Hello Again!

Don't get excited, this may not last.

Sometime between shoving the dog off my legs and getting kicked in the kidneys by Evie, I started thinking about this blog and how long it had been since I'd posted anything. It's been a really long damn time. Like, 10 months. I could have had another baby in that time. I didn't, but still, I'm just sayin'.

Not much has really changed around here, and I'm not sure whether that's good or bad. We were supposed to have more money after moving into the crappy house, and that hasn't quite panned out, which, I have to admit, really sucks. We took on some debt to get out from under our old house, and now we're paying for it, literally. We're working on a few things, so hopefully our financial future will be rosier by the end of the summer.

The kids are all doing pretty fantastic. Ava and Genevieve had their sixth birthday last month. They've started to lose teeth at an alarming rate. They got their ears pierced. They're in the beginning stages of learning to read. Ava, especially, has learned to apply makeup like a pro.

Liam in three and a half. He's using the potty, and is quite proud of his pottying abilities. He's even prouder of his penis, which he'll show to any and all who want to see :) He likes to count, is learning to recognize some letters, and loves singing the ABC song, Twinkle Twinkle, Row Your Boat, and You Are My Sunshine. Loudly. At bedtime.

This year has been a little nuts for us, as Patrick has spent about half of it out of town on business, including a month long trip to India in February. We've been lucky enough to accompany him on a few trips, mostly to Memphis. The kids have loved visiting Beale Street, and the Memphis Zoo is becoming our home away from home. We've also been to Pensacola and Birmingham, among other places.

So, that catches you up a bit on what's been going on around here. I have a niggling feeling like I'll be blogging more, especially as the girls approach that magical "school-age." Stay tuned for more shining beacons of wisdom! *snicker*

Patrick is back in Virginia after a 36-hour visit back here in the 'ville. He should be back home, for good, by the end of this week. Thank god. I think my brain cells are leaking out of my ears.

Have I lost ALL my sense?

Apparently, when my husband is out of town and my children are with their grandparents, I lose the ability to tell time. And the awareness that I am tired. And any amount of level-headedness that I've ever possessed (which was never much to begin with.) For the second weekend in a row, I've stayed up all night reading and writing instead of sleeping. My brain is all fuzzy, my vision is shimmering around the edges, but I finished The Big Bad Wolf Tells All by midnight and Cinderella Rules in the gray hours of pre-dawn, dammit. Nothing beats a night spent alone with romance novels and unprecedented amounts of diet soda. Sleep is for the weak.

I really, really want my husband to come home. I would never make it as a single parent. I love the kids, the little monsters, more than life itself. I love them that much, even when I want to throttle them. Today, Liam had at least a dozen ice pops. He'd take off with one and then come throw what I thought was the wrapper in the trash, and then ask for another. I was preoccupied, trying to do a little writing, so I wasn't paying that close attention until I got up to do the dishes. Turns out, he was just taking a bite or two of each one, then trashing it to get another flavor. I'd thought he'd just been eating them really fast. Sigh. Then, when I was laying in the bed doing a little reading, he'd sneak in and turn the light off, then run out squealing. I know you all think that sounds cute. It was not. Maybe I'm just a tad grumpy and unreasonable, though. Patrick is the only one Liam really listens to. He hears the things I say, but he must think I'm the best comedienne in the world, because he just laughs at everything I say. Double sigh.

I'm going to bed.

Friday Fill-Ins for August 22, 2008

1. Dancing to the The Fray while doing Friday Fill-Ins makes me misspell a lot of things.

2. The last time I laughed I nearly fell out of my chair.

3. When I drive I sing along with the radio. Other drivers think I'm yelling at them, but really I'm just belting something out.

4. I saw my son standing on top of a bookcase. He's a monkey.

5. Give me love, give me good friends, give me good wine.

6. Next week I am looking forward to my husband coming home from Virginia.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to watching some movies with the kids, tomorrow my plans include a picnic with my mom and Sunday, I want to take the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's!

