Michael and Jaspenelle

The Family Centered Weekend

In one of my Aunt Ruth’s recent blog posts she asked: “Do you enjoy summer picnics, with your family or community? Or am I right in thinking they are becoming a thing of the past?” Which kind of inspired me to write this entry, though I do not get to answering her question until later.

This weekend was very busy for us. After Michael came home from work on Friday, we turned around and left to take Damian to his one year check up. He is doing fantastically well. Dr. Kincaid was amazed by his height, how well he is walking and all those teeth.

I’d like to say I was totally present at the checkup but I was a bit out of it since I had a migraine. I would just like to say that there is a difference between a headache and a migraine. When I say I have a migraine it means that bright light and noise causes pain so intense that I vomit continuously. I have gotten then for as long as I can remember but I know most of my triggers so I can prevent or at least reduce the intensity of most of them. However I cannot avoid them at three times, when I menstruate, when I ovulate and, apparently, when I am in my first trimester of pregnancy. I had them with Damian and now I have them again. I have been getting them one to three times a week (or rather once a week for three days in a row…) I cannot take any medication that would take the edge off since I am pregnant. However, I have discovered relief. Obey the Cravings. If I obey my cravings 80% of the time they go away.

So after the doctor, Michael took me to Panda Express (Chinese fast food place) since I was craving white rice and steamed veggies. You would think I would have eaten rice and veggies on Wednesday when the migraine began to manifest but I guess the cure just seems so ridiculous to me that I always think it won’t work (last time the “cure” was Dick’s hamburger and fries. Mmmm healthy…) Anyhow the migraine was gone before I finished eating, leaving me with just a blissful (and I mean that) headache.

So then we came home, and since I was feeling all renewed, we tossed some stuff in the van, turn around and drove out to Willow Bay for a second dinner of steak and potato salad with Michael’s of the family. (I am going to blog about that separately so I can profess my deep love for getting out of town and pretty bird houses.) But I wanted to answer my Aunt Ruth’s question. I throughly enjoy summer picnics with family, we actually do a potluck on the third Sunday of every month with Michael’s side so that we don’t fall out of touch. I do think those type of events seem to be falling out of favor with my generation though, maybe in favor of the thing we did on Sunday, but I’ll get to that in a moment.

On Saturday we shopped, and then shopped some more and then shopped… We are going to a big three day campout next weekend so we had to pick up everything we needed for that and did our monthly Costco trip. We also stopped at Michael’s work and bought a 14 count case of organic broccoli, a 10lbs box of local organic snap peas and a 25lbs box of rainbow rotini (pasta salad season!)

On Sunday we ended up running out for a few more things and I processed the aforementioned case of broccoli for freezing. (My feet hurt.) And then went to see more “family” since Andrea and Peter invited several of our friends over for dinner. Homemade gnocchis, strawberry rhubarb pie, fruit salad… Yummy! I brought broccoli (surprise!) and carrot salad. Did I mention that there was pie?

So now I want to add on to my answer to my aunt’s question. I think staying connected to family is important, but I also think, as far as my generation is concerned, the term family has grown beyond biological (enough so that there is the newer term out there combining friends and family, “framily”.) I know that I do the things with my “framily” that I would do with family. We go on picnics, meet up several times a month, go on camping trips, have potlucks, share some holidays together… Our closest friends are Aunts and Uncles to Damian rather then just our friends.

I enjoy family and framily gatherings, but I do think the generational family gatherings are falling out of favor these days in favor of “framily” gatherings. I can see why some people have drifted with family gatherings, you can chose your friends but you cannot chose your family. In a lot of ways it is often easier to be who you are and find acceptance among like-minded friends rather then family that might have preconceived notions of you formed during your youth. However, I think we forget that even though families have their own squabbles, that there is a unique kind of love that can only come from those you were surrounded by growing up. There is a whole set of learning experiences stems from interacting with family. We have to understand where we came from to know where we are going. At the end of the day there is room in my life for family and framily and I deeply love and enjoy both.

Crow Baby

This little guy (gal?) has been on the lowest branch of my Douglas Fir since Michael left for work today (that’s about 15 feet from the ground.) He doesn’t seem hurt but he hasn’t flown yet either. All this morning two larger crows have been taking turning bringing him food. He is a bit smaller then them (his parents?) but not shiny like they are. He looks quite fluffy actually.

