Next year everyone is allowed only 1 pumpkin.

For days we were begged by our children, "Please oh please take us to the Pumpkin Patch!!"
So finally we went on a homeschooling class trip, and brought home way too many beautiful pumpkins! Then we were told we just had to carve them ASAP!!
When the time came to carve had arrived we told the kids, "After lunch we will carve them."
Well, they did all the morning chores, extra well, and without any fusing. They ate all their breakfast, and even made lunch and brought it to us! They laid out the newspaper and got out all the supplies.
They told us how happy they were, and how - I quote "I have been waiting and waiting for this day all year!!" I even thought to myself - we should use pumpkin carving as a bribe more often - and then I remembered why we didn't.
And not 5 minutes after the faces had been drawn on the pumpkin the kids split to the swing-set and we were left doing the dirty work.

Autumn is Cold!!

Sorry to have checked out for so long. It's been a tough month or two - our daughter has joined a great little school, and getting used to the routine has been intense. 

Plus R. and I have been working hard to get ready for winter!! 

Brrr..today was an October day indeed! Frost on our pond this morning! Our daughter bundled herself up all nice and snug with her woolens to take her morning walk to the barn. She lets the ponies out each morning and makes their dinner. 

Hopefully we will carve our pumpkins this week.  We took the kids on the tour of the local co-op pumpkin patch. We went through the corn maze and the kids learned all about caterpillars and butterflies! They each got to pick out whatever pumpkin they could carry, We are so lucky to have such a community oriented town. 

All and all things will be back to normal soon as we prepare for the hoidays. The next few months will be packed full of family crafts! Can't wait to tell you more! 

We miss you Summer!!

Micheals save the day!!

Who needs to spend a fortune on tourist junk anyhow? We relaxed by Grandma's pool. We also took the kids to Micheal's and bought them $1 crafts. Here we made a boat like the one we saw yesterday. It took up a good part of our afternoon, and this photo was requested by my son. He specifically asked us to capture this moment on film....

Tommorow we go home....we'll be sad to leave but we miss Papa a TON!!

Pirate ships

We went to see the Hawaiin Chieftan and the Lady Washington while we were in Seattle. They come by our town every year and each time we miss it. So what fun to check them out while on vacation!!Did you realize that you kid could get a summer job sailing these from port to port between California and Canada? What fun!! Unfortunatly they were docked right next to the sea planes. The kids spent most of their time on the boat watching the sea planes take off and land over and over again. Oh well (sigh)...it was free and again, something that we never have gotten to see!

Then we rode the streetcar in a loop - and watched all the construction in Seattle. If you want to see cranes and cement mixers this is the place. After that we hopped over to the Monorail ... which takes you from the Space Needle to downtown Seattle. Hard to avoid all the tourist stuff there! It looked like any city in USA. The next day at the same time the monorail broke down and the tourists were stuck for two hours while the city tried to figure out how to rescue them!

Space Station

Did any of you on the west coast catch the space station fly over the other night? Here's the link so that you won't miss it next time. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/
or
http://heavens-above.com/
have fun!!
It looked like a bright star flying fast overhead. We saw pictures online of the astronauts working on the station the day before..looks like we have found our next homeschooling lesson!
It was really great to stay up late with just my 6 year old and watch something you don't see every day. 6 is such a great age for learning. It was beautiful to share that opportunity with her and be able to answer her questions without competing against screams of other siblings.

Fall approaches

AS August arrives it is already starting to smell like fall here. The nights seem cooler. Didn't summer just arrive? My daughter has a nasty cold. I made her Rosemary Gladstar's Elderberry Syrup. I think it works the best.

1/2 cup dried or 1 cup fresh elderberries

Simmer in 3 cups water for 45 min

Strain and press

Add 1/2 cup honey.

Store in Fridge

Seems to last 1-2 months

Reggae Rocked!!

We had so much fun last weekend! I haven't laughed that hard in ages!! My kids had a blast, and the music was better than I ever expected. We ate great food from all the non-prophets. It was easy to see how hard everyone worked together to create such a perfect festival.  It wasn't too hot like some years either. 

Next year you should not miss it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I even got to spend a few minutes with my hubby sans les enfants!! We caught a few of Julian Marley's set up front. 

Also Gentleman is my new favorite performer! He really gave it his all. 

Here are a few pictures of the excitement:

Pictures of our fun!!

Blue eyes doing what she does.

The little fairies kept themselves busy surfing in the wagon!

Snow cone bought with her own hard earned money.

Kidlandia provided a cool place to hang out and play games. 

