I was going to write a long post updating you on how our house has been coming along since my last post about that sort of thing, but it took so long for me to download all the pictures that I’m postponing it for now in favor of random bits and pieces from the past couple of months.
I took the above picture at work one night. I was chopping scallions and this little heart showed up. We keep an eye out for random hearts at my job. And we take pictures when we find them.
I was doing a bunch of crocheting at some point – in the picture above are two blankets-in-progress (one for Alex, one for Julia) and the pink thing is just a practice piece when I was learning to do Granny Stripes. And then it was time for lots of painting and putting down the carpeting and all sorts of other big things, so the yarn has been put away for a while. But I’ll get back to it, along with all my other creative projects. I miss them.
I miss cooking, too. I mean, yeah, I cook, but our kitchen has been in a state of chaos for months, overrun with tools and the debris from whatever improvement phase we’ve been in. Counter space is limited, and, with baseball and softball seasons in (pardon the pun) full swing, time has been limited, too.
But – it’s strawberry season! So things are improving. :)
The peonies are in bloom as well:
Oh! And I took this next one when the weather was colder, which has been a long time this spring. Winter didn’t want to say goodbye. Anyway, it’s the frost patterning on the car windshield one morning.
And speaking of winter, this year Bill and the kids went skiing in April.
They had a blast.
Scratchy’s been fine, and surprisingly blasé about all the demolition and reconstruction around here.
As long as he’s got a comfy place to curl up, he’s good.
And I’ll finish with a little event I found pretty funny. To start it off, I was tired. I’d had little sleep and I’d been very busy for several days in a row (plus the ever present house upheaval stress) and I was kind of like a zombie. I’d gone to work (if I remember correctly) or maybe I’d been at one of Julia’s games. Or two – oh, yeah, and I’d gone down to get my Dad so he could see her game or games, then drove him home – I don’t remember, but there was a lot of driving involved in all of this too.
Like I said – I was TIRED. Needing a nap. Anyway, I was in the basement staring at the tv and hoping to snooze. Julia wanted to play catch, so Bill went out to play with her for a bit, and then he came in and said she really wanted to play catch with me. So I got up and found my glove and went outside.
We threw and caught for a while, her great big I Heart Softball smile beaming at me from across the yard. Then Bill came outside and watched a bit and then told Julia to “show Mommy how hard you can throw!” So she threw a little harder. “You can throw harder than that! Show her how hard you really throw!”
Now, I am not afraid of the ball, and I am able to catch the ball when it’s thrown to me.
But like I said, I was tired. My brain felt like mud and the rest of me felt clumsy and sluggish.
So Julia threw the ball and my glove hand came up but not fast enough because BAM there was suddenly pain on my face. I spun away from it and heard Bill yell “OH MY GOD, JAYNE!”
My glasses were bent. My face hurt a bit, the left eye and my nose. Bill was carrying on (I exaggerate but only a teeny bit there), and my main concern was letting Julia know I was OH KAY. So I turned to her, smiling cheerfully and told her I was FINE!
She stared at me in horror and Bill continued with the “Oh, Jayne! Oh, that’s gotta hurt!” stuff and I shot him a look and kept telling Julia I was fine, it was okay, I just didn’t catch the ball. She was crying.
I couldn’t see that there was blood dripping down from beside my eye, which, I’m sure, negated my whole “I’m fine!” spiel.
I finally realized I was bleeding, so I went inside to check my face out and asked Bill to make sure Julia was okay.
Well, when the ball hit me, it hit my glasses and jammed them against the bone (the occipital bone, I think) around the outer part of my left eye. The glasses also got my nose, but not as bad. The glasses were bent, but I got them back in working order.
The gash to the side of my eye was pretty deep, and there was some swelling. The full color didn’t bloom until a day or two later.
It’s all healed, and I have a nice little scar. Every time I look at it (hi) (that was Julia) I think of Julia and I am so proud of how hard she throws. She still feels bad about it, but I’ve told her repeatedly that it was my fault, not hers. I should have caught the ball.
With my glove. Like you’re supposed to.
That’s it for tonight. I’m trying to get back to writing more often, now that the bulk of our house is put back together. I’ll show you all that progress next time.
Take care. And don’t play catch when you’re really really tired.
I need to do a status, it's been forever for me. I'm proud of you for practicing with Julia, I was too scared of the ball to practice with Jolea when she was younger, Grandma had to do it (let the former Softball coach do it.) That looked painful.
Posted by: Judith | June 07, 2015 at 09:40 AM