Monday, May 15, 2006
Weekend Ups & Downs
First off, we're pretty much back to health. Nearly a full week of snot-induced whininess and clinginess is enough to make me cry "uncle!". I was *this close* to demanding to spend Mother's Day completely away from the kids. But then you see them sleeping, or they give you an unexpected tttiiiiigghhhtttt hug to show you how much they love you, or they work extra-hard at coloring a picture just for you, and all is forgiven.
YARD WORK IS BEST HIRED OUT
Saturday was spent working in the yard. What's new. We're always working on something at the house. But the weather has been unbelievably gorgeous and just begs for you to spend time outdoors, so yard work it was. Let me say that I'm not a fan of yard work. I don't mind doing some - helping out - from time to time, but really digging into the dirt and gardening is not my most favorite activity. I love how a cared-for yard looks and appreciate what it takes to maintain it, but I don't want to be the one to do that work. I just want to enjoy it's beauty, not create it. Our front yard is being choked to death by huge, gigantic weeds. Mr. Chick has already hacked, er - I mean pruned - the shrubbery a lot, but more will be done after everything finishes blooming. Our yard is sloped some and there is a retaining wall rising maybe 3 feet tall from the sidewalk. From the retaining wall ledge there is a 6-7 foot deep planting bed. This is where the majority of the weeds are. There are several smaller bushes, like azalea, and a beautiful small flowering tree. The previous owners had a "natural" garden (aka they didn't do anything and let it go completely wild, according to neighbors), so it's hard to tell, to a non-gardener novice like myself, what is weed and what is intentional plant. To me, unless it's a bush, it ALL looks like weeds. I like my garden spaces to look tidy and orderly, so I went through and took out everything that looked like a weed. Well almost. There were a few things I could tell were plants of some sort, and I left those. It took me HOURS and a big shovel to do this, and I'm only 2/3's done. I took out a big ugly fern and filled our curbside yard debris container. That's why I had to stop when I did - no more room for the weeds in the bin. But it looks much better already. Now you can SEE the bushes and the edge of the grass is delineated from the flower bed. Once I'm completely finished we'll throw down some anti-germinating chemicals (organic? ha! I'm all about better living through chemistry, be it medicines or gardening.) and then bring in some bark to finish it off.
THE SLICIN' & DICIN' HOTTUB
While I was breaking my back with the shovel waging war on the weeds, the kids were enthralled with the worms I would find. This was good, dirty fun. So when the work was done for the day we hosed the kids down and then tossed them into the hottub to complete the washing cycle. Only we didn't know that danger lurked in the churning waters of the hottub. It seems the night before Mr. Chick violated a cardinal rule of hottubs: no glass in or around the spa. He enjoyed a cocktail in the tub and forgot to bring in his glass. Somehow, it broke IN THE TUB. We think it on the edge of the tub and when we put the cover back on it broke. So imagine our horror when all of sudden Lauren starts shrieking and the water starts turning shades of pink. She holds up her foot and it's all bloody. We couldn't figure out what happened. I'm tending to her cut (it's pretty deep and is a vertical slice on the ball of her foot in the middle and curves up to cut under one of her toes. We debated taking her in for stitches but decided against it.) while we make Nicholas get out of the hottub and Mr. Chick starts trying to unravel the mystery of what caused the cut. It takes him only a minute to find the glass - all broken and jagged, and 10+ more minutes of painstakingly finding ALL the shards. He blames himself and feels terrible. Lauren stopped screaming and crying in short order and applying direct pressure got most of the bleeding to stop. The cut is in such an awkward spot it's hard to put a proper bandage on it. We had to go get some butterfly sutures to help keep it closed, and she's got yards of medical adhesive tape wrapping the front half of her foot to keep the sterile pad in place. She looks like a participant of the ancient practice of Chinese Foot Binding. But her injury hasn't slowed her down at all and she's running and jumping around, much to my chagrin, as much as ever. She'll be fine.
MOTHER'S DAY
Again, a gorgeous day. I got to take my time getting up in the morning and took a leisurely shower without an audience. Always a plus. Mr. Chick and the kids gave me a funny, touching card and we had plans to go out to breakfast (which turned into brunch we had to wait so long for a table). It was a good day because 1) my hair cooperated and I actually liked how it looked. Damn good, in case you were wondering. 2) I was able to take the time to apply my make-up the way make-up should be applied. And I was happy with how I looked. My normally haggard appearance was now polished and I cleaned up very nicely. 3) my outfit was not only comfortable but figure-flattering. That doesn't happen often in my world, so I was digging it. When you feel like you look good, you actually do, in fact, look good. And I was feeling it. Plus, my rack was totally on display and looking good. Gravity-defying good. I didn't look like a frumpy mom yesterday. I looked like a hottie mom, and I liked it. Good hair, good face, good rack. What's not to like?
We went to my sisters' house after brunch for a small family celebration. My oldest nephew made his First Communion yesterday and we were celebrating this milestone. And oh yeah, Mother's Day. I made my mom a pretty cool basket and filled it with flowers. It was made from crocheting heavy-duty jute twine. It was a shallow long rectangle, like a bread basket. Which she could totally use it for. I was happy with how it came out and didn't take me long to make. Just something quick and easy. I'd never used jute before, so it was fun for me to experiment with a new material like that. Hard on the hands, though. Very rough.
MY REAL GIFTS
And later, when we got home, Mr. Chick worked more on the house (will it ever end??) and had his shirt off (eye-candy for me - I'll consider that Mother's Day gift #2 - breakfast was #1) and was dealing with the kids outside as well so I could put my feet up and spend some lazy time reading my book (a great one called Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult). I got over an hour of lazy R&R time IN MY OWN HOUSE WITHOUT KIDS HASSLING ME. (Mother's Day gift #3). And I got to finish the day with some private time with my sexy husband (Mother's Day gift #4). A most excellent day.
