O lé lé
O lé lé! O lé lé!
Good evening (: At this moment I’m feeling a bit invaded. Contemplating an opening…my eyes were wandering around the room and to my right I saw two huge caterpillars crawling down a bunch of Mother’s Day flowers, which were not picked from the garden, but bought at a florist for Matt’s mum. Twenty minutes ago I found a slug slithering across the kitchen sink. In preparation for dinner tonight I took a bag of lettuce out of the fridge and found a tiny frog living in the middle. Yesterday I went to take a bite of salad and Jess said, “Mommy! Look!” and stopped me from biting into a tiny caterpillar. Yesterday Jess and I found a little mouse sitting in the corner of the laundry room, looking docile, fully alive, but as if it had eaten some rat poison. We brought the poor little thing (who had pooped all over Mary’s bed and eaten through my lavender grain pillow) outside and let him rest in a prettier place. For some reason slugs don’t evoke the same pity from me, they make me want to hurl so I chuck them out the door disgustedly. Jess’s pronunciation of this word is much cuter than the actual being: ssshlllug. Is this invasion of slimy, dirty creatures all that bad? No, it’s just winter I suppose, they’re looking for a home. The frog was quite cute, and a survivor! Two days in the fridge might kill me. I suppose they’re better than the hot sun, mosquitoes and flies of the summer.
The season change is still affecting our health, but I think it’s finally coming to an end. After Jacinta’s cold from last week, she has had a middle of the night cough as its only remaining reminder that it is still there. Now with a vaporizer, chest rub, home-made cough syrup, lots of herbal tea, and echinacea she is sleeping through the night. I caught a nasty sore throat for 24 hours, ate nasturtium flowers, sucked down echinacea, licorice and sage tea, and slept a lot and it disappeared. Then Thursday night Jess caught a fever, spent Friday lying on me, sleeping, reading books, taking her temperature, drinking mint and licorice tea and soaking her feet in wet socks. Then we slept in today until 9am and the fever is gone. I’ve heard that fevers are sometimes a natural response that the body uses to burn off an infection, so I’m hoping her cough will have burned up in the fever. Matt’s pneumonia is gone, so we’re on our way!
As my sore throat was healing Sunday night, I said to myself, “Monday will be a lazy day, we’ll sit by the fire, knit, read books and do nothing but maybe some laundry.” I should know that you can never plan on laziness, you set yourself up for busyness. Matt went to take a shower before going off to work on Monday morning and came out dry reporting that there is no water. I went to start some laundry. Matt then walked by and reminded me, “There is no water!” Keith popped back in from his first job and we began exploring the problem. We checked the circuit box, the plugs from the pump to the house, and a few other places. Matt had to run off to work so we kept looking. Keith got up on the tank to check and see if something was blocking the pipe to obstruct the flow. It was EMPTY! How does 4,000 gallons of water just disappear? They had just bought 2 loads of water and then it rained! We hadn’t done that much laundry or taken that many baths. After a while Keith found a tiny hole in the bottom of the tank, that’s how.
How do you repair a tiny hole at the base of a supposedly water-tight steel tank? Well, you don’t, the water repair man does it, but first you have to empty the last 500 gallons of water which lie beneath the level of the pipe. With a vacuum? No, you climb down a small hole barefoot (so you don’t damage the base of the tank or dirty the water) and bucket out the water, passing each bucket up the ladder to your friend. When there are only two of you, where does your toddler go? She sits on the top of the tank under close supervision for hours with toys and food, playing with the frogs that came out in the first bucket of water. What if your feet get cold? You take coffee breaks and switch places with your friend. I’ll admit, it was quite gratifying bucketing out those last few gallons and then wiping the floor clean. Jacinta eventually got to come down and play and see what we had been doing once the floor was clean. She was very helpful in dropping the empty buckets down the hole. We give her a lot of freedom in doing things that might seem dangerous to others, but she does exactly what we say to earn this freedom. She was told to sit on a towel and play, and later to lay on her belly on the towel passing the buckets down. This is exactly what she did. She loved it, and we got the job done. Eventually the repair man fixed the hole, Keith leveled the ground beneath the tank to prevent the same hole from reoccurring, and then the water man came and pumped 2,000 gallons of lovely water for a small price, $70. Keith missed two days of work and I didn’t get my lazy day, but I learned a lot and now we have water!
