The Farm Report

  • Comprehensive Plan

    I moderated my session of the Comprehensive Plan meeting tonight.

    As I suspected, my sister (not in my small group) reported her session was a lively, inspired group full of ideas and problem-solving. There was true visionary thinking and she left feeling energized and hopeful about our community.

    Ironically, I landed the age 70+ crowd. This is weird, particularly because they were trying really hard to make each group diverse. It is eye-opening to see what things matter to this crowd (a good shoe store and more parking), but I also had to write the words “need a bypass around Oxford.” I wrote it. Because I was playing the role of a neutral party. But inside? I was hoping the ink in my pen would run out.

    (Special thanks to all who attended!)

  • Movie night

    Movie night

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    Today was my Maintenance Day, the day I take every now and then to get my hair cut and pack about 12 hours worth of errands into about three.

    I also met my friend, Anne, who’s 37 weeks pregnant, for lunch. When I was 37 weeks pregnant with Neko, I had a lunch date with Anne. But I had to cancel when my water broke, and I delivered Neko later that day. When I touched base with her early this morning, I was hoping (for her sake) she would have to break our lunch date. Although a bit dilated and effaced, she still made it, and we enjoyed sushi, thai, and good conversation.

    During my day, I stopped by Target and picked up these faboo plastic popcorn cups in the dollar bins. After an early dinner, I hurried the kids through bath and then cracked out a new movie and filled the our cups. For the cost of $1 per person (plus the price of popcorn), we had a spectacular evening.

  • Shep draws, too

    Shep draws, too

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    I feel remiss in documenting Shep’s drawing. His drawings don’t really look like anything yet, but he’s definitely gaining control, and he’s not just scribbling anymore.

  • Stats

    Number of currently (and strangely) still not sick adults: 2

    Number of seemingly healthy children: 3

    Number of hours of adult sleep this weekend: 8 (maybe?)

    Number of quality family meals served: 0

    Number of cloth diapers that will probably need to be thrown out due to bizarre toxic material that emerged in Shep’s poop: 3 (the original diaper and the two it was washed with…the smell not only refused to be washed out, it SPREAD)

    Number of laundry loads cycled: 3,463

  • Stupid gets stupider

    Stupid gets stupider

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    I know I’ve been using the word stupid to describe this week a whole lot. I wish I had time to come up with a new word, but instead I’ve been spending my time uncovering things covered in vomit—children, sheets, clothes, and couches.

    Last night, just as Tom and I were contemplating bed, Shep started throwing up. By 1:30am, Neko started, too. And all the commotion woke Ellery up, so we were all up until 3am. By morning, the throwing up seemed to be over, but it looked like a tornado had blown through. We did about ten loads of laundry and cleaned and sanitized. Just as we were about to put Neko and Shep down for naps, Ellery joined the sick crew. More laundry and sanitizing followed. The kids were intermittently crazy (see photo) and exhausted.

    So far, Tom and I are healthy. But the writing is on the wall.

  • It happened

    It happened

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    Over the last week she’s been taking tentative steps, but now it’s official. She’s crawling.

  • I heart Colorforms

    I heart Colorforms

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    Today Susie and I were talking, and the subject of Colorforms came up. And then I realized it might be about time to crack them back out. We’ve had them for a while, but when we initially tried them, Neko didn’t quite get it, so we tucked them away for a while.

    I think it’s safe to say this is going in the activity rotation.

  • Apples and chocolate milk

    Apples and chocolate milk

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    While Neko was in school, Susie and I took the Shep, Chris, Alex and Ellery to the mall. Susie needed to drop off her computer to sneak in a few repairs before the warranty expires in a few days and the whole thing implodes.

    However, you can only schedule one of those Genius appointments 48 hours in advance, so we were at the mercy of the Standby Appointment.

    Shep and Chris spent over an hour running, jumping, crawling and giggling down by where the old Panera used to be. We rewarded their patience with chocolate milk. Susie and I rewarded our patience with eggnog lattes.

  • This week is stupid

    Seriously. Packed with appointments and meetings and absolutely zero time for anything but rushing from one thing to another just hoping I’m not as late as I was to the last thing.

  • Murphy’s Tuesday

    Today was one of those days where everything that could possibly go wrong did and then a few more stupid things happened just to cap off the pure stupidity.

    The result of this was exhaustion, frustration and admittedly mediocre-to-poor parenting.

    The only way to deal with this is to call my mom and make her swear up and down that she had days like these, too. She said she did, and, hey, I’m not too screwed up, right?

    Right?