Pondering

You know how when you're in your 20's and you spend oh so much time pondering on life, fate, the future, the meaning of life? Oh I know, this is a group of topics that are first pondered when we hit those mid=teen years when we have so little control over things in our lives...

Usually we have time in our later years to do "Deep Thinking" and I was thinking the other day, as I hurried through one chore to get to the next one...I've not had enough time for deep thinking lately.

And it bugged me.

I love my life, my beloved Lee, my children....but I'm so busy being busy that I'm not spending time doing some Kirsty thinking. I know, I *know* my purpose here is to love raise and nurture my children and I'm giving 100% of me to that effort...but I think I am going to carve out some time to reflect.

To think about those big questions. I've made time to get house work done, diapers washed, meals cooked, and recently added "reading", "gardening" and a wee bit of "quilting"...all important ingredients in the recipe of life.

But if I don't add the most important ingredient, "thinking quietly" I don't think my recipe will compute. I don't think I will compute.

ah, well, I'm tired. So tired. Midnight is hard on me, and my cough syrup has taken it's toll...are we drunk on it or stoned? dunno, just so glad I'm not coughing...of course, I've not tried to lay down yet so I may be back.

be ware You may be subjected to another stoned on cough meds blog entry!

now, go somewhere and reflect!

wierd things about me...

Laume posted on her blog beachtreasure about a meme where you post a bunch of things that are "wierd" about oneself. Hmmm. And what, if we are all individuals, is the true meaning of wierdness?

Like Laume, I often know who is on the other end of the phone when it rings.

I also will think "oh, I've not heard from so-and-so for awhile" and I'll either get a phone call, email, or snail mail within 24 hours from that so and so.

I like to change my hair color. Often. Sometimes 3 times in a two week period, like last week.

But I like the red/brown color it is just now so I'll keep it awhile. If only it would make my face as thin as the picture on the box...

I cry during sappy commercials. Even if I've seen them before.

I have had more kids join our family in my 40's than in my 20's, and two of those were infants!

I like to wear wool blend socks in the summer. Well, year round, really.

I sometimes forget that I'm nearly 50 and get shocked with my mirror's reflection when I walk past the front hall mirror.

I don't believe in using deodorant.

I howl at every full moon, from outside in my driveway. Loudly.

I gave up shaving my legs when I went through menopause. What's the point?

I prefer my spices to be alphabetized but my family makes fun of me when I do it so I only fix the cabinet once a year.

I like my life. Sometimes I complain, but not really loudly, and not for very long. Since so many people I know complain about every wee facet of their lives, I would love to consider *them* wierd, but I think it might must maybe be me!

I like ironing and weeding.

The end.

Happy Days....

Here's the younger set in the kitchen this very morning, all happy! Such a nice thing to have everyone having happy smiles on a Thursday morning. Of course, when we hear things like it's supposed to be in the upper 80's today, sunny and wonderful that could bring a smile to the most dour of faces! When you consider that we had a frost warning 2 nights ago and have been running the heat again...well, we'll hope that all that is behind us now! I spend some time in the garden yesterday, transplanting some Hosta to my side yard where a trencher dug up our crumbling gas line a few months ago. We lost some Spring plants as well as Hosta, so this fall we will replenish them and have a full garden once again. It felt good to have my hands in the dirt again. Tonight I go to an information meeting about our community garden plot. It's up on the hill bordering the last apple orchard that Johnny Appleseed, our native son, planted before he headed west. This is still a working orchard, purchased several years ago by our fair city to protect it from zealous developers. We've not had a garden plot for over 20 years, so it will be fun to have a garden for veggies once more. Our yard has 40 or so maple trees surrounding the property so we don't have enough light for veggies here. The one area that gets the most sun is about 4 foot square and has a rose bush, Black Eyed Susan, and Purple Coneflower (echanachea).

Wow, don't know how I got on the garden tangent, except the fruits of my labor yesterday are visable outside the window next to my computer and I was smiling to see how well they have transplanted and...oops there I go again!

