SpiderWomanKnits

Day 14: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Last night our coop got rocked. The door (which is huge and solid wood) was busted in and our fence was ripped down. Two chickens are gone. Bear tracks are visible surrounding the coop and at the point of entry. Only one hen remains. All this the day before we are to leave to visit with family and we feel terrible about leaving the one hen behind, alone. She's squawking like crazy and walking the perimeter of our property, calling for her coop mates I'd imagine. 

This really sucks.We have to get a dog really soon. We had been putting it off only because of all the babies being born around here over the past two years we felt we didn't have the time to train a farm/guard dog properly. But we had been calling this one woman about Gampr's and playing phone tag literally for months. Oddly, we finally got to speak with her last night. Coincidence? She has a litter of pups that she's testing with chickens now for us. I hope it works out. 

We're heading to Jersey for a few days to deliver our Pilot to my cousin who bought it from us and then to see the 'rents. They refuse to get high speed internet so my posting may be sporadic over the next week but I have a lot I want to share. 

Here's a little peek. Notice sweet Chippy in the foreground. She's following us all day. 

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and week! 

ooxx, 

Spidey

Day 13: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Well, today is turning out to be one of those days. Woke up cranky and everything seems to be taking forever to do and not even turning out right in the end. Both babes are sleeping right now so I have some peace and quiet. That's good. 

Tomorrow we go to pick up our new (used) car and we are all more than a little excited. It's just so beautiful out today for the first time in what seems like forever and we have to get paperwork together, banking issues in order, plates registered etc. when all the kids want to do is play. Let's just call it a 'conflict of interest' ;) 

Anyhow, trying to make the best of it and go with the flow even though it feels like I am paddling upstream today. 

In any case, I think a few rows on a simple project might help me get centered. 

Day 12: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Thanks Charity for knitting Vaughn this sweet little bolero! He loves it (and so does his momma) ;)

Day 11: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Whew! This week flew by. In fact I feel like this entire summer is just flying by. I can not believe there is only one more week in July. JULY! I am still wearing sweaters at night and for the first part of the morning. 

Anyhow, I won't waste anybodies weekend time complaining about the sucky New England weather. Instead I'll just show you the results of it.

This is a picture taken today of our first ever upside down tomato plant. It hasn't gotten very far but then again it has been spending so much of it's energy trying to find it's way back right side that I am not sure if it would have done better in the ground. The area of our garden where we planted our tomatoes last year has been completely reseeded and is currently overgrown with "wild" tomatoes not yet fruiting. 

Last year it seemed like such a hassle trying to stake or tie or harness our tomatoes in any way that we thought we'd give the upside down thing a go. The Topsy Turvy bags weren't doing anything for me so Greg drilled a hole in the bottom of a galvanized bucket and we used that instead. We inserted some burlap first with a hole cut in it and then drew the plant through that to keep it from getting injured by the sharp edge or simply falling through. 

I am looking forward to seeing how this turns out. 

In other garden news, well, our garden is pretty lame this year. Not that having a brand new baby and two other small children is any excuse not to garden but the garden is my thing in our house and I just wasn't up to it this year. We have lovely, lovely cucumbers and there are a lot of them. Our mint is about to make it's way across the street and down the block it has grown so much and the swiss chard is recovering after getting rocked by hail a few weeks ago. Jorn chose to plant watermelon this year which doesn't seem to be doing so well and Greg's pick of Habaneros aren't thriving either. Oh well. Last year we had more Jalapenos than any one family should and we couldn't even give any away. 

Posts may be a few days behind this coming week. We found the Car For Us but it's 2 1/2 hours away in Connecticut. We'll have to travel there this week to pick it up and then later in the week bring our Pilot down to family members who bought it from us in NJ. It's all very exciting but I am not so interested in all the driving really. Although, the new car should make the trip fun! 

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Day 10: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Yesterday we took our trip to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for Simonne. She is doing great! 

