Singing In the Rain in May

There was a lot of excitement at our house this past month.  Not only did we celebrate Violet's birthday, Mother's Day and my birthday, but Opal started out by breaking her arm on the very first day of the month.  I will write more about her broken arm in the blog post just on Opal, but let's just say that it was a traumatic event which influenced our entire month with little sleep and a lot of emotions.  Here are the girls below, a day after Opal broke her arm and before it was put in a hard cast.  Lucy wanted to do a photoshoot with her sisters in the field of white violet's in the cemetery by our house.

Below are some of Lucy's photos.  She is doing a great job learning how to use the camera.

Lucy's favorite thing to do with the camera is to take it on our daily walks.  I like how she is capturing our life with her own perspective.  When I add her photos to the photos I take, it gives a fuller snapshot of our family.

Some of the wildlife by the pond on the trails by our house, also captured by Lucy...clockwise from top left below: a turtle on a log in the pond, a blue jay, a frog in the pond, and a dragonfly by the pond.

 Will set up a badminton net in our backyard this past month which come to find out, Will and I had the most fun with out of everyone at our house!  I really enjoyed the "duals" as we called them, and really, our goal was just to keep the birdie volleyed in the air as long as possible as our daughters jeered or cheered on the sidelines.  The top right photo below is our solution to get Violet and her bike home after she had a bike injury on one of our walks. We were feeling pretty proud at the way we figured out how to hook the bike onto the handle of the stroller while Violet stood on the rear wheel axel.  I'm sorry to report that moments after this "look, we are making it at this parenting gig" photo, the entire stroller flipped backwards.  Both Opal and Violet were okay, but Opal, who was dealing with anxieties already from her broken arm was inconsolable.  Normally, we would have been able to carry her the rest of the way home while the other parent pushed the stroller, but because of Violet's bike injury, one parent was needed to push the stroller and the other was needed to get Violet's surprisingly heavy steel-framed bike home.  At one point I had the idea of having each girl level down on a bike - Emma ride Violet's, Lucy ride Emma's, and I ride Lucy's bike home.  That only got us so far before Lucy and Emma claimed they couldn't ride another minute on the too small of bike's.  It is such an awkward thing to walk home a bike that doesn't sit taller than your knee with two out of our four kids wailing.  We made it though, and put all four girls promptly to bed.

In the above lefthand photo, Lucy is holding another four leaf clover she found in our front yard, the photo to the right of it has all four girls riding the disc swing, and to the right of that is Lucy with her sweater tied between her handle bars to hold a snack cup on a bike ride.  Necessity is the mother of invention, I always say!  The below photos are the girls holding flowers or frogs.  I love that Lucy can be so fashionable in a perfectly coordinated dress with matching accessories while holding a frog.  I hope she never loses her fashionista or frog loving sides.  We were excited to watch a family of baby ducks grow this past month, and I am laughing when I remember the looks other people gave us on the nature trail as all five girls in my family sighed a collective "Awwwwwwwww!" each time we saw the baby ducks.  The center photo below is of a tombstone Lucy made for a frog that died at the paws of Charlie.  Bad boy Charlie get yelled at and didn't seem to care one way or the other.  The worst part is, he doesn't even really eat the frog, besides it's legs, and it seems like in the case of frogs, he is just killing for sport.  

