Honor Roll!

Oh Middle School. It's amazing that we all survive it. It's such a rat race....friends, fashion, phones. Choices, choices, choices! I'm lucky that my kids haven't suffered too much through those two awful years of school. In fact most of them excelled academically and socially. Here we are, down to the last year and a few months of parenting a middle school age child. It will come as no surprise that this one may be the most difficult.

I'm proud to announce that her busy social life has not impacted her academic life. She has worked hard to get good grades and has made the honor roll two semesters in a row. One more to go! And if she makes it she's asked for a trip to visit Aunt Gretchen this summer. I think she deserves it!

Way to go Emilia! Keep up the good work.

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

Last year Savannah spent the day with Mario, but this year it was Emilia's turn to follow him around Neil Armstrong Middle School for the day. She got to experience school from the inside! She learned that gangs are scary. She saw only ONE cute boy! Then she got to write Mario a referral.

The Anti-Vaccine Midwife Gets A Shot!

I'm forecasting late nights by the fire outside, afternoon iced teas with friends, lazy afternoon reading in the hammock, the dog frolicking in the grass and cleaning up the chicken poop that's everywhere. At least they give us yummy eggs to eat.

Do you want to come over and play with me?

We've been mighty busy over here creating an outdoor space that feels happy:) I'm pretty happy with the results.

Saturday morning while I ran some errands my husband went crazy! I came home and he had chopped a whole bunch of our HUGE tree off, creating a whole new shady space for our hammock. I was thrilled that he used his strong muscles and got so much done while I was gone.

He really deserved this break.
(Yes, it's an apple and hot powder)

Then I decided to paint the hen's house....

While moving things around I stepped on a chicken poop covered rusty nail while wearing flip flops! Ay Carumba, that hurt!!!! But I kept on working. (Being the dedicated backyard fixer upper that I am) Mario mentioned something about a tetanus shot. Oh that. Hmmm..... well it has been 22 years since I've had one.

No way was I going to waste that beautiful Saturday sitting in urgent care to get a freaking vaccine. I don't even vaccinate my kids for hecks sake. I'd think about it and read about it and then decide. After 24 hours (and some mighty strong words of warning from others) I did my homework and decided that YES I would get the vaccine. Statistically I was going to be ok. But on the small chance that little poop covered nail did carry some tetanus, well that's some serious sickness that I didn't want.

Sunday afternoon I consulted with the Kaiser advice nurse. I had some questions and the sweet lady was patient with me. When I told her I don't go to the doctor much she said in the sweetest voice, "I can tell". They need to make a "Navigating Kaiser Permanente for Dummies" book just for me.

On Monday I consulted with my Naturopath, who concurred on my decision to get the vaccine. So I headed to the Nurse Treatment window (they don't even charge you to go in and get vaccinated) and got my shot. I was a little pissed that I wasn't getting just the tetanus. I asked for the Td, but the snooty nurse said they had to give me the Tdap, just to be on the "safe" side, since there was an outbreak of pertussis. Oh well.

Here's the ironic shot of the anti-vaccine midwife getting a shot


Oh, and one of the finished projects, our new fire pit area.
Did I mention how happy I am with how the backyard is coming along?
AND SERIOUSLY, I LOVE COMPANY.

I'm still here.

I've been busy. And not so busy. The real reason I haven't blogged in awhile is that I haven't had much to say. But I wanted you all to know that I'm still here! Here's a little photo montage of a few things I've been up to.

Watching the dog and the girl sleep. Really, at times it seems that's all they do!

Me and my FABULOUS apprentice, the other Kelly. Together we are the Kelli/y's.

We don't look our best here, but we were having a great time. This was at a birth that we refer to as a "butter birth". Third baby, Kelly was there just a few minutes before the birth, me a little longer. Mom was amazing and the baby was born healthy. But it was early in the morning!

And here we are with the new little guy. So cute.

We had 4 births in three weeks. 3 primips (first time moms) and one multip (see above). They were all great, none were super long and we were excited to be busy, yet with perfect spacing, giving us time to recuperate.