyone is smiling, friendly and easy to talk to. Michelle and Hubert, the hosts, are so freaking awesome and we think we're actually going to do a "whole family sleepover" soon wherein all 7 of us go to their house to spend the night, rather than just Ananda and Aaron (they have 6 kids ranging from 4 to 17).
-We got our new chicks in the mail! The mail lady was so exasperated with the chirping for the previous two hours in her truck, but seemed to think it was more worthwhile when we got the scissors and showed her the tiny fluffballs. She has apparently been driving lots of chicks around for years now, but nobody else has ever asked if she wanted to see them, which I think is crazy. Anyway I thought one of our 5 had a potentially serious problem, but with some e-search discovered she just still had her UMBILICAL CORD attached. From her yolk, in her egg, the day before! Who knew such a thing was possible? So far we've had them for 3 days and they're doing well. We've taken them outside for holding and are beginning to see personalities. I will probably post pics soon. It is way cooler, with this batch of chicks, to be able to just glance at them and tell exactly what kind they are and know what they grow up to be. Isaac has named his plymouth white rock "Rockstar"; Aaron is calling his "Harry, which is short for Harrietta and long for H"; Ananda's is Lily, I think because of Harry Potter; Elise's is "Blue" and she's being surprisingly gentle; and Jake is saying his "orpington is named Belina". Like the talking chicken in Return to Oz.
-A and A had their homeschool evaluation on Monday. It went well, they are "officially" in 3rd and 4th grades now. This particular evaluator is Catholic and sent me home with reading material (after I expressed my own interest, she wasn't being pushy). And Paige brought a small stack of books down to leave here, after reading some of my previous entries. So there is a lot of reading about all of this going down. This evaluation was An Event because Ananda, Aaron and I rode our bikes to it and it's the first time Ananda has really left our block on her bike (it's about a mile away). She feels like this whole world has opened up to her, because normally I go off on bikes with Aaron for 45 minutes at a time and she is just stuck here. Since then 1-3 long rides a day can barely satisfy her, and my legs hurt, in a good way (I pretty much always also have Jake or Elise on the back of my bike). She rides around our street half the day while I'm too busy to go. I think between being able to read really well and ride a bike the world is her oyster. ....So to speak? O_o What the hell does that even MEAN? The point is, she is experiencing what seem to her to be huge levels of independence because she can do these things.
-Grant has been what I can only describe as a surly motherfucker lately. Ok, that is actually said partially in humor and it's an exaggeration. He still does things like fix the a/c and garbage disposal promptly while we have company and babysit all 8 small children with grace so we can go out, he is awesome. But he is spending an uncharacteristic lot of time off on his own knowing he is impatient and irritable from caffeine and sugar withdrawal and not wanting to deal with things. I come find him playing video games or some other mindless distraction and say hey baby. And he acts grumpy. And I say, in a googoo gaga baby talk voice as I scratch his chin, "Ooooh, are you a surly motherfucker?" and he starts to reply back in kind and then we just laugh hysterically.
Life really is challenging for him right now, though, and I'm proud of how well he's doing. And happy to see him getting SOOOOOO many less headaches, the migraines were coming like 3-4 bad ones per week before he changed his eating, and lowgrade headaches were just constant. He took the day off yesterday and it was the first day that it was back to being just us in the house, and it was just great. We walked the four blocks over to Grant Sr's like some kind of traveling performance group...Ananda on her bike riding circles around everyone, Aaron on his unicycle, Jake riding Elise's tricycle with her standing on the deck and holding onto his shoulders, and Isaac on his scooter. I got to catch up with my old across-the-street neighbor Aracelia, who rushed out when she saw us all in what was our front yard with $25 for us to buy the kids treats with and a pen and paper for my new number and ridiculous stories of how she planted yuca in the backyard and the neighbors thought it was pot and called the police. So this 79 year old Cuban lady with her freaking garden and trees has a bunch of cop cars out front ringing her bell at 6 am. I don't even know. Two of the cops were cuban so they recognized yuca right away. So silly.
-I have craft opportunities galore. Melissa brought my sewing machine back (she had borrowed it, and then it was in her trunk when they were rear-ended by a large truck so I was afraid it would be beyond repair, but it seems fine), and my next batch of yarn for Isaac's ripple blanket came in the mail last week. I was on fire about that blanket before I ran out of supplies. But I feel as though I should resist both. *sigh* ....aside from my kids needing to be educated and sleep I should be getting at night, I am just haunted 24/7 by the obligation to write. Because I get so much urging to from birth-type people who think it's important; because it's been my life-long dream; because with the settlement long gone and Grant's job making a lot of changes and his side-jobs scaling back, we could use some extra income. Also because in the scant two hour time slot I'm allowed to write uninterrupted each week - while I sit in Starbucks with my laptop near Dance Empire as Ananda and Aaron take two classes in a row each - what gets done is really good. It's flowing. I can make this happen.
I always know I can make journal entries or fiction happen. I even feel confident about nonfiction with a poetic license and dry humor and a generally informal tone. But I was getting intimidated about the c/s book, because it has to be different. I know I can do it now, though, it's slower going but it is going.
-Perhaps the biggest thing to happen this week...my Nana has moved the fingers of her left hand, and then moved her whole left hand, and then been able to pick her left arm up and move the left toes...she's actually done the knee, and scratched her nose, and done a boxing motion of throwing punches on both sides.
THIS IS HUGE.
It gives me goosebumps. She is not all better or anything like that...they are still feeding her, she is still not seeing everything and still confused about reality. But her disposition has improved mightily and SHE'S USING HER LEFT SIDE.
I am totally giving thanks to St. Jude and Jesus Christ about this.
.......and feeling almost scarily boxed into a corner about converting to Catholicism, with regards to what is right, what is real... G and I have been talking about it a lot.
I feel scared in general that anytime I have ever been on a spiritual high, it's generally preceeded Terrible Things. I found God, and like 2 months later my mother moved away and I was left at my Nana's house. Or I just get back into studying scripture regularly, and suddenly I'm having nightmares again. I really believe in a spiritual war, and there is a certain (cowardly) comfort in "laying low", for me. This time at least I feel scared in an at peace with it, this is how it's supposed to be sort of way.
That's doins, folks.
