Crunchy Peas

coming and going

Another baby this morning...

Sometimes it feels like I'm going to work and coming home to work. There isn't always a lot of rest in between. The birth center, the house, the schoolwork, the housework, welcoming little babies, loving on my own-- keeps me moving most of the time. Oh well. It's all a miracle. It's all a gift. I'm thankful to be counted worthy and that I'm healthy and strong!

Thank goodness for strong coffee, pretty yogurt, hot showers, and helpful kids.

We're digging in as the day begins. Bible and chalkboards.

Be back soon.

waiting on a baby

(looking out the back window)

I spent Sunday waiting. Actually, it started Saturday night.  I had gone bed early expecting to be called to the birth center after only a few hours of sleep.  I was surprised to wake up after a whole night's sleep in my own bed. What a gift that was.

As hard as it is for us to understand, babies come in their own time- especially in the midwifery model of care when they are allowed to come in their own time.

Patience, castor oil, patience, castor oil....waiting for labor to kick in. We waited in our own separate spaces- Mama, Midwife and me.

Sometimes the waiting can be hard. It can feel unproductive.  I can't go too far, get too involved, start anything, finish anything, constantly checking my phone...but I did manage to make the best of my time and accomplish a few things:

*I sorted, washed, folded, and put away 3 loads of laundry- that's all there was! I'm totally caught up.  You should see my laundry room. It's gleaming! Whose house is this? 

*Roasted a butternut squash for soup later in the week. The best butternut soup I ever had was about 3 years ago. I learned from the person who made it that the secret to good butternut soup is to roast the squash in truffle oil and to use half and half when blending it. I've been craving it lately.

*Finished a crochet project. I took a picture before I wrapped it for mailing. I'll post it a little later.

*Watched episode 3 of Downton Abbey. Everything is so good right now...I'm afraid to go on to episode 4. Will Matthew and Mary just get together already? Is it weird that they are cousins? I'm glad Bates is back, will he get rid of his awful wife? And why am I starting to like Edith? Maybe I should stop watching. 

*Played around on pinterest. Found this picture.  It made me smile and think of young love. It's like "I-have-to-touch-you-but-maybe-I-shouldn't-or-maybe-now-is-not-the-time-maybe-I-can-I-pass-this-off-as-accidental?" Sweet.

*Laminated and cut out three-part cards for school. I'm addicted to laminating.

*Cleaned the kitchen and refrigerator. I have a weird thing about needing to do this before I bring home groceries. I hate bringing in and unpacking food into a messy kitchen. 

*Spent $300 on groceries at Costco. Where does all the food go? The kids seem to be hungry all the time! Maybe they're growing? All of them? At once?

I bailed on a hike that I had planned, missed dinner with friends...and just kept waiting.

Wanna know the funny thing? In the end, the baby didn't wait for me. I flew out the door and sped down the the birth center only to find him wrapped snugly in his mama's arms. All of them (midwife, mom, dad and baby) looking at me as I burst through the door.  When he was ready he just came-- sweet thing. All that waiting and there he was. 

*Smile*

Morning!

The sun is coming up a little earlier each day. Love that. With the sun comes a miriad of people who wander from their beds hungry!

For them: Pancakes. (Which, let's just be real, are merely a vehicle for butter and syrup. I allow it)

For me: 2 eggs, asapargus, lemon zest, cayenne, salt and pepper, and a splash of half and half. Bake at 400 in a buttered dish until set.  Mmmm, mmmm.

I know you are there and that I am here...but I really wish you could come for breakfast. 

It's my favorite time of the day and I make a pretty good latte.

I probably don't have a cup with your initial on it... but we could just stay in our pajamas all day. So what do you say?

scenes from the day

pom-pom trim on the way out the door for Laurel's violin lesson.

morning school work (and doodles).

lunch. standing up. left-over roasted veggies and goat cheese.

still unpacking and bringing in bags from the car.

his,

and hers. not as much productivity coming out of mine. 

afternoon sun and dirty windows

stripping down- headed to swim laps.

dinner:  oven "fried" chicken.

Windy

We had a very blustery storm blow through last night. 

