In Praise of Peanut

As most of you know, I haven't been thrilled at the way Peanut has been received (or not) in our neighborhood. And in truth, she's not a piece of cake in the house with a lot of people so I've often resented her. But I've had a really hard time not resenting the neighborhood in relation to her, because while she can be grumpy in the house, she is pretty fabulous on the outside.

And those of you who know Pea know how much she loves balls. So it was heart-warming to have a family over today who, when we went to the playground on our estate, threw the ball to her over and over and over again. It brought back the warm memories of leaving Pea standing outside the gate at Precita playground in SF and letting the ball roll under the fence so a child could throw it to her. Seriously, that is when I felt really proud to have her as my dog and it always drove home the joy it was to have her playful energy in our lives.

I have waited a year and a half to finally feel that feeling here. Sure, the macho gang guys at Stepney Green will acknowledge and occasionally throw the ball to her but they are more interested in the challenge it seems to be for people to be around a dog than they are into her for pure enjoyment. I was so delighted and relieved to see Sigourney, 3, and Quintin, 6 playing with her today. It might sound over the top to some of you or even most but it has been hard, day in and day out, and all day to see her rejected by most of the people around me--really, really hard. (It's actually also been hard to feel like God's beautiful creation has been going to waste because she's not given the time of day.)

And the funny thing (or not so funny thing) was that she was more at ease and calm in the house with our guests after that interaction than I have seen her in a long time.

In Between the Coughs

Sometimes I blog in my mind and never actually get around to blogging....so sorry if I repeat myself.

Darren has been back now from SF for a bit but I feel it has taken us a while to settle back into our normal routines. Sure, there was routine, as the kids always go to school and as we regularly have meetings but D was sick a bit and jet-lagged and I was coughing and recuperating from trying to do all these stupid details to be able to begin a nursing class (don't ask) and everything just seemed busy. I'm also on this thrust towards getting particulars done in the house before the baby comes. Actually I'd like to get them done quite a while before the baby comes--like purchase a bed frame for us, find a Moses basket, paint some walls (trust me it's not just a preferential color change, it business that needs to be finished.) I am already excited about getting rid of maternity clothes just so they don't take up room here.

The kids have been mostly great. Luci is so fun and crazy and I'm not sure I like the fact that she will be turning 4 soon. Somehow I fear the maturity of 4 will take away her spirit, but alas, I don't think we are actually at risk for that. I love how her getting dressed in the morning has become slightly more ordered lately since she has taken to laying out her outfit, as it would appear on her body) on the floor--complete with jewelry, shoes, and hair decor. (I can't imagine how she'll cope with a school uniform come September.)

We had a second Christmas (in terms of opening presents) since D came back. He came back with a load of gifts from his side of the family for everyone and we had a second whirlwind of wrapping paper all over the lounge. Luci got a white fairy outfit from Nana and Jesse has been helping Luci get dressed up in it. I love when Luci wants to present herself to us as a princess and it consistently includes her holding her pink cell phone that Jennifer discarded (gifted) to her in one hand. Truly a modern-day princess must be able to be in contact with all her friends at any time from a pink phone!

Jesse has taken to reading in bed with his flashlight at night and pretty constantly saying he doesn't fall asleep easily any more. However, he fell asleep instantly tonight. Maybe that's because he and I had a date to the Tower of London this afternoon with some friends. He was pretty engaged with the swords, armor, guns and related games they had on display as much of the exhibits we walked by included those items. I believe I heard, "yay, I just killed a bunch of people!" come from his mouth today. I assure you that he is a very tender spirit that sings, draws, and likes silly poetry. One of the things I am thinking about lately though is how to find a regular outlet for his boyishness, especially after a day at school. He loves to horse around at the playground but is not up for joining football club. Though I'm not sure I will continue to let him decide on that because when my furniture is being jumped on or I am barely avoiding being socked in the stomach because of all this pent-up energy, I wonder "Who is in charge ?"