Okay, back to my human children! This picture of Lissa was taken last week. She is starting to creep/scoot in her crib and playpen, and is rolling like a champion. I think I took this on her 5 month "birthday"...she hit 16 pounds this week so she's a very solid girl. I saw a little baby boy who was born 3 days after she was, and he is nearly the same size and much chubbier than she is, so I am not worried about her "supersize"!! I think it's so hard for me because KC was a preemie, and was 16 pounds when he was a year old (and we thought that was wonderful...well it was...for KC!). The impish smile is what I see every day when she wakes up, and keeps me going through the screaming dervish she becomes between 7 and 8 p.m. as she fights to keep awake for one more minute! Oh, she is a stubborn lass...and I'm glad of it as she will need to be a stubborn lass to succeed in this world!

Today I...

spent the day re-organizing my adopted room. Since Lissa came home to us in December, I've been sleeping downstairs in my mother in law's room. Mum lives in Maine, but the room is hers, and we use it for a guest room, and storage etc. And Lissa and I have been sleeping downstairs here so that Lee and KC will be able to sleep through the night. After all, Lee has to go to work each day, and I'm so glad I don't have to go out of the house to do that, and KC...well, who want's a cranky 2..er. . . 3 year old all day? So moving downstairs was easier for all 4 of us.

But this week Lissa began REALLY rolling over. She did it once at the beginning of April, front to back, and mid-April she went over back to front. Since then, nothing. Then yesterday she rolled over, I rolled her back and this went on for 20 minutes. She is so charmed by her mobility it's so awesome to see her grin and laugh with her accomplishment. This did, however, present the problem of her sleeping in bed with me, as she can wiggle down the side of the co-sleeper "box" and then roll into the middle of the bed. I'm such a sound sleeper once I'm out that I'm afraid I'd smush her, so there was nothing for it than I set up our crib.

Have you ever read "IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE"?? Great kids story about cascade effect ...and that kinda sums up this whole setting up the crib. It was upstairs in what will someday be Lissa's bedroom, all set up of course. So I had to take all the baby blankets off of it, move the 3 piles (different ages/seasons) of baby clothing that I've been meaning to pack/sort/or put away in the attic, and attempt to get the crib through the door. Get one side through, then the body...then..stuck at the other end. Drat! Rats!! Dammitall!!! Get side unstuck from doorjamb and only hit bruised knuckles once or twice, push crib back into room...yup, have to take it apart to get it downstairs. This takes about 20 minutes, not as bad as I remembered. Make 4 trips downstairs with assorted cribrails, sides, ends, mattress etc. Get sidetracked by a kid, lose an hour, go back to room to assemble the crib. Where the hell is my screwdriver? ? Spend 40 minutes looking for it, work with Rob on homeschooling project question, get KC a snack, check Lissa (napping), wake Lissa up accidentally while checking her, stop to feed her, go and run 2 errands, 2.5 hours later, back to work on crib...oh drat, that's right, lost my screwdriver...look at floor to ponder where I could have put it...there it is, right under the side rail of the crib, on the floor. PHew! Assemble crib. Look at where I can put it ..this room is crammed with furniture....

This engenders moving the double bed 3 times, putting all the winter clothing that was on top of the pine chest away so I could move that someplace, put away 2 sets of bedlinens in the drawer of the other chest, find homes for homeschooling supplies I don't use all that often, and FINALLY, I find the right spot for the crib (well, I knew where I wanted that to be all along), the bed, the 4 dining room chairs that have to be stored in here, the pine chest, the wee pine chest that has sewing supplies in it, the nightstand, the nightlight, AND I have made the bed as well! Now it is 230, I'm hot and tired, as it is almost 90 here with hight humidity, the kids are wild, and I had just 4.5 hours of sleep last night, and phew...it's time to cook dinner !! Lee skipped lunch at work today so she'll be extra hungry, what can I whip up fast fast fast, and still have a few minutes to sit and get off my tired mules?

Thank goodness for "fast" food vegetarian helpers. Morning Star Farms makes these "beef" strips (and chicken ones too) that you only need to lightly saute to prep. I had them on top of a light (doctored) pasta sauce and box spaghetti with the faux beef on top, a fresh salad, and all prepped in under 30 minutes! It was wonderful to carb up after moving all that furniture.

So now I'm heading off to enjoy my "new" room! Hopefully Lissa won't hate her crib forever, and I'll get used to not having her sweet self right next to me (sob)...and her wee cute turtle head popping up at 4 a.m. to laugh me awake for her bottle time! An adjustment for us both.

I've been a co-sleeping parent for 3 years now, this is so hard! Harder than moving all that furniture today...well, I'm stalling now, so I'm off!

