Opal at 28 Months

Opal got her cast off at the beginning of June and did great with the actual removing of the cast with the saw and the loud noise.  We brought noise canceling headphones, suckers, and everything Elmo.  We also role played how the cast removal would go for several days leading up to it. What I did not anticipate however was the severe anxiety that Opal has for riding in the car since she broke her arm.  She screamed in terror all the way to the doctor's office, each bump or turn prompting new levels of screams, and by the time we pulled in the parking lot I was seriously considering calling from our car to cancel her appointment - which is saying a lot, considering I had been counting down the days like a kid awaiting Christmas for this cast to be off.  It was just Opal and I, and I didn't know how she was going to handle the x-rays and removal if she couldn't handle the car ride.  With a sucker in her mouth (she was too terrified to be pacified by a sucker on the drive there) we got our temperature checks (I'm shocked I didn't have a fever because I was sweating like I did from the drive there) and rode the elevator up to the doctor's office while I practiced deep breathing and prayed to God for strength.  And wouldn't you know, as soon as we stepped off of the elevator, besides some hiccups and a splotchy red, tear-stained face, you would never know she had an issue on the way there.  The gray hair on my head is definitely from Opal.    

Thankfully Opal meets the height and weight requirements needed for a forward facing carseat, so we switched her seat and it has helped over a period of a few weeks for her to calm down.   As I type this, it is two months out now, and she is doing fine in the car, however we now have a sucker addict on our hands who thinks that every car ride still equals a sucker.  We are down to one sucker a day.  Her anxieties have moved on to other things.  We are still on the struggle bus, and she is definitely working through something triggered by her broken arm.  She has fits screaming that she is falling and is scared to sit in her high chair unless Will or I (or both of us if we are there), put our feet on the legs of the chair while she eats to ensure its stability.  Most recently, she wants her arm off, does not want her arm anymore, and can we please take it off?

I do think that the broken arm saga has occurred at a developmental milestone in Opal's life that seems a tad unfortunate.  She is definitely in the throes of being two, and is fiercely independent and knows her own mind very clearly.  I think her growing knowledge of the world has led to a lot of fears and she is struggling to move past them.  It breaks my heart and exhausts me at the same time.  I've seen a meme that says, "I don't have a favorite child, but I have a child that I try really hard not to wake up."  In the below photo, Opal has just woken up (on the wrong side of the bed) and is adamantly telling me why she is upset: her cereal is not the same as the one on the box - where are the raspberries that are pictured?!

We go for walks every day, and have done so for most of Opal's life.  She is not content to ride in the stroller now unless there is food.  She just wants to walk.  Will and I cannot get the exercise levels that we need at the pace of two-year-old legs.  So our walks become a hostage negotiation situation, but in this case, we are trying to keep the person hostage.  God bless parents and their abilities of distraction and bribery.  Ultimately, we end up letting her walk for a bit, but always, always, have a food bribe in our back pocket to get her back in her stroller so that we can get home.

In case this post is too raw and honest, I have saved the best for last.  Although these past few weeks have been rough with her, she is still the apple of our eye, and loved beyond measure.  Her little body just snuggles so perfectly into us, and we all live to make her smile or laugh.  Here she is below, getting love from her sisters, who she refers to as "ladies."  She will yell up the stairs when dinner is ready, "LADIES! DINNER TIME!"  At bedtime she will go in her big sisters' room and say, "Good night ladies!"  The bottom, right hand photo below cracked me up so I had to take a picture - I asked Lucy to take one for the team and give Opal a ride around the house in her doll stroller so that I could get something done, and Lucy reluctantly obliged - while continuing to read her book while walking on her knees so she didn't have to stoop.  She'll make a good mom.  

Thank goodness Opal has three older sisters, as she can usually find a playmate if she is persistent enough.  I keep telling Violet that in another year or two, Opal will be a great friend to her.  The brother I played with the most growing up was the same four year age difference as Violet and Opal are.  

For some reason, Opal likes to sit on top of Legos.  Whatever floats your boat, kid!  She loves swinging, and playing outside.  Thank goodness we are going through this rough patch while the weather is nice!