On the land this week, Michelle and I dug our fifth and final terrace into the potato patch. She had cleared the spot while I was away, but due to our constant need for more space to plant vegetables, we finished it off this week. Jess and Rory were happily playing in the shed so we rolled up our sleeves and worked. It felt so good to do some labor, but my muscles feel it now. My hands are getting tougher, splinters don’t hurt much anymore. I have a permanent dirt spot on my index fingers, no matter how much I scrub. I guess it’s the mark of a gardener, like chalk stained fingers on a teacher. Carrying the huge hardwood logs down the hill (that Keith had kindly cut for us) to hold up the terrace was the hardest bit. Throwing smelly chook poo on top was the smelliest bit. Planting root crops in it will be the best bit. Matt, after work each day, continued leveling the plot where we’ll build, hopefully next month. I also cleared out the house garden and loosened the soil. Keith and Jess cleaned out the chicken pen and drove two tractor loads of this great mulched up straw/manure to the house garden where I spread it over the soil. In a week it should be plantable.
Jacinta, Jacinta, what shall I say? She does so many funny things, when I come to you on Saturday nights I always kick myself for not writing them down as they happen. As we all know, children teach us. One morning I was in a hurry and spilled a whole bowl of rice pudding on the floor. As I was fretting and crazily trying to pick up each slimy grain with a spoon, Jacinta said, “Jedda do it?” The dog was sleeping, and we had to yank her out of her basket, but then she licked up the whole mess. She sings now, it’s so sweet. Most often she sings la la la, but now an African song which starts with, “O lé lé! O lé lé!” Not only does she belt it out of nowhere, but if you try to sing anything else when it is on her mind she replies, “No….. O lé lé! O lé lé!” We had a lot of fun chanting this down in the water tank listening to the echo. Keith messes with her chanting back, “Hi Ho Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go,” and as if she’s in charge of all that is sung, she tries bringing back the “O lé lé! O lé lé!” Our friend Christine gave her a wooden train set last month and it has become her favorite toy, especially to play with daddy. She is also starting to request that “Daddy do it!” when I am cutting her food or putting on her pants. Although I’m often the only one she’ll let wipe her butt, Matt’s starting to get a little more of the credit he deserves.
Speaking of credit that Matt deserves…you are all instructed to go the blog and read Matt’s latest entry, regarding an Australian World Cup soccer player. If you are unaware, the World Cup Soccer Tournament begins in two weeks and Australia has made it in!!! (This is rare) Matt is very excited about this (in fact, I’ve never seen this part of him), and has found a link to the team (: So please go to www.paintedguitar.com/blog.html and have a laugh!
Next Friday our little Jacinta will turn two, it’s hard to believe it has only been two years since she joined us. Her buddy in Ferndale, Otto, just turned two today. During the day we’ll probably open gifts sent over in my huge suitcases from America, try to get Jess to talk on the phone, think about and miss our wide circle of love and support back in the States, and cook up a Mexican feast and a birthday cake. In the evening we’ll have a little party with our friends Michelle and Rory and Pop and Grandma and sing Happy Birthday. Jacinta will probably stop us and say, “No… O lé lé! O lé lé!” Perhaps if it’s her birthday she can be in charge and we’ll all have to sing with her (:
Goodnight everyone.
