A productive weekend - over and out

What a weekend!

I received this Chromebook, and have been reading up on all the differences in Cloud computing vs. PC computing.  I'm thinking it will work out just fine after I get used to it as I rarely use Word or other software for much anymore, but there are certainly some things to get used to, and some things that I'll need to do - update my resume on the Cloud, first and foremost.

Had a good visit with Mme. Child, did work in the garden, stocked up on groceries, had a visit with Prancer, and either signed up or made inquiries for a multitude of CSA's.  That last bit is super exciting - we've already had the veggie CSA, which we are bumping up to a full share, and we've now signed up for a fish CSA and a Grain CSA, and then made inquiries for a meat CSA and a fruit CSA.  I've done some canning with Mme. Child before, but never on my own.  I'm thinking it's time to start learning that trade...

And it couldn't be a flattering animal...

Now that I'm back up an running on the computing end of things, I've got a couple Mozart stories for ya...

As I've mentioned, we go to a local farm frequently and get milk. Whenever they are close by, we go over and make a point of saying "Thanks, Ladies!" to the cows. We have done this more times than I can count. Fast forward to our walk a week or so ago:  we see a neighbor working in her garden, and Mozart says enthusiastically, "Hi, Guy!" I correct him and say, "No darling, that's a lady." Immediately he says, "Thanks, Ladies!" And then goes on to talk about how the lady is a cow. *cringe* I truly hope that she didn't hear that! I really just wanted to curl up under a rock.  

I'd think that I'd be the one lady Mozart would refer to as a cow as he actually did get milk from me for some time, but apparently not.  The other day I had tummy trouble.  I went to pick Mozart up from daycare and shortly thereafter, belched loudly.  From the backseat I hear, "Oh! Duck! Quack, quack, quack."  

Then tonight, after a lovely dinner out, we were walking back to the car.  This guy comes round the corner and coughs.  And our wonderful son says, "Hi, dog."

We really have to work on this naming thing.  Really.

And I should remember...

...that if I'm feeling low, playing trains with Mozart, followed by the making of blueberry pie and a batch of yogurt, can lift my mood :D

And I just learned something useful, though I haven't tested it to be sure.  Apparently, in order to make yogurt, you have to use non-homogenized milk (the kind with the cream at the top).  Very hard to come by in the U.S. unless you get raw milk.   I will test this sometime and report back...

New life.

While there is once again a foot of snow in the Midwest (?!? - dude, it's APRIL), I was out all day today without a jacket.  I saw flowers.  Bought a lemon tree - with many, many lemons in the making.  And there are leaves sprouting out on our tree in the yard. 

This is hope.

We are safe.

We were not at the Boston Marathon, thank-goodness.  I worked and the Wife and Mozart had the day off.  In the afternoon I checked CNN and got the update of the winners.  A short time later Mme. Child called and let me know what had happened.  I did a mental checklist of people who may be running and/or might have attended, and found that I couldn't think of anyone for sure going.  Yesterday I went to get my back cracked again (still having issues since my tumble down the stairs) and learned that the chiro and his entire family were either running or across from the second bomb.  Due to computer issues and no t.v., that is when the whole thing really hit home for me - hearing first hand experience of the whole thing.

And yet we are safe.  Shaken, but safe.

These past months and weeks have been somewhat of a wake-up call to appreciate life.  There has just been too much pain and suffering: Newtown, a friend's parents were killed, a friend of a friend took his life, this whole bomb business in Boston, and today I learned that a woman who, at one point, I was ready to call Mom  has a terminal illness.  I am so grateful none of this has affected us directly, but sometimes even peripheral violence and illness beyond our control is just a lot to bear.

Reverse stutter.

Mozart has taken to a funny kind of speaking.  It's like stuttering, except that I think he has complete control over it - I think he just likes the way it sounds - and it is the opposite of the usual stutter.  The usual would go something like, "P-p-p-p-percy th-th-th-the t-t-t-tank engine,"  but Mozart is doing this: "Eat-t-t-t-t pop-p-p-p-cicle right-t-t-t-t up-p-p-p!" 

It was cute at first. 

I hope he drop-p-p-p-s it soon.

You'll notice I haven't been posting much.  Please don't stop following if you do, I hope to be up and running smoothly soon, but the computer keeps on overheating within about 10-20 minutes of being turned on, so I have to get done whatever needs to get done in a very prioritized way - taxes (ehem, yes.), banking, anything related to work, email, and then if there is time this or Facebook, which is also suffering greatly this week. 