I did my best to weather it...

... wtih some of this and some red wine (okay a lot of that) and this.

It was rough, but I managed to make it through the night. 

Whew!

** just want to say that I previously linked to the wine I was drinking and it seems that there was a slight glitch in their website. I wanted you to know that I never intented to misdirect you to that other less-than-wholesome-website.  Sorry if any of you were caught off guard by that. Embarassing!

it seems trivial...the making of a home

When something this tragic  happens in your community, and when it affects so many people that you love, and when it strikes such young and vibrant people...it makes the ordinary tasks of life seem so trivial. So unimportant. So insignificant.

If life is so punctuated, why oh why must we spend time doing the things that seem not to matter? Why do we have to do the things that do not evoke passion? Wouldn't it be better if all our time was poured into hugging and kissing? To sitting together for hours? To going out and doing big things? To saying all the things that we are thinking but can't find the right words or the right time to say them?

And then, in the pause of grief and sadness, I see it- the value of the menial. I remind myself that some of the fullest living happens at home-- not necessarily out trekking across Antarctic (my girls loved following her journey) or swinging from the most awesome rope swing ever (doesn't that look rad??). 

But instead I tell myself that...

scrubbing away dirt,

making clean and folding,

filling bellies,

providing food for imaginations,

stocking up,

the shaping,

 

then the baking,

the washing,

It all matters. It lays a foundation for peace, and wholeness. It provides safety and freedom.  The making of a home is living and important. 

And so we go on...

getaway

We hopped over the mountains for a little weekend getaway.

There was a very important birthday to attend. My brother's twin daughters turned one! I felt as if he and my sister-in-law were the ones who deserved cake and presents. Job well done. I cannot imagine having three under 3.

Good thing they're so cute!

I was soaking up some time with my family.  Something just breathes a sigh of comfort and familiarity in my heart when I get near these guys (dad and brother). They're my home and there's not place like it.

We also threw in a night at The Great Wolf Lodge. We pampered ourselves with spa treatments, ice cream, and a whole lotta watersliding. I promise Ian had fun too...he was just taking in all of the sights and sounds when we snapped this picture. We did lots of swimming. Lots. And now, after spending that much time in my bathingsuit...I'm more motivated than ever to get back to work (i.e. the gym).  Yikes. Summer will be here before I know it!

The ride home was very quiet. Good change of scenery, lots of good laughs. Good getaway. Now to getingback...

red

Because I've always wanted to. 

sweet things

Valentine suncatchers. Instructions here.

Valentine's Day is pretty great right? I'm in favor of holidays that promote giving gifts that are sweet, sparkly, lacy, handwritten and mushy gushy.

Hope you are surrounded by sweet things today.

live a little

My dear Great Aunt passed away last night. I hadn't seen her in quite some time, but she always left a lasting impression on me. There was so much to like about her. She told me once that my mother was her favorite niece. She called her "Baby Doll". It was like we shared this little bond in our affection for her. She was 90 years old and smart, and witty, and spunky until the end. It doesn't feel so much like a loss, but as someone close to me said- more like a chapter coming to an end. 

So, in light of her passing...I think we should all live a little.

Go out in the rain.

Get your boots muddy.

Laugh. Heck, whoop an shout.

Run fast, play hard.

Love.

Dream.

Imagine.

Do.

Leave something behind.

Because you're here, and because you can!

 

ps. sorta unrelated... but I love this picture. 

all blurry-eyed

I might be blurry-eyed, stiff bodied, messy haired, or even in the midst of a dream...

I may have just drifted off to sleep after coming home late from a birth, just barely closed my eyes again after consoling another from a nightmare, or be furious with my foolishness for staying up too late the night before...

I might complain, moan, groan, even cry out to God for mercy- begging for even just another 20 minutes of sleep....

But the truth is that I secretly love being woken up by this boy. His kisses, pinches (yes he pinches), and his too-boisterous-for-that-time-of-morning "Hi Mamas" are really the best way to start the day. I remind myself of this at 5:23am on a Saturday morning and promise myself to pay him back many times during his teenage years.

