Last week...

Last week I:

Planted in my garden
Sat in a quiet house with a hot cup of coffee and a good magazine
Washed what seemed like a hunded loads of laundry
Felt the urge to purge, so I'm going with it

Enjoyed seeing our tent set up in our front yard for a few days
Missed writing in this little space

Drank a lot of coffee

Bought a cozy for my french press

Went to 4 baseball games, and saw my son hit his first triple!

Decided I really need to pick my knitting needles up again

Decided my sewing machine has been neglected for too long as well

Discovered this band via this most lovely blog

Visited Terrain and sought and found inspiration

Made a Strawberry~Rhubarb pie to share with friends

Played musical beds

Heres to another great week!

Happy Monday!

Ten things...

Inspired by soulemama:

Sweet treats mid day delivered by a husband
The peacefulness of a house with a sleeping babe
The sounds of a neighborhood with kids playing and birds chirping
Sipping coffee with a friend
A messy house (I'm trying to ignore it right now!)
Surprise dinners with neighbors
Flip flops
The red wiggly worms eating our leftovers
Green ferns some still curled some unraveled

a year of me....

I had meant to post about Christmas and Solstice and I just kept avoiding it. We had a quiet but busy holiday month and enjoyed having my mom in town from Florida to stay and spend Solstice and Christmas with us. There was lots of baking, cooking and merry making!

Here is it Jan 9 and with the holiday decorations down I am reorganizing our furniture and trying to find homes for things that were put out of place. We switched around two of our rooms and so I am now trying to reorganize where things are going to go....

I have signed up for Shannon's :: Inside Out E-course :: I am quite excited about this class, but also a bit anxious ( although the nerves are calming down)

We are working our way back into the groove of things, and still trying to seek that rhythm that works for us...I've been reading over here at this blog for inspiration.

In this coming new year I am going to make a commitment to blog at least a few days a week. Blogging lately is something I have struggled with..I get all caught up in other blogs and begin to feel a but self conscious in my own writings and pictures but at the same time feel so inspired by reading them.

2011 is going to be a year of me. A year of self discovery. A year to live with intent and purpose so that in turn I can show, teach and help my children do the same, live with intent. Instead of just moving through the days in a robotic motion. Now I have begun to make this change already last year I began working on that. But there are many days that go by that I know were mindless and without intent. So my desire is to decrease those days even more and increase the days of intent and purpose and living and being happy and creating ART! Oh how I want to create, and then sit back and look at my creations and feel proud of them!

Of course I have a family and a house and friends and a life and I can't just up and leave to go seek my inner most desires and intentions...so I will need to be creative in my process of finding time for me and finding time to create and then finding time to document...

2011 is going to be a great year!!

Stopping in...

I thought I pop in on here really quck and say hello! I have a quiet house and a chance to write. my computer appears to be sick...it's running very slowly and so it's a pain to use.

Life has been busy but quiet these days, it's amazing how big of a presence Samson was, without fully realizing it. So we (I) are adjusting to this new quiet without him around, it's not the same to come home to an empty house.

The cold dark November skies are just begining to appear, we have been lucky so far in having a very Sunny but fairly mild Fall. So with the turning of the weather begins the inward turning of our days to the house, the kids go outside as often as they can, and I encourage them to knowing that their days will be limited soon.

I am turning my thoughts to our house, and with one winter past in which I didn't accomplish very much I am planing out my to-do list for the coming days. There are bedrooms that need love and a kitchen that needs reorganzing a laundry room that is doing a terrible job of keeping itself tidy and a garage that needs lots of people to come and take away our unwanted, not needed, too big, to small, stuff~

I'll leave you with a list of things that are inspiring me::

Salt and chocolates inspiration journal

Elizabeth Mitchell's new song

Soulemama's library

this rug

there are more, but alas I am on my husband computer and so I can not remember the links that I have saved on mine....I shall return soon with pictures, I am trying my hardest to remember the camera, sometimes I am so caught up in the moment I forget to capture it on film, but I am trying!

and one last thing, next week will be our first Thanksgiving alone, just the five of us and while I am excited about cooking and alll I am a but sad there will be no family around. I am trying to come up with a menu that includes a little bit of both of our families foods with some new ones too to start our own traditions. What are your favorite foods, traditions for Thanksgiving? I'd love to hear them!

~peace

home again home again....

Well after a 2 week hiatus in which I had planned on posting and putting up pictures, which as you can see did not happen, I am back. We took an originally planned then canceled then back on again trip Westward. The five of us a Great Dane and a suburban! We were bringing our foster doggy Bella back to her owner (jay's boss) out in Wyoming, along with his car. The plan was for the kids and I to stay at Nana and Popa's house while Jay went on to Jackson Hole to drop off dog and car and spend some time with Keith.

