BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Here comes Ben!

We tremble with fear when we hear him coming. We call him the 20 lb. bully (but he's 22 lbs. now). The house shakes, like Godzilla's coming, when Ben crawls down the hallway. He is a most determined child (it's good he's strong-willed, don't want a lethargic baby, we're lucky, we tell ourselves) and crawls with full purpose.



Needless to say, we don't get a heck of alot done while he's here. And so I am always torn between the feeling of wanting to give him all my attention and play with him, like he wants, versus working on emails, reading the stack of books I've checked out from the library, writing postcards to those stupid congresspeople, potting plants, cleaning the house, well.....you get the picture. There always seems to be just a little too much to do in all directions.





As you seen below, he's taken to feeding himself. Now if we could just get him to change his stinky diapers, that would be progress!




I can't tell you how many photos I had to take before getting a laugh out of this boy while in his confinement pen. Bruises on his forehead and cheek testify that he's up for anything if it includes freedom of movement.



We have a very small neighborhood. (There are three other little houses, all the same size as ours and built at the same time--1960, that share the same driveway. Then to the north of us is the Benton County Fairgrounds. To the south is a veterinary hospital.) The neighbors across from us have a cat with a crooked tail. She has now had two litters of kittens, maybe three, and one of them (also with a crooked tail) is attempting to adopt us. It has not decided for sure; I feel like we're being interviewed for the position. Below you can see Ben watching the cat watch me to see when I'm going to fill the little blue bowl with catfood. We feed on demand, trying to make a good impression, but don't feed too much, hoping the cat that will supplement its diet with mice. Stay tuned--will Courtney and Valori take on a small, furry expense?!




Aaron arrives is less than two weeks for his spring break. I'm not telling him anything about the cat until he gets here. As a result of living at the inn with his dad or in an apartment with me, he's never had a pet before and of course always wanted one. We'll see how the next couple weeks of kitty courting goes, and then surprise Aaron.

Meanwhile, we can feel the thrill of spring right around the corner. In the past week we've bought two apple trees to plant espallier-style along the west side of the house (the Orchard) and a black currant bush, Courtney has brought grapevines cuttings from Maya and Eder's to plant here, we've been offered and accepted a redwood tree for the forest just beyond the edge of our property, and we're picking up two small evergreens from some friends today. Whew!

How, you may ask, are we going to keep up with our little living and breathing paradise here, when, over the winter months, we have taken on more and more tasks and roles in the social justice realm than we can hardly keep up with. Good question. Yesterday we delivered, for the first time, the Oregon Peaceworker monthly newspaper from Salem. We volunteered for the monthly delivery route that includes about 30 stops around Corvallis. The paper is great so we're happy to help spread it around. It was actually pretty fun. We call ourselves Bonnie and Clyde. We're so lucky--whenever we do something together, it's almost always fun.

I think I'll stop for now. If I may ask everyone to do something for the greater good: please write, call and email your congressional representatives (that's right--they are supposed to represent us!) and tell them (because I'm sure this is true) that you do not want the US to engage in a nuclear war with Iran, or jump in if Israel starts launching nuclear weapons, and that you do not want additional funding for or more troops sent to Iraq for the continuing illegal and immoral occupation.

That's all. Have a nice day!

Thanks for reading this, and good luck to us all,

Valori