DO THE REGGAE

OK we have been so busy - packing for the festival. We even did a little pre-event camp-out! But today my stressed out overworked and under nurished man moved on site to make sure that the festival will run smooth. Hopefully he will eat more and better while he is there - I heard his favorite taco truck will be feeding the masses there, so he should be happy. We will go down in a few days. I am having the hardest time packing, and now that I have left it to the last minute I will have to do it alone. Hmmm...note to self, stop procrastinating!! 

uh-oh he's mobile

Oh uh he's mobile!

You hear it all the time, but it really is amazing how different each kid is, and how their personalities seem to start very early....

Today my youngest climbed not up one stair or two, but all the way up to the top floor on his first try! I had no clue he was ready for the stairs. He just kept going up - never looking back. Hmmm I wonder if that's a clue to his personality? 

Of course we searched all over for any working baby gates but they seem to have disappeared into the black hole in the barn.

My other two spent the day outside playing in the dirt .

 I may have purposely skipped the 4th of July this year, but there's no escaping all the presidential chatter even in our lives. Yes even here in the back country we here the news. The other day we watched a truck (I think it might of been a U-haul) roll past with a picture of Mount Rushmore on it. She shouts "Look Mama - those are important people carved into the rock!"

I wonder how she could tell.  And that led us into a home school project all about the presidents. She is really annoyed that Hillary Clinton won't be our next President. She wanted the woman to win. 

Well, I am certainly glad that she is an intelligent home schooled child. I don't know if I could really defend myself against all those people who don't think homeschooling is a good idea if she wasn't so bright and articulate. What do they think I should do? Send her to some public school who's only concerned with passing tests?  Our local high school doesn't have the funding necessary to put HOT water in the locker rooms. What else do you think they might be skimping on?

Actually we have found the perfect little school for us, and we will start in the fall. We are so very lucky. 

To the river

So we go to cool down at the river but this little cub won't go in. The hat he's wearing is the one we made together. We went to the fabric store and he choose the fabric...they are snakes. He helped me cut and sew too.

Feels like we're living in L.A.

Just the two of us...

Momma and Papa actually ate dinner without the little cubs, sort of. The other day we were at a friend's and someone took our two bigger ones for a short walk. So we ate yummy fish tacos while the baby slept. It reminded us of simpler times. We could actually carry out a conversation from beginning to end! Not that I am complaining at all about my life. I was just, hmmm....surprised that things seemed so different while we ate that night. 

I guess it just means we should hire a baby-sitter and go out more often.

If only it didn't take over an hour to get to..well, anywhere.

So weird..

Someone asked me recently "When was the last time you sat down for the entire length of the meal?" Now I have an answer.  

Peacock helper

Here my son helps dig a hole for the peas....
See he's got his safety goggles on? He's so darn cute - No pants,
socks or undies..but he insisted on the safety goggles.

Still too hot

Today I caught different peas all doing the same thing, nesting in the sweet cold dirt. 

Or as I call it, tearing up my yard.

Our newest addition

We are always suckers for animals who need homes..This is Lucky, our new duck. She is the sole survivor of something that goes bump in the night.
Out here on the land you either make it through the first night or you don't. 

Lucky made it - so that's a good sign.

The smoke today. Almost 700,000 acres burning in California

107 Degrees F

Today was ridiculous. We closed up all the windows at 3 a.m. and tried to keep the house cool as we watched the temperature rise to 107 degrees!! The kids and I picked black raspberries and made a cobbler for dessert. Our neighbor even picked us up some vanilla ice cream on his way home from town.
So the kids and I said a big thank you to Mother Earth for giving us all these berries. We had planned on canning berry jam all day. But when we awoke at 6:15 (thank you horrible rooster) it was already 80 - not 52 like it was the previous morn.

 So the canning idea got dumped, as did most other plans. 

And we had a great berry cobbler!

The Black Raspberry Cobbler!!

Getting red-I for Reggae

Here we are getting ready for Reggae Rising!!

Today my little fairy picked berries in her new purple fairy
costume...my kids are getting all their festival garb together!

Hotter

now it is 104 degrees!!!!!!!!!!

Way too hot!

This is how I keep the baby occupied so that I can do things in the
kitchen!! The others are in the pool - the temperature went from 95
to 101 degrees from 11:45 to 12:15! I am lying on the linoleum right
now. Ughhh!

Summer

It was hot out yesterday, and the kids played outside for most of it.
Here's my daughter wearing her sea anemone costume from her spring
ballet performance, eating a peach.