I solemnly swear to write more often...

Really, I do. I enjoy blogging, so I'm not quite sure why I've gotten so out of the habit. We've been spending a lot of time outside, so that's part of it. I've also been spending A LOT of time reading, and consequently much less time on the computer. But I've been itching to write more lately, so I think my self-imposed Planet Pawlowski hiatus is coming to a close.

Of course, now that I'm on here, I can't really think of anything to write about. Our summer has been very low-key. The kids and I spend most of our time in the yard. They jump on their trampoline, and I read novels. Sometimes we head back to the garden. We've been meeting up with some friends on a fairly regular basis. That's about it. It's been really chill around here.

The final installment of the Twilight Saga finally came out on August 2. I've read it four times now, so you'd think I'd be over my obsession, right? I should be so lucky. I just can't give up these characters, although I nearly know the books by heart now, and I don't really want to read them cover to cover anymore. I picked up a few light novels at the library this week for a change of pace, but I finished all four of them in two days and immediately went back to skimming through the Twilight books for my favorite parts. God help me.

The kids are all doing great. Now that the girls are 5 years old, and school is back in session, we're getting a lot of questions from random people about why they're out and about in the middle of the week. Annoying. I know that the check-out girl at the supermarket doesn't know that I've already answered questions about why they're not in school to 3 other people that day, but still.

At the moment, Liam is running through the house, naked as the day he was born. We've got the windows thrown open wide, trying to tempt a breeze into the house. I'm quite sure the neighbors think we're borderline-nudists.

The camera is still broken, so I don't have any pictures to share, which is incredibly frustrating. All of our money has gone to our Disney World trip, though, so it will be a while before I can remedy that situation.

Well, that's about it. Watch for more randomness in the near future....

Slow Blogging Summer

I haven't been blogging nearly as much over the last couple of months, but I count that as a good thing! I haven't had the time, or nearly as much desire to even turn on the damn computer, let along blog. It's been fabulous here in our new yard. The kids and I spend nearly every day running around outside, or working in the garden, or sitting in the shade with our favorite books.

Speaking of favorite books, I started reading the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, and it is everything anyone could ever hope for in a teenage vampire love book series :) It is truly shameful how much time I've spent reading these books rather than doing things like, oh, the dishes or speak to my husband (Sorry honey, you know I'll snap out of it soon!) Lo and behold, the final book comes out at midnight on August 2, the day after my birthday! So, my 30th birthday present to myself will be to hang out with a bunch of 15-year-old vampire obsessed children at Barnes & Noble until I can get my hands on Breaking Dawn, and then staying up to read it until I get to the end. It's gonna be great!

Activities here have been pretty slow this summer, but it's been a good, peaceful couple of months. We took the kids to the Louisville Zoo a couple of weeks ago to see the polar bears, only to find that the polar bears had been shipped to other zoos while their habitat was remodeled. That was disappointing, until we found that they had also constructed a huge splashpark, and it was free with admission (which was also free for us, thanks to the handy-dandy reciprocal membership program we've got with our zoo.) We'll definitely be heading back there before the summer is out. Patrick spent last week in Omaha, and left yesterday for a few days back in Virginia. It's been a little crazy not having him here, but I'm unbelievable grateful that his parent's live two doors down and have been helping me distract the kids.

So, that's it. Nothing new to report. Not even any new pictures, since my camera wheezed it's last wheeze a few weeks ago. If I don't write again until August, it will just be because we're hanging out in the yard under a shady tree. I hope you all are so lucky, too!

Lovin' Our Life

As I type, it's a few minutes after 9pm on a Monday night. I'm sitting in a lawn chair under one of our oak trees, typing on the lap top, and listening to the girls talking to the neighbor boy as they all jump on the trampoline next door. The other neighbor kids just went home after a spirited firefly search. There are fireworks going off all over the neighborhood; lots of people are just too excited to wait for the 4th!

