Josh's New Dumptruck

josh has been looking for another truck for a few weeks now. it is the house joke that josh eats, sleeps and breathes the search for a truck....and today he found his gem. it is a little rough around the edges but he is pleased as can be with it....and so is jack =)

Our morning walk

lately i have felt like a not so great mom bc jack just seems unhappy.... and what i mean is that he is throwing tantrums a lot...which i know in my head is just probably being a 2 year old but it doesn't change the fact that i feel it is some reflection on me and my parenting. he is usually so content to "play" at whatever the chores for that day happen to be...planting, watering, shoveling, baking, mulching....to him it is a game and he finds fun in it...not so this past week. all this to say that today was a return to happiness and it filled me with such joy and a sense of accomplishment i didn't expect. i decided that before we started tending the garden, we'd go for our walk and he just bubbled with laughter throughout it...we walked past our sprouting corn into the woods where he quickly found a tent caterpillar (tom just asked me what these turn in to...so i looked it up... click on link to see the moth)...and bc he wore his boots, we slid down a ravine and walked through the boggy water, it was such fun...even though i forgot my boots so i sogged back to the house afterwards =)
i showed him what wild ginger looks like and we dug up some roots and munched a bit...i was impressed that he actually liked it...a sharp taste.
i realized today how much i inwardly view mothering as my "job" and how easy it is to feel "good at" or easier still "not good at" my "job"... i think there is probably a healthy mental removal that parents do...to not be swayed by the emotions of a 2 year old =) i am just not all there yet.

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef423.asp

Windows, Diapers and a Loaf of Bread

pete put up the windows today!!! AND started the insulation! kelley and adam finished the wiring too....it is amazing that this is happening and we are so blessed to have friends working on our house...it makes it all the more special...
i thought i'd put esme's diapers on here...bc i am being totally honest when i say, i have done (am doing ..jack has regular diapers) both and that cloth diapers are truly just as easy or easier and SO MUCH LESS EXPENSIVE. grace..josh's mom...gave me the diapers (i have 36) and some nylon covers, my friend elaine gave me these clips which just grab the cloth...so easy...and some other covers......there is something about it that i just enjoy ...i like the pile of diapers all clean and in a stack next to where she sleeps...i like that i am not filling up a landfill...and i like that she has something cotton next to her sweet skin...it really is worth it.
and the final photo is of my dear friend marybeth and her wonderful husband brent! outside their new home!!! they just moved into town..and their house is a DREAM!! i am so excited to have them closer....marybeth discovered an orchard in her back yard today! what fun!

Placenta Pops

ok...first of all, i can see how this is kinda gross but hold back that judgement until you hear the whole story bc then you'll think it is even grosser!! =)
i read about people who saved placentas for all sorts of reasons...the most fascinating was folks who don't eat meat bc of the fact that something must die in order to eat it...and that placental material is the only "meat" that isn't killed...soooooo, drumroll....they eat it!!! i found spaghetti recipes, cookie treats...even smoothies! (just kidding....about the smoothies)
i didn't even for a moment desire to eat what connected jack and esme to myself but i did want to do something special with the placenta...i mean, the alternative was just letting it go wherever all the other icky body type material goes...so why not save it for something?
josh and i decided to choose a tree and plant the placenta underneath it...sorta a sacajaweya-fish-under-the-corn idea...or was that poccahantis...anyway, you get my drift...
now, the gross part is yet to come...
when i came home from the hospital with jack and then with esme....i wasn't all about preserving the placenta. in fact, i left them in the back of the car for...o, 2 weeks each! eeewwwww.
they were quickly upon discovery transferred to the freezer...to make, shall we say, placenta pops! =)
we planted jack's tree today...a vitex chaste tree (look at a photo when full grown here... http://www.delange.org/ChasteTree/ChasteTree.htm)
for esme, we bought a pink dogwood which is actually a native tree and not a cross with a peach which i had been told.
i'm so excited to watch them grow....the trees and the kids!

