love and all

a bunch of random photos from the past while, and some things I've been loving :

:: the creativity of my kiddos, how their days are spent building, singing, drawing, painting, inventing, creating, dreaming. It is such a joy to witness.

:: our garden. Though I had such high hopes and we are not getting all the food I had hoped for, still, we can go out and gather the ingredients for a meal, and oh, it tastes so good! And my kids can spear a cooked carrot on their plate and say "I picked this one!"

:: Knitting. Oh how I love it. I regularly proclaim it to my family- "I love knitting!" or "knitting makes me happy!" they hardly even notice anymore. I am working on a seamless stripey sweater for Dorian's birthday and having so much fun.

:: the wheat-less, dairy-free, egg-free, naturally sweetened, purple-iced (with natural food dye,) carob cupcake I made my boy for a birthday we attended. They were actually good and he didn't complain at all about having one that looked a little different. He did wish he could have had some smarties though, poor chap.

:: the full jars starting to gather on the pantry shelves. Pickles, jam, peaches, apricots, tomatoes. Apple sauce is next on the list. The boys want me to make a lot. Like 328 jars or so.

::  my dear friends. Feeling so blessed with the kindred spirits that I have the incredible good fortune to know and share this crazy life with. I'm just so lucky.

:: how my boys call each other "friend" when they are playing. I'm not sure where this has come from, but I smile to myself all day long listening to them talk to each other- "come on friend, let's built a road." or "friend lion? are you hungry?" Of course the friends don't always get along, but that is to be expected I suppose.

:: also loving the knock knock jokes they are telling. Usually something like- "knock? Hey- I said knock- you say who's there." "who's there" "orange orange" "orange orange who?" "orange orange banana!" and they kill themselves laughing. There is also a version with a snowman smelling carrots that they think is very funny.

:: that I am not sending my 5 year-old off to school tomorrow. I really can't imagine being without him 5 full days a week, or him being ready for such a thing. Tomorrow we will sleep in if we like, and have a slow morning together and a day full of playing and making and stories and songs. Oh, this really is just right for us.

:: that the house is quiet and relatively clean and I have a few minutes to pick that knitting back up before hitting the bed myself. Goodnight friends.