Unlucky

Hi all,
Between several medical issues this week, it was a long one. Today took the cake, however, as Housemom had an allergic reaction to some meds and ended up going to ER. I’d managed the house all morning- doing brunch and was sinking comatose into a nap when I got woken up twice. Once by Sam, and the second by the 4 year old who was literally SCREAMING AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS. “Mom! MOM! MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!” Over, and over, and over again. I swear the whole neighborhood, and probably several others, heard him.

It turns out she was at the neighbors, and returned with a co-worker who said she had to lie down. Now, the children had 2 friends over and were expecting another, and so I agreed to do some child-watching. I took the 4 year old and Maria into the cow field and flew his kite. Apparently it’s pretty much like riding a bicycle. Plus, the kite was an interesting design with no sticks, kind of reminded me of a jellyfish. Although it wasn’t terribly windy, we had it up for quite some time. Probably spent a good half hour to 45 minutes.

When I got back, chaos reigned.

Housemom was gone to the ER (although I had no idea why or when she’d be back/what to tell the children/ how serious it was/ etc). Plus, none of the neighbors knew. This was very un-housemom-like and made me intensely uncomfortable. I refused to believe it could be anything really serious, because I couldn’t afford to freak out. And then housedad called, wondering if he should try to book it home – although it would take 8 hours or so.

Luckily, one of the neighbor staff kids came over and we took most of the kids (2 went to another house) went down to the creek – to catch tadpoles, I thought. It turned into a “let’s take a mudbath!” when I had turned around. So yeah, we literally had to hose off the kids…so that was a lot of fun…not.

Then there were baths, de-mudding clothing, and dinner to get together. Then the children decided it was time to freak out completely and called the neighbors to go over. They were even contemplating eating nettle soup. Plus, Sam had the day off, so he was completely out of the picture for this. I have to admit I was completely envious.

So we had a dinner of 3, having sent the children out with plates to the neighbor’s daughter who built a fire and I was completely dead.

Luckily, housemom returned and after hearing how horrifying her symptoms were I had nothing left. I put on a movie for Maria and retreated to my room. The internet, of course, is being incredibly fickle and so who knows if I’ll be able to post this. I almost lost it when I saw a funny comment on a link, and so I know I’m pretty close to an edge. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to about 10 hours of unconsciousness tonight!

Tomorrow will be a better day!

Hope all is well,

Steph

Pathetically Lazy

Hi all,

No excuses. Thursday night I was out past midnight at karaoke again. I was the DD, so it wasn't quite as fun as last time - although we had a bigger group. We had a little trouble with organizing everyone (what's new?), but it seemed to be a pretty big success. The bar was a lot fuller this time, and not all the singers were horrible - several were quite good. Unfortunately, they seemed to favor old school rap (like Salt-N-Pepa - which I just had to wikipedia to spell correctly...) and country. One of the co-workers that went this time was a huge crowd-pleaser. He had the Michael Jackson microphone twitch down, the stand-twirling action, dramatic gestures and a pretty good voice. The karaoke guy's comment: "Wow, that was like a whole Broadway production..."

So, a lot of fun.

We arrived home in time to just avoid getting soaked in a late-night/early-morning downpour. Success.

Thursday was a day for running errands around the village and outside, so it was a nice way to end the day. (Plus, getting to snuggle up with a big new stash of library books!)

Friday was a pretty typical day. I did a good chunk of cleaning, we had spaghetti for lunch, and I finished the bills in the co-op for the household accounts. We did the dinner/music in the cafe fundraiser for some of the staff kids, and I went to the film with our 2 villagers. The other two are having family visits right now, so I'm pretty jealous of Sam since it's just the ladies remaining.

I have the day off today so I'm planning on going into Millerton to buy some seeds and start a mini-garden by the house. Some herbs, tomatoes and sunflowers I'm thinking. We'll see once I find out how much room I'll have and prices. Should be fun.

Hope all is well,
Steph

80+ Degrees in April?

Hi all,

Not that I'm complaining, mind you, but it is slightly ridiculous! It was another bright and sunny day, although I barely spent any time outside. After breakfast and rest time, my first job of the day was to do a quick co-op run. As previously noted, millet would be helpful for millet day. Housemom took the kids out for the morning for some errands and free time, so I was manning to 2 person work crew. They both worked pretty hard, and so it didn't take a whole lot of supervisory effort.

The lunch turned out pretty well, I was especially pleased with my rich and thick cheese sauce. Although, really, with 3 cups of cheddar how can you go wrong? I mixed the millet with quinoa and a little garlic and fried up leeks, broccoli and carrots and topped with the sauce. I would never pay for the meal, but it was definitely a few steps above "edible" and not in the realm of "interesting". The coleslaw I made to go with it was also popular. I held the meal down myself, since Sam was out to lunch. Connie was raring for a fight but I had some stern words and layed out my expectations beforehand and she did reasonably well. Still dominated the table and repeated everything, but wasn't bossing people around as much.

The co-op was another thrilling day of billing. But it's important, so that helps. I also talked to one of the workgroup/neighborhood housemoms and discussed the possibility of me apprenticing to the stain glass artisan. I mentioned that I knew it probably couldn't be until summer's end, but she surprised me by leaping into it and asking if I had mornings off (Tuesday for cafe and Thursday because I make soup) - and then proposing I start as soon as possible! Now, I'll need to talk to the workmaster, but my own Housemom has given me the green light. I was also told that I may need to be on standby to sub in the food processing, but only on a temporary basis. The first changeover of co-workers will start happening in June, so there will be someone then.

Anyhow, my charge has returned and we have a co-worker house meeting tonight.
Hope all is well,
Steph

The Problem With Millet

Hi all,

The problem with Millet is that it basically sucks. Especially since I just remembered I used it up last week. Great...co-op run tomorrow. Anyhow, I should probably be looking up a recipe right now, but I'm feeling very unmotivated. We're having a "Stitch 'n Bitch" session again tonight, but I'm "hosting".

Connie has be atrocious today and we're kind of at our wits' end. She can't let anyone have a separate conversation. Not that she needs to add to it, mind you, but just repeat what you say with an "I know..." in front of it. Yes, I know what I cooked today too. Strange, isn't it? Although medication is extremely regulated here, there's only so much you can do when the relatives won't consent. I say ship her home for a few months and then see what they say!

Well, that was slightly vindictive, wasn't it?

The day was gorgeous this afternoon, after a few morning showers. The morning was funny, as Sam didn't hear his alarm and shot out of bed exclaiming so...in German. I'm not sure if I answered in English or not (since the German is pretty close), but it was funny because I didn't realize he wasn't speaking English at first. Breakfast went pretty smoothly anyway. The children have a break this week, so they slept in. Housemom is going to be a very tired woman, although she plans to take some time off to take the children out. So that will be good.

Work was pretty good today, despite Connie. I was busy computing invoices using an excel sheet that Bean had set up. It seems as though the co-op had been completely lackadaisical before the current co-worker took over and made attempts (with lots of help) to get a system down. A part of me (the "insane" part, as my jewelry instructor would gladly tell you) thinks I should attempt to write a sort of manual. However, with all the constant changes, and all the work, this seems to be rather unfeasible.

Oh, and props to my youngest brother for getting a great scholarship and settling on a college. Very proud of him!

Hope all is well,
Steph