House Hole

My house hole, last Sunday. I'm standing in the kitchen, roughly.

My house hole, now with foundational walls! This Sunday. We did not stand in the kitchen because it was quite muddy and difficult to traverse. Note how in one week the house to the left got siding, the house in the back left corner got a second story, and the house behind ours got a roof?  It is all so very cool.

More updates to come.

Love

I've been reading Kahlil Gibrand's "The Prophet" over the past few days. One sentence has really struck me, and put into perspective the direction I want my life to go.

Work is love made visible.

Five words that encapuslate, in my view, a perfect philosophy. It is so easily applied to everyday activities in life. Why do I go to my job every day? To provide for my family. Do I enjoy every second of my work or find ultimate existential meaning from it? No, but I love my family, and I want to give them all I have, and so I work at my job to make their lives better.

Why do I make myself crazy for Evelyn's birthday parties or Halloween costumes? Because time is my limited resources, and by putting it into something just for her, I show my love. Work is love made visible.

It is obvious how this philosphy applies to family and friends, but I've been contemplating how I apply it to myself. Jon and I joke that we are really lazy, and that everything we do revolves around that laziness. We are only half joking, though. We are not lazy at our jobs or in our relationships with our families. We are lazy, I think, in taking care of ourselves.

But do we not love ourselves? Shouldn't we WORK to show love to ourselves? Of course we should.

I love myself. I am the only self I get. It has to last me until I am very old, and it has to get me there in one piece. I need my self to provide a roof over my daughter's head and comfort to my husband's soul. I need my self to tend to the ills of the world and improve the lot of others. I need my self. Period. I do not exist without it, and the people in my life would be worse off without it.

This may sound all very la-dee-da philosophizing navel-gazing, but I have a point. If I work hard and work often to show my love to the people in my life that I cherish most, why am I not on that list? Why do I think doing something to preserve my body or my mind is "selfish" or "worthless" or "too hard?" I get up and go to work every morning, whether I'm in the mood or not, so why not get up every morning and cook myself a healthy breakfast, whether I'm in the mood or not? Taking the time to care for myself, making the effort, WORKING, is a way to make the love for my self visible.

Work is love made visible.

Five words that may change my life.

Just a typical Friday morning

This is how Evelyn went to daycare this morning.

'Nuf said.



A day on the farm

Evelyn and her Grandma Lew spent the day at a farm in Ft. Collins.

Riding Brownie. Evelyn was SO excited to ride the pony.

Driving the tractor.

Looking like my sister Emma.

Note the Yellow dress-like thing hanging out of her sweatshirt? That is the Wow Wow Wubbzy costume I made for her on Friday night. She didn't take it off for two days, and wore it to bed. I might have to make another before Halloween gets here!

Pumping water.

Pre-Halloween Fun

Some October fun, Halloween preparation.

The picture below is of Evelyn walking down the street with a bloody machete. Yes, a bloody machete. Why? Because when we went to the grocery store and I told her she could pick out one thing from the Halloween aisle, she passed up the witch's hat and the princess wand and the spooky owl and instead choose a bloody machete. Two, in fact, so we can "fight." But don't worry, she'll be quick to tell you not to be scared because they are just pretend. (Kids...)

The following pictures are from the Fourth Annual Pilgrimage to Rock Creek Pumpkin Farm. Fun for the whole family.

And for some context, this is the first time we visited the farm...

This is our new guinea pig habitat. Note the hugeness? Yes. Note also the Hello Kitty duct tape used to waterproof the corners and edges? Double yes. That's how we roll in Casa de Lew.



Both piggies are hiding under their little hay shelf. They are still pretty shy.

Habitat made out of coroplast (corrogated plastic sign material) and modular shelving. Hooray!

Poor, long-suffering man

Let's talk about my husband. My poor, long-suffering husband. He has to deal with me on a daily basis. He has a really rambunctious three-year-old. He runs his own business. He is the primary caretaker of our two "let's get up in the middle of the night, every night!" dogs. And now, he is the co-owner of two baby guinea pigs.

I could back up and tell you the whole long story of how we came to adopt two baby guinea pigs, but it boils down to this: Evelyn was driving me up a wall for the umpteeth day in a row, my crazy-brain meds were a little off the mark, I QUIT DIET COKE, and basically everything seemed really difficult...until I saw two baby guinea pigs for adoption at PetCo and decided it would be a really good idea to bring them home. And no, I didn't run this by Jon first. And yes, I am responsible for the little guys. The thing is, they are babies, and brothers, and I felt ineffably drawn to them. So...I adopted them. And bought their food. And brought them home. And we love them.

But they are guinea pigs--rodents, in fact--and it really is something you should run by your partner in crime marriage first. I apologized. Then I apologized again. Then he held the little buggars and announced that he did not hate them, but I had to be in charge because it is only fair. And he is right.

I think we've adopted two black abyssinian satin guinea pigs. Abyssinian piggies have weird rosettes (aka cowlicks) all over their body. They are soft and sweet and small (for now).

Now Blackie and Midnight (guess what color they are?)(and guess who named them?) are comfortably housed in Evelyn's room. They eat hay and pellets and leafty greens. They make squeaky noises that make Evelyn giggle every time. Once we move into our new house, we'll get them a bigger enclosure in a more public part of the house. They are very social, after all.

These aren't pictures of Blackie and Midnight, but you get the idea.