SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

{this moment}

Try not to be too jealous…

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Inspired by SouleMama.

Tuesday Snippets

~itty bits not worth their own posts, probably not worth mentioning at all, but all the same~

I like my rain boots and am glad to have ‘em, but I was getting tired of wearing them.  Very, very tired. (Very.)

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Did I mention the weather has been a bit zany this spring?  Yeah.  Hail.  It was not a big deal, but I had a hard time convincing Cole to hurry up and get in his carseat so Mama would be able to stop being pelted with ice nuggets.

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On a whim I bought some regular popping corn and made it old-school, on the stovetop.  My family is riddled with full-on popcorn junkies now.  For the past month it seems that a day rarely goes by when I am not shaking a pot (or 3!) of kernels in the afternoon.  In related news, butter consumption has also risen, since that is the only way to go.  Hoc-tuey to the faux butter on popcorn.  (I do like butter spray on corn though!)

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You’re looking at a stymied squirrel.  This booger has been poaching seeds from the bird feeder for the past few weeks.  I don’t really mind him taking the odd seed now and then, but he has gotten damn picky and taken to tossing pawfuls of the smaller millet seeds for the song birds as he cherry picks for sunflower seeds.  So, last time I filled the feeder I moved it over to a new hook out of reach of branches or the screens.  He no likey.  I have to admit to a smug feeling of, “Take that, you rodent!  My superior human brain has foiled you!  Hahahaaha!”  Mr. Squirrelly Man (my daughter’s moniker for him) tried from every angle, including hanging upside down from the gutter, but had to settle for some nut from a tree nearby.

The birdbrains show no appreciation, but are pretty to look at.

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The other evening Bunny performed a complex hair transplant on Cookie Monster here.  She named it the “Bunsley Hair Clinic.”  After the procedure Cookie declared, “Me ready to rock out with me cookie out, thanks, Bunsley!”  Sadly, by the next morning, his luxurious locks had fallen off.  Bunsley Hair Clinic has no comment at this time.

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Recently Cole sat all by himself—nearly motionless, except when the clippers got close to him—for the first time getting his hair cut.

He’s getting to be such a big boy, and is starting to look forward to preschool next fall.  Cole says he’s not ready yet for me to go away and leave him there, but he will be “when brother Carter goes to big school.”  For now, he says, “I’ll stay with you Mom, okay?”  No problemo, Buddy.

Collecting Winter

Collecting Winter, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

We've started a new family tradition of 'collecting' seasons in our home. Essentially, this means we notice more... appreciate more... look up, look down, look all around as we bustle through our days.

Fall was an easy season. Everywhere we looked, and everyday we went out, there was a new treasure to add: a leaf, a seed pod, some bark. There was so much, it seemed, that it was hard to contain the kids' enthusiasm, lest they drag all the great outdoors inside.

Winter is trickier. We have a winter--really, we do! And it is winter that brings life itself to our area--water. It is gray. It rains. It rains a lot if we're lucky. The hills transform from their usual Tuscan hills gold to "Irish Spring" green as annual grasses pop up. Wildflowers will follow by end of February, and meadows will pop and crackle with color.

A 'good' February--from a water table point of view--means 20+ days of rain out of 28. We moms become a bit nutty from it... from all the being inside.

How do you collect rainy days?

Carter knew. He's a literal thinker, but not without his creative bursts. Frogs and ducks love rain, or so he reasoned, as they're water creatures. His beloved stuffed duck and frog slingshots were just the thing to decorate the mantle until we come up with something else. Kids always know. Sometimes we moms are smart enough to listen, too.

Splashin’ Good Fun

We’re in the midst of what looks like a multiWEEK rain here.  The best day in the forecast is Sunday, when there is only a 20% chance of rain in between big systems.

We need the rain.  We need the rain.  Better than a drought.  Better than a drought.  These are my mantras I repeat over and over, and perhaps at some point in February you will find my manuscript of that typed over and over again, putting that last nail in the coffin that was my sanity, haha…..  All rain and no sun makes Kris a batty girl….

I really should not complain (yet).  We’ve had little breaks that allow the puddles to recede, we have good foul weather gear, and an array of options to keep the little ones entertained during these long days.

However, we’re used to spending a good amount of time outside, and we already miss it.  Sometimes the rain is coming down in sheets, and even with raincoats and boots, we’re soaked just going to and from the car—and guess who gets wettest?  I’ll give you a hint: it’s the person who stands outside buckling seat belts and car seats…. ;)  I do not want to go full on Gorton’s fisherman, so my pants are pretty soaked from mid thigh to top of the boots.

I should take a note from my youngest.  He fell face first in a puddle yesterday, but he didn’t mind.  Since he was already as wet as he was going to get, I let him play in the rain for a while.

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I may have even more laundry than normal from the three full outfits he soaked through yesterday, but it’s just laundry.  Sometimes you just have to jump in puddles.

This heat is cramping my style, yo.

I was going to start something new this week. The couch to 5 K challenge, not to really run a 5 K (I don't think) but to just get something new that I can do with 2 small kids in tow. It seems like the only way I can exercise is if I act like a fool playing in the pool with the kids or push the stroller. Playing for an hour in the pool is fun, but really it's not exactly melting these pounds off me.

