bit

Called my mom again yesterday, not as raving, but still not herself. She kept saying she was hot and trying to stay calmer but everyone was 'testing' her nerves and was going to find out what that got them if they weren't careful. Hmm. My SIL and her daughter were over there during the day and she was meaning them. I have the pictures printed out and need to write the captions and letter for her to send out with it. We are taking a trip to town today with Mark's mom and have a puppy to line up with its new owner as well. This is my only day off for another five, and I hope Esme is in a good mood today.

We made paper mache last night after I got home from work - which was fun, but kept us up much later than the usual 'bedtime' lately. Then she wanted a bath, which I gave in to. After the bath she was not cooperative at all - kept putting the tub plug back in and saying 'No.', so I wandered upstairs for about five minutes which was not at all what she had planned. She apparently (according to Mark's reports) tried to get on clothes and get in and out of the bathtub two or three times with clothes ON before deciding she might need help with the entire process. I'm not sure what her thinking was there -- go get pants, then remember the bath tub was still full, then get in to pull out the drain plug and realize she was wet and get out before she pulled it? Crazy stuff.

With a few words from Daddy she completed the process of getting out and getting dressed herself and came to apologize to me - then we read a book and she went to sleep. She had a short conversation with me that she would sleep with the room with the lights and she would be safe and not be dead from monsters - and Mom and Dad would go to sleep in their bed, and not be dead from monsters, too -- Imagination running wild. Again, as I often say, this is four - what is twelve? At least this is closer to the four part of the spectrum.. and kind of funny at that.

My mom

My mom is not doing well. She had been in a nursing home / rehab center for several months after her heart attacks and coma. Now, she is finally out of the nursing home and back to her house and was 'happy' the first day I called her - but now she has had a lot of trouble understanding where she is, who she is, and more. My sister-in-law and stepfather are having a very hard time of it. I do not know if this is going to be temporary and she will snap back to what is 'normal' for her, or if she has entered another stage of her dementia that will stay for the rest of her life. Nobody knows... not even her. She has had long-term memory problems for more than ten years. She would often forget exactly what had happened recently, repeat things she had already said the day before etc.. but she always had control of the conversation she was in, and I could adjust to whatever state she was in easily and bring her back to 'now' gradually over the conversation. Yesterday was different - I could not even truly describe it, and those that overheard parts of the conversation knew just from my side that something was very wrong. She didn't really know who I was on the phone yesterday, asked several times for me to 'get Marie to call me - I miss her', and then said she thought I was someone else, and she is having paranoia about people trying to hurt her for 'bad things I might have done in the past' and asking for leniency from being killed. At the same time she is not doing much more than sitting and worrying and watching the TV... having to be encouraged to eat or drink. While I was on the phone with her she was very over the top on the 'praise the lord he is fixing me' while at the same time spacing off, talking about dead relatives as if they were alive - thankful for them being alive - saying 'hello who is this' after having just spoken to me for minutes and crying that she was trying to be good. I am printing off a batch of pictures to send to her so she has something to look at that is 'constant' - as voices don't seem to help her much right now with hardly any short-term memory at all.

Other than that, I'm not sure what I can do for her. I have responsibilities here and the trip in June took just about everything I could muster at the time, as well as most of my sick time and all of my vacation time. I'm still not over that - and don't really want to even imagine trying it again. Mark knows just what to say though - he texted me a few things that made me laugh even while I was sad yesterday... and helped me get through my work shift.

Busy Wednesday

Got Esme to bed last night at 10:05 - accomplishment because it also meant getting her hair washed for school today. Got her up at 8 am and out the door just after 8:30. She was in a fairly good mood only had a little bit of fuss last night about her initial plan which was to get up early to wash her hair. I was willing to do it if she went to bed at 9:30... but no dice, she didn't like that option at all. So, we washed hair - I got her to get out of the bath quicker than she liked.. small fuss, in her room, play for thirty minutes - then small fuss before bed but she was in and lights out at 10:05. Mama feels like a sportscaster. Ha. But bedtime is going better than expected, knock on wood somewhere.

