To talk about gardens

It's hard not to talk about gardens this time of year. Especially when I live in a city with such beautiful gardens everywhere I go, when it seems like almost everyone I know has a little vegetable plot or a couple of tomato plants.

                                  Our fruit harvest continues, much to the kids delight. Well, really
                                   it's everyone's delight.

                                    
                               Diapers on the line. Ok that's not really part of my garden.
                               But it's finally nice enough to do it.
                                 

                                      Our little beet survivors are doing well.

                                
                                                    Squash!

   
                                       We've been eating up our broccoli all week. Yum.

                                 
                                          The rasberries peeking out. Every fruit from our garden takes its
                                turn being my favorite but there is something about the light and fragile
                                flavor, the way a sun-warmed rasberry pratically melts in your mouth that
                                makes them top of the pops for me. For now.

Service and pile ons

Last week we participated in a food drive. I'm not sure how much the kids fully understand what we're doing but we do talk about it and I think it registers somewhere.

                                    We also got to admire the lovely flowers.

                                        And, everyone loves to pile on Papa, right?

Harvesting

More strawberries are coming in. I tasted a cherry today but it's not quite there yet. Hopefully we get to them before the birds do this year.

                         But what I do have a ton of is herbs. I harvested some today and got them ready for drying, in the basement. I'm not sure yet what we'll do with them- soap? homemade face masks and hair rinses? sachets?

                           
                               Let me know if you have any great ideas. I've got lots of rosemary,

                                        
                                          lemon balm

                                       
                                               chamomille

 
                                      and lavender.

                                 I have no real system for drying right now, I just hang my bundles off stray nails all over the basement. It really wouldn't be that hard to put two nails together and hang a drying line from them, but I just haven't done it yet.

Now I'm off to consult my herbal books to look for projects...

Spray Park

Decoupage we did

the library

What would I do without the library? It has helped me out of my recent rut with new cookbooks, new kid crafting books, and of course the twenty million kids and adult books we bring home every week.

Yesterday we tie-dyed, today we decoupage?

Also, I was auditioning books for the role of my big summer reading project. I had a few and I was giving them time to win me over but then we watched the first episode of the BBC Sherlock story the other night. Sorry other books. My summer reading project has been casted, and it is the complete Sherlock Holmes, that I picked off the remainder table lo these many years ago. I knew it would come in handy.

Fruit

It's creeping up on us. Summer. The Farmer's Market brings us clues, relics from lands where it's hot now.

                                            It's actually been nice here, for Junuary. I'm not complaining.
                                           I am not a 100-degrees kind of lady.

                                       Right now we are just pitting and top-cropping and then freezing
                                  the fruit. Jam is coming but we've been busy lately. And there's the lure
                                  of the BBC dramas.

                                   The top two photos are fruit we bought at the market, but that bottom one?
                                 Those are all ours baby. Home grown. and just the start of our little backyard
                                 fruit harvest.

Best Fathers Day Ever?

Father's Day, by Unity

First we let Papa sleep in. Then he opened his presents. Me and Bricky made him cards and Mama had a card too. Mama made a shirt that said "Face forward and sit on your bottom!" Papa always has to tell us that at dinner. This is his stern face.

After Meeting, we went to the zoo. Caspar Babypants was playing a show.

He played the Googly Eyes song. It's my favorite.

This is my dance.

                                We saw Sadie and Quinn. I like them. They go to a different school now
                                 but we are still friends.

                                                    Brixton is flying.

                                        Can you find me and Sadie dancing?

                                  We were cold at the end but we had a blanket. Also I got a Not-Its T-shirt.
                                   I like them because I like their tutus.

Then when we had dinner, we saw another one of my friends.

I am happy that Papa had a good day.

Snacks

Ok I have to admit that I have a huge sweet tooth. Always have. So when I saw these recipies for healthy snacks, using all natural sweeters, I was skeptical. Even when I was vegan, I never really explored the world of brown rice syrup. But, the chef behind the recipes is also the author of a cookbook we like. And a friend of mine has been on a natural sweetner kick after watching this video about the toxicity of sugar. (Confession: I have not watched the video. I still want to live in denial a little bit. Is that so wrong?)

Anyway, I decided to try it. These treats that is. And, they are very tasty. The top photo shows peanut butter cranberry bars and the bottom photo shows coconut date bon-bons. Those are especially delicious. In fact, they are already gone.

I may not be ready to give up ice cream yet, but I am glad to find some healthier desserty snacks.

a little rut

These pictures have nothing to do with anything. I just liked them.

                                    
                                Lately I've been in a little bit of a rut. I feel like I'm running out of ideas.

                               I got some new cookbooks out from the library and that's been helpful,
                               at least on the food front.

                               But sometimes 3:30 rolls around and I just.don't.know. what to do.
                               Usually Brixton and I have morning activies- either music class or a playdate
                               or errands that keep us busy. But afternoons are another story. He's such an
                               inconsistant napper. Basically the only way he'll fall asleep is in the car with
                               the classical station on. So sometimes I make up an errand jus to get an afternoon
                              car ride, and even then he doesn't always sleep. I'd give it up entirely but he's
                              just cranky and obviously still needs it.

                              My sewing goals have not been happening at all. My excuse is that the only
                              consistent free time I have is at the end of the day and I'm usually too zonkered for
                              anything but my BBC dramas. Hopefully I'll get it together soon.

                                

Unity's summer break from school is coming up and I'm trying to plan lots of fun activies for us.

(It's only a week long. Her school goes year-round.)

So I'm open to suggestions for any games, activities, outings, crafts that will keep a five year old and a two year old and their mama busy. In the probable drizzle that is a Seattle Junuary. Let me know if you think of anything!

I debated posting this cause I don't want to seem like a downer. I love staying home with my kids and also it's hard, like all jobs. I think my blogging philosophy is somewhere in between this and this.

Our Weekend

We had one of those social butterfly weekends. The summer picnic at the preschool. Some kids are moving on to other schools soon (one of ours) and some new kids are joining soon (one of ours.)

                              Swim lessons and family swim at the Y.
                              Reading stories and catching up with old friends who are in town.

                                       Hosting the incredible rotating date night. Our usual ratios were off,
                                we had five kids and three adults. Still had loads of fun.

                                     
                                            Poor baby Baird missed his mom. He's at that stage where
                                           nothing else will really do.

                                      The older kids had a jam session with bongos, ukulele, shakers and
                                      voice. Lots and lots of voice.

                          The jam session turned into a wild dance party. Sometimes that happens.

                               Hard to see this party weekend end, but now we've got to put on our
                                serious suits and get ready for the week.


                           Linking with Amanda for Weekending.

This one is for Uncle Michael

So the place where Unity takes piano lessons is a little house. Each room is a different studio with a different teacher. There's one guy who runs the whole show, acts as the receptionist and also teaches guitar.

Unity's lesson is only 30 minutes long so usually we drop her off and Brixton and I go for a little walk. Today he wanted to go back early so we were just hanging around in the front area. The owner asked Brixton if he wanted to go play around with the drums. and the rest is history. He loooved it, had a big smile on his face, and kept saying he wanted to do more. Perhaps we have another drummer in the family?