photoless

alas, there is something wrong with iphoto so all the photos which captured today are lost into never never land. all the same, it was a lovely day... this morning, the kids and i headed to a midwife appointment...it seems i am overdoing it...which i know to be true.
sometimes i think a person's strengths are also their weaknessness...in my case, this is certainly the case. i really do blossom in the midst of projects...what creativity God has given me seems to feed off of wood and mud and hammer and nails. and i love people...my josh, my kids, my wonderful friends...my family and adopted family...and want to fit as much of everything possible into each day. the trouble is that sometimes trying to fit it all in means that i actually miss out on any one thing. the rushing makes for less intimate conversations, forgetfulness (on my part) and loss of the fullness of the immediate moment....not to mention missing the quiet times of rest and all that this brings into our lives...soft conversations with God, listening to birds, watching the wind...just BEING and being still.
i think when my mum died, this accentuated the already busy part of my mind...feeling something of an urgency to "seize the day". but i am a fool if i think that redeeming the time means getting a lot of stuff accomplished. if anything, i think Christ urges us to redeem the time for eternal reasons....waiting on Him, listening to Him, serving the downhearted and broken by listening and holding...
hhhmmmm...i have a long way to go in this regard.
anywho...
going to the midwives office is actually much like visiting a friend...i feel so happy there...i met with monica today who didn't mind that jack slid on the cooking mittens usually covering the stirrups and that we made balloons out of the latex gloves. =)
we stopped by ms bell's house to give her a 20 questions game =) it is a computerized hand held thing that our friend's creighton and hunter told us about. you think of something in your head and then it asks you 20 questions to which you can press "yes, no, sometimes or unknown" in response...and it guesses what you are thinking!!!!! i mean, not all the time, (ie...josh went on and on about how he fooled it and i said, well, what did you choose...and he said "sex") he is so crazy.
anywho...thought it might be fun for her to try...i'll keep you posted on that one. and THANK YOU to all who have written her cards! she tells all about them...what the front looks like, how excited she was to receive them...and that she is eager now to see if she has a card in the mail. bless her...
being so close to the park, we then went to see the otters and bears and owls and ducks...all out and about...at memorial park....such a spectacularly spring day for it....
after lunch and naps for the kids, kassie and i worked on finishing the siding for the chicken house....which is catywompus ....sorta glad the camera isnt' working =)
kelley and adam have been working all day on the wiring for the extension...and pete has been nose to the grindstone with siding and building walls....
they are all outside around the fire now....
we cooked up a bunch of steaks my dad and sandra gave us....they are devouring them as we "speak"....
well, the kids are both fast asleep....sleeping the deep, unfettered sleep of a loved children....
i am not far behind...
to God be the glory for all things....
all my failed attempts and all the fulfilled ones too....He is worthy of it all.

Josh's Valentines Present

i made this box for josh for valentines...ages ago i know....i put the snails that jack collects on our walks in the top of it...but couldn't come up with anything for the bottom...we just found this luna moth but it doesn't really work either....alas. i have some larger snail shells...maybe that would work...hmmm...ideas?

loving on esme

when esme sees a ceiling fan, it is like seeing an old friend. she grins so big as if to say "there you are!" she also giggles when i lean down and kiss her neck and cheeks...priceless, beautiful moments.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

we woke up this morning to such an amazing day...windy and warm and perfect. we decided instead of navigating our kids through church...which we still have not come close to mastering, we'd take a walk and pray...then go out for brunch. we saw some beautiful laurel blossoms..hence the pointing =)
i have a new favorite kid-friendly place to eat...5 day star on the east side of town. there is a room in the back for families!!!! couches, chalk board, toys, kids table...it was soooo easy with crazy jack!
we came home and each to his/her own sleeping spot....josh and jack watered the garden for me before snuggling down together...pete and kassie on the lawn.
we rented "juno" to watch this evening...all of us forbidden to work =)
andy is here today too...fun to have lots of company!

cont photos from sat morning post

Goodness Grows and Jane

This evening, kassie, jack, esme and i went to Goodness Grows (a wonderful fairy-esque nursery just a few miles from us) to purchase 2 trees for jack and esme. actually, for their placentas =) ???
more on this soon...
what i want more to write about is the final picture of these 4...of jane.
she is an inspiring lady....i love her strong hands, her seemingly endless knowledge of plants and her sincere desire to find the right plant each time i go. although she is completely accommodating, i have never seen her smile as big as when she held esme. it was such a beautiful moment.

Sunflower House

joan anderson...my dear friend and jack's "granjoan" gave me this book at Christmas time...it is so fun. it has so many ideas of making a garden a child's paradise...one idea is to plant sunflowers in the square plot intermingled with scarlet runner beans...and as it grows it will make a house for kids to play in...
i dug a square-ish shape and then covered the "floor" of his house with cardboard and then woodchips....then added good dirt around the edges...and we planted and watered our seeds ...excited to see how it turns out.

