My Bountiful Life…

Spring hasn’t wasted any time. It has been warm (hot even!) and sunny. Sadly, even the smog has arrived. :/We spent Earth Day at the RBG. Jordan played games and made lists and made a filtering system for water – all part of the “Helping the Earth” programme – then went for a hike along the trail.

The first wildflowers were out in clusters on the forest floor, brilliantly white in sun. There were also bunches of daffodils, transplanted by squirrels from area gardens, all sunshine and yellow. The chickadees came, peeping and looking for seeds and a squirrel watched us intently from his tree.

We also celebrated Earth Day by planting a tree in our front yard and eating the first chives from our garden. They were tender and mild and satisfying :)
Today is my birthday and it is cool and rainy, which I love, so I’m considering it a birthday gift. I woke to the sounds of soft rain and singing and to kisses and gifts. A pretty good day, I’d say ;)

No pain, no gain, they say. I don’t buy that, really. Lots and lots of things are ‘gains’ and they don’t hurt at all. But some gains do. And right now, I’m well into the hurting phase of one of them. In this case, the “pain” is in the form of energy expended. I have precious little of that anyway, and always have to carefully manage. But I have to manage especially closely and more carefully now. I’m four weeks in and have another five weeks to go. ithinkicanithinkicanithinkican :)

April 2 and still freaken cold. Yesterday it got quite warm for a few hours, but then chilly again and it snowed a little last night. But warmer temperatures are coming this week. Yay! I see pictures all over the the blogiverse of people in short sleeves and of daffodils and tulips blooming in gardens. Nope. Not a single one here. I did see a woman in short sleeves the other day, but she was way pregnant, and had been overheated for months already; so she doesn’t count :)

The Baby has learnt to indicate the affirmative by nodding… well, not really his head, but his whole body all at once in a gesture that is so cute it hurts to behold. Until now he has used an all-purpose “uh?” for any opinion he might care to express and it was up to us to guess what it meant this time. No more guessing now. He is clearly enjoying the power of his new communication skill and when you ask a question to which his answer is yes, he pauses, leans back, pauses again and then undulated forward from his head right down to his knees, savouring every nuance. The rest of the family is so taken with this show of brilliance that we ask question after question that will surely be answered in the affirmative, just to see him do it again and then cheer and clap as if he had just done it for the first time. I’m afraid to actually work out how many cookies he likely got today as “Would you like a cookie?” is probably the question that is most certain to elicit the So Cute It Hurts Full Body Undulating Nod of Affirmation.
Of course, we took the time to teach him that when we ask, “Are you cute?” the is answer is, undoubtedly, yes. :)

We had a great New Year.
New Year’s Eve was low-key. We stayed home and just hung out. Jordan and I played Guild Wars to ring in 2008 :D The next day we had some family and friends over. The boys played video games (of course lol) and there was food (mmmm) and champagne (MMMMMMMM!) and some great company. It was a really good time.

2007 was a good year. A very good year. But I’m looking forward to 2008 and expect it will be even better.
I’ve never been one for lists of Official New Year Resolutions, but I made January 1, 2008 the start date for the next round of my 101 Things in 1001 Days Project. This is the second time I’ve done this and so far, I’m enjoying it even more than the first time. I’ve been writing down ideas for this list for months now and as it came together these last weeks, some trends became clear, most notably the focus on developing better habits. As with my first list, there is also a focus on goals towards better health. At this point, my list (which is here) will still undergo some fine tuning, but I’m happy with the overall tone :)
I know of a bunch of people who are doing 101/1001. Leave me an comment if you’d like me to link to yours.

That light I saw two days ago?
It was a train.

Seriously. At this point I am tired of a lot of things. Notably, I am tired of haemorrhaging money at the vet’s office every week only to discover the next day that the problem hasn’t been fixed. I’m tired of otherwise reasonable adults who don’t think and end up costing me any productivity I might have managed to squeeze out of a day. I’m tired of people who know nothing about me assuming my life is easy just because I have X that they don’t have. I am even tired of my pets. I know – it isn’t their fault they are sick. That doesn’t mean I am not tired of cleaning up after them, taking them to the vet, throwing away things they have ruined and spending my day in a cloud of cleaning chemicals. I am tired of people thinking that just because I’m home, I am available.

Of course, for everything I am tired of there are 10 things I am grateful for, after all; that’s why this blog has the title it does. I know that this will all pass and I’ll be feeling right as rain again at some point. But right now, the things I am tired of are controlling and severely limiting my life and making me miserable – in spite of my best efforts to the contrary. I keep walking forward but I’m only moving backward.
So.. tomorrow, another trip to the vet. I remain hopeful that this trip will be the last for a while. And right now, more steps in the general direction of forward. Maybe I’ll actually get there this time.

Oh look! Pretty-by-the-roadside. (I’m trying. Really.)

Sometime this evening, the snow turned to freezing rain, loud against the window, accompanied by the roar of the wind. We hunkered down early with comfort food and games. Plans for tomorrow are up the air until we are sure of conditions for going out. But there is always enough to occupy us here at home.

I’ve had a second cabled scarf in the works for a long time. I recently picked it up after a hiatus, but I’ve just set it aside again while I figure out what to do. The horseshoe cable just doesn’t lie right. In several spots it looks like I’ve used the wrong number of stitches – but I haven’t. So… I dunno. I’ll ask around for any tips, but I suspect I’ll be ripping it out before long :(

Some time ago, Karen at Two Boys and a Dragon tagged me for the 6 Weird Things About Me Meme. Only six, eh? How will I narrow it down?! hehehhe .. let’s see:

1. I hate touching feet. Even clean feet. Even my own feet. And a french manicure on toes?! *shudder*
2. I rarely wear shoes.
3. I can’t sleep. It makes me crazy. I heard once that Marilyn Monroe told her therapist that what she wanted most in the world was to just sleep. I get that. This is why I won’t take any sleep aids other than half doses of a mild prescription from my doctor and tylenol or advil – and only very occaasionally.
4. I love meat. I love to eat it. I love the smell of it cooking… and I’ve been vegetarian for seven years. I still dream about eating meat, usually wild duck, sometimes beef stew, or lamb.
5. I didn’t eat vegetables until I was 26.
6. I am a terrible gardener. I kill things; I’m lazy; I dont remember to water or fertilize and I hate weeding. Yet every year I have two huge gardens for vegetables and herbs.

It’s nearly 1AM… time to go lie awake in bed :D Frustrating, but better than a poke in the eye, eh? ;)