It is raining.
Again.
Still.
It's a good thing Bill mowed the lawn the other day - when the sun was still in view - because right now it looks like he won't have that opportunity again until July. Or something like that.
The rain is great for the gardens, of course - and for me, because it means I don't have to go around watering parched plants - but the sun would be good for them, too. I'd also like to be able to hang the laundry out to dry. But that's not happening any time soon.
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Yesterday Julia and I drove up to the middle school where Bill teaches to take pictures of one of his classes. His grade 7 chorus earned a platinum medal at a recent music festival - first time anyone's gotten a platinum at that school - so yay, Bill and yay, kids! It's really quite an achievement. Anyway, they wanted something in the local paper, but for whatever reason (I can't remember), no one from the local paper was going to be able to get there before the next deadline or something, so Bill asked me to come up and take a picture and to write up a little something for the paper. He's emailing that and the photo to them this morning. So yay, they'll make it into the next edition.
Julia was all excited to go see Daddy at "his work" and she somehow crawled to her bureau - over and under all the other furniture that's in front of it - and dug out her Easter dress to wear for the occasion. I put her hair in two pigtails, she put on a lovely pair of very scuffed brown shoes, and off we went.
When we arrived, the bell had rung and classes were changing, so the hallway was overrun with middle school children who were so busy talking to one another that they might have run Julia over if she hadn't moved behind me to travel in my wake. That spooked her, and she spent the rest of the visit "being shy." I put that in quotes because I think she would have been fine if it hadn't been for the Running of the Students. So she didn't want to go into the classroom - Bill came out and had to peel her off of me to bring her in. And then she stood behind me most of the time Bill's students were arriving and warming up a bit before I took the group shot.
It was too bad - a good portion of the girls in the class reeeeeaaaaally wanted to make friends with Julia, but she was having none of it. She just moved behind me and stayed there.
I was able to slip out of her reach a few times to get pictures of her, though. Here she is - being shy.
She was very glad to leave.
~~~
On the bedrooms front, later this morning I will tape off Julia's room and put down the drop cloth and PRIME!!
Can't believe this project is winding down. Of course, there are still a few ugly parts left. There is a section of the floor that Bill needs to fill in. It's where the original doorway to that big bedroom was, and the wall of the double-sized closet it used to have. There's no hardwood flooring there, so Bill's going to be pulling up some of the existing floor and laying down new hardwood pieces to fill in the gaps.
That's one ugly project. He actually started doing some of that last night.
And the final ugly part will be removing EVERY SINGLE THING from the bedrooms and bringing it all downstairs so we (okay, Bill and a friend of his) can sand the hardwoods and then - ugh - put down new layers of polyurethane.
We still don't know for sure where we're going during that time period. We can't stay in the house because of the fumes. There's talk of camping out in the back yard, but the way the rain's been lingering, I don't know about that either. We'll have to see what the weather's like when it's closer to the time all this will be taking place.
I look on all of this like labor and childbirth, though. It's the best analogy I've got. The pain builds and builds, and then the final series of pushes and then - finally - it's done. And we'll have shiny new-looking floors and pretty bedrooms to show for it.
I cling to that. That there WILL be an end to it.
~~~
The sour cherry tree is offering up lots of lovely red berries now - and I think the catbirds and blue jays are getting the majority of them.
I marched out there the other day and grabbed what I could reach, but it wasn't much. And they weren't entirely ripe yet, either. The thing is, the birds don't care, so they'll just take them, and if I wait until the cherries are properly ripe, there won't be any left.
I have a feeling the birds will win this year.
At least I've managed to grab most of the strawberries.
~~~
Speaking of strawberries, Bill has made us strawberry margaritas a couple times now, and there is NOTHING like a drink made with real fruit. Mixes cannot compare. I'd rather have one or two extremely delicious strawberry margaritas and be done with them than have a year's supply of the mixed version.
Just saying.
But we're not big on bottled mixers here anyway.
~~~
I wonder who will be at the farmers' market this morning. It's been pouring - it's pouring now - but I really want to get more rhubarb and more goats' milk today.
Why?
Because I want to make more of that rhubarb ginger jam, for one thing.
And -
I'm going to make goat cheese.
My kit arrived yesterday, and I can't wait to get started!!
~~~
I guess that's it for now. Almost time to make Alex's lunch and get going here.
I wish I knew where my umbrella was.
We're begging for rain here, without hail and tornadoes if you please. I found the Canning Book that belonged to my mom's. Email me your mailing address judithcruzan@yahoo.com and I'll send it to you Monday. This thing is right up your alley. One of the marmalades listed.... Carrot-Orange Marmalade! Black Cherry-Orange Marmalade... that sounds devine.
Posted by: jomamma | June 19, 2009 at 04:18 PM