Fourth of July

This year Eva really wanted a 4th of July hat. She wore it for the parade and received many compliments from those going by in the parade.



When we bought Eva's 4th of July hat, we also bought two mini-hats for the guinea pigs, which of course they loved. Here they are as patriotic and festive pigs.



A neighbor took our picture before the parade/ Eva with the pigs. Everyone in their fancy hats.





Our neighborhood 4th of July parade passes right in front of our house.



Eva decorating her 4th of July cake. There is peach jam between the layers! Yum!

picture color- day 27 {going back in time}

Instant pigs.

picture color- day 6 {white on white}

baby guinea pigs

We had the good fortune to spend time with friends AND baby guinea pigs today.





And just how do guinea pigs have anything to do with the letter I? Why, because they love to sit in their plastic igloos, of course. Plus, I love them!

Agnes placed just so between the two kids/two laptops.

A little closer-

guinea pig love

Albert playing hospital/vet, no doubt.



Albert and Terrence and a pink plastic turtle, in the sink waiting for their bath.

guinea pig nail trimming

One of the challenging parts of taking care of guinea pigs for me is trimming their nails. When they do need to be trimmed, the guinea pigs and I can usually handle one paw a night. This obviously is not a hard and fast rule. And they make such a fuss, particularly Albert, who starts squeaking when he sees the nail clippers, that I am almost always behind. Their nails are consequently quite long most of the time. It's most often Eva's idea to do the clipping. She holds each guinea pig while I clip their nails. They struggle and then are given treats afterward.

I want to stress that while Albert is very upset in the following video, I swear I am not hurting him. Nail trimming can be a harrowing experience, even without physical pain, which is another good reason to do it as infrequently as possible. And you'll notice I only really got three nails trimmed and not even one full paw done. It's just too nerve wracking for me and the pigs.

{snip}

little snippets from life that don't necessarily add up to a full post but are interesting nonetheless. things like eva is outside right now dancing with a stick of incense. showing the ants. and how earlier she and i had a conversation about just how busy ants are. how they always seem to be moving. how the only time they seem to be still is when they are eating. how, according to eva, that doesn't really count. if you are eating, you are busy. moving. how ants are infinitely busier than guinea pigs, for instance. how guinea pigs take it easy most of the day. eva corrected me here too and reminded me about how busy guinea pigs are when they are together, what with all of the rumblestrutting and all. how i didn't even know about the word rumblestrut until i had guinea pigs and how that alone has enriched my life beyond what i would have imagined. who doesn't like the word rumblestrut when they first hear it? or even second hear it?

and how samuel is sick and snuggling with albert and doesn't like the smell of incense at all and how i have to keep getting up to close the patio door so that the pungent yet relaxing smell of incense does not continue to waft inside the house causing him to make that gagging noise that triggers increased frustration in me. will it be the door or the gagging that eventually gets me to leave the room... but i digress. apparently there is a story in there somewhere, inside this little slice of life that is happening right now. or then, before i came back through to spell check and make sure it sounded as smooth on the second reading as it did on the first. and i think thoughts like, if this were the last time my child were ever sick or if this were the last time i were ever frustrated, would that change my experience of it, would i be able to step back enough to see that this *is* life. for all that it's worth.

i come back again and again to making sense of this life and i wonder if on my own death bed i will wonder things like, what on earth was i trying so hard to figure out and why did i not spend more time on things like the sad sad cry of a guinea pig about to have his nails trimmed. and the fact that strawberry shortcake is indeed improved upon by adding chocolate chips. and watching the juniper trees dance in the wind. and marveling at the irony that of all the trees that i can watch, the trees that i am allergic to entertain me the most. and so i do. i do notice these things. and revel in them. and write about them. and i also think about them. and figure. and examine. because that, after all, is who i am. sometimes.