Met her on Mommy's space!

My daughter -like others I am sure, likes to repeat the stories that she hears the grownups saying to each other. My husband recently became reconnected with his oldest daughter , and my little girl was telling someone "And Papa met her on," and then her eyes got huge, and she twirled around shouting "Mommy's Space!" She meant MySpace.....

Every moment of the day makes her smile, I hope that never stops happening.

My new kitchen!!

Weather in Northern Cali

The fog seems to be keeping the smoke out of our valley the past few days. Today rainclouds even moved in! We will see what it's like in the morning. 

We are packing up for some camping fun this summer. The kids are all excited. There's something so special about summertime, and spending this summer watching these kids race around brings me right back to my childhood. 

I remember eating popsicles at dusk at the top of our tree house. With the misquitos. And catching fire flies once it was dark. Huge parades and a place called Playland in Rye N.Y.

These kids will have their own memories, they won't be in 110 + humidity ones, that's for sure! Yes, folks that's a thick wool sweater he has on.

 

Ok, only of interest to mom's....

Ok, even better then the needle-felt pressure foot I found last month is this link to new exciting quick easy meals for the kids!

 I can't believe I never thought to check out what the websites bellonging to my favorite magazines? Mothering's pretty great, next I'll check out Hip Mama! Here I come Ariel...

Could of been worse.

Well, today started with a trip to the DMV. As crazy as that can be, we managed to get through it rather quickly. Then off to the grocery store, again without incident. BTW- my son asked the clerk with all the facial piercings at the store.."How you do that, how you get that on you nose?" In his little sing-song voice it was pretty funny.

- So I headed to the gas station where it's $4.79 a gallon.Then started the long drive home. 

Papa called and asked for burritos for himself and the girls. I wondered why he couldn't just cook lunch, but whatever, I ran over to the taco truck, then grabbed myself a blended mocha for the drive. The baby fell asleep, we were all happy.
Then the car started choking, as if all the smoke was making him sick too. And then nothing. So I called AAA, but we don't all fit in their rig! They towed the car and the Mechanic's son came and got us. (Thanks L-!) So we walked around for a few hours until my wonderful mechanic fixed my car ( new fuel pump) and I finally made it home. 

Exhausted and near tears, I dreadfully pulled up to my home (you never know the state of things when you've been gone all day), where I was greeted with a bouquet of daisy's, and discovered that my husband had painted (finally) the kitchen!!!!! And that was part of the reason he couldn't make lunch. 

And.... I LOVE THE COLOR!!

Of course I had picked out the color weeks earlier, but you just never know till you see it.

So the end of the story is...
The burritos I had bought for lunch became dinner, and now everyone's
asleep. Ahhhh........

California Wildfires

Mornings here are super smokey these days. There are more wildfires
then the firefighters can keep up with, lots of people are
volunteering to help, and everyone is doing the best they can. We
feel like we are safe this time....

Our newest addition

This is STORMY!! He is our newest little mouser. We are so happy to
have him, and he seems pretty happy too!

What to do with summer time colds?

Well, summer has arrived with the worst cold our family has received in a very long time. One by one my kids were down for the count. First blue eyes, then my sweet little man, now the baby...stuffy, fever, sleeping all day for days now. I'm almost out of quiet projects to do. Worse my love left this morning to drive his eldest back home. Everyone misses her already. So it's stay at home and get better week here on the Ranch. I hope no parrots hatch right now. Even though everyone is sleeping, they are not doing it at the same time (of course) and so I am tending to my littles all day and all night long. 

We have gotten our big chores done for the day. All the animals are fed and the kids will soon have dinner and hop in the bath. Hopefully the baby will sleep for over an hour at some point, and then I can get something done. Dishes...I am always washing dishes.

My newest project is learning photoshop and trying to create my own fabric here at the Spoonflower site. 

In my spare time of course. 

When I am not washing dishes.

The smoke outside is not helping our colds either. I can hear the Cal-fire crews working hard all around us. I think I will bring them some brownies when they return. I am so glad they are here protecting us. 

Happy Solstice!!!

Summer keeps us busy.

Summer is finally here!!
I have been so busy lately. 

Cleaning out my clutter, 

Getting a new kitty - Storm. Thank you Farm Store!! 

Preparing my daughter for her first lost tooth. 

