This morning my baby woke up at 5 am, and after nursing him he still wasn’t interested in going back to sleep. At times like these I figure I’m being sent an opportunity to get an early start on my day – no use bemoaning not being able sleep as much as I’d like!
I got up with him and we sat outside on the front porch for a little bit, enjoying the quiet of the early morning. We got a little damp while sitting there since yesterday (naturally soon after posting about how hot and dry it’s been) we had a fantastically wonderful day of rain, rain, rain! It was quite a downpour and within a half hour, all three of my empty 50 gallon rain barrels were full. My plants have gotten a wonderful soaking, which they really needed. So my porch seats were damp, too. But I didn’t mind a bit – I was so glad to enjoy the beautiful morning!
Then we went inside and I set the table for breakfast, then started making pancakes – ds11 made the batter last night before he went to sleep so it could soak overnight. I thought I’d feed the baby some pancakes, make enough for everyone else for breakfast, and go back to sleep with him before either of the other littles woke up, but things didn’t work out quite like that. The boys woke up and went to shul, dd9 woke up and chatted with me a while and helped me make pancakes, and then ds4 woke up. That was the end of my thoughts of going back to sleep!
He came downstairs and earnestly told me, “We have to do something about my sheet – it keeps making my clothes wet!!” He’s usually dry at night but a couple of times in the last week he hasn’t been, and he really thought it was the sheet that was doing it! When I explained to him that he‘s making the sheet wet, he indignantly told me, “Nah uh! I hold it in!” 😆 I asked dd9 to keep an eye on the pancakes while I gave him a quick shower and dressed him.
We headed back downstairs together and ds4 helped me flip the pancakes and remove them from the pan when they were done. Little opportunities like this make kids feel like a big help while building competence. A sense of accomplishment helps build self-esteem, too.
Then we needed to take the ducklings out of the hay-lined box where we keep them at night and put them in the yard; ds8 woke up and helped me with that since dd9 was busy feeding the baby bird we found (feeding baby birds is very intensive – they have to hand feed him frequently) and then had to daven (pray). The kids have been teaching the baby bird to fly and are really enjoying having it as a pet. We borrowed a cage for it yesterday but it seems to be sitting on someone’s finger most of the day, so it doesn’t spend too much time in the cage.
Once we were outside and finished getting the ducks set up with fresh food and water, I took the opportunity to do some much needed weeding in the garden beds. Since the ground was so moist it was easy to do. I had to pull up the spaghetti squash plant (that yesterday I mentioned getting two large squash from) since it was the first casualty of the season from the dreaded squash borer. I saw another squash plant this morning that will be dead in the next couple of days because of this bug, and decided to just be happy to get anything from my squash plants before they’re wiped out by the squash borers. It would be nice, if as the ducks get bigger, they eat these bugs before they wreak havoc on my garden!
Ds2 woke up around now and came out, and he helped me plant some onion bulbs, which he enjoyed. I have about fifty tomato plants that I didn’t get around to planting a few weeks ago when I planted the bulk of them, so I planted a few of them today (only four or five). Then I pulled up a few plantain plants by the roots, which grow wild and are considered a weed – probably about three pounds of it. I never thought to eat these until a year ago, when someone here on the blog commented about it when I mentioned harvesting it for medicinal use. Today I’ll prepare them as a cooked vegetable for lunch, chopped and sauteed with butter- it’s packed with nutrition and is tasty prepared like that.
By the time I came back in at 8:30 am for breakfast, I had gotten lots done! While I’d love to be able to get up this early on a regular basis, that’s not something I’m currently able to do, so I’m grateful that I was able to enjoy the opportunity today.
Avivah
Leave a Reply