This sweet baby is loved so much.  My mama heart is praying for her anxiety to lessen, and we are also taking her for bodywork at our chiropractor and we have also consulted with Opal's pediatrician and our homeopath physician.  We are confident that this will be a passing stage, and Opal will be back to her happy, dancing self in no time.

Here is my sweet baby below, in clockwise order from top left: having her Elmo smell a twig of lavender that she picked in the backyard, smiling for the camera, and playing with two turtle paper weights - she told me one is the mama and one is the baby, and she is having them kiss.

Sweet baby of mine, as our family favorite toddler storybook that I now recite by heart after reading it to my four girls these past eleven years - I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak says, "I love your happy side, I love your sad side!  I love your silly side, and your mad side....  I love you through and through, yesterday, today and tomorrow too!"

Grateful in June

Our June included a lot of backyard play.  Our state was still on a lockdown for half of the month due to COVID, and even after the strictest lockdown was lifted, we still didn't feel comfortable going back to our regular routine.  The photos below in clockwise order from top left: Lucy showing great managerial skills while Emma totes a bag of play sand with a kid-sized wheelbarrow, Emma blowing bubbles, a driveway bonfire to celebrate the summer solstice, the girls catching fireflies in our driveway, Emma enjoying our tree swing, and Violet posing for a photo for Lucy.

I am also happy to report that the road work in front of our house is complete after almost a month of heavy work every day.  Thank the Lord, and I hope to never take for granted quiet mornings at 6 a.m. or being able to park in my own driveway again.

Charlie is not complaining with all of our time at home, and has enjoyed being close to us outside.  He is a beggar for food, and although we may have just fed him, he is always looking for handouts.  I always say that his early start in life as an orphan has left him perpetually hungry.  Will likes to point out that it is probably the worms that he perpetually has that are constantly leaving him hungry.  Tomato, tomatoe.  The top left photo below my neighbor took when Charlie was hanging on her front porch with her.

Another neighbor has been leaving his car windows open now that the weather is nice.  I looked out my dining room window one afternoon, and saw Charlie climb into our neighbor's car.  I text the below photos to my neighbor, who fortunately, likes cats.  I did have my neighbor promise to do a Charlie check before he goes out.  It does scare me though - what other cars is Charlie exploring?

For Father's Day we visited my Dad on a day where it would just be us and we could maintain social distancing.  The kids yoga teacher came by one day for a socially distanced visit and it was so nice to see their sweet teacher.  We spent a few backyard socially distanced visits with friends, and all of the kids did a great job.  Towards the end of one visit the kids realized that they could do a dance party together while maintaining social distancing!  We met Will's parents at a park for his mom's birthday and the weather was perfect.  I do worry how this type of socializing will impact our kids and the future, however a silver lining is that we are spending more time outside and that can only be a good thing.

We spent the afternoon at the river by our house with friends for a COVID-safe get together, and although it ended in the drama of Violet losing a flip flop and my friend and I almost losing our eldest daughters as they tried to rescue the flip flop from the river current, it did make for some great memories now that we know the only thing that was ultimately lost was the flip flop.  There is nothing like the anger coming forth from two moms who had the fear of losing their children - and Lucy and her friend were reduced to tears as our relief-anger let lose on them both.  It was the first time that I realized that my kids are of an age where they complain about the injustices of their parents to their friends, and even bond over it.  In the below pictures from top left in clockwise order: Lucy, prior to being taken by the river current, Opal, all the friends, all of us on the way to the river, and finally, a giant snapping turtle that was crossing our path ever so slowly.

Here we are below, getting ready for Father's Day in the top, left picture, and then celebrating it with Will in the rest of the photos.  The kids made him Rice Krispie treats for Father's Day as that is one of his favorite treats.

A friend of mine came over one afternoon with a feral kitten she rescued so that it could be socialized with kids.  This little kitty is missing one paw, which only added to the cuteness factor - as if it's possible for a kitten to get any cuter.  This single event has made my kids entire YEAR, and they want a kitten so very badly now.  They are still talking about Rocky the kitty, and don't remember when Charlie used to be that little and cute.  Emma brought Charlie to the front door to meet the kitten with glass between them and Charlie refused to make eye contact.  The kids are mad at me for being allergic to cats, and I wouldn't be surprised if they all become cat ladies when they are older and on their own.