Charlie is a lover, not a hater when it comes to people, but he is a killing machine when it comes to wildlife.  I am so very torn about this, as I want all wildlife to be protected in my yard.  One of our neighbors came over the other day and asked if "that bird killer" was ours.  When we said that yes, in fact, he was, our neighbor toned down the name-calling but told us that every morning he and his wife watch Charlie pick off birds at their bird feeders.  A few days after Opal broke her arm, Charlie showed up in our yard with half of his face swollen.  Our state was still in the throes of complete quarantine lockdown, and so to get Charlie into the emergency vet, Will ended up sitting in the parking lot of the vet's office for FOUR hours, until a tech came out to his car and told him that they were sorry, but there wasn't time to see Charlie that day.  Ugh!!!  Not only was Will completely late for work, and had sat in that parking lot (no one was allowed to sit in the waiting room due to COVID) but he was unable to get any WiFi and so was half a day behind on work from it as well.  The next available appointment for Charlie was the following day, and so my sister-in-law who is a vet in Florida advised me to get a thermometer and take Charlie temperature rectally so at least I would know he would be okay until the appointment the following day.  This presented an entirely new set of issues, as now Will was at work and I needed to get a thermometer for Charlie as I wasn't about to use a people thermometer in that way!  Up until this point we had been doing grocery delivery, but seeing as time was an issue and grocery delivery took days to arrive, I had to go to the store and buy a thermometer, while leaving my kids at home with a friend on standby for them (no sitters due to COVID!).  The first store was sold out (thank you again, COVID) and the second store was as well, besides a fertility thermometer, which the pharmacist assured me would do the job no problem.  Thankfully, Charlie did not have a fever, and so I was at least able to rest my mind until his appointment the following day where it was determined that something bit him in the face, and after cleaning up the wound, getting a rabies shot and a shot of antibiotic, he was sent home, really no worse for the wear.

For the next few days at least, the local wildlife breathed a collective sigh of relief as we locked Charlie up in the garage until the swelling and redness had gone and he seemed better.  He turns seven this summer, and I swear he has already used up all nine of his lives.  I love him so very much though, and am relieved that this injury was a mild one.

We had lots of outdoor adventures this past month, but there was a lot of rain too, which gave us lots of time indoors.  Here are the girls below with the hardest puzzle we have worked on to date.

This puzzle took several weeks to finish, which is why it came as no surprise that there was one piece missing.  Frustrating, but definitely not shocking.  The kids played lots of Legos this past month, enjoyed painting and drawing, and had fun making "Drawing Shops" and selling their artwork to Will and I for nickels and dimes.

I was inspired to make some felt play pies for Opal's play kitchen, and some mini oven mitts.

The below photo collage I am titling "real life".  In clockwise order from top left: yard signs waiting to be mailed to happy customers, the contents of our art closet spewed into the office so that we could organize and clean it up (it was amazing to see just how much that closet held, but kind of made sense why every time we opened the closet door we took a quick step backwards so that whatever was falling didn't hit us), Emma vacuuming with heels and headphones on, Lucy displaying the art she made in yoga class this past year, and finally, a text between Will and I that I had to screen shot so as never to forget what real life COVID was like.  We needed to sign paper work at the bank, and we both needed to sign the papers.  However, kids were not allowed in the bank, and we had to make an appointment for us to even go there.  So, we took a family walk, so that we could take turns going into the bank to sign the papers while the opposite parent stood outside with the kids.  Remember, during COVID quarantine, there are no babysitters.  Seemed like a plan, except it took FOREVER in the bank, AND it started RAINING.  At one point while I was sitting in the bank, waiting to sign the papers, I overheard a bank teller tell the manager in an alarmed voice that there was a pack of wet looking kids peering in the windows.  I piped up and claimed them as mine and that my husband was with them, before the situation got out of hand.  I did notice the banker I was working with picked up the pace after that.

To add to the drama of this past month, the road we live on was completely torn up and repaved.  Because we live on the last corner on the street, all of the heavy equipment parked on the side of our house and beeeeep beeeeeep beeeeeep-ed it's way down the rest of the road backwards starting at 6:50 am every. single. morning.  Unless it was raining.  Oh, blessed rain!  Opal, as I mentioned above was having some major anxieties after her arm injury, and had a super hard time with the loud noises, crashing sounds of concrete hitting metal dumpsters, and the incessant beeping.  I had a hard time with four cranky kids who despite being woken up one to two hours earlier than normal each morning, refused to go to bed earlier.  Ugh.  The phrase that I kept repeating to the point where my kids were quoting me was: "I am over it!  I am so over it!"  At one point, as I was trying to get the kids to a chiropractor appointment on time, and was sweating like a pig with thirty pound Opal on my hip and a diaper bag and water bottles and someone's jacket and silly me - a mug of hot tea - I realized that the phrase I was saying under my breath was being repeated by Opal in the same chant rhythm that I was saying it in.  Fortunately, she did not say the same words I was saying, but she was darn near close.  In the photos below in clockwise order from top left: Violet and Emma watching concrete being dumped into the dump truck, Emma and Violet camped out early one morning to watch the road work from Opal's bedroom window (of course Opal's bedroom was at the front of the action), the drop from our driveway to the now dirt road, and finally, Opal with noise canceling headphones on, held by Will who was the only person who made her feel somewhat safe.  Funny side note is that the girls named all of the construction workers, and watched them all the live long day to the point where I was concerned that they were too young for the giggles and whispers about the young men they had named.