and i think that mostly, on my death bed, i hope that i will notice that i am me. that i have been me. that i have allowed it. embraced it. recognized it. rejoiced in it, even. that i will reflect on how i have spent this life learning to honor myself. most of all. if i can get that far, it will have been a good life no matter how much strawberry shortcake or how many guinea pigs i will have loved in the process. getting there. working on that. entails both the examining and the noticing. at least for me. but for who else would it be for, if not for myself? whose life is this, anyway? i remind myself over and over again. if this were the last time that i could appreciate myself, how would that change my experience of it... and then i stop and do it. and i notice how it feels to appreciate myself. and this life.

and so it turns out that snippets of this life can indeed be good fodder for blog posting after all. as usual. the trick is in the noticing. the writing. the flowing. and in the letting it all be as much as it really is.

terrence

Terrence found the dandelions on the table...

snowdrops blooming

Terrence, me, Albert

The kids and I have been sick for about a week- more now that I think about it clearly. It is starting to seem like that amorphous-January-time I love to forget. There has been alot of resting and knitting, though, which is always a pleasure, and if I remember to pay attention and slow down, there is also quite a bit of opportunity for connection. Maybe I will start looking forward to this down time. When phrased like that, it doesn't seem half bad. And of course, through all of this, time moves on. If I look outside into the backyard, I can now see the snowdrops blooming by the back fence. Here's to spring time in the Pacific Northwest.

Home Project 3- guinea pig fleece!

Terrence sitting on the new fleece-y goodness we got for the guinea pigs' cage. This was Home Project #3 and really came together when I was at the fabric store buying liner fabric for the knit bag I just finished. Synchronicity guiding the way...

We bought a few inexpensive towels today to go underneath the fleece and set it all up for the piggies. When we put them in their cage with the new bedding set up they blipped around happily for quite a while. The bedding for their cage had gotten to be both incredibly messy (it got everywhere!) and cost prohibitive (wow- it cost so much to be able to change their bedding as often as I wanted). I'm glad to have found a solution that works for both me and the pigs. It is also incredibly cute to think about them appreciating the softness of the fleece on their little feet.

Eva in her fort behind the Christmas tree. Are those guinea pigs I see back there with her?

Two stories from today.

The first one. This morning Samuel and I were the first ones awake. Samuel got both guinea pigs out of their cage and sat with them for a few minutes. When they tired of that, the pigs ran off to check out the house, a little piggie floor time, if you will. The funnest part was sitting with Samuel and watching the guinea pigs root around together. Terrence followed close behind Albert, as usual. Each pig had his nose out and his body low. There was an almost constant chatter between them. We talked about how Terrence's legs are much longer than Albert's and that he looks as though he has knee high socks on when he runs very very fast across the floor. The pigs moved along the wall until they reached the curtains and crawled underneath. And then- we saw first one nose and then another nudge out from under the curtains, the only evidence that guinea pigs were there at all. There were a few catalogs and pieces of paper scattered near the curtains and both guinea pigs, first Albert, then Terrence, began gently chewing on the catalogs. Samuel and I burst out laughing. What a sight. Two guinea pig noses and mouths sticking out from under the curtains, nibbling away on Christmas catalogs. Nibble nibble stop. Nibble nibble stop. Soon Maxwell and Jack sauntered over as well to have a look at the guinea pigs and what they were up to and that cracked Samuel and I up even more. There is nothing quite like Jack and Maxwell looking suspiciously at the guinea pigs, wondering what they are all about and if there is something edible there for themselves. Jack never tires of sniffing catalogs, carrots, kale, dandelion greens in a last ditch effort to find something, anything, to eat. I swear sometimes he even shakes his head at the guinea pigs and looks at me quizzically as if to say- "That's what they're eating? That's what all the commotion is about?" Thankfully he doesn't seem to consider the guinea pigs in the least bit edible, just smaller members of the pack.