She is at school now, clothes are washing, lunch to be made - and I have to pick her up slightly early so I can make a 'golden drive' getting her from school, dropping her off here at home and trying to be at work on time. We'll see how that works... Daddy has caught our cold that we are half over, and it is not treating him kindly.


Esme's family drawing

I gave Esme paper the other night and asked her what she wanted to draw. She drew me - in the middle of the paper.. with my head all scrunched up against the top *hehe*. Then she drew herself, to the left. What looks like a nose is actually an ear - she drew ears on everyone in different odd places. Daddy is to the right of Mama and she was getting tired - but she added her dog Loula below in a brown marker.. and had a hard time deciding where to put the second eye because she had put the first one right in the middle. Mama just stayed (mostly) quiet and watched in fascination because I love seeing her mind at work. I did remind her about Loula having four legs, not three.. so she went back and added a fourth leg after she had affirmed to me the back one was a tail.

Bookcase

A bookcase I had ordered for her room and she watched me put together last night. She said she wanted to be the Walmart mailman, who would come and bring me a box - but she would put the tools in the box (so we wouldn't have to go to the garage to find them and turn on the light in the dark) and also if she was the Mailman she would put the toys in the picture in the box, too, for the Esme, because she liked those toys.

I found the unicorn she wants for her birthday.. have to remind myself to go back there and get it now that we have the goahead plan :)

Sunday pink dress

Size 5.5 dress
mixture of McCalls 8001 size 5 and Butterick 9644 size 6

She wanted a pink spiderman costume with a mask. I told her if I could get a pattern to work well I would put a spiderman emblem on a pink dress. I have one drawn out for her, and this pattern did seem to work fairly well. The sleeves need to be a little larger and the waistline could be more even and lower by an inch or more. But, as the lady at the store today said, 'I didn't even notice - and no one else should be looking that close, either.' Yes... *hmm* I still bought more pink fabric. It will be Friday when I have another full day off.

Pattern Alterations:

9644 Butterick circa 1960, size 6
could not find the front bodice piece this time


McCalls 8001 size 5, circa 1961
I've been using this one for nearly a year now

Sleeves: 8001 dress sleeve laid over coat sleeve, cut according to length of remaining remnant of fabric. Skirt: Butterick 9644, own version of gathering done all around. Bodice: 8001 dress with 9644 back bodice as length indicator..



being a little goat herder girl
leading the goat around the yard by waving a stick by her - so she gets curious and wants to try to eat it


Loula hanging out with Mouse cat in the background



Mark took this photo a few nights ago. This puppy was given away to her new home today - and I think the lady will really love her. It is also a great shot of Esme smiling :)

Esme's drawing tonight

I like the expression here.
Her hobby horse toy was nosing the universe posters and the camera and the ceiling...


Esme posing by her wall
I've put up a few of her take home projects here and she likes seeing them up there. Tonight she drew 'me as a pink spiderman' on the paper in the bottom left corner. She was typing the sentence 'You can be a bee, too.' on my computer because she was disagreeing with me before that that 'bee' started with 'b', it started with 'e', she insisted... not sure what was going on there. So I wrote it out to show her what I meant - and she wanted to copy it. Then she got to the 'be a ...' and stopped - and laughed at me - 'a pretty spiderman!' She wanted to be a pink spiderman, she said after that - and make webs with her hands and fight the brown bears like on TV. (brown bears are a type of feared monster around here). We went downstairs to make some 'free puppies' signs with markers and paper - and she ended up drawing a picture of what her pink spiderman would look like - so I could sew it. He has extra shoulders above his arms (with hands and fingers) - so he can be very big.. but I think it might have been a mistake at first and she 'owned' it afterwards. I also like that her eyes have pupils - she very carefully drew the circles around each dot after she made it. Then she signed her name in the lower corner.


pointing out the shoulders to me

run by thoughts

Esme is getting a little bit of a cold. However, her attitude has been getting better with more routine, and she is accepting the routine a bit better. Bedtime DOES seem to be getting a little later though.. 11 to 11:30. She has discovered the My Little Pony new cartoons.. and she loves them. She wants a big brother like Shining Armor. Ha.