This past month we were finally able to plant the native flowers and sow the native seeds for our mini meadow that we are installing along our driveway.  It is just over 100 feet long and about 10 feet wide.  Our beehives are on this strip of land, and although honey bees are not native, it will still provide pollen and nectar for them as well.  We are already seeing caterpillars and butterflies on our plants, which is so exciting as we were under the impression that it would take a full three years of the plants getting established before we really saw the insects.  So far my thoughts on the mini meadow are that it really is true that if you plant it, they will come.

We harvested a small amount of strawberries from our garden this past month.  Or maybe it wasn't that small, but not very many strawberries made it into the house, now that we have four little berry pickers.  Below is a delicious dessert of strawberry shortcake that Lucy helped me to make with the strawberries from our garden.  When the weather is nice, we like to enjoy our homemade after-dinner desserts on the porch.  It makes it seem that much more special.  Now that we have multiple kids that like baking, Will and I are going to have to start encouraging their culinary skills on breakfast, lunch and dinner or we will have to buy bigger pants to accommodate all of the amazing desserts we are being served!

We ended up buying a flat and a half of strawberries from a local orchard by our house and Will and the girls made their annual double batch of strawberry jam - which is exactly what we go through each year.  The girls also helped me harvest lavender this past month for drying and using in the various products I make for my business.  This was the best lavender harvest I have had to date!  I probably have about fifteen plants total, and for whatever reason, the weather must have been just right for them this year.

With Will working from home, and coming home earlier than usual due to no after school activities while COVID is still around, I have had more time available to me to cook up a new business idea I've been thinking on for several years now.  I have bought a domain name, and am working with vendors in the US to help manufacture some of the items that I will have in herb and mineral care kits to support women in all stages of their life.  I have bought dozens of books from my favorite online used book retailer, and have definitely gone down a rabbit hole when it comes to the history of women, women's bodies, and how to best care for them.  At this point, I have begun writing a book.  I am nervous to put this out into the world that I am even writing a book, because who am I in the grand scheme of things, but at the end of the day, even if the book becomes a pamphlet that I print at home on my dinky printer and pass out for free, the knowledge that I have gained from this interest-led topic has been both fascinating and life-changing for myself and hopefully my four daughters as well.  In the photos below in clockwise order from top left: the moon which has been a big inspiration, custom tea blends that I am making and trying so that I can add them to my care kits, a stack of used books that arrived all on the same day to my house which led Will to tell our sweet postal carrier that "my wife likes books" with her response being, "it could be worse - shoes and purses are pretty darn expensive,"  Charlie hanging out with me as I type, Opal snuggling me as we look at the moon, and finally, an iron paper weight shaped as a turtle that I bought on a whim last year, and has become my constant and steady companion to hold open the books as I type up my notes.  

There is no timeline, and I am being driven purely by my creative passion.  I keep telling myself that if God inspired me to do this, he will provide a way for it to happen.  I do think that a silver lining of COVID, and the fact that I don't have to deal with the learning curve of homeschooling like so many parents have to right now, that I am in a unique position to utilize this time to pull off this dream.  God only knows how this will end, and the timeline for it, but in the meantime, it is a daily exercise in trust for me between feeling vulnerable of failing, and pressed for time.  Let's be honest, I barely had any free time to begin with between being a mom of four, homeschooling, cooking, cleaning, and running my bee business!

It has been good for Will to take on more of the home needs with the kids, and it has been good for me to get out of my usual routine with them as well.  It makes the times spent with the girls more special and I appreciate Will and the girls so much more, knowing that they are all supporting me in this dream.  Here are two craft projects the girls and I did this past month when I wasn't working.  We made nature dresses for ourselves, and milkweed pod babies that we are thinking of turning into Christmas ornaments.  These are the type of activities that the five of us love to do, and I am so grateful for this time with them.

Not long after the quarantine was lifted, the older girls and I wanted to go to a flower farm and nearby antique store that was mostly outside with a friend of mine.  Will and Opal wanted to come too, as they were just so excited at the prospect of going anywhere after months of COVID.  I made Will promise that he would not get cranky due to boredom, and if he made that promise, he could come with us.  He promised, and we had a lovely morning with my friend.  Here we are below at the flower farm.  Lucy LOVED it, and loved the bouquets.

