Bunny Pajamas

When we were teaching at the weekend workshop in California in mid-January, I had no fewer than three people ask me, in the course of twenty-four hours, if I was planning to have more children.  (Side note: Why does everyone ask me but not Jared, since we are both *stuck* being parents for the rest of our lives?)  Anyway, to two of these friendly inquiries I answered very honestly: "I don't know."  To the third questioner, my very dear friend Beth, I answered in greater detail: "I'd LOVE to!  But I'm not sure there is room in my house, my car, my budget, or my schedule."  Her husband waved his hand dismissively, and replied thoughtfully: "Oh, that's all the stuff you figure out later."  He is right, of course.  I have two children, and you just figure out how to make what seems impossible work.

Incidentally I was feeling a bit odd that evening, which I very reasonably attributed to a tofu overdose on account of an excess of SoCal restaurant food during the trip.  It wasn't until a week or two later, in between two bouts of actual food poisoning, that I discovered I was pregnant.  I was, of course, surprised and elated for about three days.  But then my rational mind kicked in.  When I was at the doctor again for lab work due to another unrelated illness and was prescribed a super expensive antibiotic compatible with pregnancy, I felt the doctor's congratulations on expecting rang quite hollow.  I know all too well that being six weeks pregnant means almost nothing, because the statistical risk of miscarriage does not even take its first drop until after seven or eight weeks.

Now we are well past the part where one feels exhausted all the time as well as simultaneously sick and hungry.  And not yet to the part where one is constantly aching and can't get comfortable enough to sleep.  At seventeen weeks we seem to have a healthy and VERY active little person in there, who is expected to join our family the first week of October.

Date Minutes

Other Americans put their kids to bed early, and then the parents may potentially have time to talk like adults.  That has almost never worked for us due to: 1) our late night teaching schedule and 2) our daughter with an almost insatiable fear of missing out.  Last weekend we were driving home from church at the end of a long day there, and we suggested to Anne that the drive was going to be very boring and there would be lots of traffic, so she might just take a little snooze.

"But I'll still be asleep when you park."

-"I'll wake you up."

"If I'm asleep, DON'T DO ANYTHING FUN."

-"Don't worry.  We will absolutely not do anything fun."

But she didn't sleep nonetheless.

When I mentioned Americans putting their kids to bed early to Anita, and then having time for themselves, she said, "Except you have to keep putting them to bed."  So then I felt better about it.

Now that we have two kids, and they have gotten really good at interacting (aka feeding off each other), and by our late night dinner times everyone is exhausted... I understand what my cousin used to say about the "goat rodeo" when her two children were young.  I cannot get them into the shower fast enough after we eat!

They are very happy in the shower, and the adults use that time to clean the cat boxes, clean the dishes, find the bedroom under the detritus of one day, scrub the food off the dining room floor, and some evenings to vacuum the house in case the children haven't gotten out of bed before the upcoming 10:00 am lessons.

But lately we've instituted something even better: date minutes.  Some people have date night.  We do that a few times a year when we have tickets to a concert.  Of course, it gets inconvenient and spendy really fast (in addition to being wonderful!)  So now we sit on the sofa for five minutes (I set the timer) and chat (or not) like mature human beings.  And sometimes we keep sitting for another five or seven minutes after the timer goes off.  The kids can take a really long shower usually quite happily.  (For those of you worried about their safety, they are making plenty of noise in there, so we would know immediately if anything goes wrong, and also, the sofa is about five feet from the curtain to the bathroom (see below.)

Anyway, after the kids are fully bathed and have splashed way too much water around the bathroom, and I have gotten them dressed, they are usually happy to sit quietly in the bedroom and look at some books for a few minutes while their parents finish evening preparations before lights out.

The Accidental Gardener Sunday Edition

On Sunday, I ended up clearing out a bit more of the space in the garden box and planting some of our herbs which have been potted for years.

I also planted our second, smaller rosemary shrub which has been potted for many years into the ground by the first.  And surprisingly, it is blooming for the first time, too.  I don't know why.

Along with Anita's herb demolition, it turns out there were several shrubs up for grabs, so I drove down to her house and picked up three rhododendrons, an azalea, and a mature forsythia.  I don't know how well they will survive their transplants, as all but the azalea were cut back to almost nothing, but here's to hoping...

I put two of the rhodies in the gap in our front yard hedge row in hopes that some day they may hide the neighbor-across-the-street's junk yard.  Which you can't see in this picture as I judiciously angled it to avoid the broken down truck and motorcycles and equipment in the one-upon-a-time-tarped-over car port-like-object.

The third rhodie, which was the least promising, I put in front of the front bedroom windows where the dirt is more fertile, not having been disturbed by the sewer repair.  Maybe it will grow.

The azalea went in front of the hydrangea-turned tree, which I dead-headed shortly thereafter.  It gets sun in the afternoon, so it might be happy there.  It had a nice lot of roots and leaves when it went in the ground.

