On Living in the Country

You can shoot as many rocks with the slingshot as you want and you can shoot them as far as you want (just not toward the house, of course).

You may find frogs in the cat water. NOTE: the food container is in a frisbee filled with water to keep the ants out--they can't cross the "moat" to the food. The fancy cat food containers that I bought when we first moved here died a long time ago. Give me an empty handi-wipe container and a frisbee any day! I thought at first that this frog had been dragged in by the cats and was dinner-in-waiting, but on closer examination I noticed he still had all his limbs and was unharmed. The cats were both in there looking at him with me, but neither of them seemed interested in making a meal of him. So I determined he needed rescuing and called Cliff in to do the actual handling part of that (ugh. slimy froggie). But apparently the frog found the flash from my camera irritating and he jumped out of the water and moved on. I guess he was just taking a pool break from his travels.

There are never enough landscaping rocks to cover 6 acres of land that is reluctant to support pretty plants and that is host to deer and squirrels and gophers. See our terraces and the little dry streambed? In the winter, we hope the water will funnel down the streambed and into the drain below it. We followed the natural path that the water has taken for the last several winters. Soon we'll plant some stuff in each terrace (all that dirt is really topsoil and manure). Yummy! Later we'll add one more terrace big enough to build a smallish deck on. This is right outside (and to the left) of my bedroom window/door.

Insects abound. This praying mantis was in the garage. Obviously, he got lost. Ugh

This huge spider web is not unusual in my home. When I saw this one, this is how the conversation went:
Mom: "Honey, when is the last time you vacuumed the windowsill?"
Child: "Just a few days ago."
Mom: "Hm. Come here a a minute."
Child: "Just let me finish--"
Mom: "Come here IMMEDIATELY!"
There follows a full hour of screeching, sweaty Mom moving furniture and directing all children to vacuum under every table, every couch, every chair, every bed, in every corner--windows, ceiling, floors, etc, all the while knowing that all the spiders will return within 24 hours to rebuild their mansions (like this one), their apartment complexes (I swear there were 4 spiders all living together in the corner by the laundry closet) and pitching their tents (a web in my sandal that I took off by the bookshelf LAST NIGHT!?!).

You can lay on the trampoline at midnight and watch meteor showers. They're clear and bright because there is so much less ambient light out here. I've got no photo of this one, but we had a peaceful hour or so, Cliff, Allegra, Isaiah and I all cuddled up under blankets watching for shooting stars. Isaiah kept count: he said he saw 16 shooting stars.

Snakes are cool. One afternoon we found one of these little snakes sitting at the edge of the driveway with a big lump in his throat--he had just eaten and was slow and satisfied. He didn't choose to be observed by us for long, though, he waddled (can snakes waddle? Maybe he crawddled) back into the blackberry bushes to digest his dinner. This guy, however, we found heading towards the garage. Obviously his snake radar was messed up. Cliff called us out to look and then redirected him to the hillside.

There are A LOT of mice and other rodents. Ally and Zay found this little one and were trying to decide: keep him as a pet (I voted against that one) or feed him to the cats (I voted against that one too). In the end, their tender hearts won and they released him into the weeds.


The nights are cool and breezy and quiet. Sometimes we can hear coyotes. Often we see deer and wild turkey. We can see forever. We worry about wildfires. We would be surrounded by weeds and dirt (well, more than we already are) with no hope of gardens or landscaping without the tractor. It is so peaceful. I love it out here. Come and visit!

June 2009

It is so beautiful here. I am so blessed to be able to live where we can see forever.


The month of June was very busy. We had 2 birthdays, a graduation, an Eagle project to write up, and all the other things that go with being part of a large family.



Rayne has been busy finishing her Sophomore year at BYUIdaho. She's on the swim team there and she loves it. She's lucky to have friends and roommates who like to play on the weekends, so she's been spending a lot of time at various lakes and canals... swimming, of course.


So this month has really been all about Chase. This little display is from his graduation party. We and the parents of 5 of his friends shared a big graduation party for our children. Cliff made all the food, our friends the Larsens hosted it in their fabulous yard, other parents decorated the tables, made memory books for the graduates, planned games for everyone. It was a lot of fun.
And the food was VERY good, of course! Cliff has such a gift for this! He made homemade garlic breadsticks, buffalo wings, tons of tri-tip sandwiches with veggie relishes and 3 different kinds of sauce.... others brought salads and dip. There were lots of people there--including quite a few that no one seemed to know (who invited them we wondered!). The little kids swam in the pool and the big kids played games and bonded. Congratulations Chase!