Woodland Sprite

I have to tell you, the boys were horrified when I told them I'd posed their sister in the brook.
"IN THE BROOK??!!" they hollered, practically in unison!
"In the Brook?" Lee quieried right after the boys.
"Yup, in the brook" I replied with a smile.
No, her feet did not get wet, nor did her bottom, at least not from the brook! No, she was not sitting on a rock exactly. There is a large rock that had a lot of debris in it from our spring rains, and it made a lovely hummock to sit her upon, with a nice pair of sticks for her to lean back upon, just like the brook was waiting for her (and I'm certain it was!). KC had his picture taken here as well, when he was about 2 months old. Lissa is double that in this picture, and she was totally fascinated by the stick she is holding onto.... and then....


she saw the water running past her feet and this was her reaction! I will mention that the brook runs about 2 inches deep unless it is stormy....

The view from my window

Isn't this a wonderful thing to look at all Spring? The truly wonderful part of this garden is that my son Rob planted these tulips and daffodils over the past two autumns. He is 10!! I put in the Bleeding Heart and the Hosta from the backyard, but everything else is Rob's work. He pores over the catalogue from Breck's each summer, just plotting and planning where everything will go ... I..... I get to reap the benefits of his fascination with bulb planting.

It's been such a wierd spring too...first it was sunny, then the sun went away for about 15 days, and then it snowed, and sleeted, and finally, when it rained, it rained BUCKETS! So many people in the northeast were flooded out seriously, and had homes destroyed when the high tide, and wind driven waves took out their property that I'm not complaining at all about the mere 3 inches of water we had in our basement. And now 2 or 3 weeks later, and it's so dry out we're in fire danger alert! And we had a frost last night,and today it will hit 80, wihth 90's predicted for tomorrow...as I say, strange.

But I have a beautiful garden, and a wonderful son who makes it happen for me!

Where did April go?

Elisabeth has done quite a lot of growing this month. She turned 4 months old this week. She weighed in at a whopping 15 pounds and she's grown 2 inches since her last visit 7 weeks ago...wow! 26 inches tall already. She flipped from belly to back at the start of the month, and this week turned from back to belly, very intentionally. She's not repeated either feat, but I think she's just resting on her laurels for now, getting ready to surprise me and start walking at 6months or something like that! She's such a happy baby, and I'm glad I finally caught a picture of her laughing. Here I am with the clan at Easter. Robbie, in the middle, decreed that we all needed to dress alike..so we're all in blue and white, with the boys having a green stripe on their vests, Lissa having to wear pink pants coz that's the only color of pants I have for her, and everyone bundling up as best they could because it was 28 degrees Easter morning...One might expect that if Easter was in early March, but this was on April 8th! Spring is such a strange season in New England!

so, in order is: Kirsty holding Lissa, KC who is getting ready to blow one of those tooting things that we had leftover from someone's birthday party, Robbie, and Chet, who was very proud of his new Panama hat, but that he had to wear sideways because of this honking big earring he was wearing in his cartilige hole...and to be uniquely Chet!

tomorrow it will be in the 70's for the first time since...September or October. It will be so refreshing! Laundry on the clothes line! Diapers dried in the sun and not via Massachusetts Electric!! Hurray for warm weather at last at last!

The Fergie

Here is my beloved, beloved Irish Setter, Fergie. He is such a good sport about things like Reindeer antlers and toddler hugs. And now he is in the hospital and things do not look good for him. I am waiting now to hear the results of his ultrasound, as he has an extremely enlarged spleen, which is indicative of cancer in 90% of older dogs. He is 9 1/2 years old, and although you may not tell from this picture, he is a very large Irish.

They usually run 60-65 pounds, and he is around 85-90 pounds. This winter he ran up to 92 pounds, but when he got sick two weeks ago and stopped eating, his weight went down to his summer weight of 85 (not the way for this to happen, by the way).

I'm so deeply saddened by the impending loss of my friend and companion. My eldest son is afficted with Asperger's Syndrome, or high-functioning Autism. One of the hallmarks for this is a lack of social reciprocity, including hugging and expressions of love. He really doesn;t like to be touched at all, and as I am a very huggy person, this was extremely difficult. Fergie filled that void for me, as well as being a friend to take walks at 5 a.m. and *like* it, protector of my kids outside, and protector of the house. Although Irish are not known for being "guard" dogs, he was super protective of his family.

