things that go scritch in the night, or I get itchy just thinking about it

I didn't get a lot of co-operation when I suggested ripping the bedclothes off and letting the beds air a bit today, (actually, I got the rudimentary beginning snortings of a snit from one and the total involvement in a video game from the other) so....

so I pulled out the big guns and gave them a science lesson about dust mites. How they live on dead skin. How a protein in their feces (we covered what feces were, too) causes wheezing and runny noses. How about 80% of the dust floating in a sunbeam is bits of dead hair and skin.

And when that wasn't enough, I showed them the weird, headless elephant pictures of microscopic dust mites.
 Viewing those was a fine line between health hazard that you should watch out for and nightmare material that will wake you up screaming in the middle of the night, but I think they're both okay.


The beds were stripped. Windows were opened (briefly, my gosh it was -12C out there!) and dust wiped out of corners. Fresh linens on, we all checked our pillows (I sharpie-marker the date we started using them on the tags) for their sell-by date (2 years) and talked about how fresh air and sunshine was important for everybody, not just growing boys and girls.

It was a nice night.

Now up to a verah long shower and pj's fresh out of the dryer.

Goodnight, all.

and then we'll find shelving for the garage

Or something.


The list for next spring is growing. Ominously. 

Paint the house, including the trim around the windows.
Finish the ceiling in the livingroom
Choose a colour for the livingroom and paint it.
Repaint the bathrooms, the kitchen, the kids' bedrooms and the upstairs hall
Put MAJOR MONDO shelving into Cass's room
Put some bookshelves up in R's room
Hang R's chandelier
Bathroom floor.
Re-do front steps.

BUILD raised-beds for garden.
Figure out how to raised-bed garden, and DO IT.
Cass's bed.
Furniture-polish (anyone remember Mrs. Murphy's Oil Soap??) everything
Find and buy pot rack
New desk lamp
Build and populate chicken coop. (What?)
Graft and/or replace aging apple trees

Yes, there's a reason Bear goes pale whenever he sees me with my big pad o' things to do...

I mean, we'll get it done. We will. But right now looking at all of it, here in mid January, it's a whole pile of stuff looming into my sunny spring days.

most of the time, she looks like a cat

but then at night when she sucks her toe before she falls asleep, it's obvious she's still a baby.

Sweet dreams, y'all.

love is...

giving the dog a ham-bone, even though you are unabashedly a cat person.

Cleaning up dog sick this morning. What could he have gotten into? Oh, yes, the hambone...

Cleaning up great gouts of dog sick tonight while murmuring sweet things to the frightened dog, kicking yourself for freely handing him the bone.

Cleaning his kennel, scrubbing out all nastiness while the dog comes over for a pat, his eyes sorrowful and sad, leaning into you while you rub out smells.

No, wait a minute. That's not love. That's my stupidity, coupled with some duty and just plain old guilt.

Love is letting the poor dog stick his face in mine and burp.

Yeesh.

Why you should never use something given to you for blogging for a Christmas present. In one easy lesson.

One word: Floorspace.


Back in September, I got a very nice email from a company that specializes in eco-friendly playstuffs asking if I would like a cardboard, paintable playhouse for R.
Something she could play in and colour? Where did I sign?

It arrived promptly and I tucked it away under my bed for a rainy day project and forgot it.

Until Christmas Eve.

Bear and I spent about a half an hour putting it up. Santa tucked some stuffed animals inside, and we left it in front of the tree. Overnight, it grew (it did seem that way) and when we stumbled downstairs in the morning we noticed it...well, takes up most of the available floor space in the living room.

But she loooooves it. Slept in it the first night. Has painted and colour penciled all over it.

See?

It's a great hang-out for a little girl to dream in. But it's just too big for my narrow little house!
So: a word to the wise. If you're not good with picturing how big something is going to be from the dimensions listed, don't  use a freebie without planning. Even if it is a lovely freebie.

it must be Christmas break...