 We ate many baked goods this past month, and I think it was how we coped.  Once the concrete of the road was pulled up, the dust from the dirt below made it impossible to sit outside and covered everything like snow.  Double Ugh.  BUT, fortunately our asparagus and rhubarb just needed to be washed off and we enjoyed plenty of dishes with both of these early garden crops.  I also made homemade waffle cones, burnt a batch of homemade apple fritters (see photo below of fritter dough in my hair and burnt fritters), and discovered an amazing recipe for a rhubarb and almond oatmeal breakfast bake.

 We planted the seedlings we have been growing from seed into the garden this past month, and enjoyed collecting more eggs from our chickens now that the days are getting longer.  The more light there is in the day, the more eggs they lay.  I had to screenshot a conversation Will had over text with my brother who is on the fence about getting chickens.  I thought Will summed up having chickens just about right.

Maybe it was for the best that the roughest month of our year so far happened with some lovely holidays in it.  We enjoyed Violet's 6th birthday at the beginning of this month...

...each year after watching all of her sisters have their birthdays first, Violet is just SO happy when it is finally her day.  She got spoiled, and got all her favorite things - Frozen Legos, Calico Critters, Barbies, books, a toy bird in a cage that talks, and more.

While we were out on our daily walk, friends stopped by and taped some birthday messages to our window, and Violet was excited to have Will hang up her bird cage, and to set up her new fan and reading light on her bed.

She wanted a Sanders bumpy cake, which we were able to get in a curbside delivery from the grocery store which was a win, as we weren't sure how we were going to obtain it.

Violet is my most loyal child, and my only completely mama's girl.  She loves snuggles, and art, and reading stories with me, as well as telling me adorable and hilarious tales about what Opal said or did.  She also is extremely observant with people's mannerisms and can mimic anyone.  She is such a good big sister to Opal, while also being the only one in the house who isn't afraid to tell Opal no.  She loves playing Barbies, Calico Critters and Legos with Lucy and Emma, and is at that point in childhood where her older sisters sometimes leave her feeling left out.  I keep telling her that soon, very soon, Opal will be her best playmate, and that Violet will never feel lonely again.

Here we are below on Mother's Day.  It rained, but we still got a nice hike in.  On the way home while it started to pour, we popped open our umbrellas and the girls and I danced and sang "we're singing in the rain" at the top of our voices because we were confident that no one else would be out due to rain, our road being closed due to the construction, and COVID.  It was so very fun until Lucy slipped on a wet curb and twisted her ankle and knee.  We should have known not to tempt fate in an already crazy month.  We got home and got Lucy doctored up and dry and snuggled in to watch one of my favorite movies, Anne of Green Gables, for the first time with the girls while Will made us snacks.  For dessert, Lucy and Will made me strawberry rhubarb cobbler.

We ended the month with my birthday, which was relaxed.  I took a long and luxurious bath, and afterward went shopping by myself in our downtown as the stores were now open with appointment.  We took a walk as a family later, and the kids and Will made me strawberry shortcake for dessert.

What a month May was, and although we did our best to sing in the rain, we couldn't help but feel a bit upset with the wet curb that kept tripping us up!  Here's to Opal's arm being healed, Charlie all better, COVID getting better and the road work finally complete in June!