We also were able to finally drop off the crazy amounts of donation items we had accumulated in our basement due to the extra time at home during quarantine.  But, it seems like everyone cleaned out their closets, basements and garages too and so when we went to drop off the items at the now open resale center, the line was wrapped 40 cars long.  When it was finally our turn to pop our trunk and unload the boxes and bags for donation, we were told there was a two box limit.  I called Will to come meet us there on his way home from work, and he got in the line and donated two more boxes, but we were still left with half a car load.  Over the next few weeks we dropped off two boxes whenever we were in the area.  It is always so interesting to see the side affects of COVID from shortages of toilet paper, flour, sidewalk chalk, bikes, coins, puzzles and cleaning supplies to the excess of time and donation items.  Here we are in clockwise order from top left: the line at the donation place, us enjoying our first "not homemade" treat in months, the girls SO happy to have a reason to drive somewhere in the car, our first official "take out" eaten at a park, and the girls posing for a photo for me at the same park.  Another COVID silver lining - all of these otherwise normal activities are so much more joyful now that we have more gratitude for them.

For me, despite the stress and a lack of being able to really predict what the future will hold, COVID has triggered so much gratitude in me, and because of that, joy.  I'm not saying that the days have not been hard - they have been.  The change in our routine and the difficulties with simple things like getting groceries are exhausting.  But, we are all healthy.  The people we love are healthy.  I will no longer take that for granted.  I am at a unique point in my life where my favorite people still live with me, and I am so grateful to be quarantined with them, even though I am exhausted and they never leave the house or yard to give me a moments peace.  I am so grateful that they are here with me, right now, for this unique moment in history.  I am grateful that Will still has a job in these uncertain economic times, and I am grateful that we have a house next to beautiful hiking trails.  I am grateful that we have had extra time to be a family together, to love, to fight, to play and laugh, to eat with and clean up after.  But mostly, I am grateful of simple things that I used to take for granted.

I am exhausted, but oh so grateful to be where I am.

Opal, My Special Little Lady at 27 Months

This little lady broke her arm falling off of our living room couch this past month.  I knew immediately that something was wrong, as she normally has a very high pain tolerance and recovers from bumps and bruises very fast.  She was shaking in pain, and inconsolable, and fortunately Will was only five minutes from home when it happened.  Unfortunately, it was the event that I had been warning my kids against during COVID, where Will and I have been repeatedly telling them to stop whatever risky behavior they are currently doing so as to avoid a trip to the ER.  I didn't see a fall off of the couch on the danger list.  

We opted to drive to the nearest ER, as we didn't know what was exactly hurting on her arm, and couldn't see buckling her into the five-point harness of her carseat.  So Will held her in the backseat while I drove the few blocks to the hospital.  Who knew that our location so close to the hospital would prove to be so convenient time and time again between injuries and Will's kidney stones over the years.  When we got to the ER, we were told that only one parent could go in with Opal, and so we had to make a decision on the spot - I knew that Will could handle Opal's pain better than I could, but I also knew that my mama heart needed to be with her.  I chose to stay, and Will went back home to the older girls who, since we were on quarantine, were going to be situated with a friend's husband sitting in his car in our driveway in the event that our kids needed anything. Unfortunately, the ER doctor was convinced that Opal had a dislocated elbow, and even after x-rays revealed that her elbow was NOT dislocated, he attempted to pop it back in while squeezing the part of Opal's are that had a double fracture.  This was so traumatic for Opal, that as soon as he let go of her arm, she stopped screaming and fell into a deep sleep on me.  My heart was breaking, and I was so upset with the doctor.  When he came back a few minutes later I told him that he would not be touching her arm again without sedation.  He responded that he spoke with the on-call Orthopedic and was advised to x-ray her entire arm this time, not just her elbow.  I was shocked when I realized that they hadn't taken an x-ray of her entire arm to begin with - her arm is not that big and I just ASSUMED that the x-rays included her entire arm.  The next time the x-ray machine came in, I made sure to look at the x-rays myself and with no medical training what so ever I could see the double fracture in her arm, just below her elbow.  The doctor came back in and humbly apologized to me, for which I am grateful, but I am still trying to forgive myself for not being a better advocate for Opal.  At the end of the day, I just didn't know and I know that all doctors are under so much stress from COVID.  It is what it is, but unfortunately, the rest of our month was spent with a little girl who began to have some major anxieties.

