Fresh dill
Thank you all for your lovely comments on my post last week. Erik will deploy before the month is out, and we really don’t know what to expect of the next president. We’re told that this will be a typical, seven month deployment, but Erik and I are planning on a full year or so. I’m glad we decided to make the move to Oregon to be so close to family.
In the mean time, we’re all settling into our new pace and responsibilities. I’m still staying home with the children most days, and we’re discovering all sorts of fun things to do here at Grandma and Grandpa’s place. Olga is now the Official Gatherer of Fresh Eggs, and visits the hen house five or six times a day. Gavin is on the Poultry Cross Country Team, and chases the chickens around the yard.
I’ve been working a lot from home, getting a jump start on the new issue, fiddling about in the garden, laundry, meals, etcetera. Not a whole lot has changed, for me, except the size of the household. It’s a lot busier with eight people in the house, and that is taking some getting used to.
Lenie had quite a bit of dill volunteer in the garden this year, so I harvested quite a bit of dill seed over the weekend. One of the easiest ways is to cut the stalks after most of the seeds have set, and hang the stalks upside down inside a bag to dry. As the seeds dry out, they’ll drop neatly from the stem, leaving you with clean lovely seed. There are some lovely fat pickling cucumbers in the garden, so I’ll be using up some of this seed making dill pickles in the next day or two.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
EIGHT people? OH MY HEAVENS, Girl - My advice?
1. Carve out some alone time for yourself either early in the morning or late at night. Sage tea has a calming effect.
2. Enjoy every moment - even if it’s crazy…I predict you will look back on this year (Hopefully only 7 months!!!!) as a milestone in your life.
3. Go back to Horseback Riding…nothing’s better for your insides than the outside of a horse! (Churchill said that? Or Will Rogers…anyway - you know it’s true.)
September 17th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
My hub is w/ the marines here in NC as well, and is expecting to leave next May for a 7 month trip to Afghanistan. He just got back in February from 13 months in Iraq, and 18 months before that was in Iraq for 7 months. yep this is the life isn’t it? It takes a while for me to go into “single mom mode” but once I do, things click along really nicely. Enjoy the kids, tell your hubby every little mundane thing you do and all the cute things the kids say, and make sure you’ve got something to talk about when he calls so you aren’t just crying.
My motto while my hubby is gone is something I heard a little fish named Dori say (from Finding Nemo) “just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming”.
P~
September 20th, 2008 at 10:59 am
As an Air Force wife of 27 years and Air Force brat all my life - honey, you are such an ‘Overcomer’. It makes it easier for Erik to go do his job knowing you are so capable to handle the ‘rest of it’. Keeping you and your ‘whole’ family lifted in prayer.
Remember to take lots of photos of Olga gathering eggs, and little Gavin ‘hearding’ chickens. These will surely help Erik too. Don’t forget to have someone take your photo too. I discovered after many deployments and ‘remote’ postings that I had done all the photography and there were none of me to share.
God’s richest blessings on your family and thank you for sharing.