She had homework the other day - and we did it the next day She said it was just like her ladies at school ;) She wants to work - to be big and strong and help people with Mom, at work - like a big Mama. She is 'growing, I am working on it, see!' and will show me her eating her food or making a muscle (which she calls a triangle in her arm). Several days last week she helped Mark pick me up from work and got to put a few things away and push some carts into place. She said she wants to do what I do - fix faucets and bathtubs and toilets and pipes. She took a good long look at the pipes under our sink the other day as I told her which pipes made water come in and which went out. She was giving the pipes at work a good long look, too - to see which ones looked like them. She is upset she is too little to lift things at work but swears she could get help if she could just come with...

The other day she said "The old bathtub at night was full of balls, but it was a new bathtub now, and the balls were gone. Ir was a new one!" She has also asked if the next day we were new Mama and Daddy and Esme. I think she might need clarification on the idea of 'now' and 'then' vs. 'new' and 'old.' I know I overthink those ;) but I will try to pick a few books and stories that deal with the ideas.

Still not much work on the quilt. No sewing - but I am hoping tomorrow there will be time for that.

bits of thought and to do

Esme's speech at school is helping her a lot. She is comparing a lot more things, saying they are too big, or too little, or dirty, or old, or she wants the pink one etc. She asked to buy a cookie store today... which I didn't really understand, but she thought was hilarious and really expected some different kind of answer than what I gave. At once she both confuses me and also makes me know there is so much more in there. One minute she is crying about not wanting to wash her hair for school because it will hurt, and the next she is saying it was not so bad. I get fewer 'meltdowns' about that one as we used to have.. but it is still often a struggle and I end up explaining the entire process three to twelve times until she actually does it... which is better than having to struggle with her physically to get the soap out amongst yelling and tears, which was where we were last year.

Last night she wanted to cut triangles and circles out of paper to bring to her 'ladies' at school. She could put it in her backpack and show it to them and they would say 'wow'. I had to fight her through her bath a little bit more than I have had to lately... but she got through it, and we had enough time to cut some shapes for her teachers. They know what she can do, at least a few of them do - maybe not all of them. She has had worksheets come home some weeks that had cutting and writing and reading on them, and other times it is just coloring and glueing. She says she has to 'show the lady' what she put in her bag today, so maybe there is one in particular that said she was too little for something? Not sure.

I have to go to work today before she gets home from school... and a lot of closings this week. That will be hard on her new bedtime schedule. We have never had 'true bedtime' before - and are starting it now that she has her own room on the other side of the house. We are also working on the morning routine, getting up to her new alarm clock, getting dressed, getting ready to do things. She is excited about and possessive of her new clock, and also the light-up music bear we bought to help her sleep in her room.

On my to do list are more little areas of the house I want to straighten, clean up and organize. I did the toaster/coffee/bread area of the kitchen today - which tends to get little bits of clutter and needed a very good dusting all the way back to under the cabinets. With Esme 'analyzing' I am feeling more of a pinch to try to go a few extra steps in that department.. even though I am awfully busy with many other things. I have her quilt to finish the binding on. I have not done much since I laid it aside the other day to move her bed into the new room. I really should make her a few new pairs of pants, as well... sorted out many things when I moved her dresser in there and she is down to maybe four good school pairs and another four patched and highwater pairs. They don't take too long to make - it is just the setup and dedication of an hour that has gotten me the past month or so... And after the bedroom move my sewing area (which was a skip away from her old 'bedroom' area) is a mess..(even moreso than usual!, which is impressive)... working on that a little this morning, too.

I also need to get the pictures from Esme's new room on my data fob and get them printed out for my mom. She comes home from the nursing home to her house in Minnesota sometime this month. I have not called her on the phone. I really should have - but I don't know what I will 'get'... anger or happiness, an adult or an adolescent... I know that sounds harsh but with her memory problems the past few years and her high diabetic sugars causing some issues, I feel a great amount of anxiety over that. And there is still the anxiety leftover from going to Minnesota and the flood catastrophe, my sister and her daughter for a week in the hotel... all that is over now and I have been a busy bee here trying to make things nice and normal and happy.

