Gratitude Monday...

What I love today....

~7 weeks till absolute baby time! (35 weeks down)...

~Watermelon, strawberries, and cherries....

~New tiny baby nightgowns...

~A little girl who tells me "I love you all the way to forever and back!" also... "I love you all the way to tomato sauce and back"... she assures me that this is even better, but I am not quiet sure I follow her logic....

~A little boy who has spent the week filled with random acts of love.  Out of the blue he'll run around hugging and kissing everyone....

~Gifts of broken pottery that will be perfect for my mosaic wall project...

~Dinners on the patio at my mother's house...

~A long late night drive home made easier with sleeping kids, and a secret trip to get ice cream cones....

~A partner who lets me sleep in (sometimes ridiculously late), while he takes care of our babies, and hasn't complained once about it for 35 weeks now...

~A very important midwife visit is coming up in just a few days... (the delivery of my birth supplies!!!!)

~An irritable uterus with awfully painful evening contractions... more work today means less on labor day, and I LOVE that!

Here's to a new week!

Friday's Nature Table...

In the evenings, after Matt gets home from work, he and the babies go outside to harvest what we need for that nights dinner.

Its a beautiful, joyful, and peaceful ritual that I am grateful for.  Very grateful for.  I was looking at these pictures I had taken and I noticed something...

My swiss chard is Out of Control.   So Sunday it was time I faced the madness.  I harvested armful after armful of the beautiful rainbow chard, with an equally beautiful helper...

How many times have I used the word 'beautiful' in this post?  Not enough.  This stuff is so so so pretty!

And so is she!  It did seem just a little bit less beautiful a few hours into my cleaning, chopping, blanching, and bagging for the freezer...  But come later this summer, when our garden can no longer contain my beautiful rainbow,  I'll be so glad for all the work.

And grateful for my beautiful helper too!

For the record... I bagged 9lbs of chard.  Used the word beautiful 8 times, and the word grateful 4 times.

Thank you to The Magic Onions for bringing us together every Friday....

Weeds... and Love

Our weeds have a special place in our home.
They decorate our table.
Every day or so, Ava updates the vases, and rotates fresh greens.
I love this.
Love that something good can come from something so annoying.

Thank you Ava for you gift of love.
Our home is prettier because of it.

The new girl in town...

I planted this lavender over a year ago.
Sometime last March, I think.
I have been waiting all this time to see her bloom.
Now she has.
She's graceful, delicate, fragrant, and appreciated.
She came in her own time, but I'm just happy to have her here.

Sunflower obsessions...

Our Sunflowers are getting a lot of love around here.
They have gotten SO big.
I never remember growing them this tall before.
I guess they really like where they are, and we really like them there too.

We built our children a Sunflower house, and they love it.

But they also love hiding behind the house.

Its another secret corner.

One that is shaded and cool.

 

I asked Matt to stand by the house last week so I could show my sister how tall these flowers are.
Matt is just about 6 feet tall.
Matt doesn't know that I am using his image on my blog today.

But today is a special day for us.
On this day, May 25, 1995
Matt and I started officially dating.
15 years today.
Now we've been married for almost 7 years.
We have two beautiful children, and one on the way.
We have a happy haphazard garden,
and one very Tall Sunflower House obsession.
I love you Matt.

Gratitude Mondays....

What I love today....

~8 weeks to go!  (34 weeks down)

~Harvesting Swiss Chard... (9lbs now in the freezer!)

~Naps!

~When Matt gets silly with our babies...

~A little boy who can play with reckless abandon...

~A little girl who has a heart so big, and so sensitive I want to protect and treasure her forever...

~Homemade pizza with toppings from our garden...

~New blackberry sprouts...

~Inspiration...

~Birth affirmations...

~Spur of the moment sewn newborn hats!

Not being sick anymore!!!!

Here's to a new week!

Friday's Nature table...

A tour with Ava....

Ava spends a lot of her time explaining how she sees things.  One of her recent explanations has been Cat Nature.  She has shown each of us around the yard giving us a tour.  I decided to document Cat Nature.  Here it is, in her words....

What is Cat Nature?
Cat Nature is a place where a kitty cat likes to go.  Of course Fiona goes to the best.
Will you show it to me?
Yes!  I'll show you all the parts of Cat Nature.


First, this is Lady Bug Nature.
Wait, what's Lady Bug Nature?
Ladybug Nature is a place where only Ladybugs, little ones, eggs, and larva live.
Does Fiona ever visit Ladybug nature?
No.
Why not?
Because its just so tiny.  She doesn't fit.

This is how I look into Cat Nature.  Wondering if I should go in there sometime...
Have you ever tried to fit?
Yep, I fit.  But only when I squat.  Otherwise I would take up the space of the spiders, or ants.
Are there lots of spiders and ants in there?
Naw, I just saw a spider in there.  I don't think it was a black widow.  The web wasn't messy.  It had built a little sack for baby spiders.  It was so cute.

