Checking In

Just thought I'd check in and let you know all is well! My surgery went fine; thanks for praying. Obviously the Lord shined down favor--I told the anesthesiologist I'd rather go through natural childbirth again than get an IV, and he offered to let me get on the OR table and have gas before he attempted a line! Once he said that, I felt all the anxiety slipping away. I HATE IVs.

Everything went well, and although I'm convinced I wasn't hallucinating when I saw him dancing to music before he put the IV in, we'll never know for sure. Pace believes me, at least. Fact or fiction, it doesn't matter--I fell asleep laughing. The surgeon also reminded me that he doesn't pack or use splints for this type of surgery, so other than the stitches, I'm fairly comfortable. Now I'm home with an attractive gauze pad taped to my face and hyped up on all manner of powerful drugs, sequestered in the bedroom with good books and Diet Coke. A sweet friend brought dinner, and Bridget is bringing more tomorrow, and now I can look forward to recovery rather than dreading the procedure. All is well. :)

Also, thank you so much for the lapbooking/notebooking comments! You are such an encouraging, resourceful bunch of ladies! Thanks for the links--Jimmie's Collage is the one I found that got me started on this trail, but I hadn't seen the other link you mentioned, Notebooking Pages. There are so many great resources for this, and I'm having a lot of fun checking it all out! Squidoo, in particular, has some great stuff.

If you have any more great lapbooking/notebooking/nature journaling tips, keep on sending them! We don't start lessons again for about 6 more weeks, and one of my favorite times of the year is summer researching for the next school year, so I have plenty of time to make plans!

Anyway, thanks again for the encouragement and prayers today, and please pardon this post if it doesn't make sense or has spelling errors, or I include hallucinations. All three are possible, although it seems perfectly normal to me right now. Hydrochodone and I are friends tonight! I'm hopeful that Tylenol and I will be friends tomorrow, and I'll make sense again. Good night for now!

Nosy (Written Last Night)

I'm having sinus surgery tomorrow. If, as you read this, you feel compelled to tell me about yours, and how bad the recovery was, or that you died in the middle of it, don't. I'm a little bit scared already! But if, out of either truth or a lie born out of compassion, you feel compelled to tell me that yours was better than you expected, and it has changed your life forever, I'm all for that.

Either way, I'll be doing the happy dance in about, oh, three weeks when everything is as good as new--no, better than new! I'll be able to breathe, and from what I hear, that's a pretty good feeling. However, I also hear that I'll be sounding extremely nasal for the next couple weeks, and I know Bridget is dying to hear me on our daily 5 o'clock chat tomorrow. I think I'm actually going to be embarrassed to talk! That's a first, for sure.

But for tonight, I'm calming the jitters by eating what else? Guacamole. (That's a joke. I mean, it's not a joke, as I'm really going to eat guacamole, but it's a joke in the sense that I have a lot of posts about guacamole from the old days when I had three kids 4 and under. Clearly I'm no good at jokes. Sorry.) Pace is bringing home steak fajitas and guacamole even though I'm technically eating healthy because I need to lose 10 pounds, but the night before surgery doesn't count. Or shouldn't, at least.

And I'm also spending the time researching lapbooking. It intrigues me, as we use Charlotte Mason's methods for lessons, and that means I don't have much written material to show what we've learned throughout the year. So lapbooking and notebooking seem like a good way to summarize topics we learn about. But I admit, I'm a little overwhelmed by all the stuff out there! Do any of you make lapbooks or do notebooking as part of your homeschool? What do you think about it? I usually don't ask opinions ahead of time because I like to charge ahead without finding out the negatives first--some people might've called that headstrong when I was about 13--but this time I need some opinions, before I get all excited about it. So if I can be nosy--pardon the pun; I'm on a roll with bad jokes tonight, please chalk it up to nerves--what do you think?

All right, guacamole is calling . . . I'll be back soon; at least you won't laugh at me for talking through my nose!

The Good Life

If there's anything life in the country will teach you, it's this: don't put your hand on the water hose after dusk. It won't be a hose, it'll be a copperhead. In your flowerbed. Right next to your deck. And you will be in flip flops.

Of course, you'll also learn that goats are better than Houdini at escaping, and you'll try to sell them because you'll have exhausted all your brainpower in securing the perimeter, which doesn't deter them at all. But after you sell two of them, you'll realize that your goats are lonely, so you'll get one of them back. Except that the day you get the one back, the other one will have disappeared into thin air. Poof! After driving around and calling your goat, you'll give up and go home. And hope that somebody picked him up in their car and took him home to be their pet. Otherwise, he'll be a snack for the pack of coyotes you hear every night.

After you get out of the tub, you look out on the window to see two fat raccoons waddling across your deck, casing the joint for cat food. After you chase them off, you'll examine your son's drawing of the huge rat snake he came across the other day. In the hen house, looking for eggs. Drinking the chickens' water, of all things. The nerve.