A different kind of project for me

Esme got to watch her mom use power tools today. She drug her chair into the garage and watched from a safe distance, kept asking me 'Are you done yet?' I felt like we were on a family trip in the car, she asked so often.


Extremely rustic vanity cabinet, made by Mom
I've been in the mood to fix up things in general, and this room needed all the help it could get with the concrete floor and corner

I've had this in mind for a while, and decided to try hard at it today. Mark said he would be available if needed, but let me try on my own, which was good. I feel 'left-handed' when I am using tools, like everything is on the wrong side of where I need it to be and that often keeps me from attempting. I've been known to hammer a screw into a board, but that is a rare occasion. If I work at it hard enough I get what I planned sometimes, and I learn more about my own process to get something done.

This little cabinet was made out of some scrap materials we had in the garage. It does its job, and I think I can make something even better further down the road. Mark said we could have bought a little vanity - that most people would have found that easier. Well, I am not the average bear when it comes to that. Removing the perfectly good sink would have meant replumbing. And yes, I'm in the plumbing department, but that does not sound 'easier' to me than hashing and seeing what I can do with materials on hand. The curtain is on a wire between eye hooks and has a lanyard hook so the wire can be easily detached, curtain removed and washed. The whole cabinet fits snug under the sink but also pulls out for cleaning. I might paint it with the blue mistint paint or leave it in the oak plywood it is now.

So, not square, not excellent 'woodworking', but I'm still proud of it. And since all of the materials were already in the garage, it just cost me about three hours of on-and-off construction time.

bits of a Monday off

We had a good night's sleep last night - Esme was in her room with the lamp on, and she stayed there (as far as we know) all night and was still asleep in her bed at 7:30 am. We went to the store this morning to get Grandma milk and bread and a few other things. Esme had talked to me last night about wanting a DreamLites unicorn she saw on TV - but I told her I couldn't find that at the store, but we would look. They didn't have it but we found a bear in the toy section that has a light-up belly - and she said that would work.

I have worked on the winter quilt a bit more, and cleaned up the linen shelves in the bathroom and our bedroom area. With Esme's linens in the black rolly cart in her room now, there is more room in ours - and a LOT to sort through in general. Because of all the moves and changes my sewing area is a wreck, but that happens on a regular basis, so it will be something to sort out later.

I am about to go see if I can coax her down for fish sticks. She is watching cartoons with Grandma after delivering the milk and bread. I am hoping for a better mood for the rest of today, but we will see. I work at ten tomorrow.

//Alarm clock// I bought Esme an Elgin analog alarm clock as part of the order with the chair and bookcase. I put it in her room last night and she saw it immediately, and took it to her bedside table. I told her how it worked and that I would set it for 8 am and it would beep. If you push the button on top the nightlight comes on so you can read the time. She had a grand time with that, but I think she altered the time as well playing with it. She was already up and in the bathtub when it finally went off this morning at 8:30 bathroom-clock time. She pushed the snooze button and turned it off for four minutes. Then it came back on and out she comes from the bath again. I reminded her to turn the alarm 'off' on the back of it - and she did. But, she came and told me that specifically that she pushed the button and it went off, but the 'brown bears and zombies' made it beep again, and by turning it 'off' they couldn't make that happen again. *roll eyes*

Stage 3 of Esme's room.. big changes

We still need some hooks on the walls, her dry erase board, maybe another lamp, to decide if we will bring in another desk and also to hang her decorations from the ceiling. Her bed, dressers, a nightstand table and her nightlights went in today. She will sleep there tonight - and I have tomorrow off in case it is a sleepless night. She has been in a very bad mood all day today, ever since she spilled her cereal early in the morning (upstairs, not in the room) and she has had a few accidents today, as well. I've been 'getting on her case' about the latter and she is not happy at all that 'Mama is mean.' etc.. Grandma and Daddy have both had talks with her, which helps because usually I am the 'bad guy' or it feels like it, and lately she has been playing that one up big saying she doesn't like me, and wants to live elsewhere. That is one of the reasons I'm working to get her own space - she spends a lot of time lately 'being mad at you', and I wanted to be able to say 'go to your room and do that.' haha.. well, you might know what I mean. She needs her own space, to be hers - and to go close her door and do her own thing. But, also, that is new for her in a way - she isn't sure what to think about it herself.