We stopped at the Food Coop in Hanover for some snacks.

For some odd reason they have faux rocks chained al around the store. 

They don't cover or conceal anything and there are probably about a dozen or so all around the perimeter of the store. 

Any idea why?

Off to Connecticut today for our car hunt!

Day 9: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Whoa. Busy day and I just realized I almost hadn't posted. We are in the process of switching cars. We honestly can't keep up with car payments since Greg has been out of work so it's time, only one short year into our car, to trade in for a used car.

You see, Greg and I are real car lovers. The car we drive we have to feel good in but it also has to meet our safety requirements as well as give us enough room for our family of five plus other peoples kids. This time it also has to fit into our trimmed down budget. That's a lot to ask but I think we may have found the Car For Us. I really wish someone would make a hybrid car for large families or allow US citizens to import diesels from other countries. It's really a shame. Europeans have far more choices in large car categories that are much more eco-friendly or diesel. 

I will never drive a minivan. (Not that there's anything wrong with them but I just can't drive them.) The Honda Pilot we bought last year is as 'Golden Retriever' as I can get.

We imported a car once before, from France, it was surprisingly easy and turned out to be a wise decision. It saved our behinds this year when we sold it and just by importing a rare car (for the US) we were able to make some money on it. While there are many of these cars in Europe there are less than 40 in the US. Hmm...maybe we should start an import business ;) 

The car we are thinking about now is certainly interesting but each time we've made decisions with our heart and our head (we've done our due diligence of research, reviews, Carfax, service calls etc.) it seems to work out. So stay tuned! We may know as early as Friday if there will be a new addition to our garage.

Anyhow, sorry no pictures today but this is where we are at. Tomorrow we're heading to the Big Hospital for Simonne's appointment. 

Day 8: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

This weekend was a BIG weekend for Jorn! Check it out!

TWO WHEELS!

We were all beside ourselves today. Jorn is very timid, physically. In fact he just got this bike from one of my second hand haunts only weeks ago and had only ridden it for the past three days with the training wheels on it and pushed firmly to the ground. Today he was getting increasingly frustrated and started to get angry, really angry for what at first seemed like no apparent reason. It was that breakthrough point. The line he knew he had to and was ready to cross. Letting go and taking a chance. Maybe even getting hurt. So off went the training wheels and Greg promised three times over (to me and to Jorn) not to let go. My heart was racing as I looked on knowing that that moment could bring either tremendous joy or even greater frustration for my boy but there was nothing that we could do as parents other than support his decision to take the training wheels off. The time had come. But when the moment came Greg couldn't even hold on! Off he went! I mean he flew, fast across the driveway like he was born on a bike. Amazing. 

Jorn kept saying' "Is this day for real?  I mean am I dreaming?" He couldn't believe he was riding a bike, so well so fast. Don't get me wrong it's not as if we don't believe in his abilities but there was just no interlude of 'boy on a bike with training wheels'. Jorn never even had a tricycle. Never wanted one. He preferred a pedal go-kart (super fun) and a scooter. Then just all of a sudden he is flying away from us faster than he ever has before and it was surreal.

Riding a bike is a big deal. I am sure you all remember that moment where you realized you were doing it on your own. Magical.  Seeing it from the parents side was even more so. It's a rite of passage. Jorn behaved differently after he started riding the bike, he was so proud of himself. I think because he sees a lot of his other friends riding two wheelers and he had said he felt embarrassed by having training wheels on the bike we had got him. Tonight he asked that I call the entire family to tell them the big news but refused to come in off the bike to tell them himself. He was out in the driveway riding in circles until the sun started to go down. Just amazing. I'll know where to find him tomorrow morning when I call for breakfast. 

Funny, yesterday at the horse show many riders were getting around from the stables to the arena by small dirt bikes. Jorn said he wanted to ride one and Greg said, "First you have to learn to ride a two wheeler before you can even think about getting on a dirt bike." Well, Jorn checked that off the list but I think this time we'll take baby steps, like to a ten speed, before he gets onto a motorized bike! For the time being we'll just use clothespins to attach some playing cards to his spokes and let his imagination cruise along with the bike!

