The kids finally found the D&D terrain board…

And they are tromping around the boards using their collection of LOL Dolls. I’m not sure it’ll withstand the level of punishment that they dole out. But what a good excuse to build new ones if the bash and beat my current one beyond repair. Not that I want to see four hundred dollars worth of static grasses, tufts, trees and miniature flowers, rocks, stones, tree barks and sculpt a mould, and paper mache, and three types of foam  not to mention the two to three months I spent, painting, modeling and building it all. I made a small dock and a water/beach area, open plains, mountains and a grid plateau where I have ancient ruins of a temple. There is an underground cave network, and a road, road signs, ladders and a marsh too. I hope it survives, as we haven’t gotten around to playing any D&D games with it yet. I usually have it left as a diorama of a battle/fight.

I keep meaning to reread my books and create a campaign that my young kids can enjoy, but I have been distracted by home DIY projects, sculpting, guitar, model building and making furniture as of late. Plus throw in paid day job and parental commitments and my D&D dreams of family conquests of far away lands has laid dormant for quite some time. Could be worse.

We are back to Monday, and a good amount of rain has fallen since late last night. I do hope, nay – pray that all this rain finds it’s way to the farm. They had a full inch of rain last week, but more during the month of July is always welcome. A steady drizzle over days that soaks into the ground rather than a massive singular downpour that runs off into the creek/river is preferable. But at this point, rain is rain. France is bacon. As it were.

Not a whole lot of domestic duties will be accomplished on this Monday, nor any Monday in the next seven weeks. I need an empty house in order to get a worthwhile cleaning session in. Not to say we aren’t cleaning up after ourselves. But a touch of a lackadaisical approach to the floors has entered the chat, if you know what I mean. Laundry, dishes, food prep surfaces are unaffected by the kids 24/7 presence. But the floors? Hoo boy, not their proudest moment. Cabinets ate looking shabby from a plethora of grubby hands touching them constantly. Blood and food has found it’s way back onto the hallway walls – again. This is why the first week of school is spent decluttering and cleaning the house from top to bottom. My kids spent nine weeks getting grime over every surface imaginable. Chocolate milk spatter on the ceiling? Check. Blood streak on the hallway base board? Check. Face imprints of both sides of every glass door or window? Check. Takes several hard working days to get rid of it all once I have them both back in school come September.

I am trying very, very hard to not get mad or have an outburst regarding the current state of our home. But it’s always there, just under the surface. Itching to throw away any and or all items left on the floor after weeks of requests to tidy up after themselves. I did build a series of large toy boxes for this exact reason. So I wouldn’t step on anything sharp every single god damn day. But growth, exploration and experimentation are key building blocks for well rounded youth. Just wish a healthy dose of tidying the fuck up, was as important to them, as making a huge fuctangular mess of my living room floor. But I digress.

This weekend we visited the Mediterranean festival in town and enjoyed some funnel cake and ice cream. Not going go lie, had hoped to find that Fish Taco food truck that swings by once in a while that makes fantastic – well, Fish Tacos. Squeeze of lemon juice on top, fresh from the batter and fryer. So good. Was sad to not see it. The whole thing was a Fusion event, with lots of Greek cultural stuff to explore. Smelled so good down at Memorial Park on Saturday.

Brain fog, intestinal fortitude and the peculiarities of children at play.

What a day to end week two of the summer holidays. Hot and sunny by 9:00am. If these past two weeks are any indication, we aren’t even going to know the days date, or which way is up or down by the time summer is halfway through. These kids are – a lot. My wife remarked that at least when she taught summer school she actively knew what day of the week it was. But now we’re all adrift in the new possibilities and utter sameness of every day. The biggest demarcation of the days is going to be the weather. Windy? Cloudy? Raining? Or a vast string of hot sunny days that run together into one massive lump.

I am fairly certain that next year both kids will do several weeks of camp in July at least. They need the structure and the chance to see other kids their age. I get that Covid is here, and it sucks. So we have stayed isolated a fair deal. But when we do happen across friends of theirs they are so happy. Summer is a difficult season to navigate as we all have such different schedules and preferences for off time. Can be a real challenge to nail down a day to visit and keep all parties invested in keeping that date. Or maybe that’s just me?