She took a nap in here earlier after being mad at ME because Grandma was busy at her house.


Grandma did come to see her new room, as she had promised.


'Now all the kids can find me', she said.
Mama made this.

I also started making her big winter quilt today. I am down to making the bound edges and then do the inner quilting and wash it. I know part of her upset today was the anxiety of the big changes, and also some days it's that I do projects while still playing with her - and it splits my attention... but it is better than not giving her my attention at all - or being gone. And it gets things done.

Stage 2 of Esme's room is looking good

Hung several of the shelves we had painted the other day. Today, Mark and I closed up some unused closet space in this room with a sheet of panelling. We can't finish it out to be a closet at this time. I plan to get a sheet of dry-erase board and edge it in wooden trim. It will look like it was meant to be this way (and cover up a small hole in the wall) I am filtering her items from her current space down here, trying to get some sort of organization idea going on.. yes that may be a lost cause! Grandma also gave us a blue trunk today, which I cleaned up and put most of Esme's loose toys into, except the 'special' ones, which are in the cardboard bookcase I made by her table. She also said we could have a small metal desk in the office which we are thinking to put in the back corner (shown later) to put Esme's laptop on and serve her for years to come as a place to do schoolwork and other things.


Mark says: It will never be this organized again, ever...
I don't expect it to, but we can start out with things 'fitting' somewhere...



Loose bits and a 'ticket box' Esme and I made. It has a window cut out on the other side and she was pretending to sell tickets to movies inside it. She helped me paint it with the same paint for the shelves and another little bottle of bluegreen. The pink vinyl rocker chair is new, and this was the box ;) Esme has asked for me to make her a big blanket to have on the chair as well... we'll see about that later. Her bed and dresser and some peg hooks are planned to go in the other back corner... I have another poster ordered for her wall and thoughts of things we could paint as well.



My garden was waiting for me... yellow tomatoes, eggplant, lima beans, peppers and I brought in the brown sorghum to hang in the storage room.

Stage two involves watermelon pink....

Esme helping me paint shelves


'I am a boy doing hard work.', she said.
She stated this after I put the hat on her to keep the paint out of her hair.

Well I said it was red - but it is more like a watermelon pink. And, by some odd circumstance, so is the chair that Esme picked out to be her reading chair online. It as if she planned that.. Mark said. We gave her the chair early anyway - as the room is coming together so nicely. She put her disco ball light down there today, too - she can make the whole room dark just by turning off the light, and it does look really cool.

She has also asked if we can build a pirate ship next. That would be good. I told her I would take it under consideration but that the room is going to take a long time! Ha.

Esme's room - stage one

Plan 2 - updated

We are thinking about an old office desk for on the left, and she can do her computer 'work' there. That is what she calls it... her video games, Garry's Mod and Minecraft and kids learning games. We are also planning a 4 x 8 sheet of dry erase board on the right side wall and a bulletin board to hang up her drawings on. The right side of the drawing nearest the front will be a 'library' area with a rocker chair, a bookcase and buckets to throw her loose toys into. I have already displaced the rack and shelves on the left wall with a to-stud shelf system and will probably push the purple table back under there and some other small container shelving to put her art supplies in.


The room is clean and ready to lay some furniture out - then work on making it 'homey'. I don't plan to move her bed and dresser down here for at least another week or so... and some of the new furniture we will keep as surprises for her birthday in a few months.


I am already moving her toys down here. The changing table is being repurposed as a place to hold games and blocks and other 'larger' toys. She has not asked for TV once tonight - she has read books and is being 'busy' with all of her things.