So, I decided to start the couch 2 5K. It looks totally doable. But not in 100+ heat. So I'm holed up in the living room (the meat locker, as we call it, since it's the only cold room in the house and the blast of cool air when you enter is A LOT like entering a walk in fridge).

I want fall! But we have a good 6-8 weeks of summer here still. Booooooooo.
Oh well, there is the pool at least.

The sun is back to its evil heat-producing ways. ;)

Day 2 of a heatwave here! Whoooodeehoooo! Took the kids to a final trip to the aquatics center this summer yesterday and had a nice time with Christi and her kids. Then came home to our house resembling the inside of an oven. If I'd planned in advance I would have had the portable a/c unit on so it would have been a nice meat locker temperature in the living room. Instead I turned it on at about 5 when it was already 95+. Still, sitting *smack* in front of it, I deemed it better than the alternative. ;) Cole found the chilly air to be humorous.

Today is supposed to be warmer than yesterday. So I'm turning on the air conditioner again, but this time it'll be on... well soon. I want it cool in here before the heat starts to compete.

Then we have a playdate at the park, but since the friends live near the park, we may go swimming at their house instead. We shall see.

(Psst. 10 days until school starts. Not that I'm counting! [I am SO counting.])

Not quite Pompeii, but...

Yesterday evening there was a grass fire nor very far from home. Weirdly, I'd driven by it as it must've been starting, going by the start time of 3 p.m., since it was in the dry grass by an off ramp I used to come home from the park.

We enjoyed a mellow afternoon at home, and I spent a good little while with the bigger kids playing in the pool. By the time that we were going inside, I noticed the sky was getting dark. Since it's nearly the summer equinox, it's generally still sunny at 6:45, but not yesterday. The sky was sepia.



The light inside the house was unreal. Creepy, really.

This is the REAL color of things. The sun was also a crazy glowing red.

This morning the sky is promising to look much more normal as the heavy fog we got last night burns off. However, everything outside is covered in a very light layer of ash. I went out to pick some apricots and noticed white flakes on everything. I'm so glad we are washing Paul's car for Father's Day today or tomorrow and that I hadn't already gone to that effort!

What goes around...

Before I start: near as I can tell, it rained 2+" last night. And *not* quietly. Don't need to water this week! :)

Anyway, on to what I wanted to write about.

You know how sometimes you’re in the midst of something and have a moment of clarity? I’m not sure if it was clarity, or perspective, but it was something I had the other day when driving back from the zoo with my three in the back. Bunny and Carter were having a grand time making some noise (maybe it was being a cat, maybe a dog—that’s not the point). One or the other of them would make the noise and the other would copy and then giggles would ensue, leading to more making of the random, and unattractive noise. After about 15 mins, I had to ask them to cut it out. By “ask”, I mean, of course, snap at them to “CUTITOUTI’MTRYINGTODRIVEHERE!!!” Having fizzled their bored fun, I then remembered.

HARDEE!

What, you say? Well, way back in a time we call the Awesome 80s, my family was on one of our annual summer road trips down what seemed like the whole East Coast. We always went one of two places, with *very* little exception: Wrightsville Beach, and Disney. One year, when we were going to Disney, my parents chose Hardeeville, SC as our overnight stopping point. There’s not a whole lot to do when you’re in the back of a car for hours on end, unable to read in the car because it makes you sick to your stomach, etc. So, for some reason (slap happiness, I assume), my sister and I started to say, “HarDEE!” in what can only be described as the most goober way possible. It was hysterical. We said it over and over, especially when we’d see a sign on the highway saying ‘so many miles to HARDEEville’. I don’t know for how long we said it, but I do know eventually our parents threatened to leaves us for dead or something. They were such meanies. As was I.

To this day, I am *sure* I could call Eleanor, and just say, “HarDEE!” and she’d dissolve into laughter. I should try it. And then ask her to burp. But that’s another story.

Crash! Boom!

Huge storms the past two days, and last night the 'big one' rolled into town. I was up going to the bathroom at about 3, because I do that a lot being massively pregnant, and as I was falling back asleep I heard a loud crash/crack sound. I thought it had to either be the fence we share on one side with the crazy Sanford & Sons neighbors (seriously, that's their backyard, but it's allll theirs, not for sale) or a tree branch. I went over to the living room and flipped on the flood lights and all was well there, then I noticed all the way over to the far side of the pool that the umbrella was upended. Crap. Though that would not be noisy per se. Then I saw that the glass top to the 'circle table' was entirely shattered. Double crap. Shame on me for not even thinking about it when I knew full well there would be 60 MPH gusts today. Oh well, worse things turned over today, like 4 big rigs on the San Rafael Bridge, so losing the top to a somewhat old table is not the end of the world. It never let up enough for me to go out and sweep it up, so that job awaits when hopefully tomorrow is not so crazy weather-wise. But we have a week solid of rain ahead. 10 feet in Tahoe by the end of this weekend! Too bad I seriously doubt I'll make the slopes this season even for April boarding. Bah!

On the plus side, I finished the scarf I started for Bunny last night and today. She loves it, and it came out well. I'll photograph it tomorrow probably. It's soft and purple--one of her new colors she loves. Thank goodness I don't have to do just pink-pink-pink anymore.