this one's for Shawn

I think some parents shy away from houseplants for this reason...Kenna learned the baby sign for "flower" today as she also emptied a vase of water. See how she wrinkles her little nose like a bunny and sniffs?
The mess was worth the fun of watching her learn and discover things new...
What's a little dirt on the floor? She makes me smile...

Another Good Saturday

This is what Kenna did every time I pointed the camera at her today...
Apparently, she was happy to be at the Herb and Garden Fair at the historic Poplar Grove Plantation. We had a lot of fun sniffing different herbs and flowers and choosing our own Peppermint, Basil, Chamomile, and Honeysuckle to take home. We even found a Chocolate Mint! The car has never smelled so good. I told Tristan I thought so and his reply was, "yeah, it's better than Kenna's smell."
My favorite find of the day was this plant...Tristan's favorite find was the free, blue candy. My Dad used to grow these clover-leafed, pink flowering plants all over our yard on Jersey Street in College Station, Texas. I remember pulling the stems and chewing on them to taste the sour juice inside. Now I know they are called Oxalis Crassipes or 'Garden Hardy Pink' and now I will have them in my yard.

Here is what came home with us...
I heart good Saturdays...

Singing-Time

We sing in the car a lot. OK, I sing in the car a lot (admit it, you do too). There's nothing like encouraging a family sing-a-long only to hear your four year old pipe up from the back,
"Mom, could you be quiet? I want to hear the music!"
Ouch.

Tonight, Tristan has been singing the "Chalky Underwear Song". He made it up as he was standing in his room after his bath, naked, erasing the chalk drawings on his walls with his underwear. It goes like this- "Chalky underwear! Chalky underwear! Chalky, chalky, chalk-eeeeeeeee underWEEEAR!" I told him he still had to wear those underwear.
"Yes!! Chalky underwear!" he says.

I love life with a four year old boy.


Singing-Time
I wake in the morning early
And always, the very first thing,
I poke out my head and I sit up in bed
And I sing and I sing and I sing.
-Rose Fyleman

To-do List

one: Plant large, beautiful Cherry tree-
check.
two: Build Gardenfort in perfectly shaped bed ready for vines, sunflowers and other beautiful things-
check.
three: Figure out how to take pictures of the yard without including the not-beautiful, still dead, full of weeds grass-
huh.

Morning Sunshine

I sat down across from Tristan at the breakfast table this morning and started to get annoyed with the sun shining directly in my eyes. Then I looked up and saw this.

Oh. Wow.
Hey sunshine, could you just hold that pose for one moment while I etch this permanently onto my wall?

Oh Dear.

The inside of the house is now clean but this is just hopeless.


And I'm afraid all this gardening has gone to Tristan's head.

Bunnies and Garden Glubs

It's Gardenfort time! Tristan has his new tools and is ready to plant. Not pictured - the gardening gloves he has been begging for (one has already gone missing). Upon finding them in his watering can Easter basket he cried, "Mom, I have my very own garden glubs!"
The blood meal is (hopefully) to be a deterrent for the wild bunnies that will otherwise destroy vines and veggies we plan to grow.

But these two can definitely stay!

Another day, another clogged toilet...

...and another five loads of laundry, dirty floor, dog hairy carpet, sink full of dishes...
I guess I get a little behind on indoor life when Spring comes around.
This morning Christy called to invite us down the street for coffee and I almost said "No, I really should start on this laundry" But wait, coffee and adult conversation and a little sanity -or laundry.
"Where'smykeysKennagetyourhandsoutofthepotty
TristangetyourshoesLet'sgo!!"
So as I was leaving Christy's house a couple hours later feeling much better about facing this messy day, Christy joked that I would blog about laundry later on. "Ha ha!" I said. "Right. How boring."
Later, as I was sitting at the table watching Kenna smear egg yolk in her hair and reading Real Simple magazine, I read this quote-

"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy,
even if it is only picking grapes or sorting the laundry."
-E.B. White, Letters of E.B. White

I laughed out loud and thought how funny to read this today and also how appropriate since last night Tristan and I finished our second book by E.B. White this month (Stuart Little this time).
I may not enjoy the work but I enjoy a clean house. Warmer weather is coming our way tomorrow and we have big outside plans so better to get the house clean now and be done with it.
So it's back to laundry and floor scrubbing and egg-yolky hair washing I go with a lighter heart.
Although I think I'd rather be picking grapes.

Happy Easter!

today

Today I watched Kenna chase her own shadow on the beach.
Tristan, who usually won't go near the water, actually let the waves wash over his hands and feet. (Thank goodness for those big black boots and a new water gun he was determined to fill.)
The sun was warm.
The air was fresh.
It was a good day.

a sign of good things to come...

"Bees make honey and it sure tastes good. Did you ever smell a flower? Well, it sure smells good! And you'd be good if you could see how good being good can be! Goodness! Goodness! Is God's idea you see. He tells us in the Bible how good being good can be!" ~lyrics from 'Goodness', The Music Machine

Arrival of Spring

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade." ~Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Gardening Shoes

I told you the weeds were bad! This was just one of many loads and the source of many blisters.

All this work requires the right shoes. There is nothing cuter than a little boy in shorts and his big, black boots. As in, "Mom, can I wear my big, black boots to church today?" "Mom, my big, black boots will be good for school!" And my favorite, "Mom, I was wearing my big, black boots when I was sleeping and they made me awake!" I am enjoying my new polka-dot Garden shoes (thanks mom!)

Now if only we could find some in her size...

