travellin'

They've been talking and they've decided it's time that our family got out a little more. Maybe they just want to get rid of us so they can hold their secret meetings without the toddler constantly tucking them under the blankets or lining them up on the windowsill. So we will take the advice of the little people and head off for a few days for visits with family and a bit of time in the city to meet my midwife (Yipeee!) See you next week!

you are my sunshine

Dear Ari,
We woke today to the most beautiful morning. You said "want to go outside" almost before you were awake, and we wandered out together into the still-cool morning. We made our way to the swings in the barn and you were content to swing for ages, singing and chattering to yourself and to me, regularly asking to go "higher, higher" and "Mama swing beside me."
We swung there together, the sky blue the grass green, the air so wonderfully cool and alive and you listed all the things you could see- "trees, and buttercups and mountains and birds and daisy flowers ("fowlers") and sun, and houses and grass and clouds..." both of us loving every bit of the view.

It is such a joy these times with you, when I can calm my mind from rushing off to the next task (oh, I really should go and open the greenhouse, and grab the laundry to put on the line, and remember to tell Perry this or that,) and just be here with you. You are so naturally good at this, so right-here-in-this-moment, so completely in love with life. Living beside you, being your mama, is so full of lessons and delight. Challenges too of course, but right here on the swing beside my joyous, sweet little boy, it is utter joy. And what I can give you is this day. The time to just sit on the swings until you ask to get down, maybe 5 minutes, maybe an hour from now. I can give you this barn and these swings and the green grass and the buttercups. I can give you days filled with polliwogs in the pond and baby bears up the poplar tree, and puddles and rhubarb and snowshoes and the moon. I can give you this childhood on our (not)commune where you can put your own boots on the wrong feet and just open the door and go out. Where you can greet the farm dogs and the friends that are our neighbours. It's not perfect my boy, but on this green morning swinging beside you, this life seems awfully close to perfection.

scapes for dinner

Our garlic tops were ready to be picked the other day and my mom had just made pesto from hers and was raving about it. I've only ever fried them up with stirfrys and such and so was keen to give it a go- especially since our basil plants are doing a whole lot of nothing this year.
I would post a recipe only I didn't use one, I just blended the garlic tops and added in walnuts and olive oil and parmesan and salt until it tasted right. I also blended in some spinach with the scapes (that's what they are called apparently,) to mellow it out a little, and extend it, since spinach is still growing in abundance.
I cooked it a little too- since it was a wee bit spicy for my boy, but once it had cooked just a minute or two it was just right. And delicious. We all enjoyed it, especially Ari who devoured several bowls full. I froze the rest in ice cube trays so it would be easy to use come winter. Oh how good it feels to start filling up the freezer with our own home-grown food. Ok. we didn't grow the walnuts or the olives or make the parmesan. But the green stuff? All ours.

ETA: thanks for all the lovely comments I've been getting lately, cheering on the homebirth dreams and just being supportive and sweet. There were a few questions about the bird cards in the last post- I got them at this shop in Canada, but if you're are looking for them elsewhere they are made by eeboo and should be pretty easy to find. They really are super sweet.

And no- I didn't knit the recently displayed sweaters- a wonderful great-aunt and the thrift shop supplied us with those. I aspire to being a sweater-knitter, but my skills are not quite there yet.
Happy Sunday!

making me happy

Things that are making me happy: my boys cooking supper together, Ari up on a kitchen chair chatting away to his Papa.
The little greenhouse Perry built this spring. The tomatoes are thriving in there despite the chilly summer. I also have to admit that I've actually been loving the weather too- the rain and cool days are just right for cozying in and doing all the projects I want to putter on inside. When it is sunny I feel guilty sitting at my sewing machine.
Ari's room. Finally putting up curtains and art and making it look like a kid's room. The bird cards make me smile. Our little bird lover loves them too- pointing out goldfinches and chickadees and robins.
This lovely little wooden figure that came in the mail from Woodmouse. This will be for the new babe, and looking at it makes me even more excited about having a new baby to carry and snuggle again.

