made in the shade.

spent some time under here today with henry and bea. just us and the laundry. hanging out.

i was working in the garden trying to prep it for fall planting (which probably should have been done at least a week ago). it's hard to think about a fall/winter garden when it's still in the 90's.

so there i was moving dirt around with two batman's running rampant around the yard when one collided with the clothesline pole. she needed some love and i was lured away from my task. she wasn't really hurt, she just really likes to be snuggled. so we set up camp for a bit under the laundry and enjoyed the privacy and the shade. and i enjoyed the company and conversation.

the garden can wait.

monday maintenance

it's been a domestic morning here. i think i've accomplished more this morning than i did in all of last week. starting some bread, hanging laundry, making some detergent, making another batch of molly's dish soap, and enjoying listening to this:



it's good morning music, but i think it would pair nicely with a beautiful sunset, a slight breeze, a strong drink, and good friends. but that's just me.
you can get a free download from junip by joining their mailing list here.

dog days of summer.

ah, the summer of simplifying. in other words, a summer of slowly filling up the van with boxes and bags for donations (not to mention the recycling bin). today the garage was tackled. matt worked on one side (his studio/work area) and i worked on the other. i think it was close to 100 degrees outside, but by the time we were done the floor had been swept and the van was half full of toys, christmas decorations, a vacuum, and outgrown baby things. it always feels good to unload that stuff and pass it on (to those who will use it), but the job feels far from over. i suppose it could feel that way until the littles are bigger littles. one thing that felt really great was putting away the baby gate. it probably could have been done a couple months ago, but it sat to the side just in case. why we're hanging on to that i can't say, but we are. i'm just glad i don't have to look at it anymore.

the task (if that's the right word) of simplifying is a journey i will be on for some time i think. this stage of de-cluttering is the only way i know how to begin. it's not something new to me, but this go round is a little more intense and has more intention. it's about prioritizing and focusing. it's about cutting out some of the unnecessary things and giving time to the more important ones. it's about less physical/mind clutter and more open/free space. it's about less time spent maintaining and more time on personal growth. it's about less of that and more of us.

making.

~making coffee ice cubes. repeat for the next 5 months.


~making my boy happy by acting out scenes from duma with him (he's duma, i'm xan). haven't seen this movie? i recommend it.

~making a batch of laundry detergent. and in turn, making clean laundry, which then makes a pile of clothes on the bed to put away at a later time.

recipe:
1 - 2 bars of castile soap
1 cup of washing soda
1 cup of borax
i don't measure any more though. just eyeball it.

~making lunch. making a mess.

~making myself crazy by sewing a doily on to my quilt top. never again will i sew a doily on anything. (but it is cute!).


~making some lists. i'm a list maker. though my handwriting is nearly illegible thanks to the computer.

~making my way out to the hammock while the littles finish napping.


what are you making these days?

collected.

tried to take the littles out for a ride today. bea on her trike, henry on his new (thrifted) bat-scooter. we didn't make it past our neighbors house. he parked the scooter, traipsed into their yard and picked every weed he could hold. then he rode his scooter across the street and proceeded to do the same at our other neighbors house. at this point bea is saying "buckle" repeatedly, meaning for me to UN-buckle her and let her loose. she didn't pick any flowers, but she was another set of hands to hold the ones henry was picking.

it's all fine with me. i believe weeds hold up better than fresh cut flowers and they're just as pretty.

while i sat.

i spent a good part of the day feeling out of it and entirely distracted. bea had her 18m check up today where i learned that i missed scheduling her 15m one, so maybe i've just been distracted for a few months now. i think having kids will do that to you. or at least amplify it.

here is the part where i leave out the details about how i just about drove through the garage door and instead tell you how i got my head out of the clouds.

i put those littles down for nap. i poured myself an iced coffee, grabbed some music, and headed out into the sun. i sat next to our new expanded garden (that is still waiting for dirt and chicken poop) and wished there were seeds growing in it, though i know they will be very soon. i'm just impatient.