Good evening (: At this moment I’m feeling a bit invaded. Contemplating an opening…my eyes were wandering around the room and to my right I saw two huge caterpillars crawling down a bunch of Mother’s Day flowers, which were not picked from the garden, but bought at a florist for Matt’s mum. Twenty minutes ago I found a slug slithering across the kitchen sink. In preparation for dinner tonight I took a bag of lettuce out of the fridge and found a tiny frog living in the middle. Yesterday I went to take a bite of salad and Jess said, “Mommy! Look!” and stopped me from biting into a tiny caterpillar. Yesterday Jess and I found a little mouse sitting in the corner of the laundry room, looking docile, fully alive, but as if it had eaten some rat poison. We brought the poor little thing (who had pooped all over Mary’s bed and eaten through my lavender grain pillow) outside and let him rest in a prettier place. For some reason slugs don’t evoke the same pity from me, they make me want to hurl so I chuck them out the door disgustedly. Jess’s pronunciation of this word is much cuter than the actual being: ssshlllug. Is this invasion of slimy, dirty creatures all that bad? No, it’s just winter I suppose, they’re looking for a home. The frog was quite cute, and a survivor! Two days in the fridge might kill me. I suppose they’re better than the hot sun, mosquitoes and flies of the summer.
The season change is still affecting our health, but I think it’s finally coming to an end. After Jacinta’s cold from last week, she has had a middle of the night cough as its only remaining reminder that it is still there. Now with a vaporizer, chest rub, home-made cough syrup, lots of herbal tea, and echinacea she is sleeping through the night. I caught a nasty sore throat for 24 hours, ate nasturtium flowers, sucked down echinacea, licorice and sage tea, and slept a lot and it disappeared. Then Thursday night Jess caught a fever, spent Friday lying on me, sleeping, reading books, taking her temperature, drinking mint and licorice tea and soaking her feet in wet socks. Then we slept in today until 9am and the fever is gone. I’ve heard that fevers are sometimes a natural response that the body uses to burn off an infection, so I’m hoping her cough will have burned up in the fever. Matt’s pneumonia is gone, so we’re on our way!
As my sore throat was healing Sunday night, I said to myself, “Monday will be a lazy day, we’ll sit by the fire, knit, read books and do nothing but maybe some laundry.” I should know that you can never plan on laziness, you set yourself up for busyness. Matt went to take a shower before going off to work on Monday morning and came out dry reporting that there is no water. I went to start some laundry. Matt then walked by and reminded me, “There is no water!” Keith popped back in from his first job and we began exploring the problem. We checked the circuit box, the plugs from the pump to the house, and a few other places. Matt had to run off to work so we kept looking. Keith got up on the tank to check and see if something was blocking the pipe to obstruct the flow. It was EMPTY! How does 4,000 gallons of water just disappear? They had just bought 2 loads of water and then it rained! We hadn’t done that much laundry or taken that many baths. After a while Keith found a tiny hole in the bottom of the tank, that’s how.
How do you repair a tiny hole at the base of a supposedly water-tight steel tank? Well, you don’t, the water repair man does it, but first you have to empty the last 500 gallons of water which lie beneath the level of the pipe. With a vacuum? No, you climb down a small hole barefoot (so you don’t damage the base of the tank or dirty the water) and bucket out the water, passing each bucket up the ladder to your friend. When there are only two of you, where does your toddler go? She sits on the top of the tank under close supervision for hours with toys and food, playing with the frogs that came out in the first bucket of water. What if your feet get cold? You take coffee breaks and switch places with your friend. I’ll admit, it was quite gratifying bucketing out those last few gallons and then wiping the floor clean. Jacinta eventually got to come down and play and see what we had been doing once the floor was clean. She was very helpful in dropping the empty buckets down the hole. We give her a lot of freedom in doing things that might seem dangerous to others, but she does exactly what we say to earn this freedom. She was told to sit on a towel and play, and later to lay on her belly on the towel passing the buckets down. This is exactly what she did. She loved it, and we got the job done. Eventually the repair man fixed the hole, Keith leveled the ground beneath the tank to prevent the same hole from reoccurring, and then the water man came and pumped 2,000 gallons of lovely water for a small price, $70. Keith missed two days of work and I didn’t get my lazy day, but I learned a lot and now we have water!