We had the Hayes girls (10 and 15) stay at our house for 2 nights and a day this week-end while their parents were on a retreat and it was a blast. Those girls have an amazing way of relating to our kids despite the age difference and I think I may actually have done a bit of sleeping in due to Alexandra reading stories to the kids this morning. Darren and I also got to stay up somewhat late with them last night teaching them Settlers of Catan. And I think I taught Alexandra to knit though sometimes I am not even sure I really know how to do it myself. Anyways, the Hayes girls' visit was enjoyed by all and our kids are not used to having so much attention--they were spoiled in a way.

I hope to keep up 2 things I reacquainted myself with when Darren was away--yogurt making and composting in my garden. Spring is coming and I'd like to use some of that soil, if it is that, for tomatoes, etc.

Forgot to mention that we also recently visited a birthing centre where we plan to have the next baby. I'm quite excited about the massive tubs and amazing facility. I'm hoping I'm not coughing when the due date rolls around as I am really sick of a recurring cough. My neighbor hasn't even seen me recently but referred to me as being sick the other day when we bumped into each other--I guess she hears the hacking cough from upstairs in her flat and was wondering what was wrong with me. I have no other symptoms, just that and the consequential headache from volume and force. Good thing that it is virtually gone now.

The flower vase she always wanted--a charity shop find that J gave Lu for Christmas.


Oh I just love my new spots. Darren gave me this spotty tea set for Christmas. The red chickens (which were my grandmas) and the teapot just cheer me up!


Decorating Christmas cookies with church friends.


I love this picture of Jesse. He's really in his artist zone.

The kids have been so good while Darren has been away--I can hardly believe it. Surely it will all melt down tomorrow just in time for him to come home Friday morning? My kids definitely watch more tv while he is away because otherwise I find it hard to get every thing done, like a healthy dinner. (Sometimes tv doesn't work, of course, and it just riles the kids up and makes them tune me out which is a worse situation. But it has worked out quite well for this stretch.)

I've wanted to ask.... Does anyone feel like they feed their kids gruel for dinner? Sometimes my food is good and almost always it is healthy. But sometimes the throwing together of the vegetables with some sort of leftover soup or sauce to either stand alone or go over pasta just looks like the only gruel we can muster to survive off of.

I found myself making crumb muffins with a recipe I found in "More with Less" and I questioned the wisdom of it afterwards. It did use up some crumbs, alas even some homemade crumbs, but the taste of them was entirely too salty, though paired with a bit of honey worked out well. Turns out, I have decided that I will make these muffins again, but I will eliminate the salt called for in the recipe. Anyway, here I am on a bad day food wise--I'm sick of preparing food and cleaning up, and I'm sick of being with my food so much that it's not enjoyable to sit down to a meal. It all looks like old news that I can't be bothered to chew, though I do it so when I tell my kids to eat up, they don't point the finger at me. Ahhh.....All I want is to savor a foamy cappucino while not engaging the outside world. Has anyone out there got so sick of the immersion motherhood gives you into food that all you want is that cup of coffee to be savored, smelled, and thankfully not chewed, cuz you just can't be bothered? I find myself in that state many times when D and I get the occasional date.

Jesse has been reading in his bed with a flashlight that he got for Christmas which has been great because it gives him the chance to stay up later than Luci. I don't think she could handle being put to bed at a different time from him. For a while Jesse needed all the sleep he could get but now it seems he's actually unable to get to sleep at the normal time. He's been telling me lately when I tuck him in that he hopes he gets to sleep because it takes him a really long time.

A great thing about Jesse lately is that he has been so willing to help Luci get her coat on, or her shoes on, or to help Luci get into her pajamas. Today I had them race me--they had to get their coats, etc. on and I had to get dressed. I thought I would beat them but they managed it, with a lot of Jesse's efforts. He got Luci buttoned unevenly up and must have been the assistant behind the hat and poncho that was over her coat flapping in the wind. Unfortunately Luci could only find one mitten even though it was attached to her coat but that's pretty good for a slow-coach Jesse and a Luci who reminds me defiantly every day (when encouraged to dress herself) that she is "Not ever, never, gonna learn how to do it." Speaking of Luci, I have been totally attuned to how Luci takes lots of breathy breaths while she is talking. It takes her forever to get through her monologues and she makes me think of Marilyn Monroe or somebody like that. She's definitely kept me laughing though and, thankfully, not so much pulling my hair out.