i admired the pines that are far enough from our house that if they fell they wouldn't hit it. (it's happened before). and while admiring that view i grew a little envious of the neighbors behind us with the huge garden and lots of shade free ground to have it on. (we have a lot of shade - which kind of stinks for the food growing, but i'm grateful for it all the same. less sunburn worry for the little ones).



i rubbed my dog's head. and wished i was napping outside too. time to get working on that quilt that's planned just for that purpose.



i watched dancing shadows on the house.



i wondered why we have so many more beautiful weeds in the yard this year than any other year i can remember. i thought about henry telling matt he didn't want him to get rid of the weeds because he loved them. because they tickled him.

and now i don't feel quite so distracted. we'll see what tomorrow brings.

green.

so this week's assignment for the c & c photography workshop was all about telling a story with color. and if i thought i had a difficult time last week, i really struggled with this one. this week i had the ideas but i just couldn't execute them. i tried several things and just was not happy with anything. then i lost my battery charger for the camera and thought maybe i should bust out some (very valued) film. it was tempting, but i found the charger! and then i had an ordeal that i needed to tend that kept me on the phone and on the computer much of today. i didn't think i would be able to post anything, and i was really upset with myself for letting this assignment slip. and then it happened . . .

the garden expansion.


make a diptych.



use the colors complement (red). and add a person.


an unfocused one.




make one image a square.










it's been a busy day here, but i look forward to seeing everyone else's colors tomorrow!

i thought it was april.

this week has been a taste of summer, but with a little less humidity and much more pollen.

we've been spending a lot of time outdoors but with frequent breaks inside (i've already had a sunburn).



lots of exploring going on in the backyard. eating mint and wild onions. climbing of fences. mud pies.



bubble blowing. chalk drawing. seed planting. laundry hanging. bucket rides.



and even some slow moments for mama. though they don't last long.



i have been reading so much lately. a sure sign that the babes are getting bigger and more self sufficient. i think i've read 2 entire books in a week! that is some pre-baby reading there. it's been such a treat, though i'm not getting much else done. but i don't mind.

what's on your reading lists right now?

all in a day.

today was the kind of day i needed.
busy - yet laid back. my favorite combination. i haven't picked up a stitch of knitting, sewn a single seam, or read a single chapter of my new book (all of those being things i really would like to do).

but i did start my day with the sweetest snuggles from a sleepy bea and that was a good sign. it was the kind of day where i didn't feel guilty about letting henry play games on pbskids.org for an hour while i played domestic goddess and spied bea sitting in a chair looking at books and 'reading' to herself. this was followed by some sibling interaction and bed jumping. them, not me.



then it was time to head out doors. the sun was shining but it was pleasingly cool. i had grand hopes of getting the garden ready for planting and tidying up the back deck. neither task was completed, but that was okay. i pushed littles on the swings, watched them transfer dirt from one planter to another, take countless trips down the slide, jump through the hula hoop, and torment each other here and there.

i did get the basil, parsley, and cilantro put in. i bought new gardening gloves, though i seem to use my bare hands more often than not. i watched henry find a tree to climb (his favorite part of his day), eat mint right from the plant, and move rocks. i watched bea push a rocket all over the yard, get dirt caked under her nails, and witnessed her being completely content in what she was doing.



i watched the littles follow matt around the yard when he got home, show off for him, tell him about their day, and 'help' him chop down a scraggly, dead tree. i made turkey burgers on the grill, did the dishes, spent time on the computer, listened to some great new (to me) music that was recommended by a virtual friend.

i left the front and back doors open. we listened to the birds. i saw a pileated woodpecker while i sat eating my dinner.
i was grateful to savor the little things that really aren't so little when you look at the bigger picture.

just don't call me crazy

ambitious? maybe.

