They’re making me do it.

Okay, so my lovely e-friend and gfriend, Sarah, put together a lovely little yahoo group for some of her buddies (hurray! I’m a buddy!), and she has challenged us to post a picture every day.

I’m only like a week and a half late. I’ve just been sitting there, reading other people’s posts, and being lazy. But the more I look at their pictures, the more I want to be involved, so I’m gonna get off my butt and start participating.

This morning was a perfect day for weeding. Cool and overcast - ideal outside weather when you have a rather debilitating phobia of wasps, like I do. I took Ariel outside with me, and she played with chunks of dirt and rock while I tackled some more of our forest of hay fever (and a few other miscellaneous menaces).

So….

Here is my first Village Green Picture of the Day (PoD). I call it, “When Weeds Fight Back.”

“Soon” is a relative term.

I told you that the kitchen was coming soon, and I meant it, kind of. I mean, this is soon, right? Compared to, say, “soon, we will be independent of foreign oil” or “soon, I will get my pre-baby stomach back”?

That’s what I thought.

Why did it take me so long, you ask?

Well, let’s see…

I didn’t want to show you the sink quite yet, because it’s always a little messy.

I didn’t want to show you the window above the sink because it only has old cloth napkins of a window treatment.

I didn’t want to show you the island because there was still garlic peel on it from yesterday’s roasted garlic asparagus.

I didn’t want to show you the pantry because it’s disorganized, and I don’t have a spice rack yet, so my spices are a jumbled pile of tiny jars.

And I didn’t want to show you our lovely new table that we got for a steal, because there always seems to be SOMETHING on it.

But, a month and a half after our move, I’m realizing that if I wait for things to be just so, it may be awhile!  So here, without further ado, is my kitchen.

A bit messy, but boy is it fabulous!

Life in a Nutshell

Mom emailed me, and she asked, “What’s new with you this week?”

Out poured an actually decent explanation - a far cry from my usual writer’s block this month - so I thought I’d share it with y’all. I’ve also included pictures for your viewing pleasure. Here it is:

Not much. We went to Teresa’s bbq, of course, and at one point I lost track of Ariel and had one of those parent horror moments where you’re sure your child is dead (they had a large pool in the backyard, and the back door was open). My stream of consciousness was is she in there what if she’s in there how long has she been in there is she dead she must be unconscious cuz she’s not thrashing can she be revived how long has she been deprived of oxygen will she be brain damaged oh my god… And then Matty assured me that the pool was empty. But I was still kinda shaky for a good portion of the night. I have a newfound hatred of pools.

(Teresa, just so you all know, is a friend that we met on WoW. We’ve been friends for months, and she was living in Arizona, but she just moved to Vancouver last week. We were lucky enough to get to meet her this weekend. It’s weird hearing such a familiar voice come from the face of a stranger!)

They sent us home with a ton of leftover food (Teresa had bought and prepped enough food to feed all of Vancouver), so we’ve been working on polishing that off over the last few days.

I’ve been weeding out those little weeds that were between the bricks that I told you about. Remember how I said that they were kinda pretty and I wanted to just leave them there and maybe just take out a few of the bigger ones?

Well, they’re all 3 feet tall now. And wanna guess what they are? I’ll give you a hint - Dan starts sneezing when he heads toward the back. Give up? Ragweed! Woohoo! I’ve been cultivating a field of allergens, and they’re ripe for harvest!

And guess what lovely creatures think that ragweed is absolutely delicious? Slugs! And snails! Which would explain why there are slug babies all. over. the. plants. I mean, I would weed for a little bit, and then I’d look down, and I’d have like 3 or four baby slugs on my gloves. It was… astounding.

So I’m almost half-way done clearing the back. Obviously, there’s no way Dan’s gonna do it - I wouldn’t even ask him to. The poor guy is enough of a sneezing wreck when he mows the lawn, for crying out loud. It feels good to get out there and pull up 3 foot plants by hand (girl power!), and it’s a decent workout for my arms and thighs (yeah, my thighs! sore all day! go figure!).

What’s new with you?

The Vegan Experiment

Hi!  I’m here!

Guess what I’ve been doing?   Well, you probably already figured it out from the title.  I’m eating vegan!

What does this mean?  It means no dairy, meat, or eggs.  I’m eating honey (some vegans don’t).  But yeah, like, mostly nothing animal-derived.

When did I start?  Gosh, darn-it.  I forget.  Vegetarian Week is May 19th - May 25th, but I started a few days before - I think it was the… 15th?  So yeah.  I’m gonna finish on the 25th.

How do I feel?  Great!  I miss some creaminess, but that’s all.  I feel less gross and “bleh” than normal.  And I haven’t had any trouble adjusting to the drop in protein - I think my 4 months without dairy taught my body how to handle the change.

Am I gonna stick with it?

I don’t know yet.  Probably not really.  I might try to do LESS, but I definitely want some cheese, and maybe some tuna, come 5/26.

