I AM Here -- Kind Of....

Hi Everyone (or is it Anyone??? Anyone???)

I've been given a rare night to myself, so thought I'd check in. S and Pinecone both went to bed at 8, and for some reason, having S in bed makes me feel like a bachelorette tonight!

So, what's going on? Well, Pinecone is 2 years and 5 months old. She is a huge talker, lots of full sentences and complete thoughts. She is in love with the moon, whom she calls "Luna." She can identify a few birds by their calls. She surprised me the other day by saying, "That's Raven," and she was right -- it wasn't a crow. I'd only recently told her (once or twice) that the big black birds at our house are ravens, but the ones in town are crows. The difference between a raven and a crow seemed too subtle for a 2 year old, but apparently I was wrong. I guess now I can break it to her that half of the "Moss" she identifies is actually lichen.

My "Evergreen Baby"


Yes, she is smart. Yes, I am biased. And, yes, it is very pleasant to spend my days with someone with whom I can discuss ornithology and botany.

She also is a little tyrant at times. Well, she IS 2+. She loves to banish me to the kitchen ("Go back to your kitchen, Mom." Which clarifies that I am to go to MY kitchern, not HER kitchen.). I'd like to think that it's because she appreciates my home-cookin' so much, but I know better.... Though she does compliment my cooking occassionally, "This dinner really good, Mom." Sigh and smile. Today we were reading "Pease Porridge Hot" and got so into it, we had to stop to make some oatmeal with peach jam mixed in -- second bowl of oatmeal of the day. She also enjoyed snacking on raw garlic and sipping vinegar as I was curing olives today. My little Pinecone has some serious tastebuds!

Fresh peas from the garden -- the rare ones that actually made it into the house


This is how we spend our days: We feed our chickens, collect eggs, PC tries to avoid the rooster while we talk about her Dragonfire (her courage and strength), garden if it isn't freezing or raining, color on the chalk board, occasionally I am courageous enough to bust out the paint or play-doh, build chicken coops and houses with puzzle pieces instead of actually doing the puzzles, torturing the dogs and cat (while I am constantly putting them outside, only to find them back in again too soon), cooking and baking (when you've grown 121 pounds of sugar pumpkins, plus another 50 pounds of other winter squash, you eat a lot of baked goods! Vitamin A never tasted so good!), in the afternoon we "Do a little hiking" (her words).

Having a tete-a-tete with The Hennies

Helping me make pumpkin bars.

And I confess I love my electronic babysitter! I never thought I would be "one of those moms", but I am. For about 45 after our afternoon "hike", while I get dinner going she and Elmo or Bear in the Big Blue House spend some quality time together. I rationalize it by saying her day is generally so stimulating and active and interactive that some screen time isn't going to make her brain-dead. The truth is, whatever potential negative affects the tv has (though it's not actually tv) is way better than the frazzled b*tch I used to become at the end of the day.

Feeding "Giant Elmo" (it was a hand-me-down, I swear!) elephant and tiger soup (while sitting in her home-made "boosterseat/carseat/rocketship".


I also love my human babysitter! Another confession: I feel guilty that I am a stay at home mom and I still send my kid to daycare. A friend of mine has a small in-home daycare, and PC goes for about 3 hours once or twice a week. She loves it. My friend has a daughter PC's exact age, and they are good buddies (in fact, this friend has recently arrived at our house as PC's imaginary friend). Meanwhile I can have a bit of time to get involved in something uninterrupted. My other SAHM friends don't do this, but they have family who watch the kids occassionally, and they aren't building chicken coops and cold frames, chopping and hauling firewood, and trying to grow their own food. But they do manage to clean their houses, and I haven't figured that one out yet.

As you can see, I am not much of housekeeper ...

... but fortunately someone likes to clean.

I love being home. I love getting to spend so much time with PC. I love not having to work. I love not being on-call. I love being able to dedicate time and energy and mental space to all these homesteading projects that we always dreamed about. At Thanksgiving, S said he was thankful for my hard work and growing most of the Thanksgiving dinner, and I told him I was thankful for him going to work so I could be home and grow all this food! It's been tight financially for sure, but it really IS the good life. For all of us.

Enjoying the taste of fresh snow