our poor girl has been sleeping in a dungeon of a room since she was 9 months old. her room used to be the office/guest room and was painted a dark weird color that is hard to describe. a brown-purple something awful. we didn't touch it before she was born because we knew she would be sleeping with us so we figured we had time. then we weren't sure if we were going to have henry and bea share a room. we went back and forth for a long time. needless to say we chose to giver her her own space. for the time being. i would like for them to share a room, but for now with many of henry's toys being of the choking hazard variety, we thought it best for them both to have their own space and space for those types of toys (in henry's room).

so now, less than two weeks from christmas, we have decided to paint wee bea's room. i also chose the wrong color. i really wanted yellow. a lemony bright yellow. but pale. does that make sense? well i was so off. matt put a swatch of the paint we bought on the wall and it matches our living room & hallway almost perfectly! (have i mentioned i don't like the color anymore and want to repaint those as well? the color is looking to me like a smoker has lived in this house for 50 years.) anyhow. today i am spackling and priming (wow, we have torn these walls up!). this weekend we will go and get a lovely lavender color and forget the agony of choosing the right yellow.




yes. this is how my day looks.



and this pile will follow. i was inspired by these and have drawn up my own pattern to attempt for bea. she seems to be smitten by owls so i think it will be a good thing. if i can make it happen. and there is something to be in the works for my little indiana jones fan as well. luckily, i will have a little help with that.


well, i'm off. i better get moving : )

quandary: of the good sort

basically, i don't know what i am going to do with my day once i finish this bowl of chili.
it isn't often that i have a day to myself, but thanks to my mom, i have this great quandary.
i know i could clean the bathrooms or move mountains of laundry. do i take this time to do things i can do when the littles are
home (though i could cross them off my list much faster), or do something such as relax a bit? i haven't decided yet. i may balance the day out with both. i have sewing projects i would really like to begin and that is a task i can accomplish much better with a huge block of uninterrupted time. or i could knit while watching a movie that no one else in this house cares to see. the possibilities seem endless right now - i think i am almost giddy! but i better get on it, because i know the days are short right now.

i yam what i yam

he stands on her chair while she is strapped in. places a cracker on her belly.

tells her, "eat yer spinach, ya infink".

not bad for a monday

today was one of those days where when i woke up i felt as if i had only slept for 3 hours instead of almost 7. and that was with bea giving me the treat of sleeping in an extra hour. lying in bed with her, then the boy comes in. it is still very dark out. matt is dressed for work. he comes in to tell us goodbye. henry beguiles him into lying with us for 5 more minutes (in the sweetest of ways). the window is open. it is raining hard and i can hear the leaves rustling in the trees.

matt reluctantly leaves for work. { i really dislike mondays for this reason }. henry snuggles in under the covers. i lie awake nursing bea hoping they might fall back asleep. henry speaks, "sun up?". i tell him soon. he reaches out and gently rests a hand on bea's head. we lay there quietly for some time. i am thinking how cozy and peaceful this is and what a gift it is to be able to wake up slowly and unhurried. enjoying the cool breeze coming in through the open window. listening and being lulled by the sound of the downpour and and the swaying of the trees.

coffee had already been made. another treat to wake up to. henry requests a frozen waffle. its his new breakfast. i sit at the table and sip coffee and start a little project to do with the boy. we work on it for a few minutes and then set it aside. we don't pick it up again until dinner is almost on the table.

morning goes on as usual. music, playing, interfering, laundry. my mom stops by on her way home from a doctor's appointment. henry wants to play star wars with her and barely gives her a moment to sit and visit. bea just goes about her business. mom entertains them in henry's room while i make lunch. ahh, naptime.



i leave the house as is. normally i would clean, fold laundry, pay bills, get sucked into any number of things on the web. instead i make tea, find a movie on netflix, then relax and pick up my needles. soon i am really cold. i shut the windows and wish it was truly cool enough for a fire. i grab a sweatshirt instead and am surprised that i need to long sleeves shirts. it is probably colder in the house than it is outside.

