Feburary 18th, 2010

Hi peeps!

I used to love snow. In Statesville snow meant a day off of school, because it happened so rarely and the whole city had maybe one plow. Later, after I moved to the Northeast, snow wasn't such a rare occurance, but I still loved it. It was pretty, and comforting, and made the whole world white and soft instead of brown and muddy.

But then I bought a house with a really long, steep driveway.

I don't love snow anymore. I mean, I do, I still get that nice feeling when I look out the bank of windows that lines the front of my house, and I see the giant flakes drifting down to coat the bare tree branches. It's still lovely.

But somewhere, deep in my mind, is the knowledge that once the snow starts to pile up I'm going to have to schlep myself outside and start shoveling.

Sigh.

I actually started this email about a month ago. So, some of what you're reading here is old, and some is new. None of it is borrowed, but, depending on my mood, some of it may actually be a bit blue. We'll see. Anyway, chances are good that, from this point forward, you all will be getting fewer of these emails from me. (I know, some of you are exhaling huge sighs of relief. Well, thbpt to you. Dishonor. Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow, dishonor on your whole family. [It's fine, I know none of you got that, because no one in the world loved Mulan like _I_ loved Mulan. It's fine. I still love you.]) The truth is I have lots of things to get done before our new baby arrives, and as some of those "things" involve actually sitting at the computer and typing, my typing time for emails has become limited. For those of you NOT making with the relief, don't worry. I'll still try to email you all the crazy details of my life, they are just more likely to come quarterly instead of monthly.

Of course, if you wish to encourage me to write you more an excellent way to do this would be to WRITE ME BACK. Just saying.

On Dante's advice I checked Square Foot Gardening out of the library. She was right, it's an excellent book, and a good idea; it's all about planting in square feet, instead of in rows. I'm starting to plan my garden. I'm really excited about it and can't wait for the ground to thaw. I am mostly going to plant useful things, like tomatoes (oh how I love tomatoes) as well as things that are easy to grow (because, as much as I love asparagus I understand it's a pain) but I'm also going to plant some flowers and such. Oh, and strawberries! I hope they don't fail (or rather, that I don't kill them DEAD) but we shall see. Even if they take some extra labor they will TOTALLY be worth it if I can feed Elliot's strawberry addiction all summer long. :)

I'm also planning on getting some berry bushes. This seed company I found sells 2 year old bushes in three packs, where you get one early bearing, one mid season bearing, and one late bearing plant per pack. I am totally excited about this, as well. If all my berries do well (or even okay) then I will have more then paid for my whole garden with the stuff I don't need to buy at the store. And, the best part is, the sq. ft gardening method only involves planting the seeds you actually need, so I should have produce at little extra cost for the next four to five years. YAY!

Alright, I know everyone wants to know and I know that at least some of you are still in the dark... It's a girl. That's right. Against all odds, Waxor and I have managed to bake a girl. If you figure that, out of both our families, there is only one girl among SEVEN CHILDREN, we are totally awesome to have made another one. I think everyone is pretty excited about it. Don't get me wrong, everyone loves Elliot with an almost religious devotion, boy that he is. But it's great to be having a girl. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that she doesn't hermaphrodize on us. :)

I've been feeling totally out of the loop lately, because I don't really use facebook. I know, this makes me a bit of an oddity in my demographic, and I probably would use it if I still spent a lot of my days at a desk. Between taking care of Elliot, Waxor, the house, and my own self I just don't spend that much time at the computer anymore. So, yesterday I got up and, after having some really strange dreams about people I haven't seen in a long time, I logged into facebook. Imagine my surprise! I've got friends going into the hospital for surgery, friends throwing parties, friends starting relationships, friends embarking on new adventures; and I didn't know about ANY of it. So now I am all sad and filled with grumbles. As far as I'm concerned, posting to facebook is a lot like walking out your front door and making an announcement. People who are close by and listening at right that moment will hear it, and anyone too far away or otherwise distracted won't. I don't mean to sound like I'm scolding you facebookers, I'm really not. I guess I'm just irritated with the convention in general. Well, no, I'll be honest, mostly I just miss feeling like I know what's going on. Plus, I miss you people!

Well, Elliot has come and demanded my assistance with a puzzle, so I guess I'm out of time for now. I hope most of you have less snow on your lawn then I do, and for those of you with just as much (or more) I hope it melts soon.