Back is still out.  Mozart is still cute as ever.  House is still in the same need of repair.  Yep.  Now you're caught up. 

Oh, yeah, but it is Birthday Season #1 around here:  Mozart, Cake Master, Papa, Nana, the Wife, and Lashes all happen within about a month.  [Birthday Season #2 happens in the Fall and is compiled of Prancer, Buddha (tears will be had), Globetrotter, myself, and Granddad]

Ok, that's all for now ~ I'll turn this thing off before I burn my leg!

Session in pain tolerance.

Day before Easter I took Mozart on an Easter Egg Hunt.  Two, to be exact.  The first one was at Home Depot, and I wanted to go to that one because I thought the idea of hunting for eggs down the aisles was awesome.  Each kid got to find two eggs, do a variety of projects (including egg dying, of course), and then watch whatever portion of Hop! they were interested in with popcorn, water, and more crafts provided. We had a blast!  But the Easter Bunny did not make an appearance.  Now, I could have cared less, and if I went solely on the reaction that Mozart had to the last Easter Bunny he ran into, then I would have left it at that, but since meeting said bunny the last time (even though he was afraid of it), that's all he was talking about. 

So off we went to the second egg hunt of the day.  This one was more traditional in style, and the bunny was present.  Mozart, however, was done with the eggs and more interested in eating the candy found within and then running over to the play area. 

That is where we got into trouble.  He ran directly for the swings.  Unfortunately there were three rather large children going full force on the swings and he was headed for disaster.  I ran up behind him, swooped down, and saved him from being barreled into (much to his dismay - as evidenced by the intense screaming that ensued). 

As I'm working on calming him down, though, I felt it coming: the tell tale signs that I'd put my back out and I'd best be very, very careful if I wanted to be able to walk the next day.  I gingerly put him down, still trying to calm him down, and somehow - I don't think so gracefully - managed to get him and myself into the car to get home.

We missed the bunny, but Mozart was unfazed by that.

The rest of the weekend and through the week, I moved very carefully.  The worst was Monday, when I think I may have looked somewhat like a zombie in my movements - you try to walk without moving your back at all.  I got into the chiropractor on Tuesday and felt much better afterwards, but still in a fair amount of pain.  And he prescribed two massages.

Oooooh, lovely, you may say.  Yes. Well.  There is no need to be jealous.  While I do feel much better since having the first massage, the actual experience is a form of torture, I'm sure.  She *said* that she wasn't touching me very hard, but lemme tell ya how my voice goes all falsetto and I can't quite breathe when she gets those certain muscles that are in the habit of twitching out on me these days.  I had originally scheduled the second massage for Saturday, but she advised against that - she said there would be a chance I am still sore from the massage then, or that I wouldn't have been pain-free for long enough to continue to like her.  I'm now scheduled two weeks out. 

Seriously, if she were mugged, I think she could have the perp on his knees and offering up his own money within seconds.  Good fun.  But, I do feel a bit better now that I endured that little session in pain tolerance.

What a day.

This morning at work I had someone yell at me for 35 minutes because I tried to help them.  Later I held a woman's hand for an hour while she battled against the voices in her head that were telling her to kill herself.  While I deal with unhappy family members and psychotic patients on a regular basis, today was a special kind of challenge.

I still feel somewhat on edge about the whole thing, but when I finally got to sit down and relax, I was heartened that I see so much in the way of visual support throughout my Facebook feed. 

For those who don't know yet, this symbol represents marriage equality, and the reason it's such a big deal right now is that the Supreme Court is deciding whether families like mine will be legitimate in the eyes of the California (by repealing Prop 8) and the Federal Government (by repealing DOMA).  These two historic marriage equality cases are being heard today and tomorrow, and though they will not actually reach a ruling until summer, but this is big. 

While the Wife and I are legally married where we live, we are not a legitimate family in the eyes of the Federal Government.  We think twice about going on vacation and have had to hire a lawyer to ensure that we have visitation rights in the hospital for each other or Mozart. We also have drawn up papers to ensure that the Wife will get custody of Mozart should I die.  We have a supportive family, and I wouldn't foresee any problems in this area, but better safe than sorry.  There are some areas, though, that we cannot fix by going to a lawyer. The organization I work for does not acknowledge my family, and while I can get benefits for Mozart, I cannot do so for my wife. We could not benefit from veterans benefits that I should have been able to use that would have helped us tremendously in buying and refinancing our house.  If either of us died before the other, the survivor could not collect Social Security that any heterosexelly-married widow would receive. 

