A Nice Day

And now I sit--in bed, lamp on, a laptop being a ridiculous convenience, when you think about it--writing about what a nice day it's been.

Bright and early yesterday morning, we got up, got the kids out of bed, and headed out of town to go blueberry picking.  I love to pick fruit, and have long before I was a gardener and got interested in such things.  It started when I first went blueberry picking about ten years ago (at this same farm, now that I think of it).  Anyway, I always enjoy the picking process, how much cheaper you can usually buy the fruit for, and the absolute bounty you can drive home with.  I love how you can actually be in the position of finding as many recipes as you can to use up your ____ (blueberries, strawberries, peaches, apples...).  There is just something about the surfeit of one type of food that makes you feel like you are reveling in Plenty.  And having a large amount of one item also makes me feel connected to my farmer ancestors, who would have been doing what I'm doing with my blueberries: making hay while the sun shines, if I may use an agricultural expression.  Making lots of blueberry dishes while you have blueberries, then canning the rest, perhaps.

Anyway, I made a blueberry crisp last night (which, my friends, you must make if you ever have six cups of blueberries sitting around--seriously, ten years ago it made me a true blueberry fan), and since it was cooked after the kids went to bed, I let Noah and Jane have some for breakfast.  It does have fruit and oatmeal in it, after all.  Then, I made blueberry muffins and blueberry pancakes.  We had a regular blueberry feast for breakfast!  And breakfast wasn't until 10:00 (read: leisurely morning).

Clara was under the weather this morning, so we skipped church and stayed home.  Throughout the day, there was lots of neatening on my part, kiddie pool time for the kids, and video games for Nathan (his brother, Andrew, stayed with us this weekend).  My kitchen is now ready to face the week.  And I even watched a movie and relaxed a good bit.  I hand-pollinated my cucumbers to make sure they keep producing (I've picked three so far! Hooray!) and soaked some beans so I can plant them tomorrow.

Janey Beth has taken to making nests out of her bedding, putting her stuffed animals in the middle, then sleeping on top of them, pretending she's the mama bird.  It is the cutest thing.  Her bed is a complete mess, but that's nothing new (I even let them make pallets and sleep on the floor all last week). I love to see the sweet, nurturing side of her.  Sometimes I look at her little toddler face and wish I could bottle the cuteness so I could pull it out for a big jolt of joy and love whenever I want.  There is something about those little faces.

Noah has been wanting more of my affection lately.  He is very huggy these days.  And I've been so impressed at what a model of a big brother he's been to Clara this weekend.  While she's in a sitting position on the floor, he'll set himself down in front of her and just chat and play with her.  She loves it, and she is really loving that Noah these days.  He's getting some big smiles from Clara.  Unfortunately, though, he is really into antagonizing Jane.  It's actually beginning to be a real problem.

I can relate to that, honestly.  I loved to antagonize my little brother, too.  Specifically, I tickled him.  He was (and still is) incredibly, incredibly ticklish, and I took full advantage of it.  Tickled him to the point of cruelty.  I probably scarred him for life.  My parents tried everything to make me stop.  The only thing that worked was to make me pay him--first a quarter, then a dollar--whenever I tickled him.  That made me stop, more or less.  But sometimes, oh sometimes, it was worth that dollar.

Well, we'll work with my Noah.  As for little Clara, she is, as always, a sweet baby.  Although her least endearing quality these days is that she is experimenting with her voice.  Actually, she is screaming.  Screaming just for the fun of it.  Screaming with everything she's got.  Screaming so big I can see to the back of her throat.  Screaming until she shakes a tiny bit.  It does not make for an easy dinner conversation, I'll tell you that.  We've also discovered that she is extremely sensitive to mosquito bites.  Each mark swells to the size of a quarter.  It is so awful looking, but it doesn't seem to bother her much, which I can't believe.  I'm going to have to start using the car seat mosquito netting that for some reason I have. 

I finished my last flower square tonight!  I took care that the last square I made was one with a pink flower.  The pink flowers, after all, were the first ones I made and more or less inspired the rest of the blanket.  Now all I need to do is block the remaining squares, join them together, and crochet a border.  Give me a couple of weeks.

Sleep is calling me.  Down goes the computer.  Goodnight!