a hope note

On Wednesday Ivar woke up and told me that he was going to make a hope note for Vernon. I asked him what a hope note was and he told me, "it's a card with a picture that tells Vernon I hope he comes back." I loved the simplicity of this idea. I loved how sweet he was when he said it. I love that we hadn't talked about Vernon in weeks, but that he woke up thinking about our well-loved cat.

We got Vernon when he was just a kitten. You who have read here for a while know him well, as he's been well documented. He had the personality of a dog. Super faithful, always nearby. If we went anywhere on the farm, he followed. There were even a few times I'd drive to the end of our lane and notice a shadow moving on the top of our car, to realize Velma and Vernon were perched on top, ready to go to town with us. Our family photo session was photo bombed frequently by Vernon. I think in the end we actually had to lock him in the garage so we could get some pictures without the cat and super distracted kids.

Vernon has been missing for a few months now. I suppose that's the life of a farm cat, but it's also a surprise because we had him for two whole years, which is a long time in farm cat years. He has disappeared for weeks at a time before, but this is by far the longest stretch. And we miss him.

I suppose this is my own hope note, hoping he comes home.

elsie at 2 1/2

Elsie runs everywhere. Everywhere. She never walks, she jogs. Even if it's from her place at the kitchen table over to the silverware drawer to get a new spoon, she jogs. If we're outside and she suddenly wants to be somewhere else, she runs, pumping her arms, kicking her feet up to her bottom. It really is something to watch.

As a result, she is also the most likely to get hurt in a day. She takes some nasty spills. It's become so common that our responses are quite tempered. Last week she was on our tile taking off her winter coat and slipped on a table runner that had been used as a farm field earlier in the day. Her arms were caught in the coat and she fell forward onto her face, splitting her lip, hitting her front teeth (for the umpteenth time in her short life). We might have reacted in a more dramatic way if it wasn't so downright crazy that she fell on her face again.

Elsie wakes up in a splendid mood and is proving that she does not need nearly as much sleep as her brother. She has begun skipping her naps and instead plays quietly in her room during quiet playtime. In the mornings she will come jogging into our room sometime between 7:04 and 7:07 to tell me, "I went poopie and peepee in the potty, so now can I have a marshmallow? Mama, can I have a marshmallow? Can we go down and have a marshmallow? Mom, can you get up and get me a marshmallow? Can you sit up and come get me a marshmallow?"

It's funny because we hardly used the marshmallow at all during her actual potty training. But now she's figured out the connection and likes to play it up as much as possible.

She is quite the mess. We just started having her wear a bib again, which was a brilliant idea (that only took us a year and a half to figure out...) She is the first to find mud, dirt or food. Tonight she pulled Rory's tall glass of coca-cola off of the counter to see what was in it, right onto herself and the whole kitchen floor. We go through a disproportionate amount of hand towels and kitchen towels in this house for only having four members. But Elsie actually accounts for about seven of them a day.

She and Ivar are the best of friends. It's really a joy to watch. I heard them playing house out in the garage yesterday and they were playing so hard. At night I hear them singing songs back and forth to each other, babbling about the day, telling each other the plan for the next day. It'll melt a mom's heart.

She has started telling us about the baby in her belly. She'll let us know, "my baby loves chicken!"

She's got some strong opinions and she is happy to share them. She keeps us on our toes, trying to train her to be polite while maintaining her fun and wild spirit. I told Rory recently, "Elsie's hair matches her personality perfectly." And it's so true. Fired up and wild, we just love her and her crazy hair to pieces.

a barn razing

This weekend our little barn went down. This actually was a building next to the big barn that was burned before we moved here. I'm not sure what it housed back in the day, but we loved it for its character, its history and the charm it brought to the farm. Unfortunately, it just wasn't safe. We couldn't let kids go in there and we had no purposes of our own for storage or any other use. So after two and a half years of helping us make pretty pictures, it was time to go down.