The hardest part of being a pet owner is making this last and difficult decision...when will my friend die? Oh, I could do surgery, and chemo, but I'm just not willing to do that to him. I tried to keep two cats alive through extreme measures, and they suffered because I could not let go. I am determined to not do this to him, to give him the dignity and strength that he deserves from me. But, oh how I hate it.

Letting go, saying goodbye, and helping my kids deal with this loss ... so hard. Yet, it is an incredibly intense part of the circle of life. We all will die someday. Being a pagan somehow helps me feel better about this, that he and I are part of this same wheel. I knew his circle would be shorter than mine, but I do believe there is another side of life, after we draw our last breath here, we, our spirits/energies will pass on to another place. Fergie will go there before me, but I know when it is my turn to go there, he will be there, bounding up to me in that lovely Irish Setter way, fur-feathers flying, and that happy, joyful look upon his sweet face.

Blessed be, my beloved friend. Our time here was too short. But I needs must let your spirit free from your hurting body. I love you.

Finally...

Finally we are all feeling better! It's been 3 weeks of crud, coughing, sneezing, red noses, coughing, plugged ears....you name it, someone in this big family has had it!!

Somehow, during our period of....being offline, ya, I like thinkin' of it like that, we were offline, and now we've reconnected! anyway...during our period of being offline, Spring came for a visit. St. Patties day was a huge bust, as we had a mega-big snowstorm (well the biggest one for us all year) and no one was feeling good, so we had to take all day to shovel the driveway...and our neighbor across the street came over with his snowblower to help out! What a great guy! I know you guys love your toys, and snowblowers are a pretty fun one to have...but it really saved the day for us. Still took the rest of the day to unbury the cars and the path to the shed for the trash runs, and shovel off the deck at the back door so we could get out there and down cellar to get to the washer.

Finally...after another week of cold weather after that big snowstorm, it warmed up and hit 60's for a few days...even yesterday it was mid-50's. They kept saying we were going to get snow last night, but surely they were dead wrong...I mean, c'mon! It was 56 at 6 p.m. yesterday. And at 8 when I let the dog out it was raining so hard! Then I let him out at 915 and it was snowing so hard....sheesh !

But it was all over before 5 a.m. when the dog asked to go out again, and was falling off the trees so much that it sounded like someone was walking all over the roof! We only got 3 inches of snow, and it was all melted by 930 when we left for church. Now that's a great spring snowstorm!

and Finally...it's time for me to head off for bed.

I'm glad I Finally had some time for my blog! I miss blogging. It's like free therapy. I can bitch and whine and share happy stuff...just wait until you get my next blog, talk about news...but I can't just now because...

Finally, I'm done!

Youngers and stuff...

When you see these two munchins don't you just want to cuddle and hug them? Elisabeth has just discovered her fingers work! She's holding a soft rattle in the top picture, and as I was trying to take the photo, she was shaking it madly! She is in what we call "cell phone practice posture" .....

And here is KC giving his sister a hug. He was thrilled to be able to "hold" her, while he was showing off the hat that I made for him. His favorite color right now is orange, and the hat is even brighter in real life.

Yesterday Elisabeth turned 3 months...it's hard to believe that much time has gone by since she came to us...and one month from today, KC turns three! Oh my! My wee lad is growing up! He is fiercely independent, wanting to do everything by himself, but he's also such a good problem solver. Homeschooling him will be a blast...challenging for me, I'm sure, but he's got a thirsty mind like his oldest brother.

More snow!

This image is from last night when the snow began. It was supposed to be a dusting but we got about 5 inches overnight. Normally, we New Englanders would scoff at a mere 5 inches, but in this year without snow, it was an Event!

There are many things I like about snow. I like the symbolism inherent in the individuality of each snowflake, and how such a fragile, delicate thing, when joined by a billion of it's kind, can cause huge accidents, screw up airline travel, bury towns, and bring joy to school aged children everywhere.
I love the luminosity of snow. It's never truly dark out just after snowfall. The air has a pearlescent sheen, the ground and tree branches which just disappear into the dark of a winter night are transformed into delicate lacework.
I like that peculiar, particular smell of new snow. Nothing else smells just like that.
I love the silence. Before the plows start trundling by with their thunder and diesel humming, sparking up the roadsides, before most people work up the energy to dust off their vehicles, I like to go out and just listen. To nothing. Everything is muffled, calm, peaceful.