While I made fruit salad for dessert tonight, the kids tidied up the living room which was the greatest gift to me. Sure, I had to ask for it but I couldn't believe that they actually took the time to do categorical/organized clean-up. One of my pet peeves is when everything is just crammed into some supposedly discreet location. But I noticed that tonite the art supplies were put with the art supplies and the teacups into the teacup bag (Luci has never stopped playing with that Judy), etc., etc. I was pleasantly surprised.

I've been catching Luci ducking behind the curtain in our living room the last couple of days to color her fingernails with marker. I wonder when I started doing that.....I remember doing that around 4th grade I think? She'll probably keep me to my word to paint her nails tomorrow morning before school. Hopefully she goes to school. I kept her out today because when we were scootering J to school, she starting her hacking cough and threw up on the sidewalk. I'm sure most of the parents thought "The flu!" but thankfully (maybe with the exception of Darren) been free of that this season.

2 funnies--that's it!

Deanna told me about a funny comment Jesse said on Saturday. While he was playing with a wiseman (part of her nativity scene), Luci came along and picked up baby Jesus. To which Jesse replied, "No Luci, put him back, or I'll have nothing to worship!"

Also, this statement had been made twice now by both children at different times. When watching Teletubbies on the BBC Iplayer about a month ago, Jesse saw the sun arising with the baby face inside of it and shouted, "Mom, Son of God." I thought "Huh, nice word play but very interesting." Then today Luci, of course learning everything from her brother, made the same point while home sick watching Teletubbies.

Starting with Summer, remember that?

Well the story is.....we (I mean Jesse) broke our camera in July, we got it fixed in September, lost the cable, found it, had the battery die and found we couldn't find the charger......and now we have another one. So Just downloaded 218 photos some of which predate our US trip. I'm here to share just a few, and will share a few more later. Of course they are on my blog opposite from how I want them and I don't have the labels lined up and I'm not fiddling with it right now.




Sometimes I hate it, but a lot of times I still absolutely love our green couch. Doesn't it photograph well? Seriously, I always think that.






For the grandparents who want to see what Luci looks like on a scooter, here it is. And is it ALWAYS with a dress since that it all she wears. Even skirts won't do.






Our cuties always have to sit outside in front of our building and wait for our guests to come--it is so exciting to them.






Awkward shot, but I thought the technique used here was very interesting.







Luci loves the heat on her back and digging in the dirt in our garden. I love it!

Matthew 7: An Interpretation

We've been reading through the Bible this year (I'm already behind of course but I'm gonna take that afternoon "our program" suggests and get caught up) and particularly Matthew with the kids. This sometimes seems for better or for worse with their understanding and it's pretty much the same with me as I don't particularly like how harsh people talk to each other (i.e. you brood of vipers!) and I don't much like words like "murder", etc. But that's the Bible and life generally, if we aren't too glossy about life with our kids, isn't it?

Anyways, these yucky things are not what generally trip my kids up and into questions. It's usually goes something more like tonite, for example, when reading Matthew 7 to them where it is Jesus talking to the Pharisees about them being concerned with eating clean and not unclean food versus being concerned with having a clean heart and what flows from it. (Loved stumbling on this now, because this issue is so our neighborhood and I'm thinking about that bacon fat next to the stove smelling up my house) Jesse asked some question about this, as to his ears it needed some interpretation, so I gave what I thought was the most kid-friendly and intelligible answer I could muster up. Well, apparently one can never quite get their head around the Bible (this I know to be true myself) as exemplified by Jesse's response (complete with hand motions). "Well, you know mom, it's not like we would eat green eyeball soup." I said "Right Jesse and blah, blah, blah", something similar to what I had explained before. And then Luci got out of bed, came over to me and said, "Umm, you know, we eat lots of vegetable from the ground but we would never eat poison mushrooms." At that point, I decided we would read right through Matthew 7 and receive it for the time being and not really worry about getting it all straight.