But that's okay, because your smart chickens will have fooled the rat snake and laid their eggs in the goats' stall, among the alfalfa. Three little eggs, soft brown and pale blue, nestled in the hay. That brings your total to 14 for the week, and you realize that you're going to have to start eating them. Which feels a little weird, if you've only lived in the country for a year.

But that's okay, too, because you realize that after just one year, you casually walk by the lizards on the fence, and the frogs and toads on the mudroom steps, and the cicada shells that cling to every available surface. You don't scream when you see garter snakes, and you casually pry chicken poop out of the grooves in your shoes after you return from the barn. You're not afraid of goats anymore, even if you did have nightmarish memories from petting zoos as a child.

You eat fresh tomatoes from your garden, and zucchinis too, if you can get to them before the chickens, and you plan for worm compost, rainwater barrels, and next year's strawberries. You live among trees, next to a tiny creek, and you feel thankful every day you wake up, despite the lizards, frogs and toads, copperheads, and rascally raccoons. You know that even if it's not everybody's dream, it's yours, and it's a good life. Snakes and all.

Handprints

Love this.

Plan to steal imitate it ASAP.

I can't even tell you how excited I was to see this!  Pace can, though--I actually half-shrieked out loud in the very quiet coffee shop when I saw it.  (We're on vacation this week in Austin--check out Lola Savannah if you're in the area and are in the mood for fantastic coffee!!)

Notice the clocks by each one--brilliant!!

Wish I'd thought of this about 7 years ago when Caiden was turning one!!

Conspirators

I have no idea what he's telling them, but it must be good!  

Safety First

Ever cautious, always investigating before he plunges in--he and I are nothing alike save this one trait.  But even I don't sit around in a life jacket.

*Note:  underneath is a Linus shirt--perfect, don't you think?

Hand Made

After settling on the idea of hand quilting this quilt, I'm really enjoying it.

Well, as much as I can enjoy life in slow motion.  At my current pace, it should be done by Thanksgiving.

Next Thanksgiving!

My Favorite Assistant

She's cheerful, energetic, and wears her apron well. Who wouldn't want an assistant like that?

Enjoying the Little Things

Finally, after five months of waiting, our hens are laying. These eggs may be small, but you'd never know from the delight on my boys' faces! Caiden, in particular, walks on clouds each afternoon after he finds another treasure in the nest boxes.
Tiny eggs, tiny radishes, tiny carrots, tiny potatoes. Big joy.

So I Remember Later, Take Two:

This morning of the summer, wake up to four goats in my backyard. After shooing them back into the pasture, turn around to see daughter, who'd crawled out of her new big girl bed and snuck out of her bedroom through the supposedly locked bathroom door, wandering through the house. Sigh, already missing the confines of her crib. Curse self for giving birth to children who like to sneak out, wander the house, and steal blueberry pints to eat while hiding in the closet. All before 6 a.m. Wish all my children were calm, quiet, and liked to stay put.

Send her back to her room, and turn around, to be greeted by four goats in the side yard. Threaten them with bodily violence while shooing them back. Have son stack logs against the fence to keep them from pushing under again. While stacking logs, turn around to see goats in the other side yard. Shoo them back, wishing goat meat sounded tasty, and stack more logs. Am shown large spider by back door and reassure everybody it's not poisonous. Hope that's true.

Realize the heat index today is going to be 110. Lug fan to barn to set up, hoping to keep chicken from cooking in their feathers today. Turn around to see son pointing, horrified, at 4 foot long snake climbing up fence a few feet from him. Run to house to photograph. Call husband in panic. Am advised to hold snake down and chop off head. Explain that's not likely. Look up poisonous snakes on Internet while discussing with husband that he married a woman, not a man, and women generally don't hold down snakes and chop off their heads. Generally. Realize he's in a staff meeting and others are amused by the snake situation. Am not amused. Am told to run back to snake and take another picture of the head. Explain that the snake has slithered down the fence and headed out to pasture. Am told to track snake. Explain that's never going to happen. Quake in pajamas and Crocs at thought of encountering snake in pasture. Hang up. Decide never to step foot outside again.

Call back, relieved to see on Internet that 4 foot long snake is juvenile rat snake. Harmless, except, of course, to rats. Am by now sweating in pajamas and Crocs. Decide to take a shower. Stop in shock to realize it's only 10 a.m.

Summer days are long. Some days, that's good. Today, it might not be.

Finish post to sound of child hollering through house, "The goats are out again!" Cry.

So I Remember Later:

we've spent our summer so far swimming, eating popsicles, watering the garden, watching snakes and frogs, babying the hot chickens, chasing the goats out of the garden, eating lots of ice cream, planning for the fall school year, visiting with my parents, complaining about the heat, hanging out at the lake, going on Kid Day outings, eating more popsicles, (and then more ice cream), taking walks in the morning, reading books, sucking up the air conditioning at the library, working on the house, and watching Gilligan's Island. And eating a few more popsicles.

Nice!