Today

The lilacs are in full bloom in the County, and the air is tinged with their scent.  I am receiving multiple bouquets from my kids on a daily basis.  The lilacs are so abundant that their pickings go unnoticed by nature, and humans alike.

I am sitting in the sun with my dog by my side, chickens in view, a new issue of Bon Appetit in hand, and listening to the nearby waterfall.  I just finished a lovely lunch of caesar salad with avocado, tomato, and a piece of multi grain toast from Humblebread that I picked up at the Wellington farmer’s market on Saturday.  I have finally perfected my caesar dressing.  I am embarrassed to say that it took me 42 years to even attempt to make caesar dressing.  Granted I really wasn’t that into it as a kid so maybe it only took me 30 years to get my dressing act together.   Either way, it rocks now and I am consuming large amounts of caesar salad at most meals.  Perhaps the smell of lilacs will distract you from my garlic breath, but probably not.

I have dinner plans tomorrow night with a good friend and all our kids, family is coming for the weekend, as is a dear friend for some much needed girl time.  We are going to be tourists for the weekend with a trip to the beach, the Milford farmer’s market, a visit to Stewart Jones’ gallery, and dinner at Norm Hardie’s Saturday night.  I’m in search of a babysitter Sunday night so Jess and I can go to our neighbour’s for an Argentinian BBQ.

I’ll soon be off to prep dinner of halloumi, tofu and veggie kebabs, asparagus, and rhubarb crumble.  The kids and I picked the asparagus and rhubarb yesterday at our neighbour’s house.   I am told it is the best asparagus I will ever eat.  I’m happy to test that theory.

After dinner, I’ll head to the kids school for a parent council meeting and if time permits, Reya and I will take our daily evening walk around the Mill pond.

Plus I found some very casual employment for the month of June.

So far, it’s a good day.

Swish

A few changes have occurred here that we are very excited about.  The first is the new siding on our building.  Only half of it is done but we think it looks mighty fine.  We went from ghetto to swish, low to high brow, school to deluxe apartment in the sky, in a day.  The east side of the building looks all dressed up, whereas the west side isn’t quite ready for the prom yet.  But by next week ,we hope both sides will be lookers.

Our other news is that our chickens have a new home.  Jess built a new coop for them, and the chickens have spent several successful nights outside.  It is a chicken tractor so we can move it around so they always have fresh grass and bugs to eat and a new plot to fertilize.  Often I will find my kids in the coop playing with chickens, or taking them for a stroll around our property.  I am thankful they are out of our gym and in the great outdoors.  I am referring to both the chickens and the kids here.

Project Sanity is near completion.  I have been driven to the brink of insanity from daily hand dish washing since June of 2013.  On the brighter side, the skin on my hands has developed a coarse outer layer similar to that of a gorilla.  I was thinking about opening a Hand Museum, with me as the star attraction.   I can’t stop these brilliant ideas from flowing.  I am a brilliant idea powerhouse.

Our rental units are almost done.  We are getting the kitchen counters tomorrow.  Both units are shaping up very nicely.  I still need to shop for some furniture, and all the other items needed for a home away from home.  A long shopping list coupled with a hatred for shopping has resulted in some feet dragging on my part.  Luckily, I have enlisted the help of some friends who love to shop, are decisive, and will ease my shopping pain with some laughs.

Adolescence

Our chickens are growing up.  They are full on teenagers right now.  They aren’t as cute or as cuddly as they were when we first got them six weeks ago.  We still adore them but we need them to move out.  They have been living in our gym since we got them.  This was working out fine for the first few weeks but as chickens grow, they eat more, and produce more feces.  It’s akin to human babies.  No parent minds changing the diaper of their new born babe, but as soon as that kid starts to eat solid food it’s a less pleasant experience.

It smells like a less pleasant experience in my gym.  We do clean up after them but the stink is winning.  Yesterday Jess and I frantically tried to source out a pre made chicken coop but due to cost we promptly gave up.  We decided Jess needed to man up and just build one.  Our goal was to ‘build instead of buy’ when we moved here so Jess has spent the last two days building a new home for our chickens.  It will be a coop that our chickens will be proud to live in.  We hope they will be happy bringing  their friends to their new abode for a cup of chicken feed, or a plate of vegetable peels.  We hope it will be secure enough for them to spend their evenings taunting coyotes, and raccoons without fear of being eaten alive.  We have high hopes for this coop.

From what I understand, we can put the chickens outside in their new home now that they are six weeks old.  According to my research, everything occurs at six weeks for chickens.  I bought a book about chickens that I didn’t read, but I did have a conversation with Jess concerning our poultry.  It went a little like this:

Jess: “Blah, blah, blah, blah, chickens, blah, blah, blah, six weeks, blah.”

Alysa: “Sounds great”

Based on the above conversation, chickens can do everything at six weeks including living outside, laying eggs, dating other chickens, cracking their own eggs and making several omelettes for myself and my guests, and go grocery shopping when I don’t feel like it.     As with the coop, I also have high hopes for my chickens.

Once the super coop is complete, I will be sure to post a photo as I am sure you are on the edge of your seat.

The Show Must Go On

I picked up 50 chairs yesterday.  We are getting ready for our summer concert series.  My very good friend Jenny Whiteley is organizing it with me.  The plan is to have one concert a month starting in July.  It is very exciting, and frightening.  I have never done any thing like this before so it comes with a certain amount of anxiety.  I do think it will be fabulous.  I just need a few under my belt before I can continue without feeling like I’m going to throw up.

What I envision is a night full of fantastic music in our gym full of friends and neighbours, and everyone is having a really great time.  I hope that is the reality instead of me and my three kids swaying to the music in an empty gym with our lighters in the air.  That’s the anxiety speaking.  I need to be more of a Don King about the whole thing.  What really draws in a crowd is a lot of yelling and spitting and really high hair.  I’m not sure that is what will do the country trick around here.

I’m going to keep the faith and believe it will be fantastic and well attended.  Maybe I need to harness my inner Tony Robbins and awaken the giant within me.

Or maybe I need to stick the baloney in a sandwich and just be me.  It’s scary to do something new but sometimes it just needs to be done.

When you own a stage, and gym, how can you deny yourself, your family or the world a show?