Waiting for Spring

Well, there actually hasn't been any waiting for anything around here. I'm not sure where the last 6 months of winter have gone, but they're gone. There's little snow, and the river is fluid again.

Refineries age and every three years or less there is a "turnaround" maintenance period where everyone works every day or every night for over a month. So, I'm not too proud to say I'm at the library blogging while my kids are at the babysitter, just so I can have a break. It's only day 3 of 35 so that's not saying much for my single-mom capabilities. I know I will learn to do just fine, but not having my better half around has left me quite sleepless at night and tired during the day. I am thankful that today it is finally cloudy and a bit rainy and that the everlasting sun decided to take a short break. It's nice to have a lazy, rainy day every so often.

Soup season is gone and puddle season is flying by us. The front yard is very wet, but the quickly thawing ground and trees are happy to absorb the moisture. Harley and his little buddy are happy to sport their new wagon from grandma Linda around the neighborhood. Seriously, I've never seen a baby so happy. And the brother in blue is having quite a time splashing, throwing rocks in puddles, and discovering reflections and shadows in water that until recently didn't exist. In two days, he's already fallen and drenched himself three times.

Oh, the taxidermy. Yes, my husband's hobby from time to time. This one is special 1) because it's a buffalo instead of a moose 2) getting a buffalo tag in AK is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity 3) his uncle and grandfather got one the year before his grandfather passed away on his uncle's birthday, St. Patrick's day. I ordered the metal plaque for it to display a photo of the two of them with their kill, so I feel like I made a small contribution.

Grrrrrrr, a Day at Home

I had been looking everywhere for three days for my largest glass pans. It never occurred to me they would be in the oven, but there they were full of boiling grease when I went to insert my fish and veggies. When I moved them to the sink they shattered, exploded more like, hot glass all over the place. Luckily, no chunks landed on the baby at my feet, but it sure did make a mess. Apparently, I need to keep better tabs on what is happening in the kitchen.

The toddler is at my side whining. He wants to play "hide and seek" or "follow the leader" or "dinosaurs talking to one another" all of which I'm bored.

The baby has climbed to the top of a toy car ramp and is asking for help down. Thank goodness, this morning, I taught the toddler how to get him down. And, in fact, the toddler just rushed over and is saving his brother's life as I type. It looks like he's sticking by the car ramp to play. Oh, nope, he started whining again. I think I whined a lot as a kid, bored, wanting mom and dad to play with me. It's worse for him today because he's been staying up too late and sleeping in too late (we all have actually), so it was my idea that he didn't have a nap today, which he still needs at age 3.

The first thing my kid asked me this morning was, "Where are we going?" We are usually pretty busy. Last week the boys went to their grandpa's to play, two mornings they went to play with kids at the daycare, swimming twice, one hike/bike ride, a pizza party, lots of outdoor play, dinner at another friend's place, and one day they had their friends over to play all day long. Oh, and another day with grandpa. This week we have 4 birthday parties to attend.

So, today, the farthest we went was down the street on the sleds. It was nice, but I can tell we are all missing the action.

Oh brother. Little brother just ripped up the toddler's favorite tiny notepad. "Fix my book, please, mommy girl." Yes, he calls me "mommy girl" and calls "daddy boy."

The oven's calling. Time for dinner. And then an early bedtime.

Another Happy Bum

I'm telling you, this cloth diapering is spreading like wildfire.

Four covers, 30 diapers, a washable pail liner, a snappi, and some soap: $100. My cousin Christina in MN and I gave this gift to my cousin, Christina's brother, and his wife for the arrival of their new baby, because they too wanted to save time, money, space, and chemicals.

I can't wait to meet baby Riley's cute bum when we go to visit her in June.

I Can Even Cook

I am over a major hurdle. I have almost (besides the budget) finished a mock-research proposal for a class. I chose a topic that is dear to my heart (antibiotic contamination in milk and its effect on infant immune system) and here I sit surrounded by reams of printed publications in analytical chemistry, microbiology, and immunology that I am very excited to burn. I will not always readily accept a prescription from our physicians, eat a non-organic meat, vegetable or by-product, or trust the FDA like I did before. There is this whole world out there when you start reading written work that is only available through password protection vs what you can find on the open-access internet. I just have to figure out how to maintain this access to the library after I graduate so that I can continue to make educated decisions about our family's lifestyle. I knew this work was going to take me a long time and that is why I started it just after christmas. I am almost done spending every waking moment on this project and focus on the other remaining school work (and there is a lot).

I think that this tough semester came at a good time in my life. My three-year old can play by himself, sleep well, obey well, and lend a hand. The one year old requires a lot more supervision, but he takes a nap and sleeps through most of the night, and I am healed enough from the pregnancy and birth now that I have enough energy. If I don't exert myself physically or mentally throughout the day I lie sleepless at night. That is normal for me and I'm glad to be back there. Although the house has never been as tidy as it was with only one kid, I can keep it together even when my husband isn't around to help. He's been working for 8 days (actually nights) now and I've managed to vacuum our too big house a couple of times (dog shedding season + baby phase throw food off of highchair), read to and bathe the kids each night, attend their activities, socialize with friends, exercise, and the most challenging for me: cook some great meals. Yes, even with a broken cooktop or maybe because of a broken cooktop, I've enjoyed some ham + sweet potato fries, salmon chowder, moose steak peanut broccoli stir fry, sausage red cabbage spring rolls, squash and kidney bean sofrito soup, and my favorite which was the most simple and spur of the moment: baked rock fish with fresh onions and tomatoes along with salted and buttered brussel sprouts.