He is VERY glad to be done with his high school work. He graduated with great grades and he's decided to take a year off from school. He plans to: continue working and saving for his mission, take an autobody class and fix up his car and Rayne's car, and take a few other classes at the local junior college. All good things. Meanwhile, he's still working on getting his car actually running! My dad calls it the "one way car" because it's broken down several times on the way home from somewhere--it gets Chase there, but fails to get him home!

He house-sits for a great neighbor who lives down the road. Ernie (our neighbor) knows the way to a teenager's heart: he not only pays Chase for watering and watching the place, but he brings over his ATV so Chase doesn't have to walk or drive his car to the house. Nice, eh?


He also did his regular "mowing" of the neighbor's "yard"--a few hours of work for $400--wish that happened more than once a year!


Finally, Chase completed his Eagle project. After planning for a month or so, he spent 3 weeks collecting donations (goods and money) for the Family House in San Francisco. He wanted to do this because his cousin Carmen stayed there with her mom Dorothy--for free--when Carmen was having treatment there for her cancer.

The Family House made that time there away from the family bearable for Carmen and Dorothy and Chase wanted to do something for them. So many people donated. So many people were extremely generous. He ended up bringing them a truckload of food and other stuff and many gift cards for groceries and gas (which they give to their families who need them). Chase and Isaiah and Cliff delivered the stuff at the beginning of June to the Family House. So Chase had a very busy June. He is now an official Eagle Scout.


Allegra turned 14 at the end of June. We had our usual family birthday party. She and her grandmother went birthday shopping (hence the manicure and the new shirt). She got just what she wanted for her birthday, including plenty of books.

She's eagerly anticipating girls camp, which will happen in July. Meanwhile she's taking advantage of long summer days where nothing is required of her except a few nominal chores and a little bit of math. Here you see her with Rayne, who played hairdresser for her daily while she visited us in May (for Spring break). Does not Allegra have AMAZING hair? She doesn't appreciate it now..... but she will!





Sweet Isaiah (you see him above with Chase too) turned 11 in May and has now entered the world of boy scouting, which he loves. He is a very good worker and he has been helping a lot... around the house, with the Eagle project, out in the yard. He assures me that he's not waiting until a few months before his 18th birthday before HE does his Eagle project! Isaiah is spending his summer working on various projects and playing more video games than usual and watching more movies than usual and just generally enjoying himself. Except! for those daily math lessons (Mom is so mean). Isaiah and Allegra are the proud owners of two guinea pigs--Zeus and Hades--and Isaiah is the most tender, most conscientious pet owner ever.

Cliff and I are well. He's got a million projects lined up to do this summer. This is the first summer he's had completely off from work in many years. And he's not a man of leisure--he's happiest when he's busy. He's got a couple of conferences to attend. He's got cars to work on, he wants to sort and reorganize the "dungeon" (i.e. the game room and the food storage room), and he's got tons of outside projects--a deck perhaps? Definitely he's going to prepare some of the back area for possible grass in our future (I dream of grass in the backyard....). You'll hopefully see pictures this summer of his many accomplishments. Oh! Something very good: Cliff was "Teacher of the Year" in our school district this year--quite an honor. Surprisingly, this honor requires his writing 19 pages of papers for further submissions to the state and the national "Teacher of the Year" programs. He is an exceptional teacher, one of the many things I didn't really know about him 20+ years ago when we married. He is always surprising me with new talents. He does everything so well.

My big summer goal is to catch up with our scrapbooks! Is this an impossible task? Maybe. But I plan to spend every available moment trying. I also want to get some serious reading done and I want to work on memorizing a song on the piano. I have never been good at memorizing piano music but I figure one song a year may not be too hard? I don't know. We'll see. I'm also sure I'll get drawn into all the various projects that everyone has planned around here. And, unfortunately, I am sure I will spend an inordinate amount of time doing laundry and cleaning things. Sigh. I am very happy, though. We have a very good life.

March

So... still catching up on family news (perhaps you've noticed that I'm doing February and March's blogging in April....yeah. Sorry. I'll be better, I promise.)