Our kids are like chalk and cheese. One second they can’t bear to be apart, and the next instant are kick boxing and scratching at each others eyes, then back again, on a constant loop all day long. Tired, hungry, happy it doesn’t seem to make a difference. We work them in the sun at the farm, swim them, ride bikes & scooters, lounge with movies and bake and attempt to clean. But still, split second shifts between besties and enemies. We don’t seem to be able to find that fine line between just exercised enough to be docile, and over tired tyrant that needs to pee ten times instead of going to bed and falling asleep at a reasonable hour.

I was going to go into a bit about boiling, roiling guts that wake you up at 3:40am in a panic, but that picture paints itself fairly vividly without much prompting. So consider yourselves lucky.

Children of time.

Just finished the book Children of time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky. What a strange but entertaining novel. I was entertained enough that I purchased the follow up and am now three chapters deep. I haven’t found a new author that I like in a while. I’m not on the fence so much, as not entirely sold yet. It may sound snobbish, but I like to read two halfway decent books by the same author in the same series before I add them to my roster of followed authors. Because it can take some of them a year, or three, or even more to put out a new book, it’s good to follow several authors so that you can read new stuff, or at least new to you stuff, fairly often. I hate when I get all caught up on new book purchases and then have to wait months for a new release. Oh! What a problem to have, I know, I know.

Once I get through the second book: Children of ruin, I plan to read The Grapes of Wrath. Which is an American classic, so not new, but is new to me as I never read it. We did Margaret Atwood and Sir Oliver Mowat, and George Orwell among others, in Canada. Even Of Mice and Men if I recall correctly. I read a bunch of ancient classics in grade twelve english, and OAC English lit. I kind of want to read Moby Dick too. But we’ll have to see about that. I want to read Crime and Punishment, but I fear that the length, and depressive material may not suit me much. Who knows, maybe it’s the classic lit I’ve been waiting for. I’m far more interested in slotting in older classics inbetween the science fiction and fantasy novels that I usually read, the older I get. Not for a fear of having missed out, but those are considered classics for a reason, must be something to them for their continued longevity.

Two weeks into break and time has nearly lost all meaning…

Except in the case of deadlines for paid work, I can’t tell a Tuesday morning from a Friday morning. Oh, turns out, today is Friday. Thought it was Thursday. Kids are mental, as per usual. So no surprises there. Have some events coming up in the next week or so, and I strive to get more paid projects completed, so that I can start new ones in a fresh state of mind, and not with lingering change orders hanging over my head. Hard to be creative if you need to go back to old work to make a stream of client requested minor tweaks.

Our niece will be coming by for a visit soon, so it’ll be mayhem here for an hour or two. They all play well together as they are equally spaced in age. Which is nice, for a change.

Have been sleeping terribly these last two weeks, not sure why. Possibly the stress/tension of everybody being home 24/7 and never having any personal space from one another. A lot of panic driven dreams. Yikes. Probably adds to why time is feeling disjointed and out of sorts.

Why is it that every time I shave…

I seem to miss somewhere on my neck that I find later on in the day, when it is most inconvenient to do so. It’s not like I shave in the dark, or quickly for that matter. And it never seems to be the same place twice. I am absolutely baffled by this persistent experience of hysterical blindness when examining my skin for hair follicles. Doesn’t seem to matter if I use a straight razor, or electric, wet, dry, doesn’t matter. I always seem to miss something, and it irritates me to no end. I’ll have to resort to putting a pen lined grid on my face & neck to make sure I clear every block before moving on. I also need to rinse in between because a blocked razor might pass over the hair and not cut it, which I think is the culprit here. But I could very well be wrong about that. I’d have to tape myself shaving and look to see what I’ve done wrong, and find out how I always seem to miss a different patch on my person each time.

In other news, it’s a beautiful day here in southern Ontario. Had some rain the other day, which was welcome. Farm instruments say we got about an inch of rain. Which is good for this week, but does little to alleviate the lack of rain last week, and what about next week? Need an inch or so every four to five days for things to be optimal. Or so I’m told.

Drawing a rabbit from memory.

