this picture speaks for itself

Foreclosures in our neighborhood. We live at the green dot. In the beginning, they'd have For Sale signs, but now, the banks often don't even bother to list them with a Realtor. The only evidence is that the lights are never on, they look abandoned after a while, or have electrical shutoff notices pasted to the front door. There are blocks on the North side where 80% of the houses are foreclosed and empty.

terrible disease

Oli*ver is pretty sick with bronchitis, and is having to keep quiet. He’s on prednisone to help him beat it, as he was deemed to be in pretty rough shape when the doctor saw him on Friday. It seems to be helping, but we’re all sleep-deprived from the coughing and night-waking and worrying, so it’s been a rough few days. It’s a little early in the cold season to be making to do lists for just how we plan to get 2 very active boys through an afternoon indoors.

N and Ollie may have a seat on the afternoon preschool bus, and to try it out, N had to ride home all by himself, since O was out sick.



He thought it was all a grand adventure! It is nice to see each boy alone a bit more, even if with Ollie it’s in the middle of the night. O is napping 2 or three hours a day (usually it's between nothing and 45 minutes or so). I took just N to the store yesterday when J came home, and to church this morning as grandma watched him. At church, N told people that Ollie has a “terrible disease”. He made an awful face when he said it too—that boy has a flair for the dramatic. In case you’re wondering, I did make him cut it out. Then he told people his brother was “not missing, just very, very sick”, again with the face. It was so odd and funny to be at church with just one boy; it made me realize how much people look out for us. People were always trying to find my other boy for me or offering to watch N so I could go find Ollie--and here I get annoyed because people are always stopping me when I’m trying to get out the door with them.


In any case, we’re surviving, watching Milo & Otis together on the couch with some popcorn, playing with clay, and improvising. In other news, Ollie is left-handed like his mother. N is not.

city life (our version, anyway)

Ollie seems to have a special relationship with this chicken. She won't let me near her, but O picks her up all the time, and she really doesn't seem to mind. We're getting about 3 eggs a day now, but this one's not laying quite yet.

them apples

A recent family trip to the apple orchard an hour away. It was a gray, chilly afternoon, but there were plenty of delicious Harroldsens that are now in our fridge, and we all had a lovely time.

investments

Yesterday, the boys and I took a Saturday morning field trip to the car wash to get our filthy car cleaned inside and out. On the way there, we’d been listening to National Public Radio talking about financial news, and as we were pulling in and I turned off the radio, No*ah asked me, “Mama, what is a good investment?” Well, isn’t that the million billion dollar question, I thought. I didn’t quite know how to explain what the man on the radio was talking about, so I mumbled something about how it had to do with finding a good place to keep your money. As I handed the cashier my debit card, he asked, “Mama, is that a good investment?”

Today, though, sitting in church and listening to the offertory music, I realized I’d gotten it all wrong. I’d answered way too narrowly, way too literally. An investment is where you put your resources, and there is more than one way to define that. Jokes aside, there are still, and will always be all kinds of good investments, even if right now, we can’t get a good return on our money. Church and faith are, in my opinion, one of them, but so are family, friends, good food, love, art, humor, shared public institutions, an appreciation for the natural world— I could go on, but I think you get the idea. There is plenty to invest in that will give us a better and more certain return than modern market capitalism is capable of at the moment. In uncertain times like this, it’s especially worth remembering.

I had a bit of a frustrating morning at church, with too many trying transitions between the service, fellowship, Sunday School, not to mention all the potty breaks in between. As much as I love going to church, I do get tired of doing the whole morning on my own as Jo*el plays piano in a different church (not that it would be any different if we attended there), and my 2 somewhat clingy boys are getting over head colds. I was tired and impatient when I got home, and it would have been easy to spend the short time that both boys napped picking up the house and grumbling. Instead, I fed the boys lunch, J and I put them to bed, and then I invested in beets and potatoes and carrots from the garden and the Farmer’s Market.

After the boys got up, I invested in a few stories, and a good snack, and I told the boys a bit more about what I thought a good investment might be. then we enjoyed the beautiful fall weather and spent some time playing in the backyard with Jenn*fer and Z*oe.

We finally found our very first egg from this flock.

This week, I’m going to tune into a little more silence, and a little less market news. I’m going to see my writer’s group friends, and clean out our gutters and upstairs, and cook squash soup. Mea*gan will come over to turn our compost pile in exchange for said soup, and we 2 married women will catch up and talk about our investments.

some things we do at home

The boys have nursery school, their Early Childhood class, and 2.5 hours of church every week, so sometimes it's nice to just stay home.



Actually, N is much more of a homebody than his brother. The other day, after a family outing, O began his familiar refrain of "But I don't want to go home!" N said, "I can't wait!"



N is especially into crafts and blocks, but both boys love them.



The boys brought letters home to decorate and bring back to school. They stay up all year in the classroom and are used to talk about letters.



N is starting to write his own name. Both boys are picking up letter sounds and can often tells you what letter a word starts with. For O, this is really sudden--he had no interest in any of this until a couple of weeks ago, which was fine with me, but now he's starting to put real effort into cracking the code. Both boys are also really interested in counting and numbers, often adding on their fingers. They bring lots of colorful artwork home.

Playing Bingo, a nice gift from Omie

Who needs toys when you can "sail to Holland" in a cooler?



N peeled the carrots, while I sliced the last gorgeous red-picked tomato of the season. We've got many green-picked ripening well, but it's not the same.



Look, Omie--the boys love a soft boiled egg with strips of toast!

The ladies are almost old enough to lay, and we're anxiously awaiting the day.

Chickenball must always be played with mis-matched rubber boots. It's, like, a rule.

We had 28 church parents and children in our yard for a kid-friendly potluck and party last week.

The kids has a blast, especially Oli*ver, who really loves to dance.

out and about

I've just gotten somewhat caught up on pictures, so be sure to look at the 2 posts below this one too.



The boys had a good time at the church retreat. The bunk beds were a particular attraction, but they did go right to bed and sleep until morning, so that was an improvement over other recent travels.

The four of us have hardly had any time together since the end of the summer because September was so busy, but we took some time to visit the Wildflower Garden once more before it closed for the season this week. The boys were very fascinated by the picture map. Actually all maps are very interesting to them right now.







And who is this handsome man with the short hair?

cousins

Watching Auntie J*en brings back memories.

The 4 cousins are starting to become more aware of each other, which is a lot of fun. The girls are good buddies, as they spend their weekdays together, but N and O really love seeing them at family gatherings too. N talks about Zo*e all the time.



I think Z*oe and Au*gust need a couple of lassos..













The boys have gotten really brave on the tire swing , making mama a little nervous at times. While it may look like life was just grand on this beautiful fall day, the boys were actually very cranky and obnoxious this particular morning. Preschool is still going well, but there is some fallout from all the change. We've had lots of limit-testing and drama around here lately, with moods swinging like the DOW. I'm pretty used to these phases by now, though, and know they will pass. As usual, the drama comes on the cusp of many emerging new skills.



It's enough to wear anyone out.