Chase was talked into going to the LDS prom on Oakland. He didn't really want to go and didn't really enjoy the dance he said... but he sure looks handsome!


We have been to the beach more this winter/spring than we went all summer last year, I think! I told Dorothy that these last 3 times we've gone it's felt almost like a spiritual experience for me! So peaceful and calm and temperate. She says it's because Carmen is there with us! I hope she's right. This time Dorothy and the boys and Jessica and her 5 went with us to Sea Cliff beach in Aptos and it was a perfect day. I finally got around to taking a bunch of photos at sunset when the light was warm and mellow.


Okay. I don't get why Isaiah likes draping himself with seaweed. For me seaweed is something that looks cool at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and it tastes good on sushi, but when it touches my foot at the beach I shudder (and sometimes shriek) and kick it away. It's slimy and sometimes smelly and just yucky! But Isaiah, almost every time, gathers as much as he can find and drapes it around himself and plays the SWAMP THING. I think he does it because he knows it grosses me out. EEEW.


Here's my adorable boy on the beach at sunset, patiently waiting for me to be done drinking it all in, taking photos, shaking sand out of blankets and towels, and ready to receive his armful to schlep back to the car. It's been a pleasantly warm afternoon, but as soon as the sun goes down it's all of a sudden freezing and we all rush through our packing up and shuffling back to the cars. No matter how chilly it's gotten, though, we're still going to Marianne's for ice cream on the way home!

Here's our final photo for March:

You have to know that my Ally puts a premium on comfort and convenience. She has long, very curly hair that she washes because I make her and she conditions in self-defense (have you ever tried to comb tangles out of very curly hair?). She prefers jeans and t-shirts to any dressier clothes and she brushes her teeth only when absolutely necessary. But! She is on that threshhold between childhood and womanhood, so she has her woman moments too, and more of them all the time. She cherishes her tomboy comforts, though, and wishes to postpone fussing and primping in general. Today her Aunt Jessica (Ben's wife) has girlied her up. Her hair is moussed and diffused. Her face is delicately made-up. Her person is carefully clothed. And for this picture, her glasses are off. She looks quite gorgeous. And I do love this gorgeous creature. But I love my sweet, brilliant, generous tomboy too. I'll take her in whichever guise she chooses to present herself. She's our Allegra no matter what.

Her sister is home this week (April 18 is the day I'm writing this). She has tortured Allegra almost every day. Torture=doing her hair. So I'll be posting pictures of all that glamour too. Soon. (April's not over yet!)

Late February 2009

Someday this sycamore will be a big, beautiful shade tree, right at the corner of the garage patio so we can barbecue out of the sun. Tonight it is in the corridor of light from the sun that is just sinking into the hills in the west. My camera isn't really good enough to catch the subtleties of sunset, but you can still get a sense of what a beautiful evening it was this spring day.

I haven't updated this blog for too long. These last few months have been very full.



Our Carmen died on February 18, around 10 p.m. I had visited her that day and she was very weak and not always "with" us. She couldn't see or hear well and she let me hold her hand. She was usually in too much pain to want to be touched, but this day was different, for which I am grateful. So, we have lost her and we will never forget her and never stop missing her and never stop being grateful that we were trusted with her and that we knew her. We know she is ours forever.



Here are Reed and Dorothy the day after Carmen's memorial service. All of our family came into town to be together, of course, and on this Sunday we met at my brother Ben's house for a big Family Home Evening. Reed and Dorth are tired, but doing very well. They are a source of peace for all of us, and for everyone they talk to.


The big event this Sunday was the blessing of the newest baby in the family, Abigail Carmen. She was born on the day we were told that Carmen would not make it. Ben and Jessica decided to name her after her cousin. Here's my sweet Chase with his baby cousin. He is a kid magnet! They all love him and he is magic with them.



Here are all the Galbraith cousins except for my Rayne. She flew into town for Carmen's viewing and burial on Friday, but had to return to school on Saturday and so missed the memorial (which was wonderful) and the family gathering on Sunday. We missed her a lot and she missed us too, but she needed to be at school. Her grades, by the way, are fantastic. Go Rayne!

So, a sad February but a beautiful one too. Our family has never experienced such depth of sorrow before. I'm so very grateful for such a strong and loving family to share burdens and to share happiness with. I'm especially grateful for the sealing bonds which promise an eternity of togetherness.

