Unearthed

Every time we spend the morning in the backyard, we discover some new artifact. Today's find was a blue '55 T-bird matchbox car. Which, in Jonas' opinion, was a much better score than the 1970s-era sports sock and Pepsi can unearthed last week.

Better

The cure to the afternoon malaise seems to have involved an apple for Jonas and Jonas for Silas.

GOATS!

I checked in on a Facebook page tonight for CLUCK: Charlottesville League of Urban Chicken Keepers. I joined this group a few months ago after stumbling on it and, being both a believer in urban chicken keeping and a hopeful future urban chicken keeper, I became a fan.

So there I am, looking through recent wall postings when I see someone posting a link to a blog devoted to petitioning the Charlottesville city council to allow residents to keep goats.

Now, those close to me know: I love goats. Possibly my proudest moment to date as a mother is hearing my then 20-month-old son shout this very phrase during his first encounter with said creatures earlier this year. And yes, he was more repeating what he'd heard his mother say on multiple occasions than actually expressing his own opinion. (Though he has come to truly love goats and, ever since our recent visit to a nearby county fair when he spent an hour and a half in the petting farm, one of his favorite statements is, "A baby goat! We did see a baby goat! We did! We did!")

To further illustrate my goat obsession, I offer this other brief anecdote: In 2007, on our first trip together to Lithuania, Egidijus asked his parents' next-door neighbor if we could come over and visit with her goats. And she was like, "O-kaaaay," because to her it is just a goat. But to me? A little horned friend.

So, I see this link to this goat petition and I click on it because I will sign any petition in favor of goats. And what do I see at the very top of the page?

"Tuesday, September 7, 2010

SUCCESS TONIGHT!

Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously to allow the keeping of up to 3 miniature goats per household here in the city."

I didn't even know there was a plan afoot to legalize in-town goat keeping and lo and behold, THIS VERY NIGHT it was approved. Talk about instant gratification.

The joy I felt at reading this was. . . ridiculous, really. I jumped up and down. Repeatedly. While pointing at the computer screen. And yelling, "Goats, goats, goats! I can have goats!" Egidijus and Silas just sort of watched me with bemused (maybe slightly frightened?) looks on their faces.

We had already been talking seriously about keeping chickens here starting next spring. And with my goat friends (having just one would be cruel, no? Two at least!) we'll have a regular backyard barnyard starting up.

Let the name brainstorming begin...

Three things

Today has been a rough stay-at-home-parent day. But in an attempt to get myself in a more positive frame of mind, here are three beautiful things about today:

1. A cloudy, cool day after a summer of such intense heat.

2. Watching several butterflies, including a monarch, float around the back and front yards. Seemed like monarchs were everywhere when I was a child, but now I rarely see them.

3. Seeing the first yellow leaves of fall aloft on the wind.

Note that all three of these things were outside, providing further evidence that I need to outdoors more for my own sake.

Daily Jonas

To his little brother, Silas:

"Hi little boy! How you doin' day?"

To me, through the back screen door as I walk across the back porch:

"Bye! Thanks for coming over mommy!"

Daily Jonas

Phrase of the morning: "I NEED THAT!"

Among the more entertaining uses for this phrase so far today:

1. My coffee, which I walked into the kitchen to find him drinking with great gulps at the kitchen table, like a miniature caffeine-dependent adult.

2. His penis, which was being put back into his diaper, much to his dismay.

Why I (don't) blog

I keep trying to figure out what this blog is supposed to be about before I really "get serious" writing in it. It's just another way of procrastinating. Once you write a thing, you cannot unsay it.

I keep putting off writing here because I haven't figured out what I'm about, and I don't want to make any false moves. And now I'm 30. Nearly a decade has passed since I wrote regularly. How long can the line run before I lose it all together?