The drive out there was fantastic, it took 2 FULL days and then we had just a short 1.5 hour drive on the third day. The ride back was a bit more eventful, with the other suburban we were driving back home broke down just close enough to the off ramp that we were able to roll up the exit and over to the gas station. Were we flagged down a farmer just getting off of work, who called his buddy to come and help, and whom them called the local tower to come get us. The guys could talk! As can Jay and so we spent a hour talking and waiting and talking some more, the kids played in he car all the while. We learned that all those sunflowers they grow are for oil, the weird grain growing that I could not figure out what is was is Millo, which is grown for feed for the cows but apparently is EXCELLENT when cooked like popcorn! We also learned that one Windmill (of the hundred we saw) can produce enough energy to heat 300 homes~ We also learned that Famers in Kansas DO NOT like cars from outside the USA and so thankfully we had a Chevy, otherwise they may have just left us there~ of course Chevy is a gov't engine and so it has it's own issues, one famer was a Ford guy the other a Dodge....The Dodge guy has just recently returned from a stint in...I can't remember but his troop was called upon for the army reserves, he has a wife and 8m old., they are moving back to Ellsworth(the small little Kansas town we broke down in) and he just got a job with one of the farms there. There is something I like about hearing the stories of others. Always seems to bring me back to earth from wherever I seemed to have too. So anyway our "non-hick" town had a hotel, gas station Alco, DQ, Pizza Hut, John Deer supply store, auto body shope and a car dealership (used), of course it was 11 miles from the highway, so we all piled into the front of the tow truck, with kids on laps and drove to our "non-hick" town. We then ate at Pizza Hut, slept in the hotel, then woke had a hotel breakfast, shopped at Alco, and just before we left ate Blizzards and lunch at the DQ! Ahh it was grand....grand i tell you!~ The mechanic had to drive an hour each way to get our parts and thanfully had us on the road again by 12pm the next day. We were thanfull to them all for helping us without a second thought, without wanting anything, just happy to help because they can, they insisted we pay it forward and do the same for someone else, we agreed.

Of course missing aprox. 9 hours of driving time and really throw things off, so to make up for it Jay insisted we drive till midnight that night( remember this is on the way home) I should also state that by breaking down where and when we did, we missed a softball size hail, tornados and lots of wind and rain...so I'm totally cook with breaking down, rather than going through storms.

The rest of our journey was good, crazy at times but good, and we made it home safely around dinner time on the third day....

to be continued.....

sick...

This has been the standard position for the last two days well going on three now. If she's not sprawled out, she's curled into a ball under our sick quilt. Which is in need of mending these days...it's really very much loved!



They girls are sick, sick, sick. Stomach bugs, most likely.Rotavirus perhaps? they are troopers though, both of them. Annie is sleeping the days away waking here and there to attempt to be involved in whatever I am doing...not long after her head is down on whatever object is closest to her and she is back in a haze. Eliza has been her happy, go- lucky self until this afternoon. They've both had it for the last two full days and I am sure it will still be around tomorrow. They are both drinking, little sips of plain water, coconut water, and watermelon juice, and eating a bit of yogurt, baby cereal here and there. Which is good, of course they are throwing most of it up but I think at least some of it is staying down. Trying as best I can to keep them from dehydrating.

Somehow I have had lots of down time (the girls do love to just sleep when they are sick, which is really a blessing, and I am thankful they're bodies know what they need)...and with a bit of a push on my part managed to actually sit at my sewing machine and ease back in to sewing...it's been forever it seems since I sewed something. It's still in the works, both of the projects but I'll get them up here as soon as they are done. They are both projects that I can sit for just a few minutes and get a little bit done each time. Not huge time takers which is good.

The rest of this household, is fighting really hard to keep those germs away from us, especially this mama! Ginger and garlic tea, along with some probiotics are a must!

My computers charger cord got chewed so it's been dead for the last little while, so I haven't downloaded any pictures lately, that will be a good project for today.

in my kitchen....

:: I find inspiration::



:: I am making a mess, although this is actually looking pretty good ;)::



:: I get lost in other people's worlds, and sometimes in my own world::



:: I am making tomato sauce with tomatoes from our garden
to freeze and can for those long winter months that still seem so far away::



:: I am finding peace.
:: I am finding my rhythm
:: I am learning to enjoy the cleaning up as much as the mess making
:: I am drinking a lot of iced coffee
:: I am desiring more space to work, to cook, to bake
:: I am waiting patiently for that day to come
:: I can let go of the unpleasant occurrences going on in my life and just be

In my kitchen....I am home.

going "home"....

Last week my husband I and I traveled North ( to New England). It was a busy but good vacation. On our way up we made a quick stop in the little old town of Ipswich, MA, to pick up my sister on our way to the family BBQ. While there I managed to pull out my camera and take a few quick drive-by photos. We also had time for some gorging on Ipswich Clams (I chose steamers this time, normally I am all about the fried Clams, I got those later on!)

