So We Are Fishing On My Aunt's Dock ...

... and Butterbean casually says, "Mama, it's PULLING!!"  While fishing on her little bitty Disney Princess fishing rod.

Yup, bass.  Then I get it off her line and help her cast again, and she reels in a good size sunfish.  She's 2, and everyone else had been at it for a while and was not having any luck.

The 'Bean

I smell the fowlers, Mama.

Little string bean.  She certainly doesn't get this skinny-ness from me.
So these would be my favorite pics of the week .... Least Favorite Thing, you ask?

Getting OLD

My elbow all of a sudden is all wonky if I type for too long.  My knees get all jacked up when I run.  And I woke up this morning feeling like I had been beaten - back sore, neck sore - and looked kind of like this:

 I'm exaggerating, obviously.  I was not wearing a cool sparkly tiara and I don't wear glasses.

F-ing aging, though - kiss my ass.  

Song I Can't Stop Singing:

If I Had A Gun by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

 

Love, love, love.  It's giving me an Oasis fix.

I Can't Stop Eating:

Greens.  I'm experimenting with collard greens currently.  I'm determined to find a vegetarian preparation for them that is just as satisfying as the ham-hock version.  Stay tuned ...

I've also discovered Chia seeds.  They are the highest source of Omega-3's for any plant source and high in protein.  You can make chia pudding by soaking them in alt. milk with fruit - it's very filling, so make less than you think you should.  I also mixed the seeds in with the girls couscous the last time I made it.  Mooch: Mommy, what are these little brown things?  Me:  Faerie sprinkles.  Mooch: Cool!

True story - my kids will eat anything if I put the word "faerie" in front of it.  Mooch doesn't like taco shells, so I give her baby spinach and she rolls taco meat up in them and calls them "faerie sandwiches".  Raw spinach.  BOOM.

What I Made This Week:

Crap.  OK I didn't take a picture, but in one afternoon - nay, in about 2 freakin hours - I made an entirely new garden bed by our driveway, made entirely from plants Home Despot had thrown away.  2 rose bushes, mums, a holly (it's an Oriental holly, non-native - but it was FREE!), tarragon, and shasta daisy.  

Since I don't have pics of that though, here are pics of the seashell bouquet I made for my friends' wedding

(Ignore the kids crappy outdoor play table and the stained placemat - I was taking these to send to her in a rush.  The three boutonierres are in front)

She lost her son at 16 to suicide.  She started finding dimes all over the place and decided it was his way of telling her he was still there.  To this day, whenever she finds a dime she says they're from him ... so me and another friend attached a dime from his birth year to the bottom of the bouquet.

She had a gorgeous small wedding at their river side cottage at sunset.  

Rant Of the Week :

Ignorant hate mongers who start drama.  I'll leave it at that, since I'm trying to release that and move on.

What I Have To Do This Week:

I should probably fold the 2 baskets of laundry in my living room.  And maybe just for fun vacuum the floor, since we could reconstruct a scale model of our 100 lb dog out of the hair on the floor.  

PS  - Jury's still out on mystery insect, so feel free to add guesses!

Busy Weekends and Mystery Bugs

A big thank you to you all for your thoughts, support, emails, and comments.  It's not in my nature to pretend everything is fine when it isn't, I think it's a lot more productive to acknowledge what's going on and talk about it.  Airing my feelings here is giving me the courage I need to take necessary steps forward at home.

But enough of all that for now.  Mister has worked the last few weekends, and the minions and I have been exploring and playing and eating and (thankfully) napping!
Last weekend we went to the Brandywine Arts Festival.  Artist-types, musicians, and fair food?  Yes please!  I didn't take any pictures of what was being sold because the festival itself is huge - it took us almost 3 hours to negotiate most of it.  Everything from stunningly beautiful reclaimed wood furniture to stained glass to a woman who was writing on single grains of rice, then putting them in vials of oil to magnify the inscription.  It was so much fun.  The minions of course, were most impressed by the ice cream

Earlier that day Mooch started soccer

 The next day I wanted to just let the kids play in the backyard and relax.  No luck.  Cue neighborhood kids crashing our yard :

I love Butterbean's expression. 
I was inspired by the fall air and told the kids we could have a firepit and roast hot dogs and do s'mores.  Yeah.  Let's just say my fire-building skills need some work (I swear just last summer I was REALLY good at this!)  We ended up cooking the hot dogs inside then they ate them in their playhouse, and I managed a lil' bitty pathetic fire just big enough to roast our marshmallows over.  For SHAME.


