Blue feet and happiness

(The title of this post is a riff on a good book by one of my favorite authors: Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith.)

Our children have been having a lot of fun outside, what with the warm, sunny weather and all. Next to our driveway (and unfortunately, just over the boundary line of our property) is a big mulberry tree. You guessed it: mulberries everywhere, mixed in with lots of defecating birds who enjoy feeding on the fruit. This does wonders for the appearance of our van, of course, but what is really funny is that the little ones are all stained blue in various places, especially their feet.

Wish I could take a chainsaw to that tree…

Oh to have a well kept garden…

As I sit here at the computer, next to me is the screen door to the back yard. I am listening to the comforting sounds of birds twittering their evening songs. I look outside and it is a beautiful sight with the sun’s glow illuminating a patch of purple/blue irises in full bloom. The weather is near perfect, no wind and about 70 degrees. Closer to the house, though, all I see is a mess. The front garden that I planted last year is a mess of weeds with some brave flowers struggling to bloom already. The back flower garden is the same, and everywhere in-between is chaos. I bought a tiller four weeks ago and have yet to unpack it, put it together, and till up the large vegetable garden near the back of our property. Oh to have a well kept garden…

Feral kittens

Well, our family has grown by four. I discovered that a feral cat had a litter of six kittens in our garden shed. As of this afternoon she was nowhere to be seen and two of the kittens had disappeared, so we made the difficult decision to take the remaining four inside and try to raise them. They are about three weeks old at most, and barely have their eyes open. One is all black, two are brown tabby in color, and one is black with white markings. Michele and I are both allergic to cats so are we insane, stupid…you name it? Go figure. Now we’ve got four kittens to feed every three to four hours. Gluttons for punishment, that’s what we are. We heard good news today about my sister-in-law, Linda. I spoke with her husband, my brother, Tim, this evening. He said she’s doing better. The baby is ok although located near the cervix rather than near the top of the womb as it should be. I saw a new bird at the bird feeders, a gray catbird. That was kind of exciting. I didn’t sleep much last night so am pretty tired and hoping tonight will be different.

Sick sister-in-law

Word from my mother this a.m. is good in that my sister-in-law, Linda, is doing a bit better than last night, even though she is still in tremendous pain. She has a very low blood count and has had four units of blood. I’m feeling better than yesterday, when I basically slept most of the day. Tristan still has a fever this a.m. but it is lower than before. It’s a rather cloudy day outside — looks like it’s going to rain, again. Michele and I need to clean the garage because we’re hosting a garage sale next Saturday, for which the profits will be donated to MOPS. I’ll not be able to help next Saturday with the garage sale as that is graduation day for Taylor and I have to participate in the faculty march. Every morning I continue to enjoy watching the birds at the feeders. This morning I identified a new sparrow that I hadn’t known about, a song sparrow. It’s very common but I hadn’t identified it before. I’m waiting for the goldfinches to feed at the special feeder hanging from the overhang next to the patio door. I don’t think they’ve noticed that it’s full of thistle seed yet. I need to fill up the hummingbird feeder and hang it. Today is also the day when Keegan’s school has its annual carnival and Keegan really wants to go. We’ll see.

Kid news

Last night I was able to get the lawn mowed after several days’ delay, which was a good feeling. Keegan had his first try at driving the lawnmower and had fun with that. He did a good job of mowing a couple of rows! He discovered a couple of small bird’s eggs which I’m sure came from the mourning dove nest in one of our trees. Unfortunately I think the high winds and stormy weather destroyed the nest completely because there is no sign of it anywhere. I have this a.m. off from work because I am planning to work the reference desk at the library tonight. I had hoped to rent a garden tiller to till our garden but there simply hasn’t been time, plus I only have the minivan and most tillers are too big to fit into the back of it. Looks like more rain is on the way [sigh]. Keegan’s year-end band concert is tonight and Michele and I are not certain how she will be able to go with both kids. I can’t go because I have to work, which I really regret. We both really want to go to see Keegan perform and do not want to disappoint him. He has improved a lot this past year in his ability to play the saxophone. He is also a very good reader now — a huge improvement over a few years ago. He read the third Harry Potter book from cover to cover in just a few days. Tristan was playing outside while Michele and Keegan were weeding some of the front garden beds alongside the driveway, when he hurt himself by trying to ride Keegan’s skateboard. He scraped his upper lip and nose pretty badly after it banged into his face. Brinley is starting to make concerted efforts to “go places” under her own steam. She just started this within the past week and she’s already progressing a lot. I think she’ll be crawling soon, and then nothing will be safe anymore!