Blahhg!

Have to admit, I'm just blogging to blog. I don't feel like it but I want to capture a few moments of my life in words so I don't continue forgetting. Which is probably what has been happening since I haven't been blogging. But to be honest, I feel like a tired pregnant lady and I want to go to bed.

We are back in the swing of things. School has started again and holiday is over. To be honest, Lu's school does not resume until Thursday but of course it doesn't feel like holiday anymore with J not around and D newly out of town to SF for 9 days. Actually I'm totally out of the holidaying spirit I had. All that cookie baking and playdate arranging, as well as the somewhat clutterly clutter of our Christmas decor has been put away and I want a simpler life--that of the nesting mom who has cleaning out and projects on her mind. Whatever I'm trippin' on now, either mentally or physically will be much less tolerable with a newborn around. So organization is a goal of everyday for me and my mental lists are a little annoying to carry around.

But I have to say that holiday was fabulous. I don't think we tired of the kids except for one day. They were so great playing together and it was so relaxing to not have to run them to school. It almost inspires me to take family days once in a while even if the school establishment doesn't like it. "So what!" to them. My kids are young and little only once and we are family. "You are the state trying to run too much of my life" is how I feel sometimes.

Luci continues to be crazy funny. She knows it but not to the extent we know it. She does these amazing funny dances lately. It wasn't that long ago (about a year and a half) when I had declared Jesse to be the one with the rhythm and Luci to be the artistic/not-afraid-to-go-against-the-flow one. J still has rhythm but I can't believe the coordination Lu has with her dances and rhythm. When we got their scooters in early fall, I was really skeptical about Lu being able to learn to ride her 3 wheeled one because so appallingly tipsy on it. It's amazing how every kid develops different skills at different times. In the funny department, she is making crazy faces, particularly that pirate one she had as a 1 1/2 year old, where she squints one eye closed with a big fat cheek. She's still about the messiest person I know in terms of being careful around liquid things or eating at the table, or getting mud on her clothes. D and I were recalling when we were in SF and she was 1 1/2 toddling around a small park in the Mission and she grabbed for a discarded 1/2 full beer can and took a swig, to my horror. She was so fast there was nothing I could do and I had to wrestle it away from her over screaming and crying.

Jesse is the continuous joker. It's endearing to watch him experiment with his relatively new craft but it is so bad (as in a bad joke) most of the time. At dinner tonite, he was saying at rapid-fire pace, "Hey mom, your teapot's on fire, your red paint chipped off the clock, the wall is black, your hair's on fire, the toaster's missing." And then he does a really exaggerated goofy laugh that just reminds me of, I think, Jim Carey in "The Mask." Well, I'm sure parents have had to endure much more while their child hones their genius craft.

I am taking my kids straight to the park tomorrow after school as his energy level has been harder to manage(I mean that he's been hyper) since returning to school. I'm skeptical of how much exercise they are getting (he says they went out 3 times today) and wondering what dessert they are serving with lunch.

Jesse is sweet though and has been the ever-ready host over holiday when we've invited people over. He tidies up and gets all excited about getting our little serving dish out that has 3 sections and chopping apples, etc. to make a suitable snack for them upon their arrival. That has got to be his favorite dish.

I am now about 10 weeks from the due date and actually I've been feeling great! Except I have to admit there's a bit of lower back achiness and today would be an exception lately in that I've been very low energy. I am thankful for how well I've felt but I have grown quickly lately, which obviously affects my lower back and energy so I endeavor to get more exercise in on a regular basis. (My restless leg syndrome was actually bothering me during school break quite a bit and I think it's because I wasn't doing the school runs, which are quite good workouts on their own.)

Off to sort out never ending nursing course questions, which I don't even want to talk about, and reeeeeeeelax!