eating again-(wasn't sure I would or could) and all that happened while I wasn't

It has been a hell of a few weeks. We got sick. Not all of us, but most. Thankfully baby and son #1 were miraculously spared. The other three of us had all sorts of nastiness emitting from every possible orifice- I will say no more. I am somewhat surprised that I like food again. The lack of appetite lasted so long, that I thought it might be permanent. I was a little enticed by the idea of painless calorie reduction just in time for summer scanty clothing. But, I will say that liking food is more enjoyable than fasting.
So what was new is now old, but I will still try to document since I uploaded pics for this post many days ago and never got further.

First I will talk about this here picture of garbage in my yard. That is the edge of my yard that borders the driveway of the nonexistent neighbor who hasn't had a roof in months and has been slowly working on her house for years with no apparent progress. The place looks condemned, yet people show up every once and a while and do ??????????, fill up the monstrous dumpster a little more, and leave for a long time. Anyway, I am way off subject. Oh yeah, the garbage. I would appreciate the garbage workers if they made the garbage disappear, but what it appears that they actually do is sloppily lift the cans and dump 98% of it in their truck, leaving the other 2% to the whims of the wind. The end result is a whole lot of mess stuck in my bushes. Ugh. It happens every Thursday. The garbage trucks come and make a lot of noise, while polluting the air on my street with their smelly diesel trucks. Then, I look outside and find garbage all over my yard. Annoying.

I must take a few minutes and pay tribute to my poor, poor Avalon. Man, have I drawn this out. Back in December some probably drunk, clearly irresponsible and selfish, nameless and faceless person who I feel immense resentment toward maimed my vehicle. I did not see or hear it happen. I woke in the morning, looked out the window, and found mystery man's car smooshed into mine, both totalled and un-driveable. Mystery man sold his within a few weeks for far too little cash, as it was only good for parts. I, on the other hand, held onto mine, feeling attached to it since it was a gift from Dad and Jenny, and since I had grown so fond of it. I got an estimate for it's repair, and kept imagining that I could save up the $1500 to make it go again, even though it would still retain severe cosmetic scars at that price. Then, I finally faced reality and decided that I may never have enough money to save it, and should just let it go. So I posted it on craigslist for $750.00. I got no response. I tried this for weeks. Still nothing. I got a notice in the mail that the tags were soon to expire, and thought, "okay, I've got to rid of this thing before I get a ticket for expired tags". You see, we have no driveway or garage, and the city cracks down on stuff like that on the street. Finally I placed another ad that just said "make offer". I got about 20 responses within an hour. No one wanted to pay more than $500. I talked one guy up another fifty bucks. He was weird, pushy, bossy, dressed and sounded like Ali G.(mystery man noticed the uncanny likeness), and treated me like a lesser female. My stomach felt wrong after that transaction. I hate the thought of that creepy guy driving my car. I wonder what he thought of my bumper stickers? I doubt he even understood them. I still feel so violated by the whole car situation from the start when it was hit and left, to the end when it was towed away by the Ali G-wanna-be. I can't believe I went from a great, working, comfortable vehicle to a measly $550.00 and some remaining glass shards on the street. Ouch. It hurts. Goodbye Toyota Avalon.

The plum blossoms have quickly come and are already almost all transformed into leaves on the trees in my backyard. They are so, incredibly beautiful! There have been hundreds of bees pollinating them. When I stand next to them, I hear loud, continuous buzzing because there are so many! I tried to capture those lovely bees on camera.

Mystery man's brother lives in Connecticut now. His Birthday was last week, and I wanted to email a picture of baby to him with a Birthday message. This was how brightly she smiled when I said,"Say Happy Birthday, Uncle!". She is so much fun these days.

What else have we been up to since I last blogged...? Well, I had my last session of Lilac Moon Preschool on Thursday (sweet relief), and it was a lovely day of a child's birthday celebration and puppet show attended by all the parents and even a grandfather and lots of outdoor play since it was gorgeous and warm outside. The children enjoyed helping to water our recently planted garden beds, and they planted seeds for jack-o-'lantern pumpkins in peat pots. We stuck the peat pots inside plastic juice bottles (used to be full of Knudsen Recharge) with the tops cut off, watered the heck out of them, and covered the tops with plastic wrap. The kids took them home with much excitement, telling their parents all about how the bottles would work as a greenhouse if they put them in a sunny window. The birthday boy kept watching his, expecting it to grow before his very eyes. He was dismayed when he learned that he would have to care for it all summer long, transfer it into the ground, and water it often in order to see pumpkins in the Autumn. They are so cute- I will miss them. I will never forget my favorite thing that the same above-mentioned child said one day:
He was noticing a colored jar full of water and rooting plants which were hanging in my window, and the conversation went like this:

him: "what is that- a big bug?"
me: "it's a spider plant baby"
him: (very concerned) "then it should be with it's mother!!!"


On Saturday morning, baby and I drove down to Denver for a Waldorf Kindergarten Teachers' study group with Nancy Blanning. The woman is a genius. She is also kind, gentle, wise, funny and wonderful. I can't get enough of her talks. I consider her to be my guru in the world of Waldorf Education. I am lucky to have her nearby and accessible in Denver. She contributed to a book that I just got and am really looking forward to reading. It is called 'Your Not The Boss Of Me', and addresses the 6-7 year age transition, and first grade readiness. It looks like it will be a very worthwhile read.

Later Saturday evening all three kids and I attended chant circle where I sang my guts out. So, very satisfying and gratifying. The drummers were so great, it really added a lot to the songs! I was really in the groove.

Yemaya of the ocean,
Yemaya of the sea,
Oh Yemaya
Yemaya---- ,Oh Yemaya.
Yemaya of deep waters,
Yemaya of all tears.
Oh Yemaya
Yemaya----, Oh Yemaya.

It is almost one in the morning. I really needed to blog. I might regret this when baby wakes me in the morning. Sometimes I just must get it all on the page. Goodnight moon.