Digging it Up and Soaking it In

We spent one whole glorious day outside today in celebration of the first day of spring.  Our faces have been really kissed by the sun for the first time this season and, somehow, I feel stronger for it.  

Hello Spring

I am coming up from air, from homeschooling, from mothering, from living.  Oh the air is sweet up here.  I am hoping to stay for a while. 

 How are you?

Winter Outside

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Winter Inside

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Winter Unfolded

I have been living in anticipation of winter for so long that it is almost hard for me to believe that it is here.  And the best part is, I am enjoying it more this year than ever have before.  

Being from a warmer climate, the Northeast winters are something of a mystery to me.  I have lived here for almost eight years, and it is only now that I understand that whenever, I mean whenever I go outside, even if it is only to take out the trash or dump the compost, I must wear a coat if it is in January or February.  I do not know why it is has taken me so long to grasp that concept but I have finally gotten it.

As a result, I am enjoying the blustery outdoors a whole lot more--the icicles, the shots of red in seas of white, the enveloping layer of warmy white over almost everything--all of it reminds me of the wonders this world offers forth at any given moment in time.  How blessed we are, all of us.

Winter Walking

It has been cold, cold, cold (for us) around these parts this winter.  Our temperature has stayed in the mid-twenties for nearly the whole month of January.  This has meant a whole lot of indoor time for our little family of five and a whole lot of time together. 

We have started playing games, I have been knitting a lot, we have been painting, and cleaning, and sticking, and drawing.  And yesterday I think we just about ran out of things to do indoors and so we took ourselves outdoors and to the woods.

We have a middle child who is very sensitive to the cold so this meant only a little bit of time in these woods (and a whole lot more time spent getting on and taking off gear, but what can you do...). 

But the few moments that we spent out there were full of white, sparkly magic.  We saw birds' nests and animals tracks,  burrowed holes in the snow made into warm igloo-like animal homes--Bernd Heinrich's Winter World right before us, a true wonder to behold.

The Coming of Winter

{Playing guitar: not gardening}

{Napping: not riding bikes}

{Roasted root vegetables: not raw tomatoes or green beans}

Done: Our Kitchen

Fall 2010, how did you come so fast? Summer just seems so much shorter than the three other seasons, doesn't it? Maybe it is because I love it so much...

So much has been going on in our little world--days seem to sweep by at a breathtaking pace, but there is some slowness approaching. I can feel it. I laid down in the grass yesterday and let our youngest son climb and nuzzle and roll all over me while a warm yet cool perfect September sun beat down on us.

I am looking forward to some quieter days right now and looking back on all that was accomplished over the summer. For the next few days I am going to post projects that we finished over the summer starting with Our Kitchen.

It was long. Brutal. Horrendously slow. But I think it is all worth it.



In the end, I think it is all in the details. Perhaps one of my favorite parts of our new kitchen are these mason jars which store all of our grains. I saw a picture similar to this one on Kyrie's blog months ago and was inspired to order my own.



The end product of our many many months of living with a slop sink and (on the days that we were lucky) an old stove is nothing fancy or especially original. But it is totally and completely ours.

Summer, Oh Favorite Season of Mine

What is there not to love about this season? Brown/red shoulders, chubby baby bodies shimmied into tight little bathing suits, plastic pools and dinners outside... I wonder if sumer would be so fun if it happened all year long? Somehow I don't think so, but I can't imagine why...

We just got back from a trip to see my family in Texas and from a close friend's wedding in California only to find the last vestiges of Spring burned into green greeness here in New Jersey. Funny that I likely would not have noticed it had we not left for the month of July but seemingly all colors merged into one in our absence.

There is much work to be done around this cozy little, messy little place of ours. Vegetables to be harvested (cucumbers! tomatoes! even a pepper!), lawn to be mowed, lots and lots of old but new now toys to be played with. Ahhh, summer, please hang around a while...

Shades of White

all around us these days
porcelain baby skin
warmly cream lambskin
rough edged finger nail tips--
broken, cracked
reddish whites of tired eyes
crisp, crinkly snow
crumpled sheets that have been washed
over and over again
swimming in white this winter

The Dailiness of it All

Since the birth of Little C, our third, and our return to New Jersey, our lives have taken on a pretty regular rhythym again. We make bread on Mondays after the naps, I do laundry on Wednesdays and Sundays, paperwork on Thursdays, we eat soup on Sundays (and have recently returned to the church, we paint or craft on Tuesdays, etc... Most of the time I relish in the regularity. I love knowing what each day is going to bring and, too, love the flexibility it affords us as a family.
Recently, though, I am weary of the tasks that comprise our days. Maybe it is the winter (February is such a tough month), or the sickness (we seem to be through it now), or the fact that our 6 month old has decided not to sleep, or knowing that we are moving into a house in less than four weeks that currently has no kitchen, or a toxic combination of all of the above...
Today as I was kneading bread (which is usually such a calming task for me), I found myself almost fighting with it. Grabbing in, holding on--not the easy folding and flowing of weeks past. We need a change of scenery. Tomorrow night we will spend with my husband's parents. Hopefully we will return on Thursday with slightly fresher eyes.

