Small successes:

did all the dishes. all. I had a whole sink just plastic containers! was really happy to get my kitchen cleaned up. Now I'm in the 'never gonna get behind on dishes again' phase.

Crossed a lot of things off my list yesterday. I think it was with help from the coffee. Why does that stuff have to be so good!

For our Indian summer day yesterday, we went on a bike ride to the park. I thought last week when we went with Dan would be the last chance we'd get to ride for the year. This was the first time we all went to the park on bikes (Sam rode on the back of mine). As usual, Rose was waaay ahead, DD was lagging behind, and I was stuck in the middle. The ride home was the most difficult. I guess telling Rose she can't go so far ahead of me so I can't see her isn't a very reliable rule. I think she's off in la la land when biking (rightly so), and not thinking about how far away she is from us. Then I have this DD who is afraid to go down hills. So we had to stop and I had to creep down a hill with him, and somehow he still managed to fall over on flat ground. All the time I'm worrying about Rose. She eventually met us coming the other way, and I could see she was anxious, but at the same time relieved to see us. She later told me that she thought we left her, and that she was crying! I told her I was scared too and felt like crying! We modified the rule for her, and she rode with us the rest of the way. Surprisingly, DD goes much faster on the sidewalks. I'm much more relaxed on the bike path, but I guess he's the opposite. No hills on our sidewalks.

(As an aside, the bike path we rode on is fairly short, and not well traveled. I trusted Rose wouldn't deviate from the path, but with all the brush and a small creek nearby, my worries compound. The path also has lots of curves, so it's easy for Rose to be very close ahead, but I can't see her because she's around the turn. Guess I'll have to go biking with just her once!)

So I've been loving this mild weather, and am excited to have the outside in order for winter. I got some perennials from a friend of mine, and am really anxious to plant them. I'm a little afraid that after planting so many lovely plants and enjoying my gardens, I may not want to move! Maybe I can take them with me, right? Oh, I'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there. Anyway, I got some lavender! I'm so excited to have that. I got some familiar favorites, and some new ones to try. I felt bad for taking so much from my friend, but she was thrilled to give it (ah, the life a perennial gardener). It was funny cus when we got to talking, I discovered this friend and I moved into our houses the same year. I definitely have not gardened as much as she, nor do I have as much landscape as she. I kept thinking 'why I didn't do it? 'Oh, we were broke. Our first spring here, Dan was still a first year apprentice and I had just had Rose. But wait! Almost all the flowers I've used to landscape (ha! like I'm landscaping. Lets just call it gardening) I've gotten for free from others! Who knew! Oh, well. I guess the place will look nice and pretty when we go to sell, and I will enjoy all of it's beauty in the meantime.

Oh, small success #2:

Throughly weeded the veggie garden.

I'm so glad that I got all the weeds out! It doesn't look like a mini field now. I have one lone white geranium there. I kept thinking, if I had to pull these weeds out eventually, I should've just done it in the summer, and maybe salvaged some of my veggies. Oh yeah. the groundhog. Forget it.

So this year's garden ended kind of on a low note. (Well, I guess I could consider the complete weeding of it a high note). But despite that, it was really good to smell the earth while weeding, and already I'm formulating plans for next spring. I don't think we're going to renew our CSA share for next year, but getting it has helped me think of things I want to try to grow, or ways to grow things different (lettuce).

The kids have mild colds this week. I've been pretty much staying home from everything, but I want to in order to do all the things on my agenda. I found out some folks I know got the swine flu. I've never been the least bit worried. I happened to catch a bit of the news earlier this week. They couldn't stop talking about one little boy from the area that had died from this flu. Boy the media does a great job at creating a lot of excitement about this flu. I could feel myself getting pulled in! My relaxed attitude about the whole thing was now heightened to concern. How was I sure we wouldn't get this?! I'm not so worried still, because I know there's a lot of literature that would ease my mind, but I just haven't made the time to read it. I decided to really focus on getting vitamins in my kids, and eating healthy. And keep them away from others! Easy to do with their sniffles this week. Then when all is said and done, I thought, if we ever got it, it would just be the flu to us, we'd treat it like we'd always do, and hopefully it would pass. And ignorance is bliss. I wouldn't need to run to the doc and be tested to see what strain of flu it was. Just like all the ear infections or whooping cough my kids may or may not have had, but we just treated them at home like always, and they came and went.

Baby news: baby's kicking and moving. Nothing more exciting than that, I suppose. The kids did get to feel the baby kick this week. It was neat. It's hard to catch, because baby will really only kick a few times at any one time. But they felt it. It's kind of funny how, when I'm sitting next to one of the kids, their hand will eventually gravitate toward my belly, even if just for a moment.

This week pregnancy has been okay. My pelvis is a bit rickety. I feel like I have arthritis or something! But I don't have headaches (knock on wood). Even with a cup of coffee, no headache yesterday. I hate to chalk it up to stress, but I think that's what it is. I've been more relaxed, organized and focused this week, since I knew the rain was coming Friday. I wanted to be sure I got things done inside, so I could get things done outside, and I actually wasn't that worried about school. Not going anywhere probably helped too. And I've been in a better mood this week, too. Well, go figure. There was actually some sunshine this week. 100% more than last week. It

So I guess I'm posting things a week at a time now, making my blogs quite lengthy. :) I was up with Dan today (when am I not?) and I didn't want to go back to sleep. Okay, I really want to, but I also want to get a few things done early, so I can get outside and garden today. So this is a nice quiet activity that's not folding clothes or making dinner. But I still think I'm going to need a cup of coffee. mmmm.

And I think I'm just rambling on and on, trying to remember all the things in my head this week I thought I could post about. Also being a little reluctant to start my day's work!