Stealth cat

Stealth cat hides from the bothersome sunlight. (This is Angel.)

Sad news -- Stacy-kitty passed away last Thursday. She had developed an oral cancer, and faded over a period of four or five weeks. I waited as long as I could, but it was time to let her go. I held her and sang to her and snuggled her and told her how lucky I was to know her, and I am utterly certain that she was happy when she went, and that going was a mercy.

Angel, who forever denied loving Stacy, and always acted so aloof.... really seems to miss her. She now insists that I spend at least 20 minutes loving on her before bed, and will chase down children to get them to pet her. She pinned Willow in her bed the other day (Angel is no small cat) and insisted that she pay undivided attention to her. She even (**GASP**) SHARES PERSONAL SPACE WITH THE DOG NOW.

The children told me we need a new cat.

I told them no.

:)

Pipedream

I've had a little pipedream about small-farm life for years now. Well, really, as long as I can remember, it's been there. (Along with a few friends, like the "grade school teacher" dream, the "famous fiction writer" dream, and the "entrepreneur" dream.)

This dream has crept its way into my life over the years. The gardens get bigger and bigger. The dreams get bigger with them. The Christmas presents that come in Mason Jars get more and more plentiful.

This year, just to indulge my own pipe dream, I'm taking this class:

http://central.illinoisfarmbeginnings.org/farm_dreams/about.aspx

(and likely, I'll take the whole series of courses.)

I can't wait! It's a really neat program, for people like me... big dreams, a (very small) pocketful of knowledge, a love of dirt, a passion for plants, and a remarkable ability to bite off more than I can chew...

I'm pretty excited.

Made me laugh...

I'm still laughing about this.

If you have time, go see this:


http://www.wimp.com/classicbloopers/

Forts and Go Karts and Gardens, Oh My!

We've been very, very busy lately.

I've painted my bedroom, and the boys' bedroom, and done a lot of regular spring cleaning. We're having a neighborhood garage sale on Saturday, and whatever is left is going straight to goodwill! It'll be freeing to park in the garage again.

While I was doing all this painting and sorting, the kids were home for their spring break, as well.... which was just a BLAST. I really got to enjoy them up close and personal all week, and I also got to watch them just play, unstructured, in the backyard. There was a major digging operation that ended in a mud fight and what looks like a giant dinosaur footprint in the yard.

They also had fort time:

And one day, it rained, so Gideon dressed for all possibilities:

We started some sunflowers in little pots for them to watch:

There's a cute story to those -- We planted three cups, one for each child. Gideon really, really wanted his to sprout RIGHT NOW, and so he would "check on them" a few times a day. Which sometimes involved shaking them, and other times poking.





His, sadly, didn't sprout. But God Bless my dad, who had a whole pot of sunflowers sprouting in his yard -- I took three of those sprouts and transplanted them quickly into Gideon's cup. I showed them to him the next day, and he was SO EXCITED. He ran to tell Glen and Willow -- "Gwen!! (Ls still come out as "w") Wiwwow! Mine GWOWED!! It GWOWED!".





Some days, I get to win. :)





Then I spent some stretches of time out at the Chateau getting everything ready for the year. My dad came and ran the tiller for me -- It was enlightening watching him run it. I learned all the tricks that I was missing the last few times I ran it. Next time will be much easier! I got in beets, carrots, turnips, radishes, and separated garlic and onions, in addition to the other soil preparations. The whole time, the kids just played and played.





Glen got to "invent" with anything he could find laying around, and he made a go-kart!

It was pretty awesome.

All in all, it's been a great, rewarding, and productive few weeks. I think it's going to be a good year.

Some Days....

Today, I stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom, water running, and I went to button the last button on my pants.

And the button popped right off.

And fell into the running water.

And went down the drain before I could catch it.




Some days, I swear. Like a sailor.

Eso Si Que Es.

I haven't updated in a while. Wow, that's a shocker, right? :)

Some of that is just because we're busy, but some of that stems from some troubles we've been having. But I hope that to some extent posting about it might help to quell the silly little rumor mill.

Larry and I have separated.

I'm not going to post the reasons why. Those are between Larry and I, and frankly not public business.

We are working on things. We are trying our hardest. The children are of the utmost importance, and are being very well cared for and loved, by both of us, and by both our entire families.

I would appreciate it deeply if other people didn't attempt to assign blame. If we aren't doing it, then certainly no one else has any business doing it, either. Such situations are never entirely the fault of one or the other person. There's plenty of blame to go around, but who is so pure as to assign that blame and spread awful gossip about it?

It has bothered me how much other people whisper. In response to a particularly hurtful and malicious rumor, there has been no infidelity. As if that was anyone's business anyway.

If you are concerned, and want to help, then the best thing you can do is just keep us in your thoughts, or your prayers if you are inclined to praying. Wish us both patience and understanding.

But don't spend even one moment blaming him, or blaming me. That kind of talk is pointless, and will hurt the children, one way or another.

On top of it.

Wow.



It's entirely possible that I don't update this often enough.


So Welcome to December!


I took down the Halloween decorations last night, which is a step forward. It snowed this morning, and we realized suddenly that I have NO IDEA where Glen's snow pants are. So he wore my 'snowsuit' to school. It's crazy big, but at least he won't have to be the kid who can't go play in the snow.... which is good.


Since I haven't updated since... hmm.... August ... well, there are lots of pictures to share! I'll do a few now, and more later. There's been too much between then and now to even try covering it all, so I'll take a page from Kerouac and ramble like a madman. :)


I got to take a trip to Denver all by mahself, and I proceeded to read four novels straight while there.


I started really increasing running mileage, and joined a running group training for a 10 mile race, but then added too much too soon and now have an ouchy knee. I'm working with it to slowly get back up to 24/25 miles per week.


I quit the paper route Nov. 1, which hasn't helped the weekly mileage -- I resolve strongly to get back to it this week, and add one or two miles each week until I'm back up to where I was in October.


I started taking voice lessons and have been enjoying the heck out of it. What fun!


The cleaning lady came today, and I can't wait to go home and revel in it. ( I spent the whole weekend putting crap away so she could do her job...)


Larry was in several shows this year. My favorite was one about the women in Lincoln's life, out at the Theatre in the Park. He played several different characters and was really great in each of them. He's doing a student-directed play at UIS now, and has some exciting opportunities coming up that are going to be really fun to watch.


Fealty (our recorder consort) accompanied "Shakespeare Shorts", and it was a really cool experience.


We took the kids to Rockbridge, MO this year for Thanksgiving instead of doing the Feast of Plenty (Us, the kids, and my parents all went), and it was a genuinely wonderful experience. Outdoors, hills, stars, streams, rainbow trout, family.... ahhh.


Enough with the words. I'm sure I left out.. well, nearly everything. :)

From the August McDaniel Family visit:

from the Heroes Run for Hope (5-miler, fundraiser for the Marrow Donor Registry)(yes, I'm wearing a cape):

Gideon was too tired to climb the stairs at Gramma's. He just went to sleep right where he was:

I got new Specs, too!

I'll add more when I'm at the other computer, for it seems that's where I've stored them all!!