Our nurse told us that it was her first day on the job, and was unable to answer most of our questions. She did do a fine job of wrapping Opal's arm in a soft, temporary cast as we waited for the swelling on Opal's arm to go down and for us to get an appointment with an orthopedic to put a hard cast on her arm in a few days.  Getting a hold of an orthopedic to cast her arm was another nightmare, as during COVID no doctor was taking on new patients.  I'm sorry, but my two year old does not have a chart at an orthopedic!  She is two!  After getting our pediatrician involved, we were able to get an appointment a few days later with an orthopedic who took good care of Opal from there on out.  In the above pictures are Opal relaxing in a chair outside with her soft cast, some curls on the back of Opal's head - it seems like her hair is taking forever to show up! - and finally, the amount of cups and drinks at her spot at the table, because it is impossible to tell the baby of the family "no" under normal circumstances but it is impossible times infinity to tell the baby of the family "no" when she has a little baby cast on her arm!

The physician's assistant that mostly worked with us at the orthopedic was named Luke.  I took this as a very good sign, and the young man even had a head of curly hair, which is how I've always imagined our Luke to look like.  Opal was in good hands with Luke, and I am certain that her brother Luke in heaven arranged the entire thing.  Opal was given the choice of cast colors, and very confidently and insistently said "Pink."  When Luke picked up the pink wrap, she shook her head and pointed to a slightly different shade of pink.  It made me happy to see that she was a girl who knew her own mind.  The other crazy thing is that it is the same color my cast was for a broken wrist when I was in third grade.  Each time we went back for a check up, I told her that they may decide to put a different cast on, and each time Opal was prepared with a different color that she was going to pick.  One time it was orange, and the next time it was blue.  She ended up keeping the same cast on for the entire month however, and our neighbor gave her cast stickers and a cast tattoo which Opal enjoyed putting on and then picking off.  

The first couple of nights were ROUGH.  She kept smacking herself in the face with her cast, waking her up frightened and battered and she was in pain.  It was like having a newborn baby again.  Things gradually got better, but she is still not sleeping that well.  I never thought I would say that I was happy that we finally found a TV show that Opal would sit for, but when it's been days with sleep deprivation and your thirty pound toddler refuses to be set down, it came as such a relief when we accidentally found out that she loves a YouTube channel with cute and funny pet videos.  Here she is in the above photo, happier than we have seen her all month, watching videos on our TV of cats and dogs doing silly and adorable things.

Opal's Godparents sent her up some lovely get well gifts from Florida that really made Opal feel special, and lots of other friends made beautiful get well cards for Opal.  She started feeling proud and offering to show whoever we were Facetiming her cast.  I think she realized that it was a great attention getter.  In the above photos, Opal is playing with her presents from her Godparents. In the below, left-hand picture, Opal is planting flower seeds in a pot that she painted herself, another gift from her Godparents.

Most of Opal's fears this past month were centered on falling - she had a traumatic time riding in the car and kept screaming "I'm falling!  I'm falling!" any time we went over a hill or hit a bump.  No amount of distraction or treat bribery would detract her from her fears and the only good thing about quarantine was we only had to put her in the car to take her to her orthopedic appointments.  She also was afraid to sit in her highchair, for fear of falling and for some reason was scared of loud noises as well.  This was very inconvenient timing, seeing as the road in front of our house was being torn up during this entire ordeal with loud and heavy machinery every single day.

It was a rough month, but our little lady found moments of fun and happiness.  Here she is below, posing for the camera.  We had three shirts that fit over her cast, and we managed to put them on rotation, and all three outfits are featured in the photos below.