Poop Walk

jack loves to find poop in the woods ...he feels that all of it comes from deer...so he yells "deer deer poopie!!!!" loudly upon discovery =) i've seen scat posters...when his new room is done, we'll get him one. after our walk, we make playdough poopie that looks like what we saw..or close enough anyway=)

the "hotel", the tortoise, the scare!!, and the rest =)

1. the "hotel" - pete and kassie are sleeping in the cob...they are troopers for sure =) there is actually an upstairs loft with a double bed...pretty comfy. but we have whiporwills here...and i thought everyone had them but i have realized there is a slim band of habitat which supports them. we love their advent in early spring...it denotes the end of winter. their call reminds me of when josh and i first moved here and lived in a 30 year old hunting trailer...=) we built a 2 x 4 bedframe up really high so that our heads would be at the same level as the little window in our room. there was a whiporwill with a sense of humor who would perch near that window and call ALL NIGHT LONG. we would begin laughing and end crying ...well, ok...not really crying, but there were times we wanted to throttle him. =) anyway, it is always a surprise when visitors spend the night..a shock for them...bc the loud call doesn't begin until dusk...and then it is a chorus!
there are funny looking critters too...
here they are and you can listen to their call!
http://www.vhtrc.org/forum/whippoorwill-sound.htm

2. the tortoise - jack and esme and i have moved 18 tons of gravel into this foundation, one shovel at a time. i needed to bring the floor to level...some corners needed a foot of gravel while others only needed inches. we are hoping to have some clay delivered this week and then i can start mixing cob!!! it'll take me a long while to do this but i love chipping away at it...

3. the scare - i walked out the back door and saw jack clinging to his dad at the top of this ladder...i knew i couldn't scream bc he might see my fear and let go! he was just fine though...he knew his daddy would take care of him.

4. the rest - came around the corner and saw them all snuggled together...what a nice way to end the day.

The Kassie and Pete Workcrew

pete and kassie are dear friends...josh and pete have so many memories together...and they have been building our house extension! it has been such a blessing bc josh hasn't had to think about it....he is so busy with the tree business that he hasn't had time to build...so it has worked out so well having pete building. they are staying in the cob "house"...and are such easy house guests...jack adores kassie ...i think he thinks we just got him a new playmate =)

Tenderness

This morning jack, esme and i visited monica's mom, kim. i was a little worried at first that bringing the kids would not be a good idea. jack seemed to have gotten up on the proverbial wrong side of the bed and i am never quite sure when esme's gassy moments are going to hit...but having them there actually was just right.
jack crawled up on the couch and "petted" kim...and then when she was emotional, kissed her. the honest affection from a child is such a sweet gift...
my heart aches for kim and her family...
i saw today something i remember clearly seeing in my mum...a parent not wanting to let go. i can imagine that being a mom, you probably always feel your "kids" need you no matter how old and mature they get...
after we left, i had planned to go to the nature center just a few miles down the road,,,but i didn't have it in me....i just drove home. the kids were both asleep when i drove down our driveway...so i let them sleep and just sat when the car stopped. all the stuff of life just pales in comparison to what they are dealing with...it just floats away.

Compost

everyone has their method...and here is mine. i try to get everything i can into that compost bin...which is just a 2 sided, open to the ground structure made from wood hanging around. so, what makes it into the bin?
1. i have a paper shredder in the pantry to shred any bit of paper that might think it wants to go in the trash (i am better and worse at this at times...i have gone through phases lately where i just throw everything away and forget to shred!)
2. all non-meat food scraps
3. tea bags, coffee filters and grounds
4. dryer lint
5. anything organic...like an old wool blanket that harry the dog ripped up
6. egg shells
7. wood ash

all this i put in one side (the right) and each time i put something in it, i cover it with "duff"...which can be grass clippings, wood shavings...i use a bale of hay...for ease. keeping it covered seems to knock out the smell, flies in summer and it keeps it moist and warm so it breaks down faster.

today, we planted 2 types of cowpeas and 3 types of beans...watered and mulched with compost and pine straw. it probably sounds like i have done all this before this is the first time FOR SURE that i have tried to grow so much....i read things everyday i didn't know (ex....who knew greens and broccoli and peas were cold weather veggies? everyone but me =)) i love learning all about gardening and seasons and even fertilizers! in the book animal vegetable miracle (you are going to think that is the only book i have ever read!) it talks about how we are so accustomed to getting any fruit or veggie when we want it that we have stopped learning where they originate and what time of year so much is grown.

well, i was tickled when i started shoveling out the compost, it was so wet and rich...so it really worked!