Day 151-159: Getting Ready for School, and a Campout

I'm ten days behind! I don't think I've fallen this behind in my blog yet. Maybe passing the 150 day mark just took it out of me. I don't know. I just haven't found the time. So, in an effort to catch up, I'm going to just have to post a tiny bit about each day. 

Day 151, Thursday: 

Goldenrod spotted on a farm walk. I love goldenrod, because it means that soon it won't be so bleeping hot all the time. 

I made a big batch of curtido, the cabbage topping traditionally served with pupusas. It keeps in the fridge for a long time. 

Day 152, Friday: 

I taught Taiya how to cross her eyes. Milestone. 

Day 153, Saturday:

Taiya created a fantasy land. She also invented a game where she puts her friends' names on cards, then puts them in the rainbow bowl (see below), then draws one out, and whoever she picks is her best friend. I rearranged furniture.

Day 154, Sunday: 

We got a couch! A beautiful antique couch someone in Fayetteville was selling for $60! I have been wanting a small couch or love seat for the living room for ages. Jeremy and Taiya went to get it in the truck, and William and I stayed home and watched Paw Patrol and snuggled. He was sad he didn't get to go too, so this was his consolation prize. I had to rearrange everything in the living room, which is also our dining room, to make room, so that took a lot of work, but I had everything ready when they got back. It is so comfortable and beautiful! I had been looking at "cheap" furniture at Target, but it all just made me sad. Buying old, sturdy, beautiful furniture makes me a lot happier. 

Day 155, Monday: 

This week is the last week before school starts. I decided that since we had to set up two desk areas, and rearrange more furniture, and clean more, and try to also have fun, I would take most of the week off. This meant I only work-worked about an hour or two each day, and spent the rest of the time hustling around the house getting everything situated so we will be ready to start school next Monday. I have no pictures of this process, so, you'll just have to imagine an endless process of shifting piles of things unearthed when one single piece of furniture is moved. Sweeping, sorting, tossing, shifting, sweeping again, dusting, sorting.... 

Day 156, Tuesday:

I was lying in William's bed with him, gazing out the window down at our front garden, which is a green and tangled mess, when something yellowish-white caught my eye. I looked again and realized it was one of our oyster mushroom logs that had never fruited and we thought was a lost cause. It had fruited in several places, pushing out beautiful bunches of mushrooms. What a treat! I love growing mushrooms because it is so completely unpredictable. And aren't they beautiful!

Day 157, Wednesday:

A note left by Taiya. She was not happy we had to stop reading last night.

The couch works!

A double double-yolker kind of day.

Marian Burros's Original Plum Torte in process (recipe from New York Times Cooking).
Before.

After.

Baking the torte necessitated a tea party. This is the face William makes, apparently,
when you tell him to smile. I love Taiya's expression as she looks at her little brother
being a goofball. 

I made parsley vinaigrette with two bunches I bought
from the farmers' market. Usually I grow my own,
but this year I tried and failed to start it from seed, and then never 
got around to buying plants. I put one pint in the freezer
and one in the fridge to be enjoyed immediately. 

Day 158, Thursday:

I didn't take any pictures. I'm having trouble remembering what we did. More cleaning, more sorting, I'm sure. Just to give you a sense of how this has all gone, here's an example of one of the tasks we accomplished. William needed his own desk for school work. Our TV sits on a desk. First, we had to persuade him that this desk would be so perfect for him! It took some doing, as he wanted a smaller kid-sized one. Once that was done, we needed something else for the TV to sit on. We had a shelf that would work, but it had books and toys on it. I unearthed that shelf, finding new homes for said books and toys. Then I moved the TV, cleaned the desk, and Jeremy moved it downstairs, after we got rid of a shelf and bench where the desk needed to go (put them in the kids' playhouse). Then I had to put the shelf where the desk had been and set up the TV again, reattaching all the wires, and getting all our DVDs put on the shelf in some semblance of order. Then get the desk sorted, find a chair that would be tall enough for William, etc. etc. Sounds fun, right? The worst is dealing with all the inevitable piles of junk these kinds of jobs create. But now we have a desk for Taiya upstairs and a desk for William downstairs, and we're as ready as we'll ever be for school.  

Day 159, Friday:

William woke up this morning and declared that we needed to go camping. Well, I can't argue with that. Camping sounds lovely, and a great thing to do on the last weekend before school starts. Jeremy made sure we got s'more ingredients when he went to get dog food, and in the late afternoon we dragged all our camping equipment down to the creek and put up the tent. I taught Taiya how to do the tent poles while William explored the water. Life skills! Every girl needs to know how to put up a tent. 

We went back to the house for dinner (Ramen - I was tired and had the start of a sinus headache by this time), then after doing all the dishes and rounding up our last-minute camping items, we trooped down to the creek for the evening. Jeremy and William started a fire in the fire ring we had built, Taiya went for a swim, I helped find marshmallow-roasting sticks. It was beautiful out, clear and warm but not hot. We made s'mores until our bellies ached, definitely going the route of blackened marshmallows rather than patiently striving for golden. 

Then the kids were ready to get into the tent and tell stories, so we got into pajamas and snuggled in. We have a tradition of telling "Daisy's Donut Shop" stories when we camp. They have to build on previous stories, but with new plots made up on the spot. I told one tale of Lucy the Pig (the shop's Donut Chef) having to invent donut flavors to please two goat customers, Bonnie and Bittie Bonnie, and then a frog customer, Fred the Frog. Then Taiya told one about a cow customer needing grass and corn flavored donuts, and then William told one my tired mind couldn't quite follow, but he was very expressive and enthusiastic. When his story finished with him losing his train of thought, he realized he'd forgotten all his snuggle toys, and Jeremy had to go up to the house to get them or else he would never fall asleep. Jeremy came back with Mouse, Pooh, and Diva, along with Taiya's mermaid. He also had gotten into seed ticks on the way. After tossing us the snuggle friends, he quickly disrobed and got out the masking tape (a camping must-have in Arkansas in seed-tick-season), and carefully patted his whole body with the tape, a flashlight gripped in his teeth. Seed ticks are so small you can't even grab ahold of them with your fingernails, so you have to get them with tape before they have time to bite. While he did this, I read the kids a chapter of Anne of the Island by headlamp light. We then got snuggled into our sleeping bags, cuddled up with each other, and fell asleep to the sound of the creek and insects buzzing their late summer song.