It Has Been A Year

It has been one year, since despite having the soul kicked out of me at one employer......that I signed papers and made this our home. And the past year has been one of change and growth and so many positive things that I could never list them all here.


We had summer and then quickly fall then winter. Our first winter in our own house, watching the snow pile up out the windows. There were days that it was like magic.

And there have been holidays and birthdays and anniversaries........but you know what have been the best days? The days I stumble out of bed on the weekend to make coffee......quietly.


In our own house.

Or we've taken a couple of balls and gone into the backyard with nothing to do but run, and kick, and play.

I don't even know where to start, explaining the sigh of relief I feel some days, closing that front door - knowing that this is our kingdom......this is our refuge. This land belongs to my family. It's quite a bit of land considering the market these days.

It's a place where for the first time in a long time, I feel settled and grounded.

The nature of the world has become transient, like we're some giant Bedouin tribe without direction. The difference is that the Bedouins have each other. They know where they are going and where they came from. It had begun to seem for a while that we were just moving moving moving.......always moving.

No more.

I'm not saying we're here forever.......but I am saying that I am home. I sleep like the dead, safe in the country air and forest standing guard.

And if it is my fate, to drink cheap wine out of snowman goblets on my deck.........then I say......
Bring it.

It Has Been A Year

It has been one year, since despite having the soul kicked out of me at one employer......that I signed papers and made this our home. And the past year has been one of change and growth and so many positive things that I could never list them all here.


We had summer and then quickly fall then winter. Our first winter in our own house, watching the snow pile up out the windows. There were days that it was like magic.

And there have been holidays and birthdays and anniversaries........but you know what have been the best days? The days I stumble out of bed on the weekend to make coffee......quietly.


In our own house.

Or we've taken a couple of balls and gone into the backyard with nothing to do but run, and kick, and play.

I don't even know where to start, explaining the sigh of relief I feel some days, closing that front door - knowing that this is our kingdom......this is our refuge. This land belongs to my family. It's quite a bit of land considering the market these days.

It's a place where for the first time in a long time, I feel settled and grounded.

The nature of the world has become transient, like we're some giant Bedouin tribe without direction. The difference is that the Bedouins have each other. They know where they are going and where they came from. It had begun to seem for a while that we were just moving moving moving.......always moving.

No more.

I'm not saying we're here forever.......but I am saying that I am home. I sleep like the dead, safe in the country air and forest standing guard.

And if it is my fate, to drink cheap wine out of snowman goblets on my deck.........then I say......
Bring it.

What Does Joy Look Like?

I think that it looks something like this. It's nearly been one year since I signed a stack of papers that made this pink house ours. And in that year, we've spent a fortune trying to get the pool working.
I suspect that if you BUY a pool it comes with instructions, maybe even some sort of cursory training. But if you buy a house which COMES WITH a pool.......well then, the training you get is "There are some chemicals in the shed."
For one year we've added chemicals, fixed things, added more chemicals, cleaned it.......and when I say WE I mean THE HUSBAND.
There was the great tadpole extinction of '09 where we had to kill literally thousands of tadpoles that had decided to grow in it - because in our ignorance we hadn't kept enough chemical in it. There have been trips to the pool shop and HELL even a pool GUY came out.
The pool has been, in short, a feckin nightmare.

Everything changed this evening, when it went from a blight to a luxury.......when we stepped into it's water and discovered that THIS was what owning a pool was like.

Suddenly it occured to us what it means, the luxury of it - the sheer pleasure of swimming had us all a little giddy I'm afraid. We have a pool. We can swim every day if we want. We can swim ANY day if we want. Or night.

Suddenly this house just became an even better bargain.

And in the water, my hips don't hurt, my feet don't hurt......my aches and pains that seem to be chronic just vanish. Part of me would like to smack the previous owners for not giving us better information on how to make the pool work. But based on some of the nonsense that they did around my house (ask me about the sparkles embedded in the textured walls of my kitchen) I suspect asking them would not be the best plan.

Is it silly or primal the comfort that you get in a pool of water? We've all just been in this ecstatic place all evening - planning the LONGER swimming session tomorrow. I thought the kids would drop straight off but they're giggling in their room. One has been giggling forever, something like a joyous cackle that he can't turn off.

I guess he had a good time swimming too.

What Does Joy Look Like?

I think that it looks something like this. It's nearly been one year since I signed a stack of papers that made this pink house ours. And in that year, we've spent a fortune trying to get the pool working.
I suspect that if you BUY a pool it comes with instructions, maybe even some sort of cursory training. But if you buy a house which COMES WITH a pool.......well then, the training you get is "There are some chemicals in the shed."
For one year we've added chemicals, fixed things, added more chemicals, cleaned it.......and when I say WE I mean THE HUSBAND.
There was the great tadpole extinction of '09 where we had to kill literally thousands of tadpoles that had decided to grow in it - because in our ignorance we hadn't kept enough chemical in it. There have been trips to the pool shop and HELL even a pool GUY came out.
The pool has been, in short, a feckin nightmare.