Lastly I put the forsythia next to the two rosemarys in the back yard.  I think it should do well, despite being mostly stump right now.

I have been rather enjoying accidental scavenger gardening.  I guess it's how I acquire furniture and kid items, too...

The Accidental Gardener

When I was younger I remember both my parents enjoying a novel titled The Accidental Tourist.  I have never read it, but today I became The Accidental Gardener.

As spring has come upon us, I have enjoyed seeing the scraps of old landscaping blooming in our yard.  None of it has been tended to much in some time, so it is a bit unruly and random.

The first to appear was this lone hyacinth along the fence with our neighbor.  I assume it was an escapee bulb from something they once had planted on the other side.

Soon afterward, we got a lone daffodil in the front yard.  It is a very frilly, all-yellow variety.  There were once more bulbs out there I'm sure, but the major and necessary sewer repair disrupted about half the front yard.

A week or so later this one red tulip appeared to keep the daffodil company.

And just today I've seen a second...

We now have a mass of these lovely little things getting started along the front of the house in the sector unaffected by the sewer line.  Can anyone tell me what they're called?

And our little, unpruned front tree is in full, pink bloom.  It had some dry red berries on it when we first bought the place, so I thought it must flower.  But when all the flowering trees were going wild, it was just growing new leaves, so I began to think it was a less exciting variety.  But right now it is beautiful!

I finally decided this odd little tree by the front corner of the house is a well-trained hydrangea.  It was looking so dry, I was wondering if it was dead, but this week little green leaf pairs have appeared.  I need to find out whether to dead head the old stuff.

This large rosemary shrub has moved with us twice in this pot since we bought it back in Birmingham, and this is the first time I've ever seen it flower.  I have seen other people's rosemary blooming, and I had assumed it was some other variety.  However, I have been proved wrong.  My poor, hardy shrub has outgrown its container living space.  

...I had been thinking a little here and there about what to do with the yard, but I have not been in any hurry, as there is a lot of other stuff to think about, too.  For several years I've known that if I ever had a house here in Washington, I'd want some forsythia.  Yesterday morning when I was out on my walk, I saw a nice little stand of forsythia that had been weed-whacked by the sidewalk on an empty lot.  Having heard that they are basically indestructible, and that you can just stuff a branch in the ground and it will grow, I picked the lot up, brought them home, trimmed the weed-whacked ends, and stood them in a bucket full of water.

Today, I went out and planted them, along with the flowering rosemary in the back corner of the back yard.  I plan at some point to put in one small tree.  It might be an apple tree, and this is the corner where it would go.  I want to keep most of the back yard open and ready for playing in the sun when we get any.  You can't tell, but I put in seven potential forsythia shrubs.  We'll see if the rumors are correct.

Also, I got an email from Anita yesterday before we headed over to her house to teach, that on Friday they were bulldozing a lot of their front yard for new landscaping, and if we wanted any of the herbs from out there, she'd be happy to send us home with a box or two of them.  Of course, I can't pass up on a good salvage opportunity (see forsythia above), so I brought some home.  After I planted what I hope will be some long-lasting shrubs this afternoon, I debated where to put the herbs.  I eventually decided to dig up an end of the garden box which the former residents left and plant them in there.  The box was all tenacious grass and weeds, save for some volunteer spearmint, which you can see I left alone in my digging.  I lined the edge of the dug-up part with a few brick pieces left from our chimney demolition.

Anita's herbs are acclimating to their new home: lambs ear, lemon balm, oregano, and fennel.

Earlier in the week I had no plans to do any yard work, but Thursday was full of plant scavenging, so my landscaping has gotten an accidental start.

Music Week

Most weeks here are music weeks, of course.  However, there is a lot of extra music this coming week.

Saturday afternoon Jared and I are playing for the memorial service of an older lady from our church.  The music isn't finalized yet, but there is likely 20 minutes of gathering music in the form of Handel Violin and Continuo Sonatas, a hymn loved by the lady's husband, and a postlude likely consisting of the slow movement of one of the Bach Violin Concerti.

Tuesday evening our Gig Harbor students are playing a recital on Fox Island.  We have the code to get into the building this time if there is any issue with the man who opens it up.  Last time we had to turn around our parade of minivans and return to the Gig Harbor house and have an impromptu recital in the living room.  I will be accompanying two Twinkle Variations, Bach Musette, von Weber Hunter's Chorus, Bohemian Folk Song, Bach Gavotte in D Major, Vivaldi Concerto in A Minor - mov. 3, and Handel Sonata in F - movs. 1&2 on the violin.  I'm also accompanying Bach Minuet 3, Cluck Old Hen, and Bohm Introduction & Polonaise (this last one with some trepidation) on the keyboard.  I get to listen to another Twinkle and another Hunter's Chorus, along with a Leopold Mozart Menuet & Trio for string trio and a movement of another lovely Vivaldi Concerto, both of which I coached, while managing Lazarus.

