Posted On January 21, 2014

I've got this little bit of time on Tuesday mornings between when I drop Vera off at school and when I run some microgreen deliveries. I've been stopping at my parents' house which is close by both of these destinations, and it makes for a nice landing pad for a couple of hours to reduce the amount of driving Asa and I do. I figure this might be a good time to relax and write, since it offers me a couple of hours with the internet. This plan backfired today, though, when I realized that it's so incredibly cold out that I should probably check on the microgreens that were stashed in the trunk of my car. I found that the pea shoots were just fine, but the tender little red cabbage had just barely frozen. It thawed very quickly and most were not damaged, but there were some that just had that darkened cell-damaged look that I knew would quickly spoil the whole batch. Sad! So I had to get everything together and head back home anyway to re-harvest that batch and wash it quickly and then head back downtown to deliver.

This is one of my favorite stained glass pieces, hanging in the window at my parents' house.

It all was fine and little Asa was my sweet helper. He kept his shoes on the whole time, which is kind of a big deal for him. He tends to strip down to a shirt and undies anywhere we go, so to come home and stay fully clothed upon my request was surely a gift of love. I am learning to work with these kids underfoot, which is a new and sometimes overwhelming challenge. I had pretty consistent childcare for so long, and now with Jeff at his new job and his off time being occupied by important house tasks, I find myself needing to rise to the challenge and just do what needs doing, kids or no kids. I often have to round up all the patience I've got so I don't snap at the little boy who just spilled all the arugula seeds on the rug, or just flushed something down the toilet while I was absorbed in a task. We're working at it. I'm finding that the more we're doing it, the more helpful the kids actually are and the more patient I'm able to be. I plan differently now, and the plans now include them and the time it might take to avert various disasters. Mostly Asa gets to hold a spray bottle. It's good.

Lately I've been drawing things and Asa paints them. I love the way he uses color. For some reason he gets all excited about my drawings but shrugs about our many coloring books. I'll take it as a compliment!

The regular internet fasting has been kind of fantastic, actually. It's not terribly strict, and we had some kinks to work out in the beginning. Right now it's blocked from 10am-8pm Monday through Friday, and then from 11-6 on the weekends. I get it on my computer on Thursdays and Saturdays (when Jeff is home and can watch the kids), so I have more freedom to get work done if I need to. I think this system will work for us for a long time. My observations so far: I wondered how it would impact us, because it's not like I spent hours and hours on the computer in the middle of the day, but I definitely checked in for a few minutes here and there throughout the whole day. It also gave me the option to distract the kids if I wanted to get something done, and of course they knew it was there and so we'd spend time bargaining and talking about what to do with that as an option. But overall it's not like I thought blocking it would actually give me that much more time. And I think I was right. However, the interesting thing about this block is in the gradual change in my thinking and my doing throughout the day. I didn't realize how often I came upon a problem or a thought and immediately thought to share it with my machine rather than letting the experience exist just for me and my physical reality. It's a strange concept that I'm still getting familiar with. Now, if I have a question about something I have to actually work to figure it out myself.

I'm definitely finding my motivation on all sorts of things. Like the massive amounts of purging and donating that I've been doing. How's 8 huge garbage bags for you? Nevermind the fact that I have NO IDEA how we acquired such a massive amount of crap, but it is what it is. And I'm not even done with The Great Purge of 2014. Not even close.