spring cleanup, day one

Today was our first real day in the garden. It was just a little cleanup -- clearing away some leaves, turning the compost, chatting with a neighbor -- but I am amazed at how much it invigorated my soul. I feel alive again in a way I didn't know I was missing. And so much is already growing -- rhubarb, garlic, chamomile, chives, lemon balm, catmint, and horehound -- the early spring troopers, so it would seem. The girls dug for worms for a while, then one scampered off to play with friends at the park while the other settled in for a nap in the sunshine. Now that's an after-garden activity I can get behind.

trail walk in april

We are knee-deep into this homeschooling thing. Wading in with so much hope, so much excitement about the future. 

The possibilities!

All my worries, all my excuses, all my what-ifs... God is pitching them out the window, wholesale.

So, to all the many (many) friends of mine who have ever told me some form of you would just love homeschooling! or someday you'll see or you really ought to read this article...

You were right as right could be.

So right.

first, there was a ceiling...

...and then another ceiling, and another, and another one after that...

...until we (he) finally hit the rafters in our little kitchen. Out came the rafters, and out came 100 years of dust and pseudo-insulation. Then the sledgehammer came out.

New insulation.

Then we (he) cut a hole in the wall (sorry about that, Dad). And started ripping out 100 years worth of drywall, wallpaper (so cool!), plaster, and more dust. The doorway between the kitchen and dining room was in an awkward spot, which was, well, awkward, given that it's maybe the most-used doorway in the house. Its new home (on the left) makes traffic flow so much more smoothly.

And tonight, there was more wall demo, which involved the unpleasant discovery that there was no insulation over the window (arrgh!). I am so grateful to be married to such a flippin' stud. He does all the hard stuff. I'm good for cleaning up after him. Monday we'll go buy some flooring and some lights, the electrician comes on Tuesday, then we'll take a deep breath and rip out the lower cabinets before installing the new ones.

starting time

I get kinda jealous when I think about all the people who have their gardens in the ground already, while up in the North we are just starting our coldest of the cold-weather seeds. Still, it's a joyful beginning, and we are so excited about this year's garden. We have plans to make it quite a lot bigger than last year's 8x10 plot, with hopes of producing enough veggies to freeze and can for the winter. Last year I froze a few tomatoes, some zucchini, a few peppers, and a whole lot of kale, and it was a veritable gold mine for cold-weather eating. I mean, how cool is it to eat a soup you made from your garden in February? There's a rare sort of satisfaction in that.

jumping back in

Every time I feel the itch to blog, I come up with some lame excuse. I've been wanting to blog again for a while now, but "getting back into it" just seems so... awkward somehow. I feel like I have to catch up. Be crafty. Have something momentous happen to me. And I know that's not true. So I'm jumping back in -- with the commitment to myself that it will only be for when I feel like it -- and because it's fun.

Nothing much has been happening.

Everything much has been happening.

We're homeschooling now.

Spring is coming.

The kids are growing like weeds.

Life is good.

in which he works and i take pictures

* It has snowed. A lot. 

* Our next-door neighbor has a snow blower. I love our next-door neighbor. And not just because of the snow blower.

* I have been avoiding said snow. I have a little baby, you know. He should stay inside. And he needs me to stay with him. 

* You've seen this mac & cheese recipe on Pinterest, right? Make it. Tonight. It makes an amazing side dish. Except, if your kids are like mine, don't call it mac and cheese, because this is clearly not mac and cheese, if you follow me.  

* Fairy gel? Two, please.

* The man and I saw The Hobbit on New Year's Day. We both liked the movie pretty well. I just re-read the book a few months ago, so although it was helpful to have the plot fresh in my mind, it also made me sort of irrationally upset when there were blatant (and, to me, unnecessary) inconsistencies. So if you are also the type to get irrationally upset about that kind of thing, be warned. Also, the best time for us to go just happened to be a 3D showing. It was our first time seeing a movie in 3D, and it was fun, though I'm not sure I would pick a 3D movie again. I thought the glasses were annoying.

* We're almost done remodeling the entry way. It's looking goooood. Home reno posts coming right up on that and on our new bathroom. I love it so much that I keep making up excuses to go hide in the loo.

* Okay, so maybe this blog is not going to be completely people-free. But I feel a little less worried about people stealing pictures of my husband's backside. In fact, I completely understand people stealing pictures of my husband's backside. 

* Thanks for all the support on that last post. 

* And thanks to an amazing Christmas present, I've been reading up on super-helpful posts like this one and serging the crap out of everything. What? It doesn't fit? I can serge that. I'll just give your socks a good serge while I'm at it. Don't the dish towels need to be serged, too? What a funny word. Serge. Seerrrrrrge.

* I want to make one of these monsters. Their mouths zip open! Rawwr.

why there are no people on this blog

So. I need to get serious with you for a minute.

A couple of weeks ago I read this post on Not Martha, which included a link for how to see if your photos are being used on another site. More out of curiosity than anything else, I gave it a spin, and found -- on the first photo I tried -- that that photo of my kid had been posted to a child pornography site.

Bam.

Sick. Heartbroken. Angry. Guilty. Gut-wrenched. Give me a few more adjectives.

That night, I unpublished every single post from all 3 blogs I've written, unsure of whether I'd continue blogging at all. Ultimately I decided to keep at it, but photos of people -- and of my kids in particular -- have officially been uninvited. I love our crafty/mommy bloggy community, and have derived so much joy and satisfaction from being a part of it. But it's easy to forget that it isn't always just us reading those blog posts about the cute things our kids do, the funny poses they strike for the camera, or how pretty they looked last Sunday. When I originally posted the stolen photo, of course I wasn't thinking about it being interpreted as something sexual. But unfortunately, someone else did, and I'd like to punch him in the nads right about now. And then hand him over to my husband.

I hate paranoia. I don't hang out with paranoid people. I don't believe in hiding in a hole because someone might get hurt or sick. Germ-a-phobes in particular drive me nuts. But guess what? My 4 month-old baby had RSV a couple of weeks ago and nearly had to be hospitalized. Guess who's slathering all the kids and visitors in hand sanitizer now? (He's fine now.)

I'm not taking any more chances on this one. I'm not saying that everyone should make the same choice I have, but I do think this is something all us mommy bloggers should think long and hard about. Think about that photo you're going to post of your daughter making a coy face. Think about that photo of your kids in the tub, even if their private parts aren't in full view. We mommy bloggers think that's cute, but there really are psychopaths out there, looking for crap for their fellow psychopaths.

Our kids are too precious to let that kind of crap happen to them. Let's protect them. Let's protect each other. Honestly, I'm too lazy to go through all of old posts and remove every single kid photo before republishing, so I'm just starting over. Clean slate. And a new design, too! Click on over for a little look-see.

I appreciate you reading. I really do. Serious minute over. Hugs!

Eta 5/29/13: I decided to republish all my old posts. I disabled right-clicking on photos (a simple Google search will show you how to do this), which I hope will fix the problem. I plan to continue to monitor site use, occasionally checking to see if certain photos have been pirated. Fingers crossed.