Will Scarlet, in Robin Hood, illustration by Greg Hildebrant.
Robin Hood, from Robin Hood, illustrating by Greg Hildebrandt.
Lancelot from Young Lancelot, illustration by Jamichael Henterly.
Niniame, Lady of the Lake, as pictured in Young Lancelot. Illustration by Jamichael Henterly. Costume inspiration by big brother Galen, as I don’t believe she’s ever even heard this book.
Collection of Goofy Kids by Melody and Steve.
One little pearl from my 3rd son’s smile. Together we made a little pouch for his treasure. Because the first one is so special, two tooth gifts instead of one. Little ones get crystals in this house. Mineral for mineral. A tooth in exchange for a gem. A tiny goose, a nod to his nickname, and a hunk of smokey quartz. He’s so excited to be starting his own rock collection just like his big brothers. I can’t believe how very big he’s getting.
Last week we had one of those witchy step out of season days where everything we were just starting to get used to fell away and we had the feeling of stepping back through time.
They built a house…
So sukkah like. It’s interesting to me to feel like we’ve lived into this particular holiday so deeply that even without me doing anything, it feels right to them to do that sort of thing at this time of year.
While my oldest and youngest helped me to move strawberry plants.
My Queen of Sweden rose even held out with one last blossom for us.
It’s hard to believe that day was just last week. The chill crept back quite quickly. They’re predicting our first hard frost this evening. Today it’s back to the garden for me to gather in whatever is left to be gathered.
humming John Denver tunes, drawing horses…
and the occasional donkey.
And lately?
painting too.
We’re working on putting the finishing touches on Iain and Elijah’s room. It’s not a large room for two people, so we’re trying to choose the things we put in there with care. We want it to be fun and functional and oh, so many other things. But in the end, we mostly want it to be a reflection of who they are at this point in their lives. To suit their lives and their current loves. I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far. With one glaring exception. There just wasn’t enough baseball! What can I say? My kids are the ones who show up for a casual pick-up game of baseball in full uniform, including cleats, having used face crayons for eye black. They take it seriously!
We’re not really a poster sort of family. At least not at the moment. Who knows what will come in the future? I’m not even sure that my kids realize that sort of thing exists. I can see how a room could very quickly get completely covered by a zealous young fan. But I’m not really sure that’s as relaxing or conducive to studying, reading, resting and the artistic endeavors that I feel should be the mainstays of time spent in this space. So, apart from a framed team photo, how to represent that very large part of their life? This is what I came up with…
It’s basically a fabric covered canvas. You could easily use a canvas frame from the craft store. Steve made mine from some scraps of wood. I’d say it took less then 10 minutes. And then I covered it with fabric. This is an older Alexander Henry print called “Bases Loaded“. I used just a fat quarter. I did a serging stitch around the edges, which was probably unnecessary, then I wrapped and stretched it around the frame, kind of like wrapping a gift. I folded under the serged edge and stapled everything in place using a staple gun. Two of those little nail-on picture hanger things on the back and it was all done.
There are so many interesting fabrics around these days, so many of which look like works of art, all on their own. I think I might have some fun with this.
There has been an epidemic of card house building. Also games of rock, paper, scissors.
I’m gathering flowers to dry. Early spring can be so fickle here and I might not have much to choose from for floral arrangements. I tie a thread to each stem, then loop all the threads together and hang them from nails in the pantry. Next week I’ll carefully wrap them all in tissue paper, then pack them away in a box until I’m ready to use them.
We harvest at least a bit from the garden everyday. I wish it was more.
I’ve been making “pesto” from everything…all sorts of herbs, nasturtium leaves, kale, thinned carrot seedlings…
I finally transferred all the heights from boards from three different houses on to one master kid height board.
A pair of juncos decided to build their nest in a grassy patch by our kitchen garden.
We laid out a ring around them to remind everyone to tread carefully.
The herb garden is completely over run. I’ve not gotten a chance to get out there and move things around.
Galen’s sailboat “Amazon” had her maiden voyage.
Elijah helped with her sail and made her flag.
We made corn and gluten free home-made marshmallows. I think it’s the closest I’ve ever come to slipping into a diabetic coma.
I was unreasonably nervous about leaving home for the first time. What would become of our gardens? Most irrationally; would it all still be here when we get back? All’s well. Our lovely neighbor held down the fort and kept Eden well watered in our stead.
