My Husband has been busy, redesigning my World.

Redefining my space.

I think he's quite a genius, actually.

When you consider that our first computer, nearly 20 years ago, was a little CC2 from Radio Shack...

Who remembers typing in code for 3 hours to play a little paddle game?!

So.

Lauralea's World has become lauralea.ca

I am passing from this World, to conquer my domain.

Are you coming along for the ride?

Oh, Baby,

Let's have some fun with this!

Epiphany!

I don't hate gardening.

I just hate afternoon gardening.

I like morning gardening.

I hate being hot.

I hate being sweaty.

I hate when my glasses slide down my nose, and my bra sticks to my body.

I don't hate digging holes and pulling weeds.

I like planting things.

I love being creative with the fruits of my labour.

I bought, yesterday, a black current bush, a red current bush, and a gooseberry bush.

Well, they're not bushes yet, but they will be.

Give them time.

I planted them this morning.

Before the shower, before the breakfast, before the blazing sun and crippling heat.

Spray on the Deep-Woods Off, throw on yesterday's shorts and top.

No one about, so you don't need the bra.

It was great.

Bushes/ sticks are planted, and I am optimistic that some day they will produce jelly, and pie, and jam, and wine.

So, gardening done, lovely cool shower to wash off the bug spray and get fresh again.

Nice.

A good start to the day.

On another note, when I came to the computer, BBC7 was playing, and the presenter that sounds like our friend Nigel was on. If you know Nigel, you have to check this out. You can check out BBC7, whether you know Nigel or not! If you like stories and drama, you will like this. We discovered it last year, and it's one of my favourite internet radio stations. In the morning (our morning- afternoon in Great Britain) you can hear the Little Toe Show and then The Big Toe Show. These are shows for kids, but they read and dramatize stories and books. It's very enjoyable. In the afternoon here (evening there!) there is the Crime and Thriller hour, and The Seventh Dimension (science fiction / space stories) and Comedy. From this BBC7 page, you can listen live, or click on "listen again" to find the Big Toe Show, (Jez/ Nige was on Sat., so scroll down and click on it) or any other show that tickles your fancy.

That's my plug for early morning gardening and BBC7.

Now it's off to see what the rest of the day holds.

It has been a good morning, so far.

I was sleeping before midnight, and up at 7:30.

Much improved over the past few days.

I was able to make a run to the church to do some photo-copying and fetch some baby food jars that I'm sharing with the Anglican church for a VBS craft.

It smelled like camp.

It was like being at the lake in the morning...

Fresh air, slight hint of rain (or lake water!), some kind of lake foliage happening somewhere, sunlight flickering through the leaves.

Very nice.

I fried up some leftover sliced, canned luncheon meat and then it smelled like camping!

So, breakfast has been had, and everyone is out....

I'm home alone.

Just Me and Micah.

Micah and Me?

Micah and I?

He and I?

Me and him?

I had breakfast with Harry, (Potter, that is) and enjoyed the quiet and the sunshine and the nice breeze.

Makes me think about life as the children leave home.

I think I will like it.

I will definitely need to either have Micah or my sewing "room" moved upstairs so that as the teenaged Micah sleeps in til noon I can putter around without disturbing the quietness. There's nothing worse, on a beautiful spring or summer morning, than to be bombarded by the rantings of a prematurely awakened adolescent. I think I'll take an upstairs bedroom... the small one in the back that gets all the sunshine. That will be nice.

Ah yes.

Micah is now up and on his way out to mow his half of the lawn. The bonus for him, in having Thomas away at a friend's for night, is that he (Micah) gets to choose which half of the lawn he mows!

And so, it's 10:00, and the day marches on.

Left, right, left, right, march, march, march, march...

I don't know what you've been told.....

I don't know what you've been told.....

42's not very old...

42's not very old...

Stand up straight, you're in your prime....

Stand up straight, you're in your prime....

Getting better all the time....

Getting better all the time....

This has to end.

When I was young, I stayed up all night.

I could sleep in late.

