You put a big bird in a small cage and it'll sing you a song. patrick watson

No woman 3 months shy of 40, up to her eye balls in "new" and still carrying extra weight from the baby she "just" had (24 months ago) needs to have access to a Sam's Club sized box of strawberry Pop Tarts and several pounds of butter left over from the Christmas cookie free for all.  Can you visualize this?


Yes, I put butter on my frosted Pop Tarts.  Don't judge.  Just rescue me from the giant box of tasty goodness.


First, a disclaimer.  I'm attempting to type this with a right hand that feels like it's wearing a shoe.  And it is about as useful a hand covered with a shoe would be.  A tight, mind blowingly painful shoe.  I've always struggled with the Carpel Tunnels, but since my pregnancy with the Lum...I've stopped struggling and am just in full time suffering mode. I couldn't tell you if I actually have a thumb, pointer and middle finger on my shoe had...I haven't felt them since November 2008.


I say this only to explain what may or may not happen moving forward.  Either I will cease to correct typing/spelling errors...which could be great fun.  Or the blog will consist of photos accompanied by poetic key mashing from the Lumowitz.  Also great fun.


And the next time Blooger decides I need to highlight and delete ALL the text in the post, instead of the 2 or 3 words I've selected to delete...I'm going to star the world on fire.




I love living here.



Just two weeks in and I'm overwhelmed with the feeling that we so made the right choice. That this is home. I didn't expect that.


I didn't expect to equate the quiet with peace. I thought more along the lines of sleepy and maybe even boring. The buzz of the city, I thought that was keeping me going. But now I wake up to towering trees in our yard, creating a giant canopy of gently filtered sun, the song of a morning dove and a gentle breeze. I can hear the leaves in that breeze.





Not the freeway, or airplanes or even the familiar sounds of weekend activities on Lake Nokomis. Those were wonderful city sounds to be sure, but I know now I was ready for some peace.


In the city there is always someone around. Always. Coming and going by foot, plane and car. No city ever really sleeps. I needed a break from the constant barrage of hundreds of thousands of human beings tossing their energy about. But I didn't realize it until about 4 days into this adventure. On day 4 I saw the darkest night sky I've seen in years and felt an entire community settle down and rest. And I'm pretty sure I felt my soul settle down and rest too.


Now...I sleep in late, because I don't wake up here. Liam sleeps all night. From the moment we first stepped foot in this house, he has been home. On our first visit he ran into the giant office and said "I'M HOME!" Babies are creepy smart that way, they feel all energies and they know.


And now I know.


My yard knows I'm here and it's trying so hard to show me the potential it has. Because of the late summer move, the yard was left to fend for itself until we got here. It was overgrown and sad. It was afraid it had been abandoned. But my other mother and I spent an early morning sunrise cleaning it out. 5 lawn bags full of neglect. And it is sooooo grateful.


My yard is speaking to me.


Look what I can do! Here is one tiny tomato plant in the big empty garden plot.



And one stalk of sweet corn!



You like raspberries? Here you go!




This yard knew I was sad to not grow food for my family this year. Sad that I threw down wild flowers in the dirt that last year grew a bumper crop of peppers.


So it grew me a flower.



And a treat for my baby.

From August 10 2011 blog

And here...use this in your salsa.



And hiding under this mass of vines, running the entire length of my backyard? Concord grapes.



I guess I will make jelly this year.


I'm sleepy.


Cue some Patrick Watson and hit the hay. You won't regret it. Start with this:





XOXOXOXOXOXO

booyah

Dear Diary - 
Tonight I made a delish meal in our new house and called my mom to come over for dinner.  Because I can:) Because we live in the same town.  Booyah.


I've written the opening sentence to this blog post no fewer than 50 times.  It's been 27 days since my last blog post.  Well, one that wasn't a photo challenge.  Anyway, it's not a big deal.  To the world I mean.  It's not even that big a deal to those that check in here once in a while.  Most of them (you) know me and know that I moved to another planet.  Sometimes it feels that way.  But it's a cool planet and my parents live here, so that's nice.


