everything and nothing

Abraham is usually a wonderful sleeper, but the last few nights he has been restless all evening. We haven't been able to figure out why. This evening we have spent the last hour trying to help him fall asleep. He just hasn't been satisfied by anything. Finally, Keith swaddled him and stuck him in his bouncy chair, from which he is now intermittently smiling at me, watching his daddy, and talking to his toys.
I'm going to take the opportunity to try to get some thoughts down.

Last week I lobbied on behalf of the CPCA again. The meeting was fairly promising, for which I am still relieved, as it was really exhausting to bring my two under two to a meeting so far away and then to do loads of grocery shopping on top of that. I think it's possible that this senator will consider co-sponsoring the act. I'd sure love to see that happen.

My discussion with the senator's representative regarding human trafficking led also to the topic of abortion. Keith and I had just had a lengthy discussion with a political candidate who had opinionated stances on every other subject, but when it came to abortion would only say that it was not for him to say whether it was right or wrong for someone else. It was such an infuriating discussion, not so much because he didn't agree with us, but rather because he refused to even consider our perspective, despite his own perspective being completely uninformed and chosen merely because of his party's stances. Abortion utterly breaks my heart for many reasons, but what infuriated and saddened me about the discussion with this man was that he openly stated he was a Christian and had no real reason for his pro-abortion position, yet he wasn't willing to consider another position. Agh!

Abraham got tired of the bouncy chair. So I put him in the frontpack, bounced him and sang to him in the dark with the fan on for a few minutes, and he fell fast asleep. He's down for the night now... until about 4 am, anyway... and I am settled down to write along with a piece of Keith's birthday cheesecake to keep me company.

It seems that I have everything and nothing on my mind at the moment. As evening fades, my thoughts are whirled together. My pride over Abraham's newfound ability to shove objects in his mouth is swirling near renewed sorrow over the divorce of dear friends. My delight in Rilla's new sing-song tones of "happy yo-yo" - a combination of "Happy Birthday" and "E-I-E-I-O" - is mingled near the frustrations of not being able to download my pictures. I am cherishing the restfulness of my home at this hour and yet simultaneously annoyed by all the stupid flies in my kitchen. I went to war on them today with a vacuum, but the sound made Abraham cry, which makes me madder at the flies and more acutely aware that my carpet is dirty.

But today was a lovely kind of day. The temperature was about 74 degrees all afternoon, with just enough breeze and just enough sun to make the perfect recipe for a nice long walk with my two babes in the stroller. They fell asleep and I enjoyed the quiet green solitude of our dusty country road. When we got home, the three of us wandered and played in the garden together. I'd like to say we weeded, but I wasn't able to manage much of that with Abraham in my arms. Instead, I snapped pictures of Rilla playing with the chickens and showing flowers to her dolly. Four calves and a few mama cows watched us from the other side of the fence, hoping I'd toss them some tasty weeds. Then we came inside and Abraham slept in the frontpack while I chopped up some veggies for dinner. Rilla helped me by sitting on the counter and chowing down on a tomato. Keith came home from work, we shared a meal together as a family, we all played together, and then one by one each of the others has gone to bed.

I really love our life here.

One of these days I am going to post some pictures of our chickens. All six of them are laying now. We are a bit bewildered though because we have two rhode island reds, two leghorns, and two ameraucanas, so we should be getting two brown eggs, two white eggs, and two green eggs every day. We've gotten two of each color on different days, but never two, two, and two on the same day. This morning we got one green egg, two white eggs, and three brown eggs. But we know they are all laying the correct colors because we've gotten two green eggs in one day before so I guess that means one of our rhode island reds is laying two in one day? I am beginning to think I need to learn more about chickens.