City Mice, Country Mice

Some of our dear friends who live in cities came down for a visit in the "country."

It was hot at the farm (holding baby goats is hard work), so we had to cool off with some sword fighting in the sprinkler.  Good times.

Thanks for coming down, y'all!!

Big Dreams

Each kid had a dream today.

Henry: mad guitar skills.

Svea: curly hair.

Corinne: stardom. Dude, where is my stage???

Conquering the Closet

I have a condition. 

And this condition serves me well when I look into my mom's closet that holds her clay/ceramic materials and it looks like this:

And I get to turn it into this:

Labels and all!  Plus we vacuumed!  And threw away the trash!  Imagine!

I love love love to organize...

Sunset Namaste, Y'all

After 108 sun salutations at Railroad Park, there was a beautiful rainbow to close our practice.  Namaste, indeed.

Your Summer Guilt Trip

In two weeks, public school begins for many people.

So there is a clear message to parents of children whose summer routines look different from school routines.
Some parents work at home, from the home, outside the home, around the home, for money, for nothing, for peanuts, for hugs, for the neighbor's tomatoes.
Some kids go to school at home, away from home, or sleep away from home.
We are all different.
And at this point in the summer, we parental units need to start feeling a little guilty.



By now, we, us, have stopped responding to, "Mom, watch this!"
We also have become numb to, "Mom, look!!"  Especially while said Mom is driving.

You should feel guilty, you so-called Mom.



You should also feel bad about the fact that when your child(ren) calls out, "Mom?!?!" that your first response - before even knowing the request or compliment - is,
"No!  But thanks for choosing me!"



If you have more than one child in the home at any given moment, whether or not s/he is related to you, if you get irritated at all with the fact that all comments, suggestions, questions must occur simultaneously, then you should seriously feel bad about yourself.



And the space between questions?  The space when the actual answer to the question emerges? Summer proves this space doesn't exist.
If this bothers you at all, you are probably a bad parent.

There is no room between the following questions/comments:
"Where are we going? What are we doing? Why? When? Why is this so boring? I am so bored. This day is already ruined."
Bad parent.



If you have a child over the age of 5 months, then s/he is probably asking you:
"When can I have my own phone? iPad? Kindle? Laptop? Desktop? iPod Touch? iPod? Samsung thing? Kindle Fire? Facebook account?"
"When are we going to get there?"
"Do we have anything to eat?"
"Why is this so boring?"
"Can we go buy something?"

If these questions annoy you at all, again, feel bad about yourself.



Summer is not eternal. Seasons come, cycles continue. This is a phase. Your guilt, exhaustion, fatigue, love and persistence will fade then glow then leave you in the fetal position.

But you can do it.

Only two more weeks until the season changes.

If you are discouraged, come on over to my house with your little ones and we'll squirt them with the hose in the driveway while we feel guilty about our lack of energy.

Seriously, y'all, feel guilty. It'll be okay.

We Adopted!

A garden bed!

Out at J. Darby Farm, there are many raised beds that are laying fallow this season...so I asked Farmer Joyce if I could clear one.

She said Yes.

Fallow:

Not fallow:

She said You have to lay down layers of newspaper and then wood chips. 

I said Okay.

Henry said Okay, then quit.

Corinne said Whaaaaaa?

She said You have to keep it organic.
So I went to Petals from the Past and got seedlings.  I provided the seedlings, J. Darby provided the soil and watering.
Any extra food I grow will go to the CSA.
Everybody wins!

I also put some pinwheels at the bed corners to dress it up a bit, Svea-style.

Now to name the bed...

Baby Moon Shower 2013!

Aunt BeeBee (sp?) is having a baby!
So we had a shower!

Logically, I consulted Pinterest and my crafty friend Vicki for gift advice.

First I made a diaper cake. Woop woop.
Then Vicki sent me this link and so I worked on my version with what I had around.
Came out cute!
I added pacifiers tied around each cup.

The girls "helped" me "wrap" it:

And then we gathered all the gifts around Patches the Rocking Horse:

I had intended for Svea and Corinne to love this shower, but Svea loved wearing her Flower Girl Wedding dress and watching a movie alone:

While Corinne just wanted to jump on Mimi's bed with Aunt Brooke:

Awesome. Baby Moon is so going to have awesome cousin role models.

First Alaga Experience

Polka-dot Beauty