Most importantly we have been preparing for my husbands eldest daughter to come visit for the first time. She'd been here a few days now. Her visit was near perfect. She is of course, amazing. We all loved her instantly. So we have been taking her all over our small county. We saw the redwoods and the ocean. We rode our ponies. Last night we saw a huge lightning storm. Unfortunately there are close to 40 small fires near us right now. Luckily nothing is too close. But watching a summer thunderstorm in the mountains is crazy!! The lightning felt like it was striking all around us. The thunder let us know it wasn't too close as it roared through the valley 10 seconds later.

She's only here one more day and we are just going to relax and enjoy her company. Next time she comes to visit we will explore more things up here.

The little ones must of driven her crazy. They were so excited and they have needed to be interacting with her constantly. We will all be sad until she returns for Reggae Rising 2008!!!!!!

Parenting Advice

For the most part I don't care what anyone thinks about me, but watch out when it comes to judging my parenting skills!! Strangers that is - I can take friends comments much better. I think really, it's one of my core values...if someone isn't hurting someone else, then really, why do you care?
Here's what I am leading up to and venting about. We went to a beautiful outdoor festival a few weeks ago. I actually had all the kids presentable and sun screened ahead of time. That's my new trick.
Sunscreen before we leave- it's much easier then driving to your adventure and then trying to apply sunscreen as your kid writhes around trying to get away from your grip and over to whatever all the other kids are doing.

Anyhow, we had been there maybe five minutes when this woman taps my shoulder, and points to the baby in my front pack. 

"He's sun burnt" She says very mater-of-factly.

"No, he's not" I say (WHY OH WHY AM I NOT CAPABLE OF JUST SAYING THANK-YOU?!)

Because I know that he has sunscreen on and there is no possible way he's burnt already. I am also think that perhaps his shorts have ridden up and his little legs are rubbing on the front pack. I'm sure that's what is causing the 'sun-burn'

"Well," she tells me "I pushed on the sunburn and it turned white and went back to pink. That's what sunburns do" 

Like I didn't know that-how stupid do I really look?

How dare she have the audacity to touch my baby - that's what told her. And I turned away quickly. And then I felt bad, because truly she had been trying to help. She just crossed the line. My line. The one that I created, and need to stop drawing. 

Weekend trip or Are you really my daughter?

Well we are off to the Benbow Arts and Crafts festival. We are going to camp with a group of wonderful friends. So today, one of our homeschooling projects was to create a list and then pack. Little Blue Eyes wrote her list out, crossed everything off as she packed it and has been ready for 4 days now, her pink leapard print wheelie bag sits on our porch ready to be loaded into the truck. 

I, on the other hand, have yet to find our tent.

Translating Toddler Talk

Sometimes its hard to decipher what our little man is saying. Sometimes Blue Eyes tells us she understands. Sometimes she does, and sometimes it's just her version of what she'd like her younger sibling to be saying. 

So the other night at dinner we are talking about the rain forest, and the animals that live there. Especially the monkeys, their behaviors and if they'd make good pets. Probably not, we inform them. But Little Man says something which took forever to figure out...something along the lines of  "No, me know someone who has monkey  pet!" He was animate about his friend who owned some monkey.

 Finally we figured out he was referring to the man in the yellow hat - who has a monkey, Curious George!

Its a bird its a ..............

Yesterday on our way to town Blue Eyes shouted "look mama  it's a Mohawk!"..It was indeed a hawk, we are so blessed to often see on our way to town. 

Full circle

Like a lot of us, when I was growing up I heard stories about my parents. They all lived on 'the block' in the Bronx. I picture it as a very close knit family, with my Great-grandma and her  2 sisters sitting in their rockers on the front porch, all together.  All singing to themselves - all different tunes, I was told. We were in the suburbs - which was so far away. 

Now we all live so far away it's nearly impossible to get us all together. Plane tickets for 3-5 kids is almost inconceivable unless it is truly important. But what is truly important? A new baby? A funeral? I wish I could spend weeks in the summer back on the east coast. Late nights, fireflies, horseshoe crabs.  So I am thankful for the Internet and its ability to keep me close to everyone. 

We're on the road to nowhere.........

 I really mean it when I say no one lives anywhere near us. For any of you non-believers this is rush hour on the way home from town. Only 58 minuets till we get there! So why is it that I never feel like I get any time to myself?  

Just the Bear Necessities

We have not outgrown our house, we just have too much stuff. I say it all the time. I am continuously doing sweeps of our house, removing things that are just collecting dust. My problem is that I enjoy going to the stores as a fun activity. It's not so much fun to go shopping with 3 kids. Not that it was with 2 or even 1. Plus we don't NEED anything. We live in the WOODS! Been here how many years now, yet I still refuse to throw out my heels. Maybe someday I might go out in public and want to wear something other then the same boots I wear into the ponies stalls?? 