So yeah, in the grand scheme of things, 27 days without a  blog post from the leader of the nerd herd is no biggy.  Except to her (me).


If you blog, you do it for a reason.  For the emotional outlet, the attention, the creative outlet, the sharing, the crafting, the adoration of your doting mother who thinks you are the most brilliant writer since writing was invented.  Unless of course you have a fantabulous skill like sewing or baking and photography and you really do have something amazing to teach the world.  That is not why I blog (see reasons before having a skill).


For me blogging is a joyous mental dump of what is in my heart, my mind and often my camera.  I honestly started doing it strictly for myself.  I wanted to somehow preserve the flow of positive energy that comes from my babies and my husband. My cousin brothers and their families.  My parents, my Aunts.  The city, the farm.   About the same time I started this blog, I edited my Facebook profile "about me" section to simply read

"I am happy"

For reasons unknown to me still, I felt a push to document joy.  Love.  Support.  Family.  Positive energy.  Cheese.


And then...things changed.  As they do.  And so much was lost and suddenly I was documenting things that were so very different.  Sadness.  Loss.  Heartache.  Strength.  Courage.  Tears.  Fear.  Change.


And still there was Joy.  Love.  Support.  Family...cheese.


In the last 27 days, we've plowed through a change that was somewhat unplanned and fairly spontaneous.  I abandoned my career to come home.  I asked my husband to do the same, to abandon his career and come home with me.  To leave his home.  I asked my kids to leave the first home they have known and first close friends they  made and trust me when I told them this would be awesome.  It feels good, it feels right, but it feels very different.  For the first time in a long time, I'm intimidated by what's in front of me.  Time to grow again.  Life...phase 4.


Tonight, I write from my desk in my home office in the great state of South Dakota.  I have 15 windows surrounding me in this office...it's incredible.  Every night I sit here with the shades open, marveling at how dark it is in South Dakota.  There are so many stars here.  And they are so quiet.  At times it does feel like another planet.


The only other thing I can see is the word "Inspire" hanging on the wall.  Yes, time to grow again.  Phase 4.

What I did this summer by Fricka...leader of the nerd herd.

I took my son out in a white onesie all the time because the heat of hell has come to the Midwest.

I let him plop in the kiddie pool in all his clothes for the very same reason.


I begged Grandma to come over every single weekend so we could pack.

I waited very impatiently for him to come home whenever he could.

I wished I hadn't unpacked 3 years ago.

I promised her she will be fine in her new school.

I dreamed of my new office in my new house.

I went to back to corporate school and learned corporate stuffs.

I laughed at muffin jokes.


And promised Baby Calvin his new house would fit him better.  It does.

I ate way too many treats.

I made the trip to see, to paint and to move.

I came home.

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge - Water

When you are from the midwest, summers = going "up north" or "to the lake". It's just a fact of summer life. 

I give you a typical weekend in the midwest...I give you some "Fishing Peace".

 For more "Water" summer fun...

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge - Water

the wheels on the bus are falling off

Here is an interesting little thing I've learned about me and my kids since my loving husband has moved to South Dakota ahead of us.  Without his patriarchal presence, there are no boundaries when it comes to the momma's personal space.  My bed, my bathroom, the 1 foot space behind my office chair...are all open game to a child placing themselves in the space around me.  It is simultaneously beautiful and maddening.


I hate not having my husband present.  I had forgotten how crazy I am without him to calm me down and give me some perspective.  When we are together, it's ying and yang baby.   This life we have created, runs well only when we are a team.  Everything is overwhelming when going it alone.  Well not everything...but clogged sinks, drippy outside faucet are.  Water features with broken pumps that now appear to only function as a breeding ground for mosquitoes make me feel as if the wheels are falling off the bus.  Because normally, he would be here to work his boy magic and I wouldn't have to worry about them. 