Thursday evening my accompanying load at the gorgeous retirement home in Auburn is much lighter thanks to lots of intermediate and advanced students requiring us to hire a professional pianist.  I'll be playing Haesche's Marguerite Waltz and Schumann's Two Grenadiers on piano, plus Bach's Minuet 3 and Handel's Bourree on violin, as well as joining the group playing a Minuet & Trio from an Albrechtsberger String Quartet.  Other than that I get to sit and listen (I mean... chase children and listen.)  There is music by Gretry, Wieniawski, Corelli, Kreisler, Saint-Saens, Prokofiev, Samartini, Eccles, Scriabin, Bartok, J.C. Bach, Haydn, Dohnanyi, and more, of course.  Mrs. Knight will be contributing several numbers from her studio.

The following Sunday we have our longest recital.  I will play Vallet Theme & Variations, Bach Minuets, Bach Gavotte in G Minor, and another Handel Bourree in violin duet format, plus Elgar's Nimrod in viola duet format.  I am also half the orchestra for the first and last movements of the Vivaldi Concerto in A Minor. (Jared is the other half.)  Other than that I get to listen (and guard the snack tables from maurading children.)  There is will be music by Kabalevsky, Bohm, more Vivaldi, Borowski, Stravinsky, Kreisler, more Bach, Massanet, the Butterfly Lovers Concerto, Chopin, Gassman, Beethoven, von Weber, Handel, and of course, more, including some more contributions from Mrs. Knight and her students.

All of these events come with set up and tear down, a potluck snack time afterward, making sure everyone gets tuned, and the help of my wonderful program maker.  I send her the info, and she makes them cute, prints them out, and delivers them to me.

Also, not musical, but next (not the coming one) weekend we get Jared's parents here to help us with some installations - a new back door on the house and some of our baseboards which Jared has been painting in the garage.  On Friday there is a small drive for a doctor's appointment in Issaquah.  And rumor has it my sandbox builder is ready to start digging almost any day now.  I think Anne will be happy to go out and help him: he was impressed with all the digging she has already done in the yard!

And of course, nearly not worth a mention, are the usual 32-ish lessons and Wednesday morning Bible study.  That pretty much sums up the coming week.

Texas, finally

Where I left off in the previous post, we had missed our flight to Texas.  They had offered us a red-eye leaving about 5 1/2 hours later to JFK, followed by a morning flight from JFK to Austin, arriving Sunday around 1:00 pm.  We declined.  We took our same scheduled flight one day later.  No red-eye with two four-hour flights and two little kids for me when we could go home, party with Jeff, and come back the following evening.

Sadly this shortened our five-day Texas trip to four days.  But we packed it in.

I was not particularly methodical about picture taking, so you are going to get a lot of randoms.  Quality varies a lot. 

Today we are back home.  Kids are playing in the back alley with Jared while we are all holding out for afternoon nap time.

My parents put together quite the nice little 5th birthday party for Anne with balloons, dinner, a huge pile of fun presents, and strawberry shortcake.

Anne shows Emily and Morgan her new dishes for eating on her back porch table.

Lazarus puts on his new kitty ears and makes himself cozy by the fireplace.

Doing rocket balloons with Justin in front of GG's bottle tree and bottle bushes

Hill country spring in full bloom

Another fun gift - slime!

Snack time in the front yard with GG

Anne attempts surfing in the wading pool on the back deck.

Lazarus follows the neighbor's chickens around the front yard.

GG loves rocks and likes to arrange them.  Each rock has a story.

Play dough!

Front yard swing

When the stench of the dead deer in the yard, combined with the squabbling of nature's janitors (buzzards) got to be too much, we went for a lovely warm evening to the playground in town.  It was the most fuss-free three hours of the trip.  Score!

5

Friday we invited some old and new neighbors to smack a pinata in our back yard in honor of Anne's birthday.  It was a lot of fun!

Saturday afternoon, the actual birthday, after church, we went to the airport to fly (the kids and I, that is) to Texas for a quick visit.  Let's just say there's a reason that I've consolidated all my flying to Alaska Airlines or Southwest.  However, we were on Delta because the price looked so good.  Delta errors at the airport caused us to miss our flight.  We never even made it to the security line before the flight closed.  (We were not late to the airport.) 

Delta gave the kids airplane backpacks, which they wore running up and down the hallway while waiting for a ride home.

Meanwhile, Jared had gone up snowshoeing at Snoqualmie, so we were looking for a ride.  After a while, Jeff came through for us, and we ended up with an impromptu gathering at our house... Hot chocolate, Jeff teaching Anne to play chess, and some impromptu vegetable curry thrown together out of the ingredients I could find in the cupboard with pineapple for dessert.

Anyway, the girl is 5 now, and the boy is 19 months today.  He gets more fun every day.  And he is still really cuddly.  And busy climbing everything!  He has had an explosion of new vocabulary in the last two weeks.  "Please," "thank you," "up," "car," and "wheel," to name a few.