New Additions

As many of you know, I suffer from the genetic disorder of over-ambition; it runs rampant in the females on my side of the family. And while I used to be of the mind that a whole litter of babies was in the cards for me, I have surprisingly turned my heart towards a smaller nuclear family. However, this does not mean that I no longer have the urge to care for small, defenseless creatures...I just prefer them to sleep through the night and generally take care of their own bodily functions. Enter: our newest family members--the chickens!

By name: Bea, Blanche, Sophia, Rose and Dorothy

These ladies are fantastic: they keep down the weeds, rototill the soil, eat our kitchen scraps, provide the girls with hours of entertainment and pop out farm fresh eggs like nobody's business. These are happy hens, folks. I love them. And some day I will most likely kill and eat them and/or their offspring. I have no problem with that--they're the world's best pets.

And speaking of pets, (whom we do not plan to eat) we've added another, more domestic, beast to our family: A furball named Luther! Luther was formerly the Moore family's cockapoo puppy; he and Granny formed an attachment while she was in Vancouver staying with the kids and after a trial period to see if Caba would eat him or not, we've decided that he would make a wonderful addition to the family. And most importantly, the girls loooooove him. Audrey is infatuated with him in a mother-hen sort of way, but I think Bailey has some serious designs on him as best friend material. I'll make sure to post a picture of him soon.

Sadly, I think the lack of baby-fever and the installation of these new critters in our home has brought about a rather alarming (for John) state of being in me: I have Mad Cow Disease. Er...Cow Fever?? This is not coming out right: I want a dairy cow...so badly that I mention it to everyone I speak to and probably bring it up to John about 836 times a day. I get ridiculously crabby any time I have to go to the store to buy milk and am constantly planning how I can eek out enough pasture land from the yard to merit a very small and totally manageable Jersey cow. I keep telling myself that by pure force of will I can make this come about. I want a cow like I wanted a baby. It's that bad. Maybe you could say a prayer or two for me. I'm off to go commune with the chickens and drown my sorrows in some grass-fed happy cow milk.

Grounded

In general we tend to spend our mornings out and about, whether it be at Bethel to work out, grocery shopping, story time, preschool, play dates, you name it. Our mornings are busy. Nothing can put all that on hold like a pathetically sick and snotty kid. Bailey woke up two mornings ago oozing green snot. It's lovely. Especially caked all over her face right after she wakes up. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that we have been grounded for the last two days, which is pretty unusual for this lot.

While I am definitely used to the chaos of running two crazy kids around town, I love the freedom of spending time at home with no responsibilities. (other than caring for two small children and doing dishes and laundry) The girls and I spent a lot of time playing, cleaning and making more messes and Audrey spent a lot of time working on her letters, writing notes to people (keep a weather eye on your mailboxes) and doing activities in a book her Granny brought back home for her. One of the pages included had lots of blanks to fill in for her favorite things. I got a kick out of some of her answers:

Favorite Book: 'Cinderella one' (Granny just brought back a stack of books for the girls and Audrey has been carting them and her fuzzy pillow around the house. She'll perch herself atop her pillow and just 'read'. Be still my heart!)
Favorite Movie: Snow White (a.k.a. the first movie title that came to mind. her favorite is definitely The Lion King)
Favorite Song: 'Cinderella night and day' (although the songs she most frequently sings are 'sixteen going on seventeen' and the 'Do Re Mi' song from The Sound of Music)
Favorite Food: 'um...probably spaghetti" (pronounced: puhscetti)
Favorite Toy: Basketball! (what?!)
Favorite Activity: Coloring (this could easily be tied with dancing or being high maintenance)
Favorite Friends: Papa, Alivia and Jessica (yes--you, Richard!)
Pets: Caba and Luther (more on this later)
Teacher: Aunt Biz! (yelled enthusiastically with a snarky grin)

I love that kid.

In Bailey news, aside from being sicky, she's a heck of a lot of fun. She thinks pretty much everything is hilarious and her favorite activities are: standing in the rocking chair, getting into trouble, chasing her sister, climbing in the dishwasher, playing in the dog dish, eating toilet paper, giving awesome high fives, kicking off her shoes in the car, peeing on the floor as her Mama is getting out the potty seat, getting into more trouble, attempting to drop items in the toilet, and smiling so sweetly her Mama can't possibly get mad at her. What a conundrum.

In other completely random news, I recently got my hair cut. When I put it in a pony tail I kind of end up looking like Sorsha from the movie Willow. I hope the girls in my work out class appreciate that one.

In an effort to simplify my life I'm also attempting to not wear shoes as much as possible. I've decided that since I'm not the type to lounge in my jammies for too long, making it through a day without having to don footwear is a pretty good indicator of a day well spent.

That's all I've got. I'm off to go work in my garden...and I will be wearing shoes since it's only 30-something degrees out there. Oh, and if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch Willow this weekend--look out for Daikinis!

Unplugged

I've been avoiding my blog for a long time. It is not Thanksgiving...or Christmas...or even New Year's. Needless to say, putting something out into the internet void was not on my list of resolutions. I have no resolutions. It's liberating.

I feel the overwhelming need to be unplugged at this stage of my life; my children and family encompass so much of my identity that they are almost all consuming...and that's how it should be. I should not be habitually checking my email or texting or religiously following people's facebook status updates; my life is the here and now. It is beautiful.

I know it's important to keep this blog functioning, to serve as a connection to the people who are casualties of my unplugged lifestyle, but I find myself wanting to relate in detail how magnificently brilliant my two-and-a half year old is and how stunningly clever that one-year-old girl is. I want you to know how many teeth are in their heads, the way their hair has identical cow-licks in the back and the exact smirk both of them make when they know they're about to get in trouble.

I want everyone to know how magical and exhaustingly revitalizing our Christmas vacation was and how our ordinary, every day life looks.

I am not up to the task.

So there is forever destined to be a void in this little documentation of my girls' existence. Let it be known that the void came about as a result of hours spent twirling in the living room, eating peanut butter sandwiches and mac 'n cheese, snuggling in Mama and Papa's bed and stories read and reread until they were ingrained in our brains. Life is good.

...I'll at least try to keep you updated on the impending arrival of our newest family members...four laying hens and a home-made chicken tractor! Feel free to remain on the edge of your seats.