LOVEly

It's snowing. Some of us have the sniffles. We've been keeping it quiet, working on some LOVEly things. 

I

I wish you a LOVEly weekend. I'm hoping to burrow under a pile of goose down and get into season 2 of Downton Abbey. 

thinking...not so much

I am a thinker. Oh man I am a thinker. No one in the world can analyze, evaluate, rehearse, imagine, process, worry, wonder, and otherwise muddle a brain like me. Single-mindedness is not my strong suit. Part of it is par for the course when it comes to mothering. Yesterday I stopped and surveyed all that I was doing in one single moment. I realized that I was attempting to guide Laurel in her violin practice, help Hannah with a recipe that she wanted to make, dictate spelling words to Emma, and console a fussy/teething Ian on my hip (and on about 4 hours of sleep after having been up most of the night at a birth). Whoa. No wonder.

But even in the quiet, still, and rested moments,  I'm finding that there is just too much junk floating around in my head space. The thinking has turned unproductive.

It takes me away from where I should be.

Here.

So, I am doing a little housekeeping of the mental kind. Do you ever have to do this too?

(Ian's little picnic basket. He collects things from here and there and stores them for safe keeping.)

I'm parring down my thoughts. I am taking several of them captive. I'm letting stuff go. I am trusting things will work out. I'm lowering expectations. I'm wanting what I already have. I'm not trying to control. I am freeing up a lot of space.

I heard this quote last week. It is one thought that I am allowing myself to meditate on a little.

"The grass is always greener.... where you water it." 

Huh. Makes sense. Right? 

Trying to stay here, trying to water my own yard. 

Trying not to let my thoughts stray...

saturday

Some tennis courting (carl said I should put "love/love" as the caption for this one- que the gagging sounds),

and froyo (was my first! I think it was good...but how good can sugar free yogurt topped with fruit be? I think if you want it to knock your socks off you have to go all crazy with the bad stuff. Just ask Laurel.)

school room tour

This the half of the downstairs room where we do school. 

The girls "room" takes up the other half.

As the girls get older, I find them asking for more freedome to decorate their own spaces. This can be a challenge for me, but I remember and understand their desire to "make it their own".  I find it has worked best for us to look through catalogs or to have them draw pictures of what they want it to look like. Then, we work together to make it happen. 

Here is the computer desk. 

These shelves are for curriculum in use and craft supplies.

Each girl has her own shelf with different binders and books and supplies that pertain to what they are learning (penmanship, spelling, math, cds for typing, etc.) On top of the shelf is our All About Spelling board and some math games from Right Start Math.

Here's a closer look at our supplies. These plastic bins marked with labels are kind of utilitarian, but they're working for now.

This is our writing table and where I do most of the one-on-one work with the girls. We also put our maps up here and do our geography here. Those hanging file folders are new and I'm just beginning to get those set up. I found the clear pouch for hanging at Oriental Trading, but when I looked for it this morning online I couldn't find it? So far I have folders for Composer Study (we are listening to Mendelssohn and are using these notebook pages), Picture Study (we are looking at Michelangelo and are loving this helpful portfolio), language arts and geography manipulatives (I get tons from Montessori For Everyone)

This bookshelf houses a revolving set of books for free reading, our nature study and social studies books, and the supplies for Laurel to keep our calendar current.

I've put most of these pictures on flickr with little notes that may be more specific about the items on the shelves and tables. Feel free to click through to my homeschooling set and take a look (newest pictures at the end of the set.)

That's it! 

dinner prepping

Putting food together for dinner  (didn't have lemons so I used oranges and traded the fennel for some potatoes). Also taking in a little inspiration (because it is February, and February is a grueling "not quite spring" month for homeschooling). I've only had time to watch a couple of these videos- and with a toddler on my lap, but so far SO good.

Here'something new. We've tried bulletin boards, clip boards, file folders, baskets, binders, etc.  None of those solutions have been as cute and functional as this for our assignment sheets. It was easy and cheap! I'm loving it. Instructions here.

I'm going to try and get the girls to clean all the nooks and crannies in their room today. School room tour coming soon!