The neighbors dog ran in my yard this morning and one of the adult crows chased him off. The pair also chased off a stray cat and some sparrows. They didn’t seem to care about me being out there with my camera though. I assume the bird fell higher in the tree. There is a big tangled mass of sticks higher up (if that is a nest it is the messiest I’ve ever seen) in it. When one crow is off finding food the other is standing guard up there though.

I don’t think there is anything I can do, but I am curious about what will happen to the little guy. Did he flunk out of flying school or just get too adventurous near the edge of the nest? I know I have bird connoisseurs who read this blog, what do you think?

What will happen, will happen but I admit, a needy cousin of one of my totems (raven) speaks deeply to my mothering heart and makes me ponder deeper spiritual meanings. Especially now.

Birthday Wishes

It is my Grandma Mason’s (Mommy’s Mommy) birthday today. She is with my Great Grandma in Canada right now. I have not gotten to meet her yet but I still wanted to send her huge hugs and birthday wishes so I got Mommy to take a photo of me to send.

One of those general updates…

Other then getting my hand stuck in a jar, I have been pretty busy lately.

On Friday, Michael watched Damian for the afternoon, which allowed me to go shopping with my friends Ileen and Andrea. I now have a pair of jeans that fits properly and is not white (because lets face it white anything and babies do not mix) and a mini skirt. Michael and Damian survived without me.

On Saturday, Michael, Damian, Ileen and I went to the Finch Arboretum for a free composting class. I’d say it was a blast but honestly it was a little boring. Add brown waste to bin, mix in green waste, water, turn, wait, repeat… The vermicomposting station was pretty neat though (composting with worms) and the Finch Arboretum is gorgeous. All wasn’t lost though, friends make even the dullest times better and we all received free compost bins for doing it.

On Sunday we did the usual food shopping and then stopped by Northwest Seed and Pet to pick up compost and topsoil to fill my two raised bed. We also bought nylon netting so I can build trellises for my cukes, beans and tomatoes.

Rained on Monday and it is brutally windy today, so I am confined to indoor tasks. Yay, dirty diaper laundry! Erg, or something like that. As soon as cows stop flying around a nice informative gardening post will happen.

Damian nor I have felt overwhelming fantastic for a couple days, probably swine flu (promised I would try not to joke about that) the bubonic plague. I had to say that somewhere in this post so I could have an excuse to post a plague doctor drawing (not that I collect creepy historical pictures or anything.) Some day I will dress like that for Halloween. Granted if this thing turns into a pandemic, this year might be a poor choice… Still, doesn’t he look so awesome? Reminds me of a raven.

Anyhow. This Saturday we will be out in Medical Lake celebrating Beltane at Sal’s. We will have a ritual (where I will be calling water and setting up the water altar,) a maypole, a spiral dance, drumming, a potluck and just a great time in general. Beltane is one of my very favorite sabbats, the gateway to summer and a celebration of sweet luv. If you are local and interested in going check out the Spokane Pagan’s meetup group.

That’s it for now. Don’t forget to wash your hands.

What mistake have you fessed up to recently?

How about getting your hand so stuck in a pitcher that the neighbor has to help you remove it?

It’s okay to share, it keeps you humble.

Happy Birthday Michael!

Michael and I have been together for five years this coming June, wow doesn’t time fly? I feel like I have known him forever though, I feel like I have never known a time when I didn’t love him. I am so grateful to have someone as supportive and caring as him to share my life with. I think he is the most amazing father, the most loving husband and he is my very best friend.

Happy 26th Birthday Michael! I love you with all my heart.

Flats and Mystery Plants

Look at the surprise Michael had waiting for him when outside today? Luckily the old spare was in good condition (and it actually a full sized tire too.) Still not fun of course, but he changed it and is at work now.

The weather is still beautiful, but today is probably the last day of that till the middle of next week. We need the rain though. I went ahead and planted some leaf lettuce outside. As long as we don’t go below 28F it should be okay, and if not, I still have a million little seeds. I also started some basil seeds inside.

