Twenty: 52

 

 

 the 52 project.
Portraits of my main squeezes, every week.

 

O, this week you…

…keep asking me when kitty will come home and all I can say is that I don’t know, that he may not, but we can still love him forever.

…took apart your old bike, just to do it. You broke it down completely, dividing up the parts into piles of what you might like to keep around for repairs and what you will repurpose for building projects, like that robot you keep talking about. Nothing is trash, and I think that’s pretty great.

…were really interested in the process of getting our bees situated this time around. We’ll enjoy watching them work this summer.

C, this week you…

…made it through, even though it was a tough one. We are stretched thin and feel a lot of pressure from many sources. We’re strong for each other, and I am grateful.

…felt disappointed when you didn’t get as far with the garden prep as you wanted to this weekend. Breaking new ground with only hand tools…it’s punishing, exhausting labor and, being the observer, I’m amazed at how much you were able to change the landscape. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

…set up the beeeeeees, and they seem happy in their new digs.

…kept yourself distracted and busy, as did I, so as not to constantly wonder if kitty will ever come home again.

 

Nineteen: 52

 the 52 project.
Portraits of my main squeezes, every week.

I do believe they are plotting against me.
And, um, O…dude, I can see your cards.

I planned the usual sort of post, but long days outdoors, preparing for potential frosts the last two nights (meaning the gooseberries are covered in Felix the Cat sheets, and pillowcases are staked over the blueberries), and then a bizarro power outage for several hours yesterday afternoon/evening meant I didn’t get a whole lot done involving the glowing box.

There were moments squeezed in for dandelion-picking. These petals are destined for a batch of dandelion wine. We are using this recipe, but I had begun to follow another at first and already have the flower petals steeping without any of the other ingredients. I’ll just heat it up a little today to dissolve the sugar, and continue with the Katz recipe as written. More on this process to come!

Oh, and the duck eggs? I found those in our neighbor’s yard. We had noticed the girls weren’t laying in the coop anymore…it seems they are just dropping them whenever and wherever they get the urge. I also found one on the driveway.

Oh, and the goats? They were reunited with their mamas and cousins to pasture out on a neighbor’s land. A great escape was made at midnight and now they are all back up here on the hill.

I am surrounded by silly, exasperating creatures.

Good thing they’re cute as buttons.

Eighteen: 52

 

 

 the 52 project.
Portraits of my main squeezes, every week.

 

O, this week you…

…ate breakfast with your bike helmet on because you were so excited to get out there and ride.

…dug right in. To everything. When the old pine crashed through our garden, you were there with the wheelbarrow to help remove the debris. When the compost was delivered, you helped shovel our neighbor’s share. When I finished turning a garden bed, you were there with the hose. Spring has turned up your Helper Monkey Frequency to an awesome degree. I love it! And you seem to be having so much fun…bonus party.

…did most every task with a thick layer of dirt crusted onto you. When we started on your homework, I couldn’t help laughing. Look at those hands! It’s all about the warmth of brown earth right now…gotta wash away all those memories of bright, clean snow! Good riddance to that!

 

C, this week you…

…cared so sweetly for all our green babies. I love how you call me during the day to make sure I’m keeping an eye on the greenhouse and making sure our future vegetable friends have everything they need.

…bore it all with grace when things didn’t go according to plan this weekend. Somehow we’ll get it all under control, one day at a time.

 

Later today…fiber post!

Seventeen: 52

 the 52 project.
Portraits of my main squeezes, every week.

Keeping on task, better late than never. This was a week of recovery, of too much on our plates, of feeling really, really tired at the end of the day. No one wanted a camera in their face.

Experiencing joy in the freshness of Spring has been temporarily replaced with the Herculean tasks of reworking fencing for the beasts and birds, readying the garden for planting and babying the seedlings in the greenhouse, felling trees and general clean-up. It’s busy, busy, busy time before the mellowness of early Summer can set in. At the end of each work/school day, we are taking advantage of the extra hours of daylight. It’s a rewarding sort of exhaustion, but this week it made for grumpy photo subjects, especially after several days of dealing with the sicko. I wrote about waking up from that haze here.

And about the ridiculousness of piling the plate so high here.

And a Luminous post about mornings here.

Oh, oh, OH! And don’t forget THIS: there are handspun yarns, hand dyed yarns and a few other special treats by The Spun Monkey hanging out at the Cloverhill Yarn Shop booth THIS WEEKEND at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. GO!

Sixteen: 52

 the 52 project.
Portraits of my main squeezes, every week.

O, this week you…

…waited patiently, and not so patiently, for me to get better.

…did not come down with it. This is a beautiful thing.

C, this week you…

…took such good care of me, even though you had only just recovered. You drank the fire tonic that my stomach couldn’t handle and I watched you get better while I drifted further into fever-land.

We’re all better now, today I really feel it. So, running clothes on, I’m going out to bathe in the healing light of Spring sunshine. I may not actually run this morning, but I could surprise myself. The human body loves to make a good comeback.

So, in the spirit of easing gently back into the pace of things, here are my loves together. Nonna and Nonno were here all that week before our collapse into the clutches of Strep A, and we took a most delightful trip to The Book Mill. We had a pretty hilarious lunch and enjoyed an afternoon playing around in western MA. I have more to share about that, but in a near-future post.

