the state of things~

This not writing very often thing is kinda throwing me for a loop....

I had come to rely, in a way, on the daily practice of taking a bit of time to myself (well, sort of... "to myself" meant quite loosely... I do have a 19 month old, after all) to write and reflect on our days and look through the photos accumulated every other day or so.  To get down in writing the things I wanted most to remember about our days and the stories that make up our world, to make note of recipes, adventures, gardening successes and woes, challenges and significant milestones.  Et cetera.

But there's the work thing now.  And yes, it is quite part time, but still.....  we kinda had a groove before.  One that we'd had going for a while.  And so I'm not rushing the process of discovering our new groove.

But psst!, we're almost there.  I think.

I think this is the case because:

There were more nights than not this week where dinner actually resembled something that would pass for dinner instead of a last minute jumble of whatever was on hand, I was less often required to wake Claire from her nap in order to get her (and me) to work on time, she is finding her comfort zone in the art classrooms and is starting to wander a bit more freely, less anxiously...... I'm sitting here, at 10:24pm, writing instead of fretting about lesson planning (though I actually could stand to think a bit more about what I'll be doing in class tomorrow), and the piles that I have created around the house are being tackled.  You know the ones.  "Miscellaneous paper", "clothes to be put away", "stuff to put on craigslist", etc.  I'm mindful to not make piles in every room though.  I'm also good at griping at Mike about the piles he makes in places that I really don't want piles.  Like on the kitchen counter and in the bedroom.

My griping about those piles has been pretty nonexistent lately.

Ever since I noticed that I was indeed the maker of most of the piles in the house and that he doesn't gripe about it to me one bit.  Even though I'm certain some of my piles are probably in places that he doesn't want piles.

Ah, marriage.  What a funny little balancing act of forgiving and loving and keeping our mouths shut at the right times.



So anyway, onto the state of things.

New groove? check! (almost)

Fall garden? Peas are sprouting, leeks are sprouting, spinach is doing nothing (as it usually seems to do for me) and I'm waiting for the collards to germinate.  The last tomatoes are ripening, beets are ready to be pulled, and a couple pumpkins are almost where they need to be.  And of course I am already planning next year's garden in my mind and thinking about how absolutely wonderful and perfect it will be.  That's what I always think!

Bees? Not so great.  We've seen a decrease in activity, no honey to really speak of seems to be stored up at this point, we've spotted a few varroa mites and we are wondering if we need a new queen..... And so we've put a feeder at the hive entrance to get them storing more honey so that (fingers crossed) they can make it through the winter and come out strong next spring, we're gonna make some grease cakes to try to keep the mites from getting any worse, and we'll have to do a thorough queen search soon, I suppose.  We could be better beekeepers, I'm sure.  But we could be a lot worse, too.

Chickens?  One of our new girls is laying now and so that brings us up to 3 out of 5 laying, with one not quite of age yet and good old Pearl who is just either past that stage in her life or just has something wonky with her egg-laying parts. (I hope no one ever talks about me that way behind my back)

Market?  I'm taking a 3 week break to enjoy leisurely Saturday mornings and catch up on some making.  (or that's the plan, anyway) I've not been bringing many little handmade animals with me and so I've been relying mostly on card sales to carry me through the market days.  It turns out that people don't eat their cards and then come back next week for more as they do, say, goat cheese or tomatoes.  Of course, I don't think they are eating my owls and bears either, but it will only help for me to bring a bigger variety of goodies to the market when I return for the final 4 weeks.

Early fall vacation?  Check!  We are heading to Ocracoke Island in 10 days to enjoy a week long family vacation at one of our favorite places.  We've gone the last few years and I'm so excited to get back there with my loves~  Nana will be joining us for most of the week and I'm excited to see how this year's trip differs from last year's.  I'm sure it will be huge, seeing as how Claire learned to crawl at the beach last October and now she is climbing up the metal bars at the playground.

General outlook and such?  Pretty darn good, I must say.  The weather is shifting, we are healthy and happy and have full bellies when we want them, work is going well for both of us, Claire is amazing and fun and challenging and the object of a more intense love than I ever knew possible, and I've been able to talk Mike into playing cribbage with me regularly instead of starting a movie while I get Claire down, leaving me 20 or 30 minutes in and too confused to care to catch up with the plot.  Pretty damn good.

I suppose that about sums it up.  One of these days soon I think I'll be able to get back to my normal writing routine, but for now this will have to do.

Cheers~