Or rather, the purples. For some reason, I love the way purple things look on rainy days. I bet there’s a geeky cool scientific reason for that.
Miles today: 3.42
The Blues
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Dandelion Patch
Did you know that there are species of dandelion? Or that the popularity of “weed and feed” has been depriving bees of an important spring wildflower? Me neither.
But I do know that kids and dandelions go together like chocolate and peanut butter. (pass the Reese’s.) So I’ve been planning to “put in” a dandelion patch for some time now. By which I mean, pick dandelions and let them go to seed in my yard. Awesome. That project is now underway.
Total miles today: 3.27
Zombie Attack
In one of our moments of random family geekiness, we were looking up music trivia before 7 am today. Specifically, The Zombies and The Kinks.
Ian: Mommy, Keeghan is a Zombie Baby. Why is he a zombie?
Me: Well, he’s very tired, and he’s making a zombie face.
Michael: Yeah, he’s hungry for our brains.
Ian: I’m the one who attacks the Zombie Baby. AND RIDES ON HIM.
Me: I don’t think you can actually ride your brother.
Keeghan: MMMMMMMMMMMMM!
Teething…
No afternoon nap for a certain cranky baby, so we took a walk with brother after school.
.75 miles
Rain, rain, go away
Today seems bound and determined to make up for two days of cold rain. It’s exactly perfect. Breezy. Sunny, with white puffy clouds and a blue, blue sky. It seems impossible that it could ever be humid or cold, or that there are such things as biting insects in the world. The air is so refreshing it feels like a cool drink. I want to put this day between the pages of a book and press it flat, for posterity.
2.88 miles
The Major Leagues
The next time Michael complains about anything I buy at the thrift store, I’m planning to bombard him with every post The Bloggess has ever made about taxidermied anything. I’ll call it my “Shock and Awe Campaign for Marital Happiness.” And he’ll be so grateful that I’m not in the market for homicidal monkeys, he’ll forget what he was saying.
THERE IS NO MONKEY.
Respite
As a mom, I sometimes find it difficult to tear myself away from my family. I hate to miss anything. But it is terribly, terribly necessary for my mental health. If you’re a mom, you need to do this too. Anyone who tells you differently is A) insane and delusional, B) lying, C) just plain mean, and probably selfish, or D) all of the above.
Today I enjoyed 3.43 miles of restorative alone time. And it was good.
Surprise, surprise
So, once Mommy Raccoon and her two Bitty Raccoons had decamped, my husband stuck his head into the cubby to investigate.
007: Hey, I can see daylight!
Me: What?!!?!
007: Come and look.
There is a chimney flue going up behind what we thought was a storage nook. We’ve lived here five years and never guessed.
The next time someone said they had a surprise for me, this happened:
Poofy Head
Miles today: 4.08
Wakey, Wakey!
Michael heard squeaking behind the shelves on the back porch and concluded we had squirrels getting in somehow. So, he pulled the shelves out, and promptly came face to face with a mother raccoon and her two babies.
He looked at her. She looked at him. There was profanity. Doors were slammed. And then I ran out the front door to go around the house and observe from the yard. When I got there, she was on her hind legs with one of the kits in her mouth. She spared me just enough of a backward glance for me to see that, then scrambled up into the attic.
I took advantage if her absence to sneak a peek at her other baby. This is as close as I ever want to get to a wild mama and her babies. His eyes aren’t open yet. I give it about 20 minutes before Ian draws the obvious parallel and names these guys Mommy Raccoon, Ian Raccoon, and Keeghan Raccoon.