bea awakes and soon is busying herself in the play kitchen. i continue knitting. henry awakes and soon is busying himself with many things. i continue knitting. then things get risky and i put the knitting down. bea is dazzling herself with her climbing abilities today. she even says "ta-da" after a great accomplishment. i am going back and forth as to when i should intervene. telling myself i need to let her do this. that she may fall but that is okay if she doesn't get hurt too badly. she makes me extremely nervous. a week ago during an enthusiastic dance next to the coffee table she put a tooth all the way through her lip. soon henry has her laughing uncontrollably and he is doing the same. i notice the time and realize my day has zipped by and feel this is kind of a bewitching hour. the littles are rested and content today and soon matt will be home, the steady gray and rain has made this the perfect day for settling down and all feels really really right.

discovering youtube

the other day we were poking around on youtube. henry was watching this choir for a while (which i found here the other day.)
i leave the room and come back and he is watching this

seriously. i have no idea how he got from ps22 to pomplamoose, but i loved his discovery. he liked it because she wears a batman shirt. i like it for their take on songs. quirky, fun, danceable. of course, it has been a bit odd hearing henry saying 'single ladies' and 'put your hands up' repeatedly. and bea sings the ohh ohh ohh part while bobbing her head.

our favorite though, has been this one. lots of dancing and hysterical laughing (you have to see bea's moves). not to mention its just a great song. just try to sit still.

they do covers of a great variety (and they have originals too), all of them totally enjoyable.
and boy am i relieved that was all he discovered on youtube . . .

more new neighbors

now we have new neighbors on the other side of the house. we have really had to restrain ourselves from pestering these sweet things. with the owls we were at a forced distance. they were on the other side of our fence and well, they were up really high.

these little babes are just above my head on our front porch. for a couple days i peeked at them every 30-60 minutes. it started because mama was never at the nest anymore and i was worried (those baby birds looked so hungry). then i realized she was busting her bird butt getting these hungry babies food and nourishment. then i had all this sympathy for the mama bird. so busy and never having down time. her little ones always squawking for food. i can relate to that. keep it up mama bird!

in other avian news, our owls are gone. we haven't seen them in the nest for some time. matt says the crows were hounding the nest days ago, but even before then i hadn't seen the babe in a while. it's been at least a week. i am so sad about this. i thought they would be with us longer than they were, but read that the young fledge the nest around 45 days old. i guess it was time for that baby owl to leave its nest. they will be missed.

in the dirt

this is the year we are going to try to grow more than a few tomatoes and peppers.
we are very hopeful about our garden this year. being so new to this, i am trying to be realistic and not get too hopeful. but if this year goes well i have BIG plans for next year.


we are going with the square foot gardening method. we are too busy and too lazy to attempt growing anything but weeds in the clay soil we have here. so, hopefully having raised beds will help in this department. we had a hard time picking out what we would grow. we tried to keep it simple and plant what we thought we could grow well. i hear people say grow only what you will eat and the trouble with that is that we would eat everything. we let henry choose some things to grow - he chose pumpkins, peas, and apparently threw in some seed packs of cactus and foxgloves while we were at the plant nursery (i discovered this today when i was writing down everything we were going to plant).
we are also hoping to produce a variety of greens, tomatoes, radishes, beets, strawberries, carrots, cucumbers, a few herbs and i think that is it so far. more than enough for us novices i think.


the other day the prepping of the soil was done and tonight is the night we plant most of it.
some things i think need to wait a couple weeks.


we'd love any advice or good stories from your gardening experiences.
what are you growing this year?

for the love of home

henry often tells us that he loves his house. this make me so happy to hear. it is usually the closer after saying he loves mommy, daddy, bea, and fason (mason). we also have a nightly bedtime routine where we 'crack an egg' on his head (don't ask). one for each of us, including mason and often the house. he considers our home to be family and i suppose in some ways it is, seeing as so much of our life happens in it.

