Today

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Kate

Yesterday I watched a robin bring building supplies to the gutter of the house next door. The window I was looking from was our bedroom window and I expect come spring, David and I will be awakened quite raucously by the tiny demands for food by the little baby robins.

Later today, Meghan and I are going to a baby shower of a dear friend of mine. She’s also Meghan’s “Second Momma” and neither one of us can wait to have her open up our gifts for her. In fact, after we bought them yesterday, our gut instinct was to go over to our friend’s house and say, “Here! Open them now!” She is just adorable with only one more month to go, her little baby belly the size of mine when I was just a mere 4 months along with Joey (have I told you just how huge I got with that boy?! My shirts barely covered my stomach by the end of that adventure!). She’s happy and glowing and tired and in full nesting mode and I can’t wait to play with that baby.

Yesterday I watched two expectant mommas get ready for their babies. I expect it’s going to be a joyful spring.

Spring Break

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Kate

Monday kicked off the kids’ Spring Break. Arkansas is nice in that Spring Break is always the third week in March, and it’s at the same time state-wide, including the University of Arkansas.

You know what that means. Yep, BOTH my kids are home at the same time.

I could get used to this.

As luck would have it, David left for a two-week trip to Africa Monday, and will be home on the 30th. He’s going to be in Ghana this week, and Nigeria next week. Thank goodness for modern-day technology, though: we got to Face Time each other today, and it was really cool. Normally I don’t like doing anything that requires me seeing myself on screen. I hate having videos made of me, or having my voice recorded, and Skype kinda weirds me out. I’m much more comfortable behind the lens where no one really sees me. But this Face Time stuff . . . that’s pretty neat. We used our phones, so I guess that’s why I felt more comfortable: I was small, tucked away up in the corner of my phone screen. I got the kids on there to catch up, and at the end, we all managed a group hug of sorts.

It was fun. It was wacky. It was our family doing our usual nuttiness.

I took Meg shopping Tuesday, but didn’t make Joey go. He’d rather go to the dentist than go shopping, so he got to stay home and fight aliens and who knows what else. Meg and I also stopped in for her eye exam, which was long over due, and then continued our shopping. We found lots of pretty spring things, but looks like we’ll have to wait a good while before having a chance to wear them. It’s supposed to get gross and rainy and cold and wintery mixed tomorrow.

Who was T.S. Eliot kidding when he said that “April is the cruelest month . . ” when we all know it’s gotta be March, with one day being in the 80′s and pear trees and crocuses blooming like mad, then the next day there’s cold grey drizzle, a little sleet and snow mixed in. Sigh . . . Spring, REAL Spring, can’t get here fast enough.

So that’s about it. It’s just me and the kids and the dog holding down the fort this week. Thursday we have doctor’s appointments to see about a gash on Joey’s leg that he managed to get Sunday while mountain biking, and Meghan has one last blood test (hopefully!) to see what the heck is going on with her and her little white blood cells. Hope you all have a good week!

Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Kate

Sunday, David and I packed up Joey, my camera gear and we hit the road to Vian, Oklahoma to visit the Sequoyah National Wildlife Refuge. It’s a massive tract of land, filled with marshes, ponds, a lake and bordering the refuge, is the Arkansas River. It has all kinds of birds and wildlife and has been on my list of places to explore for quite a while now.

I was so grateful to my boys for giving up their Sunday for me. I know they get bored out of their gourds whenever I drag them along on some of my adventures and I kept thanking them over and over all the way back home for indulging me.

It was kinda like an early Mother’s Day present . . . or a late Valentine’s Day gift . . . or a really late birthday treat . . . or a really, really late Christmas surprise.

You get my drift: I was very touched by what my boys did for me.

Anyway, we saw pelicans, cormorants, herons, turtles, adult bald eagles and juvenile bald eagles. We saw armadillos and all kinds of hawks, even a tug boat pushing a barge down the Arkansas river. Joey lugged huge rocks over to the observation deck to throw overboard into the water and laughed when I nearly stepped on a freshly killed water snake (I didn’t laugh. I jumped a foot in the air, clutched my chest and made a bee line back to the nature trail I had wandered off!). It was a wonderfully warm sunny day and well, it was just perfect.

Yes, it was.

And I can’t wait to go back!

Female Northern Harrier