My sweet baby rat, after struggling for the last month or so, passed into the arms of the dark goddess this evening just after 10pm. She fought tooth and claw to stay with us, but the struggle for breath became to much. She sought us out, and the gods put us in the position to love and care for this gentle, loving creature. We rescued her from the wild where she was abandoned and fell in love. Her last hours were spent in my care; snuggling in bed with her to keep her warm and then sleeping in my bedroom. Today I gave her some food by hand and gave her medicine as we have for the last month, gave her a sponge bath, and then wrapped her in a towel to take her into the bathroom to give her a steam treatment. It was as I carried her in my arms that she took her last breath. She passed peacefully and is now without pain. The spirits took her burden away from her, for which I will always be grateful.

Rest easy now little one. Know that you were always loved deeply, and that you will never be forgotten.

After playing catch up all week, I finally feel like I can relax.  We had tons of veggies that needed something done to them before they all went bad.  I froze a bunch of corn, made plenty of muffins, and used the biggest bowl I have to make a huge green salad in.  We had like two plastic bags full of lettuce... how much salad can a person eat?  lol!  I am loving the harvest share though, we got leeks!  I am going to have to make my leek soup soon... it is soo good!  My compost pile is very happy too.  It’s funny, I think about how healthy the soil in the compost bin is going to be before I think about how healthy I am going to be by eating fresh, local and organic food.

Sunday is Xi’s 30th birthday, and he is not a happy camper.  lol!  I tried to tell him 29 is much harder than 30, but he won’t listen.  We are celebrating today; having some friends over for a BBQ.  It has sort of turned into our mid-autumn celebration this year.  I found this amazing sale on pork ribs... 99¢ per lb.  So we have like 10lbs of ribs to grill up as well as 2 large ziploc bags of corn not to mention the enormous salad.  (I have no idea how I fit everything in my refrigerator.) I also make him a cake, chocolate with cream cheese frosting, as requested.  Unfortunately the frosting was runny in the container, so it is a very sloppy cake.  I’m sure it will taste great though.  (Let go of the perfectionism!)  I was also a sneak and got crepe paper streamers and strung them up.  One says happy birthday and the other is black.  I actually hadn’t thought of the whole, “You are 30 your life is over!” joke aspect of the black streamers at first.  Just a happy coincidence.

The only thing I really didn’t get down that I wanted to was clean the house up a bit.  I really wanted to vacuum and maybe dust and straighten up the dining area a bit more, but I have pretty successfully let go of the need to be perfect (for the moment anyway) and I am just letting it be.  Besides, I’m such a neat freak it really isn’t that bad.  Just not up to my own insane standards (Thanks mom!).  lol!