Yesterday morning after breakfast Zane, Zoey, and I took a walk down Whoop-dee-doo trail. I was hoping to show her the glistening spider webs fresh with the morning dew. I discovered them the day before while out for a walk with Zane trying to get him to sleep. I was listening to Krista Tippett’s On Being podcast with Mary Oliver. I learned that Mary Oliver does her writing while walking in nature. I was trying to imagine doing that while Zane was asleep in the Ergo carrier.

This morning we spent an hour and a half in the car driving to the Apple store to get my phone fixed. While we were leaving the cement truck had just arrived to pour the concrete for the retaining wall behind the Buckeye Bunkhouse (no bunks just yet, but we do have some more cabinets made along our hallway, a bench seat in our living room, another redwood bench out on our back patio, and a wall desk in our hallway–Stephen has been busy.) The retaining wall for the main house is finished and now dirt is being hauled in from along Whoop-dee-doo trail to fill in along the wall. I’ll take some photos in the next few days of the main house site and views.

I am grateful for mornings like yesterday when we are outdoors and I feel a sense of calm. Today was not one of those days. Too many hours in carseats, or store carts, or being held in Mama’s arms does not make for happy children. Poor Zane just wanted to crawl everywhere today. Please tell me how a mother manages to hold a squirming baby in her arms while trying to pull her wallet out of her diaper bag to pay for the phone that needed fixing or the groceries that needed buying without dropping baby? Well, she does indeed drop baby on the floor in order to pay for said items and then quickly runs after baby crawling on the dirty floor, yes, under the Apple genius bar table before baby starts sucking the computer cords. That was my day, all day, in Trader Joes, in the mall to pay for my parking ticket. You see, I forgot my Ergo carrier at home and the stroller at home which was why I had to carry Zane all day. But grandmothers, be relieved that at least I’ve mastered holding baby in my arms while using the toilet for potty breaks. Yep, this mama is one hell of a mama.

In other news, we had a breakthrough with our barn cats yesterday. I missed the action because as kitchen manager, I was in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast, lunch, and snack dishes before starting to cook dinner (I know, what a horrible kitchen manager I am.) The friendlier cat Lester let Stephen and Zoey pet him. When we’re outside in the late afternoon he’ll come out and follow us around. We’ll see if Solo ever comes around. And one of these days I’ll remember to photograph them.

The moment has arrived where I have no idea what to post for this week.  Shall I talk about the weather? How we desperately need some rain? There’s supposed to be rain in the forecast this week after many weeks of warm 70 degree weather here.  I was hopeful it would be colder up here in Northern California a month ago when it snowed.  Here are some photos of the ranch with snow.

And here was Zoey at our rental house enjoying the snow in our front yard.

I’m taking an online class from Heather Bruggeman at Beauty That Moves called Hibernate.  I think I signed up for the class when we were enduring colder, freezing temperatures that lasted for a greater part of the day.  It made sense then, but now it seems ridiculous to be taking a class called Hibernate when just a few days ago it was warm enough to wear shorts outside. And yet, hibernate is exactly what it feels like I’ve been doing.  I’m getting closer to that nesting period in my pregnancy where all I want is a clean house and to organize the mess that has accumulated.  But at the same time, despite my desire to have a clean house, I’m lacking in energy to do much of anything these days.  All I want to do is eat and sleep. Although the days Zoey is here and not in daycare, she makes sure I am busy at work helping to put her dolls to sleep, or “deeting” her toy groceries.  In case you’re wondering if I made up that word “deeting”–it’s Zoey’s word for the sound at the grocery store when the checkout person “deets” your groceries.  Listen next time you’re at the grocery store and you’ll know what I mean.

I should be getting things in order for baby’s arrival.  Stephen is making a dresser or bureau, or as Stephen might say “chest of drawers” for our baby boy.  (Have you taken this quiz from the NY Times about what words you use predicts where you are from? It wasn’t very accurate for me or Stephen. The quiz thought this Southern California girl was from Modesto, Fresno, or Salt Lake City and my Texan husband was from Baltimore or D.C.) I have a large plastic bin full of baby clothes to wash. A friend with two boys gave me them before Zoey was born, and I didn’t realize how many boy outfits I have. I have yet to tour the hospital where I’ll give birth.  I called the hospital two weeks ago waiting for a call back from the nurse who schedules group tours called “Tea for Two.” I called again today and was told the same nurse will call me back to schedule the tour which most likely will be February 19th.  That will be week 37 of my pregnancy.  I asked about other options, like the one day childbirth class that offers a hospital tour–the next one is March 9th, two days before my due date. I could show up at the hospital for an individual tour by a clerk, but was told they couldn’t answer any of my questions.  So there might be a good chance I’ll see where I’m birthing for the first time when I go into labor. Or, I told Stephen, maybe I’ll just hop on over to the hospital in the early stages of labor and check it out and then return home.  It’s thankfully only about a 5-10 minute drive from our house.  We’ve hired a doula again with the plan of having a natural, unmedicated birth.  That was our plan with Zoey, but I ended up being induced after 41 weeks and 3-4 days of pregnancy.  I am hoping this little guy is ready to come out a bit sooner than that.

Stephen reminded me that we haven’t seen any snakes, mice, or bugs out at the ranch during these winter months.  My eye is still trained to look for them when walking through the tall grass.  Better to be safe than sorry, right?  The only animals we’ve seen recently are the wild pigs.  Here’s a distant photo Stephen took just outside our neighbor’s main gate.

More on the pigs in another post.  In house building news, we submitted the guest house plans to the county last Friday.  And now we wait some more.