These hands. The picture was taken at a recent music festival in between a painting session in the kids area and a dance session at the main stage. Painting, dancing, running around with friends, listening to "zunik" (Ari's word for music- another thing I love.) eating ice cream when the sun peeks out- what's not to love?

eat your greens

It has mostly stayed pretty cool and rainy these days, and though it might not be our first choice of summer weather, the spinach loves it. Its is so bushy and tasty and growing some of the biggest leaves I've ever seen! My garden helper thought spinach picking was a rather fun task and wanted to keep all the "big ones" in his own basket. After harvesting two huge bags baskets I set to work blanching and bagging it for winter, optimistically labeling a ton of bags. And all that spinach? 4 little freezer bags. It is hard to imagine how many enormous fields of spinach there must be in the world to keep us all fed with spanikopita and spinach soup. The 2 raised beds in our garden couldn't possibly provide enough for all the spinach this family eats. Especially since Ari has named spanikopita his very favorite food.
Oh well, there is still more to harvest, and we will be able to get at least one more crop of the green stuff before fall arrives. And with my eager helper, we should be able to manage a few more baggies for the freezer. 4 more at least.

rain and reflections

As soon as I wrote the last post about summer the rains started falling and haven't let up since. Ari is still happiest outside, and couldn't care less if he spends his days wet and covered in mud, but not me so much. So whenever I can sneak back inside and dry off a little I do, and bury myself in my crafting and nesting projects. One curtain in Ari's room has replaced the wool blanket that had been tacked over the window since we moved back in. (I hate making curtains. Really really hate it. There is so much hemming and fiddling and impossibly large pieces of fabric to cut straight and they never turn out as neat and tidy as I feel they should after all that fiddling. There are still 5 more windows to cover before this project is done. grr.) Some art has made it onto his walls and there is a nice blue and green dyed silk hung above the bed (an Enki suggestion to lower the ceilings and make a space more calming for kids.) Our bedroom/baby's room will be next on the list.

I completed a few more ribbon blankets, one of which was my first commission, the others will go to new babies that are expected after my babe arrives, since I don't foresee many crafting moments come autumn. And I am reading all the books and magazines I can on birth and babies. And sending as much good energy as possible to the hopes of being able to birth this baby at home.

Because we have no local midwife, homebirth doesn't really happen in my little town unless people are willing to birth unassisted. I have always imagined birthing my babies at home though, growing up surrounded by my parent's homebirthing friends and Mothering Magazines and Ina May Gaskin's books on our shelves. I contacted a midwife from a town 4 hours away and she may be able to attend me, if I don't have this baby early, like Ari was. So I am trying to keep really positive about it all, still hoping that it can work out, but knowing I can have another positive hospital experience if it comes down to that. But I can't help but devour the chapters in my childbirth books on preparing for homebirths and writing lists and dreaming. So any warm happy homebirthing vibes anyone wants to send my way...

And now I'm off to an early bed, to the sound of rain on the tin roof. Goodnight!

summer is here to stay

Oh the weather we are having! Hot sunny days building to dramatic thunderstorms at night and mornings smelling of wet earth and growing things. It was such a cold June, the gardens just sat looking depressed, and now they are leaping to life. We are happy here in the sunshine, the flowers the bees and me. Forgive me if I forget the computer for awhile. But then again, I may feel the need to report on the summer-love!

woolie bottoms

Another nesty post over here. Preparing for the arrival of the little baby bum that will need to be kept dry. I've been reading a bunch about using wool covers over cloth diapers rather than the nylon-ish waterproofed ones that gave my first babe such rashes. I love the idea of using natural materials over my babies bottoms, and it makes sense that a breathable cover helps to keep away the rashes and red bums. Here is some info if anyone is interested, and Emilie at little nest had a nice post with some links as well. I've also been admiring a bunch of handmade soakers around blogland which inspired me to try it out myself. These are knit using the Pea Patch diaper soaker patterns, and I really liked using it. They knit up pretty fast- even for me- and they look like they will be a good fit. Of course there are no baby bums to try them on just yet. I koolaid dyed some eco wool from my local yarn shop for the orange one. I would do it a little differently next time, but I had lots of fun dying the wool and then watching it knit up into these sort-of stripes. Even after washing and lanolizing it still smells a bit like orange crush though. Wet sheep and orange crush.
After knitting up those two I discovered a tutorial for turning old sweaters into soakers and gave it a try. What fun! I have to go to the thrift shop to find some more soft ones but oh! How quick they are to make! Despite knitting up quickly, these sewn ones take about 1/8th of the time to finish as the knitted ones, and they are still pretty cute. When the baby comes it can do the pee test to see which ones work better.

And until then, Ari will just be wearing them as hats.