I have two days left to prepare for the Wild and Woolly Weekend in Proctorsville, VT and then the following day I’ll be shipping my remaining inventory to Clover Hill Yarn Shop, where the lovely Jolene will be taking my wares for consignment at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. A few new things I have had up my sleeve will have to wait, as I lost five important days of production time to bacteria. Oh, well. Spilled milk. Moving on.

Oh, and I managed a Literary Traces post yesterday…a little thing about coming through the funk and breathing in a new day.

Enjoy!

Fifteen: 52

the 52 project.
Portraits of my main squeezes, every Sunday (or Monday…oops).

O, this week you…

…had the sickies and ickies, which is rare for you. It gave us a quiet, cozy day with lots of story time (we finished The Porcupine Year…so good) and there was a decent bit of laying on the floor pushing cars around in a listless sort of way. Just one quiet day, though, and then you were right as rain and bouncing off the walls again.

…delighted in the freak snow that fell on your sick day. It was such a perfect time to snuggle, really, however annoyed I was to see our garden beds disappear under a white blanket. April snow is a fleeting thing, thankfully, and almost every trace has vanished.

…welcomed some strange new friends into your life. They like to watch us watch them.

C, this week you…

…put up with my bringing home of the above-mentioned strange friends with grace, even though the last thing we need right now is another set of pets.

…humored me when, after a long day of work, you came home to find me tangled in webbing, trying to get the goats on their leads. We took them for a bit of an evening walk…okay, I guess they took us for the walk. Okay, I was dragged along while the goats walked us. Ahem.

Fourteen: 52

 

 

the 52 project.
Portraits of my main squeezes, every Sunday.

O, this week you…

…hit the big time. Eight years old. You told me you didn’t feel any different, but it seems like a pretty huge marker to me. Like, you are my child, but you are not a child, you are a kid. Fully. Officially. With your big kid bicycle and your big kid attitude, your shrugging off my kisses at the bus stop. You get out the instructions and put your own new toys together. Just, please, let me be the one to clip your fingernails for a little while longer.

…bonded with new friends. Such a sweet thing to witness.

…read a whole chapter out loud to me when I only asked for a couple pages, but you still shake your head when people ask you if you can read. You can! Own that, baby!

…received a gift you will never forget.

 

C, this week you…

…rallied from the stomach flu enough to squeeze in a couple days work at the end of the week, a greenhouse tidying and a bonfire for the birthday boy. As always, you are superman.

…snuggled the cat, obviously.

 

 

Thirteen: 52

 

 

the 52 project
Portraits of my main squeezes, every Sunday.

O, this week you…

…will be eight-years-old on Tuesday. My mind = completely blown. It’s a long day, a school-at-school day and then a get-dragged-to-a-different-school-where-mama-teaches-a-knitting-class-in-the-afternoon sort of long day. Sorry about that. Tuesday doesn’t know it’s your birthday…it’s just being a normal, very busy Tuesday. But, there will be pie when we get home. Blueberry-raspberry, as you requested. We’ll be trying this.

…wiggled and wiggled and wiggled and still that bottom tooth is hanging by the toughest little thread. You like to gross me out by twirling it around with your tongue. Ew.

…had a pretty fantastic time painting eggs with your best buddies. We skipped the dye and went for tempera, Craypas, stamps and some super-fun embossing powder. The results were delightful. Even Kitty Kitzman got an egg.

…were so happy to be allowed outside without woolen long underwear. The sun, the sun!

 

C, this week you…

…manned three separate fires at once…in the house, in the greenhouse, and at the evaporator, all while making decent progress on next year’s firewood supply. It made me want to sew you a flame-covered superhero costume.

Twelve: 52

the 52 project
Portraits of my main squeezes, every Sunday.

O, this week you…

…basked in the gloriousness of a mid-week Snow Day, spending an entire afternoon snowboarding down your best buddy’s driveway.

…really bonded with your favorite chicken, the little bantee you’ve named Tweetie. She rode around on your shoulder and you built her an igloo so she would have a refuge from the other chickens. She stood close by and monitored its construction.

…hilariously, did not have much of a poker face. I’m so glad we are getting back into the rhythm of having a family game night. Overall, you had a lot more fun than it appears, but the above look is what you had on your face every time you drew a card you didn’t like! When I won, we made sure everyone else won, too…good feelings all around, especially when you learned to make the most of what you had.

C, this week you…

…made magic happen in the greenhouse.

…lifted some of the oppressive weight of this week with humor. Much appreciated.

Eleven: 52

 

 

the 52 project
Portraits of my main squeezes, every Sunday.

O, this week you…

…were a total wildman. The picture above was taken at bedtime, and represents the Energy That Would Not Quit which has possessed you for several days straight, and well into the night. Am wondering if you have a secret stash of chocolate-covered espresso beans, or something just as magical, that I should know about.*

…could summon the calm in those moments when Papa and I struggled with very hard news and powerful feelings of sadness. Thank you for that.

…made a huge leap in your reading. It was exciting and you were so proud of yourself!

…were excited about the signs of Spring popping up in our little world, even though the temperatures have reverted back to Winter chill. You couldn’t help running outdoors without enough clothes on because it just looks so warm and inviting. I have to admit, just seeing the sun out after so many weeks of cloud cover made me feel warm from the inside out, too.

C, this week you…

…were smoldering in the maple steam.

…couldn’t resist filling the whole kitchen with more and more seed trays. I wish you could get paid to create the bountiful garden you envision. You would be so happy.

*And if you do, can I have some? I need an infusion of your seemingly boundless energy right about now.