Category Archives: On My Mind

Feathered Friend and Contemplation

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver

Bring it on!

I am planning on a busy weekend spent mostly outside thanks to a good forecast. I bought a deal online for some plants from a nursery nearby, so we’ll be heading there, but also will have to clean up the spots where our new purchases will be going. One area is completely overgrown with chives and I’m thinking a smaller lilac bush would be perfect there. The kids will most likely be content to help us for about 10 minutes before they’re bored, but they love being outside and will find plenty to occupy their time.

With luck we’ll be able to eat outside tomorrow night, but we’ll see. I’m planning on homemade pizza and ice cream because it is time to bust out the ice cream maker! Then we just have to all decide on a flavor, which will mostly depend on what we have on hand.

Then there’s camping prep to do! I want to try and pare down what we bring with us, but we enjoy a certain amount of comfort when we camp so I’m not sure we’ll be able to leave out too much. One day we may just have to get a little camper. In the meantime, our giant tent is good for when it’s buggy outside so that way there is plenty of room to still have fun without being bitten to death. I’m hopeful, though, that this year it won’t be an issue. So far the mosquitoes haven’t been bad at all and considering we’ll be headed north, I think we’ll be okay. And by north, I mean very north. I almost wish I had a passport since we’ll be so close to Canada. Haha!

I’m hopeful it will be a good trip considering the drive, but it wouldn’t be the first time we packed up early if it just ends up not being enjoyable. With luck we’ll see some wildlife and there are plenty of trails to walk on and, worst case, a town close by where there’s a park if we can’t exhaust the kids near the campground. Absolute worst case, I’m not against slipping them a bit of melatonin (we use only the amount and type the doctor recommended and not regularly – usually just for Enzo when he’s having an especially hard time shutting down). We are also not completely against letting them wind down with a show on our portable DVD player, especially if it means letting the campers around us also get some peace and quiet in the evening.

Sure, they look sweet and innocent, but the sibling squabbles started up around the same time Miss Phoebe entered the stereotypical “terrible” part of the twos. She knows precisely which buttons to push with her brother and will do so gleefully when there isn’t something else to occupy her time. I’m trying to explain to Enzo that it’s best to just ignore her when she’s being a stinker, but he thinks he should get the last word since he is the eldest. He has fully stepped into his roll as the bossy older brother. Some days it’s really kind of hysterical listening to the two of them whether it be when they’re playing nicely together or bickering over the most ridiculous things.

Happy weekend, all!

Metamorphosis

We weren’t sure if all of our butterflies would emerge or not, so we were excited to arrive home over the course of a couple of days to find them all delicately fanning their wings in their mesh home. I wish we could have seen them actually come out of their chrysalises, but alas, such is life. It was exciting nonetheless just to see that they had survived their transformations.

We decided we would release them over the weekend on Saturday, but it was so blustery that we held off until Sunday. I had talked to Enzo about releasing them and at first he didn’t want to because he wanted to keep them, but I explained that they would be happier if they could fly around outside. He agreed, especially after Uzi discovered them and knocked their entire habit off the bookshelf. Thankfully they weren’t harmed, but it was clear that it was time to free them.

Josh is truly a butterfly whisperer. He was the only one they cooperated for, so he would carefully let them sit on his hand for a moment while they stretched their wings. I think with each one, they only stayed until they felt a breeze or a gust of wind and then off they flew. Some took off immediately, while others hung out a little longer, but with each it was ultimately the same. They would wait for a breeze to lift them up off of Josh’s hand (or in one case the deck) and then off they went in different directions.

Neither Phoebe nor Enzo wanted to try and hold a butterfly and as soon as they were gone their interest in the whole affair had waned entirely. Our one worry was that birds would get them right away as I forgot about our permanent residents who apparently caught wind of what we were up to and started swooping around. Thankfully, I think the butterflies all escaped. We saw them later in the front yard when we went out to play and Josh to mow the lawn.

It was really fascinating to watch them grow from tiny caterpillars into butterflies. I think we’ll do it again when the kids are older and understand it a bit more. It was almost a little sad when they flew away, and I’m not sure why and then I looked deeper into the symbolism of the butterfly and it all seems to make sense. That, I think is a post for a different day, though.

Conjuncti-LAME

Here we go again. It’s never a good thing when my phone starts ringing at work and I see that it’s day care. I dread answering because it’s never good news, you know? Today? Enzo has pink eye… again. For the past I don’t know how many weeks it’s been circulating through the preschool room despite them disinfecting everything. I would rather get a root canal than go through another round of eye drops with Enzo who acts as though we are torturing him. It’s going to be a nasty 5 days ahead of us.

It’s bad enough that the rain won’t quit and our high for the day was a whopping 49 degrees. I give up. I’m going to bed and will consider waking up when the weather is nice again. Okay, I’ll stop whining… it is really green thanks to the rain, so there’s that. It’s also my favorite time of year because of all the springtime babies. I saw two families of geese crossing busy roads with their large broods of goslings. The other day I saw this adorable family from a distance as well.

I need a bigger lens so I can get better pictures of this particular eagle and nest. I don’t want to risk getting too close since eagles really don’t like you too close to their nests and I’ve heard they’ll abandon their nests even.

Well, it’s been a long day and my background soundtrack has been a lot of children’s TV since I needed to get some work done while Enzo convalesced. I figure we’ll make up for the extra TV by getting out when he’s not infectious this weekend. Or maybe I’ll put him to work again… he did so good on that shelf that I’m sure I can find something else for him to do. Child labor at it’s finest!

Get out those shovels kids, it’s time to dig! Oh, and move a pile of rocks… and pull some weeds. They’re going to earn their keep this weekend! Just kidding… sort of. 😉 Happy Friday everyone!

No time to say, hello, good-bye!

It seems like the majority of my posts are really just rambles lately. I think I’m bored, though, I really have no reason to be bored because there is always something to do. I think the problem lies in the fact that the things I should be doing aren’t necessarily the things I want to be doing, and there isn’t always enough time to do the things I want to do. I knew going into having kids that priorities would shift and our lives would change, but even after several years of doing this, I still find it difficult to find a balance.

It’s good for the kids to see us doing things that interest us, but let’s face it, more often they’d rather we be doing something else, and I can’t fault them that. I want to spend time with them too considering the majority of our days are spent apart. I struggle, though. If I spend all my time sitting and playing with them, then the house and other responsibilities get neglected. I can put those off until after they go to bed, but then that usually means I’m just tired and flop into bed afterwards. Josh and I try to split household things, but for some reason we can never seem to keep up and at the same time meet our own personal needs.

Then I start to think about what’s important to me and start to feel dejected because I don’t feel like I can juggle so many things and don’t know what to give up or how to make our lives more organized and less stressful and yet more fulfilling. I want time to concentrate on my health physically and mentally. I want time to read, but also time to catch up on a few shows with a glass of wine. I want to finish a certification or two. I want to learn how to sew (well, I know how, but I have some projects I’d like to give a go). I have several hobbies I enjoy, but don’t seem to have time.

Where has all of the time gone? Do I need to prune my interests and somehow decide which hobbies to keep? Do I need to schedule my free time? I really need to find a way to get all of my adulting more stream-lined, I think, and then hopefully the other things will fall into place.

*Photos of cute children are to remind me how much I love them and how worth it they are.*

**I jest!! I absolutely love them and they are worth the sacrifice.**

Dino and Bunnies

Every day adventures