And what do I wear while mucking stalls? My Uggs! Eck..ruined those. When will I learn?

Enjoying our unseasonal weather!

It is too ridiculously hot to be knitting wool, so I put it down and drove 2 hours to our good friends house for the day. We had the best time. As you can see they have a beautiful flower garden, because they don't have peacocks!! We got home at 11 pm! Late night for us! Remember the days  when we'd just be leaving the house at 11 pm? 

Well, it was well into the 90's for way too long and I look forward to life returning to a normal cool 60 for at least a few more weeks. 

Sleepy

Oh ...Papa is still gone and it has been over a week.  I was up late last night downloading knitting patterns off Ravelry links. Like this one here!! The Finley. My newest project before school next fall.

Well, I am not counting days anymore. It is too depressing. 

Oh everyone is up! Bye

My thoughts on Motherhood

Happy Mothers Day!! 

Here's my quote of the day:

When you have a child you are inducted into a club you never knew existed. 

The dues are VERY high, and there is no way out.

Ever. 

You can't explain how cool it is to people who aren't members 

- they won't get it. 

Even on the worst days you don't really wish you could leave. 

It opens your eyes to experiences you had forgotten, and

 shows you ones you would never have otherwise seen.

Day 2??? Day 5

Oh well, my count down idea won't work because my husband is having car issues and won't be back Monday.  So we will return to counting the days he is gone. Day 5. Horseback riding lessons. Nearly gave my mom a heart attack as we watched my daughter jump. She is getting so confident on our pony. 

Now day 3....counting down!

First of all to my dear friend OliveMe ..who, btw, has the best recipes,  .... I wish I could...no no I WILL be posting a pic of my creative work space when my man returns with my camera.  It's worse.. I promise. Mine consists of the top shelf of my once lovely kindergarten space, a shelf in my downstairs bathroom closet, and a corner of my kitchen. 

Today we took Grandma to the beach. It wasn't too windy and everyone seemed to have a good time. Personally unless the weather is hot but not scorching I really don't like to be at the beach at all. It involves to much mess, no potty ever close enough, and sunburns no matter how hard I try. The river I love, the beach, not so much.

We fed all the animals in a rush and managed to leave before 10 AM .. Which brings us into town by 11, ran a few errands, ate, then it was 1:45!! With 3 kids under 5 EVERYTHING takes forever. Even when it doesn't someone pees or poops somewhere they shouldn't. Between the animals and the kids my life seems consumed by poop. 

On the farm: Our baby chicks are outgrowing our brooder, but the hen house is not ready for them. And surprise surprise...the PEACOCKS are laying eggs already. And I can't find the incubator. I remember putting it somewhere safe. 

yeah.

Quick note:

We take the eggs from the peahens. They nest on the ground, which makes them easy prey. Usually they fly up into our fir trees at night, which is what keeps them alive out here. Perhaps when you think of Northern California you aren't imagining my neck of the woods. We have bears, mountain lions, and everything else too. Peahens on nests on the ground have bad odds at survival. 

Day 4 The no stress express

I think now that Grandma is here I will start counting the days till my love returns, instead of how long he has been gone. I miss his laughter and sense of humor. When things get stressful he always is positive and knows how to turn it around..He sings "I'm taking the no stress express"

That should be every mommy's mantra. Say to to yourself. Again. Feeling better yet??

GRANDMA IS THE BEST..DAY 3

TOMORROW Grandma arrives. Just in time to give me back my sanity. This morning I awoke to 2 little boys who pooped in their pants and (of course) got the sheets dirty too. Into the bath they went. I am trying to clean the house so Grandma doesn't think we are pigs. As she already thinks it is dirty solely based on the fact that we live in the woods. So by 8 am I had all kids washed dressed fed and packed into the car. Perhaps many of you do this every day, but to me it was quite a feat! 

We ran a few errands, bought some GREAT mothers day gifts..hee.hee . The kids were great so we went to the ZOO!! We have the BEST small town zoo I have ever been to. Check it out here.

Of course my toddler fell asleep on our way home, so I should be asleep too, as he will be waking up VERY early tomorrow. But I am winding down from finishing all my tasks this eve. I think all animals have been fed..if not oh well, can't change it now. ....hmm...I think they are all fed. Peacocks, chickens, dog, birds, fish....pony...Laundry is all folded. Not quite put away. Kitchen is decent. Rugs vacuumed, floors swept. Toilet paper in bathrooms. Oh well. It's not going to get any better so it'll just have to be good enough.