Above is the house I grew up in, from around the age of 6 or 7 till I left home at 18. It has changed some. It was white with green shutters when we lived there.

The backyard was huge! We were really lucky to have such a big backyard. It's hard to see it in this picture, Jay had turned around before I could get a better shot.

This is looking down the street, which seems so much smaller now?

See that little house in the background to the right of my old house? Well an old man name Emile lived there, he was a kind man, I remember going into his house with my mom to bring him things and to get things he was giving to us. I don't recall what we gave him (most likely jellies and jams my mom had made) and I don't remember what he gave us but I remember thinking how odd his house was. I think is had that old musty sorta smell and everything was vintage. We used to joke that his house fell from the sky because of where it was built, in the back and right next to our backyard.

I used to have gymnastic contests on my front yard, sometimes with a friend but most always by myself. I would start at the right side and do some sort of flippy thing, handstand. Usually I would wait for a car to drive by so they would see me. It was a busy street so I never waited long. I used to hope someone would drive by and see what a great gymnast I would make and ask me to be on their team. They never did, but I never stopped hoping.

I also remember how I go the mail everyday. I was always so eager to get the mail. I would come out of the house and swing up onto the railing all in one shot using one arm to hold the door open and one arm for momentum, one a newspaper person drove by and saw me and asked me to do it again, I ended up in the local paper...which was cool, but it wasn't a gymnastics team.

This park below was literally around the corner, it has the park and lots of baseball fields. It too has changed, a few times. The kids really wanted to stop and play but we were running out of time.
Ipswich is small, and although it has grown it is still small. There were around 13,000 people living there when I was there and I love how my mom, and I still say there are 13,000 people surely the town has grown in the last 10 years?!
It is a locals town, everyone knows everyone....and then some.
The town is very old and a lot of the homes are historic much like this red one here. I always loved these homes, the floors were crooked, lots of exposed beams and wood.
It's hard to see it since we were whizzing past but this is the elementary school I went to, one of two in town. My older brother and I went here along with my sister and eventually my mom ended up working here.
The Choate Bridge Pub, a very local hangout, with the best friend clams. I worked here in high school, my Dad, my mom and my brother also worked here, I used to go here as a kid with my Dad and order a hot dog at the bar. The owner at the time told me he grew the hot dogs in the back on a tree, Stan the man also sold hot dogs in a cart around town, they had the nubby's on the ends of them, I really like those kind....
Looking downtown....

Fire station. There is one more door here that got missed, and there is one other small station too on the outside of town, two stations=small town!
Sometimes it's good to go "home".

she screamed and insisted she hold the box.....

the box just so happened to be an open box of corn starch....

She ate some...


and looked ridiculously cute ....



she made hand prints

and then just stood up and walked away.....


just kidding....those feet are not quite ready to move just yet, close but not yet.

Mother's Day.....

It's quiet here still, except for the sweet noises of this little one who will be soon, be turning 1. Who just so happens to be doing the exact same thing this morning...playing in the recycling

The beautiful music of Ingrid Michaelson is playing. A cup of coffee is being enjoyed, and the coo, a bit too cool breeze is blowing through the windows, and actually it is so cool I am in long pants my favorite slippers (that I thought would have found their way into my closet by now) and a sweatshirt. Mostly because it is that cold.. 47 degrees I believe (730am) and partly because I am refusing to close the windows.

Daddy and the kids are still sleeping and while it does seem a bit backwords for me to be up so early and them to be sleeping on Mother's day and all, but I am really not one for sleeping in anymore. I have grown to enjoy, even love my early mornings, I love the quiet stillness of the house, I love noticing how the rooms change with color as the sun rises. I love watching Eliza (who is almost always up with me) move about the house in her own little world discovering new things. Always popping back into the kitchen to see me and give me a quick smile or giggle or touch, like she's checking with me.

This cute, happy little creature was discovered by Jaden, a baby grasshopper perhaps? We are not entirely sure....He looks as if he is raising his antennae at me as we would raise an eyebrow....


As I fell asleep last night with Jaden and Annie snuggled next to me, I couldn't help but feel blessed and so thankful they chose me to be their Mama.


On this Mother's day I also think of my own Moma, who surrendered herself at such a young age, who gave up so much of her own self, to be the best mama she could be.

Happy Mother's Day!!


and lastly this too is making me happy, balls of torn of thrifted sheets.....
being made into a rag rug....for a living room in dire need of a soft spot to sit on.....

I turned a year older on Friday.

This is not me a year older. ;)

This is me age 8.

Just after cutting off my long, very long, down to my butt, long hair.

I love how such pictures can conjure up such memories of a moment in your past.