I want my husband back.  I want my wife gig back!


I remind my self that in three weeks this will all be over. We will be together, in our new home (goosebumps!)  And when that happens there will be part of me that misses the anticipation, the excitement and adrenaline that goes with big change like this.  The house in Vermillion is like the mother of all Christmas presents...just waiting to be unwrapped.  And I'm the little girl that sneaks down every morning to shake it, trying to figure out what exactly is inside.  I don't know yet what our stuff looks like in that house or what our lives will look like, but I soon will.

I'll take what's behind door #624 Monty! 

At whats coming...well it's almost more than I can wrap my head around.  For the first time in my adult life, I will be living near my mom.  She will be living less than an entire day's drive from her grandbabies. There will be pop ins and calls that go something like "hey we are going for a walk after dinner, wanna come?"  The pictures here will completely change. We will be interwoven into the fabric our each other's daily lives.  Yup...can't wrap my head around it.


In the meantime, I'm all over the map, trying to stay organized on all fronts.  Work, babies, house, packing, new house, new job.  What is getting lost in all this is time for this blog, which is fine, it's a hectic time.  But all this stress, excitement and change only creates more thoughts, more things to say.  But there is no time and all day long I think of things to write, tuck them away into a safe part of my brain.  And just as I suspected those many months ago, they often disappear as I lose the nightly battle with sleep, crawling from my desk chair to the office couch.


My "edit posts" page is an outstanding list of two to three sentence observations, designed to trigger some blog post I stored away.  Reading them alone is hilarious.  When summer is over and life starts to settle into a quiet, peaceful, South Dakota routine, it will be fun to see if those blurbs inspire the blog posts they are intended to.  Or will they simply be random thoughts, discarded for newer, shinier ones?


This summer's soundtrack is made up of The Tallest Man on Earth, Bon Iver, Feist and Fitz & The Tantrums.  I <3 life soundtracks.  Life soundtracks are my absolute favorite.  The organic way the music weaves itself into the fabric of your life.  For that snapshot in time, it is permanently part of the memory.  Fire up a little Hall & Oats and I'm mowing the lawn at the farm with my first walkman on.  Aldo Nova...and I'm choreographing my first dance...on roller skates.  Aldo Nova = frozen Charleston chews and bright white skates with a pink puff on the toe.  Sheriff "When I'm With You" = totally devastating junior high love.  Radio dedications and slow dancing so close you melt into each other.  ~sigh~


This topic needs it's own blog post.


So the soundtrack to the summer is in place and the slide show in my head...the flickering reel to reel of the summer of 2011 looks like this:











It's all there. The long cold spring, packing, grandma visits, birthday, clearance end cap pools and interpretive dance in the kitchen. The official drink of the summer of 2011 is the Leinenkugel's Summer Sampler Pack...cans. Because they stay cooler longer in the summer. Who knew?


The one year anniversary of The Nerd Herd blog is approaching. I miss those lazy days of spare time and emotional purging via blogger. I miss pausing and feeling...communicating. I will be so pleased when the constant tasking is over. Feeling and not just doing. It's happened here and there this summer.  We will find a few more of those moments I'm sure. 


I know better than to wish time away. Even in turmoil, there is beauty.








And interpretive dance in the kitchen.

Photo Challenge...Red, White & Blue

I Heart Faces weekly photo challenge time again:) The 4th of July is a big holiday in my family and this cake is a staple of our celebrations. I cannot remember a year without it.   It is part of our tradition, to leave our cities and gather at the farm.  To wear cheesy matching red, white & blue t-shirts and spend too much money on South Dakota fireworks (thank you SD for your less restrictive laws).  It is currently my mom's job to whip up this patriotic cake, but I'm next:)

Check out more fantastic, Red, White & Blue inspired photos at:

http://www.iheartfaces.com/2011/07/photo-challenge-red-white-blue/