And this picture above? Just a small sampling of the beautiful pottery that is all over my house. From Grandma my amazing once Wall street now slowing down potter......

Newest creations

Something I finished well before I was left on the farm....alone....today is day 2, I am doing well. We were in town all day. Ballet class, chores, preparing for Grandma who is arriving not soon enough. It was so great to see everyone at ballet. The girls have a performance in just a few weeks. All are fed. All are asleep. off to bed I go. My sweet little girl - whom I made this dress for...is in my bed, for as soon as she discovered papa was leaving shouted"Hooray that means that I get to sleep in bed with MOMMY"  

I wasn't aware that was the way it works..

Day 1 of papa's vacation

Today my wonderful husband left for a  whole week!! So the kids and I have to fend for ourselves on the farm. So far so good, as the baby chickens and peacocks have been fed and have fresh water. The pony has been let out. Now I will take on feeding the parrots, which normally is as routine as feeding parrots gets, but this week quite a few of them are sitting on eggs. Very exciting! 

But it also makes them more aggressive, and ohhhh if one or more hatch this week, well I don't even want to worry about it unless it happens. 

Oh and the kids? They too have been fed and are outside playing with........well, boxes.

Other fun things to hide under

Do you see those little guys hiding in there? They had so much fun at lunch!

Save your money.

Dear friends and family, 

As you already know, we try very hard to raise our kids with only the best most expensive German made Waldorf inspired and natural toys. We ask that if you won't get them non-plastic toys please don't get them anything. We will just take it to Salvation Army. SAVE YOUR MONEY. 

As a matter of fact...we are getting rid of all our toys.  Selling them on Ebay for the collage funds..

You see....these 3 boxes we brought home our Costco groceries in.....they were the kids favorite toys ever!! They provided weeks of entertainment. The kids traveled the world from our living room, and went into outerspace too! They were train cars, ponies (One being led by the other), rocketships, canoes..The boxes also served as templates for numerous art projects..

So in the future..just send them the box! 

Costco boxes are the best!!

Ri says "Me box-head!!" Box head is now one of our favorite games! The other day we were over at a friends house. I peeked into the playroom and discovered 3 little box heads! Mine was delighted...the other two, who were less familiar with the game, looked a little unsure. 

and more....

More boxes thank you Amazon!!

CRAFTSANITY

Oh I am exploding inside!! Not outside of course because no one else on our farm would possible be excited about the little piece of information I just discovered...so here I am sharing it with you! I can buy a felting needle attachment for my Bernina sewing machine !! Machine needle felting!! For embelishing things! Like little girl dresses and quilts! ...since that is all I sew these days..

More to come.

Mommies need special privledges

Maybe I need to be more assertive. 

Maybe it's because I grew up outside of New York, and things just move slower up here in the country...but I am thinking we need to pass legislation for Mommy Rights. There should be a law saying that mommies with crying sleepy babies can run stoplights. We should have the right of way and be allowed to cut in line at the checkout. Or how about drop off childcare like IKEA has? I think we should have special parking. Not necessarily next to the front of the store like Handicapped parking, but perhaps near the place you are supposed to put your shopping carts in the parking lot?

Oh and about shopping carts, those little kids ones, cute as they are, only cause one thing. Trouble. Many of you must feel like I do about the grocery store. It is a deplorable place to go with small children. It is not fun on the best of days. It is not fun to try and keep your toddler from running that little cart into the wine shelves
when you have a baby strapped to you and a 5 year old begging for everything she sees. Sometimes I have to make two trips. Last night we sat and ate dinner at their cafe. It took 70 minutes, 3 trips to the bathroom, and 2 changes of clothing.
OK I am done ranting, I just feel like other mommies need to know that they are not alone.
Also, I would like a good comeback for those strangers who think I am not enjoying my life right now. Friends don't ask me if I have heard about birth control..just strangers. These people also like to make comments like "my aren't you busy?" or "You certainly have your hands full!' "What do you do in your spare time?" (as they laugh at their funny joke.)
Anyone have any ideas?

Hiking

What a strong brave mommy! My baby was on my back in my Ergo...we all had to climb over this tree which had fallen since the last time we had hiked this road! So glad the snow is gone and we can go exploring around our land again. There are endless old logging roads to trek down, so it's always a fun family affair. I wish we had time to do it more often.

