You saw by my schedule the other day
that we lead a life at a fairly leisurely pace around here
during the day. We go here or there, we snack, we rub sunscreen
on ourselves, drink lots of water, smell the roses... it's
pretty nice.
Although
Emma would love nothing better than to camp out in front of
the bo0b tube all day, television is limited in this house.
We turn it on for awhile in the mornings. This is when I need
them to be diverted. I am at my grumpiest and in most need
of a quiet coffee.
It
goes on again for awhile in the evenings before bedtime, when
everyone is too exhausted to do much of anything else.
I
inadvertently established a new bedtime routine and have discovered
that it works really well for us.
We
all go upstairs to brush our teeth. The girls each pick a
story and we lie down in the big bed and read it out loud.
After the stories each kid trundles off to her own bed. Former
refusals and arguments are minimal. Everyone is agreeable.
I
have a feeling that my days aren't going to be so quiet and
leisurely. As I type this there is a construction crew tearing
up our road. This is supposed to go on for two weeks.
It's
not like our road is that quiet in the first place. We live
on a busy corner, two intersecting roads that bring people
to and from major points.
It's
a four-way stop, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that
99 per cent of drivers don't stop. I'm not asking for a Full
and Complete Stop, like the kind we all do in driver's
ed, but a Significant Reduction in Speed would be very
nice.
No,
wait, someone did stop at the corner just yesterday. Mark
and I both noticed him at different points in the evening.
(What did I say, stopping is a rare occasion here. So rare
that we noticed it at separate points.)
It
was clearly a teenager driving with his mother.
I
used to roll my eyes at those signs people would buy, the
ones that come in the shape of a running child: "CAUTION
- CHILDREN AT PLAY."
But
now I'm considering buying one.
People
just drive too fast around here, and I hate to be paranoid
but I am afraid that one of the girls will dart out into the
road, oblivious to the oncoming car/cyclist/rollerblader/truck
speeding past the stop sign.
For
the herbally uninitiated, please heed this warning.
Avoid
Lemon Balm. This herb smells like a slice of fresh lemony
heaven and it has pretty foliage, and it's probably available
at every garden centre for $0.70/pot. Don't be fooled by its
innocence and reduced price point. Don't buy it. If you do,
don't plant it in your garden. It will go to seed and spread
like smallpox. Even if you manage to chop it down before it
goes to seed it will still find a way to spread. By purchasing
this invader, you will have waged a battle you can not win
without a bottle of Killex.
If
you must have it, plant it in a pot. Keep it away from your
flower beds. Trust me on this one.
My
herb garden (painstakingly weeded and cleared of debris a
mere month ago) now features a carpet of Lemon Balm seedlings.
I
rip them out by the handful, and toss the sweet smelling infiltrator
into the compost bin.
andrea