February 6, 2009

Beautiful rain. I love it. And finally we are getting some more. When it rains, though, all I want to do is sit around under a blanket reading and drinking hot chocolate. Or is it just that I really want to do that all the time? It truly is an imposition on my leisure time to do laundry, supervise school work, clean bathrooms, parent, run errands, attend meetings, clean house at all, etc. Truly, look at this view. With this outside my windows, how can I help but be a lotus eater? Sigh. My life is hard. But I manage.





So, this has been a big family week. My sister came to stay so she and her kids could spend time with Carmen. Her youngest spent a great deal of her time at Dorothy's carrying around their little foster dog, Spice. Notice the tucked in tail. Poor Spice. Adorable Payton. Anyway, we had a lot of fun hanging out together. I can't believe how many people come to visit Carmen. Every day I was there this week there were visitors and callers. And no one comes without a gift of some sort. People are so good! It warms my heart and makes me see the beauty amid the tragedy that is Carmen's illness.


So, here is maybe the last picture of Chase's car that I'll post on this site. Despite a light flirtation with a 3000GT that he met online, Chase seems to be back in love with his slightly damaged car. I can't currently write about Chase without writing about this car. It still needs, I am told, a new seal for the transmission fluid, some possible frame work, and then the previously mentioned body work and paint job. Red skirts are sought. Yes, this is an education for all of us and you, dear reader, are not to be left out. Aside from the car thing, Chase is finding that, after a lifetime of having no job, having a part time minimum wage job is not quite as lucrative as one might hope. Is there a change in his future? We'll all have to wait and see.


As for Rayne, you should know that I am not allowed to say much about her. These white thigh-high boots (I beleive the term is "domanitrix boots, or something like that. ahem.), however, are hers and are enjoying cavorting about without her (Doesn't my friend Dianna look cute?). While the cat's away.....
Rayne is busy writing poetry and prose and reading like crazy and delighting my heart by calling now and then to ask advice or to share a thought. She is a much better poet than I am. Yes, despite my years of honing this skill with rhyming treasure hunt clues and birthday card original poems, I have not reached any degree of competence. At all. It's too bad. Especially since I have not discontinued my practice of writing bad poetry for special occasions. Anyway, Rayne comes home next weekend and I am looking forward to it. She's bringing me a haiku book that I REALLY want. And of course I'm looking forward to spending time time with her too. Of course.

My Allegra has discovered she's a mean and aggressive hockey player. Who knew? She's all sunshine and light usually. This week she and her brother Isaiah have been very good students, voluntarily completing their schoolwork with very little prompting from me. I love this. Unfortunately, it does encourage a little slothfulness on my part. After all, if I'm not needed in the schoolroom, why should I even stir out of bed in the mornings? Ally is the best babysitter ever. Have I mentioned this before? She truly is.



Zay spent 4 days of the last week at his cousin's house and that was not enough for him. He was sorely disappointed when I refused to let him spend the weekend there. He and James are such good friends and I am so grateful for that. Isaiah is the nicest 10-year-old ever, I think. He is a champion at checking every item off his school list every day. He cleans when I ask him to. He is not averse to maternal kisses. I really like my kids.

And yeah. If you saw my facebook at all last week you'll know that we went to the beach. It was so nice. I think I was all wound up because when I got there I felt everything unwind. There were only a few others there. It was totally calm--no wind. The seals (or are they sea lions) were close into shore, their sleek heads popping up now and then to check things out. A school of dolphins followed a lone man standing up in some sort of outrigger way out past the surf. The kids dug holes in search of water, they beachcombed in search of beach glass and cool rocks and shells. They body surfed. They buried their feet in the sand. I go to the beach quite often. I don't know what set this day apart. Perhaps this day was particularly good for me because I needed the recharge that a natural setting can often provide. Or something. All I know is that it was an especially precious day.

And the next week the kids made soap and put their soft pieces of beach glass in the colored glycerine beach shapes they chose for their soap. I know. You're surprised that I actually got out project stuff for them. A craft even. I don't know what came over me. I was having a mom moment. It was fun. Good clean fun even (I couldn't resist that one.)

