Up, Up, Up!

This week's Mylestones:
1. We discovered the spice drawer. Now tall enough to open cupboard drawers and reach the inner contents, Myles is enjoying a newfound love for spices, small enough to carry around, glassy enough to make a loud noise when thrown on the floor, and interesting-looking enough to shake about. (btw, these photos were taken just a few moments before Myles produced the messiest poop he has ever made in his short lifetime, which eventually was smeared all over my pant leg, down his leg, up his back, on his hands, and onto my arm. Thought you'd want to know. Be thankful I am not describing consistency and color.)

2. We love the doggie shower!! When designing the house, Seth had the foresight to include a dog shower in the laundry room so that when Juniper comes in from outback, we can spray her feet off. Well, we almost never do...but the faucet is at Myles' height so he can turn it on and off, and the sprayer is detachable so it can lay on the ground and create a sprinkler of sorts. Recently, Myles had been sneaking into the laundry room, turning it on, and dancing as the water sprinkled his feet (the shrieking gave it away). So mama decided it was time to end the baths (as he will no longer sit in the tub but stands the whole time) and move to the "biggie boy" shower. The pluses are that he gets much more clean with the detachable sprayer and we save water. The minus is that he is obsessed with turning the thing on and off and still doesn't understand how to make the water warm so he's turning it to cold over and over...All in all it's a hit.

3. While en route to see Billy Jonas for the (gasp!) first time ever (for those who don't know, BJ is a hometown hero in Asheville, he is a children's musician, but sings songs cool enough that the adults love them too), we saw a dog and Myles squealed and said, "Doggie!" Then, when we were going up the steps behind the stage for the zillionith time, I said "Myles, we are going up, up, up," and he said "uh, uh, uh" with the exact same intonation. I repeated, and he repeated. It was incredibly cute, and I couldn't help but take it as a divine sign that our lives are headed in that direction.

This morning I had lunch with a good friend, and was reminded of this line from an Ani Difranco classic: She said, "honey don't tell me that old story, you are boring me. Tell me...what you gonna do now that you're free?" So that's my new frame for the week. I'm going to try my best to quit telling that same boring story of how idiotic the church has been with this recent decision and focus on what I'm gonna do now that I'm FREE!! Task 1: plant garden. I am reading (finally!) Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and it is glorious, glorious, glorious. Meanwhile, I am finally getting some things in the ground in our garden. So far, just a few marigolds, but today I bought some basil and an Amish heirloom brandywine tomato (yes!) to get in the ground when this rain lets up. And thanks be to God for this rain that we needed so so badly. Kingsolver's thesis (well, one of many) is that we have traded flavor for appearance and travel durability when it comes to the vegetables in our lives, and I must admit that just last year I had an indescribable experience with real, locally grown tomatoes that utterly convinced me of this very point. They just don't taste this way when bought from the store (you know, I"m not all that fresh if I've just traveled all the way from California either), and they just don't have that same pinky red look or luscious juice that makes for great fresh tomato sauce or gazpacho. I can't say that we will be eating 100% in season or local, as inspiring as Barbara is, but we will will will be building up our garden, giving thanks for the local farmers markets, and enjoying ourselves some Amish heirloom brandywine tomatoes in about 90 days...Seth says we'll even get chickens one day.