Game On...and Off

Although it has been snowing all day yesterday and today, summer is officially here. Our staff have arrived - the first round of them at least.

I normally love it. Love spreading the passion that I have for the kids we serve and the program we run. It is extraordinary. Incredible. Fantastic. Perfecto!....and I do still love that. But this week has also validated my decision to make this my last go of it.

Arrived at the ranch at 6:30am yesterday to prepare the first "Welcome to EVR Breakfast" for the incoming staff. Arrived back home at 8:30pm last night. Critter never had any legitimate time with either me or Daddio all day. She never had a real meal. I wore her on my back while we ate (because it was FREEZING cold) and Daddio shoved bananas in her mouth. I squeezed some sort of pureed food into her mouth twice. I moved her from backpack to walker-thing, to car seat, to pack-n-play, back to backpack. She had very little crawl about time. We were both so busy and occupied doing what we do, that she was an afterthought, or more a hinderence.

And that's not fair. Not to her. It affected my day and my performance. Nanny Nell arrives in a week - when there will be 37 staff here (there are only 11 right now). Critter will have such a fantastic time! I think we'll be able to sort it all out and develop a system that will work for the actual summer, just this staff training that will be the biggest bugger.

So...for all 4 of this blog's followers, I must excuse myself for a while. My "plate is full" as they say, and I'm gonna have to lay off this for a wee bit.  I can tell from the amount of feedback and comments I get on a daily basis, that this will be heartbreaking for many of you. Stay strong. Keep your chin up. La Madre shall return in due time.

Just Four Little Squares

We've had an ongoing conflict here for a couple of months now. I reckon it never came up any sooner because i was never pregnant for two years straight before.

Here it is:

 - Daddio thinks I use too much toilet paper. He says I've been going through it too quickly. In fact, he has stashed his own supply in a secret location just to prove to me how quickly I use it up.
 It has certainly made me more conscious of it. For the past two months, I have been carefully checking the square count of each pull. It is consistently four. I don't believe that four is too many squares! Perhaps i'm off. i've never really discussed it with anyone else to see what is typically use. I know for shizzle that Uncle Jeffro at least quadruples that amount each use!!! What is normal? What is reasonable?

It's just that i go to the bathroom three times an hour all day long and another three times while i'm in bed! and i've been going at this pace for entirely too long now! Daddio contends that i pee all the time outside without tp, so i should just live like that inside. I contend that it is a small luxury to partially compensate for the misery of incubating humans inside myself.

I appreciate that Daddio is concerned with both our environment and our bank account. We strive to live with minimal impact on both. We are not wasters. We can hardly be considered consumers really. However, there are exceptions to that. I've always thought that my biggest environmentally unsound guilty pleasure was taking long hot showers. I guess i have to add tp overusage to that now too....

Although, I cannot imagine the  four squares is really that absurd!

Mungbean

Marty Mungbean is coming! In fact, she is on her way over the pass as I type. and the timing couldn't be more perfect.

Today sucked. Chalking it up as "one of those days".
Couldn't sleep last night (big fat moon)
Critter got up at 6:30am.
Rain at first - then huge monster snowflakes.
Turns out my Bountiful Basket order never processed.
Less than 1 hour morning nap.
No afternoon nap at all.
Snow turned to chilly wind.
Constant whiney-cryey-not-pleasant sounds from Critter.
So tired.
Yoga interrupted twice - no other exercise.
Not a terrific day of nutritional nourishment either.
Made horrible salad to take to Derby party - embarrassing.
Cold sore throbbing like the Ren and Stimpy cartoon where one of them had a toothache.
Birch ate all the lemon bread on the counter while at the Derby party.
Feeling fat and miserable.
Coming to terms with my new awareness of obsessing (to come later this week, I'm sure)
Pregnant
Just wishing for an escape today...counting the hours till Daddio tags back in.
_______________________________________________________________

And then she arrived! Marty Mungbean (the O.S. Plum Fairy) on the scene.
The 'ol saying of  "sometimes you just need a friend" may have come from a pregnant single madre after a long day.
Mungbean arrived at 8:00pm
we caught up
we chatted
we philosophized
we reflected
we processed
we assessed
we appreciated
we validated
we challenged
we questioned
we listened
we laughed
we supported
we reminisced
When we went to sleep, I felt like myself again. My slumber was peaceful and restful.
When we woke up, we did it all over again - this time with Critter too! We also had the great pleasure of adding a hike through the badlands in b-e-a-u-tiful Wyoming spring time weather (first nice day in over a week).
we added eating to the list as well
as well as other-friend-visiting
and Critter teaching

She was outta here by 3:30pm - not even a 24-hour visit...but i am so uber-grateful for each one of those hours...minutes too!

You can't have time like that with your husband.
You can't even have time like that if your husband is around.
You can't have time like that with new friends - they have to be the old ones who can help you put it all in perspective and remind you that now is only part of the journey.

I met Mungbean at my very first rugby practice in 1995 - it was her first practice too. We have traveled our separate paths together ever since. I often reflect on my fortune of having the most spectacular friends in the universe, who are each a dear part of my family. Each of them is currently planted in different time zones all across the country. I know how lucky I am to have rooted myself in a remote mountain town of less than 1,000 inhabitants, in a state with less than 500,000 people, and have Marty Mungbean one mountain pass away (okay - sometimes it is two mountain passes).

Last StretchTill December!

Critter and i are in it again!
Daddio on the road for a week. He left yesterday - and it wasn't our best performance.

i suck at transitions though, so today is the first official day without him - and it was much better!
We saw elk, bison, antelope, coyotes, deer, 2 bald eagles, and 2 cranes.  Oh - and I saw Sprout too.

I had back-to-back-to-back appointments in Jackson today, and I wondered how we'd muddled through it on our own. Franko came to the rescue and volunteered his au-pair services and it was a rather splendid day. Three hours of appointments ended up being just two, which was a major bonus.

The drive over the pass this morning was perfect. A fresh blanket of snow covering everything and not a single track through it. The Tetons stood quite regally while the clouds buffed up their peaks. Lunch was perfect and delicious. We took the inner-park loop on the way home in hopes of catching sight of a bear...cranes instead.

I was slightly nervous about leaving Crit with Franko as he is 67 and never had any children. It seemed their time together was great though. So lucky she is so chill and happy.

Sprout unofficially received the "Normalest Baby of the Day" by the doctor who was a bit strange. He certainly spoke to entertain himself more than inform a patient, but I may be tempted to do the same if I had to repeat the same information for 40 years. I'm not even sure about half of what he babbled, but in the end he did give us the award. so i reckon that means all is good.  I do recall him sputtering on about my advanced maternal age and "the odds". He mentioned something about looking at those odds as a betting man in Vegas, or as Chicken Little...He also commended the young being for choosing to place its placenta at the back of my uterus....and odd duck for shizzle.

Crit and I have through next Monday to roll in our own style. It may likely be the last opportunity for just the two of us for quite some time. I plan to take full advantage - can't wait to strap her back onto the bike and cruise around the hood.