My Mother is coming! My Mother is coming!!!

Yes.  To Portland.  In a week.  Eek!  Excitement doesn't even begin.

I never talk to anyone on the phone (inevitably, both children completely fall apart right. at. that. moment.)  Except for my mother.  But this has required many, many chats with the Little Man about how important it is for me to talk with my Mama.  How much I miss her.  How I'm a selfish little witch for running so far away from her with her two adorable grand babies and that I positively Must call her and share every last detail that she misses because I can't stand that she isn't here every day.  (Ok, I didn't actually tell P any of that, but that's what I mean:)  Still, he has trouble when the phone hits my ear...

So I did a story.  He and I live a ways apart ("Never, Mama!"  "Just pretend, love.")  And he could only speak to me... by phone.  ("I would call you All. The. Time, Mama.")  But there was a Very Loud neighbor boy that screamed and laughed whenever he called me.  He couldn't hear my voice or my stories.  "I would take that boy and throw him to the moon and then lock him in the dungeon without any food for forever!"  (Obviously, at 7, there must still be a disconnect with fables...)

Anyhoo, phone chats amidst chaos can only do so much and as we're not traveling to Kansas but once a year for a while now, my mother is saving the day by flying to Portland.  Thank gawd.

She will also be saving the day by helping when she gets here.  Kid wrangling.  Little Man spoiling.  Unboxing.  Organizing.  Turns out getting a fixer with Zia in tow is tricky.  And while, back in the day, Superman and I could have knocked out 10 projects a weekend, well...

Take yesterday, for example.  We are desperately trying to prep space to get some melons and squash planted, before its too late this season.  And the Jungle needs tractors and chainsaws some TLC before this can be achieved.  Playing with P while making sure Zia doesn't die from pea gravel consumption while accomplishing anything is a great challenge (oh that she moves through this "eat everything" stage fast!!!). When the neighbor girl climbed the fence to play with P, we figured, one down!  Things should fly now!  Ha.

Somehow the kids managed to get a hex bug down the stairs and under the floor of the laundry room.  Where, rather than sweetly and quietly dying, it proceeded to zoom around in it's battery led brilliance until it lodged itself into a corner and vibrated so viciously it sounded like it was screaming for help.  P was holding onto his very last nerve, just getting better from his fever and being so very attached to this particular piece of plastic.  So, rather than moving more mountains of dirt and trimming trees, Superman pulled up floorboards...  Then, as he went back to sawing, his blade broke.  Of course.  Because what is a weekend without a trip to Home Depot?  This, unbelievably, is par for the course, every lovin' minute.

All of this to say, I'm hoping my mother is as prepared for the Behemoth as she promises.  Work in progress is an understatement.  We are loving making this monster "ours."  Disemboweling it with new plumbing, cleaning the ick from years of neglect, creating an urban farm from the chaos.  But its taking a bit longer than we'd planned ;)

Fortunately, the yard has some big perks, much like the house having good bones beneath the grime.  The two camellia trees are gorgeous and give us large green spots, all year.  We have raspberries growing on three sides of the yard.  And an apple tree!  And a fig that grows over from the neighbor's space.  We've planted one blueberry, strawberries and some tomatoes - along with all of the herbs we need.  Slowly but surely ;)  And as of next weekend, with another adult around (assuming my mother doesn't run, screaming, when she sees the place...) to kid wrangle, well, it will be a lot less "slowly" and a whole lot more "surely."  Plus, I'll get to hug my mom!  (After P tackles her, of course;)

Counting the hours...

The yard, still in major transition.