"gnome" chomsky

Happy Halloween Everyone!













Will the real Noam Chomsky please step forward....
















Sorry Mr. Chomsky. You've been outdone....
and by a 6 month old!

flo jo and the farm

we visited the farm in hartland last weekend. we saw cousins,

cows


cats


and combines.


life at 6 months old is pretty great!

we even got to see great-grandma florence, also known as flo jo! at least to us....

mother of all...

it was inevitable really. the first sickness. and believe me, this seems like the mother of all colds. matt's got it, jana's got it, and now avery's got it. it's so hard seeing your little one be miserable. and worse yet, being the only well one to take care of him. his runny nose. the coughing that becomes a gagging, then a horrible choking. the sneezing, the snot shooting out....i could go on. but i'll spare you the details. lets just say that when the hives broke out all over his poor, sad, little face and his eyes started swelling up, i did what any mother would do. i sprayed breastmilk all over his face, and in his eyes. and then i willed him to nurse and nurse until he fell asleep. the hives, gone. the eyes, not red or puffy. i offered matt the same remedy, which he declined, opting for some advil. oh well, i guess the mothering can only go so far. either way, the boys are now both fast asleep upstairs. it ain't easy being the mother of all...but it is rewarding. now time for a nice cup-o-tea and some much needed mothering of the mother.

he has arrived!

little wesley is finally here! and not a moment too soon! he is perfect and very, very small. he has lots of black hair and he snorts a lot! his big brother turns 6 today! happy birthday charlie! and happy birthing day amber! you are a birth warrior!

harvest

digging up muddy vegetables all day. pulling up the tomato, squash, and melon vines. feeding the heaping compost pile with rotten, squishy vegetables that were sacraficed in the frost. bumping around in the back of the pickup, down the dirt road to where we throw it all, until next year. laughing with others as we rake up mulch and dead tomatos squish between our toes. it's a dirty, hard job. but even now, after a long hard days work, more work lies ahead. my kitchen floor is covered in mud, brought in on dirty buckets. every space in my refridgerator is taken. every windowsill is crammed with tomatoes. there are herbs hanging everywhere to dry. cupboards stuffed with potatoes, onions and garlic. peppers strung on a line to across the kitchen window. acorn, butternut, delicata, and buttercup squash fill a basket. pumpkins line the front steps, wating to be carved. a pot of soup on the stove, the first of many to be stewed and frozen for the winter. i'm a bit overwhelmed, but there is no time for that. there is babyfood to be made (ave will soon be eating real food!), tomato sauce to be canned, pepper jelly to be created, and herbs to be made into tea. although my body is sore and tired from yesterday at the farm, i must press on. it's what women have done for centuries. and for the first time, i am honored to be doing this "women's work."

don't quit your day job

how many times have you heard this phrase? 10, 15, 115 times? yeah, me too. it seems everyone thinks this is good advice to tell young people. so we finish school, only to find ourselves in some job that pays well and somehow manage to find enough time to pursue what we love IN ADDITION to working a job that we HATE. artists and musicians know this all too well. i've never really considered myself an artist or a musician (thought secretly i aspire to be both), but still, i know how they feel.

but what does it really mean? that doing what you love is a luxury? that you'll never be able to support yourself AND do what you love? that we should just be miserable like our parents and toil away for years and years, only to find out that in the end none of that mattered?

luckily i never had parents like this. my parents are still both trying to figure out what they love. and my dad is STILL quitting his day job (way to go dad!) but luckily i also have friends to show me the way...

Paige
and...
Luke
and...
Matt
and...
Tia
and...
Jake
and...
Damanda & Andy
and...
Anne it's only a matter of time until this blog gets discovered and you can quit your day job!


and... maybe i won't be burning my work uniform in a large backyard bonfine (again, way to go dad!) but, i did quit my day job.