Field Trip

We spent the morning shivering in the cold but thoroughly enjoying a tour of the Whispering Dove Goat Ranch and Apiary. Before today, I had never heard the term apiary (it's where they keep bees!) and I hadn't really considered eating goat or rabbit meat (I couldn't quite bring myself to purchase the frozen selections but perhaps another day...) I did buy some of the pure, golden honey and wonder if it might help with our seasonal sniffles. This picturesque little Ranch just a few miles from our house is home to goats, chickens, pigs, rabbits, bees and a lovely couple dedicated to raising healthy animals for healthy food and other natural products - as well as educating people like me who never heard the word apiary!

After finishing Charlotte's Web this week, Tristan was excited to find plenty of cute piglets AND spider webs in the barn! I loved seeing all the baby animals which reminded me spring officially begins in only three days!

Nursery Rhyme

Load 'em up

Let 'em Play


Let 'em get wet on a not-too-cold day

Buy a Cherry Tree


Dig a big pit

For two little boys - all this dirt is a hit!

Glow Stick Bath

Today we went to the craft store for yarn. We came home with $25 worth of not-yarn, including these...
Just think, all that extra play time in the tub, had I found my yarn I could have been crocheting.

Bookworms

Tristan and I are almost finished with Charlotte’s Web just a few days into reading it together. My little boy has suddenly gone from needing big, bold illustrations (preferably of trucks) on every page, to suddenly begging for “one more chapter mommy! Let’s get to the fair!” We lay on the big spare room bed, under Great-Grandmother Geye’s quilt, looking up at our paper lantern lights. Tristan calls it “the reading spot”. Perfect.

Kenna has become quite a little bookworm as well. Her favorite book? A gorgeous little picture board book, Spring by Gerda Muller. Our current coffee table stack includes Winter, Autumn and Summer as well as a bunch of Beatrix Potter stories, Golden books and other various board books to choose from, but day after day, I find my Kenna bear toddling up to me with that book in her outstretched arms. “Eh? Eh? Eh? Eh? Ssssssssss?” she exclaims, as she pushes and shoves and climbs her way into my lap. Yes, this is still all she ever says to me. I can’t get enough of those little baby hands turning the thick pages and pointing to favorite pictures. Again, perfect.

The dishes and laundry can wait…we have a County Fair to get to and Spring to celebrate.

A Lovely Mistake

After the storm clouds and sick clouds descended on us last week I was able to spend a lot of time finally finishing this crotchet-edged baby blanket. I started with green thread and stitched once around before I realized my mistake. I did not have enough thread. After a few searches around town, I knew I wouldn't be able to match the color so I found myself with a few options. I could tear out all that work (too painful), I could leave it with just the green edge (too unfinished), or I could keep going with a new color (hmmm?)
I ended up discovering the "picot" stitch. Now the green and pink together mimic the little rosebuds on the fabric perfectly! Hooray for lovely mistakes!

Bring in the Marines...Wives!

We are Marine Corps wives, my dear friend Christy and I, and we felt like a couple of pioneer women today as we worked in our yards. We are Strong! Capable! Empowered! Able! Hoo-Ra!
And now….we are Sore!

I drove down the street to Christy’s house this morning to enjoy breakfast, playtime and the Noggin channel with our boys and girls while Christy ventured out to rent a gas-powered tiller. As the kids pushed a bubble mower we pushed that tiller, creating new flowerbeds that will keep us busy all summer long. I have to admit, there was a moment when I thought we might be in over our heads with our little project. Tillers are unwieldy creatures and before we figured out how to use it correctly, we were probably a funny sight.

I wish I had a picture of the work in progress –or at least one of Christy laughing as she was drug around by the cumbersome tiller, or of Tristan and Peter waving sticks in the air like pirate swords, or of Kenna’s sweet toes in the pretty patch of moss she discovered, or of baby Anna’s bright blue eyes as she blew her cereal raspberries at me- but somehow my blistered hands didn't find their way to a camera. Those are the photos from the day as I see them in my head. I wish you could see how beautiful it was.

Christy and I have big plans for the flowers that will grace our homes this summer. As we work, we are continually referencing our husbands…what they would say about this, do to that, or plant here. We are both married to wonderful men who we know would love nothing more than to be here helping with our crazy schemes- or at least they would love playing soccer with the boys as we garden- but they have bigger jobs to do right now. I think I can speak for us both when I say that we are so proud and so thankful for them! Because they seem so few, we cherish the days we get to spend our men and we think of them constantly, even as we garden and play. That's why when they can’t be with us, I thank the Lord we have each other.
We are Marine Corps wives. Semper Fi.

Creatures

Have you ever seen new growth on a fern?

It scares me.

To answer Tristan's question:
Sicky bugs are blue with pink and green and red parts.

Sicky Bugs

I'm not sure when it started but in our house when someone is sick we say they have "sicky bugs". Yesterday, Tristan was examined by the pediatrician for the second time this week for a fever and cough that just won't go away. As she looked in his ears he said to her (in his very sweet, small, sick voice) "there's a sicky bug in there."

Later, after a chest xray and a blue candy cane (which incidentally made Tristan look extremely oxygen deprived - not the best choice on this day), we got a call from the doctor. Pneumonia. Again. It's very minor and he is already doing much better after just his first doses of meds. I told Tristan the doctor had called about his xray and could see some sickies in his lungs. His reply,

"What color were they?"

After 24 hours of coughing fits, he finally crashed in his "cave" for some much needed sleep....

Sick Day

"Mom, the sicky bugs are making my cough hurt!"

So what do you do with sick boy and busy baby on a stormy day?

Easter Basket Lights! Well, they are Chinese Lanterns that you can get directions for here, but Tristan thinks they look like Easter baskets - even better! (Although, he was worried about the fact that they have no bottoms to hold the eggs in...I assured him we will get other baskets for holding eggs.) Great craft for a kid who likes to "snip".

Muffin Mess (Tristan insists he must "tap" each muffin before it is baked)... Paper Mess...
Success!