Bird feeders

Yesterday I mentioned that we had put in some more bird feeders. Already I’m having to chase away a squirrel who thinks he (or she) has found the mother lode of easy pickings ;-) I’m enjoying the variety of birds I’ve seen feeding at the birdfeeders thus far, including the following: red-winged blackbird, common starling, common grackle, cardinal, chipping sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, house sparrow, house finch, brown-headed cowbird, mourning dove, and goldfinch. In addition I’ve done an inventory of trees in our yard and have identified three thriving robin’s nests with chicks, as well as a mourning dove’s nest. Today has dawned bright and sunshiny which tends to lift one’s spirits after the stormy, gloomy weather of the past several days. Although Brinley was awake a lot during the night and got up for good around 6a, I’ve managed to get her to fall asleep in her high chair while Tristan sleeps soundly in our bed with Michele. That means that now is a very precious quiet time when I can enjoy drinking my coffee and watch the birds at the birdfeeder undisturbed. For work, I have to go this afternoon to yet another training session to learn about our new integrated library system. So much to do! So little time.

Starting (and stopping) a new diet

I have been feeling unwell for a few days and woke up feeling a bit worse, so I stayed home for the day. Michele and I started, then stopped, a diet today. I think that’s the shortest time I’ve ever been on a diet! The weather here has been incredibly violent and stormy, with severe thunderstorms every night for the past four days, and some tornados in the area as well. Fortunately the high winds that started Saturday night have subsided, but it is still gray and cool out. We recently added some more bird feeders on the patio and I’m enjoying seeing lots of birds come. The small pond we have with a water fountain is especially attractive to birds. Life in general in the Oberg household remains, as always, total chaos. Tristan is very difficult to deal with right now, screaming a lot, being very sassy, and completely disregarding anything we tell him. On top of that, Keegan is acting already as if he’s a moody teenager at times. Brinley is getting more active and demanding more attention.

A beautiful Fall day

It’s a beautiful, fall day here in Indiana. Michele and I agree that this area is very pretty in the fall, with the narrow country roads, abundant trees, and the corn and soybeans waiting to be harvested. There is a lot of undeveloped land here, and that means that there is wide variety of wildlife. As far as we know, the woodchuck is still burrowed beneath our garden shed, and lots of birds come to drink from our little goldfish pond each morning. I need to start filling up the birdfeeder again so that they will get used to feeding there. Last night Michele and I had a better night’s sleep, although Tristan did his usual routine of coming into bed with us in the middle of the night. Brinley slept pretty well. Mother is leaving today to go back home and get some much needed rest! Michele’s mom and her brother, Bryan, will be coming to stay for a while on Sunday, so we look forward to that.

Wild Kingdom at the Obergs

We’ve had some interesting wildlife sightings of late…A week or so ago, Michele and I were in the family room watching TV when we suddenly noticed that a raccoon had walked up to the screen door and was pressing its face against the screen, calmly staring at us for several seconds before disappearing. Then two nights ago as I was letting Sarah (the dog) out for her late night constitutional, my attention was drawn to a large shadow, just beyond the reach of the floodlight. I suddenly realized it was a large buck, frozen in stillness in the middle of our backyard. He hesitated for just a few more seconds before disappearing swiftly and in total silence into the darkness. Wow, that was a heart-pounding moment! I think he may have been on his way to sample our vegetable garden or something. Fortunately, Sarah never even knew he was there. Also, we have a large, fat groundhog living under our garden shed. He (or she) will appear occasionally, standing as tall as he can to see if there is any danger, before going back into his hole. One time I came within just a few feet of him before he realized my presence and scurried down his hole. Finally, about three weeks ago while working on the computer, my attention was drawn to a lot of birds flying around in the backyard in obvious agitation. When I looked out the window, to my astonishment, I noticed that a huge old crow with a white streak on its head had seized a fledgling robin, almost full grown, and was busy killing and eating the poor thing. Despite being mobbed by tons of other birds (not just robins), he calmly stood there on the ground, eating his fill until he was done. He then flew away. It’s Wild Kingdom at the Obergs!