Friday, September 19, 2008

blow me down, it be talk like a pirate day! me and the laddies be a-swaggerin'* and a-swearin** and a-drinkin grog***.
this be the holy day of pastafarians, and we be celebratin' in high style. hoist the mainsail and veer to starboard and eat spaghetti, it's september 19!


*the baby is still learning to walk, so his swagger is more like a stagger.
** none of us are swearing. but we would, if the boys were older.
*** the grog in question is coffee for me and other bevvies for the babes. then tonight, after they're in bed, my grog will be wine. at least that's booze, right?

Friday, September 12, 2008

a change of plans


last night was brutal. that baby just doesn't sleep. so i woke up in a fog and a funk and a slump, with a sore throat to boot. and i dragged my sorry ass to do my morning check of my fave blogs.

and it's christmas in the blogosphere!

usually i get two or three new posts to read, and of those maybe one will really make me laugh or move me or whatever.

this morning?

xkcd

journeymama

(related to journeymama) fly fishes fly!

dad gone mad
(this one made my morning 800x better all at once)

the sneeze

soulemama

kimya dawson loves you
(this one was up yesterday, but i had to go back and look at it again)

confessions of a pioneer woman


garden of eatin


joy nash

and, of course, skull-a-day

ridiculous bounty. i guess my mood will have to improve. actually, it already has.

and check this out - fun times.


Wednesday, September 10, 2008

a snapshot


setting: just now, in the living room, while the baby naps in the bedroom. the boy is wearing nothing but underwear, i'm in my pyjamas.

me: what do you want to do today?

the boy: make pickles.

me: what else?

the boy: go produce shopping.

this summer i've taken the kid to farmer's markets, farms, organic gardens, and our backyard garden. everywhere we've gone we've gotten delicious foods that he has 'helped' me process: pickling cucumbers, jamming fruit, blanching, cutting and freezing corn, turning veggies into soups, eating them raw... he's only two but he can do the urban homesteading thing like nobody's business. he has trouble pulling up his underwear on his own, but he understands canning.
what a kid.


(and no, i'm not taking him to ogle carrots and cabbages today. we're going to see the doctor. what could be more fun?!!?)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

dear baby:

little puppy, you are more than a year old now. you have three words (four if we count woof, your word for dog) and you can sometimes sort of walk. you're the cutest, smiliest baby around. if someone is ignoring you, you tilt your head and peer into their face with the most beautiful puzzled expression around. if someone is being silly with you, you wrinkle up your tiny nose at them, then laugh uproariously at them. you have three top teeth and three bottom teeth, but not the same ones. top right eyetooth, top middle teeth. bottom middle teeth, bottom left eyetooth. it's like a diagonal stripe of teeth. they make me laugh every time you laugh. which is often.you adore me, your daddy, your brother, and the cat. not in that order. the cat, obviously, is first in your heart. but i make the list, at least. you give us all drooly open-mouth kisses, drape yourself across us dramatically, try to feed food from your slobbery mouth, pet us, wave goodbye whenever you leave a room... you have so much affection in your sturdy little body.but.
in your extreme old age you have decided that you don't need to sleep as much. puppy, it ain't true. staying up until one, getting up at seven, and only napping once - this is insanity. i can't keep up. and i have to stay awake when your brother is awake, too. this is too much. a year ago you slept almost 20 hours a day. that was really nice. you don't need to go to that extreme, but a few more hours a day would be splendid.also, quit waking up to nurse at night. you're old enough that you don't need to. and it doesn't help with my chronic exhaustion and subsequent crabbiness.and this climbing thing. you've proven that you can get anywhere your brother can. but he's almost three and can climb more safely than you, usually. you can't really even walk, but you're already halfway up the bookcase, on the back of the couch, and up on the table constantly. i'm getting a nervous twitch. please stay closer to the ground. pleasepleaseplease, my fearless dumpling.lastly, please quit getting older. you're already too big, too independent. you need to stay a baby so i can snuggle you and play with your rolls and raspberry your cheeks forever. because i don't think you'll let me do that when you're 30.
thankyou.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

and the geek goes on

i'm taking part in a play food swap. i made knitted bacon and little dishcloths.please excuse the picture quality, my camera wasn't charged so i had to use the webcam.

my friends have teased me relentlessly since this whole 'knitting bacon' fiasco has begun. they don't see the crafting of pork products as a worthwhile endeavor. little do they know.

today i will mail these out. and i do not intend to knit any more bacon for a long, long time. well, except the bacon scarf and fried egg mittens my friend asked me to make for her...

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

everything grows

my baby has his first flu. he's burning hot to the touch and pouring puke, tears, snot, drool and shit from all the right orfices. the poor little man is miserable. he wants to be held at all times and only sleeps in my arms. by 'sleep' i mean he takes restless naps for no longer than ten minutes. i'm in a fog of exhaustion, unable to even fathom keeping up with the making of food or cleaning of the home. the boy has mostly been left to his own devices, and he's been really good. mostly.

my garden has been bursting at the seams. most of it remains unphotographed, (so far) but i have mountains of black beans, massive beets, a few cukes, a good showing of carrots, some peas, several sunflowers, ripening yellow peppers, a huge, brilliant hot pepper, and a flood of tomatoes. this is less than 1/3 of my tomato harvest so far. there are 5 varieties here. if it doesn't look like much,bear in mind that my garden would fit in most peoples' bathrooms. and tomato season is just begun. (it runs for another 3 weeks, until the first frost)


today i went with some friends to an amazing organic greenhouse. they had everything. herbs, trees, flowers, etc. almost everything was rare or unusual. apricot orange trees, patchouli plants... you name it, they had some obscure variation of it, organically grown, suited to these bitter canadian climes. i wandered around touching leaves and calling out my discoveries to my friends (also trying to keep the boy from destroying the place, it was his first time out of the house in days and he had some energy to burn)
in the end i limited myself to three plants. a banana stalk, a hot pepper, and a guava tree. (not pictured) all of them fruit. i'll be one of the few canadians eating local, organic bananas and guavas this winter. sweet!