Life keeps trucking along, despite my various concerns and issues. It's funny, that way. Chickadee is somewhat improved since our frantic evening at Urgent Care and her shot of steroids. This means, of course, that she is still covered head-to-toe with rash, and that someone who hadn't seen her earlier this week would think she looked terrible, but we can see that compared to a few days ago, she is really MUCH BETTER. In the meantime, she has been increasingly emotional and crabby, which didn't make any sense to me until I remembered that prednisone makes me insane, and then I realized that...
Oh, hi! I'm sorry I didn't get around to posting yesterday. I totally would've, except for the fact that I spent the ENTIRE DAY: A) Driving to the doctor B) At the doctor C) Driving to another doctor D) Getting lost between doctor's offices E) Waiting at the pharmacy F) Swearing about getting lost between offices G) Having a coronary over the cost of all of these misadventures. So that was fun. In related news, I still kind of hate doctors. In further related news, my daughter and I are delicate flowers. Ouch! Stop breathing so close to me!! Hey, remember when I somehow borked up my neck,...
When I was a kid I went to camp. Always. And I loved it---don't get me wrong---but I feel like the proper reward for everyone in the family for surviving another year of getting up at o'dark thirty five days a week to get to school is a summer full of... relaxing. At home. Where Mom is not required to drive anyone anywhere. It's a wonderful thing, having children old enough that they can more or less entertain themselves. We have some very simple daily goals here at Casa Mir. We take care of the garden. Both kids are enrolled in the summer reading program at our library. Piano lessons...
Sometimes I keep waiting for a big cohesive story to come along before I sit down and write, and then I realize that actually, I'll be waiting a long time. And there are little tidbits I want to remember, in the meantime. Things I Have Learned While Gardening Cabbages like coffee grounds. Sometimes tomato plants fall over for no reason (but will stand up and grow again if you use a couple of supports). The same children who sometimes push store-bought beans around on their plates at dinnertime will argue over whose turn it is to go pick beans, and then eat half the haul en route. Watermelons...
We went for a walk after dinner last night. Chickadee alternated inserting herself between me and Otto so that we couldn't hold hands, grabbing one or the other of us from the outside and trying to pull us away from the other one, or marching up ahead in a variety of odd skips and flails. (Our very own personal Ministry of Silly Walks!) I don't know how the conversation started, but Chickie asked for an explanation of a situation we'd been chatting about, wherein a blended family was somewhat complicated by the fact that the eventual couple actually had a child together before either of them...
When I woke up before Otto's alarm clock went off this morning, I just had a feeling it was going to be one of THOSE sorts of days. I wasn't sure why I felt that way; I just did. Sometimes you just know. Today's the day Chickadee goes to the allergist. Her rash is fading a bit, since she stopped eating wheat, but she still looks a little bit like she has leprosy. Of course there's been precious little we need to run out and DO this week, so today---the one day we need to get up and out at a reasonable time---I looked up from my computer at 10:00 and realized she still hadn't, you know,...
So, as I mentioned in passing, before, I went on this weird restrictive diet to try to clear up some issues I was having with my skin. (And by "issues" I of course mean "leprosy-like eruptions." Gosh, I hope you weren't eating anything when you read that.) For two entire weeks I eliminated a host of foods I love dearly, and I went heavy on the fruits, veggies, nuts (though not peanuts, because I already suspect I've developed a sensitivity to those, on account of my being a delicate flower and everything), and lean meats. My skin cleared up. It was a thing of beauty. At that point I...
So, here's the thing about strawberries at this time of year: They're EVERYWHERE, here in Georgia. You can get them cheap at the grocery store, the farms are all advertising that they're peaking, heck, we're even growing them in containers on our deck. Supermarket strawberries: Pretty cheap, right now, and decent-tasting. Not great, but not bad. Deck strawberries: Completely free (we bought the plants last year), but taste like crap. Seriously. The brightest red, most gorgeous-looking berries? Taste like nothing. I will never buy these plants again. Yuck. Farm strawberries: More expensive...
So my folks are here and we're totally taking advantage of their good graces. The other night, my husband and I went on a hot date, leaving the children at home to torture play with their grandparents. Otto and I had a delicious dinner and then---heady with our freedom---went to Ye Olde Giant Home Improvement Store and bought... shelf paper. And planters. Because we are wild and crazy, and nothing says romance like looking at bathroom faucets you don't even need. And then yesterday, there were strawberries. That's a longer story than I can tell right now, but suffice it to say that it was An...