The kids were at Grandma's today, two houses down the road. I saw them playing in her backyard when I went back to water the fruit trees and weed the garden. I did some cleaning and garden work today, then spent a good chunk of the afternoon reading in a comfy chair in the yard and watching the world go by. Grandma brought the kids up the hill around 4pm, along with some cucumbers from their garden. She left with some of our zucchini.

Life has been so quiet and slow and fulfilling the last few months. There have been crazy, stressful times, too (I'm thinking mostly of the van break-downs and the stress of selling the old house) but the good times have outweighed the bad 10-to-1. I wish I was a better writer so I could more clearly explain the peace we've found here.

It's nearly time to go in. The fireworks are letting up and the mosquitos are biting. Tomorrow it will all start again. I savor this day and look forward to the next.

Friday Fill-Ins for June 20, 2008

1. A smile is contagious; spread it around!

2. Rummy is my favorite board or card game.

3. I would love to have more traveling in my life and less stress about money.

4. When I think of the Summer Solstice, I think of staying out in the yard until the last little bit of sunshine is gone, enjoying the longest day of the year.

5. I just remembered I need to weed the tomatoes.

6. One of my favorite song lyrics goes like this: "Put on my blue suede shoes and I boarded the plane. Touch down in the land of the Delta blues, in the middle of the pouring rain."

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to taking the girls to an afternoon showing of "Nim's Island" at the cheap theater, cleaning the house, and making ice cream, tomorrow my plans include throwing Ava and Genevieve their 5th birthday party (!) and Sunday, I want to relax!


Wanna play? Go to http://www.fridayfillins.blogspot.com

How does your garden grow?

Our St. Louis Weekend

Friday Fill-Ins for June 6, 2008

1. Idle hands are something I may enjoy again when the kids are grown.

2. I love taking a really, really long time in the shower.

3. My favorite time of the day is when we're all snuggled in the bed, warm and cozy.

4. The last tea I drank was Very Cherry Berry, at Evie's request.

5. I like to go swimming in really cold water in the Summer.

6. My mother always said "You know what you should do, .....".

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to hanging out in St. Louis with my hubby and kids, tomorrow my plans include attending my cousin's farewell party and maybe visiting a winery and Sunday, I want to hike the tunnel section of the Katy Trail!


Wanna play? Go to http://fridayfillins.blogspot.com/.

Learning *ALL* the time and *EVERYWHERE*

What we do doesn't look like the mainstream definition of education. One could say that most of our time is spent playing, eating, talking, reading chapter books, and watching TV and movies. Today we went for a hike, played at the playground, and watched Enchanted.

If you look deeper, though, you'll see that today we learned about wild edibles, plant and animal identification, photography techniques, bodies of water and water dynamics, physics, and outdoor safety. Watching Enchanted led to a discussion about Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize, Paris, and radiation. All of this, on a Saturday, hiking and watching TV.

Day hike at Harmonie State Park

Friday Fill-Ins for May 30, 2008

1. For me sleeping is the opposite of creativity, unless you sleep upside down, or on your head, or in a pool, or you have really cool dreams. Huh.

2. The Secret Life of Bees was the last excellent book I read. It was the third time I read it, though.

3. I like fill-ins because they give me something to blog about when I'm feeling not so creative :).

4. In nature I like looking at big trees, tree canopies from underneath, interesting birds, streams, little creatures, and pretty much everything else.

5. I should win the US elections, but I'm voting for Barack Obama.

6. The last time I laughed with all my belly was last night, watching "Little Shop of Horrors" with my kids.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting our house in a more liveable condition, and jumping on the trampoline, tomorrow my plans include hanging out with the family, swimming and working in the garden and Sunday, I want to win the lottery!

We've been busy!

We're going on a cruise!

It's a looooong way off, but I already can't wait! The 1st Annual Unschooling on the Seas Adventure Cruise and Conference is sailing to Bermuda on October 24th, 2009, and we're going to be on board! We're still recovering from losing money on our house sale, and rebuilding the van's transmission, but we'll be booking in a couple of weeks. Finally, a reason to get passports!