I could go on and on and on about the 1138 federal marriage rights that the Wife and I don't have in the eyes of our government even thought we are legally married in our state.  Here is a link to a list of just 35 of those rights.  It's something to ponder if you haven't already. 

Take Two

I felt bad that we didn't invite Prancer to Mozart's party with the rest of the family, but after the last two shin-digs we had with him, I just didn't feel up to being a referee for the event.  Instead, we did a 2nd party, with just Prancer and Goose (and of course, Mme. Child) invited.  I'd saved the last two cars on the original party's cakes in the freezer and grabbed a banana bread from the local grocery to  fashion the engine once again.  Prancer directed me and helped in the decorating and he declared it was the "BEST PARTY EVER!" 

Prancer is, how shall I say... Highly spirited.  He always has been, and some of it is simply biological for him.  He is a kid that does much, much better when he is provided with lots of structure.  We were able to do this to a large extent when he lived with us, but mix up the days events or start to get loosey goosey with him and all hell broke loose.  Well, I don't know what goes on when he is at home, but I'm guessing the structure is just not there.  He has been tried on a myriad of ADHD meds with little to no effect and the situation has only gotten worse - to the point of now having a diagnosis of ODD.  Mmmm, fun stuff.  When he comes over he is like a whirlwind of destruction.  Inevitably I have to redirect him away from destroying something or hurting someone.  Today I got a "hug" that was meant to harm and Goose got smacked in the eye.  The former was clearly intentional, the latter I don't think was.  I did manage to keep Mozart from bodily harm and none of his toys got broken this time, so it wasn't too bad, but at the end of two hours I had had it.

And that makes me feel rather like crap.  I want to be there for this kid.  I want to be a piece of stability in his world.  I want to show him unconditional love and be an example for him.  But I also want to protect Mozart.  Mozart adores Prancer.  He is absolutely thrilled when he comes over, but Prancer doesn't know his own strength, and whether intentional or not, he can easily hurt him.  Sometimes - most of the time - it is just that Prancer is not aware of his strength or the boundaries of space that are needed to keep people safe, but sometimes Prancer's actions are purposeful.   

I remember when Prancer was just a touch older than Mozart.  We'd had Prancer for awhile, and had gotten another foster placement as well.  The other boy (Taz) was four, but violent beyond his years.  He was placed with us after stabbing his sister with a knitting needle (she was ok, but they needed to be separated).  We kept a close eye on both boys when they played together, but work needs to get done.  They were in the playroom one day, which is adjacent to the kitchen, and I was doing dishes - checking on them every few minutes.  All was going well enough, and then when I checked on them again I saw that Taz was holding Prancer in the air by the neck.  Yeah, so after that we didn't let them play alone at all.  Makes life challenging to say the least. 

What I'm getting at, is that I am feeling the same protectiveness over Mozart when Prancer visits that I did over Prancer when Taz was with us.  We haven't had a fully relaxing visit in some time, we need to be constantly vigilant, and then after Prancer goes home, Mozart's spends the next several hours mimicking Prancer's crash-into-everything-because-I-can behaviors. 

And, oh, how sugar does not help!  We will still have Prancer's birthday party come August, but aside from birthdays, we are going to be a sugar-free zone for every visit.  That will help a little....  Any suggestions on managing this are welcome. 

I haven't slept well since I tumbled down the stairs.  The back pain is mostly gone during the day, but has woken me up multiple times every night.  It has traveled.  While the chiropractor diagnosed a sprained lower back, the pain seems to have traveled upwards and settled, sharply, between my shoulder blades.  Perhaps it's the lack of sleep, or maybe I was harboring it all along, but I now have an incredible cold.  Once again, I am stuffy-faced, drippy-nosed, and fully wiped out.

And then the Wife woke up with the stomach bug or flu or something.  

Mozart is still going full force.  He chatters nonstop.  It is tiring, but completely endearing.

We've got two days to gather our health together before Prancer and Goose come over for Round Two of Mozart's birthday.  May the stars be with us.