I was able, in short, to match my lifestyle to my young husband's.

He's still much more the night owl.

Then came the children.

The first several years the children didn't change us too much.

They were good sleepers.

They could sleep twelve hours at a stretch.

If we set their twelve hours from 9:30 pm - 9:30 am, so what?!

We could still stay up later, and sleep in a bit longer.

Then came school.

Now it had to be 7:00 - 7:00, at the very latest 8:15 - 8:15.

Now Someone had to get up with the children.

Someone had to get them out of their warm, cozy little beds.

Someone had to make sure they had a nutritious start to their little days.

Guess who?

Now, 12 years later, my internal clock has changed so that I am awake in the morning.

Usually.

Someone's husband still prefers the night hours.

Someone's children have become youth who are able to stay up half the night and sleep til noon without a thought.

Someone finds herself burning the candle at both ends.

Far too often.

So, once again we were up til after midnight last night.

Granted, it was for a good cause... we were doing the Saskatoon thing, had a good meeting with some friends. Didn't leave the city til almost 10:00, so, with the hour and a half drive home, of course we're going to be late getting to bed.

But enough is enough.

I'm not as young as I used to be. Sleep deprivation is catching up with me.

I still like morning the best.

Especially early summer mornings.

MOST especially autumn mornings.

But, functioning after only 7 hours of sleep is, to state the obvious, fatiguing!

So.

That's it.

I mean, that's REALLY it.

No more late, late nights.

If the children want to stay up all night and be crabby (IN YOUR ROOM) all day, fine by me.

I will go to bed at a good and proper time.

I will get up at a fresh and crisp smelling time.

I will enjoy most of my day before my lay-about children put their feet to the floor.






Well, I'll sure try.

I come from a long line of klutzes.

None of us have ever been really good at sports.

I think some of us are good swimmers, and we can ride a bike, but real sports, like baseball and basketball and volleyball...

Nope.

Don't worry, there is more to life than being a great athlete.

Your Auntie once gave herself a black eye doing a forward roll in Gym class.

And then there's my family

Only my kid.

I take some laundry down to the washer.

Just one load.

But, the Son has unplugged the washer to plug in something else.

He uses the dryer as one of his personal workspaces.

He uses the workbench

And the top of the freezer

And the top of the dryer

Once he forgot to re-plug the freezer.

But only once.

He frequently unplugs the washer.

I can't reach the bottom of the freezer.

I can't reach across the washer/dryer to plug in the appliances.

I told him, get up off the couch and plug that in for me please.

I set the washer and pulled it on so that when he plugged it in it would start.

A few minutes later I heard a thump and a cry.

He got up too fast

Felt light headed

Fell flat on his face

Gave himself a bloody nose

Put a hole in his lip.

Only my kid.

His little brother plugged in the washer for me.

Even Jr. can reach across the washer now.

(His nose stopped bleeding. I don't think it's broken.)

He said I can post this.

Key Lime Zest.

I was just about to blog about how quiet and lovely it was

And then Thomas started to drum on his emaciated frontal region...

He's too skinny by half.

It has been very quiet the past few days.

Hillary has been working.

Micah has been abducted by aliens.

Well, his out-of-town friend Ryan, and Ryan's Aunt and Uncle.

Johanna has been evacuated these three days.

Just my old man and me.

And Thomas.

And Thomas' stomach-drum.

I gotta say I'm liking the quiet.

And Thomas is passing to and fro, and every time he stops and sees "quiet"

He drums on his stomach.

What a pest.

Mr. Big Cheesy Grin is on his way to the shower, so I'll have a few minutes peace from the stomach slapping sounds.

I'm on my way to the kitchen to make

KEY LIME PIE.

Randall's been eyeing them in the stores for several weeks now.

I will give it a try for our company tomorrow.

I am VERY excited because I had a brilliant brain wave.

And it didn't even hurt.

Not much.

I am going to attempt a diabetic Key Lime Pie.

If it works, well, let's just say life will never be the same.

It'll be much more limey.