Because Good LORD,  my two have decided they are mortal enemies, MORTAL ENEMIES I TELL YOU, and that someone MUST BE STOPPED.

And no amount of 'Santa knows!' 'Santa sees!' 'Stop before I stuff YOU in a box!' is working.

I remember this: the sibling rivalry, how breathing the same air as your brother made you want to annihilate him for the simple reason he was there, how I swore up and down I would never, NO NEVER have more than one child because of all the horrible things my brother and I gleefully did to each other, and how I promptly grew up, forgot (whimper) all this, and had more than one spawn.

WHAT WAS I THINKING???

Truthfully (and now that the howling has (momentarily, I'm sure) ceased, I love them to bits and wouldn't change them for the world.

BUT.

Should school HAPPEN to open a few days early?

Their shiny keisters will be on the bus.

OH YES.

Well, that didn't take long

What's Christmas without a little extra something in the tree?

too busy to blog

But not too busy to have long, post-worthy conversations with myself. And definitely not too busy to miss it.

It's a rhythm, blogging. And sometimes I lose the thread of it.

Our Christmas tree is up, although it's unadorned and unlit - the two young cats have decided it's a giant toy that their humans put up, and have been popping in and out of the branches. Honestly, I may just leave it nekkid for awhile - watching Inky and Boo is more fun than worrying about ornaments plummeting to the ground.

Of course it will be a plastic/unbreakable Christmas ornament tree this year. I'll miss some of my favorites but not having to moosh (is so a word) all of them onto the tree will be okay.

I'm back where I was last year - staring down the barrel at Christmas as it roars toward me - and seriously I think I could give it a miss and I wouldn't mind. Not that I'm grinchy - peace on earth, good will to men, all that jazz - but I'm just so tired.


And, oddly, wishing for snow. (See, told you I wasn't right.)

I'll be back tomorrow. Because I miss y'all. And I miss blogging.

literacy rocks

I did something I'd never thought of doing the other day.

I started a library.

Last summer, I contacted the local public library system here, and asked them if they'd be interested in setting up a branch in our village school. The mobile library is wildly popular around here, and pairing the books with a permanent home in our town's most easily recognizable and central building seemed perfect.

After many meetings and the forming of a committee and emails and some bated breath and waiting (not so good at waiting) our little Outreach Branch opened last night.We'll be housing the collection in our school library, in its own section, and it will be open to the public for a few hours each Wednesday night and Saturday morning. I applied for and received my own Village Library card last night - I'm thrilled and excited and have a feeling of this just being right.

I am so amazed and grateful to be part of the area I live in. And excited. Our school principal was enthusiastic about the idea from the beginning. We've had volunteers step forward to run it already.  I am so lucky to be around people that work for positive change.

And literacy? Rocks.

i can be

 anything I want to be....

The song is a little annoying (especially when it gets stuck in your head and you're making up bawdy lyrics and humming because you can't remember the original wording) but it's unabashedly bouncy. Also, true.

Rosey has decided she can do anything. Or several somethings, all at once. She's got grit and determination, that one.  She has several terrific non-traditional female role models in our family, and I think seeing that these women that she loves and admires can 'get 'er done' is a terrific lesson for her to absorb at such a young age.

My Barbie dolls were moms or cheerleaders when I was growing up. Roo has veterinarians that rescue avalanche victims on the side. Equestrians that still wear the prettiest dresses ever to the fair. She has Barbie the Builder that fixes everything with a tiny hammer and her yellow construction hat. There are teachers and test pilots, prom queens and gypsies. It was a complicated thing to teach her, that women can do everything but that not everyone believes that, and that there will be be people along the way that will question her when she says that she can. (It's a philosophy I didn't really think I was going to have to teach my seven year old.)

But believe it she does. And is quite happy to tell you that when she grows up, she's going to be a doctor. And a veterinarian. And a fireman, too.

And somehow, I'm pretty sure she will.




Go here to read about a new website that gives girls tools to use to grow up healthy and strong and teaches them that yes, they can be....anything they want to be.

dusk