There was very little swimming. I think the deepest I ever made it was over my ankles. The kids were a bit more adventurous, but mostly there was a lot of sand play and catch in sweaters. We left the beach and came home to a mini-heatwave where we would have been glad of some water to jump in to!
I knitted the entire body of an adult sweater. I brought my need point, all stalled out on the the letter ‘F’, thinking it would be lovely to stitch away on the beach. I carried it many places with me and got it all sandy and managed approximately 4 more stitches.
The latest roasting obsession? Olives. These are the kinds of things that happen when you go camping with Elijah. They’re good though. Warm and mellow and smokey.
We’ve been back for four days now and every day except for one was spent away from home. By Sunday’s end-of-season baseball party, it was all I could do to force myself back out the door. I’m so glad to be home this morning! With a whole week completely and blissfully devoid of outside plans. The only exception being a possible in-town strawberry picking excursion with friends, if the weather allows. Otherwise it’s just going to be us, at home and in the garden. I feel so bad about Steve having to go back to work today! I think we’ll have to find a way to make his homecoming extra pleasant. I was thinking of extending the camp-like fun with dinner cooked over a fire, but it looks like rain. Perhaps some spicy papadums and a foot rub with sweet orange oil?
~Iain and Elijah spotted a pileated woodpecker from bed this morning
~breakfast plans were altered in an attempt to allow Goosey to sleep later. I ended up serving leftover chicken dippers and acorn squash with maple syrup (the later having been cooked in the crockpot overnight).
He says, “look with my tape measure, I can hang from the ceiling!”
~the neighbor’s cat, a frequent visitor here and much beloved, especially by the small fry, had an unfortunate run in with a porcupine this morning. We suspect it was the rather portly fellow that sometimes comes out to nibble things, around the edges of our yard at dusk. Iain and Elijah discovered her in her rather prickly state and I sent them at once to fetch the neighbor. They helped get her home and stayed for the de-quilling. And then a bit longer still to visit with the frogs in the pond. All is well with her now. She came back to play just after. And that was our excitement for the day.
~I got a roast and golden beets into the crockpot early on in the day so that I could easily feed dinner to different people at different times again tonight.
~We’re trying to identify this skull we found in the woods, but I keep forgetting to pick up some more books at the library to help us out.
~The weather was very fickle today, one minute being bright and sunny and the next threatening rain. We hit a clear patch and decided to high-tail it to the woods to try to identify wildflowers, but before I could quite get everything ready to go, the sky opened up and it started raining, snowing and sleeting all at the same time. All three boys were playing baseball in the yard at the time, waiting for me to finish up a few things. Galen looked up and said, “I think it might be time to roll out the tarp!” (a reference to how they would go about protecting the field for a major league game)
~We settled for guide books by our own fireside instead.
~mid-morning snack: apple and collard smoothie
~Elijah is growing cacti from seed, he has 8 of them so far. Iain is attempting to grow pitcher plants. They have been planted in a pot in the refrigerator for the last 5 weeks. In another week he can take them out, then they might germinate in 1-3 months.
~lunch: catfish with leftover asparagus soup and kale salad
fetching wood
~The older ones are off even earlier today. It’s choir day and they and rehearsing for their last concert of the year. My parents a making a special trip up to see this one and everyone is excited.
~Another night of just me and the littles. There are a lot of nights like this at this time of year, but it’s a short period. Starting next week there will be baseball games and we’ll all be going out several nights a week!
~We three home bodies headed out to the garden to try to prepare some space for more cold weather veggies. Until we were forced back in by a heavy hail shower. Funny how the forecast was for little to no precipitation today!
~Galen has been looking for more challenging “work” lately. A bit of woodworking together tonight. We’ve started building a peg loom.
~After dinner II, which took place at a reasonable time for once, the older ones went to their bed’s to read and Steve and I curled up to watch an episode of Mad Men on Netflix.
~I’m really not sure how much longer I’ll be able to resist making myself a circle skirt.
~I’m almost done the second sleeve on Elijah’s birthday sweater!
~Snow and sleet all morning.
~Elijah built the fire today. His first.
