Springing forward

Hello everyone!  I'm so glad Spring is here!  With that being said, let's backtrack a little.  This has been one of the fastest winter seasons I remember.  With so many weeks of snow and school cancellations, my dental surgery, inconsistent schedules, abrupt illnesses, it sent my head spinning.  Here is a small glimpse into those weeks spent.





















Highlights for me this winter have been the Daddy/Daughter Dance, dinner out with my straight A student!, Nathaniel's play these days are so much fun, his self feeding is fun too!  Rosemary is growing leaps and bounds, is beginning to say a few words when prompted, she can now put items "in", which is something we've been working on for years.  She's learning how to self feed using her spoon which is amazing, she's as joyful as ever!  This season was a wonderful mirror into my own growth.  My lack of focus and planning is what stood out to me most over the last three months.  As the children are getting older, I'm seeing how much more I have to work on these things, not only to have a more functioning household, but to become a better model for them as a parent.

The season had a way of stretching all of ourselves in ways that are necessary for growth.  I've come out on the other side celebrating in the ways we all have changed and grown, and learning how to rejoice, even in the chaos of it all!

Refreshing

With all the snow and closed school days behind us, we are focusing on one thing this week, Spring, Summer, and gardening.  Our first step into that glorious manifestation was buying seeds, making plans and dreaming for warm sunshine.   Each year we make changes to the garden layout, decide what we're going to cut out of the plans or add.  This year we're adding more potatoes and have 6 rows already in the ground as of last week when the temps were in the 70's which is unlike this week where we're getting more snow and freezing participation even as I write this.  Such bi-polar weather we're getting this season, which has proven to really reveal and stretch my patience more than I'm willing to admit.  It's times such as these, that with this winter card we have all seemed to have drawn this year, that we grow, mature a little more and reflect that which nature has always been reflecting back to us, that we can be peaceful during a lot of chaos, we can grow during a lot of chaos, and we can have faith in the unknown and trust that all is well, even when it feels the times we're in are so tremultuous.   







So here's to the most sought after change in seasons I've ever experienced.  I honestly can't wait to feel the warmth and sunshine on my face that will stay with us for more than a day or two, and look forward to what's ahead, yet at the same time, trying desperately to enjoy the days we're in.





 

Importance of goals

Life can be really drab and boring for me when I don't have something to focus on.  I've always been a "learner."  About 4 years ago, I came out of a depression slump in the course of about 4 hours one Saturday afternoon when I had what I call a reawakening of a dormant love for knitting.  It went something like this. Read a blog post, saw the knitting pattern, made the phone call to a local yarn store, ran out the door, by that evening I came home with the newly bought yarn, needles and book and I've never been the same since.

 







So back to goals.  One of my goals this season has been to build a fire from scratch.  It has always intimidated me, which seems a little silly to me today thinking about it.  So on Sunday, when I had a house all to myself except a sleeping baby upstairs, I went outside to gather wood and branches for kindling.  And so the building of the fire began.  After about a 1/2 hour of tending, it was roaring and I was really pleased with myself.  I felt confident with my newly found survival skill.  Its the best feeling in the world when you set a goal and an intention and succeed.







May this continue to be a simple lesson for myself on the importance of setting goals.

this little corner

In this simple little corner of our dining room sits a chair, side table, and season book basket. In the basket are a good bit of our autumn books along with the books the children have been creating.

They each love to sit and read over their books aloud to me, or quietly to themselves.

As this is our third new reader in the house, it's been quite an exciting last few months as she familiarizes herself with new words. I still do most of the reading with her in the larger picture books, but I know it won't be long before she will be called on to read to her little sister.

{Speaking of her little sister Rosemary, she is recovering well. This has been her most painful surgery yet, as her incision is in the back of her neck, and her bones and muscles are healing from being cut through. Saying all that, she is slowing getting around by crawling and makes more progress each day.}

a children's garden

Before the weather turns cold, I was reminded that it's time to get our bulbs in the ground. I always forget to plant bulbs this time of year, busy with school routines, extracurricular activities, and birthdays. With all that said, we decided to get our bulbs in the ground yesterday afternoon.

So I did the initial digging, and Elise did the planting. She caught on pretty quick which end to plant "down", she's our little gardener in this family, always has been.

So what did she plant? Tete a tete's and grape hyacinths. We decided to alternate everyone other hole, hopefully they'll come up the same time.

That's the beauty of this "children's garden" I've had in my head for so long. It will grow as the children grow, adding to it each year.

Some Spring day in the future, I envision the children playing outside and "color" will be spotted in this new garden we created. The beauty and awe of "their" garden will surprise them, reminding them of this spot that has been long forgotten during the late Fall and Winter seasons and lure them into the new season as it begins to awaken. See you in the Spring little garden!

Seeing Green

I'm seeing a little bit of familiar in everything I do these days. G R E E N. It's everywhere I look. It's in my garden, my drink, my meals, and in my quilting. I've started a long project that's due just around the time of Lena's birthday this fall. I fell in love with this concept of quilting last Fall when I made this table runner. For me the hardest part of getting started is completing the first square. I get stumped toward the end, but with one square now out of the way, it should be smooth sailing. It was interesting how the color I didn't realize was there all along turned out to be the most predominant color. As I kept looking through my stash of fabrics, I saw more and more of it. The color green. I love it so!

Summer is :: 2

Summer is :: writing about summer eats

Summer is :: 1

We have been busy!

For us, summer has already started. School is out, new activities have begun, our schedules have all been shuffled a bit and we are already feeling the intense heat of summer, even in the last weeks of Spring. I am starting a series for the upcoming weeks on what summer means for our family, the series is entitled “Summer is::”. Please join along and share your summer with us!

Summer is :: New outdoor toys and bike accessories

this moment ::

Inspired by Soulemama's {This Moment}

{this moment} - a friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from my week. I want to pause and savor this moment!

Strawberry Picking ::

May marks the beginning of one of our favorite family outings - Strawberry picking - right next to Blueberry picking in July, Peach picking in August, and Apple picking in October - so many great things to come!! Our family really looks forward to each of these seasonal adventures, which seems to always change somewhat each year, depending on the weather, crop, crowd, etc. This year, we really wanted to find a new farm, something not too far off the beaten path, not so commercial, with big yields of fruit. For you locals, this year we found this spot which met all our goals in mind.

20 pounds later, we headed home to start working of our strawberries, for more yummies to come!!

our easter ::

We had a fabulous Easter weekend, lots of great family time spent together!!

Hope your Easter Celebration was memorable!!

Planting Day ::

Today we decided to get started with planting our seedlings into our garden. First up is Squash Zucchini. Its big enough and healthy enough to "leave the nest", so out it goes!

There's lots more to come and work to do, it will go in stages, but let the fun and work begin, I'm ready! I have big plans for this garden!