This Saturday we went to the amazingly awesome Longwood Gardens.  If you are ever in the Philadelphia area, go here!  Pierre DuPont bought this land to preserve the trees that were on it, and built gorgeous fountains, conservatories, and grounds.  They always have fun events going on - concerts, fireworks shows, art exhibitions, all kinds of festivals.  They had an acrobat troupe from Australia called Strange Fruit, who performed on these flexible poles.  Hard to describe, but very cool.

That last chick was about a millimeter away from a wardrobe malfunction.  
After we watched the show (minus escaping boobehs) we went into the conservatory and looked around, then headed into the children's garden.  It features lots of fountains that the kids are encouraged to play with, lots of herbs and kid-size tunnels and cool sculpture.  Why I never remember to bring a change of shirts for the girls is beyond me - by the time we leave they're always soaked.  We ran into my aunt and uncle and her two kids, who are my kids age as well.  What can I say - my Grammom started having babies at 18, and had my aunt at 45.  She's only slightly older than me.
Girls with their "cousins"

Then yesterday we had Community Day here in town - another big festival, the girls and I walked around for 2 1/2 hours and had a blast.  But this week is going to remain under-scheduled and low key.  I need a break!


First ever contest here on this here blog.  *Trumpets* **Fireworks** *More Trumpets*  This weird creepy-crawly appeared on my back deck.  I love bugs, and I was thinking this was a grasshopper until I saw the thorn-thing sticking out of its ... scientific term here ... hooty area.

Like I said, I usually like bugs, but this one kind of scared the shit out of me.  I was waiting for it to fly up and attach itself to my face.  It looked like an alien.


OK, so contest is - be the first one to identify this buggy for me, and you will win a Halloween-themed prize that will rock your socks.  I have not googled this or looked it up, so it will be news to me.  Ready GO!!

Not-So-Golden Silence

I've been trying to find a way to put this into the right words, and I'm going to do my best to muddle through.  Things are ... not good.  In an emotional and harmonious sense, between me and my husband.  There wasn't some big event that triggered any of this, just a lot of little things that keep adding up that finally made me stop and think that maybe emotional maturity never truly develops for some people.  

There is a realization that I am fighting really hard to keep things together and keep everyone else happy and cared for - and there is no one who is there to try for me.  Don't get me wrong - my children are the absolute lights of my life and I love caring for them.  I just wish my husband would put in even half the effort I do to keep our marriage happy and our lives running smoothly.

I'm tired.  I can't stay in this situation, yet if I do anything, I'll hurt people I love.  I can't stand that thought.  My first thought is always for my kids - but how much longer can I stay with their father, barely speaking to each other; before it has a negative effect on them?  Do I keep fighting my way through until they are older and may handle this better?  

My very bad analogy for how this feels, this marriage - like a rusty old car that we keep patching up, sticking duct tape here and there, jump starting it, and hoping we can make it a little bit further.  Is this how marriage is, sometimes?

And Then He Was Gone.

Our sweet Johnny Cash the bunny is gone.
I wish I could tell you we released him, healthy and strong back into the wild.  Instead we found him cold and still in his cage this morning.  He had been super cuddly yesterday, and The Mister said this morning he seemed a little lethargic to him.  He ate like a pro yesterday - but it was also the day we attempted to introduce solids (clover).  I don't know if it was too soon, or too much - I'm just sick with worry that something that we did caused him to suffer.  He was such a sweet little guy.  We have to break it to Mooch when she gets home from school today.

Rest in peace, Johnny Cash the bunny.  Our family loved you and I hope you're passing wasn't too painful.  I hope you know that we will never forget you, and that you've inspired me to never shoo another rabbit out of our garden.  I will miss your wiggly nose kisses, the feeling of you cuddling up to me to be fed, and even you jumping all the way up to my shoulder to be Pirate Parrot Bunny.  I hope that we gave you some comfort.