I'm looking to see if Fiona is using this spot.
Is she?
No, not right now.  She's found someplace else to be.

I saw some lizards that were really big when I looked into Cat Nature.  About this big.
What are the lizards doing there?
Um, running and enjoying the sunlight.  Trying to stay away from those monsters, which are kitties.  Female cats are good hunters.

Its good to check the corn.  It could be full of Ladybugs, and larva. 
Do we still have larva in our yard?
Well, mostly they've all turned into Ladybugs, and moved to different plants.  The corn is the room where the new Ladybugs are born.

These have to sit in the ground for a long long long time so they can grow.
What are they?
Little tiny yellow flowers, but they haven't had time to bloom yet.

Are they weeds?
No.
They are really stinky.  So I think they are like half weed, and half flower.

This is a really shady spot.  If you stay here for a while you will have to go into the house so your eyes can adjust to the sun again.

Are these the best spots?
They are really just my most favorite.  And when you like Cat Nature, you just really love these spots.
Thank you Ava.  I love you.
Your welcome, I love you too.

I may have to ask Cyrus to give me a tour sometime.  Its so enlightening to be given a chance to see into their worlds.

A special thank you to The Magic Onions for bringing us together every Friday to share our worlds of Nature.

The flip side...

There are two sides to every story.  There's usually another way to look at things.
For me, this applies to caterpillars.
I don't mean the rare swallow tail butterfly variety, I mean the common show up in droves and destroy your sunflowers before they turn into moths variety.
My organic solution?
To look at these little fellows not as pests, rather to introduce them to my children as little furry friends.
The kind of friends that they can gather and make homes for.
As long as its far away from the sunflowers, and as long as they try to gather every last one.
This works out nicely for our friend the Ladybug, who has become more off limits to little hands.
Now my ladybugs can work, and my babies can play to their hearts content.
And my sunflowers will live to see another day.

The flip side to my plan is probably how the deal works out for the caterpillars.  I am not exactly sure what happens to them...  They get moved to cute little homes, then they disappear over night.  Is it a lizard eating them?  A mass exodus that has left them wondering my backyard? 
I just don't know.
That's a flip side to gardening for me.
Before gardening entered my life, I had a fairly strict policy of no bug killing. 
(unless they are posing a health risk to my family like mosquitoes, or black widows)
Now look at me.
Squashing squash bugs with rocks.
Rubbing eggs off of leaves with my bare hands.
And making up macabre little games for defenseless caterpillars.

In a moment...

My two children are very different from one another.  Boy and girl.  Three and Five.  They should be different, I know this.  I didn't expect to be so surprised by their differences.
In just one brief moment, captured on film, you can see these differences.
A moment of play.

Ava was quietly gathering flowers.  Adults and children moving around her.  She had her own purpose, her own game.

Carefully taking the flowers apart...

Putting them together in different shapes.  Creating a story for herself, and anyone who would listen.

A story about flower princesses, and their water castle...

In the same moment you could watch Cyrus....

blocking his uncle and cousin's golf balls with his own putter...

Climbing walls...

Throwing rocks into the decorative grasses....

And of course, taking a moment to deconstruct his sister's water castle....

I can't help but wonder how this newest little one is going to fit into the balance.  Who will this person be?  I was shocked to see how different the first two are, so I can only guess I'll be shocked again.

Here's to capturing a single moment in life.  And anticipating the future.

Resting...

I'm taking a day off today. There's a virus going around, and its time for rest. See you tomorrow!

Gratitude Mondays....

What I love today....

~9 weeks till absolute baby time (33 weeks down)....

~Cyrus doesn't blow raspberry kisses, he blows "helicopter" kisses...

~Ava has declared that she would like to be a mermaid, or a tooth fairy when she grows up.  She hasn't decided which yet.

~Matt.  Oh man, I am grateful for that man.  And its not just the food either!

~The Shape of a Mother...  Its really a fantastic project, I hope to become involved somehow...

~A beautiful dinner party for my sister in law Rachael...

~My two babies have two beds now!  And they fell asleep in them on the first night.  I was NOT expecting that!

~My big belly.  I love it. 

~I think we finally have names picked out, and I think we might keep them a secret until labor day...

Here's to another week!

Friday's Nature Table...

It starts with a 10 cent packet of seeds.
Ten cents, and an old broken pot.
The hope of creating life.

Just add some dirt....

Some mulch...

A small handful of seeds...

Carry the pot to a special place...

Add water...

And wait.

The waiting is the hardest part.

My babies will surely lose interest in this little project long before the seeds will sprout.

Sometimes its not even about the results.

Sometimes its not what it will be, it just is what it is.

Working together.

The promise of something beautiful.

Thank you to The Magic Onions for bringing us together every Friday!

Happy Thursday...

I don't have much to say.
Here's some things I saw today.
(That rhyme was an accident.)
Have a happy Thursday!
(That time I couldn't help myself)