YARD WORK IS BEST HIRED OUT
Saturday was spent working in the yard. What's new. We're always working on something at the house. But the weather has been unbelievably gorgeous and just begs for you to spend time outdoors, so yard work it was. Let me say that I'm not a fan of yard work. I don't mind doing some - helping out - from time to time, but really digging into the dirt and gardening is not my most favorite activity. I love how a cared-for yard looks and appreciate what it takes to maintain it, but I don't want to be the one to do that work. I just want to enjoy it's beauty, not create it. Our front yard is being choked to death by huge, gigantic weeds. Mr. Chick has already hacked, er - I mean pruned - the shrubbery a lot, but more will be done after everything finishes blooming. Our yard is sloped some and there is a retaining wall rising maybe 3 feet tall from the sidewalk. From the retaining wall ledge there is a 6-7 foot deep planting bed. This is where the majority of the weeds are. There are several smaller bushes, like azalea, and a beautiful small flowering tree. The previous owners had a "natural" garden (aka they didn't do anything and let it go completely wild, according to neighbors), so it's hard to tell, to a non-gardener novice like myself, what is weed and what is intentional plant. To me, unless it's a bush, it ALL looks like weeds. I like my garden spaces to look tidy and orderly, so I went through and took out everything that looked like a weed. Well almost. There were a few things I could tell were plants of some sort, and I left those. It took me HOURS and a big shovel to do this, and I'm only 2/3's done. I took out a big ugly fern and filled our curbside yard debris container. That's why I had to stop when I did - no more room for the weeds in the bin. But it looks much better already. Now you can SEE the bushes and the edge of the grass is delineated from the flower bed. Once I'm completely finished we'll throw down some anti-germinating chemicals (organic? ha! I'm all about better living through chemistry, be it medicines or gardening.) and then bring in some bark to finish it off.
THE SLICIN' & DICIN' HOTTUB
While I was breaking my back with the shovel waging war on the weeds, the kids were enthralled with the worms I would find. This was good, dirty fun. So when the work was done for the day we hosed the kids down and then tossed them into the hottub to complete the washing cycle. Only we didn't know that danger lurked in the churning waters of the hottub. It seems the night before Mr. Chick violated a cardinal rule of hottubs: no glass in or around the spa. He enjoyed a cocktail in the tub and forgot to bring in his glass. Somehow, it broke IN THE TUB. We think it on the edge of the tub and when we put the cover back on it broke. So imagine our horror when all of sudden Lauren starts shrieking and the water starts turning shades of pink. She holds up her foot and it's all bloody. We couldn't figure out what happened. I'm tending to her cut (it's pretty deep and is a vertical slice on the ball of her foot in the middle and curves up to cut under one of her toes. We debated taking her in for stitches but decided against it.) while we make Nicholas get out of the hottub and Mr. Chick starts trying to unravel the mystery of what caused the cut. It takes him only a minute to find the glass - all broken and jagged, and 10+ more minutes of painstakingly finding ALL the shards. He blames himself and feels terrible. Lauren stopped screaming and crying in short order and applying direct pressure got most of the bleeding to stop. The cut is in such an awkward spot it's hard to put a proper bandage on it. We had to go get some butterfly sutures to help keep it closed, and she's got yards of medical adhesive tape wrapping the front half of her foot to keep the sterile pad in place. She looks like a participant of the ancient practice of Chinese Foot Binding. But her injury hasn't slowed her down at all and she's running and jumping around, much to my chagrin, as much as ever. She'll be fine.
MOTHER'S DAY
Again, a gorgeous day. I got to take my time getting up in the morning and took a leisurely shower without an audience. Always a plus. Mr. Chick and the kids gave me a funny, touching card and we had plans to go out to breakfast (which turned into brunch we had to wait so long for a table). It was a good day because 1) my hair cooperated and I actually liked how it looked. Damn good, in case you were wondering. 2) I was able to take the time to apply my make-up the way make-up should be applied. And I was happy with how I looked. My normally haggard appearance was now polished and I cleaned up very nicely. 3) my outfit was not only comfortable but figure-flattering. That doesn't happen often in my world, so I was digging it. When you feel like you look good, you actually do, in fact, look good. And I was feeling it. Plus, my rack was totally on display and looking good. Gravity-defying good. I didn't look like a frumpy mom yesterday. I looked like a hottie mom, and I liked it. Good hair, good face, good rack. What's not to like?
We went to my sisters' house after brunch for a small family celebration. My oldest nephew made his First Communion yesterday and we were celebrating this milestone. And oh yeah, Mother's Day. I made my mom a pretty cool basket and filled it with flowers. It was made from crocheting heavy-duty jute twine. It was a shallow long rectangle, like a bread basket. Which she could totally use it for. I was happy with how it came out and didn't take me long to make. Just something quick and easy. I'd never used jute before, so it was fun for me to experiment with a new material like that. Hard on the hands, though. Very rough.
MY REAL GIFTS
And later, when we got home, Mr. Chick worked more on the house (will it ever end??) and had his shirt off (eye-candy for me - I'll consider that Mother's Day gift #2 - breakfast was #1) and was dealing with the kids outside as well so I could put my feet up and spend some lazy time reading my book (a great one called Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult). I got over an hour of lazy R&R time IN MY OWN HOUSE WITHOUT KIDS HASSLING ME. (Mother's Day gift #3). And I got to finish the day with some private time with my sexy husband (Mother's Day gift #4). A most excellent day.
// posted by MP @ 8:28 AM 
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I am so with you there on hiring out for the yard. Before kids, I didn't mind so much, actually it was kind of relaxing, but now, i have no desire.
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