Find the giraffe... at least that is what she said!
On another warm 'off' day I will paint the shelving a 'country red' good grade paint I have found on the mistints and then we can load her books onto them. There is a country red theme bird on a branch drawing I made years ago that I have hung up on her 'library wall' side (not pictured). I will be on the lookout for an area rug for here or to make something for in front of her bed and in the reading area. We have opted to not do a full carpet because of our many dogs and the fact it would probably lead to an expensive disaster sooner than we would like...

Garden Tuesday

Harvest and seeds

We went to the flea market this morning. Esme bought an umbrella with her piggy bank quarters. We got home and she ran to Grandma's for a few hours. I dug a bed for root vegetables today and harvested a little while Esme was up playing with Grandma. I've been meaning to put those carrots in the ground for winter for a week now... the rain yesterday helped loosen the deeper soil, so I felt better and easier digging.


black Spanish radishes coming up



There are rutabagas on the 'near' side and carrots on the far side.


My Tennessee Greasy beans are starting to flower finally... they demolished the corn they were on and I built them this metal post - which they have taken to.


purple flowers on these


I stood for a half hour or so trying to get a better picture of this butterfly, but he was just too 'flighty' haha... yes I know that one was bad. I got to see hummingbirds in the flowers and honeysuckle as well, but they also eluded the camera focus.


A shot of the garden from the back


Our Black Krim tomato putting on new fruit and flowers


This is 'the jungle side' - but it is producing basil, mint, peppers and yellow tomatoes, so I can't say much there.


A wasp claiming a cowpea flower against bees (not shown)

There were also some extremely noisy bluish bees with stripes buzzing in the Dixie butterpea lima beans.. I did not catch a picture of them but they were striking - very small, and very very loud like little airplanes.

In other news: Finished two hats, have yarn for a third. Have about four to six inches left on the blanket started two years ago. Have not made any progress on the room today - I do need to get a box prepared to transfer my portfolio work into from where I have it sitting up on sawhorses in that room. It has all of the sketchbooks and carry cases full of six years worth (and more) of 'serious' art, including all of my Cosmic Bear and Fox material.

A long distance view of the upcoming winter

Yesterday morning on the way to work I saw a flock of Canada Geese grouped together in a horse pasture. There were 15 to twenty of them, and according to others at work - they are migrating from the North down to the lake area on their way South. It is very early this! Mark has seen a 'woolly worm' and said it had no band at all - as if there would be no winter at all... yet the mornings are something like 55 with 80-90 highs and no rain. Very odd weather. By coincidence, this was the week I chose to start making winter hats and planning for the colder weather - ie: a thicker quilt for Esme's bed, slippers and so forth etc.. How much of a coincidence is that really, that I am preparing in my own way for winter when it is barely August? All I can do is note it on the calendar and see what my instincts meant in hindsight. It is like we have a long distance view of the upcoming winter - even from this far off...lots of my instincts are to prepare for a cold one. I had the instinct last week that we will need hay for the goat - and to plant carrots, I have not done either. I did plant a few seeds of black spanish radish, but just because I wanted to try it. We might get a break soon from this heat that has been causing us so much trouble - but do we want the cold of winter instead? Thoughts...

In Esme's room plans we have ordered a few pieces of furniture for her and done some other planning for what to put on the floor and walls. I let Esme choose the color for her chair (pink.. I would have thought purple but she was clear) and choose between several bookcases. She threw a bad fit today while we had a visitor and she took a nap, then helped me in the garden. We had a discussion about her room and about being good - and that she needed to help instead of be a brat and demand toys and throw fits etc... She has been pretty good all night - we will see if it will last.

Sunday Night: Esme read halfway through 'Ten Apples up on Top' to Mark and I - and then got tired. She was doing very well by herself. I saw her sound out the word 'more' and get confused with the words 'too' and 'but' often. A capitalized 'And' threw her off, although she got the word in lowercase type before that. She is doing really well and when her motivation is higher we read more and work on it more, other than that I send a low level book in her backpack to school and they say sometimes they offer for her to look at or read it, but usually they do some other craft. She did bring home papers with 'k' words and 'big and little' comparisons the other day and she was very proud of them. She read to me half of the 'k' words, asked a few others, and it has stayed out on her desk by her computer.