On Saturday, Rory's dad came and they moved mountains. They spent the morning emptying out the pole barn (not pictured) as well as this barn, driving truck loads of things to a temporary spot on our farm or to the garage. The kids got to ride along in the cab of the truck, which as you can see below, is about the greatest thing on planet earth. Everyone was having a jolly time. And so much got done. In the afternoon they pulled off the leaning roof that was already partly off the building. I've been waiting for that to happen for a long time and it was fun to watch.

Sunday the weather warmed up and we got a new crew of helpers: my folks, our friend Derrick and his son and our pastor's son. Derrick and Rory took off as much barn wood as possible, and the boys pounded out the nails.

My dad was on the inside pounding boards from that angle. And my mom made brownies and kept everyone hydrated while watching my kids. I took pictures...and a nap. I've got some pregnancy stuff going on and was happy to watch the work being done.

We saved as much barn wood as possible. We have a couple of ideas for its use, and it will be fun to bring it back in new ways.

Once all of the barn wood was removed that we could safely remove, it was time to pull it down. The actual event was quite exciting...to watch a tractor pull down a building that size is pretty awesome. But the more I watch the video the more sad and sorry I am for the building. I am the queen of personification anyway, and when it falls, it just looks defeated. I understand it is just a building...but I'm good at adding in an extra dose of emotion where I feel it is needed. Especially when I'm pregnant.

In the end it did go down. As Rory said, "by the hands of two pastors, a computer programmer and two eleven-year-olds." At some point this week we will have quite the inferno on our hands. Derrick told me I should call that blog post, "barn a-blazing." I'll keep you posted.

the first watermelon of the season

I have blogged about this a few different years. It seems I think the first watermelon of the season is a very big deal. Because it really is. It marks the start of a whole six months of possibility, projects and good produce.

I should tell you though that this watermelon cost me ten dollars. For real. I had an appointment today with my midwives and they sent me to the Co-op to get magnesium and fish oil and right in the entry way they had samples of this organic-all-the-way-from-mexico watermelon. And it was amazing. Crisp and cold because they were in a bin outside, I grabbed a nice heavy one on my way in the door. I did the math in my head and knew this was going to cost me, but I had to have it.

Of course, Rory would never ever understand this. He would never support spending ten dollars ($9.73 to be exact) on a watermelon. Or any produce. Which is why I made two transactions. I paid for the vitamins with our joint account, and paid for the watermelon from my Fun Money debit card. You may already know that at the first of the month we each get Fun Money that is solely ours to spend. My clothes, shoes, haircuts, outings with girl friends, gifts and watermelons come out of this little account. It means I can spend money on nice shampoo and not have to explain it later to Rory. Anything that I think will come up later at a budget talk is purchased with my Fun Money card. It has saved us many a money argument throughout the course of our marriage.

That said, it seems I'm always out of my Fun Money while Rory saves his for months until he has enough to buy a surveillance camera to see what is roaming in our garden at night. But I tend to spend my Fun Money. Rapidly. At this moment I can't afford new shoes, but my belly is really happy that it is watermelon season. And thankfully this ten dollar watermelon did not disappoint.

bee friendly seeds: on sale now!

I'm just so excited about this and also really proud. Our bee-friendly seeds are now on sale over at The Grovestead. Rory has worked diligently researching the seeds we would sell and ordered from various vendors to ensure these seeds are not genetically modified. He figured out the packaging and design and last night put the final details on the payment page. As of this morning, the seeds are now on sale.

I was thinking about how excited I get when I'm driving on an interstate and see one of those blue signs with a little sign for a Jimmy Johns. That's my favorite place to eat on a road trip. And how basically each person who plants honey bee friendly flowers is setting up a little buffet for honey bees. Bees will fly for miles in a day looking for good pollen and nectar. I'm imagining them getting just as excited to find our little bee friendly gardens as I am when I find a Jimmy Johns.

Please bop on over to The Grovestead to check it out. He's got pictures and details of the flower seeds we are including, frequently asked questions and a brief back story. If this interests you at all, please join in and plant a bee friendly garden and help us spread the word. It's a bad feeling to feel helpless. It's an awesome feeling to feel like there are little things we can all do that might make a world of difference.

So now, go! Check it out!