5

My 5-year-olds are now 19, 13, 12 and 10, so it is wonderful to spend time with my niece, Ellie, who is the only true-blue 5-year-old in the family right now.

Every family should have a 5-year-old. They are fantastically imaginative and tell you like it is. In my humble opinion, Ellie is a remarkable thinker. And perhaps more imaginative than your run-of-the-mill 5-er.

Case in point:

Macy had a very loose tooth the other day. We were awaiting the inevitable loss of the tooth and throughout the day, Macy and Ellie were periodically wriggling the tooth to hasten its demise.

Well, late in the day, the anticipated event finally happened. The tooth was out. Macy was taking it around to each of us to make sure we fully appreciated that "this is the whitest, cleanest tooth I've ever lost!" (Macy is 12, her dental hygiene has improved dramatically over the past year or so.)

After we'd all properly admired the tooth (our family has its weird moments), we all went back to our respective activities. While in the kitchen, I heard Macy and Ellie discussing something in urgent undertones. Ellie's tone seemed particularly intent as she spoke quickly and fervently to Macy, gesticulating elaborately to make her point. I was intrigued but couldn't hear what they were discussing.

Moments later, I walked into the living room and found Ellie face down on the couch, wailing and sobbing in a manner that would make all 5-year-olds everywhere proud. Macy sat next to her on the couch and was lovingly rubbing Ellie's dramatically heaving back as she gently explained, "But, Ellie, the Tooth Fairy will know it isn't your tooth, and she can't give you money for someone else's tooth."

See, because Macy's 12, she doesn't get Tooth Fairy visits anymore, and she'd mentioned this to Ellie. Ellie figured since Macy wouldn't be using it....

Oh, it's rough being the littlest cousin, with older cousins losing teeth right and left, finding all kinds of loot under their pillows, and knowing that a perfectly good pearly white is going to go to waste when your own baby teeth are too little to be leaving your firm little gums anytime soon.

Sorry, Ellie, I suppose the best we can hope for is a tumble in the yard or an inadvertant door knob in the face to hasten along your first visit from the Tooth Fairy.

In the mean time, you just keep on being your fabulously creative, always-thinking-a-few-steps-ahead self.

Love from the farm,
Aunt Teri

Guess What I'm Up To....

I discovered this amazing place called "the public library" today and brought home all these goodies.

Wonder what I'm going to do this weekend? Oh, OK, I'll tell you.

I'm planning our garden: seed inventory, calendar for seed starts, layout, etc. In fact, I ran into a friend at Safeway today and let her know I am going to hit her dad up for some of his fantastic, black, rotting poo to spread over my garden. She said, "Well, git on it!" in her darling ranch-girl drawl. And I only realize now that it's a testament to us all being steeped in country life that she didn't for even a millisecond look startled that I was going to ask her dad to give me some of his, well, you know...she immediately knew I was talking about the black gold steer manure that sits in a huge pile behind his corral, and which I've visited before.

So, I'm planning my garden. And I'm also working on a menu that holds to the ideal of eating foods in season. I'm going to tell you more about this new adventure my sister, friend and I are undertaking soon related to healthier, clean eating and other lifestyle improvements.

It is soul-soothing for me to immerse myself in these kinds of projects, focused on the good and abundance. After a week of more hospital time for two of my kiddos and adding a heart condition to my kidney kid's kidney troubles, and trying to get to the bottom of a sweet girl's ongoing tummy issues, I'm not sure I could be more focused on clean, healthy, pure living.

I know we'll only be improving on a life we already love, and that's already pretty darn good, so only great things can come from this time of focus and planning.

By the way, I think I'll be spending MUCH more time in that lovely library - how have I gotten to this age without truly grasping how cool libraries are? I sense I'll be wearing the edges off my library card in no time.

Now, will it be rows again or raised beds this year? Or both.... How to improve my wildly inefficient watering system? Which heirloom varieties will I try this year? What color should my gardening boots be?!? Off I go!

Love from the farm,
Teri

I Want, I Need...

I've been pretty good the past few years about separating the "I want's" from the "I need's." But, oh, blessed be, how I love it when an "I want" becomes an "I need"!

Let me explain:

Example #1: I want a new hair dryer, because my old one just isn't blowing as much as it used to. It still works though, therefore, I don't need one.

Example #2: I want new towels, but the old ones still dry us, so I don't need them. (Actually, I do. Our towels are tattered and torn and we don't have any 2 that are alike. It's embarrassing.)

OK, bad example.

But, to the exciting part: I want AND I need a pair of boots for working in the garden. I can't keep ruining cross trainers in the mud, and my heels don't recover from my flip-flop gardening till about mid-December. I definitely, unequivocally need gardening boots. Yippee!!

Now, I just have to choose....

I've been all about the owl thing that started last year, so these trendy little fellas are a possibility...

But then these pink wellies are darling....

Or, should I act my age and get these more classic red wellies? Which are also darling.

What do think?

Love from the farm,

Teri