Creativity

Big sis spent the weekend with us. She made the prettiest doll sling with our silks! Finally someone is using all those expensive waldorf us and  German made toys! It was a hot sunny weekend, we played outside a bunch. We hiked around on our trails, had a picnic at our creek, and now we are of to town to spend this beautiful Sunday at horseback riding lessons! Yipee! 

Enjoying the sunshine

Hard to believe it was snowing last week! Yesterday as the rain left us the kids were eating an early dinner, when they looked out our windows to see a huge rainbow across the valley! Now it's 80 degrees  and feeling like summer!

SPRING IS SPRUNG!!

It's here it's here! 

That snow is gone..the Dogwood has bloomed! 

We are going outside all the time, which is so much fun. 

We feed the baby chick's twice a day.which by the way is not so fun, being as how it's one of those chores done quickly on one's one, but takes over a half our when it involves a 5 year old who has selective hearing, a 3 year old who wants to do it all himself, and a baby with his very own plan for everyone.

        And our Parrots are all laying eggs too! 

Our Peacocks are WILD right now. They sing to each other throughout the night. (at least that only happens in the spring) The males chase each other around all day long. I wonder where these two were headed in such a hurry?

Art projects

Well, Spring in Humboldt county brings us lots and lots of rain. With our new baby I have been pushed to my limits of finding creative ways to keep the kids happy. We painted the rain today on egg shaped watercolor paper, and then decorated the eggs with sparkles and crayons. We do lots of playdough, and the kids are getting really creative with it. They built a whole farm yesterday. 

When the sun comes out we go on nature hikes and see what has bloomed since we last were there. We listen to the roaring sounds of the river, which we can't see but we can hear it! It sounds so strong! 

We are awaiting the hatching of our first parrots of the year..it's very exciting to check on them each day.

And we poke our heads into the greenhouse. The kids get so excited to see how everything has changed each day. So far only peas, sunflowers and borage seem to have survived our planting day.

Ballet

My little fairy waits for ballet class to start.

Swim class

After 2 months of swim class guess who finally let go of the teacher
and tried it all by himself?! 3 is all about asserting his
independence repeatedly! I love to watch it.

Disney who?

Despite the efforts of media and the environment I have managed to successfully skip over many Disney films. No I do not think I am keeping my kids from any important part of childhood. We read all kinds of beautiful fairy tales. 

And the mother doesn't die in the first 5 minutes!
How do I know I am succeeding?
My first inkling came a few years back, when I was traveling to a wedding where one of my girls was the flower girl. We were looking at a southwest plane with Disneyland written across the side. A huge Mickey mouse face covered the tail. My beautiful Mountain Girl looks at the plane and exclaims "hey - who is that MONKEY?" A ha ! I cheered VICTORY!
Well, maybe not so loud..but I was pleased.
Today it was reaffirmed when my 3 year old found a shirt with a race car on it. "this my new shirt VROOMM" he shouted as he raced around the house. "And who's on your shirt?" my Aunt asked him. To which he replied "Me not know." "VRoom" and he was off again.

ps...I have to admit that we love Pixar films...

Little house on Google Earth

Sometimes I feel like we are living like Laura Ingalls Wilder. On our way to town today we saw a coyote watching the cows, and later, two wild turkeys waddling about in a meadow. Then my daughter asked me if we could go to Candy Land. I told her I didn't think so, to which she replied, "Well then, can we go look it up on Google Earth?" Oh yeah, we are definitely in the 21st century.

Peacocks, baby chicks, and naughty kids.

Well, the snow went away as fast as it arrived. You wouldn't even know it had snowed at all, except for a few shady places. Our little baby is still teething and SO fussy. He's finally asleep and I am hoping the peacocks don't wake him. They are shouting tonight! 

 We were in town the last two days.  My least favorite part of town days is when I can not get my children to behave no matter what. When they do outrageous things that just make me want to hide. Most people smile helplessly, my favorites say things like "this too shall pass - we raised 6!". 

 But of course the worst things happen at the wrong times. You know what - I can't even tell you story. I am too afraid that others might think the same way as this man. And since anyone in the world can read about my little mischief makers... Basically some grouchy old man who didn't have children (or had already forgotten those early years) really let me know that children who behaved like mine were the reason behind the destruction of our beautiful town. 

Yeah...anyone else worried?

What else would you do with it?

....just don't eat it if it's yellow!

Yes by the way that is snow,

Snow? Our fruit trees are blooming, our car windows are down...what else was left outside over the weekend? Well, whatever it was it's buried now. I wonder what tomorrow  will be like.

What the??

A beautiful 90 degree weekend!

