It has felt recently that the best way to describe how life feels to me right now is that I go multiple times daily from being overjoyed to overwhelmed (sometimes even feeling both simultaneously!).
Let's begin with a snippet of a moment of being overjoyed. I guess in this case it is Terah who is the most overjoyed. We head out today (I know, I don't really have time to be putting up a blog post...) for a family reunion in WV, one that I've been on the planning committee of for the past three years. One of the events of the weekend is a talent show Saturday evening. Here's Jason practicing his juggling skills, though the real show is probably watching the baby enjoy it:
Swinging to being overwhelmed: that was how I felt when I got home from town recently to find my computer with an odd reboot error. Rebooting failed (multiple times) and so Jason dropped it off at EMU to get diagnosed. Bad news: complete hard drive failure, nothing retrievable (at least not without sending off the hard drive and probably not for less than a few hundred dollars). In the craziness of life lately, I had neglected to back up our pictures and videos for the past two months. That, in addition to our short and long term Tangly Woods project list, felt like a pretty big loss.
Jason suggested (as he tries to look at things positively) that maybe losing the project list is good - gives us a "fresh start" in some ways - maybe some things will never make it back on and that would be ok. In the end, maybe we'll feel that way. And maybe we'll feel grateful to have two months of our life narrowed down to the highlights on the blog. I'd say in the short term it added to me feeling rather disoriented for a good part of this week.
Much has happened since I last wrote. The older girls enjoyed an entire week with grandparents and cousins in WV. Terah and her parents survived the week without them, and even had some fun! But we were very happy to welcome them home...
I had hoped to get this blog post up last evening but I had that good tired feeling after a day of food processing and it was about 11 p.m. before we all (baby included) crashed. The day got more involved than expected since we aren't so good at turning down a corn gleaning opportunity - especially on a cooler summer day with breezes blowing! So the day involved making a cold bean salad for 70, canning a load of pickled beets, canning a load of dill pickles, starting a gallon of fermented dilly beans, and then freezing 15 quarts of corn. We squeezed in lots of nursing, diaper changes, four hours of office work time, and washing many dishes (my I was a lot of dishes on a daily basis!).
Ok, the baby is not so content in her doorway jumper as she would rather get into stuff! So we'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking! Enjoy:
Practicing "stand up" during one of our many recent blueberry gleaning stints.
And, well, being awfully cute in the patch, even if she was not overly helpful!
What a trio! They are something else - they are a bit part of the overjoyed part of life (the littlest one contributing more than the others to the overwhelmed part).
She has learned to life the seat of the composting toilet. Oh dear! And is quite interested in it (here only the door separates here from the object of her fascination...
The play kitchen at its old location. Now moved to the main kitchen so that Terah can "cook" while I attempt to keep mouths fed and bellies satisfied around here!
The cook that will soon far surpass her mother in her abilities! We continue to be spoiled weekly by her meals. This week she made a green bean saute with fresh tomatoes and basil, with a dill cucumber salad and bear sausage. The week prior we enjoyed beet chick pea patties with dill yogurt sauce and a cheesy leek bake.
Alida is pretty proud of her tomato plants, and with good reason. She may even be upon a new tomato variety - already has two setting aside for seed. I love seeing our girls getting into seed breeding!
And very occasionally I get to join the rest of the family in some gardening task - though tends to be still in the harvesting realm (here we are pulling onions - so glad to have some after their rough start).
Don't know what we would do without these helpers!
We promise to turn the garage over to Mom and Dad! Right now it is occupied by drying onion matter, seeds and garlic...Rental fees will be paid in produce. :)
Terah is pleased with this job - getting as dirty as possible and into as many things as possible while we aren't looking...
Here's the crew heading off to WV for the week. I was feeling sad as I took this - well happy for them but missing the girls and they hadn't even left yet!
In their absence, she enjoyed her first large tomato. Oh, what a fan - juicy, yummy AND messy!
This girl is serious about meals now! Anytime we are eating she wants to be part of it. And each meal time normally needs a major clean up and new outfit following!
This little one is a major daddy's girl right now. Cries for him if she can hear him, see him, or hear a noise (like the mower) that she associates with him. Pretty sweet - and has made my office stints lately a piece of cake as she really doesn't seem to miss me!
Kali and Alida took Terah to the fire ring the other evening for me to get a little burst of work done in the kitchen. I told them I didn't care if Terah got dirty. They took me seriously! We all needed showers when they returned!
Enjoying Kali's most recent meal! She really is spoiling us - and seems to be enjoying herself immensely in the process!
Terah loved the wagon rides to and from the corn patch yesterday. The girls and Jason went all together while I enjoyed a luxurious session of food processing all by myself!
The second ride back home was just a tad too much for her. This is how I found her when they got back. So sweet!
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