Now that construction has officially begun, our neighbor's house is scooting along. This is the "first" one going in the neighborhood...the crews are working around the circle, and so the house on the other side of us will be "last" (although the final finishing should all be done at once). Lots of activity! Yesterday the crew started framing out the floorplan on the slab. Looks what's here today, before 10 am! We walked twice around the "loop" this morning and were so pleased to be able to see progress from one lap to the next. Yippee!!
Also, yesterday we realized that Pixie had never had her hair in curlers! We had fun playing beauty parlour. :)
This year we finally--FINALLY--dyed Easter eggs. Now, we have celebrated Holy Week in some incredible ways, and really the egg coloring doesn't do much for me as far as that goes.
We decided that the time had come, however.
Any guesses on Bud's favorite color?
J. and I have wondered why we haven't ever gotten around to coloring Easter eggs together. It was something both of us did with our families growing up, so there was no sorting-out-of-family-traditions to be done. I bought a box of PAAS egg dye during the spring we were dating (1998!). I am happy to say that we finally used that box this year to dye our eggs...and it still worked! I figured that having rescued it from the fire (and the dear Westmont students who helped empty out our pantry and cabinets of everything, the contents being smoke-damaged) its year had definitely come (we have said that every year). The kids got a real kick out of it, having never seen anything like it except for in books...
J.'s grandmother, MaII, drove up from L.A. Easter morning and spent the day and night with us. Wonderful!
While J. and I agreed on egg dyeing, we discovered that our egg-hunting traditions were rather different. We had not yet held a Covie egg hunt. I remember (correct me if I'm wrong, those of you who know) that all of the candy was in the basket, and the egg hunt was for the joy of the hunt. We made my dad hide eggs over and over and over again. On the other hand, J. expected that some candy should be hidden in the eggs, and that was the purpose of the hunt...which was a one-time deal. Hmmm.
We had a student with us at lunch who offered a tip from his own family: the eggs were color-coded and hidden in varying degrees of age-appropriate difficulty. We immediately adopted this idea and it was very successful. We could leave Wombles' yellow eggs basically out on the ground, while Bud was searching out blues and Pixie had a corner on the pink market. I'm not sure how appropriate our hiding spots were (we'd never done this before), but the posse seemed to have a good time.
This is so how Pixie looks all of the time playing in the yard.
On Good Friday, J. took the morning off and we headed down the coast to Carp to a seal rookery. There were about 150 animals down on the beach...parents and babies. Very cute. I felt a little like we were in a Planet Earth episode, what with the swimming dolphins, seals, and beautiful terrain. Seriously, if we know you and you're not some random person reading the blog, come and visit us!
Keeping the boys back from the cliff edge was a stunt!
I will try to get some photos of Easter up soon. I am running a little behind for the grandparents...we have had a couple of substantial power outages during my prime blogging times, plus lots of fun visitors :) !
J. and I had a worshipful Good Friday, attending a Tenebrae service done cooperatively by five local churches...with no children (of our own in attendance). I was grateful for the time; getting to focus is a rare opportunity indeed. We are now full throttle in Easter season though!
On the way back up from the water (on this path) Pixie was full of stories on the history of the place. She informed us she was playing "tour guide" and gave us all sorts of helpful information, including how she had grown up on this land and had helped her parents plant all of these flowers many years ago. :)
This guy was just about my speed, although I was able to avoid a head-on collision in the nick of time.
We have entered the stage with Wombles where he will walk around and spot new-carpet fuzz, lint, dirt, etc. on the floor (not uncommon). He then either picks it up or points it out shrieking "Dirty! Dirty! Yuck!" ("Duhrhdee! Yacky!") You'd never guess by his delight in all things muddy that he could be so persnickety. I would take it more personally if I didn't know by #3 that it's just a stage...and that he will stop noticing such things soon. :)
I also wanted to mention (as you may notice) that I've started using nicknames for the kids and their friends. I've tried to go back and sanitize earlier posts, as well, for safety's sake. I have enabled anonymous comments to the blog (not permitted before) but also enabled comment moderation. Please stick with our nicknames for ID purposes! Thank you, and thanks for checking in!
So, there's more than just dirt--there's soot a-plenty.
Saturday was a fabulously beautiful day. While I really can't justify just lounging around in the sun, there are plenty of excuses to get away from working on the house...like working in the yard! Pretty much all of it burned except for the part right in front. Amazingly, though, native plants around here deal really well with fire. Ceanothus, for example, apparently explodes seeds everywhere. We had about a dozen of those plants, and now there are several hundred tiny baby ones sprouting in the same area.
Also, baby Coyote Bush was sprouting up around the charred remains of its forebears. It was determined that the old skeletons had to go, preferably before the fresh green plants were completely entangled. So I attacked them with clippers. And a handsaw. Our neighbor to the North came and offered me a limb saw. I already had a saw. ("You can keep using what you've got if you want, but what I have is maybe 100 times easier"). He was right. Ah, the satisfaction of physical labor on a beautiful, warm sunny day! Poor J. was inside working and wishing he could be out, too. BUT...
That morning, he went to the hardware store with Bud and Wombles, and came home NOT ONLY with tomato plants and various seeds but SIX ARTICHOKE PLANTS! I did a happy shrieking dance in the driveway (not unlike when we had our electricity turned on) and then had to explain to the bemused neighbor.
We figure that artichokes are basically thistles, and what better to grow on the hill out back? The native weeds and thistles are certainly having a field day. Beating back the tohu has become a daily hobby. I weed while the munchkins play in the yard. Speaking of which--
Here are the first shots of my attempt to get a photo of Wombles this morning. When I called him, he shrieked with glee and ran, thinking we were playing chase:
He rounded the corner toward the back, passing the overstuffed green waste bin and pile of weeds that won't even fit:
While chasing, I finally held the camera out in front of him, although I was still behind:
And I caught him as soon as there was loose dirt to distract him (Ah, the better to play with!):
Somehow, the combo of his T-shirt with the mud-streaked face tickled me.
As far as life details, we are officially wrapped up with our cleaning & restoration company. Whether we hire another one to finish what remains to be done, or do it ourselves, is still an open question. It will probably be a little of both. We are so relieved, though, that it is done and amicably.
OK, I am off to fold laundry...and finish the amazingly auténtico glass of sangria that Jesse made for me! Hooray!
Oh, I forgot...my bridesmaid dress came and I LOVE it!!
This morning, more tangible signs of progress: this "truck" was chewing up the top level of concrete at the neighbors'! Bud and Wombles were enthralled. We were glad that everyone's up well before 7:20am, anyway. :) It is really going to be fun to have an up-close view of the building process.
We are hoping that our dealings with our cleaning/restoration company will be wrapped up today.
We are having a great day--one of those pristine, perfect-weather mornings (P & B are out with water guns right now, watering the grass and who-knows-what else) . We had a great morning of school. It is just a HAPPY morning. I'm really grateful! Wish I could send you some of our sunshine and soft breezes.
I'm also looking forward to getting my bridesmaid dress from N!! Whoo-hoo!!
OK, P & B are in for refills on the squirt guns...