And the second. I was walking up to the front door carrying sandwiches and yarn when I stopped to watch bushtits fly about on the suet. There are large flocks of them around the suet feeders everyday now. I have one suet feeder hanging in front of the living room window and one in the back yard by the other bird feeders. On a good day, the bushtits will fly back and forth from one feeder to the other, sometimes landing in the trees nearby, sometimes not. Today while I stood there watching the bushtits, a hummingbird flew up to the nearby hummingbird feeder I had refilled just yesterday. Most of the syrup was frozen inside but there was some at the very bottom that had thawed in the sunshine and the hummer sat perched on the feeder and ate for a very long time. When he was done he flew over to the laurel a few yards away and perched on a limb there. I stood very still in the cold sunshine and felt blessed at having caught all the birds at the feeders at once. I love the activity of the birds during winter- the flocking, the time spent at the feeders, the chattering to one another. All of it reminds me that while we typically think of winter as a time of rest and hibernation, there is activity here as well. Each season brings movement of its own kind, each adds to the movement of the others. And we are each a part of it all.

zen-y pigs

Albert and Terrence munching on a purple carrot.

seize the day

Albert capitalizing on his situation. No nutella but he got quite a few crackers. (And yes, that's a cat's tail in the background.)

what's dependent on what?

Stymied. Thwarted. Undone. My blogging came to a crashing halt when my hard drive filled up and I was no longer able to upload new photos and movies from my camera nor change the size of the ones I had recently uploaded. Just upload them from the camera, you say? If my tolerance for frustration were higher, I might go ahead and do that, but it isn't, so I don't.

I kept waiting for the hard drive issue to be fixed. Put the blog on hold. Everything I wanted to blog about had to do with a recent photo- the beauty of fall outside, the kids' Halloween costumes, our new guinea pig Terrence. All wonderful things to write about and I really wanted that writing to be accompanied by photos. Time on blogs waits for no one, however, and as I sit here waiting for my photos to be usable, time ticks away and now it is over a week since Halloween and two since we brought Terrence home from the humane society.

So I will start from there. We brought our new guinea pig Terrence home from the humane society hmmm a week before Halloween. He is black and orange colored, a silky guinea pig, so very very soft and much smaller than Albert. I am still wondering if he is full grown or if he is younger than the humane society thought. Albert and Terrence are doing really well together and are now sharing one cage together. We ordered a bigger, fancier cage for them which should be here next week. Dare I wish that my hard drive will have expanded by then as well so that I can include photos of their new space? I'll wish it but no breath holding. Blogging, as you can plainly see, can go on just as well with or without photos. {Mostly.}

Halloween came and went. This year Samuel was a ninja and Eva was a bunny. They were fabulous costumes, some of our best ever, and the kids had a lot of fun in them, collected a huge amount of candy, and spent the next week or so eating it up. Last night marked the end of Halloween for Samuel, at least, as he ate the last piece of candy that he liked from his bag and gave away what was left of the dregs- those last pieces that linger around but that you have no intention of eating. I have found that I actually like Almond Joy candy bars through this process. You have no idea how many Almond Joys were left over this year!

The kids have been enjoying their clay class and Eva is going to continue ice skating lessons after her current ones end in a few weeks. We went and saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was put on by the Oregon Children's Theatre and we all really enjoyed that. It was a play, not a musical, and very similar to the book. Next weekend we are going to see another telling of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this time a musical, put on by one of the local homeschool resource centers. A friend of ours is going to be an Oompa Loompa and we are very much looking forward to seeing it.

OK. Just a business as usual post but my mind feels lighter and my heart freer. I am looking forward to posting some photos of the past couple of weeks when the time is right.

saturday

Albert celebrating apples season.



Eva-bee loving Albert...

And that concludes a week of Albert photos. I have to say for a while I was loving the form requirements of posting a photo of Albert each day. I am not sure I would have gone a full week without deciding on it formally. And then at some point- on Thursday, I think, I started lagging behind. And in walks freedom. You have to have both- form and freedom. Structure and spontaneity. Each and every. Day.