On the land this week, Michelle and I dug our fifth and final terrace into the potato patch. She had cleared the spot while I was away, but due to our constant need for more space to plant vegetables, we finished it off this week. Jess and Rory were happily playing in the shed so we rolled up our sleeves and worked. It felt so good to do some labor, but my muscles feel it now. My hands are getting tougher, splinters don’t hurt much anymore. I have a permanent dirt spot on my index fingers, no matter how much I scrub. I guess it’s the mark of a gardener, like chalk stained fingers on a teacher. Carrying the huge hardwood logs down the hill (that Keith had kindly cut for us) to hold up the terrace was the hardest bit. Throwing smelly chook poo on top was the smelliest bit. Planting root crops in it will be the best bit. Matt, after work each day, continued leveling the plot where we’ll build, hopefully next month. I also cleared out the house garden and loosened the soil. Keith and Jess cleaned out the chicken pen and drove two tractor loads of this great mulched up straw/manure to the house garden where I spread it over the soil. In a week it should be plantable.
Jacinta, Jacinta, what shall I say? She does so many funny things, when I come to you on Saturday nights I always kick myself for not writing them down as they happen. As we all know, children teach us. One morning I was in a hurry and spilled a whole bowl of rice pudding on the floor. As I was fretting and crazily trying to pick up each slimy grain with a spoon, Jacinta said, “Jedda do it?” The dog was sleeping, and we had to yank her out of her basket, but then she licked up the whole mess. She sings now, it’s so sweet. Most often she sings la la la, but now an African song which starts with, “O lé lé! O lé lé!” Not only does she belt it out of nowhere, but if you try to sing anything else when it is on her mind she replies, “No….. O lé lé! O lé lé!” We had a lot of fun chanting this down in the water tank listening to the echo. Keith messes with her chanting back, “Hi Ho Hi Ho, it’s off to work we go,” and as if she’s in charge of all that is sung, she tries bringing back the “O lé lé! O lé lé!” Our friend Christine gave her a wooden train set last month and it has become her favorite toy, especially to play with daddy. She is also starting to request that “Daddy do it!” when I am cutting her food or putting on her pants. Although I’m often the only one she’ll let wipe her butt, Matt’s starting to get a little more of the credit he deserves.
Speaking of credit that Matt deserves…you are all instructed to go the blog and read Matt’s latest entry, regarding an Australian World Cup soccer player. If you are unaware, the World Cup Soccer Tournament begins in two weeks and Australia has made it in!!! (This is rare) Matt is very excited about this (in fact, I’ve never seen this part of him), and has found a link to the team (: So please go to www.paintedguitar.com/blog.html and have a laugh!
Next Friday our little Jacinta will turn two, it’s hard to believe it has only been two years since she joined us. Her buddy in Ferndale, Otto, just turned two today. During the day we’ll probably open gifts sent over in my huge suitcases from America, try to get Jess to talk on the phone, think about and miss our wide circle of love and support back in the States, and cook up a Mexican feast and a birthday cake. In the evening we’ll have a little party with our friends Michelle and Rory and Pop and Grandma and sing Happy Birthday. Jacinta will probably stop us and say, “No… O lé lé! O lé lé!” Perhaps if it’s her birthday she can be in charge and we’ll all have to sing with her (:
Goodnight everyone.
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
11:47 PM
1 Comments:
i can see why you feel very crowded with that many unwelcome guests living in your house. i cant beleive jess is gonna be 2 already i cant wait to see her as her big 2 year old self lol. tell us if she does do the o le le thing on her birthday that would be so cute and funny. also tell her that i said happy birthday. i hope australia does good in soccer to make matt proud of his protege (i cant spell). hope to see you all as soon as possible.
peace
Sarah McCormick
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