Green harvest and Esme room diagram

Small harvest
okra, pimento peppers, banana peppers, yellow tomatoes, basil, black eyed peas, lima beans

This drought has been so hard on everything - some of my new seedlings are still burning up with morning and night waterings... I am still getting some harvest but once in a while it feels like it will all just dry up and the garden will be done.. and then I tell myself that no - there are a lot of things still doing little bits, and to be happy with the little bits. Also, something is eating my corn. Something with tiny teeth. *Sigh* well I was taking a chance planting a second round... oh well.


A little burr grass that was in the garden

I am laying out the design for Esme's room - taking it a bit seriously Mark thinks ;) He joked asking if he needed to get out of the way before I ran him over with the construction equipment *ha*. I took measurements and the 'new' room is actually about 11x14 - much larger than I had originally thought. And the measurements of her main items bed, dresser, shelving unit, table will take up much smaller of the floor space. But - that will add more space to spread out toys and add a few more shelving units and a larger chair for her to sit in. I'm looking at a 'video rocker' style because she has liked these at the local library.


diagram before I knew the room was bigger


Esme had Grandma call Daddy today after she took some jar lids up and tell him that she 'forgot to go to work today' and he needed to know that. We still don't know what that was about...it might have to do with the time - as she usually calls Grandma to go visit at about the same time she asked to call Daddy instead to tell him that she was already there?

Esme's larger room plan

I talked with Mark last night about the new larger room we would like to move Esme into. I gave her an idea about what was happening, too - and she liked the idea a lot. It still needs a lot of work, that is why she is not in there now, plus - I didn't want her that far away before - downstairs and close to the kitchen and bathroom by herself all night. Now that she can communicate a little better - and seems to NEED more space and a place to 'get away from it all' this is something we will work for.

The new room is about twice as big - but not three steps away from Mom and Dad. Both are good for her. It has no windows, but that might help her sleep ;) without the tent. And she can use her flashlights and some of her toys to greater effect.

We talked about hanging things from the ceilings - hearts of all colors etc. I also told her there would be a shelf for her books - and she said she would 'read and read and read'. I made a note to myself not to forget some sort of soft chair or beanbag for her to do all that reading in.

For furniture she has her bed and plastic dresser - and we will have to give her some new shelving units as the ones upstairs are built onto the wall. Her changing table could probably go down there as some extra shelving as well.

For renovations we just have to insulate the floor a little better, plug up a few problem areas on the walls (an unfinished electrical box and a doorway that leads to a closet that has electrical panel access in it. Mark and I talked about making a removeable chalk or corkboard panel there for her drawings and then we could still take it down and get into that panel if we needed to.

At one point last night I had been 'done' in the room for a little while and came down and the light was on under the door. Esme was in there - leaning against the ladder with a paintbrush in hand. I asked her what she was up to - and she said she was not Esme, the Esme girl had gone to school. She was a man here to fix the walls and she was mad at me for interrupting her. Now we should get to work - both of us! *ha*

Garden today

part of the harvest today


Lemon Boy tomato


The garden with water.. and weeds


Another shot of the garden greened up


Florida Speckled Lima Beans


The four on the right were one 'ear' of corn that had split and never developed kernels because of it. The one on the left just had no kernels in it. This was the end of what was out in the popcorn field (although I had harvested good ears a while back)



The Kitty goat doesn't mind malformed corn, and eats the small unformed ears


Grasshopper that made himself known..
what kind is he?


Dixie Speckled Butter pea lima beans



You can't see me. No, I said you couldn't see me! Don't take my picture!


This sorghum broomcorn was white and yellow a few weeks ago - and now it is ripening to reds and browns


puppies eating softened food
they sing and cry like they are complaining in between each bite
but that is most likely the evidence that they are coonhounds!


blue eyes reflecting


second harvest of the day after little girl ran to Grandma's house

I sorted some summer and fall seeds - dreaming of what could be and what it would take to get there. Ordered some other fall seeds this past week and they are now all finished and paid for - not much, six dollars worth for a few things we wanted to try more of. I think I am set for 'oh way too early' spring seeds - cabbage and peas etc... if we choose to do that next year.