Easter weekend and all the happenings

It's Easter weekend here in Peru. We have a looong weekend - 4 days beginning today! I've just gotten the floor swept and mopped and Celeste and I are waiting for it to dry in our respective areas...she in the laundry room, close to the potty papers, and I at the desk, blogging away. I've been away with a head cold for the last few days...it's just beginning to go away now. Still have some of that stuffiness in my head, but at least I am able to hear a little better this morning than I was before.

I always have to stop in at Maggie's Farm (link on the side bar, if you're interested). Maggie's in the midst of lambing and kidding season, hip-deep in rain and babies, it seems. I love reading her blog - it makes me feel like I'm closer to my own home farm in Colorado. My sister, Suzzanne, just wrote me to say that the Angora goats there are due to have kids just anytime now. The alpacas won't be due to give birth until a little later in the spring. So when kids are born, there'll be pictures of them here!

My essential oils showed up the other day, thanks to Mountain Rose Herbs. I immediately made a flea repellent for Celeste, which seems to be working quite well. Just a couple of drops of citronella oil, lavender oil, and geranium oil in olive oil, and the fleas fled. She smells divine and her coat seems to appreciate the light dose of olive oil, too. I searched for essential oils here, but all I could find were perfume oils, which are not the same thing.

I called my dad on Tuesday morning. I hadn't talked to him for about 3 weeks - my, how things change! He's got a steady girl now...June from across the road is going to lunch with him now on a regular basis, and they have plans to spend the summer touring the local museums and libraries. He also bought a shiny newer black car. I think my 73-year-old father may be turning into a CHICK MAGNET. Suzzanne told me that he seems younger than ever, which was a worry for me after Mama died. He seemed so lonely and lost without her. I was afraid that he would fall into a depression and waste away. But...NO - he's found a freedom that he never had before. He's never lived on his own and been independent until these last 5 months...he left his parents' farm to join the Army in the '50's, spent 2 years in south Korea, living with his buddies there during the Korean War, then came home and moved back to the farm. He met and married my mother, and they moved into a little house then. He didn't have complete independence until Mama died in November - she pretty much directed things there - and he was terrified of finding himself alone and unwanted. June's husband died a few years ago, and she spent some time dealing with that. June is kind of a gushy sort...everything is just too TOO...hmmm. She's a little bit much for me, but if Papa is happy with her, that's wonderful, as far as I'm concerned. It's taken me a little time to come to this, but I'm fine with him spending his time with June. I don't know how I'll feel if she decides to move out of her own home just across the road and into the farm house. I guess I'll deal with that if and when it comes. I hope she drops that "what will the neighbors say?" stuff. Papa doesn't give two hoots what the neighbors think or say, so I hope that June will find another thing to gush about. What could the neighbors say about 2 adults over 70 years old spending time together at church, at the park, at the museums, and having lunch together? Papa told me that there is probably no possibility of them getting married...it might be a little to soon to be seriously considering that anyway...because the marrage would so drastically reduce their social security benefits to the point that they couldn't financially survive. As long as Papa is happy, I'm happy, too. He seems to be so worried that one of us kids will take exception to what he's doing. And, honestly, June is a nice woman.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system, I can move on to other things. Celeste is growing in leaps and bounds. She is a bundle of energy and orneriness. She still screams, but is moving to howling and barking now, which I absolutely welcome. I will be so glad when the nightly screaming stops. And I'd much rather awake to a bark than a shriek. When she's potty trained and reliable, she can begin to sleep in the bedroom with us, but for now, she's still sleeping in the laundry room and protesting strongly. She's killed one of my plants, and got started on another one, when she was caught in the act of uprooting it. Having been trounced upon within an inch of her life, she knows now that plants are off limits to puppies, but they are still a temptation. I've started a few cuttings in a jar again, to root them out so I'll be able to transplant them into my now vacant clay pot.

I finished the tan sweater, and wore it to work yesterday. It's not the best I've ever made, but now I have a sweater that I can wear on chilly days without donning the winter gear.

Celeste and I are alone in the apartment this morning. Omar had call last night at the hospital, and hasn't returned from that yet. After I clean up the bedroom, we are going to PLAY!