Scratching My Writing Itch

I just mixed up a pan full of rhubarb crunch for breakfast and put it into the oven on time bake. It should be ready when my man walks in the door in the morning after his night of work. How he does it, night shift, I don’t know. I would be cranky and cross eyed, but he manages to stay happy about work, a true indication of how much he likes what he is doing.

I wasn’t quite done with the day. These days we are never quite done. We just decide when to stop moving and hold still. I decided this was the time to quit, set the bowl of freshly picked berries into the fridge, gingerly picked my way over the play dough crumbles on the kitchen floor, pushed the basket of unfolded laundry to the side and found my sweet spot at the key board, cuppa tea beside me, dark chocolate close by. 🙂

Yesterday our daisy baby (Margarite=daisy) turned four. Somebody pinch me.

I was planning to post a photo of her with her cake, and then as I was putting the photo card into the slot at the side of the computer to upload it, something felt a little wrong. Too late, I realized I had inserted it into the CD slot. A careful attempt at extraction failed, and it is now lost in the bowels of our computer. This is not good. Very not good.

But, in any  case, she is now four. I thank God that this resourceful little person is still alive and healthy. She has tried pretty much everything I have ever heard other mothers exclaim about in horror. It takes a lot to surprise me these days, although she still manages to startle me… the recent hair episode being a case in point. But she is full of affection, smothering hugs and kisses, and genuine remorse when she has done something dicey. And when I clean her room, she tells me I am precious. 😉

We had a party yesterday to celebrate Rita, all afternoon with friends, presents, cake, no naps, church in the evening. She wept about one thing or another during most of the church service. Turning four pretty much wore her out!

Last week I finally managed to knock out a project that has been in my dreams for a long, long time. When we moved into this house, all the walls, save two rooms, were the same off-white color. Over the years, I redecorated one room at a time, but the kitchen had been off-white for 12 years. I had wall papered a few of the walls some years ago where the dry wall was very cracked and scarred. Since I didn’t want to redo the wall paper, I scrolled through reams of websites until I found a wall paper border that would liven things up, tie them together with fresh paint color and the existing green checkered paper and red homespun curtains. Gabe helped me select the paint color, dapper tan, and it turned out better than I had even hoped. After I was all done, windows washed, curtains crisply ironed and hanging, I just kept going to my kitchen to absorb the ambiance. 🙂 I would post pics of that, too, only there is that bit of a problem of a missing photo card.

Alex helped me mulch our perennial bed today. It surely makes a difference to have a boy growing big and strong to help with those sorts of projects. (Last week he asked me if he is an adolescent now. 😉  “Well, you always tell me I am growing into a strong man…” And so he is! It is such a blessing to see the increased awareness of how choices affect life.) We were hot and tired after our mulching project, so we all trooped down to our nearly finished pond and tried out the muddy water. It is plenty deep enough to swim, but very dirty. They need showers every time they play down there. Don’t worry, there is a strict rule about wearing life jackets, too.

It appears to be time to wrap this up. The keyboard battery is dying and the “a” sticks occasionally, inserting random aaa’s while I am typing. It is very disconcerting. You don’t suppose… no, I guess the keyboard has nothing to do with bits of UFO in the computer. So that is what is going on. Life is energetic right now, but sweet and good and fresh with strawberries and asparagus. We are indeed blessed!