L4’s Request

It was earlier in the fall, actually.  She was hanging out with me while I got ready to go out, possibly for work.  I was actually paying a little more attention to my appearance by putting jewelry on myself.  As she watched me put my favorite earrings in she said, “Mama, I want holes in my ears, too.”  I was completely shocked.  We decided long ago that we wouldn’t force her to get her ears pierced, and that if she asked, we’d do it.  I came up with the brilliant plan that we’d do it over our Thanksgiving break, while visiting my sister-cousin who is much more knowledgeable about such things that I.  I wrote to her, she said yes, we could do it, and so the plan was on to acquiesce to my girl’s request.

I have to admit here and now that as the time for this grew nearer, I grew nervous.  I was worried that it would hurt her a lot and that she’d cry and be upset and not want the earrings any more.  I opted not to talk about the pain with her.  Instead we focused on the dragonfly earrings she would inherit from me, and I showed her some beautiful oak leaf earring on etsy, too.

The plan was to get L4’s ears done the day before Thanksgiving, but that didn’t work out.  I think I breathed a small sigh of relief, somewhere in my mind.  We changed plans to the day after, Black Friday.  Yes, that’s right, we were planning on braving the mall to get a 3-year-old’s ears pierced.  We got her whipped up into an appropriately excited mood.  The evidence:

As the women were preparing everything for L4 (we requested both be done at once!), I reminded her that it would pinch. I told her to just squeeze the bear the store gave her to hold, and that as soon as it was done I would scoop her up if she wanted. Here she is, for the final countdown:

My girl was such a trooper! Her face held a look of shock, then some pain after, but no tears. I hugged her and let her squeeze my hands and tell me about it while her ears were cleaned again.

You can see she was a little sad. But then she was offered a lolly and all sadness disappeared as she gazed at the bucket, ready to choose. And L3 was pleased that he got one just for being her big brother.

And me? I sniffle a little, as my baby grows a bit more. But she made the choice, and I’m glad I didn’t just do it when she was an infant. Should we have waited until she was older before allowing it? For her, I don’t think so.

How about all of you?  What adventures did you have over Thanksgiving?

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Sorry!

The title has many meanings. . .

1. Sorry I haven’t been posting so much.  My life has been a bit helter-skelter of late, which leads to. . .
2. I’m sorry about the death of my maternal grandmother last week.  Not for her, because she is no longer suffering, but for my grandfather, who now is without the love of his life (married for 58 years, with her for 61) and is living alone without a driver’s license and no good public transportation.  Which leads to. . .
3. The game!  Many of you have probably either played the game as children or played it with children in your lives.  Tonight my grandfather learned how to play it with my children.  We had him over for dinner (which I was stressing about, wanting to please).  We pulled the game out after dinner, while dessert was cooling (your brownies, Kim!).  By the end of the game the man was totally strategizing.  It was great and I was so happy to have had him here for the quality time with his great-grandchildren and because I knew he was eating quality food, too.

We’re looking forward to another vegetarian feast for Thanksgiving this year.  It’s so good to look forward to a holiday gathering with family.  May you all have that same joyful anticipation for your own holiday gatherings.

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Instead of Blogging

I’ve been knitting, sewing, instigating others to do the same, or just being with my family.  Holiday gift making is well under way, and life just happens.  Tomorrow I’ll get to see my baby brother for the first time in almost 3 years.  Maybe I’ll even get a picture of us together to post.  Meanwhile, here are some pictures for you (and I can’t even find all of the ones from things that I’ve made lately!).

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Freezing Buns Update 1

Our heat is on, set at the levels I laid out here.  However, the fireplace insert has changed the dynamics of things.  The blower (that which blows the heat into the room from the insert) was installed yesterday after having been on back order.  Up until this point we experienced lovely radiant heat from the insert, but it wasn’t what we had been expecting.  Now that the blower is on (a glorified fan), wow!  Our heat was “on” yesterday, but it didn’t actually ever click on, even in the afternoon and evening when it was set for the whoping 62.  That’s because the insert had our home (or the downstairs, at least) warmed to 64 or 65 degrees.  Can you say decadent?!?  Today I’m leaving the fire unlit and the heat probably will not click on because of the warmer outdoor temperatures.  Meanwhile I’ll continue to obsess over how much wood we’re going to need to make it until April. . .

Last night I was reminded of this challenge not just because of the very warm temperatures in our home, but because of what L1 and I were reading in Depletion and Abundance.  Here is a passage from it:

The other truth about the merits of ‘private’ domestic solutions is that their very simplicity requires social networks to exist.  That is, in isolation, buying local doesn’t make much of a difference.  But the reality is that finding local food requires talking to growers and changing shopping patterns, and it means collaborating and building relationships with other people who want local food.  It means learning a little bit about how food is grown, and that usually means telling your friends and neighbors what you’ve been doing.  It means joining Internet groups and sharing solutions.  Whenever people take on a new project, it takes on a social dimension–something that is sadly lacking in most western lives (Astyk, 32).

For me, blogging and internet communities add that social dimension that I might be nervous about finding in my life as an introvert.  When I meet-up with people to knit or for book-club I’m so happy–but the initial creation of that networking is nerve-wracking for me.  I long to create more social networks related to gardening and sustainability and the like, but often don’t know where to begin.  So I blog, and read what you all write and visit others. For instance, I am currently working on the “Mama to Mama” project as a way to connect to a larger community and donate my time.  How do you all make social connections in your own lives?  Do you wish you had more?  Is there a project or activity for which you had more connections? I ask because if there’s a way we can all work together for something, I’d love to do that.

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Bulk Bag Winner!

Tracey, you’re the next winner on A Crunchy Life!  Congrats to you!  Please leave a comment and let me know what color drawstring you’d like for your bulk food bag.  Thanks for voting and leaving a comment!  And thank you to the rest of you for voting on Tuesday and for sharing your voting stories.  I have hope oozing out of me and am really looking forward to the change I hope is coming.

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Pa Ingalls I Am Not

On Tuesday we went from this:

To this:

And because of that, I’m now doing this:

And I’m terrible at it!  I can’t aim for the life of me, and I tend to close my eyes right before I strike (probably why the former is the case).  The log I was attempted to split this afternoon is scarred by many digs, and even has some decent cracks running down it.  But all I was able to accomplish was to split some pieces off of the sides that could be used for kindling.  Truthfully, I’m a little scared when I swing the maul down to strike.  I am, however, determined that I will gain this skill.  And when I finally split my first log, I promise I’ll be sharing the moment.  Meanwhile, you can all have a laugh at how silly I look!

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Exhausted, But Thrilled

Well over 300 electoral votes.  Amazing, wonderful, news.  We are full of hope for the future.  Congratulations to our President-Elect, Barack Obama!

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I Voted Today!

And regardless of your political affiliation, I hope you do too! For me, raising my children with an awareness of the awesome duty and importance of voting is so important.  Like my mother before me, I take my children to the polls with me and into the voting booth.

Today they helped pull the handle back at the end to register my vote.

If you leave a comment telling me you’ve voted (I’ll take your word for it here!) you’ll get a chance to win one of my bulk food bags, size 15″ x 11″.  Tell me by Thursday at 9pm EST, and I’ll announce a winner on Friday.

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