I Am A Tulip

The kids are finally at the end of a nasty upper respiratory tract infection. It was just one of those viruses that everyone was getting, and we weren't spared. But after several days of fever and croupy nights for all three fought off with homeopathic remedies, they are down to just that lovely left over cough and occasional runny nose that will last for another couple of weeks, I'm sure. I finally feel like I have some energy rebuilding, and am happy to get back on this computer to update on recent happenings and Easter fun. Bella and Kane have gone to Nan and Pap's house for a few days, and with Maxwell and Baylee (for those who don't know, she is the darling little golden-blond princess who I babysit) soundly sleeping on this cool, blustery spring day, I am taking a little me time to post before it is off to the sewing machine to finish some projects still lagging behind. After all, it is windy, cloudy and rainy, and I have realized lately that I am like a tulip.

On this dreary day, I am all closed up, protecting myself from the doom and gloom.

Without any sun to open my petals, I just can't bring myself out.
The sun doesn't always have to be physical sun, though. I have had some emotionally cloudy days lately, and they have kept me closed up, too, even when it was sunny outside. There are some stormy things clouding up my head, which can block the sun right out. Ah, but the next few days are supposed to be gloriously warm and sunny.

I'll be out there with my arms open wide, soaking up as much of it as I can.


The shorts are coming out of hiding, and the tank tops, too.


I can't think of a better spring weekend, with projected highs in the 80s (!), for my niece's prom. Oooo, I can't wait. I'll leave here Friday for Mom and Dad's and stay through Saturday. There will be much primping, giggling, acrylic-nail-applying, hair-fixing, make-up-applying, photo-taking, girly fun, and I'm going to be loving it!! Even if it were gloomy outside, it would be all the sun I would need to open up and have some fun. So here's to you - I hope your weekend is filled with whatever sun you can find, even if it is gloomy outside. Let that inner tulip open up and soak up whatever sun or happiness you can find, even if it is in the middle of a storm.

Slow Day

Today has been a slow day. Not a planned slow day, but a forced slow day. And sometimes those forced slow days are exactly what we need, even if we don't want to admit it. Last night I came down with a healthy case of mastitis - a breast infection for those non-breastfeeding folk who may read this. Nasty things, breast infections. Fever, aches, shivers, flu-like symptoms along with swelling, redness and pain at the site of the infection. And all of this after one of those off-days that I have talked about before - this one including, but not limited to, dinner that I had worked on all day burning. But sometimes an infection is our body's way of telling us to slow down. I have been working overtime lately with this year's garden. I'm expanding it about three fold, which means tons of digging, planting, planning... I do get a lot of help from my little digger, though.

He earned his own little-man sized shovel after working so hard with this regular one. I do love this springtime activity. Planting rows of seeds in peat.

Anticipating, watching, until that first little sprout raises its frail self out of the soil and toward the sun.

Watching my little cucumbers turn from this, just days after they sprouted...

to this, just 9 days later (pardon the flashiness of these pictures - I despise flash, but wanted you to see how they have grown!).

Look at their little cucumber leaves popping out between their sproutling ones. My babies are growing up...

But as much as I love all the work that goes into my gardening, I have been a little obsessive about it. So even though I really wanted to be out there digging today, putting my peas, strawberry spinach, and the rest of my onions in the ground, I couldn't. And I think that's just what I needed.

Today, then, was spent hanging out inside, reading library books, watching a big truck and a cat documentary, and setting Maxwell up with his new bed. He is making an early move into the mattress-on-the-floor stage, just like his brother did. When Kane was about 18 months, I tore down his crib one afternoon in a fit of frustration, after my third attempt at getting him to sleep only to have him pop up the second I tried to lie him down in his crib. After I got the crib torn apart, I put the crib mattress on the floor, laid down beside him, and nursed him right to sleep. Max is to the same point. If I put him in his crib, he wakes up every half hour to an hour. He has been in his new bed for two hours now, happily sleeping away on a double mattress on the floor. We spent some time this evening, with the soft light pouring through the window, sitting on the edge of his bed looking for birds. Looking for birds is his favorite past-time, and once he sees one, he doesn't let it out of his sight. My big boy, sitting on his bed watching for birds out his window. Sticking his sweet little toes up on the unpainted sill, telling me all about the "BIR!" that he saw - his first blue jay. Is it a little soon to start his birding Life List? And while he slumbers on his new bed, and his brother and sister do the same on Bella's bed, having fallen asleep to Max Lucado's wonderful book You Are Special on CD (I love the library!), I am going to do a little bit of knitting while relaxing in my bed with a cup of Echinacea tea and a hot compress on my nursey. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel well enough to plant the peas, onions, and strawberry spinach. Only a good night's sleep will tell me if this infection is going to budge yet. Happy April Fool's day - I've never been any good at the fooling thing. I always feel too bad for fooling someone, because I don't like to get fooled :-). Hope your April is full of SPRING!!!