Daybook

Outside my window…Blue morning glories have grown up the fence in the kitchen garden. The tomatoes plants look dead, but are still producing. Among the dried out summer weeds, grass seedlings emerge, answering the recent rain. It's sunny. And the children have gone to school, so I am alone.

I am thinking…That the getting out of house today was filled with tension. It started sweetly. We milked Frida and Opal as the sun rose. No one put her muddy feet in the bucket. The mamas climbed up willingly, and their milk is creamy. Warm homemade bread and soft boiled eggs with our breakfast. Enough time to get it all done. But then some unnecessary, not-funny teasing, and harsher reactions. Shift to too much intensity, and Gracie tears.

I am thankful…for some time to myself today. For black soil ready to shovel into the clay packed garden beds, and seedlings eager to stretch their roots out. For my sweetie, who helps us get things done, and wrote me a song. And my job, which feeds my soul some late nights. For time to make and grow and read things.

From the learning rooms…The children are in Grass Valley with their homeschool peers. Eli does his math and history, but is most excited by what he reads in Discover Magazine. The girls are making miniatures and reading about polymer clay techniques.

In the kitchen…The dishes are washed. The morning's milk is on ice. Yesterday's bread is bagged. Sophia's spaghetti sauce is properly canned and in jars. The pumpkins we harvested are cooked and waiting to become Thai curry. I won't cook today, but the sourdough starter will keep bubbling, and the pickles will continue fermenting in their vat on the counter.

I am wearing…My grubbies from milking, and my slippers. My reading glasses are on the top of my head. That's new. My vision for close has gone fuzzy.

I am creating…I think I want to make sewing patterns from a few of my favorite winter cozies (yoga pants, wrap shirt..). And a six panel skirt out of thick fleece. I finished my 5 year knitting project. It's a striped short cape/ poncho.

I am going…To stay home.

I am wondering…if the animals will be okay while we are away. Most nights I sleep with our window open, to listen. There've been no losses for a while. We haven't found someone to do that for us.

I am reading…Isabel Allende's "Island Beneath the Sea". I tried to read it in Spanish, but I'm not ready.

I am looking forward to…seeing my parents next month in Thailand.