A little bit of us.

Snack time...you would think I might go with the "Pottery Barn" staged clean house look for one of the first new home pictures. Sigh. I don't think so. Either my house is never tidy or I think about taking pictures at all the wrong times. But the truth is, abundant life and Pottery Barn could never exist in the same catalog. ;)

In progress. I still haven't quite figured out my plant arrangement yet. These are all transplants from an area that we need for the garden. The only thing I bought (well I guess I'm buying it all, sheesh!) is the sand.
The yard came well landscaped, so now I just have to spend time and energy (fat) to make it what I want. Win, win, win.

With butterfly face paint remnants around her eyes. She looked like someone hit her for 3 days after.

Brilliant little healthy man. He rejected "Beans and Franks" for "Carrot-n-Bun". I don't think that carrots in buns is ever going to catch on as a lunch time favorite. He only got through 3 bites.

I had an enormously pleasurable little video clip of her shucking the corn. Sadly it was not small enough to post. The play by play is really not going to be entertaining but it goes something like this. Sophia gets the corn, shucks the corn with some cute commentary, asks for help but finishes well, and eats the corn...because after all the hard work there needs to be instant reward, no waiting around for the pot to boil.

This is what we have all been waiting for...well at least for the past two and a half months.

The image of a homestead. Not the one we had imagined but a lovely start to what could become and "urban" homestead. We feel blessed. So many discoveries to make. We have discovered fruit trees, edible viney things, mice (that are now at the landfill), leaking, flooding, and how much fun it is to invest in something according to your purposes. For the first time since I left Florida I have been able to look at my yard and move everything around.

We are able to walk to several places. Most importantly Nick is walking to work and home for lunch, and maybe little people to school in a few weeks.

So sweet isn't it?

This is how it looked as we were getting everything moved in. That is our apple tree. Up and behind the apple is a wild purple plum (good for jam if the birds don't eat them all first). There is also a peach, and I recently discovered what looks like Muscadines. We also have good foraging type plants. Wild strawberries, wild onions, garlic, and dandelions.

This is how it looks now. Nick is creating two terraces for our vegetables so I am moving plants .

Nicks first terrace wall. He asked some guys down the street who were busting p concrete if they would deliver it to our house. We will have plenty more because we have gotten notice from the city that we need to replace the sidewalk in front of our house as well. The spoonful of sugar is that I will have plenty of material for more walls and walkways, borders and such.

This used to be an all brick walkway. They had some strange landscaping bed with decomposing mulch right in front of the garage door. We thought it was silly (plus it was the reason the garage was flooding). The whole area ended up having this ugly concrete under the superfluous bricks. So now we have a walkway that isn't silly; just a little ugly. But my Herb bed is nice.

Sunday

Samuel has a new trick we are all excited about. So we set off early this morning for the park. Coffee at the park, 72, happy children; it was a great way to start the "day of rest". I love watching Nick and the children live. They love their father and giggle and play, tease and wrestle.

He picked the prettiest tree in the park to climb. He is really growing so fast. Last year when he got his summer haircut he still had a little boy face. But this year I feel like he looks very different. He has such a clever sense of humor. And apparently great balance. He is now a two wheeler. This time last year we were celebrating Lillian's two wheeling achievement. Little brothers won't lag far behind.

She is a funny runner. One of the reasons #2 is two wheeling is that Sophia wants his bike. She is always climbing up on it trying to make it go. Thankfully Gigi and Grandpa gave Lillian a bike last summer to ride until hers arrived from California. 3 bike + 3 babes= well, it equals.

If that were oatmeal in her bowl I am not sure this is the lovely look I would have captured. But pie makes every one happy in the morning.

I like pie in the morning too.

Production

I twiddled my thumbs all winter waiting for this day. The day when we could pack three week-ends full of activity into one Saturday. We woke up and headed straight for the back yard. Almost, after coffee and pancakes. This week-end the boys made banana. But most of the time Lillian does the pancake making. No boxed mixes, she's the real deal. I bet most mothers get sick of eating the redundant foody creations their children make. I made grilled cheese sandwiches. I made and made and made grilled cheese sandwiches. I also insisted my father eat and eat and eat them (at least that's how I remember it). I think I even insisted he take some grilled cheese sandwiches on a fishing trip. Gross, can you imagine eating a slimy grilled cheese sandwich on a boat in muggy Florida. Never the less my sandwiches were a culinary art. Pancakes are a much better redundant food. After years of week-end pancakes though, I feel like a bowl of plain corn flakes and wheat puffs would be a nice change.

