Sunday, March 30, 2008

A Typical Weekend

Saturday morning the kids got up and ate the sugary cereal Papa Pan bought for them after swearing he wouldn't buy anymore. (Vanilla Mini Wheats in case anyone is interested, and I agree, they are delicious but they make it impossible for them to accept puffed rice as a cereal).





While we stumbled around and woke up and cursed the too finely ground coffee that clogged up the coffee maker, they played.





Much stuff from the playroom was brought upstairs and the bunkbeds became a 2 storey farm complete with rope pulleys to haul up buckets with.





When we were awake they ate their second breakfast (fried eggs, toast, and left over ham scrabble) with us.





Then we headed off to the Farmer's Market. They got apple juice popsicles and ran off with their friends while I bought organic seeds for the garden from Summer (who is moving in across the street from us!), talked permaculture with Lance, and preschool issues with Zanne, Selena, and our lawyer friend Kelly. It wasn't a deep conversation because all of us had little people pulling at us but we atleast got to connect for a few minutes. Sprout slept in the sling, and Nature Girl and Wild Thing got their traditional face paintings - a rainbow for Nature Girl and crocodile for Wild Thing. Then Nature Girl realized she could have gotten a full face painting and told everyone who would listen how she had squandered her money on a rainbow on her cheek when she could have had a whole rainbow butterfly face. I reminded her that next week was another chance to get it. Wild Thing begged for sushi. Papa Pan got more coffee and a coarser grind, bought our apple cider and talked TM, permaculture, Night Kitchen, and ending his commute with a teaching job closer to home with a bunch of people. We headed home when the eggs and ham wore off and had soup and tomato salad for lunch.





The kids went out to play in the snow and I curled up on the couch in a sunbeam and read the creative family while Papa Pan took Sprout with him while he ran errands (hardware store)





We made ginger carrot and coconut curry soup for dinner and celebrated Earth Hour with shadow puppets and THE BEST RECENT INVENTION ON EARTH - the handcrank flashlight.





The kids went off to bed after declaring we needed to do an Earth Hour every night - we agreed that it needed to be a regular occurance.





Sprout, who had napped frequently during the day stayed up til nearly 11 o'clock and then woke several times between eleven and 3am. At 3am Nature Girl woke up because of an ear ache and Papa Pan and I have been on call as doctor mom and pop since then. The Sprout was fretful until 7am.





We watched a ring neck pheasant strut around the yard as the snow fell early this morning. There was no cursing as the coffee was made, and Nature Girl cried as she told me that the Princess (who lives in her left ear - there are Mermaids in the right) was very frightened by the ear ache.





Wild Thing and Nature Girl watched Baron Munchausen as Nature Girl took to her sick bed and continued to be waited on. Many bananas were eaten. Much apple cider drunk. A pancake was nibbled. Then she fell asleep and I turned off the Baron and the Wild Thing complained heartily.





The Sprout finally woke up at 11am.



We ate waffles for lunch. Papa Pan made a weeks worth to keep in the freezer. They are full to the brim with multigrain goodness and big apple chunks, oh and gouda cheese we need to use up before we go dairy free (boohoo) - yummmm! Nature Girl sleeps on.



We discussed where to put our clothesline in the back yard.



I researched just what is in a disposable diaper and asked the question WHY are they not compostable??? Well it turns out, they really are - the mystery gel is PLANT GEL so even if the municipality won't compost them (human waste and all), I will in our backyard composter. If I haven't been bothered by little boy pee in the garden up til now I don't see what the issue will be. I'm trying to reduce the number we use anyhow.



Wild Thing asked me where I peed from without a penis and I tried to explain it to him. He listed everyone he knew with a penis. I asked him what was the difference between boys and girls and he looked dumbfounded. I asked again, "What do boys have that girls don't" His answer? "Weaponry"



Nature Girl woke up and ate a weeks worth of waffles. One At A Time. From the top of the bunkbeds, where she languishes still.



We put on our family standby - The Indian in the Cupboard, which Wild Thing adores and Nature Girl knows so well she could doze through it. It kept Wild Thing from bouncing on her while she rested.



I did laundry, folded laundry, put away laundry and reorganized Wild Thing's closet so he wouldn't dump out the folded laundy to make play places for his little people. Papa Pan cleaned out the fridge and cooked beets and put a clothing rod in one closet in he basement while I plotted getting rid of other closets in the house.



I lamented my lack of a mudroom then decided to DEAL WITH IT and drew up sketches for my front hall closet transformation.



Spoke with my mom on the phone for a few minutes while I thawed out dinner. Made dinner

Ate dinner.

Gave Wild Thing a bath and finished cleaning up his room while Nature Girl talked on the phone with her dad, stepmum, and Dark Mirror, then Wild Thing was cajoled into talking on the phone for a couple of minutes.

IMed with DarkMirror

Did more laundry



We did some online banking.



I wrote this while Sprout nursed. And nursed. And nursed.

I was supposed to build an heirloom quality toy wooden kitchen this weekend too. Ummmm...the dog ate my homework...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you have a wonderful life even with ear aches and nighttime babies. Why are you going dairy free if it saddens you?

Kerry said...

Because Nature Girl is supposed to test out being dairy free to see if it helps with her attention issues (and given her other issues - random hives, excema) its likely there are food allergies going on so we go dairy free, then gluten free first off. Casein and gluten are the worst offenders with food sensitivities and the brain. I will miss cheese a great deal!

Anonymous said...

Do you all have to give it up if one of you is allergic or sensitive to it?

Kerry said...

It is really hard to get one kid off a staple food and not just take everyone off it and find substitutions - casein is in so many things. Gluten is even worse. The casein trial is only 3 weeks long thank goodness - so we'll get a picture of how it is affecting things pretty quickly. The gluten trial is 3 months long though!

Sarah said...

Which disposables do you use that have plant gel - Seventh Gen? We try to use them sparingly, but I'd love to compost the peepee ones.

Kerry said...

As it turns out it is what is used as the absorbant gel in MOST disposable diapers. I still wouldn't want it against my baby girl's vagina (seemingly innoculous things used in diapering - like talcum powder - migrate up and have been found in ovarian cysts), but I'm not so concerned about disposables on boys as long as I'm not using them all the time and they get lots of diaper free time too.