The Hideout

I was out of town for the weekend for a concert. I stayed with friends as usual. We went to their "second" farm for the afternoon on Friday. Pastor Jack has a cabin there he calls his "hideout." I kept expecting to see a bank robber come out of the door, but alas, no fugitives were there. Dave has a hideout, too. His is called the "office."

If anyone thinks Ohio isn't beautiful, you need to visit this hilltop on a chilly but sunny first day of spring.

The fisherman is Jack. He is a great guy, and it is fun to listen to his wife, Carol, tell stories of life with this rather unique individual. My favorite quote of his is that he never let his pastoral duties interfere with his farming or his drinking. Carol and Jack give me hope that a marriage between opposites can last. They also raised three adopted children and two biological children and lived to tell the tale. I appreciate hearing wisdom from parents that have dealt with the issues of adoption first hand. All of their stories do not have happy endings, but it is still a big help to share with them. Now they have two grandchildren with a diagnosis on the autism spectrum, so we have that in common, as well.

Random thoughts

Well, I'm tempted to go back over the list of my goals for February, now that we are a third of the way through March. I didn't get them all done, but I did some of them.

The boys are okay. Dave and I still struggle to stay up with everything we need to do to be decent parents. Somehow, I'm never quite sure we can keep up, and we both get pretty frustrated with them and with each other, but we know we have to paddle this boat together. As bad as it is on the worst days, we can't imagine trying to do it alone. If we are both in the boat and both trying to kindof go the same direction, we make progress. Or at least I think we do. Isn't that a rousing endorsement of marriage as we approach the end of our 16th year together?

A dear, dear friend has cancer. She is my age, almost exactly. We have been friends for 30 years. She has to have chemo. I've not heard any details about when or how much. It is hard to imagine. She is strong and prepared for anything that comes her way, but I'm not sure I can say the same about myself. I've taken two trips out of town in the past few weeks to visit her, once at home, once in the hospital after her surgery. That stresses Dave and the boys, but I need to do it for me

The daffodils in the yard are about 4 inches tall. I must say, I'm more anxious for spring and green in the woods this year than usual.

I actually cooked this evening. First time in a week. We have eaten a lot of frozen meals. Lucky for us, Kroger had good sales on meals the boys will eat.

Our life in a cartoon

Imagine my surprise this morning to see a drawing of my kitchen table, my husband, and myself on the editorial page. We must have met this cartoonist, but I don't remember it.

Or if we haven't met him, we must be more of a stereotype than I ever dreamed. Here all this time, I've felt unique-individual-like I didn't quite fit in. Turns out. I'm just like everyone else out there. So much so that when a political cartoonist draws Mr. and Mrs. Average, he draws me and Dave.

Vaccinate your kids

"THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found." Full story here. Lots of other info and links in the other blogs I read at left. I'm really tired of this issue. I think we need to put it behind us. Vaccinate your kids. It won't cause autism.

Zoo on Thursday

What I forgot to mention is that two elementary schools in the district lost power in the wind storm. Yes--the boys didn't have school. Again, it was a day I didn't have to teach. I am very lucky. We went to the zoo. Nothing like the zoo on a chilly, windy day. No people, but the animals up next to the fences. Or at least the elephants and lions were up next to the fences. The male lion graced us with a good roar. I've never heard that before. He stood and looked right toward me and Alex and growled/roared for about 30 seconds. It was pretty dramatic. A zoo employee said he hears it all the time, but that the lion always stops when he walks up. I told him the lion had stood right there and roared at us--The worker said we were really lucky! Note the photos were taken with my phone, so they are not the best.

Three down --One to go

When we moved in, there were four big evergreen trees in the back, so we couldn't see the neighbor behind us at all. Two of these trees blew over last spring. Last night number three blew over. The fourth big tree is leaning, and the root ball is coming out of the ground, so it will have to be taken down. That leaves just two small evergreens, and they block our view of woods, not of the neighbor. Oh well. It is kind of nice to have the back opened up a bit. And the neighbors seem just fine. We can now really see their chicken coop. (Yes, our backdoor neighbors have chickens...)

Enjoy the photos. You can see the big tree that is still upright is listing towards the playset. The closeup of the ground under that tree shows the bulge of the root ball. When the wind blows you can see the root ball rising out of the ground. It is just a matter of time. When we get the one that is down taken out, we will just have the tree folks take this one down if it is still standing. No point in paying for two trips from the tree guys.

Baby Bear

A new bear has joined the family. Baby Bear. I made him from the exact same pattern as the fuzzy brown and black bear in the photo. The difference in size is the result of smaller yarn and a smaller hook. The hardest part of the process is sewing all the arms and legs on the body. Making the head and ears is pretty easy, making the pieces is easy. Sewing them all together is tricky. I did the crochet for this one on Sunday, just working off and on as I followed Joseph and Alex around the house as they played... I stuffed, finished, and sewed him together today. It took just about as long!