We still don't have leaves on all the trees. Try to imagine a chicken coop in this picture. That is how I like to imagine it, and add some blueberry bushes and blackberry canes. Oh, also a clothes line, herb garden, screened back porch, and a cherry on top (an art studio just for me). Sigh. Anyway, the compost cube has now been assimilated into the garden and (theoretically) will be a nice "raised" bed garden. Nick has great mapped out rows. He gave me a bed. Lillian and I threw our share of the seeds right on top and then threw our share of top soil over them. This is obviously a very "theory" intense garden this spring. We may get some beets, potatoes, carrots, lettuce...we may not.

Production. Vermiculture. Worm bin. Canvas. Great multi-taskers. She is so cute!

This is a good-will pillowcase. I have to get a small gray satin ribbon for the top. This was a super easy dress for Sophia. 1$ chic!

We make our own pizza. Who cares, not very interesting. It is just an excuse to stick this goofy picture of #3 in this post. But, "pee-pa" is one of her favorite foods. Now, if she grows up and makes pizza every Friday night and #1 is making pancakes every Saturday morning...have mercy. You may need to imagine a home gym in the backyard day dream.

Performance

We seemed to have a week of performances recently. Lillian had a musical at school, Samuel rocked out in the living room, Sophie is always performing (generally by throwing herself on the ground, grunting and gasping "hep,hep, up, up", and finally going to see "Hairspray" with two crazy eight year olds.

She got to play the triangle and it made a lovely "ting-ting" sound. Star of the show! It wouldn't have been as delightful with out the happy "ting-ting" through out the song. Speaking of ting-ting, the ice cream truck passing by my house is also making a nice ting-ting...wondering if there is a sub-conscious love of ting-tings embedded with in my inner child.

I don't have many pictures of #1 these days. She is always moving and going and at school most of the day. By the time she gets home it is homework, dinner, hungry sleepy children. Not the best time for pictures. But I still love her.

She had a very sad month this winter after we had to choose to put her sweet cat to sleep. She was hit by a car and not repairable. Bless Lillians heart. She was so mature about the whole painful thing. I almost lost it at the vet when all three of my children were mournfully petting this lovely cat good-bye. It must have had the same effect on all the ladies at the animal hospital because we received an inked "Mildred" paw print and a kind note signed by all the women in the office.

This is how we spend our "snow days". But not any more because it is SPRING, right?
Fingers crossed.

The Sun is Shining!

He was using his sweatshirt as a scarf. Such style that one. He has a girlfriend at school. He draws her sweet love notes, with hearts and "I Love You". He makes my heart flutter...I don't think she is effected by his adorableness in quite the same way his mother is. She is spunky and headstrong and has hair that goes "boing, boing".

As soon as I took this picture she flung herself on the ground for a bit of slapstick drama. It was muddy...funny huh? She thought so.

Right now He is in the middle of a great big fairy tale. I sat in for show and tell at school a few days ago and boy did have a tale to tell. Always something new. Last week I had to climb to the top of our 2 story evergreen and help him get out of his "crows nest". Somehow he was hung up on a branch and yelling for salvation...hanging, feet kicking. Not sure how long he had been calling for help. I had images of Pooh-Bear coming down branch to branch. That wouldn't do. So, up I went. Today he told me "Hey mom I am just going to give these flowers a drink, ok?". Uh, I didn't think they would appreciate the drink he had on his mind. That boy!

Growing up...in a hurry

Love!

If you don't have anything nice to say...

This winter has been difficult. Sickness (etc.), sadness, snow, snow, snow (etc.), longing...you get the idea.

Thus the hiatus from documenting.

But with the sun and the daffodils I have returned anew. Ready to take on...maybe not the world, but certainly my world. We are looking at some changes on our horizon. But I can't put my finger on how or when those changes will transpire. God is good, and unlike me, this winter, He was always in a good mood.