Dirt Pits, Bad Weather, Scraped Knees, Parties, Strawberries, Espanol

It’s a bit hypocritical to complain that no one writes blogs anymore when I rarely write myself.  So!  I’ll start, you follow.  I’m dying to know what’s going on in your lives.

 

Come here, you lovely face, you… let me squeeze your cheeks.

 

Life has been stressful lately.  Charles is ever the horrible sleeper, usually waking a few times per night and struggling to go to bed in the first place.  He is much more difficult about it when he is ill (we have both had colds for a couple weeks now), and this takes its toll on our daily existence.  I constantly feel like I am doing 100 things at once.  I work my butt off at Goodwinds, then I rush home to prep dinner and clean the house in that “is this clean enough so that we won’t all die of diseases or slip on something gross?” sort of way, then pick up Charles and spend the next several hours trying to exhaust him, feed him, love him.  Finally, after he is down-ish for the night, we have been working on our yard. 

 

The yard, which used to look like this:

 

 

now looks like a dirt pit.  Tony rented a machine last weekend to dig trenches and pull out all the sod (which only grows nice-ish, patchy grass in May and June and is dead the rest of the year because most of our yard is hard-packed clay), and now we’re kinda stuck.  Tony is stressed about work and now the yard is in a horrible state not fit for humans or dogs, and we’re just not sure what to do next.  This is the problem with not being professionals at a certain job, not being able to afford professionals, and not having the time to do much research on how to complete said job in a professional manner.  So, we chip it off bit by bit, and it drives us crazy.  Our next goal is to get all the dirt off of the sod that is in three man-height piles, get rid of the sod, spread the dirt around, and then get more dirt.  But we might need to put in drainage first, who knows?

 

before the sod removal

 

I miss having a yard to play in with my boys, even though this project should eventually yield a better yard, one that is level and grows grass well.  For now, we are stuck with the ever-gloomy dirt pit. 

 

The stress has reached a tipping point a few times in the past several weeks.  Most memorably, during a furious bout of cleaning/baking/meal prep, I managed to cut my left index finger open on an immersion blender (I know, I know) while I was frantically cleaning it so I would have enough time to bake a cake for my friend’s birthday before picking up Charles from daycare.  So, an hour in the ER and the most expensive bottle of superglue I’ll ever buy, and I’m almost good-as-new.  Sigh.

 

*****

 

I’ve been feeling a bit like there’s a hole in my life lately.  Maybe it’s all this GO! GO! GO! without every getting anywhere.  Maybe it’s the fact that Tony is so busy with 10 hour workdays (yeah, it’s not tax-season hours, but it still sucks), Habitat board meetings, and triathlon training – and he’ll be even busier in the fall once he starts his master’s in taxation program – that I feel a bit lonely and kinda like I am not accomplishing much while he is out conquering the world.  Maybe it’s the residual 10 lbs that I can’t seem to lose, no matter how often I work out or how well I eat.  Maybe it’s the second babies my friends are having and “when are you going to have another?” question I hear all the time that are making me a bit crazy.  Maybe it’s just never feeling like there’s enough money or enough time to do the things I want.  Whatever it is, most days are feeling a bit, I dunno, not enough. 

 

What I really want is to be able to slow down a bit and enjoy summer.  Like this:

 

 

And the Pacific Northwest hasn’t really been accommodating to that dream lately.  Though with the yard the way it is, there is nowhere to put lawn furniture anyhow, so my fantasy barbeques while Charles and Buster tool around the lawn and Tony and I enjoy burgers and corn-on-the-cob whilst occasionally lobbing morsels to our overactive toddler to sustain him remain fantasies.  Maybe by late August, huh?

 

****

 

There have been some moments of light in the past few months.  I had a birthday, turned 29 for the first time, and had a great weekend involving a trip to Seattle, a long visit from Stephanie, the arrival of a new employee who is helping us take Goodwinds to the top, and a barbeque (indoors due to bad weather) with family and friends.  Charles enjoyed the dogs of Seattle, and they enjoyed him:

 

mmmm… toddler face.

We had some sunny days and I bought a water table (doubles as a dog dish):

 

 

And!  It’s strawberry season!  One of my favorites, and the family has been indulging in strawberries for a few weeks now.  The local strawberries are so sweet, it’s almost criminal.

 

whipped cream, strawberries’ best friend

 

Charles got his first scraped knee a week or so ago.  We’re so proud, son.

 

 

Stephanie came for another weekend and we took Charles to Seattle to be there for Maggi as she finished the Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon (wow.), went to Karaoke (I might have a video of that… we’ll see how it turned out), went bowling, and had lots of food and fun.  I sure love that girl. 

 

Charles LOVED bowling.  I wish I had brought the camera.  I have photos on my phone, but I’m not sure how to get them off of my phone.  Any ideas?  I have an LG Shine.  Anyhow, we put the lane bumpers up and they had this rack thing for Charles to use for his cute six-pound ball (which he carried himself!).  So fun!

 

Finally, as if you needed proof that Charles is his father’s son, observe their sleep styles:

 

 

Charles is now in the 2-3-year-old room at daycare because he is “advanced”, which basically means he has a lot of energy and needs more stimulation.  His vocabulary has exploded, in both English and Spanish (two days per week are Spanish only at daycare), though he doesn’t so much speak as just clearly understand and repeat words when forced.  Jugo!  Like, “duh mom, jugo, of course, now give me the darn juice!”  He gets so much stimulation in the morning, in fact, that he now takes 3-hour naps at daycare, from which the teachers have to wake him, even after all the other children are awake and playing and eating snack.  This has presented problems at bedtime, because by 8 pm, he’s only been up for 5 hours, and he’s not tired.  So yesterday I made Charles walk all the way to the park about 1/2 mile away and all the way back in addition to 30 minutes of play at the park after dinner.  He went right to sleep and slept the whole night through, praise God, hallelujah.

 

Well, that’s all for now.  I’ll try to write more often, as I do find it cathartic.  Also, you grandparents (“bampas and mamas” to Charles) need photos, don’t you.  I thought so.