The youngest has asked me to draw the new extended family pet on a piece of cardboard from memory. A full front view at that, with all limbs showing! Yikes. I’m a tad rusty but I gave it a go. Not my best work, but it looks like a rabbit, so I’ll take that win today.

On a high note, a fair few projects for the ole day job came in this week. That’s always a plus these days. Some 3D rendering work, more can labels, a sixteen page brochure edit, and a new illustrated icon, plus the long form event report that I started last week. Not too shabby. Invoices out, means money coming in!

Otherwise it has been a slow week, seeing as how I’m working more than usual (summer rush and all). I’m happy to see events going on, even though I wouldn’t be in attendance during this period in time. Given what I’m hearing from Nurse friends and reading in the news BA 5 is as transmissible as measles, which is insane. So I think more outdoor distanced fun is in store. Really having to think hard about going indoors anywhere but home and the cottage. I think we had all hoped to have this SarsCov2 thing behind us after three years, but it’s here to stay for the mean time. Blargh! Talk about a downer on the mood!

The kids had a bon fire with their grandpa the other night, and we counted thirty nine bug bites on the legs of our oldest, and another seventeen on the legs of the youngest. Both had full length pants on, like those Roots onsie deals, and were eaten for lunch by mosquitoes. It’s horrific to look at. Makes me itch just thinking about it. And my skin crawl just a bit too. Yuck. Ah! Now my head and neck itches.

Though we danced for it…

And prayed brazenly under the cold night stars, we were promised many things, but what we really need to know is, did the rains come, and in the quantities that were foretold? If not, we need but to start again swaying and flaunting ourselves before the sun asking it for a reprieve that the clouds may come and slowly pour themselves out upon us. For it is difficult and futile to work against the sun parched earth. The weeds feast upon the last vestiges of moisture, while the crops fade in the dusty cracked soil. Sun baked and dried. Soon the hoses will run dry, and the watering cans cob webbed and unused. If the rains don’t come as foretold. What if the rains don’t come? Which mysterious old magic will we be left to turn to in order to bring about the rains. So we dance, and prostrate ourselves under the darkening blue skies, seeking a boon from the looming darkness and all those million pin points of light. Surely one of them can send us the rains we were promised. Soon.

Time really does get away from me during the summer months.

I don’t know how or why, but I managed to sleep in until 11:00am today, which is not so unlike me (at least in my youth) but not very much like me now that I have children. I’ll chalk it up to physical labour and the summer heat & sun. Those always do me in. I’m amazed that anyone can get anything done outdoors in the southern states and anywhere close to the equator. I guess you acclimate to it over the years, but my god man! I don’t envy you if you are a day labourer.

Work is filling in now that it is Monday, and we have a press release deadline looming soon. Glad I started as soon as I did, as that would be a tonne of pressure to contend with today. Best get back to the paid work!

The trials and tribulations of having children.

Just moments after asking our kids to not bury their toys in unmarked spots our youngest walked out into the water with a highly favoured LOL Doll and promptly buried it about six inches down in the sand a foot or so deep in the water and then wandered away. Only to exclaim that the toy was now needed greatly, and Oops, I have no idea where I buried said toy! So after a brief stop back at the house for a hard rake and a long handled shovel I was back in the water digging. Where I remained for nearly an hour in a fruitless attempt to recover Queen Bee.

So no, at this particular moment I don’t suggest you have your small children bring along their favourite toys to a trip to the water front/beach area. It will only lead to anger and sadness, and I’m sure my youngest was deeply upset aswell.

In other news I pulled up about sixty, nine foot plus tall Thistles yesterday, and I’m still discovering embedded thistle needles in my hands, even with the heavy duty gloves I was wearing for that exact purpose. Nasty buggers, the lot of them. Pulled them up at the base of the stem by the root. For the most part I managed to get 6-8 inches of taproot, but rarely the whole thing. Good enough for a week or two without them coming back.

How do you explain a problem like Malaria?

Isn’t that how the song goes? Perhaps it’s Mallory, or Margery. Oh no, I got it, Maria! Yes, that’s it, that’s the ticket.

Speaking of malaria, the mosquitoes are abysmal this time of year. Not as bad as May, but terrible just the same. Yuck.

Seems I have over slept a fair bit this morning. So I best get a move on.