Everything changed this evening, when it went from a blight to a luxury.......when we stepped into it's water and discovered that THIS was what owning a pool was like.

Suddenly it occured to us what it means, the luxury of it - the sheer pleasure of swimming had us all a little giddy I'm afraid. We have a pool. We can swim every day if we want. We can swim ANY day if we want. Or night.

Suddenly this house just became an even better bargain.

And in the water, my hips don't hurt, my feet don't hurt......my aches and pains that seem to be chronic just vanish. Part of me would like to smack the previous owners for not giving us better information on how to make the pool work. But based on some of the nonsense that they did around my house (ask me about the sparkles embedded in the textured walls of my kitchen) I suspect asking them would not be the best plan.

Is it silly or primal the comfort that you get in a pool of water? We've all just been in this ecstatic place all evening - planning the LONGER swimming session tomorrow. I thought the kids would drop straight off but they're giggling in their room. One has been giggling forever, something like a joyous cackle that he can't turn off.

I guess he had a good time swimming too.

SNAKE!

What does it sound like, when you stumble outside to pour your coffee grounds on your roses, and you see this green twig on the porch, and then that twig has a head and eyes and serpentines across your porch?
It sounds a little like "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE."
Don't get me wrong.
This wasn't a big snake. It was the size of a pencil.
But it WAS A DAMN SNAKE ON MY PORCH.
See I'm OFF snake guard. When we lived in Florida, I had full power Snake-dar going all the time. You had water moccasins and pygmy rattlers there like leaves on trees. Ask SARAH!
Sarah will confirm for you that once I nearly peed in my pants bcse I got halfway up her walk, between her bushes, when she called down "OH hey watch for the snakes in the bushes."

Snakes are my mortal enemies. I hate them like I hate Hitler. Except I'd just slap Hitler and snakes, well they send me running screaming in the other direction.

Once at my old job in FLA, I was out for a walk when this large branch on the pathway in front of me raised it's head and looked at me. WATER MOCCASIN. As I ran SCREAMING in the other direction, back to the outdoor break area......I informed my co-workers that there was a huge snake.
"Yeah, we heard you screaming," was all they had to say.
The natives in Florida are numb to the killer beasts they live among, I swear.

I also, at the same job, was out to lunch with a co-worker and was stepping out of my car, when I just HAPPENED to look down and nearly put my put down ON a coiled up water moccasin. It was lounging in the parking lot bcse a hurricane had come through and filled all the ditches up with water to flooding It was VERY happy to be there. I was not. I shrieked and got into my car and screamed and refused to come out.

Ever.

So as I went reeling back inside my house, to my husband and son telling me it was no big deal and BOTH stepping outside to check it out.....I didn't even care. He dumped the grounds on the roses and I stayed inside.

I will tolerate the snakes in the woods as they are eating vermin and keeping them out of my yard. I will tolerate the snakes in the yard as long at they have the SENSE to stay away when I am IN the yard.

But my PORCH?

The snakes are not welcome on my porch. Snake you and I do not have a deal and I am NOT Eve. I suggest you stay under the porch where I cannot see you or know you are there.

We'll both be happier.

SNAKE!

What does it sound like, when you stumble outside to pour your coffee grounds on your roses, and you see this green twig on the porch, and then that twig has a head and eyes and serpentines across your porch?
It sounds a little like "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE."
Don't get me wrong.
This wasn't a big snake. It was the size of a pencil.
But it WAS A DAMN SNAKE ON MY PORCH.
See I'm OFF snake guard. When we lived in Florida, I had full power Snake-dar going all the time. You had water moccasins and pygmy rattlers there like leaves on trees. Ask SARAH!
Sarah will confirm for you that once I nearly peed in my pants bcse I got halfway up her walk, between her bushes, when she called down "OH hey watch for the snakes in the bushes."

Snakes are my mortal enemies. I hate them like I hate Hitler. Except I'd just slap Hitler and snakes, well they send me running screaming in the other direction.

Once at my old job in FLA, I was out for a walk when this large branch on the pathway in front of me raised it's head and looked at me. WATER MOCCASIN. As I ran SCREAMING in the other direction, back to the outdoor break area......I informed my co-workers that there was a huge snake.
"Yeah, we heard you screaming," was all they had to say.
The natives in Florida are numb to the killer beasts they live among, I swear.