Day 7: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Some pictures from our day at the Fair and the Show. 

The Village Green at the Antique Fair. Dorset really is a lovely town. I'd suggest moving there if you have a spare 1,000,000 dollars.

Loved this!

I really wanted this wooden egg stand (under the scale) but they wanted $95 for it so it stayed put.

This barrel was my texture crush of the day. 

An antique swift. Because what kind of knitter would I be if I didn't take a picture of it?!

All in all I was really underwhelmed by this fair. There weren't many vendors and they were really asking far too much for what they were offering. We were the youngest people there and the loudest. It was so quiet. Like in a weird way. I wanted to grab an antique horn blow it and yell WAKE UP PEOPLE! But instead we just looked around, ate some hot dogs and then trotted over to the horse show. 

Which was just absolutely-picture-perfect beautiful, btw. Really. This was the nicest setting I have ever attended a horse show in. I used to compete professionally (Hunter-Jumpers) before I started having kids. I really miss riding and competing. I am very competitive when it comes to sports and games.

I won't bore you with the million and a half photos I took of horses but here are some jumpers that I really loved. 

We walked all the stables. I fell in love with a horse named Ester (go figure). And Simonne, well Simonne, is taking after her momma. This girl DID NOT want to leave the "E-Haw-Haw's". She watched the kids class from the stands and pet as many horses as she could. (Jorn found some boys to play with and spent the majority of the time looking for toads in a stream) When it was time to go this is what she looked like. Tears streaming down her cheeks. I see ponies in our future :)

Day 6: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Everyone went swimming in a beautiful river today as I sat by the edge and nursed baby Vaughn.  The river bed is completely made up of the most wonderful river rocks. It doesn't make for easy walking with bare feet but each rock you pick up becomes a favorite. The pile we brought back with us last season still sits in our driveway. I'd like to do something like this with some. Walking around a bit we came across this butterfly. Of course, no rivers edge is free from litter. So there were some bottle caps as well.  Two completely different objects in their resting places, I guess beautiful in their own way.  

Thank you all for your incredibly kind and supportive words about Simonne (and me too). It means so very much to me. Most of the time you would never even know she's dealing with JRA but those days, and oh that limp. It's just so hard to see. 

Jess said in the comments, "A mama seeing her baby hurting is just the hardest thing ever. Hopefully sharing what you are going through lightens load even the tiniest bit." 

And that couldn't be more true. The one thing that gives me some comfort is the fact that I have and do deal with this and I have never let it get in the way of the way I live my life. Simonne certainly won't either. 

Here's hoping you for a beautiful weekend filled with summer sun and fun. We're heading to a huge Antiques Festival and a Horse Show. The perfect combination as far as I'm concerned. 

Day 5: 30 Days to Blogville or Bust

Today I really have nothing. It was a challenging day. Woke up to two babies crying and Simonne was limping. Three months ago she was diagnosed with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. The days when she is limping around just make my stomach knot up into a ball. She also has inflammation in her eye due to the arthritis which is far more serious than the swelling in her knee but completely treatable. 

When she woke up with a swollen knee months ago and we took her to the pediatrician we honestly thought she just strained it because she is a tough little girl. The kind who wants to follow her brother everywhere (to the top of every play ladder) and do everything he does (ride big bikes etc.) We were shocked to hear the diagnosis of JRA, although we shouldn't have been since I had it as well when I was a child. Still it really and completely sucks.

We drive hours (4-round trip) to a Big Hospital with all three babies in tow every two weeks for her checkups. Not easy. Vaughn does not *ahem* like the car. At. All. 

So today was one of those days. The weather was hot, humid and there was a strong storm system in the air. The kind of day that makes you feel stiff in the bones, only a two year old shouldn't have to feel that way don't you think?