MMmmmm Spring

After wishing that it would warm up we had a beautiful weekend, filled with one teething baby who refused to sleep or be set down. It was 90 degrees! We rode our pony, we planted seeds. 30 baby chicks arrived in the mail on Saturday! I packed up our snow gear, and tucked it away in our barn. I even found time to start sewing  the cutest toile dress. When the kids are outside all day the house seems to stay cleaner! The split pea soup we had for dinner seemed wrong - we needed some watermelon! I can't wait for the days ahead!

Another long day

When there is frost on the lawn and fresh snow on the mountains out my window...And it's well into April...well, it's very hard to have a productive day. But we did it anyway! We spent another LONG day in town. We are still working on NOT running everywhere.  So far it just means that we go even slower then before, holding hands...waiting patiently....

Tommorow is a big day! The baby chickens are on their way. 

Cold Spring Mornings

Ahhh..today was an in town day.

In town days consist of me trying to go into 15 places, feed children lunch and dinner, numerous potty breaks, all while maintaining my sanity and getting the children to behave. My kids usually like to pretend they are horses rearing. neighing and leading each other around. Sometimes they are wild horses,. Perhaps I should tell them they could be the most well behaved kind, the ones princesses would own. I really want to know some other tricks to long days. Besides bribery how can I get the wild horses off the floor at Sears?

Also, while I am on the subject: how do you cross a busy street with more children then you have hands to hold? Here's what I envision working: Me with 3 harnesses and retractable dog leashes...like one of those women you see with a dog walking business and a dozen little Jack Russell Terriers at her feet.

Yeah...there must be a better solution Anyone?

April Showers

April rains bring ????????

Brings to us......

April showers bring ??? Bring us much colder weather then along the coast...our spring flowers are just starting to bloom, but I see them everywhere in the well manicured lawns in town. Also bring us frosty mornings...very very hard to garden in..I'm thinking I might just do our gardening project at the kitchen table. I want so very much to grow all our veggies this year. So far though, all the seeds we started last week were dumped into one large pile by the toddler. After a discussion and a pinky promise I think we might give it another try. I am envisioning a tee-pee of scarlet pole beans and calendula soon. In the meantime the rain will pound on our metal roof and we will continue to burn fires in our wood stove. For a few more weeks.

Quiet time

Playdough = hours of golden silence. It is one my favorite things to make for them, since it can be made quickly, and they play with it for hours. Some crafts take longer to create then the amount of time my kids stay interested. Here's my favorite recipe:

1. 3 cups water...add any essential oils, food color, etc..now
2. 3 cups flour
3. 1 and a half cups salt
4. 2 Tablespoons Cream of Tarter (essential)
5. 3 Tablespoons oil
   

Heat all together for a few minutes until it becomes a solid sticky mass, remove from heat and kneed till smooth. Let cool, give to kids!

Sometimes I can sew...

This is the alphabet book I have been working on for AGES!! I'm getting there....

Farm life

        Life on the farm consists of 2 kinds of days. In town days and at 

home days. Although I try to stay at home as often as possible it 

seems like we always need something. Today I cleaned and cooked all day 

long. Cooking while cleaning is really counter productive. (I need to 

be able to order take-out food on days like today..but like I've 

mentioned before...not really a possibilty where I live.)

The baby's now getting his 2nd tooth, so he just wants to be held. We've 

been giving him all kinds of baby food too! He seems to like 

everything so far, and his sister loves to feed him.

Yesterday we were in town all day. We watched a house burn down. It 

was horrible really, but I turned it into an incredible homeschooling 

project. What the firefighters do..what we would do if it were at our 

house..etc. We even got to watch a women fire fighter use a chainsaw!

And my 5 year old, always the one with the quick answer shouts "Good thing 

it's not the ice-cream shop", which we were on our way to.

Ri, insists that he is a big boy whenever and wherever we are, 

always needing to do things himself. "me do it by MYSELLLLF! " He has this beautiful sing song voice and sweet disposition that make it hard to dicipline him at all. And his honesty, even when he knows it's a big mistake..."me do it". The other day when his sis was being herself..as she runs into another room Ri  looks at Papa and says "Ra-ree drive me nuts sometimes....drive Mama nuts sometimes too." 

Farm Life

Today we had a brief moment of perfection. The kind you read about in Waldorf home education books.

"Mother nurses baby in sling, and as baby falls asleep, mother sets up the morning lesson..

Then Mother and school age child do lesson, as toddler pretends to follow along in his own workbook quietly.."

REALLY HAPPENED!!