I also, at the same job, was out to lunch with a co-worker and was stepping out of my car, when I just HAPPENED to look down and nearly put my put down ON a coiled up water moccasin. It was lounging in the parking lot bcse a hurricane had come through and filled all the ditches up with water to flooding It was VERY happy to be there. I was not. I shrieked and got into my car and screamed and refused to come out.

Ever.

So as I went reeling back inside my house, to my husband and son telling me it was no big deal and BOTH stepping outside to check it out.....I didn't even care. He dumped the grounds on the roses and I stayed inside.

I will tolerate the snakes in the woods as they are eating vermin and keeping them out of my yard. I will tolerate the snakes in the yard as long at they have the SENSE to stay away when I am IN the yard.

But my PORCH?

The snakes are not welcome on my porch. Snake you and I do not have a deal and I am NOT Eve. I suggest you stay under the porch where I cannot see you or know you are there.

We'll both be happier.

A Rose By Any Other Name - Tastes Good to Something

So I've got roses. Which I love. My grandmother was like the Rose Queen of the Midwest - she could grow any kind of rose by giving it a stern look. One of her great tricks was that she'd toss coffee grounds and banana peels at the ground around them - and despite the swarm of flies around the base of the plant the roses would just THRIVE.
My roses are right by my front door - it's an nice tall plant and didn't look ALL that healthy until the past few days when suddenly it's started blooming (I HAVE been feeding it coffee grounds - though). I just felt like banana peels rotting right outside my front door might not be the way to go in this neighborhood.
My first rose was in full bloom the morning we walked out the door for our first day of Kindergarten. Which I felt was rather fun and lovely.

At this time I've got three more blooms getting ready to open and I couldn't be more pleased except that.......

Something is eating my roses.

The leaves are all holey and nibbled at - and one of my new blooms that is JUST peeking out has black spots on it. Almost ALL of them have had something taking very healthy bites out of the leaves.

It's not APHIDS (my grandmother's nemesis) because you can SEE Aphids.

So then - WHAT is it? Ideas?

A Rose By Any Other Name - Tastes Good to Something

So I've got roses. Which I love. My grandmother was like the Rose Queen of the Midwest - she could grow any kind of rose by giving it a stern look. One of her great tricks was that she'd toss coffee grounds and banana peels at the ground around them - and despite the swarm of flies around the base of the plant the roses would just THRIVE.
My roses are right by my front door - it's an nice tall plant and didn't look ALL that healthy until the past few days when suddenly it's started blooming (I HAVE been feeding it coffee grounds - though). I just felt like banana peels rotting right outside my front door might not be the way to go in this neighborhood.
My first rose was in full bloom the morning we walked out the door for our first day of Kindergarten. Which I felt was rather fun and lovely.

At this time I've got three more blooms getting ready to open and I couldn't be more pleased except that.......

Something is eating my roses.

The leaves are all holey and nibbled at - and one of my new blooms that is JUST peeking out has black spots on it. Almost ALL of them have had something taking very healthy bites out of the leaves.

It's not APHIDS (my grandmother's nemesis) because you can SEE Aphids.

So then - WHAT is it? Ideas?

Head Like A Hole

Because we didn't have enough holes in our walls, what with the piano going into the wall, and various furniture popping nicks out of the dry wall on it's way in the house, and of course the Box Spring Incident.........
we now have another hole.

In the shape of a four year old's head.

You see, Baby Birth of Cool was ascending the stairs yesterday, and being a bad parent I was talking to him at the top........and he paid more attention to me than walking up.......and tumbled down them.

And put his head RIGHT THROUGH THE DRYWALL.

THUNK.

Yup, you heard me. His head went INTO and THROUGH the drywall making a nice round HOLE at the landing of my stairs.

He's fine.

He cried, had a bit of a boohoo. I cried, because I was relieved he broke the wall and not his neck.

And now, I have one more hole in the wall.

Next person who says money pit gets a boot to the head.

Head Like A Hole

Because we didn't have enough holes in our walls, what with the piano going into the wall, and various furniture popping nicks out of the dry wall on it's way in the house, and of course the Box Spring Incident.........
we now have another hole.

In the shape of a four year old's head.

You see, Baby Birth of Cool was ascending the stairs yesterday, and being a bad parent I was talking to him at the top........and he paid more attention to me than walking up.......and tumbled down them.

And put his head RIGHT THROUGH THE DRYWALL.

THUNK.

Yup, you heard me. His head went INTO and THROUGH the drywall making a nice round HOLE at the landing of my stairs.

He's fine.

He cried, had a bit of a boohoo. I cried, because I was relieved he broke the wall and not his neck.

And now, I have one more hole in the wall.

Next person who says money pit gets a boot to the head.