Done: Eat, Pray, Love

This book had been on my to-read list for a while but somehow it kept falling from spot #1, not sure why. I finally picked it up last month and, throughout the first (Italy) and half of the second (India) sections, I was enthralled. This was a woman I could relate to. And she was discovering her spirituality. She was coming into it even. Maybe if I read the book I would come into mine?! About halfway through her stay at the ashram in India, I figured out that that was indeed not going to happen. No longer smitten, I read on but became increasingly annoyed with the author. By the third section (Indonesia), I was reading only to finish the book and move on to Wild Comfort. All in all, I would read the book again for a few reasons--it demystified ashrams, Gurus, and even mediation for me a bit. But I am not going to see the movie...

Done: Our Garden Beds

For me, the best part of owning this new house of ours is having a garden. We bought the place knowing that it needed a lot of work, including a backyard pool to remove. This became our first priority over nearly everything else as I had this burning desire, after all of the transition, to literally root ourselves to the land. Our five garden beds provided all of our vegetables over the summer: sweet and hot peppers, kale, chard, kohlrabi, endive, lettuce, eggplant, and squash. What a joy it has been to feed our family from our own backyard.

Monarch Migration

After watching a large and lumpy Eric Carle-like catepillar transform into a brilliantly colored Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly over the course of a few days in July, I am now certain that butterflies are nothing short of magical. I am completely enchanted by them. While in Texas over the summer, we visited a butterfly garden and a volunteer there mentioned to me that we should be on the lookout for Monarchs migrating to Mexico in late September. Butterflies migrate?! How did I not know this fascinating bit of information? What is even more fascinating to me is that it is the 3rd generation of offspring of those who flew south who migrate back north again in the spring. Truly amazing this universe of ours... The same volunteer who told me of the migration also noted that milkweed is a host to Monarchs (as dill is to Swallowtails). I did plant some milkweed in our garden and a small butterfly bush but I don't expect visitors for another year or so. Returning home after a short walk today, though, little N spotted a beauty. We stopped to admire her in front of our neighbor's butterfly bush and then we saw another and another and... another.

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.

{this moment}

Soulemama's Friday Ritual. I am joining in this week.

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...

Remember to Breathe

I am not exactly sure how to reenter this space. It has been so SO long. I don't think I have ever been gone for such an extended period of time. How I have missed this little corner of the world--the safety of it here, the real coziness, the support, and the quirkiness of it all. Normalcy is {somewhat} returning to our lives. We have survived our third move within a year and a half and a kitchen renovation and are no worse for the wear {so far}. I am looking forward to posting again regularly with kitchen and garden updates from this topsy-turvy life. Happy Summer to all of you! xo