~Pre-breakfast: banana, pear, orange and collard smoothie
~Actual breakfast: red cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, radishes, olive, guacamole and tulsi-mint tea with honey.
~Too wet to take sketch books out to continue our wildflower study as planned.
~A lot of the morning and early afternoon was much the same as yesterday; quiddler over breakfast, chores, more baseball play (yes, even in the snow), school work, etc.
~Everyone needs things for spring, so I’m trying to get a bit of sewing in each day.
~Library day, which just happens to coincide with a tea party at the library
~I wore the dress I made last week for the first time.
~So funny and a little nice to be introduced to all, as Mrs. —-. I feel certain that Steve looked over his shoulder for his mother!
~the two small fry came back well fortified with A.A. Milne. Rosebud calls them “knee-the-pooh books”.
~More horse magazines and “Caroline books” and “Rose books” (the series chronicling Laura Ingalls-Wilder’s mother’s and daughter’s lives) for the bigger ones. They went through all three of the ones they brought home last week.
~The only thing I managed to grab was a couple of wildflower guides for school this week.
~It’s off to baseball practice for all of the big boys, including the very biggest boy of all.
~Working on Mother’s Day cards for the Grandmothers
~Dinner,Part I: chicken dippers and broccoli
~Littles to bed
~Dinner, Part II: the same thing two and a half hours later. Only with tea this time too because I knew they would all come home chilled.
~Between the three of them I get an almost literal play by play of the entire practice. Even though they are starving, it’s hard to get them to even sit down and eat, they are still so excited. And while they eat they are constantly popping back up again to show me just how a certain play was made. It was a very good practice!
~The biggest problem with us all sleeping down here is that this little munchkin:
is not sleeping! Until the upstairs floors are finished we’re all sleeping in rooms just off and open to the kitchen/dinning room area. Which means that late nights for them more often then not, inadvertently turn into late nights for him. This photo was taken 3 hours after his bedtime. sigh. He would be watching us at the table, then every time I looked over, he would quickly lay his head back down.
Eggs of all sorts; blown ones, hard boiled, eggs painted with water colors, dyed with beets, turmeric, onion skins and henna, some dyed in patterns created with rubber bands, some with flowers and leaves pressed to them, some colored with pencils and crayons. In the last picture are felt egg pockets inspired by dear, sweet Taisa. Last year I said that some year I would get around to making felt eggs for stuffing. Who would have thought that it would be this year of all years? Certainly not I. At the time I had something fancier in mind, like these. And I would still like to make some of those at some point, but when I saw the very simple ones on Small Wonders I thought, I could do a few of those this year. Then maybe next year make some more of the same or a different sort and so on until we were all covered. But really I wasn’t sure that I would get to them at all. One day when I was sewing Galen was itching for something to do, so I cut one out for him to hand sew beside me. He finished in record time. Since my machine was all threaded and in front of me, I decided to play with some of those decorative stitches that I never use for the next one. I decorated the front and he sewed it together. When Iain and Elijah saw them and the possibilities for all of the fun things the machine stitching could do, they raided my felt stash and took over production (I did help with a couple more). They fooled with all kinds of things and decorated the fronts, then passed them along to Galen to hand sew or sewed them closed on the machine or hand sewed them themselves. We actually decided that we liked the ones that were sewn closed by hand the best, as there is more room in them. It’s a shame I didn’t have more spring-like colored felts on hand. But they kind of remind me of Pysanka , those vividly colored Ukrainian Easter eggs. All together we made 24, which meant 6 eggs for each kid and a plastic free year, just like that!
The baskets this year ended up being like a whole day smorgasbord of snacks.
In lieu of books (for the first time ever), we gave them supplies to finish their rooms. I’m strongly anti-bringing anything into the house that might end up on the floor at the moment. So we gave them things like stencils and material for curtains, instead of books and yet more little stuffed bunnies and the like.
(the auto-focus on my camera is broken and no one else has quite gotten the knack of manual focusing)
I don’t know why I always insist on sewing Màiri Rose a spring dress for Easter. I very well know that the weather is just as likely to be winter-like as spring. Yet I can’t seem to wrap my brain around making a warm and cozy Easter dress. Maybe a long-sleeved dress in a spring print? I don’t know what the answer is. I do know that this years was entirely hidden under a cardigan for most of the day, along with my spring dress, and that we were both still cold.
