Feelings of....

So many things have been happening lately that I am not sure where to start.

I guess I'll begin with my planting the flower beds in the front tonight. I had gone to my parents farm this past weekend to do my regular round of sewing for Quad War cloaks. I will say more about that later. So Smiles was helping me and we got the ones in the pots done easily. The problem started when the neighbour kids showed up and started helping. I was glad of the help but when the dogs came out Smiles became very unhelpful. She would climb the neighbours fence on the opposite side of the house where the dogs wouldn't see her and bark at her. She would ignore the fact that she needed to do something just to avoid the dogs. And because the neighbour kids were helping she figured she didn't have to. So I got annoyed at her and when she refused to help clean up I sent her inside. She continued to throw temper tantrums inside saying she couldn't do her homework because she missed our cat who died. As legitimate as those feelings are, we can not let her use them as an excuse to not to do her homework.

These feelings are probably also in conjunction with the fact that we had to go to another funeral last week. Two Fridays ago one of Hubby's cousin died and really shook up the family. The basic explanation is he had a Heart Attack. He was 23 years old. Hubby said that out of all of his cousins P was the one he was closest too. Hubby had babysat him when he was a kid and we had joked that when P babysat Bear maybe it would turn into a tradition where Bear would then end up babysitting P's kids. Alas that will not happen now. So overall that means in the last half a year we had three deaths in the family. Our cat in December, Hubby's Uncle G in Feb? and then in May Cousin P. So I know that all of these deaths is making an impression on Smiles and she is the most vocal one who wants to talk about it. I try to discuss it as much as I can without projecting my own thoughts and feelings onto her. Hubby does that a little bit but I understand since the deaths were in his side of the family and therefore closer to his heart. Anyways we have had many interesting discussions on the topic of death recently.

For happier? news I have been sewing lately and starting to actually get enthused about cloak making. I went to the farm on the May long weekend and got some projects sewn. This weekend I in truth only got 2 items sewn and only one of those is a sale item. I did end up cutting out like 7-8 projects so I only have to sew them later which makes me a little less guilty for not having sewn more. You see I could have gotten one to two more items sewn but on Sunday I could not focus. I would sit in front of the sewing machine and stare blankly at it. I only finished the second project through sheer willpower and that was only because it was the neighbouring kids' birthday gift. Sigh, I should be happy that I am getting known as the sewing mom in the neighbourhood but still obligations come when you have that title. And as my old boss pointed out Titles are easy to get - its the responsibility and pay that don't always match up.

On the Baby front Eyes has been growing in leaps and bounds. She is so energetic and inquisitive it funny to watch. Unless she is getting into something I don't want her to. She loves being outside and at the farm had Grandma wrapped around her finger. Eyes also loved it out there because she had a lot more freedom. She could moved through almost all of the house and the backyard. She would grab her shoes and try to put them on. She would also grab Grandma's shoes and try to put them on. That was cute watching her try to walk in them. Eyes also got zapped by the electric fence (at least I think it was electric - I didn't check myself). She wanted to visit the bulls and walked straight for them. I steered her away. She also got her finger pecked by a chicken because she stuck it through the wire. She had been watching Bear play with the young ones who thought his shoelaces were worms and wanted to play with them too.

Eyes also ate a lot of dirt. Smiles helped Grandma transplant alot of flowers this weekend and of course Eyes wanted to too. By getting in the dirt and feeling it and tasting it and ... well you get the point :) She had at least one bath out there and another when she got home.