My mom was pregnant with my little sister and mentioned that she would not be able to wash my hair as often and that I would be washing it myself, so the option was mentioned, of cutting it.

I don't know how we went from never cutting my hair to chopping it all off? But we did, and this was the result.

The hairstylist cut off the ponytail I was wearing. My mom still has it, saved in a plastic bag. She always kept it in the same draw in her bureau and I often would open the draw just too see my
hair.

I wore those little, thin plastic headbands in my hair.

Everyone who sees this picture says I look the same, exactly the same.

I am okay with that especially as I get older.

I like that I look young, feel young, act young (most of the time)

The last year was a big year for me, for us as a family.

I had a lot of those 'lightbulb" moments where all of a sudden something in life finally makes sense.

I like those moments.

I wish they came more often.

Some were big and profound,

some were just small little ones.

I hope this year goes by a bit slower.

Last year went to fast

"Bloom where you are planted", or in my case "transplanted".

This is very hard for me, but I am working on it.

31 is going to be GREAT~

the quiet stillness of the morning..sort of.

I awoke early this morning as I always do. Partly because Eliza is ready to be awake and play and partly because I've grown to like the early morning time before the rest of the house is up. It helps that I'm getting enough to sleep to do this of course. Because if not well then I am wakened by the sweet sweet sounds of their sometimes loud little voices!

I took her into her room to change her thinking ahhh I'll go down have a cup o' coffee and type a little post. Then, Jaden woke and I took him back to his room. Then Annie woke and try as I might her little self just would not go back to sleep. So down she came blanket and pillow in hand plopping herself on the couch. As I sit here typing this Jaden has since come down and they are snuggling on the couch together.

It's been a long week well not really but this morning it feels like its been a long week. Jay's mom is still here and we've been enjoying her company and presence. I think she's been enjoying the homemade dinner's, as well as getting in her Nana time with the kids.

I have been fighting a wee cold all week and I think it's finally decided to surrender itself my powerful germ killers are just too much for them to stick around. Jaden came home from school on Monday informing me 9 kids were out sick out of 22~ ack thats a lot! So the immune building drops came out and have since been given 2-3 times a day all week. On Thursday he came home said his head hurt, then his belly hurt, then he spiked a fever. As it turns out this was the course of the ick germ going through the classroom. So Friday he stayed home woke feeling hot but cheery. The fever spiked some that evening but not as bad and this morning it seems there is no fever. I'd like to think that his echinacea blend along with his probiotics some good homemade chicken stock soup were factors in helping him with a mild but swift recovery.

His teacher is very diligent about hand washing and santizing and so it occurred to me well my mom really :) that putting back the good healthy bacteria would be a really good thing for him., Which is why we are giving the probiotics, we are actually all taking them. I feel good about that.

Eliza by the way is 5 months and really deserves a post of her own but I just need to put on record that she was sitting all by herself yesterday on the floor holding herself some of the time with her hands! She was also trying hard to crawl on the couch getting a knee up under twice.

She is a beautiful mix between her older brother and sister. She has this amazing contentment with life, she is sweet and strong and snuggly and full of smiles. It's amazing how each child has impacted me in such profound ways. All totally different but all very profoundly. There is something really really cool about that.

~eliza was just taking a cat nap in her swing next to me when she awoke with a start and is now screaming and smiling at the top of her lungs happy as a clam! I love it.~

the house is now longer quiet and still..............

we've been decompressing.....

Well really I have. After such a crazy busy but fun summer. I just sort of let myself fall away for awhile. Its been good, really good.

I don't think I posted this yet? It''s is first day of school picture. School is good. It was a bit rough in the beginning, and well there have been a lot of days off so far? Which make is sort of hard. They are just starting to get into learning/teaching mode, after allowing some time to transition into their day. His favorite part is playing soccer during recess. He comes home craving Mama time and needing to just play...... So outside we go for a good hour or more throwing the football or playing soccer.

Fall has arrived...apples, pumpkins, soup hooray! I took the kids apple picking last Monday (no school) and we had a blast! We picked and picked and picked till we had apples spilling out of ours bags and stroller. So now apple pie, crisp, sauce and juice are in our near future. Along with, apple pancakes, apple muffins, cookies and breads!! Ooh there is just so much to bake!

At the moment we are preparing for the arrival of Jason's Mom who is coming home for 2 weeks and a birthday coming up too.... which means I need to get myself in gear and get the house in order for her stay and for lots of little ones running around, in case the weather outside decides to turn it's back on us. At the moment is Beautiful out. A slight chill to the air crisp and clean with lots of sunshine!!

i'll be back with pictures, that are stuck on my camera and we'll have a picture party of the last few weeks....Eliza by the way is 4 months old and so so very close to sitting up by herself, amazing!