Even this morning, when I went out to look at the predawn beauty, the song of the cardinal and his mate were quieter, reverential. This world is so filled with beauty! You wouldn't think it to watch the 6 p.m. news, and I know there are bad things happening everywhere, but there are good things too, and snowbeauty is one of the good things.

Once the sun came up, and the blue stretched from horizon to horizon, people got on about their days, the birds flew about more purposefully (feed the belly, build the nests!) I knew I could get just a few more shots in before the heat and wind of the day stripped the last of the snow from the trees. This is the best of the lot, my beautiful birch tree.

Snow at last!

Above is a picture of the last remaining apple orchard that John Chapman, known as "Johnny Appleseed" planted in his birthplace of Leominster. This is the best of my winter pictures...of course with this milder than normal winter, I've not taken too many, but I love the reflection of the setting sun on the lightly crusted snow...and I get a sense that the orchard is waiting, dreaming of spring flowers, honey bees and apples to come.

And below is our intrepid shovel man! He HAD to "hewp shovl like Chet and Robbie" during our Valentine's Day storm.
And last but not least, a beaming Robbie, who was overjoyed that it finally snowed enough for him to take a few runs on his sled ... after he shoveled his share of the driveway.

IT SNOWED!

Finally, at long, l-o-n-g last we got some real snow. Okay, it was mixed with sleet at times so we only got 6 inches, but boy we've waited a long time for some fun in the snow. We had a wee bit, like 3 or 4 inches maybe about 3 weeks ago and that's it! Some winter in New England, eh?

This is our brook, just prior to the storm...it's been pretty cold here, and the brook froze solid, which has been a source of neverending explorations for Robbie. In some places it was 3" thick!

Well, now that it's snowed, I'm ready! We had a flock of Robins in the yard today, poor dears. If they are here, this means Spring is just around the corner...snow today, crocus tomorrow!!

A gift from Auntie Diana!

Oh What Fun! We got new socks from Auntie Diana in Michigan where they know from cold weatha, don'tchaknow! Aren't they spectacular? They go with all her outfits, which are not, despite rumors to the contrary, all pink. Nope, I can honestly say that she has 2 yellow outfits, one aqua green outfit, and um...oh yeah, all the rest are pink. She might still fit into her purple sweat pants, but it's doubtful since she has now topped out at 13 pounds!

Thank You Auntie Diana!! We'll have warm feet that are way stylin'!!

Wordplay, M, N, O...P?

In the interest of catching up, I'm going to post smaller entries to multiple letters...I hate leaving things undone...so here goes...

...M is for Momma, aka MumMum, and MOM-EEEE, all 3 names I have from KC, with mummum being my favorite

Man...my eldest son is a Man, while Rob is nearly a 'tween, and KC is still a wee laddie

Moon...I love the Moon, have many memories as a young tween myself, hanging out my bedroom window midsummer trying to catch a glimpse of her. My two youngest children were bathed in full moon light the night we came home (and isn't that a kewl coincidence? full moons when both kids came home?)

Mom ... my Mom, who will be gone 11 years this March, who I miss so much, but who I see manifest herself in things I do for my kids

Money...sometimes I wish we had more, but we have enough to get by and that is okay.

Modeling clay...don't you love squishing this stuff? Making up things from your head that your hands complete and voila! something exists that didn't, before

N is for..

New...new children, new day, new possibilities, new foods, new. I like new. But I also am very connected to "old" stuff, too.

Noodles...love 'em

Nancy, my beloved Aunt, my mom's sister. She was so 'hip' when I was a teen and would go up to visit her on the north shore area of Mass. I'd whine, and help work in her garden. I never realized how much she taught me about being healthy, being organic, and making a gentle footstep on this earth until I was *ahem* in my 40's! I *always* knew how cool she was, though!

Naked. I sleep this way every night, no matter how cold it gets. I only wear jammies when I am desperately ill. Naked is good.

O is for...

Oranges, which will be horridly expensive on the east coast here, but I have a new recipe for orange marmalade which I must try!

