Thursday, October 26, 2006


This picture is from the MSU Student Organic Farm in September.
We went to the Farm to pick up our CSA share today. They had just moved the chicken coop, so we went to look at the chickens. The rooster crowed while we were watching and it scared M at first. A was there, asking in his mile-a-minute-5-year-old-way about every aspect of chickendom. And the rooster kept crowing.

So on the way home, M kept saying “cock-a-doodle-doo” and “I’m a mommy rooster”. (we have some talking to do, still – but what do you expect when Disney puts out movies with boy cows?) At any rate, the conversation at the dinner table was also peppered with Cock-a-doodle-doo’s. C was explaining to M that other languages attribute different sounds to animals. In Japan a rooster says “eek-a-reek-a-ree”. A started asking about German, and Spanish, and Chinese and we had no idea. Does anyone else know?

I just finished reading Rescue from Domestic Perfection by Don Ho. It was WONDERFUL. He is the anti-Martha. There was an article last week in the NYTimes about him - he was a successful restauranteur (with all the trappings) and decided that it was too much. So now he's down to 55 possessions. Ok, so that's a bit extreme, but a girl can dream! It was a very persuasive book, and now my hallway is echo-y and beautiful, because I got rid of the stuff that had accumulated there. (OK, so not all of it is actually put away, but it is closer than it was!)

I've also been reading my magazines: Sunset, Cook's Illustrated, Cook's Country, Popular Science, and Brain Child (that one actually came last month, I just haven't gotten to it until now). I would like to order Ready Made, but I think I have enough for now.

Monday, October 23, 2006


We picked these apples on Friday the 13th. I made them into apple crisp this evening. Yum.

Late late late. I should be in bed. My husband is in California and I cannot get ANYTHING done when he isn't here. Funny, if he is here, he's not doing much for me. (That is NOT a slam, he is helpful, but it really shouldn't matter one way or the other if he's here, as far as me getting the brood out of the door, ya know?)

L was sick today (sore throat, headache) so he stayed home. We took A to school, went to the doctors to make sure it wasn't strep (it wasn't!) and then came home for lunch. I decided that I needed to go through the kids' clothes and winnow a bit. So I brought everyone's clothes down to the dining room, cleared off the table and started sorting. I was listening to a book on tape (Sabriel by Garth Nix - read by Tim Curry - 2nd time through - it is LOVELY) when L came in and said "Mom, it's 3:28." I thought he was joking. I am supposed to pick A up at 3 p.m. School is 15-20 minutes away if I fly under the radar. ACK! Luckily I have a great friend who lets her kids play in the woods near school. She took A and let him play with her boys until I got there.


Books read: Sharon Shinn's Archangel (LOVED it...) and Wrapt in Crystal (Also good...) and I'm in the middle of Jevoh's Angel . Yup, it's pretty much been a Sharon Shinn bender. I have 3 more novels by her waiting in the wings. I've been paging through Cover and Bake a Cook's Illustrated casserole book and L and I watched Nanny McPhee yesterday - I liked it! L stole a book off of my TBR (to be read) pile - East by Edith Pattou. He is currently reading Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer as well.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving day. I bought a turkey breast to celebrate. (Some of my favorite people are Canadian - Hi Sara!) It was frozen, so I thought I had put it in the downstairs refrigerator. Wednesday I found it on top of said appliance. Good news - the cat hadn't found it. Bad news - we couldn't have it for dinner. I think sometimes I might have too much on my plate.

This has been a week of extremes. It snowed today. The snow is sticking - covering the lawn, the leaves, the house. My son A was upset because I wouldn't get out the sleds. (Mean momma - I told him it had to snow 3 inches before I got the sleds out.) Monday it was beautiful, in the upper 60s. Sun shining. Who knew we'd get snow? Really, truly snow. It's OCTOBER. Last year on Halloween we had a neighborhood cookout at 10 p.m. - it was too warm for A to wear his Tigger costume.

My emotions have been extreme too. I was ebullient on Monday - excited about starting to gather information for the middle school, starting the online class (on Montessori Leadership), I had the laundry under control, menus planned, the first floor was almost clean. Today, laundry is NOT under control, we had fast food twice this week, I am depressed about how much work it will take to create a middle school, I haven't done any homework for my class. What's up with all that?

My son L is one of four boys in his class. Next year two of the boys will be going to other schools, and the third boy probably will be gone as well. So L will be the only 4th grade boy. I asked him if he wanted to go to the local school instead but he said no, he'd rather be in Montessori. The 3rd boy's mom said she was worried about the small class size, she felt that her son needed a larger group. So here I am again, wondering why that doesn't concern me. Am I missing an important Parenting gene?

And then, after posing the above dilemma to my husband, I have more questions. When will be the best time to move him? Can I have him in only one year of the three year cycle? Montessori works in 3 year cycles, so if I can't commit to the entire three years, I shouldn't really put him in one. I guess I'll have to go visit the local school and see what the options are. He won't be happy about it (my son, my husband will be happy). Switching L would be the best thing because then we can afford to put M in Montessori. I have HUGE guilt issues just for thinking about switching him. But then, I REALLY want M to go to Montessori school. It is just tough with the first kid, I guess, cuz he's got to do everything first.

OK, one more thing about that missing Parenting Gene. This week I told M to get dressed several times and she wouldn't. I finally said "fine, you'll go to school in what you're wearing." We were just going to pick up the boys. M looked at me and said "Yipee!" (She was just wearing a diaper.) So, I put her in the carseat, gave her a blanket and we left. (I did have clothes for her in the car.) When we got to school another mother said "is she naked?" and I told the story. The other mother was horrified - well, at least her expression was.

Books read over the past week: Sharon Shinn's Heart of Gold - yummy science fiction with a bit of race relations. I loved it. Meg Cabot's Size 12 is Not Fat. Also good, in a different way. Think Bridget Jones.