So. A good week. One of my favorite Cheri Call songs talks about a broken heart having more space inside it. This is how I'm beginning to feel about Carmen. It breaks my heart wide open to contemplate her death. But those open spaces seem to invite me to feel the good things more keenly. The truly beautiful things I encounter from day to day just seem to sink into my heart. It's a blessing amid the stress and worry and I am grateful for it.

January 26, 2009

The best news today is that Chase's car, which has long been in use as the cushiest cat bed our cats have ever experienced, is finally road ready again! It's actually only been out of commission for a few months, but he's been sharing my car, so I've been VERY eager for him to get his on the road again. On the other hand, though, he's also been paying for my gas, so.... I guess I'll miss that part of it. He and his dad and my dad have been working on replacing parts for many hours over the last few weeks. Now Chase just has some bodywork left to do, and a paint job is definitely in that car's future. But it looks good now and IT'S DRIVEABLE. That's the important part (to me).




Isaiah and Allegra have both purchased swords in the last few weeks. Am I a bad mother? If I am, I've been bad for a long time. Chase owns several airsoft guns and Cliff and I bought him a mace on our last trip to England. What can I say? I guess I don't mind feeding the hunting instincts in my men. Not that any of them use the swords (or the mace) for actual hunting purposes. And, Allegra is not one of my men. Perhaps I'm feeding her fantasies of swashbuckling female heroines? I don't know. In any case, they're cautious kids and they pay for their own weapons, so we're all happy thus far. And the swords and the mace live on the wall. The deal is they are for decorative purposes only. Not so blood-thirsty, right?




Rayne's coming home for President's day weekend (look how tall Chase is! The kid in the foreground is my handsome nephew Scott). She wants to spend some time with Carmen. We may lose Carmen soon, so we're wanting to have as much of her as we can before she leaves. So Rayne is coming home for a few days. I'm so glad. And we have such good friends who help ease her travels. Her roommate is driving her to Provo, our friends the Hutchings are taking her to the airport the next morning at Odark30. Her roommate will pick her up from the airport when she comes back and drive into the night to get back to school. What kind and lovely people we have in our lives.

I guess that's all for today. Cliff is baking cookies and cooking dinner. He's been doing all the cooking for quite awhile now, but I never get over how lucky I am that he does so. Here I am sitting on the couch with the computer on my lap, and he is in the kitchen doing stuff...and we're both happy. How good is that? Occasionally I feel a twinge of guilt, but I do my best to extinguish such twinges as soon as possible. :)

It's winter in beautiful Northern California

It is so beautiful here at this time of year. I love winter because the hills turn green.

Cliff and I just got back from taking Rayne to BYU Idaho. We were gone for 3 days and we drove for 2 of them--12 hours the first day and 19 the third day. Ugh. And we drove through so much snow. I felt a very deep dislike of snow. It's slippery, it's dirty, it gets in the way. Oh, and it's cold. I remember when I first lived in Utah I was amazed and irritated at the fact that the weather can actually force a person to alter travel plans. Where I live in California, when you want to go somewhere, you go. Rain doesn't stop you, and rain is as bad as it ever gets. I had never experienced the forces of nature controlling where I went that day.

Anyway, it was a good trip. We talked with Rayne, we laughed a lot. She ate her last In n Out for the next few months. We got to stay with our very good friends the Hutchings. Cliff and I, on the very long drive home to Sunol from Rexberg, talked about everything. My ipod ran out of battery very quickly and my charger wouldn't work, so all there was left was talking. It was intimate and nice. Just what I was looking forward to.

And of course I forgot to take pictures of the house Rayne is living in. Did I take pictures of her roomates? No. Did I take pictures of the Hutchings? No. Did I take pictures of the inconvenient, slippery and cold snow? No. Did I have my camera with me? Yes. Sigh.

So Rayne is gone for the next few months and we settle down into school and work patterns. Chase is now a permanent hire at Game Stop (as opposed to a holiday hire). Cliff starts his Leadership Development Institute classes all over CA for the next 5 months, he's got to get his students into interships and he'll start working on some stuff for my brother Gerald's school. I'll try to get a handle on Primary and attempt to become a better homemaker, spend hours homeschooling and attempt, yet again, to become slender and svelte without eating less (is this possible?) :D Ally and Zay will get back to the grindstone, adding to their brilliance. It's a new year. Let's get on with it.