Oprah...I respect her but nearly never watch her show

Open...part of a ditty we do at children's story hour at the library, "open shut them"...which is KC's favorite rhyme

optimistic...working on that one

optometrist...yay for them, they caught Robbies glaucoma early and this early treatment will help preserve his eyesight as he ages in later life

Oven...something I could not live without long term

Olive oil...so good for you, I use it in everything.

P is for...

Provincetown, we hope to go back here again See pic at top of list for a nice P-town shot

Pie...make a good crust, I do, but I'm not a big fan of pie, myself

persnickity...I love this word! it describes me well, just ask my family!

persimmon...what the heck is this? a berry ? a fruit? a Sherwin Williams paint color?

Public...glad my job is not dealing with 'them' anymore, lol!

pubic...when my eldest first got hair there, he called it public hair which sent us into gales of laughter, poor kid!

pools...like to swim in them sometimes but prefer the ocean or a lake

pancakes...oh, yum! 'specially Swedish pancakes like my mother made

I'm Ba--aaaa--ck!

Wowsa, what a busy fall and Holiday season. Here's a major reason why Moonsinger wasn't singin' online...

This is Elisabeth, all dolled up in her "girlie" dress, courtesy of Auntie Lynne! She is 7 weeks old in this picture, and she came home to our family on 12/19/06.
It was an unexpected blessing to have a new baby in the house the week before Christmas! We'd just been told about 10 days prior that we'd likely be linked to a birthmom in the late winter or early spring 2007, when suddenly she was born and her birthmom wasn't linked to any other prospective parents. Wow! It was an adventure getting our family of 5 to Chicago in less than 24 hours, but we did it. Stayed at the Residence Inn in downtown Chicago, and we highly recommend them! The staff was wonderful and accomodated our every need.
We managed to get home after some snaffu at the airport...they would not let us on the plane because their regs stated a baby had to be 10 days old and Elisabeth was just 5 days old...so we thankfully had not yet turned in our rental van, and we went and resigned the paperwork so we could go out of state, hopped back into the van and took our new family of 6 on a 19.5 hour oddessy, driving from Chicago's Midway airport, back to central Massachusetts. We made it, obviously, despite the two older boys having a contest to see who could stay up the latest . I napped at rest areas while people had pee and coffee breaks, and actually drank a coffee myself but boy it kept me going at 3 a.m!
As I get more caught up, I'll post more pictures, but let me add one more, from our hotel room in Chicago, between the buildings that's Lake Michigan!

Wordplay, L is for...

Lambs, they truly gambol about in the spring!(this one was born at Wachusett Meadow Audubon Sanctuary, in Princeton MA in early April)
Love, the biggest L of them all...and Lee, the Love of my Life...
Lynne, my Little sister, another love...
Lights at holiday time, something I look forward to seeing but not putting up (those dratted extension cords!!)
Living room, one of the most under-utilized rooms in my home, the kitchen should really be called the living room as we spend so much time there...
Lancaster, the next town over where my son got his first job at age 20 and I'm so proud of him...
Leominster...the city I reside in, but not the place of my dreams, still not bad for a city of 45,000 residents. We have a Lovely home, and a nice yard for the kids.......
Land in Maine, where I want to retire to, someday, with a smallish house and a sewing room all my own and enough room for 2 or 3 Irish setters...
Labels...sometimes I do, sometimes I don't
Lucky...in love, in joy-factor, in my family...ya, I'm lucky!
Limo...never been in one!
Lime, a wonderful color. My smallest size jeans so far are lime green.
Lentils, what we had for dinner tonight! yummy and sooo good for you!
Limerick, one of my favorite kinds of poems,
Licorice...yuk. 'nuf said.
Limber,,,something I've never been, really.
Loons...I remember the first time I heard them, on a lake in New Hampshire (not Golden Pond! but near there)
Lions...ya, I love those big furry kitties.
Limp...with fatigue...time to go to bed!

Wordplay, K is for...

Since I'm working on keeping up my blogging, I had better get going on my Wordplay obligations! I'm so far behind that ...well, enough of that...let's get on with my favorite letter in the alphabet...

KC...my special wee lad...he's growing up so fast!

K- I just love the way a cursive K looks on paper. Especially expensive paper. And done in calligraphy

Kirsty- well, there'd be no moonsinging blog without her, right, lol!?!

Kooky--something I am always being accused of...and so what if I am?