Speaking of plants, these little things started sprouting by our garage a couple weeks ago. They are on the north side of the garage (shade) and have tuberous roots. I know it is a little early to identify plants, but do these look familiar? I am in zone 5a. I hope they are pretty, right now I am just happy to see something new and green!

igoogle

Today is a good day for Spring Cleaning, mostly because a little more the two inches of snow fell last night, so there is no way I am going outside! The nice thing about the weather warming is that all that nasty white stuff has melted off for the most part by now, leaving us with beautiful huge mud puddle slushies. Wouldn’t Damian have loved to dive bomb into ones of those (meeting his daily dirty quota all at once.) Granted, even I may have had the urge to go jump in one, but alas I have no wellies - do they make orange ones?

Anyhow so today has been mostly an indoor day, diaper changes, pizza dough making, pantry organizing, breastfeeding, laundry folding, mopping, sweeping, washing and otherwise boring-to-the-eyes-of-others housewife stuff. All while listening to mind-rotting progressive radio no less. I blogged earlier too I suppose and I identified ones of the birds in my yard using WhatBird. I think. I am 99% sure they are White-crowned Sparrows, but the site said they are only around here in the summer. They must have been confused by the snow, I can relate.

Anyhow, to overwhelm your boredom receptors even further, while I was doing all this stuff, I realized that I lack the necessarily lists to keep track of what the heck I am doing. Enter igoogle.

I have used my igoogle pages as my home page for several months, since it displays my most frequented news feeds, a twitter gadget and my email on one page. I didn’t realize that there were some other really cool gadgets out there too though. I found a wonderful To Do List one today, so I put three of them on my homepage (did I mention I like lists?) One of my daily chores, one of my weekly chores and one for the monthly/seasonal chores.

So far it is working fantastically well, because every time I sit down to waste time work on my computer, I see my to do lists and am guilted motivated to get back to work!

Speaking of getting back to work…

Bird Watching

What is it about moving into a house that makes birds so more exciting? I am considered eventually buying a bird feeder just to have them a little closer to the deck window. At the moment most of our yard’s visitors hang out around in the back corner by the compost pile, which makes them hard to see. I am using the pallet method to wall in the compost, which leaves it totally open in the top. I do not think any bread or fruit I toss in there will ever have a chance to become compost. I have a fantastic pair of binoculars though so while I cannot photograph them, I can try to identity them (’try’ being the opportune word here.) Maybe I should consider a bird field guide too, can anyone recommend one for western birds?

The most frequent visitors yesterday were a pair of pine jays, one of the few birds I know around here, though some people call them Steller’s or Mountain Jays. They are loud and mean, chasing off the little birds who were there before. They ate all the grapes from the pile. Some ravens arrived in the afternoon and chased them off (even bigger backyard bullies?) The ravens are fun to watch, they take their food (stale challah bread I think) over to the puddles in the alley and wash it before they eat.

I think the pine jays might have a nest in our pine tree, if that is the case it makes removing that tree this summer more of an emotional issue then I thought. Just wait until the sunflowers are going to seed this summer, then I am sure I will see a ton more winged critters. I am going to have to bag one of the seed heads so I have some to plant next year.

Missing: Windigo

Windigo is missing. I haven’t seen him since yesterday afternoon. Michael found a cat sized hole in the insulation in the basement with cat hair around it. It might go all the way outside, I feel cold air coming through it. Aos is still here (he is a scardy cat with very little sense of adventure) and very stressed out of her brother’s disappearance.

I know it is probably standard to tell someone not to worry (or worse, he is just a cat so don’t worry) but it is driving me nuts. I will worry, but I am trying to be hopefully, which is proving difficult. Windigo has ALWAYS come when I call, in that sense he is more like a dog then a cat. That he is not coming means he is out of hearing range, which worries me even more. It was also really cold and rainy last night. He is an indoor cat and doesn’t know this neighborhood, which has a lot of dogs that seem to just wander out of their yards when they feel like it.

No matter how silly some people think it is, our animals are our babies (our “furbabies” in fact) and to not know where one is is both depressing and heart-breaking. He is not just a pet, he is not a possession, he is not a toy, he IS part of our family, and he is missing.

I wish he would come home…

Edit: For some icing on this stress cake, our van battery was dead this morning since we accidentally left the dome light on yesterday trying to figure out why the blinkers don’t work.