over the weekend we were rearranging some things in the house a bit. (still trying to merge an entire room into the rest of the house). our solution, for the time being, was to move the tv out of the living room and into our bedroom. that allowed us to get a desk and the computer out of said room.

during this move, henry was helping matt run the cable through the wall in our bedroom. when matt pulled the dresser from the wall he exposed one hole where the cable needed to run into the wall and above that, another hole where the cable would come out directly behind the tv (which sits up pretty high). at the sight of these holes in the wall henry became very concerned. he wanted to know why those holes were there "in my home" and told matt, "no hurt my home!". he wanted to know why there where holes in the walls of his house and was getting a little upset by it. of course, matt explained why they were there and then henry was okay.

i'm just glad he didn't witness the tree that had fallen on our house several years ago. i can't imagine the devastation if he had seen that huge hole in our roof!

***and on a completely unrelated note, please go check this out. so much fun!***

more laundry business

after posting my new preference for home made laundry detergent, some wonderful people alerted me to some concerns regarding fels naptha laundry soap. in my own research of it i found some questionable information which left me concerned and confused. i'm not sure if the ingredient in question is still used in the production of the soap or not from what i have found. in some reports it is listed, in others it is not.
so better to be safe than sorry. diane of mackville road went with dr. bronner's, which i have never used, and it sounded like it smelled great and she was very satisfied with the result. so off i went to the local store and grabbed several bars myself. i even bought the mild baby soap for bea's diapers. i haven't washed a load with it yet, though i did whip up a batch today. already i prefer the dr. bronner's. it is a softer soap than the fels naptha and was grated much easier and finer. and the smell was so much cleaner and fresher. and i am only using one bar of soap per batch. i'd say that it almost makes me look forward to laundry day, but since that is essentially everyday i won't go there.

but i will say that i still prefer making our detergent and am glad that so many of you out there were interested enough to give it a go yourselves! if you find any concerns or improvements to be made i'd love for you to share them!

recipe for clean clothes (and diapers)

i've let it be known to a few people that i make our laundry detergent. i think i started right before the holidays, maybe around thanksgiving. most people's response when i say that i make the detergent is one of surprise and curiosity. more often than not they ask me for the recipe.

the recipe is no big secret. i started seeing homemade detergent popping up in blog land sometime in november. i was interested but not sure if it was for me. i didn't know if it would work with our washer (a front-loader), or really get bea's diapers clean enough, and then there was also matt's filthy work clothes (the man works hard, what can i say?). so i started looking around on the interwebs and actually found that many people do this and that most people are very pleased with the results. i found that it was a great recipe for front loading washing machines because it's virtually non-sudsing and that many people used it on their (children's) cloth diapers with no complaints. so i decided to give it a try and find out if it was for us.



well, i can tell you that it is for us. i haven't bought detergent since i started making it. and it is crazy economical. matt says it gets his work clothes more clean than store bought detergent and i say the same for bea's diapers. her diapers actually smell good and maybe occasionally need an extra rinse. as for the rest of our attire - they're just nice and clean. and all it takes is:

2 bars of fels naptha soap, finely grated (or other recommended soaps)
1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda

just mix together. that's it. i use 2 tbsp for regular loads and about 1 tbsp for small loads and diapers.

there are a lot of recipes out there and they really only vary slightly from what i have found. i got the recipe i used here. i use recipe #4, and i plan on
trying out different bars of soap to see what i like best. i just bought a lot when i first got the supplies (because it is so cheap!). you may have difficulty finding the washing soda or bar soap locally and if you do there are plenty of online retailers. my only suggestion would be to comparison shop. one of the stores here sold the bars for almost 40 cents cheaper than another location.

so if you give this a try, let me know what you think.

feels like . . .

feels like i have cotton balls stuffed around my skull and i swallowed sand. it hurts to lift my head.
thankful for hand made quilts, portable dvd players, sleepytime snugglies, good recipes to share later (when i can think enough to link to them), a husband who came home from work early and took the kiddos to the store.
hope to catch up on what you are up to very soon.