Birrd's New Look

Last Sunday morning Roo got ahold of my glasses before I woke up and snapped off one of the ear pieces. I'd been thinking about getting new glasses anyway, so I wasn't too upset. The big wad of tape holding them together just gave me more of an incentive to pick up the phone and call the optometrist.

The best deal I could find for glasses was a place that was doing a "buy 1 get 2 free" sale. I had to spend $300, but I got three new pairs of glasses. The Badger came with me to pick them out (after all, he's the one that has to look at me the most!) We were able to find three we both really liked. Actually, he found them all. He's a genius.

The first pair looks very similar to the pair I've been wearing for the last five years, which is probably why we both liked them so much. Then the other two pairs are a little bit more trendy and fun. I really like them, especially the red ones (bottom picture). It's fun to have a new look.

Do You Know Any Good Couch Doctors?

I was wrong about my new couch not having a cushion allergy. More and more often lately I keep finding this kind of thing in my living room. Maybe it's not an allergy, maybe my couch needs psychiatric help. Is it unhappy here in its new home?

I am glad my couch likes to read Dr. Seuss, but I do wish it could pull itself together.

Morning Crew

Here they all are first thing this morning, in their pajamas, playing with the baby and her toys. The baby is always much more in a mood to play in the morning than in the evening. She does not like evenings. Mornings are much more fun around here lately.

Taking a good picture of four small children is hard! Bean kept pulling this face-- a kind of glaring smile-- and Fish said, "You smile like Mr. Darcy."

Start 'em on the classics young, I say.

April Ides Report

I'm on a plan to get in shape. It's been a month. Here is my first report.

My scale is being wonky, so I can't tell you if I've lost pounds, but my jeans are a little baggier. I've been doing Pilates 6 mornings a week since April 1st and I can tell I have more muscle tone. So things are going well, even if I haven't shed an astounding amount of pounds. (Slow and steady is better, I know. Sigh.)

As a bonus for y'all helping me with this get-in-shape project, the above photo contains a very darling fuzzy newborn back-of-a-head for you to enjoy.

Our New Television Set

Tired of not having a TV, Bean decided to make his own. He created the shell out of a cardboard box, then made a huge stack of pictures to put in it. Fish helped with the pictures too. We all sat on his bed in the dark while he put the pictures in one at a time and then shined a flashlight behind them so we could see them.

Here's the Badger enjoying both the show and being able to hold his Little Rabbit. Roo was supposed to be in the picture too but she took off just as the shutter clicked. She's never been a big TV watcher.

I highly recommend this type of television. It is much more stimulating to children's brains than the usual type.

Bean's Basket Photo

This just turned up in my digital archives: young Bean in the basket. This is where the tradition began. Now I just have to find Fish and you'll have seen them all.



I think our latest model looks quite a bit like Bean. I hope she has his gorgeously thick and curly hair!

It's Up!

Pictures of 12 of my readers are in a slideshow at the bottom of this page. I'd like to double that number in the next couple days, so everyone send me either your picture or permission to snitch it off your website!

This is fun!

Dear Readers

Ah, my readers, you're quite a group. You're spread out from northern Idaho to southern California, from the Oregon Coast to Washington D.C. Your age ranges from ten to ninety-four. You live in huge cities and tiny, isolated towns. You live in dinky apartments crammed with too many kids and large rattly empty nests. You are mostly female, but you come from a variety of professions: opera singer, lawyer, professor, chef, fashion designer, quilt appraiser. You are pursuing graduate degrees, entering beauty pageants and triathlons, writing novels, and educating your children. You know who you are.

But I don't!

When I started blogging in earnest 2 years ago, I installed StatCounter to track the traffic on my site. I could tell from it that my sister and my mother-in-law and a couple of my friends were reading my blog regularly. Every once in awhile I would get a random hit from England or Japan and I'd get so excited. I didn't want a vast international readership, but it was cool to think of someone so far away reading about me.

Then I did a private blog for a year, and of course only the 25 or so people who had subscriptions could even access the site. With both these blogs I averaged maybe 6 or 8 hits a day.

When I started up this public blog, I of course put StatCounter on it. And very soon after that I started noticing that I was getting way more hits than ever before, as many as 80 in a day, and a steady average of over 30. My hits map was peppered with little red pins and they were all over the world. Most of them didn't stay on my site very long, but I get occasional comments from total strangers in remote places who are actually reading my blog.

Why is this, does anyone know? Is it just because blogs are a bigger deal than they were two years ago, so more people are spending more time looking for blogs to read? Did my blog get featured on the "Random Blog of the Day" somewhere?

Since I lead a simple life and have no interest in exaggerating or sensationalizing I have no illusions of gaining a massive readership of thousands, but it's kind of fun to have a broader audience. It's a great way to challenge my writing skills as I try to portray my simple, ordinary life with words and photos that will be engaging to more people than the doting grandparents.

You, dear readers, really are a part of this blog. And I would like to make you more a part of it. Of course I always love it when you leave comments, but I would like to feature you on the main page. I am going to put up a photo collage with pictures of as many of you as I can pry out of the woodwork. Yes, I would like to have YOUR photo! Please email me a photo of yourself. Send it to mapletree@moose-mail.com. You know you want to.

I will not post your name, just your photo, so your privacy will be protected.

I already have photos of many of my close family readers in my personal archives. If I make you mad by putting up a photo you didn't send me, ask me nicely and I'll take it down.

I won't snitch any photos from your blog or from facebook or google web albums unless I have your permission. So please give it to me.

I think you're all wonderful and I want you on my blog!

The Very Beginnings

I realize I'm about a month behind, but I finally got some seeds started for my Very First Garden on the Prairie. I planted tomatoes, peppers, and marigolds in my seed starting kit a few days ago. This morning I was delighted to discover that they are indeed sprouting-- just barely! They were old seeds Glenda gave me, so there was some question about their viability. Plus, I'm always amazed still that anything I plant actually grows. Too many years of killing plants before I knew what I was doing.

Anyway, If you enlarge this photo by clicking on it and look very carefully, you can see quite a few tiny shoots uncurling in this photo:

Here's a closeup of what they look like right at first. Before they reach up and put out leaves they have this fuzzy white stuff on them. Funky, huh?

Seeds are so fascinating.

Bean's Opinion of Beans

I made this totally easy and healthy recipe for lunch yesterday: white beans and spinach. SIX cloves of garlic, yum! The boys were not impressed (though Roo was). I was aiming the camera at Bean and his beans when the Badger told Bean he had to eat everything in that bowl before he could have any more of the Chex mix he brought home from work, and so the shutter clicked with Bean starting into one of his famous tantrums. In the words of Pioneer Woman, I'm keepin' it real.



In the end, Bean did eat all the beans and said that he liked them, though he declined a second helping.