 Lucy found a tree by our house in the local cemetery that was dropping an amazing amount of flower petals and did a photo shoot with Opal playing in the fallen petals.  It was fun and healing for Will and I to watch Opal playing in the moment, with no anxiety or fears.  I also took heart in the fact that as I carried Opal into the medical building for one of her checkups, she was quietly singing to herself a song from one of the Muppets movies..."I've got everything that I need, right in front of me!"  She can't be that traumatized if she is signing as I carry her into the doctor's office, right?

I have been known to call my daughters "little Lady," and when they are being ridiculous, I refer to them as my "special Lady".  When Opal was throwing an anxiety induced fit this past month, she stopped, looked at me, and said in a sad voice, "no special Lady, mama, no special Lady."  Oh, Opal, my sweet and always special little Lady, my heart hurts when my little Ladies are hurting!  Here's to a month of healing in both body, mind and spirit!

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!

Opal at 26 Months

Opal continues to be the main attraction in our family - whether it's us tiptoeing around because she is sleeping, us tiptoeing around because she isn't sleeping and is making demands, or us telling each other the latest adorable Opalism.  She is delightful, demanding and always loved.  She has spent the first two months of her second year of life under quarantine, and she is young enough to have probably forgotten what life was like before COVID.  Make no mistake though, if Will an I are leaving for the grocery story or other essential item, she asks us excitedly, "Opal come too?"  And on the rare occasion she has gotten to come as it was an appointment for her, she reminds us as we are getting ready to go - "Opal coming'?!  Opal coming?!"

Besides missing going out into public, Opal has enjoyed us all being home with her, and her not being dragged to all different appointments that aren't for her.  I've noticed a big difference in her ability to play on her own and I wonder if it is because she finally has the space and time to do that, now that the other five members in her family aren't having to go here and there and everywhere.  She is showing us how to savor time at home, and to enjoy the moment.  Here she is below, after I found her on top of the dining room table.  She told me, "smell the flowers, mama!  Smell the flowers!"

Her growing ability of climbing up onto things previously out of her reach is actually some serious foreshadowing here for the following month.  But this month, we found it cute and annoying, and we continued to take her off of high surfaces.  See the bottom, right hand picture below, of Opal on top of the girls Lego table.  Other photos include Opal trying to hide in the fridge, Opal reading aloud a book to herself, Opal sitting in a bin of Legos, and Opal in her favorite "Princess Dress".

Although Opal is starting to play better on her own, she still prefers to have a parent or sister play with her.  I am so grateful that there are five of us to take turns, as that means there is almost always someone available to play, and she is so very happy when someone plays with her.  The photos below in clockwise order from top left: Emma and Opal wearing matching outfits, all the way down to their socks, Lucy and Opal on our newly installed disc swing, and Lucy painting Opal's fingernails.

 All three older sisters take care of Opal, and are protective of her.  They love dressing her and for the most part, playing with her and keeping her safe.  Sometimes they are more strict with Opal than Will or I would be, if for the simple fact that some battles Will and I have learned are just not worth fighting.  Or the other simple fact that she is our fourth child, and we are tired.  Either way, her sisters are not tired and have a strong and active sense of justice.  One morning as I was finishing getting the last items ready for breakfast while the kids started eating at the table, Lucy told Opal that she couldn't have syrup on her waffle that already had jelly on it.  I came into the dining room with more waffles and Opal asked me if she could have syrup on her already sugared-up waffle.  Making the quick assessment that this was a battle not worth fighting and not knowing that Lucy had already told her no, I proceeded to pour syrup on top of the jelly.  Opal looked sideways at Lucy and said, "Don't look in my eyes Lucy, don't look in my eyes!"

In the below photos with Will and I, we are both feeding Opal.  She doesn't like getting food on her clothes or her hands, and insists that someone feed her when the menu is messy.  Again, because she has five family members, someone is usually available to do this.  I think this is an example of how the youngest can become spoiled.   I guess there has to be some perks for her, since she essentially is growing up with four moms instead of the usual one.

This past month while Opal was feeding herself some of Violet's birthday cake and goofing around, she dropped her spoon covered in chocolate and ice cream onto my slipper.  I told her to eat nice and that she just got my slipper all dirty.  To which point Opal started singing, "Happy Birthday to Mama's Slipper, Happy Birthday to Mama's Slipper!"

Oh, Opal!  Life is an adventure with you, and we love you so much!