Oh the Weather Outside it Frightful

but this fire is so delightful

and since we've no place to go,


Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Winter Nature Table

Our Seasons Round Exchange package has been sent and received. My partner Nicole made us the loveliest gifts.

We got a beautiful felt angel. She is so etherial. In order to keep her on our nature table, I stripped branch of its dried leaves and hung her from it along with our window star (also from Nicole).

In addition, we got a perfect felt dove, a beeswax ornament and a postcard, all of which are residing on our new winter nature table which is, as always, a work in progress.

Winter Woolens

Folks, I think I may have a problem. Well, that may be the understatement of the year and I would pluralize it--make that problems, but I am specifically speaking of my obsession with our winter wools. I LOVE them. I love everything about them--their dreamy color, their funky European fit, their wooly wooly smell. When I say I love everything about them, I mean REALLY everything.

I ordered them this year from Nova Naturals. I haven't put the long underwear on the older kids yet but the baby wears them every night. Having had two other babies that remained consistently chilly, I just love sleeping by a baby who is cozy and snugglely and warm.

The price was a hard pill for me to swallow initially, but they are really worth every penny for us. I have been careful with the care of them and hope that they will see their way through a few seasons. Warm warm warm. Wooly wooly wool.

Autumn in the Northeast

Before having children, I did not pay much attention to the seasons. I am sure part of this had something to do with growing up in Texas (where the seasons change less dramatically) and spending a great deal of time in California (where all of the seasons are mild). Pre-kiddos, many of my wakeful hours were spent indoors--in a classroom or an apartment building.

Much of my time is spent outdoors these days and I am quite literally astonished at the beauty of this season. Last weekend must have been peek foliage for Northern New Jersey and what a sight it was to behold. I saw yellows so luminescent that I quite literally felt as though I was closer to Heaven surrounded by their light.

Quotable Sunday

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost

Nature Table Exchange

This year Kyrie started the Seasons Round Exchange for the exchange of fall nature table gifts. Exchanges always make me nervous--I have only ever actually participated in one--because I fear that I will be completely incapable of fulfilling my part of the bargain. Considering that we have a newborn and two other children under four, I was probably a bit brazen for signing up for this one, but, alas, I am so glad that I did. My partner was Kelly.

I knew that Kelly needed a knit squirrel for her table--I mean, who doesn't need a knit squirrel?! I used a pattern from Knitted Animals and some scrap yarn for this little guy. He didn't take long and was a whole lot of fun to make. He came with his own "tree" which can double as a play block, made from a branch that Brian cut into pieces for the kids. Along with some other small items, I included a book and some knitted leaves in autumn colors. The whole package was so much fun to make and give. I can't wait for next season's exchange. More tomorrow on the beautiful items we received and what we have made of our own nature table.

Quotable Sunday

It is good to be back, back to my kids, back to my husband, and back here to my little home on the internet! Although we are just on the precipice of a new baby in our lives, I am hoping to be back here in a more consistent manner now that we are more settled in our new digs and our new routines.

I am going to join my Kyrie for Quotable Sunday to ease my reentry into this home of mine and to help get my juices flowing again. Nikki Giovanni is always good for that...


A Summer Love Poem


Clouds float by on a summer sky
I hop scotch over to you

Rainbows arch from ground to gold
I climb over to you


Thunder grumbles, lightning tumbles
And I bounce over to you


Sun beams back and catches me
Smiling over at you

Focus on the Now

There are so many many events upcoming in our lives right now (a visit from family, some visits to friends and family, a move away from, a move to, a settling in, a new baby) that I am finding it hard to stay present and to enjoy the moments happening right now. The coming spring, my active children and this post are all reminders to revel in the present. Soule's post has inspired me.

Right now, I am


bemoaning the dying of the first spring flowers.

loving Seastar Community Acupuncture. Catherine Lowe, my acupuncturist and a certified midwife, is so attentive to my needs and very receptive to any questions that I may have. She and my midwife Linda Glenn have provided me with medical care that has surpassed any of my expectations. I have renewed faith in my body and mind--as corny as it sounds, it is true.

dreaming of the chicken coop that we are going to build in our new backyard (not really in the now, but still so much fun to think about)

eating Starburst candies by the handful (your fault, Aunt Donna!)

feeling kick, kick, kick

Spring Children's Books

Gerda Muller "writes" four of my all-time favorite children's books. There are only four of them, one for each of the seasons, and there are no words, just simple pictures. Spring, which I have recently pulled from the collection in hopes of sunnier days to come, pictures children planting vegetables and adults plowing land. Many of the activities pictured show life a far cry from what our children experience today, and there is something about their simplicity that lends comfort to the reader.
I also just picked up Elsa Beskow's Peter in Blueberry land at the library. Last year, Norah was much to young for her fantastical writing, but this year the book is grabbing her a bit more. Beskow's books require imaginative leaps from their readers that Norah is just not quite ready to make yet, but the pictures are beautiful and spark conversations that take us in a nice direction. This is one book I am going to have to get for our Spring book collection.