Kinky-now, you may enjoy kinky stuff, and I will confess to seeing some (can you believe what you can see on the internet for FREE?) and I confess to trying to not be like my mom and be a prude at 47. I'm not particularly comfortable discussing kinky things, but still I think many of us are curious about it.

Kittens...it;s been a long time since I had a kitten. I love them. and when they grow up to become Kats, I love 'em too...but there's something innately fun about having a kitten. Or two. or...

Kale...we've gotten a ton of kale in our CSA farm boxes this year. You can do alot of things with Kale, including freezing it so you can deal with it later and not become overwhelmed by it. But it's good, and good for you, and great with farm fresh eggs...mmmmmm!

Kirk, Captain, leader of the first Enterprise (not counting Christopher Pike, you Trekkers who will quickly correct me!) we saw on tv. To Boldly Go...my oh my, I had a thing for him...

Kill Bill...someday I'll see the movie. Until then I'll just be intrigued by the clips I see now and then.

Kiss...I love giving and getting kisses.

Ken, Lee's stepdad, is 93 and having a hard time with the daily grind. Still, he was pretty good the last time we saw him, and although getting frailer, still had much to contribute to our conversation...and we wish him many more !

Kringle, Chris...oh, one ofmy favorite Xmas specials, right up there with Rudolph!

KC and the Sunshine Band...that's the way, uh huh uh huh, I like it, uh huh uh huh!

Kool aid...many fond memories of Mom making Kool aid for my sister and I when we were little.

...and finally....Keepsake Quilting....need I say more?

Summer's Last Hurrah

It's been nearly a month since my last blog update, and since I last wrote, we've been camping 3 times! We just got back a few hours ago from what was our final camping expedition of the 2006 summer season. We've explored our wee state from one corner to another, from Cape Cod to the Berkshires. Our last two campouts,however, were within 15 miles of each other, in Old Orchard Beach and Ferry Beach (Saco), Maine.

Our kids love camping as much as Lee and I do, accepting heavy morning dew which drips on their head as they wake up, sand in their sleeping bags, which is my personal bane (ugh, shudder), and tree frogs singing the night away. We've had rainy days and hiked anyway, sunny days to play in surf and sand, hot days and cold nights. More importantly, we've had time off from the regular day to day ' stuff ' that seems so important when it's there in your face, but, once freed from the restrictions of day to day living, seem so trivial. Who cares if you rememberd to go to the bank when you can watch a spider wrap up its meal over by the pine tree? I wish that every day could be spent watching spiders and dragonflies, smelling pine trees and ocean air, seeing the Milky Way in the dark night sky at the ocean's edge, and the calling of tree frogs. But life does come back to reality, to laundry and phone calls and tidying and banking and all the other work that gets left behind when we head off to explore, pulling our trusty camper behind us.

So, here we are, home again, tired in body, but restored in spirit. I finally feel that I'm ready for Autumn, for our many tree's colorful transition to their resting time, for raking leaves and trick-or-treating, for pumpkin and apple picking, and all the rest! But I've promised myself that I'll look for those spider webs in the bushes, do more than simply glance at the sky when I hang out that last load of wash after dark but really take a few minutes to look in awe at all those worlds up there, and smell the wonderful scents of autumn. And that's a resolution that I plan on keeping!

Wordplay, J is for...

Jars and Jars of freshly preserved peaches which I will so enjoy opening in the winter
Jam, which was also freshly made this summer
Jingle...the sound of coins in one's pocket, or Santa's reindeer bridle bells
Joan Jett..I love rocknroll, put another quarter in the Juke box, baby!
Jump...KC's favorite mode of moving from place to place these days
Jumpers, my favorite kind of dresses when I was in my 20's
Jungle Gym...we have one but Rob never plays on it, sigh.
July.. love going to the beach, 4th celebrations, hate the deep humid heat
June...a wonderful month...full of getting-there gardens, warm days and cool evenings, the first day of summer, beginning of the camping season
Jupiter...wish I had more time for stargazing
Jupiter II...from Lost in Space, I always wanted to take a ride in it
Jangles..the sound of wearing many bracelets together
January...new year, absolute darkness at the start of the month so early in the day, with a gradual, noticible lightening by the end of the month, stark contrasts of white snow and dark limbs, cold breath from the north and west, and the amazing
January thaw...that gives hope that spring *will* come back!
and I'm sure there are a Jillion more that I'll think of when I'm done!