I’ve talked about eventually being a casual vegan - someone who is mostly vegan at home, but doesn’t stress about eating lasagna at a friend’s house or getting an ice cream cake for their birthday.  And that is still my goal, but this wasn’t enough time to get ready.  I haven’t put the forethought into it that I would need to create livably creative menus, and I haven’t gotten up the guts to go out and buy some tofu or something.  I haven’t sat down and poured through hours of vegan recipes.  I haven’t gone to the grocery store and filled my cart with things from the health food section.  So my diet has been pretty limited.

I have, however, already lost 5 pounds, which was nice, since it has been many months since I’ve rid myself of any of my birthing fat.  I’m playing with the idea of having a Vegan Week once a month, to help clean out my body and lose a little weight without committing to a long-term lifestyle change just yet.

Anybody wanna do it with me?

Please vote today, Oregon.

It’s not too late to drop off your ballot.

And please consider voting for Obama.

Yes, he seems too good to be true.  He speaks so smoothly and is so convincing.  We’re used to being skeptical of people who wow us.

He could be fake.

But what if he’s not?  What if we didn’t elect him because we were afraid to trust, and we missed the greatest President since Lincoln?

Whomever you vote for, please vote, because you should be a part of shaping our future.  Please vote for Obama because we need a truly good, honorable man in the White House.

The tour begins!

Okay, so, I keep not posting because I feel like I don’t have all the pictures that I need, or the time to upload them all and narrate.  But you don’t want to see it all in one sitting, right?  You’d probably rather it be broken up into little easy-to-digest bits.  So that’s what we’re gonna do.

That said, welcome to my new home!  Come on in!  Sorry about the mess on the porch - I’m trying to get the yard presentable, and dirt and weeds tend to get set there.  Come on in - let’s start with the living room!

Here’s the entry area.  As you can see by the doll things lying about, we do a lot of playing in here!  It’s a big, bright room with a large bay window, and everyone gravitates toward it.

I love watching the girls play in this room.  And I love taking photographs in here - the sunlight through the window allows me to get really great shots of the girls!  They move so fast that all my pictures usually turn out blurry, but the bright light allows me to use a faster shutter speed on the little buggers.

Yesterday, Dan cleaned off Ariel’s climbing cube and moved it into the other corner of the living room.  It joined her rocking horse and push car - 3 active, energy-burning activities that she can do indoors.  With all the living room floor space and the big kitchen, Ariel has plenty of room to drive and rock away!  Felicity has a hard time keeping up with her little army crawl, but she’s getting faster every day!

Coming Soon: The Kitchen!

Ahhh!

Wow.

That was fabulous.

Here I’ve always thought that I wasn’t a “bath person,” and it turns out that all I needed was a big, comfortable tub.

I feel completely renewed.

Rejuvenated.

Reborn.

Ready to conquer the world.

Or at least these boxes…

Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

I could count on one hand the number of times that I have had a happy dream.  My dreams are always either terrifying, or, most commonly, confusing and stressful, with a sense that something is wrong or needs to be solved or found.

Two nights ago, I had one of those good dreams.

The girls were older.  We had a big backyard.  And David, Dan’s brother, was out of prison.  He was in the backyard with the kids, playing.  We had built a zip-line, much like the one that Dan likes to talk about from their childhood together, and David was helping the girls as they took turns sliding from one tree to another.  He was laughing - they all were - and his face was filled with a childlike innocence and sweetness.

Pray.

Lame.

If they wanted to create a stir,  I guess they succeeded.  I’ve already gotten three hits on my blog from people searching this, and, for me, that’s a lot.  Personally, I think it’s inappropriate to use something like this as a lead for an advertising campaign.

So much going on…

Every time I think about writing a post, I feel overwhelmed because there is so much to write. So let’s see…

Well, our move-in date has changed to the 12th. If you are free this weekend and think that moving our stuff with us sounds like loads of fun, call me!

I caught Ariel huffing today - she had her leave-in conditioner in one nostril and was sniffing while saying “No-no, Foofy!” Right, blame it on the baby. I’m sure this is only the beginning of that tactic…

I’ve been thinking that our oven is broken, because I’ve burned two batches of cookies with it supposedly set at 325, only to try turning the knob later and find that it didn’t turn the light on until 425. Now I think that maybe I’m causing the trouble myself by putting two cookie sheets side-by-side, blocking airflow and trapping hot air away from the thermostat. Anyone have any experience with this?

Felicity has been a mess of crankiness and pain this last week. Some of it seems like teething, but not all of it. I’m going back off dairy just to see if it helps.

I’ve got a real blogging job! Check out hugg.ca and scroll down to check out my first post! More to follow, naturally…

I’ve got more to write, but I’ll do that when I’m feeling more inspired to write a long post. I don’t want to kill some of this stuff with choppy little sentences…

Love you all!

Jenni